Back Together: Bullpen Battles, Bohm & Painter from Clearwater!

00:00:01
Speaker 1: How's it going. This is Jason Kelcey and welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: Ruber Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd's a lucky It's a Philly Show.

00:00:13
Speaker 3: We are coming to you live following Wednesday's game in Clearwater, Florida.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: So good to see you guys in person. We're so close together, it's like abnormally close together. We're brethren, Yes, we're brethren. We have a lot to talk about, and I want to jump right into it. Not too many battles guys this spring, but Brad Keller started today's game. He's the setup guy, and a lot of guys that could be competing for one of these final two bullpen jobs followed today, and I want to ask you guys, right off the bat, Brad Keller look pretty good.

00:00:46
Speaker 1: He certainly did.

00:00:47
Speaker 4: He had one two three first inning he started the game, which interestingly enough, he won't be starting this year right handed setup man, but he had been a starter. And afterward talking, he told about how he went to camp with the Chicago Cubs last year on a minor league deal as a starting pitcher, thinking he was going to go to Triple A Iowa and just see what happens, and shortly before opening day they said to him, what do you think about going to the bullpen.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: He said, let's give it a shot.

00:01:19
Speaker 4: And sixty eight appearance is in a two point oho seventy ra later, he has a two year, twenty two million dollar contract with the Phillies and he's going to be setting up for Johandoran. I thought he looked good today first time out in ninety seven on the gun. He'll go to the World Baseball Class. He just wanted to be healthy because they didn't do a lot this winter. But I think that's a significant acquisition.

00:01:41
Speaker 3: Really big one.

00:01:42
Speaker 5: And we had a chance to talk to him during the broadcast today and it was it was cool. He's he seems like a real He's got very very level headed. I know he's gotten come. He's had to come a long way to get to this point. I mean he's played on a variety of different teams, he's had different roles. He started. He's relieved, and he did tell that story on the air today about how he they got to Japan. They said, well, listen, we got too many starters, but we do need some bullpen help. Would you consider going to the bullpen. He was like, hey, let's do it. And he put himself in a position to make a boatload of money because he pitched his rear end off and put himself in a position to have the Phillies.

00:02:22
Speaker 3: Come knocking on his door.

00:02:24
Speaker 5: And they knocked it down and it was a big one for him to sign him for a two year deal eleven million dollars a year, and hopefully he can help lock things down for Rob Thompson in the eighth inning and for Juan Duran when he takes the baseball a couple of.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: You know, Keller is a very likable guy. Yeah, just talking to him, He's got like a Chad Durban vibe to him, you know, yeah, a super approachable, super.

00:02:50
Speaker 3: Down to earth.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: So remember earlier in camp, Zach Wheeler made all these headlines because he kept his rib as a souvenir. Well, Keller had the same surgery a few years ago. He was sounded disappointed though. I asked him, I said, do you have your rib? He's like, no, actually I still have my rib.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: He doesn't. I didn't take it out.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: They they did like something with his nerves and and something with his shoulder, and and they cleaned this up and clean that up, so he still has his rib. But then he told me a couple of great stories of some of his former teammates that kept their ribs, including one that I think it was something Carns. I remember his name now, and he actually in a game pitched with his rib in his back pocket. He said he had the rib, went up to the food room, wrapped it in a couple of napkins, and put it in his back pocket, and uh and pitched with it. In fact, you know what I'm gonna say, if I can pull up this guy's name now, if I can find it, but uh and and the reason why he did it, I can't find it. The reason why he did it was because he said he every time he wanted to pitch, he wanted to feel like he was one hundred percent out there where I got a story left handed, This is a real story, was down and lefty.

00:04:06
Speaker 3: Gosh, I gotta remember that.

00:04:07
Speaker 2: I gotta remember his name. But yeah, that's hilarious. But just a great, very personal guy, all right, I get now.

00:04:14
Speaker 3: I hate to do this.

00:04:15
Speaker 2: It's very hackey, but I gotta find this guy's name. Entertain that entertain entertained the folks here, well anyway, I can't find it, but very very funny. But it's also like it's also a little bit of a Nate carn Nate Carns, big league pitcher, Nate Carnes.

00:04:34
Speaker 3: There we go.

00:04:35
Speaker 5: I think it's you know, just the fact that this guy has come back from a t S and has pitched the way he has since.

00:04:43
Speaker 3: He's had it.

00:04:45
Speaker 5: Is actually like a really great endorsement for the possibility of what can happen with Wheeler because you know, some you know, Merrill Kelly came back and pitched very well effectively with it, but.

00:04:57
Speaker 3: Not a ton of guys do.

00:04:59
Speaker 5: And you just hope that, you know, it's sort of a precursor to what we'll we'll see at a Wheeler over the next couple of months once he gets back onto a major league mound again. So this guy fired at ninety seven, really tight, got four or five different pitches. Doesn't look like there's you know, any ill effects from him, you know, coming back from that from that surgery years ago.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he throws a sinker in a four steamer.

00:05:26
Speaker 4: So I mean, he's got the mentality that when he needs a big out, he can get a ground ball with a sinker, or he can power you and try to get a strikeout.

00:05:37
Speaker 1: And he also throws this a sweeper.

00:05:39
Speaker 4: But your point about Wheeler, I mean their lockers are probably what seven or eight apart right to have it look down, to look down the lockers and see a guy who came back from it and has just gotten better has to be a confidence builder for Zach Wheeler. Not that I think he needs a needs confidence. I think he's pretty confident he's going to get back. Everybody's the reports are really good. Having that, you know, guy, you can actually look across the room at that went through it.

00:06:04
Speaker 2: It is probably a good thing you got two bullpen jobs available. A lot of those guys pitch today that could be candidates for that job. Zach mccamberley Rule five draft pick Kyle Bachus, the side arming lefty who they like a lot.

00:06:17
Speaker 3: Zach Popp, who is signed to a major league deal.

00:06:20
Speaker 2: He's the only one of those relievers on the forty man roster without options. So that you know, as you know, if you have options, you're out options.

00:06:28
Speaker 3: That kind of that could have hurt you. I could help you, I could hurt you.

00:06:33
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's a curse if you have options as the player. But you know, it's great to see some of these guys. The thing that I liked the most about what I saw to in today's game was that they were firing strikes and they were efficient. And I talked about it in the broadcast today about how Philly is different from maybe some other organizations that care more about execution than you do about than they do necessary early about spin rate and velocity, and I think that that's you know, you talked about it off air about Richards about wanting to get to a place where he felt like he can really improve himself as a pitcher, and I think that this is, you know, Philadelphia is one of those places that some of these guys think that they can.

00:07:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, so trivor Richards, I was asking him because he's if he makes the Phillies at some point, this would be his eighth big league team, And I said, like, did you sign with the Phillies because you saw an opportunity? Like you know, a lot of guys will look at the roster and I'm gonna, yeah.

00:07:31
Speaker 3: Let's go to this at a week.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can make I can make this team at some point by May or whatever, and he said, no, the exact opposite. He said, he did that last year with the Cubs. He was in camp last season with last spring with Brad Keller. I signed with the Cubs last year because I thought I had an opportunity and never materialized. So he's like, this speaks to the Phillies. As you mentioned, he said he chose the Phillies because he's heard so many good things from so many people over the past few years about how the Phillies work and develop and improve pictures that he would rather go to an organization than can maybe make him a little bit better. So you know, as you guys know, if a guy doesn't make the team as a non roster guy, maybe there's out in the contract he signed somewhere else. He puts himself in a position to pitch with another team, and that was Trevor Richards.

00:08:11
Speaker 3: So I thought that was kind of interesting.

00:08:12
Speaker 2: You know, as a non roster guy, the roads are a lot longer to make the squad, but you know, he sees an opportunity in that sense, maybe the Phillies can make him better.

00:08:23
Speaker 5: The one thing I will say about non roster players for a team that is basically set in some ways and expected to win. It's actually a good thing for some of them because they're going to be more apt to go to a veteran guy who's been there and done it then to go to a young player who has not really been there and done it. As far as pitching is concerned, I know that if I was a GM, if I was Dave Dombrowski, and I had a choice between a kid that and that person was going to play some sort of role in my bullpen, I would go with the guy that is one that has been there and done it, and two the guy's been the most effective. And if he makes an impression in spring training and he's executing pitches and doing things that that leaves the mark in a lot of these guys' minds. Whether it's Caleb Cotham or Rob Thompson or Dave Dombrowski or all three of them, you know, I'd rather go with the veteran guy. I always talk to Pat Gillick about this, Go young in your rotation and veteran in your in your bullpen, because that's when you have to make pitches, and that's when you have to have a really steady ice. Ice in your veins.

00:09:31
Speaker 1: That's a great point.

00:09:32
Speaker 4: I mean, if you're if you're a veteran guy, non roster, do you go for a team that's gonna finish in fourth or fifth place because you think there might be an opening, or sign with a contender, go to Triple A when they have a need, they would opt for a veteran and you can help them. Phillies have a number of those guys make Tim Maz's ear, Louke Trevino is here, and there's you know, I think this is like you said.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: There's two spots left.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: Two spots left.

00:09:58
Speaker 1: I counted like twelve guys.

00:10:00
Speaker 4: You have a legitimate shot at those twelve jobs, at those two jobs. Twelve guys legitimate shot at two jobs. Clearly of the Phillies Brass went out and signed you know, quantity to try to, you know, fill those last two spots.

00:10:16
Speaker 1: And I think it's a good.

00:10:17
Speaker 4: Idea because the more you get to look at, the bigger the pool, the better chance you have something decent that flows to the top.

00:10:23
Speaker 5: Then it creates competition, which is something that you always want. And you'll this competition I always I will say this, The real competition will come in the last ten games, last team ten games of the spring, when all the hitters are getting their timing, you're getting the big boys in the lineups and you're having to make the team, and so the pressure gets higher and higher. It's a really good time to evaluate players and pitchers in particular, to see how they get the job done.

00:10:55
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00:11:01
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00:12:04
Speaker 3: Thank you Geek. There you go. What a read. Hell of a job, my gosh, thank you guys. Appreciate that. But yeah, I will be checking out Seat geek for World Cup ticket. Of course you will be.

00:12:17
Speaker 1: I might go on there for some PGA tickets. He got an I want to go to that. Can you get me in? You know everybody.

00:12:24
Speaker 3: Maybe we'll see how it goes. Alex Bahum had another nice game today.

00:12:31
Speaker 1: And that play he made it was it was delicious.

00:12:37
Speaker 3: It was delicious, I have to say this. And I had really a quick talk with him. Whether it was I'm not sure.

00:12:43
Speaker 6: If it was this morning yesterday yesterday where I had an opportunity to talk to him because I was watching him work at third base, uh in the half field, as we see so often with Bobby Dickerson and.

00:12:55
Speaker 3: I I wanted to make a point to tell him.

00:12:57
Speaker 5: I just feel like he's made so many he strides defensively. This is a guy that three years ago or four years ago, I didn't think was going to be able to play third base or stay at third base, let alone be a third basement for a championship caliber team. Well, this man has made himself a very solid third baseman for a person who's very tall. He's not super super athletic as far as his as far as his lateral quickness and stuff, but he's put himself in a position to be a good, solid quality third baseman. I wanted to make a point to talk to about it.

00:13:31
Speaker 3: He's he is.

00:13:33
Speaker 5: And I watched the workout with Bobby Diggerson, and it looks like he's trying to do something a little bit better every single year. In this particular instance, he was working on like his certain feeds without necessarily moving his feet and doing it in one fluid motion, something he hasn't done in his career, but it's something that he wants to do. He thinks he's going to be a more efficient path to get the ball to the second basement in double play. Situations. Well, he gets a bullet today, turns spins, throws a perfect strike to Auto camp Outo Kemp, secure as the baseball makes the turn. Wasn't pretty on Auto Kemp's side. He's not super smooth, but he gets the job done too. So really nice to see out Boom playing as well as he has. And he's swinging the bat well right now.

00:14:19
Speaker 4: And you mentioned sort of his desire to work on something new every year and get better. Yesterday, Tuesday, Johan Duran is throwing his first live and he's you know, ninety eight, and imagine having to face that, you know early in camp. Well, Boom was the only regular out there who faced Johanduran, and he welcomed it and embraced the opportunity because I talked him afterward and he said, you know, I want to I want to measure myself against I want to face a guy who is, you know, the guy that gets the final three outs of the game. I want to face this guy early. I want to see where I am. And he, you know, welcomed that opportunity and he he rifled one off the top of the I feel wall against Duran and live VP. And today Wednesday, two RBI singles. The other day he had a double two right center. He's swinging pretty good.

00:15:12
Speaker 1: Even Rob Thompson mentioned that after Wednesday's game.

00:15:15
Speaker 2: He says, a little bigger, maybe a little stronger. I mean, he looks the same to me. He's always I always felt like he looked pretty. He's pretty built.

00:15:22
Speaker 1: Hey, if there's a year you want to come in the focused, it's Payday year.

00:15:27
Speaker 3: I mean, and.

00:15:27
Speaker 2: He's I've talked to him a few times and he seems to have a great mindset right now about everything, right, I mean, just talking to me, he you know, he talking about to him about being the cleanup hitter.

00:15:38
Speaker 3: He's like, I know I'm not the prototypical leadoff hitter.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: But I think I think a lot of people in this camp are really pulling for him to have a big year because.

00:15:49
Speaker 3: He kind of gets dumped on a lot for being honest.

00:15:51
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I mean, he was a guy who was going to get traded twice twice, going to get traded, and he was Bobushit was going to be the guy. And yes, Boba shit would have been a great addition to this team. But Alcolm's a good baseball player and he's a. He's a very good, solid hitter. Does he hit enough home runs for our liking or for the fans liking? Maybe not, But you know, listen, it's not his fault that he is having to hit in the four role. I mean, he's probably a five or six hold hitter.

00:16:17
Speaker 3: But that's fine.

00:16:18
Speaker 5: I mean, he still he still drove in ninety seven runs two years in a row, and there's not that many people driving in that many runs anymore in the major leagues. And that's what run production is all about. Tough to your last year was was hurt for part of the year and and battling some things. But it's really important for him to have a strong year this year. Does the Phillies need him?

00:16:38
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:16:39
Speaker 2: He said, like, you know, I could hit maybe thirty thirty five home runs, but what would I be sacrificing? So I said, how's twenty twenty five home runs and like forty five doubles?

00:16:47
Speaker 3: Son, He's like, that sounds pretty good. I would I could do that. Yeah, I think he could do that.

00:16:51
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about the rob announced the rotation through the end of the week and you know spring training rotation early in camp.

00:16:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, not that big of a deal, but some interesting ones here.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: Taiwan Walker starting Thursday, Aaron Nola starting Friday, Christopher Sanchez Saturday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, and then Andrew Painter on Saturday Sunday. I'm sorry Sunday, Sunday Sunday again for Sunday against the New York Yankees. That conjures memories, memories of spring training whatever.

00:17:22
Speaker 3: It was.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: Four Yeah, Cole Hamble's when he made his debut across the Causeway.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: You didn't make that trip, did Jim. Jim didn't make well.

00:17:33
Speaker 4: Todd and I were teammates at the Inquirer then, and that eleven mile drive.

00:17:37
Speaker 1: Was too far from me. So I said, you go to that, Jim.

00:17:39
Speaker 3: Jim said, I remember him going surprising Jim. Jim was doing. Jim was doing one of these little chin stroke take back peace he was. He told me, he's like, I don't I only put on the home white. Zo hit the road salty.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: So Cole Hamill strikes out eater A Rod and Tony Clark, Yes, changed upson coming out of the bullpen. Kid had never pitched above a ball and I missed it. But you saw you were a great story Rubiny probably were.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: There, Yes, I was. What was your recollection?

00:18:15
Speaker 5: What was my recollection is that I was very excited about watching him do what he did, but not all that surprise, just because he's one of those guys that's always been pretty poised. He's never really got real rattled on the mound. And and uh, and I see that out of Andrew Painter. I see that same sort of demeanor. There's a quiet confidence and athleticism. He's right handed, a little different, but he's every bit is tall, if not taller, because he's what sixty seven or sixt eight, but he's got great athleticism. I like his presence on the mound. He doesn't look like he gets rattled. Maybe he gets a little, you know, pissed off at himself when he doesn't when he doesn't perform. But but I like the fact that they're throwing him right into the fire.

00:18:57
Speaker 1: Why not.

00:18:58
Speaker 4: And it's gonna be on, you know, it's to be televised, so if you're not down here, you can tune into that. I think it's just gonna be kind of exciting. I know it's practice, it's spring training, but sometimes you know, it's a it's a great story in spring training.

00:19:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean, I feel like I'm saying about a lot of these guys, but just conversations with him, just he's a fun guy to talk to.

00:19:18
Speaker 3: He's very mature. He doesn't seem to be rattled by talking, you know, like some guys are.

00:19:23
Speaker 4: It's funny you talk to him, you talk to aight and Millier, you talk to Justin Crawford, and then you go look at the media guy and you're like, he's twenty two. He's twenty two, he's twenty one. You're like, these guys are very polished, very mature, very mature, very polished, and uh, very very likable and easy to want to root for.

00:19:45
Speaker 5: And hopefully though the fans will get a chance to reform.

00:19:48
Speaker 4: Real So, speaking of Crawford Wednesday today, that was a great catch against the center field wall.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: That was a great catch.

00:19:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, really good read, and it's one of the things that I've been really keying on it how he's handling it. And he's had two great reads, one going in and one coming back. The one going in was over in Dunedin, made a heck of a play in TD Park a couple of days ago. Nice read on a low line drive, broke right in on it, and then he broke very very well and an excellent angle on the ball and right center field. On a tough sun and win day, he had to work through the sun and had a great direct line to the ball, secured the baseball in the gap as he was crashing into the fence, I think. And so it's nice to see him have early solid returns in center field because he's gonna have to play a good solid center field, especially if he's not swinging the bat well in the early part of the season. You've got to make sure that he's securing the baseballs that he's supposed to secure in center field.

00:20:47
Speaker 3: All right, guys, that was fun Philly Show. We'll be back.

00:20:53
Speaker 1: Oh it's my time to say smell you later. Thanks for being with us, Smelly Lader Boy Jimmy.

00:20:58
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.