This Phillies Have a MASSIVE Opportunity...

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment has arrived. The stretch that will define the Philadelphia Phillies season is right here upon us as they prepare to square off with the NLEs leading Atlanta Braves and control their destiny from here. Dig into that hatred. Remember the Garcia at a boy to Bryce Harper. Remember the series that largely sparked the Rob Thompson firing at the start of the season. Remember the postseason battles that the Phillies have had with this Atlanta Braves team in past seasons because it's all about to start right here, right now. I do want to talk about how important this four-game series against the Atlanta Braves is as well as look ahead to the postseason path for this Phillies team and why this is so important in swinging the outlook from here. Beyond that, I want to reflect on a couple more promising numbers about this Phillies team outlook, more particular with Bryce Harper directly and the addition of Luis Arias. But I do want to just start off with the MLB putting this on full display. Love this tweet from the official league right here saying the Phillies and Braves play seven of their next 10 games against each other. How will this NL East race look at the end of the season series and it shows in the standings of the NL East that the Braves currently leading with an 83 and 57 roster. The Phillies four games back with a 79 and 61 overall record. So the four game gap there is notable. Don't get me wrong. That is not nothing. But the fact that they're in that level of striking distance considering how the season started is pretty remarkable and frankly playing far better baseball in its current iteration. The Phillies are on another level compared to what we've seen from the Braves and sometimes sports are about getting hot at the right time. I think no clearer example of that is with baseball directly and the Phillies are surging while the Braves are fading now to talk a little bit deeper about how important the series is. I do want to take a look at this postseason map and you can see as the standings currently sit that if the playoffs were to end right here right now before these series even kick off, the Phillies would enter the postseason as the fourth seed in the National League. That would mean a three game series with the Chicago Cubs to earn the right to play the Milwaukee Brewers with the best of five series and ultimately get to the NLCS against whatever the winner is of that top group, which is largely shaping up to be the Braves, Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Now theoretically the biggest appeal here if the Phillies can find a way to earn that two seed is obviously the buy that comes with it. The fact that you don't have to win that three game series and there is a little bit of inherent luck that does come with that small of a sample size. It is one thing when it is the best of seven, another is the best of three. Now granted there is an argument to be made that if you're facing a team like the Cubs that you know can be, can look like the best team in baseball one night and one of the worst and another, maybe you want them in a three game sample size, particularly when you're talking about the caliber of pitching staff that the Phillies do possess, but ultimately I want blood right here. I want the Phillies to be chasing that top spot to play their top baseball and it is less to me about chasing that overall, you know, slot in the overall standings and the way the brackets are shaped out and more about, I'm sick of just limping into the postseason. I'm sick of just, you know, eyeing what our best path is. I want this team to establish themselves as we're the better baseball team regardless of who we play and that includes the Atlanta Braves. Now to dive into the pitching matchups for this series, and I know we are getting underway just about pretty soon here, that this is a massive four game series and we are getting the brightest pitching stars. Tonight Chris Sale vs. Christopher Sanchez, two of the premier pitchers in all of baseball. It is going to be a good one. Tomorrow, Perez vs. Wheeler and for Zach Wheeler right here, this is a situation where we've seen some of the doubts, we've seen some of the struggles. This is your opportunity, your moment to step in there, command the overall mound and say I am still the ace of this Phillies baseball team. I was encouraged by his last start against the Angels, it was a little bit of a rocky first inning, but he settled in and looked like the Zach Wheeler that we have come to expect on an every game basis. On Sunday, we'll get Tyler Maul vs. Aaron Nola and Nola has a chance to really give himself, put himself in play to play a real postseason role. It is incredible that that is on the table, once again considering what we saw at the start of the season, but he has been this guy for an extended stretch of time now and that is a game that they need to win. And then finally wrapping things up, Grant Holmes vs. Jesus Lozardo. There has not been very many pitchers playing at a higher level than Lozardo of late and he has an opportunity to assert himself. Grant Holmes certainly by no means a pushover there, but pretty thrilled about this. Speaking about the pitching staff as a whole, an interesting ranking did come out on Sports Illustrated talking about the best pitching staffs in baseball heading into the postseason and the Phillies I do think are seeing a little bit of disrespect in the conversation. What Sports Illustrated did lay out is number one, no surprise, the Los Angeles Dodgers with the top four that they do ultimately list off being Tariq Scouble, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, and Blake Snout. Now Ohtani is an interesting case there as I think it is looking more and more likely that the dude just cannot pitch in the postseason whatsoever. He's obviously banged up, dealing with some injuries and still kind of muscling through it to bring his bat to the table. He's still an incredible baseball player any way you slice it, but I wouldn't exactly have that chalked up as a certainty that he will be pitching for this Dodgers team. And obviously when talking about tipping the scales, the Tariq Scouble addition absolutely did shift the outlook in a good bit. He is an absolute animal, a dude that is, when he's right, I consider the best pitcher in baseball and it is such a bummer that it does end up on the Dodgers, but you can't be scared. The Phillies got to deliver on their own right and they do have names that I do think can absolutely match up with these in a one-on-one standpoint. The Yankees, I do not think, have a rightful place above the Phillies in this conversation. Cam Schlittler is awesome and has been playing at a ridiculous level. I believe he has climbed to the ERA leader following Jacob Mizorowski kind of slipping a little bit in these tail end of the season. Garrett Cole, also phenomenal. Max Freed, incredibly impressive. Carlos Rodon, who's really found his footing once again. These are all great options. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to tear down these guys, but I will say, if we're talking about going to war, I kind of like the hand that the Phillies are holding with Christopher Sanchez, with Zach Wheeler, with Jesus Lozada, with Aaron Nola. This isn't even including Andrew Painter, but I think there's a pretty fascinating conversation to have about what is the best way to utilize him in a postseason standpoint. Obviously, the rotation is shortened. You tend to rock with four guys, even three guys, depending on the way that you do want to play things out right there, but Painter's now proven that he is one of the top pitchers on the staff, at least of late, and I do think that there is a place for him, whether that is coming out of the bullpen, maybe you want to piggyback him and Nola. I'm very curious to see what the decision will be for the Phillies when we do get to that stage. But to round out the list of the top five rotations, it gives the Brewers a little love with four. I will note, if I am a Brewers fan right now, Jacob Mizorowski, the raw velocity is incredible. The dude is certainly learning to pitch at a high level. I do see him fading, man, and it is pretty difficult to just teach without going through it yourself, of living up to the repetitive motion that it does take to go through the season. It is pretty easy to look like the clear-cut best pitcher on baseball in any random game. It's a little bit more difficult to do that when you have this level of innings underneath your belt. And even with Milwaukee being pretty cautious with his approach all year, I do see him fading at a pretty notable extent. He has not looked right for a couple of starts by my eyes, and I do think that is a point to note. It does give the Red Sox the number five note on these top potential rotations. To bring it back to the Phillies, as I like to put it, my mindset with this team is no longer looking around the league. It should be tunnel vision. It should be, we can beat any team in baseball, we just got to play our best game, and that is what I do see playing out. There was an interesting ranking that popped up on ESPN talking about the trade deadline grades and what teams have benefited or faltered based on their additions, and it didn't exactly project the Phillies in the brightest of light here. Now what ESPN writes, and this is coming from a couple days ago at this stage, so the record has shifted slightly, but the playoff percent chance did bump up to plus 34.2%, but the pickup impact, which with Luis Suarez obviously being the headline name here, says negative 6.9. And what the article writes is, the Phillies have gone 19-7 since the deadline and improved their win projection in the simulations by more than five wins, easily the biggest uptick of the contending teams. Hard to complain about that. At the same time, their deadline activity isn't necessarily directly connected to their results. Luis Suarez has felt like a perfect fit for the Phillies lineup, but his actual output so far, .704 OPS, which by the way, it is dipped below that, is in the sixes, which is not exactly what you want to see, has been modest. Brooks Riley has been fine in the bullpen. Both might still play key roles for a team that has high October aspirations, but so far the Phillies have been on a roll for other reasons. Now the driving force of those other reasons is front and center, Mr. Elite, Mr. Showman, Bryce Harper right there. And to highlight the production that we're seeing at the plate, I love that he's starting to get some national love because this dude has straight up been one of the best players in baseball all season. But since the start of August, across 34 games, posting a .363 average, a .522 on base percentage, that is a nutty number right there, just eating up the walks as they throw him his direction, and a .588 slugging percentage, a .206 WRC+. That is nuts stuff from the guy that the Phillies go as Bryce Harper takes them. This is a statement series for the Phillies across the board. I cannot wait to see the way they carry themselves, the intensity that they do show. And I want hatred. I want this to feel like a rivalry in the way that it should. It feels like we've lost a little bit of that as everything has been focused towards getting to the postseason. Let's wake up when the playoffs start. All that kind of outlook, it is about right now, but the playoffs might as well start right now for the Phillies. Because if you want that bye week, or bye season, you know, get to a bye from a postseason perspective. If you do want to win the National League East, you got to show it in this series, and we'll see what kind of life the Phillies do have. But we'd love to hear from you guys below. Drop your prediction for how this series go. Is it a sweep by the Phillies, a 3-1, do they split 2-2? Drop those thoughts below in the comments. I appreciate you guys for tuning in this video. As always, if you have not just yet, make sure you smash that subscribe button, drop a like on the video, give me your thoughts below, and I'll be back talking to you next time. Peace.