Rise and Phight: 8/19/2022

Well, it’s the weekend and the Phillies are coming up against the Mets. It’s an important series, but I’d argue that the subsequent series against the Reds and Pirates are more important.

The Phillies will only get so many chances to beat up on these bad teams while the Brewers and Cardinals, two of their main competitors for a wild card spot, get to play them a whole lot more thanks to an unbalanced schedule. The Phillies have to win at least five of those seven games. They have to keep beating up on bad teams while they can. Those wins count just as much as wins against the Braves and Mets at this point, so there can be no let up after this weekend is over.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• The Phillies recently won their 10,000th game. Here is a breakdown of how they finally got there ($).
• If there’s one thing that we all like, it’s a good mailbag from a beat reporter. Here, Matt Gelb answers some questions for ya ($).
• Well, as luck would have it, the Phillies are going to only see one of the Mets’ best starters this weekend.
• MLB Pipeline re-ranked their top 30 prospects from the team’s system.

MLB news:

• Jon Daniels was the one-time wunderkind GM of the game. So what happened with him in Texas?
• Elvis Andrus was released by the Athletics, then signed with the White Sox a day later.