PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Ketel Marte WILL RETURN to D-backs Lineup for Series Opener vs Phillies

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Per a report from Francys Romero, Ketel Marte is set to return to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ starting lineup Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies. After everything that has unfolded surrounding the All-Star second baseman, how will Marte’s return be received—and how quickly can the D-backs put this entire situation behind them? We also preview the upcoming series against the Phillies and look ahead to Game 3, where the TBD spot in the rotation could potentially be filled by Corbin Burnes as he makes his return to the D-backs. Is Burnes finally ready to rejoin the starting rotation? Plus, it’s Mailbag Monday! We answer your questions with friend of the show and D-backs After Dark co-host Michael “Roknowledge” Velasco joining us in studio! BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 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/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. 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! 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.

We have a breaking report that could tell Marte will be rejoining the Arizona Diamondbacks lineup today as D.H versus the Phillies. How will it go? We have no idea. But I brought in reinforcements. My guy Rock from D-Backs After Dark is here to talk about this. Maybe Corbyn Burns being back this week and so much more. Don't you go anywhere? We are starting right now.

You are now listening to PHNX D-D-Backs after dark. Welcome in to D-Backs after dark during the daytime. This is the PHNX D-BAC show. La from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. And that is a special theme song for this man. My name is Derek Monty, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man is Michael Velasco, occasionally known as rock knowledge from D-Backs After Dark, joining us here to talk about some big Cotel Marte news.

And, of course, we are not alone. We have you wonderful people in the chat. And we got our guy, the bad boy of PHNX still, still. Still. The drunkard. The drunkard. The man who has no business being on camera but should be on camera at all times. It's Damon Dogg.

A.k.a. Damon Farrell. And don't attack this man for his Las Vegas personality folks. All right? Apparently you're not allowed to have a couple alcoholic beverages in Las Vegas these days. I didn't know. I thought what happened in Vegas. Stayed in Vegas. Me too.

Me too, brother. That was the case. But we are happy. to be back here from Las Vegas, even though I missed Kevin this morning so much. First thing I had him do was do the British accent that I hated that he did all weekend long. Sure. You know? Because it's like it was like it graded on me.

I hated him for it. And now it's like a permanent part of my life. And I can't live without Kevin doing that stupid accent around me. But we got breaking news today, of course, that we have to get to. And before we do that, we got to remind you guys that if you want to go to games just like tonight's very exciting game. or any of the games in this Philly series. Make sure to check out Game Time.

This show is proudly brought to you by GameTime. Go download the app right now. Use our code of PHNX on your first purchase, and you'll get yourself $20 off. Said purchase, make sure to create an account. Terms do apply. And yeah, man, we got ourselves some big news today, according to Francis Ramiro.

Cattle Marte will return to the Arizona Diamondbacks lineup tonight as designated hitter. and Rock, it feels like it is time to get this over with and move past this. It's trying to get back to baseball and just baseball. Yeah. And that's what needs to happen once he talks to his teammates today. Just play the game. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

We had a 45-minute meeting that we don't really know exactly what was said in there, what exactly was discussed. We know that there were several members that are considered leaders on this team as part of that meeting. Corbyn Carroll, their MLBPA representative was there. Geraldo Perdomo, their captain on the field, Duardo Rodriguez, Nolan Aronado, a legend in the game. Just the vets, the guys, and more. I'm leaving a few names out. But according to Nick Picoro, this meeting lasted about 45 minutes,

and the group seemed to come to an agreement on what would be the best path forward for the team, which is the ultra-talented Marte on it. The conclusion, multiple sources said, according to this report from Nick Bacoro, was that the group wants to win, regardless of how anybody felt about his recent actions, Marte gives them the best chance to do that.

Yeah. I mean, that is the ultimate business decision. That's the ultimate right decision when you are approaching this from the perspective of a team that wants to win games and get to the postseason. Yeah, you can't. They're not going to do with Alcatel Marte. So getting him back, getting him back right,

and him just doing what he can do, that's what needs to happen. ignore the noise. There's going to be noise. I'm curious to see how his first that bat goes. There's going to be some booze, I'm sure, and I don't know if it's going to be just Phillies fans or D-back fans.

I like booing him. He needs to get past all the noise and just focus on baseball. That's really what it comes down to. That's why, again, it's almost like the same thing about getting starting pitchers back as soon as possible, so that they can get back into essentially

playing the game of baseball at the level that they can. Yes. And getting through those first couple of starts and getting themselves back on track, right? With Marte, there's a lot of emotional baggage to get through. There's a lot of apologies that he's going to need to make. And quite frankly, I'll say this much, man. I mean, if Marte comes in, and I said this on the radio with ESPN Tucson this morning,

and if he comes in and hits four home runs and the Diamondbacks sweep the Phillies in the series, we're done. We've moved on. We'll get past it. Best case. That is how fast winning can fix this whole situation. Oh, absolutely. And that's what it's going to take, unfortunately.

If he comes back and he goes and goes over and struggles, it's going to be worse. It's going to be horrible. Because the media is going to bark. Well, and I think it's more than the media, right? It's the fan reaction as well, right? And I mean, ultimately, I think, Damon, do we have the tweet from Francis Romero? This is what essentially we got today is that Cotell Marte will be activated today by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is expected to play as the DH, and Marte will also address his teammates before

the game. Like, that's it, man. I mean, again, this entire situation I feel like from the beginning was a mess simply because of how it was all handled and how it was drug out. And I also say handled because I know that Cotelle Marté is to blame for this. I'm not going to remove blame from Marte. But I will also say, having members of the front office and the manager of the team and others come out and make statements such as we don't know where he is, and we don't know if he'll play again for this team this season, and we don't know this and we don't know that. Those were all very honest statements that they were making.

That's how they truly felt in the moment. And when they were asked those questions, I feel like they were asking honestly, but sometimes you can't answer honestly. Sometimes you've got to give the corporate PR answer, and the people that needed to do that was the front office and Tori LaVolo. I think that, again, it poured gas on the fire for sure. They poured gas on the fire.

Yeah. Right. I mean, this was not a quick, let's figure out, let's crisis manage this situation and figure out how to handle it best from a PR perspective so that the organization and Kattel look as embarrassed at the least amount of embarrassment here for this situation. And that didn't happen, right? But that's why I mean, like, we need to rip this band-aid off. We need to get past this. The very idea that there are people out there that would rather see Ketel-Marte, DFA, rather than being part of this team is simply insane, just based on the value that you're trying to literally throw away in the trash can, like as if there wouldn't be 29 other teams, like, losing their minds about acquiring someone of Marte's skill set. It's like you said last line on After Dark that there is these, these are Dback fans in disguise that want him to go somewhere else. Oh, yeah, no, yeah, they're not real DBA fans. They're Red Sox fans and, like, other team fans, they're like, oh, yeah, totally.

We should DFA can tell. No, because you know what's going to happen if you get paid. profile picture to like Paul Goldschmidt real fast. Because you know what happens if he gets DFAed and he's available? You know who's going to scoop him up? That team in L.A. We don't do that. Don't do that.

Don't do that. Don't do that. I don't want to see that. We don't. We don't. But again, again, the overall, this is a situation that, you know, the biggest thing that needs to be rectified is Ketel Martez, you know, his relationship with his teammates. That's it. I know that there is a relationship with the fan base that he also still kind of has to rebuild.

But I don't know if words from Cattel is enough to do that for the fan base. That's enough to do that with his teammates in the clubhouse privately at a team meeting. But there's not a lot that Cotel could say in the media that's really going to make a lot of people that are angry with him and the fan base feel better. Marte can simply make those people like him again by going out there and performing. And that's what we need. That's what he needs. That's what everybody needs to move on from this situation. It's hard to not look at the series split this weekend against the Giants and think that that outcome might have been different had Cotel Marte's bat been in there, especially considering how they lost game one six to one on a night where their offense looked dead in the water.

You know, and then again, they had an explosive night the following night in game two. We covered both of those games live from beautiful Circa in Las Vegas. But then over the weekend, you know, Merrill Kelly delivered exactly what they needed in game one of their two-game doubleheader on Saturday and then game. three, or game four, excuse me, the second game of the doubleheader. I'm making a lot of numbers there. The second game of the double header, their offense disappeared once again. And again, this was a day where, you know, the pitching wasn't great in some of these games. I'll say that. And that's going to hopefully be rectified here shortly with the return of some arms to the starting rotation. But it's hard not to think that Marte's bat, you know,

might have been a little bit of a difference maker in the series overall. What was the corresponding roster move? Who was moved to Pocatello back on the active roster? Do we know? It probably is going to be Jose Fernandez. Being optioned down to AAA Reno. There's no official move being made yet about that, but that would seem to be the move. Yeah, because he was brought up.

And he was the emergency kind of backup here more for Nolan Aronado, but that allowed them to have a little bit of flexibility at third base. You have Aronado a little bit more time and all that such. But the debacks do leave San Francisco two and two. They still beat up on the Giants this season, and they still have a great record. against the division, should they end up tying any teams down the stretch there for the wild card. But again, there's two very different ways to look at this past weekend series, is that they won two games and one of them was started by Meryl Kelly and their offense showed signs of life, specifically Lars Neupar having himself won hell of a series.

Big Lars. Big Lars. Yeah. And they have a game. They have a half a game lead right now on the San Diego Padre. So these are all positives after this weekend. But it's the Giants. and it's hard to see them let Bryce Eldridge beat them

the way that that man single-handedly did at times this weekend. And again, dropping two games out of the series doesn't feel great considering where the Giants are at right now. But their offense was potent, and we didn't have the pitching. I felt like to keep up with them in the series. No. And that's kind of been the unfortunate thing

throughout the course of this season. It's always one of the two. The offense is rolling, but the pitching is kind of eh, or the pitching's rolling, the offense is not doing his thing. We need both sides of the game to come in and do what we know this team can do. Because it doesn't get an easier. And this series tonight, this game the night, is a start of a very important three-game series. I mean, possibly the most important three-game series besides the final one of the year against the Padreys.

And that's not to take anything away from some tough series that they have between now and the end of the year. The Diamondbacks play the Yankees. They play the Marlins that have been very tough against the Diamondbacks. and again, some other teams that you can't overlook because none of them are really easy. They do have a three-game series with the Rockies, and even that can't really be overlooked. But it does feel like the Padres have a similar yet slightly more difficult

road ahead, including they have a three-game series with the Dodgers right before they play the Diamondbacks in that final series of the year. So things at least are looking in the Diamondbacks favor as far as the schedule it goes a little bit. But, I mean, as far as the pitching goes this weekend, Brat Col Drake

Jose Cabrera You can't expect to win realistically with rookies in your starting rotation to this degree No To this degree

No But that might be changing Yeah That might be changing That might be changing this week We might have some We might have some surprises in store But

We do have of course That half a game lead right now In the wild card And when you look at the wild card standings overall. It's, I mean, it's going to be a race down to the end. And it doesn't feel like necessarily that those Marlins are going away either. They factor in quite a bit, even though they're kind of a little bit farther out. Overall, this is like, it still feels like a four-team race

for three spots. And again, it still feels like the Cubs are pulling away a little bit, but they're going to factor in here, I think, as well. They have like seven games left against the Brewers. And And you have no idea. It's not a walk in the park, man. The brewers kick their ass in those seven games, then there's a good chance that that first wild card spot might be up for grabs as well. Just, again, as making, you know, trying to get as many spots here or, you know, open up the opportunities as much as possible.

Absolutely. Getting back to the Cattell situation, though, I don't know, man. I will say this, that I know there's people even in the chat talking about booing Cattel. Maybe. It's like I talked about last week, Derek. I just don't think that that helps anybody. He's clearly such an emotional guy that I don't think that that's going to make him play any better. And it's probably just going to hurt his relationship with the debacks even more.

But I do think most fans are very supportive of Ketel. That's it. And I think that that's kind of what we need. Look, do you want your baseball team to win or lose? I feel like it's that big of a... It's that cut and dry. It's literally that cut and dry. I know you might not be happy with his actions.

And I know you might not want to cheer him. And I think that's completely understanding. But I don't really understand what the idea of booing your own player that is going to potentially affect him and actually impact him and cause him to go 0 for four in a very important game. I just don't know. I don't know how that is benefiting your team. I do think that the Phillies being the opponent here is an interesting factor of it, though, because he is the guy who got the World Series or the NLCS MVP against the Phillies. You know, like they are known to be a big boo-bird fan base. and there's probably going to be a decent amount of them here in Arizona.

So Cattel getting booed probably is largely going to be done by the Phillies fans in the crowd, but then we're going to get blamed for it, obviously, as Diamondbacks fans. And there might be some that get involved in it as well. I'm not saying that no Diamondbacks fans are going to boo, but I do think that the majority will probably be cheering him. And it's just going to be a little bit of a mixture of hot and cold there. I hate to say this, but let's throw Killer Rex's comment. up on screen.

I've been reading his tweets a whole time. He said, Killarex says, I support Ketel because I don't, GAAF about him, taking days off. It doesn't affect me in my personal life whatsoever. I mean, it does affect his personal life when he comes on here on the postgame shows and is crying and saying, you know, fire everybody and arrest Tory and all this stuff. And like, you know, it doesn't help. It doesn't help when Ketel's not in the lineup. So in a way, it does affect a little bit.

I will say this, though. We even had a new report coming out, right, courtesy of Arizona Sports 98.7 that Ketel now missed a game in 2023 against New York when it was raining and he thought it was going to be postponed. So he stayed in the hotel room instead of coming to the field and then it was postponed and then they ended up saying he was sick or something like that. And like again, it's superstar stuff, I guess. It's the good and the bad that comes with it. I mean, you're not wrong about that. And I'm not excusing it. But again, I really don't understand what the point of this undercover work is to like, you know, make this situation worse and Barry Cattel more.

I do think that what they're trying to do is paint a picture that the organization has put up with a lot from him and that if anybody thinks that the organization is at fault for Cattel's behavior overall, the general thing might just be that they have allowed it to go on too much, right? Or they've swept it under the rug. Maybe the purpose of this becoming so public is that they were sick of it happening and that this is the time where they felt like they're just going to go ahead and not protect him this time and not hide the truth. They're just going to tell people like, yeah, he didn't show up today. We don't know where he is. We don't know if he's coming back. We don't know anything about it, right? So in regards to what I said earlier, that report coming out today and this information coming public is probably just so they can be like, hey, look, this is not something that,

we're just dealing with for the second time. You know, this is an ongoing issue now for multiple seasons in a row. This is the last thing I'll say on this. And, you know, I don't want to keep derail in the show here. But, like, I feel like this is definitely coming from somewhere very high up in the organization. And if I'm recklessly speculating, this is not Derek Montia, big J. Journalist who goes to the ballpark. This is Damon Dog here saying this.

I think it's ownership that doesn't like the way Cattel handles himself. from a professional standpoint, being a part of the team, and that's why we see this constant kind of run of information that gets being put out there. Because I do think that if Ken Kendrick was perfectly fine with the way that Kattel does everything, he probably would be like, hey, if it's Mike Hazen, for example, leaking stuff, he'd be like, hey, stop doing that.

It's not really conducive to this team winning or gaining value out of him or whatever. That's why to me it just, when I'm trying to put pieces together, and I'm doing the hangover math in my head, I feel like it goes back to ownership for me. For sure. And I mean, again, you could argue that there's one person that has the right to be mad that a player that they have signed to a multi-year deal and are paying a lot of money is the owner of the team, right?

But I guess put your name on it if you want to make that information known. I don't know if that's going to help or hurt any, but the speculation also doesn't seem to help overall. I appreciate guys like Kevin Ginkle who had no problem going on record and saying his feelings about it. And I don't feel like he was unfair and I don't feel like he was

attacking his teammate. I think he was just truly airing how he feels and probably how many of his teammates feel overall. But the Diamondbacks need could tell that and that's what this comes down to. That's what they understood and discussed in that meeting that

they had and that is hopefully what the fan base will understand going forward. This guy is one of the best baseball players on the planet. And even though some of his behavior might not be excusable, it's still somebody that you would rather have on your team versus not having him on your team. I mean, that's the easiest way to put it. I would much rather have him in my lineup every day than have to efface him every day. That's very true.

And he's not going anywhere, people. He's under contract. He's no trade clause. He's not going anywhere for a while. That's the big thing. is like, again, even, you know, again, even if the idea here is that he's unhappy here, still finding a trade partner for somebody who has this kind of publicly, you know, publicly known problems now and that it's like you can't really count on him as the perception that, you know,

you're not going to get the value for him that he really truly should get in a trade. And if you really think about it, his contract for his level of what he's doing, it's a very team-friendly contract. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, you're not signing a player with Cattel Marte's abilities and for what they have him for somewhere else. Yeah. So. Country in the chat says, teammates have a right to be upset. If they feel that way, grandstanding from people like Gambo who gets diva treatment at his own job is absurd.

I'll say that in general, I understand that there seems to be a perception that certain local media personalities are definitely, like, again, piling on to this situation. And it feels like they're very anti-Catel. so I understand people's feelings. But I agree with what Ryan says here. Ryan there with the latest comment says he's a diva, not a bad person. That's a saving grace. And I couldn't echo that sentiment more.

He's a superstar that acts like a superstar at times. It's not, again, it's not the best behavior, but he's not the only person to act like this. He's just, you know, usually that behavior, because of the status of the player, is kind of covered up by the team a little bit more than what this particular situation has become. and what the situation at the All-Star team, or All-Star game last year, had become. But Cattel is a good person. And he is well-liked, despite people acting like his teammates all hate him. From what I've seen, his teammates very much like him.

And he's loved in that clubhouse. Hopefully that love helps them get over this situation when he comes in today to talk to those guys. Because clearly they're upset. You know, like you don't read like the report that, oh, the team's going to come together and decide that they want Catelle back because he gives him the best chance of winning, but they need to hear, like, out of Cattel, like, he's, you know, he's locked in on what they got going on. I think Kevin Ginkle, like, made it pretty clear about, like, the team's sentiment. But I, as everyone has said the entire time, we want Catelle on the field.

We want Cotel on the team because that's their best chance of winning, as we've said on this podcast as well. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Well, and it starts with that Philly series tonight that Cotel will now be a part of. We're going to preview that series on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamond Back Show. Well, shout out to Pure Edibles.

We love Pure Edibles on this show. Not to implicate, you know, but yeah, this guy is also a big fan. Not only because they were created right here in Flagstaff, Arizona and now made here in Phoenix, but because Pure Edibles has a full-fledged line of candy, more than just gummies, which most companies stick to. They have themselves hard candies, chews, which are soft candies like caramel. and then they also have their version of Starbursts that they call kicks. And all of those candies come in a wide variety of delicious flavors and effects,

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have so much more than just that. But the Route 66 Scratchers is something that I highly recommend for any road trip that you're on, even if you're not taking that historic road. But you also have the Powerball, the pick, and Pick 3. You know them. You love them. And they're the Arizona Lottery Draw games, but now they're better than ever. Draw games just got upgraded with more prizes, more drawings, and more ways to win. The Powerball Jackpot still starts at $20 million and keeps growing until someone wins. But now there are even more ways to play. You got double play, which is a second drawing using your same numbers, and power play, which is a chance to multiply your prize. Either way, you can add these onto your powerball ticket for only $1 each.

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But Damon knows it, and Damon still can't believe it happened himself. It's absolutely special. It's absolutely special. And it will be revealed at the PHNX Fantasy football draft, which we are having live at the upper deck at Heel River Resorts and Casinos Wild Horse Pass Thursday, September 3rd. So make sure to come out and join us for that. We're going to have a live broadcast hosted by the one and only Leah Merrill and the incomparable

PD. You can watch us make our picks live. You can also watch the Cardinals do their thing at 430. Attendees can use cards, F, F, and get 25% off a room, and diehards get 10% off HeLa River, Healer Fantasy football draft packages,

which are also available. So, RSV for free right now, RSVP for free right now, at go phnx.com slash events, and of course, get down with us. You diehards get your first drink on us, and I will be wearing some sort of crazy wacky outfit once again when I make my draft picks.

It's kind of a staple. Can I come hang out? You can, oh, you can absolutely come out, hang out. Some beers. I need, yeah, there's beers. I need help of my draftics. There might be beer. So maybe Damon's not allowed to come.

Maybe the bad boy can show off though, right? If they let me ever drink again. Right, because God forbid you drink at a casino. Yeah. Not allowed. Not allowed. In Vegas. Hopefully you don't see Catelle there that day.

I don't like anything you guys were doing right now. Oh, I don't even think we mentioned it, Derek, on the pot. But when you won 350 on the slots, you were wearing your Catelle-Marte jersey. Fact. Fact. It's a fact. It's a fact.

Derek had the best slots run I've ever seen in my life. In 17 minutes, I won 350 U.S. dollars. Off 20. Off of 20. Off of 20. Bouncing back and forth between two slot machines that Kevin was sitting at resting his foot at. And he was wearing the Ketel jersey when he did it.

Coincidence? I don't love that. I don't love that. We'll let you decide. It's the coincidence of me wearing the martin. Why do I have to be implicated for wearing a Martee jersey while gambling? What does that have to do with anything? Anyway, big series with the Phillies starting tonight.

Of course, I'm heading over to Chase Field to see if we hear from Ketel prior to the game or get any updates just in regards to this entire situation. But again, it's needed. He's needed. We need all the reinforcements we can get. We need all the offense we can get. This Phillies team has been just brutal, right? The Angels series that we watched, we watched every game, we watched every game of that series. It was brutal to watch. It was brutal to watch the Phillies come back in almost every one of those games. I think they came back in every one of those games and beat the Angels. And we were such Angels fans. I still, I purchased a Meckler jersey. I don't even know what I want to do with that now.

Am I supposed to wear that? It's just because the man made it a catch in the game that they still lost. I don't know, but we got to beat them. And, of course, let's take a look at this Phillies team at a glance compared to the Diamondbacks because they are actually two fairly evenly matched teams overall here. Team OPS here, very close for these two teams.

The Phillies, 716 OPS, which is 16th in baseball, or tied for 17th or whatever. And then the Diamondbacks have the 19th OPS at 714. Team ERA is 4.05 for the Phillies, which is 12th in MLB. They have a 3.93 starting ERA, but luckily when you see these probable pitchers, you will see that we miss the best parts of that starting pitching ERA, which is 10th best in Major League Baseball. Their bullpen ERA is 4.25, which is 19th in baseball. They are 77 and 60 this year with a plus 30 run differential.

And most importantly, they are 8 and 2 in their last 10 games, which means the Diamondbacks are catching them at a time. they are very, very hot. They do have minus seven outs above average, which is 19th, and they're obviously still kind of struggling there defensively, which is a good thing, and hopefully they continue to struggle defensively. The Diamondbacks will need to play some pretty great defense in this series in order to win it.

More importantly, the debacks currently lead that season series with the Phillies two games to one. So what they cannot allow is a sweep. Knock on wood, right? The one thing they need to do is at the very least, they need to keep this series tied because then it would go down to divisional records if they were tied at the end of the season. And there's a good chance that the Diamondbacks are going to have a much better divisional record than the Phillies. I don't even need to look at the Phillies to know that they've probably suffered their fair share of losses in that tough NL East division. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have been surprisingly good, beating the Dodgers in their season series, absolutely whooping the Giants, taking the majority of the games against, you know, the Rocky. and right now holding a, I think, a tie still with the Padres for that season series. Correct. It's all going to come down to that final series of the Year Rock, and I know you are kind of tuned in a bit to that Padres team.

But, man, I mean, it seems like it's always us and the Padres is what it feels like it comes down to. And now it's starting to feel like our fate is always wrapped up in something involving the Phillies as well. I mean, and they got a bone to pick with us. I mean, we knocked them out in 23. So, you know, the Phillies are a problem. Yeah, it's like Damon said. There's a good chance that those Phillies fans that Chase Field tonight are going to have no problem

booing Cotel and, you know, doing all that kind of stuff, being the fans they are. But the very interesting portion of this series is who is pitching for the Diamondbacks in game three and who is not pitching for the Phillies in this series at all? Damon, let's take a look at those probable pitchers because, as you were saying before the show, boy, did we luck out.

Yeah. I mean, look at, you get, you miss out on, on Sanchez and Wheeler, who are two of the best pitchers in the league. Yep. And obviously, five-man rotation, couldn't get any better than that. Even if Jesus Lazzardo is a good pitcher this year, which he very much is, you know, you avoid the two Sigh-Young candidates. And it's, I mean, you got to be over the moon about it.

Yeah, you get the two guys with plus five ERAs and Aaron Nola. Oh, I forgot to change E-Rod and fought stats. Those aren't accurate. Those are not. But also, you know, you get Erod and Fott, who are your two best pitchers going. So that's nice as well. Right. You got Brandon Faud, who's 7 and 1 with a 3.51 ERA this year in Eduardo Rodriguez, 14 and 4, 2.50ERA, 119 strikeouts.

What a dog. More importantly, Erod, 21 of the 27 starts he's at, the Diamondbacks have 1, 21 of those, even though he's 14 and 4. they've gone on to win games where he had no decisions and even games where he was down, they came back to win those games. The most exciting part of that besides the pitchers that we are not seeing from the Phillies is the TBD in game three.

This man bought tickets just to be in attendance for that game because that could very well be the return of Corbyn Burns. There has been talked that Corbyn Burns will return prior to making his next rehab start. That would involve Burns being held on a very strict pitch count and being held to most likely somewhere in the neighborhood of three innings and 50 to 60 pitches max. He did pitch a perfect two innings for the AAA Reno Ares on Saturday and he went six up, six down. No strikeouts though, no walks, no whiffs.

I don't know how you want to take any of that. I don't look at it anyway. Soft contact is what he made and soft contact has kind of been the M.O. For this team's pitching staff all year long, but could he actually be back in time for the series with the Phillies? I think he realized that tomorrow is my birthday and the best way to give me a birthday is for him to come back on Wednesday when I'm there. I think that's what it is.

So thank me, guys. Yeah, this is the guy to think. More importantly, like, again, we've talked about rehab starts in Reno. We've talked about rehab starts in Amarillo. There's not a real point. point to do so because you're also battling the conditions. No. You know, the park factors there, right?

You go down to Hillsborough like Merrill Kelly did one time to make his rehab start. You're not really getting a high level of competition. At this point, Corbyn Burns has been chomping at the bit to get back into the starting rotation. This is a man that they've had to probably hold back with chains in order to keep him from wanting to literally be out there on the field at times with his ball club. So I think that it makes sense. And in this case, I still feel like it's a better option.

then the Diamondbacks having to turn to yet another rookie in a very, very important series. At the very least, this bullpen has been solid, and you feel like if Corbyn Burns can somehow go out there and give you three, maybe fingers crossed, four innings, then you feel like the bullpen can do the rest of the work as long as Brandon fought and Eduardo Rodriguez can give you some solid starts in game one and game two.

Hey, it couldn't come in a better time. It couldn't come in a better time. It literally couldn't come at a better time. the most important series on their schedule for the rest of the year besides the Padre series. That's it. And again, they have to win a lot of games in between those two. I'm not trying to act like those series aren't important. They will not get there.

They will not get to the Yoffs if they do not win those games in between. But this is a huge series because of the season series matchup and the Diamondbacks currently having a lead against the Phillies and obviously being tied against the Padres. That series is incredibly important too, right? But more importantly, it's the two teams ahead of us. in the wild card race. It's the only way that at this point the Diamondbacks can impact their own fate, right?

The rest of the time they have to leave it up to what those teams do. And that has worked out for us one time in 23, but did not work out for us very well in 24 or 25. No, sir. Right? No, sir. And it's funny because the dropped home run this weekend there that caused the Padres to get swept by the raise

might be as significant as Sayas Suzuki dropping that fly ball back. in 23, causing the Cubs to lose. Brother. You know, it's wild how, again, I went off. I got crazy. I had a few beverages myself and might have thanked the baseball gods for getting us into the playoffs on D-backs after dark last night. It's hard not to feel that way after seeing this man take a ball that would have been a double at best and carry it over the wall and drop it for a home run.

That ended up tying the game. But the dimebacks also have Zach Gowan having a rehab start this weekend for AAA, and he could be back as well. it wasn't a bad outing for Zach, but it's still a little problematic because he did only give up one hit with two strikeouts, but he pitched an inning in two thirds, and his pitch count reached 46 pitches in that time. It's a lot. It's a lot. I mean, we're talking about probably had he gotten through the second inning, had he gone through two innings, he probably would have surpassed 50 pitches for two innings. Yeah. And while the results were fine, that part isn't. And while I still don't believe that Zach Gallen is going to have some, resurgence with this team. What we need is for him to be serviceable and him to come back and help this team every five days win a baseball game

or give them a chance to win a baseball game so that they can get to the promised land that is the playoffs. Yeah, and that's pretty much all that you can ask of him right now. He's not the Zaggallon from 21 to 23, unfortunately. So like I said, if you can get us in there, give us four or five innings.

And then I feel real confident with our bullpen right now. So if the bullpen goes in there, that's cool. but we need Zach to do a little bit of the work. The problem I have is that between Corbin Burns and Zach Gallen, you could overtax the bullpen, right? You could. I mean, you are getting Justin Martinez back now at a very good time where he's very well rested and, you know, hasn't pitched this year.

But that also means that his stamina hasn't really built up. So even though his arm is fresh, he's still, you know, probably getting gassed a little bit faster than he's used to when he's in full swing mode. There's that. And he's still a little, I mean, his last out of against the Giants, he still has that Justin Martinez, a little erratic at times where he's overthrowing the ball.

Yeah. But I mean, again, that could be coming into the fact that he's coming out there knowing that this is his first few games back and he's trying to go out there and do too much. That's true.

That's true. They can reel him back a little bit. He doesn't got to throw 104 every pitch. I said this last night, and I know many of you might not agree with it, but the one thing that you should do, again, besides not Boo could tell, that at least in my opinion,

is you should probably hope for Zach Gallen to be better and be back and be his old self in some form. Zach needs to do it for himself, in his career, quite frankly, because he doesn't have a lot of time left in this season for him to make another team believe in him enough for them to sign him to a contract after this season is up. But for us, for the Diamondbacks, for the purpose of this team, you know, Gallen can

really help them cross the finish line. I don't think that they're going to rely on him in big games if they make the playoffs. I think that they have the arms for that. I think Brandon fought and I think obviously Eduardo Rodriguez and Corbyn Burns could be a very very dynamic trio there without needing Merrill Kelly or Zach Gallen to be starters, but it just feels like, again, it would be beneficial to everybody if Gallen can somehow come back and find a way to be close to a version of himself that we've seen before that was successful on this team. But I'm not extremely encouraged by the 46 pitches thrown, but I am encouraged by the two strikeouts.

That's something pretty good. up the one hit. That's not terrible, especially in AAA, right? So, yeah, let's go ahead and take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to do what we do every Monday on this program, and you know exactly what it is. So we'll be right back to do that. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. And we told you about it. Game time. Game time gives fans the advantage of constant innovation with that wonderful, aesthetically pleasing app that they got going on over there. And you know, we've heard the horror stories. We've heard it in our particular, They're very close group friend chat about how tickets from other services have been fraudulent for NBA games, for WWE events.

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Game time? It's game time. And we were just talking about it. Our fantasy draft is going to be happening at Heel of River Resorts and Casinos. And you know what? Your fantasy draft could be happening at Heel of Rivers Resorts and Casinos because fantasy football season is here and there is no better place to have it happen than right there. at the BetMGM Sportsbook at Heeliver. Gather your league and reserve your party, your draft party for 8 to 12 guests.

And of course, you've got to come in and check out the entire package that you get from the fine folks there. Because it involves the PHNX Cardinals crew. You'll get your PHNX Cardinals diehard draft kit, which features a custom draft board, player stickers, commissioner crown, everything you need. Championship ribbon, it's all in there. Most importantly, though, if you've only done fantasy drafts online, this is the way to live your life properly. Live it with an actual board, with stickers.

Like Damon said, you'll get one of your idiot friends that messed up a name and they take a kicker in the third round because they actually thought he was a wide receiver on the Lions. That's the kind of stuff that happens when you get in there with the live draft, with the stickers and the board. And you can also enjoy the wall-of-wall screens,

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We got ourselves, speaking of our group chat, it's time to hear from one of our guys that we hear every Monday from in our very group chat. We had to hear from him all weekend long because he was in the UK. like running around with wrestlers. Oh, of course. Man, making me look foolish by me saying there's no actual after party and then attending an after party. I hate him sometimes, but I also love him. He's the greatest.

And every Monday is the greatest because every Monday around here is our year on this podcast. Every year on this show is the year of the snake and you know it. Every single month on this podcast is Hispanic Heritage Month. You're damn right. Every week on this podcast is Shark Week, even though sharks don't celebrate Shark Week themselves. We celebrate Shark Week. And every Monday on this show is the mailbag.

Damon, let's go the mailbag. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. If you go back and watch this podcast and fast forward, you'll see me slowly sinking in this chair throughout the episode. It's a fun, it's a fun Easter egg for you guys. Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? Our first question is from Travis Moore, who asks, correct me if I'm wrong.

with the debacks and Padres are even against each other this year at 5 and 5, and their last three games are against each other. The only way either team enters that series safe if they're competing for the last wildcard spot is to have a four-game lead, right? Correct. Yep, that pretty much is it. I mean, it's the only way that that series isn't a factor. And let's be honest, there is not a lot of time for either team to really get a four-game lead.

I want to, once again, knock on wood a little bit when it comes to that. But, you know, again, if the Diamondbacks remain competitive, there's almost, I mean, as long as both teams win and lose at a reasonable rate, there is no reason why that series at the end of the year won't be very important. But there is a possibility that the debacks could do it. I mean, they really could. They have some weaker opponents that are completely out of the wild card or out of the playoff race completely this month. The only thing that those teams have to play for is spoiler. They do have the Yankees on their schedule still. They still have the Marlins who still have something to play for as well.

And then the Phillies and the Padres, right? But the Diamondbacks definitely have a better chance here to win with the Padres having a very similar schedule. I think they also face the Yankees. They also face the Marlins. But they still have the Dodgers left on their schedule. And, you know, that's a Dodgers team that is going to be looking to win games late in the season so that they could still hold on to a top seed in the playoffs. So it's not like they're going to be probably sending in scrubs by that second to last series of the year.

Maybe they do in the final series of the year, but they're not doing it in that one against the Padres. They hate the Padres so much that they'll probably just want to beat them just based on spite. And they're also not playing really the greatest baseball. So that team's going to want, like you said, they're going to want to go into that. Yeah, they're going to want to go into that running, which I hope they don't because, you know. Gross. Yeah, it is gross. It's weird.

It's weird that we know for a fact that right before we end this. baseball season. There's going to be one brief three-day period where we're going to have no choice but to root for the Los Angeles Dodgers. And Damon, do you want to just say it? Do you want to just go ahead and attack me now and call me a Dodger fan now for saying that? I mean, you literally are just the biggest Dodgers fan ever. There you go. Okay, well, I'll phrase it a different way. There's three games we'll be rooting harder for the Padres to lose than we're rooting for the Dodgers to lose. Don't include me in your week because I can't, I cannot, I can't associate with liking the Dodgers. How fast your friends abandon you.

It's amazing. Me and Rock are holding steady on this one. I can't do it, brother. I can't do it. I draw the line somewhere. Yeah, right. But meanwhile, Damon's going to be hoping for Otani to have a major series so that his fantasy baseball team could finish the season strong.

We're actually, we got the two-seed playoff start this week, so you're not wrong. Selfish, Damon, selfish. Hey, what can I say? But I like it. I know. I know. I know. He separates business from pleasure, though.

It's a four-man playoffs, and money is on the line. Derek. Yeah, I get it. Win that money. Yeah, unlike the UFC parlay from this weekend. Man, that wasn't very nice. That was not nice. I say that.

I agree. That was not nice. You must have not been expecting Nurmaga Medov to get knocked out by song. Oh, well, no, actually, that's a whole other thing. All right. Let's move on before Damon actually starts going into a UFC podcast here. What else we got? Our next question is from Michael Rokkeki Evil Michael, who says, let evil Michael be the one to address the elephant in the

room. What kind of reception does Ketel get tonight? Mixed. Yeah. Right? Is that the best way to put it? Mixed reception? Yeah, I think so. There's going to be some people that are giving him a standing ovation. There are going to be some people wearing a Diamondback uniform that will be booing that man harder than they've ever booed a Diamondback before in their life. Yeah, no, that's fair. I mean, that's it. That's fair. And I think Damon brought up a really good point. I think the idea here of the Phillies being here almost helps. I mean, you're not wrong. Like, because it's It's not like it's not like it's the Toronto Blue Jays fan base. It's Philly's fans.

They're going to be nasty. They boo everybody. They're going to say the nastiest things that they can come up with to say to Cattel from the stands within reason that won't get them kicked out of the game like that White Sox fan that one time. You know, thankfully the series is taking place here and not in, because if it was in Philadelphia, it would be a thousand times more brutal because they would say horrible, horrible things to get up. And Marte wouldn't have any protection from anybody in that stadium at all besides his own teammates

in the organization, right? So, you're right about that. It is very good. But it also might be a blessing in disguise that in general, it's already going to be a bit of a hostile environment. That's why you've got to get your tickets from game time. Come out and see this game, represent the Diamondbacks, and maybe just Stan Pat when he's introduced.

I mean, if your feelings are negative towards Ketel, maybe you just don't applaud him. Yeah. Keep it yourself. Instead of booing? I don't know. I just still want to win baseball games. I don't know about you.

I want him in baseball games. now and then in the postseason and then win that championship trophy and then have my vacation plans ruined by a championship parade in some way. I need to care about baseball through like October and in November. So this needs to happen. Yeah. I want to have the Jericho crews ruined for me by the fact that I have to cancel it in order to be here for a championship parade.

That's a good reason to cancel it. There's lots of good reasons to cancel the Jericho Crates. Yeah, you ain't wrong. You ain't wrong. All right. What else we got there, Damon? our next question is from Gabriel who says what are we expecting from Kattel's return I think that he needs to focus on smashing balls and everything else is gone that's the best apology he can give to anyone in the team and fans 100% Gabriel gets it that's it I mean I like I'm I'm hopeful I'm cautiously optimistic that with the time off and with going to play in the bridge game and everything else that he's done taking live at bats at Salt River Fields I'm just I'm just I'm just I'm hoping that he's healthy and rested and that everything's fine

and that he is ready to come back at 100%. That's what I'm hoping. And I'm hoping that a well-rested, healthy Cotel-Marte goes back out there and outperforms everything that he's done this season up to this point. Right. There were stretches where Ctele-Marte was the best player on the planet during this particular baseball season, and we need that marty back for the final stretch and into the postseason.

And again, I mean, I don't know. I still feel like the mental aspect of this is going to play a factor here on somebody who is very emotional overall. So I would almost expect maybe tonight to be a rough night for him, but then I would expect him to maybe find, you know, maybe dig deep a little bit, come back out now that that first game is over, the apologies are over, and they've moved past it and, you know, be his normal self in games two and games three of this series. That's all you can hope for, man. I just, I want Ketel to go out there and as I like to say all the time in the group chat, go out there and do the thing and that thing is hit nukes. Yeah. Yeah. Because the comment was right.

He has a couple nukes. No one cares. Exactly. This is over with. It's that easy. That's all he has to do. It really is. And it's easier said than done.

Don't get me wrong. It's not easy. But yeah, coming from two guys that couldn't hit nukes off of a tee. Yeah. No. No. But if he goes out there first to have bat and does the thing, brother, that place should explode. Yeah.

And then we'll be like, what? What were we mad about? No, what were we even mad about? We are so back. We are so back. We've never been more back. Never been more back. Oh, my God.

All right, we got some super jats to get to real fast. We got Just Toast. Thank you so much. A couple here from Just Toast. Just Toast says, hopefully, Ketel brought some empanadas or something. He is going to spend at least $15,000 on meals. Oh, yeah.

Between now and the end of the season. Apology me. Yeah, he's just got to get the bill every single time. Yeah, I got this one, you guys. We got this one, slide it over the table. Joseph says only guys that owned us were the Cubs. I'll take it. Yeah, yeah, that's fairly true.

Wait, I don't, how do you figure? Didn't we win that series? No, we, we, yeah, we did win that series. We won the season series. Did we lose the season series? I think we lost season series. We lost season series, yeah, but. Yeah, they swept us the first time, I think.

That's right. That's right. I don't know what so you want milk over cheese. That's a gallon reference. Oh, good one. All right. The milkman. $4 for player number four unhappy, but giving him a chance.

Hey, man, I'll tell you. Thank you, Jay Hartwell. Yeah, thank you for your super chat. And I will say this. That's, I mean, that's, that's, that's it. Both things can be true. You can be unhappy with him. You can be angry at him, you know, you can definitely be a lot of things.

But at this end of the day, what you should still be doing for is if you're a fan of this team is rooting for him and rooting for this team to get, just passed all of this drama and all of this noise. It's just been nonsense that we didn't need during a time that is very important. And once again, you got to credit this team for being pretty resilient during a time where there's been a lot of noise, you know, especially in that Cubs series where they somehow found a way to win that one without scoring a lot of runs and while all of this noise was going on. So let's take a quick break.

On the other side of this break, we're going to answer a few more questions from the mailbag. Don't you guys go anywhere. You are watching the PHNX TV. Show. Well, shout out to Kim Caballero. She is the queen of real estate, and she is the one that you should go to if you are buying or selling your home here in Arizona. There are plenty of amazing real estate agents in this state, but one is at the top, and that is Kim Caballero. Previously, she's been working in the Arizona business realm for over 25 years, and now she's helping Arizona families with both buying and selling with a network of investors, buyers, builders, developers. She'll give you insider insight on property potential, helping you see opportunities that others may miss. And when you work with Kim, your interests are her top priority. You'll never get passed off to another agent. It'll never be that, hey, do I ever get to meet Kim kind of situation like there are with other real estate agents and their big named agent at the top? But Kim does have proven strategies to help both buyers and sellers secure the best possible terms.

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Thank you so much. much says Catell hitting a home run tonight, book it. Book it. Maybe take that $20 and put it on Cotel, Marta. hitting a home run tonight too while we're at it, right? And Just Toe says, and the starting pitcher for your D-back's number 39, Corby Burns, can't freaking wait. Also hope Damon takes the bag for MLB playoffs.

Yeah, I like it. I like it. What else we got in the bag, Damon? Takes the bag. Takes the bag. What is, I don't understand. Get the money, brother. Yeah, maybe.

Or brings the mail bag. I don't know. We take the mailbag everywhere we go. We never, we never forget the mailbag. Brought the mailbag to Vegas. Yeah, we did. We did. It was filled with some...

I'm willing to take the back. I just don't know what we're talking about here. Yeah, for sure. What else we got in the mailbag? Jason, who, by the way, Derek, Venmoed me earlier in the show to help with my alcohol issue. And by help, I mean... Excuse me? By help, I mean to put more in my way so that I'll be, you know,

More reckless, more careless, more unprofessional. And I have my fix tonight, which is exactly what I needed. Thank you, Jason. Says, what was the most surprising thing from this season from your insider point of view? Man, I mean, besides the Cotele thing. Is that really surprising, though? I guess not. It happened last year, kind of.

Yeah. And in 2023. I think that's why it makes it surprising. It's surprising that it happened again. Maybe. You know, I think they made such a big deal about it last time. And that resulted in all of the offseason trade rumors and everything that we discussed and speculated on throughout the, you know, that period of time.

Yeah, we thought we were past it. Right. So, yeah, it does suck that we're back to this. We're back to should we trade Cattel and is he a bad teammate and all this stuff that we already kind of, you know, went through last year. But honestly, the most surprising thing is the bullpen. I was going to say that or I was going to say the rookies that have come up and played not like rookies.

Damn. That's a really good. Because honestly, the rookies that have come up have kind of saved this team. They have. I mean, they haven't been perfect. They haven't been consistent. but they've been major league players is what it is. And a guy like Ryan Walshmidt over the course of this season

has fully transformed into a major league player. Two huge walk-offs. Two huge walk-off win in the home runs, courtesy of Ryan Walser. There are literally only three players in baseball this year that have two walk-off home runs, and Walshman and Cattell-Mortez are two of those three. And they both walked off the Dodgers once and then Waldi walked off the Cubs.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I would say the rookies of the rickets at a bullpen have been the biggest surprise. The bullpen has just been outstanding. And again, I know it's not been perfect. And I know the ERA is still like middle of the pack because they've had some bad performances this year. And that's those guys aren't part of this bullpen currently. The majority of the guys that have not performed well are no longer part of this bullpen. In fact, I mean, the margin for error was so small with this team that Paul Seewald had three blown saves.

and that was enough to remove him not only as closer, but from this team period. Edwin Diaz for the Dodgers had three blown saves in one single week. Yeah. And they were still turning to him to close games, right? So, again, this bullpen has been outstanding, and it has been some of those guys, some of those names that they found,

diamonds in the rough, like Jonathan Loisigua, or even some of those rookie pitchers, right? I mean, Cabrero has been great for us in his spot starts. Herardo Carrillo. He was been amazing. I mean, Brandon Garcia has been outstanding, right? Like, the reason why this pen has been good has been not because they transformed it in some significant way with big names, but because the guys that were here and some of the guys that were given opportunities here stepped up and proved that they deserved those opportunities, right?

So it's pretty incredible what they've done. And again, I don't know if we've ever really had a bullpen that we've believed in. you know, there's times where you felt like the bullpen got you through the end of the game, but this bullpen's helping you literally win games and win close games. That's another reason why the Diamondbacks have participated in so many comeback victories and so many one-run, you know, games. And we're doing it without a quote-unquote named closer. Right. There's not a name.

We don't have a defined closer right now. Right. And even when we had one, he was kind of bad, but he still found ways to get the job done. Yeah. In fact, he had a 0.0 ERA when coming into games with a one-run lead, and that still doesn't make any sense to me. But it is what it is. And again, this bullpen will continue to kind of evolve between now and hopefully a playoff run. But they've had a chance to see, you know, who they can trust.

And that's where we're at with Tori Lavallo and his pitching staff right now. Oh, dad. Oh, good old dad. Hi, Dad. All right. Well, what else we got? Let's get one more. We got Alan here saying, who is one player you think could be the X-Faville?

for the snakes down the stretch that nobody is talking about enough. Wow. That's a great question because obviously, you know, you have the guys that are expected to play well. So I don't think you could bring up like a Pardomo, a Corbyn Carroll, or even a Cotele. Gabriel Moreno has moved into that class with how well he's played this year. So I don't think he could be an unexpected X factor.

I almost feel like it would have to be a guy like Jordan Lawler. I think Jordan Lawler, you know, I mean, Tim Tawa has already proven that he's the unexpected X-factor, Dan, but I do like that answer of Tawa. I just think if you're talking about guys right now that literally could suddenly start producing at such a level that they change the dynamic of this team, it's Jordan Lawler and Lars Nupar, probably, and Ryan Walshman, even though Ryan Walshman's already done it. Like, I don't think that he could do more to, you know, be that X-Factor. But, I mean, if you're talking unexpected X-Factor, I mean, I agree with Coach Henneman.

there that Gabriel Moreno is by far the most important piece of this offense right now and has been all season long. They're not here without him. But I'm just thinking of guys who could randomly pop up and go crazy this month. You know, we still don't know what Lourdes is doing. God, no. Lordus will be back. But I don't feel. Derek, I have his stats actually up right here in AAA Reno this year. Give him to me. 107 average, 289 OPS. has three hits, zero bombs. I mean, it's literally like he's like a bad AAA baseball player right now.

Yeah. Yeah, like he would get demoted to Amarillo at this point if he wasn't an actual major league. So not Lordis, in my opinion. Not Lordis. Yeah. I still think an outfielder though, I still think, and that still leads me to be like Newbar or Lawler. I like those shouts.

I like those shouts a lot. What do you think? I'll go with Newbar. I feel like he's been like kind of. doing a little bit better recently, which is like obviously, you know, the floor is the ground. The floor is the core of the earth based off of how he had been playing. But, you know, I think he's like an average kind of baseball player. He was obviously playing below average.

And now he's put a couple balls over the fence recently. So I'll kind of steal your other answer and say, I think like when the fan base is lowest on Newt Bar, this is maybe when he like has a couple good games. He was incredible on San Francisco. Yeah, you had a good series. Yeah. What do you think? I think the guys we've talked about, I mean, the other ones we're expecting to be good. I mean, you could say Corbyn Burns because you don't know what Corbyn Burds is going to come out there and give us.

But, I mean, you kind of expect him to come back and be Corbin Burns. You could say Zach Gallen. Zach Gallen, honestly. I'm just saying, because is there anybody that the expectations are lower for than Zach Gallen, right? So, I mean, if you talk about unexpected, like X-factor, Zach Gallen going out there and, unexpectedly shoving every five days and giving the Diamondbacks like a quality start of six, six innings with three earned runs or less, would not only blow my mind, but would literally be the thing that you would feel like would pick this team up and carry them across the finish line for the postseason. You know, because that's, like right now, that's right, like the biggest problem is thinking of what this team is going to do with that fifth spot in their starting rotation if it's not Gallin. And if it's Mitch Bratt or if it's somebody else, then I don't love me.

that. I don't love that. I feel, even though he's been bad this year, I feel more comfortable with Gowan being that fifth starter than I do putting that in a rookie for the stretch down the rest of the year. Yeah. Totally. But again, I don't know how things are going to play out with Gowan, and I don't know how long of a leash he would have. Should he come back and have a bad outing right away, the Diamondbacks might just wave him and just figure out how to go about the rest of the season without him. But I don't know. We'll see. We love you guys, though. We thank you so much for your mailbag Monday questions.

They always help make this show exactly what it is. And you guys, of course, make this show what it is. We thank you so much for your time. It's your most valuable quantity. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you sharing it with us. Damon, wait, you went away. Come back here. Get back on screen.

Come back here. Don't go away yet. Do we give a brief synopsis of our Las Vegas trip? What do you want to talk about? Yeah. Is this an intervention? I want to talk about Kevin. doing an English accent for three days straight. That's what I want to talk about. You know, and I think

that there's nothing more than I wish that I could also do the English accent as good as him back. Yeah. Because I do have all the sayings like the, you know, the colloquialism that are, you know, said by English people. I just don't have the accent in my bag. It's that Kevin persisted at it at such a high rate. He's accent guy. He, listen, he can do all the impressions. He's impression, man. And I hated it. And then he, like, brought me back around, and then he made me hate it again. And now it's like, I can't live my life without it. Just like a lot of things.

I can't live my life without being at Circa anymore. I don't know what to do when I wake up in the morning, and I can't walk downstairs to a casino floor suddenly. I don't even know what day it is anymore, which is very similar to being in a casino. And overall, Damon, I hate the fact that, you know, there aren't fried Oreos, like, available. within feet outside of the main door of the hotel we're staying in. I mean, we had such good food while we were there. We really did. And I think that you can go one of two ways when you're in Vegas.

You can either slop it up and get just chain everything or you can like go out of your way and get like all the special Vegas stuff that's only there, you know, because they're trying to like put a chicken parmesan inside of a pizza. And you're like, who does that? Why would you do that? And when you have it and you're like, that's changed my life. It changed your life. And sometimes those things miss.

I know that maybe, you know, know, Derek, the guy who likes combinations more than any guy on earth probably doesn't think that things miss. But like, I think that sometimes these things miss, let me tell you, the chicken parmesan Detroit-style pizza was the best thing I've ever had in my whole life. Just like combining a Philly cheese steak sandwich with a hot dog was easily a top five, two things into one kind of combination. That happened?

That happened. Oh, my God. We, you and me need to go Las Vegas. I'll take you to all these places. We're going to have a good place. We're going to have a good time. Derek told me I'm not allowed to like drink on the podcast anymore. I did not tell you that.

Because I was too drunk to tell you that. There's no way. I wasn't. Yeah, Derek's escaping all criticism. It's a wild. The guy woke up in the morning rock and like crawled to his bar and like starts pouring like his handle of vodka that he brought with him to Vegas at 10 in the morning. You bring a bottle of vodka? I'm like, you drink vodka?

10 in the morning. This guy's making Sprite. vodka mixed drinks and then going down to the open bar at Stadium Swim. I thought what happened in Vegas State. But then I'm the bad guy because I have a Coors Light on the freaking post game show. He wasn't even drinking. That's Coors Light. That doesn't count as drinking.

I come in six Red Bulls and Vodkas deep. Dude, he said six at one point. It was like 3 p.m. And I was like, Derek, this is. It was an open bar. This is concerning. It was an open bar. I don't understand what.

You're going to have heart palpitations. You're judging me in the same way you were being judged. It's not about the alcohol. It's about the city. It's red bulls. It's about the six red bulls. But see, here's the thing. It's only three red bulls.

Well, no. Yeah, I know. It's not great. The red bulls. You also had a monster. The red bulls and the vodka. You also had a monster. You had three red bulls and a monster.

I was feeling so good. I don't like you pocket watching how many drinks I was having. I'm worried about the heart. You kept track of all of my monster. I'm afraid about the heart. I love the super chat down there. Yeah, Caesar says I have been exposed and for good. Not according.

to the comments because if you go back to Friday's episode, the only person that got blamed was David. So that's the way things work on And you know what? And again, Derek, as we always say on this podcast, I'm willing to be that punching back for everybody, for you. It's because he's the bad boy. For me, for the chat. If that's what you guys need out of me, I'm here. I'm Damon Dogg.

You're my shield. Yeah, don't Boot Ketel. Boo me. Boo me tonight. Boot this guy. Boo this guy. Bo me. I love Coach Henry saying there isn't a clock in Vegas Damon. See, he's still teaching you lessons to this day. Very true.

We appreciate you, Coach. We appreciate all of you. Thank you guys so much for being here and joining us. Of course, you can follow me on socials at cap underscore K-man with the K. This man is at R-O-K knowledge everywhere. That man over there is at Damon Dogg with a DAW-G. Would you mind handing me that little guy? This beautiful little pup.

Yeah, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. There we go. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Again, appreciate you sharing some of it with us. We'll be back here tomorrow with another postgame show. Keep it locked on our social channel for any information coming out pregame here about Catelle or about updates on Corbyn Burns.

And of course, until we meet again, I'll see you guys, behave yourselves and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Damon isn't revealing to everybody how many energy drinks I drank this weekend.