Phillies news and links — Howie Kendrick is very flexible

Time to greet the new day with Phillies news and links! You know you’re excited, or you wouldn’t be here to begin with.

Hopefully you managed to get enough sleep despite the World Baseball Classic game between the US and Japan. The US is going to the WBC championship match for the very first time ever, but because the game started at 9pm and slowly progressed through a torrent of rain, I only vaguely remember that they won through a fog of sleep after midnight.

And now, the news.

Howie Kendrick is very flexible

Howie Kendrick, one of the only new players that I don’t constantly forget, could heavily impact the roster with his overwhelming flexibility. MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki talked to him about playing positions other than second base, and he’s up for it. He can play first, third, and left field, which makes him like a roster skeleton key. The best part of the article is when Kendrick recalls something Chone Figgins told him once. Chone Figgins. That’s a name that’ll make the old mental rolodex do a few spins.

Confidence, thy name is Odubel

Odubel Herrera gave an outstanding quote today, and both Todd Zolecki and CSNPhilly’s Jim Salisbury wrote it up. He thinks he can win the batting title (he absolutely can), and he thinks he can because he has some incredible confidence in himself. Pick yer poison: you can read this on CSNPhilly or you can read it on MLB.com.

Jesmuel Valentin’s dad made sure he’s no stranger to baseball

Philly.com’s Matt Breen wrote up a great profile of Jesmuel Valentin and his path to the majors. Since his dad is the famous Jose Valentin, he spent a lot of time in major league clubhouses growing up. And the two of them talk every night. The whole Valentin family is full of baseball talent, it’s pretty amazing.

A few more links for your reading pleasure

• Adam Morgan has a chance to make the bullpen in long relief, but he’s afraid to make any assumptions. I can’t blame him.
• Matt Gelb shares 10 observations from spring training thus far, and they’re all very astute.
• The Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Fresno Grizzlies announced an amazing joint promotion, but we’ll cover that later today.

Around the Phight

• David S. Cohen wrote up his research on diversity in MLB local TV booths, and the results are great for white guys and not so great for everyone else.
• Could the Yankees be interested in Freddy Galvis? John Stolnis investigated.
• It was the 100th episode of The Felske Files, and John had a big guest: GM Matt Klentak. Allow me to repeat for emphasis: GM MATT KLENTAK. ON THE PODCAST. JOHN SPOKE TO HIM. LISTEN HERE!!!!

Tweet of the day

CSNPhilly is very excited about the 2018 free agent class.

And so is our own social media manager Paul Boyé!