{"id":81093,"date":"2018-04-30T19:30:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T19:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=81093"},"modified":"2023-04-14T19:41:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T19:41:19","slug":"phillies-one-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/phillies-one-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies One Month In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>The views expressed in this blog are<\/em> <em>those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MEhAo8-lPxA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt\u2019s been one month into the \u201cGreat Experiment\u201d known as the \u201cGabe Kapler Era\u201d (aka \u201cBe Bold.\u201d) Time to take an objective look at how things have fared so far.<\/p>\n<p>In full disclosure, I am not \u201cheavy\u201d into the analytics that have made their way into every corner of professional baseball. I have always been a fan of stats and using statistical information when analyzing players, but I was not a big fan of being \u201call-in.\u201d While I enjoyed the movie \u201c<a title=\"Moneyball\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1210166\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyball<\/a>,\u201d I don\u2019t believe you can use the philosophy started by the <a title=\"Oakland Athletics\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/athletics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oakland Athletics<\/a>\u00a0several years ago and base most\/all aspects of building a team on numbers.<\/p>\n<p>Also, (and again being completely honest), I admit I was very critical of Kapler with some of his experiments in spring training and several gaffs that took place during the first week of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>I was worried.<\/p>\n<p>But I always try to have patience when making my analysis. I had an opportunity to speak with the <a title=\"Philadelphia Phillies\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/phillies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phillies<\/a> Manager during the team\u2019s first home stand at <a title=\"Citizens Bank Park\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/phillies\/ballpark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Citizens Bank Park<\/a>, and I have to admit, he did impress me\u2014for several reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, he answered all of the questions and issues through the first week of the season (including his outfielder Nick Williams openly questioning his decision and another anonymous player saying his manager should \u201cstay out of their way\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t skirt the question or try to say that it was made up. Instead, he said he talked with Williams and addressed those and other issues with the respective players. He was firm in his decisions, addressed them privately but was still open in admitting that everything he has done has not worked out.<\/p>\n<p>This in itself is quite different from previous Philly managers\u2014among them Terry Francona (who later went on to win a World Series). When \u201cTito\u201d was questioned early in his career (ironically, for not starting his best player on Opening Day\u2014something Kapler also did), Francona starting whining about the media being out to get him and tried to make himself out to be victim, something that will never endear a person to the baseball fans in the Delaware Valley. (I believe he learned his lesson and is much more responsive in media interviews since his departure and not coincidently, had much better success as a manager).<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, Kapler has cut back a bit with making in-game decisions solely based on numbers. He\u2019s left his starting pitchers (who have pitched surprisingly through the first three weeks) in longer than he initially said he was going to do and has rarely gotten caught without available players\u2014even while working with a shorter-than-typical bench.<\/p>\n<p>These things have paid off with an impressive record (albeit against playing some of the worst teams in baseball during the season\u2019s first four weeks).<\/p>\n<p>However, Kapler has won over one skeptical observer so far with the way he has handled his club. I\u2019m still not 100% convinced that they are playoff contenders this season, but I haven\u2019t been impressed with very many other teams so far this year, and I\u2019m certainly more confident of the Phillies\u2019 direction than I was a month ago.<\/p>\n<p>For more insights and Phillies interviews with manager Gabe Kapler, pitcher Vince Velasquez, Maikel Franco, Hector Neris and more, look back through recent episodes of \u201cSportsTalk\u201d through RCN On-Demand and here in previous \u201cSportsTalk Shop\u201d blog entries.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll continue to talk baseball on this week\u2019s \u201cSportsTalk\u201d show with Oakland Athletics pitcher Lou Trivino. Lou was born and grew up in the RCN of Pennsylvania region and just made his MLB debut last week. He will have some great stories to tell about his rise to the Big Leagues and what his first few games in the Majors have been like.<\/p>\n<p>Also on this Thursday\u2019s program, we\u2019ll bring in beat writers from different areas to recap the <a title=\"2018 NFL Draft\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/draft\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NFL Draft<\/a>, with an emphasis on the teams most popular with fans within the RCN-TV viewing area.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. It\u2019s been one month into the \u201cGreat Experiment\u201d known as the \u201cGabe Kapler Era\u201d (aka \u201cBe Bold.\u201d) Time to take an objective look at&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Phillies One Month In - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Phillies One Month In - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. It\u2019s been one month into the \u201cGreat Experiment\u201d known as the \u201cGabe Kapler Era\u201d (aka \u201cBe Bold.\u201d) Time to take an objective look at...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/phillies-one-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-30T19:30:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-14T19:41:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"Phillies One Month In\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T19:30:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-14T19:41:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":710,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/\",\"name\":\"Phillies One Month In - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T19:30:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-14T19:41:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/phillies-one-month\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvchris\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Phillies One Month In - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Phillies One Month In - ATVN","og_description":"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. 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