Exciting start to Spring Training

The phrist two weeks of spring training are in the books and I'm very impressed with the early play of our Phightin Phils.  Yes I know its only spring training and yes I know it doesn't mean anything, but reality, it means one very important thing....HOPE.

Real hope in Philadelphia has been missing for many years now.  We hoped Ryan Howard would recover, we hoped Dominic Brown would heat up like in May of 2013, hope that Cliff Lee would be healthy; hope that we could catch lightning in a bottle and squeeze out one more good season with the stars of that brought us so much joy and phun.  But as we all know that didn't happen.  We did happen is we finally saw the rebuild needed to bring on the next chapter of our proud franchise.  The McPhail/Klentak era is off to a good start.  Our new leadership has restored hope, all be it early.  The pharm system has the most top 100 in MLB, and ranked 7th in baseball.  Just a year ago, the Phightins were ranked 25th.  Once again, the recurring theme of this article is one thing HOPE.  

In the phrist two weeks we have seen the Phillies play very well.  They have the second best record in the Grapefruit league, just .5 behind the Bluejays.  

Maikel Franco is picking up right where he left off.  In 26 at bats, he has 9 hits, 4 home runs, 10 rbis and slugging percentage of .808. 

Darin Ruf is also off to a great start.  He is making his case to take over the every day phrist base job of Ryan Howard.  So far this spring Ruf has 8 hits, 3 homers, 10 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .741 in 27 at bats.

 

Caser Hernandez is bouncing back nicely from injury with a .345 batting average in 29 at bats with 3 stolen bases.

The excitement doesn't end with these three.  Cameron Rupp is clearly on track to have to torch passed to him by Chooch as our new everyday catcher.  Rupp is showing some power with 2 home runs out of his 6 hits and 14 at bats for a slugging percentage of 1.000.  Peter Bourjos is have batting over ,400 with  3 doubles and 9 hits to make his case to be one of the starting outfielders.  

Again, its only spring training, but its exciting and its filled with hope.  Hope is what should drive the Phans to the ballpark this season, hope is what should make us believe that great days at the ballpark will be here sooner than later.  The young team is out to prove something and they have one thing in common with us...

HOPE

Follow the 700level's lead and make Nationals fans get what they deserve!

http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/700-level/help-nationals-fans-get-jonathan-papelbon-bobblehead

The 700Level has a great idea.  They are urging Phillies Phans to help the Nationals with their great promotion...picking their September 9th Fan Choice Bobblehead.   I agree with their writer, Enrico Campitelli that we should troll the Nationals and vote for none other than All Time Phillies saves leader Jonathan Papelbon.

Here is the link to vote http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/fan_forum/fanchoice.jsp?partnerId=as_mlb_20160310_59180036&adbid=707945538310709248&adbpl=tw&adbpr=39419180  You can click refresh and vote 10x.  Let's give National fans what the deserve; a take home giveaway of the crotch grabbing, throat choking, straight cash baby. Voting ends tomorrow at 10:00am!

 No better way for us to show our appreciation for:

and

Thank you to the 700level for this great idea.

Phrist Spring Training Game - We are back in business at Everybody Hits!

Good Morning Phillies Phans!

Today is a great day for all Phillies Phans, today is the day we phinally get to look to the phuture of the franchise and once again have true hope that the Phightin Phils will return to glory once again soon.

In 2015, the Phillies phinally moved from the past and looked to the phuture by training away the rest of the championship but two and restocked the pharm system with high valued prospects to drive the Phillies from the MLB cellar to respectability and contention and high hopes for a third Championship in Phillies history.

After last year's miserable season, one that had zero excitement, we now have something to look phorward to.  We will contend this year....probably not.  Will it be exciting to watch our new younger core...no doubt.  As a phan, can we not be excited for a phull season, barring injury, of our everyday players Maikel Franco, Peter Bourjos, Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera and our young pitching staff of lead by Aaron Nola, Jeremy Hellickson, Adam Morgan and Jerad Eickhoff.  Plus there is a lot of potential in the Pharm system with players like J.P. Crawford, Nick Williams, Roman Quinn and Jorge Alfaro.  

The Phillies might not win a lot of games in 2016, but they will be 100% more phun to watch than the 2015 product.  It will be exciting to watch the Phillies phuture unfolding before our eyes.  It will be phun to have to have hope and dreams of a championship again.  It will be phun to watch these young players play with a phire we haven't seen since we won in 2008.  This team will play with hunger, this team will play with excitement, this team will be PHUN!

The 2016 team motto should be having Phun at the ballpark again!

Enjoy the 2016 season, I know I will.

Happy Phirst Day of Spring Training Phans!

Phuture Ace and Cy Young? Aaron Nola

Phutre All Star and MVP?  Maikel Franco