Speaker 1: Hey, this is Bryce Harper and welcome to the Philly Show.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Philly Show.
Speaker 1: Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd's Lucky. It is Monday,
Speaker 1: July twenty second, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Phillies just got out of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: They eke out a win on Sunday to avoid the sweep.
Speaker 1: They snapped a season high three game losing streak, and
Speaker 1: now they're in Minnesota for a three game series against
Speaker 1: the Twins. But the Pittsburgh series, guys, they probably should
Speaker 1: have won two out of three. And I think the
Speaker 1: thing that a lot of people are talking about is
Speaker 1: Jose Alvarado. Jose Alvarado on Friday Night struggles a little bit,
Speaker 1: does struggle a little bett. He struggles and blows a
Speaker 1: save on Friday, and he bounces back, looks a little
Speaker 1: bit better on Sunday. But you know, as the trade
Speaker 1: deadline approaches, we're gonna be talking a lot about trade deadline,
Speaker 1: different options, different needs. And we've already talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the bullpen. Would you get another arm? Is it
Speaker 1: a bigger priority than the right handed bat?
Speaker 2: Fourth outfielder type?
Speaker 1: Is your level of concern of Jose Alvarado, he's certainly
Speaker 1: not performing like he has you know, the last couple
Speaker 1: of seasons.
Speaker 3: Well, it is of some concern, There's no question about it,
Speaker 3: because he goes in these ebbs and flows. Now he
Speaker 3: can be the most dominant left hander in the game
Speaker 3: and has been at times, especially last year. He really
Speaker 3: turned it around, and he had been dominant at times
Speaker 3: in the early part of this season after that slow start.
Speaker 3: But you just got to be a little bit concerned.
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, he's going
Speaker 3: to be fine. The trust factor though, when you start
Speaker 3: talking about winning World Series championships, that's where you know
Speaker 3: the rubber meets the road. And for me, I love
Speaker 3: Jose Alvarado. I love what he brings to the table.
Speaker 3: I love his stuff. But the end of the day,
Speaker 3: can you trust him to get the last couple of
Speaker 3: outs of the game. Can you trust Hoffman to get
Speaker 3: the last couple of outs or three outs of the game.
Speaker 3: And I think you can trust him to get some outs,
Speaker 3: but it may not come all the time.
Speaker 4: And so that's why I feel like.
Speaker 3: You know, they probably would really benefit and I think
Speaker 3: it is a necessity for them to add a eighth
Speaker 3: or ninth inning guy or a twelve trusted veteran guy
Speaker 3: to get outs in the back end of the bullpen.
Speaker 3: Kirk Ring's thrown okay, but he is vulnerable right now
Speaker 3: because he's not throwing his sinker and his fastball as
Speaker 3: consistently and the sweeper they're sitting on and so they're
Speaker 3: having some success against him. Hoffman has been great, strong guy,
Speaker 3: banged around a little bit, but everybody, I mean, it
Speaker 3: didn't matter who was coming in against O'Neil Cruz. That
Speaker 3: man was just hot as hell, and so you could
Speaker 3: throw in the kitchen sink at him and it wouldn't
Speaker 3: have mattered. But again, I really think it's all about
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, when you're talking about
Speaker 3: winning series and winning championships, you gotta have as many
Speaker 3: arms that you can trust back there as you possibly
Speaker 3: can't if you do not have a bonafide nail knock
Speaker 3: down closer and they don't have that guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I'll say this about Alvarado because you
Speaker 5: brought him up. It was good to see him get
Speaker 5: out of Pittsburgh with a good outing because he you know,
Speaker 5: Friday night was very difficult. The whole month, really the
Speaker 5: whole season, he has not been as sharp as as
Speaker 5: we've seen him in previous years. I think the stuff
Speaker 5: is just a tick different, not as good. Still very good,
Speaker 5: but not like double plus very good. It's concerning the
Speaker 5: strikeout rate is not what it has been in previous years.
Speaker 5: But in the small picture here this month, just not
Speaker 5: throwing enough strikes, walking as many as he has struck out,
Speaker 5: putting free met you know, give out those free passes.
Speaker 5: You know, they turned into runs. We saw it with Elorado,
Speaker 5: we saw it with Straw in this series. It was
Speaker 5: really a difference maker in Pittsburgh. So I do believe
Speaker 5: that when you're talking about elite athletes, they you know,
Speaker 5: they will have ups and downs, and sometimes you're just
Speaker 5: one good game again from going on. Your next really
Speaker 5: good run be a beat a hitter or a pitcher.
Speaker 5: So maybe Sunday afternoons game in Pittsburgh, where you know,
Speaker 5: he did have that slider sweeper back and it was
Speaker 5: down and he was getting some swing and miss on it.
Speaker 5: He was getting some strikeouts, so that was good. Maybe
Speaker 5: that is something you know he can build on. But
Speaker 5: even before his struggles, I thought this team needed another
Speaker 5: arm out there late in the game. Kind of Ruben
Speaker 5: alluded to this with the word trust somebody who's been
Speaker 5: there in the month of October, somebody who's done that,
Speaker 5: because October is such a different beast, and you know,
Speaker 5: these guys have been there in October. Now. Alvarado strong
Speaker 5: those guys, so that experience they've gained over the last
Speaker 5: two years will definitely help them. But I think they
Speaker 5: need another arm late in the game, and I think
Speaker 5: Dave dombroskis going to deliver on that. Not sure where
Speaker 5: he's going to go, who it's going to be, but
Speaker 5: I think Dombroski's going to deliver on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The other thing, the only only thing I will say
Speaker 3: about the Alvarado thing is it's really about his command.
Speaker 3: And I'm not sure if he's trusting his stuff as
Speaker 3: much because the stuff is not quite it's just a
Speaker 3: tick down, as Jim said, And so when you trust
Speaker 3: your stuff, you have a lot more confident in placing
Speaker 3: the pitch where you want to.
Speaker 4: He's really been able to pound over the years.
Speaker 3: He's been able to pound those right handers in with
Speaker 3: that basketball cutter combination.
Speaker 4: That command right now has.
Speaker 3: Eluded him and he hasn't really had the ability to
Speaker 3: do that. It's consistent has he's done.
Speaker 4: In the past.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was in Pittsburgh this week, but machill brought
Speaker 1: something interesting, and it's kind of if they would go
Speaker 1: out and get another closer, lady encloser, you could you
Speaker 1: can match up Alvarado more in the earlier innings, sixth,
Speaker 1: seventh inning, eighth inning against lefty bats. He's been still
Speaker 1: still effective against especially against lefty bats. But that's something
Speaker 1: that they can do if they get it, go out
Speaker 1: and get another arm because now you can have that
Speaker 1: new acquisition pitch the ninth inning or Hoffman or or
Speaker 1: somebody else. So that's something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: But yees strikeout rates down is swinging missus down, and
Speaker 1: they got to get him. They got to get him
Speaker 1: lined up going forward. Tyler Phillips, though he saved the
Speaker 1: day on Sunday, Tyler Phillips, he's got to be loving
Speaker 1: life right now. I can only imagine what it's like
Speaker 1: for Tyler Phillips. He grows up Philly's fan and he
Speaker 1: pitches great. Yesterday he's two and oh two eight one
Speaker 1: e r A and just you know, giving them everything
Speaker 1: they need out of that fifth spot in the rotation
Speaker 1: with Walker down, He's a few weeks away, probably still
Speaker 1: Spencer Turnbull. You know, he might not come back as
Speaker 1: a starter, maybe as a reliever later this season. So
Speaker 1: he's he's given him exactly what they need.
Speaker 5: When I watched Phillips pitch, I just see a lot
Speaker 5: of poise in twenty five and he doesn't, you know,
Speaker 5: he kind of acts it like he's climbed a Ar
Speaker 5: Druis road in the minor leagues to get here, and
Speaker 5: he's going to enjoy it. This is the times of
Speaker 5: his life. He's pitching for his hometown team. And you know,
Speaker 5: those stories are really nice, they're if they're fun to write,
Speaker 5: they're you know, hometown boy. But they don't last long
Speaker 5: if you don't if you don't deliver. And he went
Speaker 5: out there for a team yesterday that had lost two straight.
Speaker 5: Spots Wheels coming out of the break and pitched six,
Speaker 5: six quality innings, six shutout innings, did a great job,
Speaker 5: kept the ball down, had it moving two ways down
Speaker 5: on the zone, and I think that's such a key
Speaker 5: to success, and it's really of the hallmark of this
Speaker 5: Phillies starting pitching staff. They you know, not everybody's up
Speaker 5: here riding it by guys. This is a team that pitches,
Speaker 5: you know, it exploits the corners, different quadrants and moves
Speaker 5: the ball, keeps the ball down on his own. That
Speaker 5: you know kind of there's a little bit of old
Speaker 5: school pitching approach in this staff, and uh, he definitely
Speaker 5: fits in. He's done a heck of a job. I'm
Speaker 5: sure he's on cloud nine, but he's doing a good
Speaker 5: job keeping it all in check because he could be
Speaker 5: very very important. Like you said, who you know, Turnbull's
Speaker 5: are ways away. You might end up in the bullpen
Speaker 5: when he's back, and Taiwan Walker is, you know, just
Speaker 5: probably just starting to throw. He's going to be a
Speaker 5: ways away. There's an opportunity to be seized. And you know,
Speaker 5: he has done a really good I'm not going to
Speaker 5: say he seized it, but he's done a good job
Speaker 5: as as that quest to lock it down begins.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jim, I I agree with you. I think he's.
Speaker 3: He's had a very good job of managing his emotions.
Speaker 3: He looks like a pretty emotional person. I think you
Speaker 3: can tell that he like gets mad at himself. He
Speaker 3: doesn't make a pitch, or if he goes through it
Speaker 3: and he has some difficulty, or there's some things that
Speaker 3: happened during the course of the game, and that's that's good.
Speaker 3: I like the fact that he you know, that he
Speaker 3: has a demand on himself to be successful. At the
Speaker 3: same time, you also have to be as you know,
Speaker 3: you have to try to be as even keel as
Speaker 3: you possibly can. It's a tough that's a sort of
Speaker 3: a tough balance. But I really like the way he's
Speaker 3: handling himself. He doesn't seem scared. And that's the thing
Speaker 3: that you know, we talk about a lot in the
Speaker 3: globous in the front office, is the guy scared? Is
Speaker 3: he afraid? Is he afraid of the barrel? And it
Speaker 3: doesn't seem like he is. And that is as important
Speaker 3: an element as there is because in this day and age,
Speaker 3: guys are throwing so hard at all they want to
Speaker 3: do is try to miss the barrel. This guy, as
Speaker 3: you said, Jim, he pitches, keeps the ball down. Imagine
Speaker 3: keeping the ball at the baseball down on the zone.
Speaker 5: Got a big double play yesterday by not being afraid
Speaker 5: of contact. And that what you mentioned there about not
Speaker 5: being scared. It just strikes me as being so important
Speaker 5: because not only does the other lineup since it when
Speaker 5: you're scared and all of a sudden, it's like sharks
Speaker 5: in the water. But your teammates in that clubhouse, they
Speaker 5: sense it and they just don't have the confidence behind you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hey, listen, I went through that.
Speaker 3: I went through a spell as a young player where
Speaker 3: and I'll never forget this. Darren Dalton grabbed me after
Speaker 3: the game one day. It was in Chicago. I was like,
Speaker 3: there was a line drive and I probably could have
Speaker 3: come getting it, caught it, but I backed off, didn't
Speaker 3: want to create create a big inning or whatever. And
Speaker 3: I remember him after the game. He ended up losing
Speaker 3: the game, I run or whatever, and he said to me, Man,
Speaker 3: don't be afraid, just go play. Play And I was
Speaker 3: glad he said something to me. And that was one
Speaker 3: of the beauties of Darren don't because he would he
Speaker 3: would address things. But that's that's important. That's an important element.
Speaker 3: From then on, I thought to myself, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna go play.
Speaker 4: And so those are those.
Speaker 3: Are important pieces of it because if you play to
Speaker 3: make not wanting to make a mistake, mistake in the game,
Speaker 3: you got no chance.
Speaker 4: You got no chances too.
Speaker 3: The level of baseball, the level of talent is just
Speaker 3: too high and to get exploited.
Speaker 4: And Jim said it, I mean it is. You're right
Speaker 4: about the sharks in the water Man. You can see
Speaker 4: guys on the mound.
Speaker 3: You can see their face, and this guy's got a
Speaker 3: really good face talk. I uh, you know, we should
Speaker 3: talk about this a lot with Pat Gillick. But I
Speaker 3: love faces. And when I see this guy standing on
Speaker 3: the mound, I don't see anybody who's scare I see
Speaker 3: somebody who's determined to try to do the best he
Speaker 3: possibly can. You know, he's not with I don't want
Speaker 3: to say limited ability, but he doesn't have like he
Speaker 3: doesn't have you know, Paul Skien stuff.
Speaker 4: He's got decent stuff.
Speaker 3: And he moves the baseball and he can pitch a
Speaker 3: little bit, and he's showing that he can has ability
Speaker 3: to do that and he's trusting himself to do so.
Speaker 1: As Gabe Kapler says, he's presenting beautifully.
Speaker 4: Oh stop it, oh stop, Oh.
Speaker 2: He's present he's presenting beautifully.
Speaker 1: But but but Ruben like he he's actually throwing harder
Speaker 1: now in the big leagues. His his velocity has gone
Speaker 1: up as a starter in the big leagues than Triple A.
Speaker 2: So what you know, he's he's definitely feeling it too.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got to. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: that that's a mentality or if that's just ID like
Speaker 1: to say that the second deck, third deck. But his
Speaker 1: stuff is playing up a little bit better up here,
Speaker 1: is you know as well.
Speaker 3: I think it depends on the person ian the mentality.
Speaker 3: I was telling the story the other day about when
Speaker 3: we called up Jimmy Rollins and the other we had,
Speaker 3: the other outfielder, the left handed hitting outfielder. It was
Speaker 3: had so many tools. He came up at the same time.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm brain locking his name right now, retailer.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Jim. So we literally brought him up at
Speaker 3: the same time, and I literally tell you exactly what
Speaker 3: kind of careers they were going to have. When I
Speaker 3: said the words, you guys are coming to the big Leags,
Speaker 3: Reggie Taylor face was like this. He was like, oh okay,
Speaker 3: Like holy shit, I'm coming to the big Leags right
Speaker 3: And Jimmy Rowns when when Jimmy Lowndes found out, He's like, yeah, Jimmy, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: that's exactly right. And I can tell you immediately by
Speaker 3: their reactions on their faces which guy was going to
Speaker 3: be a player. Which guy would Reggie Taylor I think
Speaker 3: got one hit and struck out like fifteen times in
Speaker 3: twenty at bats.
Speaker 4: And I'll never forget Jimmy Rowins.
Speaker 5: Jimmy just showed up like he was in charge his
Speaker 5: I think it was his second big league home run.
Speaker 5: It was from the right side, it was against remember
Speaker 5: the lefty Steve Klein. Of course, he was from Montreal,
Speaker 5: Montreal and San Francisco and Saint Louis. He was picture
Speaker 5: of Saint Louis at the time. It was late when
Speaker 5: Jimmy had just gotten called up September. Small crowd at
Speaker 5: the Vet, at the Vet, and Jimmy hits one into
Speaker 5: the four hundred level in left field, and he flips
Speaker 5: the bat on Steve Klein and veteran pitcher Steve kleinb
Speaker 5: yells as Jimmy's run on the bases slowly. Steve kleinb
Speaker 5: yells at him the whole way and Jimmy just takes
Speaker 5: it and runs right to the dugout. But he flipped
Speaker 5: the bat on him. It was so funny, and Steve
Speaker 5: Klein was so mad, but it was Jimmy. You know,
Speaker 5: he's been in the big leagues a week and he's like, Hey,
Speaker 5: I'm Jimmy.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: And that was and that was Jimmy and and you know,
Speaker 3: and that's what's impressive to me about what Tyler Phillips
Speaker 3: has done, because you know, that third deck for some people,
Speaker 3: they step up their game. He knows that he's going
Speaker 3: to do a little something extra. He might have to
Speaker 3: do a little something extra. Put a little bit more
Speaker 3: mustard on this thing, try to snap off this breaking
Speaker 3: ball a little bit now to so people, that's a
Speaker 3: detriment to him so far as work.
Speaker 5: And he just has to be a number five starter.
Speaker 5: Don't try to do too much. Did just want you to
Speaker 5: hold on the number five spot. If you give him
Speaker 5: five six innings, two runs, hey, a lot of handshakes
Speaker 5: to that.
Speaker 4: Even four runs.
Speaker 3: I mean for this ball club, I mean, really, this
Speaker 3: team should be scoring at least four runs a game.
Speaker 3: If you hold him down for you know, I don't know,
Speaker 3: six innings, four runs. It doesn't have to be necessarily
Speaker 3: a quality start, but a decent start to just to
Speaker 3: eat up the innings and to do what that's what
Speaker 3: the fifth starter needs to do.
Speaker 4: Let's the other four guys take care of the rest
Speaker 4: of the business.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's any chance that he's just too
Speaker 1: naive to get too emotional or to think too much.
Speaker 1: Like he's too it's too new and strange, you know.
Speaker 1: I think back to like Kyle Kendrick and O. Seven
Speaker 1: when you guys called him up. He wasn't somebody that
Speaker 1: and he would acknowledge us, pitched with a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence and a lot of you know, hutzpur or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it.
Speaker 2: But he was very good or out of the gate.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 4: Seven.
Speaker 2: It was like, is it just because he's like, you know,
Speaker 2: he's not think.
Speaker 6: It too much?
Speaker 1: Is there some of that maybe to it too with
Speaker 1: Tyler Phillips or you think it's different.
Speaker 3: I think I think in Kendrick's uh, in Kendrick's situation,
Speaker 3: I think it was I don't want to say clueless,
Speaker 3: but he was totally less. He didn't I don't think
Speaker 3: he realized the magnitude of what it was was going on, right.
Speaker 3: I think Tyler Phillips understands the magnitude. I think there's
Speaker 3: two different sets of circumstances. But there's going to come
Speaker 3: a time, Todd when this guy is going to be
Speaker 3: introduced to mister Hillary and Bradsby, and once he is
Speaker 3: introduced to them, it will be interesting to see how
Speaker 3: he bounces back from that. Now, the first time he pitched,
Speaker 3: he gave up a home runner.
Speaker 4: Was it Atlanta?
Speaker 2: I think yeah, it was the.
Speaker 3: Nine and then he and then he bet came back
Speaker 3: and struck out the next guy. So that was a
Speaker 3: great sign. We talked about that a little bit before.
Speaker 3: Let's see what happens in his next start. He gets
Speaker 3: banged around a little bit early. At some point, it's
Speaker 3: going to get banged around.
Speaker 4: It happens. Okay, he's not so young. At some point
Speaker 4: it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: And then you'll see hell he handles things once things
Speaker 3: start to unravel.
Speaker 4: A little bit more.
Speaker 1: Another guy that had an interesting weekend as we talk
Speaker 1: about the trade deadland, Wes Wilson is hitting left hand
Speaker 1: left handed pitching pretty well. Do we if you're the
Speaker 1: front office or are you They're giving him some run
Speaker 1: to see if you can hit left handed pitching. But
Speaker 1: is there anything that he could possibly do in the
Speaker 1: next nine days eight days to convince them that, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he could be the guy, or do they have
Speaker 1: to go out and get somebody.
Speaker 5: I think you're probably going to be pursuing that guy
Speaker 5: right until the end. Now. I don't know how many
Speaker 5: lefties they are going to face, but if you continue
Speaker 5: to produce, I do think it could affect their thinking
Speaker 5: and the type of player they get. You know, maybe
Speaker 5: they go after Elaine Thomas, maybe it's a Taylor Award,
Speaker 5: or maybe it's a Matt Erling. Who knows, maybe it's
Speaker 5: you know, they feel like if they got enough with
Speaker 5: uh Wes Wilson, but if he just produces, it certainly
Speaker 5: helps his cause, gives them something to think about, maybe
Speaker 5: allows them to use resources on bullpen.
Speaker 3: So two things for me as I look through this
Speaker 3: Western Wilson thing, I think it's an audition not just
Speaker 3: for Western Wilson, it's pace because I do think that
Speaker 3: they'll try to get somebody who they think will be
Speaker 3: better and more suited for this role to be the
Speaker 3: And then if that happens, and I think Pach is
Speaker 3: gonna end up losing his job because Western Wilson can
Speaker 3: step in and do the job.
Speaker 4: That pach is doing because.
Speaker 3: They already have basically two center fielders in Marsh and
Speaker 3: uh And and Yoo.
Speaker 7: So so I think it's really to me, it's more
Speaker 7: of an audition for him to stay on the team,
Speaker 7: even if he's not the left left you know, right
Speaker 7: and hitting left fielder.
Speaker 4: I think there's there's two parts to this, and.
Speaker 3: I think he is a more I just think he's
Speaker 3: a more dynamic player than Pace. Pace is sort of
Speaker 3: one dimensional right now, and I think that that's run
Speaker 3: its course.
Speaker 4: And I like the guy. I think he's a very
Speaker 4: good defender.
Speaker 3: I think he do some things, but I just don't
Speaker 3: know that he's ever going to come around offensively enough.
Speaker 3: And that's why I think he's getting reps too, because
Speaker 3: I think they're trying to find out, Okay, which one
Speaker 3: of these guys could really be an effective player for us,
Speaker 3: are enough, or maybe they're auditioning Pachie to possibly move
Speaker 3: them in a deal.
Speaker 5: I agree. I think I think Wilson gives you more
Speaker 5: than Poche.
Speaker 3: I agree with that he can steal a base better,
Speaker 3: he's aggressive over he can play all the all you know,
Speaker 3: more positions.
Speaker 4: He probably can play center field.
Speaker 3: I don't know how much centerfield he's played, but he's
Speaker 3: athletic enough to be able to play center field.
Speaker 4: I believe that centerfield.
Speaker 3: Sounds crazy, is the easiest of the three if you
Speaker 3: have the natural speed to be able to catch the
Speaker 3: baseball or to get to the ball, and I.
Speaker 4: Think he does.
Speaker 3: I don't think he's as good as Poche, and I
Speaker 3: don't think as good as Johann Ross, but I think
Speaker 3: he can certainly play center field if need be, and if.
Speaker 5: He keeps hitting, you know, maybe left field becomes a
Speaker 5: three headed the right handed bat you bring in Wes
Speaker 5: Wilson and and and Marsha against right handers. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think it will give them a lot of options.
Speaker 5: He's got a real he's got an interesting skill set,
Speaker 5: and he does seem to fit on this team.
Speaker 4: No doubt.
Speaker 2: He definitely does so.
Speaker 3: And I think I think I do think Rob Thompson
Speaker 3: likes him a lot, and I think if he's good
Speaker 3: push comes to shove, I think he'd probably go with
Speaker 3: a guy like this because you can trust him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he gives you a good quality of bats.
Speaker 1: It seems like so the Phillies are in Minnesota this week,
Speaker 1: big series because you're getting Rangers as well.
Speaker 4: You're in Minnesota, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, you know my mom's Yeah, well you know
Speaker 1: my mom's from Minnesota too, you know, so she's got
Speaker 1: the accent. She doesn't think she's got the accent, but
Speaker 1: she's got the accent. You know.
Speaker 6: Got Monday night you got Ranger Suarez versus Bailey Ober right, hander,
Speaker 6: you got that. Tuesday Zach Wheeler, Simeon Woods Richardson. And
Speaker 6: then Wednesday Aaron Nola versus Chris Paddock.
Speaker 1: Paddock, that's a good that's a good way to say it.
Speaker 2: In a Minnesota accident.
Speaker 5: And then after the game, you can go to a
Speaker 5: nice fish fry.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, I get a good Walleye stick, Jimmy, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: remember Walleye on a stick at Time Field when jim.
Speaker 5: Toley made his return to the Phillies. Was it fifteen twelve,
Speaker 5: twenty twelve, twenty twelve, God, I can't get my dates,
Speaker 5: but he, jim Tomy makes his return to Philly and
Speaker 5: we were in that Minnesota target Field. Beautiful ballpark.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a nice ballpark, really nice. I got a
Speaker 4: chance to open it up. Go ahead.
Speaker 5: He hit a bomb to a center field and I
Speaker 5: swear it one hopped off the concourse and went into
Speaker 5: the concession stand where they sell the walleye fried walleye.
Speaker 5: It bounced right in there, right.
Speaker 2: He crushed it. Yeah, he cleared the batter's eye. He
Speaker 2: cleared the batter's eye.
Speaker 1: Ruben, you remember this, Like he had not played at
Speaker 1: all beginning of twenty twelve, and then he had this
Speaker 1: run of ale games and so finally Tomy got a
Speaker 1: chance to play, and he hit like six home runs
Speaker 1: in like twelve games, and then he ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: ended up trading him like a few weeks later, the Orioles.
Speaker 1: But he killed that ball, and it was so funny.
Speaker 1: After the game, he kind of referenced to Jim, you
Speaker 1: remember this, he said, uh, he's he said, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: landed on a walleye on a stick, And we all
Speaker 1: kind and we all and we all kind of laughed.
Speaker 2: We all kind of laughed.
Speaker 1: And then like Jim being Jim, he's so earnest, he goes,
Speaker 1: I was just joking on about it landing on a
Speaker 1: walle eye. But that's that's where they send the wall eyes.
Speaker 1: That's where they sell the walle eyes out there, like like.
Speaker 2: You know, Jim, we got it.
Speaker 1: It didn't actually land on a wall on a stick.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So you talked about Jim in Minnesota and he sent
Speaker 3: me and you can't see it. Maybe I could show
Speaker 3: it to you, but he sent me picture of his
Speaker 3: like it was five hundredth Oh, really cool.
Speaker 5: He hit a milestone homer on when he was playing
Speaker 5: for them.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was either five hundred or four hundredth I
Speaker 3: can't remember.
Speaker 4: There's not very many. I think it was a five
Speaker 4: hundredth Yeah, home run there in Minnesota and he sent
Speaker 4: that to me.
Speaker 2: That's all good, all time.
Speaker 1: Good guy, Jim, he's a good boy, Yes.
Speaker 2: He is, Yes he is.
Speaker 1: But so what are we What are you guys hoping
Speaker 1: to see from Ranger and Zach tonight and tomorrow? Is
Speaker 1: it's just normal effectiveness. You're not looking for anything fancy,
Speaker 1: I assume right, you don't need.
Speaker 5: I want to see some command out of Ranger, and
Speaker 5: I want to see some Rangers, some a little bit
Speaker 5: of that Ranger swagger, you know, Yeah, just to tell
Speaker 5: me he feels good and he believes. And I'm looking
Speaker 5: at a lot of the intangibles in the body language.
Speaker 5: I'm looking for him to uh to locate, but also
Speaker 5: to attack Hitters have that mentality that the same mentality
Speaker 5: had most of the first half, that quiet I'm better
Speaker 5: than you and I'm gonna get you out.
Speaker 3: I'm right with you, Jim, and it really it's a
Speaker 3: command of his He needs his sinker and he needs
Speaker 3: his curveball to be working. That curveball has been sort
Speaker 3: of eluding him as far as h this overall command
Speaker 3: of all of this stuff.
Speaker 4: The sharpness the swaggers.
Speaker 3: Is another thing, like, hey man, I'm just gonna get
Speaker 3: up there and we're gonna I'm gonna.
Speaker 4: Get you out with this.
Speaker 3: And then Wheeler, I'm not worried about Wheeler. Just health,
Speaker 3: Just make sure he's okay. I'm not worried about Wheeler.
Speaker 3: That Wheeler thing is overblown, I think, and I think
Speaker 3: it's just it'll be interesting to see how sharp they
Speaker 3: are because they haven't pitched for a while, right, right
Speaker 3: Ranger who hasn't pitched for maybe ten days, and the
Speaker 3: other guy.
Speaker 1: For I think Zach's like thirteen days.
Speaker 3: He hates not he hates not being a routine. I
Speaker 3: understand why he's not, but he doesn't like doing that.
Speaker 3: So it'll be interesting to see how.
Speaker 4: Sharp he is.
Speaker 3: If he can to me for both of them, if
Speaker 3: they can get through that first ending, okay, I'm sort
Speaker 3: of unscathed. Hopefully they'll get a feel for, you know,
Speaker 3: for their mechanics and the strike zone, and they'll be fine.
Speaker 1: And I think they'll be comfortable knowing that. I assume
Speaker 1: j T will be behind the plate for both of
Speaker 1: those games, So get JT back. You know, Wheeler loves
Speaker 1: thrown at JT. You know a lot of everybody loves
Speaker 1: thrown at JT. So you get they get that security
Speaker 1: blanket as well on Monday and Tuesday. Not that they
Speaker 1: necessarily need it, but doesn't hurt have JT behind the plate.
Speaker 4: No doubt.
Speaker 5: You think Wheeler was throwing bullpens in the driveway during
Speaker 5: the break, I mean no, no, think he was just
Speaker 5: shut down to do something to keep his arm.
Speaker 4: He threw bullpens.
Speaker 3: He threw a bullpen or too, but probably touched and
Speaker 3: feel probably nothing's too serious. Just to make sure he's
Speaker 3: physically okay, right, he does.
Speaker 4: He doesn't like the lays.
Speaker 5: It'd be interesting to see if there's any rust, and
Speaker 5: if there is, I wouldn't be troubled by it. It's
Speaker 5: probably natural. You just want to see really good health
Speaker 5: because if if you see that good health, then this
Speaker 5: star in Minnesota could be a launching pad to three
Speaker 5: excellent months. And you need you need, you need three
Speaker 5: good months, and then you need a great one. You
Speaker 5: need two great months. They need a great one in October.
Speaker 4: Right, exactly.
Speaker 1: Uh, well, well, we'll be back later this week. Talk
Speaker 1: more phillies, Phillies twins. Monday Night Ranger Suarez is back.
Speaker 2: Yes it is, Yes, they are. That will be a
Speaker 2: good test for him.
Speaker 5: So Tod, you're gonna get it. You're gonna get a
Speaker 5: juicy lucy.
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, you better get a walleye on the stick.
Speaker 2: I might get a while on a stick. But juicy Lucy.
Speaker 2: That's juicy. Oh, juicy Lucy.
Speaker 1: There's uh, it's a cheeseburger with molten cheese in the
Speaker 1: middle of the burger.
Speaker 4: No wonder, no wonder. Jim asked about that.
Speaker 3: That sounds like this, that's I can see you're salivating, James.
Speaker 2: The best thing about the juice.
Speaker 1: The best thing about the juicy Lucy is you. They'd say, like,
Speaker 1: you know, they cook the cheese in the middle, so
Speaker 1: it's molten cheese and no matter how many times you
Speaker 1: get it, you always forget and then you bite into it,
Speaker 1: you just like burn the crap out of your face
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 5: It's like in Minneapolis, Saint Paul thing. Yeah, it is
Speaker 5: a big slab of that Midwest cheddar. And so take
Speaker 5: two stoned patties a big slab of that homemade Midwest cheddar,
Speaker 5: and they glue, you know, stick it all together, and
Speaker 5: they put it on. They give it a nice sere
Speaker 5: and then yeah, it's like liquefied when you bite into it.
Speaker 5: But you got to be careful because you burn your lips.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, I kind of I think I want to
Speaker 3: try to make one of those today.
Speaker 5: You could probably make one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah for sure. Look it up online.
Speaker 3: You cane slice of cheese in between the two patties.
Speaker 5: And got yeah in the middle and then h then
Speaker 5: you hit it with a lot of you the veggies
Speaker 5: from the garden. It's little hallpeno or you're talking.
Speaker 1: Now, Jimmy's down, Jimmy get taking it now, he's he
Speaker 1: We were here and Jimmy went here.
Speaker 4: You go to elevaty.
Speaker 5: I actually know a place and I can tell you
Speaker 5: off camera. But this guy will grind you up some
Speaker 5: short rib into burgers.
Speaker 2: H wow, look up the juicy lucy.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can find a recipe online and see
Speaker 1: how you can do it. And if you make it,
Speaker 1: just just just let a cool off for about five
Speaker 1: minutes before you put into whether so you'll you'll have
Speaker 1: to go to the don't get yeah, and protect your
Speaker 1: jowls at all costs.
Speaker 2: They're important.
Speaker 5: The family jowls, the family jowls, the.
Speaker 1: Famous, the famous Amaro family jowls.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, we'll be back later this week.
Speaker 5: Smell your ladd boys.
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