You know what?
Spring Training is really cool for the first ten or so games. Then as the spring wears on you begin counting down the days until Opening Day.
Well, we’ve made it. Spring training is over and we’re only days away from Opening Day and embarking on the 162 game journey that is baseball season.
Here are some things to buy and sell from this spring training.
Buy: The bullpen upgrades
The biggest difference between last year’s bullpen and this year’s?
Stuff.
People are still skeptical of this Phillies bullpen given last year’s disaster and it’s warranted but the uptick in stuff from last year to this year is noticeable.
Gone are the days of the soft-tosser Klentak and Macphail were obsessed with trotting out there. Enter Jose Alvarado, Archie Bradley, Sam Coonrod, Connor Brogdon and Jojo Romero and Spencer Howard when they eventually enter into the bullpen mix.
Dave Dombrowski said in his opening presser how much he loves power arms and he delivered.
Joe Girardi’s main billing when being hired by the Phillies was his bullpen management. Now, possessed with arms that are actually capable of holding leads we should see the real Joe Girardi show his influence over this Phillies team.
Sell: The starting pitching depth
Matt Moore and Chase Anderson had good springs and it makes sense why the Phillies signed them. They can take down a ton of innings and you hope they can pitch to around a 4 ERA.
Moore specifically stood out to me.
His plan of attack to righties was good all Spring. Change-up’s away, fastballs in. Right-handed hitters were consistently jammed all spring long as long as Moore was locating. Is it time to go all-in on Matt Moore figuring it out here? No, not yet, but there were some encouraging signs.
There is a very real possibility that Moore and Anderson falter and aren’t the guys they showed to be this Spring. If one of Nola, Wheeler, Eflin get hurt and Anderson and Moore don’t pan out, the only guys behind them at the moment are Vince Velasquez and Spencer Howard.
Sure, in a perfect world, your 1-5 stay healthy and pitch mostly well, but this is baseball and things go wrong.
Starting pitching depth is a real question mark heading into the season.
Buy: Bryce Harper breakout season
Before the back injury last year, Bryce Harper was well-within the discussion for National League MVP.
Girardi mentioned that the back injury started around the Nationals series in August of last season.
At that point this was Harper stat-line:
.321 AVG/.460 OPS/.654 SLG/1.114 OPS
Now healthy again, Harper has looked fantastic this spring.
Armed with an effortless swing and a new throwing motion, Harper looks like he has erased the back issues that plagued him last year.
His spring stats:
.343 AVG/1.249 OPS/4 HR.
Please stay healthy.
Sell: Girardi’s guys
David Hale and Ronald Torreyes have no business being on this roster, but they’re Girardi guys so here we are.
Anyone with two eyes knows that Jojo Romero deserves to be in this Phillies bullpen on Opening Day. Now because the Phillies value a long-man like David Hale, they only have one lefty out of the bullpen as they kick off the season against the Braves and Mets for the first four series of the year. That shouldn’t make you feel great.
Torreyes is a great defensive player, but his offense is brutal. He’s a bench piece but guys like C.J Chatham, Luke Williams and Nick Maton simply outplayed Torreyes this spring.
Hopefully the allegiance to the Yankees guys doesn’t last too long into this season.
Buy: Andrew McCutchen bounceback
McCutchen simply wasn’t fully recovered from the torn ACL that ended his 2019 campaign last year.
He wasn’t moving well in the field and didn’t have that same power at the dish.
So far this spring, McCutchen is moving well in left field, getting around the bases well and his bat looks fast.
Heading into the game today, McCutchen was hitting .310, with a .389 OBP, and an .848 OPS. He added a single and a walk today.
A healthy McCutchen at the top of this lineup would go a long way.
Buy: Alec Bohm’s defense
Bohm has looked like a machine at the dish in spring training.
He’s on balance and seems so close to squaring up just about every pitch thrown his way, but that’s to be expected.
What Bohm really needed to work on was his defense and judging by what we saw down in Clearwater, it looks like it paid off.
Is he going to be the next Schmidt or Rolen over there? No, but Bohm looks comfortable on the routine plays and has even made some good back-handed plays at third this spring. It’s a cautious buy, but I’m buying what Bohm is selling at third base this year.
Sell: Archie Bradley’s fastball
Yes, earlier in this article, we talked about the power arms that Dombrowski brought in this winter but there’s one member of that bullpen that is causing a bit of concern.
Bradley for the longest time has overpowered hitters with an upper-90’s fastball with elite spin. During spring training, it looks like some of that fire is off the Bradley fastball.
Is Bradley still an effective reliever that can get outs on a consistent basis? Yes, his curveball is still a massive weapon but he kind of reminds me of Papelbon when he was here-- strictly talking about on the mound of course.
Papelbon lost his elite fastball that got him the massive contract with the Phillies but was still able to consistently get outs with his new-found split-finger that he fully developed here. Bradley has flashed a really good looking change-up in spring and that pitch is going to be an equalizer to a fastball that might not be as good as it once was.
Buy: The Hector Neris 3-pitch mix
The Hector Neris slider is BACK.
When Neris originally came up to the majors he had a slider, but seemingly, put it away for the last couple of years. Now, it looks to be a pitch that will really help Neris not be as predictable to hitters this season.
When Neris gets into trouble, it’s when he’s being overly predictable. The splitter is an elite pitch but when Major League hitters see it all the time, they eventually make an adjustment. Now, Neris has a slider that can break away from righties, a split that can break into righties and a fastball that can still reach the mid-90’s. If Neris can consistently flash that slider, he becomes a really challenging at-bat every single night.
One mild concern is that his FB velo was only 92 today. Hopefully all is well when the team heads north and he gets out there for the regular season.