High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - First Base Review

Episode Date: November 14, 2017

Jon Marks and James Seltzer discuss the hirings Gabe Kapler has made for his staff, the Winter Meetings, and more. Plus, the guys offer the First Base Review for 2017 and touch on the tragic passing of Roy Halladay. 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

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Good evening, everybody. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good, um, mazel tov, James Seltzer. This is High Hopes, a weekly Phillies podcast powered by Sports Radio 94 and WIP. I am John Marks. He is James Seltzer. We're the High Hopes group. And I'll ask you on the air, if we add a third person to it for when, like, I'm on vacation or you're on vacation or we can't make it,

we need to add a third person. Like, not the four horsemen, but the three horsemen. Yeah, we need a third Mike, you might say. A third Mike. You know what would be really good? A younger guy who we both like and know who could help produce the show so we wouldn't have to do it. That would be amazing. You know what I mean?

Maybe like a Jack Fritz. I like Fritz. Yeah. I could be in on a little Fritz action. Because Gabe could... Gabe. Gabe Kapler. Gabe Kapler, yeah.

You said Mazel Tov and your mind went straight to Gabe Kapler. The Hebrew hammer. That's right, baby. There you go. Yeah, because Jack can handle himself with Philly Salk, obviously. Oh, yeah. And he could, so if I need it all for I was away. I like that.

So there you go. All right, so Fritz is our villain. I think that's a good idea. I don't want to ask him. No, we'll just decide for him. He's got nothing else going on. He's fine. Yeah, he's a young dude.

He doesn't get a choice. He gets it. He takes all the opportunities he can get, all right? All right, well, James Seltzer, last week we did young dude. He doesn't get a choice. He gets it. He takes all the opportunities he can get, all right? All right. Well, James Seltzer, last week we did a—we have been recording on a Monday. And it was just, I guess, Tuesday where the whole Roy Halladay stuff happened. Literally, like, were you guys on the air? We were—it was after.

It was about 4 o'clock, like 3.45, 4. So the first Twitter stuff where it was like, oh, that's his plane. And right away you're like, oh, well, that's not good. Because, you know, if it's his plane, then you come out and say, well, he wasn't on board. Or, you know, there's leaks that are like, or he tweets or something like that. So right away you had the sense that something was wrong. And then 415 was the press conference because i'm i'm driving in thinking it's already him and then when chris and ike are like yeah they're having a press

conference at 415 then listening to the press conference you kind of had the sense and it was and um man like what do you say about it ah it's the it's the worst man it's just it's it's um like the whole thing was surreal because like I, we weren't on the air, but I actually get a text from Joe DiCamera and Joe DiCamera, the text just says Roy Halladay may have died. And it's like, what the hell does that mean? Like what is- Joe DiCamera informed you that it would have been him?

I know, dude, he's all over Twitter these days. The craziest thing. He's like- Well, I saw he tweeted out when he takes- He tweets all the time. He's like a good win by the Sixers now off to the bat. He's locked in on Twitter now. Yeah.

He also said that Ben Simmons will, quote-unquote, likely get the most triple-doubles in the history of the NBA. So he's really leaning into the whole hot take thing. Look at Joe. So anyway, but just more the may have died. What the hell is that? Did they die? Did he die or did he not die?

And then it's that whole surreal thing of you're hoping it's not Roy, but somebody's dead and none of it's okay. You shouldn't feel good about any of it. The worst case scenario, somebody died, and that's always tragic. The thing is, best case scenario, someone's dead. You know what I mean? That's terrible. But as it kind of got closer, you hear that the press conference is at 4.30,

then it's at 4.15, and you start to look at it, like how he tweeted about it that day, and you're just like, all right, it's him. He would have tweeted. You were braced for it. They're not having a press conference to say that yeah they're not moving up the press conference to get rid of all the people talking about it and stuff you know it's him and it's just it's the worst like it's like well it's like here's what i said what i said the first kind of thought i had like i know i lost my dad young and he died of a heart attack just like boom gone and like how old were you i was i was 21 so i wasn't like super young so he had he had a chance to have an impact on my life like i

know people like my buddy lost his mom when she when he was seven like so like i'm grateful for what i got but it's always i always wonder about the concept of like some people can say goodbye have time and then others it's just like boom and it's gone and i don't know if if one is better than the other you know it must be tough to watch someone be sick or whatever it, it's just like, boom, and it's gone. And I don't know if one is better than the other. You know, it must be tough to watch someone be sick or whatever it is. It's different. But, like, with, like, Dutch, when Dutch goes, like, and that's still way too young and awful. But, like, we were able to brace ourselves, right? Like, we were able to be a little.

But, like, with Halliday, it's just like, what the hell? Roy Halliday's dead? Like, how is that something that is a part of my world, you know? Yeah, it's not. And, actually, you brought it up because I said it on the air with Dutch. Like, listen, I knew that he was in bad shape and heading towards hospice weeks before it was even really out there. And that's not something I'm going to share on the air.

Of course not. I'm not a journalist. I'm not a reporter. I'm not trying to break news by telling people that Dutch. And then Lenny had kind of brought it up because people that knew Dutch knew that it was- Yeah, Joe DiCamera told me the same thing before he's like hey just so you know Darren's really sick you knew it was coming you knew it was coming you know it was coming you're able to brace yourself somewhat it's still awful and sad but like you're at least somewhat ready for it

you know and holiday it's just like boom like that it's like whoa 40 years old younger than me six months younger than me and um and the thing that kept getting me when the Phillies sent out that email with all the responses from his former teammates, and every single one of them brought up his wife Brandi and his two boys. That's the toughest part. For me, having two young kids at home now. It hits home. It hits home, it does.

And it's like his kids, while, like, listen, they will move on because they have to. It's still really tough to think of his two boys not growing up with his dad. It's the worst. You hear they, like, idolized him. And, like, he was, like, you know, coached their teams and all that stuff. It's just like. I learned more about Roy Halladay in the 12 hours after he died than I knew about him in his life. Me too, man.

Me too. It's crazy. I knew he was a good guy, but I didn't know, like, other than following his Twitter, like, I learned more about Roy Howley. I knew more about Roy Howley with his Twitter post-career. Yeah. I just thought he was this guy, like, on the mound. He was, like, a mean son of a bitch, right?

Yeah, and he was also, like, that dude who was, like, the most intense and, like, so, like, you know, intense about everything he did. He throws no- he did and he does his post workout yes like he's like exactly dude he was like a maniac you looked at him that way is like that uber intense like athlete type person but you didn't think about him as this fun loving caring we didn't know much about him other than that yeah he always you're right though he always seemed happy like he always seemed like even though he was intense like there was always a hint of a smile there was always like a in the locker room like, even though he was intense, there was always a hint of a smile.

There was always in the locker room, in the dugout. He always seemed to be positive and happy. And everyone said he was the best guy. You just didn't get to actually see it yourself. And then you look at his Twitter after he dies, pretty much. I remember when Roy, and I remember my reaction. I remember when he first joined Twitter, and he was taking selfies. And I remember I said it on the air.

I go, Roy Halladay's taking selfies on Twitter? This can't be him. Big smile on his face. And you're like, yo, this guy was just like a happy guy that loved life and had passions. And was funny. I mean, the tweet of him at Disney World with the guy wearing his jersey where he's like, he doesn't even know he's at Disney World with me or whatever. It's like, it's so classic. Like, he was just,

he seemed to really have a great sense of humor. He embraced his post playing career. Like, you would think a guy like that would try to hold on forever. Like, Steve Carlton pitched probably three or four years too long. Yeah. Where Howdy knew he was done and was out. Just like that. Love it. Fourth year with the Phillies.

I have such respect for that. Yeah, I mean, he was just he was just done well it's because these guys and we've talked about this before in other forums and stuff but like these guys only have a very short amount of their their life like a percentage of their lifetime to do the thing that they are best at in this world the thing that defines them in this world it's like as much as like i love when people know when to hang it up and we don't ever see that that downslope but at the same time like i'm never gonna give anyone crap for saying like i can keep doing this i gotta keep doing this while i can it's really hard to kind of you know yeah why not them for that right other guys say you know what i'm out yeah and while lefty couldn't give it up roy said i'm throwing and i forgot about this and i don't know if it was Rob Cherry that brought it up or a caller

but that game at Wrigley Field where he was getting overheated and he was in the dugout. Oh yeah, you could see it. He was like red and... I thought there was something else wrong with him. Yeah, it was awful. And he was throwing 83 miles an hour. He was just done. And then who was it that... It was a guy

that had like a cup of coffee with the Phillies, and after he had passed, actually I think he put it out on Twitter, where was Michael Young? Michael Young, who was here for not even a year? Not even a year, but a great baseball guy. Yeah, a great baseball guy. It's a great way to put it, yeah.

He went out to the mound and said, Doc, you all right? And he goes, everything hurts. I got nothing today, or something like that. But he wouldn't't give up he wouldn't give in and but after that season he was gone so like i every listen everybody has talked about roy holiday and had the roy holiday stories and we did like it was like a two-day like post-mortem on wip so uh therapeutic i think you know it's tough but it's one of those things that I think it's cathartic for a lot of people to – I think that any – like talking about things when you're feeling down or whatever is always the best way to get it out there and feel better. It is really therapeutic, and I felt like that here for those two days to kind of just give the city a chance to grieve together.

The first day is in shock, and the second day you're kind of remembering the great times and and celebrating a great dude even though the the guy at our sister station up in boston starts going nuts and see the problem is the problem james where he's talking about him and he's saying he's saying that he deserved to die and he's a moron or whatever like he just i think he's a lunatic and everything snowballed from him i believe his main point was what is he doing risk putting his life at risk in a plane like that and hot dogging it and everything else after watching that video to where like a normal person would be like wow like his poor kids his poor family like whatever but like i'm not going to tell you that i haven't at least had to half a thought like yo man like that's really risky what you're doing

yeah kids or whatever yeah but no one gets in a plane and thinks that they're gonna go yeah and also it's like yeah sure he shouldn't have done that but that doesn't change the person he was or the life of course not exactly you know and it's like and on top of that it's like i like well i'm not that type of guy like i wouldn't even want to fly a plane by myself much less like do all the hot dogs i'm like this is a guy who threw a no-hitter in freaking postseason. This is a guy who has been in front of a crowd of thousands and thousands and thousands of people and lived the highest of the high. You can understand how it's tough to kind of recreate that,

going back to that thing about what they do. They can only do what they're best at. That's a thrill. That's a rush like i get like i'm i i it was stupid but like i i get where that comes from that want to to kind of find that thrill yeah like some guys post-career struggle with stuff to do some guys go into broadcasting other guys turn to other things like drinking or whatever else and and some guys, they fly. It's something he always wanted to do, and he couldn't because of the baseball contract. But my point is that if the host wanted to bring up what he's doing.

Yeah, he could have done it in a much more constructive way. Yes. And you know what? Or not do it at all because at that point, what's the payoff? A man just died and a wife and two young boys don't have a father and a husband. It's outrageous. It's ridiculous. What's the upside here?

There's zero upside. Exactly. That's the problem. All right, we're going to do our first. Every week we're going to do a segment, James. And this is so podcast-ish-y. I'm not experienced with the podcast. You know what I'm saying?

I think it's more radio-y than it is podcast-y. What would be a podcast segment? No, see, we'd never do a position review. Right, but that's just because we don't talk enough about it. I mean, we would do wide receiver reviews on the Eagles. I'd already be fired based on our first three podcasts on just kind of rambling on and on. Yeah, well, we did talk about Gabe Kavler and coconut oil for like 30 minutes. Coconut oil has a lot of uses, by the way, I've learned.

So we're going to do a position review, and we're going to start with first base based on 2017 looking ahead into 2018. But I did want to mention, James Seltzer, that our manager, Gabe Kapler, and I guess I'm a positive person, so I'm not going to complain. But I still don't know if I'd like to hire. But anyway, so he's compiling his staff. Dusty Watham, and this is no real surprise to either one of us because we said it. Dusty Watham is the third base coach, which makes sense. Yep, we talked about it.

They're going to probably hire a bench coach that has experience. It's not going to be Larry Boa. I don't think it's going to be Larry Boa. Yeah, I think it's going to be someone who fits kind of what they're doing organizationally and this analytical approach. Or as it wants him. Well, here's the thing. A bench coach

more than any other coach on the team has to be in lockstep with the manager. He has to have a great relationship. They spend the entire game together. Great chemistry and stuff. And he doesn't necessarily have to think the same way. Sometimes it can be good to have someone who has a different perspective and is going to kind of throw it the other way. It's somebody that you're comfortable bouncing things off of.

It has to be. Exactly. And Gabe Kapler seems like someone who might not be comfortable bouncing things off of just a lot of people. Like a guy from the Jersey Shore that likes baseball. So I think we're going to, you know, I think it'll be a very... Snooki? Is Snooki a baseball player? I think Pauly D, you know, I think it'll be a very. Snooki? Is Snooki a baseball team?

I think, you know, Pauly D, Snooki, one of those two, and the clubhouse leader here. So anyway, I would love to be able to tell you, James, and everybody out there listening to us, like, here are some guys that expect to be in contention for, like, the bench coaching job. I just, no one's reporting about it. I have no names.

Yeah. Here's what I can tell you. You'd be, like, picking at it. There's so many of these guys across teams, and we don't know who his connections are. No one's reporting about it. I have no names. Yeah. Here's what I can tell you. You'd be like picking at it. There's so many of these guys across teams, and we don't know who his connections are. No one's reporting on it. And his friends are doing. Like, you know, look at the Dodgers staff. Look at the Rays staff.

More likely than not, it's going to be someone from those staffs, potentially. You know, somewhere he's been. Someone he knew. Most likely. Could be. But no one actually has names out there. It doesn't look like it's going to be Juan Samuel. Like, Juan Samuel could actually go to AAA and be their manager.

Mickey Morandini looks like they haven't named the first base coach yet. I don't know if they don't want it to be Mickey. So those guys are kind of in limbo. Larry Bowe is going to be within the organization somehow. They hired John Maley as the hitting coach. He's been with Chicago the last few years, Houston before that. Seems like a guy that, you know, it's weird. Matt Stairs was here for a year, and then now he's in San Diego.

San Diego, yeah. Did that not work out? I don't know. You know what I mean? I mean, I can't say that they were great this year. No, and I think that they clearly weren't. Look, I think, I don't know if it was that Stairs didn't want to be here or they wanted someone new.

Who really knows? My guess is that. The latter. Yeah. I think that with the overall here, they're bringing in their own guys. And look, this. Padres, I mean, san diego i would take john bailey over matt sir no offense to matt sir's wife grateful for that home run in la and all that but i mean like this guy's a legit hitting coach i mean he knows what he's doing three years i mean look on a world

series he's got credentials he's with the astros he's clearly going back to you know the whole organizational approach cubs astros like the two teams the Phillies, are pretty much trying to model this whole thing after. And here's the other thing. You had mentioned the analytics, and I am going to be nauseous with analytics talking. I understand analytics. It's all the years of no analytics and being the worst franchise in sports. I was anti. Believe me, when Ruben and Charlie used to talk about, like, walks don't

matter, it's hitting and this and that, I'm just like, well, I mean, yeah, if you have guys that are hitting 40, 50 home runs, sure, it doesn't matter as much. Yeah. But I value on-base percentage. I value quality. It's because you're a smart man, Jim. Like, Reese Hoskins. The analytics stuff's important, but, like, I'm just, I also, I want to, I want baseball

guys, too. I'm with you. Look, you know me. I'm a big analytics guy. Even me with the launch angle and all this stuff this past year. Here's my issue. Love the launch angle. It seems like there's always got to be something new. Can't we just roll with the stuff we got for a little bit and be like, all right, this is good?

It's always something every year. It's got to be a reason. What's more important, launch angles or war? Remember when war was the analytic thing? War was the number one thing. That's all you every year. It's got to be a reason. What's more important, launch angles or war? Remember when war was the analytic thing? War was the number one thing. That's all you mattered was, what's this war? Let's just stick with war. What is it good for?

Yeah, I don't even know how to come back from that. That was pretty good, though. Launch angles just seem so ridiculous to me. It's like, why are there so many home runs? It's launch angles. No, they're juicing the balls. Come on. Let's be serious here. It's not the same ball that they've used.

They're slick balls, whatever. They're doing something with the balls. They broke the home run record by the start of September this year. They're doing something. There's been no denial. And by the way, I haven't really seen one of the big reporters go to Major League Baseball and say, hey, it's been widely reported under the radar that you're using a smaller ball. You know why that is?

The same reason why no one questioned the steroid stuff. I mean, people weren't that stupid in baseball, right? It's good for business, baby. It's good for business. You're asking baseball about that. So anyway, I will say this. If you Google John Maley and you go to the video section, because I was just looking for information on it.

He does all these videos where he has all these different things with launch angles and whatever. So it's pretty clear why the Phillies wanted him, other than the Cubs, and he's had success before. He fits the organizational structure that they're building. He also picked this staff over a bunch of other teams that were interested. He could have went to a bunch of different places. He could have gotten to a bunch of different places. He could have gotten any hitting coach job.

Pretty much. Anyone that was open, he would have been the top. The Phillies went out and got the top candidate out there for the hitting coach job. The number one guy they could have got. Yep. So we'll see. Probably once there's a couple jobs still open,

like the Yankees haven't named their manager yet. It's crazy. And there are a lot of outside-the-box candidates that have been reported. They're talking about Aaron Boone. It's fascinating. And freaking bringing David Cohn down from the booth. Have you noticed this? That it's becoming the trend in baseball that you don't even need to be a manager to get hired.

Yes. Because the GMs now look at it and say, anybody can manage as long as you're smart. The GMs want to control things from upstairs. Yeah. They want someone who's a conduit. Exactly. They're hiring guys that they feel like they can do that with. I do think, though, that I think the fact that Mailey came here

is a really good sign. I think that it's a sign of the organizational structure being appealing to people like Mailey across the sport. I think Kapler is appealing to people like that, and I know he seems like he can be quite divisive, but there is a large swath of very smart people who want to work with this guy, and I think that's good. Agreed.

So we'll see where they go with the staff. I'd love to see Larry Boa back on the bench. Probably not going to happen. Yeah, I would too. But he will be in the organization. He's Philadelphia, Larry. He's a Philly. He's been in the organization for decades.

He's just someone, you know, he's a Philly. Yes, been in Montana for four decades. Yeah. He's just someone, you know, you just, he's a Philly. Yes, he is. All right, let's talk about first base. Let's. Our first, don't, do we need an open for this? Yeah. Like a, well, I'm going to have to come up with something. Well, there won't be one for this one.

No, no, no. I keep saying, oh, I got to do an intro. We'll do one, you know. Yeah, that's what. You're going to have all the time in the world. That's what Jack Fritz, producer. Well, you know, we'll figure it out. I got time.

Slash swing man. Yes. Fritz. All right, Jack, Fritz, producer, slash swing man. Yes! Fritz. All right, Jack. See, you better be listening to know this stuff. Well, he's going to have to listen. I'm going to text him and tell him to say it's your job. Fritz, all right, we need you to do an open for us.

He works with Conklin. Is Conklin going to voice it or something for us? Just listen. Spend hours and hours producing this podcast, and we'll let you on as the third Mike, slash when I need off or James needs off. Sometimes. You can be the co-host.

Yeah. Like, sometimes. Yeah. I think that's right. Sometimes I might just go solo and book a couple guests. Other times, I'll just go solo. I don't need you. Right?

Yeah. I think that'll work out. So let's do it. First position review, first base. And I'm not even going to start with Reese Hoskins because that would be too obvious. I'm going to start with Tommy Joseph. TJ, babe. So here's the line.

495 at bats, 22 home runs. It seemed like a lot of those home runs were really early in the season. Yep. Well, I think it's all in May. His month of May was monster and everything else was atrocious. Because I was told time after

time by all the Phillies fans out there, you can't, even the Phillies organization, you can't bring up Reese Hoskins with Tommy Joseph doing this. He's too good! Yeah, you can. Stop with this Tommy Joseph. I like Tommy Joseph. I don't want to disrespect him. Don't lie to our faces.

Please, you don't know what you're talking about if you think you can't bring up Reese Hoskins. They waited, and they brought him up, and you can't argue with what Hoskins did. More on that in a second. But you could argue with that. I don't care. I don't care whether, yeah. I don't care how great he was at the start. Like, they wasted time bringing him up.

They wasted time. He could have handled it. Based on what you saw. All season. He could have come up to start the season, and I have no problem with him waiting for the Super 2 until May or whatever. Even June. But, like, come on, man. Like, this team was out of it by June.

After that month of May, they weren't doing anything. Like, it was a joke. It was. So, 495, 495 with bats, 22 home runs, 69 RBIs, 129 strikeouts to 33 walks. His on-base percentage, I think, was 289. Tommy Joseph is what he is. Can we not gloss over the on-base percentage of

289? I mean, come on, man. I feel like I could go in the Major Leagues and get on base 28% of the time. If he hits 40 home runs, you can look at that a little bit differently. If he's a plus fielder, you can't. But you know what I'm saying. If there are other things that he did, you could be like, for instance,

Freddie Galvis. His on-base percentage can be a little bit lower if he's hitting 20 home runs and playing glove-ish defense. No question. Then it's kind of like, aren't you strong up the middle? That's fine. Tommy Joseph is a dime-a-dozen American League DH first baseman.

Platoon DH. That's what he is. And you know what? That's fine. It's fine. Here's what I say about Tommy Joseph, James Seltzer. I don't think he has much of a trade market. I'm sure a team would give you a C-level prospect for him. No, like an F-level prospect.

Here's what I'll say. I'd rather have him on the team and be an option for Reese Hoskins to play a little bit of left field. Here's what I would like to do, and there's not a whole lot of left-handed starters in baseball anymore, but on days where you have a really tough left-handed starter, I put Hoskins in left field i put tommy joseph at first base and i stacked that

lineup with right-handed hitters i keep them around just for that and for the when you have dhs or whatever unless you get a fair offer for them which is like a decent prospect yeah that's how they're not gonna happen i uh they're not gonna stays they're not going to happen. You don't think he stays? They're not going to get anything for him. Why trade him? For what? Well, why trade him is what I'm saying. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, I agree.

I'm fine with keeping him. Here's my thing is, like, I personally, the way this team is developing, like, I'd rather not sit Nick Williams against lefties, not since Odoble against lefties. I'd rather have those guys get at bats against lefties and try and develop and try and be able to hit lefties for when the time comes. For me, Tommy Joseph, like he's fine as a right-handed bat off the bench. He's meaningless to me.

Like Tommy Joseph is like the 25th guy on the bench. He's Brock Stassi for me. No, he's not. He's better than that. I'm saying he's better than that, but I'm saying like in my mind he's the 25th guy on the bench. I get what you're saying. That's all I'm saying.

He's better than Brock Stassi. And for what you're saying, like, he could be a somewhat valuable piece as a guy who only faces tough lefties. But, ah, you know. You know, he could get an occasional start. I mean, listen, he's not a bum. He's fine. He's fine.

Yeah, like, he is what he is. He's fine. He's fine. He is what he is. He can hit left-handed pitching a little bit. DeShame doesn't catch. True. He would have some value, though. He actually, he did not hit left-handed pitching a little bit. DeShame doesn't catch. True. He would have some value then.

He actually did not hit left-handed pitching until later on in the year this year. I'm just looking at it and saying, like, all right, how am I going to build my team? It's a nice bat. I mean, God forbid you have an injury or whatever. Who else is playing first base if Hoskins isn't playing first base? And that's something you have to look at. Sure. I just think, again, you literally introed Tommy Joseph by saying he's a dime a dozen.

He's a dime a dozen. Daniel Nava there, I don't care. Anybody can play that. Except he can play more positions. He's much better. I like Daniel Nava a lot more than I like him. That's Tommy Joseph. What can you say about Reese Hoskins? He actually ended up, by the end of the season,

only about a.259. I forgot that his average had fallen that much, but I don't make too much of that. He's a hot hitter. When he gets hot, he's hot. No matter what he's doing, he's walking. Which is the key. He was always getting on base.

Always. Always. Professional at bats, sees a lot of pitches, sees more pitches than anybody on the team, and it's not even really close. Finished the season with 37 walks, 46 strikeouts for a power hitter that's amazing. 18 home runs. Insane. 48 RBIs. All right, so here's my even really close. Finished the season with 37 walks, 46 strikeouts for a power here that's amazing. 18 home runs. 48 RBIs. All right, so here's my question, James.

What is his ceiling and what is his floor? Well, the thing I loved about Hoskins from the jump in the minors was the high floor, I thought. This guy is worst-case scenario. You know, 280, 25 homer guy. Like, worst, worst, worst case scenario. I think that's where he's at, 270-25 homers. Somewhere in that range. I mean, best case scenario is not the hot streak you saw.

He's not going to hit 82 homers this season. But he's a 40 homer guy. Like he's maybe never going to bat 300, but he's going to bat 280 and have a 410 on base percentage. And that's all that matters. So, yeah, best-case scenario, he is a legit all-star middle of the line bat. That's the kind of guy he can be. And I think he's got a decent chance of, if nothing else,

having a few years at that level for sure. And I feel like he will exceed his floor. I feel like he's going to be – I mean, just from what we saw – and, again, look, you have to expect – no one's going to come up and have the streak that he had. First of all, no one's ever had the streak he had. But no one's going to do that and then not have some sort of a slump. I mean, like, you're major league, the best hitters in the history of the sport.

Yes, the best hitters in the history of the sport. That's the point. Get out 70% of the time. And there's no rhyme or reason why it happens. It's just that you get in that mentality and you can't hit anything. It's the ultimate mano a mano game. It's one versus one. And look, first of all, confidence.

Like you said, it's a huge thing. You could just go through slumps where you just don't. It looked like a beach ball for three, four weeks. Exactly. You're seeing the ball. It's such a funny line, but it's so true. It's like these guys, they're seeing the ball, and it's huge, and it's there. And it's just the way it is.

And then it's all about matchups, and it's about this guy versus that guy. I can't hit him. He owns me. Oh, for four. Oh, I'll come out the next day and go four for four because I got that guy's number. It's just so specific to the batting version. It's baseball-y. Yeah, it's the best.

That's why it's the best. And that's also why it is the most quantifiable. That's why stats are such a big part of this sport because every other sport like even basketball like less than football and hockey but like everyone is so dependent upon their teammates for their success whereas in baseball like it's one-on-one like obviously defense matters but and base running and all that but it's one-onone, and you can really quantify that one-on-one matchup to, like, a really, you know, obviously extreme levels as far as statistics and all that type of stuff go, which just gives you a much larger sample size from which to call data

that can actually be useful. How about his defense? Here's one thing that surprised me about him, that without playing left field at all, and, like, I knew that actually the late baseball George, baseball George passed away, if you didn't hear this in previous podcasts or whatever. He called me when he was in the minors and said that he can play left field. At Sacramento State where he went to college, he played outfield,

and he did more than an adequate job. And I said, he's not going to play outfield. George said, just stop. Tommy Joseph's not playing the outfield. And Hoskins isn't playing the outfield in the majors. Sure enough, he comes up and plays left field in the majors. And he did a pretty good job. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I can't argue. I don't think he's ever going to win a gold glove out there. But he showed. He was better than I thought he'd be. He was definitely better than I thought. Yeah. He has an arm.

Like, he has a much better arm than I would have expected out there. He seemed somewhat natural. He wasn't taking bad routes to I would have expected out there. He seems somewhat natural. He wasn't taking bad routes to the ball, which is what you really expect with those guys. And I think at first base defensively, I think he's solid. He's not a great defensive first baseman. He'll never be like a stud. But he could be someone like –

that was the thing they always said about Albert Pujols when he came up. He came up as a third baseman, moved to first, and everyone's like, oh, he's never really going to be a great first baseman. Look at his size. Look at this. But he was just a really good defensive first baseman. Soft hands, and he was very smart. He always positioned right.

Much better athlete than anybody really realized. Ever gave him credit for, yeah. But he was always in the right spot defensively. It would be one of those guys where it's like a boom, line driver, it's like right in his glove, and he was just there. Why is he there? Somehow he's there. It was always a coincidence yeah and

i think that hoskins has the potential to be that type of guy just because of how smart he is as a baseball player and how much of kind of a baseball nerd he is um you know which we've seen and you hear him talk about baseball and you can just hear the kind of passion that he has for the game so i that i think that's a potential to to be a better fielder than you'd expect. But I don't think he's ever going to be a great defensive first baseman. Is he a good enough outfielder as he gets a little bit older? Let's say, and I'm going to bring up a name in a second, Darik Hall, who is – he was at Lakewood in Clearwater this year.

He set records in Lakewood for home runs. I think he had 27 home runs. But he's a clear first base. Like cannot move off. No, trust me. I know I said Hoskins wouldn't play outfield. You have a better chance of playing outfield than Darkel. He went to Dallas Baptist, the hotbed for baseball.

But he's like a DH, first baseman type, that has plus-plus power. Sure. So, let's just say that one of one of these first base guys develops can hoskins in two or three years shift to left field to make room for a guy that has plus power theoretically yes i think he could i think like if he was actually trained to play left field and like again we talked about him going in there was like what like a couple games in the minors there's like hey go play go play left field the majors you got it buddy um No problem.

It's not hard. But I do think that he probably could. I don't think it's the best use of Hoskins. I think you would probably look to trade Hall first if he really does kind of come up and has legit value. Who knows, though? Look, I think it's possible. I don't think that Hoskins' body is not a left field body, especially if he grows anymore. I know he's 24, so he might be fully developed, but he also might not.

Guys really kind of reach their physical peak from 27, 28. So what, he wouldn't be? Because Pat Burrow was able to run around out there for pretty long. Burrow was the third baseman originally. Third base, first base. First base now. Look, I think potentially. Potentially.

I don't think it's ideal. I mean, his body type doesn't seem like a left fielder, but he was better out there than I ever expected him to be. So, you know, I don't think we have a big enough sample size to really say. No, we don't. But, like, maybe. I think it's an interesting hypothesis. Like, he looked better there than I thought he would for what it's worth.

Yeah, and only the reason I bring it up is because you never know about a first baseman. Right. And you never know when you're going to get a guy that comes up through the minors. And as I pull up his MILB stats right here. Yeah, so at Lakewood, Derek Hall was a 272, 27 home runs, 96 RBIs, and 426 at-bats. Strikes out a ton, doesn't walk a lot, so he's not the— Still a long way to go is the point here. Of course. He could be nothing.

And he is 22 years old because he was a college junior when he was drafted. So not great. So he's not a high school player, but he's also not— He could very easily be Dylan Cousins, who I think will still be nothing. Oh, yeah. And he's a 6'4", 236. He's a goon. He's like go high school player, but he's also not. He could very easily be Dillon Cousins, who I think will still be nothing. Oh, yeah. And he's a 6'4", 236. He's a goon. He's like goonish looking.

Oh, my God. He looks like a goon. Bats left, throws right. So you have the first baseman that's a right-handed fielder. Classic. You know what I mean? Yeah, you'd much rather. I mean, Hoskins is righty, too, though, sadly.

No doubt. All right. Final thing here. Yes. We are breaking Phillies news. No, we don't. Phillies to resign. Pedro

Floremon. Yes! He has the inside track on a bench job, Matt Gelbads. For what I will say. He's good. Yeah. That's what I was about to say, man. He's good. I really liked his three-week tenure or whatever it was. What did he do? Break his ankle? Yeah. Do you remember the injury?

The second base? It was like Ronald Darby-esque. It looked bad. It was like, whoa, that is an ugly... But Pedro Florman was really good when he played. Defensively, he made plays that, dude. I'm pretty sure... I think he had the highest war

over the time period he was there, other than Hoskins. I'm pretty sure about that. He played really well here. I like that move. Yeah, why not? I mean, inside track. Well, it is interesting. It is interesting just now the general time period

because the winter meetings did start today. So there is some interesting stuff out there. Over the next week, stuff is going to happen. And who would have thought that the first signing for the Phillies would be Pedro Floremont to a minor league contract? How could it not be? You gotta lock Pedro up. I look at this and I say, oh, he turns 31 in December. He's kind of old for only being a triple

A slash major league player. Then I'm thinking like, oh, I'm 41, so 31's not that old anymore. No, it is pretty old, though. I mean, like, he's like, for someone to not come up to that, I mean, like, Brock Stasky, remember? He was, like, he's been around. Floremont's been in the majors before, but the point is, like, look, Pedro Floremont is not suddenly sprouting into a great Major League Baseball player. He's a nice bench guy.

I like him as a bench guy. And then when the league says, oh, this is how you throw the guy, don't throw him a fastball. All right, then all of a sudden he's batting. Once he's batting every day, it's like, oh, he's not that good anymore. But there is some interesting stuff. Obviously, the Gene Carlo rumors we've talked about. Cesar Hernandez trade rumors popping up, which

we talked about last time. The concept of either moving Cesar to third or trading one of those guys to be able to bring him here. Maybe next week we'll really dig deep in that. Do you think the Phillies do much of anything? I don't believe I'm not going to tell you

I don't believe that Stanton could get traded. I just don't know if it makes a heck of a lot of sense in the Phillies right now. I'd like to go out and sign J.D. Martinez or something if we're going to do that. I don't know why. I really like Mike Stanton. Giancarlo Stanton. I'm going to call him Mike my entire life. I did it on the Phillies Today podcast all the time.

You can do that. Yeah, I just can't help it. He was Mike Stanton originally. Giancarlo is sexier for sure. Oh, it's a much better name. But regardless, I mean, he's got the worst contract in the sport. I mean, it's like a freaking massive albatross around your franchise. But let me ask you this.

If he was a free agent right now, wouldn't he get similar money from a team? It's the length, though. Coming off that contract? He's got, what, seven years of it left? Eight years of it? Yeah, but what team would give him? This is a guy who last year had his first full healthy season in four years or three years or whatever. Oh, agree.

But I look at contracts, and I'm not a big— I look at length. My thing is length with these contracts. I understand that he's— It's all about the length. But here's the thing, and it can be worth the length. Let's put it this way. If you have him for another—see, that's the thing.

I think he's still got eight or nine years on that contract at 35 mil or 30 mil or whatever it is each year. So the point being that— He has $295 million left. Left. Off the top of my head. Think about that. And he's what, like 30? He's got to be close to 30.

If not 30, I mean, you're going to be paying that dude 35 million when he's 38 years old, a guy who could barely stay healthy, a guy whose body- Look, when Ruben Amaro signed Ryan Howard, I know a lot of people are like, oh, you got to sign him. You got to sign him. I was like, this is a disaster. People that size don't age well. David Ortiz is the only guy, and he was a DH.

He's the only guy I've ever seen that size who aged well. Nobody else has ever done it. Their careers always fall off precipitously. That's that type of guy that worries me. Stanton's a big, big dude. You are right. His defense is really good at this point, but he's a DH long-term. To your point with Ryan Howard, one of the reasons why that contract wasn't as bad His defense is really good at this point, but he's a DH long-term.

And to your point with Ryan Howard, one of the reasons why that contract wasn't as bad was because it wasn't for eight or nine years. It was for five. Exactly. So it sucked. But the problem was that it was five, and it was starting after two, though. So it was really like seven. But imagine if you gave him a nine-year contract. He'd still be playing.

I know. We're on the books right now. So yeah, I don't think anything major goes down. They will make a trade this offseason as far as one of their guys. They're going to be active. I just don't know how much the activity will turn into stuff. They're not as much as we would love to see. And who knows, maybe they get lucky and make a little mini run

or whatever for a playoff spot. But they're not trying to compete this year. The goal is 2019 and beyond. This is supposed to, at least in my mind the way I'm reading it it this is that last year of kind of like getting the kids a full year playing like building up around them and then you really make start to make a push is my guess and i'm reading on just two two hours ago in the miami herald giacarlo giacarlo stanton running the show on any potential trades and here it says when and if it comes to trading Stanton to St. Louis, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, or wherever, the decision will ultimately rest on his broad shoulders because he has a full no-trade provision.

A former front office executive says, quote, he's got complete power. Giancarlo's running the show. Great. So there you go. And even the— What about Jeets? Yeah, see, but they got to... I don't know what's going on down there,

but they have to bring payroll down quite a bit, so they realize that contract is... Look, if they could... Obviously, I'd trade for Giancarlo if they're going to pay a big portion of the contract and if you don't have to give up prospects. No, it's... I don't expect this to happen.

It is not a great fit, I would say. You don't really need him either. I mean, he's a great hitter, but you've got your outfield pretty locked up right now at least. It doesn't feel like it. Listen, I'm totally fine with rolling with what they have right now. I would love to see them move Galvis or Hernandez. Me too. So you can bring up Kingery when you're able to for the free agency stuff.

But we will see what happens. All right. the free agency stuff. But we will see what happens. All right, well, next week we're going to have, hopefully, some things to talk about as far as the winter meetings. And we'll have another. Are we doing second base next week?

Hell yeah, man. Oh, see that? You just mentioned Scott Kingery. Our position review? My man, you know what else we should do? We should bring up our top five Phillies favorite first basemen. All right, so we'll do first base and second base of favorites next time. Who's your favorite first baseman? In Phillies history?

Yeah. Just Phillies, right? Yeah. You have to do athletics. I was thinking that. I was a big Jimmy Foxx fan. I remember that one game I went to. Man.

Because you don't want to say Ryan Howard because he's like a shot. No. Well, Ryan Howard is the answer. He is the answer. And I think Jim Tomey, Pops Med. I'm just going to go off the bat by more because I thought he was going to be good when I was a kid. Richu? I was all in on the Ricky Jordan hype club.

I thought Ricky Jordan was going to be a star. He wasn't a star. No, he was good for those few years. Crocker's a good answer. Crocker's a great answer. Mike Schmidt played first base when Rick Shue played third base. I mean, Ricky Jordan's more of a fun, silly answer. I mean, like, if you're really going to go top five, it's Howard.

You know, it's Croc. It's Pete Rose, probably, even though he wasn't here long, just for the World Series. I think you've got to put him on there. How about that Rico Bronya? Rico Bronya! It's got to be an older guy that's better than Rico Bronya. Rico's the best defensive first baseman ever out here.

That dude was freaking amazing with the glove. Rico Bronya. Rico Bronya. You never want to go glove. They always used to talk about how he's the best. Oh, he was. A glove's a joke, as we've discussed. Rico was awesome.

That was also back when they played at the Vet, where it was like plain old concrete, so those bounces were easy. Rico was a stud. Yeah, he was. He was so good defensively. He was really good. We're going to have to get him on the podcast. Yeah, we could do that.

Rico Broglie. How about that? All right, everybody. Talk some defense with Rico. Love defense. We'll talk to you next week. James at James Seltzer on Twitter. I am at

John Marks Media and the Twitter is at High Hopes Pod. P-O-D. Check us out. See ya. Later. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby.