Speaker 1: Very athletic, very polished pitcher, unlike a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that are getting called up now, guys who are just
Speaker 1: grunt and snort and throw the ball as hard as
Speaker 1: they can.
Speaker 2: We're gearing up for the twenty twenty five season, going
Speaker 2: team by team. Now, we've got the Phillies for you.
Speaker 2: So four storylines will crack them right now. October Offense, Hello, Phillies.
Speaker 2: Bats disappeared in back to back postseasons, including a super
Speaker 2: high chase rate in last year's NLDS. Andrew Painter's debut
Speaker 2: could be coming soon, maybe mid season July ish. Alec
Speaker 2: Boem is back in Philadelphia after many thought he would
Speaker 2: be traded. How's that going to look? And then the
Speaker 2: outfield upgrade? What is it enough to just go after
Speaker 2: Max Kepler? Did they need to switch things up a
Speaker 2: little bit more?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: Let's start Kratz with the storyline that stands out to
Speaker 2: me the most, because the Phillies clearly have been a
Speaker 2: really good regular season team, and they've done some pretty
Speaker 2: good thing in the playoffs the last several years, but
Speaker 2: they can't get this club to go the distance. And
Speaker 2: when you look at the team on paper, I feel
Speaker 2: like It's the kind of team that ten plus years
Speaker 2: from now we're going to look at and be like,
Speaker 2: how the hell did that roster of players not win
Speaker 2: a World Series? So how can they figure this outcome
Speaker 2: playoff time? Because we know they're going to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as big of an issue as
Speaker 1: we make it out to be. We had Max Munsey
Speaker 1: on talking about i think earlier this year, talking about
Speaker 1: how they needed to make changes going into the postseason.
Speaker 1: Reddy Is We were talking about Max Munsey's team kind
Speaker 1: of blowing it not and not scoring runs for two
Speaker 1: or three games. You know, it's still a short series
Speaker 1: that they just lost this year, But going back to
Speaker 1: the last two games the previous season in the NLCS
Speaker 1: when they couldn't finish the Diamondbacks off like they had issues.
Speaker 1: They had issues. And the biggest thing for me is
Speaker 1: the chase rate. And that chase rate was at like
Speaker 1: thirty one point eight percent or something that it said,
Speaker 1: And that's really hot, but it's also a product of
Speaker 1: a really small sample size. So do you believe that
Speaker 1: they just choke or they don't show up, or do
Speaker 1: they just batter worse pitching during the season, and then
Speaker 1: when they face somebody good, they don't hit them well.
Speaker 1: And in the postseason you're only facing the best pitchers.
Speaker 1: To me, I think it was a combination of both.
Speaker 1: I think something that they understand they need to make
Speaker 1: the adjustment to. But I also think, you know what
Speaker 1: if one of the games the Shadows were bad. Now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, they're taking one or two games
Speaker 1: and it's tough for either team to hit. They came
Speaker 1: out on the wrong end of it. They faced a
Speaker 1: hot Mets team. To me, I don't think there's as
Speaker 1: much to change. And maybe I'm a Phillies apologist for
Speaker 1: saying that, but I don't think it's as much as
Speaker 1: is made out that it is.
Speaker 3: They got beat. They weren't. They got beat. What else
Speaker 3: is there to say they got beat?
Speaker 2: Ye want to know why you were there?
Speaker 3: They had They had a three to one lead against
Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks lost right that. The Diamondbacks made a script
Speaker 3: flip when they started throwing them a lot of breaking balls.
Speaker 3: The Mets last year were just hot and they just lost.
Speaker 3: Now you can blame the layoff from him, You can
Speaker 3: blame whatever you want to blame for the Phillies reason.
Speaker 3: But they didn't hit enough, obviously, and they're pitching other
Speaker 3: than Wheeler wasn't great and Nola wasn't great. Now they
Speaker 3: played a division foe, so maybe they knew them, but
Speaker 3: their bullpen, they were counting on Hoffman and some of
Speaker 3: these other guys to come in and who were really
Speaker 3: good for him in the regular season, didn't get it done. Kirkering, Hoffman,
Speaker 3: all these guys didn't get it done. In Steave has
Speaker 3: gave up the Grand Slam, right, the Big Grand Slam
Speaker 3: to Lindor. He didn't get it done. So was it
Speaker 3: just familiarity because they played the Mets. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but the Mets were on fire when they played him,
Speaker 3: after having beat the Brewers the way they beat them,
Speaker 3: they just rode that wave into Philadelphia. Wheeler went out
Speaker 3: shoved game one and you're like, oh, this could be
Speaker 3: a short series. Then the next three games, the mess
Speaker 3: just outplayed them. Defensively, They played unbelievable nothing the Phillies
Speaker 3: could do there. But you know, Schwarber didn't hit other
Speaker 3: than really Harper and Castiano, the rest of the lineup
Speaker 3: did not hit at all, so they got to figure
Speaker 3: out a way to hit. Why I don't know, but
Speaker 3: they just didn't hit. It was those two guys and
Speaker 3: the rest of the lineup was not good.
Speaker 2: So if they can hit, let's get to the second storyline.
Speaker 2: Maybe they can amp up the run prevention even more
Speaker 2: with an even more dangerous starting rotation. And I think
Speaker 2: it's got the potential to do that. They acquired Hajesuslizardo.
Speaker 2: But also, in my mind, the top pitching prospect in
Speaker 2: the sport is Andrew Painter. It's him or Jackson Job.
Speaker 2: Job's obviously gonna spend some time in the bigs with
Speaker 2: the Tigers two. They're both awesome. They're pretty different looking pitchers.
Speaker 2: But Painter is this tall glass of water with all
Speaker 2: kinds of command and control. Already good, you know, good
Speaker 2: with the glove too. Already I've watched him make some
Speaker 2: nice defensive place, you know, on comebackers. What I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: like it is.
Speaker 1: That's that's two days. That's two days in a row.
Speaker 1: One of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Aj His
Speaker 1: face got me. Scott's talked about a really good defensive pitcher.
Speaker 1: Who cares? I think you said about Martin Perez, who cares?
Speaker 1: That's not solidifying your defense.
Speaker 2: Mark Burley?
Speaker 1: So what Mark Burley was really good because he threw
Speaker 1: two hundred innings and he threw strikes for like fourteen seasons.
Speaker 1: Could he field his physician? Absolutely? He was great. A
Speaker 1: good field a j tell me if I'm wrong, But
Speaker 1: a good fielding pitcher means like this much to me? Yeah? Nothing?
Speaker 2: Okay, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 3: It mattered more when there was bunting. Nobody bunts anymore,
Speaker 3: So what does it matter teams like? Imagine John Lester
Speaker 3: was an awful fielding pitcher, but he was still pretty good,
Speaker 3: wasn't he?
Speaker 1: Teams?
Speaker 2: Teams run? He holds runners well with his pickoff move,
Speaker 2: And then you guys didn't let me do you know?
Speaker 1: How do you know Andrew Payner holds runners well? We've
Speaker 1: never seen a pitch in a big league game.
Speaker 2: Oh sorry that I watched some minor league video and
Speaker 2: read scouting reports on Baseballamerica dot com. Upper nineties. Two
Speaker 2: good breakers developing a change up that probably will work
Speaker 2: out for him because everything else he's developed has looked good.
Speaker 2: Sorry for laying out the scouting report. I will go
Speaker 2: back to my layer and just say Andrew Painter good
Speaker 2: at ball krats go when we see.
Speaker 1: Andrew Paynter is good.
Speaker 3: But Andrew Paynter also already had one Tommy John.
Speaker 2: So what I don't care about him in twenty eighty nine,
Speaker 2: I care about him in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter for this year. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the twenty twenty five season. To me, all
Speaker 1: that all that Scott was saying from Baseball America was
Speaker 1: something that I could see. I watched seven innings of
Speaker 1: him pitching. It was all Arizona Fall League innings. He
Speaker 1: is a very athletic, very polished pitcher, unlike a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that are getting called up now, guys who
Speaker 1: are just grunt and snort and throw the ball as
Speaker 1: hard as they can. He has the body that you
Speaker 1: would look at if you're a scout, that you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that is a repeatable delivery with such a tall, long body.
Speaker 1: He has a frame that he can go into. Again,
Speaker 1: that doesn't really matter much for twenty twenty five, but
Speaker 1: if he can continue his command that he has had
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues, he's going to be able to
Speaker 1: step into this rotation that's already legit, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: need some help. I mean, Hazus Lizardo didn't throw a
Speaker 1: lot of innings. You can't expect two hundred innings from
Speaker 1: him like you're gonna get from Wheeler and Nola and
Speaker 1: Ranger and Christopher Sanchez like guys, they'll throw over one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty innings, so you'll need them. And you
Speaker 1: know what, if he throws strikes, maybe you can slid
Speaker 1: them into a bullpen by September and October.
Speaker 2: And there you go. The goal of winning one nothing
Speaker 2: games in October could become a reality for the Phillies.
Speaker 2: We got two more storylines to hit in the next
Speaker 2: few minutes here on the Philadelphia Phillies. Let's keep it rolling.
Speaker 2: Two more to go, BOMs bounce back, and do we
Speaker 2: feel good about the outfield. Let's start with Alec Bohm aircrats.
Speaker 2: Did you think he was going to be traded? And
Speaker 2: how will he be with this club when his name
Speaker 2: was popping up in trade rumors? Motivation, chip on shoulder,
Speaker 2: status or things are awkward.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're motivated on top of having ninety
Speaker 1: seven RBIs in a one point seventeen ops plus with
Speaker 1: a down second half, yeah, there's some motivation being traded,
Speaker 1: whether I thought he was gonna be traded or not.
Speaker 1: If he got traded, oh man, they would have gotten
Speaker 1: a Hall because their team control. There is the fact
Speaker 1: that he has improved on defense, and again ninety seven
Speaker 1: stakes just doesn't grow on trees. I didn't see it.
Speaker 1: I didn't see all this like Philly talk about oh Manuel,
Speaker 1: everybody's moving here. Could he have gone in the Tucker deal?
Speaker 1: That would have been a monster trade. So yeah, he
Speaker 1: could have. Does he bounce back if the question is
Speaker 1: his maturity needed to get amped up a little bit? Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, anytime you get put in your place.
Speaker 1: He got benched in the beginning of the playoffs like
Speaker 1: that is probably more hurtful than trade speculations. I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna be fine.
Speaker 3: I think he goes back there, and knowing what I
Speaker 3: know about the Phillies clubhouse, they will embrace him.
Speaker 1: They'll bring him in and they'll say, listen.
Speaker 3: Dude, go shut all these people up talking about you,
Speaker 3: like Eric Kratz and show him how good you can
Speaker 3: be and what you've done before. I mean, that's it.
Speaker 3: I think he'll be fine. I think he's in the
Speaker 3: perfect situation. In the perfect clubhouse to have guys say
Speaker 3: we got your back, bro go out and play and
Speaker 3: do what you did last year.
Speaker 2: And I would say the Phillies are probably the second
Speaker 2: most popular team among players when they talk about atmospheres
Speaker 2: they want to be around. Dodgers get number one in
Speaker 2: the powering right now. Someone on our show the other
Speaker 2: day said, hey, a lot of people would love to
Speaker 2: be with the Phillies. Jack Flarerity, that's right, Jack Flaherty said, Okay,
Speaker 2: last topic, last big storyline for the Phillies. They did
Speaker 2: a little work, a little maintenance, will touch up on
Speaker 2: the outfield. Do we feel like they're in a good
Speaker 2: spot now? Aj Do you like Max Kepler added to
Speaker 2: the mix here? I mean, this should be a nice
Speaker 2: ballpark for him to smash if he can stay on
Speaker 2: the field.
Speaker 3: What's what's his position? I mean, what's his role gonna be?
Speaker 3: Because you have you know Castillanos, you have is Rojas
Speaker 3: going to play center field? Where's he gonna play? Because
Speaker 3: he was not a great outfielder. He's a good outfielder,
Speaker 3: not a great outfielder. So I just want to see
Speaker 3: where he hits in this lineup there they've already you know,
Speaker 3: when does he get his playing time? How much does
Speaker 3: he get to play? Because he can be effective when healthy.
Speaker 3: I hate using the win healthy, but right now we
Speaker 3: have to because Max Kupper, when he's good with the
Speaker 3: twins and healthy, he was productive. He just had a
Speaker 3: lot of time that he missed, whether his fault or not.
Speaker 3: But I need to see him healthy, and if he is,
Speaker 3: he can definitely help these Phillies.
Speaker 2: He's gonna play left field, even though he's only played
Speaker 2: right field the last several years. I feel like he
Speaker 2: can handle it. But that's going to be the spot
Speaker 2: for him, right Kratz, because Schwarber clogs up the DH
Speaker 2: and then Castianos plays right, and then you've got left
Speaker 2: field Kepler, who should be fine, and then it's Rojas
Speaker 2: and Marsh handling center fields. Do you feel good about
Speaker 2: that outfield mix because productivity wise, in terms of war
Speaker 2: and defense and all that, it did not greade out
Speaker 2: well the outfield last year.
Speaker 1: No it didn't. I mean, I think you have elite
Speaker 1: defense in center field if Rojas is your guy. I
Speaker 1: think this really all hinges on Brandon Marsh. What kind
Speaker 1: of leash are they going to give him? Will he
Speaker 1: get to face lefties more than forty seven times. He
Speaker 1: had forty seven late appearances against lefties. So the answer
Speaker 1: probably know they're saying, no, he can't do it. To me,
Speaker 1: I think they should let him, and I think he
Speaker 1: could slide over. If Max Kepler starts to have a
Speaker 1: good year, he could slide over to center field and
Speaker 1: take care of some of that offense that Rojas doesn't
Speaker 1: give you necessarily. But then you bring Rojas in as
Speaker 1: a defensive replacement kind of in the ilk of like
Speaker 1: you know, a twenty fourteen Royals, the team I played
Speaker 1: on bringing girod Dyson that type of thing. We're getting
Speaker 1: into the weeds too much with it. To me, I
Speaker 1: think Max Kepler is a good pick up. They've tried
Speaker 1: right handers out there, they've tried right handed hitters other years.
Speaker 1: Now they might go with like a marsh Kepler type
Speaker 1: of thing. And then Wes Wilson's also going to get
Speaker 1: some opportunities when they face lefty. So they're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be good. Are they better? That's too hard
Speaker 1: to say, Wes Wilson.
Speaker 3: Listen, Wes Wilson's going to have a hard time making
Speaker 3: this team with the way it's constructed right now, because
Speaker 3: where's he gonna play. He's not playing the outfield above
Speaker 3: those other five guys you just needed.
Speaker 2: He's playing super utility bench poor guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's He's the right handed bat off.
Speaker 3: Every day, right day. So Kepler Marsh Wilson. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I I just feel like, I feel like,
Speaker 3: if you're sign Max Kelper, he's got to play every day.
Speaker 1: Just just my opinion. Okay, So if that's the case,
Speaker 1: then I push then I push Marsh out. But I
Speaker 1: don't know that Kepler can play center field because then
Speaker 1: you're not you're not playing the issues, You're not playing
Speaker 1: Marsh against lefties. That's that's what happened last year. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just no, I hear you. But
Speaker 1: I think Wes Wilson, they feel like Wes Wilson will
Speaker 1: give them something more than what because he's not playing
Speaker 1: first base. He's just that right handed bat off the bench,
Speaker 1: and I think they're gonna give him some shots out
Speaker 1: and left, especially with what he did. He's killed it
Speaker 1: since he's been up.
Speaker 2: There, and they might have the best rotation in baseball.
Speaker 2: I would say Phillies, maybe Diamondbacks, depending on if things,
Speaker 2: you know, look okay. And obviously, oh damn, there's some
Speaker 2: good rotations. Mariners and Rodgers have sick rotation, but I
Speaker 2: just get worried about the innings there, all right. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed the Phillies storylines. If you want
Speaker 2: more on the Phillies, we've got multiple episodes per week
Speaker 2: on The Philly Show. It's part of the Foul Territory Network.
Speaker 2: You can catch it wherever you get your podcast if
Speaker 2: you want to listen in the car. If you want
Speaker 2: to watch it, go to their YouTube channel. It's Todd
Speaker 2: z A Leaky and Jim Salisbury who are as dialed
Speaker 2: in on the team as anyone, and then Rubin Tomorrow,
Speaker 2: who ran the team at one point, the former GM
Speaker 2: and former player. Thanks that ft fam