PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Can Zac Gallen’s Impending Return SAVE Diamondbacks’ 2024 Season?

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen joins the show to discuss updates on his return to the mound, which of his teammate’s pitches he would steal if given the opportunity, partnering with Shamrock Farms to fight childhood hunger, and so much more! We also discuss the D-backs series in Philadelphia going south over the weekend, Ketel Marte surging to the top spot for NL second baseman in All Star voting, and your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to the PHNX Dback Studio brought to you by Circle K, excuse me. Studio K here presented by Circle K. My name is Derek Montia. This man next to me, Jesse Friedman, occasionally knows your mayor of PHNX, this man, your vice mayor. And we are here in the brand new, beautiful Studio K presented by our friends at Circle K. I built some of this stuff behind me with my own bare hand, so I'm very proud of that. How did I know you were going to take credit for all? Because it's what I do.

It's what I do, of course. We thank you guys for being here. And we are very excited to be joined by Zach Gallen from the Arizona Diamondbacks here in a little bit. Had a great conversation with him in regards to a new charity initiative that he is currently a part of. But before we do that, we did want to recap the weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies because things didn't quite go the Diamondbacks way. Friday was very happy. Saturday, Sunday, things definitely took a turn for the worst. came to the Diamondbacks.

They dropped two out of three, getting outscored 16 to two in the final two games of the series. Not great, Jesse. Not great. It's amazing how much two games can really change up the vibes, right? Yeah. I think Diamondbacks fans were sort of on Cloud 9 on Friday night. A big 5-4 win on national TV. The whole thing, you know, kind of came down to the wire D-Baks.

You're able to pull that game out. And then the rest of the weekend was just absolutely miserable for the Diamondbacks. Including people that wanted to fly back. find Sunday's game on Roku. We tried to warn you to get ahead of it and even I didn't heed my own advice and I had problems finding it. My TV didn't even have Roku as an app. Jesse, I didn't know that that was a thing. I thought it was just an app that you could go to. But of course, that was probably a game I didn't want to watch, especially Saturday's game. That was definitely a game. I didn't want to watch. Philadelphia definitely got their revenge against the Diamondbacks,

especially after that first game, which felt very good. Thanks for felt very good after game one for this team. Yeah. But of course, over the weekend, the offense did not show up for the Diamondbacks. And honestly, I mean, the pitching didn't really show up in Saturday's game either. Yeah, it kind of did remind me of the NLCS a little bit, like kind of the beginning of it, right? Yeah. The Diamondbacks got out scored 15 to 3 in the first two games of the NLCS for people who don't

remember. And they came back in one game three by one run at Chase Field. And of course, you know, their fortunes sort of. have changed after that point. But yeah, this series kind of had a similar feel, but just in reverse for the debacks got that one run win on the front end. And then they sort of got obliterated in the next. I mean, I guess Sunday's game was a 4-1 win.

I shouldn't say 4-1 loss for the debacks. I shouldn't say obliterated. But the reality, Derek, is that the Diamondbacks didn't have Zach Allen and they didn't have Merrill Kelly. And it's going to be tough to go against the Phillies team that is not completely healthy. They didn't have J.T. Romuto for this series. he's out with a torn meniscus. Every team is dealing with something.

But in terms of starting pitching, the Phillies are at full health at this point, whereas the Diamondbacks are missing three key guys in their starting rotations. So in a lot of ways, I think, I mean, maybe people won't be happy with this. But I think you can be sort of content maybe with, you know, salvaging a game in a really hostile environment. Yeah, Connor says it right there. We didn't get swept. That's all that matters. And it's definitely something to build on in regards to that.

It's better. I mean, obviously it's better than getting swept, but at least Sunday's game, it did feel like they were in it. The offense, once again, not great in this series for the Diamondbacks, and that includes the win. But that is because the Philadelphia Phillies have very, very good to starting pitchers. I'm not sure if you've heard, but in fact, they do have some of the best starting pitchers in the National League. Christopher Sanchez has a 2.67 ERA and Zach Wheeler's 2.73 ERA,

ranked second and third in the National League in ERA, only behind one guy, Ranger Swares, who was also on the Phillies. Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous what the Phillies have going on right now. I mean, last season, the Phillies were a great team, and they had Zach Wheeler and Aaronola as the two clear frontrunners in their starting rotation. And then it was sort of everyone else after that, right?

Christopher Sanchez had some good moments for them last year. Ranger Suarez had some good moments for them last year. But now all of a sudden, you're talking about Christopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, going from being mid-rotation guys to being in the top three in the National League in ERA, I guess literally number one and number two. So it's sort of outrageous, you know,

how much better the Phillies have gotten this season, even though they didn't really do all that much in the offseason. They were pretty quiet and kind of just kept the team that they had. But, yeah, again, the fact that the Diamondbacks didn't have. I mean, Tommy Henry right now is technically occupying. occupying Zach Allen spot in the rotation. And Slate Sikoni, I believe, is occupying Merrill Kelly's. So can you imagine what this series would have looked like, right?

If after you get that win on Friday, you're looking at Zach Wheeler against Zach Allen on Saturday. And then yesterday you're looking at Merrill Kelly against Christopher Sanchez. You know, I don't actually like the Phillies are clearly the better team on paper right now. And even if the debacks were at full health, I mean, the Phillies are playing so incredibly well right now. I don't think it's a given that the debacks would be, you know, debacks would be on pace to win 107 games or whatever it is.

The Phillies are doing right now. But it would be a much more, it would be a much more even series. And as we've been saying, it's just a matter for the debacks of trying to hold serve as best they can until they get those guys back. Well, Tommy Henry was sent down, right? And Brandon Hughes was called up.

So as it stands right now, the Diamondbacks do not even have five-staring pitchers for their starting rotation. obviously the plan there is for Zach Gowan to return by this upcoming weekend and he will be a sight for sore eyes when it comes to the starting rotation having another solidified starter in there versus I guess the inconsistency right now that you're getting out of some of these guys. Slade obviously at times has looked brilliant and then at times has really struggled himself. Ryan Nelson same thing right. Ryan Nelson has had some good outings but again Ryan I feel a little bit better about Ryan Nelson potentially being here. for a while maybe. I mean, you know, because the Diamondbacks look like they might need one of these guys to stick around until mid-August based on Merrill Kelly's assessment of when he expects

to be back. So, you know, again, it's just a matter of, you know, the Diamondbacks can use, you know, maybe having just one day where they really have to worry about, you know, the starting pitcher's spot rather than right now three days. But that's at least, you know, where they're at right now. And of course, right now, the Diamondbacks aren't in a terrible position. It would be better if they obviously won the series against the Phillies, but at least taking that one does alleviate some of the disappointment here about going into Philadelphia and not winning the series.

Let's take a look at the numbers in the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. I don't think people want to look at the numbers. I don't care. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. And that's like that's the way it's going to be. I don't want to look at these numbers either. Phillies outscore the Diamondbacks 20 to 7 in three games.

They out hit the Diamondbacks 32 to 17. Runners in scoring position, Phillies were 8 for 33, Diamondbacks four for 15. ERA, not good. 2.50 for the Phillies, 6.39, starting pitching ERA for the Diamondbacks, relief pitching ERA, 2.00 for the Phillies, 8.03 for the Diamondbacks. We knew the Phillies didn't really have a lot of weaknesses coming into the series. And in fact, the one weakness might have been maybe parts of their bullpen, but that wasn't the case during the series. Their bullpen was very, very good.

We know the Diamondbacks tend not to be very good against opposing bullpens. They tend to make the opposing bullpen look really good at times. And this was another one of those series. Yeah, yeah. Tucker Barnhart threw an inning in this series. So like we have to acknowledge that. Just burn these numbers, Damon. Just burn the numbers to the ground.

How about that running? Runners in scoring position. though, boys. Yeah, let's talk, let's talk about that. Let's get some positives going. The D-BAC said a 267 batting average runners-in-scoring position compared to

242 for the Phillies. Let's go. Never mind the fact, never mind the fact that the Phillies had 18 more opportunities with runners and scoring position. That's going to be just totally irrelevant for this conversation. But yeah, going back to Tucker Barnhart,

which is really the fascinating part of the series. That is the storyline of the weekend in my mind. Absolutely. He was out there throwing like 41 miles an hour, Derek. A very, a very different approach from what we saw Pavin Smith do just a couple of weeks ago. Gas and he has a 0.00 ERA. We know that. For Pavin, the secret was throwing harder. Yeah. He was trying to just lob it up there like, you know, I think it was low 70s at first and he just couldn't control it.

And then, you know, he ramps it up to like 80 and suddenly he's just, you know, he's just dot in corners. Tucker Barnhart, very different approach. He was, you know, I think sticking in the 40s pretty much. It's hard to throw 40. Like, genuinely. Yeah, it is. It's hard to throw that slow and get it the 90 feet that it needs to go. Like, if I just threw a baseball regular, I'd throw it faster than 40 miles per hour.

Yeah. That's not a difficult thing to do. You have to like try to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you put some spin on it. A little Ephis ball.

Yeah, absolutely. Zach would be so proud. Yeah. Speaking of the series and the offense in the series or I guess, I don't know, good things, bad things, a lot of bad things happened in the series. But of course, one good thing was Lordus Gurriel's performance in the two games he was a part of. So that is why Lordus is our Kingsnake for this series. He went four for eight with a home run and an RBI from that home run.

But yeah, Lordus has been, he's back on track. He's he's streaking now in the positive direction, which when you look at the difference in his numbers from the beginning of season to that stretch where he really struggled to now, it's like night and day. Yeah, yeah, Lordus has really come around. He's sitting 342, 365, 344 in June. Let's go. Which is kind of flown under the radar. Somehow I feel like I've almost missed that. But yeah, just a whole lot of multi-hit games here over the last couple of weeks for Lordus.

And we said this for a while. Like when Lordis was really scuffling up there, he was sort of the least of the concern, I think, just because he has this history of just being such an up and down player that when he is really struggling, like that, you just kind of figure that he's going to turn it around eventually and rake for a few weeks and his numbers are going to come back up. And sure enough, that's basically what happened. Lordus's numbers are still maybe not exactly where you would like them to be for this season. But they're definitely trending in that direction. I think his OPS is just over 700 at this point. So yeah, he's doing the Lordus thing, Derek. He's, he's bouncing back for sure.

He's doing the Lordeus work is what he's doing. He's doing the Lordeus work. All right. Well, speaking of other guys who are hot and continue to stay hot, Cotel Marte continues to stay hot in the All-Star voting. He has risen up to the number one spot for National League's second baseman. Let's take a look at where the voting lies because, hey, Catelle is where he should be. You should probably have a little bit bigger of a lead than this, especially considering that Luis Arise, once again, is a DH and not actually a second basement. but Cattel on top where he should be.

You look at these numbers and none of these other guys really are close to the production that Cotel has had on both sides of the ball this year. Yeah, I think the gap has maybe even gotten bigger. A rise batting average is down to 315 at this point. His OPS Plus is is 109 for the season. So it's getting to the point where I think the numbers, like the difference in the number, numbers is so significant that Louisa Rize's name cred is still, I mean, still doing quite a bit for him, I think, but not in the way that I sort of expected. Honestly, Derek, I'll be honest here. I'm a little, I'm a little surprised. I figured that Luis Arise's name was big enough to carry him

farther in this race than where he sits currently. And obviously, it's not over yet. This ends, I believe, this first phase ends on Thursday at 9 a.m. And then we go into the second phase at that point, both of the top two vote getters will advance. So Catelle winning in this first round does not guarantee that he is a starter. There is another round that comes after this that lasts a few days. But yeah, I mean, it seems like people around the league are looking at the numbers and recognizing that Cotel Marte has been, frankly, a far better player than Luis surprised this season.

And yeah, the difference in their ballot count is not as big as it probably should be, but a big change in the right direction for sure. You think Luis Giroz has named notoriety like that? Yes. I think he does. Because the chase to 400 last year was a pretty big narrative for a while. He's a two-time. That lasted for a while.

He's a two-time batting champion in both the AL and the NL. He's a, yeah, I mean, he's a twin and a Marlin, though. I mean, like, that's not exactly teams that are like national brands. Yeah, no, you're right about that. But I think that that's the thing was, is with Arise, a lot of people actually do know him. could tell Marte, I mean, I honestly, I hate to say this, but he sometimes gets confused for Starling Marte to this day. I mean, it's ridiculous. He's probably the most underrated player across baseball. Yes, by far, by far. He's one of those guys that, again, it's, it's kind of like Paul Goldschmidt when he was here, right?

You just know that if you played for a bigger franchise, a major market. Like the Cardinals? Like the Cardinals. I mean. And you win an MVP? Yeah. You know what I mean? Right. That's kind of how that happens. right. And you just get noticed more. I mean, that that was our big problem with Goldie was that we felt like he deserved more recognition. And he was still winning awards and getting recognized for things consistently. It was just a matter of we knew that he was a, you know, a generational player. And we didn't feel like he was getting the love that he deserved on a national level. And you could definitely say the same thing about Cotel. And most likely it is for the same reason. I mean, I feel like Cattel's big moment on the big stage was last year during the playoffs when he had his hitting streak.

And that's great, but it's still not, I guess, the notoriety that Arise had with his batting titles. In reality, though, that that is so much more important to the game and just like a, you know, better baseball player than anything Luis Arise is doing. Like, it's cool. Like, he hits singles. That's awesome. But, like, who cares? No, I'm, I agree with you a thousand percent, a thousand percent. You don't need to convince me none when it comes to this, but I will, I will say on

Catelle real quick. We had the MVP conversation the other day, which I still think is a valid conversation to have given where Cattel's war numbers sit right now. But Catell also is an 835 OPS. And I think that, you know, as much as war has gained in popularity around the game, and I think people really respect that when they're, when they're casting their MVP ballot, at least a lot of people do, not everyone. But an 835 OPS, I just don't think is going to, no matter what the war numbers say,

it feels like you've got to be sort of been like that, at least the 900 range in order to get serious consideration there. That's at least my, just sort of my speculation about how people would vote. Looking at NL MVP winners over the last 15 years or so, every single one of them has had an OPS of 939 or higher. 2007 when Jimmy Rollins was the NL MVP, which still in retrospect, kind of blows my mind that Jimmy Rollins won an NL MVP. He had an 875 OPS that year and a 119 OPS plus.

So his OPS was higher. His OPS plus is actually quite a bit lower than where Kattele sits right now. I think he's at 136. But yeah, just going over the last 15 years or so, based on how things have gone, I think Kattel is going to, regardless of where the war numbers are, he's, He's going to have to get at least into the upper 800s range for me to really, really view him as a legitimate MVP candidate. Well, I think he's at least getting there. And of course, this team having more success, getting their starting rotation back, all of that could help.

I feel like Catelle does have a lot on riding on his shoulders at times. I feel like he does kind of, you know, where the, right now the, like where the title of being the guy for this team, right? Yeah. We know a lot of other guys have contributed. We also know of everybody that's been struggling this year. Catell has remained consistent. But it's a lot of pressure. And I think that obviously if he can get some help from his teammates offensively,

get some of that good starting pitching back, maybe that alleviates some of that pressure and gives him a chance to be even better than what we're seeing this year. But again, it looks like Catelle will in fact be our candidate for the All-Star game this year. If we had more than one, remains to be seen, but it's looking a little less likely that we might see more than one Arizona Diamondback in the All-Star game besides him. Yeah, I kind of think Ryan Thompson might be the Diamondback's best bet.

Let's go, T-Times. I mean, we talked about it before. Like, usually the relievers in each league are mostly closers. You'll see maybe one or two set up guys get in there for each league. And that's what would, that's sort of what would have to happen there. but Thompson's numbers are in a place where I think he's at least worthy of that kind of consideration. I mean, you talk about an ERA of 1.16 at this stage in the season. That's 31 innings with four earned runs allowed, a 0.97 whip.

He's been pitching the eighth inning. That's sort of been his spot for the Diamondbacks for quite a while at this point. There's a compelling case to be made there. I don't know if I see it with Christian Walker, frankly. He's just like kind of towing the line of. of like an 800 OPS, which I don't know is quite, quite where it needs to be to get, to get that consideration, despite what he does for you defensively. So, yeah, I think it might be, I think Ryan Thompson might be the, might be the guy that

would have to get in. Well, and to contradict that, Michael McDermott in the chat says Ryan Thompson's biggest problem is he's not a closer. And yes, we kind of discuss that where when you're not a closer, you're not a marquee closer, you're not a starting pitcher. It's pretty hard to get into the All-Star game. We know Joe Manteply did that, but that's because he was the, Ivan back's only representative that year, and that was more of a, like, hey, he is the best player on this team that isn't very good right now.

But anyway, if Seawald had a 116 ERA, which he like basically does, but in 31 innings, in the number of innings that Ryan Thompson has, I think he would be a pretty obvious, pretty obvious All-Star. You just like take what he's done so far this season and expand it over over at the course of a full season up to this point. I think that would be pretty clear. But yeah, the fact that Thompson is not a closer. that has a pretty big impact for sure. And more importantly, I just defended Paul Goldschmidt in that segment, which I would like to point out to anybody that thinks, maybe in this room. He's overrated, right there?

Well, I'm just saying, well, he might be overrated now. He wasn't overrated that. And it's a whole other discussion for another day. And I'll upset you then when we have it. But, of course, we do thank you guys so much for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, we have our very, very fun interview with Zach Gound coming up here right now. But we did want to thank you guys for being here. If you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel yet, you're new to the channel.

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I mean, I get grumpy in the heat. I get grumpy when I don't have a froster. Jesse knows he has to deal with me all the time being grumpy. But of course, right now, speaking of Frosters, you can get a Polar Popper or a Froster for just 79 cents through September 3rd at a CircleK near you. And you know they're near you. They're right around the corner from all of us at all times here in the Valley. You could also join their Inner Circle Circle Program for free by downloading the Circle K app today today today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But when you do, you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. You'll also save three cents off per gallon every day after that or five cents per gallon if you become a premium. InterCircle member. You also get all sorts of wonderful offers in the app, free snacks, free drinks. Buy one, get one free, buy two, get one free, all that kind of stuff. So make sure to join the Inner Circle. And a big shout out to Circle K for sponsoring our wonderful studio. And again, shout out to me for helping put it together with my bare hands. Saul Bookman, appreciate you for

not being here to put it together with your bare hands. No, actually, I'm joking Saul helped with all of this, too. We all did it together. But I love this studio. and so I want to give a big shout out Circle K. Also, big shout out to our friends at Shamrock Farms and our friend Zach Gowan for joining us today. We had a lovely talk with Zach Gallen. I'm not sure. David, do I, are we good on that?

I don't know why you're asking me live on there. It's because, of course, we've had some issues today with technology and other things going on. But of course, you know, Zach is returning here shortly and obviously is a huge part of the starting rotation. We don't know, you know, obviously how he's going to pitch. But it feels very much like Paul Seawald where Zach returns to the starting rotation. Everybody kind of settles in. Yeah, I mean, there's just a big, a pretty big difference, frankly, between Zach Gallen and some of the guys of Diamondbacks are rolling with in the starting rotation.

And that's no, you know, no offense to them or anything. I mean, they're young guys kind of trying to find their way. Zach Gallen is someone who gets, you know, gets Sigh Young votes every year. Like, he's one of the best in the league and well established at that. So, yeah, I mean, the question of like kind of how much does Gallons return move the needle? It feels like it should be pretty big. But at the same time, you're, you know, he can't take three spots in the rotation. He can only take one spot in rotation.

So, you know, the debacks are still going to have to, they're still going to have to hold serve. Even with him coming back, you know, hopefully this weekend, there's still going to be a period of probably a while. I think with Erod, it sounds like you're looking at middle to end of July potentially. That's kind of a rough estimate. And then with Merrill Kelly, based on what he said the other day, they're targeting mid-August for Merrill Kelly. I mean, he talked about wanting to be on the Tampa, Boston road trip, which is, you know, middle end of August even. So that's a long time like that's still about two months away from where we are right now was was he being cautious about that because it felt like at least all indications were pointing to him being back sooner than that

like maybe the end of july or maybe the beginning of august but of course it sounds you know obviously what he said like it's going to be not not not quite to that that soon yeah it's it's definitely that you know the diamond backs are not always that they didn't always give you quite as many specifics is in my hope in these situations. Tori will, you know, he'll speak in kind of vague terms. And you can kind of understand why. Like, the reality is the Diamondbacks themselves don't know exactly when Merrill Kelly is going to return.

They want to be cautious with the way that they talk about it. But yeah, not that long ago, we were led to believe that Merrill Kelly could return, you know, at some point middle to the end of July. And based on what he said the other day, that's pretty clearly not what they're shooting for right now. Merrill said that he's hoping to be on that. road trip I mentioned earlier, which is, I think it starts on August 16th, something, something like that.

So, yeah, I don't know if this is a change that just happened in the last few days, or if this is the way it's been for a while and the Diamondbacks just didn't want to come out and say it in as clear terms as maybe we all would have liked them to. But yeah, I mean, from what Merrill said the other day, it's, that's the reality of the situation. You're not getting Merrill Kelly back by the All-Star break. And even from the beginning, Tori, when he was asked will merrill be back by the all-star break he was non-committal about about that as well

carlos ip in the chat says the idea of kelly not being back until we're in the home stretch of a possible playoff race sounds legitimately terrifying and you're not wrong carlos uh he does absolutely sound terrifying especially considering that even with how good zack gallon has been merrill kelly has been a stabilizing force for this team he is the mainstay for a reason there's just something about Merrill coming in and again adding that stability and just being that guy that you can count on you know what you're going to get out of him out of him as far as you know a good night a bad night you know how much length you're going to get out of him there's a lot of things there when it comes to Merrill Kelly that you just consistently know what you're going to get and yeah again even

with how good Zach Gallen was last year we saw that Zach Gallen was you know he had the home road splits there were a couple of other things there that obviously uh ended up being, you know, a little more inconsistent as far as his performances go than Merrill. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Merrill Kelly has been the better pitcher of those two guys, you know, dating back to the middle of last season. You know, Gallen kind of seemed like he was in really good position to win the Syung Award. And then his last, the way that he ended the season wasn't great, whereas Merrill Kelly

seemed to sort of just improve as, as the season went along. But yeah, you know, when Gallen comes back, he's still expecting to be one, of the best in the league and it's going to be a really a really big boost a really big boost for this diamond backs team when it happens um yeah he threw it he threw a sim game today or is throwing a sim game today we don't know exactly when it's happening uh but uh if all goes well it sounds like he'll be back this weekend for for the oakland series the one thing that we still don't know about is how edwardo rodriguez factors into this when he is going to be back and if honestly he's a real person. Jesse and I, once again, can confirm for you. We've seen him with our own eyes. He is not

two children standing on each other's shoulders pretending to be an adult. He's a real Major League baseball pitcher. And again, his impact still remains to be seen. We don't know what we're going to get out of Erod. We don't know, you know, how, I guess, how effective he's going to be for this team considering the amount of time he's missed. And I mean, that was kind of a question mark even in the Diamondbacks acquisition of him. So, you know, there's still a lot of, things that remain to be seen when it comes to this team. But it is an exciting time right now because the Diamondbacks aren't going to remain the team that we're watching now for too much longer.

They are going to get a lot of weapons back. They are going to get Alec Thomas back. Most importantly, they're going to get those weapons back to the starting rotation. The most important weapon, though, is the guy that's joining us today. And of course, big shout out to Shamrock Farms. Zach Gallen is partnering with Shamrock Farms. They've teamed together on a cause directly that affects so many people here in the valley to combat food insecurity in Arizona. Zach has more on that.

And of course, they are calling on Diamondbacks fans to get involved. So here is our chat from earlier today with the milkman. I guess our first question is, how are you feeling? I know we just like so many other D-backs fans are looking forward to seeing you back on the mound. Yeah, feeling pretty solid so far, progressing pretty well. I got a sim game today, as I imagine, you guys already know. So, yeah, feeling pretty good so far. So we're heading in the right direction.

Perfect. Well, I know you guys, you and your partners at Shamrock Farms are making an exciting announcement today. Can you fill us in a little bit on that? Yeah. So for me, it's just I've been here now six years. So just kind of starting to put down roots. you know, have a house here now, you know, spending, you know, about 11 months of the year here now, offseason included and stuff like that. So just starting to feel a little bit more part of the

community and just kind of feeling how the community has been behind me, has been behind us the last, you know, a couple of years. I feel like I really wanted to get involved. And, you know, so for me, it was it was partnering with Shamrock and St. Mary's Food Bank and being able to help, you know, kids that are that are food insecure, especially in these summer months, really, because, you know, it gets hot. Kids don't have school. They don't have school lunches to look forward to. So to be able to partner with, St. Mary's and Shamrock is just, you know, it's been unbelievable. Shamrock's donating 2,300 gallons of milk to the cause. And they've been, you know, even better than I expected when our partnership started, how many every months ago it's been now, you know, me just getting involved, just

felt like because of my platform, I needed to get involved and I wanted to get involved. And I want to be able to help and, you know, put a, you know, just be able to help in the community. And then chairmocks like, hey, we want to get involved too. So I've been, you know, truly humbled by them, you know, wanting to help out. For fans, Zach, who maybe want to get involved themselves, how can they make a donation or maybe volunteer some of their time? Yeah. So there's, there's two ways you can get at MNB.com slash dbags, slash community.

and then my charitable fund is under the player program page. So if you want to make a financial donation, I'd be thrilled and humbled, you know, but at the same time, if you can't donate, you can also volunteer some of your time. And for that, you can go to firstfoodbank.org. That's what St. Mary's. Both really unbelievable organizations, St. Mary's

and Shamrock. So for me, this this partnership has been, has been incredible, really. Well, it's an elite partnership with the fact that you're the milkman, which, by the way, is a nickname that I have been defending and I will die on that hill for you no matter what. There will be no other milkmen. There's just you as the milkman, but I did want to ask you this. That Colton Kouser has been referred to as the milkman too. So I'm wondering, I guess I get it. It makes sense. But it is what it is.

He can have his own thing. He can be the moo man or whatever. But since you are the milkman, I did have to ask, do you have a go-to cereal? A go-to cereal. I haven't been on the cereal kick lately. But when I was, it was. See, when I ate a cereal, I mean one-zero. So, like, it's gone from Captain Crunchberries.

I was also I had a lucky charm phase and then I was going with cinnamon toast crunch but I my favorite matter what is frosted Cheerios is like is my go-to. I love that you did not you didn't give me any healthy cereals and I appreciate that. I love that. I don't know that's a healthy that's the thing. I don't know there's a healthy cereal. There you go. But at that point are you eating cereal?

He might as like you're eating just dry or like, you know, whatever, bland. So yeah, if you're eating cereal, you're eating on healthy. You're eating something unhealthy. Yeah, I guess you just have to embrace it's a, it's a basically a dessert at that point. Zach, switching over to baseball here for a second. You guys, obviously this season maybe hasn't gone exactly how you, how you would have drawn it up up to this point in the season. But obviously with you getting close here, you know, Eduardo and Merrill, obviously

getting somewhat close here, hopefully in the next month or two. It seems like you guys could be set up well for the second half of the season to really go on a nice run. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, obviously, this season hasn't gone exactly how we planned, considering how last year went. But I think that just kind of speaks, I think for where we're at speaks to the culture in this organization, the depth in this organization.

Obviously, nobody's expecting. you know, you go to the World Series year before and then, you know, you make some signs and you have guys, you hope, you know, make the next step in terms of their career. And then, you know, you're looking at how many ever guys on the, on the eye, I don't know what the exact number was at one point in time. And, and, you know, key piece. So that's, that's, it's always tough. But I think it just kind of speaks to just the culture that we've fostered in the clubhouse that we have that, like, guys are able to hold the line of like, okay, we got to. just keep doing our part. We don't need to do any more than what we were intended to do before.

Maybe some guys got to step up just a little bit. But just to be able to hold the line until the reinforcements get back, you know, you've got to tip your cap to guys like that. I mean, you're talking about almost, I think it was over two months of being under 500. And then, you know, you grind your way back, you know, to get through to 500. And then obviously lose a tough series in Philadelphia. But, yeah, to if you would have told us to, beginning of the year that, hey, we are going to miss this guy, this guy, this guy for this amount of time.

I think a lot of people would take two games under 500 with, you know, half the season left to play. And those guys looking to come back around, you know, the all-star break, if, you know, maybe even longer, whatever it is. But yeah, I mean, I obviously it's not ideal, but I'm proud of the guys for the way that they've kind of, you know, held the line. Yeah, I was going to ask your thoughts on the young pitchers that have kind of had, you know, such a weird season being called upon, being sent down, being called back upon. It feels like a lot on them.

And it feels like they've responded well and they've helped keep this team right there around 500. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, you look at a guy like Slade, you know, for instance, Slade gets called up when Merrill gets hurt and he goes, throws really well. And he's battling, you know,

he's great first time through the order. And then he's 10 in the battle. And he's grinding the second. third time through the order. And he has another couple good starts. They send him down. And then he has like, I think two good starts down there. And then they call him back up. And he's improved on what it was that got him sent down in the first place. And he's improved on the fly. I don't think people understand. I think they underestimate how hard it is to be able to improve things as drastic as that. And it's not even necessarily, that's not even a physical change. That's just,

just a mental change of being like, I need, I'm good the first time to do it, but what do I need to change mentally? Maybe something physically. Maybe it's something pitch mix. Maybe it's usage, whatever it is. How can I do that on the fly in the big leagues when I expected to be down the in the minor leagues being able to work on this thing?

So that's the tip of the cap to Slade. And then you got a guy, same thing like in Nelly. Nellie's, you know, changing his picks, Mitch, changing his usage. And he's learning that on the fly in the big leagues, trying to get big league hitters out. It's not easy. I mean, it's, it's a very lonely place when you're out there and you're grinding and you're trying to figure things out at the big league level because you're making mistakes and they're making you pay. And especially at a time when your team's count on you to give them a solid start every fifth day to give them a chance to win.

So yeah, those guys have stepped up tremendously. And then, you know, Monty at the same time has, you know, trying to round in the form. I mean, I think as monotonous as spring training is and as much as, you know, after like the 10th day, everyone's like, all right, let's. get out of here. Let's start the real thing. Right. There's some value into like having that spring training, seeing hitters every fifth day, going through the routine, building up that stamina, just kind of, you know, the season stamina, not necessarily your workload and stuff like that.

So, yeah, so like Monty's, you know, coming out of that. And so we're round in the shape here. And the offense has been, you know, has held us afloat, really most of the time, the offense in the bullpen. Yeah, it's been really good so far for what we've had to deal with. One guy you guys did get back from injury recently is Geraldo Perdomo. And Jordan Montgomery, and I think it was Perdomo's first game back. Montgomery just couldn't stop talking about how great it was to have Domo back in the clubhouse

and how he talks to him a lot during his outings and encourages him and whatnot. Can you just speak to Perdomo and kind of his impact on you as a starting pitcher when you're out there? Yeah, Domo's great. I mean, that's the thing. You know if the ball is hit within a, I don't even know, 10 foot radius of them from left to right, you know it to now. So in terms of a physical, him just being out there and playing his position, he's getting to a lot of balls.

And I think the thing about Domo is that it doesn't look very flashy, as you would see other infielders, but his make is that a lot of guys are not making. Or even if he's not making the play and getting the out of first, he's knocking the ball down and keeping the ball in the infield and potentially saving a run. Or he's throwing the cutoff to the right base, you know, a spot that saves a run or doesn't allow a guy to advance 90 feet. He's doing the small things of people that if you're not watching the game at a really granular level,

you're not understanding that. So on the physical side, that's what DOMO means the team. And at the same time at the bottom of the order, he tends to stretch out the lineup, you know, at the nine hole. He's like having another leap bottom in the order. And I think you guys have seen that now since he's been back to less how many ever it's been two weeks or whatever it is. He's always seemed up in a spot where he need a big hit or you need a lead off runner on base or you need to get the guy over. And he always seems to come up at that spot.

Now on the other side of it, the Domo side of it, the clubhouse side of it, he's great. I mean, I think he's the bridge between because his English is pretty solid. But he's a good bridge between the Latin guys and the English-speaking guys of being able to kind of talk, you know, whether it's to Jordan Montgomery, who is a country boy from South Carolina, Virginia, where it's south. And you can talk to, you know, Marte and you can talk to Suarez and you can talk to, you know, Justin Martinez. He's able to kind of keep the heartbeat of the team. And I think that's something that doesn't necessarily get valued as much as. you know, I think people understand. I think people see that.

But I think being in the clubhouse and being able to see it, you're like, okay, yeah, I get it. There's a, there's this kind of, I don't know the exact word for it, but there's just this kind of stability when he comes back. And it's like, everyone's like, all right, we got this guy's like our heartbeat type of deal. And when your heartbeat comes back,

it tends to do good things for you. We recently discussed that they are going to be using the ABS challenge system in AAA instead of the ABS anyway, they're going full ABS challenge system. I wanted to see what your thoughts were on that and if you like that versus going with an automatic strike zone or automatic strike zone, I should say.

I wouldn't, I don't know. I've never used either one of them, so I wouldn't know. I wouldn't able to speak from experience. And we'll say that it is, I don't know. I see, there's, there's, I'm conflicted on that because you are taking the human element out in terms of the automated strike zone. But at the same time, there's some spots where some calls, you know, go one way or the other,

where it would be nice to get the right call in a big spot. And it's like, and being able to challenge. I think if I had to lean just from what I've talked to, the guys that have played in AAA and have used both, I think the challenge system seems like the more ideal way to. do it just because we have challenges on video replay and stuff like that. So to have a full on automated zone, I think, would be tough because I think there's going to be a lot of kinks. And I think there's still going to be kinks to work out with the challenge system.

But that's only happening so many times throughout the night, you know, when you're going, oh, I didn't like that pitch or that call, I guess to say I'm going to challenge that as opposed to 100 and some odd every night on each side that the automated zones in play. So, yeah, I don't know. I'll be, I'll be curious to see what MLB decides to do with something like that. But, yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting. I have a bit of a crazy one here for you, Zach.

If you could, if you could steal a pitch from one of your teammates, which, which pitch would you, would you steal? So, you know, Merrill Kelly's change up, whatever, whatever comes to your mind. What would you, what would you say? If I could steal a pitch. Um, that's a good question. I guess you already have a change up. So taking Merrill's change up wouldn't. That probably wouldn't make any sense at all.

No, as good as Merrill's change up is like, I'm content with mine. Yours is pretty good too. I need something that's like a difference maker. So my first thought was Justin Martinez's fastball. Yes. Okay.

All right. That feels like the right answer. 100. Do I get to have my command or do I? Yes. It's no, it's not even close. So that was other than other, we have some other guys and some really good stuff, but that I think is the separate. If I threw 100 miles an hour, it would be a, it would be such a separator.

Yeah, I think I'm taking that. Thanks, Zach, thank you so much, man. We appreciate you stopping by it. Thank you to Shamrock Farms. And honestly, thank you for everything you're doing for the community. We really appreciate you being involved in programs like this. Yeah, I appreciate it guys. Thanks for having me. All right, yeah, Zach. Thanks, Zach. Yeah. He was absolutely outstanding. And of course, yes, the right answer is Justin Martinez. Maybe the, maybe the sink of me to split. See, yeah. So I need to clarify with Zach later on. Does he mean the four seam or does he mean the two seam? Does he mean the sinker? Because the sinker has crazy life, Derek, as we've discussed and is still

102 miles an hour. The four seam is a little straight. He doesn't really throw the four seam that much anymore. I also am intrigued at what the Justin Martinez splitter would look like as part of Zach Allen's arsenal. I wondered if he might go that direction with that question. But yeah. Great stuff.

And I don't mean to pick apart Zach Gallen's words there because I appreciate him being here. But one thing that I did secretly get excited about, and I don't know if anybody else picked this up, was when he started talking about, you know, playing. renting roots and being here in Arizona. And I mean, obviously none of that really impacts where Zach Gallen ultimately ends up after his time or his current contract is up. But I mean, again, he is a guy that I think all Diamondbacks fans want to keep here in the Valley for a long time. Yeah. And it's excellent that he is, you know, doing things like this to help out the community. This is a bad time of the year, by the way. And I mean, I don't think we do discuss enough how,

how many children here in the state do rely on like state funded like lunch programs and such for them to get the you know the nutrition that they need and during the summer that's very hard to come by so appreciate zach and shamrock farms for leading the way on that initiative also appreciate desert financial again for sponsoring the count for more than 84 years desert financial has been Arizona's largest most trusted local credit union they got me started on my home ownership journey and hopefully they can get you started as well they can hopefully help you reach your financial dreams and goals. You can look to Desert Financial as trusted financial experts for checking and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting Desertfinancial.com slash 200 right now. Also, we got some baseball games coming up here in Arizona, and I know sometimes with it being as hot as it is outside, you might not want to leave your home, but you also might, much like myself, get bored being in your house like I was this weekend. So, of course, if you do decide last minute to go see a baseball game or any other

sporting event, concerts, comedy shows, all sorts of events, you can look to game time for that, and you can save up to 60% off by buying tickets last minute with game time. You can save even more with exclusive in-app deals, as well as if you aren't really picky about your seat, you can let game time choose your seat for you in a certain section, and you might save even more money. on your ticket. You can get a panoramic view of what your view is going to be like from your seat. You can also rest assured that GameTime is going to give you the lowest price guaranteed or GameTime will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guest work out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the app right now. Create an account and use code

P. H&X for $20 off your first purchase. Turns to apply again, create an account redeem code pH and X for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Join me, Bo, Johnny for the 999 challenge. on Saturday using game time section 111 that's right and that might be the next times that gallon starts no am i being too ambitious about that when would that line up so gallon is in gallon gallon would line up for Tommy henry's spot so he was on Saturday so there is the Sunday game then you've got Tuesday Wednesday Thursday so on paper he would maybe start Friday okay but no that's that's that's not how math works there because he's throwing a sim game today I don't think they

want to put Zach Gallen on three days rest for his first start back. I'm no, I'm no medical expert. That doesn't seem like a great way in your rehab. You also used to teach math, though. So, I mean, I'm just saying there is some, there, there, there is some failure there. There's a little bit of failure there. Yeah, I think Saturday would be, that's the day that I would, that I sort of have in my head right now.

Nine, nine, nine challenge on Zach Gallag. Is that a good thing, though, because that means less time per inning because that gallon is just a good point. That's a good point. up the A's. You might want, you might want to, like a bullpen

start potentially for that kind of. Can someone fill me in on what the 9-99- challenge is? So you drink over the course, one of the nines is nine innings. One of the nine is hot dogs

and one of the nine is beer. So you have to drink a hot dog and a beer, or drink a beer and eat a hot dog. That's the way those things work. Right. Which is fine through the first three innings.

So you have to average, average one per inning. There is no. There is no averaging Johnny miserable. Yeah, Johnny has to finish it by the end of the inning. Johnny keeps trying to bend the rules. He keeps trying to be like, let's make it a cumulative thing where it's about how many I can get in in an entire game. And it's like, no, you're out when you stop eating a hot dog in a beer in that inning.

That's when you're done. You can keep going for fun. You did not go over to the neck. Yeah, that's when you officially are done. Johnny's about to get three or four. I think I'm going to get five, six. And I think Bo is going to come pretty close. close to completing it.

Okay, Bo one time tried to challenge me in eating churro dogs. And you talked about this on the show the other day. You can ask Bo how that went for Bo. He talked about it on the show. He said that Derek put three down in about a span of like 10, 5, 10 minutes. Less than 10 minutes, correct. You ingested that much sugar in the span of 5 10 minutes. I ate three churro dogs in less than 10 minutes.

There's a video of it on my Instagram. Are these like the XL ones? These are the norm. No, they're churot dogs. They're just the, there's no Excel. They're pretty big. It's a regular churot dog. They're like a foot long.

Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a churro inside of a donut from Bosa with frozen yogurt on top. How did you feel after that, Derek? Terrible. Awful. Johnny tried to, uh... I think he and Bo both went to the bathroom and we're, uh, filling it, feeling it. Just hanging out in there, basically. Just hanging out.

Just two dudes hanging out. You and Johnny, uh, or apparently Johnny was like trying to switch a hot dog over for a chero dog or like a cop. He was like, how many does that count as? That's a bad idea. Yeah, that's a bad idea. I was trying to let it happen. Bowen let happen. It's a terrible idea.

I was like, I'll count it as two. No. Yeah, it's not two. It's five times as many calories. Correct. And it's probably about one of those. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it's probably about five times the amount of food. But are you, are you participating in this?

Oh, no, no, no. I value my own health far too much to participate in the 999 challenge. But I might go to witness it because that sounds very fun. It'd be kind of fun if you did. Yeah. Get involved. Well, maybe we'll, we'll see. see. Because you know what? I am part of the hold the line crew, as are so many of our diehards,

because I saw how many of them lost their minds. Trust me, I also lost my mind during that interview when he said hold the line, not once but twice. So we hold the line in this house, of course. We thank you guys for being diehards, those of you that are diehards. You identify yourself by yelling, hold the line in the comments. But if you're not a diehard yet, make sure to grab that diard membership right now. Not only do you get a wonderful welcome package that includes a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com and your diehard membership card. You also get access to all of our premium written content. You get entrance to the Discord lounge where we are always creating additional extra special content just for you diehards as well as discounts on all of our events.

So make sure to join us today. Well, of course, we had a lot of content in this episode. We've done a lot. We've talked a lot. We're not done yet. We're not done yet. You know why, Jesse? Because today is Monday, Damon.

And you know what we do on Mondays. Of course, you know every year is our year. You know every month on this show is Pride Month. You know every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day on this show, of course, is Earth Day because we recycle. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. Always something interesting in my mailbox.

I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go out. All right. What do we got? First question. first question comes from Travis Moore of course our Ironman Street continues and he says a new Iron Man streak actually but he says has this season made an impact thus far on us resigning said Melkman that's a great question I don't know I mean I really don't know how this season would impact Zach Allen I would say in the grand scheme of things his value isn't extremely high right now right I mean well I'm just saying it's It's not like it was last year when he was literally in the middle of his Cy Young race, right? Yeah, yeah.

Jack Allen has had injuries and things like that. So from the perspective of, you know, this season impacting it in a negative way, I don't believe this this season has impacted his chances of staying here at all. His chances are probably unchanged in regards to staying here, right? But in the grand scheme. You heard those comments about planting roots, Derek. You were just talking about that. Well, I mean, you know, he says things like that.

And, of course, I don't want to take too much away from that, obviously. I just think that, you know, there is something about Zach Gallen's time here. I feel like he, the minute he arrived, he was already in the middle of, or he was beginning this historic streak that he ended up completing and be holding now the most starts for a major league baseball player with three earn runs or less allowed, you know, in each start, right? but he I felt like the minute that he came here he was welcomed he was immediately like seen as the future of this team and I I think for all intents and purposes he has enjoyed his time there yeah I agree I don't I don't think you know some players might just go on the record saying like oh yeah I'd love to stick around it's you know kind of a canned answer just sort of what they're obligated to say I don't I don't think that's the case was Zach Allen I think he genuinely does

enjoy pitching for the Diamondbacks and being here in Arizona, you know, the story that he wrote in the Players Tribune over the off season, that's not something he had to do. Like that was him sort of going out of his way to really express how much he appreciates this fan base and enjoys being here and being part of this organization. So I do think that's real, but I also think it's real that Zach Allen, like anyone, probably like is not going to take a massive discount in order in order to stay with his current team. And that's where it goes to the Diamondbacks, right, in terms of what kind of investment are they willing to make?

Ken Kendrick, after the Diamondbacks signed Eduardo Rodriguez, you know, after he signed Jordan Montgomery, he talked about the lengths of contracts and how the Diamondbacks have not necessarily been in great position when they've signed guys to extended contracts in the past. And Zach Allen is going to have to be an extended contract. I mean, Aranola just signed for seven years with the Phillies. you're probably looking at about a seven-year deal.

Are the Diamondbacks willing to go above and beyond what they're, what they've allowed themselves to do with other guys in order to bring back someone like Galen? I don't have the answer to that right now. All right. What else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Brian Bobbitt and he says, Brighton Bobbitt, and he says, with the injuries and reports that Merrill may not be back until mid-August, could the debacks look at cheaper starting pitcher at the trade deadline

to try and fill the void? I mean, it would be for a very short amount of time. And of course, we know that those moves don't get made until the trade deadline, right? Jesse. So we're talking about August 1st getting that new pitcher with Merrill being so close. I can't imagine that they would make that move. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make some sort of move in regards to pitching in general. And it could potentially be somebody that I don't know could help out with the starting pitching for a,

a short gap, I'm not sure. I see it still being a situation where the Diamondbacks are going to be looking for relief pitching over starting pitching. I still feel like the Diamondbacks are confident in what they have in starting pitching in a starting rotation. It's just, can they make it that long? Can they make it to the point where Mel Kelly comes back and still be part in the race for a wild card spot?

I mean, if the Diamondbacks, you know, if July 30th rolls around and Erod is back and Gallen is back and Merrill Kelly is. is about to head down to Reno on a rehab assignment or something like that, it would feel pretty silly at that point to go out and pay a hefty price, what I'm sure would be a hefty price to acquire a, you know, a big name starting pitcher of the trade deadline. It just, it wouldn't be a good use of assets in my mind.

However, you know, could the diamond backs, could the diamond backs maybe get like a swing man type, sort of as is being described here, someone who could make spot starts for you, but could also, you know, maybe serve a long man role in the bullpen or something along those lines, just to give the Diamondbacks a little bit more depth.

I think something like that could make sense. It's just going to depend on what are the dynamics of the injury situation come July 30th? Is Erod back? You know, is Gallen pitching the way that you expected him to? Is ERAD looking like the pitcher that he was last season? There's a lot of variables that go into that. All right. What else we got there, Damon?

next question comes from the basketball and football guy that's pretty cool pick a lane you're here you're the basketball and football guy and you're asking a baseball question that's true that doesn't seem that is going to I think we have to skip this question well first off woman to to fit you know maybe change their allegiances a little bit I don't know you're now you're now you're now the diamondbacks guy uh A6 is what you are first off he asks about someone that doesn't even exist in Eduardo Rodriguez. So he says, when Eduardo Rodriguez and Zach Gallen come back,

whose spots are they going to take in the rotation? Who? That's the funny part about the first one. Yeah. No, it's totally great. I mean, I think we kind of discussed it earlier, but obviously the Diamondbacks right now have an open spot in the rotation with sending Tommy Henry down.

So that's Zach Gallens, I imagine. When he is ready, it just depends on what the Diamondbacks are going to do. Should he not be ready when that spot in the rotation comes up next, right? Yeah. Then you also have Erod, who, again, is probably going to take Slade's spot. That feels like the, you know, maybe the most obvious answer. But who knows how Slate and Ryan Nelson are both pitching by the time that that comes around? Yeah, I think I agree with that.

Just given, you know, the debacks sort of use seniority, you know, the guys who have kind of been around for the longest. That's something that they often use when making these kinds of decisions. And I think the numbers would probably agree with that as well. Slade has been very good. at times shown flashes here and there. But I think Ryan Nelson has at least at this point shown himself to be the more reliable starting pitcher. Has he been great?

No, but can he give you about five innings each timeout and a, you know, an ERA around five, keep you in some games, maybe some rough ones along the way. But if that's your number five starter, then you can, you can roll with that. Slade at this point seems to be a little bit more of a work in progress. It's still, you know, seems to be a trend where the D-Backs trust early and then they don't really trust him as much the second and third time around and you can you can

understand why so that would be my guess as of right now that ryan nelson would be the the guy who'd be most likely to stick around but uh certainly a lot could change between between now and and when errat is ready to come back uh slade spot cannot be taken by someone who doesn't exist says carlos yes i mean well i mean i don't know what evidence to show you to prove that edwarda rodriguez exists but I'm starting to doubt myself. So I will say that, yes, I mean, Slade, the idea there could be maybe that Slade doesn't even get sent down. Maybe he becomes part of the bullpen at that point because of the way he has been so effective going through, you know, the starting, you know, lineup one time. I don't know what the plan is there would also very much make sense for him to get set down and to stay stretched out just for, you know, starting pitching depth with the way the season has gone.

You never know when Slade would be called upon again to come up and fill somebody else's role. So what else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Zane McCauchak. What do we think in there? Yeah. Macachachic, machochic, chick? I don't know. Mottacek.

Machisek. That's what I'm going. Zane Machisak. Yeah, that's your new name. Whether you pronounce it that way or not, that's what we're going to be. Do you think we could use Pavin Smith as a trade piece? He's raking in AAA, but we don't have much. much use for him on the 40 man. Oh man. Yeah, I hate the idea of that. But Pavin is absolutely

raking in AAA. And honestly, he's even been raking at times for this Diamondbacks team. His value could be very, very high when the trade deadline comes around. I'm sure his name is going to be floated out there. I'm sure we'll get questions about Jake McCarthy, you know, especially with the way that Jake has been playing as of late. Jake's value probably has never been higher than it is here approaching the trade deadline. But that also means his values never been higher to the Diamondbacks. As much as sometimes you want to look at a guy as a trade piece, you also have to look at them and what they're able to do for your team.

Pavan might be the same way. Pavan's versatility and the fact that he kind of has been so capable of adapting, both to be, you know, to being called up and set down so often and still not really playing very often at a major league level and still being able to contribute when he's called upon has been impressive. I think that Payvin might just continue to get better and could be one of those guys that I'm actually regret trading away. I very much could see him being a trade piece though when the trade deadline comes around. I think when Pavin was was up this year and hitting pretty well, I don't think it was a fluke.

Like I don't think it was him getting super lucky. Like Pavan legitimately hit well. He was doing more damage than we've seen him typically do in the past. As far as his trade value is concerned, I mean, I see why people would wonder. about that because of the numbers that he put up and as you said the fact that the diamondbacks don't necessarily have a clear role for him right now especially once alec thomas comes back uh but i still i still don't think that other like if you're a contending team right now and you're looking to bolster your lineup is paven smith that you know is that the first phone call

you're going to make probably not there's not much of a track record there uh you know there's a little bit of sealing that you could tap into he's a young guy who's you know who's certainly affordable. Teams might be kind of intrigued at what he could become, but I don't think he's someone that you're going to get a whole lot for at the trade deadline, just given that the track record there is so limited. Yeah, I would agree with that. And that would be the problem there. All right, Damon, we got time for one more question. Can you get us one more out of the mailbag? Final question comes from friend of the program. Our boy, Charles Woodall Pike. And he says, besides Grimmis, which fast food mascot would you want to throw out a first pitch for the debacks?

I don't mean to take his question and adapt it into something else, but I feel like we should dive deeper into this. I mean, there are so many fast food mascots we could have throw out a first pitch at a game. But who would we have in our starting lineup only comprised? You want to do a whole lineup of fast food? It's nine. It's nine mascots, Jesse. We just have to name nine mascots.

I think we can do that, especially with my vast knowledge of the 80s. There's some analysis that goes into it, too. Like, you got to put them in the right spot in the order. Of course. Of course. Jesse, who's leading off? The Taco Bell Chihuahua.

I think there's some speed there. We know what we're doing here. Yeah. We're not stupid. He has that dog in him, Derek. He absolutely has that dog in. I don't know. Jack in the box in the two hole.

Jack? From Jack in the box? I think Mayor McChese plays shortstop. He's got the leadership quality. He does have the leadership. I was going to have him as manager, but you're right. Yeah. Mayor McCheese is going to hit 9.

He's going to hit ninth for sure in the third. Dombo. Yeah, right. Of course. Basically, we're giving him all of the same attributes. Short stop and hit ninth. I get it.

Third, Fudgy the Whale from Cardwell. I have no idea what you're talking about. Fudgy the whales of beast, Jesse. Fudgy the whale? Oh my God. And then the Burger King,

the actual creepy ass burger king, hitting fourth, hitting cleanup. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. All right. Um, what do we got?

We got four more spots to fill. Ronald McDonald, Jack in the Box? Those do anything for you? Yeah, no, I mean, Ronald McDonald has to be in there. I said Jack in the Box in the two-hole. I have the Noid from Domino's coming up in the five spot because I'm going to flip the, I'm going to flip the lineup around, right? But I know the Noid is an on-based machine, right?

Ronald, after him. He feels like a center fielder. He is a center fielder, but he's been struggling. Agile. Yeah, he's been struggling. You know, he's kind of like Lordus a little bit. He's streaky. Of course, Colonel Sanders.

in the seventh hole and then veteran leadership. Yeah, you got that veteran leadership in there. And then I think I would be remiss to not bring in Bob's big boy, you know, the big boy? Oh, yeah. I mean, that maybe he should be clean up. He should probably be a cleaner. I don't know though, Fudgy the Whale? Have he seen Fudgy the whale?

Come on. What about the Little Caesar's guy? Does he make it anywhere? Oh, I don't. Backup Utility and Fielder for sure. and it's specialist reliever maybe? Yeah, for sure. I don't know how the Keebler Elves factory.

We're not doing cereal mascots or cooking masks. I don't think that's a fast food restaurant. That's who they're playing. Chucky cheese? Yeah. Honestly, yeah, Chuckie Cheese is who I would want to see throughout the first pitch. Going back to there you go. Because Chuckie cheese is just creepy as hell.

But Chuckie cheese is a real thing, right? So when we talk about like Chuckie cheese throwing out the first pitch, I don't want a dude in a suit like grimace. I want them to wheel out one of the Chuckie cheese. She's from the actual restaurant that used to play the animated, you know, the animatronic thing, right? That's who I want throwing out the bitch because, you know, with five guys at Freddy's, those things are creepy and shit now. So that's fun. I think I just got a new really good one.

We have to put him in for his defense. Who? The mitt from Arby's. I think that's the first baseman, right? He catches everything. Yeah, he's got to throw it in his general direction. He's a Christian Walker. He's our Christian Walker.

All right. Well, we appreciate you guys and your questions. We appreciate Charles Woodall Pike, by the way. for being such a great individual and for providing us with such an amazing question. Big shout out to Zach Gallen and Shamrock Farms for the interview today. We appreciate it so much. We appreciate what they're doing for the community. And we appreciate each and every one of you for stopping by today.

Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore Cape Man of the K. This absolute maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are-D-N-D-O-D-W-G. Why is Marv at the bottom of our screen right now? We held the line twice, Jesse.

Hit the like. Hit the like. That's what H.T. H.T. H.O means. Hit the like. Didn't Tori say hold the line? He did like four times.

What is happening? Did they find, did we're get around? Why are all these Diamondbacks players and coach is saying hold the line? There's a conspiracy with Damon and I don't feel comfortable about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, of course, again, our show. Wait, we didn't do the thing. Damon. He's a Damon dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark bark and we hold the line HTL of course our show is at

PHNX underscore D-Backs but all roads do lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook shout out to Circle K for this beautiful studio that we are in and shout out to all of you beautiful people for being Diamondbacks fans we hope to see you guys tomorrow we will have a post game show

after tomorrow's game there is no game today so we hope you guys enjoy the day off shout out to Tio Wildcat said great show once again guys thank you so much for your super chat we appreciate you being here and we appreciate you all for your support and for you guys being here. Of course, we will see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have a wonderful evening and remember kids.

What? Super shot. Oh, I already said it. Oh. I said it. Wow. Yeah, it's like he doesn't even listen to me. It's like he doesn't even listen to me.

It's another day. Trust me. Like, I have a wife and a child. I am used to people not listening to me. This is nothing new. Well, Derek, you know, we've missed a couple in the last few shows and I was just self-conscious about it. I wanted to make sure it got read for.

good friend Tio Wildcat. Shout out. Well, of course, of course you want to put a T. Do you want to talk about the wildcats while you have his thing? Big recruiting weekend this weekend. Brent Brennan, solid job. Why did I do that? All I know is that when Damon tells me stuff, I always listen very attentively and understand

everything he says the first time and don't ask any clarifying questions. Oh, you guys are the worst. You guys are the worst. But that's those guys. Not you guys. You guys are the best. Thank you again for your time. We appreciate you.

And remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get to talk about it with Zach Gallen.