GDT 4/3/23 Philadelphia Phillies (Walker, T) @ New York Yankees (Cortes)

[HopeSpringsEternal]

And the Orioles shutout the Rangers tonight in Texas, 2-0. Rangers only got 1 hit.

[LoneStarPhan]

And the Orioles shutout the Rangers tonight in Texas, 2-0. Rangers only got 1 hit.

The Rangers I have known for years here in Texas are back.

[Austinfan]

Walker showed really good stuff, 4 seamer 95-96 at the top of the zone.
Problem was his command was off, especially his splitter.
If they can fix that, he's got the stuff to be a solid #3.

[gmwannabe]

I have only watched parts of the first 4 games. As much as I love baseball I'm having a hard time getting back into it. Nothing can match that excitement we had last year when we were hanging on every pitch. I'll get there soon, hopefully, with the warmer weather showing up. it just won't be the same. I think the Phils will really miss Hoskins this year. for all of his short comings in the field, his bat far out weighed those. his presence in the line up was a big part of the Phils success. and obviously missing Harper for half the season is crushing. How can you replace Harper's and Hoskins 60-70 homers in the lineup ? hopefully turner will be a big part of that but after him, even if Casty reverts back to form, they are missing a lot. Jake Cave?? I doubt it. A full season of Marsh and Sosa? probably not. the pitching will round into shape. not worried about wheeler and AF was right about walker. from what I saw last night his stuff did look good. Nola should be good again, but I'm pretty happy the Phils did not give him his huge contract yet. We'll see. I'll get into it soon but as of now the memories of last year are still fresh and it's tough to move on to a new season.
gm
gm

[zambonir]

Nothing can match that excitement we had last year when we were hanging on every pitch.

If you mean the playoffs, well, yeah, but that's baseball. As for last season itself, April and May were miserable and September wasn't all that great either,

I'm as worried about the pitching as the hitters I think, but agreed that if Castellanos doesn't turn back into his 2021 self and Marsh (and Stott) don't make significant advances you simply don't have a good enough team without Hoskins and Harper, even with Turner and if Schwarber gets back to normal. Without pitching, though - if Nola, Wheeler and Suarez are simply headed for down years after last year's usage - you can't even hope for repeat of last year.

But for now, we have to assume they'll come home and win some games and they have some time to get their act together before facing division rivals.

[andyb]

They really need Darick Hall to step up and give them some middle of the lineup power. I was hoping he would improve some (and he does look like he has a better 2-strike approach now), but they really need somebody to do damage. As we have noted, the peripherals from last year for him were not great with a high K rate, low OBP, and the majority of his home runs against really bad teams or position players.

Making Bohm or Schwarber/Castellanos the full time 1B and calling up Kingery to go with more speed and defense all around has got to be an option to think about. Let's hope Hall turns it around and they do not have to go there.

[Austinfan]

Both Hall and Bohm look like better hitters.
Hall isn't trying to pull everything, and Bohm looks like he might take that next step.
Castellanos is being more selective, but still has a way to go.
Marsh looks less hapless against LH pitching.
Sosa looks good.

It's early, and sometimes it's just the pitcher, Cortez throws low 90s 4 seamers at the top of the K-zone that look so hittable, and the Phillies hitters couldn't resist - but they struggled to square up on those pitches.

[bkeich]

Sadly, one of our better games so far. Dominguez had a great game to get his ERA down to 36.