Joe Girardi takes over as the Phillies manager. Big news for a club that seemingly lacked leadership last year under Gabe Kapler. We’ll let this clip from The Misery Report explain why.

The Misery Report. A Philly Sports Podcast. pic.twitter.com/HNGaokKYBv

— TMR (@TheMiseryReport) April 11, 2020

Phillies debuts from Zach Wheeler, Didi Gregorius, Spencer Howard, and Alec Bohm. It will be great to see the new #2 pitcher and shortstop take the field. Throw our two top prospects Spencer Howard and Alec Bohm into the mix and we got ourselves 60 games to see the future of the Phillies.

Andrew McCutchen is healthy. Big news for the Phillies getting a healthy McCutchen. He’s a plug and play guy that can hit anywhere in the lineup, a fantastic leader in the club house, and most recently, he’s a social media star.

Runner on 2nd for Extra Innings:

Also this year the MLB plan is to use the Minor League rule with the runner on second to expedite extra-inning games ending, since the spring will be short, the schedule will be tight and there’s a desire to avoid 15-inning games and longer.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 23, 2020

Baseball purists won’t like it. I really don’t either. But with a shortened season you can’t have 15 inning baseball games. I’ll reserve judgement until it actually happens and the Phillies lose because of it.

Rhys Hoskins new batting stance. 

It looks like Rhys Hoskins is working on a new batting stance 👀 (via @JClarkNBCS) pic.twitter.com/bRVYcPfBhg

— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) February 12, 2020

Hoskins said he continued to practice his new batting stance in his kitchen, driveway, anywhere throughout the day while in quarantine. Hopefully the new look at the plate will limit the cold streaks like we saw last year after the All-Star break. 

The Phillies begin the hunt for a winning record for the first time in almost a decade. 60 games to finally climb above .500 for the first time in 9 years. Hopefully the Phillies come out hot and stay hot.