👋 Good morning! And welcome to All-Star Week.

Nicely done by the Phillies.

In walking around Center City yesterday, there were so many people with MLB polos on. It was like there were hundreds of Rob Lowes, repping a different shield.

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Phils take 2 of 3 in Detroit: When Don Mattingly took over on April 28th, the Phillies were 9-19 and ten games back in the National League East. Since then, they have gone 45-24 and are right in the thick of the NL BEAST race at the break.

I have no idea how these Phillies have done this, with such a top-heavy team. And I think that I have to make peace with my beloved run differential lagging behind the record all year. This is a team that is built to win close games, but they will also see their fair share get away from them.

Back in late April, we all thought this team would be digging out of that huge hole all summer. Nope, not even close. At the All-Star break, they own the second wild-card spot and are three games up on the first team out of the playoffs.

Seriously, a job well done.

(Also, how ‘bout those Feisty Fish? And LOLMETS.)

This was a typical Phillies weekend, in that they put together two professional wins and looked completely hopeless in the other game. But that still counts as “2 and 1” in the ol’ standings.

In this case, the hopeless effort came first. Aaron Nola gave up his normal gopher ball (more on that below), but he actually pitched pretty well. Nola gave the Phillies five innings and struck out eight, his second encouraging outing in a row. Aaron learned how to pitch, uh-oh.

Nola pitched well enough that it was curious that Don Mattingly pulled him after 84 pitches. This was not a case of second-guessing, either. On the NBC Sports Philly broadcast, T-Mac and Ben Davis were openly wondering why Nola got pulled. Donnie, have you watched your bullpen? It is hard to argue with Mattingly’s record, but it does feel like he presses the wrong bullpen buttons a whole lot.

In fairness to Donnie Baseball, not many of those buttons are good. Even with a solid weekend, the Phillies bullpen has been straight-up dreadful in July. That group’s ERA this month is 8.81, only ahead of the LOLMETS. And that is precisely why you keep rolling with Nola when he is throwing a good game, as scary as that proposition might seem.

Mattingly needs to follow this rule of thumb: I do not want to see The Mushy Middle of my bullpen, unless I absolutely have to.

Last week, we highlighted Tim Mayza as the only lefty that has pitched well out of the Phillies ‘pen. Well, the Millersville Meteor and Pride of the PSAC gave up four runs in the sixth. Max Lazar followed with three runs in the seventh. Garrett Stubbs then showed ‘em how it’s done, retiring the side on four pitches in the eighth.

Not many success stories in the Phillies bullpen, but Stubby has tightened it up this year. His ERAs over his time pitching mop-up duty:

📈📈📈📈📈

Losing the Nola game highlights the somewhat comical predictability from these Phillies: You kinda know the games that they are gonna win and the games that they are gonna lose. And that is dictated by the starting pitching. At the break…

Against Detroit, Sanchy threw seven innings of two-run ball on Saturdee. Wheeler threw six innings of shutout ball on Sundee. Ho-hum from those two.

And congratulations are in order to Sanchy, the National League starter in the All-Star Game! Phenomenal! Did it help that Misiorowski and Ohtani are not playing? Probably, but we will take it!

In Wheeler’s case, he outdueled Tarik Skubal to lower his ERA to a preposterous 2.13 on the season. He also made news by declining an All-Star invite that definitely came too late, saying that he did not want to be chosen as a fifth option: “Because they disrespected me. So I’m just not gonna participate in that thing.”

(My take on that? I love Wheeler, and his pitching has been out of this world coming off Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Seriously, this guy got his friggin’ rib removed and is back dealing like nothing happened! I also fully support Pissed Wheeler remaining a thing the rest of the season. But also, like, MLB did invite you after you complained about it… especially after saying that you would pitch in the game. I dunno, it is a little disappointing. I would have liked to see him pitch in the game in Philly, as the crowd would have went appropriately nuts for him. And I am sure that will be the only time Zack Wheeler will even slightly disappoints me. Love that guy.)

Derek Thrill had himself a weekend.

Hill started his career in Detroit, so he knows that ballpark well. A five-star catch.

Over the weekend, Hill got to start all three games. Justin Crawford had some left knee soreness, after slipping in the outfield doing fielding drills. Hopefully a week off does Crawford well, but Hill took advantage of the extra playing time: He had three hits and a homer on Fridee, followed up by one hit and three steals on Saturdee. And then he struck out four times on Sundee, but who cares?

I do not know how much Hill will factor into October, but you gotta get to October first. He has legitimately helped them over the past month.

Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper were slumping coming into the break, so it was nice to see J.T. Realmuto get the big hit in each of the Phillies’ wins: two-run double into the left-field corner on Saturdee, three-run double into the left-field corner on Sundee.

Looks like a nice week down the shore. These guys have earned it.

Just a ton to get to from the weekend. Let’s go in order.

When I saw Jon Heyman walking around Center City, I knew we were the center of the sports universe.

What a Saturday in Philadelphia! A bunch of people walking across the Ben Franklin Bridge, and the MLB Draft a few blocks away at the Convention Center. I did not tune into a ton of the draft coverage, but apparently Rob Manfred butchered the first overall pick’s name. This was the guy who was projected to go No. 1 all along, too. Classic ManFraud.

As for the Phillies, they drafted a whole bunch of guys like they always do. Here are the players they selected from Day 1:

Credit goes to Matt Winkleman, who compiles all of this information and analyzes it well. An invaluable resource when it comes to the Phillies minor-league system, and especially around draft time.

Confession: I am not particularly happy with Brian Barber right now.

Barber’s official title is “Assistant General Manager, Amateur Scouting.” He has run the Phillies’ drafts all the way back to 2020. I do not know if Barber and the scouts are at fault, the Phillies’ development side is at fault, or a combination of the two here. But the Phillies’ farm system is bottom-five around MLB, and there is just no reason for it to be that bad. Dave Dombrowski has dipped into it for a few trades over the years, but he has been relatively disciplined. Other good teams like the Dodgers and Brewers are near the top of the farm system rankings. Good organizations nowadays really can have their cake and eat it too.

Last year, Gage Wood was a departure from how the Phillies handled their first picks under Barber. Before that, the Phillies swung for upside and were willing to live with risk. Wood actually fit the upside/risk profile, but the difference is that he was a college player. The five first-round picks under Barber before Wood were all high schoolers: Mick Abel, Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford, Aidan Miller and Dante Nori.

Well, Barber reverted back to his type again with the 36th pick: Spangler, a 6-foot-3 shortstop out of Northern California.

Historically, De La Salle is known more as a football powerhouse. The Spartans famously went undefeated for 12 straight years under Bob Ladouceur and produced a ton of pros. Maurice Jones-Drew was a monster in high school. On the more recent baseball side, the team forfeited five games this season because of a hazing incident. You would have never seen that type of behavior under Coach Lad. Barber is on record saying that Spangler had nothing to do with the hazing. I hope so.

You look at video of Spangler, and he looks like a fluid athlete. Big kid, smooth lefty swing. So, what is the risk you ask?

Well, Spangler did not play baseball this season. And unlike High School Aidan Miller, this was not because a freak injury like a broken hand. But like Prospect Aidan Miller, Spangler’s back kept him off the field all spring. Yikes.

Spangler is committed to play at Stanford and is considered an over-slot pick. The Phillies probably had to make some under-slot selections the rest of the way to make up the difference.

The Phillies really need both Brian Barber and the development side to start having some wins. Underneath the top seven or eight players on the major-league roster, many of whom are over 30, this is not a particularly healthy organization right now. We saw how that dynamic, older stars and a barren farm system, crippled the Phillies post-2011.

One draft is not gonna reverse all of the damage that has been done in recent years, but it can sure help. Let’s hope that Spangler and some of these other picks hit.

Speaking of Wood…

Wood started the Futures Game at CBP for the National League. He gave up one run in one inning, because super prospect Leo De Vries blooped a single and then stole two bases off him. But Wood did not look so bad.

After the game, Wood sounded in awe of CBP. I know that the Phillies are being careful with his innings and want him to be a starter, but you cannot tell me that they have ruled him out as a bullpen option in September. The David Price Plan at least has to be in play. Have you seen this bullpen?!?!

Also, I found this deeply funny.

Bowa’s American Leaguers won 6-1. Hard work pays off.

I did not see any of the 3-on-3 stuff, but The Big Piece looked to be hitting bombs from right in front of second base. A little bit of cheating, but he poked one off the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky sign. That would have been outta there from home plate.

I cannot say I get all that juiced for the Home Run Derby every year nowadays. But the Home Run Derby In Your Ballpark? Yes please, sign me up.

Tonight’s field:

Kinda wish Pete Alonso was participating and taking it incredibly seriously, so the Philly faithful could boo him.

Netflix is broadcasting the derby, with Matt Vasgersian handling play-by-play duties. If you ask me, they should have backed up the Brink’s truck to bring Chris Berman out of retirement. Back, back, back, back, back, back, back…

MLB changed up the format this year, away from outs and the clock. Now, it’s all about swings:

That format has Schwarber written all over it. Never liked him and the time clock. This is a man who lets the game come to him.

Schwarbs took a while to decide on participating, presumably because of the back tightness that kept him out of the starting lineup for a couple of games in Washington a few weeks ago. “But everything’s been trending the right way,” he said.

This is the third time that Kyle is participating, with the other two coming in 2022 (lost in first round) and 2018 (lost to Harper in the finals). Ditto for Bryce, who won it at Nationals Park in 2018 and lost in the finals in 2013.

Kyle’s pitcher will be Phillies assistant hitting coach Raffy Pena, who normally throws batting practice to him. Makes sense. Bryce used to have his dad pitch to him, but Ron Harper has not thrown for a few years. So, Bryce is turning to Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel. They worked together with Team USA at the World Baseball Classic. And Ebel famously grooved those three pitches to Schwarber in last year’s swing-off at the All-Star Game. Dino Ebel seems like a man who throws a good BP.

And because Harper is always a little goofy, he made a suggestion to MLB that very much stayed a suggestion: Let us MLB power hitters use aluminum bats for “a golden-ball round.”

Dino Ebel throwing to Bryce Harper with an aluminum bat:

The news and notes of the day…

Kevin McGonigle: Of course McGonigle took Aaron Nola deep on Friday. That should have been off the board at the various sportsbooks.

There have been some good McGonigle stories over the past week. Lochlahn March talked with Kevin Long about the time that McGonigle swung in the batting cages at CBP back in 2023. At that time, he was just a high school senior and Phillies fan that happened to be really good at baseball. McGonigle seems like a really good kid, one that comes from a blue-collar family that worked hard to give him every opportunity they could manage in baseball. And I will always have a soft spot for a Philadelphia Catholic Leaguer.

I mentioned Cody Stavenhagen’s story the other day, one that delightfully captures Delaware County in telling McGonigle’s story. By the way, big week for Delco: Brad Inglesby is bringing the Task and Mare of Easttown universes together. Maybe McGonigle can make a cameo while he is in town.

Anyway, the funniest quote from that piece belongs to Steve DeBarberie, who coached McGonigle at Bonner-Prendie. DeBarberie, of course, is also a Phillies fan.

McGonigle went No. 37 to Detroit in the 2023 MLB Draft. The Phillies took Aidan Miller at No. 27, and Miller still could be very good if he can figure out his back issues. But even if Miller gets healthy (and please do, Aidan), it would be hard for him to match McGonigle. A rookie being this good is something that you rarely see.

All of this McGonigle coverage was reminiscent of Mike Trout’s rise. There was the well-told story that Trout, then a minor leaguer with the Angels in 2009, ran downstairs and exclaimed to his father, “Dad, we got Roy Halladay!” And his dad told him, “Son, you play for the Angels.”

I am not trying to play the #ShouldOfDrafted card, because drafting is incredibly hard and everyone is a genius with the benefit of hindsight. The Phillies did not have a pick in the first round of Trout’s draft year, either. They did not pass on him. But I got to wondering that if a local high school kid from the Delaware Valley is good enough to be a first-round pick, should the Phillies be in the business of drafting them regardless of their scouting report?

After all, the Delaware Valley is not a baseball hotbed. Prep players in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and Georgia can pretty much play year-round. Not up here. So, if you are good enough to get on scouts’ radars in the freezing Northeast, maybe the Phillies should shop local.

The list of first-round picks from the area since 2009:

A somewhat ridiculous premise, I understand. Prep players from New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc. sometimes get drafted in the first round, and they cannot play year-round.

But would you make those middle five draft picks — the Phillies drafted Biddle, of course — if it meant that you got the two guys on the end? I know my answer.

Jaylen Brown, showing up at summer league: Going to summer league is not a prerequisite for someone of Jaylen Brown’s caliber. That is often something reserved for the younger players, like second-year VJ Edgecombe (who needs some rest after dunking on a bunch of Jamaicans). You get a workout in the morning and then sit in the first row to watch the young guys play. It is a pretty relaxed atmosphere.

Well, Brown did show up at Cox Pavilion, presumably for the photo op. I like that Mike Gansey seems to be all-in on the Phillies after jinxing the no-hitter last month. Probably gives him something to talk about with Joel.

Summer Sixers 100, Summer Pacers 93 (OT): I was watching soccer on Saturday, but I do have both of the Sixers’ summer league games on the DVR for today.

The Sixers are now 2-0 in the all-important summer league standings. As everyone in Philadelphia remembers, and really cannot stop talking about, Casper Ware, Hollis Thompson and Nerlens Noel led the Sixers to the Orlando summer league title in 2014. But they have never captured the crown in Las Vegas. Maybe this is #TheYear.

Labaron Philon in Game 2: 24 points (9-22 FG), 6 assists to 2 turnovers. Seems like two pretty good showings for the kid. His highlights are here.

You can see that Philon really is a Craftsman with the ball in his hands. Some nice euro-step finishes off his left foot, in particular. As my friend Mike Levin showed on The Rights to Ricky Sanchez, the pass that Philon threw to Johni Broome in the pick-and-roll last game showed some advanced feel. I think the fact that Johni Broome of all people actually was able to dunk in traffic off it shows what a well-timed pass that it was.

Two very funny NBA stories involving the Bucks: What happened to my beloved Heat Culture?!?! Everything we have been told is a lie!

It can be difficult to keep up with NBA drama, but the genesis of this beef was Herro apparently criticizing Adebayo on his (well-known) burner Instagram account. These athletes really need to log off. Anyway, Herro seemed miffed that Adebayo makes close to double his salary, despite the fact that he probably is a better offensive player. From the burner account: “Who did Cleveland prioritize taking away in the playoffs?"

I do not think anyone would consider Herro a better basketball player than Adebayo, but Adebayo needs to be paired with a No. 1 scoring option like Jimmy Butler. His best skill is his defensive versatility. In lieu of a No. 1 scoring option, Herro took that role over Adebayo last season. Related: Miami finished 10th in the Eastern Conference.

It is very funny to read, “Who did Cleveland prioritize taking away in the playoffs?" If Herro is referring to the East’s 1-8 matchup two years ago, the Cavs swept the Heat and won the four games by a combined total of 122 points. Dude, who cares about the scouting report? You guys got your doors blown off!

I sure hope LeBron is taking notes and tsk-tsking this drama. That seems like a rickety ship down in South Beach.

Herro now plays for Milwaukee, after being shipped out in the Giannis trade. Speaking of the Bucks, they handed out the funniest contract of maybe the past few years: Gary Trent Jr. for four years and $64 million.

Gary Trent Jr. plays the same position as new Sixer Anfernee Simons. Last season, Simons…

They are similarly sized defenders and the exact same age. And Simons signed for two years and $12.3 million.

How is that money difference possible? I cannot come to any other conclusion than Milwaukee made a wink-wink agreement with Trent last year. He signed for the minimum for the 2025-26 season, when that was all that Milwaukee could give him. At the time, that was considered a coup for the Bucks. But then Trent had a terrible season, and was somehow rewarded with the eighth-highest contract of this summer’s free agency. It makes no sense! That sure seems like a wink-wink deal — “Take the minimum this year, we will take care of you next year — which of course would be considered cap circumvention and illegal.

Remember, the Sixers were looked at for cap circumvention for the pay-cut that James Harden took in 2022-23. The league found no evidence of a handshake agreement between player and team after confiscating phones and emails and such. And as it turned out, there was no contract waiting for Harden the following offseason. Maybe Harden thought there was an agreement, as the “Daryl Morey is a liar!” tour was certainly memorable.

Regardless of what happened, that controversy is in the past for the Sixers. But the Bucks? They got some ‘splainin to do.

What a great summer for sports in Philadelphia.

Even if “Philadelphia Stadium” has now turned back into The Linc, people still seem to be very excited about this World Cup. I sometimes take walks around the city, get my steps in while enjoying the summer weather, and it has been cool to see so many bars showing the games both inside and outside.

That footie fervor was still apparent this past weekend, in one of my old stomping grounds: Fairmount. Love that neighborhood. I watched the England-Norway match on Saturday at a packed Hilltown Tavern (24th and Brown), but The Black Taxi (25th and Aspen) also had a huge crowd watching the game on the street. Those are both good places to watch Premier League soccer, and they both also pour a nice pint of Guinness. Absolute creamers, Prime Mutton-approved.

(Speaking of Hilltown, a pretty funny moment during the soccer: Like any self-respecting Philadelphia bar, they pride themselves on having all the local teams on the televisions… so much so, that all of their screens have an Xfinity reminder when any of the Flyers-Sixers-Phillies-Eagles are about to play. Well, as Harry Kane was about to take an important free kick, a reminder for the Summer Sixers’ upcoming game against the Summer Pacers took over every screen. The amount of booing in the bar was akin to Ben Simmons’ first game back in Philadelphia. Very funny. I guess they did not want to see Labaron Philon hoop. Their loss.)

And who knows, I might hit up the All-Star Village at the Convention Center at some point over the next two days. No idea if this true, but word on the street is that they have batting cages that simulate major-league pitching. I was a pretty good fielder growing up, but my bat speed was always laughably slow even against kids. Maybe I will hit the cages if they can simulate a Jamie Moyer fastball right down the middle. Anything more than that is not quite my tempo.

The All-Star Village is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the next two days. If you go on Tuesday, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are doing a live podcast with… Chase Utley and Cole Hamels. 😍😍😍

I think the Home Run Derby (8:00 p.m., Netflix) is all that we got tonight. Ted Sarandos getting into the dingers game, I see. Go Kyle, Go Bryce.

Let’s make it a good one.