High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The Phillies Miss Rhys Hoskins | WIP Daily

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

The Philadelphia Phillies offense has struggled through six games and Joe Giglio thinks the decision to let Rhys Hoskins leave in free agency was a mistake. 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

Whether the action is at the link or the bank, there's never an off day on Broad Street. It's the biggest news of the day, every day, with takes from someone who's never short on them. It's WIP Daily with Joe Giglio. Welcome on in, WIP Daily, Joe Giglio with you. Appreciate everyone listening, subscribing, following the podcast. Of course, our YouTube feed, 94WIP. Check it out. Subscribe. Appreciate everyone that watches there. Of course, not just this show,

but High Hopes, Go Birds, Clap Your Hands, and all the clips of our shows on WIPR. So, Phillies lose last night. A brutal night for baseball. I mean, that was an all-timer in terms of basically seven hours from when first pitch was scheduled for when you bought your tickets, if you had tickets,

or just want to watch the game or listen to the game, to when they actually played. Brutal night. I don't understand why they played that game. I guess both teams really wanted their day off today with the Reds going home before their opener. And, of course, the Phillies heading down to D.C. for an off day before they go play the Nats this weekend.

But that was a tough loss because Zach Wheeler pitched very well, very well. I mean, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is sterling to start the season. He looks like a Cy Young kind of pitcher, which we expected. But they didn't hit, and they didn't score any runs. Other than a Kyle Struber home run last night, nothing. And there's a lot of issues right now with the Phillies' offense. And there's one thing that keeps hitting me as I keep looking for the answers and looking at how they get better and look where they could have gone

in a different direction. One thing keeps coming back to me early in this season, but let's just run through some of the issues right now. Trey Turner is an issue. 0 for 4 last night, two strikeouts, hitting 217, 525 OPS. I know everything I say you could respond with, it's early, Joe. I know that. But this is what we have to go off of, what has happened so far. that but this is what we have to go off of what has happened so far and Nick Castellanos last night did walk twice they did get on base uh ahead of a rally where maybe something could have been different if they had a different roster construction we'll get to that but last night you know 0 for 2 he struck out late a 150 batting average and the reason I bring up Castellanos to Turner is because early on you know the conversation around those guys this offseason,

and the Phillies made it about the team, but it's really about those guys, about their chase rate, about the ability to stop swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Neither are doing that so far this season, especially Castellanos. So sometimes he goes up there and it's just like he has no idea where the ball is going. It's almost like he premeditates a swing decision. The ball's two feet outside. It doesn't matter. I think it's very difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. When you get to be over the age of 30 in baseball, these are your habits. You may be able to tweak something here and there, but to expect Cassianos and Turner to not

swing a lot and swing at pitches outside the zone, it's probably not going to happen. It's who they are. They got to do damage in the zone. They need to get ahead in counts by avoiding some bad pitches and then take advantage when they have something to hit. They foul it off, they're screwed because they're going to strike out in the next pitch. So tough starts for those guys. Phillies aren't hitting, obviously, with runners to score a position. Then there's the Johan Rojas situation, which every time it's said to me that it doesn't matter, but it does.

You know, like, yes, if the Phillies top guys hit, Rojas matters less. But, you know, this is not like, you know, in a pitching staff, in a starting pitching staff, you know, the ace compared to the fifth starter. You could leave Zach Wheeler out there for seven or eight innings every start. And over the course of the season, the volume is going to be 200 innings. Meanwhile, you have a fifth starter. You could use an opener. You get the guy out after two or three innings on a bad night. He may pitch 80 innings or 100 innings, and then you piecemeal the rest together.

When a player like Rojas starts, and he's started almost every game, and he's going to start a lot of games until they send him down or make a decision to go get an upgrade. He's going to get three or four at-bats. He gets the same number of at-bats in a game that he plays, if he plays the whole game, likely. And now the lineup might turn over one more time, but he could get the same number of at-bats as the cleanup hitter, four each. So he's going to impact the game. He's going to be part of the game. He's going to have his chunk of the game. And I know he got his first hit last night, which is great. It was an infield dribbler. He has not hit the ball out of the infield. Not one time this season. And I mean, I'm not speaking about a hit. I mean, just contact where the ball leaves the infield. This is little league stuff. Like the kid that

couldn't hit the ball at the infield and the coach would say, bring them all, you know, come on in, move in. Outfielders, infielders, because the the kid can't hit that's what it looks like right now with johan rojas he is not striking out in inordinate number of times but for his power profile any strikeouts too much he's not getting on base in any discernible way his speed is mitigated because he doesn't get the first base you can't steal first base there's so many of these guys over the years billy hamilton was one i remember for the reds about i guess 10 12 10, 12 years ago. If he could just get on base, if he could just get to first base, he could steal 100 bases. Wonderful. And he obviously was a good defender too, but he couldn't hit. And with Rojas right now, it just doesn't look

right. He just doesn't look like he's comfortable at all. And what caught me last night, and it's all part of the decision-making of this team and where they're at. So in the bottom of the sixth inning last night, so last night Merrifield started good career numbers off of Frankie Montas to start up for the Reds. So he was at third. They started Rojas last night. That means Alec Boehm got the night off, and clearly he's the number one pinch hit option last night off the bench. Bottom of the sixth inning, two guys on, Phillies down two runs. It's a major moment in the game. It's a leverage moment in the game. Bottom of the sixth inning, two guys on, Phillies down two runs. It's a major moment in the game. It's a leverage moment of the game. Brandon Marsh coming to the plate. That's the spot right there. That's the spot for Alec Boehm. They brought a lefty in. Alec,

the combination of those two things, I know a lot of people want to see Marsh play every day and not be platoon. Marsh has not had a track record of hitting lefties. Alec Boehm has a long track record hitting lefties and a track record of hitting with runners on base. That is the exact spot for Alec Boehm. They didn't do it. They let Marsh hit. He popped out. Later in the game, they use Boehm for Rojas. After the game, Topper mentions that he was saving Boehm for Rojas' next at-bat. It's like having a pitcher. I mean, that was the old way of managing in the NL when you use your best bench bat because it's too early in the game. In a DH league, which we're in now, you shouldn't have to worry about that. If it's a moment that

you think matters, sixth inning, that's the moment. But the Phillies operated last night as if there was a pitcher in their lineup where they knew the next time up, no matter what, they were going to pinch it for that guy. That's ridiculous. Like the fact that we're there with Rojas shows you how little faith they have in him. It's not even a platoon thing. It's just late in the game. They don't want him up.

That's a problem. So you think about all this stuff, the decision-making with Rojas, the fact that they're saving pinch hitters for later in the game, not using the biggest moment of the game for the best pinch hitter off the bench in that spot with the platoon advantage versus disadvantage with, with Boehm and Marsh and a lefty there. It was so obvious that was the spot for Alec Boehm. They didn't do it. And then you think about the struggles of Turner, the struggles of Castellanos. The only offense right now is Schwarber, who's had a nice start to the season and three home runs out of Bryce a couple of days ago. That's it. That's the offense right now. And as I watch this play out, I think about the decision-making of the

Phillies this pass off season, where they decided to go in the direction of defense. They decided to go in the direction of Bryce Harper at first base. And you could take that for any way you want. You could say that's because they wanted to preserve his body, his right arm with the coming off Tommy John a couple of years ago. I don't know. I mean, it's very odd how the first base price thing came about. Did the Phillies go to him? Did he go to them? I don't really know the truth on that. We know he's a first baseman and we know they went with Rojas in the outfield, but the trickle effect of that is that Reese Hoskins was shown the door. He was shown the door and I don't think he wanted to be shown the door. And as you think about last year, what the Phillies missed, and early on

this season, what they're missing, they're missing Reese Hoskins. They're missing that kind of bat, a power, patience profile that has good swing decisions. That's Reese Hoskins. So far this season, he has an even walk to strikeout ratio. Three walks, three strikeouts. He's hit a pair of home runs. He has an on-base percentage over 400. He's played half his time at first base, half his time at DH. The ironic part of this is all the reasons why the Phillies kind of spun it and we were told that they didn't bring Reese back.

Defense. And they wanted to go with Bryce Harper's defense at first base. Yohan Rojas' defense in the outfield. Well, ironically, the issue right now is offense, not defense. And in the last few seasons, the furthest this team got, the closest they got to winning a world championship came with bad defense, came with Reese at first base. And Reese frustrated me at times.

I mean, when you watch a player every day his whole career, you're going to see the flaws. And I got frustrated that he couldn't just be a little bit more buttoned up at first base. I was frustrated. But the more we are without Reese, the more I miss Reese Hoskins' bat in the lineup. And I think about the top of this lineup right now. I mentioned Schwarber sitting and Harper sitting. The Phillies for a year plus now have had an awkward thing where they don't know really what to do with Turner because he's got a name, but it doesn't play like that name right now. He doesn't hit like that name. He hasn't hit like that name outside of two months. So they bat him second

because it breaks up the lefties and he has the highest upside. And then the fourth spot in the order, there's been no continuity for a year and a half, whether it be Castellanos, but we know he's way too up and down. I mean, he could set records in the postseason and not hit for 20-something straight play appearances. JT, I think he could do it, and it's probably the most, I guess, even-keeled. But JT's not going to have stretches of outrageous offense. He's just going to be more steady, pretty good, solid. Strike out maybe a little more than you want. Decent power, but not great. He's better as a sixth hitter.

That's just what it's better if he's a sixth hitter. And then there's Alec Boehm who does some good things there in terms of putting the bat on the ball, but there's very little power compared to what you would think you want in that spot. And I don't think pitchers fear him. We saw that last October when the Diamondbacks decided, yeah, Bryce Harper's not getting any other pitchers to hit. So I'm watching the Rojas situation play out at the bottom. It shouldn't matter as much as it does, but when no one else is hitting, it gets accentuated.

And then the awkwardness of Trey Turner and Nick Castellanos, $400 million between those two players. They're not providing enough. They don't really do what you want in the spots that they have to fill, whether it be the two spot or the four spot in the order. And ironically, the defensive issue isn't really helping them right now because they can't hit. They're pitching.

The defense has to be great, but it's not killing them. And the offense is the issue. I think the Phillies messed some things up here, and they're going to have to remedy them as the season goes along by going to get a bat. They missed Reese Hoskins. They missed that kind of bat. He could have batted second when Trey stunk.

He could have batted fourth when everybody else can't do it. And the defensive thing, like, I just, it feels like a charade with Rojas that the whole league's going to pick up on pretty quickly here. The Phillies are playing with eight batters, and they're treating the ninth batter late in games like he's the pitcher. I couldn't believe what Topper said out loud when we had a save bone for that. What are you talking about? We're not using the best bench bat that day in the most important spot of the game

because we know we have to pinch hit for the next guy? That's an uncomfortable spot. And if I'm Dave Dabrowski, I'm hearing that and saying, my manager has no trust in my center field that he could get, he could do anything in any sort of situation. Tucker, the Phillies offense,

the mess right now, as they fall last night to the Cincinnati reds. I mean, they're getting good pitch outside of Nola on Saturday. Starting pitching has been more than good enough to have won most of these games, and yet they're 2-4 right now. Yeah, and I think it's because of the offense, right? And you hear people complaining about the pitching, about the bullpen, because the way Brockton imploded in his two outings. Johan Rojas has obviously been a source of a lot of fans' frustration, but I think it comes down to the guys at the top of the lineup haven't really produced.

I mean, Bryce Harper obviously hit three home runs on Tuesday night, but outside of that, he hasn't really done much. Kyle Schwarber leads the team in singles. He has six singles and a pair of home runs. But other than that, the top of the lineup hasn't really done much. Brandon Marsh, you could argue, might have been their best hitter on a game-to-game basis so far. And I think the reason they're 2-4 right now, they're hitting 157 as a team with men on base.

They have an OPS of 488 with men on base. And even just look at last night's game, they had opportunities to score runs, right? They loaded the bases in the sixth. They had a couple other opportunities late in that game where they got a guy on and, you know, maybe one more hit. We're talking about a different situation but yeah right now it's the offense for me and you mentioned this is a team that isn't all in on their offensive approach the way they have been in in years past and as a result guys like Turner guys like Castellanos who you are paying for their offensive outfit you damn sure

aren't paying them for their defense because you could argue that the two of them and the way that they've played defense has cost the team quite a few runs the last couple of days. But the fact that they aren't producing and the fact that this offense right now just has nothing cooking for them unless their first baseman hits three home runs, including a grand slam, that's an issue. I don't know what Rob Thompson can do with the bullpen and the offense is

scoring two runs a night at this point. I don't know either. And look, I think the Rojas discussion is going to take on a big thing because he's the only thing that could switch out, right? They can't get rid of Trey Turner. I mean, I tried last year. That's not really realistic.

They can't get rid of Castellanos. So they're going to keep playing those guys and they're going to just cross their fingers. They can't get rid of Castellanos. So they're going to keep playing those guys and they're going to just cross their fingers. They hit the Rojas lever can be pulled. They could do something else there. And I just don't know how much longer and whether it's Marsh every day with Merrifield out there with them or it's give Pache a chance. I don't know how much longer you keep a guy on the roster that the manager telegraphs, I have to get him out of the game late and it affects how I manage the game. That's what pitchers used to be in the National League. Is it taking on a bigger thing because of the guys that top down hitting? Yeah, of course.

Of course, if Trey and Castellanos are hitting, we're not worried about this because they're winning, but they are. And I continue to have my eye on it. This team misses Reese Hoskins. They miss that kind of player. Maybe it's not him and maybe you were tired of him or maybe you wanted to keep him, but like that kind of player, the eye at the plate, you could bat him second, you could bat him fourth, he could protect Bryce Harper, he could hit home runs, he would make good swing decisions. Those kind of things are hard to replicate. And the gap in the offense that they would have gotten or could have gotten from Reese compared to the upgrade of defense they're getting with, say, Bryce and Rojas, it's not evening out for me right now. Over 162, will it?

We're going to find out. But that's – I have a feeling that they're going to have to remedy the offense this summer. I want to look back and be like, they could have a feeling that they're going to have to remedy the offense this summer. And we're going to look back and be like, they could have just kept Brzezowski. They chose not to. Philly's offense needs to wake up because the pitching, starting pitching, I've been impressed by. Wheel is off to a Cy Young start.

The middle of the rotation, back in. Very good. They're going to pitch fine. The offense needs to wake up. Appreciate everyone listening, subscribing, following WIP Daily. We'll talk soon.