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The Phillies Aren't Perfect, But They're So Good! (PST Episode 568) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
What's going on, everybody. It's Jeff here at the PST podcast show.
0:03
I wanted to let you know that this podcast episode was recorded on two separate
0:07
days. Our interview this Week with Ellen Adair was recorded on Wednesday, May
0:12
twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. First part of the show with Lennon and
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I was recorded on Tuesday, May twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. By
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the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there, but
0:22
we hope you enjoy the show. All right, what's up, folks.
1:04
You are listening to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly
1:08
phillyes sports podcast show in the world, over eleven years strong. Here,
1:12
we've got a great show coming for you. Gonna get into some controversial sports
1:18
news and it's gonna be an interesting discussion for sure. And then we're gonna
1:23
get into some Flyers talk, specifically with regard to one Rasmus Rista Lane and
1:26
whether or not maybe he should be traded during this offseason given his salary over
1:33
the course of the next three years. It's gonna get into some Sixers talk
1:36
with regard to the potential signing of Paul George that seems to be plan A
1:40
for the Sixers front office at this point. And then we got a ton
1:42
of Phillies talk coming your way. What should the Phillies do with wit Meryfield
1:48
at this point, who hasn't really performed all that well during this twenty twenty
1:52
four season. And then what we're throwing down on the table, We've got
1:55
Ellen Adair from MLB Networks off base. She's gonna be joining us for a
2:00
look at this Phillies or what's happening with this Phillies team this season. Some
2:04
storylines were following, I'm Jeff Warren and I'm here about good buddy, Len
2:07
Hunsicker. How are you? Len? I am doing good. Hopefully everyone's
2:10
having a good week out there. I hope everybody's having a good week.
2:14
Len's hoping and everybody's had a good week. And I gotta say, Lenn,
2:16
as we get into this show, something that I read on Twitter rate
2:21
before we started, and I'm really glad that it's happening. The Negro League's
2:27
database is going to be put into Major League Baseball's database, and it's going
2:30
to happen this Wednesday. And it's something I just read and I am just
2:37
I think it's really good for Major League Baseball. And I really didn't have
2:39
this on the agenda, but I think it's great. And there's some real
2:43
jerk offs out there responding in this day and age in twenty twenty four that
2:49
can't seem to understand or just have a racist tone to it. Anyway,
2:52
I think it's a great thing for baseball. I don't know why I was
2:54
under the assumption that they had done that already. Did they? And I
2:59
could absolutely be wrong, So don't but take what I'm saying is okay,
3:04
I feel like an idiot. Yeah, I mean, look, if people
3:07
are talking about it, and if it's a huge argument, then it probably
3:10
is going on right now. I don't know where. Maybe maybe it's Baseball
3:15
Reference that had that stuff, uh, and it was and you could look
3:20
at it there. Maybe maybe that's what I'm thinking of. But yeah,
3:23
I mean, if people are arguing about it now, then chances are yeah,
3:25
you know it. You know, it's a it's a current, it's
3:29
a current thing that's happening. Yeah. I read. I read a tweet
3:31
from Russell Dorsey. He's he's an MLB insider over at Yahoo Sports. He
3:37
sent out a tweet as of us recording this here on Tuesday, May twenty
3:42
eight, this first part of the show here. Len He shot off that
3:45
tweet at five oh seven pm today. So it's it's it's it's happening.
3:53
It's a good thing, I think for baseball. I don't know what the
3:58
like why I mean, unless you're just died in the wall. I hate
4:00
black people, yes, person, I don't know what your what your problem
4:05
would be with this. I saw a few tweets like that, unfortunately,
4:10
like oh that that I mean and if that's if that's your thing, I'm
4:15
not You're obviously an asshole. But I'm right. But you know, but
4:19
that's at least okay, you're you're argument. You're not trying to may like
4:23
oh well the quality of the play wasn't as good or like something like that.
4:28
I don't know if people were making that argument not necessarily I know,
4:31
which which you could have made on the MLB side too, like absolutely,
4:34
okay, Bay Bruce, you know has has these numbers, and he didn't
4:40
do it against you know, anybody of color. By the way, Satchel
4:43
Page pretty darn good baseball player. Yeah, yeah, so I mean,
4:46
yeah, so I thought people were making that argument, because then you can
4:50
just turn that right around with the you know, any major League Baseball player
4:55
that played before nineteen forty seven, right right, Yeah, anyway, I
4:59
just wanted to get it. Maybe we'll get into this in more detail on
5:00
a future show. Not sure. I know we've covered it before in the
5:03
past. Yeah, you know, but you know whether or not this should
5:06
happen, it's finally gonna happen. The database is converging with each other.
5:11
It's good stuff here. But len like there's always controversy in the world of
5:15
sports. There's always controversy going on, always like the hot takes, But
5:20
it seems like recently there's been like a bizarre amount of controversial storylines going on
5:28
in the world of sports. I mean, we've certain of us have followed
5:32
the Harrison Bucker story, the Scottie scheff Scheffler story of him getting arrested and
5:38
then subsequently shooting a sixty six bizarre, and I know the golf thing.
5:42
I've been through that over the years. But you also have Racie Rice from
5:46
the Kansas City Chiefs his hit and run crash story, you know from March,
5:53
and that there's stuff coming up with that case, you've got Angel Hernandez.
5:57
He's retiring. What a great That's not a bad thing, but just
6:00
the controversy surrounding him and what he has meant to major League Baseball and not
6:04
in a good way. But I don't know, I just wanted to ask
6:09
and maybe, you know, get your thoughts on what controversial sports story has
6:14
mostly been on your mind perhaps as of late, because I know a lot
6:16
of times we hear the nonsense and we try to filter it out or we
6:20
try to put it to the side, but there are times when I actually
6:25
like think about certain things and how it deals with whether it's from a cultural
6:29
standpoint, societal standpoint, and how it affects, you know, how we
6:32
view certain sports figures or certain sports in general. I don't know, have
6:38
you have you been given any thoughts any of these, you know, quote
6:40
controversial storylines that have kind of been in front of us as of late.
6:46
I mean, it's it's weird that, like, Okay, the Chiefs are
6:49
now probably the closest thing we have to with dynasty. Yeah, and you're
6:54
starting to see, you know, the backlashes here, whether it's people that
6:59
are tired of homes, whether it's people that are tired of you know,
7:02
Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift. But but now, but now the band stories
7:06
you've got, you know, the Rashi ricing, you've got the Butker thing.
7:10
It's kind of like when you know the Patriots and you know, okay,
7:13
oh there's Aaron Hernandez is killing people and you know this I don't know,
7:16
stuff like like oh, what's what you know, deflate Gaton and all
7:20
of a sudden, you know, people were like, you know, poking
7:24
holes and not saying that those you know, those those holes are self inflicted
7:29
a lot of times by these teams. But it's just like once that magnifying
7:32
glass gets you, all gets on you, once you're in that dynasty status.
7:35
It's just interesting how that always kind of just seems to happen. What
7:41
like, there's I mean a lot of a lot of the things that you
7:44
mentioned were you know, are like you know, I mean, the Rashi
7:48
ric thing is is a little you know, is pretty rough. You know,
7:54
Butker just you know, an idiot spouting off. The one thing that
7:59
that I am starting to follow a little bit more that is a lot less
8:03
you know, nefarious than any of this other stuff that we're mentioning. But
8:07
the one story that I'm really interested in looking at over the next couple months
8:13
or so here is a nepotism case and that is surrounding Brownie James. Yes,
8:20
I'm now like, you know, oh, you know, he apparently,
8:26
And keep in mind who we're talking about here. We're talking about a
8:28
kid that basically if his name was Fred White, I don't think he'd be
8:33
getting drafted. I don't think he would be getting drafted in either of the
8:39
two rounds of the NBA Draft. But now he's apparently he has declined workout
8:45
invites to some teams, which the gall of you, I mean, if
8:50
you're not a slam dunk first round talent, the fact that you're turning down
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invites. The only few team he hasn't turned out workout invites to is Lakers
9:00
and the Phoenix Suns. Yeah, so now it's like a thing of like
9:05
is he going to go in the first round? And that is strictly like
9:09
I said, you know, pick a name, whatever name you want to
9:11
pick, Fred White, Mike Jenkins, I don't know whoever. If this
9:16
kid was named that and not Lebron James Junior, there is no way in
9:22
hell getting drafted, right. So it's just like it's gonna be the biggest
9:28
nepotism case in history because this kid is not I'm sorry. I mean,
9:35
if he turns out to be a decent NBA player, I'll eat my shoe.
9:39
I just you know, there's there's no way. So that's something that
9:43
I'm following. Like, you know, Okay, Lebron James is probably one
9:48
of the ten most famous people in America. If you wanted to make it
9:52
top five, I'd be totally fine with that. So how how much will
9:58
people jump for that name to hire to to you know, waste a draft
10:03
pick on a kid that is not an NBA player? Waste a draft pick
10:07
on a kid like you're saying, who Honestly, it's I agree with you.
10:11
Like from a pure basketball standpoint, could he potentially develop in the future,
10:16
possibly, but I highly doubt it given everything that I've seen from him
10:22
on the court in college. However, that first round draft pick for a
10:26
team that's going to be marketing, I mean, it's a marketing pick,
10:30
and I think that is going to be very obvious to anybody who follows the
10:33
NBA. I think it should be obvious to whatever fan base that Brianni ends
10:37
up going to. Whichever team he ends up going to, that fan base
10:41
needs to realize it's a marketing initiative at that point, it's not a basketball
10:48
initiative for the team. And that really stinks. And if and if they
10:50
spend a draft pick, I mean, you have to spend a draft pick
10:54
on this kid, yeah, with the with the you know implication that his
10:58
dad is. Because if you spend a draft pick on this kid and his
11:03
dad's like, I don't know, I'm not going there, then you have
11:05
then you have wasted a pick on a non NBA player. Yeah, So
11:11
that to me is again it's not anything like you know, hardcore like what
11:16
was going on with Rashi Rice, And it's not, you know, something
11:18
in the you know how everybody just likes to be pissed off at everybody and
11:22
you know, argue about everything these days. So it's not like that with
11:26
Harrison Butker. But it is its own interesting thing to me. Yeah.
11:31
I think it's really interesting too. It's something I actually hadn't thought of.
11:33
I'm glad you brought it up. It's a very good point in that,
11:37
like you said, it is going to be the biggest nepotism story perhaps in
11:43
the history of sports that we have ever seen. It probably end up will
11:48
be. And it amazes me. It's like, what's the fallout going to
11:52
be from it? Because we kind of have a feeling about what Bronni is
11:56
going to be on the court, productivity on the court, and like what's
12:00
the end game? Like what what's the end game? How does it all
12:03
manifest? Is getting his dad to play for your team? So I mean,
12:09
and I would imagine if you're if you're doing that, hopefully you're doing
12:13
it with the you know, intent to win a championship and the end you're
12:16
you're one of those teams it's close and when hopefully Lebron James could put you
12:20
over the top. Otherwise, if you're just little, if you're a middle
12:24
of the road team and you're just doing it to sell tickets. First of
12:26
all, I don't think Lebron James is going there. I think he wants
12:28
to. He wants to win another championship. So he's not Like if the
12:35
Washington Wizards go ahead and and and draft Brownie James, guess what, He's
12:39
not going to Washington. It's not happening. So you know, I think
12:43
there's that finite amount of teams that I think could realistically try to do this
12:48
and and maybe have the poll to to get Lebron James like or is a
12:52
good enough situation that he'd even want to go there? Yeah, I like
12:56
it. I like that a lot. And uh, when I'm when I'm
12:58
thinking about the controversial stories that I've been following, and may you may make
13:05
fun of this too because I mentioned it, but it's the Scotti sche Scheffler
13:09
story of him getting arrested back on May seventeenth as he was trying to get
13:13
to the Vihalla GC for the second round of the USPGA and he's the number
13:20
one golfer in the world detained by police. He was arrested. Did he
13:26
run over a cop or something? Oh, that's the thing. And this
13:30
is why I've really been following this story based on certain cultural and societal based
13:37
stories that we've talked about on this podcast over the years, len with regard
13:41
to police and how you know, especially with regard to the Colin Kaepernick situation.
13:46
It's one of the reasons why he took a knee because of police brutality
13:50
to raise awareness of that, and no, Scotty Scheffler was not brutalized,
13:56
but he was taken straight to jail. He's basically frog marched to the back
14:01
of a police vehicle in handcuffs after he misunderstood the traffic flow situation into the
14:07
golf club following what was unfortunately a fatal collision that happened around like five a
14:13
m. That morning. And from the police, first off, the police
14:18
officer didn't have his body camera on, which was a gas policy, and
14:22
the way at which the report was written up not necessarily one hundred percent apparent
14:30
truthful allegations against Scheffler. You know, he was charged with second degree assault
14:35
of a police officer. And that's the part it's like the assault of the
14:39
police officer. It's like, really did he assault the police officer? And
14:43
there are questions about this, so many questions about this that the Louisville Police
14:48
Department has said behind closed doors, some of the top brass within the Louisville
14:52
Police Department, they voiced their concerns at least that the felony charge may have
14:58
been excessive by this officer. So I say this because we've continued to see
15:03
time and time again, police officers throughout the United States using that power and
15:09
authority, power and authority that they do have in certain situations that may not
15:15
have needed to be escalated to the point where where they got to you know,
15:18
and look, there are more than eighteen thousand local police departments in the
15:24
United States, and there are so many fantastic police officers I worked. I
15:28
mean, when I was a member of Eastern City Council years ago and I
15:31
was the chair of the Public Safety Committee, meeting excuse me, meeting with
15:35
and just getting close to the fire department, police department, the leadership there.
15:39
We had so many great police officers, and I have supported police officers
15:43
time and time again in my public service work for years and years and years.
15:46
That being said, there are some real jerks out there, and it's
15:50
like this in every profession. But in terms of police officers, police officers
15:54
have gotten unfortunately a bad rap over the years for various incidents, and not
16:00
all police officers deserve it. However, in this situation is this was a
16:04
white guy too, being detained and being a little bit things were a bit
16:11
excessive, you know with him. No, he was not brutalized, folks.
16:14
I understand that he was not brutalized. You know, this isn't a
16:17
Rodney King type of thing. This isn't somebody being shot for being what exactly
16:25
he was putting a jump suit in the slammer an orange one anyway. But
16:32
my point to all this here, Lynn, is that police situations like this
16:37
are continuing to happen because some of these folks just just don't know how to
16:44
don't know how to do their jobs properly. And I think it's interesting when
16:48
you have somebody who is the number one person in the world at what they
16:52
do from the sporting or gaming you know world, and is and then not
16:59
affected by it. He goes out and shoots a sixty six, which was
17:02
incredible, And I know you're probably like, who cares whatever, It's pretty
17:04
it's pretty remarkable. I just think it's an interesting story to follow just based
17:11
on what our society and culture has thought of police over the past decade or
17:17
two in this country, and a lot of changes that have tried that police
17:22
departments have been making within their ranks, but still it filters out even into
17:27
the sports world with a situation like Scotti Shuffler here. So I've been following
17:32
this a lot lately. Yeah, and he probably had a conversation with somebody
17:36
about it after the fact, and somebody was in the background just listening to
17:40
it and was really like like, oh man, like the whole thing with
17:42
the police, and it was really gripping, and he probably talked about his
17:45
golf game and put that guy he probably the guy probably was inspired by talking
17:53
to the number one golfer in the world say you know what, I want
17:56
to get out there on the course. I want to get out there and
18:00
I want to start hitting some balls. Let's see what happens. He was
18:03
probably inspired. This guy could walk down the street and punch me in the
18:06
face and I'd have no idea who the hell he is. You don't know
18:11
the number one golfer in the world. I could not pitch him out of
18:15
a lineup. D Well, now he's got some head shots with an orange
18:19
jumpsuit. So there we go. So's yeah, good segment there. I
18:26
enjoyed that. I enjoyed that. Let's move along and talk about this Philadelphia
18:32
Flyers team. But they're going to be making some decisions about this roster this
18:36
offseason as they continue to rebuild, and the one question that you know,
18:41
I've been thinking a lot about and I think one they're going to have to
18:44
answer is whether or not Rasmus Risto lane And should be traded during this offseason
18:48
because that that five point one million dollar cap hit over the next three years
18:53
is going to be rough for this team that is still wanting and needing to
18:59
rebuild. Of course, you know, we we we all got the news
19:02
about Mitchkalff and him possibly coming over earlier. We talked about it last week
19:07
on the Table Talk interview show. But I don't know, I have a
19:11
feeling, I have a feeling we may have seen Risto's last you know games
19:15
in Philadelphia this past year, and it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to
19:22
make a move to you know, get him off the books as well.
19:26
Look, he had a he had a ruptured tricep you know, last two
19:29
months of the season. So draft is usually where these trade talks start picking
19:33
up some steams. So it's just something I'm thinking we may want to keep
19:37
an eye on. Yeah, I mean, like I I'm just trying to
19:41
figure out who's who who wants this contract, and that's the thing, like
19:48
I could be you know, that. That's my opinion. Yeah, I
19:51
could be wrong, because you know there, you know, there's still a
19:52
lot of old school hockey guys out there, you know how there's the analytic
19:56
community who abhoor his wrist line and the and the old school hockey community or
20:00
like oh I love his grit and when what he adds and all that stuff.
20:04
So maybe they can find, you know, one of those people to
20:10
take on this salary. I just I would be shocked if anybody wanted this
20:15
salary for a cup for like what is the next three years? Is that
20:18
what it is? Basically? Yeah? Yeah, five point one million that
20:22
first of all, And I like, what are you going to get back
20:25
for it? Then? Like you're gonna have to are you going to have
20:26
to eat another bad contract to get this bad tracked off your books? Like
20:33
nobody's just gonna say, oh, we'll take them and free up all this
20:34
cap space for you, and you know, maybe we'll give you a couple
20:37
of picks. I mean, if you get picks for him, it's probably
20:41
going to be like fifth and sixth round picks if anything. Yeah, I
20:45
did giving up anything of value. Yeah, it is like I'm thinking,
20:48
you know, maybe he would want to. I don't know, maybe he
20:51
could go to Buffalo again, you know, maybe he could go to there
20:56
to road that ride. I don't think they want to do that, Yeah,
21:00
I just I mean, look, if they can pull it off,
21:03
and even if you can get you know, just to get them off the
21:07
books, I think would be a huge win, you know, and especially
21:11
you know, there's not really a spot for him at this point. You
21:14
know, you have you know, you have Sanheim, you know, you
21:17
have Seiler Drysdale, if you can hopefully stay healthy, cam Yorck, obviously
21:22
emil Andre, You've got you know, Zamola, You've got added I mean,
21:26
you've got guys there. You build up, and they may who knows,
21:30
this twelfth pick, they may go with another defenseman. Not that he's
21:33
going to show up there, you know, next year, but you know
21:37
it's possible, you know. So you have that pipeline there where you could
21:41
have probably afford to get rid of rist line to I just I want to
21:47
find out who the sucker is. It's going to take him. I mean,
21:49
the Maple Leafs need more defensive help, you know, they they need
21:56
a top four defenseman as well. It's not a top four defenseman. I
22:00
mean, listen, if if you can, if you can sell that that
22:03
you know, bag of magic beans or whatever, and somebody's gonna buy it,
22:06
then more power to you. But I mean, if anybody's coming to
22:11
me saying, oh, yeah, he's a top four defenseman, I'm gonna
22:14
yeah, No, he's not. I don't know. Danny Brier is doing
22:18
some good things so far. I got faiths. I got faith in Danny.
22:21
Hey, I hope so, I hope he can do it. I
22:23
just to me, that's just lunacy that that he's a top four defense I
22:29
was kind of kidding about that. I thought it was a funny line anyway,
22:33
Okay, I don't know if you were, And I was like,
22:34
yeah, no, I just know that Boston needs basically they need a top
22:37
four defenseman. Toronto definitely needs defenseman, so I mean yeah. I mean
22:45
the thing is, though, I mean that that's another team that they have
22:48
so much money tied up in just so few players like they're there, they
22:53
might have to trade some guys that they don't want to trade just to free
22:56
up some money, right, so, to even afford a risk line,
23:00
and you might have to trade a guy that you know, away to another
23:03
team and another deal. They're not trading Mitch Moore or to the Flyers for
23:07
wrist a line and it's not going to happen, right, But you know,
23:11
yeah, there's going to have to be some maneuvering there for Toronto,
23:15
I think, to even free up money to take on a wrist a line
23:18
and contract. Yeah, well, these Flyers are going to be making some
23:22
moves for sure. This front office is definitely going to be making some moves
23:25
for sure. But in the meantime, subscribe if you are enjoying the content
23:30
that we are putting up at the PSD podcast show. Again, we've been
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Warren the Show at Philadelphia PST. We are gonna take a quick break right
24:12
now. Folks, stick with us. We're gonna be back with some Sixers
24:15
talk and some Phillies talk. We'll be right back. All right, we
24:19
are back, Len. We got to get into this Philadelphia seventy six Ers
24:23
team and what Darryl Mory maybe planning to do this offseason. I mean,
24:29
it seems like, as I mentioned at the top of the show, seems
24:32
like signing Paul George is gonna be plan A for the Sixers. But the
24:36
real question is and I was talking to our good friend of the pod on
24:40
the Table Talk show this past week here in fact, this week Matt Rodgers
24:45
from the honorable mentioned podcast talking about whether or not Paul George should be the
24:48
guy, like should he actually be the guy who is targeted by this team?
24:55
And again seems like that's plan A for Daryl Morey, who knows could
24:57
be smokescreen, could be uh, could could be uh, you know,
25:02
some sort of move that he's trying to, you know, get get teams
25:07
lining up for this or that whatever. But honestly, I'm not the I'm
25:11
not the I'm not the biggest fan of bringing in a thirty four year old
25:14
on the downside of his career. And yes, I know, one night
25:18
he could play like an MVP the next night, he's kind of that Elite
25:22
three and D role player. He's got some versatility in his game still,
25:27
But I just don't know if he is going to be the guy that should
25:32
be lined up next to Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxie as they're moving forward and
25:37
looking to this next season. I really don't. I mean, DeMar DeRozan,
25:41
as Matt Rogers and I were talking about, might actually be a better
25:45
option for this Sixers team, and it may have give them the ability to
25:48
sign some other type of role players as well. So I don't know.
25:52
I'm not I'm just not the biggest Paul George fan. It would be interesting
25:56
to see what he would bring to a Joel Embiid Tyress Maxi team Right now,
26:03
I don't know, Linn, what are your thoughts on this, because
26:06
like, I'm really hesitant rate to support this to be honest, Yeah,
26:11
at the at the money that that Paul George is probably going to command,
26:15
I I really and I mean, look, they're gonna have plenty of money
26:19
to you know, really, I mean who outside of Embiid and Maxie didn't
26:23
even have anybody else on the books, and Maxie is a restricted free agent.
26:26
He's gonna get his money. But so, I mean, you could
26:30
certainly afford Paul George. But I just at the money he's going to command,
26:33
is he going to be worth it? Oddly enough, he might be,
26:37
because I think I think most Sixers fans kind of have that same feeling
26:41
of like, you know, Paul George. Maybe it would have been more
26:45
excited five years ago, you know what I mean, like that kind of
26:48
thing. Yea, So maybe maybe that sentiment is so large that somehow he
26:55
becomes underrated in a way because we're all just like so underwhelmed by him that
27:00
by the concept of him coming here that maybe you know, you know,
27:04
he plays, you know, if he comes with the six Ers, he
27:07
plays for a little bit, you're like, he's actually pretty good. I
27:11
don't know, I mean that that's something that I could see happening. I
27:15
know that to me, Paul George doesn't really move the needle for me,
27:19
Like, I don't think he gets them any closer to a championship. I
27:22
really don't, you know, I feel like there's and honestly, like and
27:29
it sucks because you know, you could make an argument, oh that sucks.
27:32
That sucks. That sucks. But then the thing of like, okay,
27:34
genius, you tell me what you would do. And and I'm standing
27:37
here right now going I don't know, so like I can, I can
27:42
criticize that move all I want, but honestly, I don't really see much
27:48
out there in the free agent market that inspires. I really don't. And
27:53
that's what and that's what I think. A potential trade that we may not
27:56
you know, may not be on our radar right now, possible trade that
28:02
yeah, that is that is the that is the thing that would you know,
28:06
really shake some stuff up and cause people to get like super interested in
28:11
the Sixers next season, is if they swung some kind of big trade.
28:15
I don't know how they do it. I don't know. I mean,
28:18
I I just I genuinely don't know what they would have to do to make
28:22
that happen. You know, hey, maybe uh we're talking about the nepotism
28:27
thing earlier. Maybe Brianni James is sitting there at number sixteen and we when
28:33
we do the day thing. I don't know, that would be amazing.
28:40
That would be amazing, actually, you know. And then and then suddenly
28:44
nepotism maybe isn't such a bad thing exactly. Having James on this sixers team.
28:48
I I just with with Paul George though, dude, like thirty again,
28:53
thirty four years old. Look, he played seventy four games this past
28:57
season. It was the most season during his five year tenure with the Clippers.
29:02
He had never played more than fifty six games in a season with Los
29:06
Angeles prior to that. And we know injuries have plagued him for many years.
29:11
It's hard to imagine that changing as he's entering his mid thirties here and
29:15
yeah, people are like, here, he's a four time Yeah, this
29:18
is a team with Joel Empiiede exactly, child for you know, missing time
29:23
exactly. So it's just like I mean, and it's you know, convenient
29:30
that he played all those games in a contract here, you know. So
29:36
I don't know, it doesn't excite me. Yeah, I don't know.
29:40
I wish I had an answer that said do this, this, this,
29:42
and I'm all in. I don't have that. Yeah, I'm totally with
29:47
you. Well, as we're moving along here, Land, you know,
29:51
somebody else who doesn't excite me and does not excite the great majority of those
29:56
in Phillies Nation is a gentleman named wit Maryfield who was brought in during this
30:00
offseason. Dear freaking lord, what should the Phillies do with wit Merrifield as
30:07
a guy who just hasn't performed well at all this season for this team?
30:11
I mean, should they simply release him? At this point? Land,
30:15
he's batting as of us recording this one point eight one. He does have
30:19
six stolen bases, which which I appreciate, but my gosh, it has
30:25
been absolutely pitiful. I mean, this is a this is a guy who's
30:27
made it to the All Star Game in recent years, and he just it
30:32
seems like he's forgotten how to play baseball. I don't know, what do
30:33
you think they do with him here? I mean, I don't know.
30:37
I mean, it does seem like there's really not much uh tread left on
30:42
the tires at this point. You know, I'm trying to give him the
30:48
benefit of the doubt that you know, there are you know, fifty games
30:52
or fifty some games whatever, sixty games maybe into their season, so you
30:56
know, maybe it's just a bad stretch. But you know, the coming
31:00
into this year, he had had a bit of a rough time, so
31:03
you know, you have to kind of wonder if you know it is what
31:07
it is now at this point. Yeah, he has played twenty nine games.
31:11
Twenty nine games he's played, Yes he has, and I mean he
31:15
does give you a lot of positional flexibility. But you know, once Trey
31:19
Turner comes back, you know Sosa does that too. Cody Clemens does that
31:25
to an extent too, And Cody Clemens is giving you much more production from
31:27
a fraction of of what wit Maryfield is costing you. So yeah, and
31:33
then Cody Clemens could be a guy that you know, gets exposed the more
31:37
you use them. But I don't know, Yeah, I mean it's I
31:41
wouldn't be surprised if that once Turner comes back and then you have Sosa you
31:47
can use in more of a utility role along with Cody Clemens. If they
31:51
drop Merryfield and and try to get a better backup outfielder out there, you
31:57
know. But to me, like, I don't know, Like you talk
32:02
about what Maryfield, how about the who's making seven million year so you know
32:08
that's not Trump change, But how about the right fielder who's making twenty million
32:13
a year and hitting, yeah with a ops of five seventy three, who's
32:17
a power hitter. You know. Nick Castianos is having a rough year.
32:25
So to me, yeah, Maryfield stinks this year, but uh cats down
32:32
not really doing much better and he's making as I said, twenty million dollars
32:38
a year. Yeah, it's so yeah. I was just gonna say,
32:43
I'm glad you brought up Castianos because like it's like, okay, we're gonna
32:46
have we're having to talk about him again. We're having to talk about the
32:51
type of you know, player he has become or has not become for this
32:55
Phillies organization and team. We've seen some good things during stretches from him,
33:00
but the lack of consistency with Castianis makes me feel like, just like with
33:07
wit Meryfield, like perhaps perhaps he is just going dark within his career here.
33:13
Not not dark in terms of just he's totally done, but he's it's
33:21
rough. It is rough out there. When I when I see him at
33:22
the plate, it's like Jesus, what's gonna happen? Now? The lack
33:27
of consistency len And that's not why he was brought here. Of course,
33:32
he was here to be a consistent player, and he certainly hasn't been.
33:37
Yeah, and I mean, listen, we're talking about a team that has
33:42
the best record in baseball. So I mean it kind of sounds insane that
33:45
we're reggrected about this, but I mean, yeah, you look at that
33:49
outfield. Then you know, you've got marsh who he's an energy guy,
33:53
he's a he's a culture guy. Decent player, not you know, I
33:58
think anything that's approached an All Star binding stretch. You've got Johann Rojas,
34:02
who was essentially a defensive player. You know, hopefully some someday his bat
34:07
becomes more than that, but he is a pretty much the defensive only player.
34:12
And then Castianus who's struggling big time. And that's your outfield. It's
34:15
just like, man, they're really not getting any punch from their outfield.
34:19
I'm not saying that to be like, oh the sky's falling, because again,
34:22
they have the best record in baseball. But it's like, man,
34:25
they're they're still not getting any punch from their outfield. So yeah, I
34:30
don't know, just it's it is kind of strange to see, especially you
34:35
know, from a team that that that is doing so well. But yeah,
34:38
I just I don't know, man, they're really getting nothing out of
34:43
him. I'll tell you. You know, sometimes he's chasing too much.
34:46
Sometimes Castianus is chasing too much. I mean, there has to be some
34:50
kind of always been a you know, a free swinger. He's never been
34:54
a guy that's going to walk a lot. You know, we know that
34:58
coming in. But I mean, you know he's not even hitting two hundreds.
35:01
Well, that's the thing. He doesn't have the balance. There has
35:04
to be some kind of balance here where he doesn't chase non strike pitches yet
35:08
he remains aggressive with pitches that he can do some damage to them, and
35:14
we're not seeing that balance at all. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
35:17
it's just I don't know, it's something to worry about. So, yeah,
35:21
there's a couple of spots there that you know, there's a couple of
35:23
spots that for a team that's doing as well as the Phillies are doing,
35:28
it's just like, man, they can be doing so much more with some
35:31
production out of these spots. So yeah, it's weird. Then again,
35:36
best record in baseball, so maybe we should temper the complaints maybe a little
35:39
bit. Yeah, I mean it's reasonable. Yeah, absolutely, all right,
35:44
buddy, I'm gonna let you go here before you know, we get
35:46
to what we're thrown down on the table. Any final thoughts before he head
35:50
out for the week. No, I do not. Just I mean,
35:54
again, we were just complaining about the Phillies. But enjoy what you're seeing.
36:00
I mean, it's not something we've seen out of this team in a
36:02
long time to be this hot out of the gate and just throughout the season.
36:07
I know they've kind of hit a rough patch here in the past,
36:09
you know, Rocky Series and then yesterday against against the Giants, but you
36:15
know that's something every team in baseball goes through and it happens. So yeah,
36:21
I just enjoy this ride that they're on right now. Good point,
36:22
Buddy, good point. All right. I'm gonna let leng go here,
36:25
folks again at Len Hunsicker on Twitter slash x, and we're gonna take a
36:30
quick break when we get back. Got more Phillies talk coming your way.
36:32
Let's take that break now, all right, we are back. Let's get
36:37
to what we are throwing down on the table. This week. We've got
36:39
Ellen A. Dare from MLB Networks Off Base show. She is fantastic looking
36:45
forward to having her jump back on the show with us again. It's what
36:49
we're throwing down on the table and now on the table. It is great
36:55
to have back on the podcast from her own podcast, asked take me into
37:00
the ballgame. And she's got a lot of other stuff going on as well,
37:05
an avid, avid Phillies fan and somebody who I have enjoyed following because
37:08
she's an actress as well and doing some great stuff in the TV and movie
37:15
world over the years. We've got the one and only Ellen Adair. How
37:19
you doing, Ellen, I'm so great. Thank you so much for having
37:22
me. Jeff, it is such a pleasure to get to talk to you
37:24
again. I love talking to you. I mean we talked once before.
37:27
I should say we talked once before. It was a great, great interview,
37:29
was a great discussion about the Philadelphia Phillies. But before we get into
37:32
this Philly season, Ellen, I wanted to let folks know where they can
37:37
find your work and like what you're doing. Because seriously, the last time
37:40
we were on, you were promomoing in twenty twenty three movie you were in
37:45
called Herd HGRD just for folks out there and a great, great movie.
37:51
And I know you've been doing some TV shows recently. I know you do
37:53
some artwork as well, and I will tell folks to go over to Ellen
37:57
Adair dot com. She's a great great artists and stuff. So I don't
38:00
tell folks what you got going on right now at this point, Ellen,
38:04
Oh my gosh, so much. Some of it I can't even talk about.
38:07
Haha. Secrets, fun secrets. Yeah. Earlier this year I shot
38:12
an episode of Law and Order, and I also shot an episode of the
38:15
television show Found in Atlanta, which was really fun. It was nice to
38:20
get to go to Atlanta. Unfortunately, I saw the Red Sox lose to
38:27
the Atlanta baseball team, which was unfortunate, but I had a great time.
38:31
And also you mentioned you were kind enough to mention my baseball drawings,
38:38
which, if folks don't know, I do baseball drawings by commission, but
38:43
also occasionally other sports or just other things. In general. I love to
38:47
draw people's pets. That is also very fun. So yeah, you can
38:52
find that at my website. If you scroll all the way down to the
38:54
bottom of the homepage, you will see a picture of the twenty sixteen cubs
38:59
that I drew. Click on that and that will take you to my drawings
39:02
specific website where you can see more examples. I have prints of things as
39:07
well that already exist, So that's a slightly lower price point if you already
39:12
know that what you want is a drawing of Trey Turner or Bryce Harper or
39:15
vicesk like just as fewer hypothetical examples. I've already got some of those up
39:21
there. Yeah, nice, very nice. Check out our stuff, folks,
39:23
buy our stuff. She's awesome. It's fantastic. And you know what
39:27
else is fantastic. Even though this past week's been a little rough. Is
39:30
this Philadelphia Phillies team this year? Holy crap. I can't believe where they're
39:34
at. And I guess to start us off because my co host Lenn and
39:38
I we were talking about wit Maryfield before I let him go off the podcast.
39:45
He had to go to work and stuff, but we were talking about
39:46
what wit mary Field and what this Phillies front office may actually do with him
39:51
and his contract, Ellen is we're heading into June here. I just wanted
39:54
to, again piggybacking off lens of my conversation, what are your thoughts just
40:00
about his lack of productivity and what should be done by the front office because
40:04
he was essentially supposed to be an insurance policy with regard to potentially center Field,
40:08
just a utility type of guy. Again, lack of productivity throughout this
40:13
twenty twenty four season. What do you think the front office may do here?
40:16
Oh, it's such a good question, Jeff, And my take on
40:22
the signing initially was that it was an overpay for a utility guy. And
40:27
I didn't necessarily hate having Mayfield on the team, so I was excited.
40:30
I like him as a human being, yeah yeah, and I like I
40:34
enjoyed him on the Royals, but I didn't quite understand it. And that's
40:37
because diving into the numbers just a little bit, he hasn't had a WRC
40:43
plus of above one hundred since twenty twenty and last year he was in the
40:47
bottom one percent of MLB in exit velocity. That's like a pretty key skills
40:53
indicator for a hitter, and it's somehow lower this year and above that,
41:00
he's not a great outfielder, So a lot of people who sort of thought,
41:05
oh, he's not going to be a utility guy, he's going to
41:07
pretty regularly cycle through the outfield. I was like, I don't love that
41:10
idea, because he was minus five outs above average in the outfield last year.
41:16
So I think with Merrifield, because he came up when he was twenty
41:21
seven, people think that he's younger than he is. But he's thirty five,
41:25
right, which is not old for a person, but it isn't the
41:30
time when you're expecting a bounce back from a baseball player. So I didn't
41:34
really get to the signing. On the other hand, I will say,
41:37
like, I did not expect him to hit one eighty one with a five
41:40
thirty six. Oh yes. Still, I'm aware that for me, there
41:46
might be a little bit of a confirmation bias with the way that he's performed
41:51
so far. So it's easy for me to say because it's not my eight
41:54
million dollars that I'm paying him this year, but I feel like, give'm
42:00
a bit more of a chance, right any any number of players, especially
42:04
if they're getting fewer at bats, can struggle with this number of plate appearances,
42:09
but if it doesn't work out, just be like, ah, well,
42:14
too bad, we lost that eight million dollars exactly. At least there's
42:19
a buyout option for next year. I just think, honestly, you're better
42:23
off with Cody Clemens and Kristin Pasche and Clemens wouldn't even need to be as
42:30
good as he has been for that to be true. You know, it's
42:34
a small sample size, but Clemens currently has the twelfth best hard contact rate
42:38
in baseball, like exceptionally good. Yeah, and Merrifield literally defines the opposite
42:45
pole of that thing. And the one thing that Maryfield is better at is
42:51
plate discipline, Like it would be nice to see Clemens takes more walks and
42:53
cut the strikeout rate a little bit. I just think that what's going to
42:58
happen soon because I believe that Clemens has options, so I wouldn't be surprised
43:01
to see them send him back down and give Merrifield a bit more of a
43:06
chance. I just don't have a ton of optimism about it, yeah,
43:09
because I wasn't particularly high on his upside coming into the year, so I
43:15
feel like, ultimately, if he continues to struggle, if we're if we're
43:21
past the All Star break, and let's imagine that, you know, we
43:24
don't know exactly what's going to happen with the division, so you don't want
43:29
to just give up games because you feel like you paid a guy eight million
43:32
dollars. So at a certain point that I would cut bait. I don't
43:37
think I'm at that point yet, but yeah, it's getting close, getting
43:40
close, for sure. I don't think any any of us thought, like
43:43
you said, Ellen, that it would be this big of a crap sandwich
43:49
here. From what we've seen from Wit Mayrifield, he's almost to that line
43:52
in my opinion. Let's see what happens with him. But as we're moving
43:55
along with the conversation, I'm hoping we can get into some pit storylines here.
44:00
Wow, And Yeah, the biggest one is how Tywan Walker has performed,
44:06
especially this past week. Dear Lord, Look, there will be stretches
44:09
where this team, where this Phillies team that's been doing so well, where
44:13
they are going to struggle from time to time, whether it's on the mound
44:15
or whether it's in the batter's box. We've seen a little bit of it,
44:19
certainly on this road trip. We've seen it out in San Francisco as
44:22
well. But with Tywan Walker, Ellen, he could be a problem with
44:27
this starting rotation. And if his struggles continue, you know, we're gonna
44:31
hear the Spencer Turnbull chance, We really are, and we're gonna hear them
44:36
louder and louder given his performance before Tywn Walker returned to the mound. So
44:42
what should we be making of Tywan Walker at this particular point in the season,
44:45
this particular point perhaps in his career, And what do you think is
44:50
going to be that breaking point where turnball is possibly brought back to the starting
44:55
rotation. If it does happen, what are your thoughts here? You're the
44:59
best, You just dive and ride in right into the heart of the mats.
45:04
Yeah, yeah, I think with Tywon Walker this is sort of what
45:07
we were all afraid of, right, you know. And the issue has
45:10
been made even more shall we say, precarious, by the fact that his
45:16
velocity has been down this year, which I think everybody can see. You
45:20
know, he was averaging about ninety four on his four seam in twenty twenty
45:23
two, which was his last year with the Mets before he signed with the
45:27
Phillies, and it's more like ninety one this year. And the other thing
45:30
that made him good that year that I think we were all I will certainly
45:35
include myself in this excited about was his splitter, which he had used twenty
45:38
seven percent of the time in twenty twenty two and now he's only using it
45:43
eighteen percent of the time. And I get that because it wasn't a good
45:46
pitch for him last year. He used it a lot last year, to
45:50
his detriment. And it's this sort of the issue of relying on splitters because
45:53
there's such a volatable excuse me, volatile pitch. I wanted to say volatable
46:00
for some reason. Not a word. I'll make it up now, but
46:06
you know, just diving in a little bit on Taiwan Walker. Unfortunately,
46:10
the splitter has been his best pitch this year, which is not saying a
46:15
ton because it has a very high mistake rate for a splitter that is a
46:20
pitchureless stat about how often a pitch is in a part of the zone where
46:24
it's likely to get crushed. So this splitter is at a fourteen percent mistake
46:30
rate. That is not good, folks, And a lot of the damage
46:35
that the Giants did on Monday, that was Monday right against Walker. It
46:40
was on the splitter. Sometimes they actually weren't, they were not poorly located
46:45
pitches, but they still got hammered. A lot of the hits against him
46:47
were on the splitter, and obviously some of the runs were self inflicted because
46:53
of errors. But it does sort of it begins to feel like Walker in
46:59
the rotation is also maybe a slightly self inflicted error because I think that thank
47:07
you, thank you for laughing. Didn't know how I felt about that joke
47:10
because I realized that it was formulating. But I think that even the starts
47:15
where the Phillies have pulled out a win, watching them, I've certainly got
47:21
this feeling. I would not be surprised if other Phillies fans have gotten the
47:22
same feeling like Walker and the Phillies have gotten lucky. And so I think
47:29
in some ways the organization is probably looking at how long can our bats bail
47:36
Walker out, because that's happened versus the Padres and the Giants the first time,
47:43
not in their house of horrors where the Phillies can never win for any
47:45
reason except for today and the Rangers is yeah, can they get the innings
47:52
that they need, maybe even pull him out in the fourth or the fifth
47:57
innings and still win those games? And the answer when the bats go relatively
48:02
cold like they have overall for the last two series versus the Giants and versus
48:07
the Rockies, the answer is obviously no. Right. So what's been concerning,
48:15
on the other hand, is that Turnbull has not been great out of
48:19
the bullpen. And this is a number that I pulled from before today's appearance
48:23
where he gave up a run. He has a six point seventy five ERA
48:29
and a one point seventy five whip since moving over to the bullpen. And
48:34
I do get that it is mentally tougher to come out of the bullpen if
48:37
you're used to knowing exactly when you're going to pitch. But it makes me
48:42
remember this conversation that I had with Nick Pollock of Pitcher List at around the
48:47
time when Walker was going to be coming back, and I was basically like,
48:52
obviously, we all want Turnbull in the rotation, and having seen Walker's
48:58
starts at Triple A, do not want Walker back in the rotation. But
49:01
since Turnbull's coming back from Tommy John. He pitched thirty innings last year and
49:07
he hasn't thrown one hundred and fifty innings since twenty nineteen, So how much
49:12
are we really going to get from Turnbull? We kind of need to move
49:14
him to the bullpen until the moment that you know, heaven forefend there might
49:19
be an opening in the rotation because of injury where we need him to fill
49:22
it. And Nick was like, yeah, but number one, he's not
49:27
the Phillies twenty four year old prospect, he's thirty one. Let it go
49:31
that point. Yeah, that's a point. Yeah, And Nick said that
49:36
his solution was that they should go six man rotation because and I of course
49:42
was like, yeah, but Nola and Wheeler hate that, And he was
49:45
like, well, then go sort of modified six man where Nola and Wheeler
49:50
and I would say also Suarez actually go every five days and then you kind
49:55
of have the other guys kind of moving through. It would be complicated,
50:00
but you could do it where you could keep the guys who really care about
50:02
staying on their regular sort of five day process, right, You could still
50:08
do it and you would just kind of be like moving where the other guys
50:12
pitch around, and he was like, ultimately that would mean more innings from
50:15
the guys that you trust the most and fewer innings from the you know,
50:20
the pictures who are either developing or you trust less. Hypothetically, yes,
50:25
not talking about any taiwin Walker in particular, and so like, there's there's
50:30
a way to do that. And the reason that he was advocating for that
50:36
was because he was afraid that moving to the bullpen might disrupt what was working
50:43
for Turnbull. Yeh. And I think that's partly out of there was a
50:47
conversation that Nick and Eno Sarahs had on their new podcast, The Craft,
50:53
which is which is on the same podcast network as my podcast. So that's
50:59
why I just feel like I've got to be a company man try to promote
51:02
the pictureless stuff. Where they were pointing out also if anybody hasn't listened to
51:07
their podcast, it's like it's exceptional, it's so so good. So they
51:12
were talking about how Turnbull's for seam is actually it has a lot of cut
51:16
action on it. It's a little bit more like a cutter, and so
51:20
he's essentially what they were copping on to at that point in the season doing
51:23
this trick where he's locating the two seam and the four seam in similar places
51:29
and then surprising batters by is it going to be more like a cutter?
51:32
Is it going to be more like a two seam because they basically break in
51:36
opposite directions. And I mean, it's sort of hilarious that Turnbull's four seam
51:42
actually has more vertical movement than his too seam, just to really play games
51:47
on the pitch classifying brain. I know, it's crazy, Like I actually
51:51
sort of love it anyway. I feel like personally I heard that and they
51:58
were kind of like, is this a trick that batters are going to cotton
52:00
onto or is this just something that Turnbull has really figured out how to work
52:05
right now, And you don't want to disrupt his rhythm because then you're going
52:07
to disrupt this really cool thing that he's doing. I felt watching him very
52:13
closely after listening to that conversation subsequently, like his new sweeper and his curve
52:19
ball was actually very effective for him, were working for him in addition to
52:23
that kind of like playing his two not so fast fastballs off of each other
52:29
kind of a trick. But I so I was, I think a little
52:32
bit more optimistic about like, oh, it's not just this thing. But
52:37
yeah, I don't know now that now that he's struggled a little bit in
52:39
the bullpen, and maybe we see him get put back into the starting rotation
52:44
and just knowing exactly what his routine is going to be will magically fix him.
52:50
But what Nick was afraid of is whatever's working for him right now is
52:54
going to get disrupted by him going to the bullpen, and then he won't
52:57
be able to get back into the group. Yeah, which is important if
53:01
you you know, if you throw ninety one ninety two to kind of be
53:05
able to be tricky with locations and sequencing. So it's a complicated question of
53:12
when do they put Turnbull back into the rotation because I just think that there's
53:16
the unknown factor of you know, obviously their monetary and their time commitment to
53:22
Taiwan Walker, and then also I don't think we exactly know what we're going
53:28
to get if we put Turnbull back in the rotation as well. Yeah,
53:30
it's a very interesting discussion point and a very detailed answer you gave. And
53:36
I'll go back though to the show. Last week. We had some listener
53:39
feedback that came in read an email where the answer was, consistency matters when
53:45
it comes to starting pitching. And I know that sounds very generalized, perhaps
53:50
an elementary based theme, that consistency within starting pitching, it really does matter.
53:57
And how that, how that affects this Walker Turnbull situation. I think
54:02
there's something to be said for consistency in terms of how pitchers are going to
54:07
perform during the course of their during their tenure, you know, any given
54:10
seasons. So, my gosh, what a great answer, What a great
54:14
discussion point. I mean, we got we gotta talk though about some really
54:16
good pitching that we've seen this year from one ranger Suarez. And as of
54:22
us recording this Ellen, he's got a nine to one record, one point
54:25
seventy five er a, a zero point eight to two whip, which is
54:30
first in Major League Baseball. My gosh, what a season he's having.
54:34
Oh my gosh, you had a rough outing, okay against the Rockies.
54:37
We know that it was a little bizarre. So I'm kind of wondering,
54:38
you know, should we be concerned about him possibly, you know, quote
54:44
falling off the cliff here. Do you have any concerns Ellen about how long
54:47
this overall dominance here in twenty twenty four can actually last. Well, because
54:55
it's a cool as a cucumber, lefty Philly starter. When you said falling
55:00
off of a cliff, that I pictured with somebody like sitting on Cliff Lee's
55:04
shoulders and like falling off of a cliff anyway, literally just came to my
55:08
mind. Yeah, you know, it was. It was a heartbreaker on
55:15
Sunday, I think just because of all of the things that I knew would
55:20
have been historical. If he'd started out ten to ten and zero, I
55:25
think, you know, the first person to do that since Roger Clemens.
55:28
And yeah, so that was unfortunate. However, the outing itself does not
55:34
concern me, and it doesn't concern me for a few reasons. The first
55:38
of all, it's course, you know, it's the hardest place to pitch
55:44
your breaking and your off speed stuff doesn't break the same way, and the
55:46
outfield is so big that you can get babbitped to death. And secondly,
55:52
there were a lot of really good underlying things about that start. He had
55:58
a nineteen percent swinging strike rate. League average is around eleven percent for people
56:04
who aren't nerds like me, and just like know what league average just swinging
56:07
strike rate is. That's why I love having you on the show. I
56:09
love having the nerd. Nineteen percent swinging strike rate is crazy, and he
56:16
got nine strikeouts in six innings. And given that, the thing that I
56:22
think has separated Suarez in people's minds from the truly elite is that he's been
56:28
more of a ground ball, pitch to contact guy than a strikeout guy earlier
56:32
in his career. Yeah, but this year he has got a twenty eight
56:37
point four percent strikeout rate that is the eighty seventh percentile and the highest of
56:44
his career. And his ground ball rate is still elite fifty five percent,
56:49
that is in the ninety second percentile. All right, Yeah, I wasn't
56:52
aware of that. Nice. Yeah, So he's putting those two things together,
56:57
right, Like he's still the ranger Suarez that he's always been, but
57:00
also suddenly he can strike a lot of people out. And not only that,
57:07
his ideal contact rate that is a pictureless stat He is not the ninety
57:12
sixth percentile with that, So he's really putting it all together. When he
57:16
gives up contact, that contact is very unlikely to be hard contact. And
57:23
I feel like, looking under the hood a little bit at what he's actually
57:28
doing with his pitches. His changeup is better than it's ever been. So
57:32
we all remember when Suarez was basically just a sinker change up pitcher and had
57:38
some very good stretches with that. But now he's got the curveball, a
57:43
very effective weapon for him. It is a ninety sixth percentile chase rate that's
57:47
against other curveballs. Right, Yeah, so like a pitch that is likely
57:52
to garner a lot of spring and miss. And the cutter, which has
57:57
been excellent for ideal contact suppression, and that same ideal contact rate pittureless stat
58:01
that I mentioned earlier is ninety seventh percentile with his cutter, And so he's
58:07
putting that altogether with that weapon, the changeup, which has a bananas twenty
58:13
three point seven percent swinging strike rate. Remember when I said earlier that leeue
58:16
average is about eleven percent. Yeah, but and the and the changeup also
58:22
has an eighty fifth percentile ideal contact rate. So yeah, look, has
58:29
this been an incredible hot streak? Yes? Like no picture is really a
58:34
one point seventy five er pitcher right. But do I think that Suarez has
58:39
fundamentally reached another level? Also, Yes, I think he's different. I
58:44
think he's a different picture than he was in twenty twenty two when he was
58:46
first incorporating these new pitches. Because, to take it back to the core
58:53
start, what has been so exceptional to see is his pitch separation, like
58:59
his his game plan. The map for where his pitches are going to go
59:02
is so clear. It's four seamers and cutters up and glove side and change
59:07
ups and curves down and armside, and then sinkers are sort of for called
59:10
strikes wherever he wants them, and so if you look at the core start,
59:15
it's the same. So that's the kind of thing that makes me feel
59:19
like, Okay, this was just cores. It was just strange, but
59:22
like the underlying skills are identical to the things that we've seen him get incredibly
59:29
effective starts out of. So that's why I'm I am I'm not concerned.
59:34
And I again, do I think that we're going to see Ranger Suarez pitch
59:39
the entire rest of the year the way that he has up until the cores
59:43
start. No, because that's just baseball, right, but I do think
59:46
that he has He's taken his skills to another level and that I think we
59:52
can expect another level from him. I think it's fantastic. It's going to
59:55
be fun to watch him throughout the course of this twenty twenty four season.
1:00:00
And again, folks were talking to Ellen Adair from Take Me Into the Ballgame,
1:00:05
that great, great podcast, check it out on whatever podcast platform you're
1:00:08
listening to us on, and let's let's get into a catcher on this team.
1:00:15
No, it's not Garrett Stubbs, folks. JT. Real Muto.
1:00:20
He's somebody that I've really wanted to keep my eye on this season, Ellen.
1:00:23
And it was interesting how Aaron Nole was recently talking about how JT.
1:00:28
Real Muto has really impacted his career a lot of different ways, and he's
1:00:32
certainly one of the great catchers of this generation. And he appears to be
1:00:37
performing well here at the plate to eighty seven batting average, which is above
1:00:42
his career average of two seventy three seven home runs already in the season twenty
1:00:45
RBIs already this year after only having sixty three last season. A lot of
1:00:52
us were saying that he needed to have a bounce back season in the batter's
1:00:55
box, for one, and it seems like we we're seeing that here as
1:01:00
we're heading into June. What are your thoughts on where JT is at in
1:01:06
his career right now given the expectations that we all kind of had and were
1:01:09
wanting from him coming into this season. Yeah, it's so funny because I
1:01:15
was on a podcast earlier this year. I think I think it was the
1:01:20
roto Wire podcast with Jeff ericson different Jeff, Sorry, sorry, Jeff.
1:01:24
Yeah, No, it's okay. It's a great name. I'll tell you.
1:01:27
It is a great name. It's the best. And we were worrying,
1:01:32
like, are we seeing a decline in JT real Mudo? And that
1:01:37
was partly off of last season and also what was actually a cold start to
1:01:43
the beginning of the year. So I think what is so exceptional to point
1:01:46
out is all of the stats that you listed are emblematic of how like flaming
1:01:55
lava hot, JT real Mudo has been recently just sort of get himself up
1:02:00
to a too eighty seven batting average and twenty RBI. And you always look
1:02:08
for decline earlier in catchers because it's such a physically tough position to play.
1:02:15
So I feel like normally you would be like, ooh, thirty three,
1:02:17
is this starting to be aged related declined? And what I said on that
1:02:23
podcast was we were worried about that last year because he had a rough May
1:02:30
and June, if I remember, and ultimately like he came around and he
1:02:35
had some hot months and ended the year more strongly. And it's nice then
1:02:40
to see this year him heating up sooner, I think, particularly because because
1:02:46
of the overall statline last year kind of being like uh oh, so like
1:02:51
is this decline? Like ultimately playing exactly the same game that we did last
1:02:55
year, But it's amazing how good offensive is given how much he plays as
1:03:00
a catcher. Look, I mean, I'm wearing my jt Romudo sweater right
1:03:05
now, like I love jt Romudo, I own a JT Realmado Marlin's shirt,
1:03:10
like I've always been a huge Realmuto fan. So like, none of
1:03:14
this stuff do I say out of out of lack of love for Jtromuto,
1:03:16
just to be very clear, but I want to point out he has a
1:03:21
ninety first percentile hard hit rate so far this year, and that's factoring in
1:03:25
the month that he was cold, seventy nine percent barrel rate. It's the
1:03:30
highest hard hit rate of his career, which I recognize like it's a small
1:03:36
sample size because we're early in the season, but also half of that time
1:03:39
he was cold. So again, also how flaming Lava hut a jt Romado
1:03:44
has been what's a little befuddling. And this is another thing that the other
1:03:49
Jeff and I talked about is the way that his defensive metrics have been declining.
1:03:54
So last year, his framing took a huge decline minus third after have
1:04:00
been having been solidly in the positive since twenty seventeen. And we've also seen
1:04:06
him miss blocking some pitches and overthrow the second basement on a couple of steels,
1:04:13
and I almost don't quite know what to make of those things since him
1:04:16
turning it on at the plate and also some other metrics, I feel like,
1:04:20
you know, one of the first things you can kind of look at
1:04:23
to be like, oh, is this person slowing down? Is are they
1:04:27
literally slowing down? And his sprint speed is basically the exact same as it
1:04:32
was when he was a rookie. That's crazy impressive. And his pop time
1:04:36
also hasn't changed much, so it seems like it's not like his athleticism is
1:04:42
actually suffering it anyway. So all of those things to me suggest that it's
1:04:45
not that he's aging. I still don't quite know what to make of the
1:04:49
framing thing, because I don't know why aging would affect your framing and not
1:04:54
your sprint speed. It would almost make sense if it went in the opposite,
1:04:57
you know, like the Jeff mathis direct and just quote another Jeff.
1:05:01
So yeah, that's I. I am hopeful, and I think we all
1:05:08
have been as Phillies fans because of real Muto's fundamental athleticism. You know,
1:05:14
he came up as a shortstop and converted to catcher, that he will be
1:05:19
more resilient and last longer as as a very productive offensive catcher than other catchers
1:05:28
might. And I think I still, you know, I think I still
1:05:30
have that hope, and I think that the hot start that he's gotten out
1:05:34
to, particularly over the last month, I believe setting a franchise record for
1:05:44
for a hit streak for a Phillies catcher. I love very specific baseball stats.
1:05:47
They're so fun. But yeah, you know, like he has been,
1:05:51
he's been exceptional so I I am. It's a fun career to watch.
1:05:59
Yeah, exactly, and I'm hopeful that we could see a season from
1:06:04
GT. Real Mudo this year that is as good as any of his other
1:06:08
seasons. Absolutely, well, Ellen, we only have about four minutes here
1:06:12
until my dumb zoom runs out here. Okay, so yeah, no,
1:06:16
that's okay, it's fantastic. But I did want to end, if you
1:06:19
can, real quick just talk about just what this team has done without Trey
1:06:24
Turner in the lineup. I mean, some hard decisions need to be made
1:06:27
when he returns, because Edmundo Sosa in general he's been doing pretty outstanding in
1:06:32
Turner's absence. So I'm wondering, what do you think overall, again,
1:06:36
just a short amount of time here that we have, what does this team
1:06:40
do when Trey Turner returns to the lineup in terms of the infield here?
1:06:44
Sure, I mean it, it's spectacular what Sosa has done. He has
1:06:46
now surpassed Turner in war at one point six with Turner's one point five.
1:06:50
And that is remembering that Turner was Player of the Week one week. So
1:06:55
that said, to try to be brief, I think we just feel grateful.
1:06:58
I think we've seen in the past Sosa have a very hot stretch and
1:07:01
then get a little exposed from playing so often, and he's been phenomenal.
1:07:06
But Sosa has a four to twenty six BABBB on the season, which is
1:07:11
about one hundred points higher than his career average. So he is an elevated
1:07:15
babbit guy. But I don't know that you can expect him to do this
1:07:18
over a whole season. So personally, I think you move Turner back in
1:07:24
at short and don't overthink things, right of course, yeah, of course,
1:07:29
yeah, yeah. Turner did play the outfield earlier in his career,
1:07:33
and so I think it's a situation where you could, possibly, if your
1:07:36
depth was tested for some reason, like knock Wood, ask Turner to play
1:07:42
a corner outfield position because Sosa is a better infield replacement than anyone you might
1:07:46
have at outfield, like should be lose of players sort of what I'm talking
1:07:50
about, kind of like a reverse Mookie Bet situation, right, Yeah,
1:07:54
but I don't think you want Turner moving back and forth from shortstop to the
1:07:58
outfield just to get so so at bats. That feels disrespectful. It does,
1:08:01
Yeah, And I love Sosa and I love his defense, and I
1:08:03
think he's great and I'm so glad he's on the team. But I think
1:08:06
what we get from Sosa is this like when he's in for someone else,
1:08:12
is the value that he adds to the team. Absolutely great answer and it
1:08:15
was a great discussion folks. Ellen Adair from Take Me into the Ballgame check
1:08:23
out her podcast and also check out Ellenadair dot com, check out our artwork,
1:08:29
order some artwork from her. She is fantastic. I absolutely love our
1:08:32
conversations. Whenever you're able to come on the podcast, Ellen, I'd love
1:08:35
to have you on down the road, my friend. Absolutely, Yeah,
1:08:39
you asked the best questions. We have the best conversations anytime, and that's
1:08:45
going to do it for us this week. Make sure to share the Philadelphia
1:08:48
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1:08:53
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1:09:11
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