The Phillies just don’t know when to quit. They really should quit. It was another season of the Phillies trying to win with almost the exact same roster that lost 89 games the year before, only older. As you, but not Ruben Amaro Jr., probably guessed, it didn’t go very well.
Preseason Prediction: I think third place is the ceiling for the Phillies, and the bottom of the National League is the floor. If they win more games than last year’s 73, I’ll be shocked. (Joe Lucia, February 11th)
What Went Right: Well, the Phillies are probably going to “shock” Joe by winning more than 73 games this year, maybe, so something must’ve gone right. It’s not exactly to see though. The one obvious thing that went right was Cole Hamels bounced back in a big way from a down, by his standards, 2013 season. This has essentially been a career year for Hamels though it hasn’t gotten much notice because the Phils are so bad. Jonathan Papelbon was also able to turn back the clock with an ERA under 2.00 for the first time since his prime days in Boston. Other than Chase Utley keeping old age at bay for another year, that’s about all that went right.
What Went Wrong: One of the few things the Phillies had going for them entering the year was Cliff Lee. He had been one of the best pitchers in baseball in recent years and could’ve helped the Phillies not suck. And if they did suck, they at least had the option of trading him to get a slew of quality prospects. Or maybe not. Lee made 13 subpar starts before getting shut down for the season with elbow problems. Whatever the opposite of having your cake and eating it too, this is it. To make matters worse in the Philadelphia rotation, A.J. Burnett had a below average season and Kyle Kendrick was arguably the worst starting pitcher in the free world. It wasn’t just the pitching that was bad though, the offense was nothing special and a big reason for that was Domonic Brown following up his breakout 2013 campaign by totally cratering in 2014. He’ll finish the season with an OBP well under .300 and has just nine homers. That’s not what you want to see from the one young building block on the roster.
Most Surprising Player: Ben Revere hit two home runs! In the same season! BEN REVERE! He hadn’t homered before ever and had been in the league since 2010. BEN FREAKING REVERE. That’s probably as close as there is to a pleasant surprise for the Phillies. On the whole though, Revere’s season was pretty standard. He hit over .300 and stole 40+ bags, but is going to finish the season with fewer than 20 walks. That’s just what he is and what he does. Apparently he can now accidentally “slug” two dingers a year. TWO!
Most Disappointing Player: Welp, it looks like Ryan Howard might finally have hit rock bottom. He’s been close for awhile, granted, but it looks like even Phillies management is finally ready to admit that the former MVP is totally washed up. With his current ISO of .157, Howard’s one redeeming quality appears to now be abandoning him. Sure, he still hit 21 homers, but those were almost accidents. Howard hasn’t hit lefties for years now, but this year he was actually worse against righties, which is frightening. There is a very good possibility that the Phillies release Howard and the $60 million left on his contract this winter. So, that should be fun.
The Future: It is now three straight .500 or worse seasons for the Phillies and the only thing they are doing is getting older and worse. That foretells a bleak enough future as it is, but they are only compounding the issue by refusing to make any changes to the roster. GM Ruben Amaro did exactly nothing at the trade deadline to unload his aging talent and their fat contracts. That leaves the Phillies with $127 million on the books for 2015, and that just covers nine players. He did nothing to lessen that load, so it looks like 2015 is going to just be a repeat of this season barring Amaro seeing the light and selling off contracts this offseason or, preferably, Amaro getting fired and someone else taking that task on. Neither of those seem likely to happen though. Considering that the Phillies are regarded as having one of the worst farm systems in baseball, it could be a long, long time before the Phillies are relevant again.
