May 31, 2024 • 42 mins
On this edition of The Line Change, Jon Jansen talks Phillies with Phillies Nation Deputy Editorial Director Destiny Lugardo (@destiny_lugardo).
-Most shocking part about the Phillies hot start.
-Can Ranger Suarez stay in the Cy Young conversation?
-Do the Phillies have a Nick Castellanos problem?
-Trade Deadline
-Bryce Harper not running to first
-Why are the Phillies starters not chasing high veolcity numbers
-Most shocking part about the Phillies hot start.
-Can Ranger Suarez stay in the Cy Young conversation?
-Do the Phillies have a Nick Castellanos problem?
-Trade Deadline
-Bryce Harper not running to first
-Why are the Phillies starters not chasing high veolcity numbers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
It's a Line Change episode number twelve, the Line Change Podcast edition All Power
by the Cut sports betting app,So go check out Cut. Use the
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(00:21):
bets. I want to have abet with somebody on Britain's Got talent.
Sidney Christmas is gonna win it.If somebody wants to say that she's not
gonna win it, go ahead andbet me on it over a cut.
But I am all into Britain's GotTalent destiny. I'm just gonna before I
finish my whole spiel, go checkout Cut kyt dot com. Are you
into any of the talent shows?This is the first time I've ever been
into it. And it's not evenAmerica's got talent. It's Britain's got talent
(00:44):
for this like amazing Broadway musical theatersinger who I can't get enough of.
Oh, I've never heard of thisstuff so good. I mean, I
did watch American Idol when I wasa kid, so I don't know if
that counts. I did. When'sthe last time you have? What's the
last American Idol of winner that youremember? I remember the last one.
I know the last one because likehe I don't remember the last one,
but I remember the first season whenKelly Clarkson won, and it was the
(01:08):
guy that came in second. Iadored him. He had curly Harry kind
of looked like Justin did he didhe end up getting big or did he
end up having no? No,I don't think he got big, but
probably took too much of that becauseshe blew up. I need to look
it up now. Yeah, Iwould like to know, because the only
the only ones I remember. Iremember Dawtry Chris Daughtrey because like, he
(01:30):
didn't even win it, and hedidn't even win, but I remember him
because he was a He was sortof like a rock singer, so I
like that. But yet other thanthat, I know of Kelly Clarkson.
Wasn't Carrie Underwood. I don't knowif she won, but Carrie Underwood was
American Idol. And I know thelast one because his video went viral of
this first audition m toungy U andhe was awesome, really good. But
(01:52):
yeah, I only know it becauseof the first video. I didn't watch
the rest of it. And herecomes this Britain's Got Talent singer off the
Street doing a Her first was arendition of Tomorrow in the in the Annie
play and it was one of thegreatest things I've ever heard. And so
I was like, cool, I'minto Britain's Got Talent. Now I'm into
it? What is it? Whatkind of television are you into? Is
(02:13):
that? Because I'm not usually intoreality or like competition TV, but for
some reason this time, I'm intowhat TV? Are you into? The
sad thing is is that I justwatched a lot of sports. It's a
lot of baseball. When there's notthe Phillies game on, I just watch
a different baseball game and I comehome from the ballpark. I'm probably watching
the Dodgers. So yeah, alot of Dodgers games for me too,
(02:34):
because I end up settling in forbaseball late at night, So a lot
of Dodgers for me, I do. I watched The Wire a few years
ago for the first time. Nice, I haven't watched that, but how
do you I watched that. Likemy thinking was, like, I'll never
watch a TV show that's better thanthis, So what's the point of oh
that good? Yeah? Yeah,all right, Yeah, I'm not really
(02:55):
into TV. I'm into movies.I'm a huge movie guys, so I
settle into a lot of movies.That's why here the tagline where sports and
cinema collide. But we're not hereto talk about even though I would like
to hear more about Destiny's hobbies outsideof just baseball. But baseball's a big
reason why I'm having Destiny Ligardo onthe podcast. You can follow Destiny.
Let's make sure I have it up. You are working over at Phillies Nation.
(03:19):
I always do this, but it'sDestiny Legardo lug A RD and you
could follow her at Destiny Underscore Legardoand she does amazing work the deputy editorial
director for Phillies Nation. Every timeof you on, it feels like you're
just getting bigger and bigger. You'redoing better and better things. So Destiny,
thank you for coming on the potagain. And I guess the first
thing I want to start off withthe Phillies is what is because everything just
(03:43):
seems shocking so far, you know, they have this great record, they
have the best record in baseball.Everything just seems great. The starting rotation,
bullpen, everything seems shocking. Butwhat so far through this stretch,
you know, right before we getto June in the summer months, what's
been the most shocking thing to you? To start? I think the consistency
of the rotation. I know,we know Zach Wheelerd, Aaron Nola there
(04:04):
wanted twos. But the way RangerSuarez is pitched, the way his command
is, the way he could hitcorners, the way he's going deep into
games, I think it's it's alot of fun to watch just on a
day and day out basis when he'sstarting. Christopher Sanchez too, I think
he's really picked it up in thelast few weeks, especially with the velocity
(04:25):
and his ability to navigate traffic.I just think it's such a treat as
people that watch the Phillies, Philliesfans media, just to see a starting
pitcher on the mound every four outof five days have like give the team
a good chance to win. AndI think that's very rare and baseball and
I think that's something that people needto appreciate. With this team. You
(04:46):
just never know how much longer youcould watch this just because injuries happen and
bad things tend to, you know, go on during the season. But
with the way the rotation is now, it's just it's it's a total treat
to watch, even the way aNola has rebounded from a tough year,
the way Zach Wheeler, I thoughthis last start he didn't have his best
stuff. Buddy did battle through.He does that pretty much every time.
(05:09):
So just the sheer dominance of therotation has just been shocking. And I
know we expect a lot from them, but just the way it's played out
this year, it's been incredible.Yeah, it has been. And you
mentioned four out of five starters.We'll get to the fifth one, yeah,
a little later. That was adistinction I wanted to make there that
you mentioned four out of five.But the one I want to talk about
(05:30):
the most right now is Ranger Suarezbecause we don't he's not on our radar
for Cy Young stuff. He neveris on the radar in the beginning of
the season. For the most part, it's Zach Wheeler and even Aaronola has
gotten into Cy Young conversations at times, and I was making the case my
bold prediction this year was Aronola wasgoing to finish top five in Cy Young
voting. Now, the thing ishis numbers actually, like aren't too bad
that he could stay in that conversationwith the problem is every other pitcher in
(05:54):
the Phillies is pitching better, whichis crazy to think about the Aaronola,
you know, three point oh fourcould win Cy Young in some years,
but for right now, it justdoesn't look like it's even close because of
what the Philly's doing, especially becauseof Ranger Suarez. How how real is
maybe some Ranger Suarez Cy Young talk? I know the numbers right now say
it, but we obviously have tolook into the future with that. As
(06:15):
baseball people, you know this aswell, we do the same thing of
you know, is this sustainable?What is Ranger Suaz doing that can maybe
sustain this through the rest of theseason, all the way until the end
of it in September and in October? Is Ranger Suarez? Like, are
the these conversations for real? Shouldwe be having these conversations about Ranger Suarez
and his sustainability in this conversation?Yeah, I do think it's for real
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and you always have to use acaveat that guys could have bad stretches and
you don't really know what it's goingto look like at the end of the
year. But if you go backto twenty twenty one, when he started
as a reliever, he dominated asthat piggyback guy. Then he became a
closer, and then he dominated asa starter. I think with Suarez,
like what he does, like hecould kind of do anything that he sets
(07:02):
his mind to, and part ofthat could be like being a cy young
contender. I think what makes itreal is that one like he went through
a full spring training, so youknow he's he's prepared. He's obviously shown
that he's prepared for the beginning ofthe season. He's prepared for a six
months. But you know, youalso never know with him just because an
(07:23):
injury could pop up, Like Isaid, things can change, but just
you know, the way his command'sso good. I do think we can
look back on this year and say, like, oh, he's a real
threat to win a scion just becausehe has the stuff to get his era
low. He could wrap up atot of wins. With the way the
Phillies are playing recently, they tendto give him a lead before he exits
(07:46):
the game. So I do thinkhe does have a chance to win a
sion, But it's going to beinteresting to see just you know, how
much how dominant he could be fromhere on out. Yeah, and there
you just say anything he sets hismind to, and he really has like
kind of changed himself a little bit. He's still primarily a ground ball pitcher,
but he's more of a strikeout pitcher. Now, what's kind of changed
(08:09):
there? What is it? Isit just location? Is it the way
he's using his pitches, how he'susing him against certain certain batters, whether
that's left the alrighty, there justseems to be something that he's doing that
is fooling hitters more than he hasin previous years when he was relying more
on ground balls, and sometimes itwould get him into a little bit of
trouble because ground balls sometimes rely ona little bit of luck. But this
time it's no hard contact. He'sgetting ground ball stills, but he's getting
(08:31):
more extra outs I would say becauseof strikeouts. What's kind of changed there?
How has he become more of astrikeout pitcher? Yeah? Something JT
has talked about quite a few timesthat really with this entire staff, the
way guys can manipulate lineups, andRander Swarz is the perfect example of that.
I think a lot of it hasto do with you see this a
lot when Suarez pitches, and it'sa lot of fun when he's pitching to
(08:54):
aariety and they kind of move inand they think that the ball is going
to hit them, but it reallyhits the corner. I just think his
stuff is so good, like it'sreached another level to the point where you
know he's inducing soft contact. Ido think it helps him that the defense
is a lot better. So alot of those ground balls that either went
(09:16):
through the hole or was just theywere kind of missed and they're not counted
as errors. They're turning into outsand that lowers his pitch count. And
I just think he's pooling hitters enoughthat he's racking up the strikeout. So
I just think with Suarez, everything'scoming together. Yeah, I really think
it is. And the starting rotationis coming together, except for here's who
(09:37):
we'll get to that fifth starter.How long are they gonna kind of ride
this Taiwan walker train? And isit maybe a short leash, then we
think, is it a longer leashbecause of the contract. What is your
assessment of how they're going to handleWalker? Because so far it's not been
too good. I know there's beensome decent starts, but within those starts
(09:58):
still a lot of hits walks thathe's giving up. So and at times
it just feels like it's going toimplode at some point, and it has
in certain games. And then herecomes Spencer Turnbull has had this great start
and he's put into the bullpen andnow he's coming into the ninth inning of
six to zero games. So he'savailable. He's there but not being used
all too well and probably could beused in better spots. So when does
(10:20):
that change? At least when thewhen does the do those conversations happen for
the Phillies. Yeah, here's thething about Tyler Walker, and maybe this
is a divergent take, and thefour starters in the rotation, they're all
pitching like cy Young Award winners,and you see Tylon Walker, he has
a four or five year I thinkit looks a lot worse just because so
many of the other guys are pitchingwell and a lot of people say,
(10:43):
like it's tough to watch him pitchjust because the amount of spots he misses,
the amount of contact, and theamount of times he gets himself he
gets himself in trouble. But Ikind of just for some reason, I
like watching him, like walk thetype rope, and somehow, even though
his stuff looks terrible, he endsup pitching six innings and allows four runs.
(11:05):
But yeah, it's an interesting conversationto have. I know some people
have noted that he's lined up topitch in the London series. That could
be a time where they press Paul'son his season and then maybe he enters,
he goes back into the rotation afterthat, maybe he doesn't, But
I do think, yeah, Imean, the last time he pitched it
(11:28):
it wasn't great. But I dothink he's done enough to the point where
he's a fine number five starter.And to some people that'll I understand this,
it'll never be enough just because ofthe contract he's on and then the
expectations people had for him. ButI don't know, it's really tough just
because Turnbull pitched so well the firstmonth and it feels like they're struggling to
(11:50):
find a way to make him useful. They want to keep him stretched out
for when they need him in therotation. But like you said, they're
only getting these mop up you know, innings to pitch in the ninth when
it's a six round lead. Soyeah, I really, I really don't
know about Walker. I think they'llI think maybe the smart thing to do
(12:13):
is to give him a couple morestarts, maybe he goes on a better
run like he did last summer.But for the most part, I think
we're getting closer to that time wherethey need to evaluate whether they want to
move forward with him in the rotationor not. Yeah, I think it's
certainly a conversation that's going to behad because of how Turnbull is pitching.
But I think the one thing theremaybe to highlight is we're talking about a
(12:37):
fifth starter and two guys that reallyqualify as a fifth starter, Meaning there's
a bit of depth in the Philliesstarting rotation that feels like a strength heading
into what is again the grinding partsof the summer for the major league season.
It just feels like something the Philliesdidn't have last year and really haven't
had previously. They've had the topend guys. We know one through three
that they've been so good. They'vebeen able to beat the Braves in five
(12:58):
game series in the playoffs, butin order to you know, win a
division in one sixty two, youneeded more depth. And I would say,
is that a strong set right nowfor the Phillies. Yeah, yeah,
death is definitely a strong suitent.You even look at the Braves too,
and we'll probably talk about the Akunyainjury later, but missing Strider,
that's that's going to be a hugebloat to their odds to repeat as division
(13:20):
champions. And they just lost lostA. J. Smith Schager for a
few months, and they're optioning guysback and forth in the minor leagues to
cover innings and the Phillies haven't reallyhad to deal with that problem. And
you're all around the league there's areal shortage of starting pitching. And when
you have six guys on the activeroster who could start games, even though
Taiwan has struggled recently, I thinkthat's that's that's really huge for this team,
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and it's really important that you kindof keep both of them. Just
because Phillies do have depth, theydon't have that much in the in Triple
A right now. So yeah,it's like I've said before, it's a
problem, but it's a it's agood problem to have. And Rob's also
said this, like it's a it'sa unique problem, but it's it's it's
really hard to solve. Yeah,it definitely is. And another problem that
(14:11):
seems to be coming up with thePhillies. Uh, And I hate to
say it's a problem after the gamehe just had. Obviously he almost hit
the furthest cycle and at a homerun. But it's Nick Castianos because the
numbers don't look great. If youlook at a page like Baseball Savant,
he ranks very low in a bunchof percentiles that you want to be high
in hard hit, percentage, contact, all these things with percentage K percentage,
he ranks really low. Ops ranksreally low. There's there's some flashes
(14:35):
here and there, but it seemslike a lot of the issues that he
had in the past as a goodbaseball player are really starting to catch up
to him now as he starts todecline in other areas. Do the Phillies
have a Nick Castiano's problem? Ohyes, I just think and you know,
we talk about Toylin Walker in thecontract and trying to keep things in
(14:58):
perspective. I think they expect alot more out of Costianos. Yeah,
it's just hard to have a guythat's I know, Costianos has looked better.
He had a really good game lastweek. His numbers for May are
a lot better than they were inApril. He is hitting the ball hard,
but you know the way sitting inthe middle of the water, like,
(15:18):
you got to have more out ofCostianos, And I think it's a
it's a really hard problem to solve, and I think the most frustrating aspect
of it is that he's the onlyplayer that has played every single game,
and part of the thinking with RobThompson is that he's going to hit his
way out of this plump no matterwhat. And then when you see I
(15:39):
know Bryson Scott struggled recently, BrandonMarsh they're getting they're getting put on the
bench against left handed pitching. ButNick Costianos is kind of able to write
it out, so it's not Iwould say it's not really a problem just
because if you look at the record, they're twenty one games over five hundred
and they've done all this without NickCostiano's hitting a stride, and I think
(16:00):
there is a belief that things willget better. Just how much better,
I think is a question, andwhether what that will look like in the
playoffs, I think is probably aneven bigger question. I think it's important
for them to take the next monthand a half to evaluate whether they could
really trust him, and then useout evaluation and say, like, do
(16:21):
we need to get another outfielder ornot. I think they will at some
point, just maybe there's an injury. Maybe they just want to keep it
safe, even if they kind ofbelieve that Costs could be the guy,
but they want to backup play andjust in case. But yeah, it's
just it's super frustrating to watch becauseI think when they sign him, there
is an expectation that he was goingto carry much more of the low than
(16:42):
that he was going to kind ofbecome this player that everybody loved that always
hit home runs and kind of itwas a unique character. But for the
most part, it's just kind ofwatching him struggle in the box and kind
of swinging up pitches out of hisown and kind of being like black hole
in a really good lineup. Andnow that the Phillies have lost a few
(17:03):
games, I feel like the spotlight'sa little bit more on him. So
I just think the Phillies have tohope that June is a little bit better
for Nick than April and may havebeen. Just it has to be better.
I think that's the bottom line.It has to And you you mentioned
potentially acquiring an outfield at the tradedeadline because the outfield right now, they're
(17:25):
trying to figure things out now thatthere's a lot of moving pieces in the
outfield. The thing is, they'regood pieces in certain places. Like you
just said about Brandon Marsh, He'snot gonna hit against left theies, but
you put him against the righty's numbersstill look pretty good against the right's.
You know, Rojas and Pace,they're getting what they can out of those
guys. But there seems to bea bit of a lack of production,
especially in centerfield and right field.In the outfield. But you have this
(17:47):
conundrum where you're paying the Castiana's alot of money and you're really going to
try and ride that out because youknow, if there ever does come a
time where the production starts to getthere for castianis you know, the production
can be pretty good. He's shownflashes in a Phillies' uniform, although maybe
not enough for the contract that he'smaking, but he's shown really good flashes.
What does acquiring an outfielder look like? And I guess that maybe just
(18:08):
goes to a bigger question of whatdoes it acquiring any pieces that the trade
deadline look like? For the Phillieswho are in this position as right now
so far, you know, aswe're heading into June, best are going
to baseball, best winning percentage inbaseball, most wins in baseball so far.
You know, who knows if they'restill there. They could still be
there by the time he gets tothe end of July. This team really
feels like it has a chance atsomething very big. Is that mean they
(18:32):
go big for outfield or potentially bullpen? Just what right now does trade deadline
look like? Because we all knowteams that are contending are going to get
something at the trade deadline. Yeah, I think it could look like a
lot of different things. One thingcould be a platoon partner with Brandon marsh
And I know we talked a lotabout him hitting lefties, and I really
think last year he did a lotbetter than what he got credit for.
(18:55):
But this year has been pretty brutal, so they could look to upgrade in
that area. Could be centerfield thatthey don't want to move forward with Johann
Rojas. They do have Christian Pace, they do have Brandon Marsh who could
slide over, but I do believethat Marsh is probably better suited for the
Phillies to play cornered outfield spot andmaybe it's more of an everyday guy.
(19:15):
If Nick Costianos is not to betrusted, it is going to be hard
just to find those guys because Iknow a lot of people say it always
feels like outfielders are in plentiful supplysupply in the trade deadline, but a
lot of teams do need outfield help. The Breeze are definitely one of them.
So it's gonna be hard no matterwhat. But I do think like
(19:36):
if we see how these next youknow, a few weeks play out,
just what their their big knees needsare has to do a lot with how
Costianos reforms and just how the trademarket folds, because there's a lot of
teams bundled up in the same spotin the National League, and we really
don't know who is selling who's buying, So it'll be interesting to see how
(19:59):
it all plays. Yeah, itwill be, And that's where we'll move
into more of that general conversation.In terms of division in the National League,
Phillies right now best record in theNational League. Obviously, that means
best record in the National League East, six games above the Braves. At
this point as we are speaking,Braves have lost two of their biggest key
pieces, Spencer Strider Ronald Acunya Junior. I hate to say, you know,
(20:22):
just make it so simple. Ofwell, the Phillies won this division,
right, but the Phillies just rightnow, they look they just look
better than the Braves, And nowwith the Braves kind of struggling with some
injuries, this would be a disappointing, right If the Phillies end up losing
the lead in this division, theyshould probably win the division this year,
shouldn't they? Yeah, they should. They should be considered the favorites,
(20:44):
just where the Braves are with injuriesand just how the Braves have struggled.
I think a lot of people cameinto the season expecting that the Braves just
weren't going to produce at the levelthey did last year just because of how
unbelievable they were with I think theyset the record for slugging percentage for a
team, and it was just nomatter what, even if they had all
their guys healthy, it was gonnabe hard to replicate anything like that.
(21:07):
But the Braves have really struggled tohit, like if you paid attention,
like they were struggling to hit againstthe Nationals. It's been a conversation around
a land and I know, likeI saw one person suggest that they should
think about firing the hitting coach.That's just how bad the Braves lineup has
been recently. And Phillies have hadtheir struggles in the lineup, but they've
(21:30):
been performing a lot better, soI think when you add that, and
then you also add the lack ofpitching the Braves have and the lack of
starters, and they're also dealing withinjuries to their bullpen. They're relying on
Charlie Morton, who's showing his agethis year. Chris Sale has had a
really good year, but I justnever really trust him just because of how
(21:52):
the last few years have looked.And Rainald the Lopez, he's transitioning from
a believer to a starter. He'sbeen one of their best players, but
the innings total could creep up,and there's just a lot of taking time
bombs on the Braves. Even thoughyou kind of always think that they could
kind of get away with this stuff. Maybe this is the year where it
catches up to them and their wildcard team and the Phillies take the division.
(22:12):
So I do think with the leadwhere it is and how the Phillies
roster is compared to the Braves,it would be a bit disappointing if the
Phillies let this lead slip and theBraze were division champions again. But at
the same time, I think theBraves are going to embrace that underdog role
of we got to get there.That could certainly talent. Yeah, they're
(22:37):
going to like the idea of nothaving to take that five day break,
even though, like I don't thinkthat's a big reason why they've lost the
Phillies the last two years. Ithink they just got their butts kicked and
they don't like to a minute,but no, no, they don't like
to admit that, hey, thatpitching staff over there is pretty good.
We can't oh yeah, yeah,yeah, So to the larger picture,
(22:59):
not just you know, the Naleast, but the National League. You know,
we're talking about the Braves. TheBraves have problems. The Braves,
you know, you know, gonnabe in the wildcard, all these injuries.
They're one of the best teams inthe National League. So the National
League just doesn't feel good. Thisalso just feels like an opportunity. I
know, the Dodgers, they havethis great lineup. Sorry, Tony's having
an awesome year, Mookie Betts isstill having an awesome year. I still
(23:21):
don't trust that starting rotation all thatmuch. But you know, Dodgers still
really good, and Breves are alwaysgonna be good. Milwaukee's been kind of
okay there plus fifty run differential thirtytwo to twenty three. For the most
part. I look at the NationalLeague. It's not great, and the
Phillies have kind of separated themselves.I mean, how far have the Phillies
and Dodgers separated themselves from the restof the National League. I know we
could have maybe said this in previousyears about the Braves and the Dodgers the
(23:45):
last two years, and maybe theyseparated themselves from even the Phillies. I
never felt like there was that muchof a gap. Though. This feels
like a huge monumental gap from thePhillies, the Dodgers and then the rest
of the National League. Yeah,it's really surprising, honestly, because there's
a lot of teams that I thoughtwould take a bigger step this year that
haven't. I think the Reds areone of them. What is going off
the red where they're going to winthat division? And you know, it's
(24:07):
not been all bad. I thinka little bit of bad luck, but
twenty four to thirty two is stilltwenty four to thirty two. Yeah.
I really thought the Reds that ifthey saw the Phillies in the playoffs,
like they would be a really toughmatchup, just because they have the young
starting pitching. They have some reallyexciting position players, but it just have
exciting pieces in that line for sure. It's weird. Yeah, there's just
(24:29):
a lot of teams that are disappointedrecently, and I don't know, I
don't know if it's like the balanceschedule or not. I thought the Giants
would be a lot better, butthey've been dealing with a lot of injuries
obviously that they are playing better theCubs, they're kind of neck and neck
with the Brewers, even though theBrewers are kind of building a lead in
the NLF Central. But yeah,I think you could look at the National
(24:51):
League and see kind of the pileof these really mediocre teams and kind of
keep that in perspective with the Phillieswhen you think about, you know,
the Shoes with the starting rotation,with their lack of issues with the starting
rotation, really and just kind ofrecognizes how good this team is. So
if you know, you go throughthese last six games and feel really terrible
about where they are, just kindof look at what the rest of the
(25:14):
landscape looks like. Yeah, therest of the landscape looks looks odd,
it doesn't look great, and thePhillies certainly look to be at the top
of that and by pretty wide margin, at least record wise right now and
maybe talent wise. Last question foryou, Destiny Legardo. We haven't talked
about running to first base. Thebiggest conversation in Philadelphia's sports when a player,
(25:37):
especially a star player, especially aplayer we consider a leader, doesn't
run the first base. I rememberwe had these conversations about Jimmy Rollins every
single year he had one play wherehe hit a ball and he probably should
have run it out, and hedidn't run it out and he would have
been safe, and everybody gets madquestions Jimmy Rollins, and then Jimmy Rollins
(25:59):
just continues to be really good andhe just kind of take the once in
a while that he doesn't run thefirst We talked about this a bit before
we started, but you kind ofmentioned the same thing of like Bryce's Bryce,
like you either deal with it oryou don't. You deal with some
of the he's been ejected a lotin his career. You deal with him
smashing his bat in the dugout afterfrustrating at bat in the first place in
that game. You know, there'sa lot of things about Bryce that he
(26:22):
is very competitive. He plays ata high level, and when he doesn't
reach that high level, he getsfrustrated. There's just a lot of things
he kind of have to deal withwith the star player, and this just
feels like one of those and it'sreally not that big of a deal.
Yeah, I do understand the fanfrustration in the moment of kind of seeing
a couple guys on base and thenseeing how the play goes out, and
(26:42):
Bryce not hustling costs them a run. I understand that, but I do
kind of. I take a stepback, and I think to myself,
well, how would I react ifI just got two pitches up near my
head. I would be a littlebit shaken. And maybe I'm not My
head's not in the but maybe I'mjust not a major league player. So
I'll never understand that. But yeah, like sometimes I do understand the frustration,
(27:07):
but for the most part, Ithink the bigger picture, and I
would say the Phillies understand this betterthan a lot of other teams is they
got to keep guys healthy. Sosometimes if there's a routine ground ball,
they're not going to run it outjust because, like, why are you
running out of ball that has aninety nine percent chance of being in out?
So I get it from that perspective. I think back when we were
(27:29):
watching Jimmy Rowland and Chase Sutley playevery day. We expected they run out
every single ball, even if theywere going to be out no matter what.
I remember, you know, whenI was watching Chase Sulley when I
was a kid, I wanted tobe like him and hustle every play,
even though I stunk, But Ijust wanted to me too, that person
that gave it one hundred percent everysingle time. But I think when you
(27:52):
look at what happened with the endof Chase Elly's career, probably didn't really
do it a lot of good.So yeah, just like with a player
like Bryce, like he's a starplayer, so he's going to get away
with some of it. Maybe someof the other guys will kind of not
get that same treatment. But likeI said before, I do understand the
(28:15):
frustration in the moment, but Ithink that is it is what it is.
With Bryce. He's going to havehis moments where he's a little bit
ticked off and he's gonna slam abat and it's going to be uncomfortable watching
it. But when you kind oflook up at the scoreboard and see that
he's you know, he has acouple of hits, and right, we
can't just ignore the other side ofthat passion when like he hits a home
(28:37):
run like against San Diego in theNLC, Yes, and he's going wild
and we love it, Like it'sthe same. Yeah, it's just kind
of it's directed a different way.Sometimes it's towards you know, it's not
always going to be positive. Yeah, him hitting some heroic home runs,
sometimes it's him getting extremely frustrated overa certain pitch. He's what I've learned
(29:00):
about Royce is he is such aperfectionist to the point where it's exhausting.
And that's kind of what you wantout of your superstar player. Sometimes it's
just it's going to look ugly.That's just the way it is. It
is. And you mentioned and Iwant to go back to pitching a little
bit because you mentioned the Phillies understandmore than most, you know, being
healthy is a really big thing.And I've been seeing a lot of starting
(29:22):
rotations and a lot of just startingpitchers in general Major League Baseball, chasing
velocity more and more velocity, throwingone hundred miles an hour, throwing as
hard as you can, having allthe you know, the hardest stuff you
could possibly throw. And I thinkthe Phillies in the bullpen chase that a
little bit. But starting pitching,I feel like I've seen at times and
I've heard at times that you know, they kind of lay off a little
bit. You know, Ranger Suarezis throwing ninety eight ninety seven. I
(29:42):
know they do have some guy ZachWheeler's velocity can get up there. But
Aaron Nola, we've heard in agame this year he's like, Yeah,
I kind of took off velocity alittle bit because it was raining, and
you know, I just wanted tomake sure I was throwing strikes. This
Phillies pitching staff, that mentality isa little bit different. Does it feel
different to the rest of the MajorLeague Baseball Because when I feel like I
watched their pitching staff, they're operatingon a completely different philosophy than I think
(30:07):
some other starting pitchers. Yeah,and this really stood out a few weeks
ago when I covered Aaron Nola's completegame, There's a reporter in there asking
about, like, you know,how rare it is that these guys are
throwing these nine inning shutouts. ButAaron Nola's response was, as well,
we trained for this, like wetrained to go deep every time, not
to throw the pitch as hard aswe can, not to strike out as
(30:29):
many guys, but to eat inningsand keep the bullpen, keep the bullpen
fresh. Because the big thing thatthey've learned the last few years is that
the bullpen is so important in thepostseason. So it's even more important for
the starters to throw as many inningsas they can during the regular season to
keep that bullpen fresh. So Ido think it's a priority by the team.
You could tell by the way theyget contracts to Zach Wheeler, Aaron
(30:53):
Nola, just kind of the waythat they've treated pictures. Instead of cutting
Christopher Sanchez shot when he's in trouble, they let him go through it,
and then they also kind of lethim throw a few more pitches at the
end, just so they could getinto six or seven innings. Sometimes they
do that with Tywon Walker. Yeah, I really impressed the game, but
(31:15):
yeah, yeah, let him gothrough it. If it's six innings full
runs, so be it. Yougot six innings, it's perfect. Yeah.
I just think it's it's something that, you know, maybe it cost
them a game now, but closerto September October, we might see the
benefits of that. And I thinkwe've seen that in parts of the last
two seasons, the way the bullpenis really kicked it up a notch in
(31:37):
October. And I know there wasa terrible ending last year, but I
think that's that's part of kind ofthe beauty of the regular season is that
we could kind of get frustrated onthe day to day basis of like why
did he make that decision? ButI think there's a bigger picture in what
Rob Thompson does, so I thinkit's it's important to keep that in mind.
(31:59):
I I guess people complain about lineupsall the time, and that's gonna
be like for the end of time. Till the end of time, baseball
fans are just gonna complain about theirteam's lineups and that's always gonna be that
way. I've never seen so manypeople complain about a lineup for a team
that's thirty nine and eighteen before.I've never seen that, Like, why
are are you do? You probablysee it a lot too, Like you
(32:21):
cover the team, you put outall these lineups, you see the comments.
I'm sure there's a ton of repliesin your posts all the time.
Look, I can't believe Thompson's doingthis. I've never Why is there so
much hate towards what Rob Thompson doeswith the lineup? I don't I don't
get it. Yeah, I meanit's impressive, And I also come back
to the fact that it's just impressive, Like the amount of passion the fans
do have every single even when it'slike a random mode after they won seven
(32:45):
straight and Thompson's taking a player out, like, I think it's hilarious.
But and yeah, like we talkedbefore, sometimes I do question, like
why is Nick Costiano's playing every singleday? Why is Bryson stock sitting against
it slefty? But for the mostpart, I think he's done a good
job handling the lineup. He's youknow, ed Mudossi has had to play
(33:07):
just because of Trede Turner's injury.But he's done a really good job.
He's done a really good job incorporatingCody Clemmons. I think it's important that
most of the guys get a goodamount of playing time. I think it's
important that j t Romuto gets theproper amount of rest. So I think
sometimes like it is fun as afan just to get angry at whatever you
(33:29):
want. I kind of missed thataspect of being a fan. But you
also have to kind of keep thebigger picture in mine. That's the highlight.
Yeah, bigger picture, Rob Thompson, I always feel like, just
looks at bigger picture stuff. Yeah, exactly, all right, Destiny,
Well you did a great job.It was amazing talking to you again.
I haven't talked with you in quitea while about Phillies baseball, so glad
(33:51):
I could hear on the line change. So let everybody know where they can
find you, where they can findall of your stuff, all of your
Phillies coverage. Yeah, you couldfollow me on Twitter, slash xat Destiny
Underscore Legardo. You could read myarticles on Phillisnation dot com. My dms
are open, so if you haveany questions or critiques comments, just let
(34:13):
me know. When I cover theteam, I kind of want to serve
the fans as best like and soif there's ever like anything that you want
to ask Rob like, I'm notgonna I'm not gonna ask every question that
you want me to ask him,but I can spark an idea, could
spark a conversation. I think it'simportant to always kind of keep a pulse
(34:34):
on what the fans want. Sofollow me, don't be afraid to reach
out and keep reading. Yeah,no, uh no critiques for me.
You do a great job. Youalways post numbers that I always feel like
irrelevant and it's why I have seenyour account get bigger and bigger. It's
why I've seen you do better andbetter things, always in the pulse of
just kind of what what you know, numbers that people want to see,
(34:54):
people need to see, and what'sinteresting, I think is always a really
hard thing to find, and youalways seem to find the interesting with the
Phillies and a lot of interesting numbersand things to talk about Phillies right now,
so Destiny again. You can followher at Destiny Underscore Legardo check out
our work at Phillies Nation. Moreof the line Change coming up next.
Thanks again to the great Destiny Legardofor joining us here on the line Change
(35:17):
real quick before we wrap things up. Don't have any movie reviews this week,
but I do want to get toa preview of the NBA Finals Minnesota
Timberwolves Boston Celtics. I see onthe Cut Sports Betting app, which are
our friends over there. The lineChange powered by the Cut Sports Betting app
peer to peer betting, So goover there, use the referral code Gambler
(35:38):
Kutt dot com. Check it outon wherever you get your apps, or
you can also check it out Kuttdot com to find out more information,
and you can use the desk topversion as well, if you so choose'd
sign up for the cut app andI saw them there. The line for
the series is two hundred, sominus two hundred for Boston plus two hundred
(36:01):
for Dallas. I love that number. I love getting two to one for
Dallas there. Dallas looks like thebetter team. Dallas to me has looked
like the best team in the NBA, it seems like for a while,
but this postseason, especially once Lucastarted to get going, that was a
big problem for Dallas. Early onin the first two series, it seemed
(36:21):
like that Luca was having a toughtime getting going scoring. His percentages were
down and shooting numbers were down.But as the series rolled along in the
Western Conference Finals and pretty much forat the end of the before that as
well for Dallas, Luca was amazingin those last couple of games to get
to the Western Conference Finals. Andthen Luca really showed out in the Western
(36:44):
Conference Finals and especially in the lastgame in game number five. Wow,
that was a top notch performance,elite performance, what you expect of one
of the best players, and somemight say one of the top two to
three players in this league. Youknow, Nikoli, I think consensus number
one. I don't think there's acontensus number two. And you can make
(37:05):
a really strong case for Luka Doncicbeing a great number two. And Kyrie
has been good in the playoffs.You know. Scoring is definitely getting better
as well. I thought he washaving a bit of some scoring problems not
being aggressive enough. He was reallyaggressive. He was scoring well by the
end of the Western Conference finals aswell. And it's just the defense.
I love the way Gafford has lookedlike. Gafford's been really surprising to me
(37:28):
in the way that he's played PJ. Washington. It's a couple of pickups
that they've had that have been greatdefensively. So you're adding two good defensive
pieces and a defensive team overall.That's getting effort from Kyrie Irving. You
know, Luca is not a gooddefender, but he makes up for it
in a bunch of ways with hisoffensive talents. It's just a really strong
(37:52):
starting five, and I thought Minnesotawas, and they made Minnesota starting five
look pretty bad, you know,and Boston has a great starting five as
well. Now I think they're gonnaneed Kristaps Perzingis if they're gonna want to
win this series. So I thinkthat's a big thing for me, is
how healthy is Kristap's going to be. But even let's just say if Kristaps
is healthy, it's a tough series, and I think Boston certainly should be
(38:15):
a favorite in that case. Butwhat I like from Minnesota, not from
Minnesota, from Dallas, that Ihaven't seen from Boston these fourth quarters.
Man, what Luca and Kyrie havedone Layton games, I don't know if
I get that all that much.Now from Jylen Brown, you get a
good bit. I don't know ifyou get it all that much from Jason
(38:37):
Tatum. Fourth quarters kind of beena problem for them, but this seems
to be one of the bigger problemswith Boston in general. Now, if
if Dallas does start to get downin these games, which did happen against
Minnesota, it's not like Minnesota wasgetting blown out in all of them.
Dallas was giving up some leads,Dallas would get back into the game,
(38:58):
Dallas would have big fourth quarters.You know, maybe they can do that
against Boston. I do think Dallas, though, through four quarters, can
stay with Boston, but it's reallythe closing moments of the game. In
which I find Dallas's offense to bemuch better than what I've seen from any
team so far in the playoffs,and a lot of that just has to
do with Kyrie Irving can win oneon one and Luca. I mean,
that guy can shoot from anywhere,he can win from anywhere, and he's
(39:21):
such a great offensive player distributing,distributing the ball, rebounder, but scoring
the ball. Ability one on oneoffensively to put the ball into the hoop,
he does it as well as anyone. You know. That ability to
close, we've seen come up bigfor a lot of teams, and that
be missing, I think from alot of teams as well. The Sixers.
(39:42):
You know, if we want topoint out Sixers problems, that's the
one, right, No closing inthe end of the fourth quarter in Boston,
despite I think having a lot ofgreat talent and players that can do
well in the fourth quarter. It'snot like they've been so bad. But
it's very clear to me at leastDallas has been better in those moments,
(40:02):
and I think these games are goingto come down to that. And Luca,
with the way that he was shooting, with the way that his offensive
game looked by the end of theWestern Conference Finals. It's hard for me
to pass up on a team thathas that player playing that well with that
kind of roster around him. Bostonis a great team. Boston's been the
(40:24):
best team in the NBA all year, but maybe Dallas has been better recently,
and I think they've been better.And if that's the case and we're
getting Luca playing at this kind oflevel, I say sign me up forgetting
Dallas as an underdog in the NBAFinals. All right, So that is
(40:44):
it for the line change again.Thanks again to Destiny Logardo. Follow her
at Destiny Underscore Legardo if you wantto check out her work over at Phillies
Nation. She does awesome work.I mean every word when I say she's
one of the best to covering thePhillies. Always insightful, always something that
I learn from the Phillies through Dea. So I think she's an amazing Twitter
follow, amazing at covering the fillsand baseball. As you just heard early
(41:06):
big baseball fan just really watches baseballsome TV, but it's all baseball for
Destiny and I can't believe her.She's a great baseball fan, great baseball
reporter. Covering baseball and especially thePhillies at Destiny Underscore Loo got her.
So that is it for the linechange. Of course, we'll be back
next week. But you can findthe line Change wherever you get your podcast,
whether that be over on the iHeartRadioapp. Just search up the Line
(41:28):
Change with John Jansen or wherever youget your podcast. And again, the
line Change all brought to you bythe Cut Sports betting app. When you
sign up. Use the referral codeGambler. When you sign up, join
our group chat over there at cutand you can find bets. You could
post bets over in our group chatas well. Just search up the Fox
Sports The Gambler you'll find our groupchat. Kutt is the name of the
(41:52):
app. Cut kutt dot com isthe website that you can find download it
wherever you get your apps. Thatis it for the line Change. You
can follow me John Jansen at JayJansen thirty four. That is it for
this week's edition of the Line Changeon Fox Sports The Gambler
It's a Line Change episode number twelve, the Line Change Podcast edition All Power
by the Cut sports betting app,So go check out Cut. Use the
referral code gambler. It is peerto peer betting, so you're not betting
against a sports book. You're bettingpeer to peers. That means you can
do a lot of wide open bets. You can do entertainment bets, politics
(00:21):
bets. I want to have abet with somebody on Britain's Got talent.
Sidney Christmas is gonna win it.If somebody wants to say that she's not
gonna win it, go ahead andbet me on it over a cut.
But I am all into Britain's GotTalent destiny. I'm just gonna before I
finish my whole spiel, go checkout Cut kyt dot com. Are you
into any of the talent shows?This is the first time I've ever been
into it. And it's not evenAmerica's got talent. It's Britain's got talent
(00:44):
for this like amazing Broadway musical theatersinger who I can't get enough of.
Oh, I've never heard of thisstuff so good. I mean, I
did watch American Idol when I wasa kid, so I don't know if
that counts. I did. When'sthe last time you have? What's the
last American Idol of winner that youremember? I remember the last one.
I know the last one because likehe I don't remember the last one,
but I remember the first season whenKelly Clarkson won, and it was the
(01:08):
guy that came in second. Iadored him. He had curly Harry kind
of looked like Justin did he didhe end up getting big or did he
end up having no? No,I don't think he got big, but
probably took too much of that becauseshe blew up. I need to look
it up now. Yeah, Iwould like to know, because the only
the only ones I remember. Iremember Dawtry Chris Daughtrey because like, he
(01:30):
didn't even win it, and hedidn't even win, but I remember him
because he was a He was sortof like a rock singer, so I
like that. But yet other thanthat, I know of Kelly Clarkson.
Wasn't Carrie Underwood. I don't knowif she won, but Carrie Underwood was
American Idol. And I know thelast one because his video went viral of
this first audition m toungy U andhe was awesome, really good. But
(01:52):
yeah, I only know it becauseof the first video. I didn't watch
the rest of it. And herecomes this Britain's Got Talent singer off the
Street doing a Her first was arendition of Tomorrow in the in the Annie
play and it was one of thegreatest things I've ever heard. And so
I was like, cool, I'minto Britain's Got Talent. Now I'm into
it? What is it? Whatkind of television are you into? Is
(02:13):
that? Because I'm not usually intoreality or like competition TV, but for
some reason this time, I'm intowhat TV? Are you into? The
sad thing is is that I justwatched a lot of sports. It's a
lot of baseball. When there's notthe Phillies game on, I just watch
a different baseball game and I comehome from the ballpark. I'm probably watching
the Dodgers. So yeah, alot of Dodgers games for me too,
(02:34):
because I end up settling in forbaseball late at night, So a lot
of Dodgers for me, I do. I watched The Wire a few years
ago for the first time. Nice, I haven't watched that, but how
do you I watched that. Likemy thinking was, like, I'll never
watch a TV show that's better thanthis, So what's the point of oh
that good? Yeah? Yeah,all right, Yeah, I'm not really
(02:55):
into TV. I'm into movies.I'm a huge movie guys, so I
settle into a lot of movies.That's why here the tagline where sports and
cinema collide. But we're not hereto talk about even though I would like
to hear more about Destiny's hobbies outsideof just baseball. But baseball's a big
reason why I'm having Destiny Ligardo onthe podcast. You can follow Destiny.
Let's make sure I have it up. You are working over at Phillies Nation.
(03:19):
I always do this, but it'sDestiny Legardo lug A RD and you
could follow her at Destiny Underscore Legardoand she does amazing work the deputy editorial
director for Phillies Nation. Every timeof you on, it feels like you're
just getting bigger and bigger. You'redoing better and better things. So Destiny,
thank you for coming on the potagain. And I guess the first
thing I want to start off withthe Phillies is what is because everything just
(03:43):
seems shocking so far, you know, they have this great record, they
have the best record in baseball.Everything just seems great. The starting rotation,
bullpen, everything seems shocking. Butwhat so far through this stretch,
you know, right before we getto June in the summer months, what's
been the most shocking thing to you? To start? I think the consistency
of the rotation. I know,we know Zach Wheelerd, Aaron Nola there
(04:04):
wanted twos. But the way RangerSuarez is pitched, the way his command
is, the way he could hitcorners, the way he's going deep into
games, I think it's it's alot of fun to watch just on a
day and day out basis when he'sstarting. Christopher Sanchez too, I think
he's really picked it up in thelast few weeks, especially with the velocity
(04:25):
and his ability to navigate traffic.I just think it's such a treat as
people that watch the Phillies, Philliesfans media, just to see a starting
pitcher on the mound every four outof five days have like give the team
a good chance to win. AndI think that's very rare and baseball and
I think that's something that people needto appreciate. With this team. You
(04:46):
just never know how much longer youcould watch this just because injuries happen and
bad things tend to, you know, go on during the season. But
with the way the rotation is now, it's just it's it's a total treat
to watch, even the way aNola has rebounded from a tough year,
the way Zach Wheeler, I thoughthis last start he didn't have his best
stuff. Buddy did battle through.He does that pretty much every time.
(05:09):
So just the sheer dominance of therotation has just been shocking. And I
know we expect a lot from them, but just the way it's played out
this year, it's been incredible.Yeah, it has been. And you
mentioned four out of five starters.We'll get to the fifth one, yeah,
a little later. That was adistinction I wanted to make there that
you mentioned four out of five.But the one I want to talk about
(05:30):
the most right now is Ranger Suarezbecause we don't he's not on our radar
for Cy Young stuff. He neveris on the radar in the beginning of
the season. For the most part, it's Zach Wheeler and even Aaronola has
gotten into Cy Young conversations at times, and I was making the case my
bold prediction this year was Aronola wasgoing to finish top five in Cy Young
voting. Now, the thing ishis numbers actually, like aren't too bad
that he could stay in that conversationwith the problem is every other pitcher in
(05:54):
the Phillies is pitching better, whichis crazy to think about the Aaronola,
you know, three point oh fourcould win Cy Young in some years,
but for right now, it justdoesn't look like it's even close because of
what the Philly's doing, especially becauseof Ranger Suarez. How how real is
maybe some Ranger Suarez Cy Young talk? I know the numbers right now say
it, but we obviously have tolook into the future with that. As
(06:15):
baseball people, you know this aswell, we do the same thing of
you know, is this sustainable?What is Ranger Suaz doing that can maybe
sustain this through the rest of theseason, all the way until the end
of it in September and in October? Is Ranger Suarez? Like, are
the these conversations for real? Shouldwe be having these conversations about Ranger Suarez
and his sustainability in this conversation?Yeah, I do think it's for real
(06:40):
and you always have to use acaveat that guys could have bad stretches and
you don't really know what it's goingto look like at the end of the
year. But if you go backto twenty twenty one, when he started
as a reliever, he dominated asthat piggyback guy. Then he became a
closer, and then he dominated asa starter. I think with Suarez,
like what he does, like hecould kind of do anything that he sets
(07:02):
his mind to, and part ofthat could be like being a cy young
contender. I think what makes itreal is that one like he went through
a full spring training, so youknow he's he's prepared. He's obviously shown
that he's prepared for the beginning ofthe season. He's prepared for a six
months. But you know, youalso never know with him just because an
(07:23):
injury could pop up, Like Isaid, things can change, but just
you know, the way his command'sso good. I do think we can
look back on this year and say, like, oh, he's a real
threat to win a scion just becausehe has the stuff to get his era
low. He could wrap up atot of wins. With the way the
Phillies are playing recently, they tendto give him a lead before he exits
(07:46):
the game. So I do thinkhe does have a chance to win a
sion, But it's going to beinteresting to see just you know, how
much how dominant he could be fromhere on out. Yeah, and there
you just say anything he sets hismind to, and he really has like
kind of changed himself a little bit. He's still primarily a ground ball pitcher,
but he's more of a strikeout pitcher. Now, what's kind of changed
(08:09):
there? What is it? Isit just location? Is it the way
he's using his pitches, how he'susing him against certain certain batters, whether
that's left the alrighty, there justseems to be something that he's doing that
is fooling hitters more than he hasin previous years when he was relying more
on ground balls, and sometimes itwould get him into a little bit of
trouble because ground balls sometimes rely ona little bit of luck. But this
time it's no hard contact. He'sgetting ground ball stills, but he's getting
(08:31):
more extra outs I would say becauseof strikeouts. What's kind of changed there?
How has he become more of astrikeout pitcher? Yeah? Something JT
has talked about quite a few timesthat really with this entire staff, the
way guys can manipulate lineups, andRander Swarz is the perfect example of that.
I think a lot of it hasto do with you see this a
lot when Suarez pitches, and it'sa lot of fun when he's pitching to
(08:54):
aariety and they kind of move inand they think that the ball is going
to hit them, but it reallyhits the corner. I just think his
stuff is so good, like it'sreached another level to the point where you
know he's inducing soft contact. Ido think it helps him that the defense
is a lot better. So alot of those ground balls that either went
(09:16):
through the hole or was just theywere kind of missed and they're not counted
as errors. They're turning into outsand that lowers his pitch count. And
I just think he's pooling hitters enoughthat he's racking up the strikeout. So
I just think with Suarez, everything'scoming together. Yeah, I really think
it is. And the starting rotationis coming together, except for here's who
(09:37):
we'll get to that fifth starter.How long are they gonna kind of ride
this Taiwan walker train? And isit maybe a short leash, then we
think, is it a longer leashbecause of the contract. What is your
assessment of how they're going to handleWalker? Because so far it's not been
too good. I know there's beensome decent starts, but within those starts
(09:58):
still a lot of hits walks thathe's giving up. So and at times
it just feels like it's going toimplode at some point, and it has
in certain games. And then herecomes Spencer Turnbull has had this great start
and he's put into the bullpen andnow he's coming into the ninth inning of
six to zero games. So he'savailable. He's there but not being used
all too well and probably could beused in better spots. So when does
(10:20):
that change? At least when thewhen does the do those conversations happen for
the Phillies. Yeah, here's thething about Tyler Walker, and maybe this
is a divergent take, and thefour starters in the rotation, they're all
pitching like cy Young Award winners,and you see Tylon Walker, he has
a four or five year I thinkit looks a lot worse just because so
many of the other guys are pitchingwell and a lot of people say,
(10:43):
like it's tough to watch him pitchjust because the amount of spots he misses,
the amount of contact, and theamount of times he gets himself he
gets himself in trouble. But Ikind of just for some reason, I
like watching him, like walk thetype rope, and somehow, even though
his stuff looks terrible, he endsup pitching six innings and allows four runs.
(11:05):
But yeah, it's an interesting conversationto have. I know some people
have noted that he's lined up topitch in the London series. That could
be a time where they press Paul'son his season and then maybe he enters,
he goes back into the rotation afterthat, maybe he doesn't, But
I do think, yeah, Imean, the last time he pitched it
(11:28):
it wasn't great. But I dothink he's done enough to the point where
he's a fine number five starter.And to some people that'll I understand this,
it'll never be enough just because ofthe contract he's on and then the
expectations people had for him. ButI don't know, it's really tough just
because Turnbull pitched so well the firstmonth and it feels like they're struggling to
(11:50):
find a way to make him useful. They want to keep him stretched out
for when they need him in therotation. But like you said, they're
only getting these mop up you know, innings to pitch in the ninth when
it's a six round lead. Soyeah, I really, I really don't
know about Walker. I think they'llI think maybe the smart thing to do
(12:13):
is to give him a couple morestarts, maybe he goes on a better
run like he did last summer.But for the most part, I think
we're getting closer to that time wherethey need to evaluate whether they want to
move forward with him in the rotationor not. Yeah, I think it's
certainly a conversation that's going to behad because of how Turnbull is pitching.
But I think the one thing theremaybe to highlight is we're talking about a
(12:37):
fifth starter and two guys that reallyqualify as a fifth starter, Meaning there's
a bit of depth in the Philliesstarting rotation that feels like a strength heading
into what is again the grinding partsof the summer for the major league season.
It just feels like something the Philliesdidn't have last year and really haven't
had previously. They've had the topend guys. We know one through three
that they've been so good. They'vebeen able to beat the Braves in five
(12:58):
game series in the playoffs, butin order to you know, win a
division in one sixty two, youneeded more depth. And I would say,
is that a strong set right nowfor the Phillies. Yeah, yeah,
death is definitely a strong suitent.You even look at the Braves too,
and we'll probably talk about the Akunyainjury later, but missing Strider,
that's that's going to be a hugebloat to their odds to repeat as division
(13:20):
champions. And they just lost lostA. J. Smith Schager for a
few months, and they're optioning guysback and forth in the minor leagues to
cover innings and the Phillies haven't reallyhad to deal with that problem. And
you're all around the league there's areal shortage of starting pitching. And when
you have six guys on the activeroster who could start games, even though
Taiwan has struggled recently, I thinkthat's that's that's really huge for this team,
(13:45):
and it's really important that you kindof keep both of them. Just
because Phillies do have depth, theydon't have that much in the in Triple
A right now. So yeah,it's like I've said before, it's a
problem, but it's a it's agood problem to have. And Rob's also
said this, like it's a it'sa unique problem, but it's it's it's
really hard to solve. Yeah,it definitely is. And another problem that
(14:11):
seems to be coming up with thePhillies. Uh, And I hate to
say it's a problem after the gamehe just had. Obviously he almost hit
the furthest cycle and at a homerun. But it's Nick Castianos because the
numbers don't look great. If youlook at a page like Baseball Savant,
he ranks very low in a bunchof percentiles that you want to be high
in hard hit, percentage, contact, all these things with percentage K percentage,
he ranks really low. Ops ranksreally low. There's there's some flashes
(14:35):
here and there, but it seemslike a lot of the issues that he
had in the past as a goodbaseball player are really starting to catch up
to him now as he starts todecline in other areas. Do the Phillies
have a Nick Castiano's problem? Ohyes, I just think and you know,
we talk about Toylin Walker in thecontract and trying to keep things in
(14:58):
perspective. I think they expect alot more out of Costianos. Yeah,
it's just hard to have a guythat's I know, Costianos has looked better.
He had a really good game lastweek. His numbers for May are
a lot better than they were inApril. He is hitting the ball hard,
but you know the way sitting inthe middle of the water, like,
(15:18):
you got to have more out ofCostianos, And I think it's a
it's a really hard problem to solve, and I think the most frustrating aspect
of it is that he's the onlyplayer that has played every single game,
and part of the thinking with RobThompson is that he's going to hit his
way out of this plump no matterwhat. And then when you see I
(15:39):
know Bryson Scott struggled recently, BrandonMarsh they're getting they're getting put on the
bench against left handed pitching. ButNick Costianos is kind of able to write
it out, so it's not Iwould say it's not really a problem just
because if you look at the record, they're twenty one games over five hundred
and they've done all this without NickCostiano's hitting a stride, and I think
(16:00):
there is a belief that things willget better. Just how much better,
I think is a question, andwhether what that will look like in the
playoffs, I think is probably aneven bigger question. I think it's important
for them to take the next monthand a half to evaluate whether they could
really trust him, and then useout evaluation and say, like, do
(16:21):
we need to get another outfielder ornot. I think they will at some
point, just maybe there's an injury. Maybe they just want to keep it
safe, even if they kind ofbelieve that Costs could be the guy,
but they want to backup play andjust in case. But yeah, it's
just it's super frustrating to watch becauseI think when they sign him, there
is an expectation that he was goingto carry much more of the low than
(16:42):
that he was going to kind ofbecome this player that everybody loved that always
hit home runs and kind of itwas a unique character. But for the
most part, it's just kind ofwatching him struggle in the box and kind
of swinging up pitches out of hisown and kind of being like black hole
in a really good lineup. Andnow that the Phillies have lost a few
(17:03):
games, I feel like the spotlight'sa little bit more on him. So
I just think the Phillies have tohope that June is a little bit better
for Nick than April and may havebeen. Just it has to be better.
I think that's the bottom line.It has to And you you mentioned
potentially acquiring an outfield at the tradedeadline because the outfield right now, they're
(17:25):
trying to figure things out now thatthere's a lot of moving pieces in the
outfield. The thing is, they'regood pieces in certain places. Like you
just said about Brandon Marsh, He'snot gonna hit against left theies, but
you put him against the righty's numbersstill look pretty good against the right's.
You know, Rojas and Pace,they're getting what they can out of those
guys. But there seems to bea bit of a lack of production,
especially in centerfield and right field.In the outfield. But you have this
(17:47):
conundrum where you're paying the Castiana's alot of money and you're really going to
try and ride that out because youknow, if there ever does come a
time where the production starts to getthere for castianis you know, the production
can be pretty good. He's shownflashes in a Phillies' uniform, although maybe
not enough for the contract that he'smaking, but he's shown really good flashes.
What does acquiring an outfielder look like? And I guess that maybe just
(18:08):
goes to a bigger question of whatdoes it acquiring any pieces that the trade
deadline look like? For the Phillieswho are in this position as right now
so far, you know, aswe're heading into June, best are going
to baseball, best winning percentage inbaseball, most wins in baseball so far.
You know, who knows if they'restill there. They could still be
there by the time he gets tothe end of July. This team really
feels like it has a chance atsomething very big. Is that mean they
(18:32):
go big for outfield or potentially bullpen? Just what right now does trade deadline
look like? Because we all knowteams that are contending are going to get
something at the trade deadline. Yeah, I think it could look like a
lot of different things. One thingcould be a platoon partner with Brandon marsh
And I know we talked a lotabout him hitting lefties, and I really
think last year he did a lotbetter than what he got credit for.
(18:55):
But this year has been pretty brutal, so they could look to upgrade in
that area. Could be centerfield thatthey don't want to move forward with Johann
Rojas. They do have Christian Pace, they do have Brandon Marsh who could
slide over, but I do believethat Marsh is probably better suited for the
Phillies to play cornered outfield spot andmaybe it's more of an everyday guy.
(19:15):
If Nick Costianos is not to betrusted, it is going to be hard
just to find those guys because Iknow a lot of people say it always
feels like outfielders are in plentiful supplysupply in the trade deadline, but a
lot of teams do need outfield help. The Breeze are definitely one of them.
So it's gonna be hard no matterwhat. But I do think like
(19:36):
if we see how these next youknow, a few weeks play out,
just what their their big knees needsare has to do a lot with how
Costianos reforms and just how the trademarket folds, because there's a lot of
teams bundled up in the same spotin the National League, and we really
don't know who is selling who's buying, So it'll be interesting to see how
(19:59):
it all plays. Yeah, itwill be, And that's where we'll move
into more of that general conversation.In terms of division in the National League,
Phillies right now best record in theNational League. Obviously, that means
best record in the National League East, six games above the Braves. At
this point as we are speaking,Braves have lost two of their biggest key
pieces, Spencer Strider Ronald Acunya Junior. I hate to say, you know,
(20:22):
just make it so simple. Ofwell, the Phillies won this division,
right, but the Phillies just rightnow, they look they just look
better than the Braves, And nowwith the Braves kind of struggling with some
injuries, this would be a disappointing, right If the Phillies end up losing
the lead in this division, theyshould probably win the division this year,
shouldn't they? Yeah, they should. They should be considered the favorites,
(20:44):
just where the Braves are with injuriesand just how the Braves have struggled.
I think a lot of people cameinto the season expecting that the Braves just
weren't going to produce at the levelthey did last year just because of how
unbelievable they were with I think theyset the record for slugging percentage for a
team, and it was just nomatter what, even if they had all
their guys healthy, it was gonnabe hard to replicate anything like that.
(21:07):
But the Braves have really struggled tohit, like if you paid attention,
like they were struggling to hit againstthe Nationals. It's been a conversation around
a land and I know, likeI saw one person suggest that they should
think about firing the hitting coach.That's just how bad the Braves lineup has
been recently. And Phillies have hadtheir struggles in the lineup, but they've
(21:30):
been performing a lot better, soI think when you add that, and
then you also add the lack ofpitching the Braves have and the lack of
starters, and they're also dealing withinjuries to their bullpen. They're relying on
Charlie Morton, who's showing his agethis year. Chris Sale has had a
really good year, but I justnever really trust him just because of how
(21:52):
the last few years have looked.And Rainald the Lopez, he's transitioning from
a believer to a starter. He'sbeen one of their best players, but
the innings total could creep up,and there's just a lot of taking time
bombs on the Braves. Even thoughyou kind of always think that they could
kind of get away with this stuff. Maybe this is the year where it
catches up to them and their wildcard team and the Phillies take the division.
(22:12):
So I do think with the leadwhere it is and how the Phillies
roster is compared to the Braves,it would be a bit disappointing if the
Phillies let this lead slip and theBraze were division champions again. But at
the same time, I think theBraves are going to embrace that underdog role
of we got to get there.That could certainly talent. Yeah, they're
(22:37):
going to like the idea of nothaving to take that five day break,
even though, like I don't thinkthat's a big reason why they've lost the
Phillies the last two years. Ithink they just got their butts kicked and
they don't like to a minute,but no, no, they don't like
to admit that, hey, thatpitching staff over there is pretty good.
We can't oh yeah, yeah,yeah, So to the larger picture,
(22:59):
not just you know, the Naleast, but the National League. You know,
we're talking about the Braves. TheBraves have problems. The Braves,
you know, you know, gonnabe in the wildcard, all these injuries.
They're one of the best teams inthe National League. So the National
League just doesn't feel good. Thisalso just feels like an opportunity. I
know, the Dodgers, they havethis great lineup. Sorry, Tony's having
an awesome year, Mookie Betts isstill having an awesome year. I still
(23:21):
don't trust that starting rotation all thatmuch. But you know, Dodgers still
really good, and Breves are alwaysgonna be good. Milwaukee's been kind of
okay there plus fifty run differential thirtytwo to twenty three. For the most
part. I look at the NationalLeague. It's not great, and the
Phillies have kind of separated themselves.I mean, how far have the Phillies
and Dodgers separated themselves from the restof the National League. I know we
could have maybe said this in previousyears about the Braves and the Dodgers the
(23:45):
last two years, and maybe theyseparated themselves from even the Phillies. I
never felt like there was that muchof a gap. Though. This feels
like a huge monumental gap from thePhillies, the Dodgers and then the rest
of the National League. Yeah,it's really surprising, honestly, because there's
a lot of teams that I thoughtwould take a bigger step this year that
haven't. I think the Reds areone of them. What is going off
the red where they're going to winthat division? And you know, it's
(24:07):
not been all bad. I thinka little bit of bad luck, but
twenty four to thirty two is stilltwenty four to thirty two. Yeah.
I really thought the Reds that ifthey saw the Phillies in the playoffs,
like they would be a really toughmatchup, just because they have the young
starting pitching. They have some reallyexciting position players, but it just have
exciting pieces in that line for sure. It's weird. Yeah, there's just
(24:29):
a lot of teams that are disappointedrecently, and I don't know, I
don't know if it's like the balanceschedule or not. I thought the Giants
would be a lot better, butthey've been dealing with a lot of injuries
obviously that they are playing better theCubs, they're kind of neck and neck
with the Brewers, even though theBrewers are kind of building a lead in
the NLF Central. But yeah,I think you could look at the National
(24:51):
League and see kind of the pileof these really mediocre teams and kind of
keep that in perspective with the Phillieswhen you think about, you know,
the Shoes with the starting rotation,with their lack of issues with the starting
rotation, really and just kind ofrecognizes how good this team is. So
if you know, you go throughthese last six games and feel really terrible
about where they are, just kindof look at what the rest of the
(25:14):
landscape looks like. Yeah, therest of the landscape looks looks odd,
it doesn't look great, and thePhillies certainly look to be at the top
of that and by pretty wide margin, at least record wise right now and
maybe talent wise. Last question foryou, Destiny Legardo. We haven't talked
about running to first base. Thebiggest conversation in Philadelphia's sports when a player,
(25:37):
especially a star player, especially aplayer we consider a leader, doesn't
run the first base. I rememberwe had these conversations about Jimmy Rollins every
single year he had one play wherehe hit a ball and he probably should
have run it out, and hedidn't run it out and he would have
been safe, and everybody gets madquestions Jimmy Rollins, and then Jimmy Rollins
(25:59):
just continues to be really good andhe just kind of take the once in
a while that he doesn't run thefirst We talked about this a bit before
we started, but you kind ofmentioned the same thing of like Bryce's Bryce,
like you either deal with it oryou don't. You deal with some
of the he's been ejected a lotin his career. You deal with him
smashing his bat in the dugout afterfrustrating at bat in the first place in
that game. You know, there'sa lot of things about Bryce that he
(26:22):
is very competitive. He plays ata high level, and when he doesn't
reach that high level, he getsfrustrated. There's just a lot of things
he kind of have to deal withwith the star player, and this just
feels like one of those and it'sreally not that big of a deal.
Yeah, I do understand the fanfrustration in the moment of kind of seeing
a couple guys on base and thenseeing how the play goes out, and
(26:42):
Bryce not hustling costs them a run. I understand that, but I do
kind of. I take a stepback, and I think to myself,
well, how would I react ifI just got two pitches up near my
head. I would be a littlebit shaken. And maybe I'm not My
head's not in the but maybe I'mjust not a major league player. So
I'll never understand that. But yeah, like sometimes I do understand the frustration,
(27:07):
but for the most part, Ithink the bigger picture, and I
would say the Phillies understand this betterthan a lot of other teams is they
got to keep guys healthy. Sosometimes if there's a routine ground ball,
they're not going to run it outjust because, like, why are you
running out of ball that has aninety nine percent chance of being in out?
So I get it from that perspective. I think back when we were
(27:29):
watching Jimmy Rowland and Chase Sutley playevery day. We expected they run out
every single ball, even if theywere going to be out no matter what.
I remember, you know, whenI was watching Chase Sulley when I
was a kid, I wanted tobe like him and hustle every play,
even though I stunk, But Ijust wanted to me too, that person
that gave it one hundred percent everysingle time. But I think when you
(27:52):
look at what happened with the endof Chase Elly's career, probably didn't really
do it a lot of good.So yeah, just like with a player
like Bryce, like he's a starplayer, so he's going to get away
with some of it. Maybe someof the other guys will kind of not
get that same treatment. But likeI said before, I do understand the
(28:15):
frustration in the moment, but Ithink that is it is what it is.
With Bryce. He's going to havehis moments where he's a little bit
ticked off and he's gonna slam abat and it's going to be uncomfortable watching
it. But when you kind oflook up at the scoreboard and see that
he's you know, he has acouple of hits, and right, we
can't just ignore the other side ofthat passion when like he hits a home
(28:37):
run like against San Diego in theNLC, Yes, and he's going wild
and we love it, Like it'sthe same. Yeah, it's just kind
of it's directed a different way.Sometimes it's towards you know, it's not
always going to be positive. Yeah, him hitting some heroic home runs,
sometimes it's him getting extremely frustrated overa certain pitch. He's what I've learned
(29:00):
about Royce is he is such aperfectionist to the point where it's exhausting.
And that's kind of what you wantout of your superstar player. Sometimes it's
just it's going to look ugly.That's just the way it is. It
is. And you mentioned and Iwant to go back to pitching a little
bit because you mentioned the Phillies understandmore than most, you know, being
healthy is a really big thing.And I've been seeing a lot of starting
(29:22):
rotations and a lot of just startingpitchers in general Major League Baseball, chasing
velocity more and more velocity, throwingone hundred miles an hour, throwing as
hard as you can, having allthe you know, the hardest stuff you
could possibly throw. And I thinkthe Phillies in the bullpen chase that a
little bit. But starting pitching,I feel like I've seen at times and
I've heard at times that you know, they kind of lay off a little
bit. You know, Ranger Suarezis throwing ninety eight ninety seven. I
(29:42):
know they do have some guy ZachWheeler's velocity can get up there. But
Aaron Nola, we've heard in agame this year he's like, Yeah,
I kind of took off velocity alittle bit because it was raining, and
you know, I just wanted tomake sure I was throwing strikes. This
Phillies pitching staff, that mentality isa little bit different. Does it feel
different to the rest of the MajorLeague Baseball Because when I feel like I
watched their pitching staff, they're operatingon a completely different philosophy than I think
(30:07):
some other starting pitchers. Yeah,and this really stood out a few weeks
ago when I covered Aaron Nola's completegame, There's a reporter in there asking
about, like, you know,how rare it is that these guys are
throwing these nine inning shutouts. ButAaron Nola's response was, as well,
we trained for this, like wetrained to go deep every time, not
to throw the pitch as hard aswe can, not to strike out as
(30:29):
many guys, but to eat inningsand keep the bullpen, keep the bullpen
fresh. Because the big thing thatthey've learned the last few years is that
the bullpen is so important in thepostseason. So it's even more important for
the starters to throw as many inningsas they can during the regular season to
keep that bullpen fresh. So Ido think it's a priority by the team.
You could tell by the way theyget contracts to Zach Wheeler, Aaron
(30:53):
Nola, just kind of the waythat they've treated pictures. Instead of cutting
Christopher Sanchez shot when he's in trouble, they let him go through it,
and then they also kind of lethim throw a few more pitches at the
end, just so they could getinto six or seven innings. Sometimes they
do that with Tywon Walker. Yeah, I really impressed the game, but
(31:15):
yeah, yeah, let him gothrough it. If it's six innings full
runs, so be it. Yougot six innings, it's perfect. Yeah.
I just think it's it's something that, you know, maybe it cost
them a game now, but closerto September October, we might see the
benefits of that. And I thinkwe've seen that in parts of the last
two seasons, the way the bullpenis really kicked it up a notch in
(31:37):
October. And I know there wasa terrible ending last year, but I
think that's that's part of kind ofthe beauty of the regular season is that
we could kind of get frustrated onthe day to day basis of like why
did he make that decision? ButI think there's a bigger picture in what
Rob Thompson does, so I thinkit's it's important to keep that in mind.
(31:59):
I I guess people complain about lineupsall the time, and that's gonna
be like for the end of time. Till the end of time, baseball
fans are just gonna complain about theirteam's lineups and that's always gonna be that
way. I've never seen so manypeople complain about a lineup for a team
that's thirty nine and eighteen before.I've never seen that, Like, why
are are you do? You probablysee it a lot too, Like you
(32:21):
cover the team, you put outall these lineups, you see the comments.
I'm sure there's a ton of repliesin your posts all the time.
Look, I can't believe Thompson's doingthis. I've never Why is there so
much hate towards what Rob Thompson doeswith the lineup? I don't I don't
get it. Yeah, I meanit's impressive, And I also come back
to the fact that it's just impressive, Like the amount of passion the fans
do have every single even when it'slike a random mode after they won seven
(32:45):
straight and Thompson's taking a player out, like, I think it's hilarious.
But and yeah, like we talkedbefore, sometimes I do question, like
why is Nick Costiano's playing every singleday? Why is Bryson stock sitting against
it slefty? But for the mostpart, I think he's done a good
job handling the lineup. He's youknow, ed Mudossi has had to play
(33:07):
just because of Trede Turner's injury.But he's done a really good job.
He's done a really good job incorporatingCody Clemmons. I think it's important that
most of the guys get a goodamount of playing time. I think it's
important that j t Romuto gets theproper amount of rest. So I think
sometimes like it is fun as afan just to get angry at whatever you
(33:29):
want. I kind of missed thataspect of being a fan. But you
also have to kind of keep thebigger picture in mine. That's the highlight.
Yeah, bigger picture, Rob Thompson, I always feel like, just
looks at bigger picture stuff. Yeah, exactly, all right, Destiny,
Well you did a great job.It was amazing talking to you again.
I haven't talked with you in quitea while about Phillies baseball, so glad
(33:51):
I could hear on the line change. So let everybody know where they can
find you, where they can findall of your stuff, all of your
Phillies coverage. Yeah, you couldfollow me on Twitter, slash xat Destiny
Underscore Legardo. You could read myarticles on Phillisnation dot com. My dms
are open, so if you haveany questions or critiques comments, just let
(34:13):
me know. When I cover theteam, I kind of want to serve
the fans as best like and soif there's ever like anything that you want
to ask Rob like, I'm notgonna I'm not gonna ask every question that
you want me to ask him,but I can spark an idea, could
spark a conversation. I think it'simportant to always kind of keep a pulse
(34:34):
on what the fans want. Sofollow me, don't be afraid to reach
out and keep reading. Yeah,no, uh no critiques for me.
You do a great job. Youalways post numbers that I always feel like
irrelevant and it's why I have seenyour account get bigger and bigger. It's
why I've seen you do better andbetter things, always in the pulse of
just kind of what what you know, numbers that people want to see,
(34:54):
people need to see, and what'sinteresting, I think is always a really
hard thing to find, and youalways seem to find the interesting with the
Phillies and a lot of interesting numbersand things to talk about Phillies right now,
so Destiny again. You can followher at Destiny Underscore Legardo check out
our work at Phillies Nation. Moreof the line Change coming up next.
Thanks again to the great Destiny Legardofor joining us here on the line Change
(35:17):
real quick before we wrap things up. Don't have any movie reviews this week,
but I do want to get toa preview of the NBA Finals Minnesota
Timberwolves Boston Celtics. I see onthe Cut Sports Betting app, which are
our friends over there. The lineChange powered by the Cut Sports Betting app
peer to peer betting, So goover there, use the referral code Gambler
(35:38):
Kutt dot com. Check it outon wherever you get your apps, or
you can also check it out Kuttdot com to find out more information,
and you can use the desk topversion as well, if you so choose'd
sign up for the cut app andI saw them there. The line for
the series is two hundred, sominus two hundred for Boston plus two hundred
(36:01):
for Dallas. I love that number. I love getting two to one for
Dallas there. Dallas looks like thebetter team. Dallas to me has looked
like the best team in the NBA, it seems like for a while,
but this postseason, especially once Lucastarted to get going, that was a
big problem for Dallas. Early onin the first two series, it seemed
(36:21):
like that Luca was having a toughtime getting going scoring. His percentages were
down and shooting numbers were down.But as the series rolled along in the
Western Conference Finals and pretty much forat the end of the before that as
well for Dallas, Luca was amazingin those last couple of games to get
to the Western Conference Finals. Andthen Luca really showed out in the Western
(36:44):
Conference Finals and especially in the lastgame in game number five. Wow,
that was a top notch performance,elite performance, what you expect of one
of the best players, and somemight say one of the top two to
three players in this league. Youknow, Nikoli, I think consensus number
one. I don't think there's acontensus number two. And you can make
(37:05):
a really strong case for Luka Doncicbeing a great number two. And Kyrie
has been good in the playoffs.You know. Scoring is definitely getting better
as well. I thought he washaving a bit of some scoring problems not
being aggressive enough. He was reallyaggressive. He was scoring well by the
end of the Western Conference finals aswell. And it's just the defense.
I love the way Gafford has lookedlike. Gafford's been really surprising to me
(37:28):
in the way that he's played PJ. Washington. It's a couple of pickups
that they've had that have been greatdefensively. So you're adding two good defensive
pieces and a defensive team overall.That's getting effort from Kyrie Irving. You
know, Luca is not a gooddefender, but he makes up for it
in a bunch of ways with hisoffensive talents. It's just a really strong
(37:52):
starting five, and I thought Minnesotawas, and they made Minnesota starting five
look pretty bad, you know,and Boston has a great starting five as
well. Now I think they're gonnaneed Kristaps Perzingis if they're gonna want to
win this series. So I thinkthat's a big thing for me, is
how healthy is Kristap's going to be. But even let's just say if Kristaps
is healthy, it's a tough series, and I think Boston certainly should be
(38:15):
a favorite in that case. Butwhat I like from Minnesota, not from
Minnesota, from Dallas, that Ihaven't seen from Boston these fourth quarters.
Man, what Luca and Kyrie havedone Layton games, I don't know if
I get that all that much.Now from Jylen Brown, you get a
good bit. I don't know ifyou get it all that much from Jason
(38:37):
Tatum. Fourth quarters kind of beena problem for them, but this seems
to be one of the bigger problemswith Boston in general. Now, if
if Dallas does start to get downin these games, which did happen against
Minnesota, it's not like Minnesota wasgetting blown out in all of them.
Dallas was giving up some leads,Dallas would get back into the game,
(38:58):
Dallas would have big fourth quarters.You know, maybe they can do that
against Boston. I do think Dallas, though, through four quarters, can
stay with Boston, but it's reallythe closing moments of the game. In
which I find Dallas's offense to bemuch better than what I've seen from any
team so far in the playoffs,and a lot of that just has to
do with Kyrie Irving can win oneon one and Luca. I mean,
that guy can shoot from anywhere,he can win from anywhere, and he's
(39:21):
such a great offensive player distributing,distributing the ball, rebounder, but scoring
the ball. Ability one on oneoffensively to put the ball into the hoop,
he does it as well as anyone. You know. That ability to
close, we've seen come up bigfor a lot of teams, and that
be missing, I think from alot of teams as well. The Sixers.
(39:42):
You know, if we want topoint out Sixers problems, that's the
one, right, No closing inthe end of the fourth quarter in Boston,
despite I think having a lot ofgreat talent and players that can do
well in the fourth quarter. It'snot like they've been so bad. But
it's very clear to me at leastDallas has been better in those moments,
(40:02):
and I think these games are goingto come down to that. And Luca,
with the way that he was shooting, with the way that his offensive
game looked by the end of theWestern Conference Finals. It's hard for me
to pass up on a team thathas that player playing that well with that
kind of roster around him. Bostonis a great team. Boston's been the
(40:24):
best team in the NBA all year, but maybe Dallas has been better recently,
and I think they've been better.And if that's the case and we're
getting Luca playing at this kind oflevel, I say sign me up forgetting
Dallas as an underdog in the NBAFinals. All right, So that is
(40:44):
it for the line change again.Thanks again to Destiny Logardo. Follow her
at Destiny Underscore Legardo if you wantto check out her work over at Phillies
Nation. She does awesome work.I mean every word when I say she's
one of the best to covering thePhillies. Always insightful, always something that
I learn from the Phillies through Dea. So I think she's an amazing Twitter
follow, amazing at covering the fillsand baseball. As you just heard early
(41:06):
big baseball fan just really watches baseballsome TV, but it's all baseball for
Destiny and I can't believe her.She's a great baseball fan, great baseball
reporter. Covering baseball and especially thePhillies at Destiny Underscore Loo got her.
So that is it for the linechange. Of course, we'll be back
next week. But you can findthe line Change wherever you get your podcast,
whether that be over on the iHeartRadioapp. Just search up the Line
(41:28):
Change with John Jansen or wherever youget your podcast. And again, the
line Change all brought to you bythe Cut Sports betting app. When you
sign up. Use the referral codeGambler. When you sign up, join
our group chat over there at cutand you can find bets. You could
post bets over in our group chatas well. Just search up the Fox
Sports The Gambler you'll find our groupchat. Kutt is the name of the
(41:52):
app. Cut kutt dot com isthe website that you can find download it
wherever you get your apps. Thatis it for the line Change. You
can follow me John Jansen at JayJansen thirty four. That is it for
this week's edition of the Line Changeon Fox Sports The Gambler
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