The Philadelphia Phillies in The Show 15- Is a rebuild really the only option?

[geisterhome]

I know a lot of you like taking over one of the bad teams in the league and try to build it into a contender. This year often the Phillies come to mind when looking for a team that could need a complete rebuild (another canidate might be the Brewers).

I rarely invest a lot of time into rebuilding teams in videogames cos it takes a lot of time and I'm not a big fan of simming games either. Anyways I took a look at the Phillies and wanted to explore the options they have in The Show's franchise mode.

Of course a total rebuild including shipping all their last assets like Cole Hamels and giving up on year one seems like the most logic way of approach here. BUT taking a closer look at how their (injury free!) roster shapes up to my surprise I figured that the Phillies could in my opinion even still be a contender this year.

Pitching
The Phillies have an ace in Cole Hamels and a very good number 2 starter with Cliff Lee. Then there are a bunch of guys who could make a solid number 5 or depth starter on a contender. So what we need would be 2 middle of the rotation pitchers. Looking at the free agent pool (I'm using osfm v1 rosters) I found Jhoulys Chacin, signed him to be my number 4 starter. 1 more pitcher was needed to make a very good rotation out of an imo already above average one- I found Josh Collmenter to be a very good option for that porpose, so I traded Aron Harrang plus 2 Porspects (T. Windle -B 63 and M. Imhof- C 60) to the Diamonbacks.

Now there was the Bullpen: Pappelbon still is a legit Closer, some decent MR were also there, all I needed to add was actually some depth, that Ifeel I overachieved with signing Rafeal Soriano and aquiring David Hernandez in the Collmenter trade.

At catcher the Phillies have veteran Carlos Ruiz who is still one of the best Catchers in the game but no decent backup for him. Again and not I looked at the free agent pool and found J.P. Arencibia.

The infield looked ok to me, both on defense and offense, no need to change much there.

The outfield was another story, I signed FA Dayan Viciedo as RF and moved Revere to CF. Domonic Brown to LF. Grady Sizemore an alright 4th OF. For sure not the best OF defensively but Citizens Bank Park doesn't have the largest dimensions so it could work.

After that transformation I'd say the Phillies have one of the better Pitching rotations and BP, are mediocre on defense overall, have a lot of power (playing in a HR friendly Ballpark) and slightly below average speed and contact hitting.

Sure they still aren't the best team in baseball by any means but if things go right and barring any major injuries to their key players they could make a run for a wildcard spot. And with some big contracts to veteran players coming of the books some nice additions could be made during the next FA period.

What do you guys think about my changes and how would you approach it?

[PhilliesFan13]

I like it . I am currently 6-3 to start my Phillies franchise. I also signed Dayan Viciedo the other day and put him in Triple-A to get some reps. Will check his progress and call him up if need be. Definitely interested to see how your season goes.

[geisterhome]

Quote: Originally Posted by PhilliesFan13

I like it . I am currently 6-3 to start my Phillies franchise. I also signed Dayan Viciedo the other day and put him in Triple-A to get some reps. Will check his progress and call him up if need be. Definitely interested to see how your season goes.

Thanks. Viciedo (as well as Chacin) usually develope into pretty good players as they are young and have good potential, know it from sims that have done in the past. Didn't get far yet but I'll keep you updated.

[Fuos1988]

Because of their age at some point a rebuild will be necessary. You can try to make the playoffs in 2015 without a major overhaul then see what you can get for tradevalue in 2016 but I would recommend an immediate rebuild. Hamels, Howard, Utley Ruiz an Papelbons value will only decrease the longer you wait. Still I commend you if you decide to stay your hand and wait

[geisterhome]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fuos1988

Because of their age at some point a rebuild will be necessary. You can try to make the playoffs in 2015 without a major overhaul then see what you can get for tradevalue in 2016 but I would recommend an immediate rebuild. Hamels, Howard, Utley Ruiz an Papelbons value will only decrease the longer you wait. Still I commend you if you decide to stay your hand and wait

The good thing is that the Phillies actually don't many, if any, Players on bad long term contracts.
Those are their older key players, making big money, that are in for a regression rather soon and later:
Chase Utley- final year
Cliff Lee- final year
Jonathan Papelbon- final year
Ryan Howard & Carlos Ruiz - both 2 years left

Cole Hamels -I'm not sure if he belongs here, as he (at least in The Show) has 3 to 4 more good years left

At the same time they'll have a lot of money to spend in free agency so Utley, Lee, Papelbon and a year later Howards and Ruiz can most probably be replaced that way.

[MetsRampage]

I think the Phillies have the worst offense in all of baseball. The numbers don't show it because of the ballpark they play in. Their OBP is the worst in the league. I would focus on getting some guys who can get on base.

[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by geisterhome

The good thing is that the Phillies actually don't many, if any, Players on bad long term contracts. Those are their older key players, making big money, that are in for a regression rather soon and later: Chase Utley- final year Cliff Lee- final year Jonathan Papelbon- final year Ryan Howard & Carlos Ruiz - both 2 years left Cole Hamels -I'm not sure if he belongs here, as he (at least in The Show) has 3 to 4 more good years left At the same time they'll have a lot of money to spend in free agency so Utley, Lee, Papelbon and a year later Howards and Ruiz can most probably be replaced that way.

You're stuck with Papelbon for 2 years if he is going to be your closer...because he has an option that vests with a certain amount of games finished. This means he is the pitcher when the final out is recorded. It's also not an out of the world number, he needs 48 games finished this season. And he will have another season at 1 year 13 Million. Because his option is 55 in 15 alone or 100 total between 14-15 and last year he finished 52 games. So it's a fairly attainable number.

[geisterhome]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

You're stuck with Papelbon for 2 years if he is going to be your closer...because he has an option that vests with a certain amount of games finished. This means he is the pitcher when the final out is recorded. It's also not an out of the world number, he needs 48 games finished this season. And he will have another season at 1 year 13 Million. Because his option is 55 in 15 alone or 100 total between 14-15 and last year he finished 52 games. So it's a fairly attainable number.

You are right. I'm not sure however if it also works like that in the game.. don't think it does actually??