The article is courtesy of Anderson Good
The Philadelphia Phillies’ first game on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates shed
some light on the major pros and cons facing the team for the first month of the season.
The Phils are currently missing perennial All-Stars 1B Ryan Howard, who is recovering from
a torn Achilles and 2B Chase Utley, who’s chronic knee pain has caused him to start the
season on the DL, the second year in a row this has happened. In the mean time Ty
Wigginton, the Phillies biggest off-season acquisition behind Jonathan Papelbon, will get
the majority of the playing time at first base with Jim Thome and John Mayberry Jr. also
getting some starts there as well. Wigginton had a solid season last year, hitting 15 home
runs and knocking in 47 RBI’s in 130 games with the Colorado Rockies. Of course he won’t
be able to put up the numbers that Howard will but he is a respectable replacement as the
cornerstone of Philadelphia’s offense continues to work his way back into the line up.
Chase Utley on the other hand has been dawned with the worst title a baseball fan can hear,
“Out Indefinitely.” This basically means its up to Chase and the Phillies team doctors to
figure out when he’s ready to come back to Major League paced baseball. This could either
mean 2 weeks or 2 months, an extremely scary though for Philadelphia fans as Chase has
been a rock in the middle of Philadelphia’s lineup for 7 years.
Unfortunately Chase’s replacements don’t exactly have the respectable Major League
resume of a Ty Wigginton or Jim Thome. Pete Orr and Freddy Galvis will split time to try and
fill the void left my Utley’s absence in the line up. Pete Orr has only played a combined 122
games in the past 3 seasons, not due to injury unfortunately but rather extended time in AAA
with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. The other option at second base is Opening Day starter
Freddy Galvis. Galvis has been regarded as the Phillies #1 infield prospect and now the
rookie finally has time to showcase his skill. The 22-year-old Venezuelan is a small, speedy,
and switch-hitting infielder who can definitely provide a solid glove and bat in the lineup
down the road. But down the road isn’t now, the Phillies need offensive production out of the
second base position if they want to try and separate themselves from perennial contenders
Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves.
Watching Galvis on Thursday didn’t make me feel too comfortable about him as the Phillies
starter at second base. He seemed timid at the plate and went 0-4 with multiple weak
groundouts. His at-bats seemed to start the same way every time. First pitch strike, looking,
and then either of the next two pitches would be a strike and would thus place Galvis in a
hole early in at-bats. Galvis continuously had to hit defensively as opposed to working the
count to find a pitch he can do something with. Plate discipline always seems to be an issue
with up and coming prospects in the Phillies’ organization, i.e. Domonic Brown, maybe the
Phillies farm system needs to make some changes in the way they teach the game? Just a
thought. Of course many young prospects will have growing pains, but the Phils are going to
need Galvis to get through these pains quickly if the Phillies want to continue their customary
hot start to every season.
Now I’ll turn to the pitching side of the game, not really an issue to be too concerned with for
this team. Last year the Phillies arguably had the best starting rotation of all time and this
year with only an aging Roy Oswalt departing the Phillies look set to boast one of the best
rotations in baseball. Roy Halladay, the 2010 Cy Young Award winner with the Phillies,
started the Phil’s season opener and pitched a standard Halladay game. 8 innings pitched,
0 earned runs, 5 strikeouts, and of course 0 walks. Halladay demonstrated the ideal game
for the Phillies this year. Have one of the four premier starters go 7 or 8 innings, and then
get the ball to Papelbon. In the season opener Papelbon, along with Halladay, were simply
dominant. Papelbon threw 10 pitches, with 8 being strikes, out of the three hitters he faced,
two ended with weak groundouts and the other one ended in a high 95 mph fastball for a
strike out. Of course you can’t make a comparison to Ryan Madson after just one game, but
at least Philadelphia’s closer isn’t out for the year…. just saying.
Papelbon’s high price tag and spotty performance last year made Philadelphia fans
question the decision to allow Ryan Madson to walk but I don’t think Philly fans should be
skeptical at all. Papelbon was a closer in the American League first off, the AL East to
make it worse which is arguably the best division in all of baseball. Say what you want about
the DH but it does make a big difference in regard to pitching performance, especially for a
closer. Also, Papelbon was pitching in Boston where pressure to win a World Series is at
its highest, the Boston fans eventually boo-ing Papelbon last year probably didn’t help his
production either.
Now Papelbon has a fresh start in a city that is known for its sports and the love the fans
have for their players. I think the National League style of baseball will raise Papelbon’s
game and make him thrive in 2012, ideally he could mirror Brad Lidge’s 2008 season,
many view Lidge’s 2008 season as one of the best “bounce back” seasons ever. Am I
saying that Papelbon needs to have a bounce back season? No, Papelbon still had a
fantastic year last year, but his end of the year problems leave room for improvement and
also leave a chip on his shoulder for this upcoming season to silence his critics.
The Phillies have all the right pieces to make a 2012 World Series run, the only problem is
will these “right pieces” live up to what is expected of them? No one knows, but I am
especially anxious to find out.
