The Philadelphia Phillies are currently sitting in last place in the National League East Division with a record of 62 - 73, behind the Atlanta Braves, Washington National, the New York Mets, and the Miami Marlins. Although there are many game to be played until regular season baseball ends, the Phillies hopes of making the playoffs are virtually gone. At this time last year, the Phils were almost in the exact situation as they are in now, being last in their division, leaving many Phillies fans hoping that they will select a college pitcher or position player with their seventh overall pick of the 2014 MLB Draft. Aaron Nola was selected by the Phillies seventh overall, a move that was not controversial but one that revealed an opportunity and signs of young arms in the future. Without any more waiting or reading, he is the Philadelphia Phillies do's and don'ts of the 2014 ( And some of 2015 ) offseason.
Do Sign a Left-Handed Reliever: With an unstable bullpen, the Phillies should look to tighten up their bullpen, by adding a young and inexpensive left handed reliever to accompany studs Ken Giles Antonio Bastardo, and Jonathan Papelbon.
Don't Sign a Left-Handed Hitter: Too many left handed batters appear on the 25 man roster, in order to mix it up a little, why not go out and sign a right handed international player such as a Jorge Soler, Jose Abreu or Yoenis Cespedes. I'm not saying that we should release a left handed batter to sign a right handed batter, as we could just draft a contact hitter who possess power and the ability to steal a few bases, a young J - Roll for instance.
Do Keep Some Veteran Core: With many young, talented prospects that are rising through our minor league levels, it's good to keep the J - Roll, Utley, Howard trio together until they retire so that they can mentor the young, inexperienced MLB players. Although, with Howard's contract, I would say that that report is underrated, as all players sometime in their career always run into a year where they do not perform nearly as well as they had the previous years.
Don't Continue Adding Age: Would you rather have a youngish core rather than a mid-thirties core? It's pretty simple. The Phils should monitor opposing teams propsects rather than giving up three to four prospect for a veteran player ( Hunter Pence trade for example ). Don't get me wrong, although we do have a budding farm system, it would be nice if we could develop those prospects into future stars, rather than trading future stars such as Michael Bourn, Jarred Cosart and Jon Singleton.
Do Give Prospects More Time to Develop: Sadly, many Phillies fans were devastated with the results from both Cody Asche and Ethan Martin. Not only were those fans expecting a rebuilding process with those young two studs, but many who don't follow the MILB though that both of the new callus were fairly developed. The Phillies can change that though, as J.P. Crawford is 19 years old, while Aaron Nola is only 21 years old. Don't rush those guys to the majors if you would like to see good results or better results than you were expecting.
Don't Sign an Expensive Reliever: Yes, I am somewhat talking about the Mike Adams signing which was controversial. A reliever with injuries that have effected his career is risky to sign. All the Phillies need is a young, developed and talented stud that can be a twin brother with Ken Giles.
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