High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Three Reasons Why The Phillies Might Be Back... | WIP Daily

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Joe Giglio is encouraged after the Phillies' wins in Kansas City and thinks these three trends are why they could be finally righting the ship. 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

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? It's hard to make time for the things that keep you healthy, but being consistent with self-care is like working a muscle. And when life gets crazy, that muscle keeps you strong. Therapy is the ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHELP.com. 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. I appreciate everyone listening describing following the podcast versus YouTube feed 94 WIP Check it out there and whoo, we could breathe a little bit here We can breathe after a Phillies weekend where they take two out of three

against the Kansas City Royals after dropping the game on Friday with Tywin Walker, which is a whole separate issue. They got a DFAM immediately. The Phillies bounce back with two big wins, 11-2 on Saturday night with the pair of home runs by JT Realmuto and seven runs batted in. Then yesterday, almost a cycle by Garrett Stubbs,

an 11 to three victory by the Phillies here. And look, I probably have done this three or four times over the last month. You've probably done it the same amount of times, where the Phillies have a couple of good days or a good half a week, and you have that urge to say, they're back, the Phillies are back. I probably go through my text messages

and find Phillies back five times over the past, you know, month and a half, a good day or a good week or so. And then ultimately they haven't been back. It's why we keep coming back to this conversation. But I've got three reasons today where the Phillies feel more back than they have in a long time. And the Phillies feel more poised

to play good baseball the rest of the way than they have in a very long time. Let's start with the off-fets over the weekend. Specifically, the whole totality of the off-fets, okay? Not just Harper, Harper and Turner and Schwab. We talk so much about those guys and we know how much they struggled at times the second half of the season.

It's not just that though. The Phillies had 45 hits this weekend in Kansas City. That is a dramatic difference from what we've seen before that what was going on in Atlanta, what was going on the end of that home stand against the, you know, the Nationals last week on that Sunday where they couldn't score enough. They've just had so many down offensive days.

It was the same kind of thing where the Royals were throwing them a lot of spin. The's always did more damage on it though They finally woke up here and the thing that's cool about this weekend is it wasn't just The top of the order, you know It's it felt more sustainable because what they got from the middle and the bottom I'm gonna go to Saturday two hits for Nick Castellanos four hits forott, three hits, seven runs batted in for JT Realmuto, a hit and an RBI for Austin Hayes. That's all on Saturday night.

Then you go to last night, obviously more of a Sunday lineup with Stubbs in there. A lot of people were frustrated about that, but I got it. Preserving Realmuto the day game after the night game. Boom. I can't really, you can't call him by the way there. He's the middle of the order.

Castellanos had the two run home run late. Stott another hit. Marsh two hits. Rojas two hits. Stubbs four hits. If you go the last two nights, I'm gonna count up the hits they had and the runs driven in from the bottom of the order

from five through nine. Yesterday, one, two, four, excuse me. Two hits, four two hits four hits six hits ten hits for the bottom of the order last night yesterday and they drove in three runs ten hits drove in three runs that was on Sunday you go to the Saturday game the Saturday night game and from five to the bottom they they had two, six, nine, 10, 11 hits. And they drove in eight runs. I mean, that's, that is. Humongous offensive production from the bottom of the order.

And do I think this is going to happen consistently? No. And obviously this stuff's thing is, is unique, but a couple of things start standing out one Castellanos, I think is pretty consistently solid for a couple of months now, out. One, Kassianos, I think has been pretty consistently solid for a couple of months now. You almost kind of expect this now. JT Rumito has historically been a very streaky hitter and a very timing dependent leg kick kind of guy.

When he's feeling right, he's feeling right. And I'm not surprised it's taken him a full month to hit those home runs and to start driving the baseball off the knee surgery. The hope with him, and he's the one more than anybody else. It's like, just get ready for October, get ready for October and being above average offensive performer that maybe once a series can have a big game to really kind of lift the offense. So that is very encouraging to see.

Bryson Stott, very encouraging to see considering how difficult of a season this has been for him. And that's what I pull up the splits now, just, just to see where he's at, let's say August compared to the other months. All right. So I'm going to go through the, the, the seasons, um, or the weeks for, for Bryce's thought they, they've been, it's been difficult. I mean, only may has been, I would say a really good one, the month of May, 777 OPS. All the other ones are in the 600 or 500 range in terms of the OPS.

But I do think it has been the at-bats have been better of late. The quality of at-bats have been better of late. And that's the kind of stuff that really, that hits you. Because he needs to be good. I mean, he needs to be a guy that, you know, down the stretch of the season, you're getting good at bats from. And I'm gonna pull it up now,

cause I feel like just anecdotally, watching Stott, he's been better as of late. Let me pull up his game logs. Let's see, you know, when, you know, my eyes tell me, and I know overall it's a below 600 OPS in the you know, my, my eyes tell me, and I know overall it's a below 600 OPS in the month of August, but my eyes tell me this has been better of late. Let's go to, let's start with the last game. Actually start with the Miami, the second Miami game where you got a couple hits and

Schwerber had the grand slam. Okay. So since then, which is, uh, we're talking now, yeah, it's about a 10 game sample. Last 10 games for Bryce's thought, as I try to get the numbers to come up here in front of me. Last 10 games for Bryce's thought, we're talking about a guy that has hit 353, a 395 OBP, a 500 slugging.

He has 12 hits in his last 10 games. This is one of his better 10 game stretches we've seen all year, probably his best 10 game stretch this month of May. Encouraging stuff here for Bryce's thought. He's only struck out six times in the 10 games, only one two strikeout game. And that was down in Atlanta.

Okay, zero strikeouts the last two games, one on Friday. He's only struck out in the last five games, a total of two times. Like this is the kind of stuff Bryce's thought needs to do. So that's encouraging, start hitting better. Obviously real moot-toe. Then you go to a guy like Brandon Marsh, couple hits yesterday.

That's gonna play a lot. And I think the return of Austin Hayes could be really big for the Foos. We have the jury still out on what he's gonna be. So the offense awoke. They're starting to adjust hopefully a little bit to more spin. Great, great weekend for the offense.

Bottom of the order specifically. Turner had at least a decent night here and there and got some hits. Harper with the double yesterday. Big day for Schwab or big, big day for the offense. 45 hits over the weekend for the Phillies. Okay. Second reason why I feel like it's okay to start having that there back feeling is the starting pitching.

And let's remove Tyone Walker because the Phillies should remove Tyone Walker. In my mind, I've removed Tyone Walker, even if the Phillies don't remove him and they do roll with some sort of six man rotation and allow them to keep pitching, which I think would be wrong. But even if they do that, we could be real. The Phillies have four starting pitchers that are going to touch the man in October and none of them are named Tywon Walker and those guys Have really really started to pitch well, okay

if you look at the Phillies and What they've done they're pitching staff in the last I would say Let's say seven terms times through the order. Okay seven times through the order and let's exclude Tywan Walker because we know he's not gonna be part of this thing at all. He's just, he's not. I mean, he's out. But if you look at what the Phillies have done

pitching-wise recently, it's been quite good. You know, quite good in terms of Suarez coming back on Saturday. So encouraging to see five innings, spot in the pitches, spot in the 91 on the corner, 92 on the corner. I mean, he looked, he looked good. The last seven starts made by the Phillies four pitchers, including Suarez on Saturday. And obviously before that was Wheeler, Nola, Sanchez.

So the last seven starts made by those four and they're back together now. That has put together a 2.05 ERA, 44 innings, 41 strikeouts, only six walks. That's the kind of starting pitching the Phillies rolled out in April and May. And it's why they got off to historic start. It's why we were talking about this team winning 100 plus games. It's why we're talking about them being the best team

in Phillies history. If they could have sustained that the whole year, they would have been, well, that's over now. But I don't see any reason why over the next five weeks they can't roll those four guys out. Now it might be part of a six man rotation. You might have choppy games two out of the six and then those four do their thing. But if Rangers back, Nola's been pretty consistently solid this year.

Wheelers been consistently very good this year. Sanchez has been good and he's had very high highs, a couple of low lows, but he's been good this year. Wheel has been consistently very good this year. Sanchez has been good and he's had very high highs, a couple low lows, but he's been good this year. You roll those four into October and it's going to be good. And I don't see any reason why down the stretch, unless there's a blip by Sanchez because innings and he might be tiring a little bit, he might need the six man rotation to get his arm ready for the postseason. But unless there's a blip by Sanchez, which Suarez back now, I think they were very cautious. I think that was a Dodgers ask, take a, take a month on the IEL.

Get yourself ready for October kind of thing for Rangers Suarez. He looked the part now, you know, we'll get some, I'm sure further discussion, confirmation, talking points by Topper the next couple of days. Hey, they had a Ranger come out of the game, had a Ranger feel. And I'm, I'm hoping, assuming he's gonna be fine off the couple of issues what he had with his back in the month of July. But if Rangers back back and he looked back back

on Saturday, then the Phillies starting pitching is back back. Those four, that's what set the tone to start the season. And that's what could set the tone now as we head towards September and head towards the final stretch of the season. So the offense exploded and it wasn't just the top guys. With Suarez back, this is a four deep rotation and they've really pitched well lately.

They pitched well in the national series, they pitched well in the brave series, they pitch well enough to win that brave series. They pitched well in this Royal series. Just take the Walker starts out, take Walker starts out and just think about how you felt about Philly started pitching over the past week and a half. I mean, you felt better about it. It's been primarily good that they struggled in the Walker starts. They struggled in the Tyler Phillips start against Miami. They needed to come back in that one. But the other starts they've had, they've been good. It's not their pitching that has been the problem in those starts. It has been primarily the offense that has been the problem.

So the offense gets going, the starting pitching, not named Tywin Walker, gets going. And the last reason to feel like the Phillies really could be back this time compared to other good starts or good moments they've had or good days they've had or whatever, a few days they've had here and there, is the schedule is about to have its final difficult week. And if the Phillies are starting a roll and they could keep their head above water this week, it gets the Astros and the Braves four and three would be keeping their head above water. Obviously you want a five and two here at home, but four and three, keep

their head above water after that. The Phillies only face 10 more games only have 10 more games against teams with winning records. And one of those, I believe is the Tampa Bay Rays. And they've been hovering, you know, right around 500. I don't even know if they're going to be 500 when they, when they play the Phillies coming up. Yeah, they're 65 at 65. So they're a 500 team. My guess is they won't even be 500 when they come here in a couple weeks. And I look at the Philly schedule the rest of the way, and I see a lot of teams after this week that are not very good, that are just, you know, an average or below average baseball team. So

here's what they got going on the rest of the way. They have this week, Houston for three, they're surged and playing great baseball. Then they have Atlanta for four. Then they're at Toronto losing team, at Miami losing team, home for Tampa Bay 500, but by then could be a losing team. Then they have a 10 game stretch, the only 10 left that are difficult. Three versus the Mets, three at Milwaukee, which could determine a bye, four at the Mets. That's it then.

Home again, Chicago at Washington to end it. So we're talking about of their final, I guess they have 32 games, 22 are against 500 or below teams. After this week, they will have, you know, I mean, they're going to have a very small number of games left against teams that are relevant. And that would be 10 games left. So once we get Labor Day, right,

they play Sunday, September 1st, Sunday night baseball against the Braves this weekend. Then they have a day off on Labor Day, which is crazy to me. And then they'll go Tuesday in Toronto. So starting Tuesday, September 3rd through Sunday, September 29th, the last four weeks of the season, they have 10 games against teams with winning records. That's it. Everything else is either 500 below I

think the race will be below 500 by the time we get there. So if the Phillies are coming out of this and their offense one through nine is starting to come out of this and their pitching is now reset which war is back. It really is sets up now for them to have a winning month of September and by the way, and we'll see how they finished the month of August here through Saturday, because Sunday is September 1st, I believe. As bad as it's felt in a lot of moments in August, the Phillies walk out of Kansas City

11 and 11 in the month of August. They could end this month with a winning record, which really seemed very unlikely. I would say when this month really started and they were in the throes of it and they were in Seattle and then go to the Dodgers and go to the Diamondbacks, I felt like really, there's no way they're gonna go 500 in the month of August, but they really can.

So by month, they were 20 and 11 in April, they were 20 and seven in May 15 11 in June July was the tough one at 10 and 14 they can end this month with a winning record by the way, they have a plus 12 run differential in this month and You know they've been plus they were big plus in April big plus in May big plus in June July was their tough month if they get, they're likely to get through this week with a positive run differential. If they get through this week with a winning record

and a positive run differential in the month of August, we really could say, you know, they weather the storm. They're past the worst of it. And now they go into September, could close this thing strong, could finish the division and get themselves ready for the postseason. I know we've been here before. I know it feels at times like a broken record, but there's real signs, real signs, the Phillies are

back. You saw them this weekend with the offense one through nine, specifically the bottom, JT, Stubbs, Castellanos, Hayes, Stott, Marsh, all them. The return of Rangers Suarez, hopefully no more Taiwan Walker, and the schedule after this week, it's about to get much, much more manageable for the month of September. I return a Ranger Suarez, hopefully no more Taiwan Walker and the schedule after this week, it's about to get much, much more manageable for the month of September. I appreciate everyone listening, subscribing, following the podcast,

of course, the YouTube feed, 94WIP, check it out there. Thanks so much for listening.