April 04, 2024
The Phillies are two series into the 2024 campaign and have dropped two of three in both. It's been a less than ideal start for the Fightins, whose inconsistencies have only been matched by the weather forecasts down in South Philadelphia.
The Phils stand at 2-4. Before they make their first road trip of the year on Friday and hit Washington and St. Louis, here are five thoughts rattling in my brain about the Phillies and baseball at large...
Who leads the Phillies in OPS and OPS+? It's neither part of the Bryce Harper-Kyle Schwarber home run duo. It's the only athlete in Philadelphia this decade worthy of the nickname "The Beard," Brandon Marsh.
After smashing a two-run home run on Opening Day off star pitcher Spencer Strider, Marsh sat the very next game against lefty Max Fried. Rob Thomson has shown unwillingness to have Marsh be a 162-game player since Marsh came to Philly. Marsh was not in the lineup to begin Sunday against left-hander Chris Sale (but later came in to pinch hit). He got the nod on Monday against Cincinnati's Andrew Abbott, a lefty, much to the joy of all the young fans around Citizens Bank Park sporting Marsh jerseys, fake beards and headbands.
Brandon Marsh won't turn 27 until after this season. Alec Bohm is discussed in these parts as some unfinished player given his status as a top-three draft pick, but is nearly two years older on Marsh, who's gotten better every season in red pinstripes. There's room on his developmental curve to turn into a player who can mash both lefties and righties.
How about this? Marsh's OPS over his last 162 games is higher than that of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. and many other "big name" players:
Imagine a player with Juan Soto's batting average, Mike Trout's on-base percentage, and Bryce Harper's slugging percentage?
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) April 3, 2024
That is #Phillies Brandon Marsh – known superstar.
He is batting .285/.362/.476 with 73 runs, 32 doubles, 8 triples, 17 home runs, 75 RBI, and 11 stolen…
He should be penciled in on the lineup card daily whether it's in left or center field.
It's been a brutal beginning for Nick Castellanos. His disgusting .442 OPS is lower than that of any Phillies regular other than Johan Rojas. His .150 batting average makes Kyle Schwarber look like Joe Mauer.
Castellanos is whiffing a lot and looks so far off from making contact when doing so. He's making the least amount of contact on pitches thrown to him in his career (via Fangraphs) so far in this (very) young season. Not great!
Castellanos was a monster in the NLDS against Atlanta last fall, but an NLC performance where he hit .042 and went 1-for-24 left a bad taste that still lingers for Phillies fans. That vibe has continued into April. The Phillies don't want to turn their high-paid slugger who's making $20 million each over the next two seasons following this one into a platoon player or a pure salary dump just yet, but depending on how this summer goes, it should be on the table.
On a cold, disgusting evening, Zack Wheeler was in full ace form on Wednesday. He struck out 10 Reds hitters and allowed just a single earned run in six frames. A costly error from Bryson Stott earlier in the night put the Phils in a hole they couldn't get out of. He pitched six innings of no-run ball on Opening Day, too, as he was pulled after throwing 89 pitches in a game the Phillies eventually lost. There are a lot of Monday morning bench coaches out there who would've preferred to see Wheeler out there to start the seventh. I'm among them! The bullpen, naturally, imploded in the eventual 9-3 loss.
Wheeler continues to look like the best free agent signing in franchise history and, yes, it's early, but could be putting himself in a spot for his first-ever Cy Young Award.
Pouring rain and bad weather have plagued the Northeast over the last week. Many games here and in Baltimore and New York have been postponed or delayed. Brandon Marsh doesn't even need to do anything out of the ordinary to get his wet hair look going. The Phillies, for the second consecutive year, pushed back the start of Opening Day back ahead of potential bad weather (that came neither time...).
National media members are obviously freaking out because they don't want have to travel to a city that might be rainy and a little cold to do their job where they talk about sports for a living, adamant that only domed and warm weather locales should host games for the first couple of weeks of a season.
I'm out on that. I'm good.
Every team should have Opening Day be at their home park at least every other year. The beauty and optimism that Opening Day brings, for any team, transcends some 48-degree weather forecast. Are you from Philly or are you just a loser? Grab that maroon jacket you wore all the time in 2009 out of the basement and hustle down to Citizens Bank Park.
I wouldn't start scoreboard watching too intently until Memorial Day inches closer, but the National League east has been disastrous to start this season. The Mets are winless at 0-4. The Marlins are a laughable 0-7. The big, bad Braves are just 3-2. The division is 7-20 overall. Yuck. Almost as bad as the weather!
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