Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hoskins hopes left field can feel like home
CHERRY HILL, N.J. » Rhys Hoskins is still trying to absorb it all, several months after he ignited more Phillies hype than had been seen at Citizens Bank Park the previous three or four years combined.
The first baseman, whose inevitable promotion from Lehigh Valley came a bit later than perhaps was necessary, was the hottest power hitter in baseball over a stretch of weeks to single-handedly energize what used to be known here as the dog days of August.
At one point, Hoskins hit eight homers in nine games. He’d finish his 50-game Phillies mini-season as the team’s biggest offensive focus for the fans. In just 170 at-bats, Hoskins hit 18 home runs and collected 48 RBIs while crafting a 1.014 OPS.
“It’s kind of starting to settle in,” Hoskins said Monday night prior to the Philadelphia Sports Writers annual dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “I traveled a little bit after the start of the offseason and it kind of hit me then.”
Hoskins’ prolonged trip included a tour of China where he said too many people wanted to take his picture because, “I don’t look like most people there; I’m a big guy.”
But even in returning to his boyhood home of Sacramento, Calif., life seemed ...
“A little bit different,” Hoskins acknowledged. “I like to think I’m the same guy, so that it’s a little bit weird and different for me. Just with friends and family, and some people I went to high school with, it was different. “Interesting, for sure.”
In trying to avoid trappings of fame, Hoskins is always keen on keeping his perspective. Coming off his blazing August there was bound to be a statistical correction, but Hoskins talks of his stretch drive performances only as, “I think toward the end of the year, I just missed more than I had been. If you miss pitches you should hit, it’s not good. I just missed more.
“But it’s a game of adjustments and I’m sure they’re going to look at film and sequences of pitching,” he added. “What worked, what didn’t work and I’m sure that’ll be applied coming up.”
For that, he will be ready. Hoskins has been fully involved in his offseason training at a San Diego gym and complex in which he trains with other pros.
He said his regimen hasn’t changed much, except for the part where he’s taking fly balls and working on his outfield footwork. Hoskins played left early in his Phillies stay last August, but only because he needed a position.
With the offseason acquisition of Carlos Santana, however, Hoskins’ scheduled appointment as the Phillies’ first baseman of the future has been altered. He’s been told by new manager Gabe Kapler that while he’ll still be playing some first base, he should start feeling at home in left field.
“The signing of Carlos is exciting for the city, it’s exciting for the team,” Hoskins said. “We have a guy who’s proven himself in this league for the last five or six years at a very, very high level. So you insert that right into the lineup, and especially into the clubhouse for such a young team, I think we’re going to feel that exponentially throughout the year.
“But left field’s a challenge. It’s a challenge I’m definitely excited about. I started feeling more comfortable out there toward the end of the year. That’s just reps. That’s what I’ve been focused on since the signing and going into the offseason we’ll get as many reps as we can.”
Not that Hoskins isn’t confident. He’s a big guy; not slow but certainly not fleet of foot, either. But he says he’s working hard to make left field a position of comfort.
“I think I can be just fine (there),” Hoskins said. “I know it’s not something that I am necessarily going to be ... I just don’t have the speed that some guys do, especially in today’s game. But I think I’ll be just fine, contribute to the team defensively as much as I can. Make the plays that I’m supposed to.
“It’s not such a new thing,” he added. “I’ll take the experience I gained last year and apply it, and try to learn as much as I can going forward.”