Who’s hot, who’s not entering the break
It’s All-Star week and the Phillies come into it in first place. That’s good. They’re limping into a bit, having lost four of six on the west coast. That’s bad. But in none of the games were they really out of it. All of the games that they lost were by two runs or less and one, the Patrick Bailey walk off, was a bit flukey. There really isn’t too much to be panicked about with this team. Concerned? Sure. Panicked? Not really.
Three up
Bryce Harper
Last week in this space, some psycho wrote that Harper needed a rehab assignment after he came off the injured list.
Maybe he read that and got angry.
Bouncing back by hitting .348/.464/.696 on the week with a home run and five doubles, Harper showed that he is still the fulcrum of the offense when he’s going well.
Cristopher Sanchez
How does one get snubbed as badly as this? Sanchez should have been named an All-Star, no doubt. Who cares about the whole pitching on Sunday thing, Dave Roberts screwed up. Sanchez, for his own part, went and threw 14 1⁄3 innings in which he gave up only two runs, exactly how a pitcher of his caliber was expected to respond.
Serious question: are we getting to the point where we need to discuss the lower case version of the a-word and whether it can be applied to Sanchez? I think we are.
John Middleton
This is more of an acknowledgement of Middleton doing the right thing and giving Sanchez his All-Star bonus even though the rest of the owners around the game probably sniffed a bit in derision. Who cares, Sanchez earned that one.
Three down
Jordan Romano
I wrote the other day that he should remain with the team despite the howls of those that believe he should be DFA’ed, but he should be taken out of high leverage situations. They aren’t good for him right now as he hasn’t demonstrated the ability to succeed in them of late.
Then what does Rob Thomson do on Saturday?
And how did Romano do?
It’s probably at the point where they really don’t have anyone else they trust in those situations right now, but what about Seth Johnson? Is he still there? Why not see what his stuff can do, particularly if he’s more adept at getting groundballs, the type of contact the Phillies could have used in that situation.
Max Kepler
Max Kepler was quoted in an article on June 28 as being upset with his playing time. Since that article, Kepler has had 40 plate appearances and gotten six hits in 32 at bats.
Since June 1, Kepler is hitting .186/.298/.330 in 114 plate appearances.
It’s probable that Kepler should start talking with his agent about the next steps in this season.
Bryson Stott
I think we’re approaching the point where we need to have a serious conversation about Stott and his future with the Phillies organization.