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Should The Phillies Be More Active This Offseason? (PST Episode 549) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we recorded
• 0:03
  this podcast episode on Wednesday, January seventeenth, twenty twenty four. In the
• 0:08
  interview on January eighteenth, twenty twenty four. So by the time you hear
• 0:13
  this, some things may have changed here or there, but we hope you
• 0:15
  enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia Sports
• 0:43
  Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
• 0:47
  Hope you are doing well. Ten and a half years strong for us,
• 0:51
  We are doing well here. Hope you enjoy this episode. We've got
• 0:56
  a lot of Eagles talks, of NFL talk. We're gonna be getting into
• 0:59
  the Philadelphia seventies, and yes, we're gonna get into the Philadelphia Phillies during
• 1:03
  this hot stove season. We got a great interview coming your way. And
• 1:07
  I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here my buddy Eric Leonard Man. Eric, how
• 1:11
  you doing? Man, Good to talk to you you too. It's been
• 1:14
  a while I've been on the show. I think the last time I was
• 1:15
  on the show was the outtakes show. It was it was back in twenty
• 1:21
  twenty three. In twenty twenty four now, it's just been great. Oh
• 1:26
  my goodness, you had another incident on the basketball court with the youngings and
• 1:34
  some of the parents. My gosh, we were talking about it a little
• 1:38
  bit here before we hit the record button. I don't know why you keep
• 1:41
  doing this to yourself, man. I know it's because your son plays basketball,
• 1:45
  and honestly, nobody in the community would be coaching and step up to
• 1:49
  do that volunteer work. But I give you all the credit in the world,
• 1:53
  my man, I really do. Let's stress that one more time.
• 1:56
  I'm volunteering my time, yes, and there's everyone else could do the same
• 2:02
  if they don't, and it's you're damned if you do your damn if you
• 2:07
  don't. Like I've gotten criticized for the games being too close and we should
• 2:12
  have like played hard whatever in our closer games. I've been criticized not playing
• 2:16
  the right kids enough time, and then ironically, up this past Monday,
• 2:21
  I was criticized for running up the score on another team, and I felt
• 2:25
  bad for the other kids. I have a really good team. They played
• 2:30
  super hard all the time. They're constantly like up. I mean, I'm
• 2:32
  that kind of coach where I'm just like we're gonna be the best shape.
• 2:36
  We're not going to get out run. That's the one thing we're not gonna
• 2:38
  do. And every loose are going to hit the ground. And we played
• 2:42
  We played a team that I swear three of the kids have never played basketball
• 2:46
  before in their life. They could barely dribble, and I was just horrified.
• 2:49
  I'm like, this, this is awful. We're gonna beat this team
• 2:52
  sixty to nothing. We wound up winning like sixty four to four. I
• 2:55
  think you wound up being At some point the fourth quarter, Rets came over
• 3:00
  to me and said, we're going to stop. We're gonna stop putting points
• 3:02
  on the board for you guys. I was like, that's fine. I
• 3:06
  don't Oh did they really did mention that before? Oh? Yes, they
• 3:09
  did that. And I actually and the halftime, I was actually going to
• 3:13
  go to their coach and say, hey, do you want to just stop
• 3:15
  this? Like this is silly? But then I thought that'd be insulting to
• 3:19
  the other team, Like, you know, they're kids. I mean,
• 3:22
  they know they're getting killed. Yeah, they're probably gotten killed all year long,
• 3:25
  but like, how how shit, how shitty is it? You know?
• 3:29
  Yeah, do you want some mercy like, yeah, some idiot and
• 3:32
  the kids just like to play basketball. So I didn't say a word,
• 3:35
  and I had some parent they started yelling at They started yelling at their own
• 3:39
  kids to stop scoring in the third and fourth quarter and yelling at me to
• 3:46
  stop making them score points. I'm so tired of coaching from the stands.
• 3:50
  Oh my gosh, like it was. And they were screaming it. And
• 3:53
  and one of the dads, Captain Dad, Captain Captain Lebanon count Dad walking
• 4:00
  by me, comes walking by me. Sure slowed it down. How about
• 4:04
  you making past four times before before they score. I'm like, okay,
• 4:10
  sure they're ten. Yeah, they're just gonna fight into that. They're gonna
• 4:14
  We're gonna change my entire system, right exactly. But and I actually want
• 4:18
  to say to what you hear? You see that in Hoosiers once Bud did
• 4:24
  just you know what to do, just like you saw a basketball movie twenty
• 4:30
  years now, you think you could captain Dad? Why don't you coach?
• 4:32
  Why don't you make Boddy the pride of county? You you you take over
• 4:41
  next time? You you know? How did pow just not have prospectacity?
• 4:45
  Yes? Like, how do people not have perspective at times. You know,
• 4:47
  it's I know it's things can be difficult with your kids. Sometimes your
• 4:51
  kids are involved in something, it can be difficult. We've all been in
• 4:55
  stressful situations when it deals with kids, when dealing with with our kids,
• 5:00
  and I just don't know how people cannot have perspective. It drives me crazy.
• 5:04
  Yeah, I'll never understand it because I was. It's so easy to
• 5:08
  put myself and that person shoes because I've been that dad and my son plays
• 5:13
  soccer. I don't coach. I don't say I have damn word right,
• 5:16
  never would, never will, it's I never would. In fact, I
• 5:19
  have way more empathy for the coach other coaches to never say anything just to
• 5:26
  be supportive. And the only time I ever yell is like I'm yelling directly
• 5:29
  at my kid, like get your ass moving, Like that's it, you
• 5:31
  know what I mean. Like as far as the coaching goes, it's you're
• 5:36
  volunteering your time. It's just like just what a crabby thing to do to
• 5:40
  somebody. Just yeah, I again, I think I think after sixth grade.
• 5:45
  Vinnie's like in middle school officially, so he played like JV shits and
• 5:48
  I'm done, like I'm out there. You go, You're completely done?
• 5:54
  Yeah, all right, good way to start the show once again, folks.
• 5:58
  We've got coaching updates with Eric. Eventually one's gonna be I got socked
• 6:04
  in the face in the parking lot. My god, I can't wait.
• 6:08
  I know it's good for the show. We can't wait for ye good for
• 6:12
  the show, Good for the show. All right, Well, let's get
• 6:16
  this show started here because yeah, usually every year Eric and I will do
• 6:21
  our NFL season preview, our Eagles season preview as well. This past year
• 6:28
  we had Brandon Lee go outing on from Bleedinggreen nation dot com. You know,
• 6:31
  he was our interview on that show. But Eric and I broke down
• 6:34
  what we thought was going to happen. Our predictions per division and also with
• 6:40
  the wild Cards were going to be the NFC AFC championship games and the Super
• 6:45
  Bowl. And I know we're still in the midst of this playoff season here
• 6:48
  in the NFL, but man, we had to share if you did not
• 6:53
  listen to that show, or if you forgot our predictions for the division winners
• 6:58
  again, wild Cards, af the NFC Championship in Super Bowl, we got
• 7:01
  to share them. We've got some clips also from that podcast before the twenty
• 7:05
  twenty three NFL season started. We've got some gems here. So let's get
• 7:11
  into these division winner predictions. Eric, you and I. In the AFC
• 7:16
  East, you predicted the Miami Dolphins to win. I predicted the Buffalo Bills.
• 7:23
  Not too bad there, not too bad. Yeah. Sorry, I'm
• 7:27
  going through my notes and and email. Oh that's all right, No,
• 7:29
  no problem, no problem. You know what, why don't I I somehow
• 7:31
  still have my notes from that show. Like that's the amazing thing. It's
• 7:34
  incredible. I know, I don't know how that happens, but yeah,
• 7:38
  do you want to just go through all the like the AFC division winners and
• 7:41
  then we can kind of just talk about it and then because we got some
• 7:44
  clips for the NFC one. So in AFC North, now, Eric picked
• 7:47
  the Steelers to win the division, which I thought at the time was not
• 7:53
  a bad move because I thought the Steelers were gonna be pretty good and they
• 7:56
  did get to the playoffs, but my gosh, it was a team that
• 7:59
  every time I saw him on TV, they were horrible. Eric was really
• 8:03
  really loving Kenny Pickett before this season, and BOYD did he really stink it
• 8:07
  up throughout the year. I picked the Bengals to win the AFC North,
• 8:11
  and of course that was not gonna happen with Joe Burrow not under center.
• 8:16
  The AFC South, Eric and I both took the Jacksonville Jaguars. That certainly
• 8:20
  did not happen. AFC West, Eric and I took the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 8:26
  So that's our AFC division winners predictions there. I mean, who,
• 8:31
  who do you think? Who do you think is the worst one? I
• 8:33
  don't even know if there can be a worst one there, because all these
• 8:37
  teams were relatively good. The Jags were supposed to win that last game of
• 8:39
  the season to get in and they just couldn't get it done. I think
• 8:43
  the Bengals is the worst one. Probably, Yeah, I had. I
• 8:46
  had them as one of my wildcard teams and going to the Super Bowl.
• 8:50
  Yes, oh so did I. Yeah, I would say I would say
• 8:52
  that's our worst choice. You know, we always had we shall. I
• 8:58
  think we did try to fact and there's always one or two teams that come
• 9:01
  out of nowhere and we just picked the wrong ones. Yeah, I mean
• 9:05
  I never thought the Texans would be that good. There's no freaking way,
• 9:09
  c J. Stroud and you would be that good. And we just underestimated,
• 9:13
  like the Ravens situation, Like all year they were like, are we
• 9:18
  gonna pay Lamar? Are we gonna do this? It even seemed like he
• 9:22
  might be leaving. Yeah, at certain points last year I felt like that
• 9:26
  was just a dead man walking kind of deal. And then he signs and
• 9:31
  he was the best players, the MVP probably and they it's gonna be they
• 9:35
  gotta be the favorite to win the Super Bowl besides the Niners. And that
• 9:39
  never saw that one coming either. So yep, I picked Jalen Hurts to
• 9:41
  be the MVP boom that looked that looked pretty solid for like eight weeks.
• 9:48
  It did. Yeah, it absolutely did. I'd say more than eight weeks.
• 9:52
  I mean, he was the perennial MVP I would I would say heading
• 9:58
  into yeah, heading into the forty nine Ers game, you know, and
• 10:01
  after that game, the forty nine Ers took their soul and that was it.
• 10:05
  Yeah. I think after the Jets game it kind of there was a
• 10:09
  chink in the armor, yeah, because he played poorly, and then that
• 10:11
  Niners game, it was dun Ski from him. MVP all right, Well,
• 10:16
  that's the AFC division winner predictions that we had before the start of the
• 10:20
  twenty twenty three twenty twenty four season. We are going to get into the
• 10:24
  NFC divisions right now. We're going to start off with the NFC North.
• 10:28
  Here is a clip of Eric and I talking about that division and what we
• 10:33
  think was going to happen. But I do think the Detroit Lions are going
• 10:37
  to really show some stuff this season. But I think the Chicago Bears,
• 10:41
  believe it or not, are going to be the division champion. Here Justin
• 10:46
  Fields putting things together at this point in his career. They have him a
• 10:48
  ton of weapons and I think a pretty decent run game at this point,
• 10:52
  pretty good defense. I think the Chicago Bears are going to take the NFC
• 10:56
  North. What do you think? Man, I don't see that at all.
• 11:00
  But it's a difficult division to pick because it's kind of meet mediocre across
• 11:05
  the board. I mean, every quarterback in that division, let's go through
• 11:09
  them, Kirk Cousins, right, Jared Goff, Justin Fields, who you
• 11:13
  know. The main talk about him is like he's just never had weapons?
• 11:18
  Is he that good? Do we know? If he's good? Like we
• 11:20
  don't really know that, right, and then Jordan Love and Green Bay,
• 11:24
  who has gotten really good pub this preseason. I kind of like Green Bay
• 11:28
  a little more than other team or other people do. I actually think Minnesota
• 11:33
  is gonna win the division. I think Kirk Cousins is just good enough.
• 11:37
  I think he's I think he's in a contract year, you know, and
• 11:41
  if he is, man, what is there a He's the classic NBA guy
• 11:46
  who just balls out, you know, his final year of his contract.
• 11:50
  And I think they brought in Robert Flores for for their defensive defensive en defensive
• 11:56
  coach. He's gonna that's a really good hire. I just think the stability
• 12:01
  there. I think that team they're gonna win the division and it's gonna be
• 12:05
  like not interesting at all, Yeah, because that visions just not it.
• 12:07
  I know the Lions get are just getting tons and tons of publicity, but
• 12:11
  again, much like the Giants. I'm sorry the Jets. I had to
• 12:15
  lump him in the That is the most one of the most suffering fan bases
• 12:18
  of all time. All right, Eric, I really love the Bears.
• 12:26
  You loved the Vikings, but I loved the Bears, man, I was
• 12:31
  I'm saying that that that Justin Fields is gonna have all these weapons and blah
• 12:35
  blah blah. Holy freaking crap. Boy, what a That's probably the worst
• 12:39
  prediction that I have during all of this, all of this that that one
• 12:43
  is definitely the worst. You're you picked the Vikings. Yeah, Kirk Cousins
• 12:48
  went down with an injury early in the season. I mean, it's just
• 12:50
  that so many quarterbacks went out this season and the teams just just struggled when
• 12:56
  they didn't have their starting quarterback under center. Yeah, in our defense.
• 13:00
  I mean you every every couple of years there is Detroit Lions hype before a
• 13:05
  season, Yeah, and it never happens. So I was not getting on
• 13:09
  that train like I've I remember multiple times people being watch out for the Lions
• 13:13
  this year, and you know they go one to fifteen. So I was
• 13:18
  not touching the Lions. I did have them as one of my wild card
• 13:22
  teams. Yep. Green Bay's surprise. I mean, I for everything that
• 13:28
  happened this past weekend, you know, football wise, that was by far
• 13:31
  my favorite moment. Yep. Was just how quickly the Cowboys were down and
• 13:37
  how quickly their fan base was like, oh my god, this is over
• 13:39
  already as Eagles fans, we knew what was going to happen with the Philadelphia
• 13:46
  Eagles. We knew, like we just knew it. I was on other
• 13:50
  podcasts talking about it. I was on this podcast platform saying the Eagles were
• 13:54
  not going to beat the Giants they were in Week eighteen. They were not
• 13:58
  going to beat the tam up A Bay Buccaneers like we just saw it coming.
• 14:01
  Not Dallas Cowboy fans in terms of their wild card game. Oh,
• 14:05
  they were gonna stomp all over the Green Bay Packers. And when it didn't
• 14:09
  happen, Holy cow, what a fantastic feeling that was. Eric. It
• 14:15
  takes me back to when like the mid to late nineties when they were horrible.
• 14:20
  Yeah, and if the Cowboys loss was like all right, and like
• 14:22
  and if somehow my team beat them, like you remember Mike Wolan the defensive
• 14:28
  line stopping you know, uh, oh god, who was the Cowboys court
• 14:31
  and at smith Yeah, fourth and one, like in what ninety seven And
• 14:35
  that was the season highlight for the Eagles was so bad because they beat they
• 14:41
  beat the Cowboys and they tried to run up they tried to run up our
• 14:43
  ass at fourth and one, like, that's how bad it was. So
• 14:46
  it took me back to that era when it was like, Okay, the
• 14:48
  Cowboys loss, it's a good week for us, very good. All right,
• 14:52
  let's move on to the NFC South. Here is the SoundBite of that.
• 14:56
  But I'm gonna say that Eric and I actually picked we both picked the
• 14:58
  Saint to win this division. Here's the SoundBite of how that went from back
• 15:05
  then last year. Like, let's I just listened to the quarterbacks in the
• 15:09
  in the North, how about the South? Yeah, who's Tampa is starting
• 15:13
  quarterback? It's gonna be uh uh, it's gonna be Baker Mayfield exactly.
• 15:18
  You're going to sucks, right, Derek Carr is actually the cream of the
• 15:22
  crop in that thing. I think the Atlantic quarterback looks like actually absolute dog
• 15:26
  shit. Bryce Young might be good one day, but that that roster is
• 15:31
  just not quite there. I think that team's gonna be atrocious. God bless
• 15:35
  you, Miles Sanders and good luck to you. I think that team's gonna
• 15:37
  suck. I think New Orleans is by far the favorite to win that division,
• 15:41
  and they're not that good. Yeah, Eric, we're like Baker Mayfield,
• 15:48
  Like he had no idea no clue, no cares at all in the
• 15:52
  world about Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The fact we're talking about
• 15:56
  Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know, everybody was saying that they were going to
• 15:58
  be playing for the first overall pick in the draft, and then they just
• 16:03
  kicked the shit out of the Eagles and the wild card round. I had
• 16:07
  to play that clip because it was fantastic. No nobody would have thought the
• 16:11
  Buccaneers were going to do what they did this year. Nobody did go into
• 16:14
  the divisional round of the playoffs. Come on, Yeah, And that was
• 16:18
  to me, that was a division I was like, what do you even
• 16:21
  do with this? Right? Just not good teams. But I was texting
• 16:25
  you guys near the end of the yearly Bryce Young might I mean, I
• 16:29
  know it was one year, but he might go down as one of the
• 16:30
  worst picks in NFL history. Yeah, just in terms of what they gave
• 16:33
  up and CJ. Stroud and the whole deal and all the stories that came
• 16:37
  out about Baker Mayfield this week after the Eagles game of how he went to
• 16:44
  LA and you know, Sean McVay kind of like talk to him or like
• 16:48
  coached him like just be yourself again, like just have fun, and he
• 16:52
  like kind of revived his career. I'm here, I reman those stories and
• 16:55
  where were those fucking stories when we you know, we were were predicting all
• 16:57
  this stuff exactly, I probably would have changed my mind because they were like
• 17:02
  really uplifting stories like oh okay, they're gonna win, this guy's like gonna
• 17:04
  come back. And because I mean, and how dare I? How dare
• 17:08
  I like bet my pick on Derek Carr and Jameis Winston. I know,
• 17:15
  outrageous thinking, Oh I love these, I love looking back on these so
• 17:22
  much so that other shows don't do this. I know, I know this
• 17:26
  is fun fun. Yeah, I'm making fun of it. I picked the
• 17:29
  Bears, folks, Jesus, all right, let's head to the NFC West
• 17:33
  where Eric, you pick the forty nine ers to win. Good pick,
• 17:36
  good pick. I picked the Seattle Seahawks. Let's listen to this SoundBite right
• 17:41
  here, all right, very good NFC West Cardinals, Seahawks, forty nine
• 17:45
  Ers, and Rams. I mean, everybody's gonna a lot of folks out
• 17:49
  there are gonna be saying the San Francisco forty nine Ers. You know what
• 17:52
  I'm saying, folks, the Seattle Seahawks, and it's not it's because of
• 17:59
  the weapons they have, and yes, San Francisco has weapons too, But
• 18:03
  I am not convinced that one Brock Purty is going to be the quarterback of
• 18:07
  the future for this forty nine ers offense and this franchise. I am not
• 18:12
  convinced by that by any stretch of the imagination. I don't care what he
• 18:17
  did in a few games last year. I really think them trading Trey Lance
• 18:22
  was it was not only interesting, but a baffling move in a way.
• 18:27
  I do not think the San Francisco forty nine Ers are going to have a
• 18:30
  spectacular season. So I'm actually gonna go with the Seattle Seahawks as the winner
• 18:36
  of this division. Who do you have here, Eric, You know you
• 18:38
  go through that division. The Rams are cooked, They're done, done right.
• 18:42
  McVeigh will be in the booth next year. Ariz Zona is absolutely tanking.
• 18:47
  They have two first round early first round picks next year. Because the
• 18:49
  Texans are going to Puis suck. They're going to absolutely be They're going to
• 18:52
  be awful. So it really is between San fran and Seattle and I was
• 18:56
  the same as you. I was kind of on the fence. I'm like,
• 18:59
  I think SA was gonna be pretty damn good. Actually yeah, and
• 19:02
  I I was going back and forth. I picked Sam Fran ultimately just because
• 19:07
  of their defense is so damn dominating. Eric I said that brock Purty and
• 19:11
  I was questioning him, wasn't the real deal at all that this forty nine
• 19:15
  ers team offensively, Yeah, they might not be all that great. You
• 19:18
  know, they got a good defense, you know, But Dad didn't.
• 19:22
  I don't know. I didn't think they were gonna be all that good.
• 19:25
  Boy, What a freaking idiot. God, I suck this. Why do
• 19:29
  you listen? People? Yeah? But okay, so I picked the Niners.
• 19:33
  Yeah great, what a well thought out pick. But then, but
• 19:37
  then my wildcard team is Seattle, and I had Seattle to championship game.
• 19:41
  Yes, I think my thinking was always Sam Fran's going to destroy in the
• 19:45
  regular season, but see's gonna come on strong at the end. And actually
• 19:49
  kind of that never happened, not even close to my I mean, I
• 19:52
  had the Giants as a wildcard team. For God's sakes, People like you
• 19:55
  shouldn't look at us like it's a fun exerci and it's fun to listen to
• 20:00
  our NFC East predictions here. Let's hear that now, all right, very
• 20:07
  good NFC East, now, Eric, of course, they're all gonna be
• 20:10
  going with the Philadelphia Eagles. They are the powerhouse team in the NFC,
• 20:15
  and it's good to be an Eagles fan, folks. And I do think
• 20:18
  that this team is going to have a record of thirteen and four. That's
• 20:22
  what I'm going with, thirteen and four in the NFC East and and gonna
• 20:27
  have the number one seed as well in the NFC heading into the playoffs.
• 20:33
  So I'm assuming you believe the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be the division winners,
• 20:37
  correct, buddy, Nope? No, I oh, I think we'll
• 20:44
  talk about later the predictions for the season. I think twelve and five.
• 20:48
  There's no way they're going to have the injury luck that they had last year.
• 20:52
  Yeah, I think, like I kind of prefaced earlier, the team
• 20:56
  is getting older, you know, is Jason Kelsey, Lane Johnson, Fletcher
• 21:00
  Cox, Brandon Graham. Are they gonna make entire season again? You have
• 21:04
  enough, You have enough young core nucleus to like, hopefully if they go
• 21:08
  down for a game or two. You can bring guys in and and and
• 21:11
  they'll they'll be okay. But there's no way they get it through through the
• 21:15
  season like they did the last year injury wise. But I still think they
• 21:18
  win the division. I think they're twelve and five again. I think we
• 21:22
  can do our wildcard teams because it kind of ties into the Eagles. I
• 21:26
  think Seattle the Giants in Detroit are gonna be the wildcard teams. I think
• 21:30
  this is the year the Cowboys kind of start to go, oh, Dak's
• 21:36
  not the guy. Yeah, we stood up. We gave him a lot
• 21:37
  of money. He was good enough. They probably shouldn't have let that offense
• 21:42
  coordinator leave, Kellen Moore. Yeah, I think that was a bad move.
• 21:48
  And to hand over the offensive playbook to to their their knuckle knuckle dragging,
• 21:52
  mouth gating coach and and honestly, like they kind of signed their death
• 22:00
  weren't when they gave Ezekiel Elliott that contract, like they kind of pushed him
• 22:03
  out the door that they couldn't pay him eventually. Yeah, I think they're
• 22:07
  gonna miss him big time. And everybody took Tony Pollard in the first round
• 22:11
  of their fantasy draft do we know he can be the guy through hundred carries?
• 22:15
  Like is he that kind of kind of running back, Like I don't
• 22:18
  think he has that durability. And then you're putting a lot of pressure on
• 22:22
  Dak and I just don't think he's that guy. And I think this is
• 22:26
  the year Dallas defense canna be awesome. Like when they play the Niners,
• 22:30
  they play the Eagles, great defensive teams going head to head, those are
• 22:33
  gonna be great games. But I just don't think their offense is going to
• 22:37
  be there. I think they missed the playoffs altogether. Eric, you and
• 22:40
  I both picked the Eagles to win. And think again, things were looking
• 22:45
  good, you know, even after Week eleven, I mean there were ten
• 22:48
  and one and then we know it just fell off a cliff, which we're
• 22:51
  going to get into a little bit more during this show here. But man,
• 22:55
  we were just I love how you were. You were talking about Dak
• 22:57
  Prescott and I just don't like he has it this year. I don't think
• 23:00
  we're going to see that much good stuff from him. He was one of
• 23:03
  the top quarterbacks in the league this year, and uh, how of course
• 23:07
  we were just so high on this Philadelpha Eagles team, and we should have
• 23:10
  been just about everybody was in the analyst world, in the in the in
• 23:14
  the football, you know, analytical world. We're so high on the Eagles
• 23:19
  in the NFC coming in basically saying, ever, the Eagles are the team
• 23:23
  to be. The Eagles are the team to be. They really were for
• 23:26
  quite some time as we know. But boy, that that was a rough
• 23:30
  clip. That was a rough clip. Listening to that there, buddy,
• 23:34
  it was funny you use the term analysis because we took it right up to
• 23:37
  Ana Canal on our Eagles account. Like, I mean, it was so
• 23:42
  bad. But I will say this, for the first ten weeks of the
• 23:45
  season, like I mean, everyone in the NFL, the wins were not
• 23:49
  overly impressive and kind of the the real like to kind of the nerd the
• 23:53
  DVOA peeps. Yeah, we're kind of saying the eaglesville of fraudulent. But
• 23:57
  there was no one like in their way. I was like, they can't.
• 24:00
  They could probably beat that team and not the best team in the NFL,
• 24:03
  but it's not there's not allowed a competition in front of them, right,
• 24:06
  And I we can discuss this at some point, where does this rank
• 24:11
  top ten collapses in a single season for a Philadelphia sports team. I think
• 24:17
  it's got to be in the top ten, right for year? Right,
• 24:19
  Yeah, I mean if you tell. I mean everybody was talking about,
• 24:22
  you know, the Seattle Seahawks game itself. You know where that game actually
• 24:27
  ranked. And I thought that was the number two worst Eagles game of all
• 24:32
  time. I think the number one, and I think it's going to be
• 24:33
  up there for quite some time. Was the very last game at Veterans Stadium
• 24:38
  against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It's not even close exactly. I'll be always
• 24:44
  be the top. It's always good. I don't think anything is going to
• 24:45
  be able to take that top spot. But that that Seahawks game. Whoa
• 24:52
  worst second worst game of all time? For sure? What a freaking collapse,
• 24:57
  unbelieved Drew Locke beats Jalen Hurts hellly crap. I'm just well, I'm
• 25:03
  just always We're always so quick to be like that's the worst season in history.
• 25:07
  It's like I want to go through like the last sixty seasons of philip
• 25:11
  Few sports to like see if that I actually is in the top ten.
• 25:14
  Yeah, I mean people are so quick to knee jerk, but I'm pretty
• 25:18
  sure it's got me in the top ten. It passed they were on the
• 25:22
  road to get back to the Super Bowl. Absolutely yeah, absolutely, all
• 25:25
  right. Amazingly enough, Eric's and my picks were absolutely the same except for
• 25:30
  the Super Bowl winner. When we talk about the AFC Championship, NFC Championship
• 25:36
  and who was getting to the Super Bowl. So AFC Championship, we both
• 25:41
  had the Bengals against the Chiefs, which ain't gonna happen. NFC Championship,
• 25:45
  we both had the Eagles and the Seahawks ain't gonna happen. In the Super
• 25:51
  Bowl. We both had the Eagles and the Bengals. Eric had the Eagles
• 25:56
  winning the Super Bowl. I had the Bengals winning the Super Bowl. So
• 26:00
  I don't know if you want to unpack anything there. I mean, the
• 26:03
  Bengals obviously was terrible. I mean, that's how much Joe Burrow means to
• 26:07
  that Bengals team. And I think that we thought Gino Smith was going to
• 26:11
  somehow replicate what he did last year, that he had found his place in
• 26:15
  Seattle, and that Pete Carroll was going to just be able to continue to
• 26:18
  ride this year. Pete Carroll ended up losing his job. So boy,
• 26:23
  these predictions are a little rough, man. I'll be honest, I can't
• 26:29
  really remember what my thinking was why I thought Seattle could get to this.
• 26:34
  I can't really remember, like what. They must have signed somebody or had
• 26:40
  a good draft, and I was like a like recency bias or something because
• 26:45
  I I forfe of me. I don't know why I went with Seattle.
• 26:48
  It makes no sense. I should have just went safe, went Chalk Eagles,
• 26:49
  Niners. And then I thought Cincinnati had that one down, like they
• 26:56
  made the super Bowl, that the down year, and then that's usually like
• 26:57
  when they come back is usually I think that was my thinking on that.
• 27:02
  Yeah, in Kansas City, just being Kansas City and they got the they
• 27:07
  got to break. You know, they're playing what Buffalo next? Who is
• 27:11
  somewhat fraudulent in my opinion? Okay, just I mean just the way I
• 27:17
  don't know they I mean, they play the Steelers, they got it.
• 27:22
  Yeah, I just think it's it's kind of set up for them as well.
• 27:26
  But in case he could go into Buffalo beat them easily, so we
• 27:29
  might have one one of these teams. We might yeah, we might.
• 27:33
  All right, Well, that was a fun fun exercise, and it kind
• 27:40
  of gets into the next topic we're going to get into, which is this
• 27:42
  Philadelphia Eagles team and just you know what happened with them. And we've received
• 27:47
  an email this week from one of our longtime listeners, Francis, and I
• 27:51
  absolutely loved the subject of his email to us at Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail
• 27:56
  dot com. Folks, you can send us an email about anything in the
• 28:00
  world of Philly sports and we'll read it. But he just he wrote in
• 28:03
  the subject matter or not subject matter, in the subject Eagles Eagles equal dog
• 28:07
  shit. Totally true, of course, and he wrote to us he said,
• 28:14
  fire the coaches, clean slate. Siriani clearly lost the locker room and
• 28:18
  its responsible for a lazy, predictable offensive scheme, even if he ain't the
• 28:22
  one calling the plays. We wasted a year of Goddard and the best one
• 28:26
  to two receiver combo in the league. Brown and Smith are both wide receiver
• 28:32
  ones. In actuality, defense needs a coach who will make the players tackle
• 28:38
  by two hand touch players and need to spend less time podcasting, filming laundry,
• 28:45
  detergent commercials, attempting boxing matches in Atlantic City, and focusing on the
• 28:49
  game. Jalen better live with a QB coach this summer and learn how to
• 28:55
  call out blitzes. I'm absolutely disgusted with their collective life of heart and toughness.
• 29:00
  At least I love this. At least dallass he spelled it. D
• 29:07
  A l Lass lost first. Good luck with the snow shoveling, Jen,
• 29:11
  say thank you, Francis. The snow shoveling has severely sucked. But what
• 29:17
  didn't suck was this email. Because this was Francis just getting everything off his
• 29:22
  chest. Everything he's been wanting to say about this Eagles team. He just
• 29:26
  completely got off his chest in that email. And good for him, Good
• 29:32
  for you, Francis, really and appreciate you, appreciate your reaching out as
• 29:37
  we talk about this Eagles team. Eric like, I don't know if Nick
• 29:41
  Sirianni is going to be fired as of us recording this here. We're recording
• 29:45
  this first part of the show on Wednesday, January seventeenth. Players cleaned out
• 29:48
  their lockers. Nick Sirianni still has a job as of now. I think
• 29:55
  it's a fifty one forty nine situation we have here. It's a fifty one
• 30:00
  percent chance that he has fired forty nine percent that he's not. And I
• 30:03
  go back to what Aj Brown said a couple weeks ago where he was defending
• 30:07
  Nick Sirianni, And it's not that I don't think that Sirianni lost the locker
• 30:11
  room. I think he has a lot of respect amongst certain players and key
• 30:15
  players. I think Jason Kelsey was also one, and he's we're going to
• 30:19
  get to him in a little bit. He's going to be retiring, as
• 30:22
  it's been reported. But I don't know if he one hundred percent lost the
• 30:29
  locker room. Maybe certain entities, yes, But when you have Aj Brown
• 30:33
  coming to your defense talking about how it was the players and not him,
• 30:37
  and how Sirianni was defending them in front of the cameras, in front of
• 30:41
  the press, there's something to be said for a player doing that for their
• 30:44
  coach. And I don't know how, we don't we don't know, but
• 30:49
  to me, that says a lot when a wide receiver won like Aj Brown
• 30:53
  in this league is going to come to the defense of their head coach who
• 30:56
  is getting scrutiny the way that Sirianni has rightfully said gotten scrutiny. I don't
• 31:02
  know, I think there's something to that, and I wonder if that's going
• 31:04
  to say something to Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman when they're making the decisions about
• 31:08
  how they're going to completely transform this team, because they're going to need to.
• 31:12
  But does that total transformation come with getting rid of Sirianni or does that
• 31:18
  transformation come with other coordinators being hired, other coordinators being fired, and a
• 31:25
  new scheming philosophy coming in here. So those are my initial thoughts here after
• 31:30
  reading Francis's email. What are you thinking, Buddy? I love the email
• 31:36
  because again, it takes me back to when I lived in Philly and just
• 31:40
  walked around, walked the dog after work and listen. I was listening to
• 31:42
  six to ten WP and you just listen to callers and that's basically what it
• 31:48
  call. That's basically what the callers sound like, just an email form.
• 31:51
  Yes, that's when I was like really tuned into the team and all the
• 31:55
  sports teams and just the city in general. And like the you could always
• 31:57
  you could always gauge the temperature of the city based on how the teams were
• 32:01
  doing. And like I I think the Eagles actually getting off pretty well right
• 32:07
  now, I I think I think the I think the climate has just changed
• 32:13
  in terms of like criticizing our sports teams. Like there back in the day,
• 32:19
  there would have already been a hatchet job on Sirianni the press. There
• 32:23
  would have been a hatchet job on Kelsey, you know, like he was
• 32:28
  he's mister superstar now and he wasn't focusing on sports and I there would have
• 32:34
  been a lot of There would have been a piece on Jalen Hurts a little
• 32:37
  more, a little more fiery than the one that was that came out I
• 32:42
  think was Monday. But yeah, I again, I think they're kind of
• 32:45
  getting away a little bit, but just because times have changed a little.
• 32:52
  But I I as far as Sirianni goes, I like to hear when players
• 32:57
  support the coach, but I honestly fear when it's it's so I feel that
• 33:02
  it's when it goes so far in one direction that he's not holding his players
• 33:07
  accountable. I get it, Like it's like, yeah, I love that
• 33:09
  guy, he's the best, he's the best. He's like, but but
• 33:13
  you sucked, and like you know what I'm saying, Like, when is
• 33:15
  the GM have to step into go I know understand you like the coach,
• 33:17
  but we can't collapse like this like this, this team is too good.
• 33:22
  You're our window to win a super Bowl is so minuscule. I get it.
• 33:27
  Yeah, and I and also you just have to look at it as
• 33:30
  a business, like right now, this is probably the it's got to be
• 33:36
  ten twenty years. This is probably the best crop of potential coaches that are
• 33:38
  out in the free market. And if you're going to pass this year,
• 33:42
  you're gonna have to like realize, like, Okay, next year, Mike
• 33:45
  Rabel, Bill Belichick, all these other names that are gonna be available are
• 33:49
  not out there, so you're going to be dealing. This is like preparing
• 33:52
  for like a great quarterback draft as opposed to like a shitty quarterback draft,
• 33:58
  right, Like, we got to get one this year. We can't.
• 34:00
  I can be when next year. So I think I think they got to
• 34:02
  kind of think through this. I'm sure they are. They're smarter than I
• 34:06
  and when it comes to this shit, But that's that was one of my
• 34:07
  thoughts when I was like, I haven't heard anything about Sirianni yet and I
• 34:10
  see all the players coming to his defense. It's like, well, how
• 34:14
  he's going to think it through and be like, this is our opportunity to
• 34:16
  maybe upgrade coaching spot to a huge degree, huge level. And maybe that's
• 34:22
  what he died. I don't know. I'm not sure what he's gonna do.
• 34:24
  I definitely think there's gonna be new coordinators. It would surprise me if
• 34:27
  Brian Johnson is still back here. I mean, the fact of the matter
• 34:30
  is if Matt Patricia is back next year. No, I'm not doing the
• 34:35
  show anymore. Okay, all right, please fire them, Please fire them.
• 34:39
  I can't, but I mean what Francis said his email is absolutely correct.
• 34:45
  The fact that whether it was Jalen Hurts, or whether it was whether
• 34:49
  it was the type of offensive plays that were called that did or did not
• 34:52
  allow Jalen Hurts to audible into something else, or what that audible would have
• 34:57
  actually been to be able to pick up blitzes. It was amazing to watch
• 35:01
  throughout the season. It wasn't just during the collapse. It wasn't during the
• 35:06
  collapse and latter part of the season. It was throughout the season where the
• 35:08
  team just had a terrible time and offense, I should say it a terrible
• 35:13
  time picking up the blitz France is absolutely right, and somehow that needs to
• 35:17
  be addressed in some way, shape or form, especially with the quarterback position.
• 35:22
  Quarterback needs to be able to know where the blitzes are coming from.
• 35:24
  Here's the thing. I think he did know where the blitzes were coming from,
• 35:27
  which is why he was running out of the pocket so early, not
• 35:30
  stepping up into the pocket very much. We saw that a few games,
• 35:35
  but it just went away very quickly. The coaches did not provide Jalen Hurts
• 35:38
  the help I think that he needed, and that desperately needs to be addressed.
• 35:44
  I think it will certainly with a new offensive coordinator at least that's the
• 35:47
  hope. Keeping the fingers crossed for sure. But when it comes to the
• 35:51
  defense, Yeah, Matt patric can't stay. It can't stay. I mean,
• 35:54
  at the very least because of the public relations nightmare that that would be
• 36:00
  amongst Eagles Nation. I mean, aside from what we saw in the field,
• 36:04
  the pr disaster that would be. They have to get rid of him,
• 36:07
  for sure, Eric Jesus, I mean, he just looks like a
• 36:10
  buffoon. I mean he has He's always said that. Yes, yeah,
• 36:15
  I mean it all started in the Super Bowl, you know, and the
• 36:17
  Eagles beat the Pats and he had and he has a pencil in his ear
• 36:22
  with a whiteboard, and you're just like, this guy's an idiot, Like
• 36:24
  how is this guy? And he might be a really smart man. I
• 36:28
  just I just I just look at him like he's a buffoon. He's got
• 36:30
  a calculator in his pocket, exactly. Whatever. No, there's two things
• 36:37
  I want to point out. Number One, there's been there's been two mysteries
• 36:42
  in Philly sports the past couple of months that no one has talked about.
• 36:45
  No one has explained to me. I'm still trying to figure what the hell's
• 36:49
  going on. Number One, Kelly Oubre apparently got hit by a car and
• 36:54
  was done for the year. He was crippled. I mean, I don't
• 36:58
  know what the hell was going on. Yes, but then all of a
• 37:00
  sudden he's back. Nothing's wrong playing well. No one has explained that to
• 37:06
  me. I've heard there might be some weird story with a girlfriend. I
• 37:09
  don't know. There's there's footage of him on camera walking back with his bike.
• 37:14
  Now you got I don't know, you're just walking along the street.
• 37:16
  Yes, No one has explained that one to me number one, Number two,
• 37:20
  Matt Patricia just out of nowhere as the defensive coordinator, the guy the
• 37:25
  one team that we know that dude sucks at defense, Like and they're like,
• 37:31
  here's a good idea, let's put him in charge of Yes, are
• 37:35
  already faltering defense. There's so much talent on the defensive side. And I
• 37:38
  mean there's there's definite a holes, believe me, but that defensive line should
• 37:43
  have been playing much better. That was a disaster this year. My other
• 37:45
  thing is Galen Hurts needs to be a little more accountable and step up and
• 37:52
  be more of a leader. And I don't mean leader as in giving those
• 37:58
  speeches and stuff and I hate those things. It's just it's just it's just
• 38:01
  empty whatever it's you got paid, dude, Like you need to learn the
• 38:07
  playbook. You need to audible, like your coaches didn't help you, but
• 38:10
  you also need to like step up now and now you're the guy. Like
• 38:15
  for all of McNab's faults, that dude, that dude knew the playbook inside
• 38:17
  and out. Yeah he knew when audible like he would he audible to like
• 38:22
  Hurts, don't don't. I don't see HER's doing that. Very often,
• 38:25
  like it's the play is in, we're running to play, and it's like
• 38:29
  you got to two hundred some mill You're you're the man. Now, you're
• 38:31
  the face of the franchise. It's time for you to like like you need
• 38:36
  to become like you need to take that next step towards the Tom brady issh
• 38:39
  Schniss whatever it is. You know that that's that's what you have to do.
• 38:44
  What are our thoughts here on Jason Kelsey that he's likely going to be
• 38:46
  retiring. I mean, granted it just what's six Pro Bowls after thirteen years
• 38:52
  in the league. The anchor he and Lane Johnson have been the anchor of
• 38:57
  this Eagles offense now or they love the line, I should say for so
• 39:00
  many years you could say the offense, so it stinks. I'll be honest,
• 39:07
  you know. Reflecting on Francis's email, do I think his podcast had
• 39:09
  anything to do with his of the offensive lines play? No? I don't.
• 39:14
  I don't think so. I think that people can do a podcast for
• 39:17
  you know, I don't know. My podcasting here doesn't affect my day job,
• 39:22
  the nonprofit that I work for. I think you can have some time
• 39:25
  do some things on your own. I don't know. I still one of
• 39:31
  the greatest of all time to play that position, and I think offensive linemen
• 39:36
  they don't get their due a lot. But him retiring, it's going to
• 39:38
  be a loss for this team. And what this team is going to do
• 39:40
  at that center position, whether it's gonna be Landon Dickerson moving over, or
• 39:45
  whether it's going to be somebody who's acquired, it's going to be really interesting
• 39:50
  to see how this offensive line and what type of unit they are going to
• 39:55
  be without without some of the glue that's been keeping it together for so many
• 40:00
  years. I don't know what what are your thoughts on this? I mean,
• 40:02
  let's let's make sure if Jeff Stotlin's still in the building. Yeah,
• 40:06
  you ain't just whistling Dixie. Yeah, not throw her out to bet freeting
• 40:10
  crackers, right, yeah, exactly if she's got a twinkle in her ck,
• 40:16
  hein't throwing out of bed freaking crackers. You're such an old lady,
• 40:22
  I know. Well, I mean, just the preface, I I it's
• 40:28
  silly to you know. Listen, I'm not calling Francis silly. I'm not
• 40:31
  calling you an Eagles fan criticizing this team silly, but for the like the
• 40:36
  podcasting stuff and doing commercials like you know, that's I'd rather them do that
• 40:42
  than be like playing basketball, yes, you know what I mean, like
• 40:45
  and almost forget getting hurt doing something stupid. Yes, there's a lot of
• 40:50
  hours in the day and you know we're at work. They don't play football
• 40:53
  eight hours a day and then go home, you know what I mean,
• 40:55
  Like like they have they have free time, like it's in a podcast.
• 41:00
  You just sit in your house, you flip on a switch and you do
• 41:02
  it. It's it's not hard, right, speaking of really quick a quick
• 41:06
  story on that. I remember when Jake Elliott kicked his first sixty one yard
• 41:09
  field goal against the New York Giants. There was one to win the game
• 41:14
  the Super Bowl year. There was one Joe el Embiid at that game and
• 41:16
  it was right after his knee surgeries that he had and he was jumping up
• 41:22
  and down in the booth and I saw that. I was like, no,
• 41:25
  quit jumping up and down because now that is something that really pissed me
• 41:30
  off. And Ibad did because he could have gotten injured to get he could
• 41:34
  have injured k mee against you tell me about that. I know I'm the
• 41:38
  biggest Like that's what I'm concerned about, not the commercials and not the podcasting.
• 41:45
  Yeah, I don't care about that. I'm more concerned with, like
• 41:49
  I said, the decision to promote Matt Patricia, Like those are the kinds
• 41:53
  of thing like, let's focus on the ship that really ruined the season,
• 41:55
  right and and quite frankly, Nick Sierre on being able to adjust on the
• 42:00
  fly and and be a be a good game day coach, in my opinion,
• 42:05
  that that's the kind of stuff I'd be more angry about. I oh,
• 42:09
  God, was gonna say the uh as far as Kelsey goes, I
• 42:14
  mean, he's a he's a Philly legend, like he goes, he's a
• 42:19
  first ballot and he's in the Hall of Fame. And I'm not talking I'm
• 42:22
  talking about the Philly Hall of Fame. Like I'm not talking about the the
• 42:25
  speech, the fact that he dress like a mummer. I mean, it's
• 42:30
  it's it's all time. Give me five other moments that were more Philly from
• 42:37
  an athlete that I don't in real athletes, not fucking Rocky or some ship
• 42:40
  like actual athlete, like like he he that that that alone in him being
• 42:45
  an anchor and being the best center in football and one of the all time
• 42:50
  underdogs. He is not a big dude. His footwork is incredible. He
• 42:52
  understands the game inside now, like he came from nothing and he became one
• 42:57
  of the best offensive linemen ever and a Philly legend and he still lives there.
• 43:01
  I just saw on Twitter he went to his local McDonald's and gave his
• 43:06
  favorite employee assigned jersey. Yeah, it's like, come on, man,
• 43:09
  were you made in a you made in a lab? Yeah, exactly.
• 43:14
  He's a genuine dude. It's if he retires awesome, Like, there's absolutely
• 43:17
  nothing bad I can say about the guy. Absolutely good way to end that
• 43:22
  segment, and we hope that you're enjoying the content here. Subscribe on whatever
• 43:25
  podcast platform you are on. You can also head on over to our website,
• 43:30
  Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over there,
• 43:34
  and as Francis wrote us, we'd love to hear from you as well.
• 43:37
  Shoot us off an email Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We'd
• 43:40
  love to read your email here in the show and respond to it. Whether
• 43:43
  it's the world of Philly sports, whether it's the world of sports in general,
• 43:45
  a subject matter you'd love to get us, uh fired up over.
• 43:51
  We'd love to love to hear from you and follow us on social media sites
• 43:57
  out there. I'm on threads at mister jeff Warren. The show is at
• 44:00
  Philadelphia Sports Table. Eric is at on threads slen ten twenty three. Is
• 44:07
  that what it is? Yeah? Ah, yes, I got it.
• 44:10
  I haven't looked at it once since I installed it. All right, well,
• 44:13
  then don't follow him there. Gone over to Twitter, Yeah, Twitter
• 44:19
  at Brick Pollett. I'm on Twitter at Jeffrey Underscore Warren in the show at
• 44:22
  Philadelphia PST. We're gonna be back in just a minute. Taking a break.
• 44:25
  We got Sixers talk on the way and some Phillies talks. Stick with
• 44:30
  us, all right, Eric, Good to have you on the show because
• 44:35
  we're going to get into some Sixers talk and what's been happening with this team.
• 44:37
  But I first wanted to get into a specific issue with this Philadelphia seventy
• 44:42
  six ers organization that we neglected to talk about actually toward the end of last
• 44:46
  year. Wanted to get into it because this issue is not going away anytime
• 44:50
  soon, and it's the fact that the seventy six Ers have proposed in eighteen
• 44:53
  thousand, five hundred seat arena on Market Street between tenth and eleventh st Uh,
• 45:00
  this is an area of the city that you used to live very very
• 45:05
  close to, and it's gonna be a mixed use development feature restaurants, some
• 45:09
  retail on the ground floor. Would replace a third of that you know,
• 45:13
  struggling fashion district of Philadelphia that we know, like basically rate in Chinatown.
• 45:20
  So the decision to leave the Wells Fargo Center, from what the Sixers have
• 45:23
  said, it's primarily about basketball. You know. The Sixers argue that the
• 45:27
  franchise, they need a state of the art arena to compete, to sign
• 45:30
  top tier players, contend for championships, you know, keep the fans and
• 45:35
  their butts in the stands here. So it's also argued to at least by
• 45:40
  public officials as well, that the new arena would help jumpstart those blocks east
• 45:45
  of City Hall kind of an underutilized corridor that's really struggled to thrive despite millions
• 45:52
  of dollars of investments over the years. So I wanted to just get thoughts
• 45:57
  on where this is at right now, because there is a contingency that has
• 46:01
  been trying to stop this. I think in every community, look, I
• 46:05
  see it as a public official. Whenever development happens in a community, there
• 46:08
  are people who are going to be opposed to it. I think that's something
• 46:12
  that's natural, it's something that happens. There's a citizens group called Save the
• 46:17
  Save Chinatown Coalition who's doing everything they can to keep this project from coming to
• 46:23
  their neighborhood. And again, like I said, it's something that I've seen
• 46:27
  in the public sector world with regard to the elected positions that I've been involved
• 46:32
  with over the years. And again, sometimes it's sometimes these citizen groups have
• 46:39
  very well meaning sometimes they don't quite frankly, but I don't know. Just
• 46:45
  wanted to get your thoughts here, Eric on what's happening here with as I
• 46:49
  hit my microphone, fantastic, you know what's happening with the development of this
• 46:53
  new arena. I personally think that a new Sixers Arena would be good for
• 46:59
  the city, and actually having it in the city instead of in the sports
• 47:01
  complex area, I think it would be good for the surrounding communities. I'm
• 47:07
  not an expert by any means with regard to public policy, in the city
• 47:10
  of Philadelphia. But something new, something innovative, I think would be good.
• 47:15
  Wells Fargo Center is getting up there a certainly is. I don't know
• 47:20
  what are your thoughts on what is happening with this Arena's gonna take some time
• 47:22
  before it's built, but overall thoughts since used to live right around that area.
• 47:29
  Yeah, I mean the Wells Fargo Arena, I mean, is one
• 47:31
  of the most dullest and just not innovative arenas in in sports. I mean
• 47:37
  that the Flyers are there. I was there. I was there a game
• 47:38
  a couple of months ago, and it just it just it sucks. It's
• 47:45
  just kind of yeah, it's just kind of there. Yeah. No,
• 47:47
  I worked I worked in Chinatown Ninth and Race for oh my god, six
• 47:52
  years something like that, and I lived in Old City and this was a
• 47:58
  big deal. When Phillies were gonna relocate, they knocked a vet down and
• 48:04
  there was actual debate on whether they're going to build the stadium the bank,
• 48:08
  they were going to build it in Chinatown or they're going to build it where
• 48:10
  they built it, And there was a huge uproar in the community to not
• 48:15
  have it in Chinatown. Yeah, I think the thought was they were going
• 48:19
  to knock down that park at like tenth in Race right by Temple, like
• 48:22
  the Temple subway stop, and uh and it never came to fruition. It
• 48:29
  didn't really the ball didn't really get rolling. But that was a huge debate
• 48:31
  for a couple of months. And just like this group here, the Save
• 48:36
  Chinatown Coalition, like that, there were there were groups in the city trying
• 48:37
  to get that to stop because that's a lot of that's that's a park where
• 48:43
  a lot of people live in Chinatown go to and and the kind of exercise
• 48:46
  in the morning. They kind of try and keep it, kind of keep
• 48:50
  there. It's part of their faith, it's part of their daily life,
• 48:53
  like they you know they I'm assuming that's kind of what's happening here as well.
• 48:58
  I feel like this one's going to happen. I don't think anyone's gonna
• 49:00
  be able to stop the momentum here, So you kind of just start looking
• 49:05
  at it then as a as a business and like landscape issue. I don't
• 49:10
  know, I don't know where the one good thing is it's gonna be.
• 49:14
  It's gonna be put right over top of the Jefferson Street Market street stop like
• 49:19
  tenth and eleventh, I mean tenth eleventh where the gallery is, and anyone
• 49:23
  knows the gallery, it's it's you got King of Prussia mall out in the
• 49:28
  suburbs, and then you got your inner city mall at the gallery. You
• 49:31
  know, it's not the greatest mall. It's multiple floors. I think that's
• 49:37
  kind of where they're going to want to put the arena. They're going to
• 49:40
  have to upgrade the subway system for sure, especially the stops. That one
• 49:45
  in particular, uh more than once smells like we we not in great shape.
• 49:52
  I mean, there's a lot of infrastructure costs. It's gonna like this
• 49:55
  is going to cost the city a lot of money. It's going to cost
• 49:58
  taxpayers a lot of money, and it already is. To be honest with
• 50:02
  you too, because part of the Chinatown group that I mentioned, I mean
• 50:07
  they're using Pennsylvania's Right to Know law in the Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records to
• 50:13
  hold up as much of this as possible. I mean, there's so much
• 50:15
  stuff going on with with this group trying to you know, their requesting correspondence
• 50:21
  between the Mayor's office and the Philadelphia Industrial Development corporation. Just so much stuff
• 50:27
  that's going on. There's appeals with regard to just getting information due to the
• 50:30
  right to know law, so like things are being held up on purpose here
• 50:36
  and and and uh, it's meant to deliberately hold up this project, so
• 50:39
  it's it's gonna take a while. Yeah, And and because it's happening,
• 50:45
  and because of that area, like a lot of people, You're they're gonna
• 50:47
  have to uproot a lot of people to make this thing happen because it's not
• 50:52
  just you know, like you said, they're going to want to develop all
• 50:54
  the shopping and storefronts surrounding it, and it's not going to be mom and
• 50:59
  pop shops. We all know that, right, right, And you're gonna
• 51:01
  have a lot of imminent domain situations occur where the city is probably gonna give
• 51:06
  a lot of rich guys a lot of tax breaks to come in and invest.
• 51:09
  Right, that investment is not going to be for the citizens of that
• 51:14
  area. It's all going to be for other rich people. And you're gonna
• 51:16
  have a lot of chain chain restaurants. And I mean, I know,
• 51:21
  I know it's going to create jobs, but I'm a I'm a I'm a
• 51:23
  leftist, socialist COMI and of course my the hair in the back of my
• 51:28
  neck when I hear these things, I'm like, even though I'm a Sixess
• 51:30
  fan, and I'll go, here's here's the one, here's the one thing
• 51:35
  I was. I was a text my brother about this because we talked about
• 51:37
  all the time because both sixerss fans. He lives in media and I know
• 51:40
  the city well. The people who drive to the games from the suburbs and
• 51:46
  would never take public transportation, right, I'm not sure where they're going to
• 51:52
  park, that's a good question for or if they're are they going to be
• 51:58
  scared to death to drive into the city and park their car? Right,
• 52:04
  I'm sure they're gonna have plenty of part they're gonna figure that out. But
• 52:07
  there are the people who live in the in the burbs and and say they're
• 52:10
  Philadelphians, but would never dare actually going to Chinatown because I mean, parts
• 52:15
  of Chintown are like not great, man, it's it's it's a weird neighborhood.
• 52:19
  I've worked for six years. There's there's parts of the year where you
• 52:22
  can't even breathe. It smells so awful. Yes, because there's so many
• 52:27
  restaurants, and a lot of them just throw their trash in like open trash
• 52:30
  cans. They don't put them in bags. Im. And it's not I'm
• 52:32
  saying that because I live there and I work there. It's a strange neighborhood.
• 52:37
  And I think they're gonna have people in the suburbs are gonna be like,
• 52:39
  I want to go to a game, but I go in the city
• 52:43
  to city people. I can't. I have to go in the city.
• 52:46
  Why can't they put it in Montgomery County exactly? Like, honestly, I'm
• 52:51
  thinking, like I have, I mean, we're China Tinness. You're gonna
• 52:53
  have to get off the schoogle or seven, Like you have to get off
• 52:59
  like the what do you call it, the seventy six. Yeah, you're
• 53:02
  gonna have to get off, and like go into the city. There's no
• 53:06
  freaking way, there's no ramp. It's not like a Philadelphia Union if you've
• 53:09
  been there. It's in Chester, right, But they built it so that
• 53:14
  you don't even have to see Chester, right, Like Chester doesn't exist.
• 53:17
  They put it in a cheap part of Philadelphia and you literally you take the
• 53:22
  ramp, you go right into the parking lot for the stadium and then you
• 53:25
  go right back on ninety five. Then you're right out. Yep, they
• 53:30
  don't let you go into Chester and that they're gonna have to go into Chinatown
• 53:32
  and try and park. That's the one thing I'm like, I don't know
• 53:35
  how that part's gonna work. Like people like me and my brother will certainly
• 53:37
  take the subway. It's awesome. I like how they're gonn try and filter
• 53:40
  people to take public transportation, but they're gonna have issues with that. Yeah,
• 53:44
  and fans wanting to come in and like park their cars. It's a
• 53:47
  it's a that's a great it's a really great talking point. I can't wait
• 53:52
  to see what's gonna happen with this for sure. But let's talk more about
• 53:57
  this seventy six ers team because Joel Embi dropped forty one on the Nuggets this
• 54:01
  past week. Here, Holy crap, I am like feeling I am getting
• 54:06
  those vibes that this team is actually going going to get past the second round
• 54:12
  of the playoffs this year, because it just feels good from a vibe stand
• 54:16
  even with Joelnbiat's injuries, even other injuries that have been sustained other players on
• 54:21
  this team. I am still getting these good vibes that this team is going
• 54:24
  to be doing some really good things and the rug is just going to get
• 54:29
  pulled out from under us. I think Eric Carris, come on, man,
• 54:34
  you know my guards, my guards all the way up, like,
• 54:37
  because you're absolutely right. Like even even some of their better recent teams,
• 54:43
  the twenty nineteen team was probably their best shot to go to the finals,
• 54:45
  right. You talk about all time top ten games that were just a dagger
• 54:51
  to the heart that to my top ten all time that's easily when they lost
• 54:54
  the Raptors in Game seven, I still can't talk about it, man,
• 55:00
  and uh anyway, but in terms of vibes, even that team didn't have
• 55:05
  a great vibe because it came out later and you kind of felt it that
• 55:09
  Ben was a pussy, Jimmy Butler was an alpha and it was pretty much
• 55:15
  like he's got to get out of here. Like Jimmy was like, this
• 55:17
  guy sucks, he's a bump, And Jimmy was right. Of course,
• 55:22
  afterwards, one of the worst things that ever happened was letting him walk out
• 55:25
  of the building. But even the vibes of that team, we're not we're
• 55:28
  not totally on, and then the James Harden teams, the ridiculous Al Horford
• 55:36
  Richardson team that was that was that sucked ass. This is the first time
• 55:40
  where like the vibes are actually like, wow, we're number one. Embiid
• 55:45
  is one of the top two three best players in the world, and he's
• 55:50
  actually better than he was last year when he won the m v P.
• 55:52
  It's incredible. His mid range is sick in freeze. He's got that that
• 55:58
  up and under. He it's his arm under the defender's hand thing down and
• 56:02
  draws the foul that every ref is calling. He's just he's sick right now.
• 56:07
  Maxi is just such a wonderful player. He's his vibe is just all
• 56:13
  all sunshine and smiles. Yes, even though he's a killer instinct in him.
• 56:16
  Harris is playing really well. Obviously that you never turn your back on
• 56:21
  that good because he'll stab you. It's it is really good. They probably
• 56:25
  don't have enough, not enough to make the finals. I'm just waiting to
• 56:30
  see what the move is going to the pacers. Today kind of stung oj
• 56:37
  for me because that's what I was thinking that might have happened. Yeah,
• 56:40
  he would have been perfect for this team. I think that would have been
• 56:43
  your Harris upgrade, or even keep Harris and have have Sam played kind of
• 56:49
  a four role or something. You have options there. But now they have
• 56:53
  to They got to go out and get like a Caruso or something. They
• 56:58
  need to get one more piece if they want to actually make a run,
• 57:00
  because you're gonna have your inevitable and bead missus five or six games. I
• 57:06
  mean, Maxie might miss it like it's gonna happen. You need to get
• 57:09
  one more one more piece, I would say. But you're right, like
• 57:13
  the vibes of this team and just they just had a losing streak a little
• 57:16
  bit. I think the last two or three in a row when he was
• 57:20
  out and the previously with Harden and getting rid of Hard was the key to
• 57:27
  the season. He's a shithead, like he's poisons every team, but you
• 57:32
  know he would kind of take over, Like just I never felt good when
• 57:36
  he took over the team, right because I'm like, I hate this kind
• 57:38
  of basketball number one, and I just don't like you're not involving other people,
• 57:43
  Like this is not good. And they got through that losing streak,
• 57:46
  came back and won. They killed then they kind of beat the Nuggets up
• 57:50
  last night. That was fun to watch, and they got the magic on
• 57:52
  front and I I, yeah, this is this is the best sixers team
• 57:55
  I've been I've watched in the past, however many years, and then talented
• 58:00
  enough right now to probably make it the second round. But they gotta make
• 58:02
  one more move. YEP, I agree. I agree. We're gonna be
• 58:06
  talking about it here on the show. It's gonna happen, folks. Daryl
• 58:09
  Morey cannot help himself. A move is gonna be made for sure, and
• 58:14
  we're gonna be talking about it here. Eric. Any final thoughts before we
• 58:16
  head to our next break here and before we get to our interview this week,
• 58:20
  buddy, uh no, but like, let's make sure I will make
• 58:24
  sure going forward whenever we do prediction shows to write all my stuff down.
• 58:29
  Yes, and yeah, because that comes in handy. Absolutely, How a
• 58:31
  nept you are choosing teams the Bears? What the fuck? God? I
• 58:38
  think the Giants are going to the wild Cards? All right, folks,
• 58:45
  gonna let Eric go and when we come back, we're gonna get into some
• 58:47
  phillies. Talk stick with us. We'll be right back, all right,
• 58:52
  folks, We are back and let's get into some Phillies talk with our guests
• 58:54
  this week. Love having her on. That's what we're throwing down on the
• 58:58
  table and now on the table. It's great to have back on the show
• 59:05
  to talk about this Philadelphia Phillies off season. We are in the hot stove
• 59:09
  season and it's great talking to her. I absolutely love having her on from
• 59:14
  Phillies Nation dot com. She does great work over there with her colleagues.
• 59:19
  Destiny Legardo, Destiny, thank you so much for jumping on the pod this
• 59:22
  week. Yeah, no problem. It's a hot stove, but nothing much
• 59:25
  is going on unfortunately, I know it's not too hot. More cold stove
• 59:30
  here. It's like, what's gonna happen here? Yes, exactly. I
• 59:35
  just you know, I mean the big signing of Aaron Nola. You know,
• 59:38
  it's like they got that out of the way and US fans had a
• 59:43
  little bit of calm, I would say, in terms of what the starting
• 59:47
  pitching may potentially look like in the future here. So I mean, we're
• 59:52
  gonna get into some starting pitching in a little bit here. But you know,
• 59:57
  aside from Aaron Nola here, they've agreed to terms with four arbitration eligible
• 1:00:01
  players that a lot of us read about recently, Ranger Suarez, Jeff Hoffman,
• 1:00:07
  Edmundo Sosa, Gregory Soto. I'm wondering, Destiny, has this front
• 1:00:12
  office done what you have expected so far this off season as we're here in
• 1:00:16
  January, or should they really kind of be making some more moves given where
• 1:00:22
  this team wants to go here in twenty twenty four. I mean yes and
• 1:00:27
  no. I think coming off last year, we all were ensure they were
• 1:00:31
  going to resign Aaron Nola or not, whether he was going to be above
• 1:00:35
  their price range or not. But I think the outcome was ideal for both
• 1:00:38
  sides. It was clear that Phillies wanted to retain him and Nola wasn't willing
• 1:00:44
  to wait it out, and they got the deal done pretty quickly, and
• 1:00:46
  I think all sides are happy, even though probably Aaron Nola could have stayed
• 1:00:52
  on the market for a few weeks and made a lot more money, But
• 1:00:55
  I think it's good that they got that done early. At the same time,
• 1:00:59
  it doesn't seem like that's a big ad because they're just resigning a player
• 1:01:05
  that they already had, so it does like kind of seem like that they
• 1:01:07
  haven't done enough. I think that's less of an indication of like the Phillies
• 1:01:12
  are just kind of sitting on their hands and more of a more of like
• 1:01:15
  a it's a it's an issue with the market place. Really in baseball,
• 1:01:21
  not a lot has happened. There's still a ton of free agents left off
• 1:01:24
  the left on the board, so I think hopefully, because there's a month
• 1:01:30
  until spring training, things have to get done. Teams are kind of just
• 1:01:32
  waiting for prices to go down so things will happen. It's not just the
• 1:01:37
  Phillies. It's pretty much every team is kind of dealing with this. Like
• 1:01:40
  there's there's been some really active teams, like the Dodgers obviously with Otani and
• 1:01:45
  Yamoto and the Braidge Is, they've made a whole bunch of trades this offseason.
• 1:01:49
  I don't know how how like that will impact them or it will be
• 1:01:53
  a better team because of that. But there's there's a lot of teams that
• 1:01:57
  haven't done a lot of things, and it's not just the Phillies. That's
• 1:02:00
  very true. And if you don't mind, if we can just kind of
• 1:02:01
  piggyback off that a little bit, because I've been wondering that too, in
• 1:02:05
  terms of the why why haven't teams been as active here in twenty twenty four
• 1:02:10
  during this you know, quote hot stove season. As we said earlier,
• 1:02:14
  it's more of the icy cold stove season here. I'm wondering if ownership throughout
• 1:02:20
  Major League Baseball is essentially and I know this sounds very general, trying to
• 1:02:23
  get the market down to where things aren't crazy in terms of free agent signings.
• 1:02:30
  I'm wondering if they're trying to I don't want to say correct the market,
• 1:02:34
  because I love when professional athletes get paid. I'm somebody who thinks that
• 1:02:38
  professional athletes should get paid a lot of money, given how much money they
• 1:02:43
  make for their organizations and for ownership. Blah blah blah. Folks have heard
• 1:02:46
  me talk about this a number of times. But I'm wondering if it's the
• 1:02:51
  weight period is happening so that the market kind of quote corrects itself. Do
• 1:02:55
  you think that's what's happening here? Is there a collective initial of here?
• 1:03:00
  Is it just ownerships throughout the league saying, you know, we just don't
• 1:03:05
  want to pay this much. Yeah, don't want to use the word collusion
• 1:03:08
  because that's a legal term, but exactly, I mean, I do think
• 1:03:13
  it's multiple things. Like one, you're right, it's about bringing the prices
• 1:03:16
  down of these free agents. They're going to get a lot of money anyway.
• 1:03:21
  But if you could wait a few weeks and save tens of millions of
• 1:03:24
  dollars, it's worth it. But all you have to do is just listen
• 1:03:28
  to the fans who are frustrated. You don't even have to listen to them.
• 1:03:30
  You can kind of just tune them out, exactly. But I think,
• 1:03:34
  yeah, another issue with the market is that there are top players,
• 1:03:38
  but there aren't a lot and the top players that are there, like Bellinger
• 1:03:44
  snow like you could poke holes and kind of convince yourself to not sign them
• 1:03:49
  to a huge deal. And out on the fact that the top of the
• 1:03:52
  market is controlled by Scott Bors and he tends to take his time and wait
• 1:03:57
  for the right deal to come. It's a big reason why there's not a
• 1:04:01
  lot of activity in the market. Also, like there's a huge issue with
• 1:04:05
  half the teams in the league regarding TV revenue. And this isn't really a
• 1:04:11
  Phillies problem for now, but a lot of the teams that are that have
• 1:04:15
  Valley Sports as their regional sports network. There's there's a resolution now because Amazon
• 1:04:21
  is doing something with streaming, But like there's a hesitancy for teams to spend
• 1:04:27
  because they just didn't know if they're getting the big TV revenue, and TV
• 1:04:30
  revenue is a huge deal in baseball. That's where they make most of their
• 1:04:33
  money. So as long as there's excuses not to spend, they're not going
• 1:04:40
  to spend. So but as we said before, with a month in spring
• 1:04:44
  training, with so many free agents still on the board, there's going to
• 1:04:47
  be some activity, there's going to be some trade. So it's just taken
• 1:04:50
  way too long. That's kind of the issue with the Major League Baseball off
• 1:04:56
  season is that we don't know how to get these things started as quickly as
• 1:05:00
  it does in the NBA or the NHL, even NFL like things move pretty
• 1:05:05
  quickly. Nothing ever, happens quickly in baseball. No, No, it's
• 1:05:12
  a slow not even the pitchlock could save exactly exactly there. I love that,
• 1:05:16
  what a slow moving slog than it is for sure the Major League Baseball,
• 1:05:23
  just the Major League Baseball phenomenon. But something else I wanted to talk
• 1:05:27
  about with you destiny and we kind of let you know you touched on it
• 1:05:30
  with regard to Aaron Nola is the starting pitching for this Phillies team and where
• 1:05:33
  the organization is seeing the starting pitching here. In twenty twenty four, metcgill
• 1:05:39
  recently reported that the Phillies are not likely in the market to add another high
• 1:05:43
  end starting pitcher here. So I'm I'm not sure really how I feel about
• 1:05:47
  this, given this organization has been willing to spend a ton of money over
• 1:05:51
  these years go over the cap. What do you think this says about how
• 1:05:57
  this front office views the current starting pitching staff, where the market's at.
• 1:06:01
  What we were just talking about, what does this say about where this front
• 1:06:04
  office is at this point here? I mean, their top five is pretty
• 1:06:10
  good. Jack Wheeler is one of the best starting pitchers in baseball. Aaron
• 1:06:14
  Nola, you know, when he's not in a bad years, he's pretty
• 1:06:17
  good pitcher. Suarez is a really good number three, Taiwan Walker, I
• 1:06:23
  mean, he has his issues, but he eats up innings. And Christopher
• 1:06:26
  Sanchez, he saved the Phillies bots last year and he's a very very good
• 1:06:30
  number five. So you know, obviously they went after Yama Motel was a
• 1:06:34
  pretty unique opportunity to get such a young guy that's so talented, and the
• 1:06:41
  Phillies went for it. Obviously they came up short. He wanted to go
• 1:06:45
  to the Dodgers and they probably weren't getting him anyway. But I mean,
• 1:06:50
  I think the five that they have is pretty good, like relative to some
• 1:06:56
  of the other starting rotations in the league. I think the issue with the
• 1:07:00
  starting rotation is that the five is really good, but what is what else
• 1:07:04
  is behind it? Injuries The last couple of years are going to Injuries are
• 1:07:09
  going to happen, and especially with Nola and Wheeler getting older, you can't
• 1:07:14
  count on them being fully healthy for the entire year. Every year Suarez has
• 1:07:18
  has had injury issues over the years, Walker had to They pretty much had
• 1:07:25
  the pause of season for a little bit. I guess a positive thing you
• 1:07:29
  could say is that the last two years they find a way to kind of
• 1:07:32
  patch things together. Whether you know, twenty twenty two they had Falter make
• 1:07:36
  a few starts. They had strong in the rotation. Earlier in the year,
• 1:07:42
  they they found they didn't find Sanchez, but he kind of found his
• 1:07:46
  stuff and he sticked in the rotation. Maybe this year it's Micky Abel,
• 1:07:50
  maybe it's somebody that they pick up on waivers. But I think that's like
• 1:07:55
  an overarching issue in the organization is that they just don't have enough starting depth
• 1:08:00
  behind those five guys, and it's something that they have to figure out pretty
• 1:08:04
  soon because they have in ambitions of competing with the Braves for the analyst.
• 1:08:09
  But one of the things that separates the Braves from the Phillies is that the
• 1:08:12
  Braves have really good rotation depth and they could kind of just switch guys out
• 1:08:16
  and send guys to the minors and keep guys stretched out. The Phillies just
• 1:08:19
  don't have that. Yeah, So it's not an issue like for the playoffs,
• 1:08:24
  because if you have five good starters, then you're in really good shape.
• 1:08:27
  But it's an issue for the regular season. So I guess like,
• 1:08:30
  if you sign one of those big guys and you kind of move Sanchez to
• 1:08:34
  the bullpen and then you make him a swing guy and then you can consider
• 1:08:38
  him more starting rotation depth, that was my fall. Yeah, Yeah,
• 1:08:42
  it doesn't really like solve the issue that they more starting pittures in Triple A.
• 1:08:46
  Absolutely absolutely, Yeah, make sure you're following Destiny on Twitter slash x
• 1:08:51
  at Destiny, underscore Legardo again Philliesnation dot com. They do such great,
• 1:08:56
  great work over there, And why do you just stick with the pitching with
• 1:09:00
  you, Destiny, but move over to the bullpen because I'm a little surprised
• 1:09:03
  that the organization really hasn't made any moves to acquire, you know, potentially
• 1:09:08
  somebody like Josh Hater or any other really bullpen arms because we've seen, again
• 1:09:14
  based on the injuries over the years with this bullpen, what has happened,
• 1:09:18
  and by any stretch of the imagine, they are not terrible. By any
• 1:09:20
  stretch, they are not a terrible bullpen. But I just I'd like to
• 1:09:25
  see some more arms being brought in here. And it doesn't like in terms
• 1:09:29
  of Josh Hater, doesn't seem like they have any interest in bringing him in
• 1:09:30
  at the moment. So I'm wondering how comfortable are you heading into this season
• 1:09:34
  with the current bullpen and do you think they're going to need to make an
• 1:09:39
  acquisition for the pen before spring training starts. I do think they need to
• 1:09:44
  make some sort of acquisition to replace Craig Kimberrell. I don't think that necessarily
• 1:09:48
  has to be a closer that pitches the ninth inning. I think they need
• 1:09:54
  a more high leverage, right handed type guy that could be a little bit
• 1:09:59
  more flexible than Kimberle, because you know, the issue with Kimberle, he
• 1:10:01
  had a really good first half. Yeah he struggled in the second half obviously,
• 1:10:05
  but like he was only limited to pretty much the ninth inning. Like,
• 1:10:09
  he's not a guy that could come in with runners on and kind of
• 1:10:12
  clean up a situation. So, like, you know, the way Rob
• 1:10:15
  Thobson likes to use his bullpen is to have like his guys in flexible roles
• 1:10:19
  and kind of play matchups. So I think getting like a higher end right
• 1:10:24
  hander that could do that, I think would be a good idea. At
• 1:10:27
  the same time, that could also be a Ryan kirk Ring, you know,
• 1:10:31
  despite like the hiccups he's had in the playoffs. Like, I think
• 1:10:35
  he's going to be a huge part of the bullpen moving forward. He could
• 1:10:40
  even be a closer if they like him in that role. But yeah,
• 1:10:45
  I mean, I think they have a lot of good arms. Something we
• 1:10:48
  do forget is that Alvarado was supposed to be a free agent this year,
• 1:10:54
  but he signed him to a contract extension last spring, so they would have
• 1:10:59
  had to fill that hole. So they have six really good guys. They
• 1:11:03
  could also benefit because one of the issues they had last year was that they
• 1:11:08
  didn't have enough guys that had minor league options, so they were kind of
• 1:11:12
  stuck with the same group. And sometimes if you're using the bullpen and some
• 1:11:16
  guys are on three days in a row, like, sometimes you just have
• 1:11:19
  to replace a guy and get a guy up from the minor league. So
• 1:11:23
  they might opt for more flexibility over just kind of signing more free agents.
• 1:11:28
  But like you know, I do think they at least should be in the
• 1:11:32
  market for another big right handed reliever. You know what the price ranges,
• 1:11:39
  I'm not sure, but you know, as we said before, like the
• 1:11:43
  prices are pretty high for pretty much everybody, even Josh Hater, if they
• 1:11:47
  wanted to go that route, Yeah, and something they should at least consider,
• 1:11:54
  and you know, maybe as cut a deal or two. Yep,
• 1:11:57
  it's going to be interesting to follow for sure. And I think bringing in
• 1:12:00
  another right hander again, you know, is something they're gonna need to do.
• 1:12:04
  I think it's something they will do. But again based on what's happening
• 1:12:09
  with free agency in the market right now. It's there's just not a lot
• 1:12:12
  of movement, as we talked about earlier, but I wanted to shift things
• 1:12:15
  to the outfield and talk about what we may be seeing this season. In
• 1:12:19
  terms of the outfield, we know, look, Bryce Harpery is going to
• 1:12:21
  be playing first base, so that leaves us with names that we do know,
• 1:12:27
  you know, whether it's Brandon Marsh, Johann Rojas, We also of
• 1:12:30
  course Nick Castillanos. You know, these guys who are in Kyle Schwarber probably
• 1:12:35
  gonna be the DH. Of course if he's if I don't ever see him
• 1:12:40
  in left field again, I'm perfectly fined with that. But how do you
• 1:12:43
  think that the outfield is going to take shape? And are we going to
• 1:12:46
  have any sort of you know, barring any injuries, any type of solid
• 1:12:50
  structure out in this outfield. How are you seeing things playing out here in
• 1:12:54
  this offseason? Yeah, I think the ideal scenario for the Phillies going into
• 1:13:00
  opening day is having Johann Rojas be the starting center fielder and having Marsh in
• 1:13:06
  left, Costianos and right, and then Shorter being the primary DH. And
• 1:13:11
  we talked to Rob Thompson yesterday about Rojas, and he said something interesting.
• 1:13:16
  He said, we want to do what's best for Rojas, and if that
• 1:13:20
  means he's got to go down the Triple A and get you know, three
• 1:13:25
  hundred at bats there, then so be it. It's better off for him
• 1:13:29
  to develop more in the big leagues and then have his glove and center field,
• 1:13:32
  then they'll do that. So I think the hope is that he looks
• 1:13:38
  better than he did in the playoffs in spring training. It's not really saying
• 1:13:42
  much because I don't really you know, take spring training performances that seriously,
• 1:13:46
  but I mean the bars it's definitely lower. They just need Rojas to hit
• 1:13:53
  above his weight. And the good news for the Phillies is that he did
• 1:13:57
  that for two months in the regular season. But once you know, they
• 1:14:00
  got into the playoffs and the pitching got better and the you know, advanced
• 1:14:02
  counting on him got better, he just struggled really badly. And once the
• 1:14:08
  rest of the guys in the lineup started struggling, then that became more obvious.
• 1:14:13
  So I think, you know, if everything works out like they want
• 1:14:17
  Rojas his defense in center field. They like marsh in a corner spot more
• 1:14:23
  than centerfield. And I think marsh could be a Gold Club left but he
• 1:14:26
  was nominated for the Gold Club and left left field a couple of years ago,
• 1:14:30
  So I think they really liked the idea of having a really good,
• 1:14:34
  you know, defensive outfield alignment, barring you know, Nick Costiano's he's he's
• 1:14:40
  below average and right field, but they could kind of tolerate that and hopefully
• 1:14:45
  Schwarber spends most of the time as a d H. They're hoping that he's
• 1:14:49
  you know, it was pretty obvious that there was an issue with his knee
• 1:14:54
  last year. He wouldn't never say anything about it. He didn't get any
• 1:14:58
  surgery, but like they're hope that he's a little bit more mobile because you
• 1:15:03
  know, if there'sn't a some reason they have to use for bur and left
• 1:15:06
  field to camp be as bad as it was last year, Yeah, I
• 1:15:10
  don't know how it could get worse. Exactly exactly again, Destiny Legardo from
• 1:15:14
  Phillies Nation dot Com And as we're closing things out here, closing out the
• 1:15:18
  discussion, Destiny, I know it's a very general question, but I'm wondering,
• 1:15:24
  what do you think is going to be the major theme going into this
• 1:15:28
  spring training, The major theme here in twenty twenty four for this Phillies team
• 1:15:31
  and organization, What do you think it is? I think and you know,
• 1:15:35
  Rob Thompson hinted at that yesterday, the theme and the message from the
• 1:15:41
  team is we got to win the last game of the year, and by
• 1:15:44
  that they're referring to finishing the job and winning the World Series. You know.
• 1:15:50
  Another thing he said that was like the pain and the sting of last
• 1:15:55
  year could kind of go away if they win a championship. In my eyes,
• 1:15:58
  like there's not really you're not taking this thing away from that kind of
• 1:16:02
  loss, just because of how devastating it was and how great of a chance
• 1:16:05
  they had of getting back to the World Series and possibly winning it. But
• 1:16:10
  like they kind of need to for the benefit of everybody to move on from
• 1:16:15
  the heartbreak and move forward with next year because they still have a very very
• 1:16:19
  good team and they could compete with the Braves. They know they could beat
• 1:16:24
  them in the playoffs. They don't have to win the division to do it,
• 1:16:26
  even though they want to, you know, finally break the you know,
• 1:16:29
  and at least you know, the Braves have had a hold on it,
• 1:16:32
  but they could probably beat the Dodgers if we're being very honest, no
• 1:16:38
  matter how many how many big signings they make. But like, really it's
• 1:16:43
  just it's a matter of kind of moving on from last year and moving forward
• 1:16:47
  with the team that they have and trying to you know, finally win another
• 1:16:51
  World Series. And obviously in spring there will be a lot more storylines to
• 1:16:57
  follow, like Zach Wheeler's extension, and you know, for the fans,
• 1:17:00
  like hopefully and for everybody that it gets done, you know, whether the
• 1:17:04
  Bryce Harper extension stuff comes up again. But really, like the messaging you're
• 1:17:10
  going to hear from the team is like, we got to finish the job,
• 1:17:12
  and you know, it's up to the front office to kind of make
• 1:17:15
  the right moves to to get the team where they need to be because they're
• 1:17:19
  still stuff that needs to be done, and they also need to get off
• 1:17:23
  to a fast start and not have to rely on getting hot at a certain
• 1:17:27
  point in the year to make the playoffs and then just hope everything like aligns
• 1:17:31
  for them like it has the last two years, because you just never know
• 1:17:34
  what happens. But yeah, the big thing this year is like they're still
• 1:17:39
  a good team and they still have a chance to win a World Series,
• 1:17:43
  and at some point they got to get it done, because yes, I
• 1:17:46
  don't want the disappointment to mount exactly. There are high expectations, of course,
• 1:17:51
  lots of pressure coming to this twenty twenty fourth Philadelphia Phillies team again,
• 1:17:58
  folks. Destiny Legardo from Phillies Nation dot com at Destiny Underscore Legardo on Twitter
• 1:18:03
  slash x and we appreciate you, my friend, coming on. Thank you
• 1:18:08
  so very much for your time. Always enjoy talking to you. Come back
• 1:18:12
  join us down the road. I'd love to have you back on the show,
• 1:18:14
  my friend. Yeah, thanks, Jeff, see you the way the
• 1:18:16
  Philadelphia Eagles season ended, I and so many other folks within the world of
• 1:18:21
  Philly sports cannot wait for this Philadelphia Phillies season to start. It's gonna be
• 1:18:27
  great, even when pitchers and catchers report. Quite frankly, it's gonna be
• 1:18:30
  really nice to see some baseball, even some of these spring training games.
• 1:18:35
  It's gonna be nice to take our minds off of some of the garbage we
• 1:18:39
  just saw with this Philadelphia Eagles organization and team. It's gonna tall a little
• 1:18:44
  while, folks, for us to come down from that. As Eric and
• 1:18:45
  I were talking about the details and storylines that are gonna be heading into this
• 1:18:50
  Eagles offseason. But thankfully we do have the Philadelphia Phillies and again a team,
• 1:18:56
  barring any injuries, that should give us some really good baseball this year.
• 1:19:01
  They should be on the cusp of getting to you know, I don't
• 1:19:05
  want to say the Promised Land, but getting us through the playoffs and hopefully
• 1:19:11
  not being as much of a disappointment as it was to end to the twenty
• 1:19:15
  twenty three seasons. So I cannot wait for baseball to come. We're certainly
• 1:19:18
  gonna be talking about this phillyes team in more detail in the future, but
• 1:19:23
  that's gonna do it for us here on this episode. Feel free if you
• 1:19:28
  are new to listening to us to subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on.
• 1:19:31
  If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts, we'd appreciate a rate and
• 1:19:36
  review and if anything happens to your podcast feed. As I mentioned earlier in
• 1:19:40
  the show, head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got
• 1:19:44
  all of our shows over there. I went through the social media stuff before,
• 1:19:47
  who cares about that? You can find us out there, and we
• 1:19:51
  got more Philly sports talk coming to you next week. Absolutely love being in
• 1:19:57
  your ears. Thank you, thank you, thank you, long time time
• 1:20:00
  listeners. If you're new to the show, stick around, subscribe. You're
• 1:20:03
  gonna have some fun conversations with us in the future. All right, folks,
• 1:20:08
  take care, we'll catch you next time.