High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - High Hopes Chapter 3: Slider Guy and the rest of the bullpen

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Don't have time to listen to the entire High Hopes podcast? Check out this segment where James and Jack discuss the Phillies trading for a new reliever and how they expect Rob Thomson to manage the bullpen in 2023. 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 right uh do your thing slider we're 41 minutes into the pod the next 25 minutes are yours on slider guy or whatever though you don't go to me i'm not kidding slider guy go i don't even know his name i don't know his name i know he's eric yeoman eric yeoman uh very excited um so i'm giving you this time go ahead so um okay i i I promise you, like, I know in the past, I've gone over the top sometimes. I've been known to do that in the past. And I'm trying my best not to do that anymore. So I'm trying to temper expectations.

And that's probably fair because this kid's like, you know, whatever. He's a rookie last year that had a poor year. But here's what I love. He had a 50%... But he's the next Ryan Mattson. Not a slider guy. You know what I mean? Like, just come up with, like...

But I think he's the next Trevor Hoffman, and he's going to be the greatest reliever we ever seen. Could be. It could be Mariano. No, but so he had like a 50% whiff rate on a slider last year and he threw it about 20%

of the time. Meanwhile, his fastballs got kind of lit up a little bit. So the Phillies being the team they are, I'm sure they saw 50% whiff rate on a freaking slider and they were like, okay, we'll increase that usage to 40 some percent uh we'll mix in our patented phillies cutter at this point which is what they do now is they just have guys throw cutters but we did

and he throws he throws 95 to 97 um he struck out in a cassianos this year so you're heading towards new mo that you're the marion river thing that really is the end game of this. No, I think I think I think he can. I think he has the ability to work his way into high leverage innings like cool. I didn't. I wasn't a bloody guy, you know, and the fact that he was taking out big innings for the team I thought

was massive. So like I think we need to start putting him like I think starting the season like I think people are going to think he is in the eight to ten in the bullpen i think he's gonna end up oh i think it's like yeah i was gonna say fifth i like i think if i were to order my bullpen guys now and obviously you know they might seem differently but it's it's sir anthony alvarado um sir anthony alvarado one two without a doubt and then i mean i i mean kimbrough's gonna be three in terms of where i'll be put i don't know if he'd be there for me but kim will be three but

then it's pilate and brogdon for me like those are my next two guys in some order probably brogdon milady but they're right then strom you know we haven't seen but i think he's right there too those are your six though right like those are at least going in the season i think those are your six dudes that you count the most on, I think, outside of young guys who have to prove. And just looking at his stuff, I think the slider is really good. I think his pitch is going to be tough to kind of – I just think it's nasty.

It's Pilates-ish, you know. But the thing is, he throws the sinker, you know, because he has a traditional sinker arm slot. He looks like he should be able to develop more depth to it so we'll see if they can work on a little bit they can get them in the the pitching lab or whatever um but like the thing that has me the most excited about it is like it's such a such like a raise and and dodgers move where you just like you steal a guy the guy was a rookie last year for the Cubs he had a 280 RA and triple A the year before like

he righties hit I think 200 again 210 against him you know he's young and it just feels like an asset that he kind of just stole from the Cubs and the Cubs have you know they've been bad in the last couple years but I think they're

the one thing that they are doing well is developing some pitchers and guys that have some stuff so I don't know just screams like a thing that Ani and and smart teams do so how many how great is it to have the Phillies like do smart stuff like the last year and a half for the first time in the like six years we've done this podcast or five and whatever it is we've like we keep being like oh this seems like a seems like a thing smart teams do it just feels so foreign it's great dude it's so exciting well and you talked about that the army guy uh what is his name no uh yeah no song like that that's the kind of stuff smart teams do like we're seeing so many of these things along the way where we're like wow like that that's something the Rays would do. That's something the Dodgers would do. I want to emphasize how freaking cool that feels to me

because I feel like we've asked for it so many times. I don't want it to be casual that we're just like, that's the thing smart teams do, and the Phillies are doing it. It's pretty cool. Even like Bilotti. Bilotti was signed as a minor league free agent or whatever. They turned him into a legitimate option.

And one guy I think that we're not talking about as a member of this. Here's my thing. I think after Strom, like Strom's going to be in the bullpen. Bilotti, Brogdon, Sir Anthony, Alvarado, and Alvarado. Those are the six. I think everyone down from that point down, it's going to be rotating. I think this kid's going to be a part of it. The Luis Ortiz kid, they picked

up off waivers from the Giants. I like a lot. I actually do. I know you do. Trust me. I know you do, buddy. I know you. I can see it on your face right now. He's got something. He's got something. He's got something. He's got a slider curveball combo that I think they can work with and make better so uh he's

got to look out for but a guy that we don't bring up as as really a member of this bullpen that i think has a chance to have a really really good year is his coon rod i mean the guy two years ago was pretty good for this bullpen now Now gets fully healthy coming off the injury. Doesn't get talked about as being a key member because I think people don't totally trust him. But there were stretches during 21 where he just lights out. And people thought he could be the closer. So maybe another year removed.

Cutter working in there. Coonrod could work his way up there. Yeah, that's a great point. Drew Baker,rod this kid louis ortiz griff mcgary nick nelson um it's good until you did nick it's good it's dudes get some dudes just get a bunch of dudes especially in modern baseball but we always talk about right we talk about these teams with depth that keep bringing like the braves just like bring a guy up he pitches you know 10 innings for them in a couple weeks and then goes back down this and they just they just have guys and it's starting to you need starter guys too but i think it's really important