Larry Anderson joins the show

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I'm Brian, I work at UDOT Healthcare.

So Brian, why do you care?

I care because I don't want to leave anybody behind.

I oversee one of the biggest resource center in UDOT Healthcare.

I see people walked in in my office every day, just like my parents.

They have no idea about the healthcare.

I feel like they're my uncles, aunties.

I treat it as people like family.

I'm Brian and I'm committed to care.

It is the WIP afternoon show with Ike Spike and Fritz.

We are 25 hours and 13 minutes away from opening pitch

of the Philly season tomorrow at Citizens Bank Park.

Joining us now to talk about it,

he will be with us every Wednesday at 3 o'clock.

And this is the first one for this season

is the Great Larry Anderson LA.

Thank you for joining us.

Certainly.

Thanks for having me.

How you guys doing?

We're feeling good, man.

Baseball is here.

You know, all the consternation about the off season and, you know,

a lead and not a lead and boba shed.

It all just fades away for a moment as we can just look

and they're actually going to play baseball tomorrow.

Yes.

That's going to be nice.

You know, get away from all the other, I don't know, garbage.

Yes.

Yeah, there's one good thing about what we do here

is that even when it gets intense, it's still just sports.

So it's still just fun, you know.

So last time we talked to you, we were in clear water.

You were sitting there with us in the Visitors broadcast booth

and you looked at us.

It was a moment for all of us

because you were not known as a particularly rose colored glasses guy.

You're not a particularly optimistic guy

and you looked at us, you're realistic guy.

And you looked at us and you go, you know guys,

I think this is the year.

Now we're a month later.

Do you still feel that optimistically

that you felt one month ago?

Yeah, that's a great question.

All right, you got any others?

Yeah!

Oh no!

Oh no!

Oh no!

Oh my god!

There he is!

Long drive yesterday and all of a sudden!

Well, I get home and I've got a car battery dead

that won't even take a jump.

I got a grudge door at the opener.

It's not working.

So you caught me at a bad time.

But even with all that, I still think

barring injury, barring major injury to our rotation,

our pitching staff.

I still think we've got a good shot

as any year we've had.

I really do.

I mean, when you look at Sanchez,

Lazardo, you know, barring the hiccup,

he's, you know, I think he was still

in the top ten in Saiyong last year.

He was seven, I believe, yep.

Seven, that's what I thought.

So Sanchez, him, Wheeler comes back.

I mean, I seriously think Wheeler

is going to be back sooner than people were thinking.

Yep.

And I, you know, other than the Phillies

just want to be very cautious with them very,

and understandably so.

But, you know, I really, the way what I've seen,

I think they could have pushed him if they wanted to

and if he wanted to.

They could have pushed him a little bit

and had him ready for the start of the season.

I really believe that.

I don't think they should have.

Right.

But I mean, that's how good

when I saw him throwing on the side.

And that was three weeks ago.

I remember looking, and I might have said this to you guys then.

I looked at France, and I'm like,

didn't he just have surgery in the fall?

Yeah.

You know, but that's how good he looked.

And so you get him back.

Nolan's looked much better.

You know, I a little hiccup in his last time out against the Yankees.

But, and that was, I think, more than any.

He just was not commanding the ball down in the zone.

Which I've talked that nauseam about that.

So, and he's actually a drudge.

He mentioned that to me over the off season.

That that's what he really wanted to do is get his arm going

and think about getting them all down at the knees.

And they did that for the most part for the spring.

So, between that, and then I thought,

Painter looked great.

I really did.

I was impressed with him for seeing him the first time in person.

His arm is electric.

And I think it's, I think once he gets up and gets adjusted

and kind of gets his feet settled up here,

I think you'll see his velocity.

Maybe pick up even a little more than it is now.

And he's able to, one game I saw where he was struggling

with his fastball command, but he went through his breaking ball

and was getting that over.

I was like, oh, that's a great, a great thing to see right there.

That, you know, without commanding the fastball,

but get a secondary pitches over.

So, I mean, Taiwan Walker looked good.

So, I just, there's to me a lot of optimism,

just mainly because of the pitching staff.

I can't speak to the offense a whole lot

because I didn't see that much of it.

Even when I was there.

No, okay.

But I thought starting, boom, start looked tremendous.

I think I saw him pop up to the shallow left once all spring.

He might have done it more than that,

but that's all I remember.

He was just, he was hitting everything

and when he was making outs, they were rockets.

Boom was swinging a bad good.

And I think with the adjustments of dollars,

or she is making a recent,

some good signs there.

I really believe that.

Schwarber Schwarber, Turner, you know,

Turner had a struggle spring.

But, you know, last year,

he had a great spring.

Was it the winner or winner?

Was he had that great WBC

and then came back and started slow?

Or maybe that was last year's started slow?

But I don't, I don't remember.

I don't remember last night.

But,

well, it was, it was 23 when he had this slow start.

Yeah.

Was it 23 or 24?

It was his first year.

Yeah, it was 23.

It was 23.

That was only three years ago.

Yeah.

Last night, three years.

Well, you mentioned Nola, so I, you know,

the guys know that I, I love the World Baseball Classic.

I don't love our players in the World Baseball Classic

because it makes me nervous.

But for Nola, seeing him go out there

and pitch the way he did, I was glad Nola was in there

because I think it probably,

there's no way your confidence can't be shaken

after how he looked last year.

And I think spring training is one thing,

but you go in against in a high pressure atmosphere

against the best players

and you look as good as he did.

I actually think the World Baseball Classic

might have been really good for Nola.

I think it was, I think it was tremendous form.

I think to the fact that, and even more so,

and this might sound nuts,

because I think one of the reason you wanted to go

is because his brother was going to be the catcher.

Yeah.

I think Austin was going there to catch

and then he took a coaching job,

the open job with Seattle.

And so he got out of it.

And I think that he, I think that's even better for Nola

because there was nothing more for him to think about

except pitching.

Not talking, not thinking about his brother

or not thinking about, you know, anything,

but him doing a job for that team

with a bunch of guys that, you know,

something might have known, something didn't know,

but just saying, you know,

I got one thing in line to go after

and that's just, you know, getting myself ready.

And I thought he was, I thought he was very good in that.

And I think that, I think it was big form.

I really do.

We've been talking about what we think this team

can ultimately do.

And, you know, I love it.

Obviously, stems around getting to the World Series

and winning it.

You just got to get past the Dodgers

as they are the best team in baseball.

I'm looking at this outfield, LA.

And I'm just wondering,

can one of these guys have a special enough season

that it gives of something different in the lineup?

We haven't really had that in the last couple of years

from our outfielders where we got somebody

either in that as a power guy or a big RBI guy.

You know, it's arguably one of the weak outfields

in all of baseball.

I'm just wondering if we got enough out there

that somebody can step up and have a special year this year.

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I'm Brian.

I work at UDOT health care.

So Brian, why do you care?

I care because I don't want to leave anybody behinds.

I oversee one of the biggest resource center

and UDOT health care.

I see people walking in my office every day,

just like my parents.

They have no idea about the health care.

I feel like they have my uncles, aunties.

I treat his people like family.

I'm Brian, and I'm committed to care.

To me, if you look at Garcia from a couple of years ago,

what he did, was it 23 maybe?

It's 24, I don't know.

Here we go.

Oh, Fritz, you know.

But 24 he was good in 24.

Okay, here we go.

He's talking about apples out here.

Come on.

Thank you.

And well, he's probably still a little down

after the athletic competition.

Oh, you heard about it.

Interesting.

Interesting.

I didn't help the pictures aren't athletes crowd there.

But I think Garcia, I mean, just looking at him

the last few games, I think he opened my eyes,

he opened some other size and going up to that point,

you know, just, it's a matter of adjustments.

The whole, you know, everything is.

And confidence, like, I'm talking about Nolo,

you know, after last year, maybe down.

And you can't help, because egos are fragile.

And most professional athletes have egos.

It's just the way it is.

Yep.

But I think Garcia, I mean, he was down.

He didn't have a good year last year.

Had a tremendous year and a year before.

And with this little adjustment that he made,

I was talking to Kay Long, Kevin Long, about Garcia

at the start of spring training.

He says, I just like to watch him, just let him go.

Let him do what they want to do.

Let him just see how they're approaching things.

And then if I see something, then let's go to work and get on this.

And it's not, it's not something to snap your fingers

and he says something and all of a sudden, well, bam, it's there.

But over the course of the spring, he was working on stuff and working on stuff

with Kay Long and gets to the end.

And it's like something, it looked like something clipped for him.

And he was really driving the ball, putting the barrel on the ball

most of the time.

And he's got some kind of, I mean, he's a strong dude.

I walked by and I'm like, man, he's growing thighs out of his shoulders.

He definitely looks like he's either running back or lying back or one of them.

Yeah, he does.

Yes.

But the one thing, and one of the things they said about him too defensively,

is like thinking about a big strong guy like that and those muscles

that, you know, it's going to kind of take away from his ability to go get the ball

or throw the ball.

He's still flexible.

He's still with that strength and that muscle tone he's got.

He's still, he can do all kinds of things with that body.

So I just, I really think he, the guy that could really step up and carry the team

by himself for a while.

But that's suggesting that everybody else in the lineup is struggling.

He's got a carrot, but I think he's got that potential.

But I just, I'm just happy to see that that something clicked at the end.

And I think, I think the other thing is in center field with Crawford.

I mean, watch him put down a bunch the other day.

I'm like, oh, my God.

And it wasn't even close.

It wasn't.

He almost got a double on a bunch.

I mean, that's how.

But, but to see that, see a guy, a, an on base guy guy that he should never

have prolonged slumps because that ability with his speed.

If he doesn't hit it at an end field or the shortstop or third base,

if they got to make go to, you know, use the range, he's going to beat it out.

So the speed, what he can do on the bases.

I just, or there's just a lot of things to, to me, that look positive.

And I think the other thing, and then Mars kind of struggled this spring.

But on the other side, Otto Camp, I mean, he, he got hit some balls hard.

He's, he's healthy.

I just, I just think there's a lot of good things to look at.

But, but obviously, for me, the picture comes down to that starting rotation.

And I think it's one of the best in baseball.

Larry Anderson with us.

He'll join us every Wednesday at three o'clock during the Philly season.

Last thing for me, L.A., and we haven't talked about him.

And he was the, probably the biggest midseason acquisition of the Dumbrowski area.

And that is, John Duran last year.

Jack was mentioned.

And he had, when working on a couple of new pitches.

What, what did you see of anything from Duran in spring training?

Gas.

Gas.

Okay.

I'll take that.

Yeah.

He's the one thing about him.

Like, I didn't really notice anything a lot different.

And it's tough to see because you only see him, you know, from work 10 games.

Yeah.

And maybe he's pitching in five of them.

So, I mean, I maybe see five innings.

Yep.

And that's, and one at a time.

It's just, I, I love to see relievers go a couple innings.

And maybe not closers.

But other guys, I would rather see guys go a couple innings where I would say this.

If you go out and you throw 12 pitches and you feel good innings, great.

It's like, okay, well, let's go back out there again and reinforce it.

Or if you go out and struggle for an inning, let's go out and let's try and make some adjustments and get it back together.

I think you just, you're better off doing that.

But, but it's, you know, it's different now.

So, you see what you see.

But with Duran, I just, I think having him as a closer.

I just don't, I don't expect him to fail very often, if at all.

And, and having that, it's set to everybody else back in a more comfortable zone for them.

And I, because you can say it all you want.

I think if you don't have a set closer and you're using different guys as closers, some guys do it better than others just because of the mentality.

Yep.

And it's, it's not easy.

It's, it's, I go back to the tight rope with the, with the net below you.

And without the net below you, that's a whole different ballgame, both, you know, two different beasts.

And so having him there, it's something going up to him.

Everybody can look back and go, oh, I still got him behind me.

Yep.

You know, the closer is the only one that doesn't.

And that's a, that's a, it's a nice safety net to have when you go out there to help you to do your job better.

And so I think, I think, you know, I just don't expect him to be failing much and, and have him in that role and have that consistently going out there for your ninth inning guy.

I think it's tremendous.

And that's another reason.

I think, I think Keller, he had a couple games where he gave up a couple runs, but I just, his stuff is tremendous.

And if he's anything close to what he was last year, that's, I think it's a huge pick up and, and solidifies the bullpen.

And I think Kirk rings over his, you know, his panic thing that he'll be, he'll be good to go and, and the lefties, it's just, I just, I'm just, I'm impressed with, with this club.

A lot of people want to think what they didn't do anything. Well, maybe they, they didn't do anything that, like, explosive that you think, but they did a lot of other little things that, that make it, it's made this team better.

Well, LA, we're excited for tomorrow. Excited to hear you tomorrow. Excited to talk to you all season.

Appreciate you. I know you had a, Jack said you had a long drive and then, you know, you probably tired. So I'm, I come out of Boothamore to give you a hug, man.

There you go.

All right, LA. Thank you, brother.

All right, brother.

Take care.

There he is. The great Larry Anderson. You know, he was talking about Garcia carrying the offense maybe for a time.

By the way, it was 23. So it was 23.

Yeah, 39 home runs. Yeah.

The thing I think about with him is actually, it's not even the regular season.

I want a guy who, you know, you, when you watch the baseball playoffs, the, the big guys do it.

But when you think about what the Dodgers did to us, it wasn't Otani.

Right.

It wasn't Betts. It wasn't Freeman.

It was the, the Teosker Hernandez. It was, it was, it was Kiki.

It was Edmund. It's like all these guys. And I just want one guy who can, who can hit a bomb.

Yes.

Who isn't one of the guys that can be, and if he is that guy, whether it hits 23 home runs or 27 home runs, all those things is in the playoffs.

I want somebody somewhere who puts a little bit of fear into the pitcher.

And that is what I hope he can be.

That's what he should be.

But like, all right.

Now, this is a blind resume of a player.

Okay.

Yes.

247.

Yep.

284 OBP.

Okay.

Okay.

738 OPS.

Yes.

25 home runs.

Okay.

So who is that?

Well, I don't know.

It's a player from last year.

284 OBP.

284 OBP.

Okay.

25 home runs at 247.

Is that Teosca?

Or he had 27 last year.

Teosca Hernandez last year.

Yeah.

And he's terrifying.

He's terrifying.

And he also, Garcia is a good field.

Or Teosca is a horrible fielder.

He can barely pay attention out there.

But he's terrifying in the playoffs.

And that is, you know, you just know with those teams, no matter how star-studded they are.

If the Dodgers don't trade for, Tommy Edmund was the NLCS MVP two years ago.

They got him in the middle of the season.

It wasn't Shohei.

It wasn't Freeman.

It wasn't Betts.

It was him.

So I hope he is the guy.

Because you're right, Ike, when you brought it up to LA, you look at their outfield.

And it does not feel like a World Series outfield.

You have the Kemp Marsh platoon and left.

Justin Crawford, we hope, can play center field.

But it's not really a center field.

Well, now we don't have Rojas for half the year.

He's going to have to play center field.

Yes.

Yeah.

He's a center field for them.

And you have Garcia and Wright.

It doesn't feel like an outfield that you're terrified of.

But if Marsh is a good left-fielder, Garcia is a good right-fielder.

If Crawford can be average in center field, you have a good defensive outfield.

And if Garcia can just once in a while.

I know, just pop one.

Pop one.

Yeah.

That's what I want.

And maybe if he hits the beginning of the season, it looks closer to 23.

To expect him to be 23, Adolis Garcia is way too high.

Right.

But maybe then you could flip him and boom.

And not and put boom, probably where it should be, which is six.

Yeah.

And you have the quote unquote power threat behind Bryce.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, can he do it to the Oscar did last year?

He should.

Yeah, should.

With better defense.

With better defense.

Yeah.

Okay.

Just one quick NBA thing.

Can we throw an NBA thing out here?

I'll throw it out there.

We got, you know, a few minutes here.

And coming up at four o'clock, we will award Eagles Insider of the Year.

LA, it will be in the studio blindfolded very soon.

We'll have them in the studio in about 20 minutes.

And then we will present that award at four o'clock.

So if you remember, there was a lot of crying and whining and complaining from NBA media and fans

when Joel and bead was about to win the MVP because you didn't play enough games.

And he's heard all the time and wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham, wham.

So they put this rule in that you have to play 65 games to win any of the postseason awards.

To be all NBA.

To win MVP.

To win all the defense.

You got to play 65 games.

It's the Joel and bead rule.

Now our precious Nicole Yokich can win MVP every single year because he plays all the games.

Everybody plays all the games.

It's just Joel.

And now what do we have this year?

We have Wembee, like three games away from not hitting 65 games.

We have SGA, I think, can miss like two more games, not hit 65 games.

Kate Cunningham has a collapse lung.

Is it going to play again in the regular season?

Probably won't be all NBA.

And what do we get from the same whining, crying little babies who are so worried about

M.B. winning?

Oh, we got to change the rule.

We got to change the rule.

There's Kate Cunningham has said such a good year.

How could we not honor him with all NBA?

Wembee.

Wembee.

How could Wembee not have a chance to win MVP?

SGA!

Oh, you mean to tell me that these guys had injuries that prevented them from playing 65 games

potentially and they should still be honored?

I can't believe it.

Look at how they switch sides.

Look at how they switch sides when they don't have to worry about the big guy in the middle for the sixers winning any awards anymore.

All of a sudden they don't want their 65 game awards anymore.

Could you imagine Kate Cunningham doesn't get all NBA?

Wembee.

Yeah.

Wembee.

Can't win defense.

Wembee.

Now you got to play the games, Wembee.

No.

It's unbelievable.

No, no.

It's amazing.

I think the Cade sort of injury has brought this out.

Yeah.

Right.

Because they feel like he's deserving of being all of it.

And he is deserving of it.

Yeah.

But you guys put the rule in.

You put the rule in.

Yeah, you put the rule in.

Now what do you want to do?

Make an exception now?

Yeah.

And I think, look, the rules of the rule, I think saying that if you trusted your voters to say that if a player didn't play enough, they shouldn't win MVP.

Right.

I don't ever see it in the NFL where a player plays 13 games and wins MVP.

I don't ever see it.

We know that.

How we lost.

That's how we lost two MVP's.

Yes.

One that mattered.

Yeah.

I don't see that in baseball.

I don't see a player playing 125 games and winning MVP.

Of course not.

Because you trust the voters to make the right choice.

But you were so worried about your Olympic winning the award that we had to put this stupid rule in there.

And now all your precious little babies aren't I.

Oh, man.

I don't.

I don't hope anybody gets injured.

Absolutely.

But wouldn't it be a bummer of when B turned his ankle.

And had to be win five more because that can't stand when me.

I want that to be win.

And you know what they're going to have to do now.

If SGA misses games, they're going to have to give the MVP to somebody who doesn't even deserve it.

Yeah.

That's true.

Nobody wants to give it to Jalen, bro.

Nobody wants to give it to Jalen, bro.

Are you going to have to?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree with you.

Yeah.

When our guy was was in the thick of things and that's all we heard in play games.

Yeah.

That's all he heard.

He's not going to give it to him.

Oh, he's always heard.

Oh, he's always heard.

And don't give me this load management thing.

Jalen beat was hurt all the time.

Yes.

That's why he missed games.

He wasn't missing games.

It wasn't some KWI 2019 thing where he just didn't play back to back since that's why he didn't hit it.

It's because he's hurt all the time.

Yeah.

Digitimately.

Wow.

Wow.

All right.

Two, one, five, five, nine, two, ninety four, ninety four.

Wow.

The Phillies have a real chance to win the World Series.

A puncher's chance or no chance.

We will talk about it with Brode's next.

We'll also get an update on the Flyers with Brode's as Flyers and 50 is coming up and coming up with four again.

Eagles inside of the year will be awarded the second annual.

We're so excited.

I bet you are too.

This is the WIP afternoon show at Ike's bike entrance.

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In just a few minutes, you can personalize your own AI receptionist to answer questions,

route calls, schedule appointments, and even send texts in multiple languages.

Plus, it's easy to scale.

Create unlimited AI receptionists across any phone system.

It's all powered by one reliable platform for effortless AI communications.

See for yourself at ringcentral.com.

Ring Central, voice of your business.

You know great bar for electrical parts.

But there's one more thing we can do to help maximize your total project value.

Our pre-project planning services can help you win the bid and stay efficient.

So give us a ring and see how this one more thing can make all the difference.