Cristopher Sanchez poised for another velo jump?

It’s not really spring until a two-inning exhibition outing has us overreacting and thinking about a pitcher’s Cy Young odds. Luckily, it looks like spring has sprung!

While Cristopher Sanchez was lighting up the radar gun, the Flyers picked up another win and the White House extended an invitation to the Eagles.

Let’s discuss.

In the email today:

• 🔥 Cristopher Sanchez poised for another velo jump?

• 🐧 Flyers smoke hapless Pens for third win in a row

• 🇺🇸 Eagles extended White House invite

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Cristopher Sanchez's fastball averaged 92.1 mph in 2023, according to Statcast data.

That number jumped to 94.5 mph in Sanchez's breakout 2024 season.

And on Tuesday, in his first game action of the spring, the lefty's fastball reportedly sat between 97 and 99 mph ($) against the Rays. Sanchez threw two innings, allowing one hit, walking none, and striking out three.

The Rays' spring training ballpark in Port Charlotte, FL isn't equipped to measure Statcast data, but at least one observer called the park's scoreboard gun "mostly accurate." The uptick in velo may be due to muscle Sanchez added during the offseason.

Additionally, Sanchez sounds like he trusts himself to let it rip more than he did earlier in his career. "I think that I’m mature enough now to throw hard and also locate in different points in the strike zone as well," he said after Tuesday's outing.

Sanchez already established himself as a top-shelf starting pitcher last season. If his arm has another jump in it, the league could be in serious trouble.

We talk a lot in these parts about how the Flyers haven’t been to the playoffs since the pandemic. In a league that hands out so many playoff spots annually, this sort of ineptitude is very tough to do.

What’s almost more amazing when you think about it is how bad the Pittsburgh Penguins are this season and how the 2016-2017 Stanley Cup champions are about to miss the playoffs for the third season in a row. In its own way, that’s way worse.

Last night, the Penguins’ frailties and shortcomings were on full display, as the .500 Flyers skated around, through and past the Pens en route to a shockingly easy win.

This game was a stat sheet filler for some of the Flyers’ less prominent players who happened to play on the same line.

Bobby Brink scored a goal and assisted on three others. Noah Cates scored twice and had a helper, joining Tyson Foerster in posting a three-point night.

Perhaps the most stunning stat of them all was the string of zeroes posted by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Time really is undefeated.

Oh, and old friend Kevin Hayes did more or less nothing in 11:13 of ice time. The whole lot of them definitely had a whiff of quit on them.

The Penguins will have the opportunity to exact some measure of revenge in their home half of this back-to-back against the Flyers on Thursday night.

It’s been about a week of “will he or won’t he?” with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, the “he” being President Donald J. Trump and the question being whether the Eagles would be invited to the White House.

Yesterday, we got our answer.

Unsurprisingly, there was some ego involved in this situation. The Eagles were invited to the White House in 2018 during Trump’s first term and passed.

This time around, reports are that the team took the initiative to indicate to the White House that if invited this time, they would show up.

Of course, this has been a fluid situation. Seventy-two hours ago, you would have been wise to bet against the invite being made or accepted.

Like a lot of things in America, White House visits by championship teams didn’t used to be this controversial or complicated.

Then again, White House visits by championship teams never used to look like this:

As we wait to see how this Eagles White House visit turns out (or doesn’t), let’s all resolve to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

February 26, 1997 was a good day for the Legion of Doom.

📊 Poll

Results from Tuesday:

🔗 Links

• 🦅 Congratulations to Eagle great Jason Peters on his retirement.

• 🦅 🦅 Howie Roseman would like Eagles fans to trust the process this offseason.

• ♀️ Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, hung them up.

• ⚾️ Max Scherzer didn’t love his first experience with MLB’s new automated ball-strike system.

• ⚖️ The Ravens appear to be beginning the full distancing from Justin Tucker.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

• Sixers at Knicks, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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