Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Philadelphia Phillies | Profile & Projection | 633

Episode Date: March 19, 2023

Last year's NL Champs have been ranked the No. 7 team in MLB by our audience! Can the Philadelphia Phillies return to the World Series after adding Trea Turner and bolstering the bullpen?Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to another team profile and projection here on Talking Baseball. Brought to you by C-Eek. Today we got the Philadelphia, Philly. Code John Boy playoffs. Code John-boy playoffs. John-boy preseason. Eventually it'll be the playoffs. Eventually, yeah, the Philadelphia female horses.

That's Philly. Jake, who did they add to the team? Your defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies. Who did they add? Trey Turner. A little bit. You own some of his cards, Trev didn't ask. Trey Turner, 11 years, 300 mil.

He's about to have one of those fancy basements we talk about on this show. Taiwan Walker. He's got a pop shot down there. Four for 72. Matt Strom pitching some innings for them. 15 mil for Maddie Strom. Get it, kids. Dirty Craig in the pen.

Josh Harrison. How about that Gregory Soto trade? I actually liked that for them. A little 2.0 out there, powerful lefties. We all know about the Noah's song story. They lost. Gibby, you boy, boy. Cinderguard, Led Zeflin.

Gene. Cigaret, they'll miss him. He hits D-Rob out of the pen. Matt Veerling, gone. Nick Maiton, gone. A couple of... Other bodies. Dede's unsigned.

Corey Evil, Kniebel, Odu Bell. Trev, what's the lineup look like? Because I know they mash and it's a hitter's ballpark. Bryce is out till mid-season. Like, what a. This lineup bangs. You add Trey Turner, who is my favorite player in baseball. And no, I don't own like any of his cards.

I don't. I probably should. Yeah, he'll be at the top of the lineup playing shortstop for the foreseeable future. How many years? 11. 11 years. He's young. He looks younger than he is, so.

Whatever. He's going to be at the top line for a long time. Playing shorts up, you got Kyle Schwabber. You got Reese Hoskins. You got J.T. Rio Muto, Castellanos. Expect big bounce back years from him and Alec Bohm. Derek Hall, D.Hing a little bit to start the year. I think he's going to get a chance.

I really do. Bryson Stott. Brandon Marsh. And then the bench, Jake Cave, Josh Harrison, Edmundo Sosa. I love that. And Garrett Stubbs is the backup catcher. You mentioned our guy Bryce. He'll be out until midseason, all-star break, something like that.

But this lineup is something else. It's going to be the calling card for the team. But then you look at the rotation. James, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the rotation is just that good, too. The rotation is good. It's got some question marks of late Aaron Nola, Zach Wheeler. You know them, Taiwan Walker.

Ranger Suarez got pulled from the World Baseball Classic. They said, hey, come back. your arm's tight. He said, how'd you guys know? But they think it's not a big deal. And Bailey Falter, as of right now, seems like he's going to get the fifth spot, which they thought was a competition

with the youngster Andrew Painter, getting a chance. But he's been shut down for four weeks due to a UCL spring. They don't think it's serious, but those words always seem very serious. And hopefully whatever Rangers going through isn't that serious too.

But Bailey Falter pitched pretty well for them. And he said, as long as I'm with those 20, six guys, he means 25, because he's one of them, that he's happy no matter what his role is. I get that. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, the Phillies, are they trying to win the division? Are they trying to survive for the playoffs?

Did they fully, you know, love their strategy? Hey, just be in the wild card? I think they want to win the division for sure. The bullpen was probably the Achilles heel last year for most of the season. They did find a rhythm towards the end, which teams, they do in the playoffs. but, you know, they have Saranthi Dominguez. I think they just locked him up, Jose Alvarado, Craig Kimbril. You mentioned Soto who they brought over, Nelson, Bellotti,

Cobra. Connor. Conner Brogden. And Cobra. So, they've addressed the weakness from last year. So to answer your question, I don't think they're just trying to limp into the playoffs like they did last year and get hot. I think this team is looking to be hot all season long. Even without Bryce, get Bryce back as, you know, your mid-season acquisition, essentially, and then go.

I think they will, uh, not be scared of the perils of a slow start. Sure, because they went through it. Yeah, they went through it. And it's kind of like, hey, just get right at the right time. We know that our formula works there. Our home crowd work there. I saw an interview with, it wasn't with Dombrowski.

Say his name again. Dombrowski. Who was, oh, man, maybe it was. No, it wasn't. Who else is involved with the Phillies? Sam Fold. Sam Fold. It was an interview with him.

And they asked him, do you think it's a crapshoot? or not? Like, do you think it is just get to the playoffs and then it's roll the dice? Or do you think you have to be a certain team for the playoffs? And he did, I was glad because sometimes we've heard these general managers say, no, it's crap shoot, you know. But he said, no, I think there's a certain formula. I think we did really well.

He said, I also think our home crowd and us being able to play in our stadium really did help. I think he meant more like playing to their stadium, like their bats and their swings and all that. But their bullpen was good in the postseason and then got even better. So Harper took 16 swings off a tee. Let's go. I like that a lot. Andrew Paints are being hurt.

We don't know the extent of it like we mentioned. That's kind of a big blow. If he comes up, he's 19 years old. You don't even know what he's going to be, so. I don't know. I mean, they talk very highly of this guy, and if you've seen him pitch, like he's going to be a guy in the big league.

It's just not going to be at the beginning of this season. But that would have been nice. I mean, that makes that rotation just that much longer, which we all like here, going over a 162. If you're talking about that winning the division, he's got to be a part of it. But this, I mean, they're going to make the playoffs. This team is really good.

They're very confident. Name a more confident team in the National League. Podras. Yeah. Dodgers. A lot of confident teams to national league. Athletes can be confident. Braves?

I think there's going to be checkpoints in this season. Where are we at when Bryce comes back? What is that the first checkpoint? I think the other, the elephant in the room is, this is team number seven. This is a seventh ranked team by our listeners. By our loyal. Yeah. The best listeners in the world who, oh my God, you're leaving a review right now?

You're subscribing us. B-L-I-W, Blu-B-B-E-B-E. Best listeners in the world. There's two teams in their division that we haven't gotten to yet. So when we do the whole regular season thing, they love that. I'm personally, I don't think, I think they're like,

let's just dance and we'll go. Yeah. Like if if the Mets and Braves go nutty and they're chasing 105, 106, and they're sitting there at, you know, 87 wins and making the dance, thankfully goes, all right. So we're both in the playoffs. Yeah. So, all right, then let's do it.

You guys sweat and stress yourselves out, and we'll just see you in the dance. Yeah. Okay, I could see that. We've seen now one year of these playoffs play out, and we don't think there's a lot of advantage to having that bottom. over the first wild card round, really, right? I mean, we saw it for one year and it didn't help. The Astro snuck by the Mariners and Philly ran through

and they were a wildcard team. I love kind of the make, like what Trey Turner does for the makeup of their top five, maybe six hitters. I think they'd get kind of light on the back end. But they didn't have like that different approach and speed approach last year. It was just kind of all thump. And Trey Turner can hit for pop, but I just like his, he led the league in infield singles last year.

He also can hit bombs. He can steal bases, especially with the shift. Also, they get a steady shortstop. That was a position that they kind of started. And then we'd do a defensive replacement. And then there was no, no bat ever came with it. So I think, I mean, what is the note here? Like 29 MLB executives of the 30 said it was the best signing this off season.

I think I agree. I think that's a really, really good sign-up signing for the team. Thank God it's Fiances from New Jersey. A couple things that really jumped out to me. At that second half of the line that you're talking about, because you know the names up top. If you've watched baseball the last eight years, you know Castellanos, Real Mudo, Hoskins, Harper, Trey Turner.

Man, A, Castellanos might have been hurt last year or something because his hitting stats just weren't there. So that could be something that can change for them instantly. Boom. Breaks out a little bit last year. You know, people are wondering if there's another level to that. Brandon Marsh came over and was good for them. So you're talking about a young third basement, a young center fielder.

I'll throw my guy Bryson Stott in the mix who had to kick over to second. You got three young guys with real potential at the bottom of that lineup that are we talking about at front half of the Phillies lineup, or are we talking about one of the best lineups in baseball? If those kids click, I don't know. It's a good team. Love Dombrough. There's a lot of potential for runs being scored here.

We have the rotation that can hold at the beginning of the game. And then we talked about the bullpen a little bit, kind of coming into their own last year in the postseason, then making some additions for our 162 campaign. This team's going to be tough to beat. I know we mentioned the Mets and the Braves, and they're going to be good too. And I know every time we get on this and we look at these rosters, especially now, we're going to be liking them. But there's just something about getting to the World Series, losing the World Series,

and then coming back the next year and really being hungry. And you know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe the team doesn't care about the regular season whatsoever. Let's lose. It's not like that, but like they only, like, they're going to be itching to get to the postseason again. They're going to be itching to have that vibe that was in the stadium.

Did you see the scoreboard they're putting in? I did see that. Holy shit. It's big. We like that. You can see that thing from everywhere in the city. This team. Even on some airplane ride you can see it.

They are going to be focused on the postseason. So now my, I mean, our overrun that we're going to talk about, it might be altered because I think that all eyes are on the postseason. I might have said differently earlier in the show, but now I'm saying that at the end of the show. Okay. And it's not the end of the show. It's not, well, yeah.

Middle of the show. I like Topper being coming back and him getting the gig. He was like the calm to Gerardi storm. And then they were like, we don't need the storm. Let's just have the calm. It's just calm. Yeah. So he's bad.

I think I'm taking the over. Ooh. Draft King's over under is 88 and a half. 88 and a half. What did they win last year, 87? I'd have to do a lot of math on it, you know? Okay. Like Ken, how many games are the Mets and everyone?

How many, what were the records of the ALE East last year? Because that was three good teams. Like, what was? So last year, the NLE East and then BPD looks, sounds like he has the ALB. Raves 101, Mets 101. They tied. So Phillies were 87. Last year in the AL, Bebes.

Yankees had 99, Blue Jays 92, Rays 86, Orioles, 83, Red Sox, 78. You might take the under then. So it's hard to have the third place team get over 88 wins. And here's the problem. I have them winning exactly 87 again. So I am taking the under and you're on the under, which means Trev has to take the over. He's not going to take the under on the defending national. League champions? It's interesting because

I see, we talk about the relief pitchers a lot. We have the rankings of some of the stuff of last year. ERA, 23rd in baseball, whip, 25th in baseball, walks per 9, 28th in baseball. You clean up the walks a little bit in the bullpen,

you win some more games, you get Trey Turner on your team, and you guys are taking the under? No, I'm taking the over. I think this team, I disagree with what Trev said where they don't care about the regular season. I think they're like, not only should we get to the playoffs, we should make sure we have home field

advantage. Let's win the division. Oh, I like that. Now you're giving you back a little bit. It's not that I don't think they care about the regular season, bro. Now that you're bringing me back to this point. I got you in a spin cycle. This team is better. I pivoted you to both sides. This team is better than they were last year.

I just changed. I'm changing. They're better than they were last year. I thought they were going to win 87 games. They're going to win 88, so they get a game better. Still under them. So I just changed that. You guys are crazy. Yeah. You know, know what? If they win their first game of the season, I'm going to take the over at 89.

No, you can't do that. And if they lose the first game in the season, I'm going to take the under at 88, locked. That's not even... That's stamped. Because it's 80 and a half? It's 88 and a half.

Well, whatever. When I think of the Phillies, for some reason, I automatically think of John Cruck. Like automatically. Makes sense. Legend. And he played in the 90s. Drew.

Maybe some of the 80s, too. Last year in the 90s, I'm going to go with in the 90-win range. Can you find out when Kruk debuted? First game is in 1986. That's the under. And that would be the under Treve, 86. His last game was 1995.

I love a 95 win-filly's team this year. John Krug, go get him. He's in the booth. Excellent in the booth. He really liked John. So 95 games. Who do you have them jumping? The Braves or the Mets?

I don't want to say it. Okay. Find out later. Jake's on the under. I'm flexing based on the first game of the season, and Treves on the over. I believe in this team big time. The Moxie. You want to talk about Moxie? They do have Moxie.

I don't want to talk about Moxie. Goodbye. All day, John Crug, 95. Love Philly. I never really had a good Philly cheese stick while I was there. Your owner has abs. Your former team. My former team, yeah.

Me and Gabe Kapler, we're running that city.