Philly Freedom Monthly Reviews - 2023

[BradZ]

Overview

April
Record: 12-6 (-GB)

Team Stats
Runs For|Against (Ranks): 84(1)|68(6)
BA|OB%|SLG|OPS(Lg Ranks): .251(5)|.306(3)|.424(1)|.730(2)
XBH|HRs (Ranks): 59(1)|25(1)
ERA|St ERA|BP ERA(Ranks): 3.27(7)|3.96(10)|1.91(1)
Ks|BB(Rank): 151(3)|37(3)

Top Performers

Offseason lynchpin 2B Tom Lewis won the IL Player of the Month Award based largely on the last week of the month (which earned a PotW nod as well. For the month Lewis put up a Stout Slugger-esque .355|.420|.806 slash with 8HR(1st IL) and 17RBI(2nd IL) and 15 RS(1st IL). He's everything we were hoping for in making the big move heading into 2023.

Hopefully 1B Danny Gomez has a repeat performance in him before father time catches him. He was solid for us last season and is off to a similar start to 2023 - .250|.281|.600; 7HR(2nd IL) and 18RBI(1st IL). He got off to a hot start last season as well then had a bit of dip in midseason so it wouldn't surprise us if he followed a similar path this season.

SP Ron Bynum is off to a great start as the leader of the starting rotation - 3-0 | 0.34 ERA | 27K in 26.2IP . The acquisition of Driggs is meant to shoulder the load at the top of the rotation, but Bynum continues to represent the best $$ value in the league from a SP.

Slow Starters

We've wanted to see C Ted Ryan succeed for several seasons now. He's such a slow starter it can be difficult to ride it out with him, but he's been able to post a solid 2.6 and 3.2 WAR figure in the past 2 seasons so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt until at least the All-star break. It's possible he'll eventually be a backup C, but for now we'll keep giving him the #1 role.

Philly fave Pat Evans was brought back to serve as a bottom of the rotation option after a brief sojurn to Indy to finish the 2022 season. He's off to a rough start, though he did finally win his first game of the season in his last start. If he can just settle in as a competitive #4/5 we'd be satisfied. I don't want to think about having to move him into a lefty specialist role anytime soon, but time will tell.


Dumpster Fires

FA 3B JJ Carver has been a black hole at the plate (.132|.148|.245). It's one of the biggest holes in our lineup and we may have to address this at some point in the future.

[BradZ]

Overview

May
Record: 14-12 (1.5 GB)

Team Stats
Runs For|Against (Ranks): 113(2)|100(6)
BA|OB%|SLG|OPS(Lg Ranks): .257(2)|.318(2)|.425(2)|.742(2)
XBH|HRs (Ranks): 77(3)|33(3t)
ERA | St ERA | BP ERA (Ranks): 3.59(6) | 3.44 (6) | 3.20 (6) (Starters and Bullpen ERA stats are cummulative for the season - too lazy to break down atm)
Ks|BB(Rank): 179(10)|62(8t)

Top Performers

OF Tom Ackers takes home the Freedom PotM award for May. He posted a slash of .341 | .378 | .706 with 9 HR and 24 RBI. He got off to a slow start in April, but his May saw him carry quite a bit of the offensive burden. Ackers also picked up the IL PoftWeek award for the final week of the month. With Dave Robinson on the DL for the next couple of weeks we'll look to Ackers to continue to shoulder the load (giggity).

Tom Lewis kept right on trucking after a sensational April. He wasn't quite IL or even Freedom PotM worthy, but his great 2023 continues.

Tom Driggs has been as advertised since arriving in Philly. His May numbers of 3-2 | 1.89 | 38.0 IP | 34 K | 2 BB with 1 shutout see him awarded with the Freedom Pitcher of the Month.

Slow Starters

Ted Ryan saw a slight uptick in his performance, but that's not saying much. An OPS of .592 may have us shopping come deadline time.


Dumpster Fires

JJ Carver doesn't really qualify for this role anymore since 1) He lost his job and 2) He actually produced a respectable .756 OPS in limited action. There's still smoke, but it's more like a wastebasket fire now.

[BradZ]

June
Record: 15-13 (2.5 GB)

Team Stats
Runs For|Against (Ranks): 91(9)|86(3)
BA|OB%|SLG|OPS(Lg Ranks): .245(7)|.286(10)|.366(8)|.654(8)
XBH|HRs (Ranks): 61(9)|23(8)
ERA | St ERA | BP ERA (Ranks): 3.02(3) | 3.25 (7) | 3.16 (5) (Starters and Bullpen ERA stats are cummulative for the season - too lazy to break down atm)
Ks|BB(Rank): 175(11)|60(6)

Top Performers

The Freedom PotM award goes back to 2B Tom Lewis for the month of June. In a month of subpar offensive performance by the team as a whole, Lewis still turned in a respectable .288 | .339 | .529 | .868 line to go with 5 2Bs, 6 HRs and 30 Hs overall.

May's winner, Tom Ackers, led the team with 15 RBI in June but saw a power outage for the month (1 2B, 1 3B and 2 HR)

SP Pat Evans is having to completely reinvent himself this season as his stuff has fallen off a cliff (and not in a good curveball - 12 to 6 kind of way). He posted only a 1-3 record in his 6 June starts, but that was mostly due to run support. He posted a 1.10 ERA for the month and even mixed in a CG. Only 17 strikeouts in 41 IP show just how important his high GB% is (this is the main reason we still thought he could be effective with slipping stuff).

Boat Anchors

Jimmy Kidwell's time is coming to an end. He did finally punch his ticket to the 300 HR club, but now if he can squeeze one more out of his time here that will give him 300 in a Philly uni as well. Writing's on the wall; there is no clean way to say goodbye.


Dumpster Fires

Age is finally catching up with Danny Gomez. We were hoping to get one more good, productive year out of him, but we may have been asking for too much. A June slash of .176 | .224 | .308 | .532 is a huge reason why the team offense struggled overall. We're hoping a turn of the calendar pushes his SLG | OPS back into the .450 | .770 range, but we're not holding our breath.

[BradZ]

July
Record: 12-14 (11 GB)

Team Stats
Runs For|Against (Ranks): 112(3)|105(9)
BA|OB%|SLG|OPS(Lg Ranks): .256(4)|.318(4)|.412(2)|.731(2)
XBH|HRs (Ranks): 74(2)|28(3)
ERA | St ERA | BP ERA (Ranks): 3.88(9) | 3.36 (7) | 3.64 (8) (Starters and Bullpen ERA stats are cummulative for the season - too lazy to break down atm)
Ks|BB(Rank): 175(11)|60(6)

Top Performers

The Freedom PotM award goes to young CF Emmett Goins who has been everything and more that we hoped he would be when we in essence made him our 1st round pick during the past draft (exchanged a #1 for him rather than taking a prospect that would still need development). A slash of .360 | .424 | .547 | .970 out of a CF posting 6.1 | 1.052 (ZR | Def EFF) is a dream come true.

2B Tom Lewis continued to produce (8 HR | 19 RBI), but it was an overall team effort with regards to improved offensive performance for the month (5 players had double digit RBIs for the month).


SP Dave Baldwin was our top pitcher in July, going 4-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 5 GS. He was a bright spot in what was an overall rough month for the pitching staff. Pat Evans is the only other arm on the staff that earned > 1 W during the entire month.

Boat Anchors

Jimmy Kidwell's bloated corpse.


Dumpster Fires

Dave Boyd and Ron Bynum combined for a 1-8 July. Bynum had a BABIP of .347 so he should normalize, but Boyd's been struggling all season to live up to his FA contract.

[BradZ]

August
Record: 15-14 (10 GB)

Team Stats
Runs For|Against (Ranks): 121(5)|123(9)
BA|OB%|SLG|OPS(Lg Ranks): .248(6)|.304(9)|.398(4)|.702(4)
XBH|HRs (Ranks): 79(4)|32(4)
ERA | St ERA | BP ERA (Ranks): 4.01(9) | 3.38 (7) | 3.99 (11) (Starters and Bullpen ERA stats are cummulative for the season - too lazy to break down atm)6
Ks|BB(Rank): 193(8)|56(1)

Top Performers

2B Tom Lewis is once again your Freedom PotM award winner. He's been unbelievable all season long, but posted a salty slash of .302 | .375 | .632 | 1.007 to ago along with 9HR | 21 RBI | 19 R. He's leading all IL offensive players in WAR for the season and this week slugged his 40th HR of the season (3rd time in his career to hit that benchmark). Just a phenomenal season.

As has been the case for most of the season, OF Tom Ackers played a worthy Robin to Lewis's Batman. Ackers went .297 | .384 | .554 | .938 with 6 HR and 14 RBI and continues to be a solid addition to the roster.

1B Danny Gomez had a bit of a bounceback month, going .287 | .333 | .532 | .865 while slugging 5 HR and driving in 16 RBI (2nd on the team for that stat). Age is certainly catching up to him (only .8 WAR for the season after posting a surprising 3.0 last season), but at his bargain basement price the last 2 seasons have been well worth it.

SP Pat Evans went 3-0 in 6 GS to lead the rotation as our top starter in August. It's been an interesting season to watch Evans become a totally different style of pitcher yet still find moderate success. Mostly a nostalgia signing this offseason (and way overpaid), seeing him tack on another double digit win season to his now career 231 W's has pretty much been best case scenario for us. He's now 8th all time in pitcher WAR and just continues to cement his legacy as the greatest SP in franchise history.

Boat Anchors

I'm tired of kicking Jimmy Kidwell while he's down (it was totally expected), so we'll move our focus to OF Colin Brown this month. Just an absolute tank job turned in by Brown in August has seen his playing time cut as he's relegated to 4th OF duties going forward. A .154 | .212 | .242 | .454 in 91 AB has the front office wondering what took the organization so long to effectively bench the young OFer.


Dumpster Fires

JJ Carver continues to shit the bed over and over in his very limited opportunities. We weren't expecting much when he was signed and he has delivered on that projection.