"Elite" Bryce Harper talk: Scott Boras, Dave Dombrowski talk trade rumors, more

00:00:07
Speaker 1: The Philly Show is presented by Fox One, Rubin Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd Zelecki. It's Friday, October twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. You guys, you know Bryce Harper is a superstar when one person can make one comment in a press conference and eight days later we're still talking about it. Let's talk more about Bryce Harper and Dave Dombrowski and Scott Boris. It's time for the park's first pitch. First pitch is brought to us exclusively by our partners at Parks Casino, Pennsylvania's number one casino. So, guys, a recap. Let's recap this whole thing. Right, So, last Thursday, Citizens Bank Park, Dave Dombrowski does his mom on the season. He's asked a lot of questions. He speaks for almost an hour, so a lot of questions are being fired at him and our good friend Mack Gelb.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: From the Athletic.

00:01:11
Speaker 1: I got to read you the question verbatim, just so everybody knows what was asked exactly.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Is he a good friend? Eh, he's an acquaintance. He's a good friend.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: He's a nice little marsupial.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: He is we love the Koala.

00:01:27
Speaker 1: So the Kuala asks Dave what is the club's view on his season, his being Bryce Harper season performance wise, and also why do you believe maybe that it was a down season for him and not the start of maybe a downward trend. Here is what Dave said. I know a lot of you guys have heard this before, but let's let's go over to it one more time. Dave Dombrowski's response to that question. He's still a quality player. He's still an all star caliber player. He didn't have an elite season like he has had in the past, and I guess we only find out if he'd be comes elite or he continues to be good. If you look at around the league. I think Freddie Freeman, he's a really good player, right, He's still a good player. Is he elite like he was before? Probably not to the same extent. Freddie is a treminous player, and that to me is Bryce. Can he rise to the next level?

00:02:17
Speaker 3: Again?

00:02:17
Speaker 1: I don't really know that answer. He's the one that will dictate that more than anything else. He continues on, he thinks about Bryce, do you think about elite? You think of one of the top ten players in baseball, and then he says, but again, a very good player. I've seen guys at his age. Again, he's not old that level off, or I've seen guys rise again. So obviously that blew up because it sounded well, sounded like a lot of things. And here's what Dave Dombrowski said on Thursday and followed Territory when Eric krat asked him about.

00:02:49
Speaker 4: It, your comments about Bryce do you feel like they were misconstrued because we talked about it on here and I was kind of like, I don't know, maybe it's a little motivation. Which do you feel like your comments about him, you know, not being elite right now or if he'll ever get back to being elite because you are honest and we appreciate honesty in baseball. That is like the greatest traits besides hitting homers.

00:03:15
Speaker 5: Well, and it's of course got a life of its own.

00:03:17
Speaker 6: I said so many things in a one hour press conference, and this is the one thing that gets out of there. First of all, I mean, to me, Bryce Harper is one of the best players in the game of baseball. And when I say he didn't have it, they asked me what type of year did you think he had, and I said, he had a very good year.

00:03:35
Speaker 5: I don't think he had an elite year.

00:03:37
Speaker 6: And when I say that, when I think of Bryce Harper, it's a compliment because the reality is, there are i don't know eight ten players in the game of baseball every year when they're not, let's say, in the MVP consideration for whatever reason. Sometimes it can be an injury factor. Sometimes they just have a bad year, but whatever it's it's not an elite year for them. So the reality is is that he's a great player. He's a future Hall of Famer. This thing's got a life of its own.

00:04:05
Speaker 5: Now.

00:04:05
Speaker 6: I've been reading that although Phillies made trade Bryce Harper, that couldn't be further from the truth.

00:04:09
Speaker 5: We love him.

00:04:10
Speaker 6: I think he's a great player. He's a very important part of our team. I've seen him have better years. I look for him to have better years, but I think what ends up happening, this is not meant for him. And I was reading an article yesterday. It wasn't about Bryce, was actually about Kyle Schwarber that Mike Schmidt talked about, and I thought it was so good, and I was looking back at my Miguel Cabrera days probably the best as good a player that I've been around in year out and got to thirty three and he had won the Triple Crown. He had been the MVP two years agow and he wasn't quite the same player.

00:04:46
Speaker 5: Well.

00:04:47
Speaker 6: Mike Schmidt's comments because I asked him about Kyle, said, you're getting into your middle thirties, moving a little bit into your late thirties. If you can stay healthy, continue a really really strong workout program in the off season, your flexibility he has to be there. Your batspeed opoly obviously has to stay up. Your eyes have to stay You've got to be able to see have a twenty twenty vision when I played, and it's more important to get good insight eyesight as you go along. There's a lot of non mechanical baseball swing issues.

00:05:13
Speaker 5: They have to stay right.

00:05:15
Speaker 6: So basically that's what happens with every player. I mean the reality now, I'll take my chances with Bryce more than most because Bryce is an elite talent, and he's a very very talented individual, and he's driven. So I think that it's a shame where this has gone because it wasn't meant to be a criticism.

00:05:34
Speaker 5: It's just he didn't have a to me.

00:05:36
Speaker 6: And when you talk about Bryce, and again it's a few other guys when they aren't in the MVP considerations, well it's probably not as good as yours that they've had other times.

00:05:47
Speaker 2: All Right, what do we think?

00:05:51
Speaker 7: Well, I think he was being honest about his comments, there's no question about that. But I also think that there was a message or two in there. One and Seed to double down a little bit on the messaging, just with regard to the quotes from Mike Schmidt. Basically, it was these are some of the things that needs to that need to be done. You need to take care of yourself in the off season. You need to you know, stay on the regiment and you know, continue to do the things that you do.

00:06:19
Speaker 2: To keep yourself at that elite level.

00:06:23
Speaker 7: So there's a little bit of messaging there from the Mike Schmidt quote, I think.

00:06:29
Speaker 2: But he reeled it back a little bit.

00:06:32
Speaker 7: But you know, from the beginning, I know the comments were interesting, uh and uh could make you raise your eyebrow a few times. But I think there's also a motivational piece of that involved and and I think that that's that's okay, And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I as far as him being traded and being on the block and.

00:06:57
Speaker 2: Stuff like that, I don't think there's much to that. I really don't, right.

00:07:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I said this last week. I don't think they want to trade him. The owner wants him to go to Cooperstown with a pe on his hat, and I think he wants to stay here. I do think he really likes it here and he wants to win here. I didn't have a problem with Dombrowski's comments last week. I thought, like we said, you know, sometimes it gets tiring listen to podium speak and GM speak and cliches and noncommittal answers and political answers.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: I used to toss out there.

00:07:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, being afraid to speak your mind. I thought he spoke his mind.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:07:38
Speaker 3: And I'm sure those were conversations they've had upstairs, and maybe it just came out in a press conference setting. I don't know that it was premeditated, because I don't know that you can anticipate that question. But I honestly commend him for being honest, because I thought it was a really good season, but not a Bryce Harper season.

00:07:57
Speaker 2: Correct.

00:07:58
Speaker 3: The thing he left out was, yeah, I had that risk he missed a month. Might have been a lot different if you didn't have the rist soreness and played that entire month. But nonetheless, I think everybody should be able to take this. Stop being so sensitive. The boss said something, he critiques someone, Now it's up to the athlete the employee to respond. And knowing Bryce a little bit, how competitive he is, and he's almost a little bit like Kurt Shilling because he finds that little motivation streak where nobody else can, you know, Like Tito used to say about Shilling, he used to get motivated on Bobblehead Day. If you slighted Shilling in the simplest way, he'd come back and stick it right up your nose, you know what I mean. And maybe that's what Bryce can do, and maybe that's what Bryce has in him. I think he does have a little bit of that in him. The thirty three thing is interesting because I think athletes change in this era, in the post steroid era. Guys change after thirty three, and I think Bryce has to change a little bit. And I'm not a hitting coach, but that big, violent, all or nothing swing, if he would reel it in a little bit. And if he would make his goal not to hit a six hundred foot home run, but make his goal to hit three hundred, he'd finish in the top five of the MVP every year. If he went out there and tried to hit three hundred and made this change in his approach at age thirty three, he'd have great season after great season. He'd hit a shitload of doubles. He'd still he'd still accidentally hit thirty five home runs and his average go up. He'd be a he'd be that, he'd be that elite offensive player again. I think it's time for that little adjustment. But this whole Dombrowski comment thing, yeah, it's been blown up a little bit because that's what happens in twenty twenty five. That's what happens in Philadelphia. That's what we do. And it did sound like a challenge, and it was a there was nothing wrong with the observation from the media force to say it sounded like a challenge, because it sounded like a challenge, well challenge delivered great competitive Bryce Harper, go answer it. Go answer it. You are capable of answering it.

00:10:15
Speaker 1: What do you say, well, you know, yeah, I feel the same way. There was nothing that he said last week that was like, oh, that's totally crazy and wild to suggest any of this stuff. But the part that jumped out to I think everybody was I said, will he get will he get back to being elite? Or will he continue to be good? I think that was a line that stuck with everybody. It was kind of like openly, openly questioning if that this is the best word we're going to see from Bryce Harper in the future. So that's why it blew up. Not saying that Bryce Harper didn't have an elite season. I mean, everybody knows it wasn't his typical season. But I was kind of glad that Dave came out said there's not going to be a we're not looking at trading Bryce Harper, because I I didn't buy that for a second. I think there are a lot of kind of conspiracy theories that came out of that they're trying to push.

00:11:06
Speaker 2: Him out of there.

00:11:08
Speaker 1: You know, is this a contract dispute? Bryce Scott Worris at the last two winter meetings have talked about a contract extension. He still might get a contract extension. It doesn't make sense to do it right now, certainly off the season that he had, and certainly if you want to build a good team, giving him a contract extension right now doesn't make any sense because you still have some Taiwan Walker on the book. So why would you want to add more to the AAV, more to the luxury tax and limit what you can do. Maybe it happens next off season or the season after that, maybe never happens at all. I don't know, but I don't think that that was like I'm laying down the gauntlet here, you know, no contract extension, and we're I'm trying to get you out of Philly.

00:11:50
Speaker 7: So now i'd like to we'd like to make one last comment that you made, Jim, interestingly about the age thirty three. You know, Mike Schmidt made a pretty massive a jutt in his swing. You know, he ended up not concentrating on trying to hit the ball with better average and more consistency and drive the ball to the opposite field. And I talked to him personally about those and have had discussions with him about you know, because he had, you know, aspirations of being a coach and a manager and was in our organization for a little while doing that, but it was something that he was very passionate about the fact that he had to make some physical adjustments and some mental adjustments to use the entire field.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: And I totally agree with you about the.

00:12:34
Speaker 7: Violence of the swing that Bryce Harper brings and the fact that just like Jim Tomy and what Charlie manually needs to do with him, just hit three hundred and the numbers will be there.

00:12:44
Speaker 3: And there's another piece to this to getting more out of him, and we I believe Todd are going to get into that right after we get out of us first pitch, and it was a good one. First pitch brought to you exclusively by our partners at Parks Casino, Pennsylvania's number one casino. Parkscasino dot com is the website. You must be twenty one to participate. And if you have a gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler.

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00:14:14
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00:14:46
Speaker 7: Okay, so I want to make a quick comment about some of the subscribers and some of the people who have been watching.

00:14:52
Speaker 2: I was at a really cool spot.

00:14:55
Speaker 7: They're grand opening Rhythm and Spirits in here in Philadelphia at Suburban Station and and great friends there and invited with Laurie and I and there was a demographic there that had about five or six people come up to me.

00:15:06
Speaker 2: It was really cool that they are avid Phillies Show.

00:15:11
Speaker 7: Podcasts watchers and listeners. One young lady who was a young bartender, probably about twenty four twenty five years old, she was like, I have to get my Phillies fix, and you guys are my Phillies fix.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: And I heard from like an next reporter that was there talked about it.

00:15:30
Speaker 7: A gentleman who was like seventy years old. Another you know a few people, one other woman who said, oh, a huge fan of you guys. You guys are amazing, listen to you all the time, watch you all the time. It was the wholy demographic was like from twenty four to to seventy. It was really cool to have like five or six people come up to me and not talk about not talk about, you know, the other stuff that I do, but talk about the podcast.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: And that was really really cool. That's awesome.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: I love to hear. That's great, that's very cool. That's really yeah, Jim and I, Yeah, we really appreciate everybody that that supports the show and and thank you. Uh and yeah, I'll just say one more time. We got shows coming all winter, all off season, all Hot Stove seasons. So you like to talk ball in the winner, keep checking us out, right, Jim all love talking ball, love talking ball. All right, So let's continue on this Bryce Harper stuff. So earlier this week, I gave Bryce's agent, Scott Boris a call, and I wanted to call him just because of Dave's comments and a lot of the blowback from it or whatever. Even though we all just said that we thought there was nothing necessarily wrong and with what he said, and we appreciated the honesty and not the typical GM speak. But everyone's like, ah, you know, Bryce is going to be pissed off by all this.

00:16:50
Speaker 10: So I was like, let me call Scott and see what Scott has to say. Great, so I asked, But the question I asked Scott was almost verbatim.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: I basically said, Scott, what can you say about Dave Dombrowski's comments, because I think a lot of people in Philadelphia are wondering if Bryce is maybe might be pissed off by what he said. And the quote, if you haven't read the story, it's on MLB dot com. He said, Bryce shares in the frustration of the Phillies not being a world champion, and then he kind of paused. He goes, Dave has to do the Castharsis every year when they don't win it, and I'm sure it's difficult to do. And then he said, however, give Bryce Harper more pitches to hit, and the metrics speak that they all that all that they want will be delivered because the metrics are clearly there that he's among the top in the game. He continues to be all the data says that the only issue that I was surprised by is that Dave did not say that Bryce Harper missed a month of the season and therefore his numbers volume wise weren't there. But Bryce Harper being Bryce Harper is a talent, and how they can improve that is that he's got to get more pitches to hit. Last week I wrote a little story about looking at his metrics, the advanced metrics, the expected metrics, and how they were almost identical or even better than they were in twenty twenty four. Expected batting average, expected slug average, exit velocity, hard hit rate, his strikeout rate was down, his walk rate was up, all of that stuff, and then but then I also put in the fact that he saw pitches in the zone only forty three percent of the time last year, five hundred and thirty second out of five hundred and thirty two players in baseball this season that saw a minimum of two hundred pitches. And the quote from Scott was that's the stat that's the stat. He said, you put gas in the tank, and the Harper meaning the Ferrari works.

00:18:57
Speaker 2: He thinks these these trend linus.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: The word Smith.

00:19:03
Speaker 2: I love it.

00:19:03
Speaker 1: That was on the flight too, Scott, I'm using that.

00:19:07
Speaker 3: Did he mention that he has two big fuel cans in his stable, Fregman and Pete Alonso?

00:19:18
Speaker 2: Pete? Absolutely?

00:19:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Uh? You know so his his big thing was and we've we we talked, we did, we talk about a lot. Yeah, Jim was saying last week, I want Pete, bring me Pe just.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: Right hand back, give me I think a good, solid, productive, dangerous, make you think right handed back. It would be Pete. Pete would be just so perfect. I don't know if they can do it.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: Greg to the Mike Schmidt.

00:19:45
Speaker 3: Oh, there you go, nice, Greg.

00:19:48
Speaker 2: To the Mike Schmidt.

00:19:49
Speaker 1: So I thought that was maybe one of the more interesting they came out of this whole thing was with Scott saying, what kind of staying out loud? What we've been saying out loud, maybe what the Phillies haven't said out loud is we got to get somebody hitting in the cleanup spot. Now, no disrespect to anybody hitting the cleanup spot this year, but Phillies cleanup hitters that last season or this season had a combined seven to twenty ops that ranked twentieth out of all teams in baseball in terms of production. The cleanup spot, that's the Phillies. That was the Phillies' least productive position based off of ranking in Major League Baseball. Every other position they were top I think fourteen, top five cleanup spot, though bottom third in terms of production. So Scott says, hey, he want Brice to hit, how about get him some production back there. Maybe get him a couple more pitches over the course of the season that he can knock out of the ballpark or hit the opposite way to the wall.

00:20:41
Speaker 3: He would have had more protection if another Boris client, Alec Baum, had continued his ascension. You know, a lot of doubles in twenty three and twenty four, a lot of RBIs and it just leveled off. If not one the other way in twenty twenty five, that was a that was a killer in the lineup.

00:20:59
Speaker 2: That a little bit of an indictment on his own player.

00:21:02
Speaker 7: But I will also say there's some messaging there, obviously, little messaging on Dombrowski side, little messaging on on the Boris side, But there is some reality in the fact that Harper just didn't have the type of protection it's necessary. Now, do you think if you bring Kyle Schwarber back, do you flip flop those guys in the lineup? I don't know. It's a possibility. Do you split them up somehow? If you have that big bat, that four hole hitter, can you split them up somehow instead of going back to back. There's a lot of things that you can consider. Do you slide Schwarbur in the leadoff slot and then go Turner, Harper, Alonso I don't know, or Bregman or somewhere you know, some combination of those guys. I don't know if they have the finance shall wherewithal to bring on in Alonso or a Bregman. I hope that they do, because that would make that top of the lineup just that would be elite. But I will say that there is a possibility that you may end up flip flopping. If they go back to back lefties, they may flop Harper and Schwarber. I don't know that. But protection is something it's real. I mean, everybody watches it. I mean if you're sitting there and you're a you're a manager, or you're a pitching coach, and you see, okay, do I want to pitch to that guy or do I have to say that guy, And it makes it pretty obvious if the guy behind Harper is not really responding, makes it difficult for a guy to get pitches to hit.

00:22:46
Speaker 3: One of the big reasons Schwarber blew up this year had the great year he did. He had Harper behind him. That certainly certainly helped. If you go back a year ago. If you go back a year ago to Rob Thompson's postseason press conference, he talked about taking schwarbur and putting them forth behind behind Harper to protect Harper. This has been a long standing issue. They thought about putting Harp Schwarber there to protect them last year, and then it's just kind of more often to Schwarber hitting where he did Turner and then Schwarbren and Harper. So it's it's a long standing issue, That's what I'm saying.

00:23:24
Speaker 1: Harper in the postseason he saw pitches in his zone only thirty nine point one percent of the time, so it's even it was far a pretty good drop from the regular season numbers. Now, what's what's interesting is that I think Harp Schwarber hit behind Harper when in like late April, early May, for a few weeks and the numbers actually didn't improve. It's not like the numbers were about the same in terms of pitches that Harper saw on his zone. So do you think that if they could get into Alonso or maybe put Schwarba back there the entire season, you'd see those numbers go up. Because I mean Bryce has said at least once, he's like, it doesn't even matter who's hitting behind me, and they're never gonna throw me strikes. But maybe that settles him down over the long term. I don't know. Like that short again, that short sample size of Schwarber hitting behind Harper, the numbers really didn't change that much.

00:24:15
Speaker 7: I think that was during the time. I think there were some risk issues with him too, that could be really swing the bat all that well and stuff. So I think that's so sort of coincided. I think the reason why he did is because he was not swinging all that well. So maybe that was the reason why Thompson did it, and it didn't really change much because I think that Harper at the time wasn't really swing the bat all that well.

00:24:38
Speaker 1: In Harper's chase rate was up up the season, there was such a closed career high. So maybe just the patience of him. Maybe if he sees forty three percent next season, if he has a big bopper hitting behind him now, maybe he walks a few more times. Maybe he's a little bit more patient, Maybe he doesn't chase as much, so you know, in that regard, maybe that helps him out as the mindset more or less, you know, not you know, Sandial Contra is not going to throw me more strikes now because kyleege Horber is hitting behind it. But maybe I don't feel like I have to go out and make something happen, force force, force, force myself to swing at something and hit something, because I just I want to do so well for the team.

00:25:19
Speaker 7: So here's the thing about my observations. And I like to study hitting a lot. It's something that I've always done, even as a player as a kid, and I feel.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: Like I'm a student of it. And what I.

00:25:32
Speaker 7: Notice about Bryce Harper is that his progression as far as an overall player is concerned, He's got he had gotten for several years, gotten better and better at using the opposite field.

00:25:45
Speaker 2: And when he does that, it opens up the whole world for him.

00:25:50
Speaker 7: And so I mean, I talk about it on the broadcast at times, sometimes on pre and post where for me, if he stays in left center field and he stays his thought process stays on the opposite field, he can still get to the pitch inside because they don't challenge him all that much inside part of the plate, and when they do, they throw it off the plate on him. So if he would stay in the middle of the field more consistently, and he didn't do that last year, he did it for like a lot less than he had over the last three or four years, and so I think some of the numbers just didn't translate because I think he was so conscious of the pull side and driving the ball out of the ballpark as opposed to staying on it and driving it the other way. He had that one game in San Francisco that I'll never forget. He had like five hits the other way. It bullets, I mean, rockets, runs and doubles in the biggest ballpark in left center field in baseball. And so when he stays there, he's going to have success. And I think I keep thinking about the same thing. We've talked about it already, the concentrations on hitting in the middle of the field of hitting three hundred, his numbers will all be there.

00:27:05
Speaker 3: And take the walk, become a base frount he when he's he's very exciting on the basis. He's just an exciting player and he can create energy on the basis and and really help the team. There's there's there's more ways to help the team than just by you know, swinging out of your shoes and trying to hit hit the ball over the liberty bell. You know, he's a he can be a dynamic offensive player. He has been and he can be that again.

00:27:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely. A couple more things. I want to play some clips from Dave Dombrowski, But first rubin what is going on by man?

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00:29:03
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. The Philly Show is brought to you by Fox one.

00:29:06
Speaker 3: So yeah.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: Dave Dombrowski was on Followed Territory on Thursday, talked to Scott Brown and aj Prazinski and Eric Kratz, and he was asked. We obviously spent most of the show talking about Bryce, but he did offer this little update on Zach Wheeler, and I thought it was kind of interesting here we go.

00:29:26
Speaker 4: Do you have an update on Wheeler where he's at with his rehab, but also as far as where he's at if this blood clot situation was completely taken care of and won't reoccur after they took the rib out in the thoracic out.

00:29:39
Speaker 6: Yes, I do, because I saw him the other day was actually down I think it was Tuesday, was down in the clubhouse.

00:29:45
Speaker 5: So he's going to be in Philadelphia all wintertime.

00:29:47
Speaker 6: Our head athletic trainer, Paul Bukite was working with him at that particular day, so I chatted with him. He showed me a scars. He feels no pain, he said, he feels great. They're now getting to the point where they need some more flexibility with them, and they should.

00:30:04
Speaker 5: This should have cleared it up.

00:30:05
Speaker 6: They're not anticipating any setbacks, not expecting this to prow once again.

00:30:10
Speaker 5: So he's in a solid position now.

00:30:12
Speaker 6: The timing will be it was given to us from six to eight months that he will be ready again. He's a gift gifted athlete. He's elite and who his talent his jeans, just like Bryce is in that regard. So we're hopeful it'll be on the front end, which would even get him ready for opening Day. But right now he's doing very good and he's going to stay here all winter, committed to getting ready as soon as he possibly can.

00:30:36
Speaker 5: Wow hamanahamana.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: Wow, that's not a little one.

00:30:45
Speaker 3: That's great. Great to hear that he's doing well and they have that projection for his return. It's an indicator of how well he's doing and how good the prognosis is. But I don't want him until mid May. I don't want him to approaching you know, May. I'll say mid May, after the Kentucky derby mid May, because I want him to uh budget his innings and his firepower for October.

00:31:12
Speaker 2: Do you want to do what the LA Dodgers are doing with all of their guys.

00:31:15
Speaker 3: They want to.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: Burn back until the real important Well.

00:31:19
Speaker 3: I want him to be. Yeah, I want to say some of those over time.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: The November time.

00:31:24
Speaker 3: He's gonna be thirty six, he's coming off of major surgery and health issue or whatever, And yeah, I don't listen.

00:31:31
Speaker 2: I don't disagree with you because I.

00:31:33
Speaker 7: Don't think that there's a whole I don't know that the NL East is going to provide the kind of challenge like they can sort of. I'm not saying take the foot off the pedal, but I'm not sure that the teams in the in the East, Miami, Washington, the Mets are good, not great. I think they'll get a little health fear so they'll be you know, there will be challenging there. Atlanta will come back and be good, there's no question about it in my mind, but they're going through some transition with a new manager and some stuff. I don't think they have to have the pedal to the medal in the early part of the season. They've seen that already. When they're better later, I think they're better off. And I think that there's something to making sure that these guys are one percent when it's time in September October, and the.

00:32:27
Speaker 2: Dodgers are a little bit. You know, we have a copycat industry.

00:32:31
Speaker 7: Don't rise if you don't see some other teams doing the same thing, including the pills load management.

00:32:37
Speaker 1: Baby, bring it to baseball, I know.

00:32:42
Speaker 7: I don't know if it's load management as much as it is protection.

00:32:47
Speaker 3: But you know that's what when you know, Joe Jrowy always used to say, I will not use the reliever three days in a row. You can call that load management. I call it. He said, until we get to down the stretch September and October, I'll do it. And you always say the prize is in October, and he was budgeting for that, and he was one hundred percent.

00:33:04
Speaker 1: Right, A absolutely absolutely.

00:33:07
Speaker 9: I know.

00:33:08
Speaker 1: It's you know, back in the day guys have pitch relievers, it's seven days in a row. And as I go back when men were men, it's like, come on, all right, here we go.

00:33:17
Speaker 2: Well.

00:33:17
Speaker 7: The other thing we have to have to understand, too, is that I think people are starting to realize that the load that the bullpen folks are having to bear is really a detrimental thing, and that the starting pitching is really important. It really is important to have some horses and some depth in the rotation so that they can cover the innings that are necessary when you start firing. Those those guys out there, they're seeing a lot. Their arms blow up. They just those guys in the bullpen, they just can't handle the workload. It's just too much on the body with the way they throw the baseball now, and having to have have guys eight innings in the beginning of the game is a long term issue. You gotta have starting pitching that can go more than four innings or three and a half, because to cover six or seven innings every single night in the major leagues is detrimental, and people just don't have the kind of depth that's necessary.

00:34:22
Speaker 2: To cover them.

00:34:23
Speaker 3: You have to protect you guys a little bit because the max effort is a big thing. You want to It just jumps out at you like it's World Series time. So we're seeing a lot of old videos and highlights of all World Series and I mean, you look at Larson. The highlights from Larson in fifty was at fifty six, and the highlights from when Masarowski hit the home run to win the sixty World Series. These pitchers were barely even pushing off the rubber. They were slinging the ball all arm. You even go back to seventy five, the Fisk game. You know, you know, guy Louis tan has thrown one hundred and sixty pitches and but he's not a max effort guy, and the relievers are not. You know, you can just see relievers these days, max effort, the push and the and the arm speed and the fire. You you even watch relievers in that seventy five World Series. A lot of the ms slinging the ball. A lot of them are just laying laying the ball in there. You look at the Bernie Carbo home run, which I've seen a million times in the uh uh you know this time of the year, the Cincinnati Red pitcher, he's basically trying to he's laying the ball in there and work, you know, using his defense. I guess right. Pitching has changed. The max effort You gotta you gotta watch.

00:35:37
Speaker 2: Guys, no question about it.

00:35:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, there's there's this workload that's that's just too great for the for the maximum effort for.

00:35:45
Speaker 1: The body for the definitely great news that uh, Dave Dombrowski thinks that will not be an issue and that even if the Phillies do what Jim you kind of hope they do is, which is take your time with that. Even if they do that, the fact that they think he might be in play to be ready by opening day is a good sign because obviously no.

00:36:07
Speaker 3: It's gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard, you know, pulling in the reins on Zach. He's gonna be like a bucking Bronco wanting to pitch on opening day.

00:36:15
Speaker 7: Right, So you start, you start fantasizing a little bit about the rotation. Right, you got Zach Wheeler, you got the two left tenders and Lizardo and Sanchez. You have Nola still and you're hoping that Nola bounces back, and it's like, can pitch it like a solid number four or number three, whatever the case, maybe four or five. And then you also have Taiwan Walker still under under control. Now you want to add some depth there somehow, some way. You got Painter and he's a guy that adds a little bit of depth. So if you end up having six guys, now you're talking business, maybe a seventh that, yeah, you got to have a seventh that you can sort of count on. Uh, it'll be an exciting offseason as far as the rotations, because I don't think it's going to be Ranger Suarez, because I think the numbers are going to play out for them.

00:37:06
Speaker 2: But you never know, you never know.

00:37:10
Speaker 1: So one last thing from Dave Dobrowski. He was asked about the Phillies payroll.

00:37:15
Speaker 6: Well, every owner is different. With whom I worked, John and I stay in close contact with that. We know it's a really big winter time for us, So we've been talking about this for weeks and I propose something to him. He's given me an approval on it. So I know where my payroll is and it's still a very hefty payroll. But I still think it's a challenge. It's going to be hard to sign all of our players just because there's so many of them, and we're also challenged with some younger players that finally in our system are ready to step in and play for us after a couple whiles, a guy like Justin Crawford.

00:37:49
Speaker 5: Andrew Pater we feel will be ready to play with us.

00:37:51
Speaker 2: This year.

00:37:51
Speaker 6: We've got a young kid by named Adan Miller that was a number One pick, that's been very, very talented individuals. So we're gonna have to it's gonna be a tough winner. We're gonna have to do a lot of balancing. I think we have a chance to still really have a good club because I think we'll bring some of the guys back. We'll have financial wherewithal and I think anytime you can have a system, Wheeler should be back. Anytime you can throw a Wheeler, you can throw Sanchez, you can throw Blizardo, you can throw Nola as your top four. No matter what happens with Sures, you're in pretty good shape to move forward.

00:38:22
Speaker 1: What's hefty in your mind?

00:38:24
Speaker 2: Hefty payroll down? What was the final what was the final number?

00:38:28
Speaker 1: The final number I think for luxury tax purposes was over Yeah, three thirteen ish something like that.

00:38:33
Speaker 3: For the luxury tax purpose. I don't see it going down. It can't go down.

00:38:38
Speaker 7: I think it's going to be between three, you know, three fifteen and three twenty five. And I'm going to make a really strange prediction, maybe not so strange. I don't think that they're you're going to have lost cost in Castianos. I believe that's twenty million dollars.

00:38:54
Speaker 3: Uh.

00:38:55
Speaker 2: Can they shave five off of that? Three off of that? Whatever the case?

00:39:00
Speaker 7: Maybe maybe by moving him and you know, taking back a lot of the money, there's gonna be a non tender or two.

00:39:09
Speaker 2: Or someone there.

00:39:10
Speaker 7: They're going to trade an Alec Bohm type player because Alex is probably gonna be I don't know as projected number.

00:39:15
Speaker 3: Is, but I will over a little over ten.

00:39:18
Speaker 7: I think IBE ten or eleven or twelve or something like between ten and twelve. So I think you're gonna see some some changes in those numbers just because and some some moves. The fact that Rob Thompson says, you know, Otto Kemp could be an everyday player. Uh, maybe he becomes the new third baseman. Maybe they hope that that Bobby Dickerson can work with him so much like he did with Alec Bohm to get him to the point where he's an addict with third baseman. Maybe they go with a minimum salary guy there, Aiden Miller. Maybe he starts to transition from short to third. A's at some point at A at triple A. A lot of this kind of stuff you made, you know, Bryson Stott not going to make that much money. I don't think that he's a non tender candidate. But when I say nontender, it's it's you either trade him before December fifth, or you consider not having that salary on your or something that you know John.

00:40:17
Speaker 2: Scherholds did with who was it? Where you go, I can't pay this guy ten million dollars and I got to move him for X and.

00:40:28
Speaker 7: So you may see some of that stuff kind of happen with some of the guys that are like those mid tier salary guys to open up some possibilities that maybe you can bring a Bregmann in, Maybe you can bring an Alonzo in.

00:40:43
Speaker 2: Maybe you can figure this, you know, piece of the puzzle out. Who knows.

00:40:48
Speaker 3: I think you kind of hit the two the two most logical trade ships, Bom and Stot. Not in love with the idea of moving Stott because where he is, the salary structure and his defense, and I.

00:41:02
Speaker 7: Don't want to move Stout because the salary and and what he brings to the table.

00:41:06
Speaker 2: I think he's a gamer.

00:41:07
Speaker 7: I'm Alex Bahum, is Alec Bohm fungible? Maybe from what he brings to the table good player, really good player?

00:41:18
Speaker 2: Does he really.

00:41:18
Speaker 7: Protect Harper in the lineup? Is he somebody that somebody had covets? I think I got to believe. So he's a talented players. That's some He's had some really good years ninety plus RBIs a couple of years in a row and can rack up some doubles.

00:41:35
Speaker 2: Not going to hit the ball out of the ballpark all that.

00:41:37
Speaker 7: Often hasn't you know, really reached that power potential. But I mean there's some movable parts. I'm not trying to get rid of the guy. I'm just feeling like there's there's ways to uh to revamp this lineup and revamp the team a little bit, and sometimes you have to do something a little different.

00:41:53
Speaker 3: BOM's got a lot of strengths.

00:41:55
Speaker 2: I think he's made.

00:41:57
Speaker 7: There's really a very very solid third which I didn't think whatever happened to.

00:42:02
Speaker 3: Me that he's got to be in the right lineup. He's not a guy I think that can drive the boss or even sit in the first seat. But you know, you put him in a little bit in the middle, take some heat off them. I think you've got a really good contributing player to a good team.

00:42:20
Speaker 2: Could be a Milwaukee Milwaukee Brewer at first base next.

00:42:23
Speaker 1: Year, makes sense, Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can see that.

00:42:31
Speaker 7: I'm just tossing it out there, or or it could be a Cleveland Guardian at first base or something like that.

00:42:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're gonna shake things up, that's that's the place to start, you know. Well, that's the place I think a lot of people will look in terms of moving guys. So, guys, where do we World Series starts? Friday night? Balls back on the on the tube, we have a.

00:42:57
Speaker 3: Well. My prediction is Dodger in five, Freddie Freeman MVP, and he publicly thanks Dave Dombrowski for motivating him.

00:43:11
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say Dodgers will crush. It won't be in four, will be in five.

00:43:18
Speaker 7: And Mookie Betts my favorite player probably in baseball.

00:43:24
Speaker 2: Freddy Freeman is probably one or two. Also the number one A.

00:43:30
Speaker 7: Mookie Betsman's the MVP, playing great shortstop and uh scores like twelve runs.

00:43:41
Speaker 5: Great point.

00:43:42
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think Freddy Freeman sitting there going what my catching? I gonna walk off Grand Slam in the World Series last year?

00:43:51
Speaker 2: What? What the hell's going on? Do you think you picked up the papers?

00:43:56
Speaker 3: And how did I make it it to that press conference?

00:43:59
Speaker 2: Why am I? What the hell? Funny? So funny, trap trapnel.

00:44:05
Speaker 3: Freddy is the nicest guy in baseball. We're standing there in the runway. Last year, he's.

00:44:10
Speaker 11: Outside the Phillies clubhouse, a bunch of reporters and he walks right over with this big, genuine smile and shakes todds of Lucky's hand like it was his long lost buddy.

00:44:23
Speaker 2: He's the best man. I love Freddy he is.

00:44:25
Speaker 3: He's a nice guy.

00:44:26
Speaker 7: He's a good and a good man, a great player and a Hall of Fame person and player and uh in.

00:44:32
Speaker 3: The MVP of the twenty twenty five World Series.

00:44:35
Speaker 2: Dude, he's a man, I mean, total legend.

00:44:39
Speaker 7: And me it was nineteen I saw him taking ground balls at the Wide World of Sports.

00:44:45
Speaker 1: It would uh during the NLC NLDS. We're at Dodger Stadium and it was mac alb and I were talking with Jeff Frank Krer and we were just talking about guys on the Dodgers and just in baseball and and French. He said something, I'm like, Yeah, who else would you pick? He says for me, Game seven of the World Series, two outs, bottom of ninth inning, winning runs on third base.

00:45:11
Speaker 2: Something like that.

00:45:12
Speaker 1: He's like the player I want at the plate more than anybody else in baseball. If I if my life was on the line, my family's life was on the line, I needed a base hit. I want Freddy Freeman at the plate.

00:45:23
Speaker 2: Amen.

00:45:24
Speaker 1: Do you not disagree with him? How many times at Citizens Bank Park. Have you seen him just knock a base a base hit the left field.

00:45:32
Speaker 2: So he sort of reminded me. Yeah, he reminded me of like the Chipper Jones when he was Chipper was in Atlanta. Like I felt like.

00:45:40
Speaker 7: Chipper Jones was the guy when I was playing against him and such, where he was the kid and the young and the player that with the game on the line, Man, he's the dude.

00:45:52
Speaker 3: And you know, Mike, one of my I have a lot of great memories watching him play. That swing is so consistent and powerful. But one of my big memories of Freddie Freeman, it might have been his rookie years, a very young player in twenty eleven. You both were at the game. We were all at the game in Turner Field the night the uh Phillies. You know, I think it was the last night of the season in twenty eleven, the Phillies hundred and second win knocked the knock the Braves out of the playoffs, and Freddy Freeman it made the last out, I think it made a double player or ground out, and he crossed first base knowing that they had been eliminated from playoff contention and he spiked his helmet. You could hear it all over the ballpark. I don't know if you guys remember that, but I can still see it in my mind's eye and I can hear it all over the ballpark.

00:46:38
Speaker 2: Guys.

00:46:38
Speaker 1: A winner, man, he is elite. My predictions, as you guys say all said Dodgers in five, I'm gonna say Dodgers in six. And I don't know how the pitching is lining up, but I'm gonna say Blake Snell.

00:46:50
Speaker 2: World Series, good call. Yeah, right now, So I'm.

00:46:56
Speaker 1: Gonna say Blake Snell. I'm gonna say Blake Snell shuts down Vladdie Laddie Junior. Although I think it's a fun series, there's a lot of reasons they're root for. The Blue Jays haven't won the World Series since ninety three. I think it's a fun series. I'm looking forward to watching it.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: So while you play the games, baby.

00:47:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm room for a little you know, I just room for a good series. A lot of great storylines on the Blue Jays side. I like their manager, kind of a local guy playing N's great guy at u D and I saw him playing college because he's a teammate of Vince Fukevich and I like Don Mattingly. I think he's one of the classiest guys in baseball. I'd love to see him have a, you know, a great experience.

00:47:35
Speaker 7: He Don Manningly get another chance to manage, because I think he did a hell of a job over there with the Marlins in a really difficult situation. I thought he was a very very good manager for them. Love to see him get another opportunity. It's great to see him get to the World Series.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: Finally.

00:47:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was awesome, very cool, very cool guys. That was a lot of fun. Thanks to everybody for watching and listening, and we will be back next week.

00:48:03
Speaker 2: Smell you later, boys, Smell you James.

00:48:06
Speaker 1: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.