PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Assembling a time capsule in honor of the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

As the calendar turns to 2024, we’re taking one final look at the Diamondbacks’ remarkable 2023 season in the form of a time capsule. We picked 12 physical objects to store away that will help us remember the season forever. We also discuss a pair of noteworthy Diamondbacks minor-league signings in catcher Tucker Barhnhart and infielder Kevin Newman.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 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. 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 there. Welcome it to another edition of the P.HNX Keybacks podcast right on PHA10X. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a mayor in the year 2024. And that's important here for this episode, because we are going to do some very important things for future generations to be able to enjoy this 2023 Diamondback season that we all got to enjoy in person so much. Of course, I'm joined by the one and only Thunderstick, my vice mayor, Jesse Friedman. And we are very excited to talk about some big moves the Diamondbacks made. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. Yes. If you wanted Diamondbacks headlines and start the new year. We got breaking news. This is almost an emergency podcast. Is it not? All right. Well, that's fine.

But yeah, we do have some transactions that the Arizona Diamondbacks made. They're all kind of minor league deals. None of them are on the major league roster. None of them are exactly going to move the needle a lot. But it is interesting considering the relationship that, the first player has, and that's that the Diamondbacks are in agreement with catcher Tucker Barnhart on a minor league contract per Robert Murray of fan-sighted. He will be in Spring Camp as a non-raster invitee, and he is yet another candidate to fill that

backup catcher role that the Arizona Diamondbacks are still looking to fill behind Gabby Moreno. We do have Jose Herrera still, and the Diamondbacks did pick up Adrian Del Castillo, which we talked about. But Tucker Barnhart is a veteran in Major League Baseball and actually brings quite a big. bit of experience, especially considering he does have a little bit of a relationship with new Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. But again, it's not a move that's going to really shock the world too much here or move the needle a whole lot because Barnhart, again, it's a minor league deal and didn't have the

greatest season last year. He did not. No. Tucker Barnhart, if we look at his numbers from the 2023 season, you're not exactly going to be going to be blown away by these. Damon, can we get Tucker Barnhart's numbers? Yeah, like these numbers are not, they're not going to get you too excited if you're a Diamondbacks fan in

23. As a member of the Chicago Cubs, he had 202, 285, 257, one home run, 9 RBI, 0.2 wins above replacement over at Fangraph. So, yeah, this is an interesting situation. The Cubs actually signed Tucker Barnhart to a two-year contract at the beginning of last year and they wound up letting him go before the end of the first year of that deal. So the Cubs are actually still on the hook to pay Tucker Barnhart, I think around $3 million for the 2024 season.

The Diamondbacks, if he does make the Major League roster, would just be on the hook for the league minimum. So something like, you know, 750 grand around something around there. So yeah, not a high dollar acquisition by any means. And as you said, not necessarily a high impact move either. but another guy that the diamondbacks can add to that mix behind the plate, Jose Herrera and Tucker Barnhart are probably the two guys that that backup role would come down to for right now. We did talk about Adrian Del Castillo, who is in the minor league system, reached AAA this past season.

I think he maybe has an outside chance, you know, will at least be given a shot in spring training to show what he can do. And Mike Hazen in a story over at the Arizona Republic that just came out told Nick Bacora, that the Diamondbacks are maybe still looking to add in this area as well. So we could still see another addition on the catching front between now and opening day. That's the part that makes it truly feel like everybody does kind of have a chance. Like none of these guys really pace each other in a way where you feel like that Tucker Barnhart is going to, for instance, have a better chance than any of the other candidates right now that the Diamondbacks do have. Jose Herrera obviously has the fact that he,

He knows this team. He was a part of it last year. So he has an advantage. Tucker Barnhart does have a bit of an advantage. Like I said earlier, he did catch 14 games of Eduardo Rodriguez last year. And that is some, there is something to be said. I guess we have to say two years ago now. Two years ago.

Yeah, two years ago. Now it's 2024. That's right. I forgot. But, you know, of course, there's something to be said about the fact that you caught 14 starts for ERA in 2022. And he had, he wrote out a 3.65 ERA in those games. So, I mean, there is a slight advantage, not a huge advantage. It's not like it's something that's really going to give him a leg up on the competition.

But, I mean, I'm sure his familiarity with Rodriguez is a big reason why the Diamondbacks probably are giving him this opportunity. And he is a veteran. By comparison to Gabby Moreno, it is kind of the ying and yang that you would want, you know, somebody who can bring in that experience and that knowledge, share it with Gabby and also give him, you know, some time off. However, I don't think that they're going to want Gabby, if Tucker Barnhart was the backup, playing as much as he would with Tucker behind him. I don't feel like that's going to be like a split time kind of situation. It's going to see Gabby getting as much, as many catches as he got last year. Yeah, Gabby is going to be the devax primary catcher.

There's no, it's not like the beginning of last season. We were talking about Carson Kelly and Gabby Moreno. And the narrative was that Carson Kelly was going to start out as the Diamondback's primary catcher. and then, you know, kind of see where things went from there. Obviously, Gabby Moreno cemented himself as the Diamondbacks everyday catcher by the end of the season. But we all know the catching position is brutal physically. It's not something that you can ask someone to do 150 times per season. That's not realistic.

And so, yeah, you know, whether you like it or not, you're going to need someone to help fill some of those games. Tucker Barnhart, certainly in that mix. The thing that really stands out to me about Tucker Barnhart is just his commitment to developing relationships with pitchers and just getting to know their arsenals and getting to know what makes them tick. That was a big narrative out of Chicago last year after he signed with the Cubs. There were several stories written about Tucker Barnhart and the investment that he had put into trying to get to know some of his Cubs starting pitchers and, you know, diving deep into scouting reports before he even showed up at spring training. All signs are that this is a veteran catcher who's really invested in his pitchers and really willing to do whatever it's. takes on his end to try to get them to succeed.

That's kind of the selling point for Tucker Barnhart. If you look at the hitting stats, there was a time when Tucker Barnhart was a pretty decent hitter. You go back to some of his days with the Cincinnati Reds. He was right around league average. He's won a couple gold glove awards in the past. I don't think he's quite that guy behind the plate anymore. If you look at some of the defensive metrics for him, he was slightly below average

in terms of blocking, according to Stackass, slightly below average in terms of throwing behind the plate. still did grade out as an above average framer just slightly in 2023 so I guess that's his biggest asset defensively but yeah for Tucker Barnhart for the Diamondbacks I imagine a lot of this came down to what can Tucker Barnhart do for our pitchers what can he unlock you know that maybe some of our other catchers have not been equipped to do well and I mean again there's there there is something to be said about somebody who approaches catching behind

the plate differently like that like you said developing that relationship with pitchers. And in some cases, that might be completely a completely different skill set than what their catchers, what Gabby might have right now. I know that, you know, framing, of course, is one thing that he does have over Jose Herrera that struggled with that last year. But Jose Herrera did have the better arm. I just, I don't, I don't really know. I think that at the end of the day, competition is good. It's going to get the best out of these guys, because if they have an opportunity to be on this team, you're hopefully going to see the best. And I think it gives an opportunity for someone even like Adrian Del Castillo to have an opportunity here to win

this job. I don't think the Diamondbacks are really committed to any of these guys. And I think this is another Mike Hazen like sifting through, you know, some potential candidates and trying to find the one that that stands out a bit. He's very good at that. And it doesn't feel like every single transaction he makes works. But especially when it comes to finding either vets that can contribute to the team or guys that other teams have kind of given up on that, you know, like Adrian Del Castillo a little bit, like the other guy they signed, left-handed pitcher Logan Allen on a minor league deal. Like these are guys that at one time were valued very highly in their career. There was a lot of potential there.

And with time, they didn't really perform to that level. It's a low risk as far as signing them to a minor league deal and bringing them in as non-roster invitees. But it could potentially have a pretty high reward for a team that's trying to still keep. their budget low while filling some of these other roles, right? I mean, I would happily sacrifice the backup catcher role to being someone like Tucker Barnhart that has those numbers that we saw rather than them trying to spend a lot of money on somebody that isn't, I mean, Gabby's our guy. Like, I don't want to spend money on a backup catcher, you know?

Like, this is the kind of situation that I want for a backup catcher. Yeah, I agree. If you're the Diamondbacks and, you know, we don't know exactly what they have to spend for the remainder of the offseason, but we suspect that whatever resource, they have remaining. A lot of that is going to go toward this bat that they want to add. Mike Hazen in that Arizona Republic's story

that I referenced did talk about how the debacks have in particular engaged with left-handed targets on that front. It sounds like maybe things are trending in the direction of the Diamondbacks getting a lefty as that bat instead of a righty, which I know would rule out a lot of the guys that are kind of at the top of the list for DeBax fans, JD Martinez, Jorge Soeer, Reese Hoskin,

Of course, all those guys, Justin Turner, all those guys are right-handed, the pool of lefties that are out there. We've touched on them. There's not quite as many of those guys out there. But, yeah, all that to say, you know, if you've got $10 million or whatever to spend, you probably want to put that toward the bat. And then your backup catcher roll is really, you know, I don't want to say it's not important at all because these are still, you know, 40 games, something like that you're

probably giving to this backup catcher, but at the end of the day, Gabby Moreno is going to provide, you expect a lot of value behind the plate. You want to see if you can add value elsewhere. It's time to stop thinking of him as like not our guy, like not our starting, you know, like that is our starting catcher. And he's one of probably going to be one of the best. It's incredible. It's incredible. But again, the Diamondbacks do continue to try to improve this team. and they did sign another player to a minor league deal with a spring training invite per John Heyman. Shortstop Kevin Newman has agreed to a deal with the debacks.

Per Steve Gilbert, that is, again, a minor league deal with a spring training invite. But again, Kevin Newman, another guy where you're going to look at his stats here that we have, they're not going to really jump off the page from his 2023 season. But you never know, right? You never know. in my case, and we trust

because again, some of these guys just aren't, like Newman wasn't really receiving that much of an opportunity over there, you know? So I mean, again, this might just be a fresh start. It also might be an opportunity just to find a backup shortstop, which they really don't

have right now, not a clear one, right? Yeah, that's, I think that's what this comes down to. The diamond backs right now at shortstop, they have Blaze Alexander, who has yet to play in the majors in Jordan Lawler, who the team certainly believes in in the long term, but isn't necessarily expecting a ton from immediately.

Not to say that, you know, Jordan Lawler couldn't come out and have a great spring and, you know, maybe open the season is the Diamondbacks everyday shortstop? I don't want to say that's impossible. But there's a clear need for depth just to kind of shore up that position and make sure that you weren't backed into a corner of having to give a bigger role to a Blaze Alexander or Jordan Lawler before they were really ready for it. And Kevin Newman just sort of adds depth there.

He's not just a shortstop. He played sort of all over the place in 2020. He played 24 games at third base, 19 at shortstop, 16 at second base, nine games at first base. So you could sort of think of him as a Jace Peterson type who is right-handed instead of left-handed. That's not an encouraging description. Hits lefties pretty well. in 2023, Kevin Newman had a 571 OPS against righties, but a 813 OPS against lefties. So if you want a guy who can give you some defensive versatility, who has experience playing shortstop in case, you know, you don't want to put Jordan Lawler, Blaze Alexander in that spot just yet.

And who can also hit lefties, which is something that the diamond backs would likely be looking for, especially if they add a left-handed bat, that big big. that they add is left-handed, it would maybe make sense to go to someone like Kevin Newman on the roster who has some pretty good numbers against lefties historically. As a fan of Blaze Alexander, it's a bit frustrating because Blaze is now, this has been a second season at AAA Reno. He's 24 years old. I know that an injury at one point kind of held back his progression, but you could say that about Jordan Lawler and Corbyn Carroll too. I think at this point, you know, with some of these guys in their system that have been around as long as they have, I'd almost rather see them get an opportunity.

And he is. He's going to get an opportunity to win that backup role or to play for that backup role. He'll be in the mix in spring training for sure. It's just, you know what I mean? It's one of those like. Yeah, another obstacle for a young kid that at this point isn't so young. He's older than half of the Diamondbacks Major League roster. So I'm just saying, like, let's give him a shot.

You know, I think the one thing is, is like Groundhog Mama says, money for JD. That's my main goal in life is let's get JD Martinez or as, you know, as a second prize, Jorge Saler, I guess you could say. But let's spend that money on the DH that the Diamondbacks have been pursuing and let's bring in that bat that can really help change this offense, especially in offense that, no offense to Christian Walker, but just didn't have that consistent power bat. Walker was our power bat and I mean it's not to say that he's not a very good hitter it just it would be great to have that true slugger in there and not expect that out of Christian Walker all the time yeah I mean just just adding more to the lineup right I mean it's not that Christian Walker didn't have a really good season it's just that like the best teams in the league they don't have one Christian Walker they have like four of them right yeah you don't

just build a lineup and call it complete with you know one good power guy that hits 35 home runs. Yeah, you kind of need a few of those guys, especially with the lineups that, you know, it seems like the Braves and the Dodgers that we talked about yesterday. The lineups that those teams rolling out there are stacked one through nine. And if you want to compete with that, yeah, I think if you're the debacks, you probably do need to add some thump into the middle of the lineup in addition to what Walker and Gurriel and Corby and Carole and Catel Marte already bring. Josh Hunt in the chat says, I wonder if they potentially bring in Kevin Newman as a backup for Podomo for occasional breaks while Jordan Lawler gets consistent A.B.

in Reno for now. Yeah. That's absolutely what they need to do. If Jordan Lawler isn't playing, he shouldn't be on the major league roster. It's just not doing him any good as far as making adjustments and getting better every single day

for him to be up here in a major league roster. And I think, again, there's something to be said about Corbyn Carroll kind of spoiling us a bit with how fast he progressed through the minor league system, how fast he bounced back from an injury and how fast he made an impact

at a major league level. just not going to get that out of every minor leaguer as quickly as you got it out of Corby and Carroll. So I would rather see him continue his progression as well. And I mean, same thing I guess with Blaze Alexander. That is one thing about him not being the backup here at a major league level is that he will continue to get at bats and improve in Reno. But just feeling like it's getting a little long for him to still be there.

I do want to add just real quick that Kevin Newman defensively, like while he does have quite a bit experience at shortstop. It should be noted that his experience there has not been fantastic. In 2023, he was at minus six defensive runs saved and minus four outs above average at shortstop for the Reds. And that's in 148 innings, which is really only about, you know, 15, 16 games worth of complete games at shortstop. So, you know, if you're putting up minus 60 RS and minus four OAA and that small of a sample at short, you're, you know, you're probably pretty well below average there. And the defensive metrics are also not great, not terrible, but not great at second base or third base either. So he's not, you know, I think Jace Peterson is maybe a better overall

defender than Kevin Newman is, but he does have experience at shortstop. He's a guy you can plug in there. I'm not sure the debacks would want to have him start at shortstop like every day against lefties, though. You're going to lose quite a bit of value on defense if you do that, even though I think Newman would help you on offense. So there'd be a bit of a compromise if the Diamondbacks decided to go that direction. And it's just probably not a sacrifice they need to make. Hopefully if they can get their offense where they wanted to,

it could be a good spot in the rotation. You can just start Geraldo Perdomo against both lefties and right as well. You don't necessarily have to do the platoon, the platoon thing. That is totally true. Well, a big ski to you all in the chat. We thank you guys for being here. Josh again is fashionably late, but he dropped to ski, so all is forgiven. Ski to you guys.

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And another great place here in the Valley for you to save some money and actually maybe make some money is at Desert Financial Credit Union, which for 84 years has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions to you, their customer. You've got to go someplace when it comes to your finances that you trust. And in some cases, not all of the, those banks out there have your best interests in mind. We've seen that firsthand. So make sure that you go someplace that can offer you financial solutions tailored to helping you achieve your financial goals. They have checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and more. And when you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Well, it is time. I know that Jesse

had Sean on this show, did not authorize it, did not clear it with me. Then they went off and made each other mayor and vice mayor. That was infuriating me. But you guys did an excellent job of talking about some of the best moments of the Diamondbacks, playoffs and this season. And I thought that... Yes, I am still the mayor. You're absolutely not.

No, he is not, the mayor. We have absolutely cleared that already. But we thought it would be fun. to take some of our favorite items from this year that have represented what a fun year 2003 was and put it in a time capsule. I did this my my kindergarten year, 1986. We did a time capsule and it was supposed to be we buried it and they cemented over it and it was to be opened in the year 2000 is when it was supposed to be which was so it was a far off distant year at that point. It was intentionally cemented over. It was intently.

Wow. Okay. Like, I still to this day, don't know if Acacia Elementary School cracked into that bad boy after we made it. But if you're not familiar, Time Capsule is a historic cache of items that represent that particular year for a future generation one day to dig up and find. And we have been talking a lot about what some of our favorite actual items were from this year. So Jesse and I, first it was like a list of eight, and then it became 10. And that was like 13 and Jesse couldn't have an uneven number. So that was 14, but then back to down 12.

We were a lot of edits made to this. But we have decided on some items that we think actually tell the tale of this year. And what an incredible season it was. And I think the first item really, it kicks everything off beautifully. It brings us together as not only Diamondbacks fans, but as a nation. Because remember when Merrill Kelly was in the World Baseball Classic for Team USA? Let's go. We are putting Merrill Kelly's jersey in the time capsule.

That is item number one, Merrill Kelly's team USA jersey, Jesse. And this comes in spite of the fact that Merrill Kelly did not pitch especially well in the team USA, team Japan game, obviously team USA loss. Japan wins the world baseball classic. But I thought at the moment, you know, how big of an opportunity was this from Merrill Kelly, for him to get this stage. And especially at the time, Meryl Kelly had just really had the one breakout 2022 season,

and a lot of people looked at the team USA roster and didn't necessarily see Meryl Kelly as the best pitcher on that roster. People, believe it or not, you know, a year ago we're talking about Lance Lynn being the best pitcher on the 2023 Team USA roster. Starting pitcher, I should say. There were some very good relievers on the roster as well. Yeah, there were.

But yeah, Merrill Kelly, you know, got an enormous opportunity. one of the biggest stages that he had ever pitched in in his life, probably the biggest stage that he had pitched on in his life, until several months later when Merrill Kelly is pitching in the World Series for the Diamondback. And one thing we discussed about that, especially with him and Alec Thomas performing here at Chase Field and World Baseball Classic games, was that experience that it gives them. We knew what the environment for the World Baseball Classic was going to be like.

And we thought, like, hey, this is neat for them. they get a taste of the playoffs, which we don't know when they really will get that taste again. So maybe if we have a good season and we reach the end and get there, maybe this will somehow turn into something for these guys, for these guys to have experienced this kind of atmosphere and then be able to play in it. And yeah, that ended up kind of being the case for Merrill Kelly.

What I think is really interesting is how that perception that you just described would have changed after the 20th. If the World Baseball Classic was now starting in 2024 and Merrill Kelly was named one of the starting pitchers, would people be complaining about it like they did? Or would people be like, this is that stud from Philadelphia? People would be like, yeah, this is the guy who threw seven innings with nine strikeouts in game two of the World Series. Yes, we absolutely want him, you know, pitching in the World Baseball Classic championship game. And yeah, looking back at that Team USA roster, Merrill Kelly absolutely had the best season out of every out of everyone on that. list when all said and done. Absolutely. There's a talk here. Let's see. Tim says it was a good run for

Jesse Jr. Jesse Jr. does not go in the time capsule. Jesse Jr. lives with us forever. Maybe he's talking about the fact that my mayorship has apparently expired. Well, I don't know. If I'm the mayor, then Jesse Jr.'s the mayor, we're kind of, you know, we're kind of a duo. He's a member of your cabinet. That's absolutely prepossures. I don't think you even understand how being mayor works. But Anyway, another great item that we decided after some deliberation that we needed to put in the time capsule was the new bases. The new gigantic bases. Oh, look at it. Look at how much bigger it is.

We had a fun time actually going to this and learning all about the new MLB rules. I was absolutely fascinated with someone's hair that we won't get into. I know you're going to say fascinated with the rules. No, no. No, I'm a hair guy. It's a great head of hair. That man had a great head of hair. But I will say this.

It's funny how at the time, you know, we got all this information provided to us by MLB about why they were changing the rules, why they were going with bigger bases, all of that. And it ultimately ended up being something that helped this Diamondbacks team very much so. But, I mean, inches matter? I'll just say it. Itches matter, guys. But I will say that when you have a team that created chaos the way this team did on the base path, any any advantage. even a base being slightly bigger for you to have more room to slide into it, for you to have more room to steal those bases and to, you know, essentially, I guess,

feel that confidence that like you've been given just a little bit more. You're just a little closer to second base this year than you were last year. Really helped, you know, this team become one of the best base running teams in major league baseball. Yeah. And I realize that this actually happened before the Merrill Kelly moment. So I guess we're doing sort of about a border. They're not all chronological. We're trying to do our best.

Yeah, so we go out to Salt River Fields. I think this is sometime in mid-February. It was freezing, Derek. It was like 58 degrees or something. And he's freezing. I was so cold. And I was not, I was not the only one. It was freezing.

It was windy. It was cloudy. But yeah. We're out at Salt River Fields and several representatives of Major League Baseball came out and gave a presentation about all of the new rules being implemented into Major League Baseball for 2023. And they were so right, by the way. I'm very glad.

I'm very glad that they did it because all of us in the media really needed an opportunity to kind of ask our questions and really figure out what was going on before spring training games started. But yeah, I think a lot of it was, you know, the pitch clock stuff. We saw a pitch clock at Salt River Fields. You know, they did some demonstrations of, you know, what does 15 seconds feel like? What does 20 seconds feel like?

But those were things you weren't going to understand until the game. The base was something that you just took one look at. And you were like, oh my gosh. Look at how giant is. It's enormous. Like Josh says it was a pizza box, you know? And then you also had the, I think another question we had was like, are you giving the home plate umpire far too much to pay attention to considering this man also has to call the strike zone? That's when we got to see that they were going to have like little like buzzers that would vibrate when the clock had ran down or when the, you know.

And so again, it was it was. a very good demonstration. I think the one thing I realized the most was everything that they had said that it was their hope to accomplish this season by changing the rules. They accomplished. Especially with, you know, how quickly teams adapted to the new rules,

how quickly teams adapted to the pitch clock. By June, we weren't even talking about the new rules anymore. They were just part of baseball. It doesn't mean we still didn't have our, every once in a while, you know, the pitch clock violation that would be a bit more crucial than the other ones that would become a little bit of a story or make some wait. But for the most part, what they said at that meeting was that people are going to, this is going to be adapted to quickly, so quickly that they are in fact changing the rules again this season, which is driving the MLBPA absolutely insane. But that's a whole other topic to discuss.

So, but yeah, that gigantic base is somehow going to fit into our time capsule. Our time capsule just got a lot bigger. It's a lot big. It's very big. It's very big, this fictional time capsule. But item number three, Jesse. Going to get into the season. Just go ahead.

Yeah, so we are going to go to April 19th. The Diamondbacks were on the road playing the St. Louis Cardinals, trying to seal a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, if I'm not mistaken. They did not complete that sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. They wound up losing in blowout fashion. Do you remember who was pitching that day for the Arizona Diamondbacks? Jesse, I do remember who was pitching that day for the Arizona. Who was pitching on April 19th.

It was Madison, Buff Gardner's very much. last start for the airs on the Diamondbacks. There he is. And at the time, we didn't necessarily know that. Like right when the start, you know, right when the start was over, it was not immediately clear that the Diamondbacks were making this move. But we found out shortly thereafter that the Diamondbacks were making what was a very significant decision at the time in retrospect.

I think by all accounts, the right decision was made. But after his fourth start of the 2023 season, Diamondbacks DIA, he had maddenbacks. Bade Madison Bumgarner and moved on from a guy who, you know, was due to make north of $30 million, nearly, nearly half of what was on his contract, you know, had yet to be paid out at the time. So it was a big move for the Diamondbacks, but a move that they had to make in order to put themselves in good position to win baseball games. And that's, that's ultimately what it came down to. I'm going to be frank about this. We're not putting this ball from his last start in our time capsule to tap.

dance on Madison Bumgardener's career, right? Like that's not the end of his career. That's not what we're trying to do here. What we are trying to say is this was, if you look back at the way everything went, one of the most, if not the most crucial decision that this team made to achieve success. 100%.

And it was such a difficult move. It's such a difficult financial move. It's such a difficult personal move. even though we found out later, maybe not so much because Bumgarner was revealed to not really be coachable, not really be accepting changes that pitching coach Brent Strom wanted him to at least try, to at least try to incorporate into his routine for some improvements, right? But what really what it comes down to is this was that move that showed that they weren't afraid to do anything when it came to achieving that success that they were after.

And like most teams, especially teams that, you know, have committed this much to one player, aren't necessarily willing to make this sacrifice. Even the Diamondbacks haven't been willing to make this sacrifice in the past. And honestly, it preceded them parting ways with several players that have been part of this organization for a long time. Right. And we're honestly more connected to the fans, more connected emotionally to their teammates than Madbun. But it just showed that at this point, there was no. you couldn't have a sense of complacency.

There was no resting when it came to trying to improve this team, especially considering the amount of young players that weren't getting an opportunity within the organization that they were like eventually like, hey, let's screw it. Let's see what the young guys can do. And the young guys did pretty good, as you might have remembered. But yeah, I mean, if the diamondbacks give Madison Bumgarner two more starts, three more starts, four more starts, I don't know if they make the playoffs, right?

I mean, this is a Diamondbacks team that had one, got the third wildcard spot and had one game on their closest competitor. When you're, when you're projecting out, you know, that your season could, could be decided by that little of a margin. This is a decision that you had to make and you had to make it early in the season.

Yeah. And the debacks were willing to do that. Yep. So that's it. And no, no groundhog mama. We're not bearing Madbun. He gets all of his millions of dollars and he's going to have a fun life.

wherever he is at. But again, Josh said it here, and I'm guessing he's talking about our friend Brett, but he said Brett talked about it, that there was a moment where the organization officially said we're serious about winning, and we are going to do whatever it takes. And it wasn't a financial we're going to do whatever it takes. It's a, well, if you're not contributing to this team, we're going to move on and try to find somebody else within the organization that will contribute. And that was a big problem for Tori Lavallo back, I believe, in 2021.

because they tried to do that in 2021 with a lot of young guys, a lot of guys that they picked up from other teams, a lot of players. And it just felt like, and Tori described it in one of his press conference, that nobody was reaching for the brass ring, that they were trying to give guys opportunities left and right. And it just didn't really feel like anybody was kind of overcoming the crowd and standing out, right? Now we don't have that within the organization. And also, I think that they've set the tone that that complacency isn't acceptable.

well, it's not going to be accepted. Yeah, I mean, I think another big factor is that the Diamondbacks had players ready to go who were deserving and worthy of those opportunities, right? You had Tommy Henry who started the year down in AAA and wound up having, you know, really the best season, at least regular season-wise, of all of those young starters that we were talking about going into the year. So that was another pretty big difference between 2023 and 2021. 2021, those guys the debacks are reaching for,

they didn't have the prospect status that a lot of these guys did this past year. Well, you guys might remember item number four. Damon, would you mind hitting the video on that? Really regretting everything, basically. I regret my actions. I regret tweeting, mostly, and committing to this. But if this was the driving force

to get the Arizona Diamondbacks to a winning record, April. Can you only imagine what we're going to do in May? I didn't think they were going to do it, Jesse. You did it. People that think like, oh, deep down Derek really wanted to dye his hair purple. No, Derek didn't think that there was even a chance he was going to have to die his hair purple. But you people, you people wouldn't let me forget that tweet or that promise I made. And I'm a man of my word. So item number four, a lock of my purple hair is going into. that damn time capsule.

Jesse said it best, but it's still inexplicable to this day how after this moment, let's go ahead and show it, Damon. After this moment, Lordus turned into a goddamn superhero. That was the day we became friends for life. That was the greatest moment of your life.

It was really good. It was really good. Yeah, no. That was really weird. It was really weird how well Lourdes did after that. Can we admit that? Yeah, I just want to add some context here. So this was a tweet that you put out on April 8th, right?

I think if you're joining us here on YouTube, you just saw it on the screen. So yeah, Derek came out on April 8th and said that if the Diamondbacks have a winning record in April, then he would dye his hair purple. And even at the time the debacks had, you know, they'd started off pretty well in the first week or so of the season. It was against the Dodgers and the Padres, right? They had like consecutive series. Yeah, it was Dodgers, Padres. And then they had a four game set against the Dodgers.

which they wound up taking three out of four in that series. And but looking, I mean, the Diamondback schedule in April is what made this so remarkable. And it's why you were willing to make such a crazy bet at the time. I was like, there's no way. Because the devax started against the Dodgers. Then it was a two game against the Padres, a four game back against the Dodgers. The rest of the month, Brewers, Marlins, Cardinals, who at the beginning of the year were seen as a 90-win team. The Padres again, then the Royals and the Rockies to finish things off.

So a bit of a soft landing at the end. But yes, we looked at the schedule, and I was in agreement with you at the time. DeBak's being above 500 to finish April did not seem likely. And of course, they did do just that. You dyed your hair purple. And then Lordus Gurriel Jr. went on to have, I believe, the best month of his major career. He did not win NL Player the Month in May, but he came very close and put up an OPS of like 11 or 1,200 or something. like that. One of the best players in the National League in the month of May. And of course, Derek,

it was all because you had dyed your hair purple. I mean, when you see that level of support coming from a guy like me, you got to feel good about yourself. Confidence level through the room. Oh, 100%. Baseball looks the size of a beach ball at that point. But yeah, it still doesn't make any sense. It also still doesn't make any sense that Heidi Watney somehow got only half of the story, right? When on an Apple TV broadcast, she was talking about Lourdes and his magical season and proceeded to say, Now, even the mayor of the city of Phoenix, Derek Montea, dyed his hair purple in solidarity with the team. We can't play that, can we?

I don't think we can. We'll probably get, I'm not getting. We're not getting this episode pulled for that. But you guys remember it? If not go look it up. I'm sure it's still on your Apple TV somewhere. The world, covering the World Series was great. But I'm not sure that any of us could have gotten more thrill.

The text conversation Jesse and I had while that was happening is probably one of my favorite moments of my entire life. One of my favorite moments of my entire life. I think I had, I'm trying to remember what I was doing in this moment. I might have been watching the game on mute and then seen something about it on Twitter and then like, rewound the video and been like, wait, I need to watch this back. It sounds like Heidi Watton, he might have said something. And yeah, it made my year.

Yeah, made my lifetime. But you know what? that's not the only thing that might have given the Diamond Back some luck or maybe not luck. I don't know. Maybe it was bad luck. I don't know. But item number five, the vest. We're putting that goddamn vest in the time capsule

because when they put this on, look at a look on that man's face. My God. The look on Corbyn Carroll's face in this image we're showing right now for you audio listeners that can't see it is the personification of swag. Right?

It's confidence. in a look that I can't describe more than saying just look at them look at them it's incredible it's amazing yeah I mean the debacks were not only did they have a pretty solid month of April but they were really good in May they were really good in the first part of June especially they had the best record in the National League as late as June 13th and a lot of it at the time I don't want to say it was because of the vest necessarily but the vest was a thing the vest became a thing in the locker room

Lordus is responsible for the vest, by the way. We found that out. We did find out. Yes, Lordis Correale Jr. was the one responsible for the vest. And there was a lot of talk about the vest at the time, Derek. Everyone wanted to know who was going to wear the vest after, you know, was whoever did the post-game interview on the field, right? That was who would wear the vest.

And then July came and the Diamondbacks were no longer a good baseball team. And we didn't hear much about the vest from that point. The reason why we are in possession of Jesse Jr. is because Jesse Jr., as you may know, was maybe or maybe not once their home run snake that they cut the tongue out of that we had to reattach it surgically back and save him and give him a good home. But the Diamondbacks, unlike a lot of other teams,

were very quick to basically part ways with any kind of celebratory events that they tried to plan out. First, it was the snake, then it was the vest. And you just got this strong feeling that any time things went bad, the scapegoat was the snake. The scapegoat was the vest, all right? And so I want to defend the vest because the vest, the vest was too, the vest. Vest if you're watching, your swag is too tough.

You smoke too tough. Your bitch is too bad. They're going to kill you. You know, that's the thing about this vest. It just wasn't, they weren't ready. Maybe the vest comes back next year. But it's not because it's going in our time capsule. So sorry, you lost it.

You didn't appreciate the vest at the time. and for that reason the best is going into the time capsule. Yeah, Lordus can make another one. Yeah. But we're going to take that one, but Lordus can make another one. Purple and teal? Maybe the next one needs more teal in it for sure. But last time we're going to talk about before we go to a little bit of an ad break here is item number six,

which is the Arizona Diamondbacks lineup card from July 7th. Jesse? July 7th, Derek. It seems so random. It really does. especially July. We probably shouldn't be talking about anything that happened in the month of July. But why is this date special, Jesse?

This date is special because not long prior to this a day, it appeared that Corbyn Carroll's 2023 season was over. Oh my God. And this came not long also. I think it was maybe a week or so after another scare, a similar scare that Corvin Carroll had, both of these instances relating to his shoulder, which of course was surgically repaired a couple of years ago, back when he was in the minor leagues.

And yeah, it looked. And Corbyn Carroll himself said that he thought his season was over when this instant happened. We thought his season was over. His shoulder looked like it did something that shoulders are not supposed to do. And there was concern not only about Corbyn Carroll being able to participate in the All-Star game, which of course was going to be a huge thing. thing for him, right? His hometown, that whole narrative. But it wasn't just about the All-Star game. It was about, you know, are the Diamondbacks who are already kind of starting to struggle a little

bit? Are they about to lose their best player for the rest of the season? I mean, it, it would have made it, the Diamondbacks don't make the playoffs if that happens. I mean, I think we can be. There's no doubt about this point. There's no, that's not even hyperbole. Yeah, there's no question. I mean, the Diamondbacks are maybe an 80-81 win team probably. And that goes to said, looking at, at this lineup, you could say that probably about all five guys there at the top of the lineup and even Gabby there later

down, right? Like if the Diamondbacks lose any of those guys for an extended period of time due to injury, this season might not have gone and probably doesn't go the way it does, considering how often those five guys contributed to wins, big defensive plays,

close games, like things like that that really ended up mattering. But Corby and Carroll was Corbyn Carroll. I think that it would have been more than just his production. And at the time he was hitting nearly 300, it's, it's the, it's, it's the team morale, right? And how demoralizing it would be to lose your star player to be like that would like hurt us as fans. But can you imagine being his teammate and realizing he missed out on that opportunity to go to the All Star game in his hometown and just other things that would have consequently happened.

The Diamondbacks don't, they don't get an extra draft pick because Corbyn Carroll doesn't win rookie of the year. It's the darkest possible timeline. It would have, yeah, I mean, it would have changed the trajectory of the season in a big way. And I guess I didn't really finish the story. Corbyn Carroll was in the lineup the very next day. And that's why we're taking the lineup card because right after Corbyn Carroll's season seemed to be over potentially. It was, you know, a second shoulder scare after another one had just happened. There was also a knee scare in a game against the Rockies toward the end of April.

There had been a lot of Corbin Carroll injury driving. drama up to this point. And they kept hitting Gabby too. Don't forget about all the times Gabby got hit. But Corby and Carroll lived to play another day. And although the month of July did not go great for the Diamondbacks, he was a huge part of what ultimately led this team to the World Series. Well, of course, around this time, we're going to take a little bit of a break. We want to come back to our time capsule. But if you need to take a break, one place that you can do that at is Heila River Resorts and Casinos. It's my favorite place to go in town, even though Damon refuses to invite me on the boys nights that they have over there.

I don't know what I did. But I think it's because... Jesse and I had fun last time just to let you know. I figured you did. I mean, because nobody does it better than Healer Resorts and Casinos, right? Maybe next time, Derek. You're hearing my feelings, but that's fine. I mean, I'll take my wife and we'll have ourselves a little staycation.

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I don't understand why we're not doing this together. We have a lot of similar interests. Yeah. Mustaches? Gambling? Did he bet on any slot machines or did he just eat the steaks? I bet he just ate the steaks. The steaks for so bad.

I knew it. So anyway, you find some good buddies that will invite you and head to Heala River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what the next level is all about. You do you, boo, at Heala River Resorts and Casinos. Visit play athela.com for more details. All right. Well, we got a little bit of a tie here for item number seven. So I think both of them are just going to go into the good old time capsule.

But the two items are albums, records, if you will, CDs, cassettes. I don't know. What do we say? MP3s. Do you guys call them album? still? What do you guys call them these days? What do you call them? I don't know. But anyway, there's two records, if you will. We're going to put in House of Paine's self-titled debut album, that beautiful right there. It's weird. I didn't know that. I always thought it was called

Fine Malt Lyrics, but apparently it's not. Apparently this album is just called House of Pain, which I didn't know that, Ed. That was new information to me at 42. We're also going to throw in Sexy Red's album Hood Hot, Hood Hot, Hottest Princess. And you guys know why Sexy Red is going there. to you all. But House of Pain self-title album goes in there in honor of the one and only Paul Seawald because we all love to jump around. That is the album that that song came from. And again, you want to talk about components of this team that may have been a catalyst as to them making it not only to the playoffs, but as far as they did, you can't leave out Paul Seawald. The Diamondbacks acquisition of Paul Seawald just allowed all of their relief pitchers to just slide into a role that

they all almost seemingly were perfect for. They all found an extra level of success with Seawald. And it all started with him coming in and blowing his first save, which is just a fun memory to have because we've experienced some some blown saves this season that we won't forget. To add context to this, so the Diamondbacks acquire Paul Seawald on the day of the trade deadline, right, August 1st. I was in San Francisco.

So I was on the road covering the team. It was a big, big day at the ballpark, right? Josh Rojas is on his way out. We meet Paul Seawald. We meet Tommy Fam the next day out there in San Francisco. But it was interesting because Paul Seawald already hadn't pitched in a few days. He had last pitch with the Mariners on July 28th. And the Diamondbacks acquired him.

And just suddenly they, for like a week just like didn't need a closer. DeBack just didn't need a closer for a week because that's just the way that the games went. They just didn't have any save opportunities. And so after what was. about a week until his last outing was Seattle. On August 5th, he comes in just in the seventh inning in a game against the Minnesota Twins, the Diamondbacks lost this game in blowout fashion, but they just wanted to get Seawald some work.

So he comes in, he strikes out the side. Everything's great. Paul Seawald's your new Diamondbacks closer. Things are looking fantastic. And then the next day, Derek, Paul Seawald gets into a game as a closer for the first time, and it is an absolute nightmare. Paul Seawald in this game faced three batters.

The first one homered, which tied the game. The second one walked and the third one homered again. And the Diamondbacks lost in walk-off fashion on the road in Minnesota, a game that they led to three to two, they lost five to three

because Paul Seawald just could not get it together in his first save opportunity. But the rest of the way, he was very, very good for the Diamondbacks overall. And in the post season, I know the World Series wasn't great, but he was lights out through the first three rounds and was a huge part of how far the Diamondbacks were. He really was. And I think there's some context needed here because I know you guys

went through it with us and I know most of you were there, but if you forgot, it didn't matter who Tori Lovolo put in as a closer. They blew it all season long. It's not to say that there weren't games closed. There weren't saves. Scott McGuff wasn't good at Thompson. Kevin Ginkle wasn't good. Even, I mean, even Joe Manciply got some saves, I think, or save opportunities. But it just felt like no matter what he tried, considering that his philosophy at the beginning of the season, was to go with a closer by committee based on matchups like you would with any relief pitcher. And it seemed logical. It really did. It seemed logical until nobody could get it done.

Once it got to the point where it seemed like no pitcher in this organization could close games out for this team, it started truly feeling like this team was just snake bitten. And I hate that I had to just say that. but it's the truth, right? It just, it was like, if there wasn't for bad luck, our bullpen in the ninth inning would have no luck at all. And there's just something to be said about once they had Seawald, once we went through that, and they believed in him. And they were like, nope, you blew that one,

but you're going back out there for the next one because we just traded Josh Roas for you. You better figure it out. And like, he was also very reliable with Seattle. So that's what made this even more infuriating. It was just, it was that moment. where he felt like nothing was ever going to go right for this team. And shortly after that, they truly did turn things around and they were able to find not only consistency in the bullpen,

but Seawald was able to close games down. And it just felt like everything kind of got back on track. At that point, just a week or two later after he was acquired, the Diamondbacks bullpen went from being one of their biggest weaknesses to being one of their biggest assets. And that was the reason why Lovallo was able to lean on the bullpen so much throughout the postseason. Yeah, the other part I love about Paul Seawald's story is it his last save with the Mariners came at Chase Field against the Bandsacks, which is just so wild to me. I mean, how does that happen?

If I remember correctly, I think there was some joke made. I think Mike Hazen said this. He was talking about how, I mean, the debacks and the Mariners have been discussing a Paul Cee wall trade for several days leading up to this. So I remember some joke being made about maybe Paul C. Wall to just stay here in Arizona because we're about to make this trade. It didn't wind up happening then having a few days later. But that's just another kind of funny part of this story. I also remember Paul C.Wald, like his attitude about blowing that game was the best attitude I've ever seen a human being have about blowing a save.

Right. It's like I've been in the clubhouse a lot. There's sadness. There's anger. Sometimes that anger manifests itself towards us media where we're just asking the same questions we would. And we're getting those, you know, snappy answers back because really in that moment, you're just emotional and you really, you're trying to answer, but you are still angry deep down

inside. Paul Seawald was like, eh, like this has happened a million times. This is nothing new. And like there was something comforting about that. It's one of the reasons why we started joking about Paul Seawald being the dad that kind of make sure everyone's comfortable, even though he's lost on a road trip, right? Like Seawald had this nature about him that like, yeah, blown saves are going to happen. It doesn't mean I'm not going to go out there tomorrow and it's not, I'm going to lock it down tomorrow and like there was something that changed kind of I think the the attitude in the locker room a bit I think that things were very uptight when it came to the relievers in their bullpen and I think that seawald's you know is like laid back nature really did help you know this this

bullpen kind of settle down a bit I mean yeah the other part of it obviously is the roles right nobody knew who was going to be called out to be that ninth inning guy at times and I think Kevin Ginkle and I know for a fact that Mantiply said it, but like there was just an uncertainty. You didn't know what you were going to be called upon in any given night. And then once Seawald came in, it's like they all knew what their roles were from that point. And they were all very comfortable with knowing their roles. So again, we talk about things kind of being a catalyst as to how the Diamondbacks made it as far in the playoffs as they did. Quiring Paul Seawald and House of Paine's Jump Around song.

Jump Around is the song that he would come out to. when he was closing a game just so that that's... Do people need to know that? I think 80% of people know that. And I just want to make sure we're not leaving anyone. This is the man that didn't know what a conga line is. So I understand him needing to explain to you guys. Some of us need people to fill in the gaps.

Sorry, I need like 10 minutes on ski alone, right? I mean, I could easily do that. But we're not going to do that. What we are going to do instead is we are going to put in item number eight, which is a transcript written down on a piece of paper by hand in cursing. Are you doing this? Are you the one writing? I would happily do it of this, of this speech. Maybe also a shirt from the PhD next laundry?

Yeah, we'll throw a shirt in there. The shirt could be representative of the speech too. Let's go. What you got? Are you fucking kidding me? Listen, this is part of the journey. We're not there yet. Let's enjoy it.

Let's embrace it. Let's fucking party. And the connected team is a fucking dangerous team. We are fucking dangerous. Let's fucking party. I cannot see that moment enough. Yeah, and I, and we literally played it.

Me and Sean played that on Saturday. But I, there's actually not that much overlap between our top 10 moments on Saturday and what we're doing today, but this is one of them. This is, this just had to be in the time capsule somehow,

some way. It, it's a, it's a speech that transcends the situation, right? And I know there's a lot of cursing in there, which really gets me hamped up. But cursing aside, partying, talking about partying that much aside, the fact that this man says, like, this is part of the journey, let's enjoy it, let's embrace it. And that a connected team is a dangerous team is like it's poetry.

It really is because baseball is a game where these teams go out there and they spend millions and millions of dollars on the players that are considered to be the best players in baseball. and at times it's meaningless. And I think that is what he's talking about when it comes to this team. The chemistry, the way that this team felt like they were a family, the everything, the way they came together through the ups and downs throughout the season, it just made them better. It made them fearless, it felt like, at times. And I felt like his speech just exemplified that.

And I mean, I couldn't imagine not going through and winning the next eight games after that speech, you know what I mean? But there's just something to be said about the side of Tori that we don't get to see, but the players do. That was a brief glimpse at that into that window. But that's, that motivates me. That's fun. That makes me excited.

And it feel like, I feel like that motivates me like in things outside of baseball. Like it's just kind of like life advice sometimes for you to think about, you know? A connected team's a dangerous team. That goes to your family. with people you know work me and this guy we're connected team is a fucking dangerous and we're throwing the shirt in there too uh groundhog mama says a transcript is not enough need a flash drive yeah yeah that's fine yeah i would do that the problem is i don't know how long our time capsule is going to be buried yeah like are they

going to have the proper flash drive yeah well anyone know what a flash drive is in like 20 years like USBWs by that point no one's going to have any kind of adapter for that kind of thing but we'll figure it out hopefully all right well and that was uh after the wild card victory right yes the diamondbacks are in the playoffs at this point and they have already shocked the universe in some ways with a couple of comeback wins against the Milwaukee brewers advancing to the nLDS and playing course the los angeles the los angeles dodgers and in that series we know how things went we know the way that the diamond backs absolutely dominated in just jaw dropping shocking fashion but nothing was as impressive as the four home run inning,

which included one of the most incredible things I've ever seen with my own eyes. And that is items, I guess, number nine and ten, or whatever you want to call them. But we are putting the foul ball that Gabby Moreno hit in that game. And then the home run that he hit on the very next pitch, which has never been done, I believe, in MLB postseason. in history, I think, is what they said. Yeah, I thought I don't remember.

I mean, it seems possible. It does. It's extraordinarily hard to do. You almost feel doomed as a hitter. If you hit a foul home run ball, it's like, now I'm definitely going to strike out or something. Yeah, and Gabby Moreno did have a pretty remarkable bat flip that followed it.

It wasn't this one. This one happened in L.A., but just a few days later, Gabby Marino homered again at Chase Field. And this was game three. was the game that sent the Diamondbacks to the NLCS. And yeah, what Gabby Moreno did in this moment, one of the greatest things that any Diamondbacks player

will ever do in the postseason. Like it was that level of cool there at the ballpark. Joe Manciply at one point, it said that this was like the coolest thing he's ever seen on a baseball field. For sure. Yeah, I have to agree with that. So that inning,

we were there. I walked down because I wanted to go get some like crowd footage and I get off the elevator that's when the home runs started you know so I go over and I get some you know people still celebrating uh I think it was Cattels home run is was Perdomo. Perdomo is first then it's always Jerry Pee yeah every good party starts with herald of herald of perdoma homer and so and then I got down in the crowd and next thing I know like I'm just there in one of the most amazing atmospheres I've ever been And at Chase Field, just like down kind of on the concourse or on the, not on the concourse,

but the second little walkway behind the like really good expensive seats behind the backstop. And I just, I couldn't believe the electricity in the building when when that happened. And watching it was so unbelievable because the foul ball was kind of like, oh, oh, it was like one of those moments where you're like, oh, man, he had the crap out of that ball too bad. It's failing, you know, sailing foul. and then the very next home run or next ball it's home run and the roof just blew off the building it was just such an incredible thing to experience and honestly it was it was one of my favorite moments in my entire time of covering this team of being like their present for something happening you know yeah i know you didn't get to be at like all of the diamondbacks postseason games but

i'm especially glad that you were that you were yeah that one was that was the coolest one i think it was it was difficult there was a lot of uh me running down the streets of downtown Phoenix to do the pregame show and then come back logistically being at the ballpark was a bit of a It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy they kept setting off fireworks after every one of those yeah runs and me and Michaela were down near the stadium, but not at the game That's right you guys were at the guy yeties and you met us there and they there was like a maybe like a 30 second delay on the TV from the sound of the fireworks. So we just kept hearing the fireworks pop off and we were like there's no walking way. There's no way they just hit another home run. And I can only imagine it did. It felt like some sort of mistake like, man, are they set in the, is that right? Why do they keep doing that? Like, why do they keep setting off fireworks? And I think they said, because of the dingers.

They sent a, they sent one off for the foul ball because it was called a home run initially. Yeah. Yeah. And then I was like, I was running around losing my mind. Oh yeah. That's right. Because that one had to be reviewed, right? The foul ball had to be. Yeah. That's why it was, That's why it was especially impressive because there was a delay in between him hitting that one and then getting that next pitch to him. Man, my memory isn't what it used to be, you guys. You should be lucky I remember any of these dates or things happening. But Elise says the Alec Homer and the NLCS was a close second to that moment. Absolutely, Elise.

And we were going to talk about, I think, the item that needs to go in there. But Chris C with the Super Chat, we thank you so much for the SuperTrack, Chris. he says reminder that at the first inning of the first game, the D-Backs would have already tied the amount of runs the Dodgers have in the entire series. Always happy to kick the Dodgers when they're down, especially right now with all the money that they're spending. That was one of our top 10 moments that me and Sean talked about on Saturday.

And yeah, I mean, not only that, but it happened in like five minutes, right? Or five or ten minutes or something. The debacks just score six runs off Clayton Kershaw. He gets two outs, is out of the game. and now we don't know what Clayton Kirchard's future holds that might be the last that might be the last time we see him on a I'm a little skeptical of that well Dodgers at least ended might have ended his Dodgers career right yeah I take him as the fifth starter no postseason pitching oh he'd be great the regular season just shut him down

in the playoffs well he's coming I mean he's coming off shoulder surgeries he wouldn't get him until like July or something tell him he doesn't have to pitch against Christian Walker more this way. I'm sure that'll be an enticing offer. Item number 10, it's the flag. It's Alec Thomas's flag that he planted in Philadelphia,

thus making Citizens Bank Park now is property of the Arizona Diamondbacks, right? They're like a commonwealth? Is that how it works? Yeah, something like that. I think that any games played there now are considered home games. Sorry, Philly fans.

I don't know to tell you. Philly's fans are not going to be They're going to be completely rational about me saying this. We own the bank. Yeah, we do own the bank. We own both banks. And the Cardinals own the Eagles apparently now. That's true. That became a thing over the weekend.

We own the lake and the bank. Yeah, this was, this was sort of the icing on the cake moment at the Diamondbacks winning the NL pennant. We talked about this a little on Saturday, but. It was the like, I don't want to say it was the nastiest moment. Right? Because I don't want that to be where I'm going with this. But it was like the, you know, like I felt like the Diamondbacks and the Phillies had the biggest like budding of heads, right? You would have thought it would have been the Dodgers, but I don't feel like the Dodgers series went that way, especially after the way it started, you know, and there was no point the Dodgers were really competitive. But the Phillies series went the way it did.

The fans got really involved. There was a lot of trash talking to Merrill Kelly. and there was a lot of, a lot of Merrill chance. A lot of Merrill Chance. A lot of, you know, Ginkle was here in studio telling us about how wild some of their fans were and the stuff they would say to them in the bullpen. But like, that was like the like in your face kind of moment.

Like we did it. And like, I don't know, but I love that moment so much. Maybe it wasn't so great for karma in the World Series, but it was a great moment just for really defeating a foe, vanquishing a foe. And then just putting that cherry on top afterwards. Like it's almost, it's like something from like the Renaissance. You just stab up.

Like this is ours now, bitch. You know, I love it. It was, it was especially remarkable because citizens Spank Park had this reputation as a place where you just don't go in that ballpark and win games. Right.

There was so much talk about. Especially during the post season, right? Yeah. Yeah. The best record there. The best record there. Yeah. In postseason history,

something like that going into the series. and the Diamondbacks proved that you can win games at Citizens Bank Park and to go in there and win a couple of games down 3-2 in the series and turn a 3-2 deficit into a seven-game series win, it was very impressive. It was impressive. And it's just a moment. You know certain moments are going to forever live in team history.

And that video of him putting that flag into the ground is just one of those moments. It's just one of those moments. another item we got two more items two more items stick with us here two more more the longest show ever i think we're approaching that derrick really right now no we are not it's yeah playoff shows yeah you're not here for some of those hour 45 yeah yeah all right drunk derrick we've got plenty of time i direct a whole polish campaign and took my shirt off at one point um we got the opportunity to meet brandon fott's family we talked about this a few weeks ago we showed some of the video of the interviews of his minor, a little league coaches, his cousins, his teammates from

Bellarmine came out, his mom who would not be on camera. But they were all wearing some incredible shirts. And I just felt like their godfather shirts was a representation here as you see. God fought. Fought her. The God Fauter shirt. It was a representation of kind of the way that Brandon fought like evolved to his. his final form in the playoffs in a way that we couldn't have imagined. I mean, we've talked about it at length. We did an whole episode about Brandon Fopp, but honestly, the pitcher he became in the playoffs,

what he did in the playoffs, his nature, the way that he handled the big interviews and the big moments and did it so calmly as so many of his family members and friends have said that he's always been, like it was the maturation of a guy that you know is going to be a star for this team, a part of the starting rotation for a very long time. And I think that it was, again, the performances he had in the playoffs went far beyond our wildest expectations that we could see for him.

Yeah, we needed a we needed a brand and fought item. It just wouldn't have felt right if our time capsule had no brandon fought items in it. And this was the best thing that we could come up with to put in there. And it is an amazing. It is an amazing dessert. I don't know if they have those for sale somewhere. Plus, it was an amazing moment for us. To have Brandon Fott's cousin come up to us and ski us.

It was, again, a big moment in the playoff run for us. 2020 was a big year for Derek. He had so many incredibly fulfilling moments with this baseball team. That was one of them. But yeah, especially talked about this a little on Saturday. But that game three starred against the Phillies in particular, D-backed down 2-0 in the series, backs against the wall. Brandon Fott comes in against a really good Phillies lineup,

of five and two-thirds innings, no runs, nine strikeouts, you know, faces just 18 hitters and somehow get 17 outs. That was so impressive and so needed for this Diamondbacks team. And yeah, even in the World Series when we encountered the five family outside the ballpark, Brandon, although the Diamondbacks didn't win that game, Brandon did his job in that game and certainly gave the Diamondbacks a chance to win. He was really impressive throughout the entire postseason. One last postseason honorable mention

And I'm going to just go ahead And I know Jesse's probably not going to like this I'm just going to put it in the time capsule Without your approval No yeah we can put it in the time capsule I'm okay It's the greatest image Of a fan in Diamondbacks history

It's our pal Mike Druckman And you guys all know this image It's the hardest image in baseball I mean There is just something Incredible It's about this photo This is literal art

This is art right here. Like everything about it. The fact he's wearing a classic gray like road. It's like the coolest Diamondbacks jersey ever. You can have. He's just in this sea of angry, frustrated, lost-looking Philadelphia Phillies fans and the look of confidence and the way that he's staring directly into the photographer's lens while he holds up his jersey proudly is an image.

that will forever live in my brain. How does he know where the photographer is that's the craziest part? Sometimes you just do it. Sometimes you're just like, hey, they're kind of shooting in our direction. It would be funny if I got into the background of this photo, perhaps, you know, because you don't have no idea what a photographer is necessarily shooting, but you're like, you know, wouldn't it be funny if I was like, you could see me behind this batter looking frustrated holding up my jersey or whatever?

Nah, man, he was the subject of this picture. He was what the photographer was taking a picture of. because whoever took that wonderful image knew how unique that photo truly was right yeah and that photographer and mike hi what on mike that photographer's name is joe rondone over at the republic we use a lot of oh yeah we have this site that we pay for that we get access to images and he's taken a lot of them yeah and uh from what i've never gotten to meet him but seems to be an outstanding photographer and as you said took like the greatest photo of any Diamondbacks fan that will probably ever be taken.

So shout out, shout out Joe and making this happen. And shout out Mike for posing. Like, what an incredible. I mean. It's amazing. It's somebody, I think, someone I follow tweeted it out in response to like, what's the coldest like baseball photo? The coldest like MLB photo 2020.

And it by far got the most likes. But of course, that's because it's just amazing. It's amazing. Great job, Mike. I will say this. This last item, it's a little hard. Yeah, we do have one more item. It is a happy but also a bittersweet item.

We'll put it that way. And I know both of us could probably do another hour talking about this man, but the final item we're putting in our time capsule is Greg Schulte's headset. And this man has meant so much to this organization and to fans. He has been the voice of this team for its entire existence. and it's a little hard to think about not seeing Greg anymore. I had a wonderful moment with this man where after the Heidi Watney incident happened,

Greg saw me in the press box lounge. He came up to me and he just said, Mr. Mayor. And I said, governor? And we shook hands. And it was a government meeting. We wrote off the money we paid for the lunch because of it. But it was just really, really, really. special to have the opportunity to work around him, to be around him, to talk to him. I mean,

it's something that I absolutely could not have imagined missing out on. And I know that he's meant a lot to you. Yeah, Greg Schulte, I do have to say, has meant a lot to me personally. Some of you, most of you probably already know the story. I was the Diamondbacks Kidcaster when I was 12 years old. And I got the gig because I impersonated Greg Schulte's voice. And I got a guy. And I got a to meet him at the ballpark as a 12-year-old, and he told me that I was a better him than him, which is a 12-year-old was like, oh, my gosh, it made like the next five years of my childhood. But yeah, Greg has always been a pro's pro, one of the best, you know, the fact that his voice is attached to not only those World Series moments from back in 2001 that we talk about

so often, but also these World Series moments in 2023, obviously not the same ending in 23, but still an extraordinary ride to get there. And yeah, I remember having some conversations with Greg throughout the postseason run. I think at one point he told me, retirement can wait. And I just thought that was such a cool line to hear from him. He wasn't necessarily expecting to be working until November 1st. But I don't think he was the slightest bit upset that he was. If you've been a Diamondbacks fan the entire time that this team has existed,

there's just something that is very storybook. Like, yeah, it would have been great for them to win the World Series. That would have been the best ending possible. But the fact that before he stepped down, he got a chance to go on one last ride with this team and be a part of this postseason run, call these games, be a part of this history. It feels like it was magic.

It feels like it was a big motivator for the team, you know. And I'm sure, you know, I'm sure. sure it's one of the things that people thought about but probably wasn't an actual motivator. I know Tori probably used Mad Dog Russo's words for motivation more than that. But there's something to be said about doing it for Greg, you know, and giving him one last fun postseason run when the Diamondbacks didn't have that many over his tenure as the voice of this team. So it was just very special. He's very, he means a lot to us. He means a lot to the community. And it would be an honor to have him donate his headset to our, uh,

to our fictional time capsule that we're going to bury outside of this building right now when we're done. But so many great memories. What a season it was. I need one more. We need to throw, and it was suggested by Chris and Karen, but we need to throw Patrick Lyons in the time capsule. Just the person? Yeah, yeah, just the person. We can't bury him.

Well, I don't know. All he needs is air and food and water. That's all he really needs is what you're saying. We can find a way to get him. What if we? what if we just put his his fanny pack I was thinking his sandals

yeah or sandals his sandals yeah his sandals his sandals for those who have no idea what we're talking about which could be a few people out there there could be a few Patrick Lyons is our friend over from

Denver who's been covering the Rockies for a number of years and he helped us out big time during the Diamondbacks postseason run during the postseason run and yeah we had a lot of of made a lot of great memories with Patrick in the month of October. He was a very big part of our show. And we'll hopefully have him back on here.

Yeah. Hopefully I'm back on here pretty soon. I have a better suggestion. His Caesar salad with candy corn inside. There it is. There it is. Well, we're trying. Jesse was big on non-perishable items.

You can't put perishable items. You can't put perishable items in there. We're getting people opening it in 25 years. An exception has to be made for this one, unfortunately. Well, like, we can do something like preservatives or whatever, you know. I mean, it wasn't edible as is. So what are we Wait, I mean, I don't think I heard the story

Here he had a Caesar salad with Candy corn Oh yeah Yeah. Oh, wow On top. Like he was legit Like I want some candy corn On my Caesar salad

Grab like 15 pieces of candy corn And put it in his salad He knew he was going to be subject to ridicule So he tried his best to hide it from us And then Damon discovered him doing it Like when your dog gets into the trash or something Your dog knows that they're not supposed to be getting into the trash. They're not going to get into the trash right in front of you, right?

So Patrick knows that nobody is going to be accepting of him putting candy corn just on top of a salad like fruant, sprinkling it on there, then putting a little extra pepper and some dressing and then eating it. So, of course, he did it in private secretly, like as if nobody was going to catch him. And this man stopped him. And then there's video of it. He was talking junk to me or Derek. And I was like, excuse me, do you have candy corn in your? Caesar salad.

Yeah. And then he hit it from Derek, but Derek eventually got a video, put it on Twitter. There were a lot of, he's a big Caesar salad guy all the way around. Also a lot of Hall's mint or halls, hull's, uh, hall's door lozenges. He was always giving me one. And then I told you, he did that thing. And then he took it away. And now every time we start to show, my mouth feels like terribly un, you know, soothed,

basically. But anyway, Chris Melton, by the way. Yes, Chris's Dula jersey that was lost and then somehow miraculously returned. We will happily accept that because Chris has been a huge part of P.H&X. She has been our den mother since day one. And when I mean day one, I mean the day before we even launched our little video and she was figuring shit out. We love you, Chris. We're so glad you got that jersey back because we know how much it means to you.

And again, shout out to the Diamondbacks community. I'm not sure, I mean, not sure where else you're going to get your things returned to you by people sometimes. So it's really, really nice to know. One last thing I want to address our very first comment from the show today I thought was actually really, really incredible. And I wanted to just, it's struggling, Skecher right there. And he said, you should all consider doing a segment on what the fans need to bring to the table this year. It seems like the team is doing everything to make a great season. how can we respond to do our part?

I love that. Fascinating question. It's it is a fascinating question. It's like the ideal Diamondbacks fan. Right. Oh my gosh. Like how can I? What can I do to help the team, right?

And it's like I guess show up, support them, get that super cheap baseball season pass that they have for next year. Just be at the ballpark. Show this team support. I think that is what this team asked for all last season. We saw it on Bumblehead night. Sometimes they would even kind of get a little bit of hate because they said the thing. You know, like they basically say like, oh, we'd like more fans come out.

People would be like, well, win more then. You know, and it's like, calm down. Not every team wins, but their fans still come out win or lose, right? So I think that is probably what the Diamondbacks would love to see next year. That's what as fans we can do is show up, support this team. Come out on Wednesdays and Thursdays, not just on Saturday nights and things like that. show them the support all season long and make sure that that stadium isn't empty like it was many times last season.

Yeah. And we heard Zach Gallen and his article over at the Players Tribune talking about how how excited he was to have that energy from the postseason kind of carry in to the new year. And yeah, I mean, if you're a fan of this baseball team, I think it's your responsibility to do that. There have been times, many times when this team didn't really deserve that kind of support, I guess you could say, but this is not one of those years. The Diamondbacks are coming off remarkable 2023, as we had a lot of fun recounting here today.

And yeah, I mean, as much as this felt like a kind of a mic drop sort of season for the debacks in some ways, but they're back at it in 2024. It's just the beginning. And catchers report and just a little bit over a month. Chris says takeovers. We got lots of those, including as we told many of you at one point, we got that pool takeover. that we're going to be having.

Yes. How did the Chasefield pool might even give away a couple of tickets to that. I don't know if I'm allowed to even say that. I'm sure it's all getting madame. Probably not.

I'm going to give them away anyway. I don't care. But keep your eyes peeled for all of that this season. And of course, keep it locked right here to us. That's a great way for you to support the team.

Listen to our show. And that's just me selfishly saying that. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer. Damon.

You can find him at Damon. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark-bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-BACs, but of course all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being a part of this season.

What do you got? Huh? Oh, I didn't do that. Oh, man. Falling down on the job, Derek. I am falling down on the job. Well, it's because, you know, the reason why, is because I'm actually excited to go use Bet MGM right now.

get down on the NFL action. But I did forget to tell you guys about BetMGM, which is the best place for you to go and make sports more fun. Not to mention the fact that right now you can get up to $1,500 back in bonus bets. Should you go on there, make your first bet? And if it loses, all you got to do is sign up with our bonus code of PHNX, create an account on their app or at BetMGM.com. Once you do, you just deposit $10 and bet that amount or more on any game,

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