PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BIGGEST Diamondbacks Storylines Heading Into The Second Half

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

It is time to start the second half of the 2024 season, and we are discussing the biggest headlines for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Can they continue to stay hot after the break? What will this starting rotation look like once the Snakes get Jordan Montgomery, Merrill Kelly, and Eduardo Rodriguez back? We discuss this and more, including a preview of the series here in Chicago with the Cubs and our Power Rankings for the first half.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.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!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!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.

Ski and welcome to Chicago. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDVax podcast. There's the red line running in the background. That's Wrigley Field behind us. And we are here to bring you a preview of this upcoming series with the Chicago Cups. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of Wrigley Field. This man next to me is my vice mayor and your Thunderstick.

The one and only, Jesse Friedman. What a week, pal. What a week. Here we are. Look at us. Who would have thought? Not me. Not me. Shout out Murphy's Bleachers. Because this is probably the coolest on-site show that we've ever done, possibly by a fairly wide margin. I feel like I could reach over and touch Wrigley Field from where we're at.

And we're going to have our audio interrupted by trains. You can reach over and touch the trains. I'm going to reach over and touch the trains. But, of course, we thank you guys all for being here so much. Of course, we are very excited, of course, not only for this upcoming series at Wrigley Field with the Cubs, but we're very excited about what we just saw as well as the second half, right? We just saw the All-Star game in Texas. We're ready for the Diamondbacks to get rolling on their second half of the season.

But before we get into all of that, I did want to get your thoughts. I know you haven't had a chance because you've been, this man's been very busy covering the All-Star Week from the inside while we were on the peripherals covering the red carpet and basically just trying to catch home run balls at the derby. But what were your thoughts about everything that we saw in Texas overall? Yeah, I mean, I think the All-Star game was a lot of fun. It was fun getting to talk with Tori after that and Catell. We played some of those sound bites on our show the other day. It's really weird having two full days without baseball.

It is. Like having yesterday and then today. It felt like yesterday felt good, like, you know, an off day that was. needed by all, including us. But then today, it's just like, I don't know what to do with my hands, Derek. There's no baseball happening today. But, yeah, it was, I think overall, it was, I mean,

it was certainly fun for us to be there. We have our critiques of certain things about the event. As we discussed, the home run derby did feel like a bit of a dud on Monday, as we discussed at length. It did. The futures game still, still just doesn't get the shine that I think it probably deserves being on Saturday while there are a bunch of games going on and, you know, only being seven innings long, it still just doesn't really feel like much of a marquee event.

That didn't sit well with me. Like, these aren't minor league or these aren't little league kids, right? Like, we don't need to cut the game short compared to what they normally play it. Like, let them go out there and have the full nine innings. It reminds me of what I was saying about the high school kids in the home run derby. If you are going to have two high school kids determine who is the, you know, who is the home run hitter, you know, you're having a competition between these two kids. I

don't see the point in not resolving it, right? And it's like... You can't declare a tie in that scenario. It's insane. And like, I don't know, I guess baseball doesn't do ties, Derek. They don't do ties. We play 18 innings if we have to, before we're going to, before we're willing to call it a tie. That's right. We play until we have a

winner. I think the thing is overall, it kind of shows to me like, show some respect to the game no matter what level they're at, right? Like the futures game was a lot of fun. And we were enjoying ourselves watching it. Yeah, I mean, it's, it is, it's like the All-Star game. You're having some of the best talent play against each other. You're having some of the best pitchers, pitch against the best batters. And of course, pitching is going to win most of the

time. So that's going to result in both games being, at times, a little boring, right? You're not going to have a tremendous amount of offense in either game, but respect the game. Like, let those kids have a full nine-in-a-game. Also, figure out the scoring in that whole skills challenge, and you have yourself a winner there, because I thought that was a lot of fun to watch. but it still left something to be desired. What did you think of the red carpet event? I mean, that had to be right up your alley, right? I mean, you were in heaven.

I absolutely loved the red carpet event. I loved it for so many different reasons, right? Like, I don't know if I don't normally pay attention to this event, but it felt like this year in Texas, they made a bigger spectacle of it. You know, they built like this little saloon for the guys to come out of. Yeah, it was nice. You know, most players had not only their spouses

or their significant others with them, They had members of their family with them. That was really cool. Kattel had his whole family with them. They were all looking dapper. The little ones might have looked the most dapper. They might have stole the show from Kattel's, you know, robe tie cinch thing that he had going on in his suit.

But, you know, I think that's what it was. You know, Tori being there with his boys, they all had, they flashed us the inside of their suits. They all had the same interior lining. Like there's just a lot of, I don't know, it's a lot of personality. displayed on, you know, on the red carpet. I was amazed by the access.

I was amazed by how cool, you know, it was for fans that showed up to that, right? Like, that's something as a fan. You might not think to show up. And some people got their baseball signed by Ellie De La Cruz and Showe O'Hawtoni and all of that just by standing and being in the right spot at the right time, right? One person got their ball signed by Showo Tani, right? It was a publicity stunt, but I'm not even sure if that was a real fan. It might have been a plan, Jesse, for all we know.

But yeah, the red carpet event I thought was a really cool way to kick things off. And again, to honor these guys as much as we complained about Ketel, not getting his shine. That's the reason why is because these moments, these, like you got to think of a sport. And again, this is me doing it from a pro wrestling perspective, right? You got to think of a sport like pro wrestling a little bit where you need to build your stars. That's what MLB's job is to do. When you have a guy that plays baseball really well, your job is to make them into a star, give them that publicity. And it doesn't matter if they play on the goddamn nationals or the brewers or the Diamondbacks or any of the other markets that aren't, you know, L.A. and Chicago and all of that other stuff that gets all of that attention, right?

So that's what I feel like is great about the home run derby, even when they said it lacks star power. I agree it lacks star power. It did. But it also lacks star power in the aspect that those stars, those big stars can put over, again, another wrestling term, they can put over the younger stars, right? if we have a situation where Bobby Witt Jr. beats out a legend, you know, like now Bobby Witt Jr. is the man in a way, and a lot of people are going to all of a sudden start talking about him. There's a lot about the All-Star Weekend. I feel like that is about, you know, growing the game and the publicity behind growing these guys as superstars.

The same could be said, though, about the futures game and about the other things that they do if they paid, you know, if they put that much work into all of it. However, I did love this week. This week was incredible for me. are a baseball fan and I think, you know, I brought up your comments about it. I don't think you were on the show when I did, but, you know, you and I talked about how great it is to see just fans of every team, just in bars and restaurants and everywhere you go. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's true. Because that, we're so used to, at least I feel like I'm used to seeing just a lot of, a lot of NBA jerseys and a lot, you know, NFL jerseys just seem like, I don't even really notice when I see things like that in

various public places because those are the sports that kind of control the narratives in this country, right? Baseball, like, you definitely see baseball jerseys every now and then for sure, especially, you know, the biggest franchises. But this was really fun, just, you know, hanging around in various places in Dallas and everywhere you go, it's just a bunch of people who were there for the All-Star game. I wish we lived in that reality, Derek, where it was like that all the time. I don't know if we're ever going to get to that place.

We want that culture. We want to live in that culture where basically. Baseball is the biggest sport, but that is the fun part about All-Star Weekend. Again, it's just this celebration of baseball, right? Yeah, 100%. Here we are. It's a great way to move into the second half of the season. And obviously, the second half of the season is tremendously important for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It was great to have Katel and Tori a part of this. But now the team has to kind of put all of that behind them and try to kind of stay hot. I mean, I guess you could say they were fairly hot as the first half started. They got to stay hot here in Chicago against these Cubs at Wrigley Field. But we do have some big storylines that we need to discuss in regards to what the Diamondback second half is going to be all about and what people are going to question about this team. I think the biggest question right now is with the way this team is playing, with the contributions from guys like Yilbert Diaz and Ryan Nelson, what is this team going to be when they get all of their starting pitching back? What are they going to be when Merrill Kelly returns and E. Rod finally pitches for this team in the regular season? and I assure you, he is a real person.

Again, I know there's questions about that. But, you know, get Merrill Kelly to get Jordan Montgomery and Erod all back. Like, this team is on a role and they are playing good baseball. Theoretically, it feels like their biggest weapons still are, you know, in the shed in a way, right? Like, they haven't even pulled out their biggest pitching weapons. And, I mean, that could really solidify that this team is, you know, is on their way to a playoff spot. I mean, today is July 18th, right? And I'm just so fascinated by the question of what will this roster look like on August 18th?

Right. Like, what does this roster look like a month from now? Is Merrill Kelly on it? Is Eduardo Rodriguez on it? Is... Are they shoving? Are they struggling? Yeah.

Because people aren't going to give it a lot of time, right? I mean, especially Merrill Kelly, people will give him time. But Erod will have a very short leash before people jump on the exact same. kind of thought process as Jordan Montgomery with which is man I mean what this guy is a failure why did we sign him right I mean it was a four year contract so whatever whatever he looks like Dabax fans we're kind of stuck with it he's not he's not going anywhere anytime soon but I mean also from the from the trade deadline perspective right like in a month from now the trade deadline will have passed and at that you know on August 18th we'll we'll know what what this team does and there's a lot of things that are going to be determined about this baseball team here just in in these next few weeks. So, you know, other questions that come to mind for me, Jordan Montgomery is a really, really big one. We expect to see him at some point on this road trip. Tori Lavello has said that we don't know exactly when he's going to start.

We still don't have probabilities for this weekend series against the Cubs, which we're both a little bit angry about right now. Tell us. Stop playing these games with us. Maybe it'll come through during the show. We'll keep an eye on that. But Jordan Montgomery is probably going to return at some point in the road trip. At least that's how things are trending right now.

and it's not just a question of him returning, it's a question of how effective he is. And it doesn't really sound like this knee injury had anything to do with the struggles that he had. But, you know, maybe being away from pitching every fifth day in the majors, maybe there's something about that that allowed him to figure some things out or maybe something clicks, and he winds up returning looking like a little bit more,

a little bit more like the starting pitcher that the Diamondbacks thought they were getting. You know what I think about with this kind of situation isn't necessarily that the injury that he is suffering might be the reason why he was struggling, but I think it's good for him to have a reset. And I think for him to kind of go through this process to allow the Diamondbacks to allow him

to take as much time as he needs from this point to get ready. And to be at 100%. There was a lot of pressure put on Monty for him to come and be the savior of the starting rotation with the way things kind of panned out with the injuries, with everything like that. He had a very weird offseason. And we've kind of talked about that at length, but Jordan Montgomery's offseason, you know, not only did it involve him missing a normal spring training camp and spring training starts, but, you know, he changed his agent.

He came here to Arizona. There was a lot of disappointment in regards to what I'm sure he was expecting versus what he received. Now is a great time for him to kind of get past all of that. And I don't know. Maybe those are excuses, right? Maybe those are ways of excusing him pitching poorly. But at times what we need to do is try to figure out the reason why guys are struggling, right? And I mean, in this case, it's understandable.

I think in life it's hard for you to be at your best when you kind of have a lot of stuff on your mind. And I mean, the way that this season is gone for Jordan, not to mention the fact that he did struggle, like then you start struggling and you have those things kind of compound on top of everything else. you know, it's a little understandable considering he just didn't have a stable off-season, normal off-season. So hopefully this time, due to the injury, can really reset him.

Yeah, I mean, what's interesting with Jordan's case is that he actually started, actually started the season pretty well. Right. I mean, a few starts in, everyone was like, there he is. He's just going seven innings like it's nothing. I mean, this is just what Jordan Montgomery does. He's not striking many guys out, but it doesn't really matter.

That's not who he is as a pitcher. I mean, his first start of the year, right? It was at San Francisco. We only needed 78 pitches, six innings of one run ball. So efficient. He only gave up four hits in that game. Set next time out against St. Louis Cardinals, seven innings three runs. And then there was an ultra clunker against the Dodgers, three innings, six runs.

But that was, people will remember, that was the day after the B game. Montgomery was supposed to start the night prior. And then the Diamondbacks wound up pushing him off just because of how weird of an off season he had. They wanted to protect him. So they had him start the next day instead. and he was absolutely not good, not good in that game. And then, but then the next time out, he goes seven innings, two runs. And you just view it at the time as kind of a one-game aberration where, you know, he's going to be fine.

But in the couple of months since then, he just obviously has not been nearly as good. So that's going to be a big factor in how the Diamondbacks fare in the second half of the season for sure. Sticking on the starting pitching front, another question for me is Zach. Gallen who did not finish the first half of the season particularly well three consecutive starts that were all subpar from him and yeah I think we still expect Zach Gallen to be Zach Gallen and he'll probably be fine he feels like a much safer bet than Jordan Montgomery for sure but he's another guy that is a really big part of this team and they're going to need to get him going here in the second half as well well and Zach Gallin I mean when when we saw him return from

his injury was like hey there he is there's the old Zach Gallen yeah kind of what you're describing in a way with Jordan Montgomery like we were patient with Montgomery in the beginning of the season because we understood what he had gone through and we weren't expecting him to be you know at his best out of the gate but we did see him look his best a few starts in

Zach Gallen looked amazing after coming back from injury and now he's kind of slid and his last start was kind of a disaster right but yeah you know again with with Gallin like consistency is kind of his main attribute his ability to

kind of have a bad start but bounce back from it and not really stay in a rut we know i don't know if there's a single pitcher in baseball that like even at their most elite of the elite of the elite that doesn't every once in a while have a string of two or three starts where you're like man yeah what's what's wrong with it right and that's why i'm not like i'm not at all putting gallon in the same category as montgomery or the other starters it's a totally different situation but um but it's concerning he's really important he's really important and he has a 3870 RA, which is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not quite what you're expecting to get from a guy like that. Well, and of course, we know how important pitching is,

and right now it seems like the Diamondbacks have just struggled all year long to find consistency. In fact, that's why Yilbert Diaz has been like a godsend to this team because he has been incredibly consistent in a very small sample size, but still, like you kind of look at a guy like him and you start to think, he's going to cause problems in a way. Because if any, any of these guys returning struggle, people are going to be clamoring for Diaz to be back in the starting rotation if the Diamondbacks send him down or move on from him some way. That's true. I can already hear in my head, you know, the angry tweets and things about Montgomery having a rotation spot and Yilbert Diaz not getting having a rotation spot or something like that.

Because we have no idea how good Yilbert Diaz is going to be over the stretch of a season or his career, right? But all we know is these two games. And he is absolutely fucking shoved in these two games. these are what people are going to compare him to. He might have one more start before he possibly gets sent down. But, like, again, if he shines. I think he's got some time. Like Montgomery is coming in to take Sikoni's spot.

That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. Diaz, I think, has some time. I don't think we're going to see. Until Merrill or Erod. Right. And you're still probably. Until the middle of August, right?

You're still potentially a month out from, from, you know, really getting serious about those guys coming back. So Diaz, I think he does have a spot as long as he continues to, you know, show that he belongs at this level. and he certainly has done that so far. Well, the biggest storyline for me in the second half is Corbyn Carroll, right? Corbyn Carroll, I mean, at times, has come back on,

and I mean, I just, I don't know. I'm starting to doubt if we'll see the Corbyn Carroll that we saw last year. But I'm also seeing at times a Corbyn Carroll that's still incredibly productive, and I'm still seeing a guy that if you take out the first two months of his season, things are looking much better.

You could say the same about Gino, because Gino swore as lately, is like a different player than he was. These are the reasons why you don't part ways with guys. We would say something completely. The Diamondbacks would have DFAed Gino and he would have been picked up by some other team. Oh, if he had done this for another team there,

oh my. Like, I know that that's not the same situation with Corbyn, but if Corbyn goes down and he rakes in Reno, like it really proves nothing for how he's going to perform on the Diamondbacks, right? And that's kind of been the biggest question is people have asked whether the Diamondback should maybe send Corbyn down. But, I mean, I think that you're still getting so much out of Corbyn at times that you can't really measure everything he does because in this game he makes a great defensive play that kind of saved a run.

This game, he got on base from a walk, and even though he was 0 for four scored two runs, and those two runs were scored in part. It's not like he just got, it wasn't just an RBI situation. You know, he stole second. They made a bad play. He gets the third, and then a batter gets him in. That's Corbyn Carroll being Corbyn Carroll, and that is what he adds to this. this team and he's going to always add that. You never know when Corbyn Carroll can add a tremendous

amount of value. So even at times when he does struggle, it's kind of worth it, I feel like, to get what you're getting at him. It's just a lack of consistency when it comes to Corbyn. Yeah, I mean, at this point, we're what, 94 games into this season for Corbyn Carrow. I mean, he's probably going to play about 60 more games this year. Like, he had an 868 OPS last season. For him to finish this year with an 868 OPS, I mean, he'd have to have to. have he'd have to have like a 1,200 OPS the rest of the season. Like we can pretty much put to bed any conversation about Corbyn Carroll replicating the season he had last year.

It's not going to happen. He's not going to hit 20 home runs right between now and the end of the year. It just isn't a realistic situation. But, you know, could he be something like that player the rest of the way? Could he be, doesn't even, you don't even necessarily need an 870 OPS the rest of the year out of him. If you could just get a league average hitter the rest of the year, that would be a big step up from what he's been so far this season. But I'm with you.

Like I very much understand the sentiment of not really expecting that from Corbyn at this point. I mean, it's almost 100 games. This isn't a small sample size. This is a guy who really, you know, made some adjustments over the offseason and clearly just put himself in a bad spot with the adjustments that he made. And it's really hard to make in-season adjustments from there. at times. And I'm not sure that you're going to see Corbyn really look like his 20-23

self this season. It could happen. It wouldn't shock me. Sure. But it's just not something you can count on at this point. He was so bad there in the first half that the secret was out on his kryptonite on how to get Corbyn out. And it was textbook. It felt like it was

you throw a high fastball in the strike zone. You throw something high and inside. You throw something, you know, it just there was just there was like there was a literal, you know. Fastballs up. That's it. Fastballs up and in, basically.

Yeah. And so, like, it was good to see him especially hit that home run on a fastball up and in. Yeah. And it sends the message that that scouting report may no longer be accurate on him, right? Which then causes predictability, right? When you can predict how easy it is to get a guy out. When you can predict how, like, wow, he really struggles with this. Look at his numbers all season long against a high fastball.

It's easy. You go out there. Your game plan for that one guy is a symbol. you know checkmark you know but Corbin is one of those guys that what he did the best was find a way to get on base and I mean his power obviously isn't going to be what it is last year but I think the rest of his game for the rest of this this season could very much be there right and I mean especially now that you got a lot of guys returning you have Corbyn going back to playing you know a right field a little bit more natural of a position for him than center field I think things are going to

work in his favor. I think we'll see Corbyn start to look. I feel like we've already started to see him look more like himself. Yeah, we've started it just it just has come in waves and I mean you look at his last seven games. I mean, he's slashing 250, 345, 667. Like that sounds pretty good. I mean, that's a, you know, that's three home runs, four walks to five strikeouts. But then, you know, you look at his last 15 games and he's hitting 214 with a 297 on bit. It just, he hasn't gone on a run that was really consistent outside of like a few week stretch in June where he really did start to look like himself and then that just didn't really last either. So I've been waiting for this, right? Like this all-star break. I mean, you know, I throw this out there in the discord all the time. Progress isn't linear, especially in a sport like baseball.

Very true. It's so hard in a game where you're making tons of adjustments. Like people said, well, it swings too flat. Well, why can he just swing on a higher plane? You're talking about guys. that are making thousands of swings in the same pattern over and over and over and over again and you're playing a game every single day. Right? You get maybe one off day. Making that adjustment is practically

impossible. It's not impossible. You can make it gradually, and he showed signs of it. But not to mention the fact that if you do improve, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to lead to better results. Correct. So like, what does he do with this week? Right? You have a full week. You don't play a baseball game.

Are you in the lab? Are you just working on drills, your basic drills? Are you taking a full week off just to reset your mentality? And that could be the best thing. Right. Like, what did he need? Whatever he needed, I hope that he hit that over this last week because this is the one part in the season

that you can take something that was maybe hurting you and figure it out. Yeah. And I mean, sometimes it's just time. Sometimes it's having the time off. Sometimes it's about having that mental readjustment. I think that this team was kind of a fascinating example of, like, everybody trying to be the man and nobody being able to be the man at times during the first half. You know, when they really struggled in April and they struggled in May,

it was like each guy was trying to hit five home runs and every at bat. And it just wasn't, it was obviously going the opposite way. The results weren't there because you're trying to do too much. And I think that this team, their calling card is teamwork. Their calling card is kind of having a different guy do it on any given night. Even as much as we say guys like Kattel and Christian Walker are, you know, the true superstars to get it done for this team, they're not. I mean, it's the last year when you looked at games, it was everybody. Like, Gabby was a hero this night.

Alec Thomas was a hero this night. Like that's what this team's true identity is, is having these guys be able to count on each other and kind of do it as a team. And I think that if Corbin can a little bit, just a little bit, kind of let that pressure alleviate off of him that he has to be what he was last year. And he has to be the superstar on this team. I think he can get back to putting up those superstars, those superstar numbers without, you know, without all that pressure, right? I think pressure has been really bad for this team this year.

And I think that goes for the starting rotation. I think it goes for a lot of guys. The expectations were high. The injuries were numerous and significant. and you didn't really have guys responding, I think, well to the situation. You're saying the expectations versus setting a standard rhetoric in spring training and maybe didn't do its job. I'll tell you. Here's what I will say.

Tori understood what he was trying to do with that. It just didn't work. Tori was trying to make sure that these guys didn't now feel these expectations and have it turn. because that's what in baseball can turn you can turn things south, right? You had a great season. Now the expectations are you're going to have a better season. And that just doesn't happen in baseball. It's so rare that a player continues to get better and better and better each season as their career goes on.

And the same could be said about a good baseball team. I mean, we were looking at the Chicago Cubs lineup, the lineup card. They have it here at Murphys from when they won the World Series. And we were kind of laughing about how like when you look at that lineup card, It's not like it's a bunch of studs. Hey, thanks, man. It's not like it's a bunch of studs that were doing it, that went off and became superstars elsewhere.

And you're like, oh, like they are superstars. They're like all washed now. They're all washed. They were all washed within like two or three years of that, of that. I mean, maybe not all of them. But a lot of them, right? Like Chris Bryant hasn't aged all that well. Anthony Rizzo still had some productive season after that season.

But, you know, not exactly on a Hall of Fame trajectory or anything like that, as people maybe thought it could be. But it's because that's baseball, right? And it's like the expectations might have been there that they were going to be on, go on to do all sorts of great things. But the reality is it's a very hard game. It's an extremely hard game. And more than anything, it's hard to be good at it for a long time,

consistently year after year, right? So the Diamondbacks, the one thing that they have going for them is that they're a bunch of young guys that, like, this growth, you know, even those struggles, it's part of getting better and understanding that that is part of the game. And I think that you can like disguise the word expectations and call it whatever you want. You can call it azaleas or whatever these flowers are by it. You can literally call it, you know, happy joy, fun time.

It doesn't change the fact that it's expectations. That's what it is at its core. So if you want to talk about setting a standard, I get it, where you set a standard that you expect to be a solid team every year. But guess what I word I just said there, right? Like the expectations are going to be there when you do something as quick. cool as get to the World Series and then go off in your free you know in the free agency and add to the team it's all like it's all like the Diamondbacks lost a bunch of players to free agency now that they're good and made a World Series they just added to it so by by math which you're a fan of they should have been better and they weren't yeah I mean I don't even really think that the the expectations from last season are are weighing on this team necessarily I mean like who on this team who was here last year has fallen well below the expectations that you had for them. Corbyn Carroll, in my mind, is really the only guy.

I mean, Alec Thomas has been hurt basically the whole year. I mean, he hasn't played all that well when he has been on the field, but that's just an injury. Merrill Kelly is just an injury, right? Zach Gallen, the numbers aren't quite as good, but they're pretty dang close to the same, and he just came back from injury himself. Jake McCarthy's actually been a lot better.

Gabriel Moreno maybe a little bit of a step back there but based on his recent surge he's been basically the same player You are talking about Gabby don't talk about Gabby But he's talking about recently I'm talking about when they struggled I'm talking about Lordus Gabby Corby Corbin like these were the guys that I'm talking about These were the guys that now the offense was falling on them

To be better than they were last year and they weren't These were guys like Lourdes was good right hot out of the gate For a little while there and then he absolutely struggled Corbin, not good at all during the beginning of the season. Gabby, another guy, was not good at all to begin the season. So, like, yes, you could say that, but, and I get where you're coming from, but there's still expectations, right? Gino gets brought in as their answer to third base.

I mean, there are expectations on him in his own mind to be that for this team, and he wasn't, right? And, like, again, he seems like the kind of guy that, like, wants to just have a good time and play baseball and just enjoy himself, but it's very hard to do. do so when you feel like you're not holding up your end of the bargain, especially when a team went out and acquired you and brought you in to be the answer to one of their, like, oh, we have one weakness, and you're our answer to that weakness, and then he doesn't work out. I mean, but at this point, Gino has a 90 OPS plus, which is basically what all of the projection

system said he was going to have. I hate you so much. We're literally talking about today, and I'm talking about... That's the whole season. May, though. I'm talking about May, though. But sometimes... Sometimes having like a, sometimes the season that you expected a player to have

doesn't mean that they're going to be that player the entire way. They might really struggle out of the gate and then figure it out later on or vice versa. But I don't know whose expectations you're talking about. I'm talking about the players themselves and the fact that they struggled for two to three months. Gino just now got hot at the second, like the second half of June. Like that's a long time to struggle. That's a long time to have people call for you to literally lose your job for you to finally turn things around. But the point being is that you get past that because it's like a lot of things in life.

You realize like you're down, but you're not dead and you can fight back. And that's what kind of is happening with this team. This team got knocked down. They got back up. And lately, at least over the last, you know, month and a half plus, they've been playing some good baseball. And that's the difference is more what I'm talking about is like how those early expectations can kind of overwhelm you. Sure. You know, you come in and you're expected to be this, that, or the other thing.

not and then it just kind of grows it kind of kind of I don't know I mean it just kind of gets bigger because the more you struggle the more you're trying not to struggle and and the harder it gets to get out of that hole that you're in but I mean all of this really leads to the biggest question of the second half which is what are the diamond back's going to do at the trade deadline are they going to be a good enough baseball team that they can just proceed on add to this team try to go out there and do what they did last year or will something happen over the next two weeks that kind of causes them to maybe stand pat or even potentially move some pieces. Yeah, that is a big question.

We'll be digging into that, of course, here over the next 12 days. I think we're 12 days away from the trade deadline as we record this, which is pretty wild to think about. Yeah, I think the debacks are probably looking at a left-handed reliever. We've mentioned that in the past. Buster Only from ESPN was on Wolf and Luke earlier today and mentioned Diamondbacks having some conversations around that, certainly no surprises there.

But even the debacks being aggressive buyers at the trade deadline, I don't know exactly what that entails, as people keep saying, like, really what this team improving at the deadline. I mean, you can get a lot better just with Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Jordan Montgomery coming back off the injured list, right? Yeah. Especially if Montgomery winds up being a little bit better this time around. So it's not a team that needs a whole lot.

lot necessarily at the deadline other than just to get healthy. But, you know, does the team look at it adding a starting pitcher? That's one area that they, you know, they could actually, I think, make a fairly significant move if they chose to go down that road. We'll kind of see how that develops here over these next couple of weeks. Well, of course, that definitely, I mean, it feels a little drastic to be like they're going all the sudden, like, it's going to be so bad over the next two weeks that they're going to be sellers.

but they are right there, right? I mean, they're right there on the edge that if things don't go their way over the next, over the rest of, you know, the mess of the month of July, I mean, they could be in a bad position. So they kind of have to fight here and they have to kind of stay relevant. And that is a good way that this team has reacted, right?

Because we did kind of hear that, like, the team was aware that this could be a buy or sell situation. And we really did see these players kind of fight back here over the last two weeks. really show that they are a good baseball team. And this is kind of more of what we expected to see out of them. Yeah, yeah. Perdomo mentioned that after one of their last games leading up to the break,

that we want the front office to buy. We want the front office to believe in us and make some investments. And they're in good position right now. Like if the trade deadline were tomorrow, the debaaks are buyers, there's no question in my mind. But, yeah, they're one game out. I mean, if one game turns into three or four games out by July 30th, then, yeah, the conversations might look really.

different. So it continues to be pretty important how they play here over these next 12 days. Well, we thank you guys so much for being here. Shout out to our guy Evan for being here. We appreciate you so much. We thank you guys for being here on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't mess whenever our shows go live. Of course, drop us a like. Gabby loves when you drop us a like. Lord just loves it. I think Corby loves it. Everybody loves it. Let's be honest. But I love it the most. Of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app.

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Terms and conditions apply. You need to hire. You need indeed. Well, we did want to talk about our power rankings for this week, but Jesse, I know you had a very special breakfast with Rob Banfred and Tony Clark. And as we discussed, the men could not be. Just one-on-one, Derek. No, they could not be in the same room at the same time because they would fight each other and then we'd throw things at each other. And, yeah, it was just you.

I think you called him Robbie and Tony. Like, that was a really weird thing. I was expecting to hear that from you. I mean, we kind of touched on it the other night when we were doing our post All-Star game show. But what else did they have to say about, like, what things they discussed in impacting baseball? Yeah, this was the BBWA breakfast that happens with both of those guys every All-Star break. So, yeah, I got to hear from each of them for about a half an hour. And we touched the other day on the ABS Challenge system and some of the developments there with sounds like that Major League Baseball is going to,

or at least considering testing out the ABS challenge system in spring training next year, in which case the challenge system could be brought to Major League Baseball as soon as 2026. So that could happen, but it also very well might not happen. Rob Manfred did not sound particularly bullish on that necessarily being the case. So we'll kind of continue to monitor that. A few other topics of discussion, Derek, some pretty interesting stuff. One of them was the possibility of trading draft picks, which is something that you can do in others.

You cannot do that major league baseball right now. Yeah, you can trade the competitive balance picks, but you can't trade any of the other ones. And it would make, I mean, you know, you talk about trying to make the draft a little bit more exciting. One way to make the draft more exciting is if we just have some trades happening that day potentially or leading up to that day. Well, that impacts baseball, I think, a lot, right? That impacts parity in baseball. The one thing about baseball that I do love is how you can mortgage your future for a player that you think is good. now or is great now and then they come over and then they're mediocre and you trade away a player

that now ends up being the hottest star on another team like I don't really think you see that as much in other sports necessarily like maybe I mean I know they trade the draft picks but I just don't think like baseball has like I guess the higher ceilings and the lower floors if you will I mean it just feels like at times you could make that mistake and then a guy comes over and is completely mediocre and the draft pick you traded away ends up being you know Zach Gallen or something like that like I mean we're still thinking about that whole st. Louis cardinals situation with once having once having both Alcantra and Gallin as their pitchers in their minor league system yeah I mean it just looks different in other sports like trading the farm in the NBA is trading you know five

first round picks for Kevin Durant right or whatever the sons did in order to make that happen so you're not you're not trading, you're not trading like young assets. You're not trading prospects because that's not really how the NBA works. I mean, there's the G League, but that's, you know, it's obviously very, very different. I mean, that trade did include McAil and Cam, but those are proven NBA guys, even if they were young. That's true. Yeah, that's true. But a lot of times in the NBA, you see teams trade for really good players,

and the primary return for those really good players is just draft picks, not even necessarily, like, talented young, young, up-and-coming players. So, yeah, it's so fascinating to me to think about a world where, in Major League Baseball, you could trade picks. Part of Major League Baseball not allowing this up to this point has been that they want to keep teams from doing dumb things. They just don't, I guess they just don't trust certain front offices that will leave unnamed to just like trade away like 15 of their 20 picks or something.

So yeah, like it would feel really dumb if a team went out and traded like literally half of their picks in a season or something like. White Sox would do that. The Chicago White Sox would absolutely do that. Well, I don't think they would. Like, it would benefit, it would benefit the elite teams, right? It would give, it would give the Dodgers, the Yankees, the opportunity to steal a Luis Robert away from someone like the White Sox, right?

It would give them more ammunition to use to acquire good players if they're not really all that concerned about the future. So there are some interesting ramifications for baseball here. I think you can make an argument that it helps those teams more than anyone else. But I guess on the flip side, I mean, the team, if the – It would help the team rebuilding faster. Yeah, it could help, like, if you had several extra picks in the first few rounds, if you're a rebuilding team, then that's an asset for you as well.

Is the pool that they have to spend going to be impacted by that? Because I feel like if that's the case, then that might not work out because you might not have the money, the signing bonus to sign it. Yeah, that's a good question. I would hope that you would get the pool money with the picks if you were on the receiving end of draft picks. You got the pick, but screw you figure out of sign all those guys. Yeah, exactly. You would have, yeah, I'm sure that the pool money would come with the pick.

So your bonus pool would be adjusted based on whatever picks you received. But, yeah, I think it would be interesting. It would be another thing that baseball could add that would add some intrigue to the sport. And it might be chaos. It might result in certain teams doing outrageous. idiotic things, but bring me the chaos there. I love it. No, I like it because I think honestly, baseball really,

they do at times try to get teams to stop from doing dumb things, but then they also let like what's happening in Oakland continue to go on. And that's like as bad for that franchise and as bad for baseball as anything else going on. So like you got to be all in or all out. You either take your hands off and let the franchises run themselves, even if it involves them running themselves, into the ground or you you know you keep

it you know involved in a way but I don't know I think that baseball does too much you know kind of overseeing of some of this stuff speaking of which we also had the schedules drop today all the schedules dropped down baseball there's also a little breaking news I don't know if you guys have seen

this no what do you got? Oh what do you got? The Tampa Bay Razor getting a new baseball stadium oh they are oh interesting voted and approved upon during the show 5 3 St. Petersburg Florida $1.3 billion stadium. Wow. They're doing it in St. Petersburg?

Yep. Oh, man. Oh, that's a terrible idea. It is St. Petersburg. Yep. It was flying around through it. St. Petersburg City Council voted 5'3 in favor of the new Rays stadium. Wow, 5.3.

That's close. We have the athletics moving to Sacramento, and now they're on the schedule as AF. And I hate that. I don't like that they're on the schedule as Ath. But the Diamondbacks do, speaking of which, open up their series, their season next year against. Chicago Cubs at home at Chase Field. So that's a lot of fun that we're out here to find that out.

But the athletic situation in moving to Sacramento, how is that going? How did, what were Rob Manfred's and Tony Clark's feelings on that? Yeah, it was, a question was asked about the weather, of course. You know, I've seen some people posting like weather comparisons between Sacramento and Oakland this time of year and questioning like, why on earth are we doing this again? It's 107 degrees in Sacramento while it's 74 in Oakland. And we're like, are we moving? this team the right direction? Are we sure we want to do it this way? Yeah, we're moving it towards

spite, Jesse. That's this entire situation seems built on spite now. Yeah, but Rob was specifically asked about, you know, playing day games and an environment like that and the health and safety concerns for players. Tony Clark, I believe, was asked about this as well. Rob talked about having some sort of hydration system in place. They have turf. They have turf at this at this field, not real grass, which makes it even even hotter than it otherwise would be. My God. So, yeah, he talked about some sort of hydration system that would kind of cool the playing surface before games started, which I guess could work to a certain extent. But there are day games built into the CBA.

I don't know exactly what the requirement is, but you do have to play a certain number of day games on getaway days just to kind of make the travel a little bit easier for players. But the flip side of that in Sacramento is going to be some pretty brutal summer days. so I'm glad that I don't cover that baseball team, Derek. I cover a baseball team that plays in an even warmer location. Yeah, but we have AC. We have AC. We have AC.

We have AC. We have AC. We're covered. Right quickly have the worst stadium in baseball, though. No. Very quickly. No. No.

That's not true. That's never going to be true. Not as long as guaranteed rate field exists. Wait, wait, are you saying that Chase Field is the worst stadium in baseball? That's what he's saying. Could get there soon. Yeah, I mean, this Sacramento thing might be. I mean, it's a nice, it's a nice triple-

That's temporary. I'm not considering that. Like, I'm talking like long term here. I mean, we're talking, it was already considered bottom three. And if Tampa Bay is removing the trot from that equation. I don't really know it was considered bottom three. I mean, it's bottom, it's bottom 10 universally. I think it's bottom five pretty typically.

Bottom three, I don't know. I'm sure there are some people out there would put at bottom three. But I don't know if that's universally agreed upon. That's just Jacob hating. That's Jacob hating. I mean, you're talking about the fact that we went to a great stadium in Texas in the Frisco Rough Riders. It was.

It was quite possibly the best stadium ever. Ever. So, we're in the top three, top one. You guys are ridiculous. I'm pretty sure you guys legitimately liked the Frisco Ruff Riders Stadium better than Global Life Field, though, right? Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, because Global Life Field doesn't have a concourse that's outside in the wilderness with beautiful trees. nor does Globetfield have a lazy river that I could get into in a swimshoot, you know? That's fair. But one thing that you also wanted to bring up was the sport betting penalties in regards to, I know that we've had quite a few players, including Diamondbacks, Andrew Saul-Frank,

get into trouble due to sports betting. Yeah, that was a topic of discussion as well. If this is just the tip of the iceberg, the suspensions that just happened, or kind of where Rob sees this going moving forward. and he made the point that a year-long suspension is a pretty dang significant penalty. That's a pretty serious thing, especially for, you know, major league athletes who have spent their entire lives sacrificing so many things in order to get to this point. To get there and then have a year of that taken away from you is a pretty big deal. So I think that was a fair point that, you know, just Major League Baseball going through with these suspensions and demonstrating that they have the ability to dissonance.

discover these things in the first place that you are not going to be able to take part in sports betting with them not knowing. Although I guess there could be, I don't know how many other situations there are like this that MLB hasn't discovered, but they've at least discovered a few of them. So it'll be interesting to see kind of how that goes moving forward. Another topic of discussion was players receiving threats. That's obviously a pretty big deal. That's insane. Yeah, because I mean, obviously it's bad enough with fantasy sports. right fantasy sports people lose their minds and say outrageous things to people on social media and that's

when they have you know 20 bucks on their league with their with their friends yeah and it's still like a it's still a three-month process where you're only going to win a hundred bucks if you win the entire league like these are in some cases people that have lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a parlay or thousands or more than that you know and again they lash out and it's it's unfortunate that you know people have that outlet, that ability, like that's the things that wants to, that's why athletes don't want to be on social media, stuff like that. You know, it really is ridiculous when people do that. But there's also a safety concern. Like people could really take this to a dangerous level when it comes to athletes. 100%. Yeah. And I mean, this is a concern that it, you know, certainly

the union is, it's important to them. It's important to MLB as well. I know that Bob Nightingale a month or two ago wrote a really good story where he got comments from players who have received threats. based on sports betting that people have that people have done. And it's really scary stuff. Like we're not just talking social media. We're talking about guys in the on-deck circle, just having, you know, someone's raining down on them about their parlay because they're, you know,

they're not going to be able to get their two or three hits or whatever it is they need. So it's really tricky stuff for Major League Baseball. I'm sure that really helps with their performance, too, knowing that your same game parlay result relies on them getting two singles or more tonight. It gives them a lot more motivation to succeed. They showed up that day with no motivation,

but because they know that, you know, Jake in the front row, his parlay is dependent on them, now they're really going to dial it in and do their best. So shout out to all the people, you know, harassing athletes, hurling those threats. You're doing a lot of good for society, for sure. I knew that there was a problem with society when someone sent me a death threat on Twitter.

over saying that a poster for the Aquaman movie was bad. That was when I was like, you know what? Maybe we don't need to have this direct line of communication with each other. This seems excessive, but, hey, to each their own, right? And speaking of each having their own, we have our power rankings here for Major League Baseball. So we're ready to talk about, essentially, who finished the first half best? And I guess while it's meaningless, let's take a look at our power rankings. The Philadelphia Phillies, of course, stay absolutely on top.

They do have the best record in all the baseball. They're playing some really good ball. They had a lot of guys on the All-Star team. There's a lot of positive things to like here about the Phillies. They have a plus 118 run differential. They are six and four in their last 10. I guess that's the only thing is the Phillies have kind of finally slowed down a little bit. and, you know, they don't look as unbeatable as they did at one point during the season.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, a little bit. They're still, you know, they're five and five in their last 10 games. They won three out of five going into the All-Star break since we did our last power ranking, 62 and 34 on the season. The Phillies, to me, still feel like the steadiest team in baseball, the team that going into the trade deadline, like, genuinely doesn't really need anything, although I'm sure they will make some moves anyway, maybe in the outfield.

But yeah, there's a good size cluster of teams there with the Orioles and the Yankees and the Guardians kind of all in the same position and the standings. Sure. None of those teams playing all that well heading into the break, both the Orioles and the Guardians lost four out of five going into the All-Star break. The Yankees have really struggled lately, although they've kind of come around here over the last few days. They're fighting with the Orioles, by the way. We've got to see a bench clearing in that. By the way, I'm getting eaten on my ankles by mosquitoes. Is that why I feel so itchy?

If people were wondering why they keep seeing me go down to my lower extremities, it's because I think Craig Morgan sent like an entire horde of mosquitoes to come bite me. He's really mad at me for talking about how great the weather here is in Chicago. Yeah, we had, like you said, all kind of clustered together there. The Braves, you know, the Diamondbacks managed to split the series with the Braves there, and they look pretty good in doing. So it really felt like the Diamondbacks, obviously, based on the one game blown by, you know, by Paul Seawald.

The Diamondbacks were in a position to take three out of four against the Braves, and that's pretty good, especially after they won against the Dodgers and the Padres prior to that. The Dodgers are a team. We've got them at number six right now. Did you say the Dodgers are a team? They are a baseball team. They do exist. That's pretty much all the positive things we could say about them right now.

They're in a tough spot right now. I mean, the Dodgers without, Tyler Glass now is not expected to miss a whole lot of time, but Yamamoto's on the IL. I don't know if he's coming back. He was moving to the 60 day, right? Yeah, he was moving to the 60 day. I don't know. I think they will get him back this season, but how is he going to look then?

That's a pretty big, a pretty big obstacle. And their offense, I mean, without Mookie Betts in there, they've got plenty at the top, right, with Otani and Freddie Friedman and Will Smith. But beyond that, the offense has not had much consistency. You know, Annie Pahaz is hitting in the middle of the lineup, probably carrying a bigger load than he'd want him to carry. Max Muncie is still out with injury, and I think he's still a ways away from returning.

So there's just not a lot of depth for the Dodgers right now, which is a weird thing to say about them because they've had seemingly endless amounts of depth for the bigger part of the last decade. But right now, they're hurting a little bit, and it's showing in the standings. I mean, they lost four out of five heading into the All-Star break. They've lost seven out of their last 10.

They're 56 and 41 on the season, which is a good record for sure. but 56 and 41 is not at all what I figured the Dodgers were going to be at the All-Star. Well, and honestly, okay, so things haven't gone their way, just like things haven't gone the Diamondbacks way necessarily, right? They've had injuries. They've had things that have happened that, you know, obviously have impacted their team and their success. But, like, they don't look so crazy now going out and getting as many pieces as they did. Because this team would be, like, imagine if they didn't get Otani. Imagine if they didn't add Yamamoto.

Yeah, that he's injured. and that's part, but I mean, like, this team could look very mediocre just based on a couple of injuries, and that's the reason why the Dodgers did what they did. They wanted to ensure that their team couldn't slide into mediocrity, even based on injuries and other things happening. However, they're going through it right now. It's kind of like what I've said about the Diamondbacks a little bit. Like the Diamondbacks experienced what they did early in the season, but it's kind of serendipitous that it happened then versus like some teams where it's happening now, and they're losing potentially some of their, you know, star pitchers and players for the rest of the season.

Like the Diamondbacks at least are going to have time to get these guys back and have these guys be able to help them try to get a playoff spot as we wrap things up. Dare I say they're catchable if the Diamondbacks get hot? Oh, man. I mean, they're catchable. They're catchable in the aspect that I think that they could play some mediocre baseball. And if the Diamondbacks, like, kind of play out of their minds, then yes. But I don't think that should be a focus. D-backs have the 22nd hardest schedule in baseball for the second half of the season.

Yeah, yeah. It's manageable. There's seven games behind the Dodgers going into the second half. I mean, I think that the Dodgers are still, like right now, the Diamondbacks, I would probably say have a better active roster than the Dodgers do, or at least it's very, very close. But once the Dodgers have more waiting for them on the aisle than the D-Backs do, and the D-Backs have a lot waiting for them on the IL,

but the Dodgers have, you know, a couple of the best pitchers in the league. Honestly, more than a couple of the best pitchers in the league, I don't know if we're going to see Kershaw or, you know, some of the other guys that they have on the IL right now. Oh, I hope we do. But Mookie Beds is not afraid. Bring Kershaw back. But like Mookie Bets coming back to the Dodgers,

I mean, that's an enormous lift for their offense when that happens. So, yeah, it wouldn't shock me if the D-backs could gain a little bit of ground here. And maybe we have a day that comes where there are five games out. or something. I mean, that feels like it'd be within striking distance, but... They could get two. They could get within five games.

That's totally reasonable. Taking the vision, that's crazy. But anyway, that's kind of how I feel. But who knows? We'll see. I think the one mystery component to all of this is who the hell is this Diamondbacks team even going to be

when they're back to 100% health? And who knows if they'll ever be at 100% health. But who knows who they'll be once their starting rotation. has Merrill Kelly back and Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery. We don't. We don't know.

And we don't even know if that, like, I mean, honestly, we don't know how things are going to change for this team as things progress because Yilbert Diaz, he's going to give them a lot of, he's going to give him a hard decision to make at one point. So we'll see. But this Diamondbacks team has a lot, I think there's a lot of hope, a lot of positivity

around what this team could potentially be more than, you know, some other teams in baseball. and that's what makes the Diamondbacks exciting to watch, definitely in the second half. And Jesse, even though Brewers rounded out our top 10 power rankings, the Diamondbacks are right there. It's hard to put the Diamondbacks above some of these other teams

that are in a much better position with a much better record, 10 plus games above 500, things like that. But the Diamondbacks realistically would probably fall in here right around the 12th or 13th team in the power rankings, right? Yeah, yeah. I guess we list all these guys off, All these teams off? I don't think we did.

Maybe I'll do that real quick. We got to the Dodgers and then just were like, whatever, then there's the rest. Yeah, then there's everyone else. So yeah, so we have Phillies one, Orioles 2, Yankees 3, Guardians 4, Braves 5. It feels like there's kind of a split between the Guardians and the Braves in terms of tier, at least with looking at their current records right now. The Guardians have several games on the Braves there. And then the Braves, Dodgers, twins are all in a very similar spot record rise.

Those are our number 5 through number 7 teams. We've got the Astros at number 8, who we continue to be pretty bullish on, even though they're only 50 and 46. They're up to a plus 49 run differential and kind of feels like they're about to go on a nice run in the second half and maybe even win the AOS because that's what they do. The Red Sox are 53 and 42. We have them at number 9 and then the Brewers are 55 and 42. We have them at number 10, and I continue to be skeptical of their starting pitching. And that has caught up with them a little bit here over the couple of weeks leading up to the All-Star break. They lost 7 out of 10 heading into the break.

Still a pretty healthy plus 79 run differential there, but I'm not sure I see Colin Ray and company continuing to hold things down in the Brewers' rotation. After them, yeah, I think the Royals I would probably put above the Diamondbacks if I were doing power rankings beyond that. Maybe the, I don't know. The Cardinals, I'd probably put below the Diamondbacks. Frauds. If I were doing. They're fraud.

If I were going a little further here. So, yeah, I think it's just Royals and then maybe the Seattle Mariners. That's the other team that comes to mind. I might put the Mariners ahead of the devax right now, but it's pretty close. Well, it is a beautiful day here in Chicago right now. Of course, we both have on our shady rays sunglasses because the sun, no matter what state you live in, is trying to kill you. Don't believe what the sun has to say. The sun is trying to kill you.

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No, we deserve to be just in front of a brick wall somewhere, but we are here in the shadow of Wrigley Field. Of course, when we are on the road, we always make sure to stop by Circle K, and you should to, whether it's on the road, when you're on a car trip, when you're on a road trip, or whether you're flying, make sure to stop by Circle K. Pick yourself up plenty of snacks for your trip and do not sleep on the Circle K-branded snacks. They are incredible. You can also fill up your car for cheaper at Circle K. If you join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today, terms and conditions apply at participating

locations. Visit CircleK.com for details, but you will save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips when you join the Inner Circle, and then you'll save three cents per gallon every day after that. And Circle K already has some of the cheapest gas you can find in Arizona, so make sure to sign up for the Inner Circle so you can save even more. We are here. We are here. obviously because the Diamondbacks are taking on the Chicago Cubs here for a three-game series this weekend. We're also here just to mess with Tori, you know, like Tori already gave me a hard time about the All-Star game, and there's no way he's going to believe that I'm also here in Chicago. But this is a really important series, right?

The Diamondbacks and the Cubs are kind of in a similar position. They're both on the outside looking in on the playoff picture a bit. They both had a pretty nice run going into the end of the first half as far as, you know, some wins, Cubs were on a, what, five, six game winning streak there. Diamondbacks, obviously, we know how well they kind of finish the first half. So let's take a look here at the series at a glance with the Chicago Cubs. Cubs right now have a record of 47 and 51 with a minus five run differential. The team OPS is 695, which is good for 18th in Major League Baseball.

Starting pitching ERA is pretty damn good. 3.67, that's top 10. They're ninth in baseball. Yeah. Relief pitching ERA is four points. 01, which is 16th, and then they're outs above average defensively, minus 1, which is tied for 17th. Yeah, the Cubs, the Cubs offense is not particularly great. That has been kind of their main issue this season, the thing that has kept them from taking

that next step forward that some people thought that they could take. You look at some of their hitters this year. Michael Bush enters the second half with an 823 OPS, say a Suzuki, an 813 OPS. Ian Hap, wow, I'm actually a little surprised looking at this. Ian Hap brought his OPS all the way up to 8-10. He must have been very, very hot coming out of the first half of the season. Beyond those three guys, though, there just isn't a ton of offense here. Cody Bellinger is hurt.

Mike Tockeman is also hurt. Nico Horner has had just sort of a mediocre season offensively. Dansby Swanson has not hit really at all for the Cubs this season. He has a 632 OPS coming into the second half. So the offense is not really there for them, but the pitching is really what has kept them afloat. As you said, they're starting staff with an ERA that ranks 9th, Shota Imanaga, 297 ERA, Justin Steele a 271. Jameson-Tayone is also really bounced back nicely this year with a 310 ERA. So we don't know who's starting in the series yet, which continues to be frustrating.

I'm sure that Justin Steele will pitch one of these three games. I imagine that Shota Imanaga will pitch at some point in the series is. well. We don't know exactly what those days look like, but it's a big series, Derek. I mean, the Cubs are a team that played really well finishing up the first half. I don't think they're necessarily

done. I don't think they're going to go into the deadline and sell necessarily. It kind of depends on what happens over these next 12 days. Well, and the Cubs absolutely it's weird to say this, but they were a big part of why the Diamondbacks got into the playoffs last year.

They were a huge part of it. The Diamondbacks got the playoffs. The Diamondbacks absolutely rolled over the Cubs both here and at home. And it was just that push we need. I remember at the time the Cubs were playing good baseball. And we were a bit fearful of what that series would hold. Those two series late like that would hold against the Chicago Cubs. So I don't really know what to expect here.

I mean, that's the weirdest thing about this Diamondbacks team is I don't know, I don't feel like I know how to predict anything that's going to happen with them. because all signs for me point to this team being a much better in the second half once they don't feel once those pitchers return once they get that you know lift from starting pitching once the bullpen isn't as taxed and they don't have to rely on those guys day in and day out however we have no idea how once those starting pitchers return to the rotation how they're going to how they're going to pitch how they're going to play how effective they're going to be right so yeah like i'm still i'm cautiously optimistic about it but i'm still a little concerned

in regards to how this team is going to play once, you know, because they've kind of jelled. Like they've kind of come together. They're playing good baseball right now, and you're going to suddenly turn to other guys that you really have no idea where they're at right now in their season. I feel like looking back at last year when the debacks came into Wrigley Field, that was, if not the turning point for this baseball team,

at least one of the bigger turning points. The Dbacks came into that series that started last September 7th. It just took two out of three from the Rockies, which taking two out of three from the Rockies just doesn't really feel like much of an accomplishment, frankly. Before that, they had lost two out of three to the Orioles. They'd gotten swept by the Dodgers. So, D-Backs weren't really feeling great about themselves at the time, or at least maybe fans were not feeling great about them. They were 72 and 68 going into that series. And then they took three out of four games here at Wrigley Field and beat the Cubs.

And then they went into New York, did not play great there. but then they played the Cubs again at home and they swept them there. So it is, it might be an understatement to say that the Cubs were a big part of the Diamondbacks getting in the playoffs last year. They played seven games against them in the month of September. The D-Backs won six of those games. And one of them, I'm sure people remember, Zach Gallen threw a complete game shutout here at Ridley Field at the last time that the Diamondbacks came here. So it was a pretty magical series for the D-Backs, frankly, last time they played in this ballpark. So we'll see what happens here this weekend.

What is the biggest question for you? Because we don't know who the probable pitchers are for either team. So is the biggest question for you starting pitching or is the biggest question offense? I mean, like the offenses, I think we kind of know what these teams are to a certain extent. Like the Cubs are not, they're just not a great offensive team. They're not a terrible offensive team, but they're not great, especially with Cody Bellinger on the IL. Diamondbacks offense has come around quite a big. bit here over the last month or so.

But, you know, if the debacks are staring down, Justin Steele, Shora Imanaga, and Jamison Tyone this weekend, like, that's a pretty tough assignment for any offense. So it'll be interesting to see what direction the debacks go. We do see Zach Gallen pitching the opener of this series, which theoretically would line up. He pitched on Sunday. He could pitch again today or tomorrow. Brandon fought potentially. Maybe the debacks would want to get him in there as well.

there are some different directions that they could go. But, yeah, unfortunately, we don't know exactly what that looks like right now. Well, we got Cody Delmendo's here from the CHGO podcast, so we're ready to start a real party now and really get into these Chicago Cups, numbers and stats. But we're going to be here all weekend long. We're very excited for that. So make sure to keep it locked.

We will have post-game shows tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. So make sure to bring it back here. Of course, also, if you're looking for someplace to safely keep you. your money. Make sure to check out Desert Financial Credit Union. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial 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 that make lives better. I miss my home very much after sleeping with these two maniacs for the last couple of days. So shout out to Desert Financial for getting me started on my home ownership

journey, and hopefully they can get you started as well. Join a credit union that is committed to giving back to the community and sharing success with its members. When you open a free checking account online right now you can get $200 in bonuses get started by visiting desert financial.com slash 200 i think cody had phomo yeah he's just seeing us having a great time out here yeah he just wanted to come hang out with us come put a put a yeah we come to his favorite bar we do our show from here we don't even invite him i think we're the rude ones here by being honest yeah brags and brags called the cops on us so i mean uh but i mean we are here at bar we had some amazing beers. I did at least this guy just drank water. But one thing I also very much miss besides my house,

Jesse, is Four Peaks beers, which we unfortunately can't get here in Chicago. But you can get lots of places in Arizona, whether it's in tap lines or in grocery stores, make sure to check out the full line of beers that Four Peaks has to offer, including the Bad Birdie juicy golden ale, which is by far my favorite beer right now that exists on this planet. It's a collaboration between Four Peaks and Bad Birdie, super drinkable, super delicious. companion at the T-boxer in your fridge. So check out Four Peaks. Wherever you get your beers.

You can visit FourPeaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Well, that's all we got right now, but we will have so much more for you this weekend. Like I said, we're going to be hanging out with the CHGO Cubs crew here tomorrow at 10 a.m. For the 120 club, we're going to be having all sorts of fun this weekend. Not to mention bringing you all sorts of post-game shows throughout this series.

So keep it locked right here to PHNX on YouTube. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kappa underscore Caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the People's Producer for this trip, which Damon's going to be furious. He was really upset in the chat already. Was he? Yeah.

Well, I mean, I might as well make it worse. I might as well just pile out at this point. Are we Jacob's dogs now? We're Jacob's dogs. Bark, bark. No, it's Jacob Franklin, of course, the fourth best Jacob Franklin on Twitter, because he is at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. But again, our show is at PHNX underscore Debex,

and all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again so much for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. We'll see you guys back here tomorrow. And in the meantime, have yourselves a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is a lot more fun at Wrigley Field.