Categories: News

News: Spring starters, Blanco, Buchholz, prospects

Good morning! Here’s the news for this morning:

SPRING STARTERS: The Phillies announced starting pitchers for their first three spring training games (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). They are: Mark Leiter Jr., Alec Asher, Adam Morgan.

Leiter is facing the University of Tampa, a game the Phils typically don’t like using big-leaguers for. The big-league starters will start merging into this soon.

DREW IT UP: Jim Salisbury has a profile of Drew Anderson, a highly touted pitching prospect who was named to the 40-man in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. Anderson is with the Phils in spring training but will likely start 2017 in Reading.

WHITEY SPEAKS: Andres Blanco is back on a $3 million deal. He likes Philadelphia. He wants to be with the Phils. He’s the right fit, probably the clubhouse leader, especially with the team’s cohort of Latin players.

PIPELINE’S PROSPECTS:

MLBPipeline.com announced the team’s 30 top prospects Tuesday. J.P. Crawford leads it. Any surprises? Kevin Gowdy is at No. 8, higher than most rankings have him to this point, while Rhys Hoskins is shoved down to No. 13.

BUCHHOLZ IT NOW: Meghan Montemurro has a profile of Clay Buchholz, who looks to hold down the back end of the Phils’ rotation in 2017. One nugget: he’s reunited with Bob McClure, who was his pitching coach in Boston in 2012.

Buchholz in 2012: 11-8, 4.56 ERA, 129 K, 64 K. Well …

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.