2015 Season Predictions
If you’ve read this far, it should come as no surprise that I believe the Phillies will be terrible in 2015. If they match their 2014 record with 73 wins, manager Ryne Sandberg might deserve NL Manager of the Year.
The guess here is they won’t—and that says nothing of Sandberg’s abilities to manage a Major League Baseball team. It simply recognizes the lack of talent on this roster. Ben Revere might continue to develop as an All-Star centerfielder (the guess here is that he will) and Domonic Brown may regain his power stroke from 2013 (the guess here is that he will not).
Even if both take place, the Phillies will remain a dumpster fire. An already offensively challenged team lost its best producers a year ago. And the pitching—decent in 2014—is working noticeably from behind.
If the Phillies are wise (and there’s little to suggest there is any wisdom within the current baseball operations department) they will use this season like their brethren in the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers, and play as many young players as possible for as many innings and at-bats as possible.
Two positive things can happen from doing that. Those players can gain valuable experience at the big level, making it easier to evaluate whether they are part of the future solution. And they will likely stink, record-wise, which will set them up for a better 2016 draft slot, which will allow them the opportunity to select a better talent.
That’s what this organization currently needs: a talent infusion. That should be the 2015 Phillies motto: adding talent for the future. Unfortunately there isn’t much evidence to suggest they’ll do that. So in what has become typical Phillies fashion, they’ll find a way to mess this up by winning 73 games again and fall outside of the 2016 No. 1 amateur draft pick.