Darick Hall
Darick Hall gathered a number of fans last season filling in for Bryce Harper after the two-time MVP was shelved with a broken thumb. He hit .250 with a somewhat surprising nine home runs, as well as 16 RBI. On occasion, he also played first base, spelling Rhys Hoskins.
Hall’s basic problem in this horse race, and one that may send him back to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to start the season, is that he can really only be a designated hitter or first baseman. No, wait … we have a correction to that, ladies and gentlemen. The affable power hitter has also begun an MLB pitching career. On August 20 of last year, he finished an 8-2 loss to the Mets on the mound, giving up a hit, but surrendering no runs.
Hall began play in Clearwater en fuego, and has impressed Phillies management with a new-found ability to hit left-handed pitching, a weakness during his time in South Philly last season. As Todd Zolecki points out, he is focused on cutting down his strikeouts, and manager Rob Thomson has said that he is “controlling the [strike] zone.” On Tuesday, however, he was swinging at first pitches, grounding out twice and flying out to center.
Scott Kingery
As all Phillies fans know, Scott Kingery is in the last year of a $24 million contract, which has seen him spend far too much time in the minors instead of with the team that had very high hopes for him. Many consider him to have been mismanaged, both in making him a utility man and in trying to turn him into a power hitter.
Ironically, it is his versatility that now has him as the probable front-runner for one of the bench jobs with the Phillies. He can play center field and the infield. Additionally, after lengthy hitting sessions with Kevin Long in the offseason, he has flattened his swing with excellent results thus far. On Tuesday, he batted twice, flaring a single to center on a pitch in and later slamming a single to left.
His Florida batting average with those two hits jumped to .522.
The Phillies lost to the Braves Tuesday, 15-5, but nothing happened that really changed the positions of those jockeying for bench jobs.
However, two Phillies candidates for pitching jobs also appeared, with Cristopher Sanchez faring badly and Yunior Marte doing well. Sanchez needed 32 pitches go get out of the first inning, giving up four runs. Marte pitched the second, getting two outs on three pitches to start the inning, giving up a long double to right-center, then striking out Marcell Ozuna with a fastball. He threw only 18 total pitches.