High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 1: Our saving graces after a disappointing start

Episode Date: April 16, 2023

Jack and James react to the Phillies splitting a four-game series with the Reds and go through the positives they've found in the first couple weeks of the season. 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

A frustrating stuff. I mean, six and 10 right now is, is frustrating, especially cause you know, you got to beat up on the reds. This is it. All right. We're done with the reds, you know, and, and we, we split there. That was it. You know, it's going to force this team to win games against better teams later in the season. And this team will get better and they'll coalesce and they'll be able to do that. But the margin forever, the margin for error shrinks when you lose games like 13 to nothing to cincinnati and cincinnati and lose two in a row in a series well and and the other thing that's annoying about the start of the season now is like you are you you already start seeing the numbers like they got to go 82 and like 65 or whatever to get back to 80 or,

I guess it'd be 81 and 60 something to get back to 87 wins, which is like, it's kind of a dark way to like, I mean, it's April, but also it's like, well, you have to, I mean,

they, they, they do have to do that. Um, I mean, there's six games back at the Braves. I mean, it's early,

but I mean, it's way early, but it's six games. The Braves are, the Braves are nasty. Like it's early, but I mean, it's way early, but it's six games. The Braves are nasty. Like, it's OK. I agree. They are. They are a machine.

Good baseball team. A machine that has like unbelievable player development. They make great trades. They're stars of stars. The Braves are really good. You know, this is a this is a Phillies Mets for second place, in my opinion. Just the way that they've played so far, I'm waiting to find an identity. I'm waiting to see who this team is.

I'm waiting for them to get any level of continuity to where, okay, I can rely upon that. I think we can rely on a majority of the lineup. You know, I don't think the stock thing's slowing down. I don't think the, we know Schwarber will heat up. Trey Turner. Schwarber's heating up a bit already. Did you, another France, he's diving. It was either, he's at a walk in like eight of nine games

or something like that. You know, he's, you know, you know, just saying. The freaking out about Schwarber every year I find so funny it's like he's the one guy like just relax how many times do we have to do this you know you gotta drop them June's coming all right June's go honestly he's actually had a better start to this season than he a way better start than last season you know at least up to this point and he's been starting to spray the ball around a little bit you know a couple doubles you know a little single here and there yeah oh you're gonna we flirt with 250 obp getting back up in the 350 360 range let's go wow i mean him him actually doing the obp thing you know because last year

like bad bit in my opinion by well especially when they move them to the three hole right it's like okay now i'll be the obp guy now they're not leading off anymore and i'll do that yeah no it makes sense no my favorite part about a majority of phillies when they go to lead off spot is when they just forget how to be a leader it's a classic bit it really is it's a classic philly's bit where they're freaking hilarious we love it guys definitely keep doing it thank god for bryson stott the one oh dude i just love him man like i there's a lot of stuff to get into and i tell you what nothing is helping me cloud like this season more than the 14 to three win today or whatever.

And more than Stoddy leading it off with a home run to make it 16 straight games. DiMaggio, man. It's it. I hope he's ready. I hope he knows it's coming. Well, we talked about this on the last pod and I was like, you're crazy. It's never happening.

We had a follow-up in, in our text chain with Elliot where Elliot Elliot, of course, jumps in with, not that people should be DiMaggio, but there should be more long hit streaks. So I looked it up, and it actually astounded me. In the history of baseball, including a fair number in the late 1800s, early 1900s, there have only been 37 different 30 or more game hitting streaks.

Like, that's crazy. That's crazy. That shows how hard it is. Like, even 16 is freaking hard. Yeah, but with the shift being out now, it just feels like the beginning of the season, there's already been a lot more hitting streaks. Stotts on one right now.

I think Boehm's at 12. Boehm's at, I think he's at 10. 10? Well, I thought he was at 10 yesterday, so maybe maybe it's 11 yeah maybe but uh i think is it william contraris i believe has a 13 game hitting streak um one of my breakout players in the nl no big deal to me but um arise had one before he got hurt he's gonna bet 400 so i don't know it doesn't really matter like there's so many records that are being broken this year. I think Bonds is probably safe with 72 home runs. 73, you mean? 73, whatever.

It doesn't matter. Who cares? They're just numbers. I messed up the 56-game history on WIP. Yeah, that was way worse. Well, you know what's funny is that, in my defense, I had 73 up in my head. And then I was like, wait, I think it was 72 last second.

So that's on you. Yes, you're right. I'll take'll take it i'll take the blame but you know we talk about stuff we can trust in this team right james and we went and i like i think thompson's been annoying to begin the year but i do think that when he gets into a rhythm and like figures out this ball club i think like he's gonna be fine like i'm not in this whole like panic we gotta fire Rob Thompson mindset I hope no one's there yet geez of course people are there

but it's fine whatever people are allowed to react it's fine I definitely have heard a alarming number of Girardi comparisons I'll say that like you know yeah which is let's calm down but um either way either way uh you talk about things you can rely on in this team and you know i think i can we can

rely on the young three kids kind of breaking out uh schwarber we can rely on cassianos i think 70 can rely on you know like i would like a home run maybe one i think we can rely on cassiano's not being a black hole in the lineup so that's yes you know that's that's a real at least a real win but at least until harper comes back the first six in the lineup should be pretty good and then we'll see when we get out of cave you see what you get get out of Sosa, who I think has been fine. Yeah, I think he's been pretty good. Yeah, he's actually been pretty good. And honestly, I mean, Cave has not been good,

but Cave has been okay. You know, Cave should not be starting on most teams. Oh, I see. Yeah, it's like trying to win a World Series. But like, you know, I think he's been, you know, slightly less exposed than I expected. I will say the one thing about Jake Cave, James, and let me know if you think this is a big comp,

but when he does hit the baseball hard, a little Fred Freeman. It's pretty much the same thing as Freddy Freeman. I actually could see that just from a visual thing. And when he hits it hard, he can hit it hard. Yeah. Listen, don't let Cavey figure it let cave look at us talking ourselves into jake cave i like him more than i like jt right now i know he hit that home jt's back jt's on his way look jt again we said it last

but we all remember the toronto series the dumb comments the whole thing like that was in in the middle of may or whatever he was horrible until then thing like that was in the middle of May or whatever. He was horrible until then. And then he was great the rest of the year. So, you know, again, we do this every year and it's it's fun. And I mean, less fun, less fun. But we overreact to stuff early in the season and it always happens. And we're always like, oh, let's remember not to do that again. And then we always do it. It's part of being a fan but you know i i think there are certain things that you can can let's say react to and there are others where you're like he'll figure it out you know james speaking of things to overreact to i was thinking about this a lot as i'm watching more of my uh bullpen opinions blow up in my face

um you guys have been great not been a great start for you you have to promise me you have to like i cannot look i cannot react to spring training next year like what do you want to do how many times i have to say it honestly i bet you if you go back to our spring training pods like every year for the last four years or five years there are examples of me being like don't listen to spring training stats they don't mean anything what are you doing don't overdo it like trust me it is when you play fantasy you know this happens every year someone drafts the dude who has a great spring and he freaking sucks like all the time i can't do it i i've watched too many of these things just like you know blow up in my face where it's like I feel like again I feel like a freaking idiot

I just feel so dumb I feel so dumb when I see these bullpen guys where I'm like this guy could be something and then it just completely invalidates my opinion and I can't have that James I can't have that on my conscience it's just like I was watching McKinley Moore not be able to throw a strike yesterday and I'm like I'm embarrassed like I'm embarrassed for myself more than

anything and I feel bad for the fan base I really do like it's official again hand up like i'm sorry i i i will always react hard to spring training i love it i watch every game i re-watch every game because i missed the phillies so much at that point yeah i'm sorry like i'm 100 sorry yeah i can't no i can't yeah i think i think it's honestly just easier for people to know that you're going to do it than for you to not do it. And just be like, all right, don't overreact to what Jack says about like bullpen guys in March because he's probably going to be wrong. Well, it's okay because Ryan Kirkering is still nasty.

Dude, yeah. So Jack showed me that bat we were talking about last time. He's pretty nasty, dude. Yeah, he's stupid. He's my last saving grace. Andrew Baker immediately when I was like, oh, he's great, he got lit up. I love that your last saving grace

is a dude in Clearwater.