2020 Phillies Spring Training News, Notes & Discussion

[Austinfan]

The fistbump and handshake are unlikely to be a major issue.
Nor actually playing outdoors, or practice for that matter.
The danger spots are indoors without masks, clubhouse, sneaking off to bars without a mask, etc.

[andyb]

Reading the articles about the pitching staff's readiness, I think Cole Irvin is somewhat surprisingly going to be a key figure in the early going. We have found that he had some success in a 2-inning middle relief role last year and with starters only going 4 or 5 innings that will be really important in the early going. Remember Nola is getting a late start and Wheeler will miss a start or two early.

I am guessing this is enough to leave Velasquez in the rotation. Nola, Wheeler, Arrieta, Velasquez, Eflin/Pivetta at the moment. Eflin (back spasms) has yet to throw so he is also behind. Irvin though seems to be the pitcher that threw a lot in the down time and is closest to in-season form. Not sure I would start him. But I think I pencil him in for 2 innings every 3 or 4 games.

If they hold Howard back the first week he logically takes the first start that Wheeler misses and then someone at the back end of the rotation goes to the bullpen when Wheeler is back.

How ready will Phillies pitchers be for critical opening...

[zambonir]

That is probably true - the focus on changing baseballs and not lettiing them throw around the horn is probably also misplaced - but it is a cumulative thing.

Is this clubhouse even going be open before and after games (except briefly)? Obviously it will have to hold fewer people but if players are meant to arrive in uniform, not shower on the the premises and work out at various other locations around the stadium, they certainly won't be spending two hours in there doing their pregame routines (let alone watching TV and kibitzing).

[el-pietro]

Phillies playing the Phillies tonight and it has been broadcast on the teams social media and website.
This has been a lot of fun. Kingery batted for both teams, and kept swinging even after four balls in his most recent at bat. There are coaches and staffers in the field at this point. Some innings had 4 and 5 outs.
The broadcast team is Tom McCarthy and Kevin Frandsen and its.... good? I dont care much for McCarthy and maybe it's just the casual nature of this game but I have enjoyed this more than anything from him in a long time.

On the game itself Vince and Wheeler looked sharp. Kingery hit a homer. There have been a lot of players and I don't remember much to be honest.

[Philsmania]

I think a big part of McCarthy's problem is that he is one of those "nice guy but a dork" types and when people like that try to be cool and funny, it usually ends up being cringeworthy.

[zambonir]

I see Les did not care for the broadcast in his thread. It's perfectly understandable that the broadcast would be no more serious than the action on the field.

I feel like McCarthy is just kind of milquetoast (and of course his pipes just aren't as good as Harry's or even Jim Jackson's IMO), it makes sense he might be more fun when you're not relying on him to anchor a serious PBP. And also that Frandsen would be the best color guy (I don't care for Davis and Kruk is only good in small doses IMO).

[el-pietro]

I think a lot of the things Les had issues with were things McCarthy and Frandsen couldn't control. They said themselves that they have not been able to see much of the players in action due to the current restrictions. While they could definitely be more diligent in reaching out for information from the team there are going to have limits until they can see players with their own eyes.
It was also very clearly not a serious broadcast. The graphics had the inning and the score and nothing more, and several times McCarthy would be ready to call the end of the inning only for a decision to be made on the field to have them go another batter, or the inning would end abruptly after a player got on base.
It was nice to have baseball back on the screen even if what we got didn't resemble an actual major league game too closely.

I would definitely like to see (hear?) more of Frandsen on the TV broadcast after last night, he has a sort of boundless enthusiasm that is often missing from baseball coverage. Of course in a real game, or over the course of a season that might loose some of its charm, but maybe they could have him do an inning or so once in a while to see how the audience feels about him. I don't mind Kruk so much, hes authentic, but he really doesn't want to be there most of the time and gets more excited about the food than he does about the baseball.

Of course, this is a selfish request as I rarely listen to the radio broadcast.

[zambonir]

You gotta wonder how the PR staff and front office is even getting good information, they can't be be down there in the thick of it either! This was probably closer to the stream we usually get when the Phillies play their college exhibition game to open spring training than an MLB broadcast. Just a few more days until a real game, amazingly!

Depending on the device and version of the app, as we've certainly discussed before, you can overlay the radio broadcast onto the TV broadcast, so I do that sometimes. I generally also watch the Mets announcers, and sometimes check out a few others. It's a pretty short list of other team's announcers that I'd actually want to hear, but there's a few.

[el-pietro]

I'll have to try and see if I can get that working this year actually. My favourite thing about the radio broadcast is that I get the local commercials which are hilarious to me, in their local/amateur nature. I'm sure part of it is cultural, if an American saw/heard our commercials they would find things we are used to completely normal. Whenever I'm in the US i'm continually shocked at the amount of commercials for medical products that are broadcast, "Ask your doctor if [Drug Name] is right for you, side effects may include memory loss, blindness, permanent left handedness and death". We never get anything like that beyond over the counter drugs like decongestants.

I should also try out other teams announcers but the ones I've tried in the past are just as annoying as our crew but at least our crew are our crew!

I am far too excited for a season I do not believe will be finished, it makes no sense, but I can't wait for opening day.

[zambonir]

I should also try out other teams announcers but the ones I've tried in the past are just as annoying as our crew but at least our crew are our crew!

The Mets are really a quality group. Particularly Ron Darling and Gary Cohen but Keith Hernandez as well, arguably he and Ron are the two very best ex-players. I still have a soft spot for Gary Thorne from old NHL days, he now does the Orioles (and some people hate him). Jon Miller is another guy I mostly know from national (Giants) who's just a solid old-school PBP guy, and Duane Kuiper is also revered in SF.

Todd Kalas is with the Astros now but I haven't heard him much. Yankees and Braves guys unbearable. Current Marlins announcer actually someone I went to college with, will have to check out (he was previously with some other teams).

It's too bad Lidge doesn't want the grind, he seems like he would have been good at it. Stairs also had potential to be more insightful while also still being the comic ex-player relief.

[el-pietro]

Keith Hernandez

This is the same Keith Hernandez from Seinfeld right? It bugs me that they got the game wrong that day, the Phillies were in Montreal and the Mets were in Pittsburgh. Its such a small thing but they could have just checked to make sure the teams were right. The Phillies played a 4 game series in Shea just 5 days later!

I'll definitely check out a couple of Mets broadcasts, should be plenty of opportunities if they play the games. I've heard some clips of one of the Yankees broadcasters, not sure if its the radio or TV guy but his home run calls are ridiculous and contrived. They show them in between innings on MLB tv. I'm sure its the kind of thing that is fun because hes been doing it so long but no one could introduce something like that today and get away with it. Maybe I find them annoying because theres a limited selection of clips that get repeated over and over. I'm honestly sick of hearing "In the year of the improbably, the impossible has happened" at this point.

Stairs has probably been the best colour guy the Phils have had since they moved away from Wheeler and Sarge, but they gave him the hitting coach job and he couldn't really go back to the booth after that. I have a vague memory of enjoying Moyer too but I might be transposing my feelings for him as a player onto him as a broadcaster. Rollins was pretty good in limited exposure last year too, though I think he had a tendency to talk across some of the home run calls which might work once or twice but would get frustrating very quickly and alienate his colleagues. Probably something he would learn to solve pretty quickly.

[LoneStarPhan]

I missed the scrimmage last night but have been watching some tonight. Clearly not a serious game, just practice, and now the field is populated with non-players. Cameras covering this must also be limited to a fraction of what is used in real game broadcasts. Cutch hit one off the wall in right and was thrown out at second. Camera never left Nick Williams in right. I fully expect the broadcasts to improve significantly by the end of the week when the opponent will be another team.

As for crowd noise, extremely annoying to the broadcast. I do not remember it being an annoyance in the past. Seriously, no need for distracting background noise on the broadcast feed.

[David_Criss]

Larry Anderson and John Kruk calling Spring Training games a few years back were a hoot. I remember once when Kruk filled in for Anderson for one inning. Anderson comes back and says what the he$%% did Kruk do to my scorebook? He has can't remember the player's name ending the inning with a walk. And then yells at Kruk playfully throughout the inning while he is in the vicinity asking if he has ever kept score, if he has ever seen a baseball game, etc. And Kruk says the beer was unlimited in your booth.....I didn't watch to much of the inning I just called.

[julio]

Larry Anderson and John Kruk calling Spring Training games a few years back were a hoot. I remember once when Kruk filled in for Anderson for one inning. Anderson comes back and says what the he$%% did Kruk do to my scorebook? He has can't remember the player's name ending the inning with a walk. And then yells at Kruk playfully throughout the inning while he is in the vicinity asking if he has ever kept score, if he has ever seen a baseball game, etc. And Kruk says the beer was unlimited in your booth.....I didn't watch to much of the inning I just called.

I’ll just observe that when the radio announcers start carrying on like this, I tend to just turn it off. I expect an account of the on-field action, not “entertainment.” I guess I’m old-fashioned. I also tend to treat Gregg Murphy’s interruptions on TV telecasts as opportunities to hit the fridge...

[zambonir]

Anyone who likes baseball enough to post here doesn't need to be "entertained," but we're not the demographic NBC is after.

The crowd noise didn't bother me for the few minutes I checked it out. I think ghostly quiet would be bizarre, though it would be great if we could hear the player chatter (which has been the case with ESPN's MLS games). Not sure it would be great for the players though!

[tom81]

I really like having Quinn hitting second after McCutchen and before Harper. Harper will drive in a ton of runs with those two in front of him.

[Lawman]

Anyone who likes baseball enough to post here doesn't need to be "entertained," but we're not the demographic NBC is after.

Kalas and Ashburn. The sounds of silence over the radio airwaves.

[zambonir]

Yup. And in a few more years there won't even be anyone enjoying a "Murph" segment who's old enough to have heard them.

[BostonRoss]

Yup. And in a few more years there won't even be anyone enjoying a "Murph" segment who's old enough to have heard them.

That’s alarming. Some of those people are in their thirties!

[julio]

If Tom McCarthy dropped dead in the broadcast booth, what do you think the reaction would be from the fan base, or from the population of the Delaware Valley in general?

How many people - apart from his own immediate family - would reflect back on his passing 23 years later, and sense their eyes becoming moister?

I enjoy LA - but frankly, F&F (Franzke and Frandsen) have the potential to engender real long-term loyalty in the fan base. McCarthy, Murphy, Davis, Kruk, etc.... do not.

Why? Because they love the game, and it shows - and they're more in love with the game than with themselves.