2026 Philadelphia Phillies Season Preview

We’re back!!! Welcome to the Mound Visits 2026 Philadelphia Phillies season preview. We kick things off by looking back at how the 2025 season ended, then shift our focus to what’s ahead for this year’s team and where they’re headed moving forward.

We break down all the key offseason and preseason moves, rank the rotation, bullpen, and lineup within the NL, and dive into the impact of emerging rookies alongside veteran leaders. Plus, we discuss why this season could be one of the most important in Phillies history.

This is a jam-packed episode—we cover everything from the WBC to Tarik Skubal, and even shout out one of our favorite non-Phillies, Max Muncy.

The Phillies are back, and it’s World Series or bust. Enjoy the show… and we’ll see you in November?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

But it's that Mound Visit. We back, bitches. Coming back at you again with season two. Of the Mound Visit. Well, we sit here and we talk about. Well, they didn't fight as much as they should have last year, but we talk about our fight in Phil's win, loser, draw. We love them. We here, we back for another run. Hopefully, see if we can get a title. We start here. To my right, as always, my man, Big J. What's going on, man? What up, everybody? Glad to have you back on the Mound visit to my left. Yeah, I know. Bit to my left, Samu C, what's up, man? What's up, guys? You already know what it is. Up top, our special recurring guest. He's just a member of the Mound Visit at this fucking point. My guy. OA, talk to him, man. What's happening?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

What's going on, everybody? Nice to be back.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

You know what it is, man. Good to be back. So we were here last year. Rough season for the Fighting Phils. They had a lot of chances to move along like we thought they were going to. Didn't quite happen the way we thought it was going to go. With that being said, we're going to start this off with a simple question. What went wrong? We saw how the season played out. We saw what happened and it didn't happen. So I'm going to start with you, Joey. What happened with the fight and fields last year and what went wrong?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

The bats went cold.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

That's it. End of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Really, there's no other explanation. I mean, the pitching was great. And it's crazy to say the bats went cold when we outhit the Dodgers in that series, who just couldn't produce runs. When it came down to it, runners in corner position, runners on base. I couldn't tell you how many times I dreaded Alec Bone being in the box with one out and a runner on first and third, and an ending the ending double play would happen.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

You know my thoughts on Alec Bone, so but uh yeah, it's just untimely hitting.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Not enough timely hitting. Um I do think things could have played out a little differently if the umpire doesn't miss that strike three call in in LA. Uh but hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Oh, wait. What was the most frustrating thing about that run for you? Especially in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Real quick though, first of all, if you go back and listen to the other podcast, I was the one that was like, who's left? The Dodgers? Who's gonna be scared of the Dodgers? And I wasn't, and they shouldn't have been, and I don't think they were, but Hold on. Since you brought it up. You guys are scared of Max Muncie? Come on.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I mean nobody's scared of Max Muncie. Well, he ain't with the Dodgers no more, so we ain't gotta be scared of them. But continue.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

But listen, and the bats did go cold a little bit, but to me, I think that series was probably the best pitch series in the playoffs. The Dodgers pitchers pitched this well. I think they were hot. Because when they played in the World Series, Toronto just beat them up. And if fundamental baseball, probably the Blue Jays were champions, but uh, you know, the Phillies, yeah, they they went cold a little bit. But the pitching, Phillies pitching was great, and yeah, if that strike was called, we probably beat them.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

What was this? I don't remember. What was the score at that point?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Well, nothing. Phillies.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

What what inning was it? You remember? Seventh.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Seventh or eighth, one of the two. It would have been the third out and the seventh inning. Yeah. Instead, then you would have gone to your bullpen. Yeah. Damn. Thank God we got you all on the podcast. Yeah. So uh and what hurts is the JT coming out this spring saying that right after the pitch was caught, a ball, the umpire said I fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Did he really?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yeah, he admitted it that it was a strike, but too late. Think about this though. If the ABS system was in place last year, what would have happened? Yeah. JT's tapping his helmet. Yeah. JT just happened this this spring.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

That's the one thing I've noticed uh this spring is that how good both the catchers and the hitters are. These guys are fucking professionals, man. Like they know.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

They know.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Like, I mean, that margin of error when they're off.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

It's not a lot.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

It's not a lot.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

The hitters, it was Matt Olson challenged the Paul Skeens, uh, I think it was a slider. It was less than a tenth of an inch outside the strike center. On Mark called a strike, touch his head overturned.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Less than tenth of an inch. Wow. Yeah, so he definitely would have tapped his helmet on that one, that is for sure. Sammy, don't act like you ain't watched the playoffs. You watch all the playoffs. Yeah. Uh I I'm gonna ask everybody, but I'll ask you first, because I I thought about this. Um I I don't think there's any two way or two ways around it, other than the bats game going cold. You guys are absolutely right. The pitching was amazing in that series. Do you think that was the World Series? Whoever won that series was gonna win the World Series.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

You think so? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, to go off of what both of them said, I mean, we win that series. I think we win the World Series. But our bats fell apart. I didn't like, you know, what, the top four hitters, top five hitters when you need them the most. They weren't producing. You can't go, you can't have three out of the five go for four, oh for five, you know, you're paying them all this money. And they came up and some of them came up in big spots, and they couldn't, you know, bring it around. Um I think the pitching was great. Uh I just think that, you know, the Dodgers outpitched us in that series. And sure as hell was not scared of Max Muncie, that's for sure. Um I'll never live that. Because I don't think he he didn't really produce. Uh I mean he didn't do nothing. Nah. No, he didn't do anything. Barely anybody did anything. Nah. Yeah. We did that with no wheeler. Yeah.

unknown 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

I mean, we heard her dominated the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So you guys also agree the winner of that wins the real songs.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

That was the series of the playoffs where, okay, this whoever's I I was I whoever came out of the National League, I knew was gonna face Toronto. I knew Toronto was gonna Toronto was just way too hot, and they were a good team. But again, our pitching staff, I think, would have done a lot better job.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Well, that segues us into part two of that question, and that is uh I I I mean, you gotta lay the blame somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yes, the bats went cold, but there's you know $800 million in that lineup at the top of it. Who's blamed? It's uh to me it's And I hate that word, but that's the only word I can use. It's 50-50. Um and I'm not gonna go Rob Thompson. Uh it's players and your hitting coach, Kevin Long. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Uh I didn't expect to hear Kevin Long, but okay. I wasn't happy with how they approached the play. I mean, I I was getting it was making me sick to my stomach the amount of fastballs down the middle we were just watching go by. If there's any time to be aggressive and against the team like uh the Dodgers, it's then. You see a fastball, hack. I can't tell you guy who hit almost 60 home runs just watching a fastball go right down the middle. You didn't see that shit happening in a regular season. Why change it? We saw this team put up how double digit runs how many times last year? A lot. All of a sudden something changed.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

You gotta blame Carp?

SPEAKER_02 9:00

I might be talking at both sides of my mouth here, so I'm just gonna yeah, Turner, Shorber, Harper, they get paid a lot of money. But who hit the home run in the World Series that was in the game for the Dodgers and doesn't make that much money? My man Rojas.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

He was hitting 120 or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

And he came up with the big hit. So don't get me wrong, Schwerber, Harper, they didn't do what they're supposed to do. But those pitchers aren't they know, okay, well, I can't let these guys beat me. I'm gonna pitch to Bohm, I'm gonna pitch to Stop, I'm gonna pitch to Castellanos. Those guys, those marginal guys that are supposed to be all right, I'm gonna pick it up. There's somebody that has to protect those guys, and nothing. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Refresh my memory. Who was at the bottom of the lineup? Stopp, Marsh.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Bader. Bader? Well, Bader was hitting, but he was hitting. That was a hurt piece too. Well, Bader not playing? He was the hottest. He was the hottest.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

He was the hottest between team. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Um I was gonna wait till Sammy goes, but I also want to share the blame.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

You're more than welcome to go.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Well, it was kind of gonna lead it to our next topic. Um, I blame Middleton and I blame Dombrowski.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Oh. Um there's no reason your protection for Bryce Harper is Alec Bohm.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

I I'm not trying to hate on Alec Bohm because he's taken leaps and strides from what he has been in the past. But he is not a protection for Bryce Harper. Guess what? This still hasn't changed. I don't mean to jump ahead here.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

But that's a problem. Well, see, here's the here's the thing with that. And I used to I used to tell my son this, and that is you said he's taking leaps of bounds, right? So if he's if he's is he moved from uh you know a Camry to an Audi, uh, we need you to be from a Camry to a Ferrari. And he hasn't done that. No, and and I don't mean to hate on him because I have somebody else that pissed me off in the bottom of that lineup, and that was Bryson Stock. Like, I don't know what the move Bryson Stott was doing.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Right. That's crazy. That's where I was gonna do. That's what you were gonna say? Yeah, because I mean I'm I'm not a huge fan of him. I I never have been, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

It's either he comes up to strike out or it's a a fly ball or a ground ball. It's not like he was not consistent.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

The thing was in the World Series run, he was hot. He was. When we went to the World Series, you couldn't get Bryson Style out. This dude's hitting home runs, he putting balls in place. I don't know what happened to that cat.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

That's the thing. I just want if he's gonna do anything, I need him to be consistent. I think that's gonna happen. Yeah. I hope. I do want to I think stop. I don't want to jump ahead, but we'll we'll we'll touch on that. We'll touch on that. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Okay. Yeah, I just, you know, somebody's gotta let the lead.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

I can't blame Corkring. A lot of people say, oh, I I just can't. I mean, he freaked out on a play. He had still had time to get him at first. I was taught something by my father and his best friend that Elvin that coached us growing up. And it was knowing the play before the ball was pitched. From the pitcher to the catcher to the seven other fielders, you gotta know where the ball is going. And he panicked. He blacked out and panicked. But if you un if you know where you're going with the ball, or the ball's hit to me, no matter what, we got two outs. I know I got a slow runner. That plays at first base. That's the bottom line there. He I don't think he realized who was running. You know, although, you know, he's not the the quickest out there. He had time. He had time. He had time to get him at first base, and he's just like, oh my God, I can't pick up the ball. By the time he picked up that ball and tried to rush the throw home, Pajes may have been 30 of the 90 feet to first base. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

It's it's funny you it's funny you guys bring that up, and we'll move to the next topic, but it's funny you bring that up because um, and we'll talk about this, you know, a little bit later in the pod, but you talk about uh knowing the play, right? I'm sitting in Miami, we're at the WBC, we're watching Japan, and we're watching Venezuela play, right? So I'm talking to my son, and he's saying it's so hard to be uh the most fundamentally sound team because Japan doesn't make mistakes. No. You know how they lost that game? They made a mistake. They when he threw that ball into the outfield, that was the hugest mistake of the game. I I think we were more shocked that that happened than anything. So you're right. He didn't know who was running. I'm not blaming Kirk. No, I don't. Yeah. I mean not in a game that close. I mean, d if you want to blame somebody, hey, score some more runs, but I'm not I'm not blaming him.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Nobody is brought up Marsh either. And he's not the guy. He was squaring up some balls. He had a couple to the track, and he was just missing him. But I mean, he wa I at least he was putting the ball in play and and squaring balls up just to the deepest part of the park, center and and right center field. He pulls one one of those balls, it's a home run. But he just missed. I don't mind Marsh. So, but he didn't, you know, hitting deep fly balls doesn't do anything unless there's a runner on third base with less than two users. Yeah, second half of the season, Brandon Marsh was your hottest hitter.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

I do I do remember.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I mean the guy almost said 300 after like not getting a hit in April. He didn't get a hit in April and was sent down to the minors.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Damn, I forgot about that. You're right.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah. So I'll ask guys before we move to the next topic since we're since we're on this, we're talking about price proper protection, yada yada yada. I'll start I'll start with you. Do you would during that series when it was clear that either he was scuffling or they was pitching around him? I I know it might be sacrilege because he's that guy, but do you move him up and put somebody because at that point you can't get anybody else. The protection is the protection. Whoever you got on the roster is the protection. Bader was the only protection he was that they really would have had and he was gone. So would you have moved him up and changed the lineup? Maybe make I don't know, Turner one, Schwarber 2, or vice versa, make make Harper two, Schwarber 3.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

He was back in fourth? Who's that? Harper.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Harper.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Harper was back in third.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Third. So would you have flip-flopped him?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Like so you're saying Turner, Harper, Schwarber.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah. Because that way you give him some kind of protection, right? Or or is it just you can't do that at that point in the season? I'm asking because I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

It's tough to do it. It's more so, it's more so where Bryce is more comfortable. Right. Wow. And and I know you don't like to cater to that. But also you still have the problem of who's behind them. Man, Poe Harper at six. Let's just face it here that the guy that was brought in and paid $100 million to be that guy was never that guy.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Elephant in a room, yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

He was never that guy. He came from Cincinnati hitting 30 home runs and 30 home runs and 30 home runs. Came over, got paid. Don't get me wrong, he had some key hits in the playoffs, had a great playoffs. I guess it was 23. The World City. Yeah. Many year afterwards. He reminds me of I'm I'm gonna flip the football real quick. He reminds me of DeMarco Murray when he came to the analogy because he just Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty good hype. And we were like, oh yeah, we got Nick Cassians, we got Nick Cassian. And we really didn't get I mean, obviously we got good games out of him, but like when it mattered, it wasn't wasn't there.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Defensively, I mean he played Oh yeah, he saved us a couple games defensively. I did. He had over 400 games played. The year before. The year we went to the World Series saved us a couple times, five times.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Well, to me that not even the arrows part. To me, the thing was is that he was always in the lineup. I that I appreciated. He never was hurt, he was always in a lineup.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah, but it was walk, strikeout. He just drove you mad at his swings, his approach. And then it comes out when he gets released that he really didn't want to be here. I don't know if you guys read that story.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Signed the contract. What do you mean you want him to?

SPEAKER_02 18:21

He wanted to sign in Miami. Miami wouldn't give him the money. He was looking elsewhere, but when it by the time it came down to it, Philly had offered him the most money. So that's where he signed. Where's he at now? San Diego.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Still, he put pen to paper, bro. I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

But there's other things about him that after he left, like, you know, he didn't respect Thompson because he never played Major League Baseball. And to me, that's ridiculous. Jim Leland, he played for Jim Leland. Leland never played professional baseball. He said that? Yes. See, but that's the thing. I gotta res I gotta have respect for guys that put on the cleats and have been there and done that.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Play for Barry Bonds?

SPEAKER_02 19:06

I just don't I didn't get that. Get back to what you were saying. It's like you put pen to paper. You didn't have to. No, but a hundred and something million reasons why it's not. My point is.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

If you took 12 million to go to Miami and play in front of 3,000 people, if you wanted to. If you wanted to. But hey, I get it. I I would have done the same thing. But for that money, I don't care where you want to play, you got to get a chance to get a chance to get it.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yeah, at that point, it it comes down to are you a competitor or not? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

He got a chance to play on the hugest stage.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

I know to this day I play a Sunday men's league. When I put those cleats on, uh, I want to win. I mean I I think he did want to win. He just, you know, he I guess during the season he would go on two months of a slump and then come back and have a great month and then cool down, and then obviously when we came to October, come pick it up. Do you think uh That's the issue at the four hole. So can we blame Bohm? I guess a little bit, but Castellanos is the guy that really would blame. He was supposed to be the guy.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Do you do you think because he'd be what, four? Castellanos, yeah. Yeah, he'd be four, and then Bone would be after.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Yeah, if you got a 30 home run guy, you would expect him to be in the four-hole to protect Bone.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

And that's what I expect Bone to be. You're too big to not be that guy. You're six foot five, you play a power position. Yeah, you need to be that guy. Does it matter if he hits 300, though? I'd take 270 and 30 home runs. Oh well, then you're not gonna get 30 home runs out of it.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

I was about to say he never hit 30 home runs, has he?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Maybe though his all-star year is on fire. You can get 305 doubles. I'll take 8990 RBI. No, it's gotta be 100 plus. Maybe. It's gotta be 100 plus. Maybe he does. You hit three if you're hitting 313, 315. I just don't know if I see that from him. But that's and that's the problem.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

That's the problem. When I look at him, I don't see that.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

I bet you you see it this year.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

You think so?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Why?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Out of bone.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Why? Contract year.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Oh. You might be right. That contract year. Look, that contract year did for Dick Castellanos.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

I bet you you see it this year.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah. You might you might have a point there. Um I I I hope it's the case. There's enough, and we'll get to the lineup, but we have to talk about uh the guy who uh was in charge of constructing this team, and that's Mr. Dave Dombrowski. Uh at his uh leaving press conference, he had some choice words. Words to say about one, Mr. Bryce Harper stating that uh he may not be elite anymore. Uh two questions. One should that have been something that was said on a microphone? And two, is he right? I'll start with you away.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Okay. So through the press conference, a reporter asked him, Do you think Bryce Harper's still elite? And he was like, Well, I don't think he had an elite year. He's not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

He's not wrong.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Took a step back. Can we agree that Kyle Schwarber surpassed him in hitting this year? He's probably their best hitter. Okay, so he wasn't wrong. But he said, Well, I don't know if he's elite. Time will tell. Do we think he can still be elite? Yeah, but Father Time hits everybody. So that became, oh, Dombrowski said Harper's not elite.

unknown 23:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Thanks for clarifying that. But now answer the question.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Should he have said it? I think he should have just said, yeah, I think we think Bryce Harper's still elite. I we think we are gonna have plenty of good years with him and left it at that. And I don't think he was saying all those things to knock Bryson down. I think he was just being honest about the year. They were asking about last year, and he and he said what was going on. What I think he also should have said was, hey, Bryce had a wristing, you know, he wasn't a hundred percent sometime during, you know, he had to, although he played, he wasn't a hundred percent. He was hurting, he was working himself back. Those things he should have said right then and there, it wouldn't have got to where, you know, I'm I'm not an elite t-shirt came out.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

You know, but swing it over to you. It should he have said it?

SPEAKER_02 24:00

And I still think he's elite. It shouldn't have been said. Um he definitely got caught with his foot in his mouth. Uh looked like he it looked like he didn't know where to go with that. I don't think he was expecting that question. Um but no, Bryce statistically had his worst year uh since he's been in the major leagues. Again, not many people know this, and you know, this is also Bryce was probably trying to do too much. Bryce Harper, and out of all the major league players, he's the most pitches outside the strike zone.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Okay. True.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

So, you know, he's you you when you're out there and you know you don't have much protection behind you, or you're trying to produce when you got runners on base, you start to chase. You think that caused him to scuffle? I think it was trying to put too much on himself. Um do I think he's elite? Yes. I don't think he's to the point where he's he's on a downcl on a on a down climb.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Um look at some of the bats he had in the WBC.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Did he look necessarily fantastic? No. But he wasn't chasing a lot of the pitches that we saw him chase.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

He did look a little different.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Um in the last season. And, you know, he's that's one man when you piss him off, he's gonna he's gonna do everything in his power to make sure you eat your words. Um so if anything, it may have helped us out. Um I don't know if that was Dombrowski's tactic. If it works out, hey, we move past it. Um but Harper's made it a point to he wants to get back, he wants to have uh, what do you say, 120 plus walks this year. Whoa. The two years he did that, he won two MVPs. So, you know, you're select it it's gonna get to a point where he's you're not gonna be able to pitch around him if he's got runners on, bases loaded, whatever the case may be, that's when he needs to thrive. And the more pitches you take outside the strike zone, the more they're gonna have to throw in the strike zone.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

That's true. Uh him getting on base is paramount no matter how he does it. Uh it seems like when he does that, he he plays a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Well, you get on base, you allow more time for the pitcher to make a mistake.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I I agree. Um Sammy, you do you have Bryce's numbers over the past couple years? Any of them? Yeah. Shoot them to me, brother.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Uh what do you want to start with? I'm gonna start. I mean, we could start when he was in Philly in 2019, when he came over if you want. All right. Uh 2019, he was uh a 260 batting average.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Struck out 178 times, walked 99 times. Uh that was 2019? Yeah. Okay. That was his first year of the Phills, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:21

First year of the Phills. He had 35 home runs. 35 home runs, 114 RBIs.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

What was his you guys remember what his MVP year was?

SPEAKER_02 27:31

MVP year was 2022? For what?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

For Bryce's MVP.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

For Philly? Yeah. Uh 2021. Was it? Yeah, I mean, he batted 309. Uh how many RBIs? He had 84 RBIs, 35 home runs. That sounds a little low for 20. I mean, 2020 was he had 33 RBIs and 13 home runs.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

That don't make sense. He was hurt. He was hurt. 2021 is when he won the MVP.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

2021?

SPEAKER_02 28:08

But yeah, so he won MVP, but the stats were really low.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

I'm trying to figure out why.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

What what was I don't know, because he struck out 134 times.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Was that the COVID year? No, I couldn't. No, 2020.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

His slugging was points it was 615. All base percentage was 1.044.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

OPS 179. Uh does it say how when was the most games he's played in a season?

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Uh, in his entire career?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

No. No, just with the Phillies. Was the 2021 season? How many games did he play? I'm sorry, 2024, he played 145. 2021, he played 141. Yeah. I think last year he played 132 games, I thought. Yeah, he did. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

I don't know. He had 599 uh plate appearances his MVP year. He batted 309 with a 615 slug, an OPS of 1.044.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Last year?

SPEAKER_02 29:10

No, in 2021, in a 5.9 war.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

That was his MVP.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

I got stats from last year if you want to hear them.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah, go ahead, shoot him.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

So 2025, he hit 27 homers, 75 ribies. That's down.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Okay? That's down. Again, he missed some time.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

How many games he played?

SPEAKER_02 29:31

132. Okay. So he missed 30 games. He missed a month.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

He hit 261. His OBP was 357. He still slugged 487 and 501 at bats. He had 130 hits, 131 hits, but he only walked 70 times.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Oh wow. That's down by a lot.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Yeah, and he only scored 72 runs. For somebody that is, you know, top three in the order, you know, 27 of those were home runs.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Oh shit, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Okay. Think about it like that. Yeah. His 2025 postseason, he hit 200. OBP was 333. He only slug 267. He had 15 at bats, one run, three hits, three walks. Not very good. Did Dave Dombrowski have to say he was elite? No. He didn't say he wasn't. I mean, a huge dip, right? Just look at the playoffs years with the Phillies. 2022, he hit in the playoffs 349. 2023, 286. 2024, 333. And then he dropped down to 200.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Yeah. It's tough. Yeah. And another one. He's like the average 280 guy. We lost Trey Turner the last three weeks of the season. He wasn't ready to come back until game one of the playoffs. That is true. Lost him. I mean, you lost Bader in the playoffs. Which he was hot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

So I guess to wrap this up, I guess we can't completely dismiss the elite thing because there are a lot of factors going through it. But the numbers don't lie. There has been a dip in performance for uh Mr. Harper.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Do I think he'll bounce back in this year's playoffs? Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah, I mean, I was as I was watching WBC, I was kind of like, I was starting to get a little worried. When he hit that home run, I was too. I was like, oh, boy, you let that you take that elite t-shirt off, boy, because I don't know, Bryce. Scuffling.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

When the lights are put it on. Yeah, I think Judge might be. But Shorber was 0 for 3 with 3Ks, too. But he did lead the team in hits. Shorber? Oh, yeah. Shorber was hot doing WBC. They call Harper the showman for a reason. When the lights were the brightest, he showed up. At least in that one he did. That one he did. But I don't know. I seen him on the downfall. Think so? I mean, we'll find out. That's me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

We'll find out. You know?

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Moving on. Uh, we've talked about Dave Dombrowski. Talk about swinging misses. He had a huge one. Uh, not really sure uh how it happened, but it happened. Uh, we that week we text back and forth, mainly Joey, about us getting uh young Mr. Bichette. And uh it didn't happen. Question, why didn't it happen?

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Uh I blame this is where I blame Dombrowski. We don't know for sure. But reports were we gave Bo the money he was asking for and the years.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Seven years to twenty. We met his price. Everybody knew the Met's big fish was Kyle Tucker.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Kyle Tucker, I think it was in the middle of the night. Or late. It was late, late in the evening, signs with the Dodgers. Uh-oh. The Met's big fish is now with somebody else. So they had to make a special. They're gonna pivot. All that money they were gonna give to Kyle Tucker, they were gonna try to give it to the next best thing. And that's where I blame Dombrowski for not calling Bo Bachet the moment you hear Kyle Tucker sign. Bo, we met your number. Blah blah blah blah blah. If that's the case, what do I need to do to seal this deal tonight? I mean, I can't see where you're wrong in that, to be honest with you. Kyle Tucker, he definitely signed in like the middle of the night, because I woke up to it the next morning and I was up to at least midnight that night. But it in in in that type of position, that information is getting back to you immediately. Oh, yeah. Somebody's calling your phone. Well, maybe maybe Debrowski was sleeping, bro. And if that's the case, shame on you.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

There's literally five agents that run the MLB.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

That's it. They have every client. So they know.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Flip side to that. I don't think Bo called the Phillies back and let them know what the Mets offered. I think he saw the money. And listen, looking at the contract, it's smart for Bo Bachet.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Yeah, explain it because I'm not really sure I know the ins and outs of it.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Three years, I forget the final number. It's like 46, 45 million dollars a year. We were offering him an AAV of like 28. So he looked at it this I could for the next three years, I can make $45 million. A year. A year compared to 20-something. Turn 30 and get another massive contract. Or I can make $45 million this year and opt out.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Yeah, that's a no-brainer for me.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

He has opt-outs after the first and second year. Yeah, that's a no-brainer. So he could say he could Sorry, Phil. He could very well go off this year. And that 220 price tag just turned into 300.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

Hard to be mad at Bo Bouchette. I mean, that's but I'm a little pissed off.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

That's uh Yeah, I get it. Bit of a risk as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Um you better not get hurt.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah, you you could you could be Anthony Rendone.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

If he if he gets hurt, guess what? He's opting into that contract and getting another $45 million next year.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Yeah, yeah. Still, still risk, but I get why he did it.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Um but you still I don't think he called the Phillies back. I think he's oh, this is yeah, sign it. Yeah, and if if I'm the Phil's And it sucks because I can't give him $45 million a year. Bo Bouchette is a hell of a player. I've always liked his game. He's like the only player in the MLB who's hitting 300 versus the fastball, 300 versus the breaking ball, and 300 versus your the new age the new splitter.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

And and it's insane. You know how I know that? Because you text that four months ago.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Yeah, you did. Same exact the way that you just put it, same exact way.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I was like, oh shit, we're getting Bobachette then.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

You don't like his brother?

SPEAKER_00 36:39

That green hair type?

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Is he?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

He's in the billing system. Huh?

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Dude, Dante Bachet. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Is he? Is he watching the BBC damn skin? No. I was talking about the T.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

What is this guy doing? It's Dante Nori.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Oh, Dante Nori. My bad. Okay, my bad. My bad.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

I'll take Dante Nori over. No, Dante Nori.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

I apologize to you and your family that got my Italians mixed up.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Remember, we talked about how in the early 2000s there must have been a Brazilian model. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Dante. Team Brazil. He came out there with all that bling. I don't think he got one hit during the whole WBC. Look good though. Look good. Style points. Yeah. I want to know if Manny Ramirez's son is in some one of these organizations. The lefty? If he ain't, he'd be there soon. Yeah. Was he 17? I think so. Yeah, that boy's gonna be nasty. I want the pitcher from Brazil. That big boy. Not Brazil, the 17-year-old. Oh, Contreras' son.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

But I think he's in Contreras' son.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah.

unknown 37:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

I don't know what he was good with.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

We were talking about that too.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Yeah, we'll imagine just being in high school.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah. We'll get today. We'll get to WBC. What do you think? I don't know. About Bobo Sheet. Philly got played. They went to bed thinking we got Bobo Shep. I think all of us did, honestly. Well, we were ready. Okay, today's gonna be the I mean you brought you brought in his best friend, Don Mattingley. But Mets came and kicked the legs out from under him. And I don't yeah Derek, you're right. Forty 40 million dollars, you gotta opt out after two years. If you get hurt, you have the you opt in and you're good. So it's a win-win for him. But I think he negotiated in bad faith. If you if you and your agent have said, hey, meet us here. Seven years, we want seven years, 250 million or 235 million, and they say we'll go seven years to 20, and you're like, yeah, that works. Yeah. Let alone you're looking at the team that we have. Now, this whole thing could set off a whole chain of events. Because if they sign Bichette, there's no JT. They or they have to wait because they're gonna have to trade Bohm and his 10 point something million and do a whole cut bunch of different things to see if they can get JT cheaper. Phillies, although they have deep pockets, they don't have Met money and they don't have Dodger money. That's correct. But go buy some more Black and Miles there. Yeah, Black and Miles. You mean to tell me that they couldn't come up with something like this?

SPEAKER_00 39:35

I I think I just think the optics of and I I don't think he's like this, but I just think the optics of who's on the team already, the age of shit, he'd be making what? If if they met at that number, he'd be making like 12 million dollars more than the guys that have already been there. I just think the optics are bad.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

For a year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

I know it's like for a year. Yeah, I get it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

So I just think whatever Joey, whatever they needed to do to get that done, they needed to get that done.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

You want to talk about protection?

SPEAKER_01 40:20

There it is. I agree. There it is. I most certainly agree. Okay, Scooby.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Yeah, I mean, the line's gonna be long for that.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

It's interesting. I know. Yeah. Because the Tigers, what do you do? You're leading the AL. You're up 15 games at the trade deadline. Knowing that you're at the Knowing that you can make a World Series push, what do you do? You go. Do you run with Therese Kubu and you lose out? Or do you trade him and try and get whatever he's worth? Considering you're gonna sign him. Because I'll tell you right now, he's not going back to Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

That's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

They disrespected him. They wanted to pay him $13 million. But he's getting paid 32. The Tigers want to pay him $13 million. Business is business. The cat just won a sigh young. Put the team on his back. And we're gonna give you $13 million. No, I think that's what they just offered him, but they knew they were gonna go to arbitration and they were gonna lose.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Here's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

But why uh whatever.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Here's the thing about we talk about school, but fuck it, we're here. Uh here's the thing about that. Unlike other sports, right? If I'm if I'm Giannis and I'm making X amount of dollars, and the Bucs have no shot at making the playoffs, they're going to get a return for that investment if they trade him. With baseball, everything is projection. There is absolutely no guarantee. I don't give a fuck if you give them seven first round picks.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

No.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

One might pan out.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

And the money's irrelevant at that point.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

And that's why you can't trade picks in baseball.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

That's what I'm saying. Like you it in prospects, I meant. You can't, if you bring back, oh, he's the second best prospect in our unless that guy's a guaranteed hit, I ain't trading school.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Unless you got somebody like Bryce Harper when he was coming up when he was 15, 16 years old.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Yeah. Somebody like that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 42:32

And who might get that for him? Uh uh somebody of that ilk for School Bull. Is he the best pitcher in baseball? Maybe Skeens? Otani? One, two, three. Yamamoto.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Oh, right there. You know? I just I just don't see I see their hands tied, because you're right. I don't think you're going back. So at the trade deadline, unless I'm guaranteed to make a run to the World Series.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Do you know who has the fucking farm system to do it? It's the Dodgers. And the Yankees.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

We're gonna pivot one more time.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

You brought up the Dodgers. Um The Dodgers are one of the smartest organizations ever. We might get into a fight right here.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

I know. But it it is it is true. Because what they're doing now is the same thing they did in the 50s. Right? What did the Dodgers corner the market on in the 50s? Black players. Every black kid in America wanted to play for the Dodgers. Love the Dodgers. Why? Because they got Roy Campanilla, they got Jackie Robinson, and they got Don Newcomb. And they won them a couple of world. Series. The Dodgers have done the same thing in Japan. They've cornered the market. Now every little league kid that's out there. Wants to play for the Dodgers. Fucking smart, man. Like, it ain't rocket scientists. We got one. They would have paid a billion dollars for Otani. Because they knew Otani was going to get them the rest of them for the next 20 years. It's the way it works.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

It's like it's almost like two teams. So where they got the Dodgers and Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

And they're all good.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

Yamamoto, Otani, and who's the Who offered Yamamoto the most amount of money? Phillips. The Phillies did.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Who's the who's the uh The closer first? The closer. I can't remember the name. Loki Sasaki. Sasaki.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Yeah. And there's more common. And where they're going to want to go, they're going to want to go to LA. At some point they might price themselves that's surprised.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

What's his name then? I respect the I respect the cat that went to Houston. I think he went to Houston. They said, no, I'm coming to the major leagues because I want to beat the Dodgers. There you go. What's the uh third baseman? He went to the White Sox. Yeah. That's what I thought the Phillies were going to get. The Phillies have been trying to get Japanese players for a while. They just can't do it. I think the last one is so to Gucci. It's a West Coast, East Coast thing on how much how far you had five hours to travel because you're going from the East Coast. Oh, I think it's nonsense, but it's what happens.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Yeah. Is most certainly what happened.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

I'm sure they care about their viewership.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

I'm sure that a young old Tani had a Hidekinomo poster on his wallet. 100%. You know? I I don't know how other teams. I mean, look, they nobody got more money than they got as much money as the Yankees, and the Yankees can't even get them. Like, they figured this shit out.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

So now we gotta kind of figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

That damn Magic Johnson. Yeah. Magic. Healthiest AIDS victim ever. Anyway, moving on. We did talk about a couple, we did talk about losing Bishet, who's a young pup. I wanted to talk about some of the young pups that we got coming up in uh the system. Uh specifically Crawford and Painter.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Me too. Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Um as far as impact is concerned. Of those two guys, uh, because you mentioned it earlier before we were potting about a six-man rotation. Of those two guys, who do you think makes the biggest impact on the team? Crawford. You think Crawford makes it the bigger impact? What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I think it's Crawford, and I think they won't do it, and I would, but I think it by the middle of the season, he's gonna be pushing for a leadoff.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

Whoa!

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Think about putting him leadoff and putting Trey Turner fourth. That's what I would do. Because Trey Turner doesn't care who is behind him. If Trey Turner cared a little bit instead of swinging at those pitches, he would think, hey, I got Schwarber behind me and Harper behind me. Let me be a little bit more choosy and walk a little bit more. I don't know. Don't tell me you want your bookend.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

We'll get to that. Don't even answer that right now. Who do you think has a bigger impact? Painter or Crawford?

SPEAKER_01 47:39

To me, it's up in the air, but uh lean towards Crawford. Yeah? More than Painter, yeah. Do I think Painter can have a bigger impact? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Uh happen. You take I think he outpitches Taiwan Walker. You know, we have to there's a possibility he can outpitch Nola, too. He's throwing 96-97. I mean, you know, Nola's starting to get to the It's an even year. Nola's about to be inside. I don't know. Because I can't say anything because he went crazy in WBC. It is crazy. You look at Aaron Nola's even number years. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Best pitcher in baseball. Yeah. If you could bottle that, he'd be a Cy Young.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

I ain't gonna lie, man. He looked great to WBC.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

While I was looking at Harper sideways, I was looking at Noah, like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

What do you have to do? We might get this cat back. Even year Nola. One hit. It is going to look at his stats on the even years. You're like, whoa. He's also pitching in the second game of the season.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

NOLA.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Yeah. Okay. Oh, so we'll see him soon.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Uh yeah. Yeah. He's he's breaking up the lefty lefty. Now, can I go your turn? Who do you think is going to have the bigger impact?

SPEAKER_00 48:55

Oh, it's Crawford. I've been on this cat for a minute. I I was so happy that the Phillies get uh got him. Um I think he's gonna be possibility to be a perennial all-star. I think he's he can be that good. You gotta change that number though. Number two?

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Oh, thank goodness. Yeah, he's number two. He had 80 or something on his back. I was like, Yeah, I knew he wasn't going to the CO Pump in the spring training. You get whatever number you got. He got Boa, huh? He's got number two.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Yeah, he slid in the third the other day. I was like, eighty?

SPEAKER_02 49:29

That triple was insane, man. And that's that's go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. I'm saying like the Crawford, like you see in spring training, I think he's only growing from that. And I'm happy as hell he's up. Because Rojas or Crawford? Oh, we ain't seen Rojas, you know. We ain't seen Rojas for at least. No, but I'm saying though, is like Crawford has the bat that Rojas struggled on, and Crawford still has the defense that Rojas has. Rojas is the better defender. Yes. Okay, yeah, he's he's a little faster. Well, no, he dreads he tracks the ball better. But that you a kid like Crawford, he's I think he's gonna do fine. I uh looking at him hit, I'm not worried about his defense. Looking at him hit, it it looks like he has no pressure on him. He's just seeing ball and hitting ball. He's been a 300 hiter.

SPEAKER_00 50:19

That's what I saw. When I saw him, even in spring training, you would think okay, Momman might be too big even in spring training.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Nope. Young Bucks press, it's just that simple. They want him press it. I'm just gonna You look like he don't care. I'm just gonna go play. Yeah, I'm just gonna go play. Yeah. He's been a 300-hitter at every level since he's been drafted. Yeah. At least 300 hitter. That's what the Phillies need. To get back to your point about pushing for lead-off the leadoff spot. I'm gonna say no. And here's why. Here's why. Go ahead. Trey Turner is his best version of him. Go ahead. The numbers prove it. Trey Turner is the best version of himself in the leadoff spot. And last year proved it. All right. So there was no up and down like the first year. All right. Solidified leadoff hitter, batted 304, won you the batting title. He won a batting title. I can't argue that. Where do you bat, Crawford? Well, that's my thing.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

So you guys are jumping way ahead to the end of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Hey, we're excited.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

We are gonna get there when we talk about the lineup portion of the male business.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

I see it. I see it.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

But uh yeah, y'all table that for a second.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

No, I just wanted to say that we're excited. We're excited. I'm excited too. Turner, to me, Turner's his best version of himself in the leadoff spot, and I don't think you I don't think you changed that.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Well said. And we will have rebuttals to that at the end of this podcast. Uh because I have some thoughts about that as well.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Um but since we're talking about rooks and uh Okay, I think I might have forgotten our young cats. Uh I am keeping an eye on Aiden Miller. He didn't play this ring training because he was hurt and they wanted to be precautious. He's gonna start the year in triple A. If things do not work with Alec Bone. Hopefully they don't. But and Aiden Miller is lighting it up. Do not be surprised. He goes from shortstop to third base. He's gonna play and he'll play third base every day for two weeks. And if he's if it goes well, he's getting called up.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

I'm not saying this is gonna be immediately but I'd say if if things don't go well for Bohm by the all-star break, you're gonna see Aiden Miller up.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

So if you could if you could pick pick a player that is a doppelganger to Aiden Miller, like what can if at his best, what does he project to? What kind of player does Aiden Miller project to? It doesn't have to be a second baseman, or I mean a a shortstop or or third baseman, but I'm assuming at the plate you think he's gonna be he can be a huge upgrade over Alec Bone at some point.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

I'll give you one.

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Okay, give me one.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

Um and I think maybe a little faster than him. I like Alex Breckman. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

I like that. I like that comp.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

I I went there and immediately my mind uh prime Michael Young. Yeah. Michael Young was nasty when he was in the Rangers.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

He was.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

I thought, damn, I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

And he played for the city. Didn't he play have a cup of coffee with the Phillies, right? Yeah, I think a year or two.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Yeah, he wasn't that same Michael now. No. No, he wasn't. Okay. I I I I can deal with that.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

The Phillies got may have a good problem, right? The kick is thick, and I think he stole like 50-something bags last year. Aiden Miller, right? Did he really? Yeah. Bang. So that's why I said he's a little faster than him.

unknown 53:57

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 53:58

A little faster. He's definitely faster than him. Close to 60 bags. Oh, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Shit. We were talking about that last year. How do you keep that guy down? I think he might be Alec Bohm in a race at 52 years. Yeah, I might, I might, you know, and bad knees. I might. Shit.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

What's uh what's Geo's 40 times? It may be.

unknown 54:19

Man.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Okay. Um uh uh we will keep an eye. I like that though. Alec Bergman, I like that. That's a good combat.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

How can you not how can you keep that out if he gets healthy? And faster than Alec Bone. And and and he's putting up those numbers. Like, what do you do? That's why they want to they're they have him playing some outfield, uh, but Mr. Dante Norrie might have something to say about that. Yeah. So like what do you do? But there's still I think they're in a good Well, we drafted Dante Norrie, what, I think two years ago. Yeah, he's young, man. So he's proved he can hit. We got time for that to develop. The biggest thing when you're developing, and if you you're out there and you're hitting Major League pitching and outfield. He was playing left field for Italy. If anybody's got if anybody's gotta watch out, it's Brandon Mark. Well, there's another guy, too, that we'll talk about him in a minute.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Absolutely. Um actually, good segue, because we're about to talk about him right now. So the Philz had a couple departures, had some signings. Um I was literally texting uh Joey to say, hey man, can you just look up who everybody that left on the Phillies and I never hit send? So I'm not quite prepared for this segment, but I do know that they did lose WBC champion Ranger Suarez uh this year. They also lost um somebody you wanted to keep, Harrison Bader.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Yeah. Uh so Max Kepler. Max Kepler. We got suspended, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Castellanos, Mast Strom, Bader. Jordan Rom Jordan Romano. Who?

SPEAKER_02 56:15

He's got a job too. You believe that? I know. Angels signed him. Well go for them. Yeah. You know what's he's gonna turn up for the Angels. Just because he brought up the Angels. When Otani was set to become a free agent and the trade line was coming up, the Tampa Bay Rays offered the Angels Junior Caminero for Shoei Otani. They said no. And they said no. And Junior Caminero hit stud 40 something home runs last year? Yeah. He's a stud.

SPEAKER_00 56:52

And see, this goes back to the school bull thing. Mm-hmm. What were the Angels thinking? Are we just gonna let them walk and not get nothing for him?

SPEAKER_02 57:00

For school bowl, Detroit has to get, and they will get their number one, number two, number four prospect in anyone's organization for school ball. You have and more. He's got they gotta be right there, major league ready to be there. They're pushing because why why am I gonna trade him? I'm not trading them for okay, I may lose him. It's either I'm gonna go for it and try to make the playoffs and do something, or I'm getting three studs out of your organization. So minimum.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

So and it may be the Yankees. So by that rationale, you're sending Crawford and Painter to the Tigers. Yeah. For school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

To add him to that pitching rotation? Yeah. Is this strictly for rental or is this you're signing him to the road? There's no guarantees, like he said. There's no guarantees. There's no guarantees. Yeah. You're doing that strictly to try to be. You don't think he's not gonna test the free agent market? Sure. Of course. That's next year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:09

Well that's that is that that is the rubber to draw with this.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

I'd give up Painter and um Aiden Miller. You're gonna have to give up another one.

SPEAKER_00 58:23

Yes, and the Tigers ain't taken. Painter and Aiden Miller.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

Maybe. It's about what it also comes down to. I don't think they take Crawford, though. I don't think they take Crawford. It's gonna come down to team need. Not when you have Max Clark. Right. That's that's my point. They have top five prospects ready to take over center field.

unknown 58:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

Okay. A team can get really good really quickly by making that trade. I mean, yeah. Young, hungry, and ready to. But that's a big piece to lose. But I also think that we're in that same position. I mean, who's his agent? I hope it's gotta be Scott Boris.

SPEAKER_00 59:07

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Scott Boris. It is Scott Boris. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 59:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

Yeah, he's as good as gone.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

Yeah, he's out of there.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

He's going to the shut up.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

Yeah. He's going anywhere you want to go. Yeah, that too.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

But there's I think, you know, we look at the Phillies, and while we're we got some older guys, Schwarber Harper. Turner's what, 31?

SPEAKER_00 59:30

Yeah. Um He should be mid mid to late prime.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

You got you got some young cats that I think in the next few years are really gonna impress. I mean, you don't know what's gonna happen with Bryson Stott, um, but they got that kid, Arun Escobar, who's uh he played really well this spring. So he's a second baseman, right? Mm-hmm. So yeah, you do have some some players. Arun Escobar, uh Dante Nori, uh Gabriel Rinconis Jr., who he he can hit the ball country mile, but he's had some health, staying healthy issues. You got some cats in the farm system who can c who can produce. You you gotta see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

Yeah, this is true.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Um I I think that at some point every team because I just he's not going back, like we said earlier. Every team is gonna have to look into their farm system and say, what are we willing to give up for this guy? And on the field. Because there might be something on the field that you have to give up as well, not even just the farm system.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

And MLB, yeah, an MLB ready player, right? Yeah, you have to bring up give up something on the field.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

Um back to what we were talking about before. Uh got some signings, though. We got some signings.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:44

Um Adoles Garcia, Bright Keller. They improved their bullpen a little. I think they did.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:54

What what is the uh and we'll talk about the pulpit. Um what is the impact of Garcia? Uh does he does he make you forget about Nick Castell's?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

So to me, he is a I think his floor is Nick Castellano's.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

His ceiling could be what you saw the year they won the World Series two years ago, where he hit 35 plus home runs and was just a an RBI machine. Um, where you were really gonna see it is he plays spectacular defense. Um got a can of an cannon of an on. He does it on. I mean, he's a goddamn bodybuilder as a baseball player, so yeah, he's yoked. But let's just look at let's see. This spring had 40 ABs, hit 275 with two home runs and six RBIs. 275, I'll take that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

I'll take that all day.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:59

Yeah. Yeah, I'll take that. That's a lot better than with Nick Castellano's.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

It's a lot better than 230.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

And with that signing with with Garcia, like, are is he gonna hit fourth or is Bohm gonna hit fourth? That's a huge thing. I'd rather have the bopper hit fourth and have Bohm down. I think well, I think they'll start the year with Bohm and you're gonna quickly see that change to the Adolas Garcia. I hope you're right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:24

Yeah, well, you know. How many you know how many years Bohm has up on his contract?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:28

This is his last year. 10.8 mil, I think, or 10.5, 10.8 is what he's what he got through salary arbitration. Bohm's last year, and then after not this year, but next year, I think stats last year on arbitration. Yeah. Can't come fast enough. Yeah, I hear that. Let me talk shit, so hopefully he does.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:51

Yeah, let's hope. Yeah, let's let's hope so.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

I think you're gonna be surprised. I hope so. I really do. Like I said, I'm I'll talk shit and keep to it until he does. I'm trying to hold off until we talk about the lineup and there's some things that could happen with, you know, next year, not to jump past this year, but some money that's gonna come off the Philly's books. You know, not to say, oh, we gotta wait another full calendar year, but you're literally just three guys, you're gonna have over $30 million come off the books. With let's see what Garcia does. Bohm might be gone at 80 million comes, that's 10 million, Garcia's 10 million. You got Taiwan Walker's what, 13 million? This is last year business issue, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:37

So so how long did we sign Taiwan Walker 25 years?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

It was a five year contract. Five-year contract. Sheesh. So there's some money that's gonna be coming off the books, and you're getting a little younger. Yeah, you might have to sign stop maybe if that's the way you want to go, but you also got people behind them that's gonna push.

unknown 1:03:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

These are big years for Bone and Stock.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

We're we're gonna talk about this towards the end, but I I I completely agree with you. This is gonna be such a pivotal year for the organization. Absolutely so pivotal for them. Um, but but we will talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

So you would say Garcia was the biggest signing? Well Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:20

No, Schwarber's the biggest signing. Bring it back. Yeah, bring it back Schwarber.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

Harper thought he was gone. Harper thought he was gonna go to Cincinnati. Yeah, he did say that. I don't I don't know why. That would have been bad for him. He just wanted to play. How about the Pirates making an offer? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

Yeah. At that point, you just want to play Beer League baseball. You don't even know what that. I mean, why you want to go either one of those places? Yeah, around.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:41

But what was that picture? He came from what, the Cubs? The Ryan Club. Brad Keller. Yeah. Brad Keller. Yeah. To me that was a big sign. He was their setup. Yeah, that was, yeah. He was uh either their setup. He's either their closer. He may be their closer. He's a seven. That's right. Yeah. Shit. But you can go. Yeah, I mean I'd like to pickup. That was it was a good thing. If you're looking at 7, 8, 9, it could be Keller Alvarado Duran. Could be. You know, you if you Alvarado stays off them fucking words like last year. There's no guarantees. No, I know. Shit, look at uh what's his name from the Braves again? Jerkson Profar. Yeah, Profar again. What an idiot that guy is. Another 162. Johan Ruhaus. By the way, Strider got hurt today. Did he? I think he did. I saw something. I forgot to click it before I came up here. I knew something was up, but Spencer I think Spencer Strider got hurt. He was topping out his fastball 95-96. That is not like him. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

Well, we will see. Let's go get Ronald O'Cuny Jr. Yeah. Y'all can have Crawford for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

Listen. Listen. It might not be a long child.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

No? Why do you say that? I don't see the briefs. Getting better. Yeah, they might be on the downward spiral. You might be right about that. They caught their lightning in the bottle, and since then it hasn't been great. I think the team that's on the a little upwards is I think the Nationals. They're young. They're young. They still got a few more years, but they're young. They're young. Yeah. Compare like you compare them to the Braves.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

I watched a couple of their games last year and I'm like, they got something.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:24

They have something.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:25

They need some work around the fringes, but they got something.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

So I was Schwallenbach? Yeah. He's hurt, right, with the elbow thing. He had Tom John last year. Oh, yeah. So he has some elbow thing going on, something a bone crack or something in his elbow or something. I think it was Schwallenbach. I know I was. And then Spencer Strader just strained his oblique, and he's out at minimum two weeks, maybe a couple more. And the Braves start 13 straight games to begin the regular season and they're thin. So last year they started off so bad they couldn't. You're talking about Yeah, they couldn't catch up. So you're talking about your best players. Your best pitcher's Chris Sale, and he's 38 now.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

He is their best pitcher. Well, we'll talk about them towards the end as well, because we will talk about where the uh where the fields rank um in the East and Before we go to break, I did want to uh talk to you guys about uh the WBC. What what did you guys think about the WBC?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:37

I've had my opinions on the WBC since the beginning of it. I'd like to hear them. Um mainly the insurance policies. Uh oh, you want to go that direction. Well, uh just just to start it off. It's a bunch of bullshit. Um, you know, you had no problem with guys getting on certain rosters, but then when it came down to Team Puerto Rico, you're they're three biggest stars, and they're hosting this tournament uh for pool play, and you're without the team captain who announced months before any rosters were even out that I am Team Puerto Rico captain, I will be playing at WBC. You had all this time to get him insured, and you you just can't get it done. That's a huge problem. This is this is the baseball's Olympics. Yeah, if the WBC is about putting your star athletes, major league players out there, why didn't they get insurance? And they weren't the only ones because Jose Alvarado didn't get insurance either. And I don't know any other I know of of those four.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:45

Just a disclaimer, the um the two gentlemen that are speaking, um, whose families are from the island. They have thoughts about the insurance, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Yeah. Even even Mike Trout. They knew early on not to ask Mike Trout because they weren't gonna insure him. What changed? I don't understand. I insured him three years ago. What changed?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:06

Yeah. I I I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:09

Before I answer that question, what did you think about the WBC?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

I loved it. Loved it? Yeah, I just to me, that's just so badass to watch. Yeah, it was great. It was great. That's what it's like. It's an all-star game, but that means something. It's baseball's Olympics. Each player goes out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

Something something you said is absolutely right that I didn't realize. I, you know, full disclosure, I went to the WBC. I I saw a few games while I was there, and I didn't realize it until I was sitting there watching the game with my son, and he turns to me and he says, This is the best baseball you'll ever see. And I was like, why do you say that? He said, Because these guys are like, take take the Dominican team, right? Julio Rodriguez was batten seventh or eighth. Right? And he said, if you go to an all-star game, those guys don't want to win. They're out there just to put on a show, run around the bases a couple times, and that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

Don't get hurt.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:11

Don't get hurt.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:12

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:13

They don't, they're not really trying to win. These guys are the best of the best, and they're trying to win, right? So I'm paying attention, but not really paying attention. And you guys probably would know this more than I would. So I'm watching the Dominican and I think Korea game. And the level of baseball I had never seen before. So the first couple innings, it was clear the Dominican team was just trying to get on base, right? And as I'm watching it, I see them moving runners over, hitting the ball the way I turned on. No, I was like, Did he mean to do that? He said, Oh, yeah, he absolutely do that. He meant to hit that ball over here to move the guy over. I'm like, how did he try to do that? He said, They're professionals, Dad. They fucking know how to hit the ball the other way.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:08

They know how to swing it later, they ball deeper.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:12

Yeah. And the things they were doing, the first three innings of that game was the best baseball I ever saw. Christopher Sanchez was pitching a perfect game.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

And until you jinxed him.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:23

So I jinxed him. I sure as hell jinxed him. I was like, holy shit, he hasn't given up a hit yet. Okay. But yeah, and then once they got up 4-0, the switch flipped onslaught. They just started swinging for the fences. It was like, oh, we're up now. It just changed everything. I was like, damn. And even the next game, the Venezuela-Japan game, just the level of we walk in in consecutive innings, Okuna hits a home run. Otani hits a home run right after that. Lead off the game. That was crazy. Lead off the game. I'm like, you know what the saddest part about that was? That stadium will never be like that again.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

I've been to that stadium where the paid attendance was 12,000. And I was like, yeah, bullshit. There was not 12,000 people there.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:14

It'll never be like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:15

I mean, it was packed, wasn't it? That's the other thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:17

Packed.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

That's the other thing. It's for the fan bases, too. You know, from your for your country and everything. Like, they have something to play for. Yeah. I mean, was it 2029 they play again?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:28

Yeah, 2029.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

I'm there, 2029.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:31

And let me tell you something. I was trying to tell him we should go. I got, I got, I got, the only way I could say is I got jerked. So I bought my tickets from NLB, WBC, or whatever like that. I paid way too much for them, right? Because I'm thinking they're going to sell out, there's no way I can go, blah, blah, blah, send the other. Man, the day I got there, I'm saying, yeah, the day I got there, I saw the same seats, because it depends on who's playing.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:01

You know what I mean? Unless the US is playing and maybe DRPR. And even then, there were people who got into the same game I paid $300 a zika for for $60. Wow. Never do that shit. You can go. If you want to go to WBC, don't worry, don't do what I did because I didn't know. Don't buy the packages and all that other shit. Just go to Miami. And you'll be able to get into the game and you'll be able to enjoy it. That day there were people who saw the next game, which was even more, because everybody wanted to see Otani. I paid even more for that game. Because on the site, they said if Japan makes the quarterfinal, they're going to play in this game. So they jacked the prices up by 25% back in February. Wow. So I paid even more to get in that in that game. That same game that day, the same tickets that I got, 120. So yeah, I anybody who ever wants to go see the greatest baseball ever, just go. Just show up. I mean, and there's also a party on the outside, too. And it's a party on the concourse.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

The live coverage was showing everything, man. It was crazy. Yeah. Just your your techs were showing it too. Between you and your son.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:22

Yeah. There's a couple things that didn't show up. But yeah, most of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:25

I'm saying you can see it on social media too. I was like, oh, they're at the WBC. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

Yeah. It was a great time. Um, like I said, the best baseball I've ever seen. And uh Yeah, we we all should go. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

But yeah, it was a great tournament. Um shame on Tariq Scoobyl, his agent, and the Tigers.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:45

Can someone explain that to me? I didn't understand that.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

I think there was something that people had agreed on before that. Yeah. Because and it makes sense for Scooba, makes sense for Boris. He doesn't have a contract. He is in the final year of his deal. Okay. He gets hurt. Yeah. You're shit out of law. Man. But at the same time, you could have got hurt in your spring training game, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:10

And he did pitch one game, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:11

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, he pitched in spring training. Phillies rock this shit.

unknown 1:15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

Oh, yeah. Was it Friday? Saturday? Yeah. He gave up like eight hits. You know, he pitches that game and then all of a sudden he wants to go back to his agent, the Tigers, uh, I want to pitch again. They straight up told him no. But shame on like shame on you don't enter this tournament with the idea of, oh, I'm only pitching once. If that's the if that's the case, don't represent your country. Yeah. I mean, unless you're Clayton Kerschlow that he was like, I'm gonna go out there and then you're gonna be able to do it. That was his last hurrah. Yeah. But he's not signed to anybody. I mean, that last game, can you imagine schemes and then school coming out the pen?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:00

A lot harder for Venezuela to win that game.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:02

You ain't lying. That's for sure. Or not even. If you get past Venezuela, you're talking about going into the final with Therese Kubel as your starter? Yeah. By the way, can I bring something up? Yeah. We're talking about the WBC. The Rose is fired, right? I hope so. He's a fucking idiot. First of all, he almost didn't make it in because he thought he had his ticket punch. Sat players, Bryce didn't play. Not that he was burning up, you know, you know, that he was hot, but he literally almost gave it up. And you had to reload. If you're Mexico and and the Italians, Italians could have laid down and let Mexico win. It was there was if Mexico would have won and they scored five plus before the ninth inning, USA would have advanced. So it's tricky. It was real tricky. They still could have done it, though. They still could have done it. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:55

Yeah, they still couldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:57

But I think they they I think they'll have another manager. I hope that there was a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:02

That was on TV for two years.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:05

Why was he even managing the team? He played.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:08

He played for the uh 2006 WBC team.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:12

I know. I know he did, but has he been on a major league team in the dugout?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:18

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:19

Coaching or managing in the past five years? I'm sure Pooh's or Emmelina haven't either. You really gonna compare Mark DeRosso to Pooh's.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:30

We're talking managerial standpoint. What they did is totally different. Get me Dusty Baker. Wasn't he coached for Nicaragua? Oh no, no, it was Nicaragua. Nicaragua, yeah. Well, we gave him Dusty Baker. Boy, the Dusty Baker gets best out of players. I mean, now I don't know if he'll be out there in three years. He's up there in age, but give me somebody like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:54

Yeah, you couldn't um it's kind of hard to get Dusty because the only person he could have coached was Byron Buxton. Anyway, after that, we're gonna go to breaks. And uh we'll be right back. Are you tired of hearing about snowballs being thrown at Santa Claus or that your once beloved former stadium had a jail cell in it? Well, we were too. So we decided to do something about it. We started the Reggie and Jerome Podcast. Real Eagles fans talk for real Eagles fans, for the most passionate fans in the world. The Reggie and Jerome Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. And we're back. So we talked about last year, we talked about some of the offseason moves, um, things that they did to improve the team, players that they may have lost that won't improve the team. Um, so now we want to talk about where they rank and the NL. We all know, you know, who the big bad wolf is and who we I can't even say I guess we're chasing uh the Dodgers. Everybody's chasing uh the Dodgers. That being said, I want to know where you guys think the uh Phillies positionally rank in several different places. Uh we're gonna start with the rotation. Uh I'll go first on this one. Uh I think that they have the uh potential to not only be uh uh one of the best uh rotations in the NL, um I I think they if all things fall correctly and you gotta take the names out of the equation because we know what the names are when they were here, that four aces lineup that they had was pretty, you know, unassailable. They obviously had one of the greatest pitchers ever on that rotation, two perennial all-stars on that rotation. And uh they were really good. Didn't quite get the job done, but it I I I I'll say it really wasn't because of them that they didn't get the job done in 09. Uh that being said, I think they're the best rotation in the NL. Uh, I want to know what you guys think. Samuel start with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:27

I mean, I I couldn't agree more. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if everything lines up. That there's a really good potential that it does line up that way. I yeah. I can't see them not being number one in the NL. Gotcha. JA.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:49

Yeah, I'm I'm an insane boat with you guys, there's one other team that's really gonna give them a run for their money is in terms of best rotation in the NL, and it's the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:01

They got a lot of arms. If they can stay healthy, it's they're gonna be a force to be reckoned with. But and we saw we saw it in the playoffs. Um, but no, I I I like our our pitching staff a lot better.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

Well, I'll I'll take them at number one.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:19

And really in the entire in the entire league, not just the national league, they're probably if they're if I'm taking them number one in the national league, I'm taking them number one overall. Uh close second is the Seattle Mariners. They got a hell of a pitching staff. Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:39

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:40

It's funny that you mention all those teams. Uh MOB.com has the Dodgers one, Seattle two, and Philly's three. And but and that includes their bullpen. But the Dodgers, you got Yamamoto and Otani. I'm coming Zach Wheeler, and Christopher Sanchez. Blake Snell, good, Glass now, and Sheehan. I I'll take the food over there.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:11

You'll take the Phillies over there too.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

Exactly. Blake Snell, Lazardo. Wait till Painter gets his Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's right. Yeah. One and one A. Like I can't wait till Painter gets, you know, gets some innings in him and starts just doing his thing and Philly's got I think the Phillies got a great pitch and staff. Do they move to the street? Their starters are really good. Tywin Walker? I'm saying, would he go to the bullpen? Do they go six man? They'd probably uh that's probably you want to they'd probably go six man for a while while Zach Wheeler's trying to get his feet. I would. Unless it wasn't working out. But I try to give Wheeler as much rest as possible. Is Painter starting up with us? Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. The only thing with Wheeler, Wheeler, and this could change with his um with coming back from the injury. Wheeler was very specific that he loved he wanted to pitch on the fifth day. On the fifth day. It was his his uh his routine? Yeah, how he synchronized everything. Who? Wheeler. Wheeler. He wanted to make sure he pitched on every fifth day. That's why when they went to that six-minute rotation, things kind of got jumbled up because there was a couple off days in between there and trying to make sure Wheeler fit on his fifth day. And that's the thing right now, too, because you're gonna have off days. So they may skip a Brad uh Painter um start here and there. So, you know, they're gonna be watching his innings too. You know, does he pitch around 200 innings? Maybe. But they'll be watching it. So, but with six men, you know you're gonna limit their innings less than 200 innings per year. So let's see.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:52

I don't think their pitching was the issue anyway. I agree. Um June 1.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:02

Phillies start at the beginning of essentially summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:10

Who is their four-man rotation? June one.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:18

I know we talked about five man, six men, and all that, but if I'm going into a series that they feel like they need to win, even in the middle of the season, who are their one, two, three, and four pitchers in a four-man series in the middle of the season.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:37

Sanchez Wheeler.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:39

He starts, Sanchez starts, Wheeler's your number two in the second game.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:43

Sanchez Wheeler Lazardo Nola. What do you think? It's uh Sanchez Wheeler. Depending how Painter does. Painter. And Lazardo.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:11

No, i it's Wheeler, Sanchez, Lazardo, and Nola. Thompson's gonna say it all the time. I trust him, I trust him, I trust him. He's been in this game, that game. And he has. And I think he's just gonna be pretty good. And that's crazy, because I think Painter's gonna be really good too.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:31

I agree with what Cavi had. I I I'm not even I don't want to read too much of what I just saw, but is there any chance that we get good Nola and he jumps Lazardo?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:48

Lazardo can snuffle during the year too. Because there's been a couple of times. I'm telling you, this is an even year. Even year, right? There's this, this is the let's go. Oh, Joey got numbers. Let's go from we'll go 2020. Uh was this good NOLA or bad NOLA? This this we're going even years. This was COVID year. He went from he was five and five with a three-two ERA. Um then he go to 2022. He was 11 and 13, 325 ERA. 2024, 14 and 8 with a 3-5 ERA. Y'all remember when Nola wasn't getting any new run support, though. You remember that, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:36

There were months when he wasn't getting run support.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:39

Right. Odd years. 2021, 9-9 with a 4-6 ERA. 2023, 12-9 with a 4-4 ERA. 2025, 5-10 with a 6 ERA.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:52

Yeah, he was scuffing last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:54

Yeah, well, he was hurt, the leg thing, but when he came back, he pitched pretty decent. But it wasn't null of of years past.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:02

Yeah, so not what they're not what they're owed, but what was uh now uh originally given to them and what has been extended to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:17

The Phillies have over $480 million in the rotation.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:27

That's a lot of money. I mean, your four guy if if he's your four guy, what'd they sign NOLA for? $127 million? Was that two years ago?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:36

Something like that. Six-year deal, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:40

Five, six year deal. I think it was a six year deal. I think it was a six year deal. Yeah. I think that was the hang up and negotiations.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:48

Picking Windsor championships.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:50

Man, I need the thing is I've seen him when he was really good. And I had that in my brain. Like there were times when he was Would go weeks where you didn't want to face Aaronola. And then I've seen him where he couldn't make it out of the third inning. It's the weirdest thing. I I I don't you guys know more about my baseball? I've never really seen anybody that was like that, that high or low. I don't know. Uh the next question I'll ask is with in regards to that is as because of that, as the rotation goes, as the team goes, do the Phillies go as Aaron Nola goes? Because you kind of know what you're gonna get from the other guys. If he's amazing Nola, does that elevate them?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:40

And can they overcome him not being good? This year? Yeah, this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:48

Can they over because like we said earlier, this is a huge year for the Bills. And they gotta make a run.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:56

The only way you overcome him not being good is if Painter's re throwing really well.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:01

He's their insurance policy. Is that what you're saying? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

I think they're both gonna have around a four ERA. Both Nola and Painter. Around a four.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:13

Around a four. It might be a little, you know, three eight oh ERA. Somewhere around four.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:21

Will you take that? In the four spot?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:26

If he's the innings eater, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:29

I think that's what you're gonna get. I don't think he's gonna be NOLA 275 ERA, 325 ERA. I don't think that at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:38

What was what was Sanchez's ERA, you remember? Last year?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:41

Should have on the sideline.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:44

Well, I mean, there was a guy that played for another team. Kind of hard to think it was like got a cute girlfriend and he's got a million dollar baseball card, so it's kind of hard to. It's pretty good. And it's pretty good. Yeah, he's pretty good at baseball.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:00

Uh Christopher Sanchez ERA last year was 2.5. That's 2.5 Sanchez. You think Nola's never gonna be there? I mean, if he does, watch out. Nola's closest year was like 3.3, I think, was like his best year. Yeah. I don't think Nola has that. Right. Well, I think four is Nola's best ERA. I think four is a fair, yeah, a fair number. Nola's best ERA was between a 3-5 and a four. 2018 he had a 2-3 ERA. Damn! Man, we ain't seen that again. No, hell no. He just gets up too many home runs. Yeah, it's that damn curve ball when you don't finish what he has or that knuckle curve. It's an even year. You're gonna get that.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:48

All right, from your hey, from your mouth, we're gonna see the ERA.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:52

That's Joey's prediction for the year.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:54

That's Joey's prediction for the yeah. Okay. Well, we we shall see. Uh I I I think that we do have some insurance, but uh we don't, you know, we don't know what we're gonna get from Painter. So we shall see. The one thing we can say about Nola is he does eat up innings. For the most part, he stays healthy. So we'll see. Next, we move to the guys that sometimes have to save those guys at the rotation, and that is the bullpen.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:30

Um they made some moves, uh, and they were already pretty good in the bullpen.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:42

Where do you think the Phil's rank bullpen wise? Um before you you answer that, who's your seven, eight, nine guys for the Phil's in the bullpen? We know who the nine guy is.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:57

Yeah, Duran. Duron's your closer. Your two setups are Brad Keller and uh Jose Alvarado. And I think they could be flip-flop. Either way, yeah. Those are your two setup guys, depending on what depending on what you're you're facing come that eighth inning is who you're putting out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:15

Sammy, let me ask you a quick question. Do you think that what happened in the playoffs? Do you think it makes Kirking better, or do you think that he folds from it? Because I've seen it happen. Uh I'll give you one example, Dalton Broxton. Never the same pitcher. Boy, we used to light his ass up. Never the same pitcher. So it can go either way. So do you think No, I think Oh, you're asking. I mean you better whoever wants to answer. Sammy, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:50

I think it makes it better.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:52

Think it makes him better? Yeah. Think he has that kind of makeup?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:55

Yeah. Yeah? I think so. I think it just to me, it leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:03

Obviously, I think he'd learn from his mistakes, but he didn't pitch terrible last year coming out of Bullpen. I mean, he had eh games here and there, but other than that, I've seen I've seen him come in last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:17

He went one, two, three. You know.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:20

The thing about him is he's he's pitched in big games.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:24

And not for nothing. He had Will Smith struck out three times and won that bat. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. Paint, paint, paint, all called balls.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:40

I'm sorry to say, I mean, I know we're talking about the the three, seven, eight, nine, but I mean, you're talking about Brad Keller, he had a 2.7 ERA last year out of the ball. That's nasty. For for Corkering, it depends on the makeup he has, right? If I'm him, I can't wait to start pitching in games. You have a chip on your shoulder that you're not gonna let that define you. So bring it. And and does that it would make me more laser focused in the offseason and doing all different types of things. Once you got the, you know, and this was noted that, you know, he had Mike Schmidt calling him, he had uh Brad Lidge calling him, he had teammates calling him, making sure that he was okay, because that was a that was crutching for a younger, younger player to do that, and you lost the series.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:34

So if I'm him and I'm getting those reassurances, especially from the Phillies, that don't worry about it, we're not gonna do this or we're not gonna do that, we're not getting rid of you. Get your mind right. I'm coming back with a vengeance. He throws 97, 98, got a good curveball. He's got the stuff. He's got the stuff. It's just mental. I've always said he needed to add a third pitch. Well. If you can tunnel that with a changeup, like an Eric Gagne, like a uh like a Vulcan changeup, it's something that just changes the eye level just a little bit. Maybe it's about location too, you know. I mean, guys can go out there with a fastball curveball, but you you you have to make sure you dot it and make sure you throw it. And we've had that conversation. There's pitchers and there's throwers. Yeah. Yeah. He certainly seems like a thrower, right? Do we all agree on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:25

He does seem like a thrower.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:26

Does he learn how to spot all that stuff and you know, not let it tail up and not hang a curve?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:32

Well, what you said was, you know, uh a changeup will may take him into pitcher category and not just a thrower. Um it's devastating when you can come back with that. We watched it just recently in the WBC, man. You look at 98, 99, and then you see 91, it looks like 61. It's completely different, changes the eye level, changes everything, get you those at that. I was when we all watched Aaron Um Aaron Judge, there were some of those bats where yo, he looked so fucking confused. He didn't know what was it was just the way that they were pitching him, he just didn't know what was going on. So you're right. You gotta develop uh you know, another pitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:18

Yeah, yeah. You got like looking at their bullpen now. You you really have from the fifth inning on. Fifth, sixth inning. You got Tanner, Tanner Banks, right? Tanner Banks. He played pitched great last year. Did still like him still? Him and Kirk Ring both had about around the same ERA, which is about three. And Tanner Banks went uh six and two last year. Who's the you got all the guys up there? Yeah, I got all the guys now. Uh what's the lefty uh we traded away Matt Strom and it brought him in? Oh, from Kansas City, right? The guy. No, he was with the Diamondbacks. Oh, was he? Uh what's the names you got there? Baroque or something like that? Yeah. Uh Kyle Bacchus. Yeah. Oh, him, yeah. What did he do last year? Funky delivery. I mean Matt Strom, funky delivery. 4.63 are a little bit more funkier. Oh, and three. Um where did Matt Strom go? We traded him to Kansas City. Kansas City.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:16

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:17

A little more funkier. Um, probably an innings guy, but another good look from the other side is to be a good bullpen, you need to have guys who can where we get Jonathan Ballin from? Ballin? Don't know. But you need you need those guys who can step in and eat some innings up. That'd be true. Can't always rely on your your three back end guys. There's going to be a series where all those three guys pitched all three games and they're not going to be available for a game. You need those guys, the other guys to step up. I think Kirkhoon can do that. Uh that lefty, uh, I think I like him a lot. Um he had a few spring training games where he had one, two, three innings. Oh threw a little through throws a little bit harder than Strom. Um, and it just comes out of his hand, just weird.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:13

So you think they have one of the better bullpins in the league? In the National League?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:17

Uh I think they had the second best bullpen in in the National League behind the Dodgers. The Dodgers just have so many, they have so many different weapons. Yeah. The Dodgers really could have a seven-man rotation if they wanted to. Yeah. So you're putting some of those guys in that bullpen. I was gonna say you got starters that are coming out of the bullpen. They got Edwin D as their closer now. Right. Yeah. That that they do. You put him, Suzaki. Oh, I'm sorry. Who'd they lose? They lost Tyler Glassner? Excuse me. Excuse me. Padres. The Padres have a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:53

I'm about to say, I think the Padres have a better pod uh thanks to the Players.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:56

I think the Phillies are number three. To me, it's Padres, and you can flip-flop probably bullpen.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:02

I'll give you that. Yeah. That Padres nasty.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:06

But in American League, the best bull, the best pitching staff top to bottom in American League goes to Seattle Mariners. What their pitching coach has done over there is insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:15

Mm-hmm. I think the Mariners are right behind us. Bro, top to bottom? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And bullpen wise. Bullpen too.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:27

Their rotation's good. Very, very good. They probably had they might have the best rotation in the American League.

unknown 1:39:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:34

Well. Baseball's back, baby.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:37

To uh to transition to the guys that from the guys that throw the ball to the guys that hit the ball. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:47

Ah, this is where we get to cook a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:49

We talk about ye old lineup. Uh Phils have lost a player or two, gained a player or two. And they come back with some usual suspects that have got us close to the mountaintop and have got run over at the bottom of the route mountaintop. So the lineup, guys. Um I'm not even we we'll we'll get to the rank um in a second. We're gonna we're gonna do this a little differently uh this time. We're gonna go around, and I'm gonna start with you. You're gonna go from the one hole, two hole, three hole, four hole, and we're gonna go around.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:38

When you hear an objection, you say I object to that. So I'll start with you. Who bats one? It's Trey Turner. Turner bats one. Any objections, fellas? Any objection, fellas? No. Bryce Harper bats three. Any objections? I I don't think that's gonna be the case, but I we're talking opening day. Opening day, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:17

No, just no, we're talking about the lineup. We know what's gonna happen opening day. Okay, fuck it, let's flip it. June 15th, before the All-Star break. We still keeping it the same way?

SPEAKER_01 1:41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:32

I am pressing on me, huh? Yeah. I already know how I'm going with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:38

Who you got batting for? Dolos Garcia. Any objection to that? I guess not. Who you got batting fifth? Boom. Any objection to that? I object.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:00

Who who you thinking? Because I I go ahead. Say it. I'm gonna say JT. No, no. I object. JT's lucky he ain't here in ninth. Who you got? If this is goes the way I want it to go and how I think it's going to do. Bryson stopped. That's my other guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:19

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 1:42:20

And I'm he said to him, he said at the end of the year, he said even though he scuffled, he was dealing with a uh a wrist injury, he believes he found his swing that he had a few years back. Okay. And so far this spring in 41 ABs, he's batting 366 with three home runs, six RBIs, and an OPS of 1.72.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:44

I respect the numbers, but it is spring training. Sure. Sure. I respect it.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:50

Um but a lot's to be said. Turner, Swarber, Harper. These guys, these guys are professional. If you want to go right left, right left, too. These guys are professional athletes. That's the other thing, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:02

They know when they're on, they know when they're not. Um and so far, he's proven it.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:09

Yes, it's just spring training. Um but we all said the same when Adolis Garcia was hitting 275. We were like, yeah, I'll take that. So you're right. All right, so let's say Stot F5.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:22

That's because we that's that's because we were we we got you know survivor's remorse with you know Nick Cassiano's sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:29

So is that where you're going? Well, Stott Five?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:32

Yeah. Harper.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:37

I mean you got Garcia F4, not but uh Bohm five. You put bone five. I put both five with now. Depends if you want to break it right, left, right. It depends on what Stott does. He's the head.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:54

He's got Bone five.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:55

Any objections? Well, I objected and I put start there.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:58

You put okay, you put Stot there. Um you got a six spot. Object. I think by that point Well, who's this is the thing, who'd who'd you have in the five spot?

SPEAKER_00 1:44:26

Yeah, like I was okay with uh starting on five spot.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:33

In the sixth spot, I think by June 15th I think Crawford would be in the sixth spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:41

That's wow. That's that's what I thought. I was I was with you. I just didn't I didn't want to do the back-to-back lefties twice in a month.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:48

I get it. I get it. But I I I think if he's what we think he's gonna be, it's gonna be hard to Sure. Cause I think he's gonna start we'll we'll get to it. I think we'll we'll figure out where you start. So that's where I have him um in in in batting what's that six, you say? Six. Um seventh I have Marsh, obviously you guys have objections, so Yeah. Who would you who who was your objection is you'd rather have Well, if if it's mine lined up, I got Turner, Schwarber, Harper, Garcia, Sta, Bohm, Crawford.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:26

Okay. Alright. And you? I'll probably same with Joey to be honest with you. Okay. So if that's the case, you're at the eight spot. Who you got bat and eighth. Uh GT. Any objections there? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:49

He's gonna have to earn to hitting up on in the lineup. And then you round it out with Brandon Marsh. Got no objections with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:00

So to recap. Recap the lineup.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:04

So I okay. So my lineup is Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:06

Let your pocket up.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:08

What you got? So the this is would be my lineup. Turner, Bryce, Kyle, Garcia, Stopp, Bohm, Marsh, JT, and Crawford. Have Crawford at the bottom, flip. That's where they're gonna hit him. They're gonna hit him. I know that's where they're gonna go. Yeah, you flip the lineup. But you're also talking about danger speed. You're talking June. But June, this could be a whole different but that's what that's what we were talking. Oh, you're talking about June? Yeah. This is just before the all-star brief. So mine would be Turner, Schwarber, Harper, Garcia, Stott, Bohm, Crawford, JT, Marsh.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:59

I can see that happening. I can see that. Yeah. I can I can I can see that.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:04

Anybody It still works out the same at the right-left type of, you know, if they want to go right, left, right, left, right, left, all the way down. If you swap Marsh and Crawford, it's still the same.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:15

Is there anybody on the bench at all that can buy for any spots in the lineup?

SPEAKER_02 1:47:21

Auto Kemp. Auto Kemp.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:23

Auto Kemp? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:24

We're all in agreement there because I think the same thing. Auto Kemp and Mundo Sosa. There's another guy that made the team.

unknown 1:47:31

Who?

SPEAKER_02 1:47:31

Dylan Moore? Yeah, I think it was Dylan Moore. Yeah. Bench player. He won the spot. I'm not too familiar with him.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:37

Well I'm glad you brought that. Well, Autokamp. Why do you think Ed Mundo doesn't get m like double the number Ed Bassett he gets now?

SPEAKER_01 1:47:53

I think they just what he is, a journeyman.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:56

Um I think I think he could be an everyday player.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:02

I do too.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:03

Oh I agree. For who?

SPEAKER_00 1:48:08

You don't think so, Pop?

SPEAKER_02 1:48:09

I don't. Maybe he doesn't have that in the gas tank.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:13

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:13

Why do you think he he smashes lefties? He does hit very well against lefties. And he's good for, you know, a three-game series, but paying all playing all those games, I don't think he'll hold up.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:27

I think that's probably what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:28

And that's what it is, and that's why he's, you know, the bench player. I mean, no one's knocking on the Phillies door to make him a knockout offer to trade for the guy if he's gonna play every day. I think he's a very solid. I love Edmundo. And but he's that Mariano Duncan guy. Wow. I did Duncan. Mario Duncan in 93 played second, played short, played third, played first. Yeah. And and that's that's Edmundo.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:00

I got you. I was just wondering. Last year he even robbed the home run. He did. But he did.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:05

Out in the outfield. So, you know, it wasn't pretty, but he did it.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:09

Yeah, I was just wondering because, you know, I and I get it. Coming from the basketball realm, I've seen guys that they come in for a week, and you're like, oh my gosh, why is this guy not, you know, in the starting five? And then a month later, he's back in the G League. So I get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:28

Umundo's like that sixth man of the year. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Plays a limited amount of minutes. He capitalizes on his opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:35

Yeah. You need him to play for a week. What position is auto kemp too? What you just said. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:40

You need to play him for a week and play solid. He got you. Yeah. Uh he did last year. Auto Kemp probably if he's in the lineup, it'd probably be third base, first base, left field.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:51

Okay. So Marsh Boehm, Harper.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:54

Harper needs a random off day. Yeah. You can move Bohm over the first. Kemp can play third. So Edmundo, one of those, but his positions are probably third base, first base, left field.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:07

Okay. I think I think we we're we're all pretty much in the same accord as far as what we think the lineup's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:15

A lot of it depends on whether they want to like you say, right, left, right, left or And no more Garrett Stubbs. He lost the the job to uh Marshawn and he has no options left.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:24

That was a year ago. You should have lost that job. Party boy. Party boy's gone. I understand that.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:30

They release him? If they don't find a trade partner for him, he has no options left, so yeah, they're gonna have to. They're gonna release him.

unknown 1:50:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:37

Who's trading for Garrett Stubbs?

SPEAKER_02 1:50:39

Knocking on the door to He might be a type of guy that you make into a coach. Well they tried. They tried to try, they gave him every opportunity. They truly trying to make him a utility guy. There was games he was playing left field and third base in spring training. Yeah. And if had it worked out, it would have been kind of a blessing in disguise. You would have had three catches on the roster.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:07

Yeah, he just you can't carry Garrett Stubbs. So he's gonna be on the high point right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:14

But then again, we don't know what this Dylan Moore. I mean, Garrett Stubb, I didn't know it was 32. Yeah, he is. Or he is 32.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:20

He ain't a spring chicken at all, that's for sure. He he he he gave that vibe like he was a little younger than he actually was.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:28

So the Phil start off against the Rangers. I'm assuming Nathan Ovaldi. Yes. Probably Jacob D'Arra. It's no Valdi. Yeah, they announced it's Ovaldi and uh Sanchez. Game one. And it'll be Nola DeCrom. Probably. I would assume.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:47

Yeah, I would think.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:48

I know for the Phillies it's Sanchez, Nola, and Lazardo.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:54

So the Phillies lineup's gonna be heavy lefty. As of Yeah, as of right now, ESPN has it.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:06

You valdez versus Sanchez, game one, then you got DeGrom Nola game two, and game three is Mackenzie Gore versus Jesus Lazaro. Oh, I forgot they got to there. He went from the National Express. I mean he carved us up plastic for the shit out of the Philly. But it's that's a guy who's who hasn't really found it from what he was supposed to be. Yeah. Four ERA guy, not the ace that they thought they were getting from San Diego. So we'll see two righties in a row and then go to a lefty.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:44

Well, great job, because that segues into our last segment. Um I'm gonna skip the did they do enough part. We already covered that already. Predictions. Um we talked about the lineup, we talked about the starters, the bullpen, the off season. Come November 1st, where will the Phillies have finished their season? I need a record. And where you think it ultimately ends, because even if you win the World Series, the season ends.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:30

So Jay, I'm gonna start with you. Give me your prediction for the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:39

They won 96 games last year. I stay around that same number. I don't think they break a hundred. 96 to 98 wins. Um come November 1st. Uh I hope we've partied on Broadway. Um Broad Street? Yeah, that's what I meant. Um that's great, but you know we don't do hustle. I know, I know. My expectation is World Series are bust. Uh I think they fall short. Uh and lose a game seven of the National League Championship series. I respect it.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:36

So yeah, I think they they won ninety-six games. I think they'll win probably between 93 and 96 wins. I don't think they get co you know, a hundred. It is World Series or bust, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:51

Again, this team is so different next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:54

Yeah, it is different next year, for sure. Their pitching is just that good, man. Their pitching is that good, and I am gonna have faith, and I don't know why. I don't know why I'm gonna say this. But I think that the Phillies lineup will be better in October than they have been the last three years.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:20

And I think they make it to the World Series. Now, do they win it? I'm gonna say yeah in six. Okay. Same thing. I say they win ninety games.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:45

Uh that win in the division? I have them winning the division, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:52

I think ninety four, ninety five, ninety-six gets that done. Yeah, they win the division. I think they win the World Series too. Yeah. Okay. How about you? Hell no. So she hear D-Ro.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:16

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:17

So I think that they're going to win 90 games. I think that they're going to lose some games that they would have ordinarily won to some scrappy teams in their division. Like they're going to drop some games to the nationals just because they're the fucking nationals, and I think they're a little more scrappy than people think they are. They're going to win some games this year. They ain't going to win the playoffs and no shit like that, but they're going to win some games. So I think they're going to win like 92 games. I don't think they're going to win the division.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:52

I think they're going to get to the wild card. I also think they're going to make it to the World Series. And losing five in the World Series. Five games. They're losing five. Keep breaking our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:11

Yeah, I think they're losing five to the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:13

In the World Series.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:25

They got a good team.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:26

I I at some point they got to break through, I would think. But I don't know, man. I think the window's closing. I'm not sure they did enough. You know how much I want them to win, but hey, I keep it 100. I think they I think they lose a vibe in the World Series. Now, obviously this could change. Uh I know we don't do hopes, but I will say that if the rotation is what we think it is, the nail win.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:05

It's going to keep you in every game, don't you think? Yeah. I mean, every one once in a while they're going to have a clunker in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:11

But I don't think that's going to happen through all five guys, or maybe six, throughout the season. I just don't think that. When you get Wheeler back, everybody knows when Wheeler pitches, you're in the game. Yeah, so he's the slump breaker. That's fine with me. I think our rotation could be fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:30

I I don't I think the bats. We need to produce runs.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:34

I'm telling you, the missing link is the year that Bryson Stahl has.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:43

You're putting a lot on his Bryson Style.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:45

So am I. But that's that's that's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:49

If he goes out there and he hits somewhere between 290 to 310, you're that's and where do you escape the lineup?

SPEAKER_02 1:59:05

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 1:59:06

I'll do you one better. If if he's the guy you guys think he's might be, he can be, right? They're like a 98-win team if he's if he's a borderline all-star player. Yeah, he they're a 98-win team if he's that.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:23

It means that much. Let's just face it. From four to nine is gonna make or break them. Holds batting lineup four through nine. If you get stock, Marsh, Bohm playing average to above average baseball. And I didn't even put Garcia in there. We've seen Stock can do it. Look at the run he went on in 2022.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:49

Yeah, I mean He can do it. He can do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:53

Uh I just I mean, I hope you're right. That he's he's the X factor. Can the Phillies win a World Series? I think they can. I think they can win the World Series with the team constructor right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:09

Oh, I think they can too.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:11

I think so. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that offensively if you guys think that he is uh the X Factor, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:22

I think he can hit 315. I don't think that's far-fetched to think that he can hit 3515. I don't think it's far fetched because I've seen it get hot. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:31

His swing is so sweet when he's on. I've seen it. I I I trust me, I I understand that.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:38

He's not that home run hitter, but he can hit the ball the other way, loop it over the third baseman, shortstop. He can pull a ball, hit, you know, 15, 18 home runs. I I think he can be that good, but it remains to be seen.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:54

You know who you know who he needs to be to me? Um he needs to be a poor man's jean cigar. If he's a poor man's jean cigar, bat around close to 300, very rarely strikes out, puts the ball in play almost all the time. Yeah. I can see I don't need him to hit 25 home runs.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:17

No, not asking him to. Yeah, I don't need him to do that.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:20

So if he's the X Factor on the offense, who's the X factor in the rotation?

SPEAKER_02 2:01:28

Aaron Nola. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:30

Nola's the X Factor on the rotation. If you get good Aaron Nola, you get 16 win Nola.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:35

Ooh. Again, where do you get a break in the coming to play the Phillies? Where do you get a break? You don't. If you get 16-game winner, Nola, like Andrew Painter's gonna be steady. I don't know if he's gonna be a 13-game winner, 15-game winner. That would be amazing. And if he's that and Nola's that, look what you're getting with the other three. If you're telling me you go into a seven-game series and you get you get to have Sanchez and Wheeler on not on short rest, because Nola's that that guy, you mean to tell me I feel really comfortable winning a series like that?

SPEAKER_01 2:02:20

Where I don't have to have Sanchez and Wheeler come off short rest and throw.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:26

So hypothetically, uh well, and this year could be going on almost two hours, but uh hypothetically, we'll have to break this up in two parts. But hypothetically, you're going into the uh NLCS, um, and there's a pretty good chance you're gonna face the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:50

You're running out, obviously Sanchez, Wheeler if he's healthy, Lazardo. If the season goes the way I think it does, do you even have to pitch for really in a seven-game series?

SPEAKER_02 2:03:09

You forget, yeah. If not, you're running guys out there on short rest.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:14

Yeah. Yeah, I guess he would probably would be the X factor then.

unknown 2:03:20

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:20

It's a good problem to have, though.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:22

It is a good problem to have. Hopefully, this odd even year thing you're talking about is legit. Yeah, is legit. Guys, one last thing. Oh, well, okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:36

Bold prediction. I wanted to give a bold prediction.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:38

Uh oh, yeah. One bold prediction. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:40

Um you're gonna have two of these guys in this starting rotation finishing top three, Sayam.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:50

That's a bold prediction, all right. And it's the two lefties.

unknown 2:03:53

Really?

SPEAKER_01 2:03:54

Sanchez and Lazardo Lazardo.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:59

Okay, we're gonna let that marinate. That's a bold prediction. I'm not mad at him.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:02

Sanchez is not so bold. I mean he's just second. Second last year.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:06

So Pop, you got a one pro prediction.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:10

I think it's Crawford. I think Crawford, like I said, I think he pushes to not be in that nine-hole. I don't know if they'll do it because if he gets on, then you got Turner and then the top, but with his speed, I think he pushes by June, July, like, do we have the leadoff hitter and push to get up there and put everybody down a peg? That's my bold prediction.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:40

If he's if he does that, you're talking uh rookie of the year type shit. If he does that.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:46

If you're talking about Juan Pierre, I remember how Juan Pierre used to just slap the ball the other way and just beat beat out throws to first base. Jampierre was a menace.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:58

Just like I saw I saw a stat somewhere, I don't even know why I remember this, that the distance that Juan Pierre hit the ball the the year he batted, something like 330 was the shortest in MLB history. That him just getting the ball, like it just didn't go for that far. No. Like you just added it up. It was just like the shortest of MLB history. He batted like Yeah, people don't remember Juan Pierre.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:26

Jampier was a menace.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:27

I hated playing the Marlins, bro. I was like, I felt some kind of way because he was a brother, but I was like, God damn, what? Sheesh. But yeah, I'll give you that. Bold prediction.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:41

Trey Turner, 25 home runs. No! Sounds like a hundred strikeouts, but that's a bold prediction.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:53

My bold prediction is not much different than yours. My bold prediction is Abdoldez Garcia has the most home runs he's ever hit in the season this year. God take it. That's my bold prediction. That's a bold home runs, bro.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:08

He does that. That's my bold prediction. That lineup is scary. Yeah. And I think it's I think it's possible.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:16

I think it's possible because I think he's gonna see a lot of pitches.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:19

I mean, I mean, and not for nothing. I mean, obviously. The year they won the World Series, they caught lightning in the bottle. But look at that Texas Rangers lineup, there really wasn't that scary. Nope.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:32

How many yeah, 35? I think so. I think he has that.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:36

I mean, if he just remembers who he's gonna hit in front of and they're gonna pitch around them to pitch to him, and if he's just a smidge more selective, how can you not hit 30 home runs?

SPEAKER_00 2:06:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:52

I was just about to say Texas Citizens Bank Park.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:55

That's why I said that. Like just be gonna pop up in the 15 if he just a whole different ballgame playing from there to in uh Texas's big fifty.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:04

Be a professional hitter and just say, man, I got Harper or or Schorber in front of me. They're gonna pitch around those guys to get to me.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:12

Yeah. Again, he'll pop up in the 15. He'll hit 15, 305.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:18

Still think opening day best fit, though.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:20

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:21

Six. Wait. Six hole. One, two, three, four.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:25

Well, today's lineup he was after Bohm, I think. Yeah. I think it's maybe Bohm Garcia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:31

Is that switch up righty lefty?

SPEAKER_02 2:07:33

No. They both righty. You go righty lefty, lefty, righty, righty, and then whatever the ball after that is. Then you can go lefty righty. I think stock hits after him, though. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:44

I'm not mad at the stock prediction, though. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:48

He's right there. Well, we all want Stott to be the man that he could, the player that he can be, man. I'm telling you, his defense is fantastic. Love his glove. If he just hit 280, 290.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:01

Yeah, I don't even need 300. Give me 285. I'm good with that.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:05

Right. I mean. But he has the you look at him and go, man, this guy, I'm telling you could hit 315. I'm telling you he could hit 315. But 280, 290, that'd be fantastic. There's gonna be a lot of stolen bases, I think.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:18

I'd be okay with him getting a bunch of walks, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:20

Yep. Hell yeah. He's fast. Between him, Crawford, and Turner. Got some speed.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:26

Turner and burn. Well, guys, this was great. This was great. It was what I thought it was gonna be. You know, uh, we back at again. You know.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:38

Just the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:39

Just the beginning. Long season ahead of us. Uh come the end of this week, we will have baseball in our lives until after Halloween. Love it. Thanks for joining me, guys. Well, joining us. Thanks, my man. Got it. I appreciate it. GoFills. We'll be back. Yeah. Go feels as always. Uh this won't be like Reggie and Jerome where we do this every week because too many fucking games. But we will at least do it once or twice a month just to uh find out how the Philos are doing. Um, with that, as we always do, we thank you guys for listening. And uh we'll go around the horn. Go fills.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:24

Go fills. Go fills. Go fills.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:28

We out. Gate, gay, oop, ooh.