High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 1: What an Annoying Weekend

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

James Seltzer and Jack Fritz recap a series loss to the Red Sox and discuss the Phillies starting pitching struggles. 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

It was an annoying weekend, and all it keeps bringing me back to is, like, you know, the lineup construction thing was annoying. So annoying. It was like, just stop. It's okay to move Schwarber down. He's a veteran. He'll be okay. Yes!

And also, it kind of felt like with Sirianni in his first year, with the fans actually chanting run the ball to the point where the court, I mean, you saw Howard going at him over the weekend. Howard was basically like, you're a moron. How are you not batting stop lead off what is going on here? And I think at a certain point, maybe Topper's just like, all right, no, I can't do it. I can't do it.

Are you guys okay? You guys win. You guys win. Oh, and then you win 6-1. No big deal. Yes, it's no big deal at all. I mean, Lyme's just so much better that way. What, when they win 6-1?

Yeah, the lineup from yesterday is just so clearly the correct lineup. Yeah, it's just, it doesn't, it was all just overthinking into overthinking. You don't have to overthink it. Like, Stott, while, yes, he's batting like 200 in the last month, which isn't great, he works a great at bat. Every single time. He works a great at bat. Every single time. He works a great at bat. He had an 11-pitch at bat yesterday.

And I love Schwarber's like my favorite player on the team. But you don't have to do that. Just bat him five and let him have some RBI situations. Certainly worked out yesterday. It did work. It's one for its last one. It is funny, though. It worked out perfectly.

You think there's a part of Rob Thompson thatpson was like damn yeah like a little bit yeah for sure like damn it's like when your takes go bad you know like it's like what's the game happy they won but like man i wish i was right anyway um but but my big my big takeaway from the weekend and how i just feel overall is that like i'm i'm legitimately concerned about him. Oh, I was not expecting this. Because it's not – the lineup thing is whatever. I think over 162, they'll bear out. They'll figure it out.

The bullpen, I still believe in. This starting staff is a problem. And if this is the Wheeler and Nola that we're going to get all year, then it's a massive problem. And that's why Ranger coming back at the end of next week is more important to me than Bryce coming back. Bryce coming back was great. It's fun.

We get Bryce back. But the lineup was going to be fine. But Ranger is now the most important piece they can bring into this team because Wheeler's been inconsistent, and it seems like that's what we're going to get all year. Noah's inconsistent. It feels like we're going to get that all year. Falter is pitching his way out of the rotation.

He won't be, but he is. He should be. that all year. Falter is pitches way out of the rotation. He won't be, but he, he is, he's pitching like he's pitches way out of the rotation. Walker is about as inconsistent as you can possibly be. Up down, up down. And maybe, maybe the new trick is he throws 80% splitters. Yeah. And that's just seem like, oh, throw strikes. Okay. Yeah.

I'll throw strikes. Like they changed. I mean, they told him like, yeah, they talked about a lot. It was like, it was like, this is what they've told the broadcasters. We're going to tell them about a lot of spoilers.

They mentioned like five times. So like you get Ranger back and that's a massive win and you just you need him to just kind of calm everything down

because if they don't get this starting staff together, I don't care what the lineup is because the starting staff is legitimately costing them games right now. All these guys are costing them games. Even the guys that you pay a ton of money not to cost you games

are costing them games. So they're facing good lineups. Dodgers are good. Red Sox are good. The Blue Jays coming into town is good. So it's only two games. But then we go to Colorado. It's no big deal.

Yeah, they've always done well in Colorado. You excited about Bailey Falter? Can't wait, dude. Can't wait. And I'm so disappointed in Bailey. It's like he could be fine, but he is absolutely not fine right now. It's very annoying. So, like, the starting staff is just – it's just morphed into a big concern.

And I hope that Ranger can come back and just be Ranger and we just, like, a big concern and and i hope that ranger can come back and just be ranger and we just like bang there's seven innings of like two run ball from ranger um because if not then you start seeing the trickle-down effect of like the bullpen being overworked which i think you're starting to see a little bit from alvarado you're starting to see from from these guys of like we're pitching a ton of innings like can we get a break so um it's definitely it's a little bit of a red flag right now yeah look i'm right there with you i'm i'm not overall ready to be concerned i'm not ready to say that this is the nolan wheeler we're going to see all season you know it's only been a month and then season they're still ramping back up after

a shorter off season you know less of uh you're pitching more innings last year and all that stuff so i'm not ready to get there yet, but it's absolutely concerning. So how do you reconcile, like, a start ago, Wheeler and Nola are great, looked great. Like, weren't just great, they looked great. Like, they pitched really well, and then they come out the last one and look more like the Wheeler and Nola we've seen all season. That's concerning, but why are you concerned that we can't get back to the guys we saw last week?

Because, well, first off, they can. They can. I know, I'm saying why are you concerned? Because it's just been this whole year where it's like one good, one bad, one good, one bad, one good, one bad. It's like, I hoped that the Astros start was a snowball. Like, okay, now, here's a

month straight where Wheeler and Nola are pitching to a two year yeah like that's what i thought we were getting with the astros thing and they just kind of reverted back to what they've been all year and now i have the fear of like is this how it's going to be all year is this how it's going to be where it's like they have the one freaking blow-up inning that like just ruins a start for them yeah so obviously they can go on a run, and I don't want to use the whole trust the back of the baseball card because we tried to do that with Kyle Samos last year.

Yeah, that always backfires on us. I think we should avoid that. But the track records are the track records. So hopefully when Ranger gets back and it kind of just settles everyone down into being able to be in the roles that they need to be, hopefully they can get Painter eventually. Who knew?

We were like, oh, I don't even need him. It's like, wow, you know what would be awesome? Andrew freaking Painter. I know. It would be awesome. And we saw the roles. Like Strom yesterday, that was big. Being able to give you two innings in the back end of the game like that.

That's the exact reason that being able to get Strom to the bullpen and feeling good about it can really help this team. Yeah, but. No, I'm saying we're barely sucks right now I'm not saying that that I'm just saying if the roles could work out that's that's how it works out ideally yeah for sure um I just think that I think it's a mistake to pull Strom from rotation right now well yeah I mean look I I you haven't had enough good pitching and he's giving you five strong most of the time I know the last one wasn't great yeah I don't know how you do especially with Falter be like at least early on it felt like the last one wasn't great. Yeah, I don't know how you do it, especially with Falter. At least early on, it felt like Falter, he wasn't great,

but he was keeping you in games. He wasn't the reason you were losing. Last few starts, it felt like you had no chance of Falter's on the hill. So this pitching staff, I love doing the lineup talk because it's fun, just to argue and yell about something. And it's easy. And it's easy. But if this staff doesn't get it together, it's such a moot point.

Like, again, even on Saturday, like, it was a close game. They were right in it. And then Brockton allows two, and all of a sudden it's 7-4. 7-3, and then it became 7-4. Right. So it became 7-4 rather than 5-3. And that's just the difference between being able to come back and win. And, like, I was so – happens uh at least two times a month where i get so defeated where it's like

like man i just doing this every night and and like it's just it's it's draining sometimes but um like turner because you were supposed to be be different they'll get there anyway um but then like like Turner hits the home run meaningless and I was just like I was done I was like I don't care I don't care I don't care I'm so

so defeated like no one in the world I think is worse than handling six straight losses yeah I think that's very clear. It's just like, yeah. It got to the point, which is how all sports fans, I think, kind of are when their team is struggling. At the beginning, it's like

anger you're losing, and then the apathy sets in. No worse place to be than when apathy starts setting in. Oh, it's the worst. Dude, when you're like, yeah, they'll probably lose. Like, that's the worst. No, it's not. Again, you just said it. Shears is supposed to be different. It was. It was. I mean. It's the most exciting we've had about a Phillies season in a decade. The freaking ballpark is so packed.

I know. People are showing up still, which I love, man. Just figure it out. I need a full Citizens Bank park all summer long. I can't live in a world where people lose interest in them

fast. Again? Again. They did so much goodwill with that run last year and people are clearly excited. The Shurzies are still really old. They had to dust off the Cliff Lee and the Roy Halliday's and the Utley's. They had to dust off the old Shurzies.

They're still out there. It's time for some new jerseys, obviously. But we can't lose that momentum. And losing six straight, good way to lose the momentum. Good way to crush the momentum. Yeah, I'm with you. And look, they could win five straight, and it's not that big a deal.

It is still early in the season it is may 8th i'm not i'm really trying not to overreact and to freak out because again it is really early in the season this team stunk until june last year and then turn it around but you don't have to do that i know you don't i'm not again i'm i'm trying to present a positive side you don't have to go 22 and 29 i'm with with you. I know they think they do. I'm with you. I'm with you. And it's incredibly frustrating because, you know, because of the brand of baseball. Like you said, I mean, they've lost games they shouldn't lose.

And that's incredibly frustrating. But yeah, I think, look, I think the Lions are going to be fine. We'll get to Bryce in a bit. We'll get to the whole thing. I think they're going to score runs over the span of the season. And I think the bullpen's going to be fine. I think you've nailed it. I think it comes down to the starting pitching. It comes down to Ranger hopefully going to be back at the end of this week.

They're saying Colorado hopefully, obviously, won't give you too many innings to start. Nor do you want him to come out in Colorado. Yeah. It's interesting though. At least in his rehab, he was up to 80-some pitches. So if you're at 80 pitches, back-to-back starts, you should be able to go to 90, 95.

Sure, depending on how efficient he is. But yeah, there is some upside there.