PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Brandon Pfaadt gets rocked early, Diamondbacks fail to complete comeback against Cardinals
Episode Date: April 13, 2024After one of his best outings of his career, Brandon Pfaadt struggled early against the Cardinals on Friday. But the Diamondbacks became the ANSWERBACKS, scoring six runs in an inning to even the game.... However, they were once again plagued by their bullpen and inability to score in late innings despite their best efforts at a comeback. We have more from the clubhouse at Chase Field on the loss and some concerning injury updates to one of the D-backs biggest offseason acquisitions. 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/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I hate that goddamn song so much.
Welcome in.
Ski to you all on this sad Friday night.
Welcome to the PHNX Diamondback Show.
Of course, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of this network we call PHNX.
Shout out to OG's brands, the official sponsor of flavoring Fridays.
OGs is not your average cannabis infused gummy.
They absolutely knock it out of the park when it comes to flavor and their effects of their gummies are a total slam dunk too.
That's a basketball term, but you get what we were going for here.
Head on over to OGsbrands.com to see their full lineup,
including their two newest gummies and find out where you can purchase those.
And we might need some OGs gummies on a night like this to overcome the Diamondbacks losing to the St. Louis Cardinals, 9 to 6.
There were some good moments for this team, but let's be honest.
They were absolutely plagued once again by their, I guess, late inning shortcomings both offensively.
and in their bullpen.
Diamondbacks had some good production from a few guys.
Corbyn Carroll was two for four with two singles tonight.
Kevin Newman was two for three with an RBI and a run scored.
Gino, of course, did the thing again,
his second home run of the year.
He had three RBIs and was two for four.
But really, Brandon fought was not very good early in this game.
That's what put the Diamondbacks in the hole.
He allowed six runs and two homers in his first three innings of work.
he just he got hit hard tonight and he wasn't getting a lot of swings and misses after his last
outing when he set a career high I believe with 20 whiffs so again six runs allowed in those first
three innings just put the diamond backs behind and it was just hard for them to come back
from that kind of deficit but they did they did uh yeah they did and yes I am wearing the shirt
by the way shout out to Elizabeth in the chat shout out to
all of you, ski, of course, to all of you.
But Elizabeth says, Derek the shirt, yes, here it is.
And of course, Thunderbolt, good to see you here.
I have had it, though.
I have kind of had it a little bit with this team.
I'm not, I'm not digging what we see here.
And we'll get into the late inning stuff.
And of course, we will be joined by my vice mayor and your Thunderstick,
Jesse Friedman here from the club.
House shortly. But yeah, I mean, I want to dig in on the lack of offense innings seven through
nine. I want to talk about the bad bullpen. But Brandon Fought was disappointing in this game. I mean,
he did settle in nicely. And I think that's the thing about Brandon Fought is that he can rebound
from rough outings pretty, pretty well, like having a bad first inning like he did, giving up those
three runs. Some things were working for him. He got four whiffs on his sweeper, two on his fastball. But he just,
He wasn't getting a lot of swings and misses.
And I know the location of his pitches were just absolutely problematic tonight.
And of course, I don't know what to say about thought because you just, you know,
even within one game, you kind of get two different pitchers.
His line ends up looking not terrible, but still not great.
Six innings pitched, seven hits allowed, six earn runs, two walks,
struck out four, gave up the two home runs.
But again, the Diamondbacks bailed him out, essentially, because that fifth inning,
it was just good old-fashioned Diamondbacks chaos, right?
You had guys getting on, you had Blaze reaching on that air.
You have Kevin Newman bringing him home with an RBI double, which, by the way, Newman,
let's put some respect on Kevin Newman's name.
He was not the problem tonight.
The lack of offense, I think, around the board, of course, you know,
there were some couple, couple of hits that didn't go the Diamondbacks way once again.
But that inning, that fifth inning showed that the Diamondbacks are still a very potent team
offensively, even with this lineup out there that doesn't have their best players as a part of it due to injury.
But you have, you know, Catell-Marte getting the RBI single, Lordes gets an RBI single,
Christian Walker-Walker-Walker, Walker, and then Gino with first pitch three-run Homer.
that was an absolute blast right field.
Like I said earlier, his second of the season,
the Diamondbacks managed to score six runs in the inning,
tying the ball game at six.
I believe that is when our producer, Damon Dogg, walked in the door.
I believe that's when he came in.
I'm not sure if the home run happened because of him or just,
was it due to your presence, Damon, or what was your impact here on this inning?
You really could say that I had a negative impact on the game as well
because it was literally the second I walked through.
Like I didn't really see the swing.
I just saw the ball flying and then the light show and everybody going nuts.
So I guess you could either say it was a positive thing or a negative thing depending on.
You were in the vicinity, right?
Like you were there.
Yeah, you're either a glass half full or a glass half empty guy.
At first, I mean, I texted you guys and I was like, hey, I'm a good luck charm.
Yeah.
But, you know, after watching the rest of the game and it kind of going poorly,
I kind of feel like maybe I was the bad guy, but I don't know.
You, you, I mean, you've proven at times that you are a bad guy,
but you've also proven that on the Cardinals show, at least,
that you've grown as a person a little bit.
Or maybe you have it.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I like to think I have.
I try my best to be a good guy.
It doesn't mean it always works out that way.
So you being present, how frustrating it then is it to see the bullpen,
do what the bullpen has?
been doing lately and just not being able to go out there and have a clean inning, have an inning
without allowing runs to score. It seems like almost every time the bullpen is allowing runs
and multiple runs at that. I don't, I don't know. I feel like I'm just a broken man at this point.
This has happened so damn much this season. Like at what point is at what point do I just stop like,
like even like investing, you know, my. Yeah. Like I did believe. You got me again. I'll be
honest at 6-6, I believed all right. I was sitting there at 6-6 being like, we're going to win this ballgame.
And then, and then, of course, in classic 2024 D-backs fashion, we blow it in the last couple of
endings.
Classic, yeah. Well, and you could say classic 20-23 fashion as well, because that's one thing that's
problematic about this is it definitely feels a lot like last year.
I would say that there was times where McGuff and Castro, like, there was a time where we had
McGuff Castro, Kyle Nelson, and early in the season, and they were okay.
And then they got really bad.
And then we got seawalled and the whole bullpen got really good again.
So I feel like we had stretches last year where they were good, horrific, really good.
And then this year, it's just been really, really, really bad.
They're just so bad.
They're either so good or so bad, but then certain guys like Scott McGuff are just infuriating
because when the game isn't on the line,
when the Diamondbacks have a lead and they need to go out there and just have them eat innings,
lights out.
No runs allowed.
But when the game is on the line, this Diamondbacks bullpen just can't hold water.
I mean, in eight games, the Diamondbacks bullpen have allowed two or more earn runs,
including tonight.
Joe Mantiply remains absolutely inconsistent, you know.
Yeah.
Joe Man, I texted you guys this, you and Jesse, I said Joe Maniply throw his batting practice.
He does.
He throws it.
I don't.
Like, he throws it in the middle of this.
his own and he just lets every player just eat off of him. It's insane. Yeah. But Scott McGuff,
I mean, he's kind of like, he's like, his tail to me is like the polar opposite of like Ryan Thompson
with the raise, right? Ryan Thompson seemingly as we analyzed, you know, his year with the raise
before he became a Diamondback last season, it didn't even seem like he had that much, that many
bad outings. It kind of took two bad outings for him to have his kind of ERA blow up and then
shortly after that, he's DFAed by the race. Meanwhile, Scott McGuff just continues to get
opportunity after opportunity in high leverage situations. And despite how many times he blows it,
the Diamondbacks continue to go to him as an option. And I think the reason why is they don't
have a lot of options. Yeah, I don't, I just, I mean, you're the Scott McGuff guy. Maybe you should be
answering for your time. I don't want to be the Scott McGuff.
Don't make me the Scott McGuff guy.
That is not a place I want to be.
His last four games, Damon, in four games,
it's three and two-thirds innings pitched.
I don't even think that's right.
I think it's two and two-thirds innings pitch.
Seven hits allowed, six earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts.
The man has an 8.10 ERA, and I don't know what to say.
Like, when you see the performance of Justin Martinez in,
in AAA and you see some of the other young guys.
I just,
I can't really understand when the Diamondbacks were so quick to move on
from certain guys last season,
why they don't have that same kind of attitude with guys that time after time
seemingly can't perform.
And I'm not,
look,
I'm not advocating for someone to,
like,
lose their job or whatever,
but this is what sports and baseball is.
If you can't come in there and do your job,
I don't even know how you would expect to keep it.
Yeah,
I mean, I don't think that leash is too long, to be honest with you.
We're still really early in the season to the point where I think, you know,
Tori's the type of guy where he's going to let people work through those issues.
But I can't imagine that that leash is too much longer.
You can't just blow every single game.
I told Jesse one week into this season,
I'm ready for Justin Martinez and Andrew Salfring to get called up.
Yeah.
Why not?
Why not?
It took me one week to be like, get these bums off my roster.
Well, okay.
Here we are.
We know Blaze's struggles, right?
But Tori today made me feel like a crazy person for even being dissatisfied with Blaze's
performances because Tori approached it from the total Tory perspective on someone having the
struggles that Blaze has, knowing that they are just that, knowing what we've talked
about.
It's kind of a Yips thing.
It's kind of like him being in his head.
But like approaching it from the angle of like, we love Blaze.
We're going to show him love.
We're going to keep giving him opportunities.
We're going to let him work through this and grow as a player.
They want Blaze to become a well-rounded player.
they know what he's capable of.
These early struggles aren't really, you know,
he doesn't have that track record in like the minor leagues and such, right?
Like he's been a great defensive player,
especially with that arm of his.
It's just the opportunities given to someone like,
you know, McGuff in the bullpen over and over and over again,
just kind of prove.
I feel like that the Diamondbacks just are limited on options
and especially options with experience right now.
They know things are going to transform and the bullpen is going to be different
as the year goes on just like it was last year.
year. They're going to get pieces back. They're going to possibly need to make one of the starters
into a bullpen guy. But it sounds like based on an update we're about to give you here that they
might need one of those guys for much longer than we thought that they were going to, which again,
more bad news, more bad news. But before we get on to the bad news, I did want to talk about
the Diamondbacks late production in late innings because holy crap. They have scored nine runs in 14 games
in innings seven through nine.
Nine runs.
That's it.
That's ridiculous, really, when you think about it.
And in some cases, the Diamondbacks didn't need to score more runs than that.
In other cases, the Diamondbacks absolutely had a lead that they blew because they couldn't
score more runs.
I don't know what the answer is.
It's just absolutely crazy.
But tonight, after that fifth inning, the Diamondbacks didn't have a hit.
they didn't put a man on base.
They did not do anything to back up that amazing comeback that they were able to muster up in the fifth inning.
That was one of the most frustrating things about tonight.
You could get mad about the bullpen.
You could get mad about Brandon Fought start.
But it really did feel like the Diamondbacks had the dog in them to keep fighting and to keep trying to bring, you know, this, you know, try to come back in this game.
But man, it felt like once Mantiply allowed that one run, you know, he allowed that triple to Brendan Donovan and then RBI single to Goldie, who I spent the night be smirching on text messages to Damon and Jesse every time he did something bad.
That was such a bullshit hit too.
It really was.
That's why I texted you and I was like, you need to apologize for that because it was the most like karma bitch like type of hit of all time.
Like the dude literally just poked his bat out and it and it just goes line drive into the grass.
I was just texting Damon and Jesse.
Is this your God in all caps for every time he struck out or did something bad?
I thought he was about to strike out again.
And I was going to text to you and be like, this guy stinks.
This guy stinks.
Yeah.
And then of course he.
And then the next hit as well, I mean, I don't think they got anything out of it.
But the next hit was like the weakest hit ball I've seen be a hit in my entire life.
and it feels like the Diamondbacks have had that happen to them.
Like, I don't know.
Five times a game this entire season.
We talked about it with the Rockies too, right?
Where the balls were just falling.
Everything falls fair for them and everything goes foul for the Diamondbacks.
It's hard to explain.
By the way, Goldschmidt hitting 188 with a 554 OPS.
Just throwing that out there?
Is this your God?
I just needed to throw that out there.
Anytime I need to back up my stance on people not worshipping that man, I feel like I can.
But of course, we do have to give the King Snake to somebody.
Probably should give it to Damon for going and watching this game as a fan.
He probably deserves it.
But instead, we're going to give it to Gino, Ae Jueno, Aeu Ennio Suarez,
two for four tonight with the home run, three RBI,
and just a guy that the Diamondbacks really need to catch fire.
Again, it was great to see him early this season kind of spreading the ball around.
But this is his second home run.
And Gino was kind of brought here to bring the power.
to the Diamondbacks. That's one thing that they're definitely lacking. As of late, they've been
able to get base runners on. They've been able to, you know, have that big inning like they did
in the fifth. And a big part of that was because of Gino's home run. But it feels like that those
home runs are pretty few and far between after we saw them start the season on such a good foot,
on such a good note with their power, with their ability to produce runs. But we did, we did get
confirmation on a couple of other things tonight, by the way, including the Diamondback's
celebration that a lot of you have been asking about in regards to them doing a little motion
across their mouth and throwing like the key away like locking it up per jody jackson on the
broadcast she said she talked to kattel and the celebration was started by lordis gruel jr.
And it's kind of a zip the lip we stay quiet and let the other people do the talking right and
I think this kind of goes back to some of what we saw them doing with the heraldos shushing in the
playoffs last year and such. But right now, you know, I get it. There's no reason to, it kind of goes
along with the standard that they're trying to set and their attitude towards this season.
But like, yeah, it's, it's one of those situations where I don't know, I don't know, maybe,
maybe just do the talking, right? Like, I've, I've talked about it in the past a little bit,
but I felt like this team was at its best when it had that edge. Tori kind of gives them that
edge, but at times, Tori's also like one of the most understanding, calmest, nicest people you can
meet. So like, that edge, that fire is more there in the playoffs when we see them giving
those speeches in the clubhouse, maybe than it is during the regular season. I don't know if
Tommy Fam not being there kind of takes away that edge a little bit, but I don't know if zip the lip
at times, like I get what they're doing, like they're just trying to not do the talking and trying to
let their production on the field do the do the thing but i get a little boastful get a little arrogant like
i feel like this team is always scared to do that last year with the home run celebrations the minute
that they invested uh you know got got themselves a new you know uh like the the the vest or the snake
which we adopted as jesse juniors most you know like they uh they kind of back away from it
because i i feel like like most of twitter they they think that saying something online or saying
something is going to actually impact the game.
It doesn't. It's not how like karma really works.
Don't listen to Damon. He'll convince you my text messages or why they lost tonight,
but it's it's the bullpen. The bullpen's why they lost tonight.
Anyway, we do have some positive updates and also maybe not some positive ones.
I have this wonderful shirt on and hopefully tomorrow is a better day for us because it is
Alec Thomas. I don't know what we call on this. The hype t-shirt, the home run t-shirt,
the NLCS T-shirt.
It's beautiful.
It's amazing.
And we got to talk to Alec Thomas today about not only this shirt,
but if he thought that maybe shirts were better than bobbleheads and, you know,
the honor of being featured on a shirt like this.
This is what AT had to say.
Yeah, no part in the design.
I just saw it one day.
And I was like, oh, that's pretty sweet.
So, yeah, I love the shirt.
It looks really good.
It seems very much like your bottom.
Yeah, I think I have a few shirts that kind of have that little vibe to it.
So, yeah, it's pretty cool.
What does it mean you to have a shirt dedicated to this office?
Yeah, I mean, it means a lot.
It means you did something right.
And, you know, coming big or coming out big in that moment and, you know, the history of it and everything.
And it was pretty sweet.
And now having a shirt and it being given away, you know, at the stadium is, you know, an honor.
And, you know, I feel blessed to have that.
How many times did you kind of relived that moment in your meeting?
Almost every day, I would say.
Yeah, almost every day.
But, yeah, it was just a really special moment.
And, you know, I love the swing.
I love, you know, seeing all the fans get really excited and, you know,
getting this place bumping.
So, yeah, I definitely think about it quite often.
Do you rather have a shirt or a bobblehead?
I think a shirt.
I think a shirt's a little cooler.
But obviously, a bobblehead is, you know, really special, too.
so yeah I think at least for me right now I think a shirt is pretty sweet
shirt is pretty sweet right like bobbleheads are a bit more common
I don't know if you're getting a shirt like this made for you as a major league
baseball player every single day so this shirt is is awesome I don't know if you heard the
questions that were asked but the question what he when he was talking about if
he was asked if he thinks about this moment and he said every single day
and like that's like such a real answer because
after being in a moment like that, not only do you kind of relive it because of the amount of joy,
I imagine it brought you, but I imagine it's also a motivating factor for Thomas,
for him to want to experience a moment like that again.
Like that's where the success becomes, you know, like an addiction, where you want it again
so bad, you need to get back there, right?
And so, you know, I hope he gets that opportunity.
It'll be exciting to see him return to the field.
And in fact, we did also get an update in regards to his injury and how is progression at getting back to running and getting back to 100% is going.
This is what he had to say.
In the beginning, it was kind of hard.
You know, mentally, I was kind of upset and, you know, battling with, you know, trying to stay positive and talk to Paul C.Wald a little bit.
And I think he's helped and also all the other guys that are there too.
So obviously our training staff as well, like talking to them.
So the main thing I think is just a mental part of it and wanting to be out here and wanting
to be a part of the team.
And, you know, it sucks, you know, to be out for so long, it feels like forever to me.
So, yeah, it's been a process, but I feel like right now I'm in a good, you know, state,
you know, mentally and physically.
So, you know, it's getting better each day and definitely just trying to trust the process.
Have you been able to start a running progression or anything like that?
Yeah, we started a few days ago and, you know, it feels really good.
And definitely just building off that and taking it, you know, step by step day by day.
And, you know, right now it feels really good.
Are you able to field that all the time?
Yeah, yeah.
Not fielding just yet, but hitting, hit live at bats against the guys that are still there.
The extended spring training guys and got like 7-8 at Bats the other day and out on the field
and got to see them field my ball and not run.
So that was a little weird, but it was so cool to just be able to see it.
pitching and then also we have a
trajectory machine here and you know I get to see
I've faced all the
all the starters that are thrown
here the next couple days so
you know getting a chance to hit off that
and you know stay ready
you know and making sure that I'm
when I come back I'm you know
not just hitting the ground running there
so with you
Diamondbacks have a lot of injuries
Alec Thomas again a big part of the
offense that's missing and also his defense
out there in the outfield as well
but of course can't get him back fast enough.
Unfortunately, we got some bad news on Eduardo Rodriguez today.
We got an update to where he said that they have shut ERA down
once again due to him filling some tightness again in his left lat to,
I guess to discuss that.
I see this guy, he's cleaning off his camera right now.
So I'm going to, whenever he's done doing that, I'm going to bring him in.
But Jesse Friedman joining us from Chase Field.
Jesse, not exactly the news we were wanting to hear today when Tori told us that Erod has once again been shut down and his timetable is a question mark.
We can't hear you, pal.
And I know you're going to fight with David about whose fault is this, but he's going to blame it on me again.
He's going to blame it on you again.
He's definitely going to do that.
No, he's still not back.
Oh, you're lit up now.
I don't know what to tell you.
This is big, big muted, Jesse.
I'm going to, I'm going to, you move your mouth and I'll talk for you.
Yeah.
Hey, everybody.
It's Jesse from my.
Yeah, no, this is a good work.
You guys.
There we go.
Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's my lousy AirPods instead of the fancy mic.
There you go.
That ironed out at some point.
But, uh, yeah, it's, it's tough news.
I mean, we've talked for,
weeks now about how big it's going to be for the debacks once you get
Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery back, just the impact that those two guys
can have together. And we still expect Jordan Montgomery to be back soon.
Theoretically, his debut with the Diamondbacks would come a week from today.
That certainly in and of itself is still a big boost.
But Eduardo Rodriguez, I mean, this is tough, man.
You know, it sounds like he just, I guess, tried to get back too soon.
I don't know exactly how this went down,
but I believe Erod only took seven days off
from when he suffered the injury to when he started throwing again.
It sounds about right.
Seven days.
Yeah, I think it was the 19th of the 26th, if I'm not mistaken, of March.
And it appears that those seven days just weren't enough.
And I don't know if this was avoidable in any sense.
The Diamond Bex did do a follow-up MRI,
and they discovered that Eduardo Rodriguez,
that Tori didn't get into specifics,
but he still said that there were signals in this MRI, whatever that means,
that the injury is still present to some extent.
So maybe, I mean, maybe it's on them for, you know, not sort of double checking that
or being extra careful and making sure he was ready to go.
But, you know, sometimes these things just happen.
And there's no way to, there's no way to know that something like this is going to come up until it does.
Without him telling you that there's a problem, I don't know if you can know.
And one thing that we both kind of discussed here is that he was very confident that he was fine.
Like even after the MRI, he felt like the MRI was almost lying, right?
And now here he is experiencing this tightness again.
I have no idea what a signal or an indicator is on an MRI of a lat tightness.
But I imagine these people that are medical professionals know what they're doing.
Of course, we do have video here from Tori talking about Erod's.
injury and what what's next for him.
Erod threw his bullpen a couple days ago and felt some some tightness and we decided to
pull back on on his progression.
So what does that mean?
What is the timetable?
I'm not sure.
I don't know what that means right now.
I just know that he spoke up, which we've asked our athletes to do.
And he felt that that tightness.
And we're going to continue to progress as we can.
but for right now we're going to pull back on a surround program.
So is the same type of type of from before just coming back again a little bit?
I don't think it was as sharp, but it was in the same area.
Does pullback mean like shut down for a week?
Yes, we're going to pull back on a storm program. Correct. Correct.
So it's again in the lat?
Yeah.
With, sorry.
Yeah, not great news. My heart hurts for Erod.
But this ball club is ready to accept any challenge put before them.
They're a tough baseball team.
They are resilient.
They've had to make many adjustments and be very adaptable, big words inside of our culture.
And they've done a great job.
They've done a great job.
So it'll be next man up as it's continued to show up over the past, as it has been for the past several games.
Next man up.
And these guys are getting after it.
Jesse, I know that they probably don't want to admit this even if it was the case,
but how much do you think that them potentially seeing this as being an ongoing issue for Rodriguez
is why they might have brought on Jordan Montgomery?
Do you think that there's any truth to that despite the fact that they've already said no?
Yeah, I'm inclined to take them at their word, but I don't think it's a ridiculous.
ridiculous question. I mean, but at the same time, I mean, according to what Tori said today,
this, this happened on Tuesday, like Erod threw a bullpen on Tuesday and he didn't have any
issues apparently, or at least he didn't speak about anything while he was throwing. It didn't come out
until the next day where he revealed to the dime back's coaches and training staff that he felt
just a little bit of tightness. So based on that information, I mean, that's information they got
two days ago, right?
So I'm inclined to think that what they said about the Montgomery deal being completely
independent of Rodriguez's injury status.
I'm inclined to think that that is, that is in fact the case.
But it does underscore how important Jordan Montgomery is for the Diamondbacks at this
point.
Because if you didn't have him coming back in a week, I mean, this would be tough.
Like the debacks have gotten fairly far with Zach Allen, Merrill Kelly, and then
you know, a bunch of question marks after that.
But the narrative of this season was that they weren't supposed to have to do that anymore, right?
Right.
And even with Montgomery coming back, you know, you still have some questions here.
It obviously would be really nice if you had both of those guys back here in a few weeks.
Well, especially with the inconsistency that you're getting, Brandon Fought wasn't great tonight.
He did do a great job.
And I discussed how Brandon Fought does do this, right, where he can have a disaster
inning and because of his demeanor, he's able to bounce back and get things locked back in like
he did tonight. But he put the diamond backs in such a hole early that it made it hard for them to
come back. They did. Yet you have the bullpen and the late inning, their inability to score runs late
that just comes back, all of that late inning stuff, the bullpen, the nine runs in 14 games and
inning seven through nine, like all of that. The team didn't get a hit after that big fifth inning. And I think
that to me is almost as disappointing, if not more so maybe, than the bullpen.
I kind of expect the bullpen to do what they've did tonight, even though it sucks.
It's like when I texted you the thing about that game and you were like eight runs isn't
enough, you feel that against the bullpen or for when the bullpen is going out there to
perform sometimes.
It's just the fact that they couldn't get the offense rolling once they did have that
big inning is what their offense has kind of been this year.
Yeah, there's there's some truth to that for sure.
I guess this time the beginning happened in the fifth instead of the first, right?
So that was that was different.
But yeah, it was it was a rough go against Stephen Matt's debucks weren't making him work a whole lot.
They were kind of just scattering hits around here and there.
And then they, you know, Blaze Alexander reaches on an air.
And instead of nobody on two outs, you've got a runner at first and one out, the debucks took off from there and managed to put up six runs.
I timed it.
It happened in 13 minutes.
The Diamondbacks went from down 6-0 to a tie game 6-6, which is remarkable.
And yet, as you said, the bullpen came in and the bullpen did what we've seen this
bullpen do quite a bit here in the early going in close games.
They've been pretty good in the mop-up situations, but they've struggled in the situations
where it really matters most three innings from deba-shelievers tonight, total seven hits,
three runs, that's just not, that's just not going to do it. And the Cardinals are a team that
actually does have a pretty good bullpen. And they did still, Dback still, you know, did some
damage against, against Giovanni Gallegos. He's the one who gave up the home run to Suarez,
but after that it was just lights out from, from the Cardinals. Well, speaking of injuries and bullpen,
do you have a update on Paul Seawald and when we might see him making some progression towards
coming back.
Yeah, Seawald, Tori said today that Seawald is scheduled to throw a bullpen tomorrow,
so that'd be Saturday.
So that's a big development.
I mean, getting on a mound and actually, you know, throwing real pitches and whatnot,
like that's a really big step in his progression.
Tori did say that he, he would like to believe that Seawald will do a rehab assignment
before rejoining the Diamondbacks.
And it's not like that rehab assignment would start on Sunday.
he's going to he's probably going to do multiple bullpens so probably do multiple live you know facing hitters do multiple live sessions after that as well so you're still a ways out from seawald returning i don't want to make it sound like he's throwing a bullpen and he'll be back with the team next week but yeah it's it's a positive sign i mean we were looking at a two month window at the beginning of this with seawall that's what tyler glas now had you know a grade two uh oblique injury at the beginning of last year when he was with the raise and he missed
two months right on the dots. That was kind of the baseline here. I think there's a pretty good
chance that Seawald could be back well before then. And he's also a reliever, so he doesn't have to
build up the amount that like a starting pitcher would. Yeah. Yeah, that's a, that's a huge factor for sure.
Yeah, I mean, you factor in like a couple of bullpens, a couple of live sessions, you know, a few
appearances down in Reno, you know, maybe maybe three weeks. Like I'm just kind of taking a stab in the
dark here, but I think that that's maybe the earliest that I could imagine,
Seawald being with the debacks.
And maybe that happens, maybe it doesn't.
But even if it's four weeks, even if it's five weeks, I mean, that's still quite a bit
earlier than we kind of expected at the beginning.
Well, if you're here right now on the PHN exports YouTube channel, we thank you so much
for your time.
And we are sorry that the Diamondbacks did this to all of us tonight.
Of course, make sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already.
Drop us a like.
We always appreciate when you do that.
make sure you sign up for notifications.
That way you don't miss when any of our wonderful shows go live.
If you're listening on the audio podcasting side,
subscribe over there.
Leave us a review.
We always appreciate that feedback and those five-star reviews.
Do wonders for a little podcast like ours.
Of course, also check out prize picks.
Prize picks can make baseball so much more fun.
And they have something for every sports fan.
Again, this blew Jesse's mind,
but from baseball to basketball to League of Legends
and everything in between.
So you can pick LeBron.
You can pick Shohey.
you can pick Connor McDavid, David, or you can pick Jude Bellingham, all in the same entry.
So make sure check out prize picks right now.
Of course, right now you can get down.
Do you have any idea who Jude Bellingham is?
Of course.
I'm a huge Jude Bellingham guy.
You know.
Yeah, I just wanted to ask the mixture.
I know that you're a massive Jude Bellingham.
Big fan.
Don't make me put on his jersey?
I don't know.
Maybe he doesn't have a jersey.
Anyway, prize picks is really simple to play.
You can make all your picks and submit your entry in less than 60 seconds.
You can test your skills on prize picks this season.
It is the most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports.
So get down on it right now.
Go to prizepicks.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100.
That's Pricepix.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX.
Pick more.
It's that easy.
That's all you got to do.
Pick more or pick less.
That's all you do.
All right.
Also, once you get that wonderful money,
from prizepicks.com. You can go open yourself a checking account with our friends at Desert
Financial Credit Union. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest,
most trusted local credit union. They got me started on my home ownership journey, this little
cave that I'm in right now, and they can get you started as well. The Desert Financial
Team are financial experts who are committed to their members and the community offering financial
solutions tailored to helping real people achieve their financial goals and dreams. So 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 desertfinancial.com
slash 200 today.
And let's take a look at the count from this game
because numbers, the numbers are the numbers.
And, well, this is numbers don't lie.
That's different.
Let's do the count.
I mean, we can do numbers, don't lie.
No, we'll do the numbers.
He wants to go right to the numbers, don't lie.
Cardinals out hit the Diamondbacks.
At one point, the Diamondbacks actually, when the fifth inning was around, they had actually out hit the St. Louis Cardinals.
But that's when they just stopped hitting and decided to not hit any longer.
Diamondbacks actually had more opportunities with runners in scoring position.
They went three for nine.
Cardinals went three for six.
Two home runs by the Cardinals, which really were the big difference because that drove in those runs early to the one home run by the Diamondbacks and two errors there.
on the Cardinal side to flawless baseball from the Diamondbacks, I guess you could say.
We didn't have any big defensive gaps tonight that really seemed to cost this team.
It was just the way the bats kind of went cold.
Well, there were, yeah, I guess not defensive gaps necessarily, but there was a base running
gaff with Kevin Newman getting there.
Absolutely.
On a Lordus Guerriel Jr. liner into the gap.
And to be fair, it was a really nice play by Jordan Walker in right field, a sliding catch.
but at the same time, I mean, Kevin Newman was past third base.
I think he just took a very unnecessary risk with the Diamondbacks down six runs at that point.
And that resulted in the inning being over.
The D-backs also, they didn't make any errors in this game,
but the Brendan and Donovan triple, the kick started the Cardinals taking the lead back after the Diamondbacks had tied this one up.
We did talk about that with Tori Lavello after the game a little bit.
and he was not, he seemed to think that it was misplayed off the wall,
which I believe was Corbyn Carroll, who was who was there first.
And it might have like even bounced off his glove and then Lordus Guriel wound up, wound up fielding it,
which in some sense is maybe not the worst thing for the Diamondbacks because Lordus does have a better arm than Corbin Carroll.
So as long as it doesn't take like a whole, a whole bunch of time to get the ball of Lordus,
that's maybe not terrible.
But the relay wasn't particularly good from that.
point, Kevin Newman really bounced the throw over to third base, maybe with, with better execution
there. You're able to get Donovan at third. And, you know, who knows what happens from, from that point,
the Diamondbacks maybe use some of their, some of their better relievers. Maybe you see Ryan Thompson.
Maybe you see Kevin Ginkle in this game. If the game stays tied. So that was, that was a, you know,
not nearly as terrible of a defensive mistake as we've seen from the debacks at times in the early
going but a play that tori lavella would have liked to see executed better well and you we talked about
brandon fought a little while ago but you were not here yet for that and obviously like i said
fought was able to get dialed back in but what was really what was really off about brandon fought
tonight especially after coming off of one of his best starts of his career uh can we can we pull up the
the pitch chart, Fotz Fotz fastballs.
I think we think we have that.
Hey, there it is.
So these are,
these are Brandon Fotz fastballs in this game.
The red ones are four seamers.
The orange ones are sinkers.
And to answer your question,
Derek,
at least in my opinion,
there's just way too many pitches in the middle here.
And granted,
the Cardinals did have maybe some decent bad and ball luck at the beginning of the game.
Like,
you know,
Brandon Donovan's single to start this one was a roller up the middle.
like 80 something off the bat or whatever.
But at the end of the day,
I don't think Brandon Fott was getting
like outrageously unlucky
because he was throwing just too many pitches
in the middle of the strike zone.
And in my mind, that was,
that was just the biggest issue for him today.
Well, I am,
I have no disagreement here.
And I just, like, again, that's,
that's where we talked about
what version of Brandon Fought are we going to see
at times. And I don't, I don't,
I don't know what causes this necessarily.
I don't know what to say about that.
I mean, obviously, a lot of pitchers have nights like this
where they're just catching too much of the plate.
But it does feel like when Brandon fought is off,
that's exactly what he does.
Like it's just, you know, fastballs essentially are just middle,
middle and entirely too much.
Yeah, I mean, we've talked about it.
Like his fastball is not an elite level pitch.
like if he throws his fastball in bad spots, it does get hit.
Someone like Zach Gallen can get away with stuff like that a little more because his fastball
is so much life.
Fought doesn't have that life.
And he also,
his Velo has been a little bit down in the early going.
I think he averaged 92.4 with his four seamer in this star,
which is just about a tick down from where it was last year.
It's still early.
Nothing I'm super concerned about or anything at this point.
But yeah, all that to say, if fought leaves his fastball in bad spots,
it does get hit.
And his fastball command was not as good today as we've seen it in his previous
outings.
His pitch selection seemed kind of limited.
Like you said,
and he throws that sinker in the fastball.
But that's like his,
they're both essentially fastball.
Sweeper was the only thing else he was really throwing.
He threw a change up about 10% of the time.
But I mean,
it really,
like you said,
when his fastball isn't good and he's relying on it that much,
then,
you know,
I don't know.
I feel like we at times see a little bit better of a pitch mix from Brandon than this.
But again, I'm still encouraged by his ability,
even though he did give up those six runs early,
to come back and still give the Diamondback six innings and at least give them a chance to be in this game.
100%.
Tori Lavello was very complimentary of Brandon fought,
even though he did acknowledge that it was a rough start and he did give some reasons for why that was.
But yeah, he also spoke highly of Brandon Fott's ability to grind through and get the diamondbacks, you know, into the sixth inning and able to finish the sixth inning after they get 31 pitches in the first.
So it was a really rough start for Brandon Fought.
And he did bounce back well.
He gave the diamondbacks a chance to win this game.
He did not take a loss when all was said and done.
And at the end of the day, like Brandon Fott didn't pitch well today, but I wouldn't say I'm all that concerned about him.
I still think that he's pitched a lot better than his ERA would tell you.
And in the long run, I still think he's going to be a pretty good pitcher.
And I don't think he's going to have any of a 7.6 or whatever it is right now, the rest of the way.
It just feels like the Diamondbacks need him now more than we thought they were going to.
Obviously, we don't know what Jordan Montgomery is going to do or how quickly he's going to be able to get in gear for his season in regards to ramping up and being ready.
you know, obviously the Diamondbacks are shooting for that April 19th date.
Tori confirmed that once again, but he still didn't seem like 100%.
He asked us.
He was like, what did he say?
He said April 19th.
Yeah, that sounds good.
You know, so there's still no confirmed date for George Montgomery, Monty, as we lovingly call him already, that Tori didn't know for him to join this team.
But like, even with Montgomery, with the fact that we don't know when Erod is going to be part of the starting rotation,
and they are going to need Brandon Fought more, you know,
than him essentially being kind of like a fifth starter in the rotation, right?
Like that's,
I think that's the thing that's a concern here is,
is that they can't,
they kind of need that consistent version of Brandon fought.
They need big game, Brandon,
uh,
to kind of maybe not being at,
at the same level as that gallon and Meryl,
but at least being a little bit close to what those guys,
closer to what those guys are doing.
And I don't have,
I'm like you.
I don't have concerns about him.
I know what he's still capable of.
And I think, again, he still came off of one of his best outings of his career in his last outing.
And this one kind of a-
I mean, he still gave up five runs against the race.
I know, yeah, I just- But I'm with you, Derek.
20-20 whiffs to me, like, I don't even care how many runs he gave.
I don't either.
I don't either.
It just shows he's going in the right direction.
And hopefully he can put all of that together, you know, especially with the way that he, you know, I don't know.
It's not often that you see.
a young pitcher kind of get stronger as the game goes on. They get shelled. They get to a point
that their confidence is rocked. And you could tell that they're not going to be effective
anymore. Brandon Fott did not do that. Like he, you came out, you got punched in the mouth,
and, you know, he locked it in. Not immediately, but he still was able to give the Diamondback
six innings tonight. But we do have the numbers, of course, that we just talked about. But we also
have another number that doesn't lie, because as you know, numbers don't lie. Jesse, hit us with
your number tonight.
Yeah, tonight's number is 6.57. Yeah, there it is. 6.57, Derek, is the starting pitching ERA for the Diamondbacks for pitchers not named Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly.
We kind of touched on this earlier. This is, this was a big narrative coming into the season that you weren't just going to have Gallen and Merrill. You were going to have a complete rotation behind them. And if you want to know why the debacks are six and eight so far, a pretty big reason.
is that it's been like it was last year pretty much, right?
I mean, 6.57, that's basically the combined ERA that you got from Zach Davies and Madison
Bumgarner and, you know, all of the other guys that the debacks were cycling through in their
rotation throughout the year.
So in that regard, this team has been maybe even worse than last year.
And like you were saying, like I think fought actually, I think he pitched better than
his final numbers maybe today.
I mean, not not by a whole lot.
this was not a good outing for him, but I do think he's been better than his numbers this
season as a whole. And I still think that he's going to be fine when all is said and done
the rest of the way. So I expect this to get better. But 6-5-7 is obviously brutal. I mean,
that's Tommy Henry, Ryan Nelson, and Brandon fought. None of those guys have, in just pure
production-wise, none of those guys have been good to this point.
Nate Cleveland says, I want a new number, Jesse. Sorry, he's rejecting that one. And I think
I kind of do too.
I'm not.
I have a couple of others that I,
that I considered.
One of them,
one of them was zero,
which is the number of hits that the diamondbacks got after the six-run,
fifth inning,
which you mentioned earlier.
And then the other one was 13,
which I already mentioned.
That's how long it took for the diamondbacks to go from down six-nothing to a,
to a tie game six-six in the fifth inning.
I like that one.
That one was a little bit better.
I like that one.
Of course,
I also like our die-hards.
I like all of you.
You're all great.
Thank all of you guys for being here live right now.
But of course, if you are a diehard, thank you extra.
Thank you a little bit more for being a diehard.
And if you're not one, consider joining us.
You get all sorts of wonderful benefits, including a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com.
Not to mention all of Jesse's content, all of my content, all the stuff we do in the Discord,
all of the discounts with our partners and our events, like our upcoming game against the Padres,
our takeover at Chase Field, which is on May 4th.
Thank you to everybody, shame.
me in the chat yesterday for getting the date wrong. I'm pretty sure I wrote the date wrong. So
it's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. But it's on May 4th, the same night as the Gabriel Moreno
Bobblehead night. So make sure to become a diehard. You'll get that discount on that event and all
of our events. We're having some fun over here. So join us, become part of the family. Also, like I said,
a great night to try out OG's brands, whether you just want a happy balance, whether you want to
maybe get a good night's sleep after a game like that, or just enjoying yourself and having a
a wonderful Friday night.
OGs is the way to do so.
They launched their two new products that we've been talking about.
They're live rosin, Rick Simpson oil.
They got OGs naturals.
They got big OGs.
Go out there right now.
OGs naturals are vegan gummies made with the live rosin.
Meanwhile, the big OGs,
mega version of Pegs, Raspberry, Orange, RSO.
That's that Rick Simpson oil that I am a big fan of.
So check those out.
To learn more about OGs G's gummies and where you can find them,
head on over to OGs Brands.com.
If you want to be like Damon,
gets mojee's of course.
But if you want to be like Damon and go to the game tonight,
make sure to check out game time.
It's the place for last minute ticket deals.
So when you're just sitting around the office,
editing our shorts,
and you decide that you want to go out
and actually watch the baseball game
that you're watching on TV that's two blocks away from you,
check out game time.
It's the place for last minute ticket deals.
You can save up to 60% off of buying last minute for sports,
concerts, events, and so much more.
It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason.
And you can take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime.
For a limited time right now, all users can get $20 off any MLB purchase of $150 or more in the GameTime app with Code First Pitch.
Terms to apply.
That's Code First P-R-S-P-T-H, all one word, for $20 off from now until April 14.
So not a lot of time to get that.
But download the GameTime app today.
Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.
Go to a game this weekend.
Go to Diamondbacks, get this awesome shirt for the All-Ey.
Alec Thomas shirt and join us.
Have a good time.
With the $20 off, I saved that game time.
I bought two value hot dogs and two value beers.
Yeah.
And that was $19.
He likes to text me because I sent out an innocent tweet one time, basically saying,
we can't have both Jordan Montgomery and value beers.
And every time David finds a value beer in the stadium, he has to rub it in my face.
He has to, he has to like one up beer.
I don't know.
I didn't say I didn't.
want value beers. I just went by the value beer stand and it was gone. They took the sign down.
It's not over there anymore. I think the people that you're getting your beers from at that stand
are doing it falsely. I think you're getting $5 beers that you don't actually deserve that shouldn't
be value beers, but you somehow talk them into this. I have no way to prove otherwise. But
I'm two for two, Derek. I'm two for two. See, you're going to be playing. He said he got an IPA as a value
beer. Oh yeah. It's even more skeptical. Oh, yeah. Hot Valley IP.
I don't believe that.
Damn right.
Five bucks.
Five bucks a pop.
Draft here, baby.
That's a great way to spend the $20, though, that you say from game time.
So I'm going to be, dude, I'm going to be 10 for 10 and Derek's going to be telling me about how it's bullshit.
And there's no way that I got the value.
Get yourself out of here.
But of course, we do have some videos from the clubhouse, including Tori's post game, I guess opening up post game.
Is that what we have here?
Yeah.
down 6-0-0.
You're always looking for a response.
The team did a great job.
We just kept chipping away.
And clearly the big blow was Gino's three-run home run.
They got us right back in the game.
Brandon fought his first couple of innings were a little bit wobbly.
But if you were to tell me after 31 pitches in the first inning,
he was going to pitch through to six and give up six runs
and have a chance to win the baseball.
game, I would have, I wouldn't have believed it. So credit to him for being able to stable himself,
right to ship, and do what he did. And kind of set us up. We had some good matchups we felt like
and then just fell apart. And had some big hits at the right time. And we couldn't, we couldn't
cash in on the back end of that. But look, we fought. We did everything we could to win this
game we got back in it just didn't happen so just got to turn the page and be ready to go tomorrow
you can tell he's a bit heartbroken there but i also like what he said about brandon fought because i
think we could all agree with that with the way that this game started out to find out that brandon
lasted six innings is a bit of a surprise and you kind of feel like yeah that's that that's that's
a win in a small way yeah absolutely and on that note here is what brandon fought had to say about
about his outing tonight.
We start off slow.
I think in those situations
as starting that you're just trying to
at that point go deeper in the game
for the bullpen,
set it up for tomorrow.
And that was certainly my plan
once I gave up six runs
and three innings.
So I'm happy with that,
but I'm definitely not happy
with giving up six runs either.
So there's good and there's bad.
Was it a location issue?
Yeah, I think early on,
just one locating,
especially to New Bar,
missed on the complete other side of the plate and I take responsibility for that and that
shouldn't happen. It's wild because whenever they say certain things after the game, there is
part of me that does say, oh yeah, they are human like throwing a ball into a very small area
and sometimes things don't work out because that's very difficult to do at the elite level
that major league baseball players have to do it, right? Yeah, that's, that's, uh, that's,
That's fair.
They are.
I have to remind myself that they're human all the time, Derek,
because I spend,
I spend too much time on baseball savant.
They're not a spreadsheet, Jesse.
They have a heart and a soul.
Other,
a couple of other interesting things post game.
Tori talked about.
Goldie,
of course,
is his former,
his former player coming through with that single in the seventh inning.
That ultimately put the,
by the way.
That ultimately put the,
Cardinals up in this game.
Tori was asked about the swing itself.
You guys may remember.
There was a,
I think it was a change up from Joe Man's supply that was well below the strike.
Way below the zone.
Pretty,
a pretty impressive piece of hitting from Goldie.
So Tori talks about that here as well as the possibility of maybe putting Goldschmidt on
with first base open in that situation.
I go live with that, right?
If the common sense move is the Wacham,
then you've got to really put yourself in a position to turn to.
Ball's going to probably put on the ground
or maybe strike out the next batterer left on left.
So we talked about it.
It was the same thing that happened.
I think it was in Atlanta.
We talked about expanding the zone.
And Paul's too smart of a hitter.
He knew he wasn't going to get a strike,
and he just reached out there and a change up off the ground.
It was a ball out of hand.
But he beat us.
He's a smart hitter, and I've seen him do it for a long time.
But, yeah, you see the result,
and you start thinking, well,
should have walked them but we didn't and got clips okay all right what sorry there's there's a little
bit of chaos uh over here Derek because Steve Gilbert uh just opened the the door of the
booth that I'm in and threatened to make a surprise appearance on the P8 no post game show
and I told him he should and then he ran away because I know he's forbidden from this show he knows
that he's not allowed on the show but yes Goldie Goldie was because I texted it to you
Goldie was hitting 174 before that at bat.
So I don't hate the idea of pitching around him,
but I also don't really feel like you had to be,
have to be super threatened there.
And yet Goldie does what Goldie does,
especially in Chase Field is he finds a way to get the big hit.
And yeah, like that run,
everything else after that didn't matter because the Diamondbacks offense
went completely flat and they weren't able to muster up more than that.
But like we could really get into the Scott McGuff stuff.
but that run allowed by Mantiply was enough.
Yeah, Tori was faced with a really similar situation with Aaron Judge
in the finale of the Yankee series where he had first base open,
Anthony Rizzo on deck.
Of course, the question, do you put Judge on and go after Rizzo?
Judge wound up getting a very big hit and the Yankees won in large part because of that.
And Tori was very open after the fact that he regretted that move.
This one I think was maybe a little bit,
a little bit less black and white, but at the same time, Paul Goldschmidt, despite the numbers that
you mentioned, is a very, very good baseball player and a very good hitter. And against a lefty,
that is a really good matchup for him. Like nobody, I don't have numbers in front of me, but
Paul Goldschmidt over the last like four or five seasons has hit lefties basically as well
as anyone in all of baseball. So you knew that this was going to be a pretty good matchup for him.
And, you know, he came, he came through in a really big spot.
Tori has limited options when it comes to his bullpen.
And so he has the guys we know that he trusts, like you said,
maybe his selection in the bullpen goes differently.
If the Diamondbacks are able to secure a lead, perhaps there in the fifth inning at that point,
who knows how he manages this game differently.
But he doesn't really have much of an option other than right now to put his faith in some of these guys that fans,
and even us at times are questioning him putting his faith in.
The reality right now, Derek, is that the debacks have three right-handed relievers in their bullpen
that they just have not proven trustworthy in the early going of the season, right?
Scott McGuff, Luis Frius, Miguel Castro, all of those guys have been really rough,
especially in big moments early on in the season.
And it's tough.
I mean, when you've got, I mean, that's, you've got Kevin Ginkle, of course, at the end,
you're going to save him for save situations most of the time.
Ryan Thompson has obviously been very, very good,
but Tori is going to probably use him when the debacks have a lead,
you know,
or at least if the game is tied.
You need guys,
you need other guys to be able to step up in games like this
where you're maybe just down a run, right?
Like it's still a baseball game.
You still have a chance to win.
And yet the Diamondbacks,
I mean, these guys have just really struggled so far.
So Tori was also the last thing from,
from Tori after the game.
He was also asked about his relievers
and just the need to kind of continue believing in them
regardless of the results so far.
I got to believe in them.
I got it.
I can't protect him.
They got to pitch better, but I believe in them.
They're going to get the baseball
and they got to get the opportunity.
So I'm going to keep finding my way to them
and I'm not going to run for people.
If any human being,
said that they had to believe in me the way that he just said it i don't know if i'd ever believe in
myself again but hopefully hopefully they can find some confidence somewhere did you see that pause
that pause damon my god sat there for five seconds just staring off into the ether i i think i
think to be fair if you like if you were in the room as i was it didn't it didn't come across quite how
you might be interpreting it.
It was more just, uh, the, the way that the question was asked was like,
you know, you, you, you still believe in these guys, huh?
Like something sort of along those lines.
And he was like, I have to believe in him.
You know, it was kind of like a yes.
Like I do have to believe in these guys.
So I don't think that was a slight to them or anything.
But yeah, it's just the reality of the, the cards that Tori has been dealt.
It's a combination of Paul Seawald being out, which again, I can't,
not stress enough how much the diamondbacks feel that even in games like this where,
you know, where you didn't necessarily, you weren't in a situation to use Seawald necessarily,
but the fact that his absence puts Ginkle in that role and then Thompson kind of gets slid
into into the more positive role where you're, you're only going to want to use him when you
have a lead to protect.
The debacks really need some of these other guys to come through.
And, you know, Jordan Schusterman said it on the show yesterday.
and we've talked about it a decent amount over the off season.
The debacks for everything they did over the off season,
all of the boxes that they checked,
they didn't add really anything of note to the bullpen,
and we're seeing the impact of that.
And the bigger story here in regards to that is that Erod is farther away,
further away than we think he is,
or then we thought he was coming into today, right?
So that impacts the bullpen and how pieces potentially from the starting rotation right now,
like Ryan Nelson, let's just say his name, could factor into contributing to the bullpen, right?
The longer that they need both Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson, and not to mention the fact that they most likely aren't going to convert both of those guys to bullpen arms, they would choose one.
And then I imagine if they didn't need the other one in the starting rotation, they would keep them stretched out for depth in the minor leagues, right?
it in Reno. But I mean, right now, we have no clue when that's even going to happen or if that's
even going to happen, right? Like right now, I have to say that Tommy, Henry, and Ryan Nelson's value
is pretty high to this team considering how much they need them when it appeared at one point,
like they kind of had changed direction from either of these guys being part of the starting
rotation. So I just, it's not completely understandable. It's not completely justifiable that they
didn't address their bullpen, but I do have a feeling that at least internally and not making it
known to us, like, this is just me. Again, this is, this is me just hypothetically speaking,
but I feel like, you know, they thought that maybe they can move some pieces around and,
you know, everything's going to be fine. And then it's kind of a worst case scenario. They,
they lose Erod for an undetermined amount of time. They lose Paul Seawald for an undetermined amount of time.
and suddenly all of those options that they thought that they might have in the bullpen
dried up pretty quickly.
Yeah, it's not to say that the debacks bullpen couldn't be all right eventually.
I mean, we saw this last year where it was such a mess early in the season.
And then by the second half, it was fantastic all of a sudden.
The debacks can add at the trade deadline if they're in position to do so.
It seems pretty inevitable that if they're in position, if they're in, you know,
they have to be in position.
Yeah, they have to be in contention for that.
Exactly. They have to find a way to stay afloat, not just until the trade deadline, but also until Paul Seawald returns.
And even if Seawald is back in three or four weeks, like Diamondbacks have only won a single baseball game so far, Derek, against a team that was not the Colorado Rockies.
And I don't want to, like, go too far down that road because these have been largely very competitive games.
They've let several of them, yeah, they've let several of them slip away.
It's like they're getting blown out by these teams.
but, I mean, that Seawald is such a big part of your ability to win those 50-50 kind of games.
And you've got to find a way to stay afloat between now and when he gets back,
when you're finally, you know, have the makings again of what was a very good bullpen down the stretch last year.
The dangerous side to this could be the fact that because everything worked out for them last year,
they think everything's going to work out for them this year.
And with the additions they've added and everything that it's inevitable that they're going to be a better
team and they might not be. And that's one reason why during this time they need as many of these
guys to step up. And especially, you know, the offense did a great job in that inning and showed
how dangerous the offense can be in what did you say, a 13 minute span, right? Yeah. Yeah. But at the same time,
it's kind of useless when you can't continue to tack on, especially when we've seen them do this
a couple of times the season where they put up some big runs and then just,
went completely, you know, dry at the plate from that point on.
So I'm not putting my money on, you know, on when these guys are going to come back.
And that's the thing that's kind of, yeah, you know, a little scary as to how long are they going to be.
Even, even Jordan Montgomery, like you said, really just has to be added to the roster by the 19.
But that doesn't mean that that's necessarily when he's going to start.
So who knows if we get him on that day.
I think, yeah, I think he'll hopefully.
Hopefully, that's the case.
on or around that date.
Yeah.
And if it does, then that's kind of the beginning, which isn't that far away, right?
That's one week away from the Diamondback starting to see some relief,
starting to see some reinforcements come and help this depleted roster get back to where we think
this team can be.
In the meantime, though, they got to hold it down, right?
This is like the walking dead when they're trapped in one of those houses and getting just
zombies all around them.
The horde is here.
They just got to survive for like a week.
They'll be fine.
But of course, one place I am putting my money, Jesse, is on the Arizona lottery.
There's a lot of money out there right now.
Things are crazy with some of these jackpots.
But they are also Arizona lottery, as you know, as we've talked about,
trying to make things more fun, especially here in the state of Arizona.
They're trying to get you out on some Arizona adventures.
They have some iconic landscapes on some of their Arizona adventure tickets.
They also have ability to check in at geolocated adventures at 10 destinations across the state
from Flagstaff to Yuma.
You can visit ASEAadventure.com for details and directions on where those locations are.
Of course, you can also enter tickets online for a chance to win up to $1 million in cash and travel prizes.
So go do that now.
Of course, you don't have to buy a sick rev for in order to go on these adventures, but it's highly encouraged.
And Arizona Lottery says proceeds from ticket sales support environmental conservation,
among other important initiatives across the state.
So Arizona Lottery, not just about playing games and winning prizes.
It's also about giving back to the state and its communities.
Visit azyadventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure for a chance to win $1 million in cash in Arizona travel prizes.
And of course, lastly, wherever you're going, if you're leaving the ballpark, if you're heading home, make sure to stop by Circle K, fill yourself up, fill up your car.
Of course, join the Inner Circle Program if you haven't done so right now for free by downloading the Circle K app today.
Terms and conditions apply at participating locations.
Visit CircleK.com for details.
once you do, you'll get yourself all sorts of freebies, including free drinks,
free pizza, free coffee, all sorts of stuff.
You also save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips and then three cents
off per gallon every day after that.
So, of course, check out our friends at Circle K.
And don't miss, don't miss maybe Jesse Friedman coming to a gas pump near you.
My soul still trapped in a gas pump in a Circle K in the downtown Phoenix area.
But now coming soon, you might also see Jesse as well.
So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that.
Of course, if you can't get enough Jesse, you can follow him on Twitter.
He is at Jesse and Friedman.
I am at Cap underscore Cidman with a K.
Damon Dog, our producer, who is still just shook by that video of Tori.
He is at Damon Dog.
That's DAWG.
We are Damon's dogs.
Bark, bark.
Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
We thank you guys so much for your time.
We appreciate you stopping by.
We'll see you Monday at 1 p.m.
Make sure to check out Jesse's new show on the record with Katie Wu.
That's right now available wherever you get your podcast or right now on YouTube.
He is in the process of replacing me again.
Another inevitability.
It was only a matter of time there.
I do have to address one thing real quick before we go, which is just that I don't think I've ever had this many comments about my hair in the chat that happened early on just as I popped on.
Roger Bessions wants you to take care of it with some with some product, I believe.
I do have to acknowledge there's a certain, there's a certain fuzziness going on right now that I'm not really on board with.
I got a haircut yesterday.
And apparently I just didn't, I just didn't put nearly enough product in there.
Ryan thinks you look like one of the Rhodes brothers.
So finish your story or complete your tail or whatever.
Pretty damn good comparison.
It is a good one.
It is a good one.
Of course, the comparison goes way over my head.
It does that it.
It's not a flattering one.
It's a great one.
great one daddy shocking i know we will uh we will rectify that uh for for our next show so
um your your your voices have been heard your voice has been heard see you make a difference
you come here you show up in the chat you can make a difference in jesse's volume i don't i don't
don't think anyone's no one's cooking you no i mean it was actually got a glow haircut it's just yeah
it's just like i guess it's just too dry yeah it's just like a giant fuzzball right now but anyway
that's that's enough of that jessie you know uh nate nate says fluffy jesse and i kind of like that
yeah fluffy yeah maybe that's maybe that's the word yeah katie wu came into one of my classes
while i was in master's school at kronkite spoke to us in person really yeah that's
yeah yeah bill hills class she's she's she was awesome let's go check out that interview
yeah she was fantastic very very nice of her to do that and also she she she actually isn't
here in arizona i think she's taking this series off uh so that so that makes me appreciate
her willingness to do that even more even more you're you're bugging her on her on our off time jessie
i know i feel terrible but yeah well that's everybody knows that you're the the terrible person on this
show right it's not me it's not david so it's got to be one of us uh that's all we got
thank you guys for stopping by we appreciate it we will be back like i said on monday at one p.m
make sure to check out all this goodness on youtube uh jesse'll be out there at chase field get your
alec thomas shirt tomorrow night don't miss that opportunity
And of course, we appreciate your time.
And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your team can do something positive in inning seven through nine for Christ's sake.
