PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Can the D-backs Actually AFFORD TO BUY at the Trade Deadline?

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

LIVE FROM GILA RIVER RESORTS AND CASINOS!  The MLB Trade Deadline is here, but do the Arizona Diamondbacks have the financial flexibility to make the moves they need? We discuss why their budget could be the biggest obstacle standing between the D-backs and a what realistic additions Mike Hazen could pursue. We also preview the Diamondbacks' upcoming road series against the Cleveland Guardians, a matchup between two Wild Card hopefuls looking to build momentum heading into the final two months of the season. We'll break down the pitching matchups, key players to watch, and where Arizona can exploit Cleveland's recent struggles. Plus, it’s Throwback Thursday, so we're revisiting the greatest trade deadline moves in Diamondbacks franchise history. And it’s also time for another edition of Snake Farm! We highlight three D-backs prospects who could be on the Major League roster before the end of the 2026 season, what they're doing in the minors, and how they could impact the big league club during the playoff push.   0:00 - Intro 1:30 - Trade Deadline Targets 15:00 - Relief Pitching 35:00 - Cleveland Guardians Preview 45:00 - Throwback Thursday 58:00 - Snake Farm   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 BBPHNX 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   bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!   Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/   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.   #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we have to find some trade candidates for the Arizona Diamondbacks that now apparently fit on a budget. Can we do so? We are live from Heela River Resorts and Casinos Wild Horse Pass. And I am joined by this man. We are going to break it all down right now. Don't you go anywhere. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, live from Heila River Resorts and Casinos Wild Horse Pass. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

And I'm thrilled to be joined by this man, the man that covers baseball like nobody else. It's Alex Dagostino from PHNX and Sports Illustrated. Thanks for joining us, brother. Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. I needed someone that can help me figure out the Diamondbacks trade candidate situation. And there's nobody better than this guy. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365.

Bet365, we're winning is everything. Download the app today and use that code of PHNX365 when you sign up as a new user. And we're also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Thrilled to have you guys here. Thrilled to be here at Heal River Resorts and Casinos. Great to have so many of our friends here.

I got our guy AZ Wildcats G here. And that's always great to see him. Great to see you guys. And not so great, I guess, to be talking about the fact that the Diamondbacks apparently cannot, in fact, afford Terik Scouble and your Don Alvarez. This is going to be devastating news to Damon when he returns. This is earth-shattering. Yeah, no, I mean, this is nothing that I think is new to any of us. I think when we were considering trade candidates, trade targets for this team, I felt like

they had to be reasonable in the first place. I felt like that just based on what the Diamondbacks kind of have to offer, right? Like, it's not like they have a ton of assets for them to part ways with in order to bring on another player, at least assets that you would feel comfortable parting ways with. Yeah, I mean, you know, they've got some pieces to make some moves. They're not poor in that sense. but they're certainly not going to be bringing in, you know, the best arm on the market, the best bat on the market. And I don't know if the Astros would even trade someone like Yorna-Ovarez.

Yeah, no, I mean. They're in the race. That's just always been a fun joke around here. But we have always had our eye on bringing Christian Walker back. That seems less likely, especially with not only his contract, as we just discussed, or we found out recently from our guy, John Gambadoro. I think we have a tweet here, Shane, showing what Gambo said. And I'm going to say this is a big time. I'm sorry that happened.

Congratulations, because I don't feel like reading all that. But I will say what Gambo said is if you're expecting for the Diamondbacks to be big buyers at the deadline and go get a bat, starting pitcher and closer, you will be extremely disappointed. They will absolutely rely more on quality players coming back from injury like Justin Martinez, Michael Soroka, Jordan Lawler, and Corbyn Burns, then trade deadline acquisitions. For one, there's not a game-changing bat in the market. I disagree with that. and we're going to talk about one that I think is a game-changing bat. But more importantly, because of a record payroll, the Diamondbacks are only $6 to $7 million under the penalty,

meaning that's the most that the Diamondbacks would have to spend here on another player that they add. The Diamondbacks, like the Suns, not going into that second apron, will absolutely not go over the luxury tax. It would cost them somewhere around $30 million to go over and not qualify for the money. The eight-nine luxury tax teams are paying,

eight to nine luxury tax teams are paying with redistribution. which has been a big part of their, you know, budget, right? Like the fact that they get that money from a team like the Dodgers, from those teams that do go into those luxury taxes, that's been part of the way that they've been able to have this record payroll. Overall, what Gambo was saying here in this tweet, I don't think is anything new to most of us. I know we've had our jokes and I know we've discussed at times going after those big names,

but I've always tried to temper expectations, at least one of us on this show did, about who the Diamondbacks could be pursuing. And when I say that, I think that, again, it was always kind of more reasonable targets. Gambo makes a great point here when he's talking about, obviously, the limitations here budget-wise. And he's not wrong. The Diamondbacks already have a payroll that was bigger than we expected them to have this season. and I don't see them doing much to increase that. But that does not mean that there are not some trade targets out there that they could pursue. It's just they're not going to be those flashy, I guess, household superstar names that people would like to see them at.

Yeah, and I think, you know, I said this on Twitter as well, but I feel like a lot of people were sort of misinterpreting what Gambo was talking about here. I think they were seeing that as they were just expecting Justin Martinez and Michael Sorok could have. to save them for the rest of the season and, you know, forget making any additions. Right. The way I saw that is they're going to probably be looking at going after guys who are still in arbitration or pre-arb, who are controllable, who are going to cost a much lower amount. Yes, that might be a higher prospect cost, but at the same time, you're not going to go over that number.

So to say, to interpret this as the Diamondbacks are cheap and they're not going to want to spend and they don't want to, you know, add to contend is not the case. And he even said later in the comments or somewhere, he agreed with you. Agreed with me. Where he said, I do expect that they are going to add. So, you know, I think it's a pretty safe bet that they're going to make some additions. Right. The problem is, is that, again, those additions are going to have to be for players that aren't making as much,

are going to make your team better at the trade deadline, and are going to be available. Those are very hard players to find. Yeah. It's a smaller. It's a smaller group. And not only that, but because of it being a smaller group, you have more buyers that are going to be interested in acquiring those same players that the Diamondbacks are going to be interested in. I know a name that we've put out there a lot, everybody in the Diamondbacks community.

I mean, I think there's two names that everybody has wanted. Reed Detmer's as a starting pitcher from the Los Angeles Angels and Luis Garcia, Jr., from the Nationals. Which, again, that one, even that one, as much as I would love to have Luis Garcia, Jr., based on his baseball savant page alone, that one's always been one that I've thought that the nationals are in it. The nationals are contending for one of those playoff spots. So I don't really feel like they are in a position that they're going to be a seller to get rid of a Luis Garcia Jr. I don't think the nationals are going to sell and I don't think they're going to sell to a team who they hold the tiebreaker over in the wild card picture as well. And he's only making,

you know, he's only making $6.9 million this year. So if the Diamondbacks did get him, it would be half that, right, because of this being the midpoint of the season. However, the nationals also don't need to trade a 26-year-old budding superstar. No. For that exact same reason. Right. You know, and that's another reason why I feel like some of even our wants have been a little misguided. Because even if those players aren't going to cost as much or don't make as much, it still makes it harder to pry them away from the franchises that have them.

Teams that want to trade are teams that are out of it completely and want to get rid of high-price contracts, which is something the debacks can't afford to take on. And that's such a small group, too, because with the way the wild card is set up, a lot of teams are still in it. And then you have a lot of teams like in the AL West where like every single team is kind of bad, but also kind of in it, right? And so it kind of just reduces that pool a lot. And a team like the nationals, too, it's like they are surviving based on their offense. So they're not going to trade their hitters because they need pitching. Right. So, you know, it's like they, yeah.

You have one of the best offenses in the league. In fact, the other day when we did the numbers for the series with, Oh my God, who did the just play? The Pirates. The Pirates, yeah. Pirates had the third best OPS. Dodgers had the second best, and the Nationals, at least on the day, we pulled those numbers, had the best OPS and all of baseball, best team OPS.

So, yeah, that's always been one that's been out from. They're the 224 Diamondbacks. That's what the Washington Nationals are. They absolutely are. We keep saying that. We absolutely keep saying that. The first base pool has always been kind of small. I feel like when you look at all the experts, Jeff Passon, others that have listed who

they feel like would be traded. It's not a lot of guys. And even those guys, you could question if those teams are necessarily completely out of it as well, right? But that was our focus. That was the one thing that it felt like the Diamondbacks needed to add a first base slash DH power bat to this lineup. Yeah.

Do you feel like that's changed? Do you feel like there's something else? One of the other positions, starter, reliever, that have surpassed that as far as the top priority for this team? I think the bullpen is creeping its way towards being that priority again. And I think the starting pitching was a bigger deal than offense to begin with, just because of the fact that you have two rookies in the rotation, and then severely underperforming a couple of veterans,

and basically Eduardo Rodriguez is carrying the entire rotation on its back right now. So I still think that pitching was a little bit bigger priority than a bat to begin with. And it's also not necessarily easier to get pitching because controllable pitching is a massive asset, But it's also easier to catch lightning in a bottle with a pitcher than a trade deadline bat, in my opinion, because you're kind of really banking on a guy staying hot for two months. Like, imagine if you trade for Lordus Gurriel Jr. If you're another team, and he was, like, in the middle of his hot streak, and then you trade for him, and then all of a sudden he doesn't hit for, like, the rest of the season.

His hot streak is still pending. So whatever team does get Lourdes, whoever wants him, know that you're going to get a hot streak, guaranteed in the second half. Can they add that to the pitch? Yeah, I think that should be, like, Maybe line two. It's coming. We know it's coming.

It's inevitable. Shane, meanwhile, wants to give us Emerson Hancock from the Seattle Mariners more than anybody. And the more I think about that, the more I love the idea. That's not true. It's not the fact that I want the Mariners to trade Emerson Hancock. It's the fact that I want the Mariners and Debex to make another trade. That's fine.

But he's trying to drive the limo straight up to the airport for Emerson Hancock. I want to keep him. Genuinely, I think he's one of the best young. pitchers in the MLB. And that's what the Diamondbacks need. That's why he would be worth overpaying for. For both of us. He wants Ryan Walschmidt, though.

No, that's not who I want. He says he said. That's not only who I want. He's done. Handshake deal. I would much rather, I would much rather than just make a trade than the Mariners trade Emerson Hancock. So here's what I propose.

Cash for cash. Yeah? Just straight across? Yeah. All right. You guys just gave us $2 million. We gave you $10. That's all right.

He's only making $793,000 this year, so it's fine. Emerson Hancock's expected ERA is 417. Yeah, see, he's a diamond back. Yeah. He's a diamond back. He's already a diamond back. But again, it does have to be kind of a team like that, like not necessarily them, because they like what they have going on there, but it does feel like they have the ability

to part ways with one of those starters. Not a lot of teams are in that position. Not a lot of teams are going to want to get rid of a young starter, you know? And again, these are all the things that they're not. Diamondbacks want, want are in one column, reality is a different call. Sure. Yeah. And also, like, one of the bigger assets is the control.

Like, that's something that when it comes to the deadline that is kind of an an overlooked aspect where, yes, you're looking at ERAs, you're looking at peripherals, you're looking at, you know, expected metrics and all of that. But ultimately, one of the bigger assets is how many years of control you have. How many seasons of this player will you get and can you develop them past, you know, maybe be a rough year. I mean, Reed Detmer's numbers have not been that amazing. No, not at all. But the stuff is amazing. Yeah. And he plays in front of one of the worst defenses in the league. Right. And he plays on a team that doesn't care about winning, apparently, and they just care about

selling tickets, right? That you can hear sell the team chance every time you turn into a home game watching the Angels. What could a player like that do over here under this system that Jeremy Blyche has implemented of pitching to contact and worrying more about getting out versus, you know, versus other factors. You never know how that's going to influence a pitcher, but you feel like if that's the route that this team and franchise is going to go going forward, and I imagine it is, you need to acquire young guys that can adapt to that system. I've kind of felt like in general, one of the early problems with, like, Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen is,

is they are not adapting well to that philosophy while players like Eduardo Rodriguez, and even Michael Soroka, who had 20 strikeouts or 20 plus strikeouts in his first, like, three starts. you know, has adapted more recently to that kind of system of hitting or pitching the contact, right? And it's felt like it's worked well for them. Yeah, and it's just a priority of, you know, stay in the zone. Obviously, you know, you don't want to pump meatballs, but it's live in the zone. I mean, how many times are we upset watching Zach Gallen pitch that he's nibbling around the edge? Oh, man.

And he can't hit it. And how many times was that happening to Merrill Kelly before he got on this run that he's been on where he was just like kind of dancing around the edge and it wasn't working? So that's when you're not comfortable. confident in your stuff, right? You're trying to trick batters and you're trying to get them to swing and miss. Yeah. Versus you feeling confident that they're not going to be able to hear. And the batters can tell that too. Right. Absolutely. So who do you like though overall? You said pitching was a priority. I mean, I know Reddemeurs is somebody that you also very much liked. That would be like the number one guy that I would say is like I would love, but ultimately probably not realistic.

Maybe. You never know. You just really don't. And especially a team like the Angels, they don't seem to care. Yeah. So they're going to be a team that can. continues to build towards the future and offering them prospects is always going to seem like something that they would be tantalized by. Yeah. Redetmer's slider has an ex-Wolba of 224. That's hot. That's insane.

That's hot. Yeah. So basically, you can't hit it. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Well, and I do feel like, you're right. I think that pitching has always kind of been there considering how bad of a season Zach Allen has had. It's just been this promise of arm lengths away.

is the return of Corbyn Burns. We're so close to AJ Puck getting back. We got Justin Mark. In fact, that's one of Damon's biggest pet peeves is discussing the idea that these guys are actually going to be back and being like, oh, man, they already have trade, you know, deadline acquisitions coming, right? Yeah.

Do they? We probably have seen the last of AJ Puck in a Diamondback's jersey most likely. Corbin Burns, I feel like, is going to be back. Corbin Burns is going to be back because he said he's going to be back. He's going to will himself back. He will will himself back. Meanwhile, I don't hate the idea of Ryan Nelson not getting fully stretched out and coming back as a reliever.

I think that could be the answer for the bullpen that we're seeking if we don't get, you know, A.J. Puck back or Justin Martinez, who knows? Like, Justin Martinez also very much is going to be a huge addition when he returns. And he hasn't had any setbacks up to this point. Right. Fingers crossed. I wouldn't expect him to be put in high leverage situations right away. I wouldn't either. You're right about that.

You really have to see where you're at with him. Yeah. But they have guys that have been good in a high leverage situation. So it's like it's just a matter of having that extra arm, especially a fresh arm like that coming into the pen that will, you know, be able to give you a lot of innings at that point. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, who else do you like? Okay. Are we talking reliever or starter still? Whatever. Okay. So this is, I'm going to rip off a little bit of our guy Jack Summers over at Diamondbacks on the site.

He does great work here. He absolutely does. And so he put together a list of a few names. One that I kind of like is, or two that I kind of like are a pair of Mets relievers because the Mets are definitely selling. They're done. And you've got Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter, both left-handers, both having really good seasons. They've both been relatively consistently good throughout their careers.

Minter is making a lot more money. I think it looks like he's still going to be able to about $3.3 million. So that might be a little tough if they don't eat some of that. Brooks Rale is only going to be owed about $600,000. So I really like both of those names. Yeah, that's good. And again, it's more about what do the Diamondbacks need at this point? And I just feel like the bullpen, even though it's been so good, it's starting to fail.

It has multiple components that are starting to fail. Tori's already made the announcement that he will be going to closer by committee and that Paul Seawald has graciously accepted being moved to a different role in the bullpen. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how that works out for Seawald. but I was sent a crazy, crazy little stat here, and it was about Seawald's ERA based on his run differential. This is from our guy Patrick Bessie.

Sorry, Patrick, if I'm messing up your last name there. But basically, Paul Seawald, coming into a baseball game, has had some different, obviously, results. He's come into games where they've been down by two, down by one, and then tied as well as up by as many as five runs. That's what he has done this season in 2026. When coming in, when the Diamondbacks are down, he is not allowed to run. When coming in tied in a tie baseball game in six games and four and two-thirds innings pitched,

Paul Seawald has an ERA of 11.57, which is why you do not bring Paul Seawald into a tie baseball game. But when the Diamondbacks are up by one run, In nine games and nine innings pitch, Paul Seawald has zero earned runs for a 0.00 ERA. And if they are up by two in nine games, he has a 7.27 ERA, up by three, seven point five, six, and up by four, 10.13. And he has three blown saves and they've won two of those games. Make it make sense. Make it make sense. I don't know what his role is going to be. and I don't know how he's going to really work for this team,

but I do feel like, you know, it's difficult to be demoted. And I think Seawald understood why and accepting it does make him a good teammate. I just still don't know what value he is going to have if he's not coming into baseball games when we're only up by a run. Maybe that's it. Maybe he's still use them in this like seventh when we're just up by one. That's what you do. But it feels like this team is going to need some help now, especially with the adjustment of Paul Seawald moving out of that closer role.

Tori has discussed options. It's most likely going to be Brandon Garcia, Jonathan Loisga, and Kevin Ginkle, closing games for this team, and that would make sense based on their performances this year. Yeah, you might see maybe like a Juan Maria once in a while too, just because of the stuff

and he's got pretty even splits between righties and lefties. That's why I think it's going to be a really big, really important to add a left-handed reliever at the deadline. Because at that point, it's like you really, if you're going to be using Brandon Garcia mostly in a closer role and he's been fantastic this year and he i think he has the makeup to close games he kind of doesn't seem to ever panic even when he starts getting base traffic once he

sort of got past that i guess lack of strike throwing that is happening to him but you really need somebody that you can bring in to be the the lefty specialist so that you don't have to go to him in the sixth or the seventh inning right all the time right once in a while is one thing but to have another lefty i mean this is where the not getting a j puck back might actually hurt a little bit or not having a second lefty. Because I don't know if you can really go count on Philip Abner to fill that role. No, you can't. And again, it feels like all signs are pointing to A.J. Puck not returning this season, which is devastating.

That's really truly devastating. But you're right. I mean, and Brandon Garcia can fill that role with another lefty like Brooks Rally coming into this team. But it's also just about, you know, the amount of money that they have to spend and what they can do. I think the Mets are going to be a team that are just. just going to try to shed contracts. So again, it makes it more about are they going to be more likely to move an AJ Minter because of the size of his contract versus a rally? Right. That's that's, that is

another aspect of it. At the same time, I do kind of think that for the Mets, because of just how bad they are, it might just be a fire sale situation. They don't really care one way or another. Yeah. I mean, that kind of was the case with the Diamondbacks last year, just with how many. Yeah, it was expiring contracts. It made all the sense in the world, right? It really did. And at the end of the the day we have the Merrill Kelly battery all pitching in the starting lineup right now or starting rotation excuse me so even though two of them aren't very good it doesn't matter we still fleece the Rangers that's the important thing to remember about that but it does it does feel like a trade is imminent for this team it does feel like yeah they have to make a move it does feel like

tyler locklear even though he is not completely the answer for them over there at first base he looks better he does look better He looks better defensively. He looks better offensively. I know he made that mistake in extra innings the other night. It's experience, right? He's not Nolan Aronado. He doesn't have all the platinum gloves in the world.

But it does feel like that the very least, they do have some options over there. Tim Tao has also played a very good first base. And even though he's kind of cooled off offensively, I still feel like he's been at least good enough over there that these other priorities for pitchers. pitching can kind of become the bigger target. And they have kicked the tires on first baseman. We've seen news out there about the Diamondbacks making some calls on guys.

Yeah, well, and the offense right now, like you're getting some production out of the lower half of the order right now, which is really important to see. You know, you're getting some production out of, you know, Tim Tawa, some Ryan Wallchmidt seeming to kind of find is footing a little bit in the majors, which is pretty cool to see. But, you know, the situational hitting is still the problem, right? So I don't, but I don't know if you can really go out and grab a bat that's going to automatically be an RBI machine, all automatically going to be a wrist machine, right? Like Max Kepler has been kind of filling that role pretty well. Gabby Moreno's doing that. But adding another bat doesn't guarantee better situational hitting as a unit. Yeah.

Maybe one or two big knocks, but it, I think they probably should focus more pitching at this point. You're right. You're right. And I know that, again, there's even some, some outfielder chatter. It's like, yeah, look, look, we, our cabinets are empty. We can't start talking about getting things like cookies at this point. We need bread and we need butter and we need milk before we could get, like, things like that. Outfield or situation isn't great, but you feel like it's going to get better once Loller returns from injury.

You just, and honestly, Lordus Gurriel Jr. as well. Tommy Troy, too, right. Yeah, you have the depth there once those guys return. You don't feel that way about starting pitching. feel like you're crossing your fingers and hoping for two things to happen. Zach Gallen to magically be better when he returns because it looks like he's going to return. Yeah. And for, you know, obviously we know Michael Soroka is going to come back sooner than that,

but you know, you're crossing your fingers that Corbin Burns does return. And that Gordon Burns returns in time to help you win regular season games and get himself ramped up and ready for postseason if that comes. And guys coming back from injury kind of historically struggle if they, come back mid-season. Maybe not. I trust Corbyn Burns is probably going to be a pretty good pitcher going forward. Oh, my God.

He's going to be so angry about the time that he missed that he's going to just be incredible. But I don't know if that's going to happen in September. Right. That might happen next year. Yeah, I agree with you on that. And that might, like a lot of things, a lot of these guys returning might just be a little too late by the time that comes. However, right now, we don't need to do that.

Right now they have a wild card spot right now. Things are good. And the Diamondbacks, again, should be adding here in a few days. who that's going to be, I don't know. I still say that you should give the Rockies a call about a guy named Jake McCarthy. Just see what they would want for them. That's all I'm saying. But we're going to talk about their upcoming series with the Guardians and if it really matters.

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They at least get an off day today. We don't get an off day, but they get an off day. But the Guardians, of course, are a team that are in kind of a similar position, I would say, as the Diamondbacks. I mean, they have an offense that isn't going to necessarily overpower you right now. They are not hitting a ton of home runs, but they do have a lot of contact hitters on that team. And honestly, they have some elite run prevention when it comes to that strong rotation over there, which, again, that and their deep bullpen kind of helps them out considerably something the Diamondbacks are trying to build towards. Not the best starting rotation in baseball, not the best bullpen.

But when you look here at the numbers for the Guardians, you'll see that they are definitely a team that has very good pitching. And, of course, offensively, they've been very good too. But when it comes to this Guardians team, we know that, like I said earlier, this isn't necessarily a series at this point that's going to impact what the debacks do at the trade deadlines. It's still important, though, after going four and three so far on this road trip to finish this up strong and try to come home with a winning record taking this final series against the Guardians. Yeah, the big deal was winning two series against the Nationals and the Pirates. They did one of those things. Yeah. You know, it is what it is.

I'd say, like, you know, they don't want to get swept and have a run differential of like 30 to nothing. Sure. And, you know, maybe Mike Hazen starts to put down the phone a little bit. But I don't see that really happening. I mean, these are, like you said, these are two teams that are kind of a little bit evenly matched. Guardians are 56 and 54. The Chicago White Sox are ahead in that division. It's crazy.

What a turn of events. I've had so much fun. and envy watching that team this year because they very much are a fun organization. Murakami has been awesome for my fantasy team. But yeah, and it's going to be interesting because obviously they have really good, like you said, they have really good run prevention, pitching and defense. So get prepared, I would say, for a very frustrating couple of games where guys are hitting balls really hard and guys are making plays and we're not seeing hits.

I can see that happening. I think the Diamondbacks might need to hit some home runs if they want to win this series. We have a super chat from one of our favorite Nationals fans, but he's attacking our team, and I don't love this. Our guy, my nips hurt, says, I must say, seeing guys like Catell in person, D-backs need to get their guys in the gym? What? Chicken legs, no glutes?

What? This is crazy. He said, look at James Wood, dude is massive. All right, not everybody can be James Wood. James Wood's a giant. He is a giant man. Stand next to Catele Marte and tell me you think he's small. Yeah, yeah.

It's an illusion. It's an optical illusion is what it is. Even Corvin Carroll is not that. He's small but mighty, but he's still bigger than me. It's like a lot of people. Honestly, I go into the clubhouse. Let's not forget that Tori Lavolo, when talking about Jorge Brosa, uses the sign.

He goes like this, and I'm pretty sure Jorge Brosa and I are the exact same height. I'm pretty sure. I walked close enough to him and thought he's not wearing any shoes. Are you 5.6? I'm not 5,6, but I don't think he is either. I don't know. But anyway, again, this is, like you said, this is still an important series not to lose here. And also, our guys got to show off their glutes so we don't get comments like this from my nips.

I don't know why you're looking there in the first place. Hey, no, that's, it's fine, you know. Like when people want to criticize Meryl Kelly for wearing the baggy pants, I'm like, yes, get him. Get him. But I need that man to remain comfortable and cranks free. If he wants to wear sleeves. Pitch better. Pitch better with sleeves, yes.

But the D-BACs offense might be a little hotter right now coming into this. I don't know. I don't ever know what their offense is doing, and I don't know what to expect out of them. But it does feel like at the very least they're trying some new lineups. They're adapting. I feel like now in retrospect that the Cattel situation with him scrubbing his Instagram page and reacting the way he did might have been a little bit more about the fact that he was told that he isn't going to hit first or second in the lineup

and not about any kind of trade, as Gambo said? Yeah, I don't think it was a trade. I'm just speculating there, but I'm just saying the time frame lines up a little bit there with when he was moved, and I also know that Catelle very much does not, has ever wanted to move out of the first or second spot in the second line. Yeah, yeah, that's a thing for sure.

But also one of the other things that I saw was like, he was getting a lot of criticism for swinging first pitch with the bases. He was, so. And kind of, so I get that. that, you know, social media talk. Also, athletes do that all the time, and a lot of times it doesn't mean anything. Kailor Murray had to, like, come out and post something and say, guys, I don't hate the Cardinals because I scrub my Instagram. I don't know. Again, you never know. You don't know. You don't

know what's going on inside their head. I say that, but then I do unfollow and block Shane all the time. So there might be something to it. It's not just for fun. But I will say that the guardians, of course, do seem to have advantage here when it comes to their pitching. And that's something that concerns me when we're talking about the Diamondbacks offense, right? I would love to see Catell come into the series and have a good series. I don't feel like we've seen that out of him in a while. He hasn't been unproductive, but he's been going one for four, one for five, and awfully long. That's basically, yeah.

And you're not getting that really big hit out of him either. Like whenever it feels like, I don't, you know, maybe a little bit of cherry picking, but it just does feel like situationally when there's runners on. It's like you see a pretty weak at bat a lot of the time. And, you know, we know that he's... It's like he gets too impatient. And I think he's just looking for that moment. I think that might be what's going on because he knows he's a good player.

Everyone knows he's a good player. He's looking to bring that moment. And, you know, what happened against the Giants with that home run and the Dodgers and all that? But it's like, I think he's... I think he might be chasing that big swing when really just like put up a good at bat. Like, you've got that. You can, you know, use your contact skills. That's what Gabby has been doing.

And that's what has given Gabby, this success that he has, this franchise long start streak of reaching base safely, just in general, his numbers this year. He's not. His OPS is not crazy for what his batting average is. Right. He is getting a lot of singles. He has a high on base percentage.

He's walking a lot. But he is getting those hits. And it's because he's not trying to hit a home run in those moments. He's simply trying to drive the ball, take what's given to him, as I've said before, and bring in, you know, a run or just get on base. Like, I feel like that's the difference. Kattel is chasing those moments. And Gabby is just trying to hit the ball or walk.

Just get, just wants to be a base runner. Yeah, and even productive outs, right? Like, you know, you need a sack fly. You need a, you know, an RBI ground out. A ground out to the right side. Anything like that. It's like Gabby's the only one that can do that. Right.

Like most of the time. Right. It would seem like the key to this series is going to be getting an early lead before that Cleveland Bullpen takes over because they've been really good. And then holding Jose Ramirez from having a huge series, that's going to be another big thing. Gabby, we need him to keep swinging the bat the way he's been,

and we could definitely use Corbyn Carroll to get out there on the base path. If he is going to be hitting lead-off, you know, it would be much more about him getting walks, increasing that on-base percentage, and using his speed to just, once again, cause chaos. That's one thing that Corbin can do very well early on in the game is torment a starting pitcher. and give this team a chance to score, you know, an early run or two,

thanks to him getting out there and getting on the base path somehow, some way. But let's take a look here at the Cleveland Guardians at a glance. Their season has been weird. I mean, I almost say like a little bit like the Diamondbacks. They don't have a great run differential. Their records 56 and 54. They are second in that division that they were kind of expected to win this year. Once again, and the White Sox have been a huge surprise.

They have a minus 14 run differential. They are four and six in their last 10 games, so that's not a terrible time to be catching them right now. And this shocked me. Their team OPS is dead last in baseball at 679. Wow. I was floored by that. I was floored by that.

And again, it's because they have not been getting, they have not been hitting home runs. They've not been getting a lot of slug from this team. So when you look at the teams at the bottom of baseball, it's actually surprising the teams you see. see that are at the bottom end of the offense this year. Toronto Blue Jays, another one of the worst teams in baseball offensively. You know, like there's just teams that you would not expect to see down there.

They have a, like I said, 679 team OPS. Starting ERA this year, 3.75, which is sixth best in MLB, relief pitching ERA, 3.71, 7th best. Wow. So, again, very enviable about their pitching staff there to have that one of the best, you know, one of the better starting pitchings and pitching ERAs and relief pitching ERAs. 13 run outs above average, which is tied for six in baseball. So defensively, they've been solid. But again, this is another team that is kind of just there in the middle.

They're fighting for a wildcard spot. Their offense, much like the Diamondbacks, has been very disappointing this season. And again, their pitching staff has been incredible. Jose Ramirez does not have an extra base hit since coming back from the injured list. in seven games. Wow. Holy cow. That would explain why their OPS is so bad.

He's hitting 226 this month. He's slugging 226. Hey. Hey, let's keep that going. Let's keep that going. All right. Well, of course. Pitching.

Pitching is going to be very important in this series. I want to do the whole show like that, Shane. I already sound like that. It's called comedic. You know what I was going to do? You spoke too fast, Alex. I was going to, when he introduced you,

I was going to turn this on. And then he would sound like that. But yeah, didn't happen. Yeah, well, we'll get them next time. Let's take a look at the probable pitchers here for this series. The Diamondbacks, once again, have the Merrill Kelly battery going in this particular series. Mitch Bratt, Cole Drake, and Merrill Kelly to finish things off. You feel very good about Merrill Kelly being in there.

I mean, he was very close to having a complete or quality start his last outing. He came one out short of it. In fact, he was outstanding. That's probably his best start of the year, just in terms of how he looked. And it felt like. he was dominant and it felt once again like he has adapted well to this particular pitching philosophy that this team has adapted to this year, right? But Mitch Bratt and Cole Drake, it's, again, not so much. It's frustrating too because Mitch Bratt's numbers in Reno were incredible.

Yeah. They really were. You have a really hard time finding in the Diamondbacks organization pitchers with good numbers. Yeah. Especially with Reno being what. Reno and Amarillo being what they are, both of those. It's just hard. I mean, you almost have to consider a four ERA to be pretty good by by any, by those standards in either of those leagues. And his expected metrics were good too. It wasn't like it was this fake ERA. He wasn't walking a ton of guys. He was, in fact, he was really good. And so far he hasn't been in the majors. He starts off against Cleveland Ace, I guess you could say theoretically in Tanner Beebe. Four and ten, three eight nine ERA 97 strikeouts this year. Col Drake, five ERA, six strikeouts, goes up against Parker Messick, who has been having

himself a tremendous season. He is 8 and 6, 2.59 ERA, 122nd 22 strikeouts this year. And then last but not least, in the final game, we have Merrill Kelly going up against Gavin Williams. He is 10 and 6 with a 3.71 ERA. I just, I couldn't imagine having three pitchers with a sub four ERA going in a series for our baseball team. I couldn't imagine it. That have pitched more than, you know, two outings. the year. Right. It's incredible, right? So again, Diamondbacks, they have a big test ahead of them. And I don't know how many more starts. We will see Cole Drake and, you know, obviously Mitch Brack get. I don't know when Michael Soroka is actually going to come back. It felt like at one point, Tori said he was hopeful he was going to be back before the All-Star break. It is July 30th. And we still don't even have him like pitching in rehab games.

Yeah, I don't remember the exact timeline. I think they were talking about him coming back around the turn of the calendar month. That's like the exact phrase to we use, which is weird. Just say the first week of August story. Come on. But yeah, there was something he was supposed to pitch in a sim game. I don't actually know if that happened already or if that is happening or what. And also, like at this point, he's kind of been down a little bit longer than expected.

So I'm a little concerned about the ramp up period. I am too. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. So I don't know. It felt like he had a little bit of a setback there with the glute injury. So I think that he was feeling good and then might have had.

Well, he like wasn't recovering as well as he could have, I think. I don't know if it was like the glute itself or if it was just like, I don't know. It's an interesting situation. The injuries that have happened to this team this year have been weird because they're not the same as kind of what they went through last year with all the devastating injuries. But there's just a lot of uncertainty. And they're not re-agravating stuff. It's like, oh, hey, I have this injury. And now I have this injury while I was ramping up.

What? Hold on. Sorry. What else you got? Well, actually, you can't technically re-agravate something. You just aggravate it. All right. I'm done with him.

I am done. Remember earlier when I said I block and unfollow him? Now you know why. Now you know why. He already deserves it for being a Seahawks fan. Hey, he's right about that too. I'm not a Seahawks fan. A closet Seahawks fan.

All right. I'm just a boy. Yeah, well, we'll see about that. We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side of this break, we are going to talk about some trades that have happened for this team in franchise history. It's throwback Thursday, and even though we're here at Heel of River, we're still doing it. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA Next Diamondback Show. Well, speaking of Heel of River Resorts and Casinos, you should be here.

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All right. Well, it is throwback Thursday. And even though we don't have any trades to discuss yet, I thought it would be fun for us to discuss some of the best trades in Diamondbacks history. And of course, we know this team hasn't been around very long. So it wasn't hard to kind of find those best trades. There wasn't a million in this team's history going back to like 1899. But I will say it was funny because everybody universally agreed that one trade was the best trade.

And I don't think there's any refuting it. It was the trade they made in 2000 on July 26, 2000 with the Philadelphia Phillies to acquire Kurt Schilling. And of course, that trade involved them giving up Travis Lee, Omar Dahl, Nelson Figueroa, and Vincente Padilla, Vicente Padilla, and apparently worked out for the Diamondbacks because that man helped them win a World Series the next year. I'm not sure if you knew that or not. One of the greatest trade deadline acquisitions

in MLB history, in fact, like shilling wasn't that kind of guy that should be moved, right? I still remember to this day, I interviewed Travis Lee for an article I was writing for Phoenix Magazine, and I was expecting this to be just kind of a fluff piece where Travis Lee discussed his time with the Diamondbacks and being a big part of this team's early inception.

Instead, what I got was an earful about how upset he was to this day, that he was essentially sold that these players that were traded to Philadelphia were going to be a huge part of this team's future and that the organization was going to be patient with winning and they were going to take some years to build this team. They were going to go out there and try to do any flashy moves

or big signings. And that quickly changed. after the very first season because of season ticket holder attrition. They lost so many season ticket holders that they were like, screw that, we need to win now. Get me Randy Johnson. Kurt Schilling, a big part of that. That's why I think Twitter wants them to do with this deadline. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. That's exactly what they want them to do. But yeah, no, I mean, again, it's kind of wild to think about giving up those pieces and getting back Kurt Schilling, right? Like, not only did they win that trade based on the production that both teams got out of those two different, what the ninebacks got out of shilling and they got out of those guys. But you also have the fact that, like, man, just what a, what an incredible move to make to essentially already have it one of, if not the best starting pitcher in baseball. And then going out and grabbing the other one.

Yeah. At least as far as the National League was concerned. Very Dodgers move. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was foot on the throat is what it was. I missed those days. I wish we were still in those days. Obviously, this team doesn't win the 2001 World Series without them. Yeah. They don't even get there. And that's a team that still won 100 games in 1999, which is nuts. But speaking of 1999, they also added Matt Mantai on July 8, 1999, the Iceman, Matt Mantai. This might be a little bit before your time. Yeah, definitely. I loved Matt Mantai. It wasn't exactly the closer that we were hoping. hoping to. He was elite for a little while. Sounds about right. But we did give up Brad Penny for him. And that ended up not being such a

great move overall. The grade on that one was a C plus. A plus plus plus plus for the shilling one. A few other ones here. Dan Heron being traded to the Angels got the Diamondbacks quite a haul. Patrick Corbyn's, Tyler Skaggs, Joe Saunders, and Raphael Rodriguez in return.

We all know what Patrick Corbin went on to do for this. team. Very unfortunate. It's always hard to think about Tyler Skaggs and what happened to him, not only in his life and his career, everything, right? But I remember a time I was telling you, where Tyler Skaggs, Trevor Bauer, and Patrick Corbyn were the three young stud pitchers that were vying for the final rotation spot on this team. And everybody had put Skaggs as essentially the guy that was going to win it before spring training and even started. Bauer apparently was weird, according to people.

That ended up being very true. But they thought that he might end up being better than Skaggs. And lo and behold, of those guys, Patrick Corbyn, came up out of nowhere, had an excellent spring, joined the roster, joined the starting rotation, I should say, and kind of had himself an amazing career there, winning a World Series with the Nationals. He's a left-handed reliever option now, isn't he?

Hey, put him on the list. The Blue Jays? Write him on the list. Put him down on the list. Another dumping of salaries that was said to be a good one here for the Diamondbacks was when they got rid of Edwin Jackson of the White Sox on July 30th, 2010, bringing back Daniel Hudson, who, Huddy was kind of a Diamondbacks legend, right? Like, I would say Daniel Hudson.

He eventually became Arizona's game one starter during the next year's postseason, so I think that move worked out for them pretty well. Yeah. And then, of course, the move of all moves, in my opinion, and the JD Martinez being added. Oh, yeah. J.D. Martinez was just something else. That's the kind of thing you chase forever

because you just, you want another taste of that type of deal. I don't think anything like that happens. You and I were talking about it before the show. Like most of the time, the biggest problem with trying to go out there during the trade deadline and make a big splash is the disappointment of how those guys perform when they come over and change organizations. Right.

And there's, and that's part of, you know, I think what Gambo was even talking about too, is that it's like there is no like J.D. Martinez available at this deadline. There is no guy that you can just go out and take a big swing and you know you're going to get something good. And then he overperforms even expectations. That's what I was going to say.

J.D. Martinez wasn't even J.D. Martinez before he came to the diamondbacks. Exactly. Like it was, you know, it was a recognizable name, but it was a, you know, it was really what he did with the diamondbacks. So, yeah. They gave up next to nothing for him. They gave up Sergio encontra.

They gave up Dowel Lugo. And we got him back. He's going to always be a diamond back. Dalugo and Jose King in 62 games. J.D. Martinez hit 29 home runs. Oh, my gosh. Had a 1.107 OPS and a 302 batting average and literally pick the diamond backs up, put them on his back, and carry them into the postseason.

It's like trading for the first half, for 2025 first half, Gino Suarez. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, and it's crazy because then we don't get the Archie Bradley triple without him getting us to the postseason, right? Meanwhile, a couple of the guys that are here still that we got at the trade deadline, Zach Gallen acquired from the Marlins on July 31st, 2019 for Jazz Chisholm. A move to this day that could still, I guess, be debated. I felt like we won that one hands down early, but things kind of, it's like Jazz eventually caught up with Zach a little bit. I'm not sure the Marlins benefited as much as like, you know, the Yankees are benefiting from Jazz Chisholm.

Very true, yeah. Overall, overall, we won against the Marlins, that's for sure. Last but not least, the Paul Seawall trade happened during the trade deadline, July 31st back in 2002. We sent Josh Rojas, Dominic Canzon, and Ryan Bliss to Shane's Mariners in exchange for one Paul Seawald. And yeah, it's hard not to say that's one of the most important trades in franchise history. As much as we want to be mad at Paul Seawall right now, and as much as we want to be mad at Paul Seawald, even for how that World Series went, we don't get there. They don't get there without him. No. Just don't look.

at Dom Canzon's baseball spot. He's beaten up on the Dodgers. I'm cool with it. I don't want to look. I really don't want to look. I'll stand by that being a win-win no matter what. I mean, they don't get to the World Series without Paul Seawald. The Mariners, I mean, Josh Rojas and Ryan Bliss were not doing anything for them, right?

So they got one good player out of three. There wasn't room for Dom Kanzone in that outfield. Would you take him now? Sure, but you wouldn't have taken him in 2024 and 2025. Yeah. And to be fair, I mean, the Diamondbacks still have Paul Seawalk closing games for them. Well, not anymore. Well, not anymore technically.

But I'm just saying the man does have a lot of saves this particular season. So even if he's not in that role any longer, even if the Diamondbacks don't want to give him more of a leash because they just can't simply afford to have him out there losing games and the bottom of the ninth for them, they still got what they got this season out of them. I've said this, but I'm sure the plan was to get these other arms back and find another option at closer. I'm sure the team wasn't even expecting for Paul Seawald to be as good this year as he has been in that role, but he has been that good, especially according with one-run lead. He doesn't give up any runs.

But still, you can't help but feel like this was the way that Tori changed his, like managing a Paul Seawald in a game from just kind of letting him go out there and blow it. to quickly getting another arm up when he sees that type of outing starting to happen and having someone come in like Brandon Garcia has twice for Paul Seawald and kind of save the day when Seawald was letting it slip away. I think they've learned and that's I like the way that it's being handled now. And honestly, like I tweeted after that blown save against the pirates, I was like I would expect Paul Seawald to get the ball in the next safe situation

if he's not, you know, down and then he didn't the very next day. I was expecting that too, honestly. And, you know, I was expecting a change at some point, but not the very next day. And I think that shows that they've learned because that's what happened last time. It started to spiral. And it started to spiral to the point where they were losing games that they really couldn't afford to lose. And then his confidence was shot and he wasn't even productive in low leverage. And then they had no idea what they were doing in the ninth inning.

And it was just like, cut this off now. You have a deeper bullpen than you've had in a long time. Figure it out now. He didn't even blow that many saves when, but he blew enough that when that season. Yeah. Right, and again, he also blew them during a season where they missed playoffs by one game. One win, one loss. You know what I mean?

Like, that's the difference sometimes is that when you've been there, when you've seen it, when you've seen how important each win is, you can't sit there and let Paul Seawald keep going out there and costing you games, right? So once again, it'll be interesting to see what his role is going forward. But again, I still think that it's weird for him to not be. be a closer and I just don't know how effective he's going to be in any role other than that. Yeah. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to take a look at a few prospects that might

get a chance to return to the Major League roster this year and see if they might be able to help this team fill some of these gaps that they can't fill with traits. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PH&X Diamondback Show. Well, you know that moment, the one where you left your sunglasses sitting at the, you know, roulette table downstairs and then you come back and then they're not there anymore and you never see your sunglasses again. This is a story I've told entirely too many times and is entirely too close to my heart and reality. I do lose my sunglasses everywhere. In fact, it's probably the one thing that I consistently do that upsets me as an adult. And of course, it's weird because now that

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they have discounts on rates on travel and events and so much more. And they also have free financial guidance as well. With so many possibilities, how will you use My Style? Apply for your MyStyle checking account at any Mountain America branch or at MACU.com slash my style. Insured by NCUA, membership is required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost, registration activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions to apply. Well, it is time. Shane, I need a funny voice because we got to go down a stink farm.

Perfect. it is time once again Oh wait what else you got Oh robot Yeah robots good It is time once again Humans to go down and check out The Snake Farm

Let's see three prospects No I don't like that one I'll tell you what Come down to the baseball game We got a salt water tapy We got Jose Fernandez Once again Jose the Jet Fernandez Possibly could be coming back up

Now let's take a look here at Snake Farm And three prospects that the Diamondbacks absolutely could see before the season is up. Jose Fernandez has been putting some things together. Batting average has increased. His OPS has gone up. Still not showing a lot of power there in Reno this year. Only five home runs and 33 RBI and 157 at bats.

But the good news is, is lately he has been really contributing to the aces, and it feels like he's getting himself back into a good offensive groove. Just still, once again, not really showing that power. I have a comp for Jose Fernandez. Jeremy Lynn. Linsanity run? Are you saying that Jose Fernandez had his Linsanity run?

No, no. He's 23 years old. Come on. He was here early. He's here early. How old was Jeremy Lynn when he did? I don't know, but definitely not the same thing. The NBA is a different story.

Yeah, shut up, Shane. Stupid idiot. He just wants the lower Jose Fernandez's value, so we trade him to the Mariners. That's true. With Ryan Walshman. He is a utility player. That's what he wants. Yeah.

what he wants. Jerry Depoto would love that. Oh yeah. Thoughts on Fernandez, though, like the season he's had and just what he's been doing lately. Yeah, I mean, he's got a lot of raw talent, and it's very evident. He has an OPS over 1100 in Reno this month, which is pretty good. He has four home runs. He has nine doubles at triple. Yeah. 25 RBI. Nine walks to 25 strikeouts in the month of July. So pretty good. Turning things around. And again, it's just about time, right? Like, Fernandez. Hernandez, Walschmidt. I mean, Walshmet was kind of expected to be up this year.

But Tommy Troy probably wasn't. Fernandez probably wasn't. I had Tommy Troy up before Waldy. Oh, yeah. No, I know. I was wrong. But it's close. But it's funny because you're not the only person that said that.

I'm escaping me right now. But yeah, we have multiple people that have said that they expected Tommy Troy to be up before Walshment. It's just like Mitch Bratt and Coldrate. This is due to necessity. This isn't due to guys being ready. And as great as it was that Jose Fernandez came up and we wanted to build the statue of him in the first two weeks, it's also understandable that he came back down to earth.

Once information started getting out there on him, once they had some major league film on him, they could figure him out and figure out what his weaknesses were pretty quickly. Those are the things that you develop and adapt to as a minor leaguer. It's just hard in Reno and it's hard in Amarillo. and it feels like this organization is kind of okay with speeding offensive players through, especially Amarillo, to get them up to Reno

and get them just going on, you know, that final leg of their minor league journey, you know, and you have a few guys, Dimitrio Cresontes, you had Pena. I mean, Jose Cabrera was pitching in, in what, AA, maybe even single A to start this year, I forget. No, AA Amarillo. And he played in a, you know,

major league baseball game this year, or pitched a few. games, right? Yeah. The Diamondbacks have not been bringing these guys up because they're ready necessarily. They've been bringing up because they've been having a decent season in the minors and they needed this guy,

they needed an outfielder, they needed a first baseman, they needed a pitcher, so they've called on these guys. I don't fault them for all not being able to adapt right now at a major league level and I don't think that means that Jose Fernandez is a bust by any stretch of the imagination. No. He's definitely a guy we didn't

expect to see this year. Not Not at all. He came on during spring training, and that's why he really impressed everything. Right, and I talked to him at spring training, and we were like, we were impressed with him, you know, as a person and as what he was doing on the field. And it was really, really impressive. And it was like, okay, keep an eye on this guy. And then he plays one game in AAA and he gets called up. And, like, that's pretty extreme.

But, I mean, you see that a lot with guys where, you know, they come up, they're hot right away. And if they're hot right away, that means that other pitchers haven't figured them out yet. And then once they get more data, once they start to figure out, you know, what areas of the zone or his weakness and all that, and then they attack that zone. And it takes a lot to overcome those, I guess, to make those adjustments, you almost have to go down to make those adjustments

because you need to be in a lower pressure situation sometimes. But that just isn't really an option with guys like Walt Schmidt who are, you know, this is your team now, like you're here. This is the future is now. So, you know, I think a guy like Fernandez, I think definitely I would not count him out for, I would say next year he could be an impact player. I don't know if he's going to come up and be an impact player this year,

but you never know. Maybe they put him on the playoff roster if they make it. I think the one thing about these three guys that we're looking at here with the snake farm segment is that these three guys do have the major league experience already that it wouldn't be a surprise for the Diamondbacks to possibly turn to them and call them back up. Should they find the need or should they catch fire? Like Lou James Grover continues to have an incredible season here for the AAA, or for AAA Reno.

His batting average is 322, his OPS is 893. He just wasn't doing anything close to that at a major league level right now. So, again, sending him back down, having him continue to develop, having him continue to put up these incredible numbers is good for him, and it's good that he can, you know, figure out a way to get, get, excuse me, get, sorry, get it bat to you. Yeah, and then we had Taylor Rashi on there, but Taylor Rashi is now with the twins? Yes, they traded him to the twins for cash last I checked.

Yeah, that's very true. And that was something. Taylor Rashi, again, just to show you guys, is the only system player in the Diamondback system that was having a good season. 1.03, 26 in the third inning pitched, 0.987 whip. Incredible numbers. Goes off to St. Paul. and now not so great. But literally not another

diamond back pitcher at any level besides AA or AAA that would have anywhere close to these kind of numbers. No, and part of that's the environment, but that was the thing with Rashi when he was in this organization was he was very impressive in in that situation.

I would say, you know, if you're looking at guys like Deptharms, Philip Abner has a 426 CRA in Reno. He's a left-hander. but I mean we've seen him pitch in the major leagues and there's not a whole lot there other than eating some innings. I don't know if that's ever going to be a guy that you turn to for leverage, but you know, you never know. You don't have Andrew Saul Frank. He's, you know, out for the season. He'll be back next year. Maybe a Spencer Geisting, but his numbers are not that fantastic either.

No. I don't know. Yeah, there's just not much in this system. And so again, this goes to show how bad pitching is a necessity, right? When you're talking about guys that you believe might be able to come up and give you something offensively, there's an abundance of those guys. Whether that happens when they get called up to a major league level is a completely different story. But when they do, you know, when you do look at their sluggers down there, they have that. Pitching is something that they don't have. It's also impacted by these park factors and league factors.

It's hard to really look. at some of these guys and judge them fairly based on what they're doing, it's just also part of the problem for the Diamondbacks because then they come up and you have Mitch Bratt putting up a 6 plus ERA. You have Cole Drake putting up a 5 plus ERA. What do you keep Brett beeping me on? I'm just fake censoring you. Yeah, no, I was like, what did I work?

That was a good one. What did I say? I don't know how you timed that right. You want to know what the average ERA of the Pacific Coast League is? Please don't get me without the M in Mitch Brad, please, because then it really feels like I'm just saying something derogatory towards the man. For some context, the league average ERA in the Pacific Coast League this year is a f***. All right, all right. It is 549.

That was fairly accurate. That was a good one. He's very proud of himself with that one. He's very proud. Got him. Got him. He got him. Someone was asking in the chat about Christiana Manna.

I think Christiana Manna is still done for the season too, right? I don't think he's coming back. Yeah, he had shoulder surgery. And, you know, I don't think they said specifically it was season ending, but it was basically season ending from what I understand. Yeah. It's, it's, that seems to be the case with entirely too many guys. I feel like they don't want to obviously make that call.

You know, you hear of that that's the same thing with AJ Puck. You hear second opinions. You hear all this stuff. And of course you expect the worst. It's honestly why I'm shocked that both Ryan Nelson and Zach Gallen are expected to be back this year. Because that's the same thing we heard for those guys. And I figured it has to be a rap. Yeah.

It has to be a rap for Zach Gallen. It has to be a rap for Ryan Nelson. But Nelson, he's throwing already. And so is Zach. So it feels like one of those guys is going to be back in the starting rotation and probably not the one we want to be back in the story of rotation. Yeah, I'm also a little bit more concerned about Nelson's injury just in general than Zach's. Just because inflammation is a different thing than actually having a sprain in there. Right.

So it's like, you know, you don't, I don't really even know what's going on with Zach Gallen. Like they just kind of keep saying, well, it's rehab, it's this and that. The vagueness of it definitely. It's really vague. The vagueness of it definitely feels like it justifies the conspiracy theories that Zach really didn't have an injury and that he really wasn't, you know, just they just took him out because of how bad he was performing. You don't go get a second opinion from accredited doctor because of that. But I did laugh at the idea of thinking of him going to get the second opinion and having

that second opinion be like, you're fine. The second opinion is, do you suck? We did three MRIs. It's fine. I promise you. You're good to pitch. Go wreck out there. But again, I don't know.

I've said this on the show. People have disagreed with me before we wrap up. I wanted to get your thoughts on Gallin. do you think that he still gives them a better chance, a better opportunity to win baseball games, at least here during the regular season down the stretch, than Mitch Bratt or Cole Drake? Or would you rather continue to see at least one of those guys in there,

whoever performs better, once Michael Soroka returns? I am more impressed with what I'm seeing at a Cold Drake than Mitch Bratt so far. I agree. Because Mitch Bratt's entire thing is, you know, pinpoint command and command control guy throws 90 miles and half. hour and I just don't think we've seen anything close to that and I think his misses are so wide that it's actually a little concerning like how is he doing that how is he going to succeed if he's you know and his

delivery is so I guess loud it's so busy yeah that I feel like it's hard to have consistent command with that kind of a delivery I don't know that's a great that's a great I like cold Drake a little bit more right now I think his command has looked better his sort of getting out of bad situations has been a little bit a little bit better. So I would say I wouldn't necessarily take Zach over Cole Drake, but I might take him over Mitch Brad at this point. And Brad is younger. He's either 22 or 23 still.

So he still has probably a couple, you know, a little bit of time left before he's a finished product. That's well said, well said. And I think both of those guys do. And I think that, again, they were supposed to have the time to do that. Right. And unfortunately, this starting rotation, once again that had so many pictures at it in the beginning of the year that we were like,

oh, who's going to be the odd man out? Who's going to be the odd man out? It's like every time you have that conversation, something's going to happen. It's just the worst. But you guys are not the worst. You're the best. We thank you guys so much for being here. We appreciate your time.

If you are here in person, I think our guy, AZ Katz G, might have won some money down on the floor. He gave us some money. Did he? Yeah, he gave us the Super Chat. So shout out to AZ Katz G for the Super Chat. We love you. appreciate you. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, PhNX, Debex, for giving us a little bit of luck here at Heelah River. Let's go. Good stuff. Let's go. Love to see it. Love to see it. Love to see you guys here in the live chat.

Appreciate you all. You can follow me on social media. I am at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. This man is at Alex Dag. Just Dag. Alex Dagg. AZ. That's right.

I knew there was something else there. Our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, the Shane gang, Shane Deef and Bach, you can follow him at Shane Deef, or you can block him or unfollow whatever you, whatever you want to do. Of course, we thank you guys again for your time. We appreciate you. We'll be back here tomorrow with another postgame show, so make sure to join us for that. Not here, though. Not here. Well, I might still be here.

I don't know. It depends on how much money I went downstairs. So that's going to be a whole other topic for tomorrow's show. Make sure to join us for that. Of course, until then, I hope you guys all have yourselves a wonderful evening. Damon is still in Alaska somewhere, staying very far away from, he's supposed to be staying away from sports, but he's online fighting with people about stuff, including me. Checks out.

So, of course, make sure to follow him as well. But, of course, we thank you guys again. Love you guys. Thank you for your time. We'll see you back here for a postgame show tomorrow. Until then, have yourselves a wonderful evening and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when you get starting pitching.