PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Brandon Pfaadt struggles in his major league debut but the D-backs offense comes up big against the Rangers

Starting point is 00:00:07 What a comeback victory for the answerbacks. Hello and welcome into another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your purple-haired mayor of PHNX. And Jesse still can't be in the same room with me and all of this purple glory that I am unfortunately cursed to rock for Lord knows how long. but he is your vice mayor and your thunderstick. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse, how are you feeling? You feeling better?

Starting point is 00:00:43 I'm feeling better. I'm feeling better. Should be back in the studio tomorrow. I guess the altitude in Colorado got to me too or something. Apparently the altitude in Colorado somehow made its way into Texas as well because the ball was absolutely flying in this DeBax Rangers game. But the DeBacks came out on top. and as you said, a really, really impressive comeback win all the way around.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Yeah, and obviously the big topic is going to be what is going on with Brandon fought and his bad outing. We have a lot to unpack when it comes to that. But of course, we wanted to first thank you guys for being here. And first we wanted to talk a little bit about the offense, because I know we're going to get into Brandon fought and what went right and what went wrong. But the offense today really picked up the slack. It didn't matter. I mean, honestly, the one thing to remember is that the Rangers are one of the best

Starting point is 00:01:39 offensive teams in all of Major League Baseball as well. So you got to give credit where credit is due there. These guys have been mashing the ball. When you look at who leads the league in most offensive categories, they're in the top three in almost every category, right? So this is a very difficult team. This isn't the same Texas Rangers team that we saw last year that kind of struggled. But the Diamondbacks offensively really picked up Brandon fought during his debut on a day

Starting point is 00:02:03 where he didn't have his best stuff. And the biggest thing here is that risk king, Geraldo Pardomo continues to be someone that you have no business pitching to when there is a man in scoring position. That's pretty much the assessment here is you should just walk this man if there's somebody in scoring position

Starting point is 00:02:20 because his job is to bring them home to his kingdom, which is home plate. He's sitting 409, Derek. He's sitting 409. And I know it's still early, but Haraldo, Pardomo has been just absolutely incredible here in the early part of the season. And yeah, we had the whole Risp King thing going last year when Heraldo Pardomo was

Starting point is 00:02:42 extremely good with runners in scoring position compared to his performance and other situations. But at this point, Derek, dating back to the beginning of last season, Pardomo is hitting 328 with runners in scoring position. And he just, he continues to live up to the name. We kind of came up with the risk, the risk king thing is a joke last year. but he's 11 for 20 with runners in scoring position this season. He's kind of like one of those people that fulfills the nickname. Like we were calling him that and he's like, well, shit,

Starting point is 00:03:11 I better step up if that's what these guys are going to start calling me, right? But man, he's been incredible. A lot of guys that the Diamondbacks needed to kind of get back on track were very, very good today, including Christian Walker, who had a big day for this team. He has three homers in his last two games and has an 815 OPS this season. season. We usually wait a little bit longer to get to this. We usually do it at the end of our first segment here. But let's just tear the Band-Aid off. Christian Walker is our King Snake. He is absolutely our King Snake for this series based on those numbers that we just put up. And he's also the King Snake

Starting point is 00:03:49 because even though Jesse wasn't here today, he's 400 in the series, three home runs, six RBI. Jesse, we're all doing the Christian Walker gun celebration in the office. It got to be quite infectious. And we were also, we came up with this song. Not if you're familiar with the Burger King jingle, but it kind of goes like this, Jesse. It goes, Walker, Walker, Christian Walker. He hits Dinger's Christian Walker, Walker, Walker, Walker. He hits the ball at Chase Field.

Starting point is 00:04:22 He smashes balls. Something like that. Very nice. I know. We're just throwing some stuff around. The Max is going to get mad at me because that's, again, another violation of giving away ad space. We do not.

Starting point is 00:04:37 We do no free adteries. However, that was very, it was a parody. It was a parody. I don't think that YouTube's not going to get us for this one. It's not they're not. This one is a parody that follows. My heart. My heart I know.

Starting point is 00:04:50 All right. Fine. I can't do anything fun around here. You know. It was impressive, Derek. It was, it was impressive. That was very, that was very nice. Patrick, Patrick Pilcher did not like it in the comments.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Yes. of course Shane was involved. But honestly, you would think it was a Shane idea. It was actually a Bob Brack idea. So I got to give credit again where credit is due. But Christian Walker, fantastic today. Two home runs. Cattell homered for the second time in this series.

Starting point is 00:05:19 And again, he's been hitting the ball very well lately as well. Cotell's Homer was a pitch that was probably three or four inches off the outside part of the plate. So it just continues to be incredible, you know, just his plate. coverage and his ability to go get it, especially from the right side of the plate, right? But, you know, he's had some good at bats against righties of late as well. So things are definitely trending in a positive direction with Cattel and absolutely with Christian Walker as well, you know, three homers in these two games, as you said earlier. He is completely locked in at this point.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And this team meets Christian Walker, right? I mean, last year, he was kind of the staple in the middle of this lineup that was consistently doing damage. I know he got off to a rough start last year and he had some tough luck last year. But it kind of feels like this is who Christian Walker is, right? It's crazy to think that, you know, not at the end of last year, but the end of the season before that, the debacks were facing a decision of whether to even tender Christian Walker a contract because of how poor his performance was in 2021. Now you can't, you can't even imagine this lineup without him right in the middle doing what he's been doing lately.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And other good news, Corbyn Carroll entered the game today. And as a pinch hitter going one for two with a single in the Diamondback's absolutely enormous inning that kind of busted this open. This was a back and forth affair with a lot of home runs being hit. I think the teams had a combined eight home runs, I believe. Maybe seven or eight home runs. Just one of those days. The ball was flying in Arlington.

Starting point is 00:06:54 And there was definitely a lot of offense scored. but the Diamondbacks come out on top despite an, no other way to say, an unfortunate outing for Brandon Fought. Obviously, we all wanted to see Brandon Fott come out and find success in his first start. We wanted to see him have a good debut. We have kind of gotten used to that. A lot of the young pitchers that have come up from the minor league system at least kind of had a few, you know, a couple of good games, couple of good outings before, you know, coming up against what basically fought went up. against there in the fifth inning, which was just a real tough outing.

Starting point is 00:07:30 There's a lot that have happened there. A lot of, a lot we could question, Jesse. So, but let's talk about Fought. What would you, what do you think about his major league debut? It wasn't good. Brandon Fott was not good today. I don't think there's any, there's any question about that. But he can be a lot better than this.

Starting point is 00:07:47 I don't, I'm not at all worried about Brandon Fott for anyone saying, you know, I guess he's not the pitcher that he, we thought he was going to be. I wouldn't have that reaction whatsoever. As you said earlier, the ball was absolutely flying out of Arlington today. That certainly played a factor in the four home runs that he gave up in this game. I thought his stuff looked pretty good overall. His command was not quite as sharp as what we've seen from him in the minors. He wasn't throwing strike one quite as often as I'm sure he would have liked to.

Starting point is 00:08:19 He left some changeups and some sliders in bad spots. Those pitches really got hit when they were put in play. but he still, you know, he still got a little bit of swing and miss. There were seven whiffs in this game against him. You know, I think if he's able to dot those pitches in better locations, he's probably able to do a little bit better than that. But yeah, I think, you know, the stuff looked good. He was up to 96 miles an hour with the four seamer.

Starting point is 00:08:44 You know, you saw glimpses of the slider being a really good pitch as we think it will be. His first strikeout came to Josh Young, and he threw a particularly nasty one in, not at bat to get strike three. But yeah, it wasn't good. And we know that Brandon fought, you know, something that he has struggled with in the minors is giving up the long ball. And, you know, pretty much every pitcher in double A and AAA in the hitter-friendly

Starting point is 00:09:11 environments that the diamondbacks have to deal with, pretty much everyone's giving up a lot of home runs there. But it is kind of part of what you might anticipate as being weaknesses for Brandon fought. He throws a lot of pitches up in the strike zone. And as you saw when he leaves the slider and the change up in some not great spots, it can get hit. And Josh Young got him a couple times.

Starting point is 00:09:37 There were four home runs altogether. So by no means, was it a good outing, Derek? But I'm also not really at all concerned. The tough place to pitch on the road, making your big league debut against one of the best offenses in the game, a team that's really hot right now. I wouldn't really be concerned at all. There's talk in the chat about this show looking more emo than it usually does. I swear to God, I will start singing my chemical romance right now,

Starting point is 00:10:03 and they'll combine the two ideas of my singing and what you think about my hair. And I will do it unapologetically. But a lot of things happened in that fifth inning. And one of the things that you could say is that it wasn't managed well. You could say that Brandon Fought should have absolutely been taken out of the game prior to that. It's a disaster, Derek. It was awful. I mean, and honestly, there is an idea there of erring on the side of caution, especially when your young pitcher is getting himself into trouble.

Starting point is 00:10:33 I don't know about the idea of, I don't know about the philosophy of like trial by fire, right? Letting them stay out there, letting him kind of work his way out of a jam. This wasn't really the team to do that with because of how offensively potent they are. and it just wasn't great for FOTS, you know, start in the majors. You want this guy to have confidence. You want him to be able to build on something. And if you look at what he did over the first four innings, that was something worth building on,

Starting point is 00:11:01 even if the game kind of took a turn on them there in the fifth inning. I just didn't really think that it is not. It just wasn't a great decision to leave him. And I understand we were trying to get him through five innings so he could get the win. But what ends up happening is, you know, he gives up a ton of runs. you know, gives up, what was it, four runs, five runs, four runs in the inning. And, you know, it gives up the lead and kind of has to go out and sit on that. And that's just not the greatest for a young player's, you know, confidence.

Starting point is 00:11:31 That's the big thing here. He's trying to build on his confidence, trying to make him feel like he belongs at a major league level and trying to feel like he can do this. And for a few of those innings, he absolutely looked like it. It's like you said, he didn't have his best stuff. He wasn't striking out a ton of people. But there were some strikeouts in there that were very impressive in the kind of things that you get excited about CNN at this level.

Starting point is 00:11:52 Yeah, there were a lot of hard hit balls, too. I think the average exit velo on balls in play against Faw was about 94 miles an hour in this game, which is really high. But you pointed to that five run fifth inning, which I, which was, you know, that's obviously when things fell apart. I think up until then, you know, fought was at four innings, two runs. He'd given up the two solo shots, but he was kind of limiting damage and, you know, working around some trouble.

Starting point is 00:12:17 you felt pretty good about where he was at at that point. And then comes the fifth inning. And, you know, you get Leotis Tveris hitting a lead off home runs that makes it a six to three game. The debacks still have a comfortable lead. Don't think you would have needed to pull Brandon Fott at that point. He gives up a double to Sandy Leone. He gets Marcus Semi into groundouts.

Starting point is 00:12:36 You've got a runner at second one out. Still okay, right? Innings not going great, but I think you're still okay. Travis Jankowski comes up and doubles. It was kind of a blooper down the left field line, but a double down the left field line, but a double nonetheless. That makes it a 6-4 game. Then Lowe comes up and singles.

Starting point is 00:12:52 And so now you have runners at the corners. So you've got the tying run on base in a 6-4 game. At that point right there, that's probably where I would have taken out Brandon fought. You could maybe make the case. All right, let him go against Elise Garcia and see what happens. Garcia hit a long fly ball, which fortunately there was just enough space for Alec Thomas to make the play turns into a sacrifice fly so you've got a runner at first with two outs and and now definitely remove him then you got one of the hottest hitters in the game a young man that came up who was named

Starting point is 00:13:28 american league rookie of the month for the month of april uh and jung didn't hesitate to hit one again his second home run at the good day so it's like i i don't understand what exactly again outside of this mentality to kind of power through and try to get him five innings try to get the win, you know, and I think that's the idea is the idea of getting Brandon fought the win ended up almost costing the team the game, you know, a loss. So it just seemed kind of ill-advised and it was bad for the team. It was bad for Brandon Faud. It was just kind of not great managing all the way around. But, you know, there are times where the idea, or at least the thought process, is more focused down the road and trying to build fought up in a certain way. So that

Starting point is 00:14:16 Maybe he, you know, can see that he can get himself into jams and can work his way out of it. I don't know. I mean, I feel like that's besides the, besides the just the general idea of him getting the five innings so that he could earn the win, it feels like that might have been another part of the process of leaving him in there when he really started to struggle in that inning. Yeah, it was just so abundantly clear from the eye test that like his command just wasn't there. I mean, like I said, that Garcia. He wasn't getting called. Like he was dotting the corner and he was getting calls.

Starting point is 00:14:44 he wasn't getting those same calls later and other at bats. The, the, the home plate umpire was kind of all over the place today. And I don't know how accurate he was, but it felt like at times Brandon fought was getting pitches that were slightly out of the strike zone. And then he would throw it in that exact same spot again, the second time. And now it's not a strike. So, I mean, it was kind of hard. I felt like him during, you know, those third and fourth innings to kind of figure out

Starting point is 00:15:08 where the strike zone had gone to because suddenly he really couldn't find it. And I mean, he was right there with a lot of his pitch. I mean, his pitches were just right around those edges on the strike zone. So you can see how if he is hitting those edges, that control is such a key for him. But it just, he wasn't getting the calls today. And to be honest, he wasn't really landing a lot of them really, you know, close enough that he should have gotten the calls on a lot of them. But there was just, there was a lot of erratic, you know, calls there at home plate.

Starting point is 00:15:38 And I'm sure that doesn't make it any easier. You also had a Rangers team that's just smashing the ball right now. They really are. Yeah, they really are. And yeah, I mean, like you said earlier, Young had already homered in the game against Fought. So I just, I don't personally understand it all why you're letting him come up, you know, representing the go ahead run as much as you want Brandon Fought to get the win. You also don't want the opposite even more. You don't want to put Brandon Fought in a situation where in his big league debut, he's the one who's giving up, you know, this big two run homer that gives the Rangers the lead back. Fortunately for the debacks, their offense came roaring back as we've seen a number of times this season and it wound up being a win by five runs. But this would have been ugly, Derek. This would have felt really bad if Brandon Fott had given up that two run homer, the debacks are down seven to six and they hadn't been able to fight back. It would have made that decision by Tori Lavello look a lot worse than we probably feel about it right now. And for that exact reason, Jesse, and for the fact that they did come back.

Starting point is 00:16:44 I have some words for the people who were tweeting to us in the sixth inning of this game about how it was over. And how the game was over. So I'm going to, Jesse, I don't do this often, but I'm going to ask you to step away because I don't think you want to be around for this. But Damon, let's throw some shade. We saw your tweets. We heard what you had to say. They were down by one run and it was the end of the goddamn world to some of you. Let me just say this.

Starting point is 00:17:22 It's a regular season game against one of the best teams in the American League. Had they not come back, had you been correct with your doubt, with your anger, with the fact that you wrote them off simply because they had given up a lead, they would still would have been fine with a loss. Two losses in Texas? You guys were acting like the entire month of April needs to be washed down the drain simply because they lost two goddamn games in Texas? Absolutely not.

Starting point is 00:17:51 But you were wrong. You were wrong and you feel, I hope you feel bad about being wrong because, yes, the Diamondbacks do not simply roll over and die like we saw from them last year. These are the answer backs and they fucking answer back. So don't forget it. And I don't ever want you come in my mentions after the ninth inning. You come in my mentions later that night. I don't want you in my mentions while the game is still going on telling me how they're going to lose. You take your negativity elsewhere, pal.

Starting point is 00:18:20 We keep it positive around here. And that's the bottom line because the fucking purple-haired mayor said so. Like, we bring Jesse back. I'm ready. I'm done now. I know you probably wouldn't have wanted to be a part of that. But that rant was brought to you by our friends at Shady Ray's, which, of course, Max isn't here to hear that. Awesome transition.

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Starting point is 00:21:29 feedback. And the biggest thing is to give me a thumbs up, because without Jesse here, I can say they're all for me, and I could just take full credit for that on the show. So thank you for that. Let's take a look at the numbers of this two game series, because again, it was a quick series with the Rangers and the Diamondback split. And of course, things look very close because it's baseball. The one big difference here, obviously being the relief pitching ERA, where the Diamondbacks were able to do some damage, especially in today's game against the Rangers bullpen. Yeah, the Rangers bullpen was not great in this one. I mean, they were walking guys around the bases. They turned to Ian Kennedy late in the game. Oh, that was kind of a white flag a bit there.

Starting point is 00:22:14 Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's had kind of a weird year where he like hasn't allowed that many hits. and hasn't allowed a single home run, and yet he still entered with an ERA of like seven. The D-backs were able to do some damage there as well. So, yeah, even though the bullpen for the D-backs wasn't great yesterday, they responded nicely today, didn't allow a run, finish things off nicely for Brandon Fought. Starting pitching ERAs for both of these teams were dreadful. Jonathan Gray, Andrew Heaney, Zach Gallen, and Brandon fought. All four starters in this series were not.

Starting point is 00:22:49 we're not at all good. But you do see here the debacks with 11 walks compared to the Rangers 5. So the tide continues to turn on that front with the debacks slowly but surely, getting their walk rate a little bit further up as the season progresses, something that I've kind of suspected would happen. The debacks have a number of players who have a history of being patient and having good at bats, and we're starting to see that a little more. Seven walks today.

Starting point is 00:23:14 Cotell had two walks. Lordus Griel Jr. had two walks. and he had a home run. He did it for the purple hair. He tried to make me proud today. Christian Walker, of course, just incredible with his five RBI. But really, the big thing today were the walks and that they were hitting 500 with runners in scoring position. Geraldo Pardomo did what he does. And this team has continued to fight back. And yes, Ryan, we are getting walks. I mean, and of course, today they were a big part of like Christian Walker's five RBI and the team's ability to put up 12 runs on the board.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Can we look at the win probability graphic that we have? Oh, yeah. This game was, yeah, this game was a crazy roller coaster. My God. My God. You can see. Yeah, yeah, D-BAC's down, down one-nothing early. And then they come back and score three runs, take a three-one lead.

Starting point is 00:24:08 And then, you know, they were down. And, you know, it was just, it was an absolute roller coaster ride. the entire way through Derek. So this dropped, this dropped as about as much in the wind probability as it did in people's minds that thought that the Diamondbacks were going to lose because they were down by one. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. I think the D-backs win probability when they had the 6-2 lead,

Starting point is 00:24:35 I think their win probability got up to like 75% or something like that. And then when the, when the Rangers came back and took the lead, their win probability got up into like low 70s. The game was a little bit later at that point. You know, and then the deep backs have their, their five running. And,

Starting point is 00:24:54 and, you know, it was pretty, they were certainly in the driver's seat from that point forward. But yeah, this game goes to show, you never, you never know who's going to win until,

Starting point is 00:25:04 no, it goes to show your analytics are stupid. Your numbers are stupid. Math is dumb and I hate it all. It's meaningless. Anyway, baseball is still great and the diamond backs are great. And they have a lot to look forward to going ahead.

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Starting point is 00:27:08 brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 years or older to enjoy. And please drink responsibly. Zach Gallen snubbed for National League pitcher of the month. That honor goes to Clayton Kershaw. Corbyn Carroll also snubbed for National League rookie of the month. That goes to Dodgers outfielder James Outman. He sucks.

Starting point is 00:27:34 So, yeah, he's this, the anti-James Outman agenda continues. when it comes to Damon. But Jesse, what are your thoughts on this and the snubs that occurred here, especially considering that they did include Gallin's numbers, apparently, from March in the numbers for April. Yeah, see, it's a little messed up, right? When they say April pitcher of the month, they're actually talking about March, April pitcher of the month.

Starting point is 00:28:02 Yeah, if you tell, I mean, Gallen's first start of the season was also his worst. So if you take out that one, I think you had a 1.09 ERA in actually in the month of April. He had a 0.62 whip, I believe it was. So yeah, if March didn't count, Zach Gallen, I think is the clear winner for April pitcher of the month. Unfortunately, they do, they do include those numbers, which I guess is somewhat. I mean, it'd be a little weird to just like throw out, you know, your first start of the season. if you started like one of the first two games of the season for your team. So those numbers did count.

Starting point is 00:28:38 And if you compare March and April numbers for Gallon and Kershaw, they are still very comparable. Kershaw had a 189 ERA, a gallon at a 215, Kershaw had an 076 whip. Gallon had an 077. Gallon had 10 more strikeouts. His opponent batting average was pretty much the same. His opponent OPS was a little better. So you could kind of make a case a little bit, even with that market. March start included, but no surprise at the end of the day it went to Kershaw.

Starting point is 00:29:06 He did have a better ERA and his whip was pretty much the same. So you can kind of see where they're coming from there. Some other awards that went out, obviously not just the National League, American League Rookie of the Month, like we said, Josh Young, pitcher of the month for the Yankees. Garrett Cole, AL pitcher player of the month goes to Blue Jay's third baseman, Matt Chapman, NL Player of the Month, to Ronald Acuna Jr.

Starting point is 00:29:34 No surprise when you look at some of these numbers, like Chapman hitting 384 with a 1.152 OPS. My God. Yeah, I don't know if I would say no surprise. I mean, or I guess no surprise that they won the awards with those numbers. Right. I am a little surprise that Matt Chapman had an 1150 OPS.

Starting point is 00:29:54 Yes. No, yeah. That's also a surprise, but I'm saying it's no surprise when you look at what they've been do it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think you're going to find a better player in the American League than what Matt Chapman did in the month of April. Yeah, I guess we can go back to the James Outman, Corbyn Carroll thing. Outman, I'm not surprised by that decision. I think that made sense. Outman had a higher OPS by about 100 points. He had seven homers, 20 RBI. Carol had four homers,

Starting point is 00:30:26 nine RBI. The 20 RBI is impressive. And also, Outman has just been involved in, he's been such a catalyst in all of the Dodgers wins. At time, the Dodgers really haven't been getting much from even some of their stars. And Outman has just been, he's been involved defensively. He's been involved at the plate. He just, I, there's a lot of highlight reels coming out of Los Angeles about about Outman. Yeah. The thing that does stand out to me, though, is that Outman struck out 36 times versus 24 for Carroll. James Outman's strikeout rate was really high in, in the month of April. So I, I still have my doubts about his ability to maintain that kind of performance over the course of a full season with how much he was striking out. By no means was April a failure for Corby and Carroll. I mean,

Starting point is 00:31:11 he hit 309, 374, 536. He had almost 20 runs scored, 10 for 12 stolen bases. Corby and Carol was outstanding in the month of April. And I still think he's in really good position to win the rookie of the year, even if James Outman is a little bit out in front right now. There's probably going to be a lot of guys that kind of pop up and have a good month. That name that Corbyn Carroll probably is second or third behind is probably going to change quite a bit throughout the season. But I think the thing that will be consistent is his place amongst the top rookies, month in and month out.

Starting point is 00:31:44 And I think that's what Corbyn Carole Corbyn Carroll brings. It was odd the way that when he came into the game today, he was just, it like, it instantly sparked this team to a big offensive inning. Like it just felt like just him being in the on-deck circle was. was, you know, some sort of just, it created buzz. You know, it made, it made these guys, like, want to do it. It also felt like the team kind of stepped up and wanted to, you know, do it for Brandon fought a bit, too.

Starting point is 00:32:12 It felt like they wanted to kind of make up for that inning and make sure that they don't let this guy down on his, on his debut. Yeah, I'm sure there's some elements of, you know, you don't want to let your young starting pitcher, you know, coming in, making a big league debut. you don't want to have him walk out with, you know, a sour taste in his mouth, especially given that as we talked about earlier, we think Tori Lavello probably left him in a couple of batters too long. So, yeah, good on the D-BACs offense for being able to come back and pick him up. And you're right, Corbyn Carroll was the one who got it

Starting point is 00:32:47 started there in that inning. D-Bex went on to score five runs. And Carol went on to bat twice in the inning. He had a lead-off single that started the whole thing. I think he struck out later in the inning. But it was impressive. The D-backs had, I believe, the first four batters of the inning reach. And, you know, I mean, they were able to get way out in front with a big performance there. Ryan says the purple hair brought the team together. Yes, I don't know if you saw it, but Lordus Goreal is slowly turning his entire accessories

Starting point is 00:33:20 wardrobe into purple, which I am fully on board with. Albert says, yes, Jesse, turn the maths on the Dodgers, which we always. love when Jesse turns the math against the Dodgers. Speaking of which, the Dodgers right now are losing five to three to the Phillies, and hopefully the Phillies can hang on there. There's been a lot of interesting things happening, including the Nationals beating the Cubs yesterday. The Cubs have been very good, and the Nationals have not been.

Starting point is 00:33:46 And that is who the Diamondbacks are playing coming up here this weekend at home. So taking a look ahead at the Probables for this series, there's going to be the youngsters on the mound against Nationals, which maybe is a good place to have them come back and maybe get back on track a bit, but things are starting off with Merrill the mainstay against a very, very good pitcher for the Washington Nationals. Yeah, Josiah Gray. I mean, he was a big trade get for them recently and his pitch pretty well this season, as you see there. He's also officially a talking baseball athlete, I think.

Starting point is 00:34:21 Is that what's going on? I don't know. They didn't have a lot. Yeah, no, I didn't see that. But, yeah, that wouldn't shock me. Yeah, Josiah Gray, McKenzie Gore, and then Trevor Williams in the series. So three pretty decent pitchers for the Nationals. All of them have sub four ERAs, as you see here.

Starting point is 00:34:42 Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson will start the latter two games of the series for the debacks. Good opportunity for them to get back on track, Eric, even though these pitchers that you see here for the Nationals look pretty good. The Nationals offense, not so good. So this is a good opportunity for Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson to get back on track. And this easier stretch of the schedule so far for the debacks has gone all right. They took two out of three from the Royals at home. They took two out of three from the Rockies on the road. I'm sure you would have loved to get away with a sweep in one of those series.

Starting point is 00:35:15 The debats weren't able to do that. But, you know, you split on the road with a very good Texas Rangers team. And now you've got the Nationals at home for three. We've got the Marlins coming after that. It continues to be a very good opportunity for the debacks to make some headway in the standings. By the way, Christian Walker's 5 RBI today versus the Rangers ties a career high for him. And it was also his sixth career multi-home run game. So a big day for Christian Walker.

Starting point is 00:35:45 Walker, Walker. Y'all are going to be singing that for a while. Anyway, Jeff Bannister, by the way, had a good return to Texas. there was quite nice reception for him there as well. So it was great to see everybody still giving Bannie some love. And now the Arizona Diamondbacks move on to an off day. By the way, we didn't get a chance to talk about this, but the corresponding moves that the Arizona Diamondbacks had to make

Starting point is 00:36:12 in order to add Brandon fought to the roster is they optioned Peter Solomon to Reno, which is no surprise, but they did designate Seth Beer for assignment, which, again, isn't a huge surprise with the way he's been playing. But for us at PHNX, it's a bit sad. We had quite the memorable experiences, as all fans did, on opening day last year with his walk-off dinger on National Beer Day. We will never forget that. And it's going to be interesting to see if he clears waivers and makes his way back to the organization. Yeah, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:36:45 Seth Beer is not hit well at all in Reno this year. He is an OPS of 580, which is very poor considering the run environment. there. Unfortunately, the offense just hasn't come together. He really looked promising coming up in the Astor's organization, was putting up really, really big numbers for them in AA. And when he came up with the D-BAC's organization, things just weren't the same. He was able to get up to the big leagues last year. He, of course, was the hero on opening day with the walk-off home run. And, you know, it made some fun memories here in Arizona. But he just wasn't, when the debacks sent him down, he just wasn't able to really prove anything in order to work his way back up.

Starting point is 00:37:30 So it'll be interesting to see if another team takes a flyer on him. But for those, uh, looking to evaluate the Zach Granke trade, uh, which with Seth Beer was a part of, you've now DFAed two of the four players that you got back in that trade with Seth Beer and J.B. Bukowskis being DFAed recently as well. Of course, Josh Rojas still a big contributor for the debacks. And Corbyn Martin looked good in spring training this year for the first time, but he's going to miss the season with an injury. So thank God for Josh Rojas, right? When it comes to that trade, Rojas has been a steady, solid contributor to this team.

Starting point is 00:38:12 I think a player that a lot of fans have been able to get behind. And he's kind of what they've gotten for Zach Granky at this point in terms of who has actually been productive and who's actually played games for the debacks. zone in Arizona says he'll go down in Arizona history as a very interesting trivia fact. Yes, he will. And in related news, if anybody was interested in a Seths Cervesa T-shirt, I may hold the remaining stock on those. So hit me up. We can talk.

Starting point is 00:38:42 We can make a deal. But again, another off day coming up. Don't know what to do with myself, Jesse, especially with this hair. I can't really go out in public as much as I used to. comfortably. But I will say something that you can do on the off day is check out Octane Raceway and Mavericks. If you have nothing to do tomorrow, check out their summer passes that they have, which you can pick up. And that'll get you the cart racing, virtual reality ax throwing multiple games, so much more. You can buy now for the best rate. You can book all

Starting point is 00:39:12 sorts of parties there. They're going to have a single to myo party with $5 Mavericks margaritas, $5 off there, two taco trios featuring all sorts of deliciousness like short rib tacos and $15 Mexican beer buckets. So check them out today, book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks, cart racing, virtual reality laser tag, axe throwing, bowling, which I still

Starting point is 00:39:34 need to beat Jesse in. Arcade, great food and drinks and so much more. They have a really fun baseball game there, by the way. They do. Yeah, that me and Jesse got a bit addicted to that basically you got to actually physically hit a ball with a little guy, almost like a

Starting point is 00:39:50 pinball type scenario. It's not just an arcade game. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's physics involved. Yeah, and honestly, once you start playing, it's hard to stop. So make sure to check them out. Tons of different events throughout the summer.

Starting point is 00:40:02 Check out Octane Raceway.com and Mavericks.com to learn more. Now, this Saturday, Serpientish jerseys are being given away at Chase Field. So it's a very good weekend to go check out some baseball. You can get your tickets through gaitime.co, which, by the way,

Starting point is 00:40:18 is the best place to buy tickets last minute. And of course, you are going to save money and you are going to get some great tickets, great deals. And that's the reason why it's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country. You can snag the tickets without the stress with game time, download their app, create an account, use code PHNX and you will get $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account, redeem code PHNX for $20 off.

Starting point is 00:40:42 And of course, get their app today. Get ready for it. You can download it today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed over at game time. So check them out. make sure to join us. We will be out there for the national series. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself in the meantime. I suppose we will be back here tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a show.

Starting point is 00:40:59 Hopefully, Jesse can get over his jealousy of my purple hair and find his way to make it into the studio because it's just not the same without you here, pal. I just, I feel too insecure at this point, Derek. I need to get a hat back on. I will put a hat back on. I will put a hat back on. I know. We'll figure it out.

Starting point is 00:41:17 We'll figure it out. We'll text me. We'll figure it out. I text Jesse more than I, text my wife, by the way. That's the truth. That is not a lie. But you can follow us on Twitter. You can text us both. DEMs, tweet us, whatever. I'm at Kap underscore K-G. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our producer, Damon is at Damon Dog. Got a bark before you follow him. But it's Damon, DAWG. Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore

Starting point is 00:41:43 sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being here after this big D-backs win. We appreciate your time. As always, on behalf of these boys, we thank you so much for joining us and remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you understand that a debut doesn't always go the way you want it to.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Brandon Pfaadt struggles in his major league debut but the D-backs offense comes up big against the Rangers

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