Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Summer Sundays are meant for freshly cutgrass ballpark dogs and the best baseball talk
you can find. So kick backwith your bacon and eggs and pour yourself
a mimosa while Phillies announcer Greg Murphyand Green Legion Radio's Chris Sack break down
here fighting fills and take you aroundthe league right now on Baseball Brunch play
(00:29):
Ball d Morning, Philadelphia. Welcomein the bud Light Run the bud Light
Baseball Brunch brought to you by cheerleadersGentman's Club, powered by Green Leach and
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Radio on one or two point fiveFox Sports. A gambler in Philadelphia,
w dasam around the rest of theDelaware Valley where simply download the iHeart Radio
app and you can listen to usanywhere Crystal Clear worldwide. I'm Chris Sack
the Green Legion Radio and I'm broadcastingto you live from the iHeart Radio Studios
in ballet Kinwood, while Murph joinsus from Sissons Bank Park, the play
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by play broadcaster Greg Murphy. Andmaybe we'll get some more you know,
God bless America. We'll get theNational anthem tryouts going on here today or
warm ups, but Murf always apleasure of my friend. How are you
doing this Sunday morning? Oh?Doing well? Up to you today?
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Right now, I'm looking out onthe field right now, and the tarp
is off the field and the groundscrew are working on at the moment.
However, they have not rolled upthe tarp. I do have a feeling
they're going to be putting it backon. Rumors there might be a little
bit more rain still to come beforewe're with this one started, So it's
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a wait and see. But Ido think we'll play baseball today. I
was about to say, because theweather forecast has not looked good from what
I saw earlier today. It's gonnabe on and off torrential downpours. And
I know down there at the ballpark, you know, the grounds crew they
pretty much have everything as far asthe weather updates are concerned. What are
you hearing, You're you're pretty prettyfirm in your stance that we're going to
get some baseball here today this afternoonin South Philadelphia. Yeah, it's based
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on absolutely zero knowledge of anything whatsoeverother than me looking up at the sky.
But uh, you know I didit does. First of all,
it's the last time the Marlins arehere, and they're practicing the national anthem
here today. At least we getit early for that. There you go.
But you know it's the last timethe Marlins are here. It's the
final game of the series. Itwould be difficult to try and get them
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back to make this game up.So generally, what Major League Baseball tries
to do is played the game.So if we're here for a long period
of time today, that's just theway it's gonna be. All right,
sounds great, Well, this firstsegment is brought to you by our good
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(03:20):
five six seven four zero five zeroone two. That's eight five six seven
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oppicant subject to State Farm underwriting requirements. All right, MRVH. So listen,
you know how things go. We'veonly got a couple of them left.
And this actually was in the holsterfor last week. I wanted to
do this, but unfortunately we didn'thave our show last week. But we're
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back. It was weird having aSunday off for the first time since March
for me, but I probably thesame thing for you too, you know,
even though you did have the preand postgame shows and all that good
stuff, but the fact that youdidn't have to deal with me for a
Sunday, you know, consider yourselflucky. But we are going to give
away a pair of tickets for downthe stretch here the Phillies. We've got
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three weeks left in the season,so two tickets for Phillies Pirates on Tuesday,
September twenty six at six forty.With kids going back to school this
past week, and we're having alreadywent back to school over the last couple
of weeks. Depending on where you'relocated, and depending where you're at,
give us your favorite school related movie. Murph, it's not memory, it's
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movie. So if you want togive me one of yours, that'd be
fantastic. Yeah, I'll tell youwhat great topic. So many great movies
that you know are surround or inand around schools, some great comedies,
but it's also pretty good dramas aswell. So I've got a couple for
you. I'll give you one rightnow, give you the rest of my
list a little bit later on.But I mean this one right out of
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the box. So it's a classic, and I'm sure a lot of people
would mention this one. And that'sThe Practice Club, right, you know.
Yeah, one of the great moviesof my era, probably in many
folks top five list, and uh, you know, it's just one of
those movies. It's one of thosemovies I still quote to this day all
the time. And I could probablydo the movie verbatim. I've seen the
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spilm many times. So the BreakfastClub is is on the list. And
like I said, I've got thefour more where you're coming up later in
the show. Sounds great. Andyou know it's funny because I was my
Jacob started soccer yesterday and like Icould hear a few parents away, somebody's
quoting dumb and Dumber and I'm justsitting there like I couldn't help, but
actually just you go back and forthwith him. It was like Christopher Lloyd
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and you know, yeah Lloyd Christmasand Harry Dunn. We're on the sideline
and my son's soccer games. Itwas a lot of fun for me.
Scorelated movie. My favorite is AmericanPie. It's just it's like to me,
it's you know, it's kind oflike your breakfast club, like you
know, you you grow up withit. It's a little bit more raunchy
than the breakfast club. But that'swhat makes a special to near and dear
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to my heart. So American Pieis the one. So you guys can't
say breakfast club. You can't sayAmerican Pie. Slash, we actually have
a m for him this week whilewe're in studio because I think Slash finally
got this figured out. Slash,No, No, it was Mike Powers.
It was miss Powers. I can'ttake full credit, but you know,
a Mets fan is finally good forsomething. Yeah. Hey, he's
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got a lot of time on hishands now. So I gotta go with
another og school movie, one ofthe best comedians of all time. I
gotta go Rodney Dangerfielding Back to School. Okay, wow, good one.
All right, shout out Sam Kennison. Two very phenominal scenes in that movie.
All Right, guys, So inorder to win, you must answer
(06:32):
in the comments section on the GreenLegion Radio YouTube channel, the Green Legion
Facebook page, or our Twitter handleat green Legion. Our collective favorite answer
will win. At the beginning ofour final segment. All Right, murv,
let's get out of the bus.We've got some baseball to talk,
because you know, it's been acouple of weeks since we've been together,
and it's been a little bit ofan up and down affair for the Philly
so far. In September, afterthey're seventeen and ten August, you know,
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losing two of three in Milwaukee,winning two a three in San Diego,
splitting the first two games. We'reback to a rubber match on a
Sunday before our show or after ourshow here, and you know it's when
the pitching has been going. Thehitting hasn't been there. When the when
the hitting has been there, thepitching hasn't been there. Maybe the bullpens
leaking. You know, we're blowingbig games. After we take a lead,
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you know, five three, we'reup in Milwaukee, off a big
home run by Trade Turner, weblow it. Bryce Harper's three hundredth home
run, you know, puts usup, eight seven, we blow it.
It's just you know, back andforth the fair over these last couple
of weeks. But you know,hey, it's it's no longer the dog
days of summer. It's now PennettChase baseball here in September, with the
fighting fills. It's exciting to haveand they put some little bit, a
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little bit more distance between themselves andthey've missed some opportunities with the Cubs over
you know, the Cubs losing onFriday. They actually made that game up
yesterday now three ahead of the Cubs. But Phillies right now are in control
of your own destiny, holding downthat first that top ball card spot still.
But they're putting some distance between themin the field. Yeah, and
that's you know, at this pointof the year, right it's really all
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you can hope for. You gotseventy eight wins under their belt. They're
in that top wildcard spot. It'sit's you know, as we've talked about
so many times, it's not goingto be perfect. You know, they're
gonna lose some games. I didn'tdo the quick Matt, but I guess
they have what maybe nineteen games leftto play in this in the season.
They're gonna go nineteen and ozer,They're gonna lose some games. You just
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hope that they're gonna win more thanthey lose and able to keep the rest
of those teams at arms distance.And I really, you know, I
really believe that's where they'll be whenit's all said and done, in that
top wildcard spot, which means threegames here in a wildcard situation at home
in Philadelphia. That's best case scenario. At this point. The Braves the
division is one. The Braves aregonna win the division. So the Phillies
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need that top wildcard spot and that'swhat they're fighting for right now. They've
they've got to win last night,which was huge over the Marlins. Marlinson
with a bullpen game here today,which is always you never know how that's
going to go right. A coupleof guys come in and fresh arms,
and they might be able to shutdown the lineup. But you have Rangers
Wars out there and his second starts. It's coming off the injured list.
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You hope that he is h isgood and at the top of his game.
It should be a good game.But yeah, I mean, you
want to pretty much put as muchdistance between yourself and the Cubs going into
this next week of baseball, because, like you said, the Braves have
wrapped up the division. You know, it's not you know, listen,
you know they're gonna win a division. It's just a matter of time before
they actually win it. And youknow they firmly clinch it for the season.
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But you know you've got after today, seven of your next ten games
or against the Atlanta Braves. Youknow, the rest of the schedule is
you know, you can look atthe rest of the schedule for the rest
of the season. It's like,Okay, the Pirates, the Mets,
the Cardinals, You've got some cookieson there the rest of the way over
the course of the last three weeksof the season. But those ten,
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those seven games, seven in thenext ten like you know, yeah,
you want to play five hundred balland like that the seven games maybe go
four and three, three and fourat worst in those seven games against the
But like this is our opportunity righthere to where the Cubs are probably licking
their chops, even though they're gonnahave the Braves at the back end of
their schedule and the Brewers. Ithink it's the last six games for the
Cubs. The Phillies today is it'sa big game for them as far as
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winning another series and keeping that momentumgoing. But going into a doubleheader tomorrow,
you need six seven innings out ofrange of swards a day and save
as many of those high leverage bullpenarms for tomorrow's doubleheader against the Braves.
It's good. I don't know whatthe starting the starting pitchers are as far
as tomorrow is concerned. I'm assumingZach Wheeler is gonna be one of the
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two, maybe time one. Walker, Do you have any intel on what
Rob Thompson's gonna do tomorrow with thestarting pitchers? Yeah, I believe the
starters are out, and if yougive me a second, I could let
you know. It'll be uh TaiwanWalker in Game one, it appears,
and then Game two tomorrow night willbe Michael Lorenzen. So then so you've
got Walker Lorenzo tomorrow and then Wheelerwould be after that. So yeah,
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and you're right. I mean,obviously, doubleheaders are always a challenge for
managers, always a challenge for pitchingstaffs, and you really do hope that
the day before a doubleheader your startercan go deep in the game. You
know, the Marlins did a reallygood job last night, as you know,
getting day Shush to go and pitch. I think he pitch scored two
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thirds innis last night, coming inafter Johnny Quato, and they were able
to save their bulltmen because they knewthey had a bullpen game here. Today.
It's a similar situation for the Philliestomorrow because you have those two games
tomorrow and they really do they needRanger to go deep in this game.
If he can, that would bethe perfect scenario. Now, look looking
back over the course of the lastcouple of days here, and you know,
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think, yeah, yesterday was abig win for the Phillies, but
Friday night was a lost opportunity forthem, and a lot of that has
to do with some of the decisionsthat were made and during the course of
that game, first of which wasafter five innings eighty two pitches, Christopher
Sanchez gets removed from the game.And I understand Murph, like, you
know, wanting to poten at theplayer. I get that, and I
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think we all understand what he's tryingto do, what Topper is trying to
do with his starting pitchers. Butwe're in a pennant race here, and
like we've got three weeks left togo in the season. I know this
is probably the most pitches, themost innings he's ever pitched. But at
the same time, like we needwe can't go to that bullpen all the
time. These a lot of theseguys in the back end of the bullpen,
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they're pitching more than they ever havein their whole entire career. And
you just need to look at itfrom the situation. I know you guys
on the postgame show the other night, on the on the Friday Night round
table, you guys were frustrated,in particularly Larry Anderson. It was not
what you expect to do in thatsituation. Like if he gives up four
and five innings, you kind ofunderstand it, but five minutes of shot
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out ball. Throw him out therefor the sixth innings and see what happens,
because sir anything Domingas is not whatSar Domingas was in twenty twenty two.
And prior to that, yeah,you know again it's it's hard for
me to sit here and you know, question what Rob Thompson decides to do
in any you know, hindsights twentytwenty Obviously, it didn't work out for
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the Phillies on Friday night, andthat was frustrating certainly in and of itself.
I was a little surprised that hepulled him when he did. There's
no doubt about it. I thought, you know, for the same reasons
that you just gave, maybe youride him a little bit deeper. But
for whatever reason, they decided thatyou know, Sanchez had given them all
that he could give them in termsof successful pitches at that point, and
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went the way the bullpen. Youknow, if the bullpen comes out and
Sir Anthony pitch as well and andthe you know, strom doesn't allow the
go ahead home run, we're probablynot overly concerned about it at this point.
But it didn't work out. Soit is certainly frustrating. It's just
the way the game is played now. I mean, bullpens are such a
big part of the game plan nowadays. It's not it's just different than the
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way it used to be in termsof, you know, you hand the
ball to your starter, you ridehim as long as you're possibly again,
and then you try to get tothe end of the game with your bullpen.
Nowadays is they're they're they're setting theirbullpen up to be successful matchups and
different pockets of the lineup and thatkind of thing. And Rob said,
you know, had they added onin the fifth inning, he was gonna
send Sanchez back out with the twonothing lead. He liked the way the
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matchups in the bullpen set up atthat point, and he wrote with it
and like I said, it didn'twork out. So certainly that is frustrating,
but you know, it's it's justthe way things are nowadays. And
hopefully, you know, today RangersWars gives them no reason whatsoever to question
whether or not he can get intothe sixth, seventh or eighth inning tonight.
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Yeah, Andrew Bagley on our onour board here on stream yard,
he I guess he must have gottenmy run sheet because he's he's saying,
can we get Marsh to hit higherin the lineup? He's like, I
don't get why he bats so low. And then Moya McCabe, are we
going to see schwarber d for therest of the season. We need Marsh
in the field and the lineup.That was another thing that I had as
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far as beef with Rob Thompson onFriday night, because you know, if
you look at every Big Time situationpretty much this season, in late game
situations, it starts with Brandon Marshin the back of that lineup, and
I get the left on left,but Marsh had played the whole entire game.
Then you put Christian Pasch in there, coming called off the bench facing
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the guy throwing triple digits. Iget you on a right hander up in
that situation, but Marsh push cometo shove no matter what. In those
situations, he's walking, he's gettinghit by a pitch, he's getting a
big hit, he's getting on base, and then that sets up Rojas to,
you know, maybe sacrifice funt andput pressure on the fielders to make
them throw him out at first andmove the runner up the second I didn't
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understand that situation. I get theleft right, but in that moment in
time, Marsh has been one ofyour top clutch hitters all season long.
You have to ride with him ordie with him in that spot. Yeah,
you know again, I get whereyou're coming from. It certainly makes
a lot of sense. And youknow, a lot of different decisions are
made during a baseball game. Someof them we agree with, some of
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them we don't, you know,to address the idea of moving Brandon up
in the lineup, you know whatabout the argument that you know, a
guy is pretty darn comfortable in aspot and he's raking in that spot,
and you don't want to you don'twant to mess with it, you know.
I mean there's two says. Youknow, when a guy is struggling
near the top of the lineup,everyone wants to move him down, right,
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but that it's not necessarily what's goingto get him going. It's it's
more the player figure out and makeadjustments. Right. So I'm fine with
Brandon Marsh where he is in thelineup. I love the fact that this
lineup is long, and that theguys at the top on a particular day
are a little bit off, theguys at the bottom have been able to
come through and vice versa. Soit's you know, I think we talked
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so much about lineup construction and whereguys are. I mean, I hope
the conversation of Kyle Schwarburg as theleadoff hitter being a bad thing is over,
because you know, all they dois is win. When Kyle's at
the top and he's close to thebatting two hundred, he's at one ninety
six, He's getting there, youknow, I know, and look this
Sky won a bat higher than twohundred. Certainly he does, but his
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production is it's ridiculous out of thatleadoff spot. And the Phillies win games
when he's in the leadoff spot.So you know, we talked about that
for so long and now we're nottalking about that. I think the idea
of where you're batting in the lineupis only important probably the first time through,
and then after that the game unfoldsand it is this. So when
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I love to see is Brandon marshcoming up clutch, and he did it
again last night. This is aguy. I think he's about forty points
higher his batting average this year thanit was a year ago. He has
figured some things out and he's aweapon no matter where he is in the
lineup. Nick Cassianos was dropped inthe lineup. I guess we could assume
that was going to happen after,you know, a couple of rough days
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that he had, particularly through SanDiego where he had three double plays on
four pitches, and then the bigspot the other night where Bryce, you
know, they bring in a differentlefty to face him, he throws four
balls and you know, instead oflike all it takes in that scenario is
a wild pitch, it hit batsman, a walk, you know, a
blue base hit, and the game'stied and he swings with the first pitch.
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You could kind of sense in Topperafter that game he had a little
bit of frustration about that, andwe saw it yesterday. He got dropped
down the eighth in the lineup.I can't tell you maybe the last time,
or Nick Castiano is probably gonna tellyou the last time he ever bat
an eighth in his major league baseballcareer. Maybe, if not ever?
Is that what it was? Twentyone games he was in the eighth spot.
Okay, but hey, he responded, what was he two for three
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last night in that game, MaryLeaves, he was two two for three
the last time I saw. Ichecked the box score last night at the
wedding, though, is that?But he responded, and that's what you
want to see. The like yousaid, the lineup was so much better
when guys are hitting in their spotsand hitting in their roles. But when
Nick Castiano's in that spot where he'sbatting behind Bryce Harper, when they pitched
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around in the way that they didbecause they had an open base and they
put him on base. If theyload up the basis and they know how
to pitch the Castianos especially, helikes to swing first pitch and then if
he gets down two strikes, heloves floiling at that ball that's lowing away.
But Nick Cassianos, if we're gonnago anywhere this season, we're gonna
go back to the World Series.Nick Cassianos needs to be up in the
line. I'm not bad in eighth, and he needs to be producing in
(19:21):
those spots and making teams pay.That's why I like Alec Bohman that cleanup
spot behind Bryce, because if hewas up in that spot, a guy's
bat in three sixty six on theseason with runners in scoring position, odds
are it's tie game or we're gonnahave the lead after that at bat.
And you know, that's just thetype of player that Bom has become.
That's the type of player we needNick Castianos to get back to being how
(19:41):
he was in the first half ofthe season. Yeah, I mean absolutely,
you need all your big horses tobe themselves right in the big moments
in the postseason, and that's now'sthe time to try and get Nick right.
I mean, look, Nick wasan All Star and rightly so in
the first half of the season,and coming out of the All Star break
he really struggled. Then he kindof found his way again, and now
(20:03):
he's struggling again. And for whatRob said yesterday, he's dropping him down
the lineup, giving him a littlebit of a break. Take take breather,
you know, maybe take a littlebit of the prayersure off of and
try to get back to the waythat Nick Castianos knows how to hit.
And you know, in a veryvery small sample sized last night, he
was able to do that. Cameup with the first big hit of the
(20:26):
game. As you mentioned, hehad another basic later in the game.
So you know, I think he'llbe down in the back end of the
lineup for the foreseeable future. Butit as soon as Rob feels that Nick
is swinging the bat again, seeingpitches, not just swinging at pitches in
counts, but seeing pitches and notchasing him, expanding the zone, he
(20:48):
is going to slide back up tothe top of the lineup because ultimately he
is one of your better hitters andand that's where you want him. But
now it's a chance to get himright in the final couple of weeks of
the season, to get ready forthe close. See. I like the
fact that Toppers going forward today,he's going for the series. When real
Muto is back in the lineup today, Sharpers on left field, Trey Turner
short stop end second DH for Harperbom dot in clean up stock Real Muto,
(21:12):
Marsh Cassianos is back in the eightspot, and then in Mundo Sosa,
who's hitting really well over the lastmonth or two. He's gonna be
back at ninth today and playing third, So you know, he's keeping him
down in that part of the lineup. Let's see how long he runs with
him down there in that part ofthe lineup. But he's got to get
his head back on his shoulders becauseyou know this team is going to go
(21:33):
as far as those big money guysgo. And Rob's been saying that for
the last month, month and ahalf. But hey, listen, football
season's back and it's another great timeto make sure that you guys not only
hang out. Not make sure thatyou don't hang out alone in the man
cave for baseball this season, butmake sure you don't hang out alone in
the man cave this year for football. This season, try hanging out a
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second segment, we're gonna still talka little bit more Phillies baseball, but
we also have to talk about thedisasters that exist in Anaheim and Washington,
(22:21):
DC. Right here on one ortwo point five Fox Sports to Gambler.
This is Baseball Brunch brought to youby Cheilier's Gentlemen's Club. We'll be right
back after this the Gambler, PhilliesHome for all things sports gambling, Welcome
(22:48):
back Power of Love. Here onone or two point five Fox Sports to
Gambler with Baseball Brunch brought to youby Cheerliers Gentlemen's Club alongside Phillies broadcaster play
by play announced for the weekend,Greg Murphy. Murphy were getting more shifts
out of you on the play bya play side these next few weeks.
Yeah, yeah, Tom will bedoing football, Scott will slide over and
(23:10):
do some TV, and I'll slidein and do the radio. So yeah,
I don't know how many more games, but probably five or six.
I would think. Are they tackinglike another zero on your check for those
games? Well, I'll let youknow. Yeah, I'll wait till the
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murv. So listen, we've talkedsome negative side of the Phillies.
Let's talk some positive side of thePhillies here. And I want to dive
into a couple of the players onthe team that you can talk positively about,
(24:19):
and then I want to get aroundthe league with you. We got
a lot of stuff to cover.We haven't talked for two weeks, but
man, there is some good stuffin Major League Baseball that's going on that's
great for shows like ours. ButTrey Turner, Okay, guy has not
cooled down at all one bit.You know, he just yeah, you
know, just casually. The guyjust takes Tuesday and Wednesday off. Thursday,
(24:41):
the team is off, He comesback on Friday, sees three pitches
and hits another home run, tiesa franchise record with ten consecutive games where
he records an RBI. I don'tknow if it continued that way last night.
I was keeping track of the game, but there was a lot of
alcohol flowing, you know, soI just want to make sure that they
were winning. That was the numberone part for me. But I'm assuming
(25:03):
that he didn't wind up breaking therecord. But man, it's just completely
insane what this guy has been ableto do over the course of the last
month. I guess you could sayfour to five weeks here, and we've
said this probably for about the lasttwo or three shows. This is what
you signed up for. This isa guy you brought in here, and
man, I'll tell you what,the pop is a little bit more than
(25:23):
what I was expecting, because thisguy right now, if he's getting a
pitch to hit, he's putting itout of the ballpark and that's been a
part of his game. But man, he's really like come on strong with
the long ball over the last coupleof weeks. Yeah, he's been terrific.
Obviously, he's got twenty three homeruns, so I think it's it's
something like thirteen home runs in hislast twenty games or something like that.
(25:45):
Yeah, the numbers are what theyare. They're you know, they're getting
to be back to Trade Turner likenumbers. And you know, again that's
what everybody down in that clubhouse wassaying all along about the Turner is.
Yeah, he's strung right now,and he struggled for an extended period of
time, which is unlike Trade Turner, but they all had faith that at
(26:06):
some point he was going to click. And Kevin Long said something interesting to
h Kevin Stocker when we were onthe road. He said, you know,
once trade clicks and figures it out, he's not gonna lose it again.
And to help, that's been thecase so far. He has been
locked in. He went and asyou mentioned, they had their their baby,
(26:26):
a new son that was born,and he gets back and in his
first to Batty hits a home run. So play right now. It's on
to watch absolutely, and yeah,baby Tatum joined the world. So he
is now a father of two sons, and he joined the club man happy
to help you, Happy to helpyou in that group for sure. And
(26:48):
then Zach Wheeler Man probably one ofone of the best free agent signings in
definitely in Phillies history, actually inPhiladelphia sports history. What this guy has
been able to do in the Philliesuniform. I mean, like the game
that he had on Wednesday against thePadres, which was much needed after Tuesday's
(27:10):
debacle, you know, losing eightto nothing, but him going out there
and throwing one hit ball through sixinnings. This was something that I saw
last night on Twitter. Two Murph, did you know that he leads all
of Major League Baseball starting pitchers inwar since the start of the twenty nineteen
season, So his final year withthe Mets and his first four with the
Phillies, and it's just ahead ofGarrett Cole. I think it was twenty
(27:32):
two point seven and Garret Coles twentytwo point six. And then I still
say that to this day's he wasrobbed two years ago by Corbyn Burns.
He threw fifty more innings pitched thatyear than Corbyn Burns, did you know
on a team that was fighting fora playoff spot. And then if you
look at this year, everybody's overlookedby Spencer Strider and Blake Snell. And
Blake Snell this year his only Phaseseven batters after the sixth inning and his
(27:56):
twenty nine starts this season. It'sincredible. The workhorse and the performance that
that Zach Wheeler has given this teamover the course of the last four years.
Obviously the first year in the COVIDshortened season, but every time you
need a big start and you needa big game, Zach Wheeler is the
guy that you want the ball inhis hands in that moment in time.
(28:17):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And he is very much in that
Cy Young conversation. And if hegoes out and which as well over the
you know, his last I don'tknow how any war starts will have I
guess maybe three or four four.Yeah, so he goes out there and
pitch as well. There's an absoluteargument to be made that that he could
win the Cy Young. So youknow, it's it's been fun to watch
(28:41):
Zach. He has dominated. I'veread a stat yesterday and uh, I'm
not gonna be able to recall itverbatim, but the war stat, the
f war stat for major leaguers halfthe time, even before they kept the
F worthy. You know, they'vegone back and over time and been able
to apply that to players who haveretired well before. That stat was something
(29:03):
we talked about. But half ofthe cy Young War to Win Award winners
since they've been getting out the awardwhere the leaders in war at the time
when they want it. So that'swhere Zack sits right now. So certainly
there's an argument to be made thathe's a part of it. But again,
you know, if he pitches wellthrough the stretch here in September,
(29:25):
I think we might see a littlehardware coming his way. Would be fun
to see. You know, ZachWheeler has never turned down the opportunity to
have the ball in his hands.He's never been wanting to want to get
taken out of a game. GeorgeKirby, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher. I
know he apologized for his remarks yesterday, but if you saw the backlash from
(29:45):
former Major League Baseball players and pitchersas a whole yesterday after his comments on
Friday, night about not beaten.He shouldn't have been out there in the
seventh inning. I can only imaginewhat La is saying off the air about
something like that. But what's yourthought, what's your opinion on it?
Because, man, I mean,like, the guy has been really good
(30:07):
this year, and and and theMariners have one of the best starting pitching
staffs in all Major League Baseball.For someone to come out there and say
that, especially like that's it's kindof going against your manager, Scott Service,
who's done a great job over thelast two years revitalizing Seattle baseball.
Uh Man, your opinion on GeorgeKirby's remarks from Friday evening. Yeah,
(30:29):
I couldn't believe it when I heardit, a professional athlete basically saying I
wish I wasn't playing at that pointin the game. I mean it,
it's a bad, uh sign ofwhere what we've conditioned some players to be
like and certainly not all players arelike that, most players in fact,
(30:52):
it's I think this might be thefirst time I've ever heard a player say
something like that, But what mostplayers will say, give me the baseball.
I want to be out there atthe biggest moments. I need to
I want to stay out there.Pitchers hate being taken out of games.
So so yeah, it was sosurprising to hear a professional athlete say what
he said. Now he did backtrackyesterday said the emotions got the best of
(31:18):
them and what have you. ButI don't know, you know, it's
it doesn't It doesn't say a wholelot for his mental game that he just
kind of wants to go out there, pitches five innings, get out of
their unskaped, feel good about himself, and go home rather than being the
guy that wants to battle for histeam and be out there in the in
the biggest moments. So uh,you know, I hope that it's not
(31:42):
a trend that we're going to startto see. I don't think it will
be, especially because of the backlashthat he received, but it was pretty
shocking to hear it. For sure, someone needs to give my man a
haircut too. I mean, youget yourself over the green clips and you
get that stuff handled out. Listenspeak a Disaster, Washington, DC.
I heard you guys talk about thisa little bit on the Friday Night roundtable.
(32:07):
It's kind of just a laughable situationthat's going on between the Nationals and
Steven Strasburg supposed to honor him yesterdayand either retire or announced plans to retire
his number. Those plans were canceledunexpectedly, and then the rumors came out
that the Nationals were trying to getout of paying some if not all,
of the money that's owed to himand a guaranteed contract because he's retiring.
(32:28):
And this led to the owner,Mark Lerner, to actually come out of
behind, you know, behind therock that he lives under, and you
know, make a statement to defendthe franchise. Mark Rizzo. They're like,
they're not sure about him to getto like a contract extension, and
they just released or fired a longtime executive that they have their assistant general
manager. The Nationals right now area complete and utter disgrace of a franchise.
(32:53):
And you know, like you're theone that signed him to that deal.
He was owed it. You know, he won you a World Series.
You gave him that money. Youcan't backtrack on it now. And
it's not it's not his fault thatyou didn't get the insurance coverage on that
plan. Yeah, all true.I mean, it's like it's you know,
a contract is a contract, andif retiring is going to avoid the
(33:15):
contract. And guess why Steven strasper'spectiveretire because why would he ten million dollars
dollars coming his way and and youknow, none of us away from that
money, and I don't expect StevenStrassberg to walk away from that money.
So, you know, if it'sa matter of semantics, it's a shame
because I thought when they announced thathe was done, and well, when
(33:37):
Steven announced that he was done,he wasn't gonna be able to pitch anymore
because of injury, and the Nationalsvery quickly kind of circle back and said,
you know what, we're gonna honorhim. We're gonna bring him in,
we're gonna give him his due.He was a big part of our
World Series championship. He obviously hadsome pretty great moments, and imagine what
that career could have been if hecould have stayed healthy. Right, absolutely,
(33:58):
But but I was impressed that theNationals so quickly kind of rallied behind
him and said, you know what, thank you for everything you've done.
Let's let's celebrate it one last time. And then to have it turn to
one eighty and for them to cancelthe ceremony. And now obviously there's some
kind of discord between the two sides, uh and and who knows that it'll
(34:22):
it'll play out, but I wouldimagine that they're going to have to pay
that money at some point. Andif that means Steven Strasburg has to just
show up the spring training and standon on the you know, on the
sideline and watch his four teammates play, yeah, I mean it's shame if
if that's what they make him do. Injuries are a part of the game.
(34:45):
His has been chronic and it's,like I said, it's really a
shame. The guy was uber talentedand he never really got to show the
potential because of injury. I don'tthink he's a guy that you know,
was sitting back and saying I don'twant to pitch. If I don't want
to pitch, I think he's hewould be out there if he could be
healthy. So, yeah's a badsituation. We'll see how it all plays
(35:07):
out. I mean, the Phillieslike Cliff Lease stay in Arkansas the last
year of his contract. He nevercame back to the clubhouse. I don't
even think he showed up for springtraining that year. But speaking of disasters,
we've got one more to talk about, and that's the Angels. The
contract given to Anthony Rendon is oneof the worst contracts, if not the
worst contract in baseball history. Heleads a team in errors this year despite
(35:28):
only playing forty games. Forty games, leads the team and errors they played
three times as much as that thisseason. And then he was asked by
the media for an injury update,to which his response was no obla ingless
today and he left the clubhouse.And on top of that, murph,
I'm not sure if you saw thisthe other day. They held their team
photo last week and Otani was notavailable. First of all, how was
(35:51):
your best player not available for theteam photo? They dressed a guy in
Otani's uniform and the later photoshop Otanion to the top of this guy's body
in the team photo. Please speakon the Angels and the disaster that they
are. Well, I don't.I don't think the team photo thing is
is out of the ordinary. Ithink that's done all the time in situations
(36:14):
a lot. I thought maybe thatwas like if team if players were at
it. Later on, afters forall those reasons. But if he does
that take away. If I'm notmistaken, Otani was out at his getting
his oblique checked at the time ofthe team photo, which is why they
had a slot so on it.So to me, that's that is just
(36:35):
kind of what they do. It'sfunny. It's funny the way they do
it. But but it, youknow, it is what it is.
You know, Otani's getting hurt again, you know, is a shame again,
you know again the game. Oneof the great players of all time
and we're not going to get achance to see him, you know,
do everything that he's able to do. And that's that's a shame for baseball
(36:59):
fans. What happened after the tradedeadline for the Angels, it has been
a disaster. You know, theygo all in, which I loved.
I loved the fact that they said, you know what, we're not going
to dismantle this group. We're close, let's go for it. And it's
obviously not working out there, notgoing to make the postseason, and now
they're going to have to scramble totry and figure out how to get this
(37:21):
roster, uh, you know,reconstructed so that they can be competitive next
year. But yeah, and whatwill be without Otani? Yeah, I
agree, But if they if theyhave any shot of trying to keep Ootani,
they have to they have to doa major overaul in that roster just
when to come back, no doubtabout it, And I don't I think
(37:43):
it's probably too little, too latein that regard in terms of what they've
done. And either to your pointto the Anthony Rendown contract, it now
in retrospect is one of the worstcontracts that we've seen in a decade or
two uh in baseball. However,full the closure, I was at the
top of the mountaintops trying to getthe Phillies to sign Anthony Rendo when he
(38:07):
was going to be a free agent. So for me to sit here and
say that the Angels made a mistake, I would have made the exact same
mistake if I was a general managerin baseball at that time. I loved
him coming out of Washington as thekind of player he was, and I
would have loved have seen the Philliessign him and put him in the Phillies
uniform. Now, obviously that's whyI'm not a GM, right, but
(38:30):
it would be disingenuous if I sathere and said, they're idiots over there
in LA for making that move,because I would have made the same move.
Honestly. You know, you alwaysyou always appeared to me that you
would be a really good front officeexecutive, Murph, if you weren't,
if you weren't in this broadcasting business, No, I would be a terrible
front office executive because I'm a guythat lets emotion get in the way of
(38:52):
decisions like that. You know,if I like a guy, I'm gonna
sign him. You know, that'snot the way it should work, which
is why I'll stay right here.And I was loves than keeping. It's
all good. We're in Philadelphia andBallet kim Wood, South Chai. That's
where we're at. But listen,if you want to be a part of
this Eagle season, you gotta bea Green Legion. Gotta make sure it's
time to make sure you can getyour reservations for another amazing Eagle season,
(39:15):
which starts today against the Patriots atfour to twenty five. Head to Green
Legion dot com to get signed upfor Tampa, LA, Kansas City,
Dallas, and Seattle and get signedup for the day trip games for the
Jets. The giants and the commodes. Make sure you check out the Cheerlers
Gentlemen's Club bus for those day tripsas well. Go to green Legion dot
com or call the office at twoon five six six six five nine four
(39:36):
zero. That's two one five sixsix six five nine four zero twenty one
years incounting for the best Eagles roadtrips around. In our final segment,
we're gonna give away our tickets foryour favorite school related movie. And somebody
has been absolutely atrocious and awful overthe last month with his picks. And
I'm gonna tell you it's not thegood looking guy on this program. It's
(39:57):
yours, truly. Right here,I wanted two point five Fox sports a
gam Blair bud Light Baseball Brunch broughtto you by Cheerlers Gentleman's Club. We'll
be right back after this spreads totalsand all the prop that's in between.
It's the Gambler. Welcome back.Final segment here Baseball Brunch one or two
(40:27):
point five Fox supports The Gambler,brought to you by a Cheerleiers Gentleman's Club.
Summer might be over, not officially, but Labor Day summer is over.
Pretty much on Labor Day weekend,which means listen year round. The
Ludlam Hotel is always open, somake sure you guys good. Check them
out at the fully renovated Ludham Hotelat four thousand Landis Avenue in Seattle City.
(40:49):
Yes, the old LaCosta and thatLa Costa lemonade still sounds delicious to
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That's Ludlum l U d l aM hotel dot com. Or call them
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All right, murv, you wantto give me the rest of your top
five or your favorite school related movies? Yeah, this was fun and a
pretty easy list to make, Ithink, and uh, you know a
(41:35):
lot of school age movies, whetherit be high school, grammar school,
or even even College. So here'smy list. I already gave you The
Breakfast Club, which I think isone of the great movies of all time.
Breakfast Club classics school movie. Howabout Fast Times at Ridgemont High right
for a certain demographic. That wasa coming of age movie for sure,
(41:57):
and it's really funny. Another onethat we uh that we quote all the
time, and a Fast Time thatwas your that was your American Pie.
That was your American Pie in alot of ways. But it don't get
me wrong. I have American Pileon my list too, but it comes
in at number six. I lovethat movie, and you had that on
your list, so I'll keep itoff mine. But American Pie great movie
as well. You know, it'sfunny my dad. My dad listens to
(42:20):
the show every week, and mydad didn't realize up until probably about a
week ago, like maybe maybe acouple of weeks ago, that I don't
give a top five either. AndI was like, I was like when
we first when mers first started doingthe top five, I did the Top
five two and I'm like, it'sa little too much. I was like,
Murf, people want to hear morefrom Mirf. He does a top
five but my dad's like, he'slike, oh, you didn't give a
five this week. I was like, Dad, I haven't given a five
(42:42):
and like a year and a half, we're really making an impact on our
listeners out there. Thanks, Thanksdads. That's pretty funny. All right.
Uh, continuing on one of myall time favorite movies, and we
talked about this movie, I thinklast year on the show on a different
(43:02):
list, But there's a movie calledMister Holland's Opus. Yes is Yeah,
it's one of my all time favoritemovies. It's it's it's an inspiring movie
and if you haven't seen it,go see it. At a high school
band teacher who thinks he wants tobe a songwriter musician and it spends forty
(43:22):
five years as a teacher instead,and it's about how rewarding of an experience
that is. So it's a greatmovie. Mister Holland's Opus. Lean On
Me is another great movie, ahigh school principal in the inner city turning
a school around, based on atrue story. By the way, so
Lean On Me is on my list. And then I had to go with
(43:43):
a classic college movie, so Iwent with Animal House. Not a whole
lot of school going on. Butbut hey, you know it's college.
So the boys from Animal House thatmake my top five as well. All
right, sounds great. So here'sthe list that we have to pick from
old school. Ferres Bueller's Day Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, so
(44:06):
you have that on your list,Varsity Blues, Super Bad, Billy Madison,
Dazed and Confused, Napoleon Dynamite,Nights School and Election. Wow,
there's some really good one. Wegot it. We got a nice list
this week. Yeah, I'll tellyou what I'm gonna I am going to
go away from what I normally dobecause I do have Fast Times at Ridgemont
(44:30):
High on my list and I wouldvote that way. However, Ferres Bueller's
Day Off is one that I forgotand again another just tremendous movie. I'm
gonna go first, Bueler's Day Offfrom me from the listeners. Yeah,
you know I love Ferres Bueller's DayOff too. It was just on recently
(44:51):
as well. I'm gonna agree withyou. I'm gonna agree with you.
I'm gonna go Ferres Bueller's Day Off. Congratulations to Joe Milem for winning the
tickets for the Phillies pirates game Oldschools. You're a friend, right there,
So all right, sounds great,So I'll get his email address and
i'll send him over all right,Murf, So listen, this is the
part of the program where you cangloat, you can brag, you can
boast, or you can just simplysit back and listen to me say that
(45:15):
Murf went three and ozer with aclean sweep two weeks ago. That puts
him at twenty nine and twenty eightin the season, with thirty seven and
a half points. I have nowgone oh and nine over my last three
weeks oh and nine. Yes,yes, that is true. People,
for my third I hadn't gone ohand three all season long. Yeah,
exactly, I hadn't gone oh andthree all season. I've done it three
(45:37):
consecutive weeks. So now I'm attwenty eight and twenty nine. So you've
jumped me in the standings overall,and now you're two and a half points
up on me with a few weeksleft to go in the season. Yes,
well, yes, it is.It is. I'm gonna gloat.
I'm not gonna gloat at all.It's just still real quick. My dad
(45:58):
just chimed in and he said,guess my asshow that movie star start me
off with your favorite today? Allright? I a full disclosure, I
get a little help. Yes youdid. I did my my Sean Irby,
who's sitting right next to me,one of our outstanding interns. How
(46:19):
good is he a gambling department?Well we're about to find how he went
all American League in this one andfor my three picks, So we will
see how. I hope he's notto say as little faith in my man
over here. So here we go. He likes for my favorite this week,
we're gonna take the Orioles to beatthe Red Sox. Gracion Rodriguez with
(46:40):
a two point seven core e rarasince July seventeenth, So we're riding him
and we're taking the Orioles over theRed Sox. All right. So you
got them at minus one eighteen today, all right? Cool? So he's
he's living within the guidelines of whatwe said him. I told him the
rule, all right. So I'mgonna stay to the American ly. I'm
(47:00):
all American League today too. I'mgonna go with the Twins at minus one
eighty at home to sweep the Mets. Pablo Lopez versus Ty McGill. I
don't know how Pablo Lopez pitches againstthe Mets. I know how he pitches
against the Phillies. And that's whyI'm going with him today. Give me
your underdog, all right, underdog, how about this? If he gets
this one right, I'm impressed helikes the Royals to beat the Blue Jays
(47:23):
today. Cole Reagan's in his lastthree starts, he says is allowed no
URN runs with