Phillies: Revisiting our bold spring training predictions
By George Rider
Rhys Hoskins’ new stance will be effective in spring training.
Rhys Hoskins has looked decently effective in the games he has appeared in at the plate. So far Rhys is slashing .286/.400/.619 in 21 at-bats with 10 of his outs being K’s. Even with the strikeouts, Hoskins is sticking to his low handed stance and we should take that as a good sign.
Fans who went to catch some games have said even with the strikeout problem he doesn’t seem to be getting frustrated with it. Last Thursday he hit a towering home run into left field for his first of the spring.
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The second half of last season was awful to watch for fans and for Rhys, he hit .180 in the second half with an OPS of .639 and his swing looked broken. It looked like he was trying to pull every ball he swung at.
It seems he will stay with this new stance for now and going into Opening Day. The upside for sticking with this stance is he will be able to drive the ball more and not uppercut swing as much as before. He has more opportunities to get to the ball faster with his bat.
The strikeouts are going to most likely happen early and often into the beginning of this season, but that’s okay. Fans should stay patient, a new stance is a big change for a player and I believe more positive than negative will come out of this. If Rhys can give the Phils a true clean up hitter it will go a long way.