PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are the D-backs QUIETLY Becoming the BEST Team in Major League Baseball?

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are quietly the hottest team in MLB after winning 11 of their last 13 games. But does that make them an actual contender? We have more on the D-backs stats from their 13-game stretch vs their NL West rivals and how good the pitching staff has been since #TheMeeting. We also preview the D-backs weekend series with the Mariners and take another trip down memory lane with Throwbacks Thursday. Plus, we have updates on some of the D-backs’ top prospects from Snake Farm. 0:00 Best team in MLB?  5:20 D-backs rotation = on fire  14:30 Ketel Marte NL POTW  21:00 Organizational change in pitching philosophy?  29:30 Seattle Mariners series preview  33:00 Worst defense in MLB  36:00 Probable pitchers  46:00 On this day in D-backs history...  58:20 Top prospects update  1:03:00 LuJames Groover next up?  1:10:15 Is Tarik Skubal an option for AZ? Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are the hottest team in baseball, but are they the best? We're talking about if this team is truly a contender. Plus, we have a preview of their upcoming series with the Mariners and so much more. Let's go right now. This is the next edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Presented by our friends at Circle K, it is I, your mayor of PHMX occasionally known as Eric Montia. Happy Thursday to you all, thrilled to be talking little Arizona Diamondbacks baseball with you. I am not alone.

I'm never alone. I got my dog, your dog, the Diamondbacks dog himself, Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell, on the ones and twos. And we are still feeling very good about this team after watching them take 11 of their last 13 games against the bums of the NL West. But of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download that app right now. Bet365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use our code of PHNX365 when you sign up, get yourself some bonus bets. Also, we're brought to you by our friends at games.

game time. They want to make getting into baseball games more fun and easier. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Well, Damon, of course, we know we've been talking a lot about hashtag the meeting, but we might have a new trademark in the stretch TM. I don't know. I'll throw something on the end of there because we've talked about this stretch the Diamondbacks had against these NL West opponents. and I think the most surprising thing is how much people are trying to downplay. Even Diamondbacks fans downplay the importance of the Diamondbacks going 11 and 2 over a 13 game stretch against, yes, the Rockies and the Giants who happen to be two of the worst teams in the National League, right? The Rockies have the worst record in the National League.

But I still want to say and stress how difficult it truly is to win this many games against opponents that saw you this often. just based on, you know, happenstance, just based on a weather, based on circumstances, it feels like the Diamondbacks probably should have lost more games over this stretch than just two games. So they took care of business and there's no real reason to undermine it. But again, the importance of the stretch TM is because it was more about how many games the Diamondbacks possibly would lose during that stretch, not win, right? They are in a great position right now and I'm not going to take. anything away from where they're at, nor do I think anybody really should considering, you know,

just the fact that the Diamondbacks have 31 wins here on May 28th and could potentially set a franchise record for quality starts before the end of the month, which is shocking, you know, and that's hashtag the meeting, which we'll also get to. But over this stretch, the Diamondbacks just, again, took care of business, 11 and 2 overall, right? They improve on the season now to 31 and 24. They have a plus 14 run differential. Finally in the plus there. They won five in a row. And they come up against a team in the Mariners that are equally hot, which we'll talk about. And I'm sick of listening to Shane.

And Shane were yelling curse words at each other through the wall today. That's what's happening here. It's tearing our family apart this DeBax Mariners series. But I don't care because I hate Shane for the next four days is basically the way that I'm approaching this. They did win six straight games against the Giants, which is something they've never done in franchise history, at least to start the season. They have never started a season six and oh against the Giants,

completing two separate three-game sweeps of the Giants. And they go five and two overall here against the Colorado Rockies. They improved from hovering below 500 to being seven games above 500 during this run. They scored over five games, five runs per game with multiple games with six plus runs scored. So it felt like the offense has been back, even though, They have a game or two where they're going to only score three runs or less, right? It happened yesterday.

They still found a way to win. And that's where the pitching has balanced this team out. Last year, the Diamondbacks needed entirely too many runs all the time to win baseball games. And they did it. They were one of the top performing offenses in baseball. This year, they came back down to earth, but they are still in the top 10 for OPS. And they are still finding ways to produce runs, specifically over this stretch. but the biggest story once again has been the pitching staff.

During that 13-game stretch TM, the Diamondbacks had a 2.69 ERA. Nice. And the Diamondbacks starters repeatedly delivered quality starts. They all turned in dominant performances here. And again, another impressive thing is right now four of the top six players for Arizona in war are in their 30s. We got Eduardo Rodriguez at 33, Nolan Aranato. at 35, Ildemarovar Vargas at 34, and our guy could tell Marte aging gracefully at 32 years old. But again, it's just been an all-around team effort during this period of time.

The bigger reason why it's important is just feeling that confidence as you go into. Now, another stretch. This one against tougher opponents, you got the mariners who are leading a terrible division there in the AL West after they beat up on who was it that was leading first place there, the athletics. They took over that spot from the athletics. And then after that, we got the Dodgers on the horizon. And people are already looking to that series. For already wondering how bad it's going to be, right?

For them? That's what I'm thinking, Damon. I'm thinking that you need to call an ambulance, but not for me. For you, Dodgers, is what I'm thinking, right? Well, I'm confused, Derek. Are you letting go of the rope already? Oh, I'm not letting go of any rope. I'm holding the line, Damon.

Somebody taught me that a long time ago. Thank God. Thank God. What I'm saying is, is after coming out of this, right, you have a good team, not a great team in the Mariners. Yeah. Again, sub 500 record in a terrible division, they're somehow leading that division with a sub 500 record. They have an excellent pitching staff. We're going to go all over this.

But the importance is that after you win 11 games out of 13, you truly start believing that you can win any game. Whether you're down, whether you're up, it doesn't really matter. You just start believing that you are in every baseball game. The way that this pitching staff has been giving them quality start after quality start, you have to realize that that is a huge part of the reason why this team is able to believe that they're in every single game. But if you find a way to win the series in Seattle, which I think the Diamondbacks are fully capable of.

Then you come out, let's say, on the other side of this, winning 13 out of your last 16 games or maybe even, right, 14 games out of your last 16, like that's pretty incredible. They find a way to either get the sweep or win the series in Seattle. That going into a series with the Dodgers is, you know, extremely important. Momentum might not be a real thing to some people, but it is to this podcast. And it is to this Diamondbacks team.

It absolutely is in baseball, too. That's the, like, I hate when people do the whole like, oh, it's not rude. It's not real. You can't prove it. Cool. Well, clearly in baseball, it matters whether or not your team is playing hot at that moment in time or not,

or else the best team would win every single year, which rarely ever happens in Major League Baseball. So I don't know. I mean, I feel like you just got to keep stacking these wins. Who cares about who they're against or what your strength schedule is it's about having a good enough record at the end of the year to make the postseason. Jason in the chat is already asking about DFAing people when other players get back. I mean, we've discussed that there is going to be a problem with the roster when it comes back.

That's my thing, Jason. Leave me to the DFA. Yeah, Damon will take care of the DFAing. But when it comes to the options they have, Tori actually has me sit them down and tell the boys. It's brutal. Damon has like no heart about it. You think it's bad in Moneyball? Wait until you see what David.

How Damon do you? The guys see me and they go, shit, it's Damon dog again. They just actively avoid him. He comes in the clubhouse looking for guys. He's like, hey, where's Tim Tawa? Haven't seen him. Haven't seen him, Damon. Haven't seen them, right?

But no, there are a lot of options as far as who the Diamondbacks might, you know, send down or whatever. Again, the way we view being. sent down to the minors is much different than the organization's view of it. I will say that the guys they've called up have all proven that they can play and deserve to stay at a major league level, right? I do think Jose Fernandez with the way that he's trending might be an option. I also think Tommy Troy might be. It sucks to see them again waste one of their minor league options overall by doing, you know, by calling them up for such a short period of time. Jose Fernandez at least has been up for

longer than a cup of coffee. So it feels like they've given him, you know, ample opportunity. Even though he has not received the playing time, he needs to in order to flourish, he has still, you know, had his ups and downs this season. We are at least just momentarily holding off on building the statue of Jose Fernandez outside of Chase Field. We're not canceling it. It's just, it's just being put on hold for a moment.

But we might instead in the same spot where we were going to build. a statue of Jose Fernandez, just build a statue of this entire pitching staff, all five dudes, and then Tori in the middle of them. We'll make a statue of hashtag the meeting. That's what we will do. We'll make a statue. A bronze statue of Tori speaking. Tori sitting in a chair and five dudes standing around him. Right? That would be great. It deserves it. It deserves it. It was a magical moment that Nobody should forget, and it might just set this staff on the right course for the rest of the season. D-Bag starters have recorded an MLB leading 17 quality starts in their last 22 outings since hashtag the meeting. They've allowed two runs or fewer in 14 games since May 5th, the D-back starting rotation ranks among MLB leaders.

Number one overall innings pitched at 143 and two-thirds innings pitched. Number one in innings pitched per game at six and two-thirds, innings pitched on average. Wins, number one, over that stretch for wins for starting rotation at 13. Number two, ERA in all of baseball with a 2.51 ERA since hashtag the meeting. Batting average on balls in play, aka BAPIP, 237, third in Major League Baseball. War, fifth at 2.6 on average. fifth highest in Major League Baseball.

And then home runs allowed per nine. They are seventh at 0.81. All of these factors are why the Diamondbacks have been winning so many baseball games. The offense has definitely had its moments. They've had its big 12 to 2 games and such. But what has consistently kept this team in the position to win baseball games

and what has given that offense, the hope to, you know, win is what this pitching staff has been doing. A piece of Yoshi says only fifth in war. Yeah, they have an average war of 2.6. And there are some teams who, to be fair, their starting pitchers are incredible. And their bullpens suck.

This isn't the entire staff. This is just starting pitching numbers. This does not include the relief numbers. And yes, not only is our FIP lagging behind, but when you look at the Diamondback starting staff, even over this stretch, a lot of expected stats that say otherwise. There's a lot of expected stats that would probably disagree with this pitching staff actually being as good as it is, right? Only the second time in

franchise history where they have 17 or more quality starts in the month of May. The franchise best, as I said, was 18, which was set back in 2002. And you know who was here in 2002. So when you're doing the stuff that this staff was doing, when a guy named Randy, Johnson, another guy named Kurt Schilling, we're both on this team, then you're doing things the right way, I suppose you could say. That's probably an understatement. Behind the starting pitching, though, and we talked about it a little bit last night, the Diamondbacks have been incredible defensively. In fact, since May 17th in the ninth inning against Colorado Rockies, the debacks are airless in 91 consecutive innings, which is the longest streak in Major

League Baseball. And they add a Another 84-inning errorless streak from April 13th through April 25th. So another reason why this team has been outstanding and probably outperforming what we believe they would do by this point in the season is their defense. In fact, I mean, everything has been outperforming what we expected except the offense. The offense is literally the only thing that has been underperforming. And even then, Cotel Marte managed to make up the differences in what he was doing when he was considered to be bad

versus what he was doing when he was considered to be the best player in the National League last week. It's incredible. Like Damon said, he raised his batting average 75 points in like 10 days. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. Like this deep into a season, obviously. The week that he won the player of the week award,

he hit safely in each of his games played all seven games that. week hitting 536 with a 1.563 OPS, 4 doubles, 3 home runs, 12 RBI, and 3 walks. 4 doubles, 3 home runs, 12 RBI, and 3 walks are what some mediocre players do an entire season. And Kattel did that in seven days. He became the first, or excuse me, the second Diamondback all time to have a seven-game span of 15 or more hits, 10 or more RBI, five or more extra base hits, and one strikeout or fewer and the other guy that did it,

Shea Hillenbrand, which we're going to talk about on throwback Thursday, coincidentally enough here a little bit later. First MLB player to do so since Lawrence Butler did it back in 2024, logged four games with two or more hits and two or more RBI, including two straight over the final games versus the Rockies on May 23rd and May 24th. Totaled five multi-hit performances, including three hit games. Outstanding. And again, it's like we talked about,

If we could get Cattel back, this team would be so good. Well, he's back. You know, hopefully Nolan Aronado, that injury is a day-to-day thing, and we get him back. I heard nothing but that it's not that serious, so that's a good thing. Because Aronado is another guy that has been such a pleasant surprise this year. You got Il-Domarovargas, Aronado, so many guys that have been, you know, at least holding it down while the offense struggled. And, again, without those guys, who knows where this team would be? Who knows where the Diamondbacks?

what the Diamondbacks record would be if Ildemar Vargas didn't have the month of April that he had. They're not perfect. They're not, you know, keeping it consistent throughout the entire season. But again, like Vargas, we've talked about Juan Morillo and how good he was versus how he's kind of struggled just a little bit lately. And again, even not struggling. He's just more back down to earth where for the first month and a half, it felt like Morillo was untouchable. So overall might suck that he's not still untouchable, but we have to be thankful very much, very thankful,

that he was as good as he was over that stretch because, again, he was a big part of why the Diamondbacks were able to stack as many wins in April as they were. Yeah, I mean, it could have been debilitating, right? If you did not have Murillo giving you what he gave you in that time period. Yeah. Because, frankly, it didn't feel like the rest of the bullpen was really performing that well in that moment,

not like they are now where it feels like you have a few guys including Kevin Ginkle who definitely looks like he might in fact be back. Paul Seawald looks pretty solid but Juan Maria was really just a savior for this franchise

for the first 20, 25 games of the season and I think that the fact that we're seeing his struggles still not be total and complete disasters is also a good sign for Juan Maria moving forward that You know, he's going to stick at the major league level.

He doesn't need to be sent back down to the minors like he did last year. So I'm concerned a little bit about Murillo. Panic button, not, you know, like out on the table or anything. But definitely, like, thankful for his, you know, front end performance that, you know, really could have changed things for this team. You could be 10 games under 500 and stink if it, you know, if he isn't giving you, you know, the most valuable performances out of the pen that you got are in the early portions of the season.

And Taylor Clark was very good too, Psioshi. He's been good the whole season as well. Yeah, well, you know, that's just a part of what this team has been, right? But the difference, as we've said, about this team moving forward is the pieces that are coming back. And I know this sounds crazy. I know this headline probably has at least 20 people here at some point while this video is posted to scream at us and yell at us about how. wrong we are but the diamondbacks are i hope the dodgers fans show oh you know they're going to be here you guys can't be the best team because we're the best team numbers wise the diamond backs are the best

team right now right they're just not the best team as far as total but just that has played over the last 10 game span even even 15 i would argue right like this team's playing really good baseball absolutely and again it's probably not accurate to say they are the best team in baseball. But with them playing the way they are and with the pieces returning, you could argue that maybe, just maybe they actually are. Everything in the world says that Eduardo Rodriguez is not supposed to be as good as he is, yet he is. Same thing with a certain other, a few other pitchers as far as their expected stats versus what they're actually doing. In fact, I think Zach Gallen might be one of the only guys, maybe Merrill too, that have

better expected stats than their actual stats right now, right? But still, even with where Eduardo Rodriguez is at Damon, his projected ERA for the season is still supposed to be around the mid, like four, five is where Eduardo Rodriguez is still supposed to end the season. That is how much fan graphs does not believe in this man or this pitching staff at all, right? And again, it's just a stupid computer. What does it know? Well, it knows a lot. It knows a lot more than I do about baseball, but I still think that expected stats can obviously be wrong because nobody can tell a future and nobody knows how good a player is actually going to be. I feel like the projected stats for a guy like Eduardo Rodriguez is still far more about what he's done over the last two seasons,

rather than what he's done over the body of his career, considering that the form that he is in right now looks much more like his time with the Detroit Tigers rather than any of the time that he's been here, right? And again, his expected stats would suggest that he should be getting critical. rushed at times and somehow he's not. Somehow he's finding a way to get outs and that seems to be the case with this entire pitching staff. The one thing I don't think that this fan graphs or anybody can really factor in is not just hashtag the meeting, but Jeremy Blige and what he has been able to seemingly do with the entire

pitching staff in a very, very short amount of time. He made Paul Skeen's in a lap. I know. I know. So he concocted some formula in a laboratory, and perhaps this is an Eduardo Rodriguez clone, like Danhausen did with the little mini Danhausens. I don't know. When I just, science-wise, I can't explain this. Magic-wise, I can't explain this. It really seems to come down to having some sort of philosophical change here overall. Even my stupid ground ball percentage thing isn't even accurate. I looked up the Diamondback starting pitcher's ground ball percentage, Damon. Michael Soroka might be on to something. I might not have any clue what I'm talking about.

They're like 19th in Major League Baseball. Well, what do you need to look up Soroka specifically, to be fair. What's that? You need to look up Soroka specifically to be wrong. No, no, no, I think he was just like you're wrong all together, pal. You don't know a thing, stupid man. You don't know the thing about baseball, right? But again.

He goes, he goes, hey, stop asking the question. That was kind of how that one went. You, you're done. You, you're done. No more from you. But, I mean, it's it's fair to ask that. It's fair to say that this team with the pieces that are returning and not just Corbin Burns and A.J. Puck.

Right. But also the pieces that are returning to this offense. Known D.H. threat. Paving Smith coming back. Outfield or Jordan Lawler, honestly, going to make this team much better when he returns. Right. So, like, if they're playing this well now, it feels like there is a good chance that when these guys return.

Once this chemistry gets right, if Corbyn Burns doesn't have that very typical Tommy John setback in the first season of his return, same thing with the other two relievers, then maybe it's not so crazy to suggest that Diamondbacks are one of the best teams in baseball. Truly, I don't think it's wild at all, especially if they can continue to have somewhat around this record by the time that those guys come back. Because we've been talking about it since the summer, or not this is the summer, since the office. season where we've been saying guys get ready to be tired of hearing that reinforcements are on the way get ready to get ready to be tired of hearing the trade deadline is actually guys that we have in the organization already right but it is true these guys are game changing type of additions to the team right and on top of that it doesn't preclude you from making any other

additions to the roster because you do have these guys in house so I think that you know like while we're sitting up here and we're saying this team's playing good baseball right now. If they can keep it going by the time that they have Corbin-Burns, A.J. Puck, maybe even Justin Martinez back, and then add in Pavin Smith, Jordan Lawler as well to the mix. Like, that's a really, really strong roster top to bottom. Now add in a right-handed hitting power bat,

who plays D.H in first base, who can hit 30 bombs. All of a sudden, a game just got a lot different, right? Like that, it feels like the lineup is maybe one of those guys away from being right back to where it was last year where you know, you maybe just have a little bit of a black hole in certain spots, but if you could just find a guy that is, is a pure power hitter that is going to be in the DH spot

and take control of that or play first base and allow maybe somebody else to DH, I think that this roster and this lineup could be truly, truly special. So I'm just like, let's get to like the deadline at like 10 games over. Yeah. And then just watch Mike Hazen do his stuff. thing, get a reliever in. I'm sure that they'll bring in a reliever or two even with AJ Puck coming back to the mix. Like, you wouldn't assume that they're just done adding in the

bullpen. But it doesn't really feel like they need it. I mean, and I'm just saying. I think that that's, you might just look and say like, well, this guy is decent, but, you know, Brandon thought's okay, but let's send him to Reno, get him back as a starter and get a better long reliever. A guy who's been better this season so far or something like that. There's, I mean, there is ways to upgrade and I'm not disagreeing with you on that, but it's so vastly. different than it was at the beginning of the season. If you would have asked these two guys, you know, what positions do you think

the Diamondbacks will upgrade at the trade deadline? We probably would have given you five or six different, you know, positions, right? Definitely first base and DH, right? Like I'm saying. And that hasn't changed, but it still feels like now that's kind of whittled down to like as far as needs are concerned,

that's probably the main one. The biggest need. And outside of that, if they didn't add anyone, you wouldn't feel terrible. Well, and I think before, the season we were like it'd be great if they got another outfielder right like yeah it'd be awesome with lordis's injury and kind of his slow start right like he does he's playing a little bit better now but it was it was a horrific start to this season and then now you have Ryan waltchman out there and and i'm tommy troy i feel safe yeah Derek Derek i feel safe the caller was inside the house the whole time

damon the caller was inside the house the whole time yeah well we didn't think we would see that we wanted to see it we we beat that drum but we were like yeah there's a good chance you Some of us were pounding the table for Walt Schmidt the entire time. Absolutely. Well, we are going to talk here about their upcoming season or series with the Mariners this weekend and why I have to hate Shane for the next three days. Don't you guys go anywhere? You are watching the P.HNX Diamondback show.

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Gambling problem, call 1,800 gambler. 21 and over only must be physically located in Arizona. Terms and conditions apply in app only. And of course, if you are ever involved in an accident or serious injury, the lawyer you hire does matter and you have to do your research before you decide on that lawyer. That's why you should call the husband and wife law team first. Mark and Alexis Breyer are the husband and wife law team. They're also some of the most dedicated sports fans that you'll fine here in the valley. Their team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience with multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death. That's very important because in the state of Arizona, the state bar is only certified less than 1% of all lawyers as specialists

and injury and wrongful death litigation making them experts in the field. They also actually go to trial for their clients. They are trial lawyers. They know what needs to be done to prevail in a courtroom in front of a jury. Now they cannot guarantee the outcome of any case, but they can make promises to you as their client. including that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason. You will receive as much in your pocket as they receive for their fee, even if they have to reduce their attorney fees to do so. And you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss,

including Citellm being the best hitter on the planet right now. If you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602-783-8-8-4-1 or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them PHNX sent you. Well, do we have to... I don't want to bring Shane in here. I don't want to be around him at all. But Shane is the biggest Mariners fan in this office. And he, like I said, was screaming at me through the wall

that the Mariners are going to derail the Diamondback season. He would love that, wouldn't me? He would love that. I don't know. I mean, people are talking about Shane hating Arizona sports. That's just what I've heard. I don't know. I've heard him call that as a fake fan or a faux fan.

But let's neither hear nor there. I heard he doesn't even really like the Sun Devils. But let's take a look at this series with the Mariners. Of course, this Mariners team. Oh, God. This Mariners team has had a weird season. They've had a lot of their stars slumping. Cowl was not Cal.

Julio was not Julio. But they still find themselves right now leading the American League West with a 28 and 29 record. it's it's it's it's it's a poverty division is what it is but they have a plus 24 run differential there are six and four in their last 10 and the biggest thing is how good their pitching staff has been they have probably arguably the best starting pitching staff and they're even going with like a six man rotation thing I believe if they're still doing that I don't even know if they're still doing that but I do know that that was part of their plan they have a 700 team OPS currently and you know this is a team that they've like I said they've had their struggles at times this season

they really have had a lack of production from Cal Rally that's probably been the biggest problem who wasn't even in the lineup in yesterday's game you got quite a few guys hitting below 250 but Julio Rodriguez is kind of back recently he's hitting 258 with a 754 OPS their best hitter on their team. Is that guy right there, Randy Rose Arena, who, you know, maybe, maybe should have been here for Mexican Heritage Night, I don't know. But he has a 295 batting average with an 846 OPS.

And then our guy, Josh Naylor, still doing what Naylor does, 258 average 676 OPS. But again, this team has really been missing their leader, their leader in Cal Rally for sure. And of course, their pitching staff, though, remains amazing. Gilbert has a 3.69 ERA. Their entire staff has a whole starting pitching staff

has a 3.75 ERA, which is good for 8th best in Major League Baseball. Their bullpen has a 3.16 ERA. Oh, hell yeah, for the Stone Cold Steve Austin fans out there. That's tied for fifth best in Major League Baseball. But this one is the curious one. They are minus 20 in outs above average. And Damon, I think Damon had to check with me on that one to make sure that that one wasn't an error this time. And it wasn't an error this time.

They are minus 20 in outs above average, which is dead last by like, I mean, you got the tigers who are minus 18, the angels who are minus 15, the Orioles who are minus 14. Like a lot of bad teams down there. Phillies minus 12, raise minus 10, along with the nationals minus 10. but the Mariners dead last at minus 20. And a piece of Yoshi is telling us that Julio has taken a huge step back defensively. And yeah, again, that's a guy that added a lot to that lineup in the out there in the outfield. I feel like your outfielders are, you kind of live or die defensively there with outs above average with your outfielders. If they're having a good year, that number is usually pretty high.

But I don't know. the entire outs above average thing is very subjective to me, just like, I don't know, errors in general. Errors in general are very subjective to me. So usually if you're a more athletic player, you have a better chance of getting hit with errors than somebody who is less athletic with less rage. So that doesn't seem fair to me.

But again, this Mariners team, not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. They don't really call anything in error anymore, though. Like, that fly ball that we dropped the other day, but they got lost in the sun. Oh. They called that a hit. Yeah. That was in Texas, right?

Is that the one you're talking about? I don't think it was in Texas. Or Chicago? I think it was maybe over the weekend. Oh, okay. Oh, you're talking more recently. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, it's like they just like,

I think it was either or Tommy Troy and it like kind of hit them like in the cap, like in the tip like on their bill of their hat. Yeah. And they were like, yeah, it got lost in the sun. It's a hit. Right. And you're like, how is that a hit? That's not how baseball works.

I thought getting lost to the. the sun and not catching it on a ball that should be barely catchable. You're standing under the baseball. That's the way it works. Jason said Waldy on that one. Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. Well, hey, shut up.

We're not talking about that because if so, then the 91 scoreless hitting streak would or airless streak would be over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yoshi has it. I mean, it's just like, listen, I'm team Waldy as much as anybody, but that was a,

that's one of those things where like just the baseball purest in me is like, what are we doing, guys? How is that not an air in the big two six? No idea. No idea, but I will say I wanted to travel to Seattle for this series just because Seattle's lovely. Seattle's lovely. Could you imagine? Just a little quick boys trip up to Seattle?

You know my favorite part about it, even though I'm 100% certain I would never do it, is that when you leave the airport, you can get on a train at the airport that goes to both stadiums. It goes to T-Mobile and then passes by Lumen Field. So if you literally want to go for like a day trip that you don't get a hotel and you just go watch a baseball game and then turn right back around, get right back on that train and leave from the airport later that evening, it's a complete possibility. And I kind of love that. That's crazy. I mean, and it's super convenient, not expensive at all. And it's Seattle.

So the weather is always dreary but delightful. Well, when you're from Arizona, yeah. If you're from Arizona, it's perfect weather. For vacation, like you go to Seattle and you're like, oh, my God. It's misting outside every day. You're like two weeks is the best of all time. No, it's great. It is such a switchup.

Yeah, but again, hopefully the Diamondbacks have a good trip, and hopefully the Mariners are not very good in this one. But we have our probable pitchers brought to you by our friends over at 1AZ Credit Union. And as you know, 1AZ Credit Union rooted in Arizona, and they always are taking care of you financially. They are dedicated to Arizona celebrating 75 years of service. here in the Valley. Let's take a look here at the probable pitchers for the series. We got, again, what would have made you probably feel pretty good going into a series last year.

And now, arguably, is without the two best pitchers in the starting rotation somehow. Yeah, I was saying that's a bow earlier this morning, Derek, of like, it's kind of crazy. Obviously, every pitcher is pitching pretty well at this exact moment. Right. It's wild to think that Erod and Soroka have really been the saviors of this pitching staff so far. And that these three, who are probably the three you would have banked, you know, maybe good performances on, not saying you Rod and Soroka couldn't, but I think you would have expected more mid out of them. Yeah. And you would have expected maybe Gowan finds his form again. Ryan Nelson continues what he's been doing the last couple of seasons. Merrill Kelly is still him. And yet those guys all kind of struggled early and

I've somewhat figured it out in the last couple of starts. And that's, you, you said it very well. Like they all struggled early. Ryan Nelson had two outings where he gave up eight earned runs in one outing and six earned run and another that was back in April. But after that point, Ryan Nelson's just been outstanding in five straight starts. He gave only one of those

starts was not a quality start. That was the start against the Cubs where he went five and two thirds, but he only gave up one earned run in that outing. Six and two thirds and one earned run against the Mets. Seven innings and three earned runs versus the Rangers. Seven innings and three earned runs versus

the Giants. And then eight in a and, of course, one earned run in his last start against Colorado. Ryan Nelson lately has been incredible. He really has. And the early struggles are kind of behind him. But even then, when you look back, he only had three games this season, four games this season, where he has given up more than three earned runs. His very first start versus the Dodgers and then, again, excuse me, two, two, it's two starts.

The very first game against Dodgers and then those two, two starts. where he gave up eight earn runs to the Toronto Blue Jays and six earned runs to the Padres. But again, Nelly, not that you're going to take those out, but you take those out, and Nellie probably has a sub-3 ERA. Been outstanding this year. Zach Gowan also struggled early,

has been really good since hashtag the meeting. He takes on George Kirby in the game one matchup on Friday. Damon and I will be doing a little watch-along for that game, so make sure to join us for that. George Kirby is 5 and 4 with a 3.54 ERA and 55 strike. This season, Zach Gallon 3 and 4 with a 4.80 ERA, 40 strikeouts for gallon. Meanwhile, game two, Nelson, you got, excuse me, you got Ryan Nelson going up against Brian Wu. Brian Wu has a four and three record with a 3.82 ERA and 59 strikeouts.

Nellie, meanwhile, 4.65 ERA. That continues to drop. He is 2 and 3 with 49 strikeouts. And then last, Merrill Kelly. That dropped from the last time I did this graphic, Derek, for Ryan Nelson, just for context. and I believe that was two starts ago from about 5-4 to 4-6-5. Crazy to think about, especially, you know, he had that eight-inning performance last time out, which is doing a lot of help.

Well, same thing with Merrill Kelly, too. You know, his ERA was what in the sevens not too long ago? I mean, nine. Nine's. Nine's not too long ago. Now it's down to 5.25. He is five and three with 31 strikeouts. Going up against Bryce Miller, who has the best numbers right now in the Seattle Mariners

starting rotation. He is 1 and 0 with a 2.25 ERA, 14 strikeouts. Hasn't pitched a ton of games. But again, probably catching Mariners three best starters in this series. Hopefully the offense does not continue to struggle. We need a big weekend from the offense. And this isn't necessarily a series where you can get through the solid starting pitchers and get into the bullpen

because as we addressed earlier, their bullpen ERA is 3.16, which is tied for fifth best in Major League Baseball. So realistically, the Diamondbacks pitching staff is going to have to once again step up and do their job, hold this team to a point where the Diamondbacks can have a chance to win these baseball games. Yeah. Yeah, it does feel like it's going to be on the pitching staff in this one in particular, Derek, considering that the Mariners here have such good pitchers that they're throwing at the debacks. And really, that they throw out every team because I even mentioned, like, we're getting all their best pitchers except for Logan Gilbert. And then that's four of their five starters because they have all-star pitchers up and down their team. Yeah.

So that's just what it takes to beat the Mariners is you have to get to their pitching staff. You know, obviously they have a really good bullpen ERA as well. So it's not like you can just kind of wait until the latter portions of the game and then take advantage. I think you need your pitchers to go out there and shut down that Mariners lineup if you want any sort of shot of winning this one. So more of the same from a quality starts perspective, probably going to take a couple of couple close wins just based off of how good the Mariners are at limiting offense. Well, and right now they have this piggyback pitching plan going with Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller because they just literally have a surplus.

Yeah, and Luis Castillo has been great and he sucks now. So, I mean, that's like the one missing piece there. Right. So anyway, just an embarrassment of riches when it comes to pitching. It is crazy. Still a game under 500 and still a team that the Diamondbacks, you know, this is where they get into that stretch where you're playing against teams that will probably be in the postseason and you have to prove if you actually are one of the best teams in Major League Baseball right now by beating a sub 500 Mariners team. They're playing good. We're playing good. Great time for it.

And then we'll address the Dodgers series on the other side of this, right? but of course a huge, huge series for the Diamondbacks, huge test, just to see if this entire, you know, 11 and 2 stretch over 13 games was a fluke because they were playing bad games, or if this team really has kind of stepped up to another level where you could truly consider them to be a postseason contender. Not going to throw a World Series contender in there just yet, but postseason contender. Ryan says it's crazy how Studio K is slowly turning into Derek's home office,

just need an arcade machine. Should we tell them what's outside of the door? There's like three of them, yeah. And guess what? I am responsible for those too. What we really need, Derek, and we've talked about this before, this is a big Derek Damon topic of Convo

off the podcast, but I'm willing to bring it here into the mix for the podcast. What we need is big buck hunter. Oh, man. Big buck hunter. You don't understand. Every time that went on sale,

I would send Damon the lake just to be like, hey, I'm still interested. I'm still on the market. Nudge, you know. If anyone knows somebody that's selling their big buck hunter, I am in the market. Damn right. Damn right. Well, we're going to take a quick break.

And on the other side of this break, it's Thursday. And you know what we do on this podcast. We take a look back at Diamondbacks history and find some fun things to talk about that we probably talk about once every single year. But we're going to talk about Jay Hill and Brand coming to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Jung Kim on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. you are watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, of course, shout out to OneAZ credit union. One AZ is rooted in Arizona and invested in you.

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Watch out, Dodgers. We're breathing down your neck. But again, you know what day it is. It's Thursday. It's time for a little throwback Thursday action. And again, this team doesn't have very much history. Still has some interesting history as far as I'm concerned. We're like the Vegas Golden Knights of baseball there.

They can't take that away from us. They started this franchise. We won immediately. Take that baseball. We've just been to more championships than a lot of teams have ever been in their pathetic existence in a short amount of time. Hey, man, we win when we want to. That's really, that's what happens. We wanted to win.

And then we were like, we'll let everybody else have some of their own show. Let them have a little bit of fun. We proved ourselves already. It's funny when we are taking a look at these Cattel Marté stats over the course of a week and seeing a name that we have not heard in many years, Shea Hillenbrand being brought up for a stretch that he had where he was literally the hottest hitter on the planet for this team for a very, very brief stretch. Basically from July 4th through July 10th, 2003, it was the hottest he ever was maybe as a player, at least in his time, as a Diamondback. But on tomorrow's date, May 29th, back in 2003, was when the Diamondbacks traded, closer, reliever, love him,

hate them, probably the best reliever in franchise history, young, Kim, to the Boston Red Sox for Mesa, Arizona, native Shea Hillen brand. And that was one of those weird trades because, again, Kim was kind of a, I want to say controversial figure, but based on what happened during a World Series run that we won, it's amazing the like hate and vitriol, Kim kind of received. as, you know, a player in this franchise that helped them win, you know, a championship, even though he was viewed more as the reason why it went to seven games rather than anything

else. But he also helped him get into the postseason that year. 2.94 ERA that year. The following season in 2002, he was an all-star and he had a 2.04 ERA. And what a bounce back after that horrible playoff performance. Right. You know what? Like, that's really impressive stuff.

to essentially come back from having what would be considered a nightmare scenario in the World Series for a closer specifically. Correct. And come back and have your best season of your career the following year. That would crush a lot of players. Yeah. And then his ERA skyrocketed from 2.04 to 3.56. And the Diamondbacks decided that it was time to move on from Kim, bringing in Shea Helen Brand. What's interesting is, young Kim was actually very good with Boston.

I mean, it's still slightly better at least than he was that year with Diamondbacks, but a 3.18 ERA nonetheless in 2003. So he kind of maintained that level. But the debacks weren't so crazy to get rid of him because he would never return to that point ever for the rest of his career. The following season in 2004 with the Red Sox, Kim had a 6.23 ERA. After that, he had a 4.86 with the Rockies.

And then you go to the Rockies and you're just, your ERA is toast anyway. He had a 4.86 ERA in 2005 with the Rockies, a 5.57 ERA in 2006 with the Rockies. And then in 07, he was traded after posting a 10.50 ERA to Florida. And then he wrapped up his career here in Arizona, where he pitched just two and two-thirds innings. And he gave up seven run runs in two-and-two-thirds innings to end his career with a 23.63 ERA. Not great.

Shea Helen Brand, meanwhile, though, didn't have much better of a career, though. He was pretty good in the following two seasons, maybe even three seasons. He slashed 267-302-482 for a 784 OPS in 2003 with 17 home runs in 59 RBI. He slashed 310, 348, 464 for an 812 OPS the following season in 2004 with 15 home runs and 80 RBI. So again, Shayle and Brand, not terrible as a member of this team. In fact, pretty good. And he ended up going on to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2005 and being an all-star that season.

So I don't know. I guess the Diamondbacks kind of won that trade a little bit considering what happened with Kim following the 2003 season, but still just such a valuable part of this team's history. And again, like Damon said, we would not have made it to that World Series without young, Byeong-Hung Kim. So shout out to BHK. Also on May 29th, but this time in 2014,

Josh Colemanter, known voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks now, and guy who thankfully, whenever he had a bobblehead looked a lot like me. So it was kind of fun to own those. Face the minimum of 27 batters despite giving up three hits versus the Cincinnati Reds.

So it was basically like a no-hitter or perfect game in but with three hits and all three hits were raised by Diamondbacks double plays which is such a Diamondbacks defense thing to happen so shout out to Coley for achieving that feat and then last but not least

on May 24, 2020 our guy who had all the tools, Dalton Varsho became the first catcher in Arizona Diamondbacks history to hit a lead off home run which is wild but I guess this team hadn't been around

hasn't been around for very long, so it should never be wild when they said something like that, but still, first time in 24 years that they had a catcher, hit lead off and hit home run? I guess our catchers haven't been great, so that shouldn't be surprised to anybody. Damon, I know you have always had your thoughts on Kim,

going, taking a step back to young, young Kim. And again, fair to say that his time with Arizona was much better than most people seem to actually remember it. Yeah, probably one of the more underrated Diamondbacks of all time when you truly kind of put it up to thought, right?

Like he, I feel like this is a guy that, you know, definitely is thought of as like one of the Bums in D-Backs history. Right. And it's like, no, he's not Madison Bum-Garner or. He had one of the best, he's born and best relievers ever in this team's limited

history of having good relievers. I mean, having good relievers. I, I would say, like, in our non-existent history of having good relievers even, you know what I mean? 100%. So I feel bad for Biancheng Kim in that circumstance. I don't feel bad for him in the sense that he has a World Series ring that he was a part of and absolutely deserves. Very true. You know, I think Real DeBax fans that are invested in the numbers and, you know, are as locked in as like, say, me and you are, Derek.

No, his impact was obviously beyond what, you know, the World Series. DVD would have you believe. Yeah. But also, I believe that those guys, like in that locker room, they had his back too. Like, if you listen to the way they're like, yeah, he got, you know, Kimmy got us there and we were going to ride with him and we picked him up when he, you know, had some rough spurts. So I think, you know, definitely on the list, I would say absolutely of like top five most underrated snakes of all time, I would say, because he probably is best closure in franchise

history and everyone, all anyone can remember is, remember when he was trying to lose us, that World Series single-handedly? Yeah, yeah. That's pretty much how people remember it. But anyway, we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to take a trip down to Snake Farm before we get out of here and check out why Lou James Gruber might have the coolest nicknames of any player in all of MLB.

Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, the Window Depot keeps calling me because I need to get started on some of my projects and again as things get hotter it's not going to get any easier but i do know that the window depot is a one-stop shop not just for windows which they are experts in but for everything you need whether it's countertops cabinets sinks new appliances everything you need in your home to fix up your home the window depot has you covered the window depot in surprise is now open it open making it easier than ever for west valley residents to get what they need when they need it and when i say

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Just browse and order directly at the window depot.com with real-time access to in-stock products at all of your nearest locations. Get what you need when you need it. The window depot more than just a window store. And Damon, Circle K, we talk about Circle K a lot. And if you're not an inner circle member, you must just not love saving money. You must hate money. You want to get rid of all of your money as much as possible.

But again, if you want to save, join the end of your money. inner circle. More importantly, if you want to save, you stop by Circle K on your way to a baseball game. Damon, let me ask you this. Is there anything better than coming into a game, opening up perhaps as a dad, maybe my cargo pant, my cargo short pockets, pulling out sea salt pistachios and jumbo sunflower seed, just having them ready to go? Derek, I got to say that I took, I think, what I would consider to be the bell of the ball of that snack pile, the sea salt and vinegar chips that are sitting right there on that chair. Oh, let's go.

I need a couple of those now. Yeah, go stuff your face with some of those because they're amazing. And again, this is the key. You want to talk about saving money? You join the inner circle. You want to save even more money. You bring your own snacks to a baseball game.

You stop at Circle K right down the street from the state. Like literally, there's a Circle K no matter which direction you go to Chase Field on your way there that you can stop at and get snacks. And then you're not paying what, $12 for a bag of these? the store? Damon, stuff your face with those. I mean, come on. Look at this. He's eating and he's intimidating the opposition. Batters aren't getting anything off of him right now. It's crazy. Don't pay full price. Stopping it snacks. Bring them in. You know, I had somebody asked me like, oh, you sneak them in? No, the good folks at Chase Field let you bring them in as long as they're

clothes. And even then, they're not made out of metal. Keep them in your pockets. No one's going to harass you. Also, join the inner circle. I've said it three times, but you'll save on snacks like these. You'll save on, of course, 79 cent polar pops. You'll get 99 cent frosters. You will save on gas. When you buy three 20 ounce Coca-Cola products, you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your next fill-up. Plus, don't even get me started on the meal deal matrix.

They will feed you all day long from sunrise to sunset over there. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all covered for less than six bucks over at Circle K. So join the Inner Circle for free right now by downloading the CircleK app. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. visit circle k.com for details. And now I just hear Damon eating chips and now I'm just hungry. That's where we're at now. I'm going to bust all these snacks open and start.

I love sea salt and vinegar chips, man. I can't lie. I love baseball snacks. Baseball snacks are just the best snacks. I feel like even the other snacks that other sports have kind of got in on, they started. They were rooted, rooted in baseball is what they are, including hot dogs.

So I'm going to take credit for that. Let's take a look at how some of the Diamondbacks minor league prospects are doing on another edition of Snake Farm. Come on down to Snake Farm. Diamondbacks have been getting some pretty incredible performances from some of their youngsters. But one guy who has returned and is struggling just a little bit for the Reno Aces has been Tyler Locklear. You never want to hear struggling for the Reno Aces as a sentence that comes out of your memory. It's only 16 games, so I'm not going to get crazy with it. Like we said, you've got to give baseball players time because baseball is a stupid sport.

And for some reason, it would seem no player except Corbyn Carroll is ready to go at 100% when they return from an injury. But Tyler Locklear, again, he did have the game winning hit the other day for the Reno Aces, currently hitting 239 with a 630 OPS. He has four extra base hits, one home run, nine RBI total. And again, that's in 16 games with 73 plate appearances. So again, Locklear is struggling a little bit there. But a few other guys at different levels are absolutely not struggling. Every time I look at what Manuel Pena is doing for the sod poodles, it's just more and more incredible. 50 RBI so far this season in 45 games.

50 RBI. He has a 292 batting average. he leads the league with 19 home runs and he has a 974 OPS. This is a name to keep an eye on. This is a name that is going to be on this team in 2027. I can almost guarantee that. He is doing so well. And again, it's Amarillo, so you do have ballpark factors playing a role here,

but you want to talk about a guy that's ready to go already. It's Manuel Pena. And then meanwhile. I was going to ask, like, is, Is it time for his call-up? Oh, you're not, you're not skipping Reno, but I mean. Not to the majors, I'm saying. I'm saying call-up to AAA.

Oh, to Reno. Yeah, I mean, again. Like, what does a guy have to do to prove that he's above that level? It's time to move on to the next one. I don't know. And even when you start looking at the Diamondback's top 30 prospects list, I don't believe, if I'm not mistaken, he's not even listed on the top 30 prospects list. So he will be in the new next iteration.

I'm sure. I'm sure that will change. But a guy who essentially is now their top prospect, considering that we're not going to call Walt Schmidt a prospect anymore, Kaysen Cunningham, 19-year-old Kaysen Cunningham for Vasalia Rahide, hitting 376 with 12 extra base hits this year, 22 RBI and a 959 OPS. That's in 35 games and 167 played appearances for the Rahide.

So again, some youngsters killing it right now. And Tyler Locklear also there and back. Still don't know how he will factor in. Don't know when he will factor in. And there's a good chance. Locklear, you know, if you want to take a way too early look at this, he might be one of the only busts from the trade that the Diamondbacks did last year during the season. But we'll see.

We'll see. It remains to be seen. I'm not going to call it after just 16 games back. But we did have one more thing we needed to address, which is Lou James Groover. I could have easily put his stats up there and they're amazing because he is still one of the Diamondbacks hottest prospects right now.

But we found out the other day that Lou James Gruver, who's currently the 10th prospect in the Diamondback system, has a number of nicknames. And you know I love that. Like so much so that we have been calling him Gino Groover for years and didn't know if that, like we knew it wasn't his real name,

but we just thought maybe it was a middle name or something that he went apparently it's just the nickname. One of many that he has. He goes by Don. He goes by Gino. He goes by Sweet Lou, which might be my favorite,

until I heard what his most popular nickname was. He also goes by G squared, because he was Gno Gruber, so G-Squared and G-G-G, again, G-Gruber. But apparently he loves the movie Blade so much, he loved it so much as a kid, that he would go by Blade as a name and dress up as the name.

the Marvel superhero. So, Blade? Damon? We got a guy in our system with the nickname Blade? I brought this to your attention yesterday, Derek.

And it just was a big graphic that just said Blade on it. That's all, it just, and it was a picture of Lou James Gruver. We're turning on the cactus light because that's a one.

That's a goddamn win right there. Blade? No, I mean, it's... Sweet Lou? It's unbelievable. We have a superhero in our, in our rank. Yeah.

And he's going to kill vampires, aka Shohei Otani. The Daywalker, here ready to take out all of the other vampires. Yeah. Oh, man. Shohei Otani in this circumstance. I've never, again, I've rarely been this excited about a young prospect. I mean, he should be pretty good, I think. But, yeah, I mean, I'm already fired up out his on-field play, but his nicknames, Damon.

You know that that's just going to help us with our thumbnails and our headlines significantly. Here's what I'll say about Lou James Groover from like a real sense moving forward. I think, you know, obviously we're all ecstatic about what we've gotten out of Nolan Aronado this season. He's not a long-term fixture of this team. He's going to be on next year's roster and then he's a free agent again. Right. Third base is pretty wide open. First base, I don't think any of us are sitting up here being like Pave and Smith,

Ildemarovarvarez and, you know, Tyler Lockley are the future at that position necessarily. First base is wide open. DH, I don't think ADC is claiming that spot as his for the long term. Absolutely not. The H is wide open. Lou James Gruver hypothetically could factor into any of those three positions that seemingly are all available long term for this organization, which when you look at other positions, they're not as open long term, right?

Like I think you figure Katel is going to be here for a long time, Pardomo, Corvin Carroll, Gabby Moreno, even. like these, Waldschmidt, these spots are somewhat filled up, or at least in your psyche, you're like, that's who we're moving forward with. I think every spot that he could hypothetically play is almost wide open, outside of the one more year of Aronado after this year. And that tells me that, you know,

he's going to have every opportunity to try to claim that spot and make it his because it feels like he's pretty close to, you know, reaching the threshold of, okay, it's time to be a major league baseball player now. And people on the chat are disagreeing with you and saying, Jose Fernandez. What I will say is what a good situation for the Diamondbacks to be in. I don't feel comfortable being like Jose Fernandez is that is his spot. But I do I do hear people in, you know, the standpoint of like, yes, I think hypothetically, ideally he's probably third and then Lou James Groover could be first or DH. But yes. My thought overall though is, again, what a good problem to

have where you are sitting here looking at two very bright young talents and saying that, wow, look, we have the future here at third base with either one of these guys. And again, who knows where the other one factors in, but you do feel very, very good about the direction this team is going with. At the end of the day, the Diamondbacks will never be able to keep up with the Dodgers and other teams when it comes to spending. They just won't. It's a reality of the matter. It's just like it's a shocking reality that a lot of people just have to live with that this particular team and selling out that stadium is largely built ever since day one on opposing fans coming to the ballpark. Back in 98, 99, that's what they thought was going to help us out, was that, yeah,

we're going to have families coming out to watch baseball, but we'll have a lot of opposing fans in the city that will come to want to watch their team. So as much as it sucks sometimes. I don't remember much at negative one, Derek, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it looked pretty lit back in those days at the ball, at the bank. What basically happened was in 98, They had such a big season ticket attrition, like so many season ticket holders, cancel that they panicked and changed direction. They had an emergency meeting. Jerry Colangelo was very vocal about how, again, this town loves a winner.

And if you want to fill that stadium up and you want to sell season tickets, you got to go out and get star players and you got to make this team a winner. That's where everything pivoted. That's where Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson become parts of this team. Mark Gray, Matt Williams. Right. D-backs won 100 games in 99. 100 games in their second year of existence. So, like, again, it was because they were like, holy shit, we're losing, we're literally losing season ticket holders left and right.

And we got to do something about it, right? But again, another big part of it was because they had this very innocent, wholesome view of baseball here in the valley that as long as they filled that building up, no matter who you were there to root for, that was a success. and again, they weren't really getting that huge opposing fan base coming in back then, and they weren't really getting a lot of home fans to come in. But you're right, it was lit. It was lit because they changed direction that offseason and made this team into a winner that won the World Series just, what, three years into their existence, right? So, or four years.

But again, I will say that the other factor that I was discussing is this team, their DNA is built on on you know kind of through young players not not back then in those early days but you know these recent runs of success that they've had it's been done through young players you have to build that core and then you you can add a free agent star here or there but you can't really expect with a franchise like this to have that addition of a big name be the thing that completely changes this team. And so far, it really hasn't done that. The thing that has done it for this team has been guys that were kind of almost homegrown, right? Like a little bit. Zach Gallen, probably like not homegrown, but still a guy that was very early in his career when we acquired him.

And then he became what he was here in Arizona. So, uh, he mean, he's a career dining back. Like I, no one remembers his Marlins days. No, that half season or whatever. Or that he and Sandy Alcantra and a couple of guys were all actually drafted by the cardinals yeah that's i do forget about that one as well that one's one i mean the jazz gallon trade is one of those that like i think we'll look back on forever and be like what a crazy like momentous wave making trade for major league baseball right like jazz has played in a world series with the yankee since then zach gallon is played on a world series for diamondbacks where he was a huge piece of getting there like it's pretty wild think about it is it is or it's also wild to think about where these organizations would be had that

trade not been made jazz who knows when jazz would have gotten an opportunity on this team similar to what we're talking about here with these young guys or what is it due to perdomo i like i think maybe jazz plays short or something he i don't know if he can do that defensively uh so sorry if like there's someone that watches yankees all the time and is like that would never happen but i know that he was a shortstop at one point in the organization and i feel like they would have tried to maybe get the number one prospect on the field next to Catelle. And then Pardomo never gets that opportunity. It is interesting to think about.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Jason bringing up Terrick Scuba trade talks and asking if we are still scuba curious, always, I'm always scuba curious. I still feel like based on what's happened, his value has done nothing but plummet. And if you have him as a part of your organization, there's a good chance that you might, be able to keep him. With that being said, I don't think that Diamondbacks need him anymore.

more. Is that crazy to say? Kind of. Is it crazy to say that? Every team needs Terrick Scoobel. For what it would cost for just potentially a half a season of them? I mean, listen, like you said, like I think the value is, you know, plummeting a little bit. I don't think it's necessarily in its top spot. I think maybe there's the hypothetical you could get him on somewhat of a discount, but that's

still going to be a steep price. There's no question about it. For me, like, I know that this is like maybe this is like maybe this. this is a little brother syndrome. Maybe this is just, you know, my crazy brain talking. But like, I'm willing to like pay more than the next team to keep him from not being a Los Angeles Dodgers. That's actually a very good thing. Like, I'm actually not even joking about that.

Like, I would be willing to trade more than I would going into it just so Scoobble doesn't go to the Dodgers because that feels like something that would just break the sport. Like I honestly don't know how you, I know baseball is a game that is meant for parity and, you know, getting past, you know, the situations where it's like the Dodgers are just dominating everybody. But who can beat that freaking team if they pick up a top two pitcher in baseball, honestly. Yeah. That's good point. That's a good point.

The only thing that can, you know, impact them is things you can't control, injuries, guys regressing, things like that. But I will say this. Terrick Scoobal, money is one thing. what if we just gave you the town of kingmen? Wow, that's a good point. Just the entire city. The king of kingmen.

The king of kingmen. Like, don't get me wrong. I understand. He's the king man. It's not the most glorious piece of land that you can find, right? It's not the most prestigious city. Yes, that's the point I was going to make. It's very strategic.

It's like having a good shipping route, right? It might not be the prettiest, but it could be very valuable. And if you own the whole city, you demolish everything and just make yourself the biggest mansion anyone's ever seen ever, right? I'm talking about super villain level of mansion with like retractable roofs and helicopters that can fly out of it and such. But anyway, here's where I think that obviously it's a lot of money. Obviously it would take Diamondbacks spending beyond what they're comfortable spending. And it would take Ken Kendrick and, of course, Daddy Walmart opening up their checkbooks and saying, I forgot about Daddy Walmart.

Hey, we always forget about Daddy Walmart. He's so quiet. Yeah, he is. He does move in silence. And opening up that checkbook and saying, hey, we're going to, you know,

go into the red here to help this team get better in the short term. Hell yeah. But when you're looking at the contract situations of these pitchers, Derek, I think that it does bear noting. Erod has two years left on his deal and he's done. That's 20-ish million off the books. Merrill, same situation, two years,

20-ish million off the books. Zach Gallen, one year, 20-ish million off the books. That's a lot of money when you add it up together with three players that in two years time, you're not paying any of them. So I think that Terrick Scoobel, from that standpoint, if I'm just spitball in here, I think you could maybe try to get them to push short-term one year of a lot of salary. And then after that, it's if Corbyn-Burn-Burns ops in, it's Corbin-Burns Terrick-Souble Ryan Nelson, whoever else you get.

Whoever else doesn't matter at that point. True. Resigned Soroka. That's kind of where I guess my head goes. But again, this is like, this is, I hate the Dodgers brain. This is we got to keep them away from L.A. This is do whatever it takes to make sure that the Dodgers don't ruin baseball even further. That's a pretty good point.

Katester, I think is what she wanted to be called earlier in the chat. Katie Mavis says I would vote in. giving him kingman. So people are on board. It's it's a town we can sacrifice. And even then, is it a sacrifice or is he just going to make it bigger? I think they would be benevolent subjects. I really do. I think there is no question. Terrick's who walks into kingman with a crown on and everybody. Everybody, everybody, they all take the day off from work and they all go meet him at the airport. Presenting gifts at the castle of course. Hey, I brought you the finest kingman cheese, my lord. You know how like at the airport you're not allowed to go past TSA without a ticket?

Well, they make a special exemption for every person from Kingman. Right. And when he gets off the plane, he walks down, the shoot, he walks out of the terminal. They carry him like Spider-Man, like a hero amongst the crowd, right? Careful. Just carry him right out to the limousine that he goes into, right? Bags taking care of. Food.

You'll never, you'll never pay for a meal in this city ever again. or at least in Kingman. In Phoenix, you're going to pay top dollar, according to Luis Gonzalez, because you still haven't won a World Series for us. So there's that. But I'm all for this. And again, I'm sure, like you said,

the folks in Kingman would definitely be for it. However, it is weird to say that with the way this pitching staff has been performing since hashtag the meeting, and maybe we don't need it. Maybe we're fine. Maybe we were just one Corbyn Burns away from already having our wildest dreams come true

with our stuff. That's the other thing is that you would have to then take away another starting pitcher, which you already have to do. So that part of it makes next to no sense. Absolutely. Absolutely. I just want Terrick Scoople to not be on the Dodgers. And I want them to come home.

Is that too much to ask for? You know what's also crazy is Jason? The Tigers were interested in Gowan in the offseason. Jason is in our chat, Damon, saying extended show today when he's the one that derailed us with this Terrick Scoobel chat. I don't know if you're for the extended show or against the extension. ended show. But regardless, you're responsible for this. It's your fault that this happened.

So thank you, Jason. We appreciate you. We appreciate all of you guys. Thank you guys for stopping by today. We will be back tomorrow with a watch-along for the game and then another post-game show tomorrow evening. Make sure to join us for that and send us all the Hawaiian

barbecue that you can. Until then, you can follow us on social. I am at cap underscore K-man with a K. Damon is at Damon Dogg with a D-A-W-G, but we are all. Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dabax, but all roads, as always lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you're still here, hit the like button before you get out of here. We always appreciate you liking the show. It always helps us out with the almighty YouTube algorithm that rules our lives. But again, until tomorrow, I hope you guys all have a wonderful evening without any baseball in your lives. We'll be back to bring you some more tomorrow.

Behave yourself, Deborah. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. when your starting pitchers are the best in baseball.