My Fellow Phans,
So, we sit just days away from the Philies’ first spring training game and it is time to take a deeper look at Spring Training. For the first part of my Spring Training look, I present to you my fans, the 5 biggest questions / concerns that are surrounding the Phillies’ time in Clearwater.
3 Burning Topics:
1. The Rotation: This isn’t so much a question or issue as much as something to watch this spring. With real game action coming up, it will be interesting and entertaining to watch what these 5 guys, yes we have 5 starters thank you much – Joe Blanton is one of them, do on the diamond.
I guess if you want to put a concern, the only viable option would the health of these guys. I’m not expecting this rotation to stay totally healthy this season, it never works out like that no matter what team it is. I heard that Cliff Lee recently had an injury and this was way before the season ever started. Cliff Lee is fine now, thankfully.
I guess the point is that the health is the key element to these guys performing at the highest level possible throughout the entire season.
2. Right Field: As much as I read about this position being a battle, I keep feeling that Ben Francisco is going to win the starting spot although that has been decided since before the season even started.
I could be wrong though. It is just when you look at this lineup, Francisco is a much better fit for us now. That is not to say that Dominic Brown will not see time as I think he may, I just think his time will be limited. We need a qualified hitter in that lineup and Francisco fits that void well, don’t forget that he is also a right hander which I think this lineup needs to break up the strong lefties in our starting lineup.
I still see Brown as taking over for Ibanez next season once his contract expires. That would be a perfect fit as it would replace a lefty for a lefty and it gives Brown one more season to prep for the majors. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Brown needs to play every day to be effective and he will not get that this season. I don’t see why you can’t give him another year of fine tuning and then throw him into the outfield as an everyday starter in 2012 where his skills can be used and expanded on, on a daily basis.
3. The Offense: Looking at our returning lineup, there was much DL time last season. The one player that seemed to be healthy for the entire season bolted for Washington once they threw a contract at him, a deal I might add that they will regret down the line.
However, everyone seemed to be banged up and that played a critical role in how our offense produced in 2010. This year, health is the number one concern for this group. One they are healthy, the offense will start to flow once again. With this staff, we hopefully won’t need to score a lot of runs, but that cannot be assumed. We all saw last October how the lack of offense impacted us during the playoffs. We cannot afford that again this season. With our rotation as strong as it is, we need to score runs to back them up. It is that simple. If we hit this season, we will win and if we win this season, we will reach the postseason, and if we reach the postseason, anything can happen so that’s where we got to get to.
I will have more Spring Training notes later, but this is just the opener post of what has the appearance of being a very busy Baseball Blogging Season.
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
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