PhoulBallz.com

Multiple reporters, starting with Jon Heyman , posted online Sunday night that the Phillies are close to announcing they'll hire Gabe Kapler as their next manager. Earlier Sunday, I wrote about how I thought the right choice was Dusty Wathan.  The long-time Phils minor league manager may have been passed over for the skipper role, but perhaps there's still hope for him to join the big league coaching staff. Kapler is currently employed as the LA Dodgers' director of player development. He was among the final candidates to manage the Dodgers prior to the team hiring Dave Roberts prior to the 2016 season. Kapler played as an outfielder in the big leagues with six team including the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox. The move possibly won't be announced until after the World Series, which involves the Dodgers, is over. Fans & Twitter react- Philly is a Joe six-pack sorta town, so please welcome Gabe Kapler, the new Phillies manager, and his 8-10 p...

Dusty Wathan, image- Jay Floyd Multiple reports in recent days state that long-time Phillies minor league skipper is in the running among the team's short list of finalists for their vacant managerial position.  With a pedigree in the sport and a history with a majority of the club's talent, Wathan is the right choice for the role. The son of former Kansas City Royals manager John Wathan, Dusty practically grew up around in a dugout and on the diamond.  Following his playing career which included time in the majors with the Royals and wrapped up at the Triple-A level for the Phils in 2007, Wathan's managerial got rolling in 2008.  At that time he was named the skipper for the short-season Class A Williamsport Crosscutters.  The following season, Wathan led Class A Lakewood BlueClaws to their first of back-to-back South Atlantic League titles. Wathan managed the Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers in 2010 and 2011, where a collection of talented minor le...

As the Dodgers and Astros worked their way to the Fall Classic, it became very clear that they were two of the best teams of the last twenty years. These aren’t the 2011 Cardinals or the 2014 Giants – Wild Card teams that got hot at the right time and rode that momentum to a title. These are complete teams set up for long-term success, and much of the league, Phillies included, have a long way to go to catch them. To put it in perspective, the Astros, who pair a dominant starting rotation led by Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel with a historically good offense  that led the league in runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, are 5/4 underdogs against LA, according to mytopsportsbooks.com. ( Click here for odds and essays on the 2017 World Series .) That’s just how good the 104-win Dodgers are. Heading into 2018, the hope from the Phillies front-office likely isn’t a World Series appearance, or even a playoff berth next year. T...

It's autumn and while the big league postseason is on-going, without any Phillies involvement, I haven't posted much on the site in a while. Most readers here likely have grown to expect unique content focused on the Phils' minor leagues.  Here's how you can get updates and details even when this site isn't featuring new posts... Check out my Twitter feed ! For those of you still without the Twitter application or even without a Twitter account, you can simply bookmark this post or my Twitter page for daily updates and stats from several off-season leagues.  Check out the embedded widget below for a sample of what steady details to expect on talented prospects like Roman Quinn, Daniel Brito, Cornelius Randolph and many more along with an occasional remark about professional wrestling or some other random nonsense. Thanks for the continued interest in my content and pass it along if you know fans that would appreciate this material. Tweets by PhoulBallz