Dave's Decision: changes could be coming to Phillies

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Zach Wheeler. Welcome to Phillies shown.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: Rob Thompson's on the hot seat. He addressed it on Sunday. Dave Dombrowski did not address Alex Corus speculation. But there's a lot of talk about because there's a lot going on with the Phillies and a lot of people don't know what's going to come next. Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd Zelecki. It's Monday, April twenty seventh.

00:00:27
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six. Guys.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: The Phillies snapped their ten game losing streak on Saturday, a lot of good vibes Zach Wheeler, really encouraging debut on Sunday, and then Monday they get smoked. I say they lost six to two, but that game was over after the first couple innings, if we're being totally honest, another dreadful performance by the offense. And then after the game, Rob Thompson was asked about being on the hot seat, and you guys heard what he said, and you guys kind of know what's been going on this weekend really all season long, and all the different things that have happened this past week.

00:01:11
Speaker 1: Jim what'd you make of what Rob said.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: And just kind of where things stand going into the off day Monday morning.

00:01:19
Speaker 3: Well, Monday morning. We talked about this on Friday, that bad team, high expectations, big series in Atlanta, Monday off day, that Monday could shape up as a day of change, a watershed moment, another bad showing in Atlanta. So you know, I'm sitting here early Monday morning, I'm expecting to hear something. I think there's gonna be something, maybe not today, but maybe before Tuesday's game. I don't know how they're gonna handle, you know, the off day, but they have essentially a day and a half to I see them probably doing something for shock value. It's gonna feel like they're pointing the finger at somebody, and in some cases it might be, but they need to do something to shock this team because what you're seeing is not good enough. It might lay at Rob Thompson's feet, which I think is not completely for fair. The leader does take the brunt of it. He is accountable for what goes on, but you know, if it's him, he's going to be held accountable for the underperformance of Dave Dombroski's roster. That's not completely fair, but life is not fair. That's what you sign up for when you're the manager of a major league baseball team. No one understands that more than Rob Thompson, no one. So we'll see what happens if they shake up something on the coaching staff or or in the manager's chair. But I do I say this all the time. You can smell change, and you can smell it, and you could smell it throughout that game on Sunday because they were in it. They were uncompetitive. I mean, the first three balls in a blink of an eye, it's like one O nine, one O nine and one ten off the bat, game over and no chance. Somebody's got to be grabbed by the lapels and they gotta shake this thing up.

00:03:15
Speaker 4: No question about it. As you guys know, I've been in this seat quite literally as the leader of the of the organization, and I always believe this. I mean, I believe that you you have success as an as an organization and you have failure as an organization. And you know, it's not one necessarily one thing that is the issue A lot of the times, it's it's a variety of things that are that are going on. And in this case, as I observe this ball club, there are so many different levels of incompetence right now that you know that it's hard to like put your finger on you know where where where did this all go? The defense has not played well, The starting pitching has not been very good. The bullpen has been okay, even with Dran out, they've done a pretty good job. In fact, the last couple of days they've been really good, and they've held they've held the Atlanta Braves down. But beyond that, obviously, the offense is one of the worst in baseball. Imagine this statistically, one of the worst in baseball. And we as a group, the three of us, have talked about how much better they are than this and this would change. Well, it hasn't changed. You see the numbers there offensively nine twenty seven, twenty nine. I mean, that's just really unacceptable. And you see the same sort of things going on in as far as they're pitching is concerned, particularly their starting pitching, which was supposed to be a strength. So can you lay blame on one thing, No, it's pretty all encompassing right now because they're p saying like the worst team in baseball, which is hard to imagine. It was interesting to see, you know, Dave Dombrowski bring in some of his heavy lieutenants to watch the last couple of games. Don't know. I think more than anything else, he's probably trying to get a perspective. Because he's got the analytic perspective. He knows what's going on as far as you know, velocities and spin rates and balls coming off the bat. I think he wanted to probably get a good perspective from his scouts, to see what they are seeing as far as their talent on the field is concerned, and to try to reassess, Okay, this is what we thought we had, but maybe that's not what we thought we had. And I don't disagree with the gym. I do feel like there's gonna be some sort of change happen. It sort of makes some sense. I thought it would take a little bit longer, just because I thought they would play a little bit better and start to work themselves out of it. They are playing or swinging the bats a little bit better, hitting the ball with a little bit more consistency, but still I know that they're facing Chris Sale that was a big deal and he's been dealing, and that's not a good matchup for the Phillies right now because they cannot handle left handers and are historically terrible against lefties right now. So I know I'm taking up a lot of time here, but that's sort of where I'm at. And I do believe that, you know, I do believe that at some point you're going to have to make a change and change whatever that change is to shake things up. It's going to have to happen soon, if not today, and you know, in a lot of ways, you sort of have to salvage your season.

00:06:49
Speaker 1: So let's take a look at what's kind of happened on this road trip, Jim. Jim and Ruben, you were both in Chicago.

00:06:54
Speaker 2: So Tuesday before the game at Wrigley Field, Dave It talks a lot about the state of the team, and one of the things he was asked about, of course, is Rob Thompson's job status, and Dave said, a change is quote not being pondered at this point at this point, so you know, five minutes later, it's not that point anymore.

00:07:15
Speaker 1: So anything can change.

00:07:16
Speaker 2: You always leave yourself some wiggle room, right you always you can always say, well, after a week, we've decided.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: You know, that was last week. This is this week.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: Thursday, the Phillies made their first significant roster decision personnel decision. They released Taiwan Walker. I guess you could say they did it in spring training, but since the season started with mc nick castious, but first significant in season roster move they released Taiwan Walker. They eat fifteen point five fifteen point three million dollars Friday. As you said, Reuben Dave flies flies in three of his top lieutenants, the scouts, David, Chad, Charlie, Kurfrail, Brad Sloan. You know, the reporters are sitting in waiting outside the clubhouse following Friday loss. That was a bad loss, questionable pitching decision there in the sixth inning on not having a lefty face Michael Harris the second as a pinch hitter, and your painter goes in there, throws a two to zero fastball down, Harris smokes it. Braves take the lead, game over. So that happens Friday. You know, those three three guys walk into the clubs, are like, this isn't something you see every day, and so I don't want to provide that perspective for people. You don't see those guys are usually out watching minor leaguers, pro teams, getting intelligence on other teams. You don't see all those three guys together in season. Correct me if I'm wrong, Guys, I don't. That's not only.

00:08:42
Speaker 4: See them probably during the trade deadline or something like that when there's when there's stuff to And I don't think there's any question that Day brought them in there to really get a perspective from them and get his their opinions about where this ball club is.

00:08:58
Speaker 3: Why were they so visible? My question is are they there to light a fire to be noticed, uh and to to you know, prod because and I agree they're probably there will evaluate. Why would they even see My instructions would have been slipping too. The Scouts section stay at a different hotel and we'll chat after the series, or we'll chat on Sunday morning. I just questioned why they were so visible because if you're there to evaluate, you know the people you're evaluating are gonna be on edge and they're not going to be natural. You're not going to see them in your natural state when something that unusual occurs, So you know that just kind of jumped out of me.

00:09:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I guess, I don't know.

00:09:45
Speaker 4: I'm not sure that the players really, I don't think. I think the staff that might that might affect the staff some to see them, you know, rolling in and to be around the ball club, Uh, that that could affect them a little bit. But hey, maybe maybe there was maybe a method to the madness. I mean, perhaps he was saying, hey, guys, pick it up, because if we don't, there's gonna be change. But I'm not sure that I'm having Dave Dombrowski said, I don't, I don't, I don't. You know, that's that's you know, it's hard for me to assess, you know, the thought process other than what I do believe is that he was at the very least assessing, getting in, trying to get assessment and different perspective from those three guys.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: For what for what it's worth, taking for what it's worth.

00:10:35
Speaker 2: Rob Thompson did not seem irked by the fact that you know, those guys were there in the clubhouse, walking around, hanging out in the dugout before the game. But that you know, that's Rob Thompson. He's as Rob Thompson said, Guys, let me. I'm gonna pull this quote up on screen. He's seen a lot in his day, so it takes a lot to rattle Rob Thompson. I know a lot of fans are anti Rob right now, but this is what Rob Thompson said postgame yesterday about the speculation about his job security said, I mean, that's natural, right, It's normal, and.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: I've never worried about that in my entire career. I worked for a guy for twenty eight years who, as the Seinfeld episode will tell you, fires people like. It's a bodily function, and it never bothered me. Didn't. I don't have time to think about that. I'm a person that thinks.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: About other people and what I can do to help them, and it's out of my control.

00:11:28
Speaker 1: So that's so that's where I'm at.

00:11:31
Speaker 4: And that's who he is, and that's who he is. I'm gonna go a little bit of on a dietrive. This is a I've said it, I'll say it again. I don't know what kind of changes will be made by Dave Dombrowski, he's the boss. I don't know what changes John Middleton might be thinking need to be made. I don't. I'm not in their brains. What I do know is that Rob Thompson's a great manager. He's a great person, and I think he's handled himself extremely well. He's one of the winningest managers percentage wise, in the history of our of our friend guys. And I think he's done a heck of a job. Uh in that role. Does it mean that uh there should not be changed. I don't know. Uh, that's not my call. But what I do know is as far as who he is and what kind of person he is, he's aces to me. But that doesn't mean anything. I mean, listen, the organizations do things for a reason. And Uh, I didn't feel like guys should have been fired, but I was fired, So that that's tough happens. Uh And and and you know, there's tough falls on on the guy who's running the show, and that's that's life. But but again, all I will say is as far as integrity and a person and the way he's managed this this ball club over the last several years, Uh, he's been he's been awesome.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: I think one thing that jumps out at me in that quote is how he cares about other people, which tells me. If Dobraski comes to him and say and says, we want this change on the coaching staff. We want that change on the coaching staff, that might be enough for Rob Thompson to say, I'm not comfortable with that. Put it on me.

00:13:12
Speaker 1: That's a great point, Jim.

00:13:13
Speaker 2: And he is the type of guy that would I could see him doing something like that, and.

00:13:18
Speaker 3: I'm referring mostly he has that level of loyalty.

00:13:20
Speaker 4: I've seen it before, I've seen others do it, and I would not be surprised by that at all. Jim. Great point.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: I'm referring to Kevin Long. They are tight, they believe in each other. And Kevin Long is in the cross heres because of an underperforming offense, right that could be a pushing point, a push back point. Who knows. So there's a lot going.

00:13:47
Speaker 1: On there is.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: And then so then Saturday, as we continue to go through this crazy week Saturday, before Zach Wheeler goes out, we'll talk about him in a bit. Before he goes out and pitches the Red Sox fire Alex Cora and about fifteen other coaches that feel like they just you know, nuke the entire coaching staff and the manager's office. And for people that don't know, I think most people know. They follow the Phillies. Dave Debrowski and Alex Cora have a very strong relationship. Dave Dombrowski hired Alex Cora in October of twenty seventeen. They won a World Series together. Every time the Red Sox and the Phillies face each other in season spring training, I've seen mighty long chats between the two. So they remained very close. And as soon as that happened, immediate speculation they're going to reunite. There's a love affair between the two. They love each other, you know whatever, right, and d Dave invented the guy.

00:14:56
Speaker 3: That's a great way to put him as a manager.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great, great way to put it. And I asked Dave Sunday morning, because there was full fledged stories written about this and just again lots of speculation about a possible reunion.

00:15:11
Speaker 1: And I said, you know.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk out there about Alex Cora, do you care to address any of it. Just wanted to give him an opportunity to either whatever if he wanted to say anything, and he just said nope, And that was it.

00:15:26
Speaker 1: That was the end of it.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know what he was supposed to say. I don't know how you would have handled that, Reuben, if there was something like that.

00:15:31
Speaker 4: Said exactly what he said. No, Nope.

00:15:34
Speaker 2: Now now should I should we read into that, because I guess you could say, if if you thought that.

00:15:43
Speaker 1: I'm not firing.

00:15:44
Speaker 2: I'm sticking by what I said on Tuesday at Wrigley Field, I could say.

00:15:50
Speaker 3: You leave you options open, right right, So.

00:15:53
Speaker 2: There you go, So you let he kind of leave, doesn't address it, doesn't add fuel to that fire.

00:15:59
Speaker 1: Believe his options open, so you know, and then yeah, I.

00:16:04
Speaker 4: Mean that's the way I would handle it, no question. And and listen, if the guy has a relationship with the guy, great, I mean, that's that's part of the game. That's what you you over the years. You build relationships with people, you have fondness for people, You think that you know certain people have you know abilities in the game. And will that Will that create change here in Philadelphia? Possible? Is it? The right thing? Could be? Could might, might not be. But you know that's all part of the game. I mean, you create circles in your as long as Dave Dombrowski has been around the game. There's people that he's have influenced him and people who he has influenced, and uh, and you know that's what this game is about.

00:16:48
Speaker 3: So that scenario, I find that scenario very plausible. If they make a change in the manager's chair, which is very plausible, I could see them going with an interim for a week, two weeks, months a day and facilitating that move. I think it's it's given.

00:17:08
Speaker 4: Who's not out of the realm of possibility.

00:17:10
Speaker 3: It's almost tailor made, given the you know, the guy who's running baseball operations here, Dave Dombroski. They won the World Series. He believes in the guy, he brought him into the managerial world. I could see that happening. But you know, we're missing something, his ownership. How much heat is ownership putting on David Dembroski for this? And I don't know. I know John Middleton has immense respect for Dave Nebroski and thinks he's, you know, a great leader of baseball operations, But has what happened here where you can put more blame probably at the feet of I think definitely at the feet of Dave Dombroski for what's happening here with the production of that roster. Is John Middleton noticing that and changing his his view on the situation. I mean, you know, I don't know. I don't see them ripping that that that part up because we're in the world of the three wildcards and this is a high payroll and you need to just kind of fix this and not set your sights as a division because of the way things have happened, set your sights on just getting to October. And that's certainly that could happen. I think there's enough talent here that could turn it around and make a run at that third wildcard. So I don't see them ripping up the front office per se. But I'll tell you what the scrutiny on him is has been really ramped up and in many cases much more intense than the scrutiny on the manager. And I can't say it's not deservedly.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: So I agree with you one hundred percent, Jim.

00:18:41
Speaker 2: And so Monday, we're recording this on Monday morning, an off day. Dave a few years ago fired Joe Girardi.

00:18:50
Speaker 1: Following an off day.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: The Phillies were twenty two and twenty nine at the time, and then going back to Alex Kora, Jim, there's only been in Ruben. There's only been seventeen managers in baseball history that have managed two teams in one season, and it has not happened since nineteen ninety one. Buck Rogers managed the Expos and the Angels, and you know who fired Buck Rogers out of Montreal, and just as a coincidence, in nineteen ninety one, Dobrowski, Dave Dombrowski fired Buck Rogers.

00:19:21
Speaker 1: The Expos are twenty and twenty nine at the time.

00:19:24
Speaker 2: So and I mentioned those records only because Jim in Chicago last week when you were there, Dave talked about forty games.

00:19:31
Speaker 1: Forty games. Forty games is usually when he kind of assesses where a team is at.

00:19:35
Speaker 2: The Phillies were twenty two and twenty nine and twenty twenty two when Joe Girardi got fired. They were twenty and twenty nine when Dave fired Buck Rogers in nineteen ninety one, So that's around the forty fifty game mark. The Phillies are only twenty eight games into this season.

00:19:49
Speaker 3: So yeah, but you know what this is so bad? Yeah, that twenty eight is the new forty.

00:19:59
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure what the Expos payroll was in nineteen ninety one, but I'm guessing it wasn't three hundred and ten million dollars with a sixty five million dollar tax penalty on top of that.

00:20:12
Speaker 3: So you just reminded me of a great story. So Fregosi and Buck Rogers were best buddies. They played together on the Angels way back when, and every time we'd go into Montreal, this great guy writer from the Le Journelle de Montreal he would come in to talk to Fregosi, and Fregosi would he would say, I ain't talking to you. You're the You're the bleep bleeper who got Buck fired. And the guy would say, no, no, it wasn't me. I like Buck, I liked Bunk. It was those are the days you could mess around.

00:20:49
Speaker 4: Little known fact if that was ninety one, right, yes, ninety one, Ruben, so ninety one he goes to the Angels.

00:20:55
Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, that's right, you were there.

00:20:57
Speaker 4: This was my very first manager in the big leagues.

00:21:00
Speaker 1: That was your first manager in the big leagues, Buck Rogers, No kidding, I did not put that. That's amazing. How about that.

00:21:09
Speaker 4: Indeed, and then I think Buck Rogers got to let go and did I work for fog Horn Leghorn? I can't remember whether I worked for Doug Rader or not, but I get to my first No, Doug Grader was the one that was let go, and then Buck Rogers took over. Right that Doug Grader got fired by the Angels, and then Buck Rogers took over. So Buck Rogers, I think it was the first manager I ever played for in the major leagues.

00:21:32
Speaker 1: No, wait, what's who's fog Horn Leghorn?

00:21:36
Speaker 4: That's Doug Grader.

00:21:37
Speaker 1: That's Doug Grader. I didn't know that was his nickname.

00:21:39
Speaker 4: Ok, well that's what I call him.

00:21:41
Speaker 1: I'll say, yeah, he's.

00:21:45
Speaker 4: Best Bobba Clure's best fishing buddy, best buddy.

00:21:50
Speaker 1: I'll declare, you're going to start in left field or not here.

00:21:56
Speaker 4: Had I had had a great opportunity to be with him while he was assessing the organization. I was in a ball or double A at the time before he became the manager of the Angels, and developed it like a funny relationship with Doug.

00:22:12
Speaker 1: That's a dude. That's great, dude.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: I like these stories so much more than talking about the ancients and the horribles.

00:22:21
Speaker 2: You're right, well, we've got more coming up.

00:22:25
Speaker 1: We're going to talk. We got Manco Mango Best Week right after these words.

00:22:29
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00:22:33
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00:23:30
Speaker 1: All right, we're back, guys. It's uh. We got to talk about something upbeat and let's let's break out. Manco Manco Manco Manco. Best Week brought to us by our friends at Manco and Manco because Manco Manco is the best of the best. And I feel like there's only one guy.

00:23:55
Speaker 2: Now, you guys, I feel I feel like you know, Ruben and Jim. You guys always are full of surprises, so you guys, and you guys are deep thinkers. So maybe there's somebody else on the list. But I think there's one guy that stands out. Last week, it was not a great week. The Philly has only won one game last week, and that was because Zach Wheeler returned to the mound and made his twenty twenty six season debut. A just a just a great performance by him. Do you guys have anybody else you want to nominate for Best Week?

00:24:29
Speaker 4: I have one pitcher. I think Kyle Backus did a really nice job. He was really impressed by the way Kyle Backus has been he's bounced back and come back after really struggling to throw strikes and do his job in the early part of the season. But he's actually saved him quite a bit. Man. He's pitched a lot, he's been called a lot, and he's thrown really well in dirty innings with guys on and stuff like that. And I like the kid man the fact that he came back and pitched away he did. He's been pretty impressive. Probably not the best of the week. I agree with you it's Wheeler, but I'm gonna give a little a baby slice, a baby slice to Kyle ba Backus.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: Well real quick.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: Kyle back has pitched five out of seven days, and he closed out that game on Saturday in the tenth inning. And after the game, the handshake line on the field, you know, Rob is just shaking hands.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: Good job, good job, good job.

00:25:22
Speaker 2: When he got to Kyle Backus, Kyle Backus came up, he grabbed him, leaned in, gave him a little talking to and basically just said, you know, tremendous job. We're gonna don't worry. We're going to give you a break. We know he'd been wearing you out and then Sunday before the game, Rob said that he could see Kyle Bachus his role being elevated because he has been so effective in some of those situations and dirty innings and whatnot.

00:25:45
Speaker 4: But he actually told him after talking to Rob, he actually told him he didn't mind those dirty innings. He liked coming in those situations. Hey, and which is something you don't see very often because in Herd and Runners is a big deal. And to be coming in in situations where you're trying to stop the game with guys are with traffic, Uh, that's a commendable thing. And he actually likes the challenge of being able to do that.

00:26:09
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. Wow, a competitor, I like, yeah, we love, we love.

00:26:16
Speaker 4: That's right.

00:26:18
Speaker 3: I'm going to give my Manco Manco Best of the Week to Nico Horner.

00:26:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean.

00:26:29
Speaker 3: I guess they They got their own pizza in Chicago, so Wheeler would be the guy.

00:26:33
Speaker 4: He was their own deep dish. As you well know, Jim, your favorite?

00:26:39
Speaker 3: Yes, what a favorites? What's up?

00:26:42
Speaker 4: What is your favorite?

00:26:44
Speaker 3: Well, two nights in a row, I went to Pea Quads in Lincoln Park.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: Ye, so that must be your favorite. You're going to nights back to backers.

00:26:52
Speaker 3: Back to back nights. But yeah, wheels very encouraging by the same token token Aaronola very concerning. Right, this abs is going to kill him because he can't work on the edges and then he has to come over the plate and n't have the stuff to get it by people. And as four years left on the deal, I'm very worried.

00:27:15
Speaker 4: And what we're concerned about. What concerned me was listen, I was actually pleasant pleasantly surprised about how he finished up because his four seamer he could not First of all, he couldn't command that sinker on the outside part of the plate on the glove side. He couldn't make it happen. So he was going with the four seamer. That four steamer is getting whacked around and he couldn't command that. So but he finally got to the point where he was commanding his two seamer his sinker. I think that he's probably just gonna have to be, you know, almost a two pitch pitcher with the sinker both sides of the plate and the curveball. The curveball still had good rotation, good stuff, but he wasn't able to sort of get to it consistently.

00:27:55
Speaker 3: The way he couldn't get ahead.

00:27:57
Speaker 4: He couldn't get ahead of the hitters. And when he he's walking guys, it's not necessarily about, you know, the hits that he gives up or the home runs. It's about the walks and when he's walking guys and he can't get pitches on the edge. I mean, that's what he needs to get and for whatever reason, his mechanics weren't allowing him to get to the spots he needed to get to. In the first couple of innings. After that, he actually tightened it up and his stuff was pretty darn good. So that's the only sort of light at the end of the tunnel I see. But he might have to become that sinker curveball type of a guy where he's working the ball down consistently and hoping that he gets his defense to make some plays. Again, line drive right out of the shoot ball should have been caught, wasn't caught, and it started blowing up after that. For a guy like Aaron Nola and guys who pitched the contact, you got to have the defenders make their plays tough playing center field ball hits off of Dylan Moore's glove. He obviously, you know, it would have been a spectacular catch. Other center fielders might make that catch, but I mean it was his very first play of the season in center field. You know, I always felt like if the ball hit my glove that I should catch it in the outfield. But you know, he had to run like one hundred feet or two hundred feet to make this. Try to make this play. And if you don't make those plays for Aaron Nola, things can blow up. And that's exactly what happened.

00:29:22
Speaker 3: And he pitched behind in the count early in that game a lot, and then he had to come over the plate with fastballs and and he just doesn't have that electric stuff to get it by people on a consistent basis. He's got to work ahead in the count. And you're right, they got to make plays. You know, they've turned like the fewest or second fewest double plays in the National League. It's the ground ball staff. You got to look at the defense, the guys who were out there catching the ball, but you also got to look at the positioning and the analytics.

00:29:49
Speaker 4: Positioning is a real issue. It's a real issue for me.

00:29:52
Speaker 3: So I wonder if they'll I wonder if they'll address do they address something there because the defense has been something behind the scenes. I don't know.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: Well, we asked Rob about that on before Saturday's game, about the defensive positioning. He says, we're always looking at it. We've made adjustments, we're making more adjustments. Maybe we can get into this in the next show if you really want to dig down deep into it. But I had our friend at MLB dot com, Mike Petrelo at statcast, maybe like, is there anything there about defensive positioning, and he said, there's really not a metric that kind of shows where guys are positioned. But there is a metric. It's called like expected success rate on balls that are hit to the infielders. It's based on like how hard balls hit, how far a player has to travel, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm not going to really dig in too deep, but the Phillies expected success rate on balls that are hit in the infield is by far the lowest in Major League Baseball, at like sixty six percent. And that's generally speaking, again, how far aways of a player from a ball compared to other teams in baseball it's it's a significant difference, and that indicates that guys are not where they should be compared to where other teams might be playing their players.

00:31:13
Speaker 1: So I wanted to mention.

00:31:15
Speaker 4: That I've had an issue. I've had an issue with this. I watched the game from the perspective behind the plate and uh, you know during the broadcast, and I do I'm a little confounded by you know where, And I don't know whose job it is to move the players on the field. I don't know if it's an analytics issue, because if I'm if I'm Dave Dombrowski, I'm assessing that as well. I'm not just assessing, you know, just the coaching staff and the manager and all that other stuff. I'm assessing all that other stuff as well. Uh, the offensive part of it, you know, I want to see the analytics. Are the people on the analytics side doing their jobs properly? And that that's an assessment that needs to be made as well. So if you have the the analytics influencing your baseball team as much as something some teams do on the daily, then that's got to be a part of the assessment too.

00:32:13
Speaker 3: They look at those cards, what does that tell you that it's coming from behind.

00:32:17
Speaker 1: The scenes, correct, correct, right, yeah.

00:32:22
Speaker 4: No question, those cards. Those that's why they have the cards. Me. I banned the cards. I'd like to have the players know these players and know the pitcher and figure out you know, that's just me. I don't I don't like the cards. I made one for my outfielders. But told Jackie Bradley, Jackie, you play wherever the hell you want, and you move your guys because you're watching, and you care, and you're watching, you understand the game. And that's why he's one of the best center fielders in the game. And uh, and I felt like those cards, you toss them out the window, get a lot of work to prepare for them and and to put them, put them together. But it's about the players.

00:33:08
Speaker 1: But Ruben, what whatld you tell Jackie? If you say Jackie would just.

00:33:11
Speaker 2: Go out there like everything, just kind of pull that card out and pretend to look at it.

00:33:16
Speaker 4: No, I'll tell you exactly what I did. I said, here, Jackie, here's this piece of paper. You can wipe your tickets with it if you want. I put a lot of time and effort into this thing. But I believe in you and if you feel you need to play somewhere else, go ahead and play there because you know these hitters. And I said, if I have an issue in a certain situation, I'll move you God, And never, very very rarely did I do it.

00:33:39
Speaker 3: There are clearly is a real emphasis on not giving up that cheap hit. But at the cost of it is you can't turn the double play because they don't play a traditional double play depths, so it's like six one half dozen to the other, you know, and you get bitten by it, right.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: So well, guys, that was Manco and Manco best week. Go down to the shore, go to the ballpark and get Manco and Manco. Oh get it on Tuesday Night, Jim, Jim and Ruben Tuesday Night.

00:34:13
Speaker 4: Maybe we should we tease the show at some point this summer. We're gonna want or two shows there.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be going down to Manco and Ocean City again. We had a great time last summer. We did one show down there. We're planning on doing two shows in season at Manco. We don't know the exact date yet. Well, when we're when we're ready to announce it, we will announce it. But we're looking forward to getting down there. I know my kids are for sure. So Monday, it's Monday morning. Maybe we'll be back. Well, we will be back later this week if there's news coming out of today or our news coming out of Tuesday, and.

00:34:49
Speaker 4: Then we might have to have an emergency time.

00:34:51
Speaker 2: We yea, we might have to have an emergency practice.

00:34:54
Speaker 3: Let me see, is the thing working?

00:34:56
Speaker 1: Is the is the airhorn working?

00:35:00
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:35:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, get the horn ready to go?

00:35:03
Speaker 2: Okay, something happens other than that, Guys, Phillies giants real quick. I'm gonna give you the rotation the probables this week. Tuesday six forty, Tyler Melee against Jesus Lozardo. Wednesday six forty, Logan Web against Christopher Sanchez. Thursday at one oh five Adrina House against Andrew Painter.

00:35:24
Speaker 1: We will be back later this week.

00:35:26
Speaker 3: Smelling later, boys, noll you Jim.

00:35:29
Speaker 1: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network.

00:35:33
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