High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 3: Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh!

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

Jack Fritz and James Seltzer discuss the hot starts for Phillies' outfielders Nick Castellanos and Brandon Marsh. 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

I love him. I'm sorry. I know. I know. I know. It's like, oh, you're such a sucker. You're so easy. Like, whatever.

I love him, dude. I'm so – Cassianos being back to being the Cassianos that we thought we were getting is like it's bringing me the most – well, that's not true. Well, it's close. There's a lot of things that are bringing me a ton of joy on this team. He is in my top four of things that are bringing me the most joy.

And the home run yesterday and two home runs you know the second one getting out a little windblown but whatever we take it a little bit we'll take it though you know look if it was last year it would have got blown in on gastiano so you know just evens out it evens out water always finds its level but i think we said this last podcast where it's like right i'll take the doubles i'll take the average right now. And then as he gets more comfortable, we think that the home runs are going to come. And that's how I felt all the time. And it's good to see that that's already starting to kind of come to

fruition, which like he started the ball of authority. Like not only was it two home runs last night, that freaking double in the nine. Yeah, dude. Ripped it. It was an absolute rope so he's he's barreling the baseball he's not striking out all the time he's not chasing he's doing the classic castellanos things where like if he is full he's still able to flick the bat on it and

poke it over the third base or shortstop or second baseman's head and just get it off you know like where he was never doing that last year so you know like if you're asking how much do i trust him i i'm pretty much at like an eight out of ten like i just i think he's i think he's just i think he's just confident and there's been so many articles written i think alex i think alex coffee wrote another article about him today about how like basically he's talking about how last year there's a lot of human stuff and i know you don't have to say can i say it for you so i don't have to do the disclaimer of jack no i always say this so let me just get out in front of this yeah i think i might and again i don't want to put you in the grave prematurely um but you never do that but when you eventually do go down um i think i

am gonna put on your gravestone, athletes are human beings. Thank you. I think you should. I think you should. It's probably the number one thing. Yeah, that's what I want on there. Yeah, that's what I want on there. You know, beloved father, husband, period, quotes, athletes are humans too.

Or athletes are human beings or whatever. We'll figure out the phrasing again i would hate to to write your tombstone right now um april 23rd 2023 but uh if i was doing a chase ulcer tombstone it's great this is good content right here beloved father yes loving husband yep yep definitely producer of wip morning show yeah you gotta put that on the tube son that's right uh loves high hopes more than go birds yes yeah and and athletes are human beings yep there you go i think it's pretty we nailed it we nailed it that's it and i can die in peace and what elliot and I will write in quotes is I'm tired.

Hey, I'm tired. Oh, no way. Really? Didn't see that one coming. So. So, yes, James, this is going on James's tombstone. But, you know, athletes are human beings. And like you talked about last year, like he's got a lot of stuff going on James' tombstone. But athletes are human beings. And like you talked about last year, he's got a lot of stuff going on.

And he seems like a guy that needs just a big family. Like, I want to be a part of this whole thing, not feel like an outsider. I'm not saying they made him feel like an outsider last year. But when you're paid that contract, you're the new guy. He didn't reach expectations and he's perfectionist like i think that kind of stuff kind of got all in his head so what we're seeing now is is a guy that um has just he's just comfortable and as he gets more comfortable i think we're going to continue to see the nick castellanos that again had you and

i feel like we're taking crazy pills because he's been like the best, like one of the top 10 bidders in the freaking league for a decade. So I feel pretty, pretty good about where we're at with Castellanos. And, you know, that was good to see yesterday. Good to see him get another hit today. Good to see Trey Turner leave the ballpark again. All he does is hit home runs. I think last year he had won his first 34 games. So maybe this is something we have to kind of learn with him is that he's a

bit of a slow starter when it comes to hitting for power. But yeah, the Castellanos bounce back season is, is having me very, very excited. It's thrilling, honestly, especially because we were so pro it happening in the spring training and

prior to the season. So to your point you made the very top of the show it's nice when your predictions don't go wrong which happens quite a bit by the way i mean uh uh marshy i mean i should have mentioned too just i mean the dude's leading the league in ops i. I mean, batting at home runoff lefty today. I can't believe how quick this is happening. And obviously, there'll be a lull. Don't expect this guy to lead the league in OPS.

Don't expect him to bat 360 or whatever. You never know. But are you surprised? I mean, look, I think we all thought he was going to get better. Are you surprised how quickly this is happening? And how confident are you are you just gave us an eight on casty like not that he's going to be 360 1100 guy whatever but like how confident are you that marsh is just a good hitter now pretty high i'm probably more confident in castellanos just because there's a much longer track record yeah because i've seen it before but like dude like

the marsh thing it's not even just hitting lefties hitting righties oh it's like with authority i mean he could have held run easily yesterday as well you know like it was a ball that went off the top of the fence today when when it went out um and what i keep coming back to is was the marlin series i believe whereas late in the game he's facing uh devin smelter and he hit a 440 foot bomb to left center field it's like holy cow and and they talked about a lot on the on the uh broadcast today about how um like it's one of those trades that like really worked out well for both sides and it it stinks the ohapi thing because now he's out for like four to six months or whatever with the injury but i mean the angels have a future all-star

level catcher it looks like a good trade for both sides yeah exactly exactly but the phillies might have found a freaking like all-star caliber center fielder and brandon marshall like for a guy who's blocked. It is what it is. He could have been your DH, I guess, but come on. I know. And the thing about Marsh is that the defense is already above replacement level player at baseline. If you're looking at the baseline. And now the batting is coming along.

And it's Kevin Long and it's them getting him on a path and getting him with someone that he could fully invest in and fully trust and not pulling him in a bunch of different directions and having him being taught a bunch of different kind of philosophies. And I think the most important thing for Brandon Marsh is that he is such a vibes guy vibes guy in a way you know like he's always happy he always brings the energy and I think pairing him with with a Kevin Long like I I just think that we're gonna look up even like a year from now two years from now and and like Marsh is going to be one of the even more vocal leaders of this team because of what he brings from a from a locker room clubhouse standpoint coupled in with the fact that like he might be he's an all-star caliber center fielder like he's they've legitimately traded and like i just i it's been so long james and an old regime since they have traded for a guy that had talent elsewhere and was a former prospect and have turned him into an all star. This is not what the Phillies do.

It's not what they do. No, it's probably the I mean, like worth comes to mind, like worth comes to mind. I get to know as a rule five pick, but same idea with him. comes to mind of developing into his stuff. Victorino was a Rule 5 pick, but same idea with him. He has consistently reminded me of Johnny Damon

and Shane Victorino. I didn't think he was going to be as good of a hitter as those guys. I don't think the average will be there, but the power is certainly going to be probably higher than both of those guys. He is developing into an absolute stud and i and you talk about breakout seasons and comeback seasons and whatever you have a cassianos bounce back you have marsh breakout

bone breakout stop breakout and then you're adding bryce like it's just, it's so exciting. It is so exciting. They have five guys betting over 400 right now? Yeah. 300? 300 right now? Like, I just, it's insane. It's insane. It really is.

And they're going to come back. They're going to break through this. Like, the 11 and 12 thing. You're right. It's just, it's a minor speed bump and what is going to be a great season for this. Well, I'm more super young too. Is he 25?

I mean, it's really, it's a really exciting and exciting move by the Phillies. And we were talking last time about G Al for static contract. Now, I mean, that's another guy you start to think about, like lock that dude up, take away some RB years, all that kind of stuff. If this continues.