The Next Move Is Where Hope Lives

A.J. Brown has finally been traded, and we break down the move, the return, and why even though Brown was a major part of the Eagles’ recent success, it may have been time for both sides to move on.

Then it’s over to the Phillies, where Cristopher Sánchez continues his dominant stretch, Aaron Nola gives a solid five innings, and the pitching staff keeps carrying a team still searching for consistent offense. Sánchez’s rise, Nola’s current role, Andrew Painter’s struggles, and why the Phillies still feel like a team waiting for the bats to fully wake up.

This week’s therapy session asks a bigger Philly sports question: are we addicted to the next move? Whether it’s the Eagles replacing A.J. Brown, the Phillies eyeing the trade deadline, the Flyers building through future drafts, or the Sixers living in hypothetical offseason plans, Philly fans always seem to be looking ahead.

Plus, last week’s trivia answer and a new Phillies trade deadline trivia question of the week.

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Brotherly Love Sports. I'm your host, Adam Curran, and today we can finally say, thank God it's over. Yet somehow it doesn't feel quite over since that's all anybody's gonna be talking about for the next week, two weeks, month, whatever it may be. But AJ Brown has finally been traded. It has come to fruition, it happened. We can all move on with our lives. Some of us, anyways. It uh it it took a while to get to this point. And a lot of people are analyzing this trade on, you know, who won, who lost. Uh honestly, I think the Eagles won. I I really do. And and not because they just gave up a great talent in AJ Brown. And what they got back was it was okay. It wasn't quite what they were hoping for. They got a 2028 first round pick and a 2027 fifth round pick. Respectable package for an aging receiver who has had a little history of of some injuries. But when he was in Philly, he was he was lighting it up. I don't have any hate towards Brown. I am truly thankful he was on the team when he was. The team enjoyed a lot of success. Going to two Super Bowls in such a short time was was amazing. To win one of them was also amazing to see. And he played well in in that game. Oh man. I can just relive that game all day. But I say they won because they got rid of the cancer in the locker room. And respect to the the staff and the players on any team, rarely do you see people come out that are still actively on the roster or involved in management or you know, whatever, whatever their position is in the team, rarely do you see them come out and just absolutely trash the guy that just left, regardless of the circumstances. I saw you know clips from from the players, and almost every single one of them had something nice to say. You know, he he was a great teammate, we got along, we're friends, still friends, no love lost, you know whatever compliment they opted to pay him. I didn't search for this, but the only person I didn't really see anything from was Hertz. I'm not gonna read too much into that. Uh I think Brown said said it all in his interview, said that the that their relationship isn't as close as as they used to be. He said it hasn't been like that for a few years. I I'm not quite sure what that means. He also went on to say that he's not sure why that became like the focal point of everything. It's like, dude, we saw you have great seasons, and every season after that got a little worse. You played great the season prior to the Super Bowl, but once you got to the Super Bowl where we just demolished the the Chiefs, there was something that was a little off there. Had a good game, don't get me wrong, not diminishing that, but you could almost see that it was starting to take a turn. Because on the he caught one touchdown pass and couldn't give props about the play, but pretty much said that like Jalen threw the wrong pass or he called the wrong play, or you know what whatever it was. Could couldn't even give his quarterback the the kudos deserved. But after the Super Powl, things seemed to take a turn for the worst. And there obviously was no salvaging it. You you clearly saw some on-field frustrations. You obviously didn't hear anything, or I guess rather you didn't see anything in the locker room, but we all we all heard the grumblings that like things things weren't okay. It it is what it is. I I am definitely on the on the plane of don't hate him, but thank God this is over. I I am to a degree happy he's not here. It's amazing what one guy can do to to bring down the the an entire team. It's unfortunate the offense wasn't a a more consistent threat last year. Because that that defense played so well for for the majority of the season. There were what maybe two or three games that defense just didn't have it. But there was a lot of pressure on the defense to keep them in games, all because the the offense couldn't do it. So looking at the draft picks for 2027, they have a first and second, which are their own picks. They're expected a comp pick for losing Jalen Phillips in the third round. Uh they have their fourth and fifth own pick. They got that second fifth from the Patriots, and then they have two sevenths. Uh, one is either going to be from the Jets or the Browns. I don't know the details behind that or what the determining factor is for which team we get it from. And we're also we also got one from the Cowboys. I know that they wanted a 2027 first-round pick, like a second one. Not sure who they would be targeting. I guess that kind of depends on how this season plays out. But looking at 2028, they now have two first round picks, their own and the Patriots, and then everything else, two through seven, is chalk. It is what they own from themselves. No, no other changes yet. We know how he always comes up with something. So glad, glad AJ's gone. Um, I hope his hands turn to stone and he drops every pass thrown to him, and life will be good. As I currently record this, the Phillies are on. Sanchez is pitching, continuing to chase history. He has had an outstanding stretch of scoreless innings. And as of right now, looking at my phone, it's the bottom of the six, and the Phillies are up one-nothing. So Sanchez has gone six shutout innings this game and is from what I can surmise looking good. He continues to improve and take steps forward. He's allowed two hits, one walk. He struck out seven so far. The the guy is in my view, he's projected to win the Cy Young. He he is just on fire right now. And you go back to back to the trade when we got him from Tampa Bay. And you know, thank you, Race, for giving him up. And I'm so glad he has just blossomed into the pitcher that he is. If only we could get the offense to do a little more. Once again, we are we are going up against the Padres. And the Padres have not been a good team. We we swept them out in San Diego. We won last night. Uh even Nola pitched fairly well. Only had one bad pitch, let up a two-run home run. And I was sitting there watching and thinking, like, oh, here we go. Here's where we're just gonna get raked by by the Padres this game. To my surprise, I was proven wrong. And I'm happy to say that I'm wrong. Nola went five innings, four hits, two runs, eight strikeouts. That was that was pretty good. Factored into a no decision, as the harp Harper hit a home run to to tie up the game, and then Alvarado came in in the sixth, and Phillies put up a run, and that that was that. They ended up winning 3-2. Speaking of Harper, I need to correct myself because I caught it on editing, and the way I talk, I didn't leave enough space for me to change it. Schwarber is leading in home runs. I know I said Harper last week, and that's my bad. Anyways, moving on. I know I said earlier in the season that Nola's days, best days, I think, are behind him. I think he he gets five innings max, and then you got to pull him. And last night it seemed Mattingley shared my view. And the only exception I said that he stays in is if he's got a no-no going, like a no-hitter or a perfect game. Outside of that, he gets five innings. Because if he has five good innings, you know the meltdown's coming. I know he he talks about how he likes to pitch in warmer weather, it's easier to grip the ball, get a feel for it. His off-speed stuff seems to have a little more bite in warmer weather. That's great. But at your five years, 130, 40, 50 million, whatever the hell it was. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but you got a large contract for you to pitch better than what you're currently pitching. So I am of the belief that we probably should have let him walk or traded him sooner. And I think this pitching staff could afford it. It's kind of sad to say that you know Walker was your worst pitcher. Well, now Nola is up there as one of your worst pitchers. Sanchez has been phenomenal. Wheeler's come back from his injury and looked really, really good. Luzardo's been on his game too. And Nola and Painter are your two worst pitchers right now. Payner, for as as hyped up as he was, I'm disappointed for what from what we're seeing out of him right now. However, I am going, he gets a little more leeway from me. Coming back from Tommy John surgery is never an easy thing. You're still trying to find your velocity, find your command and control. So, and I just don't think he's found it yet. It doesn't seem like they're gonna send him down anytime soon, barring some sort of injury, that they're gonna shut him down and he throws a rehab assignment. I I think he's here for the long haul, but we'll we'll see. Alright, so let's move on to the therapy session. This week in therapy, I want to ask a real question. Are we addicted to the next move? Because I catch myself doing it all the time. The Phillies win a game and I'm still thinking about the trade deadline. The Eagles make a move and I'm already thinking about the replacement. The Flyers are rebuilding, and I'm looking for, you know, about two drafts ahead. And the Sixers, well, they've basically trained an entire fan base to live in fake future scenarios. And I don't think this is because we as a fan base are negative. I think it's because the next move is where hope lives. The current team is where the evidence is. The negative side of this, we don't let ourselves enjoy anything. Every win becomes it, but is this sustainable? Every good player becomes, but how long are they going to be here? Every young prospect becomes, is he the guy or just gonna be another disappointment? And you can apply this to a lot of current situations. Painter so far, like, oh, is he the guy right now? He he has been a disappointment. AJ Brown was a great receiver for the most part when he was here. But we've got like as the years went on, we questioned all right, how much longer is he going to be here? Can we can we get back to basics? Can we keep him? Can we make him happy? But on the other side of this, the the positive side, if you will, this is what makes Philly fans so locked in. We care enough to think three moves ahead. We're not casual. We know the roster, the contracts, the farm system, the draft picks, deadline needs, the bad contracts, and the coaching flaws. And we talk about it all the time. And this is why I said last week we're just gonna start a go fummy. We're gonna take over the teams by storm because we know better. But sometimes it is exhausting. But hey, that's just us being passionate, right? Maybe the problem isn't that we want the next move. Maybe it's we treat the next move like it's going to finally make us feel safe as a fan base. I'll let you guys decide. But that's gonna do it for that short therapy session. We don't just want our teams to win. We want the next move to finally convince us we're allowed to believe. And in this city, yeah, good luck with that. All right. For those that were following, the question of the week last week was before Bryce Harper won the National League MVP in 2021, who was the last Phillies player to win the award? And bonus points, if you can name the Phillies player who won it the year before that. So the last Phillies player prior to Bryce Harper was Jimmy Rollins in 2007, and in 2006 was Ryan Howard. They they went back to back that year. God, that was that team could absolutely rake. Especially the OA team, which is why they felt they just felt destined to win the World Series that year. Everything just came together. It's beautiful. Alright, so question of the week for this week. And since we were talking Phillies, let's uh let's go back to one of the one of the big moves that they made. At the 2009 trade deadline, the Phillies acquired Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco from Cleveland. Can you name one of the four players they traded away in that deal? I will post this question on Facebook later, and the answer will be revealed next week. That's going to do it for me here on the Brotherly Love Sports Podcast. If you like the show, share me with another fan, give me a like, send me a voice message, email, whatever you prefer, and I will talk to you guys next week.