👋 Good morning! After the week we just had, I will gladly take this weather.

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

I am gonna make this preview short and sweet, because I know less about the NHL Draft (although I know a bunch more from listening to Bill, Charlie and Kelly every day) and am excited to hear what they tell me the next two days… and then report back to you on Monday. I am gonna steal their takes and pass them off as my own. Just watch me.

Also, if you are not a Diehard and are a massive Flyers fan, you are missing out. Just over the last few days, Charlie and Alex Appleyard have written the following stories:

Our basketball, football and baseball writing is top-notch as well. For example, Kyle has been pumping out content about the Sixers’ draft this week. But if you love the Flyers or are jumping back on the bandwagon for an NHL Draft in which they own six picks in the first two rounds, we have some incredible stuff for our Diehards. We also have an incredible Discord community for our Diehards that is really the sickest of sickos talking ball and puck. Seriously, consider becoming a Diehard.

Here are the Flyers’ picks in the first two rounds:

Let’s do some damage with those picks, Danny and Jonesy.

At the top, I have written about all of the names that could be there: James Hagens, Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers, Porter Martone and Jake O’Brien. I have written about the Flyers’ current major dilemmas: Do they go center and do they get more size?

I might be scarred from last year when the Flyers (likely incorrectly) went against consensus, but there have been a bunch of reports about Boston College’s James Hagens falling in the draft. I would not mind taking the swing on the super-skilled center who can skate with the best of them just because he had a so-so college season. I know that is the opposite of the Sixers’ current “CHARACTER MATTERS” blueprint, but I feel like the Flyers need talent more than culture. Basically, I do not know if Hagens has that dog in him. But give the Flyers Hagens and Trevor Zegras, and there are at least two swings at finding a first-line center to play next to Matvei Michkov.

Excited to see what the Orange and Black do this weekend.

Houston 2, Phillies 1: On the “bright side,” the Phillies ended their scoreless streak at 26 innings. And then their best reliever immediately surrendered his first earned run in six weeks to lose the game. Just a complete nightmare down in Houston.

Hunter Brown is quite a good pitcher, but I was boiling with anger watching this feeble offense get overpowered yesterday. Absolutely criminal stuff to waste all of those Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suárez starts. I remember when the 2010 Phillies, a 97-win juggernaut of a baseball team, got shutout by the Mets in a three-game series in May. At least they gave up a bunch of runs in those games! With some competent hitting, this could have been a sweep in the other direction!

I take solace in the starting pitching being this good. Might be the most rock-solid unit in all of baseball, honestly. But man, the rest of this team feels so uninspiring.

With Bryce Harper out, it is really hard for this lineup to function when Kyle Schwarber gets on base twice in a three-game series and Trea Turner gets on base once. All singles, too, no slug for your two best guys. Tough stuff from them. This is the Bizarro Schwarber, because June has been his worst month by a good bit. In fact, I cannot wait for it to end.

In the outfield, I think I feel the best about Brandon Marsh right now? Not a great place to be. Max Kepler has not been very good so far this season, and Nick Castellanos is what he is. Slightly above average hitter, bad fielder, and a super streaky player. Casty’s at-bat in the ninth inning against Bryan Abreu was just not competitive enough.

Not like the sky is falling here. The Phils are still on pace for 94 wins and are a half-game back of the Mets in the division. But they have already been swept four times this season, after getting swept just once all of last year. I do not love that quality from a baseball team. You are going to have bad series, but I feel like the resilient teams find a way to salvage them with a win. These Phillies, particularly this lineup, is prone to some incredible cold spells.

Would be nice to seem some runs this weekend in Atlanta.

Johni Broome: As someone who grew up in the Sam Hinkie era of wheelin’ and dealin’ in the second round, I am not used to someone like Daryl Morey stickin’ and pickin’. But that is what Morey and the Sixers did, making one (and just one) selection in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft. And they selected a guy that anyone who paid even a modicum of attention to college basketball this past year has heard of: Auburn center Johni Broome. We reacted to the pick here, in case you are curious.

The quick rundown on Mr. Broome:

Kyle wrote in much more detail about Broome here. All that said, I do not love the pick. I just do not know how much of that stuff is gonna translate to the NBA.

If you are a backup center, I generally want one special attribute. You can be a lob threat in the pick-and-roll (Richaun Holmes). You can be a 3-point threat that provides the offense with five-out spacing (Al Horford). You can be a switch defender that allows the defense to stay out of rotation (Bball Paul). Or you can be a rim protector (Adem Bona). I do not know if the 6-foot-9 Broome does any of that stuff at an above-average level in the NBA.

And again, Broome was an excellent college player for five years. He has a ton of skills. I just do not know if that stuff will matter in the NBA, especially because the Sixers are not gonna be running most of their offense through him. I want Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain cooking on my backup units.

One reason I am not too down on the pick, though: Everyone who I would have picked went before Broome! St. Joe’s swingman Rasheer Fleming went 31 and French wing Noah Penda went 32, and they went to teams who ponied up a bunch of draft capital to move up ahead of the Sixers. And then Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner went at No. 34, which was the real bummer. Unlike Broome, Kalkbrenner has the one elite trait (rim protection) that you can bank on.

Oh well, it is a second-round pick. I cannot get too worked up about it, either way. And who knows, maybe Broome does succeed in the NBA. I am not a know-it-all!

Hunter Sallis: One of the top undrafted free agents, the Sixers signed the athletic Wake Forest guard to a two-way contract. Seems like a decent swing. The UDFA route worked out well for them last year with Justin Edwards.

Phils are in Atlanta all weekend, while the Flyers have their biggest two days of the year. Check your local listings.

(Seriously, I will get back to the normal format for the schedule next week.)

Monster newsletter coming to you on Monday, with NBA/NHL free agency also coming up! Tell a friend to tell a friend to sign up.

Your tentative Friday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Have a great weekend. Let's make it a good one today.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS