PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - 5 POSITIVE Takeaways From The Diamondbacks 2024 Regular Season

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Despite the disappointing ending to the Arizona Diamondbacks, there were still some great moments for this team and some key additions that will be part of their core moving forward. We are discussing the top positive takeaways from the 2024 season, including Corbin Carroll and Eugenio Suarez turning things around mid season and the emergence of Ryne Nelson as one of the best starting pitchers for this teams. We are also talking about the Division Series round of the MLB Postseason and an exciting announcement from our friends at the Savanah Bananas. Join Derek, Damon, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE!! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I know it's hard to be happy as an Arizona Diamondbacks fan right now, but we're going to try to do our best to talk about five positive takeaways from the 2024 season. We're sorry, Thunderbolt. Anyway, join us. Don't go anywhere. We're doing this in 30 seconds. Friday to you all. Of course, this is another edition of the PHNX DVax podcast right here on PHNX.

My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the people's champion of PHNX, the one and only Damon Farrell. And of course, Jesse Friedman, is on assignment being sick. Welcome in, of course, to this show's brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app right now.

Use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. Well, we have some things to talk about today. Of course, it's Friday. So we're going to keep it light. And hopefully we're going to keep things a little positive around here. We're going to try to enforce the power of positivity with the Arizona Diamondbacks and talk about some,

good things that happened to this team this year, despite the fact that right now, we all very much want to focus on the bad. Right now, though, I think the focus should be on the wild, wild card race being over, and the final game being played last night being as exciting as you could possibly imagine it.

The Mets with another improbable comeback, beat the Brewers on a Piedelonso home run in the ninth inning after, you know, everybody in the world, as far as Mets fans go had given up on him. And of course, Damon, it was off one of the best closers in the game in Devin Williams. I think he had a 1.25 ERA during the regular season coming in to last night's game. And then he absolutely blew it in the ninth, which is something we know all too well. I hate to say it because obviously of the egg that the Mets decided to lay in that, and I say decided on purpose.

That's good. It's good. Decided to lay in game two of that double header. I think most of, you know, snakes fans out there are rooting against the Mets in this postseason. But man, do they feel like they have some magic behind them right now? They really do. It's the magic of grimace.

It's grimmis. I'm telling you. Yeah, they've had an improbable turnaround on their season. They're hot. They've had to play play off baseball for the better part of a month, a month and a half now. You know,

and they just keep getting big hits and big games. That Braves game one was a good, you know, encapsulation of that. They, in that game one, obviously, you know,

they get down, they get up, they get down again, they get up again. It was a crazy back and forth. And then last night, it felt like their season was over with how good that brewer's bullpen is.

Yeah. And they just came up with some big hits. So yeah, it's disgusting. I mean, we're all reading against the Mets, but it seems like they kind of feel like a team of destiny right now.

Ryan's right. He said, I thought this was a positive show. You're right. Well, we're not kicking things off. Very positive. positively, but I have to ask, I mean, it does feel like the Mets are a bit of the team of destiny this year.

It does. Similar to the way the Diamondbacks were last year, right? Everything somehow ever since grimace throughout a first pitch for the New York Mets has miraculously kind of fallen their way. They're similar to the Padres, especially over that stretch when the Diamondbacks were battling with all those teams for a wildcard spot or playoff spot that they just, they don't seem to lose. even when you look over at the score and they're down four to nothing in a game, you'll look back and now they're up seven to four. That's how we felt last year, isn't it? It was how we felt last year.

Yeah, that's what that's what's so gross about it is I hate seeing people happy with, you know. Oh, yeah. Like that should be us. That should be my happiness and you're stealing it. Yeah, I definitely don't like other people's happiness. That doesn't involve my own happiness. That's for sure. But it's been an interesting first round there, you know, in regards to the wild.

card. You kind of had every, I guess you could say underdog winning aside from the Braves. This is what the postseason currently looks like. You have the Tigers winning over the Houston Astros. We talked about how crazy that is the first time since 2016. The Astros will not be in the ALCS, not DS. First time since 2016, they won't be in the ALCS. You also have the Kansas City Royals here overcoming the Baltimore Orioles, I know your friend Bo Brock is not very happy about there. San Diego Padres beat the Braves. That's the only one that probably went the way that you would imagine it would go. And then you have the Mets winning two out of three there against the Brewer.

So we have an interesting next round. I mean, you're going to, I can't imagine a series having more hate than the Mets and the Phillies. So that's going to be fun to watch. I do wish both teams could lose, but I did pick one of them. And Padres Dodgers. And Padres Dodgers. It's going to get real nasty. Oh, it's going to get nasty fast.

I mean, those fan bases hate each other. All four of those fan bases, you know. And I don't know if you saw what they're doing in San Diego, Derek. They're trying to limit tickets that you, so you can only buy if you're within San Diego County. Oh, you have to have like a to try to counteract all the Dodgers fans. Yeah. I kind of love it. There's going to be some people making money off of that, though.

Oh, there's a, there's going to be a million Dodgers fans. I mean, we've, they, they, they, they. We've seen how they infest stadiums like cockroaches. Infest is a good word. Yeah. And I've been to Padres Dodgers games before at Petco. And actually there are a lot of Dodgers fans. But I think Padres fans are pretty passionate.

I still think that they'll probably, you know, be fine, you know, drawn out the Dodgers fans. It's probably a little bit better than we do here. But that'll be a lot of fun. It's like hate week this week. Oh, it's so hate week. Yeah. It's so hate week.

But going back to that Mets game last night again, I'm talking about Devin Williams there. Apparently, John Boy did a breakdown of this, but Devin Williams was tipping his pitches a bit in regards to how he was holding his glove. It's almost like it doesn't count. It's almost like it doesn't or shouldn't count, right? But yeah, of course, I always had to promote John Boy content, but it was interesting because it was like how distanced from his face.

And then you could see a moment where they relayed that information. That info was relayed to P. Lonzo, who then comes up. and launches Devin Williams changeup, which is his devastating pitch for, uh, for, what was that, a three run home run?

Yeah. And it's crazy too, because the Mets played five games in four days to advance to the NLDS. So you got to, you got to imagine that some fatigue is going to factor in here for them. But again, they're playing the Phillies. They're based that they're,

they're going on pure hate now. And hate, hate can, hate can energize you. Hate can fuel you for a very long time. I don't know if I want to pick against this Mets team, but I'm going to because we're going to talk about our brackets here, at least what we thought,

how we thought things were going to shake up here in the postseason momentarily. But again, the Mets, they just, they can't seem to be stopped right now. Yeah. No, it really does feel like Team of Destiny vibes does feel like kind of how we felt, I feel like last season,

like I mentioned already. Yeah. And, but also, you know what? the Padres kind of feel like that too. I don't know if you, I don't know if you get that. No,

yeah. As well, I mean, that's why it's interesting. They ended the season, obviously on a lot more of a tear than we did last season. But, uh,

I, you know, the, the Padres are maybe the best team in baseball second half of the year. So Ryan's right. positivity, Derek. No hate.

Just great disdain. You're right. Great disdain. No. Speaking of great disdain, though, how, how funny is it that one of the first memorable moments of the baseball season was

the, the Reese Hoskins, Jeff McNeil, crybaby moment. And then that comes around here full circle to the Mets ending the Brewer season. Yeah, that is pretty wild. And yeah, I mean, Reese Hoskins against the Phillies would have been fun. But I guess that's not going to be a thing anymore. A lot less hateful than the Mets. Yeah.

It would have been hugs and applause and stuff. It would make you a little sick. But something that makes. Do you mean like the Braves and the Mets after the, after game two of that double header going out? physically ill. That may be, oh,

yeah, let's all go celebrate on the field together. Cumbaya. You frauds. Hold hands. You absolute frauds. We're supposed to pretend

like they gave an effort when they're out there celebrating together. Get out of here. Well, one more piece of hate before we move on to the more positive

episode I was talking about. The brewers did make one very similar mistake as the Arizona Diamondbacks. And it's not just, it's not just that their clothes or blew the game

they're late in a pivotal playoff game. It's that they let this man throw out a first pitch for them this season. That's right. That's Frank the Tank in Milwaukee throwing out a first pitch for the Brewers. Now, Damon, as you may

know, he also threw out a first pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is the moment when Paul Seawald became the worst pitcher in all of Major League Baseball. You remember that? Do you remember that? when Paul Seawald blew three saves in a row and we didn't miss playoffs by one game.

Remember when Frank the tank came to the Chase Field and remember remember, remember when he derailed our season. Paul Seawald permanently. That's actually crazy though. I mean the Mets didn't even let him throw out a first pitch for good reason. No, they wouldn't for good reason. They wouldn't dare let Frank the tank on the field. And yeah, I mean, I feel like the Diamondbacks let Frank the tank throw out a first pitch.

The Mets effectively end the Diamondback season. The Brewers let Frank the tank. the tank throw out a first pitch he the Mets do end the brewer's season it I mean that's pretty crazy that how do we how do we stop him he must be stopped throw out any other first pitches did he happen to throw out a first pitch out of Phillies game yeah like I feel like they would never let that happen so ban this man from all baseball stadiums please for the love of God I think the people at the bank if frank the tank was like going to throw out a first pitch the people at the bank it would be like world war z style with the zombies like crawling over the wall

they'd be doing that over like the net in the infield to be like this cannot happen. No, no, it shouldn't be allowable. It absolutely shouldn't be allowable. Well, we did take some time before the playoffs started to put some brackets together. But then we had a press conference. Then we had some breaking news yesterday. So we've had to hold off on these. But just for fun, since the wild card round is over, let's take a pick in at Damon and my picks for the World Series.

Start off with Damon's here. All right. You want to go ahead and go? Yeah. I mean, I thought the Brewers would win. Probably a silly choice, given that, you know, feels like the Mets are a team of destiny. Padres, that was easy money.

Let's keep it in the National League. I think the Padres beat the Dodgers in this series. I'm planning on putting some money on it. The Dodgers, they're just choke artists. You have the Padres going all the way to the World Series. I do. I do. I have a, it wasn't Yankees Padres, a World Series that happened in the past?

Yes, it was. And the Padres got absolutely smoked by the Yankees in that. It was, uh, 1998 yeah yeah uh 1998 four zero sweep for the yankees i see a rematch of that happening uh phillies beating the brewers uh padres beating the phillies um i had the astros going back to the al c s because why wouldn't you i thought that's just what they do yeah it is what they do uh you know my mistake on that one respect to the tigers um i thought the orials would be able to beat the royals uh 10 straight playoff losses for the orioles that is like the one of the worst to

experiences I think I could possibly imagine. I almost had the Orioles going all the way to the World Series, honestly. And I think that like it was hard for me to. They just don't have the arms. Their lineup is really good. But they also cooled off a lot in this back half the year. And then to round things out, you know, I just, I think the Yankees are going to win it all this year. I think they have, you know, their one two combo of hitters with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge is, is the best in baseball.

They have the top end pitching. I think the Yankees are the best team and I see them beating the Padres and I don't know, we'll say, we'll say six. But also, I mean, people like, I think the Royals could win. I'm not saying they can't, but the Yankees playing an AL Central team,

like that is automatic. Yeah. That the Yankees go through the next round. The Yankees against the twins, the Royals. I might have made that mistake myself. I don't know. We'll get,

we'll look at mine. But Ryan makes a good point. Juan Soto smoking his former team. to take a World Series from them sheesh harsh it does prove that the Juan Soto trade was good for both teams in this scenario sure you know yeah if you could trade someone like Juan Soto away and that leads you to a world series birth in any way I think you did a good job let's take a look at my bracket here I had some upsets in the first round that I'm very proud of but of course that's only because the Tigers are one of those teams that all of a sudden got hot and I felt like there was a chance they could beat the Astros there. Like I said, the Orioles, it was hard for me not to have the Orioles going all the way to the ALCS, to be honest. But I went with the Guardians over, over them. I went, I have the guardians there in the ALCS, the Yankees over the Orioles, the ALCS on the NL side. I can't see the Mets beating the Phillies, but I could see them

beating the Brewers. Braves didn't have a chance in that series against Padres. I also have them like yourself going over the Dodgers. That just seems, that seems easy. easy money to me despite the fact that the Dodgers are the Dodgers, right? Like I don't know why that's such a like that seems like such an easy road for the Padres. But it, I don't know. Yeah, maybe you know what complete team right now. I just the Dodgers don't have the pitching. The Dodgers do not have the pitching.

That's the thing. And I like maybe people are too on the Padres because I feel like everyone's picking the Padres in this series, which typically it then swings the other direction. But I just don't envision a Dodgers team that has. that bad of a pitching staff being able to do anything against the the Padres when the pot have you seen the Padres pitching staff yeah like you Darvish isn't even in their their top three arsenal it's true it's pretty crazy man and it's not like he's been bad this year like they have really good top end pitching they have a great lineup i just think the podres are way way more well-rounded team

but the basketball and football guy says it right there is Derek now a philly's fan yeah yeah he has a tendency to start rooting for our our biggest rivals and it's wild it's wild that this is rooting for now simply because I put them on my bracket. And yes, I did enjoy my time in the city of Philadelphia. And I may have temporarily been made their mayor. I gave a speech at a podium in some sort of town square or something in Philadelphia. I don't know. I'm not breaking news to what I just said.

What do you got? Joe Musgrove will now miss the NLDS with an elbow injury. So you Darvish, get back into the top three of the podges. Never mind. Forget what we just said. Forget what we just said. let's throw my bracket up there because people are telling me I suck. Yeah, I get it.

I have the Phillies going over the Guardians in the World Series. I think the Phillies are the most complete team here. But I don't, I'm not rooting for this. In fact, I hope I'm very wrong. Of all the teams here, I think it would be fun to see the Guardians when the whole damn thing, to be honest. But or the Tigers or honestly, even as gross as it is, as it is, the Mets. Like, I'm rooting for chaos is what I'm rooting for more. than anything, but this is what I feel

like is going to happen. Toastbuster says Derek kisses his cats on the mouth. I kiss my dogs on the mouth. Let's relax. My cats are too, they're too picky. They don't like me like that. You kiss your hairless cat on the forehead. Oh, she's,

she's so gross. She just loves her stupid gross face up against my beard all the time. I can't stand that cat. But anyway, that's what we picked. Of course, love to hear from you guys, what you guys, at least drop who your world's series pick is in the chat.

I don't care if it's the two teams or who you think is going to win the whole thing, but we'd love to hear from you guys. We appreciate you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel right now with us. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so right now. I don't know what you're waiting for. Sign up for notifications. Hit that notification button.

That way you don't miss whenever we go live because sometimes we just have crazy hours. And speaking of crazy hours, David and I have a fun announcement. I think that we've kind of already made, but we got some. It's official now. So we got a little fun announcement here at the end of this episode in regards to us and our filthy, filthy mouths. But, of course, make sure to hit that like button mostly because of I need it for my self-esteem every single day doing this show. We don't stop even during the off season. And I get fatigued easily.

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from the Arizona Diamondback season, as well as a very fun announcement from our friends at the Savannah Banana. So stay tuned. But first, we encourage you to check out our friends at Empire today. I've talked about this time of year being the perfect time of year to go and renovate your home. Of course, we know Halloween.

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So make sure to join us. You can also come see my fantasy football team lose in person. So that's also fun. All right. Well, we got some positive take. away from the Arizona Diamondback season. And again, I know what time of the year it is. I know this isn't the time for this.

Maybe we want to let the playoffs and maybe we want to have some more time. It might be too soon for some people. But I do think that, again, Archie brought it up on the show the other day and that is that we don't celebrate the achievements of a team or of individual players enough during the very

long 162 game baseball season, right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think obviously, you know, the Diamondbacks won a lot. of games this year. They were, you know, technically better this season than they were last season. And it, there, there, there is some, some level of positivity to be had about that. I think, you know, now it's about next season building on getting a few extra wins. You get in the 90 wins and all of a sudden you're one of the more elite teams in baseball rather than a team that's like

fighting for a wild card. So, I mean, it's not all doom and gloom. It obviously sucks and it still is, at least for, from my perspective, it's still a pretty open. wound. Yeah. Like I'm still hurting from this playoffs and it's been hard to watch this early portion of postseason baseball. But at the same time, yeah, I mean, it was a, there was a lot of good to take away from this season and build off of. I still couldn't help but feel for those teams that are out of it, especially the teams that didn't win a game in their wildcard round because it was every team that lost aside from, you know, the, the Mets coming back there and, you know, or the Brewers, I should say, coming back in game two and tying it and then forcing a game.

game three. I just can't help but feel like despite what we talked about the other day, that that's that much more of an accomplishment than not making the playoffs. You play two extra games. You didn't accomplish much and then you're just bounced. And that could have easily been the Diamondbacks fate. The trip to the World Series, the wonderful playoff year that they had last year, run that they had last year, that changed everything for this team. And I think that there is something to be said about the positive takeaways and how that impacted how people look at the positives of this year. Yeah, I mean, it raised the expectation level tenfold, right?

Because it had to. How does it not? If you win 84 games, you lose in the wildcard round or the ALDS last year. I mean, are people as mad about this season? I know I personally probably wouldn't. I'd be like, oh, we missed playoffs by a game. we were probably going to lose in one of the first two rounds anyway. Especially with the way they played at the end of the season.

The fact that I saw them get to the World Series made me think that this team can make a run. I'm confident that they have the pieces to make a run. They have the top end talent to make a run. And, you know, it felt like for large portions of this year that they were better than they were last season, you know. So they weren't playing in the same way with like the trying to, you know, scrape runs off the board on the board and steal bases, play better defense, but they were overall a better team from a win perspective and from an offensive perspective in particular. Right. And that's positive number one for me. I mean, positive number one is that they improved by five games from last year. They improved on the

overall record. And they did it by way of the best offense in major league baseball. Right. And that's a positive takeaway. I think that's something that this team really didn't come into the year expecting to have this potent of an offense. Now, with, that being said, it might not be as potent next year with the free agents that they're losing, but the diamondbacks could make some moves. They could bring these guys back. You know, we have heard about how much Jack Peterson likes it here and there's a good chance that at this point in his career, maybe some stability, maybe, you know, a multi-year deal might do it for him to bring him back here. Not sure exactly if that's possible. I know he had a career year. So did Randall Gritchick.

So most of these guys most likely are going to go out there and try to get as much money as possible and good for them. They deserve it. Hazen brought that up, that that's almost, you know, something that this team kind of prides themselves

on the fact that these guys do have, you know, some of these free agents have had amazing years and this team has helped them, help themselves and give themselves

a better, you know, opportunity, especially guys like Jock that don't have many years left in Major League Baseball, right? But again, I think the expectations from last year and the run

makes what they did this year disappointing, right? They didn't make the playoffs. And the fact that we did see what they could do if they did makes us all feel like this was a huge missed opportunity, right? We could be living in the world where the Diamondbacks went to Milwaukee and got bounced in two games or went to San Diego and got beat there.

And I don't know, I don't know how the feeling would be. I don't know how the sentiment would be among the fan base if they did that or if it would be much different. I just think that, you know, again, improvements is what you're looking for year over year. And from the time when we started this podcast, the Diamondbacks have done nothing but improve. And that's a very positive takeaway. Again, the bar raised this year, the level of competition raised this year. There were no 100 win teams. There were no teams that clinched, you know, before September even started. It wasn't really like that. But it was a year where,

you know, you needed to win 90 games pretty much, or at least do better against teams like the Mets and the Braves that were also going to be there at the end in order for you to get in. I just think overall this is looked at as too much of a disappointment considering that this team did improve, you know. And that's that's that's how I feel. Gabriel says I feel the best offense in baseball is a misleading stat. The first half, they had a lot of series where they scored three combined runs in two games and 15 in one game. So they average six. And I've said that myself. I've said that the diamondbacks, it's it's about consistency. And then someone else said that, oh, you know, every. things about consistency or there's no consistent offense in baseball. There are offenses that are much more consistent in baseball than the Diamondbacks. And the reason why they were at the top was because they had these huge games where they, you know, scored an unprecedented number of runs versus, you know, doing it on seven or eight runs every single night. Yeah, I mean, I think there's definitely some truth to that. There's no doubt in the world. I mean, and when they would go when they would have

bad games, like they were really, really tough to watch like games where it'd be like, where no one on the offense could score. Yeah, they score a run or two in the first inning. And then they don't touch the, they don't touch a, you know, second base for the entire rest of the game. So yeah, I mean, there's absolutely some truth to that. What I would say is like maybe, maybe they weren't truly the best offense in baseball. I mean, numbers wise, you can argue with it.

But like they, you know, I think that that's fair. But that still puts them in the top five offenses in baseball, which makes you an elite offense still. So I think it is fair to say. that they had an elite offense, maybe not the best offense in baseball. I mean, they led the majors with a franchise second best 886 runs ahead of the Dodgers and the Yankees. And the Diamondbacks, 886 runs is first by a large margin. The Dodgers scored 842 runs.

So the Diamondbacks outpaced them by 44 runs, and then Yankees were third at 815. So yes, while I agree with Gabriel, and I think we all know that they had, I think the most, most games with 10 plus runs and most games with 15 plus hits in franchise history this season, it still like shouldn't take away from the fact that this team came into this season, not expecting to score runs like that and not expecting to lead the leagues and league in runs produced. They came into the season, I think expecting to play baseball a lot like last year with some additional added power from Suarez, Peterson, and of course Randall Gritchick's bat.

And instead what they got was an MVP. caliber season from Catele-Marté. You had Corbyn Carroll's struggle, but then turned things around. And of course, Suarez was a big hit addition to this. But that brings me to the next positive takeaway from this Diamondback season, and that is

A. U.N.S. Suarez and Corbyn Carol's turnarounds. Because as slow as those two started off, they both suddenly became different players in the second half. Gino started at the end of June. Corbyn started around July 7th, and then both

guys became a different player without the contributions of those two turning their seasons around the diamondbacks wouldn't have been anywhere close to one game out to one game away from the playoffs the diamondbacks would have been you know pretty far out of it and i think the impressive thing is is gno's 100 rbi plus you know 30 home run season when that didn't even look like a possibility your futures bet that did die at the doorstep of success just a brutal slow death i mean it was dead in the water back on July 7th. And then resuscitated it, brought it back out just enough to give you hope. I've told this on this podcast a lot of times, but like I literally was like get this slip out of

my face, bet 365. Like I want you to delete it out of my life because it just made me feel bad about myself. Why is it the first thing I have to look at every single time I open up a hundred percent. Yeah. But I want to talk about Corbyn for a second. And honestly, like I think to me at least what Corbyn showed this season. is that he is truly a superstar. Because things could not have been going worse

in the first half of this season. Could not have been going worse. I mean, just the absolute worst case scenario, nightmare fuel. And then Corbyn, he just picked himself up. His end of year numbers, I mean, we were talking about it when he was starting off the season on such a disastrous pace. And we were talking about like how elite

he would have to be in the second half of the year to reach 700 OPS. Yeah. He finished with a 749 OPS. PS, Eric, which is, he finished as an above league average hitter this season, despite being awful for, you know, the first three months of the season. So, uh, yeah, I mean, I think I, I, I was filled with a lot of confidence in Corvin Carroll after this year. And I really feel that he is the, the guy, the future of this franchise, the face of this franchise. Like, I have, I have no,

I think I never really was, was, was, was too concerned that that was like never going to happen, like that he was never going to come back. when he was playing so bad at the beginning of the season. But part of me was slowly leaning towards that way of like, did we, was it just like kind of a fluke for rookie season? Like is he truly an MVP caliber player like we thought he was? Or is he just maybe more of an all-star guy? And I think he's that MVP caliber guy that we need him to be.

It's the work that he put in. It's the, it's the continued struggle to get through the issues he was having at the plate. I mean, it became to, it came to a point where you knew you could throw a high fastball ball to Corbyn Carroll. He was going to swing at it and he was going to miss it. We talked about him having one of the flattest swings in all of baseball. And these are all things that improved as the season went on. And they proved because Corbyn Carroll is a relentless worker that wants to be one of the best in baseball. And the reason why he is one of the best is because of his work ethic and that, you know, his ability to adapt. And that's what we saw from him this year. We know a lot of

things have changed for him lately. And again, those struggles didn't just start this year. We know that those struggles date back to last season. And, you know, of course, there was a stretch there where you kind of doubted if we were going to see Corbyn Carroll come back to that rookie of the year level of performance where he was at. But he definitely became that before the end of the season. Gino, obviously, is a guy that we thought was just going to lead the league in strikeouts and be just a huge disappointment. And for a while there, it, it, it, felt like that's what he was and instead Gino became the one of the Diamondbacks biggest offensive threats biggest power hitters he's just a producer man like if you look at stats in

the last like five years I wish I had a little bit more time to do this but like if you look to like rbi leaders last five years guarantee you he's in the top 10 he's just that's just what he does like he even when he starts off with a down year he still finishes with 30 and 100 like I I think Gino went from like everybody on the like in the comments of this of this of this chat and whatnot being like we need to DFA him to being like do we bring him back on his option this season and I think that there's a pretty good chance that that you do I feel like that's a solid choice right now and and I again we don't know what the future holds for Christian Walker but then you know obviously what is the future there for third base I imagine Jordan Lawler will get called up

you know next season and you know hopefully he can stay healthy and he can start progressing towards being the third baseman of the future, but it would be great to have him, you know, basically learn from Gino and maybe platoon a little bit over there at third base for him to start, you know, picking up some of those wonderful defensive traits that Gino has over at third base. And I mean, again, we've seen some mentors on this team.

It's another reason why Jack Peterson leaving potentially is another huge loss for this team. The way that Jake McCarthy went over and kind of became, you know, kind of became a mentor to Jake McCarthy, felt like a big moment for Jake, and we saw Jake really have a good season, and I imagine Jock was a big part of that for Jake.

So again, though, going back to Gino and Corbin, like their ability to work and to have a season that looked fairly miserable and turn it around is amazing. And I think that those guys definitely were a bright spot for this team this season. Without them doing that,

this team does not, like I said, this team does not come even close to what they ended up. doing and and again you know gino there his production was missing a little bit down the stretch and that could be a reason why you know the diamondbacks weren't able to win some of those crucial games same with jock peterson i think i mean not that he had like a turnaround but he was obviously so great for this team all season could like best dh signing i think mike hasin possibly could have made that platoon that platoon i mean outside of uh outside of showy o'tani that platoon of randall

gritchick and jock peterson was one of the best yeah morsel ozuna and showy it was Tony is what Jesse always says. Those are the top two and then they were probably third after that. But yeah, I mean, I think jocks cooled down at the end of the season with Gino, I think also really affected this team. Because if you had a couple bombs here and there from those two guys in particular, I think maybe. And Christian Walker, really, the power hitters on the team were just not getting the ball over the fence when you needed them to. And this offense felt very boom or bust from that home run standpoint all year. and you could tell,

you could watch it play out when the three biggest home run threats on the team other than it could tell weren't really hitting the ball over the fence at the end of the season. Tanner and the chat asks, could we possibly keep Gritchick? I think there's a possibility

that Diamondbacks could keep any one of those three guys that are free agents. I don't believe the Diamondbacks will be bringing back Paul Seawald. I think the other one was Kevin Newman. I think the Diamondbacks have a great chance to maybe bring Newman back.

But when it comes to Gritchick and Jack Peterson, And yeah, I do think that there's a chance. I just think that their value right now is at an all-time high probably for them. And they had great seasons. So chances are they want to kind of parlay that into a fairly big contract that I don't know if the diamondbacks are necessarily able to provide them with. But I would love to see both of those guys back. And I don't think it's out of question. I honestly thought that like Lordis Gouriel leaving last off season was like a guarantee.

was a guarantee, right? And that, and he came back. So I don't know about, I guess I don't feel confident 100% saying that those guys are all going to leave. However, I do feel fairly confident in saying that I doubt the Diamondbacks can bring back Jock Peterson, Randall Gritchick, and Christian Walker. I think that might be too much financially for them to handle. But we'll see. Looking at this here, and I didn't realize this about Randall Gritchick, so he made $2 million this year, which was obviously a bargain deal for the Diamondbacks. Huge bargain deal.

Within that contract, there's a mutual option for this upcoming season. Jesse's often discussed that mutual options are a lot of the time not really very viable because one side or the other wants it, right? Typically, it's a better deal for one side or the other. Yeah. That being said, Randall Gritchick's mutual option for next year is $6 million, which is a significant upgrade from $2 million. Sure, sure.

Probably around more what he would be seeking on the open market. I don't know if he'd want a two-year deal instead of just one more extra year or something like that, but six million feels like a little bit more his value after last season, feels like he might actually opt into that. Yeah. So it could be up to the diamond backs whether or not they want to accept that option, uh, or, or maybe go in a different direction.

But I think that that's certainly, you could still go to free agency and then they could still sign him as well, right? Absolutely. They don't have to necessarily pick up the option in order for him to come back. And I think the problem is, is that as a player, a season after you have a 900 OPS, you most likely don't want to commit to the money that you had already committed to, considering you know on the open market you could probably get double that $6 million.

Yeah. Randall Gritchardich could probably get close to $12 million. And that's probably a slam dunk for a few teams. He was good enough against righties this year that you're, you might be right. Like it wasn't like his splits were so egregious that like he can only hit lefty pitchers. He was pretty decent against right-handed pitching. Yeah.

Doesn't have the power numbers, I don't think, but still had a pretty good average in OPS for that. being his you know his his split you know weaker side yeah well and that takes me back to some of the free agent pickups and some of the moves that they made the biggest one being a j puck right and i mean those were the good offseason moves but the midseason move to grab a j puck who became one of the best relievers uh in all of baseball is huge not to mention the years of control that the diamondbacks have for a j puck they they have solidified a portion of their bullpen and we'll give honorable mentioned to Justin Martinez who also is a solid piece of their bullpen going forward so I mean the

Diamondbacks do have some very good pieces to build around here long term absolutely like when was the last time you looked at the Diamondbacks long term bullpen and you were like looks pretty good we're getting there yeah I mean they have AJ puck signed to a deal I mean for was it through next year is that where when is AJ puck has two years left two years left on his deal one of the best relievers in baseball Justin Martinez is 23 years old is one of one of the nastiest pitchers in all the entire sport. So got ginkle locked up under control. I mean,

I really feel like the Diamondbacks bullpen could be a potential strength for this team going into next season, which is like, I don't know if that's ever been said about the Arizona Dynamics organization before. Yeah, it's hard to imagine that they're not going to address it, considering nothing already addressed it by moving on from the pitching coaching staff, right?

You know, we have no more Brent Strom. We have no more Mike Feders. We have no more Dan Carlson. And I did, before we move on, wanted to get your thoughts on that because you weren't here yesterday when we kind of did that breaking pot. And I mean, obviously, it's kind of funny to me because the reaction from some fans seemed to be fairly negative. Like people don't feel like Strom was responsible and they felt like Tori should be fired. Like a lot of the people that don't feel like Strom should have been fired, then reverse it and put it on Tori.

And I guess what are your thoughts on it being, you know, the pitching coach when the pitching staff ranked 26th and all the baseball. baseball as a whole and you want to blame somebody, but you want to put it on the manager versus the pitching coach. I think that's absurd. I've already said that on this podcast. Like I'm more upset with the job that Brent Strom did or lack thereof, I guess, this season than I am about Tori. And I know a lot of people aren't going to be happy with that. But at the same time, yeah, I mean, I think this was probably the worst job of Brent Strom's done in his career. Like I don't think he's ever had a pitching staff that ranked this low in ERA in his career.

before. And that's, I think he's the best pitching coach that this organization has ever had. Like he's, he's unbelievable coach. We don't make it, you know, close to what we made last year without Brent Strom on this team. But at the same time, like someone has to bear the blame for having such an atrocious unit from a pitching standpoint. And who else other than the people that were directly coaching the pitchers every single day last year? I just think maybe some change was in order. Maybe Brent Strom wants to take a little bit of a step back in his life. Maybe he wants to retire. He is fairly old at this point. Or maybe he takes another job and it works out well for him. I think we'll all be rooting for him as Diamondbacks fans. Like we love the guy. But the, the team

ERA was atrocious last season. And someone has to, there has to be some change here or there. You know, obviously from a personnel standpoint that has to happen to. But I think Brent Strom, obviously, you know, is, he bears the brunt of the blame, in my opinion. I think, you know, there are some positives. And another positive takeaway we're going to discuss really fast is Ryan Nelson, right? Ryan Nelson emerging as one of the Diamondbacks best starters is a huge positive for this team. And Brentstrom deserves credit for that, by the way. He deserves credit for the, I guess, the maturation of a lot of their young pitchers.

For sure. I think he deserves credit for Big Game Brandon, becoming Big Game Brandon last year. We've talked at length about that. Justin Martinez. I think he'll probably get a lot of credit for. And last year, his complete inability to throw the ball in the strike zone versus this year being an effective pitcher.

Just dominant, where everybody wanted to know where this kid came from. 100%. Right. So, I mean, overall, I think Brent Strom is one of my favorite people I've met in baseball. I think he's an incredible baseball mind,

truly one of the most knowledgeable people in baseball. Not to mention the fact that Brent Strom is extraordinarily kind. And like, we'll take the time to sit down with Jesse and myself and explain arm angle and what he's talking about sometimes when he's bringing things up in a press conference. I go pull out a pad of paper and show you visually about what he's talking about. It's amazing. Seems like a great guy.

How intelligent he is, how much he knows about the game of baseball. However, I do also think there's a time where our perception of him and players' perception of him might be different or maybe working with him might be different than how we feel about him from the outside. Jesse to this day still feels it's not true that Brent Strom, even though we've received confirmation on it, we'll go out during like a big moment in the game and tell a joke or try to do something to get the pitcher to kind of like get out of their head, your own head, right? Which again, that seems like a very that seems like a tactic by somebody that's very familiar with the game and understands what works and understands why pitchers in the moment are suddenly like unable to pitch

because the bright lights are too bright or the moment's too big, right? But at the same time, you do have to give him credit for, you know, how a lot of these young pitchers have basically developed and become into some, you know, big stars for this team. Nicholas puts it in the chat here. It says it's a bummer that he couldn't stay in a development role versus being the pitching coach on the bench because his developmental ability is clearly elite and I 100% agree with that. Like if I was told Brent Strom will be sticking around the organization and will be at Salt River Fields all the time.

Yeah. And still wants to, you know, help out of the dimebacks. I would be over the moon. Yeah, that would be amazing. Well, and I mean, outside of Joe Matherd,

Tori's, all those entire pitching staff felt like guys like that, like it was like, like, assembling a crew, like going to get the Avengers or something. Like they were all retired. They were all like,

I'm out of the game. And they're like, we need you for one last mission. That's what it felt like. You know, you had Jeff Bannister who had kind of like left baseball despite being a very successful manager himself.

He was off doing like a community college and being working him. Uh, you know, that, that, of a thing. Brent Strom after he let the Astros very much was looking forward to kind of retirement and spending some time at Tucson and the Diamondbacks sucked him back into the game.

So like, yeah, in one way, a lot of these guys are our guys are extremely knowledgeable. But like I said on yesterday's show, sometimes the game kind of moves past you. And maybe him being the pitching coach isn't the best move, but I bet he could still offer a lot to this organization or any organization in that kind of development role. But Ryan Nelson, for sure, is a huge positive for this team. And I think the last one would have to be Catelle Marte's MVP caliber season, right? I mean, there was a point during this year where we were sincerely talking about Cotel Marte, giving Shohei Otani kind of a run for his money on the MVP.

Now, I don't think even if Cotel would have gotten injured, if we would have necessarily kept up with Otani and the amazing numbers that he put up. Probably not. I mean, it always felt a little destined to be Otani's MVP. Right. I think we were kind of, you know, grasping at straws. But we had to do what we had to do. Sometimes you need to try to flip the narrative in your favor.

And we were trying to put on for our guy there. You know what I mean? And, you know, Otani, you know, he's still a DH, as Ken Kendrick would tell you. Yeah. And he still should be in jail. One of nine. One of nine, right? But.

Asterix should be in prison. But yeah, I mean, that's that's it. And of course, we want to say anything to Garrett Stubbs? You're not allowed to curse, remember? Oh, my God. Why would you even bring that up? We'll just save it. We'll save it.

Yeah, we will save it for our D-backs after Dark segment that we'll be debuting there. Yeah, we got a little something for our guy. I got a lot to say about Garrett Stubbs. I also have a lot to say. And I get to use all of my favorite words, all of the F words that I get to use all the four-letter ones. because we have our new segment for diehards only coming soon, and that's our D-Backs after Dark.

Look at that logo. Oh, my God. That's special. Like, just so you and I can say all the curse words, that's amazing. Someone put too much work into that. But yeah, again, debacks after dark. If you don't want to miss out on D-Backs After Dark, you should go get yourself a die-hard membership.

Do it right now. You won't miss out on any of the great content. Ask Archie, by the way, also die-hard content. I hate to pull that on you. But of course, if you want all the finest diehard content, you got to be a diehard, join the family. Archie might want to get involved in that debacks after dark segment. Oh, yeah, Archie, the first thing Archie asked was if he can curse on his segment. And I said, well, of course you can.

Of course you can. So make sure to join us over here. Go p.nx.com. You'll get a free t-shirt from PHNX Locker. Look, it pays for itself. I don't need to go into this. It gets you discounts on events. It gets you free stuff.

You'll become part of our family. Get access to all of the locked content from Craig Morgan, Gerald Borges. and of course our very own Jesse Friedman. You also get access to content like these shows. So D-Backs after dark, like Ryan says, following Raw is war on the USA network. No, I probably shouldn't say that because Max's going to get mad at me for free ads. But we do have one more secret positive before we move on. Yes, I actually, so I wanted to mention some honorable mentions real quick as well.

So I think we already talked about it a little bit, but J-Mart finding control. I think is so huge for this team. I would be feeling so much worse about this bullpen. that didn't happen. The fact that we have him under control for as long as we do. And, you know, he just seemingly gets better and better.

Makes me feel great about, about his long-term future. Also, just looking at young players as well, ADC and, you know, his ability as a left-handed hitter versus Gabby as a right-handed hitter. Yeah,

that's going to be a nice, nice platoon in the future. Absolutely. It should be a solid platoon going forward between those two guys. That's, that excites. me a little bit, Pavin showing some life. I mean, the Pavan Smith game.

Never forget the three run. We were all. We wanted him DFA. We did. Like everybody did. Essentially, except for Yoshi and not in our chat. We have the Pave and Smith fan club.

Yeah. And then this year, did he have, he had a 900 OPS didn't he there. I mean like something just absolutely ridiculous. 896 OPS out of Pavan Smith. Like I think he figures moving forward as like a player that you want on your team.

I'll tell you this. much they're going to have to figure out what they're going to do with them because it's no more up and down paving after this season so you're going to have to keep well you're going to because he's he hits so well last season you i think you have to you have to trust them and then lastly we also mentioned this a little bit with with uh gno earlier is jordan lawler and him coming up i think yeah that should be fun something for diamondbacks fans to look forward to you know i think we got robbed a little bit of that jordan luller you did this year we did uh so next year you know it's we get one of the top prospects in baseball up on our

our team but the secret positive and someone tweeted this at me and I have to give him a shout out because he's I mean it it almost made me just like die laughing on set here. Jacob Y K TV guy on Twitter says Diffing Jace Peterson as one of the positives of this season and I have to agree I think that that I think that's got to be top I think it's got to sneak its way into the top five derrick monsters you monsters I think it really does have to I feel like I have to refrain from getting in on anything. Yeah, no DFA jokes from Derek anymore. Based on fast incidents that I've happened.

Did you know that Jase Peterson is actually a DeBack's legend and you can't talk about him like that? Look, I'm not going to, look, we're not doing this. We're not doing this. I'm not falling into this trap again, okay? But speaking of things being fun next year, we do have something very, very fun coming from our friends at the Savannah bananas. And of course, things kick off right here in Arizona. So we're going to be talking about that on the other side of this break.

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And then you'll save three cents per gallon every day after that. I've tried to tell you guys, do not sleep on the Circle K branded snacks because they are better than any of those other brands that Circle K actually carries. No, not to throw shade at them, but do not miss, especially the wonderful chips and sour gummy worms that they have. They're all good. The peanut butter things. I love the chocolate covered almonds. Oh, he's an absolute. for the chocolate covered almonds.

And Max is a bad guy because he told me he was going to get those for me. Did he? And then didn't. Yeah. Which is like you can't promise the pinnacle of all snacks. Let me tell you that. Circle K chocolate covered almonds and not bring them to the studio. Who did get you your cartoon head though?

You did. That's right. Derek for mayor. Derek from you. All right. Well, of course, we know baseball games here are over. But we're going to talk about some fun baseball games coming to the Valley in February. If you want to go see baseball, any sport.

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Download Game Time today. What time is it? Game time, Derek. It's game time. Well, speaking of it being Game Time, it is game time for Banana Ball, Damon, because the Savannah bananas made a very excitement yesterday that they are expanding Savannah Banana Banana Banana Ball into a brand new league called the Banana Ball Championship League

or the BBCL, which is funny for two. It's BBC and it's BBL Jersey. Anyway, it's both of those things. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that, but they are now, well, get all of this fun on, on PHMXDbacks after dark, by the way. Again, I need to plug that. But it will be a six-team league, a six-team league playing banana ball that consists of the savanna bananas, the party animals, which both of which you might be familiar with. The firefighters, which I think were a new team that they've already had exists.

If they're not doing like, you know, like Hawaiian-style lu-lou-fire tricks, then I don't want anything to do with the firefighters. Like, it can't be firefighters like firefighters, like what are you guys going to come out in like with gas tanks on and helmets and stuff? That's a lot. No, I don't want you fighting fires. I want you fighting people with fires. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. The guy that throws the ball on fire, he needs to be on that team. Dude, can you imagine setting the baseball on fire and throwing it. They do have a guy that does that. They have a guy that does everything over there. That's, I can't wait to see how the players end up being divvied up. Where does, where does stilts end up? Where does the pitcher on stilts end up? Where do all my guys end up? I can't wait. They might end up on the newest team, which is this team right here, the Texas tailgators,

Let's hit that beautiful. Look at that beautiful logo. Is that not me in Arlington in July? Look at that guy. He's amazing. Yeah. The only thing it's missing is like a rompim style. Yeah.

Matching, matching top and bottom. Matching top and bottom that has like a collage of stuff all over it. And then it truly would be you, Derek. That's a beautiful logo. That is pretty sweet. That's a sweet logo. And of course, there's two more teams to still be announced.

He's got the baseball in the tongs. Yeah. And he's got a broad over here. That's a great logo. It's a great logo. Yeah. 40 cities, 18 major league baseball stadiums, three football stadiums. That is their tour next year.

So there is a champion that is going to be named. I hope there's a trade deadline. I can't wait to see the moves between the teams. Can the party animals win? Or is it like a Washington general situation? No, because the party animals and the Savannah bananas truly do play a competitive game. Like it's not a predetermined game. It does have dance routines and choreograph, you know, stuff going on.

Yeah. They have crazy things going on. But like, for instance, my favorite banana ball rule is that a fan can catch a foul ball and it's an out. It's awesome. And they had it happen one time as the final out of the game. And they took that fan out of the stands. And they raised him like the champion that he is above their heads out on the field as they celebrated. Like, how would you not want to go to a Savannah Banana Games and possibly record the final out for the team and be the hero of the game?

Yeah. Bring that to Major League Baseball. I actually have something that I want to pitch to them to Banana Ball. and I think it'd be a fun idea. Let's hear it. I'm down for new ideas. You have like the outfield wall. It's like a moat style behind it.

And it's a catch if you catch the ball and land out of the field, unlike in baseball where if like you go into the stands, it's on a home run, it's a home run. Can we? This is, we have like a bouncy or we have a ball pit behind the outfield wall. Yes. And you can, we lower the wall a little bit so you can easily jump over it and you dive into the ball pit. This is amazing.

to catch, to rob home runs. Could we have like a little ramp somewhere or like a door? Imagine if there was just one door. You'd run out it. You can run and catch it on the other side of the wall. Just one door. Vondor, not centrally located. Like if you're in right field,

you have to run all the way to like center left to get to it. But it could be incredible. There's also two more teams coming. So like I said, six teams total. But again, the tour kicks off right here in Arizona next February in Mesa at Sloan Park on February 1st and second.

And then they have what looks like a three games set at Camelback Ranch, February 6th to the 8th. So again, banana ball coming right here to the valley. I think you can jump on a wait list already for those tickets. And I suggest doing so because everybody I know loves Savannah bananas. People that don't even watch conventional baseball still will go to Savannah Bananas games and think it is the greatest thing that you've ever seen in their whole entire life. So it is a show if you have not missed it.

If you have not been there, it's not to be missed. So make sure to get out there. And of course, it's a lot of fun with this expanding because not only does it give a, I mean, honestly, like, this really does give a lot of opportunities to baseball players that might not have been able to participate in something like this. Well, all these guys are like former pros and D1 players and whatnot. Might not have made it or whatever. But yeah, there are. And that's the other fun thing is there's a lot of former pros. I need to see Randy Johnson out there throwing the ball.

That would be so electric. Just six foot 10 in a Savannah bananas jersey. And then the guy he's throwing to comes out dressed up as a bird. Yeah. And then he hits him. Yeah. It's got to be great. That's so good.

Oh, man. There's so much fun that we could be having. I think with my ball pit idea and you're Randy Johnson idea, I really think that they need to bring us on to like the vision board. Yeah. Oh, I would love to be a part of that. I would, I would volunteer to do that. I wouldn't even ask for a salary. I would just do it for free.

I'd like some money. No, I mean, I like money. I don't make enough of it. I would appreciate some money. Derek will do it for free. You can pay me his salary and then I'll get double. Probably shouldn't say things like that when I'm on camera. But anyway, we thank you guys so much for joining us.

Of course, I am leaving to Las Vegas. I might not ever come back. But Monday, this guy, Jesse, and of course, our boy Archie will be back in the house. So make sure to join us on Monday at 1 p.m. For this very show, of course, in the meantime, you can follow all of us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon. dog that's d a wg we are damon's dogs bark bark i guess you can't i think kevin really should have

chined in there that's a missed opportunity there you go that's better what are you doing in Vegas that's uh what am i doing in Vegas well it is uh my daughter has like a fall break and i feel like a bad father by not taking her anywhere or doing anything with her plus uh i also need to get out of town very badly and i'm not typically allowed to plan vacations in the month of october after what happened last year. There were a lot of mistakes made. But yeah, I'm going to go to see a little, I'm taking my 13 year old daughter to a reggae festival because that's what you do with 13 year old. Yeah, of course. It's a good environment. Yeah. And then that's pretty much it. We're going to hang out by the pool a lot. Maybe ride that high roller ferris wheel. I don't know. We're going to have a

good time though. And I'm going to. It does sound pretty fun. Enjoy every moment of it. Again, that's one thing that's a benefit is at least our stress as sad as the Diamondback season ending is. at least our stress about worrying about them is over. Maybe put some money on red? I'm definitely putting some money on red. That's for sure. That's for sure. But of course, you can follow our guy, Kevin, on the ones and twos at Kev.

Tom writes our show. I'm not spelling it out anymore. You're going to have to figure it out. You're smart people. Our show is at PH&X underscore debacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you joining us. We'll see you next week.

And until then, behave yourselves. Have a wonderful weekend. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're playing banana ball.