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Articles by Rick Soisson
4 Phillies role players who are pulling their weight
It was J.T. Realmuto’s meniscus surgery that propelled Philadelphia Phillies fans to begin worrying about their team being snakebit by injuries. Five weeks earlier, star shortstop Trea Turner went down with a hamstring pull that pushed him into a careful rehab. Then, a bit over a week before the Phillies announced their star catcher’s procedure, fourth-year left fielder Brandon Marsh tweaked his hamstring and missed nine games.
First Phillie to homer onto Ashburn Alley in two years is ‘living the dream’
Edmundo Sosa is living the dream as a bench-turned-everyday player while Turner is on the shelf. By Rick Soisson | 4:00 PM EDT Edmundo Sosa launched the hanging curve in the general direction of Pat Burrell’s important double in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. Burrell’s ball back then was smoked. Sosa’s ball was also smoked but went much higher and farther.
Go Go Power Ranger: Phillies' newest ace loves his new fan club
There's a new Philadelphia Phillies stadium fan group, formed to honor the Phillies’ Cy Young Award frontrunner, Ranger Suárez. As most MLB followers now know, Suárez has started his season as though to prove the Phillies actually have three aces, not just two. He is 9-0 in 10 starts and has a 1.36 ERA and 0.79 WHIP. By now, you’ve heard all the historical comparisons. It’s not often that Grover Cleveland Alexander’s name flies around in such discussions, but Ol’ Pete came up this week.
An early call for Phillies’ Alec Bohm to start the All-Star Game
At the beginning of the season, most Philadelphia Phillies fans would likely have identified Bryson Stott as the young player most likely to make a great leap forward. The Fightin’ faithful love to compare Stott to the team’s most recent star second baseman, Chase Utley. They bear a passing resemblance to each other, and they both are termed “gritty” quite often.
After a quick start, can the Phillies’ Aaron Nola still rise to top form?
There’s something about Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola and even-numbered years. For the past six-plus years, since he hit his true major league stride in 2018, every even-numbered year, Nola has flirted with greatness. In 2018, he posted a 2.37 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP and finished third in the NL Cy Young voting. In both 2020 and 2022, he also finished in the top seven for that award and posted ERAs under 3.29 and WHIPs under 1.08.
Phillies' key players, Ranger Suárez and Bryce Harper, lead a serious NL contender
As the Philadelphia Phillies complete their season’s first month, it might be early to pass out grades, but perhaps it’s all right to consider how true key players are performing. Not all players are genuinely pivotal to an MLB team’s success, no matter how much a “team game” baseball is. Just about six weeks ago, a few people decided that Ranger Suárez is a key Phillies player this year, for some simply because three aces are better than two.
Outfielders raking in Triple-A make the Phillies' struggling offense even more frustrating
No one, no matter his salary, really wants to put on the Philadelphia Phillies pinstripes in the spring and then wade through a slow start. Phillies know their fans are frank and perceptive. They know they’ll hear about a poor start at Citizens Bank Park, and the vitriol on local sports talk radio can be surprising. The callers to those shows in the Delaware Valley are sometimes spitting angry about ballplayers they supposedly support.
Phillies’ City Connect jerseys marred by one weird flaw before even seeing the field
Before the Philadelphia Phillies even wear their City Connect uniforms in competition, it must be said that this particular MLB alternate uniform scheme has not been fully embraced by fans. Moreover, opinions vary wildly with each new design. For example, last summer ESPN’s Joon Lee ranked the already unveiled City Connect uniforms and picked the Colorado Rockies' mountainous design as No. 1 despite mixed reactions from the team’s fans.
Trea Turner ties a Phillies legend with his incredible stolen base streak
Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner’s record-threatening stolen base streak is one of those matters most people would be unaware of if it weren’t for computers. In ancient times, total stolen bases in a season were the standard measure, and yes, it was a big deal when Maury Wills swiped 104 in 1962.
Are the Phillies' early problems as simple as a missing Rhys Hoskins?
In a predictable way, one of the talk-radio gurus covering the Philadelphia Phillies has decided to stir things up among the Philly faithful after another, patented, slow Phils start to a season. Could it be that the offensively loaded South Philly club has made an egregious mistake? By Rick Soisson | 8:00 PM EDT WIP midday co-host Joe Giglio, after a week’s play, has decided letting Rhys Hoskins go was an error because it allows, by falling dominoes, Johan Rojas to start.
Two Philadelphia Phillies 'developments' in an inert winter
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Two Philadelphia Phillies sticky questions will be winter obsessions
The questions about what the back-to-back playoff Phillies must do to improve might take a back seat to dealing with two veteran players' contract situations for a few months. By Rick Soisson | 9:00 AM EDT As though there aren’t enough polls a year out from the presidential election, Inquirer.com has chosen to give Philadelphia Phillies fans a “say” in who should stay and who should go before the team breaks Spring Training camp in March next year.
Grades for all the Philadelphia Phillies who mattered in 2023
The corollary to this is: The pitchers don’t have to be generally good, experienced, or even impressive. They just have to be good when it counts. Two rookie pitchers for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Brandon Pfaadt and Andrew Saalfrank, shoved large tree branches into the Philadelphia Phillies’ playoff bike spokes, for example. It’s time to grade the important Philadelphia Phillies on this past season’s team. Let’s look at the starting ten first.
Time to re-visit Bryce Harper and that pesky Hall of Fame question
The 1,500th hit of the impressive career of Bryce Harper came in an ultimately unsuccessful, furious Philadelphia Phillies attempt to catch the juggernaut Atlanta Braves, who had built up a five-run lead early in their game September 12. It was a home run that helped pull his team closer, his second late homer in three days. Harper thus added the September 12 blow to his 300th homer two weeks ago as milestones passed in 2023.
Philadelphia Phillies sterling pitching stats don’t inspire
The statistics highlighted on Twitter/X by the Philadelphia Phillies communications group included several eye-openers. Not only did they imply not only that the team was set up beautifully a month out from the playoffs, as has been suggested for other reasons than they highlighted, they suggested it may be time to order that case of champagne for the sixth or seventh World Series game.
Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
For the Philadelphia Phillies, the seemingly minor team record was set in the seventh inning of 12-1 blowout win Saturday over St. Louis. Bryson Stott had tied the old record in the fourth inning with a home run to right center off Dakota Hudson. That dinger was the Phillies’ 46th home run of August, tying a franchise record set the year before in September.
Philadelphia Phillies still fightin’ with one hand tied behind their back
On Sunday evening, the Philadelphia Phillies boarded a flight for home with the August-September stretch run for the team ever so close. After clawing their way to 10 games over .500, they had just readied themselves for another drive to the playoffs by losing two of three to both Milwaukee and Cleveland. However, Sunday afternoon, the Fightin’s had won 8-5 in 10 innings, after trying mightily to blow a four-run lead seized in the top of that final inning.
Could it be that the Philadelphia Phillies only need a few tweaks?
With the All-Star break upon us, it is time for the Philadelphia Phillies to consider needs to put themselves on a firm path past a projected 89 or 90 wins. This year the Fightin’s, one of MLB’s most expensive teams, need to show some improvement over last year’s regular season. Making recommendations for a team that’s honestly doing pretty well, given their slow start, is not that easy, but let’s start with possible internal moves.
Philadelphia Phillies: Aaron Nola and that darned pitch clock
Observers of Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies have danced around the issue gingerly since the beginning of the season. Has the Phils righthander been struggling with MLB’s new pitch clock rules? The pitcher just doesn’t seem as sharp as he had been in the past. He is clearly not as sharp as he had been in 2018, ’20, or ’22, when he had finished in the top seven among NL Cy Young voters. Twice he had been in the top four. This year, however? Flat, flat, flat. Is this because of the pitch clock?
Phillies: Journeyman Drew Ellis has himself quite a day
Drew Ellis had a day Sunday that was a miracle of the early season. Of course, the Philadelphia Phillies reserve might also accomplish his one-day miracle as a late season call-up, statistically, but we all have calendars and know it’s only early June. On June 4, Drew Ellis raised his batting average from .143 to .400. Until that day, he had only played in three Phillies games after signing with the club on April 16.
Matt Strahm is key to understanding the Phillies problem
Many reasons have been given for the unpleasant start to the Philadelphia Phillies season. Many are surely known to attentive fans. The team doesn’t hit with runners in scoring position. Trea Turner seems off. The defense looks like a pinball machine sometimes. However, the principal problem can be put into just ten words: The best starter now for the Phillies is Matt Strahm.
Philadelphia Phillies: Whatever is going on with the struggling lineup?
The Philadelphia Phillies experiment with returning to their 2022 lineup began May 2 and lasted, apparently, four games. That experiment seemed to be prompted by the return of superstar Bryce Harper to the lineup after an abbreviated surgical rehab of his right elbow.
Philadelphia Phillies: Jose Alvarado becoming an ultra-elite reliever?
Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jose Alvarado got an off day Thursday even though his team was locked in a 1-0 struggle with the Seattle Mariners. This would ordinarily have been a game in which a fire-balling reliever would be no surprise as he strode to the mound. However, Alvarado had pitched in five games in the previous eight games, most recently the evening before, when he had recorded his fourth save against the Mariners in a 6-5 win.
An argument for Philadelphia Phillies fans to panic early
Trump wants to sit out his next court appearance. The judge presiding over his case says all defendants have to show up and he's no different.
An argument for Philadelphia Phillies fans to panic early
Perhaps it’s needless to say, but the season did not start off well for the Philadelphia Phillies. Three straight losses to the improved Texas Rangers exposed two aces who don’t look quite ready for prime time and a lineup that clearly can hit, just not with runners in scoring position.
Philadelphia Phillies: Can Friends of Bryce give eight great weeks?
The day before Opening Day, the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans faced one question: How badly will the injuries to Bryce Harper, Ranger Suarez, and Rhys Hoskins hamstring this team for the next eight to 10 weeks? Does this team have the hitters, new pitching, and back-up pitching, given a new batch of rules clearly designed to help hitters, to keep the team in the NL East race until Harper returns? Will Bryce’s friends pick him up while he heals from Tommy John surgery?
Is Pittsburgh Pirates starter Mitch Keller just a bit overconfident?
Confidence is a vital attribute for any Major League Baseball player. Even those who can not claim stardom know this — it can be useful — but the Pittsburgh Pirates designated Opening Day starter this year, Mitch Keller, recently pushed the envelope in this regard.
Phillies: Breaking down the prospects fighting for an Opening Day spot
When the Philadelphia Phillies spring training camp opened this year in Clearwater, most observers felt there were only four available jobs to be won. As usual, however, far more than four were competing for those jobs — two bench seats, a bullpen slot, and the number five starter’s role. So, those who might take those jobs, or perhaps an injured player’s slot, have to be broken into two parts, the pitchers’ jobs to be won, and the so-called bench players’ slots.
Andrew Painter, the future of the Philadelphia Phillies, undergoes tests
Oh no! Stop the music! Sweep up the confetti! The day after his reasonably impressive debut in Spring Training, 19-year-old Philadelphia Phillies phenom Andrew Painter reported … (gasp) … elbow tenderness. While everyone was still drooling over his backfoot cutter to strike out Max Kepler on Wednesday, Painter had a little tenderness in his pitching arm. The Phillies did not report on the tests until Friday afternoon.
Noah Song leaves active Naval duty for the Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies received some good news this week about a player they took in the most recent Rule 5 draft. On Wednesday, word broke that pitcher Noah Song, claimed from the Boston Red Sox, had been discharged from his active-duty Naval service commitment, and was expected to report to Phillies spring training camp on Thursday. Song is a Naval Academy graduate, and had to work through an exception to the regular five-year commitment Annapolis grads make.
An orthopod weighs in on super Phillies Bryce Harper, Andrew Painter
As the first televised Phillies spring training game approaches, I’m happy to offer some specific information to Philadelphia baseball fans about two matters that will occupy their thoughts for the next few months. This information affects superstar Bryce Harper and super pitching prospect Andrew Painter. It came to me through an ancient information source known as radio, which involves, oddly, only sound — no videos, no photos of half-naked people ill-advised to get half-naked, and no emojis.
Phillies extend Seranthony Dominguez, a vital bullpen cog
By now, most close observers of the Philadelphia Phillies are aware that manager Rob Thomson is perfectly content to mix and match his relievers in save situations, but this doesn’t mean that everybody in the bullpen is likely to be called upon for them. This is why extending Seranthony Dominguez, as the Phillies did on Thursday before the team’s first workout, was a solid move. There were 60 save opportunities for Phillies relievers last season. Dominguez got 11 of them and converted nine.
Philadelphia Phillies: Previewing positives and questions of the 2023 season
Max Fried’s remaining time with the Atlanta Braves seems, at best, tenuous. This comes after a negative development between the two sides as Atlanta won its arbitration case over the ace left-hander, filing for a $13.5 million salary figure for 2023. Fried filed at $15 million for the season, which is only $1.5 million more, but that’s just a microcosm of the larger point: this relationship between player and organization appears to be souring.
Philadelphia Phillies: Previewing positives and questions of 2023 season
It was the Twitterverse, if memory serves, that told us the Philadelphia Phillies pitchers and catchers report for their first workout in Florida on February 16, so obviously it’s time to take a look at what’s coming this season for the defending National League champions. Phillies fans stay informed. Some even celebrate the day the equipment truck is packed for Clearwater. This year that was February 2.
Philadelphia Phillies fans and the MLB Hall of Fame vote
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of former Major League Baseball player Bert Pena, who died at the age of 63 after a battle with esophageal cancer. Pena, born Adalberto Pena Rivera in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1959, had a notable career in baseball, playing 88 games over six seasons with the Houston Astros between 1981 and 1987.
Philadelphia Phillies fans and the MLB Hall of Fame vote
When articles speculating about MLB Hall of Fame vote roll around each January, many Philadelphia Phillies fans likely scroll or page right by those pieces. They’re thinking: “What’s the point? When was the last one anyway? About 30 years ago.” This is only about half right, of course, but does have a kernel of truth to it.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Is Andrew McCutchen worth that $5 million?
The MLB Hot Stove’s recent days have brought us both the feel-good and feel-bad stories of this offseason. The feel-bad story, of course, involves the possibility of Trevor Bauer being signed by some desperate team, so let’s forget that and consider for a moment Andrew McCutchen “returning home” to the Pittsburgh Pirates. As Kevin Henry notes, Pirates fans will have some nice moments this summer as McCutchen closes in on some milestone numbers.
Kody Clemens: The “other guy” in a recent Phillies trade
While everybody was surely riveted by the analysis of 15 fascinating votes for Speaker of the US House Saturday, the Philadelphia Phillies continued to rebuild in order to keep pace in the viciously competitive NL East by trading for an All-Star reliever and a relatively young utility player named Kody Clemens. One observer has already called the five-player trade a “rip-off” from the proper point of view of the Detroit Tigers, the Phillies’ trading partner this time around.
5 Philadelphia Phillies predictions for the 2023 season
The Hot Stove season this year is now be moving into a period of less signing and more speculation, and Philadelphia Phillies fans are just like all the rest. They get to speculate, and read other speculators’ speculations, for several more weeks in all likelihood since most of the big-name free agents have been signed. This tends to be at least a little bit of fun and always allows most predictors to look back at the end of the year and admit they were wrong, wrong, wrong usually.
Built to contend, could Philadelphia Phillies subtract Aaron Nola soon?
On the day that Messi and Mbappe would meet in the World Cup final, the Philadelphia Inquirer print edition surprised Philadelphia Phillies fans with not one but two articles about their team. Yes, on the same Sunday the surprisingly dominant Eagles would push their record to 13-1, the Inky sports editors figured it was a good time for not one but two articles about Aaron Nola, with a heaping helping of Rhys Hoskins thrown on for good measure in one of them. On pages one and two, no less.
Have the Philadelphia Phillies already won the offseason?
From November until MLB Spring Training opens, baseball fans are left with entertaining themselves with videos of big home runs, diving catches, and essays that 50 percent of the time could be called “If I were the Philadelphia Phillies GM” or its analog for another team. Another rough 45 percent is reporting rumors about trades and signings.
Philadelphia Phillies must be ready to pounce on shortstop next week
On December 1, writer Scott Lauber’s piece on the Philadelphia Phillies for Inquirer.com featured the headline “What if the Phillies whiff on a shortstop? Exploring contingency plans to improve the roster.” Hold on, I thought. The subhead was also alarming, despite a qualification: “There’s little reason to doubt the Phillies will land a top shortstop. But what if they don’t? Here are some options.” The Philadelphia Phillies should be prepared for bang-bang shortstop action at the Winter Meetings.
The best possible Philadelphia Phillies bullpen energizers
As the Philadelphia Phillies (and all other MLB clubs) sit twiddling their thumbs, awaiting a first move or credible leak about the ultra-hot, free-agent shortstop market, perhaps it is time to consider secondary moves for the team no one expected to make it to the World Series this year. In fact, let’s move to a Phils need designated “tertiary” in this space recently — bullpen help.
Philadelphia Phillies: The winter of Trea Turner hope
By now, there’s no more confetti on the floor from that unlikely run of the Philadelphia Phillies into the World Series, so it’s obviously time for some serious MLB off-season speculation. Welcome to the hot stove season, Fightin’ fans. Who’s going where? Which big star should Phillies sign to help them get to a world championship? How much will he cost? How many players must be signed to ensure at least another deep run into the playoffs?
In the end, three true outcomes doom Philadelphia Phillies
In the end, the 87-win Philadelphia Phillies didn’t quite have it. As most baseball fans know now, the Houston Astros defeated them, 4-1, on Saturday to take MLB’s crowning trophy. In many observers’ minds, the win washed away the stain of Houston’s cheating scandal of a few years ago. Only days before, it seemed the Fightin’ Phils might, in fact, have enough to pull off what would have been an upset for the ages.
An improbable Philadelphia Phillies World Series win coming?
The subject came up in the eighth inning of the unlucky 13th ever MLB game played in November. The Philadelphia Phillies comfortably led the Houston Astros, 7-0, and holding that lead would put them ahead in the 2022 World Series two games to one with two more games to play in Philadelphia. So, Joe Davis asked his FOX broadcasting mate John Smoltz whether, if Philly were to hold on and win the Series, they would be the most improbable champion ever, or what.
Philadelphia Phillies: A joyful lull, then on to the World Series
The gods of the latest modern MLB postseason scheme then did decree a period of rest and celebration for the champions. The National and American League Champions (the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, respectively) would rest for most of five days before meeting for the 2022 World Series. The last team into the tournament, the 87-win Philadelphia Phillies, would travel to Houston to meet the favored Astros, alleged deplorable cheaters in another World Series.
Aaron Nola can’t save the Phillies one more time in the NLCS
As the Philadelphia Phillies prepared to play the San Diego Padres in game two of the NLCS Oct. 19, their followers back in the Delaware Valley were happily skipping through a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming moment. Their third-place Fightin’s were 6-1 in postseason play, and local sports talk radio was awash with callers all but totally convinced it was 1980 or 2008 all over again. Game two in San Diego wouldn’t be easy to be sure.
Philadelphia Phillies shift gears in playoffs, and then stall
In a week when Philadelphia fans were celebrating, unusually, the joys of being a fan in their city, there was cause to consider … um … what-the-heck their finally successful MLB team, the Phillies, was doing. (The Eagles were coming on Sunday night. Give it a rest.) The third-place Phillies had shocked some, for sure, by running into the new-format playoffs 3-1, and everybody sensible should have begun worrying if they were a threat to the almighty Dodgers, Yankees, or Astros.
Philadelphia Phillies reach postseason, and (Lordy!) belong there
They are a team that no one this MLB postseason should want to face. They are one of two teams many fans believe should not even be in the playoffs. The Philadelphia Phillies are the National League’s first-ever third Wild Card team and, on alternating days for the past two weeks, all of their fans were sure they would collapse again as they have for the past four Septembers. Some observers searched around for “other” stories of their season, anticipating yet another year on the playoff sidelines.
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