MLB SHOWDOWN 2019 SET -- Philadelphia Phillies

Much like the San Diego Padres the Phillies spent a lot of money leading into the 2019 season, snagging Bryce Harper in free gency, also adding Andrew McCutchen and JT Realmuto. The signs pointed to this being a fun team with a weak pitching staff as the point of weakness. They finished with an even 81-81 record showing to the difficult division that they played in and how injuries really hurt the Phillies chances of making a run towards the wild card or division crown.

Lineup: The Phillies lineup much like many of the non playoff teams is top heavy. I threw Cesar Hernandez in the lead off role to extend the lineup early on in a game. Following him is Andrew McCutchen and his great card, sadly we don't remember much of it because of his injury so early into the season. Bryce follows up with a wonderful chart and a fantastic card all around. Rhys Hoskins is in the clean up slot and the lineup begins to take a step back from this point forward. Realmuto and Kingery both have great charts, but their 7 on base won't be giving them as many opportunities as we would hope for. Segura is a nice role player and Jay Bruce brings his hammer with huge home run ratio but such a terrible on base he probably won't be on many teams in the drafting process. Finally batting last is Maikel Franco and he is another guy I don't see gettign many opportunities to crack a lineup.

Rotation: Aaron Nola is quite the step down from last season, still an average reliable starter that you hope can keep the advantage as much as possible to let his big bats run the score up. Jason Vargas falls into the same category as Nola, but a control less staying in the same tier. Arrieta is the third option and hes not the friendliest option and after him it gets even worse. Not many draft able starters unless you are tight on points. I would use Nola or Vargas as a third or fourth option in my rotation in a salary cap draft.

Bullpen: The bullpen starts with a solid closer in Hector Neris who is similar to last years closer Seranthony Dominguez except he gives up a double. Jose Alvarez has a 2 control but is out through 18, almost ideal for a second half of a batting order situation to try and prolong a bullpen short on high control arms. Mike Morin is next and is a higher control but lower tier reliever that could be your first guy out of the bullpen to try to spell the short starting rotation this team has. After that you have two home run allowing pitchers that besides the home run are serviceable in situations prior to the last inning.

The Phillies have 20 players coming in at 4370 points averaging 218 points per player. They fall short in the average player on their team and looking at this team it wasn't very surprising. While in a draft league there are plenty of guys on these teams to help fill out a roster, the bright spots are really only Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen in my opinion.