Cliff Lee, Jamie Moyer and 5 Successful Pitching Approach Changes

Pitchers change their approaches to battle for a myriad of reasons. For some, their age has stolen critical miles-per-hour from their dominant fastball, and they must adapt. For others, injuries or ineffectiveness lead to strategy shifts.

Sometimes these adjustments don’t take, and the pitcher flounders with the same approach for years without success. The great ones implement the changes and recreate their game as new and improved versions of themselves.

The next few slides will hit on a few examples of pitchers who changed their tactics and reaped the benefits.

Begin Slideshow

Philadelphia Phillies: 25 Biggest ‘Mulligan’ Moments in Franchise History

If you had just one mulligan—just one opportunity to look back on your life, pick out a bad moment, and erase it from your life’s “score”—what would you use it on? How different would your life be without that one moment? 

For the Philadelphia Phillies, it would rewrite the history books.

The Phillies’ organization is littered with “mulligan moments.” From terrible deals, to bad trades, to hideous uniforms, to quotes you can never forget, you can pick your poison. The worst part is knowing that you can’t remove them all. That would be sort of like that irrational fear of time travel: You don’t want to change something in fear of changing everything.(I know, that’s a nerdy analogy.)

So you have to pick and choose your spots. What moments in Phillies’ history can we comb through, do away with for good, but not change the entire landscape of the organization?

This slide show will bring quite a few to your attention.

For news, rumors, analysis and game recaps during spring training, check out Greg’s blog: The Phillies Phactor!

Follow @Greg_Pinto

Begin Slideshow

Predicting the Full-Season Stats of the Philadelphia Phillies Lineup

Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pride and joy to announce that Phillies baseball is back. With their annual game against the Florida State Seminoles taking place on Wednesday and their first official spring training game tomorrow against the Yankees, the wait is over.

It’s such a great feeling. Sure, spring training games mean absolutely nothing in the long run, but at least we can say that baseball has emerged out of its winter hibernation and has returned. I don’t know about you, but in case you couldn’t already tell, I’m excited.

I shouldn’t diss spring training completely, though—it does count for some players. In the case of the Phillies, a fifth outfield spot—whether as a backup or even the starting left field job—and possibly either a left-handed or overall bullpen spot are still up for grabs on the Phils’ 25-man roster. In addition, another bench bat could make its way onto the team, and heck, even the fifth starter in the rotation isn’t a lock. It’s not like spring training has no significance—just very little. Ah, who am I kidding—it matters. A lot. 

Who will win the remaining roster spots is anyone’s guess at this point. In left field, it’s John Mayberry, Jr.’s to lose, and while Laynce Nix will likely get some starts against right-handed pitching in left, Domonic Brown is lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike and claim the spot he believes is rightfully his. The fifth outfield position is a battle between Brown, Scot Podsednik, and Juan Pierre, who seems like the top dog at the moment. As for the bullpen, Dontrelle Willis seems like the front-runner to be the Phillies’ LOOGY this year, but with a good spring, Joe Savery could surprise and earn a spot on the big league roster.

Many mysteries remain as to who will ultimately make the Opening Day roster. In the meantime, questions about player production start to come about at this time of the year. With the absence of Ryan Howard at first base likely at least until May, not only is the team’s first base solution still up in the air, the production that the rest of the squad will produce is unpredictable. Today, my job is to try to make things a little less vague. I’ll give my predictions of the Phillies’ starting lineup by providing both my projected position in the lineup and numbers for each player. I won’t be giving any predictions for the ninth spot in the lineup, since that’s the pitcher’s spot, and considering that the hitting stats for pitchers will be relatively low, I don’t consider it worth mentioning. I will, however, go out on a limb and predict that Vance Worley is a dark horse to be the team’s best hitting pitcher this year, but for now, Cliff Lee earns top honors in my book.

Please feel free to give your opinions in the comments section below on numbers predictions, position predictions, lineup predictions, or even roster predictions. I’d love to get some debates going.

Enjoy!

Begin Slideshow

11 Philadelphia Phillies Debuting New ‘Looks’ This Spring

While nothing may seem more peaceful than stretching and having a catch in the Florida sun, many of the inhabitants of the baseball world find their roles and bodies in flux during spring training.

Every year there are a handful of players on each team who we hear are in “the best shape of their lives,” and a couple guys who really let themselves go. Some players experiment with new facial hair, new gloves, new workout routines and new pitches in order to find something to help make this season their breakout season.

Regardless of whether they are fighting for jobs, adjusting to new roles, switching positions or dealing with contract uncertainty, every player has their own story, their own prerogative and their own “look” every spring.  

And even though the Phillies‘ core group of players has remained largely intact from last season, plenty of the 2012 Phillies are still debuting and adjusting to new looks this spring.

Begin Slideshow

« Previous Page