Phillies Baseball is in the Air

by Brandon King

The Phillies are on their annual trip down to Clearwater, Florida. Baycare Ballpark the home of Philly’s Single A minor league team, the Clearwater Threshers, and the Phillies for spring training. The Phillies are fresh off a world series appearance and have only looked to have gotten better. The Phillies were and currently still are built more uniquely than any other team in the MLB, a team purely built to outscore teams.

The Phillies will be without superstar outfielder and NLCS MVP Bryce Harper for at least the first month of the season. He had surgery for the elbow injury that kept him at the designated hitter position all last season. Harper could have stayed playing DH with the injury, but his arm talent is one that very few possess in the game. Both the Phillies and Harper knew it would be better to get it fixed for the long term of their 13-year deal.

Don’t let Harper being out fool you though. This Phillies roster is deep, consisting of National League home run leader Kyle Shwarber, Bryson Stott who looks to improve on a very good rookie campaign in which he batted a .234 with 10 homeruns, and newly acquired superstar shortstop Trea Turner.

Turner signed a 11-year deal worth up to $300 million dollars this past offseason. Turner, who is now 29, spent 2015-21 with the Washington Nationals, then was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He adds much-needed versatility to a power heavy roster. The MLB’s #1 ranked shortstop batted a .298 last year and is one of the fastest players in the league.

He will reunite with Bryce Harper when Harper is healthy again. The two spent 4 seasons together in Washington.

The Fightins last season were 3rd in their division after going 87-75, Philadelphia would make a playoff spot for the first time in years and go on a historic run past the St. Louis Cardinals, division rival and winner Atlanta Braves, and San Diego Padres, only to fall short to the Houston Astros in the World series. This year’s roster only lost Jean Segura who batted a .277 but missed a lot of time due to injury, and a few pitchers such as David Robertson, Brad Hand, and trade deadline acquisition Noah Syndergaard, but the Phillies were able to replace them with the right talent - getting Taijuan Walker to replace Syndergaard in the starting rotation behind Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler. Walker had a solid season with the Mets last year with a 3.49 ERA and 132 strikeouts.

The Phillies then went deep in their bag of tricks, trading Nick Maton, Matt Vierling and a prospect catcher to the Detroit Tigers for left handed reliever Gregory Soto who was an All-Star each of the past two seasons.

Realistically this team can win the division. To do so, they would probably need to see a season with a record around 104-58. Can this new and improved roster make a splash or will they come up short after their magical carpet ride of last season?

District 2 Wrestling Preview

Bibla garners second seed for D2 wrestling tourney

Crestwood senior Magnus Bibla has earned a second seed for the two-day District 2 Class 3A Wrestling Championships beginning Friday at 4 p.m. at WilkesBarre Area High School.

Preliminaries, quarterfinals and first-round consolations kick off the event on Friday. It continues Saturday at 10 a.m. with semifinals and second-round consolations. The finals, consolation finals and fifthplace matches are scheduled for 1 p.m.

Bibla is seeded second at 215 pounds behind topseeded Hank Baranowski of Wallenpaupack. In addition, Crestwood’s Sam Jeckell (127 pounds) and Lincoln Bibla (189) have secured number 4 seeds, and teammate Anson Jumper is seeded sixth at 107.

The Comets’ Isaac Mertz

(160) and Santino Cassarella (133) are seeded seventh, while Ethan Zabroski (145) and Chris Smolenak (285) are 8-seeds. Also scheduled to compete for Crestwood are Nicholas Webb (114), Mateo Belanchik (121), Thomas Savitski (139), Devin Shaw (152) and Taylor Burton (172).

The top five placewinners in each weight class move on to the Class 3A Northeast Regional in Bethlehem the following weekend.

Train Meet planned for spring

The Carbon Model Railroad Society is sponsoring its Spring Train Meet on Sunday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Diamond Fire Co. Bingo Hall at 120 Main St., Walnutport. This is a model railroad, toy train and railroadiania sale for the serious and amateur railroad and model train collector.

Food will be available for purchase from the Bingo Hall Kitchen. There is an admission charge. Plenty of free parking is available.