215 Sports Podcast with Andrew Glover & Tyler Lutgen
A weekly podcast created by two friends who like talking about sports, primarily Philly sports, covering recaps of all our favorite teams, as well as all other sports and giving our opinions about everything.
215 Sports Podcast with Andrew Glover & Tyler Lutgen
The Start of The Phillies Offseason - Ep. 27
Eagles trade for players ahead of game vs Packers. Union is moving on to the eastern semifinal. Sixers go 1-2 on road trip. We break down every free agent the Phillies have.
Hosted and produced by Andrew Glover with Tyler Lutgen as co-host.
Music from Pixabay.
Alright, welcome back everyone. No headphones today. You can't hear. Oh yeah, no headphones safe for me. I just didn't feel like playing head, I just didn't feel like wearing headphones. Alright, fair enough. But um So you wanted to do a little off-season start of the off-season.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just a little baseball. A little deep dive into the off-season before we really get into the meat of the off-season, you know?
SPEAKER_01:No, yeah, I totally understand. But first thing, we still gotta cover every other team in the city. So you want to start it off trades, I guess. Yeah, the Eagles trained him for JLo Phillips for a third round pick. Six and a half sacks in eight games under Fangio. So he knows the scheme of Vic Fangio.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he's very familiar with it. He was in Miami for the first, what, four years of his career?
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, because this is his fifth year he's on his his end of his rookie contract.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is uh his fifth year option year. So if he plays well enough, then he's probably gonna end up getting a good contract somewhere other than here, just because I don't really think that the Eagles are gonna have the money to pay him. But I mean, who knows? I mean, with Cowie Howie, with Cowie, I mean with Howie, he can work the cap. There we go. Combined Howie and Cap. He can work the cap like no one else, so I wouldn't put it past him to find some way to bring him back if he has a good year. But hopefully, I mean, you know, for him, this is obviously big for him going forward. He's gonna have what? Yeah, he wants to prove himself on six national games from the end of the two coming up Green Bay and Detroit. And then you got a Monday night game.
SPEAKER_01:Against the Chargers, he got an Amazon Prime game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the Prawn games.
SPEAKER_01:So he's gonna want to show out. Exactly. He wants to show out. He wants to, you know. He's playing on a playoff team now. Exactly. He knows the Dolphins weren't doing anything.
SPEAKER_00:He's no longer with an organization that has a lame duck head coach that knows he's a lame duck head coach, where he's like, I'm literally just here because they refused to fire him.
SPEAKER_01:Dude's saying that he's the best thing that's ever happened to him is getting traded to the Eagles. I'm saying, what the hell happened in Miami that made you want out of Miami so bad? Yeah, what the hell were they doing over there? What were they doing in Miami that said, like, I this is the best thing that's ever happened to me was getting traded to Philadelphia.
SPEAKER_00:He even said, you know, I love the weather here, like, and made that a statement in which his introductory press conference. Where it's like, dude, you just came from a place where it's like 85 to 75 and sunny, like every single day of the year.
SPEAKER_01:Freezing cold Philadelphia where it's like 70 one day and 30 the other. So that that's just straight bias right there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like that that has to be like what did you do to make it so bad on him where he even hated the weather down there?
SPEAKER_01:Where he loves the weather up here. He grew up in California, so the weather is relatively warm right here around in California.
SPEAKER_00:He's used to the Florida type of weather.
SPEAKER_01:Freezing cold Philadelphia.
SPEAKER_00:He's like, yeah, coming up here. It's gonna be 29, my first night here. I'm freaking ready. It's supposed to be snow in Green Bay, but you know, I I like the weather, so so man, I just thought that was funny. Where it's like, I feel like that's kind of a shot at at Miami, being like, yeah, dude, I even like the weather better.
SPEAKER_01:That's 100% a shot at Miami. Like, geez, how petty are you gonna get? Deuce is talking about anything, even the weather. Like, no need to address that.
SPEAKER_00:I just thought that was hilarious.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of another trade, you got Jair Alexander for a six-round pick. Basically for nothing. Basically for nothing, but Alec Alexander been dealing with some injuries, only played in two games, not that much snaps, but Yeah. He's got a that's much needed death at the cornerback position. And I mean he's you know, you're he's got you know success, obviously, in the in this league. With the Packers, you know, you get in a former all pro. Obviously, he's not gonna be the same all pro that he used to be, but No.
SPEAKER_00:But I mean, if he's able to fill in, you know, here and there, or just play a certain role. Leadership is another key thing, too. Yeah, I mean, he's a guy that's been there before. Only thing that kind of iffy with on him with the leadership is didn't he a never mind, I'm thinking of a different player. I'm thinking Okay, well, he's still a different package player. I'm thinking of like Eddie Lacey, I was gonna say one of the things.
SPEAKER_01:I was thinking maybe like Ringo is still young. If he he's getting someone coming in who's an all-pro, he's yeah experienced a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe Ringo Someone that's better than Dory Jackson as well.
SPEAKER_01:Someone who's better than Dory Jackson and Ringo. So I'm thinking maybe he can, you know, teach Ringo a little bit. Because Ringo's still he's still young, but he's what, like twenty-four? Yeah, he's twenty-three or twenty-four, but you know, one more one or two more bad seasons and he's on some team's practice squad. I mean, potentially Dorian Humphrey.
SPEAKER_00:If after this season, if he doesn't show some improvement, he might be on some other team's practice squad next season. Because I mean they're not just gonna keep bringing him back for no reason if they know that hey, this guy isn't the guy that we thought he was, then I don't really see any reason for them to bring him back after the season would be over. Because I think he would have what one more season left on his contract? He was what, a third round pick?
SPEAKER_01:Third round pick in twenty-three.
SPEAKER_00:And I think they get five.
SPEAKER_01:How many years do they get? Four, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah. So this would be or next season would be his last year of the game.
SPEAKER_01:He needs a chance to prove himself. He just can't be, you know, stuck down special teams, just like, what am I doing when you're fighting for a defensive back spot on a Super Bowl contending team?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And a team that has the necessary draft pick resources to go out there and trade for someone if you don't work out.
SPEAKER_01:You know, like Yeah, because the Eagles could easily just flip him for a eighth or sixth round pick.
SPEAKER_00:Just like you use that fifth or sixth combined with another third that they have or something to trade for someone over the offseason before the draft even starts. So I mean, Keely Ringo's got a very big second half of the season for his career coming up. Whether or not it's gonna be big or not production-wise, I mean, I don't know. But how he plays over this second half will determine whether or not he's here next year, I feel like.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I definitely agree. You know Dory Jackson's not coming back next season. No, he's not coming back. One year contract. So this is obviously Ringo's gotta prove himself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But I mean, maybe Jacori and Bennett, if they like him, they might potentially make a a move to cut Keeley before we even get to the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01:This is like the you know, second half of the season, Castellanos, Marsh, and uh Kepler. It's uh Jackson, Bennett, and Alexander fighting for that last cornerback spot.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And you gotta someone's gonna be the odd man out, you know?
SPEAKER_01:But uh overall, this was a great trade deadline for Alberto. It's been addressing the crucial needs on defense. And you could see Alexander playing against his former team. You could see Nolan Smith, who they just opened the practice window for. You're gonna obviously gonna see Phillips. Yep, probably BG. So the defense is gonna be healthy.
SPEAKER_00:Now, I don't know if Alexander will be playing just because you know his position is a little bit more complex than just defensive end with Phillips, where it's like, hey, you don't really have to like learn the playbook fully, you just need to go out there and you know, rush the quarterback. I mean, you don't need to know the scheme to be able to just be your man that's on the edge. Whereas to with Alexander, you know, he might have certain concepts to get used to different spots in where he's supposed to be on the field, he might not be used to. So I feel like you're definitely gonna see a lot more Jalen Phillips early on, and it might take a couple weeks for Alexander to really get like acclimated, you know. Jacorian Bennett. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking for this week. Game against the Packers. And potentially next week as well against the Lions. Because I don't know if you want to throw some guy that is, you know, just learning your system, who, if he doesn't play this week, hasn't played a snap to go against the Lions.
SPEAKER_01:He's gonna go against Jamison Williams.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So it'd be a whole different story.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Hopefully Ja Corian Bennett plays well this week, and it'll kind of put that to bed, you know, where like we don't even have to worry whether or not Alexander can even play anymore, because apparently doesn't matter. We got Ja Corian Bennett.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. But the offensive side, Saquon and AJ are gonna play. Yep. They said obviously that little groin scare that was gonna be fine, and then AJ's back after his hamstring. I think Saquon was just out because they were already blowing the Giants. So it doesn't matter. Like why risk an injury when you're up by 20 points.
SPEAKER_00:Unlike the uh Washington. That's why I know we're not taking Jaden Daniels out there.
SPEAKER_01:Not taking Daniel Janiels out down by 30 points now. They're not putting him on IR. I saw that, no IR. So I'm guessing What? I'm guessing it wasn't like bad. The results came back and they said it doesn't need surgery.
SPEAKER_00:Which uh that's crazy, because his arm was literally like sideways in that game. Yeah, that's I don't understand how he doesn't need surgery. I don't know how he's yeah, exactly. Like his arm was like freaking sideways, dude.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't see it, but I saw a tweet that just said Jaden Daniels is down and injured, and everyone was like, Nope, this is RG3 again.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean if you didn't see it, it already happened after the game was well well over and put to bed. I mean that game was over by the end of the first quarter.
SPEAKER_01:You should have had Mariota in.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. There was no reason to have Jaden Daniels still in there at that point in the game.
SPEAKER_01:No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00:I think there was what, like five minutes left in the third quarter and you were down by thirty points? Like you're not coming back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you're not this is not like a three and six. Like take down by thirty. Take him out of the damn game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just take him out of the game, dude. He's already been banged up enough already this season. You really want to leave him out there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's been injured for for like a majority of the season.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he had only played in I think two games before you know Sunday night. So or at least two games to full completion.
SPEAKER_01:That's a really bad like outlook from Washington.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so and uh Dan Quinn after the game was sitting there trying to pin blame on other people. Of course he is. I think he said something about like the analytics department or something. Analytics department, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Or he said something where you know the analytics said Jaden Daniels will come back.
SPEAKER_00:Get the fuck out of here. But he's he used some type of very weird and very illogical way to rationalize him keeping Jaden Daniels out there. Where it's like, I'm just so happy that that dude is not head coach of yeah, we're we're ha we're glad our head coach isn't a thingus. But apart from that, we are going to see Cam Jer, I mean Brett Toth this week, because I don't think Jergens is gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Jergens has not practiced yet again.
SPEAKER_00:Not practicing, so that's not a good sign coming off the bye week. He's still not practicing, still not even limited in practice, like just straight up DNP.
SPEAKER_01:And that's a bye, that's after a bye week.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's not good at all. That's a bit concerning going forward, especially because you know, God forbid something happens to one of the other guys on that line. And Totha's been the guy that's been filling in for everyone all all season. If someone else goes down, who's the next guy? So they'll have a bit troubling.
SPEAKER_01:They'll have everyone back up in the offense, other than Jurgens and the Tucker, the Packers are gonna be without Tucker Kraft. Yeah, yeah. He towards ACL.
SPEAKER_00:He's one of their big guys, yeah, on that. Like coming off that gigantic week where he had what, like three touchdowns, he had I think a hundred and something receiving yards, I think like eleven catches, to then next week get knocked out for the entire rest of the season.
SPEAKER_01:So unfortunate for Packers fans and fantasy owners, because he was playing good too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I had him in my uh ESPN fantasy league.
SPEAKER_01:The Packers were only able to manage 13 points against the Panthers. Like the Eagles need to go out there and they need to be like aggressive as shit. If you're s looking at that, seeing the Packers only managing not even two touchdowns against the lowly Panthers. Yeah, the Low League Panthers. Maybe we shouldn't say lowly, because they are five and four. Yeah, but they've played I mean, I feel like they haven't played like the best opponents. Well, yeah, they're still not a great team. They're not a great team by any means.
SPEAKER_00:But maybe they're not as bad as we're making that.
SPEAKER_01:Going into that game, the Packers had the number one seed in the NFC. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And they were clear. They were like nine and a half or like ten point favorites by betting lines.
SPEAKER_01:They look silly out there. That was that was terrible.
SPEAKER_00:They got absolutely embarrassed. If you're going into a game as a ten and a half point favorite and you lose outright, that's that's embarrassing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know?
SPEAKER_01:It's not like they're playing backups, they're playing starters.
SPEAKER_00:No, it could have been a bit of a look ahead week type of thing where you know they know that they have the Eagles coming up on Monday night next week in Lambeau. It's gonna be cold. It's gonna pr it might be snowing. You maybe, you know, as a Packers player, don't necessarily take the Panthers seriously because you're more looking forward to the matchup next week, where maybe they just kind of got it's more of a high-stakes matchup, Eagles and Packers compared to the Panthers. Like, the Panthers isn't really a game where I think Jordan Love is sitting there in the locker room, like, yeah, I'm gonna go out and have my best game of my career in this game right now. Like, no, it's way easier for him to do against the Eagles than against the Panthers. Like, especially because, you know, it's gonna be Sunday night, nighttime, bright lights, Lambeau's gonna be snowy and cold. Everyone's gonna be watching. Yeah, like it it it's a lot different than going to Carolina and playing in front of a not sold-out crowd at the Oh, they were at Lambeau. Oh, they were at Lambeau? I thought they were in Carolina.
SPEAKER_01:So, but still, it's just you know, it's just when you're playing the Eagles are definitely I I don't want the Eagles to be like, oh yeah, the Pan the Panthers only scored 13. This is gonna be an easy game. Like, no, it's not gonna be easy. It's not gonna be easy by any means. They just can't treat this game as just like a walk in the park.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and the Eagles can't have a look again like a look-ahead game here either, where it's like, oh, we're not worried about the Packers this week, we're worried about the Lions next week.
SPEAKER_01:Doesn't matter. You could see both of those teams in the playoffs. You could see the Packers and the wild card and the Lions in the divisional.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Doesn't matter. And the way that the NFC North is going right now, I mean, you could probably pencil anyone in to win that division at this point. Like the Lions just got like Lions got embarrassed by Minnesota, Green Bay got embarrassed by Carolina, and Bears and Bengals decided to score like a thousand points. Bengals get embarrassed by the by the Bears. And it's not like the Bears are really, I wouldn't say like a playoff con. I mean, I guess they are a playoff contender, but they're not like a Super Bowl contender or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe like a division contender, but not anything too much. Like if they get into the playoffs, look at the wild card game.
SPEAKER_00:Like I'll put it to you this way. At the start of the season, everyone was probably saying Chicago Bears are gonna be last place in this division. Right? With the rest of the teams that are there. You know?
SPEAKER_01:It's basically a four-headed race.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Which is it'll probably come down to the final four weeks of the season.
SPEAKER_00:But all of them are gonna beat up on each other, so I don't really think the the number one seed I don't think is gonna come out of the North. I don't think there's any chance for them to keep out.
SPEAKER_01:So it'll probably be one of those three teams, I'm thinking.
SPEAKER_00:The only team that I could see that maybe sneaks its way in to being the one seed would be Seattle. Just because of the fact that they don't really have too hard of a schedule going forward the rest of the way. I mean, they do have to play the Rams twice still. Do they have to play the 49ers behind okay? Only one more time. They play the Cardinals this week, so that'll be a tough division game. But they're out of division games that I've seen aren't really like too difficult, really. I mean, like, they do have the Bears, I think. They have they have Dallas. Okay, well, Dallas should be an easy win. They've got I I wanna say the Jets. Okay, that's just another free win right there. Yeah, and so if they win those three games, that already puts them at what eight wins for the year. And then if you win You only need like six more wins in the game.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:As long as you don't get swept by your divisional opponents. If you win one against the Rams and you win one more against Sam the 49ers, that puts you at 11 wins.
SPEAKER_01:And Jigba is one of the best receivers in football so far.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I mean look at the guys that scored the touchdowns against Washington, and who the who the names are.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's like Tory Horton?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Tory Horton, some random rookie. Elijah Arroyo, another guy that's a rookie, uh rookie tight end that plays behind AJ Barner, who oh, ran in a score for a touchdown, didn't catch one.
SPEAKER_01:That's they are playing Washington out of all teams.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but could be a little bit of a freebie. Well, yeah, but also I'm just saying, like, the guys that they had uh going last week, it was like Cooper Cup didn't play. Like, it's not like they had any big names that scored the touchdowns. They were getting it from no name guys, you know.
SPEAKER_01:No cup, no Kenneth Walker.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And you know, now you got Rashid Shahid added to this wide receiver group. They have Shaheed. You got Cooper Cup that's probably gonna come back next week. So they do have a pretty good wide receiver group now. Yeah, and it's it's definitely a formidable offense, and everyone knows that their defense is usually pretty legit no matter what the year is. Their Seahawks philosophy has always been built on defense. So their defense is good, their offense seems to be a lot better with Sam Darnold than with Geno Smith as quarterback. Oh, a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, who are we really trusting Geno Smith still in 2025?
SPEAKER_00:Because I mean, think about it. It's realistically, it's basically the same team, except there's no DK Metcalf. Imagine if Sam Darnold had DK Metcalf still. Oh, yeah. And it was DK and Jackson, Smith, and Jigboat.
SPEAKER_01:DK, Metcalf, N. Jackson, Smith, and Jigboat.
SPEAKER_00:They'd be going nuts right now.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:So the fact that he's doing what like Darnold's doing what he's doing, where his number two guy right now is Tori Horton. Goes to show that, you know, Darn's pretty good at playing quarterback. Goes to show Darnold's legit. And it wasn't just Caleb the I was about to say Caleb Cotham. Oh my goodness. It wasn't just Kevin O'Connell. It wasn't just Kevin O'Connell that, you know, turned around his career like he did it himself as well, because he's succeeding without him. And he looks pretty damn good up in Seattle. But other than that, I think the Eagles have the number one seed pretty much in their own control, you know? Like they run their own destiny. I don't think anyone else is gonna sneak by and take it from them. Only way that the Eagles don't get the one seed, I feel like, is if they give it up themselves. They win, they like lose a couple of games that they shouldn't. But other than that, I feel like the Eagles basically have this completely locked up.
SPEAKER_01:No, yeah, I I agree about that. The one seed, but I mean the division's already locked up. Yeah, the division for sure. Yeah. We're not the commanders are terrible, the Giants are terrible in the Cowboys.
SPEAKER_00:You can't take Dallas seriously with how horrible their defense is.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00:They could score 50 points in a game and might lose 66 to 50. 60 points. No, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01:But let's just talk about basketball real quick. Yeah. So the Sixers go 2-2 after we last speaked. One and two road trip. They blew out Brooklyn. Still looked pretty good. Blew a 24-point lead against the Bulls.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's why I said it still looks pretty good because that was pretty bad, but overall the team still looks pretty good. Pretty decent.
SPEAKER_01:Tyrese Maxi's still looking good. He's averaging 33 and a half and just the third player since the merger to have 25 points and five assists in the first eight games of the season. Oh, yeah, eight games. So that joins AI and Luca.
SPEAKER_00:When did Luca do that? Last year or the year before?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I guess I guess when he was in Dallas.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it had to have been while he was in Dallas. But I mean, Maxie's been playing fantastic, and the only thing that draws me back with the Sixers team is just the health of Joel. Not that I think that it's impossible to win without him, but if you see what they look like in games where Joel has played this year, it's very different from when they look without Joel out there on the court.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there's a lot of people saying they look very better without him.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's a lot faster without him. And it's not as slow and stagnant when he's on the court. And I mean that's just because you're playing with a guy that's got degenerative knees. I mean, he's not gonna be sprinting up and down the court like every single trip, every single possession. His his knees just can't handle that anymore. And I think that it will get better once you see Paul George come back, as long as Paul George actually has some desire to play basketball.
SPEAKER_01:And then you got McCain who just made his debut on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_00:He's still gonna take a little time, I feel like, to shake the rust off. And they they just keep getting too much back-to-backs. But it's looking like maybe the NBA messed up by leaving them off the Christmas Day slate this year. Dude, they that feel like they played on Christmas for like forever. I know they did, but I don't think they're on the Christmas Day slate this year because no one was thinking that they would have at least a good start to the season like they have.
SPEAKER_01:But they've they've had a pretty good start to the season. I mean, five and three. We could be sitting here saying, oh, they could be one and seven.
SPEAKER_00:So that could be a totally different story. The only thing that is troubling about that Bulls loss was the fact that it seemed like Billy Donovan just completely outcoached Nick Nurse.
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, obviously.
SPEAKER_00:That was the only thing.
SPEAKER_01:They're still saying they're trying to dig themselves out of some stuff from last year.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they are, because you're still trying to dig yourself out of the hole that you made with your own fan base by the fact that your fan base feels like they can't trust your team. Now, is that partly due to player performance? Yeah, but it's also partly due to management and contracts that have been handled.
SPEAKER_01:Management, contracts, injuries.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a whole lot of everything.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a a hodgepodge of reasons why they are still in this hole. Which could have been avoided if, you know, maybe they had just came out and from the very beginning told us last year that Joel wasn't gonna be healthy and he wasn't gonna play. But no, we Oh, we're ramping him up, he's getting ready, blah blah blah. And next thing you know, he only plays in like twenty-two games.
SPEAKER_01:You know, yeah, now only plays in twenty-two games, then plays what, twenty minutes. Yeah, like ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00:So you're scared of going to the paint. Uh, I think that's kind of where also a lot of this distrust and hate comes from. Cause I do feel like some of the injuries that have happened to Joel have been a little fluky injuries, you know, like he had a teammate run into him and break his face. Yeah, like happened that's just some bullshit. Joel can't do shit about that, you know? Like, he dives for a ball, some guy lands on his leg. Full body can't do nothing about that.
SPEAKER_01:That's some BS. Like, you can't do nothing about that.
SPEAKER_00:If you want to sit there and say, hey, Joel, you're seven foot two, you shouldn't be diving for the basketball. Okay, I can get behind you at least a little bit on that. But you can't blame him for the fact that someone else just fell on him. It's not his fault. It's not like he rolled into them and like knocked them onto him. Like, and then, you know, the the Bell's palsy. Like, there's been a lot of stuff that have just been like freak accident, like, wow, this dude's got some terrible luck. Having to wear the face mask twice in the playoffs. Yeah, like the dude just has bad luck, it seems like, when it comes to his own health, which is really unfortunate. But all the hate that like comes his way when I feel like it's not entirely his fault, like I feel like he gets hated for that contract extension. But that's Daryl Morey's fault.
SPEAKER_01:He gets way too much hate from everybody because of the injuries in the contract. He don't want to play for us, but also play for us.
SPEAKER_00:The contract isn't his fault. It's not. The contract is completely the fault of whoever gave him the contract. Joel didn't go to the general manager.
SPEAKER_01:Joel didn't go to Daryl Morey and said, give me this and give me that. Daryl, well, and gave him the contract.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, give me this or I'm tr or trade me. Like he didn't give the team no type of ultimatum or nothing.
SPEAKER_01:Or give me this contract, I'm gonna injure myself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like it's not like he held a gun to Daryl Morey's head and was like, goddamn contract! Like Daryl Morey offered him this horrible contract that he accepted. Blame Daryl Mori for you know, if someone came to you for do$138 million for you to just sit on your ass and not do nothing, I'm pretty sure you would freaking take the deal.
SPEAKER_01:Like, what?
SPEAKER_00:It's like all the hate that he gets for like the money that he's making and blah blah blah, like I get it, but also like it's not his fault that he just got overpaid by some stupid guy. Like, that's not his fault. Any uh anyone else in that scenario would take advantage of the situation being presented to them, which is what this idiot is gonna pay me that much money. I know I'm not worth that much, I'm freaking taking it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's the thing with PG. Like, no team was giving him the 200 million plus he was asking for, and then now he's just yeah, of course I'm gonna take it. I'll just just sit back on the bench for a couple of games, maybe playing like you know, one fourth of the season. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:And so I do understand a little bit of the hate in the vitriol, but like, don't just direct it all at Joelle. You gotta direct that at Daryl.
SPEAKER_01:Some of it has to go under the front office.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So it's ridiculous from Sixers fans.
SPEAKER_00:And I understand that's how we get we get very caught up in the emotion of things, and we get very swept up in the chaos that is Philadelphia sports, because face it, one way or another, it's chaotic whether or not the teams are winning or losing. It's always chaotic.
SPEAKER_01:A good example of this is Kirkring. Because when he yeah, when he panicked into that ball away, it was like, well, who is he to blame, really? He he was he was put into a situation where the bases were loaded. Like he didn't load the bases.
SPEAKER_00:His offense didn't score. Exactly. He's not gonna be able to get it. One run in 11 innings. Oh no, two runs in 11 innings. Yeah, like it. So I understand like how could you do that in that situation? You're sitting there as a fan thinking.
SPEAKER_01:Like it's heartbreaking in that situation, but it's like, well, you have to put some blame on the supporting cast. You know, you gotta put it on.
SPEAKER_00:Scoring one run in 11 innings and an elimination game. I don't know, maybe blame Rob Thompson for the fact that he didn't use Ranger Suarez out of the bullpen one frickin' time. Pitching coming in, blowing Yeah, let's throw frickin' David Robertson out there for another inning after he just sat down for 20 minutes. And he's gonna be great, right? Like, dude, put Ranger in. What are you doing? You put anyone in except David Robertson? Literally anyone in other than the 40-year-old man that just sat down for 20 minutes. Like, what are you thinking, dude?
SPEAKER_01:But that was only mistake his season, though. I'll give him that. He is a finalist for the manager of the year.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, he's a good manager. He's a good manager, but good managers also make very dumb decisions, and that was a very dumb decision. And I obviously the critics aren't gonna like if he wins manager of the year, but oh well. I mean, if he wins manager of the year, I would respect it because think about all he had to deal with this season. The Plato. Nola going down early, Wheeler going down at the end of the season, Harper going down, having to reshuffle your entire outfield basically every single goddamn game.
SPEAKER_01:Because the outfield is gonna you know reshuffle the ballpen.
SPEAKER_00:And still somehow getting 90, what, 92 wins out of that? 96 wins. Yeah, 90 somehow getting 96 wins out of that. That deserves at least a little bit of a pat on the back. You say whatever you want to about his managing style, about he doesn't get fired up, he's too laid back, whatever you want to say. It seems to work with this group of guys by the fact that he took a team that probably was like a 88-win team and made them a 96 win team.
SPEAKER_01:That's an eight-win improvement right there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that is you that's nothing to sneeze at right there.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Rob Thompson is definitely a very good manager, and he's been a very long lifetime coach in Major League Baseball, so you would expect nothing less. You know, this is a guy that spent what, 40-something he spent 20-something years as Joe Torrey's bench coach. Joe Girardi's bench coach, and now he's on his own managerial mission. So it's it's he's not no dummy. I mean, he's watched some of the greatest managers of the early 90s and the 2000s, like the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and worked alongside them for multiple years.
SPEAKER_01:He's definitely worth he knows what he's doing, you know?
SPEAKER_00:But with the Phillies, do you want to get into the Phillies now or you want to mention the union?
SPEAKER_01:We got sidetracked a little bit. Yeah. So they won three to zero and they're going to the semifinals, and they'll face either Charlotte or NYC at a date to be determined. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Probably Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01:Coach the coach Bradley Carnell won Coach of the Year.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, which honestly well deserved from last season not making the playoffs. Yeah, the playoffs this year, number one seed. Being the number one seed, winning the support issue. With basically the same overall roster, except you added a couple of young guys from your academy. I mean, it's not like they really brought in any players from outside. Uh they brought in Milan Eloski, but that was midseason when they were already good. And then look what happened. They already they number one seed in cruising through the playoffs. So the he's done a great job with coaching up these young guys that like Frankie Westfield is a guy that was brought up from Union two, which is like the Union Academy. He's a 19-year-old defender that basically played, I think, all but like three games this year. See, that's insane. And he was fantastic the entire like the entire year. Frankie Westfield was great for them. He was one of their best players, and he's like a 19-year-old kid that just got up from the academy. So that shows that not only their academy is good, but the coach is getting the best out of them. Because some 19-year-old kid just coming into the league, they're not going to get every, they're not going to grasp everything immediately. And if they're going to adjust quickly and really hit the ground running, I feel like that's very reliant on the support that they have around them. So him and his staff are very deserving of that award. And I was honestly a little sad when they let Jim Curtain go because he had been here for so long. And it was the right, it was very good. But it turns out it was a very smart decision, as you were about to say. It was a great decision. Yeah. So you got a manager of the year. And I think that no matter who they end up playing next round, they're gonna end up getting past it and into the uh season conference finals.
SPEAKER_01:Single elimination.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm pretty sure they beat Charlotte two games out of two ear, you know, in the season, in the regular season. And then I'm not entirely sure. I think they went one and one against NYCFC. Yeah, they went one and one. Okay, yeah. I was gonna say, I don't think they went two-0, but yeah, they went one and one against them. But obviously you're hoping them hoping that Charlotte wins. Charlotte Moore. Yeah, you've and plus when you did play Charlotte and you won, that was before they had sold their striker in the transfer window, like the summer transfer window, I think in August. You know, the MLS season starts in like May.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it starts in like February, so you got so it's different transfer window to Europe.
SPEAKER_00:Very different compared to the transfer window over in Europe. But they I'm pretty sure Patrick Agamang was like their striker, and he had like 11 goals through August, and then they sold them away for like a club record fee of like 20 million or something like that. Which I don't blame them. If you're gonna make a club record fee off of selling just one guy, then you kind of do it. But it definitely has hurt their overall performance so far. I mean, for the rest of the season, and they haven't really looked like the same team since. So if they're able to get by NYCFC, they should be an easy cleanup for the union. Alright. Now you want to go ahead and talk about baseball. Yeah, let's get in, let's get into the Phillies, because officially the offseason started yesterday, and players were officially able to sign what at like 5 p.m. yesterday?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, five or four o'clock yesterday. People players are allowed to sign minor league deals, whatever.
SPEAKER_00:And even though we are only one day in and nothing really substantial is happening.
SPEAKER_01:Nothing's really gonna happen until the winter meetings.
SPEAKER_00:Right. The Phillies did mess everything up for my show, and they made one move already by signing Brian De La Cruz, formerly from Miami, played last season with Atlanta and Pittsburgh, did not have a great year. Hopefully, maybe he's able to rework something in the minors. He's signed a minor league contract, and who knows, maybe if he has a good because all these guys play all these guys play winter league. You know, like they all play in Dominican.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if he's playing in WBC.
SPEAKER_00:No, probably not, but I imagine that he's gonna be playing some type of winter ball, whether that's in Puerto Rico or one of the Caribbean countries. Uh I think Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic. Yeah, so he's Dominican Republic, so Yeah, so maybe he he might go to Dominican Republic League, have winter there, and maybe he's able to figure something out. And the Phillies invite him to spring training. Because based off the season he had last year, I don't even know if he's gonna be someone that they invite to spring training. He only at 1910.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it did say they did give him an invite to spring training.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. They did already give him one. That's crazy that they already gave him one. But regardless, that's not really a move that I don't think anyone is projecting to be a high impact move. If anything, it's a guy that might potentially have some upside, low risk, but potentially high reward.
SPEAKER_01:Pretty much.
SPEAKER_00:Now, let's dive into what I want to really get into is the people that they currently have on the roster, and then looking at who their key free agents are. And we're gonna decide who to either resign, who to let go of, whatever it is. I'm just gonna read off at first, I'm just gonna read off some stats without a name attached, and I'm gonna see whether or not based off the stats, you say stay or go.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll close out the tabs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this way you don't see and then because this way it'll be unbiased on whether or not you like the player, just because I'm sure you don't know these guys' stats by heart off the top of your head. Yeah, exactly. You know, so because I was doing it myself last night while I was putting this together, and I was like surprised by some of the decisions that I made. So Alright, we'll we'll we'll see. Let's let's go through here. So I'm gonna start with the starters. Alright, starting pitching. So a 4.08 ERA, a 3.2 strikeout to walk ratio, 123.2 innings pitched, 1.4 whip, and a 0.5 war. Based off of those stats, would you keep or would you would you release? Cut. You wanna know who it is? Is it Walker? It's Tywan Walker.
SPEAKER_01:Now you obviously can't get rid of Taiwan Walker.
SPEAKER_00:Well, he is in the last year of his contract, so maybe you could potentially find a team that would take away. Yeah, maybe for like a single or double A prospect? Yeah, maybe, but honestly, I think that it would probably be worth it to keep him around, just as insurance policy for in case Painter gets hurt or something else like that, because they don't really have a lot of depth, it seems like, from a starting pitching standpoint. And it would I understand why you would want to move off of him, but I think it would be worth it just to keep him for the security, just because he didn't have a terrible season last year. He wasn't, you know, great or anything like that, but it was a lot better than the previous two seasons. So if that's the case, then I would take that as a fifth starter fill-in guy from Taiwan Walker with those numbers.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, send me the next player.
SPEAKER_00:Alright, next player. So 2.7 ERA, 4.3 strikes to walk ratio, 150 innings pitched, 0.94 whip, 4.0 war. Obviously, you're keeping it. Yeah. Who is it? Is it Christopher? Zach Wheeler.
SPEAKER_01:Zach Wheeler, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Coming off the injury.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, coming off the injury, yeah. Obviously, they're gonna keep him.
SPEAKER_00:They're gonna keep him, but like two seasons left. Right. I just wanted to throw those out there. J I know that we're obviously keeping him. But just wanted to throw that out there just so people know, like, hey, this is really how good he was last year. He might not be the same this year.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:His numbers might not look anything like they did last year. He probably won't be the same. Which really sucks. I'm expecting that he won't be the same. But alright, and then let me read you off two more. So these are other starting pitchers that's currently on their roster right now, their active roster. No MLB stats.
SPEAKER_01:No MOB. So minor league? Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Double A. ERA of 3.8, strikeout to walk ratio of 2.1. 137 innings pitched, so pitched a decent amount. 1.23 whip. And for war, there's not really a calculated thing for war for minor leaguers. So I didn't have it. I'm gonna say keep. Alright. And that is Gene Cabrera, one of the guys that they have added to the 40-man roster to protect from the rule five dragons.
SPEAKER_01:It looks like they want to keep him.
SPEAKER_00:Seems as if they want to keep him, and from those numbers, I would keep him, but would you I mean Do you think he makes the opening day roster? No. No.
SPEAKER_01:That's not A stuff right there. That's like four or five raw that's like four to five rotation right there, but not A stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Alright, and then I got one more for you for the starting pitchers. Once again, no MLB stats. ERA and AA of 3.24. Only 1.8 strikes to walkout ratio. Only 17 innings pitched. Was hurt most of the year. And in those 17 innings, had a 1.6 win. Keep or release?
SPEAKER_01:Moist chase. Because I told him I heard the 17 innings, I know he got injured. So keep.
SPEAKER_00:I say keep as well. But he got injured.
SPEAKER_01:Got enough stats to prove it.
SPEAKER_00:I've read off to you three names, right? How many other names do you think they have of starting pitchers on their roster right now?
SPEAKER_01:Christopher Sanchez, Lazardo, Nola.
SPEAKER_00:That's it. That's it? That's it. Oh wow. That's your starting pitching depth right now for next season.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, because Andrew Painter isn't on the 40-man roster either. I forgot about that. Yeah, they still got some pitchers on the Oh yeah, right, Dave.
SPEAKER_00:No Ranger Swares, because he's a free agent. No Ranger. And he's not most likely he's not coming back.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Do you bring in a one-year starter? Like a do Dave Dombrasky a one-year starter? I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I wasn't really worried about starting pitching up until I wrote this out yesterday, and I was like, this is really all they have on the roster? I don't know if you bring in a one year. Maybe a Walker Bueller, you see if he would take another one year deal with you. Maybe.
SPEAKER_01:But I don't know if you do like a Dave Dombrasky, you know, his little one-year devil magic signing.
SPEAKER_00:But you're probably gonna have to bring at least someone in, because I mean, even with Andrew Painter coming up, that leaves you with only four guys with MLB experience as starting pitchers. The other three have none. Like Moyce Chase has no MLB pitching experience. Gene Cabrera has no MLB. They don't even have any triple A where they're facing like MLB level player competition. Oh wow. Like they the highest they made it to last year, both of them, was double A. And they've been added to protect them on the four. But like they're not gonna start the season on the mage. Like Ross will start maybe in triple A. No, 100% they won't. But that's the current state of the starting pitching right now. Where that kind of raised an eyebrow for me where I was like, maybe they are in a little bit of trouble potentially starting pitching. What if a what if Wheeler's blood clot comes back in like May?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. Like you Because that you told you said that should who knows what comes, who knows if it can come back.
SPEAKER_00:That would leave Lazardo, Sanchez, and Nola. And maybe Painter. And then maybe Painter and Rawls.
SPEAKER_01:Here's the uh starting pitchers. Free agents Cease, Valdez, obviously Ranger, Nick Martinez, Bassett, Michael King, Imanaga, Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Zach Lattell, J V, Efflin. Now there are guys that are out there. Yeah, there's guys out there. You I definitely see like a decent amount of guys on this list that you could bring on a one-year deal.
SPEAKER_00:Like I would take Efflin back on a one-year deal.
SPEAKER_01:Efflin yeah, like Efflin on a one-year deal, or Merrill Kelly. Or if they want to go and actually get a starter, if they can go and get like Michael King or something.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Or like uh even Bassett, I would take on a one-year deal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Bassett too, thirty-seven years old though, but I mean he was with what, Toronto last year? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I mean he would only be an innings eater. Right. And it's not like he had a horrible season last year.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:He pitched some meaningful innings. Yeah, so there's definitely guys that are out there as starting pitchers, but that was something going into writing these notes that I didn't think was gonna be anything like of note. I didn't think there was gonna be anything interesting when I was writing the starting pitching column, but then I was like, hang on, maybe they maybe do need to add like one guy here. Yeah, I I don't I don't know, honestly. Now let's head into the relievers. Now we're not gonna get into the guys that we already know are gonna be back, like Alvarado and Banks and Duran.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Alvarado, Banks, Duran, Strom. We know that they're gonna be back. Those are the five relievers that are gonna be back.
SPEAKER_00:But let me read off some other guys. So, first one up, one appearance in the majors last year. 27 ERA, 4.0 whips.
SPEAKER_01:This is Nolan Hoffman.
SPEAKER_00:Nolan Hoffman. Yeah, I don't think he's maybe minor leagues for the rest of his career. Next up, we got 4.26 ERA, 10 games, so 10 appearances, 4.2 strikeout to walk ratio. That's pretty damn good. 1.18 whip, which that's not bad either. But no war because he didn't have enough appearances for any war.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say Lazar. Seth Johnson.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, Seth Johnson? Oh shit. Surprisingly, I was like, wow, those stats actually don't seem that bad. But no, that was Seth Johnson. I would keep that, honestly. I I think that's worth another another go-around for next season.
SPEAKER_01:It'll probably be on the spring training roster.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But, you know, not as bad as I had anticipated it was gonna be. Alright, next guy up. 4.79 ERA, 36 appearances, 2.2 strikeout to walk ratio, 1.28 whip, but a minus 0.2 war. So this person did qualify. Is this Lazar? This is Lazar.
SPEAKER_01:I'd keep Lazar. You'd keep that? Let's see. Because he can get you innings in garbage time, he can get you innings in blowouts. Yeah. He can get you Yeah, no, a call-up from triple A if you need to.
SPEAKER_00:Right. But one thing to keep in mind that's been three guys, and how many appearances have I just said? What, 36, 1, and 10.
SPEAKER_01:10. So that's a 47 appearances from three bullpen guys.
SPEAKER_00:Which I mean, there's 182 in a season, but you're off by 20. Well, yeah, 162. Whoops. But it's not like these guys have a lot of experience at the majors.
SPEAKER_01:Guys, the guys that have experience are Alvarado, Strom, Duran, Banks, and Kirkering.
SPEAKER_00:Right, and we still got two more names on this list for the bullpen that look exactly like.
SPEAKER_01:Realistically, you won three bullpen arms.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because you still got Ranghell, 2.45 ERA, only five games.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, Ranghell didn't even qualify for anything.
SPEAKER_00:1.2 strikeout to walk ratio, which that's not very good. A one-to-one, that's horrible for a bullpen arm. 1.45 whip didn't qualify for any war. But that was Alan Ranghell. Alan Ranhell, Ranghell, however you pronounce that last name.
SPEAKER_01:However, you say the guy's name, whatever.
SPEAKER_00:And then the last guy, not one of the actual guys we're keeping on this bullpen, Michael Mercado. 15 ERA, three appearances, one strikeout to walk ratio. 3.6 wit.
SPEAKER_01:I think the guy that stays, like, who has the best chance out of like those five minor league relievers is like Lazar. That's probably the guy that if you know they don't have enough bullpen arms by like come opening day or if bullpen arms and then pan out in spring training, he makes the opening day roster just as like a consolation spot.
SPEAKER_00:But this definitely highlights that they they need some bullpen help.
SPEAKER_01:They're probably gonna need some pitching help because in both both areas, rotation and the bullpen. Because what you know, Wheeler's got Wheeler's like 50-50, same with Painter and his injury, you know, Nola. Exactly. Scott. So Nola's fifty-fifty, Walker's fifty-fifty. Yeah, like it's a little dark. The only two guys relying on right now to hopefully carry the torch of the rotation, and then once one of them goes down, who you who else are you stuck with?
SPEAKER_00:Like exactly. But that's eight guys in the bullpen, four of them have a full season of MLB experience. The other four have only parts of MLB season experience in your bullpen. And then let's go to the catcher position. You got Rafael Marchand, 210 average, two home runs, 13 RBIs, 587 OPS with a 0.3 war. And you got Garrett Stubbs, had one at bat last year. Yeah, Garrett Stubbs.
SPEAKER_01:Like, you're they're gonna keep Marshawn. Those are your catchers right now. They're not gonna keep Stubbs. Oh, yeah. Well, they'll probably they'll probably bring back JT. Right. I'm thinking like like two years, 27 million for JT. But right now the starting catcher would be Marshawn, which obviously is not the greatest output, but I'm certain they're gonna re-sign JT.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. But I'm sure as you've you know realized, part of the reason why I'm saying this is just to highlight that there's no one that's on this roster currently, and there's a lot of work Dave Dombrowski needs to do.
SPEAKER_01:There's not a lot of death. Yeah. Like you cannot be going into the start the start of your season with Marshawn as a starting catcher. Yeah, it's just a shit. That's just not gonna work out. Yeah. And then cannot have Marshawn and Stubbs on the bench to start the year.
SPEAKER_00:Infield, you got Alec Boom, 287 average, 11 home runs, 59 RBIs, 740 OPS, 1.7 war, which I actually was surprised it was that high. That it was a 1.7. So I guess his defense was majorly improved as to previous years. Because just from those batting statistics, you wouldn't expect a 1.7 war. Then you got Bryce Harper, 261 average, 27 home runs, 75 RBIs, 844 OPS. So that's OPS is still really good with him. Anytime you got OPS into a brain. 3.5 war. You got Otto Kemp, 234 average, 8 home runs, 28 RBIs, 709 OPS, and he didn't really play in a lot of games, but he was able to accrue a 0.2 positive war in like the what 30 games that he played in?
SPEAKER_01:He played in yeah, 30 games, 40 games. Yeah, so got like one playoff at bat.
SPEAKER_00:I think.
SPEAKER_01:Did he even get started in a playoff game?
SPEAKER_00:Or he got two, actually, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. He got two against uh Blake Snell, I think. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Which hey, rookie, go out there and face Blake. Yeah, go ahead and only two at bats in the postseason. But next guy, Rafael Antigua. No MLB stats. I was gonna say this guy didn't even play an MLB. Triple A last year, 230 average, seven home runs, 56 RBIs, 666 OPS. Not great, but second baseman, not really expecting your second baseman to have a bunch of offenses.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna say that's like kind of like a little Bryson Stott, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well that you know shows by the fact that it's a second baseman. You got Edmundo Sosa, 276 average, 11 home runs, 39 RBIs, 776 OPS, and a 1.6 war. I'm surprised that his war was as high as Alec Bohm's.
SPEAKER_01:That's honestly pretty outstanding, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. Considering at that, he pr he m played, what, 40% of the season? Yeah. 30 to 40 percent and still able to accumulate those type of stats. Yeah, which That's like the same as Alec Bohm.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly, which is like, yeah, hang on, maybe we should just trade away Alec Bohm and have it Mundo Sosa be the starting third baseman potentially. He would have to get a lot of work defensively there over the offseason, but it's a lot easier to get better on defense than just get better on offense. That's just straight facts. Like a lot easier to sit there and look a ball into your glove at a higher capacity or at a higher percentage than to hit the ball with more driving power. And then you got Bryson Stott, 257 average, 13 home runs, 66 RBIs, 24 stolen bases, which is pretty damn good. 719 0 points over 20 bags, and 3.1 war, which that's pretty damn high. So that shows that he's got a lot more than just the offense that's very good. His defense is very good as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's one thing they value a lot too at that second base position is his defense.
SPEAKER_00:And that shows in the war by how high it is. Like his war was almost as high as Bryce Harper's, which is kind of nuts if you think about it.
SPEAKER_01:And he has those pretty average stats.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which means his fielding has to be great defensive numbers from the defensive metrics standpoint. And then last but not least, we got Trey Turner, 304 batting average, 15 home runs, 69 RBIs, 36 stolen bases, an 812 OPS, and a 6.7 war. So the infield, there's not really much for you to do other than not really, because you got trade away out.
SPEAKER_01:You have Trey Turner and Bryce Harper locked up to pretty big contracts. You have Bryson Stott pretty much locked in at second base, so then Alec Boom is either hit or miss with Aiden Miller most likely coming up sometime in this season.
SPEAKER_00:If you're gonna move off of anyone, you're gonna move off of the starting infielder with the 1.7 war, not off of the other guys that have a 3.1 or above.
SPEAKER_01:Or the giant contracts that no other team would take.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So infield, they're pretty set. I'm pretty happy with the infield. I'm sure you're pretty happy with the infield for the most part. I honestly wouldn't even be them against keeping Boom as long as you find someone else to hit cleanup behind Bryce Harper. You just can't have your four-hole hitter be Bryce Harper be Alec Boom.
SPEAKER_01:You just can't have a that's gotta change. They're gonna have to get some type of power hitter or something.
SPEAKER_00:I'm fine with Alec Boom staying on this team if he's not the four-hole hitter behind Bryce Harper. He cannot be on this team as the four-hole hitter again. If that's the case, you're gonna see the same season that you saw from Bryce last year where he's not getting any strikes thrown to him. He's gonna start swinging at the first pitch a lot because hey, guys are gonna go up there trying to get ahead. If the first pitch is the only strike you're gonna get and you're at bat, you might as well swing at it. So, I mean, I know that was a big complaint from a lot of people was oh, Bryce Harper swinging at the first pitch too much. Well, yeah, because look at who's behind him. There's no one really to back him up. Look at his protection. He doesn't have any, so he has to swing at the first pitch because everyone wants to get off on strike one. So he has to be set there, like he has to be forced and handcuffed into swinging at the first pitch. Every other pitch after that is going to be a tease of the strike zone or out of the strike zone. So even though you didn't see this great offensive year from Harper, it's not all his fault, I don't think.
SPEAKER_01:And plus he had the wrists shit.
SPEAKER_00:So I mean he came back and was fantastic off the wrist up until the playoffs where no one wanted to throw him a strike because no one was afraid of who was behind him. Exactly. Like, it doesn't matter at the end. Yeah, it's dumb. So I'd be fine with the infield returning how it is. I'm cool with that. Now let's move to the most glaring.
SPEAKER_01:If they did in the playoffs, like Harper 2 and Schwarber 3, like maybe they would have been more accustomed to throw Harper strikes because you got Right. You got terrifying 57 home runs Schwarber at the plate.
SPEAKER_00:But then it's just gonna be the opposite effect, where now Schwarber's not gonna get anything good to hit.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:So it's so either way, one of your best players isn't getting anything good to hit. Exactly. Doesn't matter. So whether or not it's Harper or Schwarber that's not getting something good to hit, you need both of those guys to get pitches to hit if you want your team to be successful. So that brings us to the last part, and probably the most glaring, you know, part of this team, the outfield. Oh boy, the outfield. So let's see, Nikki Castellanos, 250 batting average, 17 home runs, 72 RBIs, but a.694 OPS from a guy that was billed as a 30 home run per year guy when we signed him. Hitting six ninety four OPS. Under 700 OPS. And A negative 0.64. I think we're both in agreement. Yeah, we're both. Trade him away for almost anything at this point. Just a crab fries and a soda. I'll even pay half his goddamn contract as long as I don't gotta pay all of it. Like I'll pay$10 million for Nick Castellanos to not be on my team than to pay him$20 million to be on my team. You know what I mean? Oh, good. Alright, next up, Brandon Marsh. 280 average, 11 home runs, 43 RBIs, 785 OPS 3.4 win. And like Marsh's season wasn't bad. It was just his postseason, I feel like. Marsh's season wasn't bad. Now, I have him listed here as keep or trade.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's 50-50. If you get a good offer for Brandon Marsh, yeah. If you if you trust your outfielders.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, my whole thing is I don't want to get rid of probably the guy that was the best outfielder that we had last year. But if you want to get rid of Cassianos, you might need to include something else in in the deal. You might even include Marsh, Rojas, where maybe a minor league or right. You might just have to be okay with Brandon Marsh being part of a some type of package to get Cassianos out of here. Where I would be uh I'd be willing to live with that if it meant there's no Cassianos. You know? Like, I'd rather have no Marsh and no Cassianos than to have Marsh and Cassianos. Like, yeah, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_01:I understand that.
SPEAKER_00:So if it came like I would obviously rather have them keep him, but if it came down to the point where you had to trade him to make the team better, then I would do it.
SPEAKER_01:If you get a good deal for something, like because I know the angels are looking for offers for Ward and Adele. Yeah. And Adele is gonna probably be the more attractive. Yeah, Adele's gonna be gonna cost you a couple, but if if there's some L able to get Nick for Adele, then you take it.
SPEAKER_00:Like I'd be willing to take Taylor Ward as well if you were. Yeah, I mean you're both get you're getting power. Yeah. And then you got Johan Rojas. 224 average, one home run, 18 RBIs, 12 startings, 12 stolen bases, and a 569 OPS. Oh, Rojas. Yeah, I don't even know what you do with Rojas at this point. Surprisingly, he actually had a positive 0.4 war. Oh wow. Which I'm that is pretty surprising. I'm shocked that he had a 0.4 war. But him, I would see if there's anyone that would potentially see some upside in taking him and see if you can get anything for him to trade him away. And then the other guy, Weston Wilson, dub dubs. Dub dubs. 198 batting average, five home runs, 17 RBIs, 651 OPS. Point negative 0.4 war. Yeah, he was close to he was close to Nick, so uh OPS and war. So basically, Weston Wilson is another Nick Castellanos.
SPEAKER_01:Pretty much just not getting paid$20 million. So So I would take a$20 million less Nick Castellanos.
SPEAKER_00:I guess I'll take that. But I could I I could stay, you know, he could stay or go. I really could care less than that. That's what I'm saying, yeah. Stay or go. But that's the the outfield. Those are the only outfielders they have on the roster right now. So outfield is definitely looking like it's the biggest area of concern.
SPEAKER_01:They need to address the outfield rotation and bullpen so far.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which that's basically like 70% of the team. We're not looking too great to start this off. Now, let's see if it gets a little bit better with some introduction of some youth, some young players, guys currently not on the roster, that could make their way either up at some point during the season, or we'll make the team out of spring training. Now, I've got five guys on here. There's three of them that everyone's already gonna know, two of them which are gonna be unknowns to some of the more casual fans that aren't really gonna be checking, you know, minor league baseball or prospects or anything like that. So let's start off with the three that everyone knows Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter, Aiden Miller. So Crawford last year in triple A, 334 batting average, seven home runs, 47 RBIs, and an 863 OPS. I think he makes the roster coming out of spring trading.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, coming out of spring trading, he'll probably make the roster.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So unless there's a setback.
SPEAKER_00:And from those numbers right there, I'd say that's an upgrade over Castellanos, Weston Wilson, and Johan Rose.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, that's an upgrade over all three of them.
SPEAKER_00:So boom, there you go.
SPEAKER_01:That's a good lake.
SPEAKER_00:So at least one outfield position. So you're at least getting better in one position with one of the young guys coming up. So that's a plus. Then we got Andrew Painter. Triple A last year, 5.4 ERA, 2.4 strikeout to walk ratio, 106.2 innings pitched, but a 1.55 whip.
SPEAKER_01:See, I still think that he'll make the roster.
SPEAKER_00:I do as well. I just don't think he earns it. I just think he makes it off of the name and the town level. Yeah, essentially. Like, I don't think he's going to necessarily play so good in spring training where it's like, oh my god, you gotta keep him on the roster. Like, you can't survive without this guy being here.
SPEAKER_01:It could be out of necessity if you know you don't have enough starters on the rotation, or you're not comfortable with who you have currently in the rotation.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Or, you know, Nola's ribs start bothering him again from the previous season, or Wheeler needs to shake off the rust a little bit or something, where Painter will probably make the roster. I just don't think that necessarily he will have deserved to, but he will be on there, I think. Next we got Aiden Miller. Now, Ada Miller is tough to say. Because he spent more of his season in double A than he did triple A. Yeah, he only played like a couple of games in triple A, a couple of weeks. But he had a much better like three to four weeks span in AAA than he did in double A. Yeah, he was fantastic in AAA. Yeah, so his A numbers were 259 average, 13 home runs, 41 RBIs, still an 809 OPS, which is pretty good, uh, in 108 games. Yet in triple A over only eight games, he had a 333 batting average, one home run, one RBI, but a 1.033 OPS. See, I think he had seven doubles in eight games.
SPEAKER_01:I think they'll keep him in triple A for like mid the beginning of April, reevaluate him in May. If he needs another month, he needs another month. If not, they'll call him up around May to June and see what happens.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's the same unless he has an absolutely torrid spring training.
SPEAKER_01:That and there's no Alec Bohm.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, if there's no Alec Boom, if Alec Bohm is traded, I don't really know if you want to roll with Otto Kemp. If Alec Boom is traded, then you know the Phillies are they have their full trust in Aiden Miller. Yeah. And you're not gonna trade away Alec Boom if the plan is Sosa and Kemp are gonna be your starting third baseman for the entire season. Maybe for the first like month or two.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, maybe for the first month, but we're not gonna be making that a full-time commitment.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely. I like Otto Kemp, but I don't like him that much. And then I got two other guys on here that people might not know. One guy we talked about last year, Gabriel Rincones Jr. Now, triple A last year, he didn't have great batting average, only a 240 average. But he had 19 home runs, 73 RBIs, and an 800 OPS. I think personally that's probably good enough to make the roster as a bench bat.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, 50-50, bench bat, if that if they're really, if they really need an outfielder. But I feel like they primarily use him at DH though in AAA. Do they or?
SPEAKER_00:I'm not entirely I I know he played outfield and DH, but I mean he he's better in the outfield than Cassianos would be. Okay. So that level. If you really need an outfielder, they'll call him up.
SPEAKER_01:But if he has a good spring training, he might be bench bat.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I could see him making it off the strength of being a right-handed power bat off the bench. That's what I'm thinking. Because they don't really have one that's like that right now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, too.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't think he's gonna make the team as like a starting outfielder by any means, but I think that he could make it as a bench guy. And then last guy we have on here, Keaton Anthony. Now, Keaton Anthony is someone that they actually acquired in trade last year. So he didn't have too, too many games inside the organization. I think he had like 33 games in AA, and then he had 39 games in AAA. So very limited sample size, but what you have seen looks pretty good. So in his 33 A games last year, he had a 330 average, four home runs, twenty-nine RBIs, and a nine oh two OPS. And then he gets called up to triple A for the last 39 games of the year. Has a 313 average there, two home runs, 10 RBIs, and an 807 OPS.
SPEAKER_01:So they're very good stats.
SPEAKER_00:Those are pretty good stats, even with it being a small sample size.
SPEAKER_01:I think they'll still give him another run in the minors. Yeah, another run. Especially because he plays first base.
SPEAKER_00:First base. Yeah. He plays first.
SPEAKER_01:So you know you're obviously not taking out Bryce Harper. Right. Unless he has to go back on the IR for some meat reason, could be the risk, could be something.
SPEAKER_00:Or give him a shot if he's having a good triple A. If they don't bring back Kyle Schwarber. And then you move Harper to DH, and maybe this guy plays first base for you at some point.
SPEAKER_01:Schwarber decides to walk. Yeah. Yeah, if this guy could be at first base after maybe uh a good couple months in trip in uh triple A. Because I think if Harper will play DH.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because I think if Schwarper leaves, Harper's clear role going forward is probably DH to keep him as healthy as possible throughout the entire season, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, DH, unless they get like a big name for a spaceman, like Alonzo, then he goes to right field. Yeah, I think I was Schwarber walks still. I think he still sits at DH.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was gonna say if Schwarber walks, it doesn't matter who they bring in, unless they bring in someone that's like a really, really bad fielder. The he's probably gonna move to DH. But so the young guys, the five guys that we have right there, pretty good numbers, right? So maybe yeah, good numbers overall. Yeah, good numbers overall. I mean, it's not like we're talking about you know, they're got the number one farm system in baseball or anything, but for those five guys, like Keaton Anthony, I think is like your number sixteenth ranked prospect on the 30. I just when I look at these, I look to see what the estimated time of their arrival is, and Keaton Anthony had had him listed as this year, so I was like, oh well, let me see what you know his stats were. And he got traded midseason. I don't know what organization he came from previously, just because I don't know what minor league teams are affiliated with what organization. And in looking at the trade, uh when you're looking at his trade on like MILB.com, it just says the AA team he was on before, it doesn't say the organization. So I have no idea what organization he came from or what trade he came in, but I know he came here through a trade last year. And then last thing to get into it's gonna be free agents at the key positions that we've highlighted that they need. Which is gonna be catcher, if you don't bring back JT.
SPEAKER_01:Obviously, we need the catcher.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna probably need third base, third base, left field, outfielder, center field, right field, DH. Because, you know, you still technically gotta bring Schwarber back, and the bullpen. So that is seven positions, basically, right there.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you're probably getting JT back at catcher, so that's probably pretty much a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_00:You imagine you're getting JT and Kyle Schwarber back. So that would take out the catcher need, and that would take out the DH. But then you still got third base, all your outfield spots, and the bullpen. So let's go over and see what the third would be. Third base.
SPEAKER_01:You got two big options, and then everyone else is just kind of like if Brayman, Gino, Murakami, then guys like Gio Rushella. Like it's really kind of meh.
SPEAKER_00:But we have I mean, hey, it's Kike Hernandez, hey, just had a great postseason.
SPEAKER_01:And then has a war of 0.5 in the regular season. But but I think Well, you already have a third baseman in the farm system. Obviously in Aiden Miller. Obviously, he's not proven, but I don't think they're gonna go ahead and grab a third baseman just because of Aiden Miller. Right. And they also have Alec Boom.
SPEAKER_00:Now, some of the purpose of these lists is just to show that there isn't really anything better than what you have already here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like left field, for example, with the best outfielder according to wars, Rob Ref Snyder. Exactly. So there's really not an option. There's not really an upgrade.
SPEAKER_00:You know, like some of these uh are put on here in a bit of a like a non-honest way. Because realistically, do I think anyone from this left field list is gonna come in and help the Phillies? No. But that's part of my point.
SPEAKER_01:Everyone from this left field list will either be on a one-year deal or a lot of people. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:That's part of the point that we're making here, and the fact that I know that people want this team to improve. There's not a lot of options that they have, or a lot, or at least not a lot of clear options that they have to improve going forward. Unless you do something like a trade or something like that, where no one can really predict that. You know, we can sit here and predict free agent signings because that's a lot easier to do. But we can't sit here and predict trade. Yeah, we're not gonna sit here and predict trade. Exactly. In which case that means all indications go, but you know, we're not just gonna sit there and be like, oh yeah, trade for Buxton.
SPEAKER_01:Like, it doesn't it doesn't work like your painter. So centerfield looks uh pretty good. You have Bader.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, centerfield is the old and there's a couple right fielders. I feel like that could help.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Tucker obviously highlights that category, but after that, yeah. I mean Yastremsky, I feel like still be useful. And then you got Max Kepler, Marte, Gritchuk, Lane Thomas. You know, Lane Thomas obviously would be the Dave Dombrowski signing that we're gonna be witnessing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean Marte would be way too old. Marte's already 37. Yep. Gritchuk's got a little bit of power from the right hand side, I guess, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Just looking at these guys on the slits, it's just gonna be another It's gonna be another Max Kepler. Yeah, it's gonna be a Dave Dembrowski one-year signing, 220 batting average, 400 OPS going by the deadline.
SPEAKER_00:Now, one thing that might you may want to consider if Trent Grisham is really gonna leave the Yankees, maybe you consider signing him and asking him to play corner outfield instead of center field.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that maybe could be the case, unless they want to do Marsh at the corner outfield or Crawford, but you said Crawford plays center field, right?
SPEAKER_00:Well, he played center and he played left field for Lehigh Valley last year. But I think he played more games in left field.
SPEAKER_01:If you want to do like left field, Crawford, center field, Grisham, and then right field marsh, maybe, but I was thinking Or like right field Grisham, center field marsh.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe re-sign Bader, sign Grisham to play right, Crawford play left, trade away Brandon Marshall.
SPEAKER_01:Then trade away Brandon Marsh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:See if you can get some bullpen arm for Brandon Marshall.
SPEAKER_01:Trent Grisham had a 30 home run season.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I would like I would happily take Trent Grisham to the right.
SPEAKER_01:That'll give your outfield some power.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And I know he's a left-handed bat. I he's left-handed, isn't he? He's left-handed. He's left-handed bat, so I know it doesn't fix the right-handed power problem. But it's a significant upgrade over what you have right now in the outfield.
SPEAKER_01:It'll be an upgrade over Rojas, Wilson.
SPEAKER_00:And if you trade away Marsh, then he's your substitute for Marsh. That's a significant upgrade from the left.
SPEAKER_01:Unless they don't resign Harrison Bader.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because then you could have a full lefty outfield.
SPEAKER_00:So I I do like the thought of Bader in center, Crawford and left, and Grisham in right. I just don't know how much money Grisham is gonna get because he is one of technically the younger players in this free agent market. Everyone else is like 31, 32, or above. Grisham is 29. So for that fact alone, he might get more money than the Phillies are willing to reasonably part with. But I could definitely see a possibility of trade away Castellanos. That frees up some money. If you're able to trade away, you know, either Marsh or Boom, Boom's gonna make another$10 million. Honestly, I would take that's not that bad. Four years$66, I would take that in a heartbeat for Trent Grisham. You were just paying Nick Castellanos 20 to give you a negative 0.6 war. I'll pay Trent Grisham like 7.7. I mean, not 7.7. 17 like 17.7 for a 3.7 war in the outfield. I'll take that every day of the week. Like so that is definitely one area where after we, you know, go through all the names on this list, I kind of want to ask what would be realistic to expect. What would be maybe someone that would be a realistic guy that would be brought in here? And I think that's one of them is Trent Grisham. There's not a lot of guys from this list that I would actually realistically consider bringing in. That's pretty much it for all the outfielders pretty much.
SPEAKER_01:And then DH Schwarber is the highlighter of Zuna is pretty pretty mid, and then Andrew McCutcheon is just Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh Andrew McCutcheon was fun to watch on the Phillies, but that was about it. I mean, I would consider And Dohar for left field, whether or not that screws up the Justin Crawford thing. Right. Where I'm not entirely sure if that is really like, you know, a great answer, but I do think it would be if you were to have Anduhar and Crawford, Bader, Grisham, that is a much significant much significantly better outfielder and a much significantly better fourth outfielder in Miguel Anduhar than Johan Rojas from last year. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'd rather have Trent Grisham than anything. Oh, yeah, compared to Bader and Trent Grisham.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But outside of that, do you see any other names on this list that would even you would consider?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, outfield and infield positions? Like probably not. Unless they want to go out and get Kyle Tucker, which I don't think that will happen, but like what about uh what about Paul DeYoung? We could take a Okay, we could just move on to the next. I mean, we'll take a look at the bullpen. I mean, Edwin Diaz is a free agent, Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley's a free agent. I mean, I would like I would bring in Devin Williams or Ryan Helsley. How about Hobie Milner, dude? Hobie Milner again. I mean, I think Milner's nasty brother. I like the idea of bringing in like Ryan Helsley or Devin Williams. Yeah, they had some bad seasons, but I would definitely bet on a Devin Williams bounce back 100%. Or Ryan Helsley, too. Like I definitely bet on both of them. That's the New York effect. They both suck with uh teams in New York.
SPEAKER_00:I would also take Maiton. I like Maiton.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, Mayton.
SPEAKER_00:I like Maiton's pitch. I think Fairbanks like his pitch variety.
SPEAKER_01:Fairbanks isn't bad.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Fairbanks is pretty good too. But after that, it's really like Thylebar's not bad. Only reason I would stay away from that, 39. But he didn't have a horrible year last year. I mean, maybe strength me if you want to do like a little re-rerun. What about a little rerun of Gregory Soto? Yeah, no thanks. That's just a left-handed version of uh Hector Nairs. Let's see. Who else is on here? Ryan Presley didn't have the greatest year. Ryan Presley, no.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, not a lot of really not a lot of relievers on this list that really just I don't feel like would move the needle.
SPEAKER_00:Here's an interesting one. Kirby Yates. He's 39. He's too old. He's 39. Yeah, but I mean he did have a 41-year-old last year. In David Robertson.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I understand that, but that that signing would just be like some He's got an he's got a really good slider. It would just be some bullshit Dave Dombrowski one-year signing where he turns into 102.0. Kirby Yates isn't a lefty, he's a righty.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I thought Kirby Yates was a lefty, isn't he? Yeah, he's a righty. Oh, he's a righty? Who the hell am I thinking of? I don't know who you're thinking of. Maybe what the guy you said thal bar? No, I'm thinking of a heavier set left-handed pitcher that throws pretty hard. He's got a really good slider.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know who you're thinking of, but I just wouldn't exercise the option of Kirby Yates. Alright, I'm definitely thinking of I'm thinking of Kendall Graveman. And he's still he's he's a righty.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and he's still a righti, too. So maybe I'm not thinking of it.
SPEAKER_01:You're not thinking of any lefties, you're thinking of righties.
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm thinking of there there's like some heavier set lefty. I'll have to take another look at this list. It might be further down on the list.
SPEAKER_01:But that that's just me for relievers. I don't know. I don't I don't think they're gonna have a chance to that win Diaz. I I Well no, they're not gonna have a chance to do that.
SPEAKER_00:I think he's gonna go to the the Blue Jays. Or Suarez. I don't think Suarez are gonna have a chance for either. Iglesias is terrible. Iglesias, I feel like that might be a combination of factors of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01:Hellesley Williams, Fear Fairbanks, and Sir Anthony, but you gotta get all but I mean they're What about Jansen? He I mean, yeah, but but I don't know how he's gonna be considering he'll be 39.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but I mean he had a 2.0 war last year, and he's been very solid his entire career, so there are definitely some guys on here that I wouldn't be thrilled if they brought him in, but I also wouldn't be mad about it if they brought him in either. Like Yeah, unless they shit the bed, like Romano. Like Kyle Finnegan. I wouldn't be thrilled if they brought him in here from Washington, but I also wouldn't be like overly upset about it either, unless they're overpaying for him, you know? Exactly. Like, that's someone that I feel like I could live with on this free agent list, you know? Like you're bringing back, you know, Joe Ross, I can't live with that. Yeah. I don't think anyone can live with that.
SPEAKER_01:I can't live with that. But do you want to go to the starters? And then we'll after that, that's about it for the free agents. Yeah. So starters Valdez is a lot better. Nick Martinez, Chris Bassett, Imanaga, Gallon Kelly, King.
SPEAKER_00:Imanaga, I think it would be interesting here, but I don't know how much money he's gonna want. Because he turned down how much from Chicago?
SPEAKER_01:I think 57 million from Chicago. That was his three years, 57 million, so 19 a year.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, 19 a year. So they're probably not gonna have enough money to sign him. Well, he's Japanese. So where are where's he going? I strangely enough, don't think he's gonna go. Uh strangely enough, I don't think he's going to the Dodgers. No, I don't think either.
SPEAKER_01:The Dodgers already have a good enough rotation.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I don't really think they have anyone leaving their rotation other than Clayton Kershaw, who barely pitched for them anyway this year.
SPEAKER_01:Clayton Kershaw retired, so they're gonna have a Otani who's gonna be healthy. They're gonna have Snow, Glasnow.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't think they're gonna be in on Imanaga. They might be in on the starter, but not one for twenty million dollars. No.
SPEAKER_01:He'll probably go to I mean, if I'm looking at starters here, we said earlier maybe Michael King or Chris Bassett. Oh, yeah. You bring in Chris Bassett on a one-year deal.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I just had the realization of? Show to Imanaga could potentially be a target for the Mets.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's I'm thinking too. Well, there's a lot of players that could be targets for the Mets. Just look at Cohen. He's a he's a you know freaking billionaire. I know. They have a lot of targets. I've heard you know, they want to retain Alonzo.
SPEAKER_00:New York is a city with historical Japanese baseball ties with the amount of important Japanese players have played in New York. Now I know most of them have been for the Yankees and not for the Mets. Yeah, but look where they're still in New York.
SPEAKER_01:Look look look at where that's going on. That's going to Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, now it's going to Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01:Kim, Otani, Yamamoto, Sasaki.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you had Hideki Matsui that was in New York.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Matsui with the Yankees. Who was Yeah, the one I feel like you had a Japanese pitcher.
SPEAKER_00:Daiske. Matsuzaka, I believe was his last name, right? Daise Matsuzaka. I know that who was the catcher that they had that was Asian? For the Mets or the Yankees. The Yankees a couple years ago.
SPEAKER_01:Higashioka, no. Yeah, yeah, Kyle Higashioka.
SPEAKER_00:Hien Jin Ryu.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was a uh Blue Jays player. Yeah, pitcher, right? He was actually on the Dodgers too. I thought before all the Otani bullshit.
SPEAKER_00:Wasn't he on the Yankees at one point too before he went to Toronto? Tanaka is the one that I'm thinking of. But there is, you know, some fear that maybe Imanago can go to the Mets.
SPEAKER_01:You know, Cohen's not afraid to offer offer him a ton of money. Oh, hell no. Looking at these pitchers, I don't know who else the Phillies are really gonna sign pitchers wise starters, besides maybe like King and Bassett. I don't think they're gonna retain Ranger. Well, no, they're not gonna get Ranger. I don't think they're gonna get Cease, Valdez.
SPEAKER_00:No. They're not gonna get any of the big name pitchers. No. And they're not realistically, they don't need to look for a big name pitcher.
SPEAKER_01:They don't really need to look for a big name pitcher. No. They need someone that would be like a fourth or a fifth starter. Even like Zach Efflin, you know, making a return here as a fourth or fifth starter.
SPEAKER_00:I'd be fine with that, him making a return as a fourth or a fifth starter.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It won't be hard for him to, you know, learn the mechanics again.
SPEAKER_00:And I mean, you know, he'll get injured halfway through the year, like he always does, but it'll be fine because as we've s you know stated, they've got Gene Cabrera and Moist Chance, which they protected. So they must think that the two of them have some type of future within the organization if you're gonna protect them on the 40-man roster. So if you could even get someone to just last you half a season. Yeah, you could, yeah, exactly. You could maybe work your way through it for the rest with what you have, but you th you think you gotta at least bring in one of those guys. Yeah, you bring in at least one starter.
SPEAKER_01:Even if it's like a Spencer Turnbull type signing, you gotta bring somebody in.
SPEAKER_00:You have to at least bring in one more arm because you're one injury away from having a 50% minor league rotation.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. World Series contending team as a minor league rotation, that's not good one at all.
SPEAKER_00:That's not a place that the Phillies want to be. And then obviously, there's not really any validity to what I'm gonna ask you. But if you were to see the Phillies make a trade or two, who would you like to see them trade for, and who would you like to see them trade away?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'd like to see them trade away. Nick Castellanos. Obviously. Maybe like one of the out Rojas or Marsh can go with them. Alec Boom, obviously, I want to see gone. And some players I want to see. Harry Ford from Seattle. Because I don't know how long I can. Trust JT for. Yep. And then that would be a great trade, too. One of the Angels outfielders. Because that's 30 home run power right there. You're getting. Yeah. I would it's gonna be better than what Nick Castellans is producing for way less of the money. A lot better. And you know, Fort's locked behind Raleigh, who's just got that monster extension and MVP candidate.
SPEAKER_00:And I, you know, being a Seattle fan, I've already read that earlier, about halfway through last season, Seattle Front Office came out and said that they don't want to move Harry Ford from catcher. They like him as a catcher, they don't want to move him from that position. So if they don't want to move him from catcher, but he's blocked, then he's gonna get traded.
SPEAKER_01:Right, he's gonna get traded. And he'll play for Great Britain in WBC, so it'll be a good chance to show off his skills.
SPEAKER_00:Only thing that I could potentially see them doing is if they aren't able to retain Polanco for second base, they have used him as second base in double A before last year. I didn't know that. He's uh he's extremely athletic. He's played center field before for Great Britain in qualifying rounds.
SPEAKER_01:Like he's I I some teams do that.
SPEAKER_00:Like Stubbs played third base for No, he's a really athletic like catcher, you know? Like he's not a catcher that's one of these non-athletic, nothing. He can only play catcher or first base. No, he's he's like JT, where if he wanted to, he could play center field, he could play second base, he'd play.
SPEAKER_01:See, I never knew that until now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he's uh very, very athletic, Harry Ford. That's one of the biggest things as to why they signed him.
SPEAKER_01:It just depends if they can't get Polanco back.
SPEAKER_00:Right, if they can't get Polanco back. If they do get Polanco back, there'd be no reason to move him to second base.
SPEAKER_01:Unless they want to move Brandon Williamson to second base.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I see. I don't think so either. No. But that would be the only way that I would see a clear path forward for Harry Ford getting some playing time with the Mariners next year, because he's not gonna play catcher.
SPEAKER_01:No, he won't. And you're not gonna call him up unless Raleigh goes down with like a season-ending injury, then.
SPEAKER_00:You're not gonna call him up to be Raleigh's backup.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:He's too good of a player to be Raleigh's backup and to just be sitting wasting.
SPEAKER_01:You give that to like Mitch Carver.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Like, he you know, if you have a backup catcher that you can flip for some talent, you're gonna do it. Like, so that would be definitely somewhere the Phillies could go if they don't retain JT. Yeah. Even if they do retain JT, that could be another avenue that they go. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was our Phillies show, I guess. Yeah. Just a deep dive before that was good. The offseason really starts. Let the free agents roll, and it's gonna be a long up a long uh offseason coming for this team in this ball club. So that that that'll do it. And you know, hopefully the Eagles come out 7-2 against the Packers. I got a good feeling. I got a good feeling too. And you know, let's hope Dave Dombrowski is an idiot idiot this offseason. And can actually do his job. Can actually do his job, so we'll see him next week.
