Kody and Co.

00:00:12
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Phillies Show from Ruben Tomorrow Junior Jim Salisbury. I'm todd z Lucky. It is Monday, May twentieth, twenty twenty four. The Phillies swept the Nationals over the weekend. They're off to the greatest start in Phillies history through forty eight games. Hi with the ninety three Phillies. I think the seventy six Phillies. They keep winning and winning and winning. They keep winning so much that last night, Reuben, I saw you had a little, uh sweep martini. You're calling it?

00:00:45
Speaker 2: What is this sweep martini? Man? We went back into our back into our little deck that we just finished off here and oh, that's your place, that's my place, baby. Wow, that's nice. That's right. So I had to go to a little sweep teeny. Uh, yeah, we were. We were thinking about going out and having a cocktail. Was well, let's just go hang out at our deck, all right. We had a little sweep teeny and uh celebrated a phenomenal series. By the by the fightings. It was just really spectacular.

00:01:22
Speaker 1: Are you a dirty martini guy?

00:01:24
Speaker 2: How what do you?

00:01:24
Speaker 1: How do you do it?

00:01:25
Speaker 2: Filth not dirty, filthy. I like the filth now it was I actually, you know, we shook it out myself. We've got a nice little uh we have a nice little speakeasy right off right as you enter our home. And then we we have we built a couple of decks out there outside. You don't get that too often here in Old City. But uh, we're very fortunate.

00:01:52
Speaker 1: You mean you're not a martini guy.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: I don't think no.

00:01:55
Speaker 3: I've never had one in my life.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: Are you a beer like a beer guy? You're just straight beer.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: I like to have a beer or a glass of red wine if I'm eating some pasta or pizza.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: But that's about you, Todd.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: I enjoy an old fashioned I will make old fashions. In fact, I make so many old fashions. I have the ingredients out of my kitchen counter upstairs. I make a big batch, throw the bottle in the freezer, so anytime I want it, I can just shake it up, pour it out of her thing ice and rock and roll from there.

00:02:25
Speaker 2: I love it. I'm actually a big fan of you. I'm a big fan of bourbon. I've actually been turned over the last two or three years. I got turned on a bourbon, and it's just the brown water's gotten me.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: It's gotten me gotten.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: What do you what's your what's your favorite bourbon?

00:02:43
Speaker 1: Todd Well, right now, just to mix these old fashions, I do a little Elijah Craig, I'll just do some Makers Mark as well, usually makers Mark, usual Makers Mark for an old fashioned keep it somewhat somewhat simple, very very nice at the end of the night, come more nice, Yeah, very nice. Speaking of very nice, Cody Clemens, it's just crazy how how big he's been coming up the last couple of days. The game tying home run two outs in the ninth thing on Saturday, my colleague Paul Cassella said the Phillies have only hit three of those home runs two outs ninth inning, game tying home run. Bryce Harper hit one last year, Trey Turner who went last year, and Cody Clemens hit one on Saturday night. Then he hits the go ahead double in the fifth inning on Sunday. Cody's batting three to twenty one, three doubles, one home run, our one triple, three home runs, ten RBIs a one point one six six ops in his first eleven games this season. That is insane. I look this up. There's only been forty one players ever that's had a run like that to start, you know, their first eleven games to start a season. You were one of those players.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: Are you serious?

00:04:02
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:04:03
Speaker 2: I know I had a good week like you had.

00:04:06
Speaker 1: You came up and now this is not doesn't mean from the beginning of the season, first eleven games of the season with the team in ninety three, Rubin, Yes, you came up and you had Cody Clemens week. It's a fun list because you look at it. You have Chase Utley's on there, Bryce Harper's on there, Mike Schmid's on there, Pat Burrell, Dick Allen, Chuck Klein, and you got Ruben Tomorrow and Cody Clements. What do you guys think of Cody clements play. It's been ridiculous.

00:04:36
Speaker 3: Rubin Tomorrow and Cody Clements both second generation Big leaguers. That's right, you know. I what I like? I love his swing. He's so short to the ball, Rubin, do you agree.

00:04:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's got a really good swing to be able to manage off the bench. It's one of the tough things, you know, It's one of the tough things to do is to is to manage the your barrel and get your barrel to the baseball. When you're coming off the bench, especially in this day and age, when the velocities are taller, obviously you got to be ready for the fastball. But I mean, he's done a nice job on all the pitches. He's hit a couple of cutters, he's hit a couple of change ups, he said, a couple of you know, more seamers, a couple of sinkers piece. I mean, here, here's where I'm at on him. For him to have gone down, I know, the feeling like you get sent down. You don't feel like you necessarily should have gotten sent down because he had a great spring. The numbers don't work for you. You can't put twenty seven men on the on the field on a roster. You have to have twenty six. And you know, he doesn't sulk. He goes down and he plays. And you know the fact that he played so well in spring training that means a lot a lot, and the way you handle yourself in spring training means a lot when it comes to like making a decision to bring it guy back to the big leagues. So he was not super hot when he was playing down there in Lehigh Valley, but he played well enough and sustained it well enough that hey, we need a left handed bat, let's bring him. And he's done extremely well. Man, I got to give him some love, and he's handled extraordinarily well. Not only that, but I think he's played great defense. I'm really surprised by it. But you know, he played at second base and he's been very solid during a couple of double plays, he's made some range plays. He doesn't look nervous or disappointed or like disappointment wasn't the like just join it. He just feels like pretty natural there. And I'm really impressed by that too.

00:06:43
Speaker 3: Jim, Well, I've been thinking a little bit about him this weekend. You know, obviously, you know, you grow up wanting to play in the big leagues. You get to the big leagues, you want to be an everyday guy. Everybody aspires to be an everyday guy, but not everybody is. And there still could be a place for the guy that plays off the bench. And he looked so good in that role. But you mentioned his swing holding up to be a potential bench guy. I think you know, he could have a future as that type of a player. I mean, just what we're seeing here in the short term. And the defense is an important part of it, but the fact that he gives you such a good at bat when he doesn't get those consistent at bats, and I just think it starts with boom. He's right to the ball, He's really short to the ball, and you could have a nice career, you know. I know, pinch hitting is probably not as important as it once was now that we have d H in both leagues, but you know, these guys are still very important when you're you're thinking about team construction, and when you're constructing a good championship caliber team, sometimes your edge players are hugely important to where you want to go, like a Greg Dobbs to those great Phillies teams. You know, he had great couple of great years and was a big instrumental part that team. And you know, so far, you know, it's only what you know, forty five games or so, but forty eight games. But you know, Cody Clemens is he's helped them win ball games, and that's what it's about. They're getting contributions really from every corner of their roster, and good job by him and obviously big dramatic home run a few of them.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: Is there any way for him? We're really jumping ahead of ourselves here because you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know how long a trade turner is going to take to come back. Could be sounds like he's getting somewhat close. He's running and he's fielding. He's going to hit take VP on the field this week. Supposedly, you don't know what's going to happen between now and then. But say Cody clements keeps playing well and hitting like this, is there is there any way he stays on this team. I have trouble seeing a way that he stays on his team. Maybe he gets optional. You just bring it back up.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: There's a way to stay on the team. Go to fourteen position players in twelve pitchers. There's no rule against that.

00:09:07
Speaker 1: That's true.

00:09:08
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, we played seasons with nine pitchers. I mean, with the way this team and the length that they have in their rotation, it is not beyond the possibility. Now he does have options, and so you know that that's the beauty of what Cody Cleintman springs to the table as well as as a front person in the front office. You know, you're you're loving the fact that this guy you can kind of do what you what you want with him. I think there's a maximum of how many times you do it during the course of the season. Was it four or five times? And then you can't option back down? But that said, it got a lot of flexibility with him. But they can go to twelve. They can go to twelve pitchers because they're they're their starters are going. You know, they're averaging like over six innings pitched per per start and so at least I don't know the exact numbers. I wish I had them in front of me, but I think it's like a six and a third or it's more than anybody. I can't imagine that there's another team that has more average innings per start than the Phillies. I mean, if it's one team that can do it, it might be the Phillies. You can go to twelve instead of having thirteen pitchers. Just a thought.

00:10:28
Speaker 3: Well, as we like to say, and we've seen something, something will present itself, and that's right. I mean, this thirty four and fourteen start matches ninety three and seventy six for the best start over forty eight games. And obviously they're just I mean they're cruising at thirty five thousand feet, but you know, still a long way from the landing strip. One of the things that I think becomes very important when you get off to a start like this is the skipper, and is the leader ship, and is the messaging. And I just love the messaging that Rob Thompson is imparting, and it's basically stay humble and stay humble because they've accomplished nothing. This is fun, this is tremendous, but we all know where the big shiny trophy is and it's in October and you need to you need to stack the pennies along the way, and they're doing a great job at that. And I also think they have the personalities in the clubhouse that they're not going to come off the gas. I mean, Harper's not going to let you come off the gas. He wants it so bad. Wheeler wants it so bad. He's not going to let you take your foot off the gas.

00:11:44
Speaker 2: Schureber Schreber.

00:11:45
Speaker 3: For Sureber's nuts about it. I mean he was pissed when they lost one game two weeks ago. But I really like the messaging of Rob that Rob Thompson is imparting, what do you think of it? Tom? To me? To me, it becomes a good challenge keeping everybody Boom focused because things are going so well, keeping everybody realizing that Boom, we haven't This is fun, but we haven't accomplished what we're really here for.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:12:11
Speaker 1: Rob's talked about that quite a bit over the past couple of weeks, because you know, the script has flipped so much of slow start, slow start, how you're going to dig yourselves out of it to now how you're going to keep your foot on the gas. And I think another thing that is a helpful reminder for the Phillies as they keep playing well and just to keep them hungry, I guess you could say, is the fact that the team they dispatched of in the last two postseasons was the Braves, and nothing is given to you. You know, you win one hundred five games in the regular season, it does not mean you're going to go to win the World Series, So keep that edge. So I think that's another reminder. But Rob is ideally suited to handling his clubhouse and that's that's a big reason why the players like him so much. He's got that good way of communicating and talking to these guys when things are going well, when things are going poorly, keeps them on an even keel. And I think he's going to be able to keep this team motivated throughout the summer to really wrap things up.

00:13:13
Speaker 2: And so this is the cool thing about this ball club that I really admire. You said, you know, teams take on the personality of the manager. So if you'll notice the Phillies are the best team in baseball, you don't see these guys doing all this gimmicky bs ho When guys hit home runs and putting the hats on and putting cloaks on and putting all that shit on their bodies and doing all those they expect to do these things. When you're a champion, you expect to do these things. And Rob, that's not Rob's personality. I don't know what decisions. Who made the decision that you know you needed, You don't need a home run hat and all that crap that you do in the They literally just enjoy winning and they expect to win, and so they're going about their business and they're really you know, after the daycare guys. Afterwards they pour some stuff on guys in the interviews. That's about the extent of like the you know, the swag that you see these guys, and they have swag. Believe me, they enjoy it and they're having fun, but they know that at the end of the day, it's about winning baseball games and not all the other bullshit that goes on. And I love that. I honestly love it. You know, it's nice to celebrate wins, and they should, and that's important, but but for me, it's and and you should be enjoying your successes. I don't want to sound like an old hat, you know, I don't want to sound like the old guy that you shouldn't. But like they genuinely their emotions on the field are genuine and they're not planned and it's not like a show. They're there to win baseball games and they do it in a really business like planet. But they also are having a lot of fun with each other.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: Do you like the little shimmy they do when they get I missed the I missed the cradle cradles the cradle is very clever.

00:15:11
Speaker 2: They're very there's a lot of clever stuff. I mean, Marsh's got a lot of personality, but he's super respectful. You know. Garrett Stubbs is sort of the class not the class clown, but you know, he's a guy has has has fun there, keeps keeps it, keeps it light. But you know, the young guys are actually when you start thinking about some of the guys who were younger, younger, not not young anymore, Scott Boom, Marsh in particular, those three guys, they're actually they're not showmen. They go out there and do their business and they play baseball and they play it well, really well, and they don't you know, don't go they don't do all the bullshit. You know, they have fun, but they don't. It's not it's not about the chrome.

00:15:59
Speaker 3: Todd was a big fan of the home run hat when they had it that year, the sobrero.

00:16:04
Speaker 1: That is not true.

00:16:07
Speaker 3: The time I pissed off Bryce by asking him about it. So they did the home run You.

00:16:11
Speaker 1: Remember that town, Yes I do.

00:16:13
Speaker 3: They were down eleven to one and Harper hit a home run and somebody put the sombrero on his head. So now they're down eleven to two. And I just thought like, wow, odd time for a celebration again. Smoked eleven to two and I asked him about it, and he wasn't I forgot what his answer was. It was a legitimate answer that you need to celebrate the moments, but he was clearly irked. I asked him about it. But funny thing is it disappeared the next year.

00:16:46
Speaker 2: And should have I mean, I listen, I'm about celebrating stuff. That's cool. I like it, but I like it to have it be more natural. Yeah somebody, Yeah, somebody hits a home run when it really means something, and you pump your fists and stuff like that. Or you make a big pitch and you strike a guy out and you get out of the inning and the guy's fired up. Jose Aldo, there's nothing wrong with that. That's like emotion, Dude. That's not a planned thing where you have to do a show and I did. That's what I really dig about this team, man, And that's sort of it's sort of like Rob Thompson's personality. I think that's really cool.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine what's going to happen this week if they break out of Cheesesteak hat you guys, are heads are gonna explode.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: Not do it sparingly on big wins, big home runs. Just save it for when you're like a big cheese steak hat. Save it for when you're really hungry, not like, you know, when he's been snacking all day.

00:17:47
Speaker 1: Ruben, you mentioned you mentioned Stott and Boem. I was looking at Stotts numbers. I mean, he's on it. He's on another ridiculous terrors. Last eighteen games, He's banging three eighty two, four doubles, one triple, four home runs, one point two four to two ops. And then I started thinking, Uh, I started thinking, Man, I wonder if he could make the All Star team this year after that terrible start he had. He had a five point fifty nine OPS through his first twenty five games. And Scott, I mean, I'm just gonna use war fangrafts war just as kind of like a baseline reference. Right now, he's third in the National League in war amongst third basemen. Kettle Marte's first Bryce terrank from the Brewers is second. So then I said, I wonder where everybody else ranks in the Phillies infield. Bryce Harper's first l in War amongst first basemen. Alec Bowm is first among NL third basemen, and uh Trey Turner is tied for third despite not playing for the past few weeks among NL shortstops. And I looked this up. The Phillies have not had three. They have not had two All Star infielders since two thousand and nine Utley and Ryan Howard. They have not had three All Star infielders since Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt Manny Trio in nineteen eighty two. Right now, we're seeing one of the best early season performances by any Phillies infield in recent memory.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I at the beginning of the year, NBC Sports Philadelphia asked us to do the pre and post in the beginning of the season first game. They asked us to make some predictions. I predicted this guy to win a batting title Stott Stott. I think he had an opportunity with the way he was sort of, you know, don't no disrespect that Luisa Rise, because Thelisa Rise gets nothing but hits. You know, he's he's like the was the Bo Baschett of the National League with accumulating hits. But I mean this guy's he's getting better and better, and he's not you know, in the early part of the season, he was sort of collapsing on his backside. He wasn't standing tall, he wasn't used his hands as well down to the ball. One of the issues was last year that he changed was to make sure his top hand was getting involved. He's getting his top hand involved. His hands are working beautifully. He's got really good choices when he's when he's at the plate, he swings at strikes generally, and he's a really good two strike hit. Excuse me, it's a really good two strike hitter. And so all those elements can help you put yourself in a position to be a batting title winner, just because he gives himself a chance to barrel the ball pretty consistently. I love the way he's bounced back. You know, there were some whispers in there for a little while and that first month and he was kind of cruising along that you know, you know, is he is he developing? Is something that happened to him, do we? I mean I heard some whispers about you know, you know, he does have options to you know, there's other guys like Cody Clemens and others. I don't think there's any real discussion about it. But but he had a really really terrible start. I mean, people forget and then he became Rice and Stot again and made the adjustments and now he's he's just spectacular. And yes, I do think that he is All Star caliber worthy because of his offense, but also because of his defense, because a man can play second base, and I know he's playing a lot more shortstop or a little bit more shortstop, but man, this guy can do it. You can do it, you can hit, can play.

00:21:35
Speaker 3: And Alec Bohm too. I mean, you've got two guys that are like knock knock knock on their prime, you know, like the door is opening to their prime years and they've both built really really strong foundations and you know they're probably have one leg through that door, but we're going to see it. You know, it's very possible. We're going to see a really good stretch of you know, four or five six years out of these guys, because you know, you have that veteran nucleus on this team with the Schwarbers, the Harper's, the real Mudos, and this next crew under them is a terrific group as well. I love that they have that in their chemistry and their makeup. You got guys that are well into their prime. You got guys just just entering it, and they all you know, meshed together, I mean very well. The chemistry on this team is really a beautiful thing. I mean, winning will do that. It makes everybody happy. It's why you want to come to the ballpark. Losing is miserable, but you know they're they're really you know, bom is he's leaving the Major's and RBIs who to thunk it? And two years ago when he was you know, maybe ticketed for Lehigh Valley or who knows where.

00:22:49
Speaker 2: So let me just make one comment against about with Bowman and Todd. You can chime, but I so Alec Boom yesterday goes shackles fly to right man on third, less than two outs, sacrifice line drive to write another sack fly for two. RBIs and then is last at bad He gets a couple of guys on and someone throws a piece of cheese and the inside part of the plate and he smokes it to left for a home run. I mean, this guy understands and he understood hitting really really well when he first got to the big League is one of the reasons why he was almost a Rookie of the Year and probably should have been a rookie year in twenty twenty. And that's short season. But to watch him situationally hit and his approach and his and now he's starting to understand when he can get out front or you know, turn on some balls, you to see some more home runs. You may not see forty home runs out of the guy ever, but that's okay because he's gonna end up hitting it in a high two eighties and driving in over one hundred runs every year. And if you do that, my friends, that's like all star caliber winning baseball. And that's what I love about the kid.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: Sorryference between him a couple. He believes he can do it now, he believes he belongs. The mind is so important at all this. He believes he can handle that pitch. You know, he didn't try to flay that pitch into into into right field. He saw it and his eyes went boom and his bat head came out and he murdered it.

00:24:20
Speaker 1: Well, Rubin, you said on the broadcast yesterday, I can't remember, or sometime over the weekend he was in a big spot and Harper was at the plate, and it's like, are they get to pitch to Harper? And he said, pick your poison. You want to go with Bryce Harper, who's one of the best in the game, or you want to go with the guy that just puts the ball in play and gets an RBI every time he steps to the steps to the plate, you know. And that's the thing about Boom I think it was great is that he does not strike out in those situations runners in scoring position. He's always putting the ball in play, always putting the ball in play. He see him have a bad at bat. Ever, with runners in scoring position.

00:24:54
Speaker 2: He's going to make Bryce Harper better. Remember we were talking about who's going to effect him at JT back there, and Jac's was fine. But the growth of and and when he started hitting, and I was like, when is Rob gonna throw him into that four hole? And Boom, he tossed him in the four hole and forget about it. I forget about it.

00:25:12
Speaker 3: By the way, he also, in addition to leading the majors in RBI's leads to majors in doubles.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: Yes, a good hitter, Yeah, both fields. He's great. He's been he's been fantastic, so again about a month ago before a month and a half to go before all Star teams are announced. But it will be interesting to see how many of those Phillies infielders make it. Band vote obviously a big part of it team. You know, overall one player has to come from every team, but you have right now. If Trey Turner comes back the next couple of weeks, you could have four guys in the conversation. That has not happened very often in Phillies' history. One other guy I wanted to mention real quick was something that jumped out the other night. Chris Sanchez is pitching, and uh, I'm not at the ball park. I'm sitting in my couch and I look up and I go, holy crap, this dude just through ninety eight miles an hour in the sixth inning. So me being a geek, I go on Baseball Savant the next morning and I check it out and I go, that was the fastest pitch he's ever thrown in the Big leagues in the sixth inning on Saturday night, and seven of his ten fastest pitches ever in the Big leagues came on Saturday night. That's pretty amazing that he is, you know, added, I mean that was the talk coming in this season. He's added some muscle to add some strength. It makes them more consistent with his delivery. But man, he's throwing the ball hard. It's making the change up better. He's looking pretty good as the Phillies number four four starter.

00:26:47
Speaker 3: He must you know, there are days when it just feels good coming out of your hand, and he's to me in ascending talent. He's getting better all the time. They really you look at the improvement they've gotten from Stott, Boom, Sanchez, even Rojas at the big league level, it just tells you development doesn't stop when you get here, and the people here are doing a really good job with him. But he's he's a really nice find. I mean, that was a heck of a trade getting that guy. You know, he plucked him out of a ball. I think they liked his arm, they liked his v low, they thought there was something there. They you know, buffed them up and they got themselves a major league starting pitcher. And that's a that's a big commodity in this game.

00:27:29
Speaker 2: So he is one of the pictures that has the most development that I've seen in a long long time, in a very short period of time, this is the guy was when they first got him. He was a thrower, had no idea where the what was going, had a really good arm. He could throw forty six ninety six ninety seven miles an hour. He had a big arm with no idea where he was going with it. I know he got to start in Boston a couple of years back, and you know, they had he had a spot start, and you're like, what are you gonna get out of this guy? He doesn't have a secondary pitch. Blah blah blah blah blah. Right, this guy has become a totally different player. He has He now can command his fastball much much better. And he did that starting last year towards the end of the year, and you can see the confidence starting to grow. He had the best single pitch I think in all baseball last year as far as like stats, whatever you want to call him. That change up was just electric last year. And I think hitters hit like twenty off of it or whatever whatever the number was, but it was that outstanding. Don't let the numbers getting away of a good story. And and the fact that you know, he's starting to develop. You know, they tried the cutter during the course of the spring. That didn't work out for him because he lost the feel of his change up. So he went back to his you know, slider and change up combination as his secondaries. And now he's gained so much confidence that he's firing that fastball with the same velocity he used to have now because he could command it and trusts it, and he trusts his ability to throw it for a strike. And as you said, Todd, that's making that change up so much more effective. And he actually threw some really good sliders his last outing. So he's starting to gain all of this stuff and confidence. And I'll tell you what, if you stand next to this guy, he's like six five, he's gigantic, he's tall, he's a big, strong dude, and he is he seems durable. I mean, it's it's it's a great It was a great trade. I think it was Matt clintac him in that trade. Get some love for that.

00:29:33
Speaker 1: And what's funny about that trade is that they traded Sanchez for Curtis Mead, uh low level infielder, and Curtis Mead kind of shot off as a prospect, and there was a couple of years there was like Philly's messed that one, a big time, big time Curtis Mead is going to be a stud. Christopher Sanchez, his velocity has dropped. Now he's a he's maybe he's a long guy, potentially maybe a reliever. He's not very good, And now the script is flipped because of continued development and now they have a really good number four star Rubin, you weren't too off Sanchez a change up. They hit one forty eight against them last season this year one seventy four, but only a two seventeen slug so like if they hit it, it's a weak contact. His ground ball rate is one of the top ground ball rates in all baseball. Everything is on the ground because that change up. He's been phenomenal. So let's look ahead real. We talked about this last week when you're answering listener questions, Phillies haven't played anybody, blah blah blah. They're playing the Rangers this week. They're five hundred, but they are the defending World Series champions. They're a bit of a mess right now with injuries. So Tuesday it's going to be John Gray versus Ranger Wednesday, Taiwan Walker is most likely going to return or stay in the rotation make his start after taking that ball off his foot. It sounds like that's going to happen, unless there's something crazy that happens for the next couple of days. Rangers do not have a starter named yet, but it could be left handed Andrew Haney, who's zero and five with a four four three ERA. And then Thursday it's gonna be.

00:31:09
Speaker 2: It's maybe Date. I'm sorry, go ahead, no, go, go go. I thought, I what is Wheeler? Are gonna be pitching on Thursday? I think yeah, because you want to stay in rotation.

00:31:19
Speaker 1: Right right right, it's gonna be Wheeler, I think versus and then the Rangers don't know who it's gonna be yet. Could be Dane Dunning could be coming back from the injured list, he's got a rotator cuff. Otherwise, it could be Jose Urania Adulas. Garcia is kind of banged up right now after a collision the other day, but he might come back. But it's it'll be a good test. I mean, they have the pedigree, no doubt. They're the defending World Series champions. So that should make this that should make this series a little bit of fun for those people clamoring for a top talented team. For the Phillies to sink their teeth into.

00:31:56
Speaker 3: Well, the eye test, I know they their schedule has been soft, just because the makeup of you know, most of the National League has a lot of soft teams. But the Phillies have done what you do to a soft team, you put them through the wood chipper. But the eye test tells me the Phillies are a good team. And you know, even beyond what the records of the opponents, I mean, we've we've kind of gone through so many of what we're seeing on the pitcher's model, what we're seeing on the offense. They're a good club, and I just the tests will get harder, but I still think one of the you know, obviously one of the biggest tests is just going to be over the next four months, just staying consistent, staying hungry, and everything that I see tells me they can pass that test.

00:32:42
Speaker 2: Totally agree, Jim. And they have some depth, you know, obviously on the bench, they have some depth in their rotation. I think that they're really improving. I mean the last from May first on, their bullpen has been top tier. It really has been. It's a top five and almost every single cat or e ra a whip batting average against. Since May first, it's been really, really good. You know, there's always everybody's panicking about it. I know, Sir Anthony Dominguez is one of the pieces of it, and he hasn't been as consistent as you would want him to be. I think he's getting a little bit better. But you got Kirkering, You've got Strom who's been phenomenal, You've got so you know, you've got Alvarado and Hopfmin who been terrific.

00:33:26
Speaker 3: Uh.

00:33:27
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think there's a whole lot of teams. There's a lot of teams are pretty envious of what they got in the back end of that. We've been too.

00:33:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, enjoy it.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, guys, we will be back later this week. Thanks for listening, thanks for watching on YouTube, and we'll be back.

00:33:44
Speaker 3: Have a great day, guys. Smell you later.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: Smell you Jim.

00:33:53
Speaker 1: This is The Philly Show. If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts. You can and also watch us on our YouTube channel. If you like what we do, give us a review, Tell a friend. Catch Rubenjim and Me on Phillies Nation TV, presented by Vallyforge Tourism. New episodes air an hour before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays air throughout the week and on Philliesnation dot com. Get more of Ruben's analysis during before and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network Rejim at the Allcity Network at allphly dot com. Find more of me at MLB dot com, the Philliesbnewsletter, and occasionally on MLB Network