🔔 An Appreciation for Nick Castellanos (And the Voices in His Head)

_{LAST GAME: PHILLIES 6 - BRAVES 5}

_{NEXT GAME: Phillies (Ranger Suarez) vs. Mets (David Peterson )}

_{Today, 7:15 EDT | FOX, 94 WIP}

Good morning — and a special good morning to the voices inside Nick Castellanos’ head. Without them, the Phillies probably don’t leave Atlanta with one of their best wins of the year, one that came following an emotional roller coaster of an afternoon.

If you didn’t want Castellanos to field that foul ball in the 9th inning, don’t sweat it. Nobody did. Not Bryson Stott. Not Garrett Stubbs. Not John Kruk. He did anyway, and then promptly delivered a game-saving dart to the plate that set the stage for Stott’s go-ahead two-run double in the 10th.

The Phillies’ magic number to host a National League Wild Card game at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 3 now stands at 7. A Red October is right in front of them.

In the email today:

This is easy to write after the game Nick Castellanos just had, but what a bounce back season for this guy.

There have been times when things have gotten away from him a bit, like back in July when he hit .162 and struck out in 35 of 99 at-bats. Overall, though, it has been a smashing success.

Some numbers to consider following his two-homer day against the Braves:

• Castellanos is hitting .272 with a .780 OPS, 27 homers, and 99 RBI. This comes a season after hitting a hollow .263 that translated to a .694 OPS, 13 homers, and 65 RBI.

• He’s currently on-pace to finish with 174 hits, 38 doubles, 29 homers, and 106 RBI.

• Castellanos is 1 of 5 qualified players without a fielding or throwing error this season. He has not committed an error in 1,224 1/3 defensive innings played.

• He has played in 149 of 152 total games and has logged 641 plate appearances. Both rank among the top-25 of all players.

Our take: Castellanos has an outside shot to finish the season with 30 homers and 40 doubles while driving in well over 100 runs. He has already more than doubled his home run total of a season ago, all while demonstrating durability and dependability.

Nobody is going to mistake Castellanos for a Gold Glove outfielder, but he makes the plays he should make, and, occasionally, he even makes plays he shouldn’t make (see yesterday).

There’s one more thing, and it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. The guy is legit. He’s publicly backed up teammates during tough times (Trea Turner) while helping younger players get comfortable (Johan Rojas).

He’s an imperfect player, but he is absolutely essential to what the Phillies are doing.

2)💭 Let Us Reflect

If you are like me, then you had takes yesterday. It was the perfect game for them — plenty of good, plenty of bad, and plenty of emotional swings.

The Phillies elicited the following emotions over three hours yesterday, in order: optimism, excitement, doubt, disappointment, exasperation, and anger all before circling back to and landing on excitement.

John Kruk summed it up pretty well:

Here are some of my observations this morning:

• I wrote yesterday that Aaron Nola was down to his final chance to generate momentum heading into the playoffs. Short version: Turning in decent outings against the piss-poor Pirates and Mets wouldn’t hit the same as doing it against the Braves. Mission accomplished.

• Nola was sharp early before hitting some bumps in the fourth and fifth inning. Unlike his recent starts, he was able to limit the damage and regain his footing. That he was able to go back out and pitch a clean sixth was huge.

• Five days after generating just 5 whiffs on 48 swings in St. Louis, Nola induced 18 of them on 53 swings against the Braves. His changeup alone generated 8 whiffs on 13 swings.

• According to Baseball Reference, Bryson Stott is hitting .301 in “high-leverage” spots this year. It feels like he’s hitting .745.

• Alec Bohm’s two-out single in the first inning will go overlooked, but it shouldn’t. All 10 of the Phillies’ runs in the series to that point had come via the home run. Following a double-play from Bryce Harper, Bohm provided a jolt, helping avoid a “here we go again” slog.

• Gregory Soto has to be better. Trea Turner bailed him out in the Matt Olson matchup before he threw a center-cut sinker to Marcell Ozuna that was two feet away from giving the Braves the lead.

• Craig Kimbrel didn’t show the awareness you would expect from a 14-year veteran in the 9th inning of a huge game. An automatic ball in a 2-0 count that led to a leadoff walk? Letting the potential game-winning run easily swipe two bags and move to third with one out? That stuff has to get cleaned up.

3)🏅Tweet of the Day: The Man of the Hour

4)📊 Poll: Where Would They Rank?

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

…

Results from our last poll: Should the Phillies have done more at the trade deadline?

Your replies…

“Simple. They have the players, they all just need to perform.”

“I wouldn't say 'all-in', but trading mid-level prospects for more solid (and cheap) relief pitching could have paid huge dividends.”

“If there was a difference-making pitcher out there, I'd be all for trading certain prospects. I think this was one of the more unexciting trade deadlines because nothing really great was out there.”

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🎙️Of course Scott Franzke nailed the call on the play at the plate.

• ✍️ Matt Breen has been crushing it with these 2008 Phillies profiles.

• 💰Some qualifying offer information on Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola.

•  💪🏻 A look at where Kyle Schwarber ranks among Phillies power hitters.

• 🌵 It’s looking like a Phillies-Diamondbacks series is brewing.

The newsletter today was written by: Bob Wankel (Follow on X)

Thanks for reading!