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The Phillies’ Last Push: Division, Wild Card or Bust? (PST Episode 682) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Over 13 and a half years strong. We got a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: great show coming your way this week. I'm Jeff Warren.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I'm here with the king. If you're watching on YouTube,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: he is Eric Leonard, my friend.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: How you doing? Good to see you, man.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I'm good, man. And like I said, I'm going to
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: be the King until LeBron's Philly stay ends. Um, and
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: it'll probably end in two championships. So yeah, I'm hoping.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Now you jinxed it. Let's get some wood here. Knock
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: on it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Jesus God.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, well we do have a great show this week, folks.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We're going to get into some listener feedback. Last time
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Eric was on, we talked about the high cost of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: youth sports.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We, uh, Played the.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Jeff Passan clip that was making its way around Instagram.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And we got some feedback from one of our longtime listeners.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: We're going to dive into that very briefly. Some Eagles
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: talk as well. I was down at the public practice
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: with my family. Want to dive into a specific storyline
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: there and just what we're following during the rest of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: this Eagles training camp as well. We're bringing back our
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: hate to see it, love to see it segment. Anything
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: we hate to see happen in the world and everything
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: we love to see happening in the world as well.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Then we're going to end with some Phillies talk. And
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: this week, what we're throwing down on the table, we've
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: got our friend Eric Moritelli. He's going to be jumping
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: on to assess where this pitching and batting situation is
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: for this up and down Phillies team. at this point. So, uh, Eric,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: why don't we get into some, uh, listener feedback? And
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I think it'd be great if I actually had this
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: prepared and actually was, was to bring it up here
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: on my phone as we're sitting here recording. And, uh,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I need to, I need to bring this up right here.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Actually, you know what? I got it.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I got it here.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: It's from our good friend, Simon Kawanishi over in Australia. Simon,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: My friend, it's really good that you sent this email
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to us and looking forward to the fantasy football league
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: this coming season. But Eric and I talk specifically about
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: youth sports, the high cost of sports, how corporations and
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: businesses are just making money hands over fist when it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: comes to what our kids are doing on the field,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: on the ice, on the court. And Simon said, my
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: two kids are far too young to be into team sports,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: yet they are going to choose their desired sports when
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: they are older. And for now, just swimming lessons and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: toddler sports programs. Having said that, if they did play
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: sports that I played, a season of junior football is
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: roughly $ 340 a.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Season plus uniforms.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Travel wouldn't be further than 30 minutes every weekend. Baseball,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: same prices. Travel is up to an hour due to
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: less interest in the sport. That's pretty interesting. Plus, you'd
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: need at least your own glove and your uniform. In
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: both sports, from there, you can be selected into rep teams, etc.,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and then you would have even added cost to that.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Take it easy, Simon. Simon, buddy, thanks again for the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: email here. It's amazing. I think that's a lot of money,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: what Simon was talking about.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And he's over in Australia. It's not just happening here
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: in the United States, Eric. It's happening all over the world.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, the high cost of youth sports, it's just
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: it's running rampant. It absolutely is.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: He even crosses continents, apparently.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Much love to you and your family, Simon. Two little ones.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: I'm sure sleep is at a minimum right now.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: But, you know, once they get up and running and going, yeah,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: you're going to be paying through the teeth probably for
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: youth sports because the rec league community programs are slowly dying.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: They still exist, but like the funding for them is
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: just is in the toilet. I mean, I think I've
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: said on the show and we discussed it two weeks ago.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: the amount of fundraisers you have to do for these
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: things to then wind up with like hand-me-down uniforms and
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: just paying umpires, referees, it's a disaster.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Well, really quick, I.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Want to get into that because, yes, you've talked about
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that over the years on the show. Paying the umpires,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: paying the referees, less and less referees, less and less umpires.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Because nobody wants to pay these poor people. Two, they
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: are getting heckled by parents in the audience. Who wants
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to do that shit? Seriously, who wants to do it?
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And it's like we as a society have created this
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: situation where youth sports is not only more expensive, like
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: we're part of this creation, yet we are expecting things
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: from certain people within the community and we're not able
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to get it because people are heckling refs and umpires
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: out there.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and in all my coaching days, I'm finally, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: was able to retire last year when my son moved
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: to middle school. You wound up getting to know all
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: the umpires and refs because there's so few. Yeah. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: they actually do pretty well for themselves because there's so
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: few people that want to deal with the parents at
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: this point. I was actually a volunteer referee for basketball.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: for quite some time in our local community because they
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: couldn't get anybody to do it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Want to pay anybody because that, that would just, that
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: just was extra money out of the community rec league budget.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: And I, I would get heckled by parents. I kind
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: of even knew in, in rec league basketball games. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I would actually have to tell him like, Hey, I
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: know you and I know your kid. Like we take it,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: take it down.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly. I want you to shut up for a minute.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Elementary school in front of everybody. Like, We went to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: high school together, bro. Like, chill.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: It's a shame what's happened and just the commodification of
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: what's what's occurred with youth sports. And it's just going
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: to get worse and worse because I was watching the
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Little League World Series and you see the uniforms. You
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: see the I mean, even the parents themselves are fully
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: decked out in the uniforms. And then we drove past
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Williamsport recently where we we took our daughter back to
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: University of Buffalo and we drove past Williamsport twice with
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: what's going on right now. it is jam packed and
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: there are thousands of people there. And most of that has,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: has to do with travel or travel baseball. It does
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: not come with the rec league stuff though. All those
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: teams are not like people. I think some people think like,
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: these are like the bad news bears, you know, like
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: the community, these are like the best kids in that state,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: essentially from, from, from one area. And that's what, that's
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: how it works now. And you're the, the yesteryears of that,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: you know, the community team, It's highly it's really underfunded
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't really exist anymore.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: And of course, I would bet the Little League World Series.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: It's just a corporate event. I would at this point.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I think it's just a corporate event.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: That's what jumped out to when you drive by. You
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: just it is.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: It's just.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: There's advertising all over the place and it's not, it's
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: not the Williams, the Williams port, you know, meat factory
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: or something. It's right. It's like national corporations are, are
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: advertising at this thing now. And I didn't see a
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: single like local, local advertisement at all. So it, even
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: that has got corporatized to death and you know, it's
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: on ESPN and they obviously don't want local community companies
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: in their, in their advertising background. So yeah, I, I,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: I'm actually, I drove by and actually got kind of sad.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: I was happy for the kids to get to go
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: to that, but I did, I did, I did tell
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: my son, I'm like, it's kind of sad that like they're,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: they're part of a machine now.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: And they should just be like enjoying baseball.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: That's all it is, man.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: That's what we talked about a couple weeks ago when
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you were on. It is a machine here at this point.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And we'd love to hear from you if you're watching
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: on YouTube. Leave us a comment below your thoughts on
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the high cost of youth sports. We'd love to hear
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: from you. And again, like Simon, he shot us off
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: an email. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail.com. We'd love to
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: hear your thoughts, not only on this, but any other
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: subject matter. in the world of sports or the world
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: of Philly sports. I know we just got started, but
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: we are going to take a break. When we get back,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: we're going to dive into this Philadelphia Eagles team, an
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: experience that I had down at the public practice this
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: past week.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: Stick with us.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: All right, we're back, and we're going to dive into
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: some Eagles talk right now. Eric, as I do almost
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: every year with my family, actually last year I was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: unable to go because I had a public meeting as
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: being a county commissioner that I had to attend, so
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I was unable to attend last year's Eagles public practice.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: But it's always a good time, always a good family time,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: being down there with my wife and my twin daughters.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: We enjoy the atmosphere and the environment. There's always great
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: stuff to do, always some entertaining stuff going on at
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the link. But I'll say this. My wife gets home
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: from work. I took off some time from work. And
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: we're like, all right, let's get down to the link.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So not only did it take us close to two
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: hours and 45 minutes to get there because we live
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: an hour and a half away.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: That's what we did.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: We live an hour and a half away from the link.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: If you were to just drive from Bethlehem all the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: way down to the link. But because of rush hour,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: this thing started at six o'clock. Because of rush hour,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: because when my wife was able to get out of work,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: when I was able to get out of work, we'd
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: end up not getting there until like 10 of 7.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: This thing went till 8. So we were there an
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: hour and 10 minutes. minutes.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Not to mention the fact, and this is the point
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted to bring up here, is we're like, all right,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: we got to get some dinner. We got to get
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: something to eat. The food and the cost of the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: food was absolutely incredible. So my daughters, just like their dad,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: likes a cheesesteak, right? Every now and again, like a cheesesteak.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: My wife likes a good Philly pretzel every now and again.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: So we got three cheesesteaks, one hot pretzel. Two sodas
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: for the twins. I didn't get anything to drink at all.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: $ 130 after I left a $ 10 tip for the people
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: behind the concession stand area. Dude, I was like, oh
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: my God. I was like, I could have went out
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to a nice steak restaurant up here in my region
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and gotten a nice dinner. But holy cow. I'm like,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: when is it enough? And I love the Eagles ownership.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: in terms of Jeff Lurie, what he does with the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Eagles Autism Foundation, and all the proceeds from the Eagles
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: public practice, all those ticket sales go towards the Eagles
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Autism Foundation.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: He's amazing.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: He's actually an owner in the NFL that gives a
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: shit about winning.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: He's like one of the few that actually care about it.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: But man, when it comes to the concession prices, when
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you're taking your family to an event, exorbitant costs. And
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it's gotten to the point of ridiculous where professional sports
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: teams are are just going to start pricing out working
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: folks and families where they're not going to be able
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: to go even to a public practice where the tickets
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: were $ 10 each. You know, you look at what Penn
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: State is doing, changing their season ticket prices. A buddy
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: of mine who I get some tickets from every now
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and again locally here, he's like, we've had season tickets
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: for 20 years. He's like, I don't know if I'm
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: going to re-up it because it's about twice the amount
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that I've been paying over all these years.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: So look, costs do go up at.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Times, but $ 130 for three cheese steaks, a soft pretzel,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and two sodas?
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: A little ridiculous, man.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you're getting to the point when
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you go to professional games, because I know that you
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and your son, you know, you like to go to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the Sixers games every now and again, and it just
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: is expensive. So just wanted to bring this up on
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the show this week, because I was like, holy shit, man.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I love DeKing, that he's in town,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: but he might have priced us out of going to
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: a Sixers game this year. We will see. I've seen
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: the prices double for the most part, my goodness. Can
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I ask, the cheesesteak, is there a Campo's at the link?
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think Campo's is there anymore.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: This was the something cheesesteak company. Honestly, it was probably
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the best cheesesteak that I've actually had. either at the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: link or citizens bank park or even, or even, uh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Xfinity mobile arena. It was probably the best one that
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I've had in years that you, that it's like a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: pre-made thing that you just like pick up and stuff.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: It was actually pretty good.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: But okay. No, I, I lived like a block from
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Campos back in my old city days. And I, that
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: was my favorite cheesesteak. And I know there was, I
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: think they're still down at citizen bank park. I say
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: that because that, that might be worth it for a
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: phenomenal cheesesteak, but to hear you say that you had
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: a phenomenal cheesesteak and that it still costs $ 130. And,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: and you didn't even have a beer.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Like I, so I, you know, I, I haven't said something.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I quit drinking last year and I, you know, I
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: go out to restaurants now and the bill is exceptionally
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: less typically because, you know, I'd like to have a
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: few and, but, And this calendar year, I've noticed that
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: even not having alcohol on the bill, still prices are
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: going up. And if you took your whole family, I
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: know the ticket cost goes to a great.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Cause.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: And I'm really happy you left a $ 10 tip because
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: sometimes the people at the link and CBP they deal
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: with customers saying, how the hell is it this much?
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: And they have to deal with that bullshit. Having said
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: all that, $ 130 for those one, two, three, those three
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: items is absurd. I mean, what's the cost? Six into one,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: it's like, I can't even.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Hot pretzel two and the drinks.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Two sodas. Two sodas, yes. If you buy a can
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: of soda at a, at a, at a bodega, it's
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: like 50 cents.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I think the sodas were like $ 20.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, that, I mean that it's, it's a timely robbery,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: you know? Um, but it is, it is for a
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: good cause and you got to see the team and,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: but I, I, I don't know where this ends. It
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: kind of ties into our previous conversation about youth sports,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: like just the cost of everything. And this has always been,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: it's always been insane. The cost of stuff at, both
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: at concerts and sporting events, sporting events more so, but like, I,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: I just, I don't see like you, you eventually will
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: price out enough people where like, there's going to be a,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: there's going to be a line drawn at some point
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: where it's like, right. Sorry, Susie, we're not going to
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: the game because daddy can't afford $ 200 for food.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I think we're, I think we're already starting to see
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: that too.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You kind of see what's been going on with the Eagles,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the season tickets, the cost there. Citizens bank park is
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the Phillies have been a very relevant team over these years. Now,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: like you were just talking about with LeBron coming to town,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Jalen Brown coming to town here.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And he, after he, he, him being.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Acquired, you know, ticket sales through the roof there, like
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: it's not going to stop.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: It's not going to.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And if the flyers end up actually making some headway
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and continuing to develop and actually, you know, get through
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the second round of the playoffs, like, Tickets sales are
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: going to be crazy, and it's just going to be
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: corporate-based type of sales and corporate people that are going
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to be able to attend.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And that's what it's going to be, man. And yeah.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: If you don't think the Flyers are going to ride
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: the coattails of the Sixers ticket cost. Yeah. I know
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: it's a different sport, but it's the same place. And
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: their argument could be like, well, people are paying this
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: much to get in this building anyway.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: True.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Let's go up $ 10 per seat or whatever it would be.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I don't see an end to it.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Until the country just completely collapses economically.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: And like the Roman Empire.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, things aren't great right now. Things are not great.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: So.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: All right. So I'd love to know folks thoughts out there.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: If you were at the public practice or just at
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: any sporting event, what you had actually paid for food
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: concessions or whatever.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Love to hear from you. But let's get into Eagles camp.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: The end of this preseason is just around the corner here, Eric.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: And we wanted to get into what storylines we're following
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: closely here. And I can say for me, I'm really
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: following what Mekhi Lemon's journey is going to be as
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: a rookie. The first round pick, he missed half of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the spring. He's missed both preseason games, been limited in practice.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I think he's only been at 10 or 11 games.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: training camp practices, being able to participate because of that
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: hamstring injury that he's had. So we've had limited time
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: getting to see Makai Lemon in practice. It was great
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to see him at the public practice. In fact, there
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: was an incredible play that Sean Mannion had Jalen Hurts run.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Makai Lemon just open, completely confused the defense, wide open,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: right in for a touchdown.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: It was absolutely beautiful.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: But Lemon did return to practice this past Monday for
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the very first time since August 3rd. And the offense,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: they had him immediately working with the first team and
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: guessing they're trying to get that Jalen Hurts, Mikhail Lemon
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: chemistry going here. We know that we've got Devontae Smith,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Dontavian Wicks, Hollywood Brown, perhaps he's going to be in
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the fold, Elijah Moore as well, but still the wide
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: receiver room and specifically how Makai Lemon is going to
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: end up developing, even over the next few weeks here
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: as he's still kind of learning the playbook here and there.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: That is my biggest story in terms of this Eagles
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: team from an offensive perspective and where they're going to
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: be possibly heading in the future.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, while you were there, did you notice if Sean
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Mannion looked like a doofus or not? Or did he
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: look smart?
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was kind of just walking around, you know,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: yelling out the plays and stuff.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Because I thought Poo Poo Holes had a bit of
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: a doofus face going on. A little goober-ish kind of thing.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I'm happy to hear that he was calling good plays
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: and Makai Lemon is, you know, first round draft.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: They look good.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: There was pre-snap motion. There was pre-snap motion. It was nice.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Were there passes over the middle?
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: There were.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. Wow.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: What a concept. No, I, you know, I have not
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: been following a ton of story, insider stories from camp.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: And we have not seen any of the starters yet,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: basically in the first two preseason games.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: Right. Right.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I've always been a huge fan of freak shows yeah
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: i love the freak shows on tv you know uh
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: uh the learning channel tlc is now basically the freak
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: show channel so i i've been really enjoying the two
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: freak shows right now in the eagles in markel bell
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: and uh who are bernard yes and i know markel
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: bell was a third round draft pick but he is
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: he is incredible to watch live yeah Well, on television,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: he's 6'9, 360 pounds, and he moves really well. And
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: it does get to a point where you imagine him
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: and Mailata on either side at the tackle spots, and
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: you're like, this this is like the road warriors yeah
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: wrestling i've never seen two guys this large and it's
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: been really interesting watching a guy that tall be able
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: to i mean he's been pancaking dudes yes pre-season yeah
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: um i've been really enjoying watching brian baldinger's posts on
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: instagram where he he highlights uh mark hillbill quite a
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: bit and i know who are has not been, you know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: he's played here and there. He's gotten into the games,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: but just his development so far, you know, I'm not
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: saying he's going to be Jordan. My lot is going
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: to be this like seventh round phenom is going to
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: turn into a superstar, but like you see development already.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Like he's already kind of doing the, the arm bar,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: the Reggie white move.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: And he's so goddamn strong and low to the ground that,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: you know, against the Patriots, I think twice he was
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: able to just push the tackle aside and make a tackle. And,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: That to me is like, I already know, you have
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: your backups, I already know what the starting lineup is.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: So watching those guys and being the team that produced
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Jordan Mailata, when the Eagles take a chance like that,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: I'm in. Let's give it a shot. And I'm always shocked, Jeff.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you are too. After the success of Jordan Mailata,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: he might be the best tackle in football. Why are
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: other teams trying this? And why is it still just
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: the Eagles trying this? taking it to our Bernard in
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: the seventh round.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: When other teams like should be like, you know what?
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: It worked for them. They got one of the best
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: tackles of football. Why aren't they trying this stuff out?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I love how you mentioned the Markel bell storyline, because
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: something that I don't think has gotten enough publicity and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised about it. And we really haven't
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: talked about it too, too much on this show is
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the fact that offensive line coach, Jeff Stoutland, not there.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Chris Cooper is the guy who took over. That's the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: guy who Sean Mannion wanted to bring in. It's like, okay,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: what the hell's going to happen? With the development of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the offensive line, the depth, you have guys like Markel Bell.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: There's other guys who were drafted, other guys who were
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: brought in as well during the course of free agency.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: And you're like, my gosh, this is actually working here, too.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Like maybe Stoutland is behind the scenes talking to. the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: offense in general and talking to the line coach and
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: maybe helping in some way, we know he's not completely
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: like out of the picture, but.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I was concerned about that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: And we are seeing, like you said, Markel Bell is
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: developing already as a third round pick and the perennial
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: replacement for Lane Johnson. It's like really good to see
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: thus far that it doesn't seem like the offensive line
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and the development has really missed a beat.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: No.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: And it's perfect that Lane Johnson is staying one more year,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: probably has one more good year. And yeah, and it's
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: giving bell a chance to like slowly develop and maybe
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: he will be ready next season to just take that
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: role on and because the worst thing that could happen
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: knock on wood again the show yeah is that lane
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: goes down and bell's forced into the lineup like week
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: five yeah and that all that development goes out out
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: the window when he's just getting run over by max
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: crosby i haven't looked at the schedule but like and
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: he just has a couple bad starts maybe his confidence
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: goes into the toilet so I just like what I've
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: seen so far. I remember some draft people saying, like,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I would take a guy that tall.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, but he's 370 pounds or whatever. He's huge. Yeah, exactly.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: And he's agile. Like, he's not– He's not Greg Oden.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: He's not an oaf who can't move. So, like, I mean,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: I just I've really enjoyed watching those two while I
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: wait to actually see what the starting lineup looks like.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Well, folks, we're going to take a break when we
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: get back. Bringing back this week, our hate to see it,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: love to see it segment. Now we're going to get
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: into some Phillies talk to end the show. We're going
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to be right back. We are back and let's get
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: into our hate to see it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Love to see it segment. See, I like this.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I actually heard from somebody recently listens to the show
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and they're like, you guys talk too much sports. Just
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: talk about other stuff. That's what I told you, Jeff,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: day one when I joined. You've been saying it for years.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: You've been saying it for years. So hate to see it.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I love to see it here. We're going to start
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: with the negative and end with the positives.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: We decided we wanted to do that with this segment.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: We'll let you start first, buddy. Hate to see it.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: This week in the world, what have you just hated
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: to see in the world here?
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Well, my hate to see it kind of ties into
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: our first topic.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Oh, okay.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: Um, I, I hate to see ticket fees for tickets
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: you purchase for a sporting event or, or even a
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: show or concert, whatever you go to. Um, so, uh,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: like I said earlier, we took my daughter up to
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Buffalo university, Buffalo and Penn state is playing.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: My alma mater is playing her, her school this year
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: at state college, which is just so weird. Um, cause it's,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: it's such a small football school. I think, you know, uh,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Khalil Mack is like the one guy that, really turned
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: out in the NFL. It's pretty much it. Um, anyway, she,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: she got tickets. She's taken a bus down with a
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: bunch of her friends to go to the game. My
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: wife works for a company that, you know, she can
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: get discounted tickets, Penn state tickets. Yeah. And they're not
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: the best section, but so we bought them and it
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: was like, Oh, it's not a bad price. And then
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: you get to the ticket master part of it through
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the pen.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: $ 24 tacked onto three to three tickets for a college
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: football game. against the team, they're probably going to beat
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: by 30 points. And it was like $ 8 per ticket
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: processing fee. And it's like, just print the fucking tickets
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: out or send them to me digitally.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And that's it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Like there's no processing fee. Exactly. I, I, and these
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: are discounted, like, Hey, why I work for the company.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: I should get like, this is nice. This is a
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: nice thing. And then you hit you in the face
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: with that. And you're like, Oh, by the way, do
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: you want parking? No, fuck you. I'll go find a
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: spot somewhere downtown and then we'll walk to the stadium
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: because I know that I know State College. It's just infuriating.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: And and I almost don't like like you and I
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: go to a lot of shows.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: And I almost don't. If Ticketmaster is like is selling
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: the tickets for a show, I'm almost like, OK, if
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: I have this show or this one, it's 15 bucks
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: and it's a small club that's in Harrisburg.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: It's not going to charge me. It's going to charge
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: me two bucks for processing fees. I'm going to go
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: see the smaller bands. I'm sorry, because I don't want
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Ticketmaster shoving it up my ass.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Look, the Penn State stuff you're talking about with the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: tickets and even the parking passes, too, because we go
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: to at least one Penn State game a year. My
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: family and I are going to the opening game against Marshall.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Get the tickets from a friend, like I mentioned earlier
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: in the show. And he tells me, he's like, I
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: accidentally sold tickets. the parking pass.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: He's like, I'm sorry.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: It's the first time they're going digital this year. I
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: put them up online, accidentally sold it. You're going to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: have to get your own parking pass. I'm like, okay,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: that's fine. So there's a certain section that we are
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: usually in where we do our tailgating lot 32, which
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: is kind of close to the stadium. And I see
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: it the one day and it's like $ 85 for the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: parking pass.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, holy shit.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And then I, of course my, uh, my ADHD brain
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: is like going through life and work and everything. Forget
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to get the tip. Forget to get the parking pass
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: that day. Next day, I go back, look at the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: same thing, and it's one hundred and six dollars. And
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I'm like, holy shit, I got to get this right
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: now because it's going to be two hundred dollars before
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I know it. One hundred and six dollars for the park.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Go see Marshall.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: To be able to park. And yes, we are tailgating.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: It's a fun time and stuff. But just to park
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: my vehicle.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: We're using opportunity to show Vinny the campus.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: That's what we're telling ourselves.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: It's more so we don't have to pay $ 50 to
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: park our Subaru and not tailgate just to go to
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: the fucking game. I know I'm swearing like crazy, but
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: like when I saw the discounted tickets processing fee, I'm like,
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: just go fuck yourself. Exactly. I can't stand it. I know.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Look, my hate to see it is also sports-ish related
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to with youth sports.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: And what we were talking about earlier.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: My daughter, she has gotten really good at cheerleading since
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: she's been in middle school.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: She's the one that was a black belt in karate.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: She's decided to hang up her black belt this past
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: year and really focus on cheerleading. She ended up making
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: varsity cheer in high school as she's going into her
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: sophomore year. Then she asked us a couple days ago,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: she's like, not everybody has them. She's like, but I
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: really would like to have a Letterman jacket. And we're like, okay, well,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: you know, give us the link, you know, shoot us
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: off the link. And she's like, well, they're kind of expensive.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: And we said, all right, sweetheart, we'll, we'll check it out.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: We'll see what it is. Eric, $ 250 fucking dollars for
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: a Letterman jacket.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh my God. Are you like, what, like,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: what is this thing made of? Like, this is beautiful.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: What is your velvet?
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I was like, what is this thing made
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: of here?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: You know, Oh, my God. I'm just amazed.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: It goes back to what we were talking about earlier
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: with youth sports and the high cost of everything.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure we're going to get our daughter this.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe she's going to pay for, like, maybe part of
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: it with some allowance money or something like that.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: But, man, it's– we're going to go broke. We're all
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: going to go broke here. I know.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: God.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: God. So, yeah, we talked I talked about Vinny's soccer
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: and Sills College.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's obscene. We're at that point.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: And I'm not insulting your daughter in any way. Yeah,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: but she's not the quarterback of the team.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Letterman jacket.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: They should have discounted Letterman jacket.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Come on. Exactly. Exactly.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Let's shoot over to our love to see it. What
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: is your love to see it here?
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: All right. Love to see it. It's going to sound
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: weird at first, but the deaths of Dolly Parton and
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Tim Curry. Oh, and not not the deaths themselves, but
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I can't believe I guess I can believe it. But
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: like the positive public, the outpouring, the outpouring. is unbelievable
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: for these two people. I mean, Dolly, Dolly, it was
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Dolly passed away. And it was, I mean, it was
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Instagram and Twitter. My entire feed was just Dolly.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: Was the best.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: And rightfully so rightfully so.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah. She was, she was heavily, she gave back so
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: much money, you know, I read about Dollywood and how
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: it employed 4000 people and it would help kids. It
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: would help people go to college, like actually help kids
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: go to college at work there. Yeah. The black community,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: LGBTQ community. She was just just a great human being.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: And like, it kind of got lost in the shuffle
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: a lot. And a lot of the outpouring was like, man,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: she's one of the best fucking songwriters of all time. Yes. Yes.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Like coat, coat of many colors. I remember my grandparents,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: I grew up in California and they love Dolly Parton
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: and Kenny Rogers. So I was familiar with the music
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: and I went back and listened to code of many colors,
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: which is one of her like popular songs and kind
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: of teared up at one point. I was like, Holy shit.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Does she write like know how to write a good song?
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: And like, And one of those, like, she could speak
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: to you kind of things, you know? But just seeing
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: that was amazing. And then Tim Curry, which you and
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: I have texted about last night. Like, from our childhood, dude.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: I had friends that were artists and skaters and got
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: me into Rocky Horror. And, you know, I never watched
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: the movie when I was younger, but I met them in, like, 13,
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: 14 and got into it. And, you know, he was
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: in Annie. We got to talk about Clue, which was
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: one of our favorite movies.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: One of my favorite movies of all times, Clue. It's
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: like top five. It's got to be top five.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's been on Broadway. I think it's touring
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: It's such a great movie.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I'm not shouting. All right, I am. I'm shouting. I'm shouting.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I'm shouting.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Communism was just a red herring.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Herring.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: And then Jeff, your favorite character. He was it. I know. Yeah.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Jeff's very afraid of clowns, so I had that all ready. Um,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: and what, you know, my, my kids knew him from
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: home alone too, where he, you know, just this manic
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: energy and not to mention seven years ago, we discussed
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: at length, you and I, the YouTube clip of him
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: on some German dance music show where he was, he
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: was seriously like, he was, it was kind of like
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: a electronic, he was doing electronic David Bowie music.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: And just going up to these German people who were
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: stone-faced and sitting there. And he's like, do you boogie?
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: A very cold person.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she doesn't boogie. Guys, she doesn't boogie.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: She's a very cold person. He was such a personality, man.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: And I watched an interview this morning with him on Instagram.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: And it was after he had the stroke and he
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: could barely talk. And this guy was dead serious. And
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: he was like, what is the one love of your
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: life that didn't happen? And he just goes, Miss Piggy.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: From the Muppets movie he was in. And he's like,
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: once you've had pork, you can never go back. You
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: can never leave or something like that. The guy's on
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: his deathbed. He's making these jokes.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: What a guy.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: What a character. Both of them. I love to see
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Because people die sometimes. It's like, well, he was controversial.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: He was questionable. These two weren't.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: These two weren't. Exactly.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: No controversy.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Two authentic human beings at the end of the day.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: That's what they were. Two authentic humans. Man, it's a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: great pick. It's a great pick. My love to see it, Eric,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: is more sports-centric here.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if anybody has.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Heard out there, but the Pro Bowl– Is not going
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to be happening anymore.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: So people have been a little tired of the Pro.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Bowl not working. So the NFL has actually decided to
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: shut it down. I mean, after it has spent the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: past two decades trying to fix it, like instead of,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: you know, conference or like, what if we do like
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: a fantasy style draft, you know? They took him out
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: to Hawaii for the longest time. They had the Manning
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: brothers involved. They were doing like a flag football thing,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: skills competition.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Holy cow.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: So the NFL finally said, you know what? This has
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: been an absolute and utter failure.
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I like what's next with it. What's next?
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: People will be named to the pro bowl, but the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: current collective bargaining agreement allows the league to decide, you know,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: whether to host a pro bowl.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: And if not, they have to replace it with another event.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: So there's going to be probably an honor ceremony type
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: event that we're going to see, which is fine by me.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: You know, they could make it cool, but we're not
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: going to have to go through, uh, watching ridiculousness on
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: our school skills competition, you know, where these guys could
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: potentially like get hurt. And remember the old game also
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: when they would actually play and you had a guy
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: like Sean Taylor kicking the shit out.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Of the punter, you know, like, yeah, not the safest thing.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: It was funny.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: It was cool.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: But the pro bowl hasn't worked for two decades. Finally
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: getting rid of it. I love to see it, man.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I love to see it as I hit my desk.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: I didn't even know they ended it. That's how little
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: I've given a shit about the pro ball for, for many,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: many years. And when, when the participants don't care, yeah,
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: that that's when it's time to just be done because
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: you got to like at one point, okay. The, the
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: starters weren't playing, but it was like the second best
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: quarterback was going to be playing or third.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Now you got like Tyler shuck rolling out there because
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: everyone else said no. And it's like, And they're playing
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: daintily because they don't want to get hurt. And it's like,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: what are we doing? Like the NBA All-Star Game has
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: kind of been a joke for a while too. But
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: they've actually tried to make changes to get– like they
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: definitely did this past year where they had like different
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: teams and different quarters or played different halves and stuff.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: It was clunky, but they at least tried something. And
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: it kind of made the players care a little bit.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: But the Pro Bowl has just been a disaster for–
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: for so long, and I'm glad they finally killed it.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: I love to see it. Bye-bye, Pro Bowl.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. All right.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Well, we are going to take a break. Then we
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: get back really quick. Or are we going to take
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: a break? No, we're not taking a break.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: We're just going to quick talk, sorry, about the Phillies
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and the fact that they ended up signing former Yankees
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: pitcher Nestor Cortez. And the hope was, see what he
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: can contribute. Perhaps maybe in September, he was down in Clearwater.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: 48 hours later, bam, right.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: On the aisle here.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: This team cannot... Catch a freaking break. Seriously, my gosh.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: After nearly, what, a year of surgical rehab, Cortez Jr.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: signed by the Phils here. And who knows what the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: heck is going to happen? Who knows what is going
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: to happen? And if he may be able to come back.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this guy, yes, he's a veteran
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: in the league. I don't know if he's going to
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: be able to give this team anything. But the fact
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: of the matter is something's going on with Zach Wheeler.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: And I know we're going to talk to Eric Mortelli
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: really quick about this pitching staff and the starting pitchers.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: But something's going on with Zach Wheeler.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Christopher Sanchez isn't necessarily, quote, Christopher Sanchez at this point.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: So things are a little shaky here with the starting
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: pitching here, Eric.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank God for
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: Aaron Noel and Andrew Painter right now. Yes, yes. Pitching
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: up a storm, both of them. And Jesus Lizardo, too.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: He's the ace.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: And I know you haven't been the biggest fan of
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: that contract, but still, man, thank God for him.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: I shifted about mid-year. I was like, all right, he
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: made the all-star team. But at first, I was like,
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: he had one good year when he was a former
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Marlin who didn't do shit. And it's like, oh, I
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: don't like this. But thank God those other two are
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: pitching really well because we're almost into September. And that's
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: when they're going to have to keep performing like they
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: have been. And it has been, it's been noticeable. Something's
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: up with Zach Wheeler. Um, I never thought the Nestor
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: Cortez thing was gonna maybe like a long, like a
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: long range starter, like a number six possibly, which we
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: thought Taylor and Walker was going to be this year. Um,
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: I hate Cortez because I had him in fantasy last
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: year and he kind of killed me a little bit.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: Didn't do anything.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know what else they do. I mean, I really,
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: really liked the trade deadline. I know some people thought
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: it was not enough. And I was one of the
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: people who thought it wasn't enough in terms of starting pitching.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: I was like, you had to get like a– remember
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: they got Cinderguard in 2022, I think it was. Didn't
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: blow me away. Didn't blow– the trade the trade market
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: away but like it was it was an arm and
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: it and it helped help bridge the gap to the
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: playoffs and i and unfortunately like this nestor cortez is
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: that's the move that is to bridge them and that
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: because there's really no one to bring up from the
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: farm system at this point and What you have is
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: what you have, and I don't think Cortez is even
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: going to be a part of it. If he's already
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: on the DL after signing him two days after they
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: signed him, he's cooked.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to see what happens with
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: this team in September. We're here at the end of August,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and we're going to dive into more Phillies talk in
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: just a bit with our good friend Eric Mortelli.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: And, buddy, before I let you go, you got anything else?
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Any final thoughts here as we're ending the first part
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: of the show here this week?
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: No, I'm going to go chill.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: I'm 50 now.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: You are.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: Whenever I can relax, I'm going, I take that opportunity.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Sounds good.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Chill out for a little bit, folks. We're going to
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: take a break. When we get back more Phillies talk
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: coming your way.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: And now on the table.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: All right. Joining us to.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Dive into some Philadelphia Phillies talk. Eric and I were
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: just talking about this Phillies team and some storylines as well.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: But we've got our good friend Eric Moratelli at Eric
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: underscore Moratelli over on the Twitter slash X. He's now
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: doing some good stuff over on Substack. And we're going
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: to get into that a little bit too, okay? It's
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: great to see you, buddy.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great being on. I've been good. How have
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: you been, Jeff?
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: I'm doing all right, man.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, this Phillies team, I mean, I'm feeling good
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: certain weeks, and then I'm feeling not good certain weeks.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: It's just been a roller coaster of a season, as
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: we know, here in 2026. You know, you wonder.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: What's going to be happening here towards the end of
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: August and what September is going to hold for this team.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Can they make the post season? It looks like they
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: possibly can now in terms of the wild card. But, uh,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: before we get into Phillies, talk about your sub stack, man.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I seriously, I want to get that information out there
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to folks in case they want to subscribe to you
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: and see what you're doing over there.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: So I actually, I've been playing around with it a
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: little bit. Um, uh, it's a little slow moving. Um,
• 40:15
  Speaker 5: you know, I, I thought I'd have more time with, uh, with, with,
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: with naps with the, with the new baby and everything,
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: but it seems like every time I sit down and
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: start doing some research on something that the nap ends.
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: And so I finally got my first article out on there.
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: I plan on doing some more, uh, now that I
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: kind of know what I'm doing on it and everything. Um,
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: so yeah, you know, I, you know, just gonna, I just,
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: you know, I, i love writing about the phillies love
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: talking about baseball and with it you know there's a
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: lot a lot of freedom right it's it's not necessarily
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: it doesn't have to necessarily be formatted in a particular
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: way so i just again just like i like doing
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: on here i like doing it through uh through through
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: written words too so yeah as we start winding down
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: the season here i'll i'm going to try to get
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: some more work up there and and you know keep
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: writing good.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Deal good deal we start with people search on substack
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: just eric mortelli.
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, actually I have it up right here. Hold on.
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: I feel like I'm so unprepared for all, for what
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: all my, uh, yeah.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: Uh, at E more Italy.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: There you go. E more Italy. There we go, folks. Subscribe.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: Seriously.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: You're going to get some good content for sure.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Well, let's get into this Phillies team here, Eric, and let's,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: let's start off with some pitching talk here because I
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: want to, I want to get an Aaron Nola right
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: off the bat here. I mean, the question is, I guess,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: has he really turned things around here? Because at this point,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I believe he's got a 2.51 ERA in his last
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: five starts. Look, his curveball certainly isn't what it used
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: to be, but he's been utilizing his changeups more, which
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: is kind of bizarre that it's working because that's not
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: necessarily been his strong point. Seems like he's figuring things out.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: My fear is that opposing batters are going to start
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: figuring out the changes that he has been going through.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: How do you assess what's happening here with Aaron Nola
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: and his recent turnaround here?
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: I think given the state of some of the other...
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: And I know we'll talk about it. We'll touch on
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: this too, I'm sure.
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: Given the state of some of the other pitchers in
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: the rotation, Nola stepping up to what he's been doing
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: this month, it really is necessary.
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: Seeing that he has been able to adapt after a
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: really rough year in 2025 and a pretty rough start
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: to the 2026 season, just seeing what he's done. You
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: mentioned he has a 2-5-1 ERA in his last five starts.
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: In the month of August, he has a 2-7-9 ERA.
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: You really can't... if you would have told me that, uh,
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: you know, back in May, I would have said you're, you're,
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: you're full of it.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: Right. Um, but I mean, you know, I.
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: Don't expect this to necessarily continue, but if he can
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: sit around like, you know, that three to three, five
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: ERA going down the stretch run here, you know, that's
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: going to be absolutely massive for this, uh, this Phillies rotation. So, yeah,
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think he's just learned, I think that
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: he has to pitch a different way. Um, And he's
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: still going to give up the home runs. It's going
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: to be something that happens every single time. It's not
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: even just a bit. It's just how he pitches. But
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: the thing is, he's limiting walks. He's not giving up
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: free passes to get guys on base. So when he
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: is giving up those home runs, they're solo shots or
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: two-run shots. And then after that, he settles in. It's
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: like he has kind of that one inning or so.
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: He's got to get it out of him. You know,
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: got to get it out of him. You know, it's coming.
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: So you just hope that when you see it, it's like, okay,
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: hopefully that's it. And he settles in and he really has.
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's been a 28 or 29
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: innings through the month of, through the month of August.
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: He's got like 37 strikeouts or something. I mean, he's getting,
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: he's generating whiffs again. And you know, he doesn't throw
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: the ball hard. I think, you know, he's, he is fastball.
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: You know, it's usually.
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: Sits in here between 92. It's every now and then
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: you can pump it up to like 95. If he
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: really reaches back and throws one. But, yeah, just utilizing
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: the off-speed stuff, using the curveball when he can. But
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: I think that's been such a big piece of his
• 43:55
  Speaker 5: repertoire that now mixing in a changeup, which he hadn't
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: really used a lot, is something to kind of keep
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: hitters off balance.
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: And I think he's learned how to do that.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: So, yeah, I mean, I think everyone has to be
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: really impressed with what Nola's been able to do. You know,
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: at this point, I think everyone has to realize that
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: he's at best going to be in the rotation of
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: the Phillies have established right now.
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: He's probably your number four pitcher.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:19
  Speaker 5: And if you're getting this type of production out of
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: your number four pitcher for any stretch of time over
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: the course of the season, it makes it a lot
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: easier to swallow those blow up outings that are going
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: to happen every now and then.
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, it's really been between him and
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: Andrew Painter kind of stepping up in the last couple
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: of weeks here.
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: It's really been a savior for this Phillies rotation.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: It has for sure.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: And look, we got to also talk about another gentleman
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: as we're sticking with pitching here. And that is Zach Wheeler.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: My gosh, struggling like we have never seen him struggle
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: before here. He had his worst outing of the year
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: this past Monday against the Mariners. Eric, I mean, allowing
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: eight runs on nine hits, five walks, four strikeouts. He
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: allowed four home runs for the love of God here.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's got an eight point five one ERA
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: in his last six starts. So if the Phillies actually
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: make any sort of postseason run, if they want to
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: do that, if they even get there. they are going
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to need to have old Zach Wheeler back in some way, shape,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: or form. Somehow he needs to talk to the baseball
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: gods as he is going to sleep at night to say,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: please give me back what I had before. I don't
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: know what it's going to take at this point here.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on what has happened with Zach
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Wheeler over this past half a dozen starts here?
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's really the concerning thing for me. And as
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: I was saying, like, you know, Nola and Boehner stepping
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: up has kind of helped, you know, push forward with
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: the whole Zach Wheeler situation. We have not seen Zach
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: Wheeler pitch like this in a Phillies uniform ever. I mean,
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: if he's out of bad outing, you know, he gets
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: pissed off in the next outing. He goes out and
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: usually goes seven, gives him maybe one run and strikes
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: out a bunch of guys. There's two numbers you mentioned
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: in that last start, the walks and the home runs.
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: He's not a guy like five walks for Zach Wheeler
• 46:06
  Speaker 5: in a game.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: That that's really uncharacteristic.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: It doesn't happen.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Yes. Right. It just doesn't.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: And, and for home runs, he doesn't really surrender the
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: long ball too much either. So to me, again, this
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: is all just, you know, theorizing because nothing is, is
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: really come out about this. And, you know, Wheeler reminds
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: me of a Roy holiday in a way, right? Like
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: just like a workhorse doesn't want to miss a start,
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: you know, keeps anything kind of like under wraps.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: Like if there's anything going.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: On, um, But I have to imagine, you know, he's
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: going through a bit of a dead arm or fatigue
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: period here because it's not like the guy just forgets
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: how to pitch.
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: Like, I mean, he he pitched really well coming into
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: the beginning of the season, coming off the thoracic outlet
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: surgery and everything. So to me, I think it's sorry.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: The dog.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: That's all right.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: That's all right.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: We love dogs on this podcast.
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: He's making his appearance. Yes. Anyway, sorry.
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: So, yeah, I think with him, it's just kind of
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: dead arm or fatigue. OK, so, yeah, I think it's
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: got to be something physical at this point because, you know,
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: we've never seen a pitch like this.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: The way he came off of surgery. I don't think
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: it's anything like lingering with that. I think it's probably just,
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: you know, he's not he's not old, but he's not
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: young either. So he's he's thrown a lot of innings
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: the last few years. Um, and you know, he, he
• 47:25
  Speaker 5: goes deep in game. So I really think like what
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: would be best case scenario is skip a start or two.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: Um, the issue with that is, uh, Nestor Cortez.
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: So I thought maybe they signed to maybe make that
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: happen for him. And now it goes in the IL today.
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: So it doesn't seem like that's really going to be
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: a thing.
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: So I don't really know what their option is. Cause
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, they have Alan Ron hell, I guess they
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: could bring up, um, if he's back, he was hurt.
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: I know that too.
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: So I don't even know if he's, if he's back
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: to pitching. Um, but yeah, they're, they're in a tough
• 47:55
  Speaker 5: spot with, with, with some, uh, starting pitching depth right now. And, um,
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: So it's going to be something that are going to
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: have to figure out. But you hit the nail on
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: the head. If the Phillies want to make a deep
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: postseason run, they need Zach Wheeler to be a number
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: one starting pitcher again.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: And look, before we go to break here, I mean,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: from an overall perspective here, Eric, you know, what should
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: be our overall level of confidence on a scale of
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: one to ten? about these Phillies starting pitchers, about the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: starting rotation and how they're going to perform down the stretch.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, level of confidence, what do you give it again?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Scale of one to 10.
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: I'm going to go around like a seven, I guess,
• 48:35
  Speaker 5: because we're seeing things from guys like Jesus Lizardo, like
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: again today, just went out and absolutely shoved to, yeah,
• 48:41
  Speaker 5: to at least keep take one in, in, in Seattle here.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: And he has just looked like even, even games where
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: he's giving up runs, like his stuff just looks so dirty.
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: Like he's, he's accumulating a crazy amount of strikeouts. You
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: said 200 on the season today. So like him to
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: me right now, I think he's actually pitching the best.
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: Like his stuff looks the best right now. Sanchez, Not
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: quite as extreme as Wheeler, but he's having some outings
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: where it's looking like he's not going into the seventh
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: and eighth inning anymore. He might be going through a
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: little bit shaky. Not as nerve wracking as what we're
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: seeing from Wheeler, I don't think. But I do think
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: he would benefit from an extra day rest here. and
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: there too just because he remember he went through that
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: streak earlier in the season where he was going seven, eight,
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: a couple of complete games, too, earlier on.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: So he's got a lot of innings on the arm.
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: So I just think, you know, I think for those
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: top two guys, I think, you know, the workload is
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: catching up to them a little bit.
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: But then you're getting some reinforcements. Right.
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: As we talked with Nolan and Andrew Painter, his last
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: few starts have been have been really, really, really encouraging.
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So I'm still confident that, you know, we're going
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: to get.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: A version of Zach Wheeler, maybe not, you know, a
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: two ERA Zach Wheeler, but if we can get like
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: a two, you know, high twos, low threes ERA Zach
• 49:54
  Speaker 5: Wheeler back, that'll be fine.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: Sanchez hopefully can find his form.
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: And if that does happen, then you're looking at a
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: really scary rotation going into the playoffs with five guys who,
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: and you could probably move one of them, probably Painter
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: into like a relief role or something like that. But,
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: you know, it's relying on Wheeler and, you know, Sanchez
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: to an extent, kind of looking like what they looked
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: like back in, say, June or early July.
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to see. I mean, it's
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: all going to hinge on this starting rotation.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, as this
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: team is looking to get to the postseason and how
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: they're going to perform in the postseason, it's all about
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: this starting rotation in so many ways. So that being said,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: we are going to take a break, folks. Again, Eric
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Moritelli at Eric underscore Moritelli on the Twitter slash X
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and head on over to Substack. Search him out at
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: E Moritelli. You you're not going to be. You're not
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: going to be disappointed with some of that content you're
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: going to be getting from him in the future.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: So, look, I'm teasing it out there. Now you're going
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: to have to do it, right?
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll make it work. I'll make it work.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, we're going to take a break. When
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: we get back, more Phillies talk coming your way. All right,
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: we're back.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: And now to get into a subject matter that is
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: just it's been in my crawl for so long.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: And we actually have not talked about it here.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: On the podcast, on this platform, I don't think at all,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: all season, Eric, wanted to get into the backup catcher position.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: On this team here.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: And look, I know Rafael Marchand is getting ready to
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: join the Phils as he has been sidelined since July
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: with his injury. But I got to say right now, dude,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: I am so over Eric. Garrett Stubbs. I know he's
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: a great locker room guy and stuff, but I am
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: so over him at this point. I'm amazed he's even
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: in this organization, even in professional baseball here at this point.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not trying to be unkind here. I'm really not.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: And look, I know Raphael Marchand. he's no all-star at
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: this point and who knows probably maybe never will be
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: he was having a really rough season before that injury
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: in July but I'm just wondering what we should be
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: making of the backup catcher position and its future here
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: with the Philadelphia Phillies because this is something that should
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: been in my crawl now for so long what are
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: your thoughts here.
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: Man I think it's I think it's fair to uh
• 52:17
  Speaker 5: to be concerned about it because it's been a situation
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: that that has I think kind of.
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: Been um.
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: Not really, really something that the organization had to think
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: about because JT has been just, you know, a workhorse
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: back there, right? I mean, the guy catches more innings
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: than anyone in baseball, but age is catching up to him, right?
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: I mean, again, he is still a solid baseball player,
• 52:39
  Speaker 5: but not the guy that they signed or traded for.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: What was it in 2019? I guess it was or something.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: But for a while, like it was something like, all right, yeah,
• 52:48
  Speaker 5: like this guy's going to play once a week, like
• 52:50
  Speaker 5: on Sundays, whatever.
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: It doesn't really matter. It's becoming more of a glaring
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: issue now.
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: And I don't it's hard to, I think, blame any
• 53:00
  Speaker 5: of the backup catchers because they have not like neither
• 53:02
  Speaker 5: one has really had a chance to play a ton.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: Right. Really get into a rhythm. You know what I mean?
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 53:08
  Speaker 5: So I think it's a tough place to be being
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: a backup catcher to a guy like JT Romito, who
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: just wants to be out there every single day. That
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: being said, there's going to be, there's going to come
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: a time in a place where JT Romito.
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: Is no longer the Phillies catcher.
• 53:22
  Speaker 5: And the only thing that right now would like, if
• 53:26
  Speaker 5: we look to what was, I think what he signed
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: a three-year deal, it was longer than I want it
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: to be.
• 53:30
  Speaker 4: I think it was like a three-year deal. He signed
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: this off season.
• 53:34
  Speaker 5: You know, at this point, you know, you're probably going
• 53:37
  Speaker 5: to have to look at a stop gap, like one,
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: one year, maybe a two year signing, uh, just a
• 53:42
  Speaker 5: free agent because your closest, um, I'm trying to think
• 53:46
  Speaker 5: your closest prospects. I think, uh, Faribus is in high a, um,
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: so he might, he's, I think he's like the number nine.
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: He's yeah.
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: He's the number nine prospect. Um, and then there's another guy.
• 53:59
  Speaker 5: Why do I forget his name off the top of
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: my head? Who is, um, he's like the number 30 prospects,
• 54:03
  Speaker 5: but he's also, he's only playing in the, um, the
• 54:06
  Speaker 5: the florida uh yeah he's in the he's in rookie
• 54:08
  Speaker 5: ball right yeah yeah so um you know there's no
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: one like really like knocking on the doorstep i guess
• 54:13
  Speaker 5: fair but technically you know if he's already in high
• 54:15
  Speaker 5: a could be an option to look at in a
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: year or two maybe uh if he continues to develop
• 54:20
  Speaker 5: but he's missed a lot of time with injuries and
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: things like that so he hasn't really had a chance
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: to Kind of prove that I don't think so I
• 54:28
  Speaker 5: think yeah as As Philly sports fans and Watchers we've
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: been burned on Prospects so many times yes that I'm
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: Not like putting a lot of stock in any Of
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: these guys right now um So, yeah, it's really it
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: is a dire situation. And for this year, the other
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: nice thing is in the playoffs with days off built in,
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: you don't really need one really need a backup catcher
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: barring injury or anything.
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: But on the stretch run, you will.
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: And it's funny, like I feel like every time Noel
• 54:57
  Speaker 5: is out there. Garrett Stubbs is also out there like
• 54:59
  Speaker 5: is that like I wonder I'm wondering if that's like
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: is that a thing that they like discussed or you
• 55:04
  Speaker 5: know does Nola just like throw into him or do
• 55:06
  Speaker 5: guys like Zach Wheeler say hey I'm only throwing a
• 55:08
  Speaker 5: JT right right No, but you got to get Stubbs or,
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: you know, you got to get JT out of there
• 55:14
  Speaker 5: in some case.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean, I think no matter.
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: What you do between Marshawn and Stubbs, it's going to
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: be frustrating, you know, from a from an at bat standpoint.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 55:24
  Speaker 5: You just hope that they can play a decent backstop
• 55:27
  Speaker 5: and call a decent game.
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: It makes such great points there. I'm just.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Just getting a little concerned about this particular position as
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: we are moving forward.
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say it's definitely the weakest.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: And look, there's some weaknesses with regard to the bats.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: So let's shift over to what the bats are looking
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: like right now in terms of a player that has
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: surprised us here at this point and also a player
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: that really needs to step up here towards the end
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: of August as we're looking to September here. I can
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: tell you for me, the player who has kind of
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: been I don't necessarily want to say surprising the most,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: but I think he's not getting the accolades that he
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: needs to for his first year in Major League Baseball.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: And that's Justin Crawford. I think that his certain level
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: of consistency that he has had. is a player that
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: is not getting necessarily their due. And he is a
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: farm system product. And I just don't think he's getting
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: talked about enough. And I would say that he's a
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: player that has surprised me at this point. So which
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: bat has surprised you the most here?
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: I think Crawford is definitely a good answer. And I
• 56:40
  Speaker 5: do think he's been flying under the radar, not getting
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: a ton of credit.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: But to me... Alec bone. Okay.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 56:47
  Speaker 5: If you would have told me just like with Nola,
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: if you would have told me that in his last,
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: what is it? Last 26 games, he would be hitting
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: three 26 with an eight 23 OPS. I would have said,
• 56:59
  Speaker 5: there is no way Alec will ever have an OPS
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: in any stretch over 800.
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: Right. Unless he has like a three for four game
• 57:07
  Speaker 4: or something like that.
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: But really, I mean, you know, with him, it's surprising
• 57:10
  Speaker 5: in the fact that like, I feel like, he has
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: just been a very polarizing, like frustrating player.
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 57:18
  Speaker 5: And it's like when he was drafted, you know, his frame,
• 57:23
  Speaker 5: it's like, you know, people were comparing him like Jason
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: Worth and everything and saying, you know, he's like six.
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: Five, you know, got, got, you know, got, got a
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: good build, should be able to hit some home runs.
• 57:32
  Speaker 5: No, the dude hits like 11 home runs a year,
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: but right now, like the, the, his at bats are competitive.
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: Like for how I used to, you know, joke around
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: that Alec Boone, could ground in, could hit him a
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: double play if there was no one on base. Like
• 57:46
  Speaker 5: he would somehow find a way to do it. And
• 57:48
  Speaker 5: it would be the first time in baseball history it
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: ever happened. But right now, like he's actually putting together
• 57:52
  Speaker 5: competitive at bats and he's driving and runs, which is
• 57:54
  Speaker 5: great because I, I, I, I'm glad he's, he's, he's
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: making me look, look, look dumb and make.
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: Me look bad here.
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: Um, so he's going to be my most surprising, but
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: But in what Bryson Stott's doing, I think we've talked
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: about Bryson Stott on the show before when I've been
• 58:10
  Speaker 5: here with you, how we feel like he's always ready
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: to come into his own. I feel like it's finally happening.
• 58:15
  Speaker 5: That's why I'm going Alec Boehm at this point because
• 58:17
  Speaker 5: I don't know how long this is going to last.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: Sounds good.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: Well, who needs to step up in your opinion here? Because,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, there are definitely a lot of guys that
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: need to step up. I'm certainly in the Trey Turner
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: camp when it comes to this. And it's not because
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: of the contract. It's because I truly believe there's that
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: talent within him. I believe it is there, Eric, but
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think, I think he has been in his head.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Once again, I think he gets into his head and
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: has been in his head ever since he's become a
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia Philly ever since, you know, the, even the, the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: standing ovation, you know, from that time, he is a very,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: a sports psychology is a crazy thing in the world
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: of sports, whether you're talking little league or whether you're
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: talking about the big leagues here. So for me, I
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: think Trey Turner needs to step up a bit here.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: You know, what are your thoughts?
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: Uh he's he was my choice too.
• 59:05
  Speaker 5: Is he okay all right yeah I mean you like
• 59:08
  Speaker 5: you look at other guys who are struggling right now
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: like Marsh but Marsh had he was like so over
• 59:12
  Speaker 5: the top where he was in the beginning of the
• 59:14
  Speaker 5: year like he was going to always kind of come
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: back to you know his median there um but yeah
• 59:19
  Speaker 5: Turner is he is next to JT to me one
• 59:22
  Speaker 5: of the most athletic players on the team yeah and
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: should always be you know, one of the top hitters
• 59:28
  Speaker 5: on the team, given, you know, given his, his skill and, and,
• 59:32
  Speaker 5: and what he can do. But, you know, he's had
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: a couple of hot streaks this year and I'm like, Oh,
• 59:36
  Speaker 5: maybe he's turning the corner.
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: Maybe he's turning the corner.
• 59:38
  Speaker 5: But now, you know, in the same span that we
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: were talking to Alec Boehm hitting, you know, over 300,
• 59:41
  Speaker 5: Trey Turner's hitting 221 and with a sub seven OPS.
• 59:46
  Speaker 5: So it's like in that 25, 20, last 25, 26 games,
• 59:50
  Speaker 5: He's really not contributing the way he should be for
• 59:52
  Speaker 5: a top of the lineup type guy. And yeah, I
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: really do think because the talent's there. Like we saw
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: it last year. He won the batting title in the
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 5: National League last year. Barely, but like, yeah, still like
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 5: the potential is there.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: And it just hasn't. always really come.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 5: To fruition or presented itself since, since joining the Phillies.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: So to me, you know, he's the guy because, you know,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 5: when they signed him, he was your other superstar, right? Like,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 5: or I went, yeah, it was Harper.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 5: And, you know, Schwarber was still kind of coming to
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: his own.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: Like, yeah, he had that.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 5: He had a really good 2022 for the Phillies, but
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: it was supposed to be Bryce, the Bryce and Trey show.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: To me, it's like, yo, now it's been Bryce. Who's
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 5: been having a, a monster season and a month. He's
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 5: on a tear right now. And Schwarber is kind of
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 5: he was in that little slump. It looks like he's
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: kind of coming out of it now a little bit.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, you got those two guys. But then,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: you know, you're looking at like the next guys I
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 5: would trust in the lineup or, you know, Luis Arise,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: Alec Boehm, surprisingly, and Bryce and Bryce and Scott.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, dude. And I loved our conversation here. Loved it.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: And before I let you go here.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: This road series that they're currently on hasn't been really
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: great so far. Yes, they were able to pull out
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: a win in Seattle today, taking one game in that series.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've got the Angels, Diamondbacks right around the
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: corner here. How do you think this road series may
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: play into how this team is mentally when they return
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: to Citizens Bank Park here?
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts here to close us out?
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: I think from a momentum standpoint, it's really important to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: go and take care of business here. The Angels are
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 5: not a good team, and the Phillies should go in
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 5: there and win that series. West Coast trips are always weird, though,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: especially the Phillies. Again, it's another one of those things
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 5: where it doesn't matter who's on the roster. We could
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 5: talk about the 2017, we could talk about the 2016, we.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: Could talk about the 2042 team.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 5: For some reason, traveling out west never does them any favors.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 5: But the Angels, I think they should. And Arizona, that
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 5: building haunts this team. They cannot win a game in that.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: It really is.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 5: It's like it is one of the– one of the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: bigger mysteries to, to, to solve here, but it's a
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 5: huge series. I mean, with, with, with the way the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 5: wild card shaken out, Arizona's right there. So it's really
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: important for them to go in there and take care
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 5: of business with, with Arizona. And from a momentum standpoint,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 5: if they can do that, make up a little ground,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: that's going to be huge for when they come back home.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: All right, my man. I appreciate you taking the time here.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to see how this turns
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: out for this Phillies team. The fan base is just
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: chomping at the bit to know what's going to be
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: happening here. We don't have a crystal ball, of course,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: but I always appreciate you taking the time, my friend.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Really, it's always great talking to you.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: And, folks, again, at Eric underscore Moratelli over on the
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Twitter slash X.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: Head on over to Substack. Search out at E. Moratelli.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: You're going to find some good content in the future
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: there from him as he's getting.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: Started on this new endeavor. Come back and join us
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: down the road, my friend. Seriously, I would love to
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: have you back on the show.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, sure thing. Always love being on.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: And that's going to do it for us this week.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Make sure to share the Philadelphia sports table podcast show
• 1:03:12
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• 1:03:14
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• 1:03:16
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• 1:03:20
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• 1:03:24
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• 1:03:26
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• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: And ultimately we appreciate you take care and have a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: great week and we'll catch you next time.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 5: Thank you.