👋 Good morning! 🎶 He’s done miracles on me. 🎶

Truth be told, I have not seen Joel do that… maybe ever? Catching a lob on a dead sprint in transition, like he was prime Tyson Chandler or DeAndre Jordan? Even when he was at the peak of his powers, Joel was not much of a vertical spacer. He was not a traditional lob threat, because it has always taken him a while to load up and get off the floor. He has needed to get his steps exactly right for his huge dunks, and that is difficult to pull off on lobs.

And now, thanks to the sure hands of Dr. G, JoJo is like, “Throw it up to the rim, Tyrese!” What a world.

And what a deal at Wawa.

Is there any better deal than Wawa’s Big $5 Deal? From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., you can get a Sizzli, coffee and a hash brown for just $5. Wherever you are in the area, there is a Wawa near you. Take advantage today!

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

I have been fortunate to write the newsy for a few years now. And one of the benefits of longevity is that you actually have some stuff in the archives.

Today, let’s hop in the DeLorean and take you back to February 8th, 2024.

On that day, I dubbed the Phillies’ top-four prospects “The Big Four.” Creative, I know. At that point, they just so happened to be the Phils’ last four first-round picks: Mick Abel, Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford and Aidan Miller. Since then, Dante Nori and Gage Wood have followed in their footsteps.

Well, a lot can happen in two years. Crawford and Miller have both progressed through the minor leagues. Painter returned from Tommy John surgery, had an underwhelming 2025 season and disappointingly never cracked the big-league roster last season. His 2025 looked a whole lot like Abel’s 2024, but The Mick bounced back in a big way in 2025. He showed well in a few spot starts for the Phillies and turned himself into a viable secondary trade piece in the Jhoan Duran deal. Good on The Mick. Unlike Brian Daboll, I am wholeheartedly rooting for that kid.

But two years later, despite Abel’s departure, those other three names are still at the top of the Phils’ farm system. Nowadays, The Big Four is The Big Three. But times are a changin’, and that should not be the case for much longer. Not only are all three players relatively close to the big leagues, but Phillies kinda, sorta need them to contribute to varying degrees.

Two years ago, I wrote the following: In Philadelphia, we are currently focused on the big leaguers. A good thing, because it means the Phillies are competitive. That is still the case, but the Phillies are aging and expensive. And while they saw the Dodgers and Mets offer lucrative free-agent contracts to Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette this winter, the Phillies are now very much Running It Back after re-signing Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. They can bristle at it all they want, but they are Running It Back.

So, that leaves Miller, Painter and Crawford. All of them crucial, for two reasons:

That is why I needed this content week while the weather is downright miserable in the Delaware Valley. Every winter, before the season, prospect analysts produce Top-100 lists for baseball sickos to pore over. ESPN, The Athletic($) and MLB Pipeline all produced their lists over the past few weeks. And for a Phillies-centric rankings, Matt Winkelman does a great job.

In reading those rankings, the same shortstops are in the top-two:

We can talk about the Matthew Fishers and Aroon Escobars some other day. So, without further ado, let’s talk to the scouts about the state of The Big Three.

Crawford was slotted in the 40s through 60s of every prospect ranking listed above, so there seems to at least be more of a consensus on “The Most Polarizing Prospect in Baseball.” In past years, Crawford would be missing entirely from some of these Top-100 lists.

Obviously, the ground-ball rate is what it is. But Crawford cut that number down from 69.7% two years ago to 59.4% last year, while upping his walk rate and cutting down on his strikeout rate… while leading the entire minor leagues in batting average from Triple-A. Add in the elite speed (“80,” in scout talk) and defense, and there seems be a begrudging acceptance that, “OK, this guy has a few different paths to becoming a productive regular.”

The Phillies are basically handing Crawford the center fielder job, and he will be scrutinized heavily in Clearwooder. That is the right move, since there is nothing else for him to do in the minors. His style has worked at every level, and now there is only one more to go. I am going into this thing with eyes wide open at the plate, but the Phils had to give Crawford a chance. One other smaller area to look at is how he fares in center field defensively. There are some questions, but he has the tools. I am more optimistic there.

I truly hope Painter hit up his buddy Abel for whatever he did last offseason… and then followed his every move. If Abel trained at a certain facility, you train there. If Abel went to bed at a certain time, you go to bed at that time. If Abel ate at certain burrito place, you eat there. The blueprint for a huge bounce-back is there.

Painter’s 2025 season was disappointing, no question about it. Dave Dombrowski told us that he expected Painter up with the big club in July, and that never happened. It did not really cost the Phillies all that much last year, but with with Ranger Suárez in Boston and Zack Wheeler recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome, they need him much more heading into 2026. Now on the 40-man roster, Painter will get every chance to win a spot in the rotation in Clearwooder.

In reading up on Painter’s 2025, I felt a little more optimistic. The good news is that he threw 118 innings and his fastball velocity was right where it was pre-TJ. The bad news is that his off-speed stuff generally seemed like a mess, and eventually his fastball got hit hard too. His strikeout and walk rates both went the wrong way from his dominant 2022 season, and he finished with a 5.40 ERA in Lehigh Valley. The Phillies are banking on Painter regaining his feel now another year post-surgery, and that would be wonderful. They do not need an ace this season, but they do need a better pitcher than the one we saw in 2025.

The guy who has supplanted Painter as the Phillies’ top prospect might be the farthest of The Big Three from the big leagues. Might be. We will get to that in a second.

Miller, who does not turn 22 until June, has already answered a lot of questions about his defense and athleticism. When he was drafted, scouts wondered about whether Miller would stick at shortstop or if would have to move over to third base. In the minors, Miller has proven he can play short even if he might be an elite defensive third baseman. And he swiped 59 bags last year. Fifty-nine. That speaks for itself.

But it’s what Miller did in August and September at the plate that really allowed him to cook with gas. After largely struggling at the dish the first four months of the season, Miller was OPS-ing near 1.100 in Reading and then Lehigh Valley. There is not an obvious position for Miller to take over in Clearwooder like there will be for Crawford and Painter. And if he only has a so-so spring, maybe the Phils send him back to Triple-A. But I do wonder if he kicks the door down, will the Phillies make a spot for their top prospect one way or another?

That would be exciting, but all of this is exciting. The Phillies have not introduced many homegrown regulars during this current run of competitive baseball. In fact, the last one who had any staying power was Bryson Stott at the beginning of the 2022 season. That has to change now.

Hopefully The Big Three are up to it.

The Great Offensive Coordinator Search of 2026: Not a huge Eagles day news-wise, I will focus on them in tomorrow’s Big Story. Until then, listen to Bo and EJ.

But I did want to update some OC developments. First, two big names off the list…

And two additional interviews, with current QBs coaches who were career backups as players…

Not a ton of experience for either of those guys. Of the two, Webb seems to be the hotter name.

And Bill Polian essentially making Bill Belichick serve a one-year waiting period for the Hall of Fame due to all of the cheating is ridiculous… but I am not gonna lie, it’s also kinda funny.

Practice notes: Charlie has them here.

Sounds like Emil Andrae will be a (deserved) healthy scratch tonight, and it sounds like Dan Vladar will be back for at least one game in this back-to-back.

Sixers 139, Milwaukee 122: For the third time all season, Shorthanded Doc has been vanquished.

Even without Giannis, the Bucks are a weird team because they are only good at one thing: shooting. Legitimately terrible at every other aspect of basketball, on offense and defense, but they can sure shoot it. Milwaukee shot 51 percent from the field and 44 percent from behind the arc yesterday, torching the Sixers’ pick-and-roll defense… and they still got ran off the court. It is legitimately incredible how bad they are everything but shooting.

Yesterday, I wrote that Joel Embiid and Paul George both owed the Sixers a strong effort after missing the front of the back-to-back.

Well, Embiid went nuts in the first half. JoJo came out in passing mode and did not attempt a shot until over five minutes into the game. Despite that, Embiid still finished with 24 points in the first half… which adds up to 52 points over his last two first halves.

All of the “Joel is awesome again offensively” checklist is being marked…

And Paul George was en fuego all game. PG went 9-15 from beyond the arc, en route to 32 points. The nine 3-pointers ties a Sixers franchise record in a single game, along with Tyrese Maxey, Danny Green and Dana Barros. What a list!

Kyle and I talked about George’s night here. In general, I appreciate that George can legitimately impact the game with his defense and is willing to take a secondary role on the offensive end. But he is a great shooter that can also provide some off-the-bounce stuff when the floor is tilted in a certain way. The Sixers cannot forget about him. PG, take at least three 3s off pindown screens per game my man!

The whole night was very funny, I have never seen a team with better vibes following a 37-point loss. That has to be an NBA record for “Best Vibes The Game After Trailing By 50 Points In The Third Quarter.”

It will also be funny if we look back at the 37-point loss to Charlotte as The Night The Sixers Figured Out The Guard Rotation. That is because Jared McCain saw the ball go in the basket four times in extended garbage time, and with Quentin Grimes out, he shot 5-6 from beyond the arc on Tuesday. Did Grimes just get Wally Pipp’d? Probably not entirely, but McCain has to be in the rotation on Thursday after that heater.

Oh, and I forgot to mention VJ Edgecombe made the Rising Stars Game. Do with that information what you will.

Big one for the Orange and Black tonight in Columbus (7:30 p.m., TNT), but there will be a bunch of big ones for the Orange and Black over the next eight days. I mean, Monday’s game against the Islanders was big, and they already blew that one big-time. But there are a bunch of other big ones before the Olympic break starts next week.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture is all jumbled up, and four of the Flyers’ next five games are consequential. I will let Charlie explain.

Seems like the Flyers will get Vladar back for one end of this back-to-back. And I will say something that I do not usually say: Credit to Sam Ersson for getting through those six games without Vladar. Ersson was not good, mind you, with an .872 save percentage during that stretch that is just above his rough season-long numbers. You often leave a game wanting Ersson to make just one 10-bell save. But after watching Aleksei Kolosov in that Rangers game, that Western swing could have been an absolute disaster if Ersson melted down. He came up pretty big in Vegas and Colorado. But now it’s time for more Vladar.

Your tentative Wednesday schedule at PHLY:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS