Franzke Friday: Scott Franzke Praises Cristopher Sanchez and Alec Bohm

0:00While simply amazing was yesterday as the Phillies win 5-3 opening day start out with the Schwarber Homer Sanchez go six 10 strikeouts no walks look the part of one of the best pitchers in baseball got a little hairy at the end there he went a little hairy and that wasn't great, but a Doron came in closed it out and the Phillies get their first victory of the season. We're going to talk about it all with the guy that was on the call yesterday will be of course with all the Phillies games Scott Fransky sponsored by Morgan and Morgan America's largest injury law firm Scott, how you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you guys? Awesome. Had an awesome day at the ballpark yesterday. Scott did the weather was nice. I didn't have to crash out of anything like that. So it was a good day for me. You didn't have to crash out. No, because I thought it was going to be cold. If it had been cold on opening day, I had a problem with the weather guy. Well, we were worried about the team. He was worried about the weather, but yesterday Scott, everything worked out starting with Christopher Sanchez. I'm just blown away by the picture of the Phillies that developed here, a few years ago

1:02looked like, all right, maybe they had something. And now they not only have something, they have a guy just routinely goes out there and just makes all these hitters look so silly. He's pretty special. He really is. I don't think, I mean, obviously they like him. They saw something in him, but they had to build him to this point and give him the credit of course for doing it, but there are a lot of people involved from the pitching side to the drinking conditioning side and manager at one point finally just gave him the ball and said, all right, he was there for a year and a half, up and down, up and down, and then finally midway through 23, if it hears the ball, go make the most of it. He's done that. I'd say and then some. He has and he has an ability. Scott that most starters, I would say these days don't to which it feels like he gets better as the game goes on.

2:03The only time it felt like the Rangers had a shot yesterday to score some runs was that first inning and then he got better and better and you know, it's only opening days so I didn't expect seven right innings, but just the way he finished that six with striking out the side and he a little emotion for him as well, walking off the mound after that let's see, he'll strike out. Yeah, it's fun to see. You know, it's a big deal for him. You know, it's not like he's not, I mean, he's started game one of the playoffs last year so he's been in big spots before, but it is a pretty big deal to be your team's guy on opening day and it was his first chance to do that. And yeah, I mean, yes, the Rangers had a chance to score in the first, but I mean, you go back and look, they didn't hit hard, they just a couple of leaders up the middle. I mean, then he hit two balls hard all day off him, maybe, you know, coach did a ball pretty good off him, but not many guys did. And that's that's kind of who he is, a lot of stuff, contact, keep the infielders on their toes, the strikeouts keep coming, they'll keep doing it with just three pitches.

3:08I mean, he's the remarkable, he really is. You know, so okay, so outside of the pitching, what else took I tell you, what are the players that you, you looked at say, hey, you know what, this guy has a little sum on the bottom. Well, I mean, I just certainly love the fact that, I mean, absorber's absorber, right? So that's great. Yeah, he's still doing his thing, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, you know, space out the line up there and you've got something from bone, you've got something from Mars, you've got some Crawford, I mean, that's kind of what you're hoping and maybe tomorrow it's a different set of guys, but, you know, obviously the Crawford thing, him getting a couple of hits there and it's one game. I mean, let's, you know, he's going to take a lot of, to get the verdict on, on Justin of course, but there was one game and it's definitely, you can see it, right? You see that, man, if he's getting on base and craze getting on base and you've got the three, those three guys coming up, I mean, you're going to, you've got a chance

4:09to court and runs and you'll see as the season goes along, they'll start to be more dynamic with trying to deal bases and run and different things like that, but, yeah, I mean, I think just offensively, you want to see that kind of thing develop on a nightly basis or there's a different guy tonight, you're not relying just on, I'll forward a hit 56, right? You've got to have other people to do it and, you know, one day, but it's a good, good start. And yesterday, in particular, in terms of other guys doing it, boom, pick them up in that fifth inning because they know, Crawford gets on, Turner gets on and then, you know, Schwarber and Harper both do not deliver in those spots and it comes down to Alec Boom with two outs. It's got, you know, who knows how the game would have played out right? If the boys had a different lead, maybe if it was only two, nothing, maybe they handled the bullpen differently, but just kind of just looking at it from 10,000 feet, they won that game on the boom, home run. Those that end up being the winning runs there, the home run by Alec Boom and Scott, I feel good for him. Obviously, he's got some stuff off the field. He's got to deal with right now, but in terms of on the field, it was the second straight

5:10off season where there were questions on the Phillies commitment to him. You know, we know Aiden Miller is on his way at some point. The boba's shit stuff was out there, so that's got to be a lot for him to handle. And yet he seems like when he's between the lines, he still plays his game and that was a good sign yesterday to take a vaulty deep there. Absolutely. I mean, Alec, again, Alec's grown up a lot with, you know, watching him over the years. He's been doing this a while now and he's got a lot, there's a lot going on for him as he said on the field and off. He's got, you know, tensile, you know, free agency at the end of this year and are the Phillies committed to him? Are they not? You mentioned they have a really good prospect, so they like a whole lot. How does he fit into the picture? But he is, I think even last year, and he had a bad two weeks coming out of the gates, me had a good opening day and then after that had a bad couple of weeks. But, you know, Alec stood up, he faced the music, he said, look, I'm going to be fine at

6:13the end of the year. I know, you know, with the back of my baseball cards does and he didn't drive in as many runs last year. And I know he'd like to be able to cast in on that as well this year, but I've been very impressed with the way he's dealt with everything and handled it and just gone about his business and had a great spring, even after all the trade rumors. And, you know, skewed it yesterday on opening day, you know, what can you say? Other than to be impressed by, you know, him picking up the slack for the two guys and you know what? I was so impressed. Let me just run this by you say because they've been laughing at me all this, but I threw this out there. I just want to see. I just want to see how you feel about laughing, you know, we threw our bow predictions yesterday, right? And I just want to say, by the way, that I did call Bones Home Run before the game. You did. You know, of course you did. And I also said that he's going to hit 30 home runs this year.

7:16Okay. So you don't have a problem with that, do you? Well, I mean, it wouldn't be, I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Again, it would be a massive jump for him, but he's been a guy that's been there 20 and 100, right? Yeah. And I'll tell you, baseball is littered with examples of players who, ahead of a contract year, have a breakout, right? That happens. You know, again, it's, there's, there's health involved. There's consistency. There's all those things. I don't think it, I mean, I wouldn't laugh at you for, they laughed at me. Well, you can tell them, he's insane, they, they gave me hearty laugh. He waits to judge. No, but he'd be heartedly laughing. He was, he was leaving a part of the story out, a little part of the story. So we, we do these ball predictions before, like the Eagle season starts to fill these. And a couple seasons ago with the Eagles, we did the ball predictions, right? And Hughes was that Bryce Huff would break the NFL sack record.

8:17We got to talk about that. He's now retired, okay? He's not even playing in the league. He's selling batteries, right? He's selling batteries or whatever he's doing, right? So, so we, we're a little skeptical when Hugo's very bold. So that, that was kind of the backdrop he left out. That's all right. Yeah. And I don't know a lot about, about Bryce Pop, but I, I, I mean, again, boom, is it, is it probable? No, but the whole idea is it's a bold prediction. That's true. I think the assignment very seriously, yeah. He went bold. Did anybody, is anybody laughing at the people that said, Bryce Harper is going to win the MVP this year? Is there a bold prediction? No, no one's laughing at that. He's done that before, but who's to say that Alec won't do this for the first time this year? I mean, again, he's, he's got pop. He's got power. He doesn't always tap into it the way that maybe he can, but, you know, again, I, it could happen. I'm not saying, you know, it's a high probability prediction, but, you know, you know, the long

9:20dot's coming. You know what else I say? It's got opposite. We hear, we hear today. He go, he go, he go, he go hit one tomorrow, he can hit one tomorrow. Okay. We'll knock it out the part. You said specifically off the ground. Off the ground. Yeah. Off the ground. Yeah. Off the ground. Well, he did it back down from that. Yeah, off the ground. He did it off the ground on opening dates two years ago. How about that? In text. There we go. It's better off. I'm putting money on that. I'm putting four dollars on that. You better watch your wallet there. It's not go crazy now. Let's not go crazy. All right, Scott. Don't risk it if you had to put your lose. Okay. I got four dollars. Okay. That's good. Scott, last one for you. One guy that we didn't talk much about, when we spoke, the first time it's pretty training last week. And he's not ready to start this season, but I did notice yesterday, player introductions, Orion Kirkering was there, got a good reception from the crowd. I think, you know, the fan base is going to be supportive of his. He tries to come back from the ending of last year. Scott, what's your thought on Kirk? I know he missed a lot of spring training, working his way back probably back soon, assuming the rehab assignment goes well in Lehigh Valley.

10:22But that's not easy for him to try to come back and pitch after what happened the way last year ended. The fan base is obviously rooting for him and they could use him in that bullpen. What's your thought on how he's handled everything and what you expect when he gets back here? What I love about it is that he's just faced it all, you know, he's not, he doesn't try to run from what happened, it happened, and there's no changing that. The only thing he can worry about is what happens going forward, right, I mean, just like to bury it and to say, I don't want to talk about it or, you know, to act like it's not a thing, it's a thing and people are going to ask him about it for a long time. Like I said, he's just faced up to it, he's dealt with it. He's worked hard to try to do some things this off season, you know, to expand his repertoire and to try to get better, obviously the step back, getting a late start in camp doesn't

11:25help, but you know, this is a long haul thing. I talked to him yesterday, he's feeling really good, he's, you know, he'll pitch this weekend, he'll do it back to back next week. I wouldn't be surprised to see him, maybe sometime on that road trip, that first road trip wouldn't be shocking, so, and you know, he's going to be asked to get some big outs, you know, 5-6-7th inning, clean up the inning, those kinds of things, he's going to be thrust into that fire again and we'll see how he handles it when he really gets the spotlight put back on him again. Yeah, excited to see him when he gets back. Scott, appreciate you hopping on, as always, have a great Friday and we'll be listening this weekend against Texas. Have a good one. All right, time's good, fellas. Have a good weekend. There you go. Scott Fransky with us here. So, he's way too nice. Well, I mean, he really is. What is so nice? Scott's a great teammate. I mean, he's great because, you know, he, he could have laughed at you, but he didn't, he made, he made you, he made you feel like it was possible. You should have, you should have.

12:26You know, I think now that we're here, we, we need to start the Hugh Douglas. I told you so, Alec Bohm, home run meter, and every time he hits a home run, you know, we're getting closer to Hugh being right. And look, this is, ultimately, this is a great thing for the Phillies. The closer to Alec, actually everyone wins in this. Yeah. Everyone wins, right? It's great, it's great for the show because we get, I told you so, Douglas, and then we have to, you know, we have to kind of bring him down a couple notches here. And then we get great for the Phillies because it's 30 home runs by Alec Bohm, and it's great for Alec Bohm, right? Because someone will then pay him after the season, probably not the Phillies, but someone will, if he's 30 home runs, and, and, and, you know, he's probably right now. He's hell of a motivate. You know what I mean? Like financially, he's, you know, he ain't hurting, but he feels, he's, he's filling some type of way right now. So he's going to be, you know, he's, he's probably going to be trying to recoup as much money as he possibly can. You know, the, the Bohm situation, let's say he has a good year, you know what it kind of reminds me of last year's Ranger Suarez situation, to where everyone could kind of see

13:29the writing on the wall, right? That he wasn't going to be here. That he wasn't going to be here. They had young pictures that they had to look, they've paid Luzardo, they've paid San chez. They have painter coming, right? So it never really, it never really made financial sense to think that we're going to resign Ranger. The Phillies have had chances to resign Bohm. They haven't done it. They've thought about acquiring other people like Bashat hasn't happened. And now they have Aiden Miller coming. So Hugh, I, I think it's very unlikely Bohm will be on the team next year. But the Phillies got a good year out of Ranger, right? As he positioned himself to go to free agency and get $100 million. So I think that's the best case scenario where the Phillies get the best year at a Bohm. And then he gets paid probably somewhere else. Yeah, he, he, he puts himself in a position where he can make a nice little piece of cheese man and, you know, put all of this, whatever you got going on behind him and, you know, just, just get back on the right track. Yeah. Yeah. I would like to point out a couple of weeks ago, I said fans are going to be talking about wanting to pay Alec Bohm by the end of the season. Well, you did. There you go. Well, to use the Ranger example I just brought up, people didn't want to let Ranger leave

14:31when he was playing well last year. Ultimately, that's what happened. But that, if he, like, look, if Hugh's right on this or close to right and he has 25 or 30 home runs, people aren't going to be just ready to move on. I mean, that's, no, that's not, I mean, it would probably be second or third on the team in home runs if he gets there. Yep. And he was going to be so annoying. Well, that's true. Well, I promise I won't be annoying. No, no, don't make promises. No one buys that for a second promise on purpose. I won't be annoying. It's day one. You already made a second prediction on purpose. I mean, you know, because I might have been in control. Yeah. I mean, I'm by the nose. Not on my mouth. Yeah. I might have known people when I breathe. Well, then you belong here at WIP. Lisa and Horsesham is up. What's up? Lisa. Hi guys. How are you doing today? Good. Lisa, what's up? So I just wanted to talk to the lineup. I think you were talking about it a little bit earlier. But I just get concerned about Bryce's placement in the lineup, especially behind Schwarber. And maybe if it gets in his head of Schwarber's hitting

15:34so well, if that's putting additional pressure on him, I don't know. I would be all for Harper hitting second in the lineup, but definitely not following Schwarber if he's leaning off. I don't know. Maybe it's just me. No, Lisa. I don't think it's a great, I mean, what do you mean? Schwarber's doing and puts pressure on himself? Well, I mean, yeah, that's what I do. Like, I think Joe was intimating earlier that maybe he could be jealous. I don't want to recklessly speculate that. Why not? Why not? That's some great reckless speculation. He jealous. We're going to go with that. Yeah, super jealous. Well, at least a few years ago, it was clearly Bryce Harper's team. And now the production, like, I mean, we could still say it's Bryce Harper's team, but as the days go on, like, one guy's producing at a super high level. And the other guy is just not in that same level right now. So it feels like, I mean, if I was Bryce, I couldn't help but notice it. Like, the other guy that's hitting in front or behind me, whatever, is outperforming me by a lot.

16:34Right. And then especially, you know, he's hitting his Schwarber's opening day and then the showman's coming up and he's hitting dead air, which, you know, I don't know. I just, I get concerned about that with the lineup. But the other thing I wanted to say is, I completely believe Hugh about boom. I think he's here to save the season. So I just, I know he said that he's 30 on thing. He's going to hit 30 on thing. 30, yeah. And I think you said for high roll or few, you're going for a second one tomorrow. I just want to know. I got my bet, right? Yeah, a photo of that. Photo. Whoa, whoa, whoa, what did we go from, who? Hey, big spinner. That's me. I know. I don't even know this guy anymore. He's different now. He's just saying he's so different. This is wild. I mean, I'm glad to be on the line for this moment, because I was going $2, but we're going for it. We're going for it. We're going for it for Bomber. Bomber home. I love it. Thanks to guys so much.

17:35I really appreciate it. You got it, Lisa. We appreciate you to make it the call. Yeah, I didn't like reckless speculation or not. I think it's, there's something to a natural thing when you are the face of the team. And then somebody else starts out producing you by a wide margin. Yeah, that's being competitive, man. And like I said, Bryce Harper is in rare fight air from the standpoint that he was always that dude. No matter where he went, he was always that dude. So now there might be some, you know, with them, you know, Schwab's doing this, that in the third. Let me get mine or whatever. That's natural. That's not something that any athlete should be ashamed of. That's just that competitive spirit. But it's true. It's try too hard. Well, there's that. That's what I'm saying. He's probably in his head. You know, he's probably in his head. And he probably just needs to cool out and just let the game come to him. But there's something to be said about, you know, being in a position where you don't, you're not looked at like you used to be looked at or something like that. And maybe he's feeling that ultimately, topper has to contract the line up to win games,

18:36right? It can't just be about what Bryce Harper wants or his emotions. I mean, we already kind of catered to what these guys like anyway to an extent. So, you know, we spent a lot of the off season to my protection for Bryce Harper. Last year, he saw an enormous amount of pitches outside the strike zone, more than anyone in baseball. That's a fact. And his agent brought it up. It felt healed like a little bit of a shot. Like you were saying earlier. We love the shot. At Castiano slash boom slash whoever was hitting for it. There's behind you. Yeah. Wherever that guy was behind me, I ain't protected. Right. But if, if, if, and I still think it's an if, if boom has a big year, that, that excuse kind of goes away, right? Because that would mean there's a productive hitter behind him. Yeah. I mean, we can't say that Bryce Harper didn't have protection. It literally boom protected him to where he hit the home run to help save them when Bryce struck out before that. So yet, so far so good on the protection thing. And you go to the world baseball classic, it was there in judge hitting behind him, right? Like he had protection there and until the big spot in the end, he didn't do much anyway. He just got a hit. I mean, whether or not he's two or three, he has to hit, man.

19:38He has to get comfortable where he is right now, where everybody is. And he might have to do some adjustments, but I still believe in Bryce. I do. Who do you believe more in? Boomer Bryce. Oh, Boomer. Oh, stop. Let me tell you why I believe in Boomer more. You guys are out of control. What I believe in Boomer more because Boomer is dealing with something that's never going to be right. Well, you ought to feel thing is. Yeah. I ought to feel stuff. I mean, you know, if you want to look, if you want to know about it, you can read, you can read about it. I don't have to go into detail about that. But that's, that's a hell of a motivator. You know what I mean? Because you're dealing with all that. You're dealing with the fact that, you know, your life is going to be different after this. Now I will say just to be on the record with this, if this prediction of Hughes works out, if I told you so Douglas is able to peacock around here, you didn't, we did not know and you did not know yesterday about the, what was going on. The boom story. No. You know, there's a story with his family and finances. We didn't, you didn't know anything about that when you made the boom prediction. No, but, so that was just, that was, that was Bay Hughes baseball eye yesterday.

20:39Well, no, it was, it was the feeling that I had and then the story when it came out, like it also started to spring training because you heard people talking about how he was, he was hitting the ball. He didn't even get to it. Everybody was hitting the high, he was hitting the ball and it just, you know, and then he comes in and he does what he does and then the story comes out that you can go read for yourself and it's like, man, he, he's motivated right now. He, he has a lot going on baseball for him. It's probably going to be his outlet all season long, you know what I mean? And yeah, that, that has to be a tough one, has to be tough. Well, I'm definitely pulling for him. Yeah, great day. Yeah. I mean, the home run was huge. That's right. There's no question about 215, 592, 94. We're reacting all day to opening day, the Phillies five, the Rangers three of five nothing starts. Sanchez is just dominant. I mean, he is a dominant pitcher. Those guys, those Rangers hitters looked, they looked bad yesterday. They looked lost and they can't, and these hitters can't tell. He's two seamer, the sinker and the, I'm gonna change up. He's just, right now he's elevated to a special level as a left-handed starting pitcher.

21:43Crawford debut, Bryce is struggles. What's it out the most to you on opening day? All right, more of your phone calls on the other side. And it looks like Hugh Douglas as officially, hmm, issued a challenge and I don't think it's a good idea. I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to help you as a friend here because this feels like a bad idea by Hugh Douglas. With that next, it is the midday show on Sports Radio 94, WIP. You know, Easter's a time for family, tradition and a table built around a mistakeful flavor of Hatfield Ham. Tinder, juicy and packed with flavor, the kind of ham that has everybody coming back for seconds and thirds sometimes. So when you're putting together your Easter shopping list, make sure Hatfield Ham is right at the top because tradition tastes even better when it's done right. This Easter's a flavor of a flavor everyone loves with Hatfield Ham. Visit simplyhatfield.com for recipes and a store near you, Hatfield, better care, better port.