The 2016 N.L. East can be complicated. Luckily, I’m here to make sense of it all. In this edition of know your enemy: I look at the Philadelphia Phillies and the level of pain in the ass they will be in the 2016 season.
The Phillies have the best of both worlds. They improved from the first half of the season to the second half, as they went 34-37 in their last 81 so they have taken strides as a ballclub. The other world they own is that they have the number one pick in the 2016 draft because their first half was historically abysmal. So they start the season bad enough to win the first pick of the draft, and good enough at the end to improve and still keep the pick. So they’ll have another pitcher (Jason Groome? Riley Pint?) to add to their Benjamin Button rotation. Crap.
Key Additions
OF-Peter Bourjos, C-J.P. Arencibia, RP-Greg Burke, RP-Ernesto Frieri, RP-Edward Mujica, SP-Jeremy Hellickson, SP-Charlie Morton, RP-David Hernandez, OF Tyler Goeddel (yes, Erik’s brother.)
Key Subtractions
OF-Jeff Francoeur, OF-Domonic Brown, OF-Ben Revere, OF-Grady Sizemore, SP-Sean O’Sullivan, SP, Kevin Correia, SP Aaron Harang, GM Ruben Amaro Jr.
Wait a second … Greg Burke? That Greg Burke? The world has truly gone upside down. The Mets were once the ones accepting everybody else’s huddled masses. Now, the rest of the division has sunk to Titanic depths so now they are picking up all the players that contributed to my misery from ’09-’14. This is absolutely glorious. What isn’t glorious is that the Phillies got a couple of serviceable starters ta the top of the rotation (for now) in Hellickson and Morton who are capable of stealing some wins here and there. That is if their bullpen can hold it. Remember … Greg Burke waits in the wings.
But this is obviously a team which is rebuilding and getting out from under the mess that Ruben Amaro Jr. made for them. Look, Omar Minaya had his troubles, but he did make some good draft choices that were lucky enough to come up through the current minor league development staff. And after his Mets career was done, he got hired to some jobs where there were people who valued his opinion. Amaro? He’s now the freakin’ first base coach of the Red Sox. His job description includes waving his arm around when it’s an obvious double, holding David Ortiz’s batting gloves that he spit on after a walk, and working a stop watch.
And most laughable of all is his assertion that his anti-analytics stance was a smoke screen to gain a competitive advantage. Seriously! How awful Phillies fans must feel to know that their GM was a combination of John Spano, Inspector Clouseau, and Kendel Ozzel.
@Metstradamus King Candy? pic.twitter.com/dsNeESoF9R
— LFGM (@DoctorK4) March 17, 2016
Q-Tip once asked “What’s a con artist if he doesn’t have brains?” I think we have our answer.
But now that the Phillies on the upswing, we’ll have to deal with them. It’ll be slow, but they’ll be halfway decent before you know it. Check out Future Jimmy Rollins, shortstop J.P. Crawford, tagging out Amed Rosario in a playoff game … and trust me, it’s no ordinary tag:
J.P. #Crawford with an incredible tag in the Eastern League playoffs!#MiLB #Baseball #DFS pic.twitter.com/gTTqRghYcS
— Sportsy Duel (@SportsyDuel) September 14, 2015
Binghamton was swept in that playoff series … no truth to the rumor that Crawford said before the series that the Reading Fightin’ Phils were the team to beat.
Mets record vs. Philadelphia in 2015: 14-5
I thought the Mets record vs. Philadelphia in 2015 would be: 14-5 (DING DING DING DING DING!)
Mets record vs. Philadelphia in 2016 should be: 12-7
The fates conspired against the Phillies last season, and with good reasons. Amaro was their GM. Ryne Sandberg, a Hall of Fame player who turned out to be a wannabe Dick Williams as a manager, was a terrible fit for an old team like the Phillies. Also, the Phillies were old. That first half from last season was historically awful on all fronts. So bad, in fact, that you can make the argument that it will never, ever, be that bad again. Top it off with the Mets going to the World Series, 2015 felt to Phillies fans almost like 2009 felt for us. (Except that they got to root for a benign team like the Kansas City Royals while Mets fans had to choose between the Phillies, Yankees, and watching Dear John repeats on Netflix to get through that October.)
This year, with a manager that knows how to communicate, a young group that knows how to listen, and a starting rotation that should be a little less hittable than it was last season (starters had a 5.23 ERA last season), the Phillies will be all right. And they’ll be significantly more competitive against the Mets this season (the Mets outscored them 111-76 in ’15). And even the 5-14 record is deceiving, as three of those wins happened after the Mets had already clinched. So it can’t get much worse. But this team is not going to be a pushover this season.
Although the Phillies will have major motivation to beat the Mets, and will have an upgrade in talent, the Mets will be fine against them with their swing and miss pitchers and an actual major league lineup. Yes, they’ll get shut down by Hellickson one night and I’ll be pissed, but the Mets will do their damage. The biggest problem will be the Phillies’ mascot who will has murder in his heart.
#SpringTraining for the Galapagos Gang had to end early today. There was…an incident.https://t.co/e16JtF6x9r
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 25, 2016
You’re a monster, Phanatic.
Phillies Prediction: 73-89 … fourth place. And the Mets will lose one game in Philadelphia because the new Tejada rule will be misapplied. Probably by Angel Hernandez.
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