1 hour ago, UK Eagle said:

Crikey, there is more hysteria on here with the Phillies playing than the Eagles. The series isn't over at 2-2 🤣

Sure, the series is tied 2-2, but at the very least it should be 3-1 or even a sweep for the Phillies. They had all of the momentum sucked out of them and their bullpen when rested couldn't buy a strike. Now they are going against Arizona's ace, their bullpen has no rest and their bats have cooled off all while AZ's bats are waking up. Kimbrel can't be trusted at all. Same with Soto. On top of that, their manager is making all of the wrong moves.  

The Phillies need the perfect storm to come out of AZ up 3-2. Not only do they need a gem from Wheeler, they need him to go deep and they need Thompson to trust him and not pull him early. They need their bats to wake up and in a big way. Castellanos has been chasing garbage pitches the last 2 games.  He feels like an automatic out all of the sudden. Then if by chance they are winning late, they need their BP to actually throw strikes and get outs.

To add to previous post, the errors from last night were enormous. They can't make such ridiculous mistakes costing them runs.

7 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Sure, the series is tied 2-2, but at the very least it should be 3-1 or even a sweep for the Phillies. They had all of the momentum sucked out of them and their bullpen when rested couldn't buy a strike. Now they are going against Arizona's ace, their bullpen has no rest and their bats have cooled off all while AZ's bats are waking up. Kimbrel can't be trusted at all. Same with Soto. On top of that, their manager is making all of the wrong moves.  

The Phillies need the perfect storm to come out of AZ up 3-2. Not only do they need a gem from Wheeler, they need him to go deep and they need Thompson to trust him and not pull him early. They need their bats to wake up and in a big way. Castellanos has been chasing garbage pitches the last 2 games.  He feels like an automatic out all of the sudden. Then if by chance they are winning late, they need their BP to actually throw strikes and get outs.

This.  The Phillies aren’t winning another game 

9 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

The issues with the pens are neither team is going to have their guys at 100%. The Diamondbacks went through all their guys. The Phillies went through all their guys. The only two guys didn’t get used tonight that should be fresh are Walker and Lorenzen

The issue is Zach Gallen is phenomenal at home. His ERA at home is 2.47. On the road. It’s 4.42. So you’re likely getting a game similar to game three. The issue is the Phillies bullpen every game (even when they’ve won) can’t consistently throw strikes. Every count seems to be 2-0 or 3-1. 

We basically need to get to Gallen early and often.  If he’s pulled by the 4th or 5th, our guys should get some hits off their over-used bullpen.   
We’ll also need a strong 6-7 innings out of Wheeler. 

As far as Kimbrel goes, I’d be shocked if we see him again late or in a closing situation the rest of the series.  Best bet would be to use him sparingly as a one or two out middle relief guy until he shows he can get people out again.   

One positive note is the SerAnthony looks to be getting hot.  Looked great last night.   When he’s on, he’s on.  Probably save him, Alvarado & Hoffman as later inning guys. 

10 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

One positive note is the SerAnthony looks to be getting hot.  Looked great last night.   When he’s on, he’s on.  Probably save him, Alvarado & Hoffman as later inning guys. 

Not using ML and saving one was so damn stupid. Not using him later was as well.

People kinda got a feeling of invincibility and destiny after they beat the Braves, because it’s like man if they beat the Braves they could beat anybody, but I think what you’re seeing in this series is the Phillies have a lot of flaws and the Braves are just total choking losers that put up no resistance. The Dbacks are and against a team that poses resistance those flaws are going to come out.

Saturday Morning Predictions Update

Now that my trip pursuing Fall Color through the Sierra is completed (pictures at the end of this post) it is time to turn to other more customary pursuits.

35 predictions are recorded with 19 seeing an Eagles win and 16 seeing a Dolphins win.  The average predicted score goes to the Dolphins by a score of Eagles 29 Dolphins 32.

My Fall Color diversion may have caused me to miss one or two predictions that weren't tagged with @mattwill but I did catch one untagged prediction by @garingovt2000  The predictions below are in alphabetical order, so if you don't see your name, then your prediction is not yet recorded.  You can fix that by submitting one.  Come one, Come all!

The Fall Color was beautiful and there was even a tribute to Jalen Carter

38 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

As far as Kimbrel goes, I’d be shocked if we see him again late or in a closing situation the rest of the series.  Best bet would be to use him sparingly as a one or two out middle relief guy until he shows he can get people out again.   2 NLCS losses on his shoulders. 

32 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

One positive note is the SerAnthony looks to be getting hot.  Looked great last night.   When he’s on, he’s on.  Probably save him, Alvarado & Hoffman as later inning guys. 

Using Kimbrel to getr himself straight is a wise move in my opinion.  Just use him as the first reliever rather than late in the game, so that if he does continue to struggle you have several at bats to overcome any run(s) he gives up.

@mattwill

 

Eagles 19

Dolphins 35

Eagles O can't score in red zone and Eagles D too exposed in the back 7

24 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

People kinda got a feeling of invincibility and destiny after they beat the Braves, because it’s like man if they beat the Braves they could beat anybody, but I think what you’re seeing in this series is the Phillies have a lot of flaws and the Braves are just total choking losers that put up no resistance. The Dbacks are and against a team that poses resistance those flaws are going to come out.

I think this team isn’t as locked in as they have been prior to going out to Arizona. Stubbs saying what he did is something they hadn’t done. And yesterday you had 2 passes balls due to mix up by JT/Sanchez, an error by bohm and Sanchez didn’t know how many outs were left in the innings.

I said this before the series, the dbacks remind me a lot of the 2022 Phillies. They stumbled into the playoffs but once they got in the monkey was off their back. Their bullpen was wildly inconsistent all year, but they figured it out once the playoffs started. Particularly at the back end of the bullpen with ginkel and sewald. Their lineup is inconsistent, but they seem to be getting hot at the right time and have timely hits. (PH in this series are killing the Phillies like pavin smith). They’re really good at home. And they have a 1-2 combination of gallen and Kelly, which was very similar to what wheeler and nola were last year. 

that said, for the better part of seven years, the Phillies just don’t play well when they go out to Arizona. This year’s success was a little deceiving when they won 3 of 4. Because 3 out of the 4 games were decided by a run. They could’ve went either way and it was similar to the past two games. They just manage to be on the positive side 2 out of those 3 games. Before this year they were 4-12 in Arizona in their last 16. Which is amazing as they had on the west coast (outside really Sf and AZ). Which, when you go into a deeper both of those parks are really hard to hit home runs. So if you’re not hitting home runs, it’s gonna be hard to win. Like the Turner and Realmuto at bats would’ve been home runs in a lot of parks. In that park it wasn’t. When they got up 4-2 with runners and 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and relamuto at the plate but managed to score 0 in that situation it felt like they should’ve tacked on more and it would catch up to them. It gets overshadowed cause the bullpen late was horrific. 

19 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Using Kimbrel to getr himself straight is a wise move in my opinion.  Just use him as the first reliever rather than late in the game, so that if he does continue to struggle you have several at bats to overcome any run(s) he gives up.

I have watched nearly every game this year, kimbrel from august onward just doesn’t have the same stuff and can’t find the zone consistently and really doesn’t cause he’s afraid to throw strikes due to his stuff. Which isn’t a surprise he’s 38 and because of the injuries to Alvarado and dominguez and soto being inconsistent, they overworked him the first 4 months of the year cause they basically had to and played in a lot of tight games.

In august he had a 5.93 ERA. His september looked better ERA wise but he was walking guys and giving up hits when he found the zone. pitched 12 innings gave up 14 walks and hits in September. He was fortunate like the atlanta series where guys got on and Rojas made a great catch due to his range  

Jack and I were talking about it after the game, he’s afraid to throw strikes. Because what you saw was gurriel hit that shot for a double. And then thomas hit it over the wall. He doesn’t think his stuff is good enough to get by them so he’s trying to make them chase and nobody’s chasing right now. So it ends in a walk or a hit  

 

6 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

I have watched nearly every game this year, kimbrel from august onward just doesn’t have the same stuff and can’t find the zone consistently and really doesn’t cause he’s afraid to throw strikes due to his stuff. Which isn’t a surprise he’s 38 and because of the injuries to Alvarado and dominguez and soto being inconsistent, they overworked him the first 4 months of the year cause they basically had to and played in a lot of tight games.

In august he had a 5.93 ERA. His september looked better ERA wise but he was walking guys and giving up hits when he found the zone. pitched 12 innings gave up 14 walks and hits in September. He was fortunate like the atlanta series where guys got on and Rojas made a great catch due to his range  

Jack and I were talking about it after the game, he’s afraid to throw strikes. Because what you saw was gurriel hit that shot for a double. And then thomas hit it over the wall. He doesn’t think his stuff is good enough to get by them so he’s trying to make them chase and nobody’s chasing right now. So it ends in a walk or a hit  

 

Basically just said the same thing to my buddies in a messenger chat we’re in.   Kimbrel can’t seem to find the strike zone unless he just hangs it over the plate.  

@mattwill

Eagles 27

Dolphins 45

Tyreke Hill 200+ receiving yards

On Orion, the Phillies aren’t doing him any favors. Currently his sinker is about the only pitch that’s hitting the zone consistently. He had 13 pitches last night and 3 batters. Started with the sweeper all 3 at bats. First 3 pitches of the first 2 at bats were the sweeper and they were out of the zone. I bring this up because if his sinker is the only thing that’s finding the zone, you should flip course and start with the sinker. Get a head of the count and then use your sweeper to get guys chasing at pitches not in the zone. Because if you’re in the zone for the first couple pitches, they either make contact or they get behind and will chase. Not sure why realmuto and our pitching coach refused to work the other way around. He threw his sinker 6 times for 4 strikes (frankly ball 4 a sinker to walker should’ve been a strike it was in the zone). His sweeper was thrown 7 times and 0 strikes. 

8 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Basically just said the same thing to my buddies in a messenger chat we’re in.   Kimbrel can’t seem to find the strike zone unless he just hangs it over the plate.  

I think he’s afraid to go over the zone for fear something happens like gurriel and Thomas. He’s trying to get guys to chase cause his stuff isn’t there and if he leaves it over he plate it’s likely going to be a base hit  

Just now, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

I think he’s afraid to go over the zone for fear something happens like gurriel and Thomas. He’s trying to get guys to chase cause his stuff isn’t there and if he leaves it over he plate it’s likely going to be a base hit  

Yep, seems that way 

Finally a college football Saturday with great games all day. 

Just now, Uscg-green said:

Finally a college football Saturday with great games all day. 

Yep.  Huge game for Penn State today - possibly the biggest in years.  A win today in Ohio solidifies them as a top 2-3 team in the nation.   WE ARE….

@mattwill

Eagles OL responds, defensive secondary does just enough to the allow the DL to be effective.

30-21 Birds

Sweat sack/FF.

3 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Yep, seems that way 

Let me just say I don’t think they would ever do it but I think sometimes you have to think outside of the box to try something when you’re in the situation. So I was sitting there talking to Jack and jon. I said this game if you win this game, you are up 3 to 1 and makes game five still important, not the end of the world if you lose it. as you are still going home up 3-2 with nola for game 6 and game 7 ranger vs. rookie for the dbacks (second time they’ve seen him) in CBP. So odds in the Phillies favor. Again, it sounds crazy, but I almost thought you should probably see if you could get wheeler to get the six outs. If wheeler get you those six outs, you’re basically in the same position you’re going to be at now if he wins tonight.

Furthermore, if he got the six outs and you won last night, there’s a chance if it goes to a game seven since he only had a pitched for six outs that you could use him in Ranger Suárez in that game. so with my bullpen being as bad as it is right now and I can’t trust Craig Kimbrel I might take that leap of faith to just put myself up 3 to 1 and figure out game 5 with lorenzen and walker and try to win that way. 

granted, I don’t think they do it at all and it could have the negative consequence where he couldn’t get the six outs. But I trust Zack Wheeler like the giants trusted Madison Bumgarner when he was doing that for the Giants.

@mattwill

Eagles 32

Fins 20

Dolphins just haven’t done well against a decent defense and feel their offensive numbers are highly skewed from playing against the worst defenses in the league. Eagles should get back on track with a dominant run game and preventing the dolphins offense from getting into a rhythm. 
 

Bonus: Eagles get 3+ sacks and no dolphins player gets more than 55 rushing yards.

Extra Bonus: the broadcast crew says the KGs should be the Eagles regular jersey at least 7 times.

58 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Saturday Morning Predictions Update

Now that my trip pursuing Fall Color through the Sierra is completed (pictures at the end of this post) it is time to turn to other more customary pursuits.

35 predictions are recorded with 19 seeing an Eagles win and 16 seeing a Dolphins win.  The average predicted score goes to the Dolphins by a score of Eagles 29 Dolphins 32.

My Fall Color diversion may have caused me to miss one or two predictions that weren't tagged with @mattwill but I did catch one untagged prediction by @garingovt2000  The predictions below are in alphabetical order, so if you don't see your name, then your prediction is not yet recorded.  You can fix that by submitting one.  Come one, Come all!

The Fall Color was beautiful and there was even a tribute to Jalen Carter

Eagles 30

Dolphins 28

22 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

On Orion, the Phillies aren’t doing him any favors. Currently his sinker is about the only pitch that’s hitting the zone consistently. He had 13 pitches last night and 3 batters. Started with the sweeper all 3 at bats. First 3 pitches of the first 2 at bats were the sweeper and they were out of the zone. I bring this up because if his sinker is the only thing that’s finding the zone, you should flip course and start with the sinker. Get a head of the count and then use your sweeper to get guys chasing at pitches not in the zone. Because if you’re in the zone for the first couple pitches, they either make contact or they get behind and will chase. Not sure why realmuto and our pitching coach refused to work the other way around. He threw his sinker 6 times for 4 strikes (frankly ball 4 a sinker to walker should’ve been a strike it was in the zone). His sweeper was thrown 7 times and 0 strikes. 

I mean high schoolers know this stuff