Roundtable: Besides Brown, Which Player Has Impressed Most This Spring?

Our weekly Writers’s Roundtable is back and this time the topic comes from Don M.: Dom Brown has been far and away the best Phillies player this Spring by any measure. Other than Brown, who has impressed you the most this Spring?

Don McGettigan:  Perhaps because it’s potentially the year in Philadelphia for Carlos Ruiz, I was very impressed with what Tommy Joseph was able to do in the Grapefruit League (hitting .462, with a home run and two doubles in 13 at-bats) before being optioned to the minors.  Joseph also earned the praise of Roy Halladay  “He was very on top of things and aware of what was going on in games and situations. That’s what you want to see.”

Ian Riccaboni: Ben Revere has been as advertised for the Phillies. Despite an 0-fer last night, Revere is hitting .340, has four steals, and is playing great defense. If Brown wasn’t having such a great Spring, there’d be a lot more folks excited about the Phils speedy center fielder.

Corey Seidman: This is a tough question, but I’d say I’ve been most impressed by Freddy Galvis. I expected his extra-base hit power to go away after we found out about the PEDs, but he leads the Grapefruit League in doubles and legitimately looks like he could turn into a valuable starting middle infielder. It’s pretty exciting to see what he’s capable of this year.

Jon Nisula: The player that has impressed me so far is Ryan Howard. He has been absolutely mashing the ball this Spring, and it is especially impressive because he’s had a few down years with injuries. A bounce back 2013 from him would be fantastic.

Ryan Dinger: The player I’m most impressed by so far is Mike Adams. In his three innings of work, he has yet to allow a run, struck out two batters, walked none, and allowed just two hits. There were concerns about how healthy Adams would be this season, and his positive play has done more than enough to quell them. If he can carry this momentum through the regular season, the Phillies could have a very formidable back end of the bullpen, increasing their chances of returning to postseason play.

Alex Lee: I tend to be selective when deciding when to put stock in spring training statistics, but sometimes they’re hard to ignore.  For me, that has been this case this spring with Kevin Frandsen.  Frandsen seemed like the typical journeyman when he latched on with the Phillies two years ago and while I am still not convinced he is anything more than that, he has definitely impressed in limited time last year and so far this spring.  Frandsen actually has a better slugging percentage than Brown (.727 to .675) in nearly the same amount of at bats (33 to 40).