Hey Phillies Fans, Don’t Panic But Certainly Don’t Sugarcoat Things

There is a thing about “little things”. You know those little details that invade your thoughts but you ignore because things are going well? That new lady in your life has those annoying habits you seem willing to ignore but that invariably will come back to sabotage the relationship? It’s something to think about as we watch the Phillies 2024 season unfold. After watching this latest 1-4 stretch and the first three game losing streak of the season you might have had a sense of Deja vu.

The Phillies bats going MIA in Colorado was troubling, but the display in San Francisco has been a small pattern. Are there reasons to sound the alarms? Absolutely not! Should we ignore them and act like they aren’t potential foundation problems? No way!

His offensive performance has been absolutely outstanding. He may be the best clutch bat in baseball this season. There have been so many reasons to praise Alec Bohm this season. He has deserved all of it.

He also is leading all 3rd basemen in errors and is one off of having the most errors in baseball. While his defense has not seemed like a liability, there is no way to spin his errors as not concerning. Defense matters in close games, but not every game is going to see the offense creating the cologne to cover it up.

Centerfield has long been a position where strong defensive productivity allowed you to sacrifice some at the plate. The combination of Rojas and Pache have been fairly strong defensively, but both players are not contributing enough at the plate.

Corner outfielders are expected to add power and run production. The struggles of Nick Castellanos are well chronicled and certainly are subpar. With two full years remaining on his contract after this season, moving on from him or improving that position is a challenge that Dave Dombrowski probably can’t navigate.

Brandon Marsh started the season strong but has tailed off. An outfield upgrade or reshuffling has to be discussed behind closed doors for the Phillies.

The 2024 season for Whit Merrifield may feature an amazing turnaround. It may also continue on in the fashion that it has evolved so far. Whit was sitting at home waiting to get his chance for this season. No team had made him an offer just days before Spring Training. I think that we now know why. His offensive game has been anemic and he isn’t a defensive asset either.

Spencer Turnbull was cruising along and then Taijuan Walker was ready to return from his early season injury break. Instead of leaving Turnbull in the rotation, it was understandable that Walker would be given his spot back due to his tenure and contract. Unfortunately, the rotation has stepped back since then.

He has the uncanny ability to get the win in performances that are bailed out by the team’s prolific offense. It’s becoming an issue as his ERA has risen to 5.51 and he is putting his team behind too often early in games. Will the Phillies shop for a back-of-the-rotation starter eventually? I’m not sure what the strategy will be but it might not hurt to sustain them through the grind of a long summer.

There isn’t a fire, but it certainly makes sense to not ignore signs of smoke and to check the batteries in your smoke detectors.

In Philly, we tend to love the underdog. It starts with Rocky, but it carried into the actual teams in our city. We might love Bryce Harper, but the loudest cheer often goes to the guy who comes off the bench and delivers a big hit. But who are the best Phillies Bench players in franchise history?

Obviously if you are coming off the bench, you are not exactly an All-Star type player. If you were, you would be a starter.

Now in the modern era, with no DH, the role of the bench player has shrunk. Once you get to the playoffs, those bench bats, apart from guys in a platoon, shrink to barely anything. But playing in the NL, with no DH, for over 100 years, left a lot of room for big pinch hits moments.

As a bench player, you don't need to put up huge numbers. You just need to show up when it counts. As you will see, many of the guys who made this list, did just that.

Others came off the bench to give you a great glove. Some were just great clubhouse guys who brought great vibes to the team.

So who are the best Phillies bench players? That is what we are here to determine. We went position by position, and picked the best Phillies for each one.

Who is the best backup catcher in Phillies history? Which backup centerfielder made the list?

Bench player can be a fairly general term. Some player starting coming off the bench, but eventually earned a more full time job. Some guys can come off the bench, but really be part of a platoon and still get a lot of playing time.

I tried to keep it to actual bench players, but obviously in some cases the lines get murky, and you could argue these guys are more than just a bench player.

Behind the plate, Coste had his issues. At the plate though, Coste did a lot of great work for the Phillies. In 256 games, he hit .272 for the Phillies, hit 23 HRs, and Slugged .440. Coste could more than handle himself at the plate.

Hutton is not a house hold name. But the guy knew how to get hits when the team needed it. With the Phillies, he had 8 go ahead pinch hits, and 2 that tied the game. In the 1977 NLCS, Hutton hit .309 with two homeruns.

He also had a knack for hitting against Hall of Famers, Against Tom Seaver, Hutton hit .320, with 11 walks, and 3 HRs in his Phillies career.

We haven't even mentioned his great glove at 1st base. I considered going Jeremy Giambi, who hit 12 HRs in just 211 at bats with the Phillies in 2002. But I went with the impact of Hutton's bat in big moments over Giambi’s 1 good year in a otherwise meaningless season for the Phillies.

The early 2000s was not the best era for the Phillies. It was far from the worst, but there was not much going on in terms of winning. But Super Utility Man Tomas Perez quickly became a fan favorite.

He had every thing Philly fans love in a player. Most notably, heart and effort. He was a bright spot in that era. He was not strictly a 2nd baseman, but with Jimmy cementing himself as the SS in that era, he played a lot of 2nd. Wherever he played, he won the hearts and minds on Philadelphia, and earned a spot on this list.

At the plate, Bruntlett left a lot to be desired. But he had his moments. Bruntlett hit a HR in Game 2 of the World Series, not to mention that he was the World Series clinching run when he came in as a pinch runner in game 5.

Throw in the fact he performed the 15th ever unassisted triple play, and only the 2nd that ended a game, and he deserves a place on this list. The crazy part is he only appeared in the field for 4 more MLB games for the rest of his career after turning that play.

Dobbs has 330 fewer Pinch Hit plate appearances than the Phillies all-time leader. Despite that huge gap, he is only 6 off of having the most pinch hit RBIs in franchise history.

In 2007 he lead the league in pinch hit RBIs. He followed that up by hitting .355 the next year and leading the league with 22 pinch hits.

His career after 2008 went downhill, but he was a pretty important part of the 2007 and 2008 teams.

Nobody has more pinch-hit opportunities than Greg Gross. He came to the plate 568 times as a pinch hitter. 300 more than the next guy on the list. His 117 pinch hits for the Phillies, 63 more than the next guy on the list.

He never hit for power, with a career SLG of .298 as a pinch hitter, but he got on base, and racked up singles.

In that 1980 run to the first World Series in franchise history, he was the catalyst behind multiple rallies. 3 separate times he had a single that helped lead to a game-tying rally.

If we are talking about the most clutch bench bats in Phillies history, Unser has a strong case. He had a pinch-hit game tying single in the 1980 NLCS. Later in that same game he was the game winning run. He was also the game tying run in one of the World Series games that same year. Then, in game 5, he drove in the game tying run.

Those 3 games alone are enough to land him on this list. But he also had a .356 OBP as a pinch hitter for the Phillies, and holds the franchise record for the most postseason pinch hits in a single post-season.

You are welcome Ray Dunne. Ray is the captain of the John Mayberry Jr fan club. I also loved the guy, but I don’t want to steal his John Mayberry Jr thunder. In a recent Instagram video we did, he talked about why John Mayberry Jr is his favorite Bench player in Phillies history, and brought up this walk off Grand Slam as the main reason why. Hard to argue with the reasoning.  

Stairs did not have many hits for the Phillies, but the ones he did have are memorable. With the standout of course being when he hit one into the night.

There is no way i could make this list without including the guy behind one of the most iconic moments in Phillies history. For that one play alone, he belongs here. But he is also second in pinch hit HRs in Phillies history. The one guy above him, played in the 1920s. Stairs had 7 total, not counting the NLCS HR, and his 5 in 2009 set the single season franchise record.