Here is what 97.3 ESPN Phillies insider Jeff Kerr<\/a> had to say about the Phillies west coast trip.<\/p>\nWhy the No. 5 Spot Needs a Change<\/p>\n
Overall, Philadelphia’s No. 5 hitters are\u00a04-for-24 with just one home run, two doubles, and one RBI.<\/p>\n
Expect to see the Phillies move Stott out of the No. 5 spot in the lineup with Brandon Marsh likely to get the first shot against right-handers.<\/p>\n
The Rookie Watch: Justin Crawford\u2019s Learning Curve<\/p>\n
Crawford got off to a hot start at Citizens Bank Park in the team’s first two series against Texas and Washington, going\u00a07-17 to start the season.\u00a0Crawford had a tremendous season at Triple-A Lehigh last year, slashing\u00a0.334\/.411\/.452 with seven homers and 46 steals in 112 games.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old leads the Phillies with a .306 average, but was just 4-19 (.210) during the west coast trip.<\/p>\n
Expect to see some growing pains over a long summer.<\/p>\n
Southpaw Struggles: Philadelphia\u2019s Left-Handed Kryptonite<\/p>\n
With a .159 average, last in the majors so far, their right-handed lineup, which includes Edmundo Sosa and Otto Kemp, hasn’t given the team much. With Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, Stott, and Crawford all left-handed bats, the team has faced plenty of left-handed arms.<\/p>\n
Otto Kemp has struggled in left field and at the plate<\/p>\n
Kemp has gotten off to a slow start at the plate, hitting .154\/.214\/.154 with seven strikeouts in six games, but it’s his defense that stands out here.<\/p>\n
Roster Moves: Is It Time for Bryan De La Cruz?<\/p>\n
One idea is to bring up veteran right-handed bat Bryan De La Cruz, who had a strong Spring Training (.326\/.380\/.457) with the Phillies, and has three home runs in 10 games so far at Triple-A Lehigh, with a .391 on-base percentage.\u00a0 He could take over playing left field, give the team better defense, and allow Kemp to take over as a right-handed bat and corner infield piece. over veteran Dylan Moore.<\/p>\n
The Phillies played a game in San Francisco with Kemp in left, Moore at second, and Sosa at third.\u00a0 \u00a0Moore has played 154 big league games in left field, Kemp has much more experience at third, and Sosa is better at second than at third base.<\/p>\n
The fix? Get rid of Moore, bring up De La Cruz, and get a real left fielder on days Marsh sits against left-handers.<\/p>\n
Mound Dominance: Pitching Remains the Silver Lining<\/p>\n
The Phillies pitching staff has gotten off to a strong start.\u00a0 Cristopher Sanchez had a rough outing in San Francisco, but seems to be settling in fine as the team’s ace. Jesus Luzardo struck out 11 in his last start, and Aaron Nola seems to be coming around after an injury-filled season in 2025. Rookie Andrew Painter has shown plenty of promise over his two starts, and Zack Wheeler looks close to a return to the majors after his most recent Triple-A outing.<\/p>\n
The bullpen can be dominant with Johan Duran and Brad Keller at the back end, along with Jose Alvarado and Tanner Banks from the left side, and Orion Kerkering has just joined the bullpen after starting the season on the injured list.\u00a0 Add in Tim Mayza and the Phillies bullpen can be one of the top units in baseball<\/p>\n
The Best Philly Athletes Age 25 or Younger<\/p>\n
Philadelphia has some great young athletes right now, from All-Star Tyrese Maxey to two first-round draft picks on the Eagles Defensive Line (Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter).\u00a0In honor of the Philly Sports Youth Movement, here is my ranking of the Top Ten Philadelphia Professional Athletes who are 25 years old or younger:<\/p>\n
Gallery Credit: Josh Hennig\/Townsquare Media<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Philadelphia Phillies were shut out in back-to-back games\u00a0to complete their first 12 games with a 6-6 record. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2397],"tags":[4753,5,4,144,25,4216,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-672174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-articles","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","13":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","14":"tag-phillies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116378494082902481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}