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The Phillies Have Issues, Yet There's Confidence (PST Episode 524) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey, everybody, it's Jeff here. We wanted to let you know that
• 0:02
  this podcast episode was recorded on both Tuesday, July twenty fifth, twenty twenty
• 0:07
  three, and Wednesday, July twenty sixth, twenty twenty three. By the
• 0:11
  time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope you
• 0:14
  enjoyed the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia Sports
• 0:40
  Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
• 0:44
  That's right over ten years strong. We have got a great show coming
• 0:48
  your way this week. We got football starting. It is starting training campus
• 0:53
  here for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's an exciting time. I am Jeff Warren
• 0:57
  and I'm here on my good buddy, Eric Leonard. Hey doing buddy,
• 1:00
  I'm good. I just want to I want to shed some light on a
• 1:03
  conversation we had before the show. Oh God, which one I think we
• 1:07
  have to I think we do have to admit a couple of things here,
• 1:10
  maybe not in in full, but you spend some time in Boston recently.
• 1:14
  I did, and I did last year, and I just think we have
• 1:18
  to tell the listeners that we kind of like the city. I do.
• 1:22
  We're Philadelphia guys. But man, I liked it too, and you were
• 1:25
  telling me your stories and I'm like, it's a great city, isn't it.
• 1:27
  You're like, yeah, I kind of have to admit it. Awful
• 1:30
  fans, the worst fans, I can't stand them, but it's it's it's
• 1:36
  a it's a good city. I'm not gonna lie. And I think you
• 1:38
  kind of experienced the same thing. Yeah. My wife and I went up
• 1:41
  there. It was a late sixteenth wedding anniversary. We took a trip without
• 1:45
  our daughters an extended week and we are mostly in the western part of the
• 1:49
  city and my wife says to me, man, this city is really really
• 1:53
  clean, and she's like it's just like She's like, this is a nice
• 1:57
  city. She's like this is great. And I've turned to where I'm like,
• 2:00
  yeah, it really is. And there was that guilt because we love
• 2:04
  Philly. We love Philly, of course we do. But I was just
• 2:07
  like, man, this city is fantastic in a lot of different ways.
• 2:13
  And it wasn't just like the tourism stuff that we were doing. There was
• 2:15
  just an there was an air of it's a good place. It's a good
• 2:21
  place to hang out. There were great restaurants, there were great just the
• 2:24
  streets, the layout of the city as well. It was it was very
• 2:29
  welcoming Erica. It really was a welcoming city, man, I know.
• 2:32
  And as long as you're not like a sports fan from out of town of
• 2:37
  another team, right, you're in a good place. It's also a good
• 2:39
  summer city. So you caught it time. My daughter has been thinking about
• 2:44
  going there for college, and I took you know, she spent time in
• 2:47
  there in July, and I took her up there in in April, and
• 2:51
  you know, she was like, I love it here. I'm like,
• 2:53
  well, try it in November through February. Because Chicago is the same way
• 3:00
  I've always heard Chicago is a great summer city. The winners are awful.
• 3:04
  Philly, in other hand, pretty good year round. Like I lived there
• 3:08
  for a while and I've never really had a really bad winter, So I
• 3:13
  mean that. I think that's the I think if you catch a good city
• 3:15
  at a good time, you're gonna walk away going. Now. That place
• 3:19
  is awesome. Yeah, I really liked it up there, and in fact,
• 3:23
  my wife says to me, you know what, if it wasn't so
• 3:27
  cold during the winter, like you were just talking about. She's like,
• 3:30
  I could see us retiring year and I was like, oh boy, I'm
• 3:32
  like, actually it would be kind of cool. I just there's a lot
• 3:36
  of great stuff up there. Again, outside of the sports aspect of what
• 3:39
  the city is and the fan base, there's just a lot of great stuff
• 3:43
  that we did. Whether it was just just how this again, how the
• 3:46
  city is laid out. We did a we did a sunset cruise. There's
• 3:50
  a lot of political history of course up there, and of course I'm a
• 3:53
  nerd when it comes to that. We did a ghost and Gravestones tour,
• 3:57
  we went on, we went on a freedom Trail tour, just tons of
• 4:00
  history of you know, where a country was founded, some really awful people
• 4:04
  that helped to found our country, I will say that, and some amazing
• 4:08
  people that helped to found our country as well. So let's bring it back
• 4:12
  to the show. Though. Yeah, if it wasn't for the scumbag Celtic
• 4:15
  fans, oh scumbag Red Sox fans, yep, Patriots Bruins. Great city,
• 4:20
  but that's that, that's a deal breaker for me. So I went
• 4:24
  by Lennon's gonna love this, We're go I went right by the TV Center
• 4:28
  and I farted. I was like, damn, I'm gonna show you.
• 4:31
  Yeah, and he hates farts. As we all know, he would accept
• 4:34
  He would accept that. Yeah, that part. Yeah, Well, we
• 4:38
  got a great show, folks, great great show. We're gonna start off
• 4:41
  talking about the Philadelphia Eagles training camp, as I mentioned earlier, is here,
• 4:46
  But it seems like the fan base really is a kind of a quietly
• 4:53
  expecting I think perhaps, and I'm wondering, and we're gonna get into it
• 4:56
  maybe a little too much from this team. And then from there we're gonna
• 5:00
  get into Bronnie James. As many of us know, he went into cardiac
• 5:03
  arrest this past week while he was at basketball practice at USC. We're gonna
• 5:08
  talk about that and how certain athletes are going into cardiac arrest and having heart
• 5:12
  problems. And then from there, I'm gonna get into some Sixers talk with
• 5:15
  regard to Paul Reid, and we're gonna be ending things with some Phillies talk
• 5:19
  as well. And what we're thrown down on the table. We've got Kevin
• 5:23
  mcgowski from that ballsad here dot Com over at fanside, and he's gonna be
• 5:27
  joining us just talk about the current state of this Phillies team. Certain aspects
• 5:30
  of the team that really do need to start performing better. Had a pretty
• 5:34
  good three game series against the Orioles, taking two out of three games,
• 5:39
  but this team still needs something before the trade deadline, which we're gonna be
• 5:43
  getting into. Eric, Let's start off with this Philadelphia Eagle season that is
• 5:46
  right around the corner. I'm gonna be going to the public practice with my
• 5:49
  wife and my kids. I'm looking forward to that. I think it's August
• 5:53
  sixth, which is a Sunday. We're gonna be going. We can enjoy
• 5:57
  going every year. But as I was talking to Vince Quinn last week within
• 6:03
  the interview section of the podcast last week, again, you know, it's
• 6:08
  it's been a quiet offseason, a real quiet offseason for this Philadelphia Eagles team,
• 6:12
  this organization, and there seems to be I think the expectation amongst the
• 6:17
  fan base that the Eagles are simply going to get back to the NFC Championship
• 6:21
  and the Super Bowl because they are the quote dominant team in the NFC.
• 6:27
  And I don't think there's anything really simple about that. And I'm wondering,
• 6:31
  you know, our fans this upcoming season here are really really taking too lightly
• 6:38
  what the team is and coming off of a super Bowl, because usually we
• 6:42
  tend to see a Super Bowl losing teams usually regress the following year. We
• 6:46
  usually see that. And I'm not sure what your thoughts are. Eric,
• 6:49
  Again, a very very quiet offseason, and I'm wondering if the fan base
• 6:55
  is kind of just expecting certain things to happen again with the NFC champion ship,
• 7:00
  perhaps another Super Bowl run. Perhaps. I don't know. I just
• 7:02
  don't think it's as simple as that, but I think this fan base mentally
• 7:08
  thinks that's what's going to happen, at least the majority of folks. I
• 7:10
  don't know what are your thoughts. I don't think the Eagles had a really
• 7:15
  quiet offseason, honestly, really, Okay, if you're a real football fan,
• 7:18
  maybe the casual did. I'm not I'm saying like, I'm not.
• 7:21
  I'm not being an ass. I'm saying, like, um, I think
• 7:25
  how he nailed the draft, whether the whether the whether the players pan out
• 7:30
  that he drafted or not. Like I mean, I think the consensus is
• 7:32
  that he just he destroyed the draft, right right. They finally stopped taking
• 7:38
  players for need and just took talent um a couple of years ago, and
• 7:43
  it's really it's really helped. It really helped as a team, and especially
• 7:46
  how he's a GM. Um. I think they've handled this offseason perfectly for
• 7:53
  a team that lost the Super Bowl and could have won it. You know,
• 7:56
  you look back and watched the game again. Um, they had any
• 8:00
  opportunities they could have pulled that out. And I like to compare it to
• 8:03
  teams that didn't handle it very well. You know, look at the Buccaneers
• 8:09
  who won the championship, won two or three years ago. Yeh. Their
• 8:13
  next season was a disaster yea. And I was just going through teams like
• 8:16
  the Panthers lost to the to the to the Broncos in twenty fifteen and their
• 8:22
  next season was was a mess. Like Tam was not the same after that
• 8:26
  too as an quarterback. No. And I just the way they handled everything.
• 8:31
  Jalen Hurts just he signed the contract super professional, um kind of you
• 8:37
  know, kind of kind of took the reins as the leader of this entire
• 8:39
  team. And everything they did, every signing they made, the Swift trade
• 8:45
  was was incredible. I think how they kind of replenished the running back corps
• 8:48
  was really smart. They didn't spend a lot of money. Uh they they
• 8:52
  could have signed Sanders, you know, for for what twenty some meal whatever
• 8:58
  he got with I think it was Carolina, right, But how they kind
• 9:01
  of replenished that the that that position was really smart. They kind of spread
• 9:05
  that money around and then they once again how he went with youth, you
• 9:11
  know, but kept but kept the core, the offensive line, the defensive
• 9:15
  line parts of it. I think they've handled this. A team that loses
• 9:20
  the Super Bowl tends to have a bad next season. I can't see this
• 9:24
  team doing because I think everyone has handled it extremely professionally, from the coaches
• 9:30
  to the players and Howie. Yeah, I should have prefaced it with our
• 9:33
  conference with Vince Quinns and my conversation was, you know, aside from the
• 9:37
  draft, aside from free agency, things have been quiet. And what it
• 9:41
  meant by that was it's been quiet in terms of players not going out of
• 9:46
  their way one to do stupid stuff to to just get their name into the
• 9:50
  press because it's the off season and they need to do something to keep their
• 9:54
  name in the headlines for whatever reason. And it seems like you were just
• 9:58
  saying, Eric that this team has this essentially a maturity factor too, and
• 10:05
  whether or not that is coming from the top in terms of Jalen hurts and
• 10:11
  how how he has learned what to do not only with roster construction, but
• 10:15
  his relationships with his players and coaches as well. It just seems like perhaps
• 10:22
  this mature type of thought process and football construction process that we are seeing now.
• 10:28
  And I speaking of Jalen hurts Man today at his press conference when he
• 10:33
  was asked about that Netflix show Quarterback, he said he was approached last year
• 10:37
  to be on that show and he turned it down. He turned it down
• 10:41
  because essentially, in so many words, you know, he just didn't feel
• 10:45
  it was appropriate, he said, which which in turn was he didn't want
• 10:48
  to be distracted. He didn't want to be he didn't want to have the
• 10:50
  cameras in front of him. He didn't want to have himself necessarily being the
• 10:56
  focal point. Yes, he's a quarterback, He's going to be a focal
• 10:58
  point of a football team, but even more so with a quote show going
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  on on the side, they wanted to focus on football. He wanted to
• 11:07
  focus on his development, and that says a lot about who he is,
• 11:11
  not just as a player, but as a person as well. And I
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  just it amazes me that we have this type of guy who is going to
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  be with this team now for the foreseeable future. Eric, and I,
• 11:22
  just like you, I'm I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic because again, there's
• 11:26
  nothing simple about getting back to the NFC Championship, especially getting back to the
• 11:31
  Super Bowl when teams who usually get there end up regressing. Like we were
• 11:35
  saying, but man, I do think the team is in a great,
• 11:37
  great position. Yeah, and you look at the rest of the NFC.
• 11:41
  You know, you think about the Eagles trying to get back to the title
• 11:45
  game, and I think their path is easier, honestly than it was last
• 11:50
  year. Really, like what teams scare you? You know, Aaron Rodgers
• 11:52
  left the Packers, the Niners, did they get any better? Do they
• 11:58
  still don't really have a quarterback? Right? Yeah? It's interesting. Yeah.
• 12:01
  The Opposition Territory Show this past week was focusing on the forty nine Ers,
• 12:05
  and it's really bizarre. They're like the one team. They have so
• 12:09
  many playmakers, and they have such a fantastic defense and like there their front
• 12:13
  seven is incredible. It's like the one team in the NFL if they were
• 12:18
  to make it through the playoffs without having a solid quarterback play, that's like
• 12:22
  the one team that actually could potentially do it. But who's their starting quarterback?
• 12:28
  Yeah, we don't know yet. It's either gonna be Brock Purty or
• 12:30
  it's gonna be Trey Lance. I mean, it's gonna have to play out
• 12:31
  in training camp or who else. Didn't they sign another guy? Sam Darnold's
• 12:37
  great, that's funny. Um No, But like, but the rest of
• 12:41
  the division, I mean, the rest of the conference is just not it's
• 12:45
  just not just not there. I'm seeing where the competitions coming from. I
• 12:50
  mean this is a cliche, but like Eagles are in a competition with themselves.
• 12:52
  Honestly, if they can stay healthy, they have by far the best
• 12:56
  roster in the NFC. And again, like the way you just put it
• 13:01
  perfectly, Jalen Hurts is treating this like like it's a business, right,
• 13:05
  you know. And in the best quarterbacks like Tom Brady for all of for
• 13:09
  all the stuff he does now with the commercials, he puts himself out there.
• 13:13
  When he was just winning championships, he was never out there. Yeah,
• 13:16
  it was all about football. It was about it was about getting ready
• 13:20
  for the next season. I'm going to dominate. I'm the best player in
• 13:22
  the league. And that's kind of how Jalen hurt. I'm not saying jale
• 13:24
  hers the best player in the league, but he's he's kind of using the
• 13:28
  same playbook that Brady had, not unlike Mahomes, you know. And but
• 13:33
  at the same time, as a team, no story has come out.
• 13:37
  And again I talked about some of these other teams, like when the Buccaneers
• 13:41
  won the championship there, you know, Bruce, all these stories about arians
• 13:46
  and the coaching staff kind of came out where things were not kosher, and
• 13:52
  you haven't heard that with Eagles whatsoever. And I mean, honestly, the
• 13:56
  biggest controversy I think was see j Gardner Johnson leaving the team and saying,
• 14:01
  Philadelphia there's philled with people that are annoying or something exactly. Yeah. Crap,
• 14:05
  yeah, yeah, crap talk in the city, Yeah in the fan
• 14:07
  base. Yeah, Okay, if that's the biggest controversy they have this year,
• 14:13
  I'm okay with that. There's there's really nothing to point to. So
• 14:16
  and I come from I lived in Philly when TiO was doing sit ups in
• 14:22
  the front in the dryway of his house, and you're just watching going this
• 14:26
  entire season is going down the toilet. I could already tall after they lost
• 14:30
  the Super Bowl and four and there's none of that going on. Like I
• 14:33
  again, crushed the draft, crushed the off season. Everyone is saying the
• 14:39
  right things. I can't imagine why, and the fans should be excited.
• 14:43
  Yeah, it's gonna be great watching hopefully hopefully no injuries, folks. I
• 14:46
  mean we always say that every year because an injury, one, one or
• 14:50
  two injuries can derail a season. But you know they they were certainly lucky
• 14:56
  last year. Yeah, Jalen Hurts got a bit banged up towards the end
• 14:58
  of the season, but we know what type of player he is. We
• 15:01
  know what he's going to bring to the field, even if he is going
• 15:03
  through some injuries. So let us know what you're thinking, Philadelphia Sports Table
• 15:07
  at gmail dot com. We'd love to know what you're thinking about this upcoming
• 15:11
  Eagle season and give us some topics to get into on the show. We'd
• 15:15
  love to hear from you. Eric. Let's move on now to the situation
• 15:20
  that happened this past week in California. Bronnie James went into cardiac arrest while
• 15:26
  at a wow at basketball practice at USC. He's a freshman, he's eighteen
• 15:31
  years old, and I was amazed when I saw this news because, of
• 15:35
  course, like you hear, such a young individual. I mean, he's
• 15:39
  eighteen, for God's sake, he's still he's still a teenager going into cardiac
• 15:43
  arrest. But immediately I'm thinking of Damar Hamlin and what we saw in the
• 15:48
  field last year in that Buffalo Bills game. You know, we also saw
• 15:52
  in twenty twenty what happened to Keyante Johnson, University of Florida basketball star after
• 16:00
  hip off against Florida State when he collapsed due to what was known to be
• 16:04
  at the time athlete's heart. And I just I'm thinking to myself, my
• 16:08
  gosh, it seems like we're seeing this more and more with athletes, professional
• 16:12
  athletes, or athletes that are putting their bodies through so much, the rigors
• 16:18
  of what people are doing to their bodies to try to become a professional athlete,
• 16:23
  and once they are there, what they need to do to maintain their
• 16:29
  physical form in order to perform in the field and throughout the course of a
• 16:32
  season, and I'm just amazed by it. I really am eric that people
• 16:38
  are pushing themselves to the point where their bodies just seem like they can't handle
• 16:42
  it and it Maybe these are just a few isolated incidents, but I don't
• 16:45
  necessarily remember this stuff happening too much, Like in the nineties or even the
• 16:49
  early two thousands, I just don't remember this happening. Maybe we didn't know
• 16:52
  about it back then. Maybe we didn't and because we didn't have our smartphones
• 16:57
  and we didn't have social media site to communicate with each other immediately about these
• 17:02
  type of things. But my god, man, I just I just wonder,
• 17:07
  like how how this is kind of just happening with certain individuals. And
• 17:12
  you can't tell me that Bronnie James didn't have some of the best trainers in
• 17:18
  his life and still probably has. He probably has some of the best trainers
• 17:22
  in his life at this point. I don't know, man, Like,
• 17:23
  what were your thoughts when you heard this news and did you kind of think
• 17:26
  how I did, Like you went back to Damar Hamlin, you start thinking
• 17:29
  about Kyante Johnson things like that, No, was he vexed. Oh my
• 17:38
  god. Yes. The amount of mouth breathing idiots I saw online saying was
• 17:45
  he faxed? Is just it's so funny we've beat That's a whole other show.
• 17:49
  But whatever. Yeah. No, My immediate thought was I took it
• 17:56
  back to my coaching just now. Earlier this year, I coached AU basketball
• 18:00
  a team of ten year olds, and I put it into perspective when I
• 18:07
  read the brownie thing that I ran practices like they were sixteen years old,
• 18:11
  Like I ran the crap out of them, dude, and you know,
• 18:15
  and I had parents thinking me, oh, yeah, they you know,
• 18:18
  he came home and he fell right asleep. He was dead tired, awesome
• 18:22
  practice, and I'm just thinking, like I was thinking back to when I
• 18:26
  was ten playing basketball. We practiced like thirty minutes. You know. I
• 18:30
  wasn't an AU. I was in rec league and we ran around, wed
• 18:33
  some layups and I went home and like, kids are starting earlier now,
• 18:37
  and they're they're already in the system trying their their damnedest, and there they
• 18:42
  are pushing themselves. My son played baseball and basketball four straight months and was
• 18:48
  practicing every single day, and it didn't make me think of him and just
• 18:52
  sports injuries in general, you know, like the heart, the cardiac thing
• 18:57
  is way out there, like what I was, but just just injuries in
• 19:02
  general. And then I was thinking about him Brownie James, Like, if
• 19:06
  you think of it, he's probably he's probably played basketball every day for ten
• 19:10
  years already. He's only eighteen. He probably started was eight and was playing
• 19:14
  top level AU basketball because who his dad is. And he's also talented,
• 19:19
  so he's probably played what five years of an NBA career by the time he's
• 19:25
  eighteen years old. It's a good way to look at it. So it's
• 19:26
  it's not impossible to think that something like this might happen if he already has
• 19:33
  a slight condition, and that that would just kind of it would kind of
• 19:36
  just precipitate, it would kind of cause that. And to go back to
• 19:40
  your point at the nineties, I think this happened more than we think.
• 19:42
  Um I remember Paying Gathers passing, it was it was a I remember I
• 19:48
  was a huge fan of college basketball and him from Philly. I love that
• 19:51
  loyal Merimount team and the run they made the in the tournament was was so
• 19:55
  cool after he passed. But um, I think we knew about him because
• 20:00
  he was one of the best players in the country and he passed away with
• 20:03
  a heart condition. I went back and kind of look, other players passed
• 20:08
  away too from hard conditions. Yeah, but we don't know about those because
• 20:12
  there's no internet. We saw Hank Gatherer's collapse on ESPN and that was it.
• 20:18
  I was like, wow, man, I can't believe he died.
• 20:19
  I think this has been happening for a long long time, and unfortunately it's
• 20:26
  actually gonna get worse because kids are pushing themselves so freaking hard because the spoils
• 20:33
  and like fortunate fame of being a major, a top notch professional athlete.
• 20:38
  Why wouldn't you, you know, especially Brinie came up with money. So
• 20:42
  you imagine a kid, poor kid, trying to make it an the NBA
• 20:47
  starting in age eight, playing every single day for ten years up until he's
• 20:51
  eighteen. Yeah, and if he has even a slight heart condition, what's
• 20:55
  that kind of turned into? You know that That was really my takeaway from
• 20:57
  that story. I was like, wow, man, he had the greatest
• 21:00
  trainers, doctors, everything, and it still happened. Still still did.
• 21:04
  It's younger and younger kids are being molded to And it's not just it's not
• 21:11
  just parents saying that you need to do this and you need to practice a
• 21:17
  certain way if you are going to make it to this this or this level.
• 21:19
  It's not just that there. I think certain societal pressures that come with
• 21:25
  it as well. Like you were just talking about, it's where especially if
• 21:30
  you're coming up in a poor area, you know, and it might be
• 21:33
  one of your only opportunities, whether it is to either you know, get
• 21:37
  to college you know, of course, you know, and of course in
• 21:41
  any area. It doesn't just have to be in poor areas. Kids would
• 21:44
  love to be professional athletes if they can, if they have the talent to
• 21:48
  do so. And I think what's really interesting is that just recently I spoke
• 21:53
  on this podcast show to Philadelphia Councilman Isaiah Thomas specifically about his NIL legislation that
• 22:02
  he's trying to shepherd through city Hall for youth in Philadelphia. It's NIL,
• 22:08
  it's it's it's a it's a piece of legislation for NIL or for youth that
• 22:15
  want to seek out name, image and likeness type of royalties and to have
• 22:18
  protections for them in the city. So it's like being filtered down. Okay,
• 22:23
  we saw it on the college level. Now it's filtering down into like
• 22:26
  high schools and other type of levels. And it goes to show the pressure,
• 22:32
  the societal based pressures that are there for kids. I mean, we
• 22:33
  look at my You were talking about your son and what he's gone through,
• 22:40
  you know, talked about your daughter too, what she's gone through in terms
• 22:42
  of you know, her her athleticism with her dance. My daughter is taking
• 22:47
  a break from gymnastics right now. You know, I'm glad she I really
• 22:49
  am glad she is. You know, she said her body's actually feeling really
• 22:52
  good and stuff like that, and it's I'm really glad. But it the
• 22:56
  societal pressures, I think, and it's it's not there's not one silver bullet
• 23:00
  where we can say, okay, we take this away and we're gonna get
• 23:04
  back to some sense of normalcy. I don't think there's that one silver bullet
• 23:08
  out there. Eric No, And the drive and a kid now is far
• 23:15
  more than when I would had when I was a kid, because yeah,
• 23:18
  like I watched my son watch YouTube videos. He's ten years old, and
• 23:22
  he sees kids that are twelve in au doing amazing things, And in his
• 23:29
  mind, he's probably like, well, the kid's only two years older than
• 23:30
  me, I should be doing that. Yeah, you know, And we
• 23:33
  didn't have that exposure back then. I just had Charles Barkley's poster on my
• 23:37
  wall and I was like, I want to be Charles Barkley some day.
• 23:40
  But whereas these kids see like actual examples near their age on YouTube all the
• 23:47
  time. Yeah, like and why wouldn't they push? And again, I
• 23:52
  think it's just gonna get worse. I mean because, like I said,
• 23:56
  Bronnie had the greatest for him to go through this, and he had probably
• 24:02
  the greatest support network you could imagine to get to that level. And he's
• 24:06
  still happen. It's gonna happen with every sport. It's not just not just
• 24:08
  basketball. Basketball is probably the one of the more tougher ones. I'm sure
• 24:11
  this happens in soccer. I'm not the biggest soccer fan. I'm I'm sure
• 24:17
  soccer players coming up experienced this, because that's just a constant running sport yea.
• 24:22
  And yeah, I think it's just gonna get worse unfortunately, But and
• 24:27
  I'm still going to coach a you next year. I'm just gonna be just
• 24:30
  as hard on them. You got you gotta do it because like you have
• 24:36
  to do it. And there may be some folks listening to this that say,
• 24:38
  no, Eric, actually you don't have to do it. No,
• 24:41
  he has to do it because once certain precedents are set within our society,
• 24:48
  sometimes those precedents just have to continue and they have to remain where they are
• 24:52
  at. It's because that's the name of the game. Yeah, And I
• 24:56
  look back now, like when I was a kid, I probably could have
• 25:00
  got pushed harder about my coaches, but they didn't. Back then. I
• 25:03
  mean, my my basketball coach bore jeans, for God's sakes, Like I
• 25:07
  mean, he was smoking, he was smoking ciggis outside of the gym,
• 25:11
  you know, Like it was not it was not like it is now.
• 25:14
  But it's yeah, it's and there's so much money pumped into now youth sports
• 25:21
  like it's its own industry. And I was, yes, I was.
• 25:25
  I was in a tiny, tiny microcosm of it in au in Central PA.
• 25:32
  But I saw the machine a little bit and I was like, holy,
• 25:36
  this makes a lot of money for a lot of people, and it's
• 25:37
  going to just get worse and worse. But better because you're actually turning out
• 25:42
  really good ball players the kids that don't have these issues. But man,
• 25:45
  there's so much money and so much pushed behind it and so much and and
• 25:49
  like, uh like there's uh trying to think of the term, like there's
• 25:56
  pressure, peer pressure, you know. Yeah, like if one kid in
• 26:00
  your class is on a good AU team and you want to like you're going
• 26:03
  to try and find another one, you know, and it's it's expensive,
• 26:07
  dude, Believe me. I saw the money I had to I had to
• 26:08
  balance our budget and I had a little small fifth or fourth grade team.
• 26:14
  It's a couple of thousand bucks for incredible eight eight ten year old kids.
• 26:18
  Like, yeah, imagine how much it costs for this kid, Bronnie James.
• 26:22
  So let us know what you're thinking. I'd love to know. I'd
• 26:26
  love to hear some thoughts out there about this particular subject matter. Philadelphia Sports
• 26:30
  Table at gmail dot com. We'd love to I'd love to just read your
• 26:33
  email. I don't even have to read on the show. I certainly will
• 26:36
  if you want um, And I'd love to respond to. And it's just
• 26:38
  a fascinating aspect of sports and where sports is going and how It's how sports
• 26:45
  is such a great thing for young kids. However, it can be detrimental
• 26:49
  at times, obviously, as we're talking about here with Bronnie James. So
• 26:52
  if you like what we're talking about here and you're new to the PSD podcast
• 26:57
  show, subscribe on whatever podcast platform you are listening to us on. We
• 27:02
  greatly appreciate that. On Apple podcast you can hit that follow button and if
• 27:06
  anything happens to your podcast feed, you can head on over to Philadelphia Sports
• 27:08
  Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over there, and follow
• 27:11
  Eric on Twitter at brick Polite. You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore,
• 27:15
  Warren and the Show at Philadelphia PST. We are on Instagram as well.
• 27:19
  Search us out there, Philadelphia Sports Table and we're gonna take a quick break
• 27:23
  and we'll be back in just a bit to get into the Sixers and the
• 27:26
  Philadelphia Phillies. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. All right, We
• 27:30
  are back, and Eric, let's getting to some Philadelphia seventy six Ers offseason
• 27:36
  talk. I mean, look, things are a little bit slow to the
• 27:40
  point where we're talking about whether or not in their reports too, about this
• 27:45
  on whether or not the Sixers are gonna be able to mold Paul Reid into
• 27:49
  a Pascal Siakam type of basketball player this coming season and possibly beyond. Look,
• 27:57
  we know that that'll read. He just signed a three year, twenty
• 28:02
  three million dollar deal to remain in Philadelphia. And he actually opened up recently
• 28:08
  to one of the reporters at Sixer's Wire about a recent conversation he had with
• 28:12
  Nick Nurse, and he said, quote, I've talked to coach Nurse plenty
• 28:17
  of times, and it's always been kind of the same kind of idea.
• 28:19
  He talked about molding me into a Pascal Siakam type player, somebody who can
• 28:25
  kind of do it all, shoot the ball, drive, pass. But
• 28:29
  right, but right it's all about focusing on my shot mechanics. I think
• 28:34
  it's supposed to say. But right now, Yeah, but right now,
• 28:37
  it's all about focusing on my shot mechanics. That's the start, that's where
• 28:41
  it starts at end. Quote, yes, Eric, Yes he does.
• 28:44
  If he's going to be a Pascal Siakam type player, I guess focusing on
• 28:48
  the shot mechanics would be really nice. Kind of a lofty comparison there,
• 28:52
  don't you think, Well, I mean The downside is he can't drivel or
• 28:56
  shoot, so I'm not sure if I was gonna work out. Um.
• 29:02
  I love Paul Reid as a player, yes, you know, at the
• 29:06
  price they signed him. Not my favorite player. Seven point one million.
• 29:10
  I think it is per year, fully guaranteed. Shout out by the way
• 29:15
  to Danny Ainge, uh the Utah Jazz GM for doing the poison pill offer
• 29:21
  sheet to kind of screw Darryl Morey. You don't see that very often anymore.
• 29:26
  Um, teams, teams don't really. Teams used to do it all
• 29:30
  the time. That was, you know, back and when I was a
• 29:32
  little more cutthroat. The GMS are all kind of friends now. But he
• 29:36
  must have pissed off Morey must have pissed off Ange at some point because he
• 29:41
  did that and forced the six Ers to do this seven point one mill per
• 29:44
  year for three years. But I read the same thing, and to me,
• 29:49
  I just I kind of laughed. I told you, I kind of
• 29:52
  scrolled past it because I was like, that's not gonna have Siakam is a
• 29:56
  Boardomline All star. He's he's an up and down player, m but he's
• 30:00
  a phenomenal defender. He can he can guard wings. Paul Ree can't guard
• 30:04
  wings. He can shoot the three. Paulaly can't shoot the three. He
• 30:07
  can handle the ball. He actually he casually like like handle the ball up
• 30:11
  top and run a player too. Paul Ree can't do that. So I
• 30:17
  feel like this is just a six or story because the embiid hardened things just
• 30:22
  kind of just sitting out there for I think this team's, you know,
• 30:26
  off the rething. I think the team's going to come back is the way
• 30:29
  they were unfortunately, so I think this this was just a trump like drum
• 30:33
  up some some six ers press because there's just nothing else to talk about.
• 30:37
  So part of me, I ultimately think that, like when it comes to
• 30:42
  this issue, like I'm like ninety five percent right there with you, But
• 30:47
  then there's that five percent of me that's like, Okay, there's a new
• 30:49
  coach coming in here. Okay, with Nick Nurse coming in, he's gonna
• 30:55
  want to make his mark on a team that has already kind of been established.
• 31:00
  He's going to want to create some sort of distinguishable play on the court
• 31:04
  or whatever he's going to be doing where they're not gonna He doesn't want to
• 31:08
  be compared to Doc Rivers at the end of the day, and that it
• 31:12
  could be in the back of his mind. I don't know, maybe he
• 31:15
  doesn't care about it, but this is basically the same freaking team's gonna be
• 31:18
  running it back at this particular point in time as we're recording this on July
• 31:22
  twenty six, twenty twenty three. This is the same Sixer's team as last
• 31:26
  year. So I think Nick Nurse is going to want to somehow distinguish himself
• 31:32
  from what Doc Rivers was doing with this team, and it's going to be
• 31:34
  difficult for him to do that, I think. So. I think this
• 31:37
  is why we're getting this too. And it's not lost to me that they're
• 31:41
  comparing him to Siakam who played for Nurse for how many years? Right right?
• 31:45
  Um? And he I think he feels the same way, but not
• 31:48
  as strongly like he's probably doesn't give a shit about Doc. I think he
• 31:52
  uh, he's gonna he's gonna install an offense. I think the battle is
• 31:56
  going to be if Harden comes back, Nick Nurse is going to be like,
• 31:59
  listen, and you're running my offense or you're you're not gonna play and
• 32:05
  more he can do whatever the hell he wants, but that's that's just how
• 32:07
  it's gonna be. I think he's gonna really he's going to really implement Naxie
• 32:12
  quite a bit in the offense. I think that's he's kind of the excuse
• 32:16
  me, the uh, the lowry slash van Fleet, like like the ball
• 32:23
  scoring guard um that can maybe make you know, handle the ball top makes
• 32:28
  some passes. I think that's he's going to try and install in his offense
• 32:30
  because I feel like I feel like Harden's going to be like, that's not
• 32:35
  what I do, right, although he did give him this, he did
• 32:37
  do it last year in the offense. In the regular season, he I
• 32:40
  think he was like third league and assist He had ten assists a game,
• 32:45
  and he played really well within the system that Doc had. And I think
• 32:47
  Nurse is going to try and have an offense that kind of incorporates that,
• 32:53
  and if he's on board again, maybe it works. But we also saw
• 32:57
  what happens in the playoffs when things break down, and I can't I'm hoping
• 33:01
  Harden's not in the team at some point this year. Yeah, but I
• 33:07
  get the story. I understand that Siakam used to play a place with the
• 33:10
  raptors. And that's the that's the angle here. But the one good thing
• 33:15
  is they have an actual coach in the building. Doc Rivers was he was
• 33:19
  he was he was like me coaching baseball. I mean, I manage baseball,
• 33:22
  I don't coach baseball, right. He was kind of a he was
• 33:27
  kind of a player manager. They needed an in game coach, and I
• 33:31
  think they have one now. Um that where things are going to falter unfortunately.
• 33:37
  I think is Nurse is not a player's coach. And I think if
• 33:40
  Embiid doesn't feel like he's getting uh you know, massaged enough right right,
• 33:46
  they might run into some issues because Nurse is not that guy. I think
• 33:52
  it really could happen. I really could. I think the percentage of that
• 33:54
  happening or pretty high. I do you know there is going to be some
• 34:00
  described Look, I think Harden's probably gonna be gone by October. I mean
• 34:02
  I would say, I don't know for what though, I mean I know
• 34:08
  I know he's got him by the balls, you know what I mean,
• 34:12
  he's got morey by the balls. He has for fifteen years now. I
• 34:19
  mean, it's embarrassing how much more he's in love with this guy Because he's
• 34:22
  it makes no sense because he wants to win a title, but you you
• 34:27
  married yourself to this dude that's never gonna win a title. Yeah, he
• 34:30
  just had that mentality. So yeah, that's the what for all of Darryl
• 34:35
  Morey's greatness as a GM and bringing h cyber metrics to basketball and like that
• 34:40
  whole think tank, like wa ways to think of thinking about basketball differently,
• 34:45
  offensively, offensively and defensively. Yeah, the fact that he still is worshiped,
• 34:51
  is still worshipping James Harden makes no sense to me. It makes no
• 34:53
  sense. Yeah, I know, I know. All right, Well,
• 34:59
  the one thing that is going uh interesting, and I would say kind of
• 35:06
  well right now at this point is the Philadelphia Phillies in the city of Philadelphia,
• 35:09
  and it's it's basically, uh, one of the only things aside from
• 35:13
  the Philadelphia Union going on sports wise in the city. And I mean they're
• 35:17
  they're basically I think they're gonna be playing their one hundredth game of the season
• 35:22
  here and the trade deadline is gonna be right around the corner, and we
• 35:24
  know they're gonna be looking to get some bats, right Erica. I mean,
• 35:27
  they they're at least one. They need to get a bat, because
• 35:30
  my god, it's amazing how this Phillies team just continues to struggle. I
• 35:37
  mean I was talking to UH and I will be talking to Kevin mcgowski from
• 35:42
  that Balls out of here dot com just about runners in scoring position and just
• 35:45
  how they just can't get over the hump at times. But I don't that
• 35:50
  a bat has to be coming. And if Dave Dombrowski does not bring a
• 35:53
  bat to this ball club by the trade deadline, I think people might actually
• 35:59
  we may. You see the pitchforks going down Broad Street and over Patterson.
• 36:04
  Actually, no, he he will, he's he's he is known for like
• 36:09
  he'll trade for a veteran, that's for sure, Like I can, She's
• 36:13
  not gonna make a move. Um, they're the defending an L champions,
• 36:17
  and they're in a good spot. I mean they won tonight, nice win.
• 36:22
  Uh Oils are a damn good team, Like I when the hell they
• 36:25
  get good right right? Like I was watching them. I watched the game
• 36:29
  last night when the Phillies pulled it off in the bottom of the ninth and
• 36:34
  man, the relief pitchers the oiler are bringing out, I'm like, what
• 36:37
  the where do these guys, Like, where do they find these like six
• 36:39
  seven Cuban dudes right through one hundred and three miles an hour? Like,
• 36:44
  why don't we have any of those guys? Right? But I but I
• 36:47
  was talking to Vinie and I'm like, well, when you're bad for ten
• 36:51
  years, you're you're gonna get lucky eventually, right right, Um, But
• 36:53
  like I'm just looking at the standings. They won tonight. They're ten games
• 36:58
  out of first with Atlanta. That's like, but that's there. They're not
• 37:01
  the division, no, but they're in the exact same spot they were last
• 37:05
  year. Yeah, like almost identical, you know. And and they made
• 37:08
  some minor moves. They brought him what Brandon marsh right yep, And they
• 37:13
  brought in a center guard and it got him over the hump. I think
• 37:16
  they're closer than most fans think. And I can't believe what I'm saying that
• 37:20
  because they have been disappointing this year. And I swear to God, Ja
• 37:22
  you and I at the beginning of the year said if Nick Costianos has an
• 37:27
  awesome year, we are golden. Yes, Yes, that son of a
• 37:31
  bitch is an All Star this year. And Trey Turner shit the bed.
• 37:35
  Oh my god, it's just amazing. It's it's amazing how he is just
• 37:39
  chasing everything outside of the strike zone. I'm gonna get into it with Kevin
• 37:45
  Lagowski, but my god, he is chasing everything outside of the strike zone.
• 37:49
  It's like the guy forgot how to hit a ball. It's incredible.
• 37:52
  In his career, he's having the way. I'm sorry, he's chasing.
• 37:57
  Yes, like I feel like he's I'm sure he'll probably see the same thing.
• 38:02
  He signed that big contract. I think it feels the pressure. So
• 38:06
  he's chasing those pitches. He's trying to he's trying to hit three hundred.
• 38:08
  Yeah, and like just go back to what you did previously because he's struggling.
• 38:14
  Because I think he's like trying to live up to that contract. That's
• 38:16
  honestly what I think. I love. I mean some of the rumors out
• 38:21
  there, Um, I at first I wasn't in love with bringing Carlos Santana
• 38:25
  back, but I could see it. Yeah, I could see space.
• 38:30
  He's a left hand bat. He would be some great pop in the middle,
• 38:35
  the middle of the batting, you know, middle of the lineup.
• 38:37
  If that's what they did and that's that they brought him in and a good
• 38:42
  reliever, maybe a starter, I mean, sorry Suarez. Pitch tonight actually
• 38:49
  looked pretty good. Um I watched the highlights where we were talking. Went
• 38:52
  six seven hits, four six strikeouts. If he can come back strong,
• 38:58
  you know, and you taywe w Walker looked great last night by the way,
• 39:01
  he was fantastic. Yeah. So I if they can get a good
• 39:05
  reliever because there's a lot of relievers on the market right now, and if
• 39:07
  they just bring in Santana and maybe another bat, like a bench bat,
• 39:12
  I think they're in a good spot because the one thing I do looking at
• 39:16
  their lineup just up and down. It's it is strong. And if they
• 39:20
  all start hitting at the same time, they're going to score some freaking runs.
• 39:23
  Man absolutely Schwarber, I mean with Schwarber, Costiano's Harper bombs, Stot
• 39:30
  Marsh And if they bring in Santana and Turner starts to hit like they have
• 39:35
  they have the players. Um. I am actually like really positive about them
• 39:39
  right now. If they make like those small supplemental moves I don't want to
• 39:44
  make, they can't make a big one. They're not gonna get Aaron Arnado.
• 39:47
  They're not gonna get kron Um. Their their perils already through the roof.
• 39:52
  Yeah, my thought the small moops, Yeah yeah, I mean my
• 39:57
  thought initially was My thought initially was like Hunter Renfro Okay, I mean,
• 40:01
  because he's almost guaranteed to be traded unless the Angels somehow rebound within the next
• 40:07
  week and a half or so. Here, but that left fielder, because
• 40:12
  look, the Phillies actually would have took three of three games against the Orioles
• 40:16
  if it hadn't been for Kyle Schwarber in the outfield. He's the worst defender
• 40:22
  in Major League Baseball. He's terrible. I mean, he is terrible.
• 40:27
  So Hunter Renfro obviously play solid left field. He's got a history of hitting
• 40:31
  the ball out of the park. Yes, he's thirty one years old,
• 40:35
  I get it. But he's hit thirty one and twenty nine home runs in
• 40:38
  his last two seasons, and he's got fifteen home runs so far here in
• 40:42
  twenty twenty three. I will take that. I don't know if they're gonna
• 40:45
  be able to do it, because at the end of the day, there's
• 40:47
  a lot of teams that are still in contention here that are going to think
• 40:51
  that they're going to be able to get that wildcard spot in the National League.
• 40:54
  There's a lot of teams that are gonna be vying for it. There's
• 40:57
  gonna be a lot of buyers out there. I don't know if they're gonna
• 41:00
  be able to get Renfro, but that's who I would like. And that's
• 41:07
  the funny thing to uh. I was looking at the list of all the
• 41:08
  teams today on Sports Illustrated and they're like, they're saying buyers or sellers,
• 41:14
  and the majority of them are buyers. Yeah, And I'm like, that's
• 41:17
  because, well, there's so much parody and base for right now, like
• 41:21
  everyone's kind of five hundred. Yeah, And I'm thinking Sports Illustrated is kind
• 41:25
  of overshooting a little bit because teams are going to be like, we're three
• 41:30
  games over five hundred. No, we're not. We're not buying It's stupid,
• 41:34
  right right, There's gonna be some teams I say, screw it.
• 41:37
  But what what bumps me on is like the Angels are winning right now a
• 41:39
  little bit. They have Otani, they have Trout coming off the I l
• 41:44
  like, are they buyers or sellers? Right? Um, I'm not sure
• 41:50
  who's actually gonna be buying a say, like a team like the White Sox
• 41:52
  are gonna sell right, Like, I think that's the team, the Pirates,
• 41:55
  even though I mean they had a decent season, you know, I
• 42:00
  mean they're in the last place right now, but they're gonna sell too.
• 42:04
  Like, I think those are the teams you need to focus on. That's
• 42:06
  where you need to like pick up the scraps, not scraps, but like,
• 42:09
  I really do think there's a lot of good players out there, and
• 42:14
  a good GM should be able to fill first base, get a bench,
• 42:19
  out field, or get a good reliever. I don't think you're gonna starter.
• 42:22
  You're not gonna get the kid, the guy from the White Sox.
• 42:25
  You're not gonna get who's another good starter that's out there just kind of the
• 42:29
  market. Lance Lynn is another one. I think with the roster you have
• 42:35
  and the potential of them like blasting the ball in the second half, I
• 42:39
  think if you can just supplement, Like Carlo, when was Santana the team?
• 42:45
  I feel like he was here like ten years ago. It feels like
• 42:46
  it was like eight or yeah, like eight or ten years ago. I
• 42:50
  remember them signing. I remember them signing him then and being like, God,
• 42:53
  this guy's old. Now he's like he's gonna be my age, right,
• 42:57
  like Jesus, when the hell was that? I don't I can't remember.
• 43:00
  But he he's actually perfect right now for what team needs. In my
• 43:06
  opinion. Is he like thirty six? I'm looking up his stats right now.
• 43:09
  I'm trying to find he's thirty seven. Yeah, and but I mean
• 43:15
  I'm looking at stats right now, two thirty five, which is what he
• 43:17
  batted when he was with us. Yeah, acually the twelve home runs,
• 43:22
  um, he why not at this point? Like they needed a first baseman,
• 43:29
  right, Yeah, Harper has been awesome at first. He was phenomenal
• 43:32
  last night at first base, like like he must he must have stopped three
• 43:37
  tough ground balls. He really was. But that's a really tough spot for
• 43:42
  someone coming off a leg injury. Yeah, Like you do not want to
• 43:45
  him out there every game? Like want you wanted to be the DH.
• 43:47
  Yeah. By the way, Santana, he joined the Phillies in twenty eighteen
• 43:51
  as a free agent. It feels like ten years ago. Why does it
• 43:54
  feel like eight ten years? Don't know, I don't know, God,
• 44:00
  oh my god, oh Man It's gonna be interesting to see what Dave Dombrowski
• 44:04
  does because you know, at the end of the day, he likes to
• 44:06
  make big moves. We know that, and I think we are going to
• 44:09
  see that because we got a little taste of it last year. He got
• 44:13
  a taste of it last year, the city just getting that taste of what
• 44:17
  postseason magic actually is. He's gonna want to get back to it. We
• 44:22
  know what this team is. You were just outlining it, Eric like it.
• 44:25
  I feel positive too about this team. Actually the second half of the
• 44:29
  season here, I feel really positive. I don't think Trey Turner's going to
• 44:32
  remain in the slump. I just don't. And again, I'm gonna we're
• 44:35
  gonna be getting into this with Kevin Lagowski in a little bit, but uh
• 44:37
  man, I I am feeling really good about this team. And I hate
• 44:43
  feeling like that, but that but that feeling last year when they made that
• 44:46
  run, like he has to understand, like that was it was magic.
• 44:52
  Yeah, that was that was so awesome. They're dancing in the after games,
• 44:57
  champagne or shirts shirts off, dance like dance off, like they were
• 45:00
  having a blast. And I can't believe I'm saying this. They actually they
• 45:06
  really miss Reese Hoskins this year. Yeah, he was such a positive Cloudhouse
• 45:12
  guy. Um they missed the They misses Pop in the middle of the order.
• 45:15
  The guy struck out like a like a like a madman, but he
• 45:17
  bad bad to twenty but he hit like what thirty six home runs last year.
• 45:22
  Yeah, like they that that's how they got there. They were not
• 45:24
  unlike the two thousand and eight team that just crushed the ball out of the
• 45:29
  park like, but that that I mean, that team was better. They
• 45:30
  had guys that could actually, you know, get doubles this stuff. But
• 45:34
  that's how this team is going to have to get back to where they were
• 45:37
  last year. They have to hit home runs. Hope Tray Turner comes back.
• 45:39
  But you have the roster to just just sprinkle in these players that you
• 45:45
  can make minors. You don't have to trade Andrew Painter to get Carlos Santana
• 45:49
  or a good relief pitcher. Like there's tons of arms out there to get
• 45:52
  to to fill out the bullpen, and you keep your top prospects. You
• 45:57
  don't have to probably probably touch the top five in your farm system. It's
• 46:01
  gonna be interesting to watch for sure. Eric, I'm gonna let you go,
• 46:06
  buddy. We're gonna get to what we're thrown down on the table in
• 46:08
  just a minute or so. Here. Any final thoughts before we head out.
• 46:14
  No, Am I positive about the Phillies. Yes, it's such a
• 46:16
  weird Yeah, but I am, like, I really think like you kind
• 46:21
  of have to be there. There's perils like what three or millions? Yes,
• 46:23
  yes, and down Breasti's gonna be like, guys, I'm selling this
• 46:28
  year like sign freight turner. I'm selling it at the trade deadline. He
• 46:34
  has to bring players in. There's no hold on. We're positive about the
• 46:37
  Phillies. We're positive about the Eagles, the two biggest professional sports teams in
• 46:43
  the city. We are positive about Eric. There's an issue, there's something
• 46:46
  going on here. Well in the sixers of Flyers are in the toilet.
• 46:50
  So there you go. Well, well, but here's the thing with the
• 46:52
  Flyers. Okay, yes, they're in the toilet. We know this year
• 46:54
  is going to be a tough season. The following year is probably going to
• 46:58
  be another tough type of season. But it's rebuild mode. It's laying the
• 47:01
  foundation, and I know you don't get into the hockey stuff too much.
• 47:06
  But Flyer's Nation feels pretty good. Would you say you said this five years
• 47:10
  ago the rebuilding I did, he said this ten years ago started, but
• 47:19
  they really Danny Brier is making some great moves getting assets for this team for
• 47:24
  the future. Hope to god they're gonna have the ability to develop and hopefully
• 47:30
  the coaching is going to be there to get them to develop anyway. But
• 47:32
  it's like there's even some positivity with regard to the rebuild thus far, very
• 47:37
  early rebuild with the Flyers, So it's like there's some positivity here now the
• 47:42
  sixth. Isn't it amazing? What can happen? I know we're going to
• 47:45
  end this first part here of the show, but isn't it amazing how like
• 47:49
  in a six month period of time, a team that you have so much
• 47:52
  hope for can just be in the toilet and things just fluctuate with regard to
• 47:58
  our fandoms so much the world of Phillies sports, maybe in the sports world
• 48:01
  in general for other fan bases as well, But my god, we thought
• 48:06
  that we thought, we really thought the Sixers were going to make a run.
• 48:08
  I honestly believed that the Sixers were going to make it to the Eastern
• 48:12
  Conference Finals this year, and it just, of course it didn't happen.
• 48:15
  But six months ago we thought that that was going to be possible, and
• 48:21
  just it's amazing where we are now with this team. You know, with
• 48:23
  the Eagles, it's like, oh, is Jalen Hurts really going to be
• 48:27
  the guy? You know, an over period of time, it's like,
• 48:30
  oh, my gosh, yes, Oh my god. Yeah, because at
• 48:32
  this point last season, there were a lot of questions about how he was
• 48:37
  going to be under center, what type of quarterback he was going to be,
• 48:42
  how he was going to develop. To take a look at the Phillies,
• 48:45
  my god, they hadn't been to the playoffs in how many years?
• 48:47
  And then all of a sudden they get to the World Series and now we're
• 48:50
  talking about them possibly making another postseason. Right, It's just amazing what can
• 48:53
  happen in a few months period of time in sports. Yeah, and that's
• 48:58
  good coaching, good GMing. Right that both the teams did that, and
• 49:02
  hopefully the Sixers got the right coach. Hopefully with Flyers with some French guy
• 49:07
  I'm assuming as their coach. Now, I have no idea I know it's
• 49:09
  John Tortorella. Sure, whatever you say, John Tortellini. I can't wait
• 49:15
  for Tortellini. I do um, but we'll see. I mean, but
• 49:22
  it's it's true though, Like I feel really good about the two biggest teams
• 49:27
  in town. Yeah, like the I think the Phillies are right there.
• 49:31
  It's not They're not that far off. Yep, yep. All right,
• 49:35
  buddy, I'm gonna let you go, folks. Catch Eric on the Twitter
• 49:38
  dot com at Brick Pollitt and uh yeah, let you go here. And
• 49:44
  when we get back, we got more Phillies talk on the way with our
• 49:45
  guest this week. But we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right
• 49:49
  back. All right, we are back. Now let's get to what we
• 49:52
  are throwing down on the table and now on the table. It is great
• 50:00
  to have back on the podcast. It has been sometime, but we are
• 50:02
  glad to have him from that balls outahere dot com one of our favorite fansided
• 50:07
  sites. He's been a contributor over there, and you can follow him on
• 50:12
  the Twitter dot com at big Lagowski. We love him. Mister Kevin Lagowski
• 50:17
  does a great job tagging us on a lot of his tweets. So,
• 50:21
  Kevin, my man, thanks for jumping on board this week. Thanks for
• 50:24
  having me. Can we call them tweets and Twitter and everything? I guess
• 50:29
  right, Yeah, it hasn't changed on my phone or anything. I don't
• 50:32
  know if I just haven't updated it yet. No, it has not changed
• 50:36
  yet. In fact, I was talking to somebody else about that today on
• 50:38
  the Twitter dot com the change it's changed to an x yet. The actual
• 50:45
  app has not changed at all. It's still a dumb bird. It's just
• 50:47
  it's incredible what's happening to that site. Anyway, It's great to have you
• 50:52
  on to talk about this Phillies team. My man. We just got done
• 50:54
  watching the Phillies come back in the ninth inning here on Tuesday night, July
• 50:59
  twinfth, twenty twenty three. It was a fantastic come back in the ninth
• 51:02
  inning. Bryce Harper coming through, Bryson Stock coming through. Dude, Like,
• 51:07
  there are certain times with this team you look at games like this,
• 51:10
  and this was a big game and I think an important game for this team
• 51:14
  as well. Kevin that you say, you know what, yeah, they
• 51:15
  do have it. Of course they have talent on this team. It just
• 51:20
  needs to come through you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it could be
• 51:22
  darkest before the dawn. I was writing up the obituary for this thing,
• 51:27
  all their series loss, and I think this would have been what seven out
• 51:30
  of eight that they would have lost. But you know, they do have
• 51:34
  the talent, and that's kind of what it boils down to. And I'm
• 51:36
  gonna remember, you know, I have just a knack for you know,
• 51:38
  useless information, dates and everything. I'm gonna remember this day first of all,
• 51:42
  for that come back and you having me on the program here. And
• 51:46
  it's actually a birthday of two of my best friends, Lindsay and Christine all
• 51:51
  Right, twins have been friends with them for a long time. They told
• 51:53
  me to give him a shout out. Happy birthday to them, Happy birthday
• 51:57
  to them. Okay, listen to this and I'll always remember July twenty,
• 52:00
  twenty twenty three. A lot of things converging here. Absolutely something we're always
• 52:02
  going to remember about this season. Two, Kevin, I want to get
• 52:06
  into it first right off the bat is one Trey Turner, a great baseball
• 52:09
  player, a fantastic baseball player that we've been watching for many, many years
• 52:14
  in Major League Baseball. Trey Turner just, I mean, he is the
• 52:17
  biggest mystery on this Phillies team in my opinion at this point, certainly having
• 52:22
  one of, if not the worst season of his career. His three hundred
• 52:27
  million dollar contract just isn't looking all that great at the moment. However,
• 52:30
  this is baseball. It's baseball. Who knows if things are going to start
• 52:34
  coming together for him next week, next month. We know what the issues
• 52:37
  are, I mean in terms of statistics, analytics, what he's trying to
• 52:42
  hit outside of the strike zone, just all of it. Those of us
• 52:45
  who consume this type of baseball information, we kind of know what the problem
• 52:50
  is. Assuming he knows what the problem is too, He's got to get
• 52:52
  out of this muck that he's in. So what what's your level of concern
• 52:58
  about Trey Turner right now, at this particular point in time and for the
• 53:01
  rest of the season. Yeah, I mean, as you said, he's
• 53:05
  a great player. He doesn't just turn to a bomb overnight. We've been
• 53:07
  watching him from afar for years through age twenty nine. He's on a Hall
• 53:10
  of Fame trajectory really, and you know, we saw him with the National
• 53:14
  and the Dodger with its great success. Well, that's the kind of guy
• 53:16
  you'd love to have on your team. Well, we got him ponied up
• 53:19
  for him, and and of course he's going through the worst season they's experienced
• 53:22
  so far. And even before that debacle on Monday Night with the two errors
• 53:27
  and then being ejected, he's looked pretty lost for most of the year,
• 53:30
  outside of a brief hot stretch a few a few weeks ago where it looked
• 53:34
  like he was starting to turn the corner. He's previously, he's led the
• 53:37
  National League and hits before, he's led the league in batting average, he's
• 53:39
  led the league and steals. He's a great player, but just it hasn't
• 53:44
  worked out through one hundred odd games so far. Here. Maybe it's the
• 53:46
  first year sort of thing like we saw with Nick Castianos a little bit last
• 53:51
  year. Although those situations are it's kind of apples oranges, because Turner was
• 53:55
  already decided either a shortstop Castianos to Harper injury kind of change what they wanted
• 54:00
  to do with him last year. But I went it boils down to I'm
• 54:02
  probably at about a seven out of ten from the concern ometer or whatever you
• 54:07
  want to call it. From traits Gray Turner not feeling overly confident that he
• 54:10
  can completely turned around this season. However, it's it's going to get better.
• 54:15
  It's just part of the evan flow of the game. Looking at some
• 54:19
  of his numbers today, I saw that his hard hit rate and his exit
• 54:22
  velocity were basically equivalent to last year. So there's some bad luck he's running
• 54:27
  into there. Of course, those numbers only come into play when you hit
• 54:30
  the ball. He's also on pace to chatter his career record or a career
• 54:35
  mark for strikeouts. I think he's within like twenty five of his career mark
• 54:37
  for strikeouts already was really at that point to play. Yeah, he's at
• 54:40
  like one tennish and as high as in the one thirties, and so barring
• 54:45
  injury or anything, he's gonna blow right past that. So that extra thirty
• 54:47
  or forty times you don't put the ball in play, that's I don't even
• 54:52
  know how many batting average points right there, if you have a normal babbitup
• 54:54
  and everything. That's overly analytical about it, but yeah, I'm saying seven
• 54:59
  out of ten. But it's let's hope this is the absolute worst that we've
• 55:02
  seen of him. And it's sort of a getting comfortable in a new environment
• 55:05
  sort of situation because it's it's extremely rare that guys just fall totally off a
• 55:08
  cliff, so we need to kind of just hang on and uh, you
• 55:12
  know, he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Whoever suggests to trade him for
• 55:15
  Juan Soto or some blockbuster trade, that's pretty much crazy, that's crazy talk.
• 55:20
  We're kind of we're kind of saddled with him, and the give and
• 55:22
  take of it is, Yeah, he's probably gonna be an overpay when he's
• 55:24
  broken down and years eight, nine, and ten, But gee, I
• 55:28
  hope years one through whatever or a lot better than this. Absolutely, Yes,
• 55:31
  two through whatever, Yeah, exactly exactly. Look, not everything on
• 55:36
  this team is a disaster, and we know that these guys go through various
• 55:39
  streaks throughout the course of the season. And getting into the next topic here,
• 55:45
  Kevin, something we thought a lot of us thought could potentially be an
• 55:50
  on the field disaster, you know, doesn't actually appear to be. And
• 55:52
  that is how things have played out at first base this year. I mean,
• 55:57
  after Reese Hoskins went down, there were just a ton of questions,
• 56:00
  There were a ton of individuals saying that, my god, this was going
• 56:05
  to be the Achilles Heel for this Phillies team during this entire twenty twenty three
• 56:09
  season. Yet Alec Baum has filled in nicely there, Cody Clements when he
• 56:14
  was playing there, filled in nicely. Now, Bryce Harper, oh my
• 56:16
  gosh, he has been impressive with his first base defense these first few starts
• 56:22
  here. So when we look at the first base position this season, not
• 56:27
  having Reese Hoskins there, and look, we know what Reese has meant to
• 56:30
  this team not being on the field, not necessarily being in the dugout as
• 56:34
  well, Kevin, what happens there in the future for the first base position,
• 56:38
  How do you see things playing out from a more long term perspective,
• 56:43
  given the fact that that doesn't appear to be a disaster not having Reese there.
• 56:47
  What are your thoughts? Well, I think they'll probably have to roll
• 56:52
  with Harpard first base for this season as a sort of temporary measure, and
• 56:54
  they'll ramp up his playing time there to get Schweber or some more DH duty
• 57:00
  put him a lot better in defensive outfield. Out on the field. It's
• 57:04
  a small sample size, of course, so far with Harper at first,
• 57:07
  so I'm not ready to say he's your guy there for five or seven years,
• 57:09
  and he probably doesn't want to play there. Sure, he's kind of
• 57:12
  taking one for the team here and getting it stretched back out until he can
• 57:15
  actually make throws in the outfield, hopefully next year. So I will admit
• 57:20
  for one to underestimating the Hoskins effect on this team. We all know what
• 57:24
  we're getting with him at this point of the two forty five average and the
• 57:27
  goodnight great power and the limitations in the field, but there's some sort of
• 57:30
  intangible that he seems to bring that he just shells really well with the rest
• 57:35
  of the club, and that's hurt them this year his absence. So barring
• 57:37
  something unforeseen, I for one I would think that and assuming that his knee
• 57:42
  injury goes the recovery goes according to plan. If I'm Dave Dombrowski, I
• 57:45
  offer him a one year deal for next year, see where we go from
• 57:49
  there. I'm not sure of the money. I know he's making twelve million
• 57:52
  this year to just not play and to get healthy, so maybe like half
• 57:54
  of that and say hey, here's six million after you you know, we're
• 57:58
  just rehabbing for twelve next year and then try to re establish his value and
• 58:01
  if he does, it's a win for the player and the club and longer
• 58:06
  term pass next season. There's looking through the organization. There's nobody in the
• 58:09
  pipeline that leaps out at you there. Paul is certainly not a solution in
• 58:13
  my mind. But one guy that I would be really intrigued about is Carlos
• 58:16
  de la Cruz and Reading, who's primarily an outfielder, but he's a He's
• 58:21
  a six foot eight monster, and he's clubbing balls at Reading and I'd like
• 58:23
  to see them maybe try to transition him into a first base role, which
• 58:28
  he's played in the lower miners in Arizona Fall League just a little bit.
• 58:30
  He's twenty three years old and they have some runway with him, and it
• 58:34
  would be nice to find an answer internally, you know, for the latter
• 58:37
  half of this decade, if we're taking it that far out, instead of
• 58:39
  having to just go out and spend for outside help. Once again, Yeah,
• 58:43
  I would agree with you in terms of just you know, whether it's
• 58:46
  De la Cruz and bringing up that type of talent in the future. It
• 58:52
  just seems that even the ambiguity that was there at first base, and we
• 58:54
  thought it was going to be potentially, like I said, a disaster.
• 58:59
  It just hasn't. And I think that really does go to show that there
• 59:01
  are elements within this team, the intangibles that are in play. During this
• 59:07
  season, where you have an injury and Reese Hoskins, you just have a
• 59:10
  lot of uncertainty. Even with Bryce Harper coming back from his injury, is
• 59:15
  he going to be able to perform at a certain level. We've kind of
• 59:16
  seen what he's been able to do and not do as well, and I
• 59:21
  think it goes to show that this team actually really does have a lot of
• 59:23
  character. And because of that, and not only to get too too hokey
• 59:27
  here, folks, but because of this, it just means that the team
• 59:30
  is able to come together in various ways and at certain times. And it's
• 59:34
  good to see for sure. But I'm moving along here to our next topic.
• 59:37
  I wanted to get into one particular player who I just who I have
• 59:40
  loved for so long, but man, another guy who has been disappointing this
• 59:45
  year, and it's one JT. Realmuto. I mean, he just hasn't
• 59:49
  had the kind of season that we all hoped for, and he's really been
• 59:53
  that that guy that catcher since Carlos Ruise. I used to call Carlos Ruise
• 59:59
  the general all the time because he was the general out there on the field,
• 1:00:02
  and I feel like JT. Real Muto has really picked up that mantle
• 1:00:06
  over these years playing playing the catcher position for the Phillies. I mean,
• 1:00:09
  I wonder why we've been seeing this kind of play from him this season.
• 1:00:14
  I really hope it's not because he's just on the down slide of his career
• 1:00:17
  right now. I don't know, Kevin, what are your thoughts, your
• 1:00:20
  overall thoughts on what we've been seeing from JT. Real Muto this season and
• 1:00:23
  do you have any long term concerns with him playing this catcher position. Well,
• 1:00:30
  I think the good news is that he isn't showing any real struggles with
• 1:00:32
  the defensive side of things. He's still solid and dependable out there, and
• 1:00:36
  he's he's throwing runners out at a high rate, although the caught stealing numbers
• 1:00:39
  are down from last year with the bass changes basses being enlarge. But he's
• 1:00:45
  thirty two now and you can see the toll that's taking him in on him
• 1:00:49
  offensively, the fact that he's caught the most games in the league. He
• 1:00:52
  did last year and he's tracking to do it again this year. His hard
• 1:00:55
  hit percentage is down about seven percent from last year, and he's striking out
• 1:00:59
  just a little bit more. In the end, I think he's still going
• 1:01:01
  to finish with the kind of offensive numbers that put him among the top five
• 1:01:05
  catchers, which is good for your fantasy team, but you know, it's
• 1:01:07
  not really that great for the Phillies if they're allotting a prime lineup spot for
• 1:01:12
  Yeah, I'm just hoping he can stabilize and maybe bring his average up about
• 1:01:15
  twenty points. He's in the two forties now, would be great if it
• 1:01:17
  was up over two sixty two sixty five, find the power finish at twenty
• 1:01:22
  homers, and maybe the Phillies can formulate some plan to get him more or
• 1:01:25
  any DH time next year to try to prolong things because it's kind of gone
• 1:01:30
  out the window here. That's interesting, left. Yeah, I was gonna
• 1:01:34
  say, that's interesting thinking about him in the DH position, you know,
• 1:01:37
  given given their certain players on this team that could probably also be in the
• 1:01:39
  just the DH position as well. Yeah, I mean, it's totally rotated.
• 1:01:44
  As if you've have Harper able to play the field next year, maybe
• 1:01:46
  j T can DH twenty or twenty five times. That's you know, getting
• 1:01:50
  him those at bats and the staring, saving the wear and tear. But
• 1:01:52
  he's got two years left on this contract, and I think that's pretty much
• 1:01:57
  the ideal amount of time for him because things might go south pretty quickly after
• 1:02:00
  that. Yeah, And whether the Phillies doing on another what unrelated note,
• 1:02:05
  if they do it at the trade deadline, we're waiting until the offseason.
• 1:02:07
  I really think the Phillies need to upgrade the backup catcher spot, So whoever's
• 1:02:12
  in that role is going to be needing to take on increased responsibility really soon.
• 1:02:15
  And Garrett Stubbs had a nice twenty twenty two, but he's been delivering
• 1:02:19
  Andrew Napp level production out there this year. Yea, So maybe they get
• 1:02:22
  a veteran upgrade here at the deadline. And I was trying to look through
• 1:02:25
  some names too might be available. I'm maybe, like, I don't know,
• 1:02:29
  there's probably like a fifty year old Tony Usabio out there waiting around or
• 1:02:32
  whatever. They can get some innings for the Phillies. I was like,
• 1:02:35
  oh, what about Christian Vasquez or whatever? But I guess he's independent race.
• 1:02:37
  But somebody along those lines and kind of spell JT and be a little
• 1:02:42
  bit more reliable. So that's Bonn. The roster needs to be prioritized soon
• 1:02:46
  and then maybe JT catches, like I said, fifteen or twenty fewer games
• 1:02:51
  next year. They can get DH from most of those pad to just lengthen
• 1:02:54
  the life of you know what he's got left in him? All right,
• 1:02:58
  very good Again, Folks were talking to Kevin mcgowski from that Ball's out of
• 1:03:00
  here dot com. He's contributor over there. Follow them on the Twitter dot
• 1:03:04
  com at big Lagowski's great, great follow And let's getting into this next subject
• 1:03:09
  here runners in scoring position. I mean, it's it has been a theme
• 1:03:16
  all season where the Phillies have just struggled time and time and time again.
• 1:03:22
  Kevin, do you think we're going to continue to see this during the second
• 1:03:27
  half of the season. What are your thoughts here? Just the reason why
• 1:03:30
  we continue to see the struggles that we do with this team? Well,
• 1:03:34
  I think it will get better and it has to get better. Um,
• 1:03:37
  they're batting and these these are numbers before tonight's game. I don't have these
• 1:03:40
  factors in yet, but it's two forty nine. Is they're running in the
• 1:03:44
  scoring position, yeah, average average, and that number drafts to two twenty
• 1:03:46
  nine with two outs. Um, that's actually not near the bottom of the
• 1:03:50
  league. The real disconnect is in their slugging percentage with runs and scoring position.
• 1:03:53
  For whatever reason, it's twenty ninth overall and twenty and twenty eighth with
• 1:03:57
  two outs. They're slugging three four two with runners in scoring position and two
• 1:04:01
  outsu Desi Relafford had a three forty seven slugging percentage of his career, so
• 1:04:05
  this is basically a team full of Desi Relaffords every time they've taken the bat
• 1:04:10
  in a run scoring situation with two outs. Not good, folks, not
• 1:04:13
  good. But joking aside with that, even though that's a true statement.
• 1:04:16
  They're they're making progress. They've they've pulled it up from where it was around
• 1:04:19
  mid May, and I don't think the numbers are going to be as unsightly
• 1:04:23
  when we get to the end of the season. We talked about Turner.
• 1:04:26
  I think his production will increasingly somewhat in those situations Bryson Stott is elevating himself
• 1:04:30
  to new levels. Um, he saw it tonight, although I guess that
• 1:04:32
  wasn't with running scoring positions since Harper was on first for that. But still
• 1:04:38
  more and more confident in him by the day. And Harper is rounding in
• 1:04:41
  the form, so he'll pick the numbers up and help that cause as well.
• 1:04:44
  So and whatever deadline acquisitions that Dave Dombrowski makes will be with an eye
• 1:04:46
  tour addressing that as well. Yeah, and then one more random tangent I
• 1:04:50
  found when digging around. The Phillies are batting one ninety six in the eighth
• 1:04:55
  inning this year. I don't know how you fix that. I don't know
• 1:04:58
  how you fix that, but any up tick ticking performances is bound to help
• 1:05:01
  there. So maybe a better eighth inning performance once in a while I could
• 1:05:04
  keep the team from having to do it did in the ninth inning. There
• 1:05:06
  you go. I don't know, it's just the way the lineup breaks and
• 1:05:10
  whatever, but that is like that inning just stood out to me and I
• 1:05:13
  don't know what's going on there? What a stat there, Kevin Jesus,
• 1:05:15
  Oh my god, I was mining deep trying to find the fun stuff for
• 1:05:19
  that was not so fun tonight. It did not hurt. Yeah, exactly
• 1:05:23
  exactly. All right, Well, we got the trade deadline coming, and
• 1:05:27
  obviously Dave Dombrowski is going to do something. In fact, you know,
• 1:05:30
  you're on Twitter other social media sites, some folks have indicated that, you
• 1:05:34
  know, Tommy fam might be of interest to the Phillies to give them a
• 1:05:39
  new bat, perhaps down the stretch, because I think at the end of
• 1:05:41
  the day, we all know they need that bat. They absolutely need it.
• 1:05:45
  Look, Tommy Fam, I'm I'm not a big fan of his,
• 1:05:47
  you know, given the story surrounding how he played last year in Cincinnati,
• 1:05:50
  to kind of not a fan fan. Yeah, I'm not a fan fan.
• 1:05:54
  Oh there you go. Oh word play just I mean sorry, Yeah,
• 1:05:58
  that's okay, it's fun. Just guy padding his stats doesn't necessarily seem
• 1:06:02
  to be a team type of guy, a true team player. You know,
• 1:06:09
  I don't know what are some of the names here that we should really
• 1:06:12
  be looking at in terms of possible trade deadline acquisitions that could be possible for
• 1:06:17
  this team to really kind of help get him over the hump and keep some
• 1:06:19
  consistency going here. Kevin, Yeah, well, addressing fan first, he's
• 1:06:24
  fine. You know, I don't have any real concerns about the clubhouse.
• 1:06:26
  Troublemaker situation might be speculated, but if that being said, he'd be a
• 1:06:30
  fairly underwhelming offensive act. I think so too. Yeah, if he's your
• 1:06:34
  primary guy and that's the deadline, you're gonna be like, what's happened?
• 1:06:38
  Right? Right? There's so many targets out there, and yes, we
• 1:06:41
  can always be surprised by something off the board, but I think primarily we'll
• 1:06:45
  be looking at a right handed, hitting, mostly corner outfielder to fill the
• 1:06:47
  void that Philly's having the field in the lineup. A few names I was
• 1:06:51
  running down earlier to look into Randall Gritchick Ramone, Loriano Hunter, renfro and
• 1:06:57
  even Taska Hernandez, who's been pretty under alming in his first and presumably the
• 1:07:00
  only season in Seattle this year. The name that really popped to me is
• 1:07:05
  intriguing is Lane Thomas, who's he's younger than the rest of that group.
• 1:07:10
  He's been turning twenty eight in a couple of weeks, and he has two
• 1:07:12
  more years of team control after this season. Lane Thomas with the Nationals,
• 1:07:16
  of course, kind of busting out this year, he's found his power stroke,
• 1:07:19
  turning into a really effective player. He's going to cost more with the
• 1:07:23
  team control aspect, but this presents an opportunity for a player that not only
• 1:07:27
  helps you in twenty twenty three, but for at least two more years after.
• 1:07:30
  This comes into reasonable salary on a team that's filled with large contracts and
• 1:07:33
  could possibly offset that. So you know, I'd be giving Mike Rizzo down
• 1:07:36
  to Washington a call and see what it would take for him to deal Thomas
• 1:07:40
  to a division rival. And you know, then you get into the muddy
• 1:07:43
  waters of you know, what prospects for the Phillies have to surrender and everything.
• 1:07:45
  But hey, I'm glad it's not my job, David Dombrowski. But
• 1:07:48
  that's just an of all conceivable players who might be available, that's the one
• 1:07:53
  that's stuck out to me. And there might be a bidding war. So
• 1:07:56
  we'll see what happens with that. Absolutely, we definitely will see what happens
• 1:08:00
  with it. And to close this out here, you know, looking at
• 1:08:02
  this this NL east Man and just over that overall the wild card race too,
• 1:08:08
  I mean, it's certainly gonna be interesting to follow during the second half
• 1:08:11
  of the season. The Phillies are certainly in the mix for sure, But
• 1:08:15
  I'm wondering who should we be most concerned about in terms of another team really
• 1:08:18
  just gaining some momentum that could potentially pose a problem for the Phillies in the
• 1:08:24
  coming months. Given the fact that the Phillies right now is of us recording
• 1:08:27
  this, I think I think they were a half a game outside of the
• 1:08:30
  wild card. I mean, look, they're gonna, like I said,
• 1:08:32
  they're gonna be in the mix, Kevin, But you know, is there
• 1:08:34
  a team that could pose a problem here for the Phills. Well, as
• 1:08:40
  you were saying that, I got on my phone really quick, and as
• 1:08:42
  of right this second, they're in the third wild card spot. They are
• 1:08:44
  okay, fifty four and forty seven. The Giants are that too and are
• 1:08:46
  somehow out based on whatever timebreaker, and the Marlins are okay, it's four
• 1:08:50
  and forty eight there. So yeah, it's it's it's tight um, So
• 1:08:54
  you know, check back in five minutes. It might be different. But
• 1:08:56
  right so, in the National League breaking it down, nobody's catching the Braves
• 1:09:00
  in the East and they're the only mortal lock to make the playoffs, and
• 1:09:02
  then you have Red Brewers in the Central and the three team race in the
• 1:09:05
  West, Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks, and then the Marlins and Phillies.
• 1:09:10
  So eight teams for six spots, and it's really seven for five because of
• 1:09:13
  the Braves. But honestly, is there anybody really scary there? You know,
• 1:09:15
  Arizona and Cincinnati they look like they're they're rounding any contending form and they
• 1:09:19
  might be legit teams in a year or two. Here they figure to stick
• 1:09:25
  around, but I don't think it's their time yet. So at least one
• 1:09:27
  of them is going to make it, and maybe both of them make the
• 1:09:30
  playoffs, but I don't think ultimately that the Phillies will finish behind both of
• 1:09:32
  them plus the Brewers. And that's even display the Phillies kind of lackluster showing
• 1:09:36
  against the Brewers earlier in the week. San fran I offense. I mean,
• 1:09:42
  they do have some Lakes pitchers, but that offense is so vanilla,
• 1:09:44
  and Estrada has been their best hitter this year. He'll be back soon,
• 1:09:47
  but he's been out and they don't really have anybody that scares me personally.
• 1:09:50
  I don't see them really being there in the end. And the Marlins,
• 1:09:53
  you know, for what they are, they're a nice story, but he
• 1:09:56
  can call me naive, but they're not going to finish out of the Phillies.
• 1:09:59
  Well, what happens when Yuri Perez comes back up the pitching phenom that
• 1:10:03
  sent him down to manage his innings much as the chagrined my one fantasy team.
• 1:10:08
  But he might kind of turn the tide with that, and we'll see
• 1:10:12
  if they are active the deadline as well. So I said seven teams for
• 1:10:15
  five spots, but I'll cheat actually and tell you that the one thing that
• 1:10:18
  scares me the most out of all that is the Mets somehow roaring back to
• 1:10:23
  life. Oh obviously they've had an awful year, but you look at the
• 1:10:27
  talent they have there and you know the money behind it. If they don't
• 1:10:30
  go into full cell mode here at the deadline, they're the kind of team
• 1:10:33
  that could go something like forty and twenty over the final two months of the
• 1:10:35
  season and be there at the end. Ultimately. I'll tell you that,
• 1:10:40
  if I'm a betting man, which I sometimes am and do poorly at mind
• 1:10:43
  you, I think the Reds and Dodgers win their divisions. The Phillies grabbed
• 1:10:47
  the top wildcard spot, and then Arizona Milwaukee finished behind them in that order,
• 1:10:51
  and then the Giants and Marlins will finish a game or two back,
• 1:10:56
  or maybe even more than that. If somebody falls apart down the stretch,
• 1:10:59
  maybe Gabeler can pull out one of his old tricks and doing that, and
• 1:11:02
  the Mets might creep up and at least make some teams sweat. You'll have
• 1:11:05
  let's see what the six or seven teams here all in that like eighty one
• 1:11:11
  to ninety two win window kind of that crunch time and everything. So these
• 1:11:15
  uh, you know, one game, it really makes a difference here.
• 1:11:19
  It's not going to be anybody else here's in the Braves running away with it.
• 1:11:23
  And of course he saw what what good that did them last year.
• 1:11:25
  Just get in and you don't know what's gonna happen in the playoffs. Man,
• 1:11:27
  It's gonna be an interesting fight for sure. And like you just said,
• 1:11:30
  you don't know what's gonna happen in the playoff. The playoffs and postseason
• 1:11:32
  are going to be absolutely intriguing in the national least or national league for sure.
• 1:11:39
  And to see how this NL East in terms of the wildcard spot or
• 1:11:42
  the second or third spot the NL East it plays out, it's gonna be
• 1:11:45
  fascinating for sure. Again, folks, Kevin Lagowski from that Ball's out of
• 1:11:49
  Here dot com at Big Lagowski on the Twitter dot com Kevin Man, it
• 1:11:55
  was great talking to you. Thank you so much for jumping on here.
• 1:11:58
  It was great talking to you about this Phillies team. Come back down the
• 1:12:00
  road. We'd love to have you back on my friend, Thanks so much.
• 1:12:04
  And I did want to mention my friend John Foley, who's at Phills
• 1:12:08
  with a Z two thousand and eight on the Twitter. I know a lot
• 1:12:10
  of people follow him. He'd been kind enough to be hosting some of my
• 1:12:13
  articles on his sub stack recently. And awsome that I just sent him and
• 1:12:15
  had put out today is it's franking the disappoint ometer every non Phillies playoff season
• 1:12:21
  since two thousand. So that's the kind of stuff I've been talking about,
• 1:12:26
  what it's like being married to a Braves fan. I wrote some random thing
• 1:12:29
  about a Maury Telemaco a few weeks ago. I'm gonna be seeing the Phillies
• 1:12:31
  at PNC Park on this coming weekend. I'll write up something about that excursion
• 1:12:35
  as well, and yes to check it out there. It's a good read
• 1:12:40
  on his sub stack. And thank you so much for having me on here.
• 1:12:43
  Lots of questions with this Phillies team, but I do have to say
• 1:12:45
  something again in that Tuesday night game Tuesday July twenty fifth, that Orioles game
• 1:12:53
  where the Phillies came back. They won in the ninth inning. It was
• 1:12:56
  a great game. But I'm at home and I'm watching the game on TV,
• 1:13:00
  and through all the challenges and all the struggles that this team has had,
• 1:13:02
  certain players, as Kevin and I were just talking about whether it's Trey
• 1:13:05
  Turner, jt real Muto, there are certain players on this team that have
• 1:13:11
  struggled. But the one thing that remains consistent is the fans dedication to this
• 1:13:16
  team. The fans are devoted to supporting this team. It was incredible to
• 1:13:23
  see how many folks on a Tuesday night where at Citizens Bank Park it was
• 1:13:27
  absolutely jam packed with fans. That goes to show that there is so much
• 1:13:31
  support for this team. There is the belief that this team is going to
• 1:13:35
  be able to get back into a postseason run. And I love it.
• 1:13:40
  I really do, you know. Of course, people booing Trey Turner quite
• 1:13:44
  frankly probably deserves it at this point. But still I do, as Kevin
• 1:13:48
  was saying as well, believe that you know he's going to turn it around
• 1:13:51
  at some point. You know, if it is not this season, it'll
• 1:13:55
  be next season likely, So what we hope, keep our fingers crossed,
• 1:13:59
  for sure. But really, at the end of the day, man,
• 1:14:00
  the absolute unwavering support that fans are giving this Phillies team, as you see
• 1:14:06
  on a Tuesday night it's basically a sold out crowd is absolutely incredible. So
• 1:14:12
  I just wanted to throw that out there. The sky's not falling. Of
• 1:14:15
  course, we should not think that it's falling by any stretch of the imagination
• 1:14:19
  when it comes to this Philadelphia Phillies team. But it's going to be interesting
• 1:14:23
  to continue to follow it throughout the rest of twenty twenty three. For sure.
• 1:14:27
  That's going to do it for us here, folks, with a great
• 1:14:29
  conversation earlier with Eric. Absolutely loved having Kevin on as well. If you
• 1:14:33
  are on Twitter, you can follow us at Philadelphia PST, follow me at
• 1:14:38
  Jeffrey Underscore Warren, and again with Eric, you can follow him at brick
• 1:14:42
  Polite. I am on the threads mister Jeff Warren. You can follow me,
• 1:14:45
  of course on Instagram as well on that thread. I don't do too
• 1:14:48
  much sports stuff on that particular on that particular social media site usually kind of
• 1:14:55
  more personal stuff, family stuff, but feel free to follow me there if
• 1:14:57
  you would like. You can also head on over to the Instagram to follow
• 1:15:00
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• 1:15:04
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• 1:15:08
  over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over
• 1:15:12
  there. Hope y'all are gonna be doing well. You all, take care.
• 1:15:15
  We love you out there. Longtime listeners. If you're new to the
• 1:15:18
  show, stick around. We've got a lot of great content coming to you
• 1:15:21
  in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Take care, folks,
• 1:15:26
  We'll catch you next time.