High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - BONUS: Is Bryce Harper MLB's LeBron James? | Big Time Baseball

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

Cody and Tony go in depth on the NLCS between San Diego and Philadelphia. The guys break down Bryce Harper's legendary go-ahead two run homer as well as the decision to bunt in the 9th by San Diego. Tony suggests no other athlete has lived up to the hype quite like Bryce Harper, maybe besides LeBron James. Subscribe to Big Time Baseball! 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

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Non-investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. See Kraken.com slash legal slash CA dash PRU dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. Odyssey Sports presents Big Time Baseball with former Major Leaguer Tony Gwynn Jr. and Odyssey Insider Cody Decker.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it. We have made it through an entire Major League Baseball season. We have made it through an entire October. Ladies and gentlemen, the World Series. After a week of waiting for it, which I gotta say, interesting planning, Major League Baseball. We're gonna get a World Series on Friday as we are currently recording here on Wednesday.

Welcome to Odyssey Sports Big Time Baseball. It is me, Cody Decker, former professional baseball player, turned professional smartass on the radio. And with me, man, we don't have a special guest. We got the guy, the one and with me. Man, we don't have a special guest. We got the guy, the one and only Tony Gwynn Jr. That's right, an actual co-host of this show, co-hosting this show with me.

Pretty fired up. Tony, how you doing, man? I am good. The ride that I've been on has been pretty spectacular. I'm sad to see it come to him, but I'm also ready for a little bit of downtime for sure. I bet you are. But before we get to what the world series matchup is, obviously we got to talk about your pods pods,

sadly falling to the Philadelphia Phillies, you know, like we all predicted at the beginning of October. Right? Yeah. I mean, it was crazy, right? A fifth and sixth seed take out. I mean, what? And combined, what, three 100 win teams all get knocked out?

It was pretty spectacular. And to be quite frank, i know the series ended early um it was a good series despite you know it not getting to a game seven those two teams were matched up pretty well it could either those games could have gone either way uh for both sides like your padres could have easily have won that series 3-1 in the same way the Phillies wanted 3-1 yeah it was madness it was a great series I really enjoyed watching it I was obviously rooting for the pods the whole way through but listen the Phillies were aren't even supposed to be here when I say not supposed to be here it means in October they were supposed to be home man the only reason they're even here is because the Brewers decided to tank it up

on that last month of the season, and the Phillies were able to sneak on in, and none of us gave them a chance against the Cardinals, me included, by the way. Sure as hell didn't give them a shot against the Braves. Are you kidding me? And then coming up against the Padres, I'm like, well, this pitching matchup, I mean, obviously the Padres are going to just absolutely trounce them. That team's offense is as good as any offense in baseball today. But here was the thing that I thought was going to be the thing that would have broken their back. And it almost did a couple of

times with the Padres. Man, the Phillies defense is still bad. It is still bad. It is still very, very bad. That is how, that is how well they are playing offensively. And that is, quite frankly, how well they are pitching. Bullpen included. They're not having to make a ton of plays because the bullpen has been that good. And you brought up a terrific point. I mean, you didn't think the Phillies could get there. But I'll tell you what, Bryce Harper, he's playing a different game right now. I mean, he literally won three of the four games in that series

by himself against the Padres. I mean, he's been – and it's not just that series. He's literally been hitting damn near 500 throughout the course of the playoffs at this point. How can you be a guy who was in the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16, a guy that's won two MVPs, and a guy that in this October completely carried his off, well, carried his offense as being a little dramatic,

but because he's obviously other guys have hit as well, obviously standout performances from Schwarber, incredible timely home runs from Hoskins. But let's be real clear. I mean, the star of that team this October has been Bryce Harper. All these things that we're saying about Bryce Harper, a guy, a guy that's been touted as a child. Is he somehow underrated?

I think so. Think about what we just finished talking about. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated before he finished high school. Yes. Before he finished high school yes before he finished high school and has pretty much been the lebron james of baseball in terms of from a very young age and and and we could very well say that he is underrated isn't that amazing this is where we're at like it's it's it's quite ridiculous but back to the phillies run i mean they they have been at this point listen and i it's hard for me to visualize it even though the phillies are playing so well somebody beating the astros right now the way they're playing

but at this point can you can you really be surprised that Philly goes in here and finds a way to upset the Astros in this World Series? No, I don't. I mean, no, because they upset the Cardinals. They upset the Braves. They upset the Padres. They shouldn't have won any of these. Yeah, you bet your ass they should not beat the Astros. But, man, I'm not going to put them past anything anymore.

I mean, I clearly don't know what I'm not going to put it past anything anymore right I mean I clearly don't know what I'm talking about because I was wrong about the Phillies at every step of the way you and everybody else to be fair but man I'm thrilled to have been wrong this is so much fun to watch as a baseball fan yeah as a guy that wanted to see the Padres or the Dodgers go to the World Series yeah that kind of sucks but as a baseball fan this is an awesome story just think of the moments that we got I mean that Reese Hoskins spiking of the bat and if anyone doesn't just put that Bryce Harper home run and by the way that call on the home run uh phenomenal the swing of his life that is going to be a video and call that will last,

especially if the Phillies win the World Series. That's going to be a call that will live forever. Psst, want to get in on the best savings hack ever? Only Kudo saves you up to 40% on a sweet phone plan, reliable home internet, and all the streaming you could ever need with Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. That's right. When you bundle with the Happy Stack, you can spend up to 40% less a month every month

all year long as long as you're with Kudo. Dare I say saving this much money has never been this easy? Stack more, spend less. Like way less. The Happy Stack. Only at Kudo. Now with internet. I tell you what, that at bat was just, if you're a baseball nerd like we are,

as a hitter, you have to have an appreciation for that entire at bat against Robert Suarez. Robert Suarez is throwing 100 miles an hour. He gets ahead. Bryce fouls off a 100-mile-per-hour fastball off the plate. And it wasn't like one of those emergency hacks either. It was like a regular foul ball on 100. And I'm thinking, I'm watching this game.

I'm calling the game. I'm thinking to myself, oh, okay, he set up for the perfect changeup. Down and away. And Robert Torres throws the perfect changeup down and away. And it wasn't that he took it. It was how he took it. There was no flinch. There was no – it was like he saw it out of the hand

and just, like, had no movement. Like, no, that's going to be blows off. As soon as I saw that, I turned to my partner, Jesse Agler, in no words, and I just had my eyes almost pop out of my head. I'm like, I just knew. I knew that the next pitch, I mean, it had to be, it just had to be a fastball off the plate, basically. And he probably would have walked at that point.

But once I saw it all over the plate and it wasn't a bad pitch by by the way it was it was outer third uh 99 yeah and and you just knew once he took that pitch before i just had this sinking feeling that he was about to do something special so i had the sinking feeling that he was about to do something special. So I had the sinking feeling when he was walking to the plate. I don't know what it was. I just sat there going like, God, this might be loud. I don't know why. I don't know why I think this because Suarez is a monster,

and he's probably going to K up a storm. But I don't know why Bryce Harper walking to the plate. I think this is what it was. He had already homered twice in the series, and I've been saying all week, hey, listen, the Phillies are George Foreman in his 50s. Don't let him punch you. If he punches you, you're going down, and that punch is going to come from Bryce Harper.

Just don't let Bryce beat you. And it's not that they let him beat him. They just beat him. We beat him. Thank you. That's He didn't beat him. He beat – Thank you. That is – It wasn't a bad pitch. It wasn't the Padres made a mistake.

Nope. It was just Bryce Harper doing Bryce Harper things. I mean, it was truly remarkable. I mean, even the first homer in game one from Darvish at 94 at the letters off the plate that he just kind of fly swatted over the left field wall. Like he was doing things like that. All,

all series. Yes. That just happened to be the, the capper at the, like the most perfect time. Now you got it. We got an issue where we got, you know,

Philly cops, greasing poles all over the city of Philadelphia and fans in Philly, not Karen and still jumping on the polls and getting beers tossed out. Hey, nothing about this. I don't love the, the amount of double birds, the bus, our bus travel received leaving, leaving citizens bank part. I don't know that I've seen that many in my lifetime. It was, and you know, there was a ton of traffic. So everybody is just double bird. They're they're waving at us I mean they're having the time of their life oh so great and by

the way for those Padre fans obviously don't be too sad pods ain't going anywhere anytime soon they are yeah I get they're playing in the same division as the Dodgers I get that we know the Giants are likely going to spend a lot of money this offseason, but man, this Padre team will get back Fernando Tatis Jr. back next year. They'll have roughly the same lineup they had this year with Fernando back. Hopefully we get the old version of Fernando. Hopefully he takes it, took his lumps, grew and learned from it, and hopefully we get a powerhouse team out of San Diego this next season and for the next five years. That's the most exciting part about it all,

is that this is the one time in San Diego's history, at least from Padre history, where they've gotten to an elite level and really been able to keep that same nucleus and continue to move forward. I think that's the most exciting part. You mentioned getting Fernando back. The nucleus is coming back. You'll have the same staff back.

I think those are all wins for the Padres. May I, before we get off the National League side and talk a little bit about the AL side, question for you because Padre broadcaster, former Padre player, a much better one than I was for damn sure. Question for you because Padre broadcaster, former Padre player, a much better one than I was for damn sure. Question for you, your thoughts on the fact that your best relief pitcher, Josh Hader, never pitched an inning in those last couple of games.

I didn't have a problem with it. You know, Robert Suarez hadn't surrendered a homerun to a lefty the entire season. And he was pitching that well. And in hindsight, okay, you know how it is, right? Yeah. There's a decision to be made. They went with what they thought. They knew they needed to cover, what, I think it was nine outs at the time. You had Josh Hader, who hadn't thrown, gotten a six-out save in two years

for a reason. And I think that they were going to try to get two from Suarez. And I was okay with that decision. The bottom line, as we said about Bryce Harper, I honestly don't think it would have mattered who was in the game when he came to the plate. He would have somehow hit two homers off of Hader. I'm just saying it's just one of those things.

In hindsight, I'm sure if Bo Mel is in this same situation in 2023, he may attack it a little bit differently knowing what he knows now but in the moment at the time i didn't have a problem with it i didn't either but of course it did cross my mind when harper came to the plate i'm like ah remember remember 2017 orioles fans remember remember obaldo now suarez is a lot better than ob Baldo, but man, it's like having Britain out there. You don't want to leave Britain out there. But hey, the game, there's the thing that you got to remember, though. The game wasn't even over.

Pods came back in the ninth to put two guys on. By the way, why am I forgetting center fielder's name? Killing me here. For the Padres. Grisham. Grisham Grisham thank you my god Grisham laying down a dime uh sack bunt with runners on first and second with their closer on the mound I mean Grisham does not sack bunt every day in fact none of us do I was more impressed with that sack bunt than just about anything else he did in the playoffs

and he had a great playoff he had a great playoff i think you know the crazy part is i think he's going for a he's trying to drag bunt it for a hit and and you know how it is when it's wet like that i mean anything could happen it just so happened he ends up bunting it a little bit too close to the pitcher where he's able to to kind of his feet, make the throw that he needed to. And I didn't have a problem with that, too. There were a lot of people. Listen, as you know, when you're struggling, when you're 0-4 a series and you come up in a spot as a left-handed hitter facing a left-handed pitcher at that point,

you're trying to do anything you can to help your ball club get out and if and if that means dragging a bunt or putting a bunt down in a situation where it's late and a lot of people would swing away you do it you go you're trying to do anything you can to help the ball club and he chose to do it bow mail didn't have an issue with it i didn't have an issue with it i thought it was a it was a winning play i thought so too i thought it was a great even i didn't even see I didn't even know it was an attempt of a drag I thought it was just a late show because there was runners on first and second and I thought he got the job done and if that was the call like that I love the call because for multiple reasons one putting some serious pressure on the defense and have we mentioned what the defense is right yeah and

let's not forget the previous pitcher threw three wild pitches in a row because the weather was cold damp everything about it I loved I thought like yeah make them make a play force them to get you out I think most baseball people had no issue with that play yeah I loved it