Happy Red October!

Welcome to October! The air is crisp, the spices are pumpkin, and the color is red. Your Phillies will kick off the NLDS on Saturday against the winner of a Brewers/Mets wild card series.

It’s also Eagles season, the Sixers are in training camp, and the Flyers have a preseason game tonight. What a magical time of year.

Let’s get after it.

In the email today:

• 🏆 Ranking the Phillies Against Their Postseason Competition

• 🎙️ Nick Sirianni Should Maybe Stop Talking for Awhile

• ⚖️ Joel Embiid Is Down About 30 Pounds, May Lose More

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The Braves and Mets played the final games of the 2024 MLB regular season on Monday, splitting a doubleheader and sending the Diamondbacks packing.

With the postseason field now finalized, here’s a look at how the Phillies’ numbers stack up against the competition.

OFFENSE:

Batting Average: .257 (4th of 12). Led by Trea Turner’s .295, the Phillies’ team batting average is in the top third of the remaining contenders. The Padres top the list at .263.

On-Base Percentage: .325 (4th of 12). The Phillies are found near the top of the rankings in OBP as well. The Dodgers lead the field at .335, just ahead of the Yankees (.333) and Brewers (.326).

Slugging Percentage: .425 (4th of 12). Astute readers may notice a pattern here in the offensive stats.

On-Base Plus Slugging: .750 (3rd-T of 12). The Phillies and Orioles each posted a .750 OPS in the regular season, better than most postseason teams but well short of the Dodgers (.781) and Yankees (.762).

Runs: 784 (4th of 12). The Phillies trail the Dodgers (842), Yankees (815), and Orioles (786) in the most important offensive category. But on the bright side, the Phils won’t have to deal with the Diamondbacks (886 runs!) in the postseason.

Home Runs: 198 (6th of 12). Despite a long-ball-or-bust reputation, the Phillies are in the middle of the pack for dingers. The Bronx Bombers lived up to their nickname this season, leading the majors with 237.

Stolen Bases: 148 (2nd-T of 12). Paced by 32 steals from Bryson Stott, the Phillies stole more bases than most of this year’s postseason squads. The Guardians stole 148 as well. The Brewers, however, are in a league of their own with 217.

Strikeouts by Offense: 1370 (8th-fewest of 12). A known weak spot for the Fightins is their tendency to strike out at a staggering rate. Among the remaining World Series hopefuls, only the Mets, Brewers, Braves, and Tigers struck out more in the regular season.

PITCHING:

ERA - Starters: 3.81 (5th of 12). The Phillies’ starting pitching was at the heart of their hot start this year. But their starters’ ERA after the All-Star break (4.49) was not nearly as impressive as their ERA before the break (3.41).

The silver lining here, however, is that Taijuan Walker and the collection of minor leaguers often utilized as fifth starters will not play meaningful roles in the postseason. Zack Wheeler (2.57), Cristopher Sanchez (3.32), and Aaron Nola (3.57) form a formidable top-three. Ranger Suarez (3.46, but 5.65 since the break) is a wild card.

ERA - Relievers: 3.94 (9th of 12). The Phils’ bullpen will have to perform better than this for the team to win the World Series. As with the starting rotation, however, the Phillies have a core set of relievers who they believe they can trust: Matt Strahm (1.87), Jeff Hoffman (2.17), Orion Kerkering (2.29), Carlos Estevez (2.45), and—hopefully—Tanner Banks (3.98) or Jose Alvarado (4.09).

WHIP - Starters: 1.22 (5th of 12). Not bad, though Zack Wheeler and his NL-leading 0.96 WHIP helped this number significantly on his own.

WHIP - Relievers: 1.27 (10th of 12). The hope here, again, is that this regular season number is not representative of the pitchers the Phillies will use in the postseason. Remember, however, that other teams will be cutting dead wood as well.

Strikeouts by Pitchers: 1433 (7th of 12). The Braves lead this category with an impressive 1553 Ks and could present a challenge for the free-swinging Fightins. Luckily, the Phillies will only face Atlanta if the Braves get past the Dodgers. And in that scenario, the Phils would likely replace LA as the World Series favorite.

It’s often better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Every time the Eagles lose — which has now happened in 10 of the Birds’ last 13 outings — Sirianni has to face the assembled reporting corps and try to explain how it all went wrong.

Following the 33-16 loss in Tampa on Sunday, there again was Sirianni offering some (putting it charitably) word salad about why his team essentially lost the game in the first 20 minutes, before seriously engaging with the Buccaneers at any level:

Then you get lukewarm dishwater platitudes like this, and you wonder why the Eagles allow Sirianni to talk to the media at all:

What part of no-showing a conference game is going to “bring this team closer together”?

Since Sirianni can’t (or won’t) do it, we can say a couple of things in his defense. Starting with this:

The only thing we’ll add here is, no matter what you thought of the play call, the Eagles are one Saquon Barkley catch of a perfectly-thrown out from being 3-1.

Since Sirianni can’t say any of that, though, it might be best for him to say a lot less unless and until the Eagles win again.

Sixers Media Day was the usual display of preseason optimism and positive spin. As a fan, you really wouldn’t want it any other way. If Daryl Morey came out and said “we’re primed for another early playoff exit,” it'd be panic time.

There was only one key detail from Media Day, and it involved The Process:

According to multiple reports (including this one), Embiid might not be done shedding LB’s. “I still want to lose more, but it’s a process…we got to do whatever it takes to make sure that in the postseason, I’m healthy.”

It’s taking every bit of our restraint here not to get cynical. Embiid is entering his age-30 season. This will be his ninth season in the NBA. He has never played more than 68 games in any regular season, and last season he played in less than half the Sixers’ games.

NOW he’s in shape? NOW?

But we’re not being cynical. Don’t be sad for the past, be hopeful for the future, etc. Besides, it won’t matter what he’s tipping the scales at if Embiid continues to take unnecessary chances like this:

It’s an entertainment business, sure, but you can’t entertain anyone sitting on the bench in street clothes.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

The Phillies’ magical 2008 World Series run began with NLDS game one against the Brewers on October 1.

📊 Poll

Results from Monday:

🔗 Links

• ❌ The Eagles’ pass rush low-key sucks, but due to NFL trade rules, Haason Reddick isn’t walking through that door.

• 🌟 With a nudge from Bryce Harper, MLB announced that players will wear their team jerseys in the All-Star Game going forward.

• 🏀 Former 76ers center Dikembe Mutombo lost his battle with brain cancer at age 58.

• 🏈 Raise your hand if you had the Washington Commanders leading the NFC East after four weeks.

• 🚑️ You Hate to See It, Part One: Andy Reid’s Chiefs lost another key offensive weapon.

• ⚾️ You Hate to See It, Part Two: Both Raisel Iglesias and Edwin Diaz blew the save in Game 161, which Diaz won.

📺 Coming Up

October 1, 2024

• Flyers at Bruins | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN+

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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