PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Aaron Judge hits home run 62 and we’re here for all of the hot takes

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

Merrill Kelly reaches a personal milestone of 200 innings pitched this season in the Arizona Diamondbacks final game of 2022. Meanwhile, Aaron Judge hit home run 62 and the baseball world has lost its collective mind.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly.  Bad Birdie: use code “PHNXSPORTS” to take 15% off your next Bad Birdie order! https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, hello and hello again. And welcome to the PHNX DVax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX. This guy next to me. He's the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman, my vice mayor. Elizabeth says it in the chat. Dramatic start to the season, dramatic end to the season.

And I think that's very fitting. There you go. Yeah, the DVAC started the year with a bang. And, you know, I know this game was a bit of a bit of a, drag there for a while in some of the middle innings when the offense just couldn't get anything going, but Josh Rojas and Corbyn Carroll, Derek,

getting it done in the ninth. Getting it done and, you know, spoiling someone else's day for once. But of course, this show's brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's top rated sportsbook app. Welcome, everybody. Thank you guys for joining us. This is the

this is it. It's a wrap. The season is over. It's weird. 22 season is over. Jesse was lamenting before we started recording about how this is the last baseball game that he gets to see the Arizona Diamondbacks play until next March, which just seems absurd, right? What a, I mean, there are 162 games. If you stretch it out properly, we don't ever need an offseason. It could just go year round, right?

That's what we get in Arizona at least. And it's not our last baseball game. We have Arizona Fall League coming up, of course. But this one was a fun one. Jesse there were uh you know there was some late late late late inning dramatic things happening and it seemed there for a moment like our usage of the bullpen GIF was going to get one more uh one notch one more loss on their belt well we did still get the bullpen Giff in there uh because the diamond backs did give up uh sean poppin did give up an unfortunate late game homer to rowdy telez which gave the brewers a two to one lead uh but yeah kevin ginglinglinger came in in the ninth inning and it was a relatively clean inning, I guess. I mean, there was one hit in the inning, but no, nobody else got on base in the ninth inning for the Milwaukee Brewers. I will say that all three balls that they put in play were absolutely rocketed.

I think there were two, one hundred and nine's and a one hundred and six in there. So the exit Velos didn't look great for Kevin Ginkle in the ninth inning, but that's not what matters on a day like this. The debacks come out with the win. And that's, that's really all cares about right now. The important thing here is that the diamondbacks avoid getting swept in their final series of the year. We talked about how heartbreaking the first game was, the bullpen. Let's not even revisit it. We've hashed. We've talked about that. We've replaced five or six guys. We've already done that. But a big shout out to Josh Rojas for keeping the Arizona Diamondbacks from being no hit in game two of this series because it was like that. It was like that.

So a tip of the cap to him, but a big tip of the cap to Merrill Kelly, who had an excellent outing today, and he reaches that 200 innings pitched goal that he had for himself. We've had a lot of people ask about this. I mean, I don't know. They could be withholding information, but for the most part, when pressed about it, Merrill just has always said this was a personal achievement goal for him to accomplish in major league baseball. Yeah, yeah, he actually has accomplished it before.

He did it in Korea one year, but Merrill told us a couple of weeks ago that doing it in the big leagues is just different than doing it overseas, right? Obviously, it's another level of competition here in the major league. So, yeah, early on, it didn't look great, Derek. Merrill Kelly did not look particularly sharp in the first inning or even the second inning. It took him a little while to settle in, which is something that we've seen from Merrill a lot this year, honestly. those first couple of innings tend to be where he struggles the most, and then he just kind of goes in cruise control through the rest of the game. So all in all, it wound up being an outstanding outing for him, though.

I mean, this wasn't just like, oh, he managed to hit five and two-thirds innings and get his two-hundred-inings for the year. Yeah, he didn't really, I mean, this was a really good start for him, six innings, one run, and he gave the Diamondbacks a good chance to win this game. Yeah, it wasn't, by no stretch of the imagination, was it him just, barely crossing the finish line. He looked like he still had plenty to give, which, you know, understandably so, there were some questions about that after his last start against the San Francisco Giants. I think as you pointed out, though, in regards to that, the frequency, the number of

starts he's made against the Giants probably has more to do with that than the number of starts he's made in 2022. Yeah, yeah, I think that's true. I mean, he's, he's been so durable this year, too. any what's also remarkable is that Merrill Kelly hasn't been a guy to go like Tori Levello we all know is not the type of person to stretch guys super late in games most of the time right and I believe I need to double check this but I believe that Merrill has never

thrown more than 106 pitches in a start this season so it's not like you know he's gotten to 200 innings yeah it's not it's not like he's gotten to 200 innings you know with with Tori throw having him throw 150 pitches or anything like that every time out. He's been really efficient.

And that's a hallmark of who Merrill Kelly is as a pitcher, is he's going to go out there. And, you know, maybe he's not, maybe he's not an ace, right? Like, maybe he's not a true number one starter, although he looked like it earlier in the season for a little bit. But he's going to give you quality innings, and he's going to give you a lot of them.

And that's what Merrill really takes pride in more than anything, is pitching deep into games and saving his bullpen when he can. And that's exactly what Merrill. Kelly is all about, like you said, it's, it's really just a personal goal for him because he sees 200 innings as you not only staying healthy throughout the season, but also giving your team a chance to win. If you're logging that many innings pitched, obviously you're effective and you're able to stay out there longer, uh, you know, these, these, these are all the reasons why, uh, he wanted to hit 200 innings pitch. And I know a lot of people think contractually, there might be an incentive or

something. It didn't seem like that. At least that was never brought up or confirmed in any way. I think it was even asked and he said no, that it was really just a personal achievement for him and something that he wanted to do. If you if you talk to Merrill though, you'll learn that that's, that's exactly what Merrill, you know, is. That's who he is, right? It's even like when you talk to Madison, Bumgardner, as bat shit crazy as it was when he said, if I gave up seven earn runs every game and our team won, I'd do it, right? Like, that sounds like such a crazy thing, right?

But what Bumgarner was trying to admit, I feel like in that moment was, I don't care about my stats. If at the end of the day, I go out there and we get a win while I'm pitching, fucking, I'll have a 10.5 ERA all season long, as long as the result is, our team wins, right?

Those two things don't normally correlate together or go together, right? Right. Right. It's, it's, I get, I got what he was saying. even though at the time it sounds like a nutty comment to make from a starting pitcher who seems to be okay with giving up seven earned runs. That's not the point, but the point is,

is that these guys really don't care as much about their personal stats, as much as they do, being part of the reason why their team wins baseball games. The, you know, Brewers faced a very tough Zach Gowan in game two, and, you know, they just, the Diamondbacks could not do anything offensively.

that that day was stolen from Zach Gallen, no matter how good he was on the mound by the Brewer's pitcher. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if, I don't know what exactly happened to Eric Lauer since he left San Diego because he's, he's looked pretty good at times this year against the debacks from Milwaukee. But, yeah, Zach Gallin in that game yesterday just didn't really look like himself.

He's sort of been a little bit slow to the, to the finish line here this season, which is unfortunate. But as we tweeted out yesterday, I mean, Zach Gallen finished the year with a 186 opponent batting average, which is the lowest opponent batting average

by a qualified starter in Diamondback's history. Yeah, and the previous record holder was none other than Randy Johnson. And his was substantially higher. His opponent batting average was 197, set back in 2004. And obviously there's a difference of eras there, right? Like the league-wide batting average is lower

this year than it was back in 2004. But nonetheless, a really impressive season for Zach Gallen. And it's unfortunate that he couldn't have ended it, you know, with an exclamation point of eight shutout innings or, you know, just really finished the year off in a memorable way. But he still gave the debacks a chance to win in that game. And unfortunately, like you said, the offense just didn't really do its part. It's wild, too, because 2004 was historically one of the worst seasons in franchise history, yet Randy Johnson was doing that during that season, right?

It really just shows how bad things were when that man could have that kind of ERA and that there was still the worst season in Frandy. Yeah, they still won 51 games. Yeah. Let's take a look at the numbers for this series because I think they will speak volumes as to why the Diamondbacks drop this one. Relief pitching ERA, that seems unbelievable to be, Jesse. The relief pitching. That part I can't believe.

else makes sense. But man, the Diamondbacks, you know, still can't win even though they outhit their opponent with batters, runners in scoring position. What stands out to me about the Bullpen ERA, and I was also startled when I was crunching these numbers and discovered the Diamondbacks bullpen ERA was 3.12 in the series. Two of those runs in the game on Monday were unearned runs. And I don't know if we talked about that enough in that game. like if Christian Walker had fielded that ground ball cleanly, then the game is over.

And Joe Mantiply doesn't get the blown save there. So the defense should take some responsibility, maybe even most of the responsibility for what happened in Monday's game. And then obviously in the 10th inning race, Maranta, one of the runs that he allowed was unearned because of the ghost runner starting on second base. So there's a few unearned runs baked in there. And that's why the team had such an enormous bullpen collapse and yet still came out with a pretty good bullpen ERA for the series overall.

But the bullpen was pretty good in this game today. I know Sean Poppin gave up the home run. Caleb Smith pitched well other than, unfortunately, he was removed with an injury, which did not look great. We'll have to see what kind of an update the team gives us on that. But, yeah, people did not seem particularly happy about what was going on on the field.

Caleb Smith and Tori Lavello both showed quite a bit of frustration. in some of those moments. So hopefully it's nothing too serious for him. And of course, there's not really many people, honestly, Jesse, who deserve the king of the series. But we're going to give our king of the series to the guy that reached his personal goal. And that's Merrill Kelly. He is our draft king's king of the series with his 200.1 innings pitched this season, not in this game. That would be some sort of record.

But he had a 13 and 8 record, 3.37 ERA. and of course, once again, return to being Merrill, the mainstay for this team when, you know, they needed to end this season

on a high note. I think this was a good way to end this season. And they inched ever closer to Jesse's prediction of 75 wins, which they did not get to. But obviously,

Jesse's taken home the win on that one falling just one win short. I thought you were so smart, though, and you couldn't even pick it. I don't even understand. All this bragging you've been doing,

but 74 wins on the season, Jesse. What are your thoughts on that? It's a good year for the debacks overall. And I know it's weird to use a word like good to describe a season where the Diamondbacks are done, right? They're not playing in the playoffs. They haven't really been playing for much of anything for several weeks now. But overall, I don't think you can really be disappointed with how this season turned out

as a whole. And I mean, we have a whole off season, right, to recount what's happened and what kinds of changes we want to see made on the roster and those kinds of things. But for the moment, Derek, I mean, it's, I see 74 wins and I see a 22 game improvement over where the team was last year. And we all know there were, you know, there were tons of injuries that contributed to that last year. That team wasn't as bad as it, as it turned out record-wise, but this is still a big step in the right direction. And like we talked about the other day, a lot of the success that the Diamondbacks did have this year were guys.

that are going to be here for a while. You know, it's Jake McCarthy, it's Dalton Varsho. It's guys that we think could be part of the next great Diamondbacks team. And that's really what this season was always about in my mind. Gabriel Ferrer said it earlier in the comments, but he said, Pavan just made things a lot harder for the front office with how good he's been since coming back. And I couldn't agree more with that.

I mean, it almost feels like the other guys are rubbing off on Pavin a bit. We saw him extend a hit to a double that might have been a single for Payman earlier on. And now we see it's like contagious, the aggressive base running. So it's very cool to see Payvon Smith come back from that injury and find the success that he's had. And honestly, it's going to be another thing that the Diamondbacks front office, Mike Hazen, Tori Lavallo, even will all say on the final media, you know, appearance of the year, that these are good problems to have, to have an outfield right now stack the way they do the number of options they have.

It's a good problem to have. And obviously, we've seen them try to play Pavin in other places as well. So it'll be interesting to see how that stacks up. But again, right now, the man of the moment, the king of the hour for us and the king of the series is none other than Merrill Kelly. So shout out to him and shout out to our friends at the Drafking Sportsbook. Of course, if you haven't downloaded that app and get down on it, we got an offer for you. New customers can use our promo code of just P.A. NX, you bet $5 on any NFL team to win and you'll win $200 in free bets if they do,

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I would say bet on the bills, but I don't trust them anymore. I don't trust them. Sean won't appreciate this, but I'm starting to think they might be frauds. Download that Draft King Sportsbook, bet on any team but the Buffalo bills. And use our promo code of PHNX. They'll get you those $200 in free bets if your team wins. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details.

and we've talked about it, but it's time for Chase Field now to officially become a concert venue. So when you want to go see all of these wonderful shows and concerts at Chase Field, the way to do it is with our friends from GameTime. And you're going to save yourself 60%, up to 60% by waiting until the last minute. Procrastinating is good, my friends. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Get down on the GameTime app on the same day of your concert, your show, your sporting event, and you will get up to 60% off tickets.

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you guys for doing that. And of course, we were, I'm going to say, I'm going to say thank you like a million times this episode, but we thank you guys for being here all season long. We appreciate you guys using our sponsors. We appreciate you guys tuning in and watching us live. This has been such a up and down season for the Arizona Diamondbacks that I can only hope that we helped make it more fun for you to watch this season. And, you know, of course, we ain't going nowhere.

This is just the beginning of us doing that. We're getting in on the ground floor and this stock is going through the roof, baby. To the moon, the Arizona Diamondbacks are going. But another guy right now that is absolutely going to the moon. Obviously is the big story in baseball. Aaron Judge has hit home run number 62, Jesse. Seen some interesting things in regards to this. First of all, the fan that caught it was immediately escorted out of the building by security.

I don't know where they took him. I don't know if they took him to a secret bunker. I don't know if they put him and the ball into like an armored truck and drive him straight out. Like, you know, they have it in the tunnel backed up with the doors open and the security guards usher him in. And then they bubble wrap him really fast and then close up the doors

and send him off in the Brinks truck. But yeah, it's definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for that fan. And now we have Aaron Judge, Jesse, the clean home run. King. So what are your thoughts on all of the hoopla and all of all of the, you know, everything surrounding Aaron Judge accomplishing this feat of beating Roger Maris's American League, home run record of 61? I mean, my first thought is that the security guards are definitely

the ones who have the baseball right now. They're in. Yeah, they're yeah. It's yeah. That guy's, that guy's dead now, Jesse. He's buried in the desert somewhere. I'm convinced of it. We're never going to to see that man again alive. Oh, Jacob Franklin's here. Jacob, I'm glad you're alive. That ball is valued at $2 million, by the way. Just so you know, they valued that baseball at $2 million. That's incredible, right?

Yeah. That's incredible. Darren Roval had a comment today about the man that caught Mark McGuire's home run ball that originally broke the home run record, right? And apparently, the gentleman that caught that ball, Jesse, offered to give it back to the St. Louis Cardinals for the standard package that a fan would receive. All he wanted extra besides the signed ball and the bat and the jersey and the whole bit that they're going to get him was he wanted to meet Mark McGuire. According to Darren Roval, McGuire refused.

According to the man himself who commented on Darren Roval's tweet, who I don't know if it's actually the man or not, He said that it was just a St. Louis Cardinals policy for fans to not be able to like go meet the guy that hit the home run or whatever. But he later sold that home run ball for $3 million instead of the small amount of a bat and a ball in a jersey that he was going to get originally for it. So glad that worked out in his favor. But this guy definitely has himself a small fortune that he's sitting on when it comes to the Aaron Judge. baseball and I am all four by the way everybody take go home with the baseball do not trade anything do not ever trade anything for the baseball but now now we have this weird argument going on about Aaron judge setting this home run record we have Roger Marish Jr. who has unlimited

PTO according to his job I don't know how this man has this much time off to follow the Yankees around it's absurd but we have this you know controversy if you will, because now there's people like Roger Marish Jr. who are kind of all about saying this whole thing about, you know, Aaron Judge doing it the right way and doing it clean and a lot of morality involved with his 62 home runs. So I just wanted to give some hot takes here on this situation because it is it is piping hot right now as far as baseball is concerned.

So my take on this situation, and I'll be forthright here and say that I was up very late last night, watching all sorts of ridiculous documentary videos from years ago about the Barry Bonds and just like trying to get a sense for what it was like in the moment and how it was perceived at that time, because as you all well know at this point, I was not old enough to really remember anything at that point in my life. So this kills me.

You had to do research and I lived it. So that's, uh, Exactly. That is different ends of this argument for sure. Right. So with that context in mind, I am still siding with Barry Bonds being the true home run champion. I think the reality of the situation in the early 2000s is that it was called the steroid era for a reason, right? Like it wasn't, it wasn't Barry Bonds taking steroids and nobody else.

It was the three. It was Mark McGuire. It was so sad. It was just the three of them. It was just three. They had secret home run king meetings at night. You know, Louise Gonzalez tried to come to some of them. And they were like, no, you don't get to come to these.

You know, like that's how it was, right? No, but there really was, the one thing I find amazing about it, as I told you earlier, is the idea that, like, we as fans didn't know what was going on at the time. It was a joke. Baseball's drug policy, the way that Mark McGuire looked, physically, the way that Barry Bond looked physically, were constantly topics of conversation. They were always being picked on for obviously taking performance,

enhancing drugs in some way. And for the most part, it usually, conversations usually came back around to, well, if baseball isn't going to test it and they're not going to test for anything, and they're just going to go on this honor system, then is anything actually against the rules,

right? As many people will point out, like you just did it. It's the steroid era, not just because these three guys were taking them, but because a lot of the pitchers they were facing were also taking them. A lot of the players that they were playing against that were making outstanding catches in the outfield were also taking them. So there was not just these guys taking them for a competitive advantage versus the rest of the league.

I imagine that people that didn't use PEDs were probably in the minority during this time. This is also a time, though, where baseball was absolutely suffering. from popularity. And what people often forget is how important what Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa did to bring the interest back to the game to make baseball one of the hottest topics and conversations again in sports, right? It was it was a big part of the reason why baseball was able to make a comeback, you know, a few years later because had they stayed on the trajectory from the strike in 94, who knows where this sport would be. hell, this sport isn't even that popular now.

So it's like you got to credit that little bump. And that's a bad reference to use when talking about drugs. But you got to credit the little bump for getting, you know, baseball back to a sense of when people cared about it, wanted to watch it again, right? I just think it's hypocritical. I think the hypocrisy is delicious, right? Baseball was not only one of the only sports that didn't test for PEDs, but writers in the past have written about during, you know, Roger Merritt. and Mickey Mantle's days of like, you know, greenies, which are amphetamines, just being in candy dishes in the clubhouse, right?

You had, you know, other guys like Babe Ruth that didn't even get to play against the best players in the sport because of their skin color. They had to play in a different league. So, like, baseball's always had things that nothing was on a competitive balance compared to this year or that year or whatever, right? That's, it's the main reason why as much as they would probably like to reduce the season, they keep using the idea of like, you know, these awards and achievements and stuff as part of the reason why they can't reduce 162 game season down.

Nobody gives a shit, man. Once we start getting into the, it'll be the 100 game era or whatever from that point on when they make that decision to finally shorten the season up. But nobody's going to be like, man, they should have never done that. Now we don't know who's like good based on, you know, who got, awards and who got the most home runs and stuff. Like we will just, we'll just roll on.

You know what I mean? Roger Marys. You think so? You really think so? If the season were shortened to 100 games, you think that wouldn't irritate the crap out of every baseball purist on the planet? I'm pretty sure it would. It would take one season for them to forget about it and move on one season.

I realize that because Jesse, you don't understand how long people have been having the argument about the goddamn designated hitter in the National League. they implemented that that shit just went away. No one ever talked about it again. No one complained. I never heard a single fucking person say, man,

I really missed the strategy of seeing pitchers hit. Yeah, that's true. Remember when they had to take out the pitcher because he sucked? And then they like had to, had to balance when they would do that based on when they needed offense late in the game. That's got to be like, that's different though,

right? Because the DH doesn't really, doesn't meaningfully affect anyone's stats at the end of the day. right? Like, I guess National League pitchers now are facing, are facing a DH instead of the opposing pitcher. So maybe it's a little bit harder to pitch now in the National League than it was before. But frankly, it was always weird that it was easier to pitch in the National League than it was in the American League for so long. So I don't know about that one, Derek. I think that it would irritate a whole lot of people if they ever shortened the baseball season. And not to mention,

like, I don't know if they're ever going to shorten the baseball season because fewer games means less revenue and less revenue is something that it's it's very hard to see you know the two sides the owners and the players association ever agreeing to something that would result in that so maybe maybe someday that's a possibility but i don't think it's going to happen anytime soon if it does and i think it's going to make a lot of people angry probably including myself if i'm being honest if that ever actually does happen no no is you got to realize that the benefit of the new fans that's going to attract in and then you're not going to lose old like people aren't going to stop watching are you really you think you're going to gain fans from having fewer games oh yeah oh yeah

thousand percent uh because i talk to a lot of people that don't really care about baseball and to be honest it might just be an excuse but usually the length of the season and them like losing interest in it while the season is going on is typically an answer i get quite a bit right that's just i'm boggling me though like in order to get people interested in we should play less baseball. Like, what? Like, that just doesn't make any sense to me. Everything's good in moderation, Jesse.

You can't have too much. You can have too much stuff. You can have too much. Derek, we're both sitting here utterly devastated that the baseball season is over after watching 162 games. Devastated. Are you shitting me? Maybe it's just me.

Maybe it's just me. Yeah, that's definitely surprised, Derek, because I am not devastated. But no, again, the people. that complained about changing the rules when it came to the designated hitter said the same thing. I've lived through this. I've seen it. I don't care. Yeah, I just think that's so different, though.

I don't disagree with you on that, but I think it's very different. It's different because it was a big argument. You know what I mean? It was a topic of, it was a point of contention when it came to people, right? But here's the thing. Sure. None of this has anything to do with our original point,

which was Aaron Judge, right? Aaron Judge has somehow become the like, like problematic, you know, in a way, right? Like people are sick of hearing, uh, of Aaron Judge and this whole home run thing when Aaron Judge is just doing some great things personally for himself and for the Yankees, right? It's kind of the talking points about, you know, people like Roger Marish Jr. and others saying that this, you know, record is, is more important now because he did

it clean or somehow it's some sort of significant record and should be, viewed as the actual home run record versus what Barry Bonds did. It's, it's ridiculous. You know what I mean? Because again, my point being is that people now want to do that exact thing. They want to view the current time as the important time. And then they want to disregard the past because of, you know, reasons. Asterisks. You know, there's these. And it's the same that that's, I guess that's my point about reducing the season. We'll get past that so fast because people want to view

what's happening now as being important. So they'll just change the stats and they'll start looking at like home runs per game or something like that, right? The idea, though, that somebody right now wants to consider, you know, the 62 game or the 62 home run streak as like the actual home run record

is just stupid. It's just stupid, right? Like, you can call it the American League thing. Go ahead. I still do want to at least acknowledge that, like, let's be real here for a second, right? Like, Barry Bonds, if he played now and did not have any performance enhancing drugs on his side, probably wouldn't hit 73 home runs, right? You have no way of knowing that, though. Right.

We have no way of knowing that. We have no way of knowing that. We have no way of knowing that. That's true. But like if you were to just like put a bet on it, like it probably you would not expect that that would happen. You know, one, for one, because he wouldn't have performance enhancing drugs. But, you know, in another matter, like the fact that pitchers throw a lot harder than than they used to now, right? Like the quality of pitching that you're facing in 2022, I think is different than the quality of pitching that you were facing in the early 2000.

So I don't want to make it sound like Barry Bond's. is the home run king and like there's nothing wrong with PEDs or I think that's going a little bit too far and there's nothing okay well maybe maybe that's the stance that you want to take that's I'm not quite there like I do acknowledge what people are saying

you know like the people who think that Barry Bonds shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame I don't agree with that take but I at least see what you're where you're coming from like there's literally a clause called the character clause right that is part of being as part of getting into the Hall of Fame that does require you to be a person of integrity or right,

it's very subjective. But like, I could understand where you would draw that conclusion. I just think that at the end of the day, the early 2000s was the steroid era. And it was a situation where if you were a player in that moment and you weren't taking PEDs, you were doing yourself a disservice. You were putting yourself at a disadvantage compared to all of your peers. And it just isn't reasonable to expect that like everyone in that environment is going to do the quote unquote right thing and not partake in something that the entire league is basically embraced, right? Like heck, Bud Seelig is in the Hall of Fame and he was the commissioner at the time and he basically turned a blind eye to all of it because as you said earlier, it was good for the popularity of the game, right?

And yet he's still in the Hall of Fame because because he was good at his job, right? and he did it for a very long time. So I just think that there are some differences that you have to, that's, that's fair. That's a whole other topic. But obviously the steroid era was, was just a different animal. And I don't think you can hold Barry Bonds to a standard that it was just sort of unrealistic in that era of baseball. Yeah, they're absolutely, I'm going to say it again, there's nothing wrong with PEDs because of the fact, here I'm going to lay it out for you, why there's nothing wrong with PEDs. I'm going to tell you why.

one jesse how many times did berry bonds test positive for for steroids or perform enhancing drugs i i don't know you're going to have to help me out on that that number would be zero how many times did mark mcguire test positive for pd sure sure i understand that like there's some gray area there but like i think if you go back and look at what exactly happened nobody really makes like nobody who is advocating for or against Barry Bonds really has a strong case that Barry Bonds was never involved in PEDs. It was a little bit sketchy in confirming that, but I think everyone can pretty much agree at this point

that all three, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, all three of these guys, and Mark McGuire, right? All three of them were clearly involved. Like, there's just no getting around that at this point. Who else was on PEDs, though? everyone probably that's my my point i'm not i'm not trying to split hairs here i'm not trying to say that again that these guys deserve a pass on this right like i don't know what the answer there is uh when people say though they're not in the hall of fame and they're not going to be in the hall of fame my my thing is that's because of this morality thing that people had uh and

Ryan S says didn't David Ortiz test positive at one point? Yeah. And he's beloved, right? Yeah. Right. So the, it's completely like it's it. It's completely arbitrary. It's different standards. Yeah. It's, it's all based on how you feel about that person. But let's be honest, it's also about the achievements that you that you accomplish. Right. If you break the home run record and your known PED user, well, now that just makes things that's messy now. Right. So really what it's about is the fact that these guys did do these feats and then they break these records and now people want to say at that point, well, you know, there were, you know, these guys were whatever. Gabriel says the league investigation found that over 90% of pitchers were on steroids and around 70% of hits or hitters were on. Yeah. All right. So like that's that's the problem. If you want to say what the biggest problem with

the PED era is is mostly the ones that aren't taking it, right? The people that then, kind of get lumped in during that time because they were around that time and people were like, oh, everybody was taking steroids there. But these guys were doing it clean and facing all of these people that were on PDs in different ways, right? Now, at least the field is even, ideally, but not really, right? I'm sure there's still, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, right? That's the old, that's the old adage. So I'm sure there's still people finding a way to get around it in some way, right? And if they get caught, they get caught, whatever. The difference of that time period is, is that technically nobody was breaking a rule because there was no testing going on.

Right. And there was no, you know what I mean? Once they started testing and people started doing things like going to a lab in Florida in order to circumvent the testing and things like that, that's really where you start. And Barry Bond's was a huge part of that. That's where Barry Bond's accusations actually come from, right? Is his name being associated with this laboratory in Florida. that was part of covering this shit up. But there's an update on Caleb Smith, left elbow injury imaging coming tomorrow according to us.

So that's that. But I think at the end of the day, the Aaron Judge thing just should stand for its accomplishment on its own. Right. I think the fact that it turns into this conversation about it being better than someone who hit more home runs than them is preposterous. Just let it be its own record. let it stand for an American League home run record, give the guy his flowers because he absolutely deserves it, but stop making this about something else that it really shouldn't be about.

You know, that's my feeling on it, because if you're taking away accomplishments from the guys that hit the most home runs, where does it stop? Do we take away World Series from teams that the entire team was on, PDs? Do we, you know, I mean, like, where does it go? How far do we go?

Yeah. Gabriel Ferrer says, PDs and Greenies were banned in 2004 when the commissioners sent a letter to the teams before there was no official ban. So, I mean, it's that the entire thing has been a mess. And I think the only thing that we can be thankful of

is to know that now they've cleaned up the game and that there is no more of this. The bigger problem is, you know, people putting their health in jeopardy in order to gain a competitive advantage in a sport that they play. Yeah, right. And there is like, so I, I asked my good friend Jeff Weiser,

we've had on the show before. I texted him last night and I said, hey, what's your, what's your take on the, on the Barry Bonds, Aaron Judge situation? And he said they're both good.

And part of me was like, can we just stop the conversation there? Yeah. Do we have to, do we have to say anything else? We don't. We don't. And I think,

I think part of it for me, too, is that Aaron Judge, like, what he's doing, like, yeah, we should probably just talk about Aaron,

judge for a little bit here. What Aaron Judge has done in 2022 is flat out remarkable. I mean, he has 62 home runs. The next highest home run hitter in baseball is Kyle Schwerber who has 46. After that, the next guy is 40. So it's a level of home run hitting that is not just elite, but is worlds ahead of anyone else in the game right now. And that in itself is worthy of like all of the flowers that you could ever throw at Aaron Judge, right? Regardless of whether he's the true home run king or this larger, his larger conversation, like what he's doing this year is just remarkable. And in my mind, that's like that's sort of where the conversation ends, right? Like, what Aaron Judge is doing is absolutely remarkable. What Barry Bond's did back in the day,

also absolutely remarkable. Like those are truths that we can hold on to that I don't think there's really any room for debate on those things. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And we can leave it at that. And we can all take OGs and get along when it comes to these kind of debates. But that's only because OGs settles every debate. They also give you a great night's sleep. They have their brand new sleep edition gummy. It's the best. It's the best. I just mean that. It's absolutely the best. It'll give you the best night's sleep. Not only helps you fall asleep, but it helps you stay asleep with their CBN compound that's specifically for that. And they're delicious with their new aqua berry flavor. So make sure to check out our friends at OGs online at OGs brands.com or Instagram. and OG's brands. And they also have a wide variety of flavors and doses and strains for whatever your edible need is. You can find their products at your local dispensary must be 21 years or older to purchase. And of course, it is spooky season over at our friends Four Peaks Brewing Company,

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Must be 21 years or older and enjoy responsibly. Jesse, the debacks and the season, 20, is it, 22 games higher than last season? 22 games. 22. That is the, What do you think about this overall? Like, of course, we talked about it earlier, but it seems like a win, yet it also seems like not a surprise at all in any way, shape, or form.

So, I mean, yeah, one thing that I do think bears mentioning is a few weeks ago, the debacks pulled to just a few games of 500. They got pretty close. And for a while there, we were wondering, like, maybe you're 82 and 80 prediction. actually wasn't going to be too far off or like maybe that was even a possibility at at one point not that long ago. But yeah, the debacks have kind of stumbled to the finish line here, right? Like I don't think there's any way getting around that. They avoided the sweep in the season finale, which is a great thing. But they also just, you know, they almost got swept, right? Like there's also that side of thing. So I don't think that they really played great baseball over the last few weeks.

and obviously the record that they had will bear that out. But I think a big part of it, Derek, is just been that the offense has not really produced for the last few weeks and not in a consistent way, right? We talk about the bullpen all the time and for good reason. It's been a disaster through the entire season. But at some point, like a lot of these games that the bullpen has taken the blame for, these are games where, you know, the debacks just,

didn't really score runs in the last few innings of the game. That's kind of been something that we've seen a lot. And you're kind of putting your bullpen in a hole at that point where they're probably going to take the loss because even if they do give up a couple of runs, you know, the offense isn't going to pick them up in those moments. So I think the offense has struggled down the stretch a little bit, which is, which is unfortunate. But on the whole, I mean, yeah, you can't be disappointed with where the debacks finish

at the end of the season. And overall, I think it's a big win for them. But there is a little part of me that's like, you know, I wondered if maybe we'd be looking at 78 and 84 or 79 and 83. Like not that long ago, that looked like a possibility. And it's unfortunate that they kind of slowed to a stop down the stretch of the season. I think what we saw change during the course of the season was the expectations, right? And we talked about the expectations being very low at the beginning of the season. So much so.

And I made that 82 and 80 predict. you thought I was insane. And that didn't change. That didn't change at all throughout the season. Let's be honest about that. But it also comes down to, like you said at one point during the season, based on the actual record and the actual way that they were playing,

that this team was actually maybe capable of reaching that 82 and 80 mark. That was at one time insane, right? So I do think it's hard at the end of a long season. I'm still, I'm staying on this. You know, how do you stay motivated when you know you've been out of it for as long as the Diamondbacks kind of know they've been out of it, right? We held it hope up. We were like, oh, man, they're only like eight games back. Maybe they can pull off some ridiculous thing, right?

But the Diamondbacks probably mentally checked out about a month ago. And I think that that kind of may have contributed to the lack of offense that you're talking about. Their offense, especially when they got hot, was largely contingent on them making things happen. that's one thing that this young team was good at, the aggressive base running, a lot of things that we saw from them, their speed, just being able to,

you know, like Christian Walker, you know, when he was feast or famine at the beginning of the season, he turned things around and was able to actually hit a ball for a single or a double every now and again, not just home runs all the time. But this team definitely needed to kind of be at,

you know, have their foot on the gas all the time in order for them to be as good as we saw them be over certain stretches. And I think without something to play for as the season winded down, I think that's what we saw was this team kind of, you know, let their foot off a little bit. And then without that, without those extra runs here and there,

without that support, without, you know, constantly pressing the opposing defense, you know, they didn't look as good as they did. I think we still know what they're capable of. And I think there will be some changes this offseason, probably not as substantial as most people think that that will see.

Yeah. But of course, they don't come anywhere close to the NL West division title, but that's not what matters because that's not the title we care about. The title we care about is the All-City Division. And of course, we didn't win that either. But most importantly, we finished second. Yes, that is a tie with the Chicago Cubs, which I have no fucking clue how they did that.

But hats off to them for coming on strong at the end of the season, unlike the debacks. And not only do the debacks have a better all-city record, which gives them second place, they also hold the season record against the Cubs at four and three. So they take the second spot. So what are your thoughts, Jesse, on losing to the White Sox? I'm kind of okay with that. Well, I mean, for one, the debacks did have the best record against the all-city teams,

at least the best win percentage against the other all-city teams. So I guess that's a win in itself. But yeah, and they also win the tiebreaker with the Chicago Cubs. The D-backs were four and three against the Cubs this season. So us putting the D-backs over the Cubs there, as you just saw, it's not just us making that up. There's actually, yeah, the D-Vax win that tie-breakers. Yeah, we got it.

We took this one. We're the second best podcast on this network. That's what we're saying is that's what we wanted. And we're coming for that title next year, Chicago. But until then, we're going to have to. to get like a trophy or something made and send it out to our friends at CHGO White Sox. And of course Charles Woodall Pike, we do remember that the White Sox lost to the low. We will not.

We will not forget that. It might be on their trophy. Just might be lowly. Jacob, Fage, he's in big. He's in, he likes pennants. He wants to get a pennant made. So we might have to get a pennant made to send up to the, the, the, the, G.O. White Sox.

But of course, on to the postseason. We will have some postseason talk tomorrow now that the brackets have all been figured out, we will also be on to Arizona Fall League. So make sure to stay tuned for us, your fall guys, who will be out at Arizona Fall League all October. Jesse will be at the final media availability for the Arizona Diamondbacks tomorrow as I jump on a plane to head to Philadelphia's purely for cheese steaks. I'm going only for the cheese steaks. But most importantly, make sure to join us tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. for our final show this week, as we will be giving away so much stuff. I got stuff to give away.

I got we got Serpientish jerseys. We got hot dog shirts. We got Mother's Day hats. We got Cotel hats. This Cotel hat is incredible. It's really good. So is everything else we got here. These, I don't know why.

They're super comfortable. If you didn't get a chance to get the hoodie shirt, that's the end of the season. Probably some of the best giveaway items, the Arizona Diamondbacks have ever had, just because there is no sponsors on any of this stuff. It's on the inside of the stuff. tag. It's cleverly hidden, but it's all stuff you can wear without having a big old

Pepsi logo on your back as you walk down the street. So we'll be giving all that stuff away. We got more stuff to give away. We got a Luis Gonzalez autographed baseball. We got all of fun stuff, fun stuff, program from the World Series. So make sure to join us. The only way to win is to be in that chat tomorrow. Make sure to like and retweet our tweet. It's our pin tweet right now on our account. Make sure to follow us in the meantime. We are at PHNX underscore DBAX. That's where you'll find those tweets. Of course, sign up for a membership if you haven't done so already. Like and subscribe and follow. Do that. Get us there. We're almost to 5,000. And man, that would be great if we got to 5,000. But of course, in the meantime, make sure to sign up for a membership at go phnx.com

if you haven't done so. Jesse has one amazing piece after another. His piece on Josh Barfield is pretty incredible and everybody should read it. So make sure to sign up for a membership. Get an annual membership. You'll get a free t-shirt at the phtonx locker.com. If you get the month-to-month membership, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get members only access to our Discord, where we're doing events that you can only buy tickets for in Discord. That's pretty awesome. Make sure to keep an eye out for that.

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They know my address. They know my name. I don't even think to let me buy furniture from them after they saw what I did in my chair. But that's me. That's not you. You can spruce up your home during more furniture's fall sale at morefurniture.com and make sure to tell them that your friends from PHMX sent you. We thank you guys so much for being here all baseball season long. Again, that's what we're giving all this stuff away.

We can't thank you enough for being here live in the chat. for our friends that have put up us and the Cardinals on split screen. We thank you guys for doing that. Thank you, everyone. I mean, this season was an absolute blast, but I really think the biggest reason why was because of you guys. You guys made the difference for us. You made it absolutely fun to cover this team.

And again, we're not going anywhere. We'll be here all offseason long. We'll be covering the postseason, fall league, winter meetings. We're not going anywhere. You can't get rid of us that easy. So make sure to stay tuned. We'll be going to Monday through Friday next week. and we might vary our start times a bit so that we can maybe go check out some day games of the Arizona Fall League and not always, you know, be making that difficult decision whether to do their jobs.

We don't want to put you in that position. Yeah. So do you have questions, Jesse? Oh, I do have questions. What are your questions? The perfect way to end the show. So relating to the topic of Aaron Judge and his 62 home runs, it's an impressive record, right? depending on who you talk to, he may or may not be the home run king.

Both Derek and I, as you heard today, are of the belief that Aaron Judge is not the home run king. But still, I mean, he holds the American League record for home runs in a single season, which is pretty impressive in its own right. But Derek, I have some would you rather questions relating to this. So the question is, would you rather be Aaron Judge, and if it's 62 home runs in a season and hold the American League record, or would you rather,

here's the first one, would you rather hold the world record for most pubs visited, which is held by Bruce Masters, he has visited 46,495 pubs, and this comes from the official Guinness Book of World Records. Would you rather be Aaron Judge with the 62 homers or Bruce Masters

with 46,000, 495 pubs visited. Why are you doing this to me? This is like a Sophie's choice situation. It's a pretty hard question. I'm not going to lie. Well, because here's the thing. Bruce Masters, first of all, is Dennis and D. Reynolds's real father. That's for starters. That's an always sunny in Philadelphia thing you're not going to get. Second of all, I'm pretty sure that he has lived a better life than Aaron

Judge. I say that because in order to visit that many pubs, this is a traveling man. This is a man that has friends all over the place. He's gone to pubs in different countries. This strikes me as a man that has lived life to the fullest. And that for me sounds like a much better way to go than to be devoting your life to some sport where you have to hit all these to home runs in one year and then you got to come back and do it again the next year. I mean, Elizabeth asked the best question. Do I have to pay at these pubs? I mean, if that's, if it's on my tab, I'm going Aaron, I'm going Aaron Judge. That's fair.

Gabe says he'd rather be judged because he's going to make $400 million and visit all the pubs he wants. Fair enough. All right. I'm taking Aaron Judge on that one. What else we go? Okay. All right. Fair enough.

So number two, would you rather be Aaron Judge with the 62 home runs? Or would you rather be Paul Lidey, who in September of 2009 said the Guinness World book world record for the greatest distance catching a grape in one's mouth. And it was 354 feet and four inches. And Paul Lidey caught this grape in his mouth from more than 350 feet away. Derek, are you going Aaron Judge or Paul Lidey?

Paul Lidey, all day. Paul Lide all day. That's, I mean, hitting 62 home runs, whatever. That's something. anybody can do but catching a great distance or legend in the game Paul. My question is just like

how was this great thrown 354 feet? That's farther than a football field. Yeah, the person that threw it deserves as much credit there as Paul does for right. Are we not going to give credit to the quarterback and the wide receiver? What's going on? Yeah, yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

All right. Last one. Would you rather be Aaron Judge 350 feet like horizontally I guess like that's a that's like a distance yeah not 350 feet thrown up up up up or down although that is a that is a fair question but yeah I'm I'm guessing that would be that could be that could be I think he'd be dead if it was dropped on him isn't I mean like how tall is the I or how sorry how tall is the like the Empire State Building right because isn't it like a thing like if you drop a penny off of the Empire State Building

and it hits the ground, doesn't it like make a dent? Empire State Building to the tip is 1,454 feet. Okay, never mind. We're talking about two completely different distances, but like 350 feet. I feel like that would hurt. That would hurt. I don't think you're going to die

because like a grape hits you in the head no matter how high it's dropped from. But anyway. Never know, Jesse. All right, here's the last one. you ready? So would you rather be Aaron Judge? Yes, gravity is a thing, but terminal velocity is also

a thing, but anyway, would you rather be Aaron Judge with 62 home runs, or would you rather be Ali Babutafar, which I'm probably mispronouncing that name, who in Iran, earlier this

year in April of 2022, he set the world record for the longest duration spinning a basketball on a toothbrush at one minute and 47.4 seconds. No, that does not. A basketball on a toothbrush, Derek, for more than a minute and 40 seconds.

That does not impress me. That does not impress me. I feel like somebody could get lucky and make a basketball spin on a toothbrush for two minutes. That does not seem like a worthy record. And like Elizabeth says, that's very specific. No, I know. That does not appeal to me. Let's go back to the pub guy because I still want to know if my tab's being bade for or not.

That's still a question up in the air. I'm not paying for these beers. I mean, I guess you assume, yeah, like I'm asking you, would you rather be Aaron Judge or be Bruce Masters? So in that scenario, you can assume that like you have the means to, to visit all of these pubs without it like meaningfully affecting your finances. So we'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. And what we'll leave is someone said Globetrotters in the comments.

And that just reminded me, I need to tell you guys that the Savannah. bananas are coming to Arizona next baseball season. As a matter of fact, it's on opening day for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They will be playing at Scottsdale Stadium. They'll also be playing in Peoria the following day on April 1st. So get out to see the Savannah bananas. It's a once in a lifetime kind of thing. They are, by the way, they're sold out in Georgia.

I have a friend that lives in Georgia and she is furious because she can never get in to see the Savannah bananas. So just to give you an idea of how popular these guys are, make sure to not miss the world's tallest pitcher, Jesse, the world's tallest pitcher. But again, I don't want to be that either. I still want to be Aaron Judge if you want to, would you rather me on that? But we thank you guys again for joining us, of course. We don't want to go. That's why we're making this one so long. But the season's over. So I guess we should probably pack up our things. I have a Twitter. I have a trivia question if you want it.

No, we're not. We're done. We're not letting you go over an hour. I have 40 seconds to wrap it up. Yeah, Jeff wants to go home, Jesse. Follow us on Twitter and get Jesse to ask you that trivia question. I'm at Cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show again is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys for being here all season long. On behalf of Jesse Faj and myself, we appreciate you more than you know. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you visit all the pubs instead of hitting 62 home runs.