Phillies: Hit-or-sit questions and answers

Embrace the change:

As for the 25th man, an extra reliever is the eighth arm in the Phillies’ pen, and right-handers Mark Leiter (the favorite), Jake Thompson and Drew Hutchison were the candidates. For now, Thompson is adapting to that role with the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. And Leiter is on the DL.

On the other hand, Hutchison’s longest outing was only for two innings on March 30 with two disappointing efforts out of four appearances. But he’s probably just keeping the bullpen seat warm for Leiter due to his 5.79 ERA. Or does management go back to the norm of seven hurlers?

With three starters who could have a short outing at any time, Klentak wanted a long man to salvage an abbreviated performance, begin anew the contest after a lengthy rain delay, or pitch multiple frames in an extra-inning game. But if that happens now, what reliever will be able to handle four or five frames?

Double D, a poster from a Phillies site, asked about playing time for Nick Williams and felt it would benefit him starting every day. Well, Aaron Altherr averaged .272 with 19 home runs in 2017. What would his position be? That stated, no player can guarantee initial or repeated success and good health.

Is J.P. Crawford the everyday shortstop? Well, Double D, he must earn his starts like everybody else, but he’ll have enough at-bats to thrive in the majors. And his defense is a valuable commodity; however, Cesar Hernandez and Scott Kingery can both handle short, if necessary.

"FROM AN ANALYTICAL MIND: “There will always be people who are ahead of the curve, and people who are behind the curve. But knowledge moves the curve.” – Bill James"