Philly Front Office

Every season or so, we are going to take a look at where are 4 teams are at the moment including where they’ve been and where they’re going. Coming up with a name was rough sledding. I landed on Pharmer’s Almanac thinking that it was ole Benny Franklin who started it, but that was Poor Richard’s. I couldn’t come up with anything better though, so here we are…

Pharmer’s Almanac: Fall ’25

Eagles

When we last left the World Champions, they were 4-0 and people were terribly upset. Now they are division champions headed into the playoffs and people are terribly upset. Of course, a lot has happened since then like blowing a 21-point lead to the Cowboys, the offensive coordinator getting completely exposed, and the team resting its starters in the final game for rest instead of killing itself for the 2 seed. It wasn’t all bad! We also beat the Bills in Buffalo, the Packers in Green Bay, and traded for Jaelan Phillips. The defense has been incredible and most of our rivals have been vanquished. We now begin our title defense with a home game against San Francisco.

Hopefully we have a few more weeks of football ahead, but after that it’s my time to shine. We have free agency decisions for Reed Blankenship and Nakobe Dean, plus possible extensions for Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Moro Ojomo, and Nolan Smith. Could the Eagles trade AJ Brown? How about Tanner McKee? All of that talk will heat up in February before the league new year starts on March 11. By then, we will either be euphoric and want to bring everyone back or bitter and ready to fire the coaching staff. There is no in between.

Phillies

The Phillies were getting ready to play the Dodgers in October and well, it didn’t go well. It wasn’t Orion Kerkering’s fault we lost the series, but his panicked throw home will be what everyone remembers. In the end, we may have been the 2nd best team in baseball, but the Dodgers are back to back champs. What are we doing to close the gap? Not much…yet.

So far, the team resigning Kyle Schwarber to a 5/$150m deal and brought in reliever Brad Keller and OF Adolis Garcia. On the surface, that’s not much of a change. Things may be percolating though. JT Realmuto has still not resigned with the team leaving many to suspect that they are giving serious thought to a bigger named free agent like Bo Bichette who is coming in for a face to face soon. His signature will be the difference between months of moaning and groaning versus a fever pitch of positivity heading into Spring.

Speaking of which, pitchers and catchers report in a month!!! Of course we don’t have a catcher right now, but who cares about that. For those of us who feel empty without or daily dose of evening of baseball casually comforting us each night, the dawn is coming.

Flyers

3 months ago we didn’t know much about this Trevor Zegras guy, but ohhhh baby has our Sweet Baby Zegras worked out. Just this past week he faced his old Ducks team which also happens to employ the most hated athlete in the city, Cutter Gauthier. He scored twice and fed into and from the electric atmosphere that this city has been missing from its hockey team. With the team just giving Christian Dvorak a 5 year extension, it has to be a possibility that a Zegras extension is on the to do list.

I buried the lede here, the Flyers are good. There is some concern that new coach Rick Tocchet is damaging proto-star Matvei Michkov, but the team’s record is that of a much improved team. The Flyers are currently 3rd in the Metro, 6th in the East, and have the 9th best record in the league despite playing less games than most. While tanking last year for Porter Martone was nice, I think we all would like some playoff hockey again.

Upcoming is the Olympic break from Feb 6 to the 24th, the trade deadline on March 6th at 3pm. The regular season ends April 16th.

Sixers

Is the bigger news that Tyrese Maxey is playing like an MVP, that VJ Edgecombe is everything we could have hoped for and more, or that Joel Embiid is technically alive? All have been welcome developments. That’s really all we can hope for with the Sixers, positive feelings. They are currently 5th in the East and not a daily drain on our collective sanity.

Why the subdued happiness? Because Embiid is always a step away from being gone for weeks, and the team is locked into albatross contracts for him and Paul George. Everyone playing well together is nice and all, but we are not a contender and have no means of improving before the Feb. 5th trade deadline. If anything, we are probably going to trade away depth rather than add anyone.

There is a bright future down the line though. Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker signed 2-way contracts and are good enough to start at PF for a team previously desperate for help up front. When was the last time something like that happened? Jayson Werth? Patrick Robinson? Getting production like that on the cheap is how a team levels up. Hopefully both get locked up to Hinkie-Special style 4 year contracts.

The thing to do right now is to enjoy basketball. The experience of the Phillies and Eagles has been burdened with great expectations. We want the Phillies to break through and the Eagles to become a dynasty, leaving us all only happy with the ultimate prize. It’s damn near depressing all the negativity surrounding those very good teams. Well, that kind of ceiling isn’t on the table of possibilities for the Sixers. That’s ok. Making the playoffs, being healthy, and steady improvement is all we should be looking for. So far, we are getting it.