Sixers Playoff Woes and Future

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 MBA You know, unless you're wearing Philly Rat or you're you're a Philly. I don't like you. You know, and I love that. It's Philly, man. They they hate you . Welcome to the ringers, Philly special. So much going on in Philly Sports this week. I'm Sheel Capata. We thought, you know what? Let's just give the other teams an entire episode. So we're talking Philly's fly ers, and Sixers with Anthony Debundo, my teammate at the ringer. Cliffy two at the ringer, and Zach Berman from the athletics staying on to talk about all these teams. All right, Tony Buns , Anthony Debundo, ZB's fellow alum, Cliff. They're already telling you know we were we were on for like three seconds before we started recording and they're already talking about Syracuse. So we might have to mute their lines uh a little bit here. But Bunsey, you could have waited, you are, I think, fired up about the Philadelphia Phillies, of course. And then we're gonna do a little weekend recap of what's happening with the Flyers and the Sixers, but your first time on with ZB, how does it feel to be on with a you know a a legend from your university? Uh it's a joy and an honor. You know, it's they say never meet your heroes, but you know, working with you guys, uh at least my journalism heroes, has been uh a real joy the last few years. And now, yeah, the first time I'm podcasting with ZB. I've obviously met him in real life and talked to him uh about you know the industry writ large and read of all of his work. But now it's exciting to actually be on a pod with him and uh we get to be fans Z B, do you consider Bunsey a protege , uh uh a second son, a nephew? You have like what 400 nephews. I don't know. So I admire what Anthony's done with his shape. First off, he's been awesome ever since he was at the Daily Orange. Um , if you have that. He wrote a terrific farewell column on being an extrovert uh during COVID, which which um w was like you know what, five years later now, six years later now, still thought it was it was so thoughtful and well written. And the seeing what he's done at the ringer, yeah, I mean, definitely not I I wouldn't say protege. I'd say he's he's outlapped. Like he's he's awesome. Okay. He's Nashville. We're amazing. We're going to get a Netflix. He's on Netflix. It's like uh yeah, you know, I'm I'm impressed. Here's the real question. I remember you once told the story of how Jeff Passen just you know contacted you and ripped something you wrote for the day. And you you said this is just something that happens there. You know, you the the people have graduated, they want to give honest feedback to the people. Did you ever contact Bunsey and be like, this is trash? You might never amount to anything, but here's what you have to improve. Did you ever do that to him? No, no. So if I'm first off, Jeff Jeff Passon, like he can he can say anything. He's he's a he's an icon, right? Um, I'll say that in 20 19 , before Syracuse , uh I'm sorry, before an Eagles Bills game, okay, I I go to Syracuse and uh because I I so I drive up to Buffalo the next morning, but I go to Syracuse and Anthony's taking us around and he he he he brings us to a college party and I'm like like I'm married with two kids. Like man, this is not the place for me right now. Right. I I'm like I I was so uh yeah, I that's that's kind of my one thing where I was like you're being very nice, you're a wonderful tour guide. But like this is for you guys. I'm going back to my hotel. I I I don't want any I don't want anything coming out. I don't want any conversations, Mr. I I am gonna respectfully uh tip my cap and be on my way. Always the profession. Maybe and maybe stop for like insomnia cookies on the way home, like for old time's sake, right? That's that's kind of that was that was my it should be said, Matt Gall did attend the party and was one of the stars of it. Uh it was you know, it was a daily orange party of a lot. It wasn't just college kids to be fair, but uh yeah, yeah, it's Z B on his best behavior. He's like, I gotta drive to Buffalo early tomorrow morning. It was uh yeah, it was Eagles, Bills. I think LaShawn McCoy was probably still an Eagle back then. He was not. He was not Miles Sanders in a big game. Somebody had a big game for 60 yards. The Eagles won in the snow. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So he be on his best behavi or. But the first thing he said, I'm like, oh, big fan. This was the Birds with Friends days. And I said, uh, love the pod, you know, love the work at the athletic. He's like, what can I do better? Reaches out his own . That's his curve too. Handshake. So it was quite quite cool. Taller person, right? No. Yeah. All right, let's get to it. Uh we'll start with the Phillies, Bunsey, since you're on your area of expertise here. They get swept by the At lanta Braves over the weekend, a lacklus ter performance. They're now eight and thirteen on the season. They have a minus 38 run differential, which is the worst in baseball. They've lost eight of ten per Rich Hoffman, which we mentioned earlier in the pod. Worst start for the Phillies this century, Bunsey. Now, you are normally the uh level-headed. Don't get carried away with small samples, or not even to May yet. Everybody settle down. Yet in your text, I felt perhaps a sense of urgency, a sense of panic, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Where are we starting with the conversation about this horrible baseball team right now? I think we all came in with a lot of skepticism about the offseason. And I think all of that skepticism about the offseason has been perfectly played out in front of us over the first twenty one games. Like I don't think it's going to be this bad forever. I think you could find a stretch at any point in the last four years where they have had an eight and thirteen that they maybe weren't playing their best baseball. It sucks that it happens at the beginning of the year. We remember just going back to 2023, the Phillies were almost 10 games under at one point uh in the first half of that season. They turned it around. 2022, right? It hasn't always been smooth sailing throughout the course of the regular season. So I'm not hitting the panic button yet, but the holes are very obvious and they were very obvious two weeks ago before the season started and now they've maybe become uh even deeper uh over the last three weeks, I think . The offense has been brutal to watch. Twenty-seventh in run score, twenty-fifth in on base percentage, twenty-first in slugging percentage, uh, twenty-third in OPS. And here's the issue is: because we can say we saw this coming, you know, they're running it back, they're bringing the same team back. But the team that they've had has been a good, not great, but a good offensive team. It hasn't shown up in the playoffs, but for over the course of 162 games, eighth in runs last year, uh, I think fifth the year before, eighth in 2023. So it has been a top eight offense uh the last three seasons here. And right now, they cannot hit the baseball. And some of the guys that have been around, who we're saying this has been kinda stale, these are the same faces, are playing horribly ZB. What is your take on what the panic meter should be with the Phillies right now? Offensively is a legitimate concern, and in particular the swing and miss, right? Because there's even when if if you're not getting home runs, there's just guys stranded on on base. And you're seeing that with Crawford who gets on base, but he gets stranded when the top of the order doesn't hit. Uh I I'm not as I'm not as concerned because I believe in the arms still. Like Lazardo's peripherals are really good, even if the results haven't been good. And so over the course of a season that balanced itself out. Now, Wheeler had a bad start yesterday. I believe it was yesterday. Um, and if Wheeler's not Wheeler, then the rotation's not the same. But like I I believe in Painter, I believe in Lazardo, I obviously believe in Sanchez. Uh, you know, I I I think that when you pitch the way they pitch, now they got to get Dur an back. Um, you know, that's that kind of came out of nowhere. I well, you know, this Saturday, it was all of a sudden the subject I didn't see anything happen to him. But I I think we didn't see him all week because he was because they were getting beat all week. So we're like, well, he hasn't pitched in a week. So I I I always like to think in baseball because I'm I'm a big baseball fan. Like first month of the year, you don't overreact, but you say what's real and what's not. And to me, like the real reason for concern right now is just the swings and misses. Like i if it cause if you can't it if if if you and that's been the problem in the postseason the past few years, um if you're striking out that that will be the concern. But otherwise, I I do have confidence that the pitching's gonna be okay. In particular, Lozardo. My panic meter is very low in Lazard o. All right, here's the thing is that I saw Cliff shaking his head there and I was at the game on when was it? Saturday night. Did you guys go to the game, Bunsey and Cliff, or were you just tailgating? Okay. I was just tailgating. I was there Friday and Sunday. Okay. Last night I made the uh the impulse decision to buy my thirteen dollar ticket and go stand behind home plate. Uh you went yesterday in the cold and the rain to go watch that baseball team? Oh my gosh, you have a I know. Well, thirteen dollars, Sheil? We're getting back to like 2021 . I like a good deal. That is a good deal. You know, I like that. Um, all right, so I saw Bunse and Cyli ff uh Saturday in the parking lot. Happy birthday to friend of the show, uh Ray Dunn. They were there celebrating him. Bunsey said, hey, come on over. So Leela and I went over. Then we went to the game and I see signs that the fans, and and it is early, and this can change if they go on a winning streak. Fans are checking out on this team. Fans are frustrated with this team. I mean, there's a wave going on in the eighth. I mean, just a big time wave. The most excitement I saw from the crowd. Two two things. One was the wave in the seventh or eighth inning. The other one was, you know, they do that look-alike cam ? Have you seen that one? It's a great in-stadium thing where they find a fan in the stands and then they say, Oh, he looks like this person. But sometimes if there's like a quote unquote celebrity, it you know, they'll do the actual person with the look alike. So first they show Jay Wright, which I mean uh is has is maybe the best basketball coach in this city during my lifetime, and barely, I mean barely registers to be barely anyone class. Then they show Cooper DeGene and the place that ropes. I'm like, Jay Wright must be like, come on. This guy's played two years in the NFL. Look at what I did with that program. But that was the most excitement from the f from the crowd the whole time was when they showed Cooper DeGene on the look-alike cam. But then I look around, it's the ninth inning. It's a 3-1 game. It's not eight to one. It's not six to one . Empty. We look around, there's uh we look to the right in our row, nobody there. We look around the stadium, nobody there. I mean that place had emptied out in a two-run game uh on a Saturday night where people are paying for tickets because everyone's just frustrated. They're like, they're not gonna score two runs. It's a miracle if they score two runs. Got to our car. I got home from my Bobo parking spot to media 25 minutes. I've never, I've honestly never seen less traffic getting out of a Phillies game getting home Bunsi. So you the atmosphere at the game, it's not there certainly is not a sense of, oh, it's early, they're gonna be fine right now. There is a frustration because it's been building. This isn't a one-season thing. This has been building over the years. To your point, this was the fear in the off-season that it was going to look like this. And it looks even worse. So who are we directing our ira at? What who are you directing your anger at? Who are the fans directing their anger at? Because that's a big part of this conversation. When some of these guys get up there, I'm just like, oh man, if this guy grounds out right now, the booze are gonna come raining down . Look, I don't want to pile on, but I think there's one character that kind of fits this perfectly, this malaise. Okay. And it's it's Alec Bohm. And he's target number one for the fan. He is for me because not for me, but because he's also a microcosm of this entire little run they've had where they've literally trying to make changes. They keep saying we want to shake things up, but they can't trade this guy 'cause nobody really wants him. They're locked into this roster that they know is good. They know it can win a lot of baseball games, but they're not sure it's gonna get them over the top. And Boehm like has been stagnant and is now fully falling apart in front of our eyes. Uh you mentioned Saturday night, the biggest crowd pop being Cooper DeGene. I was there Friday night. The biggest crowd pop was when Gritty hopped on the dugout to dance with the fanatic on like the seventh inning of a game. We were there when I was there. That is very nothing. Sorry, the mascots hang out with each other. Yeah. And then a let's go flyers champ breaks out. You know, they had the big playoff game the following night. So that was the biggest crowd pop that that there was on Friday because they were down seven nothing after three innings because Taiwan Walker just had nothing, nothing in that outing. But I think ultimately Bohm is where this probably starts because he's supposed to be the cleanup hitter. He started the year as the cleanup hitter. They they were convinced and they tried to convince us that he was good enough to be the the middle of the order thumper bat that they needed and he has still now pulled one ball. I've been on this now for a while. One baseball in the air to left field all year. One. And it was a fly out on Friday night. I got a bunch of people in my section to to clap for him because he finally hit a ball at the left field in the air. I didn't even care it was an out. How can you be a a clean up hitter at six foot five on a major league team that has world series aspirations and you can't pull a ball for power? It's ridiculous. And he's lost. It's been the story of his career. It has. He's never and but it's getting worse. Yeah. So that's that's where I start with. I I was done with him last year. I'm still kind of done. It's very frustrating. I know all the off-the-field stuff is going on, and like that that m that's very difficult to navigate . But the problem is who are they playing over him? They move up at Dolas Garcia . Is it bats this week? We're pretty rough. Jeez. I thought. So like they just can they can cycle all these people through the spot. Whoever hits behind Schwobern Harper is just not doing the job. But the Phillies were actively the Phillies were actively trying to replace Bohm, right? And like they they had this deal for two years. We worked out with with with Bo Bachet. It would it would kind of be like if there were all these reports that the Eagles were about to sign Isaiah likely and then the last minute, you know, the Giants come in and like out outbid them and then they're like, all right, we're just gonna bring back Dallas Goddard and you look at them and and you're like, you know we we had a deal to replace you, but we couldn't get that deal done. So we're just gonna s like they they sh it it it's it was not just behind the scenes. It was like very public that they had a third baseman they were ready to sign. Yeah. A third baseman who had never played third basem before in his career. They were like, we're gonna make you a third baseman. Who by the way, Bo Bachet uh hitting two seventeen for the match? I know. I can't even streak. I know, I can't even enjoy the LOL Mets because the Phillies are sucking so bad. I mean, gosh. Let me have a little bit of fun here for this baseball season at least. Maybe I should just do that, watch the Mets games and not watch the Phillies games here. But yeah, boom. Uh Bunsey has not hit a ball on the barrel yet this season, according to the stat cast numbers I was looking at. Not one, not one bat has met the barrel here. And and I understand, I mean he's been one of the worst hitters in baseball full stop. We know what his profile is. He's a big slow guy who hits ground balls and hits singles, which is not like in his like average on defense. That's not a great profile for the guy you want to. ol play He's a one tool player. Yeah. Makes contact a lot. Yeah. Now listen, the parents thing, I do have some sympathy for him there. Where the parents, you know, and and I told that story to Leela and now she's just like when people boom, she's like, come on, his parents took 500 grand from him and stole it from him. He's gonna sue his own parents. So I I understand that. I understand he's in trade rumors. I think he's lost mentally. You know, I was just watching him going into the dugout after one of his at bats on Saturday night. Uh, you know, which is like a fun part of when you're uh at the game, just all right, where where are my eyes kind of taking me? And like Kevin Long is like literally putting his hand on like his shoulder. Like I could just picture a conversation in my head where Bohm's just like, I don't I'm lost out there. I don't have answer. That's what it looks like. And then they break out the iPad and he's trying to figure it out. But uh it's ugly for Bohm. Uh my number one target, I think you guys can guess who it would be based on my previous comments. Uh, you know, I mean tra I don't know how Trey Trey Turner and Darryl Morey, man, they're just able, I don't know what they they must have the same PR agent or something where they're somehow, who stop what? What do you want to stop, Z P? Go ahead. Make your Daryl Mori defense. Make your I'm somewhere in the middle on track. Okay. Go ahead. Make your defense for the guy who has signed two of the worst five contracts in the NBA, and you watch a game against the Celtics where it's just like, oh, we thought we had someone cool in a dem Bona, and they've got like seven guys who they plucked out of nowhere who are better than anyone the Sixers have. He's been here six years, they're about to get swept by the Celtics in the playoffs, and yet the guy goes under no criticism from anybody locally or nationally because he's got the entire basketball world in his pocket. Go ahead. Please make the defense. No, that was actually a Trey Turner thing. Like Oh, Trey Turner! It's even worse. Trey Turner. Go ahead. Please. Let me hear it. Uh it's a month into the season. Okay, yeah. Yeah. That was a bad strikeout. Look, he he he batted three hundred last year. He did win the batting title. Yeah. Yeah. I mean one year out of okay, four. He had he had his he had I think like the second best war of his career last year, right? Okay. Um like he was a good player last year. He was a good player . I thought he was a good player last year. The the Yeah, I mean the power I mean he had 26 home runs in in in 2023. Yeah, I I mean the he he needs to be a uh clutch he needs to be a more clutch hitter. The ninth inning, especially last last night was was was tough. Horrendous at bat. This is one of the terrible approach consistently. I think when you pick up your head at the end of the season, Trey Turner's gonna have a good year. I think for another team when I'm looking at guys that they can actually I don't think I don't think Trey Turner's getting traded, but does he have any trade val I asked Bunsey that before the season. Does he have any trade value? Let's g if we're getting some new blood in here, who is actually tradable? But Bunsey said he doesn't think the the trade turns. It's very hard to trade a shortstop, everyday shortstop. 'Cause like no most teams don't need them. You know, they have a guy already. But I mean look, he is chasing more. There's been a steady decline over the last three years in the barrels. We talked about this last year too. We said, oh, like he's he's prioritizing getting on base and hitting for average, which is like fine, but now he's not getting on base or hitting for average. So if you're not doing either, then what what do you exactly do you do here? And and like the the the consistent chase and the consistent overag-gression is so frustrating. I mean, his swing rate this year on pitches out of the zone is is almost as high as it was the first year he was with the Phillies. And that's why this does give me 2023 vibes. I mean, remember, they came off the 2022 run of the Wldor series. br Theingy in Trey Turner . There's a lot of excitement. Starting pitching was awful for like two months. They were under 500. Everybody was like, oh, you see, maybe that run was a fluke. And then they kind of figured it out. Trey Turner got hot in the second half. Like, you can kind of draw a through line to like are the Phillies good and is Trey Turner good are pretty strongly correlated. And I I mean he it's just the the quality of it bats is shocking. And we'll get to like the one stat that I find most alarming and it involves him . Uh it's it's just crazy what we're at right now. Hid I it's so funny that I was so sure that Z Burm was talking about Maury and not Drake Turner . I couldn't even believe it was actually shaking his head at Trey Turner. Not Maury. Uh Trey Turner is uh hitting the ball hard at the lowest rate of anyone on the entire baseball team. Lower rate than Alec Boehm, lower rate than Bryson Stott, lower rate than Justin Crawford. He has a six seventy-six OPS, which again is worse than all those guys, barely above Adolis Garcia, his OBP is 304 on this team, just above Brandon Marsh, just below Adolis Garcia. So all right, everybody. The expected stats aren't good either. The decline in the barrel rate and the decline in uh exit velocities over the last three years would be probably the biggest red flag, just pure long term in how he's aging, thirty-two years old. He's lost some of that top end uh you know bat speed slash power from his game. And maybe it was a plan thing, but it doesn't look that way right now to me. You know what? Slammed his helmet when I was there and then his earpiece thing comes off. You're making them don't make the ball boy go have to gather the earpiece thing and the helmet , Trey. All right. You know what I'm saying? Don't give him extra work. It's not his fault. There, so all right. Trey Turner. There was a moment on Friday night. You were talking about body language. Yeah. Uh there was a ball call on boom, and then they challenged it, it got overturned, and it was on the outside corner. And like just the look on his face, and then as he as he went toward the dugout, he started to slam his bat and then didn't. Yeah. And I I just felt a lot of frustration. You could just feel it all boiling over and and that you know gets into the whole psyche of this team too. They all do feel like they're pressing a lot right now. Yeah. Well Schwarber has been terrific, as advertised. Harper is actually, you know, you look at the numbers, and Harper's is hitting well. He's got an 883 OPS. Some, you know, there are some nights it doesn't feel that way, but those guys have been what you would want, what you would expect them to be coming into the season. Crawford has exceeded expectations. JT Real Muto went in the lineup has been fine. And everyone else has been a disaster. We talked about Bohm. We talked about Turner. Uh Garcia. There are some you know indicators that at least he's hitting the ball hard when he hits it, if you want to get behind that. Stott has been an interesting one. Bunsey, I know you look at all the sort of the you deep dive, the stats. The numbers would would suggest that maybe, I think, maybe you tell me if I'm wrong, that Stott has been like the most the one of the unluckiest hitters in baseball, maybe the unluckiest hitter on the team when you look at stuff like ex-woba, which you can uh explain to me and explain to the audience, but he's actually hitting the ball hard at a pretty decent rate. Where are you uh on Bryson Stott and any of those other guys? Yeah, we got a new Bryson Stott. I mean, remember last year he never swung. Like it was like oh one every time. Just take the first pitch right down the middle and and try to hit from there. Uh he's become very aggressive this year. Highest swing rate of his career, highest chase rate of his career. Uh kind of leaning into the fact that he has such a great hit tool that he can put the bat on any kind of any kind of ball. But he's hitting the ball for power more. We've seen him sell out a little bit. He's hitting the ball harder than he has. He's had no luck. A good number of those hard hit balls have been on the ground, so you're not going to really slug with those. But I actually am not totally upset with how the season's gone for stopped because at least he has a plan. Uh he again has still you know struggled to find the barrel. Uh he has three barrels this year, but you know, there's a plan. There's something. There's a there's an increase in the heart hit rate. There's a there's a I'm gonna try to sell out for some power and see how this goes. Again, he's been very unlucky, but if you go by the underlying stats, it's actually looked a little bit better than it had been in the past. So Stot, I'm optimistic on Stot still. I know I I said that preseason. I thought he could have his best season of his career, and right now his OPS is 5'10. But I still believe in Stott based on what we're seeing from him early in the season. All right. That's the the line. Anyone else in the lineup, Bunseer, do you want to move over to the pitching staff and whatever else here? Well, I want to talk the the the big picture thing in this lineup right now. Okay. So the Phillies right handed hitters have just not hit lefties at all. And it's been their biggest issue. I mean you could throw anybody out there. If you taught me how to throw left-handed, I could probably go get some Phillies out uh this point because they have a five twenty-three OPS. They're righties against lefties . So that's supposed to be the platoon advantage where you're able to really tee off, right? They're getting Otto Kemp in the lineup, they're getting Imundo Sosa in the lineup, they're getting Felix Reyes in the lineup on uh on Saturday night. How about that? Most exciting moment of the weekend was was Felix who's getting up there and launching a bomb against Chris Sale. I'm like, get this guy in the lineup every day. I don't care if he strikes out 15 times in a row. Right. Just like we're searching for power, for for a thump, for something that can give this team some juice. These are the OPSs of the Phillies right-handed hitters against lefties this year. Adolis Garcia, 760, pretty good. Marshon, 556, all of that on one home run. Uh Amundo Sosa, five forty nine. Trey Turner, five eighteen. JT, four eighty one. Otto Kemp, three sixty nine, Alec Boehm, three forty five. None of them are hitting. If you adjust for park factors, they are the worst offense in the league in this split. And it's very interesting because league wide, this is also an it's not just the Phillies. Uh offenses this year, right handed hitters against left-handed pitching. It is the worst offensively they've been in almost 50 years. Hmm . And it's been a steady downward decline. So something is going on and and uh I'm trying to find out some things with my non existent sources. But uh nobody really seems to have a great answer as to why this is but, the Phillies are certainly the one of the main culprits of why they nobody is hitting lefties this year, especially righties. And it's been the killer for the Phillies. I mean Chris Sale, McKenzie Gore, the the the the the guys they pull out of the bullpen, the the Rangers guy who came in on the second day of the season and shut them out, the Lats, whatever his name was. Everybody who's left handed just completely shuts this lineup out. Chris Sale, of course, too. Like th there's just not anybody hitting these lefties. And and I don't know if they have a solve for that. Because you just put Harper and Schwerber in the in the worst platoon splits, and then you go after these weak righties who aren't hitting anything, and then the result is what we saw on Saturday night ZB, let's say you're covering the Phillies right now, you know, for a competing outlet with your buddy Matt Gelb. You you but you both are vying for Pennsylvania sports writer of the year. Okay. You know, and you're like hard to win against Gelb. But yeah, it's one of those things. You're friends off the field, but once you enter that clubhouse, once you enter that stadium, you know, you start getting that dog mentality, you're trying to take him down. Okay. So what stories are you working? What what stories you're you're going around the clubhouse, you're talking to people, you're talking to your sources in the organization. What do you think the biggest stories would be you're working on this week with a fan base that is, you know, a very uh an audience that is very frustrated with this team as they get ready to take on, I think, the Cubs and the Braves again this week. Again. Revenge week. Yeah, it feels like are the wheels falling off or not ? What are you focusing your coverage on? Yeah, I'm probably broadening the lens rather than there, you know, like in in terms of all right the the big picture roster building approach because it's it's a similar conversation to what you have about the Sixers is that uh they did run it, you know, they they ran it back with the exception of the young guys coming up, right? And I understand Crawford and Painter that those are big additions there. And then bringing in Garcia, but you you kept your core in place. Uh and it's is and and so you say, all right, what did what did you do to get a a different result? Right. Your whole thing was was like you you if you look at the back of the baseball cards like like these this is a good player postseason, there's a lot of variants, like, but is any of this a surprise to the people in internally? And that's what you're trying to see. And then you're talking to the players who've been there for a long time who who maybe wanted some shakeups. Uh you're trying to get a sense of that because I I think I think that's that's kind of more the question here is is what what can be different. What's going to be different? Because what what you want, I imagine what what fans want is like you want a reason to hope. It's part of what what makes the flyers so exciting. There's all these these young up and coming guys. And so you're probably looking at that number one. I think number two, another story is you're tracking Aiden Miller. He's he's going to start swinging this week, right? Right, Anthony? I bel I believe. And so you're saying could this be midseason? Are they going to work on is he going to play third base as opposed to shortstop in the miners to kind of get them ready maybe to p to take over for for for boom you're you're looking at like the the prospect infusion potentially coming because i i don't know what what big move they can make . I think, you know, if you trade Bohm right now, like like the the value's really low, the high price guys, you're not moving in season. So but you look at it like bringing JT back, not signing um a a big time veteran, not not making a big time trade. I think that's kind of where you're looking at this saying what was supposed to be different from last year. You know what the what's hard about this as you as you uh you know uh offer that answer, I'm I'm thinking about it and the wheels are spinning a little bit. Like if it was the same as last year, we'd all be happy. They won 96 games. Yeah, this has been a good regular season team that has had some playoff blips and woes. This is not the same old, same old Phillies. Like this is vastly different from what our experience has been the last couple years. They cruised to back-to-back division titles. I mean it wasn't pretty last April either, by the way. They were five hundred ball club for most of the time. Yeah. They were eight and twelve on this date in two thousand twenty three. Okay. I like that. That's a nice piece. That's optimism for me. I I I think with with bats, like I don't think Shrey Turner just fell off, right? And I I think when you pick your head up at the end of the year, uh yeah, the power might not be what you want to do. Cliff's with me on Trey. Thank you, Cliff. I'm not with you just on that. I just don't think we're gonna see any hope out of this lineup. Like what are we what are we waiting for here? This is this this is this team. They have Adelise Garcia Batten for some time. Like they don't have a cleanup hitter. They don't have anybody with power on the back end of that lineup. What are we talking about here? Like, where's the optimism? Where's the hope? Well, here's the thing I thought is that if they fell off a cliff, I thought it was gonna be the olds who fell off a cliff. And the olds, because I think that's gonna happen one of these years where it's like Harper, Schwarber, it's not Harper and Schwarber. And it and even Real Muto has been as like if you would have signed up, you would have signed up for this version of Real Muto. I mean I thought it was gonna be worse than this this year. So the olds have been okay. It's the you had these guys in their 20s who have been mostly average players, and you were expect you were saying, hey, maybe they could be a little bit better than average, and instead it's gone the other way, and they've completely sucked. That's really been the story, I I think, uh, of the first twenty -one games here with the Bones uh and the stats. And you know, we talked about whether that's gonna continue or not here, but I think that has been a big part of the story. And then we haven't mentioned the wrote the the pitching staff, where the pitching staff you can really make the case has been a case of being unlucky or you just agree. I got all the stats on this. This is not gonna be nuts. Yeah, this is gonna turn. This is the case for optimism to answer Cliff's question. It's not with the lineup, it's that that the the pitching is not going to get this unlucky and some of these either-or games you're going to start winning. Right. I mean, look, the run differential thing, it's kind of overfitting to a trend when you look at the run differential and you say, oh, they're the worst team in the league by run differential. It's like, well, yeah, Taiwan Walker got blown up like multiple times. And they had a lot of like laughers that got away from them s away from them late. But the the same pitching staff here is first in the most predictive pitching metric. Strikeout rate minus walk rate. How many guys do you strikeout? How many guys do you walk? They're not giving up a ton of homers. It's not like the, you know, the balls keeps leaving the yard and you're like, oh, they're getting barrel left and right. Lowest percentage of hard hit balls in the majors, this pitching staff. Yes. And stuff plus, which we know is a predictive metric that looks at the quality of how good, you know, the velocity and the movement on the pitches is, they are number one. So this staff, outside of Taiwan, who will hopefully no longer be a part of the staff in a couple of days, uh like it's a great pitching staff. And really I think the m we we could argue the most frustrating thing to me has been the defense. I mean, Amundo Sosa with a disastrous play at second. Brandon Marsh gets a bad jump. Harper's struggled at first with some range stuff. Boehm has been inconsistent at third. Your guy, Turner, hasn't been as good as he was last year at short. L likeike, you know, Otto Kemp, that experiment ended badly. So like the defense is really what's been frustrating. That's where I get annoyed because it does feel like there's a lacklus ter sense of urgency with this team. And you again, you don't want to overpress, and even Rob Thomps on said this in in his press conference yesterday. He's like we don't want our guys to overplay. This isn't football, this isn't hockey where you get all emotional and you start playing better. Usually you play worse. And I think his even kill nature is good in this sense. But there needs to be more of a focus on the little things, the defense, the Brandon Marsh base running that cost them a game against Arizona last week. There's just so much little things they can clean up that will then make that pitching staff look a lot better. I still think this is a top five staff. So ZB, he's not to get you. Well, go ahead. And then I had a follow-up question for you, Z B. Well , what what makes me shake my head about the Phillies, if I'm being completely honest with you, is just the roster construction in the out field because like you show me a good team in baseball outside of the res right now and and I'm showing you like uh a team that that's getting a lot of power run generation from their outfield. And it like bewilders me that you have, you know, left field where you have, you know, left field and is that's that's a bat. You you want a bat in left field, right? And you're you're not getting power from left field. Okay. We'll see what happens with with with Garcia. I understood that in theory. Like you understand what what what Crawford is, but I can't imagine I'd have to go through ever y club, but I can't imagine there's a worse outfield in baseball in terms of like run generation than the Phillies. And that's the part where we could have said that last postseason too. And you move on from uh Castellano so that's that's the part too where I I agree with but with Bunce in terms of the pitching staff. I think you you need your stars to hit but the outfield to me is bewildering right now. You want to know the outfields worse than the Phillies this year? This is a list. Cincinnati, which we we just discussed. The Giants, who are a bit of a mess. The A's, the White Sox , the Marlins, and the Mets. Okay, but how different is that from like last year? Well, uh so last year, it's not that different. I think that's the thing. Like they never addressed the issue. Last year, Phillies finished 21st, right now they're 24th. 2024 , the Phillies were 19th. So it's really really never had this fixed since Swarber moved out of the outfield. Yeah, and 2023. I mean although you know have had like major injuries here. The Phillies don't have that excuse. All right. So as Bunsey was mentioning the the the defense and some of the things they can control, I think you could say base running. Yeah. Also , with that C B the one guy's name who we have not brought up is the manager, Rob Thompson. This conversation is happening, I believe, among uh Ph illies fans, right now. Now, I know you're gonna say you don't do something just to do something, so I'm gonna get that, yeah, get that out of the way here. But do they need to do something? Is can Rob Thompson be doing a better job? Is it a, you know, this is a in this I don't know if it's every city, but certainly in this city, the hidden coach, you know, get some uh I don't it's not but s of uh hatred here, but certainly Kevin Long's conversation name comes up in a lot of conversations among Phillies fans. Is there something that they need to do that they should do that they would be justified in doing ZB? That because you mentioned it from a personnel stand point, it's not like they don't have a lot of you know levers to pull here in terms of oh, call this guy out, make this trade. Like this is for more or less, this is gonna be the team uh for most of the season. We'll see if they do anything at the trade deadline. But does the manager need some more uh blame, responsibility, accountability in this equation? Well, look, when when Thompson took the job over, like that was a big thing. You you needed a different voice, right? And so I'm not in the clubhouse, so it's it's hard for me to say, but I do imagine in baseball there's probably a little bit of palace intrigue here because it's it's it's complicated. When they hired Don Mattingley, the I the think thought was: are you have a potential manager in wait, you know, when Ryan Sandberg took over, for instance, uh for Charlie Manuel, you know, you you have someone kind of waiting to be the manager if if if there is a change. The thing here is that his son is the GM of the team, you know, Preston Mattingley. So like I know Dumbrowski, you know, runs the show, but like the GM is Preston Mattingly and so there's I imagine in in baseball there's a lot of in in intrigue like if you if you pull that lever you're you're presumably going with Don Mattingly and you know there's there's a a lot there. So I I I 'm not gonna sit here and say they need to replace the manager, but I I think typic you know, you're not gonna replace your your you're gonna you're not gonna replace your lineup, you're not gonna replace your pitching staff. So you typically look at the at the bench coaches and I don't know if the if a hitting coach is gonna have a material effect on it. And Kay Long does have a uh you know a good resume in baseball. Uh, so does Thompson. And and so uh yeah, I I I think that if if this keeps going in the next month, you're looking at the manager because that's that's the one thing that you you tend to get that in season spark when you make when you make that m ove. Yeah, Bunsey, that's I I think I don't think it would actually change anything and I'm not in favor of doing it. The only way it would is if it's that, hey, you know, shake things up, provide a spark type deal, I but I don't think that that's really the issue here with this team. I mean the Philly's three best hitters have a very good relationship with Kevin Long and I think that that certainly has improved his job security over the past few seasons. I I I think it would be crazy to say it hasn't. But when we just talked about this, like those aren't the guys we're most worried about. Maybe a little bit Trey Turner, but we're not most worried about the veterans who were good hitters before Kevin Long. Yeah, yeah, true. We're not really talking about, you know, the the the the older veterans on this team. We're talking about all these young guys. And again, the Phillies have still not developed a hitter. Like w who who name one hitter that has developed or improved in the Kevin Long era. You literally couldn't. You couldn't name one. Especially when it's you juxtapose it next to the pitchers. Right. With Caleb Catholic.. Yeah So different. Everyone's best best seasons have come under Kevin Long, right? I mean he wasn't he wasn't this player when they signed him, but I think Kyle gets the credit, maybe the ballpark too, but yeah. That might be it. So like that to me has always been telling. And like if they fired Kevin Long tomorrow, I wouldn't unhappy about it. Thompson, I am way far from that conversation. Way too far. They've won way too many baseball games. He's proven , I think, to be an even keeled manager, and I've said this before, in a city that is tendency to get very riled up very quickly about the local ball club. He is the kind of manager I want in this city as a fan, because I do think he's not prone to over react. I think if anything he might underreact and maybe you could argue they've underreacted to the struggles of their secondary hitters over the last two years and just kind of assumed and tried to convince us that it was going to get better. But I would not be anywhere close to wanting Thompson out. But again, long, like at some point, you know, he gets close to that Maury conversation where it's like, where what is what is the track record actually of success on this offense? Because Yeah, I've said I just want a fun summer from this baseball team and I'm not gonna get carried away about whether they can win a World Series. And this has been a horrible watch so far, honestly. I leave being like I just wasted two hours and forty minutes. L that Sunday night game. I was like, how is this? What tie is up ? Is it midnight? This game feels like it's been going on for seven hours just because every time they're up, you're i it it is it is very difficult to watch, you know, where you're just like, all right, who's up this inning? Oh, sweet, Garcia , Boom, Stot, you know, it's just like you're not inspired by the boom Marshawn Stott pocket of the lineup when it comes out. Marshawn, man. You know? Sheesh. It is uh it has been tough. Listen, Crawford , bright spot. Yeah. I'm it's been up and down. But it's been it's been fun. I mean but for what you I'm excited to see how long he can keep doing this. Yes. Like it is some juice. That game where he hit the triple at the end. And then uh Trey got out. I was like, all right, at least he's trying to provide some energy. Are these guys alive? What's happening out here? All right. So that's a lot with the Philz. Just some other numbers. I wrote down here, touching quickly on the rotation. Sanchez and Laz ardo have both faced the highest Babip batting average of balls in play, over 400 in the entire majors. And you saw that that Sanchez, I mean Sanchez just got screwed. His pitching duel Saturday night with the way uh that they scored those fronts. I felt for him in Mundo. Yeah, really costing them there. And then they get a little bloop and then they get a little dink down the uh third baseline. So Alvarado, I was 98th percentile in hard hit balls allowed. Where watching him has not been a pleasant experience, in my opinion, for uh Alvarado, but uh the numbers were a little better than I was expecting. So Wheeler, you get Wheeler back . Painter has been up and down, but I would say has exceeded my expectations so far. So the rotation is really what's going to keep you in it. The bullpen's what's going to keep you in it. But they are now down to plus one sixteen to make the playoffs. So more likely to miss the playoffs now on April 20th than to make the playoffs. So the bull case is that, hey, they're getting a little unlucky. The bats can't be this bad. You get Wheeler back, but uh it is not looking great here for the Phil. Sorry, let's move on. I got one more thing. Go ahead. Uh with Zach Wheeler coming back. Uh people been kind of postulating what he might look like . I think the best comp I've been trying to look find a good comp was uh Brandon Woodruff of Milwaukee, who came back and and was not peak Brandon Woodruff, like the fastball velocity, Woodruff had consistently sat 96 his whole career with the fastball. He came back in 2025. He threw 64 innings. His average fastball velocity was 93. But Woodruff and Wheeler are very similar in that they have deep arsenals and really good command. Wheeler's uh Woodruff still put pitched to a 3-2 ERA uh last year, despite not having maybe his most dominant stuff uh because the walk rates were so low. He kept the ball in the park uh and kept the low Babib. So like I know that people were a little panicky about Wheeler's fastball velocity. I get it. I don't think he's gonna be a top five pitcher in the in the national league right when he walks in. But I still think Woodruff is like the perfect comp for for what this could look like if it goes well. And I think Woodruff had a similar injury. So I'm not totally sure, but it was definitely uh a similar kind of shoulder slash nerve issue. So you really need him to be like a top three starter, right ? It's not like you need him to be the ace that he has been. If he can be sort of a top three starter who is savvy and has experience and knows how to pitch and can keep you in games, I think that would be a fine outcome given the injury that he's coming off of and given who else you have on the staff. The staff I don't think is going to be the problem here for the Phillies. So that'll be exciting to get Zach Wheeler back, but you know, they still have to bat in those games, unfortunately. So that's gonna be hard to win 2-1 every night. Yeah, it's gonna be a very stressful evening. All right, let's get to the fly guys. Because Cliffy too, it's got his Eric Lindross jersey on Cliff . Cliff, the city, it feels to me , is dying for this Flyers team to go on a run. I mean, you are on all the time. Dying for anybody to do something. That's what I'm saying. And they're the only hope right now, right? But then there is a buzz, it feels like around the Flyers right now, and an expectation that this is not just going to be a quick playoff run for them. Nah, listen. Fly , guys, they're about to do it. That was a huge, huge, huge win in Pittsburgh for game one. Strategy was great. Portemarton, man. Like I said, I keep I keep going back to his name. And I'm I'm thinking about his goal that he scored, right? Where he kind of just wa waititeded and and then top shelf it and I was just like damn like the Flyers actually have a goal scorer on this team maybe the last I don't know who's the last goal scorer that the Flyers had what Drew Jeff Carter like dudes like that and then Martone is 19 years old, fitting right in with the young guys, fitting right in with the vets. Yo, I think your boy scored too. Did you were you? You think he did? No, no, no, no. I'm saying, no, no, no, because I'm trying to remember I'm trying to remember if he said Drysdale. It was Drysdale, right? Yeah, it was Dresdale. Jay I heard the chance from Pi Big Game. James from Pittsburgh. All the way down the turn. My guy, Damie Drysdale, getting the first goal. I was trying to make sure. I was trying to make sure because I didn't know Joe Monty. Shout out to Joe Monty. Yeah, no, the Fly Guys, they gotta do it for us because the Sixers aren't about to do it. The Phillies aren't they like 26th and runs in MLP. So you might not see them hit anymore. Yeah, we need the fly guys to step up and make this a nice fun run. Your boy, Vladdy Daddy. Big saves down the stretch. Big saves down the stretch, man. I was I was jumping up and down excitement i was in my crib by myself i couldn't believe it man so yeah shout out to the fires man that was a really really really great game great strategy that they had too zb you're on the you know multiple group chats you're walking the streets of the city, city, suburbs. You got the sun in school wearing the different jerseys. Yes. Do you feel the Flyers energy here taking over the city with perhaps some of the other disappointment with the other teams right now? I I can definitely sense the excitement. And and again, like, you know, all politics are local, right? Like in, you know, in my case it's it's what my son's instant. Is that true? That doesn't seem like it's true to me. Is that a saying? All politics Since when all all politics is local, what world are you expressing? What country are you living in? Alright. No, it's it's it's like you you care what's what's what's close to you is the expression. I think that was Tip O'Neill. It's been less true, I think, lately, ZB, but we'd all be better off if it were okay. So my point is is like I firmly disagree. I am I'm very influenced by like what my son is into, right? And he's he's probably more into the Flyers run right now than the Sixers run right now. Okay. Everybody should be. Uh and so he was he was pumped uh, you know, when they won the other night and uh I I think the the penguins uh part of it makes it exciting as as as well. I think the I I think the NHL in general, and we saw this, uh I she was gonna laugh when I I made the blues reference, you know, to the famous cup run the hate. One of the most memorable seasons of my lifetime, I would say. But top three. I actually agree with ZB. I was nodding along. Yeah, but there is this idea. I was in Massachusetts that summer and like Gloria was just like PN persona non grata song the entire summer after that cup run. Like they were so heartbroken because they lost game seven to the blues. I I mean there's this idea in in in hockey where like just get in and the postseason's a different a different beast. And in the NBA that's that's not the case. Best teams the best teams typically make it, right? And so so yeah, so I I I get it. It's it's a it's a a long series, but they clearly have juice. There they have the goaltending right now. We'll we'll we'll see if it keeps up. So I liked it a a lot. That was good one. Yeah. Providing his team an edge, Cliff is saying, I think. Say that one more time. I'm sorry. You're saying Rick Tocket providing his team with an edge. I mean, playing. Yeah, it sounds feels like Talking days Flyers where they muck up the game, get scrappy, that that you know I mean that type of poke check, Bunsey, I thought it was all about. The poke check. It's funny 'cause I you know, like how Z B has his son that he kind of views his sports through. I do it through my stepdad who has like always liked the Flyers but isn't really tuned in. And like the last two weeks, he's like every game walked in. And then so Saturday night I was I was home in Valley Forge and my cousin came over, knows nothing about hockey. We're like teaching him the rules and he's getting into it. Sunday morning he calls me, he goes, Hey, you want to go to the playoff game on Saturday night? Like we can buy tickets. I'm like, ah, like I'm busy, but uh, but like if they get to game six, maybe maybe we'll pull it off. Okay. Uh and it's funny, but also speaking of hockey regular season, this is like the most BS system of all time. Some I'm looking at the standings in the East, by the way. The Flyers have the they were the last team in the playoffs, right? They draw the team who had the the second least points in the first round. I mean what kind of system is this? I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. Right. It's crazy. And the bunny penguin flyers are in the metropolitan division. They are. But Boston is not, which is a bizarre to me too. It's like, you know, they have New York, D C but no Boston in the Metro. They could they couldn't . Just brutal. So quick um but Columbus, Columbus, they're in the metro. Big metro. I'm excited. Listen, they were in our section. We were I was actually checking the score. Other people are checking the score. People are telling, oh, it's zero zero after one and then we put it on the radio on the on the way home you know we we put on the flyers game and then we caught the very end when we got here and I'm gonna be watching tonight. Now I did say ZB I said I would buy a piece of Flyers merch if they made the playoffs. Now my wife was out doing some things and she so she said she was by one of the establishments that has all kinds of Philadelphia sporting goods and a catchy and a catchy jiggle. Catchy tune.. Yeah And and she I say, yeah, you know what, you know, what types of t-shirts I like, or if you want to send me a photo. She comes back, she's like, the merch was lacking. She's like she came home and it was sort of a generic looking yellow. I mean orange flyer shirt. I'm like this thing, you know. I have a reputation to uphold on these uh, you know, on these reels, on Instagram, on TikTok. I need to have a have a good looking flyer shirt. So that is on my list today. I'm gonna go back may,be do a little exchange. Maybe there was a section she missed. Maybe I gotta go to another place. I don't know because I trust her. She scoured that place and couldn't find anything, Z B. But I I am gonna get some flyers merch because I don't think this is gonna be short-lived. I think they're gonna this gonna be a weeks long run that kind of takes over the city is how I'm feeling about this flyer steam. I'm in for that. I'm down . So so two things to add here. First or merch thing. I I know we say no free ads here, but I'm gonna give uh if I can sneak something in here 'cause it's a local small business, right? Okay. Talk to me. Um yeah. Shout out to my friends at Shy Vintage Sports. Great spot. You know, yeah, yeah, and we and wheelhouse cards. Uh if if you go they got a store by you, Sheil, if you go there. You do? Yeah. Yeah. They they yeah, they have um so make sure you so they're there's no shopping vintage sports near me. Yeah, go to wheelhouse. Oh we oh so it's a card. Go to wheelhouse cards and they sell they sell the shop vintage sports t-shirts. Yeah, go to wheelhouse. Yeah, go to wheelhouse. Um but then so if I could just add in here, this isn't to be a flex. This is just kind of like uh an interesting Flyer submission here. So back the last time the Flyers paid the um played the penguins, do you know when it was ? Twenty eighteen seventeen, eighteen? Eighteen. Twenty was that okay. Well, I was thinking two thousand twelve. Well, that was a lot. I don't I actually don't know. I think you're right, actually, Z. It is crazy though that like I turned down the game. The fact that Crosby, Malkin, and Latang have all played together for seventeen years is insane. My wife couldn't believe she goes, We turned it on when he came home. She goes, Sidney Crosby is still a person people talk about. He's still playing. I'm like, Oh, yeah, he's still he's still great. I heard Elkin's name on the uh he scored his name on the radio and I'm like wait he's still a player in the NFT he scored too yeah yeah so April April 2012 where was I well I was at that time I was um I was freelancing for the New York Times. And the New York this was this was pre-this was like back. This was before they owned the athletic. Their sports section was was geared a little differently then. And they want a story on the Flyers Penguins rivalry. Like this is like hockey's version of Yankees Red Sox, right? That was kind of the premise of it, okay? And uh so I'm I'm out in Voorhees at the facility, I'm talking to different people, and I need to get an independent voice on the phone for like, you know, the someone who understands the rivalries, not with the team, a different type of voice. So who do I call? I'll give you I'll give you the fur you'll probably get on the first guest. Who do I call? Ed Rendell ? No. You need an independent voice voice. I need a voice, someone who knows this rivalry well. Someone who knows this rivalry well. But not somebody. Speak about it from both sides. But not so these kinds of kind the he's gonna be the lead quote in the story. Um uh Yarm Jagger . That would have been a good one. He was on the team at the time, actually, I believe. Or had just been on the team. I can't believe you said we were gonna get it. How are we supposed to get this? Almore. His name's come up already. Oh, his name's come uh uh called Rick Cockett. So I was going through the story. Yeah. Rick Tockins all over all over this story. Yeah, you know, Rick, the fight only matters for more national buttons. And so he's going about the interstate right the interstate rivalry. Um he's yeah, so Tak it so uh Tak ets all over the story. Yammer Yagger's in the story as as as well, but Yager was in the in the dressing room as they call it, not the locker room. But the uh the big quotes in the story come from uh Rick Tocket . And so that was back 2012. Flyers, Penguins. You can look that up in the New York Times archive. Okay. Yankees Red Sox on Ice. Wow. That launched a career for Z B. Rick Tocket. And now he's just texting him on the side. Get the you know, muck it up a little bit. Yeah, let's let's make giving him the strategy. And that's exactly what he did. Yeah, you guys were right. Twenty eighteen they played. Flyers Peterson. Okay., all right So my bad. 2012 though. They played a lot. I mean, they played a lot. Basically, every time the Flyers made the playoffs, they somehow run into Pittsburgh but uh listen. I'll be watching to the audience. I wish I could give you, you know, more expertise, but I like just being authentic. Gotta gotta get the power play fixed, man. That was what I did takeaway. I listen, they we yeah, I was explaining the power play on the ride home. One of the things I did know about hockey, you know, the other team you I was like you I was like if you you have a penalty go in a closet. She's like what? I was like what what do you tell I'm like yeah it's kind of weird but it's and then you just run and then as soon as the clock hits zero you just burst out onto the ice. It's actually a funny concept to explain to someone who has no idea what you're talking about there. So um listen, I'm on the bandwagon uh and we will continue to show them love because I don't know that there's gonna be a lot of other fun stuff to talk about in the weeks ahead. Maybe I'll be wrong but Flyers P unday night here. Right after the uh eighth inning rally fell folded last night, I tried to get a let's go sixers chant going uh in our section and I got like eighteen dirty looks. No, yeah. I may or may not have been trolling, but it was pr it was pretty funny. People are like, the steward the steward was like, what about the flyers? I was like, yeah, maybe I should support that stuff. And Buns, in reference to your power plate thing, the flyers were dead less than power players. Deadless, yeah, it's been awful. It's all right. All right. Which which brings us to the Philadelphia 76ers. Somewhere Daryl Morey's listening, being like, Man, why did you go off on me, you know, 25 minutes. Trey Turner during a Phillies conversation. Listen, sometimes you just have stuff you gotta unload a little, or you have these takes that just sit in your head that you're like, these are coming out one way or the other. So, you know, apologies for that. Daryl, but Sixers lose by 32, Sunday afternoon. Not competitive. Couldn't make a three. Four for 23. Couldn't make a layup. I mean, Jay Billis was just like, they've missed eight layups now in this game. Where I feel like even if they, you know, shot average in some of those things, they you know, maybe lose by like ten or fifteen. I don't know what the score is, but um I don't know, Cliff. What's what's the big takeaway here? They're just you know so out. Did you see um did you see what Ruben Frank put up on uh NBC Sports Philly with all the stats, like just yeah all the stuff from stat head. So uh the first section is how bad was it right? The thirty-two point loss matched a seven fourth playoff loss and six is history. Okay it lost nine postseason games by thirty or more points and five have been to the Celtics, including the last two. Which is all probably within the last, yeah. I don't know. Um this this next uh here uh they the six has shot four for twenty three from three seventeen point four percent and that's their second worst ever in a playoff game in which she attempted at least 20 threes. Only I just had one more Maury question to that point. Yeah. He was the he did ZB, he you you were you've been reading up on this. He did leave lead sort of the three point revolution in the NBA, correct? He's credited for that. Correct. That three counts more than two. Yes. Three counts more than two, we're talking about Lewis is writing the worst shots, the mid-range jumper . Chapters in Michael Lewis books , and yet he has assembled a team that can't shoot, correct? Yes. my wrong shooter, their best shooter is definitely playing injured. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. You know who can' s just more alarming stats here. Um his second time in franchise history, Six just had eight players at a minus ten or worse in a playoff game. Just crazy. I mean Kelly Ubre and VJ went over five from three. I think that's the first time ever in a playoff game. Kelly , man. I mean, yeah, it's just look, what are we gonna say? Like, I told you, I said, all right, which what's your hope? It's gonna be they're gonna get swept, probably gonna get blown out every game. The line was what, twelve and a half going into that? I could have told you put that up to twenty, and they would yo, it was a point in the game, right? I'm watching this the garbage time minutes, right? And I'm looking at the players on the Celtics. I'm like, yo, they're garbage time minutes players actually played rotation. Literally, Baylor Shireman, um, my man with the Baldee, he got the LP sh I forget his name. Walsh. Jordan Walsh. Yeah, Jordan Walsh. Caden . All the college all the college heroes. Literally they've assembled a team of like college guys who are kidding who everybody said couldn't be in the NBA and they're all in the NBA now. It's kind of amazing. Yeah. Garza was hitting threes. Meanwhile the Sixers had Dallan Terry, Trendon Watford. No, I listen, those aren't the guys who deserve yeah, that's not I mean they're not. No, no, no. And I'm not going to kill them or nothing like that. I I''m justm just say sayinging, this roster construction is depth uh often injured star player. Like what we just hit the wall with this team every single time. Like, yeah, what more is there to say? There's no strategy that can beat the Celtics. Jason Tatum came out there, smoked them in the first half. He had like 21 in the first half, ended up with 25 in the game. There's no way for this team to beat the Celtics. Like there's no hope. I don't care if they win one game. I don't care if the gentleman sweep, whatever. What's what's the point? Like, what are we talking about here? You know? Well, I wanted to see ZB. I just wanted to see uh Maxie play well. And I was like, all right, let me see VJ, his first playoff experience. That will be a storyline. Uh I'll I would like to see Bunzy, I know you said uh whole regular season they were twenty third in three point shooting percentage and Maxie was healthy for And they traded away one of their best correct three point shooters at the trade coach for like a bag of chips. Yeah. So um so yeah. The Thunders first round pick Town C B. It was it was the Rockets first round pick. Oh, it's Rockets, I'm sorry. Yeah, so it's just I hear you. And uh look, I and the Celtics are awesome to watch, but they've done and they have one of my favorite coaches in sports, like Joe Missoula but solves problems. New Zealand. Dude, I I covered two unstoppable tournament runs with Joe Missoula when he was in college. Um and Virginia . Yeah, yeah, I I can't defend the Sixers right now. This is this is bad. They're missing their best player. I get it, but um the Celtics were missing their best player this year and they won fifty, you know, they were the two seed and you know Jalen Brown picked up his game. They don't run offense these six years. They they don't it's not like this like MB it's like some shock that Joel Embiid's not playing and they're like, oh we can't adjust. Yeah he's only played half the year. Yeah. And if they don't get like the Celtics shut off transition, I saw a post. It was like a true hoop, you know, one of those like analytics sites that was like, you know, 14 of Tyrese Maxy's 16 shots were contested. He had only two transition attempts. They just flowed the pace down. But with the amount that the Boston is trying to get O'Reeb's offensive rebounds, there should be more opportunities to run. The only chance they have is to run. They just need to constantly run and see what happens. Because they're not going to win in the half court. This offense is cooked in the half court. Cooked. There's no solution. There's a solution to maybe being more competitive. There's no solution to actually winning more than one game. Uh I mean you just you have seen this with throughout the course of the season with the Sixers , when they face one of these actual contending teams, I felt there's been so many times this year where I'm like, Oh, the gap is like very, very large between these guys running seven or eight jazz . You know, I went to that Spurs game at home, and I'm just like, okay, this is just this is a very different uh this is a very different experience than even in the fun times with the Sixers this season. So yeah. Well that' its the product of the tanking too, right? Like a a lot of these mid tier teams between like eight and twenty in the league have good records and good metrics to a certain extent. But it's because like you have ten teams that are just trying to lose every night. So yeah, like the Raptors, the Sixers, like yes, they were able to beat the Pacers and the Nets a lot this year, but yeah. What does that mean now? Nothing. It means nothing. So yeah. Yeah, but where and and where I will poke Maury here is that like it's it's obvious that you need superstars in the in in this league, like he's always said, but the best teams, it's it's how they construct their rosters like, you know, four to twelve. Like you watch the Hawks play, for instance, you watch, you know, um they that just all these these decisions on the margins make such a difference, and I don't think the Sixers have done a good enough job with these decisions on the margin. So we can obviously like, yeah, if Joel Umbiad's on the court, it changes everything. If Paul George is Paul George, it changes so much. Like if we we haven't seen the way the team was supposed to be. But there's so many decisions on the margins that make a difference and that's what the Celtics have nailed. And that's that's the point that Anthony was saying about, you know, all all these formula, you know, they just scout and develop really well. Yeah. That's the point of drafting, right? That's the point of getting good players as your backups, not these two-way guys that won't amount to anything. And that's how you get good dudes like Baylor Scheiman on your on your kill minutes un it, right? Instead of Dallan Terry and Trendan Watford. I mean they've drafted well. They just haven't developed the second tier guys, right? I I feel like that's kind of probably what we would say. Well I mean you can still pick up dudes on a free agent, you know, as free agents and they could contribute right away like even when Quentin Grimes had to come back here we thought like oh quentin grimes is gonna come back be a guy da da da he is awful like he's he played his way he I see why he wanted to get that bag this past summer because he knew he wasn't going to perform up to the status that he did towards the end of that year when he was playing with a bunch of garbage guys that no one knew anyway. So yeah, he lost a ton of money this just this season alone. Yeah, but like an example's when they had that you know that at that that off season and the the the moves on the margins were PJ Tucker and you know Cale Martin and and it didn't work out, right? Yeah, like you that's you're gonna win with your stars, but you're those those pieces around them are are so critical. Let's get uh let's get some meditation or something for a dent bona before game two. I mean he goes out there and like I know the game is energy and athleticism but someone needs to just say dude chill a little bit we can't be having two fouls and like 30 he be playing he plays like a chicken with his hair cut off like who coming in game dude you could tell you could tell he one of them bulls that just started playing basketball like a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Right. He just comes in the he has freak he has no like I'm the no disrespect. He comes in the game, freak athl freak athlete, set you know, seven foot whatever, long limbs, jump out the gym, but has zero skill and does not have the basketball IQ you need for him to remain on the floor. Everything is just at a hundred miles per hour. It has no like sense of direction, nothing just just out there just doing whatever. And I'm just like, like, damn, why can't we get Kater to do like the Telkies of Kate? That dude came out of no he was from the Kings. He was lost on the Kings for however long he was lost in the Kings. Goes to Boston. Pretty much took uh uh Vucevic before he got hurt out of his ro le and became a for a formidable player. Meanwhile we draft Bonan come on dude it was like the second game of the season he had like four blocks and one possession and my buddy was like how did we get him in the second round and then we watched the ro we watched the rest of the game and it was like oh okay. Yeah, that's why. I mean highlight for me from all right, Ubre had a nice dunk. That was nice, Maxy had some nice shots, but highlight for me was a Dambona outlet to Paul George and then George is saying, let me give it back to my guy. Yeah. You know, as he's running a hundred miles per hour. The most obvious charge in the history of the PG A. What did you and then PG's telling him, oh, throw that out to the guy at the three point PG. Where you been, my man, in the last seven months. Did you really think he was gonna be capable of at full speed catching that? Oh my god, I was dying. Same Hauser was Hauser was just sitting there waiting on that one. I think he I think he's up there with one of the uh league league leaders in charge is taken too if I'm I thought Bono was gonna jump over the backboard. He was going so full speed there. But anyway, all right. Sixers Tuesday now last thing still alive bunsey the lily kapadia parlay which you know you mentioned we did the video ringers filly special on instagram and tick tock she'll capadia on ringers on uh instagram and TikTok. Leela, I made her give predictions for a big 24 hours in Philly sports. I said Phillies tonight. Sanchez on the mound. Do they get on track? She said no. Loss. I said Flyers, Penguins, game one. What do you think? She said flyers and OT, which first set for a chance there. She was getting real excited. She thought she was nailing the OT, but she still got the results right. I said, Sixers, your favorite team. What are they doing? I said, lose losing game one, lose game one to the Celtics. But she said, but win game two. So Tuesday night, everybody's down on them. Do they bounce back? But three for three for the weekend. I was like, wow, that's uh good nice job by you. Two of them are underdogs. Yeah, uh that that's uh that's pretty good there. So there you go. A lot going on. It is fun to just have, you know, games going on every night all the time. With with the uh with the local teams here. So um all right. I think we got to everything here. And Arianola takes the ball tonight to write the ship. There you go. Should be all good. Ariola write the ship. Everything's fine. All right. Thank you, Anthony Debundo Thank you to Zach Berman. Thank you to Ace producer Cliff Augustine. We will be back later this week on the Ringers. Philly Special. 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-MYRESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit CCPG.org/slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 1-877-770-7867.