Anthony’s Opening Diatribe-The Phillies Don’t Look Right
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 31: Aaron Nola #27 of the Philadelphia Phillies looks on in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field on May 31, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
In his Opening Diatribe this morning, Anthony Gargano talked about how something does not look right with the Phillies…
“The more Phillies I watch, the more I long for Football. Can I give you full disclosure? Because I am an emotional person, people think I am emotional when it comes to sports. In reality, I am really pragmatic. I look at baseball, and I will never be concerned in April or May, barring some catastrophic beginning. But now it is June 1st, and the Phillies just don’t look right.
I am trying to figure out what is it. Last night, you look at the bats and you go what is happening here? It’s easy to look at Schwarber. It’s another 0 for, and he is down to .163. That is two months of baseball. .163 is really bad. Turner is again 0 for 4. Even Castellanos has cooled off. JT 0 for 4. He is down to .257. What is going on boys? Then you look at Nola. Not a horrible performance.He only allows 4 hits. But two of them leave the yard. And it is when it happens. Sosa hits the HR and gives you the lead, but then the next inning Nola gives up a cookie. Next thing you know it is 4-1, and that is ball game.
It is kind of eerie how similar the start of last year and this year is. The one difference was they had to play at an amazing clip to get in. I don’t think they will have to do that this year. But there is an onus on them to play really strong baseball.
When they aren’t hitting, they aren’t fun. And I am starting to get worried… I am not one of these people who freaks out… I can’t believe we are sitting here two months into the season, and I am looking at Topper wondering what is going on here. June 1st is a big deal. They have to kick it into gear.”
Listen to the full Opening Diatribe below:
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The 7 Most Concerning Phillies Trends This Season
The hope would be that things would be different for the Phillies in the regular season this year. There was hype last season. But man did they come out of the gate slow. So slow, that Joe Girardi lost his job. Once Rob Thomson took over, things started to change. They scuffled at the end of the regular season a bit, but managed to end the decade-long playoff drought. Once they got there, they really took off. They upset the Cardinals. Followed that up by upsetting the 100-win Braves. And then continued that by beating the Padres to get to the World Series.
You would think that would carry over into this season. They even had what on paper was a great offseason. They signed the biggest Free Agent on the market, Trea Turner. Added some powerful arms in the bullpen. Got Taijuan Walker in. Expectations were even higher than they were going into last season.
But they have started slow again. They have hovered around .500 all season. And every time it feels like they are taking off, they go on an extended losing streak to fall back under .500 and down into 4th place in the NL East.
More concerning, there are some troubling trends in these losses that make you wonder if they really are as good as we think. Memorial Day is coming up, and they are still struggling. It is of course still early. And the Phillies were under .500 going into June last season, then ended up in the World Series. But is that really the road they want to go down again? Settling for one of the final two wild card spots, then having to claw through the post-season on the road? The Phillies need to pull it together. The faster the better.
Here are the 7 most concerning Phillies trends this season so far: