PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Advantage Baltimore

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

On this episode, Derek and Jesse discuss Saturday being the best D-backs game of the season, Baltimore's advantage in the race for the number one pick, and we spy on our ex-friend Paul Goldschmidt. 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.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the really well-lit mayor of PHNX. And of course, this show is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. You can get the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use R-Code PHNX for betting $1 on any football game. weekend you will get $150 in free bets instantly. That code again is P HNX, just like your destination right here. Joining me, as always, is my friend and co-host. It's Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Thunderstick. Derek, you're looking great. The lighting. Isn't it? It's ridiculous, right?

It's really good lighting. It's really good lighting in here. I know you love it, but I swear you, you always look like that, Derek. It literally looks the same as every show. Well, thank you. I mean, even in my office at home where I do the lighting myself. But I will say I'm excited to see you. I had a really fun time watching baseball this past weekend, as we discussed a little bit yesterday. And I kind of wanted to talk about that a bit as well as give some tank season updates and spy on one of our friends.

It's tank season. It's tank season, but tank season might sadly be coming to an end soon. Obviously, it is coming to an end because there's only six more games in the deback season. Right now they sit at 50 and 106, still tied. with the Baltimore Orioles for that final and dubious worst record in baseball, which will get you the number one draft pick. But things aren't looking so good, Jesse. We'll get into that a bit.

But I want to talk about some good things. And the reason why tank season doesn't look so good, it took a brief hiatus on Saturday night, even in my heart, as I watched a stadium full of baseball fans, watched the Diamondbacks versus the Dodgers. It was a sight to behold, Jesse. It really was. I mean, seven to two, the Dodgers never led in the game.

Just like every time the Dodgers come to town, right? I mean, the diamond. Oh, yeah, that's exactly how you write it up. Yeah, I don't know why this is noteworthy for you, Derek. But yeah, I mean, almost 30,000 fans in the stands, which for this season is a really, really high number. So obviously I wasn't there. You were, but I'm sure that would have been a fun atmosphere. year. And I know some fun things also happened in the stands throughout the game,

which maybe you can, you can share a little bit more. Oh, I mean, yeah, I can. I don't know if I can. Things got wild, like I said on Twitter. It was like the Stefan bit where he talks about, you know, the hottest club in downtown Phoenix is Chase. It has everything. Kershaw getting just slaughtered, Gallen and Marte looking like all-stars. There was a blow-up sex doll being passed around. I thought it was hilarious, but it is a family atmosphere. So maybe just bring a beach ball next time. Either way, it was a good time. There was a full band in right field that there, like,

no one could even sit in front of the drummer because he had a full drum kit in front of them. It was incredible. I think the bigger thing, though, was there was just weird energy. Like, it's hard to discuss energy. The, the atmosphere at Chase Field has felt flat all season long, even during games that had a lot of people at it. This game, it was Hispanic Heritage Night, which, you know, means something.

to me personally, right? I'm Puerto Rican and even though it was like a lot of like different cultures and everything, it just, it had a great celebratory feel that night of just Hispanic culture and, you know, the relationship with baseball. I also really just thought that, you know, it was, it was a fun vibe. People were having a good time. People were actually dancing in the aisles and stuff at times like together as couples. It was, it was just something I haven't seen all. season long. I absolutely missed the ballpark, especially on the weekends, looking like that. And for me, it was the best game of the entire year. You know, you have the Tyler Gilbert, no hitter. You have all sorts of other games. I was going to say, yeah. Wow, better than the Tyler

Gilbert, no hitter. It's different. It was a different vibe. The Tyler Gilbert, no hitter was very calm. You know, I think everybody in the building kind of expected that to fall apart any minute. And even those of us in the press box, we weren't really in that no hitter zone until that eighth inning when he got out of it with three pitches, right? That's when things all of a sudden, you know, it was the, oh my God, it's happening gift from the office, right? It's just it was the crowd. You know, it really was. I think one thing I had mentioned on Twitter was that the Diamondbacks themselves seemed very laid back lately. It was my first chance to be around the team, not on Zoom,

but from what I saw during the game, before the game, they were just having a good time. Everything was very loose. It's hard to do. When your record is as bad as this is, people expect you to just be somber and not be having a good time. And nobody really wants that, right? I mean, I've seen them pick on losing teams that were doing celebrations and stuff in the dugout.

It's like, why? At least they're having a good time with their season. and the few games that they win, I was happy to see the Diamondbacks just loose as a team and happy and smiling. The results were the results. The results kind of drive you a bit insane, knowing that this team has already lost 106 games this season,

and they were able to beat one of the best teams in baseball like they did on Saturday night. Sure, it was just one night, but it was a pretty special night to see Gallin pitching the way he was, and Marte performing the way he was. It was just very encouraging for the future of this team. I view it as kind of analogous to, I can't remember off the top of my head

if the Diamondbacks have had a game like that this year. But I view it as analogous to games where, you know, you're throwing in your left fielder to pitch because you're behind by so many runs, right? You know, those games that turn into like, to games that go from being an absolute miserable, blow out to being actually kind of fun because you've kind of come to terms with the fact that you're going to lose the game and you're just having fun with it. And obviously the Diamondbacks

won this game on Saturday night that we're talking about. But it sort of had the feel of that, right? Like where the Diamondbacks have sort of come to terms with the fact that, okay, they're going nowhere this season, right? They've lost well over 100 games already. There's still a week of the season left to go. But they're just kind of having fun with it at this point. And it's all you can do. Yeah, it's all you can do. and like you said, being there at the stadium, it sounds like the fans really enjoyed that energy and just sort of the laid back vibe that they had on Saturday night. And also the fact that it turned into a win for them. Absolutely. And there were so many Dodgers fans present.

Obviously, it was nice to send them home unhappy. And even they didn't seem to be having a bad time when their team was down by, you know, seven to one. I saw plenty of people kind of move to the concourse and take the party over there where they didn't have to look at the baseball. game anymore, which that's a pro move right there. I applaud that move. Like, if you're still going to stay in the stadium and just move it up to the concourse, you know, my hat's off to you. I also, I just, I think it was, again, a good step in the right direction without disrupting tank season too much, right? They, uh, they have a lot of bad things that have happened and we want to continue to see them lose games at this point of the season, at least, at least one of us does. I'll

let you guys guess on which that is probably Jesse the goat over here. But I will say that, you know, at this point, I do want to see him have a good time while losing games. Yeah. And I mean, this week will be interesting, right? The Diamondbacks are in sort of a weird position, especially right now going to the series against the Giants where they actually have a chance to play spoiler, right? Like they were able to salvage one game from the Dodgers, which wasn't super significant. I mean, they still lost the series. But they could also spoil things for the Giants here in this series. Obviously, there's still quite a bit of battle happening between those two teams over this

last week of the season. And the Diamondbacks still have something to play for. So I hope personally, Derek, while they're having fun, while they're hopefully a little bit more relaxed out there on the field, go get some wins, man. What do they have to play for, Jesse? Another of this ink season crap, Derek, I'm sick of it. What do they have to play for? pride. Come on, Jesse. What do they have to play for? They have the ability to play themselves out of getting the number one draft pick, which at this point may or may not be Elijah Green based on the way he's kind of moved around. But we, this is a tank season podcast, Jesse. This is a tank season. As long as I have the controls over what. Yeah, you have the, you have the producer on your side, Derek. That's a, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just saying there's a big tank season. There's a lot of tank season supporters in this building. I'm just saying, uh, but you're right. I mean, they do have the ability.

to play spoiler. They also have the ability to completely lay down against the Giants and give them as much of a lead against the Dodgers as possible, which I am again more of a fan of that. I'm with you there. I'm with you there. I mean, I like spoiler against the Dodgers a whole lot more than I like spoiler against the Giants. I would love for the Giants to win the division. We've had this conversation before. Absolutely. Absolutely. It brings me great joy to see the Padres miss the playoffs and all sorts of other battles and races across baseball also bring me. joy. The AL wildcard situation is nuts. There's a lot of good races still left at this point. You know, tank season by no stretch of the imagination is my favorite race. And yeah, see,

I hate the Dodgers more too and would much prefer the Dodgers to prove that. Yep, I agree with Matt. We're with you, Matt. We're with you, Matt. Now, I do want to take a brief moment just to let everybody know once again that our business partnership, a business partnership here with a draft King's sports book is all about them being the official sports betting partner, not only PHNX, but the official sports betting partner of the NFL. This weekend, you can go on there and once again use our code of PHNX and for betting one dollar on any football game. And I do have to clarify when I say that, it's not Pop Warner at the park by your house,

but it does have to be a college or NFL game on the Draft King Sportsbook app. And I don't know, the Pop Warner game might be on there. They did have WWE on there. Once again, I have to reiterate as a pool that you could bet on for the extreme rules, pay-per-view. So, I mean, you might find anything on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. More importantly, what you're going to find is same game parleyes, which I am a parlay guy now, Mr. Parlay.

I'm going to add that to my monikers along with the mayor of PHNX. And there's going to have too many, Derek. We've already talked about this. Calm down thunder stick. But I will say that parlays have added. a different level of fun to some of the bets that I've been making on the Draft King's Sportsbook app. I've somehow always managed to miss on the third leg of my three, three option parlays,

but I haven't missed on the two option ones. There's all sorts of options. You can do like every game for the weekend and see what you've gotten there. So go on there, see what's available because Draft King is safe, secure, and reliable. It's a great app. And the best part about it is that you can deposit and withdraw your cash. at your convenience. So again, download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Use our code of PHNX. And for betting $1 on any football game this weekend, you will get $150 in free bets instantly. As a reminder, 21 and

over only, Arizona only, gambling, gambling problem, dial 1,800 next step, new customers only, minimum $5 deposit and $1 wager required, eligibility restrictions apply, see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. Jesse, Jesse already has the Draft King Sportsbook app all loaded. It's ready to go. He's signed in. He's created account. And once it stops asking him what state he's in and he's in Arizona and the location

comes up properly, he's going to be putting on some bets. He's going to be betting on the Diamondbacks because we are going to be there together as a, as a duo checking out the Diamondbacks versus the Colorado Rockies this weekend. I'm excited to see you in person. And I'm excited to root for the Rockies while you root for the Diamondbacks. well you know Derek the moment i turn off airplane mode i'm going straight to the app and then i'm going to place some bets on the diamond vacks against the rockies this weekend oh boy you know what i i think they might there's obviously they're not playing spoiler with the rockies both teams are out of it but

i don't know derrick something to be said for for finishing on a high note and as we're going to get into later on i'm not so sure if getting the number one overall pick is going to happen anyway at this point so yeah we'll see we'll see what happens this weekend keep reining on tank season Maybe the Rockies and the Diamondbacks will just end the games in the seventh inning and like do a legend's race to decide who wins. Who knows? Sure. I mean they should have a real senior moment where they all like, and I don't mean senior like senior. I mean senior in high school, but where they all like go jump in the pool or something. You know, at this point, it's the end of both of their seasons. Rockies, once again, though, they have a lot more.

I think I feel like they have a lot of momentum, but they did trade away one of their star players to the St. Louis Cardinals, much like the Diamond. backs have traded away and they like you said Trevor story isn't going to be here but let's talk about that let's talk about trading away some of our favorite players to the st louis cardinals on this edition of spying on our exes that's right painful there we are creeping on paul goldsmith and how good he has been when you talk about him returning to form as he was at one time here at chase field he absolutely has done that just a huge part of the cardinals current run that 31 on the home run. 98 RBI,

obviously going to break the 100 before the end of the season. Just slashing some great numbers, 294, 366, and a 517 slugging percentage. And of course, the 883 OPS. Look at those numbers, Jesse. Did you think you would see Goldschmidt put those numbers up again? Or did you think that his best days were behind him? Honestly, I kind of thought his best days were behind him.

I did too. There was a time there when Mike Hazen sort of looked like a genius for trading him at the perfect time. He really wasn't very good in his first year in St. Louis. Last year, it was a little bit better with a shortened season. But this year, man, he didn't actually start out well this year. That's what's strange is he was not good for the first couple months of the year. You want to talk about a guy who's turned it on, Derek, since June 1st. This is since June 1st.

Paul Goldschmidt is third in baseball in wins above replacement among positions. players. The only guys who are ahead of him are Juan Soto of the Nationals and Bryce Harper of the Phillies. The third best player in baseball since the beginning of June is Paul Goldschmidt. And that, I mean, he is not only, you know, recovered who he was, but he's been, you know, one of the best players in the game over these last few months. Yeah, that's, it's, you're absolutely right. Because for a while there, that trade really did make the Diamondbacks look like they came out at least, at least on a comparable side of it, right? If you didn't want to say that, you know,

obviously they didn't replace Paul Goldschmidt with an exact Paul Goldschmidt, but Christian Walker was putting up comparable numbers. Carson Kelly has really started to come on. And this season has really become a leader when he wasn't injured. And Luke Weaver at times has even looked brilliant, but none of them have put it together consistently. And, you know, again, right around this time is when we kind of take out those binoculars and look over at what the St. Louis Cardinals are doing, see what they're doing,

and kind of say, oh, Goldie. We'd love to have you back. But again, that contract, that contract is huge. And he deserves every penny of it, but it's not something I would want to see the Diamondbacks paying and, you know, being 20 games better than they are now, but still that bad. It's just wild to me that they have both Goldschmidt and Nolan Aeronado. Like, what have the Cardinals done to the bottom of the NL West? Oh, man. I mean, it is just, it is crazy. But I will say real quick, I'm planning to write about that this week, actually.

So all of you should subscribe to go p.h andx.com. I'm going to write about the Goldschmidt trade and look back on it and delve into the details a little bit. There are some nuances here to take advantage of, like the fact that Goldschmidt only had one year left on his deal. So if the Diamondbacks had kept him, they wouldn't have. have him right now, right? Yeah, very true. He still could have signed somewhere else via free agency. And he was going to because he got Scott Boris as his agent, right? And you don't typically, you know, go with Scott Boris if your intention isn't to squeeze some team for every dime that they can possibly pay you. Right. So it's hard. It's more, it's more challenging to say than what

meets the eye. But I mean, right now it is obvious that Diamondbacks fans are in pain. watching Paul Coln Schmidt do what he's done. And I mean, the Cardinals are crazy right now. I mean, they won like 15 consecutive games. They're running away with the second wild card spot in a race that was really close. And now it's not even close anymore. The Cardinals are just far and away. Didn't they set a franchise record for most consecutive wins this season?

Which I found to be, I found to be amazing for a team that has the lineage that the Cardinals have. They've been around a long time. Yeah. And they're quietly the Yankees of the National League, right? When it comes to World Series and, you know, just years of being competitive, even at times their acquisition of free agents, like we just talked about, their ability to kind of spend that money and make their team good year after year. Yes, they have rebuilding and down times.

But you always hear the St. Louis Cardinals in the mix, you know. Yeah. They're one of those teams that just keeps on coming back year after year. They're not as much the Yankees because, I don't know, the Yankees have this reputation of kind of buying their way to the top, whereas the Cardinals have just been really good at scouting. And I mean, their roster year after years,

just they're one of the most consistent teams in the game. And a big part of that is plucking away guys like Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Aronado when they're in unfortunate contract situations on teams like the Rockies and the diamond backs that just don't want to pay them when the time comes. Well, we're getting a live update right now from our buddy, who says the Orioles are up one in the seventh inning. Hashtag tank season. Tank season lives on.

So we'll see what happens. Who knows? Maybe we can get some sort of Orioles going, dropping up a game on them or getting a game back. Who knows? The Orioles just have a really tough, really, really tough schedule head. Let's go. Oh, yeah.

You hear it. See, Jesse, it's all about tank season here in this building. I tried to tell you. I'm not going to fit. in what I get there, am I? It's palpable. But yes, okay. So you mentioned, though, that article is coming to go phnx.com.

And of course, we want you to go over there and sign up for a membership to read all of our articles that we're putting out there, all of our content. We're going to have other stuff too. I'm not just sticking to content. I got a little segment called the diamond mine that we have planned, as well as other goodies that we have in store. But please join us over there at go phtnx.com and sign up either for a annual membership, which will get you a free t-shirt from our shop at p.hnx locker.com.

I still, I still didn't get a t-shirt, Jesse. By the way, I tried one on. I'm an Excel, just in case anyone wants to know. But they have a R logo. You just tried it on, right? I just tried it on. I just tried it on. I wasn't allowed to keep the shirt.

But again, you have your choice of which shirt you want to buy me if you sign up for an annual membership. You could ship it to me. I'll send you my address or whatever. I need somebody to get me a shirt. You can keep it for yourself, though. There's an amazing selection. Again, there's a silhouette of someone who may or may not be a current or former quarterback for the Cardinals.

Of course, there's all sorts of options. And there's the very popular coyotes design. Shout out to all of our coyotes fans, by the way. I know so many people came over because of the absolute great in this business. Craig Morgan being a part of PHNX. But I do want to say I am very thankful. to see how many people are excited about, you know, hockey in the valley still at this point. I was worried about it for a time being. And I need that same excitement for the Diamondbacks, right?

So we need to get back there and we need to get fans back in the building and bringing that energy that I was talking about earlier. You know, I know they suck. I know at times it sucks to go watch them lose, but isn't it still fun to go get like a gigantic corn dog and a little baseball hat filled with ice cream at least a couple of times a season. So we miss you. Come back. out to the Diamondbacks games. And you know what? Like I was saying, sign up for a membership at go phnx.com. Either the annual membership, you can get that shirt or if you want to try us out on a month-to-month option, you can do so. And your first month is only 50 cents. So we appreciate your support. And, you know, we just want to keep building this thing. We really love what we're

doing here. I love talking to Thunderstick Jesse Friedman every week. I get to talk to this guy five times a week. And every single day, it gets more and more interesting. Unlike his wall, Jesse. Can we put a poster up behind you or something? I will ship you a street sign. I'm a busy man, all right? God, sakes. But yeah, okay. So again, Advantage Baltimore simply because of their record right now with tank season. I think that's the reason why we're looking at that. They have two really tough series. Again, though, it's against division rivals and they might just show up just because. And I get that. you know, I get that neither of these teams are losing these games on purpose.

All I ask is that Toy Lavallo maybe starts, I don't know, Matt Peacock, you know. You're not going to do it. Two out of these six games. I don't know. I mean, can we call up, can we can we call up a youngster? I don't know. I'm just trying to say, David Praalta used to pitch. He could at least start one of the three games in San Francisco.

whatever we can do to aid and abet this tank season process. I need Elijah Green in my life. Again, an article coming to GoPHNX that I've been talking about for way too long is a breakdown of this young man. And I've watched so much video of him that I am 100% convinced that he is, as people have said, the next coming of both Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Trout together combined in one player. Wow.

Well, I know. There's no way you can live up to that, but I'm just putting it out there just Before you just said Mike Trout, now you're throwing Ken Griffey Jr.'s name in there. Oh, yeah. I mean, where's Brew Bruce? Why don't we throw Burt in there, Derek? Don't worry. Meanwhile, we're ignoring everything that our boy Alec is doing with Reno, right?

I mean, Alec is absolutely hitting the cover off the ball and continues to almost every single outing with the Reno Aces. It's amazing what this young man is doing. I think I'm getting more excited for him than I am for them drafting Elijah Green. I swear the Reno Ace's Twitter account tweets about other players occasionally, but based on how good that man has been since he got there, it literally feels like my Twitter feed some nights is just Alec Thomas highlights over and over and over again. It's an Alta Thomas fan account. That's what it is. It's not a minor league account anymore. It sort of feels that way. But yeah, I mean, he's been he's been that good. And I think yesterday going back to our conversation about free agent. in center fielders. We forgot to mention yesterday, Derek,

that Alec Thomas very well may warrant some significant playing time in center field here pretty soon. Not so sure you're going to want to go get a man like Starling Marte when you've got Alec Thomas banging on the door and a guy you could probably play a pretty decent center field defensively.

Yeah, I can't, I can't disagree with you on that. I think that kind of, that would lead me to believe that if they did go after a free agency option for center field, it might be more like Jackie Bradley Jr. Or somebody like that just to add the depth in somebody out there so that he wouldn't have to play every day. But yeah, calling him up as soon as possible, you know, might be that key to fill that position.

I just want to see them, you know, designate these players as certain positions and just crazy. I know it's crazy. But I'd love to see Lovolo just go out there next season and have more consistency to to those aspects of his lineups and where he's playing guys defensively. You know, late game shifts and stuff, that's fine. I mean, if you want to move someone because of logistics and taking a pitcher out, if they're still doing the, you know, pitchers hitting next season, you know, that's fine.

I just, I don't want to see him doing that with the lineup regularly and putting guys in positions where they don't naturally play. On the Alec Thomas note, I just think we have to acknowledge the inevitable season-ending shoulder injury that I'm sure he will suffer in spring training because that's just sort of how things go for this baseball team. What did you just do?

Can we touch Jesse's camera off? Can we just end this now? I mean, it's a reverse jinks, Derek. It's a reverse jinks. Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong, right? Beer hour was closed early. They ended beer time very early. The beard didn't last long.

Jordan Lawler didn't last long. Corvin Carroll didn't last long. I'm just saying we call it out now. Maybe it won't happen. That's all. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, no, you're right. And I mean, again, that's that that's another reason why I feel like this team should

have never decapitated Baxter and worn his head on a TikTok video. More content you can get on go phtnx.com. Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to see them, you know, again, do anything drastic. But I would like to see them. I didn't mind this idea. of bringing in some veteran guys on short-term deals to add depth and to give younger guys an opportunity to learn a little bit off of. But Bradley Jr., again, didn't have a great season last

year. So I don't know if he'd be the option. I looked at those centerfielders a hundred times, and I couldn't really decide on who I would want outside of Starling Marte. So not a lot of options free agency-wise. I think you might just see the Diamondbacks go to Dalton Bar Show a lot in center field. He's been, obviously, we've talked about the defense and how I don't think that's an ideal outcome, but he's been one of the guys they've put out there who is probably fared better than the other ones. I don't think you're going to see much of Pavin Smith out in centerfield anymore, but Dalton Varsho has been okay. He's made some nice plays recently. He seems to be showing signs of improvement. I could see them going to Dalton Varsho and then maybe Alec Thomas comes up at some point.

They're able to shift Varsho over to a corner outfield spot. In the end, they might not find themselves needing as much depth in center field as we initially thought they might. Yeah, you're right. But again, I'm still not ready to cast anybody away at this point considering how shallow they were depth-wise this season. Right. Yeah. But anyway, well, thank you guys so much for checking out the show. If you're watching us right now on YouTube, we encourage you to go over to your favorite podcasting app.

I got my Apple phone and I'm doing that now. I need to brag about my Apple phone because this is this is it look at how many cameras it has Jesse it's ridiculous Well this is your first live show with video to show it off to people. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm a whole new person now. My friends say I'm terrible and arrogant and I feel it in my veins. But you can go download us or subscribe to us on any of those podcasting apps. Apple, Stitcher, wherever you get it, Spotify. You can also, if you're listening to us right now as an audio podcast on one of the those apps you can subscribe to us over on the old youtube where we're turning out all sorts of content all the time uh if you're an arizona sports fan hopefully you love it as much as my friend chris has been loving the entire network shout out to chris the doula and i appreciate you guys watching thunder stick thank you so much for your time as usual and i can't wait to see you on friday yeah we're getting close we're getting close go devax go devax this week no don't start

with me don't start with we we're going to tear this town up though like i said we're going to paint the town red guys thank you so much for watching And remember kids, baseball's fun, but it's so much more fun when you bet on it. Go do it right now.