Phillies Spring Training First Look | Hittin' Season

From WHYY, it is hitting season. Hey there, podcast pals. I'm John Stolnes from The Good Fight. You can follow me on X and Blue Sky at John Stolnes. Coming up, we finally have baseball games to talk about. The Phillies have begun their spring training big game schedule as we're recording here on Monday morning. Two games under their belts during their in Grapefruit League play. And so we'll talk about some of the stuff that we've seen so far in these first couple of games. Some injury issues with one of the rookies that we were most looking forward to seeing play here early on. John Middleton speaks. I did an interview with Scott Lauber. We'll talk a little bit about that. And then we'll talk a little Olympics. When does baseball, when do these major league players get their turn as the world baseball classic is actually getting ready to get started here in a couple of weeks. So we've got a full round table here on this week's edition of the podcast. That means Liz Rocher, that means Justin Clue, that means yours truly all here to discuss the Phills as spring training is now with games being played officially underway. Liz Rocher is of course the editor of Sabre's Baseball Research Journal. You can follow her on X and Blue Sky at Liz Rocher. Liz, how's it going? How are you feeling? Baseball's back. Baseball is back and my feelings in life are unrelated to that right now. Let's just say that. Baseball's here to be a tonic for you, Liz. Baseball is here to be a tonic and what I'm doing is trying to just roll with it. My decision right now is just we're gonna roll with it. We're just gonna roll with whatever the Phillies are doing. Are they losing? Yeah, I'm into it. Let's do it. Are they winning? I'm also here for that. Let's do it, whatever they're doing. It's better than a snowstorm. Oh God, yeah. I mean, let's just be honest. The Northeast is experiencing their own little hellscape up in Pennsylvania and New York. I mean, here, I know the three of us are kind of more in the South. I'm in Northern Virginia. You guys are in Maryland. So I think we all escaped the brunt of it. At least I know I did. But yeah, it's apparently things are happening up where a lot of these people are listening to the podcast from what I can tell. We've also got Justin Kluwe at Baseball Prospectus, an author of the new book, Summer of the Cheap Wieners. If you're wondering what the Phillies were doing during the 1941 Joe DiMaggio 56 game hitting streak, wonder no more because you can read all about it in Justin's new book. It is out. People have it. People are reading it. It is terrific. Make sure you follow him on Blue Sky at Justin Kluwe. Justin, how are you feeling, pal? So what we're doing at Dirty Inning HQ is making sure there's not a Phillies season you aren't aware of the events starting with 1941. This is part of a much, much larger project. You will be made aware of the Phillies history. You will not just think in broad terms anymore. You will know the specifics of exactly what went wrong. And speaking of things going wrong, boy, Jose Alvarado sure is bad at playing baseball he wants to play after a PED suspension ended most of his year last year. And now an insurance issue is keeping him from playing for Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. I mean, that one just sucks for Jose. You know, this stuff, it means a lot to some players. And I think he's one that means a lot to go play for his country. So to not get to do that, as far as I know, is just being called an insurance issue. I don't know what that entails, but it sounds like not a reason that he's, it's not a good reason. And I'm sure he's really disappointed. So it sucks for Jose. Yeah, it does. I mean, he's not the only player who has encountered these insurance issues playing for some of these foreign teams as well. I think I, now I'm totally forgetting who else has encountered some of these things. Francisco Lindor. There are a few others I don't remember, but this has actually been like an endemic problem. The insurance provider they've chosen is simply choosing not, just not to extend insurance to players who have injuries that could affect them in the upcoming season. And while that's normally part of the calculus, this year they're putting a lot of, they're really cracking down on it, which is why Alvarado, I'm guessing, wasn't able to be insured. You know, Lindor had surgery not too long ago. That's why he wasn't able to be insured. But usually the company is a lot looser about it. Like, I don't even know if Puerto Rico is fielding a team. Cause most of their, like, I think most of their players were not, most of their main players were not extended insurance. And that means they can't play. Wow. Well, I mean, the World Baseball Classic is coming up. It is certainly one of the really fun things we get to watch. Is it every three years they do it? Right, every three years? I'm trying to remember, cause it was before Trey Turner's first year with the Phillies. So now he's entering into year three. Yeah, it's always a fun, it's always a fun event. I remember the big, remember the big Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani matchup from a couple of years ago when Mike Trout was a thing. Remember when we were all, when bars were full of baseball fans in Philadelphia cheering for David Wright in 2013, I think that was. That felt wrong. Yeah. It's a great thing anyway, but it felt wrong. Yeah, it's, I'm looking forward to it. It's always, it's always fun. You put aside your concerns about, you know, injuries and logistics and all that. And it is, it is a good time. And we're actually gonna have our next episode of the Dirty Inning will be about a World Baseball Classic game from 2009. So we're gonna, we're gonna get to, go ahead. I was gonna say, I was gonna publicize your podcast, because we didn't mention that if you want to listen to the Dirty Inning podcast, you can go over to our Hit and Season Patreon, patreon.com slash hit and season. And that's where you will find the Dirty Inning for folks who would like to. So that's, that's just, you know, it's good marketing. You know, I feel like. To say where the podcast is. Yeah, I agree. That's, that makes sense. To tell maybe a new listener who has maybe not been familiar with what we do here, that we have additional podcasts over at a Patreon called Hit and Season. And the Dirty Inning, that's where that show lives. So now you can find it over there. Well, I don't know how you talk about your niche Phillies history podcast, but when I say the name of mine, I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about. I assume everybody knows, yeah. I think we've clockwork-oranged enough people here over the course of these last seven, eight years, however long we've been doing it, to know that's where the Phillies history is coming from, and you can't avoid looking at it, so. Exactly. Yeah. All right, well, let's get into some of the Phillies spring training stuff. We got a couple of games under our belts. They played on Saturday. They played on Sunday. I think the thing that everybody's talking about from the first two games was Justin Crawford's very encouraging debut against Toronto left-hander Eric Lauer, a guy who's been in the big leagues for seven years, a legitimate major league pitcher. Crawford fell behind Owen too in his first plate appearance, worked it full, and then banged a double off the wall in left-center field for a lead-off double, left the bat at 104 miles an hour. He singled later in the game, made a nice sliding catch in center field, made a nice defensive play there, so a very, one of the only players to play well in the Phillies' first preseason game. He probably, he looked like the best player on the field. In a game when they were on the road, they had no starters in there at all, but Justin, you were kind of saying, I mean, you were talking about the regular season, but what Justin Crawford could do to kind of get everybody off his back a little bit is to do exactly what he did in his first plate appearance in the spring, is to hit a ball off the wall in the air, 104 miles an hour off the bat, cruise into second with a double. That's kind of a splashy first game you're hoping to see when the team breaks camp and goes up north, so either way, it was great to see. Really encouraging stuff from Justin Crawford. Granted, first day of spring training, but still a lot of fun. Complete bullseye, yeah. I would take the first day of spring training, you know, that works too. He'll have to do it again in the regular season to continue to keep that bullseye, but it was great to see right off the bat. You know, if he goes 0 for 4 with four strikeouts, then you shrug and you say, all right, young player, but we got to see him show off his speed. We got to see him keep the ball off the ground. We got to see him take charge in the outfield when he was running in on that ball and the infielders were coming out. We saw him waste no time, and we saw him check off his first hit. You know, we're not gonna be having a, well, it's been three weeks, Justin Crawford hasn't had a hit yet. No, that's all off the table, and like you said, everything that has been part of the Justin Crawford narrative, he was showing off at one game sample size of the fruits of his labors in working to correct himself. We know he went off and was working with Eric Davis for a while. We know the Phillies have been giving him all the resources they need, because he needs, because they know what an important part they've made him in their future. So I feel like you're seeing, you know, you saw a little bit of the payoff of that. Or at the very least, what you saw was this kid is capable of more than the scouting reports you've been reading all winter are saying. And that's all I was saying earlier, was that, you know, yeah, all that stuff is true. You got to do this, you got to do that, he's got to do these things, but he's also a great young ball player getting his chance. And you saw that in day one, that's great. And now he can work and adjust and like do what he needs, have a spring training where the stats don't really matter, quote unquote. And he knows he's already got the ball rolling, you know, in almost every dimension of his game that you wanted to see. So yeah, it was, as far as like a one game sample size goes, it was very encouraging and exactly what I wanted to see from Justin Crawford off the bat. And Liz, the Phillies really need for some good things to happen here this spring, because there is a negative vibe around the team, by the fan base after an off season. What do you mean? Yeah, I know, right? I mean, listen, I just read things, right? You know, and I don't know that I believe all of them, but just what I've been reading about the off season is that didn't go exactly according to plan for most Phillies fans. And I think even for the Phillies themselves, and there's a lot of dissatisfaction about the Browski and, you know, there's a lot of drama where we're going to get into here in just a couple of minutes. I know you talked about last week on the podcast on some of that drama as training camp was getting open. So really, I mean, Liz, now we really need some good vibes. And I hate saying vibes. I'm not going to say that word all season, I promise. But we need some good things to happen. We need some good things to happen this spring down in Clearwater. We really do. And Justin Crawford, you know, I have kind of entered into this season thinking of Justin Crawford as a, not a negative, but not as a force positive for this team. I think I've been kind of looking at Justin Crawford and I'm still, I think it's the wiser course of action to say, you know, to pump the brakes on Justin and not expect too much of him. But man, wouldn't it be great for him to have a great spring or for multiple people to have a great spring to jump up and get you feeling good about a young player who has a lot of talent and has shown that repeatedly throughout the minor. So, I mean, it's just nice. It was nice to kind of, it felt like a breath of fresh air, like, oh, I can feel good about something with the Phillies for a day or two. It's been, I feel like it's been a little bit since we've been able to look at something that we needed to have happen, even in just a small way, and have it actually happen and be able to feel good about it. And it's a small thing, but it's a big milestone, you know, in changing the psyche of the fan base going into the season. You know, the psyche of the team is a different thing, but the psyche of the fan base needs to be uplifted a little bit. And so, this is perfect. This is perfect because it gets everyone, it gets everyone on the team happy for him. That just has to be a nice thing to go into the clubhouse and Crawford, even though they lost, Crawford is smiling. He did his part. He was able to make a great impression. That's what it is. He made a great impression on everybody, especially since he's gonna be 100%, gonna be a major league player. He had to make a good impression, and he did it. It's nice for something to go right. To be excited about something. Yes. And I think we really- We're definitely excited for it to have a chance to actually happen. Like, that rarely happens for the Phillies, especially coming out of the farm system. Yeah. And, you know, because they've been so successful these last few years in the regular season, it's their 96-win team last year. They won the division by 13 games. You know, it's just these playoff losses are so draining and they're so frustrating and discouraging that you kind of forget that it is a good team or that it should be a good team. And these last couple of off-seasons haven't gone the way anybody's wanted to go. And so there's almost a feeling of inevitability that this season is gonna end the same way that the other split did. And look, for being honest, the odds are greater that that is true, that that is how it will end. But let's, I think I need to, and this was kind of like a little reminder to me, it's like, stop fast-forwarding six months already. You know, like, try to find some of the things to enjoy this spring, and this was one of them, a really pleasant way to get the spring started, seeing Justin Crawford in his first game. And you know, he's gonna get a lot of plate appearances this spring, so we'll see how things go. He might lead the team in plate appearances here in Clearwater, I think that's, there's a real good chance. And he should, yep, exactly. Yes, he absolutely should. I bet he wants all that time, you know? I bet he knows he needs all that time, you know? I'm glad that they're starting him out right. It's, you know, I think we were all disappointed when he wasn't called up last season, but this feels like they're starting him right. He gets a full spring training, he gets to go at his own pace, he gets to come up with the team as a group. You know, there are always those guys that aren't, you know, that aren't called up until, you know, like a month after the season starts, and I always imagine that they have a tough time getting integrated, you know, feeling comfortable. You know, Justin Crawford will be traveling up and down with the same guys, you know, he'll be, you know, he's, it's not like he's not familiar with the organization, but he's gonna get a lot more comfortable with the Major League guys. And so when he gets up to Philadelphia, it'll, you know, he'll have to adjust to being in a Major League stadium and playing Major League ball, but all the other stuff around him is gonna be right. And I think that's, it's important for him to start that way. You know, whether Bo Bichette was here or not, Justin Crawford was gonna play a role in this season. And the way things kind of went, you know, and beyond just Bichette, but just like various decisions the Phillies made this off-season and the directions they chose and where they chose not to spend and where they chose to try to spend, all of it still would have resulted in Justin Crawford probably having a key role on this team. Dave Dombrowski saying, we gotta get the younger players involved. And, you know, it's more this, the way things have wound up, I think he's probably gonna be more involved, you know, on the higher side of involved than potentially he would have been if other things had happened. But this is where the Phillies have landed. So it would be, you know, this isn't a plan that's definitely not going to work. I know some people would rather have Bo Bichette, would rather have other players here, but like the plan, the emphasis of the Phillies spring plan is get these young guys involved, get them as comfortable as you can, as you can, as fast as you can, so they can start becoming major league contributors that you need them to be as your core continues to age. So you'd be crazy not to give guys like Crawford every opportunity in the world. This is gonna be Justin Crawford's spring training. Like we're gonna be doing a Justin Crawford segment in just about every episode because that's who everybody's watching. And that's what everybody wants to see. His success is going to be the narrative of the spring. So they gotta give him every opportunity and they're going to. Maybe we'll do a weekly Crawford tracker. That wouldn't be too obnoxious, would it? No, that would be perfect. I think we should do it. Well, we gotta come up with a better name for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on it, don't worry about it. Crawford Box. We can workshop that. Yeah, we can work it. Justin Time, there we go. There we go, it's Justin Time. I love it, I love it. You have an advantage. Your name is Justin. And of course, this spring, Justin Time. It's almost as if Justin Clue does this for a living. It's hard to believe. Almost. It's just, but then they could tune in and it's just like 30 minutes of me reading aloud from my book. Which would, again, still be very good. People will hate that. Marketing. Justin Time. One of the other rookies that we were hoping to see a lot of this spring, and we still might, is Aiden Miller. And Bryce Harper let it slip on the in-game interview on Sunday, just to kind of passing it, we need to get Aiden Miller healthy because we expect him to perform later this year, which everybody online was like, ooh, Aiden Miller, what are we talking about here? What's going on? And later in the day, the Phillies did tell reporters that Aiden Miller has lower back soreness. It didn't come from anything specific on the field, they said, it's just, I guess, kind of like me when I sleep in a bed that is not my own for more than two nights in a row, and I wake up with crippling lower back soreness for the better part of five days. That's kind of what it sounds like he's dealing with. The Phillies say they're just gonna be taking it easy with him this week. I don't know, how concerning is this to you guys? Every time I hear back, I think, you know, I get a little bit more alarmed, but there's all kinds of different back sorenesses. The kind like I just described, when you're on a mattress, a new mattress, or you've got a new pillow that you're trying to work in, and then you realize your lower back is just gonna feel a little bit stiff, and if it's the first week of spring training, you don't want a player to do anything dealing with discomfort, or, you know, you're dealing with back problems, and they're on and off, and we've seen guys like, you know, Chris Bryant deal with that kind of stuff during the course of his career and all that. I don't know, any level of concern, guys, with Aiden Miller, lower back discomfort? I mean, and what Bryce said about it, the fact that it was Bryce who broke this news on the telecast? Yeah, yeah, I wanna, I had a feeling I've got a couple of thoughts. All right, good, Justin. So, Aiden Miller's 21 years old. Until they say, like, okay, he's got this specific horrible back problem, he's got, you know, that horrible condition Chris Bryant has where his back is just eating itself or something, like, you know, until something like that happens, you're like, okay, back soreness, fine. He's 21, he's basically indestructible when he's in his natural state, so I'm not super worried about that, an injury update that comes in a passing comment. However, the passing comment is, do we need to start, you know, considering Bryce Harper is more of a chaos agent in the Phillies' dealings and maneuverings and news releasings in the days to come? Is this, you know, further, the latest example of what feels kind of like acting out, you know? Like a job, it's like, oh, yeah, you don't want that out there? Well, whoops, I said it, you know? And, yeah, that's probably an over- He's absolutely doing that. Over-exaggeration, perhaps, you know, again, I'm not in his head, I'm not in the locker room, I don't know, but, you know, just tracking the behavior and the narratives that we're all aware of that started between Bryce Harper and this team at the beginning of the winter. So you're saying he didn't keep it in-house, Justin? He didn't keep it in-house? Like, not obeying his own rules where the information was supposed to be in-house. So I'm a little curious what his role is gonna be moving forward if he's embraced this chaos agent mentality, but we'll see, I'm not saying he's fully there yet, but we'll see. I mean, he's reacting to what I think is his, I'm not in his head either, but my guess is that his impression is, well, the rules have changed now, haven't they? You know, we're just gonna say, if we're just gonna say whatever, if we can say whatever, then I'm gonna do that too. Like, am I not allowed? Am I not allowed to do that? If we asked Bryce Harper to show us John Milliton's books, would he just, like, show up, come out of the dugout the next day with, like, his arm, with binders under his arms and be like, yeah, here you go, just throw them on the field? Like, what? It's all out in the open, right? We don't have any more secrets, right? Yep, I think he might, because that's, it feels like oppositional. Like, it feels like specifically, yes, adversarial, oppositional, and it's how he, he knows he can't do much as a player, but he's doing the only stuff that he can, which is showing his dissatisfaction with Dave Dabrowski by, you know, and it's not even a big thing, but he did do it. I mean, I'm not in his head, but I'm gonna say 100% he did it intentionally. Bryce Harper's a smart guy. He doesn't do things by accident. He doesn't say things by accident. Is it so bad that Bryce Harper has adopted, potentially adopted a persona of this kind? If we were to potentially be in a situation where it was kind of like Bryce versus the Phillies, I mean, think of, what are the arguments that Bryce is making? I need another right-handed hitter hitting behind me. Does anybody disagree with that? No. No? No, I mean, you know what's interesting? I wanna bring Rhys Hoskins back. You know, he's available and he could fill that role. I mean, would anybody have been against that acquisition if it had happened? Screw you, Dave. Come on. Okay, well, the Rhys- Can't believe he said no. The Rhys Hoskins specific thing we can get to in just a second, and I want to. Yeah, I know. We'll have that on our list of things to talk about, but regarding Bryce versus Dave, and it certainly sounds like there's, I don't know, I could call it a war going on, which is just so dumb. Middleton says it's totally fine. He did, he did, and he says Dombrowski did not ask John Middleton, which we can talk about in a minute too, but didn't ask John Middleton to intervene in anything or had talked to Bryce about any of this stuff was just, you know, and Bryce is gonna, has been sitting, and you know, you guys talked about it before, but Bryce is insisting he's not using this as extra motivation, the elite comments, but I- I think we can all agree it's had absolutely no impact on him whatsoever. No impact on him. I mean, he says that like he expects people to believe it. He says that like we don't have eyeballs and the internet. Come on, man. Well, here's the thing. Like he didn't wear a shirt. This is- I'm fine, guys. Pay no attention to my shirt. This is AJ Brown and the Eagles playing itself out with the Phillies. That is exactly what's happening here. AJ Brown, for all the complaints he had last year, wasn't wrong about anything that he was saying. No, he wasn't. With regard to the Eagles. He was right in just about everything that he had to say. Yes, they were terrible. And he went about, but the way he went about it was to make himself a squeaky wheel, kind of a thorn in the side of management and with certain players, I think, too. I don't think Bryce Harper has any issues with his fellow players by any stretch of the imagination, but it is clear, it is clear for everyone to see Bryce Harper is not happy. He's not happy with Dave Dombrowski. And if he's not happy with the makeup of the roster, he's kind of voicing that too. I don't know how the story got out about him wanting to sign Reese Hoskins, wanting the Phillies to sign Reese Hoskins for some right-handed thump. By the way, Bryce Harper is- I think Castellanos said it, I don't know. That's right, did Castellanos relate? He's still leaking Phillies stuff, guys. It's just amazing. I love it. There's obviously something going on. I think this is all petty and childish. Messy is the word we settled on in our last episode, John. Messy, messy Phillies down in Clearwater, and I think it's only getting messier. I'm into it. Let me tell you how much I'm into this. I'm way into this. Baseball is great. We're here for the baseball. But I don't know, the team has been a little boring outside of that. And I want a little bit, if they're not gonna be saying fun things and cool things, I want drama. Give me Love Island, but the Phillies. The real Bryce wives of Clearwater Beach. Go ahead, John. Oh my God, yes. I thought you'd like that. I knew you would. John's visible disgust in the last 30 seconds was almost audible. I know, it's terrible. He's so unhappy with me. We'll get this up on the socials later today. This kind of thing rarely results in championships. You know what I mean? It rarely results in things going well during the course of the regular season. People take sides. Players are gonna take sides. People are gonna take sides. You get growing discontent among the fan base. I think most fans are siding with Bryce Harper over Dave Dombrowski, but I think a lot of that is for as much as the fact that Dave Dombrowski had a lousy off season and not even so much about the elite comments. I think we're conflating a couple of different things. People just don't like the job Dave Dombrowski's done over the last couple of years. And now with the Bryce Harper thing, it's a kind of another log on the Dave Dombrowski is old and washed up fire that I think we're seeing circulating throughout Philadelphia fandom and online and not so much in the media, but certainly more open questioning of what Dave Dombrowski's plan has been over the last couple of years. And again, if they signed Bo Bichette, if they land that plane, if Bichette doesn't decide to take a Mets deal, everybody's thinking a lot different about Dave Dombrowski right now than they typically would be. And maybe you get more Dave supporters. I'll come back to the point I keep coming back to with this Bryce Harper thing. I have no issue with what Dave Dombrowski said. And I'm sorry, people, I feel like as a fan base, we've gotten way too much. I'm all supportive of players, but I also think we coddle situations like this more than we used to. Like Bryce is a well-established superstar type player who was brought on board and the entire team and lineup was constructed around the idea that he was going to be a superstar for them. And when he wasn't that last year, it really was debilitating to the offense. And so Dave Dombrowski makes a comment and was he taking a shot at Bryce Harper? He might've been. I just, this is, he's gonna try and tell everybody this. He's not using it as motivation. Please, just stop. And so we're gonna, is this how it's gonna be all season? Like little messages in the media, little things here, little things there, little comments here, little, you know what? Just instead of doing that, play good baseball, be an elite player then. Shove it up his nose that way instead of doing all of this other stuff. I'm just, I don't have, we just went through a whole Eagle season with this. I don't want this with the Phillies in 2026. I just don't, which is why the Justin. And that's, go ahead. I just, that's why the Justin Crawford thing was nice on Saturday. Because it was just like, I went through the real Bryce, the real Bryce wives of Philadelphia with the Eagles. I don't need that with my baseball team. And that's completely fair. And you're absolutely, you're objectively right here too. I mean, as we giggle here in March at the idea of the Phillies resembling reality television in some capacities, this is the kind of contention that sinks a team in July. So yeah, you're absolutely right. The entertainment value comes from the fact that this team has kind of like disappointed, underwhelmed and bummed us out all winter long. So you're kind of looking for like, what is this spring going to be about? And then you see like some cantankerousness from Bryce Harper towards the team. And you're like, well, this is new, this is different. So you notice that and you're entertained by that. But at the end of the day, it's not what you want. It's not at all what you want. When we started this era, the 2022 Phillies were considered meticulous and exquisite in their vibes. And we all got sick of hearing it, how great the vibes were. And this is not indicative of good vibes. And you're absolutely right that it's a case where you don't need to pick a side, people will, but you don't need to pick a side between Dave Dabrowski and Bryce Harper because I agree with you, Dave Dabrowski didn't say anything out of line in that press conference. Bryce Harper was, you know, didn't want to hear that and reacted to, you know, emotionally. And that's, hey, you know, that's his right, but you guys got to work that out and make sure that everything's functioning kind of smoothly because otherwise, yeah, this is just a mess that'll get messier. And I can say that even with like, whatever, if what Bryce has been saying, you know, the last couple of news cycles have actually been little jabs at Dave or just thoughts that he's letting come out of his mouth or whatever, he's saying a couple of things I agree with, but like, despite that, that can't be the long-term future of this relationship. And like, you gotta know that. We can't enter the era of Bryce Harper not really being happy here and still thinking that a World Series is gonna result from this era. So this kind of stuff, it is not good for the team and you're right. It's not something people who just watch the Eagles do this wanna see, that's totally fair. I think too, and we'll get back into spring training stuff here in just a second, but I think too, this is one of the arguments for really trying to make some significant changes is because it's the same group. Like you can just tell, like, they're trying to figure out, like, how do we make things different this time? And I think you're just running out of ideas. And like I said earlier, I said it over and over again this off season, like people are gonna get tired of certain acts that certain players have and certain ways that players go about doing certain things. And it's the same- How they drink their coffee. Right, right. You're taking vanilla creamer and again, it makes the clubhouse smell like vanilla. Knock it off, jerk. You know, that's kind of like, that wasn't happening in 22, it's probably happening in 26. You know, you just have the same players with the same weight on their shoulders, added one more year, added one more year. And there's not a significant jolt to the roster to help kind of take some of those off or to bring a fresh perspective on things. That's when I keep, there's no fresh perspective. So all you have are players under, the same players under increasing amounts of pressure where the joy of the game is gone with the exception of winning the title. And you feel that in the fan base, you feel that, I think you feel that in the clubhouse. I mean, I'm not in the clubhouse, but it's just what, it's what we're seeing in terms of some of the stuff Bryce is saying and elsewhere. So that's all, that's, and I've made that point over and over again, so. And as far as Reese Hoskins, where is he gonna play? I know. Is he not going to Cleveland? He's going to Cleveland. That's what I mean, like, where was he going to play? Like if everybody who, like what was the big idea, Bryce, about bringing- The plan was for him to be- Right-handed bat off the bench. The idea wasn't for him to start, is what I read. So Harper's playing first, and like, he can back up, he can be the backup first baseman and the backup DH, but he's a right-handed bat off the bench, was the plan. And Reese is not gonna want that. I mean, Dave's kicking the tires on that. He probably called- Maybe that's why it didn't happen. Yeah, probably called Reese's agent and says, no, I think Reese can get a starting DH job someplace, which sounds like he did. If I had to guess, Dombrowski probably had the same thought process we just did and was like, that's not even worth a phone call. So, no. Yeah. They had to say goodbye to Reese Hoskins because Bryce wanted to play first base full-time. So that's, anyway. Which he was willing to do for Pete Alonso, but not for Reese Hoskins. A lot of contradictions here. Whatever. A lot of contradictions. He's a complicated gentleman, Bryce Harper is. And I don't want to be mad at Bryce Harper all season, either, I want to enjoy a Bryce Harper season. He's been my favorite player on the team for all this time, so let's. I think the ship may have sailed on that one, on enjoying a Bryce. That's six more years here, so I don't know what he thinks is gonna happen. It better not have sailed yet. I know, I know. I'm hoping this isn't. I'm hoping I'm proven wrong, but he doesn't seem to be enjoying anything, which makes it hard for me to enjoy watching him play. Yeah, and that's, again, why Dombrowski, I think, needed to be a little more creative and do more, because even the players, I think, wanted something different this off-season, and we're seeing, with Bryce specifically, some of the frustration there. As far as the lineup goes this year, would you bet Harper second and Schwarber third? Last year, it was mostly Harper hitting after Schwarber. Do we feel like that would help Harper tremendously, or would it not make much of a difference, Liz? Why not try it? That's sort of, right now, that's sort of my thought. After, you know, I know it's largely the same team, but it's not the same team, you know, not strictly, and so I think it would make sense to try batting guys in different places to see if that might help Harper. He's been whining about it, you know, rightly so, for a while, and that would actually give him some of what he wants. So, yeah, why not? Harper's said in the past, you know, I'll do anything, but also, he prefers to hit in the three spot, so if you did move him right now, there's kind of no way it wouldn't be seen as some sort of counterpunch to his latest little jab, so there's that to consider, but from a purely statistical or strategic standpoint, yeah, I mean, you know, I think it's also worth a try if you're going by classic definitions of hitters in a lineup, which I know you have, in some ways, moved on from in baseball, but if you're number two hitter is high average, high contact, good discipline, guy who gets on base, can drive in the leadoff man, but get himself in a scoring position, while the number three hitter is one of your two best hitters, probably your best hitter, lot of pull, lot of driving in runs, lot of power and consistency, I mean, that kind of sounds more like Schwarber now than Harper, I mean, looking at the statistics from last year, Schwarber, like Harper beat him in batting average, both of them were, you know, blowing the doors off batting average wise, but slugging, obviously, Schwarber beats Harper, RBI, Schwarber beats Harper, and pulling the ball, he had a much higher, he had the highest pull percentage on the team last year, so if that's what you're looking for from your three hitter, I mean, Schwarber fits that profile, so it's at least worth a shot. Yeah, it's time to stop, I mean, you said it's time to stop coddling some of these players, and it is, this is, you know, continuing to put Harper where he wants to play is coddling, what's best for the team now has to rule, it can't just be what's best for the superstars, has to do what's best for everybody. And if you wanna have somebody, if you wanna have protection in the lineup, which it sounds like Scott Boris was complaining was one of the reasons why Bryce Harper didn't hit as well, or have as good a season as he did last year, well, then you bat him second, and have Schwarber hit third in that situation. And of course, would we like to have a really good cleanup hitter? We absolutely would. Who do you guys think is gonna have the most at-bats hitting cleanup for this team by the end of the season? My mind immediately went to Boehm and Garcia. Nah, I thought Boehm. I think, I wanna say Garcia, I really do. Nah. We all know it is going to be Alec Boehm, I think. As much as we would like Bert to be someone else, I think you're right, I think it is gonna be Alec Boehm. How about Kyle Schwarber going deep, though? On Sunday, in the game against the Pirates, launched a first inning home run, a tracer that sailed out of the stadium down in Clearwater, got his season off on the right foot, so great to see Kyle going deep. And then, a couple other things from Sunday. I liked what we saw from a couple of the lefty relievers, Tim Meza, who they got last year, but didn't do much down the stretch for them, and Kyle Backus, who is the submarine-ing left-handed reliever. Both of those guys are gonna battle it out for a potential lefty spot in the rotation. Justin, I like Backus, man. I think he's, I like the unique arm angle. He's a 91, 92 mile an hour guy, but he's funky, and it sounds like, it looks like he's got a plan to get right-handers out, too, so I'm optimistic about that dude. Yeah, I mean, now's your time, right? Pick your guy, pick your horse in the spring training race, and yeah, I'm gravitating towards a guy like Backus, too, in the signature delivery gets me every time, and I love having a guy like that in your bullpen. The Phillies haven't had a ton of those guys over the years, but the deception that you're allowed, and the ways that hitters have to adjust when your delivery is dramatically different from the deliveries they've been facing, or like, even just against other teams, that can really, that can be valuable. Some of those guys, it doesn't guarantee anything. Some of those guys get beat up, but having a guy who can offer a level of perplexity to what he offers coming out of the bullpen like that, a little confusion, that's always gonna help a lot, and plus, there's a theatricality to it, so you're thinking about big games in July and August, having your submarine guy come in from the pen is great, so yeah, I'm always, I'm on board for jumping on the Kyle Bacchus train to start out spring training, because a guy like that, when he pays off, he can pay off big. Yeah, the delivery always wins it for me. It's one of the reasons I liked Jake Diekman so much back in the day. His delivery was a little different, and earlier in his career, it really challenged, it challenged hitters quite a bit, so I'm into it. I love different deliveries. I wish we saw more of it. You know, pitchers are all very samey, and I think hitters would be, you know, let's invent a new delivery. Well, it's hard to get that velocity when you come at it from that arm angle, but, and that's what everybody wants as they're coming up. It's hard to get drafted as a submariner, but certainly if you're effective, you're gonna have a big league career. You just are, especially if you're a lefty with a unique arm slot like that. Yeah, a lot of fun to watch. Speaking of watching, a couple of news and notes about the broadcast coming up here in 2026 for the Phillies. So far, and I think we saw because of the ABS that this is the reason we're not gonna see this anymore, but no more strike zone box on the telecast. It's kind of a throwback to the 90s and even the early 2000s when, you know, now we don't have every single ball filtered in as a ball or a strike. Liz, it sounds like you're a fan of this too. I love it. I think it's gonna be great to have, you know, you can't play Johnny Umpire at home anymore and like just start ripping the umpires every time there's a ball that's like a half an inch in or off the plate. I like it. I think it's good that they're getting rid of that on the telecast this year. I think it's a great idea. And you know, you could still rip on the umpires at home and play umpire. You just have to have your own thoughts. You have to look at it and make a judgment for yourself, which is what the TV broadcast should be for. Don't speak, no need to spoon feed where every pitch is. We know. We know where it is. So I'm thrilled. It's always nice to watch a broadcast without that stupid freaking box. I've been saying for years, you know, it's just a rectangle on a screen. They kind of make it do whatever they want. And it's been, you know, proven a couple of times that there are versions of that that were just wrong. They were just incorrect. You know, gave people the wrong idea. So I don't know. I mean, it's the kind of thing a lot of people, regardless of whether you like it or not, have gotten used to it being the case. So I'll be curious how it changes the baseball viewing experience. But for the most part, yeah, I'm down for getting a little, get a little more analog approach this season. Yeah. And I'm not one to never post a screenshot of an egregious call one way or the other and use that box to my advantage. I mean, I've done that before, for sure. And who amongst us- Hypocrisy on the internet? In this day and age. John, how could you? I know. But yeah, I do like it. I like getting rid of the box. And I think most fans will end up liking that as well. A couple other pieces of news is that Mike Schmidt will not be back on the Sundays with Schmidt telecasts for NBC Sports this year. Tom McCarthy mentioned that on X, answering, doing an AMA with some fans, I guess. He's no, according to Tom McCarthy, Mike Schmidt's choice, unlike some of the other decisions that have been made at NBC Sports Philadelphia over the last couple of months, a move that fans are not happy with is that Taryn Hatcher is out as sideline dugout reporter. They refer to her as a sideline reporter, but there's no sideline in baseball. As a dugout reporter or a fan reporter for NBC Sports Philadelphia. She was very popular. I really hope that's how that decision was made. They were like, wait, there's no sidelines in baseball? We don't have to bring her back. Yeah. That's the only acceptable reason. And even that is pretty stupid. There's no sideline. We just crossed that one off the list. Easy peasy. Japanesey. Just save ourselves some money. That's right. This is why we make the big bucks. That's right. Here's your contract, Ben Davis. Literally, literally what happens in the CEO's office of every Fortune 500 company every single day. And then Jim Salisbury's back on the beat for NBC Sports Philadelphia. I don't know if he's doing all Philly still as well, but Jim Salisbury will be back at NBC Sports Philadelphia. So maybe breaking news, breaking headlines once again, like he used to do. I think that'll be a welcome addition. Maybe he takes Terrence's place on the broadcast some too, but we'll see how that all shakes out. All right, a couple other things before we wrap up. John Middleton spoke to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer while everybody was down in Clearwater over the course of the last week. I had a couple of tidbits that I thought were worth talking about. Talking about the payroll, which is projected to be $317 million here in 2026. It's the fifth straight year the Phillies have gone into luxury tax territory. And from Scott's piece, noting that it's the second year in a row they cleared the highest threshold, which is 304 million here in 2026. Middleton says they've budgeted $80 million in local revenue also for revenue sharing. So the Phillies as a big market team, revenue share with the smaller market team. Then he said, do the math. You're pushing $140 million in spending essentially for being taxed. If I had $140 million back, could I have a higher payroll? Yes, but that's not happening. So I don't think about that fantasy. But it's a lot of money, it really is. Liz, any thoughts on Dave's talking about $140 million going out the door for things other than players is lousy, but kind of the cost of doing business that the Dodgers and Mets don't mind paying. You know, it sounds like he's advocating for the end of the luxury tax, which is a, you know, it is a soft salary cap. And, you know, he's right, there shouldn't be one. I do disagree that, you know, I have no opinion on revenue sharing strictly. I don't, I don't care. I don't know if small teams necessarily deserve big teams money, but I also, again, not my money, I don't care. But, you know, like his, what he's saying about, you know, the tax is not insignificant. You know, he would have the, if it was replaced by a salary cap, he would have the same complaints. You know, I can't go higher than this. He's choosing with the luxury tax, he's choosing not to go higher. You know, you know, it's just, you know, he's backed away from, I'll do whatever it takes to win. You know, I would love it if some reporter would ask him about that. Scott certainly had an excellent chance, but no one, I don't see anybody questioning, like, what happened to whatever it takes to win? Like, now you're saying this is a lot of money. Like, don't you want to bring, don't you want to bring the trophy back here? You've said that you want to a number of times. So what's happening? Tell us the truth, since you seemed so eager to tell us how eager you were to spend money a few years ago. Yeah, the whole interview was, you know, pretty, pretty par for the course as far as, like, pre-season owner interview. You know, he's downplaying people's concerns and kind of dismissing other stuff and giving nothing answers, really, for other stuff. I don't know how much more of the interview we want to get to, because I have some thoughts on some other non-fiscal-related topics he brought up. But as far as, like, that goes, John Middleton knows by now what the cost is of going to the press in an interview like this with his hat in his hands and saying, like, there's just no money. Like, you know what that's, what reaction that's going to get. So the further you inch closer to that statement, because like Liz is saying, we all have eyes, we all know this isn't everything you can do to get your trophy back, which is what you said, the further you inch closer to that, the less patience people are going to have for your team. So, you know, I don't think he blew it here. I didn't see, like, a lot of people talking about this interview and, like, ripping it to shreds for various soundbites, but, you know, he's kind of getting close to that argument, and I don't want to hear it, and neither does anybody else. Nope, that's 100% true, and I think pretty much everybody listening and watching to this podcast agrees with that. What else, Justin? What else from Middleton's interview with Lauber caught your ear? Well, there was the everything's fine with Bryce and Dave Dombrowski. That was, like, an offhand comment, which was really funny, because that's clearly how, like, they discussed approaching that topic, where he was just going to, like, let it kind of slide in somewhere. Like, everything's fine with them. He said, ever since Bryce's most recent comments, they've even spoken again, and everything's fine. So, everything's fine. Everything's totally fine. Is everything fine? Middleton was, let me just check in real quick about how fine everything is. Yep, still is. Still fine. He was also trying to, like, he was making the we did try argument, which they did, they did try. You know, I'm not saying that's not true. Absolutely. We did try, and he's not saying it in the context of, like, the Phillies were the runners-up in the Beau Bichette sweepstakes. He was saying it in the context of people saying they didn't try enough to change the team. I mean, they tried in a big way to change the team, and it didn't work, and we don't, I don't know how many secret behind-the-scenes ways they tried to change the team, but we know about that one big one. So, you know, as far as the argument of running it back and that being a bad thing goes, you know, that is something he can say. I think that's fair. However, there's, you know, there's a lot more other people can say about how little the Phillies changed. But the one comment I will call Middleton out on is their elimination at the hands of the Dodgers last year in the NLDS that he characterized as pretty much just one missed call away from the Phillies kind of, like, figuring that series out, which, you know, yeah, that was an egregious missed call in the Alex call situation, but yeah. I mean, I think anybody with any kind of awareness would tell you that wasn't the thing that cost the Phillies the series and that no single moment cost the Phillies that series. And that wasn't even the part that I zeroed in on. The part that I zeroed in on was Middleton trying to claim, hey, we were five and one against the Dodgers in the series prior to that. So, like, we've got the Dodgers figured out. The last time the Phillies played the Dodgers in the postseason before 2025 was 2009. Last time before that was in the 80s. Last time before that was in the 70s. So who's the we in that sentence? You got Gary Maddox in his pocket? Like, come on, dude. Let's not do this. Yeah, I thought that, you know, it's kind of funny. I thought that it was interesting that he was fixating on that missed strike call. Like, I forgot about it. Me too. I forgot that that happened. That is not something that any Phillies fan has focused on this offseason at all. Because the team overall was so, you know, so dead. Did you see how the season ended? That also had something to do with it. Yeah, right, we're throwing the ball to the backstop. But even before then, you know, you go down to L.A. two games to none, losing the first two games at home. You don't get to say we were a missed call. And he doesn't say they would have won game five. He says, you know, the Dodgers certainly didn't want to go back to Philadelphia for a game five. But yeah, he phrased it like the Dodgers would have been up against the ropes. And I don't even know if Phillies fans would have seen it that way. We've had plenty of plenty, as in, you know, more than one in my lifetime playoff series where the Phillies won a game they had to win and brought it back. And it didn't really do anything. So Diamondback three, you know, 2010, they brought it back. Like, you know, again, well, here I am citing teams that none of these guys have anything to do with, just like Middleton did. But still, we have seen plenty of examples of that happening to teams like this current team. Like that does not guarantee anything. And I don't think the Dodgers would have been particularly intimidated at that point. No, and by the way, it was one to nothing. Like, I get that, you know, even if you get that strike call and you get out of that inning, it's one to nothing. Like, there's no guarantee the Dodgers don't find a way to score another run at some point and force extra innings in another way. Like, the game, maybe it works out that way, but yeah, you can't play that game. And I just think it's interesting that no one else, no one else has been talking about that missed strike call as having, like, in the list of reasons why the Phillies didn't beat the Dodgers, no one talks about it, so. Like a WIP caller, everybody has an individual reason in their heart that the Phillies lost. And for a lot of people, it's like one of the main reasons, but everybody latches onto something. You see it in comment sections all the time. You're like, yeah, this is why, you know, this is the litany of reasons why the Phillies lost this series. And then the first comment is a guy going like, I think this is Johan Rojas' fault for the following reasons. And then has, like, a treatise written out of why he blew it, so. Yep, yep, that's, that doesn't. Fandom. That doesn't. Take your pick. That doesn't happen. All right, I did want to mention one other thing is USA Hockey wins a gold for the first time since 1980. That certainly got everybody feeling pretty good. And it's got a lot of people talking about baseball in the Olympics and players being in the Olympics. And I guess, I don't know why it hasn't happened yet. I think baseball got knocked out of the Olympics as a sport a few years ago. And I guess that needs to happen, but it kind of feels like, I don't know, with the World Baseball Classic coming up, why hasn't that happened yet? Why don't we have baseball back in the Olympics? Because when we get it, we all know major leaguers are gonna go play in the Olympics. So I guess we're gonna, we would take, like, two weeks off in the middle of a baseball season to play in the Olympics, I guess? Is that kind of how that would work? We'll find out in 2028, because that's when baseball's coming back. Baseball will be back in the Olympics in 2028. And so, and there will also be flag football in 2028. I know, but there are gonna be NFL players in that. Yeah. And there'll be MLB players doing this. Like hockey takes an Olympic break because so many of their players go. I imagine that they'll have to take an Olympic break. They'll have to. There's so many players who wanna go and play for their country in the Olympics. Like, it's not just the World Baseball Classic. It's the Olympics. Yeah, let's hold it. That means something to people. And so, I think they'll have to take a break, especially since so many of the California stadiums, I believe, are gonna be used for baseball games. They'll have to. Yeah. Though I think they might be doing some qualifiers in other places. It's two years away. I don't know or care yet. But yeah, baseball's coming back. And I mean, you know, when they had it coming back, they interviewed Bryce Harper. I think he's like, I absolutely want to play on the 2028 Olympic team. Yep. Are you kidding me? He's literally constructed in a lab to play on that team. Yeah. I don't really know the rules on this, but it wasn't the baseball at the Olympics that used to have to be college players, but that's not the case anymore, obviously. I think I've done away with all of that. Yeah. Yeah, for all sports, essentially. The Olympics have, for years. 1980 was the last time, I think. No, you had, it was still all amateurs, even into the early 90s. I think the Dream Team in 92 was the first time pros played in the Olympics. And I think since then, it just kind of has opened the door. But even before then, there was amateur hockey, all the amateur hockey players. They were all, I remember the 1984 Olympics for baseball. You know, that famous group with Mark McGuire and all those other guys. They were all college guys. So I think that Dream Team in 92 was the first one, if I'm remembering. Yeah, and it was an overall decision, I think, by Team USA to let all professional players play, mostly because that's how you get ratings. Yep, they brought two college kids. I think Christian Laettner was one of them, and I forget who the other guy was. God, yeah. Yeah, they had brought two college kids, so I thought that was pretty cool. And they should still do that. I think they should still make room for a couple of amateurs to play. I think that would be a neat idea. All right, well, let's finish up with some final thoughts here, everybody. Justin Clue, hit us with a final thought. I kind of did my final thoughts at the start there, but yeah, some are the cheap wieners available through all major booksellers. Whatever's closest, go ahead and grab it. You can get it online, get it through the publisher. It is available. You can find a link at the top of my Blue Sky profile or just by Googling the words I just said out loud. And there will be two new episodes of The Dirty Inning over at the Patreon, the Hidden Season Patreon at patreon.com slash hiddenseason. This month, we have a new episode up right now about Steve Suessdorf from 2013. So if you missed old Steve. I have not heard that name in so long. Steve Suessdorf, where did you get that? Love it. This was a Dr. Trevor Strunk, my co-host, original. This was one of his episodes. Dr. Trevor, gotta love ya. If you find yourself waking in the middle of the night with missing the 2013 Phillies, it's a great episode for anyone who's been suffering. As I often do. And from that particular affliction. But yeah, and like every week, more Absolutely Hammers once a week over there at the Patreon as well. And yeah, we're gonna be getting back into three episodes a week here. So plenty of Phillies talking and content for you, the starving Phillies fan. Yeah, as March gets underway, we're gonna be going back to our three podcasts per week to get the season cranked up for everybody. Liz, final thoughts. I will say I own Justin's book now. It is on my nightstand. I have started reading it and it is great. Like, let me tell you something that I've always wanted is an entire book of Justin's writing. And that's not, that's not being facetious. That's true. I've been one of Justin's biggest fans forever. And so this is like a huge delight to me. I'm so excited to read it. Thank you. I did stop hearing from people about the book. I assumed once they started reading it. So that's good. That's good to hear. Yeah, that makes sense. Brooklinebooks.com, right? Is that where you get it? Brooklinebooks.com, Summer of the Cheap Wieners. And, you know, if you're reading Justin's book and you like it, would you please let him know? Would you please send him a note on Blue Sky? Don't do this to him. Help him out. I haven't been getting enough praise the past few weeks. You know, there was a little lull there. I'd really like to get that back up, please. Thank you. You know, for the attention. You can also leave any comments you might have in the comments of the Apple podcast area, you know? You could just, you know, put the word down there as well. Or send an email to us, hittingseasonatbilliepenn.com and let us know if you've gotten Justin's book and you're enjoying the read. Yeah, you won't not enjoy it. So let us know what you think. All right, everybody, that's gonna do it for this edition of Hidden Season. And if you watch it, if you wanna watch this podcast and you're listening on Apple podcast or Spotify, you can catch every round table episode of the podcast over at the WHYY YouTube channel. Just subscribe to the WHYY YouTube channel and we've got a playlist right there for you of all Hidden Season content that we do, that we put up on our YouTube. So again, WHYY YouTube channel, subscribe and you'll get all kinds of great stuff. And of course, leave a five-star rating and a review, Apple podcast, listen to us on Spotify, wherever it is you get your podcast, that's where we are. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time right here on Hidden Season.