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This week, Steve Corino and Ian Riccaboni jump head first into the first fifteen games of the season after travels took both across the country and the world!
First, Steve and Ian talk about the promise of the starting rotation, including Vincent Velasquez‘s masterful 16 K, 3 H, 0 BB performance last Thursday and how Ian kept up with the game while on line in Disneyland! They talk about the judicious use of the curveball, which through Tuesday, was on pace to break the modern record set by the 2012 Pirates. The common thread? Charlie Morton, the all-time leader in PitchFX stat Spin Rate measuring the rotations per minute on curveball.
Next, the bullpen is discussed. David Hernandez is on pace (93) to break Kent Tekulve‘s 1987 single-season Phillies record for appearances in a season (90) but will he even last through April? Hector Neris has been discussed as a positive surprise and the shuffling of closers through Dailier Hinojosa to Jeanmar Gomez is discussed. Can Gomez be a long term option? Will he mature into a trade chip?
From the good to the bad to the ugly: the Phillies MLB-worst offense is discussed. Steve plays guess the batting average and Steve and Ian discuss if there is any help in sight in the form of Cameron Perkins. The acquisition of outfielder Alfredo Marte is touched on before moving to the hot-hitting Andrew Knapp. With Phillies fans giving Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz “the legend pop”, do you want to see Knapp put pressure on either with his hot hitting?
Steve and Ian play the weekly game of “How long will Freddy Galvis last as the Phillies starting shortstop?” before moving into a hypothetical: with how bad the Braves are, the known unpredictability of the Marlins, and poor Mets hitting, does it pain you at all to think that this Phillies team could have started the rebuild earlier and potentially ran up wins on bad teams?
Finally, we ask listeners to give Ian a wrestling nickname after his Wikipedia page was vandalized and was given the nicknames “The Riccabonesaw” and the “The Riccapocolypse”. Best name gets a prize!
Thanks for listening!
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