High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The High Hopes Phillies Podcast: The Crew joins Joe Giglio at his Phillies Roundtable

Episode Date: March 28, 2018

Jon Marks and James Seltzer joined Joe Giglio for an hour at his Phillies Roundtable to talk about the team and just how good they can be this season.  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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That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. There was a silly old ant. Thought he'd move a rubber tree plant. Anyone knows an ant can't move a rubber tree plant. But he had high hopes. He had high hopes he had high hopes he had high apple pie in the sky i hope so when you start to feel

it low instead of letting go just remember that and whoop there goes another Robert Reed. Up there goes another Robert Reed. Up there goes another Robert Reed. How about that? How about that to play us into our second hour? Welcome back to the Phillies Roundtable. Harry Callas, whose birthday was yesterday. Harry, I think, would have been 82 yesterday. And how about that?

The high hopes. And this is perfect, too, because hour two of our Phillies roundtable tonight from Chickies and Pizza South Philly is the High Hopes podcast. I have James Seltzer here. John Marks is here hanging out. What's going on, guys? Here's the pitch.

I hate to give Jack Fritz credit for anything. That was pretty good producing right there. He also wanted me to talk about the High Hopes podcast. Yeah, it's good work. Guys, I'm so happy you guys could be here. I was saying when we first started at 6 o'clock, I don't know the last time WIP did four straight hours of Phillies talk, like outside of a game, which is totally different.

It's been a long time since there was excitement heading into a season. 2011? Yep. The guess we had was right before Game 5 of the Division Series in 11. It was probably the last time anyone talked this much about the Phillies consecutively. It's been a long time. Yeah, and you know, we did a show a couple Fridays ago right here from Chickies, and we were asking for, I don't even know what we were asking for.

We were asking for memorable Philadelphia moments, and not the championship moments, but other moments that you remember. And it kind of snowballed from people saying stuff about the Eagles, and then we got into the Phillies run of 07, 08, 09, et cetera. And there's so many moments that you forget. But a lot of the calls by Scott, and we had some Harry calls, really gave me goosebumps. It brought me back.

And now you look at it, very similar path to where you were back in 2005, 2006 right now. It feels like it's starting again. It feels like the Phillies have reset, they've rebuilt it, and now, James, there's a legitimate reason to believe they're going to be good now and for a while. That's the beautiful thing is we all were kind of on board with this process for the Phillies, as it were, but to actually see it jumpstart the way it has, Arieta signing, bringing in Carlos Santana, we all were excited about the chance to see Hoskins

and these guys for a full season. Now we're actually going to get to see Kingery for a full season. It's like within the last month, I can't remember a team's immediate fortunes in this city changing so quickly in such a short period of time where everyone went from, oh, I'm excited about the future to I'm excited about the now and the future. It's awesome, man.

Yeah, the now is here. And the Phillies, if you asked people two months ago, are the Phillies going to be good this year, they would have said, I don't know, probably not. They're rebuilding. But now there's a feeling out there they're going to be a good baseball team. Are you guys on board? Is this team ready to win now because they're acting like they are?

When you go sign Jake Arrieta, you're acting like you can win. And when you sign Kingrey before the season and put him on the opening day team, you're acting like you think you're going to be a good team right now. Yeah. See, win the World Series, probably not. They don't have the arms to do it. Compete. And when I say compete, I mean really compete for a wild card.

They are. They're a team that can win in the mid to high 80s in games this year. With the lineup that they have, if they add a starting pitcher, which you know they're going to unless they totally disappoint, yeah, they absolutely have a chance. The lineup, and I was, Joe, I put this tweet out a couple days ago, right after they signed Kingery. The lineup, and I was, Joe, I put this tweet out a couple days ago,

right after they signed Kingery. If you look back to the 2000 Phillies to the 2017 Phillies, the 2000 Phillies, I think, won 65 games, 66 games. Larry Boa came in in 2001. Jimmy Rollins came in in 2001. I see Gabe Kapler and Scott Kingery being very similar coming in, different manager, different style of managing, and Kingery will be the energy that this team needs, similar to Jimmy Rollins. I agree with that.

Yeah, I do too. And I think that, first of all, people forget how fun this town can be when the Phillies are good. And when Citizens Bank Park is packed, there's just a different vibe in the town when there's a baseball team to talk about. It's a baseball town, and people never call it that. We're Eagles, Eagles, Eagles. But people really get behind this team when they're good. When they's a baseball town. And people never call it that. You know, we're Eagles, Eagles, Eagles. But people really get behind this team when they're good.

When they're good, yeah. And I'm with you guys. Look, if you look at the last few years, National League, whatever you want to look at, other than last year where the Rockies and Diamondbacks both won over 90 games, 87-ish games. That's been the second record. That's the number that you're shooting for. And I don't see any reason why this team, as they're built now, can't do it,

especially when you look at the competition. You know, it's a pretty wide gap between, you know, the Nationals, the Cubs, the Dodgers. You figure those teams pretty solidly going to win those divisions most likely. But after that, I mean, this Rockies team, the Diamondbacks team, there's a lot of question marks. Zach Greinke's coming into this season unable to throw over 85 right now. Robbie Ray, obviously a lot of people like him, coming off a career year.

People think he's going to repeat it. The Rockies obviously... The Rockies never put together back-to-back seasons. Ever. Ever. And then, you know, the Brewers are gearing up. The point is that... They're hardly locks to be the guys. No one scares you. No one scares you. And the Phillies have a better offense than any of those teams. As John said, it's going to come down to whether the pitching can hold up.

All right, John, you mentioned LeLary Boa comparison, new manager, new vibe. What do you guys think of Kaepernick? What's been the thoughts so far? I was intrigued by the hire. I thought it was outside the box, which fit what they want to do here. And I've liked what I've seen so far. I think he's a good fit for a young team. If you put him on the Yankees or the Red Sox or World Series expectations,

veterans, no. But these guys, they seem to buy into what he's a good fit for a young team. If you put him on the Yankees or the Red Sox or World Series expectations, veterans, no. But these guys, they seem to buy into what he's selling. So from being down in spring training Clearwater last week and talking to a lot of the guys, we didn't get a chance to interview Kapler himself, but I was curious to what they were going to say to some of the new age things that they're doing. Aaron Altair is running all over the outfield, switching positions,

stuff that they're trying and they're probably going to do in the regular season. When you asked about when I asked Altair and Nick Williams and those guys about kind of shifting around the outfield, I'm not going to say they rolled their eyes, but they said, hey, we're willing to try whatever if it's going to help us win. And then when you asked about Kapler,

immediately it was, oh, we love him. They really, really love this guy. They love the energy. They love the enthusiasm. And they want to play for him. They look at him as being a player's manager, a guy that's been there and done it. Not a minor league guy or a guy that maybe played a really long time ago, nothing against Pete McKinnon.

But it's a new energy, like you said, to a young team. He wants them logging how many throws they have in the outfield, whether they're big throws or little throws. Like you said, if you said that to a guy that's been in the league for 15 years, he's probably giving them the finger and being like, yeah, right, I'm not doing it. With this team, it works. And it's going to be exciting to see just how well it works. Yeah, I think that's the key.

I think it's a perfect fit for a young group of guys, a bunch of guys who need to develop. And that type of energy and excitement, I think, is contagious with a group like that. But more so, and he was on the Midday Show today, Gabe Kapler, and he is so engaging. And he, like, first of all, he prepared for the interview. He prepares for every interview he does. What? I mean, what kind of manager does that?

And then he started off the conversation. They're like, Joe and John are, hey, Gabe, really happy to have you on. And he goes, I'm excited for this conversation, guys. And it wasn't BS. It was genuine. It was real. I think the way this guy interacts with people, his ability to engage, to be there with people, I think is going to be really big for this team.

And then more so, it's not just that John mentioned the outfield shifts and stuff. I love anything different. And, you know, I'm with you when they hired him this is a different type of hire and i dig that but it's the fact that he's willing to look at the 130 140 years the baseball has been played and say why did they do that why don't we why don't we try something else and then on top of that he talked about the the second and fourth hitters being the most important positions in his lineup data says second hitter gets up with runners on base more than anybody else, blah, blah, blah. But in saying that, he's like, we might be wrong.

We might change it. But that's the way we're looking at it now. And I've never heard any manager say the second and the fourth. You know what the lineup is, 1-3. You know what a traditional baseball manager does. I've never heard anybody say that before, 2-4. And then you think about it, and it's like, you know what? All right, so what is he going to do with the lineup now, knowing that?

And the other thing James has said, and he's right, he's willing to change. He's not going to come in and say, no, it's got to be like this. It's a flexible manager that has played in the big leagues, so gets the player's perspective, but also likes the analytics and appreciates and respects that part of it. What's the biggest question you have about him? Because everyone out there listening is like, wait, I'm not quite sure about Kaepernick. And none of us should be.

He's managed once in 2007 at single A for the Red Sox. This is not a guy that has managerial experience. I wonder how he's going to handle the bullpen because they're going to use a lot of switches. And two, he's going to have to communicate with these guys because he has nine or ten players that are going to want to play every day and probably have a case to play a lot, and he can only write eight of their names in the lineup every day. Yeah, it's a great point. I think you look to the organization he came from. I mean, that's what the Dodgers are doing, right? The Dodgers played, had more pitchers throw

last year, had more position players play. That's what they're doing. You look at guys like Chris Taylor. I mean, that could be a kind of a, what they're going to do with Scott King. Yeah, all over the place. All over the place. So I do think that they worry about load management and that type of stuff. And I think that's going to be a part of it.

And I think that's just going to be a part of this program, the way that Gabe Gappler goes about it. But yeah, I think you make a good point that it's not all going to be perfect and everything work out. And I think there are questions. I think there are a lot of people who don't necessarily know if the intensity is going to work, if the weird stuff, the coconut oil, all that.

I don't care about any of that, personally. I think that when we look at him as this kind of strange figure that people call him, they forget that you guys just mentioned he played in the major leagues for over a decade. This is a guy who understands the grind, understands a clubhouse, understands a locker room. I think that part of it is kind of lost. But, look, if he's doing a bunch of different stuff and it's not working,

people are going to go after him. That's just the way it always happens. Yeah. Charlie Manuel was never known as the best technical manager. He was an American League manager. In fact, his first couple years here, people just made fun of him, saying he's still learning what a double switch is and everything else. Do I expect some growing pains from Kapler? Not really. He's been in the league a long time.

Sure, it's going to take time with the bullpen for guys to figure out their roles, and that's going to happen naturally, normally, over the course of a season. I just, I don't know what his greatest attribute is going to be. And Charlie Manuel was able to get guys comfortable in the clubhouse. He pushed the right buttons. He knew when to push guys. He knew when to back off of guys. He knew when to give Pat Burrow an extended break. And when you brought him back, he was good.

So I think the biggest challenge for him this season is going to be, as James kind of said, knowing when to go with the guy and knowing when to say, all right. Because he's got more starters than he has. I mean, really, it's amazing how deep this team is right now. It's a good problem to have because last year they didn't have enough good players. Yeah, and, I mean, look, people get hurt and, like, all this type of stuff. The playing time thing, I think, is going to work itself out over a 162-game season.

Injuries. In everything. Ineffectiveness. Exactly. I heard Todd and Marshall mention on the way in, Franco's not going to keep this job very long. You saw that last year with J.P. Crawford. He was the starter by the end of the season.

Sure was. If Franco was Franco of last season, Kingery's going to be the starter before the end of the season. As well he should. As well he should. And, look, I know you and Jack Fritz more on the belief that Franco can turn it around than Marks and I are. I haven't given up.

Look, he's, what, 25, 26. Like, I'm not giving up. I need to see it in a real non-spring training major league game. But to add on to what Mark said, I think that, like you said before, to really answer the question, if I had to worry about one thing with Kapler, it's just him understanding which guys to be more intense with, which guys to hold back a little bit with. Like what John was saying, it's not just the – it's the specific people.

And maybe under – like I don't know for sure what his approach is with each person and if it's an individual thing. So if the intensity comes on a little strong for certain players, I guess that could be it. I wanted to add this too because doing doing what you'll be doing this year, leading off and the final out, is it, I guess? Final out. It wasn't fun for the first couple months of the season.

Oh, I came on after. I listened to all those. Oh, my God. I could tell you had to put all you had to get through it. And then Reese Hoskins came up, and the energy was different, the tone was different, and there was actually good baseball that was going on. But one thing I'm interested to see for how he handles Adubo Herrera.

I don't believe Pete McKinnon did a great job of how he handled him last season, although he did come back and had a great second half. But he was bothering guys in the clubhouse. You remember Cameron Rupp came out the one time and more or less said, like, hey, we love him and we want him to produce, but at some point you've got to stop being a knucklehead and doing knucklehead things on the field. I'm interested

to see how Kapler gets through to Oduble because the talent is obviously there. He's productive. He ignites the lineup, but can Kapler get to him to get him to stop doing the Oduble kind of stuff? He could be an all-star. He's been an all-star player. He could be an all-star. I mean, he's been an all-star player. Yeah, absolutely.

He could be an all-star who's not just the token all-star because the Phillies need an all-star. Like he was two years ago. Exactly. I'm saying he's a legitimate all-star. He's that type of talent. And a great fielder. No one ever talks about it.

I mean, it's the bone-headed stuff. He'll make these amazing plays, and then all of a sudden, the ball flies over his head because he took a bad route. No, it is. He's frustrating sometimes, but he is a good player. We are live tonight. Chickies of Pete, South Philly. It is our Phillies roundtable. James Seltzer, John Marks are here with us this hour.

Come on by Thursday. Chickies of Pete will be hosting the Phillies away game opening day watch party. Join the camera, John Ritchie broadcasting live appearances by the Fanatic, the Ball Girls, Mickey Morandini. The 2008 World Series trophy also will be here. We'll come back. A Phillies lifer is going to join us next on the lines, guys. Chris Wheeler is going to give us a call from down in Clearwater.

We'll talk to Wheels. We'll take some phone calls and get more into this team and thoughts on this season opening day less than two days away in Atlanta. It is our Phillies roundtable on the evening show. 8 at 8, 7 to 9, 9 to 4, 9 to 4 to hop in. Sports Radio 94 WIP. Welcome back in our Phillies round in. Sports Radio 94 WIP. Welcome back in our Phillies roundtable. Sports Radio 94 WIP.

Joe Giglio with you. The evening show tonight. Welcome in a ton of guests on the air with us. This hour, John Marks, James Seltzer, this is the High Hopes podcast put back together with Jack back in the studio. We've got a lot to get into the rest of the hour here as we talk. Phillies get you set for the season opening day on Thursday. High expectations back again for the Phillies. We've got to bring to get into the rest of the hour here as we talk. Phillies get you set for the season opening day on Thursday. High expectations back again for the Phillies.

We've got to bring on another guest, though. We're going to go down to Florida right now and bring on a guy whose voice we need to hear more of and a guy who's basically a Phillies lifer, Chris Wheeler, joining us on our Phillies Roundtable. Chris, welcome to the show. Joe, John, James with you. How are you doing tonight?

I'm doing great, Joe. I'm in clear water so it's always a good thing. Sure is. And they have good weather. I saw you last week. It was 60s. It wasn't windy. Joe and John, 80 degrees and sunny, man. It was nice

today. It was around 80. We've been blowing pretty hard out the left field today, but it was warm wind. It's a beautiful night here. It felt kind of weird, you know, after all these years of watching a team leave, you know, and you're still here. But, you know, I kind of adjusted to all that, and I'm really good with it. So, Chris, what's your feeling?

The team's departing, and they're going to Atlanta. They're getting ready to start their season. What's your feeling on this team? Because there's a lot of optimism up here. Well, I think that's good to have optimism. You know, I've always's good to have optimism. You know, I've always been pretty much a realist about baseball and about the teams and all that, and I think it's a work in progress, Joe. You see some things this spring that were really good,

that some guys were making some progress, some guys were kind of stuck in neutral, in my opinion, and some guys maybe slid back a little bit. But there's talent there. There's a lot. But you really need to get a pitching staff together, get guys from at-bats in the major leagues. It's the hardest sport in the world to play.

I know people have their different opinions, but it's so hard to hit a baseball. And they need repetition. They need to play at this level. A lot of these guys haven't played at this level long enough to really get a feel for what they are other than, well, even a Hoskins, you know, who was up for a while last year. But there's a lot of young people on this team.

There's a lot of enthusiasm. I mean, Gabe Kapler had a hell of a spring training down here, you know, keeping everything positive and upbeat. And you just hope you can keep it that way because there's a lot of good things going on right now. But the promised postseason and World Series and playoffs and all that stuff, I've never been one to go into that area unless I was pretty sure it was a really, really good team. We're on our way back there, Wheels.

We're getting there. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, who stood out to you this spring? Obviously, we've heard a lot about Scott Kingery, the news of the contract and all that. But what players stood out to you this spring down there in Clearwater? Well, he really stands out. I was so happy they were able to do what they did with him

because everybody was pretty much resigned, Joe, that he was going to start, you know, a triple-A and get to the certain point where they felt that they could bring him up. You know, everybody knows the contract situation. And then to do what they did to buy him out of those free agent years and arbitration years is really outstanding. You know, it's a risk, but he looks like he's got a chance to be pretty good. Crawford, to me, you know, defensively, he was better than I thought he was defensively.

And offensively, you know, he's a little bit of a disappointment in spring training. Hoskins is for real. He's really a good player. He's going to be a good player. The guy that they got from the pre-agent that was with Cleveland last year. Carlos Santana. Carlos Santana. Oh, my goodness.

This man really hits bullets. And, you know, a lot of times a switch hitter will have a different swing from one side. Left-handed hitter usually, I think, is kind of a low-ball hitter. Right-handed, from the right side, they'll hit the ball up a little bit more. I didn't see all that with him this spring. He just hit bullet after bullet. He walks a lot. It's hard to tell, you know, how good a first baseman he's going to be.

Everybody says he's going to be all right. He moves around pretty well down there. But I think as a leader in the clubhouse, they made a heck of a move with him to be able to bring this guy in to put in there in the order with some of the younger players and see what he could do. Wheels, you mentioned leadership. I think of Jake Arrieta. They brought him in because he's top of the rotation pitcher.

But I got the sense right away his first press conference that he's embracing the fact that he's going to lead the staff and try to teach them what he knows. Oh, absolutely, Joe. You know, when you've done what he's done, he's going to lead the staff and try to teach them what he knows. Oh, absolutely, Joe. You know, when you've done what he's done, catch pitch two no-hitters and won a Cy Young Award. He's pretty good. You just look at his chicken. I used to say, Gene Malkin used to say,

check out the back of the guy's baseball card. You get an idea what he is. Is he the same guy that he was doing? That kind of stuff, we'll find out. You know, he's dropped off a little bit since then. But, yeah, what I hear about him, he really, really welcomes the

challenge to help younger people, and there are a lot of young people on this team, to get better, to go through the situations that he's been through as a younger player and what it's like to pitch in the major leagues and to pitch at this level. You know, I always admired him when he was with the opposition.

We saw him when he was in Baltimore, and I couldn't imagine that he wasn't good. He looked so nasty. You know, he'd come from that crossfire delivery he is on the right side. The ball would sink, and yet he wouldn't win. He wouldn't win consistently for the Orioles. Then it all turned around for him when he went to Chicago and became the great pitcher that he was there. So, yeah, they did a very good job kind of waiting it out

because they didn't want to go for the number of years that they wanted originally. They got the number of years they wanted, and they figured that, you know, he can be a good pitcher for those years, and you don't get stuck in years four, five, six. You know, the teams have been in the past when the guy has really fallen off, and now you've got a player that can't produce. Hey, Will, I look at the 2000 Phillies. Terry Francona's last year they won 65 games.

2017, last year, they've won 66 games. Now, there's some things that are in common the following year. So in 2001, Larry Boa came in, different managerial style than Terry Francona. Also had Jimmy Rollins coming in as a rookie. He gave that lineup crazy energy, and they won 86 games. Just a huge 21 more wins than the following season. And now you have Kapler, different managing style from Pete McKinnon. You also have Scott Kingery coming in.

I don't know if he's going to have the same impact as Jimmy Rollins because Jimmy Rollins had such a significant impact on that team. But I feel like Kingery can help bring even more energy to this team, and Kapler can maybe do the same thing. So I'm not going to predict 86-87 wins right now for the Phillies, but I think this can be similar to what Larry was able to do in 2001, and I love Bo. He changed the team.

He turned the team around, and I think that the same thing can happen this season. Well, I like that. I like that optimism and I hope you're right. Kingery, you know, you don't want to put too much pressure on him because already they've said he's not going to play right away necessarily, but he's going to play. In other words, they used him in

so many positions this spring that I think that that gave them the confidence that they could go with this deal that they went with if they could work it out with him and his agent, which they did. He has tremendous energy. You're just going to – look, I grew up in the area. I understand what kind of players fans like. He's a little bit of a throwback dirtball player, and, you know,

from my generation, that's a compliment. He can run the bases instinctively. He can go first to third, score from second. He can steal the bases instinctively. He can go first to third, score from second. He can steal bases for you. He looks like he's going to have the ability to work a count in time. Now, whether or not he gets antsy right away, face a major league pitching and finds himself 0-2, I can't tell you that. But, yeah, he really has a lot going for him.

He's the kind of guy they want right now. I don't want to compare him to Utley because I don't think he'll ever have the power that Chase had. But he's that kind of a player where you can put him in your clubhouse and in your lineup, and I think he can make people better around him. And I've always believed the more guys you can put in a lineup that make other guys better, then you're going to be a good team. As far as Kapler goes, I don't know what to say. I mean, I wasn't around him that much. You know, that's not my gig anymore. But I was around him enough to know him a little bit and to meet him.

He has an out-of-this-world personality. He's very positive. He tries to make every guy in that clubhouse feel like he's an all-star. I don't know what he's like, you know, if he's going to shut the door and jump them, you know, how he's going to handle all those kind of things that managers inevitably have to handle because he hasn't had that much experience. But overall, just watching him, I think for today's game, he has a chance to be okay. But it all comes down to whether his players produce for him. And I'll go back to what I said before.

I'm a pitching and defense guy. I've always believed that if you don't have a good pitching staff and you don't have starters and bullpen guys, then everything else is going to struggle no matter how much offense you can eventually put together. And in those cold months when you play early on, you really want to be able to pitch because the hitters are not real excited about hitting in the cold weather in the Northeast. But I like the guy. I like him a lot. Whether he can manage at this level and do the things you have to do, he's coming to Philadelphia. You know, I've always said people, the agents will say,

or the players will say, oh, we know what it's like to play there. You have no idea what it's like to play in Philadelphia until you get there and they jump you and get on you and try to make you better. And if you give in, they'll run you right out of town. If you don't and you fight and you battle and you become a good player in Philadelphia, they'll love you forever. And I've seen enough of that in my lifetime. Well, that's for sure.

Wheels, we really appreciate a few minutes here. Enjoy the nice weather down there. And we will catch up again as the season goes along. Okay, guys. Anytime. I enjoy speaking with you. Give me a call. You got it. There he goes. Chris Wheeler has done it all for the Phillies, talking to again as the season goes along. Okay, guys. Anytime. I enjoy speaking with you. Give me a call. You got it.

There he goes. Chris Wheeler has done it all for the Phillies, talking to us about the season. This is our Phillies Roundtable, Sports Radio 94 WIP. We're live tonight. Chicky's at Pete's South Philly. I've got John Marks, James Seltzer this hour. Coming up next hour, we've got Glenn Macnow, Jody McDonald. We've got a lot of Phillies to talk about as we preview the season.

Guys, when he was talking about Carlos Santana there and just talking about the players they have, and he mentioned Hoskins, Kingery, it just hits you when you hear all the names. For the first time in years, they don't have easy outs in the lineup anymore. There's no more of you get past 1, 2, 3, 4, and it's like, oh, well, they can't score runs. Like, they can now. Every single guy can get on base.

I mean, J.B. Crawford's likely going to have a 7-8 hole, and he's a 3-50 on base percentage guy. I mean, that's ridiculous. It's tough outs. They're going to make pitchers throw a lot of pitches. They're going to get to bullpens early. Santana going to be hitting high in the lineup a lot of times, it looks like. Probably too. Hoskins

early in the lineup, potentially at two-hit spots. Guys who get on base prioritizing that. I am really confident in this lineup's ability to succeed. I think Hoskins is going to, we're going to see, obviously not the 75-homer pace guy, but more the guy we saw early on than the guy who kind of finished off the season. And to Will's point about Santana, too,

a.366 career on base percentage. Every single year you look at this guy, he gets on base 36% of the time. He's like a robot. It's a robot. He's like a metronome of getting on base. It's really exciting. We've got an offense here. Hey, you do.

And top to bottom, really, everybody offers something different. Even Alfaro, who certainly isn't known as a walksman, but he's such an imagination. But you did see him improve as the season went on. I also think that a lot of what Reese Hoskins did last year, guys looked at it and said, well, you don't want some rookie coming up and showing you up. Everything that he did really was

kind of contagious. It showed with the way that they played down the stretch. J.P. Crawford's going to be great hitting in the 8-hole because he does have the patience. It doesn't show up in a box score when you turn the lineup over because you walk, but it means something to get that pitcher out of the way to end an inning, and that's not going to show up in a box score. So they have strong guys that are baseball savvy,

and for everything that Scott Kingery does correct and he's great with, he's not perfect. He doesn't walk a lot. He's not a walk guy. He's not going to be a 35-wheel setter, and I agree with him. Even though he's shown power, he's not a power hitter. He's going to steal bases, but as he told Ike and I in Clearwater, he's going to be smart about it.

He's not going to – Cesar Hernandez always bothers me because he doesn't even try to steal. I mean, you have to want it. Want it. And more or less, unless they're telling him he has to steal, he's not even trying. Scott Kingery, just based on being a smart baseball player and reading the pitch, is going to steal 25 bases.

In addition to that, and it's something Kapler mentioned today with the midday show, they're going to be aggressive on the base pass, outside of stealing bases. He was talking about talking to the guys and saying, we'd rather you get thrown out at third than not go for third. They were like that in spring training. I was surprised at how much they were running. I was like, what are they doing? That's a real market

inefficiency. The last few years, you're seeing teams take advantage of being smart base running teams, going first to third on plays. It makes such a big advantage. And teams don't run much in baseball anymore. Exactly. They don't. I think it's another market inefficiency that we're seeing these teams

take advantage of, smart teams. Certainly could be one for the Phillies. 8 at 8, 729, 9494. We'll come back. We'll take some phone calls here, a little rapid fire. Jack Fritz will throw some questions at us. We will talk about those. We have John Marks.

We have James Seltzer. It is hour two of our Phillies roundtable here, and we'll end this hour with some predictions for the 2018 Philadelphia Phillies. Come on by. Chickies of Pete, South Philadelphia. And don't forget, this Thursday, Chickies of Pete, the South Philly, hosting the Phillies away game watch party for opening day. Join a camera.

John Ritchie broadcasting live appearances by the Fanatic, the Ball Girls, Mickey Morandini, and the 2018 world series trophy opening day is on the way. We're talking Phillies on sports radio, 94 WIP. Welcome back sports radio, 94 WIP. It is our Phillies round table here live from chickies at peace in South Philly.

We got four hours of Phillies talk. Getting you set for the season starts Thursday afternoon, four down in Atlanta, the Phillies and the Braves. John Marks, James Seltzer here in this hour. We'll do some rapid-fire questions. Jack Fritz is going to throw them at us. It becomes the High Hopes podcast in a minute. Let's grab a phone call here. Todd in South Philly has been waiting.

You're up. What's up, Todd? Yo, how you guys doing? Doing well, buddy. What's on your mind? Awesome. So I just had a question about the leadership in the locker room. Last year I felt like it was a lot on the shoulders of Rupp and Freddie Galvis

to kind of police the locker room, and I felt they were the big leaders. And this year they're gone. And with moving to such a young lineup, who becomes the leaders in this locker room? Do you think it will be Santana and Arrieta? And how do you feel about them not being Phillies for a long period of time before they become the key leaders on this team? Well, I think Arrieta is the easy choice, but he's a pitcher. He doesn't play every day.

He'll police the pitchers and be the leader of them. I don't know who it's going to be for the position players. Santana's an obvious choice because he's the veteran, but I don't know his personality. Arrieta comes off as a guy, he wants to lead the pitchers. Absolutely. You look at, and I'll throw this out there, you have to understand in a major league clubhouse

you have a lot of Latinos that there's a language barrier that's there. Not that they don't speak English, but you know what I mean. It's just different. You have a lot of different guys that are in there. I think you asked the same question about Chase and Pat and Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. I think they all kind of led in their own way, and it wasn't until they traded Bobby Abreu that those players could be themselves

and really took over as anytime that you're the best player, you're making the most money, and you're the all-star. You're the de facto, even if you're not the leader, you're the de facto clubhouse sheriff. And that was Bobby Abreu. And there's a reason why they started playing well when they traded him for essentially nothing and it was a salary dump. Yeah, for what it's worth, everything you hear about Santana,

you know, the taking Mikel Franco under his wing, that it was his idea that he went to Kapler and Klintak and was like, hey, I want to help this kid out. I mean, that's the type of stuff you want to hear, and everything you hear out of Cleveland was a great veteran type of guy. But I do think that Todd does have a point that you do need someone who does know the culture a little bit here and has been here, but organizational changeover with the front office, the staff, all that.

So I don't know how important that is. I do think, though, of the young guys, from what I've seen from Reece Hoskins, he feels like that type of guy, right? He's just naturally the leader. He's just naturally the leader, and he was the leader on the minor league team. He was the best player on that team coming up. He's got that kind of pedigree, as it were. And also you hear him talk like he's a film nerd.

Like this guy's always watching film. He's always studying. That's the type of stuff that even if it's subconscious, even if it's whatever, that rubs off on a team. You watch someone work like that to be that good, I feel like it's the Arrieta thing, right? Like, that's what we're hoping for from Arrieta. The staff sees the way this guy goes about his business and says

I want to be like that guy. I'm going to throw something to you guys I never thought I would say last August. John, I remember when you were doing the final outs and goes about his business and says, I want to be like that guy. I'm going to throw something to you guys I never thought I would say last August. John, I remember when you were doing the final outs and the games and all. People started getting into the Phillies again. There was a feeling of the baseball was alive again in Philadelphia. I never thought I'd say this less than a year later. I feel like Reese Hoskins is under the radar heading into this season. He was the hottest thing last summer.

Now Kingery is that. Arrieta just got signed. They spent money. I think we're sleeping on how good this guy is. He came up and he was the best hitter in baseball for two months. And I think he's going to be an all-star type of player for a long time. He's not going to hit

50 home runs a year. No, he's not. If he could hit 35, 40 home runs and get on base the way he did last year, he's a superstar. 25 to 35 consistently on base percentage. 400 in that neighborhood right there, maybe batting 280. One thing about Hoskins and a lot of people that started paying attention

when he made the majors, and you saw it even last year, he's very streaky. He will be red hot, and then he can go ice cold like that. His entire minor league career, you'd see his average up to 320, dip to 290, up to 300, dip to 280. You'd see his average up to 320, dip to 290, up to 300, dip to 280. So he is streaky, but what makes him valuable is that the on-base percentage is never streaky because he's always seeing a lot of pitches, drawing walks, and it's the one thing that this team really didn't have, and you don't see a lot in baseball,

and that's why he gives you a professional bat every time that he comes up. Yeah, it's a great way to put it, and he's got a very high floor for that reason as well. But I'm with you, man, and it's a very crude analogy, but you see it in the fantasy industry as well with fantasy baseball. A lot of people aren't willing to believe in Hoskins because they're looking at the second half of his season last year as opposed to the first half and saying, well, that just can't be real. Look at what he did in the second half.

It's like, no, it's in between those two things. It's not one extreme or the other. Reese Hoskins, I think he's going to get 35 home runs this year. I really do. He's a building block of a playoff championship level team. He can be the best player on a championship team. That's how good a player he can be. I agree.

Well, they have that, and they've got a guy in the middle of the order that feels like we're sleeping on, but he's going to be a star. I think he's going to be an all-star this year. Let's bring Jack in as now it becomes officially the High Oaks podcast. Jack, we have to. Yeah, I guess. Jack's going to throw some rapid fire at us. Jack, let's hear

him. Well, when he saw Cam Rupp get designated for assignment, how upset were you? What's the opposite of upset? Happy? Thrilled? I couldn't. Look, it just shows how much they've upgraded.

Guys, if you look at their lineup from opening day last year and you compare to the one this year, it's like night and day. Tommy Joseph hitting clean up. I mean, come on. Michael Saunders. Oh, my God. But, again, you look at it, and if this was Pete McKinnon that was the manager and maybe a different regime as GMs, Cameron Rupp's probably on this team

because they value what Andrew Knapp offers on base percentage and a guy that can hit maybe 15 home runs. By the way, Cameron Rupp will be on a roster this year, a major league roster at some point. What was it, Dirt the Catching? Listen, normally you want your backup catcher to be, you're not even worried about the offense. You like a little bit of power.

That's the problem with Rupp. And to call a game, I don't like him defensively. I don't like him calling a game at all. That's the big issue with Rupp. Look, he's a fine bat catcher. He's above average hitter. He's fine hitting. I don't care about that.

But that's the point. He's just so flawed defensively. He's never going to get to where it needs to be. And he's just a backup catcher in this league. You know, if he were here, he was taking it bats away from Alfaro. I think that's kind of where the disdain for some people came from. But I don't have a problem with Rupp, but there's just no spot for him. It was a stopgap.

And now they have two catchers they believe in. Jack, rapid fire number two. How much of my weekly salary should I put on the over of 75 and a half? Well, not that it's much, but I would put all of it on it, Jack. Jack, I don't want to see you lose your money if they have a couple injuries, but they're going to win more than 75 games. They're going to win more than 75 games. You would handle it poorly.

Yeah, I would agree. I think you look at it, and what we see locally isn't being seen nationally. And this will be a team that, with their schedule, they have a chance to start fast. And if you start fast, that changes everything. It does. It's a great point. How many times do you see teams just start fast and carry that on?

Snowball it. Yeah. It's a great point. And I think if they're 500 at the deadline or in June, Middleton's going to start pushing Klintec. Go get one more pitcher. We have a good farm system. Let's go.

Let's move this thing now. And is it a blockbuster, go get a guy? Is it a solid three starter that's in the last year of a contract? Is it a guy that has additional years so you know that they can help them down the line? They'll have some options out there. They'll have the payroll. And like you said, the depth in the farm system is really incredible. So if they want to try to do the blockbuster,

they can do that. If they think that they just want the stopgap to get them through the rest of the season, they can do that too. You say the solid three in the last year of his contract, the name that comes to my mind now is Cole Hamels. Bring him home, baby! Come home! He wants to come back here. Jack, don't be anti-Cole Hamels back there. Cole Hamels makes a lot of sense.

World Series MVP, Fritz. I mean, he's still here. He's doing shows with Angelo in the morning in the offseason. He was at the Eagles parade. I don't think the Rangers are any good, so they might sell. They're going to be bad. They are going to tank by the end of this season. They didn't do anything in the offseason. It makes no sense for them not to.

The interesting thing with Hamels, did you see him just come out and the Rangers talked about going to a six-man rotation, and Hamels is like, no way, that's not how I prepare. He's old school. When you look at his numbers, when he gets an extra day of rest, he's awesome. Like, he's got like a 3-2 ERA over the last two years with a five-day's rest and like a 4-6 with four days of rest. So, like, maybe with a little extra rest, even if you might not like it,

there's still some life in that arm. The reasons why he doesn't like it, and Fritz actually snipped this out, he's got an option for next season at $20 million. He needs to hit, was it 200 innings, Jack? He needed to do it last year or this year, and he didn't last year. That's what it is. So he's mad. If he goes every six days, he's not going to hit 200 innings,

which is probably another reason why the Rangers want to do it. And another reason the Phillies could grab him. If they're having issues down there, I could see him coming back. I think they're going to shoot higher, maybe a Chris Archer, Danny Duffy. But if it doesn't work out, Cole could come back. You're looking at his ERA numbers. They're going to be inflated pitching in the American League. You bring him back here to the East, he's back at a mid three, three fives.

I think he'll age well. I do too. He's not a velocity guy. C.C. Sabathia is still pitching well. Those lefties that can pitch, they change speeds absolutely. Jack, question, a rapid-fire three? Let's go with how are the Phillies going to replace the defensive prowess of Freddie Galvis and leadership?

This is very on-brand for Jack. And just really a winning baseball player that they can never replace. Well, I'll actually start with this one. And the leadership is one thing that I want to point out, that Freddie Galvis certainly last year was the leader of that locker room and kept them together, especially early in the season. So I don't want to – anybody that listens to me or listens to the podcast, I thought it was ridiculous that it was even thought that Freddie Galvis

should have gotten a contract extension and J.P. Crawford should have been traded. But thank God the Phillies organization has a clue of what they're doing. J.P. Crawford's going to be fine defensively. He's better than fine, I think. He's good. His approach at the plate is excellent. But the leadership stuff is real. It is real.

And J.P. can't fill that off the bat. He's a kid. He's a rookie. And that's the thing about J.P JP that we don't talk about enough. He's an especially young rookie. Yes, at shortstop. At shortstop. That doesn't happen very often when kids come up at this age at that position.

Well, he was 21 in AAA. Was he 21 in AAA? Yes, he was the youngest player in AAA, I believe. And what people that don't follow the minors might not realize is, like you just said, that's really young. I mean, you're talking about Kingery is going to be 24 this year in April. And that's good to be in the majors then. But 21 at AAA playing a tough defensive position, and really a lot of pressure was put on him.

He responded last year with it. So I'm proud of him. I thought he did a great job. Bounced back, didn't just respond, went from a spot where everyone, he was taken off prospect lists and all that. Which is ridiculous. Which is absurd, but bounced back from, like, legit, you know, a down spot for that guy to come back and went on that tear with 12 homers in a month

and then, you know, comes up and a.350 OBP. I was very impressed with J.P. Crawford. Three years ago, Scott Kingery was in Lakewood at 21 years old. J.P. Crawford was in AAA. Yes, it's so rare. I don't think people get that. And people look at numbers in AA and AAA and say, oh, he's only hitting 270.

It's like he's 19 years old in AA. It's amazing. He's playing against grown men. Exactly. It's really hard to really look at those numbers and get the real picture of what's happening without looking at a lot of other factors. All right, let's end with this, guys.

Let's get your predictions for the season, your big picture thought. And give me, each of you, give me an X factor for the season. I'm going to take four guys away from you. I'm going to take Hoskins, Santana. I'll keep Kingery. Hoskins, Santana, Nola, and Arietta. Those guys have to be good.

Those are the four most important players. Give me an X factor that if another guy steps up, it could elevate them further, and give me your prediction for the season. I mean, I'm not going to take Kingery just because it's too obvious. I'm going to go with Jorge Alfaro. I want to see development more than anything behind the plate in calling games. And one of the reasons why bringing in Jake Arrieta to me is such a big deal is you can afford now to have two young catchers because you have more of a veteran staff.

You look at that staff, everybody's wet behind their ears. Nola's still really kind of figuring everything out on the fly, and the rest of the guys are all question marks. Bringing in Arrieta, now he can control that staff. He can also really help Alfaro out. Yeah. So with what he's able to do with his raw power and his production, he's the X factor for me.

If he can bat 270, I know the on-base percentage isn't going to be great, but if he can bat 270 and hit 15 home runs and have energy in the lineup, this team. Here it comes. Yeah, I was up to 87 wins yesterday. If they hit 87, they're going to make the playoffs. Well, that's why I'm having it right there. I'm going back to 86.

My official prediction is Thursday before we lead up to opening day, but I'm at 86. I think they're right there. Not contending for a wild card. I think they're legitimately right there. That's a 20 win jump from last year. James? Alright, I agree. I won't take Kingery, but I think we all know what an X-Factor Kingery can be, especially with the

versatility offers. And can we all just thank his agent for letting him sign that contract? And Klintak! What the hell was he doing? And Kl he doing for being bold to even think of the idea yeah very outside the box but um excited to have him here but i'm gonna go with that with an outside the box answer and just say the third starter whoever steps up into that spot that is going to be so key for this team whether it's velasquez whether it's pavetta whether it's lively whether it's someone in the minor leagues whether it's someone who's

not on this team right now they need a third guy to be able to compete. So whoever that third guy is, if they can get someone to step up and give them 170 innings of 3-5 to 3-8 ERA-type baseball. They need six innings every start, essentially. Yeah, that is going to be crucial. And just to add on, we didn't talk about the bullpen enough. I really love what they did there. I think that's going to help. It's an underrated bullpen. So what, we didn't talk about the bullpen enough. I really love what they did there. I think that's going to help.

It's an underrated bullpen. So what's your number, James? Yeah, unlike John, I'm not scared. 88 wins and a wild card spot. Let's go. Wow. I'm dreaming of Aaron Nola against Carlos Martinez in a wild card game. I was at 86 at the start of this conversation.

I've gone two wins up. I might be 90 by tomorrow. I got two more hours. I might be at 95 by the end of this show. Guys, this was fun. Thank you so much for coming out. John Marks, of course, with the afternoons. James, we know the midday.

And we got two more hours left here on this show tonight. Mac and Mac are coming up next. I can't wait. I'm so jealous of you that you get to share mics with Mac and Mac. I get to talk baseball with Mac and Mac. That's coming up next. We are live tonight. It is the Phillies Roundtable from Chickies and Pete's in South Philly.

Don't forget Thursday. Come on out right here. It is the Phillies away game watch party. Jody Cameron, John Ritchie broadcasting live appearances by the Fanatic, the Ball Girls, Mickey Morandini, and the 2008 World Series Trophy. You heard that right. Glenn Mac now, Jody McDonald will join me for the 8 o'clock hour on the Phillies roundtable coming up next on the evening show. Sports Radio

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