PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Can Merrill Kelly's Return Change The Trajectory Of The Diamondbacks' 2024 Season?

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

The Arizona Diamondbacks could receive some encouraging news about starting pitcher Merrill Kelly and his injury this week. We discuss the impact a returning Kelly could have on this starting rotation as well as some additional injury updates. We also take a look ahead at the upcoming series against the Miami Marlins, discuss our MLB Power Rankings for this week, and give our hot takes on the City Connect jerseys for 2024.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. 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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This van next to me is occasionally known as the People's Producer. It's the one and only Damon Dogg. And of course, Jesse Friedman is traveling today coming back to us from Los Angeles. He will be back tomorrow. He's going to hold down the fort while I take off to Las Vegas with Damon Dogg. We're going to go have a good time in Vegas without Jesse.

we somehow figured I figured out how to get a boys trip going happening. I'm excited about it. It's unbelievable. I always win, Damon. I always win. Still high on last night's big win. The series went over the Dodgers, man. I mean, it's one of those mornings as a sports fan.

It's a great day to wake up. You wake up and then you just, the first thought in your brain is that your team did what it did last night to a team that, you know, essentially they really needed to get going against. It was one of, you know, they're just kind of been a difficult slump right now in a way. The Tiger series kind of made things look a little worse. And now here they are winning two out of three against the Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. Yeah, it was obviously a massive winlet.

I mean, I want to take a peek at the standings now. I mean, we're still in fourth place, but only a half game behind the Giants and only one game behind the Padres. I mean, if we had lost this series of the Dodgers, if we had gotten swept like maybe a lot of us thought, going into the series, that gap would start looking a lot worse, a lot less easy to climb. Yeah, things look bleak, you know. For sure. I think losing to that to the Tigers, knowing you had the Dodgers coming up, that was like a tough pill to swallow.

But, you know, taking care of business here is huge in terms of, you know, getting in the wildcard race. Do we by chance have the photograph I sent over in Slack of the reason why the Arizona of Diamondbacks might be on other winning ways. I know I'm guessing we'll have that here in a moment. But I mean, it's, it's weird to think about the fact that the debacks have not won a game or won a series in Los Angeles since 2018. I know there were people in our Discord that were fact checking that simply because it doesn't make sense, right? And it seems unreal for sure.

It seems unreal. It seems unreal that they haven't shut out the Dodgers since 2017, right? These are facts that like things like that just happen in baseball games. Teams have a bad night. They play a team that might not be as good as them, but the, you know, the underdog comes out on top. Or sometimes even the worst team puts a whoop on the other team because it's baseball. Baseball is so strange. It's almost like what you're saying in regards to, you know, just losing the series against the Dodgers, just getting swept in this series against the Dodgers.

It is a 162 game season. And it is incredible to me how high we can get and how low we can get over the course of it based on one series win versus the next. It's insane, right? But it's because- Well, we did it last year and it got us to the World Series, Derek. Correct. We're going to-

It's over, we're back over and over again, and look where it got us. We're going to maintain this level of insanity, probably throughout this entire year, because we have to, Damon. We have to do whatever it takes to help the Arizona Divingbacks win baseball games, right? And even if that means getting tootry to stand in a spot last year, We called Totry at times while he was out drinking with friends just to come over to the office and stand in the spot, Damon. And we did that because, again, we're insane people, but also because it worked, right? Am I, I mean, we don't just do things for no purpose.

We do things when it works. We do it because we love this franchise and we want the best for this franchise. We do it for the love of the game. Right. Yes, correct. We do it because we love this franchise. and of course, we'll do anything for a Diamondbacks win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. It means the world to us.

Anything. And right now, I mean, things are good. It feels like, you know, at least the vibes are high. People feel a little bit more confident about this team. There have been some victories this year. You know, we said that the Diamondbacks have won their share of games, even though it hasn't been enough as far as our liking goes. But this one is one of the biggest series wins, you know,

based on the opponent, based on the opponent's record. The dimebacks haven't really been able to get it done against teams above 500, the way that the Dodgers are. So this, again, this just has everybody feeling like things are rolling in the right direction. Yeah, I mean, how can you not be? You're still not, like, healthy. You know what I mean? Like, you're still plenty of people to come back.

If you could just hover right in this 500 spot, I know I've been Mr. Negative this season, but if you can sit in this spot, like right where you, are we're one game under 500, I believe, right now. You can, when you get these reinforcements back, the vibes start creeping up. All of a sudden, you know, look out with Diamondbacks because that's a team that they're going to feel like when they're healthy that no one can beat them because they haven't seen it yet. So that's what we ask too. Hover around 500.

Keep it close to 500. Do the best that you can to maintain while these guys that are injured can get right and come back. Of course, they're actually two. two games right now below 500, but right there in the mix with the Padres. Padres are at 500, Diamondbacks two games below 500, Giants two games below 500.

There's not a lot of good teams in the National League right now. When you look across the board, there are one, two, three, four, five teams with a winning record right now in the National League. When we make fun of the Phillies, which we're going to continue to do for the amount of games that they've played against teams over 500, it's because there aren't a lot of them.

I mean, it's not really like the Phillies or ducking opponents. It's the fact that the majority of the National League is below 500. But again, there, Damon, do we have the picture? We are working on it. We're going to have it in 10 seconds. I feel like I'm blowing this now by keep bringing it up. But, I mean, again, we used tootry last year, right? We're done with Tootry.

We gave Max Simpson a shot in the spot. What's that? Go ahead. I was just going to say, like, Totry, of course, get Totry out of the spot. He didn't, he didn't want to be there. The vibes were starting to get low. He's like, he was a reluctant hero, right? We put Totry in the spot simply because it worked. It had nothing to do with him wanting to be in the spot, caring about baseball, or even wanting to bring us joy, right?

We know Totry very much does not like to bring other people joy. No. Misery loves company kind of situation with him. But we might have found the answer for the spot. Damon, do we have the actual answer for the spot? Because so far, the area knows still, what is happening? It's a picture, David. What is it happening?

Jesus, Derek, it takes a second for some of the stuff for the sausage to get made. It's crazy to me. It's crazy to be. Forget it. Anyway, we're on to injury updates. No, not forget it. Not forget it. No, forget it.

Forget it. It's absolutely in the past now. I wanted to say this about the spot. Max, there's never been anyone who wants to be the guy in the spot more than Max, but no one wants him there. That's the problem. Like Max, Max, Max, we gave him a shot. We gave him a chance. Yeah, I know we did, but like, because he would try over and over again. Like, he, all he does is show up and stand in the spot. It's unbelievable. Let's pull the curtain back a little bit. Max wanted the spot more than anything, stood in the spot. I brought him a table to put his snacks on, so that should he not want to hold his snacks the whole time while standing in the spot?

He didn't have to. What did Max do? Max leaves and goes and takes a phone call in his office, like as if like as if standing in the spot, Damon, is a joke. As if it's something that we don't take seriously around this place. But I'm afraid to even ask, do we have the image now? There he is. There he is, folks.

The Arizona Diamondbacks. remain undefeated since this moment. This is it. This is our office dog. And he brought us all the luck in the world. And like I said, the Diamondbacks went into Los Angeles and won two straight games after this dog stood in this spot. So I don't know what to say about it other than it's where I'm done with everybody else.

I'm done with everybody else. This is who will stand in the spot for the next. picture. All right. Anyway, Jesse is going to be here tomorrow, but he did provide us with some good updates in regards to the Arizona Diamondbacks injury situation. By the way, this is, that's, that's Damon's number one dog right there, more so than us. We are Damon's dog. Sure, but that's absolutely. Jesse did provide some injury updates in regards to Merrill Kelly. It would appear, according to Jesse's tweet, that Merrill Kelly is set to have imaging on his shoulder later this week, which might have taken, might have caused some concern,

but it's a good thing because if that imaging does come back clean, LaVolo said that Merrill Kelly could begin throwing shortly thereafter. Based on the date of this injury, Merrill Kelly is on the 60 day IL, so he could return as early as late June, around June 25th, around that date. Obviously, no guarantees that he will. We know how baseball is. it's ridiculous when it comes to pitchers needing to get ramped up and getting back to where they need to be in order to be stretched out and a starting

pitcher in Major League Baseball. However, this is very encouraging. I mean, we had kind of a varying date when it came to when when it comes to when Merrill Kelly could return. We were told that it could be as late as after the All-Star break.

So again, if Merrill Kelly can start his throwing program this week, that's just huge for the Diamondbacks, the sooner they can get the mainstay back in the lineup, the better it is. I mean, what does Merrill Kelly returning to the rotation even mean for the snakes? I mean, after last night's win, can you imagine this team at 100%? Like, this is, you know, this is the dream right now. It is the dream. Because, I mean, we saw some question marks about Brandon fought, right?

Going into this season, like we didn't know. We love what we saw in the playoffs, but we didn't know, would you. he be able to sustain that. I'm now at the point where I'm like, I see Brandon Fott as a frontline starting pitcher for going forward in his career. To now, to do, to be able to say that without Merrill Kelly pitching is crazy. Because now when we get Merrill Kelly back,

we're going to have Zach Allen, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery, Brandon Fott, who I'm comfortable are all saying front line guys. And then you got Erod, who I think is like a really good number three level pitcher. And that's your rotation. And Merrill Kelly, I mean, for a large majority of last season, I think was better than Zach Allen.

Like he was more consistent. He was keeping the team aflo. Every Merrill Kelly start felt like a W, even when the team was struggling most. So it's just, it's going to be huge to get him back. He's, he's, by some accounts, like maybe the doesn't have the best stuff, but he might be the best, you know, pitcher on our roster. And it's, I can't wait. It's incredible what he can do at times. You're right.

doesn't have the best stuff, but his stuff has gotten much better and he's been the most consistent guy. I think that's the consistency that Merrill Kelly can bring back to the starting rotation for a, you know, team right now that has very little consistency. In fact, Brandon fought that you bring up is probably the most consistent pitcher followed by Zach Gallen. We still don't know what Jordan Montgomery is going to be from game to game. We still don't know how, you know, Erod is going to be once he returns and he's healthy, but we know what we're going to get out of AmeriCalty. I think that the idea, though, of this starting rotation being complete really changes the,

I guess the identity of this team quite a bit, changes a lot of things. It changes the course of this team's season in a way because of the fact that that gives Tori Lavolo and the front office so many more weapons that they could potentially look to out of the bullpen that, you know, solidifies the rotation if all of those guys can be what they think what we think they could be, then that's, that's going to be one less concern for this team as far as, you know, the moves they have to make. There is so many, you know, moves that this team right now is having to kind of figure out and shift bodies around in order to just have a complete, you know, starting rotation out there at a major league level. As it stands right now, we know

Slade Soconi got sent down and they brought up Brandon Hughes. We should see a corresponding move in regards to the final game here against Miami Marlins, which we'll talk about shortly. But going back to Erod, there's some more encouraging news for Eduardo Rodriguez because he started throwing at 75 feet this week and continues to be on the road to recover. We should see ERAD here,

hopefully around the same time as Merrill Kelly, probably earlier. So, I mean, to get those two guys back and to add that to the starting rotation is crazy. It's crazy the impact that those starting pitch could just have on the rest of the team, right? You have a level of confidence behind those guys going out there and throwing every five days. You have the changes that it brings to the bullpen.

There's just a lot of things here. I mean, there are some injured players for, you know, injured position players that when the diamond backs get out definitely can help, right? We have Geraldo Pardomo, which you have been known to be a fan of, right? Some would say. Some would say. Tori said this week that he actually expects Pardomo. to be back before Alec Thomas, which I don't know how to take that information because that seems

that's crazy for Alec Thomas. You know, Alex seemed like he was so close to coming back. Even shortly after Perdomo got injured, it felt like Alec Thomas was close to coming back. So this setback is unfortunate for Thomas. It's unfortunate, you know, for the Diamondbacks. But we do have Corbyn Carroll eating sunflower seeds while he's making catches in center field. So I'm, I feel better about, you know, Alec, missing more time than I would if we heard that Erod had another setback or Merrill Kelly's imaging came back and there's a setback due to the imaging. Like the starting pitchers right now to me are crucial and change everything for this team.

Position players definitely could help. We've said it though. The position players that are missing, Perdomo and, you know, Alec, they're not going to change the world when it comes to offense. Like defense, yes, defensively, they could really shore up this team and, you know, you know, make them, get them back to that identity that they had from last year as far as playing good baseball consistently all the time. However, I don't know if Pardomo and Alec Thomas are going to really bring, you know, a lot offensively when they return enough to say that

they're going to change, you know, this team. Merrill Kelly coming back, Erod getting healthy, that literally could change the trajectory of this team, right? So, and I know Pardomo, Perdomo still has all of the vibes and like Perdomo has He's a leader of men. He's a leader of men. He absolutely is. He could still actually be back before the end of this month we're hearing. But it just doesn't seem likely based on the fact that he's still not running 100% on his weight on his knee and things like that.

But I mean, this also wild. It's wild that I mean, I know you don't mess with hamstring injuries, but it's wild that Perdomo tore a ligament in his neck. and is set to be back sooner. Had surgery. Had surgery. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. And of course, Perdomo, what thing Tori told us was that Perdomo is he's like, like he's supposed to run at like 60%. He's running at 70%. He's doing more. And he's ahead of schedule. But it's also like, hey, let's take it easy, right? We're hearing all about all of these setbacks. And at this point, don't want to see a prodomo setback.

What I do want to know, though, is what do we do with Kevin Newman when Perdomo does return? What do we do with one of the most consistent players in the starting lineup right now when Jerry P comes back? Yeah, I mean, that was an interesting point that you made like in terms of like offensive output. I don't know how much better necessarily we're getting with Alec and Jerry back because Newman has performed pretty well offensively. Like if Perdomo was having the season that Newman was having right now statistically, I think we'd all. Grilled. Yeah, I think we'd be over the moon with it. Same thing with Alec Thomas and Jake McCarthy, right?

Like, if you want to put it that way, like, Jake's been pretty damn good. Maybe you'd like to see a little bit more power out of Alec, but, you know, Jake's hitting like around 300. So it's hard to say that, like, you know, we're going to get so much better behind the plate with those guys. But I think it's just a mental thing, like stuff that you can't put a tangible number on, like just having your guys back, having your buddies back. Exactly. And like you said, defensively, it'll be extremely helpful. Just because. But even then, Kevin Newman's been very good defensively out there. Yeah, he has been good. I think he's, I think I could be wrong, but I think Kevin

Newman's had other seasons of his career where he hasn't been so good defensively. Yes. So you could make the argument that, you know, maybe it would just like we trust Jerry a little bit more. But Kevin has been good defensively. Don't get me wrong. I think Alec is obviously a huge upgrade over having Corbyn and center field. Jake in right, right field and switching Corbyn over to right field. But do you notice how much better Corbyn plays centerfield on the road? Well, I don't know if it's an on the road thing, but he, it seems like when when he's playing

with confidence and when he's, you know, hitting triples, all of a sudden, his defense is, a lot more confident. He looks a lot better. Like, it's way easier to watch. You and I are both guilty of head-assing, especially when we make a mistake, right? Like all of a sudden, you do go into like a bit of a spiral based on, you know, you know, one mistake and now you start making other mistakes in other areas or more importantly forget it forget even you know making more mistakes just you're stuck in your head about that mistake you made as you're

advancing into the future and you're just sitting there still thinking about it and dwelling on it right and i i feel like corbin wants to be so good that that's you know uh i guess a a weakness for him is the fact that he probably does get down on himself so much about the mistakes that it makes it hard for him to just flush it, as Tori would say, and move on, right? Yeah. We showed it in that. I made a short of it yesterday. Go check it out on our YouTube.

But we also showed it on yesterday's postgame show. Like when Jesse asked him about Catell's hit streak, have you seen Corbyn light up like that all season long? Not this season. That is the happiest he's looked all season. He was, you know, he was like, God. I was going to say it reminded me of when we were talking to him about. collecting baseball cards during spring training. That was the last time.

That conversation was the last time that I saw him have that big of a smile on his face, joking about, you know, which of his baseball cards is his favorite saying it's a secret and all that kind of stuff, right? But like, yeah, I mean, he plays with a lot of joy. He also plays with a lot of intensity. And sometimes that intensity, I think, can overpower the joy when things aren't going his way. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

I think he just cares so much. about this is all he cares about we always talk about that it strikes me as this you know how fans can get mad when a baseball team that is losing is joking around and having a good time in the dugout right like people are literally saying like why are they having a good time they've lost seven in a row like what is there to be happy about and it's like that that attitude i guess you could say is probably an internal feeling for corbid like it feels like when things are going bad he shouldn't be showing any joy externally and does it. But it's also just the fact he's not experiencing probably any joy. But he should after the Diamondbacks did what they did to the Dodgers because this was a,

it was a great team effort. Corbyn's had three triples this week. Everybody feels like they're contributing once again and things are going well. Back to the injury updates, though, when it comes to setbacks, we do have one setback to discuss. And that was that Miguel Castro had to shut down his throwing program after feeling discomfort in his right shoulder. He won't throw again for a more days so there's a setback there. I'm sure some fans aren't too concerned about that, considering the way that Miguel Castro was pitching at times this season for this team. However, you don't know how much that injury might have been impacting his effectiveness on the mound. So again, right now, things are improving for the bullpen. And it feels like they are

slowly but surely sifting through what they have to find the guys that Tori Lobello can count on. Joe Mantiply has been incredibly incredibly consistent as of late. Tori said he's throwing him every day. Every single day out there. He's going to go throw one pitch and get it out. I don't think that's going to end so well, Torrey. I don't know.

I don't think so either. Justin Martinez also very good for this team. So again, the relief pitching has been. That's putting it lightly. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's like putting it lightly about Ryan Thompson, right? Justin Martinez, Ryan Thompson, I had Steve Zinsmeister from the Diamondbacks pregame show,

asked me after a little few years. dance last night, which two Diamondbacks members I would fuse together. And then he told me Justin Martinez and Ryan Thompson because you're throwing submarine 102 miles for hour. And I am with it. First off, he'd be a starter because that's the gross picture I've ever seen in my life. A 0.64 ERA for Justin Martinez this year. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the width's a little bit higher. 0.83 for Ryan Thompson? I said 0.83, I think, for Ryan Thompson. Let me see here. Yeah, 0.84. 0.84. The whip on Justin Martinez is 1.29, so that's a little bit higher than maybe you would expect for that ERA.

Sure. But that's the kind of picture he's going to be. He's going to walk guys because he throws so damn hard. And he allows out. But I think the one thing we've seen about him so far is that he gets himself out of those jams. Ryan Nelson got into some very, very hot water yesterday. We don't see Justin Martinez gave himself quite in that trouble,

but he, there is a level of confidence, right? When you're watching Justin Martinez pitch, you don't feel that same uneasiness that you feel when other members of the bullpen are out there, especially once they allow a hit or once they allow a base runner, you start feeling much differently about their outing.

Like even with, and I love him to death, but even with ginkle, like when ginkle lets a guy on, all of a sudden you're like, yeah, yeah. I don't know how I feel about this.

Oh, I need right now. Especially before. the first guy because it does feel like with ginkle, right? He's either he's either lights out or he really is struggling. And like you kind of get like he throws two pitches and you're like, oh, uh-oh, you know. Yeah, absolutely. And with Ryan Thompson, when he gets a guy on, I go, okay, so when's the double play happening?

Right. He's so good. That's a fact. That's exactly how I feel about it too. Like Justin Martinez, too, you're like, yeah, he's going to strike the next three guys out, though. So it's fine. Yeah. It's fine.

But speaking of pitchers, let's take a look at the probable pitchers for this upcoming series against the Miami Marlins because there's one notable missing name here, which is who would be going in game three for the Diamondbacks. We have Zach Gallen going up against Braxton Garrett in game one. That looks like an advantage diamondbacks with Garrett's 10.24 ERA. Jordan Montgomery in game two going up against Sixto Sanchez, which is just an incredible name. It's the best name. Like that's a superstar name. That's an anime villain name, Sixto Sanchez. Like that guy runs the universe in some, you know, anime.

But anyway, last game, we have TBD for the Arizona Diamondbacks going up against Ryan Weathers for the Marlins. And according to our very own Jesse Friedman, that TBD will most likely be filled by Tommy Henry or Blake Walsden. Tori does not intend on doing another opener bullpen game, nor does he intend on going with Slade, who has to spend 15 days down before he can return anyway, so he wouldn't be eligible to be up for this game. But feel fairly confident about those two guys. I feel fairly confident about possibly seeing Tommy Henry

or Blake Walston get the start there in game three. But this is what I'm talking about. I can't wait for these days to be over. I can't wait for the Diamondbacks to just, have a starting rotation and we don't have to guess or figure out what they're going to do for one of the games over the next five days. This has been something that has gone on for entirely too long. And I mean, it's really, I think the thing that's held this team back. There's a lot of factors.

There's been a lot of bad games. But the starting pitching being so inconsistent just really feels like the team gets started off on the wrong foot. I think that could be why you see so many game one losses this year by the Diamondbacks. Yeah, maybe it has a lot to do with it. But I mean, just looking at that pitching matchup, I feel great. I mean, granted, I would have said I felt awful about the Dodgers series. So what does that mean? It means absolutely nothing.

It means nothing. How we feel means nothing. It has zero impact on the game. It's wild, but we still come on here and save how we feel. Braxton Garrett has only pitched two games this year. Obviously hasn't been good, but he, the last two years before this year, he's had a 366 and a 358 ERA. So I think he's actually their best pitcher. This is like the ace matchup.

This will this will be, yeah, maybe the Marlins best chance. Sixthos Angeles is not very good. Jordan Montgomery hopefully, you know, steps it up a little bit. And, you know, he hasn't been fantastic recently. So it'd be nice to see him just go out there and shove. And then Ryan Weathers, looking at it here, you know, you're like, oh, three, four, nine, and ERA, that's pretty good. Ryan Weathers is a terrible pitcher.

I'm looking at his ERA. Last year he had a 7-6-2. Granted, he only pitched three games, but he had a 6-25 the year before that for the Padres. Like, Ryan Weathers isn't scary at all despite this ERA. If we're going to have a game where we don't know who the starter is going to be going into it, that's the one for it to happen. So I'm feeling great about this series, to be honest. Let's start stacking. with a record of 17 and 34 the Miami Marlins have the third worst record in all of baseball.

But they are seven and three in their last 10 because of course they are. Of course they're going to come in here and have a great, great run as they come into Diamondbacks. You know, we talked about this with the Reds though, right? The Reds were a bad team. Diamondbacks took care of business against the Reds. Marlins are playing better baseball as of late, but the Diamondbacks absolutely should take care of Marlins, right? of the Marlins. They should hopefully ride this confidence from this Dodgers series and, you know,

come in here and, of course, take care of business against Marlins. Everybody's a huge fan of TBD. TBD jerseys sold out. Can I just, can I just say, Derek, that when I was making the graphic, I put like the silhouette on there and then I was like, should I just take off the stats and make TBD bigger? And then I was like, you know what? I think the people are going to absolutely eat it up when I put that TBD has a 0.0.0. O-Z-R-A.

Now he's undefeated this season. He's the ace on this roster. He's absolutely. I just, I know, I know my people. I know my audience. Yep, you're right. Of course, we love that audience. We love you guys.

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But when you do sign up for the Inner Circle, you can save 25 cents per gallon on your first five Phillips and then save three cents per gallon every single day after that. If you're a premium member, like these guys over here, you'll save five cents off per gallon every day after that. So join the inner circle for free now. Become part of this little family we got with our friends at Circle K. What Circle K are you going to stop that on your way to Vegas? Oh, that's a great question. I have like three Circle K is right in my vicinity.

So it all depends on which direction we're heading out. Most likely it'll be the one right here at 35th Avenue and Happy Valley, which is very close to my home. but it's important to figure that out, right? You've got to map out your Circle K's. I mean, they're very convenient, so you don't really have to go very far to find one, but they're just right here. I could throw a rock in any direction if I walked outside my apartment,

and I would come within 100 feet of a Circle K. And see, look, we accuse Elise of being a known baseball GM, but she might just, in fact, be an executive with Circle K, because she is reminding us that today is Fuel Day at Circle K. from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. So forget going tomorrow, Damon. I'm going to go fill up the car today. And I'm going to be ready to head out for that road trip to Las Vegas tomorrow morning.

Filled up, clean car, ready to go. $0.40 cents off. Bag of snacks. 40 cents off per gallon. Go fill up your tank right now. What are you waiting for? Derek, do you feel like you're siphoning gas from Circle K when you're, when you're getting 40 cents per gallon? That's criminal. I already feel like paying only 79 cents for an extra. large polar pop is criminal alone in itself.

I know that cup is worth more than that, but okay, they're doing it for the people. They are the people's stop, much like you're the people's producer. Of course, the people's sunglasses might come from our friends at Shady Rays, and that's only because, as we've talked about time and time again, shady Rays has the craziest lost and protection program, lost and broken replacement program and all of Iwear. If you lose or break your Shady Rays, even on day one,

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And they have like little specks of like red and blue and then their black sunglasses. They literally go with every single outfit that I own. I try to maybe pick up another pair, but I'm like, no, my Shady Rays go better with that outfit than anything I can find. So exclusively for our listeners right now, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRays.com and use code PHNX for 35% off a pair of polarized sunglasses. try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Well, we have some more Major League Baseball news to talk about. And of course, oh, shout out to Andrew Dang.

Appreciate you, my guy. He said, who would pitch tomorrow if Kelly and Erod comes back? Do you mean like if they both came back tomorrow? I would imagine Merrill Kelly might be the one. Let's say like if instead of Blake Walston, that this isn't what's going to happen. But if for some fictitious reason, it wasn't Blake Walson and it wasn't, you know, Tommy Henry and Merrill Kelly was ready to go. I would think that Merrill Kelly would get the start before E-Rod, but who knows? Who knows how that's going to work out? Most likely those two guys

aren't going to return at the same time. And I'm guessing when they're ready, they'll just kind to be slotted in wherever, you know, wherever they can, wherever the next spot in the starting rotation pops up. That's where I imagine we're going to see one of those two guys, hopefully sooner than later, but we do thank you so much, Andrew, for your super chat. Of course, we also want to take a look, like I said, at our power rankings for Major League Baseball for this week. So let's take a look at what we are cooking up. The Philadelphia Phillies stay absolutely scorching hot right now.

They are our number one team in baseball. They are 36 and 14. They have the best record in baseball. They have a plus 90 run differential, Damon. It's fucking insane. saying how good this team is right now. They are on a five-game winning streak. And I'm happy to report that they finally have a winning record against plus 500 teams.

The Phillies are now four and two against 500 teams with a record of 500 or better. So now they've played six whole games against teams with a plus 500 record. Good for them. Good for them. Moving up into the second slot, moving up two spaces is the New York Yankees at number two. The Yankees continue to be very good. A plus 79 run differential for them. They are 8 and 2 in their last 10 games.

And they currently support the best record in the American League. Not really a fluke there with what the Yankees are doing. And they're playing some good baseball. Meanwhile, down one spot. Los Angeles Dodgers. I don't know if you heard, but they just lost two out of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks. That might or might not have much to do with the fact that they've moved down.

They are 33 and 19. with a plus 77 run differential. And again, the Dodgers, I think seeing them play the Diamondbacks, we got a chance to see a lot of their weaknesses exposed and up close. So I think the Dodgers are frauds, and we're going to continue to see them drop. Cleveland Guardians. That's crazy.

That's crazy. Cleveland Guardians up two spots. We have a few teams that are up. Yankees moved up two spots to number two from number four. Guardians move up two spots from number six to number four. And then we have the. Royals up one spot from seven to six. But of course the Guardians,

the Guardians just continue to quietly play really good baseball. Damon, they are nine and one in their last 10 games. They have a 14 and 7 record against teams with a record above 500. And they're currently 33 and 17 with a plus 65 run differential. Yeah, I mean, and they just swept the twins, I believe.

Yep, that is the case. The twins who round out the back of our list at number 10, sweeping a team in the top 10 is pretty impressive stuff. Especially a team like the twins that have been as hot as they have been lately. Twins have maintained, you know, they've still been very good. They did lose that. They're three and seven in their last 10, but they currently have a 26 and 23 record plus five run differential.

Honorable mention there at the end, it could have been the Seattle Mariners sneaking in. They currently lead their division. But Mariners had a plus one run differential. It seems like they're just borderline there. when you take a look at what they've been doing compared to some of these other teams. Going back to the list, again, Guardians have been very good. Braves, not so good lately.

Two and four this week, 28 and 18 record plus 46 run differential. Ronald Ocuna Jr. continues to not be very good, but their starting pitching is amazing and cannot be stopped at times. It feels like. And there's still 10 games under over 500. That's the Braves playing bad baseball. Even with looking bad, there's still 20. 28 and 18. It's what the Dodgers do too. Like if the Dodgers, the Dodgers and the Braves, I think, are the two teams in baseball where it's like, if they are playing bad baseball, they are still, you know, one of the three to four best teams in baseball. And it, it's, it sucks, but that's a reality of how deep their teams are, how good their rotations are. Like they're just, those teams are just completely built different. Not that they're unbeatable. This is this sport makes it where super teams are are, are not. not, you know, necessarily like a shoe win to win at all.

But they definitely play by a little bit different standards than the rest of the league in terms of just the depth that they have. Baseball is very hard to like predict, right? And I think that's the biggest problem is that even when you sign guys that were hitting 300 and your team is doing really well one season, guys are doing well. Their projections are great for their career. you think they're going to be, you know, a superstar in this league, things just don't pan out. Or like I even said earlier, even when you do all of this during the course of about 162 games season,

you still have the randomness of the postseason where anything can happen. And at that point, it just takes a team to be better for three days, for three games in order to bounce you. And I think that like, I mean, you could say that about most sports, but I do feel like football and basketball and stuff that they play out a little bit more. more like you would expect. You know, the favorites tend to be the favorites for a reason. They tend to win those games. You're going to have a lower seat every once in a while, make it through. But baseball just feels like it's so different and so random at times and it's hard.

But that's what makes those teams like the Braves so good. Those teams like the Dodgers so good, right? Like you said, the fact that they can go through a slump and they'll still only lose like three out of five or two out of six or something like that. And that's a bad week for them, whereas, with the Diamondback slump, that's a, that's, that's, that's a, that's a, that's going to be a really, really bad stretch for them. So, uh, these one thing looking at, oh, sorry, no, go ahead. Just one thing looking at these standings here, like when I'm looking at the American League central,

remember before the season when we were like, this division stinks, like who's possibly going to come out of this division? And three teams have winning records right now in the division. Yeah, right now you got guardians at 33 and 17, which is just ridiculous. Like that's so good. The Royals at 32 and 19. So just like a plus 72 run differential for the Royals. Like the Royals are good. The Royals are good on the Royals name, right?

The Royals are really good. This off season, it felt like it was like some sort of like the B squad being formed. You know, like they went out and got every great free agent that was not really. a top 10 free agent. And it has worked out really well for them. But you look at the Diamondbacks, right? Like Kevin Newman and Jock Peterson might be the greatest free agent pickups

of the entire offseason. Just like everybody expected, right? So I mean, yeah, it was clear as day. But yeah, and then you got the twins who won 17 of 19 games not that long ago. Right. And then you look down like, I was laughing because you looked out at the American League West

who we all. assumed to be like a gauntlet. Like you look at the American League West on paper, you're like, the Rangers just won it all. The Astros show up to the, you know, final four teams every single year no matter what. And the Mariners have the best pitching staff in baseball when you, like on paper. So, but then you look at that division. The Mariners are three games above 500. And then every other team in that division is under 500.

Astros, six games under 500. Rangers, two games under 500. And baseball is just a wild sport. Every single team in that division has a losing record against teams with a record of 500 or better. Every single team. Mariners 13 and 16, Rangers 7 and 10, Astros 6 and 19. 6 and 19 the Astro. We talk about the Phillies being 4 and 2, and the Astros are 6 and 19 against teams with a 500 record or better,

or above 500 record, my God. Which of course means that the Astros will be in the ALDS at the, or the ALCS at the end of the year, just because that's just how it's just going to work. Yeah. Baseball. Well, let's take a look at the rest of our power rankings here. Orioles made a pretty significant drop here with the way they played. They're down two spots. I don't know if that was based on their actual play or just the fact that I wanted to spite Bo Brock because sometimes I do things just for spite around here.

They did get swept by the Cardinals. They got swept by the Cardinals. That was the first time the Baltimore Orioles have been swept since 2002, 106 series in a row that they did not get swept. And it has finally ended. And the Orioles, they're frauds. They're done too now. That's their entire season down the drain. No, I kid, but still Brewers lead their division right now.

They lead the NL Central. They're four and six in their last 10. But they'd still have a 28 and 21 rack. record with a plus 38 run differential. And then rounding out the top 10, we have the Cubs. They're right behind the Brewers in the National League Central at 27 and 23. They have a plus two run differential. They are four and six in their last 10 games.

Shoda Imanaga continues to be absolutely incredible. And I am jealous every single day that the Diamondbacks did not pick them up. Every single day, just because I remember how much we talked about Shoda and how much we were like, oh, yeah, he's the guy. flying under the radar. He could be the perfect guy, right? Like, we get the guy from Japan, but we, you know, we don't pay nearly as much as like a Yoshinobu or, you know, Otani. And meanwhile, Shoda immanaga is the best pitcher in baseball right now. And it's wild. It's wild. That was Jacob Franklin's guy. He really wanted Shoda. I remember.

Jacob knows, knows pitching pretty well in particular. And then I don't know, Derek, did you see that picture that was floating around Twitter the other day of Shoda taking a picture with the new Chicago Skydashire? Yes. Yes, yes. It's like when Ichero, right? Remember when each row, they were like, hey, Tom Brady wants to meet you. Yeah, everybody wants to meet you. And he was like, cool.

Who's he? I don't know who Tom Brady is. That's cool. Like it's Shoda, it's, I mean, not to quite Tom Brady level, but like Angel Reese and Lisa Cardoso and they're really good and they're both top five picks. And they're about to throw out the first pitch and Shodas just saying. standing there like who are these people I've never heard of these people in my life and they were towering over him yeah that was the funniest part too yeah no um honorable mention like I said

the Mariners there for leading their division uh cardinals for sweeping the Orioles they've been playing much better baseball uh as of late than they were let's take a look where were the cardinals at cardinals are eight and two in their last 10 so good for the cardinals and then uh Of course, give a little shout out to the Diamondbacks, right? They're almost, they've almost gotten back to the summit about 500. Right now, two games below, currently have a plus seven run differential. If the Diamondbacks thinking about this, realistically, not trying to be, you know, too reactionary or just too high on the win.

But if the Diamondbacks can get the job done against Marlins and sweep the Marlins, diamondbacks have a plus 500 record on Monday. They're one game above 500. that that's something that seems fairly incredible to me considering the ups and downs we've experienced with this team this season. Absolutely. I mean, based off of all the injuries and stuff that we've had, I wouldn't have thought that that was possible necessarily. But, and it's not, and they, the thing, the frustrating part is they've blown so many games too. Like, in reality, they easily could be over 500.

You could easily give them five more wins right now. Yeah. And think about what we'd be feeling. Yeah. Like imagine we're, you know, three games over 500 with our starting shortstop, starting center field, they're in two of our five of our rotation out, like in our closer for, you know, majority of this season thus far. Like that would be unbelievable.

And, you know, we're still in a decent spot, but like it does hurt a little bit knowing how close we can be, but I don't, I mean, seasons, season's just getting started, Derek. I'm back. I'm feeling good. I'm ready to go. We're all back. We're back. I will say this. Better to experience this in April and May than July? True. Right? I mean, not to say that they're going to necessarily get it together and go on a roll for the rest of the season, but I would much prefer that their struggles are early in the season where they have a chance to adapt, learn from them, find some pieces in a goalpen that they can rely on, make some trades before that deadline, and know what they want to roll into potentially into the postseason with.

And I think that that, to me, is good. I mean, it's not ideal. The ideal thing is to have the same level of health that the Diamondbacks had last year and have very few injuries and have your full team together for the majority of the season. But if you're going to struggle, it's not bad to struggle out of the gate because you still have plenty of time to put it together, rather than struggling in July or August and then trying to have to figure it out late there in September.

Last year, the Diamondbacks got some help. Let's be honest. They really didn't do it themselves to get into the postseason. But once they did, that was all them. That was all them. Damon, you looked at me like you were going to kill me there for a second, and I feel like I should just move on before. It's more that I was,

so I was looking at the, looking at other teams on the power rankings, right? Like other teams that could have just missed it with some explanations. and the Rangers, ESPN has the Rangers at 12, two games under 500, and they peg them as like a second half breakout candidate team. And they put in there that their two best hitters

haven't been pulling their weight, really. And I just looked at Corey Seeger and Adelis Garcia's stats, and I am sick to my stomach. These guys ripped a ring away from me, ripped a ring away from my family, from my people. The beautiful people at this child, of the show of this program of PHNX Sports of the Valley. And what they do in 2024 with their careers?

I have Corey Seeger at a 253 average with a 751 OPS right now. Holy yuck. And then I have Adolas Garcia with a 253 average and an 800 on the dot OPS. I mean, like, what are we talking about, guys? These guys were pretty much the sole reason they won the championship last year. Garcia's stats are pretty close to last year's stats, but that's not anywhere close to what Corey Seeger was doing, especially in the postseason last year.

His slugging percentage is down 200 points right now. I would have a ring on my finger. Gotta be sick. Got to be sick. Yeah, me too. We both have rings. I don't know how that would work out. And I still want to know where my NL championship ring is,

but I'm not rushing anybody. They can, whenever we want to do this ceremony and get me and Damon and Jesse over there to give us our rings, we're available. And Sean. Sean was part of the roster. Sean, JJ, JJ gets a ring. Yeah, I don't know.

How did you put that on? I don't know. He has a tail. He can slip the tail through the area. It's like a collar. We'll figure it out. We'll figure out. Just get us the rings that were owed because I sign the snakes alive sign, Damon, right

next to Corbyn Carol's name. If I sign that sign, I think I deserve a NL championship ring and not the plastic one. They're going to give away against Phillies. I want a real one. For sure. Anyway. And you guys all deserve. of the real ones. Those of you that are diehard, you obviously deserve a real one. And even if you're

not a diehard, you deserve it because you're a Diamondbacks fan. But maybe you could deserve it even more by becoming a diehard. Join us over here. Become part of our family at go phnx.com. Of course, you can get yourself with all sorts of wonderful benefits, including discounts on our events, like our upcoming takeover at the Chasefield Pool. You can get a free t-shirt from the phnx locker.com. You can get your membership card. You get access to all of Jesse's written content content, get access to all of our other content, including our diehard only mailbags, squeeze play, our game show for diehards, and so much more. So join us over here and become part of the family. Of course, another family should be a part of its Desert Financial Credit Union.

For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. They got me started. This home I'm in right now with these video games and stupid stuff to animals behind me, this has all been made possible by Desert Financial. They got me started on my home ownership journey and they get you started as well. You can look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. And when you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 in bonuses. Get started by visiting Desertfinancial.com slash 200. Also, when you save that money, you can save even more money by buying tickets to events with game time, because game time is

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I might use Game Time in Vegas. Maybe go see a show. You know what the best part about Game Time and Vegas is there's so much stuff going on there all the time that yeah at any point on a whim it's going to be last minute right because i'm going to want to go like oh what time is it it's one the show starts at four i need to get last minute tickets game time is the place to get them uh and damon and i are definitely going to be buying game time tickets together while drinking fat tuesday uh drinks with the extra shot in it the other day we're we're going to have a great time uh and i'm just doing this just to make jesse jellis i picked

the one city i knew jesse would not want to go to because there's no baseball team and Las Vegas yet. And he's not a big fan of the drinking. There's no mountain to climb on the strip. Right. It's a good time. It's a good time. That's what you said do him yesterday, right? Oh, yeah. I told him that and he was furious. He's like, what do you mean? No mountain. It's Nevada. I'm like, no, we're not going that far off the strip. Stop it. But, Damon, we do have a little thing to discuss something we might not necessarily. Like one of those things Jesse might not care about, but I know you care about. And I know I care about. And that's fashion. Fashion is very important. important to us. I mean, you can't look at these two guys right now, not saying they are not absolute icons of fashion, right? But let's talk about it because the City Connect jerseys for 2004 have been released. We were told before the season there would be nine total jerseys. So there are three still to be determined, including one for the Dodgers, which may have leaked, and we might have already talked about it. And it might just be boring and terrible,

just like their other City Connect jersey is. We still have the twins and the Blue Jail. to be released, but we do have six jerseys this year that have been released, have been worn by the teams. And I just wanted to go through them real fast to get Damon's hot take on them, give my hot take on them on which jerseys are good and which jerseys are not good. I think we can just do like a thumbs up, thumbs down kind of situation on each jersey, Damon. But I think there is one jersey that is universally beloved and might, might, might be a contender for the best city connect jersey in all of major league baseball and that's Tampa Bay the race.

Yeah. Am I wrong about that? Like no, you're not wrong about that. It's, it's, it's really cool. It's really,

really cool. It's so different. Yeah. I saw one person say that they don't like the fact that they use like the dark, you know, like the gray, the black kind of back. Look, other teams might have missed the mark when it came to whatever collar combinations that They used what Tampa Bay did was flawless.

The colors, the bright colors, the, I mean, everything they did, the skateboard logo, the different Tampa Bay, you know, Devil Ray's logo. Like, I don't remember a team. I can't say another team has really knocked it out of the park and excuse that terrible pun, cliche, but with their jerseys, the same way that Tampa did. I mean, a lot of times we look at these jerseys and say like, yeah, that one's good. I like that. Or now, that one's not bad.

most of the time because it's city connect we tend to say like i might not get it because i don't live in that city but i bet people there like it or whatever the case may be Tampa bay is jersey the city connect jersey like people want it they aren't even fans of the team and they're just like i want one of those i want i want the i saw it cool yeah i saw a hat with these like city connect colors and i was like can i buy it should i buy that can i was like i'm not a race fan at all but yeah here's that jersey. That's sick, man. That is so cool.

The flames. The purple and the green make me so jealous too, because obviously we know how we feel about those colors here in Arizona, right? So fuck off with that because that is fire. The Tampa Bay fire logo is great. Like, I mean, just everything about it. They didn't get, like, they have plenty of nods to their team. They have plenty of nods to the city of Tampa.

But I just, they didn't get like. really too caught up in that. Like they just made something that was cool. And I think that's something that teams need to focus on much more than just trying so hard to incorporate all of these, you know, meaningful things from the city and the design. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I think, uh, the, the allure of the, of the rays one is that they like went back to devil rays kind of in a way. Yeah. Right. Like that's, which the ray of sunshine thing might be the worst.

fucking thing in baseball. Like, I had someone have to tell me that because I was like, what do you mean? What ray of sunshine? Like, I didn't, I honestly did not know what the ray of sunshine thing was. And that apparently is their new, that's what they moved away from

when they left the Manta ray behind, the devil way behind. They moved into being rays of fucking sunshine. I still like my addition. I like my original idea where if they're going to be called the rays, it should just be some guy looking like a creep with a mustache like this,

standing on a corner, you know, the race. It's been that for a long time, Derek. That could be an incredible mascot. He could have a trench coat. You just walk around being a creep around the stadium. Like a big cartoony guy, though, like the college mascot, you know, like the, you know what I mean? That's what they could call him.

It could be the creep, you know? Like, that's a creepy. Derek, there's children at the game. All right, fine. Let's talk about another jersey that came out. Let's go with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Lou? Or do you have a different one?

You go, what are you got? We're going to go back and forth, winners, losers. Sure. I mean, I don't like the Cardinals one at all. So I'd say that's in my book. Yeah, yeah, we could go with that one. The Cardinals come out with a jersey essentially that looks exactly like the regular jersey, just with.

with the word the loo across, which I don't even hate the loo, except for the fact that it's hilarious that people from the UK think that you have a jersey that just says the bathroom across it, the toilet. The loo. When I heard the loo at first, I kind of was like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And then now I'm kind of warming up to the loo a little bit. That's one of those things like, okay, that's the city, right? The city that they're in.

But do people in St. Louis call it the loo? I need to know that, right? Yeah, it's huge. It's everything. Because I know, I said earlier, the Toronto Blue Jays still have a jersey coming out, a City Connect this year. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you they're going to call it, they're going to put the six on there somewhere, the six.

And people fucking from Toronto think that that's dumb as shit. And they don't like the whole the sixth thing. But I guarantee you they're still going to put it on the jersey. Watch, watch. But yeah, the Lou, I don't know. I don't really know about the Lou. I also don't know, like, again, you have a chance to be creative. You have a chance to do something wild and different.

And you guys just come with your same jersey. Elise says the guys looking like a creep in a mascot for the team that has Wander Franco. Okay, yeah, that's probably not the best idea. You're right. But like, I think that was my big, like, I don't care about the Lou thing as much as I care about the lack of originality with the rest of the jersey. Oh, and this is the guy you pick. This fraud. I did it.

I did it for you. I think I like the loo. I like the light pink. Oh, my God. Paul Goldschmidt blink. Blink if you're being held captive, my guy. Are you all right? The, uh, the, I like the light pinstripes on the jersey.

You can kind of see like a, oh, there are like. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are cool. The hat stinks. The hat stinks.

The hat stinks out loud. It stinks. It stinks. I'm sorry. It does. It's bad. It's bad. Also, St. Louis has powder blue jerseys, which I think are widely thought of as some of the best jerseys in baseball, right? For sure. These have them. Like, any team that has power of blue jerseys is blessed. I don't know why you wouldn't do something more with a powder blue. I don't know. There's lots of things. I don't want to nitpick on that one. But again, do more. Do more.

Speaking of one that did more that I liked, that's actually, I didn't know this, but this is actually, there's like a split on this is the Cleveland Guardians, New Jersey. People apparently love it and then some people absolutely hate it. And I wanted to get, what were your thoughts on the Cleveland Guardian jersey? Why do people hate it? I think they feel like they just dipped too hard into the retro bag and went really hard with the retro look with the three color pin stripes or the three color stripes on the, on the arm and then they have it going down the pants. I love this jersey. I think it's great.

I think it's clean. If you're asking me, I think this, the only thing I have a problem with with this is I think this should be a regular jersey and not a city connect. I don't know if it has all of the stuff on it that a city connect necessarily has, like I said, all of the little details and things. But I dig it. And I know this is silly, but I also like the fact that their advertising patch goes so well with the stripes they went there.

I know that might be stupid. But it makes the whole jersey just comes together well. And I really like it. I really like that one. I think it's a solid one. The Guardian's identity is like a city connect thing, right? With the fact that they get that identity from, you know, those the statues on the bridge. And that so much of their kind of look and, and, you know, design ideas, including their baseball logo and stuff comes from the architecture of that.

It's one of those things that made me like it more because I didn't understand what they were doing beforehand. I'm not, I drove through Cleveland one time very quickly. And that's all I have when it comes to my knowledge of Cleveland as a city. So I appreciate that, you know, because that's what a city connect jersey should do. And the Cleveland Guardians are kind of doing that all the time, not just with a city connect jersey. Yeah. I mean, I think really in particular about that that Guardians jersey uniform situation. I really like that three panel hat, like the navy blue back here, the white right here.

Yeah. The red right here. on the bill. That looks really good. I gave that to my Savannah Bananas dynasty team on the major, on MLB the show 24 and it looks. Wow. It's sick.

Yeah. How about that? Yeah. It's sick. It's sick. I think that they're like the nationals try to do that all the time. And I don't like it when they do it because everything with the nationals feel so forced to me.

Like all their uniforms feel like just like like like, like, you know, very just like manufactured. But like that those guardians. ones for something about them makes me like takes me back to like an old school retro kind of look. I think it looks it looks pretty cool. I'm a big fan of the hat in particular. The national cherry blossoms city connect is still one of the best city connect jerseys out there. Oh without question. It's retired. Right. Like it's everything else the nationals do. Right. It's the it's the DC identity that the nationals have. I don't like their new jerseys this year. I don't like a lot of things about it because it's, it's the, it's,

all very like patriotic and it's very governmental from dc and stuff i get it though because i went to dc not too long ago and like you're you're consumed by that that city is like so different compared to every other city in the united states i've ever been to that i understand why they get so wrapped up in that stuff everything has to be the commanders and the this and the national and they're like fucking figure it out have some sort of other identity but besides the fact the president lives in your in your city that's that's lame uh speaking of lame Let's talk about two together because they're both equally lame for the same reasons. Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia, Phillies.

Garbage and garbage. Did the same guy design both of these because they're both bad and they're both bad in the same way. Yeah, let's talk about the Tigers one first. Oh, they're fucking tire tracks over their thing. Like, I don't know what's worse. The Motor City across the chest or the Detroit on the hat. I hate them. By far the hat.

Everything. By far the hat. I can get behind a little bit the tire tracks. Like it's not the worst thing I've ever seen. It's a good idea of Kahnysm. They didn't execute it well, but it's a good idea in concept. That hat is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. Oh, my God.

And it has the sickest underbrim you've ever seen. They have a blue tiger face on the underbrim of the hat. It is the most incredible thing. Yeah, it's a tiger. It's like a tiger. It's awesome. It's rad. It's something more fitted for like a hat you sell the fans and maybe not necessarily

the hat the players wear. but again, they made that like the coolest part, the part you can barely see, the undervisor, you know. And I don't know. I like at least the, I'll say this, at least the Detroit, you know, the color scheme, everything, it at least goes with their team and their city. It looks very much like a lion's kind of thing. And they're bringing the two teams together and that's fine. Phillies went based on the Philadelphia flag.

And it might quite possibly be the biggest miss of all of these considering. everything that team and that city has going on for them, right? Like you could have gone with Kelly Green and people would have lost their fucking minds, but you go with blue and yellow. Like it's a borderline Brewer's jersey combo. I don't understand what they did. And it makes me mad looking at it. I love blue and yellow together on uniforms.

Like it's maybe my favorite color combo. Like I'm so, as much as I hate them, I'm so jealous of UCLA, for example. I think that they just have like the coolest uniforms in like every sport. But yeah, you're right. These stink. Like these stink out loud. Fucking Harry Potter font on the front. The gradient from the blue to the black down like lower.

Like I just hate these. And the hats aren't even that bad. I don't hate the hat. But again, the hat is what it is, right? Like the hats. The Hila is a Philly's hat.

It's the whatever the color scheme they went with. Like the hat would have been fine as this design, but with any color scheme that matched the jersey. The hat's fine. And again, I try to look at the origin of these jerseys to see what these guys are doing with it. And like, I get that they were going with the Philadelphia city flag, but it's just bad. It's not good. It's not good.

And we got one more before we get out of here. My last one is the New York Mets. And I personally love this jersey. I think this is like those little details that I've been talking about that teams want to do for the City Connect. I think this is done well. I like the bridge on the hat. I like the color of the jersey. I like the little transit system thing on the sleeves.

I didn't know that so many people, especially Mets fans themselves, didn't like this. Apparently, there is a huge feeling that this looks more like a Yankees jersey than a Mets jersey, which is what specifically pisses a lot of people off. But I didn't take that away from it,

looking at it initially. I just thought it was cool. But I get it. I mean, I think the one, improvement I would have made is instead of NYC across the front, go with Queens, you know, go with, I don't know, like, yeah, go with the borough you play in rather than New York City. Like, New York City. Connect. New York City belongs to the, like, Yankees most of the time, right? Like, it's like a, it's like if you're an elitist, a white collar person, you're a Yankees fan.

And if you're the blue collar every day guy, you root for the Mets or whatever, right? But I mean, again, there's there's an identity. There's cool things about representing the actual like borough that your, you know, stadium is in or whatever. But yeah, I think that'd be a lot better way to connect to like the place that you're, you're at, no doubt. But I think, you know, you're going to have a lot of Matt's fans like, like Yoshi's going to be mad at you for saying that New York City's team is the Yankees.

I know. I know. Like prove me wrong, though. Like show me, uh, inequival data. that says that I'm wrong about that. But let's go ahead and predict because I think the Dodgers are going to end up as losers. I think their jersey, which we've seen the leak of already sucks and it's going to suck even more. And the Dodgers, despite their resources and everything that they do,

they still can't figure out how to do an alternate jersey that doesn't look exactly like their fucking jersey. Oh, we just love our jersey so much. We don't want to change it at all. So we're just, we're going to make it blue and say Los Dodgers or something. That's dumb. Their jerse is classic, but you're not wrong. They can't figure out a way to scrape that look. They can't.

I think Twins will probably hit it out of the park. And I have a feeling the Blue Jays might come up with a good design and then are going to ruin it by putting the six on it. Maybe a picture of Drake, which is probably not good in this climate. So we'll see what happens. But, of course, we thank you guys so much for being here. We thank you guys for stopping by. Of course, Jesse will be back tomorrow with a post game show. I'm sure Damon will also be here too.

He's obligated to be here a little bit longer than I am. I don't know. Are you producing Jesse? Are we both leaving early tomorrow for Las Vegas? How's that working? I'll be producing Jesse tomorrow. All right. So catch Damon Dog.

Of course, he is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. I am Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Of course, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also follow our show at PHNX underscore DBEX.

Well, that's all we got for you guys today. We thank you guys so much for stopping by. Make sure to drop a like before you get out of here. Make sure you have yourself a wonderful weekend. We're actually off on Memorial Day, as well as the Diamondbacks are off on Memorial Day. So after tomorrow's post-game show, we will be back on Tuesday. And maybe Jesse and I will get back together and do this show as a duo. I don't know.

No promises there. But of course, until then, we thank you guys so much again for stopping by. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when Merrill Kelly is healthy and part of your starting rotation.