This Need to STOP...

The long days without baseball are just about behind us as opening day is now on the horizon and this 2025 Philly season is ready to take place. But Wynton seems to be carrying a little bit of tone of negativity from the Phillies fan base with a lot of it seemingly stemming from the outlook with the pitching staff and the fact that Tywon Walker is going to start the season as a part of the starting rotation. I want to be here to be a little bit of the voice of optimism here, a little bit of belief in why this is not the end of this world and why there is still an awesome season incoming for this Philly squad. Now, before I dive fully into that, do I want to remind you guys, make sure you are hitting that subscribe button that the Philly season is about to take off and me and Luke Arcani here on Phillies Digest are going to be all over things from start to finish. So currently 65.2% of you guys watching these videos have not subscribed to the channel just yet. We're about to hit our full gear this season of the off the races and want as many of you a part of the Phillies Digest family as possible. So make sure you're hitting that subscribe button and let's get into the topic of today. So not new news that we didn't have break already, but per Todd's luck, we know that Dave Dombrowski said that if things continue to progress that Suarez, quote, would pitch sometime in April, but that he needs to be built up again, quote, you're talking three weeks or something like that. Tyrone Walker will be the number five starter. Now I'm not going to stand up here and lecture you or try and talk myself into that Tyrone Walker could have a resurgence this year, that the player they believe that they signed could be in there somewhere and he's going to return to form. I unfortunately don't think that is the case, but that does not mean that this is going to sink the Philly season. And that is the point that I wanted to make here. Now to talk about Tyrone Walker directly here, I'll start off and reflect on what we saw from him last year. He pitched 19 games, 83.2 innings, allowed 24 home runs across that time, which is honestly hard to do. 107 hits allowed, 11.5 hits per nine. That comes out to a 7.10 ERA and a 1.7 whip there. Not good whatsoever. And frankly, despite what Dave Dombrowski is saying and his exact quote that we have on Tyrone Walker was quote, it's good to have somebody like that. I hope he pitches like he did a couple years ago. I don't see why he can't with what he has now. He's thrown well enough. And for Dave Dombrowski, what else do you want him to say here is kind of my point. I don't think in his, if you were to give Dombrowski true serum right now and say, do you think Tyrone Walker can be a passable starting pitcher this season? His answer would probably be no, but I also think this is something that for Tyrone specifically, he is a guy that has worked his tail off, that is trying. This is not a dude that is thrown in the towel or doesn't care or anything like that. He has, for the most part, carried himself with the utmost class with this Billy's organization. And I do think that he's earned the right to at least have a chance. What if he pitches well? That would change things. That would be a pleasant surprise. Now, granted, to deal with the information that is front of us, I do want to acknowledge exactly what happened in spring training with Tyrone Walker, because these were the stats here that in his final start, he pitched four innings, allowed six hits, four runs, four earned runs, three walks, two strikeouts in 88 pitches, 54 of which were strikes, ends the spring with a 7.41 ERA. Yes. A guy with a 7.41 ERA will be a part of the Phillies starting pitching staff in Tyrone Walker here. Now, with that said here, I did want to reflect on exactly who started games for this Phillies team last year, because that is the larger point that I want to make. Baseball is a marathon. There's going to be a lot of baseball games played this year and to kind of reflect on some of the names that did ultimately start games for this Phillies team last year, let's look down the list. Of course, there's the guys that you think of offhand. There is the Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola, who led the team with 33 starts last year, Christopher Sanchez, the emergence that he had last year, Ranger Suarez, of course, Tyrone Walker with 15 starts last season, and then look down a little farther that we saw Orion Kirkering start two games, and I disagree with this. By the way, I hated that tactic of having him basically throw the first inning before they ultimately rolled the ball over. Like, that never ultimately made sense to me. I get the matchups, I get, you know, things change for players, but the point being, Orion Kirkering with two starts. We had seven starts out of Spencer Turnbill. We had seven starts out of Tyler Phillips. We had Adam Colby-Allard, four starts to games there. That Michael Mercado started two games. We saw a game starter from Tanner Banks, shoutout to him, and Seth Johnson starting a game for this Phillies team last year. I believe that was the last game of the regular season, but the point being here, there's a lot of baseball to be played and it isn't the worst thing in the world if this isn't your ideal pitching staff for this season's conclusion. You want this team clicking on all cylinders when they get ready to the playoffs. If I have any lesson from last season, it's that maybe we don't gotta live and die with every single regular season game. The NL East is going to be super competitive. The Atlanta Braves are going to be back this year. The New York Mets have gotten better in the offseason after beating this Phillies team in the playoffs last year. It is going to be competitive, but it's about getting the ticket in the dance and playing your best baseball when the moment is at its largest, and it is a long time until we get to that point where we're even talking about their playoff path or what that opportunity is. Obviously, they gotta take care of business, win the game in the process to this point, but I don't think having Tyrone Walker start three games is anything that could threaten the chances of this changing thing. Now, on the other side of the coin here is, of course, the injury that Ranger Suarez is dealing with, and I'm seeing a lot of really negative, sort of injury-prone labels being thrown Ranger Suarez's way that I think is a little bit unfair to the guy, and for Ranger specifically, this is a nightmare start to your season, that for Ranger, he is in the final year of his contract, and this is likely his chance at earning the biggest financial gain or biggest contract of his entire professional career when he does hit the open market. This is not how you want to start, and that is where I swing things back to. I think this could potentially work in the Phillies' favor for keeping Ranger Suarez. Ultimately, a lot of baseball to be played, and we will see what the whole injury outlook is, and obviously, you never want to see a guy having these type of nagging injuries that back injuries for any athlete is not a great sign, and that is what Ranger is dealing with, and not the first time that that has been the case there, but this is a guy that has been open about wanting to remain in Philadelphia, that just a couple weeks ago, speaking in spring training, saying he wants to spend his entire career with the Phillies. Quote, this is my childhood club. All I think about is staying here, and while I get that Ranger Suarez, it's going to be interesting. There's so many moving parts to this pitching staff. We haven't even seen when, inevitably, Andrew Painter will get his opportunity at the Major League level and how he fits into this. That we haven't seen what Jesus Lozardo looks like in a Phillies uniform, or what quality of year he is capable of having, because that is another guy that they're sort of banking on a bounce-back season, and he's an example of a player who's shown the flashes, but has not fully put it together, and with that being said, Lozardo would be significantly higher on just about every other pitching staff in the Major Leagues than him being the fourth or fifth starter on this Phillies team there. We know what we have in Arenola, with Zach Wheeler, with Christopher Sanchez, and the biggest critique to me about the fifth starter last year, as they did roll through this cycle of basically a ton of different below-average options, of none of these guys being the quality that the team actually needed at the time, what was frustrating to that about me was the toll that it took on the bullpen. You were asking so much out of the arms out of the pen to be ready to eat up some innings every fifth day there, and beyond that, the pressure that it put on the front half of the starter rotation. You basically had to win games that Arenola and Zach Wheeler were on the mound, because you knew you basically had a loss in the schedule already. That's not a great way to go through a season, and luckily the Phillies have addressed that by bringing up different options here, and obviously Painter will add another variable to things there. There is more talent, there is more depth, and we will see how that all happens, but with Ranger Suarez specifically, and to shift things back to that, I'm optimistic that this is just a flash in the pan, and this guy can get right. Now, to reflect on what Ranger brought to the table last year from an actual production standpoint, he pitched 27 games, 150.2 innings, 14 homeruns allowed, 145 strikeouts, and 140 hits allowed. That comes down to 8.4 hits per 9 innings, a 3.46 ERA, and a 1.201 whip there. For the first half of the season, he looked unbelievable. Almost Cy Young quality stuff, and he was in that caliber of mix for how he was performing, and then ultimately, he hit kind of a lull in the midpoint of the season. Spent some time on the injured list as well, missed a couple starts, and I've said this plenty of times, but it did look to me like he was pitching through a dead arm through that second half of the season. But what matters to me most about Ranger Suarez, and this is what I will continue to hang my hat on about him as a player, is when it is the massive stage, when the bright lights of the playoffs are on him, the dude's going to deliver, but you're not going to speed up that guy's heart rate. You're not going to get him nervous. There is no moment that is too large for him, and I will continue to ride or die with a guy like that, like Ranger Suarez. So there's a lot of time until we have these conversations about contract, how Lozardo pitches this season is certainly going to be a factor, how ready is Painter is absolutely going to be a factor, and obviously, the Taiwan Walkers are still sticking around at this current point. So that is a guy that they have on the books. They are paying the money, and they're going to see what he can do in the short term for the season, but there are more directions this Phillies team can go with the pitching staff than what we're going to see through the first handful of games this season. So is it ideal that Taiwan Walker will be the start of this initial starting pitching staff or the rotation of pitchers that they roll to? Absolutely not. But is it anything that we should be losing sleep over or panic before there's even been a game played this year? Also, not the case. So sending good vibes to Ranger that he can get back healthy and be ready as soon as possible, but to me, it just is not the end of the world if we have to watch Taiwan Walker get rocked around a little bit and sort of cement the fact that he's not the quality pitcher that this team needs him to be or was signed on to be. I do think for Dave Dombrowski specifically, that he's sitting there right now saying, we've already paid the money, he's already taken up a roster spot. Let's at least give him an opportunity. If he proves it and exceeds expectation, looks like a passable pitcher there, that's a huge positive for this Phillies team that at the minimum, he's going to be eating up some innings that will need to happen. There's going to be a lot of wear and tear on each of these guys' bodies through the ebbs and flows of the season. So getting these out of the way early and giving him a chance on the mound in the first couple games, I'm not mad about for that. So for Taiwan, we'll be rooting for you. Don't have true belief that that will be the case, but for the Phillies as a whole, this is just a little speed bump. This isn't anything that could drastically alter the season and not something that I think we should be getting fired up about before the season has even started. So let me know what you guys think in the comments. Do you disagree with me? Do you have any hope that Taiwan Walker could turn things around and find himself again this season? If you do, we'd love to hear from you below. And as always, want to remind you guys to make sure you are hitting that subscribe button. Once again, just 34.8% of you guys watch these videos, have subscribed to us here at Phillies Digest just yet. We want to get that number growing and changing. So hop on board for the ride this season. We're going to have plenty of Phillies content coming your way. Myself and Luke Arcani on the channel here. Appreciate each and every one of you guys for tuning in to this video here. We'll be back to offering you next time. Peace!