PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Tommy Henry dominates the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first career win

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

In his second career start in the majors, Arizona Diamondbacks rookie pitcher Tommy Henry dazzled as he chalked up his first career win in a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. We are also joined by Roknowledge to discuss Ken Kendrick's absurdly valuable baseball card collection being on display.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, crisiscounseling 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), visitOPGR.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% off 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.

All hail King Henry. Welcome to the PHNX D-Backs podcast, which you wouldn't know by the shirts that either one of us are wearing. Of course, my name is Derek Montia. I am your mayor, PHNX. This guy is my vice mayor. He's the one and only Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. We are unashamed to be Phoenix Suns fans on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. All of our merch is good, but the Sun's shirts, they're really good.

They're really good. This one is honestly this shirt right here. The Devin Booker shirt. No, no, no, no. Not the Devin Booker shirt. No, no, no. It's the sunset drive shirt. It's a sunset drive shirt with a guy and his dog.

There you go. You get it. Anyway, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's top rated sportsbook app. Of course, we had a big win yesterday. Tommy Henry got his first career win. A very exciting game. Deback's notch win number 50, Jesse.

50. How many did they win last year? I believe they won 52. 52. 52. They could potentially reach their season total from last year in this series against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a sweep. That's kind of wild. But what's wilder was the night that Tommy Henry had. He was absolutely outstanding.

Everything that we could possibly hope that he would be. We haven't had a chance to get excited about a young pitcher. And if you're not excited, it's time to get excited. Yeah. Yeah, he was really great in that game yesterday. I thought his breaking stuff looked a lot better. than it did last game. And after the game, he was very forthright that, like,

he was just more comfortable in this outing. He didn't have the first Major League start jitters going. Like he now, I mean, anyone would, right, in your first big league start. We actually have a video of that. We've been talking about how unjittery he was. It might take a second for me to get that. I didn't know that was a thing.

Oh, no, that's fine. No, that's fine. But also, Jesse's lying to your face because he texted me last night and said, Tommy Henry really wasn't that good tonight. Whoa. What? This is true. This guy's like temper your expectation.

Jacob is hardcore throwing me under the bus. So, so I mean, Tommy Henry, seven innings one run, right? Like on paper, it's extraordinary.

My concern is just that like, he had three strikeouts, right? There wasn't a whole lot of swing and miss. There was a decent amount of hard contact. So Jacob is like backing me into a corner here. I feel like I have to say all these negative things I don't really want to say. But all in all,

it was an impressive star. I'm just saying that it, it maybe wasn't quite to the level of like, you know, this guy is, is a future ace or something like that. Like, we need to see a little bit more from Tommy Henry in order to, in order to get to that point. Stop. Well, this is Jacob. This is Jacob's fault.

This is awful. You're awful. You got to celebrate the win. That was a big game for him. I mean, honestly, as far as pitching prospects go, it's him. I did not call punch out Tommy mid, Gabriel. He absolutely did. He did, Gabriel.

I heard him saying. it. It's incredible. This man walked back to his hotel room last night. I saw it. Did you? With my own eyes. While I was crossing the bridge. Yes. Yes. He had unapologetically walked back to his hotel room because apparently he enjoys walking.

And that was part of why he felt so calm. He talked about walking to the ballpark before the game. And that's the video that we do we have now, Jacob? Yeah, well, I've got the interview, right? Yeah, that's the one. I can get it on the screen if you're ready. Make that happen. Notice less nerves.

as you were walking to the ballpark? Obviously, I walked to the ballpark again today. I did. I did do my walk to the ballpark today. I did. I don't really know what that's a product of. You know, some days you feel more nervous than others, more anxious than others.

Today I felt pretty at ease. I think that's a combination of preparation. It's the feeling of the trust that, you know, the coaching staff and the players around you and still. And yeah, I was just ready to go. I was excited to play and have a little bit of fun out there. He talked about working with Brent Strom over the week and that Brent Strom talked to him about like digging the ball deeper into his hand.

Yeah, we've mentioned that a few times. Just rip, let it go and rip it, right? Jacob asked a very good question while that video was playing. He wanted to know why he looked like he was crying or had been maced. It's a very good question. And the reason why is because Tommy Henry had his first career. career win. So that means that he suffered whatever abuse from his teammates that one does suffer. In this case, I believe he said he was doused with oat milk.

Yeah, oat milk and well, he was talking about his hair and the fact that his hair looked a little off. Yeah, Jesse thought that he was wearing an excessive amount of gel for I did. When we walked up to him, I was like, oh my gosh. Like this guy really needs to lay out the gel a little bit. But we got some Clarification, apparently it was oat milk and shaving cream, I want to say. It was a nice combination of those two things that were mixed up in there. That he knows of. That he's aware of. He said for the most part he just closed his eyes and let it happen.

Right. Not the best advice at times, but I understand when that happened. Those players definitely had a great time celebrating his victory. And he deserved it. I think what we saw was more of what is what we can expect out of them. Yes, it's not going to be overpowering. Yes, he's not the new base. But, Jesse, I ask you this.

Does he not look like a quality fourth man in a starting rotation, which is something the debacks desperately need right now? Yeah, yeah. I think there's totally an opportunity for him to, like, you know, show what he can do down the stretch and grow into that sort of a role. That's sort of what the scouting report has been on Tommy Henry for a while. He doesn't have, you know, this wipe out stuff that's going to totally blow hitters away. As we saw yesterday, it's mostly like 91, 92, you know, the occasional 93 mon hour fastball.

I thought his slider was pretty good yesterday. That was the breaking pitch. You mentioned that he's been working on with Brent Strom. He threw a few curve balls that were effective as well. So yeah, all in all, I thought it was a really good outing. I feel like you have to take everything with a little bit of a grain of salt when you're facing the Pittsburgh Pirates, just given their offense and the fact that it's sort of Brian Reynolds. It's sort of Brian Reynolds and then everyone else.

I guess Cabrion Hayes is a pretty good hit or two, but that offense is certainly not loaded. So it'll be interesting to see what Tommy does, you know, against better teams. And I also think he can be a lot better as well. That's the other side of this is that even though I don't think he necessarily pitched as well, as those numbers indicate, I don't think he pitched his best at all. Like I think he can really be way better than what we saw yesterday. So a really good outing no matter what way you look at it for him. And a good outing from the team. An overall pretty solid defensive game, offensive.

Tommy Henry was good. We saw Mark Malanson get saved number six. 16. So again, if we're going to go to a route where it's more situational, maybe we see Ian Kennedy and Mark Melanson both in closing opportunities. I might not be so opposed to that because it might be based a little bit more on analytics and who the better pitcher to go with is in what situation rather than just blindly giving it to Melanson in the ninth, no matter what the game situation is, right? But Chris Devinsky, who hadn't given up a run all season, had a, pretty rough outing and that you want to take credit for that that's absolutely jesse's fault oh my gosh

i get blamed so much for things well who who don't do that to yourself who interviewed him before the game about how well he was doing i did i did interview it wasn't all of it i mean it was about his recovery you know he had two surgeries coming back from tommy john there's a there's a good story there but i did have a great conversation with christ davinsky before the game and then uh unfortunately things didn't go so well for him yesterday but i still think this stuff looks pretty good overall. He threw some 95s yesterday, which is still really good to see for him. So this is not the end of the road for Christadinsky after one, after one bad outing.

It's not. We'll keep Jesse away from him in the future. Ben brought up Christian Walker's amazing diving stop, which really, it's a great point. He said, I can't remember if it was after he had left the game, but Christian Walker had an amazing diving stop. And Varsho was running all over the field. Christian Walker, that was in the ninth. And that kept, you know, that might have gotten a little bit more dicey from the Lancet there. because that definitely kept one off the base path,

and he let another one get on. So it wasn't like, it wasn't that same feeling that we even had out of Ian Kennedy the other night of satisfaction and just kind of being like, hey, this feels okay. Like this ninth inning ended uneventfully. Yeah,

got a little tense, especially with one on and Melanson on the mound, right? But Michael McDermott in this comment said Melanson came in because no one else was available. It'll be interesting to see if that is the case going forward, or if we see Malantzantz and, and Kennedy kind of shared time in that role. Yeah, I think we will.

I mean, Mark Malanson was sort of, I think, the only guy that they could really go to in that spot. Ian Kennedy would have been four out of five. So you're not going to throw Ian Kennedy in that spot. So no surprise is to see Mark Malanson in that spot. And he came through, you know, he walked a guy, but he came through. It was fairly uneventful, all things considered. You did do the thing. And what do you think about right now, the Diamondbacks being two wins away from their season total?

I mean, I know that obviously last year we've discussed at length, how we both know it was a fluke of injuries and other things that really led it to be as bad, right? But, I mean, you want to really just celebrate the small victories for a season like this where you're most likely not going to, you know, see the playoffs or anything like that. Sure. Although some crazy things could happen with how much time's left. I mean, let's be honest. They're only 10 games out of a wild card. They have regular season games in October this year. if I'm not mistaken, right?

Only a few. It's like October 5th, October 5th, I think is when the season ends. But still, I mean, I'm just saying like we are just in August 10th right now. By August 12th, the Diamondbacks could have as many wins as they had for the entire season last year. Yeah. But still essentially close to two months left on the schedule, you know, just under a month and a half or just over a month and a half left. So I just think that that's an impressive bounce back from one of the worst seasons. in history and the exact thing that we were hoping for, you know.

And then from this point, it's how good can it get, how far can they kind of get back up, you know, from where they were at? And how can they reset the expectations going forward that this team isn't a hundred lost team? You know, obviously, I think that they're going to avoid that this year. So it's, that would really be quite something. Let's not go there. I forgot about what's ahead, though. Don't forget about what's ahead. Yeah, yeah.

Did you see the Padres come back last? night. God damn it. It was just, uh, that was crazy. Josh Hader still blew his first save opportunity yesterday. That was, uh, with San Diego. It was a absolutely wild game, um, between them and the giants. But yeah, Manny Machado came through in the bottom half of the inning and, and that was that. But, um, yeah, I mean, this diamond back season has been, um, overall, I think it's just, this team has just been way more fun to watch. Um, yeah, it's just a totally different environment than, than what we saw last year with a lot of, um, overall. a lot of older veterans still on the team

and this team is young and getting to see guys like Tommy Henry pitch and have success like they did yesterday is great. The Diamondbacks win and lost totals both start with the same number right now. 50 and 59. It's a really random fact, but that we have not seen that for quite a while.

The single digit loss of it or last year, their final win and lost totals did not start with the same number. No, they did not. No, they did not. But that's exciting. looking forward and again, something to kind of remember with this team. Again, even if your expectations are that they should make the playoffs for you to consider them a success,

maybe just how close can they get to 500 by the end of the year might be a little bit more of a measuring stick. And if they can be within five games, I would say that's a huge success for where they were at last year. Within five games. Within five games of 500, I think anything. It's ambitious. They're on pace for 74 right now, 74 and 88 is what they're currently on base for. I'm just saying, again, at this point, I can't, excuse me, I'm not going to say, like, anything, 20 games over what they were at last year is a success, 15 games over where they were at last year, it's a success.

I'm just saying if they can get within five games of 500, that's insane. Like that would be incredible. Such an incredible bounce back from how bad last year was. And we'll celebrate with OG's gummies because that's what I do to celebrate. That's what I do whenever. It doesn't matter how I'm feeling. OGs will help me get to where I want to feel. And that's what you guys can do too.

Check out our friends at OGs at the dispensary near you. They have a variety of flavors, a variety of strains, and a variety of doses for you, whether you want a 3 milligram microdose, 10 milligram regular dose or above for a medicinal user, OGs has you covered. And they also have you covered with our sweepstakes this month. We need to get some winners for this one. So we're giving you free stuff from our friends at OG's. And yes, again, that's me.

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Must be 21 years or older to purchase. And also, another way to celebrate is with our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company, which I'm going to do right now with a brand new joy. I'm going into a new one. I'm getting a new one going on here, Jesse. One of my favorite beers, the Joy Bus Wow. And you can find our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company anywhere near you. You can join us on the final Wednesday of every month where we'll broadcast from the 8th Street Pub,

Four Peaks, food, beer, top notch. Join us down there. If you're interested in this kind of thing, it's actually where they make the beer. So you can come check that out, maybe take a tour, whatever fancies you if you're a craft beer aficionado. I am going to be a craft beer judge this fall, Jesse. How did that happen? What do you mean how did that happen? How did that happen?

I'm a mayor. I drink, I am a beer of fictionado. I have my snackology degree, which does have a subdegree in, uh, uh, a liquors. You have a minor in liquors. It's a minor in liquors, but I mean, that's just more of me drinking a lot. But, uh, tell you what, you guys can check out our friends at Four Peaks. If you don't join us at the 8th Street Pub, uh, make sure to check them out at your local grocery store, convenience store, liquor store.

Also, we're giving away a little gift package from them as well on our sweepstakes. Uh, entered a whim the toast of the month's sweepstakes to win a $50, four peaks get. gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to go to phnx.com or click on the link below in the show notes. Enter both. Go over there. Enter both of those. Must be 21 or older to enjoy four peaks and enjoy responsibly.

Just a judge or an Aaron judge, Ben wants to know. Hmm. Hmm. I'm going to call myself an Aaron judge. Wow. That's what I'm going to call myself. That's cool. I'm going to Aaron Judge Montia on my little.

I'm sure they got to give me a little engraved plaque, right? to put in front of me. Well, I don't know. Do you want to be anonymous? I don't know if you want craft beer makers coming after you for giving them a poor rating. That's fair. You might want to be anonymous.

Yeah, I don't know. Good call. I don't know. But what I do know is we are joined now by one of my best friends in the Hawaii world and one of the finest, most knowledgeable sources for collectibles in the baseball world and pretty much anywhere else.

It's our buddy, rock knowledge, and our new segment, dropping knowledge with rock knowledge, DJ Rock Knowledge. Rock is coming through to discuss with us some of the happenings in the collectibles world. Rock, what's happening, my man? We lost him. Oh, we lost him. So just give it a minute.

No, that's fine. He'll be back. He'll come back. But Rock was bringing us some information actually on Ken Kendrick's collection. Believe it or not, is pretty valuable. You don't say, Jesse. Ken Kendrick has a baseball collection, which is roughly about, I think it was 50 cards.

And it was on display. 47 of the 50 cards, Jesse, were on display at the National Sports Collectors Convention, including some of the most valuable cards in the entire world that are owned by Ken Kendrick, including a 1952 Tops Mickey Mantle PSA 10, which, as Rock described, was like it was delivered to you by Jesus himself. And Rock is back to join us.

So, Rock, what's happening? Hello, boys. How are you guys doing today? Doing great, man. Thanks for joining us. We were just talking about Ken Kendrick's baseball card collection and it being on display at the national. Yeah, he's got quite the card collection, apparently.

50 cards in total, around $100 million in value. Some of the pinnacles of the collection is a 1952 tops, Mickey Mantle as a PSA 10. If you are not familiar with card grading, it does not get any better than a PSA 10. That's like brand new, basically, yeah. Yeah, so that basically means Jesus reviewed it, checked it out, and said, you know what, this card is the Grail. So it's a PSA 10. I think there's three in existence what I read on that particular card.

So that is insane. Wow. He has a 51 Bowman Mickey Mantle. That's a PSA 10. another card is a 1909 Honus Wagner at a PSA 8 That card being as old as it is Holding up with that kind of a grade

Is kind of spectacular And some of his cards are actually on display In Cooperstown, right? Like he's lent them to the Hall of Fame Just to put them on display Yeah, so he, from what I read He, you know, Graciously allowed these cards to be on display

The company that took them Is actually a sister company of PSA PSA is one of, if not the biggest grading companies in the world. There's also BGS, which is Beckett. There's SGC. If you're into the card collecting game, you hear the term slabbed, slabs. That's referring to the card in case in hard plastic with the grade, the card. And that is where it's at.

I mean, those are the cards that are going to fetch you thousands and thousands of dollars. and it's just crazy to see where sports cards has come and gone. I've been collecting since I was a kid in the 80s in the junk wax era when they were mass produced and quite frankly, most of them don't have a whole lot of value these days. Unless, again, you have some that are graded because that does greatly increase the value. But what they're doing with cards now and the prices on some of these packs and boxes

and just some of the stuff, the patch cards, the autograph cards, the, there's bat knob cards with a piece of the bat on it. That's wild. That's incredible. That's wild. I've never seen that. I've seen the jersey pieces and stuff like that. And so that's incredible to me.

But like you said, the way that they've added the additional value. Plus, you were telling me about just how crazy the card market got during the pandemic, the last time you were on the show. So I guess I want to. wanted to ask you, what's going on with that? Is it cooled off now that everybody's kind of back to regular life? No. Is it still like as crazy as it was or are people still, you know, into that?

I think it's, I think it's crazier and even bigger. Really? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty active on social media, very active on TikTok. And TikTok is full of breakers. And that's essentially people who are selling boxes and packs of cars.

cards, they'll do breaks where five people will buy in a spot because that box might cost $3,000. So you get, you know, five people to pay a certain amount per spot. And then they break, they open all the packs live on, on the stream. And whatever division, whatever team you've drawn, whatever cards they pull you get. So if they pull like a, you know, a 2020. 22 tops Julio Rodriguez, you know, patch auto that's fetching thousands of dollars. That's yours.

You pay for the break spot. You want it. So it's like a lottery in a way, right? Like a random draw lottery. And I mean, I could see the way that it goes from being a spectator sport of just watching people open packs like that to like getting people actively involved like that. Yeah, I've never, I haven't like participated in a break only because the money. the price.

That's fair. It's a huge gamble. Because I mean, you could, you know, they could open up five packs and pull nothing. Yeah. You know, but some cars that aren't worth anything. And that's just, that's just the chance you take with collecting sports cards in general. You never know what you're going to get when you open up that pack. You know, you could buy a $10 pack of baseball cards and pull a $5,000 card.

Or you could buy a $10 pack and pull, you know, $25, 10 cents cards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just it's the luck of the draw and these breakers, man, like these, they're everywhere on TikTok. Everywhere. And a lot of them were on display. They were at the national breaking. They had a whole like area set up for all the breakers. So they're doing live breaks at the national.

That's why. The national is not the card shows you're familiar with at the, at the malls or at the VFW halls. This is a large scale. card show. This is the one where all of the major card company reps are at. They're displaying new product. You can buy, sell, you can trade. And then like this, you also get, you know, this collection of baseball cards and that are just on display for people just to quite frankly marvel at. That's what I was going to ask. Is that what Kendrick's there just to kind of show off his shit?

Yeah, he's dragging his nuts across. He was dragging his nuts across. He was dragging his nuts. Like, come on, you really pulled out a PSA 10 Mickey Mantle, 52 tops. Come on. Just to show everybody. Like that card. Don't forget who the granddaddy is. Yeah, I've seen that card, like a version of that card, like raw, not graded at a card show before. But to see a perfect Mickey Manil 52 tops, that's something I would love to like.

It's like comic books. It's just so rare because kids didn't take care of shit. And like, it's so hard for stuff from that era. out where these were literally intended. Like, my dad, my dad gets as mad about baseball cards, you know, and his lack of caring for them and keeping them as I do going to the Game On Expo here in Phoenix this past weekend and seeing all the video games that I used to own at one point on sale for like hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

It just makes you want to tear your hair out, right? No, and that's part of it. Like, you know, at the time, like my dad collected baseball cards as a kid. Yeah. He had no idea knowing those cards he was collecting in the 60s and 60s. 70s would fetch some good money today. Yeah, yeah. And then even me growing up, you know,

collected in the 80s and 90s as a kid, I knew some of the stuff was worth some money, but, I mean, we really had no way of knowing. Right. Yeah. I mean, you hear stories of people, their parents saying they would put their baseball cards and their bike spokes.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This guy right here. I did that. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just don't know. Like, you just don't know.

And just seeing the prices and, the demand and just the amount of people who are involved in the hobby. I think it's really cool moving forward. I wish it could be a little bit more affordable for the everyday folk. Yeah. You know, because I just, I have a hard time wanting to spend like,

you know, $600 bucks on a spot and a break and not knowing what I'm going to get. I would rather, I would rather spend that money on a card that I really want. Right. And I know what you're going to get for that money. Yeah. You know it's worth that much or whatever, right?

Yeah. Ra, can you explain, so I don't know much about the PSA system. Can you explain, like, what is the actual difference between a PSA 10 and a PSA 9 or 8? Like, is that something that someone who's not familiar could actually know by looking at them? Or what kind of expertise does it take in order to really understand the difference? Yeah, so a lot of, so basically the cards are graded for various different things. corners, centering, surface, if there's any print defects, if it's an autograph card, they'll grade the actual card itself, and there'll be a separate grade for the autograph.

So let's just say you pull Shohay Otani that's signed, and the autograph is smudged or not pristine. That can essentially lessen the value of the card, even if the card itself grades a perfect 10 if the autograph is like an 8 right that kind of diminishes the value or like you're saying if it was printed somehow just slightly incorrect but it's in perfect shape then it's still not a 10 because it's not the card itself to give you autographs bad or or vice versa you could have a pristine perfect you know PSA 10 autograph and the card could be an eight or a nine because the centerings off yeah and i've seen some terrible, terrible, like, printing, centering, where you're just like, how did this card even get through, like, quality?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, how did someone say this was okay to sell to somebody in a pack? And even going back to, like, you know, when I was collecting growing up, what they call the junk wax era, like, you know, buying old boxes of Tobs and Don Ross at the Price Club, or Costco, which is called now, you know, you pull out some of this cards and, like,

pictures, like shifted all the way to the fucking right. Yeah, you know, when it should be dead center. You're just like, how does this happen? Yeah. And when it comes to getting your cards graded, I think you're also subject to that particular graders, you know, the way they grade. Because I think everybody, it's not, you know, everybody does it differently. It's all by eyesight.

You know, you're relying on the person doing it, knowing their job, doing their job well. And, you know, giving you that grade. And there's, the funny thing is you'll even see people posting video. of them getting back their submissions from PSA or BGS and the defeat on their face when they don't see that 10. You know, it's like a live reaction to their finding out if their kid got into college or something. And on the flip side, on the flip side of that, there's actually been guys that have sent cards to like SGC or to get graded. They'll get one grade. And then you'll actually see them, you know, cracking the slab, pulling the card,

back out and they'll resubmit it to BGS and they might get a grade. Oh, it seems like a waste of money at that point. Like how much money are you putting into all of that process just to do all of that? Like where do you start to value that, you know, or factor that into the value of the card? Right now, one of the big, one of the big gripes within the grading community is the demand for graded cards is so high. There's not enough actual graders to keep up with the demand. And so they're having to hire and train new people.

Sure. All that turnover. Yeah. You get somebody brand new who's never done this or they've only done this for a couple of months. Yeah. You know, so it's really, it's a real big gamble. But man, if you submit that card and you get that 1010, pristine gem mint, like you could be set. Yeah, it could be the difference of thousands and thousands of dollars.

So it might be worth having it regraded for that. Yeah. All right. And those, yeah. Well, absolutely. You were talking about affordable cards, and I know these aren't necessarily affordable, but I did want to talk about what are tops. Can you tell us what Tops Now cards are? And why should they specifically be on Diamondbacks fans' radars with, you know, all of these young players coming up?

Yeah. So Tops, if you're a fan of the Tops company, for me, they are the pinnacle of baseball cards. They've been around the longest. they have this on their website. They have a brand of theirs called Tops Now. And they release new cards from this set each and every day. And essentially, what these cards capture is debuts or if like a moment in history is made. For instance, earlier this season when Miguel Cabrera got his 3,000 hit, the next day,

Tops Now, Miguel Cabrera card commemorated. card commemorating his 3,000 hit. Same thing with Mr. Seth Beer, Alex Thomas. When they made their Diamondbacks debuts, they were given Tops Now cards.

Yeah. So you go on the Tops website. Each card's available for, I believe, 72 hours. Wow. And the print run is honestly determined by the amount that get purchased. You know, some cards,

there might be a 10,000 print run. Some might be a 5,000 print run. and they're about 10 bucks a pop they do do parallels and insert so when I ordered this when I bought the Seth beer cards I bought one for myself got one for Derek they also sent me a third

Seth beer card that was numbered so you might get a numbered one you might get an autographed one you never know it's kind of the luck of the draw that's only happened to me once and I bought several Tops Now cards so it's not a common thing I don't think but every once in a while

you might get lucky and get a numbered card that's different. And like I said, it's really cool because this is highlighting specific moments and debuts. Because some of these guys might not get a rookie card or a baseball card until the following season, if ever. Because not everybody that plays baseball is going to get a baseball card. Right, right. You would, trust me, if it was like that, there would be way too many cards. We know a thing or two about that, for sure, right. But like especially with Tommy Henry, not like making his debut, but his first win and things like that.

So that's just something for everybody as Diamondbacks fans out there to look forward to. Rock, we appreciate you, my man. Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to have Rock on with dropping knowledge with Rock knowledge quite a bit. So whenever we have some collectibles news, Rock's going to join us. So again, thank you for your time, sir. We appreciate you. Thanks, Rock.

Yes, yes. Have it going, boys. All right. See you. Yeah. Man knows everything. It's incredible about baseball cards. He knows.

Like sometimes he drops on me exactly how many, like, are of these baseball cards when we're going through them. And, like, I don't know. I just can't remember information like that. But he lives up to his name. He does. He does. He does. He does live up to his name.

And I'll tell you, it's incredible. Like, what he was saying about the national, like, that's such a big deal because these cards are so incredibly valuable. It's getting, it's getting to a level of, like, fine art and other things that it's like, you know, you have to have people with, like, gloves handling this shit. and like security guards involved in these transactions. It's like they're handling the declaration of independence or something. For real.

But again, thank you to Rock. We appreciate you as always for joining us, my man. By the way, if you haven't had a chance to sign up for a membership, I know Rock has, you should do.

Sign up for an annual membership over at go p.nx.com. You'll get to read this man's wonderful writing, which is always happening all the time. And everybody else here at PHNX, which is just killing it with the content. Craig Morgan, who's the smartest man alive. I mean, this guy, he planned surgery on the same, like, while we were moving, so you can't help with, with.

Yeah, yeah. He's cerebral. We know what you're doing, Craig. We know all what Craig's doing. But you get Craig, you get Jesse, you get Gerald, you get all these great riders over at go phnx.com. If you sign up for membership, annual membership will get you a free t-shirt over at the phnx locker.com. Month-to-month membership will get you a free, or first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of the membership status you pick, you will get members.

only discounts over at the PHNX Locker, as well as members-only access to our Discord, which is a popping place to be, especially after Diamondbacks win, Tommy Henry win. We were in there having a good time yesterday for sure. So not only do that, but if you're watching us right now on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Leave us a thumbs up on this video and make sure to sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when anybody goes live on our channel, as well as subscribe to us on your favorite audio podcasting app and leave us a review. Please, if you have complaints about the show, you can DM me those directly and we don't need to have those be in the review. Just leave glowing things and then you can send all your

criticisms to me directly. I promise. I promise I'll open up my DMs again shortly after the things I said about, I don't know, I think the Aquaman poster at one point still die down. I'm still waiting for the heat from the Aquaman poster to die down. The DC fans came for me hard, Jesse. But thank you guys, of course, for watching. And for those of you that already are a member, Thank you so much for doing that being a part of our family. We appreciate you. Jesse, we always have good news from down on the farm, right? I mean, there's enough players down there that there is pretty much always good news.

I want to sing the song, old Josh Barfield had a farm. That's got like, we need to do that in the thing. Josh Barfield is the director of player development, by the way. Does that count? Yeah. Yeah. It works. I just want to make sure people know who we're talking about.

So it's not just like he's random guy. Sure, random name we're pulling out. But what's good down on the farm with the Arizona Diamondback System? I know there's been a lot of talk about a couple of guys. There has. There has. Yeah. So Jordan Lawler was recently promoted to Hillsborough from Vysalia, and he was struggling.

It was pretty rough first few games, but keyword was in that sentence. He is no longer struggling, everyone. Jordan Lawler in his last four games is nine for 18 with two home runs, eight RBIs, two doubles, a triple, three walks and 10 runs scored. So he has made a nice little statement over the last four days with the Hillsborough hops. He's been outstanding there. Outside of that, Brandon fought pitch yesterday for Reno.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day in terms of the game outcomes. All four of the Diamondbacks major minor league teams lost yesterday. So by major, I just mean like not, I'm not talking about like the rookie league teams, just by Celia Hillsboro, Amarillo, and Reno. all of them lost their games yesterday unfortunately but Brandon Fott did pitch really well for Reno seven innings three runs no walk seven

strikeouts in that game all three runs were solo homers so do without what you will I guess there's some Reno built into that there is some Reno built into that but he was great in his first start his first start in Reno since being promoted with six innings one run

this time seven innings three runs so really good stuff from from Brandon fought yesterday again Chris and the comment and said Reno should be in the Field of Dreams game. Maybe they're a home run derby in Reno. Did you see what the Hillsborough Hopps tweeted yesterday about where they wanted the field of dreams game to be? Where?

Have you ever been to Crater Lake or like seen pictures of Crater Lake and Oregon? Yeah, Crater Lake. And you know how there's like that little island in the middle that's like a giant mountain? They want to have the Field of Dreams game like on that little mountain island in the middle. I think is in it. I mean, if you have Alec Thomas to play Center Field, then I don't know what you're worried about. Nothing at all. Nothing at all.

Speaking of which, the field of dream game, dreams game is tomorrow. It is. So make sure to tune in that. Between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs, it's a dream matchup, everyone. Why are we doing this? I mean, actually don't make sense because I don't think a regular season game between two teams that actually have something going on should be what the field of dreams game is about, right? No. It counts as their record, right?

Like, it's actual, it's not like an exhibition game. No. It's a real baseball game. I mean, last year was an amazing game, though. Between two teams that were a little bit more relevant than the Reds and the Cubs are now. I'm fine with this. I'm hoping that it doesn't lose its, I don't know, last year the first time that they did it, it was like so, it was so new. And I think that just made it so special to see this entire spectacle for the first time.

I'm wondering if it'll feel a little bit different the second time around. Like maybe it'll lose its luster a little bit the second time around. It happened for me. I got really excited about playing it on MLB the show. And after I played it, one time I was over it. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't going back to the field of dreams every game after that. Sure, that's fair.

That's fair. Yep. Yeah, I guess it should be entertaining. Whatever. Crater Lake is 6,000 feet above sea level. Major League players would hit home runs into space. Yes. That is true.

That is exactly what we need. It's a great idea. I guess speaking of hitting baseballs into space, mad bumps on the mountain tonight. Wow. Was that? Was that mean? That made it, that felt that felt targeted.

Was it? That was extremely targeted. Should I try it again? Yeah. Speaking of hitting home runs in the space or balls into the atmosphere, what did you say outer space? Speaking of spinning balls into the outer space. It's getting worse. Maddenham Gardner in the first inning.

Oh wait, no, that doesn't make it any better. If I'm specifying what inning he's giving those up. Anyway, it doesn't matter. No, this doesn't matter. Bum Garner is on the mound tonight for the dot. Diamondbacks and they have a chance to win the series against the Pirates tonight, which would be a real nice, real nice move for them at this point. Again, we've talked about what, you know, their wins and losses mean to this season at this point. Just kind of trying to make things better dig themselves out of the hole they were in from last year.

But the schedule does honestly get very tough after this upcoming series with the Rockies. And from that point, they do have very few, I'm not going to say, winnable series. but games against teams that aren't involved in some sort of playoff chase, except the Giants, which I don't know where the Giants are at right now, but I don't think they're... They're a little bit on... Diamondbacks are honestly,

they're like three and a half games behind the Giants. We talked about that. That would be a huge victory. Like, no matter what the final record is to finish third in the division above the Giants, I think would be probably our next goal after finishing above Patrick Lines. That would be incredible. I mean, especially after the Giants won,

what was it, seven games last year and the Diamondbacks 152. Could you imagine if the Diamondbacks finish with a better record this season? That would be insane. But yeah, Mad Bum's on the mound today. He didn't look great in his last start. I think things have started to slow down for him a little bit overall.

We know in his last outing he was actually delayed two days. He said that his arm was just, he just wasn't quite feeling ready to start in his scheduled start against Cleveland last Wednesday. And so they wound up using Tommy Henry in that spot. And then Mad Bum got pushed a couple days. And yeah, I mean, when Brent Strom was asked about that, he basically just said, there's a lot of mileage on this car, something along those lines, which is fair.

I mean, Madbom is thrown more than 2,000 innings. And when you get to that point in your career, it almost doesn't matter how old you are. You can't really compare Madbump's age with other pitchers. Reality is he's thrown, he's put a lot of mileage on that arm. And we've started to see it. it show up a little bit, just with some fatigue in between starts. So as far as we know, he's ready to go for this one. And again, facing the Pittsburgh Pirates is an opportunity to be taking advantage of.

So we'll see what MadBum is able to do today. By the way, we were talking about with Rock Knowledge is the Topps Now card. Tommy Henry's first win is currently available. Is it? On TopSnow website as a card. So if you want to check that out, check that out. So they're $10 each. Is that what it is?

$10 each and it's interesting because the image that they used, the exact same image that we used for our graphic yesterday of his line. It's incredible. I mean, maybe that's just like the only image of him and like a, they're probably not that many yet. There was more. There was more. Okay. We just picked the same one because, you know, that was probably the best one, right? I'm guessing that's what's going on.

Probably. Anyway, make sure to check that out if you're a member. You know what? Look it, man. Look, I got Saul in here flipping me off and trying to, we were high-fiving earlier in the video. I don't know if you guys saw the video, the Edwin-Dia's video. Someone earlier was really disappointed that you weren't wearing your caveman jersey. Yeah, I didn't mean to take that.

I wanted to show off the, I'm trying to support another network, which Saul isn't doing right now or another show on our network. What can I help you with? Anything in particular? No, I high-fived him today, and it felt really good, by the way. And I don't know. We should keep that energy going. But make sure to check out our video on Twitter. Yeah, Corby and Carol, soon enough.

That's going to be exciting. And I know this team has a lot to look forward to when it comes to the young talent, which is why our farm reports are so important. We were talking about how there were a lot of arguments in our chat on Twitter about Stone Garrett. And I get it. There were. We just sort of stayed out of it. We just kind of let it happen.

Definitely. We understand the passion there because some of the guys do rake. But like someone pointed out, Christian Walker was hitting like 350 with like. like 35 home runs for Reno. It is. It is true. Hard to sometimes, you know, be realistic about the production in Reno and what it, what, what, what, what, how it carries over to a major league career.

But Stone Garrett has had a lot more like, like, there's a difference between what we call like rate stats and like counting stats, right? Like, like the number of home runs you hit versus, you know, other things like your batting average or, um, things that aren't dependent on the number of opportunities that you've had. And Stone Garrett has had a lot of opportunities. And so, you know, people are talking about how he leads all of minor league baseball and home runs, which he does. And like, I don't want to take away from that. But he's also had a lot more opportunity there than a lot of the other guys that the Diamondbacks have in their farm system.

So it's not really an apples to apples comparison. His strikeout rate is a little bit high. Is that what you were going to say? He does have a strikeout rate of 25%. Yeah, which is not like excessively high. But in AAA, that's a little bit high. Yeah, it's a lot of swing and miss. And it just, you don't know how much that's going to increase at the major league level.

Right. You know? Right. Absolutely. I'm not putting my money on Stone Garrett seeing Major League playing time this season. Really? You're not putting your money on that? I put some money on Corby Carroll seeing Major League playing time before.

I do not think that is a good idea. No? I do not think that's a good idea. Don't do. Well, see, this is why I have Jesse for. I told you in the past. Jesse's going to be at my deathbed advising me on who I should leave my money to. So that's why I have him here.

and you guys need someone like him in your life when you're betting on the Draft King Sportsbook app. So go on there, make your bet, find whatever you want to make money on. I still think that World Series bet about a New York team winning the World Series is still spot on, but you can do what you want to do with your money over at the Draft King Sportsbook. If you haven't done so already, download the Draft King Sportsbook app now.

Use our promo code of PHNX. Make your first deposit and you will get a risk-free bet up to $1,000. That's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King Sportsbook, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply see show notes for details also remember same game parley's it's a big deal we were talking today about uh you know runs per game and and how many strikeouts and things uh there are a lot of options in there when you go into the same game parlay like submenu so make sure to check that out the more legs you add the more money you win and that's an important factor to get you where you want to go on the draft king sports book app also if you are in dire need of bobbleheads

If there's a bobblehead shaped hole in your heart, make sure to go to our friend. I think we all have that, right? I'm so sad. Everyone has a bobble shaped hole in their heart. It's like one of those things that like we do get the giveaway items. Sometimes it's sporadic. I think it's depending on like.

Most of the time. We're on a nice little roll right now. We're on a nice roll right now, right? But, you know, one of the things that I used to enjoy besides the free ice cream in the press box was the bobbleheads. That's really why I was in this game for. They used to give bobbleheads too to the media. Yeah, they used to get bobbleheads and free ice cream. ice cream. And there were hot dogs up there too, right?

There were hot dogs. Yeah. You always got like a hot dog or nachos or a pretzel and it would start in like the fifth inning. It was a good snack. Now we have chips and peanuts. It's a recession. Yeah. No ice cream either. I'm still mad about the ice cream. Jacob was also telling me the other day that there was like an omelet. Like they would make you like a show on the omelet on every Sunday. It was so good. There was a chef that would make you omelets and then you could tell them what you wanted in it. And they would just mix in the stuff like, oh, you want green onions and bacon and cheddar cheese in your omelet. There you go. Yeah.

All of that's gone, Jesse. We are living in a depressing post-apocalyptic world with no ice cream and no omelets on Sunday. But the worst part is we don't have our bobbleheads. Foco.com has us covered, though, when it comes to bobbleheads. Go to Foco.com and check them out. Not only do they have your apparel needs for adult children, Jesse's dog, who only wears official MLBPA apparel. Oh, yes. It has to be licensed.

Make sure to get your license apparel over at Foco.com. More importantly, their bobbleheads are incredible. They have Field of Dreams bobbleheads. Jesse, check these bad boys out in the corn with the out, the full uniforms and everything. Does it come with the corn? Like, is there like a little patch of the corn behind it? Yeah, look, there's Joe Morgan stepping out of the corn. There's players stepping out of the corn.

Mr. Redlegs is stepping out of the corn. So if you need your official Field of Dreams, merch and bobbleheads, go over to Foco.com. They have you covered. You see what rock knowledge is? Oh, Ken Kendrick can smell some of his cards. Yes, he can sell some of his cards to get the ice cream back in the press box. You're not wrong. I don't know if I should be saying that now. I need to talk to somebody, but you should head over to phocco.com for your collectible needs or click the description. Link below in the description. For all non-presale items, use our promo code of pH and X and you'll get yourself 10% off. That's all I got today, Jesse. You got anything else? No. You're good? I'm done. You're done. just done. Go home. You guys go, you enjoy your rest of your lunch. Go watch the Diamondbacks

win this series against Pittsburgh Pirates with Mason Saunders on the mound. It's very exciting, of course. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. This guy over here is at Jesse and Friedman. We'll keep the party going over at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course, all roads lead to

at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, on behalf of Jesse, we thank you so much for your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun. but it's more fun with free ice cream.