I actually advocated for the Phillies to sign Quintana as a FA prior to the 2023 season, which they entered with Wheeler/Nola/Suarez/Walker but uncertainty at #5 (Falter was their first try, before Sanchez emerged from nowhere)
Journalist by day. Blogs about books, ephemera, movies & history at papergreat.blogspot.com Digs folklore, Ruth Manning-Sanders books, mid-century cinema from Japan and lots of other niche stuff. Has 24 cats.
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I actually advocated for the Phillies to sign Quintana as a FA prior to the 2023 season, which they entered with Wheeler/Nola/Suarez/Walker but uncertainty at #5 (Falter was their first try, before Sanchez emerged from nowhere)
I just don't see how there's a penny for anything else if they bring back those three. They may as well just keep Castellanos, since they'd have to pay 80% of his salary to dump him & would have no money to replace him. ... Go with a Castellanos-Marsh-Crawford outfield.
It is. But this is all they have at this point. Painter has struggled too much to be of use. They dance for as long (or short) as they can with who they brung.
For the Phillies to win the World Series, they're going to need a combined 8-9 quality starts from Sanchez, Suarez and Luzardo. There's no other way.
They have to keep running him out there in September and see if he can fix it. ... The playoff roster is worse without him, so while you have a chance straighten him out, you roll the dice and give it a shot. Buehler is a hail mary. Without Nola, you have no choice but to start Walker in NLCS Game 4
Frees up a spot for Romano! (sigh)
The other issue is that the Phillies might not strategically be able to just let Suarez walk in FA. .... And if they have to re-sign Schwarber, Realmuto, Suarez, you can 100% forget about any other significant additions. #RunItBack??
Not to get hyperbolic, but what purpose does he even serve on the playoff roster? .... Obviously in a 7-game series he's on the roster as a long man and potential 2-inning guy in a Game 4 bullpen game.
Nola has got to figure it out, or he's no more useful for the playoff roster than Romano
Worth it for the fireball ending. IYKYK.
The guy to watch right now is Nola. IF he can be solid in September, he can be playoff SP #3. ... Then you have a bullpen of: Duran, R Strahm, L Robertson, R Banks, L Kerkering, R Mayza, L --------- (flexible arms for bullpen and/or Game 4 in a 7-game series) Buehler, R Luzardo, L Walker, R
Kerkering is a lock. Mayza is a lock if healthy. Buehler is a lock if he doesn't bomb. Robert injury hurts him, but I think Lazar leads for spot #13. Also, don't rule out taking just 12 pitchers because Rojas or Kemp brings more value/flexibility as a 14th player than Romano or Trivino.
I don't see how there's a spot on the roster with Mayza, Buehler, et al, now here. .... That said, my only theory is that at some point they're just going to make him pitch in blowouts to preserve real arms for October.
This is the correct answer.
One thing at a time. I know this equation failed last year, but you root for the Dodgers-Mets series to go three games and for lots of pitcher usage.
All playoff teams are dangerous. I believe the Phillies can beat anyone. But if the Dodgers get a string of good starts from their aces, they will be very very tough. Meanwhile, while stats might not bear it out, I feel like the Cubs have the toughest top-to-bottom lineup. Those games won't be 3-2.
From the archives: "Chippy" at Smugglers Notch and other vintage chipmunk postcards www.papergreat.com/2021/09/vint...
Last Rites should be 88 minutes long and the entire thing should be Annabelle behind the wheel of a car, chasing them through the streets of San Francisco.
(Checks notes) Feeding the indoors cats who get mad when I go outside & sit with the skunks, documenting ongoing fascism, and trying to find more time to watch 1950s Japanese dramas. But I'm certainly open to King Lear with skunks.
One of my favorite first-watches of 2025. Perfect thematic complement to The Exorcist. And I guess Scott Wilson is even supposed to be the same astronaut from that movie.
Four skunks have been coming since they were babies and they now are all named: Pinky, Double-Dot, Black Flag and Splotch. Makes it easier to log them in the wildlife book. ... They won't live long lives, because everything else in the suburbs hates them. So I spoil them a little.
Since the pandemic I've befriended a bluejay who tapped on the window to get me to come out and give him peanuts, chipmunks who climbed all over me, a portly field mouse, asshole raccoons who ate my garden gourds if I didn't give them peanut butter crackers, feral & abandoned cats & now skunks.
If I disappear from human civilization, it's because I went to live among the skunks.
when i worked in a dog daycare i had to deal with these jerkoffs all the time. dogs need certain vaccines to go to group daycare/boarding just like kids do for the exact same group safety reasons and i had antivaxers scream in my face about it more than once
The black hole of disinformation and bullshit continues to suck in huge portions of the US. Rabies is spreading in the US. One reason is that many people are not vaccinating their dogs. Why? Many actually believe rabies vaccinations will make their dogs autistic.
New at the patreon. What I've been watching lately is me shaking off a viewing rut by trekking into the silent era. www.patreon.com/posts/viewin...
I'm far from the only one who used to just sit around and read the dictionary. Plus browsing encyclopedias and almanacs and atlases. And baseball registers. And movie guides. And bird guides. And cookbooks. And ....
Words are magic
Very true. But private equity couldn't really afford to start buying them en masse & gutting them until circa 2005, when classifieds, automotive and real estate ads were amid their final cratering.
Watched these two pioneers kick some butt last night.
Was in a jury pool recently (not picked) and judge's speech to potential jurors made it very clear, without specifically citing it, that jury nullification was not an option: "If the prosecution proves beyond a doubt that the law, as I have described it, has been broken, they MUST be found guilty"
Yep. When you've been a fan for 45+ years, you've seen the "the fall happens fast when you lose bat speed" story a thousand times.
I think they'll move him this winter. Someone will like those 4 years of team control and that glove. Maybe he's even a sweetener to get someone to take Castellanos and many bags of money.
Not to jump ahead, but Bader is an interesting offseason FA decision for Phillies. Already have Schwarber, Realmuto & maybe Suarez to prioritize. Will be Bader's biggest FA deal of career. Could get about 3/40 for his age 32, 33, 34 seasons. Does a 2026 OF of Bader, Marsh, Crawford have enough pop?
Most of it the bottom half of the lineup. Imagine if the Top 4 guys and Bottom 5 guys are ever in synch
Both of them. But, hear me out, you only need to be a smidge over .500 in each playoff series.
Walker always struggles but rarely spirals. It's impressive, really. I mean it.
The writing was on the wall with a brutal travel schedule against the best team in baseball with the 5th starter on the mound and a 5-1 hole. Somehow, a 10-8 Phillies win
Singles work too, of course :D
This is where the Phillies need to get so much better at the art of the sac fly.
YES
If everyone playoff game is like this, no need to have a chair for me at Thanksgiving.
C'mon, Marsh.
Wonder if we'll see any attempts to get 4- or 5-out saves from Duran in big games. (Not saying that had to be today, but Robertson was clearly gassed)
Huge hit for Stott off a LHP after the crushing GIDP #Phillies
It's in their interests to see as much as possible from him, given that $9M team option.
Yeah. I can't really get mad.
I could/would never climb this thing in a million years anyway. But the fact that after you get 2/3 of the way up, the damn thing starts sloping *outwards* sends my acrophobia into overdrive.
Good job by us. Offense still sucks, though, amirite?
Just finished The Undertow: Scenes from A Slow Civil War by @jeffsharlet.bsky.social & have been just sort of sitting here in silence ever since. I can’t remember the last time a book made me feel this way. It takes me some time to process things. This one will sit w me for a while.
Exactly. If you bring up Harlan County USA in 2025, you immediately go up 5 points on the respect-o-meter and I'm going to thoughtfully consider what you have to say.
NYT "think" piece presents Channing Tatum praising Barbara Kopple's Harlan County USA as evidence of a new disengaged, "politically ambiguous" "Himbo," which is perhaps evidence the writer didn't bother to watch Harlan County, USA, one of the great radical documentaries of all time.
Sometime between the fall of 1963 and the late summer of 1964, the actor and photographer Dennis Hopper stopped at an intersection in L.A., took out his Nikon, and made history.
Yep. The combination of losing classified & automotive ads, plus newspapers not instituting paywalls on Day 1 and just making people get used to it is the bulk of the reason why we're down to about 16 newspapers in the U.S.
Does it matter when the offense only shows up once a week?
would they have had to color every print, or just color the master and then make copies?
Lily Tomlin in "The Late Show" - BOTD
Similarly, though, you can absolutely set your watch by how they are going to ruin Waldrep's arm.
5 outings since his return for Alvarado: -- 3 scoreless innings -- loaded bases, zero outs vs. Nats -- gives up 2-run HR to only guy on Braves who looks like he cares at this point.
Yeah. When he's off, he's off. ... But overall he's been very very good.
Orion should also buy him a steak dinner
It's really really hard to win a 1-0 game
I don't dislike it. It's well made and acted. But it checks off almost every trigger warning possible in a way that makes it impossible to really enjoy the supposedly feel-good ending. So, admire, but depressing as hell.
Thon was going to have an incredible career (for the Astros). Before the career-altering hit-by-pitch, he had back-to-back 6.1 and 7.4 WAR seasons.
Successfully rehomed sweet Phantom today, who I think will be happy not to have to battle her siblings for attention. Down to 23 now.
Len Matuszek and Ricky Jordan wave hello
Day late, but... Ugetsu Pan's Labyrinth Phantom of the Paradise But I have Throne of Blood cued up for September, so that could knock out Phantom. Great & tough stack
Pulls to within 41 home runs of Schwarbs :D
Yeah, if they pitch well and are healthy (big if) we could see both Buehler & Mayza in October. ....
Same energy
Phillies and Braves both have flights to the Midwest after the game and they're playing like they don't want to miss them.
Polish poster for KING KONG ESCAPES (1967)
Pretty sure they have an October "injury spot" with Wheeler that could be used for anyone, regardless of when they were on the 40-man. He still has to earn it, though.
Jordan Romano was a disaster for the Phillies, but at least they didn't throw $72 million at Tanner Scott.
Phillies plan for Walker Buehler to start Sept. 12 vs. KC. They’ll try a six-man rotation down the stretch. He’ll start once at Triple A. They’re also calling up Garrett Stubbs tomorrow when rosters expand.
Makes sense on several levels. Stubbs "took one for the team" this year so they didn't lose Marchan, who couldn't be optioned. Having him here now will allow Marchan to get some pinch-hit at-bats, which could come in handy for October.
Phillies can get the lead back to 7 games tonight, which gives them a very slim luxury to keep some guys fresher. If Mets had swept the Marlins and Phillies were looking at 3 or 4 game lead Monday, different story.
For different reasons, you don't want to push Sanchez, Luzardo and Suarez every single fifth day in September and have them enter October gassed. The 6-man rotation still makes a lot of sense for the closing month, but they had no one to tackle it.
I'm sure it didn't hurt that Buehler had arguably his best start of the season versus the Phillies -- one of his very few great starts -- going seven innings & allowing 1 ER.
They are giving themselves as many options as possible, like you said. There's room at the end of the bullpen. And there's still uncertainty about Nola. If Nola just flames out this month, they could piggyback Walker & Buehler in a Game 4. OTOH Buehler might not make playoff roster at all.
There are not bad one year deals, there is not acknowledging mistakes, there are almost no bad August 31 acquisitions, only bad postseason usages. You just can’t add guys who might have any chance of appearing in the postseason for you after today, so add talent, just don’t count your chickens
They really need one or two of Buehler, Mayza, Max Lazar, Lou Trivino and Daniel Robert to look somewhat viable in a low-to-medium-leverage spot
Mayza is a sneaky move for the Phillies, but it 100% depends on his health, which just doesn't seem like a sure thing. He's pitched in the last three Octobers, mostly well, which is a big plus for no-jitters.
Will be interesting to see if they intend him to start games (to take some innings load off the playoff rotation) or if he's going to be a long guy in the bullpen to keep the bullpen fresh. Either way, there's a theoretical path to the playoff roster as the last guy if he pitches well.
Did the Phillies secretly break the Mets by .... allowing themselves to be swept?
It's amazing how clueless Gourevitch's post was. Glad people are dunking on it everywhere I turn.
Meanwhile every damn appliance, utensil and piece of furniture in my house is designed to break within 18 months.
That's actually great news. And bad for the Brewers
We've come a long way since this 50-cent book in 1962
This is why I've been printing tweets and skeets and tucking them into manila envelopes since 2017
Also you don't want your prospects be complete duds, because you want to be able to market the next batch of them down the road during trade talks.
That's Danny Lloyd's best scene as an actor in the film. Sells it with the eyes. You can see the fear and the sadness.
110% hope he turns it around and does well for himself and them.
In the very early 80s, you had one cable movie channel, and it showed Hot Stuff 10 times a week. And I'm not saying this was a bad thing.
Full disclosure: I spent that whole half-inning worrying that Castellanos lack of speed would doom any attempt to rally and wishing they had a PR available.
I forgive him now for that heinous at-bat in the 8th
Depending when he graduates, he may soon join those with access to the entire IRS database.
Yes, but is it as good as Jaws in Sphere, with extended backgrounds and brief insertions of Jeff Bezos and JD Vance?
Super-strong agree with the first sentence. Indifferent toward the second sentence, even as a PSU grad myself.