PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen spoils another dominant performance by Zac Gallen

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

Zac Gallen extended his historic scoreless innings streak, but the Arizona Diamondbacks' bullpen melted down yet again in a loss to the Royals. Jesse and Makayla break down the game and discuss the pros/cons of the newly released 2023 Diamondbacks schedule.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit and get a RISK-FREE BET UP TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! We have free stuff for you! Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3, YES THREE, bags of OGeez including Orange Creamsicle and Tropical flavors, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform Check out OGeez! online at ogeezbrands.com and on Instagram @ogeezbrands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. They have officially licensed gear for men, women and kids and everything from bobbleheads to swimsuits to crocs. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offTake advantage of Mor Furniture’s Labor Day sale at https://morfurniture.com 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.

Hello, everyone. Welcome in to the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. My name is Jesse Friedman. And today I am joined by the one and only Michaela Perkins. Michaela, how are you this evening? Well, I watched that Diamondbacks game and that was not fun. So I'm okay. I'm ready for bed, obviously.

That sucked. But I'm hanging in there, Jesse. I'm hanging in there. Well, it's a good thing that Derek isn't here tonight, probably, because this is way past his bedtime anyway. I mean, we're live at, like, after 8 p.m. so this would not have ended well for him, absolutely. But anyway, I'm a old man, Derek.

Old man Derek is in California this evening, hanging out with all sorts of people whose names, of course, I have never heard. But anyway, welcome into the PHNXD Back show, everyone, brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's number one rated sportsbook app. Yeah, Mack, that was a little rough. Zach Gallen was outstanding in this game for six innings. I know that the ending was not what we were looking for here in this one,

but I want to make sure that we give Zach Allen his flowers, which will do more of a little bit later in the show. But the story when this one was all said and done, Mac was the bullpen. The Diamondbacks bullpen gave up five runs in the seventh inning, Joe Mantiply gave up three of them. A little surprising. He struggled also the other day.

So a couple of bad outings here for Joe Mantiply, which I guess he's allowed to do that a little bit. Right. I mean, he's had an outstanding season. There's a little bit more leash there with him. But on the whole, Mac, this has just been a very, very rough stretch for this Diamondbacks bullpen. And we saw that again here in this one. Yeah, Jesse, I've seen enough.

Somebody tweeted me tonight that I need to get a bus instead of a bullpen car. to pick up all these bullpen pictures and get them out of there because they have been garbage. They've been so bad and it's so frustrating because they looked serviceable at the beginning of the season and my how we have fallen from grace where we started this season at. I definitely agree with you on Mantiply having a little bit more leeway than some of these other pitchers in the bullpen just because obviously he was our all-star representative. He had a really and have been having a fantastic season up until like this past week or two where he's really started to struggle a little bit. So I'm not quite ready to put Manipli on the bullpen cart yet.

But no way Ramirez, I'm coming for you, buddy. I'm tired of it. It's done. Mark Malanson has been on my bullpen cart for like weeks now. I'm just like, oh, I can't tell you how over I am with this bullpen. I hate it. It makes me sad because they do things like they did tonight where they, take such an incredible outing from their starting pitching like Zach Allen and they just

implode. And it makes me so upset. And I know that I should be used to it by now, but I'm not. I'm not ready. I'm not, I'm not used to it. I'm kind of over it. People, people in the comments are, are defending Noe Ramirez a little bit, which I understand in this game. The defense definitely played a role in that as well. Noe has not been particularly good recently, though. I mean, if you just kind of look at his last week or two of outings, things haven't looked quite as good for him. Really just over the last few months for Noe Ramirez. It's been a little bit up and down.

He was good to start the year. Had a really rough, really rough stretch good a little bit more recently. And then in the last couple weeks, not as good. He gave up two runs tonight, Jesse. Like, I'm... He did technically give up. He did technically get charged with two runs. This is true.

So, yeah, I don't know, Mac. A lot of people are kind of wondering if, you know, we're asking this question, this what if question, right? Right. Like what if the Diamondbacks bullpen was not even good? Like what if the Diamondbacks bullpen was just average? Like how much better would this Diamondbacks team be at this point? If the bullpen was just sort of, it just sort of lined up with a lot of the other bullpins around baseball, whereas that's not the case right now for the team.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much Joe Mantyply, who has struggled lately, but he's been pretty good over the course of the season. And then everyone else, Kyle Nelson was good for a while there. he's on the injured list. So it's pretty much just Joe Manciply, who recently hasn't looked that great. And then all of the other guys, and you just don't really feel like you can trust any of them right now. No, I'm not comfortable handing the ball to anybody in that bullpen at the moment. And I know that you can't build a baseball team around a bullpen.

I've seen what happens when you invest a bunch of money to a bullpen just for it to implode a couple months later. So that's not what I'm suggesting. But I definitely get frustrated with this bullpen because, again, they do this time and time again where they're put in situations that should be easy to close out a game and to get the win, but they just can't do it. And it's just beyond frustrating. But it makes it worse is when, again, you have performances from your starting pitching like you've had tonight that just seem to get wasted and overshadowed by this like bumbling, fumbling,

can't get it together bullpen. And I honestly think if the bullpen was serviceable, again, like average not amazing. We might be even closer. We would probably be a 500 team right now, which I know, like, it sounds weird that I'm celebrating the possibility of being a 500 team, but that's saying a lot, especially looking at what happened last season to the Diamondbacks and how far that that, that they would have come from last season. So it's just a bummer that this just seems to be the next year yet again for another season. And it's just frustrating. What was your, your preseason win prediction again, Mac?

I think. Oh, gosh. 61? Was it 61? I think it was 62. I think it was 62. All right. I think it was 62. So you're a little bit, you're a little bit pleasantly surprised regardless of what

the bullpen has done this season then. Things have looked okay for this baseball team then from your, from your standpoint. Is that fair to say? Sure. We'll go with okay. Sure. We'll go with okay. All right.

Well, you know who is not okay, not just okay in this, in this game, but outstanding and continues to be outstanding as Zach Gowan. He is our very deserving king of the series for this one. Obviously, he didn't have anything to do with the game yesterday, but just what he did in this one. And just what he's done over the last month or two now at this point is just been unreal. Six innings scoreless today, Mac for Zach Gallen. He only allowed three hits, three walks, six strikeouts in this one. All in all, I actually didn't think he looked like quite as good as he has the last few times out.

The stuff wasn't quite as sharp. It seemed like the command was a little bit, a little bit in and out for him in the game today. But what's wild is that like a subpar Zach Gallen can still give you six scoreless innings at this point. We are at that level where even the worst of Zach Gallen is still very, very good. And he was outstanding again in this one,

27 in a third innings right now. That's what his scoreless streak stands at. pretty pretty impressive stuff from from the diamond backs righty shout out to that galen like you said he's still better than probably anybody else coming out of that rotation so i think that's a true testament to who he is as a player and what he has accomplished so far this season i will say though he throws a mean curve ball and there were some good ones tonight that had some excellent movement on it So I never really get as nervous watching Zach pitch as I do with some of the other arms that the diamondbacks have on their roster. And I think he just like, I mean, wow, just what an athlete, what a talent.

Like, he is very accomplished. And I do feel very confident when he takes the hill. So it was great watching him tonight. And even like I do agree that he had like maybe not the sharpest of nights, but even then what a performance. And he put the diamondbacks in a position to win. and that's all you can ask for from your starting pitching. And, hey, I'll take that any night. Robbie Ray, 27 and two-thirds innings from May 14th to June 6th of 2017.

Brandon Webb had two of them. He had a 30-inning scoreless streak from May 20th to June 5th of 2006. Andy Benis from September 7th, 1998 to April 7th, 1999. So that one connects two seasons together. And then, of course, the big one is Brandon Webb in 2007, a 42-inning scoreless streak. So Zach Gallant, theoretically, Mac is only, he's about 15 innings away. He is 15 innings away from having the longest scoreless streak in Diamondback's franchise history. That's a little bit easier said than done.

But Mac, you feel like you feel like you might be able to pull that off? If anyone can do it, it's Zach. So I definitely think that there's hope that he can break some of those records. But yeah, I mean, why not Zach? He's definitely one of the best started pitchers. I think the Diamond X have had in a while. So I think he could do it. He's just in a state right now where he's just like, he's just like toying with hitters at times, it feels like.

Like he just has so many pitches in his arsenal. And opposing hitters are just like a lot. When the command is there for Zach Gallen, yeah, opposing hitters just have no idea. what he's going to throw next. I mean, when he has the fastball, the cutter, the curve ball, the change up when everything's there, it is very, very difficult for opposing hitters to really have any idea what's coming. Today, it seemed like the change up might not have been as big of a factor like you said earlier. It was more so the curveball. But yeah, when you have that many weapons, you don't really need everything to be working at its utmost in order to have success.

On the whole Mac in this series, just a short two-game series in Kansas City. The Diamondback split it with the Kansas City Royals. So not an embarrassing outcome, not exactly an ideal outcome either. We can take a look at the numbers here from the series. So you can see both sides take a game in this one. The starting pitching performances were actually identical. If you combine what Zach Davies did yesterday and Zach Allen did today, it was really outstanding from the Diamondback side.

And the Royals matched it, 0.77 ERA between these. two games for both sides. The Royals, a reliever ERA, 12.79, the Diamondbacks 11.81. So there were, there were some bullpen problems in this series to say the very least. The Royals inch out the Diamondbacks with the batting average with runners in scoring position category 300 on the Royal's side to 222 on the Diamondback side. Mac, does it help at all that like, I don't know, the Diamondbacks actually had a lower bullpen ERA than the Royal.

Royals did in this series, I guess probably not. Not really. Just because I feel like the series shouldn't have been split. It should have been swept by Diamondbacks, especially after again, Zach Gowan's performance. So there's really nothing that can excuse tonight for me. I think it was just a loss in so many different ways. And it's just, meh, frustrating.

Conspiracy, conspiracy hippie says 0.77 ERA and four piles of peat. I want to say it was, I want to say it was three piles of puk. No, right? Wasn't Burt making the joke three pukes and you're out or something like that. Mack, have you ever seen anything like that in a professional baseball game where a guy like just can't keep it in out there on the mound? And I thought it was bizarre that like he stayed in the game. Like it's like people were laughing about it the first couple of times when the trainer came out. But Jonathan Heasley yesterday, he pitched well. Like it was four and two-thirds scoreless innings, but, but yeah, it was a little bit rough to watch for a viewer. It seemed like the TV crews were not shy about making it abundantly clear on live television, what was happening on the field.

We got to watch all of that in pure ultra high definition. So that was maybe a little bit unpleasant, but pretty crazy moment in the game yesterday. It was awful. I get so queasy when things like that happened. So I just have to like not. I have to just block it out, not think about it, not look at it, not watch it. Like, it's so bad. I can't handle things like that.

Anything with your body fluids, just like, no, just stay away from it. What really got me was that, like, it didn't appear. And maybe I missed this. I was doing some other things during the game. So maybe I missed this. But it didn't appear that they cleaned it up or like that they made any effort to clean it up. I can't break this down. I can't talk about this.

I will start throwing up everywhere. Like, I am the worst sympathy. I just have to get to the bottom of this. Like is this normal? Like is this normal for a guy to puke on the like right by the pictures now? Why are you doing this to me? I just, I thought it was pretty bizarre. I thought it was pretty wild.

But we don't, we just have to accept it for what it is and just let it go. We can let it go. I will start throwing up everywhere, Jesse. I can't think about it for too much. just for you mac just for you mac i'll move on but i have not stopped thinking about that since yesterday um anyway uh the diamond backs in this series yeah i mean the bullpen was uh was sort of the story all and all um unfortunately they couldn't hold things down in this one uh that's been sort of a trend as well going back to the last series i did not what pun did i even just make they couldn't well the diamond backs

could hold things down uh it was just It was just Jonathan Heasley. You couldn't hold things down in that sense. Anyway, I'll move on now. As I was saying, though, the Diamondbacks, the Diamondbacks bullpen all together. Going back to the St. Louis Cardinal Series, Mac, has given up 23 earned runs over a five-game span. So I want to say that's like 15 and two-thirds innings and 23 earned runs. after the Cardinal series, we were sort of laying it all on the bullpen saying like,

you know, this is, I mean, you're not going to win baseball games with this being the situation. And unfortunately, that that's just continuing. So I have to hope for better things in Chicago because this is, this is sort of getting pretty crazy for the Diamondbacks. You just cannot hold a lead when your bullpen has an ERA, you know, over 13 for a five game span. It's pretty wild. That's so bad, Jesse.

Holy cow, when you put it like that, oh my God, I really do need a bus. Everybody, get on my bus. We're loading up, hong, hong, we're driving out of here. Like, you're not allowed to pitch anymore. Like, we are done. Pretty wild, pretty wild. But anyway, we really appreciate all of you being here and joining us here this evening. I know it is very, very late.

Again, it's far past Derek's bedtime. And I'm going to stick to the story that that's why he can't be here with us today. But a great thing that you can also be doing around now is taking advantage of our PH&X summer sale, where you can get our hottest t-shirts for up to 50% off. So all of you should head over to phnx locker.com. Our Sethserva shirt is 50% off. You can get that one for 1499. All of the shirts that you see on your screen here are up to 50% off. So everything is on sale, at least a little.

bit right now. So Mac, this is a pretty great time to go load up on some of your favorite PHNX merch right now at the PHNX Locker. Yes, go to the PHNX Locker, pick out some shirts. There are so many great deals happening right now. All three of our Diamondback shirts are on sale so you can pick out any three of those shirts that you want. I highly recommend the Snake Rattler with that shirt. It's one of my favorites we've ever made, but head on over to phnx locker.com and pick up your merch because it's all on sales. So now's the best time to get it. And as always, you should all head over to go phtonx.com today and become a member of the family

if you have not already. And you will either get a free t-shirt from the PHNX locker or you'll get your first month for just 50 cents just for signing up. I just released an article on Brandon Fott, the Diamondback's highest ranked pitching prospect just the other day. And if you become a member, you'll get access to. to that article, as well as everything else that I've written, everything else that I will write. And then, of course, Gerald and Craig and Owen and the rest of our writing crew have some

great stuff as well on some of the other teams in the Valley. So be sure to become a member. If you haven't already, we would love to hang out with you in the Discord, which is another great perk of being a member of the family over here at PH&X. So be sure to take advantage of that if you have not already. We also have a new partner in the house, Max, which I personally have not been over to the office in order to see this alive and in person. But have you seen some of the more furniture stuff that we have in the office, Matt? Can you speak to this at all? Yes, Jesse.

More furniture hooked us up. We are moving offices. We are in our new space. And more furniture came in clutch. They dropped off some sick recliners that are just plush and incredible. We're going to be able to sit and watch games at the office now. They got us hooked up with some desks, some office chairs. There's a table to eat out.

There is so much furniture, and it is incredible. So thank you to more furniture for hooking us up. The PHNX office is going to be sweet. I'm so excited to sit my butt in those recliners and watch basketball games, hockey games, football games, the rest of the baseball season. I just can't wait. I'm so stoked. I don't know how we're going to get any work done in this office with all these, like,

fancy recliners and things. I think there might be like a hidden cost somewhere in all of this. But anyway, we are so excited for all of you to check out how our friends at Moore Furniture have hooked our entire office up, as Mac has described. New studio, new furniture, the whole nine yards. If you're interested in checking out Moore's Labor Day sale, you could do so by visiting morefurniture.com.

Highly, highly recommend them, especially given everything that they've done for us and getting our new studio space set up. We're getting pretty close, Mac, to moving into the new studio space officially. I was there to do like a bunch of the lifting and stuff and helping get all of our big desks and chairs and whatnot into that space. But I haven't been there in a few days now.

So I'm kind of curious what things are looking like over there. But I believe that next Monday will be our first day where we're actually doing shows from the new studio space. Is it going to be pretty rad, Mac? Have you seen any of this stuff recently? It's going to be sick, Jesse. I can't even tell you how cool it is. I just I can't wait for everyone else to see it.

It's like life changing. The studios are so cool. So you'll get to see us live from that set starting next week. So we're really, really looking forward to that over here. Getting back to this game and this series, though, sort of trying to pull out some of the positives here, Mac. Obviously, Zach Gallen is the biggest one in his just insane stretch of doing what he's doing right now. a bit of a smaller thing that I want to point out from this series that Alec Thomas had four hits.

He had three hits yesterday. Was on base four times in the game yesterday. Had another hit in the game today. It's good to see, honestly, the diamondbacks really do need more from him. It was pretty good over the first month or so after he got the call up to the majors. And then it sort of fell off for him for a while. As batting average dipped down to around 240, we saw, saw the OPS down at like 660, 670.

Those numbers are starting to take up a little bit. Mack, how good is it to see our young king sort of living up to the name a little bit more recently? Yes, you love to see it. I think Alex Thomas is the future of this organization. Obviously, I am all in on the Alec Thomas train. So it's always great when he does well because I think he provides so much to the team just more than what he does on the field.

And I'm just, I can't wait to see his career because I think he's going to have an incredible career. And I'm so glad he's wearing a Diamondbacks jersey while he's doing it. And, you know, obviously baseball is a game of averages and there's going to be some highs. There's going to be some lows. So just making sure that we're not ever getting too low on him because I think, you know, it's only natural to have some of those dips. And just spreading that wave with him because he is going to be incredible. I'm so convinced about it.

Like you heard it here first. So. Yeah. I mean, Alec Thomas is is so. young at this point, right? He's 22 years old that you can have that kind of optimism sort of regardless of what he's looking like in the current game, right? I mean, you have to have sort of a longer outlook when it comes to a player like that. The defense is legit. The defense is for real. I wrote about a week or so ago about how he has a shot in the NL gold glove race for for

center field for sure. He's at least in the mix for that. Just given what he's done in centerfield this year, given the fact that he's robbed two home runs already this season. He has a pretty impressive resume defensively. The offense is sort of come and gone. There's kind of a lot of moving parts in that swing. So you kind of figured that once Alec Thomas got to the majors, there might be a few adjustments and things that he needed to work on. He's hitting a lot of ground balls. I think that's something that Diamondbacks hitting coach Joe Mather has pointed out as being a possible obstacle for him moving forward. But like you said, I mean, you have to be optimistic about a guy like that who broke into

the majors at this age, you know, for a reason, right, he's here because he was good enough and he proved that he was deserving of this opportunity. Speaking of, Luis Frius also looked pretty good in this game tonight. I know we've said a lot of sad things about the bullpen, but it is nice to see one of the younger arms, a guy who could factor into the bullpen in the future performing well in a game like this. And Mackey threw like 98 miles an hour and the diamondbacks don't have many guys who can do that. So that was that was pretty cool. Yeah, for sure. I actually watched Louis Frias come up through the miners. I actually watched a couple, well, quite a few of the games that he pitched in in the

minor league system. And I've always been really excited about Luis. I have probably talked about him quite a few times on our pod now as one of the most exciting up and coming through like pitchers through the Diamondbacks system that I've been excited about in a while. Obviously the Diamondbacks for whatever reason have a hard time developing pitchers. But when it comes to Luis, I think his velocity like you mentioned is something to get really excited about. I think he has a really good arsenal that he could possibly leverage into maybe a starting pitching position if the time comes and if it's the right situation and he can kind of work

his way out of the bullpen. So I'm really excited about Luis Friest. He's on my bullpen cart yet. So I think that's a good sign as well. Obviously, he hasn't pitched a lot this season. So he hasn't had much time to work his way under my bullpen cart list. But I think he has a really high ceiling. And I've been excited about his career for a while. So I'm glad that we get to watch him play a little bit more in the bigs. Yeah, it's been more of a recent transition to him into the bullpen. He has been pitching out of the bullpen in Reno. So it seems like the Diamondbacks are at least for right now, like maybe a little bit more comfortable with with that being the role.

And maybe they revisit him being a starter down the road. We'll have to see sort of what the plan is there. And the numbers don't look great right now at a big league level even after what he did today. But like you said, I mean, he's hardly pitched at all this season. So you can't really be too critical, you know, over like seven-ary innings or whatever. Mack, there was some interesting news that came out before the game.

I don't know if you saw this. but Madison Bumgarner is being skipped this time through the starting rotation. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. He has not been good lately, to put it lightly. Madison Bumgarner has a 7.53 ERA over his last five starts. Things have not looked very good for the guy who makes more money than anyone else on this team by a pretty wide margin. It's not a great situation for the diamond back smack.

And interesting choice here. They said it was a performance. performance-based decision. So it has something to do with the fact that, you know, Madbun is sort of the, yeah, yeah, without, yeah, for lack of a better word. Not super surprising, maybe. But how do you feel, Mac, just about this state right now

that his Diamondbacks career is in? Things are not looking very, very good for him at this time. And things are dicey moving forward. I mean, they still have two more years of this guy with his current contract. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, like you mentioned, we still have two more years on this contract, which is arguably one of the most disastrous contracts I think I've ever seen in history. Yeah, it's not, it's not great. At least for the dive-of-backs. Sorry, I'm having weird audio things happening.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm just, I'm so over, Madison, Baumgartner. I appreciate who he was earlier in his career and the things that he had accomplished when he was younger in. in the past, but it's just gotten to the point where it's, I would rather pull someone from the bullpen and have them start than Madison Bumgarner. Like it has not been pretty. It's just been a continual downward trend with this guy. And I know that's really harsh and I'm sorry Madison Bumgarner if you listen to the show, but it's just not it.

It's not. It's time for him to retire right off into the sunset as Mason Saunders and wrap it up and call it a day. on this big league career because I just don't see how you improve. I don't see how you fix this situation. I think the only thing that has really like saved Madison Bone Gardner so far is just that they don't have a lot of pitching depth on this team. And I guess someone's better than no one. Yeah.

I'm just, I'm done. I've seen enough. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of weird because his ERA isn't like seven or anything. You know, it's like four and a half. But it just feels and I can,

firm looking at some of the peripheral stats for Mad Bum that like he's pretty fortunate to have an ERA as low as he does even though his ERA is not particularly low at this point. His strikeout rate is lower than it was last year. His walk rate is higher than it was last year, I believe. His home run rate is pretty high as well. So he just doesn't at this point, Mac, there's like nothing that Mad Bum is like especially good at. Like he's not really great at limiting hard contact. He doesn't have a lot of swing and miss in his game. His walk rate is about league average at this point. So it's not like he's not walking anyone like some of the other guys in the starting rotation. So there just like isn't, there's just not much to hold on to there. So the diamondbacks

are making the decision and they're able to do this because they have an extra off day here to work with. But they are skipping Madison Bumgarner this time through. And they're having him work with Brent Strom, the Diamondbacks pitching coach to try to make some tweaks here. Mack, do you have any hope? I know you're calling for Mad Bum to retire, but do you have any hope that Brent Strom can maybe help him work through some things here? I don't know. I just, I don't see how at this point, maybe I'm just overly pessimistic and jaded.

I'm just not sure what can be done to remedy the situation. I, when it comes to this side of baseball, I don't really know how long it takes to see the fruits of coaching labor, I guess, is a way to put it. So I don't really know to anticipate and how much of a difference Brentstrom can make. I think we were all kind of hoping at the beginning of the season that this coaching staff was really going to help make some big improvements and big changes. and I think in a lot of ways we have seen some improvements and some changes. But when it comes to the pitching, I just like, I don't know if it's like going to take longer than it has to really see the fruits of Brentstrom's labor.

But I don't know. I just don't see how you can fix it. And I think a lot of Madison Bobgarner's issues too are just at the age. Like I think Warrantair, he's been in this league for so long. And I just think a lot of it just comes down to the fact that pitching is one of the hardest things to do to your body. You know, it's just the wear and tear that Madison's gone through throughout his career is kind of catching up to him, if that makes sense. Yeah, I have a feeling that some of you may have taken advantage of our friends over at OGs when watching Madison Montgomery Pitch. Maybe there's a correlation there. Maybe there's not. But over at OGs, they have some free stuff for us, Mac.

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been hearing so much about? I was not there for Keysgate. I was at a wedding. So I unfortunately, Derek placed for Shane stealing the keys. Keysgate is what I'm calling it. Keysgate. There we go. Well, everyone had a fantastic time from what I've heard over at our Maya Day Club event with

OGs the other day, except somewhat for Derek, who did lose his keys. He had a fantastic time before he lost his keys, after he lost his keys, not quite as much fun. But as we uncovered on the show yesterday, it was all the fault of none other than Shane Diefenbach. He had the keys in his backpack. So mystery solved on that front. Never trust a Diefenbach. Never, never trust a Diefen Bach. But hey, speaking of cool things that you can win, I also want to tell you about our friends over at four peaks. First of all, our monthly last Wednesday is around the corner. Join us all day at four peaks on August 31st for good, fun, food, and beer. So that is a week from today. If you're joining us live, we'll be live from Four Peaks. All of our shows will be

live from Four Peaks next week. We always do that on the last Wednesday of every month. And speaking of last Wednesday, we'll be announcing our next winner then. Enter to win the host of the month sweepstakes to win a $50 for Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to go to go phNX.com or click on the link in the show notes. Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Mack, a lot of exciting sweepstakes and things that people can take advantage of right now.

Go get your free shit. Go to our website and sign up. You have nothing to lose. There's literally nothing to lose by entering any of these things. But anyway, be sure to go ahead and do that. Last topic for today, Mac, we had some pretty big news come out earlier in the day as the schedule was released for the 2020 season. We can take a look real quick at the Diamondback schedule for the 2020 season, depending on what device you're using to join us right now. If you're watching this show in video form, this may or may not be legible for you.

Hopefully it is. But this is the Diamondback schedule for the 2020 season. Mac will pick up right at the beginning here. The Diamondbacks open up on the road in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. They follow that up with two against San Diego. And then they come home for four games against the Dodgers after that. So both the opening day game is in L.A. And then the Diamondbacks home opener also against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Do you view that Mac is like not a great thing? What do we think? I think the MLB schedule makers have it out against the Diamondbacks. I think the Diamondbacks did something to make them upset. And the schedule maker was like, all right, well, I'm going to go ahead and have both of your opening days, both home and away be against the Dodgers. So I think something happened and we've been cursed because how, how do you force us to both open the season and that home against the freaking Dodgers?

Like, what did we do to deserve this? We literally made the baseball gods so many. or something because I can't. I'm so upset that this is the schedule to start this season. Like, why? Just curse. Yeah, Charles Woodall Pike is not very optimistic here. He says, oh, and 10 start.

He's already saying tank season in the comments. This can't be good. But yeah, it is unfortunate, right? I mean, the Diamondbacks, there's some optimism going into next year and rightfully so, you know, trying to build on what the team has done this year. and it's just tough to open the season in that way. And it feels like it's, feels like it's happened for a while now.

Like the Diamondbacks just don't, I'm not going to, I mean, it's not like they face the Dodgers to start every season or anything, but it just feels like they, they usually get kind of hammered with a tough schedule right at the beginning every single year. And this is about the worst that I've,

that I've ever seen it. The flip side of that is that I guess you're sort of getting these games out of the way. a big change for the 2023 season is that instead of facing each divisional opponent 19 times, which has generally been the case, that's been taken down all the way to 13. So the Diamondbacks will only play the Dodgers and all of the other divisional opponents 13 times next season. And eight of those, Mack, will happen in the first two weeks of the season. So I guess from that perspective, maybe it's good. Maybe the Dodgers will be floundering around the gate out of the gate.

You can sort of take advantage of that. But yeah, all in all, I don't know. How do we feel about the Diamondbacks playing fewer games against divisional opponents? I'm all for it. I mean, the less amount of times we have to face the Dodgers and I guess sometimes the Padres. See, I'm still not convinced that the Padres are a coherent baseball team. I don't know what it is about them. But I just think that they don't scare me as much as they did when they made all those crazy moves in the offseason.

But anyway, the least amount of times we have to face the Dodgers, I'll take it. I hate the Dodgers. They're going to be so good for so many years. I hate their fans. I just hate everything about that organization. So the less amount of times we have to see them, I'm all for it. So I'm excited at least that's like one positive thing about the change is we don't have to worry about the Dodgers as much. Yeah, I mean, we do, we do sort of a lot of complaining around here about the NL West Division.

A lot of pretty much every Diamondbacks fan at some point or another has talked about like the fact that the Diamondbacks play in arguably the best division or at least one of the best divisions in the sport. And so this is a win for them. You know, I mean, playing those teams for fewer games, 24 fewer games against divisional opponents over the course of a season is probably a difference maker. Of course, you're also getting fewer games against the Rockies, which, you know, maybe that's not as great. The Rockies have not been great this year. They've really taken a bit of a step back lately.

But, yeah, I mean, on the whole, you'll trade, you know, fewer games against the Rockies for fewer games against the Dodgers and the Padres. and even the Giants who were sort of right in the middle this year and figure to be decent moving forward. Some other highlights, Mac, you're getting more games against American League opponents. Every team will face every other team, which is not at all how this is normally done. Usually there's only, I believe, 20 interleague games a season. That number is, I want to say, 46 in this next season. So a lot more games between NL and AL teams. The Diamondbacks, if you're sort of looking at the schedule and trying to highlight the games that maybe you want to get tickets to

at Chase Field. Those AL opponents for 2023 are the Kansas City Royals, the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Tampa Bay Race, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and the Houston Astros. Mack, do you have any of those circled on your calendar as games that you might especially want to attend? I'm definitely not going to be there for anything Red Sox related because the Red Sox are horrible and I hate the Red Sox. Not horrible as it bad, but like, I just don't like that organization.

So I'm not going to be there for any of the Red Sox games. I would probably want to go to some of those Osso games just because I think it's hilarious that they still get bullied. Sure. And I will never, ever let them live down 2017. So, you know. But I think probably the Mariners game would be cool, too. I think the Mariners are a fun team to watch when they can get all those cognization turning. So I think I'll probably be there for some Mariners games for sure.

Maybe we get a Robbie Ray returning to Chase Field game. That would be a nice little stab in the heart as a reminder of what we lost. There you go. There you go. Well, Diamondbacks fans are sort of used to that thing, that sort of thing by now, especially after Paul Goldschmidt coming in over the weekend. Those wounds are fresh right now. Nice.

Yes. Yes, yes. But yeah, I know some people have commented when we put this out on Twitter, some people commented that there's not a lot of star power coming to Chase Field in these games. Like, you don't really look at a lot of those teams that the Diamondbacks are facing for the American League and see like, oh, we're so excited to see, you know, so-and-so play. There's not a whole lot of that in this group, but there are a few names for sure. Julio Rodriguez. I was just about to say, I'm sorry, but Julio Rodriguez is my favorite player.

fall now. I'm doing some like injury stuff, but that kid is a stud, like a star, a future star. I'm so excited to watch him play. He's, he's really incredible. He just joined the 2020 club as well at the ripe old age of 21, I believe. He has 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases on the season, even though he like didn't even start the year with the Mariners. He didn't get called up for a while. So pretty, pretty wild on that front. We can pull up the calendar. one more time. I want to point out what's happening

at the end of the season. Mac, things finish not quite as hard as they start, but still pretty tough. The Diamondbacks have three games on the road in the Bronx against the Yankees

and then three games on the road against what figures to be a pretty good Chicago White Sox team. And then they finish the 2023 season with three games at home against the Houston Astros

who are always difficult. That's a pretty tough way to end the season. and obviously are going to have some tough stretches throughout 162 game season, but having some of the toughest stretches at the beginning of the season and at the end of the season feels like not an ideal outcome for the debacks. Yeah, I'm telling you, Jesse, somewhere along the way, this organization made the baseball gods extremely angry,

and they're paying for it through their scheduling. And I don't know what we have to do to uncurse the diamondbacks. I might sleep with some silver spoons under my pillow or, like, turn my pajamas in inside out, I don't know, but something happened and we just got messed up along the way because that sucks. Yeah, not great, not great. And speaking of not great, I thought Espo pointed something interesting out on Twitter today. He tweeted something out. This is what it said. We have it on the screen for you here. He said that MLB hands down has the worst marketing of any sport. Why would you announce next season's schedule while still playing this season's schedule? It's like Apple announcing the

iPhone 15 and two-thirds of the way through the iPhone 14 unveil, which is a fair point. Other sports in general wait until after the season is over. It becomes sort of an off-season event, right? Like when the schedule is announced, there's sort of some hype around finding out who you're going to play and who you're going to open the season against and all that. We see those as being pretty big moments, especially for the NFL. It's always a huge thing when the NFL schedule comes out in the off-season. Do you see a problem with this Mac that like Major League Baseball does make this choice to release the schedule during the season?

Do you agree with ESPO here? Yeah, absolutely. I don't think Major League Baseball has ever figured out how to market itself correctly. I have this saying the only thing standing in the way of Major League Baseball is Major League Baseball. I don't know who makes these decisions in their marketing department, but it's bad. Like I don't understand the logic or the reasoning behind it at all. Like you said, like other leagues will do whole videos. Like the NFL schedule release videos are insane.

Like social media and marketing departments will spend months making those videos. And they get so much interaction and engagement. They get awards. Like I just, I don't understand why baseball does anything that baseball does because it doesn't make sense. Like they don't know how to market their sport or to make it more appealing for anyone under the age of 40. It's so frustrating. Ah. I mean, for the record, I mean, the majority of the baseball fan base, it like is and has been

older people for quite a while now, right? They're going to kill off the sport and the popularity because they can't seem to figure out how to market their players, their stars, their schedules, like, it's so, the blackouts are so infuriating. Like, it's all just so bad. And I really generally think, like, major I really like baseball needs a huge wake-up call, and the only thing that they're, the only time they're ever going to get it is if they get a new commissioner

who actually cares about the sport. I'm the biggest Rob Manfred Hader on the face of the planet. Wow. All right. Someone who doesn't think that the World Series trophy is a shiny piece of metal. So I'm not surprised that this is how it is, and I don't really think anything's ever going to change

until they finally get a commissioner that actually wants to make baseball come into the 21st century. So it's kind of unfortunate. Yeah, I mean, I guess the one argument you could make is like if Major League Baseball does wait until the off season, does it just become like drowned out by the NBA and the NFL? Like if you put out the MLB schedule in like December or January or something when both basketball and football are in full swing, does anyone really notice? Like does anyone care at that point? I think that's kind of a fear in a lot of ways. basketball, like you can still make noise while regular season hockey and basketball are happening.

Like, obviously, you're going to playoff time, but there is still so much room and leeway in the off season that you can find an appropriate window to like make a big deal out of your schedule release. Yeah. I mean, you're right. I mean, there's this big larger issue of Major League Baseball really struggling to market its product. And this does just sort of look like maybe another one of those things. And I mean, for all I know, maybe there's some logistical.

reason why, like, they have to release the schedule during the season. I don't really know what that would be. Like, yeah, I have a little skeptical. Like, I don't know. I don't know what could possibly make it so you had to make it public at this particular point in time. It seems like a pretty open decision for them to make. And they're making it a little bit questionable, you know, when they release it with, you know, still like a month and a half remaining in the season. It's, it's pretty bizarre timing. It's better than doing it in the postseason, I guess. that would be the one way that maybe they could make this worse is by waiting, but still a pretty bizarre choice all the way around.

I don't know, Mac, other things that maybe stand out to you for the Diamondbacks 23 schedule are there things that you're especially looking forward to? We mentioned the fewer divisional games. Maybe you're a little bit less sick of like the Padres and the Rockies, like those random dog days of summer sorts of games at Chase Field that don't, tend to attract a whole, a whole lot of people into the stadium. Maybe this is an opportunity to get a few more people into Chase Field. Yeah, definitely.

I think it's definitely an opportunity to get some more people in the Chase Field. I mean, maybe not for the bright reasons because they're going to be supporting the way team. But I mean, you'll take what you can get at this point. Money is money and revenue is revenue. So that's always a good thing. I'm really excited about getting to play every single team. I think it just, for me, it feels more.

or right. It feels better, I guess, playing every single team. And I also think it's a better gauge to where you truly stack up in this league because you can see where you're at compared to some teams that you might not have played for two or three seasons. So I'm kind of excited to see them match up against all of the teams in baseball instead of just like one division in the American League like each year. So I think that's a really cool change. And for better or for worse, it's going to be a gauge on talent and where this team stocks up in Major League Baseball as a whole. Might not be the best thing for the Diamondbacks, but hey, you never know.

Yeah, I mean, you have to believe that driving more people into stadiums around baseball had to be like part of this decision, trying to get more people in the stands, trying to draw a little bit more interest in some of these games. Once you get far into the season and you're on your fifth series against a particular team, I think it just just gets a little bit, a little bit more dull. and I think fans probably feel that to a certain degree. But yeah, we'll see how this schedule plays out. Another part of this is definitely the fact that the wild card has been expanded.

There's three teams instead of two. And so you kind of want to make sure that things are a little bit more level from one team to another so that you don't have one team playing way more games in a very difficult division versus another team when there's three wildcard spots to be had. and the emphasis on the emphasis in the playoffs and how the playoffs run is is being less placed on the division than it was before. So this sort of adds and gives a little bit more diversity to what the season looks like. So yeah, it should be interesting to see how all of that plays out for next year. Earlier, Mac, you said that money is money.

And speaking of that, the Drafking Sportsbook app is something that all of you should go and download right now. use promo code pH and X bet just $5 on college football and get $200 in free bets instantly. That's code pH and X only at Draft King's Sportsbook. It's pretty wild that college football is like already here. Somehow this summer has moved. Very, very quickly this summer has moved. Mack, have you placed any good draft king sportsbook app bets in the last couple weeks? I don't really like to bet on baseball because it just takes away the love that I have of the sport when I get upset if my bets don't hit.

So not recently, but I am really excited to crack back open my drafting sportsbook app and bet on college football. I love betting on college football and the NFL too. Live in-game bets are my favorite. It's like my favorite thing to do. The only thing I won't do, however, is bet on the Arizona State Sun Devils because I have two rules in sports betting. It's don't ever bet on the Diamondbacks slash Rockies or Arizona State football. So that won't be happening, but I'll be making sure to place lots of live bets during the NFL and college football season coming up because that is my favorite sports betting season and

I cannot wait. You still lump the Diamondbacks and the Rockies together in that? They're just like right in the same category for you. I think the Diamondbacks have pulled ahead and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the Diamondbacks podcast. but I have some feelings about the Rockies organization, specifically their ownership, and I've decided that I will be checking out of that organization

until they do the right thing and get a new owner. So that I'm in the lead. Congrats Stuyves. You're my favorite NLS team right now. There you go. There you go. And speaking of being in the lead, we are partnering with a leader in sports merchandise and collectibles.

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So for all of those things, we go to Focco. because they have officially licensed gear for men, women, kids, and pets as well. Did they have anything for cats? That's a good question. That's a very good question. Yeah, we'll have to figure that out. I don't know. What would you want for your cat, Mac?

If you were to pick anything, what would you want? I think she would be really cute and a little baseball hat. Okay. I don't know if she would enjoy the baseball hat as much as you're saying that you would enjoy it on her. No. But, but yes, our friends at Focode, they have you covered on all of those different things. So be sure to head over to Focode.com. Yes, we do love Cleo around here.

It's become a thing. Ever since I've been doing my podcast from home, like Cleo gets on every episode. So sorry, she had to make one on Diamondbacks. We love, we love Cleo on the PHNX Diamondback show. So no, no problem there, Mac. I'm a little bit more of a dog person. but I can tolerate an occasional on-screen appearance from a cat. We can deal with that.

Boo, cats are better. Disagree, disagree. But that's another conversation for another time. We thank you all so much for joining us here in our Diamondbacks Royals post-series show. The Diamondbacks split this series with Kansas City a game of peace. Unfortunately, as we talked about earlier, it really looked like the Diamondbacks could have had a series sweep in this one, but they settle for the split. And we will move on from here.

They got the Chicago White Sox coming up over the weekend and off day tomorrow. I'll be here with Faj, Father Overlawyer, Jacob. We'll be filling in for Derek tomorrow on the show. We'll be live at 1 p.m. So we hope to see you. We hope to see you for that show. In the meantime, be sure to give us all a follow on social media. You could find me at at Jesse N. Friedman.

You can find Mac at Michaela E. Perkins, as you can see here on the screen. Middle name gang. There you go. Or, of course, all roads lead to PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter. And you also have, of course, our page, PHNX underscore DBAX. We'd love for you to follow us over there. Thank you again all so much for joining us here this evening. We really appreciate you being here with us.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're Zach Gallen right now.