Ten Thousand Losses - Birds Not Going

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

Ben Simmons, The Eagles can't do anything good, and god, the Phillies. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tenklossespod Leave us a voicemail: 267-371-7218 Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tenthousandlosses

Yes. All right. Right. Giving this the first try we've ever done on this episode with no technical difficulties that we had as of 30 seconds ago. Hi. Welcome back to 10,000 losses. This is our third episode. For those of you who are just tuning in, we are a leftist Philly sports podcast that one day will be on Apple Podcasts as soon as Apple Podcasts Connect starts working again. Yet another technical difficulty to overcome. Yeah, we will bravely wade through the submission process. They will God willing approve us. I am Liam Anderson and with me as always is my co-host tom pain uh our pronouns are both he him uh this is gonna be a little bit of a shorter one uh unfortunately i found out right before recording that my cat died uh so i am gonna have to call r.i.p to a real one uh chairman meow great cat

uh terrific at being a very difficult asshole uh he he was great at just like he was great at starting problems with the other cat oh hell yeah yeah that's a great cat toby's a gentle soul except when he was hanging around socks because they were just bat at each other and you'd be like you two hey like your friends cut this shit out yeah yeah uh was he how was he around landlords uh apparently not terrific oh well good he lived up to the name yeah he did nominative determinism that's right. That's what the show's about.

Yes. That's why it's called 10,000 losses. Which apparently we could credibly call this 11,000 losses. God, that's so depressing. It's awful. This city sucks ass, dude. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, but it's always entertaining.

That's for sure. Yeah. At least we find ways to lose in hilarious and interesting ways. That's always relieving, you know, because some days the Eagles have an inexplicable win. And then as sure as the sun comes up, they have an inexplicable loss. Yeah. So, you know, I like to be kept on my toes, I guess. You can't ever be a Philadelphia sports fan and not just be like,

you know what? I'm feeling good about this game. No issues whatsoever. No, you're never feeling good. I liken that to every time i watch playoff hockey again my teams are at least nominally boston teams right uh every time i watch the goddamn playoffs i feel like i'm gonna have a heart attack yeah uh definitely like we uh in my classroom we were uh reading because it's spooky season

the cask of amontillado. Oh, great short story. And great short story, which actually makes me feel like heart palpitations as he's sealing up the wall. I feel like that every time a Philadelphia sports team plays. And it's the opposing team is just sealing the wall as we inevitably lose in stupid and pointless ways late in the game. Speaking of which, let's get started. Yes. All right. So the Eagles played the Raiders on Sunday in beautiful sunny Las Vegas.

Again, a team that doesn't deserve to exist with an owner that also doesn't. Yeah. And Las Vegas doesn't deserve a single team. No, no teams, let alone tail. No. Give them back. Give them to us yes yeah we could yeah we could use a serviceable hockey team uh so uh how you feeling how you feeling tom about that uh god awful horrific monstrosity well we had to sit through you know the the game was was frustrating but today you know with the sun out i'm feeling photosynthetic uh how are you feeling fertilized i am i am feeling fertilized i feel like i am dropping roots where they need to go

uh i feel like i'm not wasting uh anyone's career years uh because everyone on my team was a rookie thank god i feel like we're really putting down soil yeah uh we don't we're not gonna have the clip uh you might have the clip depending on youtube rights uh our esteemed head coach nick sirianni uh gave one of the most bewildering press conferences in recent memory today where he talked about how the Eagles are like a plant and you don't see the flower yet, but you see really good roots. They're putting down a really good foundation. And that's not really cute seven weeks into the season.

Right. And I appreciate the metaphor, but I feel like this man only speaks in metaphors. And he's talking about the team. We're gold retriever metaphors. Yeah, yeah. Talking about things in terms of, are you fertilized? Are you watered? We got to fertilize first. And that sounds creepy to begin with. But are we wooded? Yeah, we're putting down roots and you're not going to see results yet, which I get that. That's a hell of a thing for a first year coach on a team that wasn't really expecting to be a rebuilder.

Right. And my theory that I proposed last week, which is that Sirianni is the kind of guy when his coach said things like this, it somehow motivated him and stuck in his head. And he's repeating these like, you know, these statements to Eagles players. And they're not. I don't think they're going to be on board. I saw also that a bunch of players and and this was just before we got on. A bunch of players didn't show up for practice today. Oh, that's not good. I didn't see that.

Yeah. That's what we call the biz bad. Yeah. And when you have a team that's full of new players, they need practice. They need to form. And I'm not sure what kind of leadership they're getting from from sirianni i i i guess that my my greatest flaw is that i'm i give people like too long a leash so part of me wants to go hey let's see will this team gel um under him but the problem is is more and more weaknesses are

showing more and more cracks in his scheme are showing and it would be one thing if they were four and three or three and four right and you know had had maybe a couple tough last second losses you could credibly say like you know hey this team could easily be five and one or this team could easily be you know maybe five until um you know but it this this team beyond the the week one victory hasn't looked like a team that deserves to win a football game you know outside of flashes flashes right i mean it's weird because hurts will do some shit like spin move out roll to his right and drop a 70 yard bomb on um quiz uh on quiz and then we'll just like shit in his own mouth the consecutive three series right i think that jalen's weaknesses are starting to be um revealed to other teams yeah because how many times at this point have we seen pocket collapse we're all to the right

throw out of bounds yeah i mean three dudes meet him right there yeah he he really is looking to his first guy in the in his route progression and if he's not open he's not throwing it right and I mean the O-line is doing its best but like you know it's patchwork at

best you know guys keep getting hurt we'll get to the defense because holy shit it's bad but but yeah i'm starting to like my thing is about jalen is like you know there's we have apparently a a quarterback controversy now that we've shipped joe flatko back where he belongs to the new york jets back to the back to the hell from whence he came. Northern Jersey. He vacations in Stone Harbor, apparently.

Oh, does he? Yeah. Well, he's from here. Oh, that's right. Stone Harbor, if I recall my shore points correctly, is the most conservative of them. It's full of assholes.

Yeah. For those of you who don't know and aren't ready for jersey shore chat uh stone harbor is a very wealthy town uh in south jersey on the atlantic ocean uh next to the greatest town avalon uh yeah i'm not paid to say that. The town of foam colonnaded, you know, fake Italian mansions. Dude, it sucks. I go, I go there because I have to,

man. Yeah. I mean, and we're up to me. We'd all have one condo in Wildwood. Yes. And it would be insane, but in a good way,

it would be Irish weekend every weekend. Yeah. It would be fun. We should do a podcast live from Irish weekend. Oh, that would be it. We should do a podcast live from Irish weekend. Oh, that would be interesting. See how long it takes to get in a fight. Just like clutching our mics. Like the come and take it flag, but with microphones.

Right, because on the one end, they would hear us talking social shit and want to get in a fight with us. But on the other hand, we'd be like, yo, we're pro IRA. Chucky Arla. And so they wouldn't know what to do. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. I'm just asking the questions.

Can Gardner Minshew be the guy sprinting in place? Yeah, I don't know about Jalen, man. It feels like, I mean, he's basically a rookie quarterback. He doesn't have a ton of receiver help. The O-line is patchwork at best. I think he's a problem, but I think he's like... To me, if you prioritize the issues, he's like the last one. Where you need to fucking fire Howie Roseman first.

And put the draft in someone else's hands. Then you need to fire sirianni then you need to get an o-line that like can can can actually like gel like gel and and be cohesive then you need to fix the defense like you still need to get decent route runners besides quez watkins who is a mate like he's played really well and davante is a good route runner and davante is a good route we just haven't seen enough of them right and like and we have we and like run the fucking ball like and then we do that and our running back gets hurt yeah the the first if we could replay like if we had that first drive at the raiders game and then someone snuck into my house and shot me in

the fucking head and my last thoughts were like oh we're going to Super Bowl I would have died happy because it looked like the team had finally clicked that we were finally running the football and we were running it up the middle not just outside and of course Miles Sanders gets hurt right I'm like what the fuck what do you even fucking say to that? Right. It's, I mean, it's Philadelphia. This is the 10,000 losses, like, milieu. I fucking can't pronounce that word.

It's French. Doesn't matter. Fuck. I mean, and so immediately the game plan that was working, it just stops. Right. And Sirianni has said that he's going to stick to his game plan pretty much no matter what. And then they didn't do that when the running game didn't work. Well, that's part of dog mentality.

Oh, my God. I forgot that he said that, too. Yes. This fucking guy, dude. He's platitudes. He's platitudes he's platitudes guy he's look i've been to to coast guard leadership school that he is the textbook he he dude it's like this is one thing if you're a high school coach or even a college coach like these are grown professionals who have been training their entire lives to be here like

yeah you're just you're you're the offensive coordinator for a team no one gives a fuck about this is shit this is shit that a school district hires like a motivational speech or speaker to say like opening day it's like oh guys you know you have to you know we know money's not money's tight this year so we have to come in with the underdog mindset and you know you never think about photosynthesis right plants have to be fertilized in order to grow and you're forced to watch that and the the idiots who are running the show think that this is wisdom and i think that this kind of stuff sounds like wisdom to hallie it must that must have been how they impressed them because it's all venture capitalist nba brain right exactly no i mean I I don't know what how he's got to be thinking right now other

than well at least my job safe like this dude has hired what four head coaches in his tenure like like fire this asshole I don't even like I blame Sirianni but like dudes clearly in over his head it happens to the best of us like

Howie Roseman is like the person who needs to fucking go as a result of this saga like if i could only fire one person i would fire howie first yeah yeah i would i would have to agree and i think he's got he just has an undue influence with jeff laurie the owner um maybe rocking it into the sun uh i don't know that might be monkeys paul there though you might get someone else um you might get someone like uh elon musk is gonna buy the philadelphia eagles i mean jesus christ i mean in terms of philadelphia the sixers already have a cryptocurrency shit on their journey i saw the God, dude. I saw the full, like, 30-second ad for crypto.com as the Sixers, whatever, official jersey sponsor. And it was just, I just started screaming at my TV in the dark, dude.

I understand why Elvis shot his television. Yeah, same. Yeah, and if my walls weren't made out of sheetrock, you know. I would follow suit. I would follow suit. So, I mean, the defense looks bad. The defense looks like, I mean, what someone on Tampa Bay said, that they knew every play they were going to run.

Fletcher Cox is starting to be just, like, audibly miserable every time he talks to the media, which is, like, kind of funny in the way that, like, Fletcher Cox is funny, but, like, he's like, I'm not paid to defend screens. Like, that's not my fucking job. Yeah, his job is to make quarterbacks fear God. Yeah. He's like, I'm not paid to defend screens. Like, that's not my fucking job. Yeah, his job is to make quarterbacks fear God.

Yeah. For those of you who don't know, our defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, a guy who's doing a worse job than Tom and I would do, is our defensive coordinator. And his defense is super simple and doesn't pressure pressure the quarterback which in football is one of would you say the most important thing a defense can do maybe second behind yeah that's up the timing yeah 100 absolutely so the defense is literally not doing their jobs uh because these schemes that our defensive coordinator hatches just aren't working and are very easy to defend

against derrick carr completed derrick carr of the raiders completed something like 91 of his passes which is absolutely which is 17 percent i mean it was just like nfl record it was yeah and for a season yeah and like they put were putting up his career record before that. It was like 90%. Yeah. So 92%. I mean, listen, I grew up under the Jim Johnson era when he was defensive coordinator. He was running all these crazy blitz schemes. And yeah, he had also had Brian Dawkins. You know, peace be upon him. But I feel like we're not blitzing at all. We're not getting home at all.

We're not putting pressure on at all. It's just four home at all. We're not putting pressure on at all. It's just four-man rush. Four-man rush. Four-man rush, which, you know, I'm going to make a point the next game to really kind of put on my old North Catholic High School helmet and try and analyze.

Watch the game through that. Watch the game through the helmet um and which is at the Applebee's in the Ermingham Avenue in Philadelphia um is it really uh my old jersey is but it doesn't have my name on it oh okay uh I'm familiar with that Applebee's unfortunately number 69 uh unironically it wasn't really a bit then but uh i'm gonna watch it with my with my football brain on and try and try and see if i could pick up what defenses they're they're running yeah the defense is the players on the defense are unhappy this team just has no fucking idea what it's doing like that's what it feels like is it's like

there's no there's just no idea what we're doing like do we are we like a run first team no are we a pass for his team sometimes like we're a roll roll out to the right and throw into the to the other team's uh sideline yeah yeah uh it's really it really hard to watch. It does seem like there's a lack of leadership. What the reports I saw on Twitter at the time we were recording this on Wednesday afternoon are true.

Players aren't showing up for practice. That's an issue. I guess time will tell. We've got a mini uh we're about to wrap up the eagles but you want to talk about gardner minchu maybe maybe we have a quarterback controversy now uh who we got from jacksonville jesus christ i can't believe i'm saying these words like they kind of want to make him qb1. It feels like I just, I don't know what to do with that.

Like, I mean, if you're going to kill Jalen hurts confidence, you know, he is ostensibly the team's leader. And by all means, he is, he has a person,

not a half bad one. Yeah. He sounds like a real good guy to have on your team. And I mean, we, we, we could, we don't have the time to do a deep dive on what it's like to be a black quarterback in Philly. That's going to be a bonus episode. Yes. Once we start doing bonus episodes.

Please give us money. Yes, we want money. Student Loads, baby! Alright. You're already hearing on the sports radio in Philly, the talking about having Gardner Minshew be the quarterback who is white. If you couldn't tell my name, Gardner Minshew. Yeah. You have to say it with a real nasal sort of Atlantic.

I don't even mind the guy. So it's like this. No, no. I don't have ran out of fucking Jacksonville, dude. Like, yeah, you got to give Jalen. mind the guy so much like this no no i don't have ran out of fucking jacksonville dude like yeah you gotta give jalen you gotta give him the year you have to give him a season yeah it's it's well it's like a football or in baseball you know you don't know what a guy's real skill set is until there's pretty much a full year under his belt and even then that's not enough

and and you can't just take take uh hertz out of out of play this soon because honestly i i i think it's more of more of a uh play calling problem it's not really his fault he's not calling the plays yeah yeah quarterbacks don't call plays um i mean i guess maybe some of them do like tom brady i don't know aaron rogers yeah it's like yeah so this is all going to start another controversy all right we need to draft a quarterback and two you know next year's draft and it's and it's a whole shit show. Really, we need to draft a defensive back and a linebacker. Well, maybe not a linebacker in the first round, but a lineman. The Philly discourse is just insane.

And it always sort of reeks, at least vaguely, of racism. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We were way too quick to dump on... And it always sort of reeks, at least vaguely, of racism. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We were way too quick to dump on black quarterbacks in this city. Yeah. I mean, there's a reason Donovan McNabb was booed. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. I don't know. Give him the year. Don't put Gardner fucking Minshew in. Please. Let's see how it plays out. I mean yeah if if if Hertz gets gets hurt yeah okay it might be interesting um but otherwise no I mean

that's no like given the year that he's a the kid needs yeah so a kid needs to like learn yeah because NFL is a lot different than college like you know garden garden mitchell also hasn't played in a while like yeah i don't i don't know like i get maybe throwing him in like week 17 or whatever but otherwise no fuck off i mean maybe use him like you would uh what's his name the fucking guy like a tasem hill kind of hell yeah and you would have two quarterbacks back there and you know kind of trick plays and shit or whatever that i'm kind of down with actually yeah let's you know that's not what they they they want to do yeah i i don't think sirianni is capable of scheming out those kinds

of plays honestly no no no he's not no i think i think we could agree on that um all right let's that was the eagles let's move it on to the sixers who jesus christ that was embarrassing did you watch that last night that was the that was like the game of the that was like the national game last night yeah i was on tnt and we lost by we only lost by 12 uh thanks to our bench but to the knicks but to the knicks uh all right so we should give a a ben update uh update this is your ben simmons update we need like a news yeah ben watch 2021 so he's back with the team but he's not playing uh he has said or he hasn't said publicly but reports have come out that basically he's back with the team, but he's not playing. He has said, or he hasn't said publicly, but reports have come out that basically he's not mentally ready.

And there's a lot of people who are like, it sounds like he's making that up, which is a shitty thing to do. It's entirely like, if I knew I was going to get, if I was going to go to my home crown and get booed viciously every night, like I would probably need a few days. Like I, I would not be in his shoes. I would not be ready to,

I wouldn't be around. No, no, no. Um, I will say I respect Sixers players, uh, for not running to the media to leak anything.

Yeah. Uh, they said basically it's none of your damn business, which is good solidarity. Right. Absolutely. That's important. This is a labor issue at its core right and uh so we don't have we have been with the team but not really on the team right um and the sixers look like they're missing him pretty bad yeah which i admit as someone who's not always given Ben the credit he deserves for his defense, I was stunned by how flat the Sixers looked. Yeah. There's two things I want to tackle this with. First, coming from the labor perspective and sort of what the Sixers looks like, the front office is committing the sunk cost fallacy.

Yep. Oh, they sure are. In that they want a return for what they think Ben was at his ultimate, quote unquote, trade value. And at the end of the day, what they need to do is just fucking trade the guy and be done with it. And if you get some sort of shitty pick back, then just do it and let the guy move on with his career. Really, at the end of the day, that's probably the best solution for everybody. But the Sixers don't want to do that. There was that asinine take that Daryl Morey had on the Fanatic,

which is the worst of the two Philly sports stations. We're never going to get jobs there jobs there anyways who gives a fuck uh yeah uh saying about uh the take like you know we're looking we're looking to win the championship oh and it's like yeah what are you right all right oh we it's about playoff odds like you know would you rather do the thing do the thing where you get the most value or would you rather get the playoff odds? All I'm concerned about is playoff odds. It's like, that's great. But you play to win a championship, so I don't know what to fucking tell you.

Yeah, and why don't you prove that by doing what you need to win a championship, which I don't think is having all that, a really good player just sit there doing nothing. Right. doing what you need to win a championship, which I don't think is having all that, you know, a really good player just sit there doing nothing. Right. I don't know. And the second aspect is the defensive acts aspect that you mentioned,

where the team is looking poor defensively because they don't have Ben to sort of cover up. Yeah. Yeah. Cause Ben can be, he can guard every position. Ben or Kemba Walker would have been a different game. Right.

Absolutely. And the game we got last night was, Oh yeah. Shoot your shot. Yeah. They were, the Knicks were shooting any shot they wanted and truly, genuinely any shot they fucking wanted. They were getting. And, yeah, shoot your shot. Yeah, the Knicks were shooting any shot they wanted. And truly, genuinely, any shot they fucking wanted, they were getting. And, you know, Joel is the kind of guy who's always trying to play and pick up the best he can.

I saw something before we started recording about he might be injured. He might have hurt his knee in the first game. If that's true, that's you know, of course. He's the guy who's going to play right through it. He does not care. Kudos to him, but

it's an 82 game season guy. Yeah, but he is absolutely frustrated with the state of affairs and you can tell that. You can tell with his play. But also the injury might explain that. But how he's speaking about when they ask him questions about Ben, how he's talking about, you know, I'm not a babysitter, that sort of deal.

You know, he's the guy that you have to keep happy. You know, he's the corner that you have to keep happy. He's the cornerstone of this franchise. So I don't know how long this state of affairs can go on. No, exactly. I mean, I think part of it is basically that you have... I don't think this is a thing they can drag out for four years, obviously. No. Oh, absolutely not. That would be the most ridiculous thing in Philly sports history. If do it more he'll do it uh because he just doesn't care dude

he's gonna get paid either way he doesn't give a fuck but nba reddit told me he was based he's not based fuck off uh i think part of it is it like and i can't like i can't blame joe like he did look yesterday like he was like he was just gassed like at the end of every game. Cause the dude like tries his hardest. Like I've never been someone who's just like, Oh, Joe doesn't put the effort in like the dude, but like the dude is a,

he's not a perimeter defender. He can't move that fast. That's not his job. His job is to make going to the rim, like unpleasant. Right. At best. And the Knicks are going to get knocked on your ass. Right. You're going to the rim unpleasant at best.

And the Knicks know that. You're going to get knocked on your ass. Right. You're going to get thrown around a little bit. And no one else on that team plays exceptionally good perimeter defense. So they need Ben. I mean, I think I don't know who they can get who can play with their salary issues. They're not getting anyone so the time i think you basically give ben all the time he needs and and say we you know we hope to patch this up

and like what like i've said this to i think to you is that like you tell him basically all right man you don't need to shoot anymore drive to the room when you can like if you miss your three throws you miss your free throws. We'll live with it. But they can't live without his defense, clearly. And to be frank with him, be like, look, you want your way out of here, keep playing defensively like we know you can play,

and at the trade deadline, we'll move you. Right. And we'll honor that. Yeah. We'll send you to the fucking west coast like you want so you can go drive cars fast hey you know what that is fun i can't i can't deny that that's right that's i'm a little jealous yeah yeah and and we don't yeah without i think as the season is going to go on, it's going to be more and more obvious how Ben's defense was important to the rest of the team.

Dumb radio call-in show guys takes be damned where they thought he was just a bum throughout his entire game. Right. You're going to miss his defense. His defense – I mean, he's like joe's good too but like joe has ben doesn't really get hurt in the way joe does when joe gets hurt he gets fucking yeah he's he's he's a little you know his back and his knees have been an issue and he's a big guy that's gonna happen when you're that big and you're jumping around right that happens to all seven footers

except for kevin garnett who just uh lied about being seven feet tall which is my favorite bit of nba lore uh well that and alan iverson lying about being six foot because that dude is shorter than me yeah hey man hey hey he can ball that's all that matters that's exactly right all right uh what else we got in the six uh yeah uh tyrese looks like shit he looked really good in the preseason yeah and then he looked like shit last night he this is sort of you i i think the days of like anyone who's like six one six two six three unless you can ball like Steph Curry, I think the days of being that small as a point guard are over.

Yeah. Unfortunately for our small kings. Yeah. Sorry, small kings. Yeah. Sorry, Tom. Yeah. The day of the 5'11 point guard.

That's long been gone, but yeah. I mean, I do also think that this is a side effect of Ben not being there and him being forced into a role that he's not ready for. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. No, he's just not ready. And I mean, they're're gonna have growing pains yeah but

like the other the other side like it felt like they were trying to they're basically trying to push like square peg round hole sort of deal right like you either wait for ben to come back you know or you just accept that you're gonna go 40 and 42 this season with Tyrese and just sort of hope for the best yeah and waste another year of Joel yeah and um the Knicks Twitter has not been kind to uh Tyrese um we're gonna have to see that there's like there's one where it's uh you know he's crying as he's about to shoot you and it's like quickly making Tyrese Maxey fall and stuff like that so we're we're, we're not in for a good season. If, if this is the only thing that's going to be,

something has to happen. Something has to, something's got to give. I mean, I, I, that's what I would do. I would tell Ben,

like, look, well, you want to be moved. We'll move you, like show up and play until the trade deadline. Do your very best. And we'll do our best to get your ass out of here.

Yeah. I mean, the one bright spot. I mean, I don't know if it's bright spot. It's also that, like, just to finish my thought. Yeah, go ahead. For those of you who don't know, Ben Simmons is a very good player, but the team's trade demands for him have been insane. Three first rounders, which are very valuable assets yeah that's insane it's that's

nuts that he's not worth that sorry like that's crazy talk two first rounders and a decent prospect like maybe or no first rounders and a good just a good player point guard yeah a half decent point guard um anyone really at this point yeah i mean yeah you know the silver linings is like to to bias played well for 180 million dollars i fucking hope he does yeah and i just wish i could take uh four cans cork maz I love, like his spirit. I appreciate that he will shoot any fucking shot. Forkan never saw a shot he didn't like. And that he just loves doing the Eurostep floater.

Yeah. Even though it looked like ass last night. That he will just try that. He loves... Forkan Korkmaz is a Turkish basketball player on our roster he's on our bench and this man has won games before yeah last year he tossed in the game winning three against the knicks i want to say maybe two years ago yeah and uh that's happened a couple times we're like he'll just lob up like a 30 footer because fricking no one believes more than

fricking that that ball is going in. Yeah, he's going to make a great coach someday. I think, yeah, he has a ton of good energy. He seems just happy as shit every time. Oh, yeah. I don't think I've ever seen even when they're losing by 30. He doesn't look all that miserable. Right.

It's like, we'll get him next time, boys. Like, I don't think he ever expected like that. He would be where he is. Right. From playing Turkish basketball, and now he's a solid bench piece in the NBA. On a team that actually is relevant sometimes. Right. We don't go crashing into the wall.

As much as we should on the Sixers, they are relevant. They've been making the playoffs. I don't know how far they're going to go this year if the Ben situation isn't handled. I wouldn't even say. I mean, it's too early in the season to say for sure. But are they even a lock for the playoffs at this point? Well, the East is trash, so probably.

Yeah. Are they a lock, even a lock for the playoffs at this point? Well, East is trash. So probably. Yeah, but, you know, it might not be. It might not be something we're getting out of the first round with. No, if the situation is not resolved, because it's just not going to be good for everybody. No, exactly. All right. Let's go to the Flyers, I guess. Yeah. Hell yeah.

So I was at. So my birthday was last Wednesday, which is why you didn't get an episode. And my beloved Boston Bruins, I blew chunks all over the goddamn place. Yeah. The Bruins, I will say it was 6-3 on an empty netter, but it was 5-3 before that. The Flyers' four-check game looks really fucking good. The Flyers were playing this brand of just insane,

like we're never going to leave you alone for more than five seconds hockey. Constantly pestering. They were getting great takeaways they were finding the back of the net against a rookie goaltender but they were finding the back of the net consistently they looked cohesive the goals of martin jones allowed were you know 90 guys in front of the he didn't get beat clean on anything. Right. Carter Hart. It wasn't 101. Yeah. No.

Carter Hart has a save percentage of.914 this year, so he's actually looking all right. They look fine. I mean, they don't look terrific. They lost to the Panthers, who are like red hot right now, 4-2. Yeah. I wasn't upset about that. No, but they look okay,

which is better than I was expecting them to look, because I thought after last year, unless they got Carter Hart coming out of the gate you know just on fire that they would drop to like oh and six and they've looked fine even with not everyone being 100 and uh and hayes missing um yeah so i mean this is part of my ever-expanding re-education in hockey. But the Flyers, I mean, it was a fun, that Bruins game was fun to watch. So far, all the games have been fun to watch. And, you know, there has been a lot of physicality, I've noticed, which is awesome.

I mean, hockey is a very physical sport. But, yeah, like you were saying, they were not leaving the Bruins alone. The Bruins are also, like, an incredibly physical team. sport but yeah like you were saying they they were not leaving the bruins alone um and the bruins are also like an incredibly physical team they always have been their coach to be very physical like the bruins they're not the 11 the 2011 bruins but they they still have no problem giving hits taking hits and the flyers looked like they couldn't wait to hit somebody i'm like which that's how the bruins won a Stanley Cup. You can do it that way.

It's hard. Being superficial, I mean, that's what, like, I was like, oh, shit, that's right, they fight in hockey. Hell yeah. Like, so that, so, you know, as I'm regaining my hockey knowledge, though, that was, they have been fun to watch. It hasn't been particularly frustrating or upsetting,

which is something to say for a Philadelphia sports team. No, the first game where Carter Hart just got beaten. Like I, I just, it's such a long season. And then you get the playoffs. They're like, I'm not one of those.

The regular season doesn't matter, but I am one of those. The regular season doesn't matter as much as you think it does you got an 82 game season like carter hart looks like he shook it off you know last year he just got overwhelmed and and you know this year he's looked all right he's let in a couple stupid shots but all you know all in all he's looked all right they as a team they look all right they don't look they don't look like they're gonna win a cup but they look like they can at least do damage in the playoffs yeah it's gonna be fun to watch uh i don't know

if it's gonna be fun to stay up till 10 tonight to watch the game i'm watching uh i'm watching the bruins choke away an entirely winnable game to the Panthers tonight. The Oilers apparently are real hot. Are they? Yeah, they are. They're 5-0. But can you imagine having to go to the city of Edmonton? You can go to the mall, and you can go to...

What's that national park that my dad really likes in Alberta? Banff. Banff is very pretty. That's all I got. That's all I got from Alberta. I've driven across it twice. People call it the Texas of Canada, right?

Alberta and Saskatchewan are something else, man. Oh, boy. When we did the first episode, we said the takes we're going to get shit on are for talking shit about other cities. Whatever. We had 112 downloads last episode.

Oh, hell yeah. People are actually listening to this insane shit. You know what didn't have 112 downloads Was the city of Edmonton Yeah, because they don't have the internet yet, Tom Yeah, no You'll get there You'll get there, Alberta

Why don't you secede from Canada some more Yeah Yeah Grow some fucking barley Alright Well, now that we've been cancelled Yeah. Grow some fucking barley. All right. Well, now that we've been canceled or whatever. Our two Canadian listeners. Hey, guys.

Yeah, we had 17 Canadian listeners, apparently. Really? Yeah. Oh, shit. Oh, they're gone. 17. Sorry. Sorry, boys.

Hey, you know what? You're a national anthem slaps. It does slap. That's fair. So, yeah, that's great. Your national anthem slaps. It does slap. That's fair. So, yeah, that's great. I don't have any. I don't really have too many problems with Canadians that aren't fake. I'm in Canada a lot.

It's fine. All right. You want to talk about the Flyers? Not the Flyers. The Phillies. Oh, yes. Fuck the Astros. Yeah. yes. Fuck the Astros. Yeah, so fuck the Astros.

Fuck the Red Sox for collapsing. Right. The worst of all possible World Series happens. I cannot be bothered to give a shit about this World Series. So we're officially, I guess, a Braves podcast because fuck the Astros. This hurts. I do not

like the Astros. It's not just a cheating there's other shit about the organization i don't like i don't feel like getting into but you know like abuse and algaes oh yeah all sorts of abusive we will we can provide a link to those yeah uh so you know we're talking about uh there's uh uh one of their executives did uh a whole lot of gruesome sexual abuse, and then the organization basically acted as his cheerleader. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Great.

Thank you, Houston. I mean, Houston's also not a city, so it doesn't deserve a fucking baseball team. It's a parking lot that people work at, and then they drive out to the rest of the fucking godforsaken swamp surrounding it, full of gas tanks. No, Houston sucks. I've been to Houston. I remember people comparing it.

They were like, oh, well, Houston's the next Philadelphia, or some shit like that a couple years ago. No, it's not. Fuck off. No, it's not. We have culture here. So, you know, I guess root for the Braves. Don't root for anyone. Root for the Flyers. Yeah.

Carter Hart's on-base percentage is just out of this league. Yeah, he's at the... Really physical baseball they're playing. The Braves, though, I mean, I guess Freddie Freeman does deserve a ring because he's a phenomenal player. Maybe he'll be in free agent next year. So the big thing baseball wise that we didn't get a chance to talk about is that the minor leagues are now going to be provided team housing by the league, by their organization, I should say. Whoa. Awesome.

Not enough because they still only get paid about $15,000 a year unless you're someone who got drafted in the first five. And I can imagine, based on the food they provide their players, what the housing will be like. Oh, I've seen the food. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we'll see how that, we'll,

we'll see how that goes. Uh, but baseball owners suck ass the Phillies on the other hand. Well, I mean, they suck ass too. Speaking of sucking ass, the Phillies.

Yep. Uh, we're going into this off season. You have players that we've traded away like Nick Pavetta who played very well for the Red Sox in the postseason thank you yeah uh and it seems to be that there is a problem with the Phillies and their development and I saw uh a Twitter post the other day. It was the, or it might've been on Reddit.

It was that the Phillies are both spineless and spendthrift. That's true. I feel like school mats, man. Yeah. It's a fucking travesty because we're wasting the prime career of someone like Bryce Harper over wanting to go over something called the luxury tax in baseball, which if you go over a certain tax, it's like a soft salary cap. You go over the threshold, you have to pay so much money per dollar you spend over the luxury tax. But if the Phillies went over a luxury tax we'd be paying like an extra eight million dollars

a year which is which is not a lot of money that's that's the number four pitcher in your rotation uh the once again the Red Sox did that and their reward uh was a World Series yeah so you know we have it we have it we have a a GM that was hired midway through the offseason last year this is going to be Dave Dombrowski's first full off season. He's known for a guy that blows up franchises in terms that they, he sells off all of their prospects and tries to get guys who other teams really wouldn't be trading for that are on unfavorable contracts and go over the salary cap kind of deal.

And Phillies can't do that. We do our farm system is one of the bottom ranked in the league because our player development staff has been atrocious. So the Phillies just have this like generational talent gap that other teams don't have. And even if we wanted to trade away everybody, we don't have anybody. The Phillies,

for example, their number two organizational prospect is a shortstop by the name of Bryson Stott, who is currently tearing up the Arizona Fall League. Oh, good. Yes. So he's basically ready to go. He might be. I think his arrival time is estimated not this season,

but the following season He might get a cup of coffee this year In the September call ups But He's the 97th overall Top prospect in the major leagues So our number 2 is the number 7th overall Out of the top 100

Out of 30 teams That's fucking horrible So that's an embarrassment We have a shitty shortstop I love Didi Gregorius out of 30 teams. That's fucking horrible. Yeah, so that's an embarrassment. We have a shitty shortstop. I love Dede Gregorius, but he cannot play defense. No, he can't. And neither can Alec Boehm at third base. Who I genuinely like.

Oh, I like him too. He's just not a player. If we do have a designated hitter this year, and we'll have to talk about the potentiality of a strike next year in baseball. Do it, guys. Do it. Do it. Yeah.

And there might be a designated hitter. Great. Put Alec Bowman as your DH and don't have him field. Or Reese Hoskins and move Alec over to first. But Andrew McCutchecheon he's old and his contract's up i think he might have a club option um oduba herrera who i fucking hate because he's a he's a white beater yeah not the phillies cared he's got a club option they can be done with him they should be done with him we have uh be done with him. We have a surplus of mediocre left-handed

centerfielders. I'm sure there's someone else we can bring on. What a bonus to have. Yeah, right. We have two decent... We have two good pitchers, two decent pitchers

as starters, and then who the fuck knows who's going to be number five. And then we have an entire bullpen that needs rework outside of a few guys. So the Phillies are as we go into the offseason, which hasn't really started yet because postseason play is still going on,

and things tend to happen in spurts with baseball. We really don't get a lot of movement until the free agent deadline. The, the baseball winter reading winter meetings in December is when you get a lot of trades.

So at this point, who the fuck knows? One thing I did see that is a concern because of our developmental problems is that, and this is how we shot ourselves in our own foot. So if you sign in the off season, a, what they call qualified free agent,

you lose your second best draft pick. And we can't, and we are going, this would happen if we try and – which is likely to be any decent player. Now, a qualified free agent in MLB is – all right, your contract's up and you've never been given a qualified offer before. It's kind of like the franchise tag in football. But it's an offer.

You can turn it down. And you're offered like the average of the high, I think it's the highest 10% paid players at your position. I'm not 100% sure, so don't quote me on that. And so if any of the guys who are going to come on the free agent market are given a qualified offer that they reject and they become an unrestricted free agent, if we sign any one of those guys, we lose a second round pick in the draft, which is significant, especially for a team that has no depth in the minor leagues.

Right. So, and now baseball is different from a lot of other sports because you draft somebody and you're, you're waiting four or five years for them to be ready. But it's just a, it's just like a whole fucking mess and like last year we were considered to have signed a qualified free agent because we offered j2 or muto a qualified offer and then he denied he rejected it and then we signed him back so love baseball

oh yeah i mean the reason the rules are arcane is is because there's a relatively strong union uh so i mean there's a reason we are grateful however yes yes uh it could be stronger though it could own the league it should own the league yeah so phillies are you know phillies content's kind of on a, you know, waiting pattern as we wait to hear what happens. I mean, we might have mentioned this last podcast, but we fired our hitting coach and hired a new one. We fired the, basically almost the whole, not scouting,

the whole player development department and hired a new director. So Dombrowski is definitely making some steps in the right direction, which would be shocking. It's just, are we going to spend money? Right. And if we don't get into the playoffs next year, I can imagine Bryce Harper starts getting very, very vocal. Yeah, who could blame him?

That's a $300 million contract, man. And he was tricked or talked into coming to Philadelphia by the majority owner, John Milton, who said he was going to spend stupid, crazy money to get him a championship. They use the phrase stupid money. Yeah, stupid money. So far, I'm looking at the salary. It's not stupid money. It's not stupid money.

No. at the the salary it's it's not it's not stupid money it's not stupid money no you're not over if you're not over the luxury tax you're not you're not paying stupid money no and again it's no big deal to go over the luxury tax you get a pick uh taken from you and you have a world series trophy to get to uh keep your company yeah and all you do is you pay what would have been a number four pitcher or really good bottom of the bottom of the bullpen, like a setup guy, late innings pitcher, or some role player, like a utility dude on the bench. Right. And this is literally a man, net worth of $2.5 billion, worried about spending an extra $8 million. This is what it's about. Once again, give us the Philliesillies yes yeah i i will do a

better job uh yes but give it to the give it to the city give the give the franchise to the city and the league to the players yes yes absolutely we'll work out some sort of condominium agreement all right i think i know we ran short but like i said it's not a great day for me yeah uh let's uh i mean i i don't know uh what's a good joke about judge grads uh father judge grads we did the cte joke we did the they can't read joke um oh i got one for you oh go ahead i got one for you this is normally for jews and catholics but whatever uh so uh a father uh a north alum is laying on his deathbed surrounded by friends and family and you know he's he's lived a very good life he's surrounded

by as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And he says, Rassley, bring me a judge sweater. I want an honorary diploma from them. And they say, why? Why, Grandpapa? After so many years leading the North Alumn community and being such a great grandfather, now you wish to have gone to judge? And he says, better one of them than one of us

oh boy all right that'll that'll do it yeah yeah don't listen to judge grads because they're usually cops so no they are cops all right bye everybody all right bye