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Yeah, I probably reference Hamilton too much. But after a week off and a lot of sportsin’ going on, that little number fits pretty well here.

We will get back to your regularly scheduled programming — Uncle Vic pressers, Saquon voted as the NFL’s top player, Flyers and Sixers updates — tomorrow. Let’s catch up today, though. Here are ten takes from the past ten or so days of no newsy…

(1) I am feeling GREAT about the Phils… What a freaking win over the Brewers on Monday. Awesome baseball game — Milwaukee grinds out at-bat after at-bat, you can see why they are so hard to play against — but the Phils kept battling, even after Tai got hit hard early and Jacob "Hey now, you're an All-Star!" Misiorowski was mowing them down the first time through the lineup.

Great last five days for the Fightins, starting with Kyle Schwarber going yard an absurd four times against Cal Quantrill and co. Incredible moment, and yes, Big Piece 58 Watch is absolutely on. Can I pick a nit, though? Nobody will have a better chance at five dingers in a game than that. That Atlanta position player laid it right in there for him at 57 mph down the middle!

(2) Except when they play at Citi Field: When I left you, dear reader, the Phillies had a six-game lead over the Metropolitans on August 22nd. Today, September 2nd, they have a six-game lead over the Metropolitans. So, what’s the problem?

The problem is Citi Field. Weird, bad stuff happens when the Phillies play there nowadays. Remember the halcyon days of “Utley’s Corner?” We are so far removed from them right now. And it begins with something that seems harmless enough. Alec Bohm starts complaining about this weird glare… an issue that takes the ground crew a laughable amount of time to fix, becoming a Mets rallying cry in the process. I am convinced Steve Cohen called down to the ground crew to take their dear sweet time on that one. If so, I cannot blame him.

Then things start to snowball. Schwarber has the worst series of his season. Bryce Harper debuts something called “Rivalry Cleats,” which seems like a spectacularly bad idea. The Phillies let Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea, two guys who are lucky to see the fourth inning nowadays, completely off the hook. Cris Sánchez balks once and completely unravels. Jhoan Duran gives up four straight hits. It’s the whole team!

In terms of the whole season, I could not care less about one sweep… if it were to any other team. Of course, things are not all that bad for the Phils. The Mets responded by losing three of four to Our Guy Tyler Phillips and the Fish, because their starting pitching is not very good. Maybe the modern NL East is just meant to follow the following pattern:

But to go 0-6 in that building this year, after losing your last four (including two in the playoffs) there last season? Nasty work.

(3) Phillies depth moves: Don’t love ‘em, but sure. Walker Buehler and his Tight Pants pitched well against the Phils this year. But that was a rarity, as Buehler has a 1.56 WHIP on the season. Nasty work. Tyler said the move (which comes on the heels of Buehler getting released by Boston) does nothing for him, and I mostly agree. But as a dice roll and sixth starter for a few starts to keep the rotation fresh, sure, whatever. Maybe Buehler can get the final out of the World Series this year for some reason, too. With the Eagles trading Darian Kinnard, I cannot hate on the Phillies trying to strike with some Random Depth Player Championship Juju.

Garrett Stubbs is a frequent whipping boy, and despite that, ol’ Stubbsy got brought up from Triple-A as The 28th Man with the rosters expanding. Dave Dombrowski offered some word salad in justifying the move, and it’s hard to objectively argue for bringing up Stubbs over someone like Otto Kemp. But whatever, The 28th Man is probably not gonna matter much and the clubhouse gets its DJ back for a few weeks. And you cannot argue the results: Stubby pinch-ran and scored the winning run yesterday.

Tim Mayza, who is a Montco boy and Millersville grad, seems like a decently intriguing lefty reliever. Anybody but Romano.

(4) Eagles depth moves: Love ‘em. Is Sam Howell a starting-caliber NFL quarterback? Against anyone but the 2023 Eagles, probably not. While we are on that subject, maybe he can look Jahan Dotson’s way in practice from time-to-time. But with Tanner McKee a little banged-up to start the season, do I feel better with Howell as QB3 instead of my fellow SJP guy Kyle McCord? Why yes, yes I do! Welcome to The Factory, young man.

Willie Lampkin looks like a demon from his preseason tape. Perfect guy to work with Jeff Stoutland. Shoutout to all the Short Kings out there.

And speaking of great Eagles depth moves…

(5) Fred Johnson is BACK! Hell yeah, Fred.

And now I feel 500 percent better about the Eagles’ swing tackle situation. All it cost was a 7, too? What is James Gladstone cooking down there?

(6) So, no Micah Parsons on Thursday against Dallas: I had joked that Jerry Jones would stage Parsons’ record-setting contract extension on the Cowboys’ sidelines during the Eagles’ banner unveiling on Thursday. The man craves attention like almost nobody else on this planet. But no, Jerry actually traded him. Cue my Jules Winnfield voice: Look at the big brain on Jerry…

And yeah, that one got a legit “Wowwww!” from me when I saw the initial tweet. It got a “Jerry is nuts!” from Baldy. I concur.

I did watch America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys over vacation, as a thank you to Jerruh for his stewardship of the Dallas Cowboys. And one of the key moments of Jones’ early years as owner came when the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker for a ton of picks. It seems clear to me that Jerry thinks this is The Walker Trade Redux, a zag that gets crushed in the moment but is unquestionably the right move.

(While we are at it, that Walker trade was legitimately insane. Vikings GM Mike Lynn gave the Cowboys two options: An uninspiring group of players, or a bounty of awesome draft picks if they just cut or moved on from those uninspiring players. And this guy was legitimately surprised when Jerry and Jimmy Johnson were like, “You know what, as hard as it may be, we will get rid of those uninspiring players and opt for the awesome draft picks.” They owned the Vikings’ 1 and 2 for three straight years! Mike Lynn, what were you doing????)

Now, I do not think this is The Walker Trade Redux trade for a few reasons. The first is that Micah Parsons plays a more important position, and is at the very top of that position. Bigger loss than Herschel. And the second is that the Cowboys are getting two first-round picks… a nice haul when you put it that way, but very likely two first-round picks that will be in the 20s or even 30s. Matt LaFleur’s Packers have already been a consistent winner, they were getting Super Bowl buzz, and now they just added Parsons. You never know in the NFL, but they feel like a safe bet to be good.

If I was a Cowboys fan, I would be losing my mind. If Jerruh was of the opinion that paying Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons a billion combined dollars (not the actual figure, but roughly 50 percent of the salary cap) was not the best way to construct a roster, I could understand that. But he clearly did not mind paying Parsons! That is why this thing dragged out so long. And if the Cowboys were willing to make this move back in March, I bet they could have acquired three higher-value first-round picks than the ones they got. Even if you want to defend going away from Parsons (I would not), the execution here absolutely stunk.

Without Parsons, that Cowboys defense is gonna be pretty darn bad. The Flus will have to be looser than it has ever been. I like the over in Thursday’s opener, with the talent mismatch on that side of the ball and the new secondary pieces that the Birds are breaking in.

(7) The Packers are definitely a team to watch. I thought that team had a pretty good year in 2024, considering very little seemed to go right for them. The Packers played the Eagles pretty even in the playoff game on a play-by-play basis, but they turned the ball over four times. That certainly was a much tougher test than the ones the Birds got in the NFC Championship and Super Bowl.

It felt like Green Bay’s defense overachieved a bit last season, but now they have potential difference-makers at every level (Parsons, Edgerrin Cooper, Xavier McKinney). Big-time prove-it year for Jordan Love.

With Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata, I feel like the Eagles have done pretty well blocking Parsons in his career. Five sacks in seven games is quite good, but 3.5 of those came in two games the Eagles both won and put up a bunch of points in. I remember the 2022 win on Sunday night at The Linc, when they fooled Parsons all game by leaving him unblocked and forcing him into no-man’s land.

All things equal, it would have been nice if Jerry shipped Parsons off to the AFC. The Birds will be in Green Bay for Monday Night Football in November, where Micah will get another look at his future team. This had to happen, Jerry was never directly dealing him to Howie.

(8) It’s a good time to be Harrison Bader: What a trade deadline for Dave D so far! Bader is OPSin’ .873 with the Fightins and .799 on the season. It is too bad the Phils could not take advantage of his homer off Ryan Helsley last week in Queens, that was such a clutch swing.

When you add in that Bader plays an excellent center field — “El Cangrejo” (The Crab) is one of his nicknames, for his signature shimmy on lazy fly balls — he needs to be playing every day. Bader basically has been playing every day over the last few weeks, but the Phillies have had such a rough go with center fielders lately. They need to not mess around and stick with this guy. I am all-in, this is Surfer Dude Victorino as far as I am concerned.

(Huge Brandon Marsh day yesterday, which we love to see. Good player, that Brandon Marsh. He fares pretty well when compared statistically to the guy he got traded for in 2022. What is his name again?)

(9) It’s not a great time to be Nick Castellanos: Well, it is in that you are still owed another $20 million. That sounds amazing. I am pretty convinced that this is the last season of Casty in Philly, though. The Phils will find a way to trade him or eat his money next year, the final one of his contract. But after thinking that Topper would ride him though October, I am now wondering what the final month-plus of this season is gonna look like for Casty.

Nick had some comments that raised some eyebrows over the weekend, after Rob Thomson did the right thing and took him out for defense late. Nick is not playing against most tough righties now, either, allowing for my favorite outfield alignment (Marsh in left, Bader in center, Kepler in right). What a comeback for Kep, by the way, after being the PHLY Daily whipping boy for all of June and most of July.

Is Casty gonna take that demotion lightly? I hope so, but I think there are reasons to be skeptical there. He even had some people playing Body Language Doctor after scoring the winning run on Saturday. Does not seem like an amazing situation, and certainly one I am keeping an eye on.

(10) Injury report: OK, one injury report observation on Dallas week. Landon Dickerson is the guy to watch.

Again, back to normal tomorrow. Nice Union win on Saturday, by the way.

The Phillies have a weird day off in wonderful Milwaukee, the rare Monday-Wednesday-Thursday series. I am sure they are all thrilled they are on the road an extra day for no reason. But we will be talking Phils and Birds all day. It’s the fall sports calendar, baby!

Your tentative Monday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS