Phillies: Top 3 overreactions following sweep of Braves

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 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.

2. The Phillies have three aces at the top of their starting rotation.

I have to admit, when this was talked about in spring training, I smirked a little. In 2020, right-hander Zack Wheeler had what many considered a career year after never living up to his ace potential while with the New York Mets. Zach Eflin also made some great strides with a promising 2020 season.

Neither disappointed in their 2021 season debut this weekend. Wheeler went seven innings, giving up only one hit and striking out 10 in a 4-0 win. He also retired each of his last 17 batters faced in order.

Eflin, meanwhile, followed with just as many innings, surrendering just four hits while striking out eight. His only run allowed was a solo home run to former Phillies catcher prospect Travis d’Arnaud, traded more than a decade ago to the Toronto Blue Jays for future Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.

What makes this great is that Aaron Nola had the “worst” outing among Phillies starting pitchers in the series, which won’t happen very often. Nola was not even terrible, either, likewise making just one mistake — allowing a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval. But, in this specific scenario, it was a great sign.

There is a lot of potential for both Wheeler and Eflin to turn into great pitchers. Maybe they won’t allow one run combined every start, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be excellent going forward.

Also, Dombrowski should look to lock Eflin up before his price gets massive in a couple of years. It would be great to keep this trio together long-term.