High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 1: BRYCE IS BACK

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Jack Fritz and James Seltzer discuss what the Phillies lineup could look like when Bryce Harper returns this week. 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

You look at, obviously, the lineup, and the home run thing is annoying, the run and scoring position thing is kind of annoying, but at the same time, like, they're getting the envy. They're getting Bryce Harper back, possibly tomorrow. So, like, possibly freaking tomorrow, we're going to have Bryce Harper back in our lives. And we thought it was going to be the first half of the year he's going to be gone. We predicted June 10th originally. And that was like, you guys are insane. It's way too early.

So it's just like, you look at how every single aspect of the team, Thompson has clearly found a little bit of a feel here for this team. And it's just like, I'm almost back to being stress-free. Look at you. You're just there. They'll lose games, whatever.

But that doesn't mean the entire foundation of my life is crumbling. So I think that's been a big improvement. I'm happy we've reached that point. Because the first week, it was very frustrating. And they went 1-5, whatever. And every aspect of the team looked terrible. And they've just righted the ship. And it feels like people obviously are focused on the Eagles

or focused on the Sixers. And the Phillies are kind of like flying under the radar. Flying under the radar. And what I think what people are missing while they're flying under the radar is that before our eyes, they're developing into a good, good, good, good baseball team. Look at you. Love this. It's good to be back.

You are fully in your thing right now. Yeah, it's good to be back. I love it. And look, they beat a good team this weekend. You know, it'd been some winning some series against, I guess the Mariners are a good team, but you know, not necessarily the toughest competition in baseball. And going to Houston, winning two games, to your point, the Wheeler and Noel thing, we'll get to that in a sec, but quickly on Harper. Harper has a chance if he does come back tomorrow,

which is absurd to say this, it'll be 160 days post-surgery. The next fastest in the history of the sport is 182 days. Harper has a chance to be more than three weeks faster than he has ever returned from this injury. It is insane, Jack. Besides Womack, right? No. Womack was 182. Oh, I thought

he was like 150. No, Tony Womack was 182 games. He is, to date, the fastest it has ever happened, and he's by a bit. After that is Jay Buhner at 207, and then Carl Crawford at 221. So Harper has a chance to just obliterate it.

Really, it is. And granted, he's coming back to DH, so a little different than maybe someone had to come back and play the field or whatever type of thing. But, I mean, it's unheard of! It's unprecedented! This has never happened before! Our dude! Do you think it was the Tommy John surgery

that forced Steinbrenner to trade J. Buhner? Do you think that's what it was? Probablybrenner to trade J. Buhner? Do you think that's what it was? Yeah, probably. Probably? How could you trade J. Buhner? Yes. Do you know who they traded J. Buhner for?

I believe I'm right about this. I think I know the name. I'm probably wrong, but I think there's a name that's sticking out of my head, so I'm going to go for it. It ended up being a really good player, right? Oh, a terrible player? Ken Phelps is the name in my head. I'm going to check it. Alright, well, I mean, 90s baseball seems like your wheelhouse,

so I won't question it. But, like, yeah, Bryce Harper coming back to this team as fast as he is, and I know there's this concern out there of, like, well, they're rushing him back. It was Ken Phelps? It was Ken Phelps. Good. I'm proud of you. But, like, well, they're rushing him back. It was Ken Phelps? It was Ken Phelps. Good. I'm proud of you.

But like the fact that the rushing back thing, I just think is kind of, it doesn't really matter when he still has to get cleared by a doctor. The doctor's not going to be like, hey, you know what? It's fast. I'm just going to let you go for it, man. Like, no, he has to pass medical clearances. If he passes them, he's allowed to play. Like, this is is not i don't understand why people are like and i just don't rush back yeah well and i

just don't get it from the standpoint of like well he's cleared but let's just sit him for an extra month to make sure like well what are we doing here like of course you can come back and react or whatever and that would stink um but at the same time it's just like the doctor still has to do his job he's obviously risking his medical profession to be like, you know what? Yeah, you got it. It's not, yeah, you'd be all right. You'd be all right. So, um, yeah, it's just, it's, it's ridiculous.

Um, and he obviously is, he's pushing for it. Like, it's not like he's not attacking a rehab, but you can't like magically make a, like an elbow tendon get back together fast. There's just nothing you can do. He's just a fast healer. He's just a fast healer. It's as simple as that. I can't wait.

And just adding him into the lineup and looking at how they go top to bottom. Obviously, the Turner start has been annoying. The start was good. The last two weeks have been annoying. He's had a couple of bad weeks. Yeah. A couple of horrible weeks. A a couple couple bad weeks yeah 260 um so so you go top to bottom and it's just like everyone kind of gets better from it you know you already are having the marsh breakout the bone

breakout even though he's a bit of a slump or whatever he's too good to not do that stod I feel like he's almost slump proof because it's a. Dude, he is as tough in the bat as there is in baseball right now. I mean, other than maybe the reason why. 438! I know. In May 1st! I know. And then Schwarber doesn't have to bat three, so you can kind of bump him down if you want.

And I think part of Turner's thing, like for two years when for two years when he batted, he's batted over 300 the last two years, 330 I believe in 21, he's had Freddie Freeman right behind him. And now you're adding Bryce Harper right behind him. I love Kyle Schwarber,

but like, He's not Bryce Harper. He's not Bryce Harper, he's not Freddie Freeman. So I just think that now, now the problem with Turner is that he's still getting a lot of fastballs

and not doing much against them. So it's not like he's going to see more fastballs. But I do think that having Bryce behind him is going to make him feel a little bit more comfortable. And also just the pressure of coming in and getting $300 million and Harper being out. I mean, it's like,

alright, I've got to not only come in, I'm the big money guy, but I've got to pick up the slack. Like, hey, I know you like to steal this now. Athletes are humans! They go through stuff, you know? It's your thing now, I heard. like to steal this now. Oh, yes. Athletes are humans. They go through stuff. It's your thing now, I heard. People tweeting at me or using it all on your own, not crediting me.

No big deal. Whatever. Well, in my defense, I don't know how else to say it. In my defense of Trey Turner. Well, the funny thing about it is that we were just talking about something where it's like, you know, I have the athletes are humans thing. There might have to be a corollary to it. Bryce Harper might not be human.

Right. So he might not be part of this. Speaking of infringement upon each other's bits, I believe that you tweeted this yesterday. So you know what's funny is when I tweeted this, I literally, as I was tweeting it, I was thinking, this is such a jack tweet. Cody Clemens has to be the best performance by a Clemons

in Houston ever. I couldn't help myself. Interesting. Interesting how you could accuse me of being a bit stealer when you literally did the exact same thing. So we're stealing each other's bits now. That's good. So yeah, but Bryce definitely might not be human. I don't, it's just, I can't believe

he's going to be back. And I can't believe that on Friday night, we have a chance to see Joel Embiid get his MVP. And we get a chance to see Bryce Harper take the, you know, obviously his first at-bat of this year. Like, I mean, Friday night at, unless the Sixers go down 0-2. It'd be a little less fun then. It'd be a little less fun.

I should say when the Sixers go down 0-2. No, they got this for sure. Definitely, 100%. But, like, it could melt our faces. It could melt our faces on Friday. So, I can't wait. And I just think that, like, you look at top to bottom now. Like, I don't know who they put.

They obviously put Castellanos behind him now. I love how that was, like, that would be would be considered like a hot take a month ago. Oh, now it's like, obviously. Obviously, he's 100% back. Freaking best hitter on the team. So you put Schwarber five and then JT six. Then you put Baum, I guess, seven. It's just stupid.

It's a stupid, stupid lineup. Well, it makes a big difference. It really does. Because they've hit well, like we talked about. They've just not as much power and not come through with runners on base. But it's been a really solid lineup in terms of numbers across the sport. But they've been missing that dude in the middle. They've been missing the guy who can give them that power, give them those big at-bats, and just changes the whole complexion of the lineup. It changes everything. Yeah, and the

runner's scoring position thing is annoying. So hopefully Bryce Van Back... And we think somewhat fluky. You know, I mean, at least I think. If it's still happening a month and a half from now, we'll have another discussion. Right. You know, at the moment, I feel okay. Now, the one thing that's probably not going to change is, like, the home run thing. I mean, Schwarber will hit more.

Sure. Harper coming back up. But, like, you look up and down the lineup, it's not like they have, like, a bunch of third-time run guys. No. No. They had three with Hoskins. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it's really just Schwarber and Harper are your power. I mean, you've got a bunch of guys who'll hit between 15 and 25 maybe,

whether it's JT or Boehm or Trey, or these guys are generally going to end up in that range. But you're right, man. They only have two big boppers on the team, especially Derek Hall goes down. Reese goes down. I mean, at least if Hall's in there, you can count on him for some power. Well, Cody Clemens.

Cody Clemens. But you're right. Like, it is. Look, I mean, we did say, I remember many times on this specific podcast, talking about the 28-team Boston Red Sox and how much we love them spraying the ball around the field and putting it in play, and we want a team that just gets hits. We got a team that gets hits.

I know, and I was just going to bring that up because they look like a more connected offense. Yeah, they really do. Like, early in the season, it was a lot of swinging first pitch. You know, no one looked like they were kind of on the same page. And I know it's hard for an offense in baseball to totally look

like they need to be in sync. But the way their at-bats have changed, I feel like in the last week, since April 23rd, their strikeout rate is 21%, which is pretty low. They were like 27% the first couple weeks. It was a lot of strikeouts. They're doing a much better job of putting the bat on the baseball

and I just think that it kind of just infiltrates the whole lineup and It was this guy Matt on Twitter DM me and he was like if you notice that Marsh boom and someone else like all of their It might have not been bone, but like some of their key guys here, like all their launch angles are down, like seven degrees

or whatever. So it's like maybe it's a whole concerted effort. It's like a philosophical thing that they've done. With no shift. Smart. Even though,

there's still some shortstops that are basically playing. It makes me annoyed. Just go, can you just go play shortstop? Just go play freaking shortstop, but whatever. But it seems like they've really worked on flattening everyone's bat path out,

and then eventually the home runs will get there, but they want to make sure they're good hitters first, which is nice. Well, and also, honestly, if that's a philosophy that you can carry out through the season and start to get more hits when runners are on base, that's a playoff-winning type of philosophy. I mean, we talk about that every year when it comes down to October, November. And yeah, the Phillies had a lot of home runs last year. But I mean, you win in October by getting big hits, by putting the ball in play,

by moving runners over, by doing all those type of things when it's colder, when pitching matters more. You know, this is, you know, not to get ahead of ourselves, but, you know, this could be the type of offense you want to see in October.