Articles by Rich Wilkins (406)
Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. Well, Chad Billingsley is a Phillies pitcher now, not the guy throwing against them in the NLCS. If you're not excited by the Billingsley era, I don't know what will excite you? How does this change the roster? Well, here's my updated look at it: Starting Rotation- Hamels and Lee […]
The full squad finally arrived in Clearwater now, all 40 man members and the 18 non-roster invitees to camp. Baseball season has arrived! On Sunday the Phillies will play their first game (against the University of Tampa), and even with the dark days ahead, I'm excited. Here's my look at the roster, as of right […]
So it's Opening Day of official Spring Training games, and the Phillies have already lost to the University of Tampa, a Division II college team. No biggie though, right? I mean half the players in the line-up won't be here in three weeks. So, let's look forward at a topic of major interest to me- […]
Well, the Phillies fought to a draw with the almost-equally hopeless Yankees in yesterday's official Spring opener, so they are unofficially 0-1-1 so far in Clearwater, 0-0-1 officially. Ryan Howard played well in the game, a good sign, and the team didn't lose. Howard even spoke positively afterwards. There was some roster news, particularly on […]
So the Spring has moved on far enough that injuries and performance are starting to impact who will make this team. Cliff Lee, despite what he and the team says, probably will not be able to come north, in my opinion. Ethan Martin's mysteriously diminished fastball won't allow him to come North with the big […]
Happy first day of Spring! As it snows up north here in Philadelphia and Allentown, the rosters for the Phillies and IronPigs become a bit more clear, and yet less so as well. Aaron Harang got through his start, and if he doesn't have an issue after this one, could be good for the start […]
Embed from Getty Images Major League Baseball and their players agreed to a new CBA last night that will insure labor peace in the sport through 2021. With this deal, baseball will have gone a quarter century without a strike, something that would have been unthinkable in the 1990's. The economics of the game […]
Top outfielding prospect Nick Williams, acquired in last July's Cole Hamels trade, makes a diving catch. (Steven Kiebach/Philliedelphia) The Philadelphia Phillies decided to challenge some of their top prospects at upper levels this year, promoting them to Triple A and putting them against older competition. One could have expected the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to struggle, especially considering they […]
The 2008 parade down Broad Street might not feel so long ago, but if you go to Citizens Bank Park for a game right now, the only reminders of that team you may see on the field are Chooch and Ryan Howard. Around them is an assembled cast of characters that were supposed to be […]
Some notes on the first week that was: From the department of bad signs- Bourjos and Hunter have 18 at-bats a piece, while Darin Ruf has six. This isn't me telling you how I think Ruf will be awesome, this is me telling you that the .167 and .111 hitting outfielders scare me. Cesar Hernandez […]