Home Run Derby & All-Star Game Recap

This episode is all about MLB All-Star Weekend. We break down the biggest moments from the Home Run Derby, including Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper's performances as they represented the hometown Phillies in front of the Philadelphia crowd. Then we recap the All-Star Game, discussing how the Phillies' All-Stars performed, the game's biggest highlights, and what the weekend meant for Philadelphia baseball. From Derby home runs to All-Star moments, we cover everything Phillies fans won't want to miss.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello and welcome back to episode nine of season two of two average guys. Today we're gonna be talking about the all-star game and the rough appearances from the Phillies in the All-Star Game. But Sora, I'll let you take it away to begin.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

Yeah, I mean, I'll start it off. I mean, AL1. Not not really too surprised. I mean, AL was a little uh was a little much to act, in my opinion. I don't know people could say otherwise, but I think they were. But let's start off with Kyle Schaubert went 0 for 2 as the fiddle or lead off for the hunt for the NL and went 0 for 2. Not a pretty performance by him. And then let's go to the starting pitcher. That yes, he should have gotten it because it was in Philly, but Christopher Sanchez gave up three runs in the first. Not pretty, not pretty at all. It kind of shows why how Miz maybe should have gotten the start, but I still stand by Christoph should have started it in Philly. But overall, the Phillies did not do very well. We did not perform. And then Harper with also went 0 for 1 when he came in.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

And then Marsh was 0 for 2.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Yeah, Marsh was not good. So I'll give Defense now.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, basically just kind of touching on what Sawyer said, Christopher Sanchez goes out there, gives up three hits, two walks, three earned runs, 34 pitches. Not what you want to see, but at the same time, if you're gonna have a bad inning, let it be in the all-star game and not during the regular season because the all-star game's pretty meaningless.

unknown 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Um, but Johan Duran looked fine. You know, he's he threw two-thirds of an inning, gave up a hit, but only threw four pitches. So, you know, that's pretty cool. Jesus Lazardo threw his inning on six pitches. Amazing. So, I mean, th those two were good, but Sanchez was bad. Schwarber was 0 for two with a strikeout, Harper was 0 for 1 with a strikeout, and um Brendan Marsh was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts. So in the all-star game, the Phillies hitters go 0 for 5 with four strikeouts.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Classic Philly fashion. That's all we do, it's all we do.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

And Jordan Walker walks off Kyle Schwarber in Philly in the home run derby. Yeah, very since we have to talk about the home run derby too, because that's a part of All-Star Weekend. Um, I was very disappointed with Harper and Schwarber in the in the in the home run derby, at least in round one. I'll start there.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

I was about to say, like, Schwarber made it to final, of course. But yeah, Harper's very disappointing. Right. Wasn't he like favorited? No, Schwarber was favorite. Then it was by then it was Harper, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Harper, Harper, people wanted to see Harper compete. Yeah. And he did not do well at all.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

He didn't, it was very bad. But yeah, Jordan Walker, I mean, dude's huge. He was fun to watch. Okay. Um popular opinion. I liked this year's home run derby. It was one of the lowest watch, it was one of the lowest watched like home run derbies since like before 2010.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Which I don't get. I liked it a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

The restructured format was different. So normally it's a clock. Normally it's a clock. It's like a minute and a half or something, and then you get like and then you get 30 or two minutes and you get 30 seconds of bonus. Yeah. And it's just however many home runs you can hit. I like the fact that it's a number of pitches because guys aren't just like swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging. They're kind of, you know, seeing the ball, like, you know, I can take this pitch, I can take this pitch, I can catch my breath. And then I was surprised that there weren't more long distance home runs. Like the longest home run hit was only like 493 feet.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yeah, I think that was Taglane, right? Might have been Caglone.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

No, I think it was um Caggs hit 149. Junior hit one. Junior hit 493. Oh, it was junior? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Caglone hit 149, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Wilson Contreras hit one 491.

unknown 4:26

No.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Um, but like last year, O'Neil Cruz hit the ball, I think like 513 or something. Yeah. And I was just kind of surprised with it being um like a number of pitches that it wasn't like there weren't more like longer home runs because people were like more rested. You know what I mean? Yeah. Does that make sense? But so there's there's that which played a factor into it, and then we have Jordan Walker and Wilson Gontreras started the home run derby fantastically. They both hit 13. Oh, yeah. You only you only got 20 swings, and they hit 13 homers. Yeah, I was I was super impressed. Um, I was thinking that you know there wasn't gonna be more than 10, 11, 12 homers hit. Yeah, no, but they just kept but they were crushing them, and then after that, it kind of fell off hard. Guys worth eight.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Um key, I turned it off. Yeah, I mean I was very disappointed at first. I was like, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I watched the whole thing. Um, yeah, Schwarber hit 10, was the fourth person, the top four advanced, Harper came up and only hit nine. So Schwarber got to advance. Schwarber then beats Wilson Contreras in round one to move into the finals against Jordan Walker. And Schwarber hits 11, I think. 11 out of 20. I'm not sure. And Jordan Walker needed, he had one swing left, but on the last swing, you hit until you make an out, which is interesting. Yeah. And he needed, I think, four home runs in a row, and he hit four in a row to win the home run derby and beat Kyle Schwarber, the Philly favorite in Philly. Every single time Jordan Walker hit a home run, the crowd booed, and every single time he had a he hit he got an out, they started cheering. It was really, really funny to watch like on TV because you would see a fly ball, and you'd see like, yeah, and then he would like hit a home run and would be like boom. Yeah. But um, yeah, Shorber losing in walk-off fashion sucked.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Yeah, wasn't too good, but I don't know. I liked it. I liked the new home run derby.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah, I was cool with the format. Uh I was really cool with the format. I thought it was nice. Um, I mean, going back to the all-star game, I think the all-star game sucked.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Oh, yeah, it was I it was boring. Yeah, I think it was really, really boring.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Right, like there was no fire, like like it was cool.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Sure, it was cool to see Trout uh delete off the game, but he went 0 for 3.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Right. Trout didn't do a thing. He went 0 for 3. The NL only had three hits. There were only 10 hits in the game, four runs scored, one home run.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

It was just kind of white so white socks, um Vargas, Argas, Vargas, Vargas, Vargas.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, it was just boring. I don't know, like uh I don't know. You only saw one batter from Mason Miller. Yeah, he threw one batter, struck him out on four pitches, and then they pulled him. But it was did Verlander get the pitch. I don't know if he threw VNL. Or I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

No, he was on they didn't put him in. Damn.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

I mean, he was an honorary, he was a legend pick or whatever. But she deserves it.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Right, absolutely. Last year, he deserves deserves that. Um, no, it was it was it was really just I guess just for the break, cuz yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Chapman came in for one batter, too.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Right, that's what I'm saying. Like, it's it was just boring sitting here, like you basically had at least two strikeouts every inning, if not three. I know C struck out three in the first inning, but it was just like it was just strikeouts, like oh, it was Michael Walker had two K's, Joe Ryan had two K's.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

I know for the NO, Justin Robleski had five Ks through two innings of work, like he was just he was just it uh it was just like watching a strikeout fest, and that's not that's boring.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah, I agree, which I mean it's the reason why baseball people watch it, it's the offense, not the defense.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Right, that's what I'm saying. People want to see homers and and and fun and all that stuff, and yeah, cool, strikeouts are fun, and I can appreciate a good strikeout as much as the next person, but like if I'm watching an all-star, like I don't watch the NBA All-Star game to watch good defense. Yeah, you know what I mean? I watch the NBA to to watch good offense. I want to see them shoot. I don't like the NBA All-Star game either. But I watch it because I want to see them shoot from half court. I want to see them, you know, alley oop and and and windmill dunk and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

You can't do that, but it's hard to do that squad. There are like things like like it's hard to go up to the play against a guy in a 95 and be like, hey, I'm gonna bomb here.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, and it is like the best pitcher.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Yeah, and if you go for it, you're gonna strike out.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

I guess maybe everyone was just swinging for the fences, and that's why you end up with a bunch of strikeouts. But hold on. So there was the AL struck out three, four, six, eight, nine, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen batters. The NL struck out two, three, four, six, eleven, twelve. So there were what did I just how many 15 and 12? So there were 27 strikeouts in the game.

unknown 10:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

So half of all outside recorded were by strikeouts. Yeah, that's insane. That's bad.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yikes. More than, or no, they did play the bottom of the ninth. I was gonna say, if they didn't even play the bottom of the ninth, you're talking about more than half.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Yeah, but an L was home there.

unknown 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

This just basically made me realize that pitchers are more advanced than headers are.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Oh, easily. And like you know, I'm just looking at the walks.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Nope, Sanchez had two though.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Yeah, both teams had two. Sanchez had all of them burn out. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Sanchez had two. He went out there. He went out there and said, Boy, I don't know how to pitch anymore.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Yeah, he like he's been like, yeah, he had a good start last time, but was it Sunday?

SPEAKER_02 11:35

No, when was his last no one was his last start?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

What do you mean? His last start like recently?

SPEAKER_03 11:43

But I mean, yeah, I mean, ever since the All-Star Break he's been iffy, but it's fine. Sanchez is always gonna be yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

This is this is being recorded a couple weeks post All-Star Break, but yeah. We wanted to touch upon it because it was in Philly, it was our hometown team with our hometown heroes. It was boring, and they yeah, they crapped the bed and the thing, it was just a boring weekend, or not even, it was a Monday and Tuesday, and then the first game out of the all-star break, we play the Mets and we lose four to one in Citizens Bank Park. Yeah, not pretty on a game on the game that was hazy. That was the game where no one could see because of the um oh the wildfires spoke. Yeah, the wildfires in Canada. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

Oh no, very uh there's not much to talk about except that so very just uneventful, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I need I need something except Cody Bellinger in the first inning.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

That was really good.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

I need them to take like I almost I almost need them to take like some rules from like banana ball and put them in to the all-star game. It's just it's just boring.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

But like I like I'm just I'm just trying to think of what rule like I think foul balls caught by fans should be an out. That would be interesting in the all-star game. I think that would be fun.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

That's hard though.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I think that would be fun. I think it'd keep the fans more engaged.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

You can't really do like trick plays or anything like they do in Banana Ball. That's just not realistic to put into the MLB. But uh, or maybe play it a maybe maybe build a special ballpark with shorter fences.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

I could like that, maybe not too short.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Not no no no no, like like 300 down the line and like 350 dead center.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Okay, that's fair. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:43

But you know, I'm thinking we still gotta hit it to get it out, but there's gonna be way more homes.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Shorter pitch clock.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

What's that gonna do though?

SPEAKER_03 13:52

I don't know. That might that little difference could make a thing, like a pitcher's gonna rush through a middle, middle fastball on accident. Maybe maybe like make it stupid fast.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

I kind of like designing uh an all-star game field, but then you don't have like a hometown player.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

I mean, yeah, no one's gonna use an auto fence, that would be weird.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Right, like where are you gonna put where are you gonna put an uh a ballpark just for the all-star game?

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Yeah, I really can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I don't know. I I just there's just there's gotta be some rule change that can happen. Or no, never mind. I was gonna say maybe you get four strikes, but that would be stupid. Yes, but there we go. I'm just trying to find a way to to spice up the game where viewers wouldn't be like, wow, this was because people already say normal games are boring. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Like baseball because it's different.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Like well, big but me and you enjoy the sport. Like I'm saying, people that like the your your average person, if you were to go up and interview 10 people and be like, Do you think the sport of baseball is interesting? I think probably six would say no, it's boring.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

I don't know, maybe like five years ago, but now I wouldn't say that.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I think I think right now, if I were to walk down the street and grab the first 10 people I saw and be like, Hey, do you think baseball is an interesting sport or boring? Like, would you sit down and watch a game? I think more than half. I think probably six people are gonna be like, it's boring. I wouldn't watch it.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

I guess. I don't know. But uh the all-star game is like watching paint dry sometimes. Like again, the only eventful part was Cody Ballinger in the first heading.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yeah, yeah, the single.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Yeah, and then the home run who really cared.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Right. If you're like if you're jumping for joy over a single, I mean, come on. That's just that's just not what you want to see happen. Oh, I'm just trying to think of what rule changes what rule changes could you add? Hmm. I just want to like brainstorm for a minute and see what changes could we add? I'm just trying to brainstorm more changes.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

I don't know. There's not much.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

I kind of like the fence.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Yeah, but again, that's never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

None of these are ever gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Yeah, no. I think they're okay, they should just get rid of all that.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

You know what they should do? They should make the all-star game a wiffle ball game.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

No, that's even more stupid.

unknown 16:24

Slow pitch.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

A slow pitch softball game? No, people. Or slip it's baseball.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Slow pitch baseball or slopage softball?

SPEAKER_03 16:32

What do you mean slow pitch baseball? They just like lava.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Position players pitching.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Okay, that would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Oh my god. Well, it eliminates pitchers having to take all like it would eliminate pitchers having to worry about getting out of rotation with their arms and do I mean you'd probably get like a 20 to 20 game, but that would be so much fun. Maybe posit you should should the fans get to draft position players to pitch in the all-star game.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

Brett Phillips would get a new all-star famous.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Garrett Stubbs would be a pitcher for the NL. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Okay, I don't think I think it should be like celebrity. It should be like picks, like fan favorite picks. Like they wouldn't be an all-star, of course, but like Right, you're just there to pitch.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah. Like as a position guy. We can grab nine position players that didn't make the all-star roster and just throw them in there as position players to pitch. And it can be all types of guys. You can throw 80 with a curveball, or you can throw 55 with the best, the best EFIS pitch anyone's ever seen. And anywhere in between.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Yeah. I mean, some guys can chuck up to 90, but that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Because some position players just have cannons. Yeah. I mean, obviously, they play the outfield, you play shortstop whenever you guys get the ball across the room. No.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Post surgery?

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah, we're not.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

We're not gonna put harper on the mouth. But I would I would vote for Garrett Stubbs.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Oh yeah. It'll be fun to watch.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah. I think if you I think if we do all that, or I don't know, just do something. Just fix, just fix the all-star break game just a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Again, home run derby, I think took a step.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

The home run derby I like.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

The home run derby I like went down, which I don't get, but the all-star game sucks. At this point, just don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

But the the home run derby was also eight o'clock on a Monday night. So like is that why viewership went down?

SPEAKER_03 18:30

I don't know, maybe, but it's just getting what's the I don't know. Like the All-Star game is just hard to watch sometimes. Like it's like I just don't want to watch it.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

It gets repetitive, which just strikeouts, you know, the occasional single.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Yeah, but that's pretty much it with the all-star game. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, I'm I'm excited to hopefully continue with the home run derby format. Yeah. I liked the way it was done. I don't think that there will be any changes made to the all-star, the actual all-star game, as much as I wish there would be, because it's borderline unwatchable. Not borderline unwatchable. That's not the right it's boring. It's boring.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Would I pay money to go see it?

SPEAKER_00 19:14

No. No. I wish that they would think about a way to change it to make it more interesting to anyone, like your normal watcher.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Um it's a it's a a pitcher's duel. It's just it's just pitchers dueling it out. Yeah, pretty much. You know, the lineups don't face pitchers more than one time.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Not in higher than that. You see him for an ending.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, it's not like Schwerberg got to face the same person twice where he can be like, oh, he might pitch me like this. He's facing a different person every single time. It's in it's a cross leagues, so it's not like you're even facing them multiple like that often during the actual year. It's just you're you're facing the top guys in the league, and you don't know what any of their stuff does unless you have been fortunate enough to face them randomly throughout the season.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

And you know what? That's set up for pitchers to dominate, and the pitchers dominated.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Yeah, the one of them, uh Dylan Seeds is a good pitcher.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Dylan Seeds is a great pitcher.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

But for him to strike out the side, well, I mean, I mean that's that's he's a strikeout pitcher.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

That's pretty but but he embarrassed guys, that's but you're telling me the NL, which is supposed to be the best players in the National League, that has the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Brewers, the Braves, all those teams, and they struck out 15 times.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

With three hits, with three hits. Yeah, really insane. I don't care how good the pitching is, you gotta do better than that. Provide some offense, give us a spark, do anything. And they just were like, nah, just roll over and die. I like how much people are mic'd up.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Oh, yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

The mic'ed up's cool. Um micing up multiple people at a time. I thought it was cool as well. They mic up multiple people.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Yeah, but it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, but mic'ed up while hitting is like they that gives some all-time calls. Freddie Freeman on first base. Yeah, but there's win, boys. There's win. It's an all-time call.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Yeah, I guess, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

You're kind of it distracts the hitter and you have a better chance. I know what you're saying. I just it it could go very well, or they could strike out and just walk back to the dugout, and then you're like, okay, well, that was dumb.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

But they they definitely need to make some changes or do something. We'll see what they do for 2027. Hopefully, it does hopefully something changes. Yep, something's gotta change.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

But coming back from the all-star break, looking to get back on track with the Phillies and catch up maybe to the Braves for the lead in the East, make some moves with the trade deadline coming up and kind of see what happens with that. But obviously, you know, we'll keep you guys updated with everything going up around the league and everything that has to do with the Phillies trades and just upcoming schedule. But yeah, I think that about wraps it up. So we'll see you guys later.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Yep.