👋 Good morning! Eagles wide receivers who played college football at USC since 1967, according to Stathead:

Makai Lemon, let’s see what you got.

Nelly had an up-and-down career, but at least it was interesting. I would take a real Super Bowl contribution and a timeless meme from Makai.

You can reach me at [email protected]

⚾ Chicago (NL) 8, Phillies 7 (10): As morale in the Continental Army was low after a series of retreats 250 years ago, Thomas Paine wrote his second-most famous work. The first line of The American Crisis reads, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Well, The Phillies Crisis is currently being written. In the case of this fan base, these are the times that try the women’s souls too. Everybody’s soul, very much being tried.

The Phillies lost again yesterday. It was their ninth loss in a row. If they lose tonight in Atlanta against a team that swept them last weekend, they will set the record for the franchise’s longest losing streak this century.

The Phillies have fielded a bunch of bad teams this century. This was not supposed to be one of them. They made the postseason four years in a row. They won 96 and 95 games the last two seasons. And even the most tempered preseason expectations, that this would at least be a competitive and functional baseball team, make this probably the most disappointing stretch of regular-season baseball that I can remember from this franchise. Almost assuredly.

Baseball can be magical when everything is going good. Remember that month-long stretch from late-April to late-May two years ago? They went 23-5! It was one of those periods where you literally did not want to miss an inning because of how many good things were happening. This is the exact opposite. I am still (somehow) watching every inning, just through the lens of expecting something bad to happen.

Whether the Phillies turn it around or not this year, we all will remember this stretch for a long time. This type of thing just does not happen all that much.

OK, to yesterday: That was the best game that the Phillies have played during the losing streak. The lowest of low bars, but still. They at least showed some life.

Brandon Marsh deserves most of the credit for that. Marshy homered twice and drove in another run off Edward Cabrera, and then he worked a key walk off tough lefty Hoby Milner in the eighth inning. Monster performance from him.

And the Phillies had chances to win the game. They went 2-11 with runners in scoring position and could not get the final big hit, but their collective at-bats in the final three innings felt like easily their best approach in over a week. They battled against lefty pitching and scored some runs in the late innings, two things they have not really done all that much.

The result was a competitive, but tough loss. It does not provide much solace when it’s the ninth straight defeat, but it was an unquestionably better performance than getting their brains beat in the same exact way for a week.

So, why did they lose? Primarily, Cristopher Sánchez was not sharp. Disappointing outing from Sanchy in a big spot, and it just goes to show that every single part of this Phillies roster is culpable for this disastrous stretch. After Sanchy’s blow-up, Phillies starting pitching is now 28th in baseball with a 5.58 ERA. Pretty much unthinkable.

(Brad Keller, the prized bullpen acquisition? Gives up a key home run to Seiya Suzuki in the eighth inning after the Phillies tied it up. He now has a 4.36 ERA on the season. Again, everyone is culpable for this.)

Like it has been all season, the BABIP gods were not kind to Sanchy and the Phillies. Their pitchers are 30th by a mile, while the hitters are currently 28th. Part of me is rooting for us to get to 30th in both. On Thursday at Wrigley, Sanchy gave up a whole bunch of soft contact for hits. But he also gave up twelve hits in 5.1 innings and made two huge mistake pitches that got crushed out of the ballpark. The Ian Happ homer went way on to Waveland Ave.

This is now a trend. Sanchy has given up a whole bunch of hits in his last four games:

As MLB.com’s Paul Casella noted, those 37 hits are the most allowed by any Phillies pitcher in a four-start span since Zach Eflin did it in 2017. Not good, even if Sanchy has limited the damage to a degree. I am a little surprised that Taijuan did not have a stretch that was higher, but we will get to him in a minute.

Here is a crazy stat for you: Through his first eight starts last season, Sanchy gave up just 36 hits. He just topped that in half the starts.

Sánchez has clearly been unlucky. The stats say it, your eyes say it. But he has been giving up some harder contact at times, too. Whether he is tipping or something is wrong mechanically, the Phillies need their ace to be sharper. Join the club.

Thanks so much to everyone for the kind words this week. It feels great to be back.

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The Eagles drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon from USC.

No burying the lede today. But I wanted to introduce Lemon and refer back to my preview yesterday. Here were the first three sections:

Lemon injects some youth on the offensive side of the ball. He was the highest remaining player on the consensus big board, 13th overall and sitting there at the 20th pick. And to get Lemon, Howie had to make a trade with our old friend Jerry.

Cancel your plans for your Fourth-Round Draft Party. Just looking at some trade charts, that is a tiny overpay from the Eagles’ standpoint but nothing too crazy. And this is how Howie operates now, he is more than willing to trade up a few spots to nab his guy. Call that one The Marcus Smith Rule.

Sitting on my coach, my initial thought was to wonder if the Eagles needed to trade up to land Lemon. Sometimes, that question goes unanswered. But not last night. The dude was literally on the phone with the Steelers, who owned the next pick. Lemon confirmed this when meeting with the Philly media.

People around the Eagles say that one of Howie’s strong suits is being on top of all the information floating around the NFL. I dunno if the Lemon pick is gonna work out, but it is very impressive that the Eagles knew exactly what the Steelers were gonna do. The Flyers did not even have to finish off the Philly sweep of Pittsburgh this week. 🧹🧹🧹🧹

OK, is Lemon any good? I will sum up his game using my friend Fran’s ultra-detailed notes:

➖ Not a crazy athletic profile: 5-foot-11, 192 pounds with short arms. He ran a 4.5-ish 40-yard dash, which is not a burner by modern standards. The spider chart is not very spider-y.

➕ Very productive: In 11 games for USC as a true junior last season, Lemon had 79 receptions for 1,156 yards (14.6 YPC) and 11 touchdowns. He won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best receiver.

➖ Unclear if he can work on the outside: Particularly against press coverage.

➕ Seems to do slot receiver things really well: When you have that level of production in the Big 10, you are clearly doing something right. Lemon might not be a burner, but he is smooth getting in and out of his breaks. He seems like a savvy route runner. He also catches everything thrown his way. From Fran: Only five wideouts charted in the last ten drafts had a better career drop rate (2.8 percent), and only two of them had more career targets than Lemon. Love that.

And the real fun stuff: The dude seems incredibly difficult to bring down in the open field once he gets the ball in his hands. Lemon received some Amon-Ra St. Brown comps in the pre-draft process, and you can see why.

In addition to the talent grab, I think the Lemon pick signals the radical shift in offensive philosophy that the Eagles are trying to incorporate under Sean Mannion. There is a reason that Lemon gets those St. Brown comps. St. Brown plays in an offense where the receivers run crossing routes, get schemed up with play-action, work the middle of the field and do a ton of damage after the catch. You know, Shanahan/McVay Tree type of stuff. This is not the type of receiver you are gonna play iso ball with on the outside, like the Eagles have done over the past few years.

(Speaking of that, Arthur Juan Brown? He gone.)

To hammer that point home, check out this stat from Dane Brugler. If Lemon is gonna work out, Jalen Hurts is gonna have to play a different brand of football.

And that is fine, we all want Jalen and the whole offense to play a different style of football after last year. Lemon seems like a competitive psychopath (“a dawg”), which is cool. You know who else is a competitive psychopath that the Eagles traded up for with the Cowboys in the first round? DeVonta Smith.

All things being equal, I would have preferred that the Eagles drafted an offensive tackle. I am still quite worried about the near-term future of the offensive line. But you cannot force the board if it does not fall how you want it to. Kadyn Proctor and Monroe Freeling were not there. The Eagles are still drafting a premium position, one where you definitely could stand to upgrade the talent at.

Plus, we get to make 30 Rock jokes. I talk myself into every Eagles pick, even the firefighters. But the more I thought about this one, it wasn’t too hard.

The news and notes of the day…

Around the NFC East: The Cowboys and Giants both had multiple firsts, after shipping out Micah Parsons and Dexter Lawrence. The picks…

May they all stink the joint up.

The end of Taijuan Walker: We asked for it, and the Phillies finally obliged. The end of the era came buried at the end of a tweet.

Zack Wheeler will return this weekend, and the struggling Phillies rotation still looks decent on paper 1 through 5. In the past, they kept Walker around as a long man in part because they lacked quality starting pitching depth. They still do, but Walker is not anybody’s idea of quality depth. It’s over. This had to happen.

Remarkable stat from Matt Gelb and Charlotte Varnes: Since Dave Dombrowski took over in 2020, the Phillies have released nine of his free agent signings in-season or during spring training. They are: Walker, Nick Castellanos, Joe Ross, Whit Merrifield, Josh Harrison, Didi Gregorius, Jeurys Familia, Odúbel Herrera and Chase Anderson. That list does not even include busts like Jordan Romano and Max Kepler!

“Can he play?” Part 1: Coming off the rollicking Game 3 win, Dan Vladar was the one major concern for your Philadelphia Flyers. First, there was the groin issue after he got his skate blade blasted off.

But the biggest cause for concern is that Darth Vladar suffered an injury to his arm or hand (I love hockey, they will not tell you which) when Bryan Rust came into his crease.

Vladar was not on the ice Thursday, but that might have been the case anyway. The Flyers have a nice little two-day break in between Games 3 and 4. Here is all Rick Tocchet told the media: “He is a little banged-up, but feels better today. That’s basically all the information I really have.” So, that’s all the information we really have.

If Vladar cannot go, Game 4 will fall on Sam Ersson’s shoulders. That would have been legitimately terrifying a few months ago, when Ersson was basically on a two-year run of terrible goaltending. But he was pretty darn good post-Olympic break, putting together a .912 save percentage over nine games.

That said, with all due respect to Sam….

🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️ Please be OK, Dan Vladar 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

The Look: Some amazing stuff has happened between Flyers fans and opponents in the penalty box. Google “Chris Falcone.”

This one might not have been quite so, um, Philadelphian. But I enjoyed the wry smiles between this guy and Sidney Crosby after Sid’s embellishment penalty. Pretty good Crosby moment, as loathe as I am to admit it.

“Can he play?” Part 2: Two weeks post-emergency appendectomy, Joel Embiid participated in portions of yesterday’s practice. He is officially DOUBTFUL, which is how all the beat writers in every sport style injury reports nowadays. But not me. I am personally screaming at you about Joel’s doubt.

Some of the updates from Nick Nurse, who has to be a little more forthcoming than Rick Tocchet:

Make of that what you will. As Sixers Adam pointed out, “doubtful” does not necessarily mean out. Not this year for The Big Fella, at least.

Embiid has historically struggled in his first game back after long layoffs. That has anecdotally changed this year, but then again, it seems like he has taken his time more in returning this year. This would not be one of those situations.

Joel at 60 percent would still give the Sixers better minutes than they are getting from Adem Bona or Andre Drummond, but one small thing that concerns me is Embiid’s screen setting. Will someone who just had an appendectomy want to set the type of good, hard screens that are crucial to freeing up Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe? Probably not, right?

Huge weekend:

We will have a lot to talk about on Monday! Please don’t get swept, Phils.

Have a great weekend. Let’s make it a good one today.