Andrew Painter’s Spring Debut, Sixers Fall To Celtics, Eagles Combine Takeaways | LIVE

live from the ex-finity studio. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Happy, happy March.

The worst month of the year flushed. We got through it. A little bit, uh, escaped, not

totally unscathed, I should say, but we got through it. We're in the march. March means

a lot of good stuff on the horizon, baseball, the tournament. Uh, we got playoffs for Hoops

and hockey and mercifully the weather. As I look toward the end of the week, the weather

in the seventies. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We got two more cold days today. Uh, you know,

we get at least get to normal time. We got daylight savings or whatever it is. We, we

uh, turned spring forward. So good stuff. That we got rid of that horrible February month.

We're on to it. And yesterday, baseball, uh, I took center stage. How about it? The spring

debut of Andrew painter. There's nothing like having the phenol. There's especially a

phenol picture. There's nothing like when you see the young stud toe the rubber. There's

nothing like it. When you got a kid that you look for, the watch and pitch every five days,

there's something special about that. And Andrew painter, we've been waiting, right?

Like we were very excited. We felt last year, uh, was the year and of course he's coming

off the Tommy John. So kind of lingered. So now we get Andrew painter and he makes his

debut yesterday against the yanks and look good, right? Like, you know, two clean innings,

no hits, no walks. You struck out one, Dominguez, uh, 20 pitches, 14 strikes. Fastball had

life, had pop had some good run to it. 96.7 is fastball average. And the first inning,

97.1, the fastball average in the second inning. Good, Velo, good, right? Real good. So you

got to like it. I thought he got good command. This command was, it was excellent through an

array of pitches. Again, this is just spring. And, you know, you're going to, while it gets

stretched out and everything else, but as a first discolence to look at him, look good.

Look, I'm excited. I'm excited for the Phillies when it comes to the youth because what do

we need with this club? We need fresh blood, young blood. And that you got with painter

Crawford, who's just been hitting this spring, right? Like, my man, my man gives me 280.

You know, let's go. Like, you know, he's going to go, I don't care about extra base hits

with him. Let's just go get on base. That's just team needs. And you need young blood.

Go ahead. I have big believe in that. Something about the, the youth infused in a clubhouse

of veterans, which makes it a good mix, good tonic for winning. You don't want to be all

young and you don't want to be all old. So you got a couple good, couple good prospects

coming in. And if painter can give you a legit rotation spot, you know, give me like

Ranger light numbers. If you get Suarez light numbers, you're good. You're, you're more

than good. It's what you, it's what you need. It's what your farm systems here to do

that because you can't pay everybody $300 million. So fightings. We'll talk about with Corey

side to me. Corey was diligently watching Andrew painter. So we'll get the Corey a little

bit later on talking some fills sixes last night. Jojo out for three games. First, it's a shame

because it's Sunday night and it was NBC and it was six or six six or Celtics. Funny,

I was driving to pick up my supposed birthday dinner and which we'll get to in a minute.

And I had on the six years pregame and I heard a D line. I'm talking to Jimmy line. I love

Jimmy line of shallics, shallics. Just do that full of the accent. And like big one without

Joe, Joe, well, you know, absolutely without Joe was a problem against the Celtics. I hope,

but you know, and this is great. And yeah, you can't expect them to win without a beat against

that team. And you saw it last night, VJ was terrific. Tyree started off three for 17 and got

hot. And it's just a warrior man. They're blitzin a double in them. And he's just, I just love

Max. He's just just relentless. He always like just always keeps you in a game. He finds a way.

I think he's had this whole season carrying the load of this entire team on his back. I counted

one, Doug, one game that he just didn't have anything. The guy always gives you something.

Always VJ was VJ was terrific last night. It's just you're out manned without a beat. You just

make you have no chance. And we're going to get the hand coming up in the daily five, which we

bring back now that we're in March. Fly guys win at people Austin. So you have two in a row over

the Ragers and the Bruins. But is everybody happy? I don't know. Again, I was making my rounds.

And I turned on the radio like I always do. And I heard my man broads freaking out about the tank.

I mean, you know, where are we at? We need to figure that out. What about it? Like is it? I get

the draft thing. But we need them to win. No, like you got to you got to feel good. It can't

be just a total tank. Tough. Like I see both sides of it. Right. So I get it because once you get

to the point where you have no chance at number one pick with a lottery, which is 11,

then you're in trouble. Like you're going to be drafting. I don't, you know, you're taking your shot.

Right. So we'll get into that a little bit today. And a little combined wrap up. Lots to do on

the show. Corey Simon joins us. Devon joins us. We'll talk to the brain. Good morning, VG.

What's up? Cold, man. Uh, cold. I'm miserable. It's Monday, man. Trying to get through the day.

Yeah, you, you, you don't, you, you're, you're, your spirit is down. Hey, he's cold. Yeah, let's do it.

I'm with you. Not ready for it. Yeah. Well, I mean, not ready. He was beautiful Saturday.

So that was nice. I mean, it was, it was our right Saturday. It wasn't beautiful. Like coming on.

Saturday was beautiful. Let me, let me, let me perk you. Let me perk you up. All right.

Don't want nothing from Mac. You video. I got to adjust my hat. My logo. You know, you know,

I'll give you, I got to give you AcuVinnie. AcuVinnie. All right. Here comes AcuVinnie.

All right. Not out of the woods yet. Cause, uh, there's a cold wind coming down from Greenland going to bring

18 inches. Maybe the European model says 36. Listen, we, we got to get through the week, right?

Tuesdays through the week to Mars 43. But there were into 50s. You got, I got to take 50s every day

to week, right? It was a 50. It was like 55. Yeah. So you got Wednesdays, 55, Thursdays, 54,

Friday, 57. That's going to rain a lot. Yeah. But you know, you're in the 50s. You're not

freezing in the now, man. Right. I'm in the now through Saturday, 73, Sunday, 72, next Monday, 72,

next Tuesday, 68, and next Wednesday, 77. Yeah, we got to get through this guy's a march, man.

We're going to give you 77. Great. Well, you'll be crying. My, my, my beach shape. Yes. I need

too high. I'm going to lose a few pounds before I go. There you go. Hopes. It's March. March is the

time. It's the gateway to spring. I guess it is. The gateway to spring. All right. Hey, it was like

must watch TV. I was a visit of mom. Throwing a game like 101 PM. Yeah. Mom trying to talk.

It's relaxed. The future. The future is going on. Yeah. Yeah. You watch these games every day,

don't you see? This is the future. This is going to make your, this guy can make your life much better.

Locked in. She was chirping with the peg a little bit. Yeah. I was alone. Locked in on it. Yeah.

You look good. She said, look, watch this, my, watch, watch some spot. It's fastball right here. Yeah.

I got 97. All right. You know what the comment was. He looks young. How old is he? Yeah.

I think those look, yo, he looks like a kid. Well, he's a big old his head. Well, whatever. Yeah. Look

good. People complain in the sliders over to play a little bit of a meatball. They're analyzing the

RPMs of it. I'm like, these people crazy. It's his first like game in two years of the major league level.

And by the way, it's the spring. Like you can't look at anything other than you're not fully stretched

out. You're going to be working on all this stuff. He's just kind of getting on the mound and

feel the mound in a game. Yeah. So I'll break down the slider. He had 22,444 RPMs. That would have

been the same as Sandy Alcantara. This year ranks in 122 out of 252 pitches. This is the kind

of analysis that's going on on the first inning. It's insane. I mean, that's insanity. Yes.

Ben. That's insanity. Ben is out of sanity. No. Most days Ben walked in. Mike, our fellow

better best friends. Oh, sure. All right. Yes. Ben's got a crush. We here's the problem with

the way sports has covered now. It used to be that it was very reporting,

ask through what managers, scouts, players, through their words and what they told you.

And less about the numbers. Right. But it's become so not because a lot of people that don't

have clubhouse access are social media and the whole thing. So they rely a lot on numbers.

Yeah. And the only problem, and like there's a good and bad with it, the bad is there's no

perspective. Right. Like you need perspective from these numbers. Like the fact is that like you

said, it's his first start little context of the spring. So there's got to be the right

perspective and context when it comes to these numbers. Like that needs stuff. I wanted to see

his velocity 98 almost he touched 97.8 or whatever good control around the plate most of the time.

Oh, yeah. Good. Man. I thought his all speed stuff was a little like out of the zone a little

bit, but you're supposed to be out of the zone. I mean, the knock on him is there's all speed stuff

as control was an issue last year. Yeah, but you sometimes like you can't just judge because

it's out of the zone. It's not good. Like, you know, sometimes you want to be out of the zone.

But like you're trying, he threw 14 strikes out of 20 pitches. Four of them first pitch strikes.

Yeah. And that's what you want to do. You want to you want to go strike one and then you want

to control the count. I think you use three or four different pitches. Four different pitches.

Yeah. So that's all good. Yeah. And I'll take away your boy Friday night. I mean,

hit 92.9 is for game. Nola might hit 94 by the end of spring training. I think that's a good spot

for him. I agree. I mean, I mean, you know, when it comes to Nola, I, my guess is you're going

to get, you know, spotty like he's going to look good. Yeah, that's it. And then, you know, he's

going to be an inning and he blows up or he may look for a good for a game. And then he may,

you know, I think it's kind of like that. He's like a crap table like it. It's a little cold

soon. You got to play it just right. You got to know what inning. He's a human crap table. That's

very good. That's very good. Roll the bones. Yeah. No, he's going cold. We can feel it. Get some

action up. No, you're, you're, you're at a great point. Now again, it's he's your fourth or even

fifth starter. Yeah. When Wheeler comes back, I mean, that's great. I feel great. I got

no issues with that. Yeah. Hey, Crawford continues to hit. And you know who hits start,

lost start. Yeah. Has hit. Tools, we have that graphic for Lestart. Look what Lestart has been.

Boy, you should love Lestart. Lestart changes approach a little bit. Okay. And the one thing

that he's doing, you saw two home runs, one to, one Oppo and the other one that's straight

away center, hit way more line drives this spring. He's hitting the cover of the ball with,

you know, he's eight for 12 or something like that. He just looks so much better at the plate.

See, looking, he's looking like the guy we thought could win a batting title at some point.

I don't know. I'm like, we, we, I can't go batting title because I want to throw him into one hole.

We, I want him laid off. If he gets like close to that, we thought he was going to be

screaming him, lean off is that you got still, he's a love of a lefty. We go a stop, turner,

harbor, short. No, we got swarming the four hole and we got somebody to lengthen a little bit.

We're, I mean, I was a matter. Yes. I, because it's still lefty. Like, if you were right here,

I'm not so much worried about lefty writing with the harbor or swarming back the back.

I think they're fine that way. Problem is, is that when you have a good lefty out of the pen,

you neutralize three and four. I don't know if you do so much with swarvers or pretty good against

the lefties. He was very good last year. Yeah. But the problem is if you get the really good lefty

and you're looking down the line, like, you need to probably, the problem is you still would prefer

to go left right, right, right left. Yeah, that's something. I mean, you really want, you really

would. Here's the last shot. Look at this three years since he hit an op. Oh, look at that.

Coming into the game, started heading in opposite field home runs since 2023.

He's now two home runs, one to left and one to center. Like I said, the new stance and tweaking

his swing. All right. All right. Let's go. Let's stop. Let's go. Got to love it. All right.

Time out to debut the daily five. Are you ready? I don't know. All right. Now,

a chat. I need you to chat in the answers to your daily five. All right. Yes.

We'll put them out on social as well. Here we go. First question of the daily five.

It's a Philly's question. It's about bomb. Are we too hard on Alec bomb? Like if bomb

was a six hitter, would we have that kind of angst with Alec? No. No. He's a victim of circumstances,

I think. They have no forehitter. So you're saying we're too hard on Alec bomb? Yes, we are too

hard on him, I think. I think like any other world, like if he's a six or seven hole hitter,

and he's come back after that, I believe and hate this place. Yeah, we love him. I mean,

it's a little we're desperate for a forehitter. We're desperate for power. He's gotten on. He

should probably look at him. I mean, you're like, this guy should be hitting 25. Right. And the

problem is he's third baseman. Yeah. He should be like a Jason worth. He looks like a Jason

worth physique. He should hit 20, 25 bombs. Yeah. But he doesn't. So I don't know. He's

personality wise. He's a bit much. Okay. So here you go. Now you're I'm digging in. He's a bit

much. He's his attitude that we're not too hard on on Alec bomb. Let's add it to his contagious

almost. It feels like in that clubhouse. Yes or no? Are we too hard or not?

Yes. We are. I'm going to lean. Yes. All right. All right. That bomb. Are we too hard on Alec

bomb? Because notice, and this is not a coincidence that there is a big Alec bomb campaign that's

under the that's under the radar right now. Because campaign to build them up. Yes.

Made them more marketable. Well, I think it's more because it's a contract year and it's like,

hey, we need them. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So let's let's pump up pump up the bomb.

Pop up the bomb. Pop up the bomb. That's what you want to do. Right.

My goose says no. The expectations haven't been met. He hits like a two whole guy, but doesn't have

speed. He's a third baseman with a center field bat. He gets in his own head too much. Yeah.

Has any other field you had to be benched or in a playoff game any right once in a while?

All right. Speaking of it too hard, do we, uh, similarly, we saw sixers last night have really

had no chance. Like they fought, but they didn't have a chance against Boston without JoJo.

Do we appreciate JoJo's greatness? And you can see what he's playing like with the difference.

He makes what he's won the floor even now. He's awesome. He's going to be one of the go down

as one of the most elite, incredible sixers of all time. No, we don't. I mean, but there is still the

we know there's too many styles when his name comes up. Yeah. It's almost like you were listening

to me and my boy's hanging out last night after the Johnny good times. Quizzle bowl 20 extra

games. We went out and had some drinks and we were watching the game at a bar and, uh,

yeah, it came out. We're like, juice awesome still. Like they miss him. He's awesome. Like when he

plays, there you go. Thank you, Jules. Right all time. He can sleep to 11 to 15 in this in this

slot league. There are below 500 without it being. Yeah. And it's he's sleepwalks to 25 points

and 10 boards. I mean, he can drain a three. I mean, there's times when you know, people don't

want to matter, but he can hit some trees. He's got a really nice mid-range jumper. I mean,

I mean, you look at like it's just from a pure dominant level. He's the most dominant sixer

in modern. He had any luck with health more dominant to dock more dominant charles more dominant

than Allen. 100% agree. Yeah. I mean, we do not. All right. We were just talking about that

last night too. Flyers question number three, the deli five. To tank or not to tank. What are we

rooting for? Because at the fair basis, it's grass. They lose any other half gets grass,

get grouchy if they win. We won as many losses as we can now and talking hasn't got now,

they're going to start playing them good for talking. Everything's coming together now.

When we need the losses, we need the best draft pick possible, which brings me to a heated

discussion I had with a really good hockey guy last night, plays and men's leagues. Zero hope he says

in Danny Brear does not not a talking issue, not a Jonesy issue.

Sully focused on Brear. Really says he's not ready for the game. What about Ladar? I mean,

that was great. That was me. You can't show what he said. You won up getting a really good

goalie. He said, you're about to see. He said, you need a great center. Yes. I mean,

obviously, you need a great investment. You need a great goalie. Yeah. I mean, he's got

these found none of those in three years so far. Okay. Well, it's two and a half. Like, we're

going to be real. Like, you know, you got two off seasons. Like, they didn't have a lot of

resources. I mean, you know, you got Ladar, who's maybe he's not great, but he's very good.

He's been very good. I mean, you know, like I agree, I agree. You still need, you know,

you're, you're, if meech cough is a number two in a front, like, you still need the number one.

Yeah. If, if that's the case, right? You need that big center. You need your McDavid.

McKinnon. You're looking for that. What do you put your great players like, you know,

ah, he put the cutter issue squarely on Danny. I mean, he said, if you had cutter here with

meech cough, it's a different, different future, different hope. I don't know. So I'm tanking.

I don't even know what the props are. I like what the prospects are out there.

But give me the highest pick possible at this point. There's no point. There's no point

with any games right now. All right. Number four. Here's a question for you.

Give me your three most untouchable Eagles. This was pretty easy, I think. I would think

two of them are on everyone's list. Q and coupe. Yes. I mean, look, I started my list with those

two. To me, the most untouchable eagle is Quinn. I agree. You can't like having an elite corner.

I'd say it's top three corner in the league. 100% with you. Yeah. He's, he was the number one.

Coop number two, three. I go Devante. I love that kid, man. He's just such a good receiver.

Reaper. Yeah. He's almost like he reminds me of like a Steve large and just runs great routes.

Always finds a way open. Really sure hands. Yeah. He never drops anything.

Once you all, you jailed drop something, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You think

but Devante never does. Now, you could make the argument toward me a lot because it's, you know,

left tackle. Yeah. I didn't agree. No one knowing that lane lane is

days are numbered. The anchor to your line is Jordan. You could argue that.

He, uh, yeah, he didn't have a great year. I just think Devante is like the ultimate professional,

man. It just goes about. I don't disagree with that stuff. All right. Uh, so we want those answers

as well. We'll go through the audience. Joe Rocket goes Hertz Carter Devante,

QCoup Carter. A lot of Carter. QCoup Carter. QCoup Carter. Well, that's a Carter.

I love Carter. I do. I love Carter. My only problem with Carter is

is he, can he, can you count on him? Right. In the long term, once he gets that big paycheck,

that's it. That's my only thing because I agree. He's so dominant. Now it helped that.

True or Dave's had such a great year last year. My only worry about Carter is

he wasn't as good as he was two years ago. Two years ago, he was freaking out of Donald's.

So laser, he was, he was good at times and very good at times and spotting at times.

But maybe it was a shoulder. And it was. He did, but again, it was their questions.

But certainly it's a good answer. Of course, once you get that 50 mil guarantees,

that's a game changer. All right. And then finally, question number five of the deli five.

Yesterday, my supposed birthday, my, my, my little boy 13.

Teenager. Yeah, I want to cry. I have two teenagers now. I'm one of the little boys.

My little boys, they should say, man, he's used the L with the Y. Oh, you know,

and you go daddy. I mean, I'm daddy's little boy. That's awesome.

Dude, I cry every time I think about it. Now he's bigger than me.

Sounds like in your voice. Yeah, I want to eat daddy. Give me food, buy me a pizza.

So yesterday was a tough day for us. Beautiful day. But again, you know, write a passage.

So I go, all right, dad, what do you want to eat? You can get anything you want.

Like, what do you want? From what place? He rolls with the canes.

Oh, whoa, whoa, that's breaking news. Canes over Chick-fil-A right now?

Well, Anthony Chick-fil-A, my son always canes. Prediction canes. I've never had canes.

Oh, no, no. Yeah, he's a big canes guy. He likes the cane sauce.

No, are they hot? Is it a hot chicken canes or...

What do you mean? Like, there's all these hot chicken places.

Chicken. You know, it's... Do you know what I'm talking about, Julian?

Hot chicken. That was cold versus cold chicken. Come on.

What do you guys live under rocks? Like spicy chicken?

Yeah, like, no. He likes... Like, Dave's hot chicken and there's a place up in the northeast

cabin in the boulevard. It's like lines around the block for these hot chickens.

All right. Dude, I have my whole life. I don't think I've gone north of Old City.

Man, that's huge. That's huge. That's half your problem.

Unless I was going to parks.

It takes like, fresh way right through it.

Yeah, no, it's... It's, you know, chicken. It's like, strips, you know, tenders, type of thing.

It's here, which is the whole thing. But your legs canes. Canes.

Canes? A lot of kids like the canes. He loves the canes. So that was it.

So I said to you, you're going to have anything for your birthday.

When you turn 13, what are you doing?

Oh, you're going to love it. Oh, when I turn 13, I'm right now.

No, no. Right now? I'm saying right now.

You're going to love these. You're going to just... I'd go with a start off with a samosa,

new veggie samosa, a little malai-cofta, some alugoby.

Oh, wait, hold on. And some chana masala.

Is that English?

Indian feast.

The only thing I know on that is the last one you said, the...

Chana masala?

Oh, no, actually, no. I don't even know the first chicken.

Chicken teegee masala?

Chicken, I know that. Yeah, I've heard that.

So what is it?

Indian food.

Yeah, so samosa is like a deep-fried little pastry with peas and potatoes inside.

Like an empanada?

No, maybe similar to empanada. Yeah, yeah.

Malai-cofta is these little balls of veggie stuff and beans and fried with some sauce.

Alugobis, like a little potatoes, cauliflower.

Oh, yeah.

And chana masala is just chickpeas, garbanzo beans and some masala sauce.

The sauce from the chicken teegee masala is just mixed in with...

For the chickpeas?

Yeah.

You love your veggies. God bless you.

You're a good man. You're a good veggie man.

Chana masala, give you nice protein with the beans.

You're a beansman. Now, you've always been a beansman.

What are you going with?

Me? Yeah.

All right, I got to think about it.

I get a question. You didn't think about the whole time you rode it?

Again, it's not for me. I'm the proctor.

All right, my answers don't matter.

I would probably go home made crabs since beginning.

Okay.

I love the crabs to be getting.

Probably my favorite.

Sammy says that everything I'm saying is everywhere in the UK.

Yes.

Oh, yeah, I can see that.

All right, let's take care of some business.

We want to have your five, right?

So answer those questions and give us some love

with your favorite plate.

Like, what are you going to eat for you?

You can get the order out and go to a restaurant.

And you're right.

Has any of you tried to poke you?

He wants a vodka cutlet parm.

No, people love the vodka cutlet parm.

All right.

People love the Vodka.

These have to chicken parm with just Vodka sauce.

Yeah, people, the Vodka sauce,

people love the Vodka sauce.

I'm a fan of Vodka sauce.

Are you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, pasta.

I mean, pasta is good.

I don't like it with like with my protein, but it's fine.

A lot of people love it.

They go with the Vodka chicken parm.

The Vodka.

The Vodka.

They love that state.

People love the Vodka.

People with big Vodka fans.

They are.

All right.

Let's take care of some business.

And then we go to divine.

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The two says,

vodka, ice cold, and a glass with olives.

Nowhere near my pasta or a protein, vomit emoji.

Are you a Randy Rubert?

This may be why too.

Vodka sauce is necessity due to the heartburn.

Maybe it cuts down the acidity a little bit.

Helps you out with the heartburn.

I'm into made ahead.

A lot of vodka loving.

Yeah, I know people love it.

Do you like the vodka pizza?

You know, I don't know.

We don't mind going to get a panne with gin, gin sauce.

That was gin, man.

Joining us on the X-Finity mobile call in line.

One of the greats.

We love them.

Talkin' hoops with Devon.

Devon Givins.

NBA.

Devon Givins.

NBA.

Devon Givins.

NBA.

Devon Givins.

Good morning, my brother.

Morning.

Let's go to a...

All right.

A question to start.

It's your birthday.

You can have anything you want to eat.

What are you eating and from where are you eating it?

It's a great question.

I heard you guys talking about this and I was trying to think of that.

Like, by little guy, I got wet canes last night.

Have you had the canes chicken?

I've had the canes chicken.

A big fan of...

I would have never had thought to put Texas toast with chicken strips.

It is really good.

Yeah, most of the Texas toast.

Yeah, so VGU, I think you'll like that part of it,

with the sweet tea.

So that's a really good choice.

What would I have?

I'm going to go...

I probably something so fool-related,

you know, go something,

you know, control there where

one of the spots in the neighborhood.

Yeah.

And, you know,

I'm going to get some...

A tap?

Listen, when you go to culture,

it's a happy place.

Takes you back to mom.

Takes you back home to when you're young.

So, this is funny, as you said, because

when you talk about celebrating birthdays,

you know me well enough to know that I am a very quiet birthday person.

Yes.

So, I don't want parties.

I don't want all.

I just want to hear from my loved ones and I'm good with my day.

And in my front...

Of course, my friends, my loved ones.

Yeah, you are, we have the same reaction to that.

Yeah.

So, occasionally, though,

I'll get the surprise stuff, you know,

great job by them.

My daughter's always wanted.

So, just to answer your question,

and to get in this direction,

it's that oftentimes that is my...

That's what I want from my birthday.

I just want a nice...

We're going to get a nice platter from the spot.

And I'm good to go.

So, so that's my meal.

It's typically on the platter.

I would get the fried chicken with macaroni and cheese and greens.

And that's a full...

That's today, tomorrow.

You know, it's a stuffed platter.

So, so that's why that's why I typically go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's great.

All right, my brother.

Let me start with the other question that we had of the Daily Five.

And it was that because it'll bring us to our conversation for last night.

And that is, do we truly appreciate

the greatness of Joellen Bede?

Because without them, they just can't win games like that last night.

I do think it's appreciated,

but there's a mix of the frustration that goes with the appreciation

because of the lack of availability.

So, I think people understand and know how talented, how great he is.

And, you know, I'm not one that throw around,

great when it comes to a lot of players,

but he is a great one.

He's an all-timer as we know.

And I do think it's appreciated,

but it's tough for a lot of fans to separate the two

because of him often being out of the lineup.

And because of his greatness, they do understand and appreciate

that they win those basketball games with him in there.

And that he's not.

And that's where the tug comes from, right?

The pushing pool of how to root for this team,

how to appreciate the greatness that it is Joellen Bede,

and not wanting to, all right, I'm sick of him.

Get him out of here.

I need a new center to run with Tari's Maxi.

So, the appreciation, I believe, it is truly there.

But I also think that, you know,

that tug of war of your emotions of wanting your basketball team,

to win with either your best player or your second best player,

or even where he and Tari's Maxi are today.

He's not there, and that's where the upset,

the people are upset about that and just can't do it anymore

after 12 years in the league.

Now, he's only been on the floor for what,

10 of the 12, but he's been on the floor.

It looks like he's out for two more games with the oblique.

Yeah, so we were referenced in last night

one of the doctors that points out with this injury,

it could be 11 to 12 days, three to four games,

somewhere in that time frame,

and it's also about what the player,

the person can tolerate with that issue.

So, they have some tough ones,

because the Spurs, they just had their 11-game winning streak

snapped on Sunday in New York.

So, you know, they're going to be looking to get right back

on it when it comes to winning,

and with no jewel and beat,

that's going to be a daunting task for the sixers.

I don't know how they beat the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night,

but stranger things can happen,

but we'll see.

They do have a favorable matchup against the Utah Jazz,

who we know are actively tanking on Wednesday.

And so, you have some really tough games ahead of you,

where it's funny, I just ran in through the schedule with a friend,

and we were going through the schedule

just trying to get to about 10 more, 11 more wins

with the 22 now that they have remaining.

23 of us as of last night, 22 today.

And I could still see where they are in that 43, 44 range,

and that could get you the sixth seat,

but with him being out these next couple of games,

I just don't see how they beat the San Antonio Spurs.

The Jazz, sure.

But yeah, it's going to be a tough ask

against San Antonio on Tuesday night,

and we'll see about the game later in the week.

Yeah, I mean, their Spurs are nasty, point right, Paul, man.

They are tough. I hope people watch from afar,

and just see what they're doing,

and how fun they are,

how they built through the draft, as we know,

but also put some nice vets around them.

They have guys like Julian Champaign,

he used to play for the sixers,

and he was on a, like, I think he was on a two-way deal,

at that time, and he couldn't stick,

and he has found a home where now he's knocking down three,

four, three, he's a game, the other night, I believe, he has six or seven,

and then you have Devin Viselle,

who was a first-round pick for them,

injuries out of the lineup,

and now he's back in the starting lineup,

and he's a, as we talk about building around you on a beat

in Tarris, Maxi, the shooters,

they have shooters, and then Steph Castle,

he just, year two, just a fantastic player, man.

And just a really fun team to watch, really are.

They are, and it's not the Webby show,

that's the thing about it.

Like, we don't have this moment when he goes crazy,

but he doesn't go crazy every night.

It's not a team that's completely reliant upon Webby.

I think that's where, I think that's where,

like Eddie Wright says,

hey, it's not a question of,

do we appreciate Joel and Bee,

but do the Sixers appreciate Joel and Bee,

and it goes back to the Trade Deadline,

and the Penny Ditch line.

Yeah, and that's a great point by Eddie,

Shadow Eddie, because that is when Joel and Bee spoke out publicly

when asked in the locker room after one of the games,

how he wanted to see the Trade Deadline approached,

and he said, not ducking the text.

That was an outward cry of, hey,

don't worry about any of that stuff.

We have a chance, get us,

get us whatever help we may need,

and let's push forward in the second half of the season

and make a run in an Eastern conference,

where you match up pretty well when he's out there,

and able to play in Paul George's and line up as well,

to not do something like that.

So it's a great point by Ed,

that again, fans appreciate him.

Of course, the organization appreciates him,

but they should have done more to help him out,

especially when you look at,

you can't help the Trade Deadline was weeks ago now,

but you can't help and follow what Jared McCain is doing

and not saying he may not be the savior,

but he's an option off the bench

versus some of the other options that you may have.

Well, that's it. That's exactly it.

He's an opt, he's a legitimate option

that we knew would play his way into becoming an option, right?

We understood coming off the injury

and they would take him some time,

but you're looking like Shireman last night,

the thrust into the duty,

and you know why it shoots the ball well,

you know, Creighton Kid comes in place well.

I mean, like, you need players and just moving McCain,

I mean, I don't know if the Trade would still be there

come before the draft,

but man, I, I, I, I, it was tough on that.

That was its off one.

Yeah, and when he said big shots on national TV

and people were watching him come off pin downs

and shake, he'll just Alexander's back

and he's shooting three feet from behind a three-point line now

in rhythm in a shooting pocket off of a double team from Shae

and, and just drilling these shots.

It, it only takes one three, right?

But he has 14 points and helps them beat the Denver Nuggets.

You can't help but look at that,

especially when we were talking about getting his legs

back underneath them, getting back into that form

that we saw a season to go in those 23 games

where we had everyone excited.

It may not have been a perfect match next to Tyree's Maxi,

but we're talking also talking about right now

and what you can throw out there and help out.

Guess what? They shot poorly, you know,

they've been shooting poorly in some of these games.

Not to say that he's going to, he was going to find his touch,

but at least in Oklahoma City he has

and you just don't know if that was going to be the case here

in Philadelphia, but what it had been there in June, I believe so.

And that's where that's where the frustrating part

comes in with Jeremy King.

Yeah, it's interesting because he's made himself

like on par with Isaiah Joe.

Like he's eaten in Isaiah Joe's minutes.

And I look at those so I go, Joe McCain.

Both of them.

What do they have in common?

Throw the parallel line.

Contributing to the best team in basketball.

Right.

Yeah, Isaiah Joe during the time with Shade Gildes,

Alexander was out.

I believe he was actually 19 points in the starting role

and making about three threes per game in that role.

And he was a feature of their offense, man.

And yeah, it's, it's sad because we always talk

about surrounding with shooters and two of them right there

are helping the best team in the world.

What do you think about Isaiah Joe again?

That was Z.

Nothing.

Yeah, nothing.

They waved them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, what would you think about that?

Right, like let's stay there for a second.

Because it, it, it wrinkles my undercarriage, okay?

It really does.

How's going on under that?

It wrankles it.

I get it, I get it, I get it not.

How in the world could you have that little foresight

into a player?

Like, I gotta ask you like, how are we supposed to reconcile that?

I don't know.

I mean, again, this is where the, the whole, the part

of the, the tax comes into it.

That's the only reason that Isaiah Joe is not here.

And that's now the reason why Jared McCain is not here.

Because of a bill, right?

And if you work around the bill the right way,

then you don't have to worry about a tax situation

when you have talented shooters like this

that were in your organization under your tutelage,

under your player development,

and you see where they have gotten better.

And I remember the year that Isaiah Joe came into training camp

and he was really digging it

to some of those guys' minutes at that time.

And Dr. Rivers was the coach and he was like,

yeah, he is really shooting the ball really well.

He's making it tough on some of these players.

Now, training camp and preseason were fantastic for him.

He took a little bit of a step back

when the regular season got underway

out of the rotation for a little bit.

And then they waved him.

And that was that.

And then he goes on to OKC,

has done what he has done, got a new contract,

has a championship, under his belt.

And I don't know how,

I don't know how this happens

because it's strictly, I think, about the bill.

And they are a good front office.

They know how to work to confront the numbers,

but the bill got in the way

where you let two players out of your organization.

And then to your point.

I got a cap on that.

Good yards in front office.

If you can't figure out how to protect shooters.

Yeah, no, that's fair.

And you take the shooters for a reason.

They don't do a lot of other things.

Jeremy came to much better ball handling than Isaiah Joe.

But you got them second round picks for Isaiah Joe.

The guy I could shoot the lights out.

You knew what you were getting, right?

You didn't spend a lot of a lot on him in the first round.

You got a second round pick for him.

I mean, use the second round pick on him.

That's not a lot of money.

And the guy can shoot.

And you see it around the league

where we're always talking about,

man, that would be nice to have on this roster.

That shooter from when you look at Boston or OKC or Dallas.

When you go to any organization and they have it

and the envy and the jealousy of, man,

I wish that player was on my team

because he can shoot the basketball.

Well, you have one that's one of the best in the NBA in Isaiah Joe.

And he's no longer here because of a tax bill.

So there's that.

With a guy who's owner who's worth $10 billion

or worried about a tax bill, it drives me nuts.

Hey, I know, I have you and Derek together.

I have as much OKC actually playing.

I'm looking at the box squares and stuff.

But have you seen?

Are they doing anything to get McCain a little open

and do I watch?

I've watched them.

So he's playing well.

Is it something that Nurse wasn't able to do while he was here?

It's just I just think I think she's getting healthier.

Yeah, he's getting healthier.

He looks, he looks way more.

When you agree?

Yeah, he does.

Yeah, he looks a lot more spray.

Not doing that many subtle things, VG.

I mean, he's still running off those pin downs,

those down screens popping out.

Maybe a second screen.

And I even saw one last night in the 60s game.

They got them wide open three.

It was a Tariya Smax.

He had a wide open three on the left wing in the second half

because they had two screens.

I think it was Andre Drummond and and trending wafer.

I believe it was two screens at the top on the wing

that allowed him to spring free for wide open three.

And these are the type of things that you want to see a lot more of

from the six was Fajera McCain in this case that

you know, he was already battling something which was the knee.

Then when he's losing his minutes,

so now you're battling the knee, the mental part of that.

And the lack of belief from your coaching staff

because it's not happening as fast as they would like.

The Oklahoma City Thunder in this case,

look, AJ Mitchell was leading Canada probably for,

you know, a most improved player.

He gets injured, but they have a ton of guards.

So even with case on Wallace and Owes,

Caruso and Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins

and Shay was hurt when Jared McCain got there.

Even with all those players there,

they're still, let me see what I have in this player.

And the player is showing himself to be pretty good

so far early on in the OKC organization.

And when he spoke the other day after that,

I know you were looking at the box score

and he had a really good game.

I think he had 14 points daily of the day.

But he only had one three,

but it was still a lot of the

trust and allow him to put the ball on the floor,

get to his spot,

kind of like that right around that elbow

and hit that fade away jump or over the defender

that is there in front of him.

So you see in some of the same things,

but he's getting the minutes and he's producing with the minutes.

And maybe he just at that point just needed to change.

He didn't, they didn't believe in him.

He lost faith in them and their belief

that he was going to regain their trust.

And now in this new environment,

which is a winning environment,

they have empowered him to be himself.

And that's exactly what he's doing.

They're not asking him to go in there

and be anything that he's not.

And he hasn't done this with Jamie Williams.

She goes, I'll examine it together.

All of them.

He's done this with the backups of Kesson,

Wallace, Isaiah, Joe, all these other players,

Lou Dorton, all.

And now all of us are getting good screen settings

from our hardest sign and chat.

Yeah, and now Shay is back, right?

Yeah.

Because it's got to be more than just he's getting healthy.

I mean, it's like three days after they trade him,

he's getting 20 minutes and putting up double digits with them.

So there's something else.

I think you're right with the confidence and stuff

and just having him get the minutes.

But so I was going to fall on the street.

And he also real fast.

He made a point of saying,

it's not that I didn't have that in Philadelphia,

but I'm certainly getting that here right now

with Oklahoma City Thunder.

So yeah, if I find the clip again,

I'll send it to you, VGC,

you can just hear it because it was, it was like, wow.

You know, okay.

Well, if you really get the minutes and you feel like,

oh my god, I missed two shots.

I'm out, right?

Like, yeah, right.

And we were saying it in real time.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But because of the roster construction around him,

like we talk about right now with Maxi and Echkel,

you couldn't absorb the things that may have been a mistake

from him in those, well, you could,

but they chose not to, absorb those mistakes

and allow him to, that tail, if you will,

of fighting through it.

And instead, it went to trade that line of came.

They decided to move on.

All right, let me ask you this and it's for the last thing.

And I'll get both of you as the answers.

What is your, what is your comfort?

Like when you think about confidence in a general manager,

so if I said you had a confidence in how we,

you go, you know, scale a one to 10, you're a nine, 10, right?

Like you feel like, my man's one, one, two,

like, he knows what's up.

And that includes working with and constraints

because how he has a choice.

You have to work within a cap, if the work,

so if your constraints includes attacks,

you got to factor that in.

Where are we out of the yield?

Probably somewhere around six, seven.

Give him credit for the McCain pick a year ago,

because I thought that I liked the McCain.

Right, but I know we talked about it, right, you know?

Yeah, but you negate that.

A Dumbona, okay, pick, right?

But then you go to this year, you get it right with VJ Edgecomb,

all four of them in the first round.

Just really good talent.

Even Ace Bailey at five with Utah.

He's going to be fine.

We'll see him on, yeah, we'll see him on Wednesday.

So, but then you go to the second round and you guys know it.

VGU, especially because we talked about this one night

when the tournament was getting ready just to start.

And I was, Auburn was Auburn,

but I was not a Geniebroom NBA fan.

I like Dylan Cardwell better as a backup five in the NBA.

And that's doing Cardwell's plan.

Yeah, right.

And they gave him a standard contract

and I'm happy for him.

Geniebroom, you know, it's a shame that he had this meniscus injury.

Now we had to have surgery and we'll see

when he's reevaluated in a few more weeks

of when he's able to get back on the floor.

And I hope he, I hope he gets well.

That was the wrong pick.

And because you word about again,

certain numbers, Maxine Ray-Know,

who was also in that discussion of could he be a player

that's not only...

It really does put on all the fruits in Sacramento.

It's crazy.

It's unbelievable, man.

Yeah.

And it's not even the shooting that we thought it was going to be.

It's the other stuff.

It's rebounding.

Yeah, he's rebounding.

Yeah.

So, you know, and that's where, you know,

the lack of confidence comes into a given credit

for the two-way players and Dominic Barlow,

great call.

Same thing with with Jabari Walker getting him

on a two-way deal.

I like Tyree's Martin coming in.

So I'm curious to see where things go with him

if he's around next season taking one of those spots.

Marjan Bochamp still young.

We'll see how it plays out.

But you got to get those right.

That second round pick, I picked number 33, 34

is an extension of, right?

A first round pick.

And you, Deny Brum has given you nothing

and you've needed front court help all season long.

And he is, you know, so that's why I say 67.

I don't know where VG is, but I'll say 67 somewhere, yeah.

I mean, I'll go with Maxime Renau, look right now.

He would look really good right now

because I think he could also play with Joellen B

as a stretch for from time to time.

Yes, yes, yeah.

He probably looked terrible in this Nick Nurse system.

Well, he's the other one.

If I give you confidence in Nurse, would he?

Maybe.

Same.

Wow.

Same.

Yeah.

Same.

I mean, again, I've 67, you know, and I can't go seven.

I can't go seven.

I'm five, six, I'm a five.

That's fair.

That's fair.

That's fair.

Maybe even four.

They have to show it.

They have to show it.

So yeah, it's, it's the end.

Look, here we are and they're still, they're still home

down there.

Six spot and he used to encounter it.

But it's all about when we get to the postseason,

can they do anything?

And if Joellen is out there, Paul George is out there,

they can certainly keep them with that.

Let's see with the match up.

But winning, winning multiple rounds is what's

around those three.

Like those four.

That's what Paul George in it, right?

Those four, it's what you did around those four.

You got those four, okay?

When they play, when George and Joe are playing

with Thai recent VJ, all right?

But it's what you did around them.

And that's where eel fails.

And that's the truth.

Anyway, can I ask someone to point this out to me yesterday?

NBC's been doing great stuff with the NBA stuff,

but they promoting the last lights game during the day

on a commercial.

They said,

Celtics, Sixers, two franchises that never rebuild, just reload.

That was really bad.

I didn't put that copy with the team that did the process.

Yeah, that's bad.

That was really bad.

Yeah, that's bad.

That's not good.

That's not good.

My brother, thank you.

We appreciate it, buddy.

Yes, sir.

See you guys in a bit.

Here he is.

Here's divine.

The Sixers Show coming up later.

What?

What?

No, that's not a real reflection of the show.

The show's great.

No, I love the Sixers Show.

No, I get annoyed by that.

Right, Andy.

No, no, no, I don't do it.

I love those.

You know, I know.

I was just plus you.

I know, but don't bust me like about that, right?

I just get annoyed by them.

I mean, annoyed by what's around?

Because I just think there's wasted opportunities.

And I'm watching McCain and I watch these plays

around the league and I go, like, what are you doing?

So you see McCain now, 20 minutes a night,

putting up 14, 15.

He's worth more than the 26 pitch

and a bunch of twos.

Let's take care of some business.

What do we got?

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All right, time now for the brain.

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Good morning, Brain.

Good morning, guys. How are you?

Good to see you, buddy.

Let's start with the sixes because the volume was just on

and you know what's funny?

You're a box score head like myself.

So Maxine Brinneau, I'm watching this kid put up numbers

and we knew he could shoot, but he could rebound,

he could alter shots like and you're watching McCain

and you watched Isaiah and Joe before that

and you just look at this roster construction

and you just go, what are you doing?

They have just, every time I just want to believe

it's their mistakes to start to flash and neon.

Yeah, I mean, but look, the thing with Brinneau,

I would say that wouldn't anti-infairness

and you're always fair to others, I like you.

Wouldn't every team be saying that though?

Yeah, but I mean, you're, you leave big, you leave bigs.

No, what I'm saying, they're like, you're not really,

he was a really good college player.

He would probably go wherever he wanted the draft,

I don't know where he went in the second round,

but he probably would go, I'm getting,

and I don't have the draft before me.

Top 10, if you could redraft today.

Yeah, so I'm just saying like, I think it's fair to say,

every team made a mistake passing on the goal.

Yeah, I just, I'm focused on their mistakes,

and I just see them time and time again.

I just see mistakes with like, again,

where they have struggled in this whole process,

has been putting players building a team

and the right players around their stars.

They've never filled out a team, you watch OKC,

you watch the spurs, you see good teams,

and they just can't build a complete team.

Except, I don't remember the year,

the year the Raptors won the title,

I thought that team was a really good team.

I thought that team, the Jimmy Butler team,

they lost in that crazy Kawashat,

they outplayed Toronto in that series,

they were the only team that did outplayed Toronto,

they should have beaten Toronto,

they got very unlucky, they lost the clock,

and you lose the close games in series,

that's what happens,

they lost like three heart-breaking games,

instead of winning six world games,

I just think I'm with you on that,

but that predates me on it too.

Yeah, right, yeah, that's a good,

that's very good, yeah, exactly, fair point for you, Anthony.

But yeah, you're right, look, since this whole

and B thing has started, it just hasn't,

they've tried, I mean, look, it just hasn't,

for whatever reason it has not come to fruition,

but again, I will say this,

they, you know, Edgecomb looks like to me,

it was the right pick, where they took him,

yeah, but it's, look, it's a frustrating situation,

but Anthony, you know what, I gotta be honest,

to me, it comes down to this.

And that's it, I mean, the B thing,

it's just, it's just, God, it's just,

it's so frustrating trying to get behind this team

and just every single day, it's like,

you just don't know what you're gonna get with this guy,

it's just, or Edge, maybe you do know,

he just can't, he just can't stay on the court,

he just can't.

So, I mean, I don't know if they,

if they just do what the Dallas Maverick's did,

and they just said, listen, you know what,

like we just, we can't go forward with this cloud

over our head every single game,

is it gonna play, is he not gonna play, how hard is he?

You know what I'm saying Anthony,

because like, to me, in this,

I get it, but again, even if he was healthy,

they will be very good.

They're short, but they're short.

They don't have enough, 100%, you know.

Yeah, they look, I agree with you, 100%.

Well, you go back to, like, it goes back to,

I'm starting to lose faith in the whole thing.

Like, you know, it's just like, you know,

you might just need to clean, fresh start, everything.

Coach, GM, I mean, just for the record, Anthony,

I actually, that's the process I would,

I mean, I would keep Maxi and Edgeco,

but if it was me running the organization,

I would, again, whatever the, it was for Ambed,

whatever that turned out to be his quote unquote value,

I would just do, again, I would do with the Dallas Mavericks,

the Dallas Mavericks got nothing, nothing,

we talked about it at nauseam for Anthony Davis.

So, they basically like, we just don't want to see him

on the roster, we just don't want to see,

we just don't want him in the building, right?

We want to move on from the look at the buckle.

It happened, and I wasn't gonna feel bad for us,

but we just, we're focusing on Cooper Flag.

If I was the Sixers, I'd be like, you know what?

It wasn't an interesting 10 year runner,

whatever it was, 12 years from long he's been here,

but it's just, it's just, I don't want to see him

every single day is Joe on beat playing.

I would just move on from it, wash my hands of it,

and then, you know, how do you get, I mean,

they took a shot on Paul George.

He obviously, again, when they signed to me is,

I guess that was the moment his career started

to finally slow down after 12 all-star years in a row.

I do think there's been some bad luck to it, Anthony,

if I'm being objective, some bad luck.

I'm not saying, look, then there you got to get it done,

and it's a no-excuse business, you know that,

but I do think some of the stuff

has been a little bit unlucky.

Would you think of, I can't do this anymore.

I can't, I can't talk about them.

I get it.

What do you think, would you think of Painter?

I was not blown away to be honest with you.

Really?

Yeah, I was, I mean, I know he didn't give up any hits,

but he only, I think it was one strikeout, am I correct?

Yeah. I just, I don't know.

I got the Dominguez.

Right.

But he got weak cuts.

And there was just, I had one of my fantasy team.

I have this guy, I'm rooting for this guy,

probably harder than he got in baseball.

When they, before he got hurt, it seemed like to me.

And again, I'm just a guy sitting in the chair here.

I'm not a scout, but it seemed like to me, Anthony,

I'm not gonna say Paul Schienz,

but it seemed like he was the best pitching prospect

in the league and was just dominant, dominant,

a guy that could have come up whenever they wanted them to,

but they just wanted to treat him with kick gloves.

And then he comes with the, with obviously the, the bad injury.

And it seems like to me, again, maybe I'm putting too much

into the last years, 5.65, the R.A. and the minors.

But I don't know, I, I, I, I just, I don't, again, I,

I really, I'm rooting for the guy very, very hard.

I hope it works out.

I mean, I'll tell you what we'll see.

I hear you, I hear you on the fence like this.

And I hear you, I'll just tell you, I, I thought he looked good.

And he threw 97.

He got weak contacts.

Like when you were in douche, we had so I can ask for it.

I know, listen, I get it.

We all look at strikeouts,

burning things like, you know, it's always a big deal.

But I look and hits perting too.

And, and that's another, no, it's true, it's there.

And he, he threw 20 pitches, 16 strikes, you know, I, I, I, I, again,

well, I was sitting last year and his command was bad.

Like he said that the thing he struggled with the most was getting his ability

to control his pitches.

Yeah.

Just, I guess from the layoff or, or, or whatever, whatever it was.

So look, to me, in my opinion, I think he's the most, in some ways,

because I trust Lazardo and, um, and Sanchez will be very, very good.

We all are, you just have to, you just have to assume that hope that he is too.

But if, if they can get pain or to be good, then everything I said about liking

the Phillies under goes out the door to me because if they can get him to be really

good, and this team can be potentially a world series team, if he can be really,

really good the way they thought he was before he had his, his bad injury.

Hey, uh, we get torn.

They coming up, um, with, with anything, strike your fancy.

And you're missing them.

Yeah, I, you know, it's really, I, I, I, I, I do like, God, man, I'll tell you what,

I, for anyone listening on my pick Saturday with Dylan over, woo, if I'm going to be wrong,

it'd be, it'd be wrong.

Um, I was really surprised how bad Dylan over looked on the side,

notice, and John's, um, that was just one of those days.

But look, interesting aim, I, I, I was state is playing.

Now, I, I did have, I did have Texas tech against the Iowa state and Texas tech

wins outright.

I mean, who needs top and right?

They keep them, they have them lost without them.

But I think eight and a half points is too high against Arizona.

I think Iowa state is a good team.

I think they're a legitimate top 10 team.

Eight and a half is a big, big, big number.

Um, I'm not picking Iowa state to win the game, but I am saying I think it stays very,

very close throughout and with five minutes to go.

I think they'll have a chance to win it.

I'll take eight and a half there.

That's my, I bet that game pretty big today.

I thought that one should have been closer to six.

So I like Iowa state getting eight and a half.

I think I'm getting two and a half extra points on what it should be.

And you got what a big mom got on Mr. Arizona, but I agree with you.

They're, they're just, it's a, I was really good on that parks.

Oh, seven, okay.

Yeah, I got, I did get eight and a half, but even seven and a half, I still, I still

like it.

Again, I thought the line should have been closer to six.

So I think any kind of thing you're getting over six is, is some, is some edge.

You know, it's fine.

I got to issue you guys a question when I'm going to be looking to do it.

I've only bet two teams from the hotel.

I bet Duke and Michigan.

I really think one of the number one, usually you bet like that parks off up.

We'll number one seed when the title.

I actually really this year, I'm number one seed will win the title because I'm

going to get, you're going to get Duke.

You're going to get Michigan.

You're going to get Arizona and you're probably going to get Florida.

I think, I think it's a really, really strong chance when the number one

seeds wins the title this year.

For a while, I thought there was a lot of parity, but not so much to me right now.

I think it's top heavy, it's top heavy.

I think it's top heavy.

Yeah, and you're going to get that last year, you're going to get like,

to miss you.

I don't want to be the one, and I know Duke being, I watch them.

But Michigan to me is still the best team in the country.

I agree.

They lost case on who's been really good for them.

But the thing about Michigan, which is really strong and they, their depth is phenomenal.

They really went nine deep.

So now, okay, now they're going to be eight deep.

But that wasn't unfortunate loss.

He was shooting 40% from three.

He's been really good role player for them, played about half the game.

But I can, I think it's going to be Michigan.

I really do.

But to me, Michigan, Duke, I take your pick, your pick.

But I do think a number one seed meant me to be right now in the bet park.

So I got to check it out.

But I really think that's something that is going to be a pretty good bet.

Because I think there's a very strong chance that one of these number one seeds

won't do.

There is the brain with the daily grind.

Anything else?

I did bet Kevin Porter, Jr. Anthony.

Over six and a half assists.

He's averaging about eight assists in his last 20 games, eight.

They made it six and a half.

He's 16 and four to that over.

This number should have been seven and a half, like, juice to the over.

Okay, six and a half, juice to the over.

Yeah, this is a bet to me that wins.

I'll say, I think this bet wins two or three times.

Yeah, I think it's a pretty strong play.

That number is off.

Kevin Porter, Milwaukee bucks over six and a half assists.

All right, Brain, thank you, buddy.

We appreciate it.

Appreciate you guys both.

There he is.

The brain checking it.

All right, let's take care of some business.

And then we got Corey coming up to talk painter.

I felt for painter, man.

Yeah, screw brain with everything.

I got to tell you that I don't brain today.

I'm, I'm, I'm painted up.

Yeah, I got to have the feeling sorry to look like schemes on his first action.

Coming up time.

We John are sorry, Brian.

Yeah, sorry.

I think you're looking at, I think he was looking at at strikeouts.

He only saw the one strike out.

We'll get the Corey coming up because I, I like, I liked what I saw yesterday.

I watched the two weddings and I liked it.

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All right, let's talk fills.

I've been waiting for this.

All right.

See down there, he just got back.

Oh, he just got back and he says he's I love Corey.

I love talking baseball Corey.

Joining us on the infinity mobile call in line.

Our friend does a great job covered of fills.

Corey Seidman, you got to get Corey a, well, my first, my first question is

going to be what, what's his music vibe?

What kind of music you jammed to Corey?

Well, it's interesting that you asked that because I'm a huge iron maiden guy.

So I like the shirt there.

I've probably seen him about a dozen times over the years.

So maybe a little blood brothers from a brave new world.

We're going to go to lab.

Maybe you can click out on a little maintenance kind of intro.

Well, that's he's that's that's right up VG's out.

Let's go.

All right.

That'll be a fun project.

I like it.

I like it.

Cool.

I like painter.

I like what I saw.

I thought, you know what?

He induced weak contact.

He got up to 90 average around 97.

It got up to close to 98, scraped it.

And I thought his command was good.

Obviously much better than it was last year, the end of last year.

So I, you know, again, first, it's the first halving.

I think people over I think they over scrutinize it, but I liked it in general.

Yeah.

I mean, a couple of things stuck out to me.

One, there was a lot of late explosion on his fastball was 97.

But it played up higher than 97.

And you just based that on the hitter swings.

I mean, the guys were getting jammed.

They were making weak contact, a couple soft pop ups and ground out.

I heard you guys talking of Brad a little bit earlier.

And yeah, painter only had the one strike out, but that's because all three

batters he faced in second inning were two pitch at that.

They were making out early in counts through six different pitches,

forcing fastball, sinker, sweeper and slider, which are two different pitches for him.

Also, the change up and curveball, I thought it was funny.

The JT Real Muto joked after he exited that painter was almost like too efficient.

They didn't get a chance to work on enough of his repertoire because he was getting

out so quickly.

But what really stuck out to me was the way that the fastball exploded on hitters late.

It reminded me of like Zach Wheeler, when he throws 95, sometimes it looks

way harder than 95 because of the way it finishes.

And that perceived velocity versus actual velocity, that matters.

And you just based it on the hitters swings, five out of the six hitters

that painter faced were lefty.

So that was a good sign that he was able to command at the baseball to them.

First, you know, first inning, he missed high on a couple pitches,

which you expect because he's probably really amped up first starting three

years, but then once he settled in, looked really good.

And there's a huge degree of variance with what painter might be able to provide

for the Phillies this year.

But we also see every year that there are young pitchers who come in and

establish themselves pretty quickly.

The Phillies are not relying on him to be their ace.

You know, they're kind of gradually moving him in at the back of the rotation.

That's a perfect spot to ease a guy into the majors.

Dude, I couldn't agree to do more like the late run on the fastball.

That's big like that's tough.

That's tough.

When you can't barrel up like that, it's a big, that's a big deal.

Again, this is a real baseball man.

We had Brad, this is what I wanted to hear.

Right baseball guy breaking this down.

That's right.

I don't know.

No, not a prop better.

That's right.

Prop bets.

Right.

He's great at the prop bets.

Right.

I don't want to analyze the pitcher.

You know, though a couple of years ago, a couple of years ago, when painter started

in 23, he was throwing 99, but to me, what he was doing yesterday,

looked the exact same.

The 97 looked like the 99 from 2023.

Do you think, and again, here's your thing.

When we're looking at, when we're looking at first start for the spring,

right, like, I see all these people talking about a slider and revolutions and

I'm like, whoa, just relax.

Like you got to like, you got to give this kid time for the spring before we

overanalyzed something.

You know better than anybody.

Well, you're just getting stretched out like this.

You're, first of all, the first start is just feeling the mound again, right?

Like in a real game, you're just, you're, you're not just throwing.

This is a real game.

You got to feel it.

You got to, you're going through the motion, you're putting your uniform on.

You're, it's a real game.

It's first pitch.

It's all that stuff.

Do you just get reoclimated to it?

Yeah.

A lot of, a lot of pitchers, their first spring start is just working on fastball

command, getting a feel for their pitches.

So I wouldn't be concerned about like the revolutions of his slider.

I'd be focusing more on the fact that he threw one slider and one sinker,

and they were both very effective.

I think they both resulted in outs.

So we saw a little glimpse yesterday that he has six different weapons.

He's not going to have all six every single start, but that's a lot of

different pieces that he can choose from that GT Real Muto is going to be able

to work with Painter on.

You know, I know that he had the high ERA last year at Triple A.

And what Painter has talked about is that he was falling behind in too many

counts and having to come over the middle.

And when you're coming over the middle, I don't care if you're throwing 97, 99,

you're going to get hit.

He'll add a lot of home runs.

And that last year was the most hitable year of his life at any level.

I think his opponents hit like 285, something like that.

And that is not what you expect out of Andrew Painter.

And, you know, he's still so young.

Like when he was first competing for that number five, but he was 19 years old.

So even if he debuts this year at 22, that's still pretty damn young.

Yeah, man.

Like we get goofy with this stuff sometimes.

I, I mean, you know, I thought I thought Sunday was a big day for the Phillies

because you had like a piece of their future shown what he's got.

You have a huge piece of their present Zach Wheeler throwing the bullpen session

that went well.

So now he's two bullpen sessions in.

So from a pitching perspective, things are going pretty nicely for the Phillies

here early.

You can't.

Yeah, because if you get Wheeler back by May, let's say early May, you got Wheeler back, right?

Now the sun, Sanchez, Lazardo, now you're going to insert Wheeler, right?

You get, if you get Painter, right?

You have Noah four, five.

No look fine Friday, right?

Like you felt good about Noah.

Yeah.

I mean, he had more velocity than he usually does early in the spring.

He said that he long tossed throughout the offseason, which he usually does not do.

And so that probably got him to camp in a little bit better shape.

The guys who were leaving for the World Baseball Classic all together seemed like they

arrived at camp and were ready to go.

Walker's pitching there.

Noah's going to pitch for Italy, Christopher Sanchez for the Dominican Republic.

They all kind of looked locked in in their first start.

But yeah, this, when Wheeler gets back, this looks like one of the top five,

top three rotations and all the baseball, a healthy Wheeler in Sanchez.

I don't, I can't think of a one two on any team that I would put ahead of that.

And I love the Lazardo guy.

I love the Lizard.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Lazardo might sign for, he might get a $200 million contract after this season,

based on how he performed.

So that's a pretty damn good number three to have as well.

And with Wheeler, he might be back before me.

I mean, he, the first bullpen session, we were doing the math down there.

Like the first bullpen session, he said pretty much,

he had started the six-week clock for him that pitchers,

starting pitchers typically need in spring training.

If you do the math from April 9th, when he threw that first bullpen,

and from the date of that first bullpen session,

six weeks is April 9th, which is like the Phillies fourth series of the season.

He could be back in mid-April if everything goes well.

And then it's a great problem to have.

If you have a healthy rotation that he returns to,

probably slide out either painter or walker,

curious to see how that shakes now.

All right, let's talk about some of the position, guys.

I want to start with Scott, because the two homers,

it was so interesting that he goes op-o first one in two years,

or it was three years.

And he went, the other one, he's got the center field.

And he's making really just great contact.

He said he switched up a little bit in his approach.

What did you learn about Scott?

Because he looks great.

Yeah, he's off to a very hot start.

And this is a huge season for him,

because he remains an elite defensive second baseman.

But he has not hit the way he did in 2023 the last two years.

And I don't even think he needs to be like a 300 guy.

I don't think he needs to be a 370 OBP guy or a 20-home run guy.

He just needs to do what he did in 2023.

He had 280-329 OBP.

That has a lot of value with it comes with speed and defense

in the seven spot in your lineup.

Sometimes he gets pull happy.

And that's when he gets in trouble,

because his natural swing is going up the middle,

going the other way.

So when he's focused that way,

that tells you that he's locked in.

And if he can be a actual offensive piece this season,

it would give the Phillies chances throughout the season

to maybe lead him off or back in second at times.

And maybe push their other run-producing guys

into more run-producing traditional spots,

like the three-in-four spot,

as opposed to having to go like Turner,

Schwarber, Harper, one, two, three.

So Stadas, a crucial piece for the Phillies.

You know, guys like him and Alec Bum,

they're getting closer to free agency.

Bums are free agent after this season.

Stadas is free agent after next season.

So they're at a point now where they really need to prove it

to the team they're on and for their baseball future.

Yeah, I still hate doing the Harper, Schwarber.

I would like to break them up, but I mean,

I think it's probably your best option.

You know, these days, teams value most,

getting their best players the most played appearances.

So I think, like, when you start to think about,

okay, it could stop lead off,

well, do you want like the sixth or seventh best hit

or under team to lead the team in played appearances?

Probably not.

That's why the Phillies are so go-and-go

about, you know, Turner, Schwarber,

and Harper batting in the first inning.

But really, if you could just put one more guy,

who's an OBP speed guy ahead of them,

it could really push this offense forward.

Whether that's Justin Crawford, too.

It could be Justin Crawford in the ninth spot as well.

Well, to your point, VG brought this up really well,

if you got to start really hitting, right?

So to the point where he had lead off.

And you got Turner, Harper,

and Schwarber protected Harper and Garcia,

who I think could hit fifth and give you natural a five, right?

Like, I don't know what you saw of Garcia.

I'm curious, but I'm hopeful with him.

And then all of a sudden, you said Crawford nine.

I mean, that's extended the lineup.

Yeah, I can't, you know, not in this D.H. error

I have the Phillies had like a nine and one

that has a chance to be that dynamic,

like a Crawford and Turner.

You know, in terms of Doldes, Garcia,

there was one at bat that stuck out to me Saturday

and Dunedin against the Blue Jays.

Garcia was facing Dylan Seas in the first inning.

Phillies had a pretty good day against Dylan Seas.

And Garcia just waited him out.

You know, he was a long get bat.

I think he ended up he ended up singling or walking,

but it just struck me that there were a couple pitches

in that at bat.

He usually swings that that he did not on that day.

And that's the key for him.

You know, he can't be expanding the zone.

Can't be swinging at that fastball.

It's well high above the zone or the slider

that's way down and away.

Obviously, he's a built like a Greek god or something.

Man, he is jacked.

You see where he drives all that power from

because his legs are enormous.

And, you know, he's already fit in pretty well

with his clubhouse.

He's laughing and joking around him.

And Ed Mundo-Sosa are close buddies.

There was a good story in the inquire about that.

But Garcia is a huge ex-factor for this team

because like if he gives you a 25 and 90,

28 and 90 something like that,

then that's a hell of a lot more than Max Kepler gave

you last year and that same spot, you know.

Oh my god, it would be huge.

And I think he can get back there.

I mean, you know, two years ago,

when that Texas lineup was rolling,

and you had, you know,

figure and semi-end,

and Garcia was the, was the run producer

on that on that team.

And he had way more protection back then

than he did last year with the Rangers.

That lineup was not very good last year

and he had to do too much.

I think there were times in the year

he got demoted like eight or nine spot

because he was slumping so much.

But this, there's, he's one of the guys

that can be rejuvenated by that move.

And when you come into a clubhouse

that's laden with veterans and guys who have won,

it inspires everybody.

Whether it's the young guys

or the veterans just joining the team.

So let's go, let's talk about,

bomb because I had a question earlier

for the daily five.

And it's, are we too hard on bomb?

But do we expect too much out of bomb

because he's not a number four hitter

because he's better suited six seven?

Do you think that's accurate?

I do kind of think that's accurate.

I mean, if he was batting six or seven

his whole time here,

there probably wouldn't be as much negativity

as there have been at points

because you think back to last year,

he started the year nine for 60

and everybody was talking about,

oh man, this guy can't hit.

What's wrong with this guy?

He finished a 287.

Yet I beg you, more people remember the slow start

than the fact that he finished a 287.

He still doesn't hit for as much power

as you'd like from a corner in field.

You know, it's, it's always seemed like

there's been more in the tank there.

There was the spring a couple of years ago

where he showed up and he'd put on like

12 to 15 pounds of muscle and you're thinking,

okay, maybe this gets him to like the 2527

or run range, but it's just not his swing.

You know, his swing is line drive,

gap to gap using the all field.

Doesn't walk a lot because he makes

so much contact early in counts.

Also, it doesn't strike out a lot because of that.

I don't think we're going to see a different

allegol in this year.

I think you're going to see the player

that he's always been,

which is that like 28290 bat

who can really be money for you

with runners in scoring position

or run around third and less than two outs.

Like this entire lineup,

he's prone to slumps, you know,

that's most of baseball.

But you could certainly do worse.

I think the reason that there's the negativity around them

is because as his salary is risen

and as he's become more important,

it hasn't been like a straight line

of increased production.

And when you think about the lack of protection

or the lack of right handed protection

behind the Phillies two slugging lefties,

he's not the ideal guy.

You know, you'd ideally have a boba chef,

you know, a guy you could do it all.

You could hit for average and hit for power.

But, you know, boom,

when a guy's going into a contract here,

it's a big deal.

Because he needs to not only do this for the Phillies,

but, you know, this is,

he needs to get a multi-year deal out of this.

You know, this is so,

like, he's going to want to be at his best.

And so I'm curious to see what we see at Alec Boe.

Well, you just touched on something

because it does kind of concern me

about how does he navigate the contract year?

Because if there's a knock on VG for an uproar,

it's like, you know,

how's his head when it comes to that?

Well, I see a guy who has a really good head

on his shoulders at this point.

You know, maybe at points earlier in his career,

he was more emotional

and it would have affected him more.

But he kind of just lets everything roll off his back

at this point.

And I don't think that that's fake.

I don't think he's just pretending.

He has dealt with trade rumors

two off seasons in a row.

And he's kind of at the point now,

where it's just like, whatever,

like, I'm only going to control what I can control.

If they trade me, they trade me.

If I'm back, I'm back.

I love being here.

So I see a kid that's consistently grown

up throughout his time here.

And, you know, having to spend the beginning part

of your career in this type of media market

and deal with all that scrutiny

is going to prepare him better for the rest

of his baseball career.

And yeah, I do think that there's a component

of Philly's fans being a little bit too hard on him

just because he's not the ideal classic corner-in-fielder with power.

Hey, go out.

The one can start anything.

I mean, he's not going to hit home runs.

If he hits 20, it would be a great season for him.

But a year ago, two years ago,

he had 44 doubles last year at 18.

If he puts up 40 doubles,

it's a much better season.

It feels like, well,

do you think he can get back to that?

I mean, 44 was, when you looked at him

when he first came up to major,

that's what he looked like.

He looked like a 40 double guy.

And then last season, the quality of contact,

especially in the first half, just was not there.

I certainly think he can get back to 30, 35 doubles somewhere around there.

And the Philly's need that.

They can't be having an alcoholic bone with 18 doubles at the end of the season

and like 10 home runs,

especially if he's in that fourth spot or even the sixth spot.

Yeah, no, you can't have that at all.

How's Mars looked to you?

We didn't see much.

Well, I didn't see much of him this week when I was down there

because he injured his hand on a sliding drill.

I think it was last Tuesday.

So he was dealing with some inflammation in that hand.

And the Philly's plan is to get him into

to a game Tuesday tomorrow in Port Charlotte,

which is a couple hours away from Clearwater.

But Rob Thompson said that he did ideally want

Mars to make that trip.

We'll see if he's in the lineup tomorrow.

But yeah, he's only played one game so far and great for league play.

He is a very important player.

You know, they're talking about potentially

platoon auto camp with him in left field.

It's like every year we go through this

where the Philly's talk about, yeah, we want to have Mars hit some

play against more lefties than it never really materialized

because they have better options.

But look, if he's just playing left field

against right-handed pitching, there's value there.

You know, he can hit 270.

He's a good defensive corner outfield.

They're much better than he is in center field.

So, you know, that's another guy that, that 5-6-7,

whether that's, you know, whether the 4-5-6

is like bone, marsh, Garcia.

However, it shakes out.

JT.

Those guys need to think JT as well.

Those guys need to be the bridge, you know,

between like getting it to the bottom

where you have the speed with Crawford

and back up at the top.

Like, there needs to be a threat in there,

multiple threats in there.

And I thought JT actually really interesting comment

he made yesterday on the broadcast

when he came out of the game that he feels like last season.

He just spent way too much time in pull mode.

And it took him too long to realize

that my natural swing is to right and right center.

And that's what I'm most effective.

So, you know, he did not have a good offensive

year last year.

His OPS decreased each of the last four seasons.

But there's still something in there.

There's still something in the tank offensively for JT.

Someone we haven't seen is Ada Miller.

What's up with his back?

Yeah, I talked to him last week in the middle of the week.

He just went over to see how he was doing.

And he was in a very good mood, good spirits.

But he admitted that like he's been trying to keep his mind

from just spiraling and thinking about, man,

when am I going to be able to get into a game?

It has to be a little bit of a concern right now.

I'm not saying it's a major concern,

but he missed the final weekend of the AAA season last year

because he was dealing with lower back soreness.

And now he's dealing with lower back soreness again.

His comment to me was, yeah, I hope to get into a game

by the end of camp.

So that kind of tells you where he's at right now.

There's still what three more weeks to go in camp.

And he's hoping to get into a game by the end.

All he was doing as a Saturday was playing catch.

So he is definitely behind.

And still, this is a guy who has the chance to be elite,

like an elite left side of the infield player.

And if he's not ready to go the first week of the season,

of the second week of the season,

it's not the end of the world.

The Phillies are going to be careful with him.

It's just something to monitor going forward.

Because ideally, a guy that young, like 21 years old,

you don't want him dealing with back pain already.

Sounds like he said in spring.

Could be, you know, he could stay down there to get some more work.

But it's not like he was going to crack the opening day roster.

It's not like he was going to be up in the majors early this season anyway.

So that's not the end of the world.

I mean, he's just going to be a ton of time for him to get his development at AAA.

And he was just, I mean, he was amazing last year from August 1st on.

At AA, at AAA, more walks than strikeouts in the high quality of contact.

So still very excited about eight Miller.

He just needs to get himself on the field.

Yeah, I, you know, to me, I know people are talking about maybe we'll see eight Miller by May or June.

It's like, listen, you got to give Boom a lot of a lot of a lot of rope.

Boom's you're going to be your guy unless something happens.

It's hurt or unless he's just, you know, awful.

But you're going to give him extended period.

So I'm not even looking at eight Miller for, you know, break glass before September.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, yeah, I think that he will get some reps in September if he's healthy.

But the only way I see him getting up before then is if he's hitting 360 in the

mire is just absolutely knocking the door down to a point where you just can't deny it.

Yes, he had mentioned or reminded the coaching staff that he had played.

I think outfield in high school.

Have you heard, well, do you think he'll see any time when he gets healthy in the outfield in the

minors? Eight Miller.

Yeah.

No, I don't think so.

They're going to keep him a shortstop and get him some reps of third base in case

he needs to slide into that position next year for Boom.

But they see him as a left side of the infield guy, shortstop third base.

I think he's only played shortstop at this point in the minors.

But there will be more, you know, there was expected to be more third base in spring training.

He hasn't been able to play.

But I would expect that they're going to get him some reps there at your play as well,

just because that's most likely going to be his position in 2027.

So what else do you see down there?

Anything else?

Strike your fancy.

We'll give you the raised eyebrow.

I'll tell you, Justin Crawford just walking through the clubhouse looks like a big leader.

He has like the size of a big leader.

And he seems like he already belongs just the way he interacts with his teammates.

It stuck out to me how like incredible Christopher Sanchez looked over the weekend.

I mean, he faced some really good hitters, Springer, Guerrero and Alejandro Kirk.

He threw seven changeups.

They were all swinging strikes.

He was just amazing.

And I mean, I just see a guy who continuously gets better and better.

I asked him when he came out of that game.

I was like, all right.

202 innings last year with a 250 ERA.

What's the goal of this year?

Like how do you push it forward this year?

And his response was that he just needs to prove to himself that he can do that multiple years in a row.

So that stuck out to me.

You know, the Phillies have a lot of interesting relievers as well.

You know, you look at like Jonathan Bowling who has that

big fastball that he can really throw up in the zone.

We saw Brad Keller for the first time this past week.

Both of those guys have five six pitch mixes,

which you don't often see out of the bullpen.

JT made a comment to me like, let's go.

Yeah, JT made a comment to me like,

that's going to be a lot of fun to work with,

being able to call those different pitches for guys.

You know, Tanner Banks has gotten better each season he's been here.

Jose Alvarado, you're going to have back.

Daron, we haven't even seen it.

And, you know, what he can do.

So I think the bullpen has a chance to be really, really good.

Different looks, different pitch mixes,

guys who haven't won before who are excited to join this team.

So that's a unit to be pretty excited about my estimation.

Yeah, I didn't think the same thing, man.

My man, I can't wait, brother.

I'm like, I'm looking forward to it.

It's got that, you know, we're going to get better weather by the end of the week.

And then we're going to start to feel it.

You know, I mean, I'm excited.

I'm optimistic about them.

Again, I still think their rotation is going to be really good.

Like to me, like I backed my, I backed the season on their pitching,

their pitching bullpen rotation.

It's just going to carry on.

And I think you're going to, you know,

Bryce and Schwarber and Turner, like they're going to do their thing.

You'll get some contributions, Crawford, like you said.

But ultimately, I think they're a pitching lead team.

Yeah, I mean, barring a series of catastrophes.

I still see this as like a 92 to 96 win team.

And then whatever you can, whatever happens in the playoffs happens.

If the Phillies were to get to October with a healthy Wheeler, Sanchez,