Ad Disclosure
It Is Time for the First Vibes Check-In of the Phillies Season (Not Good)
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Today is April 20th, and I’m hereby conducting the first Vibes Check-In of the Phillies season. Is it too early to be worried about vibes? Maybe. Is there good reason to be concerned? I’d say, resoundingly, yes. The Phillies have lost five straight (bad). The Phillies have lost nine of their last eleven (very bad!). And Rob Thomson is in post-game interviews saying stuff like this:
“We’re disappointed. We’re frustrated. I know they’re trying hard. Sometimes trying too hard. Guys are upset. We’re off to a slow start, here. But it’s gonna get better. There are times when you have to straighten some people out, and in a way we’ve done that. For the most part you gotta stay positive. You gotta believe in the club because there’s talent here. It’s not that we don’t have talent. We’ve got talent. It just hasn’t happened yet. But it’s gonna happen. Everybody’s frustrated. Nobody’s complacent. Everybody’s working their tails off. Nobody’s happy.”
This… sounds bad!
It’s an interesting time for this team. Watching the games, my eyes are telling me that these Phils are approaching disaster-mode – but the numbers aren’t entirely backing that up. Kyle Schwarber has a .936 OPS with 7 home runs. Bryce has an .883 OPS with 4 homers. Hard hit rate is good (41.2%, tenth in baseball). Cristopher Sanchez has a 1.59 ERA. Things, at the very worst, should be fine…
But they’re not! Numbers aside, anyone with eyes can see that there’s a general unsatisfying-ness to this team. Bryce looks miserable. J.T. Realmuto looks old. Taijuan Walker is still somehow on this team. Aaron Nola is being Aaron Nola. On Sunday, the Phillies were down two runs in the fifth inning, and I couldn’t have been more positive that it was a loss – and it was! The dugout is lifeless. Aside from the reaction to Felix Reyes hitting a home run in his first major league at-bat on Friday, this team has had no juice at all. This used to be a fun team! Remember that big balls celly they’d do? Seeing more of that sort of stuff would be nice! Although, even if this current team whipped out some new celebration, I have a hunch even that would feel forced and lame. These guys treat playing baseball like a chore, and right now, watching them is feeling like one, too.
I can hear the rebuttals:
It’s still early. It’s a long season. This Phillies team always gets off to a slow start.
All of that is true, to varying degrees. Again, I’m not sounding the alarm. I’m just doing the first Vibes Check of the season, and the verdict is in:
Things… are not great.
But it’s nothing a winning streak can’t fix! Please…
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)