Speaker 1: Hi, this is Jason Utah. Welcome to the Philly Show.
Speaker 2: Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd's lucky. It's a Philly Show.
Speaker 2: It's Friday, June sixth, twenty twenty five. Guys.
Speaker 3: The uh the Phillies have lost six out of the
Speaker 3: last seven games. They lost a two to one nail
Speaker 3: bier on Wednesday. Mcabel pitches well though, and then Thursday
Speaker 3: series finale.
Speaker 2: Jesus is Arta.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on, guys. How are you
Speaker 3: guys doing? First of all? Second of all, I mean Ruben,
Speaker 3: you were in the booth.
Speaker 2: How you watching echo? What is going on right now?
Speaker 4: I mean that's exactly I'm looking over at tom like
Speaker 4: the entire time, like, oh my god, crazy it It
Speaker 4: is amazing. And the interesting thing about it is, I
Speaker 4: mean it's happening early in the at bats.
Speaker 5: It's early, and often it is barrel.
Speaker 4: Contact, like hard, hard contact, and it's happening like almost
Speaker 4: on every fastball. And then there are other pitches that
Speaker 4: are he's getting whacked around on. He's left some you know,
Speaker 4: breaking stuff and some change ups up.
Speaker 5: In the zone.
Speaker 4: But I was talked to some guys yesterday about it
Speaker 4: and like he's a sinker ball pitcher, like he's got
Speaker 4: really really good movement typically, and his fastball right now.
Speaker 5: Seems really sort of flat.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's ninety seven, but it doesn't have like
Speaker 4: the action on it at the plate that it has
Speaker 4: had in the early part of the season. And they're
Speaker 4: getting good looks. For the life of me, I cannot
Speaker 4: believe how good the swings are.
Speaker 6: Against him over the last two outings, and everything's on
Speaker 6: the barrel, and it just strikes to me that they
Speaker 6: they're picking something up that they know every pitch is coming,
Speaker 6: or many of them, and he might be tipping him
Speaker 6: either that or something's happened.
Speaker 4: In his delivery that's allowing him to be a little
Speaker 4: bit flatter with his stuff overall. And it's just staying
Speaker 4: in the zone too long and not doesn't have the
Speaker 4: same sort of life at the zone such that it
Speaker 4: takes it off the barrel. It's it's I mean, I'd
Speaker 4: have to go back and look at tapes to see
Speaker 4: what's going on. I'm sure that Caleb Cotham and Rob
Speaker 4: Thompson and so many others are doing that right now,
Speaker 4: and I'm sure that the player himself is going what
Speaker 4: in the hell is going on too? And it sounded
Speaker 4: like after the postgame interviews that's exactly where he was right.
Speaker 1: It's it's been incredible.
Speaker 7: I cannot think of another situation where we've seen a
Speaker 7: picture on course for the All Star Game and maybe
Speaker 7: to start the All Star Game and then to absolutely
Speaker 7: you know, it's like a you know, a bungee jump.
Speaker 7: He's just fallen and it really does look like they,
Speaker 7: at least in Toronto, it looked like they knew what
Speaker 7: was coming. I mean, Bashett sold out on that swing.
Speaker 7: He looked like he knew what was coming.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: I tend to think we always talk now about tip
Speaker 7: and pitches, and I think it's.
Speaker 1: A lot rareer.
Speaker 7: It's a lot more rare than people think, but we
Speaker 7: always say it. It's like, you know, you get almost
Speaker 7: tired of hearing it. But something's amiss. He has eclipsed
Speaker 7: his innings totals from last year. Maybe that's affecting his
Speaker 7: finish in that last little.
Speaker 1: Bit of life. But Hitters look awfully comfortable on this guy.
Speaker 7: And when Hitters starts seeing guys squaring it up, squaring
Speaker 7: it up consistently over and over, they all get confidence.
Speaker 7: That confidence ripples through a batrack, and you know they
Speaker 7: the previous start in Philadelphia, these guys pay attention, and
Speaker 7: then in this start in Toronto. Personally, I think the
Speaker 7: hitters look super comfortable, and I think you start there
Speaker 7: moving the feet, you got to crowd them, come up
Speaker 7: and in. You've got to put something in the back
Speaker 7: of these hitters' heads that you're not gonna get too
Speaker 7: comfortable against me, because hitting, you know, you have to
Speaker 7: be comfortable to hit. And if you can upset that
Speaker 7: level of comfort, you can have more success as a pitcher.
Speaker 7: Something's got to be done there as they dig into
Speaker 7: this and find out what is going on.
Speaker 3: Jesus is our in his first eleven starts, I mean,
Speaker 3: sixteen runs and sixty seven innings, last two starts twenty
Speaker 3: runs and five and two thirds innings, two point one
Speaker 3: five era. Last Friday, when we recorded an episode last Friday,
Speaker 3: the Reese Hoskins episode, he had a two to one
Speaker 3: five era. Now it's four to four six. First pitcher
Speaker 3: in baseball history. It allowed twenty earned runs in fewer
Speaker 3: than six innings in a span of two starts. Now, Jim,
Speaker 3: you mentioned you haven't seen something like this. A guy
Speaker 3: go from cy Young candidate NL All Stars, started to
Speaker 3: have two starts like this. I went back and I
Speaker 3: looked at the last time the Phillies pitchers that have
Speaker 3: allowed eight or more runs, because he allowed eight on
Speaker 3: Thursday against Toronto. The last Phillies pitchers to allow eight
Speaker 3: plus runs in consecutive starts. And I thought this list
Speaker 3: was kind of interesting. So the last Phillies pitcher to
Speaker 3: do it was Aaron Nola in June of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: Now remember Aaron Nola in twenty sixteen. A month later,
Speaker 3: he went on the injured list at elbow and did
Speaker 3: not pitch the rest of the season. So that was
Speaker 3: Aaron Nola bad elbow. The last pitcher before that was
Speaker 3: Roy Halliday April May of twenty thirteen. Yeah, well he
Speaker 3: was you remember now he made those two starts, he
Speaker 3: went on the injured list.
Speaker 2: Had right shoulder surgery.
Speaker 3: The last pitcher before that was Adam Eaton in July
Speaker 3: of two thousand and eight. Those are the last two
Speaker 3: starts he ever made for the Phillies. He made two
Speaker 3: relief appearances after that and then never pitched for the
Speaker 3: Phillies again. So those are the last three Phillies pitchers
Speaker 3: to have back to back performances like this, and all
Speaker 3: three of those guys Nola elbow, Halliday shoulder, Adam Eaton,
Speaker 3: he was probably just washed up at that point.
Speaker 7: I mean, well, health is the first Health is the
Speaker 7: first thing we think of with when we see a
Speaker 7: guy have two starts like Lozaro.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's an injury. Is he healthy?
Speaker 7: But you know the big telltale on health is Velo
Speaker 7: and he was humping ninety eight yesterday, so you know
Speaker 7: what gives.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it could be a health issue. I
Speaker 4: don't think it is. I don't think he's complained about it.
Speaker 4: I don't think he's talked about it. I don't think that.
Speaker 4: Having just looked at the stuff, the ball coming out
Speaker 4: of his hand. Now it's a little flatter, but it's
Speaker 4: still stuff, and you know, obviously there's something going on.
Speaker 4: He knows he needs to fix it. He knows he
Speaker 4: needs to fix it fast because you know he needs.
Speaker 5: You know, he's a competitive kid man. I mean, this
Speaker 5: kid wants to do well. He's a great kid.
Speaker 4: We've got a chance to chat with him, and you
Speaker 4: know he has a high expectation of himself. He changed
Speaker 4: things up by going with the corn Rows to Jeddie
Speaker 4: because he's a very superstitious kid as well. So you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's mind boggling. There's something going on. They'll
Speaker 4: figure it out. The Phillies are smart. The kid is
Speaker 4: a smart kid. He's an athletic kid, and if there's
Speaker 4: adjustment needs to be made, he'll figure it out. But
Speaker 4: something does need to get figured out because.
Speaker 5: It's not sustainable.
Speaker 4: Obviously not sustainable if he continues a bitch like that,
Speaker 4: and it really does put a little chink in the
Speaker 4: armor there as far as the as far as the
Speaker 4: overall quality of that starting rotation.
Speaker 1: No question. And the foundation of this team is that
Speaker 1: starting staff.
Speaker 5: And now you start. Yeah, now you've got.
Speaker 7: The world's longest sprained ankle, and you got you know,
Speaker 7: you know, Wheeler attending to his family, which is which
Speaker 7: is fine, but you know.
Speaker 1: You don't have a hit or doesn't have his base,
Speaker 1: his foundation. He's got nothing. This team doesn't have his
Speaker 1: starting rotation, its foundation. It's it's in trouble.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 3: You know, last Phillies pitcher to low twenty runs or
Speaker 3: more in consecutive appearances was Dutch Schlessler in nineteen thirty one,
Speaker 3: a couple of relief appearances.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not.
Speaker 3: You know, back in the day, He's got as would
Speaker 3: come in the third inning and pitch eight inning or
Speaker 3: seven innings, six innings in an extra inning game. Last
Speaker 3: Phillies pitchered allow twenty twenty runs or more in consecutive
Speaker 3: starts Ray Bengi in nineteen thirty So, I mean, we
Speaker 3: haven't seen something like this. Twenty runs are more in
Speaker 3: consecutive starts by the Phillies pitcher in almost one hundred years,
Speaker 3: which is you think of? I mean, yeah, you just
Speaker 3: think of all the guys they have pitched on one
Speaker 3: hundred years and Jesus Zardo Ray Bengi and.
Speaker 1: The bullpen had to suck up all those innings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: on Thursday, haven't.
Speaker 4: Now after this evening they have to have a bullpen
Speaker 4: game with chill Ross starting.
Speaker 5: And that's uh, that's problematic.
Speaker 7: All this starting push, all this starting pitching after we've
Speaker 7: been talking about for the last two weeks.
Speaker 1: Now they have a freaking bullpen game.
Speaker 3: Exactly right, Hey, guys, this weekend, the Phillies are in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: But if you're looking for something to do.
Speaker 3: Swing by my neck of the woods, Swing by Delco.
Speaker 3: People say Delco is a lot, and they're right. We've
Speaker 3: got a lot of everything. Family fun festivals, great restaurants
Speaker 3: and bars, gardens, history, trails, and outdoor activities. Take it
Speaker 3: from me, Delco Dad, and check it out for yourself.
Speaker 3: So this Saturday is the seventh annual Havertown Irish Festival,
Speaker 3: takes place at fifty East Eagle Road in Havertown from
Speaker 3: noon to eight pm. Enjoy live music, Irish dancers, crafts,
Speaker 3: and a kid's fund zone because you've got to have
Speaker 3: something for the kids. And then Sunday, check out the
Speaker 3: Sports Legends of Delaware County Museum presents the Delco League
Speaker 3: Baseball Open House and book signing. That's Sunday again from
Speaker 3: eleven am to three pm at the Radnor Township Municipal
Speaker 3: Building in Wayne. Check out all the baseball memorabilia they've
Speaker 3: got there. You can get a copy of Rich Pagano's book,
Speaker 3: Delaware County Sports Legends. Find a full list of events
Speaker 3: at visit Delco dot com.
Speaker 2: They say Delco's a lot, and they're right.
Speaker 5: You guys are a lot. We got there, guys, I.
Speaker 7: Want to I want to give a shout out to
Speaker 7: one of my good buddies, Ed Crowley listening to the
Speaker 7: pod and Dunedin, Florida, and of course he runs Delco's
Speaker 7: Cheese Steaks.
Speaker 1: They're on Main Street and Dunedin.
Speaker 3: Awesome Delco's, Yeah and Yeah, and they're right behind home
Speaker 3: plate at at Bake hair Ballpark as well.
Speaker 7: He told me a great story that Fred McGriff apparently
Speaker 7: comes in there all the time and nobody recognizes him.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 5: I hung out.
Speaker 4: I hung out with Fred McGriff at a bar in
Speaker 4: Atlanta one time.
Speaker 5: We stood in the corner and not no one knew
Speaker 5: who he was.
Speaker 7: I had four hundred and ninety six home runs, one
Speaker 7: of the great gentlemen of the game, great player, and
Speaker 7: he comes in and gets his cheese steak and walks
Speaker 7: out the door.
Speaker 1: I would have him autographed the cheesesteak.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gotta get that autograph for sure.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: Well, we were talking ahead Ruby, you know, we were
Speaker 4: talking a little bit about their their pitching, but the
Speaker 4: offense is the issue that I'm.
Speaker 5: Not a little concerned about. What do you think?
Speaker 2: Well, Ruben, I wanted to ask you this and Jim
Speaker 2: Jim as well.
Speaker 3: And the offense is that I think that what they
Speaker 3: scored six runs in the first game of that series,
Speaker 3: they scored four runs.
Speaker 2: In the final Let's do the masks, thanks Jim. Four
Speaker 2: runs in the final twenty sixth innings.
Speaker 3: And I want to ask you guys about it. About
Speaker 3: the leadoff hitter right now. Bryson sid this is a
Speaker 3: guy that we've talked about, can be a three hundred hitter.
Speaker 3: We have talked about him. You know, he would make
Speaker 3: a lot of sense in the leadoff spot. They've won
Speaker 3: a lot of games since he moved in the leadoff
Speaker 3: spot in mid April. But since May one, Bryson Stott
Speaker 3: is batting one ninety six, two home runs, eleven RBIs
Speaker 3: five eighteen ops.
Speaker 2: He has a two point fifty on base percentage in
Speaker 2: that span. And I'm wondering, do we start talking about
Speaker 2: making a change in the leadoff spot. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: seen it.
Speaker 3: He sees a lot of pitches, which is great, but
Speaker 3: you also at some point have to have some production
Speaker 3: up there. And he's he's absolutely he's been scuffling for
Speaker 3: more than.
Speaker 2: A month now.
Speaker 4: I've be an advocate of him being in a one
Speaker 4: role forever, and I really think that he has the
Speaker 4: tools to do it. But he's going through a month
Speaker 4: long slump right now. That that has heard him that
Speaker 4: I mean, they it's amazing that they did so well
Speaker 4: in May, just in general without any real production from him. Again,
Speaker 4: I still have some confidence that he can, you know,
Speaker 4: bounce back. But if in the next you know, a
Speaker 4: week or ten days or whatever, he doesn't get going,
Speaker 4: then I'll just go ahead and slide Turner up there
Speaker 4: and let him roll with the way Turner's.
Speaker 5: Been swinging the bat. He's been in all the whole field.
Speaker 5: I'm I'm a little shocked that that Bryce is not.
Speaker 4: That Bryson has not you know, continued to develop, because
Speaker 4: I think he still has those tools and and those
Speaker 4: abilities and bat the ball skills and the base running ability.
Speaker 4: But you know, they're seeking wins and they need to
Speaker 4: do that by with production, and uh, they're not getting
Speaker 4: it right now. I would stay with him for another
Speaker 4: couple of weeks and see how that goes, and continue
Speaker 4: that sort of platoon against lefties and righties. But you know,
Speaker 4: he has not, he has not come through lately. I
Speaker 4: think he's much better than he's shown in this past month.
Speaker 4: But he also has to get it done because it's
Speaker 4: a it's a production business, and if you're not getting
Speaker 4: the production done, then it becomes very, very difficult to
Speaker 4: win baseball games.
Speaker 7: I would not stick with him for a couple more weeks.
Speaker 7: I would do something this weekend. I mean, and I'm
Speaker 7: a patience guy. I think patience is a very very
Speaker 7: valuable virtue in baseball. I think it's needed. It's just
Speaker 7: because of the nature of the sport. Every day there's ups,
Speaker 7: there's downs. A lot can be dictated by the guy
Speaker 7: on the mound that night, and sometimes you just tip
Speaker 7: your hat. And but as much as I would advocate
Speaker 7: for some patience, I do think there's a time when
Speaker 7: the manager says this ain't good enough, and you know,
Speaker 7: shake things up and trade. Turner is getting on base,
Speaker 7: he's using the whole field. He's figuring out ways to
Speaker 7: get on on first base, which is, to me, the
Speaker 7: job of a leadoff me. I think I'm not saying
Speaker 7: I would sit start, but I would.
Speaker 1: I would shake that.
Speaker 7: Lineup up, get Turner up top, move, move Stot down.
Speaker 7: Like I said, this ain't good enough, and you know
Speaker 7: they've lost. They've had a tough little stretch here. This
Speaker 7: is about the time last year. It's exactly the time
Speaker 7: last year when they went into a tough stretch. I
Speaker 7: think you need to nip it, and I think you
Speaker 7: need to send a little message. And you know it
Speaker 7: won't I don't think it'll hurt.
Speaker 3: More on Scott valid point, Yeah, more on Stott right
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Speaker 3: Month of the season, I was looking trying to see
Speaker 3: if there's anything kind of cooking in the numbers and
Speaker 3: Stott first month April through the end of April's batting
Speaker 3: three sixty eight off of fastballs.
Speaker 2: In May he batted two fourteen off of fastballs.
Speaker 1: The last year he didn't hit fastballs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, last year he didn't hit fastballs. Now it's interesting.
Speaker 3: So the expected numbers, right, and the expected batting average,
Speaker 3: that's basically just what they expect you to hit based off.
Speaker 2: Of exit velocity, launch angle and those types of things.
Speaker 3: Expected numbers off the fastball in April was too eighty seven,
Speaker 3: expected off the fastball in May was two ninety seven.
Speaker 3: So if you if you wanted to, you could say,
Speaker 3: maybe he's run into some bad luck in May, some
Speaker 3: balls didn't find hole or he hit him right at guys,
Speaker 3: and maybe there's certainly something to that, but you know,
Speaker 3: there's been some at bats recently that you certainly could
Speaker 3: have been a.
Speaker 2: Lot better, I guess.
Speaker 3: So I just wanted to throw that out there in
Speaker 3: terms of bryce and size, is this offense continues to struggle.
Speaker 4: So the offense in the last two games, he went
Speaker 4: five for thirty one in each game. Ten for sixty two. Wow,
Speaker 4: ten for sixty two. I think those are the right numbers.
Speaker 4: I'm not big numbers, guys, but that's pretty much. I mean,
Speaker 4: you're not getting it done. But ten for sixty two
Speaker 4: with this kind of lineup, and you know, they faced
Speaker 4: some decent pitching. Those guys are you know, yeah, but
Speaker 4: they have to be able to hit good pitching and
Speaker 4: that's you know, that's part of being a good but
Speaker 4: ball club and it starts to strike. This is a
Speaker 4: good test because they are again they're going to face
Speaker 4: Skins again in Pittsburgh and see how they handle him again.
Speaker 4: I mean, Skins pitched brilliantly against him last time, and
Speaker 4: he's a brilliant pitcher. But they're gonna have to make
Speaker 4: some adjustments. I guess some other guys have got to
Speaker 4: face and there's some good pitching. They have to make
Speaker 4: adjustments and do some damage against those guys too. So, uh,
Speaker 4: I am concerned about this offense because it's not rolling
Speaker 4: the way you would expect it to roll right now.
Speaker 4: And this was a good test after playing those poor
Speaker 4: teams and some of those really bad bullpens. Now they're
Speaker 4: playing some a little bit better teams and they're not producing,
Speaker 4: and uh so there should be some level of concern.
Speaker 4: And I'm sure there is that front office and the
Speaker 4: people in uh, you know, in the coaching staff. I'm
Speaker 4: sure that they're thinking, Okay, why are we not playing
Speaker 4: better baseball. Let's let's kick it in gear a little bit.
Speaker 4: And uh, you know they're gonna have to you know,
Speaker 4: they're gonna have to do that. They're gonna have to
Speaker 4: gear up and and uh and make some adjustments and
Speaker 4: and perhaps make some changes because in the back part
Speaker 4: of that lineup right now, it's almost dead water and
Speaker 4: they're not doing a whole lot.
Speaker 5: It's not uh, it's not happening at the back end
Speaker 5: of that lineup.
Speaker 4: After Casianos right now, who's been really consistent. You got
Speaker 4: to give some love to the guy because he's been
Speaker 4: one of their most consistent. Is didn't close to three
Speaker 4: hundred and or if not three hundred and beyond that,
Speaker 4: they're getting nothing, like literally almost nothing, and they need
Speaker 4: to have some more production from the back end of
Speaker 4: that lineup because it's been it's been light, super.
Speaker 7: Light left left field, left field, center fielding, no left field,
Speaker 7: center fielding, catcher, not get much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Max, Max Kepler in the last month has bet
Speaker 3: in one sixty eight. So, uh, you know this and
Speaker 3: that's and that's not well, he's he's faced a lot
Speaker 3: of lefties in that time. It's almost exclusively against right handed,
Speaker 3: right handed pitching, which he's supposed to, which he came
Speaker 3: here to kind of like blow up and and and
Speaker 3: that hasn't happened. So yeah, no doubt the offense they need,
Speaker 3: they need to get it going. And this kind of
Speaker 3: plays into the whole wall they you know, who did
Speaker 3: they beat a.
Speaker 2: Couple of weeks ago. They beat all these bad teams
Speaker 2: and so now, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, becomes a reality if you if if if these
Speaker 4: guys don't start playing the day the way that they've
Speaker 4: you know, they're expected to.
Speaker 2: Play, right, were you guys?
Speaker 3: So Taiwan Walker came in yesterday Thursday and pitching inning
Speaker 3: and relief, and everybody's like, all right, we're gonna see
Speaker 3: what is how his stuff jumps. It's gonna jump, and
Speaker 3: we're gonna get him, give him a look as a
Speaker 3: as a late inning guy, and I want to see
Speaker 3: what he does in one ending way. He comes out
Speaker 3: and I think the fastballs popped out at popped out
Speaker 3: at ninety three.
Speaker 2: To me, that was a little disappointing just one appearance,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: I guess Rob Thompson said after the game that you know,
Speaker 3: Taiwan didn't necessarily have maybe the time that he needed
Speaker 3: to properly warm up. But it's just I'm just mentioning
Speaker 3: it because this is something that we're gonna so hopefully
Speaker 3: then next time, if that's the case, he gets enough
Speaker 3: warm ups and he comes out and he starts throwing
Speaker 3: a little bit harder because I think everybody's hoping that
Speaker 3: the stuff plays up because they need him.
Speaker 2: To help this bullpen out.
Speaker 4: So I stated this in the in the broad cast,
Speaker 4: and I think this is somewhat true, and you don't
Speaker 4: really know exactly where he is until he's pitching in
Speaker 4: a situation where the game's on the line and the
Speaker 4: adrenaline's flown.
Speaker 5: It's eight nothing. The game meant absolutely nothing. At that point.
Speaker 4: They were not going to win the game unless some
Speaker 4: miracle like that what happened in Atlanta yesterday was going
Speaker 4: to happen, which is rare.
Speaker 5: That's crazy.
Speaker 4: We can talk about that a little bit more of
Speaker 4: what's going on with some of these games, but the
Speaker 4: reality of it is that when you have an adrenaline
Speaker 4: rush out of that bullpen and you know you have
Speaker 4: to get three outs to win the game or to
Speaker 4: keep the game in hand, uh, there's a totally different
Speaker 4: feel than going into an eight nothing game. For the
Speaker 4: first time you're coming into the out of the bullpen.
Speaker 4: I'm sure he's going, I know I have to do this,
Speaker 4: but this is like a spring training game for me.
Speaker 4: And so that's a that's a that's a totally different
Speaker 4: for a veteran guy who's been the starter his whole career,
Speaker 4: pretty much his whole career. Now he's and deserves sort
Speaker 4: of to stay in the starting rotation. Now he's relegated
Speaker 4: to the bullpen. He's supposed to be playing, playing, pitching
Speaker 4: and important innings and he's coming in an eight nothing game.
Speaker 4: I know why he did it. I know why Rob
Speaker 4: did it. He had to get him the feel of
Speaker 4: coming out of the bullpen and getting ready and pitching
Speaker 4: in one inning. But I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 4: little bit different. I mean, he did his job, got
Speaker 4: his three outs, but it's gonna be different when it's
Speaker 4: time for him to uh to try to lock down
Speaker 4: a game or to keep a game in hand. And
Speaker 4: I'm interested in that situation much more than a one
Speaker 4: that he just came in on.
Speaker 1: Totally agree that was There was no adrenaline there. It
Speaker 1: was mop up.
Speaker 7: It was like the night Joe Girardi had to get
Speaker 7: on the phone with Nick Pavetta trying to convince him
Speaker 7: to come into that game years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I don't think that's an accurate judge.
Speaker 7: But I've always said, I'm I'm I don't know how
Speaker 7: the stuff is going to play out in the bullpen.
Speaker 7: And you know, I don't know if ninety two or
Speaker 7: three is going to play out there unless you're really precise,
Speaker 7: unless that breaking ball is really good, unless that split
Speaker 7: is dancing. And I just don't know how it's gonna
Speaker 7: work out there. We're not talking about, you know, a
Speaker 7: young kid like like a mick Abel.
Speaker 1: He's had this little tick in velocity since he's come up.
Speaker 1: You know, stuff is playing a little hard. I guess
Speaker 1: it's adrenaline and whatnot.
Speaker 7: But I think a young kid, he put him out
Speaker 7: in the bullpen, you might get a little bit more
Speaker 7: on the fastball in a short spurt. A guy with
Speaker 7: all those innings, you know, over thirty years old. I
Speaker 7: don't know that there's going to be a huge tick
Speaker 7: up in stuff, but I guess we're gonna find out.
Speaker 7: But it's tough to find out in a mop up
Speaker 7: situation because I'm sure he was thinking I.
Speaker 3: Got to go into this thing, you know, Jim, On
Speaker 3: on Wednesday, we were taking listener question reader questions. Listener
Speaker 3: question your questions.
Speaker 1: Nobody reads anymore?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no one reads anymore well on your phone on
Speaker 2: their phone, they do?
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: We were we were talking about mick Abel, and you said, man,
Speaker 3: at some point he keeps doing this, I'm gonna not
Speaker 3: be thinking about who the Phillies might be able to
Speaker 3: get for mick Abel. I'm going to be thinking about
Speaker 3: how he can help the Phillies in a in a
Speaker 3: roll down the stretch and man, what you see him
Speaker 3: pitch on Wednesday night and you're going, maybe they got
Speaker 3: hold out of this guy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 7: I could see he kind of lost his mechanics and
Speaker 7: think it was the sixth in he did kind of
Speaker 7: pull the ball a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1: But my point was, you know, last year he couldn't
Speaker 1: throw strikes.
Speaker 7: You're like, and then over the winter you're thinking, well,
Speaker 7: maybe they can get something for him, or last year
Speaker 7: at the at the deadline.
Speaker 1: Maybe they can get something for him.
Speaker 7: Now I'm starting to you know, when you drive up
Speaker 7: ninety five and you get to like Center City and
Speaker 7: you start to see the Ben Franklin and you see
Speaker 7: those two humungo granite pillars on which the Ben Franklin
Speaker 7: Bridge springs from.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, Painter and Abel. I don't know that I
Speaker 1: want to do anything.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Uh, you know some of those teams that didn't want
Speaker 4: to trade for Abel because of his stock last year
Speaker 4: are kicking themselves. Yeah, I guarantee you right now, the
Speaker 4: A's or the Saint Louis Cardinals or some other teams
Speaker 4: are going, God, we could have got a damn good
Speaker 4: pitcher last year and maybe even a really good third basement. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because there is this there. This kid has developed really
Speaker 4: nicely so far. You know, the proof is still in
Speaker 4: the pudding. He still has to continue to pitch and
Speaker 4: do it for a long time. But from what I've seen,
Speaker 4: as far as his poise and the way he's handled
Speaker 4: himself and his focus, I've been super impressed by what
Speaker 4: he's done.
Speaker 5: And yeah, you're right about that.
Speaker 4: He hit a little bit of a wall in the
Speaker 4: sixth inning, went into the stretch and sort of started struggling,
Speaker 4: and his mechanics got away from him a little bit,
Speaker 4: but they did a good job of getting them out
Speaker 4: of there. But they didn't give him a whole lot
Speaker 4: of offensive support, no, sadly, And they didn't give him
Speaker 4: any defensive support, and.
Speaker 1: In no way. No, you're right about the defense that
Speaker 1: that ball's got to be caught.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the ball in center field has to be caught,
Speaker 5: has to be caught.
Speaker 7: You need a guy who can put stuff away. You know,
Speaker 7: those are not errors, but they're plays that a sharp
Speaker 7: team makes. But with able, I'm not suggesting he's anywhere
Speaker 7: near a finished product. There's there's gonna be a night
Speaker 7: when he gets his nose bloodied.
Speaker 5: And honestly, I'm interested to see how he bounces back
Speaker 5: from that to Jim.
Speaker 7: That it'll be good for him, yes, and how he
Speaker 7: bounces back and it becomes a growth moment. But right
Speaker 7: right now, and I'm not just saying and it's about
Speaker 7: the two starts he's had in the big leagues, I'm
Speaker 7: saying about that little body of work over the first
Speaker 7: two months in Triple A, threw more strikes, seems more
Speaker 7: comfortable in his own skin, seems more confident letting that
Speaker 7: talent kind of.
Speaker 1: Bubble to the surface. You just really have to like
Speaker 1: what you see.
Speaker 7: And and you know the potential that Brian Barber and
Speaker 7: all his guys saw, they saw it for a reason.
Speaker 7: And you know, he's still a very very young man.
Speaker 7: So you know, I'm just thinking about what he might
Speaker 7: become with with with Painter at the top, and who knows.
Speaker 1: It's a fickle game, but kind of like like the.
Speaker 7: Possibility of those two young men as uh, you know,
Speaker 7: twin studs.
Speaker 1: But you know, we'll see how things develop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what everybody was talking about.
Speaker 4: Hey, I wanted to go back a little bit Todd
Speaker 4: and talk about the bullpen because I saw a couple
Speaker 4: of guys.
Speaker 5: You know, we talked about who can they acquire.
Speaker 4: You know, is the guy from you know are from
Speaker 4: Tampa Bay, you know the couple of you know, a
Speaker 4: couple of Mason Miller and you know all those other guys. Well,
Speaker 4: I saw a left hander in Toronto and Brandon Little,
Speaker 4: the kid from brynmar who was lights out. You want
Speaker 4: somebody to replace Alvarado? Holy smokes. This guy's quote unquote
Speaker 4: knuckle curve. It's really a slider, is filthy and it's nasty.
Speaker 4: And he's been outstanding in the last couple of that's
Speaker 4: six weeks or so, he's been lights out, really impressive
Speaker 4: with what I've seen from him. I mean, that's the
Speaker 4: sort of under the radar type of arm that they
Speaker 4: are probably trying to pursue right now, to give them
Speaker 4: a little bit of depth in that in that bullpen,
Speaker 4: to give Matt Strom and Tanner Banks an extra left
Speaker 4: handed arm to help them, or even a right handed arm,
Speaker 4: doesn't matter which one. But that's the type of picture
Speaker 4: I think that would be interesting to try to acquire.
Speaker 4: I don't know what's gonna take to get him.
Speaker 1: The Jay's are in. I'm just I don't.
Speaker 5: Think the Jays will trade him.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, I mean, that's sort of a veteran,
Speaker 4: sort of a veteran guy right now because he's twenty eight,
Speaker 4: twenty nine years old.
Speaker 5: He hasn't pitched a lot in the big leagues.
Speaker 4: But but that's the type of player that you sort
Speaker 4: of want to see that somebody's who is sort of
Speaker 4: under the radar but has can have real effective stuff
Speaker 4: to get outs, important outs in the back end there.
Speaker 3: So this weekend Phillies in Pittsburgh, Ruby, you got, you
Speaker 3: got quite the view.
Speaker 2: You must have the VIP suite behind it.
Speaker 1: The GMS.
Speaker 5: You may have a suite. I do not have a suite.
Speaker 4: Let me start. Let me start with that one. I
Speaker 4: guess you have a suite. I used to have sweets
Speaker 4: when I was in assistant GM and the GM when
Speaker 4: you were when you were sweet.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when I was much sweeter. Uh but uh, but
Speaker 5: this is the US Steel Building.
Speaker 4: It's a beautiful building back there, and it's actually I
Speaker 4: like aberg I love their ballpark. Love It's always been
Speaker 4: in the top five for me yep, and looking forward
Speaker 4: to it. The weather's not great. I think we're gonna
Speaker 4: get through these first two games, okay, dancing in the
Speaker 4: in the rain a little bit. But they got to
Speaker 4: do a little damage against the old Pittsburgh Pirates because
Speaker 4: that's an abysmal offense.
Speaker 5: I mean abysmal.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about an abysmal offense, and they need to
Speaker 4: do some damage against it. Their pitching's okay, and that's
Speaker 4: a good that'll be good test for these guys. Offensively,
Speaker 4: they got to do some damage here, so.
Speaker 3: Maybe they can muddle through this bullpen game. On Friday night,
Speaker 3: Joe Ross is going to start. I guess he's going
Speaker 3: to go to two plus innings. That's the plan anyway,
Speaker 3: and they're going to hopefully, hopefully he's going to go
Speaker 3: to two innings, maybe two plus innings if he can
Speaker 3: get through that lineup facing former Phillies Lefty Bailey Falter
Speaker 3: that Saturday.
Speaker 2: He's been throwing, well, yeah, he has been. You know,
Speaker 2: think about how is Philly's career ended when.
Speaker 3: He's terrible last year, but he's bounce back. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: he's bound back. And then Saturday it's Ranger Swarz versus
Speaker 3: Andrew Haney, and then Sunday is Christopher Sanchez versus Paul Schemes.
Speaker 7: So hey, Ruben, You've got a beautiful view of the
Speaker 7: US Steel Building, but you got nothing on me. I
Speaker 7: got a beautiful view of the Chester County Prison.
Speaker 2: Yes, Jim is doing this from his warden suite.
Speaker 5: Are you the wardeners and the wharden.
Speaker 1: I'm just a yeah, I'm just an inmate.
Speaker 5: I understand.
Speaker 3: Well, guys, uh, Ruben, enjoy the weekend in Pittsburgh and
Speaker 3: we will be back on Monday.
Speaker 1: Smell you, lated, boys.
Speaker 5: Jim.
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Speaker 2: Find Jim at all pH l y dot com. Find
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