Rise and Phight: 4/8/2021

The Phillies have a well earned off day today after taking five of six games from their division rivals the Braves and Mets. Thanks to the early season scheduling magic of MLB, they’ll get a chance to play those teams right away, only on Georgia and New York turf. It’s amazing how uninspired MLB makes their schedule. Off days after a home opener, teams not playing on Sundays. It’s awesome. Well done, baseball.

I, for one, am in favor of them going back to the unbalanced schedule where we as fans would be able to see the West Coast teams more than six times a season. Exposing fans to other teams around the game would let them see the superstars they miss often. It’s great that we’ll get to see Francisco Lindor a lot of the next decade, but wouldn’t you want to be able to see exactly how good Mookie Betts is with a little more regularity?

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• One player in particular is not a fan of the early season schedule the Phillies are facing.
• J.T. Realmuto homered yesterday against the team that decided to go in a different direction at the catching position this offseason.
• If you had to choose an iconic baseball card for the Phillies, which one would it be?
• Now that the rotation has gone through its turn once already, what do we see from the group?

MLB news:

• If you had to choose which players to participate in the Home Run Derby at Coors Field, who would it be? Here are some choice for you to consider.
• Let’s all stop and appreciate Akil Baddoo, Tigers legend.
• Our first example of a ball that had to be removed for inspection for tampering happened yesterday, and you’ll never guess who the culprit was (yes you will).
• Joc Pederson hit his first home run as a Cub, and his team got him an interesting gift to celebrate.