Joel Sherman’s strange Phillies Big 3 ranking is completely off-target.
Have you ever experienced a difficult day at work? Perhaps the PowerPoint you were asked to create was a complete mess, or perhaps you didn’t have enough time to complete the presentation you were given? Instead of in the conference room, picture that kind of letdown on live television. Joel Sherman, an MLB insider, claims that’s precisely what occurred on Tuesday.
Sherman was given the task of compiling the greatest “Big 3’s” in the history of the game when he appeared on MLB Network’s Hot Stove program. Joel seemed ill-prepared for the job, and his co-hosts couldn’t contain their shock about the Philadelphia Phillies.
Joel was having difficulties from the beginning of this segment, as was previously mentioned. To begin with, he ranked the Seattle Mariners (Crawford, Raliegh, Rodriquez) and Milwaukee Brewers (Chourio, Contreras, Yelich) higher than the formidable Toronto Blue Jays lineup (Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr., and George Springer).
Alright, Joel?
At position eight are the San Diego Padres. Even for a team that just traded for Juan Soto, that is a pretty reasonable position. With Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts, this is a team that still has some star power and can produce big hits. That makes sense.
But this is the part of the segment where Sherman really starts to look foolish. He sums up the Padres and notes that some teams on this list have four or five players who could be taken into consideration before getting serious with his Hot Stove co-hosts. Joel, take it away.
Sherman said, “This one is here.” “The Phillies.”
Hot Stove co-host Lauren Shehadi interrupted him in shock before he could even finish speaking.
“At seven?” Shehadi enquired. That’s not very high, is it?
“That’s low,” Sherman shot back. “As in not high enough?”
Sherman is interrupted once more by Shehadi, who shares that the New York Mets are his selection at No. 6. I believe it’s clear where this is going. Sherman goes on.
“For the Phillies we have [Bryce] Harper, [J.T.] Realmuto, [Trea] Turner,” Sherman said. “Neither [Kyle] Schwarber nor [Bryson] Stott. With Realmuto, Harper, and Turner, I think I focused more on the star power.”
Harold Reynolds, the other Hot Stove co-host, shot back, saying, “Those three has to be higher for me.”
“I have the New York Mets at number six,” Sherman said. “In Pete Alonzo, Fransisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo…”
Reynolds had had enough before Sherman could finish his argument.
“That’s not even close to the Phillies!” Reynolds exclaimed, getting irritated. “C’mon Joel!”
Even worse, Sherman compares players individually to close out the Phillies vs. Mets big three discussion. He concluded with this nugget after asserting that Harper is not as complete a first base option as Alozno and that Lindor is a better shortstop than Turner:
“And I would probably take Brandon Nimmo over Trea Turner as a baseball player also,” said Sherman.
Harold Reynolds said, “No way,” and co-host Steve Phillips disagreed that Nimmo was a better baseball player than Trea Turner as this ridiculous segment came to an end.
Joel Sherman undoubtedly had a terrible day at work on Hot Stove, but everyone has bad days at work sometimes. To paraphrase Harold Reynolds once more:
