Will The Spencer Strider Injury Open The Door To A Pennant Race?

Before anyone thinks the injury to Spencer Strider is immediately going to tear down what the Braves have built in the NL East, think again. The Braves won a World Series title in 2021 and had numerous key injuries including losing Ronald Acuna Jr. for the season when he was on an MVP pace.

They will regroup. Will they be as good as they could be with Spencer Strider in tow? Absolutely not! Nobody felt bad for the Phillies when they lost Bryce Harper for two months in each of the last two seasons. The great teams persevere. I expect that to be the storyline with the Spencer Strider injury. Can the Phillies take advantage?

It’s been a long time since the Phillies have been in the divisional race. The reason is they have fallen out of it by Memorial Day. If they can hang tough and take the lead this time, the Phillies' summer bats could carry them to a pennant.

It’s only been ten days, but the Phillies starting pitching has been stellar. In turn, that benefits the bullpen whether by asking them to pitch less or by giving them a cushion for less stressful outings.

Max Fried through two starts has an ERA of 18! He has only pitched five innings and has just 6 strikeouts. He doesn’t look right as he enters the final year of his contract looking to get a big-time payday which Atlanta probably won’t deliver. If he continues to struggle, that is a bigger story to watch.

The Nationals were not expected to be competing for the postseason and the Mets took an organizational step back to hopefully benefit them in the long run. What nobody saw coming was last year's Wild Card Marlins being the last winless team in baseball. The Phillies must dominate these three clubs and pile up the wins so that they aren’t once again sweating out a postseason berth into late September.

Before this news I expected the Phillies to be hungrier to finally win a divisional crown and for the Braves to suffer from human nature. Why bust your butts for 6 months only to get bounced? They blamed the layoff both years as being a problem. My guess is that they would be less motivated to win in the summer with more focus on the long-term goal.

A lot is said about Philadelphia media and how “you are always so negative!” Let me be the first (even though I’m not) to tell you that I, and a lot of my coworkers are fans of all Philadelphia teams. The reason why we may seem “negative” is because we are in the business of reacting and providing opinion.

I don’t feel like a history lesson is necessary, but let’s face it, we haven’t seen that much success if success only means winning championships. 50 years for the Flyers, 40 for the Sixers, 15 for the Phillies, and thank GOD only 6 for the Eagles.

Reacting to teams not winning typically leads to us asking “why?”. For the most part, the “why” will be negative. I don’t hate the Phillies for losing to the Astros in 2022, but I will never forgive them for 2023. I don’t hate the Eagles for losing to a dynasty team in Kansas City, but I will never forgive them for the collapse we witness this past season.

But with all the negative reaction, with all the unfortunate seasons that didn’t end in a championship, the beauty of being a sports fan and working in sports talk is the anticipation for a new season.

In the case of the 2024 Phillies, this isn’t just anticipation to cheer for our favorite team for another beautiful summer in Philadelphia, this is a chance to watch a team filled with high expectations. We talk about the incredible memories of “Red October”, well I love that we can get into a “Red March” or a “Red April”.

With that being said, here are my 5 predictions going into 2024, and for those of you looking for positive predictions, these should be uplifting.

I think 2024 will be a full season of the Trea Turner we expected to see when he first signed here. After the ovation, Turner put up monster numbers. Numbers that would have put him in the Mid-Summer Classic if he was able to do it in April, May, and June.

Now that he played a season with the pressure of the monster contract, I think he will be more comfortable to start the year. Is it nonsense that the pressure was too much for him last year after the big payday? Probably. But I am not in Trea Turner's head. I don't know how it affected him. I think he comes out the gate strong and will be an All-Star.

The same goes for Bryce Harper, but maybe even further. I think we get vintage Bryce Harper this season. An All-Star come July, an MVP candidate come September, and a league leader in many offensive statistical categories.

I think last postseason bothered Harper more than anyone else. He has been questioned by some about why he came up small in the NLCS. I think we see an even more motivated Harper coupled with the incredible talent that he already possesses.

Like Trea Turner, I think last season was a contract issue with Nola. Instead of playing under the pressure of a new contract, he was under the pressure of a contract season. Not only did he have that to deal with the contract situation, but he also had to deal with the new pitch clock which we ALL predicted would give him struggles.

Once they figured out a better way for him to pitch out of the stretch with the pitch clock, his season turned around. Now that he knows he will be here for another 7 seasons, I think he goes into 2024 feeling loose. Once he strings together a couple of good starts early, a guy who historically pitches well in the warmer weather will be someone the Phillies can count on every 5th day.

We all know how talented he is when it comes to fielding his position. His biggest issue in his career has been is lack of availability or role. When Suarez first came up, there was questions of whether or not he was a reliever or a starter. Eventually, he earned a starter role, but then visa issues and health in Spring Training delayed his starts. This year, he will pitch enough innings to finally qualify and he will win a Gold Glove.

I know I know, some of you can't stand the fact that I think Johan Rojas should start the season in Triple-A. I just know you guys. If he is batting below .200 come May, you will start to complain and look for other options. But to all of your points, regardless of how he hits, or Pache, or Marsh, centerfield and the 9th spot in the order should not be the reason why the Phillies lose games. This lineup will come to play this season.