High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The High Hopes Phillies Podcast: 3 Straight Series Wins, Boom.

Episode Date: June 20, 2018

Jack Fritz and Jon Marks are in the studio today as the Phillies wrap up their third straight series win. Odubel and Rhys are back in a BIG way, the bullpen has given us a heart-attack and the Crawford injury hurts more than people think it does. All that and more on this edition of the High Hopes podcast.  See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. 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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yard as we sat down to record this podcast. It's very on brand for us. We are hashtag pro double on this podcast. It's Jack Fritz. It's Johnny Marks and the Phillies are, well, we still have the bullpen close to going through there. They're not close. They're not close. have the bullpen, close to going through their third straight series win. They are not close. This game's not even close to being over, is it? We're recording.

It is bottom seven, two outs. As you said, pro-Double, O'Double, just to hit the home run. Four straight games for the home run. So we're going to be hoping and talking like they won this. But isn't that kind of the lead of the week, which is the bullpen? Yeah. Ninth inning ERA, 4.87. Ninth inning ERA, 4.87. Eighth inning ERA, 4.5.

Seventh inning ERA, 2.87. Because when Sir Anthony's pitching, it's the seventh inning. So I get it, but I think we've already had that argument a couple times. Hopefully it doesn't bite him in the ass today there, Jack. Yeah, well, I wonder how they're going to play this, because I guess Ed O'Brien just went the 7th and then now you're going to have the 8th. And we'll see. We'll see. Last night he

saves Sir Anthony for the 9th and I think it was the wrong decision. Of a tie game, I agree. If he used him earlier instead of putting Tommy Hunter into the game, then you have that. And then the Hoskins double at the end makes it 6-2 rather than ties it up at 6-6.

For all this talk about, oh, closer by committee, closer this, closer that, if Tommy Hunter was pitching better, you would have another reliable guy to pitch the 7th or the 8th inning. I don't know. I really believe that Gabe just doesn't really care about roles or whatever, that he's just going to put out his best guy in that situation. And I think it's a mistake. It's a mistake. I get his theory. I understand what he's just going to put out his best guy in that situation. And I think it's a mistake. It's a mistake. I get his theory.

I understand what he's saying, but I don't think it translates. I don't think when you're dealing with people and humans and you have the human factor to it, I think it's a mistake. What, not having roles for these guys? Like not telling them exactly what they're doing? It's not exactly what they're doing, but roles tend to work themselves out over the course of a season, whether it's um not exactly what they're doing but roles tend to work themselves out over the course of a season whether it's basketball or baseball i think that it'll

eventually happen anyway for the most part but i i know that you're a you don't think so and and you just pretty much regurgitate whatever the other people are saying out there about high leverage situation yeah no i have no opinions on my own now the high leverage situation is the is the term that everybody talks about it's like no opinions of my own. Now the high leverage situation is the term that everybody talks about. It's like, no, you've got to save him for the high leverage situation. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about callers that call in and say that, oh, well, the reason why he's doing this is because high leverage situation.

Name one caller that's ever sounded like that, by the way. Yesterday. Most of the callers are like, bah, put him in the closer. Well, yes, but the pro- pro Kapler guys in this particular situation will just regurgitate what he says. But not really. That's where I think it's ridiculous. The

crux of the game is not always decided in the ninth inning. Unfortunately, the Phillies have had trouble in the ninth inning, so it makes it seem like this is such a huge problem. Whereas the value of Sir Anthony is that he can come in the seventh, eighth, and when you're facing the best part of the lineup, he can shut that down there. The problem is, is they have no one that actually closed

the game at this point. No, you're right. You're dead right. And if you did have a... Hopefully, Klintak's able to get a closer that's a closer and everybody knows it's a closer. It doesn't have to be the most dominant guy, but a guy that's done it and it's clearly his job. Because I agree with you.

Sir Anthony is served best as a swing at 7th inning, 8th inning, 2 innings sometimes, even though he's not looked good in that 2nd inning of late. Yeah. He's pitching a lot, too. He is. The workload concerns me quite a bit. But I'm fine with him pitching in the 6th or the 7th or the 8th inning, whatever. The problem is they don't have anybody else that can close.

We know that he can close. So now what you're doing is, well, yeah, I have three or four. Like the other day he said he has three or four guys that he has faith in that can do it. Then use one of those three or four guys in the seventh inning. Ramos was able to get out of a jam in the eighth inning the other night. Yeah. Right? So use some of these other guys.

I get what Gabe's saying. night. Yeah. Right? So use some of these other guys. I just, I get what Gabe's saying. I just, I don't, I don't, I just don't think he looks at it from a human standpoint or from a baseball player's standpoint to where it's easier said than done just to throw me out there whenever. I wonder,

I think, it feels like they have been using Ramos in more and more high leverage, so maybe they're trying to get him groomed. Not the ninth inning, though. Maybe they're trying to groom Ramos for what Sir Anthony was doing, and now they're starting to move Sir Anthony back more and more. And if Tommy Hunter didn't suck, then you would have to worry about this less. God, I'm tired of watching his meatball getting served up there.

His fifth is good, man. No, Tommy Hunter's been not as bad as people are saying he is, but I agree, he's been mostly a bust. What about Neshek when he comes back? Because he's not a closer. He's not a closer either. He's a 7th inning guy as far as I'm concerned. They have a bunch of 7th inning guys. Yeah. They have a bunch of 7th inning guys and 8th inning guys and no closer.

I wonder, like when Neshek comes back I think he'll be in the Tommy Hunter role. Basically the last couple games, Tommy Hunter's been the first guy out of the pen in the 6th or 7th inning, and then Ramos 8th, and it feels like Sir Anthony is late as possible when they need him. Maybe Neshek takes over the Hunter role and does that. I don't know what the Neshek role is.

He could suck. He could suck. Relievers year to year, and one of the things Pat Gillick used to always talk about with relievers was he worried about signing a guy to more than a two-year, one-year, or two-year contract. Because you see relievers, you'll have a guy that has a 2.2 ERA one year, and then you're designating him for assignment the next year.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, J.C. Romero was designated for assignment. The Phillies picked him up, and he's the best reliever in baseball for like two years. Yeah. It is so weird. And you look at the signing for the Phillies,

what do you do without J.C. Romero? I mean, he was a huge part of that great bullpen in 2008, 2009. Yeah, so I don't know what they're going to do because I think obviously the best role for Sir Anthony, what makes him so valuable, is the fact that you don't have to pencil him to the ninth. He can pitch multiple innings in the middle of a game.

The best example of this was against the Braves, that first series he was up here, the first time he was really put in high leverage. He came in in the middle of a game shut like the best example of this was against the Braves that that first series he was up here the first time he was really put in high leverage he came in the eighth and it was he faced um Albies, Acuna, and Freeman and that's more important than facing those guys then I don't I don't disagree I agree so I don't know I don't know what Klintzak does because on one hand there's Brad Hand who's available, who is the San Diego Padres' closer, who I think is unbelievable. I think he's a really, really good closer. He's under control for the next three years. So you can have a guy.

You can have Sir Anthony and Brad Hand at the back. It's going to cost you. It's going to cost you. I saw a report yesterday from John Marossi that they're asking for Rafael Devers for him, which Rafael Devers is 20 years old and is already raking in the big leagues. So what's it going to cost the Phillies? And I just don't know if they're going to go all in on trying to get Brad Hand.

I wouldn't. I would. I don't think I would either, but it's three years. So you have to – I wouldn't. Here's why. Because – and it goes back to Sir Anthony. Because he's the guy, and he's cheap.

You know what? Don't outsmart yourself. Don't outthink yourself. You have the guy. Just use him. Here's one thing that I like. I didn't like the Neshek or the Hunter signing, or at least both of them, because I feel like they have enough guys that they have in the minors that can come up.

And they're going to have more guys. One thing that the Phillies have done that I love in their organization is they've taken starters and made them into relievers. Before they failed, they said, you know what? Let's try you at reliever. Sir Anthony wasn't a great starter in the minors, but had the stuff, and they recognized that he's got the mentality. There's a couple guys down there right now, Trevor Betancourt,

who is a guy that's – That's a great reliever name, by the way. He looks like a reliever, too. He's got just the mustache. That's perfect. Who's the guy that you like that you were talking about a couple weeks ago that they made a reliever? Will Stewart? Will Stewart's been starting, though. ago that they made a reliever? Will Stewart?

Will Stewart's been starting, though. He hasn't been relieving. Not Will Stewart. Anyway. I don't remember. But there's him. I know they've been talking about maybe converting Franklin Quilomay and trying to turn him into a reliever because they don't think he can start.

He has not been good as he's come up through the upper levels. So maybe that's the play. Try to convert another guy into a bullpen guy. Or it doesn't help him for this year, which is what we're talking about, but I like what they have as far as young arms. Put Sir Anthony there now. You're talking about, like, you give up all these prospects for hand. No, you put the guy that's the best pitcher on the staff there.

But the bullpen is way better with hand as a closer and Sir Anthony in the 7th and 8th. The bullpen on paperpen is way better with Hand as a closer and Sir Anthony in the seventh and eighth. The bullpen on paper would be way better. When you start valuing, when you start valuing closers in terms of prospects or money that you give away,

you're running the John Papel bond. You know what I mean? He's the all-time leader in saves. Yeah, I get it, but when the Phillies gave him the most money as a reliever, how'd that work out for him?

They were lucky that Mike Rizzo in Washington is a stooge that actually gave up Nick Pavetta and took his salary on to do it. Yeah, for a half a season of Babylon. And then he choked out their best player. So that was a good trade for the Phillies. That was vintage Papp, right? So Pappish.

He's got to hold the guard of baseball. And then there's Britain. But I don't know if I trust Britain at this point. He hasn't really been back. Yeah, he just got back. He's a free agent at the end of the year. You're paying for a rental, and that just seems like a short-sighted move for a team that's not really going anywhere.

So it's a tough situation because this team is not built to win the World Series this year. They're a good team. They're a developing team. They're a young team that makes a lot of mistakes, which is frustrating on a night-in-night-out basis. Giving up a ton of capital for a rental, for a closer, just seems like a waste. But I've also seen what it does to teams.

The Indians traded for Andrew Miller, and it took them on a World Series run. Obviously, I don't think that would happen this year. But it put Andrew Miller in the 7th and 8th and then let Cody Allen close out games, and it completely changed their entire season. It could have the same effect here if you go get Brad Hand.

Not the same effect, maybe next year. You're right, just two ways to look at it. What do you think the rest of this year? You would think that Klintec, it's all going to come down to the price, right? If they're able to get a rental for the rest of the year and they have a deep farm system so they can say, yeah, we can take a couple guys from the middle of our organizational rankings and it's not going to hurt so they can say, yeah, we can take a couple guys from the middle of our organizational rankings

and it's not going to hurt them. Maybe you do it. Maybe you decide you're willing to give up a lot more to sure up the back of that bullpen. Something tells me if they already don't believe in roles in the bullpen, which, by the way, Gabe Kappa clearly doesn't care about roles and doesn't think of it like that. I'd be very surprised if they use the prospects to go out and get hands.

Yeah, and hopefully that vaunted Phillies bullpen can hold it today as it's the top of the eighth with Ramos still in there. So Ramos is in the eighth today. And by the way, I didn't disagree with Kapler taking him out after the eighth inning the other night. He got the two strikeouts, and he took them out, didn't bring them back out for the ninth. I don't want him pitching the ninth. Which game was that?

It was the Orono game. So he pitched the eighth, had two strikeouts on nine pitches, got out of a – was it a bases-loaded jam? And then Orono came in and pitched the ninth. And then Nat nappy. I can't take much more Andrew Knapp. So here's something I was saying the other day, actually after that game. They need a veteran in there. And if Knapp was hitting 270 and had some punch with the bat

and could help off the bench or whatever, I'd say go get a veteran guy that can defend. I've had enough of Knapp. Even though not a lot of people are going to say it's a World Series team, it can be a playoff team. And I'd rather have Eric Kratz back there than Andrew Knapp. Well, he just doesn't know what he's doing. That's the truth.

He's not catching the ball well this year. He's not even receiving well. He's not hitting. You can't let a ball get past you in the ninth inning. He's not in the majors because of his bat. That's what he had in the minors. He doesn't have a bat. And he's hit under 200. Yeah. Yeah. It ninth inning. He's not in the majors because of his bat. That's what he had in the minors. He doesn't have a bat. And he's hit under 200.

Yeah. Yeah. It's bad. It's bad. Andrew Knapp is not even an experiment. It's just that out of necessity, he's up here. And I agree with you. I can't take much of it.

He could have had Kratz when he just traded. I think he could have had him on the scrap heap. Right. He's in AAA. Also, he's been like 500 for the Brewers. I wonder how that happened. Yeah. I think the steroid era might be back in baseball.

Farrah Kratz is coming out of nowhere. So the bullpen, obviously the main story of the week. They're on pace to win their third straight series, but it feels like no one's happy with this team, John. It just feels like everyone's like, yeah, their fixed game's over 500, but I don't believe it. All right, so here's what I have to know. We have Andrew Porter who runs our social media

and our WIP website and has his own podcast as well. That's great. He came in and told us that we have 25,000. We've reached the 25,000 download mark as a High Hopes podcast. We really started revving this up in April and then May, so we're doing two or three a week now.

So we appreciate all the listeners. But are listeners kind of process people? You understand what I'm saying? The 76ers fans that started listening to Spike and the rights to Ricky and adopted Sam Hinckley as the savior, are we looking at Kapler and Klintak in that? Who are we talking about? Because if you're talking about the non-processed people,

if this is the process, yeah, they're probably not happy. But the processed people, the Joe Gelios and the Jack Fritzes of the world, you know, everything's peachy. Everything's great. Well, I don't think everything's peachy. I'm happy that they're competitive and we can talk about them on a daily basis on the station. Like, I'm happy we can do that.

That's awesome. But it is – they're a very, very frustrating team to watch because of the, I've never seen a major league team look this bad defensively. And who is that, who do you put that on the most? It's Klintzak. It's Klintzak. Because he's putting Scott Kingery at shortstop, he's putting Reece Hawkins in left field. Was he putting, he's putting Kingery at shortstop?

Or is that the manager? Well, where's he going to play? He's putting Reese Hoskins in left field. He's putting Kingery at shortstop? Or is that the manager? Where's he going to play? He's not. How about that? He's not going to play, or he's going to earn his playing time playing second base. I don't care. I can't believe he plays shortstop on a regular basis. Now J.P. Crawford's out with a broken hand, if you haven't heard.

He's going to play every day. He's playing every day at shortstop anyway. I'd rather have Floreman playing or a better defensive shortstop. Floriman has a broken foot. I understand that. But Kingery at shortstop should be like Cesar Hernandez at shortstop. Just worst-case scenario. You have to put him out there.

Their defense up the middle with Kingery there is not good. He's not a shortstop. He doesn't have the instincts. Never played it before. Yeah, but you have to play Scott Kingery. You don't have to instincts. He never played it before. You have to play Scott Kingery. You don't have to do anything. Yes, you do. This is the whole short-sighted versus long-sighted. You don't have to play him every day.

You don't have to play him every day. What's a better option? You should get rid of Cesar Hernandez. Why would you get rid of him? Because he's not a shortstop, and he's not a third baseman. You're playing him out of position. So we're getting rid of Cesar Hernandez to play Scott Kingery who's batting betting 222 at second base. Yeah.

That's the plan to make this team better? Because you know why? Would it be that big of a difference? You're a better team with Cesar as your second baseman. With Kingery, you're looking long-term. You're looking future. And you know what? Maybe he learned something when he's playing.

So who's playing shortstop? I don't know. I don't know. Not Kingery. Why? Triple A. Michael Martinez. What's he doing these Why? Triple A. Michael Martinez. What's he doing these days?

He was a World Series. He's a World Series champion. He's not a shortstop. I don't think he is either. He is not a shortstop. He's not an everyday shortstop. He shouldn't be playing there. In a pinch.

One day a week. He's not a utility guy. He's not Tomas friggin' Perez. All right? He's Kingery. Yeah, but you also have to factor in Cesar. And you're not going to just give away Cesar. And it's too early to make a big-time trade.

I'm not saying to get rid of him. I'm saying that... So why isn't Kingery playing third base? Because he doesn't have the arm for third base. Okay, exactly. Exactly. He's playing... So you're playing with shortstop?

He doesn't have an arm for shortstop! He has an adequate arm. He does not even have an arm for shortstop. Now you're putting him in a more important position defensively? The worst team in baseball defensively. That's the manager. It is. It's one person.

Larry Boa. Larry Boa had his chance at managing. Had some success. Ultimately, guys couldn't handle it. Guys couldn't handle it. I get it. That's why Charlie Manuel came in here and they won a World Series.

But Larry Boa came in for Terry Francona year one. And that was a sloppy team. That was not a lazy team, but they were very comfortable with Tito, the players' manager. Larry Boa came in there and kicked their ass. John Vukovic and Larry Boa, if they were on this staff, this freaking team would be scared of these guys. They'd be taking ground balls all the time.

They're bad defensively. They're sloppy. They are, and I think part of that comes down to, now this is going to sound like a Neanderthal, but in spring training they practiced for two hours or an hour, and they were out of there rather than taking out. Santana's not a good defensive first baseman. Hoskins isn't a great defensive left fielder.

And they have a second baseman playing shortstop. Right. Well, I put it on Klintzak because he clearly values the offense over the defense. The offensive upside of having Santana moving Hoskins to left. And I was fine with that. I still love the Santana signing. Still love the Santana signing. I can't believe the amount of outrage we get over Carlos Santana.

The guy's been one of probably the 10 best hitters in the game since May 4th. Non-processed people. Yeah, the listeners of this podcast know. The non-high hopers hate him. The high hopers mostly like him. Well, because they knew who... I feel like people just didn't watch Carlos Santana in Cleveland. They're just like, whoa, this guy's going to be Ryan Howard. The guy's about a 230 with a 360 OVP for every single year he's been in the majors. He walks a lot. He's got power.

He's turned it around. I'm very happy, very happy with Santana. Now, he actually made a nice defensive play today. Well, they just don't value defense. They clearly don't value defense. They don't care that Kingery's playing short. I'm telling you, this is – You are correct.

They don't care about defense. They care about the offensive offside. And the offensive offside on a night-in, night-out basis, of course, Kingery's been struggling, but it's higher than that of a major league shortstop that can physically play defense. The problem with Kingery is he's batting.214. If he was batting.280 with seven home runs,

I wouldn't be looking at what he does at shortstop and say, oh, my God, he looks so unnatural out there. What are you doing? Yeah, but obviously he's a rookie. You look at his stats at the end of the year. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. His stats at the end of the year are going to look at him.

Like, we're going to look back at Kingery's stats in 10 years and look at his rookie year and be like, oh, that's what a rookie looks like. Like, Chase Elliott batted, I think, 230 his rookie year. There's nothing. And he's similar because both college players, they were both a little bit older when they came up. Yeah. Right?

They weren't in the minors long, but they were a little bit older coming up. High draft picks. And, yeah, no, I'm not worried about Kingery at all. But I'm just saying you don't have to play him every day at a position where he sucks. Yeah, they just don't have another option. They just don't at this point. There's Jezmel Valentine.

Yeah, but that's bogus because the other option was their first-run draft pick, J.P. Crawford. They were playing him at third base. Well, what they're doing there, obviously, is grooming him for third because Machado, they want him to play shortstop next year. They're already trying to get Crawford as comfortable as possible at third base. Well, yes, but I... Well, Salisbury came out and said that in his article this week.

Yes, but I don't think they're comfortable with Kingery playing third base. Well, I don't think so either. Which is the other part of it, which is they think Kingery can handle Shorts up okay, and Crawford's really good at third base, and they took that. Right, which I think makes sense. Like, Kingery can't. I guess. Like, Kingery can't.

I'd play Franco. When you are charging a baseball at third base, you have to, you know, drop your shoulder, drop your arm angle, and get it over there. Crawford's really good at that. Kingery has only one way he can throw him, and that's straight over the top. That's why Crawford's at third base. Franco, did you watch the game

Sunday in Milwaukee? Yeah, it was in and out. Franco is completely locked in, fouling pitches off, taking balls the other way, hits a home run, and I'm like, where's this all the time? And then Monday rolls around, he's back doing the same stuff, fouling pitches off, taking balls the other way, hits a home run. I'm like, well, where is this all the time? And then Monday rolls around. He's back doing the same stuff. Whatever, Monday, Tuesday, whatever, he gets back in the lineup.

Back to doing the same old Franco stuff. It's just like, man, watch the game on Sunday. Understand that that's what makes you successful and implement that in your game. Yeah, but that's what he is. It's unbelievable. That's what he is. It's unbelievable.

That's what he is. One thing that I think that Kapler's doing is something that Charlie Emanuel used to do with Pat Burrell. When Pat would get in these really, really deep slumps. Now, it's not a great comparison because Pat was the first overall pick and did things that Franco's never done in the majors and probably never will. But he had a really good feel on when to sit guys and when to really kind of let them regain their confidence on the bench and maybe watching the games helped. And he did it a couple times with Pat where Pat was just really, really bad. And I feel like the games trying to do – they tried with Neris. He was trying to get Neris to take that job back.

He was. And then it blew up right in his face. Well, it didn't because they still won the games. But he tried – Not on a won the games. But he tried. Not on a Sunday in Milwaukee. Yeah, yeah. He was trying to. So I like what he does with stuff like that with Gabe.

I think he's trying to manage Franco the best that he can. What I like and what I think he's done a better job of recently, like remember at the beginning of the season, he was saying how we make the lineups a week out and whatever. Now he's playing the hot hand more and more. Like you're not seeing Altair play anymore. You're seeing Williams in there. When Crawford was healthy, Franco is pretty much on the bench.

And Williams should have been playing. Yeah, he should have been. He's performing. 100%. And I think he's gone away from that, which I think is a big step forward. Because you can't make a line-up so weak out. If a guy has two straight games. It's not practical. Yeah, if a guy has two straight games of hitting well, you're keeping him in the line-up because that gives you the best chance to win.

That's why my point with the bullpen is it's not practical. It's great in theory. I'm sure Gabe, in theory, thinks that it's great. Oh, he gets the proper amount of rest or whatever. This is a field game. It is a field game. And I think he it. He gets the proper amount of rest or whatever. This is a feel game. It is a feel game. And I think he's done a little bit better job of finding some feel. I agree.

I totally agree. Let's talk about J.B. Crawford. J.B. Crawford fractured his hand yesterday. They said he doesn't need surgery. Four to six weeks. Four to six weeks, which hurts because he came back. I know everyone's talking about how he can't hit, whatever. That's fine.

His average is crappy. But he was getting on base at a 40% clip ever since coming off the DL. And him at the bottom of the lineup, being that 9-hole hitter with the pitcher in the 8-hole, was setting the table for the top of the lineup. It was basically giving them another leadoff hitter at the bottom of the lineup. He was getting on base. Cesar was doing whatever. And then you get Hoskins up in the two-hole, which I know you hate.

But recently it was working. It was getting Hoskins up with runners in scoring position and letting him do damage, and he was doing damage. So I think it's a bigger loss than people are making it out to be. Oh, I agree. I don't think they win that Rockies game last Thursday without the big inning with a walk that JP drew. And on Saturday night against Milwaukee, too, he also drew a walk.

But he's also developing at the same time, too. So it hurts his development, too. I agree. And he's a strange man. He didn't score on the double from second base. He didn't score on the ball that hit off the wall. And then he flopped in the third base and slid too early and face-planted. And he didn't almost score after he gets a triple and face plants.

And he doesn't almost score on a hit because he's running back to tag up. But I like what I've seen. The kid's great defensively. He's just got it. He's going to make errors. He's going to make errors at shortstop. That's what you're out there. Look what J.

Roll did. Look what Freddie did his first full year. Had a lot of errors. He's out there to develop. It's not always an easy year, your rookie year. Everyone's coming into the league and hit 300 and have 15 home runs and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, making them earn it this year. That's good moving.

Yeah, like Reese. I mean, not everyone can come up and just be Reese Hoskins right off the bat. Obviously, him and Crawford and Kingery was just, you know, it was frustrating night-to-night on a basis. But the team's 33-32 with, I think, three guys batting, like the 190s, between 190 and 220. Low averages, right. It's bad.

Two guys that are absolutely on fire right now, Adubo Herrera, four straight games with the homer. I think he's four out of five games. I think he homered Friday night in Milwaukee, didn't homer Saturday, and then has homered since. Have you seen a hitter with the highs of him and the lows of him in your history of watching the sport? Off the top of my head, I'm sure, yes, I'm sure there has been.

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but you're waiting for it to turn around, I'm sure, yes, I'm sure there has been. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but it is. You're waiting for it to turn around, and what did it get down to, 280? Yeah. Something like that, and it's like, geez, what's going on? And just like that, bang, and he's seeing the ball well, I guess, is one of the terms that people say. He's probably a player, when he goes bad, he's really swimming in his head. He's a pure timing guy.

He's like everything is timing based. With the kick. Yeah. So he was completely thrown off. And now, foots down early again, he's just absolutely smoking balls. He is. And kind of like Jimmy in his heyday, this offense came and went with Jimmy. If Jimmy was getting on base, usually the Phillies were winning. Ryan was

getting him in. Chase was getting him in. When Oduble is getting on base, he's hitting for power right now too. It's unbelievable. He can carry the team offensively. Really, the Phillies slump offensively directly coincided with Oduble going to a tailspin. Everybody

suffered. You're right. All of a sudden, the offense is back, and look who's back. Right. Oduble. Right. And you have Reese, who had to take a broken face for him to get back on track. I mean, Reese broke his face, came back, and he's batting, I think,

340 since coming back. It was just what the doctor ordered. He's fixed his launch angle, which I know makes you happy. Launch angle. Listen, launch angle is the most practical thing ever, and I can't believe the outrage it incites. Oh, not outrage. I just let you handle it.

This is launch angle. The pitch is coming in on a slant. You want to hit it out on that slant. You don't want to swing down on it, creating backspin. Yeah, no, I get it. They don't teach guys to swing down on the ball anymore. I get it. No, I understand.

I'm just saying, like I said, I'm too old to deal. I'm going to let you deal with the FIP and the lip and the launch angle. Listen. Exit VLO. Listen, we're just trying to make you hip with the High Hopes crowd, all right? You know, we can't let the stigma of the old school radio host. So that's the High Hopes question of the week is, are you down with FIP and what is it?

What were you just saying? The launch angle and exit VLO and there you go. I do wonder if the reason, at least around here, at least with most of the talk around this Phillies team and with the crowd sizes, I wonder if a lot of it has to do with people just, the old school people just hate the analytics so much. No.

And then that's the reason why they don't like this team, this manager that much. No, the Phillies need to win. If we're in August and they're 10 games over.500, people will start coming out. Then you'll see it next year. They sign a free agent in the offseason. You'll see the place packed next year.

It's always been like this. Even when they were – because remember, this team was winning— They were almost in the playoffs for those Larry Boa years, and then the beginning of Charlie, it was the same thing. But they had big crowds because it was a new stadium. Then it started to dwindle out a little bit. I remember rooting for them to lose, so Edway got fired. I literally didn't want them to make the playoffs

because I realized that he had no chance. And he certainly helped with building the organization. But I wanted him gone so bad. And they just weren't doing great in a 10, realized that he had no chance and he he certainly helped with with building the organization but i wanted him gone so bad and those weren't doing great in a 10 like super super great even when they were winning when they were winning some games gotta make the playoffs man by the way victor arano is in the ninth so oh boy we'll see how this goes yeah i don't know i was thinking about it because i listened to a lot of la and franski and franski tries to understand analytics he tries it but he also comes from an old older school uh type of baseball then la just

hates all of it and i was wondering i was wondering like if the phillies are in a wild card game is he still going to be like ah this manager like these analytics they just don't know what they're doing um yeah but but I mean, does he really? Everybody thinks that, I'll hear listeners and callers that call in, they'll be like, Kapler's got to stop using his computer in the dugout. He's still making decisions as a baseball manager would. He's got to play in the majors for eight years. Adam Morgan. Or longer than that.

No, 12, I think. 12 years, yeah. Adam Morgan splits. He's a better longer than that. No, 12, I think. 12 years, yeah. Adam Morgan splits. He's a better pitcher against righties than lefties, but Kapler's been going to him against lefties. Yeah, but he has no one else. Primarily because he has nobody else. Yeah, but still, the splits say that he's better against righties than lefties,

so if he was a true analytics guy, he would be putting somebody else in there. Yeah. All right, before we move on to the Washington series. Hurry up. I've got to get ready to go in the air. No, no one cares about that. No one needs that at all. else in there yeah um all right before we move on to the washington series uh hurry up i gotta get ready to go in the air nah no one cares about that no one no one needs that at all um nick pavetta struck out 13 the other night uh he made a really really nice mechanical change i don't know if i don't know if you noticed but he he was starting to gather himself at the top of his

mechanics before exploding towards the plate whereas in previous starts he was kind of just it was the first thing i saw right off the bat i was like damn i get excited about those things so i had to talk about that for five seconds that former collegiate pitcher jack must have uh the ics with the ics and 13ks maybe well i'll say this i thought capler made the wrong move bringing him back out for the eighth and part of that is feel but the other part is i look at a young pitcher. You get him out after he's had a great start. You have your eighth inning guy, your ninth inning guy. That's when I talk about defined roles.

That's what I wanted to see in that game. Eighth inning, ninth inning, bam, you win it. Seven strong, eighth inning, ninth inning. Instead, he tried to bring him out for the eighth, and it kind of blew up in his face. But he looked really good for a stretch in June last year. He went through a month where I remember touting him as being like, he can be the guy.

He can be one of the guys. Is he the second best starter on this roster right now? Yeah. Yep. Right now he is. If you were setting out a playoff rotation, it goes Nola, Pavetta, Arrieta, Eflin, or Velasquez. No, no, no, no, no.

Having a conversation and setting a playoff pitching roster are two different things. Come on. Arrieta absolutely is two. if he's not one. Wild card game Pavetta. No. No. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Get him more. Kapler goes. Kapler goes. Okay. So if Pavetta's 19 and 10 at the end of the season with two and a half PRA. Well, that's all that matters.

Pitchers wins. Yeah. I mean, but if it's close, it's going to be a fun run to see what he does the rest of the season. Yeah. Especially as these games get tighter, these games get more important. And speaking of important games, important series,

the Phillies are heading down to Washington this weekend, which used to be CBP South. I miss those days. But then it was Natitude. You can't come down. I remember wishing that Davey Johnson croaked in the dugout when he was the manager. Well, they can't settle on a manager down there, and they're going to continue to lose

because as much talent as they have, there's just something that's hinky with that organization. And I think it starts with Strange. I think it starts with Rizzo and the Lerner family or whatever. They haven't hired the right manager a couple times over. They do have Juan Soto, who looks awesome. They have a couple times over. They do have Juan Soto, who looks awesome. They got – no, listen, they have a lot of talent. They went with Dusty Baker, who I actually was surprised they got rid of him because I don't know if Dave Martinez is better than Dusty Baker.

I mean, who the freak knows? They should have hired Charlie Manuel 10 years ago or however many years ago when they had a chance to do it, not 10 years ago. Yeah. But we have Eflin, Nola, Pavetta. They haven't named their starters yet. I mean, Roark starting game one against Eflin. But this is an important series.

Go down there, make a statement that you're for real. They're essentially a game apart in the standings right now. Here's the great thing Eflin's done. That's a formidable three. That's a formidable rotation for a three-game series if Eflin's pitching the way that he's shown that he can pitch you're not just like oh guy you know we got Ben Lively starting and you're already looking at that as being a loss these guys have high have high-end stuff Arrieta's got to step up yeah he had a decent start today he's given up too many

home runs he when he misses the velocity is not's not there to where guys can hit it out of the park. So it was a good start today by Arrieta, but I got to see wins, brother. Yeah, and he's really struggling to throw strikes. It's pretty frustrating. Sunday night. We have Sunday night baseball this week, Johnny. The Phillies are on national TV for the first time since I think the night Osama bin Laden was shot. Was that the last time?

I think that was the last time. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that was the last time. Last memorable night. Sunday night baseball, Pavetta versus whoever, whatever. Big series this weekend. Hopefully they can make a statement that they are semi-for-real in the NL East against a team that has ran it for the last four years. Got the Nats, the Yankees, and then the Nats again, I believe.

Yes. And that's a nice stretch. So you look at it here, pretty big. We have Arrieta Severino on Tuesday, which I'm very excited about. Also takes you into July, where now you start thinking trades, you start thinking trade deadline, and you really have to put yourself in a position to

where if you're going to do something that's at least semi-major, you're going to win some games. So it'd be great to have a... The way I look at it is, if you can go 500 over this stretch, you sign up for that right now. If they get the win today, which Arana is trying his best to lose. Trying his best. And he went to the pen, so I wonder who's coming in.

I don't know. But I will say this. This next 10 games is going to be a lot of fun because I love when the Yankees come to town or the Red Sox come to town. It's like one of my favorite parts of the season. Yeah, it'll be nice to get some wins. So let's get some wins against these crackers. Sunday night, we'll be back with a new episode of High Hopes after,

well, actually, I don't know, because it's going to be a late game. So maybe I'll just stay up until 1 a.m. I'm on vacation next week, too. Oh, look at you. From the station, it doesn't mean I can't do a High Hopes. Of course not. Of course not. We'll figure it out.

I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening. All-star closer, Kenley Jansen. We have a question. What's the best podcast of all it out. I'll talk to jump aboard the BIB Express. Follow and listen to Baseball Isn't Boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.