welcome into another episode of Locked on Phillies in today's episode we've gotten some weird reports about Bryce Harper's injury status where is his health out I'll tell you what I know during today's [Music] episode you are locked on Phillies your daily Philadelphia Phillies podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day yes this is locked on Phillies I'm your host Conor Thomas thank you so much for joining us today we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day you may know me from some of my other work in the Sports Talk space I've been on air over at 975 The Fanatic on the radio here in Philly for 5 years I've been a credential Philadelphia Phillies media member for three years and this is my third year as the host of locked on Phillies thank you so much again for checking us out and could you please if you don't mind if you enjoy the content rate and review wherever you consume this if you're consuming in podcast form if you're watching on YouTube and haven't subscribed yet to the YouTube If you could subscribe that would be great you hit that subscribe button it really helps us out get you notifications when new episodes are posted cost nothing it's totally easy to do just hit that subscribe button for me today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fanduel.com to get started with that now the Phillies had an off day last night as they traveled up north of the Border they're up in Toronto for a short two game series and we're going to preview that a little bit later on the episode talk about the expectations for the series with the Blue Jays but where I want to start is a conversation about Bryce Harper's health because I'm not sure I haven't even really brought it up on the podcast yet because it's somewhat of an underlying storyline for the philad phelia Phillies right now they were in a big series with the Braves the result of that series is much more important but Bryce Harper who's been playing through the things that have been nagging him a couple reports have come out lately of two injuries that are or I guess ailments we'll call them because they're not keeping them off the field that have been bothering him lately he's got an issue going on with his wrist he's got an issue going on with his elbow we don't really have much information on what the injuries are outside or the ailments whatever you want to call it you understand what I'm saying uh the issues with his wrist and elbow we don't really know specifics about what they are we just know that he's been dealing with them for a while the wrist he said he's been dealing with since May the elbow it's at least been a while now because it's stuff he's working through and while it does explain a couple things right the explanations may be more troubling than the issues themselves if it was just uh well I'm sore my wrist is kind of bothering me my elbows kind of bothering me it's wear and tear whatever but he's still being very productive he's still Bryce Harper at the plate and in the field and looks awesome well then we've got nothing to worry about that's just he's a tough athlete he's gutten it out now he is a tough athlete and he's gutting it out but we've seen a significant significant power drop off from Bryce Harper over the past month the month of August I think he had like two home runs it was crazy he just did not have any major pop in his Bat now part of that is just he was struggling overall to hit the ball and I think that was a slump I don't know that that was fully injury related I'm sure your wrist and your elbow hurting you doesn't help with your swing but I don't think that was fully as a result of it it is just a little bit troubling because you need Bryce Harper to be at his best if this Philadelphia Phillies team is going to reach their ceiling you're not going to like it's going to be I'm not I don't want to say you're not going to this is a talented baseball team top to bottom but it's going to be significantly harder for the Philadelphia Phillies to win the national league to represent them in the World Series and to find a way to win that World Series trophy if Bryce Harper is not Bryce Harper and he hasn't been for like the past month or so and this report of the injury it it's it's very very intriguing and not in a good way now again nothing that's keeping him off the field right now nothing that's expect to keep him off the field this is the kind of thing that you think about because he's been dealing with some of this stuff basically all year long and when we have those conversations about Rob Thompson's decision to rest a guy here sit a guy here put a lineup out there on Sunday that has multiple starters not in it like we get all upset about that or people in the fan base I try not to but people in the fan base get worked up about Rob Thompson the way he sets his lineups we don't know some of these underlying things that are nagging guys we don't know whose knee is sore whose foot is sore whose elbow or wrist has issues like what's going on with Bryce Harper right now that's why I always defer to the manager on who needs a day off I trust him if he's got a track record and Rob Thompson certainly has a track record so something to keep in mind with this we don't know what's going on with these players all the time we only find out when it's reported and this just recently was reported for Bryce Harper the real question is will this be something that becomes more of a problem as this season goes on it's hard to say that it's going to get better unless he takes time to sit out and rest it and he doesn't seem like he wants to do that Bryce Harper doesn't want to miss games the Phillies are in a push for the one seed in the National League he doesn't want to miss any time down the stretch and he's certainly not going to miss time in October unless he physically cannot play so is it getting worse probably more likely it's getting worse than it's getting better now Bryce Harper did say that the wrist feels like it's turning a corner and it's getting back to a place where it feels more normal the elbow just kind of it's there was the way he described it um paraphrasing but kind of just like it is what it is essentially the elbow thing again we don't know the nature of exactly what these injuries are if it's a tweak of some muscle or tendon if it's just general soreness if it's tendonitis we we don't know exactly what's going on with Bryce Harper but here's something I gave you some like discouraging stuff about it about how his power's been down and maybe that's because he's not feeling himself and it's more likely that it does not get better because he's going to keep playing and you need to rest injuries for them to heal that's all discouraging right you're ready for something encouraging so this wrist issue he says he's been dealing with I told you already since May they started the season for a couple days in March then they went through April but if it's been bothering them since May H well the first half of the Season he was a monster and he's hit some big home runs and put together some great stretches of play with this wrist injury he's been I believe he was player of the month in June I think that was one of the months he's won it this year so yeah he's been able to play through this to a high level before now it could be getting worse and that could make it more difficult but if the wrist is turning a corner like he said by the way Todd zi the one reporting this stuff talk to Bryce arper for an article on mlb.com Todd Zak he does great work covering the team you should definitely check out some of his work uh but you're looking looking at that and you say hm it could be getting a little bit worse so I guess the question that people want me to answer is how concerned should we be about Bryce Harper's health and I've heard conflicting things what I hear from Bryce Harper is hey I'm G to tough it out it's not ideal but everyone kind of has things that bother them through the course of a season maybe it'll get better by the postseason maybe he'll play through it he's still Bryce Harper he's still being somewhat productive even though the the power stroke has kind of gone a little bit for him in the past month but the encouraging thing is like yeah well he's had this and been dealing with this for good stretches of the season so the only thing that would be worrisome is if there's belief it'll get worse now I have heard from a prominent Major League Baseball Insider now I've heard this information uh through yeah through people we both talk to like hard to explain I heard this from an Insider and the worry about Bryce Harper's wrist and elbow is there the reason I'm stuttering through that is I just don't want to give up any sources or anybody else's sources but there's some concern there about it potentially getting worse there's some concern about it affecting him down the stretch there is valid levels of concern or at least there should be according to this one person what I will say is I don't necessarily buy that it's going to get any worse and even if it does Bryce Harper is a superum right we remember how quick he came back from Tommy John surgery last season in 2023 to come back and help this team get hot at the right time and play well down the stretch and become the top Wild Card seed and eventually go to the NLCS again like Bryce Harper was a big big part of that and that's going to be a another encouraging thought that you can have in the back of your mind that when faced with injury or issue before Bryce Harper is shown like superhuman levels of healing so could it get better as he plays I do have this rule in the back of my mind with Bryce Harper when he slumps when he has injuries when anything seems to be going wrong when he's learning a new position like he did at first base last year and still this year Bryce Harper normally things work out for the better because he's just that talented he's just that amazing of an athlete he's just that willing of a person focused motivated he'll do anything he can tough guy wants to be out there there's no reason to ever doubt that Bryce Harper isn't going to give you his best possible shot at competing and that's what he's been doing this year even though times have not been perfect throughout the entirety of the season with 25 games remaining he's put together a really solid campaign I do believe he's going to be a big contributor for this team in October because well kind of he has to be and I believe that even if there's valid concern about Bryce Harper the Baseline that we should all revert back to is well the the guy's basically a superhero on the baseball diamond he's going to figure it out so that's what I know about the Bryce Harper wrist and elbow injuries or ailments whatever you want to call it that are bothering him right now I know that he's planning on playing through it continuing to play unless there's something that takes him off the field and I haven't heard anything about well he's in danger of injuring it further or anything more than the average like go out there and play through a little bit of soreness so hopefully it doesn't turn into anything serious hopefully he doesn't end up missing time but if you see Bryce Harper sit a game or two here ones that normally he wouldn't well part of the reason is probably this team's going to be in October you need Bryce Harper to play in October you can't burn him out in September you may want to get him some extra rest just something to keep an eye on as the Philadelphia Philly season continues and as it continues they'll head north of the border to take on the Toronto Blue Jays tonight coming up we're going to talk about the short two game series in Toronto and a focus in on game one as we see Tyler Phillips make his return to the Major Leagues that coming up as we continue today's episode of blockon Phillies let's talk about game time game time's the absolute best and they have a new feature called Game Time picks that make getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets there's a lot of great opportunities for great events to go to as fall rolls around the Eagles season is starting the Phillies are making a playoff push the Flyers are right around the corner from hitting the ice the Sixers in a month or so will find their way back to the Wells Fargo Center floor and you've got concerts comedy theater all that great stuff you can get the best tickets from game time they have Allin pricing so you don't get surprised by fees at the end of the checkout process no you see them 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Toronto Blue Jays because this is an opportunity for the Phillies to continue momentum they won a series two games out of three against the Houston Astros and we all saw the three games out of four effort that the Philadelphia Phillies pulled off at home against the Atlanta Braves but now it's back on the road it's up to the great white North Canada Toronto a and you've got a matchup with the blue jays for two games which they always do these weird two game series with Toronto I don't know I know I said that I'll figure out why it's the weird like two games against them I don't know if it's about international travel I don't know if it's just a weird schedule Quirk that seems to happen and it's coincidence but the Philadelphia Phillies and blue jays have one of those short two game series coming up starting tonight 7:07 PM the time for first pitch and like I said Tyler Phillips back on the mound for the Philadelphia philes he is employing Taiwan Walker spot in the rotation as Walker was moved to the bullpen as a long relief man now here are some of Tyler Phillips numbers so far this year because you might say uh I don't have a lot of faith in Tyler Phillips or you might say I've seen some really good things from Tyler Phillips it's been a mixed bag what he ends up with is a 4- inone record a 5.5 ER which is really really inflated because of a matchup with the Mariners in which he gave up eight runs of start a one two2 whip that's okay 36 Innings pitched only 27 strikeouts so the strikeout isn't really his bread and butter and he's given up seven home runs in 36 Innings pitch so he can get beat with the long ball he could be really really good when he's on we saw him throw a complete Game shutout a couple well like over a month ago now at this point but we've seen him throw a complete game shut out this year we've seen him win four of his five decisions things seem to work out well for Tyler Phillips on the mound he doesn't have the best stuff he is a kind of quad guy right now but I don't feel like it's an automatic loss and that's better than we'd feel if tai1 Walker was in the game the guy you're facing is Chris Basset who has a nine and13 record a lot of decisions for him so far this season in 151 and two thirs innings pitched he struck out 149 batters I always go to strikeout first because that is the Phillies cryp tonight if you can strike out a bunch of batters you can strike out a bunch of Phillies batters which is just part of this team's approach of the plate they're aggressive at times uh he does have that 427 ra Chris Basset and a 1.4 whip so he's allowing nearly one and a half B Runners an inning part of that is 57 walks on the year he's allowing more than a walk every three Innings so you should be able if he go six get two guys on Via walk have yourself in a situation where you can create opportunity he's also allowed 16 home runs so home run every like 10 Innings little little bit less often than once a start but he's a guy that you can hit out of the yard and you're playing up there at the Rogers Center so a little bit different than SC Bank Park you got to get it a little bit better to get it out of there this may be a guy in Chris Basset that you're going to have to work counts against try and take advantage of those High walk rates compared to a strikeout rate that doesn't equal the amount of innings pitched a matchup that the lefties in the Phillies lineup should be well they should be big in it's another right-handed pitcher the only Lefty you've seen in like two weeks has been Max freed in the brave series but Chris Bass at another righty and you're facing a righty tomorrow in game two of the Blue Jay series just to give you an idea of the series overview before we talk about this game specifically you're going to go ahead and see it Bowen Francis against Christopher Sanchez Francis ay with a 0 N9 whip he's been pretty darn good we'll get into that we'll cross that bridge when we come to it but tonight's game what needs to happen for the Philadelphia Phillies they need to have a little bit more offense shown in this series I would expect right the rightful thing to expect for a team in the Blue Jays 67 and 72 hanging right around 500 short two game series I'd be comfortable with one win out of two games like I'm not going to get mad at them if they split this on the road you do have momentum so I would like to be in a situation where the Phillies can win tonight and put themselves in line for the sweep tomorrow but if they drop one of these next two games it's not the end of the World Milwaukee and the Dodgers both won yesterday so you're in a little bit tighter of a race for the one seed than I think you would have expected a couple months ago Milwaukee just a half game back from the Phillies the Phillies I think one and a half back of the Dodgers so it's tight up there at the top of the National League there's no margin for error and that's why these games are important against the Blue Jays but how do you get the offense going like what's the way that you want to do that compared to what you did in the series with the Atlanta Braves I mean option number one is cut down on the strikeouts too many times where the ball is not being put into play by Philadelphia Philly batters they've had some good swings on the ball but ultimately they are in a easier spot to defend because when you're striking out you're getting yourself out of opportunities at base runners which changes the defense puts pressure on the players out there and it makes it harder to defend if you don't have anybody on easier to defend everyone's playing naturally where they would be for the batter and you just make the play across the diamond or catch it in the air that's simple baseball folks so the Phillies need to have a little bit more patient of an approach at least tonight and they need to cash in more with Runners and scoring position who comes up with Runners and scoring position well you'd expect it to be the middle of the order which would be guys like Bryce Harper and Nick castios and uh Alec bow when he's ready to roll we haven't seen Alec bow since the hand weirdness so we we'll see if he's back tonight I haven't seen anything on that actually let me just go and do a quick search and see if Alec bow is going to be close to returning for the Phillies that's another injury concern we talked about Bryce Harper uh and what that could mean but he may be back tonight in the lineup it's possible that he's going to be in a situation where he plays tonight we don't know whether or not he'll be available something to keep an eye on either way those are the guys in the middle of line because like I know schwarber could be an RBI guy I know Turner could be an RBI guy I know Harper could be an RBI guy but those guys at the top of the order are more table setting guys K warber not so much because he could just well he's walked a lot he has one of the highest walk rates in baseball this year so he can set the table that way but when he swings the idea is to hit the ball out of the ballpark the guys that need to come through the guys batting after your Superstars and then you still need guys like Bryce Harper and Kyle schorer and Trey Turner to still have a good day find their way on base and be in a situation where guys actually can cash in on runs scoring opportunities it hasn't been great at the top of the lineup recently for the Philadelphia Phillies Bryce Harper had an okay Series against Atlanta Trey Turner okay I know he had that one home run um Kyle schwarber's been pretty darn quiet lately and those guys in the power uh front I mean Trey Turner has the most recent home run of those guys you I don't know he shouldn't Bryce Harper and Kyle schorer are the more powerful batters so things to figure out at the top things to figure out in the middle the bottom of the lineup well you get what you get from them depending on who's out there so not too much worried about that in this series but that's how you find a way to produce runs coming up to wrap up today's episode we are going to talk about a weird Phillies trend on offense it stems from a question I was asked on the radio this morning we'll talk about it coming up as we wrap up today's episode of Locked on Phillies but I want to tell you about our friends over at FanDuel first because you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel they're America's number one sports book well we've got a little something different for you than what we normally have with our friends over at FanDuel now through September 22nd so you got a good amount of time but not all the time in the world you want to get on this quick it's September 3rd right now so now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $ five just $ five dollar one quick five doll Bill and get a three- week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with the YouTube TV base plan you're gonna be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game so go ahead and check out football season the right way all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime check it out with fandel America's number one sports book so there's been an interesting Trend with the Philadelphia Phillies offensively as of late and part of it has to do with the slump that they were in but now even though they've come out of the slump in my opinion they been playing really good baseball lately it still kind of exists I don't know if this is troubling I don't know if this is encouraging I'm going to talk through both schools of thought but first let me tell you to check out like thank you for making us your first listen every day here on locked on Phillies please make sure your next listen is locked on MLB Sully Paul Francis Sullivan he's the best host locked on MLB talks about the big Major League Baseball storylines in general not just centered around one team Noto centered around the Philadelphia Philly so if you want to keep up on what's going on around the rest of baseball he's the guy to check out on the locked on MLB podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day it's available on YouTube and in podcast form daily here's the weird question that I was asked this morning by John kcad one of my co-workers over at 975 The Fanatic part of King Kaden Z junas the morning show that I am a part of and he asked me this question on air and I didn't really have a great answer for him but we were talking about the Phillies offensive struggles in the series against the Braves even though they did win the series three games out of four and put themselves in the driver seat in the National leag National League East comfortably with 25 games to play they weren't exactly tearing the cover off the ball in this series if your name wasn't Nick castios he's been doing great but can Kade asked me this morning with casos aside how many players on the Philadelphia Phillies right now are having a better second half at the dish than they did a first half of the season and I started thinking about it and really it's a strong question and it's not many obviously Nick casano says but let's go around the other like starters Bryce Harper's not Bryson stot is not Trey Turner's not Alec bow is not JT rido is not Kyle schwarber is not you go to the Outfield uh Marsh is certainly not roas possibly is roas could be another one where you say he's having a better second half than he was the first half Actually I don't even know that it's an argument with the way that he's been playing and the fact that he was sent down earlier because of his performance in the season roas has got to be on that list and we're just talking about hitters folks not necessarily pitchers or anything just hitters and then well Austin Hayes was acquired at the deadline so moot point Johan roas we already talked about Brandon Marsh we already talked like Brandon Marsh not having a good second half either so if there's only two hitters that are having let's even go to utility guy like edmundo Sosa is he having a better half of the Season than before no he was awesome what he filled in for Trey Turner so do you want the upside or the downside first okay let's go with the downside and then we'll wrap up with the upside the downside of this is simply while the Phillies are finding ways to win baseball games they still aren't out of the woods yet when it comes to getting back to the team that they were they have multiple players playing at a lower level than what they did like most of their offensive players playing at a lower level than what they did in the great stretch for the Philadelphia Philly so in spite of them winning they haven't fully broken out to that Juggernaut status anymore part of that is the schedule but the schedule's going to get easier again here part of that is I'm sure fatigue you're rarely better at the end of a race than you are at the start of a race like I don't know and another part of it is just like General fighting out of the slump sometimes it lingers for individual players sometimes it lingers for an individual part of the team which it well I should just say a part of the team but the pitching staff has been really good starters and relievers the offense is kind of still left some stuff to be desired besides those two games in Kansas City where they hung 11 back to back but I want to see a more consistent like five to six run approach in games that the Phillies are scoring two or three in right now and that's a little bit worrisome because if they continue to lack production in those areas going into October they could be a very quick bounce like if none of your players are playing better than they did in the first half or two very well one somewhat inse uh inconsequential and one somewhat streaky in Johan roas for the first uh clarifiers and Nick castios for the second clarifiers uh that is not exactly ideal to build your baseball team around those two guys even though casan had an awesome Series against the Braves where's the upside you might ask what's the good part of this you promis there'd be a good part I always deliver all my promises folks so when you look at the upside of this conversation you say wow they're starting to win baseball games again none of the guys really your big guys are playing as well as they played in the first half of the season when this team was a juggernaut so it means that while they are finding a way to win baseball games they're playing significantly better than when they were in the midst of that slump to me the positive spin the Silver Lining would be well they could be even better they're winning these games against the Braves and the Astros and the Royals and yeah they could be better it's a crazy thing to bring up but it's absolutely accurate when it comes to the Philadelphia Phillies abilities at the plate over the past couple of months uh now if they do hit that stride they'll go from just winning games to demolishing teams like they did at the start of the season so that's more the positive you can either look at what they are or what it means they could be and with results finally starting to come in for the Philadelphia Phillies they're finally starting to win series and baseball games again more consistently well then you look for the extra the gravy stuff right you look for oh okay well when you figure out who's hitting better than the first half I'd like to have four or five guys on that list when you figure out who's going to be carrying you in October we'd like to know that before October but also we're in no rush right I told you September 15th the date where you start to finally Sprint it's like the end of the mile run where you hit that last Corner you're like I know I have like I don't know three quarters of this lap or not even three quarters a quarter of this lap remaining I can stride that out even if I'm tired because I know the finish line is right there I can almost smell it well that's what you need to do if you're the Philadelphia Phillies in September like on the 15th but not this early I'm not too worried about it yet I don't think it'll persist I think this team is going to be very good and even if it does Rob tosson will try what he can but his team he knows has a way of flipping the switch when they want to so that's a good sign as well am I overly concerned about my answer to that question no am I slightly concerned yes have I thought about it that way no so a great question from John keade thank you very much for the content Johnny for today for locked on Phillies uh so I appreciate that if you want to listen to me on the uh the radio kcad and sou chunis with Andrew sou chunis and John concade there and yours truly producing that show and being on air talking you can check that out 6 a.m. to 10: a.m. Monday through Friday on 975 The Fanatic just a little plug for the full-time day job there but lockon Phillies has been going smooth there's no slumping here the victory shirt has been on fire I got a day off to wash it it's in the wash right now if you can hear it going through behind me so I don't have to worry about stinking when I wear it again tomorrow after the Phillies find a way to beat the Blue Jays but I told you about the keys to the series we also talked about Bryce Harper's health we've covered a lot in this episode so what do you say we wrap it up that's all for today's episode of lockon Phillies thank you so much for making us your first listen every day again please make sure you're raing reviewing subscribing to the YouTube all that great stuff that really helps us out here on locked on Phillies I forget if I said but I'll say it again we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every every day and folks a great opportunity to take at least one in Toronto if not two we'll recap everything tomorrow and I'll talk to you tomorrow on the next episode of lock on Phillies