Phillies daily links: 2/19/19

After all the Harper rumors flying on Sunday, yesterday was a bit of a letdown as the roller coaster that has been the 2018-19 off-season (hopefully) heads towards its conclusion.

Here at The Good Phight:

• Yesterday, on the heels of a rumor-filled Sunday, John Stolnis wrote (and podcasted) on How to survive the Bryce Harper rumor mill.
• Meanwhile Justin kicked off our 2019 previews with Maikel Franco and third base (supplemented by some fun with park splits).

Other Phillies news:

• Nick Williams says he isn’t worried about the Harper rumors, reports Scott Lauber.
• Jim Salisbury wrote about catching prospect Deivi Grullon looking to learn as much as he can in camp.
• Mike Trout, per Bob Nightengale: “I didn’t go a day this winter without someone asking, ‘When you coming to Philly.’ I can’t predict the future.” (among other comments)
• CBS Sports reported SportsLine’s Phillies projections with and without Harper (80.0 wins without him, 82.6 with him) — both numbers seem low. SportsLine also projects Machado would improve the Padres from 67.1 to 69.0 wins.
• From Bob Brookover, J.T. Realmuto says Aaron Nola is so good, he could catch him with his eyes closed.

MLB esoterica:

• On the Manny Machado front, Bob Nightengale reported that the Padres have offered him $240-280 million.
• In San Francisco, which has been mentioned as a Harper suitor, manager Bruce Bochy announced he’ll retire after the 2019 season.
• According to The Hardball Times, the strike zone is not a square, or a rectangle, but a super-ellipse.
• Fangraphs took a final look at 2019 Hall of Fame voting.
• The Nationals’ ZiPS projections have Juan Soto as their most valuable position player, with 4.9 WAR (ahead of Rendon’s 4.4, and behind only Scherzer’s 5.5).

On that thought of a 20 year old destined to haunt the Phillies for the next decade (and apparently the youngest player to have Ken Griffey Jr. as his comp), let’s close the deal with that other recent Nationals outfielder.