2023 Phillies Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
My sentiment remains. Had he come to the Phillies and pulled this he would have received a lot of vocal frustration from the fans.
So, one week in, assorted ramblings from Clearwater
1- My biggest interest has been on whether you see a noticeable impact from rule changes. The one thing I saw yesterday was a catcher making a mound visit as the pitch clock was about to expire. Will that be the strategy to sacrifice a mound visit to preserve the count? I haven’t seen any noticeable impact from shift or base size changes.
2- The pace of play is noticeably improved. There are always a lot of pitching changes given pitch count limitations, etc during the spring. Yesterday, game time was 2:28 which is probably at least a half hour shorter. The game moves a lot faster. The one thing that will be reduced is a pitcher holding the ball to force the hitter to call time or the hitter stepping out or calling time to disrupt pitcher rhythm.
3- As far as onfield, not a ton of intrigue as the roster is largely set. Nick seems to be closer to the plate which should allow him to better cover the plate so he won’t be as vulnerable on middle out as he was last year. Bohm made a couple of nice plays yesterday, he seems to be growing into a more confident 3b’ men. Turner is interesting. He just seems to do everything perfectly. He hits, runs, and throws with so much smoothness, that everything seems effortless.
4- As far as guys who are way under the radar, I watched Ethan Wilson hit rope after rope sprinkled in with bombs on the practice field. He was a second round pick in 21 I believe but struggled a tad last year. He hit a slam with an impressive exit velocity but I had to do a double take with his launch angle which was akin to a punchers uppercut. You can’t be successful with a launch angle that pronounced. But he hit ropes on the back field. De La Cruz looks like a taller John Mayberry, he’s got to be over 6’6” and normally players this tall have some holes but has made consistent contact. One guy who pitched yesterday, Marte, I believe came over from the Giants org. He threw gas yesterday, hitting 99.
5- @Tom McAndrew, I am not at the game today so I have not seen Painter throw yet. I was not there the day when he threw to Schwarber and I’m bummed I’m missing today. I’ve heard the same reports that everyone has heard. What is impressive is that he is adding pitches. It’s interesting watching former #1 pick Mark Appel throw yesterday. Topped off at 94 which doesn’t get a sniff today. In that period of time, the game changed. No way he’d be a #1 pick throwing 94 today.
1- My biggest interest has been on whether you see a noticeable impact from rule changes. The one thing I saw yesterday was a catcher making a mound visit as the pitch clock was about to expire. Will that be the strategy to sacrifice a mound visit to preserve the count? I haven’t seen any noticeable impact from shift or base size changes.
2- The pace of play is noticeably improved. There are always a lot of pitching changes given pitch count limitations, etc during the spring. Yesterday, game time was 2:28 which is probably at least a half hour shorter. The game moves a lot faster. The one thing that will be reduced is a pitcher holding the ball to force the hitter to call time or the hitter stepping out or calling time to disrupt pitcher rhythm.
3- As far as onfield, not a ton of intrigue as the roster is largely set. Nick seems to be closer to the plate which should allow him to better cover the plate so he won’t be as vulnerable on middle out as he was last year. Bohm made a couple of nice plays yesterday, he seems to be growing into a more confident 3b’ men. Turner is interesting. He just seems to do everything perfectly. He hits, runs, and throws with so much smoothness, that everything seems effortless.
4- As far as guys who are way under the radar, I watched Ethan Wilson hit rope after rope sprinkled in with bombs on the practice field. He was a second round pick in 21 I believe but struggled a tad last year. He hit a slam with an impressive exit velocity but I had to do a double take with his launch angle which was akin to a punchers uppercut. You can’t be successful with a launch angle that pronounced. But he hit ropes on the back field. De La Cruz looks like a taller John Mayberry, he’s got to be over 6’6” and normally players this tall have some holes but has made consistent contact. One guy who pitched yesterday, Marte, I believe came over from the Giants org. He threw gas yesterday, hitting 99.
5- @Tom McAndrew, I am not at the game today so I have not seen Painter throw yet. I was not there the day when he threw to Schwarber and I’m bummed I’m missing today. I’ve heard the same reports that everyone has heard. What is impressive is that he is adding pitches. It’s interesting watching former #1 pick Mark Appel throw yesterday. Topped off at 94 which doesn’t get a sniff today. In that period of time, the game changed. No way he’d be a #1 pick throwing 94 today.
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De La Cruz is supposedly 6’8”. Had a nice play on the weekend snagging a foul ball off the net at 1st. A play Hoskins would never make.
From an article by Scott Lauber in today's Philadelphia Inquirer:
"CLEARWATER, Fla. — Alec Bohm took a 95 mph sinker on the outside corner for a called strike in the second inning Tuesday, hardly the first time in his career that a tough pitch went against him. He shuffled his feet in the batter’s box, almost stepping out, just as he always does.
But then, perhaps with the pitch clock in his peripheral vision, the Phillies third baseman caught himself.
All his life, from high school in Nebraska to college at Wichita State, through the minor leagues and certainly over the last three seasons in the majors, Bohm would have asked the umpire for time, maybe taken a walk around home plate, collected his thoughts, and regrouped for what might be coming next from Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos. Those days are over. Now, under MLB’s new rules, Bohm must be ready to hit with 8 seconds left on a 15-second pitch clock (20 seconds with runners on base).
“It’s fast,” Bohm said after playing in his third exhibition game in four days. “When it’s 15 seconds, it’s only 7 seconds for the hitter. I don’t know why they’re calling it 15 seconds. With nobody on, guys are feeling very rushed.”
MLB’s collectively-bargained message to players: Get used to it. The commissioner’s office has issued a no-tolerance policy in spring training, instructing umpires to enforce the pace-of-play rules to the letter of the law. ..."
From the same article referenced above:
"... The result has been markedly shorter games. Entering play Tuesday, the average spring training game lasted 2 hours, 39 minutes, 22 minutes faster than last year’s 3:01. A total of only six games ran longer than 3 hours, none longer than 3:06. The Phillies’ 7-2 victory Tuesday over the Blue Jays featured 17 hits and eight walks but was played in 2:28, faster than all but four nine-inning regular-season Phillies games last season."
What was funny was the opener (I think) when Marsh was doddling a bit. He then saw he was about to go 0-1 and he literally sprinted to the plate and ripped a single on the fly.
The one guy I think who could step up this year is Brogdon. I think he could be a really important piece to the pen.
The only piece I’m not sure of is OF depth until Harper comes back. They have thought about Sosa helping out there but I don’t know why you would do that. If Sosa could be the depth guy, would it be possible for Kingery to hit himself onto the team?
A lot of potential there. The flip side is that I read somewhere that of their returning bullpen guys, he had the slowest average time between pitches, and as such the clock could impact him more than most. Only time will tell.
That seems to be the biggest unknown on the team. They traded away some OFs, so they could be thin there until Harper returns. I doubt they'd even have Sosa spending time in the OF if they weren't concerned as well. If Marsh can hit lefties as they're hoping, and if Nick can re-find his stroke, then it takes away a lot of the concern there is with the OF until Harper returns.
I watched a few innings of some spring training game and it’s night and day. It seems to me that each half-inning will run one-two minutes shorter, minimum. The players will adjust just fine. I’m seeing the batters leave the box and then get back in within four or five seconds.
FWIW - a sprain is the stretching or tearing or a ligament.
Hopefully rest is the answer and not TJ
Related to Phillies division rival, yikes, Diaz injures knees
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...ng-celebration-of-puerto-ricos-wbc-upset/amp/
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...ng-celebration-of-puerto-ricos-wbc-upset/amp/
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