Andrew Painter’s spring debut: two innings of hope and promise

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Zach Wheeler.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: Welcome to Philly.

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Shown Zach Wheeler, Andrew Painter.

00:00:10
Speaker 3: We're gonna be talking about all these guys, Rubin mar Junior, Jim Salisbury Todds.

00:00:14
Speaker 1: Like it's a Philly show.

00:00:16
Speaker 3: We're coming to you from Bake Care Ballpark in clear Water. It's Sunday, March first, twenty twenty six. Do you know what happened three years ago today?

00:00:25
Speaker 2: I think I do. I think Andrew Painter made his debut.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: He made his first Great League start ever.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: Today was his second Great Root League start ever, and it was a big one, of course, because he's trying to make this rotation kind of come back from Tommy John surgery complete the comeback.

00:00:43
Speaker 4: He's in the rotation.

00:00:44
Speaker 1: He's in the rotation. I shouldn't say try to come back.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: He's in the rotate.

00:00:47
Speaker 4: What you see today, I saw a kid that looked like a big leaguer poised. I mean, I know it's March first, I know it's two innings, but I know it's not a complete Yankee lineup. Some of the big guns were missing. But like I said, I thought he looked very poised. He threw a full depth of pitches, and I had that nice little kind of mini March first showdown with Jason Dominguez in the first inning, showed four different pitches got him swinging. I love what j t Romudo said after the game that the location on that slider was not perfect, but it was so sharp that you can get a big league hitter like that. I thought that was really insightful. You know, baby steps throughout spring training. But we are in the month of March. An opening day is in the month of March, and I expect this kid to be in the opening opening season opening rotation. It's finally here. We've been waiting for this guy forever. It seems like had a tough season last year with his control, but it seems like he's grown a lot and learned a lot, made that armslot adjustment, and everybody you talked to in camp, Ruben just raves about his command. Again, I caution it is practice and his spring training. You got to do it when the third deck and the lights are on. But for this time of year, pretty pretty good reports and reviews and results today.

00:02:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, one of the things that that you'll never have to worry about. I don't think is his poise, because he's a really mature kid. We had him on afterwards and UH talk to him a little bit on UH on the broadcast, and he was just very relaxed and poised and mature. That's something that you hear that that way of describing him a lot, and he showed that on the mound today.

00:02:29
Speaker 2: The thing that I was really impressed with was that while he.

00:02:32
Speaker 5: Didn't have terrific command his life on his fastball, especially against some guys who can really turn on fastballs, he got it past a couple of guys on really good fastball hitting players. He got it on him pretty good. And when you you do that and you're expecting a fastball and you get it and you still cannot make good herd contact on it, that's that's an impressive piece. Didn't get a chance to use his whole arsenal because he was pretty efficient, got a lot of outs pretty quickly, so he wasn't I used I know, he used all of his pitches, and he did start off I think the second inning with a pretty darn good breaking ball. But though it was nice to see him get on the mound and to perform and hopefully I'll catapult him as we he works his way through March.

00:03:18
Speaker 3: Heg talked about how it was a good fastball hitting team and he liked the fastball off of him, and you know, and he also mentioned this. You know, Andrews seemed kind of like, I'm glad this is over. He seemed very polished, very mature. You know, he had a long postgame workout. I was telling Jim, I said, he might must be on like the Roy Halliday post game workout regiment. But I guess he's just doing a lower body left because they're off tomorrow. So he said, I had to knock it out and get it out of the way. But I just continue to be impressed by how put together he is. Mentally, he's very mature. He talks a lot about his routine before the game. He had the earbuds in just kind of you know, just listening to music or listen to whatever he listens to, just kind of going through his pregame routine, went out there, did what he needed to do. And Rob Thompson said after the game was cool. He came off the field and he had a little smile on his face. So, you know, even though he kind of downplayed it to us, Jim talking to postgame, even a you rubin during the game.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: Deep down inside, I'm sure he's pretty happy.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: That he pitched that should have been.

00:04:26
Speaker 5: I think that that I really like about the kid is not not just his we've talked about, not his mental makeup, but also his athleticism.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: I always believe that a picture.

00:04:38
Speaker 5: Has a chance to be a much much better and more polished pitcher overall, because you've got great if he has great athleticism. Some of the guys I think about, you know, the Greg mannox Is of the world, the Tom Glavins of the world, Smoltz, you know, Cole Hammils, and you know, those types of pictures are all We're all really good athletes. They could do things with the bad Zach Wheeler was a good hitter, good fielder. I mean, those guys can make body adjustments much much quicker. And for a guy who's this tall and this big, for him to have the sort of athletics and ability to make his body do with what he wants it to do, you've got a chance to have a good one with with the guy who's this athletic, and that's a that's a really good sign.

00:05:24
Speaker 4: Too, And he was so efficient today. The outs were so quick. They would have liked to have worked on the throws that split change a little bit more, but the outs were so quick they didn't get a chance to do that. So that'll be something to watch a little bit as he progresses. I think Rob said he'll put Saturday.

00:05:41
Speaker 1: Pitch Saturday again.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: Bill, he keeps building up, and yeah, I say, he's, you know, kind of trying to complete the journey in the rotation.

00:05:49
Speaker 2: But he's yeah, he's gotta earn it. He's got to earn it.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: But I mean he's basically I think it's blown out the street.

00:05:56
Speaker 2: Times that might be different, but I don't see that happening.

00:05:59
Speaker 1: Then they're in full panic, but I don't.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, they need him. They are very thin in that rotation.

00:06:04
Speaker 4: They need this guy to be there, and they need him to take down some innings and look like he belongs. Just like the kid in center field. You just want to see that they look like they belong. They're not over their head. And today, I'll tell you what he did not look over his head. I know it's early, but he very encouraging.

00:06:18
Speaker 2: Nice first step.

00:06:19
Speaker 1: So hey, there we go.

00:06:22
Speaker 3: Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube if you're watching, please we're trying to get to fifteen thousand descriptions. Come on, let's make it happen everybody, and of course, go to the Philly showshop dot com to pick up your Philly Show swag. It's been really cool down here. We've all been running to people that have been listening or watched the show. Everybody's so nice. Thank you so much, so nice, real nice, real nice, Clark real nice. So thank you to everybody. That's a lot of kind words. We opened the show with our Zach Wheeler open. Yes, and that's because Zach through his second bullpen of you know, since his surgery on Sunday went well, you know, he's he's on a on.

00:07:08
Speaker 1: A good track. The other day, Rob says, you asked the question.

00:07:12
Speaker 3: Jimmy said, Rob, is it possible that this is kind of like day one of a six week build up? And Rob said, yeah, I think that's possible, and then I'm sitting.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: He kind of backed off a little bit.

00:07:25
Speaker 3: But then you talk to Zach the next day and he's kind of like, yeah, this is the beginning of a six week build up. He says, I've come into camp feeling about the same. Sometimes I come into camp and I haven't thrown off the moll once. Sometimes I've thrown four to five times. But I think I feel pretty good, pretty you know. So, I said, well, April six weeks from whenever we talked to him. I said that was April ninth, from first bull and he said, yeah, he's like, so, I can't wait to see when he comes back.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: April ninth, you take it? How about April twentieth, the over, the under.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: April number, April gonna, I'm gonna take the under.

00:08:07
Speaker 1: So you're saying before I'm going to take.

00:08:09
Speaker 2: The under only because for no other reason, it's just a gut feeld. Just having talked to him, I got a chance to talk to him right after his bullpen today.

00:08:16
Speaker 5: Uh sat down with him and it was really really cool because he was just him, It was himself. It was like, not no big deal, like he just felt good. It was interesting. I did ask him if he was working on anything in particular. He said, I'm working on this split grip that sort of started to develop at the end of the year last year. This is what the great ones do, man, they get they try to get better every year, right, Zach didn't really feel all that great about the last offseason about getting left handers out, So he's, you know, developing different pitches, maybe the cutter or whatever the case may be. This split is a pitch that he feels really good about, particularly at the end of the year. Last year he started messing with him more consistently, but he was telling me that he was work He and Caleb Kapfin got together and talked about how what different grips guys are using for splits, and he was telling me about how he holds it in a certain way on the horseshoe, and that if he spins it the other way, some of the other guys like the average break on it has been like two or three inches greater than the one he was using, So now he is spinning it and putting in a different position. He said he felt really good about that particular pitch. Can you imagine him, He's coming up with a nice little split piece with all the other stuff that he's got and being able to master that.

00:09:38
Speaker 2: It's something that he feels like He's.

00:09:40
Speaker 5: Always had a decent change up, but not something that he can rely on. Consistently, and I think if he can develop that pitch and get to the point where where he can throw it a little bit more consistently with that continued bite, that could be lights out for some NL hitters.

00:09:57
Speaker 2: So a really interesting discussion with him.

00:09:59
Speaker 5: He just felt like it was like a normal bullpen for him, And that's a great sign.

00:10:04
Speaker 4: I've been thinking late April, early May, and I guess April twentieth is technically late April. Yeah, yeah, it is April. He's gonna do everything he can get. He wants to get back as soon as possible. He's a competitor. Just gnawed at him to miss the time he missed last year at that time of the year, that important time of the year in the postseason. I know he wants to get back as quick as possibly said it the other day. He feel like, I'm ready to go. I'm going to go because I even suggested, you know, if it's May first, is that the worst thing in the world. Maybe you have a few extra bullets for October because that's where the big prize is. But he's he doesn't want to hear about that. He's if he's ready to go, he'll be fine in October so April twentieth. The way he's looking now and just kind of reading his body language, and I think he's gonna Obviously the team is going to put down their plan, but I think he's going to be driving the boat a little bit too, having some input.

00:10:59
Speaker 2: We've talked about this before.

00:11:00
Speaker 5: I really believe the ball Bukite who runs their their medical stuff and as the head trainer. I mean, they're brilliant people. They do a great job. They're not going to allow him to push forward unless they feel like he is physically ready to do it. But but you're right, I mean he will drive the bus if he's feeling fine. He's not gonna lie to him. He's not gonna put himself in jeopardy. He doesn't want to do that for the team. I think that, you know, but I think that the results and the way he feels will let him progress as he wants to.

00:11:33
Speaker 4: But if it's May one, I'm fine with it because of season only four starts right, and he's so important to this teamt you know, with him and Sanchez, you have two aces. It's so important that he comes back and comes back right. And if that means the extra few days you do it.

00:11:48
Speaker 2: And that's the thing. That's the thing that Dodgers did with a lot of their guys last year. Right now, Dodgers, they slowly rolled them.

00:11:54
Speaker 5: They knew that they had a good team, they knew they were going to be a contending team, and they either win a division or be in the playoffs.

00:12:00
Speaker 2: Let's make sure these guys are right at the right time. And I think the Phillies will do the same thing.

00:12:04
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny those that when you asked him that question, Jim, he said, yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna you know.

00:12:10
Speaker 1: Just slow, slow play. It's just a slow plate and goes. Octob has really never been a problem for me much.

00:12:16
Speaker 3: He said something along those lines like, basically, I'm usually okay even with a full workload in October, so I'm not gonna.

00:12:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'll be okay regardless if.

00:12:24
Speaker 3: He comes back April ninth or May first, And there's certainly no reason.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: In other seasons he was pitching with two full racks of ribs and he's also gonna turn thirty six this year. I don't think May first is the end of the world.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: No, I don't think it's the end of the world.

00:12:40
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's that's cool about the that spoot grip.

00:12:43
Speaker 2: It's really neat.

00:12:44
Speaker 5: It was a good it was a nice little piece of intel and yeah, and and something that you know, again there's so much technology around there. They can actually see other guys grips and break them down and video them and you know, stop them. And they looked at it and they analyzed it. And that's one of the things that the analytics can bring to the to the table, is that sort of stuff that's really intriguing things.

00:13:07
Speaker 4: Well.

00:13:08
Speaker 1: As a little side.

00:13:08
Speaker 3: Note, talking to Ryan Kirkering yesterday, he threw his first bullpen of the spring, and he said he threw a couple splitters and that's a pitch he's introducing and asking him about that, not only from the technology side, but he said, you know a lot of these pitchers go on like pitching Ninja and they show their grips. So he went on, he said, I was watching some YouTube videos of Logan Gilbert split and how he threw overs his how he grips it, and now he kind of his thought process and throwing it and all that stuff, and so you know, they get it off of YouTube they get it off with those high speed cameras and all those things, and so you know, Kirkering same thing. He was watching some Logan Gilbert video this offseason trying to learn how to throw a split, which he's got one of the best.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: Ones in the game.

00:13:51
Speaker 5: I was, Yeah, it would be great for him to add that pitch to him. You know, he's basically a two pitch pitcher if he can add that. No, he he's mixed in some sinkers now, but it'd be great for him to be able to have another piece of the arsenal because the left handers have had some success against him, and if he has that split, it might you know, that that might neutralize a little bit.

00:14:10
Speaker 3: So let's switch gears here and talk about Aiden Miller, who we were everybody was hoping to see at shortstop third base early on in camp, and he's got this back. That's really lucky bawky to say the least. He missed the final few games of the Triple A season. I took him out of the Arizona Fall League. He had all off season, comes to camp and starts bothering him again, and there's really no timetable for his return and talked to Dave Debrowski about it on Saturday, and he said, you know, there's some thought that he could still be ready by opening day of the Triple A season, which I think is March twenty seventh, right the day after the Phillies have their season openers. So but right now, you know, he's not really doing much, you know, on the field, on the field.

00:15:01
Speaker 2: He saw him.

00:15:02
Speaker 4: He's not doing much at all.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Not doing much at all, right.

00:15:04
Speaker 3: I mean we saw him literally the other day throwing very lately against the wall.

00:15:09
Speaker 4: I mean his backurts. When your back hurts, you can't do much, so how especially swing, turn, you know, and be rotational.

00:15:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, And and Dave said he has a little bit of concern about it. I asked him, I said, is this a chronic thing? He says, I I don't. I can't say if it's a chronic back injury or not. But he is twenty two, so it's concerning to me.

00:15:32
Speaker 4: It's absolutely concerning. When he was one of the guys you wanted to look at in spring training get some time at third base, and he can't get on the field at this point, I don't even know if we're going to see him a great Fruit League game because he's got to do another build up here, and you know, maybe if when he does get back on the field, it's next door. You gotta go easy, you gotta knock this thing out, and you gotta hope it doesn't pop up again, because this is the second time. So it's definitely a concern.

00:15:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it reminds me a little bit of Cole Hamil.

00:15:58
Speaker 5: Cole Hamil's there was an issue with him, but he did a lot of work, a ton extensive work to put himself in a position to never have it be an issue for him. He literally almost never had it be an issue long term. This is probably something that you know, Aiden Miller might have to He may have to incorporate a back program such that. And it'll be interesting to see if Cole Hamils actually does hook up with Aidan Miller, because Cole's around here from time to time to talk about that, because I mean, he'd be a perfect example of a guy who diligently worked at it to the point where it didn't effect it didn't affect him during the course of his career. And you know, listen, backs are tricky. I think Harper had a back issue for a little while as well. So listen, he's going to have to take care of it. It's going to be something I like I said, the medical people are going to be really cautious with him.

00:16:49
Speaker 2: There's no rush for this man. He's got to put himself in a position to make sure that he's ready physically and then go about his business. But the hope is that this is not a long term.

00:17:00
Speaker 4: Issue, and Gabriel Rinconas has another prospect where you going to look at crushes righty pitching. He hasn't been out here yet because a bad knee.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:17:14
Speaker 3: I talked to him the other day and he's got basically kind of has like tenonitis and both you know, in his knees, had like a p RP treatment in the off season and it just hasn't taken like he had hoped. So he you know, he's, you know, very frustrated by this, of course, you know, Yeah, he remember that first postseason press conference at the ballpark, the famous, the famous one with David Dobrowski. He mentioned Rinconas as a possible contributor this season at some point. So the fact that Rinconas isn't actually able to get on the field either, as there's certainly.

00:17:45
Speaker 1: Something to watch.

00:17:46
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you get talked about a guy with knees and knees they're bothering along, you know for a while, same thing like Miller's back.

00:17:52
Speaker 1: So you hope both of those guys can kind of work their way through.

00:17:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, some of your vest ability is your availability, and you want to make sure, especially when you're a young player, that that you're healthy on the field because it will affect the way you go about your business. I mean as much as you you know, as much as you like to say guys you know, tough, tough it out, well, the reality of it is if you cannot perform, I mean, these are the this is the elite of the elite. So if you're not physically prepared to be able to perform, it's hard hard for you to mentally get over that and uh and and to physically perform the way you want to. So love to get these guys back out there and at some point during the course of March.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:18:30
Speaker 2: They you know, because of the.

00:18:32
Speaker 5: WBC, they would be getting a lot of reps here, so it's really important to get them onto the U onto the field.

00:18:38
Speaker 4: You can't tough out a bad back, bad lower when you're bending constantly for ground balls or talking in your swing, talking.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: In your throat no way affects everything you do.

00:18:51
Speaker 3: So let's talk World Baseball Classic. World Baseball Classes is going to be on Fox when all of our World Baseball Classic coverage is brought to you by our friends at Fox one, which is live stream all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over the next few weeks, and after all that, all the MLB action on Fox.

00:19:15
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to the WBC just because there's so much Phillies representation, so many.

00:19:19
Speaker 2: Different tune ton of them across the board, i mean, every phone.

00:19:23
Speaker 5: The team Israel, there's Team Italy, there's all types of I mean Mexico.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: Everybody's pretty much represented.

00:19:32
Speaker 5: And it's really nice to see that the you know, guys like Dante Norri's getting the chest but to face you know, international international play, some you know, some of the best players in the game.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: It's a it's a pretty cool situation. And then Team Canada's coming in a couple of days here to play, to play here against the Pills.

00:19:51
Speaker 3: It'll be nice to see some of the boys yeah, you got you know, you have Harper. Bryce Harper left with Team USA with Shoreburn Brad Keller.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: After Saturday's game in Duneden.

00:20:00
Speaker 3: He watched Christopher Sanchez just throw the crap out of his change up and it was so good. Seven swings on that change up. The Blue Jays did not make contact once on that change up, to say, and Harper knows that, I think they could face the dr in the semi finals if both teams get that far, and so he was talking about the prospects of that. He was also, you know, you know, talking about maybe facing some other guys in the Phillies rotation.

00:20:29
Speaker 2: Hazus's arta.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: We talked to.

00:20:30
Speaker 3: Him Sunday morning, and he's basically on the Venezuelan reserve team.

00:20:36
Speaker 5: It sounds like he'll probably be on the team because there's all the Venezuelans aren't getting any insurance, right.

00:20:41
Speaker 4: If they go deep, if they're in the championship game, he may parachute in and pitch that game.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: Jim said. And so it is great.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: So Jesus is talking about that, I'm on the reserve team, this and that, and you know, if they get deep, I might go in and go and then Jim goes kind of like a ringer.

00:20:58
Speaker 2: Huh.

00:20:58
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, we'll see what happened.

00:21:00
Speaker 2: Absolutely like a ringer.

00:21:01
Speaker 3: I mean, all of a sudden, you know, Venezuela gets to the semi finals championship game and Jesus Zarda comes in.

00:21:10
Speaker 1: That would be fun.

00:21:12
Speaker 3: So so Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwber could be facing Christopher Sanchez in the semi final, and if they get past them and get to the final, they could possibly be facing Jesus Wizardo and Venezuela in the final.

00:21:25
Speaker 4: And he'll have some innings under his belt at that point, and he'll be above the yeah sixty well above the sixty five pitchlim and I guess by.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: Then, yeah, absolutely, So that.

00:21:35
Speaker 4: Could be very very intriguing possibility.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I am looking forward to it.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: So.

00:21:41
Speaker 3: I so people that aren't like so sure about the WBC ED, I mean, like you can tell by talking to players, they're all really excited about it.

00:21:49
Speaker 1: I talked with Garrett Stubbs the other day.

00:21:51
Speaker 3: He's playing for Team Israel, as he said, and he's like, are you gonna come down to a game because they're playing in Miami.

00:21:56
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure. He's like, you really should come down.

00:21:58
Speaker 3: It is absolutely unbelievable if you can. I know that's a big ask to like get in the car and drive to Miami or whatever. But he's like, it is so much fun. He's like, you would never think from playing in that ballpark. He's like, you know, when we're there, it's like forty five hundred people, eight thousand people, whatever the number is like, but that park is so much fun when it's jam packed.

00:22:20
Speaker 1: And people are excited.

00:22:21
Speaker 3: He's like, he's like, I really think you should try to get down there and see a game. And it doesn't matter what game it is, who it's against. Is like, it is an absolute blast. And so you know, these players really aren't board and I know a lot of people are like, you know, pitching wise, you're like, ah, Terry.

00:22:35
Speaker 1: Schooball and Paul Skains and do you want wizarda going?

00:22:38
Speaker 3: But the thing, the word's gotten out now that a lot of these guys want to compete.

00:22:43
Speaker 4: It's pretty sure the hockey team's victory men and women stirred up a little international juices for these guys, and Stubbs is right when that ballpark, that's a great Ballpark in Miami. It's well constructed. It's a nice, pretty ballpark. It's a nice size when it when it's hopping, it's a fun place. We just never see it hoppen.

00:23:05
Speaker 3: Right from the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup, to NASCAR and Indy Car.

00:23:11
Speaker 1: With Fox One, you get it all live.

00:23:12
Speaker 3: Start your seven day free trial today offers our subject to change. Download Fox one today and stream the World Baseball Classic live March sixth of the fourteenth. Go to Fox one dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox one streaming. Now that's my that's my announcer.

00:23:33
Speaker 2: How do you do it?

00:23:34
Speaker 4: I don't know if you if you pass it on to us, if you read all time New Challenge, I'm not reading it twice.

00:23:40
Speaker 2: I can do little.

00:23:41
Speaker 1: Brockmeyer of course, all that what a show rocker. I would love to do the Brockmeer voice.

00:23:47
Speaker 2: Uh so that was.

00:23:48
Speaker 1: Anything else that we want to talk about real quick? I think that Jimmy Jimmy wrote down swinging. Yeah, we should talk about Bryson Scotts.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: Listen.

00:23:57
Speaker 5: I've been a big proponent of Bryson for a lot of years. I know it wasn't like the year that they wanted to have at him the last couple of years.

00:24:06
Speaker 2: But I do believe and I had.

00:24:07
Speaker 5: Another great talk with with k Long, with Kevin Long about him. Uh, he's just sort of picking up where he left off, driving the ball through the middle of the field.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: He's swinging it strikes. I know John Kruck talks about this a little bit.

00:24:21
Speaker 5: Sometimes it feelds you almost feel like he's not done a really good command of the strike zone. But now when he is in a much better hitting position, I think he sees the ball better.

00:24:30
Speaker 2: He's driving the ball it.

00:24:32
Speaker 1: Almost he got it kind of like.

00:24:35
Speaker 5: Hand, but he back spun it and he's got had some leverage to it. And I just like, you know, these directness, his directness to his to his path right now, and you know, this is a guy that they really need to have success because.

00:24:51
Speaker 2: It lengthens out that that lineup so much better. They need him on the base pass, he can steal bases, he can do some things.

00:24:59
Speaker 5: Uh. Hopefully he's starting to become the guy that they hoped he be. And I still have I have a lot of I'm really bullish on this guy because I instinctively he really knows how to play the game, and I always feel like those guys eventually will come to the surface, even offensively. Kind of like the guys I don't know, Ozzie Smith and and and Omar Vascal not great hitters offensively when they first started in the major leagues, but sort of got to that point where they got better and better and better because of their basic instinct in the game.

00:25:34
Speaker 3: Well, Jim and I talked to him the other day and he was pretty you know, pretty interesting talking to him about how he is approached last season, he's I kind of just turned left field off the second half of the year. He just moved the guy a little bit closer to play, as you know, he lowered his hands, and he's tried to just you know, focus on hitting where the ball is pitched, you know too, So if it's on the outside, you know, take it to the outside.

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Said he said.

00:25:56
Speaker 3: Sometimes during this during game, he'd be like, in this that bat, I want to hit the ball the opposite field. So he said, he tried to finagle his bat his barrel around to try to get it to the left field and they have a slow roll.

00:26:05
Speaker 4: They took that out.

00:26:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, took the waggle out and.

00:26:08
Speaker 4: He was pretty clear he does not want a platoon. He wants to play one sixty two. He understands they have a gifted player and so so that needs time to stay sharp. But he would like to play one sixty two if possible. Thompson acknowledges that desire, but admits that is such a good player, is almost a cut above typical utility man. You need to get them at bats. I mean, if it does become a semi platoon, I still think it can be very very productive with both players really chipping in nicely.

00:26:41
Speaker 3: But everything he's done so far the spring is kind of a carryover from what he how he finished, So there's there are reasons of being.

00:26:46
Speaker 2: Courage quality at bats against some left handers. Yeah, yeah, this is great.

00:26:50
Speaker 3: Great side the home run the other day, the double the other day, the right center field he ripped it.

00:26:54
Speaker 1: Those are all off left east. So guys, we'll be back later this week.

00:26:59
Speaker 4: We will, and we'll smell you.

00:27:02
Speaker 2: Lenna.

00:27:02
Speaker 4: Thanks for being with us, Jim.

00:27:04
Speaker 3: The Philly Show is brought to you by the Foul Territory Network. Subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.