Phillies stay or go: Fans vote for Chase Utley to go

Before the trade deadline we asked Phillies fans to vote on which players and coaches they'd like to see stay with the team, and those who could depart without much fanfare. Now, we've got the results.

The fans have no misunderstanding of the term "get young" - the average age of players they voted to keep was 28. The only 30+ players voted to stay were Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Erik Kratz, and Kevin Frandsen (The average age of the cast-offs was 32; no, I did not count Charlie Manuel and Ruben Amaro).

No one who was voted to go last year was voted to stay this year.

The most dramatic shift belongs to Carlos Ruiz, who went from basking in the love of 98.4% last year at this time to being voted to leave by 76.4% of you. But behind Chooch is Chase Utley, who is being voted out of Philadelphia baseball for the first time in his career.

Michael Martinez changed the least, dropping 0.1 points from 89.1% go to 89% go. Somebody forgot to vote this year.

Based on the voting, the 2013 All-Fan Phillies Roster would look like this:

- 1B Darin Ruf
- 2B Cesar Hernandez
- SS Freddy Galvis
- 3B Kevin Frandsen
- OF Domonic Brown
- OF Ben Revere
- OF (????)
- C Erik Kratz
- P Hamels
- P Kyle Kendrick
- P Cliff Lee
- P Jonathan Pettibone
- P Roy Halladay

An anonymous Phillies writer has provided commentary for several selections, and for comparison, last year's numbers (when available) appear italicized.

THE GOERS

Get out

- Jonathan Papelbon (93.8% go)
- Laynce Nix (92.7% go) (Last year: 76.3% go)
- Delmon Young (91.7% go)
- Michael Young (90.8% go)

Just months ago, we were all pulling for Paps to be an All-Star. Now, the city wants his head. Laynce Nix's sub-.500 OPS has gained him little traction to recover from getting voted out last year, and following the soundless trade deadline, everyone's resentment of both Delmon and Michael Young has crossed the 90th percentile.

Phillies writer: "If only there was a month that motivated teams to swap players for other players..."

There's the door

- Michael Martinez (89% go) (Last year: 89.1% go)
- John McDonald (88.4% go)
- Ruben Amaro (79.5% go) (Last year: 56% stay)
- Charlie Manuel (78.5% go) (Last year: 53% stay)
- Ryan Howard (77.3% go) (Last year: 63% stay)
- Carlos Ruiz (76.5% go) (Last year: 98.4% stay)
- John Lannan (73.8% go)

The players are the ones we see on a nightly bases, flailing around out there, so maybe the lack of visibility for Charlie Manuel and to a deeper extent, Ruben Amaro, is what keeps the management duo below 80%. People still want them out, resoundingly so, but not "Jonathan Papelbon" out.

Meanwhile, Ryan Howard's contract hasn't gotten any better, while his physical problems have only gotten worse. John Lannan is the only starting pitcher to not make the cut, and he's pitched 33.9 more innings than Roy Halladay this sason. Chooch's farewell is sad, but necessary, and made slightly easier by the fact that he's having trouble getting the ball out of the infield.

It has been proven that no amount of voting will get Michael Martinez out of this city.

Phillies writer: "Manuel's contract is up after the season and he has been great to the organization. Let him go out on his own terms, rather than embarrassing him with a late-season firing. And Ruiz ideally would have gone to the Yankees with Michael Young before the deadline, but if he's going to ride out the season, the Phillies may as well see if he'll stick around for another year or two. Tommy Joseph and Cameron Rupp are still not ready, so having Ruiz bridge the Phillies to the new catching era would be nice."

Sorry it had to be this way

- Jimmy Rollins (69.1% go) (Last year: 75% stay)
- John Mayberry (66% go) (Last year: 51% go)
- Chase Utley (51.2% go) (Last year: 87% stay)

You know it's a bad season if Philadelphia has voted for Chase Utley to go, regardless of how audible their sobs were as they clicked their mouse buttons.

J-Roll didn't run out enough pop-ups to gain favor, and did himself no good by burrowing into the Phillies with his no trade clause. John Mayberry's regression since 2011 has unsurprisingly included further regression.

Phillies writer: "What's the justification? If the voters think [Utley]'s too injury-prone and they'd rather see him traded for prospects, I agree. If they think he is unproductive, I vehemently disagree."

THE STAYERS

Have a seat

- Domonic Brown (94.7% stay) (Last year: 66% stay)
- Darin Ruf (89.6% stay) (Last year: 97.9% stay)
- Kevin Frandsen (86.8% stay) (Last year: 94% stay)
- Cesar Hernandez (83.5% stay)
- Ben Revere (82.8% stay)

Boy, we really love Kevin Frandsen - and only slightly less than last year. Dom Brown, this year's Carlos Ruiz, was the top stay-vote getter of any Phillie, and Darin Ruf wasn't too far behind him. That Eastern League triple crown run is proving harder to forget than assumed.

An ongoing theme on this list is long term injury not rattling affection, and people are willing to forgive Ben Revere's broken foot for the monstrous run he went on prior to that stupid foul ball. People liked what they saw in Cesar Hernandez, as well.

Phillies writer: (On Dom Brown and Ben Revere being only starting position players to get the 'stay' vote) "Says a lot about how Ruben Amaro has constructed the roster, doesn't it? Ugly."

You might as well

- Cole Hamels (79.4% stay) (Last year: 98.7% stay)
- Freddy Galvis (77.9% stay) (Last year: 80.6% stay)
- Erik Kratz (77.1% stay) (Last year: 96.7% stay)

Cole is locked up anyway, Galvis is a terrific defensive option, and Erik Kratz... has apparently only done about 20 percentage points worth of damage to his reputation since last season.

*Sigh*

- Kyle Kendrick (64.8% stay) (Last year: 79.9% stay)
- Cliff Lee (63.3% stay) (Last year: 91.8% stay)
- Jonathan Pettibone (61% stay)
- Roy Halladay (60.8% stay) (Last year: 85.6% stay)

People liked what they saw in Kendrick and Pettibone this season, while Doc and Cliff's reps were so good, they could take 25-30 point hits and still make the team, even though one of them just had shoulder surgery.

Phillies writer: "I have to imagine there would be a few teams willing to take a chance on Halladay after his surgery. He won't be the difference between the Phillies being good or bad next year, so they should turn the page."