Philadelphia Phillies 2021 Review
Photo Credit: Overtime Heroics
Why the Philadelphia Phillies 2021 season was a failure.
So, the Phillies postseason hopes died last night with a 5-3 loss. The Phillies were ultimately swept by the Braves (who have won the division 4 years in a row) eliminating them from the NL East division crown. While there are many people that we can blame for the failures of the 2021 Phillies, I am going to give you some opinions, on who failed the Phillies and their fan base this season.
Photo Credit: The Balls Outta Here
Joe Girardi, while yes, it is easy to place the blame on Joe for failures of the 2020 & 2021 season he deserves some of the blame for this. Let’s talk about his lineups and how he handled the pitching staff this year. His lineups he put together were awful (as one of my co-hosts Danny Hart noted the other night, is Joe’s web browser stuck on 2019?).
Between Odubel moving up and down between the 1 spot & the 8-spot made zero sense, a guy with .300 OBP should not be batting leadoff, Odubel is an ideal 8 batter and that’s where he should play next season for another team. Cutch why did he not platoon with Cutch? Cutch BA was 100 points higher vs Left-handed pitching and struggled mightily this season against righties.
Photo Credit: NJ.com
Didi… Didi Gregorius shouldn’t have been in the lineup at all in my opinion, his defense was a liability and batting were a liability and it costs them too many games this past season. While everyone was excited about the Didi signing this past offseason, we have a guy in the minors (Stott) who should be MLB ready by June 2022. Didi will have to be relegated to a bench role.
Now onto Girardi, while I questioned his lineup every single day this season, I don’t blame him for who he put out there at times. He was given little to work with, while the Braves were trading career minor league catchers for Duvall, the Phillies traded for Freddy Galvis.
My concerns were the pitching staff, every single night he looked confused from letting Alvarado pitch 2 innings, to letting Nola go 7 innings even after giving up 5 runs but pulling Wheeler after 6 innings and giving up 2 runs, it was frustrating. A former MLB catcher should know how to handle a pithing staff and Joe looked lost at times during the 2021 season. But with that, 142 days until pitchers and catchers report (Thanks Bill D for the countdown).
Written By: Chris Lahiff
Courtesy of: CEVsports.com
Read more Eagles content at CEV Sports
Make sure to check out The Diamond Club Podcast where we discuss Phillies baseball on The Philly Sports Alliance Facebook page, The Painted Lines on YouTube &on twitter @TheDiamondClub8
