Super Questions Answered: lineups, roster battles, extensions, Max Scherzer

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Speaker 1: All right, this is Chase that Lee. This is a Philly Show.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody rubin tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd z Aleki. Philly Show, brought to you by the foul Territory Network.

00:00:16
Speaker 1: Hope everybody is doing well.

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Speaker 3: Eagles, I bet they are.

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Speaker 2: I bet they are. Everybody's in a great mood. Everybody's in a great mood. We're recording this on Monday, but we're posting it on Tuesday.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: Because we said, listen, let's be honest. If we get up early.

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Speaker 2: On Monday morning, people are not going to be tuning into the Philly Show.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: They want to talk. They want to talk Eagles.

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Speaker 2: So we're posting this on Tuesday morning. But what a game on Sunday. Holy moly.

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Speaker 1: I watched it at home.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: The Saquon running the first that that first monster run to open up the game. We're going, I'm just losing my mind, screaming, my wife's screaming. My kids are looking at us like we're nuts.

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Speaker 4: It was.

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Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun. Would you guys watch the game?

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Speaker 3: I watched it with my family, my daughters, my wife. We had a good time. Ate some uh ate, some ribs, and yeah, it was just Barkley right out of the shoes, makes that statement. It was a really fun game. And like I mentioned last time, there's nothing more fun than a playoff run in Philadelphia. I don't care what sport it is captivates the community, and consider this community captivated, and.

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Speaker 5: No doubt, I mean, listen, we're I know I've been a Eagles fan my whole life, but the Philly sports fan just an awesome thing. I was actually coming back from the Fan of Philly Fantasy camp. It was down in clear Water, a little cold there, but it got warmed warmed up. The last tape good. We had a great time. But I was watching part of the game in the Admirals Club at the airport in Tampa and then I work my WiFi, finally figured out my WiFi so they could watch the rest of the game. You should have heard some of the fans on I mean, there was nothing but Eagles and Phillies fans on that flight back from Tampa. I mean, the chants were going E A G L E S Eagles. They were spelling it properly.

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Speaker 1: It was nice.

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Speaker 4: It was nice to see them spell it properly.

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Speaker 5: And every time, actually I heard a couple of fly Eagles fly songs when Barkley and Jalen Hurts were going to work. But what a special special game. My daughter, actually my fam my family actually watched the game at my brother's house, but.

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Speaker 6: My daughter went to Broad Street. My daughter, Sophia up the street, was in that. Yeah, she on I saw her on her Instagram and stuff. But she went crazy out there and she said it was absolutely nuts since she saw at least ten or twelve people will have to go to the hospital because there was some ship going down. But it's awesome that the Eagles are going back to the Super Bowl, man, and they're playing the Chiefs, and boy, oh boy, is this gonna be a game of revenge.

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Speaker 1: Oh it's gonna be fun, awesome.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, hell of a Eagles are a hell of a franchise. Oh yeah, you know what's this? Four Super Bowls and x you know amount of years and since the turn of the century, at whatever you call it, eight conference championship games. I mean it starts at the top with with their ownership and their commitment to excellence one thing. And they're not infallible. They have a down season now and then, but man, they rebound quick and they are good to great often and it's hard to do that in pro sports. And one thing, a couple of things, but one thing I really I think is important to this success. And one of the things I respect about the Eagles obviously starts at the top with their leadership. But when they make a mistake, they are very decisive in removing themselves and excising that mistake and moving on from it. Make a decision, move on from it. It happens, and they rebound quickly, and you know, you look and I think, obviously I'm very happy for the coach, Nick Sirianni. He seems like a really great connector of people. I mean a year ago, there was a lot of debate if he was the right guy, and the franchise that makes you know that is very decisive, decided to stay with him and surround him with some different voices and some different assistant coaches, the coordinators, and he has shined. And a good leader can delegate and be, you know, not take it personal when you bring in people around him, and he's done a really great job with that not feel slighted when you're bringing people around him. And the importance of assistant coaches or it is so important those two coordinators job and this franchise with their continued excellence and when they have a down year, they bounced back quick. Really hell of a franchise, guys.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And it starts at the top with jeff Lourie and for him to have made that decision to bring how He back and just sort of set him aside and not let him go completely when Chip Kelly.

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Speaker 4: Took over and screwed things up, for.

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Speaker 5: Him to be able to bring him back and have the wherewithal and say, you know what, we were probably better off with that with him, and to bring him back a better version of how he came back, and he came back with in spades man and a great decision by Jeffrey loriie, how he doing a hell of a job as a GM.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna I was gonna say.

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Speaker 2: It's funny you think back to where they were last year and how people like Jimmy mentioned Nick Sirianni, and it's the importance of just letting things play out, and you know, they thought they had a good team and just just let it play out. You know, it doesn't You're not locked into losing if you keep this guy's It kind of reminds me of the Phillies, of this situation they're in right.

00:06:16
Speaker 1: Now, a little bit like everybody's down on the Phillies.

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Speaker 2: I shouldn't say everybody's down in the Phillies, but there's a lot of like they can't win with this group. They needed to go make a big move, et cetera, et cetera. But I just think the next two weeks are just going to be so much fun.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 2: You think of like all the small businesses that are gonna be cranking out like Eagles themed cookies and cupcakes, and you know, yeah, every everybody's gonna be all Eagles out every you know, if you're a sporting good store, you're like, oh my god, this is a God send for us. It's just it's just so much fun. The kids are gonna have dress up days at school. My son went to school today and his sake one Barkley jersey that he wore yesterday during the game.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, you gotta wear it again.

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Speaker 2: You gotta wear it again, dude, you gotta wear it again to school. So you know, it's just it's so much fun.

00:07:02
Speaker 1: It's so much fun.

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Speaker 2: And I got my I don't have any. You know, I'm a Packer. I grew up a Packers fan, of course, and we talked about this on the show. But so this is my Eagles gear. I got this Federal Donuts chicken drumstick football helmet T shirt I picked up at Federal Donuts a couple of years ago.

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Speaker 1: So that's my that's.

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Speaker 2: My nod to my hometown, a new hometown of Philadelphia. And it was again it was my wife from Delco. So she was losing her mind yesterday watching the game, scream at the top of her lungs.

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Speaker 4: I was.

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Speaker 2: I was right along with her. I love to see Philly win. It's great, you know, it's so much fun.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: So but.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: People come here also for some Phillies talk. So I think we should give him some Phillies talk to did you real quick before we get into some audience questions fan questions. MLB Pipeline on Friday released the top one hundred prospects list, Andrew Painter number eight, Aiden Miller number twenty seven, Justin Crawford number sixty four, and Edward Tayit number ninety three. So we've had a lot of good prospect talk over the offseason. We had Philly's Jim Preston Manningley back when he was farm director on in late October.

00:08:13
Speaker 1: He talked a lot about those guys.

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Speaker 2: We had the new farm director Luke Martin on in November talked a lot about those guys. And we had Jonathan Mayo from MLB Pipeline earlier this month talk a lot about those guys.

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Speaker 1: So if you missed those episodes, go back and check those out. Those are a lot of fun.

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Speaker 2: And when we come back, we're going to be answering your questions.

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00:08:41
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00:09:04
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00:09:13
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00:09:33
Speaker 1: We're back.

00:09:33
Speaker 2: We got questions really about all sorts of different things. Roster Battles twenty twenty six, Roster look make out, you know, so I want to kind of start with this one. I got a few questions about Kyle Schwarber. This is from Steven on Blue Sky, and then Anthony Zorzi on X kind of had similarly similar questions. Do you think the Phillies will try and extend Kyle Schwarber this season or move on after the year. Anthony said, you know, could the Phillies use the Anthony s. Tander contract as a starting point for a Schwarber extension? Now sant Ander got five years ninety two and a half millions, two years younger than Kyle Shwarber's. I don't know if that's how much that would actually relate or not.

00:10:13
Speaker 1: But do we have any.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: Thoughts on the Phillies maybe this spring or this season extending Kyle Schwarber or do you think with where they are with their payroll being over the fourth luxury tax, is it more of a weight and see approach after the season's over to kind.

00:10:30
Speaker 1: Of see where everything stands.

00:10:33
Speaker 4: What do you think, rub I think it's a wait and see.

00:10:37
Speaker 5: I mean, I'd love to have signed the guy, and I think can get him done at a reasonable number. I think that they'll consider it, but I think the concern with them would be the length of the contract and also how it might affect their overall budget as far as you know, the luxury tax and such. So I got to believe that they would certainly consider keeping Kyle here. He means so much to the team. But I think it's gonna have to be one of those deals where it's gonna have to be short enough for them to, you know, make sure that they maximize his ability to to.

00:11:13
Speaker 4: Uh to contribute to the team.

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Speaker 5: I know it's just just the DH and not having to play the outfield now, and.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: So it's a dicey one.

00:11:22
Speaker 5: It will be a tough one, and a lot of it depends on how much Kylesh Whateber wants to stay around. I mean, if he can do a deal that or they can do a deal and Zach Wheeler asque type length, right, that's only three years or something like that. Yeah, maybe, So otherwise I think they'll just wait it out and then you know, see what happens at the end of the year.

00:11:41
Speaker 3: I mean him being a DH with that bat speed. You know, I think he's got good years left in him. But where the payroll is, where the the kind of overall age of that core is. You got enough kind of you know, people might not believe. But JT's a tough call too. You know, you get JT coming up on free agency after this year, Kyle Schwarber free agent after this year. Both very Ranger, both all tough calls. I mean, I think Ranger where his age is, and you know, I think he's gonna kind of test it and see what where his value is and if he can make a big score. But those other two guys where they are on the age curve, You know, maybe one more contract for those guys. And even though JT might have slipped in a little bit of an area here here or there last year, we heard it from Caleb Coffin last week how valuable he is to the strength of the team, which is their pitching staff, how much he brings to them. So two really tough calls there in terms of what they're going to do. And I think he probably I don't feel anything coming in spring training. I think it's probably more of a see how the season falls and see what happens. But sure they're pondering both cases. There's there's a lot to think about there, because both guys really offer a.

00:13:09
Speaker 5: Lot, since it's that fine line between resetting and retooling and and you know, staying with the guys to feel can help you. And then there's there's three guys that you mentioned right out of the shoot that that are sort of foundational players.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: Tough calls, Yeah, I think going into the season, it's not like make or break in the sense of like the windows completely shut, of course, but you want to kind of keep your options open. Again, they're over the fourth luxury a tack, So yeah, it just wouldn't make much sense to me to see two contract extensions this spring or you know, not knowing how the season is going to unfold. But that was a question that Steve Garrison on Facebook of the three free agents and the Phillies following the twenty twenty five season, who do you think gets resigned or do they all walk? So put on your prognostication caps if you had to rank him in order of least likely to be back in twenty twenty six.

00:14:06
Speaker 3: Ranger really least likely at least? Oh?

00:14:12
Speaker 4: Did?

00:14:12
Speaker 1: I says?

00:14:13
Speaker 3: Okay?

00:14:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, likely, Okay, least likely?

00:14:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that, Jim Ranger.

00:14:17
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he's gonna look for his big score, and the way the prices of pitching are and where they are on the luxury tacks, I could see him being the least likely to be back in twenty six.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: I forgot how I asked the question.

00:14:31
Speaker 2: Least likely, Yeah, Ranger to me, with Painter coming up, with Lozardo under control for another.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: Year, that's if you gotta.

00:14:43
Speaker 2: You can't bring everybody back, and we love pitching, but that's probably the guy least like.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: Okay, who's the so of JT and Schwarber.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: Who do you think is the most likely to come back the most likely to come back? If you had to pick on JT or Schwarber, they don't really have anybody to rate his.

00:15:04
Speaker 3: Seat the gym and I fall up, Well, I don't know, but I think Schwarber he was a four year, seventy nine million dollar deal, right, Yes, I think he could see the same deal on the open market and maybe get it. And if you know, if JT would like do maybe a two year deal depending on how this year goes, and I don't know if he would, I could see them doing something there. It's just a really tough I don't know how it's going to shake out. I wish you could give you a really firm answer. I think there's a chance both of them are back in twenty six. But you know, I also think there's a chance if Schwarber keeps doing what he's doing, he could find what he what he wants on the open market.

00:15:55
Speaker 5: I think both of them are high level importance guys as far as the team is concerned in different ways. Obviously Shoreber with his performance as leadership, but then when you talk about catching, and still you know catching is still the most important position player on the on the on the field without question in my mind, especially with the strength of the team being the pitching.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, I mentioned Todd, I.

00:16:19
Speaker 5: Would say that if I were the GM, the person that I would pursue most importantly would be JT. Unless I knew I had a backup plan, which I don't. I just don't think that there's a person there's a player there readily available, mar Shawn. Can you trust him to play one hundred games in the major leagues and be healthy? You cannot Right now. This guy's JT is too important to the overall picture, even though the offensive production is not there. I think that position is just so important. I love Kyle Schwarber. I think he brings so much more to the table as far as leadership is concerned, as well as his production obviously power production. But and I'd love to keep them both. But I think if I was going to rank and importance for the team as it stands today, I would go JT first and Ben Schwartz.

00:17:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I agree with you there, Reubin, just because they don't have anybody, like you said. You know, we talk about bench battles this spring that got a couple of questions about that, and people are like, well, you know, Marshwan is probably the favorite right over Garrett Stubbs would be the backup catcher.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Marshan's out of options.

00:17:34
Speaker 2: Stubbs has an option, but can well, Marshan guy gets hurt all the time. Can he even get out of camp healthy? We don't know that, so it's not like that's a lock lock situation. A guy gets banged up a lot. So yeah, I mean, but JT there you who's going to catch if he doesn't come back? Now that you're looking at the free agent market, you know, does anybody can be better than him?

00:17:55
Speaker 1: If you don't?

00:17:55
Speaker 2: You know?

00:17:56
Speaker 1: So I agree with you guys there.

00:17:58
Speaker 5: I can be ready by six.

00:18:03
Speaker 3: That would be a no.

00:18:05
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:18:06
Speaker 2: Yes, Well, we go back and listen to the Jonathan Mayo one because I remember asking Jonathan Mayo about Edward O Tayit and he said, that's a guy who's you know what is he eighteen nineteen? You know, he's years away from probably leading a pitching staff. So down the road, not twenty twenty six. This is from Jay Sequela on Blue Sky. Let's get into this, because we did get into Stubbs Marshawn who wins the bench jobs stubs Marshawn get one at Mundo Sosa is a lock for the top infielder, and then you have Wilson Rojas, Clemens, Kennedy, Cal Stevenson.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: For the last two spots.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: Do we have any thoughts on that?

00:18:47
Speaker 3: Well, Rojas is I think gonna be there?

00:18:49
Speaker 1: He Rojas.

00:18:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. We had a great winterball season down on the Dominican Republican. It is great to see him play winter ball. That's so old school if you talk to people that extended their careers and improved as players by going to winter ball. And it was a great move because when they first broke up in October and they had the postseason press conference, they were he was going to spend time in clear Water working on a bunch of stuff, and all of a sudden he was assigned to a winter ball team. Great move, Great move because when I look at him, he just to me, I think he needs time in the batter's box, Lots of time in the batter's box to work on pitch recognition, et cetera. And sounds like he did a really good job down there. I think he was the rookie of the year. So I see him him being on the on the bench, and you know, with Kepler and left field, maybe a right handed bat might be. It might be the guy, maybe Wes Wilson. But I know Clemens is awfully good bench player. I can play a few different positions. He's sort of like gives you some instant spark. So it'll be something to watch in spring training. But they have some some you know, Kennedy and Stevenson, remember that like early September, like it was like night after night. Wilson had a big night. Kennedy had a big night, Clements had a big night. Stevenson had a big game defensively and offensively. So they all can do different things for you. It'll be it'll be kind of interesting to see what happens. Clements being on options is a significant you know, development or whatever, you know issue.

00:20:26
Speaker 4: I like Clements and I like Weston Wilson.

00:20:29
Speaker 5: I like that combination of guys that said, how many guys can you have on the bench, And so that's the concern. I do believe that Johann will make the club. Can you have five guys on the bench, because you can't.

00:20:43
Speaker 4: Unless you go with twelve pictures.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could go one last picture, but.

00:20:48
Speaker 5: Unless you go one last picture, and I don't know if that will happen. But with this rotation, if it comes out of spring training healthy, you talk about a team that can actually rack up some serious innings.

00:21:01
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's happened in the beginning.

00:21:03
Speaker 5: So I mean these are all great, great problems that have man the better players. I think the fact that Cody Clemens does not have an option, uh probably sort of helps him. And I think the fact that West and Wilson does still have an option kind of hurts him.

00:21:21
Speaker 1: What about the left handed, right handed aspect of that? Cody hit Kepler left hand.

00:21:28
Speaker 4: That's why David Browski makes the big bucks. Baby.

00:21:33
Speaker 5: I think at the outset you want to I always believe in trying to keep all your assets and if you have to, and and I think that they're just gonna let Kepler hit against righty's and lefties anyway. They are good at platoon in center field, I believe. So if it's a tough left hand, you'll see Rojas play center. So there's some protection there, I guess, especially if you swinging the bat well hopefully, But I like to keep all my assets early in the season, man, you know, if somebody were to go down, I like to be able to have Western Wilson. I like to be able to have Toty Clemens around, because he said he has value play third, play first, he can play the corner outfields.

00:22:15
Speaker 4: Keep all your.

00:22:16
Speaker 5: Assets, man, and sometimes you got to be selfish. And it may may not be the greatest thing for West and Wilson's career, but the fact that he's got an option, I think is really helpful for them.

00:22:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, Clemens for the organization.

00:22:30
Speaker 2: Right, Clemens and Buddy Kennedy are out of options. Rojas, cal Stevens and West and Wilson obviously do have options.

00:22:35
Speaker 1: Johann Rojas.

00:22:37
Speaker 2: I looked up his Winter Ball numbers in the Dominican batting two ninety five three and a two on base three ninety slug twenty three stone bases, no cost stealings.

00:22:48
Speaker 4: No costs stealing, yes, shovels.

00:22:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, six doubles, a home run, eight RBIs So for how much how much stock do you put in those numbers?

00:22:59
Speaker 1: You know, Dominican winner. I mean, I mean, it's it's.

00:23:01
Speaker 2: Better obviously than him hitting one eighty, but I guess he goes you go the level.

00:23:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, the level of pitching is probably between Double A and Triple A, somewhere in that zone. As far as this overall talent of pitching, the overall play is probably right around Triple A level overall play. But you will see some a lot of major league players, especially during the playoffs, You'll start seeing more major league players filter in because they want to get some work in before they go put themselves in a position be ready for spring training. So listen, anytime you can put up those kind of numbers at any level is a good thing. It sounds like he's making contact, sounds like he's getting on base, and it sounds like he's stealing some bags. And the fact he's got no caught stealing, it's pretty cool.

00:23:48
Speaker 1: He's running.

00:23:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is kind of playing off for Johann Ross.

00:23:51
Speaker 1: Let's stick on that theme. Rob Thompson.

00:23:53
Speaker 2: Last year letting Nick Castiano started all one hundred and sixty two games, rarely pulled him from the game. With Rojas figuring to start most games on the bench, could he be used more as a defensive replacement slash pinch runner and have Nick taken out of the games, marsh Rojas Kepler would give be a really good defense for protecting a lead. That's from Andrew mcfeeders on X do we like that idea. I love that idea. I love taking a guy out late. You know, Charlie did that beautifully late in the two thousand and eight season. You saw Eric bruntlet out there in left field for Pat Burrow. You know, you saw it, you know, all the time, and I thought it worked great. I would like to see more of that, quite frankly in twenty twenty five from the Phillies. If Johann Rojas makes the team, it.

00:24:38
Speaker 3: Would be a good role for him. We've kind of talked about that over the last three months. We see that as a role for him, fifth outfield and defensive specialists. Yeah, that type of a player can really add value to a good team, to a sort of playoff caliber team that the Phillies are.

00:24:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think Passionis has done a great job of working himself into being as good an out dealer as he is today compared to where he was, you know, two or three years ago. He's worked his ass off to be very serviceable out there. But anytime you can add somebody with. You know, when you can put the alignment of Rosas and center, marsh and right and Kepler and left, that that's going to cover some ground, that's going to get some outs for you as a as a especially deep in the game when you have a lead. I like that idea, and I think it's something that I think Rob Thompson's going to.

00:25:30
Speaker 4: If he's going to do it, I think he sort of has to.

00:25:32
Speaker 5: Set the tone early in the season about it and early in spring training. And Rob Thompson is very good about communicating these things. You know, Nick may not like it, but overall it may preserve him a little bit, may give him some rest, may be able to eat up. So I know he wanted to play every game last year, but it takes its toll, and as you get older, you know, playing every day it does take its toll. And I don't think there's saying wrong with him getting a breather.

00:25:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if anybody can have that conversation with Nick, I think Rob Ken he can make that happen. Uh, here's a couple got a couple of Bryson Stott questions, and I think, why in the world do we hear so many rumors about Bryson Stott batting leadoff Schwarber, Harper and Turner alway make way more sense. Do you guys still think that we see that that's from slim on X.

00:26:20
Speaker 1: That's something we've talked.

00:26:21
Speaker 2: About as an idea if Bryson Stott has a good season and kind of gets things turned around, and we've kind of I don't know if we've fueled that fire or added fuel to that fire, but that's something we've all talked about.

00:26:32
Speaker 1: What do you guys think of you know, why do why do we hear so much about Bryson Stott? How about this?

00:26:36
Speaker 2: Why do we think Bryson Stott would make some sense in that leadoff spot?

00:26:41
Speaker 1: If there's a.

00:26:41
Speaker 3: Reason the reason we hear a lot about it is, you know, the manager has publicly said during the winter meetings and again in October when they had their break up news conference, that he would consider moving Schwarber out of the leadoff hole, and previous to that, he has often said that he thinks eventually Bryson Stott could be a pretty good leadoff man. So I think that is the reason why it's been speculated that he could be that guy. But you know, they have other options. Sticking with Schwarber, Trey Turner could hit there. But you know with the left right and the left right and left right throughout the lineup, there is you know, it makes some sense to consider uh Stot there. But he's gotta you know, he's gotta make some adjustments. He's gonna he previously was pretty good selective hitter. It wasn't as you know, it wasn't as good in that area last year, didn't hit fastballs as much, didn't make as much contact. If he can improve in those areas, he might make some sense there. But you know, there's gotta be some some improvement. I just think it's the lineup thing is in flux and it's gonna be a big storyline in spring training about how Rob Thompson addresses it and who he puts where.

00:27:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I think he get the nail on the head.

00:27:57
Speaker 5: I think a lot of it depends on Bryson Statt's progress. Let me just say this, in my opinion, we have not seen the best version of Bryce and Stott, or not even close. In my opinion, I think this guy is a much better hitter than we've seen. I think he can contribute and do a lot of things that I think, frankly, that leadoff guy can can do, and I think he's he would be perfectly set up for that. That said, he's got to perform. He's going to have to do it. And if he does, and Rob Thompson does experiment with it in the early part of the season or in spring training, he's going to have to perform because at some point if he doesn't, then that may be they may go back to him. I don't even know if he's going to try him, but that's my thought that he might be doing that, and I think it just makes it a team better overall because of the left right thing and the fact that he got a lot of speed at the top. People forget that Bryce and Stott can steal thirty bags and you got another guy behind him who can steal another thirty or forty bags. I mean you're talking about And then you if you flip the lineup and you have Riohan Rojas hitting in a nine to hole, holy smokes, you've got some real back to back to back and so that creates a lot of action on the field that I think, and then dimension that the Phillies sort of need and not just the power that they will provide a.

00:29:12
Speaker 1: Few more here.

00:29:13
Speaker 2: But first I want to say Rubin's got it sport in the Phillies show t shirt.

00:29:17
Speaker 1: Yeah he is, Yes, he is. You can go yeah there you go. Shut it off, Ruben, shut up the gun.

00:29:25
Speaker 3: Yeah and the pipes. Yeah.

00:29:27
Speaker 2: To go to if you want to Philly show t shirt, there are awesome forty seven brand makes and go to the phillieshow dot com.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: You can pick your out.

00:29:34
Speaker 2: We will ship it out to you having time for spring training down in clear Water for opening day for Sure. A couple more so, reportedly, the Phillies were one of a host of teams that walked watched Max Schurzer throw at Cressy Sports reformance down in Florida last week. So I got a couple questions on that debc on X do you see the Phillies taking a chance on Shureser Phil's fan DLR on threads, what do you think it would take to bring Sure to Philly on a one year deal? And what luxury tax implications would that create? Real quick on the luxury tax implications, because they're over the fourth luxury tax any dollars signed dollar amount they would sign Max Sures or two would be taxed at one hundred and ten percent. So you sign them to a one year, ten million dollar deal that the payroll tax or the tax would be what what is that eleven million?

00:30:22
Speaker 1: So you'd be paying Max Sures essentially million twenty.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: One million essentially would be geared towards Max Sures that he would only get ten of that.

00:30:29
Speaker 1: The league would get eleven million of that. But that's that's the luxury tax implications signing Max. Sure, what do we think about it?

00:30:37
Speaker 3: Jim?

00:30:37
Speaker 2: You mentioned really early in the offseason you said, I don't know, is this crazy?

00:30:42
Speaker 1: How about Max Sures are being laid any one inning guy? You know? How about doing allah?

00:30:46
Speaker 2: John Smoltz, Yeah, I loved There's a lot of parts of it that I really love.

00:30:52
Speaker 3: I love his makeup and his toughness and his competitiveness, and I think he could take the ball for one inning and go out and blow some cheese and maybe have some success in late inning leverage. I'm not sure he want to do it. He might want to start. I don't know how much money he wants. That changes the whole thing. The way you kind of framed that luxury tax, what the commitment would be. But there's a lot to like about Max Scherzer. I'm not surprised they looked at him. You know, people kind of get all of Twitter. They scout at somebody. Well, that's their job. They employ dozens of scouts. They have scouts living really all over the globe. I bet they probably have four scouts who live within an hour of you know, the facility that he threw in Florida. So you go take a peek at him, gather a little intelligence, see what happens. This is, like I said, a lot I like about it, but I just don't know with that luxury tax. And I don't think he's coming here for one point eight million, do you.

00:31:53
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't think at all.

00:31:55
Speaker 5: I love the idea of throwing him in there for one ending and a lot of dependent on whether it's Phillies feel that he can medically do it, the player wants.

00:32:03
Speaker 4: To do it.

00:32:04
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously, how important is it for him to be playing just to play or is he wanting to play for a team that's going to win.

00:32:13
Speaker 4: And I think that is where Max Scherzer's head is going to have to be at.

00:32:18
Speaker 5: I mean, he's got his money, he's got generational money. It's not an issue about that for me. It's an issue about where he wants to play and what role he wants to.

00:32:27
Speaker 3: Play it in.

00:32:28
Speaker 4: And you never know.

00:32:30
Speaker 5: I mean, the Phillies have a great team. Is do they have the Dodgers? No, but they're close and they're good. They don't have the depth that the Dodgers have, particularly in the pitching staff, but the quality is there and the quality of players is.

00:32:46
Speaker 4: There, and it's going to be a contending team. There's no question in my mind.

00:32:52
Speaker 5: Does he want to go to a contending team and be a closer or.

00:32:58
Speaker 4: Or what? You know, what is max I want to do?

00:33:00
Speaker 5: But anytime you got a guy like that, who's a champion and pitches like a champion and posts like a champion, you got to consider it.

00:33:10
Speaker 4: He would make a run at his asso. Well, but that's not my money and it's not my team.

00:33:17
Speaker 3: What would be what would what would be your number for him that you would given you know where the Phillies are on the tax, how much would and how delicate is that? Because you know what? Assault him?

00:33:30
Speaker 4: Right?

00:33:31
Speaker 5: Don't want to insult him, but I think if he if if it is indeed you know, a contract based on him being a closer, I'd give him a ten to twelve million dollar base and then for games finished, depending on how many games he finishes, I give him a you know, incentives to to get him to where the elite closers are. You know who are the elite closures are between fifteen and twenty million, right, So I mean I would I would escalate it to you know, somewhere between fifteen and twenty million.

00:34:02
Speaker 4: As far as cents are concerned.

00:34:04
Speaker 3: I don't think they can do that.

00:34:06
Speaker 4: I don't think they can either, but.

00:34:08
Speaker 5: Where they are on the tax that's what I'm thinking.

00:34:11
Speaker 4: That wouldn't be embarrassing for him.

00:34:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a fine line. And how about if he did the old Roger Clemens thing and tried to you know, just keep throwing, stay in shape March, maybe in May, June and and get you know, work on his conditioning, whatever he's got to work on, and come in and give somebody four months of a higher gun he might That might be a pretty pretty big X factor for somebody.

00:34:37
Speaker 4: That's sort of what we did with Pedro Martinez.

00:34:39
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's justin justin Verlin or I think I got I'm just one year fifteen million from the Giants, So I don't know how much that you know, that might sure, that might make sure, might be looking at that number, you know, because Verlin did not have a good leader last year.

00:34:56
Speaker 1: Sures you know, didn't pitch much. But but all right, two more.

00:35:00
Speaker 3: It makes me wonder about the Mets. The Mets, you know, I know they he was there and it did it didn't really work. But one year, I mean they're gonna you know, their rotation is not uh, there's they you know, it's they could use help in their rotation. It's a team I would watch. I don't know about now, but if if Susan wanted to do that, you know, Pedro Roger Clemens thing and become a hard gum, that would be an interesting little subplot during the season.

00:35:30
Speaker 5: And I think the Phillies have that guy, and Andrew Painter. If he stays healthy, that's their guy. And it's a much cheaper version. So but if he's gonna be considering doing a different role in the back end, and the Phillies are not feeling comfortable about who's closing out games, who knows that.

00:35:47
Speaker 3: Would be fun. That would be fun.

00:35:48
Speaker 1: So two more.

00:35:49
Speaker 2: This one's this guy asked me this question several times, so I have to answer. Russell Riggins on Facebook wants though any theme to my baseball cards behind me? Real quick, Russell. The cards directly behind me are mostly cards from the eighties and like the early to mid eighties, late eighties, early nineties players I even like liked a lot when I was a kid. So you have a lot of robign you and Paul Malltors Brewers fan you have. I have a lot of players that I've come in contact with over the years, so Mike Schmidt, Larry Boa, Larry Anderson. I have a lot of those cards on the wall behind me. They know, just like random. But I love Jeffrey Leonard when I was a kid. I don't know why he he did play for the Brewers for one year from Philadelphia, and yeah, that's right. And the one flap down move when he homered. I mean, come on, dude, that was that was pretty cool. I used to imitate that all the time in the backyard.

00:36:40
Speaker 1: And then the wall right here on my left all Phillies cards.

00:36:43
Speaker 2: So all Phillies cards from the eighties, nineties, and then I got cards from my first year on the beat two thousand and three.

00:36:50
Speaker 1: Through up to like a couple of years ago. So that's the one on the wall.

00:36:54
Speaker 2: So you know, have some it's just funny like looking at some of the random ones. A lot of obviously a lot of chase at least you rounds. But then you have like guys like Steven Susstorf, remember Haim, you played for the Phillies for one year years ago, and so some. So that's basically the just the theme of the wall behind me, all big leaguers the wall on my left.

00:37:14
Speaker 5: Two things real quick, I go, I gotta say something about that one. I can't believe I'm not on any at all, because I did play in an early nineties. Again, I see how I how I ranked number one and number two.

00:37:25
Speaker 4: Jeff Leonard. Jeff Leonard's from Philly quick story.

00:37:28
Speaker 5: The Giants used to play the Stanford Cardinal before the season started or sometime in the middle. And I don't know how we made that arrangement, but I can you imagine being the San Francisco Giants and going to play the Stafford Cardinal in an exhibition game before the season started.

00:37:43
Speaker 4: They were so pissed off they they would come and play us. They would come play us at Sunken Diamond, Jeff F. Leonard.

00:37:49
Speaker 5: They were all probably pretty upset, but Jeff Leonard, apparently or not apparently, was probably not that happy. He hit a ball off of Jeff Ballard, who's the left handed she was the Big Leagues for a while for a couple of different teeth Baltimore and Pirates for one, but he was our number one starter. He threw him a little slider and Jeff Leonard hit a ball that went onto the soccer field, I mean in left center field, and it took him one minute and a half to get around the base put the one flap down.

00:38:19
Speaker 3: It was hihilarious and we were looking at each other on the bench going, that's the funniest thing I've seen.

00:38:28
Speaker 4: Lear. I had to give that that.

00:38:30
Speaker 2: You know. The truth thout Ruben is this is if I had a Ruben Tomorrow card, it would be on this wall.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: I went through every I had.

00:38:38
Speaker 2: Boxes of cards from my childhood, and for some reason I did not have a single Ruben America because I got multiple Larry Anderson cards on the wall. Larry boock cards. You know guys that I covered throughout the years behind me and on the wall.

00:38:55
Speaker 9: If it was tops, if you didn't get into you the first year, then they discontinued me. I was supposed to be a Rookie of the Year in my first week in the season in ninety two, and they said, screw this guy, I'm not making any more of his cards.

00:39:09
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I gotta find one of those. I gotta find one. If I get it, it'll be on the wall. And the last one is listen, Tom Dylan X. Who's everyone's favorite Philly ever? And Rubin can't say his dad? Dylan made sure to point out, well, that goes without saying Ruben's favorite Philly is his dad.

00:39:28
Speaker 1: Of course, why wouldn't it be. But who's your number two, Ruben?

00:39:32
Speaker 5: I'd have to say Schmike Schmidt. I mean, it's it's kind of a no brainer. But I did have a lot of favorites. I mean, I think I think about some of my favorite players that I'll name a few of them. Shake and Bate McBride back in the day, man, I just love Shake and Bake. I just loved him, loved his whole setup. The wytewong Ye. I would have to say that Chuch was one of my favorite Phillies when you know, when I was in the front office just as a person, and then Chase Utley and uh and and Roy Halladay.

00:40:09
Speaker 4: I mean, it's hard for me not to I don't.

00:40:11
Speaker 5: I don't want to sound like, you know, a Homer or whatever, but those two people were special. Jimmy Rollins just a special guy. I mean it's hard. It's hard for me because there's so many wonderful people. I mean, Jim Tomy, are you kidding me? He played for the Phillies and was a teammate of mine with the Cleveland Indians.

00:40:28
Speaker 4: So I mean, it's just so hard for me. There's so many of them.

00:40:31
Speaker 5: I just put them all up there and blanket them and tell and then tell people these are just the greatest, greatest players and greatest people.

00:40:39
Speaker 3: Man.

00:40:40
Speaker 4: I've been really blessed to be around those guys.

00:40:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough, tough, Jim, What do you got?

00:40:45
Speaker 3: I could I could, I could not name one way.

00:40:49
Speaker 1: I add the guys that you like, Yeah, I could name.

00:40:52
Speaker 3: The guys I didn't like covering on one hand, you know, and the guys I loved covering on one hundred hands.

00:40:58
Speaker 2: Jim who are those Let's go, now, let's go, let's start nuke and some guys.

00:41:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love covering uh. I don't even want to name anybody because I had so many favorites, you know, I mean this week it's relevant and topical. Billy Wagner. And I love covering Jimmy Rollins because I thought he did great things on the field and said interesting things after the game. The same with Kurt Shilling. But I mean, I mean Jim Tolmy, You're blessed to know him, and just so many others. Michael Franco. I loved Michael Franco. He made me laugh. And just from role players to superstars. You know, Roy Halliday was it was like a privilege to cover his uh, to watch him go about his work and chase the same way.

00:41:46
Speaker 5: And Ryan Howard and yeah, I didn't mention Ryan Howard. And now in retrospect, I mean, what a great just not a great player, but a great human being.

00:41:56
Speaker 4: We're talking about really really great human beings. Man.

00:41:59
Speaker 5: I mean, there were no assholes here. These were super people. And there's just so many.

00:42:05
Speaker 1: I mean how many times.

00:42:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like I feel like now I'm naming guys and I'm gonna you know, I just saw Jared Ikov the other day. What a great man. Oh gosh, yeah, that many name, and I hope I'm now I opened the can of worms. But honestly, so many great people and athletes. It's been a privilege to watch them.

00:42:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for I think for at least for for certainly for me and Joe, I mean, Ruben as well as you know, you you play with some of these guys. You you uh signed some of these guys, traded for some of these guys.

00:42:36
Speaker 3: You know.

00:42:37
Speaker 2: It's also the personal interactions that you have with him. So and then the guy that comes to the top of the list. We had on the show last summer's Jeff Frank cor I love and here for one year on a really bad team. But man, was he just a tremendous person. He still is a tremendous person. You just just is just great guy to talk to you was then? Is now I think of all those guys, you know, Chooch, I mean, what a great guy to talk you know, you see him, you see you could joke around with you, you know, Shane Victory. All those guys, right Greno, you know, Jason Worth I love to cover, you know.

00:43:08
Speaker 1: And then a guy like Weddy Blanco.

00:43:10
Speaker 2: You know, he's not a guy that's going to be on top of mind of most Phillies fans in terms of guys you remember necessarily, but man, he was a tremendous guy to cover.

00:43:19
Speaker 1: Freddy Galvis, I love covering you know, he was a guy Freddie was great.

00:43:24
Speaker 2: I mean, guy that was on just bad teams, but man, that guy wanted to win and just such a pro and just such a great pure baseball players. So there's you know, we could go on and on and out, but you're right, Jim, like you think about you can put on one handed guys, You're like, I wish that guy was the worst, you know that, you know, and I'm not going to name those guys, but most guys were just really good people.

00:43:45
Speaker 1: And I think that kind of goes into how we how we view those.

00:43:48
Speaker 3: When when Victorino finished his career with the Red Sox, my nephew, who's a big Red Sox fan, lives in New England. You know, I really love that victory. I was up there one day in the winter. I really love that Victorino guy. He's a great dude. So I reached down to my cell phone and I clicked Victorino's number and he picks up, and I'm like, Shane, say, had to my nephew is a big fan of yours. Happen like like within four seconds, you know, and it was just great, dude.

00:44:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. There's a lot of guys that would would do that type of thing, you know. So yeah, there we go Eagles.

00:44:26
Speaker 2: Next two weeks, we're gonna we're gonna still talk some baseball though where we have some you know, we're gonna be talking Phillies later this week. Next week we'll be talking super Bowl, hopefully a super Bowl win. And then three days after the super Bowl win, Phillies pitchers and catchers report I have their first workout in clear Water, Floorida in February twelfth. So you know, keep coming back to The Philly Show, folks. Can I say, go Birds, Go Birds?

00:44:51
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, ye, write anything you want. It's a top pop that's right, all right, I'll see you guys later, small lady boys, It's.

00:45:01
Speaker 2: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Phillies Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. 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.

00:45:18
Speaker 1: NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports.

00:45:20
Speaker 2: 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