Sometimes, when I pose these questions to you, I can more or less figure out what the results will be before I even publish it. This one was no exception.
The plan that the team has in place in order to shoehorn Luis Arraez into the lineup is fine except there has to be some sort of defensive alignment that goes with it. The path that they have chosen isn’t the prettiest one defensively, but it may not be as bad as we think. We’ll need time to assess what it actually will do as defensive stats take
time to stabilize, but to the eyes, this isn’t the best of choices. Bryce Harper looks like he hasn’t played right field in years while the awkwardness of Bryson Stott at third and Alec Bohm at first still is in its nascent stages.
Offensively, the extent of what they are choosing to do was shown already. Getting back into the game on Friday night, the Phillies had an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, yet it was Alec Bohm’s turn to do something and he did what it feels like he always does and grounded into a force out on the first pitch he saw.
I can understand the back bending the team would do defensively if it meant keeping a more capable bat in the lineup. Yet this team’s continued defense of Bohm and whatever offensive capability he has is baffling. He has been a disappointment five of the six years he has been here and most people are counting down the days he has left in the organization, yet the team is still trying to figure out ways to keep him here? Watching Dave Dombrowski use RBI as a reason they still see something was a painful look, yet here we are.
It’s not the best.
