👋 Good morning! Game done at 8:30, just in time for some sad Ohioans to bask in the greatness of Snoop D-O-Double G. What more could you want?

Love to see the 90s and 2000s rappers hitting the post-game MLB circuit hard this year. I wonder what Snoop hit the sad Reds fans with last night. Maybe a little “Gin and Juice?” Perhaps he rapped his parts of “Nuthin’ But a G Thang?” Got the people moving with some “Beautiful?” You really cannot go wrong. You just knew Nick Castellanos would be out there, in an effort to shake off the cobwebs after another 0-4.

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As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

I know a thing or two about the human meniscus. Thank you for that, Joel.

(Seriously, when you cover the Sixers, PR people from Johns Hopkins and Cedars-Sinai all have your number on speed dial so one of their doctors can be interviewed in your outlet. Writers on that beat are a hot commodity in the medical world!)

Let’s back up a little, though. I did not like the waiting game for much of Monday. I was hoping to wake up, open up the ol’ X (formerly Twitter) app, sift through all of the bots and see an update on Landon Dickerson from Schefty or Rap Sheet or the Starbucks Guy. My general read was that if the Eagles had good news on Landon Dickerson, they would want to get it out there fast.

Well, we did not get that early-morning update. But when word came down at around 2:40 p.m. that Dickerson has a meniscus injury and was considering his options, I knew exactly what was being debated internally: Are we getting a trim (a little snippy-snip) or a full repair? That’s meniscus experience for you.

To recap the options, and this is copied almost verbatim from a newsletter going over Joel Embiid’s injury last February…

(Seriously, give me “meniscectomy” in a high-level spelling bee. I will be moving on to the next round, and I will not need the language of origin to do so.)

Well, a few hours later we got our answer. The Eagles probably will not outright say what type of surgery that Dickerson is having, but we can deduce it from the timeline they provided. “Week-to-week” means “about a month,” which means that he is very likely gonna opt for the removal.

There was a lot of “Best possible news!” in the reporting, and I dunno, I just cannot go quite that far. Sure, I was worried that Dickerson was lost for the season when he initially went down. When you view everything through that lens, sure, this is great news. And getting Dickerson back in the lineup for Week 1, or really at any point in the first month of the season, certainly feels like a win.

But we also still need to see what Dickerson looks like upon returning. Perhaps I am scarred by the Sixers, but I am gonna keep whatever optimism that I have on the cautious side. The guy weighs 333 pounds and has a serious injury history.

What is not up for debate is that Landon Dickerson is a dawg. That guy is tough as nails. His pre-game speech in which he said “I choose violence!” was an all-timer, and he practices what he preaches on the field. 1-2-3, F—- the Steelers! And who can forget the NFC Championship Game? Dickerson played the first half on one leg, at a position he had not played in four years, before tapping Cam Jurgens in like a tag-team wrestler. Incredible talent, but also incredible guts. I thought it was notable that both Fran and EJ said they would not be surprised to see Dickerson take the shorter return-to-play timeline… a few hours before we actually knew that was the plan. Tough dude.

Now, with the prospect of Dickerson not missing too much regular-season action, what do the Eagles do at left guard in the meantime? The guys laid out the options here…

Darian Kinnard, who has won the Super Bowl every year of his three-year career, is another option. Winner. The good news is that there is at least a scenario in which the Eagles do not need any of these guys for most of the season. We will see what they do at practice later today.

Until then, I hope Landon mows that huge lawn (if physically allowed) and loads up on Uncrustables to keep the weight up.

No. 2 in the AP Poll: One spot ahead of where they were in the coaches’ poll. The Big Js are all-in on the Nittany Lions this year.

I make fun of Drew Allar a lot, but I am interested to see how Penn State’s overhauled receiving corps fares. Tyler Warren was an all-world tight end last year, and he is now gone. Meanwhile, the receivers did not have a single catch in the Orange Bowl loss to ND. I felt like I was watching the end of the Doug Pederson era!

PSU opened up the checkbooks and brought in three receiver transfers from USC, Troy and Syracuse respectively. The ‘Cuse kid put up huge numbers with Kyle McCord last year.

Oh, and speaking of Penn State (and La Salle College High School), Abdul Carter showed a ton of juice in his preseason Giants debut. Super classy debut from the local kid, who will be an Eagle in due time.

Phillies 4, Reds 1: Whenever you beat an excellent pitcher and playoff hopeful on the road with the Taijuan-Romano-Robertson-Orion quartet, you are living good. That is a fantastic win. Second similar comeback in three days — Phillies taking a haymaker from a good starter for most of the game, and rallying late — after overcoming Jacob DeGrom in Texas.

I still do not love the double-platoon outfield idea in theory, especially when the Phillies’ worst outfielder right now is the one who happens to be playing everyday. But with Andrew Abbott just needing one more out to get through eight scoreless innings, Weston Wilson did what he is on this team to do: Hit lefties, in this case hooking a ball into the left-field corner.

Shades of John Mayberry Jr. and Ben Francisco from Wilson. And then the floodgates opened with two outs. Trea Turner singled to make it 2-1, followed by Kyle Schwarber hitting a ball over the foul pole and into his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. You think they call him The Middletown Masher back home?

(Even if they have very little history of doing so, I am sneaky worried about the Reds throwing a bag at Schwarber this offseason. I am uneasy only seeing $57 million on their books for next year, even if that number should go up due to arbitration salaries. You know who needs to put the kibosh on the lure of Middletown? MiddleTON.)

OK, that’s it, let’s hear it for our guy Taijuan.

You might be surprised that I feel this way. That is fine, you should expect competency from someone getting paid 18 million American dollars this year (and next year, too). If you are not hearing it, I understand that point of view.

But 12 months ago, Taijuan was persona non grata in the Delaware Valley. I have truly never seen a major-league pitcher get hit that hard consistently. It was such a brutal watch, and we all wanted the Phillies to cut bait. Shrieks of “Give me Kolby Allard!” rang through the Old City streets. Last August, I titled a newsletter, “If Taijuan Walker makes another start...” The headline for that one was UNCLE!

And here Tai is, being bumped in and out of a loaded rotation all year, and giving the Phillies competency from the No. 5 starter spot. Sure, his excellent ERA (3.39) is a bit better than some of his expected numbers… but his ERA was over seven last year! This is a major bounce-back.

There is something very human about The Taijuan Story. Unlike the year before, when he pouted after the playoffs, Walker seemed to be a good teammate last October. He bounced back, and has legitimately helped the Phillies this year despite not having a set role. It is a nice story.

Good for Taijuan. Seems like his teammates respect him, too.

Bryce Harper Getting Thrown Out By 15+ feet, Vol. 2,489: I am glad we can laugh about this one. The man is a straight-up lunatic on the basepaths. Nick Castellanos only hit this ball 240 feet, and there was no question Bryce was testing the right fielder. My guy Dusty Wathan can’t tell him nothing.

I believe we have an Eagles practice today, plus Phils-Reds Game 2 (6:40 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Ranger night.

Your tentative Tuesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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