Small victories, large defeats.
You might not have noticed, but one of the major narratives of the Phillies’ off season was whether or not Bryce Harper is still an elite player. After Dave Dombrowski (correctly, but curiously) said that Harper’s 2025 season was not up to his previous standard, that set off a lot of people talking, including Harper […]
“Expect Everything” is the slogan for this year’s World Baseball Classic. Still, few expected Day 5 of the WBC to deliver the drama and tension that it did. That’ll teach us (and USA), I suppose. Japan 9, Czechia 0 Three years ago, Czechia delivered one of the most memorable moments of the WBC as Czech […]
At this point in two weeks, the Grapefruit League of 2026 will be but a memory. We usually wish these games are over as soon as possible, looking forward to the regular season commencing as quickly as possible, but the lingering question is hovering over baseball. Will these be the last spring training games we […]
One of the major targets of criticism for the Phillies these past few seasons has been the manager, Rob Thomson. Thomson has pressed a lot of the right buttons on his journey as the manager of the team, leading them to increasingly better win totals in the regular season, yet coming up short of expectations […]
Here are the lineups. For the Phillies: For the Yankees: Let’s talk about it.
This past Saturday was Andrew Painter’s second start of the spring and if you looked at a box score, you’d be rather happy with the results. Three innings pitched in which he gave up no runs, even against a depleted Blue Jays lineup, is cause for optimism that corners are being turned in his development. […]
We have some teams moving on to the next round, some teams going home without a win and some teams guaranteeing a spot in the next version of the World Baseball Classic. Let’s wrap up yesterday’s action. Korea 7, Australia 2 This was a matchup that would basically decide who would travel east with Japan […]
Max Scherzer seems like a cool dude. Maybe he’d like to pitch out of the bullpen? Huh, huh?? Phillies News: MLB News:
The deal many expected to happen this spring has indeed come to fruition, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan is reporting that the Phillies and Jesús Luzardo have agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep the left-hander in Philadelphia through 2031. Luzardo, now 28 years old, will be 34 when his contract expires. Passan also […]
Here are the lineups. For the Phillies: For the Red Sox: Let’s talk about it (or the WBC stuff)
When we reach this point in spring training, finding stories is often hard to do. For teams like the Phillies, teams that have a rather full roster difficult to crack for most veterans, they are reduced having to slog through games that will have very little determination on the edges of that roster. While the […]
The games this Saturday were very good. The games on Sunday? Maybe not so much as there were some predictable blowouts. There were a few close games, sure, but for the most part these games were not that close. Japan 4, Australia 3 This was a really good game to watch. Both teams entered 2-0 […]
I’m pretty sure we can stop with the “Alan Rangel is an option to be a starter” experiment for the future. He got lit up pretty good yet again, pushing his spring ERA over nine. He’s just soaking up innings at this point, but let’s hope if there is an injury this season, his name […]
The Phillies followed up Friday’s 14 run outburst by getting shut out on Saturday. Chances are, their offensive output on Sunday will fall somewhere in between when they travel to Fort Myers to take on the Minnesota Twins. Alan Rangel will get the ball for the Phillies. The righthander is vying to be considered for […]
We’ve got another day of WBC baseball and this one wasn’t without it’s thrills. Japan 8, Korea 6 Ho hum, another game for Japan, another home run for Shohei Ohtani. Except this time, it wasn’t Ohtani that was the star for Japan. That would be Seiya Suzuki, who homered twice to help Japan take a […]
Andrew Painter looked good yet again in his spring start and should pretty much have a rotation spot wrapped up. On to the links. Phillies news: MLB news:
Here are the lineups. For the Phillies: For the Blue Jays: Let’s talk about it.
The other day, I posted a short piece about how the Phillies not winning a World Series title does not mean they haven’t had a successful season. There was a short survey to ask your opinion, so here are those results. It’s interesting that the results are somewhat varied. Success can vary from person to […]
The World Baseball Classic ramped up into their pool play schedule yesterday, so let’s do a quick recap of what happened. Japan 13, Chinese Taipei 0 (7 innings) Listen, we’re all here for the Shohei Ohtani show in the WBC, so of course Shohei Ohtani crushed a grand slam in the second inning. That was […]
Did you happen to see the lineup that the Phillies put out yesterday against the Pirates? Sure they won in a 14-10 barnburner, but man did that scorecard contain a lot of names that will be forgotten in a few short weeks. Such is life in the WBC spring training. On to the links. Phillies […]
There is one thing I would suggest Phillies fans, myself included, do more of this year. Zoom out. Here in Philly, we can be a bit myopic when it comes to our sports teams. We are immersed in the day-to-day, week-to-week, monthly and yearly frustrations that come with following a baseball team with great intensity, […]
When Justin Crawford started out Grapefruit League games with a few strong games, there was a distinct sentiment that the rookie should not only be in the team’s starting lineup, but he should be batting at the very top of it from day one. I understand the sentiment, because based on his performance in the […]
Aaron Nola got off to bad starts over the previous two seasons. While it didn’t look bad from a results standpoint in 2024, he had a FIP of 4.49 over the first month of the season and carried a strikeout rate that would’ve been his lowest since 2015 over a full season. His 2025 season […]
With the World Baseball Classic becoming the biggest subject of the baseball world, we here at TGP have decided to substitute our usual question of the day slot with a daily WBC recap for the duration of the tournament. We’ll bring you the scores of the previous night’s games as well as give you updates […]
The pool play for the WBC begins in earnest today, which means as I write this, Shohei Ohtani hits a grand slam to open the scoring for Samurai Japan. Because of course he did. On to the links. Phillies news: MLB news: