This Is Why We Have Trust Issues

After a Memorial Day weekend break, Brotherly Love Sports is back — and so are the trust issues. The Phillies may have swept the Padres and climbed back above .500, but the offense still has plenty of questions, even with the starting pitching carrying the load. We break down the frustrating Guardians series, the encouraging Padres sweep, the trade deadline concerns, and why this team still doesn’t feel easy to trust.

Then it’s time for another Philly sports therapy session: why can’t we just enjoy anything? From the Phillies’ inconsistent offense, to Eagles offseason drama, to years of Flyers and Sixers emotional damage, this episode dives into the very real condition every Philly sports fan knows too well — hope followed immediately by panic.

Plus, Eagles training camp storylines, the latest A.J. Brown noise, Jalen Hurts’ contract-year pressure, and asks listeners to send in their biggest Philly sports trust issue.

Trivia Question of the Week: Before Bryce Harper won NL MVP in 2021, who was the last Phillies player to win the award?

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Brotherly Love Sports. I'm your host, Adam Curran, and we are back with it this week. Hope everybody had a great Memorial Day weekend. I know I got a chance to get away, spend some time with the family. And it's good to be back. Well, I feel like it's good to be back. I don't know. The city has me feeling otherwise some days. But hey, Phillies won today. 3-0 against the Padres to complete the series sweep. They will be off on Thursday and pick up a series against the Dodgers. Not looking forward to that series based on how this offense has performed. They uh they concern me. And that's putting it lightly. The series against the Guardians was rather disappointing. The pitching looked good, as we have come to expect with this team, but the offense can't seem to pick them up when they need them to. So going back to the first game of that series, Sanchez once again pitched it, pitches a gem, coming off a complete game shutout against the Pirates to go eight innings against against the Guardians, four hits, six strikeouts, and the offense couldn't do anything, couldn't give them the win. Credit to Williams. But it was just depressing by the offense. Just no they don't always seem to have that fight, that fire that that we're we're hoping for. I don't know what needs to change. But before the trade deadline or by the trade deadline, Dombrowski needs to make a better move. Either way, he he needs to go. Too many bad contracts have been given out. And I think it's starting to start to hurt this team. Luckily, in that in that series against the Guardians, they came back the next game to win 3-0. Great to see. You had Wheeler on the mound for that one. And to have him and Sanchez go back to back and pitch the way that they did was a huge boost for the Phillies. And Duran came came in to avenge himself and get the save in that game. So that you know, positivity there. And you're hoping that that kind of stuff carries over into the next game. Well, it didn't. They end up dropping the series and lost the rubber match 3-1. Not exactly a stellar effort. I would love to say that the series against the Padres was uplifting. I mean, two games, they shut him out and then won 3-0. But it I can't say that's uplifting. You're getting great performances out of your starting pitching, as as we feel we should be getting, anyways. And the offense is doing the bare minimum. It's great to see, you know, a couple of guys do their thing. Like Schwarber hit another bomb in that in that first game. And honestly, that was all you needed. You needed one good swing from him, and that was game over. Unfortunately, we all know in baseball how quickly things can change. And guys go cold. And I'm not just talking about the hitters because they seem to have been more cold most of the season. But for the pitching staff, too, you're gonna have guys that are gonna get roughed up and have bad games. And you're gonna need your offense to bail you out. And I have zero confidence in this offense to do that. Or at least do it consistently. With the exception of very few people, everybody on this team is tradable. Wheeler and Sanchez, yeah, I would say those guys are completely untouchable. Schwarber was the great re-signing that they that they needed. Turner can go. I don't say get rid of Harper yet. But the question has popped into my head. Bohm would be gone. Garcia's gone. He was a great defensive upgrade over Castellanos, but he's not hitting any better, which we were hoping for a little more pop, but haven't really gotten that. Marsh, to my surprise, has actually been phenomenal this season. He's batting 326 right now and has looked good for the majority of the season. And because I know people are going to ask, here are his splits ready versus lefty. For rehighties, he's batting 338. Makes sense. We know he can hit righties. We know he sees them well, and he's had more opportunities so far. Versus lefties, he is batting 282. A very respectable number for a guy that looked lost in the sauce last season against lefties completely. It's been a positive turnaround for him. And it's good that they that he's getting the chance to play pretty much every day. I know he got banged up the other day, so they they sat him, set him for the series finale. But hopefully he's good to go at the start of the Dodgers series because since he's been one of their better hitters, they're gonna need him. I want to say that the series against the Dodgers should tell us a lot. They they seem to play the Dodgers hard, but with the inconsistencies we've been seeing so far, I I don't know. It was nice to see them get the series sweep against San Diego. That has now put them eight and a half games out of first place. They are now above 500, which is good to see. And not that it means a whole lot at this stage, but they're only a game out of a wild card spot. So encouraging, but not promising. I uh I don't know. So I I guess that can take us into a segment that I introduced a couple of weeks ago. I like to call it the therapy session. Where we remember either great highs, the lowest of the lows, and we just get into it, get it off our chest, express great joy, or deep pain and sorrow. So for this week's topic, why can't we just enjoy anything? Every year. Almost every year. No matter what the team is. There's encouraging spots, like you get excited for the season. I don't know how the hell they keep getting us to buy into, you know what? We do have a shot this year, and then the season kicks off a couple of games in, you're like, ah, they're they're just you know figuring it out, they'll they'll find their groove. And it never really feels like they found their groove. We saw it with the Eagles last season. And a couple seasons before that, where they never they they they were waiting, they they won games, but something just feels off, and you can't quite put your finger on it. The Phillies have a great pitching staff, and you're like, oh man, we we should be in every game. And for the most part, because of them we are, and then you look at the offense and they're like, huh. I saw stat for their for their home runs. I can't believe that they have 68 home runs. Granted, that's fueled by Harper's 21 home runs so far, who's leading the league in that, which is great, but 68 was very surprising. But it it it sucks some years that you get so ingrained into your your favorite team. Now, me, I I love baseball and hockey. Like those, those are my top two sports. Obviously, I I love the birds, big football guy as well. But if I had to, if I had to pick top two, like baseball hockey, probably in that order. Even even the Sixers for a short time, like had me interested during during the the debacle, that was the process. They took a flyer on Embiid because they they he fell to them because people were unsure coming out of college about about his injury issues. And for the most part, that pick worked out. Every other first round pick that they had, though, like where are they now? Guys have gone off to have either mediocre careers, so they were a waste of a first round pick anyways, or they've had great success elsewhere. But I really want to find out just how every team seems to suck us back in only to crush our hopes and dreams and just leave us feeling defeated and empty. It's terrible. I hate it, and I think we should start a GoFundMe so that we can take over the teams, because let's face it, we're we're better than the GMs. We know way more about every single team in the city, and we would do a much better job. So there's my little therapy rant. I feel better. I do. I think I'm gonna get some traction against that GoFundMe. That'd be that'll be a good thing. I still want to buy the flyers. That would be that's my ultimate goal in life. It'll never happen, but um I'll try. If you're willing to donate, I would I would appreciate it. Anyways, we'll move on. Training camp for the birds is right around the corner. And parts of the media continue to dive into the whole AJ Brown thing. And the more I see the rumors, the more it just frustrates me. Like everybody is just trying to grab onto this topic because this is the only thing happening with the birds right now. Nothing else big or maybe noteworthy, I guess would be the better term. I I guess the media just feels nobody nobody else on the team is worth talking about right now, which is crazy to me. We have a new offensive coordinator. Like, I want to hear more from him. What is he doing to get this team back on the right track? Hertz is in a contract year. Is he gonna play well enough this year to warrant extending him? Or are we gonna be okay with saying goodbye? A guy with his kind of success seems to seems to always get the contract, but here it just feels different. Like the success doesn't feel like true success. And I don't know how else to describe it. It's like you we've watched him go to the playoffs every single year, and every other year he seems to play good and not so good. He's been to the Super Bowl twice, and he won one of them, and he played great in both of them. So he can be a big game quarterback, but it's like what what is the disconnect year to year? And take the take the OCs out of it. I I truly believe the best players know how to adapt to the new scheme, or they have uh enough wherewithal to tell the coach, like, hey, I'm uncomfortable doing this, but here's what I'm good at, or something like that. But he doesn't see, I don't know if that's just the disconnect between him and the coaches, or if the coaches have just said, no, shut up, sit down, we're we're gonna do it this way, and you're you're gonna learn it and you're gonna do it. Because if that's the case, then then the entire staff needs to be fired and we we need to find other people. You gotta have that cohesive relationship where there's a little give and take. But there's other things going on that I'm surprised more of the media, like the national media, and to an extent some of the local people, like nobody's really talking about it. And and I got it, they're you know, we're still what a month or so away from from training camp really, really kicking off. So really at the at the low point of of football. You know, the the Flyers and the Sixers got got knocked out. So we're not really talking about them because, you know, they're they're not gonna do anythingworthy, I guess, in until the their respective seasons or league seasons actually actually end. And I wish I could be more positive about the Phillies. But here we are. I will take comfort in the fact that they are two games above 500 right now and pitching well enough that they're staying in the playoff race. Because it's so true what they say. You're you're not gonna win win the pennant in April or May, but you sure as shit can fucking lose it. Anyways. I want to know what your biggest Philly sports trust issue is. And don't be afraid to send it in. Text it, click the link for the voice message, you know, whatever you're whatever you're feel feel like doing. This is a safe space. Unless you're a Cowboys or a Mets fan. Then get fucked, Cupcake. So I believe I asked a question of the week two weeks ago. And since I didn't do an episode last week, I never actually gave out the answer. So, question was if a friend tells you to meet them at the pig in the Reading Terminal Market, you're going to look for a statue of pig that has a stands on little money box. And what is that pig's name? The answer is Filbert. Filbert is the name of the pig. So, on to the question of the week for this week. Before Bryce Harper won the NL MVP in 2021, who was the last Phillies player to win that award? Bonus points if you can name the Phillies player who won it the year before that. I will post this question on Facebook and I will reveal the answer next week. That's going to do it for me here on the Brotherly Love Sports Podcast. If you like the show, give me a like, share me with a fellow fan, and I will talk to you guys next week.