GDT 4/11/22 New York Mets (Walker, T) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Suárez, R)

[Jeff05]

MLB drops regular COVID tests; can move games

Major League Baseball eliminates regular COVID-19 testing

[zambonir]

Well, it says "all but symptomatic individuals." And every person I know with flu or cold symptoms lately has COVID (though I realize some of these guys have also actually had t the flu).

[Austinfan]

Nick Nelson was a revelation.
92-96 with the Yankees, but up to 98 tonight.
Curveball was supposed to be his best pitch, but relied heavily on his change.

[fish]

Watching Bohm butcher 3rd with no iota of improvement over 3 years and hearing the club keep patting him on the back and supporting him to “get him through it” feels like reliving the money ball scene where they tell Scott Hattiburg that playing first is “not that hard’. They have to stop putting so much value on ‘wanting’ him to be ok there rather than believing he can.

They can’t possibly put him out there again and think the results will be different. There can’t possibly be another person in baseball outside of the Phillies org that thinks he can. Love the guy’s hitting potential, but please. And his emotions are going to dig a far bigger hole.

[phillychuck]

fish,

That game was not a typical Bohm game at 3B; it was clearly by far the worst game he has played in the field.

The Phils clearly believe that he needs to figure out how to play 3B for his bat to "play" on a good team. They might be wrong about that, but it is clear that's what they believe.

His main problem is throwing; he is to 3B what post-yips Steve Sax was to 2B. I don't know if throwing accuracy is fixable at this point in a career. If you watch him playing catch before games, he has accuracy problems even in that setting where there is no pressure and he can take the time to have perfect footwork.

[andyb]

Regarding Bohm I would say that Hoskins is not helping him that much. He seems less mobile these days and sometimes his move to step back into the baseline to catch a high throw seems weird. A better 1B would help Bohm immensely (and at some points maybe that should be Bohm if injuries change the rotation a bit). Right now Schwarber and Castellanos will rotate most of the time at DH, but if there is any injury to the corner positions then Hoskins could DH more.

Yesterday that poor decision to throw on the first error (the slow roller) made everything spiral for Bohm. He does have a mechanical hitch though that should be fixable. He always takes an unnecessarily large hop to set himself before he throws. If he settles that down he will use his base more and be more consistent. That is something Dickerson can work on.

The best Phillies team by the end of the year might be Bohm at 3B with defense that is merely below average paired with Stott at SS where he is better than Didi. That is a future worth working towards potentially.

[zambonir]

Watching Bohm butcher 3rd with no iota of improvement over 3 years

I think it's a stretch to say he's been doing this for 3 years. Still doesn't even have a single season worth of starts (137 games, 10 of which were not at 3B). Missed a whole half-year of what should have been AAA or a real rookie season and then couldn't work with anyone this off-season.

That's not to say it's going to work out for him at 3B, but the Phillies have closed off all other avenues for him. And if he hits, he's not going to be any worse than the last guy (who somehow has also stuck at 3B in part because the bat was never good enough to be anywhere else).