Our Philadelphia Phillies hit the halfway point today in what has been an emotionally up-and-down season so far.
Some things have good well. Plenty has gone wrong, mostly of late. Manager Gabe Kapler used a lot of players and the squad provided plenty of highlights, starting with Andrew McCutchen smacking a home run on the season's second pitch.
This could be a 20,000-word piece getting into all of that. Instead, I want to focus on one good thing and one bad.
I'm a positive guy and I'm starting with Scottie Kingery.
The Good Thing
I was watching a game earlier this year and Kingery struck out on two breaking balls in the dirt off the outside corner. The slider away has ruined many a hitter and it looked like Scottie was troubled by the pitch.
Fast forward to the fifth inning Monday and Kingery down 0-2 to Mets P Brooks Pounders. The big righty threw the down and away breaking pitch. Scottie never flinched. He threw it again and again Kingery took it.
The 2-2 fastball caught too much of the plate and Scottie laced it into left field. The at-bat continued the ongoing success Kingery has enjoyed since that earlier game. He's rapidly recognizing how pitchers are attacking him and using his quick bat to maintain the advantage.
Pitchers threw 665 pitches to Kingery as of Tuesday and 177 of them were off the plate outside and low. That will change and pitchers will start pounding him inside eventually.
Kingery won't hit .330 for much longer, but I do expect him to remain an offensive force. I haven't compiled a great track record of predictions here, but I always like Scottie. Here is my season-ending assessment last September:
Scott Kingery, IF -- I remain a huge believer in Scott Kingery. Yes, the stats will show a very poor season, but that is hardly unusual for rookies. On defense, the Phils believe in his ability to play SS. It is a tremendous accomplishment to become proficient while converting to such a crucial position at the ML level.
On offense, Scottie is hitting .307 ahead in the count, with an .930 OPS. However, while his teammates are roughly equal parts hitting ahead and behind in the count, Kingery's at-bats are ending with the pitcher ahead three times as often.
That will change, or it should change, as Scott learns the pitchers and gets more experience. He has a great, team-friendly contract and an impressive power-speed combo that is going to play well for many years to come.
The Bad Thing
I'm going off the field for this one and into the draft room. This Phillies rebuild is not going much further without some stud pitching. We're now years into the Nick Pivetta-Vince Velasquez-Zach Eflin tryout and nobody is comparing them to Koufax, Drysdale, or even Osteen.
The Phillies need better and more reliable starting pitching. Somebody like the Dodgers' Walker Buehler or the Braves' Mike Soroka.
In fact, the organization could have drafted either Buehler or Soroka in that 2015 draft. Instead, the Phillies selected OF Cornelius Randolph. He is not in the major leagues, nor is he expected to be anytime soon.
Under Andy MacPhail, joined by GM Matt Klentak for the 2016 draft, the Phillies drafted in the top 10 four years on a row: Randolph (10th), OF Mickey Moniak (1st), OF Adam Haseley (8th) and 3B Alec Bohm (3rd).
MacPhail has said that he favors drafting position players with premium picks because they offer more certainty in projection. In other words, they are safer.
So far, that hasn't been the case with the above players. Meanwhile, several young pitchers the Phillies bypassed are thriving. Names like Matt Manning (Tigers), Braxton Garrett (Marlins) and Cal Quantril (Padres).
But the real heartburn for me is looking up at the Braves' superteam and seeing not only Soroka, but Kolby Allard (14th, 2015), Ian Anderson (3rd, 2016), Joey Wentz (40th, 2016), and Kyle Wright (5th, 2017).
The Braves have literally taken the opposite approach of the Phillies, and are staring at a staff of future top of the rotation starters.
That's tough to take, especially when several of those pitchers were taken just a couple spots after the Phillies' picks.
