Have you ever had a bad day at the office? Maybe you didn't spend enough time on that presentation you were assigned, or that PowerPoint you were asked to do was a total train wreck? Imagine that kind of disappointment happening on live TV instead of in the conference room. For MLB insider Joel Sherman, that's exactly what happened on Tuesday.
Appearing on MLB Network's Hot Stove program, Sherman was tasked with putting together the best "Big 3's" in the game. Poor Joel seemed unprepared for the task, and when it came to the Philadelphia Phillies, even his co-hosts couldn't hold back their disbelief.
Where does Sherman rank the Phillies in his Big 3 hotmess?
As mentioned above, Joel was having a tough time from the start of this segment. For starters, he put the Milwaukee Brewers (Chourio, Contreras, Yelich) and Seattle Mariners (Crawford, Raleigh, Rodriguez) slotted ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays fearsome lineup of Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr., and George Springer.
Um, okay Joel?
The San Diego Padres are next at No. 8. That's a pretty reasonable position, even for a team that traded away Juan Soto. This is a team that can still rake and has some star power in Fernando Tatis Jr, Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts. That sounds reasonable.
But next is where Sherman starts to make a fool of himself in this segment. Following his summation of the Padres, and explaining that some teams on this list have four or five players that could be considered, he steps into it big time with his Hot Stove co-hosts. Take it away Joel.
"Here's one," Sherman said. "The Phillies."
Before he could even finish his statement Hot Stove co-host Lauren Shehadi cut him off in disbelief.
"At seven?" Shehadi asked. That's low, no?'
"Is that low," Sherman countered. "As in not high enough?"
Shehadi again interrupts Sherman to mention that his pick for No. 6 is the New York Mets. I think you can see where this is going. Sherman continues.
"For the Phillies we have Harper, Realmuto, Turner," said Sherman. "No Stott or Schwarber. I probably went for the star power more there with Realmuto, Harper, and Turner."
"Those three have got to be higher for me," responded Hot Stove co-host Harold Reynolds.
"At number six, I have the New York Mets," began Sherman. "In Pete Alonso, Fransisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo... "
Before Sherman could even complete his point, Reynolds was having none of it.
"That's not even close to the Phillies!" responded an annoyed Reynolds. "C'mon Joel!"
To make matters worse, Sherman ends the Phillies vs. Mets big three debate with a player-by-player comparison. After claiming Lindor is a better shortstop than Turner and saying that Alonso is a more complete first base option than Harper, he ended with this nugget:
"And I would probably take Brandon Nimmo over Trea Turner as a baseball player also," added Sherman.
This laughable segment ended with Harold Reynolds saying "no way," and co-host Steve Phillips disagreeing with the assessment of Nimmo being a better baseball player than Trea Turner.
People have bad days at the office, and Joel Sherman definitely had one of those on Hot Stove. To quote Harold Reynolds one more time:
"C'mon Joel!"
Which team has the best "Big 3" in MLB? @Joelsherman1 takes us through the honorable mentions and #10-6 on his top 10 list.
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 16, 2024
Find out who makes his top 5 next on #MLBNHotStove 📺 pic.twitter.com/tlTsbVBlPK