Philadelphia is not the greatest city to live in for sports fans, but the Phillies are about to change that. With the recent success of rookie left fielder and first baseman Rhys Hoskins, hitting 18 home runs in 47 games (he started out on a streak of 11 homers in 18 games), Philadelphia is excited for their chances next season in the 2018 year.
No, Philly won’t come close to reaching the playoffs in this 2017 season, in fact they have a 64-95 record, are 32 games out of first place in the National League East Division, are the second-worst team in the National League, just ahead of the San Francisco Giants, and are the third worst team in all of baseball, ahead of San Fran and the Detroit Tigers. What part of this dictates that they’ll even come at all close to the second Wild Card team? Well, they’ve got some exciting young players. Hoskins, for one, not only has the best bat, the best attitude to how to treat the game as he said in late August, “You’re just trying to win a game to start a series.” That’s what players learn from a young age; that the game is not about one good player, it’s about every player playing the best they can to help their team win, something the Phillies will be doing a lot of starting next year. Shortstop J.P. Crawford and catcher Jorge Alfaro have already been in the Majors for the team, Mickey Moniak is the top outfielder in their farm system and Sixto Sanchez is the rising star who will undoubtedly be the spark this dismal Major League pitching staff needs in their ranks. That’s just a few of the young players who, without a doubt, will be the answers to this Philadelphia baseball dilemma. Crawford made exactly zero errors in his time in the Majors. With the strong batting that the Phillies have, they need that type of player in the outfield. Alfaro is the far better batsman; he batted .304 in the Majors, 13 runs batted in, four home runs and 31 hits. A good-hitting catcher always was a rarity in baseball history and Alfaro has proved himself to be that. Moniak is listed as the number one prospect for the Phillies by MLB.com and advanced two Classes in less than half a season. The Phillies are in desperate need of players who can advance, adapt, learn and improve quickly because if they want to be good again, and soon, they want those guys in the Major Leagues. Lastly, the main problem that has helped destroy the standings of Philly is their pitching staff. By the same list of prospects, Sanchez is ranked as the best pitching prospect in their organization. On the same team as Moniak, the Lakewood BlueClaws, Sanchez went 5-3 in 13 starts, had a 2.41 earned run average, gave up only one home run, had an 0.817 walks and hits per innings pitched average and struck out 64 batters. Jesse A. Cook “Philadelphia Phillies Freedom” September 29, 2017
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