Phillies SECOND HALF Outlook: All-Star Festivities, Trade Deadline Talk

With the first half of the season now over, it's time to look towards the rest of the season. What should the Phillies do at the deadline? A look at the All-Star Game festivities in Philadelphia and the upcoming series with the New York Mets! #RingTheBell #PhiladelphiaPhillies #MLBonX

Transcript

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Welcome in, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the 610 Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollihan. We're back here on this Wednesday evening as we just finished up the All-Star game, home run derby, all that kind of good stuff. So we'll get into that a little bit. We're going to be obviously talking majority here about the Phillies, especially the second half of the season, what we could expect out of the trade deadline. But first we're going to, because as I mentioned in my last episode, I was away, didn't come home until Monday evening, had work early in the morning. So we're just going to quickly talk about, briefly talk about, we're not going to go too far into it. We'll briefly talk about the Phillies taking two of three against the Detroit Tigers in that final series to end the first half of the season. So the Phillies, as we talked about throughout from what was it, July 1st, July 2nd on, uh, whenever they finished, I think it was July 2nd, they finished up that four-game series against the Pirates, and they hit the road 4th of July weekend to begin that 10-game road trip. We talked about how the Phillies on that road trip, you begin with losing two out of three to the Lowly Royals. A Royals team that is just waiting to get to the trade deadline to move off some of those pieces, waiting for the offseason to come. Same with the Cincinnati Reds. Now the Detroit Tigers are trying to get things right there, as you saw, and I'm sure as you heard them say on the broadcast numerous times, they're trying to turn their season around. But if you're the Philadelphia Phillies, of the three series that you expect to maybe lose two of three, because if I told you, well, they're going to win two series and they'll lose two out of three to one team, you may have expected it to be against the Tigers. Not the Royals, not the Reds. You would expect it to be the Tigers. But they slept walk through Kansas City. Their pitching didn't help them. Specifically Christopher Sanchez and that bullpen. In Cincinnati, their offense was was pretty rough, but they were able to scrape enough together to win two of three. And then against Detroit, the bullpen lets them down Friday night with Aaronola on the mound. Andola who pitched rather well. Now, quick on that. Aaronola probably should have. And, you know, a lot of people are going to sit here and say, well, you're Monday morning quarterbacking it. We saw what has happened throughout the majority of the year, where he goes out there through and he's only good for five innings. Well, that was the best we've seen Aranola on a consistent basis in any start this year. And you know your bullpen isn't all that great. Now, I know Mesa had been solid going into that game. But I would even have argued, well, let's try and save Mesa later on in the game. Because what if you hit that pocket in the seventh or an eighth inning and you need to go to him in order to get three outs with the three lefties coming up? Because, sure, okay, they got the best of him that night. He had been fine before, and they bested him that night. Okay. You know, that's you kind of move off with that situation. But give Aaron Nola don't take it out of his hands. That's just showing a lack of confidence that he'll be able to get the job done. That's what that shows you. Now, has he given you a ton of confidence? He has not. But at the end of the day, if he's going well and you got a shot bullpen, you gotta kind of dance with the one that brung you. Now, I know you had a pocket of lefties coming up. He had been getting guys out left and right that night. Let him show you. Now you can get Mays up in the bullpen, that's fine. Get someone up in the bullpen and then bring them in. Bolin, perhaps, who had been pretty good with inherited runners, then bring them into that game if he lets up traffic and it's time to yank him. Now, this is for all the people out there who said that, well, Don Mattingley's just totally gonna manage based off of his gut rather than any numbers that he's gonna look at. Clearly that's debunked. Because now I'm not saying he won't do that, but he doesn't go completely off of his gut. He's looking at analytics. That is a predetermined thing ahead of the game. Hey, we're gonna let him go five innings tonight. Man, we'll we'll let him go six. You know, maybe against a team that doesn't have three lefties coming up in a row, they would have stuck with Aaron Nola. But obviously, righty lefty, they're gonna go with Tim Mesa in that situation. He's not going to go with, well, he's feeling it today. Let's let him ride this out. There have been some examples this year of him doing that, but I don't think that that was gonna be his thing on Friday night with Aaronola out there. I think he was going by the books on that one, going by the numbers. The other thing that tells me that as well is after the game. Now, what tells me that he is not solely going off of numbers, though, is after the game they asked him about it, and he said, you know, that's one that I'm gonna have trouble with sleeping tonight, you know, with the fact that we pulled him and we probably could have let him go. That kind of lets you know someone else could probably be in his ear on that one saying, Hey, we gotta get him out of here. Just my two cents on the matter. Now moving on to Saturday's game where you had Christopher Sanchez go out there, pitched great, the offense able to score enough, they get the win. Duran 1-2-3, they got out of a tough jam the inning prior, and then we're on to Sunday, and Christopher Sanchez, or I'm sorry, Zach Wheeler on Sunday. Now, it had been announced that he wasn't gonna start, he wasn't gonna go to the All-Star game. He decided he didn't want the petty invite. They were kind of jerking him all around that week about whether or not he was gonna be pitching, whether he was gonna even appear, and he said, you know what, I'm d I'm done with this, I'm not gonna bother. And a lot of people took offense to it, and whatever, and you can feel however you want to feel. Personally, I wish he would have, because, you know, as I mentioned here, his his appearances in the All-Star Game, the amount of times he's been named as an All-Star, does not reflect how dominant he has been over his last six seasons with the Phillies. Really seven, but six years that they've had the All-Star game, he's only made it half the time. And he's been one of the most dominant pitchers in all of Major League Baseball in that time frame. But honestly, I wish he would have said it, but again, it was a petty invite. He was not with it, you know, at the fact that he they didn't even let him have an opportunity to back out, which they should have. They should have said, hey, we we're gonna name you as an all-star, but we're not gonna you can't pitch in the game. Okay, fine. I'll back out here. I'll let here's my teammate Jesus Lazardo, take him instead. Now, anyways, he goes out, he pitches, excellent. Philly score, five runs in the game, JT Romuto, big bases clearing double, Philly's go on to win five-nothing, and they head into the all-star break, eleven games above five hundred, just two games back of the division leading Atlanta Braves. Now, a lot of people have, you know, still kind of claimed Atlanta to win the NL East. Phillies at 54 and 43. They're right there, Braves 55 and 40. Now, the one thing is you got the Miami Marlins who's chasing you. The Nationals are now below 500. Seems like they might be coming down to earth and whatnot. But bottom line is if you don't win it, if you don't win the division, you at least want to get that top wild card spot. And it's between the Phillies and the Cubs at the moment. Phillies are a half a game, back of the Cubs who are 54 in 42, and obviously hold the tiebreaker with the season sweep of the Phillies. Again, don't tell me those early games do not matter. Now, anyways. Heading into the second half now. The Philadelphia Phillies have three big needs. They need, in this order, from my perspective, a bullpen arm, a right-handed bat, and a starting pitcher. Now, here's why I put it in that order. Because I here's the reason why I put it that way. The bullpen arm, obviously, you need a lefty that can go out there and pitch the seventh or the eighth. In the seventh or the eighth, I think they're gonna roll the dice with Brad Keller and Orion Kirkering. I don't love it, but I don't think they're gonna expect with the fact that the Phillies' farm system was just ranked 29th out of 30, I don't think they're gonna expect them to be able to go out there and add a high leverage lefty and another high leverage righty. Kerkering and Keller are gonna have to put on their big boy pants and figure it out. You got Bolin there as well. I think the righty issues kind of solved in a way. In a way. I think they're gonna just go with that. I shouldn't say solved, it's complete. So I think they're set there. The lefty is where I think they need to go out and get someone. Now the right-handed bat, they they need to get another bat into this lineup. He can't just sit there with the Derrick Hill acquisition in June and say, oh, that's it. That's all we're doing. They need to get someone else in that lineup. Now, who can they add? I don't know. But I will say this, because this is why I put the starting pitcher last. Now, I think they still need to get someone, because obviously, I don't think having Aaron Nola out there every five days is the most reliable thing, or well, Aaron Nola and Alan Ron Hell out there every five days. I don't think it's the most reliable thing. I believe they need to go out there and get someone else. Now, I think they could just go out there and pick up a guy who can come in and just be. Now, a lot of teams are going to be looking for starters. And I think Michael Walka from the Kansas City Royals is going to be a very hot commodity at the trade deadline. I think it'll be interested to see what I'll be interested to see what the Cincinnati Reds do as well. Um, and whatever team might be selling off as well. Now, the New York Mets of it all. Now, you look at the Mets bullpen, the Mets bullpen, it's kind of ironic. Last year the biggest problem was the bullpen. They failed to add at the deadline. This year their bullpen's their biggest strength, and they're going to be selling them off most likely coming up here in the next couple weeks. I wouldn't expect them to be looking just a couple hours south of them and send relievers down to Philadelphia to help them try and chase after a World Series title. I don't think that's going to happen, which is unfortunate. But, anyways, and, you know, be that as it may, there are still going to be other options for the Phillies to look into. But the starting pitcher is going to be an interesting dilemma. Now, I heard someone say that they would rather the Phillies put put the starting pitcher problem as the top issue and go after Scoobul. Well, number one, if you go after Scubol, here's the thing. Scooby's not having a that great of a season, and you're going to have to give up top prospects for him. I don't know if the Phillies are going to have the necessary means to even get him regardless. But even if you do, what are the odds that the prospects you give up are going to be worth the product you're going to be getting back? Because let's be honest, the guy is clearly not 100%. He might go out there in a postseason game, in a big postseason game, and give you maybe six innings. Maybe six. Strong innings. But you're still going to have to get nine outs from your bullpen. And wouldn't you rather get a high-leverage bullpen arm that can lock it down? But be that but now hold me here because they got Duran last year at the at the break, thinking, hey, this was going to be the closer. We're going to have leads in the postseason. He's going to close it out. He didn't have a single save last year in the postseason. So what do you need to add? You also need to add some offense. Now, is it going to be like a Harrison-Bader type trade, which it's not going to be a prolific home run hitter, and it's just going to be someone that's going to bring energy into your offense and be more of a table setter? Which, to be honest with you, that might be the more realistic of any of them. They were asking Byron Buxton if he'd be willing to waive his no-trade clause. He's not willing to do that. Now, they still, you know, the Mike Trout situation may be the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. The Phillies didn't go out this past offseason and spend at the at spend on a right-handed bat, but you think that they are going to not only A, have to take on his contract or bulk of that contract, but you also, but at the same time, you're going to give up prospects for him in thinking that the guy who's on the wrong side of 30 right now, who's another aging player, is going to give you the type of or the type of product that you expect him to bring out that he hasn't been giving in the last couple seasons at all. It's just a total, hey, we want Trout to be here, the local guy kind of, you know, pump up in this, that, and the third. It's just, I I don't think it's it's realistic enough. I don't think it's going to happen. I can't imagine it happening ever, as we're all going with that. Not at this trade deadline, not at any other trade deadline. Unless he's in the waning years of his contract and he's got, you know, maybe a season left in him and says, hey, you know what, I really want to go back and play for the Phillies. I have three three years left or whatever on my deal. You know, unless it's that type of a situation. I just don't see it happening. Now, moving off of that, talking about the CBA coming up and the labor issue, it was reported that the that the players during All-Star Week were basically saying we are not going to just roll over and die, but we would not we would not like the season to be shortened. I got an ESPN notification the other day saying that. And honestly, quickly I just turned and said, Yeah, that that's total BS. That's just your classic. Let's not make this a headline, and let's pretty much just say, you know, what we uh you know what the people want to hear about possibly not having a 60-game season like we did in 2020, or like a 81 game season, or a hundred game season, or whatever, you know, whatever else. We don't want it to be a headline for the All-Star Week. Even though it's gonna be the biggest headline in s p possibly in sports, coming up here in about eight months when it comes time for guys to report to spring training, and everyone's sitting at home, and they're about as far away, you know, as a majority of things in this country coming together and agreeing to something. So that's just kind of where that's gonna be most likely on the M O BA and you know, owners and CBA and labor law side of things coming up. But the bottom line for the Phillies, heading into the second half of the season, the making the postseason is probably gonna have to be everyone's expectations for this. Because I think what you're seeing right now already is a team that if Harper, Schwarber, and Marsh, if one of them is cold, you can forget about it for the rest of the lineup. If they're cold for a series, you can forget about it. Now they managed to take two out of three in Detroit, and they didn't need Schwarber, Harper, or Marsh to really get going. Marsh has been slumping of late, which I see a lot of people f freaking out over it. Give me a break. The guy hit above 300 for the entire first half. He's gonna hit a slump somewhere. It's just gonna happen. I I don't know what to tell you. Go back and look at Chase Utley's splits. I'm sure you'll find a slump in there at one point in time or another. Look at anyone's splits, and I'm not gonna compare them to any of these kind of players, but I'm just using it as an example. Harper's has slumps, Schwarber has slumps. I mean, come on. Give me a break. Now, the biggest concern I think for me heading in is Christopher Sanchez. Because we saw now he pitched brilliantly on Saturday against Detroit. He did not do well in the all-star game last night. Now, should that have an effect on him? Not necessarily, but psyche overall, having a total I don't want to say meltdown, but a blunder, because he didn't look like it bothered him all that much when they put up three runs in the first. But you were the only pitcher that let up more than a run in the entirety of the game. And it was over after one inning, which by the way, the all-star game was a total snooze fest. I'll just put it like that. And the Phillies, it was a little disappointing they didn't show up well. Now everyone said that, hey, the All-Star festivities themselves, City of Philadelphia did a brilliant job with it, which is good to see. That's what you that's what you want to hear. The majority of the media liked it. They liked what they saw. I thought coming out signing the Declaration of Independence of uh, you know, put signing your name on the uh on the dotted line there of where you were in the lineup, I thought that was cool. And everything that, you know, was kind of around it was was neat. I thought the home run derby, the atmosphere was was good. Um it's kind of funny. The whole issue with the people booing and all that stuff. It's funny to hear like people from New York, the New York fans, complain about it. I honestly you just have to say, well, I wonder what would have happened if the All-Star game was played in the Bronx or in City Field and someone walking by the stadium had like a Spurs jersey on. I mean, what would have happened then, right? You know? I mean, come on, for booing. Like, give me a give me a break. Now, again, the home run derby was exciting. If you're looking, you know, from a Phillies fan perspective, it would have been awesome to see Schwaber win it. Walker won it. Here's the thing it's disappointing for about ten minutes, but in those ten minutes, ask yourself, man, who cares? Because ask yourself this honest question. Can you name who won the home run derby last year? Can you name who won the home run derby two years ago, three years ago, and four years ago? You can't, because it's a neat thing in the moment, but once it's gone, it's gone. Do you even remember when the All-Star game last year? Or the year prior to that? Last year you might because of the swing off, and it was a Phillies player who won the All-Star game for them, Kyle Schwerber. But can you name the team that won two years ago and three years ago? You can't. Because it's it's an exhibition event. It's for fun. Who cares? You know, they bring out the kids it's for the kids. Not for you, not for the person that's going to live and die with their team. You don't care about it. It's like a preseason football game. Oh, okay, it happened, it's over. When does my team play again? Oh, they play again Thursday. Which, by the way, one thing I will say about the schedule coming up for this next series against the Mets, it's like you're starting the season over again. Because you got the first game Thursday night, it's a standalone game. Then you're off Friday, then you play Saturday and Sunday, like the opening series to begin a season. It's just kind of weird. Not not my cup of tea. I honestly think the All-Star break should be a full week. I think you wrap up that game on Sunday. If you play in the All-Star game, okay, you'll have to be there Tuesday and Wednesday for the festivities. Then the rest of the time, you can have a little vacation. Just like the players who are not named to the All-Star Game for about four or five days, they get to sit around and do nothing. Well then, you know what? I think they should allow themselves to have a week. Following Monday, we start the second half of the season over. We start the second half of the season up again. I think that's the way it should work. Just my two cents on the matter. But let's get into the start of the second half. Phillies and Mets. Two teams having their eyes on uh different things for the second half. Phillies obviously trying to bolster themselves up for a big second half run, looking to add it to deadline. Mets going the opposite way. They're trying to get the kids out there see what they have. And so far there's some intriguing young talent. I don't think it it should be enough for their president baseball operations to keep his job, which is one of the biggest storylines in baseball throughout the first half of the season is the collapse of the Mets and the fact that their present baseball ops, David Stern, should be fired and all that jazz. Now the second half of the year begins like this. It's Aaron Nolo on the mound, three and six with a five-seven five VR in the first half, faced the Mets once this year, where he gave up two runs on seven ints and five innings. In a game the Mets won. It was that game where Schwerberg had a rocket off his back, uh, lined out to the right fielder. If it goes over, if if it was I mean, if it was higher, it's gone and it's a walk-off grand slam, or at the very least it could have been, you know, a game-winning double or whatever have you, but the Phillies ended up losing that game. Uh now Nola, 0-2 with a 6-8-1 ERA at home this year and eight starts. He has not figured it out at home. I think he had one game against the Padres where he actually looked like he belonged to start on the mound, like he even should be worth a fraction of that contract, th uh 75% rather of that contract that he signed in November of 23. Now, Christian Scott, the young pitcher for the Mets, will get the start 2-1 with the 3-1-7 ERA this year. He went four and a third innings. He gave up two runs on three hits at City Field against the Mets, you know, roughly two or three weeks ago. He's one-on-one with the 279 ERA on the road this year. That comes in six starts. So we'll see uh what the Phillies offense can do against him, and obviously if Aranola can keep them in the game. Saturday, you'll see Jesus Lozardo, so again they're all Friday. Back Saturday, Jesus Lozardo, who's six and four with a three-one five with a three-five-one ERA. He gave up one run on four hits and five innings at City Field on that finale a couple weeks ago. He's two-four with a 6-6-0 ERA at home this year in eight starts. For whatever reason, he has not been the same pitcher on the road that he has been at home. It's funny, I mentioned about I mentioned this a little while ago. Him and Christopher Sanchez are the same in that regard. Sanchez has tended to struggle on the road. He's been terrific at home, but he hasn't been as solid on the road. Lozardo has been amazing on the road. He just hasn't been good at home. So they kind of have reverse splits between the two. Now, Sean Mania gets a start for the match. He's 2-4 at the 4-5-6 ERA. Gave up two runs on six hits in five and a third innings at City Field in that Saturday loss where the Phillies obviously had that blow-up game. Now, Mania 1-3 at the 4-3-0 ERA on the road this year. That comes in 10 appearances, so we'll see what happens on Saturday against the Phillies. And then Sunday, Alan Ron Hill takes him out. 0-2 with the 4-1-9 ERA gave up four runs on four hits and four innings versus the Mets at City Field in that Saturday loss. Only one start at home this year. We pitched four shutoutings, allowed three hits and four walks that came against the Pirates, where the Phillies lost 6-1 in that Thursday day game. Ron Hell pitched well. The bullpen didn't, and the offense couldn't do anything against Pittsburgh, which was a bummer because they could have taken that series. Now, Ron Hell, again, as I mentioned earlier, it's one of the reasons why I say you want to add someone at the deadline. Now, Nolan McLean will start this one for the Mets on Sunday. 6-6 with a 3-5-2 ERA. Hasn't faced the Phillies yet this year, but he's 1-1 with an 06-8 ERA and two starts versus the Phillies both last year, where he gave up a run on 11 hits and 13 in the third innings, three walks, and 11 strikeouts. So Phillies coming out. Listen, you gotta hope that they can keep the Mets offense at bay, even with the starting pitching they're throwing at them. But the big thing is the Phillies gotta be able to put up runs against them. They're able to do that when they faced them about a month ago, Father's Day weekend, and the Phillies were able to put up the crooked numbers on Saturday and Sunday. Let's see if they can do it again to open up the second half of the season. Now if they come out losing two of three, there's gonna be the time to sound the alarm. And I'm sure everyone's gonna be wishing they had the three three or four days off of not having to watch the Phillies that they just had for the All-Star break. But I wouldn't hit the panic button on them. I'm sure a lot of people will react that way. Now I feel like they'll win two of three against the Mets. I just think that they should be able to flex their muscle against this team and do just enough to win two of three, but it wouldn't surprise me if it went the other way, to be honest with you. Just with the pitchers the Phillies are throwing at them, you feel the most confident Saturday with Lazardo out there, and the next two days, hopefully, they'll be able to scrape scrape them together and take two of three. Thanks everyone for tuning into this episode. We will be back on, of course, to recap this three game set against the Mets. It's the second half of the year gets underway. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you then.

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Anyone knows Robert Republican?