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TABLE TALK: Phillies Under-The-Radar Storylines · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, it's Jeff. Hope you're having a great labor day. Hope
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you had a great labor day. Depending on when you're listening to this,
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we are recording this on Monday, September fourth, twenty twenty three. By
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the time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope
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you enjoyed this Table Talk discussion. All right, everybody, you're listening to
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Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly
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Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right over ten years strong.
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We got a great discussion coming your way this week about this Philadelphia Phillies team
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on Table Talk. I gotta tell you there are some interesting things continuing to
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happen with this team. There are some under the radar storylines that we kind
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of wanted to dive into on this particular podcast and this discussion, So stick
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with us. Hope you enjoy the discussion here. We got a great guest,
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so let's get to it. It's great to have back on the podcast.
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We love talking to him. He has written words every now and again
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over at the Good Fight dot com. He's the digital editor for Mainline Today
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as well. Our good friend of the pod that you can find him on
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the Twitter dot com at Ben h. Silver. We've got Ben Silver.
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Hey don't buddy, don't good Jeff, how about you. I'm doing it
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all right, man, because this Phillies team is fun to watch this year,
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you know, at the end of the day, you know, yeah,
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they've stumbled a little bit recently here, but we I wanted to bring
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you on to talk about just kind of like some under the radar type of
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guys and players and just some other under the radar kind of storylines that were
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following here. And I'm just having fun watching this team again. Disappointment recently
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with like three losses in a row when we're recording this, but it's been
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a fun season, man, Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I'll
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be honest, I've been. I've been in the dumps the last couple of
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days, and thank god they won yesterday because yeah, I don't know if
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I don't I don't know if I'd be putting on this headset again, if
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you know what I'm talking about. It was so bizarre seeing you know,
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the dominance that we just recently saw in a month of August, you know,
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and for the past few games, three losses in a row thus far,
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it's been really tough to watch them. But again, at the end
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of the day, like I try to like think back, and I'm thinking
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back to the last time that you were on the pod. Ben, it
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was about six weeks into the season. It was back in May when you
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were on and we talked about one particular gentleman and piece of talent on this
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team, and that is Alec Bohm and back then what he meant to the
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team. And it's amazing how we've seen his development throughout this twenty twenty three
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season, both offensively and defensively. So I'm wondering, like, how would
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you assess both his offense and defense at this point, not only in the
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season, Ben, but what it actually means long term for his career.
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What are your thoughts here with regard to Alec Bohm. So I'm not as
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big a boa as some others are. Oh, he's great for team chemistry.
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Yeah, I've been loving him. I've been loving it. He's a
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he's a solid player. You know, he's well, go out there,
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he'll he's a good sixth center. You can you can expect the seven eighty
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ops and a nine fifty ops from him in July. You know, you've
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got June Schwarbern July Bone. But like he's fine defensively, I don't know.
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I you know, we would be able to say, oh, he
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doesn't make errors anymore, but like, right, right, I know I
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do that. Now I can't say that now. Like you can put him
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at third base and he's not going to be, you know, losing you
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games all the time, but he's still not playing a premium position. He's
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still not playing third base well. And he does the same thing at first
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base and it's bad as good. And he's got like a whatever, like
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a seven to eighty ops. What what do we have in batting like two
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eighty five something like that. I'm happy with it, yeah, but I
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want more from him. If he's gonna be a corner infielder, he's got
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to hit you know, thirty home runs. He's got to have an OPS
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of eight fifty. I like Alec Bowman, I still think that there's a
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lot of talent in there, because you know, I saw him hit that
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ball one hundred and forty seven miles an hour out to left center field yesterday
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for that home run. Right, But he's still not done developing and like
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I wouldn't sign him to a long term contract, but as an arbitration player,
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as as just some guy under team control that we that the Phillies have
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for the next what three four seasons. Yeah, he's great. Let us
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trot him out there every day at third base. I trust him. Do
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you think do you think there's something to be said though for the versatility?
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And I know maybe we're giving him too much credit, perhaps those of us
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who really have been enjoying watching his development this year. You know the fact
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that he is able to go over to first base, the fact that he
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has been able to hit just about anywhere in the lineup too. There's some
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versatility. I think that that I think we need to embrace a little bit
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here. I just I don't think playing corner infield's that versatile anyone. Bryce
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Harper played first base this year and he's looked just as good as Bowman.
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Very true, Yes, it's very true. Can teach anyone to play first
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base and they'll do just fine there. I know, you know the line
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from Moneyball, It's like, hey Scott, it's easy, you know,
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like to tell him wash, you know, it's incredibly hard. I mean
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yes, it's hard for an average guy, but it's not that hard for
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a baseball player. If you put in the work, and Bos put in
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the work, and Harper's put in the work, you get anyone to put
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in the work who's you know, over six feet tall and and can catch
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the ball coming at them. I mean, ja Cave can learn to play
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first base this year two, although he's had a little experience with that earlier,
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right, I don't see evens versustile because of that. It's good that
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he can hit different positions in the lineup, but it's not like that's a
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different skill. It's just you know, having you know, a good mental
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outlook, and I think that's something that Bone has certainly developed over the last
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couple of years. And if anything, I'm more impressed with that than his
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defensive improvements. Okay, all right, I don't see him as as a
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stud. Okay, all right, point over all right, sounds good,
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sounds good. Well, let's get on and move on to another gentleman who
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has been Boy, what a pleasant surprise of this Phillies roster this season,
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and that is Han Rojas. My gosh, I don't think anybody really thought
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that he'd be the kind of contributor in center field that he has been this
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season. And even though he's look, he's not a home run hitter.
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He's not really hitting for power. Of course, as we know, he's
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steady Eddie at the plate, currently batting two eighty nine. So, Ben,
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what are your thoughts on what Johan Rojas is really meant to this twenty
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twenty three Phillies roster here after they had brought him up. I think,
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well, I think his center field defense is just it gives me like feelings
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in my chest that I haven't experienced in a very long time. He's so
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exciting. Oh my god, it's not odubal Herrera. Yeah, oh it's
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crazy, you know. It's It's not like it's not the most talked about
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thing in Philly circles. But right a year and a half ago, we
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had o'duborera and Met Vierling in center field, yep, and we were hoping
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Mickey Moniak would come back. And now the Phillies have Brandon marsh who is
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one of the best centerfielders in the game this year, overperforming a little bit,
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and you also have Pash and Rojas backing him up. And then you
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have Muziode waiting in the wings if you know there there's an injury to Marsh,
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and then even further down than that, you have justin Crawford. It's
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what happened, like these are the Phillies, I know. I feel so
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confident. I think Rojas is such a good counter to Marsh right now because
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he's not gonna keep batting to an eighty nine from Rice the year, and
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he's certainly not going to keep batting to eighty nine for you know, the
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rest of his career. His his babbit numbers, and it's a lot of
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broken bat tits eyes. But I don't care. You know, Alec Bohm
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used to hit eight, have to have used to have an eight fifty ops
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to be a valuable player. As long as Robots is like a six fifty
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ops and is batting like two twenty, it's still in a couple of bases,
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playing great defense. I'm happy, great platoon guy for Marsh. But
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it does bring up a really interesting point. I think they're gonna have grade
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one one of, if not two, of Posh Rojas and probably Musiati if
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you're including the two center fielders in the off season, and I think that
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they could get a really nice haul for one, if not two. Again,
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I think it's really interesting to think about that particular prospect, you know.
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But there's you know, moving along, there's another player that I really
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wanted to discuss with you Ben. It's a guy who I absolutely love,
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and I want to throw that out there before saying any of this. I
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absolutely love him. He's currently batting one ninety one on this Phillies roster,
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and yes, he has a career two twenty seven batting average, yet thirty
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nine home runs this season, and I'm talking about one Kyle Schwarber, and
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I do have to say, you know, and maybe it's kind of in
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the same vein where you're talking about Alec Bohm and maybe we shouldn't be getting
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like two too warm and fuzzy about Bom. But I gotta tell you with
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Schwarber as again, as much as I love him, drives me nuts that
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it's basically home run or nothing at this point in his career. And although
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he has batted for some singles here and there, you know, over the
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course of the past month, I mean, he has tied Jimmy Rollins for
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the most leadoff home runs in Phillies history with nine and he's just not that
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great of a defender as we know, you know, especially you're in the
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season, very much a liability out there in left field. So how should
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we be looking at Kyle Schwarber at this point in his career? And do
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you think he'll end up being a strength or possibly a liability for the Phillies
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once this postseason rolls around here, because I really do kind of feel like
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it could go both ways. I mean, look, I'm gonna be honest,
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what are we discussing the year pitcher wins batting average? You know,
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nineteen sixty four, But we're talking about the fold of nineteen sixty four,
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Johnny Callison. I mean, look, Kyle Schwarber batting one ninety one is
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not a concern for me. Is OPV is like what three forty? Now?
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He walked three times yesterday. He's second in the league to de Soto
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in walks. I mean, the guy has such a command of the strickson
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and I love him batting leadoff. You know, you get all of these
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these national broadcasters, we just don't know what they're talking about. It's like,
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oh, you know, Trey Turner's gonna be battingleadoff next year because of
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the stolen bases are gonna be going on, right, want to improve the
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run game. I don't care he's walking, he gets on base, and
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you know what, if he's batting leadoff, it's I would rather walk than
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a single because you know what, no one on base, What difference does
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it make. I don't want Trey Turner who's gonna be batting lead off and
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hitting singles with no one on base and it doesn't do anything. I mean.
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Also, Schwarber is for the Phillies, the perfect leadoff man. The
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guy walks, you know what, He's got one hundred and like eighteen walks
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this year, second in the league, Towan Sodo. He's perfect for the
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Phillies because the bottom of this Phillies lineup is constantly on basse. You have
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Brendan Marsh down there, who's got like a three sixty three seventy o BP.
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He had four or five the other night, and he's always on base
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for Schwarber, who's not hitting singles. When he does hit, he hits
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home run driving. You know, Brandon Marsh and Jake Cave and Bryson Stott
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and JT really go in and when there isn't anyone on base, he's walking
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leave frequently because you do those singles from a guy like that, you're very
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fuently gonna have someone on first base and first base alone, and also very
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frequently because he's leading off, he's gonna have anyone on base at all.
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And in case White single, those walks are exactly what the Phillies want,
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and he's doing all they need. And I also think that a big portion
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of Kyle Shoulberg's defense and left right now, and as horrible as it's been,
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as many games as it has cost the Phillies, I'm not really worried
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about it once the postseason rolls around. You know, knock on wood.
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You know, we've all watched the Phillies for the last you know, six
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years. We all know that the September collapse is very possible. That said,
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I think one of the reasons why Shoulber has been playing so much left
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field and Harper has been playing so much first base is because the Phillies are
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trying to save Harper for the postseason. You know, as quickly as he
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heals from injuries, he does seem to be a little bit injury prone,
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and we know he had those back spasms back in August, and I don't
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think that they want to exacerbate that at adult right now. I think they
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want to be entirely healthy ready to go for the playoffs. And you know
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whatever, losing extra game in September, maybe lose an extra two games in
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September, but don't lose that extra game in the postseason. Because Bright Harper
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is gonna be playing first and Johann Rojas is gonna be playing center field with
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Martian left or maybe Cable being left right. It's gonna be interesting to watch
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for sure, to see what happens with just where the personnel is going to
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be, especially during the postseason. And moving along here, Ben, you
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know when the bats tend to heat up, you know, people are always
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talking about home runs, and we saw a stretch where the fills, as
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I mentioned earlier, were just kind of unstoppable at the plate. It was
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so fun to watch. But like, aside from the home runs and the
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power, when you take a look at this team down the stretch, who
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do you feel is an under the radar, just solid contributor to this team
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who just maybe doesn't get their fair due and their fair shake at this point
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in the season. Do you have anybody in mind? Oh, yeah,
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I know, I know you're bringing up one runs. I have two guys
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on my mind. Granted, one of them I think has has gotten their
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due, and that's Christopher Sanchez. But my real guy who's gone under the
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radar and maybe the bullpen and pieces I feel most confident in right now is
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Jeff Hoffman, because god damn can that guy take down. It's got like
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an under two e r since since June twenty fourth. Yea. Even his
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peripherals are also great. And you know, when he was not with the
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Phillies, when he was with the Iron Pigs back in April, everyone was
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talking about, Oh, this guy's got a ninety eight ninety nine mile an
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hour fastball, And frankly, I who cares That fastball is just bread and
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butter. That's I shouldn't be saying it's it's it's it's a white bread fastball.
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It sits there in front of the plate. But it's the slider that
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comes off of that that is really truly excellent. Is it is one of
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the best sliders that I've seen out of the Phillies bullpen in the last several
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years a long time. You can locate it. Yeah, he can locate
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it through so well. He can throw it for strikes, even Alvarado's cutter
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slider thing. You know, he throws it. And when he's thrown it,
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you know, at the end of last year, at the beginning of
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this year, it's been good. But he's still you know, he's working
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at for swings and missus and Hoffman has been excellent at just locating it in
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the bottom left quadron of the strike zone and both freezing batters and getting guy
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swing with it. And I am very excited to have that pitch out of
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the bullpen for the next two or three years or however much longer the Phillies
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have Hoffman, because I mean, I guess he's this year's balladi. Maybe
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he won't be as good this year, but you know, between those two
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guys, those are some real times in the rough that Dombrovski has pulled out.
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I think it was I think it was Jeff Hoffman's very first time on
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the mound at Citizens Bank Park. I was at that game, and boy
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did he crap the bed And I was just basically yelling from the stands.
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I'll drive you back to Allantown, my friend. But it is it was
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such a pleasant surprise to see how he's come on over these past couple of
14:46
months. Right, what was that against Atlanta? It was against Atlanta?
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Yeah, yeah, I was at that game. Oh were you at that
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game? Furious? Oh my god? Yeah, about like a last second
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ticket. I was like, yeah, you know, might as well go
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to the game and just losing my goddamn mind. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely,
15:03
But it's great to see how he's developed this year in the big So
15:07
moving along here, Ben, I do wonder how much we should be trusting
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this bullpen. You're bringing up, Jeff Hoffman, bringing up certain aspects of
15:15
this bullpen, just trusting them, you know, because they've been really up
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and down over the past month or so here. I mean, we've seen
15:22
some tough outings from Craig Kimbrill. Sir Anthony Dominguez hasn't necessarily been what we've
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seen in the past, and that could be, of course, due to
15:28
his injury that he sustained this season. So how concerned are you about this
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bullpen as we're moving forward here, as the postseason is right around the corner.
15:37
I'll be honest, very okay, I think so. By the Phillies,
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bullpen is very boomer bus right now. They've got in reality, they've
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got four guys who should be late inning options, Craig Kimbrill, Dominguez,
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Soto, and Alvarado, and none of them have their A plus stuff right
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now. Yeah. With Kimberll, I think it's a it's an age factor.
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I think the guy is what thirty six now, and he's thrown a
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lot of endings this year. He really hasn't taken any time off. He's
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throwing every two or three days, and he had that stretch in the middle
16:07
of the season where he was untouchable and that fastball was had some crazy late
16:12
life and I felt like we knew that that wasn't going to be sustainable necessarily.
16:17
You know, we were all riding high on it, and we're thinking,
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my gosh, this is Craig Kimberl here twenty twenty three, and I
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think at the back of our minds we should have been like, Okay,
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there's gonna be a drop off at some point. Yeah, And for me,
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the drop off isn't so much that, oh that stuff was a mirage
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and he's just not that good, because I truly believe he was that good
16:37
for that two or three months stretch. It's just that his arm is tired
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now and he needs some sort of phantom il stint or you know, a
16:45
week off before the postseason, just to reset the bullpen and the rotation.
16:48
With Sarante, I think it's the total opposite. I think that guy feeds
16:52
on consistency. You need to keep pitching him every other day until he gets
16:56
his stuff down and he's locating that fastball and locating his slide Alvarado, maybe
17:02
a mix of the two. He's been injured so on different occasions this year,
17:06
for about a month and a half each time, and I just don't
17:08
really think he's found his cutter yet. When he's coming in, he's throwing
17:12
a lot of sinkers and a lot of them are falling below the plate,
17:17
and I think he's just he's overthrowing a a little bit, and he just
17:19
he needs to trust his stuff to play in the zone a little bit more.
17:23
Soto is a very interesting case because I think he's been exactly the same
17:26
about the entire season. He'll go three starts without allowing a run, and
17:30
they'll go one start allowing three runs. Yep, I shouldn't say start,
17:34
I should say appearance. That said, I actually really like Soto in a
17:38
high leveled situation. I don't want him coming in in a two or three
17:41
run ball game because I think there's a pretty good chance that he gives up
17:45
three runs. He comes into a one roun ball game, I think that
17:48
there is just as much of a chance as it leaving, you know,
17:51
with the Phillies in the lead, as anyone else. It's just that if
17:53
they don't leave in the lead, they're gonna leave way down right right,
17:57
I would I would very much agree with you there and again, folks.
18:02
Talking to Ben Silver, the digital editor at Mainline Today. He's also been
18:06
a contributor over at the Good Fight dot com as well follow on Twitter at
18:10
Ben H. Silver. He's a great, great follow, especially when he's
18:12
tweeting about this Philadelphia Phillies team. And to close us out here, Ben,
18:17
you know, I think we're all pretty confident that the Phillies are gonna
18:21
make the postseason here, but I do wonder if there are some teams that
18:25
I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast recently, I do wonder if
18:29
there's some teams, They're gonna try to give them some problems down the stretch
18:33
here in September. Do you think, do you think it's kind of smooth
18:34
sailing from here on out or could they get themselves into a jam with any
18:40
specific team. So I feel pretty confident they're making the postseason. I think
18:45
I've already knocked on wood like three times this podcast. I mean, obviously,
18:49
the Braves are gonna be tough, and if you look at like the
18:52
Philly strength of schedule going forward for the rest of the season, they have
18:56
a surprisingly difficult average winning percentage of the team that they're going to be facing,
19:00
and that is all the Braves. They're the only winning after now that
19:03
they're done with the Brewers, they are the only winning team that they will
19:07
face for the rest of the season. They have seven games against them.
19:08
That's a lot of games, but you win three or four and you should
19:12
feel pretty good. Granted, you also have, I believe, six against
19:17
the Mets, and the Mets are going to play the Phillies hard no matter
19:19
what matter the time, and the Phillies have struggled against the Mets in the
19:23
last couple of years, so they really need to be taking you know,
19:26
at least four out of six, if not five out of six against a
19:30
very depleted Mets squad without Chers or without de grond, without Verlander, without
19:37
a bunch of guys that they've traded away. Robertson they traded away. I
19:40
guess, Hannah, who else they trade away? Maybe they still have vocal
19:44
back. I think they still do have voting I think the way. Yeah,
19:48
they're missing a lot of guys, and that's that's the only team other
19:51
than other than the Braves that I'm I'm truly worried about. I think that
19:56
the Phillies should cruise into that first wild spot pretty easily. The Cubs could
20:02
give him a run for the money. That the Phillies should not be counting
20:04
them out as a contender, because they are just as good, if not
20:08
even better than the Phillies this year, But they started off so poorly that
20:12
you know, it's hard to make up that ground. Yeah, the Phillies
20:17
made up some serious ground. But the Cubs, I believe we're under five
20:18
hundred through the All Star break. I don't want to play them in the
20:22
postseason, but it seems pretty likely that it seems like that they will yep.
20:26
Yeah. At Citizens Bank Park. Though the Phillies should beat anyone,
20:30
absolutely, and that's a theme that we're gonna be talking about a lot more
20:33
on this podcast in the future. Ben silver Man, it was great talking
20:37
to you. Love your insights with regard to this Philadelphia Phillies team. Come
20:41
back join us down the road, my friend. I'd love to have you
20:42
back on the pod. Yeah, as always, Thank you so much,
20:45
Jeff. Always a pleasure, It's always great talking to Ben. At the
20:48
end of the day, folks, watching this Philadelphia Phillies team has just been
20:52
an absolute pleasure. It has been a fun season. Yes, earlier in
20:57
the season things were just really up in the air and we're questioning ourselves,
21:02
saying, my gosh, how is this the team that was in the World
21:04
Series last year. But at the end of the day, here in September,
21:07
we're enjoying watching this team. And yes, a few struggles and a
21:11
few losses here recently, but this team really has shown us something. And
21:15
I'll go back to what Ben and I were talking about in terms of one
21:19
Alec Bohm. I mean, this is a guy who has worked so hard
21:22
to improve his defense, and by and large he's been successful, so many
21:26
fans wanted this team to trade him, if you remember, and I thought,
21:32
as did you know my co host as well. I thought that would
21:34
have been a big mistake back, you know, whether it was last year
21:38
or the year prior to that. You know, he's hit all over the
21:41
lineup and there probably isn't a more quite frankly, a clutch hitter on this
21:45
team, with the exception of Bryce Harper. And look, he's going to
21:48
continue to learn from his mistakes. But my goodness, has he shown improvement.
21:55
And I have to say that he consistently does things that helped this team
21:59
win big games, in big moments, he cares, he wants to win,
22:03
all while consistently improving his own personal game. So at the end of
22:08
the day, that's what we want to see in our Philly baseball players,
22:11
don't we Let us know what you're thinking, Philadelphia Sportstable at gmail dot com.
22:15
We'd love to read your email on our regular podcast and respond to it.
22:18
So that's gonna do it for us here on table Talk this week.
22:22
Hope you enjoyed. Subscribe if you are new to listening to the PST podcast
22:26
show. Here we are online also at Philadelphia Sportstable dot com got all of
22:32
our podcast shows over there. If you happen to miss any or if something
22:34
happens to your feed, follow the show on Twitter at Philadelphia pst can follow
22:40
me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren. We are on the Instagram as well. Yes
22:44
we're there as well. Subscribe, follow, I should say, my goodness,
22:48
I'm just gonna end this podcast right now. This take care of folks.
22:52
We will catch you next time.