Minor League ST Games

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Finally got the okay to release the schedule for spring training games for the minor league squads.

Games start this Tuesday at 1:00 PM unless noted otherwise.  Saturday games start at 11:00 AM.  Complex games are in bold text.

  • 3/19, Tuesday: Tigers – AA/AAA @ Lakeland, A/High A @ Clearwater 
  • 3/20, Wednesday:  Yankees – AA/AAA @ Clearwater, A/High A @ Tampa
  • 3/21, Thursday: Blue Jays –  AA/AAA @ Clearwater, A/High A @ Dunedin 
  • 3/22, Friday: Tigers –  AA/AAA @ Lakeland, A/High A @ Clearwater 
  • 3/23, Saturday: Blue Jays – 11:00 AM – AA/AAA @ Dunedin, A/High A @ Clearwater 
  • 3/24, Sunday: Blue Jays  – AA/AAA @ Clearwater , A/High A @ Dunedin
  • 3/25, Monday: No games – Lehigh Valley breaks camp 
  • 3/26, Tuesday:  Tigers – AA @ Clearwater,  A/High A @ Lakeland 
  • 3/27, Wednesday: Blue Jays – AA @ Dunedin, A/High A @ Clearwater
  • 3/28, Thursday: Tigers – AA @ Clearwater, A/High A @ Lakeland 
  • 3/29, Friday: No games
  • 3/30, Saturday: ST over – Remaining teams break camp 

If you plan to attend games, check the Phillies schedule.  If minor league games are scheduled for the same day as a Phillies Grapefruit League home game, there will be no free parking available close to the Complex.

Keep an eye on the weather.  Lakeland will cancel if there is a cloud in the sky and the remotest threat of rain.  They’ve done it in the past.  The Phillies will probably (but no guarantee) have an intrasquad game instead.

13 thoughts on “Minor League ST Games”

  1. This short schedule suggests that the rosters were all but set before the players even arrived.

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  3. “Good pitchers throw strikes that start out as balls and balls that start out as strikes.”

    A scout once told me this and now it is all that I look for when I watch a pitcher. Aaron Nola is the master of this, which is why he is so elite even though his fastball averages 92.8 MPH. Watch these 5 pitches from Nola. Particularly watch the 2nd strikeout. That is a fastball that the batter takes because it starts out in the opposing batters box, but has arm side run into the zone. That’s un-hittable. Velocity is irrelevant when you have that much ASR.

    https://x.com/SportsRadioWIP/status/1767984660913570213?s=20

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    2. Now watch these three strikeout pitches from McGarry. Particularly watch the first and 3rd strikeout, because those are both on the fastball. What I see is a pitch that starts out as a strike and stays perfectly straight on the same plane to end as a strike. Last week I made a controversial post that McGarry won’t be an MLB pitcher. I said that my concern was with his strikes not his balls. This is what I was referring to. IMO, that is not a fastball that will get MLB hitters out. The velocity is irrelevant. Any MLB hitter can time up a 95 MPH fastball. The ball has to have some movement. Either horizontal or vertical (I.e. a sinker) to stay off the barrel of an MLB hitter. If he is going to re-invent himself, I would suggest taking some velocity off and figuring out how to get more run on his fastball but doing so in a way that he can command.

      https://x.com/PhilsPlayerDev/status/1764034083489812579?s=20

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      1. I share your concerns about McGarry generally, but my concerns I think are more vanilla than yours. McGarry struggles to throw strikes at times (frequently, actually) and when he gets behind, he is forced to throw fastballs, and, like almost any pitcher, the hitter is waiting on those pitches and is ready to swing if they are in the zone. 

        I also agree that McGarry sitting at 93 and 94 MPH, is much less effective than when he is in the 94-97 range and touching higher.

        I do not, however necessarily agree with your conclusion that he is very “hittable.” Of the three strikeout pitches we saw, the first was straight and not all that great. The second was a nasty curve that it would be difficult for any batter to hit. The third, was a very live and difficult to hit fastball with a nice movement – that was a great pitch thrown to a good spot.

        By the way, for what it’s worth, this morning, DD said that McGarry is moving to the bullpen (at least for now), so we will get to see if he can succeed pitching an inning or two, and focusing on few pitches. Heck, it’s worth a try.

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      2. This because you aren’t actually picking up the movement on McGarry’s 4-seam fastball and why he generates a ton of swing and misses. McGarry has a vertically oriented fastball that he comes in flat on (he gets elite extension and low release point) and then gets good, but not elite IVB (induced vertical break or vertical break without gravity). This means the ball has good rise (really doesn’t drop as expected) and comes in on a flat plane making it hard to get a bat on plane with it (most swings are at an upward angle).

        Run in general is bad for missing bats, this is why sinkers have bad swing and miss rates (but good contact suppression rates). Sinkers generally work better to same side batters (go look at L/R pitch usage for all the non-Walker Phillies pitchers) because they break down and in under bats, but break into the power path of opposite side batters. The one spot a dead zone (not elite rise or run) fastball with velocity does work is the up and away spot to lefty batters, which is where Abel can attack, but also where you see pitchers attack both Marsh and Stott.

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        1. I don’t have time right now to write a full response but a few quick replies:

          1. My comment “on the same plane” indicated that I am aware of the fact that he has a high spin rate and the ball doesn’t drop much. Thats fine. A high spin rate is really good. However, if there is no horizontal movement, which it appears to have very little, eventually MLB hitters will get the reports and get on top of that pitch. They often take BP off the machine pre-game and simulate a pitcher. They can simulate a high spin rate pitcher whose ball doesn’t move horizontal easily. Griff may be fooling minor leaguers in a small sample size, but I do not think that that fastball will last very long at the MLB level.
          2. The point of pitch run is not solely to miss bats…it is to miss barrels. Weak contact. The cutter is the opposite of a fastball with ASR. and if executed well, the cutter is extremely effective at inducing weak contact.

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      1. Correct. So to be really specific it means for a righty pitcher, the ball moves left to right. The obvious implications of this is, any late left to right (or vice versa for a LHP) movement of the ball makes it really challenging to find the sweet spot of the bat. Greg Maddux was the master. But Nola is excellent too.

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        1. The two- seam FB is the pitch that McGarry needs to perfect to get those results, For some pitchers, the side run is not right for them or they just cannot master it, and may prefer the old sinker….an effective sinker means off the barrel contact. A few years ago Wheeler had plenty ground ball outs utiilizing that approach.

          ….and it really would behoove McGarry to try something with a change-up. There are a few different grips he could use….then again he may have tried them and got no results he wanted.

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    4. By the way, that’s one of the best quotes I’ve ever read about pitching (right up there with “hitting is timing and pitching is disrupting that timing”) – that quote essentially defines Max Scherzer’s career (and the career of countless others).

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      1. Yeah it is one of those quotes that once you hear it you immediately change your perspective. Simple yet brilliant. Now that’s all that I notice when I watch a pitcher.

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