McCaffery: Phillies have a deep, versatile pitching staff
Joe Girardi may use Chase Anderson at the back of his rotation, but only if he decides to go with Spencer Howard.
He may try Connor Brogdon as a closer, yet he may stick with Hector Neris. That’s unless Archie Bradley turns dominating.
He may use Ivan Nova in the bullpen, and maybe Vince Velasquez, too. That’s unless they earn rotation responsibilities.
Matt Moore? Could be a No. 3. Maybe a four. Five probably. Depends.
Yes, it is a tough job being a manager of a team with – ready for this? – so many pitching options.
The Phillies?
Pitching options?
That would be them.
It’s not that Girardi has a rotation that would match Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, or that he still manages Mariano Rivera. Until Aaron
Nola shows he can pitch in September or Zack Wheeler can prove healthy for 162 games, Girardi won’t have a Cy Young candidate. It’s just that after a year when he was all but ready to solicit volunteers to pitch, the Phils’ manager is facing a couple of traffic jams.
One is the starting rotation.
The other: The bullpen.
“Who has a job locked up there?” Girardi said. “I’d say Neris and Bradley. I feel pretty good about some other guys. Jose Alvarado is a guy who has spent a lot of time in the big leagues lately. We feel pretty good about him. But locked up? It’s possible that some of the guys competing for starting jobs could wind up in the bullpen.”
The National League will be DH-free this season, meaning more starting pitchers will be lifted for pinch hitters. So a bullpen deeper in would-be starters able to provide length will matter.
Also, baseball will recommit this season to the seven-inning doubleheaders. Given that health protocols of some sort will remain in place, and with that will come the likelihood of rescheduled games, maintaining a staff with up to eight potential starters is wise. Velasquez, for one, is chronically unable to pitch much past Inning No. 5, yet his skill set would make him ideal for the mini-game.
“It will all iron itself out here,” Girardi said, “in the next four and a half weeks.”
Sometimes, those kinds of wrinkles are just good to have.
I would say I don’t get diet pet foods, except that I know when I am being trolled.
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The NBA trade deadline is March 25. By then, the Toronto Raptors will be ready to run from the expiring $30.5 million contract of 34-year-old, presumptive Hall of Fame point guard Kyle Lowry.
When they do, the Sixers, who haven’t won a championship since four years before Lowry was born, must be there to welcome the Philadelphia-born Lowry home.
If ever there were a time and a place and reason and motivation to fit Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons with a recent world-champion point guard who is both unselfish and able to shoot, this is the time.
Earlier, Daryl Morey withdrew from the bidding for James Harden. That decision was too close to criticize. This time, it is not a close decision. This time, the Sixers need Lowry and what he could bring to a team no longer pretending to be rebuilding.
It is said Morey would have to part with Danny Green and Mike Scott to help balance the salaries, and send Sixers’ last two top draft choices, Matisse Thybulle and Tyrese Maxey, to the Raptors, who will be demanding value.
Green can shoot, but so can Lowry. Scott has nothing left. Thybulle is a unique, game-changing defender, among the best in Sixers history. But his shooting can be problematic in a tough playoff series. Maxey can do many things, but at 20 years old will be too young and inexperienced to help win a championship this particular year. And for the Sixers, this particular year is the one that matters.
• The NBA All-Star Game has deteriorated into over-publicized players getting out of each other’s way to better allow for laugh-a-minute dunks.
So if they wanted to get rid of the thing altogether, there’d be no reason for a protest. Yet if it is to continue, and there is no indication that it won’t, then it needs to be expanded.
“Every year, there’s ‘All-Stars’ left off the team,” Doc Rivers said. “There are more than 12 All-Stars in each conference. There just are. Unfortunately, that’s our number.”
It’s a 30-team league, and there are at least 48 players that fans would like to see. So make it two games, 24 players in each.
It would please more people. And it couldn’t make the current format any worse.
•••
For the second time, DeSean Jackson has become a former Eagle.
Some day, he may wind up in the franchise’s honor roll. If so, that’s when his Eagles history will be told.
See if this version works: He became an Eagle and never won much. He annoyed Chip Kelly (and understandably so, viceversa) and was rolled out of the NewsControl Compound. While he was gone, the Eagles became Super Bowl champions. He returned and provided eight lackluster games in two years as the entire program collapsed, necessitating coaching and quarterback changes.
Recapping:
Here: Nothing.
Gone: Championship.
Back: Distraction and upheaval. Sometimes abridged history works the best.
•••
Outdoor hockey outside of Canada … don’t get it.