EXHIBITION GAME
RECAP: Phillies Pound
Pirates 15-12
The Phillies would love to have more of the offensive production they
had in the fourth and fifth innings on Friday afternoon at Bright House Field. They
had 10 hits and scored nine runs in the fourth in a 15-12 victory over the
Pirates. The inning included a leadoff double from Cesar Hernandez,
five consecutive singles, a suicide squeeze from pitcher Charlie Morton and a three-run homer from Maikel Franco to improve the Phillies to 12-5-2 this
spring. The following inning, the Phils put up six more runs, highlighted by Ryan Howard's grand
slam off of righty Trey Haley.
"It's good to see the guys swing the bats well," Phillies manager
Pete Mackanin said. "It's not the regular season, but we need to stay
positive and feel good about ourselves at the bat. I emphasized pitching and
defense and running this spring -- and not hitting -- and we're hitting better
than we expected. We're happy about that." The Pirates' bats were almost
as loud. Morton allowed a two-run homer to Pedro Florimonin
the second and a solo homer to Matt Joyce in the third. Jose Osuna hit a
three-run shot against Dalier Hinojosa in the top of the ninth. Morton made
his second Grapefruit League start and struggled against his former team. He
allowed four hits, five runs, three walks and the two home runs with three
strikeouts in four innings. Pirates starter Kyle Lobstein tossed three scoreless innings,
giving up just one hit. He was relieved by Wilfredo Boscan,
who allowed seven hits and eight runs in one-third of an inning in the fourth. Guido Knudson allowed three hits and one run in
two-thirds of an inning. Haley, who came in next, surrendered six runs on four
hits, including three homers. "I've been able to translate what we've been
working on in the bullpens to the game," Lobstein said. "That always
feels good."
PHILS PHACTS:
- Right-hander Charlie
Morton allowed
four hits, five runs, three walks and two home runs and struck out three
in four innings in the Phillies' 15-12 win on Friday. "He was kind
of all over the place," Mackanin said. "He didn't miss by a lot,
but he didn't have location." "Maybe trying to be a little too
fine," Morton said. Morton executed a suicide squeeze in the fourth
inning to score a run.
- Rule 5 Draft
pick Daniel
Stumpf struck
out one in one scoreless innings. He has a 4.50 ERA this spring, although
three of the four runs he has allowed in eight innings pitched came in the
eighth inning Monday in Sarasota, Fla., vs. the Orioles.
- Right-hander Dalier
Hinojosa, who pitching coach Bob McClure considers a
candidate to close, allowed his first runs of the spring in the ninth. He
surrendered three runs (two earned). He had previously thrown five
scoreless innings.
- Left-hander Adam
Morgan threw
59 pitches in five scoreless innings at the complex. Morgan is competing
with Vince
Velasquez and Brett
Oberholtzer to
be the team's No. 5 starter.
- The Phillies
optioned right-hander Jimmy
Cordero to
Double-A Reading after Friday's game. He allowed two hits and one run in
two-thirds of an inning. It was his first appearance of the spring,
because he had been sidelined with a sore right biceps. Cordero is the No. 17 prospect in the organization, according to
MLBPipeline.com.
NEXT
GAME:
Right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (0-0, 4.50 ERA) will start Saturday afternoon's Grapefruit League game
against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., at 1:07 p.m. ET. The Phillies have made
no announcement, but Hellickson or Aaron Nola will start Opening Day. At the moment, Hellickson is on schedule to make
that start. Watch the game live on MLB.TV.
PHILS PHACTS:
Franco Goes Deep… Again! – Phillies
manager Pete Mackanin is thinking what a few other people are probably
thinking. Pace yourself, Maikel Franco.
"I don't want him to waste all of his home runs in the spring,"
Mackanin said, smiling. "He looks really good at the plate, aggressive,
confident. I'm sure he's going to carry it into the season. It's a good guy to
have in the middle of the line up right now." Franco hit a three-run home
run to left field in the fourth inning Friday in a 15-12 victory over the Pirates in a
Grapefruit League game at Bright House Field. Franco has hit seven home runs
this spring, more than any other hitter in baseball. Thirteen players entered
the day tied for second with four. "That's what I've been working
on," Franco said about showing more power at the plate this season. The
Phillies are first in the Grapefruit League with 117 runs. They are second with
28 home runs (Peter
Bourjos and Cameron Rupp also homered against the Pirates).
Nobody expects them to keep up this pace during the regular season, but it is
an encouraging start nonetheless. It isn't just Franco, either. Ryan Howard hit a grand slam over the batter's eye
in center field in the fifth inning. It was his second home run in two days. He
also laced a pair of singles to finish 3-for-4 with five RBIs. "That
wasn't windblown," Mackanin said of Howard's blast. "That was all
him." "It felt good off the bat," Howard said. "I didn't
know it was going to go there." Howard can appreciate good power as much
as anybody. He said he expects big things from Franco this year. "The sky
is the limit with Maikel, man," Howard said. "His ball gets small,
really quick."
Predicting Power – If
you didn't notice Maikel Franco last year, don't worry: You were
hardly alone. Franco spent the first six weeks of the year in the Minors, then
missed 45 of the final 48 games of the season due to a broken wrist. As
the Phillies were in the midst of losing 99 games and names like Kris Bryant, Noah Syndergaard, Joc Pederson, Kyle Schwarber and Jung Ho Kang were dominating a historic National League
Rookie of the Year Award class, Franco was somewhat lost in the shuffle. It's
safe to say that's not going to happen again, and that was even before Franco smashed his Major League leading seventh homer of the spring on Friday afternoon in a wild 15-12 win over Pittsburgh in Clearwater, Fla. While we know not
to put too much emphasis on spring blasts off Minor
Leaguers like Guido Knudson, what
Franco is doing isn't to be ignored, either. First and foremost, it's a pretty
terrific sign that the wrist injury has healed, and that's important, because
there were plenty of pre-injury signs last year that Franco had this in him --
even if few really saw it. For example, we can run Statcast™ data queries to identify the hitters
who managed to barrel up the largest percentage of extremely likely hits. To
define that, we set the parameters as being "batted balls over 100 mph,
with a launch angle of between 10 and 25 degrees,"
(where zero is defined as being right back at the pitcher). The Major League
batting average on those types of balls is .595, which is to say, you really, really want
to be hitting balls like that. With a minimum of 20 tracked batted balls, the
list of players who barreled their balls in that way last year is impressive: Percentage of batted balls 100-mph-plus at 10-25 degrees launch
angle, 2015: 1. Miguel Sano,
16.7 percent; 2. Paul Goldschmidt,
14.9 percent; 3. Randal Grichuk,
14.5 percent; 4. Lucas Duda, 14.4
percent; 5. Chris Carter, 14.3
percent; 6. Justin Smoak, 14.2
percent; 7. Mike Trout, 14.0
percent; 8. Ryan Howard, 13.9
percent; 9. Yoenis Cespedes,
12.5 percent; 10. Giancarlo Stanton,
12.3 percent; 11. Pedro Alvarez, 12.3
percent; 12. Franco, 12.2 percent. That's an interesting combination
of the game's biggest stars and guys who have trouble making contact but crush
the ball when they can find it. But contact wasn't really Franco's issue; in a
sport where the average strikeout percentage was 20.4 and several topped 30
percent, Franco's was just 15.4 percent. Of the 33 hitters with at least 300
plate appearances and a .490 slugging percentage, only three struck out less
often than Franco: A.J. Pollock, Anthony Rizzo, David Ortiz. To
take that to a somewhat unexpected extreme, what if we compared the 2015 stats
of Franco and another 23-year-old Mid-Atlantic third baseman with a much higher
profile, Manny Machado? Franco: .280/.343/.497 -- 7.8 K percent -- 15.5 BB
percent -- 128 wRC+; Machado: .286/.359/.502 -- 9.8 K
percent -- 15.6 BB percent -- 134 wRC+. (wRC+, or Weighted Runs Created Plus, is an all-inclusive offensive stat
that is park-adjusted and sets 100 as league average, meaning it can be read as
"Franco was 28 percent above average in 2015.") It's
shockingly similar. Machado hit 35 homers to Franco's 14, but he also had more
than twice as many plate appearances. Given a full season of playing time,
could Franco match Machado's offensive output, even if he's not likely to bring
the same elite defense? It's not out of the question. When Franco hit two
homers off of Yovani Gallardo earlier in the week, he told MLB.com's Todd Zolecki that because he knows he'll be in the
lineup this season, he feels "more patient, more relaxed," than he
had in previous springs. That might help explain the power we're seeing in
Florida right now. But it's not like this was completely unexpected. After all,
just because you didn't watch Franco excel last year, it's not like it didn't
happen.
Expected In Pen On Opening Day – The
Phillies feel better and better about David Hernandez's
chances of being ready by Opening Day. He pitched a scoreless inning Friday in
a Minor League game at Carpenter Complex. He also pitched an inning Tuesday,
but has not appeared in a Grapefruit League game since March 1 because of right
triceps tendinitis. He could pitch in a Grapefruit League game in the next two
or three days. "His ability to open the season healthy is on track and is
looking fine," Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said. Hernandez
struck out two and got a flyout to center field. His fastball sat in the 92-94
mph range. He also threw his breaking ball and changeup. "I felt
good," Hernandez said. "I was just trying to throw strikes. Next
time, I'll try to hit more corners. My arm is definitely getting better. I have
no discomfort when I'm pitching, just a little stiffness when I'm cooling down.
I have no trouble getting loose and staying loose, and that's a good
sign." Phillies utility infielder Andres Blanco caught Hernandez. Blanco is the team's
emergency catcher, so they wanted to get him some work behind the plate. "I
was happy to see him look healthy," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said.
A Different Look In The Outfield – The
Phillies need another outfielder, don't they? Aaron Altherr will
not return from left wrist surgery until July at the earliest, and Cody Asche could
miss the beginning of the season because of a strained right oblique. Their
injuries leave Odubel Herrera, Peter Bourjos and Rule 5 Draft pick Tyler Goeddel as the projected Opening Day outfield
with some combination of Darnell Sweeney and non-roster invitees David Lough
and Cedric Hunter as their fourth and fifth outfielders. But general manager
Matt Klentak said Friday afternoon at Bright House Field that the Phillies are
not aggressively pursuing outfield help. "We've got our ears open for
opportunities, but I wouldn't characterize it as active," Klentak said.
"This is the time of the year where most teams are starting to connect
with each other to talk about different scenarios that are going to play out at
the end of camp -- who is going to make the team, who may not. So those
conversations have begun -- generally, anyway." So even if the Phillies
are not frantically calling clubs for help, they have talked to teams about it
and are watching the waiver wire. The Phillies have priority on the waiver wire
through the end of April, so they could pick up somebody in the next couple of
weeks. "I wouldn't say it's any more likely than it would be at any other
position," Klentak said about an outfield acquisition. "But with
Altherr obviously being out for an extended stretch, and with Asche not on the
field, if there's a way for us to add depth, I think it's something we'll have
to explore." Klentak said it is possible Asche could be ready by Opening
Day, despite the fact that he has not played in a Grapefruit League game. But
because of the nature of Asche's injury, the team also knows it must be careful
with him. Herrera has not played since Saturday because of an injured right
middle finger. He had X-rays recently, but they were negative. The Phillies
said they do not think it is serious. Bourjos, who has a .645 OPS the previous
four seasons, entered Friday hitting .333 (9-for-27) with three doubles, one
triple, one RBI, three walks and eight strikeouts. Goeddel, who has not played
higher than Double-A, had hit .250 (9-for-36) with two doubles, one home run,
five RBIs, four walks and nine strikeouts. Goeddel's play the rest of the month
could factor into the Phillies' sense of urgency in finding outfield help.
Herrera made the adjustment from Rule 5 pick to everyday outfielder last
season. Can the Phillies expect Goeddel to make the same adjustments and play
on an everyday basis? "[Goeddel] hasn't shown us anything that would
suggest he can't do that," Klentak said. "We've been encouraged with,
not even the results so much of his ABs, but sort of the way he's gone about
it. He's got a very mature approach in the batter's box. I think that's
something as we're projecting how he'll do in the big leagues this year; that's
something that gives us some comfort. We think he can compete. He knows how to
work a count. He's not afraid to hit the ball the other way. In fact, he often
tends to hit the ball the other way. I think that lends itself to him having an
easier adjustment. But we'll see."
Trimming The Roster – Carlos Ruiz has
played a significant role in the Phillies' success for nearly a decade. They
hope his presence in camp this spring influences the future, too. The Phillies
on Friday optioned catcher Jorge Alfaro to Double-A Reading and reassigned
catcher Andrew Knapp to Minor League camp. Alfaro is the No. 3
catching prospect in baseball and the No. 96 prospect overall.
Knapp earned the Phils' Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2015, and he
is ranked No. 9 among the team's prospects by
MLBPipeline.com. Both need more time in the Minor Leagues before being ready to
play in the big leagues. Each young backstop mentioned Ruiz's tutelage as one
of their more positive experiences in camp. Ruiz, who is in the final year of
his contract, is playing with Panama this week in the World Baseball Classic
qualifier. "I took a lot from Chooch on the defensive side of stuff, like
how to handle a pitching staff and how to get guys through innings, stuff like
that," Knapp said. "I mean, every time I talk to Chooch, I'm always
asking him, 'How do you do this?'" Alfaro said. "He's got a lot of
experience, you know? It was awesome." Knapp hit .250 (4-for-16) with one
double, one home run, four RBIs, four walks, three strikeouts and a .900 OPS in
eight Grapefruit League games. Alfaro hit .294 (5-for-17) with two RBIs and a
.588 OPS in six games. "I felt pretty comfortable in the box all
camp," Knapp said. "That was a positive." Both are talented
offensively. Phillies coaches raved about Alfaro's raw power earlier in camp,
with Mike Schmidt saying Alfaro's build reminded him of former All-Star Dick
Allen. But both catchers know they must improve defensively, too. "You
have to be a good defender behind the plate," Alfaro said. "Hitting
-- I don't really worry about too much, because I really want to be a good
catcher. In the Minor Leagues, I want pitchers telling me they want me to catch
them." Alfaro certainly has the tools to catch. After the Phils' 15-12 Friday win, manager Pete Mackanin said
that Alfaro "has the best arm I've seen, maybe ever." One scout told
Mackanin that he rated Alfaro's arm an 80 on a 20-80 scale, which he said he
had never done before. Knapp said he wants to improve his game management. "It's
situationally based," Knapp responded when asked what Ruiz told him about
game management. "You have first and third with a big hitter on deck, what
are you going to do? Stuff like that, kind of how the game flows. When pitchers
are struggling, how do you work with them to get through the inning? Stuff like
that." Of course, the question for both catchers is how close they feel
they are to the big leagues. Knapp is expected to open the season in Triple-A,
while Alfaro is expected to start in Double-A, because he missed most of last
season with an ankle injury. If something should happen early this season to
Ruiz or Cameron Rupp,
veteran J.P. Arencibia is expected to get the call. But later
in the season, who knows? And if both eventually make it either this year or
beyond? Each also has the ability to play either first base or the outfield. "I
always think that I want to be the best catcher wherever I play," Alfaro
said. "It doesn't matter if it's Rookie league or Double-A. It doesn't
matter if it's in the big leagues. It doesn't matter where I play. I just want
to be the best. I never think how close I am. I never worry about that. They
make the decisions. I'll just play hard wherever I go." And Alfaro will be
asking plenty of questions along the way. "I like to learn," he said.
"[Maikel] Franco, [Freddy] Galvis, Ruiz. I learned a lot from them. They
helped my routine. They helped me a lot. They talked to me a lot. We always
talk on the field, off the field. How to be professional, how to play the game,
playing hard -- they always talk to me like that, like what you have to do to
come here and stay here." "It's getting close," Knapp said about
a potential big league arrival. "This is baseball. A lot of things happen.
Injuries happen. I just have to be ready for the call."
Welcome To The Chooch Show – The
home crowd was treated to The Chooch Show at Rod Carew Stadium on Thursday
night. Playing in front of 11,744 spirited fans, Panama catcher Carlos
"Chooch" Ruiz hit two home runs and collected four RBIs to lead his
squad to a 9-2 win over France in the first round of the World Baseball Classic
qualifier. After opening the game's scoring with a sacrifice fly in the bottom
of the first, Ruiz hit a solo moonshot in the third and then a two-run blast in
the fifth. Panama is now set to host Colombia -- which defeated Spain, 9-2 -- at 9 p.m. ET on Friday.
Spain will face France at 2 p.m. ET in an elimination game earlier in the day.
In qualifier games played in Mexicali, Mexico, the hosts defeated the Czech Republic, 2-1, and Nicaragua walked off over Germany. The Czechs and Germans
will meet in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday, and Mexico takes on
Spain at 10:30 p.m. All qualifier action can be watched on MLB.com and
www.worldbaseballclassic.com, or followed via MLB Gameday. Playing in his
fourth WBC competition with Panama, Ruiz showed why he's been able to stay in
the big leagues for a decade. "It's all about being positive," Ruiz
said through a translator. "I believe I'm still a young player. I feel
like a 26-year-old, not a 36-year-old. I'm proud to play with a team that has
young players and such an experienced coaching staff -- especially guys I
played with like [manager] Carlos Lee, [bench coach] Olmedo Saenz and [pitching
coach] Lenin Picota." Once Lee saw Ruiz join Team Panama from Phillies
Spring Training earlier this week, he had a feeling he would be doing some
damage at the plate. "Honestly, that's the best shape I've ever seen him
in," Lee said. "He's ready to go, and you can see it. He's taking
good swings, taking good pitches. Two homers, that's not going to happen every
day. But if you put yourself in a position to have good swings, good results
can come out." While Ruiz stole the spotlight on Thursday night, Panama
right-hander Paolo Espino pitched a perfect three innings,
striking out four, to begin the contest. The Nationals farmhand only needed 33
pitches to get through his outing, so he'll be eligible to return to the mound
on Saturday if Lee desires. Espino said everything was working well for him on
the mound -- location, fastball command and his slider -- and that he only
threw one changeup. By the time Lee made a pitching change, though, Panama had
a four-run lead, so Espino was held back with the future in mind. Panama is
guaranteed to play on Saturday, win or lose on Friday, and Espino would have
been ineligible to pitch the rest of the qualifier had he surpassed 50 pitches.
Naturally, Espino wanted to keep going deeper in the game but understood Lee's
decision given the pitch limits. And on a night that belonged to Ruiz, perhaps
it's no surprise that Espino chalked up his success to his catcher. "I
think Carlos Ruiz makes a big difference for our
pitching staff," Espino said through a translator. "I've known him
for a long time, and he has a lot of experience. Today he called a great game,
and I just tried to match him pitch for pitch, whatever he asked for." Panama
broke open the game with a four-run sixth inning. Following Ruiz's two-run
homer, Carlos Quiroz nearly went back-to-back, but his double bounced off the
top of the wall in left field. No matter, as the next batter, shortstop Javier
Guerra, went deep to right field to extend Panama's lead to seven runs. France
didn't do itself any favors, committing three costly errors that led to three
runs for Panama. In the second inning, on consecutive at-bats, shortstop Felix
Brown booted a ball and left fielder Douglas Rodriguez dropped a routine fly.
The miscues led to a sacrifice bunt and subsequently a two-run single by
Eduardo Thomas. In the sixth inning, Norbert Jongerius dropped a fly ball in
left field, allowing Luis Castillo to score. "We can't compete that way if
we make errors," France manager Eric Gagne said. "We know we've got
to play better defensively. Pitching was OK, but we can't make mistakes. We've
got one guy who's affiliated, and he's in A ball, so we've got to make good
plays. But there's a lot of positives. A lot of guys have probably never seen 90
mph in their life, so it's a good experience." France's first run came in
the top of the fifth, when Frederic Hanvi roped a double down the left-field
line to score Andy Paz. Jorge Hereaud drove home a second run in the ninth with
a soft single to right field.
Today In Phils History - Unfortunately, the perfect game that Harry Coveleski threw on this day in 1909 was in an exhibition game against Trinity College in Durham, NC. 5 years later, the Phillies saw Babe Ruth for the first time as Baltimore's manager, trailing 6-0 in the sixth, called on Ruth to pitch the rest of the game when he allowed only 4 base runners as the Orioles game back to win 7-6. 13 years later, another Hall of Famer made his debut as Phillies Legend Richie Ashburn was born on this day in 1927.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies have begun the spring with a 12-5-2 record (13-5-2 if you include the
exhibition game against the University of Tampa). With the Phillies having
finished the 2015 season with a spectacularly awful record of 63-99 it will be
interesting to see what kind of team new President Andy MacPhail and GM Matt
Klentak put on the field. At the same time I am definitely looking forward to
the games against Boston with former GM Ruben Amaro on the field. Given the
departures, lingering contracts, a history of injuries, bipolar
performances, and unproven talent, it should, at the very least, be an
interesting season for the Phillies. Who knows, maybe they can avoid 100
losses... hopefully by more than one game!
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