Opening Day 2024

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.

00:00:00
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Phillies Show with Ruben Tomorrow Junior Jim Salisbury. I am Todd Zu Lucky, a new Phillies podcast. We wanted to do this because we're such fond admirers of one another, and we just love each other's company so much, and we just respect the heck out of one another, and we just love baseball. So we put this together kind of about the last minute. Opening Day is here. It's an exciting time. So let's start with this. Guys, what does Opening Day mean to you? Do you have a favorite Opening Day memory? Something that you always kind of come back to when you when you get to this day on the calendar.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Jimmy, Well, I mean I'm sure. First of all. First of all, you know, thirty years ago, would you have said we really respect each other? I would not have said that about you, guys, I'm gonna tell you that right now. Okay, anyway, go ahead, way, Jim, Jim, respectfully, I'll turn it over to you, my friend.

00:00:57
Speaker 3: Driving you crazy all those years on your ass, right so you know opening Day, if baseball is your favorite sport, I mean, this is where it all starts, and baseball has been my favorite game forever. And you know, I always tell a couple of stories. One when I covered Terry Francona as manager, he he told me his mother used to let him cut school every Opening Day and go to the Pirates game because she believed Opening Day was special. And you know she was right. Opening Day is special. I remember being in grade school and these were in the years before like big tech departments. Every school had a big tech department. We had one TV in the entire elementary school and it was on this big rolling cart. And I remember being in fourth grade and my teacher saying, Hey, go down to the library and get the get the TV. We're gonna watch Opening Day, watch the Red Sox game. And I remember pushing that big cart down the hallway and bring it in. We plugged it in, used to black and white, three channels, and we watched the Red Sox game that day. And I have to say, probably my most memorable Opening day was actually a home opener. It wasn't the Phillies opener. It was their home opener in ninety four. It was my first year covering the team. The team opened up in Mile High Stadium in the snow, and then played in Denver, so they played in Denver, and then Cincinnati came home for the home opener, sixty eight thousand people at Veterans Stadium and John Cruck quite literally rolls out of a radiation treatment and laces a double to one hop double off the wall to right center. And I'll tell you what it made. The hair on my neck stand up as he's standing on second base and the crowd is just absolutely erupting. You know. That was obviously the spring when he was treated for cancer, and he, like I said, comes out of a radiation out of a radiation treatment and is this double and the entire ballpark just exploded. So and like I said, I still have goosebumps thinking about it. I've written about it a number of times, and that was That's my greatest you know, even though it's just a home opener, I considered like an opening day because that would be my greatest opening day memory.

00:03:18
Speaker 2: That's cool.

00:03:19
Speaker 1: And not only not only could John Krug roll out of bed and get a base HIMPI can roll out of a hospital. Man. He's got that skill set. That's why he's so damn popular. And I you know, I'm fifty nine years old now probably gone through.

00:03:33
Speaker 4: This will be my fifty ninth Opening Day as I live, as I continue to be fortunate enough to be six feet above instead of six feet below.

00:03:47
Speaker 5: But I think the I think, honestly, the one that that comes to mind as fat as far as like, the biggest impact on me personally is the very first.

00:03:59
Speaker 1: Opening Day that I made as a major leaguer, and that was with the Phillies in ninety two. I was traded from ninety one and the off season of ninety one to the Phillies for bon Hayes, along with Kyle Labbott. For bon Hayes. It was a terrible trade for both teams, but I got a chance to make my very first opening day team and for me to be able to stand on the lines with sixty thousand people in the stands at Veterans Stadium, the place that I had been the bat boy and had grown up watching all my baseball heroes, and to be able to stand there, it was really emotional. That was one. Two was when I was back on the field with the Boston Red Sox as a coach and my dad had just passed away March thirty first, almost seven years to the day now from this this lit podcast, and when I was on the lines again in uniform, uh, for the first time in what you know, it was twenty some years after being in the front office. And you know, the Boston Red Sox do a really cool thing and they sort of honor all the people who were involved in Major League Baseball who had passed away in that offseason. And my dad was the very first one because he's a right tomorrow and they had a long, you know shot of him and I just lost it. It was awesome, still makes me emotional.

00:05:36
Speaker 3: I bet you did.

00:05:38
Speaker 1: That's I lost it. So the other thing, as far as family is concerned, my ex wife Virginia and mother and my kids every single Opening day, guess what, out of school to the game Opening day Phillies at the game, sitting in the box or whatever. That was automatic. And she came from sort of family too.

00:06:00
Speaker 3: So how about you, Todd, In the land of Bronson Beer, Milwaukee was carved the brew Crew. You must have some great ones, that's.

00:06:09
Speaker 2: Right, you know, Like for me, what I remember as a kid the eighty two Brewers, the only Brewers team ever go to the World Series. So that's what kind of got me hooked on baseball, Robie. I can still recite you the lineup in order, you know how Harvey Keane said it, you know, mold or young Cooper Simmons, top four guys. And I just remember as a kid, as a little kid, second grade, third grade, I would make my own score sheets out of my dad had these big reams of like printer paper from work. I would make my own scorecard with the ruler and I'd write out the lineup and I would keep scores I as I listened to the game and follow the game along.

00:06:43
Speaker 1: And so I was old.

00:06:46
Speaker 2: I was like seven eight years old. So yeah, I was seven eight nine years old, and yeah, I would just kind of like geek out and make my own score sheets.

00:06:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was fun.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: And in just the image of County Stadium just filled and all the all the grills going at the same time in early April and it's cold out, so its just like all this smoke going up around the ballpark was just amazing. And I think since I've been covering the Phillies, Mike, the one that sticks out the most is Opening Day twenty ten when Halliday was on the mound in DC, and that was just like, oh, they're coming off two World Series and now you got Roy Halliday pitching. I mean it was pretty cool and everybody was super excited. And of course he did what he did that year, which is shove and win, and so that was that was a that was a fun one. So spring training ended on Monday in Clearwater. The Phillies just announced their opening day roster officially today and to me, there were kind of like two big storylines this spring. One was Johann Rojas and you guys, if you have any other ones that pop in your head, but one is Johan Rojas. And the second one to me is the back end of the rotation as it relates to Taiwan Walker, Christopher Sanchez, and then blake'snell and Jordan Montgomery. You know, so let's start with Johann Rojas. He makes the team. There's been a lot of talk about it in Philly, just based off my social media feeds. What do you guys feel about this young guy making an opening day roster after struggling as he did in the postseason, didn't really produce in this in spring training and running him out there and seeing what he's got good.

00:08:25
Speaker 3: Jimmy Well, I think I'm not surprised that they've stuck with him, and they're sticking with him even though he didn't really produce in spring training, because if if you study Rob Thompson a little bit and the organization, you know, Rob, I think believes that his number one currency in the clubhouse and number one currency and leading players is trust. And they told this kid, hey, we want you to work on this stuff, want you to work on it through spring training, and don't worry about the results. The results weren't good, but he worked on stuff. If you're gonna send him down based on results, then maybe you're not being true to your word. I think back to last October in the postseason. I remember reading one of your stories, Todd like, didn't Rob Thompson go up to Johann Rojas and say, Hey, I don't want to worry about anything. You're my guy, right, You're my guy. It's probably why he stuck with him late in that postseason when he was Scotland, because he told him you're my guy. But I think trust and being true to your word means something to Rob Thompson. It means something to the players, and obviously means something to the organization, and they wanted to stick with him and let him, you know, be the opening day center fielder and give him a good run and see what he can do. Now, if they didn't have a powerhouse one through eight, maybe that doesn't happen. But you know, they should be in a position where and it's very difficult to make adjustments at the big league level, but they should be in a position where if they do what they should do one through eight, they can allow this kid more time, more seasoning at the big league level. If in a couple of months he's still kind of lost, then you know, I think you need to get back to the drawing board, back to the table, and figure out what you're gonna what you're gonna do there. But that's you know, kind of the way I see, I see how they're going. Rubyn, Do you have any Do you agree there?

00:10:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I agree with you. It's hard to assess, you know, when you start talking about results in spring training. I mean, if you start talking about results in spring training, you look at the rest of the team, what they hit about a buck like a hundred. I mean, I mean I don't ever really like to necessarily, it's very difficult to sort of assess, you know, progress, I think qualityly at bats and that sort of thing. I think he improved a little bit. He didn't have great at bats, but I see he was trying to work on swinging at strikes and trying to do some bunting and doing the things that they had that he had been working on. I do agree with you wholeheartedly that won this This lineup is one of the better lineups, deeper lineups in all baseball. And the defense, let's let's call it, let's call the truth. Defensively, when you have Schwarber and in left field and you have Marsh and center field, it's not that good of a defensive club. It's not very good at all. If you have Johann Rojas and center and you have Brandon Marsh and you know, with Merryfield, whoever's out there pace, perhaps then you have a very good outfield. And the balls hit in the air all the time, and you need defense. I mean, we were bitching and complaining about whether or not, you know, somebody could catch the fly ball three years ago, and now now you got an outfield that's that's pretty darn good. Because Costiganos has improved. He's not a leite, but he's gotten himself to average, I think so. I think that's an important element of it. I think also, let's let's not forget the dude hit three hundred last year pretty much the entire season. I know that it was a very limit look in Double A. It was Double A, I get it, But he hit three hundred there when major leagues only what one hundred and fifty played appearances. He hit three hundred there, and so you have to sort of assess that as well. He did perform at the major league level, albeit you know, they started to make adjustments on him. Can he make those adjustments back? You never know. I mean, I hopefully he can. He's athletic enough. I hopefully that he doesn't feel the pressure to have to do it. And you also hope that he doesn't play offensively so poorly that he starts to lose confidence in himself. And it'll be really interesting. I've seen Dave Dombrowski in the past as a GM when I was when I was coach, Blake Swinheart was a perfect example for me. Blake Swihart was supposed to be an everyday catcher and he caught for about five or six games out of the shoot, and he really struggled. He struggled to receive, he struggled to run the game. Now totally different position, probably the most important position on the field. But then they got him out of there. They sent him down pretty quickly because he had it was just too much responsibility. Now, this guy is an elite center fielder. Blake Swyhert was not an elite center fielder excuse me, catcher, and so it's a little bit of a different story there. And he's definitely not gonna be overmatched on the field, So that part of the game he's going to be fine with. But I think, yeah, I think, Jim, I agree with you. I think that what will be interesting is how long the leash is. I think it's going to be at least a month, and then you know, we see where we go where we go from Plus the other thing is this, no one really stepped up and said, Okay, I'm going to be I'm going to take over the center field job, like Patch started off okay, but then he kind of fizzled at the end. No, no, no, there was nobody that you looked at it and you said Oh my god, this guy's going to be center fielder.

00:13:51
Speaker 3: And you mentioned you mentioned defense, and it's not like this guy is not going to contribute. You mentioned the elite defense, and there's the game is simple. Form is about scoring runs and preventing runs. And he's going to help you on one side of that coin a lot.

00:14:06
Speaker 2: You asked Zach Wheeler and Aarondola who they want playing defense center field. Okay, we're gonna say, I'll take Johann Rojas hitting two hundred, if you know, if he can play, if he can play every day, I'll Johann Rojas hits two hundred.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: I want him in the lineup. Everything that's important.

00:14:21
Speaker 6: Thirteen, all thirteen of those, all thirteen of those pitchers.

00:14:24
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, it's important to keep those guys on the hill happy, you know. I mean, we know all those stories about Roy Halliday. He wanted certain guys in certain places on certain games after certain things happened. So you know you want to keep the pitching stuff happy.

00:14:41
Speaker 1: Hey there, that's where your bread is buttered. Brother. You don't have to tell me about the pitching and how important it is and the defense in the run prevention, because if you can prevent runs. You have a chance to win every so you can hit. You can have it two runs a game. You can prevent runs. You got a chance.

00:14:57
Speaker 3: Let me. I want to ask Ruben a question because he actually stood in the batter's box at the major league level. We talked so much these days about the swing. The swing, the swing. They teach it, they work on it. They you know, apparently worked on a lot this winter with Rojas. What's more important the swing or pitch recognition, and and pitch recognition is really hard to learn or develop or whatever you want to call it. It's it's a tough tough thing to learn or to get good at at the big league level. Any concerns there.

00:15:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there are.

00:15:39
Speaker 1: I mean, that's why the hitting is the single most difficult thing to do in sports, the one thing that's the most difficult thing to do, I think, unless maybe you're a golfer and you're trying to hit a green every time, or hit it, you know, I mean, golf might be we were talking about that the other day. Maybe golf is a little bit more negative. Who knows, you know, one in one a but it's a it's a very difficult thing to do, and it's something that you can improve on and you can work on, but ultimately, if you don't have the eye hand coordination and be able to make you know, contact with the ball with your bat, then you're in trouble. And hitting is an art and it's something that you know, sometimes he can't piece together and you're hoping that the guy is athletic enough. I go back and start thinking about some of the athletes who became who were terrible hitters, who became good hitters because they were athletic and instinctive. And I think about guys like Ozzie Smith who could not hit, but was a tremendous instinctive player. It was a switch hitter, but he he can figure out a way to get the barrel of the ball eventually and like maximize. So he became a little bit better as he got as he got older and got more experience. Omarvas SkELL, horrendous hitter, became a pretty darn good hitter later on in his career, and so you know, I think start thinking about that. Even a guy like Freddie Galvis, like at some point, you know, the question was was just got to go to be able to hit? It up.

00:17:02
Speaker 3: Well.

00:17:03
Speaker 1: He wasn't a great hitter, but he made himself usable offensively. And so I think that if you have instinct and you have eye hand coordination, I think that you can get there or get be improved. Do you become a Hall of Famer? Maybe not, but you know there's if you can. You have the ability to adjust, and you have instinct for the game, which I do believe that Rojas does have, then I think he's got a chance to make those adjustments.

00:17:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, for what it's worth. As of like late last week, he small sample size, no pressure. Spring training, he was chasing less out of those pitches out of his own again, super small sample size, totally different situation, no pressure to produce, but he was chasing less. So, uh, Taiwan Walker is opening the season on the il right shoulder soreness.

00:17:55
Speaker 1: A lot of talking.

00:17:56
Speaker 2: So every time I ran into somebody Rubin in Clearwater, I'm sure you get it way worse than me because people run and you know, recognize you a lot more. But it was always they're gonna sign Snell, They're gonna sign Montgomery, right, are they gonna? And then Philly said no, And I'm wondering what you guys think about that back end of the rotation. And I think the first three are super solid obviously, but do you have any thoughts on them not going after Snell and or Montgomery? And are you concerned about Taiwan Walker's shoulder and his lack of velocity.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: So here's my thing. Let me let me let me go first. Go ahead, yes, go ahead. No.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: I was just saying, also, like the fact that they're really counting on Sanchez to continue where he left off. You know, it's Almos's I don't know how much of a lock that is or a guarantee that is, but they're obviously really much They're very much counting on him to repeat what he did last year, right.

00:18:49
Speaker 1: And so I'll start with Sanchez. Great segue because it had Sanchez not sort of made the development changes that he made and become maybe one of their more consistent guys down the stretch. I think he was one of the most consistent pitchers they had, and I know they protected him some, but this is a guy that came a long way. This guy was like a rock thrower man. He didn't have any idea where he was and he made the adjustments to become a pitcher and started pitching much much better. And it is my feeling that he is going to continue on that path. Good kid works hard, knows he hasn't made it. I think he's humble enough to understand that he's got a lot of work to do still, and he's got you know, and teams are going to make adjustments on him, and he's gonna have to make adjustmente back. But I think the emergence of of Christopher Sanchez probably had a lot to do with the fact that these guys did not make a run at Smell in Montcomery, because I think that they felt that with four solid starters they could piece the other five the other whether it's whether it was Taiwan Walker or you know, whoever they could sign, which they did Turnbull Spencer Turnbull in this case, I think that they felt comfortable with that, knowing that, hey, if we have other needs and and a need in starting pitching arises that we could try to get that and hit that element later on, whether it be through excuse me, through trade or what have you. I think that they have some of the resources to be able to combat that, and it may be a different one somebody might get hurt, you know, somebody. They may lose a catcher, they may lose a you know who knows, and God forbid for for the Phillies fans. But but I think, you know, I think Taiwan Walker's situation is he had a slow start. He had some personal things going on in the spring. He had a knee issue and he couldn't really utilize his lower half very well for a while, basically backed him up. So that sort of morphed into having a shoulder issue. I don't think it's long term, id it. I guess he's he's you know, throwing throwing bullpens now, and he's gonna you know, are pretty soon. And I think he's just you know, he's going to start to get himself into a position to be able to pitch in the rotation fairly soon. And I hope that does happen, because if he can pitch anywhere close to where he was in July and August, I guess in that time frame, and he's you know, he's a usable pitcher. He's a fourth or fifth starter, and a pretty good one because you can eat up some minutes.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: I agree, you got to get him back because that's where his value is the innings on the pitching side of right, you love the first two. You think Rangers really ready to take a step forward, so you could really fall in love with the first three. I mean, there's question is in four and five, but a lot of teams have questions in four and five. So I still think the Phillies with what they have are pretty well situated in pitching. But you know, there's not a ton of depth. They need to stay healthy. You need to get Walker back, give him so he can give him some innings. This is going to afford them a chance to look a little bit more. Turnbull, see where he's coming back from, Tommy Johnson, see what he looks like. Sanchez is an as sending player getting better. I think it'll be a big test for him because some guys, some guys improve a little bit one year and then level off. It's important for him, I think, to take another step forward. And beyond that. There's not a lot of depth at Triple A. I mean, I guess I shouldn't say not a lot of depth. They have some depth pieces. I don't think there's a lot of depth that makes you go wow. Other than Mick abel I mean, if he's I think at some point this season he needs to be knocking on the door. But just think the drop off after three, the depth after after three in the rotation is probably my biggest concern. They really need to stay healthy at one, two, and three and have those guys performing like they can. But like I said, I think a lot of teams have drop offs after one, two and three, and you know, if they catch the ball. We talked about the importance of catching the ball. I mean, they should be very sound defensively up the middle, and they should score some runs. I'm sure the pitching staff's going to like that. But you know, on the whole, I kind of liked the starting pitching. It just it needs to hold up and they need to have some step up beyond number three, and they need to stay healthy.

00:23:18
Speaker 2: The thing, I think you guys all heard the same thing that the Phillies just did not want to go past that third luxury tax threshold. That is a stiff, stiff tax penalty to pay. I did the math. I hope I'm right. Nobody emailed me and said I was wrong. I wrote about this yesterday. But if they if they had signed Montgomery to that one year, twenty five million dollar deal. It would have pushed their payroll from about two sixty to eighty five. So now they're tax penalty because you know, if it goes up and up and up, the further and further you go. Their tax penalty right now is twelve point four million. It would have jumped to more than thirty million dollars. So you add on eighteen extra penalty, eighteen million extra penalty to the twenty five million dollars for Jordan Montgomery salary. Now you're talking at a one year, forty forty three million dollar contract for Jordan Montgomery plus plus you your top pick in the draft falls ten spots.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: That's pretty stiff.

00:24:17
Speaker 3: That's stiff.

00:24:17
Speaker 1: That's rough. That's very rough.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: And I know it's not my it's not my money, so I couldn't care less if they do it, and it Believe me, it would be more fun for everybody if they would have done it. But those are real considerations that the front office and ownership hads to make. So I see why they said, you know, we're going to see how Walker and Suarez do. We're going to see how Able continues to progress, and see if Spencer Turbo could maybe provide us some death depth because man like, like Ruben said earlier, what happens if somebody else goes down in another part of the roster. And now you're going, oh my gosh, we just dropped forty three million dollars on a pitcher that we really didn't need, and we really could use this payroll flexibility for something else on the roster.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: So let's let's talk about that that. I know, I know it sounds I don't like to talk about Delta's But the difference between what Spencer Turnbull Okay, let's just say Spencer Turnbull and and Jordan Montgomery. First of all, Montgomery's not gonna pitch competitively until when I don't know, is he ready in three weeks, in two weeks, in a month? So you move it. So say say it's a month. Okay, I would be really.

00:25:21
Speaker 6: Conservative, say he pitches in a month. So you have for five months, you.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: Have Spencer Turnbull probably for a month.

00:25:30
Speaker 6: Say Tiwan Walker comes back after a month, so you have Tywan Walker for five months. So the difference between Taiwan Walker and Jordan Montgomery, what is he going to what is it going to give you Is it gonna give a forty three million and ten slots in your in your draft pick better?

00:25:50
Speaker 1: Is it gonna make you that much better?

00:25:52
Speaker 6: I just don't see it, and so the logic behind it just doesn't make any sense.

00:25:57
Speaker 1: I listen, I'm all about getting the best pitching and all the pitch. But Jordan Montgomery is a good picture. He's not an ace. Okay, I'm about it getting an ace. If it was like a sures Aer about four or five years ago, I'll take that. I'll do that. I'll make that it with Verlander. I'll make that move. But I just don't know if the delta's you know, if if the difference is big enough to be able to make that to want to make that move right now.

00:26:22
Speaker 2: And that's why they that's why they went after that Yoshinibu Yamamoto in decembers, because they thought he was that potentially that type of guy, whereas Snell they had no interest in Montgomery.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: They were, yeah, it smell's not that guy either. It smells not that guy either. It's a cy Young award. He pitches five minutes. That's not an ace. I'm sorry he won the cy Young, but I think that's the biggest farce from the planet. I just don't think. I just don't. I don't get it. I don't, I can't. I don't understand it. And I know this is a different breed of baseball. But if you're going to tell me that the cy Young Award winner averaged five and what one third innings for his thirty one starts and he won the cy Young, I mean he may. He should have been the most dominant pitcher in the He should have been Sandy Kofax, which he was not.

00:27:13
Speaker 3: Innings are not value. Innings are not valued like they used to be, and they should be.

00:27:19
Speaker 1: We saw that more than ever, more than ever now.

00:27:23
Speaker 3: We saw that in the cy Young voting with Corbyn Burns beating out Zach Wheeler, who we could do them a few years ago? Who could do the math? Didn't Wheeler make like five more starts?

00:27:36
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:27:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was a crazy war.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was well ridiculous.

00:27:40
Speaker 2: That that said, the Phillies definitely put their money where their mouth is that they value innings because they give Zach Wheeler a ton of money and they give Aaron Nola a ton of money money that Blake Snell thought he should have blown past and didn't come close to touching. Because the Phillies like this guy, Aaron Noa throws two hundred innings every year. Let's let's lock him up for the next several.

00:27:58
Speaker 3: And the whole thing was Walker did pitching the postseason last year. Maybe people are down on them. This isn't you know, an injury that causes concern because he gave you one hundred and seventy two innings last year. How are you going to replace those?

00:28:11
Speaker 1: Right? Righty? Not many guys. Hey, they had five guys, five five pitchers through two hundred innings last year. Boys, it's crazy, and so now more than ever when you have a dearth of pitching, I think because people are dropping like flies physically, they're not able to because there's so much pressure and so many innings that have to be traversed over the course of a season. Because the starters can't go anywhere, it can't go past five innings. It causes real domino effect across baseball, and I think it's one of the one of the things that has to be addressed in the game.

00:28:52
Speaker 3: And a lot of people think, you know what, starting pitchers are babied and I don't mean to get into this debate, but I was reading a story in The Athletic yesterday. As you both know, I'm a big hockey fan. Martin bro Door maybe the greatest goalie ever. There's a story in the Athletic Martin bro Door worries about if goalies are being babied. We're babying an entire generation of goalies. So it's in every.

00:29:23
Speaker 1: Sport, no doubt, it's no doubt. I mean, listen and you're and you're finding actually that it's it's having the reverse effect. The unintended consequences of what is happening now is that you don't have pictures pitching on the field because they're blowing out, because they're throwing as hard as they possibly can, or throwing that one pitch that they throw eighty percent of the time out of the bullpen, and it's causing people to break. And that is happening. It's real, it's there, and it startles me that owners don't see it. And and they have millions upon billions of dollars on the I l and not performing for them. And I just don't understand how how people are letting this happen.

00:30:14
Speaker 3: They want to throw harder and harder and harder, and all of a sudden, get out the uh, get out the phone and call doctor Andrews.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: Correct, So it's doctor Andrews right there. As a matter of fact.

00:30:27
Speaker 2: So I think, like the opening day match of Phillies Braves might be the best in baseball. Not only two teams, two rivals, two teams that maybe don't like each other too much. Can't wait to see Orlando Arcia on the field on Friday, and Wheeler versus Spencer Strider probably the best, right is that the best starting matchup in baseball, starting pitching matchup on opening days? It has to be, It has to be.

00:30:52
Speaker 1: Try.

00:30:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's end on this. What do you think can the Phillies beat the Braves or pass the Brave and win the NLS this year? If so, how do they do it? And maybe if not? Like, why what's your greatest concern?

00:31:07
Speaker 1: I happen to think that, daved Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Jim.

00:31:10
Speaker 3: No, I want to hear you say, Ruben, because you're smarter than I am.

00:31:14
Speaker 1: No, I'm not, No, I'm not.

00:31:16
Speaker 6: You see the game in a totally different way. So so here, So here's my thing.

00:31:20
Speaker 1: I do believe that Dave Dombrowski and Alexanthoppolos are two of the better gms in baseball. What Alexanthopolis did in adding to his ball club, you know when you can add pitching and quality pitching the left hand brain locking on his on uh on the left hand's name. I was coached him and it was in Boston when he made that trade to pick up Sale. I think that was brilliant. And I think he added a bunch of left handers in his bullpen to combat like the quality of the left handed hitters in Stot and Warber and Harper in their bullpen. I think that was brilliant. I think that they have one of the best young probably close to prime time as far as their age and their ability is concerned, group of players in all of baseball. It's a tremendous team. But there also there's to be some questions about whether they're going to be able to stay healthy enough, and that's a that's a real question. So I think it's a great matchup. I think it's two tremendous ball clubs. I have Atlanta favored over Philadelphia just based on what I see that does not mean by any means that the Phillies can't overtake them, because I have it. I think that they have the ability to do that. They just haven't proven it yet. And until they prove it, that Atlanta is still the best team in that in the in the division.

00:32:52
Speaker 3: For me, yeah, I think the Phillies can overtake the Braves this year. I know this is going to sound ridiculously simplistic, but it's going to come down to who plays better. It always does. I mean there's talent up and down both lineups. There's talent up and down both rotations. You know, you stay healthy in rotation, you deliver, and there's you winner. I mean, I love Atlanta's lineup, you know, I love those two guys at the corner. You gotta love at the corner. Infield spots. You gotta love Acunya maybe the best player in the game. Great team, but if the Phillies look at you know, there's no slowly they got studs up and down. I think the Phillies were fourth in the league in runs last year. I think they're gonna score runs if they're pitching holes up, bullpen holes up. Yeah, you know, I think they can certainly win this division, but with you know, six teams going to the playoffs, I think winning the division is important. It still means something you have. You know, we have to win two fewer games to win the World Series. You get more games at home, you know. That said, we've seen how dangerous the Phillies can be by just you know, getting in and getting hot. We've seen what happens when you get in and go call too in the NLCS last two games last year. So I think it's going to be a very closely matched division. I think the Phillies need to go out and try to win it. They have the talent to do it. It's just about playing well. And I think the front office, you know, even though they're carrying a very big payroll, I think and they didn't make a play for Montgomery for the reasons we talked about. They see a hole. They're going to fix it in July.

00:34:33
Speaker 6: And I think the only disappointment, Yeah, the only disappointment I have is that in this situation, I would love to have these teams be able to face off nineteen times.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Now it's just thirteen, and so it's you know, there's a change in the in the way that the schedule set up. But the Phillies are gonna have to play better baseball against them. In regular season, they got beat up by the Atlanta Braves. They played them better, I thought. I think they played them better in the playoffs, But I think was Atlanta beat them up pretty good in the regular season. I thinks unless I'm mistaken.

00:35:08
Speaker 2: Well, you know, they've talked a lot this spring about getting off to a fast start, and you know, obviously the last two years they kind of buried themselves going into June, so they had absolutely no chance to catch them. But what will be funny is if the Phillies are neck and neck with the Braves, and then you're going to hear people going, boy, I don't know the Braves they won the division last years, they were so cold going into the NLDS. Is it the best thing for the Phillies doing the division? You know that's going to happen.

00:35:34
Speaker 1: But you know, you want to win the division.

00:35:36
Speaker 2: You want that buy it's automatic, right.

00:35:38
Speaker 3: If you're a competitor, you want to win the division. But the way modern baseball is now, there's a pretty good landing spot in some of these wildcards, and we've seen you know, countless, you know, not countless, but a number of teams really you know, go to the World Series, win the World Series from that whole. So you know, all all hope is not lost if you finished in second place. But as opening days here, I mean, throw it down and try to win the division.

00:36:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think it's ultimately And you guys know this because you've been around the game a long time. It's what team is the hottest, who's playing the best baseball, and what team is the.

00:36:16
Speaker 1: Hottest, and that's the team that's going to win the World Series. I truly believe in my heart of hearts. When you got down to the final four last year, the Phillies were the most were the most complete.

00:36:26
Speaker 6: Ball club, and they couldn't get past and d Backs and the Texas Rangers were playing great baseball, especially away from home, which was ridiculous.

00:36:36
Speaker 1: And it just it happens. And it's just a team that plays the hottest type of baseball. If you're hot, you'll win. And that's what happens. We did it in two thousand and eight. We got hot, and we played a team that was a lesser talented team than the Boston Red Sox. In the Tampa Bay Rays, and so we got fortunate and we won.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: This is fun, guys, Opening days here. Let's do this again, shall we.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: Jim Love talking baseball. Yeah yeah, man.

00:37:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll do it again. We'll do it again sometime. You bring the uh, the.

00:37:12
Speaker 1: Hogies, I'll bring the hogies, I'll bring the I'll bring the enchiladas.

00:37:21
Speaker 2: Let's diversify the lunch portfolio as we go. Awesome, guys, good talking to you.

00:37:27
Speaker 1: Good.

00:37:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for listening.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: Everybody.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: This is the Philly Show and again tune in for future episodes.

00:37:34
Speaker 1: Thanks,