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Andy Painter Looks Sharp in Another Outing

🚦 THE Philly Sports Newsletter

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Philip Keidel & John Foley
October 25, 2024

Photo via Kelsie Heneghan (@Kelsie_Heneghan on twitter)

Starting to get sick of the same old Phillies? Want someone to get excited about?

Let us reintroduce you to Andrew Painter, the highly-touted prospect who was poised to win a job in the Phillies' starting rotation as a teenager in 2023. He looked fantastic in an Arizona Fall League outing on Thursday.

We’ll also explore one of the best “Go Birds” in recent memory and take some shots at James Franklin.

In the email today:

🔥 Andy Painter Looks Sharp in Another Outing

Andrew Painter made his third start of the Arizona Fall League season on Thursday. He threw three scoreless innings, allowing one hit, striking out three, and walking none.

Painter, who goes by Andy, pounded the zone relentlessly. 26 of his 32 pitches were strikes.

Here he his getting through the first inning in 115 seconds.

Painter's recovery from Tommy John surgery (performed in July 2023) seems to be going as well as anyone could have hoped. He hit 99.2 mph with his fastball on Thursday and reached 100 mph in a previous AFL start.

"Obviously, baseball's been my thing growing up," said Painter in an interview earlier this month. "So getting that taken away from me, I think it made me appreciate the game so much more."

Similarly, getting Painter taken away may make the rest of us appreciate him so much more.

The young pitcher is expected to throw 20 total innings in the AFL before the Phillies organization decides on next steps.

© Nathan Ray Seebeck | 2023 Feb 23

"The main thing is that we want to make sure that he's healthy and that he's ready to go into spring training," said Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in mid-October. "What I don't know is how many innings we feel comfortable for him to pitch next year. And then we need to have a plan in that regard.

"Does he pitch at the minor league level for a while and then come up? Does he pitch two or three innings in the beginning and add more innings at the back end of the year? Does he have a consistent number of innings all year long?"

The club will figure out the details soon enough. But it's a solid bet that you'll see Andy Painter pitching at Citizens Bank Park in 2025.

🦅 Guy at Delco Town Hall Hits Kamala Harris With 'Go Birds' Because Of Course

Temple University student at a nationally televised town hall, mic in hand, addressing the Vice President of the United States (who may soon be the President): "First of all, go Birds."

Screenshot of CNN broadcast

CNN's town hall with Kamala Harris was held in Delco, so this kid could have probably started a full-blown E-A-G-L-E-S chant. Missed opportunity.

But it's fantastic to see "go Birds" continue to make inroads into the English lexicon. Five or ten years from now, the phrase will likely fully replace "hello," "goodbye," and other antiquated salutations.

"Go Birds" is also a great way to end arguments ("Whatever, man. Go Birds."), close out a prayer ("Forever and ever, amen. Go Birds."), or, of course, encourage a group of feathered friends ("Hey look at these guys flying south! Go Birds!")

Go Birds.

There's a political angle here that we'll mostly leave to someone else to explore. But Harris could have picked up like 2-3 points in the polls if she answered, "Hell yeah, go Birds, let Saquon run the rock!"

Harris instead smiled politely and answered whatever dumb question the student asked.

😶 James Franklin Tacitly Says Quiet Part Out Loud

No one will ever go broke betting on Penn State’s football program embarrassing itself.

You might think a university that paid tens of millions of dollars to settle the Sandusky claims would handle delicate matters involving alleged felonies involving sexual abuse with tact, with dignity, with grace.

You might think that, but you’d be wrong.

Let’s go over the relevant details for context before we do the other thing, i.e., pile on James Franklin for being James Franklin.

  • Keys and Lyons, former Penn State football players, appeared in court on Wednesday facing charges of rape and other sex crimes from incidents on July 7th.

  • Both players were placed on interim suspension over the summer and were removed from the roster and dismissed from the university in August.

  • Lyons's bond was set at $500,000 and Keys's at $400,000 during the court hearing.

  • Penn State head coach James Franklin avoided answering questions about the situation during a press conference, deferring to a brief statement read by assistant AD Greg Kincaid.

  • The handling of the press conference, especially Franklin's avoidance of questions, has drawn criticism from local and national media.

  • Penn State and Franklin are facing increased scrutiny over their response to the allegations and how the matter was addressed publicly.

That’s the kindest summary possible. Other observers were far less kind:

There is another facet to consider here. Franklin’s tenure as head coach at Vanderbilt was marred by a similar situation which Franklin became involved in.

It’s impossible to tie these circumstances together across a decade and two universities. Still, there is going to be careful speculation.

So maybe Franklin was in a double bind. Say nothing, as he did here, and get ripped. Give a mealy-mouthed, attorney-scrubbed, non-committal “statement,” and get ripped.

Thing is, getting ripped is part of the job. There are more than seven million reasons every year for Franklin to do things that make him uncomfortable, that might expose him to criticism. There’s also that bit about, we don’t know, being a decent human.

In saying nothing, Franklin said an awful lot about who his real priority is: James Franklin.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On October 25, 2008, the Phillies won Game Three of the World Series to take a 2-1 series lead. Choooooooooooooooooooch!

📊 Poll

The Eagles haven’t beat the Bengals in 24 years.

Who ya got on Sunday?

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Results from Thursday:

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Friday, October 25, 2024

  • Sixers at Raptors, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Saturday, October 26, 2024

  • Wild at Flyers, 3:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Sunday, October 27, 2024

  • Eagles at Bengals, 1:00 p.m. (CBS)

  • Sixers at Pacers, 3:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading! See you Monday.

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