Phillies Off-Season 2024-2025 (Part 2 including Spring Training)

[zambonir]

For sure Wilson's option might leave him on the fringe at least to start. Rojas as your 4th OF and RHB, Clemens as the LHB who is more of an IF. Or Mercado instead of Wilson and Clemens as the guy you hope gets a big PH regardless of platoon side. I don't think they would let Wilson near CF, they never played Hays there even though he has (and so has Kepler). Stevenson played it some last year IIRC. Of course they also had Pache. Mercado has been good defensively in CF over his career.

From the story below:

“My mindset is there’s some strategy to it for regular season,” Thomson said. “Spring training, there’s guys that are fighting for a job, a Wes Wilson, those guys that are really battling for that last spot. If you need to use it in the first inning, go ahead and use it. If they’re going to punch you out and you think it’s a ball, use it.”

Phillies will get their first look at robot umps in spring games: ‘There is some...

[allentown]

Or it could simply be a continuation of the Phillies attempt to emulate the Dodgers success with fairly extreme positional flexibility among several position players.

[zambonir]

I assume you are being sarcastic given the limited success stories there. But really this is nothing with nothing, standard utility IF stuff (Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis and Michael Martinez all played CF a few times, and Bruntlett the OF). And they said all the same stuff last year about Sosa (CF in spring training, LF after Turner got healthy) without it ever happening.

[Austinfan]

You want guys to have this flexibility in case of emergency, break glass and put Sosa in the OF.
Say Castellanos got injured in the 6th inning after you pinched hit with Marsh.

I wouldn't read much more into it, with a 5 man bench, bench players have to play multiple positions.

[BostonRoss]

I like having Rojas on the bench since he has some skills that other players, including starters, don't have--namely defense and speed.

[zambonir]

I wouldn't read much more into it, with a 5 man bench, bench players have to play multiple positions.

A four man bench, even! (And one of them is a catcher.)

I think it's pretty likely Rojas is the 4th OF and the truth is in a true CF emergency they should probably just play Kepler or Turner (with Wilson in LF or Sosa or Stott at SS). But they also tried Kingery and Dalton Guthrie in CF. Even Nick Maton got 10 games at the corner OF spots in 2022. It's just part of defensive utility guy's job.

Assuming good health and no changes to the 40 I guess we could bet on which is more likely, Kyle Schwarber playing multiple games at 1B or Sosa getting even one start in CF.

[Austinfan]

About even. Sosa is more likely to play 3B and Bohm moving to 1B to rest Harper.
Unless Rojas is optioned, Sosa will only play CF in an emergency. They'd probably try Wilson first if he makes the team.

[zambonir]

They wouldn't try Wilson, they'd use Kepler and play Wilson in LF. An actual IL injury to Kepler or Marsh and Mercado probably comes up.

Hey we have another guy with CF experience, the 1B

[zambonir]

Didn't see that one coming

Phillies will give former prospect Kelly Dugan ‘a second chance’ with spring...

This is really just for a documentary he's been making with Mike Tollin, who has that kind of juice.

[andyb]

It helps to have a filmmaker father. 1180 OPS last year in Grand Junction but not sure the league quality is that good and altitude probably helped.

[zambonir]

Yeah I'm sure if Dugan played for Clearwater exclusively he'd be great. Pioneer League used be low A, perhaps it's a tick better now if they have more Indy vet types.

If he just stays in camp for a week or is actually signed to a minor league deal as a AAAA guy, the director gets his ending/extra scenes. And if he goes 0-4 in his only game in ST they also get their ending.

[allentown]

I remember watching Dugan at Reading and know what an excellent season he had in the lower minors at age 21. He played well at Reading, not nearly as well as he did at Lakewood but quite well. He couldn't seem to stay healthy. I think it something of a con to talk of a 'comeback'. He never made the majors and basically had 2 plus have seasons in AA (one in Reading, once outside Phillies org) and two okay AA half season. A big letdown after how good he was a Lakewood. He's 34 now and hasn't played in the official minor leagues since he was 26. I was a Phillies Today subscriber at the time and after following his Lakewood year in A ball couldn't wait to see him at Reading. We did see him once in Lakewood. I think he was a real talent.

[zambonir]

It is basically a reality TV show storyline.

[bkeich]

First Spring Trainjng game today at 1pm. Some teams have already played and (in a clear sign of how far baseball has fallen) there is very little “news” or “hype” about it.

I guess Football Season really is over. Sad, that was freaking great.

[zambonir]

No TV for either team today, too bad. I haven't felt like Phillies coverage has been lacking from the Inquirer or Athetic though. It timed out perfectly, a mere 7 days from parade to first pitch. Early spring training games have never been hyped. Have you seen our starting pitcher today?

[bkeich]

No TV for either team today, too bad. I haven't felt like Phillies coverage has been lacking from the Inquirer or Athetic though. It timed out perfectly, a mere 7 days from parade to first pitch. Early spring training games have never been hyped. Have you seen our starting pitcher today?

No, I haven’t heard who pitches. But I did notice that you can now make Bets FROM the ESPN site. Yea, that is a feature I really like, anyone who bets on Spring Training Baseball games gets what they deserve .

Where you thinking over or under 10.5 runs, I am going over since hitters are always ahead of pitchers early? And betting on it is (apparently) very important to “sports fans”. Apparently I am making great progress on being a crotchety old…

[phillychuck]

A long time ago when I was young it was really pretty hard to place a bet if you didn't run in the "right" circles. Now you get slammed by betting ads on nearly every sporting event you watch on TV. Someone is paying for those ads, I would surmise that the gambling companies are draining a lot of dollars from the betting public and I'm not sure it's at all a good thing. And, stay away from props and parlays...

Personally, I have a hard time putting my money down on a sporting event. I will play pools and fantasy leagues with friends (no percentage 'rake' off the top), but I've seen a few friends ruin their lives running up gambling debts.

It seems almost immoral to me watching some of these commercials where the theme apparently is "what are you betting on today?" Gambling is a regressive tax.

[julio]

Gambling is a regressive tax.

Well, it's only a "tax" if the house that's sponsoring the gambling is a government at some level (lotteries, etc.). If it's private... that's just another part of capitalism; in this case, selling the dream of winnings that may not (and in the long run, will not) materialize.

No TV today, but mlb.com says the game will be on WIP. Listening to Scott Franzke is almost like having Harry back.

[allentown]

And private betting sites pay out a largely fraction of the money bet by their customers than government lotteries do. Even mobsters paid out a significantly higher percentage than the governments do and winnings from them are seldom taxed as opposed to almost all gross (as opposed to net, leaving out those who keep great records for potential tax purposes) are taxed with government lotteries. Governments even try to disguise your spending on the lottery as a sort of charitable (although not tax deductible) event -- see PA's famous 'all proceeds benefit senior citizens'.

[zambonir]

The funny thing is most of these books still aren't making real money (like most internet companies). ESPN and Fanatics are trying to catch up to Fanduel and Draftkings, and most of the legacy/casinos have already lost their hold on the biz except where they are partnered with one of those. Even the Big Two are still giving away too much money on sign-up bonuses and marketing, and a lot of states aren't happy with their tax receipts.

If you are betting on spring training you are either a professional gambler or a problem gambler (or both, if you're not a successful professional gambler). Or you're like me who just bets for fun and sees the losses as being from the same entertainment budget as a game ticket or restaurant dinner (I do not bet on spring training, or hardly any individual baseball games for that matter).

It's kind of funny to think that Disney is in the gambling business now. And sort of reassuring that Michael Rubin had to sell his share of the Sixers for Fanatics to get into it. Kind of doubt that will last, I would bet (ha) that the new Sixers/Flyers arena will have a sportsbook (and there's already one 200 yards from CBP).