👋 Good morning! I did not sign up for this weather, hope everyone is OK after that gnarly storm yesterday.

On the bright side: Seven out of eight for the Phils, six losses in a row for the Mets. Just like that, we are back even in the NL East. Schwarber make ball go boom.

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OK, let's get you to the weekend. As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

I promise, this is the last time we talk about this guy… unless Daryl Morey still drafts him, then we will talk about him all the time. But the last time until draft night, at least! The only Ace we recognize here are the good folks at Ace Hardware Home Services, who specialize in plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical systems.

Ace Bailey canceled his in-person workout with the Sixers. Flaked on them at the last moment, which would be rude even if it was a blind date. The Sixers were gonna fly Ace into Philly and wine and dine him. If they cannot cancel their dinner reservation, I imagine Daryl Morey, Nick Nurse and Elton Brand sadly eating an expensive meal at some swanky Philly restaurant.

Kyle has plenty more in his piece on what happened, but here is the gist:

I thought yesterday’s Sixers pod was must-listen, starting with an excellent rant from Devon, who was more on Team Ace than the his two co-hosts. Kinda felt like we should have ran the Hit ‘Em Up instrumental over the whole show.

Some people are gonna be contrarian and say this does not matter. I am here to tell you they are wrong.

I do not know the future, maybe Ace Bailey becomes a great player. We are all just guessing here, right? And like Derek laid out on the show, I do have some sympathy for players possessing such little agency in the pre-draft process. If you are trying to steer yourself to a certain situation, I get it. Has been done before, will be done again.

But for the Sixers and this specific player, Bailey flaking absolutely matters.

How many times have charges of “lack of culture” and “loser energy” been lobbed at this organization over the past decade? A million? A billion? It was literally all I heard every May for like six straight years. And I have quibbled with those criticisms as overly-simplistic, but I also understood them from the fans’ standpoint. This whole time, this franchise never beat anybody good in the playoffs. Not once. Something had to be wrong.

If you are one of those people who have banging that drum over the past decade, though, there is no way you can support the Sixers drafting this guy. You just can’t.

Pre-draft workouts differ depending on the prospect. Markelle Fultz famously had an unimpressive workout with the Sixers, but that one essentially was a public photo op coordinated by Bryan Colangelo. The Sixers had already made the decision to draft Fultz, who was considered the slam-dunk No. 1 pick at the time. Maybe that lethargic workout was a sign of things to come, but it was a formality.

Ace Bailey is not a Markelle Fultz-level prospect, not even close. From an on-court perspective, Bailey is incredibly divisive. He does not pass. He does not get to the rim, or create any easy shots. He measured shorter that most people were hoping for. His college team, despite having two lottery picks, did not do a whole bunch of winning. With all of that in mind, our guy Ace has a lot to prove! And ironically, I feel like he would do well in a private workout setting where you are mostly doing a lot of shooting (which he is good at). Ace is receiving terrible advice from his agent.

I do not have any evidence, but it sure feels like Ace wants to go to a bad, talent-poor team. It feels like he wants to become The Man in a pressure-free environment like Charlotte, Brooklyn or Washington. Basically, my educated guess is that Ace does not want to play for the Sixers, who were terrible this past season but have a bunch of capable players who enjoy having the ball in their hands. I find that line of thinking completely flawed. Some of the best wings of the past decade (Kawhi Leonard, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler) started their careers as role players on good teams. If you are in fact that good, you rise up the food chain real quick.

Let’s say that is not the case, though. Let’s say Ace just does not want to workout for any team, which was reported by ESPN. That is also a terrible answer! If you are the franchise that never wins tough games and tough series, the last person I want is a guy who refuses to compete in the pre-draft process. I want the guy who says, “I will show Daryl Morey that passing on me will be a huge mistake.” This is the opposite of that.

If Bailey was the clear-cut third-best player, the Sixers would be in a pickle here. I do not believe that to be the case, though. My guess is that the Sixers would still have drafted VJ Edgecombe (or Tre Johnson, or Kon Kneuppel). But after this, I cannot in good conscience bet on The College Loser Who Does Not Want To Compete becoming an NBA winner. Maybe it happens, but I am not making that bet.

Bob and Bill: The Florida Panthers won another Stanley Cup two nights ago. Looking at their cap situation, they might be a dynasty. The Panthers might lose one key contributor, as the rest of the core is locked up for a while. And this was a historically dominant postseason run that they just went on.

Welp, that is Toronto and Carolina’s problem. The Flyers just gotta get back to being a playoff team first.

On yesterday’s show, Bill and Charlie talked about the key member of Florida’s organization that Flyers fans love to yell, “SHOULD HAVE KEPT”: Sergei Bobrovsky.

Now, most people know what happened with Bob. And as Charlie has talked about, the original sin was not the June 2012 trade itself. It was the year that led up to that trade.

Bob had put together a decent rookie season in 2010-11 out of nowhere, and then had a rough playoffs. I am not sure that Flyers team had what it took anyway — Boston beat them pretty good in the second round — but Ed Snider panicked anyway and signed Ilya Bryzgalov to a huge contract. And while the Bryz era was funny for a moment (“The Universe!”), that signing turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.

Meanwhile Bob did not like being a backup and then he was traded. He then won the Vezina trophy the next year in Columbus.

Everyone knows about Bob, but what if Bill Zito was the one who got away? For a long time, Zito was an agent who repped Kimmo Timonen during his Flyers days. In 2013, he moved over to the team side and began working in the Columbus front office. The Blue Jackets were a pretty well-run franchise during that period, but Zito did not get the chance to run a team until Florida hired him in 2020. The rest is history.

After the Flyers fired Ron Hextall in 2018, Zito apparently was the runner-up for the open job that went to Chuck Fletcher (womp, womp). At the time, and still today, Zito would have been a very un-Flyers hire. Since then, Zito has helped turn Florida into a juggernaut. A lot of the core was already there when Zito arrived, certainly the 1C, 1D and goaltender (Bobrovsky).

But even with the full context, there is only one thing to say here: SHOULD HAVE GOT.

Phillies 2, Miami 1: Nice win, nice series, buncha juice heading into this weekend.

Cris Sánchez shoved yet again, looking incredibly confident out there. Sanchy threw eight innings of one-run ball, and honestly he could have finished the game if Rob Thomson elected to throw him out there for another inning.

Instead, Orion Kerkering got Career Save No. 2. In an extremely dicey bullpen situation at the moment, The Kerkster is the one guy you can feel good about. No earned runs for him since May 6th. Some weird baserunning down in South Florida, though. Shake that series off, Dusty Wathan.

Roster Moves: The Phillies brought The Millville Masher himself, Buddy Kennedy, back up to the big leagues. Weston Wilson got sent down in his place. I probably spilled way too much ink about the spring training position battles, these guys are not exactly headline news when the season gets going.

Elsewhere, Aaron Nola was put on the 60-day IL. That sounds worse than it is. Since Nola has already been out for over a month, the IL stint is retroactive to that date and he can return in mid-July. Luckily, the Phillies have a ton of rotation depth. It is “July-ish,” which if Dave Dombrowski is to be believed, means Andy Painter should be driving down the Northeast Extension soon.

Some fun mid-summer baseball this weekend in South Philly. I would like to send a message to the Mets! Three national TV games as well…

Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, too. Great series so far. I fear for Tyrese Haliburton’s safety, though. Lu Dort and Alex Caruso are going to be HACKING him from the opening whistle of that one.

Your tentative Friday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann

Daily Newsletter Editor

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