Tag: Philadelphia Phillies

2020 MLB Futures Odds: How many games will the Philadelphia Phillies win?

Looking at 2020 MLB futures odds for how many games the Philadelphia Phillies will win in the 60-game MLB season.

How many games will the Philadelphia Phillies win in the 60-game 2020 MLB season? We look at the Phillies’ MLB futures odds, including their projected 2020 win total and Over/Under odds at BetMGM, and make our best bet.

Philadelphia Phillies’ 2019 recap

The Phillies had a disappointing 2019 season after landing OF Bryce Harper in the offseason, sputtering down the stretch by losing seven of their last nine games to close out the year. They finished 81-81 straight up, while going 78-84 against the run line with a 73-82-7 Over/Under mark.

The NL East was highly competitive last season with four teams finishing at or above .500, but the Phillies certainly wish they would’ve performed better. Their 36-40 record against the division didn’t help their cause.

Philadelphia Phillies’ offseason

The Phillies broke the bank to sign SP Zack Wheeler to a $118 million deal, while they also inked SS Didi Gregorius. They did lose IF Cesar Hernandez and 3B Maikel Franco, but the Phillies’ biggest offseason moves came with the signings of Wheeler and Gregorius.

Also see:

Philadelphia Phillies’ 2020 schedule

The Phillies will play 40 games against their NL East rivals – 10 games vs. each – and 20 games total vs. the five AL East clubs. This is to limit the amount of travel by all teams amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Baseball season is finally here! Get some action on the 2020 season with an MLB futures bet at BetMGM in CO, IN, NJ and WV. Bet now!

How many games will the Philadelphia Phillies win in 2020?

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Thursday, July 2 at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Phillies’ win total is projected slightly above .500 at 31.5 with both the Over and Under carrying -110 odds. They haven’t finished above .500 since 2011.

I’d bet the UNDER (-110) due to their difficult schedule against the two East Divisions, as well as the overall concerns about their lineup.

Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series odds

The Phillies are tied with a host of teams in World Series odds at +2500, which is eighth-best in baseball. They have the talent to win it all, especially now with Wheeler in the rotation, but there are hurdles on their path to a title.

There should be some skepticism about their chances with Harper, Wheeler, SP Aaron Nola and OF Andrew McCutchen. They could make a run to the playoffs, but it’s unlikely.

Philadelphia Phillies’ playoff odds

Philly is +1200 to win the NL pennant, and +325 to win the NL East. I’m PASSING on both.

Want action on any 2020 MLB futures? Sign up and bet at BetMGM. For more sports betting picks and tips, visit SportsbookWire.com.

Follow @camdasilva on Twitter, and follow @SportsbookWire on Twitter and Facebook.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

[lawrence-newsletter]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1372]

Notre Dame’s Jack Brannigan Named Freshman All-American

Although Notre Dame was limited to only 13 games during the 2020 season, that was enough for Jack Brannigan to show he’s arrived.

Although Notre Dame was limited to only 13 games during the 2020 season, that was enough for Jack Brannigan to show he’s arrived. The Orland Park, Illinois, native is one of three multi-position players to be named a 2020 Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He’s the first Notre Dame player to earn this honor since Matt Vierling, now a Philadelphia Phillies prospect, in 2016.

Brannigan was one of three players to start every game for the Irish, the others being Zach Prajzner and Niko Kavades. He hit .255, had three doubles, one triple and home run apiece and drove in 11 runs. He also stole three bases. As a relief pitcher in four games, he had a 1.93 ERA and earned his first win March 7 against North Carolina.

There’s no telling how much more success Brannigan would have had if COVID-19 hadn’t stopped the season. Still, all signs point to him having a nice career for the Irish. He’ll be back, and we’ll be watching.

Bryce Harper’s super detailed idea for MLB’s 2020 schedule includes round robin playoffs

Bryce Harper’s got an idea for what a possible 2020 baseball season could look like.

Bryce Harper has a plan for how Major League Baseball could have a successful 2020 season — obviously just a condensed one.

It’s not related to health and safety during the COVID-19 outbreak or regular and widespread testing for the novel coronavirus, which commissioner Rob Manfred recently said is critical to baseball starting up. No, Harper’s plan involves a redesigned schedule, which was, of course, going to happen in some capacity anyway with the global outbreak halting spring training and indefinitely delaying Opening Day.

As of now, MLB’s hope is for the season to start in early July, but nothing has been officially announced.

And apparently the Philadelphia Phillies superstar wants to help plan — or, at least, he was bored enough to come up with his own plan, which he outlined on Instagram late Friday night.

Simply put, he wants to divide teams into East and West conferences like in the NBA for a decidedly different format than MLB’s proposed organization. He then suggested squeezing 135 games into 138 days between July and November and capping the season off with a two-week, 10-team round robin-style postseason that ends with a traditional seven-game World Series.

View this post on Instagram

Baseball Season:⠀ Beyond the health and safety which comes first for all players, staff, workers, fans, and families. ⠀ ⠀ Just an idea I have been thinking about. ⠀ ⠀ East/West like NBA. ⠀ ⠀ July 31 days⠀ August 31 days ⠀ September 30 days ⠀ October 31 days ⠀ November 15 days ⠀ 135 games. ⠀ Off day every 2 weeks on a Monday and Sunday double header 7 innings. ⠀ ⠀ 30 players. 6 man rotation. Save arms. IF pitchers wanted this. If not no big deal. DH and any other ideas possible.⠀ ⠀ Playoffs ⠀ 2 week World Series. Like Super bowl week. ⠀ ⠀ 10 teams round robin format College World Series kinda style at the new Texas Stadium or whatever stadium/ stadiums are best. 3 game series. You win the series you move on. You lose you play the other loser in a 1 game wildcard. Winner of that moves on. Other team is out. ⠀ Or you could play it in Vegas so you have the Strip Hotels and could use one hotel for all the guys and contain possibly? ⠀ ⠀ 2 teams left 7 game World Series. They get 2 days off before the series. With those 2 days off you do a All Star Game and homerun derby. Could do the MLB awards as well at that time. ⠀ ⠀ Open this up on all platforms. No blackouts. Open it for everybody to watch. ⠀ Then you back up season the next 2 years. May 1st 2021. April 1st 2022. Maybe I’m crazy. Just fun to think about and throw around ideas🤪

A post shared by Bryce Harper (@bryceharper3) on

The 135-game plan is a lot to digest at first. Obviously, that many games in nearly as many days seems logistically impossible and physically and emotionally exhausting, so Harper had a few notes to combat that. His idea is that teams would play in 13-day stretches, leading up to a double-header Sundays with two seven-inning games and a day off on Monday.

If teams and pitchers are into it, he suggests 30-man rosters instead of 25, and a six-pitcher rotation.

And then there’s his postseason plan, which would resemble the College World Series setup.

10 teams round robin format College World Series kinda style at the new Texas Stadium or whatever stadium/ stadiums are best. 3 game series. You win the series you move on. You lose you play the other loser in a 1 game wildcard. Winner of that moves on. Other team is out.

The Las Vegas native also suggested possibly playing in his hometown and using hotels on the Strip to house teams.

And because this whole production would have baseball ending later in the calendar year than usual, it would impact the start of the following season. But Harper has some thoughts on that too, suggesting bumping Opening Day back to May 1 in 2021 and April 1 in 2022. And then get things back on a traditional schedule by 2023.

It’s certainly an interesting thought from the six-time All Star, but that many games in so few days seems like a recipe for long injured list.

Here’s what Harper wrote on Instagram in full:

Baseball Season:⠀
Beyond the health and safety which comes first for all players, staff, workers, fans, and families. ⠀
⠀
Just an idea I have been thinking about. ⠀
⠀
East/West like NBA. ⠀
⠀
July 31 days⠀
August 31 days ⠀
September 30 days ⠀
October 31 days ⠀
November 15 days ⠀
135 games. ⠀
Off day every 2 weeks on a Monday and Sunday double header 7 innings. ⠀
⠀
30 players. 6 man rotation. Save arms. IF pitchers wanted this. If not no big deal. DH and any other ideas possible.⠀
⠀
Playoffs ⠀
2 week World Series. Like Super bowl week. ⠀
⠀
10 teams round robin format College World Series kinda style at the new Texas Stadium or whatever stadium/ stadiums are best. 3 game series. You win the series you move on. You lose you play the other loser in a 1 game wildcard. Winner of that moves on. Other team is out. ⠀

Or you could play it in Vegas so you have the Strip Hotels and could use one hotel for all the guys and contain possibly? ⠀
⠀
2 teams left 7 game World Series. They get 2 days off before the series. With those 2 days off you do a All Star Game and homerun derby. Could do the MLB awards as well at that time. ⠀
⠀
Open this up on all platforms. No blackouts. Open it for everybody to watch. ⠀

Then you back up season the next 2 years. May 1st 2021. April 1st 2022. Maybe I’m crazy. Just fun to think about and throw around ideas🤪

[jwplayer BUpQRs0r-q2aasYxh]

[vertical-gallery id=917489]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393247]

Phillies player sends surprise gift to young fan

Didi Gregorius of the Philadelphia Phillies donated a pair of game-worn cleats and batting gloves to a 14-year-old girl named Jordan who is battling Leukemia.

Didi Gregorius of the Philadelphia Phillies donated a pair of game-worn cleats and batting gloves to a 14-year-old girl named Jordan who is battling Leukemia.

Bryce Harper has a surprisingly reasonable take on the Astros’ cheating scandal

Bryce Harper seems to think the Astros can move on from their tainted reptuation.

Nothing will undo what the Houston Astros did. They definitely cheated and put together a sign-stealing scheme during their 2017 World Series season. But at a certain point, MLB and Houston need to move on.

Even with endless criticism swirling around the Astros, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper seems to have a fair take on the situation as Houston tries to find closure on the scandal.

“Being able to watch a Houston team that you believed was one of the best teams in the world, that run that they had gone on. You’re gonna see this year if they’re the truth — if they’re really gonna go out there and do what they do,” Harper said, via NBC Sports. “And if they do, then nobody can really say anything. I think they do have really good players but the things they did do in the past is gonna taint what they did.”

Harper’s peers have doled out harsh criticism for Houston, and the court of public opinion didn’t appreciate the Astros’ disingenuous apologies during spring training. Perhaps the weak apologies — and punishments — have cause continued discontent among MLB fans, who have heckled the Astros regularly during the exhibition games in Florida.

Still, there’s something rational — and perhaps too rational — about what Harper had to say about the Astros. The New England Patriots, a team entirely familiar with cheating scandals, managed to change the conversation (slightly) after both Spygate and Deflategate by winning games and Super Bowls. In the case of Spygate, the Patriots clearly broke NFL rules and in the case of Deflategate it was “more probable than not.” The court of public opinion turned on New England. So in 2007, after Spygate, the Patriots had an undefeated regular season. And the Patriots have won three Super Bowls since Deflategate. The Astros can try to change the conversation in a similar way: if they win without stealing signs, they can begin to earn back respect from MLB fans and employees.

[vertical-gallery id=899975]

[jwplayer Zq9SkQzk-q2aasYxh]

There’s no chance Bryce Harper’s monster home run landed on the highway

There’s no way.

The Philadelphia Phillies hold their spring training games at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Fla. It’s a facility that is oddly located adjacent to Florida’s Highway 19 beyond the right-field stands. Nothing says baseball quite like the sound of passing traffic.

In theory, that could make for a dangerous commute for motorists driving by the stadium as Phillies lefty slugger Bryce Harper steps to the plate. The last thing anyone wants is to take a Harper home run through a windshield. That would be awful for everyone involved.

On Wednesday, that scenario seemingly (but not actually) came true when Harper launched a massive home run out of the stadium to right field. Accounts like MLB, SportsCenter and Fox MLB were certain that Harper pulled off an epic highway shot. After all, he smoked that baseball.

But we can probably cool it with the “Highway Harper” nicknames because a highway shot would border improbable. Just look at where Highway 19 actually sits in relation to the ballpark.

Yeah, there’s no chance.

According to Google Maps’ measurements, about 200 feet of shrubbery and trees separate the ballpark from Highway 19. In all, it’s about 279 feet from the right-field wall to the highway. To reach the highway, Harper would have needed to hit a 609-foot home run.

The baseballs aren’t quite that juiced.

Impressive as the blast was, a highway shot didn’t happen here.

[jwplayer poxYlb6S-q2aasYxh]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Phillies will retire Roy Halladay’s No. 34 on 10-year anniversary of perfect game

The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Tuesday that this May, on the 10-year anniversary of Roy Halladay’s perfect game, the Phillies will retire Halladay’s No. 34.

The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Tuesday that this May, on the 10-year anniversary of Roy Halladay’s perfect game, the Phillies will retire Halladay’s No. 34.