Philadelphia Phillies
89-67, 2nd NL East, 4 1/2 GB
1972 Outlook: Philadelphia finished just 3 games back in 1971. With a bounceback season from Victor Serna and a consolidation on what he did from Alex Becerra, they looked like they could/should be the favorite for the division title in '72.
1972 In Review: Both Becerra and Serna fell apart but after overcoming a 19-21 start the Philles were in contention throughout the summer. As of September 1 they were a game and a half up in the standings over the Pirates and Cubs; however, the Phillies only finished the year 19-14, which would have been good enough in many circumstances but the Pirates got red hot over the final month. The Phillies were built pretty much entirely on offense; in fact, it was the loss of their #2 starter Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey that left them without a decent #2 guy and left them to only be merely above average instead of great down the stretch.
1973 Outlook: This has been a regular thing for the Phillies as of late, who still have a young core with Tony Shannon and Nate Rowe but it ain't getting younger. It's now or never.
Pitching
Marius Gaddi
RHP No. 32
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-07-28 in Caracas, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PHI MLB 27 5 0 2.30 37 37 17 292.1 233 88 75 67 225
1971 PHI MLB 16 20 0 3.46 40 40 12 298.1 286 125 115 92 233
1972 PHI MLB 11 16 0 3.95 36 36 6 257.1 232 122 113 102 168
Gaddi has been very very hard to figure out. In the two seasons since he tied the modern record with 27 wins, he's gotten progressively worse in terms of ERA. Last year he started the season poorly but the Phils found a bit of stasis with him down the stretch: he went 3-1, 2.81 in August and 1-3 but 3.08 with a shutout in September, during which time he appeared to find at least some of his old stuff (he averaged 6.2 K/9, well above his season average). It's hard to ignore the poor play at the beginning of the year, not to mention the flatness of his fastball.
Gaddi also had only 6 complete games last season as, let's be completely honest, managment stopped believing in his ability to get them late in games. This quick hook did have a good effect, as he only pitched late when he was effective and held opponents to a .253 average from innings 7+ with just 1 HR allowed in 182 at-bats. He's not a guy who will figure out what's wrong himself and so he needs help from his catcher or the manager. The catching situation has surely not helped.
Much as we hate to say it, perhaps it's time to give the 30 year old Gaddi a shot somewhere else.
Richard Starkey
LHP No. 36
LL, 6'2" 180 lbs.
Born 1949-05-29 in Liverpool, ENG
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 KOP R 2 0 0 2.25 2 2 1 16.0 17 5 4 1 15
1970 WAL S A 1 0 0 3.99 1 1 1 9.0 8 4 4 1 5
1970 REA AA 2 1 0 3.27 3 3 2 22.0 20 12 8 17 13
1970 EUG AAA 1 6 0 4.45 8 8 5 62.2 77 36 31 25 35
1971 PHI MLB 19 8 0 3.51 36 36 10 258.1 237 111 101 68 139
1972 PHI MLB 18 9 0 2.91 30 30 11 231.1 200 81 75 72 125
On September 6, Starr left the game at St. Louis in the 6th inning with a twinge in his elbow. Doctors never did figure out exactly what the issue was, beyond the fact that it was inflamed, but he didn't pitch again in 1972. Even with the 6-3 loss, the Phils were 75-56 and tied with the Pirates for the division lead that day; they'd go just 14-11 from that point forward. Philadelphia finished so far back that at this point it's hard to truly blame the injury for losing the pennant: Starkey would have had to pitch lights out in that final month to have kept them in it, and while he was coming off of a 5-0, 1.74 August where he picked up 3 of his 6 shutouts, it's hard to argue that he's the kind of pitcher who can do that.
Starkey's definitely improved upon what he did in his first year in the league: he now has a genuine outpitch - the foshball - that forces as many groundball outs as it does strikeouts, and it forces a decent amount of strikeouts. He's got good control and will keep you in games. On a team like Philadelphia, having a guy you can reliably count on to give up 2 or 3 runs in 7 innings will give you a lot of wins, which Starkey's 37-17 record in the major leagues indicates.
The biggest issue with moving on from Gaddi is that you'd then be asking too much of guys like Starkey or Billy Ording (see him soon!). Ringo is an ideal mid-rotation starter, not an ace.
Tim Natalie
LHP No. 16
LL, 6'6" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-03-20 in Rensselaer, IN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TUC AAA 2 2 0 2.04 5 5 3 44.0 37 14 10 11 27
1970 CHW MLB 2 4 0 5.72 10 6 0 39.1 39 27 25 20 22
1971 EUG AAA 10 10 0 2.85 27 27 15 205.0 177 74 65 84 61
1971 PHI MLB 2 1 0 2.80 5 3 0 25.2 22 10 8 6 11
1972 EUG AAA 2 2 0 1.80 4 4 4 35.0 20 7 7 8 11
1972 PHI MLB 11 10 0 3.68 29 29 6 200.1 198 84 82 57 93
There are two types of people who evaluate Tim Natalie's 1971 season: those who see the ERA and complete games and think "future ace", and those who see the underwater K/BB ratio and think "future cannon fodder". Okay, the third type exists, too: those who don't look at minor league stats because who cares about minor league stats? And finally, the fourth: those who look at the wins and losses and think, ".500 pitcher". The fourth type of... those two types turned out to be the right one. Natalie worked on his timing and without necessarily improving the pitch quality, he struck out enough guys to be effective as a control artist in 1972.
Natalie walks a fine line with that control and he hasn't always had it in the past. When it goes, he's just not a very good pitcher. It's nice that he didn't show a huge propensity for the longball last year - 9 HRs on the year for a 6th best 0.4 HR/9 - but he's a flyball/finesse pitcher and we're a bit pessimistic that that stands going forward.
Natalie was the 17th best prospect in the league coming out of college in 1968, which I'm finding a little hard to believe. The downside of turning ratings off is that I basically can only see velocity, which has actually climbed for him since that point in time, but generally speaking I don't really think of lefty control artists as big-time, top 20 prospects. He seems pretty much ordained, young or no, as a back of the rotation guy.
Billy Ording
RHP No. 38
RR, 6'2" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-10-16 in Huntington Beach, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 EUG AAA 7 2 0 4.61 12 12 3 93.2 105 51 48 34 48
1970 PHI MLB 7 4 0 2.89 19 17 3 118.0 111 46 38 49 89
1971 PHI MLB 10 15 0 4.21 33 33 4 213.1 208 105 100 87 121
1972 PHI MLB 11 6 0 3.72 30 22 3 169.1 166 72 70 63 97
I feel like I've been slamming the Phillies a bit so far and to keep it a buck as the kids say (since this is 1972 I guess they'd say "to be groovy" or something similar) they did finish 8th in the NL In starters' ERA with a 3.63. That's just not that good for a team that won so many games. But credit where credit is due: they found guys who worked out well enough. Case in point: Billy Ording, who rebounded from a rough first full season to give the Phillies a spot in the rotation from where they could win more than they lost.
Ording doesn't have swing-and-miss stuff; it's more drive-the-ball-in-the-dirt stuff. His two best pitches are a circle change and a forkball. The former doesn't smooth out his splits as much as you'd hope - lefties hit .308 against him - but the latter for sure makes people hit a lot of grounders against him. In 1971 60% of his outs in play came via the groundball. Last year it was a more pedestrian 51% but at that, Ording actually led the league in HR rate with 0.2. He needs that to be effective since his control is only average.
The real semi-hidden talent of Ording and the reason why the Phillies continue to use him as a starter in spite of a relative lack of stamina is his hitting. Last year he hit .393 with 4 HRs and
16 RBIs in 61 at-bats and in his major league career he's slashing 298/342/409, good enough numbers that in a more modern era someone might try him as a DH on his non-pitching days. In the NL in 1973, having 9 guys who can hit instead of the normal 8 is a pretty decent advantage.
Wins and losses aside, Ording is a back of the rotation guy, someone you use to attack someone else's bad pitching to get some cheap wins (not that, like, Ording is cheap, I mean "cheap wins" in the sense of a win without a quality start - Ording had 9 games last year where he did not have a QS).
Tom Grohs
LHP No. 33
LL, 6'0" 188 lbs.
Born 1942-09-18 in New York, NY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PHI MLB 9 5 20 2.41 61 0 0 89.1 73 30 24 28 81
1971 PHI MLB 9 7 20 3.54 67 0 0 86.1 84 41 34 25 60
1972 PHI MLB 6 4 20 2.25 55 0 0 80.0 63 22 20 21 63
The loss of the Baseball Hippie, Tom Grohs, in the last month of the season to a torn rotator cuff was the 2nd big blow to the Phillies' pitching staff and might have been bigger than the loss of Starkey - Omar Sanchez (see below) did a good job of filling in but then who filled in for Sanchez? I guess on the flip side of that, losing Starkey meant Philadelphia had to drop Manley Carter (6-5, 4.61) into the rotation and he was not good.
Grohs' carefree attitude - he famously stopped striking guys out so much because, as he told reporters, he thought "the pitchers' mound shouldn't be a dictatorship, man" - had gotten him into hot water in 1971 but to his credit he came back in '72 as strong as he's ever been. The Ks rebounded somewhat and he cut his HRs almost in half compared to 1972 (11 vs 6). Scouts say that he has issues with righties but the stats say otherwise: last year he held them to a .175 BA and it was actually fellow lefties who threw him for a loop with a .308 BA allowed.
Grohs is not expected to be back until April or May and will probably need a rehab stint in the minor leagues after that. Also, the torn rotator cuff is not an injury anyone should take lightly: that's the pitcher-killer. If he comes back at 100% the Phillies have themselves their closer again.
Omar Sanchez
RHP No. 29
LR, 6'5" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-06-10 in Stony Brook, NY
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PHI MLB 7 4 4 4.17 48 0 0 77.2 83 37 36 14 64
1971 PHI MLB 4 1 1 2.70 42 0 0 56.2 46 20 17 10 40
1972 PHI MLB 6 1 6 2.24 54 1 1 76.1 56 20 19 13 51
Sanchez, now 30, has been with the team since 1965 and in fact was the team's closer before Grohs. He was demoted in 1970 because of a bad season and has been a very effective middle man ever since. So when the Phillies asked him to take up his old role again in September, he was up for the task, getting 6 saves in 7 opportunities on the year including 4 down the stretch. The issue wasn't so much with him as it was with the rest of the bullpen crew: Steve Hollopeter (1-4, 4.70), Roger Evans (2-0, 5.83), and Robby Mournier (6-2. 3.38) were all mediocre to downright terrible last year when it counted.
Sanchez throws 2 different kinds of fastballs - a 2-seamer and a cutter - and opposing hitters see nothing but low to mid 90s speed. This is still super-effective for an inning or two at a time, although somehow he got a shutout in his only start of the year, a 6-0 win over the Cardinals on July 1st. That was literally Sanchez's first start of his major league career, encompassing 8 years and 494 appearances; don't expect a permannent move. That said, if things had to clear out, he's got the rubber arm to pull a Mike Marshall for someone.
Sanchez will keep the closer's job at least into the beginning of the year as Tom Grohs continues to recuperate from that rotator cuff injury. He's thrown as many as 82 games and 151.1 innings in the past so he can carry a bullpen if need be.
Vince Bachler
RHP No. 31
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-08-29 in Gill, MA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 TUL AAA 2 0 0 1.60 4 4 0 28.0 13 5 5 9 35
1970 STL MLB 11 12 0 3.38 28 28 3 181.0 180 80 68 82 149
1971 STL MLB 14 15 0 3.43 35 35 7 233.0 218 110 89 102 148
1972 PHI MLB 7 5 0 2.90 17 17 5 127.0 110 44 41 62 100
"The Eligible" Bachler was acquired in a rare challenge trade with the division rival Cardinals for Roger Quintana and... this is why challenge trades are rare. Bachler was, let's be fair to him, having a career year when he left his start against the Padres on July 7th. He was diagnosed with the same shoulder inflammation "injury" that Starkey was - geez, Philadelphia, find a better trainer, at least someone who knows how the arm works - and didn't pitch again. Meanwhile, Quintana's looking like the staff ace in St. Louis.
If fans will allow Bachler to live down the fact that he's not Roger Quintana, he looks like hey'll be a pretty good pitcher in his own right. Before he went down he was well on pace to set a new personal record in strikeouts with a new and improved forkball in his arsenal. He still has issues with his control and that will be something the Phillies will be watching when he works in spring training. If he can put it all together, perhaps this is the man who makes Marius Gaddi expendable.
Infield
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
Lee Citro
C No. 13
RR, 5'10" 197 lbs.
Born 1938-05-26 in Wayland, MA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PHI MLB .224 64 228 29 51 6 3 3 16 20 37 1
1971 PHI MLB .254 49 134 9 34 7 0 0 12 17 25 0
1972 PHI MLB .251 102 327 41 82 14 0 6 47 34 56 0
Citro has always been a guy who, to put it charitably, believes strongly in himself. The Cardinals moved on from him in October of '69, getting back John Stuart in a multi-player trade, in part because of this. Philadelphia figured they could handle him in relatively small doses. However, the sudden inability of Sam Rahn to hit at all (he went 7-70 for the Phillies before they traded him to Montreal) meant that they were essentially forced to use Citro as their full-timer.
Citro blocks the plate decently but his biggest issue is that he's a bit of a loudmouth and prone to getting into as many arguments with pitchers as he is to calming them down. He was roughly league average by OPS+ (99) last year, which is nice for a catcher, but there are grumblings on the staff that he's the primary reason why the staff ERA was so high (personally, we would chalk it up to injuries and a general lack of talent but hey, you do you).
All this being said, it's hard to see how Philadelphia uses anyone other than Citro as their starter in '73 barring a trade. The man they got back for Citro, Roberto Carranco, is backup material (see below) and professional wrestler / heel / 25 year old "prospect" Nikolai Volkoff is a pure defense guy.
Roberto Carranco
C No. 10
SR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-02-07 in Barquisimeto, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MON MLB .233 92 258 23 60 10 0 8 33 15 64 0
1971 MON MLB .202 109 342 25 69 6 1 10 35 25 74 0
1972 MON MLB .260 21 50 9 13 1 1 6 12 5 14 0
1972 PHI MLB .185 34 108 3 20 4 0 2 15 9 27 0
Don't let the fact that Carranco was Montreal's starter from 69-71 fool you: he's got backup catcher skills. Chiefly, he can't hit. He smacked 10 HRs in 1971 and 18 in '69 but but that power comes with a low-.200s average and, in spite of being a catcher, not a great deal of plate discipline. He's quiet on and off the field and works hard; the fact that he doesn't mess with the pitchers he works with has made him a favorite with them, which is nice, but again, these are things you ask from a backup catcher. Frankly, he's only a "defensive" option compared with Rahn and even at that, Rahn is better at blocking pitches in the dirt.
Carranco seems pretty well in place as a backup. Anything more than that is a reach.
Josh Coffey
1B No. 14
RR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1943-06-20 in Ontario, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PHI MLB .311 157 639 81 199 40 4 15 83 47 67 0
1971 PHI MLB .302 156 632 85 191 26 0 18 76 59 67 1
1972 PHI MLB .261 154 610 63 159 22 1 14 79 59 57 0
As of June 27, Coffey was hitting .304 and seemed like a dark horse to win a batting title in this offense-deprived season. Then he went into a real tailspin of his own, hitting .204 in July .259 in August, and then .222 in September to his average all the way down to .253 on the morning of the 29th. At that point the Phillies were pretty much out of it: the fact that he went 11-25 over the final 6 games of the season is interesting but doesn't make up for that.
Coffey isn't your standard 25+ HR type first baseman and really needs to hit around .300 to be considered All-Star caliber the way he was in 1971. He's really slow and one downside of that in conjunction with his penchant for putting the ball in play is that he tends to hit into a lot of double plays. Last year he "led" all of baseball with 29 of them (St. Louis' Rafael Disla was 2nd with 25) and he's hit into as many as 31 in the past (1970). He's not a very rangey first baseman, although he works with what he can. He's one of the captains of this team, which made his 2nd half slump all the more painful.
Coffey gets at least another year, probably a couple more, to prove that he can be that .300 guy again. Relative to the league, what he did is still somewhere around what, .280ish levels? Come to think of it, maybe this doesn't even count as an "off" year, all told.
Nate Rowe
2B/3B/LF No. 24
RR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1945-03-20 in Cape Coral, FL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 EUG AAA .360 128 467 91 168 33 2 16 80 66 55 3
1970 PHI MLB .238 20 63 5 15 3 0 0 3 10 11 0
1971 PHI MLB .337 80 276 39 93 13 3 11 54 20 35 1
1972 PHI MLB .254 150 595 63 151 17 3 16 70 56 103 0
Row, a utility guy his first year+ in the league, found a regular home at second base last year in the second half when the long-time incumbent Victor Serna (.189, 4, 18 and not listed here because he was released) just plain stopped hitting (the team sent him to AAA where he hit .142(!)). Rowe didn't hit .337 the way he had in '71 but in retrospect that seemed like a thing that wasn't going to happen anyway given his strikeouts. Even with them, though, he's a guy who'll hit for a good average, have some power, if not Victor Serna levels of power, and not kill you defensively.
Going into the season the Phillies considered themselves to have had one of the best situations at 2nd in the game. I'd say they bailed on Serna too early but as noted, he was just plain godawful; I'm reminded of Glenn Davis with the Orioles the one year in the early 90s. Now they're back to having, if not an ideal guy for 2nd, a solid guy who's just now entering his prime.
Francisco Carrasco
2B No. 6
RR, 5'9" 171 lbs.
Born 1945-02-09 in Chillum, MD
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PHI MLB .261 50 69 16 18 6 1 5 17 16 20 0
1971 PHI MLB .305 45 59 15 18 5 1 1 6 11 18 0
1972 PHI MLB .214 92 215 25 46 9 2 7 21 29 58 2
Before handing the keys to the keystone (HA I KILL ME) to Rowe the Phillies kicked the tired on Serna's long-time caddy at second base in Francisco Carrasco. He looked an awful lot like a replacement level player. He walks a decent amount but man, those strikeouts. If you're going to strike out at a league-leading rate, you've got to have plus-plus power and that's just not Carranco's game. He also doesn't have a huge amount of utility to back up anywhere other than second: he's got an OK enough arm to train 3rd but lacks any kind of the range to play short except in small spurts.
The scouts like him more than I like his role on this team so maybe Philly can find a taker...
Matt Highfield
3B/LF No. 15
RR, 6'0" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-03-22 in Chicago Heights, IL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SPA A .329 115 423 64 139 20 2 10 75 46 22 8
1970 REA AA .171 21 82 8 14 2 1 1 8 4 7 0
1971 REA AA .313 128 485 60 152 29 3 5 50 57 27 2
1971 EUG AAA .182 3 11 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
1972 EUG AAA .221 58 131 10 29 3 0 1 12 13 9 0
1972 PHI MLB .303 78 274 33 83 15 4 1 28 20 26 0
Highfield took over in the 2nd half for Roberto Becerra, who also played his way off the team with a sub-.200 average; the Phillies both took longer to bail on him and had a shorter leash going into the year because of Becerra's previous issues with errors. Highfield is also a guy who might have issues with his hands in the future, although of course nobody committed errors in 1972. He's otherwise a complete opposite to Becerra as a hitter: no power (although he's shown some ability to hit for it in the minors), a high average built off of strong wrists, and an expert at getting the ball into play. He hit .303 with the big league club last year which is about where he'll need to hit to remain a contributor.
If Highfield can't handle 3rd he has the tools to be a very good corner outfielder; his arm translates extremely well. That would put an even bigger burden on his bat though.
Cris Ramos
PH/3B No. 18
LR, 5'12" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-01-21 in Atemajac, MEX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 KC MLB .250 39 60 5 15 7 0 0 8 2 8 0
1971 EUG AAA .211 18 57 5 12 1 0 2 8 4 4 0
1971 PHI MLB .262 49 130 19 34 7 0 6 20 9 15 0
1972 EUG AAA .295 20 44 7 13 2 0 2 8 6 3 0
1972 PHI MLB .226 68 106 12 24 6 0 2 17 12 10 0
Ramos, a long-time Mexican League veteran, was Alex Becerra's caddy in 1971 and filled the same role for Matt Highfield last year when he was not serving as the team's primary pinch-hitter. His major league hitting record is spotty at best - a .249 career average, maybe 10 HR power if you total up all the years - but it's better than most pitchers vs right-handed pitching so there is that role available for a vet such as him. Just, you know, don't expect him to start or anything.
Tony Shannon
SS No. 1
RR, 6'1" 204 lbs.
Born 1945-07-06 in Waseca, MN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 PHI MLB .285 126 477 68 136 28 8 8 57 84 85 16
1971 PHI MLB .330 150 575 100 190 30 4 14 76 92 79 39
1972 PHI MLB .281 122 469 68 132 19 4 12 43 83 66 26
People who complain that Tony Shannon didn't contend for a batting title the way he did in 1971 are missing the point: he is a superstar who can do most anything with the bat: hit for average, for decent power - okay, maybe he won't lead the league in HRs but the mid-teens in HRs is great for a shortstop - get on base, and generate runs with his feet. Even with the 49 point drop in BA, Shannon finished 3rd in the NL in OBP (.391) thanks to being 4th in walks, and also finished in the top 10 in steals (4th), intentional walks (8, 6th), batting average (6th - yeah, not a great year for hitting), and, for you NERDS out there, OPS (807 - 8th).
The biggest knock on Shannon, who came up with in the Cubs' system along with Jeremy Taylor, is that he doesn't have a great arm for a shortstop. It does seem likely that he'll have to move to 2nd in a few years. He's not the complete disaster that Taylor was last year at the position though and if you can get this kind of all-around production out of your 6, you live with the D.
Shannon's position through 1973 is solidified by the fact that they don't really have anyone on the farm ready to move up. Cecil Womack had a September cup of coffee but looks to be no better than Shannon in the field and significantly worse as a hitter, and there's another as-yet-unnamed guy in the minors who's got a better glove but hit .215 in AAA after earning a promotion from AA Reading. Also, Jose Singleton tried his hand at short and hit .165 for Philly in 31 games and 79 at-bats. And he's not any better than Shannon afield.
Outfield
Alberto Juantorena
LF No. 23
LL, 6'4" 197 lbs.
Born 1950-11-19 in Santiago de Cuba, CUB
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 FL A .309 68 269 40 83 12 5 1 38 19 12 7
1970 WH AA .266 70 282 36 75 10 2 10 41 18 7 2
1971 ASH AA .260 43 169 15 44 5 1 5 22 14 12 0
1971 TUC AAA .277 93 350 54 97 23 4 5 47 39 30 6
1972 EUG AAA .264 93 292 37 77 9 1 12 42 39 30 27
1972 PHI MLB .330 67 276 54 91 12 3 21 55 25 23 21
Juantorena, who defected from Cuba in 1967 at the age of 16, has for whatever reason bounced around the minor leagues a bit but the inability of the Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox to see what this kid was capable of allowed Philadelphia to swoop in and acquire him for minor league C Zack Delisle, a trade that will be looked upon as one of the worst trades in history. Juantorena had an absolute beast of a half-season, the kind that gets you ROY awards and, wyen you're still only 21 years of age, puts you on the short list of future superstars. He actually finished 6th in the league in steals in spite of playing only 67 games and just missed the top 10 in HRs as well.
There's just no way Juantorena can hit like that next year... or can he? He's got top of the line speed; the only thing keeping him from hitting leadoff is all of that power. WHich, he's got a ton of power too: 33 HRs and 97 RBIs combined last season. And if you're expecting to find an Achilles heel on defense, the answer is no to that. Juantorena doesn't have training in right and lacks the natural sense of where balls go to be a great centerfielder, but he'll be more than good enough in left. About the only thing he doens't do well is sacrifice, and frankly, if you're using Alberto Juantorena to bunt you should be committed to the loony bin.
Juantorena will be in the middle of the Phillies' order for the next decade. If you told me he was still playing in the 90s I would not be surprised.
Bryant Tarala
CF No. 41
LR, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1942-01-12 in Torrance, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BAL MLB .218 106 376 71 82 12 3 15 31 86 101 26
1971 PHI MLB .224 123 446 81 100 13 4 17 58 87 96 24
1972 PHI MLB .233 101 326 46 76 17 3 14 37 54 73 11
If you're a lifetime .223 hitter you've got to be PRETTY good at something to make it to 7 All-Star Games. Tarala's skill is defense. A lot of second-half injuries plus the presence of Norm Hodge in the AL kept him from winning more than 2 Gold Gloves (both of the ones he got came from '69 on, when I stepped in and started awarding the GG to the top 3 outfielders) but he's as good a centerfielder as anyone in the National League and that's saying something. Last year left-handed pitchers at Tarala alive, holding him to 10 hits in 80 at-bats; his future might be in a platoon role, although even at that, you can probably live with poor production in exchange for all of those hits converted into outs.
The real issue that keeps Tarala from playing more is that he plays too hard for his own good and gets hurt in the field, like, a lot. He badly sprained his ankle going after a fly ball last year and missed all of August and most of September, leaving the team to start Brandon Anderson in his place (more on him soon). The Phillies, surely, would love him to play every day, but how do you chase the grit out of a guy like Tarala? Answer: you don't.
John Belushi
RF No. 4
LL, 5'6" 208 lbs.
Born 1949-09-04 in Chicago, IL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SPA A .271 88 295 61 80 16 7 7 46 61 49 22
1971 SPA A .265 23 83 15 22 2 4 3 12 15 22 2
1971 REA AA .316 81 307 52 97 15 1 7 38 39 43 8
1971 PHI MLB .333 21 66 16 22 4 3 2 5 7 9 0
1972 PHI MLB .263 122 414 63 109 19 10 15 58 54 78 9
Belushi doesn't make a lot of friends with his off-field antics. It turns out, food fights are a lot less fun in real life than they look in the movies. We hope this won't overshadow Belushi as a player; he's a guy who at 23 is a little good at everything rather than being great at any one thing. He hit for a good average last year because of his speed - his portly body belies a great deal of agility - even though the K's were a bit high. If he improves on those he could be a .300 man. He finished 3rd in the NL in triples in spite of only becoming a full-time starter in late July.
Belushi's speed is maybe not good enough to consistently steal 20+ a la his tour in A-ball Spartanburg in 1970, but he does have double-digit steal speed in him. He's a good if not great corner outfielder and could even theoretically lay down a mean bunt if you wanted him to; more common, he was known to lay one down in the minors when the infield was napping.
Brandon Anderson
OF No. 2
RR, 6'1" 198 lbs.
Born 1948-07-31 in Norton Shores, MI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SPA A .373 26 102 17 38 7 2 3 19 11 12 12
1970 REA AA .236 50 195 26 46 5 2 2 18 24 24 12
1971 EUG AAA .344 43 160 27 55 11 4 2 21 22 18 8
1971 PHI MLB .274 112 368 52 101 19 4 8 46 57 71 10
1972 PHI MLB .243 96 276 37 67 6 5 9 35 47 37 11
Anderson's looking like he's going to be a victim of too many outfielders in 1973. His role looks to be the right-handed half of the platoon with Tarala. The 11th overall pick in the 1970 draft surely wants more than this but to his credit he's saved his angry spells for the batrack after a bad strikeout (which, thankfully, there are not too many of). Anderson had a lot of problems hitting righties last year - .204, although with a .333 OBP - and he'll do well to not get typecast as a guy who can't hit northpaws.
He'd be fine as a CF but is not close to having the awesome abilities that Tarala does (or, so far, his proclivities to get hurt). He doesn't always get the best jump off the ball in center - perhaps he's still learning the position a little bit - but he makes up for it with really solid speed. A guy who walks as much as Anderson does and has his speed could conceivably finish in the top 10 in steals if he gets the at-bats.
The Phillies would love, love, love to get this man those at-bats. Where on Earth does he get them?
Bobby Corley
OF/1B No. 22
RR, 6'0" 195 lbs.
Born 1943-03-21 in Bay St. Louis, MS
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 EUG AAA .283 53 166 34 47 6 2 7 30 22 25 6
1970 PHI MLB .263 36 114 12 30 4 2 7 14 8 25 0
1971 PHI MLB .167 12 24 4 4 2 0 0 1 3 10 0
1972 PHI MLB .237 74 211 32 50 8 2 10 23 29 43 0
IF Anderson doesn't have a spot on this team, what does that say about Bobby Corley? Somehow Corley set career highs in games and at-bats in the major leagues. His best month was July when he managed to start 19 games and hit .250 (15-60) with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs. He's a mistake hitter; try to send a slow fastball over the plate against Corley at your own risk. He's never played more in large part becuase he has no range in spite of decent natural speed.
Corley could be a pinch-hitter next year; otherwise, any time he gets will be because someone - probably two people - got hurt.