High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Is Bryce Harper Heading Toward Another MVP?

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Jack Fritz reacts to the Phillies win in Detroit on Monday night and Bryce Harper's huge performance. Presented by Miller Lite. 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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or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, accountability matters. Welcome on. It is the final out sponsored by Regency Furniture. Affordable never looked so good. Jack Fritz signing out with you on this Monday night. And I tell you what, what a baseball game. I mean, what a just a pure, good, dominant baseball game Out in Detroit

A lot of ups Some major league debuts Some big nights Something we hadn't seen since the 1920s That's a full night Out in Detroit Let's get into it The game wrap up sponsored by

Blazer, Swiss Lube and Kravitz The metal working fluid specialist Providing professional CNC machine cleaning Coolant maintenance programs And waste coolant disposal. Kravitz.online. 215-592-9494 to get in. If you were in Detroit, and it was a bit of a sparse crowd,

before the game Matt Gelb tweeted this the first time, they'd seen a crowd of under 30,000 in like 42 days or something. I mean, it's something ridiculous like that. I mean, they have been, obviously, the crowd at Citizens Bank Park have been ridiculous, but they've been on the road as a part of some big games. Yeah, so first time in 42 days that they're going to see a crowd smaller than 30,000.

Now, there was Phillies fans there. You heard some MVP chants at the end of the game for Bryson. I was all game. So if you were out there, we'd love to hear from you what the atmosphere was like out in Comerica tonight because that's the first time they've been out there in a while. Or if you were like me and watched the game on your couch, we'd love to get your takeaways as well. My biggest takeaways of the game are brought to you by Morgan and Morgan America's

largest injury law firm. A lot to get into, but a lot of good too. My first big takeaway is part of the reason why this team has gotten off to such a huge, huge, great start. Again, highest winning percentage in baseball, 51 wins, 21 and six in series openers, 21 and six. The great part about winning a series opener

is that it's immediately a stress reliever. So, you know, you win that first series, it's like, all right, well, at least we got one out of the way. 21-6 is a pretty ridiculous start to a season where they already have more sweeps this year than they had all of last year but being able to get off on the right foot and set that tone and say we're here we're the phils and and you're gonna have to obviously play your best to beat us but showing up day in day out and

and posting and doing a job and from the first game of the series, setting a tone. And that's what this team has done so well. 21 and six in series openers. That's how you get out to the record they have so far this year. Obviously, the sweeps are great, but at least getting off on the right foot and starting a series with a win and relieving yourself of that kind of, any kind of tension you would have. Yeah, I know it's not even the All-Star break yet. I know it's not the second half of the season. I know this is not the playoffs. But losing the first game of the series just instantly, you know,

heightens your sense of like, ah, bleep. Like we don't want to lose the series. And they've just done a marvelous, marvelous job. The second big takeaway of the night, and he is our player of the game, which is sponsored by South Jersey Gas, committed to providing safe, reliable, affordable natural gas. Make the switch at southjerseygas.com slash lovemyhome. And that is Bryce Harper.

I mean, what a monstrous run this guy is on. I believe he's up to 385 in June so far. It's insane. So after tonight, his June splits, 385, 466 OBP, 705 slugging percentage, 11100 OPS, 6 homers, 14 RBI, 19 runs. I mean, that's a ridiculous June. And, you know,

we've talked a lot on this show and on High Hopes, by the way, subscribe to High Hopes wherever you get your podcasts from me and Selzer just geeking out about the Phillies. This is all shaping up

to a Bryce versus Otani for the MVP. And for as great as Bryce has been, Otani's been right there as well as more home runs. He's Shohei Otani. I mean, those two, it feels like we're heading towards a big old heavy weight, the two best teams in the

National League going down the stretch run. Who's going to be able to take it home? Who's going to secure their third MVP, which, again, only 11 players in the history of baseball have ever done. That's what it seems like we're trending towards. And Bryce was monstrous tonight. From the first inning, he has the big double. He gets the hustle double, which set up a run.

And it hit a moonshot. I mean, it got out of Comerica in a hurry. And I think the best stat about Bryce and what he's doing right now, which, by the way, for those counting at home and things that matter a lot to me and hopefully to you, he is now at a 300, 400, 500 stash line, which is high-level stuff. But he's hitting.403 with runners in scoring position. .403!

When it comes down to doing it in the clutch, that's when he's doing it. .403 with runners in scoring position. A great night for Alec Baum as well. He had four hits. He had a home run. He's pulling the ball to authority, which is massive. Ever since he had that off day up in Boston, he's been on a ridiculous run. Now, the one thing that I find interesting, in a whole game that was just a downright fascinating game for the middle of late June, 15 hits and 17 strikeouts tonight.

15 hits and 17 strikeouts tonight. I mean, where the hell do you see that? 15 hits, 17 strikeouts, 8 runs, and some monster performances by your best players on offense. But 15 strikeouts? Or 15 hits and 17 strikeouts? Listen, someone get Jason Stark on that for wacky and weird baseball facts because I don't know many many games that have gone like that so pretty insane stuff from the offense and then the final thing to get to the

biggest takeaways the game again 215 592 94 94 to get in is aaron olip once again you know outside of that boston start having his best start to the season. I feel like the best since 18. 18 was a magical Nola year. And I know not everyone was locked in on the 2018 Phillies, and that's fine. But Aaron Nola finished third in the Cy Young that year, and he was brilliant. And I think for a majority of the season, he has been that level. And I'm glad that he is having one of those kind of throwback seasons because he's a really good pitcher that, while he might not be the ace of aces,

he might not be Wheeler, might not be Doc, might not be Cliff Lee in most of Hamill's career. He is a really valuable pitcher and a really good pitcher. And it's good to let him have one of these low three, high two ERA kind of seasons because he's that good. 90 pitches from Knowles tonight. The pitch count sponsored by the Plumbers Union Local 690, protecting the health of the nation.

Visit Plumber690.org. Frankly, I think he could have kept going, but they want to get Michael Mercado into a pretty, kind of ease him into his role a little bit. Obviously, he's making his major league debut. 8-1, 7-1 is a pretty good spot to get him some easy work where the pressure is not super high. And then, obviously, Orion Kirkering finished it out. I think that if guys didn't need work, I think Aaron Nola is still out there. And for my money, I thought that was the best his curveball had looked all year.

Looked like he added some depth to it. You know, Nola's curveball is not 12-6. It doesn't really have 12-6 movement. It's more 11-5. And I thought tonight it got – it wasn't total 12-6, but it was more 12-6 than I feel like we've seen out of him really in his career. His is more like a, it's almost a sweeper, but it just has more depth to it because he creates an unbelievable amount of torque with his elbow. And tonight just looked like they added some depth to it.

So that's something for me that I'm going to monitor going forward here. Like, are they adding more depth to his curveball? You know, that's something that Caleb Cotham's been really good at implementing. Something that has gotten Sir Anthony on track here. You know, they added some depth to his slider. And he's looked like a totally different pitcher. But I thought they added maybe a little bit more depth. Again, it could be the camera angle.

You know, but it was just something that I wanted to file away, something to kind of keep your eye on as we go forward with Aaron Nola. But if you take out the Boston start, last 10 starts for Nola was 2.38 ERA. That's pretty good. And it stinks for him because I thought he was pitching his way

into the all-star game, and he still might be able to get in. He might, but that one start really jacked up his ERA, put it in the 3-4-8, and then 3-5-4 after the Padres start, and then tonight probably back down into the 3-3s. But still, that one start really did jack up his whole numbers on his first half, and obviously the Atlanta start to start the year. But either way, we know how well

Noel is pitching, and it was good to see that kind of performance tonight. And it was good to see Garrett Stubbs back-to-back games with really good pitching performances, so we can kind of calm down the fears of this pitching staff's going to fall apart without JT, Ryo, and Yuto behind the plate. 2-1-5, 5-9-2,

94-94. As you can tell, there is a lot to get in on tonight on the final out. Let's go to the phones and talk to Dave in Maryland. What's happening, Dave? Hey, Jack. Great win tonight. Quick question for you.

You know, like, when a player doesn't tag up, right, and the manager might call them into the office and say, hey, you should have done that. Does the program director at WIP call Spike Askin into the office tomorrow and expose him for such a horrible take today on the show this afternoon? Well, I mean, we are a show about accountability. I'm sure that it will be addressed tomorrow at 2 o'clock. We're okay with bad takes.

Bad takes happen. It's okay. We let them fly sometimes. But it really did immediately backfire. I mean, it was almost like Bryce was listening today. He might have been. I mean, the hustle on Bones doubled the score of the eighth run. I mean, he's just an amazing baseball player,

and we're in the midst of watching an amazing baseball player in the middle of the prime of his career, and it's just fun to watch every night. And, you know, great win, great series win. Ryan Helsley almost pulled a 2022 tonight, but he held on against the Braves, so we picked up a game tonight, which is an all-around great night. And look to get Scooble tomorrow.

It's going to be a tough one. Dude, Scooble's going to be awesome. I mean, Ranger versus Scooble for old-fashioned pitching nerds that feel like ourselves. That's an intriguing matchup. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, I mean, I see it's a 3-2, 2-1 type of game. And, you know, hopefully the Phillies can scratch one out

and get a series tomorrow. Yeah, I appreciate the phone call, Dave. I mean, we'll see with the 70 strikeouts that they had tonight. But we are not dwelling on the negatives tonight. They also had 15 hits and Bryce is Bryce. So it was a pretty impressive game out in Detroit. 2-1-5-5-9-2, 94-94. To react to this one on the other side, in addition to your phone calls,

we'll get to the play of the game, which, again, something that we had not seen since the 1920s and some signs of life from one key filly in my opinion. We'll get to all that coming up next on the Final Out on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Hey fantasy football owners

the road to winning your fantasy football championship starts now. I'm Matt Harmon from Reception Perception. Join me and James Coe as we take a deep dive into the position that's going to make or break your fantasy roster. Wide receivers. We analyze route running, target share, and all the metrics that matter, giving you the insights you need to draft the best wide receivers.

As you prep for your draft, let us give you the coverage you need. Follow and listen to Reception Perception on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. That's certainly our play of the game. Sponsored by Mike's Amazing, the official mayo and mustard of the Phillies, the old 1-3-5 triple play. Welcome back. It is the final out.

Sponsored by Regency Furniture. Affordable never looks so good. The baseball nerds just had a field day with that one. And according to Matt Gelb, first 1-3-5 triple play since July

11th, 1929. 19- 29. So it's actually a pretty heads up play by Nola because I think if I was in that situation and you see the guy busting down from third base, your first instinct is to go after the guy on third base

because you're always like, well, you want to get the lead runner, to immediately say, no, I'm going to throw to first, and then I'm going to throw back the third base and make sure. Like, that's pretty heads-up baseball there by Aaron Nolan, Bryce Harper, and the guys. So, again, you don't see that one very often. And I think one of the umpires is also on the field for the Eric Bruntland triple play back in 2011 or back in you know, back in the day.

Either way, again, you never know what you're going to see at a baseball game. And a 1-3-5 triple play is not something you're going to see every day. This game had a lot. There was a lot to react to. And I'll give you some thoughts on one Philly that I thought had a good night and someone they need to

get going. But first, Rashad was out in Detroit at the game. What's happening, Rashad? Hey, man, what's going on? Can you hear me? Man, would you lose your voice at the game tonight? I'm stepping in the corner right now. No, I'm calling in from Detroit. I'm a big Philly fan.

I listen to you guys all the time. Who said you weren't the best non-professional sport athlete in WIP? Yeah, I mean, many people do say that. Many people do say that, the best non-professional sport athlete in WIP. Yeah, I mean, many people do say that. Many people do say that. The best non-professional athlete in WIP. I appreciate it. Listen, man, it really gets no better than this. I brought my girl to a Phillies game

for the first time. I never get to see my boys play. I live in Detroit. It's kind of awful. The Tigers suck. I get to see her triple play and listen, I'm sitting in the stands. I tell this guy behind me that Bryce Harper's the MVP. This guy says Bryce Harper is the MVP of Whippleball. And then that very next swing, Bryce hits it out of the park.

You can't draw it up better than that. You literally can't draw it up better than that. It was the most amazing thing. Like, I love these guys. This is a World Series team right here. They're going to get it done this year. I can feel it. Yeah, Rashad, I really appreciate the phone call.

I'm glad you got to see the boys tonight. It does feel that way. Like, they're so good. So many things are going their way. I mean, there was a stat that they flashed. I know, I'm sorry in advance. This has been a very stat-heavy final out. But when you have a game like that, I guess it's kind of hard not to.

But they flashed this on the screen tonight. So, how they lead Hamels-Oswald, obviously the 2011 Four Aces, through 60 starts. They're at 30-17 with a 2.77 ERA. This staff, through 61 games, is 32-11 with a 2.68 ERA. Like, they're on pace. And we know how good that staff was. We know how good Halladay Lee Hamels-Oswald was. And this staff has been arguably better.

Hamels-Oswald was. And this staff has been arguably better. It sounds sacrilegious because of how high we hold those guys, but this staff is doing things that some staffs in the history of baseball

haven't done. If you had kept Turnbull in and maybe not gone back to Tylan Walker, we're talking about one of the all time staffs in, in the history of baseball. I mean, that's what they're, that's what they're doing.

So when you have a staff doing what they're doing, this is the best bullpen since 08. And, and we all love the 08 bullpen, 48, 48 bridge to Lidge, but, and Chad Durbin and,

and JC Romero were ridiculous that year. Scott Ayers, really good waiver pickup. But I mean, I think the stuff on this bullpen is better with the ability to go get another guy if you want to. In the lineup,

while I think we look at it and we look towards the bottom of the lineup and we have question marks and Boehm goes through his phases. He went through a month and a half there where there wasn't much. Castellanos was Castellanos. It does feel like one

big bat to kind of throw in there really both lengthens the lineup and makes them pretty tough to stop. But still, you look at what they've done with runners in scoring position. You look at what they've done in the first inning. They're a pretty damn good offense.

Offense in all of baseball this year is down. It's not a great offensive year, but by all standards, they're a top five offense. They're the best starting staff in baseball. A top five bullpen. The defense hasn't killed them. They're really, really good.

We know David Dombrowski, and we know John Middleton. We know how aggressive they're going to be at this deadline to go. Now, I don't think they're going to mess with the chemistry of the team. I think they do value how close the team is. But when you have a chance like this and when there's an arms race, because right now, again, I've said it on here, I've said it on the podcast, I think there's four great teams in baseball.

I think it's the Phillies, I think it's the Dodgers, I think it's the Yankees,. I think it's the Phillies. I think it's the Dodgers. I think it's the Yankees. And I think it's the Orioles. And having the Yankees and Dodgers into the trade deadline, it's kind of worrisome from the standpoint of they also are going to go want to add. When you have Juan Soto could walk at the end of the year. Dodgers have spent like $70 billion this offseason. They're all in. And

the Orioles have, they could make whatever trade they want with the prospects they have. So I agree like this is the year to get it done. But you know, like there's there's a huge arms race in baseball. And the good part for the Philz is they finally have the farm system that can facilitate one of these big trades. So it's going to be really exciting next month leading up into the trade deadline to see what this team is going to do. Now, I do think it was a good night for Bryson Stott. Bryson Stott is someone that this team has to get going. I do think it's interesting.

He was batting.239 heading into tonight, but he has been hitting.321 an 850 OPS with run and scoring position so he's still getting it done from that standpoint but 239 for a guy who I think we all believe should be at the 280s is definitely disappointing and it's been going on for a little bit now now he did get two hits tonight they're both opposite field he smoked another ball but it was right at a guy. So hopefully Bryson Stott starting to climb out of the same because he's

just too good of a hitter and an important cog in that lineup. Back to the phones. Let's go to Rich in Sellersville. What's happening, Rich? Hey, man. Thanks for taking my call. Of course. What do you got? Yeah, man. I just want to say

you were right about Bryce Harper, right? And it really feels good that another person on your station was giving him crap for last Friday's not going to third base and whatnot. I understand that. It was a bad moment. It was a mental lapse by Bryce, but it's not the end of the world. What happened today? Didn't Boom not throw in the second base? I know.

Yeah, he didn't. And then he went four for five and had some big hits, so it was good to see. Right. So you gotta take the good with the bad. I mean, I didn't want to throw nobody under the bus, but... Well, we love Spike. It's just, you know, for me, I don't want to turn nobody under the bus. Well, we love Spike. It's just, you know, for me, I didn't agree with it.

And, you know, it kind of is what it is. Well, kind of what I'm feeling is like he's intruding on your guys' stuff. He seems like a foreigner even though he was a program director. No, I think he's enhancing the show. Listen, it's early. I mean, we're only a month and a half into the show. So, you know, listen, we're all finding... I think the last, like, three weeks have been really, really fun radio.

So, you know, I think we're finding our groove. Yeah, the one time I did call you up and I said you were too big for your britches, because, yeah, and that's the kind too big for your britches. That's the kind of way I feel about that person. You said it, not me. Listen, I appreciate the phone call, Rich.

I'm going to politely disagree. I think we're finding our footing. Listen, I just disagreed with him today. It's okay. We all got bad takes. 2-1-5-5-9-2. 94-94.

On the other side, we'll get to your phone calls. Plus, a look ahead to tomorrow. And what could be the match with the two Cy Youngs in the American League and the National League. With all that and your phone calls, come on next on the Final Out on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Now, the worry wart myself, I was like, wow, four runs in the first. They're going to, you know, lay it on. They eventually did.

But there was that time in the middle of the game where it's like, man, are they only going to score in the first and then make this game unnecessarily tight? But they did not. They did not. They came through, had some insurance runs late, obviously aided by MV3, who again, MV3

time MVP? I mean, him again, like we talked about in the open, but him versus Otani for the MVP would be just fantastic for the sport. Obviously, you have Otani, huge name. You have Bryce, huge name. Arguably two of the five faces of all of Major League Baseball.

But he was a monster tonight, and so was Alec Baum, who was really pulling the ball with authority. And I know people do this thing where it's like, I don't really care about pulling the ball and gap to gap, and that's mostly fine. But I think

when you're 6'5", you're as strong as Alec Baum is, you can hit the ball in the ballpark. Like him figuring out how to pull the ball in the air and do damage that way, I think just gets a better version of Alec Boehm. But regardless, I mean, the guy that we've seen post getting, or having the night off up in Boston, it just changes the whole complexion of this lineup. Because before, Boston was like, man, they got to get a four-hole hitter. They got to get a four-hole hitter. And while I still want another bat, it does change the complexion of, all right, how big are we going to go here?

Is the Luis Roberts? Is it having the idea of, okay, what about the idea of putting schwarber in left field for a couple starts a week and get a you know a more traditional dh and and or something like that or if it's like a tyler o'neill or rob reff snyder or taylor ward kind of names where they're not the most sexy good players but if bone can keep this again, it just changes the whole dynamic of the lineup. And it's been really fun to see him kind of get back to what we'd seen the first month and a half of the year. Mike's in Stratford.

What's happening, Mike? Hey, Jack. How you doing? What's going on, man? I just want to chime in on this Spike hate train. Well, we don't have to do this all night. We love Spike. No, I love him, too. I love we don't have to do this all night. You know, we love Spike. No, I love him too.

I love all you guys, to be honest. But listening to, you know, four hours of him, Harper getting ripped, and then he responded with five RBIs, I think it's safe to say that he does listen to you guys. I think so too. I think so too. I think so too. Yeah, I mean, the way he played and the way he ran,

especially on the hustle double and the bone play late, I was like, eh, he might have checked out the beginning of the show. Yeah, for sure. And also, he's all over the Hawk tour. So maybe he's more in on social media than we like to give him credit for. He's got to do something in his downtime, so probably. Yeah, that's exactly right. What else do you think about the games tonight, Matt, Mike?

Nah, it's great. I'm a big Bone guy. Bone's my guy. I call myself a Bone Babe. I actually have the Bone Babe t-shirt. So anytime he goes off, it's a great game for me. All right. Well, he had a big night, and he continues to have a big night.

By the way, big win tonight for the Fighting Justin Tennessees. The Tennessee Vols won their first national title since 1998. We've got a couple elimination games tonight. Obviously, the most important thing is that we had a 1-3-5 triple play

the first time since 1929. Take all your little sports nonsense and knock it off because Phil's had a big win tonight. Tomorrow, out in Detroit, we got Ranger Suarez versus Tyrek Skubal. Skubal was out of this world before his last two starts. Last two starts, Houston and Atlanta, four runs each in those games. But he's still arguably the front runner for for american league cy young

he's been really really good and and him versus ranger i mean given that they struck out 17 times tonight we'll see how they look tomorrow against a guy who is a a power power type pitcher but it should be a good old-fashioned pitching duel i know we didn't really get that when we had the the wheeler corbin burn start but hopefully tomorrow we can get something closer to that and have those guys kind of duel out in Detroit. But either way, it should be a fun start. 6.40 is first pitch. We will have you with leading off, leading into that,

and we'll have you post-game reacting to it. We will see if at 2 o'clock tomorrow we get an apology from Spike Askin. Apology? Maybe not. Maybe he has to do Eagle Shants at a Phillies game. But we'll see what happens with that. Francisco Rojas produced the program tonight. Robbie E.

Rob Ellis. He'll take you through the rest of the night here on Sports Radio 94 WIP.