00:00Some breaking news from Major League Baseball, as the Philadelphia Phillies have relieved Rob
00:05Thompson of his duties, and Don Mattingly, Donnie Baseball, is back in an interim capacity as a
00:11manager. Not an overly surprising move, but still one that is going to cause some shockwaves for
00:17sure. Let's talk about it. So yes, the Philadelphia Phillies making a move today. Rob Thompson is out.
00:30Don Mattingly is in. And when you see the spot that the Phillies are in right now, this is not
00:37an overly surprising one, right? Like the team currently sitting in the bottom or close to the
00:43bottom in the NL East. They are technically, I guess, last. A minus 54 run differential, which
00:51just doing a quick scan here is definitely the worst in the National League and is the worst in
00:57Major League Baseball. And it's not overly close, actually. 9-19, already 10 and a half games out
01:02of first place in the division in the National League East. This has been a disaster start for
01:09the Phillies. And, I mean, there was a lot of talk about where the Mets were at, but you look
01:17now that
01:17the Mets actually won a game, a lot of the focus goes to this Phillies ball club. And runs, they're
01:2328th in Major League Baseball. Runs against, they're 28th. They're not hitting home runs. They're
01:27at 17th in that. And they have the 29th best OPS in MLB. And I think what you start to
01:36wonder with
01:37this group is, did they wait a year too long? And when you have a team that can be getting
01:43close to
01:44a World Series championship, I think it's fine to wait a year too long. I think that that is
01:51perfectly acceptable to do. But we talked about it in the offseason. Like, okay, you brought Schwarber
01:56back. All right, you made a couple of moves here. Where's better coming from? Is it Brad Keller in
02:04the bullpen? I mean, they haven't really needed the closer all that much, given, you know, what has
02:08happened there. And he's been okay. But, like, their bullpen has not been strong. The starting
02:14staff, which has been a strength of this team for a really long time, has regressed. Like, Aaron Nola
02:19is getting hit. Zach Wheeler is not the same dominant guy he was a couple of years ago.
02:24Christopher Sanchez, who has worked his way into being one of the better ones in baseball,
02:28is having a good year. But there's only so much of that that you can overcome. And then you look
02:32at
02:32the lineup. Like, Trey Turner is batting leadoff with a .304 on base percentage. Kyle Schwarber is
02:38hitting .196. Now, nine nukes, but hitting .196. And those home runs are great. But when the guy in
02:44front of you isn't getting on, what's that doing? They, right now in their starting lineup, have no
02:50one hitting over .300. The closest is Brandon Marsh at .297. Like, just nothing is going well on this
02:58team. So a shakeup, I think, was inevitable, in my opinion. They have a lot of platoon guys that
03:05they can try to kind of work with. But it's an aging group. And it feels like maybe it's a
03:12done
03:13group now. When you see, like, Trey Turner's 32 years old. Schwarber's 33. Harper's 33. They brought
03:18in Garcia. He's 33. Brandon Marsh, 28. Like, that's kind of, like, Alex Baum's 29. You do have
03:25Justin Crawford at 22 years old. But, I mean, the dude's your number eight hitter and a platoon
03:31catcher. Or, sorry, a platoon center fielder right now. So, there's just, there's a lot
03:38of age on this team. And when you see, like, the Braves are on the trajectory that they
03:43are on. And, like, we think the Mets might be getting a little bit better. And the rest
03:47of the National League, like, the Dodgers aren't going anywhere. It does kind of feel like
03:51things have passed them by. And it's time for a switch in Philly. Now, can you get value
03:57out of some of these guys in a trade? Probably, based on name value and things like that. But
04:03it does feel like the start of maybe a bigger switch here. And I wonder if that is why we
04:09don't get the Cora news today. Because that's what, I talked about it on the radio out here
04:13in Calgary. That dude is a good enough manager that other managers get fired so this guy gets
04:19hired. And when I saw the alert, I didn't see the Donnie baseball part first. I just saw
04:24Philly's making the manager change with Rob Thompson. I thought, okay, this is the Cora move.
04:29This was it. Off to Philadelphia. He goes. And maybe that could still be the case. But I wonder
04:34if they're trying to see what direction they are going in. And, I mean, like, Cora, I know it hasn't
04:41gone well in Boston this year, or it didn't go well in Boston this year. I think he is a
04:44difference
04:45maker. And I think that that is a very, very good manager that's out there. And so when you get
04:49a
04:50chance to get a good manager, you just, you do it. So I don't think that you just hold off
04:54like,
04:54well, we'll see. Maybe we're in a rebuild. So we don't want to get one of the best managers in
04:56baseball and waste him there. Maybe he's waiting to see how that situation plays out because he can
05:01kind of call his shot. I think there's going to be a Houston job opening up. I think there's going
05:06to be a Mets job opening up here pretty soon as it feels like he was the first domino,
05:11Cora being he, the first domino to really fall in this whole thing. So it does kind of give you
05:17a
05:17bit of a, hmm, feels like some big changes are coming here right now. But for Don Mattingly,
05:22another chance as a managerial position that obviously wasn't going to be there with the
05:27Blue Jays, with John Schneider getting an extension after a run to the World Series. So now he gets
05:32another chance. I don't think he was great as a hitting coach with the Jays. It does feel like he
05:38had
05:38a pretty good relationship with a lot of the guys in the Jays locker room. But I don't think
05:43Toronto's sluggish start is because of anything not involving Don Mattingly. It felt like the less
05:49power he got in Toronto, the better things went. So I don't know if this is going to be the
05:54thing
05:54that fixes it. Right now, you just need your best players to play. And like no one is playing up
05:59to
05:59their baseball reference page right now. So we'll see if the Phillies can get this thing back on track.
06:03I don't think they will. I think we could see a bit of a fire sale here from the Phillies.
06:09It just, it feels, it feels done. It really does. And they got really close a couple of times.
06:17But it's a, I don't even want to say it's a what could have been. Because I don't know if
06:21they
06:22missed a whole lot of opportunities. They just ran into a juggernaut. You know, like there were
06:25some really good teams when the Braves were winning division titles and going to World Series and stuff
06:30like that, that just weren't able to crack through. This is going to be probably the reputation of
06:35this Phillies team. Fun as hell to watch, but didn't get over the hump in the way that they
06:39would have wanted to. So where are you guys at? Am I being too harsh on the Phillies? Am I
06:43not being
06:43harsh enough on Philadelphia? Let me know in the comments and we can keep the conversation going
06:48there. Also, if you are watching this on YouTube and want to bring Couch Potato Diary with you wherever
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