Phillies daily links: 3/11/19

Another soggy weekend for us here on the east coast meant a chance to take in Bryce Harper’s first game as a member of the Phillies. He did pretty much what we expected in his first at bat, even giving a nod to his newly adopted hometown with his walk-up song. This is going to be a wonderful marriage.

Unless he chooses the “Rocky” theme song as his Citizens Bank Park walk-up song.

Then he and I will have to have a chat. Don’t do it, Bryce. Just don’t do it.

On to the links!

Here at The Good Phight:

• The first round of cuts to the roster have been made. No real surprises here, especially Moniak. Dude needs to chill out.
• In perhaps the least surprising news ever, Aaron Nola is the Opening Day starter.
• That outfield defense last year was bad. Well, the defense as a whole was bad. At least now, with regards to that outfield, they should be a lot better.

Other Phillies news:

• Hey, it’s that time of spring where we can start projecting who will make the team and who won’t. I’ve gone over it before, but Corey Seidman gives his take on the position player side of it.
• In Saturday’s game, we got a glimpse of how this offense can function with Harper and Rhys Hoskins batting back to back.
• Aaron Nola, your Opening Day starter, talks about what he expects on that day.
• Did you see the outfield alignment the Blue Jays put on for Harper? Wonder if that will become the norm for him this year.
• Meghan Montemurro discussed the outfield situation the Phillies have heading into the new season ($).

MLB esoterica:

• Adam Jones finally has a team in Arizona. It is a shame that he had to wait this long to get a job. His case is the reason that the player’s union is so upset. Not that Harper and Machado had to wait for their deals. It’s the veterans who are 1-3 WAR players that are still capable of producing at that level that have to beg for jobs, or in some cases, wait until mid-March to get one.
• Vladito is injured and won’t make the Blue Jays opening roster. At least now they can breathe a sigh of relief that there is a legit reason to keep him in the minors for a while rather than a backhanded reason. And no, you aren’t the only one that wondered if the injury was fake.
• The Angels’ own top prospect was bitten by the injury bug.
• Martin Maldonado got a deal with the Royals thanks to the Salvador Perez injury. The most interesting thing about this signing is the whole deal with his agents.