High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The High Hopes Podcast: The Phils are Streakin'

Episode Date: April 16, 2018

Jack Fritz is joined by Mike Angelina to talk about the surging Phils as they have won 8 of their last 9 and 6 in a row. Does it matter that it's vs. bad teams? JP Crawford has taken a massive step forward. What's the guys' confidence level in the starting rotation. And they preview this week as the Phils are in Atlanta. All that and more on this weekend's episode of High Hopes.  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

Introducing TD Insurance for Business, with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers Internet. Visit rogers.com for details. Yo, it is. Just kidding, I'm not going to do that. Let's talk some baseball.

It's Jack Fritz. Here with me this week is Mike Angelina, the overnight producer at WIP, me this week is Mike Angelina, the overnight producer at WIP, Phillies game producer, and really just a Phillies baseball savant. We had Mike on earlier in the season. Glad to have him back on now. Mike, what are your early season takeaways from the Phillies? And welcome back on the podcast, my friend. Well, thank you. It's nice. One of the Reds games I was at this week, I guess it was the Tuesday game, the NOLA game, it's nice being able to look at a 1-0 deficit and not think, like, well, we're screwed.

And it's just nice, you know, knowing that there's an offense that's going to come up and eventually break through and put some runs on the board. Yeah, the offense has taken some major steps forward. Obviously, the 20-1 game excluding. I mean, every single night it seems like even when they're down, they can make a run. I mean, facing a lineup at the top with Cesar, Santana,

whoever's in the three-hole that night, and then Hoskins. I mean, it's just a nightmare for pitchers. And now instead of having Peter Borges batting in the 8-hole or someone like that, you actually have intriguing guys at the bottom of the lineup that you can tune in and watch and see their development. And one of those guys is J.P. Crawford. J.P. Crawford. I didn't want to jump into it right yet, but I'm just so excited to talk about J.P. Crawford.

J.P. Crawford has taken a major step forward, and shout out to John Maley, who noticed his swing was getting long. J.P. noticed his swing was getting long. They worked on this new drill that I guess Robinson Cano used, and it has unleashed J.P.

into another level that I wasn't expecting this early in the season. I mean, he struggled beginning of the year. It was bad. But, man, JP Crawford looked like he had turned a page. Yeah, and I don't know about you. I was kind of getting the feeling that just, I guess, because it was decent in September. It wasn't good.

It wasn't bad. He had a good on-base percentage. But I was kind of getting the feeling that fans just were not interested in liking JP Crawford. Like, he kind of felt like left for dead and it just kind of felt like everyone was kind of like you know more like media types were kind of like asking him for to already be removed from the lineup and I get whatever it was a one for 22 star it may have been I guess that'll do that but no he's a good player he was drafted high for reasons came with a high pedigree he's a good baseball player he's he's some really really looking He was drafted high for a reason. He came with a high pedigree. He's a good baseball player. He's really looking forward to seeing him over at least the next six years.

I think he's going to be a nice guy you can stash in the bottom of the order, but then, like you said, come up with clutch hits, hit for extra bases, and he won't just be a doormat to get to the pitcher spot. Especially with how baseball is going now, where you see these huge jumps in home run numbers and offensive output. I mean, like D.D. Gregorius, a guy that I've compared J.P. to a lot, didn't have crazy power numbers a couple years ago, was barely hitting double digits, and then boom,

last year he had 25 homers. I think we could see similar trajectory from J.P. and Dede Gregorius. I mean, he legit hit two balls in the last couple days. One was a second decker at Citizens Bank Park, which I didn't think he had any chance of hitting. And the other was really deep down there at the drop. So there were absolutely no doubters from JP, which is something I had no idea he had. No, I guess it's that uppercut swing. When he connects on a ball, he could hit it as far as anyone on the team, really.

You know, minus the Laskins. Well, yeah. And Reese, that's another thing about Reese is, like, he struggled a little bit this week. He got benched or whatever. I don't know what the line-up is being made a week out. But even when he's struggling in quotation marks, he's putting together fantastic at-bats.

He's hitting the ball on the nose. It's like he is unbelievably consistent for a guy who has been in the majors the amount of time that he's been up here. The thing with Hoskins, he is this unbelievable, it's kind of like Ben Simmons, the way he carries himself. He came up here and just was confident and just knew he was good, knew he had to trust his approach and just keep doing his, working pitches and doing his thing. And he's just such a confident hitter.

He did have minor success, but we're not talking about like the first overall draft pick in a draft. We're not talking about too high of a draft pick. You know, he really has this, I guess, little unwarranted confidence, and I see it really helping him out. 100%. The Phillies are streaking. They've won six straight.

They've swept two straight series, won eight of nine. Now, the caveat to all of that is that it's been against pretty bad teams, some of the worst teams in the entire sport. Yeah, I think the Reds are 2-13. What do you make of the streak? Are you fully – do they overcome the early season struggles, or are you still kind of just tentative on, listen, those bad teams, I don't want to go completely – they're going to make the playoffs.

I encourage, but I don't know. I need to see it versus good teams. It's a little bit of both. They beat Chris Archer pretty bad, pretty good Saturday. That was the big, it was the second inning, the big rally. So, you know, that game, you have that game, but then the next game they win a bullpen game, which you kind of should. So it's a little bit of both. The Reds, two of those games could have really gone either way.

Maybe even three of them, if not for the Kingery Grand Slam. I guess my answer is a little bit of both. They did beat some good pitchers along the way, and they got into the Reds' bullpen early a couple nights. But they're not the best teams in baseball right but at the same time Philly's teams have passed probably don't beat these teams

and you have to if you want to really be serious about a playoff run then you've got to beat these teams and I think I think responding the way they did after the beginning of the season started about as worse as it could possibly start. Every one of Kapler's decisions seemed to backfire.

He had players in the locker room questioning him. For them to come out, respond in this way, I think shows their belief in Gabe and their belief in the numbers slash analytics or whatever you want to say. I think them responding this way shows that we've got his back. And it kind of reminds me, it may be a reach, but it kind of reminds me of the Eagles' response after the Bengals game the year before last. You know, the Bengals game, you had Zach Ertz, you know,

not blocking for Carson Wentz when he was about to get crushed going out of bounds. You have Rodney McLeod not tackling in the end zone. And I kind of feel, and at that moment, Peterson challenged his players, and they responded, and they didn't quit on him, and they finished out the season strongly. I kind of get the same sense here. A little bit of that. It's just, I think it's just good for the moment

because I was kind of getting sick of all the anonymous sources and the Nick Williams thing, which I think he was lying when he said he was trying to make a joke that was kind of a stupid joke. Courtney West. Yeah. So just to have that go away for 10 days. And I would anticipate I'm not going to feel too many fire Kapler calls this week, hopefully. But I just want a calm scene around my favorite baseball team.

And that does this. This does this. I think their fourth best record in the National League, trending upwards, very winnable series this early week, this week in Atlanta. And then, you know, you come back home. I think they're really trending upward. Yeah. And the analytics, if you want to use that word,

have benefited them recently. Even today, he brings in Luis Garcia into a tight ball game to get one out against an art spam, and Aaron Altair has moved 10 spots to his normal right field spot and is put in the only position to make that play. Oh, yeah, the diving catch. The diving catch, and on make that play. Oh, yeah, the diving catch. The diving catch. And on times that ball is hit, according to the stats,

94% of the time that ball is down for a hit. And because of the positioning, because of the analytics, or whatever you want to say, Aaron Altair was in the right spot and it saved them a ball game. And they went out and laid the hammer on them and made it a 10-4 win you're starting to see the advantages of the numbers and that was my whole thing because the first week every single time they used analytics it just didn't execute it went wrong it went wrong and now since it's all calmed down and everyone's just, you know, taking a big sigh of relief, they're starting to work.

And water always finds its level, and that's the way that I view analytics. And we're starting to see them really, really help this team. I mean, Abdul, the night before, or two nights before, he was positioned perfectly for a ball that could have changed the game as well. So the numbers are starting to show and starting to help the Stills team. Yeah, the Altair catch you're talking about, the two nights before Friday night, Carlos Santana hits the ball in the same spot.

It drops over Carlos and it bounces over Carlos Gomez's head because he misplays it. And that's how the Phillies come back and tie that game and eventually win that game. So, you know, we're seeing it, you know, when it works and we're seeing it, you know, when it works, and we're seeing it not work for other teams. Just, you know, it's kind of very, like, trust the process-like

because it's just like if you keep trusting, like you said, the Warriors are going to find its level, keep trusting the information you have, you know, eventually guys will execute and, you know, things that happen 85% of the time, it's working that time. It's not having the 15% go against you. They're finally catching their breaks. And over 162, the better teams are going to yield from that.

There's a reason why every team in the major leagues uses analytics, uses shifts, and why it's so prevalent. It's because they work. It's because they work. I'm glad the Phillies are finally adapting to modern baseball. Yes, it's just nice being able to be in a conversation with analytics. You know, it's funny. Have you noticed it seems like, I guess,

maybe it was like an initiative going into the season because of the Capita regime. NBC Sports Philly, or whatever they're called now, it seems like they're trying now they're uh it seems like they're trying to go overboard and trying to use analytics and it's it's just kind of funny because it's like you know here's this broadcast team that we've gotten to know for specifically like mccarthy and uh davis and crook we've gotten to know them a lot over these years and they've never talked about it and it's just funny that that now it's injected because, I don't know,

it just seems like it's an initiative to talk about it more. And, you know, Kruk was not happy about that. Yeah, well, like, you know, I guess because it's not really something like, you know, in 1980 when you picked up the newspaper, you didn't really see in the box score a launch angle. So now, you know, people don't know what a good launch angle is but that that doesn't mean there's not value to the stat it's just you know take 20 minutes and read about it and you know you'll just kind of see that it makes sense and also understand the launch

angle has led to some of the biggest breakouts in the last couple years yeah and and and hope it helps out the guys here like i that's my that's my main quip with the broadcasting team, is that it just seems like they're so anti how the game's moving, and it just infiltrates all the people who watch it and who watch the team on a night-in, night-out basis, because that's their base. That's who they're talking to. And I think it's being unfair to the people watching to not inform them

on the way baseball is moving and just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you can just completely dump on it and say and not think it's worth their time and that's really been my main quip with with the broadcasting team so far this year so it seems like every time they try to work it into their commentary, it's always just like in a mocking tone, which is a little bit frustrating. But hopefully with the recent winning streak, with the shifts that have been working, they can kind of back off a little bit and let this thing kind of play its course.

Yeah, my new favorite feature is when a runner takes its lead and they measure it out, like how many feet off the base he is. That's not a new thing. I remember being taught in Bay Ruth baseball, you take enough so that if you take two steps, you can dive with your body length, and that's the proper amount to take a lead. That's not analytics.

It's not like Aaron Altair studying a binder of, well, how many feet should I get off this guy? No, it's just he's taller than most people, so he's going to have a little bit of a larger lead than most. It's not analytics. It's just fun. And, like, if you lean a certain way, the foot goes up a full – the meter goes up a whole foot, and it just doesn't make any sense.

But that's been enjoyable for me. It's like I don't really care how far the guy's off. I get it. I mean, I understand if he gets picked off how many feet off the bag he is. It's definitely a weird stat. It's a weird, like, broadcasting thing. Like, who is the guy that's like, well, that's going to draw on the millennials. I just don't get it.

No, you're right. No, but, like, in the long run, I guess the more they talk to Kapler, talk to Maley, and talk to, you know, Tom, I don't know about Cran, it's how much he's into it because they just kind of fell into him being their pitching coach. But maybe the more they talk to it, they'll look over time and be like, oh, okay, these things were validated by, you know, maybe specific instances will come up, we'll talk about it, they'll look over time and be like, oh, okay, these things were validated by, you know, maybe specific instances will come up, we'll talk about it, and eventually open everyone's eyes more.

I really, I've been pretty impressed with the lineup thus far, and I think a lot of that has to do with John Maley. I mean, I think he's unleashed Cesar Hernandez to another level. I mean, Cesar's always been a good hitter, but his OBP is even higher than it usually is right now, and it doesn't seem like it's really going to be going anywhere. I mean, Hoskins is Hoskins. The only guy that's really not producing has been Aaron Altair.

I think personally that Carlos Santana has just been super, super unlucky, and there's going to be about a two-week stretch where he just is raking, and he gets back up his average and his OVP back to where they've been for his entire career. He flew up the warning track four times. By June, those are four more home runs, and that could drastically alter his slugging percentage. Right, and it's been super cold out. But the Maley effect so far I think has been really, really good.

I don't know how much is melee and how much is capler, but just the emphasis on seeing pitches, trying to draw walks. Eventually, over 162, you're going to get into the bullpen earlier and earlier, and that's going to yield positive results. I mean, arms are just fresh right now. That's just everyone's coming straight out of spring training. Eventually, as the summer wears on, that's going to yield really positive results. And I've been really impressed with John Maley's approach so far.

Yeah, it's a very sound approach to just having crooked innings. You keep, you know, grinding at bats, getting guys on base, moving the lineup along. Eventually, you're going to, you know, as they did Saturday, you're going to have six-run innings, five-run innings, big innings, and usually the team with the most big innings wins the game. It's just a very sound theoretical approach to hitting. Instead of just coming up and thinking, all right, you only get one pitch to attack, wait for it and be ready like no just you know just string together long at bats move the lineup

over get into the bullpen you do that you know it's weird what we saw saturday or sunday with the rays having a bullpen game you're not going to see that very often but you know on uh if you do that in game two of the series it drastically increases your chances of winning the third game of the series just because the thinner bullpen, less options, more worn out guys. It just makes too much sense not to do. Yeah. And have you had much problems with making the lineups a week in advance and giving these guys plenty of heads up as to when they're playing and when they're not. Yeah, so I don't know how much truth there is to it's a week in advance

because it seems like there's been a couple times this season. I think Cesar was supposed to be out of the lineup either the second or third game of the season to make way for Kingery, but what happened was he had a great opening day and I think he had a great second game of the season that Kapler just realized, you know what, I'm not taking him out of the lineup. So maybe he has an outline of when to get guys off their feet and when to give them a little rest, but I'm not really sure how much he's locked into it, how much he's following

it. Like the Hoskins day off Wednesday, if Kingery doesn't hit a grand slam and he doesn't homer on Monday and Hoskins doesn't have three or four bad at-bats Tuesday night, I don't really know if that was a locked-in

plan. It just kind of seems like this is not a complaint, this is the right a locked-in plan. It just kind of seems like, and this is not a complaint, this is the right way to go about it, it just seems like he's kind of going maybe three or two to three games at a time, maybe series by series, not week by week. Yeah, it's almost like the way it kind of has to be when you have this many players. Because I think coming to a guy the day of a ball game and just being like,

yeah, you're out today, it kind of throws the guy off his normal routine. And when you have this many players, which is a good thing, it's a good thing they have this kind of talent, and you can kind of figure out who is a guy that you can keep around your roster and whatnot. And, plus, you've got to factor in injuries. Like, injuries will happen. Oh, yeah.

whatnot. And it blocks, you've got to factor in injuries. Like, injuries will happen. It's kind of the way that you have to approach this with Kingery needing at-bats. Franco, in a huge year for him, you need to get him at-bats. Altair and Nick Williams in right field. I guess you don't really have a choice. So it's almost the only route they could have gone. But yeah, he's definitely shown some fluctuation with it because he did bench Altair again the other night because he just wanted him to get some at-bats in non-pressure situations,

which I guess just means batting practice. So, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, and I think most players, Nick Williams aside, I think most players appreciate getting a heads-up that, you know, you're not playing. Like, there was a lot of reasons why Matt Williams was a bad manager in D.C., but that second year, there was a story that came out

where he was very Sandberg-ish in that it didn't really seem like he communicated with his players. And that year, similar to this team, just with better players, they had too many guys for the A positions. I think they had Rendon and Michael Taylor and guys like that that he needed to get in the lineup trey turner may have been there too and there was a game jason worth walked into the clubhouse and

looked on the wall and saw he was out of the lineup without you know being communicated to or whatever and he just ripped the lineup card down tore it off the wall ripped it to pieces and walked out and i you know i don't think worth's unique in that way he doesn't want to find out that way i think most people because you know these guys are the real people like maybe you stay out with you know a friend for an extra drink or two if you have a day off or something like who knows it's just i just think having a day like i just think being aware of like when you're working and not working is more beneficial than not in fact i can't think of any real downside to it yeah and it gives them a heads up it lets them know when like i don't know it almost makes them the day before they have a day off be like okay i'm off tomorrow i'll go

i'll go boss to the wall tonight leave it on all in line, and then I'll have an off day tomorrow. I can relax, rest my body up. It's pretty much the only way you can do this and keep everyone happy and have constant communication with these guys. I have Gabe Kepler's head in my head right now of him just saying, constant communication. Constant communication. He's so prepared.

I can only imagine what those poor beat reporters are thinking. Yeah, I love his Wednesday morning interviews with The Morning Show, just because he's just so, so prepared for what they're throwing at him. It's great. I know. He's almost at him. It's great. I know. He's almost too prepared. He almost is. He's very Chris Trager-ian.

So let's transition from the lineup to the pitching staff. So two guys had a really strong start this week in Nick Pavetta and Vince Velasquez. So Pavetta against Vince Velasquez. So Pavetta against the Reds, he went seven innings, had seven strikeouts. Gabe Kapler left him in there. Gabe Kapler left him in the game. He went out, and he was like, hey, Nick, you got this? And Nick was like, yeah.

And I always found those conversations interesting because, like, what is a pitcher supposed to say? Like, nope, you can come get me. Just get me out of this ballgame. I don't know. Yeah, I've never, you know, if a pitcher has ever done it, they've never come forward with it. You know, it's kind of like Pedro Martinez, Grady Little. Like, what's he supposed to say?

Right. So, like, I never put much value in that, but I appreciated the gesture by Gabe. And then Vince Velasquez had probably – is it too much of a hot take to say that was his best start since the Padres game? It's up there. I thought he had a start – it's kind of lost in the middle because he was so bad in the second half last year.

But he had a really dominant start against the Braves in there. But that's just, I guess, me nitpicking nitpicking in general yeah it was a very tremendous start and uh results aside he just looked like the fastball was popping uh he threw that there was that pitch I texted you about I couldn't even figure out what it was it was like an 88 uh change up with movement on it kind of acted like a cutter or like a it was too fast to be a slider. He had his best stuff. He looked his best. And he just looked in control the whole game. Didn't really have any stressful innings.

The one run they got on a ground ball with eyes that got through the hole with Malik Smith, I think. He's good speed. He just looked his best. You know? Yeah, and my biggest pet peeve with Velasquez was that he wouldn't, he refused to pitch to contact.

And, yes, he got his strikeouts, but he only allowed one walk. And that's always been my problem with him, is that he just will nibble with his fastball. Yesterday, he was coming, He was coming Friday night. He was coming right after guys and he was throwing his off-speed early in counts. And that's something that I've noticed between him and

Pavetta. Because when Pavetta started on Tuesday, I think it was, he was throwing his fastball, or he was throwing his curveball on all counts. And for Nick Pavetta to get to the next level, he needs to not just have hitters sitting on his first pitch fastball. Because, listen, I like to throw fastball, but it's pretty flat,

even with a little rise to it, at 94. Like, eventually, major league hitters catch up to that. And the fact that he was able to locate that curveball, locate that slider-ish pitch. He's working on some third pitch, which I'm here for. It's like a slider-slash-cutter kind of pitch. It's like 89, but it's good. It gives the hitter another thing to worry about. I was super impressed by Pavetta, but Velasquez's start was really, really important.

He only allowed one walk. He was throwing hard. He was really into it. His curveball had a nice dip to it. And I think the pitch, it had to have been like a split changeup or something like that or some kind of change because it kind of fell off the table. I know the one time it did cut in, but other than that it was mostly just falling off the table.

Either way, if you can get those two going with Nola, Either way, if you can get those two going with Nola, who continues to roll along and be a top 12 starter in the entire game or top 15 starter in the game, and then Arrieta, I mean, that's a formidable four-man rotation until you get Jared Eikhoff back. I mean, I'm pretty bullish on the rotation at this point. Oh, absolutely. And I like the way he's kind of mapping out to where he knows he's going to need at least

four to five innings and maybe, as was the case today, more on the Knights' Ben Lively pitches. So it kind of seems like he's letting the other guys go a little more. And back to the Velasquez game, there was a, it may have been

kirmeyer i forget who it was there was somebody who he he basically had struck out but the ump just missed the call it was a borderline pitch and that's where velasquez would usually unfold and just like unrattle and you know it'd lead to a beginning he probably would lose the guy and walk him and i think that's where the problems came from. But maybe it's just with the new staff, they're trusting him more and let him go, like they let him get out of that, not that he had a jam, but let him get out of that and let him work his way through it. And then Tuesday, the NOLA game, and this kind of flies in the face of everyone saying that Kapler ignores his feel.

Gabe Kapler flat out said, when asked why Nola went the eighth inning, he said, well, it's kind of like the feel of the game and having a gut feel for what's going on. My gut was Nola was our best option for the eighth inning. And I'm all here for that. That's what you want for your manager, right? He really mentioned a lot about how it was his gut. almost like the reporters knew yeah no he reads he reads uh he's told people here that he checks he follows her twitter and stuff like that it's just funny

when when when his moves work it seems like well it was the gut and when they don't work it's it's the numbers which that's one to monitor i'm all in on gabe yeah but but when when things go wrong he blames the numbers and when things go right he calls it his gut so that that's that that's one to definitely monitor uh what did you do take away much from from arietta's start yesterday or do you think he's still kind of ramping up to to uh maybe a month from now be full, ready to go Arrieta? He looked really good. That said, he's still ramping up, and it was a pretty bad lineup.

He was spotted six-run lead or whatever it was. He looked good, and the thing I took away was afterwards, listening to hear him speak, and I just kind of get the feeling like he understood how to pitch. He's a Cy Young winner. He's one of the smarter pitchers going at it today, and he just gets it. He knew that he had to be economical. He knew he had to induce early ground ball counts, as you're kind of talking about with what we want from Velasquez. He just sounded like the man in the room, you know?

Yeah, and I feel like it's weird watching him now because what I remember about Arrieta and watching him in years past was I felt like he wanted to strike everyone out. And what he's been doing here is he's just letting it all come to him. It doesn't seem like he's trying to strike anyone out. And that quote after the game really shed some light on that because I think he's pitching more to contact and hopefully that keeps him sharp for longer into the season rather than overthrowing and trying to just, you know, strike everyone out.

I think I've been really impressed by his approach. And yesterday he got into a nice little rhythm between the second and fourth inning. He had the one little hiccup inning. But other than that, I was really impressed. And I think he's starting to round back into the Jay Carrieta that we expect. He's starting to round back into the Jake Arrieta that we expect. And then, obviously, Aaron Nola is still so damn good. I love Aaron Nola.

And it's just like you don't have to worry about him anymore. It's like, oh, Nola went out and threw seven innings and allowed less than two runs. Perfect. That's what we expect every single time now. Right, right. No, when was the last time we heard anything about his elbow? It's been over a year, right? Yeah, I mean, I thought there might have been something up

in the Mets game, on the Facebook game. Oh, yeah, because they had Hutchinson up in the first inning. Yeah, so, but yeah, he's been fine. He's been healthy. He looks stronger. He just looks more built out there. And a huge year for Aaron Nola coming up. The bullpen,

listen, I'll step aside. Let's talk about Victor Arano. Well, I think we've all been fooled by the broadcast. I think it's actually Victor Arano. It's according to his pronunciation guide. It's V-E-E-K. Victor.

So, yeah, I just kind of want to be on theE-K. Victor. So, yeah. I just kind of want to be on the forefront of getting that straight. Because, you know, how many years did it take them to realize that Franco was not James Franco's brother? And it's Franco, not Franco. So, yeah. You know, we want

to be on the right side of history on that one. But, yeah. What a tremendous trade, though. When you think about it, they traded a month and a half of running rubber toe Roberto Hernandez for Jasmiel Valentin and Victor Arano. Arano, I was at his major league debut last year when he kind of came in out of nowhere, and I kind of feel like whenever you're at a game

and you see someone's debut, you follow them a little more closely. So I kind of always had that connection with him. He's tremendous. His delivery, or I guess it's his stretch, the way he pitches, it actually looks very similar to, it's like a hybrid of Troy Percival and Roberto Azuna. Wow. Right?

Like, next time you see him, just tell me you can't see Percival or Azuna. It's very similar. His slider is actually, I was kind of geeking out, looking at some of the StatCast numbers of it. It has a much higher than average spin rate. And I think it's like 82, 83. So that's a good V-low. And he just very simply puts hitters away.

He's only had like 15 career outings. I can't remember a time where he was ever in any sort of jam. No, and he's retired every single batter he's faced this year. His FIP is like.41, I think. The thing about him, he doesn't walk anyone. He locates 94, and he has a really, really good slider. Like, he's barely pitched, but I think I trust him more than Edubai Ramos. Yeah.

I think I trust him more than Luis Garcia. I want to see how he starts to do in more high-leverage situations because, like, what if they've got, like, the guy, the guy that can come in and just stop the bleeding when you need the bleeding to be stopped in the middle of a ballgame, and they're slowly working him up there. They're slowly getting him into tighter situations. I mean, Arano is one of the guys that I trust right now.

Yeah, I want him to be the first guy on the bullpen. Like, you know, not like in an old game where you just need someone to finish out the ninth inning, but middle innings. They lost one of the Mets games this year because they went to Drew Hutchinson as the first guy out of the bullpen, and that's a spot I want Veek to come in and just be the first fireman there. So we're shorting it to Veek now. He's just Veek? Veek, yeah.

Veek Arano. Yeah. So, yeah, the bullpen had a pretty solid week. I think they threw a no-hitter in the game on Friday night. Adam Morgan, I still can't get over the fact that his slider is unhittable and he throws 95. And that, like, change-up he throws 95 but and that uh that like change up he throws is like a bowling ball and it's like when you look at it on tv it looks like he's throwing a beach

ball at him but it's just it's moving so much and the when you throw 96 the the separation of velocity between the two pitches that's you know perfect recipe to keep hitters off balance he threw some pitch the other night. I think he dropped it down to like 92, but he must have held like a two-seam grip on it. And it just went right underneath the left-handed hitter's bat. He is disgusting.

So, the bullpen is trending up. I'm pretty confident every time they come in. I like a lot of the arms. Shout out to Yaxel. Yeah, he's... Well, I like him, but he pretty much only has a fastball. Yeah, like he gets in trouble sometimes. He'll kind of create his own mess, but, you know, by and large, he's gotten out of them.

He had like, I don't remember this, but he had like almost 10 games finished last year, which is kind of, it's a weird stat for like, you know for a guy like him fresh out of the minors. Yeah. Let's move on to the week ahead here before we let you go do your overnight shift. Yeah, I've got three minutes. Yeah, I know. So we have the Phils are heading to Atlanta, the home of their opening week woes.

We have Nola versus Tehran, Pavetta versus Fulte-Nezitz, and Velasquez versus McCarthy. Feels like a sweep? Looks like it. You know, you expect two out of three. And, you know, major props to Major League Baseball for, like, I'm dead serious about this,

for scheduling two Atlanta series in April. You look at some of the weather we've been dealing with throughout baseball, and you kind of wonder I'm dead serious about this. For scheduling two Atlanta series in April, you look at some of the weather we've been dealing with throughout baseball, and you kind of wonder why teams like Atlanta and some of those teams or dome teams aren't hosting more. And it makes perfect sense that the Phillies go down there twice in April. So just a weird thing I noticed in the schedule. That was cool. They should do that all the time.

I don't understand. I think the Angels were playing in Chicago or some cold weather stadium. Yeah, Verlander had a pitch in 32 degrees weather in Minnesota instead of that being in Houston. What are we doing? If Pavetta and

Velasquez go off again, I will be inconsolable. I would be so excited. But those are pretty favorable matchups. Anytime you get Noble in a series, it's going to be a good time. And then, listen, if they get torched by Ryan Flaherty again, I might just stop watching baseball. I can't take it.

Yeah, I doubt that's going to happen. Yeah, this will be a nice bounce-back game for Vinny Velo, I believe. And then the Pirates come into town, and that's going to be, I think the series starts off with Arrieta. And there's not a team Jake Arrieta has ever beaten more than the Pirates. So that's something we'll look to. Who could forget the wild card game in 2015? Yeah, just complete diamonds.

Yeah, Sean Rodriguez. Yeah, there's Sean Rodriguez. They threw at him in the eighth inning or whatever. It was infuriating. Mike, before I let you get out of here, a lot of the listeners don't know this yet, but Mike has an unbelievable memory for Phillies baseball. And when I come in to work, or when he comes in to work, I kind of throw a date at him, and he gets it.

Without Google, without anything, it's pretty freaky. So we're going to try it now. And he is not on Google. This is all just straight from the brain. Mike, what happened on April 14, 2011, for the Philadelphia Phillies? That was... They were off to a good start that year, so let me think. That was...

April 11th, you said? April 14th of 11. Oh, it was a pitcher's duel. It was like a two-hour game. I think Cliff Lee beat Jordan Zimmerman. So the game duration was two hours and six minutes.

Yeah, I think Chooch got the scoring going. Are you hummered? Let's see. It was like a Thursday night. Chooch had two hits and an RBI, so I assume that got something going. Cliff Lee threw a complete game shutty. Yeah. Mike, you do it again.

Go have a good shift, and thanks for coming on IHOPES. All right, see you tomorrow. All right, see you, Mike. All right. All-star closer, Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names

to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago. It is now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is. Another fact. So jump aboard the B.I.B. 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.