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Will The Phillies Rebound? (PST Episode 515) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:19
All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
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the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right ten
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years strong. It is great to be in your ears, and if you've
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been with us for a while, we greatly appreciate it. If you're new
0:33
to the show, stick around. We've got some great sports talk coming your
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way, Philly sports talk coming your way as well. I'm Jeff Warren and
0:41
I'm here at my good buddy Eric Leonard. Eric's been a little while since
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you've been on the show. I know you've been busy doing a lot of
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coaching and stuff, which we're actually going to be getting into on the show
0:49
this week, buddy, But how you've been How things been for you,
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Dizzy? Yeah? I get the text from you what every Monday or so,
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usually usually on Mondays. Yeah. I usually try to go back and
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forth with you and let you know, but you usually like every other every
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other week. Yeah. Yeah, it's like I pulled my personal calendar when
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I see your text and I'm like, yeah, no, guy, ain't
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gonna work. You can't do it fully. Hell yeah, it's I've never
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coached two sports at the same time. Especially like legit like involved sports,
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like I'm involved now. It's it's crazy. We'll get into in the first
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topic, man, But yeah, it's just it. It's fun. I
1:30
like, I like being part of my community. But sometimes I want to
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say, screw you community, just a moment, land a couch and do
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nothing. So Eric, we talked a little bit about it before we hit
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the record button. But I only have two weeks left of being a gymnastics
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dad before my daughter has decided that she needs a break. And I'm really
1:51
proud of her. And she has had an amazing young career thus far in
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the world of gymnastics here in Pennsylvania, a lot of different achievement. I've
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mentioned before on the show. She's been a state champion here and uh,
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I can't believe I'm actually gonna have some time back. I can't believe I'm
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gonna have some money too. Yeah, I was gonna say that's the biggest,
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that's the nicest piece, right, absolutely absolutely, But yeah, the
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kid just kind of wants to explore some new things and I'm looking forward to
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it. Like she actually said, like, Dad, I'd like to try
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drama club at school this coming year. You know, when I when I
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when I get to seventh grade, I'd like to join the cooking club and
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even get into the ski club with my sister and do that on Fridays,
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you know, during that time of the year. And I just and she's
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like, I'm gonna be a normal kid. She actually said that to me.
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And it's like, well, yeah, you're not gonna be in the
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gym fourteen hours a week training. You know, you're gonna actually be able
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to just hang out with your friends and just kind of chill out. And
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like, I'm actually really excited for my daughter. Then she's gonna have this
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opportunity. And she said to be a normal kid. Wait, I'll say
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that. My daughter turned sixteen yesterday and congratulations, I know, got her
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permit in the whole deal, and she was driving tonight. I had her
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out and I had that moment of like, wow, this is only two
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more years until she goes off to school. Yeah, and you say take
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a break, but I was like, can I can I hit the pause
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button? Break button? Please? Yeah? This is going really fast,
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man. Yeah. When you said take a break, I was like,
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she's only twelve, you have some years left, but I you're gonna hit
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a point where you're like, I don't want a break, No no,
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no, no, no, yeah, exactly. Well, we got a
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great show this week, folks. As Erica teased a little bit a little
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while ago, here, we're actually going to talk to him about his coaching
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experience coaching youth sports. Every now and again you'll hear some anecdotes from Eric
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about what it has been like for him to coach basketball, coach baseball.
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But I kind of wanted to get into a little more detail from the actual
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coaching itself to inevitably really helping the guy children and just and help to provide
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some sort of foundation for the youth that he coaches, you know, whether
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that be from a confidence perspective or you know, giving them the ability to
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understand and know that they can do other things in life other than, you
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know, just simply sitting in front of a TV playing video games. Perhaps,
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I don't know, but we're gonna get into that rate off the bat.
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We also want to talk about this Eastern and Western Conference NBA the finals,
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the Eastern Western Conference Finals here and whether or not the Sixers could have
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beat any of these teams. I have a feeling Eric, we may have
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the same answer with regard to that particular topic. And we got a new
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top three list folks this week, top three worst NFL owners of all time.
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It's a list we have not done, but we wanted to get into
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it since there's no football going on, wanted to get a football topic on
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here. And then we got a ton of baseball talk Andrew mccutch in this
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past week. As many may know, he's become very concerned about base block
5:00
when it comes to stealing bases in Major League Baseball. He's really pushing major
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League Baseball to make a change to the rules. Here, we're gonna give
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our thoughts on that, and then what we're thrown down on the table.
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We've got John stall in this from the Hitting Season podcast the Good Fight dot
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Com. He's gonna be joining us to break down this Phillies team, what
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we're seeing, how this team has been performing after a very very mediocre season
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thus far. It's always a good time talking to John. So let's get
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into our first topic here, Eric again, talking about your coaching. You
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know, I remember the first time you told me that you were going to
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be coaching. I think it was baseball, and I think it was baseball
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and I'm trying to remember what sport it was baseball the first one you you
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coached, or was a basketball No, it was my daughter's basketball team,
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yes, right, And I remember being like, Oh, my gosh,
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how is he gonna deal? I was like, how is he going to
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deal with the parents? Because I know Eric from eight years ago is a
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little different than Eric now, you know, with with a little bit of
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seasoning, a little bit of coaching expertise under your belt. But really,
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you've been coaching youth basketball and baseball for years now, and aside from,
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like I said earlier, the anecdotes that you give out on this show every
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now and then, I really kind of wanted to hear about what you've actually
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learned over the years when it comes to coaching youth sports, like from the
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actual coaching itself to really giving kids a foundation of some sort of success in
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their lives, because at the end of the day, that's usually why kids
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are wanting to play sports. They want to have some sort of success,
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whether it is from a team, atmosphere and environment, or within themselves.
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So I guess, buddy, I'll let you take it from here. As
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we get into this, I've never been a youth athletic coach. I only
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see what my daughter who I was just talking about, which she has gone
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through for several years, but I could not imagine being a coach. I
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give you all the credit in the world for it, and I mean,
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what have you learned over the years and how have you really kind of helped
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to give kids a foundation here I will say this, my eight months of
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therapy in like twenty nineteen really helped me become a good coach. It really
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is. You're really dealing with the psychology of the kids and almost even more
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so the parents. I would say seventy percent of coaching is like is dealing
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with the parents and you. It's interesting, right, like like they want
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their kids to do well, they want their kids to have an experience,
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but they can't help themselves because we love our kids, right yeah, And
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they can't help but get involved even though they don't volunteer, and they have
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lots of criticisms, and there really are. They're the toughest part of coaching
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the kids themselves. It's actually for all the crying. Like I coach a
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ten year old boys now, and they are the most dramatic human beings I've
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ever experienced in my life. I mean, I have thirteen boys in baseball,
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I have eight in basketball, my son included, and every single one
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of them is cried at least once in the past two months, and I've
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had to take them aside, put my arm around them, and it really
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is I'll say this, you do start to realize what an effect you can
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have on them, you know, because they go to school, they typically
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hate school. That's really the that's really the what I what I hear from
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them. Uh for the most part, they look at this is that their
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their outlet and like you're kind of overseeing it, and it's really interesting to
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see them try and get better but also kind of navigate the emotions, the
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puberty that's coming, and the stuff that's going on in their lives like that.
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That's one of my biggest takeaways so far, as like every single kid
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has their own path in life, and I've I've I've got to a point
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where I've realized where I can't just coach him as a team. You actually
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have to coach them as individuals. You have to take them aside, one
9:07
on one and actually talk to them and get to know them. Not a
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lot of coaches do that. I've noticed that, like not, I definitely
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like to take them aside and talk to them and say, like, what's
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going on in your life because it definitely affects how they perform on the court
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or the field. But it sounds like you are essentially a neutral sounding board
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for them in their lives, which so many kids need easily. Yeah,
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yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean a lot of them are are
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from divorce families. Some of them are on the spectrum, some possibly abuse.
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I'm not gonna lie, like I see it sometimes and I'm like,
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I'm not sure if the kids are not being hit at times. I don't
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know family, And it really does make you look in the mirror and be
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like, um, don't just coach, like actually kind of get to know
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them and be their friend and like you and they're so impressionable that you I
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don't want I don't just want to be like two three zone you know,
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basketball, you know, gloving the dirt and baseball. It's more like I
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kind of want to get to know them a little bit and see what do
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you see? What would make some tick? And you have to be a
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big kid too, Like I see plenty coaches who are not big kids and
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they they're just adults and they talk to the kids like adults and it's like
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I don't understand that at all. It's really bizarre. And again, like
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teachers have a huge effect on them. But like I said, when they
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when they leave school, it's like now it's fun. Now it's fun time.
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And they don't want they don't want the yelling, screaming guy, which
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I do sometimes, but they do want like they kind of want a friend
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and they want to learn how to play the game the right way. Um,
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the kids are great, like honest to guy, Like that's the best
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part of coaching, even though even they could be the most ornary sons of
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bitches you've ever you can ever imagine, dude, Like, I mean,
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I've made my basketball kids run so many laps to the point where they're just
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sweat because they're not listening, which is but but that's you know, it's
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good to get better. But like they'll they'll learn from that. Um,
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the hardest part is the parents and the paperwork and the and and that really
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is the piece that like keeps people out of it. I think that's my
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biggest takeaway too so far, is that people are good in general, but
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people don't want to volunteer. They want to take their kid to the court
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or the field and leave and you, hey, you're the coach. Now
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awesome, Great, I'm going to get out of here. I'm probably gonna
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criticize you behind your back because I'm a shitty person sometimes, but which I've
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had to confront a couple of people. Um, but it you know,
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I don't want to self grandize, but like you, you can have an
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effect on these kids. Man, Like I remember coaches and teachers from my
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past. I can point directly to uh coach gang Rick, coach donor um
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missus missus Campbell in high school, my speech teacher. Like you know,
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I I kind of just want to be one of those people where they're like
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a coach yareick was cool? Yeah? I remember, you know, and
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especially this age group where you're still tying their shoes, you know, your
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hand in them tissues because they have snot rolling down their face, you know.
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But but not just that, like you also like they need people in
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their lives sometimes, Like I'm I'm getting kind of sappy, but like I've
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had conversations with some kids, like I got a kid on my basketball team
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where he was just bawling one practice. I had no idea what's going on.
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I took him aside. I'm like, what what is up? And
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he was like, it's my sister and I'm an issue with his sister.
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And I was like, oh, okay, it's like you're sorry, you're
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screaming at Jewell's, You're screaming at Vinny the whole prep. What the hell
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is your problem by? And he's like my It's like okay, good,
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thank you, and you know, and I went to his dad and I
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said, you know he's having like is He's like I told his dad and
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he was like, oh, I had no idea. I'm like, yeah,
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talk to him, dude, Like again, you were the sounding board
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there for the kid. Like you were the one that was there for the
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kid. And I mean, depending on the situation, he may always remember
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that for the rest of his life. You know. A coach Eric was
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there when I needed to talk to him and he asked me what was wrong.
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I told him I got it off my chest. I mean that that
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can be big for kids. No, it's to you can be and like
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what I will say is like I just if you're going to coach, just
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be there for the kids, and your goal should be to make them better
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for the next level. Like every time every time I have a new team,
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I always tell my parents, I have no ego in this. I
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just want to make your kids better and get better for the next level where
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I'm not the coach like that. That's that's my only goal. And here's
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the downside of coaching though. Right, there's two things that happened this week,
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and I can speak to him, and this has to do with with
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youth league sports. Like the media typically likes to point out, like the
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really egregious stuff, like when youth league sports comes up comes up on CNN
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or Twitter. Right, it's always like there was a shooting or a fistfight.
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Right, it's a league game. But you know what usually happens is
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like Sunday is my first time ever where a parent got up in my face
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after a basketball game and was f bombing me left and right in front of
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everybody. Jesus, it was bad. It was in the hallway after the
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game, and I really upset me. I'm not gonna lie. I had
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to walk away from I put my hand up and I said, okay,
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I'm gonna walk away because there's no reason to have this conversation. And what
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really bothered me though, is like I understand your point that you don't think
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your son played enough, but like as you're screaming, I'm looking at your
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son, going, is he okay? Yeah? Like I'm not. I'm
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not the one like you should be talking like he's the whole reason we're all
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here. And like I think a lot of I think sometimes parents kind of
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lose sight of that. That was just one example, but I've had to
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confront parents, um a couple of times for just being shitty absolutely yeah.
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Yeah, and and but but one thing it really struck me too, as
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a volunteer, and it really, it really is hard to get volunteers for
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this stuff. Like it's it's getting less and less and less. I'm always
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I'm always begged every year to do fall baseball because fall baseball is not super
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like popular. You know, football kind of takes over. And well,
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when there's parents getting up in people's faces an F bomb and I'm after a
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game, you know what I mean, it's gonna be tough to recruit people.
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Yeah, And that's why I said, like, if you ever want
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to do it like that just put the kids needs ahead of all of your
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Like we we don't matter, We're just vessels. We're just here to teach
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them. The kids the main focus. Um. But I was talking to
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an umpire yesterday and one of our baseball games and he was just like I
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said, he was like, this is my this is my second game tonight.
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I have three more tomorrow. He's like, we can't get we can't
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get enough umpires. And I know as a volunteer coach, I can't.
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We can't get enough to actually step up. And it again like it really
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is about the kids and I we just lose sight of that. And I'm
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going to continue doing it as long as Vince will have me my son.
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Then she's gonna say, Dad, fuck off. I don't I want to
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be there when he says that, please, So I I will take it
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hard, but I'll turn around and kind of giggle like you know it's coming,
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yeah right, yeah, Um but that really bummed me out. As
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a volunteer coach is just like wow, man, it there's just like they're
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all coming to the games. Like when I have a baseball game, a
16:37
basketball game, there's tons of people there. They're they're interested, they're they're
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watching their kids. But then as soon as like, hey, do you
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want some of this responsibility to ye, I want it, and that that
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that really sucks. Like that's like the that's the one piece of the coaching
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so far. I'm like, I'm like, man, do any of you
16:53
care? Right? Right? But at the same time, it's it's helped
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me grow a harder shell and be like if I hear somebody criticizing me or
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something, I'm like, you know what, you can go fuck yourself.
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Yeah you want to do that, you can do better than me, then
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go ahead and do it. I'm not getting paid for this crab, so
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I just like, so, yeah, yeah, it's for parents, like
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of course, as I measured, like, I've never coached. I've never
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coached youth sports at all, but like as a parent that is on the
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other side of things that watches their kid compete in a sport where they have
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to be perfect with everything all the time in order to score in order to
17:27
get up on that podium, and as as not only a parent eric but
17:33
my daughter's gymnastics facility like that, I actually an employee there. I run
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their social media campaign throughout the year. They hired me to do this years
17:41
ago, so I technically have an avenue when my daughter's upset, when she
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comes home crying about this, this or this, or a situation that happened
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within practice or the coach was due, I'd better watch what I say.
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I don't know who's listening to this, but perhaps communication wasn't necessary early there,
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and a coach made her feel a certain way about herself. There's that
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fine line as a parent and as an employee of this place where I have
18:07
to take a step back and say I need to let things go the way
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that they need to go, and she needs to learn from these experiences.
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And yes, even though I may get pissed off every now and again,
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I just have to bite my tongue. And I think I don't know I
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would do the majority of parents you think bite their tongue. You had the
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situation this past week where the guys in your face f bombing you, first
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time that ever happened. But I know you deal with adverse parents situations all
18:33
the time. Do you think a lot of parents kind of do that bite
18:37
their tongue or their majority of parents just pieces of crap out there? I
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think the majority of parents have their kids best interests at heart. Yeah.
18:48
I as to think they're like the majority of people who will badmouth whoever as
18:53
long as they think they can get away with it, right, don't think
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anyone will ever confront them. It's like they're on social media. Yeah,
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And we talked about it before the show. I think social media. It's
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not like an old guy here, but I think the ability of social media
19:07
to allow people to criticize and give their give their quote, real views,
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I think it's kind of crossed the line into real life. And I've had
19:17
to confront a parent earlier this season in baseball who my wife overheard him like
19:25
really criticizing my coaching or the coaches in general. And I was like,
19:30
I'm not gonna just let this go, Like I'm you know, I'm I'm
19:33
a healthy adult. I'm going to take him aside like a like I wish
19:37
I could have had this conversation with the guy screaming at me, but I
19:41
just told him, like, if you think you can do better, you
19:44
can do it next season. This is a volunteer gig and I don't appreciate
19:48
the criticism. And by the way, we went ten to know this year
19:52
in baseball, and who was the first person to shake my hand after our
19:55
last win was the dad that I calmly and very you know, in a
20:03
very healthy fashion, talked about like, hey, I'm here for your kid,
20:07
right, I'm not here for I'm not here for the bullshit, I'm
20:08
not here for the buttive, you know, behind the scenes. The funniest
20:14
thing ever is that he was saying the stuff in front of my wife,
20:17
who he didn't know who she was, and she's just taking all in.
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She's texted me because I was out of town for work, and she's like,
20:22
you're not gonna believe with this dickheads saying and uh yeah in his face
20:29
when I said I heard what she said, and his face is dropped.
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But that's the thing, Like I think, I think, I don't know.
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I think parents do have um their kids' best interests at heart, but
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I also think that, you know, outside of work and outside of their
20:45
home, I think that they feel like they can just wear right, like
20:48
they're not they're not, like they're not confined by their job or whoever at
20:53
their house and like, you know, they're free, they can say whatever
20:56
they want. And it's like I'm volunteering my time. I don't want to.
21:00
And again, if you do want to coach anybody out there, just
21:03
focus on the kids. You'll have a great time. Like that is really
21:07
the best part. I love getting to know the kids and watching to get
21:10
better. Like that is the and I sound douchey, but like that is
21:12
really the coolest part about coaching. I love it. It's a great,
21:15
great talking point, just a great, great discussion here. I'd I'd love
21:19
to hear and we'd love to hear from some of you out there who may
21:23
coach youth sports. Let us know what the experience is like for you.
21:26
Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We'd love to read your email here
21:30
on the show and respond to it. So great, great stuff. And
21:34
Eric, I loved that conversation. I loved that topic. But unfortunately we're
21:40
gonna get into a topic right now. How long we're gonna be talking about
21:44
it exactly. Looking at the remaining teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences in
21:49
the NBA, I wonder if the Sixers could have beat any of these teams.
21:53
And what I mean by that is the Nuggets. Of course, they
21:56
swept the Lakers, as we all know, and you still have got the
22:00
Heat and the Celtics as of us recording this here on May twenty fourth,
22:04
still alive. It's probably gonna end up being the Heat and the Nuggets in
22:10
the NBA Finals. Um. So, it's amazing how the Boston Celtics have
22:14
been playing incredibly soft basketball. I feel like, God, even even if
22:19
the Sixers had have gotten out of that, there's no way they would have
22:23
beaten the Heat, man, not the way the Heat. Look, my
22:26
god, there there are players on the Heat that I've never heard of before
22:30
who are just on fire at the right moment in their lives in order to
22:34
take this Heat team to the next level. A number eight seed likely getting
22:40
to the NBA Finals. It's freaking InCred It's it's incredible, Eric. And
22:45
you know what, at the end of the day, No, the Sixers
22:47
wouldn't have beat him. Sixers wouldn't beat him at all. No. And
22:52
Jimmy Butler is like on a whole other plane in terms of like shit talking,
22:56
right, he's a Oh my god, he he is an all time
23:00
top ten shit talker um and an all time and conversely an all time like
23:06
you do not want to shit talk him because he will turn it back on
23:10
you tenfold. And if he was playing, if if we had to play
23:15
him right and like to take it to the Sixers, who could kind of
23:19
let him walk like we've all seen the clip of him, um going,
23:23
you chose to buy his Harris over me? Yeah, Like, dude,
23:26
it would have been twentyfold if he would have shoved it up their butt holes
23:30
and specifically to buyas Harris. He would have destroyed Harry because Harris probably would
23:36
have tried to cover him. Yeah, and oh my god, he would
23:38
have he would have broke both of his acls. I think the heat would
23:41
have beat us easily. Um, if you want to get down the teams
23:45
that I think the Lakers would have been a problem for for the Sixers,
23:48
like who's gonna guard Lebron? What Harden's gonna guard Lebron? Right? Um,
23:55
who's gonna guard Austin Reeves? Maxie? That's not happening, right,
23:59
Um? And the Nuggets would have swept us easily. We were lost every
24:03
game by twenty points? Did they have us fool? Did they have us
24:06
fool? Because about a month ago and even through March, and I've mentioned
24:10
it a few times on the show. You know, March was the time
24:11
when we were like, my god, the schedule is absolutely brutal. But
24:15
they got through March like they were successful in March, and at that point
24:19
maybe it was a mirage and we're thinking to ourselves, my gosh, this
24:23
team is looking real good. They can be you know what, they might
24:26
be going to the Eastern Conference finals, you know, looking like they can
24:30
beat anybody. There was that moment in time where that I think mirage was
24:33
put up. And I don't know if they just fooled us, or if
24:37
it's just a week week mentality in the playoffs that we have seen year after
24:42
year after year. I don't know what are your thoughts. We actually haven't
24:45
even talked to Eric. We haven't talked about it on the show. I've
24:48
talked to Len a little bit, you know, Jeff Kerr last week when
24:52
he was a guest co host from CBS Sports, he was talking about it,
24:56
and I don't know. I just don't think. I think it was
24:59
a mirage that they put up for the majority of the season. It was
25:03
Um, I mean just listen to your words. You just said they peaked
25:08
in March, right, yeah, Um, the playoffs start in April,
25:11
So that's when you want to start peaking, and that's when the heat started
25:15
peaking. Um. They they were heartless, ball less against the Celtics.
25:22
They laid down like dogs in the in game in the second half of Game
25:26
six, second half of Game seven, when when they lost Game six at
25:29
home after a miraculously winning Game five, it was done. I mean I
25:34
text all of you after Game three that it was over. Yeah, it's
25:37
just just the way they played and they're performance, They just they just got
25:42
that glazed overlook on their face where you're just like, this team doesn't have
25:47
it and they're I don't know if they're ever gonna have it. Um.
25:49
I mean, I have so many we can go over and be throughout the
25:52
summer. Um. I can't imagine he's gonna be in the six ers for
25:56
the next next two years. I'm I'm assuming he's gonna be. He'll get
26:00
traded eventually. Um, he'll probably demanded trade at some point once hard and
26:06
walks and this team kind of starts to fall apart. Um. I mean,
26:10
this is the this is the obituary of the process right now. Um.
26:15
But I and they really should look at the like not even look in
26:18
the mirror, like look at the rest of the team's playing and and and
26:23
Bead deserve the MVP. Absolutely, it's a regular season award right right,
26:29
And he was the best player, um, but it doesn't matter. Like
26:33
Yokich is probably the best player in the league right now. He would have
26:36
smoked and Beat. He's better and player than Beat. There's just just no
26:38
doubt about it. And they're like the rest of the players on that on
26:42
the Nuggets just infinitely better than the Sixers, like like Maxie and Hard and
26:48
like just it's not even close. How Like it's just sad, Like what
26:55
happened. You could break down the process. There's so many bad moves.
26:59
Oh yeah, right, tons yeah, tons, and it it really is
27:03
the end of the Sixers. This this is sad. This is a sad
27:07
story, Jeff, this is way too I don't want to get down this
27:11
path. We went from inspirational coaching youth sports to completely sad, depressing in
27:18
tears. I'm trying to change lives with these kids. And you know,
27:21
like and I'm talking about the Sixers the death knell. Yeah, they would
27:26
have a chance against these teams, and it's so so obvious, Like I
27:30
mean, hell, the Celtics, they won last night, but the Celtics
27:33
laid down like dogs too against the heat and we lost to that team like
27:37
you show till heart whatsoever. So all right, let us know what you're
27:41
thinking about where the Sixers are going to be going from here. Philadelphia Sports
27:45
Table at gmail dot com. We'd love to read your email here on the
27:48
show and respond to it. And if you are new to listening to the
27:51
Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, we'd love if you would subscribe on whatever podcast
27:55
podcast platform you are on, follow us on Apple Podcasts, leave us a
27:59
rate review, and also if anything happens to that podcast feed in the future,
28:03
you can head on over to Philadelphia Sportstable dot com. We've got all
28:07
of our shows over there, and follow us on the social media sites.
28:11
Yes, we are still on Twitter at Philadelphia pst. You can follow me
28:15
at Jeffrey Underscore Warren and Eric at Brick Pollitt. We're gonna take a quick
28:19
break right now. We will be back in just a bit. All right,
28:23
we are back. I cannot wait to get into our new top three
28:26
list, the top three worst NFL owners of all time. Eric, we
28:33
haven't done a top three list in a few podcast episodes here, and I
28:37
love getting into these with you because you always have well thought out lists.
28:44
And I think, in recognition of football, one that we have not done
28:49
thus far are the worst NFL owners of all times. Look, there are
28:53
some real pieces of shit out there or NFL owners and have been because at
28:57
the end of the day, they care about money and that is it.
29:02
They care about their billions and billions of dollars. At the end of the
29:06
day, that is all that matters to them and their families. But Buddy,
29:11
as I usually do, I'd love to start off with you and your
29:14
number three will do three two one. So who's your number three worst NFL
29:18
owner of all time? So I thought this over quite a bit, the
29:25
worst owners. There's a lot of like parameters to this. You could go
29:27
buy right, Yes, you could go buy like biggest piece of garbage,
29:32
garbage right, bad owner in terms of like hiring the wrong people, bad
29:37
drafts. I kind of stayed away from the garbage humans like Jerry Jones and
29:44
those kinds of people, right, Okay, I just went from like he's
29:48
a business person, he bought a team and he ran into the ground.
29:51
He sucked, right, okay, okay, made or made bad decisions.
29:55
So my number three is actually not a real person. Oh it's Anthony m.
30:00
Lena, the owner of the Browns from Draft Day. Yes, Jeff
30:06
Um, Now, we we did this movie on the show We Broke it
30:11
Down. So it was played by Frank Langella, which, by the way,
30:17
I actually I actoually listen to an interview with him about Draft Day and
30:21
he admitted he knew nothing about football. He never watched a football game in
30:23
his life. He was what he called a plane nerd, like a drama
30:29
nerd. He never never saw a sport in his life. Any Yeah,
30:33
but for to allow Sunny Weaver to trade away, to trade to first the
30:41
first pick of the draft, to trade away what three future first rounders?
30:45
Three number one picks? Yes, and then not pick Boe Callahan, who
30:49
I will argue this, right. I think Boe Callahan had a pretty good
30:52
career. Actually he probably did. I've thought about this, right, the
30:56
one smear on his resume. He's probably a good leader, now think about
31:00
it, Like Russell Wilson won a Super Bowl and in hindsight, now he's
31:06
on Denver and all the stories about him not a very good leader. Russell
31:08
was super talented, same kind of player, you know, same college um,
31:14
super athletic, great arm I think Boe Callahan won a super Bowl in
31:18
in in the universe of film. Um. But then to have the ending
31:25
of the movie you know happened and like, oh my god, high fives,
31:27
we did it? Did you do it? Did you? Sonny Weavers
31:32
tanked your team? Dude? You draft you allowed him to draft a first
31:36
the first pick overall, an undersized middle linebacker and pay him first pick money.
31:41
Are you kidding me? And then you took a the seventh pick.
31:45
Let him take a running back. Yes, my god, that's that's unbelievable.
31:51
Like if we ever have Draft Day two, I hope so, I
31:55
really yes, Sunny Weaver is probably on one of those mornings fantasy Fantasy football
32:00
TV shows, honestly on Sunday mornings. Yeah, um, I don't know
32:06
who the coaches? Is it Dennis Leary? I have no idea. Is
32:09
it? Is it the salary cab beexpert that, by the way, the
32:14
owner just allowed Sunday we were to bang throughout the offices in closets and shit.
32:19
Probably yes, Like if you watch the movie, he allowed that to
32:22
happen. That team is in shambles within two years. You can't resign a
32:28
middle linebacker who's like six feet tall, two hundred twenty pounds. I mean,
32:32
if you lay it out, he's one of he's the one of the
32:36
worst owners in sports history. You got it? Yeah, I think I
32:39
love it. Yes, absolutely, Look, nobody came to his breath bocal,
32:45
Nobody came to his birthday party. That was a that was a sign
32:50
that there was some trouble. Even though we probably know that he went on
32:54
to win some Super Bowls, even though nobody, nobody came to his birthday
32:59
party. Nobody him to his birthday party. So he's probably studying film,
33:01
you know, and it led him to a career of success. It's completely
33:09
outrageous. Like if you take back, if you get step back and look
33:14
at the film at the finale, when they're in the they're in the hallway
33:16
before they go to their first you know, on the field for the first
33:19
game, you're like, oh, cool, you just drafted a middle linebacker
33:23
running back at seven, which is no one does that anymore, right,
33:27
right, you got David Putney, awesome, and you're starting quarterback probably on
33:31
pds' he's bench pressing what two or more? Whatever the strength coach said in
33:37
the movie, he's probably suspended for the season, Like that team is a
33:42
disaster in two years Sunday were just fired. Malina probably sells a team.
33:45
I'm sure there's some Those sunglasses always tells me he'd probably up to some weird
33:52
shit. Yeah. Again, I was going through the list. I'm just
33:54
thinking, like, I don't know, it was the common names Dan Snyder
33:58
blah blah blah. Yeah, and I felt like, you, who's the
34:00
worst owner? Is the fake owner of the Browns from the draft day?
34:05
I love it. I love it. Look, I don't have any fake
34:07
owners on my list. I love, I absolutely love your number three there.
34:13
Mine is Stan Kronick. One of the driving for he was he was
34:16
the guy who owned the the Los Angeles Rams, and initially, uh you
34:22
know, he was. He was that driving force to relocate the Rams,
34:25
initially to Saint Louis and then after taking full control of the franchise. He
34:31
later broke Saint Louis the fan base's hearts by taking them back to Los Angeles.
34:37
But it was like it was during that process where where Stan operated in
34:44
very bad faith. He did. He operated in bad faith, a piece
34:46
of shit, like most business owners are, quite frankly, by just giving
34:51
the impression that they were looking to explore the possibility of staying in Saint Louis,
34:54
giving giving the fans hope, you know, giving some serious thought to
34:59
stay dum proposals at the time. For me, he's my number three because
35:05
when you move a sports team like he did, and you're jerking around fan
35:08
bases, you don't allow the fan base the opportunity to embrace traditions for that
35:15
particular team throughout the city. And I think it's such a disservice to sports
35:20
in general. Owners who do that, who just jerk fan bases around.
35:23
It's why that's why he's number three for me. Stan Chronic Los Angeles Rams
35:30
screw him. He's a real piece of garbage in my opinion. And he's
35:32
the classic owner that got a got a title. And yeah, when he
35:37
looked at he held the trophy up, You're like, what a piece of
35:39
garbage and an all time creeper mustache? Yes, yeah, and I think
35:45
it's stand cranky is his name? Oh? Is it cranky? I think?
35:51
And which is thank Yeah, exactly, Yeah, crunkron chronic, cronky.
35:57
I don't I don't know. He's a piece of crap, is what
36:00
he is. What's your number two? See, I'm getting into the I'm
36:02
gonna be getting into the areas of where you probably are not going to be
36:06
getting into. What's your number two? I figured you would, so I
36:09
went in the direction. All right, So I number my number two is
36:14
Robert Ursay, who was the owner of the the Baltimore Baltimore Colts. Yes,
36:19
in a day, um, and I'm sure you've watched it. It's
36:23
one of the best thirty for thirties in ESPN. Absolutely, Yeah, nineteen
36:27
eighty four draft. Um and if like Sunny Weaver bungled the draft like you
36:35
wouldn't believe. Um, he bungled the draft like it's one of the all
36:39
time bungles. I mean it actually led the team to leave in Mayflower trucks
36:45
for Indianapolis. Yes, I mean, by the way, you're leaving Baltimore
36:50
for Indianapolis, Like, what's the win? Like, where's the win in
36:54
that? Like? Right, I guess financially, Like the weather sucks,
36:58
like it's it's just not a could you take your team to like Tampa maybe
37:01
like I don't know whatever, but he that documentary is such an eye opener
37:07
of what power and money can do and just pompacity, pomposity whatever the term
37:13
is. M And like two, I love when an owner like walks into
37:20
a draft room and it just goes I'm in charge, Like you know,
37:23
things are going south, dude, like really really fast. He did that
37:28
with the Lway draft. Lway basically said I'm not coming, like you're a
37:31
buffoon. I was just getting ready to say that. Yeah, I mean,
37:35
the Cults drafted a future Hall of Famer John Elway out of Stanford,
37:38
and Elway's just he refused to report to the team just and if I'm not
37:44
mistaken, he was like, I'd rather play baseball for the Yankees. I
37:47
think it's what he said. Yeah, And like he did everything you're not
37:51
supposed to do, like you shot the pick, you talk to other teams,
37:55
and he was he was just dead set on I'm John Elway's the best
38:00
player and he's gonna play for my team because I'm Robert Dursay, right,
38:04
And it's like, no, he's not. You completely fucked the soul thing
38:07
up. I love that he took it over and if you watch it,
38:10
like he even has like that shitty owner face, like he's such a and
38:20
like it completely tanked the team he had. He actually he made it.
38:25
He uh, he made a decent trade. I think he had made the
38:30
gmade the trade. Yeah yeah, and they got a good offensive line.
38:34
But like John Elway was like the all time like all time pick, I
38:37
mean honestly as a quarterback. He but he could have got you know,
38:43
if he was smart, he could have got like future first rounders and like
38:46
like today's gms like probably look at that and go, oh my god,
38:50
like that had had to be one hundred years ago, right, yeah,
38:52
it's not long ago, right and uh but but then to spit on the
38:57
people of Baltimore like such a hardcore, awesome fan base like Orioles, the
39:05
Ravens and just and like to just go, you know what, f you,
39:09
I'm packing up. I love that he went like cheap cheap moving trucks.
39:14
Yes, yes, I think there were like Mayflower moving trucks. Trucks
39:17
and the footage is incredible and I'm imagining him in one of the passenger's seat
39:22
going let's get out of here of sgards. Now what a piece of crap.
39:27
But what you are saying right there about what he did, what he
39:30
did to the Baltimore Colts fan base, is essentially what I was saying was
39:35
stand cranky. You know, just when you jerk around a fan base like
39:39
that, you just completely the disrespect, you know. And yes, we
39:45
understand it's a business. I think every single sports fan understands. At the
39:50
end of the day, owners want to make money. It's their business.
39:52
But when you get to a point where you're actually moving a team and cultural
39:58
traditions with then sports in a city are completely taken away from you. I
40:04
mean that that does something to an actual city, That does something to morale
40:07
of the city. It really does, and it certainly did in Baltimore's case,
40:13
especially in East Coast even Northeast kind of city. Right, that's a
40:15
good point. Yeah, if you do that to Miami or Phoenix, like
40:22
no one really cares. Let's let's be honest, right, right, you
40:25
do it to Baltimore, Philly, New York, Boston like it it decimates
40:32
the city, right. Yeah, And I'll say this right now, like
40:37
when I die, I'm hoping only like a couple a handful of people go
40:42
that guy was the son of a bitch. Fuck him right. When he
40:45
died, millions of people probably went, what a piece of garbage. I
40:50
don't care these deficts, Like that's my one goal in life is to not
40:54
have like more than ten people go what a what a human? What a
40:59
what a garbage? And he when he passed, like, I'm like,
41:01
awesome, let's toast his death absolutely absolutely, all right? Nice, Well
41:07
my number two, it's gonna be boring here, you know you got you're
41:10
bringing out the good ones here, and yes, I'm going with Dan Snyder,
41:15
going with the Snyder family. Of course, jeff it's not boring.
41:17
He like, outside of him being a piece of trash, he made some
41:22
awful moves as just an owner. So yes, he made awful moves.
41:27
Just his influence with regard to draft picks. You know when owners start getting
41:31
involved with draft picks. Hell, we even saw it with Jeffrey Lurry.
41:35
Now we know that it came out that he loved for whatever reason because of
41:38
the analytics JJ arthega Whiteside in the second round. We see how that turned
41:44
out for the Eagles. When owners start sticking their nose into areas of their
41:49
sport that they just have absolutely no business sticking their nose into you see,
41:52
garbage happened. Dan Snyder did this constantly, whether it was with regard to
41:58
football, whether it was with regard to just football operations. Of course,
42:01
we know about the stadium and FedEx Field just completely falling apart for well over
42:07
a decade at this point, the legal problems that the Snyder family and the
42:12
organization have faced over the years, and overall the culture that just under his
42:17
watch, the culture, just the widespread reports of misogyny. We know,
42:22
the reports of where cheerleaders were allegedly improperly approached and sexually harassed, cover up
42:29
after cover up after cover up of just awful and unethical issues in the workplace
42:35
there within that franchise. And he even had to transfer. When you have
42:40
to transfer the operations to your wife, as he did with his wife Tanya,
42:45
to avoid further scrutiny, you know, you've done everything at that point
42:51
that you can to be hated, especially when you're forced to actually sell the
42:54
team for billions upon billions of dollars more than what you initially purchase the team
43:00
for. You know, if you're still fighting to keep your team after all
43:06
of this, after all of these years, again, after the cover up,
43:08
after cover up, if you're still fighting, just leave, man,
43:12
Just fucking leave and just be done with it. Take your billions, billions
43:17
of dollars and just leave the team. Let the fan base have some fucking
43:22
peace, because that's what that's what this Any fan base I think, you
43:27
know, I'll maybe aside from you know, the Oakland A's fan base perhaps,
43:30
but man of any franchise fan base, man the Washington Commanders. And
43:36
I hesitate to say it because it's within the NFC East Division Eagles rival,
43:42
but my god, this fan base needs a rest and a break from Dan
43:45
Snyder, and they're gonna get one in the near future. Listened, Ego
43:51
is an interesting thing, yeah right, And ego is what got him his
43:54
millions, billions even, but it's also his downfall. I always go back
44:00
to Goodfellas, by the way for any reference. And when he transferred that
44:05
thing to his wife, I thought of Johnny rose Beef pulling up in the
44:10
pink Cadillac and going, it's in my mother, it's in his my wife's
44:14
mother's name, right, And it was in his face. It's like when
44:17
you when you have to do that things have fallen apart, like like Johnny
44:22
rose Beef had to do that because he didn't want Robert Denio to kill him,
44:25
right, And yeah, it's I remember that story and thinking like,
44:30
oh, that's that's not that's not kosher at all. Right, Um,
44:36
besides being a garbage human being involved with draft picks. Um. And the
44:40
biggest thing though, that was always the team UM with with season tickets.
44:46
There was always like there's one hundred year waiting list for season tickets for for
44:51
I'm not gonna say their name because I'll get accused of, you know,
44:53
a bad stuff on this show. Yes, m but that was always the
44:58
team that was like, you can't get tickets season tickets to this team.
45:01
You have to wait until your grandparents die and then you get them. And
45:06
now from what I've heard, there's there's like waiting lists left and right,
45:08
and that that that's on him. So yeah, yeah, all right,
45:12
Well let's get to our number one, number one worst NFL owner of all
45:17
time? Who is that? For you? Ericum? For me, this
45:22
is easy, But I don't know if like across the NFL landscape, he's
45:27
kind of viewed as like one of the worst owners. Norman Brayman, the
45:30
old owner for the Eagles. Yeah, actually a really good human being.
45:36
I'll start with this, like he he has given financially to his community in
45:40
Florida and brought back like like like automobile industry companies. And but I'm just
45:50
going off of his resume as an Eagles owner from what I think in nineteen
45:54
eighty five to nineteen ninety four, he decimated my favorite Eagles teams of all
46:01
time. I grew up in the eighties. Eagles had the greatest defense of
46:06
all time. Uh, And I know they're not, but in my in
46:09
my head, they are. You know that that was my impressionable years.
46:14
But he he he let Reggie White walk. He Seth Joyner walk, Yes,
46:21
Eric, Eric Allen, Yes, he let everybody. But but Reggie
46:25
White was the one. And I don't think I'm speaking out of turn in
46:30
that he's probably the first second greatest defensive player of all time. And to
46:35
let him like that's not a guy you let walk Like that's that's crazy,
46:39
like like Lawrence Taylor. Yeah, yeah, didn't walk like Reggie Regie why
46:44
should have been Eagle for life? Like not even close. And he let
46:46
him go to the to the Packers because he didn't want to give him like
46:51
an extra three million, three million dollars. Yes, exactly, that's that's
46:53
that's that's incredible to me. And his his his moves as an owner led
47:00
to just a dreadful mid nineties to nineteen ninety nine two thousand run for the
47:07
Eagles. That was you know, if you're our age, like the Eagles
47:10
were insignificant for years, like they they were in the super Bowl last year.
47:15
They won a couple of years ago, but like, if you're our
47:17
age, you remember, like, man, this team's not that fun to
47:21
watch. They suck. They really sucked. It was how he did it
47:24
too. It wasn't just that he like let them go or anything. It
47:28
was because he gleefully, knowingly, willingly and systematically oversaw the dismantling of that
47:37
of one of the most popular sports team in in Philly sports history. You
47:42
know when when you do that, you are going to be a Philadelphia sports
47:45
villain at that point, and didn't care no, Like he lived in France
47:52
and Buddy Ryan used to call him that, the guy in over in France,
47:54
Like that's what he said, and like, two, we all hate
48:00
Robert Kraft, right the Patriots, Tom Brady. But if we had Robert,
48:04
if we had a Robert kraftish type of GM, there's no freaking way
48:08
the Eagles don't win a super Bowl with that late eighties early nineties team,
48:13
Like, my god, he would have kept that team together and they would
48:15
have won eventually. For them to like not even get past the first round
48:20
of the playoffs with those teams like that is all on Norman Brayman and and
48:25
again he completely decimated that team for the following how many years? Ninety five
48:30
was fun? Remember Rodney Peter was a quarterback. They crushed the lines in
48:35
the first round of the playoffs. That was fun. Did a winning record?
48:37
You know it was great? Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
48:39
But then because it was because of his bumfoolery Tom whatever the term is,
48:46
but like tomfoolery, he destroyed that team. Like that team was awful.
48:52
I remember beginning college, like like you and I should have hung out in
48:57
college and watched the Eagles on Sundays. How many times you do that?
49:00
Zero? We did? We never ever, we never did. I wouldn't
49:05
like they were terrible, there's nothing to watch. Oh my god, So
49:07
do you think because of Braman do you think Jeffrey Lurry is more of a
49:13
hero at this point? Oh my god. I mean, fortunately he came
49:19
along, you know, he did. He came along and he he for
49:24
the good thing was h Norman Braman destroyed the team so much that Lurie was
49:29
able to buy it at a pretty reasonable price. True. Yeah, his
49:34
parents were rich, you know, I wish mine were, um, but
49:37
like for to be able to buy the team like that, but in such
49:42
shambles, like it took him like five years to eventually hire Andy Reid ninety
49:46
nine, draft McNabb by two thousand or eleven and five they lost the second
49:51
round of the Giants. But my god, those five or six years people
49:54
don't talk about that. They were horrendous and that all was the fallout of
50:00
Ayman letting one of the greatest defenses of all time just walk. And that
50:06
like as an NBA GM, like like I always equated the NBA, like
50:12
you never let you never let talent walk without getting something back, right,
50:15
he never got anything back. Couldn't have cared less. How the hell do
50:19
you not signed Reggie White and like trade him like a signing trade and get
50:22
something back for him? Just let him go to the Packers and he was
50:27
Super Bowl like three years later. Yep. Oh, I know he's not
50:30
the worst owner of all time, but as an Eagles fan, as a
50:34
late eighties, early nineties Eagles fan, what a decimation job would I think
50:39
he's one of the worst owners in Philadelphia history. Oh? Absolutely, for
50:44
sure, for sure, he definitely is up there. You know, you
50:46
have a great number one and my number one it's gonna be fucking hokey and
50:50
shit. Art Modell, of course, Art Modell, we know the story.
50:53
Nineteen ninety five's owner of the Cleveland Browns. He announced his intentions to
50:58
move the team from Cleveland to Baltimore, and it was just it was just
51:02
the way that it was done. I guess for me with Art model Eric,
51:07
it's it's the theme of just owners being shitty and inevitably to the point
51:13
where they affect their fan base so much. I mean to the point where
51:16
you know, legal action was taken by the city and its fans. It
51:22
just led to this, this unprecedented act that led the Browns franchise remaining in
51:29
Cleveland, but that new expansion franchise starting in Baltimore with the name of Ravens.
51:35
The Ravens the Baltimore Ravens were born at that point, and because of
51:38
all the legal wranglings, the Ravens retained all the playing and coaching staff,
51:44
but all intellectual property and records remained with the Cleveland Browns until they were reactivated
51:50
four years later in nineteen ninety nine. So it was and what I think
51:53
is interesting is it because of Art Modell, two different fan bases who were
51:59
just as for years, were kind of able to come together, like the
52:02
depth of hatred by this move in Cleveland Browns. And actually you saw the
52:08
Pittsburgh Steelers and Browns fans base coming together to just condemn Art Model for this.
52:15
And at the end of the day, when you have an owner like
52:19
Art Modell who completely did something that was so shitty that that it led to
52:24
establishment of new rules and new framework within the NFL about how teams and their
52:31
records and brands are treated when the owners want to relocate simply because of out
52:37
of sheer greed, you know. And I think that's something special, the
52:42
real special place in hell, in sports hell, I should say, for
52:45
guys like Art Model who completely tear the hearts out of fan bases and that's
52:52
that's why he's number one for me. And that kind of goes along with
52:54
my theme that these owners, these on my list don't give a about anybody,
53:00
could not care less about fan base culture, sports culture, nothing like
53:06
that. See I'll say this about art model. Like his resume up to
53:12
that point not bad, you know. Yes, Um, he he actually
53:16
paid for a lot of the fixes in the in the Brown Stadium out of
53:22
his own pocket. Um. He was unfortunately in a city that was in
53:27
the down in a huge decline as the Midwest just kind of fell apart.
53:30
The industry is just you know, industrial thing just just died. Um.
53:36
But his I used the term blemish on his resume. It's more than a
53:40
blemish, you know. I think there's a lot more than a blemish.
53:44
Yes, I know. But like, like up to that point, it
53:45
was like he was actually a pretty damn good owner, you know, and
53:49
like he cared about Cleveland. Um to care about that team that like post
53:55
Paul Brown never want a damn thing, um like, And to spend his
54:00
own money like that. I know. I feel like I'm speaking up for
54:05
him right now. But to move the to move a team out of Cleveland
54:09
too. I mean, at least he moved to Baltimore. If he had
54:12
moved to like, my god, like uh like Sacramento, Nah, Nashville,
54:16
right, Nashville, Yeah, have been horrible, but like, but
54:20
to make that move was like I think I used the term earlier death knell
54:24
in his in his like his his resume and his reputation. Um. But
54:30
again, like I will say the first however many years he was the owner
54:34
of the Browns. Not bad man, but man, you can really sink
54:37
your entire career on a single move. And what a hell of a movie
54:39
made. Man, Like I kind of wish he'd I think I said this
54:45
one time. I was I was watching the Brow the Cleveland, Believe Cleveland,
54:51
the thirty for thirty with Land one time. Yeah, I think I
54:53
said to him, I wish you would have did the Mayflower truck thing just
54:58
like Ursy did. It was really funny, like all the ship to Baltimore.
55:04
The same trucks, yeah, same, the same exact trucks. Yeah,
55:07
oh my god. All right, we'd love to know your top three
55:10
list is again. Email us Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We'd
55:15
love to read it here and respond to it on the show. And holy
55:19
freaking crap, we're a freaking we're almost in an hour. I feel like
55:23
we've been talking for like a half an hour. I looked out at my
55:25
recorder, Eric, Jesus, this is sign of a good show, right,
55:30
It's fantastic show, fantastic discussion. My gosh, nice got another topic
55:34
here to get into before we take a break and before we get to what
55:37
we're thrown down on the table this week. I thought it was interesting how
55:40
we've been hearing some grumblings and some complaints, and and I'd love to hear
55:46
what you are all thinking out there from Andrew McCutcheon, Pittsburgh pirate who in
55:52
former Philadelphia Philly is becoming extremely concerned about bass blocking when it comes to stealing
55:58
basses in baseball, and he's really pushing Major League Baseball at this point to
56:01
make a change to the rules here. And interestingly enough, this is happening
56:07
now when stolen base attempts are up across the majors this season under the new
56:12
rules, that is encouraging base running as well. And it's interesting up until
56:17
this past week, there were point zero eight nine steel attempts per game this
56:22
season and a seventy eight point eight percent success rate. That's the highest rate
56:28
of attempts since twenty twelve and the highest success rate in decades. So what
56:34
we're seeing is the rule change is working. There's more stolen bases, and
56:38
you're seeing a lot more blocking, of course, and what does that do.
56:42
It's putting players at some risk here. So Andrew McCutcheon has said every
56:46
time he takes off running to try to steal, he is worrying that he
56:50
might not be able to get back to his feet when the play is over.
56:54
So I don't know. Maybe it's McCutcheon getting older here, eric wanting
56:59
to preserve his body, and maybe it's just that correlating with the new rule
57:02
change that has gone into effect this year. I personally love seeing more stolen
57:07
bases. It makes the game of that much more exciting here. I don't
57:10
know what are your thoughts with regard to Andrew McCutcheon and him thinking that it's
57:15
inevitable that someone is gonna get, you know, really hurt. Of course,
57:17
we all remember Giants catcher Buster Posey's left leg was shattered in the collision
57:22
because of this, So I don't know what are your thoughts here. I'll
57:27
start with Cutch because I'm a huge fan of Cutch. I lived in Pittsburgh
57:30
when he was like at his apex, when the MVP and he owned that
57:36
city. I mean, the Steelers were there, the Penguins were awesome,
57:39
but man, I was there when the Pirates were winning and they were Cutch
57:44
jerseys everywhere. And I kind of read this article and thought, like,
57:49
he's he might be the next guy that's he's like the senior spokesman of baseball
57:53
as a player, and I think it'd be kind of a cool transition for
57:59
him to kind of be when once he retires, like he might become like
58:04
ahead of the players Union, you know, kind of a kind of that
58:07
kind of that person. He's really well spoken, really smart, and I
58:12
like that he spoke out about this. I think he I think he understands
58:14
his role in baseball now. Yea. And and you know, he's a
58:17
senior player. He's not who what he used to be. But I kind
58:21
of liked that he spoke out about this because he cares about players safety and
58:23
maybe he is setting himself up for for that role that has talked about.
58:28
UM, I agree, I agree with them one hundred percent. I like
58:31
the Stolen basis too, And I'll go back to my coaching. We we
58:36
actually coach our kids at our level to straddle the base. We never tell
58:40
him the block okay ever, like that's that's an injury waiting to happen.
58:45
And the Bust Rosie injury was from what I understand as a coach, like
58:49
I've I've been a couple of clinics and talked about stuff and like that was
58:53
actually the injury that kind of changed how youth leagues teach it. Yeah,
58:58
because you don't want freaking backwards knee, the leg going up in the wrong
59:04
direction like that. That Buster Posey injury was awful. Yeah, And I
59:08
actually agree with the Cutchum. I like this to Olen Basis too. I
59:13
missed the days of Vince Coleman and the Cardinals, you know, stealing what
59:16
like six hundred basses a year. It was just it was insane. Right,
59:20
it doesn't happen anymore. But I agree with him. I think the
59:23
rules should be you straddle the bass for players safety, um. And it
59:29
really doesn't change the game that much, to be honest. If you want,
59:32
if you want more excitement, like make that rule and keep the basses
59:36
wider, and I I think he's on I think he's on the right path.
59:39
And I do think it might be a little political in his part as
59:44
he maybe starts to transition into a new role as kind of a veteran as
59:47
he retires. Maybe he's kind of a leader amongst the ex players. So
59:52
what I like about how he messaged this was he wasn't whining, you know
59:57
what I mean. There are certain players who maybe want a rule change in
1:00:01
whatever sport it is, and they come across at times, you know,
1:00:07
depending on the player, depending on just their communication style, they come across
1:00:09
as whiny and cutch. Not at all, not once throughout, not just
1:00:15
you know the article that I sent you to reference here on the show,
1:00:17
But I've read a couple of different articles about this with him, and not
1:00:22
once did he seem like some whiny guy just because he's getting older or anything
1:00:27
like that. No, he's I think he really is concerned about player safety.
1:00:30
And I think you're right, Eric, I think he is potentially looking
1:00:34
for that next part of what his career is going to be, if it
1:00:37
will be in the realm of Major League Baseball, to kind of really just
1:00:42
maybe set the stage for looking at proactive changes in a sport that isn't very
1:00:47
good about proactive changes. Yes, we've seen a pitch clock this year.
1:00:52
We've seen more stolen bases this year. Major League Baseball is I think at
1:00:55
least trying some new things, which is great. But typically and culturally,
1:01:00
major League baseball just has not been a proactive type of a sport as we
1:01:06
all know. I like this from Cutch because it does seem like he really
1:01:09
is trying to be proactive here. Yeah, to me, he's the antithesis
1:01:14
of like a Kurt Schilling, like the guy, like the kind of player
1:01:17
who thinks that, well, this is how we used to play forty years
1:01:21
ago, and this is what we do now, and well how about we
1:01:23
think ahead a little bit and think about player safety and like this is this
1:01:28
is not a crazy change, like straddle the bag, like you can still
1:01:32
tag the dude out right right, And I like the guys like him are
1:01:37
still vocal and have have a platform and still playing like that. That that's
1:01:43
key too, Like he's still actually active. So for him to make this
1:01:46
statement as an active player and have his teammates and the rest of the league
1:01:52
and the players in mind, Like I love that, and I'm hoping that
1:01:59
I hope this is funny. I'm hoping actually I'm hoping the uh, the
1:02:04
commissioner and basewatcher listens. But I'm not gonna hold my freaking breaths, I
1:02:08
know, but but I'm hoping they'll listen to a guy like him, Like
1:02:12
he's the kind of guy that, like, how do you ignore him?
1:02:15
You know, he's had an awesome career, like like spotless career, and
1:02:21
he's former MVP. I'm hoping he gets a ring some day and for him
1:02:25
to come out like this and say like he recognizes just it's it's really it's
1:02:30
a small thing within baseball, like still when bases are not a big deal,
1:02:35
but for him to bring it up, it kind of it magnifies the
1:02:38
issue because he does it and it's still an active issue. And I love
1:02:44
that he did and I hope they actually listen because it it does. I
1:02:47
love Tatiques Junior, I really do. I know the steroids thing, and
1:02:52
he's cocky as hell, but I don't want to see him get hurt exactly
1:02:57
when his career that sucks, Like I think he's looking out for guys like
1:03:00
him that steal bases and cover second and cover third to short and like,
1:03:04
I don't know, I like Cutch a lot, and I'm hoping that the
1:03:08
league listens. But I'm gonna hold my breath. Yeah, I'm with you
1:03:12
on this for sure. Let us know what you're thinking out there. You
1:03:14
know the email will respond to it and on a future episode here and Eric,
1:03:21
that's gonna do it for us here before I let you go here,
1:03:23
any final thoughts before we get to what we're going down on the table this
1:03:28
week. I'm really happy you don't have any Phillies on the Philly's topics honestly,
1:03:35
because yeah, for you, Yeah, I got I got John coming
1:03:37
on to do. Unfortunately, John's gonna have to talk about it this freaking
1:03:42
team. I'm saying that because John stillness knows way more than I do,
1:03:46
and I'll bring nothing to the table zero compared to John. So God,
1:03:51
it's gonna be a good discussion, folks. Eric, I'm gonna let you
1:03:53
go. Follow Eric on Twitter at Brick Polt. You can follow me at
1:03:57
Jeffrey Underscore Warren in the Show at Philadelphia a PST. We are on Instagram
1:04:01
as well. We're gonna take that break now, we'll be back in just
1:04:04
a bit. All right, we're back. Let's get into some Philadelphia Phillies
1:04:09
talk. Are you ready to be enraged? I have a feeling I'm going
1:04:13
to be enraged talking about some of these topics here with our great guest who's
1:04:17
coming to us from the Hitting Season podcast. It's what we're thrown down on
1:04:20
the table and now on the teable. It's great to have back on the
1:04:27
podcast. Love talking to him. You can hear his very wonderful and sultry
1:04:31
voice over at the Hitting Season podcast the Good Fight dot Com. He writes
1:04:36
some words over there as well every now and again. And also I just
1:04:41
absolutely love talking to him. He is one of the biggest fans of baseball
1:04:45
you will ever meet. We have the one and only John Stall in this
1:04:47
How you doing, John, I'm doing good. Sultry is certainly what I'm
1:04:51
going for here and right now. There are certainly better things to be than
1:04:56
a baseball fan if you live in the city Philadelphia. But absolutely, yeah,
1:05:00
absolutely, John. You know, we all had expectations, we all
1:05:02
had that high coming off the World Series. Of course, the World Series
1:05:05
hangover that you and your co host justin Clue Liz Rocher, who we've had
1:05:11
on the show recently, talking about that World Series hangover and just what it
1:05:15
has meant to this team. It really is amazing to actually see it happening.
1:05:19
I mean, this team had not been in the playoffs and in the
1:05:23
postseason for years and years and years. They finally get there and my god,
1:05:27
it goes to the World Series and then all of a sudden World Series
1:05:30
hangover. We're seeing, like we are seeing it up close and personal as
1:05:33
Phillies fans here. John, It's it's amazing to witness. You know,
1:05:38
It's funny. I've been thinking more about the World Series hangover thing because I
1:05:41
do think that could be a thing, and certainly I think that was a
1:05:43
thing with Aaron Nola maybe starting off the season. Yeah, I think the
1:05:45
new rules are having an effect on the Phillies here a little bit. I
1:05:48
think the pitchers early in the season had some trouble withinning snowballing on them because
1:05:55
they were getting used to the pitch timer. And I think the hitters maybe
1:05:58
having to learn new you know, new habits, set plate and all that.
1:06:03
But I put this out earlier tonight as as we're as we're speaking here
1:06:09
this this tweet about the record compared to last year. They're twenty two and
1:06:13
twenty six after the loss on here on Tuesday night, as we're recording this.
1:06:16
A year ago at this time they were twenty one and twenty seven,
1:06:19
So it's they last year they did not have a World Series hangover. Yeah,
1:06:25
right, they had. They had a Joe Girardi hangover, and I
1:06:28
think that was a big part of the problem. But Joe Girardi's not around
1:06:30
anymore, and so at some point we have to stop making excuses for this
1:06:34
baseball team because the roster is full of talented players. For all of the
1:06:40
replies we get on Twitter, and I'm sure you get them too, these
1:06:44
guys are awful. It's a terrible baseball team. These guys stinky. You
1:06:46
know, none of that is true. It reminds me of a tweet that
1:06:49
you just recently put up on your on your Twitter feed, you know,
1:06:53
like it's like when things go wrong with this team, they completely fall apart.
1:06:57
And that tweet of yours from a few days ago, I think John
1:06:59
was the Phillies are their Phillies are a good team. They have good players,
1:07:02
who just aren't playing good and there's not much that we can do other
1:07:06
than wait for these players to start playing good again here. And I wanted
1:07:12
to kind of bring that up because you know, as we're creeping along here,
1:07:15
June is right around the corner and he's like, these really good players
1:07:18
need to get it together here, So go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupted.
1:07:23
Well, no, I mean, and that's the thing, Like,
1:07:24
Trey Turner is a good player. He is an objectively good player. There's
1:07:29
no one in this world who you can take seriously who would say that Trey
1:07:33
Turner is not a good player and one of the best players in the sport.
1:07:38
He's not playing like it, but you can all see it. He
1:07:40
has said it. He knows it. Jt Realmuto has had ups and downs
1:07:45
this year, largely his numbers look pretty good this season. He is the
1:07:49
best catcher in baseball, or one of the top three. He is an
1:07:53
objectively good player. Nick Castianos has made multiple All Star teams. He's actually
1:07:57
having a decent season this year, although the power have kind of dissipated,
1:08:00
But that you can say that for everybody on the team right now. He
1:08:04
is a good player. Kyle Schober is a good player who seems to take
1:08:09
off April in May every year. Yeah, Aaron Nola is a good pitcher.
1:08:13
Zach Wheeler is a good pitcher. Ranger Suarez is a good pitcher.
1:08:15
Taiwan Walker has been a good like These are good players. Yeah, they're
1:08:19
just not playing good. And you know, whether it's a World Series hangover,
1:08:24
whether it's the new pitch rule, whether it's new rules, whatever,
1:08:27
it might be enough excuses. They need to start playing complimentary baseball. They
1:08:31
the starters need to stop putting the team in early holes, which puts more
1:08:34
pressure on the offense, which can lead to some struggles with runners in scoring
1:08:39
position. And if the runners don't, if the batters don't hit with runners
1:08:42
in scoring position early, then it puts more pressure on the starting pitchers.
1:08:45
And what solves a lot of this are walks and home runs, none of
1:08:47
which the Phillies offense has been giving them much of this year. So it's
1:08:50
just it's just crazy. I felt like a tool. Last week. We
1:08:56
had one of our friends of the pod on, Ben Silver, who does
1:08:59
a lot a lot of you know, good deep dive analytics stuff that he
1:09:02
puts on Twitter. I said to Ben I said, I think the one
1:09:06
guy that really does need to step up, and it was mainly from a
1:09:09
home runs perspective, was JT. Real Muto. I think he still only
1:09:13
has three on the season at this point, and I couldn't believe myself saying
1:09:15
I think JT. Real Muto, given what he has done thus far this
1:09:18
season, needed to step up in terms of that role in the opportunities that
1:09:23
he has given at the plate. I mean, we saw it last night
1:09:26
in the game against the Diamondbacks. Basses are loaded and he completely just does
1:09:30
nothing, does absolutely nothing with two outs, and it just drives me crazy.
1:09:34
I couldn't believe again, John that I was saying JT. Real Muto
1:09:38
needs to kind of step up here. Yeah, and it's just he's won
1:09:41
two. I mean it's Kyle Schober failed to get a hit with runners on
1:09:44
first and second and two out in the eighth inning. Hit it pretty well,
1:09:45
but I mean was caught. I mean the end, the Phillies have
1:09:48
had some bad luck here there. I really think, and listen, after
1:09:53
a red hot start when he first came back, Rice Harper has been quiet.
1:09:57
He's gotten some hits here and there, but not having a impact.
1:10:00
And I think that's the thing. A lot of these guys are getting their
1:10:02
hits right, they're getting their hits here and there, but we have yet
1:10:05
to see anyone get really hot. We have yet to see anyone really have
1:10:11
a big impact to carry the team for a little while. And they have
1:10:15
guys that can do that. Everybody's waiting for June to hit because they won.
1:10:18
Kyle Schobert to hit another thirteen fourteen home runs in the month. I
1:10:23
don't know for a fact that he's going to do that if June and June
1:10:26
rolls around. Because every year is different, you can't rely on this year
1:10:29
being the same as previous years. And so that's my worry with this baseball
1:10:32
team is that they're relying on what happened last year to say to themselves,
1:10:38
We're okay, it's no big deal. We made it. You know,
1:10:41
we did this last year, got off to a slow start last year,
1:10:43
we managed to come around. Well. You don't win nine in a row
1:10:45
every year, right, you know. It's even good teams have trouble stringing
1:10:48
together nine wins in a row. It's very difficult to do that. So
1:10:51
I don't think you can rely on that if you're the Phillies, and I
1:10:55
think you know, one of the things that we need to see from this
1:10:58
team is a sense of urgency that I just don't think we're seeing right now.
1:11:00
I think they're pressing without a sense of urgency, if that makes any
1:11:04
sense. It's just it's very strange. It absolutely does. John. Where
1:11:08
do you think we should grate them at this point? Where do you think
1:11:10
we should get when you look at the overall, when you look at the
1:11:13
pitching, when you look at the hitting, where they're at rate here in
1:11:15
may you gave us what the record was in twenty twenty two, correlated that
1:11:20
with where they're at this year? What great would you give them in terms
1:11:24
of where this team's at. Yeah, it's a one game difference right now
1:11:27
as we're talking, I think, and I think this is charitable. I'm
1:11:30
going to give them a C minus. I think they're probably most of your
1:11:35
listeners would probably have them in the D range. Yeah. I think I
1:11:40
think the fact that they are still well within wildcard shouting distance because the National
1:11:45
League is down this year, and I think that they will rally here at
1:11:49
some point, and they have you know, they haven't played awful baseball.
1:11:56
You know, they haven't been the Saint Louis Cardinals, you know, and
1:11:58
all the Cardinals have actually kind of gotten hot a little bit. But you
1:12:00
know, I think the like, if you're looking at the team like the
1:12:02
Padres, I think I would have them, you know, like a D
1:12:05
plus. I feel like there's enough things kind of in a positive sense to
1:12:12
give them a C minus. That's probably where I'm leaning right now. But
1:12:15
if you wanted to give them a D, I would not argue that's a
1:12:17
fair grade. I think C minus is definitely a fair grade. In fact,
1:12:20
I was probably gonna go with C overall, just mediocrity. And what's
1:12:25
more mediocre than a C minus? As you said, it's that consistent early
1:12:30
start mediocrity that we are seeing time and time again. And look again,
1:12:33
like I was saying, John, I talked to Ben Silver last week.
1:12:36
We're talking about Aaron Nola last week and the fact that Aaron Nolich just he
1:12:40
pitched so many innings last year, and we were talking about whether or not
1:12:45
that translated over to this year. But now what we are seeing is the
1:12:48
other gentleman, that quote number two pitcher in Zach wheeler Man just very surprised
1:12:55
by what we're seeing on the mound from him at this point in the season
1:12:59
three and four or record so far as of us recording this a four point
1:13:02
one one ear when his career ra is three point four five. What do
1:13:08
you think has happened with Zach Wheeler this season? Why are we seeing this
1:13:12
type of pitching coming from him that's been rather surprising. I think the numbers
1:13:16
in general look worse than his performance so early in the season. He was
1:13:21
really getting dinged with a lot of unlucky contact, a lot of soft hits.
1:13:27
He led the majors and soft hits allowed during I think through like the
1:13:30
White Sox series, and he has pitch better. This last time out was
1:13:34
not a great outing for him. Again, he got danked and dunked a
1:13:36
little bit. But at the same time, he's not putting guys away.
1:13:40
He's not he's not elevating his fastball where he should be, which is how
1:13:45
he generates a lot of his strikeouts. And so there's just been a lot
1:13:46
of back to ball contact. There's been a lot of foul balls because he's
1:13:49
not locating, and it could be you know, carry over from last year.
1:13:54
Although he didn't have the kind of innings jump that Aaronola did because he
1:13:58
missed the first part of the season. And I feel better about Zach Wheeler
1:14:03
out of all the pitchers than I do about anybody else because I still see
1:14:06
the velocity is there, right, I still see all the stuff is still
1:14:10
there. He's not down a mile or two per hour, So I think
1:14:14
there's If you look at his fielding independent pitching, it's much better than his
1:14:16
ear. You look at the batting average on balls in play, it's a
1:14:19
little bit above average for major league pitchers right now. So I feel better
1:14:24
about Zach Wheeler. I'm not overly concerned. I do think that in his
1:14:28
last outing his command just wasn't where it needed to be. There were too
1:14:30
many pitches in the zone when he really should have been trying to elevate and
1:14:34
put hitters away. And I think he said as much after the game on
1:14:36
Monday. Yeah. Absolutely. I do wonder from a pitching perspective too,
1:14:41
it maybe this is just maybe we're going back to a word we use all
1:14:45
the time on this podcast, which is hope. And I do wonder how
1:14:47
important it is to get Andrew Painter into this starting rotation and the hope that
1:14:53
he is able to provide some sort of spark, some sort of some sort
1:14:57
of stability here. Do you think that once he gets on the mound,
1:15:00
John, that he'll help provide some starting rotation stability. I don't know.
1:15:06
Maybe it's just again holding out hope in Andrew Painter. Not sure if we
1:15:11
should be doing that, but I wanted to bounce that off of you.
1:15:13
Buddy. Well, let's I mean, the track record of Philly's starters,
1:15:17
young Philly starters coming up and making an immediate impact is not overwhelming. Although
1:15:21
you know Ranger Suarez has been one of those guys. So I think I
1:15:26
think I would be wary of putting too much pressure on Andrew Painter when he
1:15:32
first arrives as a very young pitcher, with all be it great stuff.
1:15:38
I would be wary of saying, hey, this is like adding a number
1:15:41
one starter at the trade deadline, because it may not work out that way.
1:15:45
I think Dave Dombrowski can't look at Andrew Painter's return in mid July,
1:15:50
late July or whatever's and think, ah, this is going to fix the
1:15:54
starting rotation, like if we're still seeing struggles from time. I mean,
1:15:59
I don't really know what you do with You can't. You're not taking Taiwan
1:16:02
Walker out of the rotation unless the arras over seven in July and you just
1:16:05
have to bite the bullet right where, you know. But you're not taking
1:16:09
Nola out. You're not taking Wheeler or Ranger or Walker out. So really
1:16:12
you need a number five starter. And you hope that Andrew Painter can be
1:16:15
that guy. And if it's not Andrew Painter, you hope that mc gabels
1:16:19
you can discover some command in the miners and goes on a little bit of
1:16:21
a run. You could bring him up. Or maybe Griff McGarry can string
1:16:25
together some good outings in the miners. I mean, you've got some other
1:16:28
guys. Those guys are healthy. They just need to show that they can
1:16:30
do it. Right now, it's a big gaping hole in that starting rotation.
1:16:34
And I'm not ready to just say Okay, Andrew Painter hurt his elbow
1:16:39
in the spring. It took him forever to cut, took him three months
1:16:42
to come back, and now he's going to right the ship. I would
1:16:45
be wary of going that far. Okay, All right, well, John,
1:16:49
you just mentioned two words as you initially were responding to that question,
1:16:55
and those two words were trade deadline, and those two were It's popped into
1:17:00
my head last night when I was watching the Diamondbacks in the Phillies game,
1:17:04
and I'm thinking to myself, and I've actually seen some on Twitter and some
1:17:09
other discussion areas, you know, about whether or not the Phillies should potentially
1:17:13
do something at the trade deadline with regard to this pitching staff. And yes,
1:17:16
of course it's a bit early to be talking about the trade deadline,
1:17:20
but I'm not sure that the current pitching situation is really going to stabilize itself.
1:17:26
Do I think it can, absolutely, But like right now here toward
1:17:30
the end of May, it just doesn't seem so, I mean, is
1:17:32
this something that we should be talking about more when I say trade deadline and
1:17:38
thinking about what the Phillies could potentially be getting to stabilize this rotation. I
1:17:44
think it's a fine conversation to have. I think a lot's going to happen
1:17:46
between now and the trade deadline, especially with other teams around the National League.
1:17:50
Like we talked about the Cardinals look like they were going to be a
1:17:53
seller for the first month the season, but they've turned it around and they're
1:17:57
still they still the worst record than the Phillies. But I certainly don't think
1:18:00
you're going to be able to poach anybody from the Cardinals at the trade deadline.
1:18:02
There's probably only a handful of teams that you be able to really say,
1:18:06
yes, I know that this team is going to be a seller.
1:18:09
You look at like a team like the Rockies, but even like a team
1:18:12
like the Pirates, who you ordinarily could have assumed, who's going to be
1:18:15
a seller? Right they're kind of still they're not playing very well right now,
1:18:17
but there's still in the wildcard conversation. So I wouldn't put it past
1:18:21
the Pirates to sell pieces, even if they're playing well, because you know
1:18:25
their owner is a joke. But there are teams, there's the A's.
1:18:29
You know, there's gonna be teams like any team in the centrals really who
1:18:35
are kind of out of it. We'll have some guys that are good that
1:18:39
will be available. But I also think the Phillies could go after an outfielder
1:18:43
at the trade deadline when they move Bryce Harper to first base, get Kyle
1:18:46
Schwarber into the DH spot, and get yourself a productive offensive outfielder who maybe
1:18:51
can play a little defense too. I don't know who might be available at
1:18:56
the trade deadline. Defense or john defense would be good. I know it's
1:18:59
another subject. I'm sorry to interrupt, but yeah, let me some defense
1:19:02
every now and again too. For sure, the getting a defensive guy would
1:19:06
be would would be just fine. But I mean, if all you want
1:19:09
his defense, put Dalton Guthrie out there. Kids got a hose um.
1:19:13
But you know, we're talking about how how much the offense is struggling.
1:19:15
If you could get another right handed bat in there to give you something against
1:19:18
left handed pitching. Yeah, the Phillies have nothing against left handed pitching.
1:19:23
You mentioned that real Muto is not giving them enough power. They're not getting
1:19:26
enough power from Trade Turner. They're not getting Trade Turner is like a career
1:19:30
three twenty hitter against left handers, and I think he's eating like two oh
1:19:31
three against him. Miss that's a huge thing. That's a huge drop.
1:19:38
Nick Castianos JT Realmutes. So those are your right handed power bats right now,
1:19:42
and they're not hitting for a power. So you could go out and
1:19:45
get an outfield or a right handed hitting outfield, or maybe to kind of
1:19:48
help you in that area again, folks talking to John Stalnas from the Hitting
1:19:53
Season podcast, you're doing some good stuff. You are in a partnership with
1:19:58
with with some Phil Radio. John. I gotta say, you've worked so
1:20:02
hard at your podcast for so many years. Uh, you know, we
1:20:05
were talking about it here at the PST podcast. How how how happy we
1:20:10
are for you for Justin and Liz. Tell folks real quick about that partnership
1:20:14
that you have. That's very nice of you to say that. I really
1:20:15
appreciate that. Yeah, we are now with wh y y. Um,
1:20:19
I'm gonna be We're gonna be doing some periodic radio hits on there on wh
1:20:26
y Y Radio and um. We all of our podcasts can be found through
1:20:30
Billypenn dot com, which is run by w h y Y. So we
1:20:32
have a landing page it's Billy Penn dot com slash Hitting Season. So you
1:20:36
can catch all of our podcasts there and that's where we do all of our
1:20:40
write ups for the podcast as well, So I have articles posted there.
1:20:43
Um, so if you want to learn anything Hitting Season wise. Obviously we're
1:20:46
on all of the podcast channels that you can get us from, but go
1:20:49
over to Billy Penn dot com and uh yeah, we are. We are
1:20:53
really excited to be with with them and with wh y y. It's been
1:20:56
a lot of fun so far. I'm very proud of you and your co
1:20:58
host for the great work you're doing in folks at John Stalness on Twitter,
1:21:01
he's a fantastic follow. If you're listening to us, you're probably following John.
1:21:04
But if you're not, give him a follow again. He is a
1:21:08
great, great follow on the Twitter dot com And moving along here, John.
1:21:12
You know, we know that so much of the success or failure within
1:21:15
the world of sports in general really comes from a mental standpoint, And I
1:21:19
do wonder when it comes to this Phillies team, is it really a mental
1:21:23
thing? With the runners and scoring position theme that this Phillies team has been
1:21:28
dealing with for freaking weeks now? I am I just get tired of hearing
1:21:32
about it, But I do wonder, because you know there is a mental
1:21:36
science to sports. Is it really a mental thing at this point? What
1:21:41
are your thoughts? I think it is. I think we've heard from Nick
1:21:45
Castiano's last year who said a lot of his problems were for mental Yeah,
1:21:49
I think that's what's going on with tray Turner. I think tray Turner started
1:21:53
off slow and it just started to build, and it started to build.
1:21:56
Tray Turner is not a guy. He's been a strike He's been a guy
1:21:58
who would strike out maybe twenty three twenty four percent of the time. But
1:22:01
to be striking out a third of his plate appearances so far this year is
1:22:04
just crazy. And he doesn't usually chase balls out of the strike zone the
1:22:09
way that he has this year. When when you see a team that has
1:22:12
as high a chase rate as the Phillies do that, I think that's a
1:22:15
team that's pressing, that's trying to do too much, that's trying to hit
1:22:17
the five run home run, which, for those of you who follow baseball,
1:22:20
is not actually possible. But it's just it's the mindset of I gotta
1:22:25
be the hero here. I got I know we're struggling with runners in scoring
1:22:28
position. I gotta be the guy. And so you expand the strike zone,
1:22:31
you get a little too aggressive, You're you're looking for something that maybe
1:22:35
isn't there, and then you find yourself down in an O two count all
1:22:38
of a sudden. How many times have we seen this team with runners in
1:22:41
scoring position find themselves in a hole. It's incredible. I think, yeah,
1:22:45
it's amazing. And I think on the pitching side, it's the same
1:22:47
way. You know, you've the I think Corey Seidman tweeted something out like
1:22:51
the gap between what the Phillies offense is not able to do with runners in
1:22:58
scoring position and how well Philly opponents have done with runners in scoring position.
1:23:02
That's the that's the story of the season right now. Yeah, Phillies opponents
1:23:06
are killing them with runners in scoring position, and the Phillies offense is inapt
1:23:12
with runners in scoring position. And I think those numbers tell you that there
1:23:15
is a mental game going on here that this team. I don't know.
1:23:18
We talk about a sense a lack of a sense of urgency. I don't
1:23:21
know that that's there. I just feel like these guys are trying too hard
1:23:25
to be heroes yea, and not taking with the with the pitching gives them,
1:23:29
and not taking with the offense gives them and going with that. It's
1:23:31
amazing to see a talented group of individuals just struggling this much. And I
1:23:38
think, you know, as we as we end our conversation here, John,
1:23:41
I think from a more macro perspective, this really could have been a
1:23:45
season where the Phillies kind of had a chance to own and we perhaps the
1:23:50
NL East. I mean, when we look at the Braves, sure they're
1:23:54
they're a very good team. I'm not taking anything away from them, but
1:23:57
they're not necessarily the Tampa Bay raised in my nion, I feel like one
1:24:00
of the themes of this twenty twenty three season for the Phillies also thus far,
1:24:05
is how they squandered their opportunity to really take control of the NL ease
1:24:11
because of their inconsistencies and because of what you were just saying, just trying
1:24:15
to do too much, just trying to play hero ball all the time,
1:24:17
and especially here in May So. I don't know if you'd agree with that
1:24:21
or not. What are your thoughts as we're closing things out here. I
1:24:25
think the Atlanta Braves are really good, Yeah, I do. I think
1:24:28
the Atlanta Braves are legit. I think even if the Phillies were playing really
1:24:30
well right now, they'd still be three or four games behind the Braves.
1:24:33
Atlanta is really good and they have a superstar who is playing like a superstar
1:24:41
star Ronald. Yeah, Ronald Acuna is the best player in the game right
1:24:45
now, and he is carrying that team. How about that BASSI stole like
1:24:50
a couple of days ago. I think it was a couple day yesterday or
1:24:53
a couple of days on Monday, Yeah, it was. It was on
1:24:55
Monday night. Where you know, he's on first base, the batter walk,
1:25:00
so he's on his way to second and he realizes that nobody's paying attention
1:25:02
to him. As he's trotting to second, he notices the third baseman walking
1:25:06
away from third base, and so he just takes off. It was totally
1:25:10
a thing out of little league. Yeah, yeah, you know, is
1:25:12
what you tell he just take the extra base if the pitcher's not paying attention,
1:25:15
and that's what he did. He got to third base. We went
1:25:16
from first to third on a walk. It's incredible because he was but that
1:25:21
just I think that shows you the difference between the two teams, right because
1:25:26
you have a superstar there that is playing like a superstar and giving his team
1:25:30
a true edge. The Phillies have a lot of superstars and we all thought
1:25:33
when Bryce Harper came back that it was going to fix the offense, it
1:25:36
was going to solve everything, and it has it, And that tells you
1:25:40
baseball is about more than one player. It's not just about Ronald Dakunia.
1:25:44
They have a very good lineup. They're playing very good fundamental baseball, and
1:25:47
the Phillies are not. And I don't know when it's going to turn around.
1:25:51
I think it will, but it's I really hope it's soon. Gotta
1:25:56
take it's gonna take some time here. I hope it's soon as well.
1:25:59
Again, folks, John stall on this from the Hitting Season podcast Goodfight dot
1:26:02
Com as well. John, It was great. Great talking to you,
1:26:06
my friend, and come back and join us down the road, hopefully when
1:26:10
this team is in a better position than they are right now. I would
1:26:13
love to talk to you down the road, my friend. Yeah. Absolutely,
1:26:15
And hey, this is gonna be a reciprocal We're gonna get you on
1:26:18
the Hitting Season podcast as well, So we're gonna this is how podcasting works.
1:26:23
Baby, sounds good, my friend. We gotta wait, folks,
1:26:26
We have to wait to see what's gonna happen here with this team. Look,
1:26:30
it's gonna take a little bit of time. It's going to we have
1:26:33
to be patient, and I know it is tough to be patient the world
1:26:36
of Philly sports. I don't care what team it is, especially those of
1:26:41
us who have been dealing with the Philadelphia Flyers as we know. However,
1:26:45
with I think this Phillies team, you know, if we are patient,
1:26:48
I think good things are going to happen. As John said, hopefully sooner
1:26:53
rather than later. Hopefully they get together sooner rather than later and get some
1:26:58
of those mental blocks straightened out. I have to say, you know,
1:27:00
it's interesting for me as somebody who has a child who's an athlete. Yes,
1:27:05
I do have a young child twelve years old who is an athlete,
1:27:10
a state champion gymnast here in Pennsylvania, and I see the mental blocks that
1:27:14
she goes through from time to time within her sport. And I cannot imagine
1:27:19
on a professional level. And yes, I know they're played millions and millions
1:27:23
and millions of dollars. I get that. I get that, folks.
1:27:26
But really the mental block and mental aspect of sports and the challenges and hurdles
1:27:30
to overcome when individuals doing that sport are going through something, it's a very
1:27:38
real thing. So that's something I'm trying to keep in mind with this Philadelphia
1:27:41
Phillies team. I hope we can all keep that in mind. So it's
1:27:44
gonna do it for us this week. Absolutely love talking to John again at
1:27:47
John Stalness on Twitter. If you're not following him, give him a follow.
1:27:51
He is fantastic. So I just hope you all have a great rest
1:27:58
of your day whenever you're listening to the US, have a great night,
1:28:00
have a great just have a great year. Let's have a great twenty twenty
1:28:05
three. In the world of Philly sports. Look, if anything happens to
1:28:09
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1:28:13
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1:28:19
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1:28:34
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1:28:38
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1:28:42
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1:28:51
day, your night. Whenever you are listening to this, we'll catch you
1:28:56
next time out a