Red Pinstripes: Let's root for players
Why I like rooting for some players, spring training games begin, and baseball's harassment issue
Good morning,
Welcome to Red Pinstripes, a newsletter about baseball and the Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball is back! Games started Sunday and you probably haven’t been able to watch many of them because, for some stupid reason, a lot of teams are not broadcasting their home spring training games.
Anyway, today’s newsletter is packed with stories about fans in the ballpark, prospects and players getting better. I also touch on baseball’s continued issues with harassment in the workplace.
But first, I wrote about why I like it when players stick around, something threatened by teams searching for efficiency.
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Let’s root for players
There was some talk this offseason that the Phillies might trade Rhys Hoskins. This upset me for two reasons. First, Hoskins is one of my favorite players on the Phillies. And two, it resembled a lot of what too many teams are doing these days, trying to be efficient and damning any ability of fans to connect to the team at the same time.
The first part of this is easy. Hoskins is hard to root against. He seems like a good guy. His wife seems like a good person too. And he’s got an A+ dog with an A+ Instagram.
On top of all that, Hoskins is a fun player. He hits the ball hard and he hits the ball far.
That doesn’t mean Hoskins doesn’t have his flaws. He’s not a great defensive player. He’s also a streaky hitter and when he’s cold, he’s really cold.
Some of those flaws had some people wondering if there might be an upgrade out there for the Phillies, or if the team could flip him for some pitching.
I hate this kind of thinking about baseball. The team already has a good player who is fun to root for. Why would you want to give that away? You’re probably getting a marginal upgrade, but you’re trading away someone a lot of and are connected to.
Fortunately, the Phillies haven’t traded Hoskins. But other teams do make these kinds of moves all the time, from trading legitimate superstars to fun role players.
Last year, the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts and this year the Rockies traded Nolan Arenado. These are the type of players you want to see on your team their entire careers. Unlike in the past, fans can’t look at free agency as the boogeyman keeping players off of their team.
Betts, a bonfire superstar with charisma, was traded because the Red Sox didn’t want to pay him and David Price. Betts, of course, went on to lead the Dodgers to the World Series.
Imagine being a young Red Sox fan and trying to understand why the team traded Mookie away. You probably can’t. You might even give up on baseball.
It’s even worse in the Arenado situation. He wasn’t just a superstar in a smaller market. He had also signed a long-term contract with the team. But they didn’t like how much they were paying him and he didn’t like their lack of commitment to winning. Now he’s a Cardinal.
I can’t imagine being a young Rockies fan. Why would you want to be? They’ve traded away just about every good player they’ve ever had and are poised to trade another in Trevor Story.
Look, Rhys Hoskins is not Mookie Betts or Nolan Arenado or Francisco Lindor or any of the other superstar players who have been or might be traded. But I still think baseball teams should recognize that they have a greater responsibility to enrich their fan bases.
Keeping players like Rhys who are easy to root for and are good is a good step to building trust and building a fan base that will stick with your team.
Games are happening!
Yes, games are happening. Unfortunately, it’s hard to watch them right now because for some reason teams won’t televise their games. But it might not be the worst thing given how the Phillies have played so far. It’s important to remember that these are early spring games. They don’t mean much, especially for pitchers who might be working on specific things.
Still, some good things have happened worth noting.
Adam Haseley hit a home run off of a lefty pitcher Sunday. That’s important if he wants to compete for the centerfield job.
Matt Joyce also hit a home run Monday. He’s competing for a bench role.
Alec Bohm has been playing where other starters are not this year. That’s probably so he can work on his defense. Apparently, it’s going well.
Some games have been shorter this year. Some innings have had fewer outs. Some have had extra outs. The Washington Post explains the spring rules here.
Odúbel Herrera started Tuesday’s game. He played all 7 innings and recorded a single and a stolen base. I’m convinced he’s not going to make the team, but I’m getting a little nervous. I’ll stay in wait-and-see mode for now.
Opening Day is just 29 days away.
Phillies news and notes
Limited fans allowed at Citizens Bank Park (Phillies.com)
After no fans were allowed in the ballpark last year, the receding pandemic and the accessibility of vaccines means fans will be allowed at Phillies home games this year. They’ll start with 8,800 fans this April.
The Phils announced that tickets to the first 19 regular-season games will be offered initially to season-ticket holders. The public will have the opportunity to purchase remaining tickets beginning March 12 at Phillies.com.
Bohm analyzes pitch-by-pitch approach (Phillies.com)
Alec Bohm revisited his Sept. 8 walk-off hit to give some insight into his approach at the plate. Cool stuff here.
Matt Joyce is battling just to be the 26th man on the Phillies’ roster. Here’s what it took just for him to get in the door.
The latest from Jim Salisbury. He notes what a lot of the beats have: Andrew McCutchen is running a lot better this year. It would be good to see him healthy.
"What stood out is how easily he did it, no limp when he slowed down," Girardi said. "He looked very natural running. I was very pleased."
Also, former GM Matt Klentak has a title, Salisbury reports:
Former general manager Matt Klentak has a new title. The team's 2021 media guide lists him as a Strategy & Development Officer on the club's executive management team. Klentak had two years remaining on his contract when he was replaced as GM after a fifth straight losing season in October.
Top 41 Prospects: Philadelphia Phillies (FanGraphs)
FanGraphs names their top Phillies prospects.
This system still has the Amaro/Arbuckle-era tools-over-skills types all over it, though part of that is because the advanced bat sorts either climbed and graduated (Alec Bohm sure, but Adam Haseley more quintessentially) or fell away (Cornelius Randolph), while the toolsy types remain of interest to me. Note also this club has been good at finding interesting Day Three high schoolers, and there are some big-framed pitchers (DJ Jefferson types) not listed here who might develop huge velo on a pro program.
Phillies prospect watch: When will top young talent make MLB impact? (Philly Voice)
Around the NL East
Fans are shut out of Nationals Park for now, but that could change (Washington Post)
There’s a lot going on with baseball’s harassment issue right now. But the Mets and team president Sandy Alderson specifically have a lot of problems.
They might have gotten lucky when Trevor Bauer — who comes with a lot of issues of his own — decided to sign with the Dodgers instead of the Mets.
After all, Alderson and the Mets pursued Bauer until the end — and even thought they had a deal with the polarizing right-hander at one point. If missing out on Bauer qualified as dodging a bullet, what did it say about the Mets that it was a bullet Alderson and his staff had once seemed more than willing to take?
4 reasons why Mets should strongly pursue an extension with Noah Syndergaard (SNY)
Noah Syndergaard is a free agent after this season. He’s also coming off of a season missed due to Tommy John surgery. That sets up a dilemma for the Mets.
Ronald Acuña is a great player. It looks like he’s trying to be even better.
The Braves didn’t allow Acuña to play winter ball in his native Venezuela for safety reasons, so he spent the entire offseason working out there in his hometown. He posted frequent Instagram videos this winter of a rigorous routine in weight rooms and on dusty fields, and the results have been apparent since he arrived at camp
Diligent López developing breaking ball (Marlins.com)
Another story on an already good player working to get even better.
MLB news and notes
Make sure you read the latest chapter in baseball’s ongoing struggles to deal with sexual harassment among its ranks. Cleveland claimed last month that it didn’t know about Mickey Callaway’s behavior, but that appears to be untrue.
Even worse is what this story says about baseball’s ongoing culture issues when it comes to accepting women as part of the sport and recognizing what it has to do to create a safe environment for everybody. It seems like the top leaders can’t even acknowledge that they’re part of the problem.
Here’s Nick Francona, who took the brave step of publicly calling out his father:
Baseball has a long way to go. And the journey needs to start at the top.
One of the best stories in baseball this year is going to be watching Trey Mancini come back from colon cancer.
Here’s the ovation he received in his first spring at-bat:
Kansas City royalty: Salvador Pérez remains as a rare link to title-winning team (The Athletic)
I moved to Kansas City the night the Royals won the World Series. That town was pumped to see their team win. At the center of all of the joy was Salvy. People drove into the city just to get their picture taken near a billboard featuring him.
One of the first things that players, coaches, executives and scouts who know Pérez will tell you is that he loves to play baseball. He loves the games and he loves to take batting practice and he loves to catch bullpens, they will tell you. He loves it all. Few of those people know he almost walked away before his career even really began. Pérez keeps that story to himself. Instead he projects passion on the diamond, in the cage, in the clubhouse. He supplies the booming laughter, the mentoring for younger players, the clutch hits in the playoffs. He does almost all of it with a smile. He makes it so that everyone understands him.
The alternate site is back! Ok, this is actually bad because everyone wants to watch minor league baseball as soon as possible.
But if the goal is to keep people safe while waiting for COVID to continue to recede, that’s a good thing.
"This is a prudent step to complete the major league and minor league seasons as safely as possible, and we look forward to having fans back in ballparks across the country very soon," Morgan Sword, MLB's executive VP of baseball operations, said in a statement.
Some ESPN insiders see the Yankees as the team to beat in the AL East, but it’ll be a tight race with Toronto and Tampa Bay right behind them.
The Jarred Kelenic Service Time Question Illustrates a Broken System (FanGraphs)
Another article on how Kevin Mather’s ill-advised comments have come as tensions between the union and the league simmer ahead of their negotiations this fall. This one is worth reading. The author, Kevin Goldstein, worked for the Astros for about 8 years in player development.
The offer of a team-friendly deal isn’t the problem, nor is the rejection. The problem is the wink-wink, nudge-nudge perks that were offered to Kelenic as part of the deal. The promise of big league time is unofficially attached to the deal, but that’s not even necessary. It’s obvious because of the rules that define service time, as well as arbitration and free agency eligibility. If Kelenic signs a big league deal, all the mechanics are then in place to add him to the major league roster. His price for now and the future is fixed, and there are no 40-man machinations or service time considerations to worry about. He can just play.