Are the young guns of the Philadelphia Phillies ready for life under the bright lights?
The young guns of the Philadelphia Phillies seem to be almost ready for Opening Day, now about a week away. In a Grapefruit League tie with the Toronto Blue Jays on Mar. 21, Rhys Hoskins hit two home runs, and Aaron Altherr and Scott Kingery each hit one. The three players together have 11 homers, and Maikel Franco has added another three in the team’s first 25 contests of 2018. Among all players likely to see consistent action this season, the Phillies have booked 19 big flies thus far.
How important are spring training home runs? No one would say “very important” unless there are some other hopeful signs in the early numbers. And even then, what can be made of games meant to allow players to work out their kinks and problems? Are there other hopeful figures for the Phillies?
The team record, going into play March 22, was only 10-15, but there are lots of numbers in baseball. Let’s consider some of the offensive figures available that day.
Only Hoskins was showing excellent judgment, as reflected in the walk to strikeout ratio. His was 1:1. The other players showing a modicum of understanding were all trying to make the team as bench players except for first baseman Carlos Santana (1:1.13). Infielder-outfielder Roman Quinn led the job seekers with a 1:1.33 ratio.
Other figures that involved swinging the bat were more encouraging, if not quite as promising as the home run total among starters. Kingery was slashing .390/.419/.732, but among starters the other genuinely encouraging figures were somewhat scattered. Hoskins’ OPS was 1.066; outfielder Nick Williams and Santana each had three doubles apiece.
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Young catcher Jorge Alfaro’s slash line was .281/.378/.531. (Kingery is expected to start when he is promoted after serving a couple of weeks in the minors to lock him to the team longer. His OPS was 1.150.) Another among the potential bench players, infielder Jesmuel Valentin, had 11 RBI and a 1.032 OPS. Outfielder Pedro Florimon was hitting .314. Quinn had five steals in six attempts.
J.P. Crawford, expected to take over at shortstop this year, was only hitting .250 and had struck out eight times without a walk, but he had two doubles and a home run. Also, keep in mind that BA is 36 points higher than his figure during his brief ’17 stint.
This is not entirely a rosy picture except when the players’ ages and anecdotes are considered. Hoskins, for example, was especially pleased with his first home run on Mar. 21, which came off an inside pitch. The leftfielder admitted, “I had been struggling with the ball in. I was able to keep my hands inside of it, and the ball went.” Kingery has been compared to Dustin Pedroia and not just by non-professionals in the Twitterverse. As Jon Morosi points out:
"“He’s barreled up the baseball. He’s used the whole field. You’ve seen home runs to the opposite field. You’ve seen him drive the ball in the gap to left-center field.”"
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Hoskins, Kingery, Santana, Altherr, Williams, and Crawford all have the potential to be All-Stars. Three could be perennial in that regard. The only question is: which three — if you have to put money on any of them for those honors, start with Hoskins and Kingery?