One of the many problems
the Phillies had in April of last year was the miserable start for the guys
on their bench. In their first 57 at-bats, the primary bench guys managed
just seven hits (.123) and struck out 16 times. I wrote about the early
struggles of the bench players last season in a post on April 17 of last
year that you can read
here.
The Phillies roster won't be finalized for a couple more days, but the bench
looks like an area where the Phillies are likely to be weaker in '07 than
they were in '06. The '06 Phillies could call on Dellucci or Victorino off
the bench -- the '07 team it looks likely to start the season with Jayson
Werth as the best offensive option off the bench. Werth's career
numbers are bad in part because he played so many games while dealing with a
wrist injury. He seems likely to produce far better numbers this
season.
It was a given coming into this spring that the bench was going to be weaker offensively this season without any way to replace a hitter the caliber of Dellucci. Still, when you look at the numbers the guys who may be on the bench to start the season for the Phils they are rather unimpressive:
| Player | Career AB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Werth | 721 | 245 | 333 | 420 |
| Ruiz | 69 | 261 | 316 | 435 |
| Nunez | 2,232 | 243 | 313 | 318 |
| Dobbs | 222 | 257 | 291 | 351 |
| Bourn | 8 | 125 | 222 | 125 |
There's a good chance that Chris Coste will be in the picture for opening day. His career numbers are much better. In 198 at-bats he has hit 328/376/505. The scenario where Lieber and Garcia both start the year on the DL and the Phillies go with 14 hitters, including Coste and Ruiz, is seeming plausible.
The Phillies are one of three teams that made an offer to the Blue Jays for 26-year-old right-handed pitcher Francisco Rosario. The linked article says they are unlikely to get him.
Shane Victorino thinks the Phillies are going to score more runs this year than they did last. I hope he's right (but I'm pretty sure he's not).
This
article points out that Jimmy Rollins posted a .493 on-base percentage
this spring. He was tied with three other players for seventh in
spring training walks with 12. One of the other three players was
Abraham Nunez.
The Phillies played the Pirates to a 5-5 tie yesterday in a game that
was called after nine innings. The Phils head home for a two-game set with
the Red Sox tonight and tomorrow afternoon before opening the season on
Monday against the Braves. They are 11-16 with three ties in spring
training.
The Phillies scored twice in the first on an RBI-double by Utley and an
RBI-single from Howard.
Howard and Burrell went back-to-back with solo home runs in the third. It
was the third spring home run for Howard and the fourth for Burrell. Nice
to see Howard hitting the ball -- he was 2-for-3 with a strikeout on the
day. Burrell was 1-for-3 with two strikeouts
and raised his average to .222.
In 68 spring plate appearances Burrell has struck out 16 times and homered
four times. If he struck out and homered at that rate this season and got
as many plate appearances as he did last year (567) he'd strike out 133
times and hit 33 home runs. Last year he struck
out 131 times and hit 29 bombs.
Michael Bourn was 2-for-5 with two stolen bases. He was also caught
stealing and left five men on base. For Bourn it was his eighth successful
steal of spring training. He was only caught once.
Dobbs was 0-for-4.
JA Happ got the start for the Phils and did was hit hard. He went just
three innings, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks. Five of the
six hits went for extra-bases, all doubles, and his ERA puffed to 7.45.
After getting the first two men in the bottom of the first Happ allowed
back-to-back doubles that got the Pirates on the board at 2-1. He shut
Pittsburgh down in the second, but in the third they scored three times on
two walks, a single and back-to-back-to-back doubles.
Geoff Geary followed Happ and went two scoreless innings in which he allowed
just one hit, a leadoff double in the fourth. He lowered his spring ERA to
2.61.
Matt Smith threw a 1-2-3 fifth. Alfonseca followed Smith in the six and set
Pittsburgh down 1-2-3 on three ground balls to lower his spring ERA to 5.40.
Tom Gordon pitched the eighth and kept the Pirates off the board despite
allowing a single and a triple. His ERA dropped to 1.17.
NRI Ryan Cameron pitched the bottom of the ninth and walked two but did not
allow a run. He's allowed one earned run in five innings this spring (1.80
ERA)
while allowing three hits, four walks and striking out five.
It was another nice day for the pen. As a group, the non-starters went six
scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks.
The Phillies play Boston tonight in Philadelphia.