March 28, 2025 • 26 mins
Phillies win in extras on Opening Day! Luke Arcaini and Sheffield Shuffler talk about Game 1 of 162, try not to overreact to Jose Alvarado's dominance, and more on the newest episode.
Brought to you by FOCO, your one stop shop for all things Phillies apparel, bobbleheads, and more!
Brought to you by FOCO, your one stop shop for all things Phillies apparel, bobbleheads, and more!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There don't.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Breaking ball popped up shadow right going up, Castiano's coming on.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
This is Luke and I on the Phillies, brought to
you by Fox Sports The Gambler.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Chef.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
What's going on? I will say I did, uh I
I did sit there the other day and thinkout possibly
changing that intro just for the new season. But ever
since I made that intro, I I just I just
don't think I can change it. It's it's too good.
It gets me fired up every time. What's going on?
The Phillies are want to know? This is the newest
episode of Luke and I on the Phillies. I am
(01:00):
Luke R. Kaney as always to my left. I guess yes,
your guys left as well, the one and only Chef
Fields Shuffler, both of us. I can say that little
logo down in Chef's corner Foco. If you guys haven't
seen Foco, that sign right there behind Chef, A bunch
of stuff. I got the overalls down there, they got
(01:21):
the best stuff in the game. Uh the link down
below if you haven't already Chef. The films are one
to oh A funny game, I would say, just just
a weird like you're It felt to me like your
typical opening day game. The second that Romano sort of
blew that that inning, I was like, there is no
(01:43):
shot this game. And they did a huge, huge hit
from Boone obviously, Uh then another huge one from j T.
Matt Strom looked good. Just a funny March opening day game.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I would say, yeah, besides the besides there being no rain,
I thought very opening day ask a lot of strikeouts. Man,
if you took McKenzie gore to have thirteen strikeouts, I
mean nobody did that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Dude, show me slip. I want to see it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Showed me the slip. That's that's not going to happen.
I looked at matchups mackenzie Gore, because you know, they
play the Nationals a lot. They got they see McKenzie
Gore a lot, averaging probably like twenty at bats over
the last you know, couple of years. Casiano's boem Turner.
They all have great numbers against him. So that's why
I took a couple of props on on those hitters,
base hits, RBIs and he just shoved today, dude. I
(02:40):
looked at his last two starts in spring training trash.
He had eight innings pitched in too. His last two
starts five earned runs. So I was like, all right,
this guy's you know, not where he's you know, should be.
So I thought there'd be a lot more offense than that.
It came later in the game, obviously, but yeah, it was.
You know, it got to the point where once they
(03:02):
were down, I was like, shit, I'm gonna have to
hear about this because they're off tomorrow and it's gonna
be all this talk about the phil You can't do this.
They can't do a lot of strikeouts today. That's got
to get cleaned up. But all that matters is a
w in the wing column. And then they and they
tacked on a lot of runs in the tenth inning.
So happy about that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah that was nice to see. Yeah, I mean that
that was just that was nasty stuff, I mean from
both sides. And I think I tweeted this earlier, uh
and Insane star Kenzie Gore really put Zach Wheeler in
the shadows because I I thought he was also awesome
today stings like eight strikeouts, one run. I mean, he
(03:44):
looked really good. Those shadows were definitely on the pitcher
side today. That that is a thing where you know,
if if if you bring up if you bring up shadows,
you'll get a lot of forty five year old men
down on their replies that it's like it doesn't matter
hit the ball, but those shadows are real man like
that that's hard. I mean, ale Bohene talked about it
(04:05):
after the game and said, yeah, it's it's not fun.
Like they they can barely see the ball. They can't
see any spin on the ball. They it it looks
like a little black dot just just ride him right
at you. So it's tough. But I did think the
Phillies put together a lot of good at bats they
went away. I thought the offense, I mean obviously looked
(04:28):
insanely better in the last you know, five innings of
the game than it did the first five because it
was it was bad that I mean. And I don't
want to take anything away from Mackenzie Gore because he
was he was shoving today. Yeah, he had an eighty
percent with rate on his slider today and he threw
it twenty four percent of the time. To put that
into perspective, he threw around ninety five pitches I believe,
(04:52):
so he threw about twenty two is sliders today, about
eighteen or nineteen of them. The Phillies swung and missed
at just gross stuff but ultimately didn't matter. And I
do want to get into a few things here, but
the first guy did kind of want to talk about
was Alec Boum, because I thought Alc Bahum had a
really good day obviously, after an off season of just
(05:17):
like trade rumors and this guy sucks and just new friends,
new friend, you know, a lot of distractions. There was
a big article the other day that said he basically
deleted every single social media app on his phone for
about six months, which I think was probably the best
case scenario for Boam because if he looked at any
(05:37):
sort of Twitter, Instagram or anything from November to February,
everything he would have saw would have been some new
Alec Bohum trade rumor. But I thought he had a
great day today as well. Obviously Bryce before today, Bryce
Harper was two for seventeen opening day in his Phillies career. Obviously,
that big bomb him. Schwarber. I liked what I say
(06:00):
off from sort of the new lineup. Obviously. I think
that was the biggest sort of talk this season of
how they're going to format the lineup. Did you like
trying the leadoff? I do?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I mean all you gotta do. I mean, we've said
up before. Do you look at the back of the
baseball card, right, the guy's been in the position before,
he's been successful in the position. And my thought process
to Luke is you only lead off once, right, like
you lead off to start the game, and that's it. Dude,
you're not leading off again. So obviously you want to
get your best hitters the most amount of at bats
as possible. And yeah, I think it's a benefit to
(06:35):
have Schwarber in that four spot where he's gonna be
able to drive in runs. He's got great on base percentage,
so that's why he succeeded in the leadoff spot. But
Trey's you know, Trey is the more traditional guy that
should be up there get you know, he could steal bags.
So I thought it's fine. And you know what, Luke,
if it doesn't work, go back to Schwarber. It's not
a big deal.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't I don't know if you know. But by
the way Twitter has looked the last few days, apparently
it's it's November of twenty twenty five, and the Phillies
have already been eliminated from the playoffs. Yeah, if you
didn't know, it's it's actually only March twenty seventh. I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
If you knew, no, I would never have guessed by
the radio stations, by the callers, by toxic Twitter. Bro,
I don't subscribe to any of that. I was telling
you before we got on here. It's March twenty seventh.
Unless you're a White Sox fan, you should have all
the optimism in the world White.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Sox or want to know, wanna know, White Sox look
pretty good today? The world's pretty good. Yeah, I will
say they are on track to go one hundred and
sixty two. And oh, just like the Phillies, so.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Louke, they're taking away, like you said, from the fun
of it. Dude, it's opening day. It's supposed to be exciting.
It's supposed to be ooh, the possibilities of a new season.
And let's talk about this. These people are just like that.
It doesn't matter me because they can't do it in October.
Shut up, then, dude, it's a journey. We have one
hundred and sixty two games. We gotta go through the process.
(08:04):
This is the road to the postseason, like, enjoy it,
enjoy the ups the downs. Dead is baseball. There's so
much variance in this game, which makes it so hard
for people to watch one hundred and sixty two games.
It's yeah, I'm I'm optimistic, dude, I'm positive. I don't
like all that toxic stuff. So yeah, it's March, dude,
(08:24):
everybody can be happy, right.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, And I mean I think that's that is my
favorite part about baseball is it's not like football. You
don't play one game a week for for you know,
six months straight. It's five games a week for six
straight months. And it is a journey, like you said,
like it's it's it's not sixteen games in a season,
(08:51):
and the second that what loss happens in the playoffs,
you're done. Like it's a it's a seven month journey,
Like it's it's different guys coming up, and it's guys
you've never heard of making plays on a random Tuesday
night in June. Like you don't get that in any
other sport.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And you don't get an Al Stevenson game in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You don't like And and that's what I think people,
that's where people need to separate sports because a lot
of people like to watch baseball, like it's a football season,
and you need to remember that if the Phillies lost
that game today like this, the season's not over. Like
(09:33):
if the Eagles lost, you know, in in in Week
one to A to A to a very bad team,
I think we'd be concerned. But like the Falcons, yeah,
uh oh oh, but then they ended up Yeah, because
maybe some things in the beginning of the season that
happened don't matter. I don't know, but yeah, no, I
thought today was great. It was just a typical, you know,
(09:57):
opening day game. If anything.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Look, I think it showed resilience, right, they were down,
they came back, Romano comes in, blows it. They come
back and score in the tenth and like that shows
you like the fightings, dude, it is fighting season. Like
they came back overcame obstacles to win the game. So
you should be optimistic about things.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And I don't. I don't really want to do the
whole overreaction thing because I saw some people on the
timeline just like Jordan Romano's cooked and like listen, I
get it, Like I get it this This guy was
injured last year and stuff like that. But like I'm
sort of in the belief that I don't think you
can have a true take in baseball until May. Like
(10:40):
I I don't think much of April matters. Like if
Mono came out today and struck out the side, I'm
not gonna sit there and say he's the best reliever
on the team. And if he comes out there today
like he didn't blows it, not gonna say this guy's
cooked like it's it's it's once again people kind of
starting to to treat baseball like football and like it is.
(11:04):
It is the complete opposite. One guy that I do
want to talk about, and yes, I'm going to overreact
to him a little bit, do it. Jose Alvarado is nasty, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Dude, but he's the track record from spring up until today,
one oh one three on March on March twenty seven,
I mean, he he almost topped out at one oh
two at the end of that inning, Like dude, it's
it's nasty stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
He looks really good, and that is so big for
them because obviously you lose Hoffman, you lose a Stevez
and other than Strom, like you don't really have a
good lefty in your bullpen, like it's it's Romano, alrighty,
another righty for Kirkering, like other than Strom, it's two
(11:53):
like Banks and and yeah, that's it. It's it's it's
Alvarado and Banks. So you need that dominant lefty. Man.
If you go, you know, through April and through May
and you have four really good pictures in Alvarado, Romano, Strom, Kirkering, like,
(12:15):
you're set up for really nice success. And I think
that was sort of where the Phillies struggled last year,
is they what issues of their bullpen was They didn't
have really another good left the other than Strom. And
I don't want to, you know, overreact because because the
old saying it, if it's good in spring training, then
(12:36):
you overreact if it's bad. They're working on things. But
I mean, this guy looks nasty right now, Luke.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I know you saw the video with his arm side
movement against Tommy fam right, talk to me. Six inches
of horizontal movement arm side, which is unheard of. You
don't see that. So I saw that and I was
like wow, like that is that's something you don't see
(13:07):
from a left He moving horizontally armside and it really
caught Tommy fam off guard, and that's why they had
that whole video and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And the thing I do.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I love Alvarado. I think he's great thirteen out of
fourteen appearances, and then his fourteenth is you can smell
it as soon as he gets in when he throws
four straight balls and you're.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Like, oh, you know, it's what if Jose Alvarado comes
out and walks the first guy on four pitches, He's
not getting out of that. In Cook there is no
I bet my life that if he walks the spatter
on the fitches, he's not getting out of that in
no Chie No. But I mean, he looks great, man,
he looks great, And I will say, who did look
(13:53):
great today? And I want to get into this because
I have always been anti this, and I started to
like really turn last year and I officially hit this
point at the end of last season, and it helped
my take today. I am so ready for robot umpires,
(14:14):
Like I'm ready for that. I am I am. And
I was always like I played baseball for fifteen years,
Like I was always extremely anti like did not want it,
but like these guys gotta get it together and and Listen,
I get it. It's it's it's opening day for them,
it's it's opening day for the players. It's obviously opening
(14:36):
day for John Crock. I think Kruk had a bit
of a rough day today in the boot. But man,
I'm like there were some there were some bad calls today, Man,
really really bad.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Luke, I am much I'll go say much older than you,
So I'm gonna be the old guy yelling at clouds
right now. I love bas ball because of the human element.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, and that is that that's my only other side
to that take that I do agree with.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So I love the human element to baseball, that there
is another human deciding the fate the calls like that
it's not And that's why I think there's so many
parallels to baseball in life. And that's why I think
it's the greatest game. Is it's not always fair. It's
not always a great call. But Luke, do we ever
(15:29):
complain about umpires in the postseason?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Not a ton?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Rarely, very rarely. So it's usually the better ones. So
why don't we double down on that? You need to
be graded the umpire the union very strong, right, there
needs to be and I've I've had a bunch of ideas.
I think there needs to be term limits, just like
(15:59):
there needs to be terminale on our elected officials, on
our representatives. You can't sit in government for five decades
and embezzle money and collect all this kind of stuff.
There needs some whether it's fifteen, twenty years whatever. We
shouldn't have seventy five year old men calling pitches at
one hundred and three miles an hour with movement. Your
eyes get worse as you get older. It's just science.
(16:19):
So let's get graded, graded by month, and then the
good ones stay and the bad ones get demoted. And
that's just how it is. We rarely have issues in
the postseason with umpires with calls because those are the
best of the best. So why don't we just have
the best of the best umpires calling the games at
all times? There would be I think, such less of
(16:42):
a disagreement among calls. That is just how I feel.
Just get better umpires. I love the human element. I
want to keep it in there, so I am against
the robot stuff. But I understand what you mean. You
want to have right calls, that's the whole point. You
want to have the right calls. I get it, but
I do appreciate the human element.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I absolutely agree on the human element side. That that's
like the only side of it where I I do
want to sort of like have a pushback on my
side because I do enjoy that human element. I mean,
we saw it today with Bryce and Stott. I mean
that that ball probably hit him, Like, and I get it,
(17:23):
that's that's a call you can't really overturn because it
was so so close and they already called it no.
But like, I'm pretty sure I could hear it hit
him on the broadcast, Like I'm I am about ninety
nine percent sure that that ball hit him today. Granted
it didn't matter in the end, but I swore that
(17:44):
ball got him today.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Mm hmm. And I think there are certain certain plays
that you do review and I don't know. I just
I don't like kind of where it's going with the
whole robot. The ab stuff, I guess is kind of cool.
It's like challenges and stuff. And I don't know, dude,
(18:07):
Like I said, I am the old guy that likes
to leave baseball the way it is. And like the
pitch clock, I was very against that. I was like,
there's never be a clock in baseball. But you know what,
it turned out to be a good thing. It got
people moving and then the game adjusted to it, and
then there's really not that many calls and you know,
balls because everyone took too long, so everyone kind of
(18:29):
gets adjusted and it's just speeding up the game. So
I took that back. I was like, it ended up
being okay, So you know that's.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
No I will say too. On the abs, I actually
didn't mind it. I was kind of I feel a
little against it for like, I just didn't know how
it was gonna work. I didn't know how long it
was going to take, but I did like, like, like
how quick it was. I mean, it's it's literally just
a boom call on review. That was quick. So I mean, listen,
(18:57):
I don't want to sit here and talk about umpires,
but I think we need to tune up some of
the calls today. Granted once again it is also it
is also opening day for them, but yeah, so I
don't have much else. You got anything else in the day,
I don't really.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean one thing I noticed you mentioned the swing
and miss on the sliders. Was it the sliders from
Mackenzie Gourd today, if you notice Harper, Schwarber, and Booms
all their hits, the two home runs from Harper and
Schwarber and then Booms ripped down the gap. We're all
(19:33):
on forcing fastballs, ninety six miles an hour, forcing fastballs,
So they were looking fastball, they ate it, They ate
those fastballs, and I think that is going to be
kind of something pitchers are looking at moving forward. We
know how bad they are with Chase, so I don't
(19:54):
think they're going to see a lot of fastballs in
key situations. Pressure situation was like you know, during matchups
and stuff, because they are very good at hitting fastballs,
proven year after year. Today was a great example. But
those three specific hits, those big hits were all off
of four seamed fastballs. So that is I think something
(20:17):
Kevin Long should take a look at, the players should
take a look at, and you know, adjusting like those sliders. Dude, nasty, right,
we have to have a better approach when we're when
we're seeing that. So that was just my kind of
kind of thing is just moving forward. That's great that
they capitalize on those, just don't know specifically those hitters.
(20:38):
You're not throwing four seams to Harper four seems to Schwarber.
So I think we'll be seeing a lot less of those.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
During moving forward. I mean that's the thing too. I
mean you saw it, you know last playoffs. Is when
Harper gets up in the playoffs, no pitcher's throwing him
a fastball, Like it's just it's just not happening. No
one's throwing Schwarber a fastball. And if they do throw
shower of fastball, it's probably gone like it's it's they
have to. It's it's more of the off speet stuff.
(21:08):
And I mean that was probably the biggest off season
topic was was how the approach is changing because and
it was funny because like one thing that bothers me
is the whole this team doesn't listen to Kevin Long thing,
And it's what what could Kevin Long have done different
(21:30):
today for that first five innings to have gone different?
There's not an answer. There's not an answer. Like, and
I saw a few people today like, oh uh this
offseason for Kevin Long. I'm like, dude, like what does
a hitting coach do? And like, I want to be honest,
what what does a hitting coach do? A hitting coach
(21:52):
walks up to Nick Cassians and says stop swinging at
low and away sliders, and then he doesn't do it. Granted,
I will say, I will say his single today was
on a low and off speed that he somehow got
in the left field. Dude, that was a hell of
a hit. I did not think he was gonna get that. Dude, Yeah,
(22:12):
big time, I thought Trey as well. And I did
realize the first three at bats today from Trey, he
saw twenty one pitches combined in his first bats, which
I think is going to be big from him out
of that leadoff spot, Like if he's gonna stay there
the whole point of that leadoff spot if it's not Schwarber,
(22:33):
because we know the reason that Schwarber was in the
leadoff spot is because he's an immediate threat to go
up on nothing. But if if you put Trey there anywok,
it can't be swinging first pitch and listen, if it's
a ninety four mile an hour fastball right down the middle,
first pitch of the game, yes, I want Trey to
be swinging at that, but it's it can't be three
(22:57):
pitch at bats for Trey. And I thought today was
a very good start. I mean, twenty one pitches in
the first three at bats. It was a nice sort
of star for his approach because that's obviously the biggest
thing with Trey is like, no matter what Trey has
done over the last two years, everybody knows that Trey
(23:17):
Turner can hit. It's just a matter of the pitches
he's swinging at when he's swinging at them, right, Like,
everybody knows Trey can hit. It's it's it's it just
has to be more selective. It it has to be
better at the plate. And I thought today was a
good start for that.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, and grinding down starting pitchers, right, the goal was to.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Get the working pitch counts and getting into did today
with Zach Wheeler. It was a fourteen pitch of bat
that he ended up on a home run. And obviously, yeah,
the home run was great, but that was an unbelievable
at bat off of Zack Wheeler. I think it was
like thirteen pitches against him. Like, your goal is a hitter,
and and maybe not for Harper and maybe not for Swarber,
(23:58):
but like, your goal is a hitter needs to be
working through these counts and work it to eight, nine
to ten, pitch counts. That is the goal. That should
be the goal every bat for a guy like Stot,
for a guy like Marsh, for a guy like these
guys later in the like when Rojas is in the game,
they shouldn't have in a bat under six pitches and
(24:18):
if they get a hit on the fifth pitch then
then yeah, but like you, you can't go up there
in a game like today and the Phillies were swinging
and missing and whiffing, and like this was a perfect
example today of how the selection has to come into
place more because you have to work Mackenzie Gore, Listen,
(24:42):
if you can't hit him, if he's just on you
all day and you can't hit him, that's fine, but
foul four to five pitches off right, don't swing at
the balls in the dirt, like continue to work counts
and Luke.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Those are the small wins that people people who don't
follow baseball or no baseball think are. That's a bad
at bat if you can work a fourteen pitch at
bat and you're making this starting pitcher throw fourteen pitches
and you're following them off, and you're following them off,
and then you do end up king. Yeah, that stinks,
but you made him work. You ate up fourteen of
(25:18):
his pitches, went into his pitch count, and we're even closer.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
To going to the bullpen.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's a good at bet. The result wasn't great, but
that is a good at bet. And those are the
small wins. Like you said, Scott marsh Rojas. Those guys,
if they can do that long term, that's a win
for the entire team.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Absolutely well, Chef, we have a long ways to go.
We have one hundred and sixty one baseball games left.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
They're on pace for one sixty two.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Dude, hundred. You can't go one hundred and sixty two
and zero if you don't win the first game. Stats
are stats are stats? Listen, I don't not all of
them are always true, but that is uh. My name
is Luke Arcaney. That is Pete Sheffield Shuffle or sponsored
by Folk, your one stop shop for all things, every
(26:03):
single thing signs behind Chef, overall shirts, hats, everything you
got Foco dot Com use the link down below. Once again,
this has been the newest episode of Luke and I
on the Phillies and we will see you next time.
There don't.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Breaking ball popped up shadow right going up, Castiano's coming on.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
This is Luke and I on the Phillies, brought to
you by Fox Sports The Gambler.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Chef.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
What's going on? I will say I did, uh I
I did sit there the other day and thinkout possibly
changing that intro just for the new season. But ever
since I made that intro, I I just I just
don't think I can change it. It's it's too good.
It gets me fired up every time. What's going on?
The Phillies are want to know? This is the newest
episode of Luke and I on the Phillies. I am
(01:00):
Luke R. Kaney as always to my left. I guess yes,
your guys left as well, the one and only Chef
Fields Shuffler, both of us. I can say that little
logo down in Chef's corner Foco. If you guys haven't
seen Foco, that sign right there behind Chef, A bunch
of stuff. I got the overalls down there, they got
(01:21):
the best stuff in the game. Uh the link down
below if you haven't already Chef. The films are one
to oh A funny game, I would say, just just
a weird like you're It felt to me like your
typical opening day game. The second that Romano sort of
blew that that inning, I was like, there is no
(01:43):
shot this game. And they did a huge, huge hit
from Boone obviously, Uh then another huge one from j T.
Matt Strom looked good. Just a funny March opening day game.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I would say, yeah, besides the besides there being no rain,
I thought very opening day ask a lot of strikeouts. Man,
if you took McKenzie gore to have thirteen strikeouts, I
mean nobody did that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Dude, show me slip. I want to see it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Showed me the slip. That's that's not going to happen.
I looked at matchups mackenzie Gore, because you know, they
play the Nationals a lot. They got they see McKenzie
Gore a lot, averaging probably like twenty at bats over
the last you know, couple of years. Casiano's boem Turner.
They all have great numbers against him. So that's why
I took a couple of props on on those hitters,
base hits, RBIs and he just shoved today, dude. I
(02:40):
looked at his last two starts in spring training trash.
He had eight innings pitched in too. His last two
starts five earned runs. So I was like, all right,
this guy's you know, not where he's you know, should be.
So I thought there'd be a lot more offense than that.
It came later in the game, obviously, but yeah, it was.
You know, it got to the point where once they
(03:02):
were down, I was like, shit, I'm gonna have to
hear about this because they're off tomorrow and it's gonna
be all this talk about the phil You can't do this.
They can't do a lot of strikeouts today. That's got
to get cleaned up. But all that matters is a
w in the wing column. And then they and they
tacked on a lot of runs in the tenth inning.
So happy about that.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah that was nice to see. Yeah, I mean that
that was just that was nasty stuff, I mean from
both sides. And I think I tweeted this earlier, uh
and Insane star Kenzie Gore really put Zach Wheeler in
the shadows because I I thought he was also awesome
today stings like eight strikeouts, one run. I mean, he
(03:44):
looked really good. Those shadows were definitely on the pitcher
side today. That that is a thing where you know,
if if if you bring up if you bring up shadows,
you'll get a lot of forty five year old men
down on their replies that it's like it doesn't matter
hit the ball, but those shadows are real man like
that that's hard. I mean, ale Bohene talked about it
(04:05):
after the game and said, yeah, it's it's not fun.
Like they they can barely see the ball. They can't
see any spin on the ball. They it it looks
like a little black dot just just ride him right
at you. So it's tough. But I did think the
Phillies put together a lot of good at bats they
went away. I thought the offense, I mean obviously looked
(04:28):
insanely better in the last you know, five innings of
the game than it did the first five because it
was it was bad that I mean. And I don't
want to take anything away from Mackenzie Gore because he
was he was shoving today. Yeah, he had an eighty
percent with rate on his slider today and he threw
it twenty four percent of the time. To put that
into perspective, he threw around ninety five pitches I believe,
(04:52):
so he threw about twenty two is sliders today, about
eighteen or nineteen of them. The Phillies swung and missed
at just gross stuff but ultimately didn't matter. And I
do want to get into a few things here, but
the first guy did kind of want to talk about
was Alec Boum, because I thought Alc Bahum had a
really good day obviously, after an off season of just
(05:17):
like trade rumors and this guy sucks and just new friends,
new friend, you know, a lot of distractions. There was
a big article the other day that said he basically
deleted every single social media app on his phone for
about six months, which I think was probably the best
case scenario for Boam because if he looked at any
(05:37):
sort of Twitter, Instagram or anything from November to February,
everything he would have saw would have been some new
Alec Bohum trade rumor. But I thought he had a
great day today as well. Obviously Bryce before today, Bryce
Harper was two for seventeen opening day in his Phillies career. Obviously,
that big bomb him. Schwarber. I liked what I say
(06:00):
off from sort of the new lineup. Obviously. I think
that was the biggest sort of talk this season of
how they're going to format the lineup. Did you like
trying the leadoff? I do?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I mean all you gotta do. I mean, we've said
up before. Do you look at the back of the
baseball card, right, the guy's been in the position before,
he's been successful in the position. And my thought process
to Luke is you only lead off once, right, like
you lead off to start the game, and that's it. Dude,
you're not leading off again. So obviously you want to
get your best hitters the most amount of at bats
as possible. And yeah, I think it's a benefit to
(06:35):
have Schwarber in that four spot where he's gonna be
able to drive in runs. He's got great on base percentage,
so that's why he succeeded in the leadoff spot. But
Trey's you know, Trey is the more traditional guy that
should be up there get you know, he could steal bags.
So I thought it's fine. And you know what, Luke,
if it doesn't work, go back to Schwarber. It's not
a big deal.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't I don't know if you know. But by
the way Twitter has looked the last few days, apparently
it's it's November of twenty twenty five, and the Phillies
have already been eliminated from the playoffs. Yeah, if you
didn't know, it's it's actually only March twenty seventh. I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
If you knew, no, I would never have guessed by
the radio stations, by the callers, by toxic Twitter. Bro,
I don't subscribe to any of that. I was telling
you before we got on here. It's March twenty seventh.
Unless you're a White Sox fan, you should have all
the optimism in the world White.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Sox or want to know, wanna know, White Sox look
pretty good today? The world's pretty good. Yeah, I will
say they are on track to go one hundred and
sixty two. And oh, just like the Phillies, so.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Louke, they're taking away, like you said, from the fun
of it. Dude, it's opening day. It's supposed to be exciting.
It's supposed to be ooh, the possibilities of a new season.
And let's talk about this. These people are just like that.
It doesn't matter me because they can't do it in October.
Shut up, then, dude, it's a journey. We have one
hundred and sixty two games. We gotta go through the process.
(08:04):
This is the road to the postseason, like, enjoy it,
enjoy the ups the downs. Dead is baseball. There's so
much variance in this game, which makes it so hard
for people to watch one hundred and sixty two games.
It's yeah, I'm I'm optimistic, dude, I'm positive. I don't
like all that toxic stuff. So yeah, it's March, dude,
(08:24):
everybody can be happy, right.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, And I mean I think that's that is my
favorite part about baseball is it's not like football. You
don't play one game a week for for you know,
six months straight. It's five games a week for six
straight months. And it is a journey, like you said,
like it's it's it's not sixteen games in a season,
(08:51):
and the second that what loss happens in the playoffs,
you're done. Like it's a it's a seven month journey,
Like it's it's different guys coming up, and it's guys
you've never heard of making plays on a random Tuesday
night in June. Like you don't get that in any
other sport.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And you don't get an Al Stevenson game in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You don't like And and that's what I think people,
that's where people need to separate sports because a lot
of people like to watch baseball, like it's a football season,
and you need to remember that if the Phillies lost
that game today like this, the season's not over. Like
(09:33):
if the Eagles lost, you know, in in in Week
one to A to A to a very bad team,
I think we'd be concerned. But like the Falcons, yeah,
uh oh oh, but then they ended up Yeah, because
maybe some things in the beginning of the season that
happened don't matter. I don't know, but yeah, no, I
thought today was great. It was just a typical, you know,
(09:57):
opening day game. If anything.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Look, I think it showed resilience, right, they were down,
they came back, Romano comes in, blows it. They come
back and score in the tenth and like that shows
you like the fightings, dude, it is fighting season. Like
they came back overcame obstacles to win the game. So
you should be optimistic about things.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And I don't. I don't really want to do the
whole overreaction thing because I saw some people on the
timeline just like Jordan Romano's cooked and like listen, I
get it, Like I get it this This guy was
injured last year and stuff like that. But like I'm
sort of in the belief that I don't think you
can have a true take in baseball until May. Like
(10:40):
I I don't think much of April matters. Like if
Mono came out today and struck out the side, I'm
not gonna sit there and say he's the best reliever
on the team. And if he comes out there today
like he didn't blows it, not gonna say this guy's
cooked like it's it's it's once again people kind of
starting to to treat baseball like football and like it is.
(11:04):
It is the complete opposite. One guy that I do
want to talk about, and yes, I'm going to overreact
to him a little bit, do it. Jose Alvarado is nasty, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Dude, but he's the track record from spring up until today,
one oh one three on March on March twenty seven,
I mean, he he almost topped out at one oh
two at the end of that inning, Like dude, it's
it's nasty stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
He looks really good, and that is so big for
them because obviously you lose Hoffman, you lose a Stevez
and other than Strom, like you don't really have a
good lefty in your bullpen, like it's it's Romano, alrighty,
another righty for Kirkering, like other than Strom, it's two
(11:53):
like Banks and and yeah, that's it. It's it's it's
Alvarado and Banks. So you need that dominant lefty. Man.
If you go, you know, through April and through May
and you have four really good pictures in Alvarado, Romano, Strom, Kirkering, like,
(12:15):
you're set up for really nice success. And I think
that was sort of where the Phillies struggled last year,
is they what issues of their bullpen was They didn't
have really another good left the other than Strom. And
I don't want to, you know, overreact because because the
old saying it, if it's good in spring training, then
(12:36):
you overreact if it's bad. They're working on things. But
I mean, this guy looks nasty right now, Luke.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I know you saw the video with his arm side
movement against Tommy fam right, talk to me. Six inches
of horizontal movement arm side, which is unheard of. You
don't see that. So I saw that and I was
like wow, like that is that's something you don't see
(13:07):
from a left He moving horizontally armside and it really
caught Tommy fam off guard, and that's why they had
that whole video and stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And the thing I do.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I love Alvarado. I think he's great thirteen out of
fourteen appearances, and then his fourteenth is you can smell
it as soon as he gets in when he throws
four straight balls and you're.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Like, oh, you know, it's what if Jose Alvarado comes
out and walks the first guy on four pitches, He's
not getting out of that. In Cook there is no
I bet my life that if he walks the spatter
on the fitches, he's not getting out of that in
no Chie No. But I mean, he looks great, man,
he looks great, And I will say, who did look
(13:53):
great today? And I want to get into this because
I have always been anti this, and I started to
like really turn last year and I officially hit this
point at the end of last season, and it helped
my take today. I am so ready for robot umpires,
(14:14):
Like I'm ready for that. I am I am. And
I was always like I played baseball for fifteen years,
Like I was always extremely anti like did not want it,
but like these guys gotta get it together and and Listen,
I get it. It's it's it's opening day for them,
it's it's opening day for the players. It's obviously opening
(14:36):
day for John Crock. I think Kruk had a bit
of a rough day today in the boot. But man,
I'm like there were some there were some bad calls today, Man,
really really bad.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Luke, I am much I'll go say much older than you,
So I'm gonna be the old guy yelling at clouds
right now. I love bas ball because of the human element.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, and that is that that's my only other side
to that take that I do agree with.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
So I love the human element to baseball, that there
is another human deciding the fate the calls like that
it's not And that's why I think there's so many
parallels to baseball in life. And that's why I think
it's the greatest game. Is it's not always fair. It's
not always a great call. But Luke, do we ever
(15:29):
complain about umpires in the postseason?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Not a ton?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Rarely, very rarely. So it's usually the better ones. So
why don't we double down on that? You need to
be graded the umpire the union very strong, right, there
needs to be and I've I've had a bunch of ideas.
I think there needs to be term limits, just like
(15:59):
there needs to be terminale on our elected officials, on
our representatives. You can't sit in government for five decades
and embezzle money and collect all this kind of stuff.
There needs some whether it's fifteen, twenty years whatever. We
shouldn't have seventy five year old men calling pitches at
one hundred and three miles an hour with movement. Your
eyes get worse as you get older. It's just science.
(16:19):
So let's get graded, graded by month, and then the
good ones stay and the bad ones get demoted. And
that's just how it is. We rarely have issues in
the postseason with umpires with calls because those are the
best of the best. So why don't we just have
the best of the best umpires calling the games at
all times? There would be I think, such less of
(16:42):
a disagreement among calls. That is just how I feel.
Just get better umpires. I love the human element. I
want to keep it in there, so I am against
the robot stuff. But I understand what you mean. You
want to have right calls, that's the whole point. You
want to have the right calls. I get it, but
I do appreciate the human element.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I absolutely agree on the human element side. That that's
like the only side of it where I I do
want to sort of like have a pushback on my
side because I do enjoy that human element. I mean,
we saw it today with Bryce and Stott. I mean
that that ball probably hit him, Like, and I get it,
(17:23):
that's that's a call you can't really overturn because it
was so so close and they already called it no.
But like, I'm pretty sure I could hear it hit
him on the broadcast, Like I'm I am about ninety
nine percent sure that that ball hit him today. Granted
it didn't matter in the end, but I swore that
(17:44):
ball got him today.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Mm hmm. And I think there are certain certain plays
that you do review and I don't know. I just
I don't like kind of where it's going with the
whole robot. The ab stuff, I guess is kind of cool.
It's like challenges and stuff. And I don't know, dude,
(18:07):
Like I said, I am the old guy that likes
to leave baseball the way it is. And like the
pitch clock, I was very against that. I was like,
there's never be a clock in baseball. But you know what,
it turned out to be a good thing. It got
people moving and then the game adjusted to it, and
then there's really not that many calls and you know,
balls because everyone took too long, so everyone kind of
(18:29):
gets adjusted and it's just speeding up the game. So
I took that back. I was like, it ended up
being okay, So you know that's.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
No I will say too. On the abs, I actually
didn't mind it. I was kind of I feel a
little against it for like, I just didn't know how
it was gonna work. I didn't know how long it
was going to take, but I did like, like, like
how quick it was. I mean, it's it's literally just
a boom call on review. That was quick. So I mean, listen,
(18:57):
I don't want to sit here and talk about umpires,
but I think we need to tune up some of
the calls today. Granted once again it is also it
is also opening day for them, but yeah, so I
don't have much else. You got anything else in the day,
I don't really.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean one thing I noticed you mentioned the swing
and miss on the sliders. Was it the sliders from
Mackenzie Gourd today, if you notice Harper, Schwarber, and Booms
all their hits, the two home runs from Harper and
Schwarber and then Booms ripped down the gap. We're all
(19:33):
on forcing fastballs, ninety six miles an hour, forcing fastballs,
So they were looking fastball, they ate it, They ate
those fastballs, and I think that is going to be
kind of something pitchers are looking at moving forward. We
know how bad they are with Chase, so I don't
(19:54):
think they're going to see a lot of fastballs in
key situations. Pressure situation was like you know, during matchups
and stuff, because they are very good at hitting fastballs,
proven year after year. Today was a great example. But
those three specific hits, those big hits were all off
of four seamed fastballs. So that is I think something
(20:17):
Kevin Long should take a look at, the players should
take a look at, and you know, adjusting like those sliders. Dude, nasty, right,
we have to have a better approach when we're when
we're seeing that. So that was just my kind of
kind of thing is just moving forward. That's great that
they capitalize on those, just don't know specifically those hitters.
(20:38):
You're not throwing four seams to Harper four seems to Schwarber.
So I think we'll be seeing a lot less of those.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
During moving forward. I mean that's the thing too. I
mean you saw it, you know last playoffs. Is when
Harper gets up in the playoffs, no pitcher's throwing him
a fastball, Like it's just it's just not happening. No
one's throwing Schwarber a fastball. And if they do throw
shower of fastball, it's probably gone like it's it's they
have to. It's it's more of the off speet stuff.
(21:08):
And I mean that was probably the biggest off season
topic was was how the approach is changing because and
it was funny because like one thing that bothers me
is the whole this team doesn't listen to Kevin Long thing,
And it's what what could Kevin Long have done different
(21:30):
today for that first five innings to have gone different?
There's not an answer. There's not an answer. Like, and
I saw a few people today like, oh uh this
offseason for Kevin Long. I'm like, dude, like what does
a hitting coach do? And like, I want to be honest,
what what does a hitting coach do? A hitting coach
(21:52):
walks up to Nick Cassians and says stop swinging at
low and away sliders, and then he doesn't do it. Granted,
I will say, I will say his single today was
on a low and off speed that he somehow got
in the left field. Dude, that was a hell of
a hit. I did not think he was gonna get that. Dude, Yeah,
(22:12):
big time, I thought Trey as well. And I did
realize the first three at bats today from Trey, he
saw twenty one pitches combined in his first bats, which
I think is going to be big from him out
of that leadoff spot, Like if he's gonna stay there
the whole point of that leadoff spot if it's not Schwarber,
(22:33):
because we know the reason that Schwarber was in the
leadoff spot is because he's an immediate threat to go
up on nothing. But if if you put Trey there anywok,
it can't be swinging first pitch and listen, if it's
a ninety four mile an hour fastball right down the middle,
first pitch of the game, yes, I want Trey to
be swinging at that, but it's it can't be three
(22:57):
pitch at bats for Trey. And I thought today was
a very good start. I mean, twenty one pitches in
the first three at bats. It was a nice sort
of star for his approach because that's obviously the biggest
thing with Trey is like, no matter what Trey has
done over the last two years, everybody knows that Trey
(23:17):
Turner can hit. It's just a matter of the pitches
he's swinging at when he's swinging at them, right, Like,
everybody knows Trey can hit. It's it's it's it just
has to be more selective. It it has to be
better at the plate. And I thought today was a
good start for that.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, and grinding down starting pitchers, right, the goal was to.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Get the working pitch counts and getting into did today
with Zach Wheeler. It was a fourteen pitch of bat
that he ended up on a home run. And obviously, yeah,
the home run was great, but that was an unbelievable
at bat off of Zack Wheeler. I think it was
like thirteen pitches against him. Like, your goal is a hitter,
and and maybe not for Harper and maybe not for Swarber,
(23:58):
but like, your goal is a hitter needs to be
working through these counts and work it to eight, nine
to ten, pitch counts. That is the goal. That should
be the goal every bat for a guy like Stot,
for a guy like Marsh, for a guy like these
guys later in the like when Rojas is in the game,
they shouldn't have in a bat under six pitches and
(24:18):
if they get a hit on the fifth pitch then
then yeah, but like you, you can't go up there
in a game like today and the Phillies were swinging
and missing and whiffing, and like this was a perfect
example today of how the selection has to come into
place more because you have to work Mackenzie Gore, Listen,
(24:42):
if you can't hit him, if he's just on you
all day and you can't hit him, that's fine, but
foul four to five pitches off right, don't swing at
the balls in the dirt, like continue to work counts
and Luke.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Those are the small wins that people people who don't
follow baseball or no baseball think are. That's a bad
at bat if you can work a fourteen pitch at
bat and you're making this starting pitcher throw fourteen pitches
and you're following them off, and you're following them off,
and then you do end up king. Yeah, that stinks,
but you made him work. You ate up fourteen of
(25:18):
his pitches, went into his pitch count, and we're even closer.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
To going to the bullpen.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's a good at bet. The result wasn't great, but
that is a good at bet. And those are the
small wins. Like you said, Scott marsh Rojas. Those guys,
if they can do that long term, that's a win
for the entire team.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Absolutely well, Chef, we have a long ways to go.
We have one hundred and sixty one baseball games left.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
They're on pace for one sixty two.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Dude, hundred. You can't go one hundred and sixty two
and zero if you don't win the first game. Stats
are stats are stats? Listen, I don't not all of
them are always true, but that is uh. My name
is Luke Arcaney. That is Pete Sheffield Shuffle or sponsored
by Folk, your one stop shop for all things, every
(26:03):
single thing signs behind Chef, overall shirts, hats, everything you
got Foco dot Com use the link down below. Once again,
this has been the newest episode of Luke and I
on the Phillies and we will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com