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Rob Thomson is about to enter his second full season as supervisor of a Philadelphia Phillies workforce that has excessive expectations.
Though the Phillies have one of the vital proficient rosters in baseball and are coming off a World Collection look in 2022 and an NLCS look in 2023, the start of the 162-game season has given them hassle in recent times, and so they’ve needed to depend on the wild card to snag a postseason berth.
Philadelphia began 1-5 in 2023 earlier than rebounding to complete April at 15-14. A poor Could left the membership with a file of 25-30 firstly of June, good for fourth within the NL East.
Thomson, who signed a contract extension this offseason, just lately spoke to The Philadelphia Inquirer about methods the Phillies can get extra out of present spring coaching strategies. For example, the workforce may give extra at-bats to veterans throughout spring coaching video games. He additionally mentioned maintaining aid pitchers sharp by working towards quite a lot of game-like situations and having them pitch back-to-back days occasionally.
“These are the identical concepts [as previous spring trainings], however we’ll be actually [homing] in on them and paying consideration just a little bit extra,” Thomson instructed Alex Coffey of the Inquirer.
“We’ve confirmed you don’t must [win the division to make a deep playoff run],” Thomson said. “However that may be a slippery slope. As a result of for those who get off to just a little bit higher spot … We have been .500 in March and April, so it’s not like we have been horrible. However in Could? We weren’t good in any respect. And then you definitely’re enjoying catch-up. And that’s plenty of power getting used. Whereas for those who get off to a greater begin, there may be not as a lot nervousness in August and September.”
Spotrac tasks the Phillies to hold a payroll of just a little greater than $233 million for 2024, which ranks among the many high 5 within the majors.
One issue that might enable the Phillies to get off to a greater begin in 2024 is the standard of opponents they face in April. After opening the season at house with a three-game sequence towards the defending NL East champion Atlanta Braves in late March, the Phillies’ April calendar consists of two sequence towards the Cincinnati Reds in addition to matchups towards the Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels.
Of these groups, solely the Reds (82-80) and Padres (82-80) completed with data of above .500 in 2023.
Assuming the Phillies handle to keep away from important accidents throughout spring coaching — the workforce misplaced former first baseman Rhys Hoskins to a torn ACL in March 2023 —a weaker schedule plus a sharper give attention to key coaching strategies could possibly be simply what the workforce wants to begin quick.
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