PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Can the Diamondbacks Starting Rotation Take Advantage of the ONE-WIN Nationals?

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

The Diamondbacks kicked off their road trip with a huge series win over the New York Yankees. We recap the performance in the Bronx and take a look ahead at the upcoming series with the Washington Nationals. Can Brand Pfaadt, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Corbin Burnes all have a strong showing in DC for the starting rotation? Also we discuss updates on the house bill to improve Chase Field and reports that the D-backs will play a regular season game in Mexico City next season. Join Derek and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/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/ Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnx Waymo: Download the Waymo One App and Ride Today! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waymo-one/id1343524838; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waymo.carapp Carol Royse Team: To buy/sell your home, call Carol Royse at 480-776-5231 or visit carolroyseteam.com All Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate! 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 https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can the Arizona Diamondback starting pitching get right against the Washington Nationals? We have more on the series win over the Yankees, the upcoming series against the Nats, and also an update on the House Bill to improve Chase Field. All that in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Dback show. It's Friday. In addition to the PHMX Dback show, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX,

and thrilled to have you guys here. I hope you guys are all having a wonderful Friday. We have a preview of the upcoming series taking place this weekend in Washington, D.C., between the Diamondbacks and the Nationals. And we also can talk a little bit about that House Bill to improve Chase Field and why there might be a new wrinkle to it that's going to cause some problems. Kev, happy Friday to you. We got large intimate Kevin Thomas on the ones and twos. How is your Friday going, sir? It was good.

And chat, I just want to say, sorry for the music. I forgot that when, you know, Shane Diffinbach produces, the D-backs lose. because when I produce the D-BACs win, so I'm used to the wind music already being there. I know. It's sickening. And so that's why that music was that way, chat. That music situation is absolutely sickening to me,

and I don't know if there really is an apology that's big enough to make up for it. But I'll forgive you, I suppose. I'm planning on having a weekend of enjoying some fine music and this wonderful outdoor weather. Look, if you're not going to a reggae rise-up like I am or going to some sort of outdoor event, Just go spend some time outside this weekend. I'm not going to tell you to touch grass. Maybe some of you should. But I will say, go outside and enjoy this wonderful weather because it's going to be gone very fast.

We're going to be right back up in the high 90s and 100s next week. Gross. It's true. It's true. It's the reality of the situation. We live here in Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, we should be thankful. It's actually been this cool out in April so far.

I mean, I used to have pool parties for my birthday, Kev, when when I was a kid. And my birthday is on March 24th. that's usually already hot enough to be pool weather. But the diamondbacks still fairly hot. They take two out of three against the New York Yankees. And despite losing that last game in kind of colossal fashion at first and then coming up short on the comeback, you got to really tip your cap to the diamond backs on what they were able to do.

This Yankees team is very impressive offensively. And the diamond backs were able to hold them to a relatively decent amount of runs. I know things kind of got out of control there in the finale, but Zach Gallen, so good in his start against the Yankees once again. Career high or ties a career high at 13 strikeouts should have had a career high at 14 strikeouts. But there he is. Zach Gallen, our king snake from that day, six and two thirds innings pitch, 13Ks, three hits allowed, no runs. Still our king snake probably for this whole series, in fact, because he deserved.

it for what he did against the Yankees. Corbyn Burns made his debut. He struck out eight, but it was only able to go four in a third innings pitch, mostly because of some defensive mistakes behind him, just some poorly played balls also. You know, a good amount of lengthy at bats by the Yankees. You got to tip your hat to one Austin Wells, former Arizona Wildcat,

who seemed to be up to bat every time Kevin was paying attention to this series at all. Damn right. Bear down. Austin Wells, great mustache, had to lose the series, you know, but I'm glad that he got his. You know what I mean? That at bat was still very impressive. I thought it was never going to end that at bat against Corbyn Burns. It ended up being 13 pitches.

He ends up walking at the end of it. And unfortunately, there was some debate. Of course, there was a lot of people that had to come in. And rightfully so, maybe it's my fault for putting that Corbyn Burns's debut was disappointing. I'm curious as to how you guys would categorize it. I know that eight strikeouts is not disappointing. And the way he looked in the first two innings, once again, not disappointing. It was against a good Yankees offense.

And again, a lot of it was due to a big defensive error. They're allowed two runs to score that were unearned against Corbyn Burns. So I don't know. I'm just curious because, again, there was some feedback that you can't classify that as disappointing. I think as far as Corbin Burns is concerned, he would probably call it a bit disappointing. I'm sure that they wanted some more length out of him. And yeah, again, his pitch count was up there where he really couldn't stay in that game much longer than that. But the Diamondbacks still managed to find a way to win that game and the series against the Yankees.

And they've did it. They've done it with their offense. Their offense has been pretty good. The Diamondbacks have homered in each of their first seven games for just the fourth time in franchise history. so that's pretty impressive. And among teams with seven games played or fewer, the Diamondbacks are ranked third offensively, and the Yankees that they just beat are ranked first.

So again, an impressive showing in New York. It's, you know, the lights are pretty bright in that situation. And for all intents and purposes, you have to be pretty satisfied with the way that Zach Gallin showed up. Like I said, maybe Gallen was so good that he drained some of Merrill Kelly's life force, because Merrill Kelly, again, uncharacteristically bad, never have we seen him give up nine earned runs in a game like this. And it was coming off of Merrill Kelly being the strongest starter, quite frankly, the first time through the rotation. It's not to say anybody had terrible starts.

I mean, Zach Gallens was a bit disappointing on opening day. But Merrill Kelly only gave up one earned run in his first outing. So I do know that there's some cause for concern. some people were already talking about replacing Merrill Kelly with Ryan Nelson in the lineup. And again, I will just implore you as a baseball fan to at least wait until the sample size is big enough to be concerning, right? You can't really get too high on the winds, especially when guys get hot and go on a stretch and you can't expect them. Also, when they're in the slump to be bad forever. But one bad start by a starting pitcher against, quite frankly, an offense that was probably,

feeling a bit embarrassed after losing the two games to the Diamondbacks in the fashion that they did, then they were going to do everything they could to come out, have some patient at bats. Merrill just really wasn't landing his change up and it leads to, you know, again, that really bad outing. I will say that guys respond to those situations in different ways. Zach Gallen, obviously, he came out ready to play against the Yankees. We know in the past that Gallen tends to pitch better in cold weather, so I'm sure that played a factor. But overall, a great series for the Diamondbacks. And let's be honest, they came pretty close there to a sweep of the New York Yankees.

Impressive after the history that the Yankees had already set so far in their first three games of the season. Let's take a look at the numbers for the entire series here presented once again by our friends at Desert Financial. Thank you to them for getting me in my home and getting me started on my home ownership journey. Diamondbacks brought some runs home here. Outscoring the Yankees 18 to 17 in the series. The Yankees out homered the Diamondbacks 7 to 4. Runners in scoring position in the series, Diamondbacks were 7 for 26 to the Yankees 4 for 21.

The Yankees were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position in the first game. Starting ERA, 6.75 there for the Diamondbacks. Not great. Inflated quite a bit thereby Merrill Kelly's outing of just three and two-thirds innings and nine earn runs allowed. Yankees ERA 4.96. Not bad considering the guys that they had start for them, especially Carlos Carrasco.

But yeah, going back to that relief ERA also, the relief ERA for the Diamondbacks, pretty good. 3.18, the Yankees 7.60. Relief pitching has been really good in this series, but, you know, AJ Puck, the guy that we all were excited to see, get those high leverage opportunities, possibly be named the closer of this.

team. He didn't really, he hasn't really had a strong start to his season, allowing a couple of home runs so far already. Got to tip your cap, though, again, the Jalen Beaks and Shelby Miller, what they've done. Shelby Miller still not, has not allowed an earned run and has just looked absolutely outstanding. They put him in the game in, in late inning, I believe he came in the eighth inning yesterday, and just, you can't not be excited about Shelby Miller. I mean, Not only is it a great pickup, but it was an opportunity that had injuries to Kevin Yinkle and Jordan Montgomery not occurred. Who knows if Shelby Miller would have been given this opportunity, right? And Jalen Beeks, again, same situation, a guy that they added simply as Mike Hazen said,

because they felt like they should add a guy when they had an opportunity to. It was a few days before regular season starts, and they knew that once the regular season started, it would be much more difficult to get a guy like that due to commitments to teams. and minor league deals that might happen and things like that. And both of those guys have been outstanding additions to this bullpen. Diamondbacks needed that. They needed some guys that they could rely on, especially when guys, when their starters don't have a strong outing.

But the Diamondbacks very much need their starters to bounce back. Like they can't keep applying this pressure to the bullpen. They can't have Jalen Beaks and Shelby Miller pitching this often and expect those guys to be able to hold up. And you also have the fact that Tori Laval, deserves some criticism about his roster construction, especially considering that it didn't really feel like he was going for the jugular there in the finale against the Yankees

when he had them in a position to complete the suite. But once again, overall, Zach Gallen, it's hard not to give that king snake of the series there to Zach Gallen for his performance, 13Ks, and it's what I said there about Merrill Kelly. One bad outing does not necessarily mean that a starter is flaming out, is at the end of his, at the end of his career, washed up, done, you know, bored him up and put him away, right? Like, no, a bad outing sometimes, especially against a really good team, can just be a one-off.

It's definitely worth concern, and it's definitely something to monitor when it comes to Merrill Kelly, but it's the same when Zach. Zach, one great outing doesn't necessarily mean Zach is back, but it does mean that this looks much more like the Zach Gallen we come to know and love and put at the top of our starting rotation as our ace. So it's incredible. Great to see the journey here. My man made another live show.

Let's go. Journey says, absolutely love this podcast. Love it even more when the D-Back score more runs than the Yankees of the series. That always makes things better, doesn't it? The journey. He says, Shelby Miller for Closer 2025. Can't believe I'm saying that.

This is the Twilight Zone. Yeah, I don't know how to frame it other than that. It did very much feel like, like, like that when I was fist pumping and getting excited about the bullpen. Alex Schmidt says Zach is back though. I hope so. I want Zach to be back.

Again, though, like, we're just, we're just two starts into the season for both of these guys. Like, we can start getting, we can start panicking, you know, in May. Again, I feel that same way that we can really start criticizing Tori if he continues to put out a lineup that's missing two of his best players and an opportunity to take a game against, you know, the Yankees.

I don't really feel like Marta and Moreno's absence in the finale made that big of an impact. The Diamondbacks were still able to score seven runs. You got Jerry P. getting the grand slam. A lot of good things happened. And the offense, again, continues to be able to keep up and generate runs. It's just, it's really been the starting pitching up to this point. And that's been a detriment.

I mean, honestly, nobody's had a fantastic start outside of that Zach Allen's. performance and rightfully so maybe maril kelly deserves some credit for his first start of the year but they have to do everything they can at this point to win every game and i understand the panic of people when the diamondbacks lose a game that they came very close to coming back and winning the entire n l west won't stop losing games i don't understand it i don't understand how we're in this point someone blamed me the other night because of the fact that we had uh the the Dodgers game was on. Dodgers were down,

looking very much, looking forward very much to their first loss. And maybe I was looking too much forward to their first loss because it didn't happen. Who was it? Shohei Otani hit a walk off in that game. It's gross, Kevin. I'm sick of this team. I'm sick of this team so much.

I'm sick of this entire division, to be honest. It's nasty. Shohei for prison. I also wanted to talk about, I wanted to ask you one question about Shelby Miller really fast. Oh, let's do that. What do you think has been the most discernible change from his first run to this run as to why fans feel so differently about Shelby Miller.

Well, success, frankly, right? Like, people will rally around you if you're successful. It's really, it comes down to the Diamondbacks gave up a tremendous amount to acquire. Shelby Miller fans were not happy with the Diamondbacks doing that for a guy that came over and didn't perform. This franchise just seems to have this history of bringing. in starting pitchers that we see on another team that are just, you know, shoving and we somehow acquire them and then they don't end up being that.

They don't end up being as advertised. They are not the player that we went out and got. Shelby Miller reinvented himself. I believe he said a change up was a big reason for his change, you know, and, you know, the success he's had. I also think maybe accepting the bullpen role and just trying to be the best relief pitcher that he could be is a big reason why he's been able to find this success. It's just a great story because of the, I guess the fan, the way the fans feel about Shelby Miller, the way the fans felt towards the organization for the deal that brought Shelby Miller here. And, I mean, you had a fun little matchup already there between Dansby Swanson and Shelby Miller in the first series against the Cubs.

I just, I think the big thing about it is people, people want players to be good on their team. They want these guys to shove. They were like, the Shelby Miller thing was just disappointing because he didn't perform at the level that the Diamondbacks or fans expected him to and or the level that he was performing prior to bringing him over. That's the, that's where players become a disappointment. I think the problem sometimes as fans is that once again, you have people already wanting Merrill Kelly to be. be removed out of the starting lineup for Ryan Nelson based on the fact that Ryan Nelson was able to come in, give the Diamondback some length out of relief and do what he did against the Yankees, right? It's it's that quick sometimes. And I think that's where fans need to have a little bit

more patience. However, I also understand in the case of someone like Shelby Miller giving up a draft pick like Danby Swanson and, you know, not having it work out how frustrating, you know, it was for the fans. And I can tell you no matter how frustrated as a fan you are. it's even more frustrating for the first office. Yes, or front office, excuse me. I got excited because I saw people in the chat saying the Padre is finally lost today. It's a goddamn miracle. It is a miracle.

Let's go. Alex Schmidt says, curious if we have an opinion on AT versus McCarthy at this point. Jake Skit starts against lefties. Today's starting versus a righty. Bad is dead so far and I like AT's defense more. Honestly, I hate to say this. I don't have a commitment to either guy.

I feel like the competition should bring out the best in both of these guys, but Jake McCarthy has been really in a slump right now at the dish. And again, that kind of goes back to the Shelby Miller thing, right? Like you want the guy that's doing better. And overall, we've seen Jake McCarthy struggle at the dish and have one pretty memorable, you know, missed catch in the outfield that looked like something not only he should catch, but something that you feel confident,

Alec Thomas would have caught. So I understand the impatience there. And there's going to be a lot of impatience. I'll tell you that if you're a fan of the Diamondbacks, you're going to have impatience with this team at times because Tori Lavello is never going to put out his best lineup. He'll do that in the postseason. He'll do that closer to the end of the year.

He'll ride, you know, the hot hand and he'll do things like that. But in April, in May, he's going to continue to try to build confidence in guys. especially guys that are struggling. And I mean, again, there's also going to be the injury factor that weighs in on his managing too. But there's a lot of other things that matter to Tori Lavello that they don't matter to us as fans. It's just a difference of opinion. We fans saw what happened last year.

And they did two and Tori did too. But we want them to win every game. And we don't want there to be even a single game like there was on yesterday against the Yankees where we don't feel like Tori put out his strongest line. up to beat a pretty significant foe, right? Like a pretty important series, a pretty important game. And that's how you're going to feel as a fan. And I don't think you're going to change your opinion in regards to that. I really do feel like we're always going to want the best, strongest lineup out there.

And we're always going to want to win today. The Diamondbacks have this shirt, the mystery shirt we're talking about where me, Nick Picoro and Steve Gilbert, we're playing, you know, detective and trying to figure out the symbolism and what all the things means. But, you know, again, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, they want you to own the day and they want, or they want every day to be one and they want it to be now. Like, now is the important time, right? So it's, it's weird because as much as they want that mantra to carry on that now is important and you got to win today that Tori Lavello still manages in the way that he does. Frankly, he has to.

If he just, if he redlined this team and put out the best players all the time, Guys are going to get injured. They're going to wiped before we get to July. And it's just not necessarily the way that a manager has to manage a roster, especially a roster that they feel is deep enough to allow Tori to manage like this. But it doesn't help that here we are celebrating the Padres finally losing their first game. Right. This is insane.

So now we have an 8 and O Dodgers team, a 7 and 1 Padres team. the giants are five and one. Have they lost yet? I hope they lose the game. And then there's the Diamondback sitting somehow in fourth place after winning a series against the, you know, a series against the Yankees and splitting a series against the Cubs,

which feels pretty good, sitting in fourth place at four and three. And because that doesn't feel good, I think it's time, Kevin, to bring back something that we haven't done in a while. And I think it's time for me to throw shade at the National League West. We have to play in this Godforsaken

healthscape of a division known as the National League West. Are you kidding me? Every single day we have to hear about the Dodgers making franchise history with their historic start first team to win a world series to come out and do blah, blah, blah.

I don't care. I hate it and I hate them and I hate Major League Baseball. Can we do something about this? If this continues, We're going to get to a point at the end of the year where you're going to have like multiple 90 win teams in one division and only two of them are going to make the playoffs. I hate it. I hate these stupid California teams. I'm sorry, Colorado, you can actually sit this one out.

I'm actually not talking to you at all at any point during this rant. But the rest of you make me absolutely sick to my stomach. Not to mention the fact that the giants almost got Corbyn Burns. Could you imagine living in that terrible alternate timeline right now where Burns is a giant and we don't have them on our team and we still lost Jordan Montgomery for the season? I don't want to live there. That sounds horrible. What also is horrible is the fact that the Padres should be crumbling as an organization

with the internal fighting over the ownership. But do we get that? No, no, we get their players banding together and playing the best baseball that they've ever played as a group in, you know, 70 years or 50. I don't care. I hate them. I hate the National League West. And I have absolutely had it up to here with this division.

I hate it. Do you see what happens in the centrals? Can we move to one of the centrals? I don't think that one of the teams and then like, what is it? The AL Central hasn't even, they don't even think they have a winning division or a winning team in the division. Ah, I hate it here. What did we do to get stuck in this Godforsaken division with yet another Los Angeles team?

all right i think i'm done keb that was a lot but i thank you for sharing everyone appreciate you and also you're right the american league central everyone is under 500 right now and and shame needs help with this oh no that's the american league west central is terrible and it's going to be terrible and the astros are going to be terrible they're all going to be terrible but all right well bc i hope you enjoyed that i'm sure you had a good chuckle uh and you know what we're going to talk some more Not about this series because I'm done with both the, I'm done with the National League West. I'm done with the Yankees, but I'm ready to move on to the Washington Nationals where we absolutely need this starting rotation to bounce back and be what we thought they could be. We're going to talk about that on the other side of this break.

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Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. I'm going to bring JJ back in here because he didn't, his ears didn't need to hear me shout about the NLS. He's heard me scream about the NL West plenty. Instead, we're going to talk a little bit about the NL East and the upcoming matchup with the Washington Nationals. the Arizona Diamondbacks kind of beat up on the nationals over the last couple of years since

2022 the debacks have a 14 and 5 record against these nationals and in fact Lordus Gurriel is currently on a hitting streak against them he has hit in 10 straight games versus the nationals dating back to August 18th 2021 kev I am not concerned about the offense necessarily in this one that we're going to take a look at the pitching matchups and so far honestly the the ERAs for the national starters look better than the Diamondbacks. Yeah, but we talked about it on the show and people in the chat have acknowledged it as well, that it's a small sample size and the boys are just getting warmed up. Yeah, I mean, like we know that the pitching staff is talented and we'll figure it out.

But yeah, some uncharacteristic defensive errors for sure so far this season is what like has me more so worried, but I'm not too concerned. Like I feel like they're going to clean that up. But yeah, you're right. The offense is not the concern heading into this series. I will say now is a good time to have those defensive mistakes earlier on the season. working out and also make them memorable. Like, do you think Josh Naylor is going to forget how he floated that toss to Corbyn's

over at first base? I doubt it. So fundamentals are important. And again, just goes to show how critical they can be at a big moment in a game just like that. But this Nationals team, they have only won one game. And it feels like the right time for the Diamondback starting pitching rotation to kind to get right against this team.

I don't want to dismiss them because I think that's sometimes. the biggest problem possibly with the diamondbacks. I said it about their performance against Carosco in the Yankees game. Like maybe they just thought that they were going to rake against him. And yet he still, I mean, he didn't have a perfect doubting. He still gave up three earned runs.

But he did a good job of holding the diamondbacks in check. Let's take a look here at the pitching probabilities for the upcoming series with the nationals. We have Brandon fought on the mound in the first game against Jake Irving, Irvin. Eduardo Rodriguez there going in game two. against Michael Parker and then Corbyn Burns going up in game three against the notorious TBD. The ERA is nasty. It's a nasty ERA.

Parker's ERA there at zero, not bad. Mitchell, I'd say Michael Parker. It's Mitchell Parker. But they, again, the Diamondbacks ERA not looking great. Just one game, just one start, not super concerned. But if you look at the current team ERA, it's not great, right? The Diamondbacks right now, if my calculator, are correct and as you know they're probably ours but the starting ERA for this team is

currently 5.60 and I mean we talked about the first time through the rotation I believe it was 4.68 big part of the reason why it's so high now again is Merrill Kelly's nine innings and three and two-thirds start but this is just not what we want this is the exact kind of situation just overall as an average that the Diamondbacks found their starting pitching staff in last season where on paper you look at these guys you look at a fought rodriguez you know corbin burns that gal and merrill kelly starting rotation you're like hell yeah that's that's you know fire me up that's that's sub three stuff right there at least sub four era collectively as a team but that is not the case right now and i mean this could very much be the diamond back's chance to feast a little

bit for those starters to come go out not only give the team some length but help lower that era and have some good performances i do believe all three guys could do that against this national's lineup and again it's you know you got uh khybert ruiz who is having a pretty good season right now with a 381 average and a 1.149 ops nathaniel low still doing the thing himself he's uh 3.04 he's got two home runs this season six rbi and uh 1.1012 ops and i mean honestly Obviously, not a terrible lineup, but again, it's a small sample size and it's a Nationals team that hasn't performed well this season. But, you know, again, that's why you hope that on a road trip like this after facing a Yankees team that those bats don't look nearly as fearsome as Aaron Judge being in there every couple of batters, right? And, you know, it's a, it's a Nationals team that right now hasn't found a way to get their season kicked off.

let's see Jordan says late but I'm still mad we lost no plans to wear my Corbyn jersey as an experiment to see if it's cursed I am a man of science Jordan and I often don't believe in curses and yet I still absolutely believe in curses everything I just said was a lie I always believe I personally am impacting a baseball game I will tell you revealing behind the curtain, Kevin has already had a chance to experience this. I truly feel like what I write in my rundown as the results of the game go on impact the game. I think my rundown is a magic tablet and that as I put things like if I put Diamondbacks win game against Yankees, all of a sudden the Yankees start coming back. I did it in the loss yesterday and all of a sudden,

Gerardo Ferdomo hit a grand slam to reverse the thing. So maybe I'll just put Diamondbacks to lose to start every single game on the headline and maybe that'll work to reverse the jinks or whatever. It seems to be the opposite of whatever I do there for sure. It extends out of the rundown as well. Like Derek, we all know about the spot, the box. Derek is also not afraid to hide in our office and close the door, watch the game through the glass.

You don't have to tell them about me hiding in the office. Like that's, it's more of a. These are superstitions, Derek. It's not a superstition. It's just, we're helping you. I have to, like, I need something to protect. me from the Diamondbacks and that thing is your office door and I could look out the window. I could hide safely in the office away from the Diamondbacks and I can stare out the window

and still see the TV in the lobby. Sean says we lost because Derek used the S word. You're probably right. I did do that. Someone called me out on that right away. And yeah, that's probably on me. The journey says, can we talk about how excited Tori was on the broadcast when talking about getting to ride the train from New York, the DC. Hey man, I'll tell you, we made a little road trip to Chicago and I couldn't get enough

of riding the trains in Chicago. I really couldn't. I had a good time. I'm sure they're riding in a much more luxurious train than like what the red line that we were riding on or whatever we were riding on there in Chicago. So I'm sure their trip is much nicer. But yeah, I don't hate on train. One time I took a train ride entirely too far from Syracuse, New York, here to Phoenix, Arizona. It took three days and I'll never forget it. I'm still traumatized by the experience. Bring back train travel. No, don't. Yes. No. What do you mean? No. No, I don't want that. It's one of the best for the travel. I want to get there as fast as possible. I am staying in a hotel in Tempe, Arizona this weekend, simply because I don't want to drive from Tempe all the way to my house at night. I don't want to do it. I'm just going to stay there. And that's, it's my favorite type of vacation because I don't have to travel as of it. I don't have to fly in a plane. I just have to drive from this office over to Tempe,

and that's where I will be staying this weekend. But no, I don't want train travel. I mean, not for like that. We need travel to be faster, Kevin. We need to have portals that we can walk through and instantly be in the place we want to be. I mean, I agree with you. That'd be awesome. And also, I don't think train travel for like short distances, but for talking like cross country, train travel is awesome. Yeah. Bring it back. Yeah. Make it make it more efficient. Charles Woodall Pike says, Derek is a magic user still trying to figure out. his powers. I'm struggling with that. But yes, there is something.

There's something there. I don't know. They didn't, my, my future telling powers didn't work so well in Las Vegas, but somehow they worked well when I came back. But yeah, no, I mean, this Nationals team again, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not the most fearsome lineup that the Diamondback starters need to go out there and, and, you know, worry about. But again, it's, it's about tightening things up and hoping that we see the starting rotation give the diamond backs the link that we should be seeing right like you know too many starts

we got uh four four innings five and a third six by brandon fought in his first start five in a third four and a third six and two thirds three and two thirds diamond backs have two outings so far this season in seven games where their their pitcher went six innings or more and i mean honestly based on the the caliber of the pitching and the talent that shouldn't be the case there should be some more length here from these starters. Hopefully that's what we will see in this series. Offensively, it would be great to see Corbyn get, you know, get back to what we were seeing in spring training there a bit,

especially before he experienced that back tightness. And it would be, you know, it would be great to see Alec take a step up. Jake starting today. So hopefully Jake can get things back online and get some hits. You know, we want all these guys to definitely get right this season. That's something important for some of the guys struggling offensively, but mostly right now for the starting pitching because you can't put this much pressure on the relievers this early in the season. On the other side of this break, we have some stuff to talk about.

And that stuff to talk about is maybe boring mayoral politics procedural stuff. But it does impact Chase Field and how they are going to potentially get money to continue to stay at Chase Field and make that building a better place to play baseball. So maybe that's in jeopardy a little bit here. We're going to talk about it on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, whatever the moment, it is never ordinary at Bet365.

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and that is exactly who you should look to if you are in the market for a new home, whether you are a new buyer, inexperienced home buyer or a seasoned vet can look to Carol Royce to help you form a game plan to get you into your exact home. We met Carol here in the office, and she is a tremendous lady. She's been here in the Valley for years. She has been a season ticket holder of our teams here in the Valley. And most importantly, I don't think you'll find anybody that knows local real estate the way that Carol Royce and our team do can look to them to not only help you create a financial

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And so that's why I totally want to bring the mood down and talk about how Bill 2704 and updates to that. I know no one wants to hear about this. I think we all just want this to be done and over with Kevin. And it was passed by a vote of four to three by the Arizona Senate Finance Committee. And that was on my birthday, March 24th. The bill actually, though, has been amended. And the amendment to the bill is, might be a problem.

It might be a problem. The amendment for the bill has states that the county, Maricopa County, who does own that building, must contribute money equal to the city of Phoenix, Kevin. How are we feeling about that? As our resident mayor, how are you feeling about these mayoral activities going down? They're not even consulting you, Derek. Well, there's that. I don't like that. I think that I definitely should have been consulted by this.

But here's the catch. The county doesn't have the exist tax or excise tax, meaning that money the county would pay would have to come out of the general fund. What I mean by that is the tax that I'm talking about is the tax where it is generated by the taxes collected at Chase Field on premise. The amendment puts the county burden for stadium upkeep on the backs of us taxpayers. It goes into reserve fund. It goes to property taxpayers rather than those who visit the stadium. So the city of Phoenix's portion

would be generated by those taxes, by the income taxes from people that work in Chase Field, including the players. It would be generated by the taxes, sales tax, at vendors and food. But what they essentially have done to amend this bill is to say that now Maricopa County would have to come up with an equal

amount of money and that money is not the money generated at Chase Field by the stadium tax. It is money that would have to come from a general fund. Right now, the only money that Maricopa County generates for the purpose of Chase Field is the non-baseball events. So when they have those concerts down there at Chase Field, the big, you know, the Honda rodeo and the Green Day concert and all that stuff that they've had down there, that Chase Field hosts, and it's beyond that too, right? It's not it's private functions, it's other events.

Chase Field, even though it's those big concerts and things like that, there's many functions held at Chase Field, which is, according to this article, it was more than 150 a year, goes into a reserve fund to pay for ballpark upkeep. So that is where Maricopa essentially gets money generated from, funds generated from to help with the improvement. and upkeep of Chase Field.

Now, that seems to be a problem. I will say that the fact that they are expecting Maricopa County to generate the same amount of money that this stadium tax is going to generate, it doesn't seem likely, and it seems to have a much bigger impact. The complaint about the stadium tax money going towards the upkeep of the stadium and stadium improvements is the fact that that money is being taken away, obviously, from other resources that it could go to, right? Civil resources, teachers, police, firemen, hospitals,

all that kind of stuff, right? So there's that, but this is different because this is literally asking Maricopa to generate this and they have no source to generate it from other than taxpayers. And now what they're going to do is this, bill is going to now be potentially like it's it's that part portion of the argument where you're going to get taxpayers involved that don't want to pay for a billionaire stadium the same way that we've seen that time and time again again when it comes to taxpayer money being used for something like

this it's it's going to become more contentious right uh it did feel honestly like this is a joke but it felt like the way the diamondbacks are giving out contract extensions and and given burns a big contract that this deal is a slam dunk because the income tax generated by those contracts goes to help improve the stadium. So why not give out a whole bunch of money to players that makes sense of why they're spending? But again, that's just wild speculation on my part. In this case, though, there is a lot of money that's going to be generated by this tax.

So it would be an equally large portion that would need to be generated by Maricopa County. And I don't know how they're going to do it. Governor Katie Hobbs was on KTAR a few days ago, and she seemed fine with the bill as it was when asked if she would change anything about the way the bill is currently constructed. She said, no, there was nothing she would change. She said, I really just want to get good policy that we can get the most agreement on and make sure we're keeping Major League Baseball in Arizona. It's a very political answer.

Trust me, I know. I specialize in those. But of course, we want to get the most agreement on it. Of course, we want good policy. and we want people to be satisfied with the end result here. However, I do think that this amendment to the bill is going to complicate things substantially. And once you start bringing in, you know, taxpayer money from people who have no interest in having a baseball team here or keeping Chase Field updated and renovated, then there's going to be a bigger pushback on the idea of this bill getting pushed through.

But she did say in the good news in regards to this bill, she said if the bill gets to her desk, Hobbs said if she would sign it she said at this point yes so we have confirmation from governor Katie Hobbs there that should this be able to get through the Senate and get to her desk then we'll see it approved so I think it's something that is absolutely needed when it comes to Chase Field and I don't know I mean this is this is just such this has always been such a bad situation. This has always been such, you know, a finger pointing situation when it comes to who owns it and who's responsible and who's this and who's that, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we, I brought it up, but we saw the Celtics, right, as a franchise gets sold with no

building attached to their franchise because the building is, is owned by the Bruins, right, in Boston. This is a similar situation, right, where the doctor's, Diamondbacks franchise does not own Chase Field technically in Maricopa County is the weird slumlord that doesn't want to really do anything to keep up their own property. I think it's a mismanagement all the way around and I understand the Diamondbacks frustration in this. I feel like this bill personally is not the, it's not the greatest, you know, it's not the greatest situation. I as a taxpayer, just like a lot of taxpayers, don't want my money going to pay. for stadiums. However, when the county that I live in owns the stadium, then yeah, I guess I kind of understand

it, right? At the end of the day, that's just something. Oh, Lunar Forte says the income tax portion of the bill has been removed in the latest amendment. See, that was something that was very interesting for me in regards to how big of, you know, a contribution that was going to come, especially when you're talking about the salaries of Major League players. So the income tax portion of the bill being removed definitely lowers the overall total commitment of the dollar amount to the team or in the situation. So I guess it brings it down a little bit closer to something that the Maricopa County might

be able to match. And that amount provided by Maricopa County would make up for that lost revenue from the income portion. But yeah, Sean says they just love making a sweat with this Chase Field thing, pun intended. They really do in multiple ways. I was there on like opening day and I was sweating. It wasn't even hot out. But I had a pretty busy day that day.

I think we all just, again, it's the, it's phrasing when something, when Katie Hobbs says something like she says, make sure we're keeping Major League Baseball in Arizona that makes your stomach kind of turn as a Arizona sports fan and probably as a coyotes fan, right? We know how fast those situations can go from being like this to contentious to being. without a team. So nobody wants that. And we still know that this is a situation that everybody needs to figure out. And there's still not a lot of time to do so. The clock is ticking. But we got more Diamondbacks news in regards to what they're going to be doing in 2026. Playing a regular season game in Mexico City. That sounds like a lot of fun. Going to talk about that. But first, I want to tell you guys about our new lineup of shirts. Kevin, we got our new shirts.

It is the year of the snake over at our merch shop. There's some new design. Start those back up. I need to see those on screen. Oh, that's the wrong. We're not spying on our exes today. We got those snakes.

I love, especially the old school colors here, right? It's once again why I have to go out on my tangent about still knowing nothing about the city connection jerseys. We got our purple and teal go snake shirt, a red and teal go snake shirt. Those go hard. But nothing goes harder than JJ.

They're wrapped around a baseball. So, of course, make sure check it out for fresh designs. Get them before they sell out. Head over to go phtonx.com and hit the merch tab to get yours today. And don't forget, diehards get that 20% off. So make sure to get yourself some new merch for the season. I know I could use some new merch. I need some new pHNX stuff myself.

But I would probably be wearing it and attending a game in Mexico City should that happen. According to an article from The Athletic, the Arizona Diamond Basket, will be playing that series with the San Diego Padres, which never happened back in 2020 in 2026. That's right. Padres, Diamondbacks are likely to meet up for a regular season series next year in Mexico City. The games would be held at Estadio Afredo Harp Helu,

named for the Mexican millionaire. That is the minority owner of the Padres. A little conflict of interest there. It's almost like a home game there for the Padres. and it should be because the Padres have played a lot of games in Mexico, a lot of regular season games in Mexico. San Diego and the Diamondbacks were actually scheduled to play this. This would have been Major League Baseball's first ever regular season games in Mexico City back in 2020.

But then that two game series got canceled because a worldwide pandemic broke out. You remember when that happened? Those were good times. Mexico finally did host a game in 2003. It was the Padres versus the Giants, the Giants or the Padres swept that Tomb Game series over the Giants. And then the Astros played there the next year against the Colorado Rockies. So we've had the Giants, Padres, and Rockies all play in Mexico City before us.

And we are the ones with a jersey that says Serpientis. Make it make sense. Derek, also on the topic of international baseball, I know you wanted to talk a little bit about your favorite international stadiums today. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was going to say where would you want to go watch it? Like, I like the idea of going to Mexico City.

Mexico City is enormous, though. And it's one of those places that, I mean, it's the crowd, the atmosphere is going to be electric. And it has been for those games that are played there. But if you could pick someplace where you would play, where are you picking? have you had some time to find one of your favorite international fields? I have. I actually found like six. Oh my God. Let's go. What do you got? All right. So we have the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.

That just sounds amazing. Where's that located in Tai Chiang City, Taiwan. Okay. This thing has like some beautiful, like, I don't even know how to describe them. But the most interesting part about intercontinental baseball stadium, Derek, is you know the sphere in Las Vegas? They have like a slightly smaller version and it's just a baseball. They have a gigantic sphere-sized baseball outside of their... That's amazing.

Yeah, stadium. That's incredible. The Tzianmu Baseball Stadium looks awesome as well. There's like a mountain right behind it. I believe that's also in Taiwan. There's just a mountain directly behind center field. Looks incredible as well there, Derek. I want this and I want to have our guy, Yumen Lin, starting in these games.

Right? That'd be beautiful. I mean, that would be incredible. I also trying to find the name of it right now. It is the Hiram-Bithorn Stadium in my home island of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's a beautiful, beautiful ballpark. And it's historic. It's been around since 1962.

You know its quality when it's lasted that many hurricane seasons there in San Juan. But it is, yeah, it's a fairly beautiful ballpark. They've played a world baseball classic games there before. And I just need honestly any excuse to go home and eat Tostones. That's pretty much what I'm looking for. I do intend on one of these days, by the way, Kevin, I was talking about this with Espo. I feel like with my connection, maybe with some of the Hispanic players on the Diamondbacks team, I need to bring them my Tostones, which are world renowned and allow them to try them.

see if they can maybe get a rating on them from guys like Cattel and Lordus. What do you think about that? I'm 1,000% behind it. I think it needs to happen as soon as humanly possible. Like how fast can we get a grouping of Diamondbacks together to taste some of Derek's home cooking? I'm telling you. What I really want is just to go like when I travel, I really just want it to be an amazing city. I think that's the thing.

Like there's the situation right now, as you guys know, Kevin and I are both wrestling fans, right? it feels like WrestleMania has just completely fallen into the we're going to go to Las Vegas or we're going to go to New Orleans situation and after some of the debacles they've had with WrestleMania in cold weather cities I am for it I am for going to those two cities I will never ever in my life turn down a trip to New Orleans or Las Vegas it's the reason why baseball is eventually going to work there and they don't even need a

single actual fan that lives in that city in order to make it work they'll just be people that travel there just to watch baseball games and mostly to gamble on the little horses, the little plastic horse, don't even get me started. But yeah, I'm excited for this because this felt like a series that never,

never ever happened that is finally going to happen. So there's that. I also think that it's cool for the Diamondbacks to be, you know, highlighted in one of these like, you know, international games. It's great. Most importantly, though,

I think that, like, again, I joked about the Serpientus thing. Like, the Diamondbacks have a strong connection to our Hispanic community here. in Arizona and I think it's a great opportunity to grow the fan base for for this team outside of outside of the state and outside of the country. I mean, it's, it's, it's such a, it's such loser talk for me to say this, but it's reality. The grip that the Los Angeles Dodgers are getting

on the country of Japan is a competitive advantage. It's, it's a problem. The Dodgers have even said, they've made it no secret that they want to go. to Japan and they want to make every you know every Japanese citizen a fan of the Dodgers and they want every Japanese baseball player to grow up wanting to come to Major League Baseball to play for the Dodgers

it's very intentional and they're utilizing that you know series with the Cubs and their draw by having so many Japanese players on the team as a way to to grow their franchise like yes it's growing the game of baseball all of these

international games are about growing Major League Baseball itself. But in the case of the Dodgers, they once again, it might be, it might be like always sinister, I mean, but they're just so savvy at what they're doing. They are, you know, using an opportunity like that to be ambassadors of the game, but more importantly, ambassadors of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. And again, it's, it works. It's something that will come into play in the decision of a lot of people. We know it comes into play in decision of so many of our baseball players. So many guys want to wear a Yankees jersey eventually.

They want to wear a Cubs jersey because it's a dream of theirs to grow as growing up as a young player to play for that particular franchise. Right. It's not as strong as like a winning culture or money. It's not as strong as those things. Those things

are still going to make a player want to play for that franchise more than the team they had a poster of on their room when they were a kid. But don't pretend like that doesn't matter. And again, in this case, it's a great opportunity for the Diamondbacks. Should they go to Mexico City to grow, you know, their fan base, which is growing and is becoming a wonderful community, but needs to grow more. It needs to grow beyond just the state of Arizona. And we need more fans. We need more fans like Dalton Feeley screaming in other New York Yankees fans' faces on an away series like he did when Gino hit that home run bomb.

So let's grow this team. Let's grow the franchise. Let's do what the, Dodgers are doing and use this as a chance to be more about the Diamondbacks and growing, you know, beyond the borders of Arizona rather than just growing the game of Major League Baseball. We're already deferring money, right, and Cattell's contract. So let's get on board. If you can't beat them, join them, right? Also, there's lots of other places I'd like to see a baseball game still played. This year, the big, like, special game for Major League Baseball is going to be played at a race car track.

So that's kind of fun. But I still, I don't know. Is it too much to ask for them to play a game in the backyard next to where the beast is from the sandlot? Maybe. But one can still dream, right? We got the field of dreams game. Maybe one day we'll get it. I don't even care if it's on the back lot at a studio, a film studio in Los Angeles.

I'll take it. I'll take whatever I can get to get a sandlot game. But I'm leaving now. I'm going away. I'm going to literally turn my phone off and be a disqualmie. appear for the next three days. But I will be back on Monday with another mailbag Monday show. I think Dalton Feely is going to stop by for that one. We'll also have Damon on next week for some postgame shows. So I look forward to having some company on the show. I thank you guys so

much for joining me. You guys are always rad. And of course, big shout out to my guy, Kevin Thomas, who, despite being a St. Louis Cardinals fan, is still a decent human being. I still love my debacks, though. I know you do. We're getting him. We're going to make him a sicko about baseball and we're going to make all of you guys sickos about baseball of course make sure to follow kev on social media he is at kev oh posts i am at cap underscore caveman with a k our show is at phnx underscore dbacks but of course as always all roads lead to at ph and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we appreciate you guys so much look forward to what the diamondback starting pitching can do here against nationals and hopefully we get another series win we will talk about

it on monday so make sure to join us for that make sure to get all of your mailbag Monday questions ready for us because we're going to need them. We're going to need some good discussion topics here. So what do you got? You got anything, Kevin, before we get out of here? Real quick, we're on the topic of international baseball and where you'd want to play baseball. What's a state that does not have a baseball team that you would love to watch a baseball game in? I was thinking Utah because of the mountains.

Like, I don't know if you've seen BYU's football stadium. Yeah. But it's incredible with the mountains right behind it. Portland. Portland. Oh, that'd be good. Portland. That's a really good one.

Because especially with them wanting a team, Nashville, another great option. I think that's good. But honestly, yeah, like I think Portland would be a great place to watch a baseball game. But I hope you guys enjoy tonight's game. No, Stephen, I'm sorry, no post game show tonight. I'm going to be far too high at a reggae festival for that. But I will try my best to get my stuff together before Monday. And until then, I appreciate you guys so much for stopping by.

We will see you on Monday. Have yourselves a wonderful weekend. Go Diamondbacks. You behave yourselves. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your starting rotation is what you thought it would be.