Phillies fans can take solace in the fact that the next weekend without baseball is not until October at the earliest. Saturday, Grapefruit League baseball will begin as the Phillies travel six miles northwest to face the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin.
The Phillies have a 32-game slate of contests to be played over the next month, including 16 home games, 14 away games, and two Spring Breakout prospect showcases. The question on the mind of every Phillies fan unable to embrace the snowbird persona is this: how can I watch every Spring Training game I can?
The question seems simple at first: just tune into NBC Sports Philadelphia and call it a day. Unfortunately, NBCSP, like most regional sports networks, does not travel to away contests on a typical basis. Given the current state of RSNs across Major League Baseball, several teams are not broadcasting as many games as they used to. So, we did the hard part for you. In this article, you will find a guide to watching as many games as possible, with up-to-date information as of the time of release.
Seventeen games will take place at BayCare Ballpark this Spring, including one Spring Breakout against the Toronto Blue Jays. Broadcast information for that game, along with the away Spring Breakout against the Minnesota Twins, has yet to be announced.
The remaining 16 contests in Clearwater will all be viewable if you know where to look. Of those 16, 11 will be broadcasted on NBCSP or NBCSP+. That leaves five Phillies games (February 26 and March 7, 12, 19, and 23) that will be available for viewing via Phillies Video on MLB.com. That means you will need to go online to stream those contests; they will not be on your standard television networks. In the past, these streams have varied from a singular static camera with no broadcasters, like a low-end college broadcast, to a multi-camera production with broadcasters.
The home games were the easy part. Of the 15 away contests, the NBCSP crew will travel for five of them (February 21 and 28 and March 8, 14, and 22). If a fan wants to view the 10 games not broadcasted by NBCSP, they will need to rely on the home team broadcasts for those games.
As of publishing, the home teams are broadcasting five games while the Phillies are in town. Unfortunately, three games overlap with scheduled travel broadcasts for NBCSP. That leaves only two additional broadcasts for the savvy streamer to add to their schedule. First, March 18 at the Atlanta Braves, broadcast on Atlanta Video on MLB.com. Second, March 21 at the Baltimore Orioles on MASN.
In all, the savvy streamer will be able to watch 23 of the Phillies' 32 Spring Training games. For a full schedule along with the radio schedule, continue reading.
Date - H/A - Opponent - Time - TV - Radio
Feb. 21 - Away - Toronto Blue Jays - 1:07 PM - NBCSP - 94 WIP
Feb. 22 - Home - Pittsburgh Pirates - 1:05 PM - NBCSP - 94 WIP
Feb. 23 - Away - Washington Nationals - 6:05 PM - N/A - 94 WIP
