Phillies 2019 Sucked.

2019 seems like forever ago – especially in the world of Philadelphia Sports. We kicked off the year with the Nick Foles led Eagles winning a playoff game on the road in “double-doink” fashion only to watch a game-winning drive come to a stall by a dropped pass by Alshon Jeffrey. We saw Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, Mike Scott, and Boban join the Sixers, poised for a championship run. And in baseball – news broke that the Phillies had signed J.T. Realmuto & Bryce Harper.

The buzz around the Phillies was huge. We became World Series contenders with a blink of an eye. “High Hopes” surrounding a core of Harper, Hoskins, Segura, and JT Realmuto had the city hyped about baseball for the first time since the glory days of the World Series caliber teams from ’06-’12. Turns out, we really got ahead of ourselves:

The headlines were insane. The Eagles were switching up their schedule to work around a 2019 Phillies postseason run? Looking back at it now it’s laughable. Not to mention, the Eagles went 1-2 on the road trip (the only team who had 3 away games in a row in the NFL) with embarrassing losses to the Vikings and Cowboys before bouncing back against the Bills.

We started off scorching hot too. 4-0! Wow. The Phillies were back and just broke a 100+ year drought of never starting off 4-0:

An insane note from @EliasSports:

This is the first season the #Phillies have started 4-0 since 1915.

That 103-year streak without going 4-0 is the longest in the history of baseball.
And football.
And basketball.
And hockey.

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) April 3, 2019

Maikel Franco was the best 8-hole hitter in baseball and finally started living up to expectations that we all dreamed of:

Wally Fucking Schang. What a name and what a wild comparison. Things were absolutely scorching with the Phillies.

Bryce Harper even returned to D.C. to chants of “traitor” and absolutely destroyed the Nationals. He was doing and saying all the right things on and off the field. We were fucking cruising. Baseball was back and it came just in time: Up in Toronto – reports came in that a ball bounced off the rim like a million times, Joel Embiid was crying, and the Jimmy Butler led Sixers championship run was over.

From that point on – things started trending downwards, fast. Turns out the Phillies pitching couldn’t hold up. Nola started slow, Jake Arietta was still trash, and the other guys we plugged in couldn’t get it together.

Andrew McCutcheon tore his ACL, Rhys Hoskins disappeared post-All-Star break. Gabe Kapler sent Maikel Franco to the minors in favor of his doofus butt-buddy Sean Rodriguez – who called Phillies fans “entitled” for booing. The Phillies season was over. The hype was gone. And we entered the offseason with some notable changes:

Out the Door:

Gabe Kapler was fired and landed a job in San Francisco.

Cesar Hernandez has gone to Cleveland

Maikel Franco has gone to Kansas City 

Entitled Sean Rodriguez got a Minor League Deal in Miami (lol)

Corey Dickerson (my guy) went to Miami

Bamboo Brad went to St. Louis

Incoming:

Joe Girardi hired as the Phillies new skipper.

SIR Didi Gregorius a Girardi guy and certified Knight – brought in to play shortstop.

Zach Wheeler brought in from The NY Mets as a firm #2 starter in the pitching rotation.

And now we’re here. Baseball is back. Harper 2.0. The new-look Phillies are back. 60 game season. It’s go time. 

Joe Girardi says he will manage differently with just 60 games but he must be careful to not overuse players

“You can’t start running relievers out a number of days in a row just because youre at the last 60 games and it’s not a marathon it’s a sprint”

pic.twitter.com/GNRyHQ4K40

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) June 25, 2020