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The Phillies At The Halfway Point Of The Season (PST Episode 575) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey everybody, it's Jeff here. I wanted to let you know we recorded
• 0:03
  this podcast episode on two separate days this week. The discussion with Len and
• 0:07
  myself took place on Tuesday, July sixteenth, twenty twenty four. Our interview
• 0:13
  this week with our guests took place on Wednesday night, July seventeenth, twenty
• 0:19
  twenty four. So by the time you hear this, some things may have
• 0:21
  changed here there, but we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to the
• 0:50
  Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in
• 0:54
  the world, eleven years strong. We got a great, great show coming
• 0:57
  your way this week. We got a lot of ego talk, training camp
• 1:00
  is going to be here before we know it. And then we've got some
• 1:03
  college football talk as well, how this college football season is going to be
• 1:08
  changing, the dynamics changing with regard to the college football Playoff of what that
• 1:14
  means for the season overall. Then we're gonna get into some Phillies talk as
• 1:17
  well. We've got a great show what We're thrown down on the table.
• 1:19
  This week. We got our friend of the pod, John Stalling, this
• 1:23
  from the Hitt and Season podcast. He's going to be joining us to analyze
• 1:26
  the Phillies at the halfway point of the season. Here, I'm Jeff Warren
• 1:30
  and I'm here at my good buddy Len Hunsicker, Len, buddy, good
• 1:34
  to talk to you, and you know we have football's right around the corner
• 1:37
  here, buddy. Yeah, yeah, we. Jeff and I talked a
• 1:41
  little bit beforehand, and I got my existential crisis worries off my chest.
• 1:47
  So now we're gonna be talking some sports. Should we just do a political
• 1:51
  show at some point? What do you think I lose listeners? Yeah?
• 1:57
  Why not? We definitely lost them after our Colin Kaepernick conversations in the past.
• 2:02
  I was actually talking to my wife about that on our vacation recently because
• 2:07
  she was like, yeah, She's like, uh so, how are the
• 2:08
  numbers and everything? And I was like, I mean, I'm like,
• 2:12
  I mean they're steady and stuff. And I was like, it wasn't like
• 2:15
  it was, you know, three years into us doing this show. Like
• 2:16
  three years into us doing the show. I mean, the it was pretty
• 2:21
  pretty great. And then the market gets saturated. Then Colin Kaepernick happened and
• 2:24
  we defended him, and then we lost some listeners here and there. But
• 2:29
  I'll tell you, you know who kind of lost out this past weekend a
• 2:31
  little bit. But I don't even know if it'd be considered me losing out.
• 2:35
  I went to the Phillies game when the very last game game Holy Cow
• 2:39
  eighteen to three. I never thought i'd see Garrett Stubbs pitching. Yeah,
• 2:45
  you went to a great game, just not for the Phillies. I'll tell
• 2:50
  you it was a bizarre experience, buddy, it was really bizarre. I
• 2:53
  never thought i'd see Garrett Stubbs on the pitching mount. I was watching it
• 2:57
  on TV, and I think the first pitch I saw him throw, it
• 3:00
  was like forty six miles an hour, and I belly laughed because it just
• 3:06
  I've never seen a pitch that slow in a major league game in my life.
• 3:10
  Like I and any he eventually did throw like a couple they were like
• 3:15
  seventies and eighties. Yeah, but I saw that first pitch it was forty
• 3:17
  six and I was like, when I was in Little league, kids threw
• 3:23
  harder than that. Yes, and I guess he's a position player. Yes,
• 3:28
  Why why hurt yourself in this ridiculous situation? So I'm not you know,
• 3:35
  nothing against Garrett stubs, I get it right. It's just funny.
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  It was funny to say. There was a kid in front of me as
• 3:40
  we were sitting in section one ten and the kid in front of me actually
• 3:46
  screams out, and he actually looked at me right afterward because he was so
• 3:50
  mad. Garrett steps through that forty six mile and hour pitch and the kid
• 3:53
  goes, what is this whiffle ball? I started cracking up it was he
• 4:00
  said. The kid gave me this disgusted look with what he just saw on
• 4:02
  the mound, and it was hilarious. It was so great. What is
• 4:06
  this whiffle ball? I mean, that's about as fast as it was going
• 4:11
  exactly exactly. Oh buddy, Well, let's get into this week's show here,
• 4:15
  because, like I said, Eagles training camp it's starting here in less
• 4:19
  than a week, and you know, the one overriding storyline that we're going
• 4:25
  to be following this year, I think, is how Nick Sirianni is going
• 4:28
  to perform as head coach with these new coordinators. So let's ask the question
• 4:32
  here this week, we're asking the question, what does Nick Sirianni have to
• 4:36
  do to keep his job when this season here? I think he's got to
• 4:41
  do a few things here and there. But I'll let you go first here.
• 4:45
  I don't know if you've given this any thought, because this is an
• 4:46
  Eagles team on paper that should go far in the playoffs. My friend,
• 4:51
  they should. But what do you think Sirianni's gonna have to do to keep
• 4:55
  his job this year because he is on the hot seat? Yeah, I
• 4:58
  mean I think it go without saying that a deep playoff run. I don't
• 5:02
  know how you define that. I would I would say at least making a
• 5:09
  conference championship game. You at least have to do that, I think at
• 5:14
  the bare minimum. So that and then you know, just you know,
• 5:18
  figuring out what the roles are going to be. I mean, you've got
• 5:21
  an offensive coordinator, you've got a defensive coordinator. You're kind of the CEO
• 5:26
  the team. So making all that fit and making all that work, and
• 5:31
  having everybody know what their role is and having everybody good with the role,
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  and you know, just you know, in him as as the head coach
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  and the CEO of the operation, showing his worth because if he's just standing
• 5:44
  there and his coordinators are doing all the work, well, what are you
• 5:46
  there for? So I mean, yeah, I think, you know,
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  there's got to be some show of Okay, I do this, he does
• 5:54
  this. He does this in terms of him and his coordinators, and it's
• 5:58
  got to work and it's got to be success. So when everybody's got to
• 6:00
  buy in and they have to perform and to me, all that, you
• 6:04
  know, needs to happen. I'm thinking NFC Championship too, actually, and
• 6:10
  I think that, and I think that game, yeah, at least make
• 6:14
  the game. But then again, there's part of me that says, my
• 6:16
  gosh, you know, it's like boy that it's so much pressure. It's
• 6:21
  so much pressure. But I do think that anything less it's not you're one
• 6:27
  of four teams that goes to that game. But at the end of the
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  day, anything less than a trip to the NFC Championship game could and probably
• 6:33
  should be considered a failure for this roster as it is currently constructed. Look,
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  I think it's pretty clear if they don't win a playoff game this year,
• 6:43
  he is gone, straight up gone. If what happens ye oh yeah,
• 6:46
  absolutely yeah. I mean if somehow they get if somehow they have to
• 6:49
  play in the wild card around uh and they somehow lose there like they did
• 6:55
  this past year. They're done. They're absolutely done, and they should be
• 6:58
  because again, if they do, you lose in the wildcard round or even
• 7:00
  they don't make the playoffs. You're looking at a team that reached the super
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  Bowl in twenty twenty two. What's the direction of the team at this point
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  if they can't even get past the wild card round. So I think I
• 7:13
  think it's a fair assessment to say, e division, you gotta win the
• 7:16
  divisional round, you got to go to the NFC Championship game here. So
• 7:21
  ah, I don't know, right or wrong. I think that's life in
• 7:26
  the NFL as a head coach. You win, you keep your job.
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  You lose, you're going to be unemployed. I think that's a nature of
• 7:31
  the beast, right, Yeah, No, I mean it's it's fair.
• 7:35
  It's this. I mean, this is you know, there's only thirty two
• 7:41
  of these positions, and you know you you're fair in your keep. So
• 7:44
  I mean it's are the are the expectations? Maybe unfair and maybe unrealistic?
• 7:48
  Yeah, probably, but that's the name of the game, unfortunately. Yeah.
• 7:51
  Absolutely, Look, I think there are a lot of moving parts as
• 7:56
  to why he did keep his job this past year. A lot of things
• 7:59
  had to come together for Nick Sirianni to have kept his job. I think
• 8:03
  from this past season, which was an utter debacle. After you have after
• 8:07
  you finish the season one and six, you know, you finish the season
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  one and six, a lot of coaches lose their job. And again I
• 8:15
  think a lot of there are a lot of different moving parts as to why
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  he did keep his job. I don't think he's gonna be able to blame
• 8:20
  it on the coordinators this year though, if things do go awry, Yeah,
• 8:26
  oh, I mean definitely. They're new coordinators. They're going to get
• 8:28
  their grace period, high quality quant coordinators. Yeah, oh absolutely. And
• 8:33
  listen, he's the one that had everything fall apart last year. Those guys
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  weren't there. So if it falls apart again, I mean that the blame
• 8:41
  is going directly to him. Absolutely. There's it's a nowhere to run,
• 8:46
  nowhere to hide situation for him. All right, Well, moving on to
• 8:50
  our next topic here still Philadelphia Eagles talk. Here, since training camp is
• 8:56
  basically almost here, what are the three the top three aspects of camp that
• 9:01
  we're going to be keeping our eyes on lens? So, yes, we
• 9:03
  got a new top three list, folks, and we'd love to hear from
• 9:05
  you two about what your top three aspects of training camp you're going to be
• 9:09
  keeping your eyes on. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com would love to
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  hear from you. Let's start. I'll start off with you, buddy,
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  like, what's your not I don't know if you have them ranked three,
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  two, one or if you just have three top aspects that you're going to
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  be looking at and keeping your eyes on during camp. So I'll start with
• 9:24
  you. Man, let's go, Yeah, I have three, I didn't
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  rank them, okay, so I'll just go I mean, first off for
• 9:31
  me is going to be you know, you drafted a couple of rookies for
• 9:35
  in the defensive backfield. You know, you've made some additions to the linebacker
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  course, so I mean, the back seven was a weak spot last year,
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  so let's see, you know, and obviously it's tough because you are
• 9:48
  depending on some young players there, but you know, let's let's see how,
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  you know, how it improved. So that to me, the back
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  seven on the defense, okay, is going to be a biggie for me.
• 10:00
  I can't wait to see CJ. Gardner Johnson back there. I really
• 10:03
  can't wait to see him again. And I think in Fangio's defense, my
• 10:11
  first one is that the linebackers and what this linebacker corps is going to be
• 10:16
  because in a cover six it is so important to cover in space. And
• 10:20
  we know that Eagles linebackers over the years, Len, they have not been
• 10:24
  the very best in terms of covering in space. But you have to get
• 10:28
  it done. In Fangio's defense and this cover six defense, you need to
• 10:31
  be able your safeties and your linebackers need to be able to cover in space.
• 10:37
  They haven't had the best coverage linebackers in the world. So Devin White,
• 10:41
  We're gonna see what's he he's made of. He hasn't necessarily been known
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  to be the greatest in terms of coverage. Nakobe Dean, what are we
• 10:48
  gonna get from him? Can he stay healthy? The linebackers to me and
• 10:52
  how they adapt and really try to, you know, try to stick with
• 10:58
  this Fangio defense that's gonna be that's going to be big for me. Yeah,
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  and you mentioned Dean, I mean this is this is pretty much it
• 11:05
  for him, right, I mean I can't stay this year? Yes,
• 11:09
  this is it so yeah, we'll see how that goes there. But yeah,
• 11:13
  what's number two for you? Number two for me is going to be,
• 11:18
  you know, with the retirement of Jason Kelsey. You know, typically
• 11:22
  your center is kind of like the communication piece along the offensive line. So
• 11:26
  having I guess it's Jargons in there now, right, yep? So how
• 11:31
  he does and and and especially with the team like the Eagles where you know,
• 11:35
  the tush push, I don't know if they're gonna you know, run
• 11:39
  that a lot again this year as well. I would imagine it's at least
• 11:43
  going to be in there a little bit. But you know, how how
• 11:46
  does that work without Kelsey in there? How does the communication along the line,
• 11:50
  especially once you're on the road in a noisy environment, how does that
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  work? So that that, to me is going to be an interesting thing
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  to say. All right, I I you know, I able to put
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  that on my list, But that's right up there. It's right up there,
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  because there is going to be some inconsistency, especially when training camp starts,
• 12:07
  with regard to the line, the center, the right guard situation.
• 12:11
  Lane Johnson of course has been solid for years and years, but he's getting
• 12:15
  older and we know he's been getting more and more injured as each year goes
• 12:20
  on, and I'm concerned about the right side of the line, I really
• 12:24
  am, and just how Jurgens is going to be able to handle everything that
• 12:30
  he's going to need to handle. It's going to be impossible, I think,
• 12:33
  to fill Jason Kelsey's shoes. But there's a reason why Jason Kelsey wanted
• 12:37
  him to be the heir apparent for that offensive line. So it's going to
• 12:43
  be really interesting to watch, for sure. You have to think that.
• 12:46
  I'm sure Kelsey went up him and said, you you're following me around for
• 12:52
  the next year, few years, whatever it is, and I'm just going
• 12:54
  to dump as much knowledge as I can on you in this short amount of
• 13:00
  time that we have together. I mean, I would imagine you know that
• 13:03
  that's what happened. Yep. For me. My second one here, lenn
• 13:07
  is going to be the explosiveness that we are going to be able to see
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  and hopefully be able to see from Saquon Barkley, The explosiveness out of that
• 13:16
  backfield, that offensive backfield that we really haven't seen too too much of over
• 13:22
  the years. You know, Howie Roseman has done a great job with regard
• 13:26
  to certain free agents that he's brought in. You know, he's done a
• 13:30
  very good job as it pertains to the running back situation. Not as good
• 13:33
  as Saquon Barkley. However, he's been able to get guys on one year
• 13:37
  deals to come in veterans that have come in on you know, short term
• 13:41
  deals, not paying too too much money. There really hasn't been that explosiveness
• 13:46
  out of the backfield. I think that we are going to see with Saquon
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  Barkley. I mean last year he rushed for nine hundred and sixty two yards
• 13:54
  six touchdowns. He hauled in forty one passes for two hundred and eighty yards
• 13:58
  with the New York Giants, a terrible, awful offense in an offensive line
• 14:05
  that was absolutely just horrendous. And I think on the left side of the
• 14:11
  Eagles offensive line with Jordan Mylatta Landon Dickerson, I think Saquon Barkley is going
• 14:16
  to be extremely explosive and I'm gonna be keeping my eyes on that as well.
• 14:20
  You know, this is the time of the year two where you get
• 14:24
  to see certain workout videos of you know, various players and various sports.
• 14:28
  Len and I think Saquon Barkley just released a video recently of him working out
• 14:33
  and he's really explosive and everything. Of course, you know the videos are
• 14:37
  the videos that could be edited here and there and stuff. I'm not saying
• 14:39
  his was, but you know there's some there's definitely that hype with Saquon Barkley,
• 14:45
  and it's gonna bring a different dynamic to this offense. I can't wait
• 14:48
  to see it. The only summertime workout video that matters to me is the
• 14:52
  Benson Annual. He's just dropping threes. You know he's from beyond the arts,
• 15:03
  yes, but really, Saquon Barkley, I can't wait to see how
• 15:07
  explosive he is going to be out of the backfield. It's going to be.
• 15:09
  It's gonna be a new dynamic, I think for this Eagles offense.
• 15:13
  And I think it's going to help open up a lot in the passing game
• 15:16
  too. Yeah. It's funny because I mean they already have so many studs
• 15:20
  in the in the offensive skill positions. It'd be like he he might equal
• 15:26
  or maybe even not even get to last year's numbers and still have an explosive
• 15:31
  effect on the offense. Yeah. You know, he basically was, let's
• 15:37
  face it, the Giants offense last year, whereas he doesn't have to be
• 15:41
  he doesn't have to put up all those now, I mean great if he
• 15:46
  does, you know, he doesn't have to in this offense, right,
• 15:50
  you're absolutely right? All right? Well, what is that? What's number
• 15:54
  one for you? Or just I would say your last one? Here with
• 15:56
  our with regard to our top three list here about we're going to be keeping
• 15:58
  our in terms of Eagles training camp. I mean, it's the obvious one,
• 16:04
  and it's the most important position on the field, and it's uh,
• 16:07
  Jalen hurts, you know, holding onto the ball a little bit better.
• 16:12
  You know, he threw some you know, gumb interceptions. Let's let's face
• 16:18
  it last year. Oh yeah, we tried to do a little too much
• 16:22
  hero ball sometimes. Can he rein it in and be closer to the guy
• 16:27
  he was two years ago rather than the guy from last year? That that
• 16:30
  to me, you know, is kind of a biggie for me, because
• 16:36
  if he has another if he has a down year, then does any of
• 16:40
  this other stuff really matter? You said the key word turnover. That that's
• 16:45
  really key. I think this year, Lynn, I think it's absolutely key.
• 16:49
  If he can mitigate the turnovers, I think we're gonna see a year
• 16:52
  like we saw in twenty twenty two, quite frankly, because every time a
• 16:57
  turnover would happen, the demeanor of the offense would change dramatically. I mean,
• 17:03
  there are times when a team will turn the ball over and it's like,
• 17:06
  Okay, let's regroup, let's get back together. That did not happen
• 17:08
  a lot in twenty twenty three. It did not happen a lot. It
• 17:12
  was like, oh my gosh, the world has ended. And that says
• 17:17
  a lot about certain aspects of the leadership with the within the offense. And
• 17:19
  there may have been some weird dynamics going on here and there, as we
• 17:22
  have heard with regard to coaching and with regard to some of the players as
• 17:26
  well, But you are absolutely correct. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers, they
• 17:32
  need to be mitigated. In order for Jalen Hurts to have a successful season.
• 17:36
  It has to happen. Yeah, and I one million percent believe that
• 17:41
  he has that within him. It's just a matter of doing it, and
• 17:45
  you know, and all that other stuff, you know, kind of solves
• 17:47
  itself. Yeah, we did not talk about our lists. Prior to recording,
• 17:52
  I had a feeling you were gonna mention Jalen hurts So and as we
• 17:55
  are talking about these, you know, are our top threes here in no
• 17:59
  particular order. The one, the one player I'm really gonna be keeping my
• 18:03
  eyes on, whether it's in training camp and as the season starts also is
• 18:08
  Dallas Goddard. I love Dallas Godder. Everybody loves Dallas Godder. You know,
• 18:12
  we will never forget his twenty twenty one season where my gosh, it
• 18:17
  was eight hundred and thirty yards. He did have four touchdowns that season.
• 18:21
  He's not a touchdown machine by any stretch of the imagination. But average yards
• 18:26
  per reception was fourteen point eight. Then then twenty twenty two happens seven hundred
• 18:32
  and two yards on the season. He only played twelve games. Last year,
• 18:36
  he only played fourteen games and hauled in five hundred and ninety two yards.
• 18:41
  He just wasn't that he hasn't been as effective over the past two seasons
• 18:45
  as I think so many of us want Dallas Godder to be and what he
• 18:48
  can be, because he is a great tight end in this league. Yes,
• 18:52
  I said great tight end. He might not be top tier, but
• 18:55
  he's a great tight end. We've seen it before in the past, and
• 18:59
  yes he has dealt with injuries, but regardless, that talent is in Dallas
• 19:03
  Goddard, lenn And he's been trending downward over the past few seasons here and
• 19:08
  we need to see more from him this year. I'm going to be keeping
• 19:11
  my eyes on Dallas Goddard because if he is where he needs to be,
• 19:17
  it's going to be an incredible passing attack with Aj Brown, DeVante Smith,
• 19:22
  Dallas Goddard's it's going to be incredible to watch. He's got to get back
• 19:26
  to twenty twenty one form. I hope it happens. I'm going to be
• 19:30
  keeping my eyes on him for sure. Yeah, and you know, you
• 19:33
  mentioned he was hurt a little bit last year, so that's gonna he missed
• 19:37
  a decent chunk of time, so that's going to eat into the numbers a
• 19:40
  little bit. But yeah, I mean, if he if he can kind
• 19:41
  of turn the turn the clock back a little bit, you know, he's
• 19:45
  he's going to be huge for them. And if he doesn't, then I
• 19:48
  mean, you know, the football teams don't wait around for guys, so
• 19:53
  you know, we'll see what happens if he doesn't do it this year.
• 19:56
  Absolutely, boy, he's been on this team for six se so far.
• 20:02
  Forget yeah going into his seventh season. Man, I mean, look,
• 20:06
  I love the guy, I really do. I absolutely love him. But
• 20:08
  we got to see more from him this year. So you got any more
• 20:11
  Eagles talk for us here? Len, before we get to our break,
• 20:15
  I don't know, all right, Well, if you're new to the show,
• 20:18
  you like what you're hearing, subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on.
• 20:21
  If you're on Apple Podcasts, we'd appreciate if you'd brate and review us as
• 20:23
  well. Head to our website too, Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've
• 20:27
  got all of our shows over there, and we'd love to hear from you.
• 20:30
  Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. Shoot us off an email about
• 20:33
  anything in the world of Philly sports. We'd love to get into it here
• 20:37
  on the show, and make sure you follow Len on the Twitter slash x
• 20:40
  if he's still gonna be on there. I don't even know if I'm gonna
• 20:41
  still be on there. I know we've said this time and time again.
• 20:45
  I've taken breaks from Twitter every now and again, Len, But I don't
• 20:48
  know the play it's it's so it's horrible. It's a horrible online place.
• 20:52
  I don't even know if we should promote it anymore. Depressing it really is.
• 20:56
  Well, I'll just say at Len Hunsicker then for me, Jeffrey underscore
• 21:00
  Warren in the show at Philadelphia PSD. We are on Threads too. You
• 21:03
  can head on over there at Philadelphia Sports Table on Threads. That's a better
• 21:07
  place. Threads is better than Twitter. It's not as toxic. Yeah,
• 21:12
  I don't I'm not over there yet, so yeah, we'll see. All
• 21:18
  right, all right, Well, we're gonna take a quick break, folks,
• 21:19
  we will be back in just a bit. Got some college football coming
• 21:22
  as well as some Phillies talk. Stick with us, all right, we
• 21:27
  are back in sticking with the football stories here on this show. Len.
• 21:34
  We've got the college football season that is going to be starting soon enough.
• 21:38
  We've got the upcoming change and expansion of the college football Playoff, and the
• 21:44
  dynamics within college football they're gonna be altered because of this. I can't wait
• 21:49
  for this coming season. I know I'm the college football enthusiast on this particular
• 21:55
  podcast platform. With you or you Eric and myself. But really, I
• 22:00
  mean, I know you follow college football more so than Eric does, but
• 22:04
  I just want to talk about what we're looking forward to when it comes to
• 22:07
  college football this year, especially with this expanded College Football Playoff, because I
• 22:11
  really do think that the later games in the season, especially in November,
• 22:18
  they're going to mean a lot more to a lot more different to a lot
• 22:22
  of different teams too. You know, the teams that may be ranked fourteen,
• 22:26
  fifteen, sixteen, might they be able to jump up into you know,
• 22:29
  ten, eleven, twelve to make it into the College Football Playoff.
• 22:33
  It's really going to be an interesting dynamic. I can't wait for it.
• 22:37
  Yeah, No, I definitely agree. It'll be interesting to see, you
• 22:41
  know, because I know that, Okay, it's it's the Big ten and
• 22:45
  the SEC, and I know you still have the Big twelve there and you
• 22:48
  still have the ACC there, but like, how much of that pie do
• 22:55
  the two Giants let anybody else have? Yeah? You know, if you
• 23:00
  know, and I'm sure that you know, each of those conferences is going
• 23:03
  to get like one team in as a conference champion, But is it anything
• 23:07
  beyond that? Or That's my my big criticism with college football And the thing
• 23:11
  that I don't like about the way it's going is it's just going to be
• 23:15
  two conferences swallowing everything else up. And if your team is in those two
• 23:19
  conferences, then why bother? Yeah, And that's what I don't want to
• 23:25
  see college football become. I am very much like a you know, let's
• 23:29
  get back to ten team conferences, regional rivalries like that. That to me
• 23:36
  is college football. And we're letting TV, you know, turn turn us
• 23:41
  away from that. And and I it's not it's not a change for the
• 23:45
  better. Sorry, I think do you mean the twelve team the twelve team
• 23:49
  playoff? No? No, the twelve team playoff is great. You're just
• 23:52
  talking about these mega conferences. Talking about mega conferences. I think I think
• 23:56
  it's bad. I think it's bad for college football. I agree with you.
• 24:00
  I agree with you. In fact, our good friend of the show,
• 24:03
  Mike Raymond from Fox Sports Radio Lehigh Valley, was recently on. We
• 24:06
  were talking about this as well, and just he has the same concerns that
• 24:10
  you had and that I have as well. You know, it's not there's
• 24:15
  certain fun that we are going to see eventually and inevitably from the twelve team
• 24:19
  playoff format that begins this year. But in terms of these huge conferences,
• 24:25
  I think there's going to be a groundswell of folks, and I think there
• 24:29
  already is folks who think, like you and I that this is getting out
• 24:33
  of control. It's going to alter college football for the worse in terms of,
• 24:37
  you know, what the game actually does mean. But I do think
• 24:41
  that the twelve team and maybe I'm just pieing the sky here, but this
• 24:44
  twelve team playoff format, I think it has the opportunity to highlight certain programs
• 24:49
  that may not be highlighted during the course of the season if they're able to
• 24:53
  get into the playoff. I mean, if there's a team that's able to
• 24:56
  get into that eleventh or twelfth rank and that could actually get put some momentum
• 25:02
  in their favor in terms of whatever conference they're in, if it's outside the
• 25:06
  Big ten or SEC, and it could help with recruiting in the future.
• 25:11
  So I do think there is that possibility where it's not we're not seeing complete
• 25:15
  super conferences yet. We're certainly getting there, certainly getting there, but I
• 25:21
  think there's the opportunity to put the brakes on, and that's what I'm hoping
• 25:23
  this twelve team playoff format is going to be able to do. I would
• 25:27
  like to I would like to think that's gonna happen, and blameing nothing would
• 25:32
  make me happier than that. But I just see two death stars, yeah,
• 25:36
  just throwing every small planet around them. So I mean, we'll see.
• 25:41
  But in terms of I don't want to be completely negative here, but
• 25:45
  in terms of like what we're looking forward to this year, to me,
• 25:49
  it's okay, how our new teams going to fare in these conferences? How
• 25:55
  is Texas who you know, was you know the loss in the National Chamampionship
• 26:00
  game last year? Right? I mean, how are they gonna How are
• 26:03
  they going to perform in the SEC? Now? How is a team like
• 26:07
  Oregon, Like I saw Penn State announced Washington as they're white out of opponent,
• 26:12
  And I think it was very smart because it's a it's a new team,
• 26:15
  so it's something you don't get to see every day, and it's a
• 26:18
  team that lost a lot like that is a game that Penn State should win
• 26:23
  because they smartly picked a team that lost their coach, their star quarterback,
• 26:29
  all the receivers like you know that that should be a win for them,
• 26:33
  So that'll be interesting to me. And you know, with these teams go
• 26:37
  to new conferences, like remember when Nebraska was a juggernaut the Big Ten and
• 26:45
  nothing nothing, And honestly, you know that doesn't sound like a you know,
• 26:49
  homer. I'll rag on Penn State a little bit with it. Two.
• 26:52
  You know, they they were still are a national brand, but they
• 26:56
  came into the Big Ten and what happens every year against Ohio State and Michigan
• 27:02
  yep. So you know what, like, who's that next team? I'm
• 27:07
  looking squarely at Oklahoma. You know you lost, you know you lost.
• 27:12
  You know the stoops is you lost Lincoln Riley. You've got Venable in there
• 27:17
  now a little bit of a downturn going into the biggest monster of a conference
• 27:22
  in the in the in the in college football. Are they the new Nebraska?
• 27:26
  Are they the former glamour glory program that falls on hard times? That
• 27:32
  That's that's my my big Like, if I had to pick who's gonna who's
• 27:37
  in for a downturn over the next little bit, I'd be worried if I
• 27:41
  was an Oklahoma fan. That's exactly where I was going to go with this
• 27:45
  conversation of teams that we are looking absolutely, yeah, teams that we're looking
• 27:48
  at that are gonna perhaps see some down times within the next year, two,
• 27:53
  maybe three, even four years. What about college football's defending national champions
• 28:00
  They're gonna look a lot different when on the sidelines with their coaching and on
• 28:03
  the field, I expect them to take a step back. But when I
• 28:07
  when I look at UH at the Big Ten, I think Oregon, I
• 28:12
  like their coach a lot. I think he's gonna be able to build a
• 28:15
  sustainable program there and lead them into you know, success in the Big Ten.
• 28:22
  But like a program like USC, I mean, they've they've got some
• 28:26
  stuff to prove. So might they come into the Big Ten and go,
• 28:30
  oh man, we're we're getting it handed to us all the time now and
• 28:34
  and man, we can't beat Ohio State and we can't beat Michigan. And
• 28:40
  you know, we still have Oregon on the same coast as US, and
• 28:41
  they're getting stronger. Like so they're another program that I'm just like, I
• 28:45
  wonder how it's gonna work out for them. The same with UCLA too.
• 28:48
  I mean, Chip Kelly left and he is now at Ohio State. It's
• 28:53
  like to me, U c l A has never been on the level of
• 29:00
  like an Oklahoma or a US seed. Very true, like in terms of
• 29:03
  an elite, top tier college football program. Right, They're still going to
• 29:07
  be rebuilding because Chip Kelly was actually, you know, in a sense,
• 29:10
  building something there. It wasn't a great something, but he was building something
• 29:12
  there. And now it's like they got to start all over again. Oh
• 29:17
  yeah, absolutely. Anytime your coach goes you know, like yeah, even
• 29:21
  like you know, okay, how's how's Utah gonna fair going into the Big
• 29:25
  twelve? Can they walk in and take that conference? That's what That's a
• 29:27
  program that I think ken walk into their conference and and and kind of make
• 29:33
  a statement. So it'll be interesting to see the new teams in the new
• 29:37
  conference. Is how they fare. That's the most interesting thing to me coming
• 29:40
  into this year. Yeah. Again, I go back to Michigan before we
• 29:44
  move on to you know, some Phillies talk and some farm system talking.
• 29:45
  You can see what Michigan needed. I really do, dude. I mean,
• 29:48
  I mean they got their new coach and Sharon Moore. I don't have
• 29:52
  anything against him yet. I mean there's time, of course, there's gonna
• 29:55
  be time. You're never gonna hate him the way you hate Harriball. You're
• 29:59
  absolutely correct, You're you're correct. Look, they're bringing back their lead rusher
• 30:03
  and Donovan Edwards. They've got defenders like Will Johnson, but man, their
• 30:07
  schedule is a lot harder this year and there are plenty of big question marks
• 30:11
  on their roster. To see a down year for Michigan, I'm not gonna
• 30:15
  be sad. I'm not gonna be sad about it at all. Yeah,
• 30:21
  it'll and and that's that's another I guess if you're looking for interesting plot points
• 30:25
  like how do how does how does that guy continue the momentum because they're at
• 30:30
  the Apex and now, okay, new coach, and you know he did
• 30:33
  prove himself a little bit in the in the Harball suspensions. But at the
• 30:37
  same time, this is now your program. Can you recruit at that level?
• 30:41
  Can you keep your school? And look, anytime you lose as much
• 30:45
  as Michigan is going to lose, there's gonna be a year where you take
• 30:49
  a step back. Everybody understands that. But can you then pump it back
• 30:56
  up and get it to a point where Okay, there were down it's about
• 31:00
  me, But now I'm the coach, and I've built this person and I've
• 31:03
  like maintained a certain levels of success. I'm now a known quantity. People
• 31:07
  are going to come here because I'm here. That's That's what That's what more
• 31:11
  I think has to prove now is Michigan's head. Yeah, And I don't
• 31:15
  know. I don't know if he can be that Ryan Day. You know
• 31:17
  from Ohio State. Ryan Day came in and he just he was able to
• 31:21
  keep Ohio's State sustained as a very successful program. I don't know if Sharon's
• 31:26
  going to be able to do that. It's going to be interesting to see
• 31:29
  for sure. Then again, Ryan Day, I think, I mean he
• 31:33
  wanted to, didn't I guess he won the first year, but that was
• 31:34
  with was that was with Urbans players, right like basically was yeah, yeah,
• 31:41
  he done anything with his guys that he's recruited, I mean not necessarily.
• 31:45
  Look, his overall record is like fifty six and eight his bowls.
• 31:49
  I think he's like two you're right, I mean, you're right. I
• 31:52
  think he's two and four in his bowls and the College Football Playoff, he's
• 31:56
  like one to three. He's great until he was up against him, teams
• 31:59
  down south. That's true. That is true, absolutely absolutely, all right,
• 32:02
  Well, it's gonna be it's gonna be fun watching college football, for
• 32:06
  sure. But what's also fun. As we're moving along with the discussion and
• 32:09
  before we get to our break and what we're throwing down on the table,
• 32:14
  Len, we haven't really talked about the Phillies farm system yet that much.
• 32:19
  And now that the Major League Baseball Draft is over, we can certainly talk
• 32:22
  about the twentieth round. I mean Kyler Carmack, right handed pitcher from Old
• 32:28
  Mess I mean we're ready to talk about him, right, We're ready to
• 32:32
  talk about the nineteenth round pick, Eric Ritchie, left hand pitcher from Eastern
• 32:37
  Carolina. Yes, I'm kidding, of course, But really, this farm
• 32:43
  system when we look at what the Phillies are doing with their draft and what
• 32:49
  they've done with their draft over the years, I look at players you know,
• 32:54
  that have been homegrown through the farm system that we are seeing in the
• 33:00
  big club down in Philly at Citizens Bank Park. Guys like you know,
• 33:04
  Aaron Nola, you know who came up through the farm. You know Alec
• 33:07
  Baum at this point coming up through the farm really making a difference. The
• 33:10
  farm has improved when and I wonder if you know what we are going to
• 33:16
  see at a first round pick this past year. Dante Nori, outfielder from
• 33:21
  Northville High School. Second rounder Griffin Burkholder, He's an outfielder from Freedom High
• 33:28
  School in Virginia. And you know, these guys there, there's gonna be
• 33:31
  a microscope on them at some point down the road here. But I get
• 33:37
  a good feeling about where the farm system is at right now, especially from
• 33:42
  the conversations that we had five years ago. Those conversations weren't good in terms
• 33:46
  of the farm system. So now that the draft is over, I don't
• 33:51
  know if you want to talk about, you know, maybe the first couple
• 33:53
  picks here and what we saw out of them, or just quick thoughts on
• 33:59
  the farm system general, Like, I don't know, I'm very optimistic about
• 34:01
  where the farm system is going. Well, just to talk about the draft
• 34:07
  right off the bat, it was an interesting draft for the Phillies and that
• 34:12
  it seemed like they had a type that they were going for, and they
• 34:16
  like, if you look at the first let's see one, two, three,
• 34:22
  those first three guys, it's a it's a speed profile. Like they
• 34:28
  went heavy on speed. It's almost like, you know, okay, stolen
• 34:30
  bases are back. We're gonna We're gonna get guys they can that have wheels.
• 34:35
  So you know, it'll be interesting to see how they how that plays
• 34:38
  out, particularly the first round pick Norri given that he's a high school kid
• 34:43
  that is nineteen and it's going to turn twenty three months after the twenty twenty
• 34:47
  four draft, that that certainly knocked his ranking down a little bit, and
• 34:52
  that he was an older high school player. So the projection maybe isn't he
• 34:57
  And they said, you know, in terms of you know, physically you
• 35:01
  know him, maybe he is maxed out. I mean that you know,
• 35:06
  there's not a lot of projection there. But you know, he seems to
• 35:08
  be a player with a lot of scouts Like so to me, like with
• 35:12
  a guy like him, Okay, let's let's say he does sign, he
• 35:15
  doesn't go to Mississippi State. Where do you start him? Where do you
• 35:19
  start a kid that's going to be twenty you know in a couple of months.
• 35:22
  Yeah, do you start him in rookie ball? Do you you know,
• 35:27
  throw him out there in the in the you know, clear water,
• 35:30
  right off the bat and see if he can you know, sink or swim,
• 35:31
  Like, where where is he going to end up? So you got
• 35:36
  him, you got burke Holder and Spikerman, the guys they picked in the
• 35:39
  second and third round also can kind of fly, So it just seems like
• 35:44
  that's the profile they went for. And also all bats until I'm scrolling down
• 35:50
  the eighth round. I was going to that, yeah, take a picture
• 35:52
  until the eighth round, which is which is strange for them, you know,
• 35:57
  especially given that you know how much they have gone in on, you
• 36:00
  know, the high school arms, so we'll have to see kind of how
• 36:05
  that how that plays out there, and then they would picture heavy. After
• 36:07
  that, I think they took off a second basement and then that was it
• 36:10
  for like like ten rounds round Yeah, yeah, once they finally dipped their
• 36:16
  toe in the in the pitcher pool, it was it was pretty much that
• 36:21
  like for the rest of the draft. In fact, I'm going through now
• 36:24
  and uh yeah, yeah, they picked the second basement in the tenth round,
• 36:31
  but from rounds eight until the twentieth, yep, it was all pictures
• 36:37
  of one dude. So yeah, I mean that's you know, you you
• 36:40
  you take a flyer on some of these guys and you you know at this
• 36:45
  point, you know there they're lottery picks that you know, you could see.
• 36:49
  This is why you have developmental and this is why you know you have
• 36:52
  that minor league system and you see what you can get out of these guys.
• 36:55
  And maybe there's a guy that they drafted in in the teens around why
• 37:00
  is that you know, turns out to be a good player for him.
• 37:01
  So that's that's on. That's on their developmental system, which I think is
• 37:07
  better than it's been in years past. Absolutely if you look at their prospect
• 37:12
  list, I mean it concerns me a little bit with Mick Abel it feels
• 37:16
  like he's stalled out a little bit. But you know, you have a
• 37:21
  couple of interesting arms in that system, in like a guy like sam Aldegarry
• 37:25
  or a guy like George Klassen, like like those guys. You see the
• 37:30
  numbers they're putting up this year and the stuff that they have, and it's
• 37:32
  like, wow, okay, that's that's kind of interesting. Yeah. So
• 37:37
  yeah, I mean, they they do have some arms. Beyond you know,
• 37:40
  hopefully Able gets back on track, and beyond you know, waiting on
• 37:45
  Andrew Painter to come back. You know, they do have a couple guys
• 37:49
  there, and you know you've got a guy, you know, you've got
• 37:52
  some good young position players that are Abe Miller is going to be like a
• 37:58
  top fifty prospect in mayall you know those Let's Seyeah Crawford just got promoted in
• 38:04
  Double A reading, so that'll be it'll be cool to you know, now
• 38:07
  he's he's closer to where you and I can go see him if we want
• 38:10
  to. You know, we don't have he's not in Florida, you're out
• 38:15
  on the you know, the Jersey coast. So I would like to see
• 38:17
  retting this year just to see him. So, yeah, you've got some
• 38:22
  guys coming up that are interesting, and even guys beyond that. There's a
• 38:25
  catcher they have in their system, a Dwardo Tate that I'm I'm interested in
• 38:30
  seeing how he progresses because he's super young. He's still like seventeen years old,
• 38:35
  but they seem to be high on his tool. So yeah, it'll
• 38:37
  be it'll be interesting to see how all this shakes out. I mean,
• 38:42
  you know, I don't think any you know, you're you're gonna have a
• 38:45
  steady, you know, stream of guys coming up immediately, but there's some
• 38:49
  interesting names in the next couple of years that are hopefully going to bubble up
• 38:52
  here. Absolutely. Yeah, I mentioned Justin Crawford with just talking about him,
• 38:55
  you know, I was actually I'm really really intrigued by him. I
• 39:00
  was doing a little research on him, looking at what he has been doing,
• 39:06
  you know, prior to even get like getting moved up. I mean,
• 39:08
  he's got a maximum exit velocity of one hundred and ten miles per hour,
• 39:13
  which I mean he's he's hitting the ball plenty hard at that point too,
• 39:17
  and he stole forty seven bases in twenty twenty three. He may have
• 39:22
  another gear to him with that added strength leading you know that with some better
• 39:28
  upper body control. I think that's gonna that's gonna be of benefit to him
• 39:31
  as well, especially if he's playing center field too, from a defensive standard
• 39:37
  and especially in reading where where that that's a notorious hitter's park. Yep.
• 39:40
  Will he get a bit of a power bump there? And is that power
• 39:44
  bumbrio or is it or is it just a product of the park which has
• 39:47
  been in the case of some guys in the past. Absolutely, I'm looking
• 39:51
  forward to seeing what Justin Crawford's going to be doing for sure, so oh
• 39:54
  really quick before I let you go, you know, looking at all the
• 39:59
  looking at all the Nameiams of the Phillies draft picks too. I love doing
• 40:02
  this every year, and I don't know if we actually really talk about it
• 40:05
  on the show, but I just love going through the names and looking through
• 40:07
  my favorite names. I think my favorite name is the eleventh round guy.
• 40:13
  Oh yeah, Titan, Titan Hayes. Yes, Titan Hayes. I love
• 40:20
  Titan Haes. I like Eli Troupp, you know, sixteenth round. I
• 40:24
  don't mind that Eli Trump. You know it sounds would you say to be
• 40:30
  I know I was agree with you, but yeah, like Titan sounds like
• 40:34
  you know, if you have one of those gigantic bull masks stuff dogs,
• 40:37
  that's you. Name it is Titan. Yes, absolutely, I love it.
• 40:40
  I love it all right, Buddy Way, good discussion, good good
• 40:45
  times in the world of Philly sports. Here it's second half of the Philly
• 40:49
  season. It's certainly going to be interesting. We got John Stalling this from
• 40:52
  the Hitting Season podcast over at Why Why is going to be joining us in
• 40:55
  a bit here. But Buddy, I'm gonna let you go before we take
• 40:58
  break here, you got anything else for the Phillies or any of the farm
• 41:01
  system talk before we head out here? No, I am good. All
• 41:07
  right, sounds good. Go get some sleep, buddy, sounds like you
• 41:09
  need a little sleep there. Yeah, my alarm's gonna go off in three
• 41:13
  and a half hours. Fantastic Jesus. All right, thanks you for doing
• 41:16
  the show. Yes, thank you, thank you. All Right, we're
• 41:20
  gonna take our break. We'll be back in just a bit. All right,
• 41:23
  we are back. Let's get to what we're thrown down on the table.
• 41:27
  Great interview. We're gonna be talking about this Phillies team, what we've
• 41:30
  been seeing, and what the second half of the season is going to look
• 41:34
  like. We're thrown down on the table and now on the table joining us
• 41:40
  this week to get into this Philadelphia Phillies team. Where this team is gonna
• 41:45
  be going during the head of the second half of the season, I should
• 41:47
  say from the Hitting Season podcast I subscribe on Apple podcast over at why y
• 41:52
  and Billypenn dot com. We've got our great friend of the pot. He's
• 41:57
  been coming on for years. Mister John Staliness. How you doing, buddy.
• 42:00
  It's good to see again. Jeff, how you doing, But I'm
• 42:01
  doing all right. I appreciate you taking the time as always to jump on
• 42:05
  the pod whenever we ask you to come on to talk about this Phillies team.
• 42:08
  And I guess you know, Lennon and I we were just talking about
• 42:10
  the farm system. We were we were we were getting into a really great
• 42:15
  discussion about just where this organization is going as a whole. And I've just
• 42:19
  been doing a lot of reflecting, not just with the Phillies, but baseball
• 42:22
  in general. John, And before we actually get into some Phillies talk,
• 42:25
  I wanted to first get into how baseball has really changed over the past couple
• 42:30
  of years here for the better, and frankly, in my opinion, it's
• 42:34
  because of the pitch clock. And I wanted to get into this kind of
• 42:37
  storyline with you to see what your thoughts are on this. It's a monumental
• 42:40
  change in terms of the speed of the game. And as an avid baseball
• 42:45
  fan, we're both avid baseball fans, you know, we get we get
• 42:49
  a lot more time back in our lives after you know, major League Baseball
• 42:52
  has really embraced the pitch clock here, but it's it's importance I think is
• 42:57
  more than just faster finishes of games. I think we're now being compelled to
• 43:02
  watch games even more closely. I think we're more compelled to watch baseball even
• 43:07
  more closely because we don't want to miss something. And I think that's part
• 43:10
  of the fundamental change where baseball is going here. There's more motivation for us
• 43:14
  as fans to be that much more engaged, and that, in my opinion,
• 43:17
  I think is really really good for a game that was really slow.
• 43:22
  It was a slog sometimes to get through baseball games, I mean for decades
• 43:25
  that we've been watching. So what are your thoughts on this and how the
• 43:30
  game has really changed because of the pitch clock? Yeah, the baseball.
• 43:34
  Baseball was really trending in a bad direction until the last couple of years.
• 43:37
  The games are getting longer and longer, and like you said, long games
• 43:40
  are definitely an issue. Three and a half hours, four hours to watch
• 43:45
  a sporting event. Very few of us have enough time in our lives to
• 43:47
  carve that out, especially a game like baseball, which is every night.
• 43:52
  If if an NFL game takes three and a half hours to finish, that's
• 43:54
  fine. It's once a week, you know what. I mean, and
• 43:57
  it's it's appointment viewing. It's you know, that's that's really different. But
• 44:00
  baseball had to do something. The pitch clock has shaved about a half an
• 44:04
  hour off of the average length of games. But what it really did do
• 44:08
  was take away the dead space in the middle of the game, all of
• 44:13
  the step off, so all of the delays with batteries, you know,
• 44:15
  flipping up their their batting gloves and taking their velcrow and slipping out you know.
• 44:20
  Yeah, all you got to get in the box and you got to
• 44:22
  get ready to hit. And that's the way baseball used to be in the
• 44:23
  sixties, seventies and eighties. You watch games from that time period. Moved,
• 44:29
  the pitcher, got the ball, got back on the rubber, and
• 44:30
  he threw, and the hitter was back in the box. Like there wasn't
• 44:32
  this long contemplative I wonder what he's going to throw me next. I need
• 44:37
  to take sixty seconds, you know, it's none of that going on,
• 44:39
  and it really has made the game much more enjoyable. It's helped the game
• 44:44
  flow better. And now you've got most teams are starting games before seven o'clock,
• 44:47
  like you have six forty start times. Most of the time. Now
• 44:51
  games are getting done by nine to fifteen. You know, it's it's great
• 44:54
  and I'm sure the beat writers more than anyone love it because you know,
• 44:58
  for a long for for a long time game we're lucky if they were ending
• 45:00
  before ten thirty eleven o'clock most nights. So it's definitely it's definitely more enjoyable.
• 45:07
  It's easier to take a kid to a game, just from a time
• 45:09
  perspective, And you know, I think we've seen anecdotally a lot of people
• 45:14
  who are casual baseball fans, are casual sports fans who haven't watched baseball in
• 45:16
  a while, have watched the sport over the last few years and been like,
• 45:20
  Oh, the pacing is a whole lot better. This is actually,
• 45:22
  this isn't boring, this is a whole lot better. So I think it's
• 45:25
  absolutely been one of the most important changes we've seen in baseball over the last
• 45:30
  few decades. And I think it was a really really good thing that they
• 45:34
  did it again. Like I said, I'm compelled to watch that much more.
• 45:37
  But what I'm watching, and I have been watching, I'm like on
• 45:40
  my phone every now and then I'm checking Twitter see what some folks are saying
• 45:44
  or I'm just you know, looking at other box scores. I'm not doing
• 45:46
  that as much. I don't have my phone in my hand as often because
• 45:49
  I want to see what's going on on the field. I want to see
• 45:52
  what the pitcher is going to be doing. I love the pitch clock.
• 45:53
  I just love it. I think it's fantastic. So as we're moving on
• 45:57
  here, John, let's get into this Phillies. You know, a Phillies
• 46:00
  team that's been so awesome to watch this season, the most fun season that
• 46:05
  I can ever remember as a yeah, basically, you know. I mean,
• 46:08
  of course we've got you know, we've got second half of the season,
• 46:12
  potentially postseason as well. But I'm hoping we can get into a few
• 46:15
  categories here and you let me know which player you are correlating with the category.
• 46:21
  So when we get into this year's comeback kid at this point in the
• 46:24
  season, who's reminding you of that category? The comeback kid for the Philadelphia
• 46:29
  Phillies this year, I think it's gotta be Aaron Nola. We don't we
• 46:32
  haven't talked a lot about him this year. Keep it. For most of
• 46:36
  last season, everybody just wanted him out of here. He was going to
• 46:39
  be a free agent. Nobody wanted the Phillies to re sign him up until
• 46:44
  the last month of the season and through the playoffs when he really said he
• 46:47
  figured things out. He really struggled with the pitchclock. You talk about the
• 46:50
  pitchclock, He really struggled with the pitchclock last year. It wasn't until the
• 46:53
  end of the season he realized he was looking at the wrong pitchclock. It
• 46:57
  was messing up with his mechanics and it was fouling everything up. And then
• 47:00
  he became Aaronola again. And that was the hope when they signed him to
• 47:02
  that seven year contract that that fixed things. With that discovery late in the
• 47:07
  season, that fixed things and appears to have done that. He did make
• 47:10
  the All Star team, but he very well could have made the All Star
• 47:13
  team. He's got eleven wins at the All Star break and eer and the
• 47:16
  low three threes, three point three something. That's Aaronola. That's exactly what
• 47:21
  he's always been. That's it. That's our number two starter right there.
• 47:23
  And I think there were a lot of folks that weren't sure, and I
• 47:28
  wasn't one hundred percent sure that the good Aaronola would be something we would see
• 47:31
  on a more regular basis. You know, the last season was definitely an
• 47:36
  eye opening, scary type of season for Nola, and to sign him to
• 47:39
  that big contract, I think I think he's really come back well because there
• 47:43
  weren't a lot of guys last year who were terrible and have come back this
• 47:45
  year and been great. I just haven't been so I think he's probably the
• 47:49
  most obvious candidate for the comeback kid last year or last year. Last week
• 47:52
  on the show, I made the argument that he was actually snubbed. I
• 47:57
  mean, a lot of Phillies playing in the game, of course, but
• 48:00
  I think he was one of those snubs that could have absolutely gone to the
• 48:04
  All Star Game. Let's get into the next category here, who is this
• 48:07
  year's rising star when it comes to this Phillies roster? Who is that?
• 48:12
  Christopher Sanchez, who was definitely on a track last year, was one of
• 48:16
  the better number four starters in baseball, really helped save this rotation for a
• 48:22
  good part of the season when Zach Wheeler went down with an injury and was
• 48:24
  their most consistent pitcher in the second half last year. But he's this year.
• 48:30
  He has turned it up a notch. He's throwing a mile and a
• 48:32
  half to two miles an hour harder on his sinker. So he's recaptured some
• 48:37
  of the velocity that he decided to set aside in order to get his command
• 48:43
  and his control underway, and he's developed this change up which has become one
• 48:46
  of the very best changeups in baseball to the point now where he signed a
• 48:50
  contract extension and he's going to be a part of this rotation for a good
• 48:53
  number of years moving forward. Made an All Star team, I mean,
• 48:58
  Christopher Sanchez making an All Star team. Being named Pitcher of the Month,
• 49:01
  I know. I mean, do you think about how many great pitchers there
• 49:05
  are in the National League. The fact that he was named pitcher of the
• 49:08
  Month for the month of June really is something special, and so it's very
• 49:13
  he's absolutely this team's rising star. I think Ranger Suarez you could have given
• 49:19
  this award to, and you probably still could give this award to, but
• 49:21
  I think he was a little bit more established than Christopher Sanchez is and was
• 49:25
  and is now becoming a star in his own right. Last category for you,
• 49:30
  John the underrated contributor on this Phillies team, this year. Who's that
• 49:34
  underrated contributor? Yeah, give me ed Sosa right, Yes, And he
• 49:39
  hasn't done a whole lot as of late with Trey Turner coming back, But
• 49:43
  they lost Trey Turner for six weeks and actually saw increased production and short stuff.
• 49:46
  It's incredible and that was because in Mundo Sosa was hotter than the surface
• 49:52
  of the sun for six weeks. It was really amazing what he was able
• 49:57
  to do. And you just kept blinking your eyes like is this actually happening?
• 50:00
  And you knew it wouldn't last because it's at Mundoso. So he's a
• 50:02
  good reserve player. He's a good backup infielder, reserve middle infielder. He
• 50:07
  can play third base, he can play shortstop. I mean, he's a
• 50:08
  great guy to have on the team. Obviously the Phillies love him. This
• 50:12
  is his third year with the team. But his offensive production while playing a
• 50:15
  very good defensive shortstop was just otherworldly. And I think as the season goes
• 50:20
  along, you cross your fingers and hope that neither Alec Bohm nor Trey Turner
• 50:23
  get hurt and you don't need ed Mundo Sosa all that much here in the
• 50:28
  second half. So We'll tend to forget what he did in May and early
• 50:31
  June, but we should at Mundo Sosa helped save this offense during the time
• 50:36
  that Trey Turner was out, and I think it's going to go down at
• 50:38
  the end of the season as an underrated contribution that most of us will probably
• 50:42
  forget. I think you're absolutely right. All right again, folks, we're
• 50:45
  talking to John Staaliness from the Hitting Season podcast over at why y Billy Penn
• 50:50
  dot com. Give him a follow on Twitter slash x if you are not
• 50:53
  already, I would imagine you already are. But he's a great follow at
• 50:57
  John Stallness. And we knew this Phil bullpen this season was going to be
• 51:01
  fun to watch, John. We knew they were going to be really good,
• 51:06
  but I'm not sure we knew that they would be this good. They're
• 51:08
  not just they are They're not walking guys. They are not walking guys at
• 51:13
  the plate, but just rather striking them out in such a dominant fashion.
• 51:15
  I didn't think we'd see it to this extent. Matt Gill recently reported that
• 51:20
  their tenth best strikeout walk percentage for any big league bullpen in the past decade.
• 51:25
  Here and Their seven point eight percent walk rate is the lowest for a
• 51:30
  Phillies bullpen since nineteen seventy eight. I mean that was a year after I
• 51:34
  was born. Here, they are doing some amazing stuff in your eyes as
• 51:37
  you have continued to assess them. You've talked about this bullpen on the Hitting
• 51:43
  Season podcast a number of times throughout the course these past couple months. For
• 51:46
  sure, what has this what has this bullpen optimized? And how do they
• 51:52
  sustain this success moving forward? Here? Well, velocity, for one thing.
• 51:57
  They averaged the fifth hardest ball velocity in Major League Baseball in terms of
• 52:01
  bullpen guys. So these guys all throw hard, and that is something that
• 52:05
  Dave Dombrowski said he wanted to prioritize starting in twenty twenty two. He wanted
• 52:09
  to get guys who threw hard. Now, the caveat is that when you
• 52:14
  throw hard, a lot of those guys lack command. The difference with this
• 52:17
  Phillies bullpen is they all throw hard. They all have good secondary pitches,
• 52:22
  and they all throw strikes. Like you said, they don't walk guys.
• 52:24
  And when you're able to do that and you have multiple guys from both sides
• 52:29
  right handed left handed. We're able to do that. It's very hard to
• 52:31
  score on this team late in games. They've had some blow ups, but
• 52:35
  so have other so has every other bullpen in Major League Baseball. That's just
• 52:38
  going to happen over one hundred and sixty two games. There's a reason that
• 52:42
  Terry Lavolo made Jeff Hoffman the closer for the National League All Star Team.
• 52:45
  To think about Jeff Hoffman where he came from, the Phillies have been able
• 52:49
  to draw more velocity out of these guys and yet refine their mechanics enough.
• 52:55
  I think what the Phillies have done and what Caleb Cottam has done, we
• 52:58
  talk about underrated contributions. Caleb Cottom may be the most underrated person in this
• 53:04
  organization. And I know the analytics department deserves some of it. They have
• 53:07
  more pitching coaches than just Caleb Cottam here. But they're developing these guys like
• 53:12
  a Ryan Kirkering coming up and able to be a dominant right handed reliever out
• 53:16
  of the bullpen. I think better. I think better days are ahead for
• 53:20
  him as well. But you go out and get Jeff Hoffman off the scrap
• 53:22
  heap. I mean, this was this was an acquisition before the twenty twenty
• 53:28
  three season that you just ignored. It was a minor league contract. This
• 53:31
  is one of those guys you're just like, nah, that he's never going
• 53:34
  to make the team, and here and here he is. You know,
• 53:36
  he'll probably get a contract extension too. Uh. They've they've fixed Jose Alvarado,
• 53:40
  who had no command whatsoever of anything. And what Caleb Cottum and the
• 53:45
  pitching coach pitching staff has done is they want everybody to simplify things. Throw
• 53:50
  what you throw best, and they have been able to coax more velocity out
• 53:53
  of these different relievers. It's a it's a it's a recipe for success.
• 53:57
  And you know, I think if the Phillies aren't going to add it trade
• 54:00
  deadline, I think bullpen is one area where I would prioritize. You know,
• 54:04
  Mason Miller is something else I would be very willing to move I think
• 54:08
  one of the top tier prospects in order to get somebody like that. I
• 54:12
  know that's kind of a hot take that's been I'd be getting hammered on x
• 54:15
  about that. Over the last couple of days. I wrote a piece for
• 54:16
  The Good Fight saying I would trade Andrew paid for him, and I would,
• 54:21
  but I think if you can get another guy like that, you're not
• 54:23
  going to score off this team in the playoffs. If you have a lead
• 54:27
  after six innings, they're just going to be able to run one guy out
• 54:30
  there. And it's high velocity, it's good command, and they generate we
• 54:35
  contact and they don't give up home runs either. Don't walk guys and they
• 54:38
  don't give up home runs. They make it very hard on teams. You
• 54:42
  have to string things together against Philly's relievers in order to beat them, and
• 54:45
  that's why it doesn't happen very often. It's been spectacular to watch, fun
• 54:52
  to watch, for sure, but there's one area of this team at the
• 54:55
  start of the season, one position, one specific player, and it's Bryson
• 55:00
  Stott. I really thought Bryson Stott had very high ceiling for what we were
• 55:04
  going to see from him this season, and he hasn't met a lot of
• 55:07
  batting expectations so far this year. His defense has been pretty darn good,
• 55:13
  been pretty great quite frankly, but the batting just has kind of been you
• 55:15
  know, nah, yeah, it's all right. I mean, look,
• 55:19
  some national narratives said that he might be a contender for a batting title for
• 55:22
  God's sake, certainly not there at this point. Certainly hasn't lived up to
• 55:27
  expectations in the batters boxes. He's only batting two thirty eight as we're recording
• 55:30
  this. What should we be making of Bryson Stott's season thus far? John?
• 55:35
  And and might he come on strong during the second half of the season.
• 55:37
  Here? You know, he's had a very strange season. I think
• 55:42
  Alec Bohm is having the type of breakout season that we thought Bryson Stott was
• 55:45
  going to have this year. Like these daycare guys, it's almost like they
• 55:49
  freaky fridayed us. So it's very unusual. Bryson Stott has almost doubled his
• 55:54
  walk rate from a year ago. Last year was around six percent. He's
• 55:58
  over eleven percent this here. He's not striking out a whole lot more is
• 56:02
  a strike a percentage of like one percent. He's like sixteen and a half
• 56:06
  percent strikeout rate. That's great, you know, those are great numbers.
• 56:10
  I think as I was looking at his data, the problem is that he's
• 56:14
  just not impacting the ball well. When he does make contact, he's a
• 56:19
  hard hit rate is like twenty seven percent I think gets down like three points
• 56:22
  from last year. Again, that's not a ton, but it's it's something.
• 56:27
  And you know, as I as I look through some of his batted
• 56:30
  ball data, he's grounding out less. So he's he's hitting more fly balls
• 56:37
  about four percent more and grounding out four percent less. I mean, the
• 56:42
  problem is, I don't think Bryson Stott has a lot of pure power,
• 56:45
  So you don't want him hitting a lot of fly balls. You want him
• 56:47
  hitting line drives. And the line drive rate is about the same he's not
• 56:52
  hitting he's hitting a few more line drives than he did a year ago.
• 56:54
  So I think there's some bad luck involved here. First of all, let's
• 56:57
  get that out of the way. When the peripherals look this good, I
• 57:00
  think Bryson Stott is hitting into some bad luck. But he's also he's I
• 57:04
  think he's also trying to elevate the ball. I think he's going out of
• 57:07
  his way to try and generate more power on his own, and I just
• 57:12
  it's not happening for him. So when he makes contact, we're seeing a
• 57:15
  lot of pop ups, We're seeing a lot of flyouts, you know,
• 57:17
  we're seeing you know, and he's hit some line drives right out people.
• 57:21
  So again that's where the bad luck comes in. But I think we're going
• 57:23
  to see a better second half from Bryson Scott. I think, you know,
• 57:27
  he hasn't really been expanding the strike zone all that much a little bit
• 57:30
  towards the end of the A series and frustration can start to creep in.
• 57:34
  We saw that with Trey Turner last year. Scott has the ability to be
• 57:38
  a batting title guy. He has a chance to be at over three hundred
• 57:40
  hitter guy. He has a chance to hit twenty to twenty five home runs.
• 57:44
  He really does have that power in him. I think what we're seeing.
• 57:46
  And the other thing I've noticed, like his when he's not going well,
• 57:50
  like his back leg collapses when he swings, and that's when he starts
• 57:52
  getting underneath stuff and popping stuff up and just you know, just not making
• 57:58
  great contact. And that's that's the bottom line for Stott is he's just not
• 58:01
  making good contact on balls over the plate. And I don't know what the
• 58:05
  solution to that is. I'm sure that's something mechanical that he and Kevin Long
• 58:07
  are working on, and we'll see what happens. In the second half.
• 58:09
  Maybe this All Star break is just what he needed. It might be,
• 58:13
  And I feel like I don't have the data to back it up, but
• 58:15
  I feel like John it's in critical type situations where he is popping up and
• 58:20
  when they need him to come through if there's runners in scoring position, that
• 58:23
  he's not necessarily getting the team to where they need to be at a critical
• 58:28
  point in time in the game. That and again, it's just a feeling.
• 58:30
  I don't have the just from watching this season. I don't have the
• 58:34
  data, but that's the feeling that I get. I'm like, Oh,
• 58:37
  is he gonna pop up again? Oh my gosh, is he gonna do
• 58:38
  it again? Yeah, he's not delivering with runners on third and less than
• 58:44
  two out, you know, not even not even making the the the fundamental
• 58:47
  play. You know, He's just he's just he's just not He's not connecting
• 58:53
  with the ball in the way that he has in the past. And so
• 58:57
  again I think he's I think his plate dissip is good and maybe he's maybe
• 59:00
  he's looking to walk a little bit too much. Coming into the season that
• 59:05
  we were stressing plate discipline. Patients don't expand the zone for these guys,
• 59:08
  maybe that messed him up a little bit. At the start of the season.
• 59:12
  He did have a ridiculous hot streak in May for about three weeks.
• 59:15
  He was absolutely on fire and then so we thought, okay, here he
• 59:19
  comes right and then it just then it just fizzled away again. So I
• 59:22
  don't know, I don't know what happened. Well, as we look toward
• 59:24
  this second half of the season here, this team obviously needs to stay healthy.
• 59:29
  We know that if they're going to continue to have success during the second
• 59:30
  half of the season, they have to stay healthy. Injuries just just just
• 59:36
  don't get injured. Guys, don't get injured. But putting health and injuries
• 59:39
  aside here, John, is there a certain aspect of this team, you
• 59:43
  know, whether whether it's their focus, you know, their attitudes, maybe
• 59:46
  them get a little too cocky because of where they are right now within Major
• 59:51
  League Baseball, whatever the situation here, is there a certain aspect of this
• 59:55
  team that could be a detriment and potentially, uh, you know, might
• 1:00:00
  generate a skid or a slump that you're thinking about. Is there a scenario
• 1:00:04
  outside of injuries that kind of worries you during the second half of the season
• 1:00:07
  here. The schedule. The schedule is what worries me during the second half
• 1:00:12
  of the season because I think, you know, they're going to get some
• 1:00:14
  guys healthy. I mean, listen, I'm concerned about Ranger Suarez's back.
• 1:00:16
  I hope he's fine. I hope the All Star break was fine. Zach
• 1:00:19
  Wheeler with the with the backstrain, I hope he's fine. My guess is,
• 1:00:22
  if it was late in the season, Wheeler would have pitched through the
• 1:00:24
  backstrain and would have pitched on Sunday. I think they're just being cautious.
• 1:00:27
  It's fine. Bryce Harper's had a couple of scares. We've had a few
• 1:00:30
  guys with a couple of scares and they turned out not to be serious,
• 1:00:32
  which is which is very good news. Even real Muto, who's been out
• 1:00:36
  for like six seven weeks, it could have been a lot worse, right,
• 1:00:38
  So so, I you know, you just there's nothing you can do
• 1:00:43
  about the injuries, like you said to putting that aside, the schedule is
• 1:00:45
  really going to be the big, the big troublesome thing for this team.
• 1:00:49
  I mean, these next four series to finish up July, You've got the
• 1:00:52
  Pirates in Pittsburgh, which is kind of a tough place for this team to
• 1:00:54
  play. And the Pirates are a five hundred team right now. They've got
• 1:00:57
  Paul Skeins, the NL All Star Game started, they got some good young
• 1:01:00
  players on that team. That's a team on the rise, and they're in
• 1:01:02
  the National League wild Card picture. That's not going to be an easy series
• 1:01:06
  this weekend. Then you go on to Minnesota, one of the hottest teams
• 1:01:07
  in baseball. I think they're twelve games over five hundred. That's a place
• 1:01:12
  and a team that I don't think the Phillies have done traditionally very well with.
• 1:01:15
  They just don't see those guys very often. That's kind of a hard
• 1:01:17
  series to gauge. And it's a team that again is right in the middle
• 1:01:21
  of the not just the ALE wildcard picture, but the AL Central picture.
• 1:01:23
  Right that's a very good baseball team. And then after that you get you
• 1:01:28
  get two home series against the best team in the American League, the Cleveland
• 1:01:31
  Guardians and then the New York Yankees, who are eighteen games over five hundred.
• 1:01:36
  And then after that you have to take a trip to Seattle to play
• 1:01:38
  the Mariners. Then you have to take a trip to LA to play the
• 1:01:42
  Dodgers. I mean, so these these next six series, and that's as
• 1:01:45
  far as I looked. I didn't want to look any further after that.
• 1:01:46
  I was like, that's enough. I'm closing the book. We're starting.
• 1:01:49
  Yeah, now, if there's anything else happened to I mean, so that's
• 1:01:52
  gonna that's a rough stretch. It's a rough stretch. They made hay during
• 1:01:57
  the easy part of their schedule, which is exactly what they had to do
• 1:02:00
  because we knew that a challenging stretch was going to come. Yep, it's
• 1:02:04
  here now, guys. So if this team doesn't, like go fifteen games
• 1:02:08
  over five hundred or that's okay, just get through this stretch a little over
• 1:02:14
  five hundred. You know, that probably keeps you eight games ahead of the
• 1:02:17
  Braves. You know, for a little while. Maybe the Braves make up
• 1:02:20
  a little ground, Maybe they get it to seven, maybe they get it
• 1:02:22
  to six. I have to not panic, because I'm going to panic if
• 1:02:24
  it starts, if that lead starts to get grim. You know, they
• 1:02:28
  if they have a three or four game losing streak here, none of us
• 1:02:30
  want to see that, you know, I think, and I don't think
• 1:02:34
  this team is going to have like a big slump here in the second half.
• 1:02:37
  I think they're going to continue to play well. They're supremely talented.
• 1:02:40
  That's the most talented team in baseball. They've got the best roster in baseball.
• 1:02:45
  I think that'll bear itself out. And I think this All Star break
• 1:02:47
  came at a very very good time and Dave Dombrowski is going to add some
• 1:02:52
  pieces here before the end of the month is over. That being said,
• 1:02:55
  the schedule gets harder and this team is going to have to play good baseball,
• 1:03:00
  really good baseball in order to stay at the top of the National League
• 1:03:04
  East. Well, John, let's get into some of those pieces that Dave
• 1:03:07
  Dombrowski might actually go after as the trade deadline is approaching here. You know,
• 1:03:14
  you mentioned a possible reliever as earlier as well. Some overall thoughts on
• 1:03:19
  this trade deadline and in what this Phillies organization may do. I mean,
• 1:03:22
  a right handed hitting outfielder seems to be the kind of player that Dombrowski also
• 1:03:29
  may want to target as well, based on you know, articles that I
• 1:03:34
  have read and just some feedback as well. What are your thoughts on the
• 1:03:37
  positions they might want to target, and any players you actually like. I
• 1:03:40
  know you mentioned a reliever earlier. What are your thoughts here? Yeah,
• 1:03:45
  I'm gonna stick with the relievers for just a second because I just want I
• 1:03:47
  know that the outfielder is like the thing we all want to talk about right
• 1:03:52
  now. Because he plays every day, he gets four or five at bats
• 1:03:54
  every day, it seems like he makes more of a contribution, and during
• 1:03:58
  a one hundred and sixty two game season, maybe he does. And I
• 1:04:01
  know relievers are volatile, so you don't everybody's reluctant to give up something good
• 1:04:05
  for a reliever because generally speaking, relievers can be up and down. And
• 1:04:09
  we've seen with the Phillies bullpen the relievers are pretty consistent. Yeah, on
• 1:04:13
  this team, you know, they don't have wild fluctuations from year to year.
• 1:04:15
  At least over these last three years, we haven't really seen that.
• 1:04:17
  Maybe Sir Anthony Demingez maybe that's the outlier, but the rest of them have
• 1:04:21
  been pretty consistent. Mason Miller throws one hundred and three miles an hour.
• 1:04:25
  He's under team control through twenty thirty. The A's aren't going to keep him
• 1:04:29
  forever. They may not deal him at this trade deadline. But once he
• 1:04:30
  starts getting to arbitration, the A's aren't going to pay him what he is
• 1:04:34
  going to get paid at arbitration. So they're going to trade him at some
• 1:04:39
  point in the next couple of years. Why not, Now, if you
• 1:04:42
  have to give up Justin Crawford or Andrew Painter. Here's my argument for Andrew
• 1:04:45
  Painter. You have the top four spots in this starting rotation spoken for for
• 1:04:49
  the next three or four years. Andrew Painter is coming off Tommy John surgery,
• 1:04:54
  so there's some injury uncertainty there. I think he'll come back fine,
• 1:04:57
  But we've also seen these top notch fil these pitching prospects fail to pan out.
• 1:05:01
  Now that's not to say I mean you've got Spencer Howard six tost Sanchez
• 1:05:05
  mc gable looks like he's heading down that road too. I mean, there's
• 1:05:09
  just the graveyard is littered with with top Phillies pitching prospects, right, So,
• 1:05:14
  so Jake Thompson, you know, like all these different guys. So
• 1:05:16
  I don't think Andrew Paynter necessarily is going to be that. He seems to
• 1:05:20
  have better pure stuff than any of the guys that we just mentioned, But
• 1:05:25
  how important is he going to be to this team in twenty twenty five,
• 1:05:29
  twenty twenty six, Like, do you really need him? Like he's gonna
• 1:05:31
  be your number five starter. I get it, Like, if he's a
• 1:05:33
  Justin Verlander type talent, it's going to hurt to give that away for an
• 1:05:40
  elite closer. But you're also if you can make it so that you have
• 1:05:46
  four to five shut down relievers that you can go to in any playoff game.
• 1:05:51
  Relievers matter in October. We don't think they matter that much in the
• 1:05:56
  regular season. We never talk about relievers. We never talk about the bullpen
• 1:05:59
  in October. It's all we talk about, and we forget that during a
• 1:06:02
  one hundred and sixty two game regular season. So I would move Andrew Painter
• 1:06:06
  for the reasons I just mentioned. For for Mason Miller, certainly, Justin
• 1:06:10
  Crawford, I would do. I'm not trading Aidan Miller. Yeah, Aiden
• 1:06:13
  Miller, I'm holding on too. He's an untouchable for me. I like
• 1:06:15
  Justin Crawford. I gotta say, Lennon and I were talking about the farm
• 1:06:17
  system before bringing you on, and I was just I was glowing about Justin
• 1:06:23
  Crawford and where he's going with his trajectory, and I think he's got I
• 1:06:27
  don't want to give any of these guys up. Yeah, but if you
• 1:06:30
  want to get something that's a real needle mover, sometimes you got to.
• 1:06:32
  It's got to hurt a little bit. And fans don't want to admit that.
• 1:06:35
  Tanner Scott is a left handed reliever closer for the Marlins who would also
• 1:06:40
  be a great addition and probably wouldn't require one of those, one of those
• 1:06:44
  two guys, maybe he would, maybe justin Crawford. I'm not giving up.
• 1:06:47
  I'm not giving up Andrew Painter for Tanner Scott, but maybe justin Crawford
• 1:06:51
  I might do that. Those are the two relievers I'm targeting you. Kirby
• 1:06:56
  Yates is another guy that's been mentioned. He probably doesn't cost as much as
• 1:06:59
  those guys. Again, that would be a fine addition, just not as
• 1:07:00
  high end, not as impactful, but kind of gives you another arm for
• 1:07:04
  the mix to throw into the mix there, which again could be very good
• 1:07:09
  in September and October. As far as outfielders go, Luis Robert Jr.
• 1:07:13
  Would answer a lot of could potentially answer a lot of things in center field
• 1:07:17
  for the Phillies. He's a dynamic talent, but he has trouble staying healthy.
• 1:07:23
  He doesn't seem very motivated right now playing for a bad White Sox team.
• 1:07:27
  And you know, I just for what you'd have to give up to
• 1:07:30
  get him, I'm not sure that he's enough of a sure thing to go
• 1:07:33
  ahead and give up those pieces. But he's a potential guy out there.
• 1:07:38
  I want no part of jazz chism. Doesn't sound like the Phillies won any
• 1:07:41
  part of jazz chism in center field either. The name that you heard a
• 1:07:44
  lot this weekend because he demolished Phillies pitching with the A's is Brent Rooker.
• 1:07:49
  I talk to a lot of different people about his defensive ability. It doesn't
• 1:07:54
  sound like he can play the position at all anymore. So I just,
• 1:07:58
  you know, the whole thing was get to get Kyle Schwarber out of left
• 1:08:00
  field right to make We're gonna do it again. We're gonna put it in
• 1:08:04
  another guy in and just because he can hit a lot of home runs,
• 1:08:06
  not sure that's the best policy. If the Phillies believe he can play left
• 1:08:11
  field, then I say that's your number one trade target right now for a
• 1:08:14
  position player, but I don't think it is. So then you're looking at
• 1:08:16
  like I know, I think John Hayman mentioned Tommy Famm Matt Gelb just flat
• 1:08:23
  outside the phillies of not trading for Tommy fam right right. There's something about
• 1:08:27
  Tommy fam. They don't like him. They've had multiple opportunities to add him
• 1:08:30
  to this roster and haven't. They're not getting Tommy Fam. So then you're
• 1:08:33
  looking at guys like Taylor Ward with the Angels. I think that's a very
• 1:08:36
  strong possibility. There's a pipeline already with the Angels. They've already swung some
• 1:08:41
  deals with that with that organization. You know, you did the Brandon Marsh
• 1:08:45
  trade. You got Noah Cinderguard from them. They seem to have a working
• 1:08:47
  relationship. That would not surprise me at all. If if Taylor Ward is
• 1:08:51
  the platoon maate with Brandon Marsh and left Field, both former Angels, that
• 1:08:55
  would be interesting. And then there's a who's the other guy that it's been
• 1:09:00
  that's been talked about. It just flew right out of my head. Oh
• 1:09:04
  gosh, we're getting old here, John oh Oh Lane Lane Thomas from the
• 1:09:08
  Washington Nationals. Okay, you're young. He will likely be available. Yes,
• 1:09:11
  I mean it springs back into action every once in a while. It's
• 1:09:14
  like a rubber band buddy. He would be He hits left handers really,
• 1:09:18
  really well, so you would have a lefty righty platoon in left field.
• 1:09:21
  And then you're just hoping that Johann Rojas continues to have a second half like
• 1:09:26
  he's had over the last two weeks. If this is the Johann Rojas we
• 1:09:30
  see during the second half, he can absolutely be your center fielder because he's
• 1:09:33
  hit, He's hit a little bit and made some sparkling defensive plays out there
• 1:09:36
  in center. He just wasn't very good defensive league earlier in the year.
• 1:09:40
  So those are the I think those are the big names, and at the
• 1:09:44
  end of the day, very likely we're going to be surprised. We thought
• 1:09:46
  for sure last year the Phillies were going to trade for outfield help and they
• 1:09:49
  didn't get one. So we'll see. We'll see. Michael Lorenzen came to
• 1:09:54
  the Phillies. That was the big move, so we'll see. But I
• 1:09:56
  think Dave Dombrowski is going to do something significant here at the trade deadline.
• 1:09:59
  It's going to be fun to watch for sure. Again Folks, John Staalness
• 1:10:01
  from the Hit and Season podcast over at why y Billypenn dot com. You
• 1:10:06
  can also catch some of his columns and articles and pieces over at the Good
• 1:10:11
  Fight dot com as well. And I got to say this, John before
• 1:10:14
  I let you go. You know you've been doing the podcast for a very
• 1:10:16
  long time over at Hitting Season, back when it was the Felski Files.
• 1:10:20
  I was listening all the way back then, you, Liz and and Justin.
• 1:10:26
  Never do is lose your passion. That always comes through. And Buddy,
• 1:10:30
  I got to tell you right now, somebody who's been doing this for
• 1:10:31
  over eleven years, myself land to you, to Eric, you know you
• 1:10:35
  never lose your passion. Always enjoy listening to you. And folks, if
• 1:10:39
  you haven't listened to the Hit and Season podcast, it is a great,
• 1:10:41
  great Phillies podcast to listen to. And give you all the credit in the
• 1:10:44
  world, my man, and I hope you come back and join us down
• 1:10:46
  the road. You know, Jeff, you ask I come anytime, and
• 1:10:50
  that's gonna do it for us. This week. Make sure to share the
• 1:10:54
  Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show with your friends and family members who may be Philly
• 1:10:58
  sports fans. You can always on over to Philadelphia Sports table dot com to
• 1:11:01
  access all of our podcasts or any major podcast platform on your device. We
• 1:11:06
  appreciate our guests taking the time to join us every week to help make this
• 1:11:11
  podcast happen and to give us great content, and ultimately we appreciate you.
• 1:11:16
  Take care and have a great week, and we'll catch you next time.