PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks begin quest to defend the National League crown

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

It is the best day of the year! It is Opening Day for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and we are discussing all of the vibes pregame! We take a look at the final roster for the D-backs including Blaze Alexander, who will also start at DH on Opening Day, and the first pitching matchup of the year between Zac Gallen and Kyle Freeland. LET’S PLAY BALL!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/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.

Welcome in to a pregame edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. Happy opening day to you all. Of course, I am occasionally known as the mayor of opening day. Derek Montia, this man next to me, of course, is always known as my vice mayor and your thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. We hope you guys are having a wonderful opening day. And I hope you guys like that new theme music because, of course, that's all Jesse's vibe. That was 100% Jesse's vibe. But man, opening day is here.

Can you believe it? I, more excitement than I thought. More excitement than I thought we would have. We have talked about changing our music on this show for a, for a pretty long time at this point. Because the music that we've been using is the exact same from day one of this show. I think we started talking about changing it on day two, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. We never necessarily loved it. It's one of those things where you just, you don't know, it just kind of happened. And it just became part of us. Now we have new music and it is better, Derek. It is much better. It is much better.

And I'm very excited for it to be opening day. Of course, what's your favorite part about opening day? I know we kind of talked about like what we were looking forward to and stuff. But like you go out there today and you get to just spend the entire day, you know, at the ballpark. What's your favorite part? It's the brisket before the game. I've trained him well. Yes.

That's the correct answer. The opening day cake that we all get to predict. That is the right answer as well. I know I know fan. I mean, this is like the best day. You said it right. This is like reporting on the World Series again. This is like doing a show about the World Series again.

If it's just for anything more than one day, I think every team in baseball has has some hope today. I mean, except the Rockies. And I think every team in baseball is looking forward to what this season can hold for them. And I think that's the most exciting part about it. It's the beginning of something new, you know, fresh. And here we are. But the Diamondbacks have more to be excited about this team, you know, especially with the news this week, with Montgomery being part of the roster now. It just you can't help but, you know, feel like this is going to be a very special season.

And today is day one of that season. It really does. We were talking about this before the show. It really does feel like today is a really important game, right? I mean, it's just the nature of opening day where I think every fan base, like every fan base is going to read a ton into what happens. today, even if in the grand scheme of things, it's just one of 162. Today doesn't count any more than any of the other days. But, I mean, this is, this is a particularly special day for the Diamondbacks.

They're presumably going to be unveiling an NL pennant banner prior to the start of this game, which is a pretty big deal. And, yeah, I mean, it's the first time that fans have been able to see this team in a game that actually counts since Game 5 of the World Series, right? Yeah. Which still only feels like it was about two weeks ago. I know. The offseason really flew by.

It was pretty short. But yeah, tonight's game is just going to be. It's just going to be a fun time for fans to get back out to the stadium and watch a baseball team that I think a lot of people really fell in love with in the second half of last year. Well, we, of course, are sponsored today by our friends over at Factor Meal Kit. And we are getting ready to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks opening day roster. And I am excited. of course, head to factor mealkits.com slash pH and XDBax 50 and use code PHNXDBX 50 to get 50% off. And Jesse, I received my Factor Meal Kit.

It was absolutely fire. And I'm already feeling better about, I guess, my, me, me feeding me, which I did a very. You're like actually eating now. I'm actually eating food now. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not just waiting until I get to the ballpark and then determining once I'm there that the food is entirely too expensive. So a big thank you to factor for powering me on this. day and also of course shout out to our friends over at desert financial credit union does financial credit union is now been named by the numbers presented or excuse me now been

named Arizona's number one credit union named by Forbes and of course like I've said before desert financial credit union got me started on my home ownership journey they can get you started as well and Jesse we have some exciting roster news because not only did we find out today but that blaze Alexander basically grabbed that final roster spot. But he is in fact in the starting lineup as the designated hitter for the Arizona Diamondbacks on opening day. This was a this was a gutsy move from the Diamondbacks, right? I mean, Blaze Alexander, this move kind of reminds me of what they did toward the end of last

year when they brought up Jordan Lawler and decided to, to move on from Nick Amman, right? They're trying to put out the best lineup that they possibly can. I kind of expected Jack Peterson to be in the lineup. even though there was a lefty on the mound. Right. Just sort of like, I don't know, like kind of out of respect for him as a veteran in a sense, giving him the opening day start. Obviously, Randall Grishick, who we would normally expect to start, you know, to be in there

as the D.H against lefties, he is starting the season on the injured list. So he's not an option. I kind of figured they go to Jock Peterson. But yeah, Blaze Alexander, not only does he make the team after hitting 400 in spring training, but the Diamondbacks are giving him an opportunity here on opening day. this is going to be a pretty a pretty fantastic day in the in the Alexander household the arizona diembacks posted a fairly incredible video of blaze going into to troy's office and receiving that information so if you get a chance to watch that make sure not to miss that of course

we also have the fact that we are going to get the conclusion right to snakes alive is that today tomorrow when do we get the final episode i don't know what they're planning i thought we were supposed to get that yesterday yeah i think they like skip today at some point it seemed like they were doing it every other. And so it was going to be episode five was going to be on Wednesday. But yeah, we got episode four on Wednesday. So maybe they, maybe they do it at the ballpark. And then like stream it on YouTube for people who aren't at the stadium. I don't know exactly what their plan is. But episode four was very, very good. So for people who have not, who have not seen that, definitely, definitely worth a watch for sure. Opening day roster consists of infielders, Blaze Alexander,

Ctele Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, Jace Peterson, Eheonio Suarez, and Christian Walker. Outfielders. Corbyn Carroll Lordus Guerrille Jr. Jake McCarthy, Jock Peterson, Alec Thomas. Any surprises there with any of those guys? I mean, I know injuries kind of pushed us in this direction. Of course, Paul Seawald, Erod, and Gritchick are all on the roster, but they are all on the 15-day I-L. I thought that maybe Paul Seawald might have started, you know, maybe have been on the longer term, but I do know that Tori brought up how, you know, how well-conditioned he is and how they expect him to be ahead of the normal schedule for recovering from this injury. But yeah, any any surprises at all?

You are able to, uh, the, the injured list assignments are all retroactive to the 25th. So you do have, you do have a few days built in there. But yeah, I didn't, I didn't expect that you actually put Seewald on the 60 day. Uh, I think it is possible that he does miss 60 days. That's maybe our baseline expectation. But you'd hate for him to be on the 60 day IL and be ready early and be ready early and you can't actually activate him yet. So yeah, no surprises.

the way that they handled the IL stints. No surprises that Jake McCarthy made this team. I think that was something we expected, knowing that Randall Grishick wasn't going to be ready out of the gate. The debacks would want some outfield depth. And it'll be interesting to see how they use McCarthy. It'll also be interesting to see how they use Blaze Alexander. Does he become sort of the Randall Grishick while Randall Grishick is hurt?

And, you know, once Randall Grishick returns, which I don't think is going to take very long, how does Blaze Alexander get opportunities there? Are the Diamondbacks willing to have him start against lefties at shortstop once Gershick is back? Are they willing to just have Pertomo be kind of the strong side of that platoon? So yeah, that'll be really interesting to see. Do you not think that perhaps how he performs will play a big role into that? I mean, if he's – Yeah, probably.

If he can carry over with the success he's had from spring, I can't see them, you know, going, you know, all right, Blaze, we need to sit you. You know, like, I think that's the reason why they're perhaps going with him today as a designated hitter. Like, just trying to ride that hot hand a little bit. And again, spring training tends to mean nothing. I know you'll be the first one to bring up, you know, certain guys from last season, right? But I will say that I am looking very, very forward to Blaze at least getting an opportunity. I think that's the important part here. Yeah.

You have seen this guy already have success in AAA. and there's almost nothing left for you to see from him there at this point. It's just, it's an unfortunate situation when you have such an exciting young player who also plays a position that you're, you know, some of your most exciting players play right now. You know,

you're not replacing any of those guys. But we do know Tori likes to have that versatile lineup. We know he likes to let guys rest and sit guys and, you know, let other guys play. Blaze might end up being that, you know, crazy utility player that Tori finds,

you know, opportunities for, especially with the DH and, you know, certain matchups and such. But the other side of this, obviously, is Manuel Rivera was DFAed by the team. And that's, yeah, that sucks considering how many great moments we had with, we Staniel last year. Right, right. I hope he gets an opportunity somewhere else because he's one of those guys that is a surprisingly good baseball player at times. And I think he could definitely, you know, get back to where he was last year for the Diamondbacks with another team. Yeah, I think there's going to be demand for him. I don't expect the Diamondbacks to be able to get him through waivers.

So we'll see how that unfolds in the next few days. I think one big advantage of having Blaze on this team is that the Diamondbacks have a true shortstop behind Heraldo Podomo. Yeah. If they had gone the Jace Peterson and Manuel Rivera route, I think they felt some level of confidence in those guys defensively short. But Blaze Alexander is someone you can really feel confident in as a shortstop. you know i mean that really has been his primary position coming all the way up and he was an 11th round draft pick out of high school like this is not you know a first or second round pick this is a guy who's really had to work for it over the years uh he's made steady progress since being drafted back in

i think it was 2018 uh so this has been a long time coming for for blaze and you know good on him for getting to this moment and yeah we'll see we'll see how it goes i think if if he comes out and performs well that might put some pressure on the debacks to make sure that he's in there on a, you know, semi-regular basis. Well, we know we're going to talk about the pitching matchups here in a minute, but we knew based on today's pitching matchup that we might not see Jock in the lineup. And I kind of agreed with what you had said earlier before we had a chance to see today's starting line of. It felt like even though it wasn't the best matchup for him that we would still maybe see Jock just out of respect for Jock on opening day.

I do think, though, that, you know, again, this is what this team is, right? I imagine that, you know, whatever Tori Lavello is asking of these guys, they are willing to accept that role. And Jock knows he's going to get plenty of that bats. It just, it has to be a little bit disappointing that you're in the lineup on opening day, but you also have to understand it based on, you know, Kyle Freeland being on the opposing mound. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, the debacks are in a situation where despite the additions that they've made, and they obviously had an extraordinary offseason, talked a lot about that,

they're still in a position where they need to go out and win every single game that they possibly can, right? I tweeted it out yesterday. I think baseball prospectus had the team projected for around 84 wins. And with the Montgomery signing, that goes up to 87, which is a pretty big upgrade. It's a bigger upgrade than Fangraphs had like a one-win difference for some reason. But even at 87 wins, like if that's the baseline for this Diamondbacks team, there are still seasons where 87 doesn't get you in the playoffs, right? So this is a team that is still in a position to have to try to optimize their lineup as much as they can every single day. And so I think that might be why you're not seeing Jock in there today.

Debacks know that on paper, Jack Peterson has not hit lefties very well in recent years, nor has he really ever hit lefties all that well consistently. The Giants didn't hit him all that much against lefties last year. And obviously, we don't know what Blaze Alexander is going to be at the Major League level. I still think that's a question. He's, you know, certainly not a sure thing. But you might as well give him a shot. I mean, on paper, it's a good matchup. He hit lefties really well in Reno last year.

So give him an opportunity and see what he can do with it. Yep. I couldn't agree more. And I'm excited for it because I'm a huge Blaze Alexander fan. I think that he has all the potential in the world. And I cannot wait to see, you know, given the opportunity, how, you know, how well he does. That's the one thing about young Diamondbacks players is we've kind of gotten spoiled on the fact that these guys do tend to come up and kind of be hot out of the gate.

And I mean, that even, you know, that, that even goes for Emmanuel Rivera when he first got here, right? Like, he was really good. He was really good. Like, we had, we were, there was a lot of questions we had by, you know, why, why were the Diamondbacks able to pick this guy up? And you could say that about a few guys. Obviously, Ryan Thompson is one of those guys that we still question.

Like, how did we, how did we end up with this wonderful man from, you know, from the Tampa Bay raise? But sometimes that's just the way things work out. Of course, we appreciate every single one of you for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel right now. If you guys haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever any of our wonderful shows go live. And of course, drop us a like.

We always appreciate that. You know, Gabby loves that. Of course, if you are listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you are subscribed over there. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those reviews. And of course, you know, make sure you leave us a five-star review. We appreciate that more.

Also, if you haven't subscribed, or excuse me, if you haven't signed up for a diehard membership yet, now is the best time of the year. Of course, you get all sorts of wonderful benefits, including discounts on events like our upcoming pool party at Chase Field on July 31st. There are still tickets available for that. Of course, you also get your free t-shirt from the pHNX Locker.com discounts with our partners and so much more, including our exclusive content, just for you, our diehards. We have a little bit of an advantage here today when it comes to the pitching matchup. And let's take a look at what both of these teams have to offer today.

Oh, that's beautiful. Arizona dimebacks, of course, going with our guys at Gallen. And, of course, for the Rockies, Kyle Freeland, there are their 2023 stats, 17 and 9 record for Gallen, 3.47 ERA, 1.12 whip, 1.40 strikeouts, and 220 strikeouts. While Freeland is 6 and 14 with a 5.03, 1.47 whip, and 94 strikeouts, quite possibly. The most lopsided matchup on opening day, would you say? I think that's probably a reasonable assessment. I will say that I think Kyle Freeland is a better pitcher than people probably think he is. Yeah.

Even, you know, last year with these numbers at a 503 ERA, he's still at a 100 ERA plus. So because he pitches in course field, a 503 ERA is actually considered league average, you know, based on where he pitched last year. That's kind of true. So, yeah, he's better that people think. I mean, in 2018, Kyle Freeland had a 285 IRA pitching in course field and finished fourth in Salyung voting. Obviously, he hasn't been that same pitcher the last few years. But he did have a good spring training. He did.

He did. He saw a pretty significant uptick and velocity in spring training. He was in the upper 80s with his fastball last year. This spring, he was in the 92 to 94 range. So I think you're going to see someone who's probably a little bit better than the Kyle Freeland that you're used to seeing. But, yeah, it's hard not to look at this. be like advantage diamond backs well especially with that gallon at home let's not forget about

zack galan's home road splits from last year right uh zack gallon at home was 12 and three with a 2.47 er a 16 games uh a hundred and two innings pitched uh he gave up seven home runs jesse in 16 starts 120 strikeouts uh and uh 1.029 whip very impressive at home last year so much so it kind of became the object of our ridicule a bit and joking like you just knew if it was an early game on the road just hammer you know the negative stats for that gallon on whatever betting app you're using but yeah this is going to be a very very interesting pitching matchup and a very great advantage for the diamondbacks like I know that it wouldn't be a colossal failure for the diamondbacks to come out on opening day and lose there's 161 more of these yeah but that's fair but you know aren't going to feel that way today though. Right. People are not going to feel that way. And honestly, with the excitement about this team right now, there is no way people wouldn't, you know, see that as a gigantic problem, even though the true reinforcements are still on the way to assist this team. This is still like a team that's at probably 80% right now or maybe even 75% until they get, obviously, their new addition of Jordan Montgomery and Erod back and, you know, even Randall Gritchick. So this is going to be still an important. win. It's an important step in the right direction. It's, you know, against a division opponent that should be, you know, at the bottom of the division by the end of the year and will be most likely. It just, it, it's, it's very, it's, it's, it's very important for them to get a good start.

Did you just call this a win already? Did I call it win? You said the word win. Maybe, maybe, maybe you didn't actually say they were going to bathelling and threw a win in there. This would be a good win. This would be a good win. Yeah. Last time Zach Gallin pitched in a game that actually mattered. It was game five of the World Series. And Zach Gallen pitched pretty well in that game. The Diamondbacks did not win that game, but Zach Gallen had a no hitter going after six innings, I think, through six innings completely. He came back out for the seventh and, you know, wound up giving up a run. It was a tough game all the way around for the debacks. Offensively, they just couldn't buy an important hit. But that was the last game that the debacks played the

counted. And Gallen was very, very good and rose to the occasion in front of, you know, the home crowd. So this is big for him. You know, coming off of that run, I know his season didn't end the way that he wanted it to. He wasn't as good in the playoffs as he would have liked to be. He wasn't as good down the stretches. I'm sure he would have liked to be. But yeah, this is a new beginning, right, opening day of 2024. So we'll see what he has, what he has in store for us today. Diamondbacks have an excellent opportunity here to get a jump on the season with this four game series against the Rockies. The rest of the month does get tough, including the Yankees, town in the next series after this, but let's take a look ahead at the probabilities for this series

because the Diamondbacks seem like they're in a good position here. We got Merrill Kelly going in game two against Cal Quantrell. We got Tommy Henry in game three and Brandon fought in game four. And I mean, not only is this graphic beautiful, but things are things are looking very good for the Diamondbacks as far as at least getting off to a good start here to begin the season. And the graphics team did a bang up job. Yeah, these guys. Oh my God. They're just so amazing. This is this is Fage is what this is right here. Is he the third best Jacob Franklin now? He might be moving up the list.

Remember he has to kill the other Jacob Franklin. It's very complicated. I don't like to get into it. It gets kind of dark. It's a whole Highlander situation. But yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks, again, this is, you know, without Jordan Montgomery coming back. I still like the Diamondbacks chances here with Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson in the starting

rotation right now. It's not ideal. but you know again that looks like erod based on the updates that we got isn't too far off from getting back to to being available for this team and I I think things hopefully will will we'll start off well hopefully these guys can hold down the fort until those reinforcements come through what what are the diamondbacks have to do in this series for you to for you to feel good about it three out of four three out of four okay I mean I think I think splitting the series is fine and it's acceptable you're not going to you know you're not going to panic

about it but well you probably will panic i panic about everything jessie i panicked about driving over here today so that's a whole other thing uh i will say that winning the series is very important just like i think winning today is important none of it's the end of the world it's just going forward you have a very tough month and you really want to make sure that especially when you have the opportunity to beat teams like this and you know send your confidence soaring early much like we saw last you know april that you know, you got to do it against the teams you know you can beat. Yeah, I feel like, I feel like opening day just kind of sets the tone for the season in a way. It kind of sets the vibe for the season.

Like I remember, I think I attended the 2017 opening day game against the Giants at Chase Field. And it was a game that the debacks, I don't think we're winning throughout most of it. It was a Bumgarner, Granky matchup. This is back when Bumgarner was very, very good and still doing his thing for the Giants. and Chris Owings, you know, brought the Diamondbacks back at the very end of that game. Mark Malanson was pitching for the Giants, blew the save. And it just kind of set the tone for the season. It was like a dramatic comeback when it got a lot of people excited.

And the debacks went on to have a really good 2017 season where they did the playoffs and won over 90 games. So there's something to be said for just the vibes of day one and how the game goes. I'm going to help with those vibes because I'm giving you my parlay for today's game. Let's take a look at what I have going on. over at BetMGM. I went with a six leg, same game parlay, Jesse. Six legs. Some would call this a bit of a cowards parlay.

I don't, because if it wins me money, it wins me money. You were pretty good in the playoffs. I was pretty good in the playoffs. I went with the Diamondbacks here covering the spread. Pretty much it's always a run and a half. But got players batter struck out by Zach Gallons over six. I have Corbyn Carroll one plus total base. That's a safe one.

Ctele-Marté, one plus total base, they're going to get on base. Walk, hit, it doesn't matter. You know Corby and Carroll, that's the one that really kind of ups the ante there for the value on this one is that Corbyn Carroll's stolen base. I mean, Corbyn Carroll steals bases effortlessly. And when you talk about setting the tone for the season, I think the Diamondbacks are going to come out hot, pushing the action on the base path. And I think we're going to get that stolen base from Corbyn Carroll. That seems like a no doubter to me. The one that Dame and I don't agree with is the total runs.

I went under nine. I went at eight and a half because I think Zach Gallen's very good. I think he's going to learn it runs here. I think that's throwing a perfect game and I think the dimebacks are scoring 20 runs. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. That's way more realistic than what I was thinking.

Way more realistic. But I went with Under on that one. You can do what you want over there. Make sure to use code pH and X when you sign up at the BetMGM Sportsbook app. And that's all we got. We're going to go watch some baseball. We cannot wait to be back here after the game to cover hopefully a win with you guys. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at cap underscore K, man with a k jesse is at jesse and friedman our show wait i was going to blow past you this man over here deserves all of his credit because he's the people's producer it's damon dog he is at damon dog da wg and of course we are damon's dogs bark park our show is at phnx underscore dbacks but of course all roads lead to at p h nx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we thank you guys so much for stopping by we will see you in a little bit and in the meantime remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun on opening day