High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 2: The MLB All Star Game Is The Best

Episode Date: July 9, 2023

James Seltzer and Jack Fritz discuss the upcoming All Star Break and what Phillies need the time off. 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

All-star closer, Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball Isn't Boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago and is now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is.

Another fact, so jump aboard the B.I.B. Express. Follow and listen to Baseball Isn't Boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, but you know what I don't get? You know what I don't get is, like, the MLB All-Star game is far and away the best off. Oh, by far.

Like, they are still trying, and it is still mano-a-mano with pitcher and hitter. Yeah, you see the pitchers throwing their best stuff and hitters trying their best against the best pitchers. I agree. Dude, like... It's just lost its luster. Like, back when...

God, you old people are just the worst. Well, when I was young, like, for starters, like, the American League and National League didn't play each other. So, the Brawl Stars game was like, wow, I get to see, you know, this guy against this guy. That's so cool. I never face each other.

Like, wow. You know, that kind of cool i never face each other like wow you know that kind of stuff it was it was neat like from that perspective like wow roger clemens against barry bonds whoa that's that's awesome you know that kind of stuff but then even after that you know i did just i think because everyone gets to see all these guys all the time and we didn't used to see all the players you didn't't have the package and all that. Whatever. It is what it is. It's definitely the best All-Star game by far, and it's still fun to watch.

Yeah, I don't know. I think the MLB All-Star game is pretty good theater if you're a baseball fan. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I'm just saying it's not what it used to be. Plus, I mean, who could forget when Nola struck out Mookie? Oh, maybe his pinnacle moment as a player well he didn't he didn't miss many bats today i mean

i've never i've never seen i've never seen the marlins look so i was fearful of some of the marlins oh my god i mean the the the homer to make it five nothing was such a tank shot. Was that one? Yeah. Like it was just such a tank shot, even for nothing was just like a fricking, like, like it looked like Stanton was back in Miami hitting home runs.

All right, let's get to it because that, you know, obviously from today and, and again, coming out with us time out on, on Tuesday night, it's going to be awesome.

All right. Yeah, dude. I mean, the most Aaron Nola thing of all time has his best start. We said, out with us time out uh on on tuesday night it's gonna be awesome all right um yeah dude i mean the most aaron nola thing of all time has his best start we said since you know either why uh the the houston game last year or since boston in 2018 you know one of the best starts of forever and then you know he comes out today and it's just like just didn't have it he just they they were slapping it around the field off yeah and you and he's had a home run problem this year.

I mean, it's probably been the biggest problem with him. He leads Major League Baseball. I knew he was up there, but I guess today he took the league. Congrats, buddy. Always have to be the best. He's got high 30s. That's a lot of home runs, man. It's a crap ton of home runs.

It's an insane amount of home runs. If you give up more home runs like if you you give up more home runs than starts you make really like that's not great dude seems like a problem i i just i have no i think i swear to you james like i just have no idea what to say about aaron noel anymore like i really don't because i't. It's the funniest thing ever because he just had two great starts in a row. He went Braves. He was really good against the Braves and then he shut down

the race. He has to be the biggest conundrum of any Philly athlete I've ever seen. No doubt. Because he has value. Aaron Nola has value.

He takes the ball every fifth day. He pitches into the sixth inning every single start. He strikes out a top five in Cy Young twice. Top five in Cy Young. That's like, no joke. And then he does a game like that today, and it's like, there it is. That's Aaroninola like he just i i i just i i

i keep waiting for that month where he just gets on a roll and wins like five starts um but at this point it continues to be more wishful thinking like he's gonna have his good starts he's had a couple of them in his last um you know last four or whatever but then he's going to do that and it's just gonna it's just gonna throw the whole kind of conversation off i mean he's again third the song last year he was i mean 18 was the best pitching season we've had around here in a while um and until wheeler until wheeler in 21 or whatever yeah i i still i think i liked it might have been better no it might have been better but wheeler was pretty great in 20 he was he was i just thought 18 18 and all it was on might have. No, it might have been better. No, it might have been better, but Wheeler was pretty great in 2020. He was. He was. I just thought

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but I, I, I don't know. I, I'm always the good part, I guess, is that he's lowering his value. What I was going to say, like the contract push is just tough. Look, buddy, by the way. I mean, usually in contract years, it's a different result.

And this is the exact opposite. This is actually this is actually the most Philly's outcome. Frank, I totally agree with you. I totally couldn't agree more with you. Like this so on brand dude it's so well and the and the and the key part about the nola contract now is is obviously the painter thing because now that what we have no idea what we're getting out of painter yeah so the nola it was good news after but like i thought it was a lot for tommy john but he still might need tommy john like this is not like he's young.

Like who knows what they decide to do. They can't let her, they can't let Nola go. Well, the other point with Nola too, is that like, ideally the best thing for Nola, I think is like what they did with Wheeler last year. I just think, you know, the amount of innings he's put on his arm the last few years, particularly pitching deep into, you know, the amount of innings he's put on his arm the last few years, particularly pitching deep into, you know, not deep in it, into November last year, that I think that, you know, he would benefit from like a month off.

But when this guy is pitching for a contract, like you can't tell him, like, take a month off. You know what I mean? Like it's a tough situation there. So I think that honestly, the smartest thing for the team would be to try and find him at least a few weeks off to give that arm a rest, to get it more important for, you know, a run. But, you know, cause if he doesn't, I don't know if I think we'll still see flashes, but it just feels like he's going to be inconsistent this year. Like Cole, like, and he's been better than Cole in oh nine overall, but like, it still feels like that kind of year. We talked about it early in the

season we're like we just hope it isn't a colon 09 year and it feels like it's more veering that way than a than a nola year you know yeah but but even no i mean we don't even have to use nola we can use aaron nola or we don't use hamels we can use nola i mean he did this in 2021 yeah i mean 2021 in the era over four as well. Sure. Yeah. And I don't even know. He pitched deep in, but it also could just be as it wasn't. It was weird in 2020. Different like year and different whatever.

Who knows? Well, I mean, 2021 wasn't as bad as 2020, but I don't know. He's just he's so hit or miss right now. When he's on, he's I mean, the race start again. We talked about it was one of his best starts of his career in my opinion and and then to follow that up and like and what stinks is that he's not riding any of that momentum into the into the uh all-star break like he's not saying like all right there's two good starts like now i can get rolling it was again another step back today and i just i i think it's at point, we just have to not plan on getting the last year Aaron Nola or the very, very good Aaron Nola that we've seen for most of his career.

And like, we can't bank on it. I mean, that's not something we can bank on anymore because he's just, he's way too hit or miss. And it's frustrating. They can't, again, it's much like the Schwarber thing. Unless you, I mean, maybe people want to play Pache every day. But until Harper can play first base, he's staying out there. And there's nothing they're going to do about Aaron Ola.

Like, they can go out and trade for a starter, I guess. But he's going to be taking down the ball every fifth day. And you just have to hope that he turns it around. But, man, it's just another step back today. Yeah, I agree with you. I'm definitely concerned about that. I still think they need to add a bat more than an arm at the deadline. But it does make you think about it.

Like you said, I mean, you know, if you can't. And look, Noel's going to get the ball. But if you can't trust him, he's going to be the two. You know, you have to hope that Ranger and Taiwan continue to look as good as they have. Obviously, we're going to get the ball, but if you can't trust him, he's going to be the two. You have to hope that Ranger and Tywon continue to look as good as they have, obviously. We're going to get to Ranger. That's how he's going to get there. I don't think you feel great going into the playoffs with that rotation when you're going up against potentially, whether it's Blake Snell and Musgrove, if they can turn around, or whoever the Brewers are going to

throw up against you. I know burns hasn't been great this year but you know they're you know you need you need those those horses to be able to go in those spots um all right ranger seemed concerned after yesterday's start or two days ago yeah it just looks flat like all this all this is yesterday all this stuff just looks flat um and it's not that he's missing. I mean, this is how he looked when he came back from the injury and was having the warm-up starts before he went on the run, where it's just like no command to either side of the plate. Curveball looks lackluster. And yesterday, there was like five at-bats in a row

where I felt like they had the hitter set up for a change up and he didn't throw it at all. So I, I, I worry, I worry that he's in a, in a bit of that period where he has, he doesn't have a good feel for the change and it's just throwing everything

out of whack because when he has that pitch, I think he's really, really good. And hitters are also doing the smart thing, which is they're making sure that he gets into the strike zone um so they're not chasing out they're they're making sure that he is on the strike zone and even when even when raider tries to expand a little bit they're not chasing at all because they're they're just gonna wait for him to throw them a strike and

then when he throws them a strike they're not missing it they're not missing it. They're not missing it. So I think that, again, you talk about someone that needs the all-star break. He needs it. I'm telling you. He 100% needs it because I think that he came back from the injury. He had a good run. And then now there's a bit of that fatigue. Which we see all the time. I mean, that's very common.

Yeah. So overall. He had a spring training. He just had those three starts with the spring training. that fatigue uh which we see all the time i mean that's very common you know yeah so uh overall out of spring training he just had those three starts with the spring training you know but also there was like some some some not ranger kind of things we saw yesterday like yeah the the window ball the middle yeah the ball in the middle oh and the bunt oh my goodness you're right yeah like that way i mean especially the bunt the window ball in the middle. But the bunt, it's like like he catches that every time, like every single time. It was his first fielding error in his career. I know.

Like he's a throwing error. It was only a second error. It's his first actual fielding error in his life as a baseball player. It's crazy. So definitely not. I'm not like panic button with him, but I really, really think he needs that. He needs a little bit of time off here to,

to get rolling back in the right direction. Cause everything, and maybe it's a mechanical adjustment. They need to make the bullpen. All his stuff looks like it flattened out. And I don't know that that seems like a mechanical kind of thing to me. Yeah. I'm not too worried.

They've done a really good job with these situations all season long in terms of kind of correcting that stuff and all that so um look we'll see and i and ranger historically has had a a pretty rubber arm and ability yeah and ranger also every year this happens to him where there's like a four-star stretch where he's just like eh and then and then he kind of gets rolling again so maybe we're in that midsummer lull with with ranger yeah and again like ultimately uh someone we trust in big games which is the most important thing when it's going to come to the staff ultimately