What’s Brewing With Jen Includes Guest Appearances At Wrestlemania

See what was brewing with Jen Scordo today. Every day on The Best Show Ever? Jen Scordo shares a few recent weird and interesting news stories. Today that includes Lil Wayne is headed to Wrestlemania and robot dogs in an Alaskan airport… Here are her stories from today.

Wrestlemania Will Welcome Lil Wayne This Weekend

Wrestlemania 40 will take place in our fine city of Philadelphia this weekend and you can bet that a lot of famous people will be on hand for all the events.  That includes Lil Wayne, who will make an appearance at some point during the weekend to debut his new single.  He will also make an appearance at The Roots Picnic to headline in June of this year at the Mann. And Hulk Hogan has confirmed that he will make an appearance on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. This is the Super Bowl of the wrestling world.  It’s a huge deal that it’s in Philadelphia. Enjoy the weekend!

[Source - CBSNews.com]

Alaska Airport Employees Robot Dog

When in Alaska, sometimes it’s necessary to send out a dog in the morning outside of your home or business to scare away local wildlife… that’s pretty normal, especially for more rural areas.  Well, the Fairbanks Airport, Alaska’s 2^nd largest airport, has now employed a robot dog to perform “wildlife hazard reduction.”  The robot dog is the size of a Labrador Retriever, is named Aurora and will be able to handle all sorts of different terrain. Though it looks like a giant cricket… The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities say that Aurora will be camouflaged as a coyote or a fox in order to scare off birds and other wildlife from interrupting the airport operations.  There were 10 incidents of airplanes hitting wildlife in Fairbanks last year, so they are hoping Aurora will help save some animals.

[Source - dailymail.co.uk]

The first 4 games of the Phillies season have not gone well. It is deja vu with a 3rd straight slow start. After spending all off-season talking about the importance of a fast start, they fell on their face out of the gate. The Braves embarrassed them in games 1 and 2. Then we saw Connor Brogdon blow up against the Reds, allowing an extra innings Grand Slam.

Obviously, it is frustrating. After all the hype, it sucks to see them start slow. It is only 4 games though. They started like this the past two years too, and they still made deep playoff runs. Things are going to be okay. You don't hit the panic button in the first week, or even the first month. We went through this before, you think people would have learned a lesson from that?

That is not the case. Even after the first loss, there was a clear sense of panic on Phillies' Twitter. People were worried about the bullpen, the bats, and Rob Thomson. I saw some people saying that the Phillies were going to be like the 2023 Eagles. AFTER ONE GAME!

So let's all take a step back, and relax. The sky is not falling. This team is still very talented. They just tripped out of the gates. It happens. Breathe in, breathe out, and calm down. 4 games does not a season make. Like Andrew Salciunas wrote before the season, it is a marathon, not a sprint. Things will be okay.

Also, believe it or not, there are some good takeaways from the first 4 games. Amidst the embarrassing losses, there are silver linings that give us a reason to be excited going forward—individuals who stepped up or showed growth despite the team losing. It is not all bad in Phillies land.

If you watched Spring training, you already knew this, but Kyle Schwarber looks slimmed down. And we saw that pay off a bit in the first few games. He moves so much better on the bases this season. At times last year, he moved like a penguin, waddling slowly around the bases.

He is still no speed demon. But we saw him be an effective base runner a few times. Including stealing 3rd base in 1 game. He is also putting the ball in play more, albiet in a small sample size. In 4 games he has 4 singles. It took him 10 games to get that last season. He was also only whiffed on 20% of his swings, which is above league average. That number was over 30% last season.

That part might just be the small sample size. But the slimmed-down and moving better on the basepaths thing is real. He is still no speed demon. They even pinch ran for him on Monday night in a move that wound up backfiring. But he is less of a liability on the basepaths.

There was some concern about Sanchez's struggles in Spring Training. Clearly, that was not a real concern. His stuff looked nasty in Monday night's loss to the Reds. He struck out 8 guys in 5 innings off work. The wheels came off a bit in the 6th inning. But he settled in nicely in innings 3, 4, and 5. He was mowing Reds hitters down, with a filthy changeup and slider. if he has stuff like that this season, they are going to have the best 1-2-3-4 in baseball.

JT Realmuto had a down year last season. We came to learn that there was a massive hole in his swing, that pitchers were taking advantage of. The Phillies reworked his swing and stance this offseason. So far, so good.

The production itself is decent. He hit 1 HR and has 4 hits over 14 at-bats. But they might not tell the full story. His Hart Hit % and Barrel Rate are both up 10% from last season. At least in this small sample size, he is making good contact more often.

Put the results aside. His ERA and WHIP are terrible through 2 outings. But look deeper, watch his stuff, and there is reason to be hopeful he will be better this season. It looked like hit had better movement than last year. He was placing it better. In 1.2 innings he struck out 4 batters and walked none. Those are all good signs for Seranthony. He just needs to turn that growth into better results. I think we will see that from him as the season goes on.

There is one guy in the bullpen who has gotten great results, Yunior Marte. We knew he had decent stuff. There were times last season when he looked good. The consistency just wasn't there. But at least top open up this season, it is. He has pitched 3 innings and gave up 0 earned runs.

He is generating more swings and misses, and the contact he has allowed has all been weak. His ground ball rate is up to 62.5%. Again small sample size. But if people can freak out over 4 games, then we can also give them credit for the good things that happen in that time.

This one isn't a surprise, or anything new, but it was still good to see Wheeler is still as good as ever. He was mowing the Braves down before getting pulled on Opening Day. 6 scoreless innings. The starting rotation in general, aside from Nola, has been great. Ranger Suarez gave up 3 runs but looked great otherwise. That is going to be a strength for the Phillies.

Bohm still looks like Mr.Reliable with RISP. He already has 4 RBIs and is 2 for 3 with runners in scoring position. The only negative for him was that he didn't make a fairly tough play on a weak ground ball. But while I do think that should have counted as an error, it was still a tough play. Not really anything worth being upset at him for. He has been their best hitter in the early going.