Season predictions and final thoughts

Spoppin' everybody, it's Logan Murdoch here from the Ringer. The 2025-2026 NBA season is here, and we got your hoop podcast needs covered. On the ringer NBA show, be sure to check out group chat with Justin Barrier, Rob Mahoney, and Jay Kyle Man on Sundays and Wednesdays and real ones on Tuesdays and Fridays with myself, Raja Bell, and Howard Beck. Get your ringer related NBA podcast fixed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. And of course come find us on YouTube Twitter Instagram and TikTok at the handleringer MB A The Ringers Philly Special is brought to you by FanDuel. Things are really heating up on the court, and FanDuel is the best place to bet on all the epic matchups during the NBA season. Build a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout or try live betting and jump into the action after tip off. And don't forget with FanDuel, you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app now and play your game. 21 plus select states, 18 plus DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLE. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit CCPG.org slash chat in Connecticut. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. One of the most useful things in my life lately has been my Apple Card. Great for game nights, vacations, just life in general and applying was so easy and quick. You can apply, see your credit limit offer. And if approved, you can start using your card in minutes. Do it while watching a basketball game. You could start making purchases with Apple Pay before halftime even rolls around. I also love how I can get up to three percent daily cash back in every purchase. That's more daily cash to use for game tickets. I feel like I scored big time when I started using Apple Card. Apply in the wallet app on your iPhone. Start using it right away with Apple Pay. Subject to credit approval, AppleCard issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA Salt Lake City Branch, terms and more at applecard. com. Welcome to the Ringers Philly Special Shield Capadia here. We are three days away from the Phillies opener to the 2026 season. So we had to bring the man back, Anthony Debundo, aka Tony Buns for a little game. We like to call the Capatia 10, where I've got 10 prompts, questions, topics, Bunsies gonna pick a number, all Phillies related or Phillies adjacent or Bunsey related or Bunsey a Jason and he's gonna we're gonna go to that number and we're gonna talk about the various aspects to this upcoming season. Bunsey, are you ready for a little baseball? I will say watching the NCAA tournament and hearing Tom McCarthy's voice on the opening weekend, it starts to get you feeling a little excited. You know, I you hear T-Mac a little bit, uh, CBS Sports Network, maybe a couple big CBS games, but for the most part, we get reintroduced to T Mac, not on baseball, but calling the tournament, and it gets me so excited hearing his voice. I think he was pretty sure he was on Florida, Iowa, uh, at the end of the game last night. So just an incredible uh time to hear Tom and get us ready for Phillies baseball. We're almost back. He was. I heard his voice. He got a great game. He's got I feel like he's got he's gotten some great games so far in the NCAA tournament. So yeah, a little a little appetizer for Tom McCarthy before the start of the Philly season. All right. I tried to Bunsey get like every big topic among these 10. So there's a chance I miss something huge, and we get to the end, and you go, oh Sheo, how did you not ask me about this? Uh and so we can get to it at the end and we'll of course make our season predictions at the end here. But without further ado, you said you've played this before, correct? Yes, we did this, I think maybe last year. Same time season. Yeah, it was something like that. Okay. All right. Yeah. All right. So go ahead. Pick a number. What are we starting with? So I'm spinning the shield of fortune. Of course. To begin this. That's a good one. We landed on number seven, Philly's legend, uh Mike Alfranco. Number seven. Oh, we're starting out hot. Okay, this is the only one that we discussed earlier, where we said let you you gotta come to the table with one bold prediction, hot take, somet hing for the 2026 season. That's number seven, Bunsey. So that's where we're getting started. Your bold prediction, hot take for the season. What do you got? So my bold prediction is that Yoan Duran will lead Major League Baseball in Saves, which is not the same one. All right, that's it. Pods over to the pod. We'll see you guys next week for the opener. Uh we can just wrap it up here, I think. But yeah, I'm gonna go with Yon Daran to lead Major League Baseball in Saves, which has not happened since 2008 when Brad Lidge famously uh had the perfect season as a closer. No, I do not think Johan Duran will be perfect, but uh it's kind of a tandem where I'm gonna say that Johan Duran will both lead the league and saves and the Phillies will have their best bullpen by earned run average since 2008. I don't know if they're gonna beat that number because that number was pretty incredibly good at three two two uh ERA for the season. However, can I do I think they could be the second best since then, which was in 2011. A 3-4-5 ERA. I'm gonna go with yes. I love the way the bullpen is shaping up. I think they may have gotten a steal in Jonathan Bolin, which we'll get into a little bit later. But I think just having the hierarchy, having a trusted righty and a trusted lefty behind him, Kirk Green's gonna start the year on the injured list, but he'll be in the mix. And then you know, what more is there to say that hasn't already been said about Joan Duran and what he means to this bullpen to this city, the way he energized the fan base. People now have a calling card, a thing he's known for uh as well. And he's been, you know, tinkering with a a little bit of a of a pitch change instead of throwing a splinker. It's been more of a traditional splitter that he's kind of broken out in spring here. Just another slight variation off of a similar pitch to make him all the more unhittable. I mean, this guy is a generational closer, and probably the second or third best like per-ending pitcher on earth right now. Yeah, you know, I was looking at it and going through all these, and I thought I think the most underdiscussed topic uh going into the season is probably how good this bullpen can be, not just Iran. To your point, like I feel and this could go horribly wrong. We're in a month going, oh my gosh, remember when we talked about how we liked the bullpen? Because that's how bullpen go in baseball, but on paper, this really has a chance to be a strength where your starter gets you to the sixth inning and all of a sudden they're bringing guys in and they're mowing people down. And you're like, oh, this is kind of fun because how many seasons have we had where you come in and you're like, Oh man, I don't know about this bullpen. Oh not just the yeah, yeah. I mean, I feel like it's been basically since we started this podcast where it goes through spurts where at times you're like, Oh, I like these guys, I trust them, and then there are other times where you're like, this is a disaster. Like they can't win. They got to make a move here. And they did make that move. So yeah, I had the same thing for Duran. Uh, I think he 40, 40 saves. That's what I wrote down. He's never had more than 32. Last year, only two closers had 40. So that's the range we're talking about. Um, a reminder that he only had 23 appearances with the Phillies last season. So that's a big deal that we're forgetting. Now you get him for the entire season. Uh, and again, this bullpen is really exciting. I didn't really realize this. Gelb pointed this out to Bundo first. Gelb reference there. Uh, the only relievers from 2025 opening day, can you name 'em that are still on the roster. I was gonna I was gonna do this 'cause I have I pulled up last year's opening day bullpen because I thought it was funny when you mentioned, you know, not feeling great coming into the season. Last year's opening day bullpen was Jose Alvarado, Tanner Banks, Carlos Hernandez, R. I. P., Orion Kirkring, Jordan Romano, R. I. P., Joe Ross, R. I. P. Jose Ruiz, R. I. P. Matt Strom, uh, in Kansas City now. So obviously they're not dead, but dead to the Phillies, perhaps after how bad they were uh for most of the years. Romano and Romano, whatever whatever he goes by, he's gone. Uh and so that bull play was not good. And I remember coming on preseason thinking like, I don't know about the bullpen. They finished the year uh right around like 18th. Uh, you know, by the end of the season, though, much better group overall. And I think that, you know, played out uh with you know the the way that the the stretch run played as well. So a lot of reasons to be excited. The Duran thing, twenty seven strikeouts and one walk for a f for the Phillies last year. Ooh. Beautiful. Insane. Al Alvarado and Banks the only relievers from that Bunsey just mentioned that are still on the roster. Now I did want to get your take on some of the new relievers, but do you think w w maybe we'll get to that in a future question? Okay. You're you're let's see them pitch first. I mean Bolin Bolin is kind of the stuffed darling, I think, of the spring guy that really big dude with dominant fastball uh that people really like, good secondary. Like I think he's somebody that could bloss om into a shutdown middle guy. And again, he's not even their second best righty. He's maybe not even their third when Kirkring's healthy. We'll see what Orion looks like this year. Like the fact that that guy could be your fourth best right-handed reliever in a bullpen is just not something they've had the luxury of really since probably that 2023 peak bullpen that we saw when before you know Dominguez started to lose a little bit. And then Keller were bullish on, right? Because Keller. Yeah. I was looking at Buster only did like the thing where he surveyed a bunch of people uh in baseball and did like top ten lists for every position. And Duran was the number three reliever in his survey, but Keller got an honorable mention. I feel like he could be a very nice new character in our lives. Yeah. I mean, you know, there are questions about how sustainable what he did last year was from a home run perspective. Uh he kept the ball in the park at rates he never did as a starter. But there are so many Jeff Hoffman comparisons and I know that that that name now uh has a little bit of scar tissue with Phillies baseball because of some of the playoff stuff but like Jeff Hoffman was a dominant reliever. We had some multiple scene. We had a lot of good times with cousin Jeff and I think Keller is is a very similar profile uh where the guy just never quite could hack it as a starter. He tried for years at the Royals, the command was never really that good. And then last year he he he he went all in as a as a closer type as a as a reliever and then ended up being a setup man. And it really worked for him. It clicked. And so if he's able to keep that stuff, uh you know, the projection systems don't love Brad Keller, but the stuff models love Brad Keller. And for one inning reliever, I kinda care more about the stuff than anything else. So I'm I'm buying Brad K eller. All right. Keller, Bolin , Duran. Alvarado. Bounce back. We'll see what our bangs. Yeah, it's be fun. Yeah. We got we got some arms back there. All right. What's next, Bunsey? What do you got? Let me click my little wheel spinner here. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, you do you did this last time, right? Sheel of Fortune. Yeah. Sheel of Fortune. Number four . Scott King never quite never did quite pan out. Okay. Number four is another juicy one. This is good. Sometimes the guest comes on, they pick a number, and you're like, oh man, we're starting with this one. This is this doesn't have the juice. You pick two that have the juice. Number four, is it more likely, Bunse y, that Bryce Har per finishes with his lowest OPS as a Phill y? Or that Bryce Harper finishes top five in MVP voting. So while you think about that, I can give you some background here on why I thought this was a fair one. Again, lowest OPS as a Philly or top five in MVP voting. So I was thinking about how this offseason went and, we've talked a lot about Bryce Harper in the previous weeks. I think he's entering one of the most fascinating seasons for a Phillies player, maybe of my lifetime. That might not be hyperbole when I when I think about it, because I get the sense that the fan base might be ready to turn on him if he has like a bad season and then specifically a bad postseason. You know, i if he i if it's that kind of year for Bryce Harper, I think the honeymoon period of the pandering and the the g you know, the fans are great, all that, I think it's gonna kinda start to go in a different direction here for Bryce Harper. On the other hand, there's a scenario that he's got like one more truly great season in him where all right this world baseball classic, it got him locked in earlier. He gets off to a hot start and we get to June and we're like, he's once again one of the best players in baseball. So I do think there's some variance here to some degree with his performance, but maybe more so just in terms of how the fan base feels about him after the 2026 season. So I've got the background here. His OPS last year, 844. That was his lowest as a Philly. It has dipped in consecutive seasons here. Um, it was his lowest since he was 23 years old with the nationals. Uh, and then you look at the other end of it, he is 11th in MVP odds in the NFL. I'm sorry, in the NL at plus 3500. So which way are you leaning with how this season might go with Bryce Har per? I'm gonna go. The problem is he gets dinged for defense now and it's like very hard for a first baseman to be in MLB MVP conversations if you're not putting up God tier offensive numbers, 50 plus homers, is he a bad PS baseman? But he's he's mediocre. Yeah. Yeah, I would say, I don't I don't know. But you're not gonna get a bonus for that. Like positionally. Like you have to be a standout to get bonus for it essentially. Um it's not like shortstop where like average shortstop play is kind of rewarded in the in the in the nerd stats. So I am gonna go with lowest OPS is more lik ely. Howe ver, I don't totally buy all the doomsday stuff on Harper. I understand why it's very easy to craft the narrative, but I look at a player and I even go back to last season where yes, it wasn't right, and yes, he was swinging at too many bad pitches. But he had the lowest batting average on balls and play in his career. Hard hit rates were similar. Bat speed, which is something that a lot of eye testers have looked at, and like I think is it felt that way a little bit during the world baseball classic where you're like, oh, he's just not quite catching up to that high velocity like he used to. That is something that I think we need to monitor, and we can monitor it now. Everything can be monitored in baseball. If we're seeing, you know, like on pitches 96 plus, all of a sudden he's starting to swing and miss a lot more. That would be one of the first signs where you're like, okay, this is not quite the same player athlete. You're seeing a noticeable skill decline. But what I saw last year with Harper was an over-aggressive approach, which he has talked about, something that ate away at a bats for him. Too many just kind of just donated at bats, free outs, not quite competitive, over-aggressive, picked on for the fact that he was so aggressive. That uh led to a lot of it. And then I saw some some bad, batted ball luck. Uh, and I think that that probably evens out the first part. We'll see, right? He's talked about being committed to this stuff and and really wanting to refine his approach to walk more. He talked about how his dad gets mad at him for not walking more. We'll see. I mean, we're gonna we're gonna see if if Bryce Harper's willing to make those adjustments. Do you buy it? I don't know. I think uh you know, we've seen a lot of veteran Phillies say they're gonna change their approach and then that doesn't always happen. Well, it was really such an extreme last year. That this was again in an athletic article that he swung at the first pitch fit and you were on this uh early last season I remember pointing this out um but he swung at the first pitch fifty four percent of the time which was the second highest rate in the last ten years behind only Nick Castellano's all of baseball. I thought it I thought it was all of baseball, but either way. That's crazy. I mean if you're in the conversation with Nick, like that's That's not good. Not good. Um so yeah, it doesn't, you know, you don't have to completely overhaul what you did, but I think he has said he was getting bored with walks. He said he wants to walk a hundred forty, hundred fifty times, which like nobody walks that much. So he's not gonna walk that much. He's not prime bonds. Yeah. Can he walk more than he did uh last year and have a better approach at the plate? That's the question. So I'll take the other side of it, just to even out. Top five. We're gonna ask him to win the MVP. Top five in M VP voting. He's healthy. It feels like going into this season, which hasn't always been the case. Uh again, he had the world baseball classic warm-up. So he got that mentally got to that place where all right, these are actually meaningful at bats uh in March with something on the line and not that he performed great. He did perform at the end, but he didn't perform great overall. What did you think? I've heard the I've heard the thought, Bunsey, that was he a little performative there in that last game. With the salute and the searching for the patch on the jersey, didn't know where the flag was. Then afterwards, making sure, you know, cameras on, going up to all the Venezuelans. Is that good sportsmanship? Is that nice job by him? Or is that performative? Uh judging by Cliff's face. See, I think Cliff's already turned, I think, on uh on Harper. He, you know, that he I think I'm quite the opposite issue. I think it was dope. Oh, yeah. I thought that was dope. Like people gonna knock him for anything. But he went up there, he showed love. Like he that's yeah, that's all good sportsmanship. I like stuff like that. Like I like sportsmanship, yeah. People took it. People they read everything into him, but I just thought that was good sportsmanship. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing bad about that at all. For me, at least. All right. I'm with you. I'm with I'm with Cliff, Bunsey. I think, you know, Harper. And not for nothing. When he knocked that home run, he's he looks like he's Captain America. Like he gives me that vibe of like, you know, I Captain, like I'm I'm Mr. Wear the Flag, I'm let's go. Like, you know what I mean? He gives me that he gives me that vibe. Or I actually trying to get him to pipe down before the game. Yeah. You saw the judge judge was like in the corner being like, all right, yeah, we didn't wet. I'm up now. I gotta go strike out first. Yeah. All right. So um yeah, I I was fine with it. I was fine I think he's a I think he loves baseball. I agree with that. Like true. And I think appreciate he appreciates great baseball baseball players. Right? I mean he's also an American who like didn't really care that much about the WBC and like said as much before the event and was like, Yeah, like, you know, I I wanna win, but it's not as important to me as other things. And you know, he had he gets into the moment, he's a competitor, he's an athlete, and then it ends and he's like, you know what, it was kind of cool that they won because they they probably did care a little more than I did. So I'm happy for my former teammates and former foes and all that. And how do you not feel happy for Ranger Suarez? I mean that guy uh he's easy to love. I liked that embrace. Yes that was a nice embrace Harper and Ranger there. So yeah I,'m with you guys. I just listen, I'm just telling you, these are the things that might be percolating a little bit on the group chats of our fan base. I'm aligned with you guys. You know, I think that uh Harper's gotten a little bit of a bad rap, as I said last time, being grouped in with the other guys who haven't come through in the playoffs, where for him it's been one playoffs, one series, you know, out of four playoff runs that he has played poorly in. He's won an MVP. Yes, and he's never gonna be rah-rah, leader, smiling, energy. That's not him. You can't you have to be authentic to who you are. That's not him. Uh, nobody's perfect. Go out there, hit the ball well, and uh you know, be the player you have been previously in your career. And I don't care if you're smiling or not smiling, have the better approach, hit some dingers, uh, and be the guy the Phillies need in the middle of that lineup. He more than any other I mean, baseball more than any other sport, I think. You're you're prone to the old the the classic saying either you die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. And that's exactly where Bryce is right now. He is in that dangerous zone where you can feel things starting to turn. And like, yes, the only I hate to say this because it feels wrong. But short of him winning another MVP or having another God-tier playoff run, I we probably have seen the high water mark of Bryce Harper in Philadelphia and like his approval rating, as you say, or like his tenure. We probably have seen that, unless they crest and make it, you know, back to the World Series or or win the World Series, which is going to be hard to do given given the current team that plays out in in LA. But like he's he's gonna have to do something different this year. Something has to be different. And I don't know if he wants that to be the case. Yeah, I don't think that's a controversial take. I mean, he's won an MVP and he hit the home run that sent them to their first World Series in however many years it was in 2022, and that was after a great playoff run. Like that the there aren't many w things you could do to top that. Now you reach he will reach a different level of Philadelphia athlete if they win a championship. And he is one of the main reasons why they win a championship. That that's it. And if he doesn't, I think we'll still, like not immediately, but 20 years from now, we'll go, man, he had a great run. That signing was worth it. He won an MVP. They made the playoffs how many years in a row? Uh he again he hit the the home run that sent them to the World Series. It was a great run. That's not going to be appreciated right away. This happens at the, you know, anytime you have a great Philadelphia athlete and then they start, they reach not even the top, but they're top, and then it starts to come down. This is what happens. I mean, I'm just like Alan Iverson is in my head and a very different career, uh, very different kind of you know connection with the fan base and uh and all those things. But when it starts to come down, now it's like oh, man, you know, then you start to think what you just said, wow, that was really the best point of this like three years ago, and it's not getting back there. So I don't think it's over yet. Listen, he's he's not he's what, thirty three years old. Um, he should still have the capability to put together a great season. Whether that's this season or not, we will see. Let's let's hope he stays healthy and see what it looks like. All right, let's take a break. Let me come back. Got more on the ringers Philly S pecial. The Ringers Philly Special is brought to you by FanDuel. Basketball fans, the NBA season isn't over yet, and FanDuel is giving everyone a chance to hit the court with their latest offer. Right now, new customers can score up to $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days from NBA bets that don't win. It's 10 days of second chances. FanDuel is the best place to bet your favorite NBA players. Build a same game parlay or try live betting. And FanDuel is now live in Arkansas. Visit fanDuel.com/slash ringerphilly to join today. Everyone deserves a second shot at greatness with FanDuel, an official partner of the NBA. Twenty-one plus select states are 18 plus DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Bonus bets are non-withdrawable and expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem, call 1800 GAMBLER, call 1888-789-7777 or visit CCPG.org slash chat in connectic ut this episode is brought to you by spectrum business fast reliable internet means everything for your business and even this podcast that's why i trust spectrum Binusess. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 US-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car shouldn't feel like a second job. It should feel easy. With Carvana? It is. Just visit Carvana.com and to your license plate or VIN. Answer a few quick questions and get an offer in minutes. Like what you see? We'll pick it up right from your door and hand you your check. No haggling, no hassle, no problem. Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may app ly. All right, we are back here on the Ringers Philly Special. Bunsey, what do you got? Spin the Shield of Fort une. Feels weird when I say it. I think you need to say SHIEL of Fortune. Shield of Fortune. Five . Five. All right. We're scrolling down here to five. All right. What's more likely? This can get into 700 different topics because it's i it's one of those questions. What's more likely? Number one, a Phillies hitter wins the NL batting crown or leads the league in homers, or number two, a Phillies pitcher wins the NL Cy Yum. So uh the background here for the first one, Trey Turner. I forgot. I'm probably too mean to Trey Turner. I don't know maybe I'm not mean enough. I don't know. Trey Turner. I'm not gonna come back around on Trey Turner after last year. He didn't credit for last year. I think Anecdotally No I've never heard you say anything nice about him. When everybody else was giving him a standing O, Shield was still booing. Yeah. I will say, as I was preparing for this, I'm like, all right, I do think I was too harsh on Trey Turner last year. Although, if we're gonna bring up now, I haven't gotten a few defense too. I tried to give him credit for defense. You were like, I'm not buying it, and then he made another one. Yeah, I didn't buy that. No, that I stand by. That I was right about that he was all of a sudden a great defender. I'm sorry. He he was better than he was, but uh I don't care what the metrics say. I'm using the old eye test, the Caparia eye test. to say it was fine Well start. Yeah. I mean, I you know what? I need a metric for just like, you know, how when you're you're teaching a kid to throw, or even when you're having a catch with your friend, like throw it in the strike zone bore the person, you know, so that they kind of don't have to uh low percentage of throws in the strike zone for Trey Turner. He's making Bryce Harper work over there uh at first base. I will say that. However, he did win the bank. See, I tell you, I I got I like I was trying to say something nice and then I started ripping his ripping that again. All right. He won the bat and crown last year. Kyle Schwarber led the NL NL in Homer. So those are two possibilities. But the Psy Young possibilities with this team, Bunsey. Christopher Sanchez, third in odds in the NL. Zach Wheeler, remember Zach Wheeler? Fifth in odds to win the Cy Young in the NL, and then Jesus Lazardo tied for ninth. So among the 10 pitchers with the best odds in the NL to win the Cy Young, three of them are starting for your Philadelphia Philli I mean, that is something we cannot take for granted. So which of those do you think is more likely? Phillies hitter wins the NL Baden Crown or leads the league in Homers? That's one. Or two, a Phillies pitcher wins the Cy Y oung. I will go with the first one because I still think Kyle Schwaber is the best pure power hitter in the national league. Him and Otani, of course, in that conversation. I don't think that's meaningfully changed since last year, so I think there's no reason to expect Schwarber. Do I think he'll hit fifty-six again? Probably not. But could he hit fifty and be right up there with Otani? Sure. And there's only three hitters as of right now in the National League, projected to have a better batting average than Trey Turner. It's Luisa Rise, it's Bo Bouchette, and it's Shohei Otani. Um, in fact, one projection system has zero hitters in all of baseball, projected to hit 300 this year, which is a crazy era of baseball we're living in. But you know, Trey Tur ner still has all of that skill, and if we don't think he's going to sell out for power, because certainly last year there was an adjustment period where he got a little pull happy and remember you know Thompson pulled him aside, was like, We want your OBP to be up there. We want you on base for Schwarburn Harper. We want you to focus on that. And then we had that midseason conversation, like, is he sacrificing too much power? Yeah. Like you where's the balance that you need to find? And I do think that Turner did find a good balance of that in the second half, where you saw some of the homers, not the power he's you know, he flashed with the Dodgers, but enough power to warrant it and then the batting average being as elite as it was and obviously winning the batting title. So I still think Turner and Schwerber are at ages where you'd expect them to be right at the top of that leaderboard. And guess what? Paul Skeens is really freaking good at pitching. Uh and he's gonna be really tough to beat playing in that park uh against the NL Central teams all the time. Uh you know, it's it's a much tougher ask for for Sanchez. I would not certainly not advise betting on Zach Wheeler. And Lazardo has ceiling to be up in that conversation with Sanchez and Wheeler, but could he beat skins over a full year without an injury? I don't think so. Which projection systems do we like, Bunsey? I was going to ask you that this morning, but then I said, you know what? I'm just gonna pick one and then if Bunsi tells me that so I was using fan graphs zips. Uh we're not a big zips crew here. We don't like zips. So I Google, I tried to do some research and people and it seemed like zips was you know, people liked a zips. You don't like a zips. Do do industry, do smart like baseball people not like a zips or is this unique to you? Uh I wanna give a shout out to my guy Derek Cardi, uh, who does a great job. He builds the Bat X every year, the Bat and the Bat X, and they have been consistently voted the best public projection individual projection of the year for like five or six years now. Okay. However, ATC, which is Ariel Cohen, he takes a combination of bad acts and a few others. And so his notes. Wisdom of crowds, little actually, the equivalent of the mock draft, you know, simulator, yeah, combiner. Uh and so ATC is often considered the best you know combination of projections. This is way in the weeds now, but the bad X is probably the best like original originator of public projections. So I kind of use a mix of both. And then the new one on the scene is Oopsie, which is Jordan Rosenblum. He takes a combination of all the stuff, but it's also including stuff like Bat Speed and Stuff Plus, which had been less used in the past for the original projections. So there's kind of a it's it's it's it's model wars. Pick your pick your fighter kind of thing. But I I use ATC and the bad X the most. All right. Two things here. O ne, uh you know we like to talk about Bunsies' dating life. Next time you're on a date, Bunsey, lead with that, I think. That kind of monologue you just gave me. Uh, you know, hi, nice to meet you. I'm Anthony Debundo. I live here. Um and then, you know, tell me something about yourself. Just launch into that. Cause I think that is gonna get you at a nice level there where the interest is going to be palpable. I don't care who the person is sitting across the table. That's one. And two, Cliff, I think we have our social media breakout for uh this if that doesn't do numbers on TikTok, I don't know what's gonna I ask. I'm actually very interested in it. So I'm making fun of Bunsey, but I am very interested in it. Not only will that not do numbers on TikTok, that will get Bunsey the quickest date in his lifetime. All right, I'll see you later. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go to the bathroom and then never returns. I will say uh one f one time I had just met a friend, uh his name was Johnny, he's big on Philly's Twitter back in the day, and he had a shirt on. We were playing like this softball game. He had a shirt on that said Chicks Dig the Woba. Because you know the famous saying, Chicks dig the long ball. Chicks dig the Woba. And that was when I knew we'd be good friends for life when he had that shirt. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. That that's a good shirt. Sure. If we we if ever launched that Philly special merch, we might need to find you know to do our own version. Maybe something like that. We got a lot of shit. It says Philly special bump right across the front. There you go. Yeah. That's right. Leela saw yesterday some,one with a uh Sissors shirt on and she got my attention right away. I said, Dad, look over there. Well, I forget what it said on there. Shout out to Scissor. Yeah, someone did have a scissor shirt on there. All right, I'm gonna go with the pictures. This is good. We take different sides on these. I was surprised by this. Now, maybe you'll tell me that there's just the projection is bad, but I don't think so because I'm doing my own, you know, Capadia model here where I'm looking at fan dual and I'm looking at fan uh graphs here, the bundle. That might be the sharpest one, yeah. Yeah. So Kyle Schwarber had 56 dingers last ye ar. Fan graphs has him projected for 43, and fan duel has his over under at 41.5 Bunsi? Come on . That seems like is he is he gonna have this? I I could see him last year being an outlier. I'm not saying he's not, but he can't get to 44, 45 dingers here. Do I need to pause the podcast and put a little lettuce on that or what? I mean, look, the thing is as a full-time DH, your injury risk is just so much lower. Yeah. Right? You're not in the field. So Schwarber, the last four years, he played 155 in 2022, 160 in 2023, 150. Remember, he missed like 10 days uh in the middle of the season in twenty twenty four. And then he played one sixty-two last year. So just his injury risk, knock on wood, god forbid, is so low uh playing, you know, as a permanent DH. And even in the year where he had a down in, you know, down year in power and really focused on trying to get that average up, right? He hit 197 in 2023, 47 bombs. Everybody in the city was pissed because, you know, he's hitting 197. That's unacceptable. Next year he hits 248, a little bit less power. Ultimately, the uh the OPS was pretty comparable to the year before. Uh, and hits 38 homers in about 10 less games. So his floor is like 40 if he plays a full season. So yeah, I don't mind a little lettuce on the over if you don't want something to root for. Maybe we track that. You know, last year we were tracking the uh chase rate. Maybe, maybe it's it's Bryce Harper's walk rate and just Kyle Schwabert Dinkers. I mean, what's more fun to root for than a Kyle Schwerbert Dinger? You know, if nothing else. Not much. Adds a little juice to watch in the game there. All right. Now I forgot to tell you, you can't choose 10 because 10 is just we're making our predictions for the season. So I did not tell you that at the beginning. So if you get 10, we'll move on to another one. But I want that to come last. All right. What do you got? What's next here? Three. Spun the wheel. We landed on three. Three. Keeping track here. All right. Very simple one. Very straightforward one. What are we saying about Andrew Painter at this time next year? I just need to he had one more start since we last spoke. I think it was his most encouraging start, I believe, in spring training. We've spent a lot of airtime talking about Andrew Painter and now the season's about to begin. How is this gonna go for our guy? I wanna talk about everything but his fastball. I think we have done so much talking for good reason about Andrew Painter's fastball, but I think it's worth kind of diving into the reason that this guy was touted as one of the best prospects, you know, pitching prospects in the in the entire league was not just because of the fastball, but because of the secondary pitches. And I think that while the fastball has not looked quite as good, and I think there are questions about it still, it has been better, but not back in the last few starts. Encouraging, but not totally gung-ho, all in, excit ed. The secondary stuff is really still excellent, and I think that is something that you can kind of hide your fastball a little bit when you have two good secondary pitches like he does the slider and the curve and you're working on this changeup which you know the modeling is a little bit 50-50 on but change up numbers are always a little bit off in some of the stuff modeling. We have to look at just the swings that the batters are taking on the changeup. And they have not been very good swings in the spring training. And not always facing major league lineups, but if you have three secondary pitches that you can generate whiffs with and two of them that you can command really well, and the third one is a bit of a work in progress with the changeup, that's gonna make you a very, very effective pitcher. We see so many guys come into the league now that are just like one fastball and one breaking ball, and there's not a lot of depth to their arsenal, and they're just like trying to blow everything by you. And that's not going to be based on his current fastball, Andrew Painter. And he's going to be more of a pitcher than a thrower. And that's reason to be encouraged too. Be cause you know, the command was shaky last year, all of the command. Um, where is he on it now? We We''llll see. I think it's gonna be hard to tell until we get him in a big league setting against a big league lineup. And his first two starts, we have now the dates. Uh it's gonna be you know the last day of March here, March 31st against the Washington Nationals. You're not gonna get many better environments than a Tuesday night home start in March against the Nationals for your major league debut. Then he's going to go out to San Francisco, the House of Horrors that is Oracle Park, and we'll see how that goes. But you know, it's not two bad lineups to get your first go at a major league uh rotation, and there's not that much pressure on him. There really isn't for this team. Maybe the fan base has so much expectations that there is a feeling that like there's so much pressure on this guy. He's the fifth starter on a team with three really good frontline guys, uh, and soon to be Zach Wheeler, who threw 30 pitches today, apparently. So I I don't think there should be a lot of pressure on him. And I think we should you know I'm excited. I I switched my tickets to make sure I could go to the game that he's pitching because I want to see him. I want to be able to say I was there for his debut and and experience it firsthand and kind of see them. But you know, there's just not that much riding on these starts. It's exciting. Let's enjoy it. Let's embrace it. It's very exciting. What you just said. I mean think about that. You're making sure you have tickets to this game on the possibility, not likelihood, but possibility that 10 years from now you're sitting there and Andrew Painter's pitching in a big game and he's had this wonderful career for the Phillies, and you're telling the young buck, you know, sitting in the row in front of you with who knows what kind of City Connect jerseys they're wearing at that time, what kind, and you're saying, you know what? I saw Andrew Painter in his first start. It was incredible. It was a cold, rainy night in March against the Washington Nationals. But you know what? He came out and he threw five scoreless. And you said, you know what, there's something to this kid. And here we are, 10 years later. That's the, you know, there's been a staleness around this team. We talked about it last year. And then you get Duran and they got Bader in the middle of last year and injected some juice. And now this year, who's capable of injecting that juice? It's Crawford. It's painter. And honestly, that might be it for a while with Aidan Miller not even doing baseball activities right now. So you're right. There's he can work through stuff. He can have ups and downs. He has to be better than Taiwan Walker was last year. And maybe not even, you know, that that might even be maybe that's too high. I know you're gonna tell me that's too high of a bar because Tywan Walker kept him in a lot of games uh last year. But you're right. They don't need him to come out and be an ace. Whereas a lot of times these guys come up and it's like the franchise isn't very good, the team isn't very good, and the only thing that excites the fan base is, oh, well, we have this uh fun young pitcher coming up, and he's got to be good because if he's not good, we don't have everything, uh anything. That's not the case here. So it is a nice new little storyline that we can. It's gonna be exciting every time he pitches, there are gonna be times he gets shelled. There are gonna be ups and downs but you wanna see those little morsels those random nights in June where he comes out and Bunsi's tweeting about his IVB and whatever else and I have to ask him where did you get this? What does it mean? And then he tells me. And then I get all excited about Andrew Painter. That's what I want this experience to be like this summer. And you're right. I think it's uh it's among the most exciting things about this team when you just talk about a hund red We have not had a pitching prospect come up with this kind of heli um basically since Aaron Nola . I mean Spencer Howard, there was some of that, but but the shine had come off by the time he ever made it to the bigs and it was not very pretty and it was clearly breaking down in the process long before anything what we've seen with Painter this spring or just in general with the hype around him. He was never at the level a painter is. So yeah, it's been since Aaron Nola really. And that's you know an indictment on the organization. I mean Chris Sanchez's own rise is pretty unusual in the way that it worked out where he was kind of back and forth, back and forth. And is he a reliever? Is he a starter? The stuff models liked him, but could he throw enough strikes? Like that was a different kind of rise because it came from nowhere. This is an unusual one and I'm unusual to for our for our franchise. It shouldn't be, but it is. Uh and they already traded the guy that was, you know, the other name alongside with him, right? It was supposed to Painter and Abel. Abel's in the twins rotation. So we'll be watching him as well. I'll be watching it. Maybe the Phillies fans won't be, but uh I'm excited to see how how their careers go on maybe similar or different paths from here. No doubt. All right. What do you got? What's ne xt? We will spin the shield of Fortune. While he's spinning, shout out. I did uh you know nice day on Saturday. Wanted to get my steps in, like Cliff has advised me. Walking through the streets of media to get a uh uh coffee, run into not one, but two Philly special listeners. So shout out to Anuj, sports Indian there. You know, we're getting our name back in media, ran into him uh on the street with his wife and child, and then shout out to Ben, who was wearing just a beautiful, you know, throwback Phillies, the powder blue, uh, and maroon there with his wife and his daughter there. So always good to see the listeners out there in the wild. All right, Bunts, what do you got? Number one. Number one. All right. It's another simple one . We just mentioned him. How's this Justin Crawford experiment gonna go? Buns, you are you are in the business of, you know, trying to make predictions in a very reasonable way, not in a this is definitely gonna happen, but in uh I think this is the most likely scenario. This is what the analytical part of my brain says. This is what maybe the fandom uh part of my brain says. Where have you landed on Justin Crawford as we are days away from him making his debut according to the athletic youngest outfielder to start opening day since Mike Anderson in nineteen seventy-two What do you think? It's important to keep that perspective. Um, spring has been full of plenty of highlights that make your Twitter fe ed. There have been some big ones. He had a very hard hit ball off Terek Scuble over the weekend, which got a lot of people excited. I think there will be plenty of flash es. I think there's plenty of reason to be optimistic, but I have to also kind of soberly ground everybody in the reality. We have had a spring training now, and while there are those highlights, he's hit 260 with a 302 on base at a 360 slug. The power has been pretty close to non-existent, but the number one thing we're gonna be watching all year long is that pesky ground ball rate. And he hit the ball on the ground on sixty-three percent of his batted balls in spring training. And there is something to be said for the like Ichiro slap hitting style that he's kind of pulled off with uh going opposite field and slapping balls the other way and using his speed and finding holes to get singles, um his bunting prowess, which has been written about. Um, all those things can kind of help along the margins, but at sixty-three percent, uh, it is basically unheard of for anybody to be a productive hitter uh in the major leagues. Uh like you're up against a lot of history here. Uh and I think that's a problem. Like, you know, you go back to like the major league average for ground ball rate is is 42. Uh if you go to the last 10 years, you can count on one hand the number of hitters who have had seasons where they finished above 55 uh because they don't qualify because usually they're out of the league um or or they're not quite good enough to stay on the team levels of stuff. So like we talk about 60% ground ball rates. If a pitcher is at that level, he is a God. He is Chris Sanchez. He is Framber Valdez. He is Peak Ranger Suarez. Um, this is not great uh to look at. So I think there are some concerns. And uh I'm not sure what we're gonna get from it but I'm excited to find out uh kind of like what this all means and what where we end up in in this in the summer. I'm gonna stick to the projections on Crawford and say that, you know, the the current projection from ATC is a six eighty-eight OPS. I'll go slightly under and I'll say he's closer to six sixty. He bats ninth, steals some bases, uh, and and has some fun, but it's not a particularly productive player, is my prediction for the season. Does it have his average on there? Do you have that pulled up right now or no? I do. He is two eighty two sixty six . Two three twenty on base and a three sixty slug. Okay, because this was it this was maybe the most interesting thing in the uh fan graph zips proje ction, Bunse,y is that they project him to hit 28 6 this year, which would be the highest batting average on the team. I could have now I know again, I know that's misleading because it's gonna be like all singles. And so it's not gonna be as productive as other players. But I was looking at that going, hmm, would I take that? It's 286 with seven homers, 56 RBIs, and 29 stolen bases, and just in my head, I'm like, I didn't think he was gonna hit 286. So you're giving me a hard under on that. Uh you have two sixty-six with uh with the other projections, and again, that's gonna be a lot of singles there. Yeah, I I zips, one of the reasons we don't love zips, I think it over projects younger players a little bit too much. Okay. Um got his OPS at seven twenty seven underjection. Yeah, I'll bet the under on that for any amount of money that zips will let me buy, which is zero dollars. Uh yeah, uh I pulled it up. So in the last ten years of baseball, there are only seven qualified hitters who uh had those numbers, 60% or higher ground ball rate. Only one of them is still in the league. In fact, one of them is and now coach for the Phillies, uh Howie Kendrick. Uh yeah, it's it's uh it's tough to pull off. I mean Tim Anderson did it in twenty twenty-three. Uh that was I believe his final season in the Biggs. Maybe twenty twenty four he had yeah yeah, yeah. Twenty twenty four was his final season. So it's like uh not a great look when you're putting that many balls on the ground. Eric Hosmer kind of at the end of his career in San Diego. Uh yeah, there's not a great track record for these guys. Okay, here's what I'm gonna do. Here's my approach with Crawford. I'm turning into old school baseball gu y with Crawford. Yeah. You could, you know, I this is this gonna be my approach when he's at the play. You could take your ground ball rate and stick it, you know where this guy puts the ball in play, he gets on base, he's a threat when he's on base, he's gonna steal bases he's gonna be better defensively than all your fancy projections say and you know what he's gonna be he seems like a great guy i'm reading the quotes that tree turner's saying about him raving about his work ethic and his mindset and how nice it is to have him in the clubhouse. And I'm gonna say this guy's gonna give the Phillies a boost. I don't want to see any advanced analytics. I'm gonna cheer for him. How does that sound? I can't blame you for that. That is the case. That is the argument. And like , is there room for one guy in your lineup who plays like that, who puts the ball in play, who is a pest, who steals bases? I mean, the Brewers and the D-backs, they've had these successful offenses, not because they're slugging balls out of the park all the time, but because they have a lot of really good hitters who take good at bats, who have good approaches, who put balls in play, who have a lot of speed. That is something that's becoming all these angels Barkley running for 2,000 yards, right? Um the the the the meta is constantly changing. And I think that baseball may have overoptimized for homers. There's a possibility that there is room for teams to put the ball and play more and have more success. I mean the b,lue Jays and the Brewers won the most games of any team in baseball last year. Those were the two best records and the Phillies and the Phillies. Those were the top th ree. The Blue Jays improved their strikeout rate considerably year over year. The Brewers stole more bases in every team in baseball. Like those skills are becoming uh more underrated again in baseball. And so it's good to see the Phillies are embracing youth because they do have the tendency to feel a little old out there when they're uh Big Zag Baseball. Crawford's unlikely season gives Phillies the spark they need. Something to that effect. Now, I just saw that uh Cliff's been putting some stuff in the chat, and it's very funny to read these all at once, not knowing exactly when in the conversation they happened. So the first thing he put in the chat was David Bell question mark. Which that one I've Number four. It was number four. Cause he went um Who'd you go with Scotty? Scotty Kingery. Kingery, yeah. So I said David Bell. Okay. You were number four. Do you remember that? Okay. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. No, I try I've tried to forget about David Bell. I'll do it. Not as memorable as the mask guy. Ain't he the manager? Ain't he the manager still? I don't know. I don't know what he the manager of the red still. Yeah, I didn't did they yeah, yeah, he's still there. Yeah, yes. Okay. Sorry. He did not bring me joy. Okay. Cliff. By the way, if you hear the background noise, Cliff had to Oh no, they got rid of Bell. Oh, they got rid of him? Damn. Yeah. Sorry. Cliff had to make a little detour. Electrical work? Cliff in the building. So yeah, I pull up. I you know, I get my I get my workout and I pull up to the block. I see like four different uh electrical trucks outside. But homie was like, Yeah, man, the power is out. It's gonna be out from literally I had a work meeting at noon and then I had to do this pod at one o'clock. They said literally from twelve to two the power will be out. I said, put up 11. I'm thinking Yeah, I'm thinking about to get a nice shower. I'm gonna be ready for the meeting and then after this we're gonna pop, we're gonna do our stuff. Nope. I had to take a quick little detour to McCrossins on um on 20th Street here, right up right near Spring Garden. So I'm still on the block, but I just had to t you know take a little quick detour. Shout out to Zoe over here. She uh gave me a nice little spot, a little cup of wine. So chilling here, doing the work. I mean, what a what a Monday afternoon. First of all, it sounds lively in there. What's the case It is lively in here, man? It's a lot of people in here. McCrossins. McCrossins. Okay. So shit. And I mean, the Wi-Fi. Are you on their Wi-Fi? Yeah, I'm on I'm on McCrossins' gift. I mean you've never looked clearer. You have a game stuck one time. My home Wi-Fi is that bad? No, it's good, but I would expect to see a dip when you go from your homework. From your from your homework to somewhere now you're at a bar restaurant. So shout out to them. If anybody needs a how how's the bathroom situation there, Cliff? That's it's cool. Yeah, they got the little solo bathrooms in here. They got the solo. Yeah, good. It's pretty clean. So if you're in that area, you know, and you need some Wi-Fi, maybe a glass of wine, I see a TV in the background. Again. People are having lunch there. It's a little music in here. It's like a little crowd in here. It's like I don't know, it's probably like fifteen, twenty people around here. All right. Yeah. Free, I guess, right? Well, they earned it. They're giving you free Wi-Fi. So yeah, they get the free ads. All right. So that was one thing Cliff posted. Then he said only six players hit over forty three homers last year. I would assume that's in reference to Schwarber. You're right. It's not easy. It's not easy to hit forty-three, but still. That's what I'm saying. Like the 50, the 50 plus, like how many seasons have people actually hit 50 plus home runs when now that I think about it? Like our I'm not I don't need 50. I need over 41 and a half, Clef. Well, okay, yes. I'm saying to beat to beat whatever out you want but I'm just like I'm actually curious as to how many players have actually hit over fifty on the run I know only eight have ever hit sixty. Okay. Only eight have ever hit sixty yeah so I wonder how many players actually ever hit fifty. Because I I mean that number I would probably say it increases to what like forty ish so maybe buns, maybe more. In uh probably that. Yeah. Fifty plus home run seasons. Yeah, actually, you know what? Yeah, it's a couple of dudes that definitely had like two run seasons that Brady ands going absol Abutely crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right. Cliff also posted pickleball. Pickleball. Cliff. What you was a reference to your reference to your get your steps in Saturday. I was playing pickleball, man. It was it was a good little vibe. It was some dudes golfing. They said, oh, shout out to the Ringers Philly special. Um it was a little simulator over there. Um I was at the ballers again, free ad again, but I was at that little new social club in the city, like right near where Buns lives. Actually literally like right around the corner from where Buns lives. Um we playing pickleball in there, bro. I never knew how much fun that was. Like you know, I had some of the most fun I had in I don't even know how long, bro. I we going back next week. It's gonna be popping in there. I can't wait, man. Pickleballs, that's my new thing. Wow, that's it. Bunts. How do you feel as a tennis official? But I'm a tennis fan though. I'm a tennis fan though. So I understand. But there's this day this isn't a big, big story in America right now. You know? Yeah, we had Novak Djokovic commenting on it last year. Yeah, the big joke say, what Joker say. He he just said that you know he wants to make sure the youth still play tennis. Yeah. And that it's important that tennis, you know, fights off this kind of incursion from pickleball. Not that a pickleball is bad. Yeah. I mean I played tennis Saturday and I played pickleball Sunday. Yeah. I have friends who who who enjoy the pickle and I've been saying for years finally we picked a sport that I'm decent at and then I can like be good at because for years we would just play basketball and I I was never very good. Um so for me I I I have a complicated relationship with it because I do think tennis is superior, but I also am not going to be upset if people want to play pickleball. So I think that's where I'm at. I don't want tennis to get lost. I think you gotta still play tennis. I don't think I have the pickleball hate that some tennis lovers have. Now I do I don't like to see all the tennis courts getting redone at pickleball courts. That doesn't have to be zero sum. But listen, I can't believe rising tide can lift all boats. Pickleball is replacing basketball courts too. You gotta remember it's gentrification sport. I don't like that at all. Yeah, it's the gentrification sport, bro. That's what it is, bro. It's literally. I was out on the bird Sunday. A lot of a lot of the suburban families getting their kids in the pickle makes them think it is way easier to play than tennis too so that's course yo not for nothing it is mad fun yo like it is just fun like the rules are fun it makes the gameplay is fun like it's fun it's just I can't lie. I've had fun when I've played before. Now, Cliff, you probably might not remember this. We had a listener invite us to go play in their South Jersey pickleball league. We did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do remember. I do remember. The three of us. I scoffed at it. I scoffed at it I ' wascause kinda mad at what pickleball was doing to two basketball, two tennis, but now I did it, I'm like, damn, I can't wa I can't wait to go back and Clip got a little taste. Yeah. Now and not for nothing, the spot that we did it at the new the new little social club or whatever. Yo, place is crazy, yo. You've got my attention with golf simulator. I'll tell you that much. Yo, two simulators too. And they they simulate, you know, Pebble Beach, all the big mash like all those courses. So yeah. All right. And then Cliff's last thing in the chat. Well, Trey does that LOL. I think that was in reverse. Justin Groff. Justin Groffers. You you wonder why how Trey gets a batting title. There's your answer. You're not wrong. Yeah. All right. There you go. All right, Cliff. Go enjoy. Sorry, the name one more time. McCrossins, right? I never this is McCrossins on the corner of uh that's this is twenty street, but it's off like a little back block, so 23th Spring Garden pretty much. All right, show them some love because they're helping Cliff and they're helping us get this podcast up. All right, Bunsey. What do you got? Nice little detour there. What's the next num ber? Uh number two . Number two? Moses Malone. Was it his birthday recently? I saw something on social media about Moses recently here. All right. We mentioned Christopher Sanche z. Why did the Phillies redo Christopher Sanchez's deal? Anthony Debundo. This was a big story. Last 48 hours here. They agreed to um a new deal, a new extension with Christopher Sanchez, raising his guaranteed money to 107 million dollars. Remember, they just did an extension with him in June 2024, which after the way he pitched last year, I don't know you tell me. Was it the best contract in baseball or certainly on the short list of best contracts in baseball? I don't know professional sports franchises to just be, you know, generous. Yeah. Just guy. Yeah. That's not usually how it works. So what do you think reading the coverage, looking at the coverage, thinking about this, um, why they made this move? It's shocking. I mean, it's as shocking as the original deal was last year that they signed with Sanchez that extended him a at a below market rate to begin with. It's a weird thing. On one hand, you know, team CTC, happy for Chris Sanchez, life-changing money. He gets paid at a rate that he deserves. But from a pure team perspective, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The whole point of you know building a competitive roster is to be able to find players or your own players and figure out how much they're worth and then, you know, I I mean, I hate to be kind of like crass about how we assign value to people and like their professional services to a baseball team, for example. But yeah, the idea is to like find players and then pay them less than they're worth. And therefore you can acquire more good players with the there's no salary captain baseball, but there probably is a hard cap of how much the Phillies are going to spend on their team. So the more they spend, the less they spend on the good players, the more good players they can have, right? This is, you know, classic uh how this all works. But I think the most interesting thing of this is not necessarily even involving Chris Sanchez, but what message it sends to certain Bryce Har per Now with Chris, who is below market, and Harper, who was not elite last year, according to Dave Dombrowski and according to the numbers, but Harper was still below market. I think everybody would agree that if he were on the free agent market entering last season when he asked for the extension, he would have gotten paid more than the Phillies' current contract had signed him. Whatever was left, seven of twenty-seven a year. So it is interesting that they are happy to rip up a deal and redo now that deal he signed with Sanchez was such a racket that maybe they do feel uh bad. But again, like you said, it's not very common. So uh I do think it sends an interesting message to the franchise, to other players who may be on long-term contracts who might think they they're deserving of an extension. But I think it's an amazing reward for Chris. And I'm and I'm looking at it from that angle as well. I'm just saying this is a positive th ing for the Philli es showing a commitment to a player who has shown commitment to them. And maybe that will entice other free agents to want to come to Philadelphia. Who knows? It's certainly something agents take notice of because now if you're asking for somebody's contract to be read, this happened during the Eagles, the Joe Banner days, it was like we're not doing that because if we do it for one, then we got to do it for everybody, type thing. This has been going on in the NFL for a long time. And that's one, right? Right. You have to navigate those that now it now it's different. Now they're more willing to do that uh than they were during that era. Um, but you have to be a certain level of player for sure. Now, one thing Gail pointed out where he said it's not like there was nothing in this for the Phillies. And so he he kind of pointed out that they had team options for a couple of years there that it was like probably, you know, I don't know what percentage you would put a very high percentage. Like unless just Christopher Sanchez, you know, uh his left arm falls off. Yeah, his left arm falls off or he has some crazy off-field thing, they're gonna be picking up those team options. So they guaranteed those team options. So that makes it look like uh a bigger number for sure. But then uh it is an extension where now they have a team option for twenty thirty three. So um nothing changes in the short term when you look at the salary. So that you know to your point they still have whatever excess they thought, I think for the next three years or whatever it is. That's still the same. This secures him with the team through 2032, guarantees options for 2029 and 2030, two more guaranteed years, 2031 and 2032 at 30 million uh a piece, where if if you're doing a projection, you would say you're you're probably still getting a good deal there. And then a team option for 2033. There was to your point about the Harper thing or just other people, there was a note in there about how like Sanchez is viewed in the clubhouse where there's like an admiration about the way he's kind of worked towards this, how he goes about his business, his work ethic, kind of the presence he has. So um very interesting that this guy who you know it it's not long ago was like who's this new guy? You know, Chris Sanchez, he's kind of fun. Can he keep it up? And now it's like, no, this is actually a pillar of your franchise. Regardless of how this era ends and the next era begins. This is one of the guys that's going to continue to be there. So I mean, he's got, we didn't mention when we did the highest approval ratings, but you know, if he has another year like he did last year, he's gonna absolutely belong in that conversation, Philadelphia athletes uh with the highest approval ratings. So yeah, I think more it feels like more reporting will come out about this about just kind of was there something else in it for the Phillies? Was there something that has to do with the labor stuff next year? Um, because otherwise you kind of just don't see that teams kind of do that sort of thing. It's still a team friendly deal. It's worth saying. Yes. Like this is not like they're now like paying him top dollar or any of that. Um so I think that's worth saying. Um I thought Sixers Adam Adam uh Aronson, who covers the uh Sixers for Philly voice, good friend, he had a really good tweet, which which I agree a hundred percent with, which was about uh this whole thing and just all of this craziness that has happened in the world of Chris Sanchez, him going from somebody in 2023 who basically did not factor into the seas on, right? He pitched in the AL or NLDS and NLCS, but he was like an afterfact. It was like, oh, we're gonna throw him in there in game four and we're gonna kind of see what he's got. Uh and I'm trying to find the tweet now and it's not showing up on my timeline. I think Elon broke Twitter again. Um but basically the idea of just like it's one of the most remarkable rises from kind of nothing that we've seen in Philadelphia sports. And I think that is uh how I feel about this whole thing. And I'm very excited and happy for Chris and and have enjoyed rooting for him every start and excited to do so again. Yeah, good for him. I mean, we can point out that, and we will point this out in a another question here, but John Middleton's worth what, like four billion? So you know what? You throw a couple extra million to Christopher Sanchez who's been just spectacular. Kind of saved your butt last year, honestly. The wheeler goes down and I know they didn't go far, but it's like, oh, okay, here's just another guy who can come in and be your ace. And now you have that transition plan, which teams usually don't have, where you can go with somebody who is constantly like top five or Cy Young odds in Zach Wheeler. Then now you're gonna potentially have another guy who's gonna be top five in Cy Young odds with Christopher Sanchez. So yes, absolutely uh good for him. Yeah. Twitter's search function is broken, but I found the tweet. The story of Christopher Sanchez remains one of the most incredible ones in the recent history of Philadelphia sports. He was on his last life as a major leaguer and became so good that one contract extension was not enough. The best story of this era of Phillies baseball, in my opinion. I agree. Maybe. Yeah. Could certain certainly uh could be. So good for him. Happy for him. Happy to get to you know, and now I I I will say i am at the age now and the kids are at a certain age where now i'm looking at these numbers going wait a minute 2 03 2 naya is gonna be in college? Like this is what no, I don't like that the you know these timelines that are now kind of coinciding with some of these contract extensions, uh, they don't make me feel good inside. But you know what? That's something I gotta deal with on my own time. All right, Bunsey, what do you got? What's next? Number six. Six. The good dive. As as we call him. You know what? I want to go when I do my sabbatical this year. I'm just going to go on a Dr. J deep dive, I think. I need to know everything about you know we don't talk enough about uh the good doctor, and he just shows up to these Sixers games and they do a quick interview, but I need to go, I want to know everything about Dr. J. So I'm gonna do that uh I think when I go on my little break this summer. What uh what's Bunsey pulling up there? Oh, I thought you were pulling up like a Dr. J jersey or something. No, it's an electric blanket. I mean I'm wear I'm wearing shorts. Little chilly. Yeah. He is the youngest of us, but thermostat is upstairs. Okay. These are a couple non-phillies topics. I feel like we get to them at the perfect time in the show here. The first one, Bunsey, I know you've listened to the mailbag with ZB last week uh where he responded you know you had mentioned ZB's birthday now when did Cliff get the call? Was he on the original invite list? Who was that fault? Was it a last second? This sort of thing. Some are saying that did you unnecessarily stir the pot with that birthday conversation? You were playing it a little bit loose, maybe that could have been saved for an off-air conversation. Are you trying to drive some sort of wedge into what I've tried to keep as a tight-k nit Philly special family? Your respon se. Yeah, so I I felt that I mentioned the birthday party in in about as vague terms as possible. You know, and I said, you know, with a birthday party, are we talking about Z B's birthday? Now I had no idea when I made that comment that anything had transpired or maybe not transpired between there was no coordination of the invitation on the edge of Cliff and Zach. So not to say, you know, I am a potster at heart. I do love messing with my friends. I'm a little bit of a gossip at times. Uh I like playing matchmaker with my friend. Like I'm doing I'm always kind of around, you know, causing some mischief. Nothing serious. I'm a I'm a relatively non-dramatic person. Uh when it comes to like serious stuff. I'm not a very uh I'm pretty like even keeled, but I do like to poke fun. So when I said that comment, it was purely in fun. However, Cliff, Cliff was the was the one who kind of escalates it by saying, Oh, I got a little bit of beef with ZB. Right? He's he comes on, he goes, uh, you know, I didn't get the invite until the night of, and thought that was kind of weird. And that's where it all takes off from there. Now my interest is piqued. My gossip brain says, Uh oh who well, what happened here? We did we have uh an error, perhaps, in in the um in the mistake of the imitations. So that's where I just step aside and I let the rest of it happen. I didn't really say much after that. I kind of just made a comment about Bo and that was it. I was out. And you guys do the rest. At least you threw me under the bus while you were in front of me. I appreciate that. You didn't do it. You didn't do it behind my back. But nah, it wasn't, it wasn't like that. Man, I already told you. I said he hit me while it was happening. I was our I was already out in the mix. I was already doing my own thing. And I'm like , he was like, yeah, my wife, this. I'm like, bro, I never talked to your wife, my wife. No, but I understand, but understand exact, like, that's that's what we is. He not handle, he doesn't care about part. Like, if you if you the more I know about Zach the more the more I know that he just doesn't care about like social events or social audits or things like that. So I was just like oh okay. That does make complete sense seeing that we had the CEO CEO conversation before to where his wife is the one literally like planning every detail of this party. And he's like, yo, where Cliff at? Where uh you know me, where the home yet? So I I appreciate him for actually reaching out at least while it was happening. And then not me not finding out after the fact like, yo, you had a party bro and I couldn't even get it, you know me I I could couldnn't't what's up invite I couldn't at least last minute he was like yo if you're around pull up so that that's where you know that that that I admire from him. No I love Z B too. I want to make that clear when I was in college when I was a young lad, way back in the day, uh, you know, you're you're working at the Daily Orange and you're trying to find writers that you admire. And and then I found out that both ZB and Gelb were DO alums, and I messaged both of them, and both of them got back to me, and ZB and I did a call where he edited a story I wrote and gave me all this feedback. Wow. Wow. I I one thing I respected though, Z B, and I knew this was a move because I use this move on people now. He would throw in little extra things like send me an email on top of the text or hey I'll meet with you but it's gonna happen at eight a m I wanna make sure you're like you're really into oh no earlier he's he told us this move before like six a. m. Uh I think it was Jeff Passon who ripped his article back in the day. So he's passing the buck where he's not pulling any punches. These college kids send him and stuff. He's like, this stinks. This isn't good enough. You know, he was not he was not that rude to me, I will say. But but uh it was valuable advice on on writing and reporting and stuff and uh and I really appreciated it back in the day. So we go and I I still appreciate it now. I know that if I text him, I'll answer. That's very cool. All right. Now, not to stir the pot further here. You know, we kind of just put water under the bridge there and tried to close. But as you were, as Cliff was mentioning, that ZB is not necessarily a party planner. You know, now this was off the record, so I might get in trouble for this, but my wife did mention, you know, Zach's wife does throw him a lot of parties. Has he thrown her any part? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe Yo oh man, yo listen that might be something we need to address later. You know what? Just leave it at that and let the people speak. Yeah, let the people speak. I want to hear the response. Now who's dropping grenades and stirring pots? I don't know what you're talking about. All right. You know what you know what's messed up is that Shield put his wife into this now too. See just Well I didn't say it. I just listen. You could've said that. You have to attribute, Cliff. I can't that wasn't me. I have to attribute properly. And that's what I was doing. You could have said somebody close to me. You could have somebody close to me. I don't know. Anonymous sourcing. There needs to be a reason. Okay. You know, come on. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Oh, I hope just no mind. Uh and then the other thing, Bunsey, we forwarded you roughly 20 emails about the bagel thing. This really got people's interest going here. Have you been able to locate a good bagel in Philadelphia? There's a new spot that I don't think is uh I think is not too far from your neighborhood that multiple people just today have passed along. So I don't know if you've had a chance to check your email uh today or seen that one, but have we made any progress? Now only mention if you got something good. We don't need to be throwing on the uh you know any Philadelphia area uh bagelries under the bus here. I mean I've I've thought of so many different ideas that have come off of this bagel thing. Okay. I think I got so many recommendations. I don't eat that many bagels. Problem here. Like I might have a couple a month. Right. So it's gonna take me take a while a while. So I thought to myself, what if I like made this into a project? Like I have people with me, we become like a crew of bagel testers. And our goal, maybe it's a substack, maybe it's a video series, uh, where we try to figure out what is the best because this is getting people riled up. I mean I had people sending me Reddit thread s. It was a Reddit thread in the R Philly one. It was like I'm tired of these New York transplant snobs coming down to Philly and saying there's no bagels that are any good. And I'm like, well, I'm from here. I also feel that way. Um, I got people messaging me asking about my Valley Forge spot, which is a relatively new location. It's in it's Phoenixville, but it's only a couple years old. So uh you know if you if you're interested in that, if you live in the area, uh message me and we'll we'll chat. But you know, the all all people from all places and you know a lot of commentary on the place that I mentioned as well, which I will not dive into anymore. Um, but let's just say uh I'm not alone in my opinions. So yeah. So continue we'll do continued reporting on this. Uh cliffs. I have not had a bagel since last year. Maybe like okay. Maybe like some, you know, if you do post with some Ringer Philly special Instagram TikTok content, you know, I'm clicking on that. Tony Bunt review. We could be the conglomerate. I know you don't eat meat, but we could be the conglomerate, you know, of people who maybe do the There's no meat in bagels? Bunsey? Yeah. Yeah, but if you get bagels sandwich, you know, that that that would be a little egg and cheese, you know, we gotta do it. Some locks, put some locks on there, you know what I'm saying? Nah, you know what? My first job, JC's bagelry. Yeah. Uh, you know, get there real early. When I had to do the locks, that might have been the least favorite uh part of my job. Other than, you know, I really don't feel like I got a great tutorial on the meat slicer or the cheese slicer where that thing really could have gone wrong in the curve. Like I had never used those things before. They spent five minutes, do this, put this here. Next thing you know, I'm like, oh baby, I hope this doesn't go horribly. But we we when I worked at Wawa back in the days, that happened to somebody, one of my coworkers. Oh index. Yeah, it's dangerous. Right off, y'all. Right? Yeah. Literally like whole machinery. But but the the crazy part was the person literally had the bandages and all that stuff and just kept working. I had to look away on the pit the other day. I don't know if you saw that. Tip like it wasn't like the craze like it wasn't like the full nail went off, but it was like a little tippy to top. Okay. It went off. Yeah, I don't like it. But still kept the shift rolling and everything. I was just like I'm like fifteen, sixteen at the time. I'm like, I would have been left like no chance of learning. You gotta work through pain sometimes. Ye.ah Sheila, are you watching the pit? Yes. There is so I I one, yeah, never would have made it in medicine. And two, there have been a couple of scenes this season where I've had to look the other way. I cover the face crazy. The pitch. Once an episode I cover the face. Yeah. I'm not caught up on the latest episode, but I uh uh I'm yeah yeah, I'm like up there. Yeah, I gotta watch the latest episode, but yeah, great season. My pit take was they're doing the Indian aunties dirty Bunsey, you know? Like they got they got Dr. Tommy, they got two Indian moms and they're making them both out to be like the meanest people in the world. Now listen, if you wanna go one like that, but make the up the listen, I've got a lot of nice aunties in my life. You don't have to make all of them, just, you know, their daughters hate 'em. That's not how it goes. So yeah. Come on, Pitt. I can advise you on the Indian aunties a little bit here. Let's make this a little more balanced. Am I right? I got a story to tell you about my friend's Indian mother that uh you're gonna laugh, but I'm gonna do it off air. That's off air. Well, all right. I don't like that. I don't like hiding it from the audience. You tell me off air and then maybe we bring it on air. We could decide. I have to clear this one with the person who's Okay. Yeah. All right. All right. What's our next number, Punzi? What do we got? I believe we have nine and eight left. Nine and eight. Which one do you want? We'll go nine. Nine. All right. These are two big changes at Citizens Bank Park. I need your thoughts on. I didn't prep you for this, but you probably know where I'm going with it. I know one. I don't know that I'll get the second. The second one's just uh very lighthearted. The first one the Phillies are ditching Harry the Kays for a rebrand with an energy drink that we don't have to name, nor should we name, because they don't pay us. So we don't need to name what the uh energy drink is. Um, but they are ditching Harry the Case. They got a lot of money from this energy drink, which is actually, I believe, started by a local entrepreneur who is a Phillies fan, so it is still somewhat local. Made me feel a little better, yeah. But Harry, the case is out. I'll give you my take on this, you know, and then you can tell me yours. I usually don't get bent out of shape with this stuff. You know, like patches on the jerseys, I know people go crazy. Doesn't bother me. Uh, as long as you have a top five payroll and are spending and trying to put together a winning product, then we're good. I understand, you know, I understand you have to do that. But I thought that this specific move showed kind of a fundamental misunderstanding of the fan base and how much Harry Callis has meant to many of us, now I'm older than you guys, has meant to many of us during like the part of our baseball viewing lives, you know. And I'm not trying to, I'm really not trying to go overboard, but like he was the soundtrack for when many of us, an entire generation, multiple generations, became fans of this team, the Philadelphia Phillies that you work for, and we fell in love with baseball. He was the soundtrack. And when we, you know, like with Mick Gymour, like we could hear the names in his voice and then they finally win the World Series uh there with him at the end. I think he was the best to ever do it in this city. And to a large segment of the fan base, this is going to sound crazy to some, the younger uh fans who don't know what I'm talking about. He was as beloved as the guys who actually played, which sounds crazy, but is actually that is actually true, and I absolutely believe that. So I think that's why it struck a nerve. So I'm fine with the corporate greed. I'm not naive. I understand the world we live in. But in this case, like if I were in that meeting with the organization and you're in business partnerships and how can we sell? I would have said, let's look for another solution. We do not want to remove this banner that says Harry the Case, you know, from our ballpark. People are actually going, to be mad about this. And will they forget about it eventually? Of course. That's that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do just because they're gonna forget about it eventually. I feel like there were other ways to do it. You could have done, you know, Harry the Kays and then put the company's name in there and still kind of had them uh both in there. Because I actually think this is a bad investment by the company. Because now people hear their name and you're like, screw those guys, you know? And they're and they're local. Again, they are local, but you're like, oh man, you know, this we didn't need to go that way. So I'm not trying to be dramatic about it, but that was my take on the situation. Yeah, it's so funny. L ike a lot of people got mad about the out-of-town scoreboard going a way because they used to have every game on that wall, but then they were like, well, that's valuable real estate. We could sell that and we could make ads, you know, make a lot of and people were so upset that the out-of-town scoreboard wasn't present. I'm like, it's 2025. Yeah, I'm good with that. I have a I have the out of town scoreboard. It's called my iPhone MLB app. If I wanna check who's winning the game, I can check who's winning the game. I don't care that much. If I do care, I'm gonna do it anyway 'cause it's better than looking at a scoreboard in right field, right? So I thought there can be some performative outrage about like the idea that yes, the Phillies are not a non profit organization. Like we yes. Uh and they do spend money, like you said. But I I actually fully agree. And honestly I'm I can't do what you just said better so I'm not going to repeat you but I agree a hundred percent there you could draw like a through line and you probably feel this way Sheel too the jobs we have today are not an indirect result of of Harry Callis listening to him growing up, 2009, 2007, 2008, uh at the end of his pat you know before his pass ing, he was somebody I grew up listening to on the broadcast and was like, that would be cool. That's a cool job, right? Uh in 20100, 211, after his passing, like all the tributes and stuff. Like that was formative baseball years for me. And yes, like the Phillies being good. They were my you know, first love uh was baseball, going to games with my dad, listening to games on TV, on the radio. Um Harry's a big part of that and a big part of why I'm in the job that I have now, even though it's crazy to draw like all the the the small choices that lead you to a certain point. And so I think it is sad. And I'm bummed about it. But yeah. Life goes on. And like in five years, will we any of us really care? Yeah. That's how it goes. But I I I don't think it was the right thing to do. I don't think they should have done it. I mean, you mentioned your dad. Yeah, my dad's turning 82. And I bet if I gave him a list of announcers, athletes, and like coaches or whatever, front off a list of them, you know, and said rank these over the last whatever 40 years just in terms of like your most beloved. Harry Callis would be up there with any athlete he's watched over the course of his career. And he's not alone in that. I was working at Philly.com when Harry Callis died. And it was, it was a big, big deal. Uh, what he means to Philly's fans, uh, what he meant to the city. So yeah, I think uh I think there was another way to do that aside from let's just take his name down from this and put up this other company's name. So I'm with people who feel that way. And again, I don't care. Put 10 jersey. If you want to put 10 patches on the jersey and then next offseason, we're going to sign a free agent who's going to hit 35 home runs. Beautiful. As many patches as you need, go for it. I'm in on that. I just think, you know, that you have to have some tact uh when you look at it with something like this. So all right, that was one. When you watch Philly's game do you always stay for high hop es? Uh I don't always no but you hear that's a thing for me I gotta I gotta sing I gotta sing I hopes yeah if they win I'll be there I'll be singing it and then we can leave. Yeah I. mean, baseball is just like you spend so many hours, you know, it the 162 games and I prefer not to think about the opportunity cost of the hours I spend watching. Yeah, if the announcers suck, it actually does really impact your experience. I remember talking with Tim McManus about this years ago, where it's like if you don't like the announcers, it makes watching the game less appealing. Like John Crook adds value to me watching a Phillies game because I find him uh very un entertaining versus somebody else. It might not be the same. Overall, I think Citizens Bank Park is the best fan experience in the city, quite honestly, but I don't agree with what they did there. All right. So the other thing. Much uh more lighthearte d. The Schwarbaum Sunday. Have you heard about this? I have not. All right, Clip. I'm gonna need your opinion on this as well. So this is soft surf. This is a new new item. I'm gonna Google it. Soft serve ice cream topped with a funnel cake fried strawberry uncrustable, fresh strawberry sauce, and fruity cereal pieces, all served in a 2026 MLB all-star game batting helmet. Cliffy 2. Will you be trying a Schwarbaum Sunday at any point this summer? I'm waiting to see how awkward the social video is if Schwarber actually trying Sch towarb on Sunday and just him being like, oh yeah, this is cool. And then just walking away. Like that's his that's his go that's gonna be his complete reaction to that. But that sounds good. Yo, funnel cake? That's it. Soft serve. Yeah, what's the what what's the rest of that? Um it is fruity cereal pieces. Soft serve topped with funnel cake fried. I don't know what that means. Funnel cake fried strawberry unustacrble. What does that mean? Wait, is the strawberry uncrustable fried or because Frunnel Cake is already fried? That's what I don't know. There's a picture. I just put the Twitter link in the chat. Let me see this, John. Let me see this, John. Uh doesn't look as bad as I thought when you described it, but really good though. I'll be hoping that some one of my friends gets it so I can like get another spoon and have a bite. Yeah. That'll be a big thing. That's like my child Buns, that's me. That's like my childhood remix right there, all in that little batter's helmet thingy. I'm definitely trying that for sure. I'm already bro, as many monstrosies as we've seen the past years from different ballparks and different teams trying to try these disgusting things, that looks pretty tame. I don't know that I would say that. Those compliment each other at this age, if I'm being honest. But I will I I'm gonna do it for content. I don't know if I'll eat the whole thing, but I'll eat some of it. Uh just gonna hand it off to your daughters. Yeah. Uh well, you know, they looked at it and they d weren't that interested in it, to be honest. That's a bad sign for their for the future. I was about to say 'cause like they uh They're in the prime age. If that was me in that age, I'd have been like, yeah, definitely give me that 'cause like funnel cake brings you back to the times of like my family like my my parents taking my sisters and I to taking us to like Penn's Landing like seeing fireworks and whatnot that takes me back to a time. So like I think that'd be like super nostalgic for me. But if your kids are already saying that, you know, what how old are they 11 and 14 I don't know. Another change, by the way, Cliff. Yeah. Throw in there. Sorry. U h the Shake Shack is gone. It's been replaced with a new Chickies stand. There's a second Chickies now. Ooh. More fries for me. Behind home plate. More fries for me. I love it. So there you go. $17. I'll tell whatever. Listen, whatever I pay for tickets, just add the $17 to it every time. Because overrated, right? All right, all right. Listen, we might need sponsors. Okay. All right. All right, Bunsey. I got the last one, and then we do our season predictions. Rank these in terms of potential storylines you're most bought into versus least bought into going into the season. So I've got three storylines for you. Storyline number one: Bryson Stott is going to build off of his hot second half. He has figured out his swing and he is primed for a career year. That's storyline number one, Bryson Stott. Storyline number two. Adelis Garcia will prove to be a significant upgrade over Nick Castellanos. He will slug 25 plus home runs and he will play good defense and we will say it's a lot more fun to have him than Nick Castellanos. And maybe we have him on the pod and talk about his lifting routine. All right. Th ree. Jose Alvarado will bounce back and be the Phillies' most valuable reliever outside of Joanne Duran. So those are the three: Stat, Garcia, Alvarado, Rank them into the ones you're most bought into versus least bought into. Most bought in . I like the pause. That means it was a good question. It is good. Well, the Garcia's tricky because I think you could hit twenty-five homers, play good defense, and maybe have like a two ninety OBP and we're like, well, it was okay. There were certain things that were better. Bangraf's projects him haveself sev the second most homers on the team, more than Harper. What's the number for Fangraft? What's the I think it was 25 for Garcia, 24 for Harper. Okay. Hmm. Uh yeah, I mean, 25 homers, I think, is a decent expectation for him. I'm gonna go can't believe I'm saying this. Um most likely is that Bryson St ott is gonna have the best season of his career offensively. Wow the full turn from Anthony Debundo on Bryson Stott. Look how far we've come over the years. I know, I know. You know, I do I do buy into the fact that he can have a career. I'm not saying he's gonna have an eight hundred, eight fifty OPS. I think that's probably higher than I'd go. But do I think he can have a seven sixty, seven seventy, seven seventy-five OPS, playing great second base defense and being a very valuable player for the Phillies. I do. I do think that's possible. I think that's probably the most likely of the three. Because Garcia , I just think the declining plate skills, his age, his chase rate, um, how much he does sell out for power. I think there's gonna be a lot of frustrated people that even when he does pop homers, they're feeling like he's not providing in the biggest moments. And there's a really interesting lineup construction question coming for the Phillies here. We know who the top four hitters are going to be in some order, Turner, Harper, Schwerber, Bohm are pretty locked into one to four. If they go Marsh five, which I think a lot of people want, especially against righ ties. You do open up that little pocket, which we saw the Dodgers exploit in the playoffs a couple times, where in late inning games you can go lefty on Harper Schwarberbohm and Marsh and effectively take Marsh out of the game. And if you're in a tie game or you're up one and it's a big sp ot, you don't want to sacrifice Marsh's defense, but you're kind of giving away an out there because he is the most platoon risked player on the team just because of how extreme his splits are. So like there's a world where Bryson Stott, if things are going well, ends up in the five-hole behind Alec Bowen. There's a world where if Bryson Stott actually does stick and produces at a level we haven't seen in the regular season before, except for the last two months of 2025, where you could actually make a case he should be the leadoff hitter for the Philli es. Right? And I think those things are on the table uh and those all present potential opportunities. I don't think the second one's gonna happen. I I think there's very few worlds where the Phillies are constructing lineups that Harper and Schwarber don't bat in the top three. But uh it is an interesting possibility uh to consider. So yeah, Stott has a chance to potentially hit fifth on on this team. I think he has a real opportunity to continue to develop and build on what he what he showed in the second half. And I did pull up the savant numbers on just the second half to say, okay, is this real or was this a little bit of a mirage? It was a little bit of a mirage, but it was real at the same time. It was somewhere in the middle of, yes, it was better than the first half. It wasn't, oh, he's gonna have an 850 OPS. Good. So I think there were real changes shown under the hood, not just the top line numbers. Okay. So you have Stott one. Did you have Alvarado too or Garcia to o? Uh I I'm gonna go G ar . Man, it just I'm gonna go I'm gonna go Alvarado too. Okay. I'm going Alvarado Stat Garcia or my three. It would be very fun if Garcia. The stuff is still so good for Jose. You can't count. I'm rooting for it. My heart's in that one. Yeah. Alvarado. All right. That was the Capadia 10 with the prediction for the 10th one. How did it? How did it go, Bunti? Did I miss anything big that you need to get off your chest? I felt pretty good. We got all the main topics out of it. This team is not that different from so many past teams yeah that you know we just kind of are where we are at this point with them. All right cliffy dos bringing you in season predictions last year, you were loving the Braves. You put the Cliff curse on the Braves, which we appreciate. A lot of injuries with that team. As a fan base, there were a lot of injuries. A lot of injuries. Where are you with this version of the Philadelphia Phillies? I think the NL East is gonna be hot this year, you know. I'm I'm actually believing a little bit in that Marlin type. I was doing some research a couple of days ago. Um Bunza does me and Buns do the Ringer Gambling show on Wednesdays and they were doing a big baseball thing and I just went to a baseball deep dive like right after that show. And I was like, oh, the Marlowe's, you know, they got some young players, a little staff. You know, I'm kind of intrigued by them. Um, however, I do think they'll still be like fourth in the division. I think it'll be race between the Phillies, Mets, Briggs again. Uh, I think the Braves just with health coming back and the Mets obviously with the addition of uh Bachet. I think they'll they'll just improve and be better than they were last year. They had a crazy collapse last year, but they'll be better. But I do think the Phillies will get another 90 win season. And I do think that'll be enough to win this division. I think this division is going to be really competitive this year. Oh. Uh yes. I think it's going to be very, very competitive this year. I do see the Phillies winning division. But I also just see more of the same. Like this pitcher staff might win you a game in the playoffs, but I don't think it goes beyond that. Like I I think okay, if you win a wild card series, that wild card series, that best of uh three out of five, I think a pitching our pitching could carry you that far, but I just don't see it beyond that, man. I just the Dodgers are just such a behemoth right now. And you never know who's gonna pop up this season and be good again. So I just got the Phillies at 90 wins. Maybe they go past the wild card, get to the divisional, but that's about it. Um kind of more to stay. All right. 90 wins . Playoff exit. Yeah. Before the World Series. Correct. For Cliffy Doe. What do you got? I've gone back and forth on this division a few times. Uh I am selling Atlanta. Uh Spencer Strider hit the injured list today with an oblique, which means that Spencer Strider, A.J. Smith Schauver, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Hurston Waldrup, who you could argue are the second, third, fourth, and fifth most talented pitchers on their staff, are all on the injured list at beginning the year. They are going to be starting Bryce Elder, Jose Suare z. It's ugly right now for them. Grant Holmes, who's like borderline five and dive guy at best. So Atlanta's taking on some water with their pitching. Their lineup, you know, they've they've had some injuries there too, a shortstop, left field suspension with Pro Far. I do think there's a world where the Braves have another down year and it's just we've we're getting further and further from twenty twenty three with them, where they had that historic offensive season, and they just haven't really been able to recreate that level of offense again. So look, I understand all the concerns people have about this lineup. They are aging. They were seventh last year offensively in baseball. I think there's a world where they're like 10 th, 11th, and they're just like an okay above average, but not special offense by any means. But I just don't think we're doing enough to appreciate how good this pitching staff could be. This rotation last year was five wins better than every other rotation in baseball by wins above replacement. Their bullpen was just average, and that was with a lot of dead weight for the lot of the first half of the season, pre-Yoander on. That is just out the window with this roster now. I think they're a top 10 bullpen. I think they're a top three rot ation. And I think that is enough to win the National League East at 92 and 7 0. Two games ahead of the New York Metropolitans. I think we're going to get a really fun race. The Mets are such an interesting case. Ben Lindbergh wrote a great piece for the ringer. Teams that have had this much turnover that the Mets do very of ten struggle to meet expectations. That's just traditionally how it's worked. If you took their war projection for last year, how many wins will the Mets win in 2025 preseason? They were expected around 90. They won 83 after a late season collapse. This season, they could completely reconfigure the roster. Their three, four, five, and six hitters, their first and second and third starters will all be different than the ones who took the field for the Mets last year. And yet their war projection has them right around 90 wins aga in. I think they land right around I said 90, but I you know eighty-eight, eighty nine, ninety wins. I think the Phillies can surpass that. The Phillies will be the two seed in the national league. They will beat the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series for los ing a six-game series to the LA Dodg ers. And we will all be sitting here in October w ondering how the hell are we going to get past the mighty Dodgers? And will the Dodgers entering their Super Saiyan superhero era be the thing that ultimately cost them a championship? Was it 2023? Who knows? Was that their window? Um I don't know, but I think it'll be another epic series with the Dodgers coming this this September, this October as we get into uh another red October. But they're actually gonna win a playoff series this year for the first time in three years. Most important question. Will they outscore the Dodgers in that series. Can we hang that banner? Yes, yes. They will hold Otani to uh just three hits in six games. And they'll lose because well, who's a random dot? Andy Paes will have a big hit or some reason. Who knows? Okay. It'll be something. I like that. Well bundle. By the way, uh PEDs. Pretty fun. Yeah, how about that? All right. So we started the podcast with the exact same bold prediction, and we end the podcast with the exact same win total, because that's what I had written down: 92 for the Philadelphia Phillies. And you know what? I feel like I have been like people have tried to make me feel bad about this, you know, being excited for this Philly season. But I'm not going to apologize just because they're not going to win the World Series about being excited for baseball season. That's not how I consume sports. That's certainly not how I consume baseball because I like the rhythms of a season. I like the consistency. I like going to the games. I like watching Christopher Sanchez pitch. I like watching Kyle Schwarber hit dingers. I want to see Joanne Duran throw 101. I mean, I sat through Bruce Ruffin and Don Carmen and Steve Jelts and other Phillies these guys know nothing about because it was before their time. The Phillies have had three separate streaks during my lifetime of nine plus seasons where they didn't even make the playoffs since I've been alive. Three separate streaks of nine plus seasons. And so now they go into a season, they got the fifth best odds to win the World Series, they have the third best odds to come out of the NL and their win projection is eighty nine and a half and they're minus two fifteen to make the playoffs, meaning if they're not in the playoffs, something has gone horribly wrong with this team, whether it's injuries or something else. So if they were to win the division, it would be just the third time in franchise history where they win the division three straight seasons, 96 wins last year, 95 wins uh in 2024, 90 in 2023. If they win 90 plus, it'll be the only the second time in franchise history. They've won 90 plus in four straight seasons. And so, like I said, I've got them as a 92-win team. I got them losing before the World Series. Uh, I'll say NLCS. They lose in the NLCS. You know what? To the Milwaukee Brewers. There's been an upset and a fighting Ben Harris's. Have a nice season. If we lose to Milwaukee in the NLCS, that changes the narrative a lot for me. All right. So that's what I'm going to say. They lose in the NLCS. So it it is ends up being a little more the same, fun regular season, win a lot of games, enjoy the day to day, but in the end, the bats they just don't do enough in the playoffs. So that's what I'll say. By the time l,isten, if they have a good regular season, by the time we get to September, I'll come on and I'll predict that they're gonna win the World Series. But let's see. I was gonna do that. I thought it'll just be the bit. I'll predict them to win the World Series every year when we do this podcast. But uh after listening to you two, I'm like, nah, I actually don't. I'm just gonna go the other way. But let's see what happens. All right. His name is Anthony Debundo. His name is Cliff Augustine. There you go. To the listener who said, You gotta say his name. Can't just always go Cliffy Dose. I'm Shiel Capadio. We'll come back later in the week with ZB, his chance to respond. We'll talk some Eagles. We'll do some mailbag. We'll let the Phillies play a few games. Then we'll have Bunsey back on and we will offer our early season impression. So thanks you to everybody for listening. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringers, Billy Spe cial. 21 plus and present in select states for kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 Plus and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming, gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MYRSet. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgambling help dot org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline MA.org or call eight hundred-three two two seven fifty-fifty for 247 support in Massachusetts or call 1877 8 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 1-877-770-7867