Phillies Looking To Fill A Multitude Of Roles

PHILS PHACTS:

Who Will Get The Call In The 9^th? – The Phillies opened last season with Jonathan Papelbon, Ken Giles and Jake Diekman in the back end of the bullpen. Fast forward one year. Nobody can say with any certainty who the team's closer will be Opening Day, much less hit the trifecta and name the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-inning guys. "We've talked to half a dozen potential closers for us," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said Sunday afternoon at Bright House Field. "Without naming names, one guy said he would probably be more comfortable as the seventh- or eighth-inning guy. So that tells you right there that might eliminate him." There figures to be six legitimate candidates to pitch the ninth inning for the Phillies this season. There is right-hander David Hernandez, who signed a one-year, $3.9 million contract in December. There is right-hander Luis Garcia, perhaps the only returnee with closer's stuff. There also are four non-roster invitees with extensive experience closing or pitching in the back end of the bullpen: right-handers Andrew Bailey, Edward Mujica and Ernesto Frieri and left-hander James Russell. "Some guys want to be in that high-leverage situation," Mackanin said. "They thrive on it. You've seen enough closers. They're kind of an odd duck. They're all a little funny those guys. They have to have a certain type of attitude that gets them through those last three outs." Mackanin said plenty of factors will go into the decision to name the Phillies' next closer, but Hernandez has an edge to pitch the eighth or ninth because he is the only pitcher on a guaranteed contract. "It helps," Mackanin said. "It certainly helps. Once again, we're going to evaluate everybody and see how they play here. Not specifically Hernandez, but if somebody doesn't play well, we're going to try to keep the guy who's better. But it certainly helps. It would give him an edge, I would say. "I certainly won't base everything on how well a guy pitches here. Because we've seen guys have great springs. I always hit great in the spring. I always hit four or five home runs and tore it up and I was a .226 lifetime hitter. So I'm smart enough not to go by that." But there seems little question the back end of the bullpen is the team's biggest question with the Grapefruit League opener just nine days away. "We traded Diekman, Giles and Papelbon. There went the seventh, eighth and ninth," Phillies president Andy MacPhail said. "We did that to strengthen every other area, but the good news is it's an area that's very erratic and you can find guys out of nowhere to perform at a high level."

Looking For A Leader – Pete Mackanin has talked a little bit about the importance of leadership in the Phillies' clubhouse this season. Do they have any vocal leaders in there? "If you have a young team, it would be nice if we had that guy," Mackanin said. "We don't know if there's anybody in-house that can be that guy." The front office said it values the importance of a good leader, too. "There is no greater influence on players than their peers," Phillies president Andy MacPhail said. "I think the coaching staff and manager can be immensely helpful, but the guys that often have the most impact on players are their teammates. Kirby Puckett made everybody around him better just by Kirby being Kirby." Mackanin cited Darren Daulton and Jimmy Rollins as former leaders in the Phillies' clubhouse. Jeff Francoeur served that role remarkably well last season, guiding a young team through a 99-loss season. Francoeur said he wanted to return to Philadelphia, but he got squeezed out once the Phillies signed Peter Bourjos and selected Rule 5 Draft pick Tyler Goeddel in December. Francoeur remains unsigned. "Having good players is more important than having that [leader], but in the long run, especially when you get down to the nitty gritty, it's nice to have that guy like Dutch [Daulton] who can rally the troops," Mackanin said. Freddy's the guy: There is plenty of interest in top prospect J.P. Crawford, who is in big league camp for the first time. But Phillies fans should not hold their breath and expect Crawford to challenge Freddy Galvis to be the Opening Day shortstop. Galvis has the job locked up and Crawford will open the season in the Minor Leagues, either at Double-A or Triple-A. "I feel like he deserves that chance," Mackanin said about Galvis. "I'm real high on J.P. Crawford. I haven't seen him a lot, but I know he's highly touted. I want to concentrate on our big league guys. If Freddy Galvis is hitting .280 and everybody is playing like we hope they can, then it gives us more time for the Crawfords and the [Nick] Williamses and so on and so forth, so we won't have to rush them." Of course, if Galvis struggles, Crawford could push the issue with solid play in the Minors. Crawford is the No. 5 overall prospect in baseball, according to MLBPipeline.com. Extra bases: Right-hander Jerad Eickhoff remains day to day with a non-displaced fracture on his right thumb, which he injured bunting last week. Eickhoff said he believes he has plenty of time to get ready for the beginning of the season; Right-hander David Buchanan took a line drive off his right triceps during a live batting-practice session. Buchanan seemed to think he should be OK.

Are The Phillies On A Good Path? – The Phillies are not expected to challenge for a National League East title anytime soon, but it does not mean team president Andy MacPhail doesn't expect to see some improvement in 2016. He does. MacPhail mentions the Phillies' 34-37 record following the All-Star break last season (with Maikel Franco missing 46 of those games) as evidence they are on a good path. The Phillies entered the break 29-62, easily the worst mark in baseball, but the arrival of young talents such as Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff and Aaron Altherr, and the continued development of others like Franco and Odubel Herrera put a more competitive team on the field. "In my view, there are a lot of positive things going forward," MacPhail said. MacPhail is entering his first full season as team president. He returned to the game after a 3 1/2-year hiatus to focus on his personal life, where he traveled the world (China, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Greece, Ecuador, Honduras, Brazil, etc.) and did the things everybody does in the summer when they don't work in baseball. "I never grilled when I was a GM," he said. "I had a beautiful grill. It was still clean. You can grill all summer in your shorts. It was a lot of fun. I had 3 1/2 years to get that out of my system." But now MacPhail is back at work, entrusted to lead the Phillies' rebuild. The Phils followed arguably their greatest run in franchise history (one World Series title, two National League pennants and five consecutive NL East titles from 2007-11) with a .500 finish in 2012 and three consecutive losing seasons, including the worst record in baseball in '15. "You can't get better unless you take a good hard look at where you are," MacPhail said. "We're going to make some mistakes. But we're going to keep our eye on the prize and we're not going to deviate. The teams that get themselves in trouble are the ones that try something for two years, it doesn't work, let's try something totally different. Name a team that embarked on a legitimate, honest attempt at a rebuild that didn't in the end profit from it? Kansas City. Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay. Baltimore. You name it. As long as they stay with it, they are going to be rewarded in the end." But that doesn't mean the Phillies don't want to win this year. They do. They just don't believe being in the market for high-priced free agents makes sense for them right now. "This year we spent $15 million on [Charlie] Morton and [Jeremy] Hellickson," MacPhail said. "That's $15 million to stabilize the rotation. If we wanted to lose 120 games, we wouldn't have spent that $15 million. But we want Nola and Eickhoff and whoever else comes along to be able to play in an environment where it's not all on their shoulders." MacPhail hired Matt Klentak to be his general manager, and by all accounts MacPhail has let Klentak run his show. They talk, obviously, but Klentak is not calling MacPhail every time he wants to claim a player on waivers or sign somebody. Together they already have made some changes to the front office, most notably building an analytics department. "But it goes so far beyond that," MacPhail said. "It annoys me when people think you've just got to go in one world or the other. Old school scouting or it's analytics. Show me the team that just doesn't have any more scouts, that has no scouting department. They don't exist. They all have scouts. Even whatever team you want to say is the most analytically inclined, they've got 20 or 30 scouts on the payroll. Why do you think that is?" The Phillies hired amateur scout Luis Raffan, who will handle South Florida and Puerto Rico. They hired a strength and conditioning coach for Class A Williamsport, and they are talking about possibly hiring another for the Minor Leagues. The Phillies made Ray Burris their pitching rehab coordinator in Clearwater. They added high definition cameras at Citizens Bank Park to improve their video coaching. The Phillies added TrackMan, the radar system that tracks pitched and batted baseballs, and CoachMePlus, which is a data management system that provides predictive performance analytics to help monitor players' health status. "Our payroll is down because we don't have [Cole] Hamels. We don't have [Jonathan] Papelbon. We don't have Ben Revere," MacPhail said. "We don't have a lot of guys we used to have. So we tried to take some of that money and reinvest it." If that combination of scouting and analytics continues to uncover good young talent for the Phillies, they could turn their fortunes quicker than maybe anybody expected. (MacPhail and Klentak have been careful not to predict when they expect to be contending for titles again, because they don't know how their top prospects will pan out.) "A market like Philadelphia, we're going to have more revenue at our disposal than we would say, in a small market where you're really scraping nickels together," MacPhail said. "Hopefully you don't stay down as long in a negative cycle."

Today In Phils History - With expectations high heading into the 1965 season Jim Bunning and Bo Belinski appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The following year, the Phillies parted ways with Dick Stuart. 4 years ago the Paul Owens bronze bust was revealed outside of the Phillies training facility in Clearwater. However, the most notable item of the day is the birthday of former Phillies player and Hall of Fame manager Harry "Sparky" Anderson who was born on this day in 1934.  

THE BEGINNING:

With the Phillies having finished the 2015 season with a spectacularly awful record of 63-99 it will be interesting to see what kind of team new President Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentak put on the field. At the same time I am definitely looking forward to the games against Boston with former GM Ruben Amaro on the field. Given the departures, lingering contracts, a history of injuries, bipolar performances, and unproven talent, it should, at the very least, be an interesting season for the Phillies. Who knows, maybe they can avoid 100 losses... hopefully by more than one game!

And The Disappointing Updates Have Begun…

PHILS PHACTS:

Roster Updates – Do not expect to see Matt Harrison in Phillies camp this spring. Do not expect to see him pitch at all in 2016. "The truth is we're not expecting him to be here anytime soon, if at all this year," general manager Matt Klentak said on Wednesday morning at Bright House Field. "If things go well, we'd be happy to get him back, but the reality is we're kind of in a wait-and-see mode, and we'll just have to play it out. But we're not expecting him here in Clearwater." The news should not surprise anyone who has followed Harrison's health history. He had spinal fusion surgery on June 3, 2014. It was his fourth back surgery in two years and the most radical of the bunch. Harrison's back problems have limited him to 44 innings the past three seasons. Harrison, who saw a back specialist earlier this week, is owed about $28 million on his contract, which expires following the 2017 season. But insurance is expected to pick up much of that. Harrison joined the Phillies in July as part of the Cole Hamels trade with Texas. The Phillies were aware of Harrison's health issues, but they acquired him to offset some of Hamels' salary. Funky Cold Medina: Right-hander Yoervis Medina is not expected to be in camp for another 10-14 days because of visa issues. The Phillies acquired Medina, who is a non-roster invitee, from the Pirates earlier this month for left-hander Jesse Biddle. Medina, 27, is 10-9 with a 3.08 ERA in 146 appearances in his career with the Mariners and Cubs. Turnover: The Phillies will have 65 players in camp, not including Harrison. Only 18 opened camp last spring with the club.

Can He Make The Rotation? – The future for the Phillies is everywhere this spring. Vincent Velasquez is one part of the puzzle, but he is a big one. Velasquez stood in front of his locker in the corner of the clubhouse on Wednesday morning at Bright House Field, where he answered questions from a pack of reporters. They wanted insight from the key piece in the December trade that sent Ken Giles to Houston. "I see all these [camera] lights turned on and I was like, 'Whoa,'" Velasquez said about the sudden attention. "I'm honored. It's really something to take in." The scene stood out to regular visitors to the Phillies' clubhouse. Chase Utley occupied Velasquez's corner locker for the previous 12 years. But Utley is a memory, part of the past, after being traded to the Dodgers in August. The Phillies hope Velasquez is a part of the future. He is a heavy favorite to win the fifth and final job in the rotation. Aaron Nola, Jeremy Hellickson, Jerad Eickhoff and Charlie Morton are considered locks for the first four spots. "There are a lot of guys with talent in this room," Velasquez said. "Everyone is fighting for a spot." But Velasquez is the favorite because of his talent. The Phillies love his arm, which is why they made Velasquez the focal point of the trade that sent Giles and Minor League infielder Jonathan Arauz to the Astros for right-handers Mark Appel, Thomas Eshelman, Harold Arauz and Velasquez, along with left-hander Brett Oberholtzer. The original four-player return for Giles included Houston outfield prospect Derek Fisher, but Appel and Arauz were late additions after sources said the Phillies had concerns about Velasquez's physical. Velasquez underwent Tommy John surgery on Sept. 22, 2010. "I'm healthy as an ox," Velasquez said. No issues with his shoulder? "I've never had any problems with my shoulder," Velasquez said. "Any type of soreness I've had was in the biceps or triceps. Nothing in the shoulder." The Phillies hope Velasquez, 23, stays healthy and continues to progress from his rookie season in Houston. Velasquez went 1-1 with a 4.37 ERA in 19 appearances (seven starts) last season. He has the talent to be a No. 3 starter, although some think he could be a dominant late-inning reliever. But forget about the bullpen right now. The Phillies want Velasquez to start and he wants to start, too. "Definitely, that's where I want to be," he said. Velasquez joked that he is looking forward to hitting in the National League. He seems to have the athletic ability to do it. He caught and played first base in high school. Velasquez learned to throw left-handed, which came in handy during his junior year when he pitched and played center field as a left-hander because he had bone spurs in his right elbow. "I'd look at my reflection and kind of imitate myself," Velasquez said. "When I threw with my left hand it looked trashy, so I eventually made it look normal." So keep an eye on Velasquez during batting practice. If he is in the outfield shagging fly balls, he could be shagging as a lefty. "I don't want to use my right arm. I want it to recuperate, so I'll just throw left-handed," he said. Velasquez played a different sport every day with his father and brothers, while growing up in California. Baseball, football, basketball, golf, tennis, soccer, whatever. "My dad wanted to really motivate us. He wanted us to make something of ourselves," he said. They did. His older brothers, Leonard Jr. and Christopher, fought in Iraq with the Marine Corps. Vincent has the chance to be a key cog in the Phillies' rebuilding efforts. "I don't have a guaranteed spot," Velasquez said. "None of us do. It's going to be a process. It's a little journey I'm looking forward to experiencing and we'll see how it plays out."

The Future Is Now! – Phillies fans get their first look at the future beginning on Thursday. Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, Vincent Velasquez, Mark Appel, Jake Thompson, Jorge Alfaro and other pitchers and catchers will hold their first official workout at Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla. It will be unlike any Spring Training in recent memory as the Phillies rebuild with a camp full of young players and prospects. Are the Phils expected to be postseason contenders? No. Should they be interesting to watch anyway? Yes. Here is why: The Phillies already have a few young players in the big leagues that look like they could be part of the future core (Nola, Eickhoff, Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera). They also have one of the best farm systems in baseball with seven players in MLBPipeline's Top 100 Prospects list, more than any other team in baseball. How many of those players will live up to the hype? How many will be part of the core of the future? Nobody knows, but finding out should make this year interesting to watch, both at the Major and Minor League levels. In the sixth part of a seven-part series previewing Phillies Spring Training, MLB.com asks three big questions that must be answered in camp: 1. Where does Ryan Howard fit? Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels are gone, but Howard remains. It is likely that Howard figured he would be elsewhere by now, but the Phillies have had no luck trying to trade him, despite offering to pay most of his salary ($25 million this season, plus a $10 million buyout on a 2017 club option). Howard is expected to be in uniform when the club holds its first full-squad workout on Tuesday, but does he want to be here? And how much will he play? Howard has been one of the most standup players in the Phillies' clubhouse for years. He also has been one of the friendliest and most gregarious. He didn't show that side nearly as often last season. There could be any number of reasons for that, but the young players in the clubhouse could use a leader like Howard. In regards to playing time, manager Pete Mackanin has not minced words. He said it will be tough to play Howard over Darin Ruf against left-handed pitching considering their results last season. Will Howard be OK with that? It will be interesting to see how everything plays out as Howard's time with the Phillies nears its conclusion. 2. Will this team hit? Philadelphia scored the fourth-fewest runs in baseball last season, and it did not add anybody to the lineup other than outfielder Peter Bourjos, who hit .200 with a .623 OPS in 225 plate appearances last season with St. Louis. Runs are expected to be a struggle again, but the organization hopes there will be at least some improvement with the continued development of Franco, Herrera, Aaron Altherr and others. But if players struggle, there will be plenty of players in Triple-A looking to take their jobs, including shortstop J.P. Crawford, outfielder Nick Williams and more. 3. Who will show the kids the way? General manager Matt Klentak said building a positive culture is part of his plan to resurrect the Phillies, who have not had a winning season since 2011. They lost plenty of leadership in the past 14 months with Rollins, Utley, Hamels, Jonathan Papelbon, Marlon Byrd, Ben Revere and other veterans being traded. Do the current Phils have enough leadership to show the youngsters in camp the way to not only make the big leagues, but succeed once they're there? The only veterans on the 40-man roster with considerable service time are Howard, Carlos Ruiz, Bourjos, Andres Blanco, Jeremy Hellickson, Charlie Morton and David Hernandez. The Phillies could miss Jeff Francoeur, who learned from the best in Bobby Cox, Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Tim Hudson and others. Francoeur almost single-handedly kept the clubhouse upbeat in 2015 during the organization's worst season since 1969. Players responded to him and he showed players like Franco, Herrera and others how to conduct themselves through the grind of the season.

Today In Phils History - Happy birthday to a couple of short lived pitchers with the Phillies in Kyle Abbott (1968) and Tyler Green (1970).  

THE BEGINNING:

With the Phillies having finished the 2015 season with a spectacularly awful record of 63-99 it will be interesting to see what kind of team new President Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentak put on the field. At the same time I am definitely looking forward to the games against Boston with former GM Ruben Amaro on the field. Given the departures, lingering contracts, a history of injuries, bipolar performances, and unproven talent, it should, at the very least, be an interesting season for the Phillies. Who knows, maybe they can avoid 100 losses... hopefully by more than one game!

Will Frenchy Return To Philly?

PHILS PHACTS:

Will He Be Back? – Jeff Francoeur made his feelings about the Phillies pretty clear late last season. He would love to return for at least another year. But will Francoeur be back? And if not him, who? Phillies assistant general manager Scott Proefrock declined to comment on negotiations with Francoeur, citing a memo from the Commissioner's Office regarding free agency. "I really don't have anything to report," Proefrock said. "But one thing I can speak about is the job Jeff did for us last year and how valuable he was in the clubhouse. He was a good fit as a veteran who understood his role and he was a great influence on our young players." But while sources said the Phillies remain interested in Francoeur, they are exploring other options. They are not expected to be in the running for free-agent outfielders like Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon, who will receive the most lucrative multiyear deals this offseason. But other everyday and part-time outfielders like Chris Young, Ryan Raburn, David Murphy, Rajai Davis, Alejandro De Aza and Justin Ruggiano might be a fit. Francoeur hit .258 with 16 doubles, one triple, 13 home runs, 45 RBIs and a .718 OPS in 343 plate appearances last season. Off the field, he established himself as a sorely needed vocal leader. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak has said a positive culture in the clubhouse is important to him, but the potential for more production offensively from other outfielders might outweigh that. Certainly the free-agent market has been slow moving to this point, so nothing is imminent, but eventually the Phillies are expected to add at least one veteran outfielder to the 40-man roster because they have too many question marks in the outfield. Whether or not that veteran is Francoeur remains to be seen.

THE BEGINNING:

The Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in franchise history! However, at least Ryan Madson got another ring this year.