How Phillies GM Matt Klentak channeled "Hoosiers" at the trade deadline

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Matt Klentak's team is on the floor

In the classic 1986 film “Hoosiers”, Gene Hackman stars as basketball coach Norman Dale, who takes the reigns of a rural Indiana high school team in the early-1950’s.

Hackman/Dale is an old-school coach, even for those long-ago days. He uses a number of tough-love methods, trying to mold his team into a winner despite a highly skeptical and passionate fan base in the local community.

In one such incident, Dale’s Hickory High School team begins a game with just six players. He benches one for disobeying his rules, and when another player fouls out, Dale refuses to allow the benched player to take the floor.

The referee approaches and says “Coach, ya need one more,‘ to which Dale replies “My team’s on the floor.”

In this analogy, Phillies fans are the referee. Matt Klentak is Norman Dale.

Sure, leading up to Wednesday’s MLB trade deadline, Klentak had added lefties Drew Smyly and Jason Vargas, bumping both Nick Pivetta and Zach Eflin to the bullpen.

But Phillies fans wanted more. They wanted a co-ace to pair with Aaron Nola at the top of the rotation. Or at the very least, someone who would slot in as a legitimately talented, proven #2-type starting pitcher behind the right-hander.

Those Phillies fans wanted someone such as Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Robbie Ray or Alex Wood.

And so, on trade deadline day, the fan base sat staring at their laptops, pads and phone screens thinking “Ya need one more.”

But there would be no new ace added to the Phillies starting rotation on this day. And since are no longer waiver trades allowed during the month of August, there will be no new aces at all during the 2019 season.

Matt Gelb of The Athletic tweeted out that, in summary, Klentak’s position was that “We can’t trade our best prospects all the time. We weren’t willing to meet prices on better players.”

Matt Klentak has improved the Phillies, but club remains two big pieces away from contention

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Former NL MVP McCutchen becomes new Phillies left fielder

The Philadelphia Phillies have made some nice moves this off-season. But so have their top division rivals. Though the Phillies seem to be improved, enough has not yet been done to make the club a genuine contender in the coming 2019 season.

The defending National League East Division champion Atlanta Braves will field a lineup that includes veteran stars Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson on the infield corners.

Those two lead a group that also includes 2018 NL Rookie of the Year outfielder Ronald Acuna, a perennial Gold Glover in center fielder Ender Inciarte, and an exciting up-the-middle infield duo of second baseman Ozzie Albies and shortstop Dansby Swanson.

The Braves also brought back a Phillies-killer in veteran catcher Brian McCann, who should team with Tyler Flowers to give Atlanta a tough left-right catching tandem.

Combine the Braves lineup talent with one of the top young pitching staffs in baseball, and you have a formidable challenge to overcome.

The Washington Nationals bolted past the Phillies last September to finish in second place. Over the last seven seasons the Nats have won the division four times and finished as runners-up the other three, never ending more than 10 games off the pace.

You could make an argument that even if they fail to lure free agent Bryce Harper to return, the Nationals may be even better in the 2019 season. Washington will see two of the game’s more talented youngsters play a big role in their outfield for years to come in Juan Soto and Victor Robles.

The left side of the Washington infield is as good as any in the game, with third baseman Anthony Rendon and shortstop Trea Turner as two of baseball’s most underrated stars.

The Nationals also have a pitching rotation led by Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Anibal Sanchez, with talented youngsters Joe Ross and Erick Fedde waiting in the wings.

Up in the Big Apple, the New York Mets have a new general manager intent on turning things around quickly for a franchise that has disappointed for years. The Mets began the month of September trailing the Phillies by 10 games in the standings but closed with an encouraging 18-10 month to finish just three games away from third place.

Brodie Van Wagenen has already brought in shutdown young closer Edwin Diaz to finish games that were begun by the likes of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Zach Wheeler.

Added to the Mets position player mix was second baseman Robinson Cano. He’ll provide veteran experience to a group of talented youngsters that includes outfielders Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, shortstop Amed Rosario, and first baseman Dominic Smith.

MLB Spotlight Series: Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado visits Arizona in big NL West series

The weekend series that is about to take place between the host Arizona Diamondbacks and division-rival Colorado Rockies is extremely important.

These have been two of the more surprising contenders of the 2017 season. The Dbacks lead the NL Wildcard race. Arizona has a 9.5 game cushion on one of those postseason berths.

The Rockies currently control the second NL Wildcard berth. Their nearest pursuer for that spot, the defending NL champion Chicago Cubs, are six games back.

But while these have indeed been two successful clubs over the course of the season, each is struggling of late. Colorado has dropped eight straight games. Arizona comes in after dropping the final two of their last series with the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Both teams have fallen behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the race for the NL West Division crown. The Rockies led the division for most of the season until the current losing streak. Arizona has been playing catch-up, spending just one recent day tied atop the division back on June 1.

The desperation factor is clearly a check mark on the Colorado side. Already fully immersed in a losing streak, the team needs to wake up and reverse the skid before losing becomes habitual. No time like a big weekend series with a division rival to do so.

Rotation Rebound is Key to Dbacks Bounce-Back

After winning the National League West Division crown in the 2011 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks fell to a .500 finish in each of the next two seasons.

Arizona further collapsed to a 64-98 finish in 2014. However, the club bounced back in 2015, picking up 15 wins to finish within four games of the .500 mark at 79-83.

Diamondbacks management felt that the club was coming on, and so a couple of key moves were made with an eye towards contending for at least a 2016 NL Wildcard berth.

At the Winter Meetings in December of 2015, the team signed free agent ace right-hander Zack Greinke. A day later they dealt an extremely valuable package of prospects led by shortstop Dansby Swanson to the Atlanta Braves in order to land pitcher Shelby Miller. Then in January they traded with the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop Jean Segura.

Adding these players to a lineup that was led by the 2015 NL MVP runner-up Paul Goldschmidt and rotation with emerging young talents such as Patrick Corbin and Robbie Ray, Arizona believed they would indeed contend for a postseason berth.

Instead, the Diamondbacks collapsed back to a 69-93 record, 18 games off that NL Wildcard pace and 22 games behind the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.

Key injuries decimated the lineup, as a pair of starting outfielders, A.J. Pollock and David Peralta, missed most of the season.

WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF THE 2016 ROTATION

However, it was the collapse of the starting rotation, in particular the failures of the two big acquisitions in Greinke and Miller, that led to the team collapse.