Granderson, Yankees down ‘mature’ Phillies 8-5

Curtis Granderson homered and doubled to lead the visiting Yankees to an 8-5 victory in the Grapefruit League opener.

Beerleaguer: Just one observation. The camera adds 5-to-10 years. Wait. What’s that? The Phillies are actually that old? Oh, right. Not that it's any great revelation. The Phillies fielded the oldest lineup in baseball last season and tacked on more seniority in Jim Thome (40) and Ty Wigginton (34) this winter. I suppose it doesn’t sink in until you actually see the real thing. It didn’t help that the Phils sent a parade of veterans to the hill while the Yankees countered with their best young arms, including Banuelos and Betances. Otherwise, the Yankees are only slightly less geriatric. Another factor is the number of formerly “lithe” players in camp who were at their supplest a decade ago: Juan Pierre, Scott Podsednik, Dontrelle Willis, to name a few. A couple of readers have already grumbled about Chad Qualls, but to me, today was a good reminder that the D-Train, who has appeared in a grand total of 43 games since 2007, probably left the station long ago.

Comments

[Sam]

He looked good against the lefties

[GTown_Dave]

The thing about Qualls is that the Phillies spent $1.15 million to sign him less than a week after they traded Valdez, presumably to dump his $930K in salary. Maybe one takes a chance w/ Willis ($850K) or Qualls, but not both ... & certainly not at the expense of one's last remaining shred of passable infield depth.

[Dan]

It's going to be quite the shock to most of the region when the Phillies struggle mightily this season, don't win the division, and find themselves desperately fighting for one of the Wild Card spots in September.

[NEPP]

Strictly against LHBs...Willis would be okay. But RHBs destroy him.

Qualls sucked too.

[85]

We're worrying this early, are we?

[Klaus]

Season = over

Am I the first?

[Jack]

We definitely are an old team. A very good team, but a very old team.

That wouldn't be a concern if the camp was filled with the next generation of prospects ready to make a smooth transition and keep this ship sailing. But it most definitely isn't. Unless you really think the world of Brown, Galvis, Valle, and Gillies, you better enjoy this regular season and hope we get a title out of it. I have a feeling the middle of this decade is going to contain some fallow years.

But hey, I'm sure fans won't care because they'll still get to see Ryan Howard hit a home run every once in a while at age 35.

[AT]

Fransden's homer was a highlight for me; if he can really play SS (as Baseball Reference claims) and he continues in that vein, I'd like to see him deliver us from the Mini-Mart.

[epicurean]

I'm not sure whether or not B-R makes much of a case for Frandsen at SS. 42 MLB innings in last four years, but decent experience in MiLB: much more so, in fact, than at 1B, where the Phils have been sticking him. I'd love to see him take a run at beating Martinez for the bench role, but I'm not holding my breath.

[The hook]

I am glad I can see the younger guys. First game. Everyone sell your tickets this team will only win 79 games. Relax. Let be glad baseball is back. Flyers are done, and sixers can't beat a over .500 team. So let's just chill.

[Scotch Man]

Willis' success will be if Charlie learns this time around that LEFTY SPECIALISTS ARE FOR LEFTY BATS! If he remembers this, Willis will be find. If not, he'll be cast away, possibly before Opening Day.

[MG]

As long as nobody is injured, that is all I care about this spring. Phils' biggest adversary this year is going to be the DL list.

[Chris in VT]

The Phils spend the first two months of the season playing the dregs of the NL. They will not struggle early, I'd venture a wager they have the best record in baseball after 40 games.

[bay_area_phan]

If you can't get RH batters out at all, you can't pitch in this league -- not even as a LOOGY. Even the most protected LOOGYs in baseball still end up facing RH hitters at least 40% of the time. Whether Willis can get RH hitters out at a passable rate remains to be seen. But if he can't, it won't matter that he can get lefties out.

[jr]

Small sample size big enojgh for me,Qualls is done.

[goody]

Missed the game. ESPN boxscore has Nix as PH-DH, but credits him with an error. That does not compute.

[Sophist]

People just use spring training to bolster pre-existing views. Stay healthy. Hopefully Brown impresses enough to win the starting job he already deserves.

[MG]

Qualls is going to give up his share of HRs thus year especially once it gets warm at CBP. Best-case scenario with him is that in between his terrible outings where he gives up a bomb and a few runs, that he puts his share of 0s in the 6th/7th and occasional 8th inning.

Expecting him to give the Phils an ERA under 3.75 or be able to contribute as a setup man routinely is asking for trouble. Thus roster is littered with guys including Nix, Mayberry, Thome, KK, and Willis who can potentially really help this team but overexposing is going to lead to inevitable failure. Why I am really interested to see how Cholly uses of these guys especially on offense towards the last 7-10 days of spring training. First 2 weeks of camp this year is going to be incredibly dull unless you ate riveted by the 5th OF race or the last spot in the bullpen.

[Greg]

I wrote a comment but accidentally used a curse word so it never appeared. In a gist:

Willis struggled with his command, but I have a feeling he'll be a bit better with a few more reps, I'm not ready to write him off yet, let's at least wait until Clout day.

Qualls looked like complete crap, and I'm not too happy about his addition, but let's give it a few more days. All in all, I think the Phillies looked pretty good.

[Bubba]

Words of wisdom from our ex-LF:

""My time in Philadelphia was nothing short of extraordinary," Ibanez said.

Asked what he took from his three seasons in Philadelphia, he said, "You know what I got out of that? Winning the World Series is really hard. We had a great team over there. Great people. Great personnel. Great organization. Tremendous fan support. Falling short those three times was definitely disappointing. You go there to win. I wanted to be able to do that. Unfortunately it didn't work out."

[MG]

Mini-Mart had his first of likely many 0fers (0-2) this spring in the start at 2B. He hit .233/.250/.356 in 73 ABs last spring training.

Curious to see if he actually can put together a somewhat credible offensive spring where he even give the Phils close to a .700 OPS with a .250 AVG.

Given that they don't have another guy now capable of playing SS besides Galivs, Mini-Mart is a lock to make the roster and I imagine he sees his share of time at 3B too once Cholly realizes how bad Wiggigton is there defensively.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

I just don't even want to see the name "Mini Mart" at all. I think he should get mucho at bats and get his practice in, but I don't want to see it or read about it.

When I think of the mini mart, I want to recall the queer guy tripping on something and selling cigarettes and pig's tongue at the corner store.

[Bill Barbrough]

Hugh's a bigot. Ask me why.

[Zdl]

No matter how well Dom Brown plays he isn't making the club of spring training without more injuries.

[Andy]

Since we have several folks giving the season up, I thought I'd roll out my new rule - the Spring Training Rule of Inverse Performance (STRIP):

The better some performs early in Spring Training, the worse he'll do in the regular season. Conversely, the worse he does in early Spring Training the better he'll do.

[bullit]

t-mac said he saw blanton throw in the pen friday and that he looked good. and is healthy. he even added a little "whew" for emphasis.

[GM-Carson]

First game of spring training...whoopty-f'n-doo!

I'm going to continue shaking my head about the Willis signing though. It's difficult for me to believe that Amaro had to give him a guaranteed MLB contract rather than a minor league deal.

[awh]

Andy, now you've done it! For the rest of ST we're going to hear nothing about baseball and everything about STRIPPERS.

That'll bring the trolls out.

[awh]

bullit, do you expect T-Bag to say anything negative or even unbiased about a Phillies' player at this point in ST?

Sure, this would have worked:

T-Bag: "Wheels, I saw Joe blanton throwing a bullpen session the other day and he was stinking it up - no velocity, and he couldn't find the plate even without a batter in the box."

[awh]

Carson, IIRC Willis does not have a guaranteed contract. Qualls, OTOH, does.

[awh]

I wonder what the Pissy Pants Posse woudl be posting about Papelbon if he had given up any runs yesterday?

[GM-Carson]

I thought Willis' was a MLB deal? How is it not guaranteed. If they release him at the end of spring, how much would the owe him?

[Raul's grandpa]

"My time in Philadelphia was nothing short of extraordinary."
-Doug Glanville, Andy Van Slyke, Adam Eaton, Gary Heidnik, Geoff Jenkins, Bruntlett, et al.

[bullit]

awh: i understand that t-mac is always in PR mode. i just thought it was encouraging to the extent that it is true. otherwise he would have said nothing.

[Muuurgh]

bullit: I, too, was surprised at how much emphasis he put on how good he looks--to me it didn't just sound like your run-of-the-mill "he's looking pretty healthy!" comment.

Of course, even with that extra optimism, we'll believe it when we see it, eh?

[NEPP]

Willis's deal is non-guaranteed. If he is cut during ST, he gets 45 days pay (whatever that prorates out of the $1 million overall deal basically)

http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/phillies-talk/post/Phils-reach-agreement-with-Dontrelle-Wil?blockID=611182

[EastFallowfield]

Yo, new thread