Philadelphia Phillies Under the Most Pressure the Rest of Spring Training

At its core, spring training is a small sample size of players doing their best to shake off the rust in anticipation of the upcoming regular season, but it also carries all of the blessings and curses of a that sample size. 

Regardless of who you are, if you play well through the month of March people anticipate your regular season. This rings especially true when a team like the Philadelphia Phillies receives good performances from players like Ryan Howard and Domonic Brown. 

That’s the blessing. If you play well in a small sample size, you have the opportunity to throw up some impressive numbers and crank the hype machine into full gear prior to the regular season. 

The curse is equally as powerful. Any player that performs poorly over a small sample size generates concern. Take a look at Roy Halladay. He is a two-time Cy Young Award winner with a pair of no-hitters, including a perfect game, under his belt. 

But he hasn’t pitched well this spring and people are concerned about his future. Is that a warranted concern? 

Spring training is ultimately a handful of exhibition games, but they’re important games for a lot of players. They could help to determine a job. They play a role in what kind of start the team gets off to. 

There will be a number of players under a lot of pressure as the second half of spring training begins. Here they are. 

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

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