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Are The Phillies A "Stable" Team? (PST Episode 558) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. Wanted to let you know that we
• 0:02
  recorded this podcast episode on two different dates this week. Tuesday, March nineteenth,
• 0:08
  twenty twenty four is when we recorded our interview, and then Wednesday,
• 0:12
  March twentieth is when we recorded the bulk of this show. So by the
• 0:16
  time you hear this, some things may have changed here or there, but
• 0:19
  we hope you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you are listening
• 0:35
  to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
• 0:40
  show in the world, almost eleven years strong. In about a month,
• 0:44
  man, it'll be eleven years we've been doing this podcast. We appreciate you
• 0:47
  longtime listeners. If you're new to the show, stick around. We got
• 0:50
  some great, great discussions for you, and we'd appreciate if you'd subscribe on
• 0:55
  whatever podcast platform you are on. I don't think you'll regret it at all.
• 1:00
  I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here by Buddy Lenhunsicker lent Man. How you
• 1:03
  doing, I'm doing good. I'm watching They were there at halftime now of
• 1:08
  one of the playing games in the tournament, and it's Colorado and Boise State.
• 1:11
  So getting watching that and then getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow. It
• 1:15
  all starts off. It all starts tomorrow. We're certainly gonna be getting into
• 1:21
  some NCAA tournament, but we want to talk about whether or not we're more
• 1:26
  interested in the men's or the women's brackets this year might be an interesting discussions.
• 1:32
  Stick around for that one, and then we're gonna get into some Eagles
• 1:34
  talk Kenny Pickett specifically. Eagles have their QB two. Seems like every year
• 1:40
  there's a new QB two here, and we're gonna our overall thoughts on the
• 1:44
  trade as a Kenny Pickett coming over from the Steelers is now Jalen Hurts back
• 1:49
  up, and we're gonna get into some Flyers talk. After that boy,
• 1:53
  John Tortorella benched the captain Sean Coattrie. There's never a dull moment here with
• 1:57
  this Flyers team this season for sure. And then we're gonna be getting into
• 2:00
  some Philadelphia Union talk. They still haven't want to match up yet Len three
• 2:06
  draws, Buddy, doesn't seem to be going as planned. They're gonna go,
• 2:10
  oh, however many uh, zero wins, zero losses, and however
• 2:15
  many games they play. Yes, they're gonna draws God and from there we
• 2:21
  got a ton of Philly's talk. Len and I are actually gonna get into
• 2:23
  some of the bullpen uh not issues necessarily, but our thoughts on the bullpen
• 2:30
  as we're getting ready to close out spring training here, as the regular season
• 2:34
  is right around the corner, and what we're thrown down on the table this
• 2:36
  week. We got a great discussion and conversation with Justin Klue from Baseball Prospectus,
• 2:40
  the Hit and Season podcast, the Dirty Inning Podcast as well, and
• 2:46
  we're gonna talk about what we've been seeing during spring training, our thoughts on
• 2:47
  the coming season as well. Son, let's get into Oh, actually,
• 2:53
  before we get into n C double A talk, I gotta tell you I
• 2:55
  think there could be a job opening for you. And I didn't tell you
• 2:59
  this before for the before we hit the record button. Oh yeah, what's
• 3:02
  up? You speak Japanese? No, you don't know. I was gonna
• 3:07
  say you could be an interpreter Forani. Oh bro, what I hacked?
• 3:12
  Joke? What do you mean? Boy? Somebody hasn't been following the news
• 3:16
  today, folks. No, I've not. I've been I've been kind of
• 3:20
  preoccupied. Ab did he fire his interpreter. Well, his interpreter took about
• 3:25
  four point five million dollars of Otani's money and gave it to some apparently allegedly,
• 3:30
  we're saying here, allegedly give it to some illegal betting outlets. Basically,
• 3:37
  oh, no, gentleman has somewhat of a gambling problem, obviously,
• 3:40
  so now he's probably got somewhat of an employment problem. He does the uh
• 3:46
  because LA decided to say, Hey, you're out of here right now,
• 3:49
  so donn Yeah, they have to absolutely if there's anything with gambling or whatever,
• 3:53
  No, they have to cut that cord right then and there. Well,
• 3:58
  interestingly enough, LA, of course, LA fires his interpreter. I'm
• 4:01
  forgetting what the guy's name is right off the top of my head. People
• 4:03
  are probably gonna kill me for that. But the fact of the matter is,
• 4:05
  and I'm gonna check it right now. Major League Baseball did not put
• 4:10
  out a statement from what I understand yet, I'm looking on their Twitter feed
• 4:14
  right now and I'm not seeing any sort of statement for Major League Baseball on
• 4:17
  this. This is incredible, Like this happened like earlier today as we're recording
• 4:21
  this on Wednesday, March twentieth, Land, it never ceases to amaze me
• 4:27
  how MLB at times just fumbles the freaking ball when there's situations that come up.
• 4:33
  Yeah, it's it's funny. I on my app, I'm getting prompts
• 4:38
  now when stuff's going on, Like I had a couple of prompts a day
• 4:42
  from my MLB app and I I got nothing on that at all. And
• 4:46
  that is that is a pretty big story, so they would that should come
• 4:49
  up. But wow, yeah, I did not know that. Unfortunately I
• 4:55
  don't speak any language other than English, which sucks. That's I do think
• 5:00
  there's a ton of value in being able to speak multiple languages. Oh I
• 5:04
  wish I did know another one, but if I was going to learn one,
• 5:08
  it wouldn't be one like Japanese, where I need to learn a whole
• 5:11
  new alphabet as well as a new language. That's that ain't gonna happen.
• 5:15
  Well, there is a job opening out there for you in case you want
• 5:18
  to get on Rosetta stoned or something like that. Stuy maybe started out,
• 5:23
  who knows, Yeah, well you know I can't help them, all right,
• 5:28
  all right, Well let's get into this NC double A tournament again women's
• 5:32
  and men's. Like I gotta tell you, len as we are. You
• 5:35
  know, in the midst of what is March madness here, there are a
• 5:40
  lot of folks out there talking about what they're more interested in watching. And
• 5:44
  I know that. You know, Eric and I have had a number of
• 5:46
  discussions over the years. You and I've had a number of discussions over the
• 5:48
  years just how NCUBA men's basketball just certainly isn't what it used to be.
• 5:54
  We know, the product just is not what it used to be. And
• 5:57
  I'm going to be honest, like I am more interested in the women's bracket
• 6:00
  this year, and I'm just not all that interested in the men's bracket as
• 6:04
  much as it pains me to say it. How many years have I been
• 6:06
  saying like it pains me to say it. And I wish the NCAA could
• 6:11
  do something about this. I wish the talent level could do something about this
• 6:14
  to kind of just bring me back in real me back in. I want
• 6:16
  to be excited about the men's bracket and the men's tournament, but I'm just
• 6:20
  not this year because, like I love, of course, what Caitlyn Clark
• 6:26
  you know from Iowa has done for women's basketball. Juju Watkins as well,
• 6:31
  Angel Reese. I mean, you've got you've got some incredible competitive female and
• 6:39
  women's basketball players that are gonna be playing in this tournament, and it just
• 6:44
  I think it just makes it that much more competitive, It makes it that
• 6:47
  much more interesting. College basketball for me this year is with the women's tournament.
• 6:51
  I don't know what are your thoughts here? Now? I agree.
• 6:56
  I mean, if you said, you know, name a college basketball player
• 7:00
  this year, I wouldn't hesitate to say Caitlin Clark. And if you if
• 7:04
  you said, name me five men's college basketball players this year, I don't
• 7:12
  think I could do it. I couldn't. I really don't, Like,
• 7:15
  I mean I would. I would have to sit down. I'd have to
• 7:16
  look at some teams and say, hey, do I do I know anybody
• 7:20
  on that team? Like, honestly, you know, I'm going to watch
• 7:24
  this tournament, you know, just because it's the tournament, it's you know,
• 7:28
  it's on, it's you know, it's always fun to watch. But
• 7:30
  in terms of Marquee Town the top, in terms of guys, you're like,
• 7:34
  oh, I can't wait to see this guy play because I know that,
• 7:39
  you know, I'm watching someone that you know is going to be in
• 7:42
  the league, and this is like the number one pick in the draft or
• 7:45
  a top three pick in the draft that I can't wait to see, you
• 7:47
  know, play in this tournament. There isn't that I want to see Caitlin
• 7:51
  Clark. I know she's going to be the number one pick in the w
• 7:55
  NBA draft, And that's an exciting thing for for if you're if you are
• 8:01
  a w NBA fan, the exciting thing is like, there there is Caitlin
• 8:05
  Clark that's still there to watchers. You mentioned Juju Watkins, Who's who's a
• 8:11
  great freshman player out of out of USC You know, you have people like
• 8:16
  Angel Reese, you have people like Cameron Brink, Like I know who those
• 8:20
  people are now. And if you're if you're a fan of the w n
• 8:24
  b A, you're like, wow, this this draft class that's going to
• 8:28
  be coming in is pretty stacked. So that that that you know, class
• 8:33
  might end up being a boon for the league, which, let's face it
• 8:37
  needs it. I mean it's a it's a league that you know needs a
• 8:41
  bit of a higher profile, and maybe this draft class is one that's going
• 8:46
  to be able to do that. And you're going to see quite a bit
• 8:48
  of that in the women's tournament this year. Absolutely, Caitlyn Clark certainly helps.
• 8:52
  In fact, I was reading a recent article on the AP where Caesar
• 8:54
  sports Book they reported lend the number of bets on women's college basketball games this
• 8:58
  season copared to a year ago was one hundred and ninety percent higher, with
• 9:03
  one hundred and fifty three percent more money wagered. Caesar Sports Book. They're
• 9:09
  they're happy about that, of course, but that's where the interest is right
• 9:13
  now. Yeah, And I think you're going to see that in TV ratings
• 9:15
  and this might be uh, you know, coming off of like last year
• 9:18
  there was a build when when you know, Clark really became a household name
• 9:24
  and became must watch TV. That that was a build announced their senior year.
• 9:28
  And I wouldn't surprise me at off. This tournament is one of those
• 9:31
  things that you know, in a couple of years they do a thirty for
• 9:33
  thirty four. This is the tournament that you know, made women's basketball more
• 9:39
  of a popular thing. Yeah, this is the one that really was a
• 9:43
  pivot point for women's basketball in this country. It would not surprise me.
• 9:46
  There seems to be this overriding just mentality that I was just going to take
• 9:52
  it all. Of course, we know they're the number one seed, but
• 9:56
  what if they don't do it? What if Katelyn Clark can't get it done?
• 10:00
  I don't I don't think they will. I think, in fact,
• 10:03
  I did a bracket and I don't know that I have them in my final
• 10:09
  four. I have LSU moving on because LSU has Angel Reese and and Morrow
• 10:16
  they got from DePaul last year. They've they've got a good team. I
• 10:20
  have South Carolina beating LSU in in the final. South Carolina's undefeated. There've
• 10:26
  been a juggernaut for a few years now. So I I don't think you
• 10:31
  should like expect to see Caitlin Clark just drag Iowa. I mean, she's
• 10:35
  gonna put up some you know, huge performances. She's going to be,
• 10:39
  you know, a ton of fun to watch. But one person I don't
• 10:43
  think is gonna be able to just you know, drag that team to the
• 10:46
  to the to a championship. I feel like that's what the national narrative has
• 10:50
  been though, do you know what I mean? Like the national narrative is
• 10:54
  just like all about her. She's the most amazing athlete in the world.
• 10:56
  Right now. And oh my gosh, she's definitely the focal point. There's
• 11:01
  there's no question about that. And and believe me, I'm sure all of
• 11:03
  the network executives that are that are playing those games are hoping that I would
• 11:07
  make it as far as possible because you know, then she's going to be
• 11:11
  on the TV. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, you
• 11:16
  know, she has a decent team around her, but she's scoring, you
• 11:18
  know, the bulk of our points. Yeah, absolutely, all right,
• 11:22
  Well, we are going to be watching this women's tournament here with very eagerly,
• 11:28
  I should say, very very eagerly for sure. And let's move on
• 11:33
  here, Lynn, as we are getting into the world of Philly sports now,
• 11:37
  the Philadelphia Eagles now have their quarterback two on the team in Kenny Pickett,
• 11:43
  coming over from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Just to give our overall thoughts here
• 11:46
  on this trade, there's been a lot of back and forth on various social
• 11:52
  media sites. There's just been some back and forth within Eagles Nation about whether
• 11:56
  or not this was a good trade, one that is going to be end
• 12:01
  up being productive basically because the Stealers and the Eagles, they basically swapped third
• 12:07
  round picks this year too. I think it makes sense in a lot of
• 12:11
  different ways. One, I always like the fact and we see this a
• 12:13
  lot in baseball too, where a professional athlete is just not doing well with
• 12:18
  a certain team and they need a change of scenery. One to get a
• 12:22
  better mind set in terms of the sports psychology that they're dealing with with whatever
• 12:28
  sport that they are in. But two, and with the Eagles, like
• 12:33
  you look at the money trail and I guess to make sense of this deal.
• 12:37
  Jalen Hurts. We know he signed that big contract through twenty twenty eight,
• 12:41
  which at that time he's going to be thirty years old. Okay,
• 12:45
  we know this contract is two hundred and fifty five million dollars. But when
• 12:48
  you look at the twenty twenty four salary cap charges of the Eagles three quarterbacks
• 12:54
  here, Hurts is at thirteen point five million, Pickets at one point nine
• 12:58
  million, and Tanner McKee is at nine hundred and sixty one thousand. That's
• 13:03
  for three quarterbacks. Like they are well under basically seventeen million dollars for the
• 13:11
  quarterback position with all three quarterbacks. Meanwhile, you got Dak Prescott eating up
• 13:16
  fifty nine point four million of the Cowboys cap, which which means they can't
• 13:20
  do that much here in free agency at all. Daniel Jones with the flailing
• 13:24
  New York Giants is consuming forty seven point one of the of the giant salary
• 13:31
  cap. Like the money trail aspect of this makes sense, and I think
• 13:35
  he can be that competent number two backup. I really don't mind the whole
• 13:39
  pick swap as well, And of course you know there were some other other
• 13:43
  aspects of the picks as well, like seventh rounds here and there, fourth
• 13:46
  round Anyway, I don't mind this this deal at all. What are your
• 13:50
  thoughts on this, buddy? I don't know, Like, I just like,
• 13:56
  how did he how did picket? Like, how did that exit from
• 14:01
  Pittsburgh go? Did Like when they signed Russell Good? Was he basically yeah?
• 14:07
  Was he basically like all right, get me out of here? Basically
• 14:09
  yeah? Because that tells me that I don't want to compete. I think
• 14:11
  it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't think it was
• 14:15
  just that. I think it was a terrible, terrible offensive coordinator that they
• 14:20
  had that did not put him in a lot of good positions to succeed.
• 14:24
  I think it was just not the best offensive When Isaac Samlu is your best
• 14:28
  offensive lineman, you know, in Isaac sam Alu is a pretty darn good
• 14:31
  offensive lineman. But when you're right guard is your best offensive lineman, and
• 14:35
  you really don't have much help there on the line that he was extremely frustrated
• 14:39
  with just how things were going and how how the the Steelers weren't necessarily helping
• 14:45
  him to develop, and he certainly wasn't developing either. So I think the
• 14:48
  Russell Wilson trade was the straw that broke the camel's back. Yeah, And
• 14:52
  I'm not I don't follow the Steelers closely, so I have definitely an outsider's
• 14:56
  point of view there. But did that to me? And and I know,
• 15:00
  you know, Matt Canada sucks and he's gone, so that's something they
• 15:03
  don't have to worry about anymore as Steelers fans. But I'm just I don't
• 15:07
  know, Like, to me, it just seems like we picked up a
• 15:09
  guy that ran away from competition, Yeah, which I don't love. And
• 15:15
  to me, that tells me that boy, you better hope jail and hurt
• 15:18
  stays healthy, right, Because I I don't know. I mean, you
• 15:22
  know, maybe if he does get hurt and you know, we see some
• 15:26
  of Kenny Pickett, maybe I'll warm on him a little bit. But I
• 15:30
  just I don't know. I mean, I remember when Howie Roseman was Howie
• 15:35
  Roseman himself was out actually scouting Kenny Pickett when he was a senior or I
• 15:41
  think it was actually at the senior ball. It was a Thursday night game
• 15:46
  Roseman attended at the University of Pittsburgh. I remember there was that famous photo
• 15:50
  that made the rounds on social of him watching closely through some some binoculars because
• 15:56
  he was really really interested in what Kenny Pickett could do and thinks. In
• 16:00
  fact, I think from my recollection he made a comment like, I think
• 16:03
  Kenny Pickett can be the next Justin Herbert. You know, I don't know
• 16:07
  about that necessarily, but this is something that this is a player, and
• 16:14
  this is talent that how we were Roseman wanted to bring on this team.
• 16:18
  But in terms of quarterback too, I honestly don't think it's that bad.
• 16:22
  I just don't think it's that he's a good, you know, backup quarterback.
• 16:26
  But I just don't you know, yeah, it's it's just one of
• 16:30
  those things where you know he's as well as I don't have to see the
• 16:32
  guy. It's great, yes, because if if you don't have to see
• 16:34
  him, then things have gone probably wrong. Something I want to get into
• 16:38
  at some point down the road on this podcast is talk about more about where
• 16:45
  where we want Jalen Hurts to go with his game this coming season. And
• 16:48
  I know it's the off season, and of course we're gonna be We're gonna
• 16:51
  be, you know, looking for some stories here and there to talk about
• 16:55
  with regard to the Eagles every now and again. But I know I talked
• 16:57
  about it with Ed Kratz this past week on the Table Talk show. Folks,
• 17:00
  you can go back in the podcast feed and listen to that. It
• 17:03
  was a great, great discussion with Ed. But it is going to be
• 17:06
  interesting to see what kind of quarterback he's going to be this year because we
• 17:08
  certainly saw him not use his legs as often as he did in twenty twenty
• 17:12
  two. Len, and when he was using his legs certainly wasn't the fullest
• 17:18
  of his potential, I mean, really sliding when he didn't need to at
• 17:21
  times, not juking corners that he probably could have gotten out of their way
• 17:26
  sliding instead every now and then. But I don't know, I think we
• 17:30
  may see a different type of Jalen Hurts than we certainly did in twenty twenty
• 17:34
  two as we're moving forward here in twenty twenty four and beyond. Yeah,
• 17:38
  no, no, I totally agree with you. I yeah, it did
• 17:44
  feel like he just took a step back just in general last year. I
• 17:47
  mean, I just remembering how high everybody was, you know, on him
• 17:53
  after that Super Bowl and just it just wasn't there for whatever he's last year,
• 18:00
  Just that feeling and not just with Jalen Hurts, with the team in
• 18:03
  general, but just all season long, it just felt like they were never
• 18:07
  that team that was in that playoff run before. So yeah, you know,
• 18:11
  hopefully we can see Hurt skip back to some semblance of that and be
• 18:15
  the guy that we that I mean really excited a lot of the league in
• 18:19
  terms of you know, people, you know, after those playoffs, they
• 18:22
  were like, this guy is a top five quarterback in the NFL. And
• 18:26
  I don't think anybody was saying that after last season. You're absolutely correct.
• 18:30
  I mean, we're going to be getting into this more. I mean I
• 18:33
  just wonder how hurt he was at times throughout the course of the season,
• 18:37
  and I know it's football, and these guys play hurt all the time.
• 18:38
  I go back again to the conversation Lend and I had with Ed Kratz this
• 18:44
  past week. I asked him if he had a personal story about Jason Kelsey
• 18:47
  that that really like stood out to him, and he said, they're on
• 18:52
  the road there and there in the visitors locker room, he comes in,
• 18:56
  he actually has trainers carrying him in, even though he played the game and
• 19:00
  he didn't exit the field injured or anything, but the trainers were actually carrying
• 19:03
  him in and sitting him down on the chair. They unwrapped his knee.
• 19:07
  His knee had been wrapped up. He goes, Jeff, I kid you
• 19:08
  not. He goes, it was black, like it had been burnt.
• 19:12
  Like that's how badly bruised his entire knee and leg was. So it's like,
• 19:18
  these guys go through so much on the field. They go through so
• 19:22
  much that we don't realize. We don't see because we're so used to seeing
• 19:26
  the game played at a certain speed and within a certain timeframe, and it's
• 19:30
  just I don't know I just wonder if Jalen hurts, because these guys go
• 19:34
  through injuries and sometimes don't even tell the training staff. You know. It
• 19:37
  just makes me wonder how injured he really was this past year. And we'll
• 19:41
  probably never know. Maybe we will down the road. Yeah, that's why
• 19:45
  anybody like you know, Okay Kelsey gets out of thirty six and Iroon Donald
• 19:49
  retires at thirty two. And yes, I don't blame you at all.
• 19:55
  Yep, the stories like that are exactly why. Yeah, all right,
• 19:59
  well let's let's move on now. Len, Before we get to our first
• 20:03
  break here, got to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers and the fact that there
• 20:06
  is never a dull moment with this team. Seriously, I was thinking,
• 20:08
  okay, trade deadline is coming, gone, and yeah, there were some
• 20:11
  moves made, and all right, I guess I guess that's gonna be about
• 20:15
  it for the season. Nope, Nope, they just or I should say
• 20:21
  now they but John Tortorella impulsively scratches the Flyers new captain Sean Cotorier. Folks,
• 20:27
  Yes, honestly, it's something I don't think I would have seen at
• 20:32
  all. But apparently a decline in production was was I guess maybe more than
• 20:37
  expected for for Sean Cotorier here coming off two back surgeries, missing the twenty
• 20:44
  twenty one twenty twenty two seasons and the twenty twenty two twenty twenty three seasons
• 20:48
  as well. You know, thirty one years old has eleven goals, twenty
• 20:52
  eight assists, and thirty six points through sixty four games this season, which
• 20:56
  is the most he's played in the last five years here, So he gets
• 21:00
  thrown back into or back on too. I should say, the ice and
• 21:04
  just the productivity is not there. John Tortorella says he just needs to see
• 21:08
  more from Sean Cottoree. In fact, he said, quote, there's no
• 21:11
  special answer I can give you. You just got to play better. And
• 21:15
  I don't care if it's ten minutes, I don't care, if it's seventeen
• 21:18
  eighteen minutes, I don't care if it's seven minutes. You gotta give me
• 21:21
  something to hang my hat on to keep trying to earn more ice time.
• 21:25
  I'm coaching twenty guys, not just one or two or three. It's all
• 21:27
  of them, and those are the decisions I have to make. So honestly,
• 21:32
  I was really, look, we all know that Sean Katorier hasn't necessarily
• 21:36
  been having that great of a season. We know that, But man,
• 21:38
  I did I honestly did not see this bench coming here, did you?
• 21:45
  Was I like looking for it to see if it was gonna come. No?
• 21:49
  So you know, am I surprised if it happened? Yes? And
• 21:55
  no. I mean I'm surprised, you know, I'm surprised. But but
• 21:59
  you know, look at the way he has been playing. He's got what
• 22:00
  one goal in his last like twenty nine games or something. Ye, you
• 22:04
  know, his his numbers have been down, and he can't say he didn't
• 22:08
  see it coming because his minutes have been you know, getting reduced to that
• 22:12
  is a sign right then and there that your coach doesn't trust you as much
• 22:17
  if you're not getting the minutes that you normally do. I don't know if
• 22:19
  that's see on his on his sweater, thought that that made him exempt,
• 22:26
  But I mean he's been you know, even if he hasn't been there on
• 22:30
  the ice the past couple of years, he's been around the team enough to
• 22:33
  know that this is what Twrterello does. If he does not, you know,
• 22:36
  if you're not doing what he wants you to do if if it's not
• 22:40
  working at that time, he will sit you and I. Again, I
• 22:42
  don't know if he thought that sea on his sweater was going to make him
• 22:45
  exempt from that, but he shouldn't have had that feeling because he should have
• 22:49
  known, you know, Okay, if I'm gonna if I'm going to you
• 22:53
  know, healthy scratch Travis Sandheim in front of his family at a game up
• 22:59
  in algy yeah, I guess yeah, nobody is immune from that, So
• 23:06
  I I gotta say, and look, I I know Tortorell can be a
• 23:10
  bit of a hard ass sometimes, and you know, I don't necessarily agree
• 23:12
  with everything he does or says. But I don't know. I I just
• 23:17
  some of the the responses that I have heard from Katie. It's not necessarily
• 23:26
  what I would be. I'm not I'm not really thrilled that that's what I'm
• 23:30
  hearing out of the guy that's supposed to be the captain of the team.
• 23:33
  It makes me wonder, it makes me wonder, well, I see,
• 23:37
  I don't want to do knee jerk reaction here, because you're absolutely correct with
• 23:41
  Sean Victoria his reaction to this as well as kind of like, oh geez,
• 23:45
  what kind of discord is now going on in the in the locker room,
• 23:48
  or or not even in the locker room. But what's the discord now
• 23:52
  going on between Tortorell and Katoria And how does that affect the future and rebuild
• 23:56
  of this team? How does it affect decision making coming from the front off
• 24:00
  this, you know what I mean? Like, I'm the and then I'm
• 24:02
  like, maybe I'm overthinking this a little too much here. The area where
• 24:04
  it concerns me is the whole coterier, like being blindsided by it or something
• 24:11
  like that. Yeah, I feel I also feel like that as the captain
• 24:15
  of the team, you are perhaps maybe part of that role is to be
• 24:18
  a buffer between the coach and the rest of the players. Good point.
• 24:22
  Maybe your captain and your assistant captains are that buffer between the coach and the
• 24:26
  rest of the players, Which tells me that you as captain should have a
• 24:30
  higher level of communication with your coach than maybe anybody else on that team.
• 24:34
  Yeah, and if he's feeling blindsided by it, maybe that's his fault,
• 24:38
  maybe it's Torderell's. But somebody isn't, you know, communicating with somebody else
• 24:42
  enough? And maybe that's Ontiers captain. They'll go into Torderello's office and talk
• 24:48
  with him. But yeah, I mean, if I if I have a
• 24:52
  guy that I'm named captain, I want him to be basically my coach on
• 24:56
  the ice, and I want him in my office pretty regularly just to have
• 25:02
  conversations, just to have a pulse on the team. I think that is,
• 25:07
  you know, part of the reason why even have a captain if that's
• 25:10
  not going to be what's going on there, you know what I mean?
• 25:12
  So that that's what bothers me more than anything else about this whole situation.
• 25:18
  I like your take there for sure, I really do. And folks,
• 25:19
  we'd love to hear from you as well with anything in the world of Philly
• 25:22
  sports. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. We'd love to read your
• 25:26
  email here on the show and respond to it, whether it's dealing with the
• 25:30
  Philadelphia Eagles, their quarterback two and Kenny Pickett, talking about the NCAA Tournament,
• 25:34
  the men's and women's bracket, or what we got coming up with the
• 25:37
  Union and or the Philadelphia Phillies as well. We'd love to hear what you're
• 25:41
  thinking about with the Sixers two. We don't have them on the agenda for
• 25:45
  this week because for Ye's it's I mean, without a beat on the court,
• 25:53
  it really yeah, I mean it's incredible. Yeah. If he ever
• 25:57
  does put in that trade to mean and this is a good view of what
• 26:02
  the next however long is going to look like and it's I can't do it
• 26:06
  again. Yeah, I don't know, man. There's just of all the
• 26:11
  teams in Philadelphia right now, maybe the Union because we're going to talk about
• 26:15
  them shortly, but I would say the Sixers have the least amount of juice
• 26:18
  right now. Yep. Absolutely. If you are Noodle listening to us,
• 26:22
  hit that subscribe button. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts, appreciate a
• 26:26
  rate and review there and a follow, and if anything happens to your podcast
• 26:30
  feed, you can always head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com.
• 26:33
  We've got all of our shows over there. Follow lent on Twitter at Len
• 26:36
  Hunsicker, and you can follow me on Twitter as well. Oh sorry,
• 26:40
  Twitter slash x at Jeffrey Underscore Warre on the show at Philadelphia PST. I'm
• 26:45
  on threads at mister jeff Warren and the show at Philadelphia Sports Table. We're
• 26:49
  gonna take that quick break right now. We'll be back in just a bit.
• 26:53
  All right, we are back, and Len, let's get into the
• 26:56
  Philadelphia Union. They still have not won a man this season. Three jaw
• 27:02
  three draws. They got three points so far here. So let's give our
• 27:06
  thoughts on this season here, the fact that, boy, what the heck
• 27:10
  does this team need to get kind of jump started here, because I mean,
• 27:12
  they played for the first time ever against Austin it was a two to
• 27:18
  two draw, and it's this season I don't think is turning out the way
• 27:23
  a lot of Union fans thought it would. And Jim Curtin here, who
• 27:30
  not that he's necessarily on the hot seat yet here, but look, it's
• 27:33
  it's it's just not the way we thought it was going to start out here
• 27:37
  for this team. Yeah, no, definitely, I mean, and I'm
• 27:41
  not, you know, trying to do correg They have won one game this
• 27:45
  year, and it was in the I know you're talking to MLS, but
• 27:48
  they've won one game this year. It was the first game that they played
• 27:52
  all year. It was in that the Konka Caffs Champions Cup. Yep,
• 27:56
  they beat Saprisa three to two. Then tied them in in in the in
• 28:00
  the second leg of that matchup to move on to the next round. Uh.
• 28:03
  Then they they they went up against Pachuca out of Mexico. They tied
• 28:10
  in the first leg of that match, and in the second leg of that
• 28:12
  match they got absolutely positively six not that that was that was one of those
• 28:22
  ones where like you just as a fan, you you check the score and
• 28:26
  you're just like, Jesus God, what happened there? And that to me,
• 28:30
  that that that was a bad sign. And then you're looking at all
• 28:33
  the you know, just the draws around it in MLS play and you're just
• 28:37
  like maybe that you know, that Supporter Shield trophy and the and the run
• 28:45
  to the MLS Championship game. Maybe that was the high water point with this
• 28:51
  group. And when I say group, I mean, you know, many
• 28:56
  of the current players that we have and then Jim curt And as coach.
• 28:59
  Maybe it never gets better than that, because right now I don't know what
• 29:03
  they would need to do, but right now it is looking pretty grim,
• 29:07
  you know, with with what we've seen so far. It is not it's
• 29:12
  not good. It's just they somehow they survived and escape Austin with a point
• 29:18
  there. It was. It was a hard or earned point for both sides.
• 29:22
  They fought in the entire second half for the winning goal. I mean
• 29:27
  it was again the third straight MLS you know draw off for them to start
• 29:33
  the season. I mean, they're going to be traveling to Portland. I'm
• 29:37
  not sure how that game is going to turn out for him here, Lend.
• 29:40
  But it's just it's it's very disappointing. I don't think you thought at
• 29:45
  the beginning of this season that it would turn out like this, or that
• 29:48
  at least they would start off like this. It was certainly I didn't think
• 29:52
  so either. But they definitely need a spark. They need a spark.
• 29:56
  Yeah, And in all of their their matches so far, in all of
• 29:59
  their LS matches, it's it's been you know, a goal relatively late to
• 30:06
  to tie. In their first MLS match against uh, you know, Chicago
• 30:10
  Fire, they were down two to one. They needed goazdac Do to score
• 30:15
  a goal in extra time, uh in order to tie you know Chicago.
• 30:19
  And then you look at the next MLS game that they had versus Sporting Kansas
• 30:23
  City, they needed Bedoya to score a goal in extra time just to level
• 30:29
  that at one and and get out of there with a draw. And then
• 30:32
  in in this match against Austin, they were, you know, down two
• 30:34
  to one, then you had Michael Oh come back. I mean it's great
• 30:38
  that they're coming back and tying these games and getting out of there with with
• 30:41
  with with a point. But what if we were just you know, I
• 30:45
  don't know in front, because it's playing from behind. Is eventually that that's
• 30:52
  going to run out. You're not always going to come back and escape with
• 30:55
  a point. You know, eventually you need to get on top of some
• 30:57
  of these teams win the game. And they're not doing that so far.
• 31:02
  They're they're not getting out early. They're they're there's I don't know, it
• 31:06
  seems like there it's a lot of playing catch up this year is what I've
• 31:10
  seen. I want I want the captains to step up here. Kyle Tucker
• 31:12
  and Frankie Westfield. It was about a week ago they were named or they
• 31:17
  were named Philadelphia Union two captains. I'm sorry that I'm getting I'm getting a
• 31:21
  captain with Union yea they have yeah, they well they have. I mean
• 31:26
  he's but he's an older player. I mean, they have an established group
• 31:30
  of guys, you know, especially on that back line with Glassness and Wagner.
• 31:34
  And then you know, you've had a lot of the same players in
• 31:38
  there for a while. You've had Gosdag in there, you know, so
• 31:44
  you you've got the players that have been there for a little bit. It's
• 31:48
  just a matter of you know, I don't know that group needs to what
• 31:52
  they need to do, but you know that's an issue, the fact that
• 31:56
  they, you know, still are among the the least spenders. I think
• 32:01
  in MLS it's hard to be a fan of the Union and you know,
• 32:07
  they don't really bring people in. They rely so much on their academy.
• 32:10
  They don't bring enough people in. And then just every name player that comes
• 32:15
  in from Europe, it's just like, okay, they're either going to Miami
• 32:19
  or they're going to La those are like the only places anybody goes. And
• 32:22
  it's like, how do these teams have money to sign all these big name,
• 32:28
  expensive players and nobody else in the league, Philadelphia included, How did
• 32:31
  they not? You know, that's it's frustrating and I would like to see
• 32:37
  I'm glad that they have an academy that's really awesome. That's highly regarded there's
• 32:45
  a kid right now in that has been playing with their academy. It's actually
• 32:49
  I think Quinn Sullivan's younger brother, who's regarded as like one of the best
• 32:52
  fifteen year old players in the world. The Union. They are trying to
• 32:55
  get him not to go to Manchester City to go, you know, be
• 33:00
  in their academy and eventually play in the English Premier League with them. But
• 33:06
  the fact that you have these kids is great, but you know you have
• 33:09
  to supplement that with signing you know, you know men, and not just
• 33:15
  worrying about the kids out of the academy. Well listen, and this could
• 33:17
  be a conversation for another time too, and it's something I still need to
• 33:21
  learn about and dive into a little bit more, which is the financial dynamics
• 33:25
  of Major League Soccer, and specifically the financial dynamics of the Philadelphia Union.
• 33:30
  But like you were saying, of course, we have known for years that
• 33:34
  the Union just doesn't spend much, and I wonder, I wonder if or
• 33:39
  why this continues to happen. Of course, it's the front office making the
• 33:44
  decisions. But Philadelphia, I mean, the Union fan base is a strong
• 33:49
  fan base. The Union fan base doesn't go anywhere. You know that this
• 33:55
  is an organization that's making money, the hesitancy to spend money, and again
• 34:00
  I don't know the actual financials of the team, of course, something I
• 34:04
  want to dive into more in the future, but it does surprise me that
• 34:07
  they're, you know, one of the more successful, intriguing teams in Major
• 34:10
  League Soccer, and that willingness not to spend to get it to the next
• 34:15
  level just really hasn't been there. And that to me, like, I
• 34:19
  mean, I don't care who you are, I don't care what sport you're
• 34:22
  in. I mean, if if the Union went on a run and were
• 34:28
  like steadily okay, we are one of the top contenders in the league,
• 34:30
  people will show up. People will show up for that, even if they're
• 34:32
  not huge soccer fans, just because they want to be a part of something.
• 34:37
  Just like when any team in Philadelphia is making a championship run, you
• 34:40
  can't get a ticket there because you know, people want to see that.
• 34:45
  I promise you if Philadelphia got a w NBA team and got some you know,
• 34:51
  big name players in there and they were going to the league championship,
• 34:53
  people would show up for it. They just would they. They just want
• 34:57
  to see, you know, teams that are going to to compete at the
• 35:00
  highest level and win. If you do that, people are going to show
• 35:04
  up. So I'm with fan base. I don't really worry as much about
• 35:07
  that. All right, Well, I got to tell you a fan base
• 35:10
  that is going to be showing up big time throughout the course of this twenty
• 35:15
  twenty four years, the fan base of the Philadelphia Phillies. Because spring training
• 35:21
  is just about wrapping up, the regular season is going to be here,
• 35:23
  and the expectations are extremely high for the Philadelphia Phillies here in twenty twenty four
• 35:30
  after what they have done in the past two seasons. But we specifically before
• 35:35
  we get into our discussion with Justin Klue, we wanted to really talk about
• 35:39
  the bullpen. Here our thoughts on the bullpen as this regular season is starting,
• 35:45
  And I'm gonna be asking Justin as well Len about you know some bullpen
• 35:51
  arms that he's really intrigued about. But you know, for me, I'm
• 35:53
  really looking at what Sir Anthony de Menguez is going to be doing. He's
• 35:57
  the older statesman of the bullpen. Had a two thousand and twenty three you
• 36:01
  know to an extent, he's got some questions to answer this season. I
• 36:06
  mean overall, of course, we know he's been a highly effective reliever for
• 36:08
  the Phillies and I think he certainly can be again. But that twenty twenty
• 36:14
  three season was just not up to his standard. An ERA of three point
• 36:17
  seven eight was was, my god, is substantial downgrade from the mark he
• 36:23
  set the season before. And his strikeout rate plummeted as well, from twenty
• 36:28
  nine point five percent in twenty twenty two to twenty one point four percent,
• 36:32
  which was a career worse for him. So I think he's gonna have some
• 36:37
  questions to answer, and I'm gonna be really intrigued about what he is going
• 36:39
  to do this coming season. Yeah, I mean, there's there's a few
• 36:45
  arms in there that I'm interested in. I want to see, you know
• 36:51
  what Domingos does. I want to see more of Connor Brogdan. He's I
• 36:54
  think looked pretty good, Yeah, sar in spring training, Soto and and
• 37:00
  Alvarado have both looked good. I thought. So I think that the bullpen,
• 37:07
  I think they'll be fine. I'm not overly worried about it, obviously,
• 37:09
  I want to see more of you know, Arian Kirkering, you know,
• 37:14
  just given them seem he seems like probably the young player with the most
• 37:19
  you know, you know, potential to come in and really take a spot
• 37:23
  and run with it. I think it is on the team this year.
• 37:28
  So yeah, there's a lot there that I'm interested in looking at here.
• 37:31
  I'm really interested in Jeff Hoffman too. I think he's gonna look to build
• 37:35
  off his career. Yeah, yeah. I mean he had a career best
• 37:37
  twenty twenty three year in which his strikeouts spiked to thirty three point two,
• 37:43
  nearly ten percent better than his previous best, and I think he may actually
• 37:47
  be able to build upon that and just build upon last season. I was
• 37:52
  at Jeff Hoffman's first game. I think it was against the Braves, might
• 37:55
  have been against the Braves his first game in the Majors when they called him
• 38:00
  up, and boy he was absolutely terrible. And thank goodness it was just
• 38:04
  that one game, because he was he was really great coming out of the
• 38:07
  bullpen. And again mentioned like Greg Rissoto, you know, entering his second
• 38:13
  season with the Phillies, he is a bit more to prove. I think
• 38:15
  as well. I think he was kind of a different pitcher in twenty twenty
• 38:20
  three with the just his awesome fastball which was which was actually used less so
• 38:27
  and I think he was using a slider a lot more too. I'm gonna
• 38:30
  be really interested to see what type of pitches that he's bringing to the table.
• 38:34
  So it's it's gonna be. I think this bullpen could be one of
• 38:37
  the top bullpen. And I say they're gonna be at the top, but
• 38:40
  it could be a top five bullpen in Major League Baseball. Yeah, I
• 38:44
  do think there'll be a strength for the team. I am interested in seeing
• 38:47
  roles and usage and how that you know, evolves over the beginning of the
• 38:52
  year and then through the year as we go. Obviously, Craig Kimberrell is
• 38:55
  no longer in Philadelphia, so I think he was kind of the guy that
• 39:00
  you know, was always the first choice in terms of closer. Yeah,
• 39:02
  so now I want to see, you know, how those roles change.
• 39:07
  What that's going to be. You know, this year, who's going to
• 39:09
  take that mantle? Is it going to be closer by committee? Is it
• 39:13
  going to be you know, I don't know how how defined are those roles
• 39:17
  going to be. Here's the ninth inning guy, here's the eighth inning.
• 39:21
  Guy, here's the seventh inning. Guy. Does Rob Thompson already have that
• 39:24
  or is he still kind of working through? Yeah, it's going to be
• 39:28
  interesting for sure, So buddy, I'm gonna let you go here. Thanks
• 39:31
  for jumping on here. Always a good time talking with you about the world
• 39:37
  of sports and Philly sports. You got any final thoughts before we get through
• 39:40
  the interview here? I do not everybody enjoy the tournament. Whichever tournament you
• 39:45
  have to be watching. Maybe it'll be both, who knows, but I'm
• 39:49
  probably gonna be catching as much as I possibly can over the next couple of
• 39:52
  days. Here, You're you're head, You're heading to the great state of
• 39:55
  Arkansas? Is it great? Listen? I don't know if we any listeners
• 40:00
  out there. I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't wan to Burny Bridges,
• 40:04
  but yeah, no, it's I have to go down there for work,
• 40:07
  so I'll be down there all next week. But yeah, no,
• 40:09
  I don't. I'll get my watching in tomorrow and Friday and then uh,
• 40:15
  you know, be on the road most of the day, well pretty much
• 40:17
  all weekend. So all right, is gonna be? Is it going to
• 40:22
  bring back memories of being in the truck. I don't know. I mean,
• 40:27
  I I do. I listen. I had the option to fly,
• 40:30
  you know, between you know, I don't know. The last time I
• 40:35
  went there, I had like five different layovers on the way home from Arkansas
• 40:39
  back to Harrisburg. So I don't really I'm not excited for the concept of
• 40:44
  that again. Uh, you know, anytime I read a story about Boeing,
• 40:49
  I don't really want to get on a plane. So, and I
• 40:52
  love I love road trips, So I mean, this is kind of right
• 40:53
  in my wheelhouse. And you know, with all the stuff with planes nowadays,
• 40:58
  I'm just not jazzed about getting on one. So that's why I made
• 41:01
  the decision to drive. Well, I hope you're sitting next to the door,
• 41:04
  my friend. All right, I just I want to My only question
• 41:09
  is how long into this road trip do I get before I go? I
• 41:14
  should have just flown exactly exactly, all right, this was maybe a mistake.
• 41:19
  All right, buddy, I'm gonna let you go again. Folks follow
• 41:22
  Len on Twitter, slash x at len onnsicker. He doesn't tweet all the
• 41:27
  time, or I should say post. I think that's what now. I
• 41:30
  didn't know what. It's not a retweet anymore. It's a repost. A
• 41:35
  repo. Okay, sounds like, well, and that's the thing, Like
• 41:38
  tweeting was like, that's what you did on Twitter. Posting is just what
• 41:43
  you do on every social media website. So he basically took, you know,
• 41:49
  something specific to his site and just made it like everybody else, which
• 41:52
  is, you know, that's what you want to do when you when you
• 41:53
  have a platform, think just like everybody else and have no he's so dumb.
• 42:00
  I there's I mean, first supposedly somebody that has everything there there are
• 42:07
  fewer less impressive people to meet. I'll tell you he's a smart man.
• 42:13
  He is a smart man in a lot of ways. But I'll tell you
• 42:15
  right now, folks, there's something that is in all seriousness, I'm just
• 42:19
  gonna say this. This is a very very short soapbox. Media literacy matters.
• 42:23
  It matters. It just does. You can be one of the smartest
• 42:28
  guys in the world making billions of dollars, putting spacecraft up into the up
• 42:34
  into orbit, and and making electric cars and helping to change the face of
• 42:40
  transportation and vehicles throughout the world. You can be the face of that and
• 42:46
  be amazing with it. But when it comes to media literacy, digital media
• 42:51
  literacy, I mean, you can't be smart in everything. Lenn can't be
• 42:55
  smart in everything. And for the for for mister Musk not smart in everything.
• 43:01
  He stinks and I don't like him. A perfect way to end.
• 43:07
  All right, buddy, I'm gonna let you go. We'll be back in
• 43:08
  just a bit, folks. All right, we are back. Let's get
• 43:13
  to our great interview with our great guest, Justin Clue from Baseball Perspectus and
• 43:20
  the Hit and Season podcast over at WHYY and Billypenn dot com. It's what
• 43:24
  we're throwing down on the table and now on the table. We love having
• 43:31
  him on the show to get into the Philadelphia Phillies and we got a ton
• 43:36
  of Phillies talk to get into this week. Is the season is just around
• 43:38
  the corner. You can find him on Twitter slash x even though he's not
• 43:43
  like on there all the time, kind of like me at Justin Underscore Clue
• 43:47
  and he is also a part of that great podcast, a Hit and Season
• 43:52
  podcast over at Billypenn dot com WHYY, and you can also get great content
• 43:58
  from those folks over at patreon dot com Slash Hitting season, We've got the
• 44:01
  one and only justin clue, buddy, how you doing, my man?
• 44:05
  Hello? Yes, it is another beginning of another journey through the summer with
• 44:12
  our Philadelphia Phillies. I cannot believe we're back here again. And every time
• 44:17
  I say that, I mean it excitedly, but it just sounds bad.
• 44:22
  It's like when I try to do a Santa laugh, it just sounds evil.
• 44:24
  Yes, exactly. But I don't know about you, but this offseason
• 44:29
  seems like it's taken a lot longer for some reason, than the previous off
• 44:32
  season in twenty twenty three. It just did not seem as long. This
• 44:37
  has been treacherous. Justin it's been. It's been terrible. It's just because
• 44:42
  nothing would happen, and then the Phillies would like, sign a guy who's
• 44:46
  gonna play it like reading, Yeah, and we would all pick that news
• 44:52
  apart. Yes, for like two weeks, yes, until everyone had really
• 44:57
  strong opinions about something that does not matter. And now everyone can finally like
• 45:00
  at least bring training arrives and we can look at each other and be like,
• 45:04
  well, Kyle Schwarber is not hitting very well. How about that.
• 45:07
  Yeah, a bunch of different topics we can talk about and it feels a
• 45:09
  lot healthier. But yeah, that was that was brutal, and that we're
• 45:13
  not crazy. That was right, was particularly but it's also a sign,
• 45:16
  I'm gonna let you ask a question a second. It's also a sign that
• 45:21
  the Phillies are in a relatively stable place. Exactly what a word the s
• 45:27
  word, folks, A stable stable place. When have we been really able
• 45:30
  to say that about this team? Even the World Series team necessarily wasn't the
• 45:36
  most quote stable team, not that we are seeing I think here in twenty
• 45:38
  twenty four. It is a great, great word with stability, you do
• 45:44
  end up getting that kind of sitting back, just waiting for the shoe to
• 45:47
  drop, waiting for the rug to be pulled out either from under you,
• 45:51
  or waiting for some sort of move or something to happen. But stability with
• 45:54
  this team I think is so key heading into this season justin yeah, oh
• 46:00
  yeah, big time. And it's it's interesting because you used to be jealous
• 46:04
  of teams during the like ten eleven I guess eleven year playoff Drout, jealous
• 46:09
  of teams that whose fans were like complaining that their star players struggled to hit
• 46:16
  breaking pitches on the inside half of the plate, because you know you're in
• 46:20
  a good spot when your problems get more and more specific. Whereas the Phillies
• 46:23
  are like, we need we need somebody who can remember his glove, Like,
• 46:27
  oh crap, none of the players have hats this year. How do
• 46:30
  we do this? Nuts? Yes, so to be stable, to like
• 46:35
  wander through the entire winter and be like, well, we have been to
• 46:38
  two straight nlcs's and there aren't a whole lot of questions to answer as far
• 46:45
  as the roster goes, and spaces to fill as far as the roster goes.
• 46:49
  So you know, I this is this is a good thing going into
• 46:53
  the going into spring training. There's not like, well we're going to take
• 46:55
  a gamble. You're like, we don't want to spend Are they going to
• 46:59
  spend the money that he has been We don't have to wonder any of those
• 47:01
  things. And I think I think we have finally reached the point in what
• 47:06
  is technically a golden era of Phillies baseball. Yeah, where people are are
• 47:10
  you know, just getting there isn't good enough anymore. Like now we're at
• 47:14
  a part where people are like, no, that I want to see results.
• 47:16
  We were like a week into spring training and it was like, why
• 47:20
  hasn't anybody hit a home run yet? Like, what's going on? You
• 47:22
  know it? People? It is It is natural that nature has returned.
• 47:27
  It feels to its naturals. It absolutely has. Look when I look at
• 47:30
  stability and the one part of this team here in twenty twenty four that I'm
• 47:37
  looking at and I want to get your your take on it and get your
• 47:42
  thoughts. First topic here is with regard to the bullpen. I just talked
• 47:46
  to my co host Len about this and how things are looking with these arms
• 47:50
  as we're heading into the regular season, which is going to be about about
• 47:52
  a week at this point. This is a bullpen that could certainly be a
• 47:58
  standout amongst bullpen in Major League Baseball in my opinion, I think other's opinion
• 48:02
  as well. But justin are there a couple players that you've really been keeping
• 48:07
  your eyes on who intrigue you coming out of the pen this season? Who
• 48:10
  would they be and why? Absolutely? And this is where you've got to
• 48:15
  dig in this spring because the offense has been but like the pitching has actually
• 48:21
  been incredible. This isn't my answer, but you know it was just what
• 48:27
  not too long ago I watched I finished watching Ranger Suarez throw extend his scoreless
• 48:30
  streak throughout the spring. I mean, there's some really cool stuff happening with
• 48:35
  this pitching staff, not just on the field, but also just extensions for
• 48:38
  Nola and Wheeler and locking in guys who have performed for them and seeing them
• 48:43
  do really well in spring. I mean, again, you can't say that
• 48:45
  for the offense, but pitching staff has really held up its half this spring.
• 48:47
  It's been really it's been really cool to see. So the easy answer
• 48:51
  for me is Matt Strom, who's unwavering intensity I find incredibly likable, or
• 48:57
  a guy like a Ryan Kirkering, who we should ex back to see probably
• 49:00
  stumble at times over the course of his first regular season in Major league base
• 49:06
  Can it be natural for him to have some stumbles and some hiccups here and
• 49:08
  there. Yeah, but he's exciting as well to see more of him.
• 49:14
  Guys like Jose Alvarado and the big, lovable, hard throwing guy who's probably
• 49:17
  the closest thing they have to an official closer. But I'm not intrigued by
• 49:22
  these guys, because despite their success, you know pretty much what to expect
• 49:25
  from them. They're gonna impress people or they're gonna let them down, depending
• 49:29
  on how far above or below their outputs from last year they end up giving
• 49:32
  right. So I think the answer has to be more like someone like Colby
• 49:37
  Allard, speaking of a tidbit of news that we picked apart for weeks at
• 49:40
  a time during the offseason. Somebody like Colby Allard, who bookended twenty twenty
• 49:45
  three in the Braves organization with an oblique injury to start the year and then
• 49:49
  had an inflamed shoulder at the end of it, and in between he allowed
• 49:52
  the highest rate of hard hit balls in his career. Alard's only option is
• 49:55
  to bounce back, which I find instantly intriguing. The guy at the end
• 50:00
  of his rope. The guy he's totally cornered. He needs to pitch well
• 50:04
  or it's over. Man with nothing left and really nothing to lose other than
• 50:07
  his entire career, and Dave Dombraski identified him as someone who could do that.
• 50:13
  He's not a hard thrower, so he's a departure from what the Phillies
• 50:15
  seemed to be looking for. From their bullpen arms a few years ago,
• 50:19
  or at least prioritizing they were up all those hard throwers like Alvarado and basing
• 50:22
  their success on velocity. Alar doesn't have that. He has a four seamer,
• 50:27
  a curve cutter change coming up through the miners, his bag was throwing
• 50:31
  like a blooping curve ball and then using this low nineties heater to just keep
• 50:36
  hitters off balance rather than blowing them away. And he's only pitching a handful
• 50:39
  to a chunk of games in the majors each year since twenty eighteen, and
• 50:43
  he typically has gotten tuned up what he has. But in twenty twenty two,
• 50:46
  he made twenty starts for the Rangers Triple A team and had about eleven
• 50:51
  and a half strikeouts per nine And that's the best version of that stat he's
• 50:53
  ever produced for a single team with whom he's made at least that number of
• 50:58
  starts. So coming out the pen exclusively and being exposed to line up some
• 51:02
  limited doses could be helpful for somebody with this low v low high trickery skill
• 51:07
  set, and the Philliates could be the first team to capitalize on his ability
• 51:10
  to get hitters out on the big league level. That to me is intriguing,
• 51:14
  which I'll reiterate does not mean I think it's going to happen, but
• 51:19
  I'm curious to see if it does. I am intrigued. I think that
• 51:22
  is fantastic. It's not like what you have just said right there, justin
• 51:27
  You're not just like grasping at straws. I don't think you are. You're
• 51:30
  not grasping at straws at all, because it could be an important component of
• 51:35
  how this bullpen is handled and how what Rob Thompson inevitably does in terms of
• 51:40
  his decision making. And I think, you know, as we're moving along
• 51:45
  here, you know, there's this weird dichotomy in with the way in which
• 51:50
  we live in today's instantaneous world where if you want something right now, you
• 51:54
  can get it. We know this. You know there's Amazon, you order
• 51:57
  stuff, you know you can get it to your house the very next day.
• 52:00
  And that dichotomy is then how we view Major League Baseball pitchers and their
• 52:05
  development. It's amazing how some folks out there, not everybody, of course,
• 52:08
  think that guys like Mickabel have not progressed like he should be over these
• 52:15
  past couple of years here, And I think it's really kind of bizarre again
• 52:17
  that dichotomy of just we live in an instantaneous society and correlating that with what
• 52:22
  major League Baseball is and major League baseball development. So but the reality is
• 52:28
  when it comes to Mickable, he appears to be right on track with a
• 52:30
  pitcher's normal development from my understanding here. You know, these things just take
• 52:35
  time in baseball. So how should we be looking at a guy like Mick
• 52:38
  Abel his progress thus far with his pitching, knowing that he'll likely be starting
• 52:44
  off the season down a triple A Lehigh Valley? You know, how should
• 52:47
  we be looking at a guy like Mick Abel here and the progress he's made
• 52:51
  thus far? First of all, you and these transitions are, they're smooth
• 52:57
  as as silk. They got They should have you interview. They should have
• 53:00
  you interview. Putin honestly that maybe then we'd finally get some answer you like
• 53:06
  that one, that transition. But to answer your question, I would say
• 53:13
  Lehigh Valley is not a prison camp the way sometimes people view it. It's
• 53:16
  not it's great place. You know, it's not a good leg. It's
• 53:21
  fifteen minutes down the road from where I live. It's great. I love
• 53:22
  it. A beautiful ballpark, and it's not a place you get sent because
• 53:27
  you're a bad person or a failure or a disappointment. Sometimes it is,
• 53:30
  but not every time. And it's a parking lot for potential big leaguers,
• 53:35
  some of whom are on their way up, somewhere on the way down.
• 53:37
  Some are just waiting for what's going to happen next. Abele is, of
• 53:39
  course one of the former, a prospect who's coming off a rough year in
• 53:43
  twenty twenty three, which he managed to salvage a bit by the end,
• 53:45
  but everyone expected more from him. And I think the Phillies' success at the
• 53:50
  major league level has made everyone adopt a more accelerated view of what development is
• 53:54
  supposed to be. Like you're saying, there's a lot that can happen between
• 53:59
  rookie feyball in your big league debut. Baseball is kind of unique in this
• 54:02
  way. It's rarely a straight line, and given what we put pitcher's arms
• 54:07
  through in this day and age, throwing like ninety innings in three days when
• 54:10
  you're fourteen, just so the right scouts can see you and everybody can capitalize
• 54:15
  or leach off your talent. Young pitchers are going to stumble. They're going
• 54:19
  to have health issues. They're going to have them earlier than they used to
• 54:22
  have them. This is well documented. They're going to need to me.
• 54:24
  I remember reading about James Andrews, who retired this year, Doctor James Andrews
• 54:28
  is I wrote about him for Baseball Perspectus, and he was on the record
• 54:32
  saying like this is bad, Like you guys got to get this under control,
• 54:36
  because you're just going to see more stories about guys struggling, you know,
• 54:39
  having injuries. Look at Abele's counterpart in the Phillies organization, Andrew Painter,
• 54:44
  a kid who will basically lose two seasons because of surgery and how long
• 54:47
  the franchise wanted to put it off. And yet multiple outlets like Baseball America
• 54:52
  still rank Painter as the Phillies' top prospect despite him not pitching last year or
• 54:57
  this year. So that might be a quiet little indict men of the Phillies
• 55:00
  farm system in its own way, but it's also a testament to Painter's talent.
• 55:04
  I remain excited about his future, but I'd hardly call this a straight
• 55:07
  path to the majors. I know we were talking about Abel. I'm getting
• 55:10
  back to that progress. Progress is anything. I love your transitions too,
• 55:16
  reminding the person i'm speaking to that I do remember what we're talking about.
• 55:22
  Progress is anything that moves you forward. Sometimes it hurts Abel knows that.
• 55:28
  I think we saw some great signs from him this spring. There was that
• 55:30
  one start. I guess it was the game where he struck out Wan Soto.
• 55:35
  His control and his command looked so good in that very limited window,
• 55:39
  but they looked like he was putting the ball right where. It was so
• 55:42
  smooth it really was. He was coming inside without without losing the strike zone.
• 55:47
  He was getting guys to chase with some lateral movement on some pitches,
• 55:52
  and that's what scouts have been suspicious of him since since he was drafted.
• 55:55
  They were worried his command and his control were going to be issues, that
• 55:59
  his length key frame would make him a little too wobbly to the plate.
• 56:01
  Now, hopefully he can come up and deepen the Phillies bullpend this year after
• 56:06
  a productive spring, and maybe even as time goes by, he works his
• 56:08
  way into the rotation, and I hope he does. Like I think this
• 56:13
  is a This is a great chance for him to deepen the Phillies pitching and
• 56:19
  also just prove like, hey, look this is you. Guys struggle.
• 56:22
  They stumble. They stumble when they're young, they struggle when they're older.
• 56:25
  You know. The daily news is just way has that ready willing and able
• 56:29
  headline ready to go for his debut, So like this is gonna happen.
• 56:32
  And I feel like if he had had a rough spring, maybe I'm not
• 56:36
  speaking as excitedly about him as I am now, but I really liked what
• 56:39
  I saw. I haven't been really surprised by anything. It honestly would have
• 56:44
  been more surprising if a kid like Abel went from being drafted by the Phillies
• 56:47
  to the major leagues without ever having a hiccup, without ever having a bad
• 56:52
  year, without having a string of bad starts, without being someone being concerned
• 56:55
  about his delivery or his release point or his velocity dips or whatever. There's
• 57:00
  a million things that can go wrong, and what you got to do as
• 57:02
  a professional baseball player is be able to drop that stuff, be able to
• 57:07
  adjust, be able to go into your next game like the last game never
• 57:09
  happened. And what we saw this spring looked like mcabel is ready to let
• 57:14
  last year go and get back to being the pitcher we all want him to
• 57:16
  be. Absolutely when you mentioned that, you know, when he was pitching
• 57:22
  to Juan Soto, I think I saw. I think I saw the video
• 57:23
  on that on the Good Fight dot Com and it was just I, like
• 57:27
  I said, it was so smooth, and he gave so much hope in
• 57:30
  terms of what he could potentially be this coming season and how much he might
• 57:35
  be able to give this pitching staff at some point down the road for sure.
• 57:38
  And as you know, we're talking about that hope that certain players are
• 57:44
  able to and we're hoping able to give this team. I'd like to get
• 57:49
  into one Johann Rojas, because boy, he's been struggling a little bit here
• 57:52
  during spring training, and then again we know it's spring training. However,
• 57:57
  Rob Thompson was talking about his swing recently. Lee thought was interesting where he
• 58:00
  said that he's had a bit of an overhaul and that his lower half isn't
• 58:06
  really sinking up in terms of that swing. So I don't know, I
• 58:09
  was a little I was a little like, what is going on here?
• 58:13
  Okay, justin how do you think this all manifests itself in these coming days
• 58:19
  and weeks here. As we know, the Phills, they want to give
• 58:22
  Rojas the chance to really prove himself, I think this season. But it's
• 58:25
  why you know they've they've you know, brought in oh my gosh, I'm
• 58:30
  forgetting now who they bring in in free agency with Maryfield? With Maryfield,
• 58:35
  yes, thank you, my gosh. That bring him in as a you
• 58:37
  know, a great utility guy as well an insurance policy for Rojas and and
• 58:42
  even in even Marsh to an extent. So, I don't know, how
• 58:45
  are you seeing Rojas and and and the struggles he's had during preseason or preseason.
• 58:51
  It's spring training here and just where his swing is at? How this
• 58:54
  is all going to manifest in terms of his potential play here in twenty twenty
• 58:59
  four. Spring numbers are tough, you know, you got to the context
• 59:05
  is always all right, who's the person producing them? Like, Okay,
• 59:07
  you look up and see a guy hitting one seventy one, who's got seven
• 59:12
  hits and forty one at bats, you think that guy is having a terrible
• 59:15
  spring. Yeah, And if that's Kyle Schwarber, you think, yeah,
• 59:17
  that guy's having a terrible swing or spring, but you know that's kind of
• 59:22
  what he does. It feels just unavoidable at this point. Or it's Bryce
• 59:25
  Harper and you think, huh, wonder what's going on there. Usually he's
• 59:29
  just playing baseball on easy mode in the spring. But when it's a guy
• 59:31
  like Johann Rojas, you think, all right, well, this is a
• 59:36
  guy who's pretty much participating in the only position battle this team has in camp.
• 59:42
  I had never seen it in writing before, but I've been saying it
• 59:45
  this whole time, and then finally today I did see it in writing.
• 59:47
  Todd Seleki wrote that he not the Phillies aren't going to just hand him the
• 59:52
  job, but they do want him to win it, like they expect him
• 59:55
  to get it. It doesn't seem like, I don't know, I don't
• 59:59
  think they're in that direction just yet. But when you look at his numbers,
• 1:00:01
  it's not because it's not because you're like, oh, we gave him
• 1:00:05
  a bat and that's what he did with it. It's more that he's been
• 1:00:08
  working on this all winter. I think, based on Thompson's statements, he's
• 1:00:12
  a little further behind than I would have guessed. That's what I thought too,
• 1:00:16
  yeah at this point. But at the same time, as he said
• 1:00:21
  today throws up Todds a lucky he didn't he didn't care about results like if
• 1:00:25
  He's like, if I had good results to be great. But right now,
• 1:00:28
  I'm just focusing on incorporating the adjustments and the changes and the approaches that
• 1:00:31
  they're trying to have me do. And that's a process. That's kind of
• 1:00:35
  what the spring is for. So I'm not like discouraged by him. I'm
• 1:00:39
  a little surprised. I guess I was hoping this would play out perfectly and
• 1:00:44
  it just hasn't. You know. The adjustments are being made. He's working
• 1:00:46
  through them, but he's like, look, once things click, then you're
• 1:00:50
  going to see the numbers start to go up. But you can't just ask
• 1:00:52
  a young player to overhaul something like his swing and not expect there to be
• 1:00:58
  a period where things don't look great. Yeah, you know, And that's
• 1:01:00
  kind of where I wound. And if they don't think he's there yet,
• 1:01:04
  they've got coverage in Brandon marsh in Christian Pace. I hope with Merrifield doesn't
• 1:01:07
  have to play center field this year. I'm fine with him and left,
• 1:01:10
  but like he's around as well, they can let him refine his swing in
• 1:01:15
  triple A. This isn't an emergency. That's the best part. The Phillies
• 1:01:19
  have the luxury of an option to not rush a young prospect at a key
• 1:01:22
  position who is already there defensively but has these raw weapons like speed that he
• 1:01:28
  needs to learn how to hone a bit before he can execute in the big
• 1:01:30
  leagues. And they don't have to force him in there and say, you're
• 1:01:32
  all we got we planned this all around you, we thought you'd be better.
• 1:01:38
  Oh well, let's move forward. They're just not in that position,
• 1:01:42
  which is good. They don't have to force a kid who's still looking a
• 1:01:45
  little green at the plate into this premier spot because they don't have any other
• 1:01:47
  options. So I think the Phillies probably let him like refine things a bit,
• 1:01:52
  put him back in the microwave, because I don't think they saw quite
• 1:01:54
  what they wanted to from him this spring. And you know, the more
• 1:01:58
  he works with these adjustments, the more used to them they'll get. We
• 1:02:00
  have seen plenty of evidence that this team knows how to have hitters make adjustments.
• 1:02:07
  Yeah, guys who have struggled for long periods of time. Potch came
• 1:02:10
  in here and people are gonna forget. But he had two different periods where
• 1:02:15
  he was starting to catch fire and they got derailed by injury twice. I'm
• 1:02:17
  not saying he's going to be like All Star Christian Pache. I'm just saying
• 1:02:21
  they went and got a guy, because I think at this point it's determined
• 1:02:24
  by Dave Debreski being like, we're interested in this guy, Kevin Long watching
• 1:02:28
  his tape and being like, I can fix that, and they get they
• 1:02:30
  go with that guy, and we've seen that happen multiple times. Should they
• 1:02:34
  should? They've earned a little faith, and Johann Rojas is just the latest
• 1:02:37
  version of the guy getting that treatment. I think it's great how responsible the
• 1:02:42
  Phillies are being when it comes to Rojas. I think they're being extremely responsible.
• 1:02:46
  The one thing I fear, and I don't think anybody really knows this
• 1:02:49
  except those who are on the team. Rob Thompson also is Rojas's mentality.
• 1:02:54
  You know, how is he going to take this if he does have to
• 1:02:57
  be down in Triple A to get back down into the miners after having what
• 1:03:02
  many would deem would be a somewhat and certainly somebody successful first season up in
• 1:03:08
  the big leagues last year and doing a lot of good things too, even
• 1:03:12
  though he struggled in certain areas. I wonder what that does to a guy's
• 1:03:15
  frame of mind. We've talked on this podcast platform a number of times about
• 1:03:19
  sports psychology and how the psychology of players changes sometimes day to day, week
• 1:03:24
  to week, month to month, and I don't know, I just we
• 1:03:29
  don't have the answers I know of Johann Rojas's psychology and the sports psychology of
• 1:03:34
  what that shift would do for him, or it could be positive, could
• 1:03:38
  be negative as well. So I think it's a really really interesting notion.
• 1:03:43
  We're gonna keep talking about it here on this podcast platform. But as we're
• 1:03:45
  moving along here too, I wanted to talk about another gentleman here. I've
• 1:03:51
  always been an Alec Bohm fan, always been an Alec Bohm fan, and
• 1:03:54
  I was during his time in Triple A le High Valley. I watched him
• 1:03:58
  a number of times at Coca Cola, Ark and Allentown A just last year,
• 1:04:01
  I mean, a two to seventy four batting average last year again,
• 1:04:05
  twenty home runs, ninety seven RBIs I mean, I'm gonna take that,
• 1:04:10
  especially after some folks were trying to run him out of town during twenty twenty
• 1:04:14
  three spring training. You know, people are like, oh, but god,
• 1:04:16
  he's a bomb. He's just a bum, get him out of here.
• 1:04:19
  And he's certainly not perfect Offensively, I think defensively he has certainly improved
• 1:04:27
  and made some strides as well that we've seen. But I'm wondering, justin
• 1:04:30
  there is there more of a ceiling do you think for Alec Bohm defensively and
• 1:04:33
  offensively as we're as we're looking at this coming season. The short answer is
• 1:04:41
  no. Okay, I think I think we're seeing the best of Alec Boum.
• 1:04:46
  I'll give him. Maybe he's got a few more corners to find.
• 1:04:48
  But okay, I don't know when it happened, but Alec Boum became the
• 1:04:53
  roster's whipping boy at some point. I really don't know when that happened.
• 1:04:56
  I guess it's just people always have to be trying to run somebody out of
• 1:05:00
  town. Guys, that really only works when like everyone is focusing their vitriol
• 1:05:05
  at one person. If you're just this small little subgroup on social media,
• 1:05:10
  that's just like our whole thing is Haiti gallac bow then like that's not gonna
• 1:05:15
  work. Like he's not getting run out of town anytime soon. So there's
• 1:05:19
  people who just love to trash the guy. And I gotta say, if
• 1:05:21
  Bom is your worst starting position player on your team, you've got a pretty
• 1:05:27
  good team. He is an adequate defender who on occasion has made impossible plays.
• 1:05:31
  This is a guy went from the famous three error game to later in
• 1:05:35
  that season pulling off a play that they were comparing to Mike Schmidt. It's
• 1:05:39
  booth, yep, correctly, correctly comparing to Mike schmidd. Now he can't
• 1:05:44
  do that routinely, but he is capable of it. And at the plate,
• 1:05:47
  he's like one of these steady two seventy guys who when you bat him
• 1:05:51
  six or seventh, is going to knock in some runs with this very pleasant
• 1:05:56
  line drive rate. I think Bryson Stott has another level to his game.
• 1:06:00
  I think he's going to be an all start pretty soon. Yep, bauma.
• 1:06:02
  I think maybe has a few more, Like I said, corners donecover.
• 1:06:05
  But for the most part, we know who he is and he's fine,
• 1:06:09
  and that's fine. He needs to elevate the ball more. He needs
• 1:06:12
  to pull the ball more, he needs to be less of a free swinger.
• 1:06:15
  But last year he showed the best plate discipline and the most power of
• 1:06:18
  his career. People may point to his early projections as a prospect and see
• 1:06:23
  like always fell in short of what they said he was going to be.
• 1:06:27
  Do you know how many prospects fall short of what they protectly do on the
• 1:06:30
  pages of Baseball America, All of them? All of them. Baseball America
• 1:06:36
  sees these guys when they're like seventeen, and they're like, I'm pretty sure
• 1:06:40
  this prospect can fly. Then he gets to the major leagues and they're like,
• 1:06:44
  what that guy's just walking around? What is this? What is this?
• 1:06:46
  Right? So I falling short of your earlier projections, isn't you know?
• 1:06:50
  That guy just doesn't exist. It's a miracle where at this point with
• 1:06:54
  a Phillies position player. Yes, and if Tobrask he got an offer from
• 1:06:58
  a team to get like where the Phillies would get a five tool third basement
• 1:07:01
  in his prime with a bunch of controllable years on his contract, and all
• 1:07:05
  they wanted was Alec Boem. Yeah, okay, make that deal. I
• 1:07:09
  guess go for it, but that doesn't exist either. There are teams getting
• 1:07:13
  much worse from their third basement than the Phillies, and there are fewer teams
• 1:07:16
  who are getting a lot better. If you're someone who thinks this team has
• 1:07:20
  everything it needs except a third baseman, you're wrong exactly. It's just it's
• 1:07:26
  just not how it is. I don't know what to tell you. We're
• 1:07:28
  gonna have to shut up those corners of Twitter, Rex or whatever you want
• 1:07:31
  to call it, shut them up. Well. As we conclude our discussion
• 1:07:36
  here, justin I wanted to get a hot, a very hot take from
• 1:07:42
  you, because I'll tell you right now, we're not the biggest fans of
• 1:07:45
  hot takes on this podcast. In fact, we specifically try not to,
• 1:07:49
  to be honest, we're one of those type of shows, as so many
• 1:07:51
  know out there. But I love myself a good, justin clue hot take
• 1:07:57
  every now and again. I love hearing them on the Hitting Season pod with
• 1:08:02
  you and Liz and John. So if you don't mind, let's have one
• 1:08:08
  here as we're closing out our discussion about the Phillies here in twenty twenty four,
• 1:08:12
  do you have a hot take for us here at the PSD podcast show.
• 1:08:15
  I was brainstorming earlier trying to come up with this because I'm not a
• 1:08:19
  natural takes either. I'm really not. You throw them out sometimes and I'm
• 1:08:24
  like, man, that's a good one. Yeah, I wonder I feel
• 1:08:30
  like, what's the last one I nailed? Was probably that the Mets would
• 1:08:32
  miss the playoffs last year, because it was a good one. Yeah,
• 1:08:35
  they were the darling and I just was looking at the numbers and I was
• 1:08:38
  like, yeah, I don't think this is gonna work. Yeah, throwing
• 1:08:42
  a little metsing and this is definitely not gonna work. And it did not.
• 1:08:46
  But let's start with the least ridiculous one. I already said, Bryson
• 1:08:49
  Stott will be an All Star. I think saying that it'll be this year
• 1:08:53
  qualifies it as a hot take because people are very scared of things that haven't
• 1:08:59
  happened before and think that they never will. But I had a conversation with
• 1:09:02
  Tim Jackson Tim Jackson from Baseball Perspectives last season, and we kind of we
• 1:09:09
  were trying to guess how many years we were from seeing Bryson Scott lead off
• 1:09:12
  for the National League team in the All Star Game. That I don't think
• 1:09:15
  will be this year, given that it's Tory Labulo who will be managing the
• 1:09:20
  National League team. So I don't think he's going to be particularly charitable to
• 1:09:26
  Phillies players. Yep. I don't think Stott would win a vote at this
• 1:09:30
  point, but I think he could be that he will be an All Star
• 1:09:32
  this year. I'll throw that out there. Let's go a little, but
• 1:09:35
  let's go a little crazier. Okay, Christian pace offensive tear in the month
• 1:09:42
  of July. Ooh ooh, I like that. All right, I'm gonna
• 1:09:45
  remember that. I'm writing that down. Actually, I'm gonna say he hits
• 1:09:49
  three point fifty in the month of July. Oh my god. Nice,
• 1:09:53
  all right, boy, you are what hot right there? And he's shooting
• 1:09:58
  real hot. Why he's I don't want to get into It's probably something bad,
• 1:10:03
  but I'm just I'm putting it out there. Uh, there will be
• 1:10:06
  Here's another one. This is just is only gonna get only gonna get hotter.
• 1:10:10
  There will be three games this season in which Cody Clemens hits a walk
• 1:10:14
  off hit. Oh my gosh, I love it. Oh my gosh,
• 1:10:18
  I love these. I'm not sure I even agree with that one. Now
• 1:10:23
  that I've heard it out loud, but I've said it, it's locked in.
• 1:10:27
  Let's talk about him. Let's talk about him down the road for sure.
• 1:10:32
  Again, folks, justin clue from baseball perspectives. Also, they have
• 1:10:38
  two more Oh my god, yeah, what is that? I know,
• 1:10:43
  what a dope. I'm sorry, I thought you were done. Two more.
• 1:10:45
  One is and during a game in let's say, let's say June,
• 1:10:54
  a bird will nest in Brandon Marsh's beard during the game, and we'll see
• 1:11:00
  a little bird's head poke its pokets poke out of his beard. At some
• 1:11:03
  point, I hope a little egg reveals himself as well, you know,
• 1:11:08
  just kind of a little egg coming out, and then like a little tiny
• 1:11:11
  Brandon Marsh hatches from it. Phillies have to raise them like a clubhouse dog.
• 1:11:15
  Yes. And lastly, this one, I think this, I think
• 1:11:19
  actually, I'm convinced, out of all the things I've just said, this
• 1:11:23
  is the most likely don't happen. So bear with me. This is kind
• 1:11:26
  of a sequence of events. So the City connect jerseys are going to debut
• 1:11:30
  in April. I don't want to believe that the ones that got leaked on
• 1:11:32
  eBay are the ones. But I also didn't believe that the Orioles City Connect
• 1:11:38
  jerseys were the ones that got leaked, because I was like, that's terrible,
• 1:11:41
  that's of course not it. Right. Well, I didn't nail that
• 1:11:43
  one, So I'm pretty sure the ones we saw are are going to be
• 1:11:47
  the jerseys. I have no inside info. I'm just I feel like that's
• 1:11:50
  probably gonna be the case. They're not They're not great, and so they're
• 1:11:55
  gonna come out. There's gonna be a ton of vitriol because people feel strongly
• 1:11:58
  about uniforms and you know, having to buy it. But what's gonna make
• 1:12:03
  them is that the day that the Phillies where the City Connect jerseys, Nick
• 1:12:08
  Castianos is gonna hit a walk off home run. He's gonna have those top
• 1:12:12
  two buttons on buttons. Aw, he's gonna be giving the postgame interview.
• 1:12:16
  They're gonna dump the cooler on his head, Marshall Handima Clementine in classic fashion,
• 1:12:21
  and the jersey sales spike. The jersey sales are gonna spike, and
• 1:12:26
  you're just gonna see them at every tailgate for the rest of the season because
• 1:12:30
  nobody knows how to wear a jersey like Nick cast. Nobody does, nobody
• 1:12:34
  does. Nobody can do it with those two buttons like you just mentioned,
• 1:12:38
  unbuttoned and and and then with any type of sea through stuff going on with
• 1:12:42
  these uniforms. Boy, you get to see a law because I forgot about
• 1:12:47
  the pants. Yes, all we talked about for like a week with those
• 1:12:49
  pants, and I totally forgot. Forget dumping the gatorade on top of the
• 1:12:54
  head. Just throw the gatorade right down to the pelvic area. That's all
• 1:12:58
  you gotta do. Get the people. Yes, this is a game of
• 1:13:01
  perseus. I love it. Oh my gosh. All right now I'm gonna
• 1:13:08
  end the interview and the discussion as always so great. Justin clue from Baseball
• 1:13:14
  Perspectus the hitt and Season podcast over on billypenn dot com WHYY and also head
• 1:13:19
  on over to patreon dot com slash Hitting Season. It's where you're gonna get
• 1:13:23
  the dirty inning, which is over that. We love that. We loved
• 1:13:26
  that podcast when when we didn't have to pay for it, we loved it.
• 1:13:30
  We do one free episode a month. The other one you gotta pay
• 1:13:34
  do let everyone enjoy one, yes again, folks, justin clue Justin,
• 1:13:40
  buddy, thank you so much. What a fun conversation. Come back and
• 1:13:43
  we'll talk about those hot takes down the road, my friend, I can't
• 1:13:45
  wait to be held accountable. Holy cow, what a fantastic conversation and discussion
• 1:13:50
  with Justin. Every single time he comes on here, it is a fun
• 1:13:55
  time. Hope you enjoyed that discussion as much as I did. Really,
• 1:13:59
  I hope you. I hope you did. Longtime listeners, you know Justin
• 1:14:02
  Well, if you're new to the show, Justin will be coming on at
• 1:14:05
  some point down the well, I shouldn't say that, I shouldn't put the
• 1:14:08
  car before the worse here. Hopefully he's gonna be coming on at some point
• 1:14:12
  down the road. Here we got to talk about its hot takes, because
• 1:14:15
  those are some fantastic hot takes for sure. So we're gonna end things there.
• 1:14:18
  It was a great, great show this week. Again, thank you
• 1:14:21
  all so very much for taking the time to listen, taking the time to
• 1:14:25
  download, and just being part of the PST family. Really we appreciate it.
• 1:14:30
  And you know, Justin and I we were not when we were like
• 1:14:34
  quote off the air, but why did I say off the air when the
• 1:14:38
  record button was not pushed. We were just talking about the marketing of ourselves
• 1:14:43
  and the podcasts and stuff that we're on, and it's just been social media
• 1:14:46
  is just getting tough, folks. So you know, again, you know,
• 1:14:49
  kind of pulling back a little bit here from social media. But in
• 1:14:53
  case you do want to follow us out there, you can follow Len again
• 1:14:57
  at Len Hunsicker on Twitter, slash ax. You can follow me at Jeffrey
• 1:15:00
  Underscore Warren and the Show at Philadelphia PST. I'm over on threads at mister
• 1:15:05
  jeff Warren and the show is over there at Philadelphia Sports Tables. So if
• 1:15:10
  anything happens to your podcast feed, that most important is the podcast, not
• 1:15:13
  that, not the social sites. But if anything happens to your podcast feed
• 1:15:15
  ever, you can always go on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com.
• 1:15:18
  We've got all of our shows over there. We've got some PSD special shows
• 1:15:23
  too. We think you'll find those to be very interesting. So that's gonna
• 1:15:26
  do it for us this week. Everybody, take care, We'll catch you
• 1:15:28
  next time.