PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Blaze Alexander, Adrian Del Castillo among SURGING Diamondbacks prospects to start 2024

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

It’s time to take a trip down to the farm! We are joined by Amarillo Sod Poodles broadcaster Stefan Caray to discuss updates from Double-A, his thoughts on Blaze Alexander and other young members of the 40-man roster, and more! We also unveil our Power Rankings for this week, take a look ahead at the upcoming series with the Mariners, and talk about Derrick Hall’s comments from his sit-down interview with our own Craig Morgan.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert 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.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ski to you all and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Dback show right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a fellow line holder. Is that what we're calling ourselves? Yes, we're holding the line with HTL. We are habitual line-steppers and habitual line holders. Of course, I'm joined by a man that knows very little about the NFL, but still is a good enough friend to just go ahead and go along with me and David on hold the line. Oh, boy. It's Jesse Friedman. So welcome in, of course. We are excited to have you guys here and excited to be talking about Diamondbacks Baseball. We will not bring you any NFL draft coverage today on this show at all. What we will bring you, though, is a friend of the show. And, of course, somebody very knowledgeable about the Arizona Diamondbacks organization and the young players that we are getting a chance to see a little bit of this season. It's Amarillo Sod Poodle's broadcaster, Stefan Carey. Well, I don't know. Is this actually Stephen Carey? because we've made that mistake already once this morning.

Yeah, you know, I didn't think Chris's face needed any more publicity than it was already good. But, you know, you guys did yourself. You had a 50% thought. I said it. But no, it's always so good to see you guys. We appreciate it. It's great to see you, my friend. And speaking of that, how does it feel the shed that weight, that pounds, that dead weight, you know,

and just finally getting out there and spreading your wings without that other guy kind of holding you back? Yeah, there are a whole lot less gas station. Donets that are being able to do. Things are great. It's a lot of fun to get to do this on my own. And obviously, Chris having a great start in Oakland, he's really a blazed his own path. It's for me, it's fun to get to be in this organization that's treated to be so well. And I mean, I'm the real winner. I get to be on this show with you guys. That's right. He's not alone in Berkeley. He's dead to us. Like I said, really good to see you guys. Yeah, great to have you on. And of course, like we said, we know that the Diamondbacks have kind of

been dipping into the minor league system. We've seen a lot of young guys kind of get some opportunities and some of these guys that you've had a chance to cover and call their games. Yeah, I mean, the first one that comes off the page is Blaze Alexander. I remember sitting on the show and talking about how we thought he was grossly underutilized last year. He looked ready for the big leagues, but obviously with crowding and the way that the lineup was assembled, there wasn't really a spot for him on the major league roster. I thought he was a major league level talent when I saw him two years ago. His ability to hit the breaking ball, his ability to control the strike zone. You can roll back the tape. We talked about him a whole lot as a player to keep your eye out on,

and I love that he's having the success that many didn't think he would have, and now he's having. So he's picking up a lot of the slack that's being carried in certain portions of this lineup for Arizona, but this youth movement just continues and continues throughout the minor leagues and, of course, in the major leagues. It's been interesting watching Blaze so far, Seth, and what we'd heard was that it was maybe a glove first profile and, you know,

talk of him having the best arm in the system, which is something we've certainly seen time and time again. I mean, his arm might be an 80 on the, on the 20 to 80 scale. But it's been interesting. I mean, offensively, he's been such an asset for this Diamondbacks team. I mean, he's slashing 316, 371, 544.

It's hard to ask for anything more than that. But defensively is really where he's where he's struggled the most. He's made some mistakes and some key situations. And obviously he's a young player. There's going to be, you know, the game certainly speeds up on you. I think once you get to the majors, that's something we see a lot of. But what was your perspective on him as a defensive player from what you saw in Amarillo? He was nothing short of phenomenal.

Now, the difference in Amarillo was he was the everyday shortstop to begin the season. Last couple of years now with Lawler. moving up to Reno and of course you have the other short stops at the major league level. Blaise has had to adjust us to play three out of four spots in the infield. I do want to bet he'd play first and he did it too. But

now that he's being called on to play second base and shortstop and play up the middle almost every day when he's not deaching, it's an adjustment at the major league level to try and cover that ground. So I think that the glove is something that the fans don't need to worry about too much. He needs more reps.

I don't know if he's going to be the long term starting shortstop in the Arizona Diamondbacks, but I imagine that if he continues to hit the way that he will, that there will be opportunities for him to play almost every day. So I think they just need to figure out where they want him. Right now, it's more of a need rather than a want. They have Ehuhenio Suarez over a third. They have Cotel Marte, well, I believe might be the best second baseman in the National League right now.

Yeah. It has been quietly in the top three and in the conversation the last five, six years. So I think Blaze, you have nothing to worry about. about him defensively. It's just about him continuing to hit, him continuing to hit for power, find the gaps, and control the strike zone like Tori LaVelle has talked about. His numbers so far this season in the majors are almost identical to his time with you guys, with the sod poodles. I mean, nearly identical batting average, on base percentage. His OPS was 927 that season. It's 915 now. So I guess, I mean, it's probably not a big

surprise to you that he's achieving this success. But did you, do you realistically think that he would have been able to maintain what he was doing at a AA level when he when he got up to the majors? Yeah, I have the utmost confidence in Blaze and I know everybody's going to say that they called it, that they knew it, but Blaze has a certain swagger about him that you just notice whenever he goes out onto the field. He looks smooth. He looks fluid. He's an amazing player and even better person. I think one of the things that is so important for professional athletes and professional baseball players especially is consistency throughout their career. I was just talking to one of the hitting coordinators for the Diamondbacks of Breakfast

today, and he made a good point. He was talking about how you could tear up AA, but Major League pitching is really, really tough. And you can get shelved and shut out and really not have any success. Blaze has just continually improved, and that's a credit to all of his hitting coaches. He had Travis Danker the past two years. Now he's up at the major league level, and I think that consistency is so, important for him. But yes, I do believe and did believe that Blaise was going to have this type of

success. A couple of years ago, though, I thought he was going to get trading with Waller waiting in the wings. And then, of course, you have Tom Troy, who's going to be another middle infielder in the Diamondbacks organization. Once he catches Stride in Hillsborough, there's a whole lot of internal pressure on Blaze, not to mention that Geraldo Perdomo is typically the everyday shortstop for Arizona. So some opportunity to have a line for Blaze to get this shot. I'm glad that it's with Arizona, and I'm glad that he's accruing value for himself and continuing to show the baseball world what he can do. We're going to get to some guys who are actually currently with the sod poodles in a second, because I definitely want to ask you about several, several guys on the

roster. But another guy that I know you're familiar with, who is not with the debacks, not with Amarillo. He's in the in-between step in AAA Reno right now. Adrian Del Castillo is off to an unbelievable start. He had a five-hit day yesterday. He is currently batting three, seven, seven, which is pretty wild. He's actually 370, 403, 699 to start the year. Five Homer, 17 RBI. I took a look at some of the expected stats. You can find in statcasts, and they pretty much back up those numbers,

almost on the dot. He's been really, really good to start the year. I remember you talking about him a little bit with us last year when he was in Amarillo and seeing him take some strides, not only offensively, but defensively as well. What kind of player do you think Del Castillo, could ultimately be for the diamond backs. Well, he's a left-handed hitting catcher that hits consistently.

So, I mean, it's like a unicorn. He's been pretty much. Obviously, he's developing rapport with a lot of the starting pitchers with Montgomery, being down there rehabbing with guys like Slate's Tony, Christian Mena. So there are a lot of players that he is going to be familiar with. Offensively, I think he's another one of those players that had difficulty in Hillsborough, which is a pitcher-friendly part. then comes to Amarillo and explodes.

Nobody expected him to hit the way that he did with us last season. He got moved up to AAA with Ryan Bliss. He got moved up to AAA. A couple of other softoodles right at the halfway point season last year. And he was hitting for power. He's hitting gap to gap. He was pulling the baseball better than we've seen. Tremel Sledge did a whole lot of work with him.

I know that for a fact. And I know Travis Denker continued that work. But you have to use expected stats when it comes to those two ballparks at Hodgetown. And, of course, in Reno, them being hit. from the parks. You almost have to measure what you're seeing, but what Adrian's doing is almost unprecedented, considering his past track record, the bat tool is there. I remember talking to him at Globe Life Field when we were in Frisco last year. We all went to a Rangers Braves game during the office team. I looked at him and I said, what does it feel like to go and sit in a stadium

and know that next year you could potentially be playing in an atmosphere like this? And he said, you know, I'm not even thinking like that. He said, hopefully, but I'm still in double A. Well, he's going out and he's tearing the cover off the baseball. You have three really talented backup options in double A and up right now in terms of their offensive output. You have Caleb Roberts left-handed hitter who just got put back on the roster from the aisle. You have Jose Herrera and then you have, of course, Adrian Del Castillo.

So at some point you've got to assess that. Who do you imagine being in your future? And it's a good problem you have three really good hitting catchers that can maybe be moved over to different spots on the infield like first or with Caleb, you know, the outfield he played left. So I think Adrian is really is pacing those catchers right now. And, and Arizona is going to have some pressure, kind of like they did with plays Alexander. But of course, they signed Tucker Barnhart, who has some major league experience. I just hate seeing players rot in the minors, right? Yeah. They're doing what they need to do. They're going and they're

pushing other players and they're going and they're hitting. Go see what they can be at the major league level and if you don't see a future then I'm sure there are 29 other teams that probably do well and I was screaming from the rooftops about you know blaze Alexander for instance because it was one of those things that like when do you start when you start putting the performance and their ability to hit above this entire you know above above everything else that you're doing here when Derek wouldn't have taken it well if blaze had not made yeah I would have ride it I literally would have ride it right but it's like you know life uh finds a way right and with the Arizona Diamondbacks, these injuries that have kind of plagued the main roster have been, have given a lot of opportunities to young guys. And so far, Blaze, for instance, is a guy that's absolutely taken control of that and probably changed like the organization's perception of him.

No matter how good you do at a minor league level, sometimes they don't really believe it's real until you're able to do it at a major league level. So I guess one side of this is the fact that they've been plagued by the injuries, which really sucks. it you know what what how valuable are these opportunities for these young guys that might not have had a path to the majors otherwise but now are getting getting a chance the way blazes yeah you hear that a whole lot in the minor leagues where players that you feel like should be in triple a or pushing the majors are down in double a because they want quote to get consistent at bats they want to play every single day yeah i think there's something that logically is wrong with that if you prioritize players, you have to be able to see who your homegrown talent is and how they can do it

at the AAA level and beyond. Now, obviously, Arizona has a whole lot of mercenaries. That's the terminology that my dad uses. A whole lot of free agent signs for the AAA club, which you have to have when you have a team as young as the diamond backs are on the major league field. You have to have guys that can plug and play that can come up from Reno and Colton Wong, guys that can help out in the bullpen, which has obviously been a huge point of emphasis for Arizona this season. I think that sometimes you get players that are lost in translation and get caught in the weeds. The players that don't let it affect them, that go about their business and go to work and situation be damned, go out and hit like Adrian Castillo has done like Davies and Dalo Santos has done for us,

they're going to go out and find a way to the major league level, much like what Blaze did during spring training. When I think, Stefan, about who the Diamondbacks best pitching prospect is, it's become an increasingly difficult question to answer, mostly because, you know, the moment that Brandon Fott graduated from that list, he was, you know, pretty clearly occupied that spot, I think, for a while. But Yilbert Diaz is someone that really comes to mind for me, is someone who is really, really good stuff. And I know that the numbers don't necessarily look great at this point in the year,

502 ERA through just a handful of starts. But obviously, that's an Amarillo. And he's also been really good the last couple of times out. What have you seen from Diaz so far this year? Yeah, longevity and great command of his pitches. He has upper 90s fastball. He has a curveball that was ranked one of the best in the organization. And he keeps off balance.

Now, what he needs is a pitch that can break arm's side. He needs a change up. He needs a sinker. He needs something that can get lefties out a little bit more because against right, he's almost unhittable. Last year, he was one of the huge reasons why Amarola won the Texas League Championship. Had a phenomenal start versus Arkansas,

had a phenomenal start in San Antonio facing elimination. So I think that Yilber is probably the most talented pound-for-pound pitcher for the sob poodles. He might be one of the best in the Diamondbacks Farm System. But of course you can't forget about Yumen Lin, who's the number one pitching prospect. Yeah, yeah. Those six different groups.

But I think longevity is the key, right? A lot of these pitchers that are struggling to go five, six innings, and I know it's early in the season, are the ones that are starting to see themselves in newer roles. Luke Albright, an example was a start of the beginning of the year, now moved to the bullpen. The diamond back's been really good at converting starters to solid relievers. Like Bryce Jarvis as an example on the major league side. So I think Yilbert, to answer your question, is a phenomenal, phenomenal pitcher. Another right-handed on that has velocity, and velocity will play. But because he has velocity, he's not

he's not shoebox into a particular role. He can become something else. He can be a middleman. He can be a set-up man. Heck, maybe he can even be a closer with the heat that he has, and that type of versatility is going to be valuable for the Diamondbacks for years to come. You mentioned you Minlin. I mean, you Minlin, yeah.

I mean, I guess he's sort of the buy-the-book answer for the Diamondbacks number one pitching prospect. And we certainly saw in spring training there were some live sessions. where he was facing Diamondbacks hitters or he was facing Jock Peterson and Corbyn Carroll and Alec Thomas and I think he struck out like four out of five of them or something like that and granted it's on the backfield it's a bit of a different environment

but we caught a glimpse for sure of the kind of picture that the human Lynn could be I know he's not off to a fantastic start necessarily in Amarillo but again you always have to take these numbers with a grain of salt what have you seen from him so far Yeah, I think he's shown tremendous command of his pitches. He doesn't walk a whole lot of hitters. The only view is once he gets into the fifth inning, he starts to slow down a little bit.

He gets out of attack mode. I think we've seen the fastball start to elevate and velocity up to 94, 95. But again, the cutter, the sinker, both pitchers that run opposite directions and they look pretty similar in terms of velocity. Then you've got the curveball, the slider, and the change. It's a great arsenal for him to have. He stopped throwing the splitter by and large this season. and he really is a joy to watch. I think that for him, the next big thing is gaining some weight,

being able to have the durability to go out through the course of the season and be that number one starter, the sob poodles and the diamondbacks, are hopefully looking for him to be. That pitch mix creates a whole lot of problems. He's striking out more than he's walking. He's always been a strikeout pitcher with that arsenal. But giving up a lot of runs,

that's something that you can totally, totally forget about when it comes to Hodge Town. Also some poor defensive play in his starts have allowed a couple of runs to come across. He gave up seven runs, five of them earned in his last start here in Frisco. But it's always fun to get to see him and getting to see him pitch twice this week is an exciting thing for us to get to do. Someone who has put up some pretty good numbers there in Amarillo is Imalian Montia, which, as you may know, has a very similar name to one of the two hosts. on this show. So my question isn't about his performance and more about,

can you steal me his jersey, I guess, is really what we were looking for here. I can find a way. I can find a way to maybe get you a jersey out there. Do you need his number 45 and I could maybe get him to sign it and bring it? Yes. Yes to everything you're saying. You are just completely. Derek, when's your birthday? Oh, March 24th. It just passed. Okay, so perfect. I can just get it to as a birthday gift. It's a late birthday gift is exactly what it is. You have no idea. How excited?

Which style of Jersey you want. Oh, we'll talk. We'll talk off air because I'm sure this is incriminating. But very excited considering he's done for me already in my last name what like Miles Morales did for me for being like a mixed race Puerto Rican kid. Like representation is important. And to see a Montia out there is fantastic, especially in the Diamondbacks organization. But again, I mean, there's some pretty good numbers here so far this season. I know he's only pitched four innings, but exciting to know that my namesake could be a potential weapon for this organization. Yeah, your spirit is being channeled through him whenever he gets called in. You get it.

You get it. So it's really, really cool to see what Amayne's doing. And we had him last year, worldly player. He's played in Italy. He's played just all over the world. And I think this is his first trip through affiliated ball now with Diamondbacks. And it's been quite the journey, but the fans love him. And his command of his pitches is great, especially that fastball.

He uses it more than anything. Last couple guys on our list here, Stefan, Davison Dalo Santos. Obviously, interesting story there with him being claimed by the Cleveland Guardians in the Roe 5 draft. We saw him play against the Diamondbacks in spring training. And then now, of course, he's back in the organization. and seems to be off to a really, really good start for you guys there in Amarillo. He's incredible.

He is incredible. There's no other word to describe it. His consistency at the plate cannot be overstated. And the strikeout numbers are down. Hard hit is way up. He leads to the club in home runs. The guy just sprays the ball over the field. And the coolest thing about it is it isn't all just extra base hits.

It's not homerunner strikeout kind of like it was last year. He's seeing the ball up the middle. He's hit the line drives. He's pushing the ball to the opposite field. He had a home run just a seed to right field in game one against Frisco. He and Melendez both fit. And that's something that we love to see. I talked to him just asking him jokingly,

what's better Cleveland are here? And he said, I'm so happy to be back. It worked out. And Mike Hayes, and again, putting on a master class, he had to find a way to get Delos Santos back. fortunately outfield is not his strongest position yeah yeah the guardians couldn't hold on to him but

the debacks get him back I imagine we'll see him in Reno and that's more power that the diamond backs I think are going to be happy that they have more right-handed power might I add and he's working on the defense so we'll see how that how that comes along slashing 359 423 656 that's some impressive numbers that I would have expected him to put up after he left the organization not when he came back

right because that's how things work out for us sometimes but great to great to see him doing so well after coming back here and this is what the development is all about right like these guys sometimes struggle but some coaching and and sometimes the right mindset can completely change you know what they're able to do at the plate yeah i can't i can't stress enough how important it's been to have consistency with the coaching staff here in amarillo you have you know termel sledge is back and of course tom gozzalani the pitcher coach and ronigajian jannick who is beloved in this organization. Yes.

The bench coach. She was there two years ago in that role after Javier, Alina went down. Now he, of course, is the manager in Hillsborough, and Tim Bogart coming in as the manager of plenty of major league experience. They've done such a good job in helping to develop these players already. A couple have gone up to AAA, especially on the E-Rlead pitching side. Bullpen is usually never good to start the season in Ambril.

Well, the last three games, zero earned runs in just over 13 innings pitched. I love seeing it. love seeing the way that they have really grown into themselves. And players like De Lo Santos and Melendez benefit from that. Bukovic benefit from that, getting to have a consistent coach that knows how to coach them. Knows their coaching style. And it will help them as they head on to Reno and then eventually to the big leagues. Anything else?

I think that's all I got. Thanks, Stefan. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for stopping. And, of course, we'll have you back on because we're going to need these updates on all these guys that our Diamondbacks fans want to know about, want to kind of keep updated on. And, of course, you always have some wonderful insight. So thank you again for stopping by. You guys are the best.

You know, I'll probably find my way over to Phoenix at Scottsdale by the end of the season. You can't avoid it. We'll put a chair right here for you. We already got it waiting for you. Yeah, we'll have to go get dinner or something sometime and maybe get a sponsorship with a local tequila company, if you know what I'm saying. I love that idea. I love that idea. Yeah, look forward to hearing from you guys, Derek.

So glad you hear your mom's doing better. Thank you, sir. Room hard for the debacks and always, always here if you need me. And I could be your minor league inside. That could be my official title. There we go. It's already done. That's done.

That job has been given to you. So we appreciate it. Thank you so much for stopping by, sir. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. See you soon. Thanks, Kevin. Obviously, the better of the two-carry twins.

Yeah, 100%. There's no doubt that we got. We got the right one on. But of course, we thank you guys for being here in the Ph.N.Xports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications that we don't miss whenever our wonderful shows go live or like today when we eventually go live. But, of course, also, we appreciate you dropping us a like. And on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you subscribing your favorite app over there as well.

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Well, it is time once again for us to take a look around Major League Baseball and unleash our power rankings for this week. And of course, there's a new contender that's kind of moved in here at the bottom. So let's take a look at those power rankings. Things have not changed up at the top for the first three spots. It still goes Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, one, two, three. The Cleveland Guardians have moved up to the fourth spot. Rightfully so because the Guardians do have the best run differential in baseball. baseball and they have absolutely been killing it.

Dodgers dropped down another spot. So hey, more good news here. Dodgers dropped down to the fifth spot and then another couple of other teams haven't moved. We got the Royal still at six, Brewer still at seven. The Phillies are up one spot to eight. The Cubs

up one spot to nine and the Reds make their debut with Ellie. Looking pretty dope with the Viking helmet on. I'm really digging the Viking helmet. He's also been pretty decent at the plate, Derek. LA Dela Cruz so far this season has a 1063 OPS,

seven homers and 15 stolen bases, not even through a month. This is, this is outrageous. This is outrageous. Yeah. That comparison looked pretty good for the Diamondbacks last year. It did. It worked out. He can't get rookie of the year this year, can he?

Right. So that's a squandered opportunity. You can't get his team another draft pick. That's also a squandered opportunity. But one thing I want to point out, I'm tired of the Diamondbacks abandoning anything that they do when it comes to winning just because I think deep down inside, they fear that it's a bad luck curse on them. Right? We know that's where JJ came from. We had to sew his head back on, so his tongue back in his mouth.

We had the vest, you know? It seems like Lourdes is at the core of a lot of this stuff because Lourdes brought the vest last year. He's also the one that's doing the zip and the throwing the key away, you know, celebration. But I don't want this team to back away from things like that. Like look how magnificent he looks in that Viking helmet. Can we put that image back up there of the power rankings? Because this man just looks, it looks incredible. It looks incredible.

Yeah, I do feel, I mean, the D-Backs at this point, they just don't have like a home run celebration. It's just not a thing they do. It doesn't look at what does a Viking helmet have to do with the Cincinnati Reds is my question. Nothing, but they made it their thing, right? They made it their thing. The St. Louis Cardinals have a goddamn AEW championship belt that my friend swerve gave them. I hate that. Me and him are at odds about that.

But he's also a Los Angeles Rams fan, and we argue about that all the time as well. But, I mean, that's football again, and I promise we would not give you any football analysis here on today's show, only baseball. But again, taking a look back at those power rankings, the Braves continue to be the Braves, plus 44 run differential. They are incredible. But what else you got here? Yeah, well, we do have the Atlanta Braves playing the Cleveland Guardians this weekend, which should be kind of a fun. It seems like kind of a fun matchup between those two teams,

given how they're playing right now. Sure. And yeah, the Cleveland Guardians, Derek, are 18.7. And they have, you know, not only the best run differential in baseball, but the second best record in baseball. I continue to be very, very impressed. And still slightly skeptical. Like, I'm still a little, it does, it's a little bit conflicting for me to have the Los Angeles Dodgers lower in our power rings than the Cleveland

audience. Like, like a month. You love to see it. But, yeah, I mean, you have to give them credit for what they've done so far. And yeah, outside of that, not a ton of movement, the Phillies just beat up on the Rockies and the White Sox that went about, as you probably have expected it to. Their starting rotation has been spectacular. They're 16 and 10. this was a really a really good week for them.

The Cubs continue to stay afloat. As people mentioned in the chat, Cody Bellinger is out with a rib fracture. That's a big loss for them for sure. Sayas Suzuki, I know, has also missed some time. So they're going through it a bit with the injuries. Justin Steele, of course, has been out for the first few weeks of the season.

But to be 15 and 9 at this point, the year for them is pretty impressive. I would take it for the Diamondbacks, considering how many injuries they've gone through. I don't know if any team is quite as injured as the Diamondbacks, but it does still seem like a lot of teams have lost major pieces of their starting rotation, of their starting lineup. So, you know, so much so that once again, there's people scrutinizing the pitch clock

and if that's causing it and doing all of that jazz. But some teams have been able to stay relatively healthy. I did want to touch on Otani because Otani has just been worth every dime, right? Yeah. Like we didn't want that. We definitely didn't want that. We wanted him to just go in a downward spiral once this whole, you know, thing. we finally had a controversy. We thought it was going to ruin him. It didn't. In fact, the controversy might have made him stronger.

Because he's leading in most offensive categories in all baseball, right? Yeah, he has the best OPS in baseball at 1129. He is the best batting average at 371. What? He is also recovering from Tommy John surgery, which as we discussed in the or some sort of elbow surgery, I don't know if they ever officially called the Tommy John. But we talked in the off season about how. it's not necessarily a given or it didn't feel like a given that Otani's offense would be, you know, completely not affected at all by, by overcoming that surgery. And so far, I mean, yeah, this is the best that Otani has really ever looked at the plate. And I was very skeptical of people, you know, giving him MVP love entering the season. Never had a designated hitter win that award before. But, I mean, if he has an 1130 OPS the whole year, like, yeah, you, yeah, you, yeah. Yeah, you might.

You might be if you have an 1130 OPS, even if you're giving your team no defensive value whatsoever. Otani's been that good early on in the season. The Reds, of course, that's the only team here, kind of making their debut and kind of finding their way onto the top 10. What were your thoughts here with the Reds overall? And do you think that, I mean, we know that they're young, exciting team,

and we've already seen that last season. Do you think that they can actually, you know, put it together this year? Yeah, it's going to depend on the pitching for me. I still don't know if we feel like the Reds rotation is all that great. There have been all the Reds-D-backs comparisons, and the biggest difference continues to be that the debacks have Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly, and the Reds don't.

Do they? Although now the debacks don't have Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly, because Merrill Kelly is out with a shoulder injury in my several months. But, yeah, the Reds offense, it continues to really impress me. I mean, the fact that Matt McLean is on the injury, list. T.J. Friedel's on the injured list. I don't believe either of those guys have played at all. But because of what L.A. Daly Cruz is giving you,

because of what Spencer Steer is giving you. He's been really impressive, really, in the season. Yeah, I mean, that offense is good enough that it seems like it's going to have the Reds hanging around for a while. So it feels like we kind of cycle through a new team in the number 10 slot every week. Yeah, we move some teams around there at the bottom, a couple of move one or two spots. But so far, the baseball teams that are good this year, continue to be good. The Cubs, they have, you know, they have a, they, they have their own injuries to

overcome. But if they can continue to play above 500 baseball, they have a lot of key components coming back, just like the Diamondbacks do. But the Diamondbacks right now, they would be on the bubble of this list as one of the honorable mentions at 9 and 10 would still with a really good plus 19 run differential. Of course, another team hanging around right there are the Padres, who are just a few games ahead of the Diamondbacks in the NL West at 11 and 10 with a plus 12. I think that's my mistake. I think those numbers are old. Oh, okay.

Yeah. No. Yeah. Ignore everything Derek just said. Because Jesse fed me misinformation, but it was my fault. Jesse fed me misinformation, but, uh, Padre still have, is, I'm guessing that's from last week. This, these numbers are all from last week.

Because the Diamondbacks have a bunch of, yeah, the Dvex are a lot of, yeah, run differential. But, uh, yeah, I mean. And the divvats, they were only plus 19 last week when we did this, Derek. Yeah, what are they out? Now they're, now they're plus 35, I believe. Yeah. Are they still? And, uh, they went three and four.

Do they qualify in your honorable mentions still? They would probably still qualify in my honorable mentions. I still, I continue to be the type of person who does value run differential quite a bit early in the season, just because you're dealing with such a small sample size of games. Like, if you're like minus 20 at this point, but you're above 500, I'm going to be pretty skeptical of you. And on the flip side, if you're below 500, but you're, you know, plus 30 something like the Diamondbacks are, you know, that is a pretty good sign. But at the same time, I think we all understand that the way that the Diamondbacks have gotten to that run differential, right? It's that they've blown out teams a handful of times and pretty much all of the positive comes from, you know, two or three games this season.

So I'm not quite sure that plus 35 is really indicative of exactly how good of a team that Deepak's are. How dare you? They're tied for second place with the highest run differential in the National League. The Braves have a plus 44 run differential. Diamondbacks tied with the Brewers for second at plus 35. The Colorado Rockies already have a minus 57 run differential. Yeah, that's a bad. It's definitely bad baseball team.

Let's just move them. Have you looked at the Chicago White Sox's differential there? Oh, my God. The White Sox are minus 85. Minus 85. Oh, my God. They are three and 20. Wow.

Well, it could be worse, Diamondbacks fans. They are on pace to win. Let me figure this out real quick. Oh my gosh. No, you're not going to do it. The white socks are on pace to go 19 and 143. No, that's impossible. That's impossible.

It feels impossible, Derek. Have you seen that team? Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, I tell you, the team of team I've seen recently and heard Shane yelling about a lot in the office is the Seattle Mariners. And that's who the Arizona Diamondbacks have to deal with coming. up. Let's take a look at the probable pitchers, which we still, I don't

believe we've gotten a confirmation on this, but this is how things line up right now for this series. Of course, there could be changes because I think Zach Gallen is the only official pitcher that's been put up by MLB.com, but that might have changed already, but we would hypothetically have Gallin going up against Kirby,

Cicone going up against Hancock and fought going up against Gilbert. Oh, they, yeah, we actually do have more official information. They actually made a swap here. So Emerson Hancock is pitching against Zach Gallen and now George Kirby's been moved to the Saturday game. So I don't

really know. Yeah, I don't think that's how it lined up. That's a little odd that the Mariners are doing that. But same three starters at the debacks are getting George Kirby, Emerson Hancock and Logan Gilbert. You got your 6.10 ERA or your 5.33 ERA. Pick your poison there. With those

hurlers. I mean, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert are both really freaking good. Logan Gilbert has a sub Logan Gilbert has been credible this season George Kirby is not off to a strong start but he's still a very very good pitcher who never walks anyone

Emerson Hancock by far the weakest pitcher on paper that the debacks get in this series he's off to a bit of a rough start So he'll be going up against Gatlin Yeah yeah Jack Gallin against Emerson Hancock Which makes the Friday game like that's a It's a game you're going to want to win in this series

because after that Dbacks don't really have the pitching matchup doesn't really favor them for the last two the last two games of the series so well of course that means that the dimebacks are going to put up 20 runs in that game and then lose the other two by a score of three to one and two to zero I feel like what would be more on brand is if they lost the gallon game by like a couple runs yeah in the in the way that they often do slade pitches brilliantly and then slade goes like seven scoreless and they put up 19 runs yeah right absolutely and then brandon fought and Logan Gilbert that one no Brandon does good too he gives up

two in like six innings and then gets no runs aboard. Yeah, gallon might be pretty good too. But yeah, but yeah, they're, yeah. I hate that I've even saying these things. Let's just stop talking right now. I'm sure they don't want to hear this at all. You can already chalk it up, Derek. They're going to outscore the Mariners by 10 runs this weekend and they're going to lose

two out of three, right? That's, that's just, it's the way things have gone for the deback so far. I want to, is it, is it Toby puppy? Yeah, a friend of the coyote program. The coyote show Toby Puppy says, Swedish and still sat over. coyotes we are as well maybe learn stuff about baseball so I can I still can support Arizona we would love to have you Jesse will absolutely teach you everything about FIP and XBH and all sorts of stuff

XBA XBA but I see I won't teach you any of that stuff but I will I don't know possibly get drunk and sing a song kind of like PD does I don't know we'll see Of course, we do appreciate you being here, and we thank you so much for loving the coyotes. And yes, we do welcome you into our little tribe here in the baseball world. Speaking of that, one thing we do around here is sometimes we get jealous. We might drink a little too much, and we might spy on our exes. So let's get to spying on some of our exes from the Seattle Mariners, because, of course, Josh Rojas is making us regret losing him in any way, shape, or form.

currently leads the Mariners in batting average, slashing 315, 383, 463, with an 846 OPS. Also, Jesse, lighting the world on fire as a reliever. Yeah, 9.00 ERA and 2.0 innings pitched. We've always said he's a two-way player, Derek. I knew. I know. Forget Otani.

We always do Josh Ross was going to emerge as the true two-way player in Major League Baseball. Rojas has been good since the Diamondbacks traded. to Josh Rojas to the Mariners. He has been a very, very good baseball player. Maybe very, very good is I don't want to overstate that. But like, he's, he's been an above average solid contributor for that Mariners team in a way that he obviously got off to a rough star with the debacks last year. But yeah, I mean, even looking at the expected numbers for Rojas early in the season, like he has a 354 ex-Woba at this point, which is using his expected stats. It basically reads like an on-base percentage, but it also factors in the quality of

attacked. There I go again. That's a really good number. 354 is a really good number. Think of it like a on-based percentage. That would be good on-based percentage. He has not had an ex-Woba higher than 320 in any prior season in his big league career. So the quality of contact has been really good for Rojas so far. And I don't know if he's going to hit 306 or whatever it is for the rest of the year. But what he's done so far is not, is really not been a fluke. We miss you, Roe. Another guy we this dominant canzone unfortunately currently on the 15 day iL for the mariners has a sprained ac joint in his left shoulder as of right now yeah it's tough it's tough um yeah canzone was he said a few like dramatic homers for the for the mariners and in his short stay there he hasn't really gotten on

base a ton since the trade he had a 248 on base percentage last year he's already a legend there though yeah 286 on base percentage this year but he hit five homers last year in 44 games this year He had three homers in 14 games. And it seems like a lot of those have been in pretty big moments for the Mariners. So, yeah, I mean, we said it when the debacks traded for Paul Seawald, right? Yeah. The price to make that deal was not low, right? When you're giving up Ryan Bliss and you're giving up both of these guys,

Dryas and Kanzone, that's a lot for a year and a half of a closer who's only going to pitch about 50 innings, you know, this season, I guess he could still maybe reach around 50 innings. He pitched, you know, maybe 20 innings or so down the stretch last year. Of course, D-BACs, that's a move that they should have made. Like, I'm not saying it's a move that they would regret making in any sense. Obviously, it was a need that they had and they addressed it, but it wasn't, it wasn't cheap. And we've seen that. We've certainly seen that. We went to the goddamn World Series, Jesse. There is no price that's too high, I mean, for the fact that the Diamondbacks made the run that they did. And they might not, they might not,

if they would not have even made the playoffs if it wasn't for Paul Seawald. So the second. sacrifice was worth it. However, yes, now you get to go see Josh Rojas rake in Seattle. And as much as we want to root for them, it's a little painful to see that because, again, there was times where Rojas very much felt like he was going to be part of this core with these other young players that went on to, you know, have the success that they had as a team last year. I'm sure it sucks for Rojas to see the team go off and do the things that he did. And I hope that someone mailed him a National League championship ring. I'm just saying that much. might be something nice to do. But maybe too much, maybe too much. Maybe I went too far. I don't know. I mean, I think he would have been offered one. I'm not totally sure if he accepted it.

I think he probably would have. That would be a good move. It would be great to see him get that. But of course, this series, very important for the Diamondbacks to get themselves back on track. Of course, a series sweep, if they do are somehow able to sweep the Mariners, does put them back into contention for dying my hair purple. Because then they would just need to win one from the Dodgers. right so they need to just go four and one here to wrap up the month is that possible i'm not saying

it's impossible but i did cancel my hair dying appointment so anyway we thank you guys for being here we also thank you very much for being diehards if you are a die hard if you are not a diehard yet sign up at go p hnx dot com get yourself a wonderful t-shirt like this cardinals one i'm rocking right now in honor of uh of us holding the line together as a group uh you get all sorts of wonderful content including Jesse's written content, access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be in Arizona sports fan. We do some exclusive content in there, as well as all the other wonderful benefits, including discounts on our upcoming event, like our takeover at Chase Field coming up here very soon. It's Gabby Moreno Bobblehead Night, so do not miss that. We also have our pool party on July 31st and then a third takeover later in the year.

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Terms do apply. Again, create an account and redeem code 20. Redeem code P.HNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, our very own Craig Morgan had Diamondbacks president Derek Hall in our office. Apparently, he was not here to make sure I was terminated, which I know many people thought that was the case. Yes, yes.

It made all the sense logically in the world. But, of course, that interview with Derek Hall is available right now in our YouTube channel. if you want to check that out. Yes. But we do have a few clips here from Derek and that interview, and we kind of wanted to chat about some of his answers, specifically about the Diamondbacks run last year and their additions at the trade deadline.

Yeah, let's go ahead. And there's a lot of good stuff in this interview. I will quickly plug that we don't have this clip to show today, but you all should go watch it for honestly just this reason alone. Derek Hall did you a brief Ken Kendrick. impersonation. Yes. Anna Vin Scully, by the way. Anna Vincily, yes.

Worth the price of admission alone. Worth the price of admission. So we don't have that, but you should go check it out so that you can see that. This is a teaser for that, but we're telling you that because we want to entice you to go watch the whole interview. It was pretty, that was pretty amazing. But yes, this is, we'll start with the first one here. This is Derek Hall talking about the trade deadline last year and the, what was a very difficult

decision at the time to push in the chips and go make the moves that the diamondbacks did. We hit the skids and here we were two games under 500 and wondering if we could claw our way out of it and it was right around the trade deadline. And, you know, Hazen and I had several conversations. And Mike's like I completely understand if you don't want to do anything with this team the way we're playing. And we all thought, no, we're going to do it. We're going to send a message to Tori and to the players. And we went out and addressed needs then. Went and got our closer. We went and got Tommy fam who was so important. You know, just the moves that we made, I think at the deadline were great. and help propel us over the top.

And that's why we felt like we had to do more this offseason for that same approach and for the same reason. It's got to be such a fulfilling concept to have a team that you theoretically shouldn't have added to because it did not look like it was going to be a very good baseball team. Yeah. Was absolutely circling the drain at the time. And you just made that decision to say, let's do it anyway.

And then the results were what the results were. And this team ends up making it all the way to the World Series. You know, like that, I can't, I can only imagine how much, like, even if you're not patting yourself on the back in meetings and such, there's got to be those moments where you just look in the mirror and go, God damn it, that was the right decision. Like, that was such, like, I'm so glad that we trusted our instincts and decided to add to this team at that moment, despite the fact that everything historically would probably tell you that that team is. not worth you making those moves at that time for. The vibes weren't great with the Diamondbacks in July, Derek. No. His baseball seemed to not exactly scream.

Like, yes, you should definitely make investments to, you know, try to get this team into the playoffs. They were, as you heard Derek describe there, like, this team was really struggling all of a sudden in July. And we spent a lot of time on this show covering potential trade targets and, you know, guys the debacks could maybe acquire. And we reached the point of like, does even make sense? Like, does even, does it really?

really makes sense to invest prospect capital into a team that is now below 500. Like, this team really have a shot to really do much of anything. We started very loud with our trade ideas. And we got quieter, the closer that we got to the trade deadline. And the more of this team lost in July, like, it was easy to lose faith in this team as a whole. Not to mention the fact that you also had Mike Hazen at the time talking about not trading prospects and not wanting to get a rate, like kind of wanting to move some pieces that were from the major league roster and make this team better going that route. And that just didn't even seem very likely.

And yet they still were able to pull off the trades they did and improve this team and somehow miraculously make it as far as they did. Yeah. I mean, it was the right call. It was the right call for the defects to do that. In retrospect, if they don't push in the chips, I mean, it goes without saying debacks don't make the playoffs. They don't make the World Series. Right. And the ramifications of that are enormous because you think about why the debacks were able to invest in Jordan Montgomery, why they were able to be as aggressive as they were this offseason.

Obviously, it hasn't gone great so far, but there's still plenty of season left. The reason that they are still in a pretty decent position overall is because they went as deep as they did. They made a whole bunch of extra money at the end of the year that they weren't really expecting to make. And yeah, like I said, the ramifications of that are potentially going to be felt for for a long time here. So, yeah, it's amazing how that one decision to push in the chips, the impact is huge. The ramifications might be felt this trade deadline as well, not just for this team, but all throughout Major League Baseball. We talked about how last year the trade deadline, pieces weren't moving. Trades weren't getting accomplished.

And part of that was because what the Phillies had done the year prior would just sneaking into the playoffs and then their team making it as far as they did. and now you've had that amplified by the Diamondbacks doing it essentially a second year in the row as the final team to make it into the playoffs and make it as far as they did. You're going to have teams that are hovering right around 500 and or even below 500 that might still think they have a shot when the trade deadline comes around. It's going to impact the way that certain GMs and certain teams run their organizations because they're going to believe they still have the pieces or they still have a shot at making a run in the playoffs. and honestly, when you get there, as long as you get there, anything can happen. Anything can happen. And I think the Diamondbacks, of course, knew that last year. But I don't think according to what we're going to hear from Derek Hall,

that the belief there was that this team was going to make it to the World Series. Understandably so. We were doing the exact same thing on this show where we were saying, like, hey, it would just be great if they got in. Hey, it would be great for these young guys to get some experience in the postseason and just be able to have much like the way with, Some of the younger players, the Diamondbacks kind of called them in, you know, towards the end of the season so that they could get their feet wet in Major League Baseball before having their true rookie year the next year. Corbyn Carroll, obviously, had some pretty good results when it came to that.

This, though, from Derek Hall, I think, is kind of what some of us were feeling. And I think this is the clip. I might be setting this up wrong. No, yeah, yeah, we'll go to the one where Derek Hall is talking about the DeBacks postseason run. And I, yeah, I love, I love his candor as he's talking about it. We can all feel it. This is what he had to say. Just backing our way in, barely getting in.

And then I thought, okay, we're going to go to Milwaukee. You know, we're going to face Peralta and Burns. It's going to be tough, but it's going to be great experience for that young team. They're going to lose, but it'll be all right. They sweep them. Now we're going to L.A. Well, we know how we play against L.A. All right.

It's still, this is going to be even better experience, right? They just beat Milwaukee, but we're going to go there. And if we lose, that's all right. It was good experience. And we sweep them. And it's, wow. Well, now we got to play Philly. And so we go to Philly, of course, we dropped the first two.

We come back. We didn't even things up, but we kept ourselves in it, went back to Philly. You have to win seven and eight or six and seven? I mean, what are the chances of winning games, six and seven in Philadelphia? And that's one of the most hostile places I've ever been. And to their credit. And we pulled that off there. In every sport, by the way.

In every sport, true, not just baseball. Yeah. And then to be on that stage and Craig, that's what you dream of and to have that trophy. You know, I was numb. And I remember thinking, this is what you. you know, this is what you want, right? You want the World Series trophy, of course, more so. But to be in Philadelphia and to hear this little hum of booze before they all left,

you know, the fans just booing us on stage and watching the smiles on those guys' faces and the hugs and then going back to the hotel where the families were all there and we had this little party ready to go. I'm on a bus going back. And I tell my wife, you know, why don't you go in? I'll meet you in the ballroom in a little bit. I'll be right there. And I went up to the, I went up to my hotel room, walked in the dark, sat down on the couch

and just started bawling. Like this is unbelievable. And then please, can we win the World Series? But anyway, it was just great being there. I mean, it was great being there. And I think, like you said, about it's candor, right? Like that not a lot of people want to admit that. Mike Hazen would have never been on an interview admitting that they didn't think this team was going to do it.

But, I mean, come on. He can be pretty candid to at times. Yeah, Derek Kau. I just love Derek Kovian like, they're going to go in. They're going to face Peralta and Burns. They're going to lose, but it's going to be a good experience. I mean, it was, it sounded very much. like conversations we had ourselves, right? But it's like, again, when you have a young team that's

exciting and on the rise, you're satisfied with them making those steps, right? And you're also satisfied with the end result of winning a championship not being there yet. You're satisfied with the progression you've made. We made the playoffs. We've made it so far from that season, just two seasons ago, where we lost 100 plus games. And to be 110. 110. And to be where you're at now has to just feel good just to make it to the postseason, right? But then the team does what it does, and of course a huge part of that is Tori LaVallejo. I know so far this season we have questioned a lot of what Tori LaBolo has done, and rightfully so.

I'm sure even Tori would admit that it was right. It's right to question some of his decisions. He questions his own decisions. He had an entire conversation with Barry Bloom about questioning his decisions in which Barry actively questioned his decisions just in front of all of us. And Tori just sat there and had an open discussion with this person who we have to put up with around here, Barry Bloom. No, we love Barry. But Tori especially loves Barry, right?

But I mean, rightfully so, Tori, you know, at times has had his ups and downs with this team. And, I mean, he had a very hot start as a manager when he was hired and he came here and he was able to do what he did in his first season. But then there was some very bad times as manager. And of course, you know, there always is that reaction. There always is that like, well, it's time to fire the manager. It's time to fire, you know, the GM. It almost feels like a natural progression after you lose 110 games to just kind of clean house and change direction. And the diamondbacks, they didn't do that.

Yeah, the diamondbacks decided to stick by Toro Lavello and Mike Hazen at a time where other organizations might not have. And in retrospect, you know, Tori's. far. I know he's made some decisions that people haven't liked, as you said, but you can understand why he's still here, right? I mean, the way that players just seem to really gravitate toward him and enjoy playing for him. And Mike Hayes in the full body of work here, certainly there have been some mistakes along the way. He'd be the first person to tell you, but the full body of work here in Arizona, I think we can all agree. It's been pretty good. And yeah, here is Derek Hall talking about standing by Torrey, standing by, you know, some of the guys at the helm here when, when

times were tough. We had a terrible year on the field at the big league level, but you get a sense of who Tori is. And Tori Lavello is such a great man and great manager, but it's because he's such a good man. And he's got a huge heart and he cares so much for his players. And they love him. Again, I said, like my father, going through a wall, those players would go through a wall for Tori because he's honest. He communicates. He's vulnerable. He's not afraid to use the word love. I mean, you know, the first day of spring training, even that bad year was, and after the bad year, you need to love each other. And I love you. And you have to, you know, you're going to have disagreements. You're going to have arguments. First day of spring training, every team thinks you're going to win. And they all say

the same thing. But his is just a little different. It's heartfelt. You believe him. And you want to, you want to love this guy. And you want to play hard for him. And we just felt that way. We thought we could turn it around. We thought we were knocking on the door. And at the end of that 22 year, you know, we saw something, right? The fans that was at next year. The fans were really excited about the product and about the young guys coming up when they saw at the time it was vars show but it was it was it was carol and it was McCarthy and it was thomas and it was so much excitement even though we were still losing and we had a bad record it really carried over that momentum carried over and at the end of that year i had more of my counterparts at the owners meetings

come up to me and say we hated playing you guys i just want to tell you our team does not like playing you and that give you know you puff your chest out a little bit with that you're like ooh we're on to something and i'm glad we stuck to him because it paid off I would absolutely run through a wall for Tori LaValo without him asking. I would just do it because I'd want to impress him and I'd want him to think I was cool because that's how Tori is. He'd probably watch me do it and you'd just go, sick is what he would do. Yeah, yeah, he would. He would just, that's all.

But yeah, no, he's right. I mean, Tori is the kind of guy that players want to play for, the kind of guy that is perfect for an organization like this that is going to, I mean, this was an outlier. right the fact that they added as many free agents and made the moves that they did this offseason to make the roster better but this team going forward this organization moving forward is most likely going to continue to build through their young players in their

minor league system it's going to be a vital part of this team's success and that's the reason why Tori is such a good manager for that I feel like he really does manage in a way that allows these young players to come up to feel comfortable and to be themselves and to have the success that we're seeing guys like Corby and Carroll have last year

and Blaze Alexander have this year. Yeah, yeah. I totally agree with all of that. And I know people are going to question certain decisions here and there that the Tories made this year. I don't think the debauch are 12 and 14 because of Tori Lavello's mistakes. Might be 14 and 12, but maybe, maybe, maybe. Yeah, I don't even really think there's necessarily a ton of evidence for that.

It's always hard to. Sure. It's always hard to. It's easy to nitpick and say like, well, if you would have done this, it would have gone better. Well, how do you know? Right? If you have Lordus and Cattel in yesterday's game, how do you know? Lordis and Cotel don't go 0 for 4, 0 for 5 and don't have themselves a good day either, right?

It's a little easier to understand the loss if those guys are in there and that happens. But without them, there's always the unknown of being able to question it and say, well, there's this alternate reality where we won that game because you put those guys in there. Yeah. Yeah. So go watch the full interview with Derek Hall. He's absolutely right. It was fantastic. There's a lot of stuff in there about him personally that I did not.

know, Derek Hall grew up with his dad was very involved in media, working for a number of different newspapers. Derek Hall went to Cronkite and has a journalism background, which is something I did not, I did not know. Dwight loves us. There you go. He absolutely adores us. He absolutely does.

At least one of the two hosts. And we'll leave it up to you to guess which one. Of course, yeah, make sure to check that interview out. Make sure to check out everything we got going on today. Of course, you know what today is. It's NFL draft day. So if you haven't had a chance to tune in to the PHNX Cardinals show, make sure you keep it locked to those guys tonight

because they will have all of the coverage you need. And of course, we can't wait to welcome Marvin Harrison Jr. to this franchise because that's what's going to happen. But in the meantime, we appreciate you guys stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. This absolute maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Danielle Cortez is at Aberka Danielle still?

Yep. All right, got it. But make sure, of course, oh, and we are, we are Danielle's dogs. Bark, bark, bark. Yeah, okay. See you're the enthusiasm there? There was definitely an uptick and enthusiasm. There has to be an alliteration.

That works well. It works perfectly. But of course, our shows at PHNX underscore DBEX and all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys for your time. We hope you have a lovely night. We hope the Cardinals have a lovely night. And we will see you guys back here tomorrow for our postgame show after game one against the Seattle Mariners.

You guys, again, have yourselves a great night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you hold the line.