High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - A Measuring Stick Series Win and Insane Stats with Ryan Spaeder

Episode Date: May 9, 2019

James Seltzer and Jack Fritz are back after a huge measuring stick series win against the St. Louis Cardinals. The guys breakdown the series, talk Vinny, Hoskins start and also bring on Ryan Spaeder to talk HOF and just some insane stats.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. See app for details.

Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit rogers.com for details. We got you, Rogers. This is the High Hopes Podcast. High hopes. It's a bunch of baseball nerds talking about the Philadelphia Phillies

on Radio.com and Sports Radio 94 WIP. Yo, It is another edition of the High Hopes Podcast. Jack, another guest. I know. That's all we do. We're a guest podcast. We're a guest pod now. My brother pointed out something pretty funny that last time I

tried to tease our guest by saying, oh, we got a Philadelphia Philly coming out. I know. Not thinking about the fact that it was going to be in the freaking title of the podcast. Of course it's going to be in the title of the podcast. Everyone saw it. So Ryan Spader is going to join us later. Yeah. Yeah.

I knew what you were going for, but this is not radio. Yep. Thanks, Jack. Thanks, buddy. I'm obviously going to put it in the podcast title, so I hope people click on it. Yeah. It was literally clickbait. Yeah.

And it worked. Hopefully. Hopefully. I mean, if you listened, I hope you enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. Always. And it's going to be fun when we talk to Ryan Spader coming up in just a little bit. But Jack, first, the Phillies took 2-3 from the Cardinals, my friend.

We said take 2-3. Game one, the most listless, lifeless, flat effort you could ask for. They come back and win the next two, Jack. I feel good. Yeah, this is the best I've thought about the Phillies since the, you know. Since the opening weekend of the season. Or the opening week. Yeah. When they were still rigging. When they were like 7-2 or something. Yeah, this is the best I've thought about the Phillies since the, you know. Since the opening weekend of the season. Or the opening week. Yeah.

When they were still rigging. When they were like seven and two or something. Yeah, yeah. And like, so I went into that series thinking that they were going to wake up call like in the wrong way. Me too. Especially after game one, it was like, oh man, they could get swept. Exactly.

So, and the fact that they came back, bounced back from that, and for a team that I just think has been so shaky on the road and a team that I just, on the road I'm so frustrated with this team. They don't look good. And they're 6-9 on the road. It's not like they've been great. Or I guess 7-9 after the win yesterday. So they've been better. They're getting there. They're inching towards 500 on the road. They're not a 500 road

team is the point. But I just I was so impressed by how this team battled. Friday was horrible. Or Monday was horrible. Monday was horrible. Welcome how this team battled. Friday was horrible. Or Monday was horrible. Monday was horrible. Hey! Monday was horrible. Welcome to the team, buddy.

Yeah. Monday. Real quick, on my notes, do you see what I did? I made it bold the day. Yes, so I didn't screw it up. That's good. But after Monday. You're like, yeah, whatever, Dad.

After Monday, the way they bounced back. I mean, I guess what we have to learn is that when they're coming off of a homestand, they go on the road. That first game is usually going to be bad unless there's an off day in between. And that's why I'm glad there's an off day in between this series and heading to KC because hopefully they should be able to come out fresh a little bit. Last off day for a while. Another 17 straight day stretch of baseball, all against non-division opponents, which is pretty interesting as well.

Right, right. But then, don't they play 27 straight games against only NL East? Against the NL East, yeah. It's a really weird scheduling curve. And it's tough, man. Like, the month of May is not an easy month for the Phillies. They got the Brewers coming up at home and on the road. They got the Rockies coming to town.

They got to go to LA coming up. They got the Cubs. So it's going to be a, they got the cards again. It's a tough stretch of baseball. So for me, at least, i was really heartened to see them take two or three and see the way they did it yeah and especially because i think the cardinals are good and i understand i picked them to go the world series i understand that uh like i understand that you know they just came off of a four game or a three game series loss or a suite they got

swept by the cubs who were all of a sudden rolling um and and coming back home you'd think that they would kind of get that extra juice and like i was surprised by how bad they were defensively. They looked like the Phillies last year. I was getting flashbacks. Big time. I did not want to get flashbacks, but I was getting flashbacks. Yeah, it was rough.

Everyone got flashbacks. That's the problem with last year's Phillies is now whenever teams play horrendous defense and just make mental mistakes and all that, we always get brought right back to that moment. Of course. It's awful. It's awful. It is awful.

I hate it. But that team is bad defensively. I mean, if they have Jose Martinez in right field. Who is a horrendous defender. I mean, he's one of the better hitters in their lineup, and they almost don't play him because of how bad he is defensively. Now, I am usually not one to give the Rays any kind of ideas. I was going to say credit.

I was like, that's all we do is give the Rays credit. You should trade for Jose Martinez. They should trade for him. He'd be a perfect DH. I mean, like, why hasn't an AL team traded for him yet? It makes no sense because he is a perfect DH. You could definitely get him in a discount because he can't play the field. I know.

And he breaks. He breaks. Shred breaks. All right. Let's dive into it game by game. Sadly, let's quickly get through it. But there was a lot to talk about Monday. Obviously, I'm not too worried about the offense or anything like that,

as we talked about, just a flat effort. But, but, Jack. Vinny? Vinny. Let's just start with Vinny. Bad Vinny. Let's start with that, and then we'll get into the whole Real Muto part of it all. But just start with freaking Vinny, Jack.

So, Vinny. Vinny Jack so Vinny Vinny well welcome back uh it was a good little run we did not miss you sir producing Vince Velasquez games oh it's Vince Velasquez I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy Jack listen I'm not one to call for drastic measures but Rob Manfred if you want to speed up the game you should just ban Vince Velasquez I'm telling you he is Steve Traxell. He's the new human rain delay. He has taken that nickname from Steve Traxell, and he has run with it.

And it is just dreadful watching him pitch. Even, again, real quick, even when he pitched well, like the game against the Mets where he gave up no runs in five innings or whatever, it was still brutal to watch. He's just awful to watch. He's no fun. He's not fun. Yeah, and his problem,

which has always been his problem, well, he's rushing to the plate again, but he does not have the third pitch a lot like Pavetta, but if you're a hitter and you're going to face Vince Velasquez, first off, he can't locate his off-speed pitches. So if you're a hitter, you're just sitting dead red.

You're just waiting for a fastball because he's going to throw it. He throws it 70% of the time. Why would you look for anything else? If you see spin out of the hand, just spit on it. Don't even think about it. Just sit back, keep the bat on your shoulder. Yeah, because it's not going to be a strike.

And if it is, you tip your hat, but you know a fastball is coming. You know he's going to give you a fastball hit. And even if it's going to rise and be a good fastball, eventually he's going to be a strike. And if it is, you tip your hat, but you know a fastball's coming. You know he's going to give you a fastball hit. And even if it's going to rise and be a good fastball, like, eventually, he's going to get it down because he just can't do it.

Like, he just can't. He cannot do it. And the struggle for the Phillies right now is that, dude, a third time through the order, teams are batting, have an OPS of 1,500 against them.

OPS of 1,500 a third time through the order. The McVinney Reliever Club. An OPS. James, James, James. That's better than peak bonds. Yeah, it is. Like, it's 1,500.

It's absurd. It's absurd. 1,500 OPS. Yeah. That should not be absurd. Yeah, that's not even baseball legal, I don't think. No, no. So a third time, that's what it is.

And if you're going to pitch him and you're going to start him, have someone warmed up for the third for the third time through the order even if he's cruising use an opener with him maybe if you use an opener get him through the and then he just takes the takes for second through sixth or something like that second or fifth yeah sure maybe i or maybe he just is the opener and goes for the first two times i like that use vinny as an opener. Man. That would hurt his ego a little bit. We'll get into, in a second, how long you think Vince is for the rotation. But first, the Romulo stuff comes out after.

Romulo comes out and just lays it all on the table. Well, he had to catch the human reindeer. And also, apparently, Vinny just didn't want to listen to him. Comes out and says, yay, shook me off a bunch. Well, shook me off. Home run for Yachty and Melina. Shook me off. Home run for Yadier Molina. Shook me off. Home run for Paul DeYoung, who I called.

What is your take on that whole situation? Obviously, a former pitcher, you've been in those situations. I think we can all agree that of all pitchers in the universe, you should not be shaking off catchers, especially a catcher as talented and good as JT Romulo. It's Vince Velasquez, but what's your take on that whole thing? When I was in the mound, I personally liked when my coach would call pitches

and I would just follow his game plan. You'd have to think. Because I didn't like to think. Some pitchers, like Noel is a thinker, which is fine because he's a feel guy and whatever he feels, he feels like he can just dominate and go in and out and whatever.

With Velasquez, like the fact that he thinks that he is at a point to where he can just dominate and go in and out and whatever with velasquez like the fact that he thinks that he is at a point to where he can call his own game is infuriating like if there's one thing vince velasquez shouldn't do it's thinking more on the mound because you see how long he thinks like way too long he should be thinking less like everything he should be doing should be thinking as little as possible and just throwing because he cannot think baseball. He should never

do that ever again and hopefully on Sunday when he starts against the Royals he gets back to just... You hope he learned his lesson here. The frustrating part for me is that Chris Young and JT Romito sit down, watch all the film, come up with a... Put work into it. Come up with a detailed game plan as to how they're going to attack

hitters and for him to not do that is infuriating. Well, I think the fact that Romito came out and said it publicly shows how infuriated he was about it. And he should be. I think the quotes were a little better than the headlines were, I would say. Oh, they were. Yeah.

He handled it in a very professional way. Yeah, he said we couldn't get on the same page and whatever, which is professional for. And I hope he'll learn next time. It was professional for. It was professional for the way, what he wanted to say was like, this idiot was not listening to me. And look what happened.

That's exactly. That's what he said. I mean, for all intents and purposes. I couldn't. I was watching the whole game and I couldn't help but think what Dutch, Dutch Dalton would have done. I feel like Dutch would have just gone out and just strangled him on the mound like, what are you doing, man?

Listen to me. I know what I'm doing. So it was a very, very frustrating Vinny start. And again, like, you've heard Arrieta this year, but Arrieta has literally said I just kind of let JT call the game and roll with what he's going with. And that's Jake Arrieta. And that's Jake Arrieta, who's won a Cy Young

and has won a World Series. Yes, and he's been around the league for a while. All right. So, and obviously, there's a certain name in the Meyer Leagues. Pitching pretty well. Cole Irvin? Pitching pretty well. By the way, so speaking of Cole Irvin for a second. I love that we're just going on a Cole Irvin.

Because all the old people who call a station are like, we'll bring up Cole Irvin. He's pitching well in AAA. So look at his stats. He is a 5.8K per nine and 3.8 walks per nine. Yeah, that's awful. He's Dallas Keuchel of AAA, except Dallas Keuchel's actually good. Dallas Keuchel's way better than that. I know, I know, I know.

But he doesn't strike anyone out, walks people. It's like the David Buchanan of AAA, Jack. Dude, if you can't strike out at least seven guys per nine, you're not coming up to the big leagues. No, nor should you. You should not be allowed to the big leagues. No, nor should you. You should not be allowed into the big leagues. But the Pavetta of it all, just taking that out of

the equation, just looking at the situation now, how long does Vinny have? I mean, are we talking one more bad start? Are we talking a month? Are we talking, you know, where do you think he is in terms of kind of where he's at in terms of this rotation? I think he's got one start. I think it's this Royals start.

If he can't pitch well against a Royals team that, like, they got some interesting guys. They got a guy. Well, I mean. They got Whit Matterfield. No. Everything else is. How dare you? Alex Gordon.

No, no, no. Jorge Soler. No, you're wrong. Alberto Montes. No, keep going. Still going, huh? Yeah. Who else do they have?

Oh, yeah. Hunter Dozier? Hunter Dozier. Hunter Dozier. Yes. Hunter Dozier's been huh? Yeah. Who else do they have? Oh, yeah. Hunter Dozier? Hunter Dozier, yes. Hunter Dozier's been good. Yeah, he's got nine homers. Yeah. Hunter Dozier. How could you forget?

I don't know. You're not a Royals guy? I should have gotten that. You don't watch much Royals baseball? I should have gotten that. I really actually should have gotten that. If he doesn't pitch well against the Royals, I mean, you heard Gabe after the game.

I think he was kind of hinting at, listen, got one start well look they sent pavetta down all right and they made this big deal about how every game matters and we're bringing ike off up and and look bring an ike off up putting him in the rotation clear the right move we'll get to his start in a little bit but i don't think you can say that and then keep rolling vinny out if he's gonna keep doing what we saw all right moving on again after that I can't tell you how happy I was on Tuesday. Yes. After that first game to see this team come out the way they did. Let's start at the top.

Nola. Well, yeah. Nola. I think more important than Nola, I think the reason this team won those two games was because of what happened in the second inning, and that was Odubel getting the second base on that ball at the middle. You mean, you mean Odubel hustle? Hustle.

Like, because, because listen, when you're on the road, sometimes you need a spark. You need a spark. You need a jump. And Odubel getting the second base,

like everyone that dugouts like, let's go. Let's win a ball game. I like that. And I just think that that could, got him going. That could be something that, well,

they were lifeless prior to that. Yeah. I mean, they were flat as flat could be. Right. And he goes out I like that. And I just think that that could be something that... Well, they were lifeless prior to that. I mean, they were flat as flat could be. Right, and he goes out and does that. I thought it was amazing. It'd be a good series. I don't think they win that series if he doesn't do that. I think it would be another frustrating road series if it isn't for a doable. So,

yeah, so Nola. It was back. Like, back to Nola. And the difference between that Nola and the Nola that we saw early in the season is that when he was missing, he was missing around the zone. And when you miss around the zone, it gives the hitters an idea that you're going to probably get that pitch. I should probably swing at it because it could be called for a strike because you're that close to the zone.

What we've seen from Nola in the past this year has been the ball just flying and kind of being a foot out of the zone. Yeah, we talked about it last pod. Right, so I think the zone. Right. What we've seen from Nolan in the past this year has been the ball just flying and kind of being a foot out of the zone. Yeah, we talked about it last pod. Right. So I think the moisture definitely helped.

I appreciate Gabe Kapler listening to the podcast and mentioning after the game that the moisture probably did help Nolan. I mean, I don't see any other real explanation

other than he listened to the pod. Yeah. So. Hey, Gabe. Yeah. How's it going, Gabe? What's up, buddy?

Come on the show. Hang out. Whatever you want. We'll make time. We're a guest pod. We're a guest pod. We only bring's up, buddy? Come on the show. Hang out. Whatever you want. We'll make time. We're a guest pod. We're a guest pod. We only bring on guests now, so come on the podcast. But he, so not only was he missing right around the zone rather than missing in the middle

of the plate, but he was getting back to pitching backwards. He was pitching backwards. He was using the changeup whenever he wanted. He threw four straight changeups at one point for strikes, and guys are swinging over top of it. When has he done that this year? He hasn't. I don't know if he threw one changeup all year. That was good.

People were swinging over top of him. That was good. Yeah, it was a good Nola performance. I think what we'll learn this season is that with the balls the way they are, the way they can't rub them up, the way they can't get a feel for the balls, and the seams being lower, is that the moisture is something that is going to help Aaron Nola. It's going to help him get into a game, make him be able to feel all of his pitches.

Yeah, and I mean, look, this is something that is not just Aaron Nola dealing with it. We've talked a lot about a lot of the great pitchers in baseball struggling. Well, they're starting to all figure it out. They're starting to come around, but the numbers, I mean, the home run numbers, all that type of stuff, it's crazy. Crazy. So something happened to the balls it's crazy so something happened to the balls

I would say something happened no question about that speaking of home run numbers Bryce Bryce I have two more

things I don't know real quick okay good I should have assumed you had more things I don't know 70% curve ball strikes on Tuesday night

which is big and his arm slot is back to where it was for like where it was during the Boston starts. Oh, buddy. I know. It's a buzzword.

When you say the Boston start, I'm in. I was thinking about it in my dreams. Best pitch game since the no-hitter against the Cubs for Hamels. Sure. Yeah, so I was looking at the arm slot numbers because I just wanted to see if he was getting back to where he was. And he was. Nice. So it's nice to see his he was getting back to where he was. And he was. So it's nice to see his arm slots back down to where

it needs to be. We are all stations moving forward on the Arenola hype train. It's a beautiful thing. Thank God. We need it. We need it desperately. Bryce. We also needed Bryce. We needed Bryce. Smoked it. And we had talked on the last pod that

even though he's been summoned, it seemed like the last couple days, probably the last pod, that he was at least hitting a few balls hard. That first game in St. Louis, that one ball was over 100 miles per hour he hit. Yeah, right in the shift. It seems like he was starting to get a little more locked in. Good to see Bryce actually finally get a

hold of one. First multi-hit game since the 5-hit game in Colorado. So it was good to see. And do you think... All right. And Franzen called it, too. Did he really? Yeah, he was like...

Pine Tar for breakfast. Yeah, Pine Tar for breakfast. Okay, good. Just making sure. We don't want to plug his podcast, though, because then we're giving someone else... We don't want to divert people's attention from this podcast. I don't think anyone's leaving us for Pine Tar for breakfast. I hope not.

He had Pat Burl on last week. And he called me a G... It's outrageous. A G-level guest? Yeah, a G-level guest. It's outrageous. A G-level guest? Yeah, a G-level guest. It's outrageous. That's just sad. It's not wrong, but it's outrageous.

He's definitely not wrong. He went from Fritz to Burrell. Yeah. You think Pat Burrell even knows who I am? Probably. Probably? You think he listens to the podcast? But yeah, no, Bryce, he's slowly but surely coming out of it.

Do you think he's back locked in? I mean, where are you at with Bryce right now? Well, I think actually yesterday was more encouraging than the day before. That one at bat was one of his best at bats in a while. Yeah, and the fact that he's putting together a competitive at bat. He's fouling off 95-mile-per-hour fastballs, which he wasn't doing a few weeks ago. He wasn't squaring them up, but he was right on them. They were getting fouled straight back, which means you're right on them.

You're just missing the barrel a little bit. With the two strikes, he was widen on him. I mean, they were getting fouled straight back, which means you're right on him. You're just missing the barrel a little bit. So, like, and with the two strikes, he was, like, widening out his stance. He wasn't doing a leg kick. He was actually trying to not strike out. The one with the no batting gloves the other day. Yeah, but then he went to the batting gloves second bet. Then he went back to them for the grand slam. Yeah.

And then. I do like the no batting gloves. I think it's a badass move. Yeah, but I don't know how you keep grip with the bat. Oh, no, no. I'm not saying it's smart. I'm saying it's badass. Okay. okay i think will meyer is like one of the only guys who actually does it all the time harper swings so hard no i'm with you i'm not

saying he should do it i'm just saying it looks badass yeah because it looks badass well he just harper's just so much it's weird how much better he is on the road yeah i mean you put those numbers out it's it's really crazy we talked about it last pod he's been so much better on the road he's been like it's it's not i don't know maybe he. He's been so much better on the road. I don't know. Maybe he thrives off the actual boos from opposing fan bases, which he gets mercifully booed everywhere he goes. I don't get it.

Well, he's a face of baseball. I know, but it's like what are you booing him for? I like to face baseball. It's jealousy. They're booing him because they're jealous. One guy who has not been struggling four-hit game, goes yard as well. Reese MVP season? Reese is just...

Oh, buddy. Like, all right. The fact that the Phillies are in first place with the only positive run differential in the NL East... And they're like plus 31. Yeah. And everyone else is negative. I mean, they're drastic. Three and a half games up.

They're in great shape right now. And they haven't even started clicking on all cylinders. They haven't even gotten... Since the first week of the season, we have not had a game where the lineup was all grooving. And even the 11-run game, like, it was... Not everyone, like, close. But we have not had it where it just feels like

for multiple games, they're just all clicking. Yeah, and we haven't had the Harper hot streak coming. Yes. Like, that's eventually coming. It's absolutely coming. Listen, and we haven't had the Harper hot streak coming. Yes. That's eventually coming. It's absolutely coming. Listen, just NL, I would just like to let you know, watch out. Unless you're the Dodgers, and then you're fine. Yeah.

But everyone else, we're coming for you. So Hoskins, so the big difference I've seen from Hoskins this year is that last year when he went on a slump, it would be a month. This year, his slump only lasted a couple games it was like a week at most and he's able to bounce back because he's such he is such a consistently

good he has such a good plan and when he goes to the plate he just can execute his plan and also he's such a smart hitter that you can even see him adjusting in at bats you know in the moment you could see how he makes adjustments. He's one of the smartest, most studied hitters we've had here in a long time, I feel like. And I just feel like every count, he's working at least, he's getting at least five pitches.

Like, you never see him. He leads baseball in pitches per plate appearance. Well, he did that last year, too. Yeah. So, you know what's crazy? So, Mike Angelina texted me this yesterday. He's on pace for over 200 full counts this season. What?

Isn't that crazy? That is insane. He's already at 44. Full counts. That's insane. Like, that is an insane. I would be interested to know what the all-time leader in that is because that's a lot. 200 seems like a lot of full counts.

It seems like it would be on the very, very high end of things. And what he was doing in St. Louis, sure the home run was great, but he was just line drives all over the field. Spraying the ball. He's just a prototypical four-hole hitter. Drives guys in. He's now top three

in NL RBI. And I found the perfect comp for him. Did you see this the other night? I did. I don't think people liked it, I'm guessing. I know. I didn't look at the replies, but I'm guessing people don't remember how good this player was for a run there. I know.

I mean, this is a guy who hit 40 homers. Like 42 one year or anything. He reminds me so much of Derek Lee. Yeah. Derek Lee was a really good player. Derek Lee in 05 batted 335 and had an OPS over 1,000. Yeah. It's a good player.

50 doubles and 46 RBIs. That's what I'm saying. He was a really good player. He was a very solid player. I think people forget how good Derek Lee was. Yeah. People are like, screw you, Derek Lee. Way better than that guy.

Well, and I think the rest of baseball has severely underrated Reese. I mean, Reese is not talked about. Reese has been here for like two years, and he's already just mashing the baseball. Well, I mean, he's hit the most home runs in baseball over that time or whatever it is it's just like it's crazy he is such a power hitter like i i like i was looking he's he's he's goldschmidt with more power yeah i think it's a really fair comp actually that's a that's a good comp the gold worse runner i mean obviously less athletic than than goldschmidt but definitely not the defender. Yeah, well, you could say that.

Are we sure Goldschmidt's still great? No, we're not. We're not. He's striking out a lot. He's 30 or whatever. 31 or something. I think he's starting to hit that kind of decline. I thought we saw it last year.

He ended up where he needed to be, but had longer stretches of struggles last year than he had before. His start to last year is a lot like what Bryce is going through now with the strikeouts. By the way, owning Reese Hoskins on both of my fantasy teams. Very fun? It's been good.

Are you having fun doing that? I'm having a lot of fun. All right. Can we do, what are we still on Saturday? Are you going to move to Sunday? Oh my God. I don't know.

Should I go to Wednesday or Tuesday? I spent the whole night. I have an excuse. This is what you get for ripping me for this so much. I just can't. We can't do it.

We should just say every day. Every series is a weekend series. I love it. I think we should. All right. So, yeah, you got anything else on Tuesday? Yes, on Tuesday or Sunday, like some would say. So Edgar Garcia pitched the last inning of Saturday.

Oh, my God. Yes. This is amazing. This is a day made right here. Day edgar garcia pitched the last inning on tuesday he also pitched on monday and did not look that great much better on tuesday on tuesday his 11-1 game his slider does have some juice to it i i think moves it's a nice slider yeah it's a hard slider i can see why guys have trouble timing it up fast Fastballs, yeah, not great. But he could basically, I think he's going to be serviceable for

this team. I like this slider a lot. I want to see what he's going to do in more high-lever situations, but in. Okay. I like him. In on Edgar. He's got good juice. I like it. Alright, let's move on to Wednesday or Sunday. Sunday. For your purposes, Eikhoff. Man, Eikhoff. He's amazing.

Eikhoff. Jared Eikhoff. He threw more sliders than fastballs. Eight shutout. Three hits, three walks. My man looked awesome. You know what I love about Eikhoff? Against a very good Cardinals lineup. You know what I love about Eikhoff is he just gets the ball and goes. Yeah, he just goes,

man. He's like, alright, I'm back on the mound again. Let's go. Let's go. And he's like, he's not your prototypical bulldog, but he just is a bulldog and honestly couldn't can't you see eickhoff pitching in a postseason series like i just see him i just see him he has that feel to him yeah of a guy you know in that blanton kind of role like he he has a he's a little blanton so you're saying he's gonna he's gonna yeah okay i like it, okay. I like it. I like it. So Eikhoff is just, he has the perfect breakdown right now. He knows when to use his fastball.

Which you talked about last show as well. Yeah, I mean, his fastball is, it was, it averaged velocity on Wednesday was 89 miles an hour. That's not blowing anyone away. But when you throw,

the amount of off-speed pitches that he has thrown, it's, it looks like 94. And it's hard to square up. That's called pitching, unlike what Villasca is. It's called pitching. The one thing we definitely want to put in the inventory is you should trust guys who know how to pitch.

And what we've learned this year is that Eflin and Eikhoff know how to pitch. Pavetta and Villasca don't really know how to pitch yet. They obviously have elite arms, but they just don't know how to pitch. Jared Eikhoff knows how to pitch. And what he did yesterday, and what I found so interesting with his slider, his slider kind of moves like his curveball, but it's 85, so that when he throws his curveball, guys are geared up for the 85, but they see 77, and they're all the way out in

front of it and can't create hard contact off of that um also jared eickhoff only two barrels this season wow which is crazy that's that's surprising yeah and barrels is like if it's like balls that are barreled have an expected batting average of like 500 or something i thought it was higher i think it's higher it's like it's like basically balls or something. I thought it was higher than that. I think it's higher. Basically, the ball's just smoked. Yeah, I thought it was like 650 or something like that. Yeah, guys just haven't barreled up Eikhoff at all this season. Really good to see, and honestly, just an amazing dude.

Every time I hear him talk, I'm like, ah. Happy for him. Just love that dude. Look, again. He had carpal tunnel, basically. He was out of baseball for over a year. Yeah. I mean, I know. It's a good story, and it's crazy to think that, I mean, he's locked in. Jared Ochoa's not going anywhere, obviously. The R.A.'s under two now.

Yeah, he's been great. He's been great. Cesar, I think the other big takeaway from yesterday, been at 305. Had a nice day yesterday. Obviously, the homer. Does he still blow? Been better. Been better.

Where you at with Cesar? And should he be leading off? No. No. Yeah. I don't. Been better. Where are you at with Cesar? And should he be leading off? No, no. I don't, I just. I mean, I'd be all right if he was, but I think if McCutcheon wants to lead off, he should lead off. Yeah, and I think that what a lot of people

are forgetting with leading off and what makes McCutcheon so good, not only is it the OBP, the possible home runs. It's the pinch of CZs. No, no, no. It's the base running. Oh, well, that too.

It's a great point. Do you really want Cesar's base running at the top of the lineup? It's a good point. I like that. It's a really good extra angle on it. Like, McCutcheon goes first to third with ease. Like, him and Real Muto are unbelievable in terms of going from first to third. So, just from a base running standpoint, from a getting on base standpoint,

I don't see any reason to move McCutcheon unless McCutcheon wants to bat sixth or whatever. Right. That's what I'm saying. If you talk to McCutcheon, McCutcheon wants to bat sixth or whatever. Right. That's what I'm saying. If you talk to McCutcheon, McCutcheon's like, yeah, I'd love to produce some runs, hit the six hole, whatever. Like, sure.

But my guess is he's going to want to stay in the leadoff hole and you keep him in the Yeah. And he's just fine there. And Cesar, Cesar's always been a good offensive player. Yeah. Like, that's never really been the problem people have had. And he's, well, I guess people have said he doesn't hit home runs, but whatever. It doesn't really matter.

Got a couple. Yeah, he hit one yesterday, but the defense has been fine. He hasn't had one of those colop players. He hasn't had a bonehead mistake in the last couple weeks. Which is probably a good sign. Maybe he's starting to get on the right. I do think that when he goes into the tank, it's when he gets in his own head a little bit, and maybe he kind of got past that, and now he can just get fine Cesar.

But the problem is, what are you going to do in Kingery's healthy? Well, that's the issue. We talked about it. You can't take Cesar out of the lineup. Not right now, you can't. You can't take Gene Seagal out of the lineup. No. Franco's been fine. He's been good. Cesar's been better than Franco.

Yeah, he has been. I know. He has been. And Franco didn't have a good series in St. Louis. Third base Kingery. But Franco's also playing fine. No, I know. I know. They're going base Kingery. But Franco is also playing fine. I know.

They're going to have to. Oduble is playing fine in center. Gabe's going to have to figure it out. Gabe's going to have to figure it out because Kingery is going to deserve playing time, obviously. Well, we'll see how he does coming back. He has to come back. Look, I know.

But it should be interesting. Anything else from Wednesday before we move on? Yeah. So, Sir Anthony pitched the ninth. Yes. Clean ninth for Sir Anthony. Clean ninth. And the one thing I noticed was that he was getting more depth to his slider.

So what has been a problem for Sir Anthony recently is his slider has just been spinning. It's not really breaking at all. But I thought he did a nice job. I think he threw it a little bit softer, I would say. And it did get more vertical bite to it. His sequencing to Marcelo Zuna in the ninth inning was just phenomenal. It was three straight sliders, all 90 miles an hour, all had the bottom fallout from underneath them.

And I was looking on his Brooks baseball page, and it was the most his sliders moved vertically all season. So I think that comes back to Chris Young. I think that comes back to video, watching how guys are doing. Because I think that he went back, looked at the tape, saw how the ball was coming out of his hand and made an adjustment. I thought the slider looked phenomenal. When he packaged

his slider with 97, it's hard to square up. I want to see him start pitching inside more of this fastball because I think he's hard to square up with an inside fastball. He lets it out over the plate a little too much and guys can just extend on it. But a positive for Anthony Outing. We'll see if the slider can continue that way.

All right, coming up in just a few, we'll look ahead to the rematch of the 1980 World Series as the Phillies led to Kansas City to take on the Royals. But first, guest time. Ryan Spader. Wow.

I don't know. I thought you were waiting for me i know i think you're waiting for me to say something it's a pregnant pause and i'd like to welcome in as all we do on this show is have guests we're a big guest we're a guest pod now all of a sudden it happened and this one i'm really excited to welcome on one of my favorite follows on twitter if you're not following Ace of Spader on Twitter, you're absolutely doing it wrong. And we're having him on to talk about

his book, Incredible Baseball Stats. You can go out and get the book and meet Ryan Spader himself at PJ Wheelhands in Newtown Square at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The one, the only Mr. Stats himself, Ryan Spader. What's up, brother? Wow, I don't know if I can live up to that introduction.

James does that a lot. These guys come on and I don't know if I can ever live up to it. Meanwhile, James just craps over me for the whole podcast. So it's like, I don't even know why I show up to this. What's up, Spades? Not much, brother. Appreciate you guys having me. Yeah, sorry for me pumping our guest up.

Next time I'll be like, all right, we're talking to Ryan. What up, buddy? How are you? No, we're really excited Ryan. What up, buddy? How are you? No, we're really excited to have you on. And I really mean it. Forget everything else. Go get everything else. Get the book and all that.

But very easily just click on Twitter and follow AcesBader because it will make your days better. All right, Ryan, let's dive in. We're going to get to the book, and we're going to get some stats out of you as well. But really quickly, you're also a Philly guy, a Philly fan. What do you think of the team so far this season?

I guess people are a little bit disappointed in Bryce Harper so far. Me personally, not so much. He's kind of on a long leash for me. This is an entirely new situation for him. The fact of the matter is he's still getting on base. I said this to Jack a little ways ago, but I've been tracking it.

He's in front of our boy Reese Hoskins, and Hoskins is performing incredibly when he does so. So Hoskins is batting 429, 556, 1,000 with 16 RBIs and 27 plate appearances following a Bryce Harper walk. That's pretty good. So, yeah, I'll take that. But overall, I've been happy with the team. It was tough when we saw Segura go down and Kingery go down.

It looked like he was starting to have a breakout season. But the team, I really like Segura because he's kind of like our Jimmy Rollins now. If he goes, we go. And I haven't pulled the numbers, updated numbers, as I'm prepared for this interview. Oh, way to go. Look at you. But Segura, the Phillies, with Segura in the lineup,

they're playing 667 ball. So anytime he's in there, the team goes. Yeah, who would have thought Gene Segura would be the most important offseason acquisition? The straw that stirs the drink. Gene Segura. Mean Gene. Not Bryce Harper, not JT Real Muto.

Gene Segura. Yep. Spades, what have you thought of this pitching staff so far? I mean, Nola got off to a slow start, but it looks like he's starting to turn it around a little bit. Eikhoff's been incredible. Vinny's taking a little bit of a step back, I would say. But what have you made of this starting staff so far?

I like the staff, however. I feel like it's incomplete. You mentioned Vince Velasquez. I really wish this team would just pay Dallas Keuchel, put him in the rotation, and move Velasquez back into this bullpen. Because if you look at Velasquez's numbers, he's stellar

the first time through the lineup. And then he starts, I don't know if they figure him out, I kind of hate that lazy school of thought, but he starts to struggle. So to me, that breeds reliever, especially the way that he throws. Nola, you mentioned him struggling, but I saw the great Jack Fitz. Fitz, I just messed up your name. Not Fitz.

Well, you also messed it up by saying the great before him. Yeah, he's brutally average. Washed up the vision too-pedger, Jack Prince. Had some fantastic tweets about his arm angle. And if Ritzy's saying that he's back, I'm sold on it. Wow, a lot of credit for Jack there. Yeah, yeah.

And then you've got Eflin, who actually leads this team in war, which is hard to believe. That is hard to believe. That is crazy. That is really hard to believe. Yeah. And thenflin, who actually leads this team in war, which is hard to believe. That is hard to believe. That is crazy. That is really hard to believe. Yeah. And then Arietta.

He's been a lot better than what we got last year. And then, like you said, Eichhoff. He's been a terrible joke, but he's been like on. Fantastic. Ooh. I expect the Seltzer to make that joke, to be honest with you. I'm a dad, so these are the kind of jokes I can make. You're not even 30 yet.

You can't make that joke. Yeah, that was definitely a dad joke. That was such a dad joke. All right, Ryan, we can't have you on and not talk Hall of Fame, for those who don't know Ryan. It's one of Ryan's corners, I would say. I mean, Ryan has single-handedly gotten Tim Raines in the Hall of Fame. He's gotten Edgar Martinez in the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, my man's got some sway when it comes to the Hall of Fame. So we're going to get into a couple of specific Phillies in a second, but I want to ask you a general question about the Hall of Fame. He's got an Edgar Martinez in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, my man's got some sway when it comes to the Hall of Fame. So we're going to get into a couple of specific Phillies in a second, but I want to ask you a general question about the Hall of Fame because it is probably my number one thing that I get most angry about on a year-to-year basis is the Barry Bonds,

Roger Clemens steroid of it all. Where do you come down on that whole thing on should those guys be in the Hall, the whole situation? There's absolutely no question that they should be in the Hall of Fame. The fact of the matter is players. This whole portion of the podcast is going straight to Glenn Mac now. Yeah, fantastic.

Glenn loves my tweet about Barry Bonds. I actually, to get the $5 points on Saturday, I had a promise I'm not going to tweet about Bonds on for two weeks. A two-week ban on Bonds. See, this is how we're skirting now. You're not tweeting. You're talking about it. It's a beautiful thing. Very good. So, yeah, Bonds and Clements,

no doubters. Guys in the Hall of Fame now, I know of guys who are in the Hall of Fame who've used steroids. I can't say any names because it's obviously not public, but I have on very good authority, there are several guys in there who used. And the fact of the matter is, you know, Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, these guys were known amphetamines users.

And people always do the argument that, yeah, well, steroids are stronger than amphetamines. And that may be, although I've talked to guys who've taken both, and a lot of them say that amphetamines work significantly better. I've heard the same thing for like a grind of a baseball season, that the amphetamines actually were more helpful. Yeah, and so if these guys, we've got Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, who are taking that stuff, and then Tom House, who's Tom Brady's personal throwing coach,

has gone on record saying that him and his teammates were taking everything they could get their hands on, steroids, injectables. And House, as you well know, caught Henry Aaron's 715 home run. So I'm not saying Aaron did anything other than the one time he took amphetamine that he admitted. But I'm inclined to think that there's a lot more drug use in the Hall of Fame than we're willing to admit. Oh, thank you for your, that was perfect.

I couldn't answer that better myself. It drives me crazy. I get so angry. And then on top of that, all the guys who played then, there's a lot of guys who were taking steroids then, too, who haven't come out or haven't gotten caught or whatever. But anyway, let's talk Phillies. Is Jimmy Rollins Hall of Famer? I got to answer this question the other day, and it's difficult for me to say yes or no.

And it's kind of a cop-out answer. So I will tell you that I can vote for him. However, if he got in the Hall of Fame, I would be all for it. I would celebrate his case. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with the fact that I have a Hall of Fame vote. I just try to persuade other people who do. But if you look at Rollins' career, it's very similar to Barry Larkin, for example. Both of them had the MVPs, a couple stellar seasons.

But I will say this. If we let a guy in like Omar Vizquel, who had an OPS that was 17% below league average for the duration of his career. Freddie Galvis Omar? Say again? Freddie Galvis Val Vizquel? If Omar Vizquel gets in, Jimmy Rollins absolutely has got to be a Hall of Famer because my opinion is

the writers, often times there's so many who are great, but there's a lot of them who try to stay ahead of the curve, and they think they're in the know in terms of how valuable all-time great defense is, and the fact of the matter is we just don't actually know what that value is, this is very similar to what we

saw in the 80s. Steve Bedrosian won the 1987 Cy Young Award for the Phillies. But he didn't deserve it, and he only won it because he was like this new thing. Oh, a 40-save closer. Like, this is huge. And it wasn't. It wasn't the, you know, huge thing that the writers made it out to be when they voted him as the Cy Young Award winner.

And so I think the fact of the matter is Jimmy Rollins was a great defensive shortstop. He was a good offensive shortstop. Omar Vizquel was a terrible offensive player, but he was head and shoulders above his

peers in terms of defense. But I don't think that makes up for the difference between his defense, his stellar defense, and Rollins' just great defense, and his awful offense versus Rollins' pretty good bat from the shortstop spot. Now, what about Chase? Because me and james both

are under we both think that chase utley at his peak was obviously a hall of famer and he's he's gonna be the classic case of he is his five-year peak was of that of one of the five best second baseman of all time but obviously the injuries and whatnot and yeah he played forever but he wasn't great as the years went on where do you think chase will get in, or do you think it's going to be one of those just not long enough doing it greatly? I think Chase is a Hall of Famer. I would definitely vote for him. Having said that, I think he's going to

have a tough time. I think he's going to hover some 50% to 60% or so. You mentioned the five great seasons. He's one of every single second baseman who's had at least five, seven more seasons, he's in the Hall of Fame. But we put up numbers during that five-year peak that were untouched

throughout history by second basemen dating all the way back to the Jackie Robinson days and even the Roger Hortonsby days, untouched by them in even a single season. And we're talking five seasons. And Utley was no flout outside those five great seasons. He was still very productive. You know, you were getting three, four wins above replacement out of him. So Utley, absolutely for me, Hall of Famer.

He's got to get in. And I'm really hoping that the writers see the light, so to say. Well, I mean, you campaigned for Tim Raines, you campaigned for Edgar. I think your next one has to be a hometown guy. I mean, now your campaign is getting

Chase Utley and all of it. Use your power for good, Ryan. Well, I mean, I think it was when Jack was in diapers, but I did do an article for Chase Utley as a Hall of Famer for the Sporting News back when I was writing for them. I joke in diapers, he was in college, I suppose. Yeah, probably. Maybe. But yeah, I have done some stuff on Utley, and that's something I'll continue to do.

And I'm also going'll continue to do. And I'm also going to continue to push for Scott Rowland, who I definitely think is a Hall of Famer as well. Yeah, we like him less here, but I agree with you. He probably deserves to be in it. And regardless, Edgar and Tim Raines were both, no doubt about it, Hall of Famers as far as I'm concerned. So thank you for your service. And, again, you can meet Ryan Spader.

Just go out. The P.J. Williams in Newtown Square, 3 p.m. on Saturday. Get some wings. The PJ Williams in Newtown Square. Get some wings. 3 p.m. on Saturday. Get some wings. They have great wings. Great wings. Wingbow wings. Wingbow wings.

How about that? The official wings of the now dead wingbow. Yeah, the RIP. And if you get the book, you can go out there and you can also read the foreword by Wade Boggs and Lance McCullers. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. That's okay. No biggie.

All right, Ryan. We can't have you on here and not ask for a stat or two. Give us something awesome. Just give me a player. I'm going to try to go off the top of my head here. What do you got? All right. Let's go. You've been doing a lot of Reese Hoskins stats recently.

I was going to go historic. I like that. Go Reese. I gave you a Reese Hoskins number to kick off. Give me a Mike Schmidt stat after that. After Hoskins, give me a Mike Schmidt one. Alright, well something on Hoskins that I absolutely love is this guy's very

similar to McNeil with the Mets. Has progressed at every single level. In college, he had a 907 OPS and then he took it into the minors to 904 and now he's sitting at 916 excluding last night's game from those numbers. But he's progressed at every single level. You're talking about a guy who has been over 900 every single level

from NCAA until major leagues. And on Schmidt, I'll give you my favorite Schmidt fact of all time. Mike Schmidt, 548 career home runs, as we all know. But his final career hit as a major leaguer was actually at Bunch Single, believe it or not. Get out of here. And then he retired. And then he retired. I love that. All right, one more, just because you wrote the foreword for your book

and because I think he's criminally underrated historically. Wade Boggs, give me a great Wade Boggs stat. Boggs, absolutely underrated. Probably my favorite fact on Boggs is that in his 58th career at bat, he singled the center field, and his career batting average, even though it was just 58 at bats at the time, was bumped to.328. It never again fell below that mark. Whoa.

That's what he ends up retiring from. That is so cool. I love those ones that you do. Ryan, again. The Tony Gwynn one's the best one. Yeah, the Tony Gwynn one's amazing. It was at like 3,000-something at-bats and could still be over 300 or something? Tony Gwynn is, I should be ashamed of myself that I know this off the top of my head,

but it's 1,183 at-bats that he could go 0 for and still have a 300 batting average. But the Quinn one that everybody loves is just the fact that he faced Maddox 107 times in his career, more than any other pitcher, and he batted 415 with zero strikeouts. The man was the master. All right, one more. I lied that it was the last one just because just for...

And it's birthdays today, Tony. Yeah, good point. Just for Glenn Mac now. And there are so many amazing. They're all the best, but give us your favorite bonds. I'm going to say my favorite bonds. So that's tough. Because there's so many great ones.

There's so many where you're like, how is this possible that this guy did this? All right, I'm giving you two because, first of all, I'll tell you, his 762 home runs could be converted to strikeouts, and he would still have a higher career-on-base percentage and a lower career strikeout percentage than Mike Schmidt. Get out of here. What?

What? Yo, Ryan. That is like, I don't even know what to say. That is so amazing. And I've got to give you this last one. And I feel like I'm talking your guys' heads off. But Barry Bonds, this is my favorite because I've done it. It's the karaoke video that Barstool ended up doing a story on.

And I got so much trash on Twitter for doing Barry Bonds stats during karaoke. But Barry Bonds once hit 80 home runs over the span of 160 games, and he slugged 921 during that 160-game span. That's not fair. That's not fair. Buy this man's book, Incredible Baseball Stats. You will not regret it. You'll get gems like that.

Follow him on Twitter, Asa Spader. You can get it for free as well. And go hang out, PJ Wheelands, 3 o'clock on Saturday in Newtown Square. Ryan Mann, thank you so much for coming on with us. Gentlemen, thank you very much. See you, Spades. Later. That was awesome. Thank you to Ryan Spader for joining us. Go check out his book signing on Saturday. Fritzy, coming up, we will of course

touch on the sad news that happened in Philadelphia this week. First, let's look ahead to this Royals matchup. Rematch of the 1980 World Series. And just as much hype around this matchup. How about that? Believe it or not, I was not alive to see the 1980 World Series, Jack. I know. Shocking.

I thought this was like your high school days. I thought this was right around your prom, wasn't it? Oh, man. Good times, Jackie. Good times in your high school prom. Tonight, or tomorrow night, Friday,

the Phillies Royals will start off. Homer Bailey. Homer Bailey, still in the major leagues I can't I can't believe guys still give him jobs I guess he just pitches every day

every fifth day so he'll physically throw the baseball and most likely get lit up which he has so far this season Homer Bailey

is one of the biggest wastes of talent I've seen in my life yeah I mean guy threw a no hitter well you know what's embarrassing like Mike Fiers should not have two no hitters

he has two no hitters should never He has two no-hitters. He should never have two no-hitters. You want to hear something else about it? Mike Fiers has thrown two complete games in his career. And they're both no-hitters. They're both his no-hitters. It's so annoying. I hate that.

I'm with you, but you know what would happen. Look, Bud Smith threw a no-hitter, but I'm with you. I know. Homer Bailey is garbage. Garbage. He pitched in that 2011 series. He sure did. He's just been around forever.

Homer Bailey is so, I just, if they, Homer Bailey stinks. They have to beat Homer Bailey. They have to, if they lose to Homer Bailey. They have to beat Homer Bailey. Arietta on the Hill, you feel good about Arietta, obviously. And there's going to be like six people there. I mean, no one goes to Royals games anymore. You think there are going to be six people there?

No one goes to Royals games. There might be two people there. No, it's a weekend series, obviously. And there's going to be like six people there. I mean, no one goes to Royals games anymore. You think there's going to be six people there? No one goes to Royals games. There might be two people there. No, it's a weekend series, so some people should. It's a fun stadium. Have you ever been to Kauffman Stadium? No.

It's a nice stadium. Like the fountain and stuff. It's a cool stadium. Nice. Yeah. It still should be a ballpark that they light up. Yeah, well, it's a pitcher stadium,

so hopefully the pitchers can get it going. So we got Arrieta versus Bailey. Zach Evelyn against Brad Keller. Have you gotten a chance to see Keller pitch? I like Brad Keller. Yeah, I do too. That's why, so hopefully the pitchers can get it going. So we got Arietta versus Bailey. Zach Evelyn against Brad Keller. Have you gotten a chance to see Keller pitch? I like Brad Keller. Yeah, I do too. That's why I asked.

I think he's solid. I think he's an interesting guy. Both him and Junis I both like a lot. Yeah, Jake Junis against Velasquez. On Sunday. So, yeah, Keller. I think Keller is an interesting pitcher. I think he's got some talent.

I think the Phillies might have their work cut out for him, kind of. I mean, he's not unbelievable, but I think he's good enough to cause a little bit of problems. I like Brad's got some talent. I think the Phillies might have their work cut out for him. Kinda. I mean, he's not like unbelievable, but I think he's good enough to cause a little bit of problems. I like Brad Keller a little bit. Yeah, I feel the same way. I like him better and I like Eunice. Or is it Eunice or Eunice? You're my expert. I say Eunice. Jacob Eunice. Okay, let's go Jacob Eunice there. It was Jake and then he changed it to Jacob. He's like, no.

What do you think about people who say no, call me by my full name when they called the other name for a while? Did you see how about Zach Wheeler changing from, that was the weirdest. I thought it was Britton. Oh, Britton. It was Britton, yeah. That was the weirdest.

Changing from Z-A-C-H to Z-A-C-K. Yeah. Like, that's super weird. It's like, come on. I'm glad we didn't sign him at this point. I don't want Zach Britton near this team. Yeah, I'm with you. That's like, that alone, I'm out on you.

Yeah. Yeah, so Eflin, I mean, it's a bad, the Royals are a bad offensive team. So Vince Velasquez, what could be his last start as a Philly? I like that. So we are saying the high hopes official position, if Vinny sucks on Sunday. He's out. Out.

He is out. The Royals, they're going to run a lot. It's going to be. It's the only team in baseball that runs. Man, they run like crazy. It's going to be a busy weekend for JT Real Muto. Good thing we got a catcher who's good at throwing people out, right? Yeah.

All right. Before final thoughts, let's take a second here. Well, before this. You got more on the Royals? Yeah, we got to do our Kurt Suzuki. Oh, my God. See, we only did it once. I always forget about our new award.

All right. And I would say you won the first round of the Kurt Suzuki award. I clearly did. Marcelo Zuno, I don't think, got a hit. And Paul de Jong homered. And Paul de Jong. Granted, the Phillies didn't get killed by anybody, which is great. Yeah, no one really lit up the Phillies.

It was shocking. And just to be clear, we're not trying to pick the best player on the team, right? I mean, because Whit Merrifield is the obvious answer. But non-Whit Merrifield, Kurt Suzuki award winner. Who you got? You gonna go with your boy I'm gonna go with Hunter Dozier yeah

I mean Hunter Dozier dude Hunter Dozier has an OPS over a thousand right now he's been great yeah he's he's been sneaky paying 331

he's paying 331 yeah is he gonna is he gonna kill us this weekend probably I feel it Kurt Suzuki probably Martin Maldonado alright my Kurt Suzuki

award winner god I hate him it's Alex Gordon ah Ah, the worst. He's been great and we have a bunch of right handed pitchers. He's left handed. Hits righty as well. Alex Gordon. Gonna win the Kurt Suzuki award. If it's Alex Gordon, it's gonna suck.

If Alex Gordon torches us, I'm not watching Phillies baseball ever again. Oh, God. A lot in line this series. Who knew? Who's got more in line? Vince Velasquez or you? I'm going to say you. Me.

All right. We'll get to our final thoughts in a minute, but just to take a second, obviously, you know, we're not the first to talk about it. In fact, I think one of the most amazing things about David Montgomery passing a couple days ago was the outpouring of emotion

from across the sport. I mean mean people you would have never even thought had anything to do with the phillies or with dave montgomery or talking about he's the greatest person i ever met and all this stuff and i think at least for me the i never got to meet dave montgomery but literally every person you ever talked to whether it was all the stuff yesterday or just people at the station you met him or fans who met him, every single person had one thing to say, best guy you'll ever meet. Like he was just the nicest, best guy. And it's a huge loss for the Phillies.

Yeah, and I think Dave Montgomery is the reason why when players leave here, they always are drawn back to come back to Philadelphia. Like guys will spend a year here, but they'll love Philadelphia. And I think that's because montgomery is one of those people that you know uh just create that family atmosphere and i think he created that with the phillies and i mean he's been instrumental in getting us a new ballpark yep it was he's as big a reason as anybody that citizens bank park is there and he's just as big of a reason as to the all-star game coming here in 2026 i mean just his relationship with rob manfred how he's never asked for anything from rob manfred and he's like hey rob one thing

you know before i pass on i would love the all-star game to come here and manfred said yeah sure we'll do it for for you so i think that's that's a huge sign uh of just how amazing of a guy dave montgomery respect he had within the sport yeah so, so just a huge loss. Huge loss for the team. I mean, 72. That's crazy. Way too young. Yeah, so, yeah. Big loss to the team.

Big loss from the Phillies family. What makes them such a great, close family has been Dave Montgomery. So, obviously, fertile and thoughts out to his family. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. And again, just, if you have a chance, go look at social media,

all the the articles that have been written you know jason stark had a great piece on the athletic that's free obviously a lot of the local writers who've been around for a while jim salisbury had a wonderful piece on him as well so uh worth the time to go check it out if you don't know a lot about what david montgomery meant to the team or the city or all that um certainly lost a philadelphia legend this week so uh ripIP and like you said, thoughts and prayers out to his family. All right,

Jackie, final thoughts, my friend. Final thoughts. Definitely thoughts because I got three. Always, Jack. Always,

my friend. Three. That's why I say final thoughts. I used to say final thought. I've learned. Yes, that's a good idea by you. Actually,

I have four. Moniak is- You'll have five by the, I have four. Moniak is batting. You'll have five by the time you're done. Moniak is batting 296 and is coming out of the bio. So you're welcome, Nick. Thank you for taking me out of the bio. Good work on you. Over the last 10 games, the Philly starting staff ERA is 3.2.

If you take out the Velasquez starts, it's 2.29. Wow, man. It's really good. It's really good. Vinny, and alright, my last one's like a thought, so I'll get the one out. Good, good, good, yes.

So, I put it on Twitter, but I want to bring it up here. Player A, their start to their 2003 season coming off of getting a massive contract from the Philadelphia Phillies. This is great stuff. First 33 games, Player A batted.227,.352 OBP,.755 OPS, four homers, 22 RBI. That's player A.

Player B's first 33 games,.233 average,.373 OBP,.841 OPS, six homers, 21 RBIs. Player A, Jim Tomei, 2003, his first 33 games as a Philadelphia Philly. Which were worse than the player B's first 33 games. Player B is Bryce Harper. Very clearly. Both two players coming into the city getting massive contracts. One was 32. One is 26.

Am I worried about Bryce Harper? No, I'm not worried about Bryce Harper. Didn't Jim Tomei have like 47 home runs that year? He ended the year with 47 and 131. Yeah. So, chill out. Yeah. Let's all just relax on Bryce.

And those numbers are better. Bryce had a better first 33 games than Tommy. Yep. I love it. All right. No, what's funny is that if I went to 35 games from Tommy, it was up to 254. He had two monster games. He had back-to-back, like, three-hit games.

Perfect spot to cut it. I like that. I like that. All right. Did you have more? You got more? No, I got one more. Oh, okay.

I'm just thinking about this a lot. I think the best plan of action for the Phillies going forward this season is to trade for Madison Baumgartner. Yes. If you have Madison Baumgartner fixing or filling the Velasquez slash Pavetta spot. Oh, buddy. The staff is incredible. And if you move those guys to the bullpen,

then the bullpen gets even better. I know. Trade for both of them. So if you can get both of those guys, and then you move Pavetta and Velasquez to the bullpen, and you have two guys who can come in and throw 98-ish out of the pen, and you have Bumgarner fill up. Oh, buddy.

I mean, 229 ERA without the Velasquez starts. That would be eight starts instead of 10 starts. Like, just the makeup of the team. So if you have a bum gardener in that rotation, two guys that throw almost 100 out of the bullpen at the deadline, you add in like a Will Smith as another lefty to go with Adam Morgan, and you have the deepest lineup in the NL, we're talking World Series.

I love it. I love it. We're talking World Series. I like it. All right, my two're talking World Series. I like it. All right, my two final thoughts. Neither has anything to do with the Phillies, so I'm happy yours did. Yeah, I always go outside the box.

My first is a thought. My second is a stat. The thought, I hope you saw it. You see Chris Paddock against Pete Alonzo the other night? I heard. So he did the move, and I've never seen a pitcher do this, and it was awesome.

He did the move where after he threw the pitch, he got the ball back and he just stood on the mound ready to pitch waiting for Pete Alonso to get ready. Like just stood there staring, waiting, waiting. The second Pete Alonso got in the box, 95 mile per hour fastball high. Alonso swings right through. I saw him do it to Conforto.

That was awesome. Like that I'm guessing hitters hate it. I'm sure they hate it. That was badass. Chris Paddock hitters hate it. I'm sure they hate it. That was badass. Chris Paddock is the man. Big fan. Hitters hate being sped up more than anything. He just stood there.

It was awesome. Staring him down, just standing there, just waiting. I already like Chris Paddock because of the numbers and watching him pitch. But I'm all in on Chris Paddock. That guy's awesome. I traded him on draft day. Oh, man. But I got Josh Hader back. He's a bonus keeper. Yeah, but no draft. Rather a paddock. That guy's awesome. I traded him on draft day. Oh, man. But I got Josh Hader back and he's a bonus keeper.

Yeah, but I'm not tired about it. Rather a paddock. All right. Other final thought. Just because I saw this and I thought it was wild. And it's really,

as much in anything, an example of where we are in baseball today, but obviously the perfect player for it. And I don't know if you saw this. Joey Gallo.

Yeah. Becomes the first player in Major League history to hit his 100th home run, 100th career home run for his 100th career single. Yeah. 100 career homers, 93 singles. I still think Joey Gallo stinks.

I don't care what anyone says. He's been great this year. I know. And by the way, man, imagine if we could have traded Vince Velasquez for him in 2016. Oh, yeah, buddy. Sad. It is sad. What are you going to do in this park?

Oh, my God. Titanic shots. All right uh we'll be back i was about to say on monday no we'll be back on thursday we'll be back no we won't be back on monday i was right we are back on monday we should just stop doing this all right we're gonna stop saying days yeah we'll be back soon we'll be back the day that we're always back we'll talk to danny spritz i'm s. Man, that's so bad. All-star closer, Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast

of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game.

It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago and is now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is. Another fact. so jump aboard

the B.I.B. Express follow and listen to baseball isn't boring presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts