It’s Almost June, and the Phillies Are Officially CONTENDERS
Yes, you read that headline correctly, it is May 28th and our Fightin Phils are floating near the top of the division at 29-21 just a half game back from the Atlanta Braves. Seriously, the Braves. Over the last half a decade, I watched A LOT of bad baseball in Philadelphia. It was getting to the point that I thought the Phillies would never be competitive again.
However, like my friends who are diehard Sixers fans, I had to Trust The Process. It was sitting through games, going through the tortuous process of trying to convince yourself that Tommy Joseph, Darin Ruf and Cameron Rupp are actually big-league level starters with upside. It was thinking that that Dominic Brown was going to be the next Ryan Howard and Ken Giles was going to be Brad Lidge. Now, besides Giles, I’m not sure that any of those other guys are even on major league rosters.
It seems like the dark days of Philadelphia baseball are behind us and consistent winning is going to return to Citizens Bank Park. Our Phillies finally have a formidable starting rotation. We have a former Cy Young winner in Jake Arrieta, a real ace and future Cy Young winner in Aaron Nola. We also have a flame-throwing Vince Velasquez, who is starting to consistently give us quality starts, Nick Pivetta is 4-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 10 starts this year and Zach Eflin has a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings pitched this year.
Now, I do not have any idea who you pull from that rotation when Jared Eickhoff comes back from his injury as he has shown from last year that he is a real quality starter here. Having six good pitchers trying to fill out five rotation spots is one hell of a problem to have. It’s a contender problem to have.
If you were to tell me at the beginning of the season that the Phillies would be in first place at the end of May with Rhys Hoskins batting .240 and in the worst slump of his young career, I would have thought you were crazy. Instead, this team has been able to pick up the slack. Odubel is showing he is actually a legitimate MVP candidate. Maikel Franco is finally starting to get his average up and we have a real competition going between Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr for that right field spot. Even Carlos Santana looks like he might be finding his groove and with Jorge Alfaro’s power arm behind the plate, this Phillies team is coming together really nicely.
The biggest question mark of this young season was the bullpen. But, with Seranthony Dominguez, The Fireman, throwing heat, Victor Arano getting out of big jams late in games and Hector Neris finding his splitter again, the bullpen looks to be just fine.
Another member of the Phillies that appears to be settling in is manager Gabe Kapler. I thought initially that Gabe wasn’t relying on his gut instinct and was using analytics too much when he pulled Aaron in his first start after throwing 20 pitches our calling someone from the bullpen with no one throwing. It is his first stint as a manager, there was going to be some growing pains but now it seems that Gabe is trusting his gut more and he is doing a good job as skipper of this young ball club.
It has been too long since our Phillies are playing meaningful baseball, even in June, but now they’re young, energized and most importantly… winning. The next 31 games are against teams with winning records and will tell us a lot about the resolve of this team, but 50 games into the season the Phillies are officially CONTENDERS.
By: Mike Chisdock