The Phillies, takin' care of business

👋 Good morning! Did you know the Colorado Rockies’ run differential is -386? Hard to believe, Harry.

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Righteous Felon Craft Jerky, which is delicious. We have some in the office and I have been sampling it over the past week.

This Chester County based company has the perfect snack that satisfies your hunger and provides the right amount of protein to fulfill your body’s daily needs, and they have been doing it for over a decade. If you are the kind of person who wants a deal and snacks delivered right to your doorstep, you can order online using discount code PHLY20 for 20% off. Righteous Felon has all kinds of cool variety packs and bundles on the site.

Old-school day, just going headlines. We will have Trivia Friday tomorrow for a special occasion: Kansas City Weekend!

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

Injury Report: Busy day for me, so I will load up on the Eagles for Friday’s newsletter. But I thought I would highlight the injury report, which unfortunately has Dallas Goedert on it.

This was always a point I conceded during The Great Tight End Standoff of 2025 back in the spring, that Goedert does have trouble staying healthy. You can usually bank on at least one IR stint for Dallas at this point, and for him to be banged up after just one game is a bit of a bummer. As Deniz always says, Goedert is “The MVP of the Running Game.” That is also because Grant Calcaterra is just not a very good run blocker, he put some rough reps on tape against Dallas. Felt like that loss to Washington last year.

Za’Darius Smith also seems like a pretty cool dude, at least from the locker room clips I saw. That’s nice.

BG, master of harmless trash talk: If you have watched Eagles mic’d up videos from over the years, Brandon Graham loves to yap. And yes, I do think he should consult with Jalen Carter on yapping for the sake of yapping. An underrated skill.

Hilf and Jonesy, framing expectations: Playoffs?

Well, that is at least partially why Dan Hilferty and Keith Jones called a presser a day before Flyers rookie camp begins. The expectation: Not necessarily the playoffs, but better than last year. Charlie has a nice piece here, plus he talked about it with Bill on the pod.

On one hand, the core will likely show some internal improvement if they are in that sweet spot. But I do not love the idea of picking ninth-ish again, to be honest. That has been the Flyers’ approach to this rebuild though, no tanking. The one way that the Flyers’ core could make improvements on the ice but not in the standings: If the goaltending stinks up the joint again this year, between Sam Ersson and Dan Vladar.

I love how much the front office talks to the media in the NHL, by the way. Refreshing.

Phillies 11, New York (NL) 3: No actual breakdown of last night’s beautiful baseball game, just smack talk today.

(*The loudest wrong buzzer sound you can imagine*)

Be careful what you wish for! The people are asking: Do the New York Mets have a Citizens Bank Park problem? The Phillies are now 15-6 against the Mets at the friendly confines since 2023, and 5-1 this year with one game remaining in the series (I went to the one loss, it was not a fun game). As much as we in the Delaware Valley harp on Citi being a house of horrors — and it still is, no question — the Mets do not have a whole lot of fun whenever they head down the Jersey Turnpike.

I enjoyed The $765 Million Man going deep late to cut the lead to 9-2, but not as much as him reaching the 30-30 club stealing third while down five runs in the eighth inning last night. Smart, team-first baseball right there.

Cristopher Sánchez was excellent, as the Phillies starters have thrown 18 innings of one-run ball over the last three nights. But the offense was so good that Rob Thomson got Sanchy out of there after 93 pitches, just to get the rest of the bullpen some work. Clay Holmes is another Vet Met starter that is just not giving them a lot right now, and after he was chased, the Phils teed off on old friend Gregory Soto.

Four Phillies got hit by a pitch in this one, and stunningly, not one of them was Otto Kemp. Bryce Harper and Max Kepler both took HBPs, and then they both took Mets pitching deep. Kep absolutely destroyed a baseball against Ryan Helsley.

Win or lose today, necessary and borderline cathartic stuff from the local nine as a Phillies fan. That Monday win with Aaron Nola on the mound felt such a huge game, setting the table for the rest of the series. To get three in a row down three starters (although Brandon Marsh returned last night) is great stuff.

Great job to keep pace with the Dodgers when they were playing the Rockies at home. Milwaukee surprisingly just got swept, so that is now only a two-game gap (although I believe the Brew Crew has the tiebreaker).

Billy Lange leaves Hawk Hill: This is a local college hoops story primarily, but I will throw it here because Lange coached the Sixers and is now going back to the NBA as the Knicks’ head of player development. I was legitimately stunned by this one, particularly the timing.

The Sixers guys talked about it on the show here for the NBA view. That is not my primary focus, though.

My primary focus is about St. Joe’s, who just lost their head coach in September. That is not ideal timing. They turned around and gave Steve Donahue a multi-year contract after a decade-long run at Penn. Pretty wild stuff.

Seems like most of the St. Joe’s people that I know were pretty fed up with Lange, who I admittedly liked from my time covering the Sixers. But I get it, the results were just not there on Hawk Hill. Six years, no NCAA Tourney appearances, and that team had a whole lot of talent over the last few seasons.

But for Donahue, who seems like a wonderful guy, to get that head-coaching job full-time without any sort of real search? Lange leaving in September seems suboptimal from the outside, but that decision does seem like great process to me. Anyway, I will be fascinated to read more about this if there is some reporting on it.

The Phils will go for the sweep (and, believe it or not, an NL East magic number of just five) against the Mets (7:15 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Jesús Luzardo gets the ball against David Peterson. For some reason, I see “Peterson” and read it in the Alan Ruck prank call voice from Ferris Bueller. Is that just me? Probably.

Flyers rookie camp will begin tomorrow as well, and we will have a huge Eagles-Chiefs preview in tomorrow’s newsletter.

Your Thursday schedule at PHLY:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS