Svelte Jose Alvarado impresses in spring debut

Jose Alvarado looked good in his 11 pitches on Thursday, so we wrote a whole thing about it. Spring baseball, baby!

Elsewhere, the Flyers lost a tough one to the Pens. And Travis Kelce isn’t ready to yield to the inevitable Eagles dynasty just yet.

In the email today:

• 💪 Svelte Jose Alvarado impresses in spring debut

• 🐧 Flyers blow 3-0 lead, lose to Malkin and Pens in OT

• 👻 Haunted by Super Bowl loss to Eagles, Travis Kelce is coming back

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Jose Alvarado has now thrown exactly one (1) inning this spring.

But it was a good one.

"I had a great offseason," said Alvarado after striking out two and hitting 100 mph in a 1-2-3 inning on Thursday. "I changed my routine about eating. I lost weight. Latin people, we eat a lot of rice and beans. I switched for more protein, veggies. I came in in good shape and I'm so happy about the result today."

The work Alvarado put in this offseason was clear even before he took the mound against the Yankees for his spring debut:

Contrast that to last spring, when Alvarado was, uh... probably not in the best shape of his life:

We'll need to see much more from Alvarado, of course, before we declare that he's once again the force of nature that he was in 2023: 42 games, 41.1 innings, 1.74 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 3.9 BB/9, 13.9 K/9.

In 2024, the lefty's numbers fell off a cliff: 66 games, 61.2 innings, 4.09 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 4.1 BB/9, 9.2 K/9. That K/9 rate was the lowest for Alvarado since his rookie season in 2017. But if Thursday's outing was any indication, the strikeouts will be back this season.

"I saw my cutter like 95 today," Alvarado said. "I don't think I need to change anything right now." He has thrown the cutter about 40% of the time since 2022 (according to Statcast data), and has relied on the pitch for a whiff rate around 45% the past couple years. It averaged 92.5 mph in 2024, down from a high of about 94 mph a few years ago. 95 mph would be something new.

But it's Alvarado's sinker that sometimes hits triple digits, and that pitch has also decreased in average velocity over the last few years: from 99.6 mph in 2022, to 98.7 mph in 2023, to 97.8 mph in 2024. The reliever seems confident in his ability to reverse that trend.

"Long time I was waiting for this moment," he said Thursday.

He's not the only one.

The NHL regular season often seems endless. Toward the end of the season, there are too many games between teams playing out the string.

Last night’s Flyers/Penguins game could fairly be considered one of those games. Despite going into the contest having won three in a row, the ESPN+ broadcast posted an ESPN BET graphic noting the Flyers odds to miss the playoffs at -3300.

Funny thing about sports though: You can get a great game from two teams who don’t really need to win. Last night was one of those games, though in the end it was a heartbreaking loss for the Orange and Black.

The Flyers led 3-0 despite also having a goal disallowed for a high stick in the second period. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan made the standard hockey decision to pull Alex Nedeljkovic.

You could say the Pens’ starting netminder didn’t appreciate the move.

Here’s the thing, though: It worked. The Penguins scored two goals in 30 seconds soon after the goaltending change.

Things got worse for the Flyers as Garnet Hathaway had to be helped from the ice following a blindside cheap shot in open ice by Bokondji Imama.

Matvei Michov scored his second goal of the game on the ensuing power play to put the Flyers back up 4-2. Order seemed to be restored. But it didn’t last.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are both well past their primes, but you can’t leave either one of them open in clear scoring positions. Crosby had a quiet night with one assist. Malkin, meanwhile, scored the last two goals of the game to bury the Flyers.

Malkin scored both goals from more or less the same position on the ice. It’s almost like he’s good from the dot or inside it.

The Flyers are off until Saturday night when they take on the Jets in Winnipeg.

When last we saw Travis Kelce, he was largely invisible in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss to the Eagles.

Invisible, except when he was very conspicuously getting blown off the line of scrimmage.

You’re not going to believe this, but in the aftermath of the Chiefs’ blowout loss — and Kelce’s largely ineffective performance — the media cranked up the excuse machine.

Seems #87 was fighting “a pretty big illness” before the Super Bowl. What qualifies as a pretty big illness that would cause Kelce to play so poorly? We shouldn’t speculate even though we totally want to.

Kelce made his return official on Pat McAfee’s show yesterday. Kelce was emphatic that the way the Chiefs’ season ended still doesn’t sit well with him. And why would it?

Our favorite ridiculous theory about Kelce’s return is this one:

On second thought, given Taylor Swift’s love of Easter eggs and subtext, maybe that theory isn’t so ridiculous after all.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

2008 is best known as a great year for Philadelphia baseball. But February 28, 2008 was an extraordinary day for Philadelphia soccer.

February 28 is also the anniversary of Bryce Harper signing with the Phils (2019).

📊 Poll

Results from Thursday:

🔗 Links

• 🏌️‍♂️Billy Horschel did one of the stupidest things anyone could ever do on a golf course.

• 🏀 Eric Gordon’s season is likely over after wrist surgery.

• 🍑 Dan Hurley cannot stop antagonizing basically anyone in his orbit.

• 🏴‍☠️ The Buccaneers went full forgive-and-forget mode with Jon Gruden in reinstating him to the team’s Ring of Honor.

• 🎙️ Joy Taylor has been “sidelined” by FS1, per reports.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Saturday, March 1, 2025

• Flyers at Jets, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

• Warriors at Sixers, 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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