Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Phillies Show with Ruben Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury.
Speaker 2: I am Todd Zuleki. Guys who got intro music. This
Speaker 2: is like a big deal. What do you think about
Speaker 2: the new tune?
Speaker 3: It's got some thump to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's up or somebody figured did.
Speaker 1: Somebody like write this?
Speaker 3: Or I had to go to a website.
Speaker 2: I had to go to a website because Jim recommended
Speaker 2: he texted us a song. I don't even know what
Speaker 2: the band was, and we don't have the rights of
Speaker 2: that song.
Speaker 3: No, it's a good song. I think I wanted.
Speaker 4: The intro to Life is just a fantasy by Aldo Nova.
Speaker 4: It really rocks. It's kind of from my twenties, you know,
Speaker 4: when I was a rocker.
Speaker 2: If this podcast takes off, I'll reach out to the agent.
Speaker 2: Maybe they can give us the right so we can
Speaker 2: use it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you were a heavy metal rocker or just
Speaker 1: a rocker.
Speaker 4: I just I like I like it all, but you know,
Speaker 4: I liked a little headbang and stuff at times, a
Speaker 4: little uh guns and Roses, little Motley.
Speaker 3: Crew, Cinderella nice that I really like Cinderella hardcore.
Speaker 1: That's a little hardcore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I didn't know you're into Cinderella.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't know it was I didn't know that either. Interesting.
Speaker 1: What about you, Joe, You seem like a grungey kind
Speaker 1: of a dude.
Speaker 2: You know, I actually am more a classic rock guy.
Speaker 2: My first concert I ever saw was Tom Petty and
Speaker 2: the Heartbreakers back in high school. That was that was
Speaker 2: That was? Yes, absolutely, So that's kind of more my wheelhouse.
Speaker 4: I used to love a lot of new wave, Like
Speaker 4: I still love the Cars. I listened to the Cars
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about you?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty eclectic. I mean I basically like all types
Speaker 1: of music. I went through all types of phases I
Speaker 1: went through. I'm a little bit into the country now,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't in a country like when I first
Speaker 1: started playing professional baseball, listening to like Clinton Black and
Speaker 1: uh I mean McGraw and Randy Travis. I was into
Speaker 1: that for a while. But I also like dance tunes,
Speaker 1: I mean, Earth Wind and Fire and U two. It's
Speaker 1: not a dance but I was a huge U two
Speaker 1: fan and still am. But I'm all over the map, man.
Speaker 3: You guys. You guys remember the day Kenny Chesney came
Speaker 3: to visit Doc Yes.
Speaker 2: In Clearwater. Yeah, he was in Charlie's office, right, how
Speaker 2: about that? Yeah, y speaking, that's.
Speaker 1: A lot of celebrities zipping in and out. I saw
Speaker 1: like and uh a bunch of golfers when we were
Speaker 1: in Boston I was coaching there. I mean, it happens
Speaker 1: all the time. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 4: Remember the time, uh so John Lovett showed up in
Speaker 4: the press box and I made him laugh. It's the
Speaker 4: most one of the most proud moments of my life
Speaker 4: when I made John Lovetts laugh.
Speaker 2: That was I remember he showed up in the press
Speaker 2: box in clear Water and you brought up a line
Speaker 2: from a league of their own and you made him laugh.
Speaker 2: That is pretty cool.
Speaker 4: And then he started mimicking the scene and we were
Speaker 4: going back and forth doing it.
Speaker 2: You could have been a king of improv. You could
Speaker 2: have been a king of improv, but end up being
Speaker 2: a baseball writer.
Speaker 5: We did, we did at one time we did in Cleveland.
Speaker 5: Jay Lannel Jay Leno came in and did like one
Speaker 5: of his opens at in our in our clubhouse, and
Speaker 5: he had like he had us like putting our EyeBlack
Speaker 5: on and like the and the camera was panning through
Speaker 5: and then and then at the end he was putting
Speaker 5: on like lipsticks like that.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. It's gotta be a video that so.
Speaker 1: Where no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 2: So we Jimmy mentioned headbanging. Kind of a head banging
Speaker 2: week for the Phillies two and four to start the season.
Speaker 2: Not great. What kind of jumped out to you guys
Speaker 2: when you think back to this first week? You know, panic?
Speaker 2: Not panic? Where do you guys come down on this,
Speaker 2: jim No panic.
Speaker 4: I think panic is a horrible emotion for.
Speaker 3: The game of baseball.
Speaker 4: I think you need to be even keeled to play
Speaker 4: this game and to manage this game, to cover this game,
Speaker 4: and to even be a fan of this game. Sometimes
Speaker 4: hard test your patience a little bit, especially the first
Speaker 4: week when everything's magnified two and four.
Speaker 3: You wanted a little bit better.
Speaker 4: But you know, you've got about one hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: six games to turn things around.
Speaker 3: There were some pluses, There were some minuses.
Speaker 4: Defense, a little ragged offense not there, I mean, save
Speaker 4: for you know, the Harper night.
Speaker 3: But there were some positives.
Speaker 4: I mean, I thought you got some good starts and
Speaker 4: starting pitchings only walk four batters, that's a pretty pretty
Speaker 4: good plus so tough weather to play in, no excuse.
Speaker 4: Cincinnati got it done, Phillies didn't get it done, but
Speaker 4: not an ideal start. And but you know, I think
Speaker 4: you can go to Washington now hopefully the weather will
Speaker 4: get better. And you know, I do think eventually they're
Speaker 4: going to hit their stride. I certainly saw nothing. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, though not pleased with everything, I saw nothing
Speaker 4: to panic about.
Speaker 3: Rub Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't think you're gonna see panic from this team.
Speaker 1: They're pretty even keeled, and they're also one of the
Speaker 1: most resilient ball clubs. Like a lot of stuff that
Speaker 1: you know, I talk about this all the time. They're
Speaker 1: a little bit like goldfish. They don't have a very
Speaker 1: good memory, which is great, and I think that's part
Speaker 1: of being a veteran group. And and uh, and there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys in that team, like Schwarber and
Speaker 1: Turner and of Harper, like some of the veteran guys,
Speaker 1: and you know, add like a Merryfield. I don't think
Speaker 1: that they get all that you know hyped up. JT.
Speaker 1: You don't get hyped up about stuff that happened in
Speaker 1: the past. I think they sort of Okay, that's over,
Speaker 1: that's baseball, and let's move forward. I am concerned about
Speaker 1: their offense right now, and the concern that I've had
Speaker 1: about their offense is that, you know, obviously they were
Speaker 1: exposed last year in the playoffs in the NLCS about
Speaker 1: Chase and that sort of thing and their swing decisions,
Speaker 1: and frankly, during the course of spring training, nor during
Speaker 1: the course of this early part of the season, do
Speaker 1: I see that changing a whole lot. I know it's early.
Speaker 1: I know that they haven't had a lot of reps,
Speaker 1: which was a little bit of a concern for me.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason why they didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of reps in a bats is because there was
Speaker 1: a pretty serious virus or whatever illness that was going
Speaker 1: through the clubhouse, and I don't think that helped them.
Speaker 1: As far as what I think toppers play was. I
Speaker 1: think his plan was going to be different than what
Speaker 1: he had done the previous spring training as far as
Speaker 1: getting these guys ready to get it have a better start,
Speaker 1: and I think that kind of messed up the plans,
Speaker 1: and so what we see right now is a little
Speaker 1: bit of the same thing that we've seen at the
Speaker 1: end of the year last year and for most of
Speaker 1: the spring. I didn't see a whole lot of plate
Speaker 1: discipline during the spring. And I'm not just talking about
Speaker 1: Joann Ross or Castiganos. I'm talking about like a lot
Speaker 1: of those guys, not all of them, because the young
Speaker 1: guys are actually having really good at bats. I think Boone, Stott,
Speaker 1: Marsh those guys are having pretty damn good at bats.
Speaker 1: And even I like what I see out of Schwarber
Speaker 1: because he's utilize in the middle of the field much better.
Speaker 1: He's getting some up in the middle. He's even breaking
Speaker 1: a couple of bats, which isn't the worst thing in
Speaker 1: the world for him, probably, but now he's got a
Speaker 1: couple of homers. But so it's not everybody, but like
Speaker 1: it's sort of if you're looking at the vast the
Speaker 1: majority of the advats that I see. I'm not really
Speaker 1: all that excited about what I have seen so far,
Speaker 1: and I think it will turn around, but it better
Speaker 1: because if it doesn't. The offense is really sort of
Speaker 1: what they built this team around. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: money in the offense. The offense and the starting pitching,
Speaker 1: and if there's if those two things, those two elements
Speaker 1: do not work well during the course of the season,
Speaker 1: then it could be a little difficult.
Speaker 2: Is it possible to change somebody's stripes? Because every spring,
Speaker 2: every year, no matter how good the offense is, you know,
Speaker 2: you have like the hitting coach and the manager and
Speaker 2: the GM or who I'm ever it is at the
Speaker 2: times they you know, this spring, we want to be
Speaker 2: better with runners in scoring position. We want to make
Speaker 2: sure we get that runner in from third base. And
Speaker 2: it seems I almost feel like sometimes it's just kind
Speaker 2: of something that you say, you know, or people say,
Speaker 2: and can guys actually change? I mean, there are there
Speaker 2: actually ways to improve a guy? You know, like for
Speaker 2: so many years Jimmy Rollins, you know, can can we
Speaker 2: get him to see more pitches? Can we see in
Speaker 2: every spring and be like, ah, we're gonna, We're going
Speaker 2: Jimmy worked with Tony Gwynn this offseason. He's gonna he's
Speaker 2: going to get a better eye. Then Jimmy was Jimmy though,
Speaker 2: you know, like he he You know, is is it
Speaker 2: possible to actually change these guys? I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't know. I mean, I think they're
Speaker 2: better a certainly than what they've shown this week, but
Speaker 2: there's always going to be some swing and miss.
Speaker 4: I think it's very difficult to change because you know,
Speaker 4: at this level, in a lot of cases, you are
Speaker 4: what you are, and when you get in the heat
Speaker 4: of the battle, getting that battles box with you know,
Speaker 4: some guy six foot three inches bearing down on you,
Speaker 4: throwing you know, ninety six with sink, you are in
Speaker 4: that situation going to revert back to the thing you
Speaker 4: know best and the thing that makes you comfortable. And
Speaker 4: it's very hard to change approach, I believe. And Rubin
Speaker 4: used an interesting word phrase, swing decision. That's something I've
Speaker 4: heard a lot of the last decade, and sometimes it.
Speaker 3: Just rubs me the wrong way.
Speaker 4: Swing decision, because when I think, if you're in the
Speaker 4: batter's box, and I'm probably nitpicking, but if you're in
Speaker 4: the batter's box and you're making decisions, something's wrong. When
Speaker 4: you're in a batter's box, you should be reacting, not deciding.
Speaker 4: And I think there's a kind of a fine line there,
Speaker 4: because when you're deciding, it indicates to me that you're
Speaker 4: thinking too much. You need to be in the batter's
Speaker 4: box and so well honed and so sharp that it's
Speaker 4: a reaction. But I don't know, can a guy change, Rubin.
Speaker 4: I mean, you've spent years in the batter's box as
Speaker 4: a player, you've coached, you've put together teams as a GM.
Speaker 3: Can guys change when they are noted?
Speaker 4: Maybe not free swingers, but close to free swingers.
Speaker 1: You make a great point. First of all, you made
Speaker 1: a great point as far as decisions and reacting. When
Speaker 1: I say swing decisions, that's sort of what I mean.
Speaker 1: But you're right, Jim, because what I see now is
Speaker 1: because of the fact that we have these enormous velocities
Speaker 1: and spin rates, or at least perceived the velocities and
Speaker 1: spin rates, because because the velocities are not being they're
Speaker 1: not being recorded the same way as they used to be.
Speaker 1: Now they're being recorded out of the hand, and it's
Speaker 1: not at the plate where you used to get the
Speaker 1: readings and all that stuff. So it's not as disparate
Speaker 1: as people think it is over the last ten years.
Speaker 1: But when you start talking about that a lot, and
Speaker 1: you start to think, look at the how coaches are
Speaker 1: coaching and how players are viewing their at back. They're
Speaker 1: looking in the probabilities. The probability of this guy throwing
Speaker 1: a two to one slider, for instance, is seventy seven percent.
Speaker 1: So now I'm going to look for a slider, and
Speaker 1: then when I get the basketball, I miss it. See,
Speaker 1: I think that's a problem. And when they're thinking too much,
Speaker 1: and and you made that comment, when hitters are thinking
Speaker 1: too much, you're you're kind of screwed, because if you're
Speaker 1: not just watching the baseball and reacting to it with
Speaker 1: a thought process, with a different sort of thought process,
Speaker 1: it's going to make hitting tougher and tougher and tougher.
Speaker 1: These guys are quick enough. They all can get to
Speaker 1: one hundred mile an hour fastball right their eye hand coordination.
Speaker 1: Otherwise they wouldn't be able to be playing baseball at all,
Speaker 1: at a level at the upper levels of baseball, So
Speaker 1: their ability to react to that pitch is there. I
Speaker 1: do believe that it's more about making sure that you
Speaker 1: instead of guessing at pitches or and I see guessing
Speaker 1: happening way way more now than it used to. Now,
Speaker 1: you should be looking into his zone or a space,
Speaker 1: or have an idea it's okay to think about getting
Speaker 1: a certain pitch into certain count, and I don't think
Speaker 1: there's anything wrong with that when you're up in the
Speaker 1: count or something like that. But there's so much more
Speaker 1: guessing going on now in the game, and I think
Speaker 1: that makes it tough. As far as changing your overall approach.
Speaker 1: There's very few guys that I have seen make them
Speaker 1: those adjustments in Major League. The first guy that makes
Speaker 1: me think of someone who has done it is Mike Schmidt.
Speaker 1: If you remember Mike Schmidt during the curse course of
Speaker 1: his first part of his career, I mean, he struck
Speaker 1: out a lot and he hit a lot of home runs,
Speaker 1: but his average was very low, and I think he
Speaker 1: told himself, you know what, I'm going to do everything
Speaker 1: I can to hit three hundred, and he started utilizing
Speaker 1: the other side of the field. He flattened his bat out.
Speaker 1: I mean I talked to him, I had conversation with
Speaker 1: him about it, and he like late in his career
Speaker 1: when he felt like he didn't have the same sort
Speaker 1: of power to be able to drive the battle of
Speaker 1: the ballpark, he said, I'm going to be I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to make myself a little bit more complete hit
Speaker 1: or and so as average went up a little bit,
Speaker 1: is numbers went down. I think guys can adjust. There
Speaker 1: are certain guys who, hey, I want to hit more
Speaker 1: home runs this year, and if you try to try
Speaker 1: to create a little bit more loft in their swing
Speaker 1: or things like that. But but to overall make revamp
Speaker 1: their you know, their approach, that's a hard, hard thing
Speaker 1: to do. And you're right when you're in the battle's
Speaker 1: box and you're battling and you're locking in on trying
Speaker 1: to you know, make contact with somebody who's trying to
Speaker 1: get your ass out, you basically go back to what
Speaker 1: who you are? You know, you go back to I
Speaker 1: had I had trouble hitting off speed pitches from the
Speaker 1: left side, and well, what's the best way to not
Speaker 1: to hit, you know, to to to combat that, Well,
Speaker 1: don't miss the fastball. John Bukovich used to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: don't be looking for a bitch. You can't hit anyway, Like,
Speaker 1: why would you look for a break involved and you're
Speaker 1: gonna miss anyway. Make sure you don't miss the fastball
Speaker 1: when that one comes. And it made a lot of sense. Now,
Speaker 1: right handed, I was a different I had I don't know,
Speaker 1: my eye hand coordination was totally different, so I can
Speaker 1: hit off speed pitch is much better right handed. But
Speaker 1: but you know, I think the job of the hitting
Speaker 1: coach has always been the same to me. Try to
Speaker 1: maximize the things that that player does really really well,
Speaker 1: and try to minimize some of the you know, some
Speaker 1: of the challenges he has as a hitter. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's hard to make a like a complete change.
Speaker 1: You can sort of change your mindset, but your actual
Speaker 1: your actual ability to do that, it's really really tough.
Speaker 4: Well, they're going I need to, like you said, put
Speaker 4: the starting pitching and the offense that both need to
Speaker 4: be good, and they need to get the offense going
Speaker 4: to avoid you know, they've had two slow starts in
Speaker 4: the last couple of years and they've ended up in
Speaker 4: the postseason. But eventually it wears you out climbing that
Speaker 4: hill all year. It'd be nice to think, right toosh.
Speaker 2: So last night during the game, it's miserable outside and
Speaker 2: they're losing, and I'm going, I feel like every year
Speaker 2: these guys get off to a slow start. So I
Speaker 2: actually went back and I looked, this is my twenty
Speaker 2: second season covering the Phillies. Through six games, they've had
Speaker 2: a winning record four times. In those twenty two years,
Speaker 2: they've had a losing record ten times, five hundred and
Speaker 2: eight times. Winning records twenty ten to twenty eleven, no surprise,
Speaker 2: great pitching, great teams. Twenty nineteen they got off to
Speaker 2: a fast start. Twenty twenty one, they got off to
Speaker 2: a fast start. So yeah, yeah, I wasn't doing ninety
Speaker 2: three yet. But two thousand and seven they give every
Speaker 2: one in five. Two thousand and eight they were two
Speaker 2: and four. Last year there were one in five. So
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's just like, do you really want to
Speaker 2: go through this again, through this gut where you know,
Speaker 2: in June you're like, all right, we better kick it
Speaker 2: up a notch if we're going to win a wild card,
Speaker 2: because it's you know, you don't want to count on
Speaker 2: that second half kick to make the playoffs because one
Speaker 2: of these times you're going to get buried too much
Speaker 2: and that kick's not going to come and and uh,
Speaker 2: you're going to be behind the eight ball. You know,
Speaker 2: started a little bit earlier.
Speaker 4: This time, was just sitting through that range away.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I really can't believe, you know, it
Speaker 2: was funny because Bryce. I asked Bryce after the three
Speaker 2: home run game, I said, how miserable were you? And
Speaker 2: he put it in the terms that I could relate to,
Speaker 2: because I actually I've never played at that level. And
Speaker 2: he says, well, I mean you've played golf before. Imagine
Speaker 2: going out and playing eighteen holes of golf in that weather.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, no.
Speaker 1: Thanks, I mean it's it's I will tell you that
Speaker 1: as a hitter, I think the pitcher has a great advantage.
Speaker 1: I mean, they already has a great advantage in baseball,
Speaker 1: but when you start exposing them to like rain drops
Speaker 1: and freezing weather and your hands don't feel right, and
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's tough to hit. Man, it's tough,
Speaker 1: and like both teams had to go through it, but
Speaker 1: it's you've got to have some mental fortitude to play baseball.
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't this. This is a game that
Speaker 1: was not meant to play be played in those conditions.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you these guys value their off
Speaker 1: days so much that I guarantee you the players wanted
Speaker 1: to play that game, even though they probably bitched and
Speaker 1: complained about it the whole time. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day. They would rather do that than than not
Speaker 1: have this off day today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well there was, and it's sunny out now as
Speaker 4: we're chatting, and they both had off days on the
Speaker 4: schedule today. But you know, I understand, and it's early
Speaker 4: in the year. The Reds want to get home, probably
Speaker 4: get guys looking for apartments. Phillies probably have guys, you know,
Speaker 4: moving into apartments, or they're traveling to Washington. And off
Speaker 4: days are are good for your body, they're good for
Speaker 4: your mind, and he gets you some family time.
Speaker 3: And they're around the ballpark more than ever now. They're
Speaker 3: they're walking in at twelve thirty in the afternoon. They're
Speaker 3: having a lunch. You know.
Speaker 1: That's that's because they have all three of their meals
Speaker 1: in one spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy of their meals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they used to be like that.
Speaker 4: Like Frank Copenbarger always tells the great story when he
Speaker 4: worked for the Cardinals clubhouse man that Whitey Herzog would, well,
Speaker 4: it would be the first one there every day. He
Speaker 4: would unlocked the clubhouse at three o'clock. And if you'd
Speaker 4: never have time to get ready for the game at
Speaker 4: three o'clock, something.
Speaker 3: Was wrong and he would unlock the clubhouse.
Speaker 4: Didn't want anybody there before then because he wanted your home,
Speaker 4: eating lunch with your family, and and and having a
Speaker 4: balanced life. So I understand the value of off days
Speaker 4: a lot. And but I was laughing last night. There
Speaker 4: was this rumor going around that, you know, they needed
Speaker 4: to get the game in last night because there was
Speaker 4: a wedding at.
Speaker 1: The bank today.
Speaker 3: The stupidest it was not true.
Speaker 2: There's a divorce going on there, so it's it was,
Speaker 2: It's exactly.
Speaker 3: It's funny.
Speaker 2: So apparently it was set on the TBS broadcast the
Speaker 2: night before. I did not know that. And then and
Speaker 2: then the apparently somebody said it on the Red's pregame show.
Speaker 2: So next thing you know, I'm having people say I
Speaker 2: can't believe they're not They're gonna make the fans sit
Speaker 2: through this because there's a wedding tomorrow at the ballpark.
Speaker 3: So now the world I live in, I have to go.
Speaker 2: I gotta check on this. It's been said on the
Speaker 2: Reds pregame show. So now I am reaching out the
Speaker 2: people going, uh, did you go? Did you guys schedule
Speaker 2: a wedding tomorrow? Even though I knew it was the
Speaker 2: dumbest thing, right, You never feel like a bigger loser
Speaker 2: when you had that. Then you have to like pursue
Speaker 2: one of these things. And they're like, uh yeah, no, dummy,
Speaker 2: there's no there's no wedding tomorrow. Imagine can you imagine
Speaker 2: if the Phillies at the Phillies Events people at scheduled
Speaker 2: a wedding and now Rob Thompson and David bellgun.
Speaker 3: We want to you know, we don't want to play tonight.
Speaker 2: We're gonna We're gonna play tomorrow. And they go, Rob, Dave,
Speaker 2: Dave Dombrowski, Uh, you guys can't play tomorrow. We've got
Speaker 2: a wedding scheduled.
Speaker 1: First of all, first of all, it's ridiculous. The thought
Speaker 1: even the thought of it is so ridiculous because MLB
Speaker 1: would not allow such a thing. But you know what,
Speaker 1: some though people are just crazy people think.
Speaker 2: So I put it out there it was not true,
Speaker 2: and people were telling me I was wrong.
Speaker 4: It was funny, it was it was funny.
Speaker 1: Also, the same people that apparently I was fired, you k,
Speaker 1: guys knew that I was fired from my I believed
Speaker 1: in my duties that was out there on Twitter or
Speaker 1: on X or whatever, that was it. I mean that,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, you need to check it out
Speaker 1: drunk filsfans dot com or something crap like that.
Speaker 4: Okay, don't don't they know that I'm the only one
Speaker 4: who fires you.
Speaker 1: That's exactly That's right, you're the one.
Speaker 2: He's the only guy.
Speaker 1: You're the one.
Speaker 2: Gosh, a couple of things I want I want to
Speaker 2: jump into a couple of things like, uh, real quick,
Speaker 2: Bryce Harper's three home run game. Do you guys watch
Speaker 2: that and go? You know, you guys appreciate baseball as
Speaker 2: much as anybody obviously, you know what what kind of
Speaker 2: jumped out to you when you watch a guy like
Speaker 2: that in that weather and just hit three home runs
Speaker 2: in a game, you know something, something truly.
Speaker 4: Special, indelible memory. I mean, the guy's a beast doing
Speaker 4: it on a horrible night. It just tells you if
Speaker 4: you square up that ball and that little teeny tiny
Speaker 4: sweet spot doesn't matter, you're gonna propel it.
Speaker 3: And it's gonna go a long way.
Speaker 4: I actually thought the night before he lined went back
Speaker 4: to the pitcher like a like a beat, like a bullet,
Speaker 4: and it just looked like sometimes one swing can lock
Speaker 4: in it looked like that was a pretty good swing.
Speaker 4: He squared it up and it looked like he carried
Speaker 4: that swing over the next two nights. You know, the
Speaker 4: guy's a beast, he's a showman. He's fun to watch.
Speaker 4: And you know, hitting three home runs one Grand Slam
Speaker 4: with a ski mask on. You know, it's one of
Speaker 4: those things you're gonna see on YouTube when they do
Speaker 4: his career highlight reel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's pretty amazing, And you make a great point, Jim.
Speaker 1: I brought this up in the post game. When he
Speaker 1: whenever he hits the ball and he stays on his
Speaker 1: legs and drives the ball through the middle of the
Speaker 1: field opposite way, that's when you know he's sort of
Speaker 1: locked in. And you're right that that bat right there
Speaker 1: sort of set the tone and he started driving the ball.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he leaks a little bit to the pool side
Speaker 1: and you see he hits some some hips, pull out
Speaker 1: or whatever. But when he stays in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field, which he's done a lot more consistently in
Speaker 1: his later part of his career than he did in
Speaker 1: the early part of his career, and that's why he's
Speaker 1: a more consistent hitter now. When he does that he is.
Speaker 1: He is pretty ridiculous. And so he hit that line
Speaker 1: drive in the middle. Then he crushes the ball to
Speaker 1: left center field for the home run. But then you know,
Speaker 1: then he pulls one. I mean you see that he's
Speaker 1: seeing the ball better and just letting it travel more
Speaker 1: and allowing the ball to get a little deeper so
Speaker 1: that he can stay behind it, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: what you sort of want to have when you're locked in,
Speaker 1: that's sort of what you do. But what was interesting
Speaker 1: was that he had really struggled to do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: he hit like, what two or three balls total in
Speaker 1: the air during course of spring training. I don't think
Speaker 1: he hit any balls in the air he didn't like
Speaker 1: I think he hit one ball in the air. Maybe
Speaker 1: he's zero, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's weird, So it's funny. So, speaking of spring training,
Speaker 2: he missed. There were two games on the East Coast
Speaker 2: of Florida and spring training, right and Bryce did not
Speaker 2: play in those games. Obviously, no, not that a lot
Speaker 2: of the big guys went over to the East Coast.
Speaker 2: So Sunday, that Sunday is Saint Patrick's Day. Bryce's name
Speaker 2: is not in the lineup, so Jimmy, and you've been
Speaker 2: there before, right, you walk in and go Bryce is
Speaker 2: not playing three days in a row. The sirens start
Speaker 2: going off in your head. Got a back issue. Back's fine,
Speaker 2: Back's fine. Don't worry about it, guys, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: That Wednesday, the Phillies are going to Sarasota. Bryce is
Speaker 2: taking VP on the field and I'm standing next to
Speaker 2: Mac Galbat the athletic, and we're kind of watching his
Speaker 2: VP session ends and he walks over to the mound
Speaker 2: and this kind of group gathers and he looks. His
Speaker 2: body language is like I am not a happy man
Speaker 2: right now. And we're going, oh my gosh, did he
Speaker 2: like tweak his back? What's going on? Since the bands
Speaker 2: start asking us did he hurt himself? Did he hurt himself?
Speaker 2: So now we didn't get a chance to talk to Bryce.
Speaker 2: He walks into the clubhouse. Clubhouse was closed by that point.
Speaker 2: Go down to Sarasota. I go up to Rob, I go, hey,
Speaker 2: did did Bryce's BP go okay? And he looks at
Speaker 2: me and goes, yeah, I thought it was great. Why
Speaker 2: I said he had some leg bad body language. He
Speaker 2: looked really upset. He was like, oh, he hates his
Speaker 2: swing right now. He's so mad at his swing right now.
Speaker 2: He's like, I thought he was great. He was hitting
Speaker 2: rockets to the opposite field. I thought he was amazing.
Speaker 2: So that the next day, that Thursday, Bryce is on
Speaker 2: the field and again we go over and we go, uh,
Speaker 2: hey you good, You're back good. He's like, yeah, what
Speaker 2: I told you, I'm fine. Well, you look really mad yesterday.
Speaker 2: He's like, Oh, it's my swing. It's my swing. Don't worry.
Speaker 2: It'll get there. It'll get there. He's such a perfectionist
Speaker 2: and he's so you know, he works so hard at
Speaker 2: his craft every day and he just kind of helps
Speaker 2: you really truly appreciate, like how much care he puts
Speaker 2: into it. Obviously he's super talented and he's super successful,
Speaker 2: but you see those little moments on the field. Guy
Speaker 2: was not happy at his VP round on a Wednesday,
Speaker 2: yeah afternoon in.
Speaker 1: Clear Water, and he was so mad.
Speaker 2: I thought we thought we thought he hurt himself. He was.
Speaker 2: He looks so mad out there, but he was just
Speaker 2: mad that he wasn't hitting him as perfectly as he
Speaker 2: thinks he should be hitting him.
Speaker 1: So that so that brings a great brings up a
Speaker 1: great point. So the great ones, really, the great ones,
Speaker 1: they are never satisfied. They're perfectionists. I've been around. I
Speaker 1: was around Mookie Bets when Mookie Bets was starting to
Speaker 1: become Mookie Bets, when I was in Boston in sixteen
Speaker 1: and seventeen. And he's a special special player and he's
Speaker 1: not just a special special athlete, but his mindset is
Speaker 1: you talk about a perfectionist. I mean I would hit
Speaker 1: him fly five balls and ground balls, and he would
Speaker 1: make throws to second base and if he didn't throw
Speaker 1: it right like perfect, one hop every time, he'd make me,
Speaker 1: make me hit him fight five more. And same thing
Speaker 1: with his swing, like Chilie Davis used to say, like dude,
Speaker 1: why is your dabber down? I mean, he used to
Speaker 1: like hang his hit. He would hit like bullets all
Speaker 1: over the field and VP and he's like, man, I
Speaker 1: swim off, just off, Like dude, do you have any
Speaker 1: idea how good you are? But that's what makes these
Speaker 1: guys great. They know what greatness is. They know what
Speaker 1: they have to do to be great. And you know
Speaker 1: that that does not that a story about Bryce todd
Speaker 1: Is does not surprise me in the slightest because I've
Speaker 1: seen it so many different times.
Speaker 3: I thought Chilling had some of that in them too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure did. Sure they're perfectionists, man like, they know
Speaker 1: that if they if they're just a millimeter off of
Speaker 1: their timing is off or the spot they don't hit
Speaker 1: their spots, that they know that they can be exposed.
Speaker 1: Or you know, Holliday was like that too. I mean
Speaker 1: it was a beast. I mean Chase Suttley same way.
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys had an expect expectation of themselves
Speaker 1: that that you know, for me who I and I
Speaker 1: played the game and I had high expectations for myself.
Speaker 1: But to watch these guys and watch the their match,
Speaker 1: their ability with their work and their expectation pretty extraordinary.
Speaker 3: Do you remember the year Chilling?
Speaker 4: I think Frank ConA said, well, you know, if he
Speaker 4: became a better bunter, you could probably stay in the
Speaker 4: game even a little longer. So he worked on his
Speaker 4: bunting for a year, became a great bunter, Hilling.
Speaker 1: Is that true?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: That's wild. He made himself a pretty good hitter. He
Speaker 1: was pretty good.
Speaker 4: He worked on a bunting because he thought it was
Speaker 4: a way to stay in games longer.
Speaker 1: Well, Holliday was the same way. Halliday couldn't hit worth
Speaker 1: a lick when he came over from Toronto, but he
Speaker 1: sort of tried to get to the point where he
Speaker 1: could at least get a bunt down or make himself,
Speaker 1: you know, useful as a hitter.
Speaker 4: Cool, amazing, They're just I mean, it's greatness. It's obviously
Speaker 4: you blessed with talent, but there's so much work, ethic
Speaker 4: and smarts behind it. And you met, you know, League Halliday,
Speaker 4: all those guys.
Speaker 1: Hey, here's a guy, Manny Ramirez, and you know, you
Speaker 1: talk about what you want to say, man of Mirrors,
Speaker 1: but nobody worked on his hitting more than he did.
Speaker 1: Talk to if you want to talk to Charlie Manuel
Speaker 1: about what he was. I mean, this is a guy
Speaker 1: who worked on his hitting for hours and hours and
Speaker 1: hours a day, and that's why he is a hall
Speaker 1: was a Hall of Fame hitter. In my estimation, there's
Speaker 1: no question in my mind.
Speaker 3: What are the Phillies got next, Todd.
Speaker 2: They've got the Nationals beginning Friday, and then they go
Speaker 2: down to Saint Louis next week. I don't have John
Speaker 2: Cruks on that trip. He owes them a trip to
Speaker 2: the arch, to the top of the arch. You remember
Speaker 2: that last year.
Speaker 1: He is not on that trip because I am my friend.
Speaker 2: Oh, he snaked his way out of going up on
Speaker 2: the arch.
Speaker 3: Don't don't go under the arch, dude.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. That thing does sway. Have
Speaker 1: you been up there?
Speaker 3: No, but I know people have been under.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can tell. What do you mean, jim m
Speaker 1: all right, we'll keep that there ourselves. So but I've
Speaker 1: been up there.
Speaker 2: I do not know.
Speaker 1: I tell you what. I'm afraid of heights. When I
Speaker 1: was up there, Man, that thing was a sway. I
Speaker 1: mean it sways like a lot, so I was. It's
Speaker 1: a little nerve wracking.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna avoid it.
Speaker 1: I will. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But yeah, National's this weekend. You know, another division rival, Cardinals.
Speaker 2: They gotta you know, they've gotten some good starting pitching.
Speaker 2: They just gotta start hitting the ball a little bit more.
Speaker 2: I thought Turnbull pitch pretty well. Christopher Sanchez, the bottom
Speaker 2: of the rotation pitch pretty well this week. So they
Speaker 2: got to get it going. You guys gotta get going.
Speaker 2: Thanks everybody for listening. Maybe next Monday Tuesday we'll get
Speaker 2: back together. I'll be in say we'll both be in
Speaker 2: Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: I do want to say one thing. They got to
Speaker 1: play these guys a little bit better than they did
Speaker 1: last year. I mean, they were what seven and six
Speaker 1: against them last year, and that's not going to get
Speaker 1: it done. You gotta do. You gotta do a little
Speaker 1: damage against the teams that are not supposed to be
Speaker 1: all that great in your division. Just a thought, wrong, No,
Speaker 1: you gotta.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the Marlins and the Nationals are two teams
Speaker 2: they got to just pound to death this season.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have to win every game, but
Speaker 1: they you know, they have, you know, three or four
Speaker 1: games over five hundred against.
Speaker 2: These guys one hundred per Well, guys, thanks appreciate it, everybody,
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. I don't have an outro song.
Speaker 2: I have an intro song that that'll be the next
Speaker 2: the next episode, we'll start doing an outro song. You know, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, eventually we're gonna go to video. We're gonna
Speaker 2: do it all. We we're gonna do it all on
Speaker 2: this podcast. So all right, by everybody, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: Talk to you next week.