The Phillies kicked off the start of their season over the weekend with games against the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates. Many of the names competing for the final few spots in the bullpen and bench played and look to make good impressions for the rest of camp.<\/p>\n
The first two games of spring training will not tell you much how the season is going to go. It would take some scenarios no one wants to imagine for Bryse Wilson to start on opening day or for Trevor Richards to pitch in high leverage but there are still things to take note of.<\/p>\n
Justin Crawford\u2019s swing<\/p>\n
Here is a Justin Crawford swing on February 23 of last year:<\/p>\n
And now here is a Justin Crawford swing from February 21 of this year:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a swing expert but there are two easy things to notice. His hands are a bit lower in the second clip and it\u2019s helping him get to a more compact swing. The second thing is that his lower half is more in sync with his upper half, which might help him access more power either of the gap to gap variety or homers.<\/p>\n
For most of Justin Crawford\u2019s professional career, it often looked like the bat was swinging him and there were big questions about how he was going to cut down on the groundballs he hit. Matt Winkelman took a deeper look into Crawford\u2019s season in AAA<\/a> and found his groundball rate dropped over six percent from July to August that can be tied to swing adjustments he made.<\/p>\n Crawford is betting on those swing adjustments as he looks to solidify himself as the Phillies center fielder for 2026.<\/p>\n One pitcher fighting to make the final 26 who caught attention this weekend was left-hander Kyle Backhus. He throws from a funky, dropped-sidearm slot with over 7 feet of extension. He pitched 25.1 innings for a depleted Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff last year. He excelled against left-handed hitters but got barreled against righties.<\/p>\n