Speaker 1: Hi, This is Kyle Skorber, and welcome to the Philly Show.
Speaker 1: Schwar Bombs. They're all over the place, guys. Kyle Schwarber's
Speaker 1: homered in five consecutive games. Zach Wheeler's throwing like three
Speaker 1: pitches in an inning. They beat the Red Sox on
Speaker 1: Tuesday night at Fenway Pac. Ruben Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury
Speaker 1: Todd so lucky. It's Wednesday, May thirteenth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Jim back up at Fenway Pac. Schwarber I heard. I
Speaker 1: was watching the postgame show on Tuesday night, and you know,
Speaker 1: I like how he says, you know, he was being
Speaker 1: asked about hit homering in five consecutive games, and I
Speaker 1: liked his answer about you know, he says he kind
Speaker 1: of says it all the time, but like that's something
Speaker 1: in a few years down the road, I'll crack a
Speaker 1: beerd and sitting on my front porch and do a
Speaker 1: little bit of reflection. What was it like seeing him
Speaker 1: hit that fifth home fifth straight homer last night?
Speaker 2: And right after you said that, when he said I'll
Speaker 2: crack a beer and on the porch and think about it,
Speaker 2: the cameras went off and I said to him if
Speaker 2: I were you, I have a beer right now.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Wait, wait, Jimmy, if that's one thing and the
Speaker 3: other thing, tell us about the nostalgia of you being
Speaker 3: back at the at the Boston's Boston's Mecca.
Speaker 2: I came here a lot as a kid. I don't
Speaker 2: even want to tell you what year I saw my
Speaker 2: first game here, But professionally I've been coming here for
Speaker 2: thirty plus years. You know, covered the four World Series
Speaker 2: here and many many many games. So but you know,
Speaker 2: schwar bomb he's carpet bombing. I mean, he's amazing. What
Speaker 2: a month of May. It started off on May first
Speaker 2: in Miami with eight straight strikeouts in eight plate appearance,
Speaker 2: and then now the streak is totally reversed. He's homered
Speaker 2: in five games. And it's like that great Brandon marsh
Speaker 2: quote the other day about you know, oh there's another,
Speaker 2: and there's another, and there's another. You expect it, and
Speaker 2: you know, thank goodness he got he hit that home
Speaker 2: run because he got them off to a good start.
Speaker 2: They hit two balls over the wall on Tuesday night.
Speaker 2: Schwarver hit home run. Bryce and Start hit the ground
Speaker 2: room double and that was your offense. And the pitching
Speaker 2: was really great, and it had to be because there
Speaker 2: wasn't a lot of offense that Brian Baos as the
Speaker 2: bulk guy, did a great job for the Red Sox.
Speaker 2: But eleven and three under Donny ball game and nine,
Speaker 2: they're up to nine quality starts under Don Mattingly in
Speaker 2: those in those fourteen games. I mean somewhere in Ontario,
Speaker 2: Rob Thompson is saying, where the hell were my quality
Speaker 2: game qualities.
Speaker 1: There? Yeah, Schwarber's been absolutely ridiculous over the last you know,
Speaker 1: several games, and you know.
Speaker 4: You know what's you know, you know what's been cool
Speaker 4: about what's kind of crazy about Schwarber is that you
Speaker 4: almost don't get surprised.
Speaker 5: I'm not even surprised by it.
Speaker 4: Right, He's he hits home runs with such regularity, and
Speaker 4: you know, he goes into these, as you said, cars
Speaker 4: starts carpet bombing, and it's almost like, well, you sort
Speaker 4: of expect it now because he's hot, and someone's gonna
Speaker 4: throwing over the middle of the plate and guess what's
Speaker 4: gonna happen to it. It's gonna be crushed and go
Speaker 4: out of the ballpark. And it's just weird that it's become.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's something that we should be really reveling,
Speaker 4: which we are in But I sometimes watch it and
Speaker 4: I'm like, he's just doing it again, which is which
Speaker 4: is something that is astounding because this is not how
Speaker 4: base fall typically works.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like there's a Sunday Mother's Day homers in
Speaker 1: his first two bats and in the back of your
Speaker 1: mind and going, I know this is a long shot,
Speaker 1: but maybe he can hit for hit and I have
Speaker 1: another four home run game. I mean, if there's a
Speaker 1: guy that could possibly do it, you gom, let's keep
Speaker 1: an eye on this one because he has been just
Speaker 1: absolutely amazing. I was looking at his uh stat cast
Speaker 1: page and just see a lot of like dark dark
Speaker 1: dark red. That's that means red means flow. There's i
Speaker 1: mean expected slug average exit v low, hard hit rate,
Speaker 1: bat speed, the elite bat speeds just so quick through
Speaker 1: the zone. It's so much fun to watch him swing
Speaker 1: and like the just how you know, a fishing he
Speaker 1: is with his swing. You know, there's no crazy movements
Speaker 1: or whatever. His hands there through the zone smokes every ball.
Speaker 1: It's just.
Speaker 5: Click.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's exactly right. It's a great way. It's like
Speaker 1: a gun going off with with Kyle Schwbard, so just
Speaker 1: you know he's on a role man. I was looking
Speaker 1: at that list of five Phillies with five straight home
Speaker 1: runs and o'double Herrera's on that list.
Speaker 2: Think of that. I don't.
Speaker 5: I remember what a rule five pick?
Speaker 1: What a rule five pick? Who drafted that guy?
Speaker 5: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4: He had a he had a spotty, uh spotty tenure
Speaker 4: there at the Phillies. But I mean, look at those names, man, Dick, Allen,
Speaker 4: Schmidt a brave you, Chase Chase did it twice two times,
Speaker 4: and obviously Turner as well. But I mean, it's really
Speaker 4: really cool to it's really cool to line him up man.
Speaker 4: And there's more to come with this guy, because I
Speaker 4: don't think there's anything stopping him as long as he
Speaker 4: stays healthy.
Speaker 1: Knockwood, Yeah, you know else is cool. Starting pitching is cool.
Speaker 1: It's like that old commercial with Glavin and Maddox. You know,
Speaker 1: chicks do dig long ball, but starting pitching is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And Zach Wheeler last night was that was pretty fun too?
Speaker 5: How was that upcoats? Impersonal? Jim?
Speaker 2: As he was working so quick and so efficient and
Speaker 2: throwing so many strikes. I wrote my story. He's pitching
Speaker 2: like he was double parked out in Kenmore Square. That's
Speaker 2: probably I thought we were going to be out of
Speaker 2: there in an hour and fifty minutes. He was get
Speaker 2: the ball, throw the ball. And that's a great stat
Speaker 2: from Cassela. He's amazing coming up with those those audities
Speaker 2: and those stats. That's a great one. I mean, so
Speaker 2: he was sixteen pitches three innings through one time through
Speaker 2: the order, and thirteen of them were strikes. He had
Speaker 2: four innings of eight or fewer pitches. It was just amazing.
Speaker 2: So when he did have that at one or two
Speaker 2: innings where the pitch count swelled a little bit and
Speaker 2: only put him up to eighty five pitches after seven innings, So,
Speaker 2: I mean, I was wondering if Mattingly was gonna take
Speaker 2: him out because the swings did get better. His last
Speaker 2: out of the seventh inning came off to the bat
Speaker 2: at one hundred and three miles an hour. The location
Speaker 2: just wavered a little bit. The looks were getting better
Speaker 2: at him. But you know, Mattingly gave him those first
Speaker 2: two batters to get to the left handers and Alvarado
Speaker 2: took over. But a magnificent performance from Zach. You know,
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this. He's nineteen days shy of
Speaker 2: his thirty sixth birthday. He's just less than eight months,
Speaker 2: eight full months removed from pretty major surgery, and after
Speaker 2: four starts, to me, he's answering that question, is he's
Speaker 2: still one of the best in baseball? I think yes,
Speaker 2: the answer last three starts are all quality. The stuff
Speaker 2: was up to ninety six last night. He might have
Speaker 2: been playing possum on that velocity thing in the minors.
Speaker 1: Well not Yeah, you have to conclude that, but he
Speaker 1: seems to be I think.
Speaker 4: I think one of the cool things that you know
Speaker 4: that he has become. He's not you know, there was
Speaker 4: a time when he.
Speaker 5: Was power power power. Now he really does pitch.
Speaker 4: I mean we referenced Greg Maddox a little bit just
Speaker 4: because of the efficiency of with which he was working.
Speaker 5: But he's now a pitcher.
Speaker 4: He's he's got great stuff, but he also pitches.
Speaker 5: He uses uses.
Speaker 4: All the quadrants. He breaks it up in the eighths. Actually,
Speaker 4: I mean he he does break up that that that
Speaker 4: strikes zone in a lot of different ways, maybe into
Speaker 4: ninths or whatever. But but he's one of those guys
Speaker 4: that has the ability to, you know, to place pitches
Speaker 4: where he wants to and with u with a complete arsenal.
Speaker 4: You know, he goes to the cutter and now he's
Speaker 4: got the splitter and the sweeper and curveball. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's you know, the four Obviously, the four seamer and
Speaker 4: the sinker continue to be his bread and butter.
Speaker 5: But he pitches man and that's that's the heat.
Speaker 4: That's the separator between he and the rest of the world,
Speaker 4: I think, and that's why he's one of the best
Speaker 4: pitchers in the game.
Speaker 5: And I always felt like even.
Speaker 4: If he had his velocity velos, he wasn't the same
Speaker 4: that he'd be able to pitch like he pitched yesterday,
Speaker 4: that he'd be able to get quick outs. And I
Speaker 4: can understand the process on on what Boston was trying
Speaker 4: to do. I mean, the best way to get to
Speaker 4: these guys is to try to get him early. They
Speaker 4: did hit some balls hard on him. They had like
Speaker 4: ten hard hit balls during the course of that game.
Speaker 4: That's a lot for Zach. But the defense played well
Speaker 4: enough and they made the plays they had to. Got
Speaker 4: a couple of double plays, which he's been waiting to see,
Speaker 4: like to see that number jump. I think, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: when when when the guy hits the ball in the
Speaker 4: place where he wants them to hit it in a
Speaker 4: double play situation, want to be able to turn those
Speaker 4: double plays. And that's what happened yesterday. A really good
Speaker 4: one to to Turner's right, the very first one where
Speaker 4: he planned and made a nice strong throat to stop.
Speaker 4: That was a big one right out of the shoot.
Speaker 4: So you know, that's the kind of stuff you need
Speaker 4: to be efficient. But he pitches man and he's one
Speaker 4: of the best pitchers in the game.
Speaker 2: Because of it, you got double plays in the big
Speaker 2: double plays in the second and third inning from Unner
Speaker 2: and Stott. And one thing that was interesting, you know,
Speaker 2: postgame in the clubhouse, is he admitted he had nothing
Speaker 2: in the bullpen. He said, I was lucky if I
Speaker 2: threw three strikes, had no idea which way the start
Speaker 2: was going to go. He actually said I was a
Speaker 2: little nervous coming out of the bullpen because I was
Speaker 2: so bad in the bullpen. That was something you don't
Speaker 2: hear from Zach Wheeler very often, but he quickly dialed
Speaker 2: it in.
Speaker 1: He seems to be so at easy of himself too, right.
Speaker 1: You know, he's almost kind of like joking about it, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't he seem to be like super comfortable
Speaker 1: with him? I mean, not that he wasn't necessarily before,
Speaker 1: but more so maybe at least in talking to us, like.
Speaker 2: No questions, Yeah, no question. He seems like he's stopping
Speaker 2: to smell the roses a little bit, you know, enjoying,
Speaker 2: enjoying the journey. Maybe it's comes with age and surviving
Speaker 2: a serious surgery, but yeah, he seems at ease. He's
Speaker 2: very quotable and insightful, and and really he's enjoying this ride.
Speaker 2: Not that he didn't always enjoy it, but I think
Speaker 2: you're right. He there is a real ease to how
Speaker 2: he is, uh, just kind of going through it all well.
Speaker 1: He said. As he was walking in from the bullpen,
Speaker 1: he said, he was telling Jay's, Wow, this is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: A lot of history here. This is pretty neat. I
Speaker 1: I want to pitch on the pitch at Fenway. Pretty
Speaker 1: cool after he just had the world's worst bullpen session.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a that's a perfect example. We talked
Speaker 4: about it in the post game as well, that you know,
Speaker 4: what do you think about pitching and families that Wow,
Speaker 4: he looked out there and that he could feel the energy,
Speaker 4: he could sense the energy of It's pretty cool. Yeah, Hey,
Speaker 4: that does happen with age, and it also happens with
Speaker 4: a forty million dollar contract that you know, not that
Speaker 4: he wasn't comfortable before. But I think you're right. I
Speaker 4: think that you're right. I think that he's I think
Speaker 4: you hit it right on the head man. He's he's
Speaker 4: enjoying his space in the game right now, and while
Speaker 4: he is still super competitive, I think he's also getting
Speaker 4: a chance to really enjoy being a major league baseball
Speaker 4: player and being one of the best in the game.
Speaker 2: Hey, good for him, Good for him for doing that.
Speaker 2: Really happy for him. That attitude. I think they could
Speaker 2: use a little more of that in the postseason. Just
Speaker 2: enjoy where you're at and see what happens in set
Speaker 2: of grinding and stressing someone.
Speaker 1: You don't want those sphincters to tighten up.
Speaker 4: Great, great reference to the sphincter.
Speaker 5: I love it. Oh man.
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Speaker 1: You asked Jim about his Fenway Park memories, and I
Speaker 1: looked up your career numbers at Fenway, and how do
Speaker 1: you think you did at Fenway? You didn't play that
Speaker 1: many games, You only played like five games. But no,
Speaker 1: what do you remember about playing at Fenway? I'm gonna
Speaker 1: test your memory.
Speaker 4: So I remember my very first at bat ever at Fenway.
Speaker 4: I think I might have been playing. Was I playing
Speaker 4: for the Angels or the Cleveland Indians. Can't remember that.
Speaker 5: I don't think it was I home my first bat.
Speaker 5: I struck out on three pitches and it was a guy.
Speaker 5: It was a guy.
Speaker 4: I think it was an ambidextrous picture. It was a
Speaker 4: right hander, but he also threw left hand every once
Speaker 4: in a while. I can't remember really good at curveball.
Speaker 4: I was done, pitch is gone. It was Greg Harris.
Speaker 4: It's exactly who it was. I think he got me
Speaker 4: on three pitches and I walked back. It was a
Speaker 4: long walk back from that from that circle all the
Speaker 4: way to the dugout, and they just ate me alive
Speaker 4: because they, I mean, the fans just ate me alive.
Speaker 5: It was funny.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if I was an Indian or I
Speaker 4: think it was an Angel anyway, but I actually won
Speaker 4: a game against Todd Froworth. I think I got a
Speaker 4: base hit to put us ahead in like the extra
Speaker 4: innings or something. When I was with the Cleveland Indians.
Speaker 1: Well, here here's what I looked at that. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: went two for four in your career at friend Way.
Speaker 1: But there was a game at Fenway. I think it
Speaker 1: was in ninety four with Cleveland. You came into the
Speaker 1: game in the ninth inning, eighth or ninth inning. You
Speaker 1: pinch ran four Hall of Famer, Come on, rubin, Eddie Murray,
Speaker 1: Eddie Murray. You pinch ran for Eddie Murray. You scored
Speaker 1: the game tying run in the top of the ninth,
Speaker 1: So I do it, and then and then you and
Speaker 1: then you got a base knock in the eleventh against
Speaker 1: Todd Froworthy scored Albert bell As an insurance run in
Speaker 1: like a fourteen to ten, fifteen to ten victory over
Speaker 1: the Red Sox.
Speaker 4: So, okay, I got an insurance run. Okay, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: thought I was a team ahead, But that's okay.
Speaker 1: You scored the game tying run, though, How you do it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did you give a lot of interviews after the game?
Speaker 4: I do not remember that, but I do remember Charlie Manuel,
Speaker 4: who was the hitting coach at the time. I remember
Speaker 4: Charlie Mannuell saying, hey, man, it's a great job. I mean,
Speaker 4: you you never get a chance to play and you
Speaker 4: still contributed to a win. I mean, I think I
Speaker 4: got like sixty at bats that year if that, and uh,
Speaker 4: maybe even less, but you know, with the opportunity, I
Speaker 4: wasn't going to get opportunities to play in that unbelievable
Speaker 4: outfield when you got Bell and Lofton and Ramirez. You
Speaker 4: ain't playing, you're sitting, and and it was it was
Speaker 4: nice to be able to contribute to you know, some
Speaker 4: some cause or some win. And uh and Charlie and
Speaker 4: I acknowledge that.
Speaker 1: That's cool.
Speaker 2: You're a big leaguer. That's special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome, man. I mean, come on, pinch running
Speaker 1: for Freddie Murray alone would be a thrill.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 4: So my very first, my very first pinch hit, pinch run,
Speaker 4: my very first appearance on a field was for pinch
Speaker 4: running for a Hall of Famer Dave Parker.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's cool. How about that the Cobra, that's right,
Speaker 1: the cobra.
Speaker 4: Okay, So Jim, Jim's book will have all that.
Speaker 1: That's right, Jim. Phillies are twenty and twenty two. Guys.
Speaker 1: They're just at the quarter mark, the quarter poll, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. And they won eleven out
Speaker 1: of their last fourteen playing good ball. Show you what
Speaker 1: they're Phillies have the second best, second best record in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball since the managerial chains are eleven and thirteen.
Speaker 1: Only the Rays are better. They're twelve and two. Right
Speaker 1: behind the Phillies are the Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs. So they're
Speaker 1: playing they're playing good ball right now, and I think
Speaker 1: they're like four games back in the wildcard l Wildcard.
Speaker 1: I know it's like it's only May whatever, but so
Speaker 1: here's my question. You guys that the the midway point
Speaker 1: of the season is going to be June twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: will be the eighty first game of the season. Will
Speaker 1: the Phillies be that third wildcard team? Will they have
Speaker 1: crept back in and made up all that ground in
Speaker 1: the next forty games. They have a pretty favorable schedule
Speaker 1: coming up. I think they've got like after the Red Sox,
Speaker 1: they play like including the Red Sox, I guess they
Speaker 1: play eighteen consecutive games against teams with Oh I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: the next eighteen actually are a little bit more challenging.
Speaker 1: The next eighteen games after this Red Sox series against
Speaker 1: teams with winning records, the Pirates, the Reds, the Guardians,
Speaker 1: six against the Padres, the Dodgers, and then things soften
Speaker 1: up a little bit. In June, they play the White Sox,
Speaker 1: Blue Jays, Marlins, Mets Nationals. You what do you see
Speaker 1: coming up?
Speaker 2: You know, I think they're going to play in October.
Speaker 2: I still do. In the world we live in with
Speaker 2: three wildcard teams, I still think they get there. Not
Speaker 2: sure about the division, and I wouldn't worry about it
Speaker 2: right now. The only thing I would be worried about,
Speaker 2: not even i'd focus on, is getting to five hundred.
Speaker 2: You were ten games under five hundred when they made
Speaker 2: the managerial change. You woke up this morning two games
Speaker 2: under five hundred. So I'm stealing a little bit of
Speaker 2: Rob Thompson's philosophy. When he took over in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: His goal and he told them, let's get to five
Speaker 2: hundred and then let's worry about or focus on, getting
Speaker 2: five games over five hundred, and then we'll focus on
Speaker 2: getting five more games, ten games over five hundred, small
Speaker 2: bites of the apple. That's the only thing I would
Speaker 2: be focused on, and the rest will take care of itself.
Speaker 2: So June twenty fifth, will they be on the wildcard grid?
Speaker 2: I'm going to say yes, Keep winning the series, keep
Speaker 2: taking small bites of the Apple.
Speaker 5: I'll say, yes, yeah, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're seeing the team be what we thought
Speaker 4: this team would be from the outset. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is basically what we thought we'd be seeing from this team.
Speaker 4: And in fact, I even thought that they'd be better
Speaker 4: as far as they're starting pitching.
Speaker 5: This concern.
Speaker 4: I really thought it'd be much better offensively.
Speaker 5: You just didn't know.
Speaker 4: You thought you got, you know, the back of the
Speaker 4: baseball cards and all that stuff would come through, but
Speaker 4: you just didn't know whether they'd be swinging the bats
Speaker 4: well all the way through. It's a little bit streaky,
Speaker 4: and you're getting a lot of contribution from guys that
Speaker 4: you weren't sure you would get contributions from, like marsh
Speaker 4: who's having a heck of a start to the season.
Speaker 4: I do believe that they'll be in that wildcard race
Speaker 4: and probably be in that right position at that time.
Speaker 4: Atlanta's sort of set up separated itself on Atlanta and
Speaker 4: the Cubs. A couple of teams there have sort of
Speaker 4: separated themselves, but especially Atlanta with in the division. But
Speaker 4: I feel like the concern how do you how do
Speaker 4: you make those incremental moves Jim, You've talked about it
Speaker 4: a lot. You continue to win series series after series
Speaker 4: after series, and can they do that with an inconsistent
Speaker 4: Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter? And if you have two
Speaker 4: guys in your rotation who are sort of inconsistent, and
Speaker 4: Lozardo's been sort of up and down, I feel I
Speaker 4: feel a little bit better about lazarticles is overall stuff,
Speaker 4: stuff is just so too good to to not be
Speaker 4: a little bit more consistent.
Speaker 5: And it will happen.
Speaker 4: But Andrew Painter, who's throwing tonight, is a guy that, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, you really have to get better contribution. You
Speaker 4: got to get good, solid five innings from the guy
Speaker 4: five and a third. You know, that's the guy that
Speaker 4: needs to sort of make some adjustments here to uh,
Speaker 4: to help them. Because if you end up having two
Speaker 4: guys that are going to just give you four and
Speaker 4: two thirds or four and a third every single time
Speaker 4: through the rotation, it's really good to take its toll
Speaker 4: on the bat, on the bullpen, uh, you know, and
Speaker 4: the middle guys and it's it's gonna wear them down.
Speaker 4: So yes, I think it will happen. I am a
Speaker 4: little concerned about whether Andrew Painter will make the necessary
Speaker 4: adjustments to get to that consistent five innings to keep
Speaker 4: you know, the team in the game, and we'll find
Speaker 4: out some more about how he handles things tonight because
Speaker 4: the fastball command hasn't been there. It's been on the
Speaker 4: trouble on the on the arm side last time, trouble
Speaker 4: on the glove side the time before that. Mechanically, he
Speaker 4: needs to get to the point where he's more consistent
Speaker 4: with his stuff, and that's tough with the guy that
Speaker 4: big and a kid that's probably got a little anxiety,
Speaker 4: even though he doesn't show it on the on the mound,
Speaker 4: a little anxiety about getting himself going here at the
Speaker 4: major league level.
Speaker 5: Yeah, good points about Nolan Painter.
Speaker 2: They need to get to that beyond that playoff by
Speaker 2: June twenty fifth, which we think they will. Consistency in
Speaker 2: the rotation and good health has to be one of
Speaker 2: them as well. They need those two things to happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, payers fastball isn't getting hit hard, not getting a
Speaker 1: lot of swing and miss with that either, very little.
Speaker 1: Gotta figure that out, Okay, So and again, so let's
Speaker 1: go think ahead June twenty fifth All Star Game in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia's gonna be right around the corner. Who are we
Speaker 1: talking about as Philly's All Star selections on June twenty fifth.
Speaker 1: Who do you guys have?
Speaker 2: I got three of them in the in the regular lineup, Marsh, Harper, Schwarber.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look at Brandon Marsh's numbers over the last calendar year,
Speaker 1: the last three hundred sixty five days from May thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five to May twelfth. This season bet three thirteen,
Speaker 1: twenty nine doubles, one trouble, fourteen home runs, fifty six RBIs,
Speaker 1: eight forty three ops, ten stolen bases. Such a I mean,
Speaker 1: what a remarkable run he's been on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's sort of doing the things that I think
Speaker 4: as a as a prospect coming through the Angels organization
Speaker 4: and that this was sort of what was going to
Speaker 4: happen with this guy.
Speaker 5: And I remember this guy hit to eighty last year.
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, his his ops wasn't like eight fifty
Speaker 4: or nine hundred. But because he doesn't really he doesn't
Speaker 4: have a ton of extra base hits. But this guy
Speaker 4: can hit. Man, he can hit and he's also really improved.
Speaker 4: I looked up some numbers. He's really improved against left handers.
Speaker 5: This year.
Speaker 4: He's hitting like two eighty something against lefties. Last year
Speaker 4: it was in the ones. His ops against lefties this
Speaker 4: year's just shy of seven hundred, not quite there, but
Speaker 4: a lot better. I mean, his numbers against righty's are ridiculous.
Speaker 4: He's got over a one thousand ops so against righty's.
Speaker 4: I think he's hitting like three seventy against righty's or
Speaker 4: something like that, some crazy ass number. But the reality
Speaker 4: of it is he's starting to become the guy that
Speaker 4: a lot of people thought he would be. It's funny,
Speaker 4: I you know, I look at some of the numbers.
Speaker 4: You know, he's got fourteen home runs in that span,
Speaker 4: twenty nine doubles. Nowadays, in this day and age, people
Speaker 4: just love the homers, and they love, you know, guys
Speaker 4: hitting the ball out of the ballpark and the extra
Speaker 4: base hits and this that and the other. But to me,
Speaker 4: it's about productive and productivity. And I think, you know,
Speaker 4: he's third on the team in RBIs. I think he's
Speaker 4: got twenty one of them. Now he's you know, scoring
Speaker 4: runs not I mean the guy's behind him. He can't
Speaker 4: really control that. So I mean he's a good base runner,
Speaker 4: he's a good left fielder, he feels in the center.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot of things that he does
Speaker 4: well and he should be recognized for that. I don't
Speaker 4: know if he will be in this day and age,
Speaker 4: because everybody wants to see the homers. But the guy's
Speaker 4: leading the league in the hitting and batting and I
Speaker 4: don't even know if that's even valued anymore in the game.
Speaker 4: It certainly should be because he's a really productive player, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, uh, I love to seeing it.
Speaker 1: I mean, now it's so rare. Anybody that hits three
Speaker 1: hundred to me gets catches my attention. You know, anybody. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, he's certainly hitting well above three hundreds. So
Speaker 1: if he, if he continues to hit get opportunities against
Speaker 1: left handed pitching, I think he'll be you know, I
Speaker 1: think he'll be in that All Star consideration.
Speaker 2: Remember when Charlie many Will used to always say, if
Speaker 2: you ain't hitting three hundred, you've got a problem.
Speaker 5: Remember he used to say that, Yeah, just there's.
Speaker 2: A lot of problems in big league baseball.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of problems in big league baseball. I
Speaker 1: got Harper Schwarber, marsh In that All Star talk. You know,
Speaker 1: a month from now, forty games from now, Sanchez, maybe
Speaker 1: Doran's missed some time. You know, it'd be kind of
Speaker 1: if Wheeler goes on a run, gets on a heater,
Speaker 1: maybe he'll get into that, get into that mix.
Speaker 4: And it was amazing.
Speaker 5: We were talking about this before.
Speaker 4: Guys, like in the first two months, month and a
Speaker 4: half in the season, we're like, who the hell's could
Speaker 4: represent the Phillies in the All Star Game because they
Speaker 4: were all terrible. And then some guys have sort of
Speaker 4: picked it up. There's no doubt that they picked it
Speaker 4: up and put themselves in a much better spot.
Speaker 2: Like we're talking about the lack of three hundred hitters,
Speaker 2: and we've talked about this a lot. The stuff that
Speaker 2: guys are bringing that these pictures, you know, thirteen man staffs,
Speaker 2: they're going like eleven deep with guys who were throwing
Speaker 2: ninety eight. And the stuff and the movement and these
Speaker 2: pitching labs and the way they can craft a picture
Speaker 2: and develop a picture and build velocity and build spin
Speaker 2: and build everything. That the way the pitching curve has gone,
Speaker 2: the way it's grown, the hitters just are incapable of
Speaker 2: keeping up with it. You just wonder if discontinues to
Speaker 2: trend upward with stuff and the way they're these pitching
Speaker 2: labs are developing, these these not necessarily pitchers, a lot
Speaker 2: of them throwers, but just the way the stuff is arcing.
Speaker 2: Where does it stop? What's the game going to look
Speaker 2: like in twenty years. It's like it's like offensive linemen.
Speaker 2: You know, once upon a time, if you had two
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety five pound offensive lineman, you were a
Speaker 2: Monster's Now everybody's three and a half, three fifty or whatever.
Speaker 2: They never stop. Where where is it? Where's it going
Speaker 2: to go? What's it going to look like?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, So there's ebb and flows in baseball
Speaker 4: up like this, where you know, the pitching gets really
Speaker 4: good for a while and then the hitting gets really good.
Speaker 4: You know, you see these sort of trends happening. What
Speaker 4: is a little astonishing to me is that instead of
Speaker 4: instead of the on the offensive side, guys really concentrating
Speaker 4: on contact and putting the ball in play, that that's
Speaker 4: never hadn't caught up yet, that idea of just making
Speaker 4: contact with guys who have this you know, this amazing
Speaker 4: arsenal movement and spin and velocity. Why has the hitting
Speaker 4: piece of this not now trended the other way? They
Speaker 4: continue to care more about and I see it on
Speaker 4: the stat sheets, extra base hits, slugging, slugging, slugging, slugging.
Speaker 4: I mean, to me, it's about trying to make contact
Speaker 4: and putting the ball and playing, putting pressure on the
Speaker 4: team and getting guys in scoring position and putting the
Speaker 4: heat on pictures and making them throw strikes. And at
Speaker 4: some point, I think it's going to have to start flipping.
Speaker 4: Otherwise no one's ever going to get on base, no
Speaker 4: one's ever going to score a run. And the one
Speaker 4: thing about the one thing about the pitching is that
Speaker 4: I think that they're not necessarily caring that much about
Speaker 4: at the development stage where the ball is going. They're
Speaker 4: caring about how it is spinning. And so for me
Speaker 4: as a hitter, then I mean, to my advantage, I'm saying,
Speaker 4: I'm making this guy throw at me a strike and
Speaker 4: hit the ball, pitch pitch into the middle of the
Speaker 4: strike zone, because if he doesn't know where it's going,
Speaker 4: I'm going to look for pitches that are in the
Speaker 4: strike zone, especially now with the ABS as it stands.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what.
Speaker 1: One more for you guys. Forty games from now and
Speaker 1: when they reach the midway point trade deadline will be
Speaker 1: a little bit more than a month away. At that point,
Speaker 1: what do you think, well, the Phillies' biggest need today,
Speaker 1: whatever you think that is, still be their biggest need
Speaker 1: a month from now, or do you think they will
Speaker 1: have maybe solved some things internally?
Speaker 2: You know, I think that's going to keep evolving. And
Speaker 2: we talked about consistency and staying healthy, that those two factors,
Speaker 2: those two areas will factor into what their needs are are.
Speaker 2: So I'm not sure where things are right now in
Speaker 2: terms of that. I think I'd still be evaluating. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was a time when you thought, maybe, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe another outfield bat, and I don't know, depending on
Speaker 2: how the kid does in center field, but there's always
Speaker 2: the need in bullpens, depending on how Painter does, maybe
Speaker 2: in the back end of the rotation. Who knows, Reuben, I.
Speaker 4: Think we've been looking for a right handed bat and
Speaker 4: a bullpen arm pretty much every single deadline.
Speaker 5: For the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: You know, Adulas Garcia is doing okay in that forehole
Speaker 4: in the protection right now, can he continue to improve
Speaker 4: and make that a moot point. I don't know, but
Speaker 4: I was thinking in my head, my GM hat was
Speaker 4: was on. I'm looking down at that at that bullpen
Speaker 4: in Boston and looking at that left handed named Eraaldus
Speaker 4: Chapman and thinking to myself, can you imagine a roll
Speaker 4: As Chapman and Joan Doran in the same bullpen?
Speaker 2: Oh goodness.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're going to close out that game pretty quickly,
Speaker 4: and it's going to tighten up that game. It's going
Speaker 4: to be a you know, six six inning game. And
Speaker 4: I think, you know, I know it's a crazy thought,
Speaker 4: but if Boston, you know, drifts out of this thing,
Speaker 4: he's going to be a He's going to be moved
Speaker 4: and it's going to take a lot to get him.
Speaker 4: But I mean, you're talking about you're talking about now now,
Speaker 4: you're talking about a bullpen that is just ridiculous.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Don't think that's crazy. I don't think that's crazy as well.
Speaker 4: I mean that's what I would be thinking if I
Speaker 4: was a GM right now. I mean when I when
Speaker 4: I dream about things and see whether that's a real possibility,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if they have the assets to
Speaker 4: go and do that for what would be a rental.
Speaker 4: I think he's just a one year deal. I don't
Speaker 4: think he did a two year deal, but I mean
Speaker 4: imagine that and then and then let the manager fight
Speaker 4: it out as to who's going to be closing games.
Speaker 2: Two, very physically imposing man at the back end of
Speaker 2: your bullpen with power, power power. I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: great thought. I mean, lefty, righty, boom, you know, close
Speaker 2: the door. All of a sudden, Alvarado is down on
Speaker 2: the seventh Keller, Keller's in the seventh.
Speaker 4: Keller and Kirkering are you know, pushed down. Kirkering is
Speaker 4: throwing the ball really well with great confidence. Now, I
Speaker 4: mean he becomes the primary right hand or at some point.
Speaker 4: I think it's maybe unless Keller starts, you know, being
Speaker 4: Keller again.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other thing is, you know, in a month at
Speaker 1: the end of June, is who's going to be this
Speaker 1: year's Harrison Bader or Austin Hayes. They could use a
Speaker 1: good right handed bat off the bench, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: tune situation, slide marsh over to center, have that guy
Speaker 1: play left. It's been Auto Camp and Felix Reyes right now,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 5: Think they can do.
Speaker 1: They could do better than that, So we'll see a
Speaker 1: long way to go, Jim and Joey Boston.
Speaker 2: Yes, two more days here see if the Phillies can
Speaker 2: get a series win. That's that's boring, but that's what
Speaker 2: it's all about.
Speaker 5: You gotta go visit your hometown or what are you doing.
Speaker 1: Jim, No, I'm gonna grind and grinding.
Speaker 2: I might take a walk over to North Northeastern University
Speaker 2: and and see how they're coming on their new hockey arena.
Speaker 5: There you go, okay.
Speaker 2: Type of things I do.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you have a question for us, we'll maybe
Speaker 1: try to answer a few questions in our next show
Speaker 1: on Friday. So if you're watching us on YouTube, drop
Speaker 1: them in the comments or send us a note on.
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Speaker 1: We'll see you guys later this week.
Speaker 4: Smelling Little Boys, Smelling Boston James.
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