Streamathon!

Musical Chairs Day is here! We are gonna try something today, streaming for 12 straight hours on a bunch of different topics. I certainly have some Sixers takes locked and loaded. Anyway, we are going all day. Watch on YouTube

👋 Good morning! Sound really travels in The Fish Tank, huh?

FREE CASTELLANOS
— #cam ! (#@aokstott)
10:47 PM • Jun 17, 2025

Awkwardddddd. They have better acoustics in that place than the Vienna Opera House. — Rich Hofmann

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

Nick goes on Timeout

Charlie Manuel famously had just two rules for his players:

Be on time
Hustle

During the 2008 season, which ended pretty well if you will recall, Jimmy Rollins drew the ire of Manuel for breaking both of those rules at different points of the season. Jimmy did not run out a pop-up against Cincinnati, got pulled from the game. Jimmy did not show up on time for a game against the Mets, got pulled from the lineup.

(In fairness to J-Roll, I bet the LIE was bumper-to-bumper that day.)

I wonder if Charlie had any rules about mouthing off to the manager. Maybe he did not, there were only two rules after all. Maybe Charlie would have taken the serious step of creating a (*gasp*) third rule if he managed Nick Castellanos, who generally does hustle and who I assume shows up on time. That is what Rob Thomson did yesterday.

Let’s set the scene first, and it should be noted this was a scene nobody from the outside picked up on until the next day.

On Monday, the Phillies had a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning. Castellanos had made an out in the top of the frame.
Rob Thomson subs in Johas Rojas for defense. Rojas bumps Brandon Marsh over to left field, Marsh bumps Max Kepler to right field, Kepler bumps Castellanos to the bench. A late-game defensive substitution.
According to Thomson, Castellanos made “an inappropriate comment” after he was taken out.
As punishment, Thomson benched Castellanos for Tuesday’s game.

I would love to know what Castellanos said to Thomson. But if I had to bet, and I am very much speculating here, it was no bueno. I do not think this is a rash decision from the manager. You know why I think that?

Rob Thomson is a “players manager”: So was Manuel, but Topper has even less of a personality. He is the definition of even-keeled. That is a good thing. When we are all freaking out about a 2-4 stretch, Topper is calm.
Nick Castellanos is a bit of a wild card: Do not get me wrong, I like Castellanos. But he can be a moody, intimidating figure. That SportsCenter interview last year was an all-timer. But there is an authenticity to Castellanos, which I appreciate. In a game that exposes everyone’s flaws, he is an interesting guy to follow for 162 games.

Thomson does not strike me as the type of manager that has rabbit ears at the worst time. His good buddy John Tortorella, sure. But not Topper.

Part of Castellanos being intimidating is that he does not let the Phillies take him out of the lineup. Like, ever. This was the first time that Casty missed a game since 2023, which is an ironman streak that he clearly took a lot of pride in. He is not the only one in baseball, there are other notable players like Matt Olson and Freddie Freeman who like to play every game if they can.

The Phillies honored that request over the last year, but you can still keep the streak going and leave as a defensive replacement late in the game. And while this is not something that my untrained eye notices unless Castellanos makes an obvious error, pretty much every metric says that Casty is one of the worst defensive players in the sport. Therefore, it was perfectly reasonable to sub Rojas in for defense late. Here is what Castellanos had to say, from MLB.com:

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“I wasn’t happy about it,” Castellanos said pregame regarding the in-game substitution. "Spoke my mind. He said I crossed a line. So my punishment is I’m not playing.”

“It’s his decision,” Castellanos said. “He’s the manager.”

Justin Morris, MLB.com

Jimmy and Charlie put it behind them and won a bunch of games together. I just hope Nick can, too, because I like Nick. I hope this does not become A Thing. Because the uncomfortable truth here is that 2025 Nick Castellanos is not in the same stratosphere as a baseball player as 2008 Jimmy Rollins.

Briere and Flahr: The pre-draft pressers are typically not as revealing as the post-draft availabilities, but Danny Briere and Brent Flahr said at least a few noteworthy things. Bill and Charlie podded about it here, Charlie wrote about it here.

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“Calling around the league, and finding centers…. it’s almost impossible,” Briere said. “And you’re not going to find a first line or second line center. A lot of teams will be willing to entertain a fourth line center, moving a fourth line guy, but they’ll want a second line winger in return.”

The Flyers need top-six centers in their pipeline. And if getting them via trade is proving “almost impossible,” then one assumes that they’ll have to go the drafting route — and they’re in prime position this year to do so.

Charlie O’Connor, PHLY

They did not reveal their cards, of course. But the two execs touched on the main talking points (player tiers, lack of size, lack of centers) that fans are talking about heading into next week’s draft.

Draft Party, Hockey Version: We will be at the same place as last year, when our Flyers pod took over the friendly confines of Chickie’s & Petes. Tickets are five bucks, but that is only because the party went way over capacity last year and they are trying control the crowd (somewhat). Only so many crab fries to go around.

Panthers win the Cup: Two takeaways here…

The Flyers’ task: Draft a bunch of big guys and petition Harrisburg/Trenton to get rid of state income tax. That’s all, easy peasy.
A Canadian team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993. Someone needs to run the odds of that happening. Not like they have not had their chances, either. Canadian teams are 0-8 in the Cup finals since then! Meanwhile, the hockey hotbed of the Sun Belt is cleaning up.

Miami 8, Phillies 3: Not a great Jesús Luzardo start, but then again, a normal bad Jesús Luzardo start is probably a good sign? At least it was not The Worst Performance You Have Ever Seen.

GAME RECAP: Game 73 PHLY Phillies recap in 60 seconds
— #PHLY Phillies (#@PHLY_Phillies)
1:05 AM • Jun 18, 2025

Three positive takeaways from this one:

Trea Turner is en fuego. He homered again, and his OPS is up to .832. One weird stat: All of Turner’s nine homers this year are on the road.
Otto Kemp has the Chase Utley gene. You throw an inside fastball to that young man, he is wearing it. Love that.
Mets lost: Still only two games back in the division.

As the Ace turns… I know I am writing a ton about a guy who the Sixers very well might not pick, so we will keep this as short as possible. There was a new mock draft dropped by the ESPN guys yesterday, and they had the Sixers picking VJ Edgecombe at No. 3.

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[Edgecombe] appears to be "the leader in the clubhouse" currently, with Bailey losing momentum after refusing to visit, initially unsatisfied with his search for a proven pathway to development. However, Bailey is scheduled to work out in Philadelphia at the end of this week, and we'll see if he's able to sway the tides in his favor.

The feedback from his interviews at the draft combine in Chicago was not all that positive, with some teams expressing concern about his lack of preparation and focus. NBA executives say Bailey has been polarizing in internal front office conversations because of questions about his feel for the game and lack of polish, creating a wider draft range than initially anticipated.

Jonathan Givony, ESPN

As an experienced mock draft reader, I typically separate the exercise into two distinct buckets…

The mock draft that goes up because there has not been a mock draft up in a while. There is little new information in there, but those mock drafts get clickzzz and pageviewzzz. I used to specialize in those.
The mock draft that has legitimate intel and new information. This ESPN mock was an example of that.

“Initially unsatisfied with his search for a proven pathway to development” screams “I want to take a million shots right away” to me. That said, Bailey is coming in to work out for the Sixers… which he would be insane not to. The guys talked about the report here. But the big news, to me, is that VJ Edgecombe is “the leader in the clubhouse.” As I wrote the other day, that feels like the most Daryl Morey/Sixers pick.

Draft Party, Basketball Version: This will be at The Boozy Mutt on Poplar Street in one of my favorite Philadelphia neighborhoods (Fairmount). Similar to the Flyers show, we had a huge turnout for this event last year and already have a bunch of people signed up for this one. You can RSVP for free here.