Jesus “Zeus” Luzardo says he’s healthy, ready for a big 2025

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Speaker 1: Everyone is the Jordan Romano and welcome to the Philly Show.

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Speaker 2: Everybody, Reubenhmar Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd so lucky is New Year's Eve and we're.

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Speaker 3: Up talking ball early in the morning.

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Speaker 2: How are you guys doing you guys have a good Christmas Hanukkah holidays?

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Speaker 3: Yes you did?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, very nice. Check out my my big Christmas gift.

00:00:31
Speaker 1: That wow, please get in there. Tight it?

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ao, we need a tight shot.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: So Jim is Jim is holding up a Philly Show mug that says World's best podfather.

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Speaker 4: My daughter got my daughter Mary got me.

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Speaker 3: This is a.

00:00:50
Speaker 4: It's uh, I'm not sure she we might have to arrest her for violating licensing and copyright agreement.

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Speaker 3: But a little gift that is very cool man.

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Speaker 1: That is very great gift man. Yeah, that is. We don't have that on merchandise. We don't have that on a on our merch list yet.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: Not yet, but maybe at some point. But Jim, you are sporting your your The Philly Show T shirt, which you can get at for the show dot com.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: Very nice. And Ruben, what do you got going on?

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Speaker 2: It?

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Speaker 3: Says? I see a suspect.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so I have a little suspect group. This was the shirt that I wore underneath my uniform at in Cleveland before the ninety fourteen And this was we made up shirts for the guys who were on the bench who basically never played. If you remember, Mike Cargove basically stamped that line up. It was like Lofton and the Scale and Byerga.

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Speaker 3: And Albert Bell.

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Speaker 1: Albert Bell in that unbelievable lineup. So me, Candy Maltonado, Alberto Espinoza, Wayne Kirby, myself, Tony Pania, and then Renee Gonzalez there in the bottom and so you know, but you know, but here's.

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Speaker 3: But we got skills on the back? Yeah, but we got skills is on the back.

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Speaker 4: That's on the back. So I encourage folks to join us on YouTube. You can see this on the back of Ruben's shirt. It says, but we got skills. That's like saying, uh, you know, but she has a nice personality.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: That's exactly right.

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Speaker 3: That is so funny.

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Speaker 2: I mean on that ninety four team, Yeah, it must have been you guys to get a start in a game you know.

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Speaker 1: That didn't happened, didn't happen very often. I mean every once in a while, Espinosa would get a start because Jim Toman was playing third base. Then so as Pep would come in for defense. At the end of the game, you know, they had Eddie Murray and Paul Sorrento basically Patuning in first. Whoever did d H that day would play first base. So you know, we had Madry Murray's right, we had Kenny lofton center. We had Albert Bellen left, we had by Ergert second, the skeleton short and Tony and then behind the plate was uh was Sandy ala par So. I mean Tony Panya was the only guy that played because he would, you know, give Sandy an opportunity. But it was just an amazing ball club. I mean, these guys raked. I mean, anytime you have Manny Ramirez hitting like seven in your light up here, she should be fine.

00:03:22
Speaker 4: Seeing that, seeing that shirt Ruben and with suspect on it, and all the reserved players. And I know Charlie man Manuel was your hitting coach, and it reminds me of a well Charlie's great pieces of wisdom. He used to he used to call certain players coach killers because you're pitching batting practice all the time, and your arm would fall off, but they would never get any better.

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Speaker 1: They were coach killers. That was That was me. That was one of those. He said, eased to call me the most high maintenance bench guy in the history of the game, because that would work, you know, pretty hard. I'd like to try to stay ready.

00:03:58
Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: But but the ratio between actual and bats on the field and the actual swings I took in the cage pretty incredible, large ratio. And but Charlie worked with us. I won a few games force and became sort of valuable because I did win a couple of games in some in some situations and congitting or coming in late or whatever, and so so at least I was worth a little bit, so a little something.

00:04:26
Speaker 4: Look at look at the bright side room, and you grew up to be a great podcaster.

00:04:33
Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: You don't have a month.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: For everything? Right, No, I don't have a month.

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Speaker 4: You don't have the podfather, but podcast?

00:04:42
Speaker 3: How about this, I'll show this.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Right, as my kids would say, very very jelly, Mike, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, I don't know did your They didn't do this when I was a kid for Christmas? But uh, maybe you're your your girls. They're obviously a lot older than my kids. But do they have these things at school where you give them twenty bucks they can go in and get you guys a Christmas skiff because that's like a new thing now where so my daughter had went in and got me this mug. It just says number one Dad on it, which is funny as part of her you know, going to school, like buy the mug for two bucks, you wrap it up, you give your dad a gift.

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Speaker 3: So, uh, those those things are cool.

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Speaker 1: You know another number one dad?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and the number one that's right, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Gosh.

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Speaker 2: So the last time since we last talked, uh, the Phillies actually made another move and I think we should we should talk about it. It's not a big sexy move, but they signed Joe Ross to a one year, four million dollar deal and they apparently were talking to Joe Ross before they got Hazel Loose Hayesus Lozardo in that trade with the Marlins. Ross is going to slide into the bullpen. He can start. Obviously he started with the Nationals. He was pretty effective last year with the Brewers out of the bullpen, so that's he's now kind of like their fourth third or fourth right hander in the pen.

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Speaker 3: Uh provides them some depth. We love depth.

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Speaker 2: What did you guys think of the Joel Ross move and maybe what it means for Taiwan Walker or what it means for the bullpen?

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Speaker 4: Good room.

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Speaker 1: I love it. You know, this is a guy who's been around a while. He's sort of found himself as a bullpen guy. He's been a starter for a long time. He's had some injury issues, had this and that, bounced around a little bit. But I've known Joan Ross and seen him pitch, even when he was pitching way back in Cal. He pitched for my for my good buddy Dave Esker way back when when he was coaching at Cal, and then he switched over to Stanford. But did David, But you know, great Sinker always had it like a power. Sinker was one of the guys that never really locked in as a starter. But it seems like he's hung around long enough to be able to make himself a serviceable right hander. Seems durable enough. He just don't Hopefully he bounces back again for a pretty good year this year. But I think this is a great signing because anytime you can create you know, more depth than you said it, Todd. I mean, I do love depth, and you also protect yourself a little bit more on your rotation. In your rotation. Obviously, getting Wizardo makes for a grete five, but you know, five starters. I don't think he's gonna be a fifth starter, but I think it's just it's really important to have as many starters as possible starters as you possibly can. And this is a guy I can eat up some innings for you if you have some breakdowns.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a good year last year, and he's a swing man, so I mean that's I mean, he is the definition of depth and the fact that you can use him in two different roles. He kind of almost feels like that Turnbull signing.

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Speaker 3: YEP a year ago.

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Speaker 4: And Turnbull has given him good, good returns until his injury. So I don't know, it's the biggest cliche going, but you can never have enough pitching, never ever, ever, So all in favor of it, all in favor of a guy. You know, he's a couple of years you moved from injury and he kind of got his feet back last year or got his legs back. Those guys sometimes get better that second year back, a year stronger, a year more confident, and then they start focusing on the future where they see a payday. So a lot of times you get the best they have left and maybe this is a case in point there.

00:08:20
Speaker 1: And that's really not going to be a high leverage guy. And then it reminds me of that Channell Park type of situation, like where that's a good one. You know, you can you can swing him around, you you can start some you can relieve and you know, maybe he's really found his niche as a reliever.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you think about how healthy the rotation has been over the past couple of years. It's just nice to know that if somebody goes down. Because we've talked about this, Dave Dombrowski, he said the second half of the season a big reason why he thought the Philly struggled down the stretches. They didn't have anybody to really step in and replace Ranger, and you know, Taiwan Walker wasn't doing the job, and some of those number five starts doing the job.

00:08:56
Speaker 3: So you feel a lot better about Joe Ross if.

00:08:59
Speaker 2: Somebody else would go down for a few weeks, a month, two months, than you know, maybe some of these other options. So if you look at the bullpen right now, you have the right handers in the pen are Jordan Romano, Ryan Kirkering, Jose Ruiz, Joe Ross. The lefties are Matt Strom, Jose Alvarado, Tanner Banks. Eight man bullpen. That leaves one spot open. Taiwan Walker is going to come to camp as of now and he's going to compete for a job in the bullpen, and then you're looking at other possibilities. I'm just looking at forty man roster guys. I know they signed some guys to a minor league deals that I'll have a shot. Max Lazar last year pitched in the bullpen down the stretch. Alan Rangel, who is they got from the Angels mid season, pitched and finished in Triple A. They like him a little bit. Devin Sweet who pitched in Triple A with Detroit last year. Michael Mercado, who's obviously got to throw way more strikes to have any shot to pitch in the bullpen. But those are kind of the guys right now looking to be in that eight So, you know, Taiwan Walker, I guess you know he's going to come in and compete. But I think the Joe I don't know, does Joe Ross situation kind of push him out a little bit more?

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Speaker 4: Well? Is Joe Ross the seventh guy by your count?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's by this he would be the seventh guy by my count unless I'm missing somebody.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So you know, if Taiwan Pitch is okay, I guess he could be the eighth guy, kind of the long man, mop up man, continue working with him. But you know, who knows. I mean, he might not make it out of clip Water. I think the best thing he's got going for him is is the number thirty six. And I'm not talking about Robin Robbers.

00:10:38
Speaker 3: You're talking about thirty six million.

00:10:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:10:41
Speaker 4: So yeah, they own a lot of money. It's it's tough to just say goodbye to that. So I think he maybe exhaust a few more a little more time with him and see what he what he's going to bring in after this offseason conditioning program.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 4: But you know, Bill gonna go a lot deeper than eight in that bullpen in twenty twenty five. We're gonna see him running a bunch of ghost guys that you named through there.

00:11:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. The only thing I'll say about the guys that you named, is I don't know the last time that you actually put guys on paper who you know come February fifteenth, that those are the guys that ended up breaking with the team. I mean, it's always different. There's always something that pops up. Somebody gets tweaked, somebody gets hurt. You never have a clean sprint training, you know, it just inevitably never ever happens. And typically it's with pitching. You know, some guy gets something, a blister, tweaks his hammy, a groin is you know, his elbow starts to bother them whatever the case may be, or it comes gets behind. So that's that's the issue I think right again, I just think having a guy like Ross around is a helpful piece just to move things forward.

00:11:53
Speaker 2: Haze's WIZARDO had a little introductory zoom on on Monday and talked about his health that was a big thing, talked about his excitement joining the team. He says, I got to experience Red October firsthand. He started Game one of the twenty twenty three NL Wildcard Series, which the Phillies won, so.

00:12:11
Speaker 3: He got to experience that.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: Says he's excited about coming to Philly. Being on the other side of that, Jim, you were on that call. What jumped out at you about Hajesu Sizardo. You asked him some questions, a few questions about his back, which is you know, anytime anybody talks about back, you know, I stress stress reaction in the back, and then he says you're and then they say they're healthy. Of course, you know, you still get in the back of your mind to go all right, but it's.

00:12:38
Speaker 4: Well, what jumped out? What jumped out at me? I mean, nice young man, nice personality, gave really good answers, thoughtful answers, and he's got really good hair. So those are the things that immediately jumped out of me.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: He does have good hair, Yeah, he's.

00:12:53
Speaker 4: Got good hair. But of more importance the health was to me the biggest issue that needed to be covered, and he explained what exactly the stretch reaction was. It was sounded like it was an irritation of a vertebrae from twisting and turning and maybe the just the active pitching and sometimes you get inflamed and the only way to you know, flush that inflammation out of there and that sortness out of there is to shut down. He said he had to shut down, but he feels good now, he's one hundred percent. He says he doesn't even think about it, and all the medical people have told him that, you know, once you kind of flushed this out of there, it usually doesn't come back. So Phillies have to be hoping that is the case, because boy, you know, they've built themselves a nice rotation with his edition, both talented and deep. And I think he could be a really good fit here if I mean, if it's always the advanced copy on every season, if if you're healthy, and that goes you know, up and down the roster, if they get good performance from him, and the rest of the guys will have a pretty good rotation. But you know, I go back to I like to pick up, and I know they gave up a really good, promising young shortstop. The guy's nineteen years old, and you're in your you're in your window. You need to you need to punch one through the red zone into the end zone here. And I definitely like to pick up. And I like the things I heard him say about his health and his desire to get back to where he was in twenty twenty three when he had that really good season thirty two starts, one hundred and I forgot how many innings hundred and seventy five. Maybe so nice addition, set all the right things on New Year's Eve, but the proof will come in April, May, June, July, August, September, October.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. So my perst impression of this kid was does he have a babyface or what he looks like he's seven years old, which I love, But I also know that he's a killer on the mound. I know he's got that. He's got that. You know, he loves the fire, he loves and I think this is gonna elevators. I really do think that phil pitching and Philadelphia will elevate his game. That's my feeling on it. And I think, you know, he talked about some of the things that he felt like he could be better at. One of them was game planning, and I started thinking about it. You know, Philly's having lost Brian Kaplan, and like, who's going to be game planning some of these It's not going to just be Caleb Cotham. It's going to be somebody who's been brought in now a new guy sort of brought in to sort of help game plan. So that'll be an interesting piece of how this all works out. Because Kaplin was a very good game planner. It's one thing that he did extremely well. He's now over in Arizona as a pitching coach, so that'll be interesting. But you know, I really felt I liked I read faces. We talk about this a lot. I like faces. This guy seemed natural. He's seemed pretty excited, not overly excited, but excited about being in Philadelphia and pitching here. And uh, you know, I think it's going to be a really welcomed arm in this rotation. I'm looking forward to watching this guy. And I do think that stress reaction stuff is behind him. The fact that he's thrown and started throwing a little earlier than he typically does, and he's got no doesn't even think about it right now, that's all really good sign.

00:16:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. The fact that the doctors, he said, multiple doctors told him once it is past him that it's something that should not bother him again. I guess again, like Jim said, if if that is the truth, and if that is the case, and if he stays healthy, Man, they have a really good top five. I mean one through five rotation. I mean you could say best in baseball, maybe the best in baseball.

00:16:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, best in baseball as far as I'm concerned, deep one through five, no question. Actually, I like three really really good left handers, man.

00:17:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, three good lefties, two workhorse rights at the top. But I like the point you made about the environment coming to Philly, because I mean, pitching in Miami, it's a beautiful ballpark. I think they built a beautiful ballpark, but I mean it's like pitching in an empty warehouse. There's no lot of you know, there's no life. I mean there's four thousand people, and you know, coming here, it can only electrify you. This environment. Fans bring you so much energy, you know, I know, like Harper talks about it all the time, Schwarber talks about it all the time.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: But it is real too.

00:17:41
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, Turner talked about it when he wanted to come here. They do give you a left So I think that environment pitching in a place where every game matters to the fans, every game matters in the standings, because you're on a competitive team, not a team that's stuck in a perpetual rebuild. All that could be if you're a competitor, all that can bring the best out of you.

00:18:00
Speaker 1: And he competes, Man. I love the wings on the mount. He competes. He puts those glasses on, man, and he's ready to fire.

00:18:06
Speaker 3: So I like that.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: That's a cool nickname. Though if if he takes off in pitches, you might see some Zeus signs. There's some guys up in the upper deck and right field, just as a Greek god of.

00:18:24
Speaker 3: Strikeouts, the Greek god of strikeouts and wins.

00:18:30
Speaker 2: So let's finish with this, Ruben. Eagles right now are coming down the stretch. I want to get your opinion. As a former executive, Barkley is real closest sitting the NFL record. Now you're play him, he gets hurt. I'm going to kill you, Ruben. But if you don't play him me and he doesn't break the record, I'm going to kill you, Ruben, because you don't have any guts to play the guy and go for the record.

00:18:56
Speaker 1: Honestly, I would have asked the player. I asked the player directly and say, listen, is something that me is meaningful enough to you play you. And if he says, I want to play in this game, then I put my my five guys up front. I put him in the game. I let him make a run at it. See how it goes in the first half. If he's piling up some some serious mileage, stay with him until he breaks it, and then get him out he gets and if he knows, if he says, and he may very well himself, say listen, we gotta do this, we gotta we got We're trying to win a super Bowl here, I'll do the team thing. I'll be happy to you know, sit down for the next this next game, get ready for the playoffs. Then I'm fine with that too. I go to the player directly.

00:19:40
Speaker 4: You go to the player, let him make the call. You would rubin as an executive. But if he gets hurt, I hope your resume is polished. I if I'm in, like you know, making that decision, I'm hoping he opts for the for the you know, the the big picture view, the long game and the team view, and says, you know, it's been a long season. I'll take a recovery week and set our sights on the super Bowl. But it's a tough one.

00:20:13
Speaker 1: It's a really tough question.

00:20:14
Speaker 4: It's a tough one. But I mean, you're here to win championships, not rushing titles, and that would be my call, would be to opt to to not risk injury, to not risk injuries, I think.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: So this is what's interesting about it is we talk about get pulling guys out when they have a chance to throw a no hitter, and they're like ninety pitches or one hundred pitches after seven innings. This is way beyond that. Man, this is a record in the history that may never be broken again. So this is why it's become such a difficult I mean, he puts himself in a chance to be in the history but the greatest single season running back of all time. And that makes it very very difficult as an executive and you know, as coach or what have you. So, I mean, it's not it's a little different from like pulling the guy with a chance to get a no hitter, because there's been what I don't know, one hundred and some I don't know.

00:21:08
Speaker 3: I mean, probably, yeah, a couple you pull a.

00:21:11
Speaker 4: Guy, you pull a guy in a no hitter. Let's say you pull a twenty four year old pitcher because his pitch count is like at a career high and a skyrocketing and you decide to protect him instead of going for the no hitter. I mean that's a very important decision as well, because you're protecting that young man's livelihood for for you know, for years upon years, and he could end up making generational wealth, right and if he stays healthy. So I think they're both enormously important decisions. I think part of this narrative if the Eagles go on to win the Super Bowl and Saquon Barkley puts his team first and says, you know, I'm going to take the recovery time, go to sit it out, not going to risk injury, and they win the Super Bowl, that just adds to his legend. No, he didn't get the record, but that just adds to his legend. The the unselfish team based decision he made on their way to a title. So there's just a lot of elements to it. And I wouldn't I wouldn't criticize criticize him either way.

00:22:16
Speaker 1: I could.

00:22:16
Speaker 4: I could see, you know, as a competitor, you want to have your name at the top of that rushing list. But I also think, uh, it's it's you're still about winning championships and pro sports, and uh.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: I was, I will saying with this one thing that knowing how a roseman, I think what the narrative will be is just that that they will tell him that they do not want him to play, and the narrative will be that he is they put it in his hands and he has created that legend. And if if they do their pr correctly and they know what they're doing, I think they're with the Philadelphia Eagles. I believe that's how they will handle it. He decided that he wasn't going to play, but it will be something that comes from upstairs.

00:23:03
Speaker 4: And he had a little foreshadow earlier when he sat out like the fourth quarter, he said, you know, spread the wealth a little bit, let some other guys eat, let some other guys run the ball. They had a big victory. So it's fascinating issue. And I hope to have a nice deep run in the playoffs because I really enjoy I really enjoy the NFL playoffs, and it's even better when the local teams do it.

00:23:25
Speaker 2: It would be fun if the Eagles got to the super Bowl. I think the super Bowl this year? Is this Sunday before Phillies pitchers and catchers report. Yes, that'd be kind of a nice little dovetail into the Philly season. Phil Eagles win the Super Bowl and boom two days later. Pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater the day of the parade or something like that. So that would be that would be a lot of fun.

00:23:46
Speaker 3: Go birds good, Yeah.

00:23:51
Speaker 2: Real quick, before we go, before we wrap up twenty twenty four, our final show of twenty twenty four.

00:23:55
Speaker 3: This was our one hundred and first episode.

00:23:56
Speaker 2: I believe our hundredth episode was Billy was the Billy Wagner Interview. If you have not gone back and listen to that, Jim, I know you've gotten some nice feedback on it, or or you've you've you re listened to it and loved it and you got some feedback. I got some nice feedback on it on that interview.

00:24:12
Speaker 1: It was.

00:24:12
Speaker 3: It was a lot of fun. So if you haven't listened to Billy Wagner, go back. A lot of great stories in there.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: Uh and uh yeah, I just wanted to mention that because we dropped that the day after Christmas, so.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: You know, the fingers crossed for Billy too.

00:24:24
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, Billy hopefully next month will find out that he has made the Hall of Fame and he will be in Cooperstown next summer, and you know, next summer in Cooperstown, New York.

00:24:35
Speaker 4: So that was one hundred and one episodes.

00:24:37
Speaker 2: Huh, this is this is one hundred and one. This is one hundred and one. That was the one hundredth episode. That was a good, good guy to have.

00:24:42
Speaker 1: It's been awesome out yeah.

00:24:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you've had some uh, some good guests. I mean, Bryce Harper interview was great. You can still find that, uh, Burroll Pep Burrow was great, Jason Worth was great, Schwarber was great.

00:24:54
Speaker 1: Shoreber was great, Charles Barkley, Chase Chase somebody was outstanding.

00:25:00
Speaker 3: Hunt paced, Jeff Frank Corr.

00:25:03
Speaker 2: We had Tyler Phillips on it one in mid season, John Smolt Smooky bets.

00:25:09
Speaker 3: Wow, we have pressed.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked about Charles Barkley.

00:25:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, Charles Barkley.

00:25:15
Speaker 1: Yep. If you guys get a chance, go back and listen to some of them, because there's some really good uh clips out there.

00:25:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's some timeless stuff too.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: I feel like it's not just current state of affairs.

00:25:28
Speaker 3: You know what happened in yesterday's game.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: It's a lot of big picture fun stuff and a lot of a lot of really good stories as well, So go back and list those.

00:25:35
Speaker 3: But check out the Billy Wagon one. Guys. We will be back.

00:25:39
Speaker 2: This is gonna sound cheesy, but I'll see you next year, twenty twenty five.

00:25:43
Speaker 1: I had to see that.

00:25:46
Speaker 3: I'll see you guys in twenty twenty five. We'll be back.

00:25:49
Speaker 1: See you guys, smelling next year, Smelling Jim.

00:25:53
Speaker 5: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcas. If you like us, give us a review, Follow us on Instagram, TikTok x, Facebook, and threads. Find Rubens analysis before, during, and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four, WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network. Find Jim at all phl y dot com. Find me at MLB dot com, the Phillies beatnewsletter, and MLB Network