97.5 The Fanatic Phillies Notebook: Stay Loose & Sexy

Points of criticism for the Philadelphia Phillies have become hard to find early in the 2024 season. There is a sense of hope for a memorable summer at Citizens Bank Park. Brandon Marsh is even talking about starting a Phillies band called Stay Loose & Sexy.

The best team in baseball is rolling their competition. Is there a danger of complacency setting in?

The Phillies have reeled off 18 wins in 22 games. They won five of six this week with a +25 run differential. They blasted Toronto starter Jose Berrios, who entered Tuesday's game with a 1.44 ERA, on their way to a 10-1 victory.

A Wednesday afternoon dud might’ve resulted in a series split against the Blue Jays, but the Phillies still haven’t lost a series since April 1-3.

Brandon Marsh has the fan base riding high after the colorful Sunday Night Baseball interview that gave birth to the Stay Loose & Sexy idea. The 26-year-old named Kyle Schwarber, Cristian Pache, and Garrett Stubbs as his potential bandmates.

Rob Thomson has the Phillies rolling on all cylinders with a solid lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. Is the third-year manager worried about complacency setting into a group that’s gone on deep playoff runs the past two seasons?

Kyle Schwarber has hit nine home runs out of the leadoff spot this season. However, his .720 OPS and .318 OBP fall well below his career averages and expectations in a potential World Series season.

He spoke after the loss on Wednesday with an attitude of leadership and motivation. His comments acknowledge that the Phillies haven’t come close to accomplishing their goals just yet.

The Phillies didn’t seem to miss a beat after Trea Turner went down with a hamstring injury on May 3. The former MLB batting champ will miss about six weeks.

His teammates finished a victory after he left the matchup against the Giants. They followed it up with four more before snapping the win streak.

Ricky Bottalico has commented on The Best Show Ever about how the Phillies have shown a remarkable sense of confidence for a team that just lost their $300 million shortstop. 

Kody Clemens has homered in his only two starts in 2024. Edmundo Sosa will also see additional playing time. The Phillies will look mostly to Whit Merrifield, however, to carry the majority of the weight with Turner on the shelf. 

Bryson Stott has already slid from second base to shortstop for one game. The positional flexibility will allow Merrifield to play second base regularly.

The conversation about an injury to Trea Turner somehow shifted into a historic home run streak for Bryce Harper. It’s the luxury the Phillies have with a lineup loaded with superstars.

Harper broke out with a three-run home run in front of the entire nation on Sunday Night Baseball. He followed it up with a second three-run homer in Monday’s series close-out and a grand slam on Tuesday against the Blue Jays.

Tyrone Johnson credited the NBC Sports Philadelphia staff for digging up the only four other players in major league history to accomplish the same feat: Ted Williams, Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Belle, and Carlos Gonzalez.

Harper’s slugging percentage jumped from .468 to .534 during the three-game stretch (MLB Average in 2024: .384). He’s climbing the major league leaderboards in OPS, and he’s second on the Phillies behind only Alec Bohm.

The sport’s biggest superstar has seen a low percentage of pitches in the strike zone this season. The opposing pitcher strategy has resulted in a walk rate that’s notably higher than Harper’s career average.

Todd Zolecki also spoke about how Harper made an adjustment at the plate with his hands because of a suggestion from Trea Turner. 

Despite the hot streak, Harper showed obvious frustration with an 0-4 performance on Wednesday. He threw his bat against the Phillies dugout fence after a groundout in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

The Phillies will begin a weekend series in South Florida on Friday with Ranger Suarez on the mound. They should expect to handle a Miami Marlins team in last place without their recently traded star Luis Arraez.

If Brandon Marsh has anything to say about it, they'll Stay Loose & Sexy while trying to do it.

All stats as of the beginning of play on May 9.

The proverbial cup of coffee is a common strategy that will never disappear from professional sports. It’s practical for a player to leave a team after a successful stint for a more suitable fit if his best years are behind him. The Philadelphia Phillies are no exception to cup of coffee veterans.

The Phillies own the longest continuous stretch in any of the four major professional sports leagues using a single name in the same city. Their lengthy history includes stints from legends like Pete Rose and fan favorites like Tug McGraw.

Both went on to win the World Series in 1980. Their respective legacies in Philadelphia aren’t forgettable despite successful careers elsewhere.

Jim Thome similarly had more successful stints with other MLB teams, but he was the best player on the Phillies for a significant stretch in the early 2000s. Jonathan Papelbon is (surprisingly) the franchise's all-time leader in saves. 

During the 21st century, the Phillies sustained dominance from 2007-2011 and reentered World Series contention in 2022. The successful eras included cups of coffee varying from Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez to a patchwork move to acquire Noah Syndergaard.

The seasons in between included countless forgettable acquisitions that appropriately characterized forgettable seasons.

See how many of the proverbial cups of coffee you remember. Which ones were blips on the radar for players you remember from careers with other MLB teams?

The other three major sports franchises in Philadelphia also have their fair share of memorable and/or forgettable cups of coffee. 

Pierre built a reputation as one of the best leadoff hitters in the majors in the early 2000s. He was a key sparkplug for the Florida Marlins when they won the World Series in 2003, but he didn’t make it to Philadelphia until age 34.

He spent one season in a platoon with the 2012 Phillies. It certainly wasn’t the prime of his career, but he still had a little left. Pierre hit .307 in 130 games in his Phillies career.

Bautista broke out with 54 home runs for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010. He made six All-Star appearances and entered the MVP conversation on a yearly basis in the prime of his career.

That track record didn’t mean much by 2018. He only made 57 plate appearances with the Phillies, the third stop of his 15th and final MLB season.

The Phillies signed Charlie Morton in 2016, but he missed most of his only season in red pinstripes with a hamstring injury he suffered in April. It was a bizarre hiccup in an otherwise good career. Morton has won two World Series rings, and he even finished third in American League Cy Young voting in 2019.

His career highlights came with the Cleveland Indians during the 1990s, but Philadelphia remembers Kenny Lofton more for a questionable press conference in 2005.

The four-time Gold Glover shied away from an aggressive play at the center field wall at Citizens Bank Park and later told reporters he wasn’t foolish enough to run into a wall. Phillies fans gravitated toward Aaron Rowand for doing exactly the opposite in a similar situation the following season.

Jimmy Rollins talked about the Phillies as the “team to beat” entering the 2007 season. The addition of Freddy Garcia made his statement sound valid, although bold. Rollins probably didn’t think the expected ace of the staff would post a 5.90 ERA in 11 starts in his only season with the Phillies, but the team still got the NL East pennant out of it.

It’s an element of the story that doesn’t always come up when Philadelphia fans glorify the famous comments from Rollins.

The world (annoyingly) focused heavily on Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox in the heated rivalry with the Yankees in the early 2000s. Martinez was well past his prime when the Phillies signed him in July 2009. However, he showed he still had some heat in seven scoreless innings in Game 2 of the NLCS.

It’s not the most memorable stint of Pedro’s career, but the Phillies made the right decision to bring in the Hall of Famer for a run to the World Series.

The 2014 Phillies tried too hard to hold onto the past. Ruben Amaro Jr. insisted on adding around his aging superstars, and A.J. Burnett was the big splash to fill a rotation that had lost Roy Halladay.

Burnett had a tough season for a bad team at age 37. He’ll look back on World Series championships with the Marlins and the Yankees a lot more favorably than his cup of coffee with the Phillies.

Dave Dombrowski built the Detroit Tigers into a World Series caliber team by 2012. Delmon Young provided some unlikely heroics and earned the ALCS MVP when Detroit defeated the Yankees.

He made a quick stop in Philadelphia in 2013 that only lasted 80 games. The Phillies released him by August, and he ended up getting postseason at-bats in 2013 and 2014.

Francoeur touched nearly every corner of the NL East during his 12-year career in the majors. His stint with the Phillies in 2015 during a forgettable era wasn’t particularly impactful.

However, he developed a great reputation off the diamond in Philadelphia that isn’t usually characteristic of a journeyman who clearly never had a long-term future with the Phillies.

Buchholz pitched his first 10 MLB seasons for the Boston Red Sox, earning two All-Star appearances and a World Series ring. He was never a fit in Philadelphia, and his career with the Phillies ended abruptly when an injury limited him to two games in 2017. He went on to make 28 career starts after leaving the Phillies.

The Phillies reloaded after a down season in 2012. Ruben Amaro Jr. hoped his aging core would get healthy and regain their spot at the top of the NL East with the help of a few key additions.

Michael Young had been an excellent average hitter for 13 seasons with the Texas Rangers. However, he wasn’t a fit for a team that made it obvious their run of dominance from 2007-2011 was over. The Phillies traded him after just 126 games.

The rebuilding years were fading when Gabe Kapler took over as manager in 2018. The Phillies signaled a change in team-building strategy by signing Jake Arrieta. He had his ups and down for an improved but still not impressive team in 2018.

Philadelphia will remember him more as an outspoken, underperforming, and overpaid pitcher through the rest of his tenure. It was a bad combination for a player whose accomplishments came in another city.

Jay Bruce reached the 30 home run plateau five times in 14 MLB seasons. The Phillies brought him in toward the end of his career in 2019, and he provided immediate pop with an early hot streak.

He finished the season with 26 longballs between the Phillies and Mariners. He also hung around for 32 more games in 2020 to finish a stint in Philadelphia that should satisfy any Phillies fan.

Familia finished with a 6.09 ERA in 38 games with the Phillies in 2022. The Mets had gotten rid of him partly because of his checkered past, and the Phillies made a mistake ever getting involved.

Dave Dombrowski shook off the misstep, and the Phillies released Familia and fellow questionable character Odubel Herrera in August 2022. They went on an unforgettable World Series run two months later. Coincidence?

The move to acquire Syndergaard was involved with the roster shuffle that led the Phillies to release Familia and Herrera. The former Mets starter did a serviceable job at the back of the rotation in 10 regular-season starts and four postseason appearances.

He was more of a secondary piece in a bigger series of moves than a long-term solution. The Phillies certainly don’t regret the overall roster tweaks that helped them to a World Series appearance.

The Phillies went through their fair share of journeyman right-handers between the downfall after 2011 and the rise back to contention in 2022. Aaron Harang had an underwhelming performance for the 2015 Phillies in the last of his 14 seasons with his eighth MLB team.