High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - No.

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

The Philadelphia Phillies were swept by the Braves over the weekend to finish their homestand with a 2-7 record. James Seltzer and Jack Fritz react and look ahead to what could be a very bleak future. Presented by Miller Lite. To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.com 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

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Yo, it is another edition, last edition of the I-Fs podcast, sponsored by Miller Light, official partner of the Philadelphia Phillies. Tastes like Miller Time, Philadelphia, celebrate responsibly. Let me take the audience, Jack, inside baseball, you know, the whole thing. You know, it's to what we were just talking about before. we are considering becoming a flyers pot. It feels like the right moment to pivot. You know, we'll just leave the Phillies thing behind.

Hop on the bandwagon. We're going to the cup. What do you think? Dude, I tell you what, I was thinking about this over the weekend. There is nothing better than being a casual sports fan. Like, dude.

Oh, look, the Flyers. That's cool. This is fun. Let me check them out. All right. Phillies aren't good. I'm going to check out. I'm going to go to a movie.

Yeah. I mean, you don't have to go through any of the tough times. Like, you never, you don't have to, it doesn't matter to you. All that matters to you is when they're good. I don't know. Doesn't sound like a horrible way to go through life. But you know what the sick joke is, James? Do you want to know the sick joke is?

Is we can make that joke. And guess what? Our big, stupid fat faces are going to be sitting in front of the TV and listening to the radio every single night at 7 o'clock watching this dreadful experience just slowly, slowly, slowly, march towards a slow death. That's what we're going to do because we're psychotic.

We are psychotic people that are going to go through this. We're going to talk ourselves and do them at one point this year because they're going to win eight out of ten and you're going to say, there they are, there they are, there they are. No, don't do it.

Don't do it. Don't do it. This sucks. This sucks. They went two and seven on a homestand. Two and seven. Their worst homesstand. SansaSince-0-9. That team of the World Series. But, but, you got to swept by the braids for the first time at home in 10 years. And guess what, pal? They lost a game where

they didn't allow an earn run. They didn't allow an earn run in a game and they lost it. They lost it. Oh my gosh. They only score in one inning. One. They averaged to run a game over the weekend, so that's fun. Who? Why? Is this because of Harry the case? Maybe. We have to put the name back on. Put the name back on.

I don't care. Oh, my God. You know what the, and then there are many sad parts of this. I'm sure we'll dive into them all. But I think for me, the saddest part of this whole thing right now in this exact moment is that we can't even make fun of the Mets. The Mets have lost 11 straight games. This should be the most fun time we can.

Look at them. Ha ha! Low Mets. Ha ha. And instead, we just have to be like, yeah, it sucks for us too. Look at our brothers in arms. It sucks for all of us. Sucks to be at the Northeast fan right now.

If you're not a freaking brave fan, doesn't it? It's great. It's awesome. Entire N. Central's over 500, Jack. The entire division is over 500. We have a worse record than the freaking Rockies. The Rockies are better than the Phillies right now.

Think about that. They're frisky, too. That's what happens to the higher Paul Deep Medesta. That's right. They figured it out real quick. They are, yeah. Well, and by the way, by the way, the Braves are back back. Braves are good.

Braves are legit. Well, I'm looking at them, you know, over the weekend. And, you know, they do the thing. The Blue Jays thing. That's what they do. They don't strike out and they put them all and play a bunch. Yeah. You're 0 for 1 on what I was about to say already.

Oh, for 1. Let's see if you could. But my thing is true as well. That is a very fair point. That is a very fair point. I'm glad you brought it up because they do do the thing where it's like, hey, let's just get a bunch of base hits and see how that goes. But where they just have a bunch of big leaguers, dude, like they just, they signed Dom Smith

out of nowhere. And he's only playing against Ritees and he's got an OPS over 1,100. Mike Yostramski, same thing. Meanwhile, and again, like, you have to give Kitch chances. But like, we're rolling out Auto Kemp to start the year. And by the way, pull the plug. 18 games in. Immediately.

We pulled the plug up, boom, 15 games in. Like, it's just everything that they thought was going to happen this season off the off season has been the exact opposite of what they thought it was going to be.

Everything, like, yeah. Who could have seen this coming? I don't know. The Braves of a bunch of just big leaguers, man. And, oh, yeah. Oh, and the freaking Austin Riley wiped the blood off its leaders and the Dubon floater into center field.

And Harper is squibbing one up to third base line. You know if that was the brave. What a play. That's down the third baseline. He's on second base and everyone's going crazy. Ocunia making the playoff Schwabler last by the game. Just disgusting. Oh, my God.

What a horrible weekend of baseball. It really was. It was the low point in what has been a season full of low point so far. Oh, yeah. Since opening day, it's just been low point after low point. And this was the again, I think from a, and look, you know, we're big on, hey, man, 21 games into the season. Let's not freak out, man. Oh, that's totally awesome.

I'm, I'm so, I'm never this concerned on April 20th. Like that, that's what concerns me is how actually legitimately concerned I am about what I'm seeing. And this weekend, obviously just the holes and we'll get into the lineup and all that stuff. But just for this team to have lost the back-to-back home series. and have the Braves coming into town and to put forth that kind of effort and that kind of performance. I mean, Saturday night,

when you've got the last inning and a half or whatever, the Phillies game going while the Flyers are playing, you're just looking at and you're like, completely different things that I am looking at here. One team just playing out a string of a game doesn't care, it feels like, and the other team is fighting for their lives. It does feel like there is no juice to this seam.

is no like path like where's the path and they were pitching better and hitting better where's the path where's the belief right now at this be ah no i don't know what are you talking about like seriously i'm like asking you i'm being like so you know they get the felix rayas pop and it was unbelievable oh yeah what we had one moment this weekend and you're like okay there's some juice do it you know like they use that as momentum and then what do they do they do they do they Let me just tell you a quick anecdote because this is the perfect timing for this. Shout out to our producer Tucker does a great job. Tucker and I were texting at this moment of the game and Tucker's like I.

Tucker in. We have a group chat. What are we doing? It's a good point, actually. Well, it's a specific thing where Tucker and I have talked a lot about his home run lights in his basement. So, and he had not gotten to use them yet. So Reyes, his homer set them off. So he texted me finally got to use the lights.

We had Joe guys said somewhere. he's like, yeah, it'll probably be 3-1 in a minute, so it won't matter anyway. And like three minutes later, it's 3-1. And the most annoying possible way, it was just like that, yeah, that felt right. Yeah, no. And any little momentum was like ultimately thwarted by giving it back almost immediately. And yeah, I overall agree. I actually thought the, I think the effort is actually there.

I just don't think they have it. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It might not. They just look lifeless, but it might just be that they're out there realizing that they're just not nearly as good as the team they're playing. And I don't know, man. I've obviously, we've consumed big Bob Suarez content in the past and forever indebted for bedlam at the bank. He looks 10 times better than I've ever seen him.

He's throwing 101 with a real cutter now and that change up. That might be the best reliever and, well, Mason Miller's best reliever in baseball. but I mean Swares might be right there I was I was really really impressed with him all weekend long so yeah I just they need a spark they need something but like I just I just don't expect it

I don't expect that there's like besides calling back up Garrett Stubbs and having him come back in the club oh there it is having them come back in the clubhouse and be like come on you a bunch of slapies like let's figure it out let's go have some fun out there boys yeah yeah like you know bring back the chief vibes officer who has a he does have an 1100 OPS in this is this is a

look I don't think anyone's going to complain about Marchand going away yes yes yes yes we're batting 039 one hit you know homer in his first game and that was it he's had to get a hit again it's unbelievable yeah he's making out like bone look like a stud yeah I mean they they need a spark they need something but there's really nothing they can do they pull the lever on the the Felix Reyes move like that was supposed to be a spark and and it at least it was a little bit. And that was, to your point before,

not a lever they wanted to pull 18 games into the season or whatever. I mean, they spent the entire offseason, every opportunity they had telling us, we believe in Otto Kemp. He is good. He will prove it to you. Auto Kemp is good for them to pull the plug on that that quickly.

I mean, it's a panic move. I was fine with it, but it does make them look ridiculous with how they talked about. auto camp this offseason. Well, they, to their credit, they are clearly being aggressive

with this thing. Yeah, I think it's a right move, but they look ridiculous. Yeah, well, I know. And, like, I just, I keep coming back to, you watch them every night,

you, even if, even if Schwerber and Harper and Turner, like, they start going nuclear. And Schwerber and Harper have been fine.

Like, those aren't the problems, you know, yeah. They've been fine. Turner's been fine. a little less than fine but you know

he's not been the biggest problem he hasn't been good but Harper's been good for the most part offensively and same with Schwerber for the most part you know not as good average wise but he's still

hit Homer's he's you know OPS is there I think his OPS still over 900 yeah it is no it is yeah so yeah those two eight I think Schwerber Harper's what 880

no he's over 900 he's back over 900 yeah I believe so I could be wrong I know he got there I know he got there he might have gone back down yesterday actually. I think he, with the four hit game, I think he got there.

Three hits. But, um, isn't that four? On Friday at three. I thought it was four. Either way. You're probably right. Well, he's four hits on the weekend. I thought he had four hits one game. My fault. Oh, good. But the, um, the, so like even if those guys really start getting going and they're, they're playing well, like you said. After that, I mean, Adolese is, he's actually had a couple walks. The one walk. It was. What an amazing at bat it was. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was height. 8.83 for Harper, by the way. You're right.

Yeah. So, but Adoli's at the 11th pitch walk that no one will ever forget for the rest of their lives. But he's back to being like 650 OPS. Yeah, 648. March has had a good start. Adding 205 Adolies. Yeah, he's not hitting the ball hard anymore.

It's really disappointing. Marsh is kind of cooled off a little bit, but yeah, yeah, it's fine. But then it's like, how about this to surprise you? Brandon Marsh, he's bad in 265, which is fine. 292 OVP for Marsh. That's not great. Not good.

He's a 292. That's what I'm saying. He's gone pretty cold. So the slug is still there for Marsh. The Marsh slug is at 412, but 292 OBP is his OPS all of a sudden is down to 703 for Marsh. Wow. I know.

I know. So, hey, I mean, whatever. Who cares? The, the,

it is pretty stark, though, when you look at the 703 OPS, then right above it is Alec Bome's 407. 407. Stott has to be 493, I think. Stott is, hold on. Stott's OPS is four.

Oh, no, 511, crushing it. Well, that has to be because that fake double hit last night. It definitely is. Yes. So that's nonsense. Wow. I mean, that's nonsense, dude. Marsha.

Alex Boma is a 407 freaking OPS, man. I know. I'm well aware. I'm well aware. I mean, maybe they could phantom I all them and just play something, right? Like, I don't know. I mean, Joe on the morning show was like just bench him for half a week. Like, fine.

I don't know what that does though. I don't. And also, look, we saw in that game to get away from the ball. Yes, because we saw in that whatever game it was where he did take a seat, eighth inning, seven day, eighth inning, whatever. Base is loaded up. We need a right hand to hitter for Marsh. Go to, I mean, what else are you going to do?

But deal more in there? Like, what else you're supposed to do in those spots? Like, I, it stinks. but yeah well it's like how how sickening is it now they traded for them but like we have dillan more as our utility can play every single position and is a gold glove utility guy and then they have dubon on the braves i know it's like what a what a stark and and and play defense dillamore's been better on the mound of the plate which is that's a problem which is a huge huge deal it doesn't matter if you could play every position if you don't hit it all you know that's a

problem it was good to see crawford get a hit last night but he was ofer's last 13 or 14 he's down to like 270 something. I didn't call him. I think he's 270 something. Yeah. So my overall point is they're just super deficient. Like they're just super deficient.

And sure, the pitching staff could go on an unbelievable run and carry them for a little bit. But like we said at the beginning, they lost a game, but they didn't allow an earn run. So, you know, like the pitching staff could be great

and the offense still won't show up. They're also banged up now. Duran's on the eye. L, Bonds on the IL, Pop's on the IL. Hopefully Real Muto's back, but who knows? I mean, I... They are really banged out in the bullpen. It's a good point.

I mean, that's three of their main... I mean, or at least two of their main bullpen guys and pop. You know, that's bad. Yeah. So they're banged out. And they were not already performing to begin with, you know? I just, this might just be a season from hell. Yeah, it might be.

I mean, so, like, let's evaluate it all. They, they are not playing well. They're a tough combination of not playing well. not that talented offensively, dealing with injuries, and the balls they do hit hard. Like, how many balls this year

have died at the wall? How many? It's unbelievable. It's crazy. I mean, Schwerber had one on Friday. Harper had one on Friday. Harper's had a few this year.

Harper's had a few. There was a game against a dime backs where Harper hit one of the wall, Schwerper hit one of the wall, I think, and Crawford lit off the ninth with one off the top of the wall. Yeah. Where it's just... Yeah, it'd be the triple, yeah.

And then the Acuna play last night, close it out. I mean, so they're, they're getting that. Also, again, I've never seen so many teams have little nonsense hits that have fallen in. Like, they're not pitching that well. I get it.

They're also not getting helped out at all. I mean, they are both, they are been bad and unlucky, which is a horrible combination to be. It's arguably the worst, James. I would say it's probably the worst, yeah. I would say it's the worst. So, they have like the highest babbip in baseball.

So the highest opponents average and the highest badpip. So hopefully. It's literally what we're talking about right there. Yeah, you hope if the bad whip comes down, the average comes down. And you know, you can go from there. But oh my goodness, like these hits that have fallen. Now, Crawford gets to that ball on Saturday if he's out there. Marsh had a forerable read to go get up.

A disastrous read. It's wild. It gets in center field. It's like it's weird. It really is so strange. And now he also had a tough one and left last night where he got completely. completely turned around. Yeah. So it might just be a season from hell. We're nothing's going to go their way. They can't figure it out and they're just going to be stuck here. And to add insult to

injury, you know, like let's let's let's let's let's make this even worse. How about this? How about this? If they end up in the draft lottery, it has to be a top six pick or else the or else it drops 10 spots because of the luxury tax. So they could have a horrible year, get the, the seventh pick it drops the 17 unless they shed 61 million dollars at the by the end of the deadline they'd have to do so basically the only way they avoid that is if they make trades a deadline likely yes because that would help both get you under the tags or theoretically make you bad enough to be a top six worst team is that what we're freaking talking about 20th hey make sure we're a top six worst teams so we have to be

It's mandatory. We're in a good thought. How long until we talk? Are we trading shorter at the deadline? What a fun season this is going to be. No, it's, this is going to go down. This is going to go down as an all-timer for just, I mean, it's a horror. It's going to be a horrible season.

It's going to be a horrible season. It's April 20th. Can we not? It is what it is. It is what it is. I don't know what I'll tell you. We're going to be here. My impulses are like, I'm not arguing with what you're saying.

And I, if I had to bet my life, I feel like I'm, you know, this does feel like a potential path. But like I am bristling. I feel my body fighting against me like, it's April 20th. Shut up. What are you talking about? We're 21 games into the season.

How is this possible? That's 140-some left. Well, and then, you know, I mean, I don't know. It just sucks. Yeah. I don't know where I don't know where it's coming from. I don't know where this elixir is coming from. Like, listen, I know everyone was just fired.

Let's get into the firetops. thing because I do think that I mean it's it the chorus is growing you know we started out last week getting a couple smattering of calls saying it now it's like a pretty loud chorus on WIPA fire him fire him and Rosenthal wrote it

and it's out there exactly and look again to the point I was making before it's it's the like and they they might just not be good enough but just watching that team this weekend after they had lost two straight series at home the way they lost them and then for this Braves team to come in this rival, they're in first place and just like get like dog walk the way they did.

It was so disheartening. So I, you know, I think Topper is in real trouble. How, what's your Topper meter at? Like where, and again, what would you, I want both, what would you do? How would you play it's out? What's the date where you're like, all right, we're eight games under at this point. I got to do it or whatever. And what do you think the Phillies are realistically thinking?

Like when it's a realistic date, depending on how bad it gets that you think they actually could fire top. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say because Gerardi was, Gerardi was fired on June 3rd. June 1st. Yeah, well, it was June 1st. They played in one. Then they had the off day the second.

I think they might have fired him on the off day. I'm not sure. Either way, right around the beginning of June. Yeah. So they gave him some time to figure it out. I mean, given how they have reacted with Felix Reyes and,

and Alec Bohm, it does not seem like that they are, uh, they're not wary of making moves. to try to spark things and they want to get things going. And it's a pivotal year for them. I just, and it's a lever you might just have to pull because you have no other levers.

Yeah, exactly. There's nothing else you can really do. And, you know, maybe it's something that sparks them because I don't think they want to fire Rob Thompson. Like, I don't think the players want to fire Rob Thompson. I agree. I think they like Rob a lot. And if you fire them, then it is a, oh, believe that was our fault. and it was so funny.

Last night I'm watching the broadcast and they're like, there it is, the highest winning percentage in Philly's history of managers. It's like he could really be out of here. But it might just be, I mean,

obviously Kevin Long is on the table too. Yeah, I just don't know if that jolts anyone enough, you know? Yeah, I probably not. But I just don't know what, I don't know what the, I don't know what it would do.

I mean, I know it worked in the past and they would say that and a new voice and maybe they need someone who's more of a hard ass. I did love to see them all out there with the PFPs on Saturday. Hilarious. You sent me that tweet and I was just like, this is too funny. It's too funny. Yeah. It's perfect. So, yeah, I mean, maybe it's something that could spark them.

If Don doesn't want it, they could put Dusty Waffin in there and he could be. Real quick, how funny would that be? The entire city's like, Don Magley, he's going to get the joke. And if Don was like, nah. I don't want it because the whole thing, like everyone believes the, I would say not everyone, but I would say a large percentage of Phillies fans believe that Don Mattingly was brought in here because of the chance for him to take over for Rob Thompson. Like that was the main impetus in bringing Donnie in here.

It would be hilarious if he's like, no, I don't want it. I never wanted it. What are you talking about? It would just be it would be peak comedy. It really would. If he was like, I wasn't lying. I don't get me in the manager. I didn't want the job, guys.

I want to come work with my kid. This is great. Leave me alone. It's so funny. I want to do press conferences. What is crazy? So, yeah, I mean, obviously it's on the table. I guess like Memorial Day.

I don't know. I wouldn't do it now. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't either. I would wait. I would wait until it's pretty. I know it's dire now. I get it.

But I'll wait until it's pretty dang obvious that you got to make a move there. But I almost be, I just, it's just not his fault. It's just not his fault. See, that's there. That's going back to, and look, I do think it is bad for Rob Thompson that John Middleton has this, you know, firsthand experience of I fired the manager. We went on a run. We went to world too.

So like, like in his mind, if nothing else, he knows that it can work. Yeah. But it like just let's go back to that time with Gerardy when that was happening. We all remember, we all thought Gerardy was the problem. Like we sat here. We kept doing pods being like this guy's lifeless. He doesn't care. Like this is like we.

And the player. No one feels that way with time. I mean, there are people out there, but it's a very different scenario. We all believe firing Rob, or firing Girardi was the right move and it could help the team. Like, I don't think that I think Rob Thompson, I would blame Dombrowski and the players before I'd blame Topper here. So you just not get rid of those guys.

So it's like it doesn't feel like the right move in the same way that Gerard. I totally agree. And the players didn't like Gerardi. Totally. Yeah. The players were. Remember how happy they were when he was gone? Like it was so clear.

Yeah. And, And I mean, it was the night in Atlanta when Bryce had the home run. And he didn't go to Corey Canable. Oh, remember that? Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, Corey Canable called.

He called from the bullpen phone, which I don't know. I didn't know they went two ways, frankly. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I didn't know you just called the bullpen. I get you called back. Well, hold on. Hold on.

I'm getting a call from the pen. Yeah. I didn't know that was a thing. They're pleading Gerardi. Put me in. Put me in. He's like, I'm going to Nick Nelson. And then Schwabber, remember Schwerber and Angel Hernandez.

and Gerardie was sitting there like a corpse. Like a statue. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So I agree. But my, I guess my contrary point would be that's why you do it because you haven't deserved to keep your manager.

And this is something that would wake you up and say, this is real now. And then you fire them. If nothing changes, then deadline time rolls around. Then maybe that's when you make a move. My biggest question really is, is John, is he, going to be able to be objective enough to evaluate what Dave Dombrovsky has done? That's my biggest question, because he loves Dave Dombrovsky.

Dude, everything we've heard is like, like, Dave Dombrowski is like his right-hand guy. Like, he is like, like, does not make a decision without Dave type of thing, you know? I think he trusts him. Implicitly, fully, all that, yeah. He might, he might ask him what to have for breakfast. I just. You look at the money that he... Dave, Dave, I've got cereal in front of me.

I got eggs. I can't make a call. I need your help. What do you think? What do you think? I hope that he is able to look at this and say that that's the main culprit. I mean, if you want to look at this thing on a holistic level, we complain about the... They're not talented enough.

Like, we can fire the manager all you want. You can do certain things. Offensively, they haven't been good enough. for years. Yeah, for years. It's been years and years. There's the third straight season of them not doing it up on office.

He spent $38 million on Cassiano's and Taiwan Walker. He has decided to run it back multiple years, not change it up, not get BOM out of here, even though he's been on the trading block for two straight off seasons. Just think that you can keep doing the essentially keep doing the same thing

over and over again and that people are going to keep showing up to the ballpark. By the way, I thought it was noticeable. The ballpark just emptied out after the eighth inning, didn't even want to stay around and watch them lose in the night because they don't believe in the team. I think that's noteworthy. I'm sure John Middleton is taking account of that. But if there's one guy to blame for this, it's Dombrowski. I mean, Dombrowski, this is, and this was the fear when they hired him is like, he'll spend the owner's money. It's not the issue.

But how's it going to look at the end of this thing? And sure, he is not traded the prospects. And that's good. But although McAable's looking pretty good. Regardless, regardless, we like to wrong. Anyway, he has not depleted the farm system, gutted it to go win a World Series, because I think they do want to keep the win. And I think he's done good things building stuff up.

Like behind the scenes, I don't think Debrowski's done a bad job. No, no, no, no. But the on-the-field product, like, not great, man. It's not great. And what's the future? And these guys are locked in at certain positions. Well, that's the other thing. Yeah, I mean, like, we've talked about a million times where, I mean, you've got a bunch of guys playing into their mid-30.

at large numbers, you know, where you would never assign those guys on the open market to those contracts that they're going to be playing on for years now, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, uh, I think that that's the, that's, like, I'm,

if they want to move on from Nebraska and, and, you know, let Preston take over, you find a podcast, it'd be more ready for that. Oh, yeah, we're, do it now. Please. But that's my biggest question is if, if this thing goes haywire and it keeps training down and they keep looking to,

efficient and what not is is middleton going to be able to be objective enough to say hey dave thank you for what you've done but it's time to move you to a senior advisor role you can still stay with the organization we're not going to fire you but uh they'll be my right hand man but you know press is going to take over and and he's going to be the gm i don't need you don't need to make him present at baseball operations but you can just make him the GM and he's going to make the decisions from this point forward because it feels like that they have been they've hit the

they've hit the the expiration date on this. I agree. I agree. And we need a different voice to guide us out of this. So yeah, that's certainly one thing that has hit me on April 20th with 141 games. Yeah. Well said.

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Thank you. All right, let's get, I'm sure you got a lot of specific stuff in the take bag for the weekend. So the only thing I was going to bring up outside the weekend, but I'm sure you got him in there, but the Wheeler thing too.

Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, take the floor, take bag it. Oh, yeah, it was grinding that start yesterday. I figured. That was a tough, tough watch, huh? Oh, well, listen, I was watching the Sixers get blasted while watching, while watching Zach Wheeler. So that was a good use of my time.

Yes, yes, yes. So, all right. So you hit nine. which Rob Thompson was very quick to point out yesterday before the game. Like, oh, don't look at the full runs and the two homers and a fastball velocity that was mostly sitting 90 to 92 and really 90 to 91. That is incredibly concerning. And really did hit 96 once. Now, here's what I'll say.

Here's what I'll say is that, listen, it was, it looked miserable. It was 45 degrees and raining and the game was delayed. so I'm sure the shoulder wasn't exactly eager. Feeling its best, yeah, for sure. So I'll give him, I do think that there is something to that. Like I sometimes, they're excuses, sometimes there's explanations. I think that that is partially an explanation. But I just, it did not have any life to it, his pitches at all.

And he started going super off speed heavy because they were all over the fastball. I mean, George Lombard. George Lombard is really good. I really like George Lombard. I think he's going to be, like they have Bulpy right now at shortstop. who stinks. Lombard is is legit,

so, um, he's a big, so like, regardless, like he's a real big leader, but he took him yard to start the game and he's had hard his last twice.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then some guy I'd never heard of hit a homer off him and that was when I decided to turn it off. A guy will be the, the major league court. Yeah,

for a guy will be bagging groceries in a couple weeks. One of those guys. But when he's bagging groceries, he gets to tell him that he hit him. Yeah. That's true. So. yeah i just i don't think the stuff had life to it uh it seems like he's gonna pitch next

weekend or this weekend yeah this weekend against the braves so great that'll go well but if it looked like how it looked in somerset yesterday it's not what you think it's gonna be you know i think we're expecting we'll let it come back and it's gonna be this big pop and here we go here comes the run and if it if it's like it was on saturday sunday uh you're just you're just in for it Especially against that team. I mean, we just saw it. I mean, they spray the ball all over, man. They're a good hitting team.

They're not, they're not, you know, like setting wheeler in for a nice, like, easy, you know, start them off and hear the White Sox. Go have fun, you know? Well, it's like, what's so funny about the Braves? And, like, we talked about this with the Phillies. The Phillies whole offense is just like, hey, maybe this guy can pop one out. I know. And it's like the Braves have some power hitters.

I mean, Acuna is all around. Sure. Or Olson, of course, and Riley can hit home runs. Yeah, but they just put the bat on the ball. They can get base hits. They can get doubles. I mean, we have a bunch of guys who should be able to do that, but you don't. It's either a weak-ass single or a ground ball pop-up, like, just no hard contact.

Like, you can be a contact-oriented team and not just be a bunch of limp hits. Like, they can still be base hits and back-breaking hits and bat on the ball and doubles in the gap. It doesn't have to be what it is, but this offense sucks. So it is what it is with how the team is currently constructed. But yeah, I just, it was a pretty jarring start from Wheeler on Sunday. And I'm definitely worried about it. So on top of everything else, I don't know about Wheeler. But at least Aiden might swing the bat this week.

So that's, hey, honestly, honestly, right now I am more concerned about Aiden than anything else. That's my number. I need it. I'm moving on from the 2026. to Aiden be okay. Listen, there was one member. There's one member of this podcast that is already ready for the 2031 fills. You're right.

So that's true. That's what our focus has always been on. But no, I just like if Aiden can just figure out the back, like get the back going. Like, we need you. We need you, kid. Like, we have a 6'5 third baseman who's hitting 139 and a second baseman who has an OPS in the fours. And like, they both have OPSs in the fours. Like, there it is.

That's the guy. That's the guy. Like, you want to talk about saving the season and like the spark and something that can change this? The trajectory of the team. I put it a bit cleanup. I don't care. It's Aiden. It is Aiden.

Aiden is that guy. Please, I'm begging you. Like, baseball gods, I don't know what we did to you. Oh, what did we do? If it's Harry the K's, whatever, I don't care. but just don't rob us of our future with with with with the back thing don't do it let us have one you know i just texted someone this last night i was like i would die if they could develop a homegrown stuff can you imagine a stud talking about a stud homegrown talent you know how much

fun that is michael harris and austin riley and azie albys and like jac jac chunia all those guys Their whole team is a little bit. And before that, they did it with Freddie. And then they let him walk. And they just keep doing it. Like, give it to me. Don't rob us evaden. Just don't rob us evaded.

He's right there. Let him go to AAA. I don't care if he looks good for two weeks. Get him up here. Like, we got stuff to take care of with the back. So that's my plea. He might swing the bat this week. Please.

Please. Please. Yeah, I was exciting. I got him going. Painter last night. Hit a wall, it felt like. Well, so I guess the more veteran-laden teams, I think he's going to kind of struggle for a little bit

because they can, I know the Giants mostly stink, but they are a bunch of old dudes. They are a bunch of old dudes, yeah. But what happened last night, I felt like, well, first off, all his off speed was up. I thought he was a little, I thought his arm slot dropped a little bit last night. Like, when he was really on against timebacks,

he was like right over the top and on top of hitters and everything was crisp. Last night, I thought he was, I thought his arm slot dropped a little bit, and it caused everything to kind of spin and be flat, and it kind of, kind of bore out that way. And the,

I thought his off speed was all kind of up a little bit, so that wasn't great. But the big thing that happened, I just felt like, and he had the one 10 pitch of bathe to Dubon, and I think that kind of drained him. But, like, I thought they did a good job of just fouling him off

and fouling him off and fouling him off and make him throw a ton of pitches. and and and see what he has. So, it wasn't like, again, like he just has growing pains, you know. I mean, he's kind of pitching how we thought. And it's been fun that he's had two great games that have, that have made you be like, okay, like when he pitches to a. It's there.

Yeah. It's there. And I thought it was good watching Rizzo last night. Like Rizzo was talking about how he got out of the situation in the fourth. And he was like, he's going to be around for a long time. A young pitcher being on go to a splitter against Dom Smith there is a, is a really, really tough pitch to be able to execute. So he's got it.

Like it's going to, it's going to come, but it's like it's, there's development here with pain that has to happen. I thought, I thought he got fouled off to death last night. Against, against older teams, they'll be able to do that against them. I thought his stuff was up a little bit. I think they'll make the adjustment in the bullpen and kind of go from there. But it wasn't like a, it wasn't a disaster start. Like he gave him a shot.

But definitely, obviously it wasn't like it was against the dimebacks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I felt like he had a wall. And look, to that point. I mean, you know, it's going to happen, you know. It's just, it's what, it wasn't a disaster.

I think, you know, painter is very low on my list of concerns at the moment. Yeah. Yeah, okay, is the race 4.42? It feels like he's been better than that. Yeah. And I think that's how, it's kind of how I hope this season would be. Yeah. Where I know there's me growing pains, but I hope there's like highs.

And there's been enough highs to where it's like, you feel all right about it. I agree. Uh, uh, um, How about stop ditching his walk-up song? Oh, we did? Oh, yeah. You didn't see that? No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like the only thing he had going for him, really. Well, I was thinking it on Saturday because I was, you know, thinking rationally. I was like, I don't want to hear, I don't hear bones walk-up song anymore. I got you. I gotcha. You get tired. Yeah, yeah.

Like, it actually makes me mad when I hear, you know, living in this big blue world. I'm like, no, shut it off. So I still like it. It's such a good song. It's a good song. but it brings me pain. I get it. It's more painful than not.

Yeah, that is crazy. It's a big move by him. He's done it once before. It was right after, right before, right before, he's here right before right after he had his second kid. So that was last year when he was going through it. So maybe he's like hoping that this is something that changes it around. But that was a, again, in a year that's been a bunch of panic moves. And our pets are falling off.

I mean, Bome stuck with Kanye the whole time. Like he's had no. Yeah. You need to change it years ago. Like, it's just like, yeah, and nah, it's like I'm playing through it. I don't care. Bap, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. I don't want to hear this.

Yeah. It's pretty sick, just being able to go the walk-up songs right on top of the head, you know? Just like, no, you know the beat you hear it and you're immediately starting getting angry. You're special, man. You're special. Yeah, I got a special brain for like only one thing. And that is remembering and consuming a lot of Phillies. I didn't really like Anthony Rizzo last night.

What a weird broadcast. I did too, actually. I thought it was good. Wow, it was so funny. It's like you've, it's weird though. You've Kruk and Nikalski or whatever his name is just sitting there. Meanwhile,

every time. They go to Rizzo for his stuff. Yeah, it was really great. Hey, two to count here, Riz. What are you thinking? Yeah,

you're right. It's true. It was very strange. You're right. Didn't ask the career 300 hitter and Kruk. Yeah. And they forced Kruk to, you know,

wear a suit and tie or calista coat and tie. Did his hair all nice. It was so weird. weird. I was like, who is this man? What I also loved about Croc is he's doing a national game, but he, every time the Braves did something, you hear the, I know, I know, I know, he let it out.

I know, it was great. It was perfect. Because he's so used to doing it. But Rizzo, man, I liked him a lot. And I thought he had a pretty good personality. I liked, like, that's some stuff that big leaders can add to a broadcast. Didn't sound like he hated the sport, which was a nice,

win, right? A nice change. I also thought it was hilarious that the graphic they showed of Rizzo got to hit 226 times in his career and Kruk got it twice. It's really funny, yeah. Which is shocking. But I thought overall, I thought it was good. Only two times is wild. That is really great.

You would think it with his long career, the ball slipped out of someone's hand a couple times more, you know? Well, he said that Tony Gwynn told him that, what's the point getting hit? Not like you're going to steal a second. That's good. It's good line. It's a good line.

Uh, so no, I, I liked him a lot though. And I thought he had good insight, but like just let him go in the booth with Benetti. It's being in the booth. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So I feel like I didn't hear one word, CJ Nikkowski or whatever. I agree with you. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, the crowd did ditch late in the game. That was disappointing. Uh, I mean, I get it. Hard to blame. Yeah, hard to blame. It is disappointing. It's hard to blame him beat that traffic. And I will say, of all the bits that they've done, I still think the most annoying one was the,

which do you think is more annoying. The 20, what was that, 23 bit or 24 bit, where they would have the huge home run and immediately blow it. Oh, yeah, sure. Classic bit. I think that was a staple of this team and I think the worst. Scoring a run only in one inning a game. You're right.

It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. The big homer thing is worse. I think the big homer thing is worse. Because it's so hopeful. Four runs in an inning, you know, and then you're, you know, grind it out, whatever. you know.

Yeah, and the big home run thing it was like, it was like, it was like, ha ha, got you. Oh,

you thought that was fun? Sorry. It was real like, get your hopes up and dash them very quickly. And, and, you know,

this at least, it's like, oh, it's the inning. Let's watch them score some runs. This would be nice. It's crazy.

It's crazy. It's ridiculous. They've done it every game, I felt like, it feels like, if they don't score. Yeah,

you better get, get them while you got it. That's it. It's our inning, guys. Hit hard. It's our inning. Yeah. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa,

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Oh, honestly, the most exciting part of the pod today. Hold on I. I did put up a Twitter, Paul, on the High Hopes Twitter account. Do you want to hear, hold on, do you want to hear the minor league minute today? 65% said yes. Okay. Good job, people. Thank you.

Jack needed that win today. Thank you for giving him something. Yeah. This he was going to do the minute no matter how the poll came out. I agree. I agree. But it seems like it's hot in the streets. Oh, big time.

So Matthew Ferrarra had a really good week. He is a, he was their ninth round pick, committed to the University of Pittsburgh. The fact that he's 18. So they kept their other one. Wow. 18. Wow. They drafted Logan Dawson and him in the back-to-back picks.

And Dawson, they kept an extended spring training. And they brought Matthew Ferrar up the pure water, which I think. is pretty notable. It's not like he was like a first, second or third round pick. He was their ninth round pick. So, but he had a really good week.

I've watched a couple of Clearwater thrushers games. And, like, when I watch him, he's sick defensively. Like, just a sick shortstop in second basement. But the bat was never really there. All of a sudden this week,

just started smoking the ball. He had a four hit game. Dude, he had a home run and a double off of Barrios. Wow. Who was rehabbing? I assume so, yeah. No, you didn't think he was pitching.

I didn't think he got sent to the minors now. He didn't think that that's where he was. Yeah, so obviously, Burrios was rehab. But that was a part of his four-hit game. He ripped a double on Saturday. So could be one of these late-round guys that finally one of them are popping a little bit. Can you imagine? Are we allowed?

Is that allowed? The fact is 18, though. 18. No, that's something. I mean, that's young, dude. That's something. Arun is slowly but surely starting to rip the baseball. He had a good weekend in Somerset.

You know, like Dante's been really solid. I think he's still hitting 333 with a 9 plus 100 OPS. He did hit an opposite field home run. So like Norrie's doing the thing. Many GMs are saying he should be a lead off there in the majors right now. Yeah, yeah. I would like to see a little bit more hard contact. Like he's just kind of getting base hits.

And that's good. but you would like to, if you're projecting him driving the ball and whatnot, would like to see a little bit more driving. But I also think he's dealing with a shoulder injury. So he just played one game of center field. So he's kind of coming back from an injury that he got on the WBC. But overall, like if you're hitting, I'm fine. Arun was off to a slow start, but he's really starting to smoke the ball.

And that's a good sign. Stuart Barrow, I've become obsessed with because he just reminds me of Victorino a little bit. Oh, really? he's bigger than Victorino like not a skinny little guy but he's super fast he tries to do a drag bunt once a game for Lehigh which is hilarious

respect it like he'll be up their lefty and he'll just be like trying to run up the line and like that's great and it's just fun apparently he's like a great dude and like has a lot of high energy and I think they were down to him or Felix Reyes to bring up and really they made the right call

seems like yeah Reyes yeah but he could also start struggling or be a sieve in the in the outfield He is a concern in the outfield. We can say that. Oh, yeah. I mean, Rob Thompson went.

Netth wrote his second phase. It was like, wow. Like, Rob Thompson went from, grounded that one in there, buddy, huh? Rob Thompson went from saying the night before he's tough out there to,

I think he could do it. You know. And he said, you know, I guess. Yeah, he's tough out there. Yeah.

But, like, Borough can play all three. Outfield positions. He's a switch hitter. And he does that thing that I love when like little slow, they don't do it anymore with these rights anymore, where they're facing it lefty and they go down and just like get it and drive it up the middle.

You're so used to these guys just like lifting and launching. Like guys going down and like hitting it hard. Like that's where it reminds me of Victorino. Segara used to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, Sigurra did it. Now he's, like he has not been a majorly hitter in the past. And it's like, I wouldn't expect it until he's going to unlock something that the borrower is going to unlock all of a sudden with him. Yeah, yeah, probably not.

But I don't know, man. If they need a jolt of energy or someone to change the vibes up and like Reyes really struggles or Marsh gets hurt. Like I think Borowa can do it. I like his I like his at Bat's a lot. I don't know why I've become obsessed with him. That's interesting. I watch every at Batty has. So that's Stuart Baroa.

So maybe it's just seeing someone play with energy. You're like, oh, what's that? That's cool. I think he had two home runs this week against St. Paul. So we've got a little bit of. of pop. Feribus is probably the catcher

that they're the highest on after Tate. Like there was a lot of talk last year after they, sorry, tight. After they trade Taitte, like Feribus is the next one.

Like watch him, watch him, watch him. I never thought the bat was there. But he's starting to show some real pop. He's still 21. So he had a good week for clear water. The bat just looked like it's there.

They have some catchers. Like, I like Headinger a little bit. And then there's Caleb Ricketts. But I think Farab, is the one that probably is the best chance of possibly be an everyday guy. But he needed to get going with the bat.

It looks like he is. And then final one is John Spikerman, who is a, he reminds me of Peter Borges. That isn't excited anyone? Former Philly Peter Borges? Yeah, Duke of Play defense. I mean, great defensive player.

It's so funny. He reminds me of Peter Borges. Dude, ridiculous thing to be said on this podcast. I mean, this is the only bag, I guess it would be set on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he, from the left side is such a weak hitter. I mean, like, every time he hits the ball, it's, you can see the ball just dying. From the right side is really interesting.

So, like, I think he's got a pretty good feel for the plate. He needs to ditch hitting left-handed. He needs to only be right-handed. He plays a really good outfield. And they're batting him lead off in Jersey Shore. And I just think that's usually something these teams do if they believe in a kid and they want to see what he can be. and that could be John Spikerman. He had like a four hit game this week.

His OPS is over 900. He's hitting over 300. So we'll see. I would like for him to ditch the left-handed swing, be a right-handed hitter. But who knows? He could be Peter Borges. Great.

You need a Peter Borges. John Spikerman. You could probably make up some names sometimes and just toss them in to see if I catch you. I wouldn't. Well, there's no way. There's no way. there's a bunch of players, I could say.

I know. I know. Like, Bryson where? I know. Sure. Love that guy. First base and third base for the fighting fields, you know.

Your knowledge is so deep. I love it. Yeah. Well. Yeah. Guess what? We might all need to learn these guys names soon. The season continues down this.

I know. And it's so funny. Like, I have watched minor league baseball in the past, but for some reason this year, I like, you're like into it. Yeah.

Really? Really going. Maybe so into last year's draft class. I don't know. It's been even worse, I guess. Maybe you just subconsciously knew where the season was going. And you're like, I'm going to put my energy into this thing. Yeah.

Well, Thresher's are my favorite team in the system. They're my favorite team of all the teams. The thresher's are number one. I think we're good. I think that's great. This is just the earnestness with when you said that. Like you, it's really true. really love the treasures.

Locked in on every game. They matter so much to me. It's not even, I live and die. You know if I'm not about living and die with the regular team. You try sitting through Cody Balker, letting three runs and three. Oh,

my God, must have been tough. Matt B made it through. Matt B made it through. He's the best winning a pitcher of baseball right now. He's unbelievable in the first setting. And then he just is horrible after that. He'll figure it out, though.

I trust them. I trust him. All right. Well, four game series. Oh, get excited sports fans. All annoying.

Friday pod. You know how much I love those. So that would be great. Oh, we can do it during the draft. You know what to do it during the show? Oh, yeah. Maybe we just skip the weekly pod. And if they don't play well, we might skip them for Friday pod and just do it after the week.

Well, I got three nights of final out. So I got tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday. Oh, great. If they play like straight dog doo-do, I think I got you covered take-wise. That's good. Thank you. But who knows. Maybe they'll go three-in-one this week.

See how the week plays. I can't wait. They're going one and three. Yeah, I think they're going one and three, too. I hope they win a game. One and three. Great. All right.

Well, we'll back back. People can say, we've got the thumbs up, guys. Thumbs up, two thumbs up. All right. Until that, he's for them, cells.