CLEARWATER, Fla. — Rhys Hoskins studied business administration in college, learning the driving forces behind a market and why it reacts in certain ways. The son of lawyers, Hoskins has a thirst for information. Phillies manager Gabe Kapler calls him an intellectual. Hoskins enjoyed learning about the little things, such as the subconscious effects that marketing can have on consumers.
“Things that I think we always kind of knew,” Hoskins said. “But to have someone explain it to us is pretty cool to see how that unfolds.”
Hoskins did not know it then, but his time in the classroom at Sacramento State, where he spent three years before being drafted, helped prepare him for this spring, when the Phillies, in Kapler’s first year, went all in on the use of analytics.