We've Only Just Begun

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hi, This is Chase Utley and this is the Phillies Show. Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Philly Show. Rubenamar Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd so lucky. Monday, July fifteenth, twenty twenty four, the Phillies finished the first half with sixty three wins, franchise record sixty two wins. At the All Star break, they finished the first half with a eighteeny three bludgeoning by the Oakland A's. It was like the most bizarre way to end, like the greatest first half in franchise history. They play so great all first half, dominant starting pitching, fantastic offense. And then yesterday at Citizens Bank Park, the A's just hit a barrage of home runs. Garrett Stubbs finishes on the mound, and I thought Kyle Schwarber summed it up, beast. He's like, well, this is when you need to kind of, you know, look at the big picture. Today's a good big picture day. As you go in to the second half and you spread across the country, you remind yourself that, you know, it was a pretty fun, fun first few months, and you know, you remind yourself that were in pretty good shape going into the second half, and you remind yourself that the eyes are on the big prize, which is the World Series, and so they I don't think they were too happy, but I also don't think they were too crushed, because this is not the twenty sixteen Phillies. Twenty seventeen Phillies on their way to ninety wins or ninety losses. They'll be okay, but good, good first half of the Phillies other than yesterday, right.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yesterday was pretty ugly. One question was was that game sponsored by little known as or Ralph because there were a lot of meatballs.

00:01:58
Speaker 1: There are a lot, There are a lot of meatballs yesterday. I mean, you have Larry Butler hitting a couple of bombs, and then you know, Brent Ruoker hits a couple of bombs. Brent Ruoker, who right handed bat, right corner outfielder, not really corner outfielder, more of a DH but hits a couple of bombs over the back. That was the first time ever batter's hit two four hundred fifty foot home runs or more since stat Cast started measuring the same game. That's how that's how bad. That's how many home runs?

00:02:29
Speaker 3: Right yeah? He does.

00:02:33
Speaker 4: He's got some bat speed, and he handles and he hits the ball to the all fields. If he wanted to audition for the Phillies, he certainly put on a show.

00:02:42
Speaker 3: But my dad, as my dad would.

00:02:44
Speaker 4: Say back in the day, if it was a tough game like that, he would say, they threw a shoe.

00:02:52
Speaker 5: He threw a shoe.

00:02:54
Speaker 3: He threw his shoe. It was it was ugly.

00:03:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a disappointing effort by Michael Mercato, who I like as a young man. I might like the kid, but he just has, especially over his last couple of outings, just not able to command anything. I really like his arm. I really like his breaking ball. He's got an excellent curveball, but that curveball was shaped differently. It's not breaking in the twelve to six fashion. It's more, you know, sort of ten whatever, ten five or whatever. It's just not the same sort of break. And he's not able to command it. He can't command your fastball, he can't command your best pitch.

00:03:40
Speaker 3: You're in trouble.

00:03:40
Speaker 4: And he left a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate and even got a little tidbit funny story. I was driving up here to Carbondale and lo and behold, I run into Topper Rob Thompson at a stopped random as he's driving up to As he's driving up to Canada. It was hilarious. I pull up and I'm looking to my right. I go, that's I could see his gate, you know, guy he sort of walks with sort of a side to side gate and I'm.

00:04:18
Speaker 3: Like, that's Topper. So I stopped the car, rolled down him and I said hey. He looked at me, He's like, what are you doing here? It's hilarious. I took a picture of him there.

00:04:28
Speaker 4: I pt the picture a couple of friends of mine and I was like, it was so funny.

00:04:34
Speaker 3: We were sitting here.

00:04:35
Speaker 4: So anyway, he was he was concerned that maybe it got to the point where guys were tipping pitches or something like that, because they were getting tattooed so badly.

00:04:44
Speaker 3: But it's weird.

00:04:46
Speaker 5: I don't know.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were tipping. That's some of that stuff was right over the plate.

00:04:50
Speaker 4: Oh no, that's why I told him. I said, you know, I just hadn't my advantage point watching the game partially from the ball park and partially from the studio.

00:05:01
Speaker 3: It looked like.

00:05:01
Speaker 4: There's a lot of pitches that were literally right down Broad Street and then the nitro zone.

00:05:06
Speaker 1: Well, the only reason that Mercado even sniffed yesterday was because Zach Wheeler could not pitch because he's had the back issue. And you know, talk to Zach yesterday. He's going to come back the second series following the All Star break in Minnesota, so he's gonna have about twelve or thirteen days between starts. So, you know, Zach Wheeler, they want to keep him healthy, so they skipped his start yesterday. They're going to push him back in the rotation. That rotation guy's first half phenomenal performance. Nothing I've seen close to that since twenty eleven, maybe go back even further than that. I can't remember a time of rotate. Philly's rotation was his dominant in the first half with Wheeler, Sanchez, Suarez, Nola, three All Stars. Nola could have been an All Star if he really dig into those numbers. He's really has some All Star worthy numbers as well.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, the rotation was great, but you know they end the first half was concern. You know, Zach Wheeler doesn't make a start Ranger Suarez has said, really, three poor ones in a row and the fourth one was only so so, so you know, there's two big concerns there. And until those guys are back on the mound looking like themselves, you know, I will continue to have those concerns because this team is built on pitching. We saw this weekend what happens when you don't get good pitching. One of the worst teams in baseball lights you up. And that's what happened. They didn't get that, and in particular, you didn't get that good starting pitching. I know yesterday was a it was a bullpen game, but All Star Break hitting at the right time. You know, Zach Wheeler went from his back tightened up in the in the dugout.

00:06:55
Speaker 5: Between innings too.

00:06:56
Speaker 2: He's had it for two or three starts, to having an MRI, to missing a start to now getting twelve days off, So.

00:07:03
Speaker 5: You know, right, yes, I'm concerned.

00:07:05
Speaker 2: You know, Ranger Suarez went from from a bad one to dead arm to now he's gonna type back. He's not gonna pitch on the All Star Game. I'll be concerned until I see him back looking like himself.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, totally, agree with you, Jim.

00:07:21
Speaker 4: My concerns are different from with Zach then with them with Ranger.

00:07:27
Speaker 3: With Zack it's the back.

00:07:29
Speaker 4: I'm hopeful that it's just tightenus and it's just bothering them and it's no big deal. Backs are tricky, as we know, they can be very tricky. Cole Hamil's has to deal with it even at times you see you see Bryce Harper having to deal with it from time to time. They're they're sort of a tricky thing because they're attached to everything right, and so you hope that's okay.

00:07:54
Speaker 3: And then with Ranger, it's.

00:07:56
Speaker 4: More of a workload thing for me because he works soon many innings in the first part of this and so many ups and downs in the first part of this season that he's it's sort of in a area where he's never been in his career, and so it's important for him to sort of bounce back and get the rest necessary and be refreshed and start pitching the way you know he was pitching in the early part of the season, because he was, you know, Cliff Lee like like a robot man.

00:08:30
Speaker 3: It was unbelievable.

00:08:31
Speaker 4: And I made mention to this, I guess I'm pre and poster at some point where I felt like he was throwing with the ball with a lot more effort over the last.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: Couple of games.

00:08:41
Speaker 4: You can see him just trying to make his pitches instead of just letting them happen fluid and easy. He's trying to spin that breaking ball, and he's trying to get that fastball to its spot, and it just looked like he had a lot more effort to his delivery. And I have a feeling that it might be have to do with some fatigue uh in his overall body and arm. And hopefully this break will get them, get them going again and get them.

00:09:10
Speaker 3: Refreshed to uh to roll through the second half.

00:09:13
Speaker 4: Because you're right, Jim, if they're not pitching, uh, it makes life really difficult. Look at look at some of the teams out there. I mean, you can talk, you can talk about all the teams that are that are struggling. If it's not starting pitching, man, you're in trouble.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: Well you know you say, Jim, you used the word concern. And Rob Thompson before the game he started, was asked if he is concerned about his rotation. He said, I don't want to say I'm concerned, concerned, but it's always on my mind. Like you said, this team is built on starting pitching, and he he basically said late August. There's a stretch of games in like late August, early September. He's like, we're probably going to go to a six rotation. Now they've done that each of the last week. But he you know, sometimes the managers and I understand why you don't want to commit too early. Then you don't do it and you're not getting all these questions asked. The next few is why you're not doing it? But he said, we're probably going to go to a six man at some point, and it's probably here's the pocket of games it was like late August, early September where we're going to go to a six man because they have to have Wheelers who as healthy. They have to have Nola and Sanchez healthy, because you don't want to be going in there with one of those guys down. And now you're going to is it Spencer Turnbull, he's not really back yet, is it Taiwan Walker still doesn't have to split or whatever's happening at that time. So something to keep an eye on going forward.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: And I think that makes sense that, like you said, they've done it before. Look, I think this break both of these guys are getting makes sense right now. My point is I just want to see them come out of it fixed and looking like themselves. And Ranger, it's funny, you all we talked about it, and we all have been asked about it.

00:10:55
Speaker 5: In other places.

00:10:57
Speaker 2: There was so much euphoria about the way Ranger was pitching April May June. You know, he looks like Cliff Lee. He's been terrific. He's a favorite for the cy young and I would always caution to the point of maybe being a wet blanket. You've got to do it for six months, and this is why you know, you've got to do it for six months. So hopefully this is just him encountering a speed bump and a challenging speed bump on the road to learning how to do it for six months and having his body being able to deliver for six months. You know, hopefully he'll he'll you know, pole vault over this speed bump and come out on the other side better. Because he's crucial. You know, we've seen the bats can disappear for a night for two nights for three nights, baseball happens. We saw it here last October at a really inopportune time. But the pitching and the starting pitching especially has to remain consistent. That's kind of what this team is built on. Hat tip to the bullpen as well. It's really built on it. It's pitching staff and you need your best guys to be your best guys.

00:12:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And for me, it's not really an emotional thing. For uh. For for Ranger, it's more of a physical thing because I think emotionally, there's no question in my mind he's not scared.

00:12:26
Speaker 3: He's not going to back down. That's that's not the issue.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: It's really having his body do what he what it needs to do to perform.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: So you look back at the first half, first half, Cy Young Philly Cy Young Award winner. Who do you pick? There's a lot of options, There are a lot of options. Who do you if you had to pick the Phillies best pitcher? Give him a fifty dollars gift card to Starbucks, to Starbucks, you know, let him go out and get.

00:12:54
Speaker 3: A give a sponsor.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: We're going to sponsorship, get a cold brew, go get a cold brew or whatever you want them to get. Who are you giving the fifty dollars gift card to go ahead?

00:13:03
Speaker 4: M I got, I got Zach Wheeler. He's still consistent. He's just so so consistent. I just love the way he goes about it. And even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he's still you know, he's still firing off six innings for you, and you know, throwing a mixing an a quality start.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: So it's Zach for me.

00:13:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's ten and four two seven zero e Ra Nola leads the staff with wins with eleven. But but Wheeler's got the lowest dra for for whatever that's worth. Leads the team in strikeouts only thirty five walks in one hundred and sixteen innings. He's my guy as well.

00:13:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with you, but I would you know, the speed bumps put a lot of attention on Ranger.

00:13:53
Speaker 5: He had a great first half, still he did.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: Chris had a great first half and underappreciated. Aaron Nola had his you know, had a terrific, terrific, consistent, workman like professional, successful first half as well.

00:14:08
Speaker 5: So Wheeler is the winner. But you know they go four d pretty good.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: They do. There's a lot of one. There's a lot of one. A's there too.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they're really I mean three love.

00:14:19
Speaker 3: I love the consistency of Aaron Nola. I mean he really is.

00:14:23
Speaker 4: I mean he gives up home runs because he leaves pitches in the middle of the place, because he throws so many strikes, and that's going to happen.

00:14:32
Speaker 3: But you know, Cole Hamill's used to give up home runs left and right.

00:14:36
Speaker 4: I mean you start looking at the length and breadth of what Nola's done. I mean it's pretty outstanding as well.

00:14:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: Noa's numbers are I mean just strikeouts. He's only walked twenty seven guys in one hundred and nineteen innings. You're right, Reuben, He's around the plate a lot. He gives up some home runs but doesn't give up a lot of base runners. First half MVP no brainer, right, Bryce Harper gets that hands down. You can't really make it. I mean, I guess you could make if he wanted to be contrarying. You could say Alec Bohm is the first half MVP, and you could say trade. You could say Trade Turner is the first half m VP. But it's got to be Bryce Harper. The numbers were just off the charts.

00:15:19
Speaker 2: Good it's Harper, but you know, terrific supporting cast. You mentioned Turner. I mean, gosh, he's been other worldly since coming back. Schwarber's having a great year, and Alec Bowman has got seventy RBI's and he's really you know, Bryce Harper's player of the month twice.

00:15:36
Speaker 1: Right, yes, yes and June Yeah.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: And you know, BAM has done a pretty good job behind Bryce Harper, given guys pictures something to think about. I think BOM's had a tremendous year as well, so really good supporting cast behind Bryce Harper. But you know he's right there with all he's doing.

00:15:56
Speaker 1: I saw, yeah, I was gonna say real quick, but I think both got thirty three doubles. I saw this in the notes post game notes. I'm kind of probably butchering this, but it's like the second player with like thirty plus doubles Phillys player at the breaks other than Chase Sally's. So these guys turned into a doubles machine and an RBI machine.

00:16:14
Speaker 4: It's spectacular what he's done. And really, when you think about why Bryce Harper's had such a great first half. You got to give some love to Alec Boom from the time that he slid into that four hoole.

00:16:27
Speaker 3: Who was going to be that guy? It was JT.

00:16:29
Speaker 4: In the early part of the season, Alex Boom started swinging the bat. I remember mentioning in a post game one time at some point that guy's going to have to slide into that forehole to protect Bryce Harper so that Bryce Harper can get some pitches to hit Boom. It happened, And I mean those two guys were killing it for a while.

00:16:52
Speaker 1: They were killing it for a while, killing it. You look at just keep looking back at the first half. Biggest disappointment has got to be wit Maryfield. Wit Maryfield, they released him the other day. Now they're going to give Wes Wilson a looking left field. Clearly they're going to be looking for a right handed bat with some pop to play some left field. But you know, wit Maryfield at the time looked like a great little signing. You know, one of your eight million dollars veteran bat off the bench. He can play some left field short stuff, let you know, the whole deal, and just just did not produce. Uh so they let him go on Friday, so you.

00:17:29
Speaker 4: Right, right, well, I have I have another guy that and that's Bryce to stop for me. I mean, it was very disappointing that wit Marryfield didn't because you know, he came in with the resume that was pretty strong. And making that adjustment We've talked about this a million times, but making that adjustment to be in a one one a week or two a week player from being a you know, six, six times a week player so difficult for some players. And he just didn't really uh he didn't really packed the team.

00:18:00
Speaker 3: A whole lot, but Bryson stopped.

00:18:03
Speaker 4: I mean it warrants some discussion because I see things in his swing right now, especially at the end, that are concerning. He's not having the quality of the bat that he had pretty much for the first two years of his career. You see him sort of flailing it pit, just trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark. He's dropping down, he's not using his top hand, there's not that length through the zone in his swing to make consistent contact, and it just looks like he's trying to drive the ball out of the ballpark.

00:18:39
Speaker 3: I'm not sure why he's trying to do that. Is it arbitration? Is it? You know?

00:18:48
Speaker 4: Is he just pressing? And I just thought that he would move in leaps and bounds this year. He was going to be like the guy that I thought would take the very next step to becoming like a tremendous everyday player and perhaps a possible All Star type player. And while his defense has been excellent, there's no question about that, he hasn't let him affect him there. I just don't see him having the quality of the bats that he should be having.

00:19:19
Speaker 3: And I don't know.

00:19:20
Speaker 4: If it's he's pressing for some reason or trying to do too much, but I just don't it's a little surprising that he hasn't taken that next step forward.

00:19:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Stot's hitting. Let's these numbers, they are eye popping there. He's betting two thirty eight six from runs forty two RBIs a six seventy six ops. And then he get into the stackcast numbers, the exit velo numbers, the hard hit rate, those are all I mean, way down, way way way down, towards the bottom of all hitters in baseball. Rob said yesterday that he thinks he keeps kind of he's in between. He when some days he comes out there and he's hyper aggressive, some days he gets out there and he's hyper passive. They want him to find try to strike a happy medium. I know, Stock going into the season said he needs to try to stick with his approach more, or his game plan more getting into the batter's box. And he says quite often, you know, he'll be looking for, say something away, and the first pitch is in, and then he'll just abandon that game plan and he'll start looking for something in and then the pitch is away and meet you know, fastball in the outer half, and then he just doesn't swing at it. So now he's now he's in a hole and I was in an old two hole. Now he doesn't know what he's doing. So I don't know. Maybe he's getting into that where he's given up on his game plan again. But yeah, those are not great numbers.

00:20:34
Speaker 5: He has not handled fastball like he has in the past.

00:20:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think your point about lately he looks like he's trying too hard. Uh, what's you know, what's the reason for that. I think when guys get off the slow starts, and you know, they know more as expected, and they try to get it all back at once. So hopefully this and you can't do that, so hopefully this All Star break will be a cleansing breath for him and he can kind of hit the rece that button Friday night in Pittsburgh. Because we mentioned how much they need Suarez, they need this guy too. He's a vital cog and they need more from him.

00:21:12
Speaker 3: Especially if he's going to hit behind Bom.

00:21:14
Speaker 4: I mean, Bom needs some protection too, and he continues, you know, Rob Thompson keeps throwing him out there behind Boem, you know, doing that left right combination.

00:21:24
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, you talk about.

00:21:27
Speaker 4: Aggressiveness, Aggressiveness doesn't mean hit the ball out of the ballpark. Aggressiveness means getting a pitch, seeing it and driving it, you know. And I think he needs to stay in the middle of the field more consistently because he has the ability to hit the ball the other way. He has the ability to hit the ball at the middle. He doesn't have to pull the baseball to have success, and in fact, he'll All you gotta do is watch Bryce Harper, you know, when he's driving the ball to the opposite field, hitting the ball out to the oppice field, but hitting doubles to left field, that's when he has his most success. Guess a much more better plate coverage, And I think I think you're right, Jimmy. He needs a reset and hopefully he gets back into that right mindset where he's just usually using the middle of the field more aggressively.

00:22:11
Speaker 5: Maybe maybe maybe he needs a standing ovation.

00:22:16
Speaker 1: That seemed to work Tray.

00:22:17
Speaker 4: The second point all work for trayh.

00:22:20
Speaker 3: You never know.

00:22:21
Speaker 1: A little bit of love for Bryce to stop, maybe that goes a long way. You know, Nick Castiani's finished the half pretty well. He got to such a brutal start, and we've talked about him a lot. He had two sixty eight nine home runs thirty RBIs from May nineteenth through the All Star break. Seven that's a seven ninety two ops. That makes him one of the top third most productive hitters in baseball since May nineteenth. You know, he's gonna have some ugly games in there, but he's he's That should make the Phillies feel a little bit better going into the second half, knowing that they're getting some more consistent production from Nick as they try to address their needs. I would imagine right. If you're Dave Dombrowski feel better about that lineup.

00:23:04
Speaker 5: There still is a need for a right handed bat.

00:23:05
Speaker 2: If you could get you know, the right guy to plato him with Marsh, you're going to have a kind of the cumulative the combination of a pretty good player.

00:23:15
Speaker 5: You know.

00:23:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let me ask I want to ask you guys this question. I don't think he's going to come to the Phillies, but we talked about him at the beginning to show Brent Rooker he'ds those two four hundred and fifty foot bombs last night. He has played some left field before, but he's only played left field I think nine times all year and not once since May thirtieth. He's, I guess, regarded as a below average defender and left field. Do you you know Rubyen what you know? You were in this spot. You talk a lot about defense and how you love defense, and you got to have the defense.

00:23:50
Speaker 3: You know?

00:23:50
Speaker 1: How about the pitchers? Could you make a guy like that work knowing that he's a below average defender and knowing that Schwarber's your DH.

00:24:00
Speaker 4: It depends on what below average defender means. Because we used to talk about Pat Burrow not being able to you know, being you know, below average, and the below average was because he could not get to certain balls because he just couldn't move that well.

00:24:14
Speaker 3: He had that foot problem for a while.

00:24:16
Speaker 4: But the routes and the balls that he could get to Pat would catch. If he's that type of left fielder, then I'm fine with it, because if you get to the ball, you catch the base balls that you're supposed to catch, then I'm okay with you know, getting a guy like that. I don't know enough about his defense because I haven't seen him play enough to be able to ask the right yet to be able to know whether to have that opinion. I'm sure their scouts had, you know, over the years, Mike Gondo, I'm sure has his boys having seen him at some point out there in left field, and they probably have some reports on him. But you have to you have to be careful about this because he's got to be able to catch the baseball. And you're not putting Kyle Schwarber out there to play left field. That's just not happening. The man, you know, blew out blew Out is Uh is growing going out there, like the one game he played out there, Kyle Schuber's the DH and they're not platuning the dhs, so so.

00:25:23
Speaker 3: I think it's a tough decision.

00:25:24
Speaker 4: He's a guy that if you're going to go get him, you package him with Miller and then you really have to give up a lot for him.

00:25:34
Speaker 3: If you're going to give up a lot and you.

00:25:36
Speaker 4: Get it to dip into the Justin Crawford, Abel Painter Miller type of prospect able not as much, but certainly Painter Crawford and Miller.

00:25:53
Speaker 3: If you're dipping into.

00:25:54
Speaker 4: That pool, I would me as a GM, I would move one of those guys for those two players, but not for just one, okay, because then you're hitting two needs and you just roll the dice. Then you're getting a stud guy in the back end for five years and you kind of go from there. That's the only way I would I would move any of those big.

00:26:21
Speaker 2: Three before we get touched get back to that with Miller and stuff. I mean, defense is such such a real consideration for me, especially behind this pitching staff, especially in October, when one run, one run can can make you dreams come through or break your heart, you know. I think back to Game five with it. I think It was Game five of the twenty twenty two World Series at Citizens Bank Park. Hoskins doesn't make a play chas McCormick does make a play that was such a such, you know, such a big turnaround defense. Is you know, to me a real consideration with Rooker. I wonder if the guy from Anaheim Taylor Ward or the guy from Washington Lane Thomas both hit lefties, and wonder if that might be a better fit. Obviously they don't have the dynamic power that Rooker has. I mean, that was a show he put on, and then you know, right in this ballpark in front of this team, there was drama to it. But Friday night Miller put on a show too.

00:27:22
Speaker 5: What a body? What a release? What I want an arm? What ride on that fastball?

00:27:28
Speaker 2: And you think about it, how expensive he'd be because of the control of five years of control. But there are mitigating factory he had the he had a strain of his UCL last year.

00:27:41
Speaker 5: Relievers can be up and down. You don't know what he's going to be like.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: Over that five years of control in some way, and then you don't know what the elbow is gonna be like. In some ways, he might be like a perfect fit here because he might get the best two or three years of his career in the next two or three years and fit that would fit right in with this team's window. You got three years of Wheeler coming, you got a few years that, You've got more years of Nola, but you know, you got Turner Schwarber for another year. You get Turner and Harper for a number of years. You kind of get everybody just north of thirty. They need to win one this year, next year, the year after. This window is right here. Miller would really fit in that window for me. I guess the question is would you.

00:28:28
Speaker 1: What would the price be right? Because if you're Oakland, you're holding the Phillies over Barrel.

00:28:32
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it's good.

00:28:34
Speaker 4: I mean it almost feels like you'd have to give up two of those guys.

00:28:37
Speaker 3: And if you have to give up two.

00:28:38
Speaker 4: Of those guys and then no, but if you have to give up one of them to get both those players, I would consider it and another package. Maybe it's Able and Crawford, maybe it's Abel and Miller, maybe it's you know, or some other pitching prospect or young prospect infielder that they have. There's a couple of and they have way down below. They're pretty darn good. I mean, that's they're They're not the only prospects they have. We're just talking about the blue dip. You know, you quote unquote can't miss. There's no camp misses. By the way, I will tell you that unequivocally, there's no camp misses. Paul Skens is a camp mess. Okay, that's it.

00:29:22
Speaker 2: I remember being camped out in Toronto and the summer of the dock summer, the summer of Onon and we're trying to get doc.

00:29:30
Speaker 5: And and you know, there was.

00:29:32
Speaker 2: No way you're gonna give up ray Back and Brown and there was no way you're gonna give it either one.

00:29:36
Speaker 5: And then you relented yoursel include one and neither one of them. Really it happened.

00:29:42
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: It's a tough call.

00:29:47
Speaker 4: I do think that they will be aggressive, how aggressive to the point where they would move one of those big boys.

00:29:56
Speaker 3: It's going to be a fascinating story.

00:29:59
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:30:00
Speaker 3: I love that they're in.

00:30:01
Speaker 4: This position because it's exciting and you love being in that in that buyer's mode.

00:30:07
Speaker 3: There's nothing like it. Yeah, And it's.

00:30:11
Speaker 2: Difference maker Rooker or you know, a right handed batt or or Miller mel Miller.

00:30:16
Speaker 3: It's no.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: So he was so good the other night. Every time you looked up on the radars on the scoreboard, it was one o three.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: Uh, it was all of a sudden. Now you can move everybody down a little bit. What a bullpen you have, you.

00:30:32
Speaker 3: Know right now? And Alvarado's sort of struggling right now.

00:30:35
Speaker 4: And I think that that also sort of opens up the discussion of Ryan Kirkring all as as effectively people are seeing him a concern about.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: Sir Anthony Domingez as well. You know you have right now you probably have just sort of it up and down. Yeah, you have you have strom Hoffman, kirk Ring and then maybe Alvarado. And then after that you start, yeah, you start tinkering, You start wondering. You don't want to be in that position in the postseason where you don't have a guy available. Now you're going to you know, you and your marte whoever's on the bullpen, and that.

00:31:09
Speaker 3: You gotta have somebody that you can trust.

00:31:11
Speaker 4: Rob Thompson needs somebody you can trust back there to get a two outs or three outs, and doesn't matter where those two outs anytime after the sixth inning, because you know you're you have a pretty good chance of getting six innings out of your starters.

00:31:24
Speaker 3: F you know you have eighteen excuse me, you got you know, nine outs. Where you got to be able to get those nine outs some way, shape or form, and you gotta get guys you can trust.

00:31:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. It's gonna be fun to talk about trade. We'll be back later this week to talk second half. More on the second half. Today was a little bit of a look back at the first half, but we couldn't help ourselves. We're already talking about the trade deadline and two guys we just saw this weekend. But it's fun to talk trade deadline. I like crazy, you know, I'm jump.

00:31:57
Speaker 3: The gun guy, I can't hold.

00:32:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. You like making deals, You like making deals?

00:32:04
Speaker 3: You should making deal?

00:32:05
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, baby.

00:32:07
Speaker 1: So we'll be back later this week talk second half, talk trade deadline. We'll get into some more options at the trade deadline. Some guys, they might be looking at what you throw in. We'll play GM. It's not our it's not our prospects, it's not our future. Yeah, that's right, not our money, it's it's not our money. We'll be doing that, so all right, guys, enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks to everybody for listening.

00:32:32
Speaker 6: Guys, Jim, this is the Philly Show. If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on our YouTube channel. If you like what we do, give us a review, tell a friend. Catch Reuben, Jim and Me on Phillies Nation TV, presented by Valley Forge Tourism. New episodes air an hour before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays air throughout the week and on Philliesmation dot com. Get more of Reuben'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 allphl y dot com. Find more of me at MLB dot com, the philliesb Newsletter, and occasionally on Mlbnetwork