Speaker 1: Hi, This is Chase Utley and this is the Phillies Show. Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Philly Show. Rubenamar Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd
Speaker 1: so lucky. Monday, July fifteenth, twenty twenty four, the Phillies
Speaker 1: finished the first half with sixty three wins, franchise record
Speaker 1: sixty two wins. At the All Star break, they finished
Speaker 1: the first half with a eighteeny three bludgeoning by the
Speaker 1: Oakland A's. It was like the most bizarre way to end,
Speaker 1: like the greatest first half in franchise history. They play
Speaker 1: so great all first half, dominant starting pitching, fantastic offense.
Speaker 1: And then yesterday at Citizens Bank Park, the A's just
Speaker 1: hit a barrage of home runs. Garrett Stubbs finishes on
Speaker 1: the mound, and I thought Kyle Schwarber summed it up, beast.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, this is when you need to kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, look at the big picture. Today's a good
Speaker 1: big picture day. As you go in to the second
Speaker 1: half and you spread across the country, you remind yourself that,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a pretty fun, fun first few months,
Speaker 1: and you know, you remind yourself that were in pretty
Speaker 1: good shape going into the second half, and you remind
Speaker 1: yourself that the eyes are on the big prize, which
Speaker 1: is the World Series, and so they I don't think
Speaker 1: they were too happy, but I also don't think they
Speaker 1: were too crushed, because this is not the twenty sixteen Phillies.
Speaker 1: Twenty seventeen Phillies on their way to ninety wins or
Speaker 1: ninety losses. They'll be okay, but good, good first half
Speaker 1: of the Phillies other than yesterday, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yesterday was pretty ugly. One question was was that
Speaker 2: game sponsored by little known as or Ralph because there
Speaker 2: were a lot of meatballs.
Speaker 1: There are a lot, There are a lot of meatballs yesterday.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have Larry Butler hitting a couple of bombs,
Speaker 1: and then you know, Brent Ruoker hits a couple of bombs.
Speaker 1: Brent Ruoker, who right handed bat, right corner outfielder, not
Speaker 1: really corner outfielder, more of a DH but hits a
Speaker 1: couple of bombs over the back. That was the first
Speaker 1: time ever batter's hit two four hundred fifty foot home
Speaker 1: runs or more since stat Cast started measuring the same game.
Speaker 1: That's how that's how bad. That's how many home runs?
Speaker 3: Right yeah? He does.
Speaker 4: He's got some bat speed, and he handles and he
Speaker 4: hits the ball to the all fields. If he wanted
Speaker 4: to audition for the Phillies, he certainly put on a show.
Speaker 3: But my dad, as my dad would.
Speaker 4: Say back in the day, if it was a tough
Speaker 4: game like that, he would say, they threw a shoe.
Speaker 5: He threw a shoe.
Speaker 3: He threw his shoe. It was it was ugly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a disappointing effort by Michael Mercato, who
Speaker 4: I like as a young man. I might like the kid,
Speaker 4: but he just has, especially over his last couple of outings,
Speaker 4: just not able to command anything. I really like his arm.
Speaker 4: I really like his breaking ball. He's got an excellent curveball,
Speaker 4: but that curveball was shaped differently. It's not breaking in
Speaker 4: the twelve to six fashion. It's more, you know, sort
Speaker 4: of ten whatever, ten five or whatever. It's just not
Speaker 4: the same sort of break. And he's not able to
Speaker 4: command it. He can't command your fastball, he can't command
Speaker 4: your best pitch.
Speaker 3: You're in trouble.
Speaker 4: And he left a lot of pitches in the middle
Speaker 4: of the plate and even got a little tidbit funny story.
Speaker 4: I was driving up here to Carbondale and lo and behold,
Speaker 4: I run into Topper Rob Thompson at a stopped random
Speaker 4: as he's driving up to As he's driving up to Canada.
Speaker 4: It was hilarious. I pull up and I'm looking to
Speaker 4: my right. I go, that's I could see his gate,
Speaker 4: you know, guy he sort of walks with sort of
Speaker 4: a side to side gate and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, that's Topper. So I stopped the car, rolled down
Speaker 3: him and I said hey. He looked at me, He's like,
Speaker 3: what are you doing here? It's hilarious. I took a
Speaker 3: picture of him there.
Speaker 4: I pt the picture a couple of friends of mine
Speaker 4: and I was like, it was so funny.
Speaker 3: We were sitting here.
Speaker 4: So anyway, he was he was concerned that maybe it
Speaker 4: got to the point where guys were tipping pitches or
Speaker 4: something like that, because they were getting tattooed so badly.
Speaker 3: But it's weird.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were tipping. That's some of
Speaker 2: that stuff was right over the plate.
Speaker 4: Oh no, that's why I told him. I said, you know,
Speaker 4: I just hadn't my advantage point watching the game partially
Speaker 4: from the ball park and partially from the studio.
Speaker 3: It looked like.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of pitches that were literally right down
Speaker 4: Broad Street and then the nitro zone.
Speaker 1: Well, the only reason that Mercado even sniffed yesterday was
Speaker 1: because Zach Wheeler could not pitch because he's had the
Speaker 1: back issue. And you know, talk to Zach yesterday. He's
Speaker 1: going to come back the second series following the All
Speaker 1: Star break in Minnesota, so he's gonna have about twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen days between starts. So, you know, Zach Wheeler,
Speaker 1: they want to keep him healthy, so they skipped his
Speaker 1: start yesterday. They're going to push him back in the rotation.
Speaker 1: That rotation guy's first half phenomenal performance. Nothing I've seen
Speaker 1: close to that since twenty eleven, maybe go back even
Speaker 1: further than that. I can't remember a time of rotate.
Speaker 1: Philly's rotation was his dominant in the first half with Wheeler, Sanchez, Suarez, Nola,
Speaker 1: three All Stars. Nola could have been an All Star
Speaker 1: if he really dig into those numbers. He's really has
Speaker 1: some All Star worthy numbers as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the rotation was great, but you know they end
Speaker 2: the first half was concern. You know, Zach Wheeler doesn't
Speaker 2: make a start Ranger Suarez has said, really, three poor
Speaker 2: ones in a row and the fourth one was only
Speaker 2: so so, so you know, there's two big concerns there.
Speaker 2: And until those guys are back on the mound looking
Speaker 2: like themselves, you know, I will continue to have those
Speaker 2: concerns because this team is built on pitching. We saw
Speaker 2: this weekend what happens when you don't get good pitching.
Speaker 2: One of the worst teams in baseball lights you up.
Speaker 2: And that's what happened. They didn't get that, and in particular,
Speaker 2: you didn't get that good starting pitching. I know yesterday
Speaker 2: was a it was a bullpen game, but All Star
Speaker 2: Break hitting at the right time. You know, Zach Wheeler
Speaker 2: went from his back tightened up in the in the dugout.
Speaker 5: Between innings too.
Speaker 2: He's had it for two or three starts, to having
Speaker 2: an MRI, to missing a start to now getting twelve
Speaker 2: days off, So.
Speaker 5: You know, right, yes, I'm concerned.
Speaker 2: You know, Ranger Suarez went from from a bad one
Speaker 2: to dead arm to now he's gonna type back. He's
Speaker 2: not gonna pitch on the All Star Game. I'll be
Speaker 2: concerned until I see him back looking like himself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, totally, agree with you, Jim.
Speaker 4: My concerns are different from with Zach then with them
Speaker 4: with Ranger.
Speaker 3: With Zack it's the back.
Speaker 4: I'm hopeful that it's just tightenus and it's just bothering
Speaker 4: them and it's no big deal. Backs are tricky, as
Speaker 4: we know, they can be very tricky. Cole Hamil's has
Speaker 4: to deal with it even at times you see you
Speaker 4: see Bryce Harper having to deal with it from time
Speaker 4: to time. They're they're sort of a tricky thing because
Speaker 4: they're attached to everything right, and so you hope that's okay.
Speaker 3: And then with Ranger, it's.
Speaker 4: More of a workload thing for me because he works
Speaker 4: soon many innings in the first part of this and
Speaker 4: so many ups and downs in the first part of
Speaker 4: this season that he's it's sort of in a area
Speaker 4: where he's never been in his career, and so it's
Speaker 4: important for him to sort of bounce back and get
Speaker 4: the rest necessary and be refreshed and start pitching the
Speaker 4: way you know he was pitching in the early part
Speaker 4: of the season, because he was, you know, Cliff Lee
Speaker 4: like like a robot man.
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable.
Speaker 4: And I made mention to this, I guess I'm pre
Speaker 4: and poster at some point where I felt like he
Speaker 4: was throwing with the ball with a lot more effort
Speaker 4: over the last.
Speaker 3: Couple of games.
Speaker 4: You can see him just trying to make his pitches
Speaker 4: instead of just letting them happen fluid and easy. He's
Speaker 4: trying to spin that breaking ball, and he's trying to
Speaker 4: get that fastball to its spot, and it just looked
Speaker 4: like he had a lot more effort to his delivery.
Speaker 4: And I have a feeling that it might be have
Speaker 4: to do with some fatigue uh in his overall body
Speaker 4: and arm. And hopefully this break will get them, get
Speaker 4: them going again and get them.
Speaker 3: Refreshed to uh to roll through the second half.
Speaker 4: Because you're right, Jim, if they're not pitching, uh, it
Speaker 4: makes life really difficult. Look at look at some of
Speaker 4: the teams out there. I mean, you can talk, you
Speaker 4: can talk about all the teams that are that are struggling.
Speaker 4: If it's not starting pitching, man, you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: Well you know you say, Jim, you used the word concern.
Speaker 1: And Rob Thompson before the game he started, was asked
Speaker 1: if he is concerned about his rotation. He said, I
Speaker 1: don't want to say I'm concerned, concerned, but it's always
Speaker 1: on my mind. Like you said, this team is built
Speaker 1: on starting pitching, and he he basically said late August.
Speaker 1: There's a stretch of games in like late August, early September.
Speaker 1: He's like, we're probably going to go to a six rotation.
Speaker 1: Now they've done that each of the last week. But
Speaker 1: he you know, sometimes the managers and I understand why
Speaker 1: you don't want to commit too early. Then you don't
Speaker 1: do it and you're not getting all these questions asked.
Speaker 1: The next few is why you're not doing it? But
Speaker 1: he said, we're probably going to go to a six
Speaker 1: man at some point, and it's probably here's the pocket
Speaker 1: of games it was like late August, early September where
Speaker 1: we're going to go to a six man because they
Speaker 1: have to have Wheelers who as healthy. They have to
Speaker 1: have Nola and Sanchez healthy, because you don't want to
Speaker 1: be going in there with one of those guys down.
Speaker 1: And now you're going to is it Spencer Turnbull, he's
Speaker 1: not really back yet, is it Taiwan Walker still doesn't
Speaker 1: have to split or whatever's happening at that time. So
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on going forward.
Speaker 2: And I think that makes sense that, like you said,
Speaker 2: they've done it before. Look, I think this break both
Speaker 2: of these guys are getting makes sense right now. My
Speaker 2: point is I just want to see them come out
Speaker 2: of it fixed and looking like themselves. And Ranger, it's funny,
Speaker 2: you all we talked about it, and we all have
Speaker 2: been asked about it.
Speaker 5: In other places.
Speaker 2: There was so much euphoria about the way Ranger was
Speaker 2: pitching April May June. You know, he looks like Cliff Lee.
Speaker 2: He's been terrific. He's a favorite for the cy young
Speaker 2: and I would always caution to the point of maybe
Speaker 2: being a wet blanket. You've got to do it for
Speaker 2: six months, and this is why you know, you've got
Speaker 2: to do it for six months. So hopefully this is
Speaker 2: just him encountering a speed bump and a challenging speed
Speaker 2: bump on the road to learning how to do it
Speaker 2: for six months and having his body being able to
Speaker 2: deliver for six months. You know, hopefully he'll he'll you know,
Speaker 2: pole vault over this speed bump and come out on
Speaker 2: the other side better. Because he's crucial. You know, we've
Speaker 2: seen the bats can disappear for a night for two
Speaker 2: nights for three nights, baseball happens. We saw it here
Speaker 2: last October at a really inopportune time. But the pitching
Speaker 2: and the starting pitching especially has to remain consistent. That's
Speaker 2: kind of what this team is built on. Hat tip
Speaker 2: to the bullpen as well. It's really built on it.
Speaker 2: It's pitching staff and you need your best guys to
Speaker 2: be your best guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And for me, it's
Speaker 4: not really an emotional thing. For uh. For for Ranger,
Speaker 4: it's more of a physical thing because I think emotionally,
Speaker 4: there's no question in my mind he's not scared.
Speaker 3: He's not going to back down. That's that's not the issue.
Speaker 4: It's really having his body do what he what it
Speaker 4: needs to do to perform.
Speaker 1: So you look back at the first half, first half,
Speaker 1: Cy Young Philly Cy Young Award winner. Who do you pick?
Speaker 1: There's a lot of options, There are a lot of options.
Speaker 1: Who do you if you had to pick the Phillies
Speaker 1: best pitcher? Give him a fifty dollars gift card to Starbucks,
Speaker 1: to Starbucks, you know, let him go out and get.
Speaker 3: A give a sponsor.
Speaker 1: We're going to sponsorship, get a cold brew, go get
Speaker 1: a cold brew or whatever you want them to get.
Speaker 1: Who are you giving the fifty dollars gift card to
Speaker 1: go ahead?
Speaker 4: M I got, I got Zach Wheeler. He's still consistent.
Speaker 4: He's just so so consistent. I just love the way
Speaker 4: he goes about it. And even when he doesn't have
Speaker 4: his best stuff, he's still you know, he's still firing
Speaker 4: off six innings for you, and you know, throwing a
Speaker 4: mixing an a quality start.
Speaker 3: So it's Zach for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's ten and four two seven zero e Ra
Speaker 1: Nola leads the staff with wins with eleven. But but
Speaker 1: Wheeler's got the lowest dra for for whatever that's worth.
Speaker 1: Leads the team in strikeouts only thirty five walks in
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixteen innings. He's my guy as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with you, but I would you know,
Speaker 2: the speed bumps put a lot of attention on Ranger.
Speaker 5: He had a great first half, still he did.
Speaker 2: Chris had a great first half and underappreciated. Aaron Nola
Speaker 2: had his you know, had a terrific, terrific, consistent, workman
Speaker 2: like professional, successful first half as well.
Speaker 5: So Wheeler is the winner. But you know they go
Speaker 5: four d pretty good.
Speaker 3: They do. There's a lot of one. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of one. A's there too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they're really I mean three love.
Speaker 3: I love the consistency of Aaron Nola. I mean he
Speaker 3: really is.
Speaker 4: I mean he gives up home runs because he leaves
Speaker 4: pitches in the middle of the place, because he throws
Speaker 4: so many strikes, and that's going to happen.
Speaker 3: But you know, Cole Hamill's used to give up home
Speaker 3: runs left and right.
Speaker 4: I mean you start looking at the length and breadth
Speaker 4: of what Nola's done. I mean it's pretty outstanding as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Noa's numbers are I mean just strikeouts. He's only walked
Speaker 1: twenty seven guys in one hundred and nineteen innings. You're right, Reuben,
Speaker 1: He's around the plate a lot. He gives up some
Speaker 1: home runs but doesn't give up a lot of base runners.
Speaker 1: First half MVP no brainer, right, Bryce Harper gets that
Speaker 1: hands down. You can't really make it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess you could make if he wanted to be contrarying.
Speaker 1: You could say Alec Bohm is the first half MVP,
Speaker 1: and you could say trade. You could say Trade Turner
Speaker 1: is the first half m VP. But it's got to
Speaker 1: be Bryce Harper. The numbers were just off the charts.
Speaker 2: Good it's Harper, but you know, terrific supporting cast. You
Speaker 2: mentioned Turner. I mean, gosh, he's been other worldly since
Speaker 2: coming back. Schwarber's having a great year, and Alec Bowman
Speaker 2: has got seventy RBI's and he's really you know, Bryce
Speaker 2: Harper's player of the month twice.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, yes and June Yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know, BAM has done a pretty good job
Speaker 2: behind Bryce Harper, given guys pictures something to think about.
Speaker 2: I think BOM's had a tremendous year as well, so
Speaker 2: really good supporting cast behind Bryce Harper. But you know
Speaker 2: he's right there with all he's doing.
Speaker 1: I saw, yeah, I was gonna say real quick, but
Speaker 1: I think both got thirty three doubles. I saw this
Speaker 1: in the notes post game notes. I'm kind of probably
Speaker 1: butchering this, but it's like the second player with like
Speaker 1: thirty plus doubles Phillys player at the breaks other than
Speaker 1: Chase Sally's. So these guys turned into a doubles machine
Speaker 1: and an RBI machine.
Speaker 4: It's spectacular what he's done. And really, when you think
Speaker 4: about why Bryce Harper's had such a great first half.
Speaker 4: You got to give some love to Alec Boom from
Speaker 4: the time that he slid into that four hoole.
Speaker 3: Who was going to be that guy? It was JT.
Speaker 4: In the early part of the season, Alex Boom started
Speaker 4: swinging the bat. I remember mentioning in a post game
Speaker 4: one time at some point that guy's going to have
Speaker 4: to slide into that forehole to protect Bryce Harper so
Speaker 4: that Bryce Harper can get some pitches to hit Boom.
Speaker 4: It happened, And I mean those two guys were killing
Speaker 4: it for a while.
Speaker 1: They were killing it for a while, killing it. You
Speaker 1: look at just keep looking back at the first half.
Speaker 1: Biggest disappointment has got to be wit Maryfield. Wit Maryfield,
Speaker 1: they released him the other day. Now they're going to
Speaker 1: give Wes Wilson a looking left field. Clearly they're going
Speaker 1: to be looking for a right handed bat with some
Speaker 1: pop to play some left field. But you know, wit
Speaker 1: Maryfield at the time looked like a great little signing.
Speaker 1: You know, one of your eight million dollars veteran bat
Speaker 1: off the bench. He can play some left field short stuff,
Speaker 1: let you know, the whole deal, and just just did
Speaker 1: not produce. Uh so they let him go on Friday,
Speaker 1: so you.
Speaker 4: Right, right, well, I have I have another guy that
Speaker 4: and that's Bryce to stop for me. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was very disappointing that wit Marryfield didn't because you know,
Speaker 4: he came in with the resume that was pretty strong.
Speaker 4: And making that adjustment We've talked about this a million times,
Speaker 4: but making that adjustment to be in a one one
Speaker 4: a week or two a week player from being a
Speaker 4: you know, six, six times a week player so difficult
Speaker 4: for some players. And he just didn't really uh he
Speaker 4: didn't really packed the team.
Speaker 3: A whole lot, but Bryson stopped.
Speaker 4: I mean it warrants some discussion because I see things
Speaker 4: in his swing right now, especially at the end, that
Speaker 4: are concerning. He's not having the quality of the bat
Speaker 4: that he had pretty much for the first two years
Speaker 4: of his career. You see him sort of flailing it pit,
Speaker 4: just trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark.
Speaker 4: He's dropping down, he's not using his top hand, there's
Speaker 4: not that length through the zone in his swing to
Speaker 4: make consistent contact, and it just looks like he's trying
Speaker 4: to drive the ball out of the ballpark.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure why he's trying to do that. Is
Speaker 3: it arbitration? Is it? You know?
Speaker 4: Is he just pressing? And I just thought that he
Speaker 4: would move in leaps and bounds this year. He was
Speaker 4: going to be like the guy that I thought would
Speaker 4: take the very next step to becoming like a tremendous
Speaker 4: everyday player and perhaps a possible All Star type player.
Speaker 4: And while his defense has been excellent, there's no question
Speaker 4: about that, he hasn't let him affect him there. I
Speaker 4: just don't see him having the quality of the bats
Speaker 4: that he should be having.
Speaker 3: And I don't know.
Speaker 4: If it's he's pressing for some reason or trying to
Speaker 4: do too much, but I just don't it's a little
Speaker 4: surprising that he hasn't taken that next step forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Stot's hitting. Let's these numbers, they are eye
Speaker 1: popping there. He's betting two thirty eight six from runs
Speaker 1: forty two RBIs a six seventy six ops. And then
Speaker 1: he get into the stackcast numbers, the exit velo numbers,
Speaker 1: the hard hit rate, those are all I mean, way down,
Speaker 1: way way way down, towards the bottom of all hitters
Speaker 1: in baseball. Rob said yesterday that he thinks he keeps
Speaker 1: kind of he's in between. He when some days he
Speaker 1: comes out there and he's hyper aggressive, some days he
Speaker 1: gets out there and he's hyper passive. They want him
Speaker 1: to find try to strike a happy medium. I know,
Speaker 1: Stock going into the season said he needs to try
Speaker 1: to stick with his approach more, or his game plan
Speaker 1: more getting into the batter's box. And he says quite often,
Speaker 1: you know, he'll be looking for, say something away, and
Speaker 1: the first pitch is in, and then he'll just abandon
Speaker 1: that game plan and he'll start looking for something in
Speaker 1: and then the pitch is away and meet you know,
Speaker 1: fastball in the outer half, and then he just doesn't
Speaker 1: swing at it. So now he's now he's in a
Speaker 1: hole and I was in an old two hole. Now
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what he's doing. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's getting into that where he's given up on
Speaker 1: his game plan again. But yeah, those are not great numbers.
Speaker 5: He has not handled fastball like he has in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think your point about lately he looks
Speaker 2: like he's trying too hard. Uh, what's you know, what's
Speaker 2: the reason for that. I think when guys get off
Speaker 2: the slow starts, and you know, they know more as expected,
Speaker 2: and they try to get it all back at once.
Speaker 2: So hopefully this and you can't do that, so hopefully
Speaker 2: this All Star break will be a cleansing breath for
Speaker 2: him and he can kind of hit the rece that
Speaker 2: button Friday night in Pittsburgh. Because we mentioned how much
Speaker 2: they need Suarez, they need this guy too. He's a
Speaker 2: vital cog and they need more from him.
Speaker 3: Especially if he's going to hit behind Bom.
Speaker 4: I mean, Bom needs some protection too, and he continues,
Speaker 4: you know, Rob Thompson keeps throwing him out there behind Boem,
Speaker 4: you know, doing that left right combination.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, you talk about.
Speaker 4: Aggressiveness, Aggressiveness doesn't mean hit the ball out of the ballpark.
Speaker 4: Aggressiveness means getting a pitch, seeing it and driving it,
Speaker 4: you know. And I think he needs to stay in
Speaker 4: the middle of the field more consistently because he has
Speaker 4: the ability to hit the ball the other way. He
Speaker 4: has the ability to hit the ball at the middle.
Speaker 4: He doesn't have to pull the baseball to have success,
Speaker 4: and in fact, he'll All you gotta do is watch
Speaker 4: Bryce Harper, you know, when he's driving the ball to
Speaker 4: the opposite field, hitting the ball out to the oppice field,
Speaker 4: but hitting doubles to left field, that's when he has
Speaker 4: his most success. Guess a much more better plate coverage,
Speaker 4: And I think I think you're right, Jimmy. He needs
Speaker 4: a reset and hopefully he gets back into that right
Speaker 4: mindset where he's just usually using the middle of the
Speaker 4: field more aggressively.
Speaker 5: Maybe maybe maybe he needs a standing ovation.
Speaker 1: That seemed to work Tray.
Speaker 4: The second point all work for trayh.
Speaker 3: You never know.
Speaker 1: A little bit of love for Bryce to stop, maybe
Speaker 1: that goes a long way. You know, Nick Castiani's finished
Speaker 1: the half pretty well. He got to such a brutal start,
Speaker 1: and we've talked about him a lot. He had two
Speaker 1: sixty eight nine home runs thirty RBIs from May nineteenth
Speaker 1: through the All Star break. Seven that's a seven ninety
Speaker 1: two ops. That makes him one of the top third
Speaker 1: most productive hitters in baseball since May nineteenth. You know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have some ugly games in there, but he's
Speaker 1: he's That should make the Phillies feel a little bit
Speaker 1: better going into the second half, knowing that they're getting
Speaker 1: some more consistent production from Nick as they try to
Speaker 1: address their needs. I would imagine right. If you're Dave
Speaker 1: Dombrowski feel better about that lineup.
Speaker 5: There still is a need for a right handed bat.
Speaker 2: If you could get you know, the right guy to
Speaker 2: plato him with Marsh, you're going to have a kind
Speaker 2: of the cumulative the combination of a pretty good player.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let me ask I want to ask you
Speaker 1: guys this question. I don't think he's going to come
Speaker 1: to the Phillies, but we talked about him at the
Speaker 1: beginning to show Brent Rooker he'ds those two four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty foot bombs last night. He has played some
Speaker 1: left field before, but he's only played left field I
Speaker 1: think nine times all year and not once since May thirtieth. He's,
Speaker 1: I guess, regarded as a below average defender and left field.
Speaker 1: Do you you know Rubyen what you know? You were
Speaker 1: in this spot. You talk a lot about defense and
Speaker 1: how you love defense, and you got to have the defense.
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: How about the pitchers? Could you make a guy like
Speaker 1: that work knowing that he's a below average defender and
Speaker 1: knowing that Schwarber's your DH.
Speaker 4: It depends on what below average defender means. Because we
Speaker 4: used to talk about Pat Burrow not being able to
Speaker 4: you know, being you know, below average, and the below
Speaker 4: average was because he could not get to certain balls
Speaker 4: because he just couldn't move that well.
Speaker 3: He had that foot problem for a while.
Speaker 4: But the routes and the balls that he could get
Speaker 4: to Pat would catch. If he's that type of left fielder,
Speaker 4: then I'm fine with it, because if you get to
Speaker 4: the ball, you catch the base balls that you're supposed
Speaker 4: to catch, then I'm okay with you know, getting a
Speaker 4: guy like that. I don't know enough about his defense
Speaker 4: because I haven't seen him play enough to be able
Speaker 4: to ask the right yet to be able to know
Speaker 4: whether to have that opinion. I'm sure their scouts had,
Speaker 4: you know, over the years, Mike Gondo, I'm sure has
Speaker 4: his boys having seen him at some point out there
Speaker 4: in left field, and they probably have some reports on him.
Speaker 4: But you have to you have to be careful about
Speaker 4: this because he's got to be able to catch the baseball.
Speaker 4: And you're not putting Kyle Schwarber out there to play
Speaker 4: left field. That's just not happening. The man, you know,
Speaker 4: blew out blew Out is Uh is growing going out there,
Speaker 4: like the one game he played out there, Kyle Schuber's
Speaker 4: the DH and they're not platuning the dhs, so so.
Speaker 3: I think it's a tough decision.
Speaker 4: He's a guy that if you're going to go get him,
Speaker 4: you package him with Miller and then you really have
Speaker 4: to give up a lot for him.
Speaker 3: If you're going to give up a lot and you.
Speaker 4: Get it to dip into the Justin Crawford, Abel Painter
Speaker 4: Miller type of prospect able not as much, but certainly
Speaker 4: Painter Crawford and Miller.
Speaker 3: If you're dipping into.
Speaker 4: That pool, I would me as a GM, I would
Speaker 4: move one of those guys for those two players, but
Speaker 4: not for just one, okay, because then you're hitting two
Speaker 4: needs and you just roll the dice. Then you're getting
Speaker 4: a stud guy in the back end for five years
Speaker 4: and you kind of go from there. That's the only
Speaker 4: way I would I would move any of those big.
Speaker 2: Three before we get touched get back to that with
Speaker 2: Miller and stuff. I mean, defense is such such a
Speaker 2: real consideration for me, especially behind this pitching staff, especially
Speaker 2: in October, when one run, one run can can make
Speaker 2: you dreams come through or break your heart, you know.
Speaker 2: I think back to Game five with it. I think
Speaker 2: It was Game five of the twenty twenty two World
Speaker 2: Series at Citizens Bank Park. Hoskins doesn't make a play
Speaker 2: chas McCormick does make a play that was such a such,
Speaker 2: you know, such a big turnaround defense. Is you know,
Speaker 2: to me a real consideration with Rooker. I wonder if
Speaker 2: the guy from Anaheim Taylor Ward or the guy from
Speaker 2: Washington Lane Thomas both hit lefties, and wonder if that
Speaker 2: might be a better fit. Obviously they don't have the
Speaker 2: dynamic power that Rooker has. I mean, that was a
Speaker 2: show he put on, and then you know, right in
Speaker 2: this ballpark in front of this team, there was drama
Speaker 2: to it. But Friday night Miller put on a show too.
Speaker 5: What a body? What a release? What I want an arm?
Speaker 5: What ride on that fastball?
Speaker 2: And you think about it, how expensive he'd be because
Speaker 2: of the control of five years of control. But there
Speaker 2: are mitigating factory he had the he had a strain
Speaker 2: of his UCL last year.
Speaker 5: Relievers can be up and down. You don't know what
Speaker 5: he's going to be like.
Speaker 2: Over that five years of control in some way, and
Speaker 2: then you don't know what the elbow is gonna be like.
Speaker 2: In some ways, he might be like a perfect fit
Speaker 2: here because he might get the best two or three
Speaker 2: years of his career in the next two or three
Speaker 2: years and fit that would fit right in with this
Speaker 2: team's window. You got three years of Wheeler coming, you
Speaker 2: got a few years that, You've got more years of Nola,
Speaker 2: but you know, you got Turner Schwarber for another year.
Speaker 2: You get Turner and Harper for a number of years.
Speaker 2: You kind of get everybody just north of thirty. They
Speaker 2: need to win one this year, next year, the year after.
Speaker 2: This window is right here. Miller would really fit in
Speaker 2: that window for me. I guess the question is would you.
Speaker 1: What would the price be right? Because if you're Oakland,
Speaker 1: you're holding the Phillies over Barrel.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it's good.
Speaker 4: I mean it almost feels like you'd have to give
Speaker 4: up two of those guys.
Speaker 3: And if you have to give up two.
Speaker 4: Of those guys and then no, but if you have
Speaker 4: to give up one of them to get both those players,
Speaker 4: I would consider it and another package. Maybe it's Able
Speaker 4: and Crawford, maybe it's Abel and Miller, maybe it's you know,
Speaker 4: or some other pitching prospect or young prospect infielder that
Speaker 4: they have. There's a couple of and they have way
Speaker 4: down below. They're pretty darn good. I mean, that's they're
Speaker 4: They're not the only prospects they have. We're just talking
Speaker 4: about the blue dip. You know, you quote unquote can't miss.
Speaker 4: There's no camp misses. By the way, I will tell
Speaker 4: you that unequivocally, there's no camp misses. Paul Skens is
Speaker 4: a camp mess. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 2: I remember being camped out in Toronto and the summer
Speaker 2: of the dock summer, the summer of Onon and we're
Speaker 2: trying to get doc.
Speaker 5: And and you know, there was.
Speaker 2: No way you're gonna give up ray Back and Brown
Speaker 2: and there was no way you're gonna give it either one.
Speaker 5: And then you relented yoursel include one and neither one
Speaker 5: of them. Really it happened.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: It's a tough call.
Speaker 4: I do think that they will be aggressive, how aggressive
Speaker 4: to the point where they would move one of those
Speaker 4: big boys.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a fascinating story.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: I love that they're in.
Speaker 4: This position because it's exciting and you love being in
Speaker 4: that in that buyer's mode.
Speaker 3: There's nothing like it. Yeah, And it's.
Speaker 2: Difference maker Rooker or you know, a right handed batt
Speaker 2: or or Miller mel Miller.
Speaker 3: It's no.
Speaker 1: So he was so good the other night. Every time
Speaker 1: you looked up on the radars on the scoreboard, it
Speaker 1: was one o three.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh, it was all of a sudden. Now you can
Speaker 2: move everybody down a little bit. What a bullpen you have, you.
Speaker 3: Know right now? And Alvarado's sort of struggling right now.
Speaker 4: And I think that that also sort of opens up
Speaker 4: the discussion of Ryan Kirkring all as as effectively people
Speaker 4: are seeing him a concern about.
Speaker 1: Sir Anthony Domingez as well. You know you have right
Speaker 1: now you probably have just sort of it up and down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have you have strom Hoffman, kirk Ring and then
Speaker 1: maybe Alvarado. And then after that you start, yeah, you
Speaker 1: start tinkering, You start wondering. You don't want to be
Speaker 1: in that position in the postseason where you don't have
Speaker 1: a guy available. Now you're going to you know, you
Speaker 1: and your marte whoever's on the bullpen, and that.
Speaker 3: You gotta have somebody that you can trust.
Speaker 4: Rob Thompson needs somebody you can trust back there to
Speaker 4: get a two outs or three outs, and doesn't matter
Speaker 4: where those two outs anytime after the sixth inning, because
Speaker 4: you know you're you have a pretty good chance of
Speaker 4: getting six innings out of your starters.
Speaker 3: F you know you have eighteen excuse me, you got
Speaker 3: you know, nine outs. Where you got to be able
Speaker 3: to get those nine outs some way, shape or form,
Speaker 3: and you gotta get guys you can trust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. It's gonna be fun to talk about trade.
Speaker 1: We'll be back later this week to talk second half.
Speaker 1: More on the second half. Today was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a look back at the first half, but we
Speaker 1: couldn't help ourselves. We're already talking about the trade deadline
Speaker 1: and two guys we just saw this weekend. But it's
Speaker 1: fun to talk trade deadline. I like crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm jump.
Speaker 3: The gun guy, I can't hold.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You like making deals, You like making deals?
Speaker 3: You should making deal?
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, baby.
Speaker 1: So we'll be back later this week talk second half,
Speaker 1: talk trade deadline. We'll get into some more options at
Speaker 1: the trade deadline. Some guys, they might be looking at
Speaker 1: what you throw in. We'll play GM. It's not our
Speaker 1: it's not our prospects, it's not our future. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: not our money, it's it's not our money. We'll be
Speaker 1: doing that, so all right, guys, enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: your day. Thanks to everybody for listening.
Speaker 6: Guys, Jim, this is the Philly Show. If you haven't already,
Speaker 6: please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 6: You can also watch us on our YouTube channel. If
Speaker 6: you like what we do, give us a review, tell
Speaker 6: a friend. Catch Reuben, Jim and Me on Phillies Nation TV,
Speaker 6: presented by Valley Forge Tourism. New episodes air an hour
Speaker 6: before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays
Speaker 6: air throughout the week and on Philliesmation dot com. Get
Speaker 6: more of Reuben's analysis during before and after Phillies games
Speaker 6: on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four,
Speaker 6: WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network. Rejim at the Allcity
Speaker 6: Network at allphl y dot com. Find more of me
Speaker 6: at MLB dot com, the philliesb Newsletter, and occasionally on
Speaker 6: Mlbnetwork