PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Diamondbacks Pitching Coaches Will Not Return In Current Roles

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

We have breaking news on some big coaching changes for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Per Steve Gilbert from MLB.com, the D-backs will not be bringing back pitching coach Brent Strom, assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson, or bullpen coach Mike Fetters in their current roles in 2025. We discuss the disaster that was the D-backs pitching staff in 2024 and if it is fair for the blame to fall on the coaching staff. We also have updates on the Wild Card round of the MLB Postseason and more on the debacle with Diamond Sports Group dropping more teams from their portfolio. Join Derek, Erik, and Shane for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports   MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.   Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Diamondbacks pitching staff, does it get a boom or a doom? It's a doom. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX DVACs podcast right here in Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is Derek Montia occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to be occasionally known to me at least is EasyE. It's the one and only Eric Ruby. Hello.

You may recognize him from other podcasts on PHNX, such as the PHNX Sun Show and Southwest bias. He's here today in lieu. And P.HNX. Sundevils. Oh, and PHNX. Oh, yeah, I forgot that. PHX.S.U. Well, welcome in. Of course, we also got our guy, Shaden Diefenbach on the ones and twos. And of course, Jesse

Friedman is not here because the season finally caught up to him and he's feeling a bit under the weather today. But of course, it's a terrible day for him to miss because we do have some breaking news from our guy, Steve Gilbert, in regards to the Diamondbacks pitching

coaches which we'll get here to shortly. And we did want to also remind you that our show is presented by our wonderful friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app now and use that code of PHNX365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And of course, you can describe the Diamondback season as never ordinary at times. This team was never ordinary and the season as a whole was not ordinary. But we do have breaking news from Steve Gilbert at MLB.com. and that is that Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom,

assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson and bullpen coach Mike Fedders will not return in their current roles in 2025. Any surprises there considering the disaster that was the Diamondbacks pitching staff this season? Somebody had to take the fall. That's right. Somebody had to take the fall.

I think the most interesting part about all of this and Ryan in the chat brings it up, not returning in current roles means that they're staying with the team, which is interesting. Not necessarily. I mean, we're not returning in their current roles. Like, will not return, period is like guaranteed gone. Sure.

Right. In their current roles opens up a whole lot of possibilities. There's a lot of gray area with that. And I mean, in general, a lot of people do like Brent Strom. Like just in general, oh, I like Brent Strom. He's a veteran. Whatever. But he's a legend in the game.

Right. That's what I'm saying. And so maybe you don't want to just completely get rid of him from your franchise. That's true. But the top dog. in that room for that pitching coaching staff like that's going to be somebody new it has to be somebody new and I think that that's the key there and of course I think maybe it's a broad term obviously we don't know how this is going to actually pan out we don't know the announcement

it's not official from the team but the diamondbacks did say that they will not be returning in their current roles it sounded at times like this may have been Brent strom's last season and and I'm and I'm that's me speculating but it's based on things I've heard the way way Brent Strom spoke at times. It sounded like he might have been taking a step back, at least from the pitching coach role. Like you said, there is an opportunity there potentially for the Diamondbacks to still keep him on in some advisory role, something maybe similar to Dan Heron with the team. Also, Brentstrom is given a lot to the game of baseball. We're going to talk about the Houston Astros, which he was a huge part of their run, but they were defeated for the first time

and will not be in the American League championship series for the first time since 2016. In nearly 10 years, it'll be the first time the Astros aren't in there. And when he was there, Brent Strong was a huge part of that. Of course, we don't know what happened with the pitching this year.

What we do know is that the Diamondbacks starting pitching was abysmal in 2024. We know the relief pitching was abysmal. Diamondback starting pitching ERA was 4.79, which was 27th in all major league. The relief pitching was 4.4. one, which was tied for 25th, and the overall ERA was 4.56th. You said it, but I think what you said is true. Like somebody ultimately had to take the blame here for, you know, this situation, right?

And again, this might be, the Diamondbacks may have fired all three pitching coaches. This might just be gentle wording or, you know, it might just mean that maybe guys are taking on a different role. It very much feels like Brent Strom won't be back though as they're in any capacity in these pitching coaches. So I've done some more digging because Ol Salty in the chat says I read they were fired. I believe that he read that over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI from Jack Summers, who got an exclusive conversation with Brent Strom saying that he was caught off guard by the firing. Okay. So it seems like it's it's there. It's not just current roles.

It's done. And maybe the way that Steve Gilbert put it out there was because. At the time, he just knew that something was changing, didn't know that they were going to be completely fully fired. Or he could be waiting for official confirmation. But apparently Brent Strong was caught off guard considering he still has one more year left on his contract and was already preparing for next season. Interesting. So that's when I read not returning current roles, my automatic assumption is that there, they have been let go. Yeah.

Like that's always my automatic assumption. It's a classy wording for it. Yeah. And we're waiting to learn. It's like when you mutually part ways. Yeah. Okay. Right.

Right. It was a mutual breakup. Oh, no, she just didn't love you. Yeah, she didn't love you. And you weren't the person, you weren't the person that you were when they met. So it is, it is kind of interesting. It is kind of interesting, though, the difference in wording. It does appear that it's, there's, there is going to be no returning for any of the three because there is also confirmation that Dan Carlson and Mike Fedders are also fired. Yeah. So, yeah. Fresh start, a fresh start. And you feel for them, you never want somebody to lose their job. But like you mentioned off when reading the numbers, something. had to change and the majority of your starting rotation is not going to be the thing that changes going into next year. You're absolutely right. And honestly, we heard from Brent Strom not too long ago where he had indicated or at least let on that there was something going on with

the pitching staff like as a whole. Like there was a widespread problem. And that kind of sent red flags up a little bit because unless you're talking about an illness spreading. amongst the players. There's not a lot that could be widespread amongst the entire pitching staff that isn't somehow to blame the coaches for. Right. It's something that they're doing,

that they got them to do, that they shouldn't be doing anymore, something that they should have coached out of them. I mean, you know, we talked about managing a baseball team, and for the most part over the course of the season, Tori Lovelo takes a tremendous amount of blame for what goes on.

However, he's not necessarily the guy, coaching the individual players. That's why there's a pitching coach. That's why there's a hitting coach. That's why there's a position player coach. You know, that's why these guys are there to help them with the individual coaching during the season throughout to kind of get them back on track. We know Brentstrom's track record.

He has a great track record. However, there comes a time, even with baseball players and coaches, where what you used to do that worked isn't working any longer. And that seemed to be the case. The pitching staff, the excitement around the pitching staff at the beginning of this year was unprecedented for a Diamondbacks team. They were supposed to have one of the best starting rotations in baseball, right? And they actually went out and they spent the money to get that as well. Zach Allen and Wardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery, and then whoever you want to fill in that fifth spot, eventually, you know, Ryan Nelson, Brandon fought as well.

like that was supposed to be one of the biggest strengths of this team going into the season. It was part of the reason why so many people were excited that after you make the World Series, you have an ownership that goes out and you spend a ton of money. And the weird thing with the pitching staff was obviously the Montgomery thing where he didn't have a spring training. It was a short run up. That really seemed to mess with him. But it's not all on the pitching coaching staff to fix that.

But no, no. You can maybe help get him in a better mindset, a better position. Each starting pitcher seemed to kind of battle with their own unique struggles that didn't always get better over the season, right? Whether it was going and seeing the rotation a couple times through and just completely crumbling, whether it was cramps, right? And it's like, sure, it's up to the player to be in a better position than whatever. But your coaching staff is also like, hey, keep your head on straight. Drink your water. Like, be prepared for this.

There were just certain themes throughout this entire season where it was just like, why does this keep happening? Why are these pitchers not reaching the heights that we know? We have seen them hit either with the Diamondbacks last season or with other teams last season. And then they come over here and for some reason there's this massive fall off of a cliff. And Brent Strom, great at using the old school methods and blending it with the new. But like you said, sometimes when something just doesn't work anymore, it just doesn't work anymore. And when you have an ownership and a front office that has gone out and spent so much money, and invested so much in a team that now has missed the playoffs and a starting rotation that's one of the worst in the league.

You can't afford to have that happen two years in a row with the type of investment that you are giving with this team. You have to change something. Well, you could argue that 2025 is potentially not the last, I don't want to say like, oh, the last run, but it could be the last run of this team in the current form without it adapting and changing the following season, right? We have a lot on the line in 2025. And I know that, you know, there are some things that Brent Strom was known for, like, bringing an entire file on you, you know, when he met you and has all that information that he gathered on you and things like that. And like the beautiful part about Brent Strom as a coach was that he did do a good job of embracing both those old school methods of pitching, of coaching and the new school analytics. Like he kind of embraced both.

It just gets to a point where when it's a widespread problem amongst the pitching staff, you have to question, you know, some things there. People in the chat are talking about like the strength and conditioning of this team, considering the number of injuries and such that they experienced. And I think that's valid too. And it is valid to say that Brunschtram at times didn't get his full pitching staff out there and hardly had the actual starting rotation together healthy at any point this entire season. You could also argue that maybe Brent Strom was the guy that made Ryan Nelson into one of the Diamondbacks best starting pitchers, you know, in their rotation.

I don't know the answer there, but it feels like the blame here is falling on the coaching staff. And I know a lot of people, like I said earlier in the chat, have felt that way that the coaching staff here in some way needed to be changed. I know a lot of people wanted Tori Lovela changed a manager and probably still do. And I get that. It just, again, it's one of those situations where. where you know, you look at the results and you have to wonder, you know, who really is to blame here as far as a coach goes, right? Tori's track record isn't great when you look at the two biggest collapses in Diamondbacks

history coming underneath his watch. As well as last year, despite the fact that they made it to the World Series and had the amazing postseason run they had almost missing the playoffs then too. That could have potentially been three seasons in his tenure where the Diamondbacks were going to reach the playoffs that they didn't. So things have been very, very thin for Tori. And again, I, you guys know, I'm a Tory apologist, as you claim, a Tori fanboy, as many of you have said.

And I think I've even called myself that. So I'm not going to argue with it. I really do like Tori Lavello entirely too much as a person because he's a great person. It's the same reason why these players are literally willing to play like, you know, Kevin Ginkle did with a broken bone in his body for someone like Toro. Right? But again, when results come and people in the chat talk about winning fixes issues, which is true,

when the results don't match with that, it's hard to make that separation. And you are right. Listen, Tori Lavello has seen the highest of highs almost as high as you could possibly get. Got there. Getting to the World Series. Saw the Mountain Top. Didn't get to the Mountain Top, but he could almost reach out and touch it. And when you get there, it sucks when you don't win. But when you take

a step back and you realize that you made it to the World Series, that's so a really big deal. Hey, two teams get that a year. You were one of those two teams. Obviously, you didn't bring that home, but. Neither did the team that won the World Series either. It's very hard in baseball. Yeah, yeah, you didn't follow that up.

With the wild card round for you to sometimes advance, there's just so many variables that go into it. Teams get hot at the right time. And then all they have to do is win two games to beat another team that won their division and could go on some crazy run potentially, right? That's why the baseball playoffs are so fun. And that's why when you get to a time like October, it's like, wow, really anything could happen.

And you're not going to go out and you're not going to fire Tori after this year. You're just, you're not going to do that, especially because there were certain parts of this team that were literally the best in baseball. Right. So it's not like you can't look at this team and see the potential and see the parts where they were managed. Right. And it does feel like with Tori, every right decision he made, oh, the best manager ever, every wrong decision he makes. He's the worst manager. Fire him.

That's just kind of the name of the game. but if you take the best offense that the MLB had this season and if you just say these pitching numbers instead of being 27th, 25th, and 26 and the respective ERA numbers, say you're 20th, 19, still bottom half of the league. You'd make the playoffs. Easily. Not even a question.

You would have won at least three more games if you were middle of the pack to seal the bottom third of Navy. DeVax fans, I have a proposition for you. what if what if let's go the mariners and the devax fused into one like one like dragon ball z yeah like that'd be the greatest team in the game where would we where well hold on where would they play half and half half and half so now there's only 20 or there's only there's only there's only now you're missing a team in baseball so you need to expand where you expanding Nashville okay cool Nashville the Nashville what I don't the Nashville ponies the Nashville ponies are a team now

and the mirrors and the devacs refused can they be like the wrong Humble ponies or can we add another? Yeah, that's good. That's good. I think we're going too deep into the weeds here. Yeah, that's fine. But one thing that's really interesting about these two teams because, I mean, I'm sure everybody's seen the staff by now.

Like the Mariners had the least amount of runs scored with the best pitching staff. And it was kind of vice versa. Yeah. They gave up the least amount of runs that didn't make the playoffs. Yeah. And the devax scored the most amount of runs. They didn't make the playoffs. Everybody likes you when you're weird and quirky and you're winning.

And as Eric said, when, you know, when losses come, that's when things kind of get weeded out. But nobody really cares if it's working. That's what I said. It's like it would have been a wash if they made the playoffs. Nobody loses their job. But this Debex team like works in a weird way. And kind of what my angle towards this is you don't, you shouldn't change things because I mean not like this. I understand the pitching.

But the philosophy of being this high powered offensive team should still be your identity. Yeah. Because once you start winning games next year, you want 89 games this year. Like things can like she can change. Yeah. easily. And it's also going to be much more difficult because you're going to lose potentially Jock Peterson and Randall Gritchick as your DH. Maybe the Diamondbacks bring in one guy's DH. My case and also alluded to maybe going back to a situation where the DH is more of a guy,

the position player that's off that day. I don't love that idea considering the production they got out of the DH. And honestly, even if they would have had one of those two guys there, that those guys had great seasons. And I doubt with the season that those gentlemen had, either one of those players we'll be back next year. Christian Walker might be a priority for this team, but again, they're losing those three guys. If they lose those three guys, that's a huge, huge portion of their production

that they're going to be losing. It's going to be hard for them to be that team again. Which puts even more emphasis on the pitching getting better. Well, right. Offense can just abandon you, and we've seen that with this team. That's the problem is when you have solid pitching, you're in every game. But when we're relying on the long ball

and you're relying on the offense, you have the week we had. at the last week of the season because your offense disappears. Exactly. When you're up and you're down and you're up and you're down, you need some more consistency. Baseball, of course, as a game of runs.

Like you mentioned, if you're hot when you enter the playoffs, you could be the team with the worst record. You can still end up making the World Series. But over the incredibly long season, that is the MLB season. Can't emphasize that enough how long that MLB season. You need to have some consistency in there.

And if you are going to be losing some of your offensive firepower, and maybe you can bank off. on, hey, we're going to get a full season of Corbyn Carroll, right? Maybe we're going to be healthier than last year, which is going to offset maybe losing some guys. You still need this pitching staff, which you've invested so much in, to be better in order to be where you expect yourself to be. Because while they did win 89 games this year and while they did have the best offense in baseball, you paid money to make the playoffs. You paid money to go deep into the playoffs.

The only reason why you even paid the money was because you made the money because you made it to the World Series. So in order to continue to have this type of team, to have an owner like Ken Kendrick who is now willing to spend money, there needs to be results. And this is the one thing that they could control and they could change. And if pitching gets better, that's great. But if you are looking 365 days from now and we're looking at a similar situation, I don't think it's just the pitching staff that's going to be coming into question. And nobody wants that to happen. So you have to make small changes around the edges now. It stings.

Brent Strom is a legend in the game. you don't really want to lose him. But if something's not working, you don't have the luxury to wait around anymore, right? When you're talking about the 2020, 2020, 2021, Arizona Diamondbacks, you were talking about, oh, what are they going to be like in 24, 25, 26, 27, right?

Yeah. Mike Hazen's plan of building through the miners. They were ahead of the schedule, basically, is what it was, right? But now you're on schedule. Now, like, you're here. There's no room for, hey, we're just going to see what happens next year. Hopefully we'll make the wildcard. No, like the expectation going into this year,

was playoffs and the expectation going into next year would be be better than this year and make the playoffs you have to make some sort of move it's unfortunate when anybody loses their job especially when it seems like a blind side according to some reporting out there but sometimes you just can't change the players that you have you don't have the luxury to say oh we're going to you know switch this and change that and quite honestly this isn't a talent-wise a starting rotation that should be anywhere close to 27th and starting pitching era 25th in relief pitching ERA and 26 overall in team ERA. There's way too much talent on the mound for this team to be anywhere close to that.

Well, really what it comes down to. And I mean, Mark makes a great point. It's a point I've been making all the year. He says, I just don't know how much of the fault was with the coaches versus the pitchers themselves, right? We know Jordan Montgomery came in out of shape. We know Jordan Montgomery came in with kind of a lot of baggage. I don't blame them for Jordan Montgomery. No, I don't either.

I mean, and that's not like that there was a, you know, Ken, Kendrick the other day took blame, even though Mike Hayes and then took blame back about whose fault it was. And I just, I think that there, again, there's a lot of blaming going on right now, which is why these cold coaches lost their jobs or won't be back in the same roles that they're in. We'll get confirmation on that from the Diamondbacks I'm here, I'm sure soon. But overall, it's funny because you talk about Ken Kendrick spending the money and getting that money from the playoffs last year. there's a belief that he's a cheap owner, a owner that doesn't spend money on this team.

However, Ken has said more than once, and I'm starting to truly believe it that what they do make from this team, they don't keep, they reinvest back in the team, right? And he's proven that. He's proven that, especially with the playoff run last year, because he did talk about the windfall they got due to the playoffs and the additional money

that the teams in the playoffs get, and they turned around and they did reinvest it back in the team. it's just for me for a lot of fans I'm sure you would agree it sucks at the one time that we've seen this particular owner truly spend the amount of money that people felt needed to be spent in order to compete in the National League West they blow it you know and and especially blow it in this fashion where you look at the end the end of the season numbers and it's hard not to put the majority of the blame on the Diamondbacks not making the playoffs on the pitching staff But that right now, when you look at what the offense did versus the pitching staff, it's hard not to put the blame there on the pitching staff.

Yeah, I think Bees makes a really good comment just kind of looking at maybe the younger side of things, talking about how guys like Brandon Faw and Ryan Nelson are direct products of Brent Strom's development. And they fire him just as they're taking off. Now, you know, it is tough because you're right. They've seen some success from their young pitchers. And even before the injury, Drey Jameson was doing well to, Justin Martinez has shown growth over his time in the majors. There's definitely young up-and-comers who, hey, we see your value.

And that's kind of like to me when the initial report from Steve Gilbert came out and said, we'll not return in their current roles. You thought maybe he would be reassigned to a role with the younger players. Development type of like, hey, we're going to have you as an advisor, just keep you around so you can mentor these young people. But day and day out, you're not the guy because, again, sure, he's helped the young guys. But like you mentioned, there was rumors and rumblings, even from his own. mouth of just something, something wrong in that pitching room. And if you're going to spend money

and you have veterans like a Zach Allen, like a Merrill Kelly, like an Eduardo Rodriguez, and you're going to go out and spend money on somebody like a Jordan Montgomery, you need somebody running that room that can get the most out of them. And as much as you love the development of the young guys, you still need to be better than 27, 25th, 26 in your respective ERA groups. Like, that's not okay for that type of group, especially when you do have young pitchers that are proving themselves. It's a tough balance because there's not just a right answer. Like just moving on from them doesn't fix these problems. But keeping them around, I don't know if that fixed them either.

It's tough. It doesn't. And I think a change was needed. I think when you think back upon maybe you're right, maybe part of the problem with Brent Strom was coaching up guys that are older that have already been in the league that aren't those prospects, you know, making that transition from being prospects to a major league pitcher. Maybe Brent Strom's role is better with those younger guys.

that are taking that coaching differently. I do know he seemed to have conflict with Madison Bumgarner, which everybody had conflict with Madison Bumgarner. So that's nothing especially new. But after a period of time had passed, he made some comments about like Bumgarner not accepting coaching well and things like that. And I guess maybe the idea there is you were literally trying to change a multiple-time

All-Star pitcher that, you know, has been in the league for years. And maybe you should have just. just kind of known that there was no changing somebody that was going to be that hard-headed and stubborn about the way that they pitch and have pitched over a 10-plus year career, right? So I don't know, but I do know that this change is probably something that they needed to make happen. And I know it's something that hopefully will inject some life into this pitching staff. They absolutely need it and they need to bounce back next season.

Jordan Montgomery most likely is going to be part of the starting rotation next year. We know Eduardo Rodriguez is here for two more season. and then we got the inevitable Zach Gallin, Merrill Kelly, you know, contracts that are going to come up. So it's just interesting to see what this team becomes next year, who they go after. I believe someone in the chat asked if it would be an internal or external candidate. I, it has to be an external candidate. If you're not going to let go of this many people internally. Yeah, I don't know.

And then also look to fix the problem internally. I mean, maybe. They got some good guys at a minor league level that they might turn to and look to. But I don't know what the answer is to that. we will keep you posted though as those answers come up i'm sure one one last thing on all this there are a lot of people in the chat and i don't necessarily disagree with you talking about how how much of this blame should actually be on the players right oh maybe it's not the coaching staff at all maybe it's the players there's a complete chance that that is that is the correct take

and the fact is that it's actually is up to the pitchers the pitchers aren't putting the work in it's the pitchers fall right the problem with the just the dynamic of professional sports is the players will be the last one to take the fall because you need to make sure that, hey, these are the people making the money, these are the people who have shown results like in Eduardo Rodriguez had the results before coming here. Jordan Montgomery had the results before coming here

and of course in seasons beforehand, Gallin and Merrill Kelly were better. The thing is now, when you make this move, if going into next season this continues, then your focus turns to the players. This is just the order of operations. And it might not be correct. there's a chance that there was actually nothing wrong with these three guys on the pitching staff

and it was out of their control. Is that in the most likely case? Probably not. But the order of operations goes your coaches and the staff and then the players. And that's just the way that this works. And Chris in the chat sums it up probably perfectly. The answer is both. Yeah, I mean, and that's something that's kind of driven me nuts throughout the season with the blaming of Tori is that

I don't know. It's not that Tori doesn't deserve blame in plenty of those situations. He absolutely does, but so do the players. So do the guys that the coaching staff puts their trust in to go out there. However, baseball is just so different. And I don't really know, again, I don't know what the answer is there in regards to a coaching staff, right? And their impact. Other than you look at the numbers overall between the bullpen and the starters and you can't help but say there's a bigger problem here, you know, besides just the

injuries and besides just the fact that you know a lot of this a lot of the these ERA numbers come from like minor league guys that didn't work out so well like Slade Soconi and other guys that got time as a starting pitcher as a relief pitcher and B's is strongly against this entire

thing and I kind of understand where B's is coming from I personally thought Brent Strom was going to maybe step away based on his own you know regard maybe wanting to retire to hear that he was fired seems a little different and seems a little surprising.

Once again, though, the blame had to fall on someone, and it seems in this case, it's 100% on the pitching and the coaches of the pitching staff. The good news in all of this is that this is getting done now. You're not waiting until December, January, and you're middling around trying to make a decision. Make the decision now and then figure it out. Seth Jones says Dan Heron should probably be mentioned

as a possible replacement. Yes. That's a great point. As far as an internal candidate, that is someone that they would definitely look at. So we will keep you up to date. We thank you guys for your wonderful comments like this. We thank you for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel for this breaking information coming out just before we started today. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Hit that notifications button because we would have gone live whether we had a show to do or not with this info coming out. So do not miss our breaking podcast. Do not miss the wonderful shows on our network. Most importantly, for my own self-esteem, hit the like button. Do it. Drop that like.

There's 130 of you in here and we should get 130 likes like that. I don't know. That doesn't really work. Maybe not 130, but definitely more than what we have right now. 127? Stop selling yourself short. We're going to 10030.

If we don't get 130 likes by the end of the episode, I'm going to fire Eric. You know, I don't think Chad can do it. We're going to end the show is what we're going to do. If we don't get 130 likes by the end of the episode, we're just going to call the rap. Dude, that is, that's a great. Are you talking about the show as a whole or this show? This episode.

Dude, this is episode. We need to start doing that. That is such a great bit. I don't think Jack could do it. I don't think they have it in them. I don't know if they have that dog in them like that. If you guys don't get to this. Before the end of the show, we're going to end the show.

Yeah, that's it. That's all that's going to happen. Of course, also, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app and leave us a review. Those five-star reviews do mean the world to us. We will have more on the Major League Baseball playoffs, even though we don't want to talk about it. We don't want to go there. But we're going to go there anyway because the why.

Wildcard round is almost over. We have one more game to play. We'll be talking about that and so much more on the other side of this break. But make sure to check out our friends at Bet365. I know you guys already love to make sports more fun, and Bet365 can do that. They pioneered live in-game betting, and they have the widest range of games of markets available for live-in-game betting across 78 sports. Eric, what's your favorite sports to bet on?

Basketball. It's the one I know the best. It's the one I know the best. I feel that about baseball, but like baseball is so random that I like football for its consistency a little bit more. What I like betting for baseball is who's going to hit a home run that day. That's a good one. That's my best. Maybe my favorite thing to bet on, but my favorite sport overall, that.

I bet on the N. your Diaz did it home ring out last time. Did you do it? No, he didn't. They scored two runs. But you could also get down the early payout offer that they have a three, six, five. Your winner, if your team goes up by five runs, even if they blow that lead. So make sure to get down on that.

I experienced this over the weekend with that. Alabama, and I almost threw up because they almost lost. But then I realized the Bet365 already paid me out. You got your early payout offer. There you go. So don't miss out on that. New customers can choose between two offers when you use that code of PHNX365 to sign up. Paws a bet and get an offer. You can place $5 in a $150 in bonus bets. If you're qualifying betl loses, you receive a match refund in bonus bets. Download the Bet365 app and use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up. Choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 21 and over and physically located in Arizona. You are someone you know has a gambling problem and wants to help call one under next step. Text next step to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Also check out our friends at Heila River Resorts and Casinos. It's the best place to go when you need a staycation, a time away, whether you need to stay there,

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All right. Well, that wild card round is almost over. Almost there. It came close to being over yesterday with the Mets being up on the Brewers. But the Brewers came back. They beat the Mets. That's the only series that's still tied at one game apiece with the final game happening today.

Otherwise, we have the same. Diego Padres advancing over the very tired looking Atlanta Braves team who are now eliminated. The Detroit Tigers advanced over the Houston Astro. The witch is dead. There it is. Shane, uh, put them to rest. Shane. That's the only thing that I have left in me.

Yeah, no, I get it. Ashto's eliminated. They will miss making not just the ALDS, but the ALCS for the first time since 2016. It's sickening. Oh, it's gross. It's the most sickening thing. It's like, it's like, I mean, there really isn't a comparison. It's like, uh, the, it's like LeBron James.

Yeah, LeBron James in the conference finals. Sure. That's what it is. I mean, it's, I think it's more than that. It's also like, again, it's baseball. Baseball's so random. It's so, you know, I mean, every year, we talk about it. There's been three teams that have repeated as NL representatives in the world series

over the last 50 years. three teams that's it you know in honor of uh of the astros going out we're going to do a celebratory trash can should we do a 10 trash can you'll do yeah let's do it rip bozos rest in peace bozos all right well uh i guess we also have the kansas city royals also advancing in a surprise elimination over the baltimore orio's bigger upset here the tigers or the royals Shane what do you got. I said it was the Royals just because of how like, I mean, I guess the O's really cool down near the end of the year. They did, but they were just such a powerhouse. But that team, like, you just never know with them. I think it's the royals. Plus, the royals, like, they're

being carried by Seth Lugo's, like, the whole year. And you're like, eventually they're going to stop. Nope, Seth Lugo and Cole Regans were just like two of the best pitchers in baseball out of like nowhere. That's crazy. I think it has to be Detroit over Houston just because of what we just mentioned with Houston and the fact that they're just a machine. and advancing in the playoffs. And I mean, Detroit was a team that sold at the deadline. They were trained players away. They got rid of one of their best pictures.

It's crazy to me that they gave him up to the Dodgers and then still end up making the playoffs. Yeah. They had a 0.1% chance of advancing to the ALDS as of August 1st, I believe, a 0.1% chance. Once again, showing computers are stupid and they don't know anything. But, man, I mean, again, there is a part. of me that feels like with the way the Diamondbacks were playing in their last week, that this is what we would be talking about right now. The Diamondbacks either getting rolled over in two games by the Brewers or decimated

in two games by the Padres. And I know that's just loser talk right now because I'm still sad. They didn't make the playoffs. But I just have to think about like we would have just had two more games and then we would have just still been here in the same spot with answers and questions and or without answers, I should say, and more questions. maybe the Diamondbacks don't make the drastic move to the to change the pitching staff,

but maybe they do because those numbers were still going to be those numbers, whether that team made the playoffs or not. You ever heard the term putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone? Yeah, yeah. You know, not to be Mr. Like everything's positive because sometimes I can get annoying, especially when the Diamondbacks do what the Diamondbacks did at the end of the season, and it sucked.

Don't get me wrong. It sucked. And I much rather would have had to make the playoffs just to see, just to get a chance. But since that didn't happen, let's take a step back and think to ourselves, well, obviously the problems were there no matter what. The numbers were the numbers. Yeah. Like you mentioned, you go to the playoffs, you split a wild card series, or you losing the wild card round?

Does this team feel like they can just run it back? Do they feel like they don't have to make any changes in that just give them another year and they'll just magically be better? Right, right. Does the playoffs is making the playoffs enough for them to feel like they at least did it and we're back? last year is a weird year where I think this team is always going to say it's always going to have inside of them now we just need to get in and anything could have happened so no matter how much you limp in at the end of the season like they did you still feel like had you gotten in that things could have changed and I mean the offense exploded in the final game against the Padres

but it couldn't do much the game prior and it couldn't do much the week prior so I don't know which team we would have gotten once the team made it to Milwaukee which is where they most likely would have ended up. I mean, the end of the season was full of extremely important games, relatively like playoff, like simulation type games. And they did not step up when they needed it the most. In fact, when they needed it to most, when they needed the most, and they were like, hey, we need to win to stay in the playoffs.

The lights were you bright. So why are we going to sit here and think that if they somehow back their way in, that they would just, they would automatically rattle off and be like the team from last year? Because of last year. Right. But the thing is, that's it. That's the possibility. and why you think that.

Yeah. You know, the more likely outcome is the team that continued to fail in the big moments for this whole season would most likely fail in the big moments going forward. Right. And that sucks. It stings. I don't like that.

I wish it was different. But I'm glad that at least it happened in a way where they're going to try to change something, even if it's a mentality shift. And I'm not rooting for guys like Brent Strom and this pitching staff to lose their jobs. But I am excited that this Diamondbacks team is not just going to be complacent with what happened and say, oh, well, it was actually. of our control anyway. It was the doubleheader. It's like, no, the only reason why that even happened, why it even mattered was because you were in control of your destiny and you ruined it.

You squandered it. You didn't play up to the moment. So. Well, and you, you have teams like the Orioles that, to be fair, you know, again, it's the same situation. That's the only reason why I'm thinking about this is like the disappointment in Baltimore has to be big based on like how fans felt about that team at times. But like Shane said, they kind of also kind of petered out there at the end. They didn't have a strong end of their season. season and that kind of carried over to playing a hot royals team who the royals have been in in the in the mix for their for their playoff lives for a while now like they've been in playoff mode for a minute so like they've just they kind of stayed in that in that same mindset

whereas you know I don't know the orals had had a decent amount of wins they had a decent season but it felt like they just kind of ran out of gas much like the diamondbacks did at the end of their season but hey here you know the the overall thing here is I want to to ask Shane, how do you think the Diamondbacks would have fared? Do you, am I being too dramatic here? Do you think they would have had a good chance in either of these series? No, of course they would have had a good chance.

This is the team that the identity is still the same. And that's why I mentioned earlier, they shouldn't really try to change that identity. They shouldn't try to overcorrect the pitching staff and replace some bats for that. Because this is your identity. Their identity last year was like, just throw it out there, have fun and play baseball.

Yeah, it was working. Like, everyone jokes about the power of friendship, and you're kind of getting dunked on by Dodgers fans this year for that. I've seen a lot of that on Twitter about the power of friendship. But it was true. Like, they were just, it was all off vibes. So to say that this team wouldn't have a chance, I think is a little ridiculous. Do you remember last year, like they, this year going to the playoffs, they, they look nervous. They look scared.

They looked like they just couldn't find themselves. Last year going to the playoffs, they were walking backwards, throwing up on themselves, pooping their pants, all at the same time. And then they get in the playoffs and they look like a completely different team because of fives because they're having fun. Yeah. So. And also Tommy fam. I'm going to, I'm going to give Tommy fan a lot of credit.

Tommy fan will slap the hell out of you if you weren't taking the playoffs seriously. You know, but I don't know. This is still an interesting move. And I, again, I don't know. Maybe this is the copium that they were talking about that I was pulling earlier. But this feels a little bit more like coping saying, well, what would have been the difference? You know, Archie made his point yesterday, and I think that's a good one that at least if you make the playoffs, you're multi-year, you know, making the playoff for the first time in multi-years for in a very long time. And you haven't done it very often in franchise history.

You're just building the confidence in this team. You're building the thought once again, like Shane said, that if you get there, you can make it happen. It's just, it's hard to envision that because of what you said, Eric. And that is, that was some terrible play down the stretch. and then they had a chance to kind of win their way in and they didn't do it then. So what makes you think magically in the playoffs, they would have turned it around. Well, that's last year. That's what makes you think that.

Well, right. Would they have had a chance? Of course, because they were in. Yeah. For sure. You know, the best offense in baseball. And to be honest, with the pitching numbers being bad, you still had names and guys who could go out there and when they're at their best, they could win you a game by themselves.

And is that gallon in Ameri Kelly. Obviously, Ryan got injured. But at that point in the season, he became that type of guy. Even we saw Brandon fought, Big Game riser in the playoffs last year, right? Like, you definitely have a recipe for success there. It's not by any means the fact that they just couldn't make a run if they made the playoffs this year. It's just you can't base your expectations off of a team that, like, last year was based off of vibes more than this year was. This year was based off of vibes, but also money.

This was a talented team. This was a roster that was put together to win. This wasn't supposed to be a surprise, right? So I definitely think they would have had a shot, even if they played the Brewers or the Padres. They definitely had more of a shot over the Brewers and the Padres in my opinion. But I just, I can't sit here and confidently say, oh, yeah, they would be advancing from this wildcard. Is it possible for sure? It felt like the Padres tried to give them a game and they were just like, no, we don't want it.

Send this back to the kitchen. Yeah, right. Yeah. No, it's kind of weird. But I do know, I do know one thing that's been kind of more of a disaster than the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2024 regular. There's no way there's anything. Yeah, there is. It's the Diamond Sports Group and their handling of MLB television rights. So we're going to talk about that being even more of a disaster here on the other side of our break. So don't go anywhere. PHNX is proud to sponsor or partner together with

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do you want a wriggly sour worm i do want a wriggly sour worm that's from the circle k with these someone left them in front of our studio lights and they definitely are soft they're all knotted it's just one giant it's one giant one let's go oh i got it i got it i got it I got to eat the whole. Do you want a Wrigley sourware? Yeah, I'm out. I'll tell you, don't sleep. Don't sleep on the circle case snacks.

They're better than the other things that you can get there. And they're cheaper and he can't catch. He's not, he doesn't know my mouth. Sorry. All right. Well, speaking of failing at stuff, Diamond Sports Group, calm down. I'm just saying, Diamond Sports Group appears to be threatening to drop every MLB team in its portfolio besides the Atlanta Braves. Why not?

Let's just, why even keep the Atlanta Braves at this point? Yeah, this is all barring renegotiations on the deals on more favorable terms, is what they said in court yesterday. It's just crazy to me. And at Diamond Sports Group, one, agreed to these terms, signed a contract, and now we're like, well, unless you change them, we're not going to do this anymore. We're just going to go to bankruptcy. And two, how any company could have gotten the rights for any major sports team

and drop the ball literally this much. Like, this is insane. Everybody loves sports. It should be a slam dunk. Obviously, Diamond Sports Group does not love sports. Dude, I'm so, I'm so, so sick of all of this. They are too. Everybody, like, I only want to do this as a segment.

You have to, you have to talk about it. I'm so absolutely sick of this. You know, ironically enough, when the whole Diamondbacks, Bally Sports, Diamond Sports thing was happening, I was actually freelancing for them at the time doing social media. And I was working another job where I had to report on what was going on. And so it's like, I'm literally reporting on. Am I going to have another job or am I not?

And you're just stuck in the middle as an employee. And it's just dragging on and on. It's unfair to the employees. It's unfair to the fans. It's unfair to the teams. It's unfair to everybody. But Diamond Sports Group who just gets to decide whatever they want to do and make life so much harder for everybody else. Go out there like this.

Their lawyer, Andrew Goldman, said that DSG plans to a. assume a single telecast rights agreement, that of the Atlanta Braves, all the other teams, all of Major League Baseball's other agreements will be rejected under the plan. And it's like, and this is the bankruptcy plan, right? They have rejected the contracts for the Tigers and the Rays already. And they have five more teams besides the Braves that they currently have in their portfolio, portfolio, which are the Angels, Reds, Cardinals, Royals, and Marlins. And outside of the Cardinals and the Royals there, I don't see the other three broadcasting

rights being very valuable to them if teams like the tigers and the rays weren't i feel like the rest of them are in that group i feel like the royals are a good fan base i feel like the cardinals are as well but this entire thing is just gross and terrible and i don't like i don't know i mean i guess part of it is the fact that whenever they negotiated this contract in the first place it felt like kind of a bad deal based on the fact that the world was moving towards streaming rights or streaming everything right streaming even at home like it's not just watching on your phone anymore. It's not just watching on your computer. You stream in your home and most people have cut the cord and they have all streaming services, right? So the fact that

Diamond Sports Group got into this without streaming rights, considering the direction that this was going showed their bad decision making early on. They paid a ton for the television rights, couldn't stream the games, but yet they still could in a way because I feel like you, like, if you had the Bally's app, you could watch Diamondbacks games. You just had to pay for service, right? You had to pay, right? And I mean, I don't know. This whole thing. thing just is like it's it's crazy to me that a team could jeopardize a popularity of us or team a service provider could jeopardize the popularity of a sport and of certain teams based on the fact that they got the rights to broadcast the team and then just chose because of well we don't

make enough money off of it that we're not we're going to go do all of this the dynambacks broadcast arguably has gotten better since valleys went away right I mean when they made the switch over to MLB, like the cameras were crisper, like the angles were better. Yeah. And especially because they carried over the same broadcasters too. That helped. It wasn't just like a lot of the same crew, right? A lot of the same crew, but just like different, different technology that they were able to use. And you're right. Like, they did get better in it. It's just, it's going to hopefully get to a point eventually. And it's going way slower than anybody would actually want it to happen where you don't have to hear the name Diamond Sports Group or whatever.

Because there's a thing, if they're rejecting the rights of all these teams and all in all these places, eventually they're not going to be a player in this game anymore. And that's what you're looking at eventually down the line. Maybe with the Braves, but if they're around with one team, that's not nearly as big of a deal as they are with so many. So I just, you're right, though. I just need to get this over with. I just get them out. And it sucks in the short term, but just. It's, you're right, though.

It is kind of good news. Like, drop all the teams, get rid of them. you were a colossal failure, potentially one of the biggest failures in sports broadcasting history. Right? Like, I sometimes think of ESPN kind of being a bit of a failure based on what ESPN was when I was a kid versus what it is. Now, when Archie was bringing up the fact that they're, you know, airing baseball games at 11 o'clock in the morning during the playoffs instead of like at a primetime slot. That's a whole different conversation. That's a whole other conversation.

But once again, it's one of those things where you're like, okay, I know from a scheduling perspective, it has. to do with they want all the games on TV, but then they still did two games at the same time. So it's not like they were given each one their own spot. They could have stretched it out over the course of an entire day. So the first day of the playoffs was just wall-to-wall baseball. They didn't do that. They had this big gap in the middle when they could have played games or had just staggered differently, right? And I don't know. Like they in general, again, it's kind of the same thing where I feel like ESPN is kind of a disaster now when it comes to being like any kind of hub for actually watching sports. You know what I mean?

I mean, even for, even for analyzing it, too, not to get too deep into the downfall of ESPN. But yeah, and that's what I'm saying. That's why that's why people love PH&X. That's why we love PH&X in the entire All-City Network because, you guess what? If for some reason, because of these terrible, greedy companies, you're not able to watch the games. Like, you're able to come here and learn and know about the games afterwards. So, yeah. It's just tough.

It's just tough that, like, it's sports, man. And it really should not be this ingrained with this type of greed and business. but it just is now. And B says it all feels so fractured. It's the inefficiency of the business model. And it's like I think for me, especially with Bally's like I know that they are a victim of, you know, the parent company having certain like advertising on the games and then them acquiring their own. But when you watch a football game and I'll bring this up again and I'm sure I'll receive criticism from people that used to work at Bally's for saying this. But when you pull up a football game, right, I know there's a lot of weird stuff that advertising.

on there too. I know there's a lot of like medical pills and treatments. There's a lot of like investment firms that might pop up a lot of just weird stuff. But like I don't know. It's consistent. You get like still the major companies advertising on there because they see value. I don't know maybe maybe advertisers don't see the value on on sponsoring, you know, baseball games during the 162 regular game season because of how long and tedious it is and how it's not as premiere of an event each time a game is played as like a football game or even a basketball game. But I don't know. I feel like there is definitely a business, you know, failure here when it comes to how much people love sports and how you should be able to, you know, as a service provider, be able to make money off of said, you know, sports being

part of your portfolio. But hopefully this is the last time we have to talk about this. Just, uh, get out of my life. You know what's funny? Okay. So Sinclair, which owns Diamond Sports Group and created it as its dumb little subsidiary so it could walk away from this deal if every thing goes bad. Sinclair used to own a wrestling company that I was a big fan of and had like a little role in working for. And I knew when they completely botched like handling that as a television show that this was a bad company. And then I found out that they were behind Diamond Sports Group. And I remember my first thought being like, these guys couldn't even handle Ring of Honor. They can handle Major League Baseball. And sure enough, here we sit today.

I wish I would have put that on tape in some way because it felt very, very telling at the time. But, well, that's all we got for you today. On that bright note. No more Diamond Sports Group talk on this show. We're going to ban it. But it doesn't impact us anymore. Big news, though, again, per Steve Gilbert, the Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom, assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson and bullpen coach Mike Feders will not return in 2025.

Per Steve, it's in their current roles per another article from our friend Jack Summers over at Sports Illustrated. it's that Brent Strom and the pitching coach staff has been fired. So we will get some confirmation on that at some point here from the Diamondbacks. And we'll also have plenty of time to speculate about who they're going to hire and fill those roles with. But again, we thank you guys so much for being here in the chat. Make sure you hit that like button before you get out of here. Make sure you follow all of us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Kman with the K.

This man is that Eric. Is it just Ruby or is it L. Eric Ruby like the gem because he's a gel. L Ruby or those is the L stand for I don't know loser yeah loser yeah that's right old dog legs yeah and you got the the the the Dief and lock over here at Dief Shane Dief of course our shows at P H&X underscore Dbacks but all roads do lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook we appreciate you guys so much for stopping by today we will see you tomorrow with another 1 PM show to talk a

little bit more about that ending of the wild car and maybe some positive takeaways. Whoa. Yeah, I mean, I should have done that with you. We can't do that with Jesse. Maybe you'll come back tomorrow. We could do some positive stuff because Jesse, he doesn't like to keep things positive. He likes to cause of realistic.

We need to force it like a kid taking his medicine. We need to force some positivity. Yeah, we'll figure. What is that? For some positivity. Is that we need? No. Okay.

No. We'll talk later. All right. Well, we thank you guys again so much for joining us. We will see you tomorrow. Hope you have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. but it's so much more fun when you find someone to blame for your shortcomings.