It's official: the MLB has mandated a 60-game season set to begin on July 23-24. For baseball fans, it's great news. For Phillies fans, however, it comes with the caveat of a loaded schedule with 40 games against their NL East rivals and 20 games against AL East teams. This, by all standards, means the Phillies are facing a tough upcoming schedule.
"When you look at the pitching staffs of the Yankees and Rays, who they will see in interleague play, and the staffs you would have seen anyways in the Mets, the Nationals," said NBC Sports Jim Salisbury. "It's going to be very tough on the Phillies."
Salisbury joined Angelo Cataldi and the Morning Team on Wednesday morning to talk about the end result of the MLB negotiations and the biggest issues that face the Phillies this season.
"Their biggest question mark is pitching and the drop-off you are going to see after Nola and Wheeler. That extends to the entire bullpen as well. They are loaded with question marks in their pitching staff after the top two guys in their rotation."
While the pitching may have it's shortcomings, Salisbury thinks the offense looks solid if they can hit right away.
"I like their lineup but they are going to need to get off to a very quick start. Everybody does. You can't even afford a slump. They need (Bryce) Harper and (J.T.) Realmuto to come out and be balls-to-the-wall both in intensity and performance right out of the gate to get on a two-month roll and see what happens."
