This Just CONFIRMED Exactly What We All Feared...

This just confirmed exactly what we all feared. The Philadelphia Phillies who just a couple weeks ago held the best record in all of baseball are shaping up into a team that just does not look serious. They have now dropped 9 to the last 10 after being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates and the holes within this Phillies team continue to reveal themselves. It does feel like it is time to fully hover over the panic button on this season as there need to be some real changes for this team to get back on track. I think everyone within this entire organization should be looking themselves in the mirror right now with the most prominent focus being on the offensive production. I want to discuss exactly what went wrong, what needs to be fixed, and how we got to this stage seemingly this quickly. We're going to dive into everything here, but before I do, I do want to remind you guys as always to make sure you are hitting that subscribe button. At this point in time, 72% of you guys watching these videos have not subscribed to us here at Phillies Digest just yet. The times have gotten tough in the Phillies world, but we keep powering on here on Phillies Digest and want as many of you along for the ride as possible. So, I appreciate each of you guys watching and let's get right into things. So to start with here, I do want to lead with obviously the Pittsburgh Pirates sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies. A sentence that should straight up never come out of my mouth and I think what is concerning to me in this is sort of the rep and the critique of this Phillies team over these past couple years is that they beat up on bad teams, but can't beat the great ones. Well, they can't even do that as they obviously have lost some pretty frustrating series to inferior opponents with it being put on full display against the Pirates in this weekend's game. Now, I understand the Pirates. You can make a case they're moving in the right direction, a game like today where Paul Skeens is on the mound and absolutely dealt, but the reality is if you're the Philadelphia Phillies, if you're a team that views themselves or is supposed to be viewing themselves as legitimate World Series contenders, that straight up cannot happen and to dive into some recent trends for how dark things have been in the Phillies world, shout out to John Clark from The Phillies have lost 9 of 10. They have scored just 8 runs during their 5-game losing streak. The Phillies had just one run again today. They've had just one run in 4 of the last 5 games and that is straight up unacceptable here. I understand that we've seen a little bit of a shift in identity from this Phillies team, that they have leaned more on the pitching staff in particular this year, but you simply have to produce more than that. For bats, for a lineup with bats like Kyle Schwarber and obviously Bryce Harper on the sideline currently, but you still have Trey Turner, Alec Boehm, Nick Castellanos. Where are you guys? Because it needs to wake up here and to dive into this overall conversation, I do want to pull up a couple of other stats here. For starters, we're looking at the season as a whole. The Phillies have played 65 games to this point. They have scored 2 or less runs in 20 of those games, which is 30.8%. They've scored 1 or less runs in 12 games, which is 18.5%. And then, shout out to Aaron Groogan for tweeting this out, follows it up by saying the Phillies have scored 3 or less runs in 27 games, 41.5% of the season, accounting for 18 of their 28 losses. Yeah, when you don't put runs on the board, it is tough to win baseball games and that is exactly what we're seeing with this team. Now, my honest takeaway here, how I'm feeling, is you're not going to be capable of rebuilding this team fully at the deadline. There is no amount of trades that you can swing to kind of catapult this team, give them a spark. It has to happen internally. We know that there are baseball players on this team that are better than how they are performing. We've seen this team perform at significantly higher heights than is currently the case, but my sense on the entire situation, a lot of guys have gotten comfortable. And for Rob Thompson specifically, this now falls under your responsibility to light a fire under this team. Make some changes. Put some pressure on this roster to make sure that this is not acceptable. This cannot be business as usual because it has to be better based on the amount of money committed, the quality of talent on the team, and the expectations that they all welcomed heading into this season. Now, a couple thoughts on that overall as well, that Rob Thompson, probably the most deflated that I've seen him this season when watching the post-game interview back. And the interesting tell that he did say is, and this not just being a picture from the pre-game interview, but sort of the message coming from the post-game. Shout out to John Clark on it once again. And he tweets out, Philly's manager Rob Thompson says he's looking into the possibility of changing some things up in the lineup. Bryson Stott, who had been leading off, is down to 238, or 239. Max Kepler is batting 208 and Brandon Marsh is batting just 216. Catcher Raphael Marchand is under 200. Now while I agree with the message that it is time to mix things up, that is a necessity moving forward to at least give a little bit of a spark to this team, my other kind of pushback or defense of Rob Thompson is none of these numbers are acceptable. That all of these guys having struggles is why it is such an issue. He's shifting things around, trying to cover holes here, only to expose them over there, and vice versa here. Bryson Stott, a guy who we've all liked quite a bit in Philadelphia, that I think everyone was ready to crown him the next Chase Utley, the second baseman of the future, well, it has not been quite as promising this year. And to dive into his production overall, that so far this season, the 27-year-old with four home runs, 26 RBIs, a 308 on-base percentage, which is not great there. Across his 218 at-bats, he has just 53 hits on the season, struck out 43 times as well. A slugging percentage of 344. That is tough stuff from Bryson Stott, and this isn't a just Bryson Stott issue. This is down the road, so you can go name by name. A guy like Alec Bohm, who you can even make the case has been one of the better performers of late at his season-long stats, a 312 on-base percentage. He's got five home runs, 22 RBIs, in his 237 at-bats, he's had 65 hits, struck out 40 times, a 384 slugging percentage. It still continues to blow my mind for a guy that is 6'5", and physically big and strong there, has so little power in his bat there. The selling point for Alec Bohm at this point is basically, he will get you a single or a double every other game. That's sort of the peak of him, that we're not untapping more power. We know who he is from a bat perspective, and to his credit, he has helped out shifting over to first base amid this Bryce Harper injury here. We've seen that pave the way for Otto Kemp, who is still yet to register a major league hit in two games at the level at this point. This isn't going to come down on Otto Kemp, I'm not going to let him be kind of the, you know, getting the fallout of some of this rage as he is far from the problem here. But the point still stands here, that from a bat perspective, that's where all this conversation needs to go. To take a look at some of these, run support over the past few weeks. One run, one run, four run, one run, one run, eight run, and two runs. I like the eight run output, but that's it there. They're getting good pitching here. Jesus Lozardo, his last two starts really the outlier, but we're seeing what we're getting. Christopher Sanchez on the mound, going toe to toe with Paul Skeens today. Sanchez was awesome for this Phillies team. That was all you can ask for for a starter, and what does he have to show for it? Really not much there. It is a loss in the win-loss column, and this team having to pick themselves right back up here. Everything should be on the table from a change perspective. Trey Turner, put him back at the leadoff spot. Get him to the plate as often as possible because he is one of the guys that is still hitting the ball well. Kyle Schwaber, it has not been the June Schwaber that we've kind of been accustomed to seeing here, and I give him a little bit of a pass as he's been electric for most of the season. The home run number is off the charts, and Harper is obviously such a tone setter and such an important part to this overall team that you do got to roll with the punches with him out here. But I also have to feel with the Bryce Harper conversation that this wrist injury is a bigger deal than they are letting on. The fact that this is not a specific injury. This is not he got hit on the wrist or he has a sprained wrist and just needs a couple days to heal. This has been something that's been bothersome to him for really the better part of two years. But he mentioned that this has been hurting him all season when he swings a baseball bat. That's a problem for Bryce Harper, and we know this is a guy who's played the return UCL in his elbow there, has had some of his best performances at the plate as he's playing through injury and a guy who's not going to roll over or quit by any means. But if he's not at his physical peak, I struggle to find the pathway to getting there, and it only becomes harder and harder to recover as he gets older and older and up there and up there in age. And that's sort of my fear with Bryce. Now we're not there yet. He's on the 10-day IL and hopefully he bounces back and nothing is lingering with those effects there. But the fact that there is not like a specific injury that he's healing from, it's just this wrist injury, is a problem to me. That is a concern to me. We've seen these mystery injuries pop up in the Sixers world constantly and across sports here. The fact that it isn't like out on the table or up front in what exactly he's dealing with just does have my eyebrows raised here. Now for this Phillies team specifically, this has been a roster that the organization has been incredibly patient with. Sometimes patience is rewarded and sport as a team see it through, but my concern and feeling here, if we are going to look back and honestly feel like the best chance to win the World Series was missed. Regardless of how we want to phrase it, this team is going to look different next year. Now the guys on this team that seemingly love to be a part of this Corps, that have been impactful and have brought us some really good moments from a Phillies franchise perspective here, you got to pick up your pride a little bit and show why you belong. Show why you can still be that team because they are capable of it. They absolutely are a better baseball team than they've shown in recent weeks, but the production speaks for itself and they play the games on the field for a reason here. It's tough times in the Phillies world. They have to change. There has to be, whether it is a locker room meeting, a team meeting, whether it is changing up the lineup completely, bringing more young blood, throwing them in the mix, giving Justin Crawford a chance. What does Andrew Painter bring to this Phillies team? Is it time to give Aiden Miller an opportunity to see what he can do? These are all legitimate questions that need to be asked within the walls of those locker rooms and within the walls of this front office. I also cannot fully excuse guys like Dave Dombrowski, who it's maddening to me from the stands of. He has every asset in the world. He has a deep pockets owner who cares about sports, who wants to win a World Series, who gives you the leash to go out and make whatever moves that you see fit. Well, he has not done a good enough job with that. A guy like Max Kepler, very clear at this point that he is not capable of being the difference making everyday left fielder in the way that it sort of was projected could be the case there. The center field situation, we still know the deal with Brandon Marsh, with Johan Rojas. We are circling through all these options with none of them being good enough, and that is an organizational failure for not putting better cards for Rob Thompson to play. So everything that seemingly could go wrong has gone wrong in recent weeks for this Phillies team, and the turnaround does need to start now. They play the Cubs next, who have been playing some great baseball, and that's going to be another rude awakening. We just saw this team get swept by the Pirates here. I don't know who needs to say the message. I don't know what the shakeup needs to be, but there better be a little bit more life in this Phillies team, or it's going to get pretty ugly pretty fast here in Philadelphia. I do want to hear from you guys in the comments, as always, what is your biggest takeaway or biggest concern right now? Is it the bats as a whole? Is there one particular player that you think changing things up could shake it up? I do want to hear from you if anything, because it does feel to me like from top to bottom, we can go down and divvy out blame to so many members of this team. Let me know what you guys think below, and as always, I appreciate you guys for tuning in. Make sure you are hitting that subscribe button if you have not just yet. Only 28% of you guys watching these videos have subscribed to the channel. Hopefully, we'll be right back with some joyous occasions in Philadelphia, and there is this playoff baseball to look forward to. I do think that they'll get back on track to an extent, but they cannot allow this hole to get deeper. They cannot allow their outlook to get more difficult here. They had a good start to the season. They took care of business early on, and had that path paved. Well, that path is now looking a little more bumpy for this Philly team. Let me know what you guys think below. Make sure you're hitting that subscribe button, dropping a like, and I'll be back to talk with you next time.