ReadingPhilly wrote:Pretty big change (drop) his zone contact rate though iirc. Shows he started sacrificing contact for power.

JFLNYC wrote:Also shows he's compensating for a slower bat by committing sooner, which leads to more swings and misses. Typical for a player his age.

joe table wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:Also shows he's compensating for a slower bat by committing sooner, which leads to more swings and misses. Typical for a player his age.

His swing looks pretty short from the youtube clips I posted a few pages back

Grotewold wrote:

joe table wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:Also shows he's compensating for a slower bat by committing sooner, which leads to more swings and misses. Typical for a player his age.

His swing looks pretty short from the youtube clips I posted a few pages back

Some pretty good clips and analysis here

The Phillies traded Marlon Byrd to the Nationals in 2005, but he made Philadelphia his home from 2007-10.

He knows Phillies fans well.

He has heard how fans are underwhelmed at the Phillies’ offseason acquisitions, which not only includes himself, but right-handers Roberto Hernandez and Brad Lincoln, catcher Wil Nieves and outfielder Bobby Abreu.

Byrd takes no offense.

“If I was a fan I think I’d rather have Robinson Cano. I think I’d rather have Tanaka. I want those guys. Ruben went with the guys he thought would help this team. And until we get on the field and actually get to show it, the fan base will kind of be looking at this team like, ‘Hey, two years of trying to get back to the promised land, we need 10 Robinson Canos in this lineup and a whole staff of Tanakas. I think they’ll be happy once we get on the field and we start producing.”

Byrd hit a combined .291 with 24 home runs and 88 RBIs last season with the Mets and Pirates. Fans normally might be enthused at the thought of somebody like that hitting behind Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. But following a 50-game suspension for using a performance enhancing substance in 2012, many people wonder if Byrd can replicate those numbers at 36. Those skeptics wonder how real those numbers are.

Once again, Byrd takes no offense.

“Everything last year until I retire will be looked at that way because I did test positive. The guys that don’t like talking about it are the ones that were trying to cheat or trying to beat the system. I wasn’t. I was stupid. I took something. I didn’t do my due diligence. It’s as simple as that, so it’s easy for me to talk about it because I have nothing to hide.”
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“I was so excited when the Phils were making their run, going through the playoffs. I was coming to games. I was waving my towel like a fan and everything. I absolutely loved it.”

Byrd shared a story about how he texted Rollins during the 2008 World Series to tell him how Garza tipped his pitches. Coincidentally or not, Rollins went 2 for 3 with a run scored against Garza in Game 3 at Citizens Bank Park, which the Phillies won, 5-4.

"I felt like a scout."

Woody wrote:Good read, but I hate that he phrases the steroid suspension thing the way he does. "I took something." "I didn't do my due diligence." That makes it conveniently sound like he bought something off the internet by accident and misguidedly #$!&@ up a test, which is not the case. He tested positive for Tamoxifen, a female infertility drug that roiders take to keep their estrogen levels down, reducing water-retention and preventing the growth of man titties. And they take it because they were blasting dianabol into their eyeballs. So while he got the roid cycle timed right, but couldn't get the complementary drugs out of his system, and got banged for 50 games

I don't care about steroids or PEDs I just wish these asshat would start owning it a bit more once they were caught. "Yeah I was taking everything under the sun, because I mean, why the hell not, right? It got me $16 million guaranteed from Amarotard."

Trent Steele wrote:i think there's a good chance Marlon Byrd will our best position player this year.

Shore wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:i think there's a good chance Marlon Byrd will our best position player this year.

I pray that someone hits better than .265/.310/.425 with 15 homers and 60 RBI.