GDT 3/28/19 Atlanta Braves (Teheran) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Nola)

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Love the new lineup! Nola pitched well in spite of control struggles. Bullpen gave me cause for concern, but hey, it's a win.

[donaldorc]

Nola’s control struggles were directly related to the ump’s inconsistent strike zone.

Sure good to see this win compared to last year’s opening day. The electricity of the crowd had to be energizing for the players. Welcome 2019!

[el-pietro]

Literally my favourite play in all of baseball

[allentown]

That puts us one game ahead of last year.

[zambonir]

NBC10's up to its usual idiocy. JT Realmuto at bat, and they're... talking to a DJ about cheesesteaks. !@##$% What a complete joke. Two outs now, and they have yet to provide ANY PBP coverage.

I'm not much of a Murph/cutaway fan but I think we already know the TV broadcast is for casual fans. And if you don't know who Questlove is (not a DJ), it's definitely not for you.

(But yes, it was literally product placement for his vegan cheesesteaks, which have been making headlines all week, both in general and because they are being sold at CBP.)

On the radio, we now have something called the "Inquirer Home Run Payoff Inning." Not the Daily News. Gotta be a story there...

Surprised it's not just Philly.com at this point. Always a worry that the print DN will go away, and this suggests their resources/branding focus is shifting further to the Inky. But I'm not sure I could tell you who writes for which paper at this point.

[EastFallowfield]

Hard to believe there are 'casual' fans of anything on TV. There are so many choices of shows to watch, if you're tuning in on a weekday afternoon to watch Phillies baseball you probably wanted to watch Phillies baseball.

[LoneStarPhan]

I continued a practice I tried for a couple spring games, watching the TV feed while listening to the WHP radio feed. I have liked it so far. Today, when the camera was covering Murph, I still was in touch with all the game action. I usually also have a Gameday window open to see the progressing action, boxscore, etc.

And of course, another window usually has the game day thread here.

[el-pietro]

I dunno. There will always be casual fans. I was at the game and I was surrounded by casual fans. Fans who didn't know who Cutch or Segura were. They made the effort to go to the game. I'm sure multiples of the crowd today turned the broadcast on.

[zambonir]

There is a difference between non-fans and casual fans. The average age of a baseball fan is 57 years old. TV is not chasing that demographic (which I am certainly in). They are chasing the fans whose sensibility and attention span is formed by Twitter. They want to watch baseball but they also care about Impossible Meat cheesesteaks and Bryce's Phanatic shoes.

Plus, as long as they don't actually fail to show the field of play - which admittedly sometimes happens - I really don't care if I hear less McCarthy, Kruk and Davis. "Play-by-play" is probably a misnomer for TV at this point.

I had to leave my house after Franco's home run and am tempted to watch the rest of the game now. After hoops maybe.

[bkeich]

Hitting Franco 8th the s foolish, hopefully it doesn’t last long. That said, he CRUSHED that HR.

An 8th place hitter needs good pitch recognition and Franco almost defines what you don’t want in that position.

Great 1st game. Not often you see10 runs on 7 hits

Bryce Harper on a pace for 324 strikeouts and a .250 OPS. I assume WIP will go crazy tomorrow

[zambonir]

As we discussed elsewhere he had a 1000+ OPS last year hitting eighth, albeit in limited action (but he was worse to far worse in any other spot). Kapler views it as a way to make him focus. And there's no more Alfaro or Crawford or Kingery (i.e. the worst hitter on the team) to put there.

[julio]

Plus, as long as they don't actually fail to show the field of play - which admittedly sometimes happens - I really don't care if I hear less McCarthy, Kruk and Davis. "Play-by-play" is probably a misnomer for TV at this point.

I can empathize with this. If NBC10 supported a secondary audio program of just an open stadium mike (crowd noise, but no announcers), I would have had that on for at least part of the game (I was away from the TV - working on dinner - with the audio on the laptop for part of the game). But NBC10 doesn't offer that (some broadcasters do, some don't). As it was, I spent most of the game listening to Scott and LA, even though the Gameday Audio feed was a full pitch behind the NBC10 coverage (which we get over-the-air, so no cable system delays). I probably could have corrected that if I had an FM radio handy - WIP over the air is probably well ahead of the Gameday Audio feed.

It was great to have a real game today! And a good outcome, too!

[zambonir]

I'm watching the game again now. I see Questlove also threw out the first pitch. There was a fifth-inning interview with J-Roll that I reallly didn't have a problem with (the action was on the split screen). Was totally worth it to fire up the MLB.TV to watch the Rhys grand slam.

The relievers wouldn't even have appeared in a game like this if it'd been the middle of the season, but since it's Opening Day and a day off, they were first in line to get some work. No, you don't love to see it, but with those kind of leads it doesn't matter (I guess Neris was hoping to get one of his bullpen mates a save but the offense had other ideas).

Also, this sure is a team of unique hair! Dreads or assymetrical trims or both.

[EastFallowfield]

The number of young people who are gonna watch a 3 plus hour baseball game for the chance to see a few minutes with a guy who is on another show that airs 5 nights a week is probably pretty small.

[bkeich]

There was a fifth-inning interview with J-Roll that I reallly didn't have a problem with (the action was on the split screen).

They also announced that JRoll will be in the booth for about 10 games spread out during this year, starting with April 22nd. He has the personality for doing that, having Schmidt on Sundays for the last couple seasons has been nice, get perspectives you don't get to hear from superstars, hopefully this will be similar.

They also said the Dodgers are doing the same type of thing with Utley. That might not be as exciting, he is a pretty quiet guy, not sure announcer is necessarily in his future, but who knows, maybe he is more vocal in this role.

[andyb]

The 8th spot in the order is not that bad for Franco. A power guy rather than an OBP guy that will walk often before the pitcher is probably a better fit. And Franco has a low K rate for a power hitter which is what you want in the 8th hole. He is actually a fairly familiar type of 8th hitter even though his track record is better than average there. He will also see his walks increase when he is pitched around, but that will happen to anybody.

[bkeich]

He will also see his walks increase when he is pitched around, but that will happen to anybody.

That is where I think you are incorrect. He isnt easy to pitch around, he swings at low outside pitches and can be fooled by them. Teams will use that against him with the knowledge that there is little downside to walking him with the pitcher up next (at least a couple times a game).

It is much better to have a guy with plate discipline enough to not swing at pitches out of the strike zone consistently.

I think what we will see is that Franco is not getting pitches to hit in many situations and reverts to his "swing wildly" persona. He doesnt strike out much and he doesnt walk much, he puts the ball in play, and when he does that on bad pitches he doesnt make good contact.

I would much rather see Hernandez hitting 8th, who will work the count, accept the walk and key in on certain pitches to try and drive them. My fear is that Franco will get frustrated not seeing strikes and expand his already questionable strike zone judgement.

In the 7 spot Franco is more likely to see people on base and will get more pitches to hit which is when he excels.

[tom81]

I think part of Franco’s problem was putting too much pressure on himself trying to do too much with a weak offense around him. Hitting in the 8 hole with this lineup will be totally different psychologically.

I also think he will have a lot of guys on base hitting 8th with Herrera and Hernandez hitting in front of him.

He will also have the pitch hitter hitting behind him at times.

[julio]

In the 7 spot Franco is more likely to see people on base and will get more pitches to hit which is when he excels.

I don't think this is correct. Your assumption is that the 5 and 6 hitters (Realmuto and Herrera) with Franco hitting 7 will collectively have higher OBP than the 6 and 7 hitters (Herrera and Hernandez) with Franco hitting 8? Or are you positing that Herrera and Hernandez are jointly more effective at clearing out baserunners (e.g., SLG), than Realmuto and Herrera?

I agree that Hernandez would probably be better at turning over the lineup than Franco. But that's at the cost of his seeing fewer baserunners.

I confess I was lukewarm on Franco in the 8-hole. But when you look at it slightly differently... Herrera-Hernandez-Franco could well have been this club's best 1-2-3 hitters about two years ago. What Kapler is doing here is essentially taking that "second division" top of the order, and installing it at the bottom of the order, behind the Phils' new Murderer's Row (McCutchen-Segura-Harper-Hoskins-Realmuto).

And no, I wouldn't swap Herrera and Hernandez, either. If you just wanted to "start over" in the six-hole, you might do that (higher OBP first)...but Herrera plays two roles in the six-hole; he's both the beginning of the "bottom order" OBP to SLG arrangement, and carries enough SLG to help pick up baserunners who aren't driven in by 3-4-5.

I like the lineup. And I especially like that we're debating whether to use our former leadoff man or our former cleanup guy in the 7 and 8 holes, respectively!

[andyb]

Franco's relatively low strikeout rate is a sign that his plate discipline isn't horrendous though. When they are pitching around him he'll take his walks like anyone else. Cesar has a higher K rate.