Series Preview - Braves at Phillies: August 7th to August 10th

2020 Chachi Fan Favorites #13

2020 Chachi 1991 Topps Missing Links #2

Friday 7:05, Saturday 6:05, Sunday 1:05, Monday 6:05
Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

At the Ballpark:  This was originally scheduled (pre-pandemic) as Alumni Weekend and there would have been ceremonies to induct Manny Trillo into the Wall of Fame, along with a 40th anniversary celebration of the 1980 World Championship team.  The Phillies are still advertising this as Alumni Weekend on their television broadcasts, so I'm assuming they have a few things in store to mark the occasion.

Sunday's starter for the Phillies is listed as "TBD," but it's expected (and hoped) this will be the big league debut for top pitching prospect Spencer Howard.

Braves 9-5
2nd Place in the N.L. East, 1/2 game behind the Marlins

Braves Probables
Kyle Wright (0-1, 7.50)
TBD
Max Fried (2-0, 2.04)
Sean Newcomb (0-1, 6.57)

Braves Leaders
Average:  Dansby Swanson - .296
Runs:  Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson - 11
Home Runs:  Marcell Ozuna - 3
RBIs:  Dansby Swanson - 13
Stolen Bases:  Ender Inciarte and Dansby Swanson - 3

Wins:  Max Fried - 2
ERA:  Max Fried - 2.04
Strikeouts:  Touki Toussaint - 20
Saves:  Mark Melancon - 2

Phillies 3-4
Tied for 3rd Place in the N.L. East, 3 games behind the Marlins

Phillies Probables
Vince Velasquez (0-0, 12.00)
Jake Arrieta (0-1, 5.40)
TBD
Aaron Nola (0-1, 3.97)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  J.T. Realmuto - .333
Runs:  Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto - 6
Home Runs:  J.T. Realmuto - 3
RBIs:  J.T. Realmuto - 8
Stolen Bases:  Bryce Harper - 1

Wins:  Zack Wheeler - 2
ERA:  Zack Wheeler - 2.08

Strikeouts:  Aaron Nola - 19
Saves:  Hector Neris - 2

1992 Pinnacle Rookie Idols #9 Kim Batiste/Barry Larkin

Congratulations to former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, who was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday.  Larkin appeared on 86.4% of the ballots cast by voters, easily surpassing the 75% required for election.  I'm sure former Phillies shortstop Kim Batiste will join me in congratulating his former idol.

Thanks to having my entire Phillies collection now organized on Zistle, I was able to find instances of most of this year's Hall of Fame hopefuls within my collection.  Here is where you can find a few of this year's Hall of Fame misses (and possible 2013 inductees) within my Phillies baseball card collection:

Player (% of Vote) - "Phillies" Card
Jack Morris (66.7%) - 1984 Topps #136 - Strikeout Leaders with Steve Carlton
Jeff Bagwell (56.0%) - 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3 - with Scott Rolen and Bernie Williams
Lee Smith (50.6%) - None
Tim Raines (48.7%) - 1987 Fleer #642 - Super Star Special with Juan Samuel
Alan Trammell (36.8%) - None
Edgar Martinez (36.5%) - None
Fred McGriff (23.9%) - None
Larry Walker (22.9%) - 1993 Fleer #715 - Super Star Special with Darren Daulton

Raines also appears on a few Topps Rub-Down/Tattoo cards (from 1984 and 1985) with Mike Schmidt and Walker is featured on the same League Leader card as Bobby Abreu in the 2000 Fleer Tradition set.

Former Phillie Dale Murphy, on the ballot for the 14th year, received only 14.5% of the vote and next year is his final year of eligibility.  After that, he'll presumably be passed along to the Golden Era Committee, who elected Cubs great Ron Santo last month.  Sadly, Terry Mulholland, on the ballot for the first year, received no votes.

1984 Topps #136 and 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3

1993 Pacific Spanish #230 Kim Batiste

1993 Phillies - The Bench

Uniform Numbers: 7 (1991) and 5 (1992-1994)
1993 Stats: Kim made it into 79 games with the '93 Phils, hitting .282 with 5 homers and 29 RBI. He hit .349 against left-handed pitchers and .311 with runners in scoring position.

1993 Notable: Kim hit a game-winning grand slam against the Mets on August 13th.

How Acquired: Drafted in the 3rd round of the June 1987 draft.

Phillies Career: 1991-1994

How Departed: Released, May 15, 1995 (Signed with the Baltimore Orioles' organization)

Kim was the team's back-up shortstop (or jardinero corto) and third baseman, often entering the game in the late innings to replace Dave Hollins at third. Such was the case in NLCS Game 1, when Kim entered the game at third and promptly committed a 9th inning error allowing the Braves to tie the game. In the bottom of the 10th, Kim atoned for the error with the game-winning single, scoring John Kruk from 2nd base.