Red October Question and Answer

300 mill later now you understand us

Greetings all you wahoo maniacs and welcome to the latest edition of A Hitter’s Count Blog – Red October Preview Edition. In this episode I will engage in a Q and A with my good friend and esteemed colleague Kyle Faber who authored the mid-season report earlier this season.

 

We welcome you here to what is officially the 3rd period of extended postseason play in the Phillies century plus existence. The late 70’s early 80s teams brought home a title. The Charlie Manuel led Phillies brought home a title. This team has been ready for this moment all season and so have the fans so hopefully they are poised to bring home the third World Series championship in franchise history.

 

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk baseball, mostly, and get into the Q & A that will work both ways with each of us taking turns questioning and answering.

 

AR: Fabes, my man. I just re-read your midseason post and the Phils were 62-34 at the break or 28 games above 500. They ended the season 28 games above 500 at 95-67. What’s your biggest worry heading into the NLDS awaiting the winner of the stinkin Mets or Rhys Hoskins’ Brew Crew?

 

KF: Top worry, cold bats, but there's no way to control that. Top controllable worry would be Toppers in game decisions. Country Club Rob tends to trust his hitters and wont make a move even late in games.  He has got to know when to hit for Stott, Marsh, or Rojas even if it might be in the 4th inning.  The bullpen is also key… Ruiz, Banks Orion, Strahaminator, Hoffman, Emilio Estevez allow him to shorten a game and he can't hang with Nola, Sanchez, or Rangy the 3rd time through the order. 

Side Bar worry….. Playing the Brewers and Phillies fans cheering for Rhys Hoskins.  I have a young family and I like 2 of my 3 children.  It would be terrible if my brain exploded watching Phillies fans cheer for a defensive liability who smashed a bat on the ground after a home run during a playoff game. 

KF: Alex, give me 1 player outside Harper who is the key to the lineup this postseason? 

AR: Thank you for this take, I think most of us would be in agreement with your assessment. Getting no-hit in the 2022 World Series the game after setting a home run record in the World Series is the Jekyll and Hyde we saw with the 2023  NLCS after game 2. It’s the elephant in the room.

Good question here though and I think Schwarber, Trea and Nicky Cast are  bonafide sluggers capable of rising to the occasion but I gotta go Alec Bohm. Bohmer, the giraffe, was hitting 390 like two months into the season and was so far out front in RBI and doubles it was hard to believe what you were seeing. If we get anywhere close to that guy I think the rest of the lineup will fall in place. A key, as always, will be getting 2 out hits and Erin Dolan’s boyfriend slashed 333/413/621 in 66 at bats with 2 outs and runners in scoring position. Those kind of momentum hits in the playoffs are back breakers. Bohm ended the season with 97 rbi for the second straight year and 38 of them came with 2 outs.

In reply to your sidebar - was the guy not clutch in the playoffs? Mets up 1-0 in this series at time of this writing but ifffff we play the Brew Crew, Rhys gets one ovation at the start, then he’s the enemy is how he’d get treated is my take.

AR Sidebar question - Did Bohm and Ranger’s production dips when their relationships picked up have any correlation?

KF: I do not see any way how a relationship with ESPNs EKD could harm a human's life.  Even if I'm wrong, I'm happy for Bohmer.  Whatta Babe!!  Ranger… obviously a sign that you need to limit direct time with your family. Possibly everyone would benefit from being in a foreign nation without your family for months on end to concentrate on “work”. 

AR: Red October question - Who is your bench / platoon guy that makes the biggest impact?

KF: Brandon Marsh…. JK, I almost ruined his career with my calls outs in the midseason blog.  My guy is JOHANNNNNNNNNNN Rojasssss.  If you missed the final weekend in Washington, Marsh could not catch a fly ball in CF that prevented Nola from reaching the 200 IP mark.  I obviously do not care about Aaron Nola’s Innings Pitched in 2024 but I do believe that your best lineup for the playoffs has Rojas in CF.  If he has the ability to walk, dump a single to the outfield, and steal a bag from the right side, the Phils lineup will be tough to deal with. 

KF: Current Odds have the Phils as the 3rd favorite to win the WS…. Who is better than the Phillies? 

AR: The answer is nobody if they hit. The lineup is balanced and deep when they don’t give away at bats and press. But even then, the pitching has generally been good enough to keep them in games where the bats may be quiet early. One thing they were doing well in September was coming from behind, another thing you need to draw on when you get down in the playoffs. They have guys that can hit bombs and 4 run leads are not insurmountable if the bullpen performs like it has all year. With that said, Judge and Ohtani hit a lot of bombs and without looking those two teams have to be the only ones with better odds than our Phightins from winning the whole thing.

AR: Will we see the Bryce Harper of the past two years in the postseason? Is it possible? 6 home runs in ‘22, 5 home runs in ‘23 in 30 total games 11 homers and 21 rbi last two postseasons.

 PK: 

Outside Saint Nick Foles and Joel Embiid, no Philadelphia athlete has ever performed in the postseason like Bryce Harper. I don’t think we can expect those numbers but you do need to have a big time performance from your superstars in the PostSeason.  WHO WILL BE THE GUY THAT STEPS UP???  Im looking at you Treaburt Turner and Hillbilly Nola!!!!

Prediction Time Alex!!!!

Mets in 4 Padres in 7 Indians in 6 as we rejoice and forget about the bags under Nick Sirannis eyes for a month of delightful postseason baseball!!!!   Happy Red Octubre Everyone!!!! Go Phils!! 

AR: Phils lose to the Mets in 5 and I reenact 2011 Ryan Howard torn achilles loss smoking cigs the final three innings, Sirianni fired before the end of the year, and Joel Embiid leads a parade down Broad Street next June or I’m not a Philadelphia sports fan. LETS GO PHILS!!