2020 Phillies Spring Training News, Notes & Discussion

[phillychuck]

How can they cancel spring training? It will take them weeks to ramp up once the virus restrictions pass...? Are they not considering just playing the games in empty stadiums or on back fields?

[andyb]

I assume that would mean they have already decided to postpone the start of the season but have not figured out their exact contingency plans yet. Silver lining - we do need to manage Spencer Howard's innings.....

[el-pietro]

So when MLB officially suspends the season the team with the best record at the time would be World Champions right.... I wonder who has the best Spring record this year...?

[bigegypt0417]

Once the NBA made their choice, it was a matter of time until all other leagues had to react.

MLB season will more than likely not start until late April if not May according to Bob Nightengale.

[bkox]

Jake Arrieta leaves the game in the 4th inning. Walked off with the trainer

[julio]

Ken Rosenthal on Twitter

[Philsmania]

Silver linings--McCutchen may now be ready for Opening Day and Arrieta may get over whatever he tweaked yesterday.

[David_Criss]

So does this basically give Pivetta/Velasquez/Suarez a do over? Will all the bullpen and bench candidates basically start over when they let them play again as far as competition goes or will they have to set the roster immediately? Hoping for a lot of double headers this Summer.

[andyb]

One has to think the season will have a quick ramp up with expanded rosters for a few weeks. Maybe the Phillies should do tandem starts for everyone except Nola and Wheeler?

[allentown]

Why? They are not magically immune to arm woes. Nola has already had elbow issues. None of these guys is going to be ready to pitch without a significant ST equivalent.

[andyb]

I did not say they should tax them with major innings. Even Nola and Wheeler should have shorter starts. I am just more comfortable with them going 5 or 6 than anyone else. And if we have a 15-pitcher starting staff then we can target 3-4 inning tandem starts for Arrieta, Eflin, Pivetta, Velasquez, Suarez and one more (Irvin or Liriano to start?).

Shorter starts seems a better strategy to me if they start with a 10-day training camp than longer starts, even if they went to a 6-man rotation.

[allentown]

I realize that. I'm saying it is an extreme injury risk for Nola and Wheeler to come back from a significant layoff, with minimal pseudo-ST, and throw 5-6 innings. That would be an invitation to injury. It is going to take 2-3 weeks to safely prepare for resumption of the season. Some guys will find a way to continue to stay in baseball shape during the shutdown, but many won't. It's far more dangerous for pitchers than for position players.

[andyb]

They would still get the normal ramp up. They hopefully won't be starting from scratch and would still have time for like 3 exhibition starts. 20-40-60 pitches or something like that. Then when games start they are already in the 70-80 pitch range. That could be 5-6 innings for Nola and 3 for Velasquez....

[zambonir]

I would think they have spring training at the MLB ballparks. Though that's a burden on some teams geography-wise as far as having opponents. PLay some games against AAA clubs too.

[Austinfan]

Remember Bystrom?

[LoneStarPhan]

Seems to me that they will need two to three weeks of exhibition games before starting the season. But these are strange times and who knows what they may end up doing. It certainly is possible that the season will be lost.

[zambonir]

I guess the question is when does it become so short that it is not even worth doing? Assuming the better-case scenario, that is. But they could still do some kind of super-compressed, almost soccer-like 30-team tournament.

It's pretty darn interesting to wonder how this affects player pay, no way to know for now. But crazy to think that just a few weeks ago they were worried about maybe missing out on a couple of months salary and now it's not out of the question that it's the entire season.

[zambonir]

Well, if we're "sticking to sports" in the sports thread I guess this counts as (non)-news.

Everything in Phillies' world is on pause, even Realmuto contract talks

Obviously there is no rush, they literally can't finalize/announce the deal until the new baseball season starts, and however this year's salaries and service time issues are resolved could also affect the overall picture.

It also says the union and MLB are still deciding if March 19 opt-outs are enforceable. Seems moot, really.

[Philsmania]

If they can't get started by June 8 and play a 108 game season, I say bag it. Otherwise, it's just essentially a tournament, not a season and whoever wins the World Series will forever have an asterisk.

[phillychuck]

I don't want them to bag it no matter how long the season is. We'll need the distraction once this stuff is over. Make it a short season and a seeded tournament--that would be fun. Why should we care about an asterisk?