It’s time for the morning news:
MORE LOSING: I had a dream last night. I don’t remember much from it, other than the Phillies were starting the season 1-7. That wouldn’t be fun.
The spring training Phillies are starting the season close to 1-7. They’re now 1-4 after losing to the Tigers, 11-6, on Tuesday. Jerad Eickhoff, Ricardo Pinto, Tommy Hunter and Jose Taveras each struggled. Offensively, Rhys Hoskins hit his first spring home run, while Roman Quinn blasted a dinger of his own.
TODAY’S GAME: Hopefully the Phils can get back on the winning track today as they play the Blue Jays in Dunedin. Vince Velasquez gets his first look of the spring. The lineup:
- Kingery – 2B
- Santana – 1B
- Herrera – DH
- Altherr – CF
- Franco – 3B
- Alfaro – C
- Cozens – RF
- Rosales – SS
- Pullin – LF
DRAMATIC SHIFTS: Here’s a Matt Gelb piece at the Athletic on the non-traditional way Gabe Kapler is positioning outfielders this spring, in expectation that he might employ some interesting defensive alignments during the season.
Honestly, it makes sense to put the weaker defender in a place where a hitter nearly never hits the ball. If the data shows it, and it’s a big enough sample, then act on it. Nice to see this kind of innovation happening with the Phillies.
OOPS, WRONG GUY: Mike Sielski at Philly.com has a good piece about Pedro Guerrero, the Phils’ 28-year-old assistant hitting coach who blends analytics and old-school face-to-face coaching.
He shares a name with the former Dodger and Cardinal who spent 15 years in the league and hit .300 in an impressive career, and that got confusing for him and the Dodgers. It’s a funny anecdote.
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