Aug 18, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Former Philadelphia Phillies president Dave Dombrowski during Phillies Alumni Weekend and the 20th anniversary of Citizens Bank Park before game against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
While the team that he put together to hopefully win his third World Championship was working on fundamentals - like pickoff moves to second base, fielding bunts and turning double plays - Dave Dombrowski was holding court in the dugout with the gathered media.
He talked at length about the teams plans this week and what went into them, a carefully structured plan that was born out of previous experience with a lengthier delay that baseball players are used to having.
And while the first day of October had an eerily similar feel to the first team practice in Clearwater in February, there's a lot more at stake this week.
The team worked on fundamentals and hit the batting cages Tuesday. There will be an intersquad scrimmage on Wednesday, in which captains chose teams and there is some sort of prize on the line for the winning side. There will be an optional workout Thursday, although some pitchers are scheduled to throw, and then a full workout Friday in advance of Game 1 on Saturday night.
Dombrowski says the Phillies will play a full intra-squad game tomorrow and pump in crowd noise.
May or may not be a few wagers on it too. @SportsRadioWIP pic.twitter.com/Cyz8AbB0MU
In between waxing poetic about randomness of the postseason and the beauty of the sport of baseball, in which he called the first game of the Mets-Braves double header one of the best games he ever saw, Dombrowski talked about his biggest concern that can crop up from this week away from live games - how it will impact the Phillies lineup.
"I'm more concerned about our offense getting going," Dombrowski said. "It's just that guys have days off and they're routine-oriented."
Dombrowski said the way the Phillies are going to combat that is different than, say, at the All-Star break.
In mid-July, most guys get away from the sport for four days. May go on a mini-vacation or visit friends and family.
In this case, they are still working. Dombrowski said the plan is for the hitters to spend time with the high velocity pitching machine and the curveball machine, and then of course there's the live game simulation Wednesday.
But is that going to be enough?
"I always worry more about the offensive perspective of the game because days off that way normally cause you concern."
Rob Thomson said “Nice play Harp” on this ground ball he fielded. #Phillies pic.twitter.com/HQopqLMV2F
It's hard to argue with Dombrowski on this one. Since the addition of the third wild card in the playoffs in 2022, the only team with a bye who advanced to the World Series was the 2022 Houston Astros.
And while they went on the win the whole shebang over Dombrowski's Phillies that year, teams with byes in the past two years have played 47 playoff games.
They are 20-27.
That's the teams with the two best records in each league suddenly playing to the same success level as the Athletics (nee Oakland).
Baseball will eventually course correct this. It has to. But it needs more empirical evidence before it does because two seasons is just too small a sample.
Dombrowski is hoping his experience with this with teams having extra time off in the pas will help his team avoid such a drop off.
However, as much of a bugaboo as this layoff might be for the hitters, it's truly a boon for the pitchers, in Dombrowski's eyes.
"I think it is (a benefit) yes, and the staff has talked a lot about it and with the pitchers themselves," Dombrowski said. "That's why this week is so important. It's prepping them so they don't have too much rest, right? Zack traditionally likes to go five or six days, so he's going a seventh day - but there's things he can do, and the postseason automatically sort of livens you up in that regard and gets you more prepared.
"But he might throw an extra side (session) - a light side one day. For (Cristopher) Sanchez and (Aaron) Nola it's going to be quite a while since they have pitched, but some of them are going to throw this week. Same with (Ranger) Suarez. They're going to throw this week, and we'll juggle the rest if them to keep them ready."
Dombrowski added that the best benefit comes for the guys in the bullpen. Even though they need to stay sharp too and will all likely throw at some point on Wednesday as well, having some down time for them should have them feeling good come Saturday.
"They'll be fresh, and they can use the extra rest at this time of year," Dombrowski said. "I don't think we've overused our guys at all ... but at this time of year, everybody's arm could use a little bit of rest and they'll in turn, get enough throwing in during this time period that it'll be beneficial."
