What Should the Phillies Do with Taijuan Walker? | Bell Ringers

hello everybody and welcome back to the Bell ringers podcast Colin Deli and Ben Goldstein here and it seems like the Phillies might finally be back to being able to find their swing pitching a little bit better hitting a little bit better and they've won nine of their last 14 games now however it's all going to come down to this series here and we're going to get to that in a little bit like I said nine of their left 14 but there's four huge games against the division rival Atlanta Braves coming up starting today and then ending um on Sunday so four huge games let's get right into it Ben how are they gonna Fair what's what what's the one thing that this team is going to need to be successful in this Brave series well they're gonna have to do everything they didn't do on Wednesday yeah that's a really good way to put it yeah I mean fantastic the weekend Saturday Sunday and then Monday and Tuesday they were just smashing the baseball looked like the the home runs were back the hits were back they had like 30 something hits in Kansas City um the two games against Houston were great the walkoff for Bryce brought him back to his usual swing uh Nick casanas is hitting been hitting the ball very well Turner's getting on base you know things are just falling in place for the Phillies right now and um you know other than uh Wednesday but what I've noticed is when the starting pitching right now when the starting pitching is on everybody's on you saw that in Kansas City they got a really good start from Ranger Suarez the offense was great we had a great start Nola had a great start the offense followed suit it's just things are aligning but as you saw Wednesday bad start from the really bad start from the starting pitcher really bad G from the offense yeah things Al line so that is the first point on our discussion on our our list of discussions for today and I know we've said in the past that we don't want to keep you know beating the dead horse here but I think that since we've last talked about it um Taiwan Walker who started the Wednesday game for the Phillies where they lost 10 to nothing um he has been put under a much brighter Spotlight since you know this I think was three podcasts ago so about three four weeks ago we talked about this um I think it's fair to bring it back up now would you agree well I mean it's it kind of has to um so a a quick synopsis we'll go through um for those who have not been kept kept a breast of the Taiwan Walker situation um I'm not sure how else to phrase it but last night he goes six Innings well yesterday afternoon six Innings he allows 13 hits six runs and did not strike out anybody it's his sixth loss of the season um Walker now has a 7.36 erra over his last seven starts um he's now allowed six runs in two starts in a row and I tweeted something out last time um he pitched I think or maybe two times ago where he pitched it is now 10 starts 10 starts in a row for Taiwan Walker where he has not gone five or more Innings less than three runs not a single time um he has done that in his last 10 starts so so his ra for the season is now up to 6.50 um he's only thrown 70 in 2/3 Innings opponents Ben are hitting 310 against Taiwan Walker and I don't know if you've seen this circulating around Twitter but his Sant page is arguably the worst one I've seen in my entire life I mean it looks like the sky and on savan that's not a good thing it is all dark blue um it actually might be darker than this Sky um it's like a storm it is it's like a storm exactly what it is um yeah I mean you I this tweet from Matt Gelb from yesterday Walker allows 13 hits did not record a strike on six Innings it's the most hits of Phillies pitchers allowed Since Aaron herang in 2015 it's the first time a Philly started with six Innings without a strikeout since bed liely in 2017 and he still through a first pit strike to 20 to 28 batters he faced and didn't get anything positive out of it I I want to believe in Tom Walker I do too I've just I've said it so many times I want to believe in Walker so bad but you just can't like it just gives you nothing to believe in and as much as Thompson and he want to make you believe his V his velocity is is building it's something to build on oh soloft context something to build on no let's look at his last seven games 0 and five 7.36 ER in seven starts 33 Innings 33 innings in seven starts 42 hits 27 earn runs 14 walks 23 strikeouts and a 1.7 whip like how am I supposed to believe in that you can't have a scheduled loss every fifth day right now you're going into September where you're fighting for a playoff spot trying to get the buy which the Phillies desperately need you can have a guaranteed loss every fifth day they've lost what their last nine eight starts with them like you that just can't it can't happen you can't have you can't Trot a guy out there every time and ex and Know You're Gonna Lose can't happen yeah and you know I can't agree with Rob Thompson's I agree with Rob Thompson a lot I think he's a good manager for the Phillies the players like him and I really do believe that is one of the most important things um as a manager is having player support but I just cannot get myself to agree with Rob Thompson and his whole idea of soft contact um you know his his velocity increasing because well the soft contact thing is simply just not true I mean Walker is in the first percentile in average exit velocity that means he is for anyone who's not a math person out there that means he is the worst he is in the bottom 1% so on average if you were to get get a hundred pitchers and just put them into a room and ask the person who has the worst average exit velocity to raise their hand there a good chance Taiwan Walker's hand is going to be up he is in the third percentile in hard hit percentage 47.2% of the Batters who face him leave their at bat having hit a ball 95 miles per hour or more that is ridiculous that is so yeah so so a hard hit ball is considered 95 plus miles per hour 47.2% is his hard hit percentage that is absurd like that alone has an expected batting average of well over 300 might be over 400 when a ball has hit 95 miles per hour or harder so he he is just not a viable option to put on the mound anymore and you're right I want to root for Taiwan Walker so badly because I do think that he has okay stuff he does have a good breaking ball but he cannot locate anything his velocity is not there I really I can't I cannot agree with Rob Thompson I don't think the velocity is increasing I don't think it's improved and it's not increasing to any number that's going to make some drastic change on the outcome of him throwing his fast ball right 91 and 94 players are going to be able to adjust to that right it's not really making any substantial difference especially when he's going to leave the 94 mile power fast ball right over the plate I want to root for Walker and but I think at this point he's gotten his his fair opportunity I guess it's time to move on what do you do with him though like do you put him in the bullpen do you DFA him like what are you supposed to like what are you supposed to do with him well you can't D he's loed in the clubhouse he's in the fantasy football team yeah I S which is like how how did that guy get in well they cannot let him in whoever is commit who whoever's kamish needs to stand up like we can only have guys who are playing the game well that are allowed to be the fantasy team like was I didn't see Harper teeing off is he not participating yeah I don't know maybe he he doesn't have time for shenanigans he's got to train we have to find that out I am curious maybe that's how he like punishes himself has been hitting well recently so no Fant fanty right um h yeah I I think he has to get moved to Bullpen I think he could be a decent long reliever maybe not long relever but like two three Innings um because I think if he focuses on if he focus on not trying to build up and because that's the thing with Walker right the one thing you cannot argue with him about is that in some cases when he's fully built up he can give you Innings like he will throw five six he's there's been ganger he's allowed five or six runs but he's still gone out and thrown seven Innings so I think that if he just focuses his efforts on not trying to stay out there for as long he he might have better results yeah but I mean like you look at one of his shorter starts against Kansas City three Innings eight hits Six turn runs one walk two Stouts do you want that out of your B pen no like he's not going to be on the play roster so like why even have I don't think he's I don't think he's going to pitch a lot but like you can't get rid of $36 million that's how they they're gonna make it all back with all the new advertising around fair enough um I don't know it is It's Tricky well I mean he I'm assuming he doesn't have an option to Triple A I would really out that um I don't know all right new part of our podcast that we're doing yeah um I'm Ready the SE standout star um from this past week there's been a lot of them especially on offense starting pitch has been great but first of all seek has been the sponsor for this podcast forever if you've been listening you know that we love seek use code Philly sports support save $20 off your first seek purchase p h i l l y s p o r TS r e p o r t what are we doing col hold the S pocket it toss it like a football with the Eagles season coming up but you gotta get rid of the S no s you're welcome Eagles football coming up Philly Philly's postseason is literally right around the corner make sure you save some money with seik use the code save $20 off your first purchase link is in the description of the YouTube video and all social media bios and go to the app store or Google play or whatever Samson is down the S all right sege standout star Colin and I are gonna pick one of our stars from the past week or so I guess we even talked in about a week um that we've uh we've had so we''ve had we had a rough Series in Atlanta we had a very good series win in Kansas City and a great Series win over Houston a rough last game but col who's your uh seeking standout star it pains me to say this but it's Nick casianos we have the same we have the same pek standout star oh no we have we we need we need to bring in a third party to check beforehand and make sure that we don't have the same standout star all right we'll work on that I I almost picked aarin Nola um because I thought it was really good to see a late in the season Aaron Nola shut out so you know what I I'll pick a different guy you talk about nastas because I have someone else thank you so much I app I have a backup that's good I do well I guess I did but I already spoiled it back up I think it's been well documented on here that I'm not a huge fan of Nick casianos um for various reasons but I have to give the guy credit because he has been doing well I mean he's hitting 290 with an 826 Ops since the All-Star break at 333 on base percentage um which is it's kind of crazy now that his average has been hovering around 250 you know considering the fact that he had a 233 average just a month ago in July um You Gotta Give him credit there I mean if you what I was doing actually I was doing some some digging on Savon and if you take away his line in April he's actually had a really really good season he hit 300 in March he was three for10 um he didn't hit for a high average but he had five home runs in May which gave him a 706 Ops he had an 811 Ops 276 average in June in July he hit 275 with a 789 Ops and then a 283 average 807 Ops this month in August so like he has quietly I don't want to say has had a good season because his slash line is not good I mean he was just so terrible in April um the entire month he hit three extra base hits the entire month of April he had two home runs and a triple and that just kills his slugging in his power numbers like he had a 501 Ops SP in the month of April and I will have to go after the podcast and do his numbers with um without April and just see where he actually is right now but just eyeballing it he would probably be having I think he'd have around an 800 Ops right now um and probably a 270 average so it it is a bit of a shame that he's you know that he had that month because you have to give the guy credit he has been really good over the last few weeks um so he he gets the SE geek shout out there yeah and I think also a big thing of it is where I mean he spoke about in the past is that he likes to hit in the middle of the order so he has some protection he got moved up to the five in the lineup and he's been hitting much better in that spot than he was low in the lineup like he was earlier in the season what about his quote this week he was like I don't have a plate appearance I don't have a that was so strange approach I just look for the ball go hit hit the baseball hard like it's just batting practice like it's not really what you want to hear no I wish I could say that like absolutely not um he just he makes it sound so simple I wish yeah I wish it was that easy I feel like that's the quote of like if Bryce Harper were to say that I think it would be a little bit more acceptable shotani but like the guy who some people wanted to bench just a few months ago feel like he needs to at least act like he has an approach maybe no yeah maybe he should also learn how to play right field and not be the worst defender of baseball and maybe you can uh say some things but whatever my seeking standout star returned from for his first start in over a month W and was excellent Rangers Suarez uh five innings four hits one run one walk six strikeouts against Kansas City it was good to see him back on the mound good to see him have a good start uh and that's my seeking stand out star V Suarez and he will be starting against the Braves on Friday night in the uh City connects so good to see ranger back good to see him have a really good start and I um it's good to have some stability in the uh in the rotation you have your good you have your five guys I know not everybody can be a star so we can't keep going on about this but a guy who I thought you could have gone for Jose Ruiz because he has been really good since the All-Star Break um feel like we might have mentioned this before I can't remember but I know that when we gave him high leverage spots earlier in the season when he started off pitching well um it it didn't go as well as we had hoped but he's been he has been a very solid like middle inning reliever um so I'm hoping that continues because he is the type of guy who can like make the difference in a playoff series like in the past we've seen Matt Strom make a huge difference in the playoffs just because he's you know a guy that stepped up who we didn't really foree stepping up in the way that he did last year um and not because of any reason just because he had a good regular season not a great regular season so it really is guys like Ruiz who can step up and make a difference so um yeah ruiz's last seven um in 6.2 Innings he has a 2.7 eay four hits two runs nkss a09 whip so right on few days ago against Houston he threw a shutout inning few days ago against Kansas City he allowed a run so he's been a good good middle guy and you know if he could help in a playoff series I mean never complain absolutely all right I think we have a fun a fun segment to get into yeah I'm pulling it up explain uh explain the game sure so you're gonna see some numbers you're gonna see some players an eight hour flight so yeah for those um listening on podcast apps got an eight eight hour flight you pick your seat you can either sit next to arinola or Garrett stubs or Bryce Harper or Nick casianos Matt strum and then you go to the other side you can sit with JT Ruto and The Fanatic or Trey Turner and Marsh or Ranger Suarez and John Kook or Alec bow and Johan roas or finally Bryson stot and edmundo Sosa right so you'll see here you have a row of two on our left and then the rows of three so that's the ANS and on the left is the orse uh do you want to go first Ben since I went first with the standout star yeah I don't really know where I'm going but I think eight hour flight you want some entertainment I think I gotta go I think I gota I think I'm going scene eight where I'm sitting with Ranger Suarez and John krook I mean I think krook could just be very entertaining on a flight just complaining about everything be very funny Ranger you know he's just there laughing um but I mean all 8 hour flight isn't I mean it's long but not the worst I think also that's also an aisle seat or you could be another good aisle seat against Garrett stubs um in the uh seat number two but I'm gonna go with krucker and uh Ranger Suarez in seed eight for my eight hour flight and it's an a seat so you know it's good yeah you know I'm so now that seed 8 is occupied I'm going to pick a different one just for the fun of it um but yeah seed 8 is Golden Ranger and Kook would be just that's the perfect pair right there I think and then you're still within a close enough distance you can like lean back and you can chat with Garrett stubs I don't know if Bryce Harper is gonna be the most talkative person on a flight he doesn't strike me as the type um I think he's like headphones in white noise and like reading a book that seems like his thing I'm not gonna lie um or he'd like bring a game console on the flight um and play a little that feels like Goan Roos Mar Ro yeah daycare does that um the definite worst seat here is number seven because you can't recline um you don't want to sit in cck's lap well and you got and you got the ftic and you got the fanatic but then you got The Fanatic in front of you you know he's reclining so oh wait a minute I was looking at this wrong the entire time like I was envisioning I don't know why but I was envisioning like STM St and Sosa being the front row no the lower yeah I don't know I don't know you're right so I guess you could recline into corrup my thinking was you can't it's smart to have The Fanatic in the back or in the front though that way everyone can recline not have to worry about yeah worry about that um h so I think that I am going to choose and Ben knows why uh seat number five um because I love my Trading Card collecting I'm in a room that is just for card collections now um like there's 20,000 sports cards in here um and Matt Str has his own show you can actually watch on NBC Sports Philadelphia um like it's like a midday weekday show um it's a good rainy day it's a good uh rain delay theater yeah it is yeah sometimes it gets a nod over Philly's Clubhouse um so I think it would be cool I think we could like bring some rips onto the plane and um you know open a nice box of Bowman I think that would be fun um yeah I definitely would not sit in seat four seat three one no it's definitely not six or seven yeah if eight is occupied I think five is the way to go two is a close second um but I'm going to go with five someone commented if it was a shorter flight to to laugh and giggle with stubby and nolles in the back since it's a long flight forward to get into deeply psycholog philosophical conversations around the world the meaning of life and how baseball messes with it all with cast then take a nap on his arm muscles wow that took a turn quickly yeah yeah the comments here are pretty funny um yeah they're good stuff is there anyone else I know you said schwarber when you're talking about this earlier is there anyone else that you'd want to see on here that did not make the cut uh I definitely want to see schwarber um Let Me Taiwan Walker Tell Me Taiwan what what's your game plan out there how can I help you fix yourself no man uh I feel good I'm throwing some causing some groundouts my velocity has gone from 90 to 91 um you know real Difference Maker out there yeah I think Jose avado would be fun yes I agree um I think he'd be fun also uh sending the best wishes to Jose and his family um Jose was placed on the um restricted restricted list due to uh personal matter so uh Rob Thompson expects him to be back this season um doesn't know when but expect him to be back sometime this season so hope all is well with him and his family uh so I mean how are they gonna fill his role because that's a big spot in the bullpen with no Alvarado like who is going to fill in there because I mean you have like you have two left-handed pitchers now with Tanner Banks and Matt Str Ryan kirking has also been all right against lefties like who are you gonna throw against the left-handed hitters now they know Alvin yeah I don't know um the Phillies adjust to that um I I think Kirk ring will get a little bit I think it's gonna be a little bit of everybody to tell you the truth I think Kirk ring can get an upgrade but I also think that Hoffman and drum have been good enough that you know like Hoffman doesn't need to exclusively pitch to righties he can he's shown that he can get lefties out with his fastball um and if he keeps that slider low so I think we'll see I think they'll be okay but it it'll definitely be nice um when he's able to you know return um and hopefully everything is all right with him and that's something that can you know happen hopefully in the near future um so we can get back in the bullpen all right let's look at this Brave series coming up biggest series biggest series of the year yeah I think so I mean this is the last time I see the Braves right yeah which I dislike a lot but I do too I can't um so Thursday tonight it'll be uh Charlie Morton versus Christopher Sanchez tomorrow will'll be Ronaldo Lopez versus Ranger Suarez Saturday Max freed vers Zack Wheeler Sunday Spencer schwellenbach vers Aaron Nola um it's a uh Saturday's on Fox Sunday is on ESPN a little Sunday Night Baseball action how we feel complicated question um I think they split it two and two what games are they losing um game two and four so the losing in the city connects and on Sunday Night Baseball that checks out checks out seems to always happen does it does what are you thinking for this series here I think they win the series I think they lose the city connect night on Friday and then I think they uh they're hitting I feel like the almost no hitter on Wednesday they didn't use a lot of the bullpen that day either they're going to be ready to go for this Atlanta series and what what's their lead in the division right now is it six yeah it's it's a fair number like I don't think they're in they're not going to lose it if yeah it's a it's a five game lead so if they lose the series if they get swept it's a one game if they split it stays the same so stays the same if they win it go up by I think if they win the series they have a seven game Le I mean they have a chance to kind of bury the Braves a little bit yeah absolutely I mean could you imagine if they the Philly sweep nine game lead um they have a they have a chance to bury the Braves I don't know if they're going to do it um but I mean we'll see Phil's been playing well right now so and they seem to not lose at home so right now you have to remember too the Phillies still have 27 games sorry that's not true they have 26 games am I reading that right I think so after the brave series um so a lot of a lot of baseball right there's a lot of baseball left and while it might seem like it's you know going to be a quick and easy if they sweep they can you know pretty much bury them but they still have to be at least a 500 team in those remaining games if they want to um if they want to win the division and do so comfortably which they should because they have you know they have a series against the Blue Jays who haven't been playing great they got the Marlins who haven't been playing great the Mets they have six against them um which should be sorry they have seven against the Mets which that should be a very winnable seven games at least for four or five of them I hope um the Cubs who have not been playing well they just put some of their they put Drew smiley on waivers um they're pretty much waving the white flag and they end the season with the Nationals so you've got the Brewers in there that are good Tampa Bay actually Tampa Bay is not having that great of a season this year are they I mean not really they're 66 and they're 500 team 66 67 right so really the only team in there that you should be really that worried about I think is is Milwaukee um that's a big if the Dodgers begin to run away um it'll be a big yeah yeah for sure the dodg dog the Dodgers are only a game up on the Phillies so it's not a a huge thing um right now um but yeah that that will be a big Series against the Brewers just to determine um how they'll Faire with if they're GNA play in the wild card or not which we obviously don't want to see happen I don't want to see happen just give everyone some rest I think we'll be good especially especially in the bullpen I think with the way Hoffman stum Kirk ring have all been post All-Star Break um I think that'll be good can't you believe the white sock already have 103 losses that's crazy like they're 41 and a half games out of first place that's insane they're 38 games out of my mouth is bad 37 um but whatever still that's that's ridiculous all right so is that all we have on tap for today yeah so we're either going to split or we're going to win the series we'll see what happens just uh want something good to happen maybe we'll maybe we'll sweep well we'll see you after the series we will yep we're going to have a podcast next week so we can wrap everything up see how Philly is fared in not in Atlanta but against Atlanta and uh Ben I think that's I think that's our queue all right thank you everybody for watching and listening make sure to like And subscribe 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