PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - After Fixing the D-backs’ Bullpen, Mike Hazen Has a MUCH BIGGER Problem to Address

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks finally appear to have stabilized their bullpen, but just as one major issue gets solved, another has taken center stage. With the offense stuck in a frustrating slump, can the D-backs find the consistency they've been searching for? D-backs pregame show host Steve Zinsmeister joins the show to discuss what's been more surprising: the bullpen's turnaround or the offense's struggles. We also preview the Snakes' weekend series against the Minnesota Twins, take another trip down Memory Lane for Throwback Thursday, and check in on how recently optioned players are performing with Triple-A Reno.   0:00 Intro 3:30 Steve Zinsmeister joins the show! 4:45 Derek pronunciations 8:00 Offensive conversation 30:30 Twins at a glance 33:30 Probable pitchers 43:00 Join us for the World Cup! 44:00 Throwback Thursday 50:00 Snake Farm 54:30 Manager success rate   Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 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/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! 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/   Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.   Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.   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! 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. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, there is no doubt about it. Mike Hazen says this Arizona Diamondbacks team will be buyers at the trade deadline. Fingers crossed, they have a good enough record at that time to make it happen. We are joined by Steve Zinsmeister to give his thoughts on what is going on with this team and what's more surprising how good the bullpen's been or how bad this offense has been. We are starting right now. Don't you go anywhere. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNXVACs podcast.

Love from Studio K. presented by our friends at Circle K. It is your mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. Thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be talking about Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, even on an off day. And yes, I got that Father's Day polo on me, baby.

Somebody in the chat wants to know about Damon running into Ildemar with Argus. We're going to have to wait like two weeks to hear that story because our guy is on his way to Europe to Spain. that he can go crazy for the World Cup there in Bartholona. But replacing him today is the one, the only, the sweet, sweet baby Noah on the ones and twos.

And of course, this is the PHNXDBACs podcast brought to you by our friends over at Bet365. Bet 365. We're winning is everything. Download the app today and use code PHNX365 when you do to get yourself some bonus bets. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download that GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.

We are thrilled to be joined by the Debex radio pregame and post game host and my former co-host and now bitter rival, hated rival, I guess, the one, the only, Steve Zinsmeister. And I had to bring out the show because people were starting to ask, like, if you were real or not. And I was like, we've already had them on the show. I don't understand it. But this is the face of a real person that really exists. trust me, there's a lot of doubt out there, Steve. There's so much misinformation that it's easy for anybody to pretend like someone doesn't exist. The coffee shop downstairs doesn't think Kevin Thomas exists.

So it's a whole thing. But thrilled to have you here, sir. Thank you for being here. And thank you for constantly bullying me about my, how I pronounce player names. Well, I can't believe that I agree to do this on my off day as there has been so few. But I can believe that you asked me to. do this on my off day. That's the most believable part. That's definitely something I would have the goal to do for sure. Listen, I was driving home from the game the other day. You know I'm an avid listener.

I listen when I can. And I couldn't help but laugh as you attempted to pronounce Nolan Sean Well's name. About four different ways in the same sentence. It just kind of snuck up on me. It looked like shrewdell or, you know, schnauzel at first. I don't know. It was hard around that one. Can we roll the clip? Can we roll the clip real quick? In the first inning. He comes out to get Zach Nito, who I can't stand any longer and don't want to hear his

name ever again, to line out to Nolan Arnato, and then he gets strikeouts of Mike Trout and Nolan Schnaw to Shown. That much is evidence that you do not know how to pronounce him. And you wonder why bring you on your day off. It's to bully me lie. on the show about my words, my trouble, my struggle with me. Derek, in light of the fact that you just butchered two players' names in the exact same clip, and one of them about five different ways, I came up with an exercise that I thought

could be beneficial to you as we prepare for the upcoming series against the Minnesota Twins. So do you guys mind if I just kind of take over the show real quick? This is wild. I mean, I do feel this was going no particular direction. Go ahead. You have the floor, Steve. Okay, great. So in order to prepare for the twins, I have amassed some of the more difficult names that you are going to expect to see this weekend. Yes. And I want to see, you know, what your expectation is, what you think the pronunciation of these names will be just so, you know, we're as prepared as possible. This is game preparation, Derek.

So if you would, you know, indulge me and help me out with some of these. Luke Kiesel. former ASU sun devil Luke Kishel. All right, we're starting off O for one. I see how this is going. All right. Come on. All right.

That's the he, they misspell that name. Luke Kichel is mispronouncing his own name. Okay, cool. I'm just guessing. Yondres Gomez. Yeah, pretty much. Yoendris. Yoendris Gomez.

Also goes by Yogo, by the way, which is an excellent. That's incredible. Yogo? I love that. Yogo. So keep that one on your back. pocket for the upcoming series. All right. Eric or or Z or Z or Z. I don't know if I agree with that one to be honest. Yeah. I mean, again, that's that's like, oh hoppy. Oh, hoppy. What a

ridiculous. Oh, I heard you say oh hop on I right. Yeah, I stand on oh hop. I stand on a lot. You really ran the game that lineage started mispronouncing that name. Anyway, what else we got? Cody Lawerson. Cody Lawerson. Lawerson. It looks like lawyer in there. Lawyer. Lawyer.

Yeah, why is in the wrong spot for a lawyer? I should know that from the ad reason. Uh, the, you think you can help me out with that one? Noah, Joe Ryan, maybe?

I believe it's Joey Rianne, like Rihanna. Is it? You might be right. I might be off on that one. Okay, that one I hope I'm right on. And then let's come full circle on this final exam for you, Derek.

And we kind of go back to our roots. Ooh, Nolan. I've literally said it in the last three minutes. Schnauzer still feels right. Sean Well. Sean a well. Sean, uh, well? Sean, uh, well.

And I'll grant you that. It looks a little weird, but it is literally pronounced in there too. Man, this is wild. This is wild. Sean. Uh, no. No.

No, see, the A comes before the N. I refuse to, no, again, they mispronounce that name. But Steve Zinsmeister, that's kind of easy to say. It's also fun to say. But your thoughts here. I know you watch a lot of baseball, obviously, because of your criticism here on how I say names. What is your criticisms here of this offense

for the Arizona Diamondbacks this year? I mean, obviously, we knew that they didn't really address any kind of loss of power before the beginning of the season. We knew that they didn't really bring in any big sluggers. We also knew that their DH and first base situation wasn't great overall. I'm not saying that we weren't thinking this team could get a lot of hits and produce offense that way, but it truly feels like this offense has been just a head scratcher this season with how inconsistent they've been.

Well, to your point, there's clearly a lacking of thump, particularly from the left-handed batters box. You know, that's something that they were hoping Pavin Smith was going to be able to provide in a DH-slash-first-base role. Carlos Santana wasn't expected to be a power hitter of any sorts, but he was expected to play for the Diamondbacks, which has largely been something that they have not been able to accomplish

with his injuries. So, yeah, I do think. And by the way, Arizona Complex League the other day, three at bats, three hit by pitches in that game. That doesn't help him to come back with injury. Trust me. I'm 45. I know I probably never play a game if I had three hit my pitches in a game. I'm willing to bet that one might do you in.

But yeah, I mean, listen, it's hard for me to criticize this offense the day after they put it all together, right? Right. But it is just one example, whereas, you know, they've gotten shut out a couple of times here recently. And so there are questions being asked right now about this offense and what they're able to accomplish. What it really all stems back to for me is that they do have. have a lot of the best pieces in place. I agree with you. There's nowhere near as much power as they've had in years past. There's no Gino Suarez in this lineup. Sure. There's no Josh Naler even, even though he wasn't really a huge home run guy when he was here. There's no Jock Peterson or Randall Gritchick to platoon at DH. But they do still have Catele, Marte, who has not

played to his typical production level. Same can be said for Geraldo Pardoma, which we know what he's capable of doing now. And he's starting to come along, certainly, but in other ways. you know, with a ton of walks or, you know, just finding any way he can scrap his way on base. So I think if those guys start to project a little bit higher, Corbyn Carols obviously had a really good season, but the Diamondbacks only have two guys with an OPS over 800 this year. Corbynman's got over 900. And then Gabby Moreno is slightly over 800 right now. But he's a guy that you don't want to have to play every single game.

I mean, in theory, your major league catchers should get one day off. every three or four days in theory. But they haven't been able to do that because he's been one of their more productive hitters and he's been bumping his way up in the lineup. So now all of a sudden he's playing two days at catcher and one at DH and not getting a lot of time to rest and heal up. And I think you could kind of tell in yesterday's game,

even though he was getting on base every single time he was coming to the plate, he clearly was a little bit gassed out. So I just think that this offense needs to click with the pieces they do have. But then once you start getting towards a train, trade deadline, you're certainly going to be thinking about adding some thump. Absolutely. And we heard from Mike Hazen himself saying that he plans on adding to this team at the trade deadline. In fact, he told Steve Gilbert, Nick Picoro, as of now, the calls we're making, we're looking to add talent to the team, right? And these are things that, of course, we are, you know, it's exciting to hear that

because we know that this offense kind of needs to be addressed. Overall, I feel like, you know, really when it comes to what's been missing, it's been the offense. You spoke about them scoring eight runs yesterday. You're right. And then they'll completely disappear the next day. And I think that's been the thing is when they do score eight runs like they did in the finale against the Angels. And again, pitching matters. The Angels are a bad team. The reason why they have the record that they have is due to the fact that they, you know, might look good in a game or two, but they're having their own issues, putting things together consistently. The Diamondbacks, though, it just feels like right when you think that they're

going to get on track, they swerve and go in the opposite direction. And it kind of works the other way, too. Right when you think that this offense is a disaster, they put up eight runs the next day. So I don't know, from watching this team, from what you're saying, do you feel like it is like their approach? Do you feel like it's the situational hitting? I mean, we've kind of talked on the show a bit how it feels like the bigger the moment, the more they kind of collapse. That wasn't the case yesterday with Corby Carroll hitting that Grand Slam and some of those big, you know, runs they delivered. But so far this season, that's kind of what it feels like happens, whether it's situational hitting with runners in scoring position or it's just in general, the rest of the

lineup is struggling. So now every single player in the lineup is going to struggle. Well, situational hitting is certainly a big part of it. Even in some of the games, where they haven't been able to score a lot, they have had a lot of base runners. Like they more often than not, especially during this past road trip, I find that there were a lot of games where they had 10 plus base runners,

but scored two or less runs. And so like those are the games where I see a bigger issue with. Now, occasionally you're going to find a game like Reed Detmer's the other night where this starting pitcher just dominates and you walk away with four hits. I get it. That happens from time to time. But it's those other games that I find more frustrating. at times are the ones where you feel like you did everything you could to build the foundation

of a big inning and then it just ends abruptly. And that was something that I feel is is kind of symptomatic of what's going on with the Diamondbacks offense. One thing that I am kind of curious about, Derek, and I don't know how you feel on this, but, you know, we've talked over the past couple of years, really since 2023 when they went to the World Series about how being a connected team makes you a dangerous team. And I'm not saying that there's any like chemistry issue here, but the fact that the Diamondbacks have had to rely on so many moving parts in the first, what is it, two and a half months of the season, they've already gone through multiple first basement, I mean, many first basemen, whether it was relying on Eldamaro Vargas to change positions,

or, you know, now that Pavin Smith is back, or they tried Lou James Groover for a time here, you know, they had Jose Fernandez up playing a key role. They've had Tommy Troy, Ryan Waldschmidt move into the outfield, Jordan Lawler is now back. There's just so many moving elements. Alec Thomas is no longer with this team. There's not a lot of staples. You know, there's Corbyn-Carroll and Ronald Aronado, there's Coutel Marte and Geraldo Pardomo.

But everything else in their lineup has been a moving and changing element. And sometimes I wonder, you know, with hitting B is being as contagious as it can be, I wonder if the exchanging of all those parts sometimes makes it difficult to kind of build that. I don't know if it's even a metaphorical. chemistry between hitters. I'm curious about that. I don't know that that's the answer to your question, but I am curious. I mean, I haven't really thought of that much, but you're absolutely right. The core, the philosophy of this team at times, or at least of Toy Loblo, is that they're a family, you know, and I would argue that when you start, you know, making call-ups and optionings and

and movements like this due to performance, right? It kind of changes it where you have this feeling as a player that you have to maintain, you know, a certain level of production in order for you to stay in the lineup and stay up, right? That's not uncommon on any baseball team, what I just said. Like that actually should kind of be a little bit more of the philosophy overall, rather than necessarily the warm and fuzzy, you know, we're all family kind of feelings, right? guess there's a way that you have to balance those two things where at the end of the day, every player understands that this is a job and that if you don't do your job, you're going

to be replaced by somebody else that will do the job. But you also still have to connect these players and make the guys that are here on this major league roster feel that sense of family and feel that sense of comfort in a way. It definitely seems like it's something that changed from last year, right? Because it felt like last year we did start seeing guys have a very, very short leash. And we saw obviously with how many guys ended up getting a save for this team, a historic number of guys getting a save. It felt like the Diamondbacks would give a guy, you know, a few chances. And even if you got a save, but he blew it the next night, you're gone. We're bringing up the next guy or whatever, right? So I do think that there's something to that, to what you said. And again,

And it's, it really feels like it's fixable with this team. Like the offensive consistency is something that they can get back on track considering how good they've been over the last few years, over those years that you've kind of mentioned. But it still feels like they're missing, you know, again, a piece, like something. You know, we've, we've talked about Cattell Marte, feeling like the offense kind of goes with him. If Marte has an 0 for 5 night, even if he doesn't get just that one hit,

it feels like the rest of the offense is probably going to struggle to perform. Not to say there haven't been wins with Cattel having an O for night, but it also feels like it goes the way that Marta goes. There's also been a couple of nights where he goes O for four and then hits a walk off Homer in his fifth at back and changes the game with one single moment, which is the power that he carries. And don't get me wrong. In this discussion, you know, I'm not trying to say there's a chemistry issue

or any sort of problem in that regard. But rather when you have so many. When you have so many interchangeable pieces, it can sometimes be hard to find that groove. And to your point about the bullpen last year, that was the element of the team that wasn't working the best because it had so many pieces, which is kind of what you were alluding to.

And then if you look at this season, I think you can make a strong case that the bullpen has been the most consistent part of this team. And if you look at the personnel, it's been largely the same for most of the season. really the only interchangeable part was Brandon Garcia coming up about a month into the season, and he's been really good. So, you know, you look at that area of the team, and they've been so successful. And I feel that connectedness with the bullpen specifically that maybe I don't

feel in other areas. So maybe that's just the way that I feel about it here recently. But offensively, yeah, I mean, Corbyn's been great. I think he had his Heisman moment yesterday, really with the Grand Slam. Like if the rest of the country wasn't paying attention to Corbyn Carroll for some reason before, I think that one was kind of the wake up moment. Like, hey, keep an eye on the desert where this kid is going to be a three-time all-star by the time this summer is over. Yeah, you're not wrong about that.

What's been more surprising to you overall, the inconsistency of the offense or the way that this bullpen kind of turned things around with those same pieces. Like you said, I mean, Taylor Clark's a new addition, you know, from free agency, Jonathan Lysaga was, you know, a non-roster invitee that ends up making the roster and he has a, you know, three ERA. Like, this entire bullpen has been incredibly good. And I'm not taking out the James McCann numbers or the Joe Ross numbers out of the overall ERA. But if you did, you're talking about a bullpen ERA sitting around 3.5, which right now it's close. It's like sub four right there at four knocking on the door.

So again, it's just, it's just, it's a big. What's been more surprising to you, the struggles of the offense or the bullpen being good? Well, they're certainly both surprising, but I think you're on the right track with the bullpen because of how significantly different it is from a year ago. I mean, personnel-wise, they went and brought back Paul Seawald, who is certainly familiar to Diamondbacks fans. But, I mean, if you went and looked at what happened with him in 2025, it was not flattering. And, you know, honestly, I don't know that he ever thought he was going to get a chance to close games.

at a consistent level again. And then here comes Arizona calling in the offseason saying, you know, not only do we want you to come back, we want you to come back and be the anchor of our bullpen. That's a big at. Yeah. And then on top of that, right? Like they, I'm sure they put it out there that things might change over the year, right?

But at least it very much looked like until maybe AJ Puck came back that he might be the closer. And even then, there's no guarantee that they were going to use what might be their only left hander in the bullpen. as their closer just due to the limited versatility of that, right? You might want him available to come in against the best part of the lineup versus necessarily closing. However, yeah, Paul Seawald comes in.

And, you know, again, even when he was brought back, the feeling amongst the fan base was not great. And now you're talking about a guy with a, you know, sub-25 ERA and a guy who has delivered for this team as far as, you know, the number of conversions. versions on these save opportunities. He's done it without a lot of danger either. You know, like, I know he gave up a home run the other night. I know he's not perfect. I know he's going to let base runners on. But I feel like his experience and being a veteran like he is allows him to

kind of stay calm in those moments, even when he does get base runners on. You know what's kind of crazy is the way that he does it? Because in a day and age where most closers, or at least the elite ones, the Mason Millers, the Aroldus Chapmans, the Yohan Duran's are all throwing triple digits. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And Paul Seewald is living at 91 miles per hour, which is actually up from a year ago, which is crazy to talk about. But, you know, it's the fact that he's a two pitch guy. You know, if there's anybody that you could flip a coin and know what pitch is coming, it's Paul Seawald, and they still can't hit it. Yeah. He lives at the top of the zone. So you're right. he's going to give up a home run every now and then,

but his whip this season is 0.7.3. He gives up less than three quarters of a base runner per inning that he's out there. And so a lot of his hits are home runs. I'll grant you that. I mean, it's like five out of the 13 hits that he's allowed, but he's thrown 27 innings or something like that. He's only allowed 21 base runners. So, yeah, he's been kind of the unconventional closer,

but he's getting the same level of success as many of the others. I think he has one less save than Mason Miller does to lead the National League right now. I mean, we talked briefly about an all-star appearance. Like Paul Seawald might be deserving of one if some other names for the Diamondbacks don't pan out. And to do it in year 10, I mean, I was talking with him in spring training. He's been through 14 major league spring trainings. This guy is no spring chicken necessarily, but still getting the job done in a way that most guys don't. And then if I can give a shout out to the rest of the guys who are out there,

much everybody else is having the best year or close to the best year of their career, whether it's Loisiga looking like he did in 2021 for the Yankees. Kevin Ginkle is about as good as ever. Ryan Thompson is eliminating base runners left and right. Brandon Garcia has been great since he got here. Taylor Clark, who I haven't even mentioned yet, is probably the best of all of them so far. So, yeah, it's got to be the bullpen is the answer to the question. Yeah, no, you're right.

You're right. and I think you convinced me because you still feel like this offense can get things back on track, right? Especially with, you know, Mike Hazen making these comments about being a buyer at the trade deadline. That feels, and I'm sorry, that was on Luke and Wolf, by the way. But his comments, again, make you feel like with this bullpen performing the way it has been performing, even with the setback to A.J. Puck that is starting to feel very scary now with some of the language that we're hearing. Second opinions, things like that. It makes me feel like there's a good chance. We might not see A.J. Puck again this year. That's just me speculating. But when you start hearing

second opinion thrown around and not wanting to kind of give a firm update on what exactly is wrong with him and how much time it's going to essentially insinuate he misses, it's nice for this bullpen to be so good that you no longer feel like we needed Puck and Martinez to return to save us. Right. Like we actually have guys that have figured it out. And there was a point where I was even suggesting that changing the chemistry or changing bringing in fuck might might mess things up. I mean, just it's it's something you could, you don't want to necessarily consider and probably isn't going to happen. But with things going so well, it's almost like don't mess with that. Leave that. That's alone. That's fine. That's working. Right. We have way way more issues to address and specifically offense. It feels like. they need to address. One of the things that people are bringing up in the chat is that the Astros sound like they're going to be shopping Christian Walker around. And if there's ever a guy, I thought would feel like not only a fit to return here, but also, you know, maybe, maybe come back here and have even a better season than he's already having. It's that guy. I mean, listen,

you're not going to find a bigger fan of Christian Walker than me. Some of my favorite conversations with players behind the scenes have been one-on-ones with Christian Walker. I remember one time my first year, I went up to him and I basically did, you know that Chris Farley character where he says like, hey, remember when you did that thing that was so cool? That was cool. I felt exactly like that. The Chris Farley character is Chris Farley, by the way.

That's who that was. Yeah, sorry, not a great impressionist. But Walker had a two homer game and I went up to him afterwards. And I was like, that was really cool, right? And he goes into this deep philosophical conversation about like the pitch that he saw, how he prepared for that pitch. You know, how many times he had swung against that pitch in the cage before the game and anticipating a relief pitcher being used in this situation. There was so much more to hitting than I ever realized and or that I ever will realize to be honest with you. And so like he is that cerebral hitter that you love to have in your hitters meetings because he'll bring up something to another hitter that will inspire them.

and lead to production for other people in the lineup. So listen, I would love to have Walker back. I think they learned a lesson or two about first base defense last year after they shipped him out. Josh Naylor was just a different type of player and a good one for the Diamondbacks, but just not the same defensively. And so I think they would love to go down a route like that. The Diamondbacks, I mean, we know how much they like Christian Walker.

They just weren't able to go to that number and free agency last year. And that's what it's going to come back to is how much are the Astros willing to eat to move Walker. I think he's a 20 million a year guy for this year and probably next, if I'm remembering correctly. So we'll see if the numbers are right. Maybe the diamondbacks want to go down that path. I mean, Walker is certainly an underrated diamond back in our franchise's history and a guy who stepped into some of the biggest shoes ever when Paul Goldschmidt was traded and was maybe the next best first baseman that this organization has seen in 20 plus years. Yeah, you are not wrong. He definitely filled those shoes for sure. But hey,

we thank you so much for your time, Steve. Appreciate you swinging by. And I will make sure I practice those names for the Minnesota Twins. It's schnauzer. It looks like schnaw, schnaw, schnaw, schnaw, still not schnaw. It's Sean well, but I don't believe it. Thank you for your time, sir. Appreciate you stopping by. Don't call me on my day off. Oh, I'm going to. I'm going to text you right after this. I'll see you later, man. Thank you again. See you, man. Here to get you started on your next project, and trust me, I can use some help with that.

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Steve, who I hate, I can't stand Steve, but I just want to put that out there. He is my, he is my friend, he is my former co-host, and he is also my biggest enemy. But I am looking forward to the Diamondbacks here playing the twins this weekend, and hoping that once again, they can stack some wins against the team that hasn't been performing great. Their bullpen isn't great. They don't have a tremendously good run differential,

but they're not playing terrible baseball right now. And, of course, looking at their recent record and their recent wins, it would figure that now is when they're playing some of their better baseball this season. But let's take a look at the Minnesota Twins at a glance here, and they have a record this season of 35 and 48, with, like I said, a minus 30 run differential.

Not great. Their offense has been pretty good, better, just slightly better than league average. They are 5 and 5 in their last 10 games, and they have a 722 team OPS, which is 14th. Their starting pitching ERA, 4.57, which is tied for 21st, and their bullpen ERA is 5.09,

which is damn near the worst in all of MLB. So, again, there's an opportunity for the Diamondback to take care of a team, this is it. There's no reason for me to need to tell you that the Colorado Rockies, once again, have the worst bullpen. That's not news to any of you. Telling you that the Rockies have the worst bullpen

or any ERA in baseball is just, that's just a known fact. That's never up for debate. But here with this team, the outs above average, also not great, tied for 25th in baseball at minus 15 outs above average this year. So the diamondbacks do catch. You know, not the best.

pitchers and there's still one spot to be determined in game three of this series. But let's take a look at the pitching probabilities brought to you by one AZ credit union. One AZ is rooted in Arizona and invested in you. Let's take a look here at the probable pitchers and oh boy, Noah. That first one there, that's what I was talking about here. That first one there is the exact kind of trap that I'm going to fall into here trying to read these names. Do you want to give a shot at that one? Creelep. Creelep. I think you just nailed it. And I hate you for it. Or it's cry lip. Or it's cry lip. I don't know, but he is not a player that actually seems to exist. He is two and four this year for the twins with a 5.26 ERA and 51 strikeouts going up against Michael

Siroka, who honestly Soroka has been fairly outstanding for the Diamondbacks this year. We've talked about Eduardo Rodriguez being our staff ace. The Diamondbacks tend to win a lot of games when he is on the mound, but they tend to also win a lot of

games when Michael Soroka is on the mound. And he tends to get a lot of wins because of how well he's been pitching this year. We spoke a little bit when Errod got his 100th victory yesterday, 100th career victory yesterday, that obviously his peripherals suggest that, you know, that his season should not be going as well.

Soroka, meanwhile, it's kind of the opposite. Like, he's, he's been pitching extremely well, and his peripherals back that up and suggests that he might even be better than that 8 and 3-3 record and that 3.11 ERA. He has 79 strikeouts this year. Then in game two, going up against Tage Bradley, we got Zach Gallen. And that, I don't know. Once again, feels like that's a little bit of a, you know,

toss up, right? Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen right now might be the most confusing players right now on this team just based on the way that you don't know what you're going to get out of either one of those guys. You could get your quality start and an excellent performance or you could get, you know, an absolute, you know, disaster this year. Bradley meanwhile has a 1.4 war. He is 5 and 3 with a 4.14 ERA this year and 80 strikeouts for the twins. But of course, we got that diabolical villain to be determined, TBD, going up against Ryan Nelson in game 3. It's getting to the point now when you see a probable pitching lineup that has either Erod and Soroka in it or Soroka and Nelson that you feel confident that this team, is going to be able to win this series.

Nellie is 3 and 5 this year. He deserves better than that. He doesn't get great run support. And his 4.97 ERA is actually, again, not really indicative of how well he's been pitching this season. He's had his spare share of bad performances, and usually the culprit there is, you know, a short start with a bunch of earned runs,

kind of messing up his ERA. But overall, I feel like Ryan Nelson has had far more great performances this year. than he has had his struggles. So again, feel pretty good about Soroka and Nellie going here. And if Galin can replicate his last outing and start getting on a more consistent track, then again, he is going to, you know, be able to help this team win baseball games as it stands. With, you know, with the news about Corbyn Burns and with the news about, you know, A.J. Puck, things aren't good right now for this team.

And it feels very much like, you know, know, like they needs that gallon more than ever. I still feel like Corbyn Burns is going to be back before the end of this year, but there's no way of knowing that. Tori Lobello spoke on it yesterday, and he kind of suggested that there's a good chance that Corbyn Burns could be back before, you know, by September, before September, or sometime in September. So it very much sounds like Burns will be back.

but again there's no way of knowing that there's no way of knowing if there's going to be another additional setback and again that that all makes this whole situation fairly you know nerve-racking for this team's chances of reaching the post season it's the reason why like as far as you know the people coming to save us which is the way that we kind of viewed this season we had these saviors for the bullpen and these saviors for the starting rotation coming and when those guys came, everything was going to be right and everything was going to be set into place and we were just going to be a contender at that point. Now those dreams are a bit fleeting at this point. Like Damon said yesterday, Justin Martinez, his estimated date of return was August and there's

no way to know if that's still on the table either. Right. So overall, it feels like these guys that are in the starting rotation now need to figure it out and they need to be the savior of this team. They need to do it. No one's coming to save us. And same thing with, you know, the bullpen, right? Those guys need to continue to hold things down. If this team is a buyer at the trade deadline and they do, in fact, expect Corbyn Burns to be back in September, I find it very hard to imagine that they are going to make any type of attempt to trade for starting pitching, right? It's going to be in an effort to improve this offense that right now has the 26th best or worst. I don't know how you want to want to say it. It's the 26th OPS in Major League Baseball, and it's not great, right? So that that's

the real area that they need to address. Katie in the chat says by September, if we are a playoff team, will be decided too little too late with Burns. However, Katie, I will agree that, I will say that if Corbyn Burns can ramp up and be ready and be at full strength by the end of September and we are a playoff team, then Corbyn Burns is a game changer, a complete game changer when the postseason comes around. And at this point, that's kind of what we have to be focused on. I feel like a little bit more than him returning to save us during, you know, the regular season, right? So Mendoza in the chat says, we need scoble. You have no idea how much I want scoble, right? And I, and I want scuba not only to have him on this team, but to keep him away from

the Dodgers. Now, known Detroit Tigers fan, Noah is here with us today. And it's the last thing he wants to hear. He is not here to talk about scubble trade reviewers in any way, shape, or form. But would you argue that at this point, things have become such a, have fallen apart between him and the organization so much that trading him seems like the only smart decision to make? I mean, no. The smart decision would be keeping him. Yes, the smart decision would be keeping him. But if they're going to trade him, I mean, I would love, love to have him here.

that'd be phenomenal. Right. I mean, we, we already told him he can have the entire town of Kingman, Arizona. Like he can just own it.

I don't know, like, I don't care what he wants to do with it. He could, he could just bulldoze the whole thing and make it into a giant house. Or he could lord over it, like an actual king,

maybe build himself a castle and have all the residents of Kingman come bowed out to him once a day, bring him their finest meats and cheeses, all that kind of thing. I mean, it'd be, it'd be great.

I feel like it's, but like if he goes to, the Dodgers, I'd be... I would hate my life more than I ever hated my life before, ever in my existence on this planet, if he went to the Dodgers. And I mean, again, like things don't go well for the Dodgers, it seems like all the time, right? Like sometimes they bring over guys and they don't turn into even better forms of themselves. But I could only imagine what would happen if Scoobel went to the Dodgers and became better

than he already is. That thought makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. But, you know, it is what it is. We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side of this break, we are going to do what we do on Thursdays around here. We're going to take a little trip down memory lane with another edition of Throwback Thursday. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Time and Back Show. Well, big shout out to one AZ credit union, of course, always holding us down with our probabilities and always rooted in Arizona.

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Visit 1AZCU.com for all the details. And look, Don Julio is making all of us around this office go crazy because we We have this wonderful trophy edition of Don Julio, 1942, and it is on the line when it comes to the World Cup. I have never been a bigger fan of DR Congo in my entire life, and them and Senegal are our last hope here on this podcast. Let's not forget that. But see, this is what the World Cup does. The World Cup now makes me, Damon, now Noah, he's involved in this too. We're all DR Congo fans.

We're all going to go get matching DR Congo suits with the leopard print and jerseys. and this again is bringing us together to watch this wonderful game. And Don Julio 1942 is doing the same as well. Of course, when the biggest sporting event in the world comes to our backyard, toast with the icon of celebration Don Julio 1942 during the World Cup. They have a trophy that everyone can take home, take home a special edition of Don Julio 1942 that honors the artistry of tequila making, a symbol as timeless as the beautiful game itself,

and inspired by the FIFA World Cup trophy. We are, of course, doing our U.S. men's national team and Mexico watch parties this summer, and we'll have samples and prizes for those in attendance. So whether you're at your favorite spot or stocking up at home, make it a Don Julio 1942. And speaking of those watch parties, you can join the P.HNX crew for our World Cup watch parties presented by Buchanan's, Casa Amigos, Don Julio, and Mikalove Ultra. Today, in fact, right, at 6 p.m., we got Mexico versus South Korea in my best, Backyard kind of at Backyard Desert Ridge up in the North Valley.

And then on Friday, tomorrow at 12 p.m., Team USA versus Team Australia, at Phillies on Priest with drink specials, including $4.5Micholub ultras, $6 neutrals, $6.00 stella artois, and, of course, all the fun to be had. So visit go phtonx.com slash events for more details and RSVP. And noted Dodgers fan at BC is here in the chat saying scubel definitely. coming home to California. Boo this man. Boo this man.

He's going to come in here with this energy on throwback Thursday. I don't think so. I don't think so. But like I said, it is throwback Thursday, and it is time once again to talk about some milestones and fun things that have happened in this team's short history on another edition of this segment. Now, this one might be a little far away from today's date,

but on June 25th back in 2010, Edwin Jackson tossed the second no hitter in the Diamondbacks team history against the Tampa Bay Rays. And that is a trivia answer until probably the end of time as far as this team is concerned. So make sure you go ahead and program that piece of history into your head forever. Good old Edwin Jackson, who again played for this team back then. He had himself a nice little stretch for the Diamondbacks overall. but again, not a great year that year,

even though he did throw that no-hitter. He ended up, I believe, with a, was it 5.16 ERA that season? Yeah, so again, just goes to show that with baseball on any given day, any given pitcher can hit, can get a no-hitter. But can every position player necessarily hit for the cycle not once but twice in the same season?

just a few weeks apart, that might be a little bit more difficult of a feat to accomplish, not taking anything away from Edwin Jackson's no-hitter, but Aaron Cycle, or Aaron Cycle, that might as well be his name, right? Aaron Cycle, June 18, 2012.

Aaron Hill hit for his first cycle against the Seattle Mariners, and then just 11 days later hit for another cycle against the Brewers. and was only the second player in the modern era of Major League Baseball to hit for a pair of cycles in a season. The other one, Brooklyn Robbins Babe Herman back in 1931.

Because you remember the Brooklyn Robbins, and you totally remember Babe Herman. Yeah. Also, John Riley and Tip O'Neill also hit for two cycles in a season back in the American Association. It's kind of insane to really think about a player being so incredibly hot that they hit two cycles, 11 days apart. Hit for the cycle, 11 days apart. That's crazy to me.

And Aaron Hill got a very cool bobblehead, thanks to that. Anyway, another franchise milestone that happened this weekish on June 23rd back in 2000. 2016 was Brad Ziegler. He had a 43 game save streak. Franchise record, 43 games save streak, finally ended at Coorsfield of all places, because of course it did. It's Coorsfield. It's the most unpredictable ballpark in all of baseball. And then last but not least, on June 10th, 2019, this Diamondbacks team hit three straight home runs in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia, and they were just the second road team to accomplish this feat in baseball history, second after the Milwaukee Brewers who did it back in 2007 at the Reds.

So just further proof that we own those frauds from Philadelphia and the stadium that they play in. So there you go. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk about how some of the Diamondbacks players that they've optioned down to AAA Reno, have been doing this season, including Ryan Walschmidt, hitting a solo home run in his first game back with the Reno Aces. We're going to do that here on the other side of this break.

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Let Kim put her local expertise to work for you. Call Kim Caballero today at 480. 480. 95012. That's 480-4895012 and Teller, P.HNX sent you. I still can't believe Steve Zinsmeister came in here on my show and body me like he did today, Noah. It's shocking. It's shocking. But we have, speaking of shocking, Noah and his Detroit Tigers fandom unearthed an amazing tweet that we're going to get here to shortly. But before we do that, we have to take a quick trip down to the snake farm to see how some of the Diamondbacks recently optioned players are doing while playing for the AAA Reno Aces. And now these are their numbers for the season.

So of course, Ryan Walschmidt and Jose Fernandez both already started their seasons with AAA Reno and they've both played a limited amount of games back since returning from being optioned. But Ryan Walshmit did go one for four in his first first. game back with the Aces and he did hit a solo home run. Right now, he has a batting average in AAA of 288 with an OPS of 892. He's got 23 RBI and he's got 16 extra base hits. And again, you know, the hope there is that by Waldschmidt going down, he can work on some things that he has been, you know, kind of needing to work on at a major league level. He's always been good at

hitting the fastball, but it has felt a little bit like, you know, like he has what had what Jordan Lawler had as far as struggling with, you know, breaking pitches, breaking secondary pitches, things like that. And it did kind of bleed over to him even kind of struggling with the fastball. So again, encouraging that he went down and hit a home run in his first game back and hopefully we'll see these numbers in Reno pick up as he goes down there and continues to work on, you know, getting his way back to a major league level. Meanwhile, Tim Tawa might be the greatest hitter in AAA Reno that we've ever seen. In four games, or not, sorry, not four games, that would be crazy if this was four games.

In 14 games this season with the Aces, Tawa's hitting 333 with a 1.188 OPS. Just nuts. He has five home runs and 15 RBI, including that 463-foot home run that he hit over. the scoreboard there incredible stuff so taua again just a weird situation because you know he he really didn't get a lot of playing time at a major league level and he was used as a utility player he had very few you know starts at like first base he was he had more starts for the diamondbacks in the outfield than he did on the infield so it's going to be interesting to see what they do with tau and if he continues to have success if we see

him up here on the Major League roster again anytime soon. Meanwhile, Jose Fernandez has truly continued to struggle. And again, this isn't a very small sample size. This is nine games, but he's hitting 237 with a 599 OPS. He only has one extra base hit, and he only has four RBI. Again, it's nine games, so I don't think that there's any need to panic. But again, it just kind of shows how Fernandez has been kind of in a slump here, and he really hasn't had a chance to work his way out,

whether it's down at a AAA level or, you know, up here at a major league level. Also, I will say this, like, in regards to Tim Tawa, like a lot of people want to discredit what Tawa is doing for the Reno Aces. But I will say, again, when you look at this lineup, there's not many guys doing for the Aces what Tawa is doing, right? Sure, when you go from hitting major league level pitching down to AAA pitching, I'm sure everything's slowed down. I'm sure at times the ball looks like a beach ball, right?

But not everybody's having that same success that Tawa is having when they get option back down. Not everybody's going down and tearing the cover off the ball. So I don't want to, I don't think we should discount what Tawa has done. And I do think that there's a good chance that we could see him back up here if he does continue this particular stretch that he's on. Meanwhile, Waldschmidt, I think it's just going to be about opportunities. And I do think that as it stands at a major league level, Tommy Troy right now, was outperforming him, and that is the reason why Troy is up, and he isn't, right? And same thing with Lou James Gruver.

He's been struggling, and I imagine that if he continues his struggles, he will be optioned down as well. I mean, Gruver, as far as the Diamondbacks were concerned, was one of their most consistent hitters at a AAA level, and he has certainly not been that at a major league level, for sure. But we do have, before we get out of here, one last tweet, and this one, one goes out to the Tory haters out there. This one might be, this one might shock some people. This one might change some lives out there. But this stat that we're looking at right here is

essentially the adjusted decision success rate for managers in Major League Baseball. This includes when they pinch hit to reach base, advance a base runner, mid-inning pitch change, to avoid allowing to run to score, are these managers making the right decisions? The bottom three in baseball right now are Pat Murphy for the Milwaukee Brewers, A.J. Hinch for the Tigers, and last is Kurt Suzuki for the Los Angeles Angels. But as far as top three adjusted manager decision success rates in baseball are concerned, number three is Aaron Boone for the Yankees, number two is Don Kelly for the Pittsburgh Pirates, And number one at 57.3% success rate for his decision-making ability is the Arizona Diamondbacks Tori Lovolo.

I feel like this is a case where I just need to let the numbers speak for themselves. Am I right? Like, we have been accused of being a pro-Tory podcast, which means something completely different in Europe, by the way. but we also have never been shy about talking about us going over for Sunday dinner, which Damon is going to miss for not one but two weeks, and I'm sure he's been out of shape about that. But like 2 BMC, where's the fire tory crowd now? Because again, it's, you know, where are those guys at?

And Jason's right. He says, wild stat that the best or worst are separated by 20%, right? the decision making by managers is only going to go so far and at the end of the day it really does still the I guess the blame or the responsibility lies on the pitchers to the players to perform on the field

the pitchers definitely but all of the players to perform on field yes the managers have you know a role in making quite a few decisions but at the end of the day when you know you have a bullpen for instance performing as bad as the Diamondbacks did last year, you can't necessarily blame it on the manager when everybody kind of sucks and nobody's reliable, right? But, you know, I do feel like, again, there's times where it's hard to quantify the impact of a manager on a team, you know, and it feels like

the way that we quantify it is wins and losses. That's it. It comes down to blaming the manager quite often on the success rate of the team. In this case, though, you can see at least from this stat, this one stat, that Tori is one of the better managers in baseball and, in fact, the best right now at his decision success rate. So maybe give him a little bit of slack. I don't know. Maybe let's not fire Tori. Let's maybe let's see the season play out. And then if he does an unsatisfactory job by the time all is said and done, the diamondbacks can move in another direction once his contract is up without needing to fire, essentially our most successful and longest tenured manager in team history.

Right? I think that's what it comes down to. But again, I'm also not jeopardizing my seat at the table at the Lovolo's house for Sunday night dinner. I'm not doing that. I would never do that. But we thank you guys so much for joining us. Appreciate your time. Big shout out to Steve Zenzmeister for coming on the show to bully me.

We'll be sure to have him on again. And speaking of having people on again, we kind of have a fun, list of guests that are going to be joining us on this very show. In fact, tomorrow we are going to be joined right here in studio by the one and only cogs who will make his return to this show. And then next week we got some fun guest plan, including Stefan Carey, our very own big Jake Franklin and Alex D'Agostino is going to be stopping by as well. So we've got to do what we can to replace Damon on this podcast. But again, Noah did a wonderful job today. shout out to our guy, Noah. He doesn't want you to follow him on Twitter, so I refuse to give

you his handle. And again, if you're following Noah, unfollow him. That's his, that's his demand, not mine. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K, but our show is at pH and X underscore Dbacks. If you feel like following us there, we're on both Twitter and Instagram. Love for you guys to follow us on IG as well. But as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, we thank you guys so much for your time. appreciate you. We'll see you back here tomorrow for another postgame show. Me, Noah, and Coggs will be holding it down. So hopefully we're talking about a Diamondbacks game one victory and we'll be joining you about an hour after the final out. Until then, hope you guys have a wonderful

day off from baseball. Enjoy yourselves. Get something done. Maybe get out to the window depot and start a project. And we'll be back to baseball tomorrow at 640. Until then, love you guys. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you. Behave yourself, Katie. And remember. kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when all of your things can work consistently at the same time and you know how to pronounce players last names.