Welcome to Boston, Brandon Phillips

ponch73

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Hard to see them dropping Nunez from postseason roster. Esp since he has hit better post-ASB. I think it will take an injury to Nunez or Holt for Phillips to make the roster.
I agree that it's probably unlikely, but I'd love to see Phillips replace Nunez, rather than Swihart, on the postseason roster, with 2 conditions -- first, that it wouldn't disrupt clubhouse chemistry and second, that Phillips, over the final 21 regular season games, equals Nunez's offensive production and defense at third.

1. Phillips showed what a head's up baserunner he is yesterday in Atlanta, which could be valuable in a key situation.
2. Nunez isn't an especially good 3rd baseman
3. Phillips may not have a high walk rate, but it can't be worse than Nunez's
4. By all accounts, Phillips is a high character guy, and could provide invaluable veteran presence
5. For all of the reports of Nunez swinging a hot bat recently, he still only has a .641 OPS as a 3B, a .712 OPS in the second half, a .765 OPS in his last 14 days and a .686 OPS in the last 28 days.
 
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Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
I agree that it's probably unlikely, but I'd love to see Phillips replace Nunez, rather than Swihart, on the postseason roster, with 2 conditions -- first, that it wouldn't disrupt clubhouse chemistry and second, that Phillips, over the final 21 regular season games, equals Nunez's offensive production and defense at third.

1. Phillips showed what a head's up baserunner he is yesterday in Atlanta, which could be valuable in a key situation.
2. Nunez isn't an especially good 3rd baseman
3. Phillips may not have a high walk rate, but it can't be worse than Nunez's
4. By all accounts, Phillips is a high character guy, and could provide invaluable veteran presence
5. For all of the reports of Nunez swinging a hot bat recently, he still only has a .641 OPS as a 3B, a .712 OPS in the second half, a .765 OPS in his last 14 days and a .686 OPS in the last 28 days.
No, it's not, but it's not significantly better either. They're both hackers.

In fact, they are remarkably similar offensive players. Nunez' career line is .278/.313/.410; Phillips's is .275/.320/.421. Their batted ball breakdowns are similar. Their K and BB rates are similar. Their swing percentages are roughly similar, though Nunez is a bit more selective (Phillips is really the bigger hacker of the two). Nunez is better at making contact with pitches out of the zone when he swings at them (75.8% O-Contact vs. 65.9% for Phillips), while Phillips hits the ball a little harder (17.6% Soft vs. 24.3% for Nunez).

For this reason, as well as their similar defensive portfolios, there really doesn't seem to be room on a postseason roster for both of them.
 

uk_sox_fan

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I don't know what you guys are talking about - Phillips is tied with Francisco Mejia for the highest BB% in MLB this season (min. 5 PAs). Or are you going to invoke that tired small sample size argument again?
 

TheoShmeo

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I will admit up front that the upcoming questions are motivated in part by recency bias and my continuing SoxGasm when thinking about the Weds PM game. The excitement has lasted well beyond five hours and I have not consulted a medical professional.

Assume you're the Red Sox and you have concluded, after the next three weeks, that you need Brandon Phillips on the post season roster. Assume further that no one gets injured between now and the end of the season. Also assume that no one is playing like manure when the season ends. All three assumptions are immutable in this particular exercise so no need to take issue with them. And yes, one could quibble with each of the assumptions.

Who do you sacrifice? How do you make this happen?
 

RedOctober3829

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I will admit up front that the upcoming questions are motivated in part by recency bias and my continuing SoxGasm when thinking about the Weds PM game. The excitement has lasted well beyond five hours and I have not consulted a medical professional.

Assume you're the Red Sox and you have concluded, after the next three weeks, that you need Brandon Phillips on the post season roster. Assume further that no one gets injured between now and the end of the season. Both assumptions are immutable in this particular exercise so no need to take issue with them. And yes, one could quibble with both of the assumptions.

Who do you sacrifice? How do you make this happen?
I'd probably say Swihart.
 

EdRalphRomero

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Oct 3, 2007
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I will admit up front that the upcoming questions are motivated in part by recency bias and my continuing SoxGasm when thinking about the Weds PM game. The excitement has lasted well beyond five hours and I have not consulted a medical professional.

Assume you're the Red Sox and you have concluded, after the next three weeks, that you need Brandon Phillips on the post season roster. Assume further that no one gets injured between now and the end of the season. Also assume that no one is playing like manure when the season ends. All three assumptions are immutable in this particular exercise so no need to take issue with them. And yes, one could quibble with each of the assumptions.

Who do you sacrifice? How do you make this happen?
Nunez. To @Savin Hillbilly's earlier point, Nunez and Phillips are redundant. But to my earlier point, Phillips splits (good against lefties) make him an excellent complement to Devers at 3rd.
 

RedOctober3829

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Nunez. To @Savin Hillbilly's earlier point, Nunez and Phillips are redundant. But to my earlier point, Phillips splits (good against lefties) make him an excellent complement to Devers at 3rd.
They may be redundant, but I think there could be a case to be made to keep them both on a playoff roster. It never hurts to have a player of Phillips' experience on the bench. It will obviously come down to who is playing the best and also what matchups dictate.

My Locks
SP-Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod(4)
RP-Kimbrel, Barnes, Kelly, Brasier, Thornburg, Eovaldi, Hembree, Workman(8)
Lineup-Betts, Benintendi, Martinez, Bogaerts, Moreland, Kinsler, Nunez, Leon, Bradley(9)
Bench-Vazquez, Pearce(2)

That leaves 2 spots for the following:
P-Johnson, Wright
Position--Devers, Holt, Phillips, Swihart

1 of Johnson or Wright should make the team as a long reliever that could go 2-3 inning stints while 1 of the 4 position guys gets a spot. Holt and Swihart provide good positional flexibility but don't provide much offense. Phillips and Devers offer more offensively but are limited defensively. They'd be good pinch hitting options against lefties(BP) or righties(Devers). In my eyes, that bench spot will wittle down to either Devers or Holt. Depending on the matchup, either Pearce or Moreland are going to be on the bench so it comes down to whether that last spot can provide something above-average. I'd go with Holt due to his extreme positional flexibility.

It remains to be seen if Cora would go with a 3-man bench. If he goes with a 4 man bench then it'd come down to Phillips or Devers.
 

joe dokes

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I will admit up front that the upcoming questions are motivated in part by recency bias and my continuing SoxGasm when thinking about the Weds PM game. The excitement has lasted well beyond five hours and I have not consulted a medical professional.

Assume you're the Red Sox and you have concluded, after the next three weeks, that you need Brandon Phillips on the post season roster. Assume further that no one gets injured between now and the end of the season. Also assume that no one is playing like manure when the season ends. All three assumptions are immutable in this particular exercise so no need to take issue with them. And yes, one could quibble with each of the assumptions.

Who do you sacrifice? How do you make this happen?
I'd do without Vazquez.

(referring to redoctober's roster....)
I don't think Thornburg is a playoff lock. Certainly not for a 5 game series with 2 days off and no more than 2 games back to back.
 

bosockboy

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I'd do without Vazquez.

(referring to redoctober's roster....)
I don't think Thornburg is a playoff lock. Certainly not for a 5 game series with 2 days off and no more than 2 games back to back.
Yeah almost zero chance Thornburg sees a playoff roster. And doubtful they will go more than 11 pitchers.
 

m0ckduck

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Jul 20, 2005
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I don’t understand why Wright is so much on the bubble here. He’s done nothing but pitch well when healty, which he seems to be now.

He also perfectly fills an important and underrated role in October baseball: the “keep it close” guy who can afford Cora a quick hook in the early innings— in those games that you can’t afford to concede outright but also can’t justify using your top 1-inning set-up guys for.
 

YTF

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I think there has to be an injury in order for Phillips to make the playoff roster. The man is in year 17 of what has been an excellent career, but with 20 games left in the regular season where is he going to get the playing time to prove he deserves a spot in post season play? Barring injury, the only spot I can see him taking would be Nunez. With Devers back I don't think Phillips sees a lot of playing time at third. He may spell Kinsler once in a while and come in as a late inning replacement here and there, but that is going to amount to an incredibly SSS from which Cora would base any sort of assessment on.
 

mfried

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Phillips is getting some time working out at first base. (Platoon with Mitch, who seems to be wearing down and needs to be rested...?)
 

Koufax

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Assuming that Nunez is not playing in the ALCS, do we see Brandon Phillips on the roster, or Tzu Wei Lin?
 

richgedman'sghost

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I thought I saw in a thread that somebody said he was out for the ALCS but I doubted that report. There was no confirmation plus wouldn't the Sox want Nunez examined by their own doctors?