Good morning! Here’s the news:
SPRING FLING: The Phillies announced spring training invitations to 16 non-roster players Wednesday. Among those names: J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery and Rhys Hoskins.
Most of these players aren’t expected to make the final cut, but it’ll be fun watching them in the early stages of spring training.
BESIDE THE POURING RAIN: John LaRue wrote a fascinating post at the Hardball Times looking at which team is the all-time king of bringing its fans the most pain. He attempted to quantify pain, defining it as either coming very close but failing to win a championship, or being so woefully inept that it’s embarrassing.
Surprise! The Phillies win! The 1903-1979 Phillies, who lost thousands of games and won much less, scored the highest amount of pain points in the study.
Congratulations everyone old enough to remember the 1980 championship! Your pain is justified!
INKED UP: Phillies’ No. 1 overall draft pick Mickey Moniak got his wish. His buddy Ethan Abrams tattooed Moniak’s signature on his butt.
Why? They had a bet that if Moniak was drafted in the top-10 of a future draft, Abrams would ink up.
It goes both ways. If Abrams, a college pitcher, goes top 20 in a future draft, the hopeful Phils’ future outfielder will have to do the same on his rear.
Friendship.
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