2023 Phils Spring Training News and Discussion

[bkeich]

(Competitive?) Baseball in 4 hours. This should be a fun season.

[kmc1019]

So I happen to serve as an officer in the Navy Reserves (24 years now, time flies) as well as commanding officer of a unit. Different units have different rhythms and schedules, and the maxim of "one weekend per month, two weeks per year" rarely works out that cleanly.
There are plenty of tools and flexibility that a unit leader has at his/her disposal to work with an individual member's schedule, especially around a member's civilian job - which in Song's case just happens to be a professional baseball player. In all likelihood the unit and the Navy will work with Song to formulate a win-win schedule and individual training plan for him and he would not miss much, if any, baseball time.

[andyb]

Our Commander in Chief is a Phillies fan too. They'll work it out.

Let's just hope he is good enough to make it an issue that needs to be solved.

[zambonir]

Seems like the President can take or leave the Phililes but the First Lady might take an interest!

That all makes sense. It seems like in the old days the deferrals were just made until after their pro careers, even. Whatever happened to that bill that was before Congress. It had been revised to grandfather in players like Song who were already expecting the opportunity but would stop future service academy players from going pro.

[andyb]

Let's play ball!

For the home (TV game) Phillies have scheduled McArthur, Y. Marte, Head, Bowden, Morales and Baker to pitch after Nelson. Prospect watchers will see Gabe Rincones and Ethan Wilson in OF later innings.

— Matt Gelb ( @MattGelb ) February 25, 2023

[LoneStarPhan]

In the home game, Phillies have 8 hits and a walk in the first three innings, but only have two runs. Marsh just walked to lead off the fourth. He is now 2 for 2 with a walk in three trips to the plate. Absolutely meaningless except it is great to see him getting on base.

TV broadcast interviewed Marsh after he left the game following the half inning.

Feels good to have live baseball back.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

And in Lakeland, Jhailyn Ortiz hits into a triple play!

[LoneStarPhan]

And in Lakeland, Jhailyn Ortiz hits into a triple play!

Looks like it was the the top of the 7th. Phillies had tied game on a two run double by Hicks and had two on and no outs. As best as I can tell from the Gameday, it looks like it was a routine double play followed by throw home to nail Hicks attempting to score. The catcher for Detroit was former Phillies back up catcher, Andrew Knapp. Phillies end up losing to the Tigers, 4-2 on a two run home run off Jewell in the bottom of the 7th.

In the other game, the Phillies win over the Yankees, 7-4. Weston Wilson had a two run homer, two run double and a walk to lead the offense early. Seven pitchers gave the Phillies a scoreless inning, including the final four innings, which were hitless, walkless shut down innings. The Phillies took the lead with two runs in the 7th, an inning where they did not have a hit. De La Cruz had a solo home run into the grass seating area in center in the 8th.

[bkeich]

Weston Wilson making a "I am your best player" case for day 1. I am watching a recording, but in the 4th inning he had as a HR, Double and all 4 RBI's the team has.

[bkeich]

De La Cruz with an easy swing HR to dead center, easily 30 feet past the fence. Ball really "popped" off his bat.

[andyb]

Definitely an easy swing.

What a moonshot by Carlos De La Cruz pic.twitter.com/Cs2lrMWFF7

— Phillies Player Development ( @PhilsPlayerDev ) February 25, 2023

Baker here. Video all breaking balls but he was 97-99 and adding a cutter at 94. Really good chance he is in the second half bullpen.

A 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks from @bakeshow___ today! pic.twitter.com/gZ0KQFFM2K

— Phillies Player Development ( @PhilsPlayerDev ) February 25, 2023

[fish]

De La Cruz with an easy swing HR to dead center, easily 30 feet past the fence. Ball really "popped" off his bat.

He looks like he’s added 30 lbs of muscle over the last 2 years. Certainly has the tools to be special.

Baker was a different kind of pitcher today- he was curveball heavy- I’ve seen him throw good curves in the past but without any consistency , but today he was landing that 83 mph curve pretty consistently plus-plus. His fastball was 98 but he wasn’t locating that well. I think he threw a 94 mph cutter as frequently as his fastball- I don’t remember seeing that from him before. Needs work but at that velo, it’ll play.

[LoneStarPhan]

De La Cruz with an easy swing HR to dead center, easily 30 feet past the fence. Ball really "popped" off his bat.

Also made a catch of a foul ball, leaning into the stands down the right field side just past the net for an out in the ninth. He was playing first base.

Of the pitchers I saw against the Yankees, Nelson, McArthur, Head, Morales, Baker, Cobb, and Cruz pitched scoreless innings. Baker got the win. He had two Ks and an infield pop up in the 3 batters he faced. A couple of these pitchers likely see some action with the big club before the end of this season.

[andyb]

Cutter is reportedly new for Baker. I think the Alvarado plan for really hard throwing relievers is an organization wide plan now. That does not mean he will drop the other pitches yet like Alvarado has done for the most part. I assume they keep their options open and figure out what he can locate consistently.

[zambonir]

Not Phillies but still relevant to spring training in general.

Pitch clock violation with bases loaded ends game

[julio]

Good. It’s important that these violations be called in the spring, so the players can learn they have to take the rule changes seriously. A lot’s of them likely won’t really absorb the lesson until they’re personally embarrassed; better that happen in the spring than when the games count.

[Aquapong]

Ahhh Spring Training. When every prospect is a god for a few weeks and hope springs eternal.

[phillychuck]

Weston Wilson in the early lead for league MVP. Career 240-ish hitter in the minors with average power. You always harbor a really remote hope that K Long has found something in his approach that would enable him to be a positive WAR player...utility type; don't know if he can play CF--according to fangraphs he's played 1 inning there. Mostly an infielder.

[LoneStarPhan]

Another TV game out of Clearwater today. Twins square off against the Phillies. Sure is great getting early TV coverage of the Phillies.

Suggestion I would offer for the TV folks is to include the pitch clock on the status line that is always on the screen. They have been flashing it on the lower left periodically. Frankly, this is very distracting. Put the clock on screen regularly on the summary line already on screen most of the time. Now they have the team logos with their current score, under which is information on the pitcher (name, pitch count, batter, etc.), to the right of this is the box with the bases that show runners on and below that, the inning, and to the right of that, the number of outs and the count. Put a similar size box as the last two with the pitch clock shown all the time. Like it or not, this is now a significant part of the game. The way our TV broadcast is handling this is simply NOT satisfactory. Get this covrage better now before the season starts.

[schillingfan]

So happy to have baseball back again! I’m used to lazy Sunday afternoon watching football or baseball!