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TABLE TALK: The Phillies Are Facing Challenges · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. I wanted to let you know we
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recorded this podcast episode on Monday, June third, twenty twenty four. By
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the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there, but
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we hope you enjoy the show. All right, folks, welcome to Table
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Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Tiple podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly
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sports podcast show in the world, eleven years strong. And this Philadelphia Phillies
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team is really fun to watch here in twenty twenty four. I can't wait
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to talk about this team some of the storylines that we've been following, both
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from a positive and quite frankly, a negative standpoint. I know they're one
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of the best teams in Major League Baseball, but not everything is lollipops and
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rainbows with this team. We got a great discussion. Come in your way,
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let's get right to it. It's great to have him back on the
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podcast to talk about this Philadelphia Phillies team and a lot of different storylines happening
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down at Citizens Bank Park and beyond. We have. He's a great freelance
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writer, does some Phillies writing every now and again at Ben h Silver on
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the Twitter slash X. We've got Ben Silver. How you doing, Buddy?
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Do good? How about you, Jef? I'm doing all right,
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man Like. Look, it's such a fun season being a Phillies fan,
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you know that exactly. Vibes are pretty good. But I wanted to get
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our conversation started this week with regard to the pitching staff and specifically one Tywin
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Walker. I mean, he had another rough outing against the Cardinals over the
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weekend in a game that the Phillies lost. In that game, he allowed
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four runs on five hits this weekend, and I'm not sure his game is
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gonna end up getting any better from the mound quite frankly, Ben, and
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I know Rob Thompson continues to say time and time again he believes that Tywan
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Walker is continuing to reach his quote normal baseline. I'm not too sure about
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that here, But I'm wondering what do the Phillies do from here when it
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comes to Taiwan Walker and his five point seventy three e r A at this
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point here in June, you know, I want to say, like,
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oh, you know what, Taiwan's fine. He's pitched forever. He's like
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a ten year mL vet. He's got a career for era, right,
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he'll bounce back to the median but like I mean eye test whise like he
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stinks that's wise. He stinks, Yes, you you kind of forget what
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bad pitching looks like. You got like Nola and Wheeler and Ringer and Sanchez
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going out there every day. It's like, oh, this is this is
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just what every team deals with. Like I forgot what it looked like when
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Vince alaskaz Er, Nick Pavetta pitch, and then Taiwan Walker comes in,
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It's like, oh, oh God, leave bleach for the eyes. What
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do we do? Right? So, normally, like in this situation,
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I'd say something along the lines of moving to the bullpen. You move Turnbull
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back there. Frankly, he's looked pretty down good when he's come in for
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multiple innings of work. But the thing is, Turnbull already has a pretty
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long warm up, right, we all know that it takes him, you
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know, forty five minutes once they called the pen to get him up.
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You have to have Jose Ruiz come in for that, like Little Bridge inning
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first or kirkering I mean Taiwan Walker meanwhile, takes three innings to warm up
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in game yes. I mean the guy has like a six' five ERA
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for the first three innings and then after that he's fine. Like when we
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see yesterday, you give three runs in the first two three innings and you
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give one run for the next two yes, yep, And then that's what
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happens every game, Like what happens if he comes up out of the Bullpeny's
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going to give up four in the first inning, and then we have to
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get through three bad at point? Yes, what do you do with that?
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Right? Well, it's interesting. I had I had our good friend
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Ellen a Dare from from her really cool podcast that she does Take Me into
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the Ball Game, and she was on last week and talking to we were
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kind of talking about this, and she had some reservations about bringing Turnbull back
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just because from a consistency standpoint, starting pitchers and consistency, and look,
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we're not getting necess early much consistency from Taiwan Walker. But there was that
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there was that hesitation of Okay, Turnbull's been in the bullpen here. Now
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bringing him back into the fold into the starting rotation actually could potentially cause some
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problems as well. I don't know, do you see anything like that?
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So I'd be a little hesitant to bring him back for like a spot start,
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right, just go out there and say, okay, turnbull, pitch,
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throw eighty pitches, let's see how you do. And then next week
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we'll put you back in the bullpen and we'll be back to twenty five.
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Yeah, that would give me a lot of concern if you put him back
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in the rotation and say, okay, we're gonna give you, you know,
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two months to you know, go at him, give it one and
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and let's see if you can pitch to a one point five y r A
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again. Sure, I'm cool with that. I don't think it's good to
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keep Yankee guys around. You know, players are humans, and that's what
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she was saying too. Yeah, yeah, but I I would be fine,
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you know, saying to turnbull, Okay, here's forty innings as a
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starter, pitch three innings and show us what you got. But I don't
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think I'd comfortable with giving him, you know, two weeks wal Suarez is
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injured. I'd rather have him, you know, pitch you know, fifty
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as a starter, or call up Michael Mercado from TRIPLEA to replace him.
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I don't want him, you know, stretching out and sitting down, and
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stretching out and sitting down. I think that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah,
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it's really interesting, how you know, as we're talking about this starting
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pitching rotation and just what the Phillies may do in the future with it.
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It was a recent report at Yard Barker about how the Phillies could be looking
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to make some changes to the starting rotation. Soon kind of saw the headline.
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I'm like, what the hell you know? I mean, this is
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one of the great pitching staffs here in twenty twenty four, and yeah,
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there's apparent questions about how sustainable of course Ranger Suarez and Christopher Sanchez can be
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down the stretch this season and into the playoffs. I get that, And
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given potential injuries that are going to be happening and just how these pitchers may
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perform from a long term standpoint, I get that. Again, one of
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the best pitching staffs in Major League Baseball here, So it's like, why
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question things, why move things around? But there are injuries. I'm wondering,
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what are your thoughts about this, possibly finding a new starting pitcher before
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the trade deadline or you know, like I said, looking at the farm
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system, perhaps bringing somebody up. Do you think they're going to be making
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any starting pitching changes, you know, just given their overall dominance here from
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the mound. What are your thoughts so little inside baseball here? I had
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an idea, of course, that you were going to ask these questions this
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question, yes, and I had some notes written down, and my notes
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initially for this question were no period, Like I mean, come on,
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like, I have some friends who work at Yard Parker and I really respect
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that site. But like you know, don't trade for anyone. Is that
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is my first order of business. You don't need anyone else because you're not
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gonna be needing more than four pitchers in the playoffs. Frankly, you're not
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really going to be eating more than three pitchers in the playoffs. Right.
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You have Wheeler, you have Ranger, you have Nola. You might use
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Christopher Sanchez in there a little bit too, but really you don't even need
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him that much. He got one start in the postseason the last two year,
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if I'm not mistaken, and Cindergaard got like one start in the postseason
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in twenty two, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it's just it's not
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necessary for what this team's end goal is to move assets for a starting pitcher.
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I mean, both Suarez and Sanchez have excellent peripherals, they're both getting
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ahead of hitters, and they're both mixing up their looks. I still find
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it amazing that Sanchez is able to thrive in the rotation with only three pitches.
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But the thing is, he's shown it in a big enough sample size
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now that I believe he can get it done. And frankly, you know
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what, who cares if you don't have the best five starter. I wouldn't
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care about hi Wan frankly if we weren't paying him. If excuse me,
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the Phillies were paying him seventy six million dollars for four years. Yes,
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I mean fine, you know what, you want to throw a five start
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out there, who got a five to five ra with an offense like this
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sure fit? Like ye have one day where it's awesome, but like you
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don't need anything more than that. Colin Turnbull, Colin Michael Mercado, don't
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move assets because if you're moving assets for a you know, fifth starter at
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the deadline, that is organizational malpractice. Yeah, if you know one of
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Nola or Wheeler or your big four guys goes down with some long term injury.
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Fine, you want to bring in some third or fourth maybe even second
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tier starter, go ahead and do it. But it doesn't look like Rangers
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injury is gonna be serious. Right, There's no reason to do anything extreme
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on that front. I put that question in there because, like every now
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and again, I'll get on Yard Barker and I'm like, what is this
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headline here? And I had to read the article and I'm like, oh
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my god, they got me on the clickbait. Oh my god, Like,
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there is no way, And I wanted to ask you, you know,
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and I know, there's no way that they should be trading assets for
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any sort of pitching down the stretch with what this team has right now.
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And yes, injuries could happen. They could happen to any team, that
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could happen to New York Yankees, it can happen to the Dodgers whoever.
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You know. Injuries can happen, But where they are right now, where
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they're sitting right now, Ben, there is absolutely no need to make any
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significant changes to the starting line of at least in my opinion. So I'm
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I'm really glad you said that, pal. Yeah, No, of gosh,
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it's a ridiculous question to post, right, Yeah, I look,
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I looked a little bit more into Yeah, that's a clickbait too. Absolutely,
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absolutely all right, we'll move it on here. Of course, a
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lot of us are, you know, wait and see here about Brandon marsh
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his hamstring. How that's gonna be affecting him? Man, When he was
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round in second base and I just saw him pull up immediately, I'm like,
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you gotta be freaking kidding me. You have to be kidding me.
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I'm just gotta we're gonna miss him. Of Course, it's gonna be rough
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losing Marsh for any given period of time. I think we all know that.
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And I'm assuming we're gonna see more of Christian Pashe who only has fifty
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one at bats so far this season. So what might Marsh's injury do to
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the lineup here? Ben and some of that bad inconsistency this team has enjoyed
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now for over the past couple of months. So I'm actually not all that
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concerned about Marshall. I mean, don't get me wrong. I was concerned
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when he pulled up at second base and was grimacing and reached immediately for his
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AMMI yep, I mean that's not a nothing injury. But Topper came out
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today and he was talking about both Clemmens and Marsh went on the IL this
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afternoon. Now that the most serious injuries. I think both of them are
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going to be back by mid to late June at the latest. But the
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thing is, Marsh is a very good player, but he's not impossible to
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recreate the aggregate, Okay. And I say that because the two guys they
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have backing up are David Doll and Christian Pashe and David Doll got called up
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and he's going to be starting for the Phillies on today, June third,
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against the Brewers. And he's a He's a very already solid defensive left fielder
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like Marsh used to be a center fielder. Is a left handed bat that
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was raking at Triple A. You know, now before alarm bells go off
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and we start all freaking out and calling fire, he has basically the same
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exact slash line as Jake Cave had last year at Triple A. That said,
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I don't think most people who hit three forty at Triple A are as
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bad as Jake cave right, so finger struts will get a little bit better
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than that. But Doll's a good defender. He's a good left handed bat,
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and you can platoon him with Pache who's an elite defender, and frankly,
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I think a pretty solid right handed bat. As of about two or
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three weeks ago, and given the small sample size, it's at least that's
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at a little iffy. But he had the highest average eggit velosity in the
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league. And that's you know, only among non qualified hitter. Excuse me,
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that is among non qualified hitters, so including everyone out there. That's
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higher than Shoheo Tani. That's higher than Vladdy Junior. That's higher than Aaron
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Judge. That's I mean number one. It's fallen a little bit. He's
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had a few you know, ninety three mile an hour hits exit velocities in
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the past couple of days. Right, but if he can stop streaking out,
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you know, that's that's not a bad platoon. Right. We're forgetting
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he is a blue chip prospect three years ago. This is pretty much traded
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straight up for Matt Olsen. Yeah, he is not a bad player when
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you consider his base running and his defense, and you know, value wise,
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those are two guys who aren't going to look foolish out there and left
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field for the Phillies. All right, well, let's not crap our pants
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yet, folks. Okay, all right, take what Ben says and let's
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not crap our pants here. All right, Well, moving along here,
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two part question for you just about you know, concerns for this team.
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You know, concerns you do have, concerns you don't have for this team.
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And I think there there's a decent amount on both sides of the equation
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here. So let's start off with this two part question, Ben, what
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are your biggest concerns for this team as we are heading into June? So
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I'm gonna give you one that I don't think you were or really anyone is
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really expecting. But I'm worried about Bom. I have never been a believer.
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I know you're so many. Yeah, that's what everyone believer at this
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point because he plays crap defense and his he doesn't hit for power. It's
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when he's going well, he's going well. But the thing is even his
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his top ceiling is a mediocre defender. And what we saw in April,
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it's like you know, you get like Bryson Stott ceiling is, you know,
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an eight to fifty ops. And you know, gold glove defense is
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the fact that Boom is a bad base runner and plays crap defense that he
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just has to be absolutely mashing the ball to be of any value. And
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the thing is is, it's like we're all looking at boom stats right now,
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and eight fifty ops. He's batting through eighty. That's brilliant. You
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know, he's gonna hit one hundred and fifty RBI. I love RBIs,
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but I mean, really, he really he's like like a six sixty ops
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and bat at two twenty in May and we just kind of forgot because he
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had such a good April, right It's like he's just he's really cool off.
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And the Phillies once again, don't have a great cleanup pitter. He
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had one home run last month. It's like, is that it actually he
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only hit one in May one home run. And I've been saying it forever,
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but the Phillies are going to need a cleanup pitter and it's not gonna
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be real Muto. And you know, Boom is a fine stop gap,
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and you know what, maybe the rest of the team is good enough that
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they can win a World Series with the Boom is the cleanup pitter. But
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I want someone else. And that's someone else for me is Louis Robert and
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I've been calling for this a very long time. And he's not gonna be
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cheap, mind you, like you're gonna need like and this is this is
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the low end of the package right now, because I am I'm not moving
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Miller and I'm not moving Painter, but someone like like Abel McGarry, one
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of Rojas and Crawford and obviously and honestly, I'm moving a Ryan Kirkering as
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well, because the Phillies have a glut at bullpen. We have I think,
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by far, the best bullpen in the league. Yes, and that's
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actually what doesn't concern me at all is that I think the Phillies bullpen is
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even better better than what we've seen so far. Like they're so back and
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so solid, that back end trio of of Hoffman and Strom and Alvarado,
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I mean it makes me weak. Man. Matt Strom is incredible. Matt
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Strom, what an acquisition he has been. He has not given up an
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earned run in like how many how many months now since opening day since Opening
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Day. Yes, it's incredible. Yeah, it's been over two months.
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Yes, and it's like, you know, I don't know how all these
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guys are gonna get representation at the All Star Game, but they all deserve
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it. Like there's four guys between Hoffman, Alvarado, Kirkering, and Strom
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that are all just brilliant. And the only reason I'm moving Kirkering is because
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I think his value is way higher. I think his perceived value is way
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higher than what he actually gives to the team. You don't really need more
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than three lockdown guys at the end of a bullpen. You know, you
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have Soto and you have Sir Anthony, who I know get maligned on here
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a little bit. But are they are good players? Yeah, and I
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think that they're gonna step up as well. And you also have Hosted realizing
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your Marte, Michael Mercado. You have a lot of guys who can fill
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in there. And Spencer Turnbull of course as well. Is absolutely yeah,
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absolutely all right, Very good again, folks. Ben Silver at Ben h
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Silver on the Twitter slash x give them a follow. He's a great,
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great follow and you'll be able to check out some of his freelance pieces when
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those are up and published. So as we're moving on here, you did
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mention the All Star break. We're gonna get to that in a little bit.
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That's gonna be our final topic. But as we're moving along here,
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Ben, you know, I don't think we as a fan base have talked
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about the Phillies farm system enough over the years. And I say that because
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when we do see a player like Bryce and Stott and I know you were
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just kind of coming down on Alec Baum, but still with Alec Baum coming
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up through the farm, you know, these guys are homegrown talent, and
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I think it goes to show that the Phillies farm system has red damped itself
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over the years here after being such a dismal place for much of the you
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know, the twenty tens, it was just a it was just a terrible
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time for the farm system, as we all know. Again, I don't
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I personally don't think this topic gets talked about enough. I'm wondering what your
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thoughts are as you've mentioned some minor leaguers possibly making an impact this year.
17:19
Yeah, no, so, I mean I was reading I believe it was
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Keith Law's list on the athletic recently, and he had a new top fifty
17:29
for MLB. Yeah, and the Phillies had three guys on there, and
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I, frankly, I cannot remember the last time the Phillies had three guys
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in the top thirty. Right between Painter, Crawford and Miller. Those are
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three blue chip talents, especially Andrew Paynter and in Miller, like I see
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them as you know, untouchables right now. You gotta with it with the
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way the Phillies payroll was structured, you gotta have a few guys you can
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count on his franchise cornerstones that you're not paying twenty five million in a year.
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And frankly, I think both of those guys are going to be long
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term solutions for the Phillies at third base slash shortstop and at second pitcher.
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And then beyond you know, throw Crawford on that trio as well. Beyond
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those, you have three guys who are on the fringes at top one hundred,
18:15
like Mick Abel and Griff McGarry and Starlin Caba, all of whom well,
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I shouldn't say all of them are very good because mckables had a rough
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start of the season, but there's still a lot of talent there. There's
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still a lot of talent, and most importantly, what you have between those
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six guys is a system where you can trade a few players away and not
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feel bad about, you know, pillaging, the pillaging the the newly the
18:44
next generation of Phillies. Yeah, I mean Brian Barber and Pressed and Maddingly
18:48
have just done a hell of a job following up you know Matt Clintax institution
18:52
here, which really bankrupted, yes, bankrupted the next generation. It feels
19:00
like they're really on the forefront of research and development. Absolutely, Mick abel
19:04
been pretty disappointed with his performance thus far here this season. But there really
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is a ton of talent in the miners and in the farm that we're going
19:12
to keep our eyes on, and we're gonna be talking about it more folks
19:15
in the future for sure here at the PSD podcast show. So, as
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we are concluding our discussion here, Ben leaving things on a positive note here,
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it'll be fun to see how many Phillies are actually going to make the
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All Star Game this year. You referred to it a little earlier with regard
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to the bullpen who may be going to the All Star game from this Phillies
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bullpen. And you know, while it sounds kind of ridiculous, I think
19:38
you can have a lot of this team heading to Arlington, Texas at this
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point here. So I'm wondering, though, which Phillies do you think it's
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a lock, you know, to make the All Star team at this point
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here in twenty twenty four. Who may be on the bubble as well?
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What are your thoughts? All right? So, coming into this, I
19:56
actually prepared a tearless oh nice of Phillis All Star locks from most likely to
20:02
least likely. And frankly, I only have two in the lock category right
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now, and that's Wheeler and Ranger. I don't think either of them are
20:07
slowing down within the next two months. I think both of them are in
20:11
you know, position one A in position one B as the top stars in
20:14
the National League right now. We're lucky to have them. Yep. So
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honestly, here I don't have Harper in my lock category, which I think
20:22
is going to shock a lot of people. But Harper is streaky man.
20:26
You could have a bad stretch, You could have a bad like two or
20:29
three weeks now. That said, he's been the best first basement of the
20:30
National League so far, and he just won Player of the Month for it
20:33
may as well, So he's as close to a lock as you can be
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without being one. But like, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see
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Harper going into the All Star break with an eight twenty oh ps. Now,
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don't get me wrong and be disappointed, but I wouldn't be blown away
20:47
to see that and to have him just beyond the fringes of the All Star
20:51
robster Okay also has never made an All Star game with the Phillies before.
20:55
Crazy to say, but somehow it's true. Also in that category right now
21:00
is Alec Bohm, who I think, you know, in my little like
21:04
b tier, probably should be an All Star category. I know I this
21:07
dump bum a little bit, but he still should probably be an All Star.
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I know he's nearly fifty RBIs he's Batten, you know, two eighty
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seven whatever it is. He's got an eight to fifty ops and for what
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it's worth, has played better defense. You know. If he turns it
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on and continues to have you know, an eight fifty eight sixty ops through
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the next month, he should probably be an All Star and will be an
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All Star if you can use that at his current pace as well Aaron Nola.
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But I think at a certain point it becomes a little unluckily that you
21:34
have three pitchers in your All Star roster. So I think it's gonna be
21:40
tough to have more than Wheeler and Ranger out of the starting rotation. Now
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my next category, my next tier is just bullpen pitchers in general. So
21:48
you have Hoffman, Strom, and Alvarado all probably should make it, but
21:55
probably only one wheel because you've got a factor in, you know, one
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guy from the Sins that he has to make it. One Miami Marlin has
22:02
to make the All Star team, and one of those guys is probably gonna
22:04
be a reliever that knocks out a few deserving Phillies or a few you know,
22:10
deserving Braves or Pirates. I think most likely that Jeff Hoffman is the
22:15
one to make it, okay, just based on the fact that it's kind
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of hard for middle relievers to make All Star teams. Saves are sexy,
22:22
and you know, Hoffman has a lower ra than Alvarado, despite the fact
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that I think Alvarado has really pitch chest as well as Hoffman has. All
22:30
three of them could and should make it, but I don't think all of
22:34
them will make it. And finally, on my bottom tier is both Kyle
22:38
Schwarber, who is you know, a June away from an All Star appearance
22:42
and maybe a June away from the home run derby as well, and Chris
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Sanchez, who has a lower ra than Nola, but perhaps not the name
22:48
recognition that it takes to get voted into the All Star Game. You know.
22:52
Of course, there's you know, a Bryson stodd or a JT.
22:55
Real Muto hot streak in there as well that could propel those guys in,
22:57
but I don't think either of them are particularly clo Yeah, Bryson Stott,
23:00
he was my pick at the beginning of this year, even before the first
23:03
pitch you know, was thrown from the mound, to be my All Star
23:08
from this team. Doesn't necessarily look like that's gonna happen, but it's gonna
23:11
be fun to watch. Gonna be fun to watch for sure. Again,
23:14
Folks. Ben Silver at Ben Hsilver on Twitter. He's a great great follow
23:18
check out all his freelance work out there. Ben Buddy, it was great
23:22
talking to you, always great seeing you having conversations about this Philadelphia Phillies team.
23:26
I'd love to talk to you down the road, my friend, absolutely,
23:30
Jeff, always a pleasure. Thanks so much. That's gonna do it
23:33
for us here on Table Talk this week. Please share our podcast with your
23:37
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23:41
We thank you our listeners for being part of this online community with us and
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within this space. Please make sure to check out our website, Philadelphia Sports
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