High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Reacting to the Mets Signing Correa and Too Much WIP Talk

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

James Seltzer and Jack Fritz react to the Mets signing Correa and much more. 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

This is the High Hopes Podcast. High Hopes! It's a bunch of baseball nerds talking about the Phillies on Radio.com and Sports Radio 94 WIP. Yo! It is another edition of the High Hopes Podcast. A not that much to talk about edition a Jack Fritz is probably more interested in his gambling tonight than in the podcast according to what he just told me right as the broadcast here started and in all honesty listen I appreciate you but Steve Cohen chill the bleep out edition of I hope how you do I'm you. But Steve Cohen, chill the bleep out edition of iHobots Pod. How are you doing?

I'm good. So completely sitting here, trust tree, just you and I and the millions of people that are watching on YouTube right now. By the way, if you want to watch us, if listening to us isn't enough, you can also watch us. If you want to see just like probably the most good looking baseball podcast ever to exist. Yep. It's us. But completely in the trust tree. Like I was sitting there yesterday, you know, this started to get circulated where it was like, oh,

Carlos Correa, like, there's worry about his physical. And I was like, that freaking Steve Cohen is gonna, they're gonna get him. Like, they're gonna find a way to get him. So when I saw the news this morning, it was like the least shocking thing ever. I was like, of course they did.

And it's crazy. i can't believe correa is a freaking met it reminds me so much of of a rod going to the yankees that was like out of nowhere too when he's uh supposed to be a red sock he is now playing third base and like i don't know if i don't know if a ball is going to get to the left side of the infield. I got to be honest. Like, I don't think it's going to get through. But, like, for as much as I am, oh, Mets this, Mets that. Like, I just think the NL East is going to be so much freaking fun next year.

And there is so many storylines to get into. And my overall take is we got Trey Turner. So whatever. We got Trey Turner. Yeah. Look, I'd rather have Trey Turner than Carlos Correa. There's no question about that at the contract and all that. And I'd certainly rather pay the guy to play shortstop than to play third.

But man, Steve Cohen is a wild card, man. Every owner in baseball hates this dude, and I absolutely love it. Again, baseball needs 30 Steve Cohen. It really does. He's so good for this sport. Like the Red Sox. The Boston freaking Red Sox are crying poor right now. The Boston Red Sox are crying poor.

And I love that Steve Cohen is just like shining a light on how absolutely cheap they're being. So that's great. But like enough, bro. Like enough already. Like the numbers are insane. The number, like, did you see this? Like, so for those who might not have seen it so with the their their payroll right now is 384 million dollars he will be paying

111 million dollars luxury tax dollars jack fritz that's essentially the saint louis cardinals more or less in luxury tax team going and bang and then think about this prior to this the most any team had ever doled out in a season was a little under 350 million dollars he's almost 150 million above that he's basically the houston astros above the highest spent team in the history of baseball. Like, it's crazy. The Houston Astros are 153 million. The whole team. They just won the World Series. He's the Houston Astros above the previous most expensive team in the history of baseball.

It is wild, man. Like, this guy is wild. And good for him. and good for him and good for you know i'm i'm jealous and we got a guy we're lucky we're all right we're the third highest payroll in baseball you know no complaints middleton jack no doubt but cohen is just lapping the field, man. He's like Steinbrenner. It's crazy. Well, I think his luxury tax bill is higher than 11 teams' payrolls. Yes, it's $111 million, man. I don't see it's probably more than 11 teams. It's probably like 12, 14, something like that. Like I said, more than 11.

I'm like, it could be 12. So I have two things that I'm here to admit. One, I thought I was getting out ahead of this. I thought it was a good take at the time. But it turns out, hand up, Steve Cohen might not be a fraud. He might be. Because I was thrown off the set a little bit. Like he was deferring money.

You know, like didn't want to pay the gram. You know, the Kumar Rocker thing kind of fell apart. Because I was thrown off the set a little bit. He was deferring money. Didn't want to pay the gram. The Kumar Rocker thing kind of fell apart. And I was just like, listen, Steve Cohen on Fraud Watch. I am here to say. Off Fraud Watch now. Don't think he's a fraud. And the other thing. Fraud Watch has ended.

Yes. The other thing is that. So you know my password trick? Oh, do I? I'm surprised you're telling the world about your risky maneuver here, you know? Well, to be fair, you are about as careless with whatever needs a password. So for those who might not know a little inside baseball here, Jack is the king of just leaving

computers unattended with all his twitter his email like everything just open like literally every time when i have to go record a podcast like elliot and i'll do go birds you know after my show yeah we'll go into the studio next door and jack will have been there and like all day and i'll log in and his whole life is there like i could do whatever the hell i wanted like i never do because i love you and you're my guy i am not surprised that you were like who cares about the password you don't know biggie well here's my here's here's the problem the personal dilemma i have with that is that on one hand it's like yeah probably not the best idea on the other hand on the other hand content so it's like, yeah, probably not the best idea. On the other hand, content.

So it's like really hard to balance the two. So I have this thing about passwords where anyone. So when I first started noticing that I had a problem. You just dive right in. Like, let's go. Okay, good. So when I first started noticing that I had a problem, it was when I would put fillies in there. So I would have like Wheeler, whatever.

I would have Harper, whatever. I would have Harper, whatever. I would have like Kingery. I remember my Kingery phase. And then I was like, wow, this is like ruined every one of these guys. So I was like, you know what? I got to start putting my mortal enemies in there. So like I'll put Acuna in there.

I put Alonzo in there. Lindor was one I remember. Lindor was one of them. And it pretty much worked. Like Lindor had a terrible season. alonzo is still pretty good um but you know i i noticed that the more and more people that i put in there more often than not it would lead to good events for the phillies um so i put steve cohen as well as a part of my new password and it has totally backfired. So it might be done.

Like, honestly, I keep waiting for the, those annoying expired password emails just so I can get out. Like I seem to get out. I need to change my password because it's, it's backfired so much, but I also don't want to put the effort in of changing my password without

waiting the 45 days until we have to change it again. So yeah, the Cohen password is completely backfired um but i will say this james you know i i woke up this morning um i i checked twitter uh it was just a a minefield of people upset can we calm down like i understand I understand. It's a little scary. Carlos Correa is a New York Met. DePereflin Doerr and McNeil and Alonzo and freaking Nimmo's back, which I hate, and Kanye and whatever. Can I just remind everyone that they're still the Mets? They're still the Mets. And whether you want to believe about the physical thing, whatever,

the reporting on it is so weird. Whether you want to believe, come on, we all know what happened here. There is no chance that this was not nefarious. Hold on. Collusion, whatever. Something happened here that was not, you know. That's fine. That's fine.

Explain to me. Just explain to me. Why was it the Giants doctors that failed him? I don't know. I don't know. It's crazy to me. The whole thing makes no sense. But my guess is Scott Boras wanted him to be a New York Met,

and he became a New York Met. I don't know. I don't know how that. Steve Cohen and Scott Boras wanted him to be a New York Met, and that's what happened. And I don't know how they got there, and I don't know what they did along the way, but that's what happened. Are you saying that a special envelope might have gotten delivered to the executives of the San Francisco Giants?

Who knows? Real quick, though, I was thinking about this. Because, I mean, this is – and obviously they never had the press conference. We've had the press conference for Turner, so slightly different. But imagine waking up this morning and finding that Trey Turner was now a Met. Trey Turner had just, you know, the Phillies physical, it didn't work out right. And it's like, he's gone. Can you imagine?

It must have, being a Giants fan this morning must have been tough, man. Like that, I don't really have much sympathy for National League fans, and I have no sympathy at all for fans of teams that have won three World Series in the last, you know, 12 years or whatever. Like, zero. Zero. Like, you could lose 162 games a year for the next decade, and I'm not going to feel bad for you.

I felt a little bad. Like, that was like a real i because i thought about me and i thought about how if it were trey turner that i'm like how how soul crushing that would be for me you know like it's just after free agency's done now you can't like go back and get someone else you'll be like all right we'll just go sign xander we'll just just go. You can't do that anymore. Like, man, I was just like, that's some real Phillies fan stuff right there. Like that's some real, that would happen to us kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Well, so first thought is I was with you,

but then I remember Cody Ross and I was like, no, like, like straight up good. No, no. Like the emotional torture that, that Cody Ross put me through. They deserve it. Yeah, this is what you get. This is what you get for winning World Series with scrub-ass rosters, like three times in a row.

I know. I know. You deserve this. It is interesting, though, because they are pretty much in a situation where if, let's say, that Bryce had said no. Like, if Bryce had signed elsewhere after Machado and already signed with the Padres, that's basically what being a Giants fan is right now. Like, who is signing? Like, the saddest tweet I've ever seen in my life today, I think, was from Susan Slusser, who said that they're now pivoting to Michael Conforto. Oh, my God.

You didn't even play last year. You didn't even play last year. You wasn't even in the majors last year. Could you imagine the Phillies coming off just missing the playoffs? And obviously, it's funny. All these teams, it serves them right. I feel like the Giants tried to rip off the Rays and the like the giants try to rip off the rays and the red sox try to rip off the rays and it is backfiring um so but like they just missed the

playoffs they had promised their fans they're gonna spend a ton of money this year they offered 400 million for aaron judge they didn't get him even though john hayman said that he's gonna be a giant they oh i forgot about that oh my god i forgot about that i forgot they met and that was like less a shorter period of time like this is worse because of the timing and stuff like six days i totally forgot the judge like he was going to the giants that night oh my god like what i'm not gonna say 49 seconds because you're right. Cody Ross. I apologize. But man, dude. Man.

That's like having a 10-leg parlay and nailing nine of them and you got a running back who you need are like 70 yards and he gets like 71 yards and then he has a two-yard loss and ends in 69. It's like that. First off, I don't appreciate the reference. I know. You think it was a shot And he gets like 71 yards and then he has a two yard loss and then 16 hours. It's a,

first of all, I don't, I don't appreciate the reference. Like you think it was a shot right at you. Cause it's like, it's like, you don't know. I'm still recovering from the 600 yards. The $600 that Jalen hurts personally cost me three yards short,

by the way, three rushing yards short of $600. Yeah. See, there you go. So it's like that yeah it's worse it's actually worse i just want to point that out it's actually worse or will barton not hitting another three last night that could also be up there um but um yeah it's so you have well first off it wasn't even Aaron Judge. It was Arson Judge, if you remember that. Good point. It was Arson Judge. It's almost like had the Phillies just completely struck out

in 2019 or whatever, and they pivoted to Pablo Sandoval. Michael Conforto. That's our big answer for missing out on Correa and Judge. God, what a disaster. Can't imagine it being us.

But yeah, imagine Trey Turner was affiliated for six days and we're celebrating Trey Turner. And then he says, I'm good. That's what I mean. It'd be like J.D. Drew on steroids. It would be on steroids. Yeah, it's just so devastating. All right, so I'm with you on the whole, though.

I honestly, I don't, for some reason, I know they're spending a lot of money. Look, they're going to be good and stuff, but they signed a bunch of guys that pretty much other than Correa, I wouldn't have particularly wanted the Phillies to sign at the prices they're at for the most part. Other than Senga, he's nasty. I would have been really fine with the Phillies to sign at the prices they're at you know for the most part other than Senga he's nasty I would I would I would have been really fine with the Phillies signing that guy like Verlander you know I wasn't in on that for these two years he might be good I don't know

but he's turning 40 and they gave him 80 something million dollars for the next couple years you know I I wasn't I mean look Brandon Nimmo's a good player eight eight for 162. I know that's market value, but that seemed crazy to me. At 100-plus million for a closer. Like, I take some solace. Again, 312 million for a third baseman who's a shortstop. Like, look, Correa's a great player, but, you know, I mean, he's not – he's better as a shortstop than as a third baseman, I'll tell you that much. You know, I'd rather pay a shortstop 300-plus million than a third baseman with that skill set.

So I think they're going to be really good. And I am, again, jealous is the wrong word just because our owner is spending. But I am. I'm jealous that Steve Cohen's our owner. I'm freaking jealous seeing this guy just go out and say, bleep everybody. I don't care about anything.

I'm just going to totally swing my you-know-what around and just say i'm the freaking baddest dude in this league but i do like the phillies team better like i i really do like the roster the phillies have better and i i like you know obviously harper being out for the first three months is is you know the one fly in the ointment so to speak but and you think when harper's back like i I prefer the Phillies lineup. I know it doesn't cost quite as much money, but I think it's a better lineup and I have more faith in these guys.

But the area where I look at the Mets and say, you know, and obviously the bullpen's better, but I do like – I like the pitching depth. I like how they've kind of just said, screw it, we're going to get like seven or eight starters. And, you know, guys are going to get hurt, we're going to get seven or eight starters. Guys are going to get hurt and we're going to have a bunch of dudes. I think that's an area where the Phillies lack. On the whole, I'm not

that scared of the Mets. It's just frustrating. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a dogfight. I can't wait for it. It's going to be fun. Pure sports hatred, I feel like, is going to be back. But when I look at them, pitching-wise,

I think McGill is someone that's going to be way better for them. I like McGill. He's nasty. I guess when you have Scherzer and Verlander at the top of your rotation, you want to stretch them out. They'll probably go six man um if they can but like or or give them those type of resting wheeler and stuff where it's like oh sure there's got an arm thing for a month or whatever you know i think you'll see something like that but i mean all these guys are just so old like that's my point they're so old old um it's like the youngest other mcgill

like gintana's like the youngest guy on this dad was like 33 yeah and he was i mean listen he was 35 yeah he was good but gintana's 33 34 get carasco's 35 or 36 um you know both scherzer and and verlander what 39 40 or 40 and 40 or something like that i mean they're a bunch of old dudes man sanga is pretty awesome though i'm jealous of sanga yeah i didn't mention him i didn't mention him and then and then i look at the bullpen it's like yeah edwin's great but you're telling me like i'm supposed to i'm supposed to be fearful of like they bought back otavino awesome um but then it's like Robertson, Drew Smith.

All right. Even though it just looks like Spencer Howard. So I can't take him that seriously. Brooks rally is pretty good. And then it's like a bunch of just, you know, whatever. At least you're Hernandez.

Who's a starter. I don't know. So, you know, I think they're actually pretty even on paper. The thing is like, it's time to like, we said this last podcast,

but the Phillies can't be done. Like, I think what, I think what Steve Cohen did was forced the Phillies to be like, all right, I guess we'll spend more, you know, like we'll,

we'll keep going. And you keep looking over the, you know, the free agent market for these relievers. And it's just like, I don't, I don't need Kimbrel or whatever. You can get a little trade, maybe? A little Liam Hendricks action coming to town?

Well, there's Liam. I mean, let's put it this way. If you had Liam Hendricks, and then you let everyone else just fall into a role. Yeah, and he closes and you're set. Boom. Let's go. It lets Sir Anthony be 7'8". It lets

Jose Alvarado be 7'8", 6'0", if he needs to. It's not forcing the Bilates and Brogdon's into higher level roles. I think Griff is going to be in the bullpen. Like if they're,

if they're smart about this, like I think Griff could start, but I just, I view it as let's just put it in the bullpen and let's just get a weapon that can take down like five, six innings a week. Is that fair for Griff McGarry? Like five,

six things a week where I can just pitch two at a time and, and, and, you know, be valuable from that role. Um, and let falter and painter and those guys kind of extend the rotation, but let Griff be like a fireman in a way,

um, to where like his stuff should play up more by being in the bullpen. So, um, I just, I don't, I can't get a read on what a Liam Hendricks trade costs. In my head, I'm saying I'm obviously not trading McCabe before him. But I'm also like, it might cost that. He has $16 million this year.

One more year or two more years? It's one more after this year than I think an option. I think he's like 14 this year, i thought it was 14 this year yeah what somewhere in that range it's 14 16 something like that yeah um and i just keep thinking like am i really prepared to have to give up making able to go get this done but at the same time if we talk about this a lot you're in your window to win a World Series. So it's like, well, do you really have a choice?

So he has a... So he is 14 this year. So he's 14 this year and then that's a club option next year for 15. And then it's unrestricted. So it's a lot to get picked up. So it's a two-year deal.

If you trade for him, you're getting him for two years. For two years, $29 million is obviously an incredibly fair price for Liam Hendricks. I mean, that's a steal the question is that the assets you have to give up to get them and the fact that he has two years i mean that's you know it's probably something in the mcable range i don't know if it's that much but also the phillies are in this kind of weird

spot where they really only have these like you know top three dudes and then it's like a drop off like ewan ross is a nice prospect but he's not the level of mcable you know, top three dudes, and then it's like a drop-off. Like, Johan Roas is a nice prospect, but he's not the level of McAble. You know, they don't have – they really don't have those kind of in-between guys to, like, the next tier down. They kind of skip a tier. You know what I mean? So they have to, like, cobble something together. I don't think Johan Roas is enough as a centerpiece for Hendricks,

unless they're guys in the low minors or something that the White Sox are really intrigued by. Obviously, BD's not the holder, but the Phillies don't have a ton of depth. They've got some high-end guys, but not having that depth makes it harder to find those type of deals. Yeah.

So where it comes back to me with is I think Mick Abel's a hefty asking price for Liam Hendricks. I understand if they would do it, I would be a little bit leery of it. But it would make the Phillies that much better. But I would legitimately give up Mick for a guy like Alex Lang. up mick for a guy like alex lang and like alex lang is a guy that like i i think he i think he has a chance to be the next clay holmes you know like clay holmes was in pittsburgh now the problem is is that like i think alex lang pitched like a two to five era last year um so you know that kind of clay holmes was like pitching in the fours and the yankees stole him from the pirates

um so he definitely is on that track but even for four more years after this and like i just i think the guy's gonna be a superstar and i think if he wasn't in detroit i think we'd be talking about him like in the elite elite um reliever kind of category um you know tigers you never know how close or far away they are from from really competing But if I'm them and I'm looking for a possible superstar-level reliever trade, Alex Lang is the guy that I want. The Tigers got the number one prospect from the Braves for Joe Jimenez. And I think that, first off, I think Matt Hable is a better prospect than that guy was. But at the same time, Alex Lang has less years before or more years for free more years

joe jimenez joe jimenez and him and i was good that was a good move by the bridge yeah but the weird part about him is that he's been up and down a lot like he's been yeah great yeah you're right you're right um it's a it's again it's so hard to wrap your head around. These trades. I'm giving up a guy that could be a possible ace for very, very good relievers. A controllable reliever, yeah. That's what the market is. And when they are as valuable as they are.

I don't like it, Jack. I don't like it. This is an area where they need to get really good at developing these guys. Because I think that's a real advantage. Because it's really freaking annoying to have to trade with them. It's really annoying. It's great to have them. But to your point, if Mick Abel, and again, odds are Mick Abel won't become a superstar ace.

But if he does become an ace like how devastating is that you know the thing is um there's two things that has to happen and this is the next development for the phillies and i actually think that they did a better job of this year like finding baladi getting alvarado to turn into one of the best relievers in the sport um brogdon having a res a resurgence in the postseason. Hopefully, Coonrod, as he gets healthier, can get back to the guy that we saw the year before. But a guy like Coonrod, a guy like Bilotti, where you're not giving up much to go after him,

but you bring him in and you develop him. I think that they're starting to do that with some of the guys they drafted. The problem is that they're two years away because with some of the guys they drafted problem is they're like two years away you know like because they just started getting them getting them in the pipeline now um so you know i think that like look at the dodgers always bring up random guys but they're both and they're great but they also make a trade for these lower level guys that you don't see coming um like who's the guy last year is it almonte or whatever that was like disgusting and he was like awful with the Rockies. Like those kinds of moves and trusting your,

your player development staff. So like, I think they're going to be in the market. Like I, I just, I don't get the sense. They're really going to be aggressive from building the bullpen standpoint. And I think it's going to be a lot of Pilates and,

and these kinds of guys that maybe have some, some usage stuff that they want to throw more rather than let's push all our chips in and go get a, go get a stud reliever. And I just, I'm not sure that's the right course of action. Yeah. Look,

I'm with you. I think that, you know, John Middleton, as much as he is crushed it and he's Jack Middleton Middleton and we're happy and we're not going to rip him no matter what else happens this offseason, I hope he woke up this morning and saw the Korean news and said, crap, I got to do more.

You know, and it sucks that Steve Cohen's doing that, but it is what it is. Like, his team is not complete yet. We've talked about that. Honestly, my first thought when I saw the news this morning was, we should have signed Rodon. Like, that was my first thought. That was the first thought that went through my head.

I was like, oh, we should have signed Rodon. That's really what I thought. We talked about it. You know, I just – that's how I felt. I felt like, all right, like that was the move to counter this. If you sign Rodon and Turner, no one cares. Everyone's like, oh, we got the two best dudes. We win. Let's go.

But, you know, I like that Walker's here and all that. But I do think that to that point, I do think they need to do more, whether it's creative trades, whether it's, you know, there's not much left. It's crazy, Jack. It is December 20th. It's not even Christmas. Like, the market's done.

It's barren. Like, who's even the best guy on the market right now? I mean... Right? It's like all the old relievers. Yeah, Craig Kimbrell. Woo! Yeah! Give me Craig Kimbrell. It's crazy. You know Dave

is dying to find a way to... Dave's dying. Dave's waiting at the Kimbrell market, hopefully. Please, wait it out. He's like, a bag of baseballs and a few cheesesteaks. He'll probably get Craig Kimbrough at this point. You should be able to get him. There is just...

It's nothing. It's ugly. Ah, this is so sad. There's so many... Domowski trade time. Domowski trade time. There's so many failed former fantasy baseball hopes. Oh, Alex reyes is still available come on i don't even care i don't care how long it takes till he's healthy bring me up

bring me um um yeah blank check blank check i would i mean maybe that'd be dumb but i'd give him 100 million for sure do you think i care do you think i'm steve cohen i'm giving the alex rise 100 million dollars it's gonna be a steal in a couple years um but yeah honestly honestly here's the real takeaway from the steve cohen thing i think you get paid by him you think i think i could get paid i mean why not you can give me a million to come up and see if they can develop you i mean i think you can just throw a million away so why not you should this should be your thing is trying to get steve cohen to sign you for league of legends yeah but that sounds like working out again and that i'm good uh can i piggybacking off of that can i give you a real

thought like i promise you i'm not lying to you can i give you a real thought that went through my head today a nervous lead-in like i promise i'm not lying be it for real but yeah go ahead tell me something that is the truth and and and honest to god i thought about this three different times today i said i said i could easily do what billy epler's doing right now like imagine being the gm for the mets oh yeah i could i could like i could legitimately build first off i could build a better baseball team than billy epler there's like you just gotta ask steve to hand out a check that's what i'm saying that is what i'm saying it's like dude imagine imagine it being fancy baseball but you can just like spend whatever like there's no yeah it's like it's yeah it's your budget but you get like you get three

times the budget of i'm just gonna buy that guy i think i want him like billy epler has to be the luckiest man alive i i swear he has to be you think they're like the guys come in and berliner's like yeah i want two years 75 million you want 80 how many you thought let's give you 86 it's a nice round number boom there we go yeah feels like that's what they're doing it's like the opposite of the braves the braves get guys into a room they put a gun to their head and said sign this or we're killing you and your family and they come the mets are like here whatever you want we'll give you one it's but it's true right what other explanation is there for these guys signing their lives away in the brain for like a fraction of what they would get on the market it's crazy man i don't know but maybe one after the other all of them strider acuna albies it's a guy after dude after dude it's uh

riley like all of them like it's crazy the braves have the like the four of the six best long-term contracts in baseball it's a joke it's ridiculous yeah well and the mets are like here take whatever you want oh yeah imagine you want to part of my company? Here you go. Imagine if you put the Braves roster on the Mets and you gave them all start back at zero. Oh, my God. It'd be like a $700 million roster right now. It'd be insane. It'd be insane.

But I will say that... By the way, Kostrae, a cheater, too. Let's never forget that. You know, as part of this whole discussion. I know. I'm just kidding. We did. A lot of people cheated during that time.

Barry Bonds is also a cheater who you want in the Hall of Fame. I love Barry. I put that guy in the Hall of Fame right now. Didn't do anything that was against the rules. Just saying. That's true. didn't do anything that was against the rules just saying there was um but yeah also you know that their collapse off this is just gonna be that much sweeter like there's gonna be so much freezing cold takes uh like retweeting them in like october when they get eliminated by like joe musgrove and and then Buck Showalter's out checking his ear again.

It's going to be great. Also, if you want full spin zone on why I'm actually happy that he's a Met. Oh, you're happy? Yes. Watch this. You know what else it means? It means that the Giants won't make the playoffs again, which means our path to making the playoffs is second or third best team in the division because Bryce is missing half the year.

That much easier. You're pretty much eliminating the giants so it's like what padres dodgers out west the diamondbacks are a little frisky but they're not ready um the cubs are not three in the east and the three in the east and the cardinals there we go and the brewers like the playoffs why even play the season exactly honestly like i was gonna say half kidding i'm like like five percent kidding why even play the season we know it's gonna be in the playoffs see and that's why i don't i wish it didn't happen to baseball just because like you know what's because then it does it's like well what's the point of playing 162 but i know that us saying this is going to end up coming back and being like, oh, that was a bad idea when we said this. We've never

said anything that came back to bite us ever. I would like that last part of the podcast not in the episode. The Phillies are... We cannot lock in a playoff spot for this team at all. They got to go out and get to earn it.

And win more than anything. what do you think they're is there overrunner out for next year yet because i wonder what it's gonna be set up no they're not out yet yeah well it's gonna be fascinating i mean i would guess it would be matt's braves phillies in terms of of win totals which is which is pretty wild because i think the phillies will probably be if i had to guess i guess it's probably similar to where it ended last year, not where it started, but I would guess they're in the 86 to 88 range would be my guess. Braves are probably like 90 and the Mets are like 92,

or Braves are like 89 and Mets are 91, something like that. Maybe Mets are like 93, Braves are 91. Didn't the Mets win 100 in some games last year, 106? They both did. I know, but they're never as high as you'd think. Maybe they will be. Like, the Dodgers have been the biggest lock in betting

for like six straight years. It's like every year, it's like, oh, 96, 98. And they're like, they went 110 or 106 or whatever. It's like, of course they're going to, like, I think last year they were like 103 or 104. Finally, they had not been over 100 any of the years. They were like 103, 104. And it's like, they were still in over. Of course they were. Of course they were like 103 or 104 finally they had not been over 100 any of the years they were like 103 104 and it's like they were still in over of course they were of course they were yeah if i had to guess i would guess uh 88 and a half that's what i would yeah i think that's fair

i'll go i'll go 88 even nice nice um there we go that's good we're only a half game separated except that we don't have to we don't play the NL East as much next year I know It's good news Alright, what do you got in the take bag, buddy? I feel like we're firmly in take bag territory Are we? Honestly, I don't know

The fact that we've talked for 35 minutes With literally having nothing other than Steve Cohen spent money As our topic for today I think it's pretty impressive I don't know if I can stretch much more I don't really have much more on my plate you want to talk to me I'm letting you set the agenda now for it so you go I'm not saying end the podcast I'm saying talk about what you want to talk about well do you really want me to talk

about what I want to talk about or do you want to keep this related because what I want to talk about what i want to talk about or do you want to keep this related because what i want to talk about is how i took trey young someone's missing threes for me right now no no no no no no no no i would just like to point out that for the first time on this podcast i feel like i've actually won well i haven't won yet but unless he doesn't play this well hold on you might have just really really really ruined this i took trey young to score 30 points and hit five threes it is halftime and he has 29 points and six threes we're happy over here he's totally not playing in the second half i am never doing a podcast again. What kind of odds is it for 30 and 5 plus 3s? I think that 5 3s is plus 700.

Holy crap. This is a big bet to win. Do you parlay them or put them separately? Separately. That's still pretty good man look at you yeah well let's we need we need james harden to start heating up too um i haven't i haven't won a bet since baseball season so yeah no no see here see here's what you did here's what you did is that i'm not one of that i'm not one of that to say it's all i've been from like 300

dollars of my account to nothing i was zero dollars no because your problem was that you got all cocky you know you're like oh i figured out gambling meanwhile you're just riding in hot streak no i yeah i was riding hot trick i knew i was riding hot trick i never expected to not lose the money i just thought i would maybe lose a little a little more slowly than i lost it would have been cool um so the other day was brandon marsh's birthday and i sometimes just forget the kids like he's like 24 years old you know what i mean and he never gets he never gets talked about as like one of the younger um you know members of the the daycare or whatever um and for all the things i'm excited about in 2023, um, second year of Brandon Marsh,

like more removed from the angels. Another off season with Kevin long, um, seems like a great dude. Like him signing, um, it was the older ladies, uh,

pillow of Brandon Marsh and like him getting word. Oh, it was great. It was great. And I can't wait James, you know, for a full season of gold glove caliber center field defense. Like we joke in the off season how we don't worry about defense in the

off season because it's like, well, what's the point? But then really when it hits the regular season. Oh, it kills us. It kills. It's just, there's nothing worse. So seeing another year of Brandon Marsh, I have forgiven him. I'm lying. I haven't forgiven him for

his performance in game five. I'm trying to forgive Brandon for his performance in game five and just like put the ball in play. Just choke up one time. Just hit the ball in the outfield. Just like do a job like one time. It's Ryan Presley. No, he's going to throw. But regardless, I'm excited about second year of brandon marsh 288 last year as a phil it's like i view brandon marsh as an angel much like my gpa my freshman year and three three post freshman year jpa brandon marsh future all-star post-Angels. Love it.

It's actually a throwback to the last pod. Continuity between bods. Bringing this whole thing together. You're a pro, man. I can't believe I didn't mention this last podcast. I can't... Hold on.

I need to find the Twitter user. I don't know why I said Twitter user like that like i'm 100 years old reading twitter for the first time um do you really have to find it no i do it was uh cj on twitter um to cj i'm happy you found that you're like they're not eight zillion cjs go ahead with cj anthony he knows who he is um and and he he rightfully pointed out that that you and i had had well more me than you because this has never been your thing um but through the journey that we took last year you know going from sad down in the dumps this team stings bunch of losers to oh my god we're in the world series like i think we forgot a part of our roots and i would just like to put my hand up and oh speaking of

things um you and elliot took that from me there is no way i heard that on go birds and you're a hand up podcast that's a that's a bit that you took from me 100 i would like to point that out first of all ell Elliot says it. So he started on the pod. So if anyone took it from me. Which he stole from me. I didn't know it was your bit. But you know what?

I'm just going to say it's a Go-Birds thing just to annoy you. It's not. But I do have one. It's a hand up podcast. It is what it is. I don't know. I do have one positive thing to say about Go-Birds. And this is the only positive.

Wow. That would be a miracle. I almost cursed there. I said a miracle. I like that you don't do the yo in the beginning. I will say that. You're just like, it is. I like that.

I know. I go, hey, hello. I do a completely different thing. I know. It's not a yo. I get it. It's okay. No yo.

But full accountability hand up um completely forgot to just do a full five minutes on the philly select they know a song in the in the real five draft um and you can just turn your mic off for the next five minutes like i don't i know this i know this means absolutely nothing to you but i actually i actually uh took a picture of a uh a tweet that i liked about it because it was so exciting it seemed like it was good but go ahead um so the phillies essentially took the red socks best prospect because i think the red socks forgot that he existed um and dave nebrowski and I, and I want to believe it was Ani. It was just like, we can get a possible future starting pitcher that if you squint, you see stuff of Steven Strasburg. Um,

like not now Steven Strasburg where he can't pitch anymore, but like prime Steven Strasburg, like Noah song, Noah song. When, when it was coming out of the draft was legitimately going to be a top, like 20 pick in the draft. But he said he wanted to serve the country.

He's gone over four years, whatever. And I was texting with my good friend, Eric Kratz, who... Oh, look at you! Who caught Noah Song in 2019, I guess, in one of the USA baseball tournaments. And he said he told the Red Sox, like, that guy is 100% a lock to be a major leaguer. He's going to be really good. And Eric Kratz is, like, caught for a million years of major league baseball. So probably a pretty reliable source on that.

But I just, the idea that they stole a guy who has the potential to be really, really good. years of major league baseball so probably a pretty reliable source on that um but i just the idea that they stole a guy who has the potential to be really really good just for like a hundred thousand dollars it's it's like it's just next it's galaxy brain stuff it's absolutely galaxy brain stuff i'm so excited like like i i he's gonna i think he's gonna serve the all four years he seems very committed to it. That's it. It's time to come over and win a World Series, buddy. It's time that we have a special thing. Now, the one worry here, I guess, is that he was sitting 96 to 99 at Navy, I believe.

And I don't think he's pitching a competitive mound. So I don't know what the mounds are like don't think he's pitching a competitive mound so i don't know what the mounds are like um on whatever ship he's on but um let's hope he can still hit that and if he comes back he does not sit 85 all of a sudden or else he might be doing this podcast with you in a couple years you know what i mean like like we all lose it so um either way, the Noah song rule five pick. Hey, you know, you can have your cute little hot stove and your signings and your tray turners. But let me tell you what really matters in the real health of a franchise. The Red Sox let maybe their best pitching prospect go just because I think they forgot.

I think they forgot. So shout out to Dave. just because I think they forgot. I think they forgot. So shout out to Dave. And if you want to bring Raphael Devers next, because it seems like the Red Sox might have forgotten about him, we will take that as well.

Man, the turn on Chaim is tough. Tough to see. Is that our worst take? Is that our worst take? Oh, it's definitely the biggest miss in the history of the club. Without a doubt. Nothing's going to stop us. I think he is hamstrung by ownership there. I think he is in a bad spot. But he can't find

any talent. It was bad. No, it was really bad. It was really bad. I'm just saying, I think what the Red Sox are doing, I think it's the single worst thing that's happening in baseball right now.

It's so important. You are the Boston. If I was on Boston radio, it would be every day. Just like, you guys are the Boston Red Sox. Can we act like? It's so bad for the sport, what the Red Sox are trying to do.

It's hard. I hope they fail. It's so much better for the sport if the Red Sox fail at trying to become the race. You're the Red Sox. Be the Red Sox are trying to do. It's hard. I hope they fail. It's so much better for the sport of the Red Sox fail at trying to become the race. Like you're the Red Sox be the Red Sox. So for their sake, I hope they sell the team. I think they,

they just a joke up there. I hope there's all the team, you know, get someone in there that wants to spend money and restore greatness to Red Sox. It's crazy too, because I mean, those owners had an amazing freaking run.

I mean, they, they brought championships. They brought, you know, special things that franchise that hadn't been there. I mean, those owners had an amazing freaking run. I mean, they brought championships. They brought, you know, special things to that franchise that hadn't been there. And it's really, you know, it's been a horrible turn. Back to Noah Song. I took a picture of a tweet from your guy. Look at this.

Kyle Boddy. Uh-oh. Tweeting about it. Said this is an insanely sick pic. Said Noah Song hasn't pitched in 2019 because of military service. He would have been a surefire first rounder out of college if not military bound. The number's insane.

161 strikeouts in 94 innings. Is that good? I'm not sure. I feel like, you know, kind of close to two strikeouts an inning. No matter what level you're at, that feels like it's, it's pretty impressive. No, it seems like a pretty smart pick. And, you know, we'll see, obviously I think, you know, I think it'll all come down to your point of, you know,

is he throwing a baseball these four years? Cause you know, it's not the kind of thing where you just like, don't do it. And you're just like, fine, but, but hopefully he is. And, you know, hopefully that's the future he wants out of there. And know obviously i'm never gonna knock anyone for for serving the country and all that so um smart i'm gonna smart smart stuff jack what what a freaking thought ethos of the podcast give me a smart team are you got anything else uh uh final thing dude uh Final thing. Dude. It's a Saturday morning. Go downstairs.

I got some work done. It's all good. Sometimes some of us work on Saturdays. Yeah, I do. I know. I thought there was a shot of me. I'm like, I do it. It was intended to be a shot. Then I forgot that you also work on Saturday.

So shot revoked. But like Joe wasn't awake yet. So I go on YouTube and there is a 25 minute. It's basically it's the it's the bottom of the third against the Braves. It's that whole inning, which is the Hoskins-Homer, the Harper-Homer, the Stott double. And it's the whole inning, but with Franski in L.A. doing all the commentary on it.

If you want to see a 28-year-old sitting on his couch at 9 in the morning with coffee in his hand, legitimately welling up, that was me. Because I was there, so I don't remember the roar besides what I heard. Well, that's what I did, dude. When we went to those games, I would come home and on – because I get the package, you use my package. You can go back and watch them still.

On the package, you can go back and watch any game if it's the day after no matter the market no matter whatever or if it's after the game has ended I mean so after we would go to those games like after we went to you know the clincher and all that I would come home and I would watch it on the tv here and just to hear it's so loud it's so loud on tv it was crazy man yeah and i was sitting there and i was like i can see why trey turner said this is cool and like i'm gonna go find another for the next 11 years um so uh if you if you're like bored the the franski and la calling of it i think by the way i mean just the best um heroes just best. Amazing. And yeah. Yeah.

Shout out to Joe Giglio and Hugh Douglas, New Midday Show. Yeah, buddy. Shout out. Our guy Joe Giglio obviously has been featured in this feed before, has helped us host shows as we've been on his show. Yeah, does this mean that we're getting the High Hopes Hour roundtable on the Midday Show? Let me tell you, Joe.

Jack, I was going to say this is to Joe. Let me tell you, Jack. Joe, it better. All right? That's all I'm going to say. It better. I mean, I'm giving you an audience. I mean, I'm basically saying, here you go, Joe Giglio.

Welcome to this Midday thing that we've cultivated and enriched and made great for you. So you're welcome. Great Phillies callers in the midday. We get phenomenal Phillies callers in the midday. You're welcome. Do get good Phillies callers in the midday. I know. You know what we didn't used to

when we started the show? Get good Phillies callers. We cultivated them. We brought them along. You're welcome, Joe. That's all. Joe and Mayfair. And also congratulations.

Joe and Mayf first might go to uh my go-to uh we got some grabbing black gritty is a great one well he's originally a midday show jumps all over originally a midday show caller started with us tom from abington obviously a great caller not allowed to call our show yeah there's a weird weird whole thing there going we got i mean let's be honest i. If we're going to be honest, if we're just talking callers to a specific show for the station, the Go-Birds callers are the best callers.

We brought Justin in Tennessee to the station. We brought so many people. CJ in Texas. All these great callers. This is disrespectful. You're letting out such a big name. You're forgetting such a and Jenny. This is disrespectful. You're letting out such a big name. You're forgetting such a big name.

This is sad. I'm going to get there, Tom, in Vancouver. There you go. That's what I'm saying. You didn't let me finish. You're jumping in. I'm saying I'm getting there. I love Tom.

Those are the best cars. This is not me being haughty or whatever. It's just a fact. Per caller, Go-Birds Caller is the best on the station. Just saying. It's a fact. You guys have Chuck. Look, Chuck is the – Chuck's amazing.

OG Wade, definitely an afternoon caller who calls the shows. That's your guy. But I think per caller, Go-Birds Caller is the best. Well, tomorrow I'm unle my the callers that i'm protecting that are not allowed to call julio in the middays oh this is great this is gonna be the this is the top five tomorrow okay so again i think we've told the high hopes people this because you know you're a people i've been there but um my favorite part of my day is when jack comes in with like a little rry grin on his face being like,

here's what I got today. And I'm like particularly excited for tomorrow. Now that's something to look forward to. The callers that I'm protecting in an expansion draft of, of, uh, yeah, well,

I think, I think your future morning show callers, I think they're auditioning on our show. Like we've got a lot of Kenny from the 3030s. Oh, really? Yeah, Eagle Shirley called us today. We're keeping Kenny. We're keeping Kenny.

I'll say that. I love Kenny. I like Kenny. Kenny's great. Yeah. The others, we'll see. Do people like when we bring them inside WIP? I love everyone.

I love everyone. I don't know. Let us know. Tweet at Jack. James won't see it. Tweet at Jack and either say yes WIP or no WIP. We'll know what it means. Does that go with you?

I shouldn't be saying no WIP because we don't want shots at our station. I would just say yes or no. But when they say no WIP, we can excuse that off as work in progress. Okay, I like that. Alright, well let us know because we won't do it if you don't care. We don't care. We're Philly's first here.

I mean, it is our job. We talk about our whole lives right now are WIP. Yeah, it's kind of hard to ignore it. It's hard not to talk about our lives. Although I think it's so funny. Last thing and then we'll get out of here because I can't believe we're 52 minutes in. We had nothing.

No topic tonight. It's what we do. I said to you before, I'm like, I have nothing to say and I'm sure we're going to talk for an hour. Last thing, I'm always surprised. You probably don't see as much as i do uh i'm always surprised by the people that that don't know that you and i work at wip like does that

happen yeah they're like they're like don't understand when we're talking about like what show we produce or whatnot like they found the podcast i did not know that was a thing wow found the podcast not through Twitter or anything, just like searched Phillies and found us. I like that, though. I think that's really cool. Yeah, whatever. It's cultivating two audiences.

If you're one of those people, thank you. I appreciate you. If you're one of the other people, thank you. I appreciate you. Do you like that I'm wearing an Eagles sweatshirt? Oh, look, I couldn't tell. Look at you. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I'm happy you're an Eagles fan, Jack.

I'm happy you're back. I am an Eagles fan. You see Jalen Hurts made the Pro Bowl? Eight Eagles. You excited? Isn't it a flag football game now? I know. It's so dumb.

Isn't it a skills competition? Who gets the all-pro? Here's the football question. Who gets the first-team All-Pro that Mahomes or Hurts? Those will be the two quarterbacks, most likely. I think Burrow obviously has a chance. But who do you think the first and second All-Pro quarterbacks are? Does Hurts get jobbed?

Does he get one of the All-Pro teams? Does he get jobbed off the All-Pro team? Do you think they put Burrow in Mahomes? No, I agree. Does he get jobbed at a first-team All-Pro? Do you think it'll be Mahomes' first team off the old pro team? Do you think they put Burrow in Mahomes? No, I agree. Does he get jobbed at a first team all pro? Do you think it'll be Mahomes' first team and he's second team? Yeah, I think it'll be Mahomes' first team. I think it's going to be that too.

Well, 2-1-5-5-9-2-94-94. Hold on. Oh, man, I had a whole thing planned. Oh, well, it's all good. It's all right. I don't think anyone wants it anyway. I think this is probably the most Eagles talk talk in the history of a high hopes episode those against you jackie has like a real pensive look on his face he's trying to

remember what he's gonna say this is for 41 year olds not for 28 year olds jackie well i'm trying to reconnect the lines of my brain to where I can make this funny. But I don't think I can make – I think the funny – Oh, no. My point was that Holmes and whatever are going to sit the last three games anyway. So he's in this one game and then come back. So I think it shouldn't affect the MVP odds as much as they do, but I still took Joe Burrow plus 1,000

when I knew everything was coming down. Look at you. Fun times. All right. I got nothing else. I got nothing else. Here's what I got. Happy holidays to everyone.

Hanukkah, Christmas odds. Happy holidays. We will be off next week. Back the first week in January. happy holidays to everyone for this great Hanukkah Christmas I'm happy, happy holidays we will be off next week back the first week in January unless unless hey Jack, Jack we know John Middleton listens, so John

if you're listening right now and saying, wait a minute Adam I don't want to go a week without a high hopes pod I want you guys to do a pod next week, well guess guess what, John? We're not doing a pod unless you do something about it. The only person who has the power to make it to a podcast next week is John Middleton. And we'll just leave it at that. Is that fair?

I think that's totally fair. All right. Happy holidays, everyone. Let's rip themselves. you