Moniak ‘feeling good’ on road to recovery

PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies, ever mindful that another viable power bat is welcome in their midst, are hoping to see Mickey Moniak start to get back on track over the next couple of weeks.

Moniak said he tried some short swings Thursday, almost a full month since he suffered a broken right hand getting hit by a pitch in a final Grapefruit League game April 6.

Now past the four-week mark, Moniak said Thursday, “it’s feeling good. … Pain is the determining factor here. It’s about doing as much as possible without being in pain. At four weeks, they said I’d be able to start working out, working toward taking some swings … but it’s not fully healed yet.”

That should start to ring true in another couple of weeks according to the original prognosis of recovery, although Moniak said, “Yeah, but it’s basically like a day to day thing at this point.”

Added manager Joe Girardi: “It’s definitely healing; it’s pretty close. He’s doing a lot more.”

Showing patience is mostly what Moniak — who hit .378 with a .973 slugging percentage with six homers in Grapefruit action before the injury — has been doing best. It hasn’t been easy watching his team struggle over the first month of the season.

“You want to contribute,” Moniak said. “We’re obviously off to a slower start than we expected, but at the end of the day we’re still (near) .500 … and there’s like, what, 135 games or something like that left? So we haven’t put it together yet but once we do it’s off to the races.” • • • Reliever Connor Brogdon, who was sent down to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after three unimpressive outings this season, seems to be getting himself straightened out with the IronPigs.

Through Wednesday, Brogdon had logged nine appearances to the tune of 5.2 innings pitched, with a 1.59 ERA and 10 strikeouts.

“His velocity ticked up a little bit the other day,” Girardi said. “As it warms up here, we’ll see that more from him.”

But it’s not only slightly warmer weather (in Allentown?) that’s at work. Brogdon is said to be sharper than in early April, where the short spring training apparently had an effect on him.

“It’s just him being the pitcher that we’ve seen in the past,” Girardi said when asked what he’s looking for from Brogdon. “I mean, we’ve seen 96 to 98 (mph from him), and executing the change-up really well. I think that’s part of what happened, his change-up wasn’t the change-up we had seen.

“But I think he’s making strides; he’s getting better and he’s getting closer.” • • • The Phillies are among leaders in team batting average. No, really.

Right there in the early season MLB stats, the Phillies as a team — through a second straight loss to the supposedly lowly Texas Rangers Wednesday night — were hitting .244, or fourth among National League teams, and seventh in MLB.

Also, not so coincidentally, the Phils were fourth in MLB in hard-hit balls percentage, checking in at 43.7 percent. Except that they also were excelling in hard-hit outs. As an example the Phillies didn’t mind publicizing Thursday, they had 11 hard-hit balls (a 95 mph or greater exit velocity) Wednesday, nine of which were outs. So what’s all that say? “You keep hitting the ball hard, it’ll change,” Girardi said. “Bryce (Harper) is second in hard-hit outs. It’s frustrating. But over time, you’ll get hard hits.”

Harper was 15th in the majors in overall hard-hit percentage, per the league’s metrics savants. Rhys Hoskins was 13th.