PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Arizona Diamondbacks set for NLCS showdown with Bryce Harper and Philadelphia Phillies

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

Your Arizona Diamondbacks are one of four teams left in the MLB Postseason and are set to duke it out with the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. We take a look at how these two red-hot teams stack up against each other, examine the home field advantage in Philly, and discuss what exactly happened to Orlando Arcia in the NLDS.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Join Team PHNX for the Out of the Darkness Community Walk: https://supporting.afsp.org/team/32459WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Download the DROPS by SoleSavy app by visiting https://links.solesavy.com/phnxGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the P.8X Keybacks podcast right on PHA10X and a fine ski to you all. Skiy gentlemen. Skiy, Derek. The ski to you, Patrick. And I know Jesse doesn't ski, but we welcome. And a ski. I don't know what it means, but I'll say it.

It means pull up, Jesse. That's what it means. When I say ski, it means you pull up. But we welcome here to cover this wonderful. team that is known as a wagon, aka the Arizona Diamondbacks. These two fine gentlemen were over at Chase Field, just moments before we started, talking to Tori Lobello and some of the players prior to their workouts today. The team, I imagine, is leaving tonight to Philadelphia.

They are not leaving tonight. They have another workout tomorrow morning, actually, which sort of took me by surprise. But yeah, I assume it appears that they are doing one more workout here in Arizona tomorrow morning, flying out probably like tomorrow afternoon and evening and then they have a workout in Philly on Sunday. That's at least how things appear. It makes sense. I want to be at my house as much as possible

and there's no reason to rush out to Philadelphia just yet, right? But I do know that the Diamondbacks, of course, besides being a wagon, are one of four teams gentlemen left in the Major League postseason, right? If my math is correct, can we see that beautiful postseason bracket just once more because that's a good look right there. Final four. We got our final four, including our foe from Philadelphia, the Phillies.

Can I say something about this graphic real quick? I do want you to talk about the gray line. Well, I wanted, well, I fix the great line. I'm proud of you. But what I wanted to say is the, I feel like it should be National League on the left and American League on the right. And Sean's Red Sock brain made it the other way. No. That's just the way I see it.

No. Looking at it logistic. In the newspaper, I feel like American League would always come first. On the left side, yeah. Yeah, or it would be on the top or it would be on the left. It's also alphabetical, alphabetical. I'll take the L on that one. What's fine?

What's the newspaper? Shut up, Jesse. Well, per Jeff Passon, these four teams right here have combined for 354 wins this regular season, which is the fewest ever for the final four teams left in the playoffs. So let's, let's go teams that got here, however. hell it took to get here. Oh, yeah. And before I start cursing, by the way, gentlemen, we do have a new swear jar, jar for

swears. So now I have to contribute money anytime I swear on this show. But the money, like, goes to charity. Doesn't this just encourage you to swear more at the end of the day, right? Kind of does. It kind of does. I mean, at least it feels like my swears are going somewhere, you know, meaningful, right? It's for a worthy cause.

And I'll think about them a little bit more. I mean, some days I don't have all. of this money. I don't have, yeah, I don't want to be a Philly fan just out here using the F word with a pH at the front, of course, just as much as possible. It's cursing for a cause. It's curfing for a cause. Yeah, that's what it is. Jars for, jar for swears, swears for kids. We'll donate to some kids charity with the swears. That way, that way kids can learn, not to swear what's going to cost you money. I will also say something fun about these, two of these teams, right, Patrick? The Rangers and the Diamondbacks, both

100 lost teams just two seasons ago and now look at us who would have thought not me in all 100 lost world series two years ago matchup let's go that's wild I'm with it I mean as a guy who covers the Rockies 24-7 man 2025 is going to be a big one can't wait for you guys to come out to Denver support me sounds like fun man book it down with it but just yes I mean obviously you know there is kind of I guess you could say the newness here to the Diamondbacks being here, the newness to the Rangers being here, but then you have two other teams that are very familiar with being in this spot. Both have been here just last year. Yeah, the Philadelphia Phillies are, and this is something that a lot of, a lot of, you know, I know

that team very much believes this. And I've heard people in the media say this pretty frequently as well. The Phillies are kind of built for this. Like they just have a star-studded lineup. They've got the number one starter, the number two starter. They've got a bullpen with, I would argue, maybe better stuff than just about any bullpen that you'll find in the game right now. They're built for this. And they have played outstanding up to this point in the postseason. And the Diamondbacks have also played outstanding up to this point in the postseason. The Diamondbacks have literally not lost a game up to this point in the playoffs, which is still just crazy to think how far this team's come over the last month or so.

But yeah, I mean, this is tough, right? We talked yesterday about, you know, which of these two teams, the Braves of the Phillies, you know, the D. debacks would maybe rather have in the series. And I think it's pretty clear the answer there was the Braves. The Braves, even though they won 104 regular season games, they haven't really been playing as well lately. They've got some injuries. This Phillies team is as hot as any team in the sport right now.

And they have all of the weapons to do what they need to in a series like this. Apparently, all it took was reporting one comment from the clubhouse to unravel the Braves completely. So who knows, right? But when we talk about the matchup between the Phillies and the Diamondbacks, obviously, I mean, This is going to happen with any team the Diamondbacks play, but there is a payroll discrepancy. The Phillies have their payroll, $245 million. The Diamondbacks, $19 million.

Yeah. Thrifty. $350. Wow. And they'll continue to have a low payroll because they locked Corbyn Carole in for what is going to be considered an absolute bargain basement price by the time that that guy's tenure here is complete, at least based on what we saw here in the first season. But, I mean, again, I don't know about payrolls because obviously it really doesn't matter. Diamondbacks are here when teams that spent quadruple the amount they did weren't. Yeah.

But, I mean, you know, you look at everyone and everyone left in the playoffs, you know, has big payroll, obviously. And two of the teams have been here before. So I guess I know the Diamondbacks have no experience. I mean, in fact, when we talk about the Diamondbacks having no experience, they literally have like, what, five players that have ever been in a postseason. season game before on their roster. And meanwhile, they're looking at the, you know, Phillies now here in the NLCS who have been here before.

And they do have that experience. Does that experience give them an advantage? Or are these just more baseball games? We talked with Evan Longoria a little bit about that. Yeah. Not ability, but, you know, having those players with a bit of experience. And you want a fair mix, right?

And he said, yeah, if you've got more of those veteran players with postseason experience, they're going to do better than a team that has absolutely none. But, you know, the Diamondbacks do have a little bit. They've gotten some experience, obviously, during this postseason. And momentum is just absolutely huge. You talk about the other payrolls for the other three teams. I think Houston is probably the lowest or closest to the Diamondbacks.

And so that's kind of a compliment, you know, to the Diamondbacks that, like, they are most closely compared to Houston here in this point, especially you talk about a young team. and that's going to grow together. Whereas for the Phillies, you know, they maybe have another year or two before the bottom might fall out on that. Texas could be kind of somewhat similar because, again, all three of these teams are paying money to big-time players

and they don't have the young guys to supplement making the league minimum. Whereas the Diamondbacks do, their window is just opening up now. I don't know how long Houston can run the table doing this. It seems like it's never ending. But the Diamondbacks have the window. They jarred it open.

this year in 2023. And so they've got many more opportunities, many more bites at the apple. There's a couple of things here. I want to go back to Carlos' comment because that cracked me up. He said, the Phillies are like a bear. You pissed them off and they destroy you. Let's all be very sportsmanlike going into this series. And with that, I want to say, yesterday I said something about Bryce Harper not being the player

he once was. And I immediately... That was an enormous mistake. It was an enormous mistake. It was an absolute mistake. I meant that just from the perspective of him having gone through some injuries. Defensively, he is not. And that's what I said.

We talked about that. If you clarify, it's probably about the injuries. And that's absolutely what it was because he's absolutely had a great year and he's had a tremendous postseason. So it's not like I'm trying to act like he is some sort of over the hill guy that can't do it. I was just saying at the time, you don't want to turn him into Super Bryce. And that's why I'm going to apologize to Mr. Harper. right now for my inconsiderate comment yesterday and we're just going to move on past that.

We'll have to go back and edit the show and scrap that from the record. We'll delete that out of the show. Elise also had a comment. I think you put it up there. Damon. We are Damon's dogs, by the way, still. The debacks need to make sure they don't give the Phillies and their fans any bulletin board material.

It fuels their powerful hate machine. She's absolutely right. So I'm just going to take some time off from the show because I don't feel like I'm capable of not providing said bulletin board material. But I definitely don't want that to happen. They're canceling me. Carlos says if we lose, it's my fault.

Yes, I know. That's terrible. But no, again, it was more in regards to just Bryce Harper, like I said, defensively. He's not that same guy. But like even compared to his great season last year, he had an amazing season this year. I think he had an over 900 OPS, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it was like kind of slow to start coming back from Tommy John. He was.

He was. Yeah. He was like, all right, he's still Bryce Harper. And, yeah. Forgive me. I spent a lot of time watching this particular team and not all of the teams. So, again, to the two Philly fans that called me the idiot in the hat, yeah, like, good game. You're right.

A lot of mayors have been called idiots before. Yeah, it's not the first time. It's not the first time. There's a moment in last night's game, too, where there was a little bit of a collision, and Harper's holding his elbow. And we all, everyone knows, like, what's going on. He's an outfielder for his entirety of his career, and he's playing first base because he, you know, he had a Tommy John kind of surgery. So, you know, the injury concerns is definitely one of those things that can really up in a player's career. So I knew what you met.

I did know what you meant. Thank you. I appreciate that. Sometimes on this show, I mean to clarify my comments. And then we just never get back around to that. But Bryce Harper is an incredible player. He's an incredible player for the Phillies. But he's also an incredible player for the city of Philadelphia.

He gave an absolutely bone-chilling speech about... Bone-shilling. I'm saying that because it terrifies me. This man is not play for my team. So this is frightening because the love he has for the city of Philadelphia really feels like he wants this more than anything he's ever wanted in his career. And he wants to do it for that city. Here's what he had to say.

I love this place. Flat out, I love this place. There's nothing like coming into the bank and playing in front of these fans. Blue-collar mentality, tough, fighting every single day. I get chills, man. I get so fired up. I love this place. I signed here for a reason to do everything I could to bring back a trophy to this town, to Mr.

Middleton, to this organization. I got chills thinking about it because that's what it's all about. I absolutely love this place. I love every single person in this organization, fight and claw on every single day to to get back to that moment. There were so many good times in, you know, 07, 08, 09, 2010, 11. And I wanted to get back to that moment. See, that's terrifying to me.

And it's just because of like how inspired he seems in that moment and how much he really does want to do it for that city that he represents. And I mean, we haven't had a lot of moments like that from our players. I would say that I remember Zach Gallin discussing staying in Arizona and how much he liked to play here on the Mooky Betts podcast seemed very encouraging. You know, he really does like to play here. He didn't speak with quite the degree of passion that we just saw. He did not. Few players do.

And Merrill Kelly's complaints about the weather and his cramping, that does not bode well for me at all for his love for this, for at least the city of Phoenix at times, at least in July. But anyway. Harper's a smart guy, and I don't think he doesn't not love Philadelphia, but he knows if he loves it and embraces. it to a certain degree, that's just going to be good for him in every single way. Yeah. He knows what he's doing. I mean, he signed a 13-year contract, so you might as well. You got to make peace early.

They're stuck there for a long time. They throw those big contracts around quite a bit these days. Guys are like, yeah, that's the you want to live your next 20 years in Milwaukee. Good luck. But anyway. I have to talk. I have to attack Milwaukee. I have to.

Milwaukee slander. Yeah, but anyway, going back to this whole thing, I mean, this crowd is a lot of is incredible. And he's absolutely right. The bank, which I've tried to get us to call Chasefield the vault. So, I mean, this could be the bank versus the vault. But no one wanted to get on board with that. You know what you do with the vault? You open it. Yeah. I like that. You open the roof at Chase Field, not Jesse? And what does a ball do when you, the vault is like a home run? Yes. Okay, anyway. I miss Bob. I miss calling it Bob. I do miss calling it Bob. And I'm so sick of having to explain Baxter's presence and why he exists because of that.

let's never name our let's never decide on our mascot again based on the name the naming rights of the bond park yeah it's not like the name of the stadium as much as it it's just like the sponsoring partner of the name of the stadium anyway but they do have an advantage

over there when it comes to home field advantage and of course this team I think I saw you guys say it in chat they are a bunch of lunatics they're a bunch of maniacs let's take a look into the clubhouse celebration. Yeah, go ahead and get that out. Hey, Derek, I couldn't

actually hear what they said in the audio. I will. Can you just repeat what Garrett's dub said? This is a $10 bill. I'll just go ahead and throw out that in there. The statement was fuck the brabos and whoever the fuck we play next and always the Mets. It's the always

the Mets. It's the always the Mets. It was the always they were just such an innocent bystander in that situation. I got to ask, What would the D-backs equivalent to this be? What would we do, Jesse? I think Patrick has it figured. You got a good one?

The math is like basically the team you just beat, the team you're going to play, and the Dodgers. So in this case, we'll kind of fudge it a little bit. It's kind of- No, it's got to be that. F the Phillies. No. F whoever we play next. And F the Dodgers.

Like that's, I think it's kind of the map that we have used to do. The Diamondbacks have already beat the Phillies in the LCS essentially. The accurate one, the accurate statement here would be fuck the Dodgers and who, whoever the fuck we play next and always the Dodgers. And that feels right. You know what? Double up on it. Double up on the Dodgers.

That's actually okay. I don't need that at all. And I want to see them chanting that. But Bryce Harper again, just insane during this postseason run so far. And again, got to give credit where my stupid ass didn't give credit yesterday. I still think I got a couple of dollars left on that 10. I'm going to get them all in. Bryce Harper does have a 1.675 OPS versus Atlanta in the playoffs.

currently stands of the third highest by a player versus a single opponent in postseason history, a minimum of 25 plate appearances behind. And Patrick gave me this stat. Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth. So, yeah. This is Barry Bonds versus the Angels. Barry Bonds versus the Angels. He had a 1.994 OPS.

That was in the World Series. And Babe Ruth versus the Cardinals. World Series. Also in the World Series, 1.694 OPS. That's wild. Imagine doing that in the World Series. That's just, that's insanity. That's crazy.

But I know that you guys were out there at the clubhouse today, and I know the Diamondbacks had a lot of good things to say about facing this Philly team and also facing this Philly crowd. Merrill kicked things off with Marilyn. What do you have to say about this crowd? Everyone says it's kind of intimidating, but I feel like that's the fun part, right? That's kind of why we're here. We do it for the fans.

The fans are the reason why we even have a league. So I feel like even if they're yelling at you or for you, as long as there's 40, 50,000 people in the stands, like that's kind of what we get excited for. I like that. And I like the fact that this team continues to have just a certain edge to them in the playoffs, right? There's something about their attitude that it's like, yeah, we know we don't belong here and we don't care. We're still going to try to disrupt this whole thing and win the whole goddamn thing.

And I love that attitude that they seem to bring. Yeah, I mean, I asked Merrill Kelly several months ago, way back during the regular season, toward the beginning of the season, just kind of randomly, what's your favorite ballpark to pitch in? And his answer was Dodger Stadium. And Merrill Kelly, as we discussed at length,

heading into the postseason, he had a terrible history of performance in that ballpark. That's hilarious. He talked about how he just loved the environment there. He loved how into the game the fans are. Yeah. And as someone who likes that stadium because of how into it,

how engaged the fans are. He's probably going to like Philly as well for that same reason. That's a weird thing to me. Do you guys think of that when you think of Dodgers Stadium that they, like, I think maybe part of it is the fact that we see like the high dollar seats that are typically empty and not filled sometimes until like the fourth inning and stuff like that. It's a lot.

But I mean, I think that's only a portion of, I think they get a bad rap for that like that contingent of Dodger fans. But that's LA. Like, you're just going to get late. You're just going to be late everywhere you go in L.A. You're quite literally like playing in Hollywood, right? And it's bright lights.

It's on the coast. So there's that element to it. Yeah. It's just like old school baseball too. Players want to play in front of fans. Like that, that's what everyone's saying. And, you know, Tori even said in his little media availability today that, like,

you know what? If Citizens Bank Park is a 10, Dodger Stadium isn't that far behind. Right. And ultimately, this entire roster, this young roster that doesn't have a lot of postseason experience, doesn't have a ton of veterans even that do, is that they've slowly been on the come-up. You know, Milwaukee, that's a postseason crowd right there. All right, what are they going to do under those bright lights? They won two in a row. And then going to Dodger Stadium and back here in front of 48 plus thousand largest crowd that they've had since 2021, and they won all three

of those games. So I think they're just getting better. This is a new season. And these players are ultimately new players. And I think that really bodes well for them, you know, going into Citizens Bank Park and taking one of these games against the Phillies. It's kind of been an escalate. It's been one series after another. It's escalated sort of the not only the stakes, obviously, but the ballpark that they're playing in. Like, you know, no disrespect, certainly to Brewer's fans.

It was certainly loud when I was there. But I don't think that was quite up to, you know, what we saw at Dodger Stadium. And what we saw Dodger Stadium probably doesn't quite line up with what the Diamond Bax will face in Philadelphia. A number of the relievers, it was pretty funny, talked about how they're, Apparently there's this little notch in the bullpen where visiting relievers can kind of hide from the fans. Otherwise, they're, like, very exposed and fans can just kind of rain insults down on them at all times. Paul Seawall talked about how he's pretty sure that Phillies fans have already done research on his family.

Like, they know, like, all of the different names to throw out and everything when they're insulting him. So he talked about how, yeah, Diamondbacks, relievers, they might spend a good bit of time during the game, that little notch where they can hide away. That's when you know fans are next level fans when they are getting into a player's head psychologically. When they're insulting players family. That's how you know. I don't even know if it's an insult. Maybe it's just something he says to him. Like, Danielle would be disappointed, Paul.

Like, we don't know what that means, but Paul knows what it means and that fan knows what it means. And that shit cuts deep, deeper than any F-bomb you could drop on him and have to pay swears for. But speaking of F-bombs, our man, Cogs asked, do we have to pay the swear jar when we wear the new shirt, the new dangerous shirt? And of course, it's time. We got a brand new PHNX locker beauty. We're fucking dangerous. I think I'm up to $6, $7.

I'm not sure. I got a 10 in there. But that new shirt, I can blame Tori for that because he's the one that said that. But go get this brand new shirt and represent a dangerous team because a connected team is a dangerous team. And a connected Derek is a dangerous Derek. That's just something for you all to remember. That shirt goes hard. That shirt's amazing.

Yeah, no, this is an incredible shirt. Bravo to our guy, Eric, for getting this out. You can go get this right now. And by the way, diehards do get 20% off. And you will get this shirt very quickly based on our new, like, t-shirt partner that we're working with. So make sure to get that right now. And wear the shirt of a dangerous team. Be dangerous yourself.

Merrill Kelly, by the way, had more on this Philly crowd, I believe. he had a little bit to say still about the playing at the bank. Yeah, I've seen them probably as loud as they could possibly be. They hit five homers that game. So I have a hard time believing that anything I'm about to experience is louder than that. Yeah, it's loud. He was at game three as a fan last year. Yeah, that's what he's talking about.

Brother Reed. He's somehow from the Philly area, he has family there in Brinmore, it's like a suburb of Philadelphia. So like, yeah, yeah, he's there. You know, is that that game wasn't necessarily rooting for anybody, but he saw what it was like. But you could see that look on his face. Like, he's excited to go for that challenge. And he's going to get the ball in game too. So yeah, let's go.

Let's go with that. Anything else from Merrill? I think we have another clip here for Merrill. And it's about pitching on short rest, which. Yeah. Yeah. We'll kind of give some added clarification from Tori after this. But yeah, here's Merrill talking about the possibility of maybe pitching on short rest in this series.

Not yet. No, I don't think we've gotten to that point yet. I think anybody in here would do whatever they need to do to make sure that we try to get a W. But no, those conversations haven't happened yet. So, yeah, basically, after talking with everyone in the clubhouse, we talk with Tori Lavello. And he was also asked about this. He said that as of now, the Diamondbacks are not planning to use Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly on short rest. As of now, I guess, gives him an out so that he's allowed to change his mind.

But yeah, and that's interesting because we don't know exactly. I don't know what the Phillies side of this looks like. If the Phillies were to be comfortable, you know, pitching Zach Wheeler on short rest. Game four, you know, Zach Wheeler against Ryan Nelson or Zach Wheeler against a bullpen game, whatever that looks like would be a pretty rough situation for the diamond back. So, yeah, we'll see how it will see how it turns out. You know, maybe if the debacks were down 3-0 going into game four, maybe they, maybe that's the scenario where Tori would change his mind.

But, I mean, that's the way the question was posed to him. If you guys were down 3-0, would you be willing to do this? And he still said no. So that's kind of what we know about this right now. And maybe Zach Gallen walks into his office after game three and says, give me the ball. Coach, give me the ball. I want the damn ball. Yeah.

Well, I mean, there are a lot of connections between this team, not just Merrill Kelly and the state of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia. Corbyn Carroll's first career hit came last year. against the Phillies. Christian Walker is from Norristown, Pennsylvania himself. And Jake McCarthy was the number two running back in high school behind Saquan Barkley in the state of Pennsylvania. Well, he also is from Scranton, which is just amazing. It is amazing.

Yeah, it's so perfect that he's from Scranton. On the flip side. He will not be coming back this postseason. He's more than weeks away. He's got what a right lat strain. Yeah, right last train is what Tori said. Tori said months. Yeah, I don't think you're going to.

see Jake McCarthy. I guess while we're on the topic of injuries, Tori did say that Tommy Henry is a name that is being floated around. What? I don't know if that's a name we will see on the Diamondbacks NLCS roster. Maybe we'd have to get, maybe they'd have to make the World Series for that to be possible. But Tori did say that that's a name being floated around, not as a starter, but as a potential reliever for this Diamondbacks team. Well, again, And speaking of Norris Town native Christian Dixon Walker, here he is on participating in that historic third inning from the NLDS game three. Yeah, honestly, like, the feeling and the moment,

the sensations that I've had in these games, I think you want to be, you want to do so good in the moments that it's, you're so locked in. You're just so focused on executing and picking a good pitch and being on time. and you feel that little bit of like, ooh, yeah, like maybe we can try to take a big swing here. But then, like, as soon as you dig in, it goes back to, like, hit a ball hard, right? So it's like you understand, like, how cool it is what's happening.

And we're running around the dugout like a bunch of idiots, like celebrating. But in the moment, it's much different, I think, than it looks. It's pretty easy to stay just locked in and execute an approach. I mean, it's like, does smile on his face, the idea there just of like getting more pumped up watching, you know, the other guys hit those home runs. I also feel like, you know, we've talked, and this isn't anything exclusive to the Diamondbacks, but like we've talked about them struggling offensively when they press. And it feels like every time they get that hit or every time they start scoring runs, it's like alleviating a little bit of that pressure from the rest of those guys. And like you said, you want to do good, right? Like you want to have every moment be a big moment.

But you also don't want to go up there and press. You also don't want to go up there and be like, well, they just hit home runs. I'm going to hit home run now too, right? But sometimes you just get what's coming to you and you take it and you also, you know, have your big moment as well. It's just it is kind of wild to watch this offense have literally historically big offensive moments that have never been accomplished before in the postseason. happening to a team that at times, as we wrapped up the end of the season, we asked what are they going to do when the playoffs come around for some sort of offensive push. I mean, everyone always knew, though, this Diamondbacks team is, I mean,

they have so much power in this lineup, right? That's what they don't run the bases real well, but man, can they ever hit Daneers? That was their MO coming into the playoffs, right? He said they don't run the bases. I don't even though he did that with a street base. That's wild. The best teams pass the baton. Sure.

And that's what they're doing. But we talked about it on the pregame show for game three. Who's the new guy that stepped up? And obviously, I didn't understand the assignment. I said, Lordis Corrielle, and it was Herald or Pardomo. Who today, you know, talking with him a little bit, said, it's like, I didn't care about my home run. I was way more excited for the guys that came after me and starting that. And so that's this thing, again, that's building momentum of like, yeah, I don't have to hit that five run home run with the base is empty.

That's impossible. That can't happen. But if you just pass the baton and give it to the next guy, cause that chaos on the base path. the chaos can continue. Well, and I remember one time, I believe it was Merrill Kelly at me. I might be attributing this to him incorrectly, but we were talking about the idea of the merry-go-round that a team can put up on a pitcher versus the home runs.

And Merrill even said he'd rather give up three home runs in an inning rather than that like getting singled to death and you get the bases loaded or you give up a couple of walks and a single and not just single, single, single. And there's just this parade of guys coming in. it's like at least when you get that big home run right you get that clear bases you can just kind of move on all right there's nobody on base it's back to you know like let's start over it's much harder to do that when you have a team playing small ball against you and at times that was what this team was able to do we do have a discussion about it wasn't this supposed to be a small

ball team from carlos i thought so until we got to the playoffs and then all bets were off the chaos carousel yeah the chaos that's what it is that sounds terrifying and i want to write it. I definitely do. Like if someone call it that, it could just be regular ass ponies and like unicorns and I would still be like expect up until the end something wild to happen. And if it didn't, there'd be disappointment. But the carousel of chaos is, I mean, it's coming to Phoenix. It's coming to the valley next week. It is. It's three, four and five. That's right. Asterisk. Well, and Christian Walker again talked about this series and watching it from a fan perspective. And I mean, this is what he had to say about, about how excited this is for all of us.

Yeah, I think, you know, the sports fan in me is so excited. I think we're talking about potentially one of the best, maybe the best postseason environment, right? In baseball, maybe in sports, like not a lot of other stadiums and atmospheres come to mind. And I think it's what you think about when you're a kid. You know, you're hitting fake home runs out in the backyard and making fake crowd noise. It's like, it's for moments like this. This is cool. It's exciting. It is exciting.

And I mean, yes, I'm terrified to play this Philly's team, but bring it off. I mean, at this point, I only feel the same way I imagine that this Diamondbacks team feels. And it's that this is fun. We have no business being here, but we are here. And we're good enough to be here. And they are because, you know, these other teams, we're supposed to have been better than them as well. And so far, they've proven that not to be the case. We got a coach prime reference from one Tori Lavello in the presser today, which I feel like we also have to play.

We have to see that. was basically asked a question along the lines of, you know, what's kind of your reaction to all of the things that are said about you guys, about this team potentially not belonging in the playoffs in the first place? And here's what Tori had to say. It is a very, very famous college football coach who's having a tremendous amount of success that is, is coaching his butt off with his players behind him says, we'll keep some receipts. We're keeping receipts. All right. So I'll leave it at that. We got a long list of receipts right now. And I just, whenever somebody said something to me, you know, hey, I read this, I read this. Our response is put it in the hopper.

Put it in the bucket. And we'll pull them all out at the end of the day. Tori just has CVS receipts just as a mile long. And he can't wait to go back and revisit every single one of those. But like it is wild because, again, baseball is one of those things that we do a lot of of this, we analyze it on paper based on stats. And then when one team that statistically shouldn't have beat the other team wins, we're like, wow. But I mean, at times, we have said that this team's biggest problem is consistency, getting all the things clicking at the same

time. And right now, that's what's happening for the Diamondbacks. We said hypothetically, if that could happen, that this could be a dangerous team like Tori mentioned. But that's what it is. And that's, I think, what that connected team is a dangerous team thing, is they do feel like they're all playing at their highest level. And so far, we've seen that. You know, a couple of guys at times in the playoffs of, you know, they've had their 04 days or some of the relievers weren't perfect. But so far as a team, they've been able to hold this thing together

and be very successful in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, what the Diamondbacks have going for them is that they don't have any clear weaknesses, right? And, you know, in the regular season when this team was struggling to be consistent, In all honesty, a team that struggles, like, that looks really good at times but struggles to be consistent. In my mind, it's just a team that isn't like isn't necessarily that great, right? If you're having a hard time getting everything to click at once, it's probably because, well, if you're not necessarily elite at anything, then, you know, the odds of everything clicking at once is just not going to be that high. It's not going to happen very often. You're a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

Yeah. But what the flip side of that is that when your team like the Diamondbacks, it doesn't have any clear weaknesses, especially given. the emergence of this bullpen over the last month or so, then you can go on little stretches where you can be sort of the best team on the planet for a while because if you find a way to get all of those things clicking, you know, over a short period of time, you can do something like what the Diamondbacks have done so far in the playoffs, like win five consecutive games because somehow even though maybe it's not going to happen a whole lot, we didn't see it a whole lot this season outside of the first couple months. But if you can get, you know, everything kind of going

at once, you know, it can be a pretty compelling product, and that's what you've seen in the playoffs so far. Well, again, make sure to get the shirt that quotes our very own, Tori Lavello. We've got to get Tori one of these shirts for sure. But, yeah, we're a dangerous team. And make sure to get the shirt of a dangerous team. I think Tori would love that. Tori would die.

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U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., New York or Ontario. Well, both of these two National League teams are absolutely red-hot right now, and as they prepare to take one another on and clash in this big battle in the NLC. We are taking a look now at some of the numbers and just some of the advantages one team might have over the other. In fact, you may think that the Phillies just instantly are a more potent offensive team. But believe it or not, so far in the postseason, the Diamondbacks actually have been hanging with them so far. Yeah, I mean, the Phillies do have a slightly higher OPS in the playoffs. The Phillies have an absurd 892 OPS in the postseason.

The Diamondbacks, though, are right there, 877. I think these two teams have basically scored the exact. same number of runs. They're like one run scored apart and they're like one run allowed apart, if I'm not mistaken, as well. So both of these teams have basically just run over their opponents up to this point in the playoffs. And, you know, I mean, that's what that's what's fun about the NLCS. You have, you know, you have two of the best teams, the hottest teams right now going at it against each other.

And they've both played extremely well lately. And during the regular season, the records are quite comparable in 20 games. They're 10 and 10. And 80 games, it's 40 and 40. and the last 150 games they play in the regular season, 75 and 75. So what would it be odd? That's baseball. Wow.

That's wild. That is wild. Well, and honestly, we talked earlier about the Phillies payroll and how much, you know, more money the Phillies are paying their players. But right now, those guys that they are paying that money to are earning those contracts in the postseason, which, like you said, Jesse, that's why you build these teams for the postseason, right? You build them for the postseason and you pay them all this money.

So, yeah, 162 games, they might not. not be, you know, that superstar the entire 162 game season. It's hard to be that. But man, these guys really step up when it's time to win a championship. Yeah, I mean, looking at the Phillies offense, their top, their best four hitters have been insane in the playoffs, just absolutely insane. So Trey Turner so far in the postseason has a 1455 OPS. Nick Castellanos, after hitting two home runs and back-to-back games.

has a 1440 OPS in the playoffs. Both of those numbers are even higher than Corbin Carroll, who has a 1389 OPS, which is pretty darn good in its own right. And then Bryce Harper is right there with a 1380 OPS in the playoffs. J.T. Romuto has a 969 OPS, which somehow feels terrible compared to everyone else.

But yeah, I mean, those are four guys. This Philly team has paid a lot of money to. I mean, you combine their salaries for this season. It's almost $100 million. 98.7 million dollars to just those four guys just this season. But it's in the playoffs, it's kind of worked. It's kind of worth it. It's kind of worth it.

They owe those gentlemen a total of $845.5 million. They could have bought the Arizona Diamondbacks for that kind of money. Did you hear what I just said? They pay those guys almost just a hair shy of a billion dollars. Wow. This is true. It's crazy. That's a lot.

That's a lot of money. That's a lot. Even during the regular season, their guys have been doing it, Schwerber and Real Muto both have two home runs. Yeah. And Real Muto has one fight with Toro Lavello also, by the way. Yeah. And a cycle against this team. And a cycle.

Yeah. Bryson Stott, three home runs. You do that in three different games. Evan Longoria, the only one this season, at least, with multiple home runs against the Phillies. He had two. There's Susie in our chat to tell us that they're underpaid, to be honest. Can we... They're underpaid?

Can we ban her? That's just a crazy comment that I can't really wrap my mind around. But by comparison, yes, the Diamondbacks top stars are getting paid substantially less. And when you talk about the experience, we know that pretty much this entire Phillies team has been there before. They were there just last year. But this Diamondbacks team, again, have five position players and three pitchers with any postseason experience. Who cares? I don't care. As Sean would say, HK, right?

I don't know. But when we talk about the amount of money these guys are getting paid, we have Corbyn Carroll with his 1.389 OPS getting paid, $1.6 million this year. And the highest paid player being Cotel Marte with his 984 OPS who was getting paid $11.6 million a year. So, yeah, Marte's salary

is just off the charts when it comes to the Diamondbacks players. But yeah, Christian Walker, 6.5 million this year, 1.023 OPS, Gabriel Moreno, 1.107 OPS, $723,000. And we're not even counting the dead money

the 23 million to Madison Bumgarner 10.4 million to Nick Ahmed. I don't want to talk about that. Which happens. Look, that happens at times. But yeah, man, that's why this window of contention is wide open for this team.

Nobody really cares about 2024, 25 right now, but it is all about this. But this is how you build something that's sustainable. Philly's not necessarily sustainable. I mean, they've got the money. That ballpark sells out. If you have the money, yeah, I mean, that's what it is. We have no idea how much these baseball teams make.

But by comparison, when you look at Chase Field on most nights during the regular season, on a Wednesday, on a Tuesday, on a Monday, you are going to kind of understand that this team doesn't nearly have the resources other teams have. It doesn't mean they're still not making money hand over fist. But, I mean, we did talk to Ken Kendrick at one point. And I don't know if I'm just whatever, like, whatever. It is what it is. But I kind of took what he was saying for gospel because he did say, like, we don't really

make money off this team. Everything we make, we just invest back into it. And I mean, I don't know. Like, we don't see their books, so we don't know that. But so far, you can definitely say advantage Diamondbacks on value in the star players and the production they're getting from these guys in the playoffs and how far they've come. And once again, they're proving the narrative that you don't have to spend all of this money on big name players in order for your team to come together and have success,

especially in postseason. But we'll see what happens when this comes to head because you could say that. about the Dodgers, but the Dodgers really just had two guys, right? I mean, they had a lot of other guys that are still good players. I don't want to take away from the rest of the roster, but they really had two stars. The Phillies have more than that. And I mean, these guys, this isn't even including Schwarber in there. But it is a little weird because, like, Trey Turner was not good for the first half of the season for the Phillies.

He really, really struggled coming out of the eight. G. G.T. Romuto did not really have a very good offensive season for the Phillies compared to. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. He did a number on the Diamondbacks in that series of Chase Field. But yeah, I mean, even Nick Castiano's in his first year of that contract last year,

had a sub-700 OPS. He was a perfectly replacement-level player. So it hasn't all been like rainbows and unicorns for all of these guys that we're talking about with the Phillies. But when it's mattered the most here in the playoffs, those four guys. And yes, I think Schwerber has maybe had his moments. He doesn't quite have the playoff numbers that these guys do. but these guys are are coming through when it matters the most and you know on the diamondback side yeah

they're four best hitters as you mentioned corbin carroll gabby morano christian walker could tell martay uh they i mean those four guys make 20 million combined which is less money than you know brys harper than yeah literally pretty much uh brice arper makes that money by like august fourth he's that's it his his account looks exactly like those those five guys all year those go those four guys get paid $400,000 more than Nick Castellanos does in a season. So, I mean, yeah, again, when you talk about the value, wow, Diamondbacks got the value. It's not exactly a value competition, though.

It is. It is. It is for me. It is. Oh, you won two games and the Phillies won four. But if we factor in how much the Diamondbacks paid compared how much the Phillies paid. Can we base that on runs? Can we factor in an aggregate?

Eric? I didn't. I wasn't the one talking about losing. That was Jesse. You yell at him. Jesse was there to be a handy. Yeah, David does not tolerate any kind of loser talk while we're in the postseason. I'll warn you of that.

I don't know if you were around when that change happened in him. According to Spottrack, the Rangers payroll is $251 million. Phillies 245, Astros 237. They're all in one little cluster. And then there's the Diamondbacks at 119. So basically half of all of those teams. Yeah, wow. Yeah.

That's where we're at. But yet still, Diamondbacks in the final four. That's the only thing that matters. Mike. Not payroll. Michael Rokicki says, yo, Tommy Henry is on the mound? Do you mean right now at the workout? Is that what you mean?

Because that would be pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Yeah, the Diamondbacks are playing a nine-on-nine game with umpires. They are playing a simulated baseball game. So Tomi Henry is out there. That's exciting to hear. That is exciting to hear. Sounds like it.

Well, when it comes to pitching, the Phillies might also have a little bit of an advantage there because they are the only team in the postseason with a better team ERA than the Diamondbacks currently have. Yeah, the Phillies have just like, I mean, like we said from the top, the Phillies have just dominated on all fronts here in the postseason.

They have a 153 team ERA in the playoffs. And granted, it's only six games. The sample size is really small. But they've been really dominant. I mean, a 0.91 whip. There's not been a lot of traffic on the bases. Zach Wheeler and Aeronola. Aranola didn't have a great season.

This is a walkier for him. but I know a lot of people have been talking about how Aaron Nola can still earn himself a hefty paycheck based on how he performs when it matters most here in the playoffs and he is very much delivered on that front so far both Wheeler and Nola have been outstanding for the Phillies and the playoffs like I said earlier that they have a really good bullpen all the way around as well

so the Bexas they have their hands full with with this Phillies pitching staff for sure Damon do we have the probabilities for this series no oh right all right my back Phillies are figuring out, I don't know if they'll announce that today or if that'll be tomorrow, but it is expected to be, I think Bob Nightingale tweeted that out as like it being gospel, but. I think we kind of know. Yeah, it's probably going to be Zach on Zach on Monday.

Zach on Zach crime. That's it. And then Merrill Kelly and Aranola. And then Brandon Fogg versus Ranger Swartz. I think, yeah, you can pretty much walk in those three at this point, even though it's not official. And Tori Lavello, when asked about a game four, he said that, we don't he didn't confirm anything officially said we're going to need someone for a game four and you know we're going to have those conversations so what do you think that's based on do you think

it's based on how many where they're at in the series and how desperate that win by game four might be yeah i i would think so but if you're not willing to pitch zach gallon or maryl kelly on short rest then i mean what like what does that situation look like what like what is the best possible pitching situation you can engineer for a game four with your back against the wall if you're not willing to pitch one of those two guys. I guess it's a it's a it's a bullpen game you know uh Kevin ginkle pitching the first inning I I don't know what that looks like but uh the debacks would would be in a difficult position that game four is probably going to be tough for them at least it seems that way on paper maybe it was a coincidence but joe mantiply did talk about opening and being

you know being used as an opener that that that was a coincidence but but tory did say like you know, they talked for an hour and a half before he sat down with us. That's probably what was taking so long for him to join us. But he said, you know, we planned out like, okay, what if game one goes great? Here's what we're going to do. What if game one goes horribly, here's what we're going to do. So if game one and two goes great and you get four, maybe four plus from Brennan Fott, because look, he had to play more pitches left in the tank.

They're in game three at Chase Field against the Dodgers on Wednesday night. Then now you can just do a bullpen game and say, Yeah, you feel really comfortable about that, especially because gowns going in game five. Yeah, that's, yes. Gabriel, you're late. We already know, per Alex Weiner, that Tommy Henry is on the mound,

practicing now at Chase Field. So nice try. Get caught up in the chat, pal. No, but that's great news. That's great news to hear Tommy Henry's out there. The Diamondbacks could absolutely use another arm. How is there any way that they could get him on the postseason roster at this point?

How would that work with Tommy Henry? Yeah, they could. Yeah, it would be a good. an injury replacement or something? I mean, he would be, I guess, just coming off the injured list. And yeah, I mean, you can put whatever healthy players you want on your, on your roster. It's not like, you know, Tommy Henry was a late season acquisition or anything. So, yeah, that would be an issue.

It's just a matter of, you know, is he able to contribute? And, I mean, him pitching in a, him pitching in a simulated game right now is, is interesting. I mean, maybe Tommy Henry's that guy. If you think about, you know, what would an opener look like? I mentioned. He was that guy for them for quite a few games, right? Yeah. Crazy spot to come back in, though.

That would be pretty crazy. But a lefty would make some sense probably. I mean, Kyle Schwerber, you know, hitting at the top of the Phillies lineup, Bryce Harper, of course, being at the top as well. It's not a perfect fit necessarily. They've got some really good right-handed hitters, too. But I could see the diamondbacks going with, you know, a man to plyer. Who knows? Maybe Tommy Henry is an option for them there.

And you also have Tori, you know, mulling over the idea of, instead of, you know, of going with 12 pitchers going with 13. So I don't know. Is that Lawler? Is that Chase Peterson or Emmanuel Rivera? Like I don't know who the odd man out is there, but you could add Tommy Henry to the roster. He made two starts against the Phillies and it wasn't great. He wasn't great when 10 and a third innings pitch did give up seven runs.

So that's a ERA north of six. But you never know? I mean Tommy Henry is he was like Ryan Nelson and some of the other guys where he was absolutely outstanding at times and then struggled. It was consistency. And we've said that. Consistency is what makes you a good baseball player. It's the ability to bring it on every outing.

And even if you're not having, even if you don't have your best stuff, you're still able to at least give the team a chance, a competitive chance to win a baseball game. And, you know, that's been a struggle for them, both for their starting rotation and for their bullpen. But their bullpen feels solid now. And if they could just find that one more piece to get them through the next two series, why not us?

why not us? So they also had their best season for defense committing a franchise record low 56 errors. And they've just been playing some outstanding defense so far. I mean, we talked about the confidence we have in Alec Thomas out there in center field. But it's incredible. Even on a ball that looks like it's absolutely going to be a run scoring, an RBI double. Alec Thomas can just casually track it down at Chase Field or wherever it's at and get that out. The Phillies have a pretty good centerfielder in their own right, though.

They do. One, Johann Rojas. A nice play last night against the wall. He is not a great hitter. We'll just say that. To say the least. He is not. Sometimes you sacrifice that for a great defender.

When you have what the Phillies have at the top, you can afford to do that. And I think he's a pretty big piece for them because, yeah, I mean, the Phillies are, as we talked about yesterday, the Phillies are not a good defensive team whatsoever. They're at minus 25 defensive runs save for the season, which ranked near the bottom of the league. So that's a big weakness for them. And I think having Rojas in center field kind of helps mend that a little bit. This chat is hilarious. Piece of Yoshi says, hey, I know you haven't pitched a big league game since July, but go pitch against Kyle Schorber, Trade Turner and Bryce Harper.

Thanks. In the NLCS. In the NLCS. Elise said, go get them, Tommy. Yeah, good luck. Good luck out there. But it's going to be fun to watch. Just like Walker said, it's going to be fun to watch.

The fan and all of us can't wait for this series to start on Monday. And of course, great way to celebrate this series is with our friends from Four Peaks. It is a delicious beer. It's good for wins. It's good for losses. It's good for any time. I am enjoying a Joybus Wow Wheat. The other day, one of our listeners, I didn't get a chance to answer his question.

He asked what other beers I like from our friends at Four Peaks. I like them all, but I will be honest, hot knot IPA. Excellent. Hazy IPA, excellent. I'm a big IPA guy. So pretty much anything they make when it comes to that I'm down for. But make sure to check out all of the wonderful beers they have. They are perfect for tailgates and have been for over 25 years here in the valley.

You can also check out their pump. importer, which is now available on shelves and in draft lines around the valley. So make sure to check out Four Peaks. You can visit them at FourPeaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite brewery tours and events. Steinholding, October Fest, and haunted brewery tours that expose the fact that the ghosts make the beer are all right around the corner. We can check out at Four Peaks brew or a Four Peaks pub to keep up with the latest

Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. Please drink responsibly. Also, again, Patrick, I know you have a good pair of sunglasses. I asked you yesterday, do you have good pairs of glasses? I do. Are they shady rays? Absolutely.

Actually, I lied. No. I have two great pairs of shady rays. Yeah, they're both. Two fantastic. They are fantastic. Yeah, because, of course, if you use their deal, you'll get two or more from 50% off. It's a great deal.

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Shady Raises is just trying to make an impact in your community and others like it for years to come. So besides their wonderful sunglasses, they're also doing that. Great company to support and exclusively for our listener, Shady Raise is giving out their best deal of the season. Go to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself to Shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. It's almost like a buy one, get one. And like, it's crazy. We're all wrapped up in the Diamondbacks, but like it's going to be the holiday soon.

So get one for yourself and then the other one. Yeah. I mean, everybody always asks me and they tell me like, Derek, you're such a good gift giver and how do you do it? And like I have two secrets, starting early, right? Like not waiting until the last minute because that's just making it difficult on yourself. Waiting is the only way. And that's Jesse's way. We will never see eye to eye on this.

And two, and no one will ever call Jesse a good gift giver. You know that deep down in your soul. true every once in a while I'm I'm remarkably successful here's here's my other key uh listen to the people that you're giving gifts for right like it's not hard a lot of times people will tell you all the time what they like and then you just still want to get them whatever you want to get them in i have a third key what's your third key let's use promo code phnx at checkout let's go all of these great just all this stuff this is true i say just use it everywhere you never know where it's going to work it might even work on a website that we haven't sponsored yet i don't know but make sure to

check it out. Jesse, I'm, you get yourself deals. Great deals. Jesse, I'm curious, what was the best

gift you received on your birthday yesterday? The best gift I received on my birthday. Oh, man.

I mean, is there a correct? I feel like you're trying to like get me to save. I feel like I'm an absolute piece of shit for not wishing you

happy birthday. Yeah, well, Derek didn't get me anything. How about this? How did you celebrate? Huh?

I went to, I went to a pizza place. with one Patrick Lyons, and we watched, we watched the NLDS between the Braids and the Phillies. And I did drink a Joy Bus Wow. Yay! That was the best gift. I don't know if I forced him, but I'm like, you're getting something to drink, right? Let's go.

Happy birthday, sir. I hope you had a great one. I hope you had a great one watching the NLDS and watching our girls' department. So I guess while we're going down this road, we happen to be sitting next at the bar to a guy who is a Philadelphia, Yeah, like a diehard Philadelphia sports fan. His name was John. His name was John. No.

But I'm like, wait, as we left, I'm like, wait, his name was John. Like, actually a guy from Philly, his name is John. That's why. It's John, John. Which I didn't know that that was like a thing. You didn't know it was a John. You got that. It was a John.

That's exactly what I'm saying. But yeah, it was honestly very fun just getting to kind of pick this guy's brain. He was a very knowledgeable Philly sports fan. That's always fun. Well, he listens to Ph. Well, he listens to Ph. That's probably the key. Yeah.

That's definitely the key. We got to get a rivalry going with them or a bet or something. We got to figure something out with them. They don't want that heat. They don't want that heat. I was in that post game show the other night, trying to start shit, trying to, trying to rev up all the P. H.L. Y, Phillies fans in the chat.

And no one wanted the smoke with me. No one. You know who else didn't want the smoke? Orlando Arcea. He didn't want the smoke from his own comments. Because that is still lingering. And it's really weird to me. It's really weird to me because we do this as a job.

I felt like Jesse kind of explained this very well. And I don't mean to go back over it today. But one of the things that was weird was at the time I didn't know the person that was being blamed for this was was Jake Mintz, who I love from Cespitus Family Barbecue. We just had his partner. He's the other half. He's the other half. He's the other half.

He wasn't available that day. He was not because he was getting in trouble for doing this. That was the same day, too. That was the same day of an interview. And I mean, I love the tremendous amount of sport. That's the last time that Jordan is ever going to come on our show ever again. But I will say that, you know, the tremendous amount of sport. of showing of support for Jake was good to see. I felt like he was unfairly being painted in a

really bad way. I mean, I don't want to go into particulars or quotes from some of the people who were trashing him, but like literally undermining, you know, the entire concept of the fact that we live in a digital media age where people can be successful if they are just lowly podcasters like us or whatever the case may be, right? Or podcasters who are also members of the BBWAA. That's right. At the same time. And I mean, I don't know.

There was one thing that really struck me about this whole thing is weird. And then we'll get on to Arcia's real, like really weird because he just seemed to lose it. He had a meltdown in game four, right, with the fans. I feel bad for him. I mean. Yeah, like, I mean, honestly, it wasn't pretty. You just get to a point where it bubbles over and sometimes you don't show your best, right? But going back to the comments, I want to say this.

Like, yes, as Jesse said, there is some comments that you know are off the record. And a lot of times, typically, those are actually agreed upon that they're off the record. Like usually it's something that's said beforehand, either the player or the reporter or journalist will clarify that that's what we're doing here. Yeah. But like, there's also this idea of the locker room being a sacred space, which I both agree with. And then I also say there is a designated period. of time that the media comes in there. It's not very long.

And the media doesn't just stroll in there when they want and hang out for hours of time. In fact, if you see or hear these reports of media hanging around, typically it's because we're waiting for players to be available. And there is a set amount of time. And they don't come get you or notify you that guys are available. You just kind of have to be there. And then when they're available, the reporters will go over and talk to them. And if you're not there, as a reporter, as a journalist, you miss out.

If a player comes in screaming stuff, at the top of his lungs, there's a chance that reporters are going to report that. And it's crazy to me to think. I mean, don't get me wrong. I feel like there are times where, like Jesse said, there are certain things that are specifically, you know, off the record or not really meant for us. But it really is like Carlos said it best. If you want a bit of a sanctuary, do what the debacks did,

and lock the clubhouse doors while the shit talking and celebrating goes on and then let the media in when it's out of your system. Of course, everybody loved that Tory clip. We made a shirt of it. We're responsible for also being part of the people that, like, spread this, you know, wonderful stuff. But, again, sometimes an organization might not feel like that represents them in the best way, or it might not feel like that was their finest moment for the media to be present in those moments. You know, you can't really go back in time and delete that happening. But also, this comment in the mean, like, this whole situation just seems completely blown out of proportion.

Yeah, it really is like it was a funny comment about a player talking trash in a locker room and then the next night. The other player used that as motivation and had an incredible night and stared the dude down that was trash talking and that's sports, right? Like that's not something to me that's bad or should be like embarrassed by. That's something to me that makes this rivalry more fun and makes me more interested in it, especially as an outsider that really doesn't care which of these two teams, you know, advances, right? Like I find it to just be just add fire to the fuel to the fire and make it make it more fun to watch. But apparently it's now become this grander topic about sanctuaries and journalism and ethics and all of this other stuff. And it's like, dude, at the end of the day, we're observers. And our job is to report what we observe.

And in some cases it is told to us that something, you know, like, hey, like don't say that or don't report on that or whatever. you know, we don't when that happens. It's like I said yesterday where, I mean, at the end of the day, Bryce Harper was still going to hit the two home runs. And at the end of the day, the Phillies won this game 10 to 2. It was not as if, you know, Bryce Harper getting fired up, you know, made the difference in this game. Also, Chelsea Janes also report.

I think it's important to note that Jake Mintz. We have a tweet about. We have her tweet here. Yeah, Jake Mintz was not the only person to report this. Chelsea James from the Washington Post also reported. what was happening, although I think, I think she didn't know who said it. So she just said that it was said. She didn't, she just attribute it specifically to Orlando Rcia. Yeah, she says here in her tweet, hey there, I'm the other reporter who reported what Rcia

said in the clubhouse Monday night. I didn't ring him because I didn't see who said it. But I'm sick of watching people, particularly colleagues in the media, criticize my friend Jake Mintz for it. And yeah, and a point, and this is like a whole long thread from her. One of the, one of the biggest point she makes is that recorders were on during this time. Cameras were rolling. And cameras were rolling.

And they, and some. Sometimes when cameras are rolling and recorders are on, you're going to pick up stuff that's happening around the clubhouse. And that doesn't, I mean, it could have been, it could have been broadcast on live TVs. One of the points that she made, would you, would you be ostracizing that TV network for showing it? For showing something that's just like in back, like they can't really avoid that, right? Yeah. It's like we can't avoid like loud music playing in the background of our clips sometimes when we're getting clips from the players, right? Like, we would love it to be quiet and to get the best possible audio we could hear.

So when you're listening on the podcast that you hear it as best as you can, it's just not the situation. And in some cases, again, that is their sanctuary. So it does feel a little bit out of place for me or Jesse to walk up to like the PR guy and be like, hey, Shane, can you turn the music down? I don't like that loud music. I mean, they will at times. They will at times. Like, they will. It's not like they refuse to do it.

But it like, it feels weird to do that because it's like, yeah, like you said, it kills the vibes. They're in there and they're celebrating. It's after a win. Things are good. Like, it feels awkward to just be like, I feel like. I feel like my, you know, audio needs to be more important than that. But when it comes to this, yeah, they even asked Arcia if he knew cameras were rolling and stuff. And he gave this answer like about like, oh, there are.

I don't know that they have to be there, but they are. Like he knows that they're there and then questions the presence of cameras and recorders needing to be there in a clubhouse after a win. Maybe a little ignorance there on that part. Yeah. And the comment was, again, it was in the Washington Post as well as in an article that Jake Minns wrote. but it was like all the way at the bottom. It was like a 24 paragraph piece,

and it was like the second sentence of the 21st paragraph. So it wasn't, it wasn't like tweeted out like, guess what Orlando RCA said? Harper's going to go off tomorrow night. That wasn't, that's clickbait. And that wasn't necessarily what the intent was.

It's just, hey, here are some of the things that are going on inside the clubhouse. And you report on that. That's what we're doing here, man. And like you said, it wasn't a hateful slur. it wasn't something.

I mean, even that, that might even be more of a reason report on it. But like, yeah, I understand. Like, sometimes people say stuff in the heat of the moment. This wasn't that. It was at a boy Harper, you know, and it was... It's fun fodder is really all that it is. It's fodder. It really is.

It's great fodder. But it seemed to make Orlando completely unravel, right? Yeah. And that's the part about this. That's kind of wild is how, like, I don't know, like your own actions sometimes can result in consequences. And sometimes those consequences are you, you motivate. evaded someone else while also somehow impacting yourself negatively and that feels like what the

situation was for him yeah it's just it's just a tough i mean i think rcunuchin didn't speak to the media after game four last night and he was the one who was kind of stepping up and trying to kind of keep orlando rcline when he was kind of getting into it with some of the some of the fans on the dog out saying kaiete shut up to them yeah like sticking his tongue out very childish like it's obviously someone who's just like unraveled and like has this pent up whatever yeah yeah uh and uh And even after a Coonio Jr. put his arm around him, he still, like, went back to the face. And he couldn't let it go. You could just tell, like, there's, like, this anxiety or whatever, just building in him.

And he can't control it in that moment. So he's a human being, too. But it was kind of too much, more than it really should have been, you know, made out of the situation. Well, I mean, we also had Nick Castiano's, like, completely going rogue on a reporter. I feel like he was kidding, but you just can't tell because it was very dry. It was very dry. And honestly, like, saying as a fan and not a person that has to interview people that admittedly has asked some really stupid questions at times to people that I shouldn't have asked. Like, it is kind of annoying when someone like says something to you without it being a question.

Like, what do you want me to say here? Oh, you just wanted me to build on that statement that you said and be like, yeah, cool. Here, let me run with it. So you're talking about on the field. Yeah. And he when he was told, he was told that he was the first player ever, like an MLB postseason history to do. homers and back to back games. And he just responded by saying,

what's the question there? Well, there was no question because he just said it. And then, like, again, like a good reporter, right? Or like anybody. Like, naturally, you tell them the fact that you would say something, even if it's just a cliche, like, what are your thoughts on this? What are your feelings on this? How do you feel after that?

Of players will run with that and give an answer. Exactly. It's fine. But I don't want to, I don't want to, like, ostracize this reporter for like doing some. No, no, no, no. You're absolutely right. He was a heinous mistake. He didn't.

He didn't. Cianos clearly operates by a little bit of a different playbook and some of the other players. He doesn't play by your rules. You have to kind of be aware of that if you're interviewing. The fact that the guys on the field is the message of like, yeah, no, we're about to communicate. I'm going to say something, then you say something. Yeah, I get it. I get it.

That's just kind of how it works. I have done things here on this show where I have spoke and people that were here also did not understand like Jesse does, that it's their turn to speak when I stop speaking. I get too used to Jesse being here. He just knows. Oh, Derek. Derek ended on his thing on a down note and so he must be done now.

I just interrupt to you. He does. He really does. That's the only way you can actually have a conversation with me. Typically, it's very aggressive. It's kind of a fight and it's like I'm going to win. That's how I see conversation.

But yeah, no. It is funny. But I mean, all of this still just kind of is like, you know, this grander idea at times of like, screw the media, you know? And like, I don't know. I don't, I understand that we are a distraction and such at times because sometimes the players don't want to, you know, they don't want to hear this stuff.

They don't want to see this stuff written. They don't want to hear us on this show criticizing them when, when especially this tubby guy right here wouldn't be able to swing a bat anymore, let alone step on the field and track down a fly ball. But I will say that, like, you know, again, what what makes people interested in baseball and what extends them from being. just like a casual fan to being a fanatic, to someone that really loves their team, is that connection and knowing more about them. And the media just plays such an important part of that. And like, that's all we want to do. We want to connect with our community.

We want to bridge the gap between you guys and the team and bring you guys as much great content and as grudge great, like, these interviews that we get, we love them. You had an interview with Tommy Fam that we just put up on the YouTube page that absolutely was my favorite thing afterwards because Tommy Fam just gave us one amazing quote after the next, from talking about that you need dogs in the playoffs, to talking about, like, just the wonderment in his face when he was talking about seeing Chase Field filled up. It was like he didn't even know that was possible in that building.

And when I asked him about the four home runs, he was like, it seemed like each one built on. He's like, it did, didn't he? Yeah, he said that. It was pretty cool. I was like, Tommy fam. All right, good guy. That was a great time to interview Tommy. He had some great moments, including asking one of the reporters about being tall.

And if, you know, he played basketball, he was at all. We weren't part of this ground, unfortunately, but what we talked about yesterday with the hell yeah. But that was like, oh, damn. That was like, hell yeah. That was just so good. It's perfect. But again, we got fun weekend ahead of us to continue finding out,

you know, what these matchups are going to be and more information. We will keep you posted on everything we find out, including more on what's going on with Tommy Henry, because that's pretty exciting for a team right now that could use some length, you know, pitcher capable or at least a bullpen pitcher that's capable of giving them, you know, a couple of endings maybe as a starter. So we will see.

But make sure to check out our PHNX Locker.com. It's playoff season. We got all those shirts. Got that brand new shirt. We got our dangerous shirt. We got, of course, our wagon shirt. We have the baseball bat shirt. We got all sorts of great shirts.

So make sure to check out the PHNX Locker.com. Get yourself a die-hard membership if you're not already die-hard. If you are, you'll get 20% off all those shirts. If you're not, sign up today. And you'll get one of those shirts for free. including our brand new, dangerous t-shirt. Of course, you can sign up at go-PhNX.com. You will get a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX locker,

get all sorts of wonderful stuff, including access to our members-only Discord Lounge and so much more. Where we actually, I kind of dropped this shirt early today. So if you're a Discord, if you're a diehard member, you found out about the shirt before everybody else. That's true. Good reason to sign up for the Discord.

Also, discounts with our partners, gift certificate from Mount Mike's Pizza, so much more. Jesse's all of Jesse's content, so you won't miss out on anything. get that diehard membership today. It pays for itself. Also, on Saturday, October 21st, we are participating in the Out of Darkness Walk, and we would love you to join us. We're joining thousands of teams across the country from the Out of Darkness Walk event. It's an event co-chaired by one of our very own diehard members that raises money for a suicide prevention program. Unites those who have been affected by suicide and helps create communities that are smart about mental health. And we want to make sure everybody knows that we are here for you. We support you. And we want to make sure that you know that there are resources out there for you. I told you guys yesterday. I lost a cousin that was like a big sister to me due to suicide. And it hurts every day still to this to this day that she's not with us. So we want to make sure that everybody knows we're here for him and that we want

you here too. So you can join us in person at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick at 9 a.m. on the 24th on the 21st of October or you can show your support virtually. Join team PHNX by hitting the link in our description and help us hit our fundraising goal if you're able to. Even if you're not able to come. You can join our team and just be a part of team PHNX. We would love the support. We would love to grow our team to be as big as possible. So make sure to check that out in the link description. We love you guys. We appreciate you so much. Of course, we will be back here on Monday, which is going to be game one of the NLCS where the Arizona Diamondbacks are inexplicably taking on the Philadelphia Phillies. I still can't believe it. So still, it still hasn't sank in that

they beat the Dodgers, swept the Dodgers and the NLDS, but hopefully it will by Monday. Of course, we will be back here with a pregame show. The game starts at 507, so we will be live at 430 with our pregame show, and then we will be back after that game, 10 minutes after, with our post game show to make sure to join

us for that in the meantime. You can follow me on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore K-Man with the K. Follow this maniac next to me at Patrick D. Lyons. He is my tag team partner. He's the hot tag. Of course, in more ways than one. You can get Jesse over at Jesse N. Friedman? Is that what it is?

Jesse, are you like forgetting my Twitter handle all of a sudden? It's been a long time. Is it Jesse N. Friedman? You've said this. I don't know. There's Michaela A. Perkins. D. Pirkens. And then there's your you guys all throw your goddamn initials in there. I just can't believe this. He's done.

You know what the N stands for? What's that? NLCS. Yeah, I'll never forget that. Yeah, it's Jesse N. Friedman. Of course. We are Damon's dogs. And you can follow Damon. Damon Dog, it's DAWG. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs,

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports. And of course, we thank you guys so much for joining us. We'll be back here on Monday. We appreciate your time and remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you chant, fuck the Dodgers and whoever the fuck we play next and always the Dodgers. On Monday, Diamondbacks, they're going to try to rob the bank. That's pretty good.

Yeah, you like that? I love with that. You're going to workshop this maybe a little bit. I feel like Mero Kelly almost kind of alluded to that about robbing the bank. Or he's just said the bank and yeah, they're going to rob the bank. It's the bank versus the vault. And that's what's going to be. Someone asks, what about Mailbag Monday?

We will handle Mailbag Monday on Monday. So make sure we'll see that request go out there on Twitter. Make sure to send us your Mailbag Monday questions. And we will definitely fit those in. But of course, what did you say? We'll let you outro this. So you got to say, and remember kids. And then the thing that you said, like baseball is better when you rob the bank or whatever.

Yes. Well, as we say around here is that, what was it again? And remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's even more fun when you're in the valley, hanging with your friends. And you're going to go rob that bag on Monday.