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The Phillies After A Month Of Baseball (PST Episode 614) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:41
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest
0:45
Speaker 1: running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, twelve
0:48
Speaker 1: years strong. And yes, folks, you will see on YouTube
0:52
Speaker 1: we have the one and the only Len Hunsiker. Buddy,
0:56
Speaker 1: how you doing, man.
0:58
Speaker 2: Look into my hideous as it's it's weird, sweedy eyes
1:05
Speaker 2: being on video on YouTube. Whatever it is.
1:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's whatever it is.
1:09
Speaker 2: I know everybody does this at this point, but exactly
1:12
Speaker 2: still weird.
1:13
Speaker 1: Exactly. So for you listening, uh you know to the
1:16
Speaker 1: podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart wherever you're listening to
1:19
Speaker 1: from an audio standpoint, come on over to YouTube, search
1:22
Speaker 1: out the Philadelphia Sports Table, subscribe to us there and uh,
1:25
Speaker 1: you know, like these videos. It'll help expand our reach
1:28
Speaker 1: over on YouTube. But yeah, this is fun. This is
1:31
Speaker 1: actually fun getting a chance to see you as we're
1:34
Speaker 1: doing this show because Eric's been on a few times
1:36
Speaker 1: already here and I we got you set up, man,
1:40
Speaker 1: we got we got the setup all done for you there.
1:44
Speaker 2: Sorry, folks, as God made me.
1:50
Speaker 1: Love it, I love it all right. Well, we do
1:52
Speaker 1: have a great show. We got a lot of topics
1:54
Speaker 1: that we want to dive into on this on this
1:57
Speaker 1: week's show. First and foremost, we're starting up. As you
2:02
Speaker 1: all know, Eric and I have dove into this week
2:05
Speaker 1: in Philly sports history. This is a segment, Lenn if
2:08
Speaker 1: you remember when we first started this show, like twelve
2:10
Speaker 1: years ago, we did the Philly Sports Moments.
2:14
Speaker 2: It's funny, it wasn't until I was going through it,
2:17
Speaker 2: like just now going through the agenda, just kind of like, yeah,
2:20
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we used to do this like way back,
2:23
Speaker 2: like in the beginning.
2:24
Speaker 1: Yes, we did, We would do it in the beginning.
2:26
Speaker 1: I loved it. And as we're heading over to video here,
2:29
Speaker 1: I think it'd be cool for us to pick up
2:31
Speaker 1: that mantle again and talk about because there's some fun
2:34
Speaker 1: stuff to talk about in the world of Philly sports
2:37
Speaker 1: in terms of the history, like notable things that have
2:40
Speaker 1: happened in Philly sports history. So we're gonna be diving
2:43
Speaker 1: into that, folks. And then of course we are going
2:45
Speaker 1: to be getting into some Eagles talk. The draft has
2:50
Speaker 1: come and gone. The Eagles have ten new players that
2:53
Speaker 1: they drafted. Howie Roseman, quite frankly did an incredible job.
2:56
Speaker 1: And I will say this to everybody listening or watching
2:59
Speaker 1: on you YouTube. We were supposed to have some very
3:02
Speaker 1: detailed analysis on our Table Talk show this past week.
3:05
Speaker 1: If you check on YouTube or you check back on
3:07
Speaker 1: the podcast feed, you're not going to see the Table
3:09
Speaker 1: Talk show because the individual that was supposed to jump
3:11
Speaker 1: on the show, and I'm not going to say who
3:13
Speaker 1: it was, who committed to coming on, he just didn't
3:16
Speaker 1: show up, Like he just and told he told me
3:19
Speaker 1: he was doing something else. Let's just say that he
3:22
Speaker 1: was at the White House covering the Eagles, which completely
3:26
Speaker 1: I mean, he was doing his job, but he committed
3:29
Speaker 1: to me about doing the analysis. You know, I sent
3:32
Speaker 1: him the topics you know that we're going to be
3:33
Speaker 1: diving into. Didn't hear anything back. I text him and
3:38
Speaker 1: I say, are you still good to record here this
3:41
Speaker 1: Afternoon's like, oh, I'm in the White House right now
3:43
Speaker 1: for the Eagles thing. And I'm like, like, what the heck?
3:45
Speaker 2: Part of me, there's a part of me that is
3:48
Speaker 2: wonders like when maybe they maybe found out, like oh damn,
3:53
Speaker 2: that's tomorrow and I just found out about it now.
3:56
Speaker 2: But he at least shoot me off. The text should be.
3:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, text, listen, I got a work thing here. I'm
4:01
Speaker 1: going to the White House.
4:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
4:03
Speaker 1: The Eagles pretty simple, exactly exactly. So we're gonna be
4:07
Speaker 1: diving into some Eagles talk folks, and just give our
4:09
Speaker 1: thoughts on the Eagles draft. I know a lot of
4:11
Speaker 1: analysis and and talk on other podcasts have been done
4:14
Speaker 1: about it, but we want to give our two cents
4:16
Speaker 1: here as well. And then from there, we're gonna getting
4:18
Speaker 1: into the Philadelphia Union, the Philadelphia Union and US fans.
4:21
Speaker 1: We were not expecting Daniel gadzag to leave this organization
4:26
Speaker 1: so soon he's in Cleveland. What does this mean uh
4:30
Speaker 1: for the Union as they are now third in the
4:32
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. So after that, we're gonna be diving into
4:36
Speaker 1: some Philadelphia Phillies talk here with Len and then what
4:39
Speaker 1: we're thrown down on the table this week, we've got
4:41
Speaker 1: Ethan Witty from the Good Fight dot Com. He's gonna
4:44
Speaker 1: be joining us to break down the pitching the batting
4:47
Speaker 1: issues that we've been seeing with this Phillies team. It's
4:49
Speaker 1: not all terrible, certainly not all great, but we're gonna
4:52
Speaker 1: dive into it with Ethans. So that being said, Len,
4:56
Speaker 1: why don't we get into some Philly sports history here.
4:59
Speaker 1: I've got I've got four notable moments that I want
5:02
Speaker 1: to first read and then maybe we can dive into
5:04
Speaker 1: one or two of them if we find anything really
5:08
Speaker 1: notable with these. So I want to go back. Let's
5:11
Speaker 1: go back to May first, eighteen eighty three. This week
5:15
Speaker 1: May first, eighteen eighty three, it was the Philadelphia phillies
5:19
Speaker 1: very first game in franchise history. Their inaugural game was
5:24
Speaker 1: played in the National League and they were facing the
5:26
Speaker 1: Providence Grays at Recreation Park. They lost that match or match.
5:31
Speaker 1: They lost that game four to three, and this game
5:35
Speaker 1: marked the beginning of the Phillies storied franchise history. And
5:40
Speaker 1: then we can actually move to May first, nineteen oh six,
5:44
Speaker 1: where one of the greatest names and we're gonna have
5:46
Speaker 1: to talk about this in a little bit here, Johnny
5:49
Speaker 1: Lush had a no hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies on
5:52
Speaker 1: May first, nineteen o six. He threw a no hitter
5:55
Speaker 1: against the Brooklyn team at the time and then became
5:58
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a six zero victory at
6:01
Speaker 1: Washington Park in Brooklyn, and that was the last no
6:05
Speaker 1: hitter by a Phillies pitcher until nineteen sixty four. So
6:10
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty interesting, amazing.
6:12
Speaker 2: That's that span of time exactly pretty much sixty years.
6:15
Speaker 1: Basically, by the way, I was gonna save it for
6:17
Speaker 1: just let's talk about it now. Could be the greatest
6:20
Speaker 1: name in Philly sports, Philly's sports history. Johnny Lush. I
6:24
Speaker 1: wish my last name was Lush.
6:27
Speaker 2: It's like if you like wrote like a you know,
6:32
Speaker 2: a script for a movie, and like you get it
6:35
Speaker 2: handed back to you, right, and they'd say, nobody's name
6:37
Speaker 2: Johnny Lush, you know, get the hell out of here exactly.
6:40
Speaker 2: So yeah, like, but it actually was somebody's name.
6:44
Speaker 1: Yes, it was his name, Johnny Lush. And he hit
6:46
Speaker 1: that or threw that no hitter against Brooklyn back in
6:49
Speaker 1: nineteen oh six. May first, so let's move to May sixth,
6:53
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. It was Reggie Leech's record tying performance.
7:00
Speaker 1: Who was Reggie Leech, folks Well, he was a Philadelphia
7:03
Speaker 1: Flyers right winger. He scored five goals in a playoff
7:07
Speaker 1: game against Boston Bruins and at that moment tied and
7:10
Speaker 1: NHL playoff record. The Flyers won that game six to three,
7:15
Speaker 1: and then finally for our Philly sports history segment, here
7:19
Speaker 1: May second, two thousand and one, Philadelphia seventy six Ers
7:23
Speaker 1: eliminated the Indiana Pacers in Game five. That game was
7:27
Speaker 1: eighty eight to eighty five. What what a score? What
7:30
Speaker 1: a score?
7:30
Speaker 2: Lane?
7:30
Speaker 1: Eighty eight to eighty five in game five of the
7:32
Speaker 1: first round.
7:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't get those You don't get those scores
7:35
Speaker 2: anymore in the NBA. It's exactly one eighteen to one thirteen. Yeah,
7:40
Speaker 2: like all stuff like that, exactly. People played defense back then.
7:43
Speaker 2: Well yeah, yeah, a different different game. I guess that
7:47
Speaker 2: that was okay, two thousand and one, you said, so
7:49
Speaker 2: that was when they were on there at their run.
7:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was yeah, May second, two thousand, Yeah, May second,
7:54
Speaker 1: two thousand and one where they beat the Pacers. Alan
7:56
Speaker 1: Iverson led the team with thirty three points in that game,
7:59
Speaker 1: to Kemba Tombo and Aaron McKee helped to secure the
8:03
Speaker 1: win with some real big plays in that game. And it,
8:06
Speaker 1: like you just said, that victory marked their progression to
8:09
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference semifinals during that memorable run to the
8:12
Speaker 1: NBA Finals that year, which, of course we know how
8:15
Speaker 1: that ended up turning and turning out. But yeah, they're great, Yeah,
8:19
Speaker 1: not great at all, but there were some moments right
8:21
Speaker 1: there in Philly sports history, buddy. But Johnny Lush, that's
8:24
Speaker 1: still that's still that That's my top one from this week.
8:28
Speaker 2: I wonder if he was hungover when he did it?
8:31
Speaker 2: Is a lush after all?
8:32
Speaker 1: Zing, zing, or we can perhaps do this one here,
8:38
Speaker 1: Ah car Crash, I'm just kidding.
8:42
Speaker 2: Whiskey is for Johnny Lush.
8:43
Speaker 1: But there you go. There you go, Len having that
8:45
Speaker 1: adult beverage there, very nice. All right, Well, moving along
8:49
Speaker 1: with the show here, lend the Philadelphia Eagles. You know,
8:53
Speaker 1: we've heard and we have seen some analysis about their draft,
8:59
Speaker 1: the ten new plays that they drafted. They also have
9:01
Speaker 1: some unrestricted free agents that they signed as well. Not
9:04
Speaker 1: going to really dive into them, but the first few
9:07
Speaker 1: rounds were very interesting as the front office, Howie Roseman,
9:11
Speaker 1: really made a point to concentrate on the future of
9:14
Speaker 1: this defense, and I think we're seeing Vic Fangio becoming
9:18
Speaker 1: that much more of a valuable piece of or a
9:22
Speaker 1: valuable cog in this process here in the draft process.
9:26
Speaker 1: And just wanted to give our thoughts as we are
9:29
Speaker 1: moving forward here, because you look at just about everybody
9:33
Speaker 1: who gave any sort of grades for the Eagles draft,
9:36
Speaker 1: and I do find it is interesting how people are
9:39
Speaker 1: grading these draft picks, and it's like, like is it clickbait?
9:42
Speaker 1: Like like what do you mean the grade?
9:43
Speaker 2: Like is it like that's value clickba because yeah, nobody's
9:48
Speaker 2: nobody's even gone to OTA's yet. I know, there's there's
9:51
Speaker 2: no way you can grade. You gotta wait two or
9:54
Speaker 2: three years, you know, wait until they pull you know,
9:57
Speaker 2: put out those you know, redraft articles for like you know,
10:00
Speaker 2: the draft two years ago. Yeah, before you can honestly
10:03
Speaker 2: start assessing that stuff, right right.
10:05
Speaker 1: I mean there are like, say, for instance, there are
10:08
Speaker 1: folks given the Eagles an A A minus. You know,
10:11
Speaker 1: I think B plus was like the bottom grade that
10:15
Speaker 1: I saw in terms of reading some of the stuff here.
10:17
Speaker 1: But you look at you look at a guy like
10:19
Speaker 1: Jahad Campbell, who was the thirty first overall pick, and
10:22
Speaker 1: there were certain folks that had him ranked as the
10:25
Speaker 1: number fourteen player in the draft class and a lot
10:28
Speaker 1: of folks saying arguably the best value pick of Day one,
10:33
Speaker 1: and you know, they just they went real heavy on defense,
10:37
Speaker 1: and I liked it. You know, you've got a linebacker
10:39
Speaker 1: slash edge rusher that is going to be hopefully a
10:43
Speaker 1: valuable piece moving forward. Howie Roseman really valuing the defense,
10:47
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of that is because of
10:49
Speaker 1: Vic Fangio and what Vic Fangio meant to this team
10:52
Speaker 1: during the Super Bowl run this year and how dominant
10:56
Speaker 1: the defense was. I think Vic Fangio, I mean, I
10:59
Speaker 1: think he's going to be a part of this Eagles
11:00
Speaker 1: team and organization for a very very long time. Like
11:04
Speaker 1: that's my biggest theme and takeaway from this len from
11:07
Speaker 1: this draft.
11:08
Speaker 2: Uh what just in terms of Campbell or or just.
11:12
Speaker 1: With Fangio, like Fangio being so instrumental his voice.
11:15
Speaker 2: Yes, it is instrumental in the organization. Yeah, absolutely. I
11:18
Speaker 2: mean you know, you look, the the first five picks
11:22
Speaker 2: of this draft were all defensive players. So yeah, I
11:25
Speaker 2: think that's the theme. I think that they kind of
11:30
Speaker 2: have an established pattern now. You know. It used to
11:32
Speaker 2: be the joke of like oh the the the Philadelphia
11:35
Speaker 2: Bulldogs with draft and all the Georgia players, But I
11:38
Speaker 2: think it's more of a a high level sec thing
11:43
Speaker 2: where it's Georgia players, it's John Campbell out of Alabama,
11:46
Speaker 2: it's Andrew mccoobat of Texas. I mean, if you've shown
11:50
Speaker 2: that you can can star in that League at that
11:55
Speaker 2: high level. That is something that I think Howie Roseman
11:58
Speaker 2: kind of puts stock in and and you see that
12:01
Speaker 2: kind of Bart's way out in the picks a little
12:03
Speaker 2: bit here.
12:04
Speaker 1: I thought the very first pick off the board was
12:07
Speaker 1: actually going to end up being a defensive tackle. I
12:11
Speaker 1: actually thought they were going to go pass rusher or
12:14
Speaker 1: defensive tackle. But I mean with John Campbell, essentially he
12:18
Speaker 1: is going to be that edge rusher. You know he
12:21
Speaker 1: is going to take likely Josh Swet's place in the lineup.
12:25
Speaker 1: I loved the Andrew or I don't know if we're
12:28
Speaker 1: calling him Drew because I know he likes to be
12:29
Speaker 1: called Drew apparently Macouba as well. The safety out of
12:32
Speaker 1: Texas losing CJ. Gardner Johnson was absolutely huge. I think
12:37
Speaker 1: for this team, mccuba is going to be able to
12:39
Speaker 1: come in and be a difference maker. I mean, I
12:42
Speaker 1: don't think he's going to be the end all be all.
12:44
Speaker 1: It's going to take him some time, but his pursuit,
12:48
Speaker 1: his ability to read coverages. Just from the film that
12:52
Speaker 1: I have seen thus far, I think he could potentially
12:56
Speaker 1: start over Sidney Brown and with Ty Robinson defensive tackle
13:00
Speaker 1: from Nebraska that was taken in round four. Uh Land,
13:03
Speaker 1: I think that rotation is is gonna be there. I
13:07
Speaker 1: think that for the defensive line losing Milton Williams, well yeah,
13:12
Speaker 1: uh see, this is the thing. I don't know if
13:14
Speaker 1: I would call it a huge loss, but it was
13:17
Speaker 1: a loss. And again in that cog of what Vic
13:20
Speaker 1: Fangio has been able to do with the defensive rot
13:23
Speaker 1: the defensive line rotations, and I think Ty Robinson he's like, again,
13:26
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be perfect coming into the season by
13:29
Speaker 1: any stretch, but he's gonna end up being part of
13:32
Speaker 1: the rotation and he's probably gonna just end up getting
13:35
Speaker 1: better with Fangio being his coach. So I just I
13:38
Speaker 1: love how that. I love how this Eagles draft actually
13:42
Speaker 1: went this year. And we were Eric and I are
13:43
Speaker 1: talking about in the show. We were just able to
13:45
Speaker 1: kind of sit back, sit back and say, you know,
13:47
Speaker 1: what feels like how he's playing with house money and
13:49
Speaker 1: like whatever he does with that first pick, second pick,
13:52
Speaker 1: third pick, like, Okay, I'm cool with it because we're
13:54
Speaker 1: trusting him at this point. Like it's a good feeling
13:57
Speaker 1: to have.
13:59
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the conversation that you know, I had,
14:02
Speaker 2: you know, my wife would ask me, you know, especially
14:05
Speaker 2: some of the guys after like the first two rounds. Yeah,
14:08
Speaker 2: you know, the Eagles would take a guy and say, oh,
14:10
Speaker 2: do you like this pick, and it's just like, I
14:12
Speaker 2: have no idea who he is. But you know, based
14:14
Speaker 2: on the track record that that they've had over the
14:17
Speaker 2: past couple of years, you have to give Howie the
14:20
Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt and give that the scouting and
14:23
Speaker 2: the development all of it. It's all it's all in together.
14:27
Speaker 2: The scouting is there with this team, and then the development.
14:30
Speaker 2: You see guys come in that are you know, third, fourth,
14:33
Speaker 2: fifth round picks, and they become somebody and that that matters.
14:37
Speaker 2: And it's happened over the past couple of years now
14:40
Speaker 2: where you've you've deep into the draft, You've gotten players
14:44
Speaker 2: that that have become contributors and that's a testament to
14:47
Speaker 2: you know, the development there. But yeah, I mean there's
14:50
Speaker 2: some names on here. I can't tell you I've ever
14:52
Speaker 2: seen him play a snap. Maybe they did, maybe maybe
14:54
Speaker 2: I did, maybe I didn't. But you know, at the
14:56
Speaker 2: same time, I trust him until they give me a
15:00
Speaker 2: reason not to trust them. So yeah, yeah, I mean
15:02
Speaker 2: I wasn't surprised by the second round pick given the
15:08
Speaker 2: like a few of the mock drafts that I saw,
15:10
Speaker 2: it had them going safety, whether it was Winston out
15:13
Speaker 2: of Penn State or the kid out of Notre Dame,
15:16
Speaker 2: and it ended up being Macouba. So yeah, the fact
15:19
Speaker 2: that they went safety in the second round wasn't a
15:21
Speaker 2: huge surprise to me at all. But yeah, the fact
15:24
Speaker 2: that they went that way with their first five picks,
15:27
Speaker 2: that is a little bit of a surprise to me.
15:29
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what was not a surprise to me,
15:31
Speaker 1: and I actually liked seeing it was the fact that
15:33
Speaker 1: you had one of their fifth round picks was Drew
15:37
Speaker 1: Kendall from Boston College the center and guard. And then
15:41
Speaker 1: round six you had offensive tackle Miles Hinton from Michigan
15:45
Speaker 1: being picked, and then the following pick right after that
15:49
Speaker 1: in round six, they had Cameron Williams, offensive tackle out
15:52
Speaker 1: of Texas. The fact that they are trusting and rightfully
15:56
Speaker 1: so Jeff Stoutlin to say, you know what, we're going
15:59
Speaker 1: to draft offensive linemen later in the draft. We saw
16:03
Speaker 1: what you did with Jordan Mylatta. We've seen what Stoutlin
16:07
Speaker 1: has done with talent that has been drafted on Day
16:11
Speaker 1: three in the past, and how much he's been able
16:14
Speaker 1: to get out of them, why not, you know, get
16:17
Speaker 1: the best value you can with regard to these offensive
16:22
Speaker 1: linemen developed them. It's such a smart strategy because of
16:27
Speaker 1: the type of offensive line coach you have that you're
16:29
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get the most out of these
16:31
Speaker 1: players at some point down the road in terms of
16:33
Speaker 1: depth pieces. I honestly I hate today. It's genius, it's brilliant.
16:39
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that, but it's a really good strategy.
16:42
Speaker 2: Well, and it's a luxury that they have right now,
16:45
Speaker 2: even the offensive line coach they have, and also the
16:47
Speaker 2: personnel that they have on the offensive line at this moment.
16:50
Speaker 2: There will come a time when they have to spend
16:53
Speaker 2: a high pick on an offensive lineman. They're not gonna
16:55
Speaker 2: be able to do this forever, or they just you know,
16:58
Speaker 2: say hey, Jeff, here's a couple of project late in
17:00
Speaker 2: the draft for you. We're gonna throw a couple of
17:02
Speaker 2: bodies at you and let's see what you do with them. Yeah,
17:04
Speaker 2: you know, they're not all going to turn out to
17:05
Speaker 2: be winners. As much as at this point, we think
17:08
Speaker 2: that everything that Statlin touches is going to turn into gold.
17:11
Speaker 2: That won't always happen, and there will come a time once,
17:14
Speaker 2: you know, a few guys move on, whether it's retirement
17:17
Speaker 2: or free agency or whatever, where they are going to
17:20
Speaker 2: have to Okay, for a second round pick, you know,
17:23
Speaker 2: we're gonna have to go and spend a high pick
17:25
Speaker 2: on an offensive lineman again, and that that'll happen eventually,
17:29
Speaker 2: but you know, for now, Hey, if he can get
17:31
Speaker 2: one or two of these guys to stick and be contributors, awesome,
17:35
Speaker 2: I mean that's that's one lessing you have to spend
17:37
Speaker 2: stuff on later.
17:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, all right, well I think that's going
17:41
Speaker 1: to do it for Eaglestock. Do you have anything else, buddy?
17:43
Speaker 1: Before we move on to the Philadelphia seventy six Ers.
17:45
Speaker 2: Singer, No, no, I don't. I wish we could stay
17:50
Speaker 2: away from the Sixers forever, but uh, you know, if
17:53
Speaker 2: we must, we must.
17:55
Speaker 1: Let's get into it, man. I mean, it's a critical
17:57
Speaker 1: offseason as we know for this seventy six team. Joe
18:00
Speaker 1: El Embiid's injury has fueled a lot of uncertainty, and
18:05
Speaker 1: we know the Sixers, you know, well, we hope that
18:07
Speaker 1: they're gonna be able to keep their top protected pick
18:09
Speaker 1: from Okac and and you know what should Darryl Morey,
18:13
Speaker 1: you know, do at this point in terms of this
18:16
Speaker 1: off season. I mean, there's certainly some free agents they
18:19
Speaker 1: can that they can bring in, you know, Trey Lyles
18:22
Speaker 1: as somebody who they could potentially bring in, Alec Burks.
18:26
Speaker 1: You know, those are just a few in terms of
18:28
Speaker 1: free agency that they could potentially bring in to help
18:31
Speaker 1: this team. But Len, I think when it comes to
18:35
Speaker 1: where this team goes from here, like the level of
18:38
Speaker 1: uncertainty that fans are really asked to deal with at
18:41
Speaker 1: this time, it is at an all time high, and
18:44
Speaker 1: I uncertainty that may actually be a generous way to
18:48
Speaker 1: describe how a lot of us in the fan base
18:51
Speaker 1: are feeling, because I think I think it's closer maybe
18:53
Speaker 1: to apathy here. You know, there there are so few
18:58
Speaker 1: people who believe in the short term future of this team,
19:01
Speaker 1: again because of Embiid's uncertainty with his knees and his
19:05
Speaker 1: inconsistent health over these years. Paul George, what type of
19:09
Speaker 1: Paul George are we going to see? But look, Philadelphia
19:13
Speaker 1: seventy six ers basketball has always been filled with some
19:17
Speaker 1: sort of change, some sort of turmoil. It seems like
19:19
Speaker 1: that is the path that this organization is on, and
19:24
Speaker 1: again everything is riding on how Joe El Embiid really
19:28
Speaker 1: comes back from his injuries and even where you know
19:32
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi where he goes with his game. There's just
19:36
Speaker 1: so much uncertainty with this team right now that it's
19:39
Speaker 1: really hard to say, you know, what window of opportunity
19:42
Speaker 1: is there, because I really don't think it is, and
19:44
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody thinks it is with this team.
19:46
Speaker 1: I don't know what what are your thoughts at this
19:47
Speaker 1: point with the seventy six ers.
19:50
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's hard to have trust. And
19:53
Speaker 2: you know, I think we've talked about this before, but
19:55
Speaker 2: you know, because we you know, compare organizations, and you know,
19:59
Speaker 2: I be players matter. You have to have the talent there,
20:02
Speaker 2: and coaching and strategy and all that matters as well.
20:06
Speaker 2: But there's something to be said. I just talked about
20:08
Speaker 2: it with the Eagles. I trust their scouting, I trust
20:11
Speaker 2: their development once they get the guys in the house.
20:13
Speaker 2: I trust the coaching to coach them up and make
20:17
Speaker 2: them into the players that they can be. I don't
20:19
Speaker 2: have any of that here and that's that's the problem,
20:23
Speaker 2: and it's a noticeable problem. So at this point, you know, yeah,
20:28
Speaker 2: hopefully they can just you know, a worst case scenario
20:31
Speaker 2: they hold firm at five. You know this kid, Trey Johnson.
20:35
Speaker 2: I saw him a little bit in the tournament. He
20:38
Speaker 2: looks like he's a decent player, you know. But we'll
20:42
Speaker 2: see what happens. I mean, I would love it if
20:44
Speaker 2: they could get one of those top two picks and
20:46
Speaker 2: at least have like a bridge, because you know, I
20:49
Speaker 2: it's hard. I want to believe that Joel Embiid can
20:53
Speaker 2: come back. I don't really have that faith for Paul George.
20:57
Speaker 2: I think he is what he is. I think he's
20:59
Speaker 2: going to be what he's going to be. He's going
21:00
Speaker 2: to be fifty to sixty games a year, you know,
21:03
Speaker 2: and that's it. And that's probably what Embid is as well.
21:06
Speaker 2: But I mean, I want to believe in Embiid, but
21:10
Speaker 2: he is now on the wrong side of thirty.
21:13
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:13
Speaker 2: So you know that all those injuries that have been
21:16
Speaker 2: happened over the past couple of years, they're not magically
21:19
Speaker 2: going to get better all of a sudden. They're in fact,
21:21
Speaker 2: they're they're they're accumulating and they're probably going to get worse.
21:24
Speaker 2: So it'd be nice if they could get Cooper Flag
21:27
Speaker 2: and it'd be like, Okay, this season sucks. You know,
21:30
Speaker 2: Embiid's been out a lot, George has been out a lot.
21:32
Speaker 2: But I can at least watch Tyrees Maxy and I
21:34
Speaker 2: can Cooper Flag and I can dream of the framework
21:39
Speaker 2: of the next Sixers playoff team, Whereas right now, I
21:44
Speaker 2: don't feel that because I don't know that those two guys,
21:47
Speaker 2: that those two veterans that have been here are are
21:50
Speaker 2: going to be available. So yeah, at this point, you're
21:54
Speaker 2: just hoping for, you know, to be able to look
21:57
Speaker 2: at the future, because I don't know that the future
22:01
Speaker 2: is now for for this team at this point.
22:03
Speaker 1: I mean, we're all hoping it's Cooper Flag, but I'm
22:05
Speaker 1: wondering about Dylan Harper as well, and even maybe Ace Bailey.
22:08
Speaker 2: That'd be great. Either one of those two would be great.
22:11
Speaker 2: Ace Bailey would would be okay. I mean you know
22:14
Speaker 2: that the I think that the top five guys in
22:17
Speaker 2: this draft are pretty interesting. Also, you know, throwing in
22:20
Speaker 2: their trade Johnson as I mentioned, and VJ. Edgecomb at
22:23
Speaker 2: A Baylor. I think those are all interesting names. We'll
22:28
Speaker 2: see what happens. I think the if I'm not mistaken,
22:30
Speaker 2: the the lottery is on May twelfth, so we'll see.
22:33
Speaker 2: They have a sixty four percent chance of keeping their pick.
22:38
Speaker 2: If two teams jump ahead of them, then then it
22:40
Speaker 2: goes and they fall to seventh and that pick goes
22:43
Speaker 2: to Oklahoma City. They have a let's see here. According
22:47
Speaker 2: to tankathon dot com, they've got a forty two point
22:50
Speaker 2: one percent chance at a top four pick and a
22:53
Speaker 2: ten point five percent chance at the number one overall pick. So,
22:58
Speaker 2: you know, decent eye for all of those things to happen.
23:02
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean at this point with this team,
23:06
Speaker 2: I just want something to look forward to because again,
23:10
Speaker 2: I just don't know that the present is ever going
23:14
Speaker 2: to be what we want it to be exactly.
23:15
Speaker 1: They need to have They need to have a top
23:17
Speaker 1: five pick. I think in this draft for us to
23:19
Speaker 1: have hope as a fan base, like, that's all we want.
23:22
Speaker 1: It's all we wanted, some hope. Yeah, give it to us, Darryl,
23:27
Speaker 1: give us hope. I think Adams, look, Eric and I
23:29
Speaker 1: were talking about it on a recent show. I think
23:31
Speaker 1: Adam Silver in the front office are really going to
23:33
Speaker 1: try to screw the seventy six ers in terms of
23:35
Speaker 1: the draft pick. I really do because of the time.
23:38
Speaker 2: I've had that feeling about Adam Silver for years and
23:41
Speaker 2: years and years. If you've listened to this show for
23:43
Speaker 2: any amount of time, you know how I feel about
23:46
Speaker 2: Adam Silver, And you know that I think that if
23:50
Speaker 2: he has the chance, if there is such thing as
23:53
Speaker 2: rigging the lottery, I think he would not hesitate to
23:58
Speaker 2: put the knife in between the US or shoulder blades
24:01
Speaker 2: here because yeah, I just I don't think he has
24:05
Speaker 2: any love lost for this organization because of the whole
24:08
Speaker 2: tanking thing.
24:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely. All right, well, folks that we're going to take
24:12
Speaker 1: a break here in just a bit. But first, if
24:15
Speaker 1: you're on YouTube, you're gonna see here. Our social media
24:18
Speaker 1: sites can follow us in the show on various sites.
24:23
Speaker 1: Instagram at Philadelphia Sports Table, Twitter, slash x at Philadelphia PST.
24:28
Speaker 1: It can follow Eric and myself on those sites as well.
24:31
Speaker 1: I'm over on TikTok at mister Jeff Warren. Eric and
24:35
Speaker 1: I are both over on Blue Sky search me up
24:39
Speaker 1: there at brick Polt for Eric, and we're also on threads.
24:43
Speaker 1: You can follow Eric at slen ten twenty three and
24:46
Speaker 1: me at mister Jeff Warren. Like our Facebook page, Facebook
24:49
Speaker 1: dot com slash Philadelphia Sports Table. Just search us out
24:52
Speaker 1: on social sites you will find us. And Lynn with
24:56
Speaker 1: Epion said, why don't we take a break and we'll
24:58
Speaker 1: be back in just a bit. That all right with you?
25:00
Speaker 2: Okay, let's do it.
25:03
Speaker 1: All right, We are back and we are going to
25:06
Speaker 1: be diving now into the Philadelphia Union. Let it's been
25:10
Speaker 1: some time since we've been able to talk about the
25:11
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Union because Eric's been on the.
25:15
Speaker 2: Show's not he's not talking him up.
25:18
Speaker 1: He's like, what's this ball? With this black and white
25:20
Speaker 1: ball and two goals? What is this exactly? Yes? So look,
25:30
Speaker 1: it's been a surprising season for the Philadelphia Union. As
25:33
Speaker 1: of us recording this, they are six one and three.
25:36
Speaker 1: After last year that was a dismal year in so
25:40
Speaker 1: many different ways, Jim Curtin being let go during the
25:45
Speaker 1: off season, brand new coach coming in, and this team
25:49
Speaker 1: is now third in the Eastern Conference, third in the
25:53
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference. Yet they took one of their star players
25:58
Speaker 1: who we all love, Daniel Gadzag and they moved him
26:04
Speaker 1: to Cleveland. They gave him.
26:06
Speaker 2: Columbus, Oh Columbus.
26:08
Speaker 1: That's right, wrong, freaking wrong, Ohio City here, but really
26:12
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. So apparently apparently the Union let certain teams
26:22
Speaker 1: know that Gadzag would have been was a trade option
26:26
Speaker 1: about a month ago. And is a Tall, who's the
26:29
Speaker 1: Crew's general manager, really just jumped on it. A Tall
26:35
Speaker 1: knew that bringing in and attacking midfielder was a no
26:40
Speaker 1: brainer for Columbus. So the deal was made using MLS's
26:44
Speaker 1: new cash for player trade policy, which allowed the Crew
26:47
Speaker 1: to send four million dollars to Philadelphia for gaz Dag,
26:51
Speaker 1: which is a pretty good deal, I'm assuming as I'm
26:56
Speaker 1: continuing to still learn about contracts and and and money
26:59
Speaker 1: with in Major League Soccer, But it does kind of stink.
27:03
Speaker 1: I thought he was going to be on this team
27:05
Speaker 1: for a while. We had no idea, had no idea
27:08
Speaker 1: that he was he was a trade option even a
27:10
Speaker 1: month or two ago at this point when so it's
27:14
Speaker 1: a it was pretty shocking to get that news and
27:17
Speaker 1: what it's going to do for the team here. I
27:19
Speaker 1: don't know, they're still successful at this point, and yes,
27:22
Speaker 1: it's early in the season here and they're still seeing success.
27:25
Speaker 1: So I don't know what were your thoughts when you
27:27
Speaker 1: heard about the trade and the thoughts on where it
27:30
Speaker 1: might end up taking this team.
27:33
Speaker 2: Utter disappointment to be frank. I mean, you know we
27:38
Speaker 2: if you listen to this show leading up to the season,
27:42
Speaker 2: and you know you heard me complain pretty much ad nauseam.
27:46
Speaker 2: They're letting everybody go. They're really not bringing too many
27:49
Speaker 2: people in. Oh, they're gutting this team down to the studs,
27:52
Speaker 2: you know all that, and then lo and behold, they
27:55
Speaker 2: come out of the gates hot and it's like maybe
27:57
Speaker 2: they have something. Okay, you know, ty Briebo has picked
28:00
Speaker 2: up where he left off at the end of last year.
28:04
Speaker 1: Five goals in like the first two games.
28:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, and maybe I I I can't help but wonder
28:10
Speaker 2: if maybe his hot start maybe led the Union's management
28:16
Speaker 2: to be like, we can afford to get rid of Gazdag.
28:20
Speaker 2: You know, uh maybe I don't know. I mean that,
28:23
Speaker 2: that to me would be the uh, that would be
28:27
Speaker 2: the the thinking. I guess I could at least kind
28:30
Speaker 2: of see.
28:31
Speaker 1: That with Sugarman. That's freaking and.
28:35
Speaker 2: That's the thing, you know. Okay, yeah, you got four
28:37
Speaker 2: million from Columbus for for Gayzdag. But like are you
28:42
Speaker 2: gonna put that back into the club or you're gonna
28:46
Speaker 2: put that in the pocket, because you know you had
28:48
Speaker 2: a good thing here. You started off hot. You trade
28:52
Speaker 2: probably the teams. You know, if you picked people out
28:57
Speaker 2: on the street and said name three Field Health Union players.
29:01
Speaker 2: First of all, most people wouldn't be able to. But
29:03
Speaker 2: at the same time, among those that would, Daniel Gazda
29:06
Speaker 2: would have been in ninety five percent of the responses
29:09
Speaker 2: of the top three players that rolled off of their
29:12
Speaker 2: tongues for the Philadelphia Union. Yeah, he's a known quantity.
29:16
Speaker 2: He was basically there were times in the past where
29:19
Speaker 2: he has essentially been their offense. Ye, So you trade him,
29:23
Speaker 2: you know, one of your most recognizable faces to a
29:26
Speaker 2: team that you're fighting with in the standings. Columbus is
29:29
Speaker 2: currently second in East Philadelphia's third, So you're you're giving
29:33
Speaker 2: him directly to somebody that you're competing with, if in
29:37
Speaker 2: fact you were actually trying to compete, which you know,
29:42
Speaker 2: given this management, in this ownership, I should say, I
29:46
Speaker 2: think the management maybe trying to do what they can,
29:48
Speaker 2: but given this ownership, you have to wonder how much
29:51
Speaker 2: they're competing. And you give it to a club that
29:54
Speaker 2: you know, listen, since twenty twenty, the Columbus Crew has
29:58
Speaker 2: won two MLS Cups. They won in twenty twenty, they
30:01
Speaker 2: won in twenty twenty three. They they've been there. They
30:06
Speaker 2: they are a consistently well run organization. And they said, oh, okay,
30:13
Speaker 2: you don't want them, we'll take them. And you know,
30:15
Speaker 2: they they plugged him right into their lineup, and you know,
30:18
Speaker 2: and that's what a winning club does, right and and
30:22
Speaker 2: a team that consistently cares about winning, that's what that
30:25
Speaker 2: team does. That's not what the Union did here, and
30:28
Speaker 2: that for that reason, it's it's just disappointing. I'm not
30:33
Speaker 2: going to sit here and tell you the bottom is
30:34
Speaker 2: going to fall out. This team is going to go
30:36
Speaker 2: tumbling to the bottom of the East. You know that
30:38
Speaker 2: probably won't happen. They've got some other pieces there that
30:42
Speaker 2: that you know they can compete with. But it just
30:45
Speaker 2: feels like you just took one hand and tied it
30:47
Speaker 2: behind your back in a fight.
30:49
Speaker 1: You do. I could not understand taking Gazdag. He has
30:54
Speaker 1: proven himself to be a top goal scorer in this
30:57
Speaker 1: league since joining the Union back in two thousand two
31:00
Speaker 1: twenty one, and I mean he was. I mean, he's
31:03
Speaker 1: the Union's all time leading goal scorer across all competitions
31:07
Speaker 1: with with fifty nine. But it leads me to believe
31:10
Speaker 1: that with Bradney Bradley Carnell coming in. You know, I
31:14
Speaker 1: even Gazdag said in an article that I had read
31:17
Speaker 1: where he's like, I can't imagine that this would have
31:19
Speaker 1: happened if Jim was still the coach, and he would.
31:22
Speaker 2: Have maybe yeah, maybe maybe they maybe they think, oh,
31:26
Speaker 2: he's a Jim Curton guy. Yeah, or maybe maybe you know,
31:29
Speaker 2: Carnell looked at his his team and his personnel and said, yeah,
31:37
Speaker 2: And I don't know, this is peer speculation. Maybe he
31:39
Speaker 2: said that Gosdog's a you know, a square peg in
31:41
Speaker 2: a round hole. Maybe he doesn't fit what I'm trying
31:43
Speaker 2: to do. That's certainly possible, you know, I'm you know,
31:47
Speaker 2: as much as we as Union fans want to lay
31:49
Speaker 2: everything at Sugarman's feet, maybe it's not. But he's had
31:54
Speaker 2: enough over the past couple of years where you know,
31:58
Speaker 2: the smoking gun just we automatically lead it to him. Yeah.
32:01
Speaker 2: So you know that's kind of the reputation that you
32:04
Speaker 2: put out there for yourself.
32:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, so. I mean, we're gonna keep following what
32:08
Speaker 1: this Union team does over these next how many games
32:12
Speaker 1: and of course throughout the season here, but certainly certainly
32:16
Speaker 1: a big shock for this team here. So why don't Len,
32:19
Speaker 1: why don't we move on to our our last story
32:24
Speaker 1: here and just talking about the Phillies before we get
32:27
Speaker 1: to the interview with Ethan Whitty from the Good Fight
32:29
Speaker 1: dot Com. In terms of this Philadelphia Phillies team here, Like,
32:34
Speaker 1: I've really been thinking a lot about what the past
32:37
Speaker 1: few years have meant to the team and the camaraderie
32:41
Speaker 1: and just the chemistry with all the guys in in
32:44
Speaker 1: in uh, you know, in the locker room. I think
32:49
Speaker 1: that fun feeling, that fun loving feeling, you know, whether
32:52
Speaker 1: it's the you know, the water at the end of
32:53
Speaker 1: the game, that those fun feeling vibes this season that
32:57
Speaker 1: they've had the past few seasons aren't just aren't there anymore.
33:00
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if that's why that this season has
33:04
Speaker 1: been such a struggle for this team they feel it
33:06
Speaker 1: feels like whether it's I mean even I mean you
33:09
Speaker 1: get it from Bryce Harper, you get it from just
33:12
Speaker 1: about every guy on this team, where it's like, all right,
33:13
Speaker 1: we gotta get down to business. We got to get
33:15
Speaker 1: down to business, all right. Forget the fun loving stuff
33:18
Speaker 1: that we've been doing over the past few years. You
33:20
Speaker 1: know that our window of opportunity is going to start
33:22
Speaker 1: closing here. Let's let's get down to business. And I
33:25
Speaker 1: think part of what we have loved about this Phillies team,
33:27
Speaker 1: even though they faltered in the postseason recently and that
33:31
Speaker 1: has been a disappointment, I think the majority of US
33:34
Speaker 1: fans have really enjoyed what this team has been in
33:37
Speaker 1: terms of that chemistry and those good vibes. They just
33:40
Speaker 1: don't have them. They just don't have them. I think
33:42
Speaker 1: that's part of why we are seeing such up and
33:45
Speaker 1: down struggles with this team here. I don't know. I
33:47
Speaker 1: wanted to bring it up because, you know, I think
33:49
Speaker 1: it is a theme that we are going to need
33:51
Speaker 1: to continue to look at here with this Phillies organization
33:53
Speaker 1: and team. What do you think?
33:56
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I think there is a
33:59
Speaker 2: certain sense from the fan base where it's just like, Okay,
34:04
Speaker 2: prove it. You know, yes, you got in the playoffs
34:06
Speaker 2: the past couple of years. You know, yeah, we made
34:09
Speaker 2: the two World Series of one year and then we
34:11
Speaker 2: just finished short and then you know, we we fell
34:14
Speaker 2: short of that, you know, last year. So maybe maybe
34:18
Speaker 2: the the the three year trend of going down the ladder,
34:23
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, maybe maybe that's kind of
34:24
Speaker 2: weighing on the Philly psychologically. Maybe it's waging on the
34:28
Speaker 2: fan base where it's like, you know, wake me when
34:30
Speaker 2: the playoffs come. Maybe maybe the Phillies are just like,
34:34
Speaker 2: let's just you know, that's when the season really starts.
34:37
Speaker 2: I mean, they're not I'm not saying they're they're playing
34:40
Speaker 2: like it, not saying that they're not, you know, out
34:43
Speaker 2: there trying to win. I mean, they're second in the
34:45
Speaker 2: NL East right now, so behind the Mets, so you
34:49
Speaker 2: know that there. They've won their last four games now
34:52
Speaker 2: with tonight's win against Washington. So it's not like we're
34:55
Speaker 2: talking about a team that's in the toilet right now.
34:58
Speaker 2: They're you know, they're they're playing. They rebounded from a
35:00
Speaker 2: five game losing streak with a four game winning streak.
35:03
Speaker 2: They're sitting at I leave seventeen and thirteen now, so
35:09
Speaker 2: you know, it's not like they're playing horribly. But yeah,
35:12
Speaker 2: that that that whole thing. I know that there was
35:14
Speaker 2: the there was the talk of the maybe a rift
35:18
Speaker 2: between Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh because somebody has a
35:22
Speaker 2: girlfriend now and somebody's you know, not happy about it.
35:25
Speaker 2: And I mean, I would hope it's not that. I
35:29
Speaker 2: would hope that we're we're all adults here right at
35:32
Speaker 2: this point. Maybe they're growing out of the daycare stuff.
35:35
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe it's the fact that they're they're getting older.
35:38
Speaker 2: You know, Alec Boum is in his late twenties now,
35:42
Speaker 2: you know, maybe they decided, all right, kind of grow
35:45
Speaker 2: up a little bit and get away from that. I
35:47
Speaker 2: do think you kind of need that a little bit.
35:49
Speaker 3: That team.
35:49
Speaker 1: There's a ton of veterans on this team. I'd be
35:52
Speaker 1: the you know trade you need.
35:53
Speaker 2: A bit of a young spark to kind of keep
35:56
Speaker 2: things light exactly. The Phillies don't have young players on
36:01
Speaker 2: their team. I mean, you know, young players on their
36:04
Speaker 2: team Bryson. But Bryson and Stuth's been here for three
36:07
Speaker 2: years now, you know, at least, so you know, it's
36:11
Speaker 2: it's not like you got some you know, spunky rookie
36:14
Speaker 2: that's you know, oh look at this guy. He's new
36:17
Speaker 2: to the league and he's you know, he doesn't know
36:18
Speaker 2: what's going on, but he's doing well and well, you know,
36:21
Speaker 2: he's endearing in that kind of way. There's not that
36:24
Speaker 2: on this team, so maybe you need it, but you
36:26
Speaker 2: know the only way you're getting that is if you know,
36:29
Speaker 2: Aden Miller or you know, or Crawford, you know, gets
36:32
Speaker 2: called up and you know you have to. You know,
36:36
Speaker 2: if I was a rookie, I wouldn't be coming in there,
36:38
Speaker 2: you know, all just trying to make jokes. All of
36:41
Speaker 2: a sudden, you have to find yourself, your your your
36:43
Speaker 2: head's on a swivel, probably learning the game, and you
36:46
Speaker 2: know you don't want to come in and you know,
36:48
Speaker 2: rock the boat at all. So there's all that that
36:51
Speaker 2: you're you're worried about as a first time major leaguer.
36:53
Speaker 2: So I think that it's kind of going to move
36:56
Speaker 2: away from that whole fun daycare vibe for a little
37:02
Speaker 2: bit just because of that, because just guys are getting older.
37:05
Speaker 1: I like the daycare vibe. I like it.
37:08
Speaker 2: It happens, you know, believe it or not, Jeff, we're
37:13
Speaker 2: not as fun as we used to be.
37:14
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
37:15
Speaker 2: I know that's probably hard for you to believe.
37:16
Speaker 1: I mean, we're not right late forties here you and I.
37:22
Speaker 1: You mean, look, I've I have been at a number
37:24
Speaker 1: of concerts over the past few days. Then again, or
37:28
Speaker 1: the past few weeks, I should say, then again, I
37:30
Speaker 1: feel like I'm getting I'm like, oh man, my knees
37:32
Speaker 1: are hurting after standing for like four hours.
37:35
Speaker 2: You you you were in Pittsburgh. Yes, And then later
37:41
Speaker 2: that night I saw a picture of you and Eric
37:43
Speaker 2: and Eric's wife at a show in Philly.
37:46
Speaker 1: Yes, and longest day.
37:48
Speaker 2: The only thing that went through my mind was I
37:51
Speaker 2: can't imagine yes, driving across the street, across the state, Yeah,
37:56
Speaker 2: and then going to a loud concert at the end
37:58
Speaker 2: of like, and I don't mind loud. I mean I
38:00
Speaker 2: still go to shows and all that stuff, but like,
38:02
Speaker 2: after driving across the state, I just I saw that picture.
38:06
Speaker 2: I was like, oh god, he's going to be exhausted,
38:08
Speaker 2: Like you know what I mean, It's all you were, right,
38:10
Speaker 2: That's that's the way we think now, because that's just
38:13
Speaker 2: how it is.
38:13
Speaker 1: It is. It was a good good five hours from
38:16
Speaker 1: where we were at right outside of Aliquippa, which is
38:19
Speaker 1: western like west of outside of Yeah, to the west,
38:23
Speaker 1: really close too, Yes, Yeah, drive back it's five hour drive.
38:28
Speaker 1: I get home and I'm like, all right, I gotta
38:31
Speaker 1: I gotta eat something. So I had that.
38:33
Speaker 2: Because it's not like you drove directly to Philly. You drove,
38:35
Speaker 2: you know, to the Lehigh Valley and then down to
38:37
Speaker 2: Philly exactly.
38:39
Speaker 1: Put two chicken tenders in the air fryar had those,
38:43
Speaker 1: and I headed right down. I was here for fifteen
38:45
Speaker 1: minutes and then I head right down to the show.
38:48
Speaker 2: What Nightmare?
38:49
Speaker 1: Oh it was a great show.
38:50
Speaker 2: Though.
38:50
Speaker 1: It was a great show Philly's own shoegaze band Nothing Nothing.
38:55
Speaker 1: They were fantastic. For all you folks out there, Yes,
38:58
Speaker 1: for all you folks out there, listen to nothing. I
39:01
Speaker 1: actually said to my daughters, I'm like, oh, I'm going
39:03
Speaker 1: to a show tomorrow. They like, who you seeing? I said,
39:06
Speaker 1: I'm seeing nothing, and I swear I got My daughter goes, dad,
39:09
Speaker 1: who are you saying?
39:10
Speaker 2: Oh god? It turned into who's on first wear?
39:12
Speaker 1: No? No, no, it was like dad, who are you seeing?
39:14
Speaker 1: I said, I'm seeing nothing. She's like, Dad, who are
39:17
Speaker 1: you seeing? I said, I'm seeing nothing. She's like, oh,
39:21
Speaker 1: is it a band? Nothing? I said, yeah, dear, yeah, yes, wordplay?
39:28
Speaker 2: Oh boy?
39:29
Speaker 1: All right, well, buddy, I think we want to get
39:31
Speaker 1: to the interview with Ethan Witty here, yea, do you
39:34
Speaker 1: have anything else before we head out of here? It
39:36
Speaker 1: was great, It was great doing this video.
39:37
Speaker 2: Man, it was a good first experience. It didn't take
39:41
Speaker 2: nearly as long to get everything. I honestly thought. I
39:45
Speaker 2: was like, oh man, we're gonna be here probably for
39:47
Speaker 2: an hour, yeah, trying to figure this out, and it
39:50
Speaker 2: you know, it only took us maybe like what twenty minutes.
39:53
Speaker 1: That's it.
39:53
Speaker 2: So that's it went a lot quicker, no technical glitches.
39:56
Speaker 2: I think everything went pretty good. So yeah, thumbs up
40:00
Speaker 2: to the whole experience.
40:01
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good. Well, folks, we are gonna take
40:04
Speaker 1: a break here, and when we come back, I'll be
40:07
Speaker 1: sitting down with Ethan Witty from the Goodfight dot Com
40:10
Speaker 1: and uh, we'll catch you after the break and now
40:15
Speaker 1: on the table now joining us from the Good Fight
40:21
Speaker 1: dot Com. He's the supreme blog lord over there. They
40:25
Speaker 1: have fantastic content constantly. When it comes to this Philadelphia
40:29
Speaker 1: Phillies team, We're gonna dive into what we've been seeing
40:32
Speaker 1: from the Phillies as of late and what's gonna be
40:34
Speaker 1: happening with this team in the future again the Supreme
40:38
Speaker 1: blog lord over at the Goodfight dot Com. Mister Ethan Whitty,
40:42
Speaker 1: how you doing, buddy?
40:43
Speaker 3: Everything's going well, Jeff? How about you?
40:45
Speaker 1: Things are all right. Look, when it comes to this
40:47
Speaker 1: Phillies team and what we've been seeing from them so
40:50
Speaker 1: far this season, Ethan, there's been some good there's certainly
40:55
Speaker 1: been some not so good things coming from this Phillies
40:58
Speaker 1: team as well. So wanted to get those conversation started
41:01
Speaker 1: off by assessing, if we can, who this team actually
41:05
Speaker 1: is at this point here as we're heading into May.
41:11
Speaker 1: I'm wondering what is the theme of this Phillies team
41:13
Speaker 1: so far this year after about a month of baseball?
41:16
Speaker 1: In your eyes, I mean, are we able to assess
41:18
Speaker 1: really at this point what the theme of this team and
41:21
Speaker 1: season is for this For this Phillies team.
41:24
Speaker 3: I usually don't get it worried about anything until like
41:28
Speaker 3: Memorial Day, so that's still to me. It's still early,
41:30
Speaker 3: still April. They're just inconsistent right now. I mean, I
41:34
Speaker 3: think they're running into hot teams. They ran into a
41:36
Speaker 3: hot Giants team, they ran into a hot Mets team,
41:39
Speaker 3: a hot Cubs team. I think they're just the inconsistency
41:44
Speaker 3: will kind of play itself out when you're playing teams
41:47
Speaker 3: like that. I mean, you can't go in against teams
41:49
Speaker 3: that are that good, playing that well and expect to
41:53
Speaker 3: come out on the good end of it when you're
41:55
Speaker 3: not playing well yourself. Yeah, there are things they have
41:59
Speaker 3: to clean up. At the same time, there are three
42:01
Speaker 3: games over five hundred. There's still a good team. They're
42:05
Speaker 3: still likely to make the playoffs so long as some
42:08
Speaker 3: of those NL West teams fall off. But it's I'm
42:12
Speaker 3: not worried about too too much of anything, except for
42:15
Speaker 3: kind of like one section, which we'll probably get into
42:17
Speaker 3: in a minute. Yeah, But other than that, I think
42:20
Speaker 3: it's just it's veterans. They're veterans. They'll figure it out.
42:23
Speaker 3: It's not too too much to worry about just yet.
42:25
Speaker 1: Again, folks talking to Ethan Witty at Ethan Underscore Witty
42:29
Speaker 1: over on the Twitter slash x buddy, are you on
42:31
Speaker 1: any other social platforms here at this point? Like, I
42:34
Speaker 1: am so like confused, not confused, but we are on
42:37
Speaker 1: so many social platforms ourselves. Yeah, I just wanted to
42:39
Speaker 1: throw it out there for I don't know if you're
42:40
Speaker 1: on Blue Sky or threads, or anything.
42:42
Speaker 3: I'm on Blue Sky, but honestly like I've throttled down
42:45
Speaker 3: on all that topic, too much of it at times.
42:48
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, sounds good. So again at the Twitter
42:52
Speaker 1: slash x at Ethan underscore witty And as we're moving
42:55
Speaker 1: along with the conversation here, buddy, you know, the starting
42:58
Speaker 1: pitching has been somewhat and I stress the word somewhat
43:02
Speaker 1: disappointing for some Phillies fans from an overall perspective. As
43:06
Speaker 1: Aaron Nola, he's got a five point four zero ERA
43:09
Speaker 1: as of us recording this, and he still hasn't had
43:11
Speaker 1: his first win of the season yet. He's zero to five.
43:14
Speaker 1: Zach Wheeler he's got a three point six two ERA
43:17
Speaker 1: as of us recording this as well. Jzeus Lozardo fantastic
43:21
Speaker 1: year so far, one point seventy three er. He is
43:25
Speaker 1: killing it. How do you think we as fans really
43:29
Speaker 1: should be looking at the starting pitching in terms of
43:32
Speaker 1: the expectations so far? You mentioned the inconsistency overall. We're
43:36
Speaker 1: certainly seeing that from the starting pitching standpoint, but how
43:39
Speaker 1: should we be assessing the starting pitching from an overall
43:42
Speaker 1: perspective here?
43:45
Speaker 3: I personally have been fine with the starting pitching. I
43:47
Speaker 3: think Wheeler, they kind of have a Wheeler and Nola
43:51
Speaker 3: seem to have a bad case of Homeritis where it
43:54
Speaker 3: just seems like they're giving up home runs at bad times. Yeah,
43:58
Speaker 3: especially Wheeler. Last night, he shook off real you know,
44:00
Speaker 3: in next pitch throws, the ball ends up in the stands,
44:03
Speaker 3: and the game becomes a game that it shouldn't have
44:05
Speaker 3: been a game with Nola. I mean, everyone's worried about
44:09
Speaker 3: Nola's Nola's start, but at the same time, I wrote
44:13
Speaker 3: a piece last week. Everyone was worried about his velocity.
44:16
Speaker 3: But if you look back historically, his velocity is always
44:19
Speaker 3: down in April and it tends to bounce back, and
44:21
Speaker 3: we did see that on Sunday night. It started to
44:24
Speaker 3: bounce back a little bit more. I think it was
44:26
Speaker 3: up like one or two miles an hour on average
44:29
Speaker 3: against the Cup, and it showed. I mean, when he's
44:31
Speaker 3: got the velocity up on that stuff, everything else plays
44:34
Speaker 3: off better than that. I know. The whole broadcast they
44:37
Speaker 3: were talking about the pitching plan worked, but the best
44:40
Speaker 3: thing for him the pitching plan was he threw strikes,
44:43
Speaker 3: and that's kind of been his issue. Lately is throwing strikes.
44:46
Speaker 3: The Zarta has been great. He's he's been that. That
44:50
Speaker 3: was a great trade then and it's a great trade now.
44:52
Speaker 3: So long as you know, knock on wood, we're not
44:54
Speaker 3: going to say the H word, but he's been great.
44:58
Speaker 3: Sanchez looked like a cy young can in it before
45:00
Speaker 3: he went he got hurt. And tonight's a big night
45:03
Speaker 3: for him. You know, we're doing this on Wednesday and
45:05
Speaker 3: he's starting tonight. If he gets through six seven innings,
45:09
Speaker 3: I mean, you can kind of just consider that last
45:11
Speaker 3: Star just a little blip that they were being overly
45:14
Speaker 3: cautious with. Even Taiwan Walker I think has been decent.
45:18
Speaker 3: He's been a good number five star terrible. Yeah, I
45:21
Speaker 3: know what, I don't know what else you can ask
45:23
Speaker 3: from him, and they they've got Painter making his way back,
45:27
Speaker 3: Suarez is coming back. I mean, I know we all
45:30
Speaker 3: want to worry about the losses with Nola, but at
45:33
Speaker 3: the same time, you know, I think the starting pitching
45:37
Speaker 3: just hasn't been the issue at all. Yeah, it's been
45:40
Speaker 3: like it's been disappointing with Nola. It's a little bit,
45:44
Speaker 3: I mean, the tiniest bit with Wheeler, but everything else.
45:47
Speaker 3: I think it's been fine, if not better than fine.
45:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're The theme of course coming into this season
45:53
Speaker 1: was the start because there the front office didn't necessarily
45:56
Speaker 1: make a ton of moves with regard to you know,
45:59
Speaker 1: you know, a bad personnel that it was going to
46:01
Speaker 1: be the starting pitching that was really going to be
46:04
Speaker 1: able to make or break this season. And I think
46:07
Speaker 1: because of Aaron Nola, there's that narrative that the starting
46:10
Speaker 1: pitchers have a problem, and I'm with you, I don't
46:13
Speaker 1: necessarily think the starting pitchers have a problem. I think
46:15
Speaker 1: it was that extremely high expectation of where the starting
46:19
Speaker 1: pitching was going to be, as though they would all
46:21
Speaker 1: as though all five starters would have like a one
46:23
Speaker 1: point five era or something.
46:25
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, I mean everyone's kind of everyone's kind
46:27
Speaker 3: of thinking it was twenty eleven all over again. You
46:29
Speaker 3: know you're gonna have the four eighth right right plus
46:32
Speaker 3: and it's in all honesty, you're you're close. You've got
46:36
Speaker 3: too in Sanchez and Wheeler, Lozardo's pitched like one and Nola.
46:42
Speaker 3: I mean, Nola's start on Sunday should have been super encouraging.
46:46
Speaker 3: So let's say Suarez comes back healthy, and comes back
46:49
Speaker 3: as Suarez. You're right back to where you started from. Yep,
46:52
Speaker 3: just maybe a little bit later than people would have thought.
46:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, sticking with the pitching, but moving over
46:59
Speaker 1: to the bullpen, man, this bullpen still very shaky, Ethan,
47:03
Speaker 1: And I honestly, I'm surprised Ryan Kirkering has kind of
47:06
Speaker 1: struggled as much as he has this season. And I
47:08
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I thought he
47:10
Speaker 1: would have that one pitch in his arsenal that he
47:13
Speaker 1: would be able to utilize to get him out of
47:17
Speaker 1: tough situations that he is in. But they've gotten to
47:19
Speaker 1: the point where they put Seth Johnson in the bullpen
47:22
Speaker 1: this past week and Jordan Romano. He continues to struggle
47:25
Speaker 1: as well. From an overall perspective this season. Is there
47:29
Speaker 1: anything the fan base thus far is getting wrong about
47:33
Speaker 1: the bullpen in terms of the overall frustrations and how
47:36
Speaker 1: well or not well the bullpen is performing overall? Or
47:40
Speaker 1: do folks just really need to be patient here and
47:42
Speaker 1: see where this crew takes the team over these next
47:45
Speaker 1: few weeks.
47:47
Speaker 3: As far as has the fan base been wrong, No,
47:50
Speaker 3: they haven't been good. I mean that's there's really no
47:53
Speaker 3: way to sugarcoaters. Nobody get. You can't gaslight as somebody saying,
47:57
Speaker 3: oh they've been good, because like, no, they haven't been good.
48:00
Speaker 3: Alvarado has been good, yeah, but other than that, they're
48:03
Speaker 3: they're not that good. But on this on the other end, yes,
48:07
Speaker 3: it's still early. I think Romano's had a good They
48:11
Speaker 3: must have figured something out with him. He's been good
48:12
Speaker 3: as last two or three outings. If he was pitch tipping,
48:17
Speaker 3: then if they if they clean that up, then I
48:20
Speaker 3: think you're going to see him in for a string
48:22
Speaker 3: of good outings, you know. And if he is, then
48:26
Speaker 3: again it's an April blip. And because it's the first
48:28
Speaker 3: thing we see, all the other sports are done, you're
48:31
Speaker 3: focusing in on one thing. Strom's been a little here
48:37
Speaker 3: and there. I Strom's still good reliever. He's still good reliever.
48:41
Speaker 3: But my issue is my issue is with you. I'm
48:43
Speaker 3: with the whole thing with Kirkering is just odd. I think,
48:48
Speaker 3: in my opinion, would take it for what it is.
48:51
Speaker 3: He needs a third pitch, he needs something different because
48:55
Speaker 3: the sweeper is good. But if you can just eliminate
48:59
Speaker 3: that as an op then you sit on a fastball
49:03
Speaker 3: that's really not that overpowering. It doesn't get many swings
49:06
Speaker 3: and misses, and that's what he's getting hammered on. He
49:10
Speaker 3: needs a third pitch, something, a splitter, change, something that
49:15
Speaker 3: they even if it's not good right away, it gives
49:19
Speaker 3: them something to think about that they can't just sit
49:22
Speaker 3: on one pitch. I think if he can do that,
49:24
Speaker 3: I think that's when he takes off. One of our
49:28
Speaker 3: writers has something coming up about his lack of swing
49:30
Speaker 3: and miss and for a guy who's got as good
49:32
Speaker 3: as stuff as he does, it's very strange. So yeah,
49:38
Speaker 3: he maybe just me. It's hard to say. He's a
49:42
Speaker 3: good high leverage reliever, but maybe not as good as
49:45
Speaker 3: they think he is. Maybe instead of the second option
49:48
Speaker 3: of the bullpen, he's more like the fourth something like that,
49:51
Speaker 3: which now you're talking about putting him in the sixth,
49:53
Speaker 3: seventh in eng when the game's still there's still enough
49:57
Speaker 3: game to come back. If he has a rough outing,
50:00
Speaker 3: it's just let's bring them along slows. Remember he's still young,
50:02
Speaker 3: he's still got a lot of time. But Cotham has
50:05
Speaker 3: shown Caleb Cotham has shown the ability to say, maybe
50:08
Speaker 3: you could work with this tinker with this, so maybe
50:11
Speaker 3: that's where they need to be right now. Is working
50:13
Speaker 3: with him on that?
50:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I would absolutely agree with you
50:16
Speaker 1: on that for sure. But Ethan, let's now move on
50:19
Speaker 1: to the runners in scoring positions storyline with this team,
50:24
Speaker 1: and it just seems to be an ongoing storyline. My gosh,
50:26
Speaker 1: I feel like we've been talking about this for years
50:29
Speaker 1: now at this point. I mean, I thought it was
50:31
Speaker 1: amazing how when you look at the metrics during the
50:35
Speaker 1: series against the Mets, which was a terrible series of
50:37
Speaker 1: course for the Phillies they got swept. I mean, their
50:40
Speaker 1: bats actually weren't terrible with runners in scoring position from
50:44
Speaker 1: what I recall in that series against the Mets. But
50:47
Speaker 1: are we as a fan base making too much out
50:50
Speaker 1: of the runners in scoring position storyline that's really been
50:53
Speaker 1: plaguing this team for quite some time now.
50:56
Speaker 3: I think so. To me, the runners in scoring position
50:59
Speaker 3: thing isn't so much worrisome is the lack of power.
51:03
Speaker 3: It's they're not hitting for much power over the fence, power,
51:06
Speaker 3: I should say, as they have in the past, and
51:09
Speaker 3: that's that's odd. I mean, everyone wants to talk about
51:12
Speaker 3: are they starting to decline? Are they starting to decline, doubtful,
51:16
Speaker 3: but it's just odd that they're not hitting for the
51:19
Speaker 3: power that they usually do. So I think that's more
51:23
Speaker 3: something to worry about than runners in scoring position. I
51:26
Speaker 3: think it's been written about before that that's not really
51:29
Speaker 3: a repeatable skill. There is some luck involved in that.
51:32
Speaker 3: That's why, Like when you hear about guys like David
51:35
Speaker 3: Ortiz being clutch, well, it's not a skill. I mean,
51:39
Speaker 3: he's good. He's just a good hitter. He's a good
51:42
Speaker 3: hitter being put in good positions. So you know, seven
51:47
Speaker 3: times out of ten they're going to fail. And it
51:49
Speaker 3: just seems like we're seeing the seven and a half
51:51
Speaker 3: and eight times more and more often, yeah, than we
51:54
Speaker 3: are than anything else. Yeah, I'd be more worried about
51:56
Speaker 3: the team's lack of power so far than runners in
51:59
Speaker 3: scoring position.
52:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting, as you know, we're talking about the
52:04
Speaker 1: power situation or lack of power that we are seeing
52:07
Speaker 1: from this team. I mean, it's a real thing, and honestly,
52:10
Speaker 1: I think Bryce Harper needs to be playing better baseball
52:13
Speaker 1: in the batter's box at this point. You know, you
52:15
Speaker 1: talk about the power and he's he's of course he's trying.
52:20
Speaker 1: Trey Turner certainly needs to step it up in terms
52:22
Speaker 1: of his offensive productivity as well. Alec Baum another gentleman
52:26
Speaker 1: who needs to step things up. What are you seeing,
52:30
Speaker 1: Ethan with regard to the veterans on this team in
52:34
Speaker 1: terms of how they are playing offensively and essentially what
52:37
Speaker 1: they are doing wrong? Because we're continuing to see this
52:40
Speaker 1: and seems to be a trend, especially for Trey Turner.
52:44
Speaker 1: I'm getting really concerned about what he's been doing in
52:48
Speaker 1: the batter's box. I don't know what are your thoughts
52:49
Speaker 1: and assessments here about how these veterans are playing from
52:52
Speaker 1: an offensive standpoint.
52:56
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be worried about Harper. I mean, it's again,
52:58
Speaker 3: you could just be saying a lot of power slumps.
53:01
Speaker 3: At the same time, I wouldn't worry about Harper. It
53:03
Speaker 3: does seem like when he was in Chicago he had
53:06
Speaker 3: one or two that Wind clearly took had had an
53:09
Speaker 3: issue with. There was one in New York whether what
53:11
Speaker 3: Wind clearly took one down. Turner is interesting in that
53:18
Speaker 3: he's kind of trying to figure out what he wants
53:20
Speaker 3: to be. Does he want to get on base and
53:22
Speaker 3: steal bases or does he want to hit for power?
53:24
Speaker 3: Like which one do you want? And it seems like
53:25
Speaker 3: he's kind of stuck which one he wants to figure
53:28
Speaker 3: out he wants to be. And I feel I still
53:32
Speaker 3: Alec Bohm to me, it's just good hitter. Put him seventh.
53:39
Speaker 3: The weird He doesn't have power yet, although the sacrifice
53:42
Speaker 3: fly hit in Chicago again, I think knocked down by
53:45
Speaker 3: the wind I turn turner. I kind of my expectations
53:53
Speaker 3: are no longer a five six seven war player. I'm
53:56
Speaker 3: thinking more like three four five somewhere in there. And
53:58
Speaker 3: if you have those expects, then maybe his profile doesn't
54:04
Speaker 3: seem so disappointing, if that makes any sense. With Boem,
54:10
Speaker 3: I think the off season clearly has affected him. The
54:12
Speaker 3: fact that he was in every rumor there was. I
54:15
Speaker 3: think that's clearly clearly played an issue with his season
54:18
Speaker 3: so far. He had some really, really really bad luck
54:22
Speaker 3: to start the season and you can see him sort
54:24
Speaker 3: of snapping out of it a little bit, but again,
54:26
Speaker 3: the power is not there. It just seems to be
54:28
Speaker 3: a team wide thing where we were talking about this
54:33
Speaker 3: amongst ourselves. The big thing after the twenty three National
54:38
Speaker 3: League Championship Series was don't chase, don't chase, don't chase. Well,
54:42
Speaker 3: they stop chasing, but they also kind of lost their
54:45
Speaker 3: way of who they were as a hitter. And then
54:47
Speaker 3: Castiano's kind of was the one who says, I'm just
54:49
Speaker 3: going to be me and he goes on to Terry's
54:50
Speaker 3: one of the better hitters in the National League from
54:53
Speaker 3: like the end of May on last year. But again,
54:55
Speaker 3: are we doing the same thing again where we were
54:57
Speaker 3: focusing on don't chase, don't chase, don't chase, and their
55:00
Speaker 3: again and they're not chasing, but again how they hit
55:03
Speaker 3: and how they've done is changed again. So you're kind
55:07
Speaker 3: of like rock and hard place. Do you want them
55:09
Speaker 3: to do one thing and forget how they were or
55:11
Speaker 3: do you want them to go back how they were?
55:12
Speaker 3: But now they're doing the thing you don't want them to.
55:14
Speaker 1: Do, right, So there's no silver bullet here.
55:17
Speaker 3: No, that's the thing. What are we looking for with them?
55:20
Speaker 3: That's the question.
55:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're gonna be seeking answers to that question
55:26
Speaker 1: for some time, I think here unfortunately, But Ethan, before
55:30
Speaker 1: I let you go, buddy, I wanted to talk about
55:32
Speaker 1: a piece that you recently wrote over at the Good
55:35
Speaker 1: Fight dot Com about whether the Phillies actually have some
55:38
Speaker 1: untouchable prospects within the farm system. I was hoping we
55:41
Speaker 1: could dive into the storyline as we know the Phillies
55:44
Speaker 1: and Dave Dobrowski may need to make some changes with
55:47
Speaker 1: regard to the bullpen before the trade deadline. Ryan Helsley
55:52
Speaker 1: the trade rumors, they are already heating up, and and yes,
55:55
Speaker 1: while we're certainly a long way from there, it's an
55:58
Speaker 1: interesting topic to discuss. And I thought your piece was
56:01
Speaker 1: interesting on this. Well, you know, whether it's Andrew Painter,
56:04
Speaker 1: whether it's Justin Crawford, do you see anyone as being
56:08
Speaker 1: untouchable here in this farm system?
56:11
Speaker 3: The only one I think is untouchable as Painter. I
56:15
Speaker 3: just don't. I don't. I don't see him. You can't
56:17
Speaker 3: trade Andrew Painter. I mean, when you see what pitching
56:21
Speaker 3: goes for on the free agent market, If he's anything
56:23
Speaker 3: close to what we think he is, he's going to
56:26
Speaker 3: be six years of whatever control they've got, he's gonna
56:30
Speaker 3: be if they If he's what we think he is,
56:31
Speaker 3: he's going to be incredible. So you can't move him.
56:34
Speaker 3: You just from a team building ID, you can't move him.
56:38
Speaker 3: I know the other two guys that people look at
56:40
Speaker 3: are Crawford and Aiden Miller, but I'm looking further down
56:45
Speaker 3: at guys like Aaron Escobar, Edward Tait. Those are the
56:49
Speaker 3: guys I'm thinking maybe you want to hold on to
56:52
Speaker 3: them for the future. I mean, yes, you want to
56:55
Speaker 3: improve and keep this window open as long as possible,
56:59
Speaker 3: but the same time, you want the window to keep going,
57:02
Speaker 3: keep staying open. For a championship. You basically have two
57:06
Speaker 3: sets of windows. You have the Zach Wheeler window. While
57:09
Speaker 3: it's open, you want to maximize that. You've also got
57:12
Speaker 3: the Bryce Harper window. So you've got to keep those
57:14
Speaker 3: things open. And you can't just keep buying your way
57:17
Speaker 3: to this stuff. You need to have these kids come
57:19
Speaker 3: up and actually play and play well well enough. Tino
57:24
Speaker 3: keep the window open. The guy that I would look
57:28
Speaker 3: to see them trade those two. Mick Abel's been really
57:31
Speaker 3: good this year. Surprisingly, he's kind of rebuilding some value.
57:36
Speaker 3: I think I might lead anything with him just to
57:40
Speaker 3: kind of while the while the value is good. You know,
57:43
Speaker 3: we've seen the years where he's been disappointing. I would
57:47
Speaker 3: kind of tend to lean more on that track record
57:50
Speaker 3: than this and he might be my number one guy
57:53
Speaker 3: that I would deal. The other one I would look
57:55
Speaker 3: at would would be wastis cha say? He just I
58:00
Speaker 3: don't know. I got a bad vibe from him not
58:02
Speaker 3: showing up the camp on time, in shape, ready to go.
58:06
Speaker 3: If he's still as highly thought of as people around
58:10
Speaker 3: the game seem to think, he might be another one.
58:11
Speaker 3: I think. Listen, if maybe now's the time to push
58:14
Speaker 3: that chip into the table.
58:16
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting for sure. And again, folks, head
58:20
Speaker 1: on over to the Good Fight dot com check out
58:22
Speaker 1: all of their content with regard to the Philadelphia Phillies. Great,
58:25
Speaker 1: great content and it was great to have you on, Ethan.
58:29
Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time. Please come back and
58:32
Speaker 1: join us. I would love to have you on the
58:34
Speaker 1: show again.
58:35
Speaker 3: My friend, anytime, Jeff, anytime.
58:38
Speaker 1: And that's gonna do it for us this week. Make
58:40
Speaker 1: sure to share the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show with
58:43
Speaker 1: your friends and family members who may be Philly sports fans.
58:46
Speaker 1: You can always head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table
58:49
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58:51
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58:55
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58:58
Speaker 1: make this podcast happen and to give us great content,
59:01
Speaker 1: and ultimately we appreciate you. Take care and have a
59:05
Speaker 1: great week. We'll catch you next time.