Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / TABLE TALK: The Phillies Are Inconsistent...Yet Successful?

Transcript

TABLE TALK: The Phillies Are Inconsistent...Yet Successful? · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:28
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast Show, the longest
0:32
Speaker 1: running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. Our
0:35
Speaker 1: table talk interview show this week is gonna be a
0:38
Speaker 1: fantastic one. Hello to everyone watching on YouTube, if you're
0:42
Speaker 1: listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify.
0:44
Speaker 2: It is great to be in your ears.
0:46
Speaker 1: We're gonna be diving into this Philadelphia Phillies team. What's
0:49
Speaker 1: been happening with them so far this season? As we are,
0:53
Speaker 1: you know in the mid to latter part of June,
0:55
Speaker 1: when folks are going to be watching and listening to
0:58
Speaker 1: this particular podcast episode, Oden Table Talk Interview. I have
1:02
Speaker 1: got one of our friends. This is first time coming on.
1:05
Speaker 2: It's gonna it's.
1:06
Speaker 1: Gonna be great to get into this Phillies team with him.
1:08
Speaker 1: Matt Davis, Buddy, how you doing, my friend?
1:11
Speaker 3: Good?
1:11
Speaker 2: Jeff, how you doing today? Man, I'm doing all right.
1:13
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right.
1:13
Speaker 1: So before we get into the Phillies, let everybody know
1:16
Speaker 1: where you're from, where they can find you online.
1:18
Speaker 2: My friend.
1:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm based out of reading. I'm brighter for
1:24
Speaker 3: that balls out of here from fancided.
1:26
Speaker 2: I should have mentioned that, sorry at.
1:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been right in there since April last year
1:31
Speaker 3: and going through the motions as far as like the season,
1:35
Speaker 3: the swings and everything. So it's been it's been fun.
1:37
Speaker 2: Ride, fantastic.
1:39
Speaker 1: It's great to have you on, Matt, and look, I
1:41
Speaker 1: want to really dive into so many different aspects of
1:45
Speaker 1: this team. I wish we had, you know, more time
1:47
Speaker 1: than than uh you know, the allotted table talk interview
1:50
Speaker 1: time here to get into certain aspects of this team.
1:53
Speaker 1: But we've seen a lot of good stuff from this
1:56
Speaker 1: Phillies team this season. And sure there have been ups,
1:58
Speaker 1: there have been downs, but to start off, you know,
2:01
Speaker 1: on a positive aspect of where this team is at,
2:04
Speaker 1: because yes, even though you know they're having a challenging
2:06
Speaker 1: time as we're recording this on January twenty second, they
2:09
Speaker 1: lost to the Mets last night Saturday night, but you
2:12
Speaker 1: know they're there. They're a team again with a lot
2:15
Speaker 1: of ups and downs. Start us off, I'm wondering what
2:18
Speaker 1: has been your favorite aspect of this twenty twenty five
2:20
Speaker 1: season thus far as again, as we're recording this here
2:24
Speaker 1: to mid to latter part of June, what was what's
2:27
Speaker 1: your favorite part of the season and.
2:28
Speaker 3: Why, Jeff, You're definitely right with the ups and downs
2:32
Speaker 3: of the season, especially when they started out started out
2:34
Speaker 3: the gay is so hot and then you know stretched
2:37
Speaker 3: are with losing like nine to ten, you know, eight
2:40
Speaker 3: and ten, stuff like that. But I'd say the favorite
2:42
Speaker 3: part has been the turnaround for Trey trade Turner. He's
2:48
Speaker 3: turned into more of like the prototypical leadoff hitter. I
2:50
Speaker 3: know that we've kind of robe with Schwarber, you know,
2:53
Speaker 3: going lead off, but I it always felt right with
2:56
Speaker 3: dropping him in the order, yeah, but sending it a
3:00
Speaker 3: lot for like Harburn and Schwarberg getting him. I mean,
3:05
Speaker 3: he's batting over three hundred again, especially when him and
3:10
Speaker 3: Rob like met before the season where they didn't want
3:13
Speaker 3: him to focus on the power as much. He's hit
3:16
Speaker 3: four home runs in May and June. But I think
3:19
Speaker 3: it's been tremendous to see him like putting the ball
3:21
Speaker 3: in play. And I know that there was like even
3:25
Speaker 3: a stretch at May third when Rob Thompson was questioned
3:28
Speaker 3: before the game, it was like he had twenty hits
3:29
Speaker 3: in like twelve games, but eighteen of them were singles.
3:32
Speaker 3: Like everybody thought like is this going to be like
3:34
Speaker 3: sustainable with him just putting the ball and play and
3:36
Speaker 3: just slap hitting all over the place. But I think
3:39
Speaker 3: it's I think it's really shown that he's coming kind
3:42
Speaker 3: of more naturally coming into his power yea than he
3:45
Speaker 3: did before, where he was coring to more of an
3:47
Speaker 3: oppera cut like twenty plus home runs were great. But
3:49
Speaker 3: I think we're really seeing a turnaround for him. And
3:53
Speaker 3: also I think it's been it's just besides just starting
3:57
Speaker 3: off the offense great, he's been great on the basis too,
4:01
Speaker 3: and then like he had nineteen steals all of last
4:04
Speaker 3: year and so far he's already he's already at nineteen
4:07
Speaker 3: steels now. So I think it's just overall, even his defense,
4:11
Speaker 3: he's kind of settled down. He's I believe, his highest
4:14
Speaker 3: fielding percentage since as a Philly, at like nine to
4:17
Speaker 3: nine eighty fielding percent So I think all encompassing. I
4:19
Speaker 3: think it's kind of flown onder the radar as far
4:22
Speaker 3: as like some of the other Phillies, but I think
4:24
Speaker 3: him having more of a complete season I think is
4:27
Speaker 3: really important for the Phillies moving forward.
4:29
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. I'm glad you brought it up. I'm
4:31
Speaker 1: glad that's what your answer was. When we look at
4:33
Speaker 1: trade Turner when I see him doing this season, Matt.
4:36
Speaker 1: He's providing opportunities for this team, whether he's in the shield,
4:39
Speaker 1: whether he's stealing bases, whether he's in the batter's box,
4:41
Speaker 1: Trade Turner is providing opportunities for this team that I
4:44
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think we have seen during his tenure thus
4:48
Speaker 1: far in a Phillies uniform. So I love your answer there.
4:51
Speaker 1: But as we're moving along with the conversation here on
4:54
Speaker 1: the flip side of things, let's do a one eighty here.
4:57
Speaker 1: There have been some not so fun things he's witnessed
5:01
Speaker 1: during this twenty twenty five Philly season. I mean, whether
5:04
Speaker 1: it's streaky batting, a bullpen that has been you know,
5:07
Speaker 1: inconsistent from time to time. There's frustration certainly at times
5:11
Speaker 1: with this team in terms of, you know, you know,
5:13
Speaker 1: what's going on with the order. Rob Thompson, even even
5:17
Speaker 1: though he's the winningest you know, manager in Philly's history
5:21
Speaker 1: at this point in terms of his career, what for
5:23
Speaker 1: you has been the most frustrating aspect of this Philly
5:27
Speaker 1: season for you at this point here?
5:28
Speaker 2: And why?
5:30
Speaker 3: Sure? Yeah, I definitely say it is the bullpen. I
5:34
Speaker 3: know that's kind of drum it's been beaten kind of
5:37
Speaker 3: along this season, last year or this year. Sorry, yeah, it.
5:43
Speaker 3: I know the offense gets a lot of gets a
5:45
Speaker 3: lot of crap for how they've performed the streaking as
5:47
Speaker 3: especially like you referenced, but it's it's hard to to
5:54
Speaker 3: think about. Like when we were coming into the twenty
5:56
Speaker 3: twenty four season, I know, the big thing that you know,
5:58
Speaker 3: a lot of fans choked about the time was that
5:59
Speaker 3: they were going to be the top bullpen in baseball.
6:02
Speaker 3: They ended up more of like the middle of the road,
6:05
Speaker 3: but they they kind of settled in and unfortunately, with
6:08
Speaker 3: you know, Hoffman and Strom being All Stars that they
6:10
Speaker 3: were last year and then kind of flaming out in
6:13
Speaker 3: the NLDS against the Mets, that definitely didn't look great,
6:16
Speaker 3: and I think it kind of blew things out of
6:18
Speaker 3: proportion about how great that bullpen really was, especially with
6:21
Speaker 3: Alvarado now speak you know, changing them over to twenty
6:24
Speaker 3: twenty five. He's out of the picture now for you know,
6:28
Speaker 3: eighty of the eighty games. So he'll be back at
6:30
Speaker 3: some point some point in July excuse me late July,
6:34
Speaker 3: but obviously now he's out for the postseason, potentially Philly's
6:40
Speaker 3: will be making the postseason, but unfortunately that's just a
6:43
Speaker 3: huge loss with losing Hoffman and Estevez from the deadline
6:47
Speaker 3: last year but also coming to this year, it's just
6:51
Speaker 3: it's been a big blow. Like last year they ranked
6:54
Speaker 3: fourteenth in bullpen y are at three point nine to four.
6:58
Speaker 3: Now they're down to twenty fifth four point five for it,
7:00
Speaker 3: so it's definitely a drop off that they've they've seen
7:03
Speaker 3: in Jordan Mano, although he he had a rough start,
7:07
Speaker 3: including that game. You know, it's kind of ingrained in
7:09
Speaker 3: my head was the game against Mets and I'm sorry
7:12
Speaker 3: the Marlins where he almost blew that game. Yes, but
7:16
Speaker 3: it's it's been kind of that where it's you know,
7:18
Speaker 3: the the offense has had its streakiness, especially with Bone
7:23
Speaker 3: batting like one fifty up until like April thirteenth, but
7:27
Speaker 3: it just seems like whenever the offense can't get it going,
7:29
Speaker 3: the bullpen has a really hard time picking them up.
7:32
Speaker 3: And it's been it's been a struggle because it feels
7:35
Speaker 3: like every single time out, it feels like a nail
7:37
Speaker 3: bier when it Yes, it's just it shouldn't.
7:40
Speaker 2: It's a theme.
7:41
Speaker 1: It's definitely a theme of this season that with that
7:43
Speaker 1: that has been frustrating for sure. It's definitely one of
7:46
Speaker 1: the top frustrating aspects of this of this Philly season.
7:50
Speaker 1: But we really want to dive into the starting pitching though, too,
7:53
Speaker 1: because it's frustrating as the bullpen has been. Matt just
7:57
Speaker 1: talking about that. You look at the starting pitching here
8:01
Speaker 1: and there's something to be said for this rotation that
8:04
Speaker 1: not only doesn't have Aaron Nola, but when Aaron Nola
8:07
Speaker 1: was pitching, he was having a terrible season. Frankly, Christopher
8:11
Speaker 1: Sanchez and Zach Wheeler, they've been having really nice outings
8:15
Speaker 1: their season when you look at their er and what
8:18
Speaker 1: they've been doing from the mound, absolutely fantastic. Ranger Suarez
8:22
Speaker 1: is also a major key to this rotation and has
8:24
Speaker 1: been producing well.
8:25
Speaker 2: You know.
8:25
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, we're all excited about Mick Abel his first start
8:29
Speaker 1: and how monumental that was. And yes, mcabel struggled over
8:33
Speaker 1: this past weekend against the Mets, He's generally generally been
8:38
Speaker 1: throwing well. So I'm wondering what are your thoughts on
8:41
Speaker 1: the resiliency of this starting rotation here in June, because
8:47
Speaker 1: I think they are a resilient bunch. What are your
8:49
Speaker 1: thoughts here.
8:50
Speaker 3: Matt, Yeah, I think they really are. Like Wheeler is,
8:54
Speaker 3: you know, hands down one of the best arms in
8:55
Speaker 3: baseball since twenty twenty he leads all of all of
9:02
Speaker 3: pitchers including starters in f War twenty seven point four.
9:05
Speaker 3: The next closest is Corbyn Burns. It's you know, twenty
9:08
Speaker 3: two point three, which if you look at Corbyn Burns
9:10
Speaker 3: now just kind of kind of go off side topic.
9:13
Speaker 3: He's you know, been one of the biggest regressions in
9:16
Speaker 3: the sport. And then he has Tommy John all all
9:19
Speaker 3: of that included, but you know, the supporting cast. I
9:21
Speaker 3: guess if you could say like Sanchez, you know his
9:24
Speaker 3: with his gaining velocity along with one of the best
9:26
Speaker 3: change ups in all of baseball. Then you got Ranger
9:31
Speaker 3: who you know, he he has kind of worked like
9:34
Speaker 3: the biggest Swiss army and height out of that bullpen
9:37
Speaker 3: slash starting rotation. And I know he's had some back
9:41
Speaker 3: issues in his past and he's kind of still dealing
9:45
Speaker 3: with that. But I feel like it's just with the
9:48
Speaker 3: inclusion of now Lozardo and you brought up Able, it's
9:50
Speaker 3: just a lot of these guys they're not flamethrowers necessarily,
9:54
Speaker 3: but they are just they're pitchers, man.
9:57
Speaker 2: They just they're relliant. Yeah, they resilent.
10:00
Speaker 3: There's no other way to say it. They know how
10:01
Speaker 3: to pick their spots and you know, like among the starters,
10:06
Speaker 3: they're great, man like, they know how to get the
10:08
Speaker 3: job done. They're efficient. They also I believe they leading
10:12
Speaker 3: like innings pitched like their second in like starting starting
10:17
Speaker 3: e er. They're just pitchers and they just they know
10:19
Speaker 3: how to get the job done. With multiple sie young
10:22
Speaker 3: candidates and now Lozardo, although he had two of the
10:25
Speaker 3: worst starts you could possibly have back to back, I
10:28
Speaker 3: think it it kind of overshadows how he did and
10:31
Speaker 3: then you know start against Miami didn't go as well.
10:34
Speaker 3: But it's just a resilient group. And I think at
10:36
Speaker 3: least one thing that Dombrowski has done really well is
10:40
Speaker 3: the big you know, acquisition of Lozardo has really added
10:43
Speaker 3: to this this starting staff, and they really are a
10:46
Speaker 3: solid group. With Caleb Cotham at the helm, I think
10:48
Speaker 3: they're really they're really going to be a great group.
10:51
Speaker 2: Move absolutely.
10:52
Speaker 1: I like I do like how you mentioned Dave Dombrowski
10:56
Speaker 1: making this good decision in terms of Lozardo, because we
10:59
Speaker 1: know the criticism that he has been getting from the
11:02
Speaker 1: fan base with regard to the bullpen, you know, letting
11:05
Speaker 1: Jeff Hoffman go, letting Estevez go, like you mentioned earlier,
11:08
Speaker 1: And yes, this bullpen again one of the most frustrating
11:11
Speaker 1: aspects of this team, like we just talked about. But
11:14
Speaker 1: I think we have to give Dave Dombrowski some credit.
11:16
Speaker 1: And we hadn't really planned on talking about Dombrowski, but yeah,
11:19
Speaker 1: I think we have to give him some credit for
11:21
Speaker 1: keeping this Phillies team, you know, with the challenges that
11:25
Speaker 1: it has had, keeping them very relevant after these past
11:29
Speaker 1: few years, they are a relevant team, not just in
11:32
Speaker 1: the National League, but in Major League Baseball in general.
11:35
Speaker 1: And yes, it's because of these moves that are made
11:37
Speaker 1: here and there, you know. And yes, it's Trey Turner,
11:39
Speaker 1: it's Bryce Harper, it's the resurgence of guys like Alec Bohm,
11:44
Speaker 1: who we're gonna be getting into in a bit. But
11:46
Speaker 1: it's the culmination of a lot of things. I think
11:48
Speaker 1: Dave Dombrowski at times gets a little bit more crap
11:51
Speaker 1: than he should in terms of what this team is,
11:54
Speaker 1: who they are how relevant they are.
11:56
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't know if you have any thoughts
11:57
Speaker 2: on it.
11:58
Speaker 3: No, I do, And honestly, you can even look at
12:00
Speaker 3: Andrew Friedman in the Los Angeles Dodgers the way they're
12:03
Speaker 3: handling everything. Yeah, when you have the amount of pitchers
12:06
Speaker 3: and brazilient guys and they're constant, they're durable, they can
12:10
Speaker 3: go out and do their job, and it's just you
12:12
Speaker 3: look at the Dodgers, who spent you know, four hundred
12:14
Speaker 3: plus million in the luxury tax and they're dealing with
12:16
Speaker 3: fourteen pitchers on the IL and it's just like, these
12:19
Speaker 3: guys know how to stay healthy, were you know, side
12:21
Speaker 3: of like Ranger and his back issues and a couple
12:23
Speaker 3: of other things. And obviously Nola he hasn't made you know,
12:26
Speaker 3: his first IL stint il stint in years. Yeah, So
12:29
Speaker 3: it's just I think Dobraski has pushed the right buttons
12:33
Speaker 3: and I know that, like you know, there's definitely certain
12:38
Speaker 3: parts where you can blame him for a lot of
12:39
Speaker 3: the like the lackluster like trade deadline acquisitions and everything.
12:43
Speaker 3: But I definitely think it's we're better in a better
12:46
Speaker 3: position than a lot of other teams can be and
12:48
Speaker 3: you know it's kept us in a lot of games.
12:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm grateful for it. Yeah, same here, same here.
12:53
Speaker 3: Man.
12:53
Speaker 1: All right, well, it's still wanting to dive into some
12:57
Speaker 1: pitching with you in a specific storyline, because I mean,
13:01
Speaker 1: this past weekend I had the opportunity to see Andrew
13:04
Speaker 1: Paynter pitching in Lehigh Valley. Had a nice outing Saturday night,
13:08
Speaker 1: five innings, five strikeouts, he gave up two runs, five hits.
13:12
Speaker 1: When it comes to this starting rotation, we were just
13:15
Speaker 1: talking about how resilient they have been. We are still
13:18
Speaker 1: gonna see some ups and downs with this, with this
13:21
Speaker 1: crew and with this crub and who knows what's going
13:23
Speaker 1: to happen or yeah, who knows what's gonna happen with
13:25
Speaker 1: Mick Abel how he is going to be performing in
13:28
Speaker 1: the near future.
13:29
Speaker 2: Do you think we're going to.
13:30
Speaker 1: End up seeing Andrew Painter sooner rather than later, because
13:34
Speaker 1: if you remember before the season, folks are talking about,
13:36
Speaker 1: well we could seehim at the end of May, probably
13:39
Speaker 1: see Andrew Paynter in June. We're not at this point
13:42
Speaker 1: where he's gonna be brought up to the bigs, but
13:44
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it could happen based on where he's at.
13:48
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here on Andrew Paynter and if
13:50
Speaker 1: we're gonna see him sooner rather than later.
13:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I agree, like able's been you know, he
13:56
Speaker 3: was like he was a stud coming out of high
13:59
Speaker 3: school and then he's kind of had his rough go
14:02
Speaker 3: of things in the minors. But him coming up, it's
14:04
Speaker 3: kind of tough not to give him the continued chances
14:07
Speaker 3: going forward. Obviously with Nola out that opens that window
14:10
Speaker 3: a little bit more. But as far as Painter coming up,
14:14
Speaker 3: I haven't seen a ton of what he's been doing
14:16
Speaker 3: the miners. I know that he has a five point
14:18
Speaker 3: six era, which isn't great, but I think he can
14:20
Speaker 3: turn things around. But in regards to his timeline, Paul
14:26
Speaker 3: Casselo MLB dot Com, I know about a couple of
14:28
Speaker 3: weeks ago mentioned that they're still they're still looking at
14:31
Speaker 3: the late July deadline, late July eighteenth to the twenty
14:35
Speaker 3: third window for him to come up. It seems like
14:39
Speaker 3: they're going to keep to that specific timeline. They could
14:43
Speaker 3: mix in Painter. That's the only thing is like what
14:47
Speaker 3: the role they're gonna make him as? Because I they
14:50
Speaker 3: they want to get him in like there's no reason
14:52
Speaker 3: why not to. They should. They're gonna find innings for him.
14:57
Speaker 3: The only question is are they going to make him
14:59
Speaker 3: more of like an ex ended reliever type, like you know,
15:01
Speaker 3: fill the time one Walker role, except hopefully had a
15:05
Speaker 3: much better clip than the way Taiwan's going recently. But
15:09
Speaker 3: I think that's the biggest question is if he's going
15:11
Speaker 3: to be a starter, if they're going to use him
15:12
Speaker 3: as like an extended reliever, and guys like Chris Sale,
15:15
Speaker 3: Corbyn Burns and even Walker Bueler, they started out their
15:17
Speaker 3: careers that way with kind of like the extended reliever
15:20
Speaker 3: and kind of build them into a starter to make sure.
15:22
Speaker 3: They just want to make sure he's healthy and building
15:25
Speaker 3: his innings.
15:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:26
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Yeah, we're gonna keep following what Andrew Paynter is
15:29
Speaker 1: doing in the minors, talking about it here on the
15:32
Speaker 1: PST podcast show for sure. If you are new to
15:35
Speaker 1: watching us on YouTube, we've got on the screen our
15:38
Speaker 1: social media sites. We are on Instagram, Twitter, slash x,
15:42
Speaker 1: I'm over on TikTok. You can also like our Facebook page.
15:45
Speaker 1: We're on threads, follow us, and you can follow Eric
15:48
Speaker 1: and myself hopefully We're going to be talking Eric at
15:50
Speaker 1: some point in the near future here. Yes, he'll be
15:52
Speaker 1: on the He wasn't able to be on the show
15:54
Speaker 1: this past week, but we'll get him back on. We're
15:57
Speaker 1: over on Blue Sky as well, so follow us on
16:00
Speaker 1: social media and also again we're talking to Matt Davis
16:04
Speaker 1: from that balls out of here dot com. Matt, where
16:06
Speaker 1: can folks find you on the interwebs out there if
16:08
Speaker 1: they want to connect with you?
16:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so on x Twitter whatever you want to call
16:12
Speaker 3: it at buy Matt Davis. I'm also on Instagram at
16:16
Speaker 3: Davis dot m or Davis dot Matt dot one mostly
16:21
Speaker 3: that's what I use Facebook two as well, but I'm
16:24
Speaker 3: on Twitter a lot, talking talking films all day long.
16:26
Speaker 1: Right, nice, very good, Well, folks, we're going to take
16:28
Speaker 1: a quick break, pay some bills.
16:30
Speaker 2: We're going to be back in just a bit.
16:33
Speaker 1: All right, We're back and again talking with Matt Davis
16:36
Speaker 1: from that ballsada here dot com. You know, we love
16:39
Speaker 1: our fan sided sites here at the PST podcast Show,
16:42
Speaker 1: and we want to get into as we're kind of
16:45
Speaker 1: you know, finishing up the discussion here, got a couple
16:47
Speaker 1: more topics Matt to dive into. One particular guy on
16:51
Speaker 1: this Phillies team who I have defended time and time again,
16:57
Speaker 1: and that individual is Alec Boem. And yes, he has
17:00
Speaker 1: been a streaky type of baseball player during the course
17:04
Speaker 1: of his tenure. I mean I remember going to Coca
17:07
Speaker 1: Cola Park with Leah Valley IronPigs watching him play there.
17:10
Speaker 1: A bit of a streaky player, but we have seen
17:13
Speaker 1: him being able to do some really good things offensively.
17:17
Speaker 1: He's been growing defensively over these seasons, and for what
17:22
Speaker 1: this team is needed from the third base position over
17:24
Speaker 1: these past few years, Alec Bohm has been able to
17:27
Speaker 1: give this team some really nice consistency, at least in
17:30
Speaker 1: my eyes, over these past few years. I mean, at
17:33
Speaker 1: this point this year, he's batting to eighty nine, he
17:36
Speaker 1: has seven home runs, thirty four RBIs, Matt, are we
17:40
Speaker 1: at a point where people should really stop crapping all
17:42
Speaker 1: over Alec Bohm because he really has been a key
17:45
Speaker 1: to this team winning games.
17:47
Speaker 2: I wonder what are your thoughts here? I think so, Jeff.
17:50
Speaker 3: I think he's kind of earned his spot now with
17:54
Speaker 3: him batting over to eighty where you know, by April thirteenth,
17:58
Speaker 3: they mentioned earlier he's betting one fifty. Yes, I mean
18:00
Speaker 3: he's batted three twenty two since then. I mean it's
18:05
Speaker 3: just the swing's cleaner. I mean some of the stuff
18:08
Speaker 3: with the first pitch swing I can kind of sometimes
18:12
Speaker 3: it'll be kind of tough trying to swing early. But
18:14
Speaker 3: you know, him coming up in twenty twenty kind of
18:17
Speaker 3: bumber was like during the COVID year but like you know,
18:19
Speaker 3: runner up to the Rookie of the Year to Devin Williams,
18:22
Speaker 3: like that was a big deal and we were hoping
18:24
Speaker 3: the power will come along a little bit more. But
18:26
Speaker 3: I think what he's doing in play in lieu of
18:28
Speaker 3: that is, you know, hitting the gaps, finding the power
18:31
Speaker 3: when he can. But I like you said about the defensively,
18:34
Speaker 3: he's settled into his role where it's like honestly, anybody
18:37
Speaker 3: else at third base, it kind of feels like it's
18:39
Speaker 3: a little bit of a hole there. Yeah, So I
18:42
Speaker 3: think he's really subtily. And now I will admit I
18:46
Speaker 3: was an advocate when like Bregman was on the market
18:48
Speaker 3: and everything, and especially with the Phillies, with the back
18:51
Speaker 3: and forth of if they were shopping him, if they
18:53
Speaker 3: weren't shopping him. So it was a lot of confusion,
18:57
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, the questions are real about
18:59
Speaker 3: his maturity at times. I know, like Game two of
19:02
Speaker 3: the NLDS, that was a big thing when he got benched.
19:04
Speaker 3: Then people speculative it was over the risk issue, that
19:07
Speaker 3: whole thing. But I think with his his confidence growing,
19:11
Speaker 3: I think he's been a real, real stud at the position,
19:15
Speaker 3: and especially with him coming out yes last year, you know,
19:18
Speaker 3: starting the All Star Game, it was a big confidence
19:21
Speaker 3: boost for him. I just think he's I just think
19:25
Speaker 3: is his confidence continues to grow. I think the big
19:29
Speaker 3: question is going to be, now are they going to
19:30
Speaker 3: pay him? Because he will be an all a free
19:33
Speaker 3: agent after twenty twenty six, so you know, a year
19:38
Speaker 3: and a half left, so that's going to be the question.
19:41
Speaker 3: Are they going to keep him there, pay him, make
19:43
Speaker 3: him happy? Because I know a lot of those guys
19:46
Speaker 3: they did, you know, settle an arbitration for all of them.
19:49
Speaker 3: So hopefully this you know, there's still conversations ongoing. But
19:53
Speaker 3: I want to see him as a filly moving forward.
19:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so do I All right, well, I let
20:00
Speaker 1: you go here, and as we're closing things out, and
20:02
Speaker 1: I know it's in general question here Matt sometimes tough
20:05
Speaker 1: to answer because of the inconsistency of what the game
20:09
Speaker 1: of baseball is. I'm wondering which player on this team
20:13
Speaker 1: are you actually most concerned with at this point in
20:16
Speaker 1: the season, and why who would that be? As we're
20:19
Speaker 1: moving forward here? Who do we got to keep our
20:21
Speaker 1: eyes on? In your opinion?
20:23
Speaker 3: You know, there's there's a lot going a lot of
20:26
Speaker 3: good things going for the Phillies.
20:28
Speaker 2: Try to, you know, drum it.
20:29
Speaker 3: Up as best I can. It was just that there's
20:31
Speaker 3: a lot of good things going on with the rotation,
20:33
Speaker 3: the batting order, you know, the team as a whole.
20:35
Speaker 3: But man, Bryce and Scott is killing me.
20:38
Speaker 2: I know.
20:39
Speaker 3: I mean batting three hundred for a good portion of
20:42
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three fell to a two eighty but since then,
20:44
Speaker 3: you know, two forty four average, two forty five. Last
20:48
Speaker 3: year OPS plus was one o three and twenty twenty
20:52
Speaker 3: three now it's down to eighty three. I mean, you
20:56
Speaker 3: just look at his baseball savant. I mean that's not
20:58
Speaker 3: always the biggest tell of everything, but it's like bottom
21:01
Speaker 3: twentieth percentile on like Bell Ray hard hit percentage. It's
21:06
Speaker 3: just leading the league and pitches per plate appearance is great.
21:12
Speaker 3: I think he's around like four point four or four
21:14
Speaker 3: point five, but it's just a lot of weak contact,
21:18
Speaker 3: not a whole lot of balls like in the gaps.
21:20
Speaker 3: He's shown power as of lately, which is great to see.
21:23
Speaker 3: I just think when they had him at the leadoff hitter,
21:25
Speaker 3: I thought like, Okay, we can get things going here.
21:27
Speaker 3: Instead of you know, taking a step back with Shorber
21:29
Speaker 3: from the leadoff position, putting Bryson up there, you know,
21:32
Speaker 3: to alternating with the lefty righty with Turner and then
21:35
Speaker 3: Harper and then Schober. It was like a perfect duo
21:38
Speaker 3: or if you mixing Boem or Castianos at the top
21:41
Speaker 3: four there. But I just think even like his expecting
21:44
Speaker 3: batting average is two fifty, so it's not even like
21:46
Speaker 3: it's like slightly unlucky, you know. It's just I think
21:50
Speaker 3: it's a real problem for them because now it with
21:53
Speaker 3: the payroll restrictions and you know they have you know,
21:57
Speaker 3: Nola on the books, a lot of money. I know
22:00
Speaker 3: they do have real Mudo and Shore we're coming off.
22:02
Speaker 3: That's a whole different discussion for another day if they
22:05
Speaker 3: want to either pay one of those guys. But now
22:07
Speaker 3: it's like Bryson and he's a free agent twenty twenty eight.
22:11
Speaker 3: I don't know, like they don't. He's a tremendous defensive
22:15
Speaker 3: second baseman. Nico Horner took you know the gold Glove
22:18
Speaker 3: from twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four. I looked at
22:22
Speaker 3: it's more the same. He's a great vibe in the clubhouse,
22:26
Speaker 3: great defensive second baseman. But the bat is just it's
22:29
Speaker 3: not going. Yeah, it's just it's more the same. And
22:32
Speaker 3: I just don't know where they go from here.
22:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's a huge concern for sure, and we're gonna
22:37
Speaker 1: be taught and we're gonna keep talking about Bryson Stott,
22:39
Speaker 1: Alec Boem, Bryce Harper, Trey Turner, Kyle Schwarber, all of
22:43
Speaker 1: these storylines with all of these players in the future. Again, folks,
22:47
Speaker 1: he's Matt Davis from that Balls out of Here dot com.
22:51
Speaker 1: Check out everything they have going on, great great fan
22:53
Speaker 1: sided site. We love reading the content over there. Matt, buddy,
22:56
Speaker 1: it was great talking with you. Thanks so much for
22:58
Speaker 1: jumping on our table talk interview show this week. I'm
23:01
Speaker 1: hoping to have you on down the road if you're
23:03
Speaker 1: able and willing, my friend come back.
23:05
Speaker 3: And join us absolutely, Jeff, thank you for having me
23:07
Speaker 3: in anytime.
23:09
Speaker 1: That's gonna do it for us here on table Talk
23:11
Speaker 1: this week. Please share our podcast with your friends and
23:14
Speaker 1: family members who are Philly sports fans or sports fans
23:17
Speaker 1: in general. We thank you our listeners for being part
23:21
Speaker 1: of this online community with us and within this space.
23:25
Speaker 1: Please make sure to check out our website, Philadelphia Sportstable
23:28
Speaker 1: dot com for all of our podcasts, and follow us
23:31
Speaker 1: on our social sites over on Twitter at Philadelphia pst,
23:36
Speaker 1: threads at Philadelphia Sports Table, and over on Instagram as well.
23:40
Speaker 1: Take care and we'll catch you next time.