Phils can learn from Eagles about patience
As the Phillies decide whether to delay fulfillment until they decide it makes financial sense, they ought to look across Pattison Ave. There, they will find inspiration. There, they will learn not to wait. If ever a franchise had printed itself a three-year pass reprieve from expectations, it was the Eagles. They had spent heavily for the right to draft Carson Wentz, investing years’ worth of draft considerations. Their fans, who had come to expect the worst anyway, were mostly delighted by the idea. Few would have been too critical if the project took some time.
The Eagles, and in particular Howie Roseman, chose a different path. They chose not to wait until he was 28 years old before deciding that Wentz was worth maximizing. So they identified, acquired and spent for Alshon Jeffery, LeGarrette Blount and Torrey Smith, accomplished, useful, potentially excellent veterans. With that, they would deliver a message: There is no reason to wait until later when they had a quarterback talented enough to win right away.
Football is one thing, baseball another. But there are the Phillies with Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, J.P. Crawford and Jorge Alfaro, and with enough young players to supply fresh hope. Maybe they will be great later, too. But they are good enough to win in 2018. And because they are, a little positive reinforcement from the executive level would help.
The Phillies pretended to add valuable veterans last season in Clay Buchholz, Howie Kendrick, Michael Saunders and Joaquin Benoit. But that ploy was flimsy. The Phils knew, as did the players, as did the rest of baseball, that they were imported only to flip at the trade deadline for more youth. Not one was of any help. That whole initiative bordered on insulting, actually.
Maybe Wentz would have had an early MVP candidacy this season, and maybe the Eagles would have been 6-1, and maybe they would have blasted toward the top of the Las Vegas Super Bowl futures board without the injection of those veteran play-makers. Jeffery, Smith and Blount have been good, not great. But they are there. And they have been there. And once they arrived there, the Eagles just seemed ready for business. Look good, feel good, play good. There is a value to that, right across the street from where the Phillies have been trying to figure that concept out since 2012.
n Freddie Galvis is a finalist for a Gold Glove in the National League. It’s possible that a dayto-day review of candidates Brandon Crawford and Corey Seager could reveal one of them to be more deserving. But no Phillies shortstop in the modern era ever played defense the way Galvis did in 2017, day to day, highlight for highlight, tough play for tough play. Not Larry Bowa. Not Jimmy Rollins.
Galvis defended at a Gold Glove level no matter what the voting reveals.
Galvis arrived in the big leagues six years ago to modest expectations. But he has had a 20-home-run season. He has had a season when he hit .263. And he just had that amazing defensive season. Ultimately, he will go down as a good player during a struggling Phillies era. But with a little help around him, he already would have been on his way to the franchise’s Wall of Fame.
n The Phillies soon will hire a manager. Dusty Wathan, who had minor-league success with most of the organization’s young stars, is a leading candidate. John Farrell, who managed the Red Sox to the 2013 world championship, is in the mix. Gabe Kapler, a former major-league player, minor-league manager and current Dodgers front-office sort, is being considered.
All appear solid enough to avoid criticism if made to do the old try-on-the-uniform-shirtover-the-tie photo-op thing. If Klentak hires one, he will have done a nice job. • I don’t get the phrase “innings eater.” It’s just a way to say a pitcher can be left in a game for long periods and at whatever risk to his ligaments and joints just because he is not any good in the first place. • Forever made to absorb nonsense from the 76ers’ front office, Brett Brown has basically stopped playing Jahlil Okafor. Simultaneously, rumors began that the Sixers and the Okafor camp have been trying to find the third-year center work with another team.
The two-plus-two, then, is that Brown doesn’t care to disrupt those talks. It’s the only way to explain how an otherwise brilliant basketball man can lose close games while not using a player he once claimed could “score 20 points in his sleep.”
But if Okafor must go, and he almost certainly will, do not ever forget that the Sixers essentially tanked an entire season just to acquire his draft rights. And add that to the tab that must be settled with years of deep postseason activity before that unholy rebuilding process can be ruled a success. • At the I Don’t Get It cafe, they have a great Tuesday brunch. Sundays, they just serve breakfast. • The NFL is losing TV ratings. Theories have piled up. None should be dismissed, from the creepiness of too many of the players, to the saturation of the sport, to the commercials, to fantasy-football sicknesses, to alternate entertainment options.
Just be sure to add one more: Those refs … are they kidding?
It’s not that their calls are questionable, which, too often, they are. It’s the way they have commandeered the stage. Whenever the referees spot a foul, they will attend an on-field committee meeting to discuss its pros and cons. Many working-class fans watch football on weekends as an escape after sitting through meetings with grown-ups all week. Why would they want to watch more of that on their day off? • TV shows about people who think they saw a UFO … I don’t get them.