Phillies Notes and Roster Projections 3/9

Rich Wilkins

March 9 2013

Well, the Phillies sent a shell-team to Port Charlotte, and lost to the Rays yesterday. Who cares though, it's spring training.

I am more concerned about Doc Halladay's velocity though. I'm not sure whether to be heartened by his decent results and reports of good movement on his fastball, or worried that he's throwing 86-88. I'm additionally worried about Cliff Lee's spike in home runs surrendered. I'm not concerned about Cole Hamels' bad outing against the Dominican Republic, but I am worried about the other two. If you want to believe that this team is a contender to win a playoff spot, much less the World Series, it starts with the top end of the rotation being really, really good this year. If you don't think the Phillies are going to get three 200 inning, 3.25 or better ERA's, you really don't think they're going to be great, because you can't conclude they'll be a powerhouse offense based on a few guys having good springs.

On a brighter-ish note, the Phillies have a bunch of organizational guys playing for Canada in the WBC, but Canada is 0-1. Oh well, it's good entertainment.

With that, my roster picks.

Rotation: Hamels, Halladay, Lee, Kendrick, Lannan
Line-Up: Rollins-SS, Revere-CF, Utley-2B, Howard-1B, Young-3B, Brown-RF, Mayberry/Nix-LF, Kratz-C
Bullpen: Papelbon, Adams, Durbin, Bastardo, Aumont, Horst, Valdes
Bench: Mayberry/Nix, Frandsen, Quintero, Inciarte, Galvis
DL: D. Young
Restricted: Ruiz
Last 5 off: Ruf, Betancourt, De Fratus, Stutes, Cook

Despite his good game as the DH the other day, I'm going to leave Darin Ruf off again on this version. He has to keep it up. Stutes and De Fratus are starting to throw better, and that weighs heavy here, but not as heavy as Ruben's positive comments on the last three relievers. Betancourt's playing well, which might help him since Galvis has options. Cook has to make the 40 man by the end of the month, or my guess is he walks.

Now, the Iron Pigs are also picking a team. I'm presuming Cook leaves, for now. Here's what I have:

Rotation: Cloyd, Pettibone, Martin, Lopez, Cochran
Line-Up: Gillies-CF, Hernandez-2B, J. Mitchell-RF, D. Ruf-LF, Fields-1B, Joseph-C, Mather-DH, Betancourt-SS, Orr-3B
Bullpen: De Fratus, Stutes, Diekman, Savery, Robles, Jimenez, Ramirez
Bench: Lerud, Martinez, D. Mitchell, Overbeck
DL: Bass

No shockers here.

I'm probably most interested here in how things go between now and the end of the WBC. Guys in camp are getting extra time right now, and we'll start seeing cuts come soon. I wonder if Doc has another low-velocity outing or two if we'll see Cook get his 40 man spot he wants.