Hello and welcome to the Rotowire Fantasy Baseball podcast. My name is Chris Crawford.

Today is Thursday, August 17th. Definitely did have to go look at that on my little computer

because the days are just flying by. The season is flying by. Really excited to have my special

guest today. She's awesome. I've known her for, uh, seems like a long time. I'm not really sure quite how long it is now, but have been quite a good, has been a good internet friend of mine, which is what I think everybody has nowadays. She's also an awesome writer. She used to write for the athletic, and she's currently covering the Philadelphia Phillies for the Philadelphia Inquirer, my friend Alex

coffee.

Alex, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Chris.

Oh, it's my absolute pleasure.

I have to give Alex a ton of credit.

She's doing this after a delayed international flight after that series against the Blue Jays.

As a mariner fan, I'm very appreciative of the Phillies taking a couple there because it's nice for the Seattle Mariners because they and the Blue Jays are in a nice little playoff hunt.

And obviously the Phillies are too.

And the first thing I wanted to ask you is, I mean, you joined this beat at a very interesting time, I think.

Obviously, the team goes to the World Series last year.

I had its share of ups and downs, I think, in the year 2023. Just kind of explain what it's been

like to cover this team for the last couple of years. Bizarre. When I first arrived, Joe Girardi

was manager. So the lockout had just ended.

So I had to book it to Florida.

Gerardi was manager.

And then he got let go, I think, in early June of last year.

So I covered a managerial firing.

And then obviously, like the playoff run, breaking an 11 year drought,

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