PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are the Diamondbacks still a WAGON after losing three out of four to the Padres?

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Despite scoring more runs in the series, the Arizona Diamondbacks lose three out of four to the San Diego Padres at Chase Field over the weekend. With their two biggest foes now in their rear view mirror until August, we look ahead at a much easier portion of the schedule for the D-backs. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions and more!WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1693757). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Plus join us at the BetMGM Sportsbook at State Farm Stadium for all Suns’ away playoff games. Our PHNX Suns watch parties, presented by NUTRL, will feature food and drink specials, PHNX giveaways, and BetMGM deposit matches. Join us by grabbing your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/616706063437Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.PHNX: Become a Diehard today! Check out https://phnxlocker.com/ to grab your membership to receive exclusive content, discounts on all events and merch, and access to our Discord chats. Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxFour Peaks: Join us for our NFL Draft Day Live Party at Four Peaks’ 8th St. Pub. Register for free to receive drink specials: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-cardinals-nfl-draft-party-tickets-610031329127Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Not even the stomach flu can keep me away from this podcast. Welcome on in to the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a sick boy. And thank you to my vice mayor, Jesse Friedman, for holding it down for me while I was out yesterday. Thank you, sir. But of course, it's the thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Well, the stomach flu did keep you out for one day, Derek. I don't know what you're talking about there.

I was in the office. I was ready to go. you know you did not want to be locked in a room with me at that point. So let's be honest here. Things weren't going well for me yesterday. But things didn't go well for the Diamondbacks this weekend, either. You could say they did lose three out of four to the San Diego Padres. And of course, that immediately has us asking the question,

is this team still a wagon? Jesse, are they still a wagon? I want to say yes. And I want to say that there's a lot of reasons that even if they did lose this particular series to the Padres, we should still be pretty happy overall with the record the Diamondbacks have as we close out the month of April. Yeah, I mean, I'm still a little bit unclear on what exactly makes a team a wagon. You're going to, you know, I'm a very analytical person, Derek.

You're going to have to give me a normal definition at some point of what that means. You need factors. You need like stats. You need like where exactly is the threshold like a 95 mile per hour hard hit ball? That's a hard hit ball. We know that. We know where the threshold is on that. I would say, considering the strength of schedule, considering how difficult their schedule was in the month of April, that coming out with a 500 record or better makes them a wagon.

That's what I'm going to say, because things get much easier after this. And, of course, they've had their ups and downs. Not everything has gone their way, but still, when you look back at this month and they've only lost two series in the month of April, considering how difficult their opponents were, I'm going to say that the Diamondbacks are still a wagon. Yeah, I mean, if we're talking about are the D-backs in a good position, like, have they played well? That's a question that I can answer. And to that I will emphatically say yes, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Right, 12 and 11 after these 23 games, Derek, we've pegged these 23 games for a while, far before the season even started as being a big key to this season. And the last thing you want is to, you know, start the year 8 and 15, 9 and 14, something like that.

And to be honest, I came into the season thinking that those were fairly realistic outcomes because the Dodgers are very good. The Padres are very good, at least we think those two teams are. And then you got the Cardinals in there. The Brewers have one of the best records of the National League right now. The Miami Marlins, you know, beat the debacks in that three game series and are 12 and 10 to start. the year. So there was a world in which the debacks could still have a decent 2023 season and have been terrible through the first 23 games of the year, right? That's how difficult this stretch was for them on paper to come out of this 12 and 11, you know, even though they, they dropped three out of four

games to the Padres. It's still an enormous win in my book. And it's just not that. It's not just an enormous win in your book. Jesse wrote an article actually about this. And I know that you covered a lot of a lot of what we're talking about. But man, when you take a listen to Tori LeVolo's comments that you have a quote from in your article where he said, my family, my friends, we're all worried about having to play the Dodgers and the Padres the first 10 games of the season. I said it would be a great test for us. And no matter how we come out of that, record-wise, we're going to be better for it.

The fact that we've come out a little bit ahead, I'm excited about. And I think everybody should be excited about, to be honest. I mean, I know it's a little bit of a bummer to come off of a weekend like that. lose a four-game series at home to the Padres. But, man, I mean, the Padres are just such a difficult team. They're just such a very, very deep team, something else that you covered in your article that, you know, it's just when you start looking past the superstars, the guys that beat the Diamondbacks in the series weren't even those guys, really.

It really was those other depth pieces that really, you know, you concentrate and you focus all your energy on the Juan Soto's and the Mani Machadoes. And now you have Matt Carpenter coming up here, hitting 8 RBI. in a game or however many he had. So, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of crazy. But I do think that the Diamondbacks fans, us, we should, we should be thrilled about where they're at and that they still have a lot of work to go, right? I mean, obviously they've come back down to earth a little bit, but this entire time,

I don't really feel like they've ever really been playing really, really well. Like they had a couple of games, the nine to nothing win in the series against Padres, probably one of their biggest wins of the season, most impressive wins of the season. But I mean, the rest of the wins, they've just been finding a way to win. And that in itself is a bit impressive, considering that they're not, you know,

kind of rolling on all cylinders at this point. Yeah, I mean, it would be one thing if, you know, you had several guys hitting 400 and, you know, Jake McCarthy had a 1,200 OPS or, you know, like some of those things have happened, right? I mean, Geraldo Pernomo has had an unprecedented start to the year. There have been some big positives in the early going,

but by no means are you seeing this Diamondbacks team just like playing out of their minds, right? Like I think there are a lot of guys who haven't really hit their stride yet. If you look at Lordus Coriel Jr., I know he's had some good days more recently, but his numbers for the season, he's still been a below replacement level player. Like his full body of work is actually quite poor at this point. Jake McCarthy, I know he had a big home run late in that game yesterday.

which was certainly good for him to see. He's been pretty much a non-factor offensively. Alec Thomas has had his moments, but overall you really haven't gotten much there. Yeah, speaking of which, Jake had a lot to say about my hair. Just all things considered, right?

I mean, you know, I have a lot to say about my hair. Speaking of which, I really did, Jesse, meet an exquisite hairstylist at the pro wrestling show the other night. Really?

She had purple hair, and she just happened to tell me, because I was going to ask her who did her hair. I was going to approach this woman and see what hairstylist, like if she had a card, some information she could pass along. And then she told me she was the hairstylist that did her own hair. And that she specializes,

specializes Jesse in purple hair. What are the odds of that? Those odds that, those odds are slim to none, man. Let me tell you. So I don't know. Things might be progressing. And I might not be able to stop it to purple hair, Derek.

but the schedule does get easier, not just now, not just here at the end of this month, but the entire month of May is something that at this point looks fairly nice, even though some of the teams that we probably had checked off as being easier, easier opponents might not be so easy now, but they do finish up April with three at home versus the Royals and then three in Colorado. So in order to get to Purple Hair, Derek, they have to win three of those six games. Good luck, gentlemen. But how fitting, how fitting would it be, Jesse, if they did secure this victory in Colorado, right?

A little purple, purple, purple action going on there, maybe. I don't know. But anyway, May does start out with the most difficult tests going forward with the Texas Rangers, who have been pretty good this season. But after that, man, things get so much easier for this team. We're talking about Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins, again, probably one of their biggest opponents in the month. Then you got the Giants, the Oakland A's, the Pirates.

another surprising team that's been very, very good this season. Phillies, Red Sox, and then you close out with the Rockies. And honestly, those are all very winnable series looking forward. They really are. Yeah, they really are. I mean, it's not necessarily that, you know, it's not like it's all the A's and the nationals or something where it's like, oh my gosh, you better win these series.

There are some decent teams in there. But there's, but there are no teams that compare to what the debacks have been facing up until this point. At least we think, right? we still think the Cardinals are going to be a pretty good team. The Brewers look like they're certainly going to be formidable, whether it's in the division race or in the wild card.

So, yeah, the Marlins are the only team the D-backs have played up to this point where you felt like you had, you know, a good chance to win a series of team that's maybe not that good. But in this next, it's 34 games. I mean, this is literally from now through June 1st, the Diamondbacks will not see a team that is of the caliber of basically all of the team. that they've played up until this point. It's an incredible 180.

Like this stretch might be, the degree to which this stretch is easy might be even greater than the degree to which what they've played up until that was difficult. Like it is a complete switch to the other direction. Right. Because even some of the teams that might have been tougher weren't, right? Like, you know, some of these teams that we're looking at ahead, they're not too intimidating,

at least with the way they've been playing up to this point this season. Like I said, you got the Rangers, the Pirates, maybe the Marlins. Those are the teams that are going to be. Yeah. And I still have my, I still have my suspicions about really all of those teams, if I'm being on.

Oh, definitely. None of them. About the pirates winning the central. No, no, but the pirates, man, they're off to an incredible start. And you just kind of have to their first right now in the National League Central. They just secured their manager or contract extension with the way they've been playing so well. So, I mean, there, there's a lot there to like.

But most importantly, it's just, it's fun, right? Like we've talked, we've been wanting this. We've been wanting the tide to turn on some of these bigger teams. And to be honest, I love to see teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and the pirates being on on people's, you know, power rankings now above other teams. I love to see the Orioles up there. And to be honest, the Diamondbacks still falling in the top 15 in a lot of power rankings, which I feel like is fair because even though we are very excited about what they've done,

they're still playing close to 500 baseball at this point. I really haven't done enough, I think, to have them up in the top 10 teams of baseball yet. But I feel like they're on the rise. And I think things will change with this easier schedule. I don't think as many analysts will think about or factor that in that their schedule was so hard in the month of April and so easy in the month of May. So when they start seeing them win these games, it's going to be, hopefully, I should say, I shouldn't just put the cart. Because again, this is a, like you said, they played well against better opponents. and then, you know, honestly, not to attack the Marlins,

but the one team that we thought that they would kind of have their way with a bit was the team that the first one to beat them in a series. So they can't overlook any of these teams. And it really is imperative that they do get on a roll in the month of May. June is not as easy, but it still has its fair share of easy opponents too. They don't see these other teams. They don't see these Dodgers and these Padres again until August. So that's something that's very exciting, very exciting to not have to look.

these Padres lineup again. Can I ask you? So I think we're all in agreement the 12 and 11 over these first 23 games. Big success, right? Sure. Great outcome. One of the best things you honestly could have realistically hoped for. So in these next 34 games, where's the line of success for you?

Is it? Because I don't think we're happy with 17 and 17, right? I don't think people would be happy with that. Is it 19 wins? Is it 20 wins? What do you say? The expectations have changed. I would say 20 wins would probably be what?

it would feel like the expectation was because there are so many series here they should win, right? And not only that, but then they have four against the Rockies to close out the month. The Nationals, not a very good baseball team. The Oakland A's they've been getting pummeled, right? So right there, there's three series that they should be able to get two, four, and maybe even three wins out of. I mean, that right there is seven wins. So I don't know. I think that the expectations for this team are going to constantly change.

to be honest. I think that getting out of this month the way that they did is is impressive. And again, that's going to change the way people view this team. I just think that they have a chance right now to hopefully, you know, get this team back on track. Maybe make some more of those, I don't know, tough decisions if you want to call it, but make some of those decisions, right, like they did with Madison Bumgarner, calling up a Brandon fought. maybe after what we saw with Dre Jameson in his last start,

maybe putting him back to the bullpen might not only help him out, but it might also help the bullpen out that really needs that kind of long reliever that we really haven't had. So I'm excited for how this team is going to change because I feel like the barriers I've been removed. And again,

I brought this up on a past show last week, but it really does feel like the team is in the mode that they are going to go with who allows them to make, who allows them to win games. who allows them to make the most progress. There's going to be some things like the, you know, Tommy Henry getting the start in today's game instead of Brandon Fought

because of the logistics of it. But Brandon Fought's going to be called up here. Not too long from now. I know we have a couple of questions about that, so I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. But I did want to make sure to tell you guys to make sure check out Jesse's article on GoPHNX.com for more on this start by the Arizona Diamondbacks and more on how the players feel about the schedule

and how difficult this first stretch was where they're at after this first stretch. But one thing I don't want to see again to August is the Padre's owner just viving at Chase Field, Jesse. Peter Seidel was just having himself a great old time at Thursday's series opener. I think we have video of that from talking baseball. Can you imagine Ken Kendrick doing that, Jesse?

Could you imagine Ken Kendrick vibing around Chase Field like that? I really couldn't, especially not another ballpark, but Chase Field, could you imagine him getting that kind of reaction? I don't know. Well, I think here with us. If we're being honest, I don't know if Ken would quite meet the same degree of enthusiasm walking around in the stands as Peter Seidler did there. But yes, we do need to get Ken on the show at some point.

I am on board with that. That's right. I mean, we love to get Ken on and talk about his thoughts, especially with this team being in the position they are in. And again, there was some real heartfelt sincerity I felt before the season. about him wanting to turn things around and really wanting himself to go with the young talent on this team. And so far, that young talent has been the reason why they are 12 to 11.

Yeah. Also, they have some really good pitching in Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly, but Zach Gallen just continues to be outstanding. Yeah, I mean, on the whole Peter Sidler thing, I will say that it's crazy to me how much of a legend, a baseball owner who is willing to spend copious amounts of money, Steve Cohen, too. He was, he was vibing at a Mets game and people were coming up to him and just loving him,

showing him all. Yeah, because that's what, that's what people want, right? Even if you're like, honestly, the, the Padres have a sub 500 record. And I think maybe the Mets do too. I don't know. Well, the Padres are 500 now. Now, now, right. But, but they weren't, they weren't at that point, right?

They weren't at that point when he was there at the game. So, I mean, I'm just saying, like, it's not even a matter of security. It's like you said, it's really a matter of if you open up the checkbook and you spend the money and you do the things that you think you need to do in order to get this, you know, in order to get your team to be a winner, then people will love you for it, even if it really doesn't work out. But anyway, make sure to check out Jesse's article over at go phnx.com if you haven't done so already. Sign up for a diehard's membership while you're over there. Not only do you get access to all of Jesse's content, including his full count newsletter, but you also get access. to our wonderful discounts with our partners. You get a free piece of merch like this. It's always sunny in the Valley shirt. I'm rocking right now over at PHNXLocker.com. You get 20% off all future purchases as well.

Members only merchandise, members only discounts to events, members only invites to events. And speaking of invites to events, we have our PHNXDbacks takeover. Coming up tomorrow, April 25th, Jesse. You can join us and the crew for our first takeover at Chase Field on April 25th, 640.

PM first start weekend we are going to be at cold beers and cheeseburgers for pregame festivities and then we're going to watch the squad take on the royals you can grab your tickets through the link in our show notes you can grab that takeover season pass where you will get this shirt for free as part of that and so much more we got so many events going on we have a golf tournament going on make sure to join us make sure to come out we're having a lot of fun we want you guys to come out and join us for that if you're watching us right now on the phnxports youtube channel we appreciate you guys being here leave us a thumbs up, a like letting you know we're here and that you're glad I overcame the stomach flu. You can also sign up for notifications that way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. If you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, make sure to subscribe to us there. Leave us a review. We always appreciate the feedback.

And we want to give a big shout out to our friends at BetMGM. Nothing makes baseball more fun than betting on it. And of course, you can get all sorts of fun signature bets over at BetMGM. New customers can click into the MBS. a playoff for matchup of choice. There's the signature bets tab. Each game market has their own unique set of signature bets.

Also, we're going to have some PHNX curated in-at bets as well. I can't wait to bet on the Shane Diefenlock every week. And join us at the sports book out there. That sports book is an incredible place. Of course, we know a lot of people don't go out to State Farm Stadium when it's not football season. This is the best reason to go out to State Farm Stadium. Join us for all PHNX Suns away games. We are going to be having playoff watch parties out there presented by neutral.

If you haven't signed up for the BetMGM app, you can use bonus code PHNX. There's a few different offers depending on where you live. But for our Arizona audience, you will get up to $100 in bonus bets on your first wager with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Also join our Knockout Knights Cornhold League during the first Friday of every month. They're free to enter and will include food and beverage specials, give away, and bet MGM prizes, including

bonus offer, bonus matches, all sorts of stuff. Check out our show notes for the full details. And now, Shane is here to talk about the disclaimer. Claimer, 21 plus to wager, visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Nevada, New York, and Ontario. Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778. Hope, N.Y.

467-369, New York. call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-800-5-22-4-7-0-0-C-0-G-0-7-0-0-1-0-1-Satucet. 1-800-1-1-7-1-7 for confidential help, Michigan. All right, well, it's Monday, Jesse. You know what we do around here. Whether we're in studio, whether we're not in the studio, whether it's Monday, you know, every week,

it's Shark Week on the show. Every day on the show is Earth Day. And, of course, every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. Everything in my mailbox and then when we go out. All right. First question comes from our friend Gabriel at bold as bronze on Twitter. And he asks, it's a month into the season.

What are some red flags and some green flags? Will some of the red flags, green flags, be sustained or will they revert back to the mean? All right. Well, as far as red flags go, I'm not thrilled right now with the team's walk rate or their patience. Once again, I think that it's been very frustrating, considering that this team knows what they can do once they get on the base path, yet nobody wants to be that patient to try to just get on the base path, right? And I felt like we saw a little bit more patience at times during the season,

and it really worked well for this team. But we're just not seeing it on a consistent basis. They're still not making starting pitching work hard enough, and they're still just not getting that, driving that pitch count up to, you know, knock those starting pitchers out just a bit earlier. I think that they've seen a lot of success when they get into, the bullpen and they're just not getting there soon enough. Yeah, it's a 5.3% walk rate, which is the lowest in baseball by a pretty considerable margin.

The next lowest is the Kansas City Royals at 6.2%. So, yeah, I think that's definitely something that the debacks are going to want to shore up over time. We did play a clip on the show yesterday from Christian Walker, who basically explained that at least part of the reason for that might just be. the debacks feel like their offense is good. They feel like, you know, when they need to claw back and get a few more runs, that they want to be swinging their bats because they're having a lot of success with that. And there is some truth of that, Derek.

Like the debacks have the six highest team batting average in baseball right now. Their slugging percentage is also in the top half of the league. It's just the on-base percentage that's fairly low just because they're not drawing their walks as you talked about. So I still am confident that over time this will bounce. balance out a little bit. I wouldn't say this is, it's not something I expect to be a big weakness for the debacks this season.

I think Josh Rojas is going to draw his walks. I think Christian Walker is going to draw his walks. I think Corvin Carroll is going to draw his walks. Heraldo Pardomo. If you just like look up and down the lineup, there's enough guys here who have a history of drawing walks that I'm not really concerned. And all of a sudden, they're just going to stop doing that. So not, not too too concerned about that one.

I will say as far as the star pitching is concerned, I think there's a lot of unanswered questions there right now. Yeah, absolutely. The DeBAC's team ERA is 4.84 coming into today. And I don't think the bullpen has, you know, been like all the problem and the starters have been great. It's kind of just been a balance where neither the bullpen nor the starting rotation overall have been all that great. And obviously, you know, Madison Bumgarner is going to be a big part of that 4.84 ERA. If you take his numbers out, it would definitely go down quite a bit.

But I still, after we saw what we saw from Drey Jameson yesterday, I think you're still a little shaky about what his future in the rotation looks like. Ryan Nelson has gotten roughed up a little bit more of late. So you don't necessarily know what you're getting there. Tommy Henry will see what he looks like today. There's just a lot of volatility right now with having three very young pitchers in the starting rotation. And I guess as far as this question goes, do you think that these, I mean, the walks, I think they'll get right about, but the starting pitching, I'm not as confident about. Yeah. You know, that's why it, it delights me to see Zach Gallen pitching as well as he is because they really needed that ace.

They needed somebody that could go out there and kind of get everything back on track, even if the rest of the rotation wasn't able to, you know, Drey Jamison's start on Sunday was really weird. I didn't get a chance to talk about it, but, watching that first inning and watching him be unable to hit the strike zone, use just nothing but fastballs and not even be able to hit the strike zone. And I mean, not even close. It wasn't like, to be honest, going back to Bumgardner, Bumgardner, like a lot of times is trying to, you know, hit that edge and he couldn't really, you know, get his pitches in there. But he was close enough that, you know, it's right there.

He's just not, he's just not in the zone to get the call. Drey was so far away from the zone yesterday that I want to chalk it up to just a bad day for him. I really do because we haven't really seen him struggle in that way at any point, I feel like. But also it was like it was the fact that he just relied on his fastball, nothing but that. Yeah, that was just such a weird choice. And he has a good arsenal, you know. Yeah. What also stood out to me going back and looking at the numbers last night is his villa was up.

It was almost like Dre Jason. It was like, I don't have my slider. So I'm just going to throw the heck out of this four seamer. But he wasn't. But he wasn't able to get him. the zone, right? Like, so he was throwing it, what was he hitting like 98, 98, 99, I think, maybe, or so yeah, he topped out at 99 and averaged like 98, 97, 98 with the four seamer, 96, 97 with the sinker. I believe Tom Candiotti on the, on the broadcast said it on the radio. He said, like,

maybe try taking a little bit off of that fastball and getting it in the zone. Like, you know, it's like he was throwing it so hard. Like you said, it's probably to overcompensate for not having a good feel for his slider. But yeah, there's still a lot of questions there. And there's going to continue to be questions there because it's a young pitching staff, you know, and honestly, even the two guys at the top had question marks about them at points in their career, Merrill Kelly coming over like he did for this team and Zach Gallen, you know, being part of that jazz chisholm trade, these are guys that we didn't know what we were going to get. And now they've become, you know, the ace and the mainstay, right?

So like, if we can get some of these young guys on track, I'm not as worried. We still have Zach Davies in the mix as well, but it sounds like Zach Davies won't be back for at least, what, like another month plus. Yeah, probably. They're going to need them through this stretch, and hopefully they can be solid for them. But green flags, real fast, speed, ability to create runs,

ability to do things. Yesterday we saw the first time that they hit three home runs in a game, so the power's starting to pick up again. So, like, everything that we've seen them be kind of slow on, I feel like is gaining traction. and everything that they've done well this season, they continue to do well. The base running is incredible

and continues to apply so much pressure to opposing defenses that I don't know why. Like, that's the part that frustrates me about the walks. You know, you're able to literally turn a walk into a double within a few minutes and you're just not being patient enough to try to get on base. It's kind of frustrating. I would also add a lot of people view the debacks

as being like a hit first but no power kind of a team. team. And I actually don't think that's true. If you look at isolated power, which is basically the difference between your batting average and your slugging percentage, basically just measures extra base hits, how many of them you had, what type they are. The debacks are actually in the top half of the league in that. So they're certainly not, you know, a big bopper type of the team. To be fair, a lot of that is with their legs, though, right? Because most of those hits would be singles for other guys, but they're not for Corbyn Carroll. And, I mean, even Cattel has been very fast this season. So we've seen Katel showing some speed.

He did have a triple yesterday. I don't know if that means he's necessarily all that much fast. He did, he did make it to third base. But yeah, all that to say, I think there's maybe a little more power there than people realize it's more extra base hit power than it is home run power. But I do still think that's there. And the other thing we have to mention is defense. The defense are probably the best defensive team in baseball. Defensive run saved. I think their second outs above average, their first entering today. And not only that,

but I mean, we just, they're not making plays that frustrate you. They're not making plays that you're like, you should have gotten to that, right? We're not seeing Cotel make those plays or miss those plays like he did last year,

where he was trying to kind of make some sort of snazzy grab. You know, we're seeing Cotel get back to the fundamentals and get down behind the ball and field it correctly. And we're seeing that just them do all the fundamental fundamentally correct. Then on top of that, they're just making some incredible plays defensively that nobody should be making. But it's been fun to watch.

And the defense, I think, again, when you talk about those things, run production, defense, speed, those are all things I don't think that we're going to see them slow down on this season. I think we're going to see them continue to have success at all of that stuff. What else do we got, Damon? Drayton Anderson asks, do we think the debacks are patient with Jameson as a starter? Or do you think he will be moved to the bullpen quick given the success he had there early in season? well, I think right now it's all about opportunity and where the Diamondbacks need him, right? I very much could see him going back to the bullpen, especially if he has another bad start like we saw on Sunday.

But I also think that this team right now needs him in there as a starting pitcher. I don't think that they want to make that move to Brandon fought yet. I feel like that might be a break glass in case of emergency. And they don't really want to get in the way of his progress, even though Mike Heisen, emphatically said he was ready to come to the major league roster. Yeah, I mean, as of right now, I mean, you still got the same logistics issue where even if you wanted to bring in fought for Jameson, they don't line up at all right now. So you still have, you still look at that problem.

I will say if Drey Jamison at some point is removed from the starting rotation, which I don't think the leash is very long for any of these guys, given that you have fought, and then you've got Zach Davies coming back not too far from now. Right. I think he would be moved to the bullpen if that were, if that were to happen. I don't see the debacks moving Jameson down to AAA to start there. I think they would just be like, you know what, at least for this year, we're going to call him a reliever. He was good there at the beginning of the season.

That's a need for us. We need some more right-handed thump in the bullpen. That would be my expectation if they did get to that point. How, you know, how quickly they would make that move is a little bit harder to say. but I don't think the leash is super long for any of them, like I said. Right. And especially it's the short outings too, right? The short outings just put so much pressure on the bullpen.

And they've had quite a few short outings from starting pitching this year that they just don't really have the relief for right now at this point. So yeah, I would say that that would probably be a fairly safe bet. And honestly, I know you don't want to put a timetable on it. But I'd say if there was two more outings that looked anything like Sunday, we'd probably see James. and return of the bullpen. Yep. All right, what else we got, Damon? These next two questions

kind of go hand in hand. When do you think fought will be called up? That was kind of related to what we were just talking about. And Brian Bobbitt asked, I'm catching an Aces game in mid-May. Do you think Fought could be called up by then? Would like to catch him if he's still there. Jesse, do you think Fought will still be in Reno in mid-May?

Oh, mid-May is so tough. I mean, if you said, like, June 1st, I would probably say, no, I think he's going to be in big leagues. If you said May 1st, I'd be like, No, he still is still going to be green up. Mid-May is right in that gray area where it's pretty hard to, it's pretty hard to say. But a couple of things. I think that the Diamondbacks are ready to plug in Brandon Fott the instant that they have a reason to do so.

So the moment, like we were just talking about with Jameson, not too long, you're not going to have a long leash. If Ryan Nelson, Dre Jameson, or Tommy Henry struggle in their rotation, I think the debacks would go ahead and make that move. On the flip side, if those guys pitch well, you know, if Tommy Henry strings together a few nice starts and Dre Jameson's back and Ryan Nelson, you know, kind of hang steady in their rotation, I don't think the debacks are going to come out and like force Brandon fought into the rotation if they don't have a need for it. They're not just going to demote someone else to bring him up. That would be very contrary to everything they've done up until this point. So it very much depends on how those three guys in the rotation do,

as well as the timetable of Zach Davies and how soon he comes back. Performance. And that's something that Mike Hazen talked about, something that Tori LeVoeuvallo talked about. It comes down to performance. And at this point, nobody's job is safe,

maybe outside of a Zach Gallen, maybe outside of Richard Walker. Yeah, Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly are safe in the rotation. But anyone after that, Brandon Fogg could come in within a couple weeks. Wouldn't shock me. There it is. Well, we thank you guys so much.

much for being here. If you haven't had a chance to check out our friends of Mountain Mikes, they are all about giving you the best value for your money when it comes to pizza. They have an incredible lunch buffet to check out that me and Jesse very much enjoyed during the fall, fall league games. You can check out their Mesa, Chandler, or Tucson location, which I guess I'm going to have to check out their Tucson location this weekend. I will be down there in Tucson, much to Damon's delight. And we want to thank them for always hooking us up with amazing food. And we want to thank them for hooking our diehards up with a $50 gift card when you sign up to be a diehard member.

Head over to Mountmikespisa.com or to their Mesa Chandler, Tucson locations to place your next order. Reminder, once again, new diehards get that $50 voucher upon signing up. And before we head on to our more mailbag Monday questions, we have to thank our friends at Moore Furniture for always allowing us to talk about Jesse's lack of chase lounges

in his house. And obviously, this weird shower that he has in the background of his bedroom. Everybody keeps talking about. Cover the shower. or in the background. Does Moore Furniture have new closet doors? Maybe. You can check out MoreFurniture.com

and see what they have for whatever you need. And they have their white glove delivery service, which we received in our office. We've talked about a bunch, and it is the best way to have furniture brought in your house. There's just some things that we shouldn't do anymore. We shouldn't change our own oil. I'm just telling you that.

We shouldn't. And we shouldn't move our own furniture. These are two things we shouldn't do anymore. So say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to morefurniture. dot com. I'm telling you, Jesse, the change your own oil thing, I used to do that. And then I realized I was saving like $3. Yeah. I'm the same. I had the exact same epiphany. I actually, I never did it myself, but I've helped friends and family members a few times, eating their oil. And I, and I like looked at

their receipts and added up the numbers. And I'm like, you realize you can go down the street and they'll do this for like five more dollars. And they'll air up your tires and your car. Yeah. They'll probably clean the windshield and stuff for you too. Yeah. It's much safer than you doing yourself for sure but we got some more mailbag monday questions what do we got damon uh logan franson asks do you think paven will stay up in the show long term this season given his strong start i i couldn't imagine saying no to that right now with the way paven's playing i mean i i i think it sucks for him because he's going to kind of always be relegated to kind of like a fill and roll i feel like or a backup role but he still has been playing well enough that i would

not send him down in comparison to some of the other guys on this team right now. Paveen has been versatile and he's been playing very well. He's been hit just incredible at the dish. I think he has a pretty tight hold right now on the DH spot against against Ritees. The D-backs have you use Pavin Smith pretty regularly this last week or so in that spot. And it makes sense. Like I don't think, I don't think you necessarily feel like you have to get both Jake McCarthy and Alec Thomas in the lineup right now with how those guys are hitting, at least the debacks don't seem to feel that way. Yeah, that's fair.

So against Ritey's, you're kind of picking one of those two guys, and then you're including Pavin Smith, because he has been, I mean, a super small sample, but he has been arguably the D-BAC's best hitter overall this season. Jesse, he's slashing 321, 457, 643 with a 1.10 OPS. Like, come on. Just as we all expected.

Two home runs, yeah, 10 RBI. I mean, he almost has, he almost has, a third of the RBI he had all last season, which he didn't play very many games last season for this team. But still, I mean, he is on track. He almost leads the devax. I think Gabby Moreno is the lead with 12 RBI, I want to say. He's like right behind that.

Oh, man. I mean, it's again, we, the team right now, they don't really need to make any dramatic changes because they kind of need all of these guys. And we talked about things like, you know, how left-handed they were. And they've done things to correct that. they've made small changes. The bullpen is better. You know, there's,

there's things that are getting better for this team, but honestly, they need to continue to ride with the hot hand and not do that thing that they've done in the past, where they go with, you know, again, like the Madison Bumgarner situation, or, you know, in Pave and Smith's case, just not playing him because, you know,

you want to make sure that Christian Walker plays every day. Pave and Smith can play first base. I know he's not as good as the first baseman as Christian Walker, but, I mean, he's, he's a viable option for them to have in there when Walker needs a day off as well. And that's just something, again, that you're not getting from everybody else that you could call up right now. But the other question we had in regards to this is the next question, which is what happens when Kyle Lewis is back, Jesse? That comes from our friend Bloody Ramshorn.

What happens when Kyle Lewis is back? You think he goes down? It's tough to say. We saw Kyle Lewis yesterday in the clubhouse. So he was back at the stadium, you know, around this team and whatnot. Is this still the illness thing that he had? Yeah. Is this still the reason why he's out?

Yeah. I still at least publicly, the debacks are not saying what, what this illness is. We still don't have any information. I do know that Kyle said he's feeling better, but I don't know exactly what that means or what a timetable looks like or any of that stuff. So I do think he'll come back at some point. and it's a little hard to say. I don't think the debacks would send Pavin Smith down at this point,

given all those numbers that we just talked about. Honestly, Derek, the D-backs could, I would be a little surprised if this happened. I think Jake McCarthy is going to figure it out, but if you're going to send somebody down right now, Jake McCarthy has really struggled offensively early in the season. I think you might be a little quicker to make that move than you would with Pave and Smith. Jesse.

Does this have anything to do with him cutting his hair? that has everything that has everything to do with it yeah the moment that that jake mccarthy cut his hair i developed a personal vendetta against him and here we are he was a bit too aggressive about my purple hair you know what i mean so anyway uh what else we got ryan uh sent us a question ryan asks uh with the debacks being such a wagon what are your power rankings of the melb well much to your chagrin um we have not figured that out yet and And we're definitely probably not ranking the Diamondbacks in our top 10, like we said earlier. Tampa Bay, still number one for me, Jesse.

Tampa Bay is still very high up there for me. What are your thoughts on the way the race have been playing baseball? Yeah, I mean, they've been incredible. I don't, I mean, it kind of sounds like Kenley is asking us to rank all 30 teams, which I don't know. Yeah, no, we're not doing that. I don't have quite out of time for that. But I can maybe do like a quick tally of teams I would put in front of the Diamondbacks. I think that's a little, kind of an easier way to go about this.

I think you've got four teams in the AL East that you would probably have to put in front of the debacks. The Ray's, Orioles, Yankees, Blue Jays. The Orioles are 14 and 7. So even though they weren't all that great last year, I think you probably have to put them ahead of the debacks. Blue Jays are playing great baseball. They're 13 and 9, and I think most of their games have been on the road. They had a really weird schedule as well. They only played six games at home yet.

You know, so, I mean, but yeah, I think you're right there. Mets. Yeah. And at least still above them? That's six. I wouldn't put the Marlins or the Phillies above the D-back. So that's six. Are you putting the brewers above them at 15 and seven, even though the dynamite

in that series? Yeah, I would put the brewers above them. So that's seven. The pirates, it feels weird to do that, but they're 16 and seven and they're plus 25. So I know their schedule hasn't been the most difficult, but I think I would probably have to do that. So that's eight teams in front of the debacks. I think the Dodgers and Padres.

Yeah, Dodgers and Padres. There's two more. So that's 10. The Cubs, I'm a little on the fence about. Rangers. We haven't done yet. The Rangers, that's 12.

Guardians, twins, maybe one of those. I think I remember, I think I'm around 14 or 15, roughly with where the debacks would fall. Fair enough. Fair enough.

We'll see what, we'll see where they're at. on your power rankings after May though, pal, all right? Yeah, it could change. It could absolutely change. I'm kind of one of those people who are with power rankings. I'm just not going to change that much after a month. Like, even if a team is doing really well,

I know I said I would put the pirates ahead of the debacks, but I wouldn't put the pirates like fifth or sixth, right? Like, there's still like a 10 or 11 or something like that for me. I like to wait a little bit before I get too sold on what any of these teams are doing in the early going. And I mean, again, we don't really know how well their opposition, you know, how tough of schedule they've had. I mean, that's all stuff to factor in. Like I said, the Diamondbacks could be sitting at 20 and, what, 14 after the month of May?

And we wouldn't be that surprised about it. But I'm sure other people would be when it comes to the Diamondback. They would be 32 and 25. If you're 20 and 14 thing happened, the devax would be 32 and 25 on June 1st, which is pretty good. Pretty good. We got one more question in the mailbag. It comes from Sean McNally. Sean asks, we've heard a lot about Moreno offensively.

Only recently I've heard about his ability behind the plate. What of your thoughts of him as the primary catcher with this young pitching rotation? Yes, three plus rookies, two-year guys. Well, I love it. I love the youth. I love the excitement of it. And honestly, Gabriel Moreno has been an absolute pleasant surprise and a godsend, to be honest, with what happened to Carson Kelly, right?

I know that they can't play him every day. he's still a young guy that they don't want to completely rely on and Leon. They still like Jose Herrera for his defense and his ability to call the game behind the plate. But come on, man. I think that Gabriel Moreno has been everything that they wanted him to be and more. And I think he might even be coming along a little faster than, you know, than they thought he was going to. Yeah, I mean, Dback's pitchers seem to speak pretty highly of Gabby Moreno.

If you follow us on Twitter over at PH&X underscore DBAX. We posted a clip the other day of Zach Gallin talking about Moreno and what he likes about him from a defensive standpoint. And Gallin said, yeah, he's a great receiver. He's a good framer. Gallen said he fools him at times with whether a pitch is a ball or a strike because he's that compelling when he's framing pitches. And he just said quite simply that Gabby cares,

that it's very clear that Gabby very much cares about his craft, even though a lot of debaques pitchers are calling their own pitches. So Moreno is not being asked quite as much from on that front because pitchers are doing a lot of the game calling at this point. But I've heard nothing but good things. I know Tori talked about just needing to develop relationships with pitchers and how the debacks had to escalate that very rapidly. Once Carson Kelly went down,

they were just trying to get Gabby as much time with all these pitchers as possible. possible. So they get to know each other. So Gabby could understand their pitch arsenals better and all that stuff. But we've heard basically nothing but good things. And the arm is one of the best in baseball. So really nothing but positive things to say on that front. That arm has been incredible. It really has. And it's, we kind of do the whole joking about don't run on Gabby, but don't run on Gabby. He'll get you. If he doesn't get you trying to steal second, he'll get you trying to steal third. But yeah, no, I mean, it's, again, I think the biggest thing there is that the Diamondbacks made that trade for Gabby to be the catcher of the future with giving him a little time behind Carson Kelly there and probably sharing time. And, man, I just don't know where the Diamondbacks would be without him at this point. Probably, they probably would have been in a position had they kept Dalton Varsho to put Varsh back behind the plate and have him play catcher some. Yeah, they might have had to. That's a good point. Would not have been the greatest use of that guy because he does have.

have all the tools, but his tools tend to work out better in the outfield. Anyway, we thank you guys, of course, for being here, for stopping by. Make sure, if you haven't done so already, you check out our friends over at Circle K. Circle K is the best place to fuel up, not only yourself, but your car, get some snacks, get some beers, get some premium gas, ice coffee for just $1.89, 12 packs of beer for just $9.99. And, of course, the energy drinks that fuel me, Red Bulls, $3 for $8, monsters, three for $6. Make sure you're not missing out of it. on all this great stuff.

Head to circlek.com slash store locator. That's circlek.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And while you're there, make sure to pick up some beer from our friends at Four Peaks. We are going to be out there very soon. A couple of days for our Four Peaks 8th Street Pub

NFL draft party. Be sure to follow the crew over at Four Peaks at Four Peaks Brew to get all the latest on Arizona's Premier Craft Brewery. And the best place to take in the NFL draft, like I said, is on April 27th at the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub. Register for free in the link in our show notes to take advantage of the beer specials. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. They're going to have $3 redbird lager pints, $5 redbird logger pitchers,

and our usual pHNX specials of $3 kiltlifters and $3 wow pints. So make sure to join us, grab some chicken attendees. Let's see the Cardinals start getting on track, right? I think we've moved up into power rankings as far as Arizona sports teams go, right? Cardinals seem like they're in a little bit of a rebuilding phase. We might just be just a little bit ahead of them. We might be a little bit out of the coyotes. Who knows?

Watch out, Sons. We got, we're coming for you. That's what I'm saying about our takeover tomorrow night. Like, yes, the Sons are playing game five, right? It's very true. But, but let's face it, Kauai's not playing. Paul George isn't playing. The Sons are at home.

They're going to have updates on the screen during the game. Oh, yeah. Right. You're going to be able to keep track. You can watch on your phone. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Jesse, are they going to show highlights of the Diamondbacks game?

at the Sun's game? Probably not. Probably not. That's a great point. If Corby and Carroll hits a home run, are you going to see them replay it over at the footprint center? Probably not. They have their other things going on, but you know you're going to see that at Chasefield.

So come on out. Join us. Get that season pass. Get this wonderful t-shirt. I love this shirt. This shirt is good. Hopefully I will be recovered at 100%. I'm feeling much better, obviously.

As Jesse can attest to, I have more color in my face today. You look a little more normal today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But make sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to have a blast out there and get that takeover season pass. You can be with us at all of those games the entire season. We're looking forward to seeing you guys out there. You can follow us on Twitter for more updates and more shenanigans.

I'm at K-B-U-KB-M-W-N-W-E-Bek. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our producer, Damon, is at Damon Dog. That's DAW-G with a little woo at the end. But, of course, our shows at P-HNX underscore D-Backs and all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you guys.

We thank you so much for joining us, as always, and we appreciate your time. Remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have a winning record after the end of the month of April.