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Phillies Storylines In Spring Training! (PST Episode 606) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everybody? Hope you are well. This podcast episode
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: was recorded on two separate dates this week. The first
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: part of our show was recorded on Tuesday, March fourth,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Our interview in Philly's Discussion was recorded
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, March fifth, twenty twenty five. So by the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: time you hear this, some things may have changed here
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: or there.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Philly. Hope you enjoy the show.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. Over
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: eleven and a half years strong. This April will be
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: twelve years of doing the PSD podcast show. Many thanks
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to the longtime listeners. If you're just tuning in, hope
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed the content and you can certainly subscribe on
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: what a podcast platform you are listening to us on.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Warren here. I'm a good buddy, Len hunstick Er, Len, buddy,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: how you doing, man?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I am doing good. Hopefully everyoney's having a good week
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: out there.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope everybody's doing well. Whenever you're listening to us,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: we've got some agenda items that we're going to be
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: getting into for some Eagles talk. There's been some activity
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in the front office. We certainly want to dive into that.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: The thirtieth Major League Soccer season has begun and right
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: out of the gate the Philadelphia Union playing pretty well.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Pretty surprised quite frankly, We're certainly going to get into
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the Union and our thoughts on the start of the season.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: We're certainly going to get into some Flyers talk as
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: well as the trade deadline approaches. Some of you may
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: be listening to this after the deadline has come and gone,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: but specifically asking the question, what if Danny Brier doesn't
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: actually get another trade done and will that be okay?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And then from there we're gonna be getting into a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: ton of Philly's talk. So I don't know, Len, I'm
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: feeling pretty good in the world of Philly sports right now.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of good stuff going on, whether it's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you know, the Eagles front office, like I mentioned, you know,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: we've got the start of the Union in their season.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Major League soccer has now started. Fun times there if
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you're a soccer fan. With the Flyers and what they're
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: gonna be doing for their future and with spring training, man,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of great storylines and I think it's pretty interesting.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: What's going on in the world of Philly sports. Notice
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't mention the Sixers.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think as long as you deny their existence. Yes,
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: things aren't looking too bad right.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Now, right exactly? All right, Well, let's get started talking
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: about this Philadelphia Eagles team the off season. Certainly here
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the Eagles have taken that Lombardi Trophy put it in
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: a case at the Novacare Complex, for sure. And we
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: got word today that the Philadelphia Eagles rewarding Saquon Barkley
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: with a two year, forty one point two million dollar
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: contract extension that makes him the highest paid running back
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in NFL history. The deal makes Barkley the NFL's first
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: twenty million dollar plus per year running back. He also
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: has the ability len to earn an additional fifteen million
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: dollars in incentives, and it includes thirty six million fully
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: guaranteed at the signing when that does inevitably take place
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: at the Novacare Complex. It's a it's a rare step
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: for the Eagles to extend one of their running backs
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the way they have done here. But at the end
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of the day, Len, I look at this, they've certainly
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: extended players before But what does this particular, what does
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: this do for Saquon Barkley and what does it do
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: for the Philadelphia Eagles. It keeps their cap fluid and controllable,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: It rewards a player with upfront cash, and it's actually
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: noticed by every single player an agent throughout the league.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And it's a good thing that happened, not only for
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley, but for this Eagles organization. Howie Roseman, as
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: we know, is the magic man when it comes to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the cap and restructuring deals and extending certain players. I'm
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: thinking Lane Johnson and Cam Jurgens are probably going to
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: be next on the list. Quite frankly, what are your
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: thoughts when you heard this?
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, on one hand, you're like, you know, you
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: want to pay guys for what they're going to do
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: rather than on past performance.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: But he but Barkley earned oh yeah, every bit of that.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, at this point, the prevailing wisdom is pay
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: the man what he wants, yes, because he's earned it
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: so and he's still young enough that you're just not
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: It's not like you're giving a ton of money to
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: a guy that's like thirty four or something like that,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Like the Sixers would do.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: So. Yeah, so you know, pay the man what he wants.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: And you made a very good point there about this
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: being something that is seen around the league. Hey, you know,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: you perform for the Eagles, man, they're going to take
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: care of you. So I think that is a very
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: good point and something that's really great for people across.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: The league to see.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: I think the Eagles are have kind of turned themselves
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: into a place where people want to come already, but
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: I think this only adds to that. So, I mean, again,
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: he's more than earned everything. So even though I don't
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: know that he'll ever have a season like this again,
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: because it was just so good, it was so special
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: to imagine even matching it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but still he's worth it absolutely. Absolutely. Other news
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: as well, James Bradberry, yes, a name from the past
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: who is still on the team, did get a Super
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Bowl win, but the Eagles informed him that he's going
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to be released when the new league year starts, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the post June first cut saves the Eagles two point
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: one million dollars on the cap. He's a bit of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the secondary that's not going to of course be coming back.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And the other one Len as we know Darius Slay
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Big Play Sleigh was also also released by the Eagles.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: They're gonna realize I think it was a four point
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: three million dollars in cap space that's gonna be cleared
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: after June first. So over the course of the past
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours, the Eagles have actually gotten about ten
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: million dollars extra in terms of their cap with the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: moves that they have made with Slay, with brad Berry,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: with Barkley and that restructure. So again we have a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: situation where we're asking questions with regard to the secondary.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Of course, James Bradbury did a whole lot of nothing
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: this year. Yes, reports behind the scenes that he was
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a great guy to for the young guys to learn from,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: but really wasn't out on the field doing too too
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: much of anything. Slay has been a fantastic cornerback over
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the past five years of being in Philadelphia. Len And
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: whether it's gonna be Killey Ringo that steps up and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: is asked to do more, whether it is Isaiah Rodgers
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: who's going to be cornerback two opposite of Quinnon Mitchell.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: You know, there's certainly some I don't want to call
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: it worry, but there's certainly intrigue. And when you're talking
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: about the cornerback position and getting that elite talent, it's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: very very hard for NFL teams to do that. I
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: think not having Sleigh is gonna be uh, it's certainly
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a loss, and I'm certainly gonna miss him for sure.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: It's one of those things where like, you know, I'm
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: not up on everybody's cap situation where they are, I'm
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: not up on everybody's contracts. So, you know, it was
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: a thing where when I saw, you know, the the
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: news come across the scroll on the bottom that they're
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: they're you know, parting ways with them with Slay, I
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: was like, wow, what like? So I didn't realize that
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: that was something that was on the on the horizon there.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: And then you know, you hear a little bit more
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: about the cap situation and stuff like that, you understand it,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: you know, So, isn't Isaiah Rodgers?
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Is he a free agent as well? He is he
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: is to bring him.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Back somebody that I would like to see them bring
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: back because I think rather than just banking on Mitchell
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: and dejene on the outside, I would love I like
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: what I saw out of Rogers, so I would like
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: to have all three of them, and that would go
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: a long way towards making me feel better about the
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: corner situation, you know, throughout the season if they were
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: to I mean, I don't know what what Sleigh you know,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: is looking for. Money wise, I know he wants I
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: have heard he wants to play one more year. So
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: if he were willing to come back to the Eagles
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: on a on a lower deal, I would absolutely say
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: yes to that, you know so, because I think you know,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: yes he was. He also did a you know, went
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: a long way along with Bradbury towards mentoring the young
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: corners that we have, and I don't think another year
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: of that would be horrible for anybody's development, you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: of him being back, So he's a guy that you know, yes,
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: if the if the number was right and you could
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: bring him back, I would be all for it.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: If you remember Len, The Eagles also officially released Fletcher
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Cox years ago as a post June first designation. They
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: did this in the past before resigning him as well.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: There's that possibility, and folks are talking about the fact
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: that this good happened with Slay as well, where he
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: could come back with the Eagles perhaps at a lower cost,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: lower price. I kind of doubt that may happen, given
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you know, Slay his personality is his feelings of self worth,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: which which are absolutely understandable because he is one of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the best cornerbacks in the league and should get paid
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: for it. But you know, I'm with you. Here's the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: thing though, with Cooper de Gene. I really don't I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: want him to stay where he's at, man because in.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: Terms of the slock corner, yes, slockcorner, yeah, I mean
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: I would like to not that I don't think he
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: can play outside, because I do think he can, but
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: he's so good where he is.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, if you could have two guys on
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: the outside and then him in the slot, why wouldn't
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: you want to keep that?
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Exactly? Exactly worked well in Fangio's scheme this year is
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: rookie season. One of the best in the league at
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that particular position, I say, keep them there. So, buddy,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that's about it for Eagles Talk. You got anything else
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you wanted to dive into before.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: We'll if we want to go into listener feedback.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Oh that's right, we did get some listener feedback. My apologies.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Let's get to that. We gotta get to some email
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: here for sure.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: I'm here.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, I know you should be running everything here? What
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: am I doing?
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: No, nothing would get done if I was running everything.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But you know I'd love it one week And should
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: we have it one week? You run the show? Should
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: we do it? Probably not?
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: Huh, Yeah, I'm not really Yeah, that's probably not in
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: anybody's best interest.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: All right, sounds good. Well, we did get an email
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: from our longtime listener Patrick Patrick, who's in the military
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and Armed Forces travels throughout the world from time to time.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So before we get into this part of the show
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: where we are certainly going to be talking about Zach Bond. Yes,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: we recorded this podcast episode before the signing I should
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: say re signing of Zach Bond, where he got a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: three year, fifty one million dollars deal with thirty four
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: million guaranteed. As we all know, Zach Bond is a
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: first team All Pro this past year, one hundred and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: fifty one tackles, sixty nine stops in which he led
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: the NFL, three and a half sacks, five forced fumbles,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, a Super Bowl champion.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: So we wanted to throw this out to you that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: when you listen to this upcoming part of the show,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Zach Bond was still not re signed as an Eagle. Gentlemen,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it's my favorite time of the year when I disagree
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: with you all on Eagles free agents and the fun
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: of college basketball. Lend part of this, just to let
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you know, is from the discussion that Eric and I
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: had last week with regard to the Eagles free agents.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: He said, I think it's absolutely insanity to pay Josh
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Sweat what he's gonna command. Health is always a concern,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and the fit in Vic Fangio's system is a question,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and he jumped his price with his play in the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl with Mackay Beckton. Unless on a sweetheart of
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a hometown discount, you gotta let him walk. Tyler Steen
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: almost beat him out at the beginning of the season.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Keegan was impressive in college and Stotlin could no doubt
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: go fishing on the scrap heap again. Would love to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: keep Milton Williams, but I don't think you can afford
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the contracts of the first two round defensive tackles and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: what he would cost to not start. I'd actually trade
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Davis Wow. I'd actually trade Jordan Davis if you could
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: get Milt on a good contract. Ultimately the real keeper
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is Zach Bond. You finally have a game changer and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a leader at linebacker. He's perfect for Vic. Don't let
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: that guy walk told you all the birds would be
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in for the mix for Miles Garrett Patrick, Thank you
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: so much. Patrick. This was more, you know, I think
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: along the lines of a response to Eric last week, Lenn,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: because I was basically saying, it's got to be Zach
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Bonn who they re sign to that big contract since
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: he is a free agent. Zach Bonn, the fact of
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: what he was able to do this season for the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: defense in the middle of the field, especially when nobody, nobody,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: probably including Howie Roseman, didn't realize how much of an
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: impact he was going to be when they acquired him
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: from you know, coming from the Saints. So that being said,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, Eric was more along the lines of, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you got to build through the trenches, sweat and becting
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: really important pieces moving forward, and yes they can be
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and should be in certain contexts, but I'm a big
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you gotta keep Zach Baughn. You gotta keep him, and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: based on you know, Nakobe Dean's injury history as well,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: even though he was very effective this season before being
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: sidelined for the remainder of the season toward the latter
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: part of this year year. So, I don't know, do
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you have any thoughts with regard to Patrick's email here?
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: I mean going through the list of guys that are
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: mentioned here. If there is one guy, if you said
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: you can keep one and only one, it would be
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: bond with that, said Beckton, I thought did a really
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: nice job. I don't know if he's like, Okay, I
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: had a good year. Now I'm out for the most
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: money I could possibly get. I would if I was
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: negotiating with him, I would say, remember your first couple
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: of years in the league, when everybody was calling you
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: a bust.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and you were.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: In a bad situation with the Jets, with a bad team,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: a bad organization. You've now seen what it's like to
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: be in a good organization where you fit in. And
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: I would try to drive home the point of, yes,
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: money's important, but look at it, Look at how happy
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: you were here. Look remember you know, remember him crying
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: when he was realized he was going to make the
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: playoffs and basically all the way through, every step, just
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: so overwhelmed at what a wonderful year was for him.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: I would try to play on that, you know, if
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: I was how him be like, you know, yes, money's
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: important and we are going to you know, pay you,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: but is it everything?
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Are you?
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Are you gonna be in as good a situation as
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: you would be here with this line, these guys around you,
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: this coach continuing to coach you. Does it get any
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: better than this situation for you in the in the NFL?
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I would I would try to do that because I
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: like back and I thought he for a guy that
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: I really had no expectations for it all coming into
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: the season. I thought he had a nice year. I
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: would like to keep him sweat. I get what he's
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: saying there as far as that, I mean, I'm in
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: one of those things where it's like we won with
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: this group, why do we want to you know, I'm
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: trying to fight that because that kind of stagnance is
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: what gets organizations in trouble. So I know that that's
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: the cost of winning is you know, your coaches get poached,
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: your players get posted, all that stuff happens. But yeah,
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: there's if I could keep a couple of these guys
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: I would like to. I mean, Miles Garrett's awesome. I still,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: you know, look, if they can get them, I don't
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: know how. I mean, that would be phenomenal. But that's
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: just one of those things. I'm just like, yeah, I'll
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: believe that when it happens. So it's something I can't
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: really seriously think about right now.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I think, in all honesty, I think there may be
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: like a ten percent chance that they could get him.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: And I say that ten percent chance simply because of yes,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the genius and the magic that I mentioned before, of
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Howie Roseman, how he works the cap and how he
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: structures a lot of these deals a lot of money
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: right up front, and and what happens that during the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: latter part of these contracts. Ten percent chance Miles Garrett
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is on this team, That's what I'm giving it. If
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: you had if you had a percentage, what do you
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: think that would be for you?
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: I I think ten is a good number to put
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: on it. I mean I would I would kind of
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: do the same thing with with Miles Garre. I mean
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: and be like, how has Cleveland been working out for you?
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Right right?
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: How would you like because like what we were saying
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: earlier about Philadelphia now being a destination, how would you
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: like to come to one of the best run organizations
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: and the best teams in the NFL? You know, is
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: that worth all of the money in the world. Is
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: all the money you know you could possibly get worth
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: more than that, you know, of actually having a chance
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: to be a champion rather than you know, being in Cleveland.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you tell me, yep.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, all right, well, it's gonna do it for our
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Eagles talk Now, we want to move on to the
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia Union. Major League soccer season has started. Major League
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Soccer getting underway. The Philadelphia Union, my goodness, in their
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: very first match against Eastern Conference arrival in FOE FC Cincinnati,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: they absolutely killed them. They killed them four to one
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: in their home opener win this past Saturday night. Interestingly enough,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Lenn our good friend Josh Schuster, who helped us out
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: on some of the Eagles postgame podcast shows and who
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: is part of Philadelphia soccernow dot com. Josh for listening
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a little promo there for you guys, shot me off
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a message basically saying are the Union good? It was
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: incredible this game and what happened, and you've got Tie
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Baribo having a hat trick. An incredible game from this
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: from this team to start the season here. Just I mean,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: it was incredible to see just how effective that the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Union were in Bribo, in particular, just cutting off passing
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: lanes to Cincinnati's midfield options throughout the game and especially
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: on their half of the field. It was amazing to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: watch this team play. I'm like, oh my gosh, was
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Jim Curtin really the problem? Was he really the problem here?
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: And is this team going to be good? I don't know, Len,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you know, you you're you're definitely that soccer guy here.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: You know, what were your thoughts with regard to the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Union starting out the season here and just the dominant
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: game that they ended up, you know, kicking the season
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: off against Cincinnati.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I'm trying to.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Like, like, all right, let's let's pump the brakes, let's
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: let's relax, and and and I'm not trying to be
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: you know, a negative nancy here. They were two games
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: in the season, they are too and zero. They they
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: went down to Orlando in from match day one and
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: beat them four to two and then had that incredible
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: showing against a Cincinnati team that a lot of people think,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: you know, good is a candidate for for a Supporter
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: Shield for having the you know, the best regular season
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: record in MLS.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, they they really handled them.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: And I watched that game on my phone and was
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: just it's hard not to be impressed what you're seeing
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: so far, what you're seeing out of Tybriebo. Yeah, he
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: had the hat trick in that game. He had two
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: goals in the game against Orlando as well. He's five
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: goals through. Yeah, so he's I mean, he could not
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: have started out any better.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: He's on absolute fire right now.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: The defense looked great. I mean, Gazdag he was praising
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the defense and rightfully so after the game, just oh
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: my gosh, the great defensive efforts.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: No, absolutely, I mean Frankie Westfield has come up from
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: you know, from the academy and and and from like
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: the B team.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: And he's he's been great so far. Absolutely.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: The midfielder they got from Serbia, I'm and Lukas I
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: think his name is Jovan Lukach has been excellent, you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: since coming over. So, I mean it's really it's been impressive,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: and it could be. Maybe maybe it's you know, maybe
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: Carton was holding them back. I don't know, We'll see,
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: you know, how how Carnell continues to, uh to manage
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: this team. Maybe it is a thing of like at
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: by the end of the year and again trying not
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: to get ahead of myself and like say all this
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: in week two.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Because there's just so much more of the season yet
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: to go.
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: But you know, maybe it is a thing where, you know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: at the end of the year, Ernst Tanner's like, I
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: kind of do know what I'm doing, don't I So,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: oh boy, baby, shut the hell up. You know, it's
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: it's certainly possible.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: So anything is possible in this world. Seriously, after the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: past six weeks, anything is possible in this world.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: So, I mean, you know, you have to look at
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: what's been happening so far, and you know, I'm trying to,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: you know, keep an open mind about things, but you know,
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: right now, it's it's very.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Exciting to see what they've done so far.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: Even across the league, you know, just watching you know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: San Diego come into the league on their first game
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: ever and go to l A l A to and
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: beat the Galaxy, and you know, basically ruined the Galaxy
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Championship celebration and as a as an expansion team come
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: in and beat the defending champions on on the the
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: last the last game of match week one. Was just
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: impressive to to see that. So it's it's a it's
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: a season so far where you're you're still kind of
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: like trying to figure out who's who, right, Like I watched,
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: you know, Miami completely throttle Houston the other night, so
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: without messy playing, so you're you're still kind of like, Okay,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I guess Miami's gonna be pretty damn good this year,
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: and LC looks good. So those are kind of the
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: usual suspects that you would think are are going to
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: be towards the top of the league. But I would
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: say if you talk to anybody that follows MLS, you
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: know right now, and say who is the biggest surprise
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: in MLS.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: It's going to be the Union effort, because I just think.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: Pretty much, you know, on a national level, anybody to
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: follow them. Conne was like, Okay, they're you know, they
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: they're letting everybody go. They're you know, kind of going
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: to go with a lot of kids here. You know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: I don't know how much we can expect out of
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: them so far, it's been a revelation to see.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Part of me does really think that the majority of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: why this is happening is because of Bradley Carnell. And
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I say that because in both games, specifically with the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: game against Cincinnati, it was it was such a well
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: rounded effort, but you only had a handful of mistakes. Mistakes.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm waiting for, you know, the rug to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: get pulled out from under this team. And and how
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: many mistakes did we see last year game after game
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: after game mistakes that led just slow, slow starts, you know,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: game after game last season when but there was only
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: a handful of mistakes. And it's like it's like with
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: any sport if there's a handful of mistakes. I think
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: that really goes to the coaching. I really do. And
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I think that it could be a good thing not
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: just for this team but the fans based on the
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: disappointment of what last season was, that we can start
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to maybe and again, like you said, you know, pump
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: the brakes on, oh this is gonna be a great team,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: but that perhaps they really are doing a one eighty
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: here and that it possibly is that coaching of Bradley
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Carnell make making very minimal mistakes throughout the game, especially
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: against Cincinnati. I think there's something to be said for that.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I mean they they just had looked like
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: a really just well organized team. Yes, you just not
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: beating themselves because god knows, I know, people you know
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: that follow side globally will.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Kind of look down their nose at MLS.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: And I saw, you know, a couple of plays in
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: a couple of different games. I think there was a
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: mistake by Cincinnati versus the Union. I saw one in
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: the just a terrible giveaway in the LA Galaxy game
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: against San Diego where it's just like, oh my god,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: how do you make that mistake? Basically giving the ball
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: right to an attacking player right in front of the
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: right in front of the goal, and just sloppy stuff
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: like that that you know, you probably wouldn't see in
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: a quote unquote higher tier league of soccer.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Worldwide, but you haven't seen that out of the Union
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: so far.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: And really, if they can stay away from those big
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: mistakes and you know, just keep doing what they're doing,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: I mean it's been it's been fun to watch, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: really I was kind of like thinking going in the season,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: oh man, this team isn't gonna be fun to watch
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: it all, and thus far it has been, which is
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: just really all all I could have asked for at
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: this point.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: It's a great surprise, absolutely absolutely great. Wait, and the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: first part of our show here. If you are new
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to listening to us, head on over to Philadelphia Sports
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Table dot com. We've got all of our shows there,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and of course subscribe on whatever podcast platform you are on.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: We're on various social media sites out there. You can
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: search us out on Twitter, you slash x, you can
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: search us out on threads as well. I'm over there
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: on threads at mister Jeff Warren. I'm also on blue Sky.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You can check me out over there and just search
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: up the Philadelphia Sports Table on various social media platforms.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: We're still up on a few for sure, and we're
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break right now. When we get back,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: we are gonna be talking Flyers and Phillies. We'll be
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: back in just a bit. All right. We are back,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and Lynn, good to have you on because we're able
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers and what may be
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: happening with this team. Before the trade deadline, which is
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: March seventh. As I mentioned at the top of the show,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: when some folks are listening to this out there, the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: trade deadline may have already passed. So perhaps this conversation
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: is going to be relevant. Perhaps it may not be relevant,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: but I think what this front office has done thus
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: far with the Peltier trade, Kuzmenko trade, and in fact,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: as we're recording this right now, Flyers are playing Calgary
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and we're seeing some old Flyers on the ice right now,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and Calgary was really taking it to them. It was
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: like three to one before we hit the record button.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But we wanted to ask the question, what happens if
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Danny Brier isn't able to get a trade done before
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the trade deadline? And is that okay? And again, if
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: you're listening to this after the trade deadline, maybe that happened,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: maybe it didn't. But I think it's an interesting notion, Lehn,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: because with when we look at this team, we're looking
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: at possible trades. We know Scott Lawton and Rasmus Wristol
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and they could find themselves on other teams soon. But
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: if they didn't, it may not be the end of
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the world. And I brought this up because our good
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: friends over at Broadstreet Hockey dot com UH put up
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: a put up a piece about this and saying, you
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: know what, if it doesn't happen this year with the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: talent of Scott Lawton and Rasmus ristalane and it could
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: still happen next year. It really could because Scott Lawton
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: still has one year left on his deal, Rysdalaneen has
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: two years left on his deal. So it wouldn't be
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the end of the world. And yes, the value of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: these two guys, you know, may certainly change, and certainly
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: change perhaps for the worst. Who knows next year, next season,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: But I don't necessarily think it would be the end
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of the world if Danny Brier wasn't able to get
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: what he really wanted for either of these guys, you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: if they if they really are on the on the
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: trade sheet for Danny Brier. So I just wanted to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: get your thoughts on this, And I don't know, it
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: may not be the end of the world.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Look, is it the end of the world if they
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: don't trade these guys. No, you know, the son's going
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: to come up the next day, you know, you and
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: I are presumably going to wake up the next morning.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Oh well, who knows, Yeah, who knows.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: But I mean I just feel like, you know, every
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: every kind of milestone slash, deadline slash whatever you go
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: past where you don't trade them decreases their value.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, risks the line in's value.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I mean, he has been so much better this year
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: than maybe any other year in his career. Yeah, so
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: to the point where you know, he is a commodity
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: and he has. If you were to get him now,
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: you get three playoff runs with him, You get this
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: year and then he signed, you know, through the end
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: of the twenty six twenty seven season, Scott Lawton. If
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: you get him now, you get two playoff runs out
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: of him, You get this this spring, and his contract
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: ends after the twenty five to twenty sixth season, so
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: you get more time with them, and theoretically the Flyers
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: should get more value, you know, because of the term
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: that you're getting, especially if you were trade them to
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: a place like Winnipeg, which is dying for players with
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: term because they can't retain anybody because nobody wants to
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: live in Winnipeg. So I would just think that the
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: longer that you keep these guys around, Like, if you
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: wait until the off season to trade them, I just
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: can't imagine the value being as high because you're not
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: getting as much time with them as you would be,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: you know, hopefully, you know, you know, in an ideal world,
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: you know, we wouldn't be getting as much value back
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: because that other team doesn't getting as much time with
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: this player. Right, So I don't know that that's where
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: the urgency is for me. Again, you know, is it
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: the end of the world if they get traded?
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Know?
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: I think that, you know, from what I understand, I've
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: been hearing rumors that, you know, the Flyers haven't been
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: getting what they've been looking for for rista lane, and
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: so in that case, you know, okay, you don't trade
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: them for a bag of pucks. You know, you have
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: a good asset here, so you don't trade them for nothing.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: But will it? Will it? I'm sorry about that.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Will it be?
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Will it be?
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: Will it be more down the road? I don't know
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: that it will. So I guess that's where my whole,
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: you know, issue with this is. You know, if you're
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: one of those people that thinks that they're going to
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: get just as much over the summer for these guys.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, God, bless you, more power to you. I
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: just don't see why you would pay the same amount
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: in the summer as you would you know, right now,
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: when you're getting them for a playoff run, an extra
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: playoff run. So that's kind of where I'm at with it.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, and I just based on the way I think,
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: based on the character both these guys, the way they
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: are in the room, the way they're looked up to,
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: you know, in the organization. Like, I don't know that
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: that Danny Brier is really itching to get rid of
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: either of these guys.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, I I think Scott sticks around, to be honest,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: because I.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: Think I think there's a certain danger of Brier maybe
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: being a little bit.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Too attached to these guys.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and the organization being a little bit too attached
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: to both these guys, because I think they think the
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: world of both Lawton and west Lane. So, you know,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: is it going to really hurt them if they still
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: have these guys now, they'll they'll be happy to keep them.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: But you just wonder, you know, Okay, there's that there's
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: that never ending argument of are we treading water versus
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: are we competing now, and you know, in terms of
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: competing now, you're still six points back of the second
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: wild card spot going into today, So like, what are
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: we competing?
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: You know, like are we are we deluding ourselves?
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: And that's where I feel like, you know, the flyers
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: and some of the the fan base, especially people I
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: talk to that are like, come on, we gotta win,
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: we gotta we gotta you know, go for like it's
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: not this. Yeah, Like I don't know what you think
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: you're I don't know what you think you're you're doing
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: here by just running the same guys out there that
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: haven't gotten it done in the past few seasons.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And just look at a guy like Mitchkoff. We
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: love watching him, We love seeing what he's been doing
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: on the ice, we love seeing his development. Right however,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: right before the break, that guy needed a break. This
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: is the most hockey he's ever played in his life,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: in any season, with any organization, with any team. The
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: guy needed a break before. Like what's gonna happen with
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Miatchkoff down the stretch? Yes, is he going to get tired?
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: They're just very other variables here at play as to
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: why this team is not gonna be going for the
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: playoffs and probably shouldn't be going for the playoffs. Quite frankly,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you've outlined it really well, and you really have.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that's you know, maybe this year
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: shoo with Mitsch Convince's first year playing a full year
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: of NHL hockey. Yes, he was worn down and that
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: you know four Nations break did a world of good
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: for him, as you can see, you know, as we
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: go through March and as we go through April. By
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: the end of April, was he going to be running
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: on fumes again? It's certainly a possibilities, but you know,
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: he'll then have a year in it and and understanding
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: what it is in terms of, you know, the rigors
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: of a full NHL season, and he'll be able to
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: you know, train his body accordingly. So I'm not worried
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: about that in the future. Yeah, for this year, you
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: do have to wonder. I mean, yes, he's looked super
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: you know, re energized since coming back from the break.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: How long does that last?
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Exactly? Look, I wanted to put this flyer's topic in
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the next topic with regard to the Phillies in this
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: in the same segment area of this show because we're
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: talking about what do these teams do with the talent
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: that they have. And as we're transitioning here and moving
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: to some Phillies talk here, a major Phillies storyline, Lynn
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: is what will be Taiwan Walker's role this year in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: terms of pitching for this Phillies team. I mean, there
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: are storylines out there and certainly folks talking about it
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: on other podcasts and articles written about the fact that
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: he could be released, Yeah, he could be Could he
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: be traded at some point? Yeah? Could he be a
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: bullpen piece that does well? Sure, there's a lot of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: question marks with regard to Tywan Walker here, and we
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of get into what his role is
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: going to be. And I'm gonna be talking about this
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: with our guest coming up in a little bit as well.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: But I think, you know, we need to go into
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: this Philly season with regard to Tywan Walker right now,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: knowing and understanding that the eighteen million dollars a year
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that he has owed over the next two seasons, Len,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I think serves as motivation for Dave don Browski to
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: really play this thing out as long as he can.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: That said, there's not going to be any quick base
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: I think moves with regard to Taiwan Walker, whether it's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: shipping him out. I mean, there's even talk where he
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: would he accept an assignment to Triple A Lehigh Valley
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and be with the Iron Pigs for a part of
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the season. Like I think Dave Dombrowski again is going
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: to play this thing out as long as he possibly can.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of folks within Phillies Nation that
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: really couldn't care less what happens to Tywn Walker if
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: they got rid of him, if they were able to,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: you know, and of course they'd still have to pay
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: him that eighteen million dollars over the next two seasons,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: but you know what his role will be. It remains
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to be seen. Might he be the sixth starter in
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: a rotation if the Phillies decide to do that the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: jury is out. I think it's a very interesting storyline,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: quite frankly, and it really means that the Phillies pitching
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and starting rotation is looking darn good right now. And
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I know it's spring training. It's early in spring training,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: but that's a good sign when they don't know what
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Taiwan Walker is going to be and what his role
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: is going to be. Those are my initial thoughts.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: Buddy.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: I think I think the whole oh Taiwan Walker who
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: cares attitude is quite foolish. And the reason I'm going
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: to say that is because let's look at you know,
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: at the LA Dodgers, and you have a team where ordinarily,
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: you know, when you look at managers and front offices
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: and you got a team like the Dodgers or the Yankees,
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: their reputation of like, oh, why does he win GM
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: or the year? Why does why does he win Manager
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: of the Year? Anybody could win with that talent. The
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: Dodgers last year had the most people on the injured
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: list out of any team in Major League Baseball as
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: far as position players and especially as far as pitchers.
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: They went through so many different starting pitchers. And his
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: testament to that depth that they were as good as
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: they were and that they won a World Series. That's
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: that's one thing I don't like the Dodgers, but man,
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: I'll always give them kudos for that for winning the
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: World Series despite all the injuries that they had last season. Yeah,
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: wildly impressive to me. So this whole thing, and well,
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: we got our five starters. Who cares is so wildly
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: shortsighted to me, it's not even funny. So let's look
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: at who got. We got Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez, Suarez, Lozardo. Awesome,
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: that's a great starting five. If that holds up through
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: the whole season, that'll be awesome. And then you get
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: Andrew Payner the second half of the year, and they're
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: going to treat in with kid gloves until the second
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: half of the year, and then maybe they'll let him,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: you know, you know, come in and maybe it comes
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: to the point where, in order to you know, lessen
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: the burden on everybody, maybe they do go to a
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: six man rotation, you know, and that is best case scenario,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: if everybody stays healthy. What do you think the odds
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: are that that's going to happen. Ranger Suarez has dealt
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: with something, you know, I think each of the past
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: couple of years he was definitely limited, like a lot.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: He was a shell himself. From the first half of
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: the year when he was an All Star to when
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: he came back after the All Star break, he was
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: a completely different guy.
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler have had you know, incredible
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: injury health, you know, over the past couple of years
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: and chickens exactly, so or do you really want to
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: roll those dice? I mean, Taiwan Walker was terrible last year, Admittley.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: You know, he was hurt last year.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: He knew it.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: He couldn't get his fast wall velocity up to you
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: know what it was supposed to be. He's, you know,
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: feeling a lot better this year. He's looking a lot
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: better this year, more more importantly, So why would you
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: not you know? Okay, so let's say a guy goes
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: out there and just throws a clunker and lasts like
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: an inning in a third. It happens, it happens multiple
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: times over the course of a year. Okay, we got
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: Tywan Walker's are long man. He can come out and
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: give us five innings and get us to the bullpen,
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: you know at that point, like you need that guy,
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: and then God forbid, somebody goes down. Okay, we got
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: Taiwan Walker ready to go plug him in. And because
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: there's no other outside of Painter, is there anybody else
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: in the minors that you're ready to bring up right now?
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, Mick Abele, you're still thinking, does he have
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: the control issues figured out, you know, so.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: I don't know I there. You know, I want to
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: have as much.
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: Depth pitching wise as I possibly can, because you're gonna
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: need it. So that's why, to me, the whole get
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: rid of Taiwan Walker is I get short sighted.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Very good. I I make some great points there, and
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: especially from a depth perspective. You mentioned the Dodgers, you know,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: you mentioned just about any Major League Baseball team, Lynn, and.
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: Every team in Major League Baseball will tell you you
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: can never have enough starting pitch.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Right, Look a look at the Braves, look at the Mats.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Even for God's sake, you know they don't have a
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: solid starting rotation coming in, but boy they sure have
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: some depth.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: So you know what happens if you know, and God knows,
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: you know, major League Baseball does everything they can, you know,
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: to you know, protect these guys from injury. You know, basically,
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: guys are five inning pitchers anymore. You know, one hundred
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: pitches everybody starts, you know, you know, clutching their pearls yea,
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: you know. So you know, we do everything we can,
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: and these guys are still doing Tommy John surgeries every
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: single year, you know.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: So the human body at.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: The level that we're at right now, with the velocity
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: that guys are at right now, it's not meant. Arms
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: aren't meant to do that for an extended period of time,
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: So you're always gonna need depth.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: I love clutching my pearls. Oh, dear heavens, it is.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: It is very much with some of your phrases. It
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: is very much on brand for you.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, very much. All right, buddy, I'm gonna let your
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: head out of here. We've got a great interview coming up.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Any final thoughts here before we go to a break man, No.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: Just I'm just super excited to see you know, if
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: you can you can continue this hot start and just
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: see what the Phils do coming out of this. Uh
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: and and again just six Ers who.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: There you go, six Ers? I love six Ers? What who? What?
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: I gotta say this. I do a community based podcast
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: with another gentleman here in our area. And the poor
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: guy actually got one of those packages, was because he's
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: a huge Sixers fan, got a package for some season
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: tickets he was trying to get rid of. He was
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: trying to get rid of some tickets for last night's
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: game against the Trailblazers, and he was just like nothing.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He's like I couldn't even sell him for two dollars.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: They were selling tickets for two dollars, like last week,
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: you can get him for two dollars. Yeah, I actually
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: saw something today. This is off topic and I don't
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: want to go too long, so I know you got
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: you gotta go. But the Dallas Mavericks, after trading Luka Doncic,
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: have raised ticket prices eight point six percent on average
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: next year. If I was a Mavericks season ticket holder,
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: I would be writing f you in in the biggest
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: letters I could in front of that stadium.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: No way, Cuban, Yeah, well he's not. He does not
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: even the odor anymore.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Well that's true. That's right, he's not.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: I'll say this, Mark Cuban would have never created Luca. No,
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: there's no way that would have happened.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: That right, Yep. God, it's gonna be interesting to see
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: how all this works out. Lend buddy. I'll let you go, folks.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break and we will be back
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: in just a bit.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: We got a lot more Phillies talk coming your way.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Got a great guest that's what we're throwing down on
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the table and now on the table and joining us
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: from that balls out of here dot com over on
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: fan Sided. We love our fans sided sites and we
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: certainly enjoy talking Phillies with him. We have the one
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: and only Eric Mooretelly, Eric, Buddy.
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: How you doing, man, I'm good, Jeff, I'm good.
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: You know spring trainings here, yes, you about that, you know,
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: just wait for that regular season start. But you know,
• 44:01
  Speaker 7: it's a great sign having baseball back, and especially with
• 44:05
  Speaker 7: the way the six have been playing and no more Birds,
• 44:07
  Speaker 7: So let's get back to the Phillies.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely. Look you, before we hit the record button,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: you told me that you and your wife are going
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: to be heading down to clear Water to check out
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: this Phillies team during spring training. Man, you got to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: be pumped for it.
• 44:20
  Speaker 7: I can't wait. I can't wait. I've been down in
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: a few years actually, but and you know it's funny.
• 44:24
  Speaker 7: I think the last time I was down there was
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: like twenty eighteen. So back then, you know, the tickets
• 44:29
  Speaker 7: were easier to get. Yeah, there wasn't quite quite quite
• 44:32
  Speaker 7: the crowds and everything. The prices have gone up a
• 44:34
  Speaker 7: little bit but I can't wait looking forward to some
• 44:36
  Speaker 7: warm weather.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: If you don't mind me asking, if you don't mind
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: me asking, like what is the ticket structure? Like can
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: you kind of like go through that, because honestly, we
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: haven't taught we've actually never talked about that on this
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: podcast platform and the almost twelve years that we've been doing.
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: This, So I know, the last time we went, we
• 44:51
  Speaker 7: purposely went. We wanted to go sit on the burm
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: out there. That was kind of like a thing, so
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: we did. There were seats though available if we wanted them.
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: This year, we're going sat this coming Setaturday and this
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: coming Sunday, the Saturday game could we couldn't get actual
• 45:04
  Speaker 7: physical seats for so we're fineing the burm. We'll find
• 45:08
  Speaker 7: plenty of spot out there, maybe maybe find a little
• 45:10
  Speaker 7: spot by the tiki bar, and then uh Sunday we
• 45:14
  Speaker 7: were able to get seats in the outfield. I think,
• 45:16
  Speaker 7: you know, it seems like a lot of times maybe
• 45:18
  Speaker 7: people are traveling out on Sunday, so that one might
• 45:21
  Speaker 7: be a little.
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: Bit less you know, less in demand.
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: But I know, you know, people I've talked to who
• 45:26
  Speaker 7: are going down who were already down there, they were
• 45:28
  Speaker 7: you could buy them off third party sites, but I
• 45:31
  Speaker 7: mean it's it's crazy. They're like almost expensive as like
• 45:33
  Speaker 7: a regular season ticket.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Down really Yeah, Well, when you're one of the better
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: teams in the National League, I mean, I guess that's
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: what's happening.
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly, And that's I mean, and there's obviously you
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: always want your team to be good. Yeah, but you
• 45:47
  Speaker 7: know that's one of the things. The prices go up,
• 45:48
  Speaker 7: it's harder to get tickets. And that goes for clear Water,
• 45:50
  Speaker 7: it goes for Philadelphia, doesn't matter where you're at. Absolutely,
• 45:53
  Speaker 7: I guess I'd rather do that than have to, uh,
• 45:56
  Speaker 7: you know, go through another rebuild anytime.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: So absolutely absolutely. Well, look, you know, we get into
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: this discussion about this Phillies team and what we're gonna
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: be seeing and what we are seeing during spring training,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: where certain elements of this team are going to be heading.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: My co host and I lenn and I we were
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: just talking about the Taiwan Walker situation and what his
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: role may be this year on this Phillies team. And
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I was telling Lenin, I'm like, you know,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Dave Dombrowski, you know he's gonna play this out as
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: long as he can given Taywin, Walker is owed eighteen
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: million dollars over these next two seasons. So to get
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: us started with this conversation here, Eric, what are your
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: thoughts on what may happen with Taiwan Walker this season,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: especially at the start of the season as we're getting
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: reports that his velocity is up. It's encouraging. Some people
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: are up on that and excited about it. Other people
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: are saying, who the heck cares? What are your thoughts
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: on Walker at this point?
• 46:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's just become so polarizing, But I
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: think that you nailed the point right there. How much
• 46:53
  Speaker 7: money he's still owed, right, They're going to try to try.
• 46:56
  Speaker 7: They don't just want to cut ties if there's anything
• 46:59
  Speaker 7: left in this guy in Walker's tank. I you know,
• 47:02
  Speaker 7: Thompson came out and said the other day that he's,
• 47:04
  Speaker 7: you know, potentially fighting for a spot in the irritation.
• 47:07
  Speaker 6: I don't unless there's an injury.
• 47:08
  Speaker 7: I don't see how that's a possibility when you have
• 47:10
  Speaker 7: those other five guys plus Painter kind of waiting in
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: the wings. But I mean, if he's pitching and can
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: be somewhat effective, as you know, a long.
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: Man or kind of a mop up guy out of
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: the bullpen.
• 47:19
  Speaker 7: I know that's not a role he's typically used to
• 47:22
  Speaker 7: or really likes, but I mean, you know, when you've
• 47:24
  Speaker 7: had the seasons that you've had so far, you can't beggars,
• 47:27
  Speaker 7: can't be choosers, right right, So I think they're going
• 47:29
  Speaker 7: to try to try to get as much out of
• 47:31
  Speaker 7: him as possible, you know.
• 47:33
  Speaker 6: And the thing is is injuries happened.
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: Is as much as it stinks to say so, while
• 47:39
  Speaker 7: he's not your best option, I think we saw what
• 47:41
  Speaker 7: happened with that revolving door of fifth starters last year
• 47:44
  Speaker 7: after the Tyler Phillips complete game. After that, the that
• 47:47
  Speaker 7: the starter spot was was a rough watch every every
• 47:50
  Speaker 7: fifth day.
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: Not saying he'd be any better.
• 47:52
  Speaker 7: He contributed to some of that, but you know, the
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: velocity being up, I was I was looking back at
• 47:57
  Speaker 7: some of some of that, that reporting and everything, and
• 48:00
  Speaker 7: I mean it's up compared to last year, which was
• 48:03
  Speaker 7: really down. I think it was wrong about eighty nine yes,
• 48:06
  Speaker 7: sign last year. Yeah, and right now he's sitting around
• 48:09
  Speaker 7: ninety three ninety four. It looks like with with what
• 48:12
  Speaker 7: the problem is is, you know, if you the way
• 48:15
  Speaker 7: baseballs of album and the way pitchings of old You know,
• 48:17
  Speaker 7: you can't be a guy without any command. Throw in
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: ninety three ninety four, so he's got a he's got
• 48:23
  Speaker 7: a hone in the command or else that ninety three
• 48:26
  Speaker 7: ninety four is not going to be effective against Major
• 48:28
  Speaker 7: League hdding.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Well, I wanted to move on to a
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: recent piece that you wrote. It was a couple of
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: weeks ago about the backup catcher position. I mean, this
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: is a storyline, Eric, that I've really been following closely
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: and been wanting to dive into more. We've even talked
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: about it before when you have been on I mean,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a battle between Garrett Stubbs and
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Raphael Marshan, and we know that Marshawn has a better
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: batting numbers than Stubbs at this point when you look
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: at both guys' careers. I mean, my prediction is that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Raphael Marshaan is probably going to make the twenty six
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: man roster on opening day. I'm wondering what are your
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: thoughts about Marshawan and Stubbs and who would be best
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: suited to back up JT. Real Muto this coming season.
• 49:14
  Speaker 7: I think you have to look at Marshawn in this case.
• 49:17
  Speaker 7: There's a couple of reasons. One obviously the productivity that
• 49:21
  Speaker 7: you can get from him, I think his ceilings higher.
• 49:23
  Speaker 7: But also you have the options and and everything that
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: factors into this too. So he's out of he's out
• 49:28
  Speaker 7: of options, So you don't bring him on the twenty
• 49:31
  Speaker 7: six man roster some unless he's hurt. Some team's going
• 49:34
  Speaker 7: to try to snag him. Probably Stubbs does have that
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: option now. I know Stubbs is a fun guy to watch.
• 49:40
  Speaker 7: Everyone likes seeing him celebrate and everything. But great loom
• 49:45
  Speaker 7: He's a great locker room guy. And I don't even
• 49:47
  Speaker 7: want to take too much away from because it's so
• 49:48
  Speaker 7: hard to back up JT. I think just because of
• 49:51
  Speaker 7: how little playing time you get. So Stubs, you know,
• 49:54
  Speaker 7: has shown glimpses here and there, but you know he's
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: not He's not a starting catcher. Marshawan is probably a
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: little bit more athletic. He's good defensively. It's funny his
• 50:04
  Speaker 7: offensive numbers in the minor leagues are average. Yeah, really
• 50:08
  Speaker 7: he's but his offensive numbers in the short time he's
• 50:12
  Speaker 7: had in the major leagues over the past few years
• 50:14
  Speaker 7: is actually really impressive. Now you have to imagine teams
• 50:17
  Speaker 7: to learn how to pitch him and everything, but from
• 50:19
  Speaker 7: a backup guy, and especially if they're trying to get
• 50:22
  Speaker 7: If they do follow through with trying to get JT
• 50:24
  Speaker 7: a few more games off this year, you're gonna need
• 50:28
  Speaker 7: someone who can step in and keep this lineup going.
• 50:31
  Speaker 7: So I really think your best option here, and I
• 50:33
  Speaker 7: think the obvious option if he's healthy going into the
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: regular season is Marshawn because you don't want to risk
• 50:39
  Speaker 7: losing a guy who has has some potentially Yeah.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely again, folks, we're talking to Eric Moore Telly from
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: that Balls out of Here dot com over on fans
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: side and Eric, where can folks follow you online? On
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the Twitter? Any other social media sites out there?
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: So I am on Twitter, Eric underscore more Telly. I
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: also joined Blue Sky a little while I'm there as well.
• 51:03
  Speaker 6: I will have to get back to you on what
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: my handle is that I haven't been on a little bit.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Just search out Eric Mortelly. That's it.
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: There's probably only one of us on there.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, that sounds good, sounds good. Well, look, speaking of
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: the catcher position, to hear in one JT real Muto
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: the Phillies have actually talked about the fact that they
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: may try to put real Muto out in left field
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: to see if he can use his athleticism out there
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: if they were to need him perhaps, and we know
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: that heading into the season the Phillies are a bit
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: thin in the outfield. Eric, I'm wondering, what are your
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: thoughts about the possibility of this actually happening where we
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: might actually see JT. Real Muto out in left field
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: or even in the outfield at some point, given how
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the outfielders may or may not perform.
• 51:51
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 51:52
  Speaker 7: I'm so skeptical about its athletic.
• 51:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's it's one of those things.
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: It feels like a band aid, but like not like
• 52:00
  Speaker 7: like like.
• 52:01
  Speaker 6: A cheap one. It's he's super athletic.
• 52:05
  Speaker 7: You know, he played he played football in high school
• 52:09
  Speaker 7: and everything he can play. Obviously, he's he's a great catcher. Defensively,
• 52:12
  Speaker 7: he's shown a lot of offensive prows. You know, age
• 52:15
  Speaker 7: is catching up to him. His knees are not getting
• 52:17
  Speaker 7: any younger. I don't see him being a better defensive replacement.
• 52:23
  Speaker 7: He's never played a day in the outfield in the
• 52:26
  Speaker 7: Major League his entire life. Exactly so I mean, I
• 52:31
  Speaker 7: admire the I guess willingness to try it, but I
• 52:35
  Speaker 7: just I don't see it happening. I mean, you got Kepler,
• 52:38
  Speaker 7: who has has shown some glimpse of so far the spring,
• 52:41
  Speaker 7: and I don't want to write him off yet because
• 52:43
  Speaker 7: he did. He had a down year last year, but
• 52:45
  Speaker 7: I think a lot of it was injuries. He's had
• 52:47
  Speaker 7: some decent years in the past. He's a ten year event.
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: You don't make it ten years in the major leagues
• 52:54
  Speaker 7: by being a stiff the whole time, right, I mean
• 52:55
  Speaker 7: you're going to be He has some potential. Is he
• 52:59
  Speaker 7: the flashy of signing No, but you know, we'll see
• 53:01
  Speaker 7: what he can do. But I just feel like the
• 53:03
  Speaker 7: whole JT thing in left field is it's kind of
• 53:06
  Speaker 7: funny in a way. It is just because I I,
• 53:09
  Speaker 7: you know, we laugh at Shworber being out there, and
• 53:13
  Speaker 7: I don't know if JTU would be any.
• 53:15
  Speaker 6: Better than that.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Well, it's interest. It's really interesting that you mentioned Kyle
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Schwarber because you know, speaking of you know, quote versatility
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: with some of the talent on this team, there's also
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that storyline about Kyle Schwarber possibly getting some playing time
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: at first base this coming season. You know, I read
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: these articles or these tweets or posts online and I'm
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: like what. I'm like, what is what is happening here?
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Then I think about how it could potentially make some sense.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's something I think would be good and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: a useful option for Rob Thompson to have in his
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: back pocket. I don't know, what are your thoughts about
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Schwarber possibly getting some time at first base in the
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: infield this season?
• 53:58
  Speaker 7: Another one, I'm a little skeptical, he he.
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: I was looking the other night.
• 54:04
  Speaker 7: He's played I believe maybe a grand total of like
• 54:07
  Speaker 7: eleven or twelve games at first base.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: The socks, right, the socks.
• 54:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And in those.
• 54:14
  Speaker 7: Ten games he had like minus three defensive run safe
• 54:17
  Speaker 7: and just ten games. So not not a great outlook there.
• 54:22
  Speaker 7: And I remember someone bringing this up. I forgot it
• 54:25
  Speaker 7: was last year before. Someone asked him if he would
• 54:27
  Speaker 7: consider going to first space and he basically laughed it.
• 54:29
  Speaker 6: Off, being like, no one wants that.
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: And the thing is is, like, you know, first base,
• 54:35
  Speaker 7: I think everyone just kind of thinks it's like, oh,
• 54:36
  Speaker 7: you know, he's a you know, he's a bigger guy,
• 54:38
  Speaker 7: he'd fit in.
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: Well, that position.
• 54:40
  Speaker 7: But I think Bryce really showed that, you know, for him,
• 54:43
  Speaker 7: it was easy because of how athletic and versatile he is,
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: ye which Orber, he doesn't have the greatest range of motion,
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: and you have to have that being a first base.
• 54:52
  Speaker 7: But it's not just catching the ball coming from you know,
• 54:55
  Speaker 7: another spot in the infield. You know, it's also getting
• 54:59
  Speaker 7: the right angle on throat and you know, to second
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: or anywhere else he might be going. There's so much
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: that goes into it, and I just don't think that
• 55:06
  Speaker 7: I think again, you know, with with with age kind
• 55:08
  Speaker 7: of like the same thing that we were just talking
• 55:10
  Speaker 7: about JT. It's like at a at a certain point,
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: you can't really teach an old dog new tricks, right
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: and not saying that those guys are you know, ancient,
• 55:18
  Speaker 7: but they're they're used to what they're doing, you know, Schorebert,
• 55:22
  Speaker 7: we're kind of trying to face him out of playing
• 55:24
  Speaker 7: playing more of the field than trying to get him
• 55:26
  Speaker 7: in more games. I think, I mean on you know,
• 55:30
  Speaker 7: in theory, if it worked out well and he was
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: able to learn the position, it would be great to
• 55:33
  Speaker 7: be able to you know, you know, give Bryce a
• 55:36
  Speaker 7: day at d H or or something like that. But again,
• 55:40
  Speaker 7: I just I don't really see either one being a
• 55:42
  Speaker 7: viable option, especially when Bryce looked really good at first
• 55:45
  Speaker 7: base last year as long as he stays healthy. I mean,
• 55:48
  Speaker 7: you could even put JT over there, You could put
• 55:49
  Speaker 7: Boone there if you want to try to get Bryce exactly.
• 55:51
  Speaker 6: So I don't know.
• 55:52
  Speaker 7: If that's like the biggest necessity to worry about teaching
• 55:56
  Speaker 7: Kyle Schuber how to play first base.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: It really is interesting how we're here. I mean, i've
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: reports then over the past twenty four hours too, about
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: how Bryce Harper has said, you know what, Yeah, I've
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: been head back out in the outfield if need be
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: and if I'm asked to do it. I just I
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: kind of wonder where all these stories are coming from. Eric.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, is it just the fact that it's spring
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: training and we're all clamoring for baseball, We're all clamoring
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: for these stories coming out of spring training? Is like,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: is that what's going on here? Or is there any
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: validity to this because there are some of these guys
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: are athletic to be able to do certain things that
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily doing on the field. I don't know.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I think it may be a little bit of both.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: What do you think.
• 56:31
  Speaker 6: I think you're right. I think it's a little bit
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: of both.
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: I mean, I think it's it's another good thing about
• 56:36
  Speaker 7: having a or a bad thing about having a good team,
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: and you know, not many position battles. Is you know,
• 56:41
  Speaker 7: what are we going to talk about all spring training
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: content creators?
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: We need to talk about or write about something, right.
• 56:48
  Speaker 7: Exactly, and you can only write about you know, you
• 56:50
  Speaker 7: can only write about some of these things so many times, right,
• 56:53
  Speaker 7: But I mean, you know, and I just I saw
• 56:55
  Speaker 7: the Bryce Harper thing today too, about going back to
• 56:56
  Speaker 7: the outfield, and it's funny, that's something I was thinking
• 56:59
  Speaker 7: about over the season. If he you know, if he
• 57:01
  Speaker 7: were to do that, it does open up a lot
• 57:04
  Speaker 7: of possibilities. Now it seems like to me, obviously he
• 57:09
  Speaker 7: must have had conversations with someone I would assume with
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: the team. But Thompson also mentioned something about Edmundosos getting
• 57:16
  Speaker 7: some reps, and he's gotten a lot of reps in
• 57:17
  Speaker 7: the outfield so far too, So it really feels to
• 57:19
  Speaker 7: me like Thompson does want to try to get guys
• 57:22
  Speaker 7: being as versatile as possible and be able to use
• 57:24
  Speaker 7: them in different spots, which I think, you know it is,
• 57:27
  Speaker 7: it is good, but you don't. You also don't need
• 57:30
  Speaker 7: a whole team of utility players either, so that's true.
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: But I mean, Bryce is a guy where I could
• 57:35
  Speaker 7: see him. I don't think he'd miss a beat going
• 57:38
  Speaker 7: back to the outfield, Yeah, just because of his athleticism.
• 57:42
  Speaker 7: I mean, is it going to be your best outfielder
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: in the defensive outfield in the league. Probably not, But
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: you know that was never really one of his his
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: strong suits.
• 57:49
  Speaker 6: Anyway.
• 57:50
  Speaker 7: I think since coming to Philadelphia, even when he was
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: playing right field, he looked better out there than he
• 57:54
  Speaker 7: did when he was with Washington. And we talked already
• 57:56
  Speaker 7: about his you know, how he's looked at first base
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: so far. So yeah, I think there's civilidity to it,
• 58:03
  Speaker 7: but I think some of it is also just you know,
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: let's see what happens. It's spring training. See if these
• 58:07
  Speaker 7: guys can do anything. I doubt much changes, but you
• 58:10
  Speaker 7: never know, you never know.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: With this team, who knows, But what you know, one
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: guy that I'm thinking will likely have a bounce back
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: season when it's all said and done, And maybe it's
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: more of a hope than anything. And that's Bryson Stott.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I do believe he has that twenty twenty
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: three talent still within him. We saw it a couple
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: of years ago. It's still there in my opinion. You know,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: he said that his elbow injury from last season really
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: led to some bad habits at the plate, and I
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: do wonder what our expectations of Bryson Scott really should
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: end up being this coming season. Have you given that
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: any thought and what are your thoughts?
• 58:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 58:49
  Speaker 7: I have, and I actually think that his rebound season
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: could be the most important thing with this Phillies lineup. Interesting,
• 58:55
  Speaker 7: you know this this twenty twenty five season, you know,
• 58:59
  Speaker 7: you basically know what you're and for short, you basically
• 59:01
  Speaker 7: know you're getting from Harper. You know Turner, I think
• 59:03
  Speaker 7: a lot of people give him a tough time, but
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: if you look at his overall season last year, he
• 59:07
  Speaker 7: hit two ninety five, had an ops over eight hundred,
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: So you kind of have an idea. I don't think
• 59:13
  Speaker 7: we're going to get MVP season from trade Turner, but
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: if we can get something in that eight hundred and
• 59:17
  Speaker 7: eight twenty ops, you know, that's a really good season
• 59:20
  Speaker 7: for him. But Stott last year, I think that was
• 59:23
  Speaker 7: the biggest drop off, right, That was the part of
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: the lineup that I think we were missing the most.
• 59:27
  Speaker 7: And having him rebound, I think is more important than
• 59:31
  Speaker 7: you know, JT having a big you know, having a
• 59:34
  Speaker 7: bounce back season. You know, I think with Bohm, same
• 59:37
  Speaker 7: thing we kind of know we're getting. But the potential
• 59:39
  Speaker 7: that Stott showed in twenty twenty three, I think we
• 59:42
  Speaker 7: might have actually even talked about on the show this
• 59:44
  Speaker 7: time last year. You know, I think Scott was my
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: pick for a breakout players in twenty twenty four and
• 59:50
  Speaker 7: it's just never really materialized. And you know, after the season,
• 59:53
  Speaker 7: when it came out that the elbow was kind of
• 59:55
  Speaker 7: bothering him, that kind of made a lot of sense
• 59:57
  Speaker 7: to me because I'm like, how does this guy just
• 59:59
  Speaker 7: drop off this much? Yeah know, obviously pitchers learn how
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: to how to how to get to guys. But the
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: one thing he was always really good at was working
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 7: a good at bat and he was kind of getting
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 7: himself out, you know, chasing pulling off pitches.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: So swing a lot of junk throughout the entire season,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: almost yes.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 7: And I think that might have been some compensation because
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 7: you know, twenty twenty three, he was probably like I thought,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 7: he was the guy who put together some of the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 7: best at bats on our roster. Yeah, so yeah, I
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 7: think about back season for Scott is really crucial to
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 7: this team. Not I mean not I think their playoff
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 7: team probably anyway, but you know, taking that next step.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 7: I think because you got to the end of the
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 7: lineup last year by September and in October and then
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: our lone postseason series where you were just like, Okay,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 7: I hate saying this, but I'm like, this inning's over,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: Like you know, you're going down one, two, three. So
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 7: having some guys toward that bottom, you know, bottom third
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 7: or bottom half of the lineup, I think is really
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 7: really important.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 6: And I think that's that guy.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, buddy. Before I let you go, I wanted
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: to talk about this starting rotation. It's been so far,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: so good for the starting rotation in spring training. Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: and Lozardo have all looked pretty fantastic in their in
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: their one outing you know, thus far. I mean, I'm
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited about where the starting pitching is going
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: to go. More and more as I think about what
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: this team is going to need to be throughout this
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: season and hopefully during the postseason. You said, you know,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: this team does look like a playoff team, and that's
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: of course the hope. I'm wondering if you are as
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: excited as I am about what we're going to see
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: from this starting rotation on the mound here in twenty
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: twenty five.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that might be the part I'm most
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 7: excited about. It's actually funny. I feel like when most
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 7: people watch baseball games, they're watching for like, oh, I
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 7: want to see a home run, I want to see
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: guys seal bases, I want to see starting pitching, and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 7: it's those first outings from all those guys.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 6: It was so much fun now.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 7: I know wheel Are faltered a little bit in his
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 7: game yesterday, and and Lozard it looked really good.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 6: But I don't know if you heard the story. It
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 6: just happened this afternoon.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 7: They were interviewing Rob Thompson and the dugout and he
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 7: gave up back to back to back home runs against
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 7: the Tigers.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 6: So three in a row against Tigers.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 7: I'm not worried about it. And what's funny, you know,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: I saw a lot of things on social media. You know,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 7: it's like when pitchers are pitching well, you know, great,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 7: can't wait, they're you know, they're so good when it's springs.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 7: When when they're pitching badly during spring training, it's like
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 7: it's just spring training.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: Spring training.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, and it is true.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 7: I mean a lot of these times, you know, these
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 7: guys are working on things, so I don't really put
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 7: too much stock in it. I remember, you know, Cole
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 7: Hamil's was always a pitcher who I felt like always
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 7: had terrible springs, like he would always he would always
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 7: fish the springs five or six and he was really good.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 7: These guys don't care what their spring training stats are, right,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 7: They're trying to make sure that their velocities where it's at,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 7: their pitch counts, where it's at their samina, you know,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 7: their breaking balls a location. That's really what they care about.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 7: So yeah, if they're good, Hey, I'd rather see Blizardo
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 7: give up three home runs in a row yes training
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 7: game than you know in August September.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: So well, Cole is down there, isn't he helping helping
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: some of the pitching at this point, Maybe they got
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: a bad case of the Cole Hamils at this.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 7: Point, maybe maybe he's selling them. He's like, hey, work
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 7: on this, don't herybody?
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: All right?
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 6: I did? Okay, so exactly, folks.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Eric Morritelli from that Balls out of Here dot Com
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: over on fans Sided, always enjoy going to the site,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Always enjoy the content, Eric, buddy, it was great talking
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: to you. Safe travels down to Clearwater. I'd love to
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: talk about that more within the next you know, coming weeks. Actually,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: it'd be a great topic of conversation for you to
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: jump on the show and we can talk about your
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: time in Clearwater.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 6: Absolutely, I'd love to be back on the Philly season.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Is going to be here before we know it, and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait to have baseball on my screens. I
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: cannot wait to see what this pitching staff is going
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: to do from the mound. My gosh, it is. It
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: is gonna be one of the best in Major League
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: Baseball as we know. So that's going to do it
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: for us this week here at the PSD podcast Show.
• 1:03:57
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• 1:04:00
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• 1:04:03
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• 1:04:07
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• 1:04:11
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• 1:04:14
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• 1:04:16
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  Speaker 1: We are out there again Philadelphia Sports table dot com.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: It's where you can go and listen to all of
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: our shows. Head back in the archive you can check
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: out our Eagles postgame shows. Take a listen to that
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: final What Eagles Postgame Show of this past season after
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the Eagles won the Super Bowl. That was a fun
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: one that Eric and I did so for Len. For Eric,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: I am Jeff Warren. That is gonna do it for
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: us here this week. Take care, we'll catch you next time.