High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The Mets Get Bamboozled and Phillies Farm Director Josh Bonifay

Episode Date: June 28, 2019

The Bamboo Magic is here and James Seltzer and Jack Fritz are back to talk about it in a positive podcast! Jack also talks with Phils farm director Josh Bonifay (39:57). Join us for High Hopes Night at the Ballpark on August 17th by going to Jack and James' twitter accounts.  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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This is the High Hopes Podcast. High Hopes Podcast. High Hopes. It's a bunch of baseball nerds talking about the Philadelphia Phillies on Radio.com and Sports Radio 94 WIP. Yo! It is another edition of the High Hopes Podcast. Jack, we get to be happy again. Did you wake up, Zoe, with that yo-it-is? I'm worried I happy again did you wake up zoe with that yo it is i'm

worried i did did you wake up the delaware valley i i i took it i i i decided i weighed the pros and cons of the yo i figured you know what the phillies are back the yo has to be back too jack it just is what it is man totally agreed the last few yo it is is we're so depressing um and they are they are freaking back i haven't stopped smiling since since the sagora ball left seeing how happy they were uh my bamboo plant is flourishing you got it immediately you jumped right on the bamboo bandwagon listen if you're not first to it you're last buddy well you'll learn one day i saw the tweet where jack is as must protect at all costs the freaking bamboo plant in the front seat oh my god like i texted him i'm like you didn't really get a bamboo plant did you the bamboo plant is in the the studio right now making sure that we Have a good podcast that's right

Brad we're going Brad it's your plant yeah I don't care what We named it boo but I like the name Brad like name Brad To shout out to Brad Miller For the who would have thought the Brad Miller trade was there or the Brad Miller signing Was the move that would turn the season around me

Me I literally I try to tell everyone that brad miller is actually good and uh i was laughed at i was scoffed at uh you listen you don't have a 994 ops in triple a by mistake you don't get picked up by the indians brewers rays dodgers yankees and now the the Phillies all very smart teams I like that I like the way you you end that with a question mark there what that should work Clint sack see you did you know that that Brad Miller was more important off the field than on it did you see that coming Jack or or you know you just trusted I did not know that brad miller was a culture changer but i am totally

here for brad miller the culture changer the bamboo you know i love it bamboo brad baby it's great it's great i uh i can't believe they won today's game i can't believe that the first walk off you kind of felt it coming down for nothing but they battled back and you know they tie it earlier in the bottom of the ninth against edwin diaz who good thing they gave up that uh you know like top 20 prospect guy for him that was smart good job well yeah mike mike trout 2.0 they gave it up for edwin why wouldn't you you got me i mean you gotta do it but i did not jack i didn't expect it, man. That was awesome. No walk-offs all season, and they do it back-to-back games.

Dude, they're down in four straight games. We haven't seen the Phillies fight like that in the Gabe Kapler era. That's what it was. In the Gabe Kapler era, we have not seen this Phillies team. Me and you would get frustrated when they would go down. It would be like, oh, well, this game's over. Game get frustrated when they would go down it would be like oh well this game's over you know when it's over when they go down by two listen listen how would this James Monday night in the Eflin start

they go down they go down to nothing automatically coming off of the Marlins sweep two in a row they went down to nothing automatically I know but Monday night like you come off the Marlins sweep everyone's feeling down everyone's a manager fired everyone's a great point. It's a great point to go down early there.

That felt bad. And then jump right back into it. And listen, I'm just saying that if this team actually gave up on Gabe Kapler, which now we know is completely false, they roll over and die. Yeah, look, that's the thing is throughout the first two games of the series and even a little bit through game three, while I was excited about it, I'm also in the back of my head just saying, it's the Mets. They're the biggest dumpster fire in the sport right now. Don't be that guy. No, I'm not.

I'm getting there. Let me get there. Jack, don't jump on me yet. Jeez. I'm saying I was that guy definitely through the first two games and i and then game three i'm starting to change but after again what they did in game four and the combination of three and four the it wasn't for me it almost doesn't matter who they're playing it's the way they won those games it's the resiliency that they showed it's what you

talked about the being down and it just not being over. Down 4-0 in the sixth or whatever, and then 4-1 in the seventh in game three, and then down 3-1 in the ninth, especially after you're up 1-0. You're trying to secure that NOLA, you know, and we'll dive through the whole breakdown of the game and all that. The brilliant NOLA start trying to secure the win, and then to go down 3-1 like that and battle back in the bottom of the ninth. It just, it didn't matter to me who they were playing by the end of it because it felt like special wins it felt like the type of wins that theoretically can jump start a team they felt like type of wins that a team that had never learned how to win together needed to do in order to learn how to win together and like i don't care

that like the bamboo or whatever like sometimes you need a stupid thing like that to get you going and if you just say hey but i believe in the plant or whatever like nola said after the game today like if you just put your blind faith behind something like it turns it works out like it is it is a rallying cry for this entire team. Listen, the 2014 Bloomsburg Huskies set a school record, and our stupid little sniper thing was the only reason why. These are the kind of things, and the curveball machine was cute, but four players used the curveball machine.

That's not a culture changer. The bamboo plant is something that these guys can believe in and just say and like put just put their faith behind it like that's the dumb thing about baseball like it's 162 games you have to find a way to keep it light sometimes and if you need a bamboo plant to do that like that's that's what's gonna work for this team this feels like this feels like the dog mass thing all over it feels like the dog mass jack it really does like yes it's it's the dog mask and i'm with you too like we talk all the time about obviously the human side of things and

also just the importance of confidence in baseball about going out there and being confident and expecting to succeed and through the past three weeks prior to this series you know seven straight losses 11 of 13 16 and 22 that whole thing like it just felt like this team had no confidence they didn't believe they were going to go out and win and this type of series and whether it's the bamboo whether it's the walk-off wins whether it's the four straight whatever it is it felt like like you kind of said like they i feel like they believe they can win these types of games now and i don't know if they believe that before well the meds are the right team to do that against like for sure but i i just think that now now they now they almost fool themselves and i think they can do

this whenever which is a good thing like it's a good can carry over too i mean this is the type of thing where they can take this confidence and run with it now hopefully hey man the oa the oa team led major League Baseball in comeback wins. You have to learn how to come from behind and win games. That's what makes teams special. That's what builds momentum for these teams. The Phillies, for a year and a half under Gabe Kapler,

it never really felt like they would come back in these games and have moments and have springboard moments. But this whole Mets series, why we're more excited, why every Phillies fan out there, why so many people are tweeting at us saying we need a high-host podcast right now is because we feel this. I feel it. I just feel something special is brewing,

and the fact that it happened four days, four days, and the Marlins series just happened. It just happened four days ago and in that short amount of time it's just it's crazy it is crazy how baseball season works it's absurd it is crazy that in the span especially again like you know we weren't talking about firing Kapler but we were talking about firing other people we were talking about Kapler, if it continued being on the hot seat. We talked about the potential for the clubhouse to fall

apart. And literally in four games, the span of four games, every single person in this city has a completely different perspective on this team. Like, it's crazy, Jack. We talked about how Mikel Island wasn't even around anymore. Now it's thriving again.

Greatest comeback since what? Mikel Island has literally rose from the bottom of the sea. It said hi to Atlantis, and then it came back up. It said, sorry, got to go. Mikel Island. Four days, let's go. Mikel Island said, I will not go down like the Titanic. I can't believe it.

Who would have thunk it, Jack? I mean, here's the thing. The guy is hitting fastballs that are up and over the plate. That's what he's doing. Thank God he's doing it. I'm glad they're winning, but that's just not sustainable. It was the exact same thing he was doing in April when he was on that insane streak. Yeah, look, we are not going to fall into the Mike L thing.

But look, if Mike L wants to give us another hot three weeks or a month, yes, please. I'd be very cool with that. Big stretch coming up, too. We'll look ahead, but they have nine straight on the road against division opponents before the All-Star break. So I can go for a little michael hot streak and you know then he can suck again and maybe they could trade for somebody and you bring a boom in september hot streak yeah boom cruising up all right well jack let's look at it like game by game really quickly before we do though check out our twitters our

pinned tweets uh high hopes night august 17th out with us. This team is fun again, Jack. We were worried. A week ago, we were talking about High Hopes Night. We were like, oh, God, please don't let the season fall apart. And now there's such excitement. I think by the time the Padres come to town on August 17th, it's going to be a really fun series. Fun baseball.

Machado Harper, all that stuff. Are we going to get white rally towels? Are we going to what? Are there going to be rally towels? Of course there's going to be. There's not rally towels until September, I'm pretty sure. Well, we're going to make it happen.

We'll bring our own rally towels. That's right. I'll rip my High Hope shirt off and swing it over my head if I need to. That's getting a little crazy, buddy. How many blueberry ales are you going to be in that one? Alright. Please come hang out with us with us it's gonna be super fun uh we want to meet you all we love high hopes nation so uh both of our pin tweets have the link august 17th i think it's what like 28 bucks or something like that 30 33 dollars 33 bucks super cheap so um and really

good seats it'll be awesome we'll have fun we going to have some other giveaways, fun stuff going on. The great Cindy Webster is helping us out. It's going to be awesome. All right, Fritz, let's dive into the series. Monday, game one, as we like to say here. 13 runs, Jack, after the Marlins series, no less. The bats go ice cold. It was nice to see them go off a little bit on a hot

summer night in Philly. I feel like we're going to see more of these as the summer wears on. Yeah, I mean, with how the balls are now, it's like summer in Philly with the Philly humidity, which the Philly humidity was very much out. It was crazy.

It was kicking. Honestly, I love home runs much out like it was crazy it was kicking it was kicking dude like freaking like it was it was honestly i love home runs and whatever but i just felt like i was watching a cheap inversion of baseball like the the first two games of the series i really did wow it was it was ridiculous no it's good i agree with you look that diamondbacks game we've seen a few games like that already here where it just does it feels silly like i'm fine with nights where the ball carry it's another thing where it's like a pop out to left field and it carries over the fence and it's just like what's the point here yeah no and it was it was ridiculous and it feels like they're just hitting golf balls

um and there was a whole thing that came out this week from the athletic of like how the balls are rounder and the seams are are cut in half from what they were last year. So they're just basically throwing golf balls. It was crazy. But yeah, Monday was obviously a great win, all the offense. Zach Eflin was pretty disappointing, but I'm going to chalk that a lot up to how the weather was. His fastball location was just way off.

And then once he starts panicking, he starts going to his slider more and more. And when he goes to his slider more and more, that's usually never a good thing. But the game on Monday did bring us the first time with Scott Kingery in the leadoff role. And James, this lineup, the first time I saw it with Kingery in the leadoff spot, I was like, that feels right. It let the whole lineup just kind of fall into place. Scott Kingery in the leadoff, he didn't have a great game last night, got a hit today.

It just looks better with Scott Kingery leading off ballgames. Yeah, you would almost think that Kapler listened to the High Hopes pod for Monday because it was literally that night. We finished recording and then it was like two hours later, line-up comes out and kingery's in the little spot and we're like huh interesting yeah we appreciate it yeah well okay look we don't care gabe we're just trying to help out man our ideas are your ideas so you know all good and uh kingery the lead off homer the next game and even though he didn't do anything in the walk off one let's call it did have that big strikeout getting a first base contributing that didn't do anything in the walk-off one, let's call it,

did have that big strikeout getting to first base, contributing that didn't matter. Big strikeout. Like, it was a huge strikeout. Way to go, Scottie. And I'm with you. It just, he had to spark at the top of the lineup that no one else on the current roster has done. Like, we haven't seen anyone else.

The other people they put up there, Cesar, Segura, Harper, none of those guys have, and they've obviously, obviously Cesar really struggled up there. Segura did not hit well in the leadoff spot and Harper is fine up there. But Kingery, he just gives you a spark that the other guys don't. He's quick. He's can give you pop at the top. He's going to go out and really try and jump on pitches.

So I'm with you. No brainer. I think, look, I think the lineup we've seen the last four games at least for right now you know obviously nap was in uh in game four instead of remuto we'll see that stuff but i think otherwise just keep the same lineup right there's no reason to to tinker at the moment no i mean until until mike allen i believe you know yes so so yeah but the first i will say the first six is really really solid for the rest of the season like kangaroo segura harper hoskins real muto bruce and then says yeah says all right after him like i just think that's a good solid lineup i agree with you i agree with you and jay jay bruce man he just continues to

what what what a trade to trade for that guy like a week before like a few days excuse me like a few days before mccutchen goes down dude the mets are paying him a million and a half right now it's unbelievable are they really the mets are in on that oh it's so great yeah it's so great of course from coming over and he walked him off baby that is so great it is it is it's good to see uh uh bruce get back on track a little bit because he was kind of going into the tank uh i was worried he's getting uh he is not getting mailed we are all good um so yeah j bruce um another big series like would they wouldn't be where they are without j br at this point. I mean, that's a fair statement to say. Oh, my God.

Yeah, I think it's an understatement. He has been massive for this team. And it also seems like he has. And I don't think anyone could have come in in that spot and been what McCutcheon is from the veteran leadership type of perspective. But it seems like Bruce is kind of hopped into at least some sort of role there. Like he does seem to be there when when needed to talk to the media it seems like he talks a lot about being that type of guy that type of culture guy look that's awesome too man i mean he's been great on the field but if

you're gonna add a little bit from that perspective too i think that's just a huge win well that's what he did for those indians for that indians team that won what 16 straight yeah i think it might be more it might have been more than that but that's what he did for that Indians team that won, what, 16 straight? Yeah, I think it might have been more than that. It might have been more than that, but that's what he did for that Indians team. I remember he had a big walk-off for them. He might have gotten to like 21 or 22 or somewhere in that range. It was crazy. Yeah, and he played that same kind of role. Obviously, he's playing more here because of the Cutchin injury,

but he's a guy who's been on winning teams before, and he's coming into locker rooms rooms and he's been moved around. I think this was his fourth team in four years. Like he moves around a lot. And you kind of just have to be a good teammate if you want to assimilate yourself into that culture. And he does seem like he's happy to be somewhere where he has a chance to win, which is awesome.

And it makes sense. He hasn't gotten that many opportunities in his career to be parts of playoff chases. It seems like he's excited to be a part of that obviously the whole thing with cavler you know let me play i promise you know the whole like thing so um i i think very with you on james all right we'll forgive him for ruining the holiday should have been perfect game i mean it's it's okay yeah luckily roy got another so it all worked out no i mean like he it was a it was, it was a strike. He was the only one that walked.

Oh, you're talking about in the no-hitter. In the no-hitter, yes. It should have been a perfect game. Of course. It should have been a perfect game. Yes, it's a good point, actually. I've never once thought about that. I was so enthralled with the no-hitter in the playoffs.

I never once thought it should have been a perfect game, but you're right about that. But he did gift us the series, basically, with losing the ball in the light. So as long as Jay Bruce is not in right field, I feel good. I feel good about Jay Bruce in left field. He's been stalking left field, man. He's calling off Kangary in center.

He's ranging. It's been pretty fun. All right, game two, Tuesday. Kepler gets tossed again, Jack. In the history of the High Hopes pod, Gabe Kapler had never been thrown out of a game, and it's happening in each of the last two pods we've done. How about that, Jack?

I absolutely love it. I think it endears him to this city. I know a lot of people think that's BS, but listen, not everyone who follows the Phillies is the great High Hopes listeners. There are people who are blue-collar and want to see their manager fight for them. I think when these fans

and really the fans, whatever, doesn't really matter, but think about the guys in that locker room and Scott Kingery gets a ball up to the face after their 82-year-old pitching coach goes out there and tells him to throw at Scott Kingery. He gets

it up in the face and Gabe Kapler goes out and gets rung up. I know it's Joe West and whatever, but Gabe Kapler, he did actually break the rules, which is fine, and that's why he got thrown out. But if you're in that locker room and you see Scott Kingery get thrown

at the head after Phil Regan goes out there, if you could show a little bit of hustle that'd be great I understand you're 82 but let's get out to the mound I just I think that they say man Cavs got our back and really even though they lost the Marlins series and it was seven straight or six straight or whatever

like seven straight I try to black it out James I'm going off of memory but like I think this streak actually endeared himself to the players a bit more. I think they saw how much crap he was getting in the media. They had the players only meeting after the Sunday game. They see him get thrown out twice, and they see that he will always have their back. And really, I think that the players are –

I know you thought the message wasn't getting through last week but it looks like the message is is getting through and they they fought for for gabe this week no look uh they definitely did and whether they fought for themselves or for gabe or whatever they definitely fought and um phil reagan by the way looks every bit of 82 years old is unbelievable to see someone trot out to the man at that age. But I'm with you. Look, and I think getting tossed, I totally agree with you. I think he was very purposefully getting tossed in the Marlins series.

I thought that was 100%. I think we talked about on purpose trying to get him going. I don't think he meant to get tossed in this one, but then once he was tossed, he just let loose, which I loved. Joe West is the worst, by the way. Like, screw that guy. All that guy does is make it about himself. But Gabe's it.

I mean, Gabe knows. No, I know. I know. I'm not talking my ejecting game. I'm talking, like, first and foremost, how about, I don't know, having a consistent strike zone? That would be something that would be cool. I don't know.

That might be nice. I don't play an umpire, but Joe West is the worst. We don't know that might be nice i'm playing umpire but joe west is the worst we don't need to get no old joe west thing but like just look up some of the stories about joe west and and the things that he's done and all that he is very much about joe west but yes he gave technically broke a rule got jacked and i i like that he fought hard after that and kind of like leaned into it um another big franco homer in this one arietta sucks jack can we just go there jake arietta sucks man last i saw cory simon put out the tweet i think his last 11 starts he's got a 5-2-3 ra batters are betting like 290 something

off him he's really not fun to watch jack uh he is not missing any barrels like he is he is jakey barrel finder right now it is it is crazy man he's not making anyone miss at all like they're right on everything he is absolutely stealing money from this phillies team i cannot believe the contract they're paying him, given the performance they've gotten back. And like, he looks like a guy that just doesn't have answers. Like, you watch him in the postgame, you watch him on the mound, and he's definitely

healthy. He definitely feels like he can take the ball every fifth day. But it's like, I have nothing. I don't know what's going on. I can't figure it out. He's a guy that used to be great that just doesn't have it anymore. That's what is and honestly if they can just get six innings four runs from jake ariana like that's a win in my book oh my god that's great are you kidding me i'll take six innings four runs anytime he's six innings five runs last time he got the win like that was that's

i feel like the the best generally six innings three runs like you'll see a lot of those starts and he's just cooked he just looks cooked and and we tried to fight it we tried to believe but i think we have enough of a sample size here as a philadelphia philly to just say that the old jay gary ed or even the jay gary from a couple years ago is not coming back um anything else from uh game two here jack before we move on to the the walk-offs um juan acasio has taken down a bunch of a things recently dude again again today too he's like a high leverage one uh it was not you know i don't love it no i hate it are you kidding me every time he steps in there it drives me crazy

but he did well like shouts he did well especially today like that was a lockdown eighth yeah well tuesday night he did have the jeffrey mayor incident that jeffrey mayor incident thank you for bringing that up i i hope everyone else was thinking about jeffrey mayor in that moment and hey guess what the kid actually uh ultimately that was the right thing to do it ended up helping the phillies potentially who knows how that ball caroms that could have been a triple could have scored a run like you don't know what happens there it ended up being around real double actually really helped the phillies there so way to go kid yeah and i mean nicasio i know isn't great but you know he's gonna throw strikes

at least and that's why he's in the game which is yes and it's him or edgar garcia or jd hammer which is hilarious that i'm saying that because the two winners of the last two games were Edgar Garcia and J.D. Hammer. But man, it's a mash unit. When you see Juan Nicasio coming for the eighth, when I saw Edgar Garcia, and let's move on to game three with this, when I saw Edgar Garcia coming in the 10th inning, I was speechless, Jack. I was like, how is it a 10th inning of an important baseball game in June, and that guy's pitching? How? And he won the game. Props. But, man, this bullpen is an issue right now. Well, it's an issue because you think it's going to fall apart,

but they did their job this series. They did. They did. Other than actor Neris in game three, which you can't blame him, him three straight outings and i don't blame game for putting him in there you know you don't have anybody else but uh no i'm they did great the pen did great but it's certainly you can't tell me that you feel good anytime any of these guys come into a game oh come on man garcia's taking down anything i feel great i mean hammer actually if you want to fight for one jd.D. Hammer's numbers

are actually not that bad. I mean, peripherals are pretty much that bad. He's got like eight strikeouts and six walks and like 12 innings or whatever it is. It's not great, but he's got mid-three ERA. I mean, Edgar Garcia has been horrendous. The fact that they're getting this kind of production

out of the talent they have back there is a testament to the game planning, I think, from Chris Young and that coaching staff. I don't think Chris Young is the best diagnosing problems with pitchers, pitching coach. But I think he's very good at being detailed and knowing where hitters' hot zones are and cold zones. And giving these guys and making sure the catchers are prepared for games. And making sure these guys are ready for any situation they have out there, which I think should just lead me directly into Nick Pavetta. It was literally about to be my next question.

Literally. This freaking guy is – I was going to do a whole we buried the lead thing. Yeah. He just pisses me off so much is it is in it is infuriating like how do you how do you come back from the minor leagues and like did you not watch yourself the first three starts you have when you came back when you were on the mound you were aggressive you were working quickly and you were getting the ball and you were firing and you look like like don't f

with me right now. Nick Pavetta had that feel about him. He had a feel of a guy that was like, you know what? F it. I'm going to go out there and dominate everyone at any time, whenever I want. And now this freaking guy is back to nibbling all around the strike zone, and he looks like the guy that got sent down.

His overall numbers in Game 3 were fine. It wasn't great for your fourth or fifth starter. But when you have the stuff that guy has, and you watch him, and you saw how things got squared up all night long against him, it's totally embarrassing. And then he freaks out on the mound like a little child. That was my biggest issue. He acted like a petulant

child it's very fritz of him i mean this is why this is why it's very fritz that's why i love the guy but like man would you just man up and figure out figure it out just figure it out just figure it out like just figure it out it's not this hard like you it is all in there it is all mental look at what you did against the dodgers like that's that's what you can do Like, it is all in there. It is all mental. Look at what you did against the Dodgers. Like, that's what you can do. And, like, it just blows my mind how you can – I don't understand how you see it. There's a clear path, and you just shy away from it.

Like, you just don't grab it and go. Like, you said that you were never going to go back down to Lehigh Valley. You said you're motivated. You're all humble, and you're driving 50 miles a day because you're not going to stay in Lehigh Valley. You're going to be back in Philadelphia in no time. And you come back, and you're squandering it again, and you're making me look really bad.

And I just am furious. I am furious with where we're at with Pavetta. This is what we call tough love right here. Sometimes you got to do it to the ones you love,ames i mean you'll learn this nick i hope you i hope you heard that i mean i i know he's listening so nick man listen what you're doing to jack you'll learn this good you'll learn this with zoe one day tough love is important that tough love i like it when she's when she when she's getting shelled in softball games you're gonna need to have one of these rants on a podcast about her softball team, and she'll get the message.

Yes, yes. I'm going to dress her down. It'll be great. I'll curse at her. It'll be good stuff. Yeah. Look, I think it's all fair. Not trusting the stuff drives us crazy and all that,

but the way he acted like a child was really a bad look for him because you can excuse being a little off with the stuff and all that, but not acting like a man out there, especially when he's had so many issues with this, so much between the heads stuff, and that's a knock on him, and he tears apart the clubhouse or whatever when he gets sent down and all that type of stuff. Man the hell up.

Like, man up. You're a major league pitcher. So I'm really with you there. Anything else from the walk-off, the first walk-off, game three? By the way, I think shout-out to – we read the name on the pop when we did it, but, again, shout-out to the person who suggested the game one, game two, game three thing. It's been a godsend for us. It's been way easier.

It's really way easier. It's an outstanding suggestion. My last thought on the game was like, for the first time in a while, I would say since maybe even 11. Like maybe since 2011. Obviously, the Phillies went through obviously the worst period of baseball ever. Well, maybe not ever, like maybe since 2011, obviously the Phillies went through, obviously the worst period of baseball ever. Well, maybe not ever,

but it felt like it. I totally trusted them in extra innings to win a game. Like I just, I, I just, I just did like the, the, the bowl,

obviously the Mets, especially coming from you. I mean, you're Mr. Never think they're going to win anything ever. I know, I know, but I just,

I just, it was one of those things where i was like oh there's this is this is this mets bullpen this team feels special they're gonna get it done i'm not worried about it um and you know jay bruce comes up big i mean segura had monstrous hits all night long the home run and then he has the double um pretty good for a guy that doesn't hustle. Yeah, he had a big series, man. He had a monster series. Not this game, but Franco had a monster series. Bruce had a big series.

Oh, Hoskins. How about Hoskins homering him back-to-back games again? That was fun. I mean, Cesar had the longest. Cesar, yeah, six straight games, right, with two hits or more. And that was the longest streak since Utley. Chase in 08, I think it was, right? Wow.

That's crazy. And he had the hustle single. They looked like a team that gave a crap. They looked like a team that was hungry and wanted to fight. And even when they went down, I just knew they were going to find a way to win. And even today, even today when they went down. See, here's the thing, where you're going.

I did yesterday too. In game three, I agree with you. In extra innings, I thought we're winning this game. I feel like they're going to take this. Today, I didn't. Today, I thought they were going to win when it was 1-0. I really did. But when they went down 3-1 in the ninth,

I was like, all right. It was was like three or four that's what i expected anyway this is how it happens okay you didn't you believed i believed oh i know how could we how could we forget um i just feel like we we absolutely have to talk about this from game three um how about how about a little bit of shout out here to uh the one mickey calloway uh i would just like to thank you yeah taking out vargas 77 pitches and you're taking out strikeouts yeah first of all how does jason vargas strike us out then how does he sure got anyone let's not talk about the negatives let's focus on the positives here and the positives being mickey calloway um big time mickey calloway is the mickey calloway by the

time this podcast is out might have already lost his job mickey calloway is like the second most important mickey in all of uh professional baseball behind mickey moniak and i would just like to say thank you i mean the fact that you're pulling jason vargas after 77 pitches and he was absolutely baffling the Phillies hitters. They had no idea what they were doing. It looked like they had absolutely no game plan, which was mildly frustrating. But just again, Mickey, thank you for just gifting us this series. You are truly a treasure and I hope you stay the Mets manager forever. Yeah, well, that's absolutely not happening. I hope you could save mints manager for the rest

of this season i'll take that all right uh game four let's start at the top in my opinion at least the best nola we've seen yet this year yeah and it was a good it was a good um uh follow up to his game last friday night uh and listen i he the the plan is there i still think he throws a lot of curveballs and i think he throws a lot of curveballs when there's runners on base because i don't think he totally trusts his fastball just yet but um warm weather nola is a thing that was most it's a thing yeah it's the first time that like started getting floated earlier this year and i know it's been mentioned before but people really were kind of harvard i was like come on guys come on it's just true it just is what it is yeah and he was and listen this team is sure if they lost today you're still feeling good because uh because it's three or four but

just being able to sweep and and having that momentum heading into the marlin series having this team believing more and more in the bamboo like i just think that's that's huge and their ace delivered their ace really really delivered and if we're gonna get this nola that we've seen the last two starts that's that could be the difference in a division race that could be us locking up a second wild card like you need this version of aaron nola and if you're gonna get the guy that we saw today that the the this team is just everything else just falls into place because then you can go get another pitcher to pair with nola you're gonna have nola start a we saw today that the the this team is just everything else just falls into place because then you can go get another pitcher to pair with nola you can have nola start a wild card game i would feel really good if i'm having that nola start me in a wild card game in a one game playoff

i mean you know he can pitch anywhere because he stays calm regardless so um playoff nola is back on and uh we just need we just needed to be an unseasonably hot October in Millie. Anywhere we could play. If they have to go on the road, what's the ideal road city? Well, Los Angeles is not bad for an all-I would say. But obviously they're not going to make the wild card game. No, I know that was an issue. San Diego, unlikely.

The Diamondbacks still fighting. It could still be hot in Chicago. It could still be hot in Chicago. It could still be hot in Chicago. Milwaukee, St. Louis, yeah, maybe. St. Louis can get a little muggy. We just got to root for hot weather, wherever it is. Wherever we are. Some weird El Nino type of thing.

That's what we need. Totally. He was nasty. He was nasty. The changeup, I'm glad that it's all starting to come together. His location, his fastball is much better. Had a nice presence about him. Finally, when he gets in a rhythm, he stays in a rhythm.

His pace, I felt like this year, has just been a lot slower. He's been way slowed down, so that was a good thing to see. And man, I can't stress enough how important that version of nola is to the 2019 phil's yeah it's massive and it's the thing that we you know we talk so much about counting on and we haven't been able to count on it but last two starts about 15 innings one run uh 20 strikeouts he's been awesome awesome awesome awesome and um again if he could start and get on a roll and give him you know like he did last, where he gives him like 10 starts in a row like this or 10 similar-ish type of starts, man, what a long way that would go, Jack. What a long way that would go.

Again, and then this one really, you know, kind of quiet, all game, Harper, it's that monster home run, 630, 438. It feels like when, you've said this before multiple times, but if he gets a hold of it, it's just going to go out of any stadium. It doesn't matter where it is. It's going to be a home run. Yeah, and that's the problem. All of his exit numbers are great. The problem is he's got to make contact.

When Harper makes contact, the ball flies. That's just facts. The guy is smoking the ball. He just has to make consistent contact and honestly i was frustrated his first two at bats because like i saw his hip yeah the second was such a bad strikeout too yeah and his hip was gliding forward it looks like he just wasn't able to catch up to 94 and then obviously the home run catch up to 97 it was a good sign and like i thought the first two two bats of the game it was like oh no

here we go another bad bryce streak uh and listen i just where i'm at with bryce is like he's just too good to be as average as he's been this season yeah i think we got a hot streak coming well i mean we've been saying that for months like we've i know just i know but i still believe i i believe i believe it's all in there too i just think he's done so much tinkering that he doesn't know what's right and what's wrong. And hopefully he just watches some tapes. He's what he did on that fastball today and starts catching up to him because this team has been brutal against fastballs this season,

especially Bryce. It's just down all around. And I hope that that was a nice low turning point for him because I need him to get going. I need a Bryce Hodge. Yeah, watch tape, Bryce. I know that's not your thing. Watch some tape.

That's not totally true. He watches actually a lot of tape and takes too much coaching. The article was actually wrong, just from a little birdie. Okay. I like that. It's too much coaching. I like that. It's a too much coaching.

Some say he listens too much and doesn't just – he has his own – he doesn't do the curveball machine thing because he does so much like back in the cages and whatnot. But he does watch a lot of film apparently. All right. Well, watch the film and figure it out, Bryce. Franco, getting to the ninth, just first of all, that at bat by Car was huge to work that walk that was just a great at bat um and then franco like you know look we've already said

how we feel about franco but he was awesome this week and credit wouldn't do he had a great week and it was awesome i i'm not swimming back to the recently re-emerged franco island yet but um nice week for franco big big series there and then uh and then sagura man you know look it's been talking a lot about that three-week stretch i don't think anyone other than gabe capler had it worse both in terms of his play and in terms of all the noise around him than segura um nice to see him you know have some really big hits this series yeah i mean just this team this team showed resiliency i think for the first time in the gabe cap player like the the real real true resilience tangible resilience and a team that was fighting and a team that was hungry and thank god man because i was not ready for a whole summer of meaningless

baseball once again i know i know they're only on pace for 86 wins but i just think that i just think this series is massive from a fight standpoint of learning how to win standpoint and so many players contributed it wasn't even the big players the little players the bullpen came together starting pitching wasn't great but i think a lot of that had to do with the weather and the humidity and the ball just flying out of the yard. Going to give them a pass there. Listen, revenge against the Marlins. How about that? Revenge against the Marlins.

Big series coming up. And then after that, to Atlanta and then to New York to finish out before the All-Star break. We'll obviously dive into the Atlanta series next week. But coming up in a minute, we gonna get to our final thoughts but first we got a special guest jack got the opportunity to sit down and talk to the one the only josh bonifay the farm director for the phillies and as you can imagine it was probably hard for jack to contain himself talking to the director i had a lot of stuff I wanted to ask. I had so much I wanted to ask. I didn't ask at all.

But we get into some fun stuff on the Philz, so I hope you all enjoy it. I'm excited to hear it myself. Here it is, Jack with farm director for the Philadelphia Phillies, Josh Bonifay. And now we are lucky to be joined by Josh

Bonifay, the Phillies Farm Director. Josh, how's it going, man? Outstanding. Obviously loving being down here in Florida. Came down here to see our young kids play. It was exciting yesterday, even though we played against each other. One team throwing on a no-hitter. I heard that.

But it was extremely fun to watch our kids play yesterday and compete. It's been a fun week. We've got a lot of draft kids down here. Watching them get acclimated. It's always good to see the younger players play. Have you guys gotten a bamboo plant down there yet?

Are you guys starting to join that movement? We haven't taken over the bamboo yet, but I'm glad that bamboo is up in Philly right now. Yeah, it may have saved the season. Some are saying that it saved the season, so it's definitely a fun time

right now, for sure. Well, you know how the baseball season is. There's a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and our team, very good baseball team in Philly. We've got a tremendous leader in Gabe. His players, we have.

They're going to be fine. Should be a fun rest of the year. Josh, how have your first few months been with the new organization? Obviously, you come over from the Houston Astros, which are player development kings over there. You're coming over to Philadelphia. You were named the farm director.

How have the first couple months been? It's been tremendous. Obviously, you know, at first it's just getting to know all the staff, getting to know the people, you know, getting to know the coaches, and then just kind of evaluating all the players. You know, there's so many players in the system. You want to get to know them. You read a lot of scouting reports. You ask a lot of questions all the players. There's so many players in the system. You want to get to know them. You read a lot of scouting reports.

You ask a lot of questions from the staff. You travel to the DR. You travel to Clearwater to see the complex. You just get to know your way around the land. You spend a lot of time during the offseason hiring new people and just really getting to know the staff and the players. So it's been a tremendous experience for me so far. Our players and our staff are tremendous.

The culture here, the foundation was laid by Mr. Montgomery. Unfortunately, he passed away, but it carries on, and it's just a phenomenal organization to be a part of. Now, have you noticed any similarities between what you were doing with the Astros or what they were doing player development-wise to what you guys are doing now? I mean, I just think that anytime you bring in somebody new, there's different ideas and there's different things that you want to bring to the table and try to get implemented.

I think some of the things that we were doing over with the Astros at that point, obviously you bring a few of those things with you, but you can't say enough about the Phillies organization. It's been an organization that has developed young talent all the way from the bottom and filtered into Philly, and They've won World Series championships, and it's a tremendous place to be a part of. There's not a lot of change that you want to bring in. It's just new ideas and certain things that you can improve on.

The tradition here has always been phenomenal in getting young players to the big leagues. One of those young players that everyone up here in Philadelphia young players to the big leagues. Yeah, and one of those young players that, I mean, everyone up here in Philadelphia is starting to get really excited about is Alec Baum, just recently promoted to Redding, had his first big league or first double-A home run, I think it was Saturday. So he's just continuing to crush the baseball wherever he goes. What have you seen from Alec Baum, and are you surprised he's kind of,

I mean, this is three leagues in one year for him. I mean, this is a tremendous player with elite bat speed and skill. He plays a tremendous base. He did a phenomenal job coming in

early this offseason preparing himself. After a short season last year, he was down here in January working with all of our strength and conditioning staff, all of our coaches. He put himself in a tremendous spot to go to Lakewood out of spring training, played extremely well for a month, went over to the Florida State League, continued his dominance, and is now in AA. It's just impressive to watch the kid work.

It's impressive to watch the kid go about his business, his plans, his preparation, and what he does. It's an exciting time for the kid, but also the organization. Yeah, and I think the mildly surprising thing was that he was named the Defender of the Month, I think a month ago, so his defense seems like it's coming along well, and hopefully he can definitely stick at third base, you think? Oh, yeah. No question about it. He's going to stick at third base.

He takes a lot of pride in it, and he does a lot of work day in and day out to make sure that his feet continue to move, to make sure that he's moving well, he's feeling the ball cleanly, and his arm has got a lot of carry on it. He's got plenty of arm to play third, and he's shown the ability to play third. I don't see any question of why he would stick there. What is the next step for Boehm?

Unless he gets really hot, we could see him in the big leagues this year, most likely not. What is your plan for him? The plan is just for him to get reps and continue to play. That's what we want to see him do. Take it back and double A. Take it step by step. There's no

future of this or that. Just let the kid tell you when he's ready and how prepared he is and how he goes about his business and watching him perform in AA. Then, obviously, take a look at him throughout the rest of the year. Now, another guy that fans are also getting excited about is Mickey Moniak. He's batting 293 in June. He has an OBP over 390, I'm pretty sure. Moniak really seems like he's starting to figure it out a little bit. You guys have been

aggressive in how you've pushed him. Him and Redding at 21, I think people forget how old Mickey Moniak is. He's only 21 years old. He's starting to put it together a little bit. What have you seen from Mickey? Mickey's just done a tremendous job of dominating the strike zone. The ball's in the strike zone. The ball's in

the strike zone. He punishes, and he punishes them hard. He's limited. He's at his own swings. He's really focused in on his own. When he gets his pitch, he drives it. People forget that he's, you know, he can play center field. He's going to be an outstanding center fielder. He has game-changing speed, and with his ability to hit the baseball, he's going to be a future, the Phillies' future. I mean, he's an outstanding player, but that's the things that he's really controlled, he's really focused on, and he's done a lot of damage here in the last month. Yeah, it seems like he's starting to walk a little bit more, so it seems like he's really starting to

control that strike zone a little bit. Some of the moves you guys made this offseason in player development, and one of the big moves was bringing in Jason Ochar and a couple of other driveline guys. How have the driveline guys, Ochar, how have they been incorporated

into your guys' minor league system? We don't consider them driveline guys. We consider them the Phillies. That's true. Yeah, they're a part of us. There's no separation. These guys come in. They do a tremendous job, especially with Ochar coming in

and running our hitting in the minor leagues. He's got a strong presence in how he teaches. He understands the technology, but he also understands baseball. He was a baseball player. He understands the game. He really teaches our staff, too, with some of the technologies, helps them understand that, helps the players see their swing, see it through different eyes.

He's been a tremendous addition. Also Eric Jaegers has been outstanding on the, on the pitch design side. He's come in, um, you know, he's, he's helped our pitching coaches take a look into edutronic, uh, footage and also the Rapsodo machine, just kind of helping our guys see some of the spin, different spins and making recommendations our guys see some of the different spins and making recommendations and grips and some of those things. So they've been great additions to the organization, and they continue to work.

They grind day in and day out, and we consider them coaches. They're not driveline or not anything else. They're just part of our organization, and they're Philly. Yeah, it's been super exciting. Are they in one spot or do they travel and go up to Williamsport or go to Redding or Lehigh Valley or are they down in Florida?

Where are they stationed? Our guys, they travel. Jason travels around. He's a hitting coordinator. He's just like any other coordinator. He travels around, sees our players, makes recommendations if he sees things that need to be changed. And Jaegers has started to travel a little more. At first, he was down here in Clearwater, but he's started to rove a little bit through the minor leagues and getting all of our players on film and just making sure that there's anything that he can bring

to the table, he brings to our director of pitching, which is Chavi. And they work hand-in-hand to try to help better our pitching staff. So these guys, like I said, they work extremely hard, and they rove throughout our system and make recommendations, and they do it with a lot of information and a lot of backing. Yeah, that's just awesome to hear. I was so excited this offseason when I saw they were bringing O-Chart and those guys in. So that's really, really good to hear.

Now, one of the pitchers I wanted to touch on real quick is Damon Jones. I mean, the guy striking out everyone. He looks like he has a wiped-out slider. I mean, he just looks like a big horse of a lefty. What have you guys seen from Damon Jones? And any chance maybe another promotion? Well, I mean, I think Damon Jones, he took it upon himself this offseason to go get in shape, make sure he was healthy coming in.

You know, every day in and day out, he works extremely hard. He's starting to develop game planning. He's starting to look at film, understand what hitters' weaknesses are and how he can attack them with his stuff. He's got a power fastball. Obviously, you talked about the slider. It's filthy. Continue to work on the changeup.

But, I mean, the kid's been very impressive. If somebody's sitting on a slider or trying that he'll just blow him away with 95 um and it's very difficult from any anybody any angle especially his from the left side um he's a big physical presence he gets down the mountain well and he throws a lot of strikes so it's been exciting time for him watching him um and it was awesome to to see his first outing up in Redding. He put it on Harrisburg pretty good with

12 punch outs in the sixth inning. Yeah, I am very excited for the Damon Jones development. Final question, Josh. Looks like Bryson Stott is officially signed. What kind of player do you guys envision there in Bryson Stott? Pure shortstop.

He's going to be a shortstop. He's going to be able to swing the bat. He swings the bat very well. We'll see him coming in, getting ready to play. Once he gets his feet up under him, I know he's had some time off, then we'll see where we slide him. But it's going to be an exciting player,

everyday shortstop in the future that can really swing the bat. So we're very excited to have him in our organization. Yeah, I mean, were you guys surprised that he fell to 14? I think when he got there, we were very excited to take him. Yeah, I mean, I would have been out and running.

Now, did Matt Klintzak, did he run up to the phone to call Tommy Green or do you not know that? No, I'm not privy to that, if he did. No. I think Johnny Alvarez is the one that made the decision, I guess, obviously, with Matt and the leadership group. Yeah.

And I think we were excited, very excited just to have him at 14. Well, I ran to tweet out how excited I was. So I took that privilege. Josh Bonifay, thanks a bunch for hopping on, man, and continued success. And thanks for hopping on. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Jack, you didn't

ask him about you joining the team. I thought that was the lock for a question. Listen, if you were there with me, I would have asked it because then it wouldn't just be me acting like a crazy person it would have been weird i think in that setting it would have been weird hey josh uh you want an 82 mile an hour hurler that is slightly overweight and drinks a lot of ipas i'm your i really that was excited that question that was a question i legit expected you to ask in In jest, obviously. That's okay. Good stuff.

I really enjoyed that, Jack. I hope you all did as well. We're a guest show. That's what we do here. I wanted to be on the interview, but Jack said, screw you. You're not allowed. This is my interview.

You don't get the boomers that I do. No, it's true. You are the king of boomers. Speaking of boomers, final thoughts. Well, speaking of boomers, he did go yard tonight. Don't let the kid get hot. Speaking of

me and working for the Phillies, they are looking for bullpen pitchers that can come in and throw hard bullpens. By the way, I love this idea. I don't know why more teams don't do this. I think it's a really smart idea. Yeah, because and throw hard bullpens. I will come in. By the way, I love this idea. Like, I don't know why more teams don't do this. I think it's a really smart idea.

Yeah, because it's hard to find guys that'll throw live and throw well live. So, yeah, if you're good enough to throw live at that level, you're pitching in, you know, some sort of pro ball type of league or the minors or whatever. But how about a former Division II pitcher you can still get up to like 82 um so i would just like to say that i will i'm i am officially throwing my hat into the ring uh we're gonna call we're gonna call the hashtag um fritz for bp pitcher how about that it's not really a catchy hashtag well how how am i supposed to make that catchy i don't know fritz for bp is probably just better. Well, I only throw BP when I pitch anyway, so if so facto, I will make the Phillies' bats get hot.

Fritz for BP. I like that. It's good. It's a little alliterative with the Fritz for part of it. Yeah. My second final thought is, did Matt Gelb save the season? So Matt Gelb wrote on Monday about how theies um struggled to slug against the fastball and that night that gabe was like yeah we're gonna change our approach and only focus on on hitting fastballs so i would like to thank matt galb for saving the philly season is matt galb a bamboo tree because if not he did not save the season but matt galb did get them to change their offensive philosophy where did the bamboo do it jacks you'll did get them to change their offensive philosophy where did the bamboo do it jacks you'll never be able to tell me it wasn't the bamboo i'm gonna go i'm

gonna go with gelby on this one i you say the season i'll go with the bamboo this could this could have been like the the jenkins going to jim schwartz in the giants game and saying hey let's uh let's let's figure out the defense let's make this simple guys let's make this work hunt after fastballs so you can say bamboo i'm going with gelb deal and my final final thought well my first final thought before my actual final thought is is well he did sign today and i did see him and we did ride an elevator together i didn't't say. Yeah. Oh, the heat in that elevator. Yeah. That must have been something.

Well, I didn't really say anything. I kind of just stood in the corner and listened to him talk to his dad, I think, because I didn't want to say anything and sound like an idiot. Like, I didn't know if I wanted to say, like, hey, Bryson, you changed your swing, like, before your senior year? Like, it was really impressive. Or before your junior year. What if I was like, yeah, it really worked in your launch angle even before your junior year. Oh, man, that would have been...

That would have been for an awkward elevator ride. This would have been the problem. Because I've watched a good amount of the collegiate series, the USA versus the world, in that he was in. And his swing looked different in that. And then he goes back to UNLV and has a way way smoother thing i watched a good amount of the collegiate series you are something jack i've watched a lot of the collegiate series and i if i said to him in the elevator i watched a lot of your usa games and i noticed a swing change what's going on i'm pretty sure he would have just forced the open door and left oh

immediately immediately you would have terrified him so that was my experience the bryson stott today and hopefully we hopefully we'll maybe get him on the pod hopefully that'd be fun i would like to talk to bryson uh and not an elevator setting yeah that'd be fun it less creepy i think too uh obviously 1 000 reviews or no, 1,000 ratings, and we will release the Bryce Harper is Never Coming Here podcast. And we are two ratings away, or three at this point, from officially being the highest rated Phillies podcast on the net. So obviously, we appreciate all of you listening and rating and reviewing.

It's just the best thing in the world. And my final, final thought is that there is no one whose name fits them better than Brooks Pounders. If I had never seen Brooks Pounders before in my life and only heard that name, I hope that he looked like that. Yeah, it's a perfect it looks like what your name is type of guy very with you on that all right jack my final thought it's uh quick it's easy it's a uh congratulations that i would like to wish to the starting first baseman for the american league in the all-star game jack shout out to carlos santana former philly's great carlos about that how about that so let me ask you a question

what if they just made him the full-time third baseman this season i i would love it are you kidding me in in What could have been? Shout out to Lowe's. I'm happy for him. He was not loved here. No. They love him in Cleveland. He's doing well.

So shout out to Lowe's Santana. Hey, you know how many starting Phillies, all-stars there are, Jack? None. None. But. There's none. But, but, but.

It's all right. They get a break. They get the time off. It's probably better for them. Which is more important, making some meaningless all-star game or taking your bamboo home and getting ready for the second half? It's a great point. Thank you.

That's all that matters. All right. We'll be back next week. We will dive in to the Atlanta Braves series. Thank you again to Josh Bonavay for coming on. Super cool. Rate and review the podcast. Get your tickets to IOP Night because it's going to be awesome.

All right. Until next time, he's Fritz. I'm Seltzer. We'll talk to you later. All-star closer, Kenley Jansen. We have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby.

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