What will the Phillies do at the Trade Deadline?

NTT ballpark as we continue here on a high heat the Philadelphia Phillies have been hot as of late as this team is right now making once again a surge towards the playoffs. Phillies have been bolstered by some excellent starting pitching and offensive strength as you'd expect from a team with College Rover Bryce Harper Nick Castellanos and others to talk further about the Philadelphia Phillies. A pleasure bringing the general manager of the team that is Sam Holden of course a former player always loved him and those crazy catches he would make. We'll get those playing for maybe a little bit. But Sam congrats to the Phillies do what the Phillies do. You have to slow start also the team kicks things up a notch. What do you think has been the key to just how strong you've been lately. Well I think it starts with our pitching. You mentioned it just just a second ago. I think we've just gotten good contributions like all up and down our our staff. You know the starts to starting pitching and guys like Tyler Walker and Rangers Suarez have been throwing the ball really well for us obviously in addition to our our two horses and Wheeler and Nola and then you see Chris Sanchez. You know we've had some sort of we've been in flux with that fifth spot in the rotation and Chris Chris Sanchez has stepped up and made a handful of really good starts for us. So yeah it starts there. But really in our bullpen it's just been outstanding really like the whole year. I mean they've been about as consistent a group as I've seen and similar to the starting group like it's just contributions up and down. It's you know some household names like like Craig Kimbrel and Jose Alvarado but then some some other contributions from guys like Andrew Vasquez and Jeff Hoffman that have been unsung but just as important. So I think it starts with that and we're getting we're starting to heat up a little bit with our bats and feel like we've yet to see the best of our offensive group. You mentioned Kimball four hundred and ten saves. Sam it's amazing. You look at his journey obviously all those great years at Atlanta Braves fell off a little bit. Now it's rejuvenated. I mean he comes at you in games like that like he's not looking for a double play ball. He's looking for a strikeout pop like center. What have you seen from Kimball that just has led to this resurgence. It's strike throwing and stuff really. I mean it's you know we saw some ninety ones and ninety twos in spring training. But but since March it's just been this uptick and stuff and now he's popping ninety sixes and ninety sevens pretty regularly. And that kind of heater from that low slot and his ability to get to the top of the zone with that heater. I mean it's just it's it's fun to watch. It's a really difficult pitch to square up and then you couple that with a really good breaking ball that when he's you know in and around the zone either going to strike to ball or ball to strike with it's it's dangerous. It's you know it's a reason why he's a likely Hall of Famer. It's been really cool to see he's been huge back there for us. And it certainly has been emitting those other starters as well. I mean those one seven straight starts by Zach Wheeler. He's got a three five nine era over that span Tyler Walker seven and a one eight four era his last seven starts. He's a guy Sam. I remember watching him in the Futures game. I called that game with Rick Sussman Aaron Boone years ago. He was a while. Tyler Walker is special. And lately you're seeing that. What is it about Walker that really impresses you. Well I think he's traditionally been a strikethrower and maybe you know maybe in the beginning of the year he wasn't quite limiting the free passes the way that he has throughout his career. But you know similar to Craig like the stuff picked up and you're seeing ninety four ninety fives and you've seen that split which has really become his biggest weapon. And you know he's he's landing that for strikes when he wants and you know it's touching 90 even ninety one at times. So it's similar to Craig and then it's just like a you know improve stuff but but also improve command. Rob Thompson has said that Bryce Harper will see some time at first base perhaps in this series. You mentioned this on Sunday. What's the thought process there with regards to getting Bryce back in the field. Well I think you know I think sometimes we take for granted that a position like first base you know you can just sort of snap your fingers and be ready. But we want to make sure that he's comfortable. You know we give him a lot of credit for for taking on this challenge. He knows that we're a better team and we can free up that spot and get a little bit more flexibility out of the age role. So I think it's just continuing to work on the little things. You know I think there's a lot you know underneath the surface to play in that position whether it's on defense or you know cuts and relays you know pick offs. It's more than just fielding phone goes. So we're you know we're excited to see what he looks like over there. Don't know exactly when that's going to happen but I think it's around the corner. Yeah. This whole run Saturday by the end of that career was 38 game homeless draft. So you know Bryce is too good a player to keep up and hopefully be back in the field. We'll have spread that out as well. I'm not sure we're only four straight games first time in his career. Thirteen homers his last 36 games. Sam when he goes off like this he just doesn't carry it off into that power. Yeah it's pretty fun to watch. It's amazing just feels like it's now June and July where he's one of the best hitters in the game. It's incredible. He just he's such a force in the batter's box can can impact the game at any point. You saw it yesterday with the leadoff homer. And you know I think it's it's special what he's doing. It's not shocking to anybody but it is pretty remarkable that how he just seems to turn it up a notch when the weather heats up and this ball does carry a little bit better here at CBP. And I think when the weather's warm and we've had a hot summer here in Philly and I think those two things combined to combine into a really good piece of production from Shores. Yeah as people often say it's not the heat it's the humidity shorter we'll take all of it as it carries. Mr. June he's Mr. July as well. I got a chance to talk to Rob Thompson at the All-Star Game for MLB Network and he's just he's such a refreshing guy. You know the story will never get old. This guy's you know a life from the game. He's obviously had a wonderful career figures. But pretty much it gets the call to replace Joe Girardi who's obviously a good friend as well as a guy that does the job goes to the World Series. Armed with a contract. You know I think it's a story that can never get old. But Rob Thompson and his patience has been rewarded and credit to you and the organization for recognizing that Rob was that guy. How has that relationship developed and really blossomed. He's been great. You know I had the opportunity to work you know down in the clubhouse with Thompson for a couple of years. You know when I first started here with the Phillies and I got to see what a what an absolute professional he is and what you know I got to see his reputation get matched up with his with his actions. You know I had such a good reputation. He came over here with all this time the Yankees and he's met and exceeded everything that we've heard about him. And he's taken on this managerial role really swimmingly like he's the same guy. And I think that's not an easy thing to do especially in a market like this. There's just a there's a whole lot of layer of pressure that comes with this role. And he handles it really well. And he's steady as can be. I think that's a really important quality in this environment in that role. It's easy to kind of ride the roller coaster but he's able to be the same guy day in and day out. I think he gives guys confidence just knowing that he's going to support them and be the same guy every day. So I don't think it's any accident. We've played some really good baseball with him at the home. Yeah. There's no question about a four game winning streak right now. You guys have that third wall card spot. You're half a game right now up on the Marlins. You won the first of three against the Brewers yesterday as far as schedule watching. You got three at the gardens three versus the Orioles and that's three at the Pirates. I know you can't divulge too many company secrets but trade that line around the corner. Is there any specific area you're targeting. How do you think Philadelphia will be. Well I think you can never have too much pitching even though it's been an absolute strength of ours. You know it would be negligent of us to not at least see what is out there and you know see if there's ways to augment what is really what is already a really good you know pitching staff. I think we'll know Harper's transition to first we'll have some implications as to what we explore on the position player side. But similarly I think we've got a really good group right now. And like I said I think we'll probably get even more offensive. Hopefully we'll get more offensive production out of our group. You know in the months of August and September but you know we'll explore ways that we can make that group better. Not exactly sure what that will look like. And like I said I think some of that may be contingent upon Harper's ability to play first base. But now we've got a really good squad and there's a back of every guy every guy's baseball card and our lineup is pretty good. And you know that includes our young guys who have really stepped up this year. Bryson Scott Brandon Marsh you know we've just gotten a really good production out of them and I don't think we'd be where we are right now without their without their improvements. That's well said. The Phillies vice president and general manager of baseball operations Sam Paul doing another outstanding job with Philadelphia. As I said as a player I love all those catches you make the crash test dummy. And of course I appreciate you Philadelphia in the front office. Thanks so much Sam. We'll talk soon. Sounds good. Thanks.