Sweep! You heard that right, the Philadelphia Phillies began their season with a sweep against the Atlanta Braves — featuring excellent pitching, defense, and low-scoring victories.
This does not sound like the Phillies we are used to. Even if this feeling is weird, there are several positive thoughts to be had. Here are three, which very well may be overreactions at this early stage of the season.
1. The Phillies bullpen is … good.
While this might be a stretch to say, we can at the very least say the Phillies have a much better bullpen than last season. Hector Neris is back to being good, Jose Alvarado is a great power arm to a group that needed some upside, and Archie Bradley was a great solid get to help build their floor.
Dave Dombrowski deserves a lot of credit for this. While we haven’t seen some of the weaker arms in the bullpen yet — like David Hale, Sam Coonrod, Vince Velasquez, and Brandon Kintzler — it is still a good sign that we have some reliable arms to go to.
Joe Girardi clearly feels comfortable with the bullpen and isn’t “playing a guessing game” as to who can get a few outs at the end of the game.
Stats from just the last few games — comparing to the 2020 bullpen— are staggering:
The @Phillies threw a grand total of *one* 100-mph pitch in 2019 and 2020 (Seranthony Dominguez on April 13, 2019).
— Paul Casella (@Paul_CasellaMLB) April 1, 2021
Jose Alvarado just hit 100 mph twice in the 8th inning.
The Phillies might have a legit good bullpen on their hands. We have to remember that they faced a great Braves lineup, too, with guys like Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Marcell Ozuna.