MLB Spring Training 2012: Phillies’ Vance Worley Changing Things Up

I have to admit it. I’m in the bag for Vance Worley.

I can’t help it. Anytime someone comes in unheralded by ESPN and the rest of the “experts” and succeeds, I love it. And it doesn’t hurt that he plays for the only team in MLB I care about. But that’s beside the point.

That was 2011 and we are now about to roll into the start of the 2012 season. The “experts” are at it again, telling us Worley is due for a regression. They are making comparisons to former Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ and how he was rocked his second season after a good first year.

Fair enough. Would the Worley of 2011 be as successful in 2012? Probably not. Hitters adjust and learn what your pitches look like. The difference between Happ and Worley is how they adjust to these kinds of changes.

After the 2009 season, Happ couldn’t have been higher. Having received awards like the Steve Carlton Most Valuable Pitcher Award, TYIB Rookie of the Year and Players Choice Outstanding Rookie of the Year, he was on top of the world. In his mind, he was a dominant pitcher who would continue his dominance for years to come.

But he should have learned from Cole Hamels that success doesn’t carry over. And if you want to continue to be dominant, things have to change. This was not a reality he accepted, and as such, he now pitches for the lowly Houston Astros and has an ERA over 5.00.

Spring training hasn’t even started yet and Worley is already mixing things up, even though he finished second in MLB behind Bartolo Colon with over half of his strikeouts coming with the hitters watching the ball go by. His sinker just had hitters confounded. They couldn’t figure why the ball seemed to be coming right at their hip, and then cut right back across the plate for strike three.

But 162 games is a very long time. And Major League hitters are quick to adapt to anything, including that sinker when they had two strikes. Toward the end of the season, it became apparent that the hitter knew what was coming. 

That being said, quite a few still missed it when they tried, but not nearly enough to continue always going to that pitch in that situation. So coming into this season, Worley and Brian Schneider, by all rights his personal catcher, worked on a game plan of how they were going to use the sinker.

Here’s Schneider in an interview with Matt Gelb of The Inquirer:

“We can throw it earlier in the count and not just wait for two strikes,” Schneider said. “At the end of the year, we started setting the pitch up more by throwing one or two pitches away. Or maybe instead of throwing the sinker in there, we’d throw a four-seamer or a cutter in there and get them thinking.”

As you can see, Worley has an array of pitches he can throw at hitters, with the sinker, rightly so, being the most preferred. He’s also not afraid to borrow from the “aces.” Last year he began experimenting with Hamels’ cutter grip, and now he’s using it consistently for his cutter. Also, at the recommendation of Roy Halladay, he is now using a split-change grip for his changeup. If he could develop that pitch into anything close to what Halladay throws, it would be pretty nasty.

Add to that his already proficient curveball, and you’ve got yourself some devastating options for hitters to guess at. When they see that ball coming inside, do they think sinker and get ready to swing as it cuts across the plate only to watch the floor drop out of a split-change and whiff at air? Or how about when he’s been force feeding them sinkers and changeups all day and then decides to throw a rising heater on the outside?  

That’s the thing about Worley—he doesn’t just have one or two pitches. With two fastballs, a nasty sinker, progressing curveball,and a new changeup courtesy of the Ace of Aces, he could be truly great in 2012. It won’t hurt that he will be at spring training and get to learn from a collection of the greatest pitchers in the game right now. There are no bad habits for him to learn with the Phillies, especially their pitching staff.  

He will continue to keep to the things that make him the “Vanimal.” He’ll keep that creepy smile when he releases the ball, the wild hair, those glasses and the determination and fitness to move at a pace that makes batters want to step out to catch a breather. But whether it’s Hamels’ cutter grip, Halladay’s split-change or even Lee’s proficiency with the bat, having the Three Aces as your tutor is like a dream come true.

“He absolutely has the stuff,” Schneider said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

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Philadelphia Phillies Spring Training Preview: A Look at the New Guys, Part 2

**** This is Part Two of a two-part series.  This edition covers the pitchers.  Part One covered the hitters/fielders. ****

 

The Phillies went out and not only worked to improve their bench with old and new faces.  With upgrades like Jim Thome and Ty Wigginton, the days of seeing Ross Gload and Wilson Valdez under-perform are long gone.  However, they also improved the bullpen.  The jury remains out on whether all the decisions made were the right ones, but let’s see what arms they got for their money.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Spring Training Preview: A Look at the New Guys: Part One

**** This is Part One of a two-part series.  This edition covers the fielders/hitters.  Part Two will cover the pitching additions. ****

 

The Philadelphia Phillies decided they were going to do something few people can do.  They thought about whether they wanted quality or quantity, and ol’ Rube decided he was going to get both.  Adding names like Jim Thome and Laynce Nix, among others, the Phillies’ bench was remade. 

Now let’s take a look at how he did.

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Philadelphia Phillies: The Red Empire Has the Money To Win It All

Throughout the year, the belief was that the Philadelphia Phillies had sacrificed the future to put together their loaded pitching rotation.  The Phils were out of prospects—they had to win now.  The team, everyone thought, was low on money to spend for the future.

Well, we can throw that talk away. 

If anything, the Phillies are more set to go all the way in 2012 then they were going into 2011. 

Here’s why.

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2011 MLB Draft: Grading the Phillies First 5 Picks

With Day 2 of the draft winding down, we can get a feel for what most teams were looking for.  Marti Wolever, the Philadelphia Phillies Director of Scouting, said that they were looking for some power bats, catchers and that he wanted to shore up the infield.  

Well, they stuck to that plan for the most part.  In their first five picks, three of them were infielders.  The other two being a left-handed pitcher and a heavy hitting outfielder.  

A lot of people may not know much about these kids.  And they are kids, seeing as how the first two picks were directly out of high school.  With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how the Phillies did in their first five picks.

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Vladimir Guerrero and Four More Deadline Targets for the Phillies

As we get closer to the July 31 trade deadline, speculation about who is going where is getting louder by the day.  Everyone has their own opinions and they all think they are right.  

In keeping with that spirit, here’s my opinion on who the Phillies should be seriously looking at around the end of July.

Feel free to tell me how wrong or right you think I am.

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Jayson Werth: Missing the Phillies Winning Ways

If you’ve been watching baseball news lately, you’ve no doubt heard about Jayson Werth’s complaints concerning the Nationals.  In his words, “things need to change.”  I think Jayson is the only player that thought this was going to happen, especially in his first year there.  He has become so accustomed to winning in Philadelphia, it seems as if being on a losing team is really getting to him.  Am I the only one that saw this coming?  

The Phillies have won four consecutive NL East titles.  They won the World Series in 2008, won the National League pennant in 2009 and lost in the NLCS in 2010.  They are returning all of their stars with the exception of Werth, while adding top caliber players like Halladay, Lee and Oswalt.

The Nationals finished last in the division the last three years in a row.  Their top pitching prospect already had surgery, and their top hitting prospect is still trolling the minors.

The Nationals made good moves in signing Werth and LaRoche, but these moves were offset with the exits of Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn.  Simply put, this team is not built to win, and it’s not surprising to anyone but Jayson.  

He went for the money.  He took the seven-year, $126,000,000 contract knowing full well what he was getting into.  Sadly, I don’t think he actually took a good look at what he was giving up.  He gave up being a part of what could be a historically great team. 

Think about this way.  Cliff Lee turned down being a part of two pretty good teams and more money when he chose to come back to Philly.  His decision was between a perennial AL East powerhouse, the reigning AL Champions, or the Phillies.  He chose the Phillies because of their winning ways and the fact that he loved Philadelphia.

Werth’s decision wouldn’t have seemed to be as difficult.  He could have come back to the Phillies and stayed a powerhouse hitter in our lineup.  He would have gotten paid by the Phillies.

Where the issue comes in is that Jayson wasn’t going to be happy with just being paid.  He wanted to be overpaid.  He wanted years.  No winner was going to sign him to a contract until he’s 39.  He knew it, and he chose to sacrifice winning in lieu of getting paid.  Now he wants to whine about how things need to change?  

Did he, or did anyone for that matter, really think the Nationals were a right fielder away from climbing out of the cellar?  Of course not.  He has to come to grips with the fact that even though he will be in the MLB for at least another six years, he will never win anything.  The Nationals don’t have the money to overpay him, and then go out and get other stars.  

This was the price he paid in listening to his agent, and sacrificing the winning ways and love of the Philadelphia fan base when he signed with the Nationals.  He just has to accept being a winner on a losing team.

Jayson, take a good look at Todd Helton.  That’s your future.  You will always be regarded as a great player, but you’ll never again hoist that hardware like you did 2008.  

Was it worth it?

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Jose Contreras and the Kids: The Philadelphia Phillies Bullpen through 50 Games

This is the second article in a series of four that will detail the performances of the Philadelphia Phillies at certain points throughout the season.  The articles will be published at the 50-game, 100-game and 150-game mark.  The subjects covered will be the following:

1. Starting Rotation (You can find that article here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/712443-roy-halladay-and-the-aces-evaluating-their-performances-through-48-games)

2. Bullpen

3. Infield

4. Outfield

So let’s take a look at how the Phillies bullpen have performed so far this season.

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Roy Halladay and the Aces: The Philadelphia Phillies Rotation Through 48 Games

The Phillies starting rotation has been pretty good this year.  While scoring very intermittently, the team has been able to win 29 games.  The sad reality is, if we were to look at the starter’s stats, we would expect them to win quite a few more.  

Here’s an in-depth look at how they’ve performed so far.

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Joe Savery and the 5 Players the Philadelphia Phillies Should Trade

No, I am not going to say trade Vance Worley.  I know some people have thrown out that idea, and I have to say that makes almost no sense.  He is one of the few young pitchers the Philadelphia Phillies have that are actually big league-ready now.  His ERA is the lowest of all qualifying pitchers and he has nothing but upside.

Secondly, contrary to popular opinion, the Phils are not really in need of much big-league help  They have a strong team of hitters that are working their way out of a slump.  While I don’t believe that the 10-run game last night will become the standard, I also don’t believe that scoring two runs a game will become their standard operating procedure. 

But the Phillies do have the opportunity to let go of some of their minor league players who will never contribute to their major league roster.

With that in mind, let’s get started.

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