PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are The Diamondbacks DESTINED For Improbable Return To The World Series?

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

With 16 games left in their regular season, the Arizona Diamondbacks are getting hot again at the right time. We have more on where they stand in the Wild Card Race, the impact of Christian Walker and Ketel Marte returning from injury, and if the Snakes can defy the odds in their bid to return to the World Series. We also discuss our MLB Power Rankings for this week and the upcoming series with the Milwaukee Brewers, who the D-backs will play 7 of their remaining 16 games against. Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE!! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ski to you all and welcome in the studio k presented by our friends at stute at circle k my name is derrick montia occasionally known as your mayor of phnx this man next to me is still a turncoat it's your thunderstake jesse friedman and of course we have brought to you by our friends here bet 365 go download the bet 365 app right now choose your offer sign up using phnx 365 find out why it is never ordinary at bet 365 of course welcome in to you all so glad to see you guys here for a 1 p.m. show. I know there's no baseball today. We get a rare break. I think we have one more off day between now and the end of the season. And as we were getting ready to fill out our schedule for work here, I got a little sad, Jesse. I got a little sad because

I realized I was scheduling the last regular season baseball game. And as much as we complain about how long the baseball season is normally, it's sad when it's when here it is wrapping up. But we have a lot more fun to possibly have in the postseason. Yeah, it is sort of an odd time of year. On one hand, you're kind of gearing up for the playoffs. And I'm telling all of my friends and family members goodbye because, granted, I'm pretty busy during the regular season. But the playoffs last year was a completely different animal.

And I basically didn't see anyone but you for about a month, which is Patrick. Patrick Lyons. Yeah. And Damon, I guess. It was awful. But yeah, there's also this other elements of like whether the Diamondbacks make the playoffs or not regardless of how far they go. We're getting kind of close to the end of baseball. Like, I mean, even if they go all the way, even if they go all the way back to the World Series as they did a year ago, I mean, you're talking about a month and a half remaining before baseball is over.

And that doesn't, that doesn't feel so good, Derek. So we got to take advantage and soak in, soak up every every moment here in these, these, these, final few weeks. I do have to give credit to my wife when it comes to how I abandon her. Like in general, before the baseball season even starts, my wife likes to like basically quote Tyler, the creator in Calyuka song where she says, can I get a kiss and can you make it last forever? I'm about to go to war. And I don't know if I'm going to see you again. And that's what the baseball season feels like. And I'll tell you, that's what the playoffs definitely feel like once we get in the thick of things. There are no vacations planned for these two at all. We don't

even know what we can do. You made that mistake last year. That's for sure. My anniversary is just going to have to wait, I guess. That's what, that's the way that work. Your trip was what, like October 10th to 12th or something like that? Yeah, because yes, my, my anniversary is October 10th. And yeah, luckily I found someone that's been with me for as long as my wife can stand to be with me. But that anniversary is going to have to maybe be pushed off again to another month. Well, I'll make it up to you, though, because the Diamondbacks seem, poised to actually make a run here at the playoffs and i have to agree uh earlier somebody in the chat talked about it or said it uh if you could scroll back there uh kevin oh sorry i don't know what's going on over there all right brandon buckingham says this team is better than last season so why not back to world series yeah and i mean honestly that's not you're not wrong right when it comes to it this

down to it this team is better this team is better probably in every way except for the fact that you know Maryland, Zach, aren't how good they were last year, but they are still showing signs of that. I will say, though, that it's impressive that the Diamondbacks here are, they have an 82, 82 wins this season, Jesse, and it's still not even close enough to guarantee their trip to the playoffs. In order to get to the postseason, the Diamondbacks magic number is actually down to 13 right now, which with 16 games left to play isn't great. But I'm sure that will dwindle down as other teams lose and such. But it's impressive that the Diamondbacks even have a magic number.

That means that they are in complete control of their own destiny when it comes to the postseason. But I will say this. When I, you know, in our description and the way that I kind of let off the show, history is definitely not on the Diamondback side when it comes to repeating in the World Series. Because the National League has not had a lot of repeat offenders when it goes to back-to-back World Series appearances. In fact, we've talked about it a bit over the last 50 years. It's only been three teams. Braves did it twice in the early 90s with that powerhouse of a team that they had.

And then it's pretty much the Phillies in 08 and 09 and then the Dodgers in 17 and 18. That's it over the last 50 years. It's not to say that it can't be done because this Diamondbacks team is very good. It shows how hard it is in baseball for you to just be that dominant franchise that goes back year after year. Like some of the teams in the American League have managed to do. Yeah. And I mean, it's even crazier that you think about, you know, all of those teams. There have been a lot of teams that have made World Series in the last 50 years, right, Derek?

And I guess there's been 50 of them. And that's the way that works. That's the way that works. That's my analysis for today. But yeah, just it being so improbable, it is maybe a little bit surprising. You'd think that something like that would be more regular. But it just speaks to the randomness of once you get there, right? Especially now.

Yeah. I mean, there have been a lot of, a lot of very, very good baseball teams that have been, that have stayed very good for a number of years. And yet it doesn't, it's very hard to form any kind of a dynasty in baseball for that reason. And especially now that you have playoffs expanded as much as they are, there's even more randomness now with 12 teams as opposed to 10, as opposed to 8 as there was about a decade ago. So, yeah, it is a very, very difficult thing to do. And that's why even though this team is better than the team a year ago, I feel very confident

saying that, you just never know what happens when you get to October. I got to give a shout out to Seb Swo. Of course, we always give a shout out to Jagurtha and any of our international fans. But Sebsuo says, cheers from Germany. Any German D-BACs fans out there, let's go back to the World Series. Why not us? Embrace the chaos. Yes, I love it.

And Gabriel, it will join you there. You guys, maybe you should get together in Germany. Gabriel says, I'm going to Germany next month. Where are you from? We're going to make friends here. We're going to link people up and we're going to have meetups in Germany. is what's going to happen. But the Diamondbacks, obviously, pitching is a big concern.

Ina says here, Ina is given a lot of great credit, but Ina says bats are track, snakes are on track. But the pitching, right? Pitching, bullpen, things are getting back on track a bit more. The offense, though, continues to be incredible for this team. When you take a look at the landscape of Major League Baseball right now, the Diamondbacks are one of only five teams in Major League Baseball with a run differential above 100, right? And we knew this team had a chance to be good, but we didn't really know that the

offense would come alive the way it did this year. And I think we talked about it on last episode. It's not the way that they created offense last year. You know, I mean, there's just this confidence when you watch a Diamondbacks game that there's going to be some inning where four home runs are going to be hit and they're going to score six, you know, and it's going to blow open, right? Or even if they're down, we've seen them come back and have huge innings late, ninth inning, eighth inning. So this team offensively just feels like they can't be stopped at times. Yeah. And it makes me think of the pitching side of this team as well and how as much as the offense has been so far above the expectations that at least certainly I had coming into the season like I would have

bought into a top 10 offense you maybe could have talked me into this being a top five offense number one by like a considerable margin I don't I don't think that was exactly on my bingo card entering the season I could only imagine how that conversation between us would have gone if I would have said to you before the season. Jesse, they're going to have the best offense in major league baseball. Mark my words. You would have stopped doing this show with me. I would have probably gone through some of the bad takes you've had in the past

and argued that that was the worst. He would have picked up Gabby. He would have definitely picked up on the Gabby. Yeah, I absolutely got back to that one. But yeah, on the flip side, I'm reminded of the fact that the pitching staff has been very far from what we expected this season, right? we looked at this starting rotation as being potentially top five going into the year. And the reality based on the numbers is it has been bottom five.

It has been one of the worst starting rotations in the league for a variety of reasons. Obviously, injuries play a role in that. Jordan Montgomery plays a pretty big role in that as well, although he's certainly not the only one. And it makes me think of like, you know, the debacks right now sitting with a run differential of plus 102. What if they didn't have one of the five worst rotations in baseball, right? What if their bullpen hadn't been honestly pretty mediocre with how things have turned out? Like this could be a team that is on track to win 100, 100, like have a pretty insane season just based on how good the offense is. You're not wrong because literally think about just taking away Paul Seawald's blown saves.

Just that. Forget everything else. You could have still Dylan Flore will be a disappointment. You could still have some of the bad outings sometimes. You could have Jordan Montgomery be kind of the, I mean, disappointment for both him and the Diamondbacks that he's. become. But if you simply have Paul Seawall be the lockdown closer that he was last season and those games, especially during that stretch were, you know, like that stretch of July where the Diamondbacks essentially without those blown saves would have won what like like 16, 17, 18 games in a row it felt

like it just like you said, it completely changes the perspective of the season. And not only that, but one of those games was against the Dodgers. So there's a game that they immediately pick up in this fictitious scenario. And then, you know, there's just, I mean, we can get the Dbacks at a 10 game lead in the NOS without modifying too much history, right? Easily, easily, easily in this imaginary scenario. But, I mean, they are still only five games back from the Dodgers, right? And here we're going to take a look at the Major League Baseball standings. But, yeah, I mean, you do factor in just a few more wins, you know, and instead of a five-game

deficit, maybe it's a two-game deficit right now. Maybe it's even closer than that. So you're right. I just, you know, the other thing you brought up and that you do bring up is the chaotic nature here of essentially everything going on with the playoffs, right? So, like, I feel like you're fairly confident here in a couple scenarios with the Diamondbacks as far as where they're at right now. They have the top wild card.

They are the top wildcard team at 82 and 64. The Padres are half a game behind them at 82 and 65. And then you have the Mets right now in that third position at 80 and 66. So, you know, again, you want to end up here, right? Or maybe you want to end up as the last team. I don't feel like you want to end up in the middle there playing an away series in San Diego against the Padres. But I also was like, this was the guy last year that thought they were going to get smoked by the brewers. It was like, I'm just happy to be here.

Right. So it's like, I don't know what to think. And I think that the Diamondbacks can truly beat any given team in any scenario, especially, you know, in these playoffs, you know, in the playoffs situation, right? Yeah. And this is going to go down to the wire, right? I mean, I don't want to assume that the Diamondbacks are making the playoffs, right? I think after winning three straight games in pretty emphatic fashion, it's maybe easy to go there. And they certainly improve their chances a lot.

I think Fangraphs has them at 93.3% now to make the postseason. So they're in a really good position after these last few games. But at the end of the day, those teams are all still clustered pretty closely together, right? I think it's four and a half games separating all four of those teams that are vying for those three spots right now. So, yeah, it's... I mean, technically, it's three, right? It's the, like, the Braves are one game back from the Mets for the final spot. And then the Diamondbacks have a two-game lead on the final spot.

So, yeah, three-game spread, you know, separates those four teams. Yeah, and that's why as much as, you know, something that Mike Hayeson talked about a lot over the off-season was, let's not clinch the day before the last day of the season, right? He really wanted to have a little bit more cushion. And the Diamondbacks... Yeah, in his day and his... defense. I mean, this team is dramatically improved. Like, they're on pace for 91 wins now. That would be a

seven-win improvement over last season. And yet, because of the nature of this race, even if you do finish with 91 wins and the debacks continue to play pretty well, right now this team is still looking at clinching, you know, if you just sort of extrapolate out, I don't know, maybe three, four days before the end of the season. It's not going to be, you know, two weeks in advance and you can start to rest guys and whatnot. I don't think that is really in this team's future. Here's Elise with her comment, the insanity of this wildcard race really makes it feel like we just need to win every game. You talk about my worst take. Your worst take was that they needed to win every game.

That was mathematically incorrect, Elise, so I don't know what to tell you, but we're both having some bad takes. I don't mean to attack her for that. I think you did. It's very, it's very, yeah, it is. I'm fired up right now. I think she knew that that would press your button. Yeah, yeah, she did it on purpose. She did it on purpose.

But let's take a look again at that MLB standings graphic really fast because, again, I mean, it's getting to the point now. Like the Cubs, they're five games back from that final spot. They're fading, but they're still winning a lot of games. And it doesn't feel like, again, like it doesn't feel like they're letting up. They're doing everything they can. They don't control their own destiny. Neither do the Cardinals at this point. And the Braves and Mets have games left against each other.

The Braves also have a tough season remaining, whereas the Diamondbacks road here, especially you know, if like I said yesterday, if they can figure out this Brewer's team and maybe, you know, go and take more than half of these games against the Brewers, things look pretty good for the Diamondbacks after that point. But I mean, this is this is getting to a point where I know the Cubs and the Cardinals don't have very good chances. So it really does feel like it's down to a four team race. But we think the Cubs could win out and they would probably make the playoffs, but I don't even think that's a given. The Cubs basically have to, that. That's where Elise's original take does come into play. The Cubs have to win basically every single game to have a shot at this. I'm not really factoring them in at this point. But there's still room on the graphic for them. So we'll keep them around. Gabriel says Dodgers collapse in the final weekend is going to hit light crack.

Oof, wow. Let's not go there. But let's go here. Let's take a look at what the playoff bracket would look like if the MLB postseason started today. And yeah, I mean, here we're. we go. You have the Diamondback starting the season against San Diego Padres and at home. You have the Mets against the Brewers, which I feel like, I feel like that's a very, I don't know, like the Mets are just playing really good baseball right now. And despite the fact that everything,

every fiber of my being says that the Mets aren't going to come into this postseason and it makes some noise. I don't know if I believe that. Yeah, I mean, you talk about a team getting hot toward the end of the season at the right time. The Mets are sort of in that position right now, right? They have been very, very good for a while now. And I know yesterday it felt inevitable that the Mets were going to find a way to win, even though they were being no hit through eight innings. And they still scored six runs in the ninth and wound up winning that game. So, yeah, that's just sort of the Mets right now.

Like, you never, you sort of always figure that the Mets are going to win at this point. So, yeah, they've been extremely, they've been playing extremely good baseball. And in the playoffs, I could, I could see a scenario where the, where they're, the Mets could make some noise. They have a good offense. Their starting pitching is on paper is not great, but Sean Mania is like an ace and Luis Severino is pitching well. And David Peterson, we saw him here pitch really well against the Diamondbacks.

He's been really solid. So, yeah, maybe that group is able to ride into a nice postseason run. Baseball is so funny like that. And that's the reason why, again, there's franchises like the Tampa Bay Rays and the Marlins that they don't hang on to anybody. They don't give out big contracts. They just kind of reshuffle their organization every couple of years. It's because what the Mets are doing this season is insane,

considering how much money they spent on this team and the guys that are doing it for that team, right? Like they spent a ton of money, didn't work out, was a colossal failure. They didn't really stop spending, but they didn't go out and make the gigantic splashes that they did last year or the previous year. And, you know, you have the Mets now playing really good

And it just goes to show that like it's about that team chemistry and everything coming together the way that the diamondbacks had that come together last year and the diamondbacks are definitely in that same boat right now. That's the reason why we're seeing so many dominant wins and the team is on the run that it's currently on. But I do have to ask and I mean this is for you guys in the chat as well. Let's take a look at that playoff bracket one more time. Which path here would you want right now the diamond backs there in the lower lower side of the national league graphic right? you have to take on the Padres and then you're destined to meet up with the Phillies. And after that, possibly the Dodgers. You want to go through essentially the three toughest teams in the National League?

That's that's a lot. That seems like a tall task. And I mean, if you do that, if you do that, there's no doubt about how good this team actually is. Like, you're not, I mean, last year there were some weird things about like, oh, well, they got the Brewers in the first round. And they still got the Dodgers and the Phillies after that, right? There should be no doubt that they deserve every bit of credit that, you know, the path. But maybe the path could have been a little tiny bit harder. And in this case, that seems to be what they might have to walk through.

Yeah. So Padres at home in the first round, I think you feel okay about that. You know, would you rather play the brewers in the first round like a year ago? We're going to talk a little more brewers later in the show because obviously that's the team the detox are playing this weekend. And I would probably say yes. I think this Padres team is built pretty well for the postseason because they have a really good offense. And their bullpen is just insanity after acquiring Tanner Scott and Jason Adam at the trade deadline. Like they were maybe the last team that really needed to make those kinds of moves.

And yet they added to basically the two best bullpen arms available. I guess maybe AJ Puck would also be in that conversation. For sure. For sure. pretty good. But yeah, the Padres are really tough matchup. I don't know if the D-BACs

are going to be able to escape that. You know, could the Mets or Braves take over the second spot, the second wildcard spot? It's certainly possible. Especially with the Diamondbacks and Padres playing each other there

with the last series of the year. Anything could kind of shift at that point. Absolutely. I mean, all of these things are subject to change. But yeah, the only way the debacks get the Brewers in the first round with how things set up now

is if they fall at the third wildcard spot, which is of course where they were last year and that is also possible it doesn't seem likely as of as of this moment that's still possible as well i think what you really want to avoid in my mind is is playing on the road against specifically the padres like if it were this arrangement but the debacks the podres swap spots as someone who's covered some games in san diego over the last couple of years for a regular season game that place is sort of insane um not philly's insane but but so sort of in that direction, I can't really imagine what that place would be like for a playoff game. So that's maybe something that you would want to avoid. And of course, there is, like I said earlier, the entire history going against them. But I think the Diamondbacks, you know, do have a chance. The one factor here is that last year they were kind of playing when they got to the postseason and I guess with a certain level of ignorance. You know, you've never been there before. Or sometimes you're not scared of something that you've never faced before.

Sometimes you just kind of go in with that young person courage that those kids all have on this team. This year's different, though, because not only do those young players have the experience from last year and know what it takes to win, but you added some experienced guys in Jock Peterson and Randall Gritchick that have just been there, been through all of these scenarios, and it feels good. And honestly, even Jordan Montgomery, right? Jordan Montgomery definitely understands what it takes to win. he just did it, he just won a World Series. And I know, I know he struggled. I know he sucked at times. He himself has talked about how much he has sucked at times.

But I will also say that Jordan Montgomery, we know, can pitch. And I think that he can get through this to a point where even he could be a valuable weapon for this team in the postseason. Even if it's, you know, like a blowout loss in a series where he has to come in and give this team that, you know, that ability to, you know, save the bullpen arms for a more important game the next day. Yeah, yeah, I could I could definitely see a scenario where where Montgomery winds up being really helpful for for the debacks in the playoffs. We'll kind of see what that looks like. I guess the other question in terms of playoff matchups, we kind of touched on the first

round opponents. What about the next round? If the debacks do advance past the first round, right? It seems very likely that the Dodgers and the Phillies are going to be the two teams getting to buy. They've sort of gained some separation between them and the brewers. Which of those teams do you think you want if you have to choose between the philadelphia fillies and the l a l a dodgers not for the n lcs but just for the n lbs who who do you want that's that's a hard that's a hard question because obviously i mean it's honestly for the next series i would probably rather the dodgers i feel like the dodgers don't have the pitching and i feel that the dodgers will be impacted by the layoff more than the phillies will the phillies are some dogs you know and they just have some great pitching

they have like a potential Cy Young winner on their team this year. Yeah, they are just a good team. And honestly, like, even with certain losses, they still seem to be able to make up to it for it. Their bullpen is really good. Meanwhile, you got Anthony Banda over here who just broke his hand by hitting something with it. And it's just in general, it seems like the Dodgers have a lot of injuries,

a lot of things they're struggling with. And I don't, I don't see like them getting tremendously better. I also think, like I said, I just think they're going to handle the layoff potentially. worse than the Phillies. But what do I know? What do I know? I'm just a chubby guy here that sang Spanish to my coworkers. You did.

It was delightful. I think, yeah, for me, I would probably lean toward wanting the Phillies, I think. Really? And maybe this is recency bias on my part, given that the Dodgers just took three out of four at Chase Field in pretty dominant fashion. And then the Diamondbacks played really well against the Phillies. And then the Diamondbacks took three out of four against the Phillies and looked really, really good in that series. So the Dodgers lineup at full health.

I mean, I know the D-BACs found a way to shut down Mookie and Freddie in the playoffs last year. It's a little hard for me to imagine those two guys going one for 21 again. And then you add Shohei Otani to the equation, who is getting a postseason opportunity. I imagine, you know, we've seen what Otani looks like in the regular season for quite a while now. I sort of fear to know what Otani in the playoffs looks like if there's maybe an extra gear that he's able to reach. What you're saying about the pitching is very valid, though. The Dodgers pitching is in a very precarious spot right now. Tyler Glass now is still out with injury. Gavin Stone is now on the IL. Clayton Kershaw is on the IL. Jack Flaherty's been huge for them. I don't know where they would be

without Jack Flaherty at this point. That was a really important move for them to make. They also just got Yamamoto back and he looked good in his first start. So there's some questions there in the rotation, but I think the pitching can do just enough. And that lineup is, I mean, the Phillies lineup is good, but the Dodgers lineup in my mind, with all of the depth that they have now, with Muncie back with Teosker Hernandez, I would want no part of that lineup in the postseason. That's a good point. I mean, both of these teams are just so good.

And Diamondbacks still have to get there, right? That's the important thing is we could talk about these roads in the playoffs as much as we want. But Tori Lavallo is reshuffling his starting pitching rotation. to try to get them there. And I know that one thing that we've brought up a few times this week, and Tori was asked, and Tori gave us an interesting answer. Of course, this guy's going to come in here with his numbers and his logic and ruin it. But, you know, Tori was asked if he was going to try to reshuffle things to perhaps give Brandon Fott a day off

and to perhaps get Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly some more starts. And Tori sounded down with it. Like, he sounded keen to the idea and like that they've disgusted. This wasn't just something we were bringing up that they, in fact, he accused us of having a drone in his office or something, some type of recording device because Jesse and I know ball. But what I will say is Jesse kind of looked at things and it doesn't seem likely that they could get Zach Gowan or Merrill Kelly extra starts between now and the end of the regular

season, even with skipping guys, even with the off days. Yeah, it is impossible. I mean, unless you're starting these guys on a short rest, which I think there's really no scenario where the D-backs do that. Yeah. So, yeah, there's a difference between moving Gallen up for this weekend, which is a move the Diamondbacks made. He is starting on Sunday against the Brewers as opposed to Monday in Colorado. That, yeah, that move, it does obviously shift his schedule for the rest of the season, but it does not give him an extra start.

With the way that the schedule lines up the rest of the way, there simply are not enough off days to use those off days to get Zach Gowan or Merrill Kelly an extra start. I mean, today is an off day and then they have one more on the 26th, I believe, is an off day? Yeah, they have one more on the 26th, but starting tomorrow, it's 13 straight games. So, yeah, I think that the move that they made to move both Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly up can still pay dividends and still make sense for them. But it's more about lining things up the way they want at the end of the season and getting the matchups they want between now and then, then it is getting an extra start. That's not going to happen. And that's what Tori was talking about when we did ask him about. He said they were concerned about the matchups.

Right. It's not just the matchups, though. It's the way things would line up for the postseason. With the way that Jesse kind of took a look at things and figured things out, the end. I wanted to show my spreadsheet on the show, but Derek wouldn't let me. You guys aren't going to be interested. It's an Excel spreadsheet. It's probably, if you're watching on a phone, you probably wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Use like a nine font. Like, that's insane to expect to put that up on a screen and watch people watch. It's not as pretty as when. It's not a staff meeting, Jesse. It's not a staff meeting. But he did figure out that in this scenario that they could get Zach Allen to start on game one of the Wild Card series. And that is definitely the thing you want happening. Yeah.

So, yeah, there's a few different ways that this could go. And Tori was very open about that, that the debacks have different options based on how these next couple of weeks go. How early they might be able to clinch, how important that. Padres series winds up being at the end of the year, which I imagine probably pretty important. So there are different iterations of this. There's not one like, oh, this is clearly the way that the rotation lines up the rest of the way. However, yes, there are some interesting things to note here. With the Diamondbacks making this move, it would technically set up Zach Gallen to pitch

on the 25th against the San Francisco Giants. That would be his last start of the season. as things stand right now if we just have gallon pitching on four days rest every single time and in that scenario gallon would then be able to start a game one of the postseason for you whereas if the debacks had left things the way that they were and not not moved gallon up at this point in the schedule then gallon would have been scheduled to pitch on the 27th against the podres and then the wild card series starts on october 1st that's not enough rest for gallon to pitch again So I think that could be part of the calculus here for the debacks is that they want at least the option of pitching Zach Gallen in game one of a wildcard round.

Obviously, it worked out for the debacks last year, but having Brandon fought a rookie who had been through a lot in his rookie season, start game one of the postseason for you, that was not in the Diamondbacks plans. They would have much rather had Zach Gallen probably starting game one and maneuvering the schedule in this way allows them to do that. Well, last year, the Diamondbacks obviously did not intend on Brandon Fott being their starter for the postseason. But they had to pull out all the stops last year just to try to make the postseason. This might be a similar scenario, but I don't think it's obviously as dire as last year, where they needed to try to do everything they could to win and essentially needed some help there at the end in order to get in the playoffs because they couldn't get the job done themselves. So this is exactly what the ninebacks are looking for when Tori was asked about how. he would want the like rotation to line up for the Padre series he just said he wants to play at home in the playoffs yeah that's basically all he was concerned about is essentially getting that top spot in the wild card which is the only way they would be at home during the playoffs right which would suggest that for that Padres series at the end of the year you want to line up your pitching as as well as you possibly can so maybe that's a scenario where even though the debacks could start down on the 25th now and set him up for a game one in the playoffs maybe

they would rather insert another starter at some point and push Gallen back so that he does start in that Padres series. There's, yeah, again, there's a variety of options that they have here. But I think just, no. I guess the other thing I'll say about this too is that there could be a potential downside to having Zach Gallen pitch against the Padres because if you're really confident you're going to play them in the playoffs, like they don't want to see them twice and six days.

Yeah, like two days after that series ends, Do you really want Zach Gallen pitching against the Padres twice in that short of a span? Probably not. So that's the other thing. I don't even them trying to full throttle for that Padre series, I don't know if that necessarily means that you want Zach Gallen starting in that series. There's a lot of different ways you can think about that. We have a bunch of nerds in our chat. They want the spreadsheet.

I am disgusted by this. I think the spreadsheet just became diehard only content, which is like my favorite thing. I can't stand this. This is gross. But hey, we'll release the spreadsheets eventually. There's a market for my nerd book, right, Derek. It's something you need to understand. You know, I underestimate you sometimes.

I really do. Of course, we thank you guys, whether you want the spreadsheet or not, for being here on the PHANXports YouTube channel. Of course, we implore you to subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so yet. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our wonderful shows go live. And, of course, hit that like button, HTL. We got our guy, Kevin, on the ones in Tuesday, today.

Damon has the day off, but you can still hold the line for Kevin. You hold the line for me. Jesse, again, very self-confident. Doesn't need that kind of instant gratification in life. I need everybody to like me so much. All right, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we hope you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app as well. Make sure you leave us a review.

We always appreciate that feedback. And those five-star reviews definitely help this little podcast thing that we have here. I did want to give a shout out, of course, to all of my wonderful coworkers. We kind of talked about it for a second there, but we had a blast last night sending off Saul Bookman and Michaela Perkins at a karaoke bar in Mesa, Arizona. And as much as I never thought I would have that much fun at a karaoke bar, I was wrong.

And you haven't lived until you've seen Johnny Venerable sing songs from Disney movies. I'm just saying you have not lived until you've seen that. Or Craig sing Journey. It's amazing. In the high notes, hitting the high notes. He did. He did. Yeah.

Craig has a wider vocal range than I do. Yeah. We learned that last night for sure. It was incredible. But I want to say this. And I know, again, this is, I'm going to get mushy. I'm going to get teary eyed, probably. But I also want to address, like, I know people have asked, like, what's going on at

PHNX? And I'll tell you this. It's a wonderful thing in life. It's called growth. Right. And like sometimes you have this little garden you put together and you want all your plants to all like live in this little garden and grow and be happy together. And sometimes one of those plants that you put in there.

there just becomes a monster, just grows bigger and faster than everything else in there. And sometimes you got to give those plants a little space. Sometimes you've got to uproot them, move them somewhere else. It doesn't mean we love our plants any less, but it's wonderful to see the growth that we've had. And that goes back, not just Saul, not just Mac. Of course, you know, we've had Sean DePos from this show go on to do some wonderful things with All-City as well as our, the person who I said I was literally going to, I was going to lock the doors here and not let anybody. leave because they were going to let Emma leave. And, of course, that happened.

So I just wanted to give a shout out, though, to all of those wonderful people that have worked with us. We miss them so much. Flex, who's, one day, I too hope I can send a message that says, I'm leaving just to go travel and live my life. That's what Flex is doing. But I just want to. In your garden analogy, you and I, I guess, are just sort of the weeds.

No, no, weeds necessarily. We're like some perennials, you know, that we're very pretty. but we're okay in the garden box right now. Yeah, we still fit. And yeah, BC says did Saul get fired? We, no, I mean, maybe. No, I'm just joking. Not as far from that as it's possible.

Yeah, absolutely. Saul, in fact, has gone up. He is going to kind of general manage my life still. Like, he's not going anywhere. Saul's just going to be doing some stuff with All-City. So everybody's going on to do some wonderful things. And we're going to miss them very much. But we'll keep, we're not going anywhere.

At least I'm not. He tries to lead me every single day. So, like, I just completely, anytime I get a reference for him, I make him sound like the worst employee ever. But, of course, we do have some partners to talk about here shortly. When we come back, we will talk about our MLB power rankings and so much more. But first, got to check out Empire Today. Empire Today, of course, is the place to go get your flooring. And as I've talked about it, I know when we upgrade things in our home, it can uproot our lives, much like I was talking about earlier.

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One thing I really wish I would have done last night, Jesse, is gone with some Z-biotics before we started our fun night because I did have to drink a certain amount in order for the karaoke machine to start going inside of my heart. But, of course, if I would have started my next day, I would have started with Zbiotics, I would have felt a lot better this morning. I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. And of course, I know many of you don't either.

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backs at checkout for 15% off. All right. Well, of course, we do have some MLB power rankings to take a look at. We haven't had a chance to do these in a while because we've been very busy with Diamondback's baseball but Jesse let's take a look at what we have for the power rankings this week and I love I love the picture of Kattel right there he looks like he is like yes top five here we are but yeah the Phillies of course they're up at the top they cruised after having some struggles a few weeks ago they are now at the top going up from six to five of course what else we got here

I can't see the rankings any longer thank you all right the Dodgers there in the second spot the Yankees and third, diamondbacks at fourth, and rounding out the top five, there's a San Diego Padres. Yeah, yeah. I mean, D-backs,

I think they belong in the dot five. There wasn't really a huge question of my mind here, partially because of how well they've played, and partially because some of these other teams have kind of struggled a little bit lately, including, I mean, the Padres even have taken a step back here. They're just five and five in their last 10 games at this point.

But, yeah, you look at some of these other teams, The Phillies, obviously, at the top are playing really good baseball. They've won eight out of their last 10, 14 out of their last 20. They were a pretty clear number one for me. One note about the Phillies, I guess, which goes back to our earlier conversation, is that Ranger Suarez has not looked quite the same since coming back from the injured list recently. Suarez's Velo has been down a bit lately.

He gave up 12 hits in his last start to the Tampa Bay raise. So that's something to just monitor moving forward. Swords is obviously a really big postseason piece for them. And yeah, I mean, then you take a look at the bottom half of that. I mean, it's like these are all the teams. This is it. I mean, pretty much, I know there's 12 teams making it into the playoffs. But these are the ones to really concern ourselves with right now.

And I mean, of course, there's some things that could change. There's still some teams in the hunt. And I think the good thing about that is that those teams that are still in the hunt, even if they're not in our top 10, those teams are. playing the teams that the Diamondbacks are squaring off with. So there's some good matchups there, including, you know, like a late, I think it's, I don't know, I think it's the, somebody matches up with the Royals there for the last, oh, you're right.

I think it's the Mets maybe or the Braves. I think it's the Braves, yeah, the Braves, yeah. And when I saw that, I don't know, there was part of me that's like, oh, I don't know why, but the Royals are going to smoke the Braves in that series. I just felt it. But I mean, that's because there's a lot on the line for so many of these teams and so many of the teams are close to being in a playoff position themselves. Yeah, we also have the Brewers there at number six.

Of course, the Diamondbacks next opponent. Milwaukee is, I mean, they've been fairly steady. I mean, they're 83 and 62. They're tied with a couple of other teams that the Phillies and the Yankees with the best run differential in baseball at plus 124. But they've also scuffled a little bit recently. The Brewers lost to the Giants 13 to 2 yesterday. I believe they lost their two series before that.

So four and six in the last time. Yeah, they're four and six in the last 10. They've been playing 500 ball over the last 20. So they've come down to Earth a little bit. Maybe this is a good time for the debacks to catch them. The Orioles are another team that has kind of come back down to Earth a little bit. There's still number seven on our list at 83 and 64. Adler, Rushman's really been struggling.

Yeah, Rushman hasn't quite been the same. The offense is scoring, but not as many runs as the Diamondbacks, that's for sure. And, yeah, they've actually lost 16 of their last third. So they've been a below 500 team now for a little over a month. So the Orioles have taken a step back in a way that I didn't really anticipate. Well, I mean, the Diamondbacks are climbing, Jesse. And we do have Catelle on that graphic. So I think it's time we send Catelle up the mountain.

Kevin? I thought that was Mount 500. No, we've passed the pinnacle peak of Mount 500. Now it's like, how far can we go, right? That actual game on Price is right. Like if you go too high, it sends a little man over the edge. In baseball, you can't go too high when it comes to how many wins you got. You could stack those all the way to the moon.

But yes, I really am glad to see the Diamondbacks up there because I think they deserve it. I think they've been a team that I think sometimes we kind of, I don't know. I want to say like, I feel like the Diamondbacks are a team that's like patted on its head. And it's like, oh, what you guys are doing is cute. The way you made to the World Series is cute. It's like, no, no, no. Oh, we are dangerous. I don't know if you've seen the shirt,

but we're connected and we're dangerous. Yeah, and a couple of other notes on the Padres real quick. I think they're another good team for us to touch on just because debaks are obviously very closely connected with them in a number of ways. Fernando Tatis is back. He's homered in each of his last two games, made an unbelievable catch, I think it was, the other day against the Mariners.

So he's a huge addition to that lineup. It's hard to overstate his impact. You know, David Peralta filled in nicely. but Fernando Tatis can be one of the best players in all of baseball when he's healthy. So that was a big get for them. And then as I was saying earlier, that the Padres bullpen is just so insanely good. So, yeah, we have them behind the debacks. Their run differential is 31, 31 runs worse than the diamond backs.

And they have cooled off a bit lately, as we said. But I still, with Tatis back, I think U. Darvish is back now as well. That's a really formidable team. We are going to take a look ahead at that series with the Brewers, not only the probable pitchers, but how the brewers have been doing this season here shortly. But first, we do got to let you guys know. We appreciate you guys that are diehards.

If you're not a diehard yet, make sure to go check out that membership at go phtonx.com. You'll get the spreadsheet. You'll get the access to the spreadsheet. That's the very first benefit that you get when you become a diehard. You get access to the Discord lounge where Jesse will in fact share that spreadsheet with you. You also get yourself a piece of merchandise from PHNX Locker.com. Of course, that welcome kit, which is always fun to receive, get access to all our premium written content as well as discounts on all of our events. It was once again so great spending our last takeover with so many of you guys.

And not only the people that came to the takeover, but I just wanted to briefly thank everybody that we just kind of ran into at Chase Field. There were a lot of great people. I guess saw my buddy, Casey, that I haven't seen in a long time. Meet me at Jack in the Box. I'll fight you, Casey. I also saw Mr. A. Z, the CEO of Arizona was out there and he had Costco pizza with him. He offered me some, I don't know how he gets this food. He brought Costco pizza in the ballpark.

I don't know if you've seen his gimmick, but he brings outside food into the ballpark every single day. I might be blowing his spot up here, but I mean, he advertises it, so it's the way it works. But yeah, he has like, he'll bring Little Miss Barbecue on like a nice wooden board and just eat it in his seat. And the man is living his best life if I'm not, if I'm not lying. But I guess great to meet so many guys. put it in like one of those clear, one of the clear bags, right? The man had a whole box of Costco pizza.

It wasn't even a clear thing. He had a pizza box with him. It was an extra large and I don't know how he got it into Chase Field. Apparently they don't stop you from bringing in food. I didn't know that. That might be news to you guys. But again, thank you so much to so many of you guys that came out.

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these seven games that the Diamondbacks have against the Milwaukee Brewers team is the most critical. And since they haven't played them, we have really not. idea how they're going to match up with the brew crew. The brewers are 83 and 62 this season with a plus 124 run differential. They've had a very good year. Not so great lately, like Jesse said, playing about 500 ball over the last month, four and six in their last 10. They're tied for the 14th best starting pitching ERA at 4.02,

but their bullpen is incredible. Second best bullpen ERA in baseball at 3.15. They have a team OPS of 733, which is good for 11th, which was higher. I mean, for a considerable amount of the season. And then they are at 28 outs above average, which is good for fourth right there behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, this is a good baseball team. And it's a different baseball team in the one the Diamondbacks saw in the postseason last year, right?

I guess the most obvious difference is no Corbyn Burns. The Brewers made a very big trade over the offseason and got better by trading their ace. Even, you know, I think there's a chance the guys they got back in that deal could pay dividends in the long run, but they're not better because of the return of that trade. They're better because of other things that have gone well for this team. And one of the biggest ones is their offense. That was one of the main talking points going into that postseason series last year was that the birds just don't hit like a lot of other teams that make the postseason do. Last year, Milwaukee had a team OPS plus of 91. So they were a well below average offense last year, still managed to win over 90

games. This season, you saw there, the OPS is 733. The OPS plus is 103. So that's a really big improvement from last year. And the big name to know here is Jackson Shurio, who is a 20-year-old outfielder who struggled early in the season. And since June 2nd is slashing 307, 366, 537. He is one of the best players in baseball, and I think is going to be for a long time. They already extended him. They gave him a big extension before you even played a game for them. And it looks like that's going to age pretty well, Derek, because he has been outstanding. And I know the NL Rookie of the Year discourse has all been about Paul Skeens and Jackson Meryl, but Jackson Churio belongs in that conversation as well.

He has been outstanding for these last few months. These freaking kids named Jackson. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that's like a big, like kind of a trendy question among the baseball nerds right now is pick your Jackson. Do you want Jackson Churio or Jackson Merrill? Which of the three do you think will have the best career?

And, yeah, I have no idea. I'm not sure. Torio actually might be my pick. I feel like the brewers are criminally underrated franchise because I just always feel like they're good, but they're never considered to be a good team. Like, people don't talk about the brewers. People don't say that the brewers are like going to light the playoffs on fire. I think most people doubt that they'll maybe even get out of the first round with the things that are with the way things are lined up for them. But they're a very good team and they've kind of always been good.

And that's where they remain. They're better this year. Like you said, somehow their rotation with Freddie Peralta, Colin Ray, Tobias Myers, Aaron Savali, and Frankie Montas, and D.L. Hall. They've just, they've somehow found a way. And again, it's baseball is like this, though. Like, I mean, we, we constantly, like, I just, I don't think stars impact the game of baseball nearly as much as maybe other sports. And I don't think stars like contract really help the teams considering how crazy it gets when you get from being just like a player

that was drafted by a team and you go through those first five or six years and then you break out and you get into that big money, you know, area like that teams like the Padres and the Yankees and stuff can afford to pay. Yeah. Like I just don't necessarily know if baseball is one of those games where it makes that much of a difference, right? Corbyn Burns has been great for the Orioles, right? Like it's not like he got off the team and was bad or that they know they got but it's like overall it feels like they're a better team.

They're a more well-rounded team this year and and Diamondbacks have a lot of games left to play against them. Like I said. Yeah. And another name that stands out here is Willie Adomis, their shortstop who was okay last year, but this year has been on a whole other level. He has a 120 OPS plus 30 home runs, 102 RBI from a shortstop. He is a free agent at the end of the year and is going to make, yeah, he's going to make. yeah he might get like more than the dansby swanson contract i mean you you might be looking at two hundred million dollars for willie adomas this offseason uh he has been that good uh this year

and and i think projects to be very valuable moving forward so um but yeah going back to your earlier point about the brewer is just kind of always being good they have made the postseason in five of the last six years uh they are above 500 basically every season and i am among those who underestimated them this season i don't think i'm alone in that cal category, but I picked the Cardinals to win the NL Central, which is not aged particularly well. Yeah, I'm ashamed. I'm trying to warn you about those Cardinals. I do think the Brewers, on the flip side in terms of like their weaknesses, I don't think

that their starting pitching is as good as it has been this season. Almost all of their starters have outperformed their peripherals by a pretty wide margin. And some of those things have kind of bounced out in recent days. and I think that's partially why the brewers haven't been playing as well lately. Colin Ray, maybe at the top of the list there, he gave up 10 runs, something like that yesterday to the Giants. And he's a guy who's had like a low 3 ERA for most of the season. So, yeah, this team is not, it doesn't really have any weaknesses, but if I were to pick something that they are the worst at, I think their starting rotation is a little bit vulnerable in this post-Corbon Burns era.

Well, let's take a look at how that starting rotation lines up with the Diamondbacks in this upcoming series. The Brewers have Freddie Peralta matching up with Eduardo Rodriguez in game one, which he flipped with Brandon Fott. Is that right? Brandon Fott was supposed to kind of start game one. Yeah, yeah, the Diamondbacks swapped Rodriguez and fought. And yeah, I think the idea there, as we talked about, I think I tweeted out the other day to get fought an extra day. I think the D-backs wanted to make that a priority. So, yeah, Rodriguez moves up, Fott moves back.

to get him that extra day. And then as we said earlier, Zach Gowan moves up to start that Sunday game as opposed to starting on Monday. And Fott faces off against Tobias Myers there in game two of the series. And then they have Zach Gowan get moved up so that he does pitch in this series. And he faces off with left-handed pitcher D.L. Hall.

Brewer is ERA, very good there. Freddie Peralta 3.81. Tobias Myers, 2.93. And then D.L. Hall there, 4.01. Diamondback saw Peralta in the Wild Card Series last year. Yeah. And they handled him pretty well. Yeah, he wasn't he like perfect in four innings?

And then he just totally unraveled in the fifth or something like that. Just fell apart. Yeah, yeah, the debacks eventually got to him. He is a good pitcher, though. As you said, a 381 ERA. He's been solid this year. Tobias Myers has been a revelation for them with an ERA under three. But again, this is a guy who, like, his expected ERA, his FIP, all those other numbers are in the low four.

So I'm not sure I fully buy into to Myers being a breakout guy on quite this level. But he's still a good pitcher. He is crazy ride on his on his foreseen fastball. So that'll be something to watch on on Saturday. Ogaio 497.8 says they suck against left-handed pitching. Let's or let's let's hope that's the case for sure. We're talking about the brewer sucking against left-handed pitching? He says worse in the league.

We'll verify that for you. But of course, you might be right. And of course the whole thing here with the diamond back. is that this like this is the the main one I feel like they need to figure out if they can find a way Have a good game plan here against the Brewers and find a way to win both series that they have against them That would be five wins in seven games and I mean five wins puts them at 87 With a series against the Rockies still on the schedule on a series against the Giants on the schedule One thing with the starters that we have an address is that Ryan Nelson was basically skipped this turn through the rotation

which is a little odd he pitched on Sunday, of course, against the Astros, and he is not scheduled to pitch this weekend. Is he going to start against the Rockies? My guess is that he will start against the Rockies. I don't think he pitched the first game of the series because Tori was asked and confirmed that he wanted to keep Gallen. He wants to keep Gallen and Kelly back to back moving forward, which you can understand going into the playoffs.

So, yeah, I'm guessing that Ryan Nelson will pitch on Tuesday against the Rockies. And that's interesting for a variety of reasons. One of them being, do the Diamondbacks reshuffle their rotation in this way to make Ryan Nelson their third starter? Do they want to go into the playoffs with Zach Allen number one, Merrill Kelly number two, and Ryan Nelson number three? I don't know if that was part of the calculus, but it's a question that I have to ask because it's a little weird that they skipped Ryan Nelson when I know he didn't he wasn't great on Sunday against the Astros. but he's been a really good pitcher for this team lately, and they're giving him a whole lot of extra rest here. What are you doing?

What are you doing as manager? What am I doing as manager? Is Ryan Nelson your third pitcher in the playoffs? In the playoffs? That's a good question. It's hard, right? Because, I mean, I just can't help but think about how good Brandon Fought was last year. And I know Brandon Fott has had a big workload this year.

I know that there's, I mean, we talked to Tori about if he thought that that Brandon would pitch too much. And it didn't sound like it. He said his velocity hasn't dropped or anything like that. Right. Stuff is pretty much similar. stuff still look good but we'll see we'll see how things stack up when the playoffs come around yeah i think it's interesting this year um i've heard i haven't looked at the the schedule myself but

from people that i very much trust apparently in the division series this year if you play a five game series you play all five games in the division series you need four starters with how the schedule lines up whereas last year the debacks were able to get away with three starters uh in that dodger series so obviously they only played three games that was part of it um but But even if they had gone to five games, the debacks would not have needed to use a bullpen game in that series. Whereas this year, you are going to have to use four if the series goes its full length. So, yeah, even in division series, you might have to pitch both Ryan Nelson and Brandon fought. But I don't know, it's a really interesting question.

I think, I mean, Ryan Nelson's pitching a lot better recently. So I would probably lean toward him. And I wonder if that's part of the debacks thinking here is like, we really believe in him and we want to set him up behind our top two guys and maybe that's the way it stays throughout the playoffs. Jagurtha is with it, Jesse. Okay. Jagirtha says Ryan Nelson is the most consistent pitcher all season. Not at least like since June.

Yeah, I mean, Ryan Nelson has been the most consistent pitcher on this team by a pretty wide margin in that span. Gabriel Ferrer wants to Frankenstein him and says big game Brandon for two times through the order of the nasty Nelly to finish it off. Yeah, that's another option. That's fair. You wanted to like try to tag team them. You know, it might depend on, you don't want to like,

Tag team. Sorry. I'm like, I don't even know if you really, really know the wrestling reference there. But I got excited. It was a pro wrestling reference. I got excited. An inadvertent wrestling reference on my part. My mistake.

Yeah, that's interesting. My guess is you probably would want to avoid that, you know, especially. I imagine that would put you in a difficult spot for like the next series or the next game or whatever if you were or later within that series. if you used both of those guys on the same day, because again, you're going to need four starters pretty much throughout this postseason run. Eduardo Rodriguez is another name we should mention here.

Like, I can't, we're not like dismissing. Eduardo Rodriguez as a guy the debacks might want to use in the playoffs. There's still certainly time for him to turn things around and show that he's deserving of that opportunity. But they're in a much better position than they were last year when after Brandon fought, you pretty much had bullpane game as your next option, right? I don't think we're going to see that. Let's not forget about that, shall we?

But, all right, well, the Diamondbacks, of course, aren't the only ones pushing for the playoffs. Sanderson Ford, of course, is also pushing for the playoffs. And you get the payoffs when it comes to their deals. Like right now, you can get a deal on 24 Ford Broncosport Big Bend, just ranked highest in its quality by JD Power. And you also can get 0% financing for 36 months with no payments for 90 days on the Ford F150, Escape, Edge Explorer, and the Expedition.

So go check out Sanderson Ford. They are family owned and operated through three generations. They have a wonderful diner on premise. So like if you got to eat lunch while you're there making a deal happen, you can do so. And they also thrive on a no hassle, no pressure, and no nonsense sales approach. They will get you the vehicle you're looking for and get you the best deal that they can. Right now the Sanderson Ford Summer sales event is here and they're teaming up with the boys of summer for a final playoff payoff sale. Purchase or lease any new Ford and you will get four tickets for your family to see the debacks push for the playoffs.

also get 0% for 36 months OAC from Ford Credit C dealer for details. And as we say around here, the future is very bright for the Arizona Diamondbacks. So you need to plan accordingly with a good pair of sunglasses right now. Get ready for the postseason with a fire pair of sunglasses. Damon and I are putting together our postseason gear. We bought some new baseball gloves yesterday that we has grown men that don't play baseball absolutely didn't need to purchase. But we're also getting ourselves some new fire sunglasses from our friends at Shady Rays because that is important and you need to block out the sun to catch those fly balls that we will just basically be throwing to each other out in the courtyard out here. But I will say Shady Rays is an amazing company,

an independent sunglass company that offers a world-class product. Right now, check out their color rush lenses. They are amazing. They make everything more bright, more vivid. And they'll help you not only block out the sun, but they'll help you see everything else better. Plus, if your shades ever go missing or take an unexpected hit, you don't have to sweat it at all with Shady Rays. They have the most insane protection plan in all of eyewear. Every pair is backed by a lost and broken replacement plan. It says if you lose or break your Shady Rays, even on day one, they will get you out a brand new pair. So you can also exchange your sunglasses if you don't absolutely love them for a new pair or return them worry free within 30 days, no risk at all when you shop

over at Shady Rays. Exlusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to Shadyrays.com and use code P-HNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Well, that is all we have. No more spreadsheets for you guys. You don't get any more spreadsheets. That's premium content, like we said. But, of course, we do have another show for you tomorrow.

So make sure to join us after game one of that series with the Brewers. We'll have a postgame show for you right here. This man will be at Chase Field. It's at Chase Field, right? It is at Chase Field. I don't do a good job of tracking this stuff. Next week it is Milwaukee. So they're playing seven games against the Brewers in like a nine day,

10 day span. Yeah. I think I did that right. Yeah, 10 days span. It's like the Cubs last year where they played seven games against the Cubs in the month of September. I'm not sure they were quite this close together. Scheduling needs to be better.

Scheduling needs to be better. It is a lot. It's absurd. There are definitely scenarios where this could have been scheduled out better. But hey, it makes it exciting, right? This is where we're at. Elizabeth says you're depriving me of spreadsheets. WTF, well, I mean, you got to pay is what I'm saying.

And I know she's a she's a premium. She's a diehard. She'll be okay. Calm down. You'll get your spreadsheets. Oh, man. Well, do we even have to do the show? Do we just pop open Excel on here on a screen and we just go crazy with it?

That's my dream is for us to have a whole show where we just screen share and we're just like scrolling through spreadsheets. It sounds amazing. You know what? I'll quit. I'll quit this show as well. I'm saying. But of course, you still have me here in the meantime for how long. Who knows? It depends on how much you drive this spreadsheet nonsense. You can follow me on Twitter, though, at K-U-N-M-A-M-A-K. Of course, you can follow Jesse here at Jesse N. Friedman. And our guy, Kevin, Kevin, where are you at on Twitter?

We still call Twitter around here. We don't call it X, by the way. I'm at Kev-T-O-M-Rights. Like how you write. That's right. On paper. Follow our new guy. Happy to have him here, of course, and happy to have you guys here. Of course, if you have not subscribed to the channel, do so now. Hit that like button before you go. Most importantly, make sure to follow our account at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Appreciate your time today.

Thank you for stopping by. We hope you guys have a wonderful day off. Baseball will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, behave yourselves tonight. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. If you could figure out a way to get Zach Gallen, just one more start before the end of the season. Man.