Phillies news & links — Powerful Phillies

Sometimes there is no shame in losing. Last night was one of those nights. The Phillies lost to the Rangers and Yu Darvish, and even though losing sucks, Darvish is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. There is no shame in being outsmarted by someone as good as that.

And now, the news.

The Phillies have power

Philly.com’s David Murphy published an article with the title “The Phillies are producing power at a rate reminiscent of the glory days.” When I clicked on it, I expected somewhat more than I got, which is a list of four things that illustrate that headline. But it’s worth a read because it’ll give you some hope that the Phillies will eventually get their pitching together to support the offense.

And to further support the notion that the Phillies offense has been markedly better than in the past, here are some tweets from our good friend Matt Winkelman.

Vital and important Cole Hamels news

Yesterday, Philly.com’s Matt Gelb sent an intriguing tweet.

HE STILL LOVES US!!!

In the excellent interview, which you should read in its entirety, he says he’s not closing the door to a possible return in the future, after he’s a free agent in 2018.

The idea has crossed Hamels' mind. He now sees Ruiz more often - they are divisional foes - and the two have discussed what it would be like, hypothetically, to return to Philadelphia.

GUYS, TRUST US, IT WOULD BE AWESOME. And I’m having the best time imagining that conversation.

Today in former Phillies...

Who doesn’t want to start their morning with some fresh, steaming Cody Asche news?

Stay away, Phillies. Stay away.

And now to a newly former Phillie.

I’ll miss him because his name was so fun to say.

Random notes

• Matt Winkelman, now the proprietor of Crashburn Alley, wrote a great piece about how the youngsters in the Phillies system won’t necessarily fix the team’s overall weaknesses.
• My colleague at Yahoo Sports MLB, Jeff Passan, published an absolutely fantastic interview with Adam Jones that you really, really should read. Jones is one of the most honest, outspoken players in the game, and you should definitely read what he has to say.

Around the Phight

• Justin Klugh wrote the recap for last night’s loss to the Rangers, and of course it has a Yu Darvish pun in the title.
• The days are getting longer, the weather is getting hotter, and that means it’s trade speculation time! First up? Jeremy Hellickson!
• WE’RE GETTING OUR AARON NOLA BACK!

Tweet of the day

Oh, we’ve got a lot for you this morning.

As a member of the Retweet Armageddon Congress, all I have to say is: PICK SWAP PICK SWAP PICK SWAP PICK SWAPPPPPPPPP!!!

Larry Andersen wasn’t in the radio booth last night, apparently on vacation. (And much deserved, because I can’t imagine any of the broadcasters have an easy job.) Kevin Stocker was filling in, and while he was much more cerebral and technical about pitching than LA is, he was pretty good. I think he needs a little more animation in his voice/delivery since he’s doing radio, but I enjoyed his commentary.

I don’t have a tweet for this, but we at The Good Phight send our condolences to Phillies TV booth guy Tom McCarthy, who lost his dad earlier this week. Our thoughts are with you and your family, Tom.