PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Beat the Mets

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the D-backs doing more walking than swinging, why their good pitching doesn't seem sustainable, and who we expect to have a big weekend in New York against the Mets. 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 PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX, and I'm joined by my very dignified vice mayor, the one and only, Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. I am back. I am here. You are here. You're ready to talk about baseball, excited about the Diamondbacks getting their second win of the year? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It was an interesting, it was an interesting game. I felt like, it happened. I felt like the left fielder. I can't remember his name is eluding me right now, but I feel like the left fielder dropping the ball was kind of like the perfect ending to that game. And granted, it would still have been a sacrifice fly.

Like there's no way that they were going to get an out at home play. Sure. Anyway, even if he does catch that ball. But it just felt like this game that the diamond backs just kind of accidentally stumbled into victory somehow where it didn't really feel like they necessarily deserved it. But a win is a win. And that's something we're going to say a lot throughout this 162 game season. And the Diamondbacks needed a win in really the worst way.

There's a big difference between 1 and 5 and 2 and 4. And so, you know, obviously that's still not a great start to the year. But you feel you feel a lot better, you know, given the fact that the team is hitting a buck 40 right now. You know, if you're 2 and 4, like that's pretty acceptable at that point. So hopefully brighter things ahead for the offense and really the rest of this team. You're not wrong. And you're not wrong about anything you said.

You're not wrong about anything you said. But of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and get in on the NBA play in tournament action with the Draft King Sportsbook. New customers can bet $5 on any team to win and you will get $150 in free bets instantly using our code of P.HNX. you clinch a win no matter what and jesse that was a nice win that the diamondbacks clenched obviously nothing to get too excited about like you said it felt like they tried to give that game away despite the magnificent performance by merrill kelly it also felt like at times they just really didn't forget giving it away it felt like they just didn't want to win it it felt like they had money

on on the astros to win and they were going for you know the big big big bet is what it felt like. It felt like neither team wanted to win. There's a funny scene in one of the naked gun movies where two boxers were both paid off to throw the fight and they both lay down at the same time. It's quite hilarious.

And of course, this is very reminiscent of that because neither team wanted to win this at times. The Diamondbacks had an outstanding pitching performance from Merrill Kelly. More importantly, there had plenty of base runners throughout this game. Base runners wasn't a problem. The real problem,

the real problem was hitting with runners in scoring position, which the Diamondbacks just refused to do at times. I mean, I think the problem is just like hitting in general, right? Hitting in general, yeah. No, not walking. You're not going to cover off the ball with the base is empty. But yeah, they are walking. I think it was nine walks and three hit by pitches in that game,

which is really incredible. At one point, as they had hits up until late in the game. They had three and both of them. Oh, yeah, you. You tweeted like Tim LeCastro would be overjoyed. Yeah, the numbers on this team, Derek, are honestly kind of mind boggling across the board. So, yeah, there's the fact that the Diamondbacks lead the league and walks per game. They have 33 walks over six games.

So they have been elite in terms of having patient at bats, you know, having good at bats in general. There are bats have been very, very good across the board, even though they haven't. well. But their team batting average is 140, which as we record right now is 41 points lower than the next worst team in baseball, which would be the Minnesota Twins at 181. They're just like in their own stratosphere as far as how bad the hitting has been. On the other hand, this might blow your mind even more, Derek. If I was to ask you, what is the Diamondbacks team ERA through six games? What would you guess? Oh, team ERA. Let's see. Caleb Smith bad outing factored in.

I would say 3.75. Okay. Hey, you actually guessed that it's pretty good and it is pretty good, but it's even better than that. Their team ERA is 2.95. What? Are you shitting me? It's a sub three ERA for a team A.

Are you kidding me? It is a sub three RA. Now granted, a big part of that is that they've allowed six unearned runs. So that is a big factor. The pitching staff has really given up more runs. but yeah, all these pass balls and all these things that we've seen. Now, on the on the downside, I have to say that I don't think this is at all sustainable.

The Diamondbacks have 29 walks and 41 strikeouts in 505 innings. That is a very low strikeout rate and a very high walk rate. So I do not have a whole lot of confidence that they will maintain that sort of an ERA. They're actually dead last right now in strikeout to walk ratio. They're barely striking out more than they're walking. right now. So the numbers through six games are really fascinating in a number of different ways. The offense has been absolutely horrible, and the pitching has been quite good, but the underlying numbers tell me that it's not going to, it's not sustainable for them, unfortunately.

Here's what I, here's what I think is I think we mocked how fast the new pitching and hitting coach would have an effect on this team. But I think that's exactly what we're seeing. let's be honest, I think we're seeing an improvement across the board for the pitching. I think defensively, I have no idea what's going on with this team at times, right? Yeah. Dave McKay is back. He was supposed to be the magic from the coaching staff. Yeah, we're talking about working with David Peralta on his routes and things like that in left field.

But I don't know what's going on with this team defensively. Obviously, there is a new philosophy for them at the plate, right? The exciting part about it for me, Jesse, is as much as you say that they can't maintain that, right? Like, that's not sustainable. I don't think they can maintain any of this. Like a one-40-batting average, obviously, going up, the watch, can go down. They can't sustain any of this. But my point being is, I don't know why I'm moving from foolishly optimistic back into cautiously optimistic.

But it feels like the dam's going to break. and the floodgates are going to open. It feels like this team is that close offensively to putting it together because what we're seeing is better approaches at the plate. We're seeing them walk more. But also, I feel like the philosophy is almost carrying over to them leaving that bat on their shoulder too much.

Right. Yeah. They're not making that connection to when that pitcher makes that, either that mistake pitch or that pitch that they come back with after they're down 3-0 or 2-1 or whatever. down the middle of the plate that they need to be anticipating that and looking for that pitch so that they can drive it. At times, you know, you pointed out how late that they've been on those, you know, fastballs down the middle of the plate from the opposing pitcher and how frustrating it's been to watch them foul one after the one after another off. That's, you're late.

You're late on your pitches at that point, right? So the point is that it doesn't feel like they still have that anticipation for what the pitch is going to be. they don't have that anticipation looking for the right pitch. But that, I feel like the being patient at the plate is the, it's, it's the much harder first step to getting the everything connected, right? Like the patience at the plate is happening team wide, just as much as the bad hitting is happening team wide. So, you know, Cooper Hamel almost had like a five fucking walk day the other day because of how

patient he was being. And honestly, probably should have had at least four walks. but these guys are getting on base. They're just not they, it feels like they don't have that killer instinct when the pitcher is on the ropes to go to go at them, you know, to get them to go. Yeah.

Like it still feels like they're trying to be patient and wait and not have that aggression, unless it's Carson Kelly, who's been awful and very aggressive at the plate. He's been first swing, first pitch swinging a lot. he's just he looks very lost considering just i don't know why i'm surprised but considering how good he looked to start last season i'm really amazed by his uh his lack of offense at the plate i mean he's has the most strikeouts for anyone else and uh you know it just doesn't look good the wheels

kind of came off for him when he came back from i think it was a wrist injury at the end of last year and he was just not really himself down the stretch so yeah i mean he's he's never been like a super reliable, consistent source of offense for the diamondbacks. There have been stretches where it was like, oh my gosh, Carson Kelly's incredible. Like the diamond back might have a top five catcher. And then there's other times where it's like, okay, this guy's not really hitting at all. And his defense is even sketchy at times like we've seen over the first week of the season. I want to go back to Cooper Hummel though real quick because his batting line right now is amazing.

He is hitting 167 with an 861. OPS because his on base percentage is 444 and he's slugging 417 because one of his two hits was a home run. So shout out to Cooper Hummel for making stats nerds like myself very happy because of the ridiculousness of these numbers. A freaking guy right there, Cooper Hummel. By the way, that was a beautiful moment that home run. Everything the debacks captured as far as that goes. It was that for me, that's what that's what gets me.

That's that's that's the meme of this is the content I'm looking for. It was it's that kind of stuff, right? The the fact that I personally get to be around these guys, as often as I do, I'm blessed to do this job. I'm blessed to be allowed to go again back into the clubhouse. And again, it's, it's a reminder that these people are human beings, right? And like those kind of human moments where they celebrate those. kind of things and it's such a big deal to them in their life, to their families, to everybody

that they know, it's, it's incredible. And it's, again, it's the kind of stuff I love in this game, you know. So we live for, right? That's the most important stuff at the end of the day. It really is. And I mean, that's the thing is, is that when, uh, when we sit up here and airbag our way around or, you know, spit all this, uh, nonsense about, you know, how they should be doing better at hitting when we couldn't do this job that they do at all. It's, it's, although I don't know,

Derek, I think you, I think you could go up there and take some walks too. If you just, you know, I'm very patient. I'm very patient. I'm very patient in my old age.

Jesse, you know that. But of course, we have for you guys, whether, you know, what, at least,

hopefully a little breakdown of what's important this year coming to PHNX, go phnx.com. I wrote a little piece on a guide to being a Diamondbacks fan in the 2022 season. The good, the bad, the ugly, everything that you're going to see, everything that we've already seen here in the first week of the season. And hopefully it'll put it in a perspective as to what you as a fan might be able to take away from a season where you don't expect this team to be competitive, right?

We don't expect this team to make the playoffs. We don't expect to see the postseason. for 162 games, we're going to watch this team. And we're going to enjoy it together as a family. And hopefully that guide will help you put things into perspective, at least from my perspective, as to what you can do to still enjoy a team like this. I kind of talked about it a bit last season,

but you can definitely enjoy a bad team for those moments. And the Diamondbacks had lots of wonderful moments last year, even in a terrible season. the no hitters the you know the the the bright spots here and there the call-ups set beer you know who's already creating moments this season had some moments last year at the end of the season so there there's there's things as a fan that you can take away from watching a team like this and find joy in it even though this team isn't going to compete for you know the world series title or pennant this year but who knows right we can say that all we want

shit could click for this team and they could go crazy. Right now, MLB is kind of wild. Like when you're looking at some of the scores across the board, things are pretty unpredictable. Like the diamond, it's kind of sad, but it's like I said, I very much feel left out of all of the fun

because even the bad teams in this league are putting up a bunch of runs in games, beating good teams, surprising people, doing things that we wish we would see out of this team. So hopefully we will. Hopefully they just start off slowly, but can get the ball rolling.

But you can read that breakdown of what to expect this season over at go p hnx.com. If you're not already a member, sign up to become a member over there. And you will get, do you sign up to become an annual member, a free t-shirt from the PhNX Locker.com? Hopefully check those shirts out. You enjoy them. They're soft. They're comfortable.

They make you feel like a better person when you wear them. We have our brand new design, PhNX Rattler, that I love. And I just, I want to wear this shirt all the time. Jesse, the biggest problem is I've already had a friend point out that I was wearing it the day prior when he saw me, and it made me feel like a slob. But no, no regrets. No regrets in life when it comes to wearing that shirt.

If you're not interested in the annual membership, sign up to become a month-to-month member, and you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. That way, if you decide if you like us, you can sign up for the annual membership, stick around as a month-to-month member. Join our family. That way you get in our members-only discounts over at the phtonx locker.com.

As well as our members-only discord, where tonight I was sharing a Seth Beer walk-off baseball card that I have had purchased for me by my friend Rock, and it's a beautiful card, and I'm very excited that Tops is making cards like that this quickly of big moments for baseball teams. I think that's super cool. And I think Tops, for a baseball card company,

continues to be pretty smart about the stuff they do. So once that card comes in, I can't wait to show it to you guys because it's exciting. I also got a Cotel Marte card with like a little Phoenix Pride patch on it. It's pretty neat. So a lot of cool things coming from Tops keeps baseball nerds like myself very entertained. So this isn't a Tops commercial, but, you know, well on here. Is that we in the middle of an ad read right now?

We switched over to a Tops ad read. So, but Jesse, what do you expect out of the Arizona Diamondbacks in New York against these Mets? Luckily, we miss out on Max Scherzer due to pitching yesterday. And we, or when was he, Pitt Wednesday? And we also miss Jacob de Grom due to injury. So it feels like the Diamondbacks kind of are sneaking away with one. However, the other starting pitchers have looked very good so far this season for the Mets. The Mets might have, I mean, even without Jacob de Grom so far, I mean,

their pitching numbers for the season are about as good as any team has right now. They're a very good baseball team, and their lineup is more well-rounded than it's ever been with a lot of our old friends, right? Starling Marte is there, Eduardo Escobar's there. Taiwan Walker was pulled from his last start. So we'll have to see what happens there. I don't think he was scheduled to make an appearance anyway in this series. But yeah, another old friend on the New York Mets.

The Diamondbacks have a number of former players who are now over in New York. But yeah, it should be fun. I mean, the Friday game is, you know, of course, is Jackie Robinson Day. It's going to be a big day for baseball. It's an afternoon game. I'm sure this is a home opener for the MET. So City Field is going to be absolutely packed. Actually, it's today.

In a couple of hours, actually. In a couple of hours, you're right. Yeah, breakfast with the breakfast or brunch, I guess. Is it actually brunch around 10 a.m.? Yeah, yeah, brunch as long as I can get a mimosa, Jesse. That's fine. 10.10 a.m. game today and tomorrow. And then on Sunday at 10.40 start.

So breakfast, all three days. with the Diamondbacks and the Mets. Interesting that they moves that gallon up to Saturday. We talked about this, Michaela and I a little bit yesterday. But let's speculate on who we think we're going to see on Sunday now that both the Mets and the Diamondbacks have a to be determined thrown up there for that series.

Sorry. My AirPods disconnected. And suddenly I was listening to a video on my phone and I couldn't hear what you were saying. See, I bet you're multi-dust. Fantastic. That's what you get? What are we going on? I come to Sunday's game.

Who is starting for the Diamondbacks? Is it going to be Caleb Smith? Are we going to see someone else? Yeah, so that would be the Caleb Smith spot. I guess that would be, yeah, that would be the night game of the season. Technically would be Saturday and Zach Gallen should be starting on Sunday. So the fact that Gallen got moved up to Saturday makes me that much more curious about the TB determined call on Sunday. Yeah.

I mean, I think I don't, I'm not surprised that it's a TBD right now. It's pretty normal for teams to not announce that officially until, you know, once you get to about 48 hours before maybe. So maybe a little bit later in the day on Friday, we'll, we'll actually find out what's going on there. I don't know. I don't. They've had the other starters up for a few days now.

And that's been left. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. I'm just saying that it's curious to me. That's obviously a rotation spot that, that's the one rotation spot that's in flux right now. So I think you're right.

It probably, it's going to stay that way, I'm guessing, for a little bit, just because the diamond bags might not be totally sure what they're doing. I really don't know. If I had to guess, I would say Caleb Smith gets another go at it. Seems too early to move to them, doesn't it? Yeah, I think so. I think so. Just given how, given how much conviction Tori Lavello had,

his voice when he was talking about Caleb Smith earning this spot out of the gate. It just would feel weird to suddenly drop him from the rotation after one, albeit pretty disastrous, but it was just one bad outing. You know, he had one one good inning and one very, very not good inning. Things spiraled out of control there for him in the second. But, but yeah, I would expect that they're going to give him another shot. I don't think the leash is particularly long, though. Corbyn Martin, you know, we saw him pitch out of the bullpen the last time.

around we might see him again in a longer relief role if Caleb Smith isn't able to last very long but that would be my guess is that it's still it's still Caleb Smith's spot for now we'll have to wait and see well Jesse the way I am celebrating the start of the series uh is after this game I'm going to head over with some of my friends you know the guys from p hnx.com go phnx.com and we're going to go to I think I think it's called the Budzapalooza Fest here in Phoenix, Arizona, where the ASU guys are going to be broadcasting

live later today, and we're going to be joining our friends at OGs over there for a little 420 festival. But Jesse, once again, it's not 420 yet, and that just goes to show maybe some people shouldn't be

doing the marijuana. But if you aren't one of those people, check out oh, geez, because not only are they going to be having some incredible stuff going on at the Budzapalooza, where you can catch myself, Shane, Sean, Totry. I like how we just call Anthony just Tatri. That's his name. By the way, he got me sick and he's the reason why I'm sick. And whether he's, no matter what he says, he's a liar, he's the reason why I'm sick.

Also, our boss, Salty Saul will be out there too. So visit us out there. How do we call him Salty Saul now? I'm giving everybody nicknames now. Yeah, it's salty sol. is what I'm calling him. So, but join us out there at Budzapalooza. You can get your tickets over at Budzapalooza.com.

More importantly, if you're interested in going to game one of the Suns playoffs game this Sunday, OGs will be hooking up two lucky fans with free tickets. Be on the lookout on our Instagram for the official post about how to enter. It's up right now. So go check that out. And hopefully you can get in on some of that fun action. Actually, it'll be up later today. So if it's not up right now, you will see it on our Instagram later today.

But OGs, of course, is one of Arizona's first scratch-made cannabis kitchens and is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis-infused products that flavor life's journey. And they do exactly that. Mac and Saul both enjoy the orange cream skull indica gummy very much after a long day of shows here at PHNX. It hits damn good, Jesse. It hits damn good. So we're both Arizona brands, so let's show them some love. If you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors,

that OG's brands has to offer. Go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEEG brands.com to find OGs near you. I can't. I can't be the only one who like every single time someone in my life just casually says oh geez. I just hear OGs. Yeah.

Like if someone just says like, oh geez. I can't separate the two. Yeah. You bring me right back to your ad. Oh, geez. Right. There you go. There you go.

but I don't know, Jesse. I mean, let's be honest, this team is wild right now. And when I say wild, it's like, I don't even know what to think about what the hell is going on with this team. Pitching is outstanding, hitting. It's not. Literally could be worth pitching. But no, I'm still, come on. Like, starting pitching has been very good for this team outside of Caleb Smith.

It's been pretty good. It's been pretty good. I'm just like, I just am a little. little bit skeptical that you can you know i mean zach davies yes he had a good start but he had more walks than strikeouts and madison bumgarner i believe has a sub three er a right now but we all know just like from the eye test that it hasn't looked that good for him right so these are the kinds of things that over a 162 game season you kind of get what you're what eventually the eye test wins out on salty salty it's funny it's funny it's funny it's funny

to me because last year at this time, it was actually the complete opposite. The Diamondback's offense was insane. It was basically the highest scoring offense in baseball in the month of April. And their pitching was just miserable. Madison Bumgarner got off to a horrible start, of course. Basically, everyone got off to a horrible start. Most guys were injured, you know, by the time May came anyway. It was a complete flip of the script of what we've seen so far, where the pitching has actually been low-key pretty good, at least the end results have been pretty good. The offense has been a total disaster. And so the question becomes, you know, if the offense picks things up, maybe it's a pretty

decent baseball team. If your pitching stays pretty okay and your offense picks it up, then, you know, you could see a path to being a pretty good team. Or the other side is, okay, well, maybe the pitching is just overperforming. And really both sides of the ball are really going to be pretty rough, in which case you wind up with an outcome, much like we saw last season. My guess is that, you know, ultimately things will land somewhere in the middle. I don't anticipate the Diamondbacks offense being quite as bad as it was last year or even

their pitching being quite as bad as it was last year. So that's what I'm expecting in the long term. But numbers are weird after six games of an MLB season. Pretty crazy things can happen as we've seen. I just don't think, I don't think numbers are reflective of the future is what I'm not necessarily. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah. And I don't think that there.

are going to continue to be this patient at the plate to have this time walks. I also don't think that they're going to be this bad at hitting. I think that I've seen a couple of the guys start to unlock some things, right? There are some guys already on the team that are brand new that I love. They were talking on the broadcast about Yanni Hernandez. His nickname is like the gnat because he's so annoying when it comes to him like at the plate like and seriously while they were discussing that nickname i think he had like a 10 pitch at bat of just fouling stuff off he eventually struck out right but it was it was one of those at

bats that you're like damn when i watch another team have a batter like that on their team i want somebody like that on our team right i want somebody that just starts frustrating the opposing pitcher getting them out of their set you know because pitchers get locked in they get dialed in and then, you know, batters don't help them out by starting to just swing at fucking everything and not even like give them a, you know, you start seeing guys like when Clayton Kurshaw had that perfect game the other day. Like, my God, his wiff rate was incredible because they were just swinging at everything. In the strike zone, out of the strike zone didn't matter.

Everything to those batters looked tantalizing in that game, right? But it's one of those things that like there's just certain, there's certain things I like that they're doing. I as as as bad as the third base situation has been, I really do like the fact that they're not giving these guys a lot of time to struggle and figure it out. There are a lot of guys struggling on this team right now, right? But it shows that there's a big difference when they send Drew Ellis down to third, you know, to AAA Reno after just a handful of games when he was going to be part of their third base platoon for the foreseeable future, right? It's, it's, it's, it's eye opening to see them DFA Josh Van Meter because he was just had no place on, on this team at this point, right?

Yeah. You tried to make these guys work last season because they didn't have options. Now this season, they're moving on even though they don't have options. Like, even though they don't have options, they're moving on. They're like, fuck it. It's better without, we would take nobody at third base over you is almost what they're saying at times. right and so that to me makes it me feel like they're not messing around with like letting guy develop now on this team at a major league level right if you can't perform if you don't show promise

even like someone like cars and kelly who's like oh in 15 over 15 right like he at times shows more promise than some of these other guys do or shows more value than some of these other guys do. Yeah. And he has like a history of like being a quality major league player. That too. that helps in. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. But I mean, honestly, like Josh Bandmeater felt like a guy that they were going to continue to invest in no matter how bad he was both defensively and at the plate because he just keeps having these big moments and keeps somehow sticking around and being this guy that like has key hits and things that, you know, again, that's that's something you get excited about. So you keep him around longer, but we talked about Josh Van Meter not really having a place defensively on

this team. And then if he doesn't have a place there, where else is he going to really play? What else is he going to do? Right. I don't know. I am hopeful for this team because I feel like they are at least doing something to remedy some of the issues they're seeing. Rather than just trying to keep putting it like some sort of bandaid over it and keep going, right? I'm still mad that they didn't address third base though like third base considering the money they spent on the bullpen i am just still incredibly surprised that they did nothing to address this and of course now it's somewhat of a problem for them yeah third base is uh i i mean as droble cabrera is still out there so who knows maybe maybe the maybe the i was just played the show 2021 and he's my third baseman on

there and he made oh there you yeah yeah i wanted to do that wanted to move right off the team. I think you make a great point that the diamond back seemed to have less patience this year with letting guys just kind of feel it out and find their way in the majors. And there are some guys that are going to have a longer leash. I think Geraldo Perdomo is one of them. You know, he's a guy who came up last year. He's back up this year.

He's kind of the shortstop of the future, at least for the next few seasons. Maybe Jordan Lawler takes over that role, who, by the way, he hit another home run yesterday. I think it was three more hits for Vysalia. So Jordan Moller continues. He's got nine hits in four games, I think. It's pretty wild what that man is doing right now with the rawhide. But yeah, I do think that the leash is going to be a little bit shorter on guys. And that might mean more so for the veterans.

I think Christian Walker is a guy where if he doesn't perform. And so far, he's been one of their better offensive players, which certainly is not saying much at this point. But he's been better than most. And so I think so far he's certainly done his part. But I could envision a scenario where if Christian Walker is, you know, hovering around a 700 OPS or, you know, hitting similar to what he did last year,

I'm not sure the Diamondbacks really have a reason to keep a guy like that for the foreseeable future. He's not really a long-term piece with this team. And the Diamondbacks have a guy in Pavin Smith, who maybe has a little bit more of a long-term role here, and they might be interested in giving him that opportunity at first base. And maybe Alec Thomas comes up and takes over some innings in the outfield and things kind of balance out that way. But all that to say, I think you're absolutely right.

The leash is going to be shorter. And that's with position players. That's with pitchers. That's with guys like Caleb Smith, who has probably a little more leash, but not that much. We've already seen the team move on from Luke Weaver. in a situation where we pretty much all assumed he was going to be in the rotation. So I applaud the Diamondbacks for doing that.

At the very least, even when things aren't going well, it means a lot to a fan base to be like, hey, we're not going to tolerate this. We're going to move on to other guys and try to be as good as we can. By the way, I'm going to give you guys one last non-baseball draft king's pick of the week before it's just going to be baseball season from here on out. There's a good reason for it. This has actually won me a bit of money and I just wanted to

kind of give it over to you guys because I think you guys deserve it. You've been good. The coyotes are getting fucking housed, everybody. Since April 4th, they've lost every single game by like four runs, for, excuse me, four runs, four goals or more. So with there being only eight games left in the coyote season, I want you to hammer the shit out of the coyotes losing every single one of those games.

Just hammer it. I have, I, what have, what have I won? I've won, uh, a hundred and seventy-five dollars doing that so far. Uh, and I don't even bet a lot on it. So you can bet whatever you want over at the draft game sportsbook app. That's what's amazing about it. And again, uh, it's one last chance for me to kick the coyotes while they're down. Uh, they had a bad season.

We're probably going to have a bad season. So it's almost like a competition between us and the pH, next coyote squad about who can be worse. And I'll tell you, I'll, I'll fight PD on the ice at some point. But that's just for fun. That's not over anything else. I will say this, though, go over the Drafking Sportsbook app. Now, if you don't want to get down on the coyotes, the anti-Coyotes action, I should say,

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not just existing customers, all customers can get down on same game parlayes by combining multiple bets for the same game from the same game for a bigger payout. The more legs you add, the more money you win. Also, right now for each of the playing days, get a free risk, get a risk-free bet up to $10 if your same game parlay doesn't hit. And of course, you know who's not in the play-in playoff game. It's the Phoenix Sun because the Phoenix Suns are the best team in the NBA. And also, the Lakers aren't because they suck.

But download the Drafking Sportsbook app now. Use promo code PHNX, bet $5 on any NBA team to win their game during the playing tournament and get $150 in free bets instantly. That's promo code PHNX at Drafking Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. 21 and over only Arizona only gambling problem dot 100 next step new customers only minimum $5 deposit required eligibility restrictions applies see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details all right Jesse umni potent Jesse who is going to rake this weekend in New York

or nobody going to rake this weekend in New York who's going to turn it up who's going to figure it out I think Catell is due to have a couple of pretty good games. I also think that Dalton Varshow is very much overdue. He was a slow starter last year, but I think that he's a more developed major league quality hitter. I don't see his current lack of success staying on for too long. So yeah, I'll throw those two names out there.

What do you, what do you think? I think David Peralta. I haven't seen quite, like we've seen little glimpses of the hype. that we've been looking for. But it hasn't been consistent just yet. He's looked pretty frustrated at times. Michael Brantley had a good pregame interview the other day with Jody Jackson on valleys where they talked about the work that they did together.

And, you know, it's like that's, I get that they're neighbors. I get that they are friends and all of that. It's just, it's, you know, again, it's one of those things that maybe after being around Madison, Bunnanger for so long already, I'm already like, what are you doing, giving away free information to the opponent. This is war, son. But it's very cool that they work together on that. And hopefully we see that translate into some success for David Pralta.

He does seem a bit frustrated. And I think that might be the problem. I honestly, at times, it's so weird. But my personal viewpoint on their struggles is that once the first four or five guys aren't hitting, it's like everybody's just trying too hard. And then the next time through the rotation, everybody seems to be trying too hard again. And like that that was a problem last year. That was a problem early on this year so far.

But at least at the very least, they're being patient. And I mean, I'm just trying to kind of focus on some of the things they're doing right. And you got to you got to believe that at some point that patience is going to translate over into them realizing when the right time is to hit the ball. You know, right now that's that's, that's. only point that they seem a bit lost at. So hopefully they can figure it out. Hopefully they can figure it out against a very tough New York Mets team because they are going to need to play perfect baseball and win the inches like Tori Lovolo says in order to come out of there with with a win in that series. Then it goes on to Washington against nationals where

hopefully they can kind of feast on a bad team. But who's the bad team here? It's the Spider-Man name of the two Spider-Man pointing at each other in that series. So anyway, let's get some wins, guys. Can't wait to see this team play. Thank you guys so much for checking out the show. Jesse and I are always on Twitter. You can find us there. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Excuse me. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you're listening to us right now in your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a five-star review.

Also go over to our YouTube page at PHNX. sports sign up uh subscribe there sign up for notifications do all that good stuff that way you don't miss any of the content coming out from our show from us we go live randomly now it's crazy i don't even i can't even keep up with it but you got to know when we go live 10 minutes after the final pitch of uh of the final game of the series and what when we're going to be going live this season so yeah sunday i would be on sunday this weekend right on easter sunday and then uh next what thursday because they have a four game series with the national yeah so yeah I think that's right.

Sunday and next Thursday we'll be going live after those games. We'll also have a live show probably on Monday doing the mailbag Monday thing again as well. So I hope you guys check out the show. We appreciate you so much. Check out all of our partners. Go phtnx.com. Sign up to become a member. We thank you if you already have.

We appreciate you being here, whether you're a member or not. And on behalf of Jesse and myself, we thank you so much for your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you bet on the Arizona Coyotes. Thank you.