But talk a little bit about that and, and how the Phillies kind of handled this rotation with the fact that they had to throw, you know, guys on short rest just to try to get here.

Yeah, it almost takes out the one biggest strength of the team, the fact that they had to fight till game 162.

If you got that performance that Wheeler gave you yesterday against the Rays in game one against the Braves, I'm not saying you beat Chris Sale because [exhales] he's a monster.

Like, I believe it was Bryce Harper who called him the best left-handed pitcher on the planet, uh, yesterday during the celebration as they're getting ready to take him on tomorrow, uh, at 2:00 PM, or today, because it's the episode we're posting.

Um, bottom line is this, uh, without Wheeler being ready to go game one, 'cause he just threw yesterday, Luzardo basically coming off the injured list cold to start this game, Painter, who's a rookie, is going to maybe piggyback with him, but have some type of bullpen availability, and then it's Sanchez game two, Nola game three.

A team with a lot in flux already, uh, is, has got the one thing that you can kind of count on now also up in the air.

You got talented guys, but if Don Mattingly had it his way, it, it wouldn't be a guy that had a shoulder issue that just put him on the injured list that would be going out there game one on the road in a series where...

And as I look at w- the Braves' biggest strength, I think it is their bullpen and making sure that their starters can get to the second half, back half of a game with a lead or either a game close, you feel pretty good about their chances.

But talk a little bit about that and, and how the Phillies kind of handled this rotation with the fact that they had to throw, you know, guys on short rest just to try to get here.

Yeah, it almost takes out the one biggest strength of the team, the fact that they had to fight till game 162.

If you got that performance that Wheeler gave you yesterday against the Rays, in game one against the Braves, I'm not saying you beat Chris Sale because [sighs] he's a monster.

Like, I believe it was Bryce Harper who called him the best left-handed pitcher on the planet, uh, yesterday during the celebration as they're getting ready to take him on tomorrow, uh, at 2:00 PM, or today, because it's the episode that we're posting.

Um, bottom line is this, i- without Wheeler being ready to go game one, 'cause he just threw yesterday, Luzardo basically coming off the injured list cold to start this game, Painter, who's a rookie, is going to maybe piggyback with him but have some type of bullpen availability, and then it's Sanchez game two, Nola game three.

It... a team with a lot in flux already, uh, is... has got the one thing that you could kind of count on now also up in the air.

You got talented guys, but if Don Mattingly had it his way, it, it wouldn't be a guy that had a shoulder issue that just put him on the injured list that would be going out there game one on the road in a series where...

And as I look at the Braves' biggest strength, I think it is their bullpen and making sure that their starters can get to the second half, back half of a game with a lead or either a game close, you feel pretty good about their chances.

Honest.

Dude, dude, I think this is one of the, like, if you could boil down the indictment of modern baseball into a single player, it'd be Luis Arraez.

This guy should've been a one team his entire career type of player.

To acquire him should require a king's ransom, and he's been shipped around the league.

Like, people do not care about his one skill, which is, a- again, you said it, like, the baseline skill of offensive baseball.

Like, when the game's created, the first thing you do is you put a bat in your hands, and it's not to take four pitches.

It's to swing it and try and put that ball somewhere where someone's not standing, and he does it better than anybody.

And if you lose Game 1, you still are throwing an ace at them.

Why?

Dude, dude, I think this is one of the, like, if you could boil down the indictment of modern baseball into a single player, it'd be Luis Arraez.

This guy should've been a one team his entire career type of player.

To acquire him should require a king's ransom, and he's been shipped around the league.

Like, people do not care about his one skill, which is, a- again, you said it, like, the baseline skill of offensive baseball.

Like, when the game's created, the first thing you do is you put a bat in your hands, and it's not to take four pitches.

It's to swing it and try and put that ball somewhere where someone's not standing, and he does it better than anybody.

And if you lose game one, you still are throwing an ace at them.

How are you finding deals?

You know, that's always the question of the day, I think, for many investors is where does your next deal come from? And so we spend a lot of time focusing on really three different methods to have a steady pipeline that's always coming in.

The main one, or I guess not the main one, but the easiest one to talk about would be on-market opportunities.

But frankly, we try to not spend too much time on those.

More competition, less of a story to tell.

And It could be a great deal, but that means that you're gonna be the one in the market that thinks you paid the most.

And so we try to stay away from that unless we think there's something being missed in the execution of the marketed process.

In non-refundable or inspections?

What is the state of the NL East right now, and is this the Phillies' division to lose?

The state of the NL East, it is, it's one of the best two divisions in baseball as far as intriguing storylines from an outside eye.

So it's between the NL East and AL East for who's going to have the, uh, most puncher's chance teams.

And in the East, the Phillies are joined by the Braves and the Mets, as they have been for the past couple years.

There's a weird thing, though, because back in 2024, when the Phillies won the division for the first time in 13 years, the Braves had a lot of injuries, the Mets were not quite what they are now, and the division really op- opened up for them.

And last year it was tight in August and early September, and then by the end of the regular season, the Mets had fallen completely apart, as they are want to do, and the Phillies had an easy path to win the division for a second straight year.

So while they're back-to-back division champs, something that I brought up a couple of times in the off-season on Locked On Phillies is that there hasn't really been a down-to-the-wire push for the NL East title that the Phillies have gone through yet.

Right.

We're, we're moving on." The Phillies doubled down and said, "We're gonna bring our guys back with, you know, a, a pay raise in some senses." So Connor, what, what's your take on just running it back?

Yeah.

They've had a great win total over the handful of seasons that we've been in this era with this core.

Won 96 games last year.

The, that's the second most in baseball behind only the Milwaukee Brewers.

People will forget with the way the Dodgers ran through the postseason again that the Phillies had a bigger, a better regular season than them.

So when you have a guy like Kyle Schwarber hit the open market, and he's the runner-up the National League MVP behind maybe the greatest baseball player of all time, how do you not pay that dude? Uh, when you want Bo Bichette and another team in the division decides they wanna steal him out from under you by cover of darkness, uh, you have to pivot to bringing back J.T.

Yeah, I was gonna say, what's your take on, on your Phillies group?

So Connor, what, what's your take on just running it back?

Yeah.

They've had a great win total over the handful of seasons that we've been in this era with this core.

Won 96 games last year.

The, that's the second most in baseball, behind only the Milwaukee Brewers.

People will forget with the way the Dodgers ran through the post-season again, the, the Phillies had a bigger, a better regular season than them.

So when you have a guy like Kyle Schwarber hit the open market and he's the runner-up the National League MVP behind maybe the greatest baseball player of all time, how do you not pay that dude? Uh, when you want Bo Bichette and another team in the division decides they wanna steal him out from under you by cover of darkness, [laughs] uh, you have to pivot to bringing back J.T.

Yeah, I was gonna say, what's your take on, on your Phillies group?