PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Burnes HERE TO STAY? MLB Insider Drops HUGE D-backs Update

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks desperately needed some positive news heading into the final stretch of the season, and they may have gotten it from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Passan believes Corbin Burnes is unlikely to opt out of his contract this offseason, potentially giving the D-backs a major piece of their starting rotation for 2027. We break down Passan’s comments, why they confirm what we’ve believed about Burnes’ future in Arizona, and how having Burnes at the top of the rotation could make the D-backs legitimate contenders again in 2027. Plus, we discuss why getting a healthy Corbin Carroll back could be a massive difference-maker for the D-backs during their playoff push. We also preview the upcoming 3-game series against the Texas Rangers at Chase Field and answer your Mailbag FRIDAY questions!0:00 Welcome to the PHNX D-backs Show! 3:10 Corbin Burnes set to opt-in in offseason ✅ 8:35 Corbin Carroll back in lineup TONIGHT 18:30 Texas Rangers series preview 32:30 MAILBAG FRIDAY?!?!?! 44:00 Can Ketel OR Corbin get hot? 🔥 48:35 D-backs top 10 in MLB core rankings 1:00:30 Should Lawlar play everyday?  1:11:15 Best possible Diamondbacks lineup 1:15:30 Remembering 9/11BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!New DraftKings customers sign up with code PHNX, spend just five bucks, and get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That’s code PHNX. In partnership with DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred NEXT STEP. Twenty-one plus. Arizona only. Eligibility restrictions apply. Fifty dollars in non-withdrawable Bonus Bets issued every seven days via click-to-claim for twenty-one days. Bonus Bets expire seven days after issuance. 1 football Boost per customer. Maximum bet limits and restrictions apply. Tokens expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered. Terms at d k n g dot c o slash offer.  Limited time offer.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is Corbyn Burns here to stay? Might be. We already thought that might be the case, but Jeff Passon chimed in with his thoughts, and it sounds like our guy could be part of this rotation for a long, long time. And we'll need him, and we needed some good news because the Diamondbacks have their final stretch of the season starting tonight against the Texas Rangers.

We are talking about all of this right now. Don't you go anywhere. Circle K. My name is Derek Monta. Occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX. Real to have you guys here. Happy Friday to you all. And let's get this last stretch of the season done.

Let's get the boys out there. Let's win some baseball games. Of course, I'm not alone. I got you wonderful people in the chat here. Great to see you guys. Thank you, Deborah, for wishing us a happy fifth anniversary. Yes, we are five years old. I am somehow still here five years later after the very first episode of this show we did.

I know, I'm as amazed as you are. but also got our guy, Damon Farrell, aka the bad boy of P.HMX, aka Damon Dog, on the ones and twos, bark, bark to you, Damon. Happy Friday. Happy Friday, Derek. Happy Friday.

And, of course, this show is brought to you by our friends, Game Time. Go download that GameTime app right now. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. And we got some updates on our Corbans, as well as a preview here for you

of the Texas Rangers series. that starts tonight. And yes, as we promised you yesterday, it is a special Mailbag Friday episode of this show. And we got lots of questions to get to. But first, we got to get to our Corbyns. We got, we got update on our Corbyns. Don't forget, we continue to lead the league in Corbyns. And we might have both of those guys back here very soon. Because according to reports, Corbyn Carroll is healthy and we'll be back in the starting lineup tonight. And more importantly, Corbin Burns, who just returned to the Diamondback starting rotation and made his debut against the Royals, might just be here to stay. According to a blurb in ESPN, Jeff Passon's,

excuse me, ESPN's Jeff Passon, he recently pointed out just some free agency notes overall and who might be opting in, who might be opting out across Major League Baseball. He did address Corbin Burns in his piece, and he said Burns returned from Tommy John surgery that had signedlined him for 15 months through three scoreless innings Tuesday. He could go the rest of the year without giving up a run and still not opt out of the four years and 140 million left on his deal. Will he opt out? No. That's not even like, in my opinion, will he opt out? That is just Jeff Passon, frankly saying, no, Corbyn Burns is not going to opt out of his deal. And that's great news.

The exact kind of news that we needed during a time where we haven't really had a lot of good news happening for this team. I mean, the good news has been the wins that they've gotten and their performance at times on the field, but it doesn't really feel like a lot of things publicly surrounding this team have been very good news. I feel like it's been a lot of bad PR. So to hear someone like Passon say that, you know, Corbin Burns is not going to opt out of his contract, is going to be here for the remaining years of his deal versus testing the market.

And obviously it makes a lot of sense. It's not really anything that we haven't been saying on this show that at least we felt, you know, the feeling here is that the injury almost cemented Corbyn Burns needing to stay here. Not to say that he would have opted out otherwise anyway. He came to Arizona. I don't think to win World Series.

He came to Arizona because he wants to live in Arizona. His wife wants to live in Arizona. His family wants to be here. So overall, it's great to have someone that just wants to be here simply to be here, to play for this organization and live here in this wonderful state that we live in. But, you know, sometimes money is going to be the deciding factor in a lot of things. money and perhaps wanting to win, wanting to win a World Series. Not to say the Diamondbacks can't, but, you know, it's obvious that there are other organizations

Burns could choose that would probably be a lot closer to winning a World Series rather than where the Diamondbacks stand, right? So, and where they stand right now is a half a game out of the wild card spot. It's not like we're that far out of things, but there's, obviously, there's other choices Burns could make. Hearing that he's going to stay is like just one of those things that it's, It's a feeling of like satisfaction and a feeling of one less thing to worry about. You know, Arizona didn't sign Burns just to be a rental anyway.

They envisioned him being as a centerpiece with a rotation that included guys like Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen and the rest of his pitching staff all being awesome. Now instead, I mean, Corbyn Burns staying here and being a part of this starting rotation for the future makes the future feel much better, makes the future feel much different. It makes 2027, if we have baseball, feel like this Diamondback's rotation is solid. We discussed it briefly yesterday, but with Corbyn, being, you know, the ace or 1A, 1B with, you know, Eduardo Rodriguez, they're at the top for 2027.

You'd have that, those two followed up with Brandon Fott, Ryan Nelson, you know, and Merrill Kelly, who still has one year left on his deal. Beyond 2027, a lot of question marks. But beyond 2027, we, can plan on if he doesn't opt out of his deal, Corbyn Burns, still being that ace at the top of this, you know, pitching staff in 2028. So that's a big, that's a big piece of this team. And that's a big piece of our future for the time being. Not only is he a Cy Young winner and, you know, a multi-time all-star. He is a guy that as he goes on in his career, you know, having him here could be very beneficial to younger guys that join this rotation like Mitch. Bratt and Cole Drake having someone of Corbyn Burns's experience and knowledge there in the

clubhouse next to you, this can be a good way to help develop those young pitchers into major leaguers. And those guys have already shown that they can be competitive at a major league level. I don't think that they're there yet, but with a little bit more development and again, you know, a little bit more experienced, you feel like those guys could definitely be, you part of this starting rotation. But having Corbyn Burns here, that's just, it's great, it's great news. It's great news for this team. And again, like I said, it's just a positive pick me up here during a time when they needed it. We got 15 games left in the season. We start a very important game tonight with the

Texas Rangers, series tonight with the Texas Rangers. And I think that this is just one little thing, you know, that can, you know, kind of pick up the fan base here. And, you know, I don't know how much this is going to get back to the team, but it's hard for any kind of news like this that ends up on social media and it ends up being, you know, kind of a bigger story than just the little blurb that it was in Jeff Passon's article, it, you have a hard time feeling like it's not going to get back to those guys. And again, this is a positive thing. So, you know, hearing that is just going to hopefully be a little, spark for these guys. But a bigger spark is going to be the other Corbyn returning to this team, Corbyn Carroll, who is back in the starting lineup tonight, according to this tweet from Jody Jackson,

who I guess heard it secondhand from Mike Farron interviewing Tori Lovolo on the MLB network, but Tori said that they got, quote, the best news possible on Corbyn Carroll. There is discomfort in there, but it's treatable. Tori offered DH today, and Corbyn said no, he's ready to go full throttle. He plays through almost anything but the back knocked him down and he needs the two and a half days off. So there's best possible news on Corbyn Carroll, that he's ready to go full throttle. And again, the good news here is that the MRI came back clean

and that, you know, overall he is expected to be back in the lineup tonight and in right field for the Diamondbacks. They couldn't have lost Corbin. You know, they couldn't afford to lose Corbyn right now. And I think that the overall idea of where does a spark of offense, come from, this is it. This is the last spark, I think, that they can add to this lineup is Corbyn returning.

It's a healthy Corbyn. So getting Corvin back isn't just simply about adding another bat. It's about getting one of your most important offensive weapons back with the season on the line at the most important time. And hopefully he's right. We know that he has

not been right. I think a lot of people have identified that. The team, Tori, they've said he was fine. You know, we asked him about Carol being injured a few times over the last month, especially considering, especially during the time where he was kind of in a slump. But this is our 30-30 guy from 2025.

This is the guy that has set the debacks triple record. And this is exactly what the diamondbacks kind of need back in the lineup. They don't need Corbyn's power. They need his speed. They need his extra base ability. They need his ability to put pressure on the defense and his ability to turn a walk or a single into a triple, you know, into a scoring opportunity. And I mean, the pitching staff, I think, has plenty of things to be, you know, happy about,

or, you know, there are plenty of players returning to the pitching staff that you feel confident in what they have become and what they're going to be going forward. You feel like they're only going to get better as they get more stretched out. And now that they have all these arms back, including Ryan Nelson, who should be returned, during this series as well, that the pitching staff should be fine. I mean, we should have enough weapons there. We should be formidable. We should be competitive pitching-wise.

But we have needed something offensively for a long time. It's the reason why, and no, you know, this is no disrespect to him, why the Lars Neupar trade being the only trade the Diamondbacks made was disappointing. Because even in the idea of getting back a position, player, it was not exactly a position player that many felt we needed. We needed a DH, we needed a first baseman, we needed power. And power is something that Lawyers-Newbar was not offering already this season. His numbers have gotten much better, and he has not been a problem. He's been a part of the solution offensively lately. It's just not what the debacks needed. They needed, you know, they do

need that power. They do need something. So as far as, you know, where they stand offensively, they just have to figure out how to be this current identity of chaos, which is doing it without, you know, a 30 home run guy, without, you know, doing it without that much from a particular position player, but, you know, kind of getting contributions as they have all season from the entire lineup. They just can't collectively go cold as well like they have offensively. And that's, that's the big scratching your head thing about this. offense is how, you know, how many times you've seen them all have a bad day against a mediocre

pitcher for like the Houston Astros that has no business dominating us the way that he did, or even in this Royal Series as well. We had to wait until we were in extra innings or late into games to start making some waves. Those starters for the Royals dominated us and probably shouldn't have, but, you know, again, that's easier for me to say sitting here in this chair with this little drink in my hand, not doing any physical activity whatsoever. But our Corbans are going to be the things, they're going to be the players that make the big difference for this team. Corbin burns, if we make the postseason, completely changes, you know, this starting rotation. And Corby, Carol, if he's healthy, can, you know, be the most powerful offense weapon that the

diamondbacks have, right? So can tell Marte, though, and we need him right as well. It would be great to have both these guys right and perhaps the injuries were the things that were holding them back. So we just, we need this offense to get moving with 15 games left that it would appear that the majority of people around baseball seem to be picking the Padres to be the team that ends up with the final wildcard spot over us. And I need the Diamondbacks to make a lot of those people look foolish by proving them wrong and by stealing this spot from the Padres. and not disappointing us again. We cannot have another goddamn season end

with us coming this close to a playoff spot only to miss the postseason. We can't. We just simply can't. I'm going to lose my mind. And no one wants that. It's bad for everybody. Let me tell you.

Damon specifically, though. He's going to have a really bad time around me if we don't make the playoffs. And that goes both ways. I was to say, it's funny. He's going to be horrible to be around. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'll be much worse. Probably much, much, much worse.

You'll be like, oh, now I get to enjoy my off season and I'll be like, no, Derek, we're losers. I do never forget that a lot, don't I? Yeah, I mean, I've already planned some vacations for October. I'm just taunting the Diamondbacks to not make the playoffs. I dare you to not make the playoffs. I'm going to the Bahamas on October 8th. Unless. Unless you make the playoffs.

playoffs. I swear to God, I swear to God, I will get on that plane and go to the Bahamas. Yeah, you're right. It doesn't really feel like I'm as angry about it as I'm pretending to be. It just feels like some of us actually care and some of us. Yeah, no, I get it. I get it. I'm hearing it now. I'm hearing it now. You're right. So I'll try to dial that back a little bit, but it's probably not going to happen because I'm excited about going to the Bahamas. Anyway, we're going to talk about this upcoming series that starts tonight that will feature Corbyn Carroll in the last. lineup on the other side of this break. So, of course, don't you guys

go anywhere. You are watching the P.HNX Diamondback show. We'll be right back. Well, the wait is over, folks. Football is here, and we are having a great time. Draft Kings is having a great time, and Draft Kings is on. And this September, they want to start

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Membership is required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no-cost registration, activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions to apply. All right. Well, we have our Draft King's matchup breakdown for the series starting tonight at Chase Field with the Texas Rangers. So let's take a look here at how these two teams compare because they've had very similar seasons, I guess you could say. But the Diamondbacks overall team ERA now being in the top half of

baseball, you got to love that. Damon, you got to love that. You got to love seeing 13th next to the Diamondbacks ERA for team ERA. They have a 4.10 ERA. Meanwhile, the Rangers, ERA is 4.29, which is 21st in Major League Baseball. Their offense, a little better team OPS of 717, which is 16th, Diamondbacks 707, which is now down to 22nd in Major League Baseball. That should be a surprise to nobody watching this team lately and how anemic their offense truly has been, both with home runs and runs scored, runners in scoring position, almost every imaginable category, it feels like. Oats above average, the Diamondbacks have 43 outs above average.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are at 18. Both teams are in the top five there. Diamondbacks have the second most outs above average. They're still one of the best defensive teams in all of baseball. And the Rangers, again, not bad at 18 outs above average. They are fifth. They currently lead the season series two to one. And you hate that.

You hate that. So we got to, there's one reason to sweep this series just to win the season series against the Rangers, who we do not like anymore. And we hate them. And they're bad people. Specifically, Corey Seeger. Adoles Garcia. Adoles Garcia. I mean, he cheated.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, there's a good enough reason. Every time we losing the playoffs, somebody cheated to make it happen. Ryan Braun. Ryan Braun. Adoles Garcia. But we play the Yankees and we beat them in seven.

Make it make sense. I can't. That was back when the sport was ethical. It's true. So ethical back in 2001 when no one was taking steroids. Yeah, right. I don't like these weird accusations. I don't love that.

Uh, Texas Rangers, of course, you know, Again, they are a team that is currently fighting still for a playoff spot. And that's, I think, the most dangerous thing about all of these teams that the Diamondbacks are playing. Every single team, aside from the Colorado Rockies left on their schedule, is still in some way kind of fighting for a playoff spot. I mean, the Rangers are three games back now from the Houston Astros for the AL-West. So they're still kind of in that fight. and then as far as the American League wildcard is concerned,

they are two games back. So almost in a less advantageous position than the Diamondbacks are, but they still have two ways to make their way into the postseason, whereas the division was a dream that was lost on opening day this season. However, you know, right now the Diamondbacks, again, still have the fact that the Padres have to face teams that hate that. Texas Rangers have no reason to hate us. They just have,

they're just, they have something to play for. They, they, they, they, they, they,

they, they, they, they, I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna act like the Texas Rangers have any animosity towards us in any way.

Uh, but, uh, the Rockies, yeah, they could, might want to play spoiler against the debacks there right before the end.

I just feel like the Padre's having the three game series against the Giants and then the three games against the Dodgers before the kids. we play them is my biggest hope at this point for the Padres to lose some games and for those teams that are playing pretty good baseball to step up and beat them just based on divisional hate and state pride in the state of California. But we'll see. We'll see if that happens.

Meanwhile, as far as the Rangers go, Damon, I think the probable pitching matchups kind of favor the Diamondbacks. I don't know. What do you think? Let's take a look at those probabilities for the. the series, but I do like these three guys going in this very important series for the Diamondbacks. Yeah. I mean, these are probably the three most stable pitchers that we have right now, right?

As much as Merrill hasn't been great this season, it does feel like he's at least like, he's had some good starts recently and that's that's. Yeah. And he's eaten some innings this year, which, you know, is is valuable in it of its own right. Corbyn Burns, I think Will gets that standpoint, hopefully by the end of the year. but, you know, after one three-inning start, I don't think it's fair to put him in that category. Fott and E-Rod have been the anchors that have been keeping this,

not anchors, I guess that's the opposite term, but they've been the things that have been making this team ascend all season long. Like, it's been the Fought and the E-Rod show of, like, getting the D-BACs out of some bad holes that they've been in at different points of the season. I'm sure if we looked at those playoff odds yesterday, Derek, like you could look up when Brandon Fott got called back up. up and you'd see a divot at the bottom.

And then you'd see a skyrocket happen because Brandon Fott was that good. He won the team a game every five starts for like four or five straight outings, right? So this is who you want up there pitching for the debacks other than probably Corbyn Burns. And the Rangers pitchers, I mean, both Rocker and Gore on this list are like guys with a lot of potential, not guys that have put up great seasons this year. They're susceptible to being damaged. and then we'll see what they can do with a bullpen game on in game three there. Here's one thing I'll say about Merrill Kelly is that Merrill Kelly had a very bad August for a stretch.

I mean, he did have one game where he gave up one earn run, but he had a five earn run game. Let's see, you know, multiple games here with five runs or more given up. But in September or excuse me, in July, Merrill was incredible. Merrill posted a 1.95 ERA through all five starts in that month. In July, you said? In July, yeah. He went three and two. Yeah, he's had his moments this season, I think, to your point.

Like, there have been times where he's been really, really bad, and there have been times where he's been kind of all right. And he's been, like I said, all season long, though, I do feel that, like, even in his worst starts where a lot of times the damage happens in the first second inning or so, it feels like he finds a way to, like, still lock in and give you five innings or whatever. So, you know, as much as the Merrill contract hasn't been a success by any stretch and, you know, it hasn't been a good season for him at all.

I do think that he hasn't been like the reason that this team has been struggling. That is way more on the offense than it is on Merrill Kelly. Yeah, I agree with that. My thought is that at the very least we might be coming into another good stretch like he had in July, right? I mean, that would come at the perfect time. His June was awful. His July was amazing. His August was pretty awful, but it ended decent.

You know, he had the game against the Cubs where he gave up three earned runs in five and two-thirds. He had a seven-inning shut out against the Giants. And then he had a six innings, three-earned run outing against the Astros that they lost one to three. And again, Merrill giving up three runs and the Diamondback's offense not being able to muster up more than one run isn't. That's more the reason they lost than Merrill. Merrill gave him a quality start in that game. So it's not perfect, but you do feel like hopefully Merrill is coming into maybe that every other month

kind of thing that he's been doing here. Maybe this is that time where he's coming on because it feels like that's how his year has gone. And again, he had a good May before that awful June. He had one bad outing where he gave up six earned runs against the Chicago Cubs. And then every other outing, the rest of the month, was a quality outing,

except the final one against Seattle, which he only went five in a third, but he gave up two earn runs. So still a good outing, just not six endings plus with three earned or less. I can't make sense of it. I really can't, but I can hope that based on patterns,

that they're going to get the best Merrill Kelly, that they're going to get a good stretch here from Merrill. But going back, like Damon said, Brandon Fought you feel great about, and obviously Erodd continues to have an amazing season, and one guy believed in him, and that one guy was me. and me alone.

If it was you know, I definitely didn't. I'm not going to, I'm not even going to lie to the people and say that I, that I did. Yeah. I was a big believer in Ryan Nelson this season. And that hasn't looked gone all that great, but I still believe. Oh, I was a believer in a guy that was awesome last year too. Yeah, great. Great.

That's neat. That's neat, Damon. Anyway, uh, probabilities. Yeah, you're right, dude. Everybody thought Ryan Nelson was going to be, was going to be a Sion young candidate. Yeah, you still feel good about the way that this series matches up overall here. And again, hopefully the Diamondbacks can not only win this series, I'm not expecting them to get the S word,

but an S word would be really nice right now, right about now. I think the Diamondbacks are a better team pretty clearly. If you look at what this kind of portrays there, the Rangers obviously have a good defense, but the Diamondbacks have an elite defense. You just got to start hitting. the baseball. And what better time to start hitting the baseball, too, than when guys with mid-4 ERAs are on the mound for the opposing team. And TBD. Like, it's time to, it's time to

finally figure some things out on offense in this series. You're right. Because this goes far beyond just the series. They need to get hot. They need to get in that kind of groove. They need to finish the season strong and not limp into the playoffs. I know that worked okay for 23, but it would be nice to just see this team get hot now that they're at 100% because that's what they are. Honestly, once Ryan Nelson comes back, the injury list is empty aside from guys that will not be back at all this season. Right? So it's time to go. It's time to go full throttle, like Corvin said. And it is time for this team to find a way to play their best baseball now. and prove all of those dorks that said that the Padres were going to make it in over us wrong.

Let's do it. It's the best I got. Sorry. I'm not, again, I'm not as fired up as I should be. But, ah, there we go. Let's go and take a break on the other side of this break. We got something special plan. Like I said, like we told you yesterday, we are doing a rare, very rare addition of, I guess,

what we're lovingly calling Mailbag Friday now. And we're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You are watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, October 16th through the 18th, the chase returns to Phoenix Raceway. And if you don't know what the chase is, that is NASCAR's playoff series,

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especially if you're a procrastinator like me. So get started today. Visit the Window Depot.com and start planning your next project now, the Window Depot, more than just a window store. Well, Damon, you know what we do around here every single Friday. Whenever we have a 12 p.m. show and we didn't do a Monday show, you know what we do around here every single Friday,

and we've been doing it since the beginning of time. Every single year on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast is a new adventure. Every single month on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast is October. Every single month is playoff baseball. around here. Every single mother, it's the mother effing yops on this show. Every week, Arizona Restaurant Week. You weren't expecting that one, were you? I bet not. And every single day is game day. Put on those helmets, boys. We got, we got work to do. But on Fridays, we go to the mailbag. David, let's go to the mailbag.

You can't see it, but I'm sea walking right now. Damon can, though. I look like Merrill Kelly in that one video and feels good. All right, Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? Starting off with Travis Moore, who says, I think Carol's long stretches at the plate where he isn't hitting have been more frustrating, honestly, than Cattell's off-field shenanigans.

Do you agree or disagree? What, while Cattel's stuff is annoying and silly, watching Carol struggle at the plate is so much more frustrating. Yeah, I mean, that's fair to say. I think the idea, the difference there might be that Carol's struggles are not him doing it himself in the way that Cattell's off-field shenanigans feel like that's Cotell doing something that's preventable. In fact, I would argue that Carol's biggest problem is that he does think all of these things are preventable with his swing or bad days are preventable and that simply his mechanics weren't right or whatever the case may be. whereas in some cases I think Corbyn probably just needs to get out of his own head and go out there and swing the bat and play baseball and have a good time.

I'd argue that that is hard to do sometimes when you are not at 100%. And I do think that not being healthy is what these two situations have in common. I do think that Corbin's one of those guys that plays through injuries and he's very different than Kattel who knows his body and wants days off even when the team doesn't want to give them a day off. So I guess they're both at fault in a way for that, but they're not at fault for getting injured over the course of 162 game baseball season. It happens to every player.

They all have agonizing injuries and things that they just kind of put up with and deal with throughout the season. It's the are you hurt or are you injured discussion, right? Like, or does it hurt or are you injured? And I think sometimes even just playing hurt can be a detriment to your production on field. And again, I'm not, I'm pretending like I'm saying something that's really profound, but that is all, I feel like common knowledge as far as like athletes are concerned, right? We know they play through injuries.

We know they play hurt and we know that that's going to impact their performance on the field. But again, I think that's what these two situations kind of have in common overall. And yeah, I mean, it's been frustrating to, to, watch Carol struggle at the plate. Carol is one of those guys that for me personally, like I said on a past episode, I also hate to see Carol having such a bad time playing baseball. I feel like he's taking it far too seriously. I think that one of the things I do love about Cotel Marte the most, and one of the things that makes him one of my favorite players is the fact that Cotel Marte will, you know, he will, he plays with such joy when you're watching him play. And that

that joy makes him fun to watch. He's also incredible at what he does, right? So that also helps. But, you know, it's the fact that he really does enjoy, you know, playing the game so much. Similar with Catelle or similar with Corbyn, if I'm watching Catell and he's not having a good time playing, like, that's, that adds to the misery of his lack of production as far as I'm concerned. So I think, I do think that that is one of the things that truly sucks about Carol, you know, having this slump right now besides the fact that the team needs him the team needs all three of their big guys to the or their big three to step up right i know gabriel merino has kind of

entered that conversation but uh if predomo marty and carol could all get right now that would be amazing and you would feel like this team would be a completely different team with those three guys doing what they've done in the past that we know that they're capable of doing I am personally more frustrated by Catelle. I don't like Corbyn is trying. He's yeah, that's what I'm saying earlier. Almost refuses to like be taken out of the lineup and whatnot.

That guy loves baseball. He wants to help this team win. Right. I feel mostly bad for him that it's just not going all that great for him right now. Whereas as you said, Derek, Katel's making is of his own doing. He's the reason that he's in this predicament. He's taken games off four years in a row as Tori.

told the media when this whole thing went down. I mean, I'm ready to move on from it at the same time. And the Corbyn stuff is still ongoing, whereas the Catelle stuff again, like I said, I'm ready to move on from. So I could see that being more frustrating right now. But if we're really in a vacuum looking at what's more frustrating, I think it's got to be the Cattel stuff and the distraction that that's brought the last two seasons, in my opinion. I don't disagree.

I don't disagree. I think you're right. I think when I think about it, yeah. Once again, the big factor there is the choice to do it, right? Versus Corbyn doing kind of the noble thing in a way and trying his best to show up every day for this team, for his teammates, for the fans. And, you know, again, even though it's not working, sometimes it is about the effort that's being put in versus the, I guess, distract. action and embarrassment that the Corbyn or the Catel Marte situation became, right? So anyway, what else we got?

Let's go to another question. Our next question is from Gabriel. And Gabriel says, wait, Derek, this just doesn't feel right. No. It says Milbag Monday. Well, yeah, I know. But it's, I mean, it's a Friday. There we go.

Oh, that's more like it. That's more like it. Hell yeah, David. Let's go. That's more like it. All right. Gabriel says, can we make a prediction for the rest of the season? I feel like Giants and Dodgers are going to try to mess with the Padres.

I feel like we can beat the Rangers and Yankees. I'm more scared about the Marlins, honestly, as are Derek and I, and said, and if we are one game over the Padres, I think we got this. Yeah, man, I mean, he makes a great point. He really does. I do, I do feel like that. And I hate that that's just like a feeling I have. It's such a stupid feeling.

But the Dodgers are the Dodgers. They are going to be one of the best teams in baseball. So playing them at any point is never easy for any team. and considering that it's the final six games of the season at that point when they start that series with the Dodgers, they could be playing very hard not only to kind of get themselves hot as the postseason starts, but they could be playing for, you know, a buy in the first round potentially at that point. So the Dodgers might very much have something to play for besides just trying to get themselves ready for the postseason. Most importantly, they're not going to be like pulling starters or anything at that point of the year unless those guys are injured or whatever.

So, you know, you can expect that team to be at 100% as best as they can be, and they're going to try to beat the Padres. And the Giants are just hot right now. The Giants are just playing good baseball. We kind of experienced that. It felt like that was a different team that we played in the last series that we played them than they were when we played them earlier in the year. So hopefully the Giants do it just for the sake of messing up their season. You know, but Damon and I are very fearful of that Marlon series, considering how the Diamondbacks who played against the Marlins.

And honestly, I don't love the fact that the Yankees are getting Aaron Judge back and they have plenty to play for as well when we play them. But these are all tests. And the one thing that the Diamondbacks have to figure out is how to beat teams that are, you know, still have something to play for. And there's a lot of teams still on their schedule that have something to play for. And that's that they just have to figure out how to do that as the postseason approaches. As much as it's great to make the plan.

If they're, you know, just a team that goes in and gets beat in that first round, I don't know how satisfied we as a fan base are going to be with that. Sure, they did it. Sure, they didn't disappoint us and didn't make it or did make it in versus not making it in. But if they're out in the blink of an eye because they're not able to beat the elite teams in baseball or hang with those elite teams, then, yeah, we can't expect a great performance when the yachts come around. All right, what else we got, David? Our next question is from E.

Evil Michael who says, allow evil Michael to ruin your day by asking, imagine if the debacks had this bullpen last year or the year before. Also, I'm going to five games this homestand. So what are you going to do about it? Why? I ask why to all of that. Why are you like this? Why are you this person?

He's evil. Imagine if the debacks had this bullpen last year or the year before. We're holding up. We're holding up the trophy at the end of the day. I mean, it's, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Don't even ask me such questions. This is insane.

In 2024 with, with this bullpen, we would have won 100 baseball games. The Latin Kings? Are you kidding me? We would have won 100. We would have been the most dominant team in baseball. In 2024 specifically, we would have won a lot of baseball games. We would have won the World Series in 23. Possibly.

Yeah, that bullpen was pretty good, though. I mean, they just sucked once the World Series rolled around. Yeah, well, this bullpen's better. It is. And you know who's a lot better. You know who's worse is Michael? Abel Michael, I think he's getting more evil. He's like trying to actively keep the team from going to the playoffs right now.

It's weird. It's weird the way that he's taunting fate in this manner. Right? Yeah. I feel like you should want to do everything you can to contribute to their success. I'm bringing Mrs. Lavello a hat as a gift. for all the Sunday dinners that she invited me and Damon to. And for the vibes.

It's supposed to be a secret, Derek. Well, they don't watch this show, so it's fine. But yeah, you're right. It is supposed to be a secret. But, hey, the point being, I'm trying to help. Are you, Michael? I don't believe you are. I don't want the people to know our methods for how we get over for Sunday dinner.

Well, no, that's fine. I get it. That's what makes this podcast special. I mean, everybody, it's bribery, right? It's why the people tune in. It's done in America these days is bribery. Yeah. All right.

Well, you got any, let's let's, let's get some. We got some from the Discord. We got some great, uh, diehard questions as well. And I know we got a lot of those. So let's get, let's get to the next one we got. Yeah. Our next question here is from Sean, who says, who has two questions and says,

if one of Katteller Corbyn can get hot for the last couple weeks, do you see it being enough to get this team over the hump? Or at least assure us that the final series at Petco is indeed a scenario where the winner of two games punches their ticket. I think we could start off just by answering that question. Yeah. Yeah, I do actually. I think, I think specifically I would almost like if I had to pick one or the other, I'd say

Cattel. I would love just like a like a vintage Cattel generational 10 game stretch where he hits 650 and the baseball is isn't a basketball and he's just putting the ball over the fence. Yeah. But yeah, I do think that getting either of Ketel or Corbyn back to their their peak would definitely like give us a shot in that Padre series at the end of the year. I mean, there's no doubt. If you're talking about like the bottom of the lineup producing in the way that they have and Gabriel Moreno still having the bat that he's had. Yeah.

Like I do feel that. I even feel like Pardomo as Damon has tried and tried so many times to point out to you people is good right now. despite he's pretty good despite claims and reports that he's not you know he's uh he's definitely like if you look at his splits you know he's been playing better over the last like month or so but his ops has started to drop down a little bit in the last couple weeks again so he needs to start putting some more extra base hits on the board i yeah that would be nice but yeah like overall if you feel like you add one of these guys at like at their peak of their career which we've known them to be at any point in the last three years uh it it

completely changes everything. It completely changes everything. I, you know, it feels like that's what they're missing is that guy that really is so hot that he can't even, you know, miss the baseball right now. He's hitting it off a tee. It's the size of a beach ball, all of those things you want to say when someone's killing it. But we also got the second question, which I feel might be even more important than the first one. Dream blunt rotation from the current roster. Safe to say we can just check Lars off right now. A hundred percent. Dream blunt rotation. Lars is definitely in there. Without a doubt. I'm also adding Ryan Walschman. Lars Burns. Is that what you're saying?

Lars Burns. Burns, not as in a last name. Burns as in do you burn, bro? Oh, I don't. Yeah. Yeah. But I was, I was, I would also maybe see if Burns wants to join us as well. More importantly, it's Lars. That was a real old guy move right there, Derek. It was. I was trying to use some sling, some hip-happen and slang with my good pal, Derek, who I thought was up on the times. It happens in slang. I feel like that's something my older brother says. No, it really, the thing is, is you're right.

It really isn't, and it still was past your expiration date. Yeah, it really was. It really was. And more importantly. I thought that was maybe a little bit more your era, if I'm being honest with you. I was trying to dip into the Derek Montia era bucket. I might have used that term once or twice in my life. Lars Neubar, Ryan Waldschmidt, Ildemar Vargas.

Wow. Haraldo Perdomo Because Vargas is like making snacks or something Oh He's bringing over treats Vargas is As much of a part of the enjoyable experience In this particular blunt rotation

As the blunt itself Yeah he doesn't even need to hit it He can just be there for vibes Yeah yeah exactly Let's see I got what that's four in there Do we we're doing five is four enough Yeah I think four is plenty All right because that four

I mean you want a couple hits yourself Well, Derek, you don't want to burn it all out. Yeah, yeah, that's two times around and that bad boy's gone. Exactly. You get like eight people in there. It's a disaster. People are like looking for it. And we know Vargy is just, you know, just holding on to it for way too long.

Like, come on, get on with it. Anyway, in no way am I suggesting any of these players actually do any kind of thing like this. But it's just my dream blunt rotation. His name's Lars Neutbar. I mean, he has, Derek, he has to burn. He either does that or once again, as we've discussed. he's a known like rebel in the

in the Star Wars world of some kind right or why do we assess him as did we assess him as one of the musicians at Jabba's Palace I think we said he's like an X-wing fighter that's what he is yeah he's right there with with Po and the other guys like he's definitely a hero for sure but let's get one more in then we got to take a quick break what do we got?

Yeah our last question here before the break comes from Gary the Cat and he says ESPN recently released their core rankings and surprisingly we came in 7th Nice. Do you agree with their elite plus solid decisions? If not, what would you change? I would say, I agree. I think that, again, the Diamondbacks have had a solid core that we have discussed, and that's kind of like step one in your building of a franchise. So the fact that they've been able to identify their core and, you know, know who they want to build around. And I think that core includes Gabby Moreno, even though they have not been able to extend them.

I think they would like him to be part of that. I think they are building around him, right? But the next level is to, like, supplement that core with enough of a team around them that you feel like they're a winner, right? That's step two. Build the rest of the team out. That's kind of the step that the Diamondbacks keep forgetting. Because instead of building the rest of the team out in a sufficient way that makes this team a contender,

they kind of fill in the gaps with a lot of guys that we've said they kind of pick up from the bargain bin, right? And those guys tend to work out. We've, we've had some great players added to this team. Ildemarro Vargas in my dream blunt rotation is one of those guys. But what I would say is that, you know, again, you kind of need to do a little bit better of a job of making it a well-rounded team. And in this case, they did not do that, you know, and then, you know, you kind of skip the step because once you get step two and you have the team filled out, that's when you go out and add a high-priced free agent or two that then change you from being just a competitive team to an elite team in the sport. And I feel like the biggest problem at times with the Diamondbacks

as a franchise is skipping step two, you know, and I know that they want to do it in other ways or they want to do it through the farm system or they want to do it in more creative manners. And in some cases, those ways that they do it do work out, whether you're talking about the bullpen or the starting lineup or anything else. But I have a hard time believing that this team is, you know, filling out the lineup one through nine sufficiently before they're going out and adding a Jordan Montgomery or Corbyn Burns to the roster. And even though those guys are great and everything, you know, you kind of got to feel like you have the rest of the team in there. And I'll credit, I'll give credit where credit is due after the 2023 World Series run. They tried to do exactly that.

They tried to lock in all of those guys. As Damon even has even said, a fault almost, right? That nostalgia hits hard and that loyalty is hard. So they wanted everybody back. They wanted to run it back. They wanted to add some guys. And they wanted to bring the same team in 2024 back with Jordan Montgomery, who was the best available free agent pitcher at the time as part of the starting rotation. It just didn't work out. Extending Lourdes didn't really work out for this team. Siden, Jordan Montgomery was an absolute failure. And up to this point, even signing Corbyn's hasn't been that great of a move due to him missing 15 months with Tommy John surgery. But that's nobody's fault.

That's different. That's different than Jordan Montgomery just kind of not being good at baseball anymore. Did you see the six teams in front of the Diamondbacks, Derek on this ranking? No, I did not. Who are the six teams ahead of them? Cubs, Braves, Yankees, Red Sox, Brewers, Dodgers. That's it. Those are the only six teams in baseball.

company to be in as far as a franchise is concerned in baseball. When it comes to your core, absolutely. According to Kylie McDaniel, who is the one that wrote this article, yeah, I mean, only six teams in baseball have a better core of star talent right now. And I think that that's incredibly impressive territory to be in. This franchise, that doesn't spend a lot of money. Yes, absolutely. And that's part of their, they put that in there as well for like, you know,

them having a stable, young core of players. 2025, the debacks were actually sixth, so they went down one spot in this past ranking. Yeah, but it's the same core essentially, right? It's just you believe a little less in them because things have kind of taken a step backwards. And that core right now isn't really performing in 2026. Let's be honest. They have, so in the elite category, they have Corbyn Carroll and Geraldo Pardomo, which I would imagine that Pardomo is an elite here in large part because of his defense, his glove this year,

and, you know, his, what position he plays in particular. But then he finished like fourth and MVP voting last year or two. Correct. But this is, you know, this was wrote this week. So they have all of this is more about, yeah, this season to work off of as well. In the plus category, they have as assets go, they have Gabriel Moreno and Catele, and then in the solid category, they have Corbin Burns, Ryan Walschmidt, Juan Murillo, Brandon Garcia, Brandon Fott, Jordan Lawler, Demetrio, Cresontes, Tommy Tro.

Ryan Nelson, David Hagman, Lou James Gruver. That's a lot of guys. And their reasoning here, the core seems stable, top three players ranking high for years, bit more mix after that with some boomer bust aging veterans, but a nice crop of emerging young players who haven't broken through yet. The debacks have been doing a good job navigating this middle path of being consistently competitive among big payrolls with their perennial NL contenders around them.

So, I mean, I think it's really high praise for the debacks in general. You love to see it. I would say Justin Martinez should be either in the plus or the elite category based off of his agent profile. Yeah. And he's not on this list at all. And I feel great about where Jmart's future. I would also argue that Cotele belongs in the elite category for what he's done.

But, you know, maybe that's fair. But maybe it's just the fact he's aging and he's also kind of been a bit of a distraction as well. 100%. He's got to factor in everything. His contract deserves to be in the elite category. But the problem is his off the field stuff, I think takes him out of that potentially. For sure. And Erod, no mention of Erod either, but.

I mean, come on. Give my guys some love. It just has to be because he's aging and they assume probably he won't be on the team in two years when his contracts out. That's probably fair. Like the core seems to be guys that are going to be here for a while, which is even more confusing why they didn't add Justin Martinez to that list. But for sure. Again, since he was on the injured list and missed the entire season, then there's a good chance she just forgot about him. I mean, that is a fun collection of young talent, though.

It really is. You look at that and you say to yourself, man, this. This team could be pretty good for a while. You just got to, again, like you said, Derek, like you started that question off with, we got to find a way to supplement these good star players that we have because all offseason we talked about you have the guys at the top of your lineup. You have the top level starting pitchers even, but you need to find the people that are going to fill out the rest of the team.

And it just doesn't feel like we've done a great job of that over the last couple years. But you're a couple moves hitting away from being a true contender, in my opinion. I agree. Port Sport. Erod does have one year left, by the way. I meant this year and next year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then also, there were some talk, including from Port Sport, about Lars Newtbar's name being more than just a Star Wars name. He says, me and my family call him a Harry Palmer spell.

Yeah. Lars Newtbar. Like, whatever way you got to say it with a funny voice, right? Like, there's no way you just say his name just straightforward. It's like, and then Katie says she thought of him as a candy bar. I've thought of him as a candy bar, but like an old-timey candy bar, like back in the day when like cocaine still came in a candy bar, you know? Need some pep in your step?

Get yourself a Lars Nupah. I'm doing Shane's voice now. That's what I'm doing. All right. Well, I think we got some more mailbag Monday questions to get to, but we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to get to more of those.

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Plus, we will be having the PHNX crew out there. The Sun Devils broadcast will be going on live on site. And it is the same time and same place where we will be at for the Union Jack Classic, where ASU will be taking on Kansas from London. So head on over to our events page or check out the link in our show notes to RSVP. By the way, Damon showed me an absolutely fire. I don't know. What, what, what is?

Hype video for Kansas versus Missouri. Oh, yeah, electric. I don't, I don't want any part of Kansas after watching that hype video. No, you don't. I don't want any part of the Jayhawks. I don't want the Sun Devils to be part of their next video. Yeah, you don't want to position yourself against them because they have no issue just taking it to the to the max. I don't, I wouldn't even want to like tell people I was from Missouri.

Yeah, you guys are actually all bad people for rooting for this team. Oh, do you like heroes? or you do like villains. You're like good guys? You're like bad guys. It's really quite literally the greatest video I've ever seen. It was amazing. In terms of hitting people up against one another.

I mean, honestly, I hope Tory shows this to the Diamondbacks before today's game. I don't care if any of them are even, they went to Missouri. Even if they went to Missouri, they might be ready to run through a brick wall after watching it. But the brick wall would be then exiting the state of Missouri and any knowledge or any connection to that state. All right, Damon, what else we got? We got a few more questions there before we get out of here. Yeah, we do. as we always do.

Oh, Ken Burns' breakfast says Lars is a Viking name. We don't bring that up enough. You're not wrong. Lars is a Viking name. Next question is from Vigoda, who says, what does Tori need to see to get Lawler

into the lineup every day? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what it is about his splits that particularly upset Tori overall here, but I do feel like with the time that he's missed, I would like to see Jordan Lawler in there at Centerfield every single day.

I mean, is that crazy to ask? I think mostly it's just the fact that he's been, you know, struggling. He did have a good game in that finale against the Royals, but he was 047 coming into that game, you know, in these three prior games. So perhaps it's just the fact that his struggles at the plate have made it to the point where they can't really afford to have him out there every day

and that Tori might just be trying to do something, anything that he feels like gives his team an injection of life offensively. I don't know, I guess hitting. Hitting would probably be the answer to that. What does Jordan Lawler need to do to be in the lineup every day?

Hit. Contribute offensively. Because I think that's the only thing that they're searching for right now. It has nothing to do with his defense. I know that he's played some spectacular defense and he's been a better, you know, he's been a better center fielder

than any of the other options. So I truly think that the only thing that's keeping him out of the lineup regularly is his ability to, you know, have some good at bats. I think that we've seen Jordan up there taking entirely too many like first pitch swings, you know, things like that. And at the very least, even if you're not productive, you just want to see, you know, more patient at bats. And the productivity can also come from you making a pitcher have a 10 pitch at bat and knocking that pitcher out of the game earlier than they would have gone otherwise, right? So all of those things contribute to a team's success and contribute

to a win. And I think those are the things that Tori and the coaching staff want to see out of a guy even when he's struggling. That's the difference maker. That's why guys continue to get opportunities where we are frustrated with seeing them get opportunities is because those guys are still doing everything right that they're supposed to, except having the results that we all would want to see them have. All right, what else we got? Our next question, is from Bill Braskey. Bill Braskey. Who says,

what more does Il-Damaro Vargas have to do to get a new contract for next season? He's been a spring training invitee for so long that he deserves a roster spot to finally get paid. Also, D-Basks can't afford to lose James McKin either. That Bill Braskey, he's a son of a bitch. Bill Braskey is the father of every child in this town. I didn't know if you know that.

Bill Braske once showed me a video of him going on a date with my wife, and I told him it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. These are, this is a sketch from S&L, by the way. And if you're too young to remember it, then shut up, you make me feel hold.

What was the rest of the question, Damon? Because I was just too busy thinking of Bill Braskey quotes. Bill Braskey was asked. Bill Braskey, to Bill Braske. It's a Bill Braske. Derek, he was asking about Eldemaro Vargas and him deserving a roster spot next season

and also saying we can't afford to lose McKin. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Vargy has been, he's almost been akin to, into Pardomo of being kind of like the heart and soul of this team a bit. You can't find a person in the clubhouse that could say a bad thing about Vargas. I think the only thing about him is that, you know, he, this is what he is and what he was in April was some sort of weird

alien version of him, you know. Vargas is going to give you a good at bats. He's going to hit what he's hitting, but he's never going to be like that kind of regular everyday starting player that, you know, that gives you the production that you're looking for, right? Somehow he's been that still for this team, though, and he's done that with moving around the diamond, moving around the infield, playing all sorts of different positions, d-hing, coming in and pitch it opportunities, all sorts of stuff. Like, he's just been asked of a lot, and I think that he's been pretty successful, considering how difficult it is in baseball for you to not have a consistent role,

yet, you know, still get as much playing time, for instance, as he's gotten. you know, being asked to do all the different things that he's been asked to do. I would love to see Vargas as a part of this team in the future. And I don't, I don't know. I mean, his season has been better than expected overall. So I don't know if there's more that he could do to earn a contractor or to want to come back to this team. I feel like considering he's done it for the Diamondbacks

when they needed him the most to be as flexible and to be the super utility player that he's been, I think that alone does there mean, I think that alone means that he feels like it means more to the Diamondbacks that he means more to the Diamondbacks than he would mean to any other team. So perhaps they're willing to spend more on him just to ensure that he stays here. And I also feel the same about James McCann. You cannot say enough about what James McCann has done for this team in the short time that he's been a part of it.

And you truly feel like not only does he help the pitchers get better, he's helping Gabrielle Moreno get better, he's helping everybody get better. And he's just, he's that guy. He's that guy who will impart wisdom upon you and then also throw sunflower seeds at you in the dugout when you're not looking and pretend like it wasn't him.

We need guys like that. That's a glue guy. That's a glue guy. That's a glue guy. All right. What else we got, Damon? What have got one more? Next one is from Richard Perry.

No, we got two more after this. They're quicker though, I think, after this. Can the debacks overtake the Padres for the final wild card spot? Which part of their game will decide it most starting pitching late inning bullpen performance or getting healthy stars back in the lineup. Is Corbyn okay? And then says thanks, Derek and Damon.

We appreciate you, sir. And yes, I think that the most important part is getting the healthy stars back in the lineup. And not just that, but like the offense. I know that those other things are going to be important, but I also feel like I feel confident about the starting pitching and the late inning bullpen options. I do not feel confident about the offense right now. even though you didn't give me that as an option, I think it goes kind of hand in hand with those healthy stars returning. We need these guys, yes, healthy, and then, you know, we need them to get hot again.

We need them to get on a roll so that this offense can do some damage here down the stretch, win them some baseball games, and not put everything on the pitching staff and expecting the pitching staff to be perfect almost every single baseball game. And then calling Zach Gallen washed because he gave up one earned run in three innings. Is that fair to say? I don't know. I mean, that gallon probably still is washed, but I still say give them a chance. But yeah, I think that the healthy stars returning and getting right now is very important.

Even if it takes a few games for them to get right, and even if those games involved this team not winning, you still feel like what those players are adding to this roster as we get down to the final stretch is important and they need to get in there as soon as possible. All right, Damon, what else we got? Our next question is from Deborah, who asks kind of a similar question. What do you feel needs correction now to have a chance to advance the postseason? I think it's like, I mean, if we're drilling down, yes, it's the fact that they're missing fastballs. So you can't do that. You can't have your offense be good and performing and productive with them missing fastballs. But I think that they also need to be more patient.

I think this team needs to be more patient. I think they need to take more pitches. I think that they just need to battle more. You know, you see a few guys in the lineup doing it, but I don't feel like you see enough guys doing it. You don't see enough guys taking 7, 8, 9 pitch at bats and trying to wait for their pitch to hit or simply trying to, you know, outbattle the opposition,

the opposing pitcher so that they get on base some way, whether it's a single or a walk or by any means necessary. Yeah. You know, I think that's, That's what we need. We need every guy taking every at-bat that seriously. Because they are. They are that serious. It is that critical to this team's success down the stretch. We can't have them going up there and letting pitchers escape with six, seven pitch innings because that's not going to do anything. And I did the thing. I said six, seven, I know. But you get it. You get where I'm going from. I'm too old to be making that reference too. So what else we got? We got one more? Yeah, our last question, Derek, is from our guy number one D-backed stand in Texas who says, if the D-backs are a subway sandwich, which players are the ingredients? Also, what do you think is the actual best lineup moving forward?

I know we have some issues about Lourdes right now. All right. So, I mean, if you're talking, once again, about the core of this team, the meat of this team, it's Harold Operdomo, Corbyn Carroll, and Cotel Marte. Correct. That's your meats. if we're talking about a BMT by the way right which if if you're not someone that avidly goes to subway you don't know that a BMT stands for big meaty tasty I bet you thought it was more clever than that it's not that's what it stands for so if we're talking about the meat on the big meaty tasty the BMT we got

we got those two guys those three guys as as as the the meat of this sandwich toppings on this sandwich the things that make this sandwich Good and spicy. I mean, like maybe Aeronado might be a little bacon on top of that meat. We're getting into the, you know, other stuff. We got we got Vargas, which is your choice of spinach or lettuce. We got your tomatoes, which is Tim Tawa, of course. And, I mean, pitching stuff is probably like sauces. Everyone knows that Tbilas tomatoes.

Why wouldn't he be? What if I don't like tomatoes on my sandwich, Derek? You're going to get tomatoes because you don't really have to any other options. I do. Toil. No, those tomatoes are starting at first base for you is what they're doing. So deal with it. Or are the tomatoes your DH?

Either way, you don't have a choice because you don't have enough toppings to not have tomatoes on your sandwich, Damon. That's fair. It's insane. Justin Martinez is definitely the Chipotle sauce that goes on top. Oh, there's no, like, Saracha mayo on the top. 100%. It's spicy.

It completely makes the sandwich a completely different sandwich. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, absolutely. There was another part of that question, I believe. What was the rest of it? What our best lineup looks like right now? Oh, our best lineup, I think, still involves, if I'm talking about our actual best lineup,

it's Corbyn Carroll at the top, it's Cotel Marte's second. It's Geraldo Pardo third, right? I mean, what do you like? Do you like Carol third or do you like Pardomo third? I like Gabby third. Where do you like Pardomo hitting in the lineup? If you look at Pordomo splits this year

based off of where he's been hitting, Derek, it kind of is it looks kind of weird i think his best has actually been it's actually been lower in the lineup if you look at where he's hidden best but put him back to ninth what are we doing six or seventh but it's a small sample size sure he out of the big sample sizes fourth is actually his best spot this year but i actually tend to all right let's keep them let's keep them there let's i tend to care less about where guys are hitting in the lineup i guess than a lot of other people know who I want out of the fourth hole is Aronado. I feel like Aronado, even though he delivers, even though he hits home runs, even though, I mean, he's 23 home runs, right?

He's one of the best home run hitters right now on this team. The problem with Aronado is it's like feast or famine with him, you know, it's all or nothing. It feels like he either delivers or the other side is he's hitting into double plays every time. You got runners on base or runners in scoring position, right? So I would rather he hit fifth and put Perdomo in there at fourth, put Gabby at third. right corbin and kattel one two yeah let let kattel stay where he wants to stay after tell stay at number two after that maybe ill tomorrow yeah i like ill tomorrow coming in after nolan in the six hole right and then tim tawa seventh ryan waltchmidt eighth jordan lawler jordan luller ninth i mean that's it

that's the that's probably the best lineup probably and i know things could shift there based on how if you know you you want to try to get those guys that are being more productive up higher even the lower parts of the lineup, right? So again, Tawa, six or seven feels pretty good with how good he has actually been this year, right? Well, and Tim Tawa's hits have come at the right time. Yes. I think that's the other thing about him is you can look at the stats and you can say, oh, it's not all that impressive of a season out of Tim Tawa. But it feels like his, all of his biggest hits have come against division rivals in close games where his hit is kind of the deciding factor of whether your team's going to win or lose that one.

And so his hits have been very impactful as well. And that's part of the reason why I feel like Tim Tawa deserves a lot of credit this season. But agree. Yeah, I mean, that's probably the best lineup. I think you could make the argument, you know, maybe Newt Bar deserves to be in there. I know that's not going to make people happy. But I do think that Lars has been playing better recently and probably does deserve some A-Bs. So maybe Waldie, Loller.

I know, again, I know that's not a popular opinion, but you could see them shift out for a new bar, but I think in general, that's pretty much the best nine that we can put together on the field. I don't think we addressed a DH really. Well, it wouldn't Tawa or Vargas, right? Or Catelle would be the DH there. Right. Vargas would be at second, Tawa at first, or Vargas at first, Tawa Daching. Like, it kind of, that, we did name nine hitters.

So, yeah. Well, we have some versatile players that can make it work pretty much no matter what. bars of soaps also brings up how do we feel about hasu sanchez who was dfayed by the toronto blue jays the man has a 260 batting average with eight home runs damon give him to me give him to me he immediately slots in is like the fourth best hitter on this team at 260 260 yeah i mean what's his ops oh i don't go honestly don't care you don't want to know i don't want to know uh i'm always down you know the problem is is i think anybody you added this point isn't eligible for postseason in play. So I think that might be a factor. I could be wrong about that. Yeah. No, I think I think it is the case. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't think that the Diamondbacks can afford to add anybody, unfortunately, that isn't eligible for postseason. Like we said, we don't want them giving up A-Bs to guys that aren't going to be part of the playoffs. However,

be conflicted because we got to get to the playoffs first, right? So however, however we can get there. But Damon, I did want to bring up something. Obviously, today is September 11th. And 25 years ago, baseball helped this country heal in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. And something weird to have lived through. It's something that I still remember to this day. You and I were talking about it before the show. You know, it was weird to, like, be at work and have it just kind of going on. And then still, like, having to go about my work day, you know, like stuff.

All right, well, yeah, we're under attack in New York. But got to go make sure that these drawers are stocked, you know. But at the same time, the one thing I will never forget about September 11, 2001, and everything that happened after that is how what an incredible, like, role baseball played in this, you know, situation as far as healing the country and getting us back to feeling normal. And I also think about the pandemic too, right? Like baseball was also a part of that where baseball was a big factor that helped us feel normal during a time where life very much did not feel normal.

And we were very lucky prior to September 11th, I think, to have felt as safe as we felt in this country for so many years, right? So I think that was the part that was something I'll never forget about that day, but again, I'll never forget, you know, just how everything played out after that and how baseball was just kind of there for us, right?

that's what that's what baseball had kind of been that's why yeah it was at the forefront of like all of the big galvanizing country moments it feels like outside of you know like george bush's speech and whatnot sure sure absolutely the when you talk about the george bush first pitch at the rangers game or sammy sosa running out with the flag at regally yeah i mean it's emotional awesome stuff that you know sports is this is what it's here for and um you know i i do think that that's like almost the perfect example of exactly what sports is supposed to do, which is bring us together and, you know, not at the end of the day, like, yeah, it's fun to have rivals and hate each other, but, you know, we are all people.

And that's a, there's things that are much bigger than this as well. Yeah. One thing I will also never forget when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks, obviously winning the World Series that year was the joy that I personally experienced and my friends and my family and everybody that I knew. That was the Diamondbacks fans that lived here in the state experience with our team beating the Yankees of all teams to win a world series, right? To win our first World Series.

But what I will also never forget is weeks later, after the parade had come and gone, and after we were back to post baseball life in the middle of November, I read this article that basically just made the Diamondbacks out. to be the true villains of this whole situation. It's a really weird spot to be. And I often think about that because obviously. Because of the storybook finished that it should have been for the city of New York that

particular year. And they were going for a three Pete too. Like they had a dynasty in the making. And, you know, they were the 90s, Yankees were probably like up there with the greatest era of baseball team ever. So you would just almost assume that in 2001 that they were going to be the team that was inevitable, especially with the country. actually rooting for the Yankees for once.

I mean, it's, it's pretty wild. It was crazy. I read an article. It blew my mind to see, like, the reaction on the other side. This was pre-internet days. You couldn't go online and just see people firing off takes about the Diamondbacks winning the World Series. This was an article, and I believe, like, the Wall Street Journal or some, like, prestigious magazine that wasn't just a sports magazine, where they were saying how, like, New York

had been attacked again by snakes from the desert. and I was like, oh my God, we're the bad guy? How are we the bad guys? Yeah, Ernest was right, by the way. It was three that they already had. They were going for the four Pete. That's right. And yeah, I mean, it's a weird spot to be in.

You know, I obviously, we did what we had to do. And that doesn't take away anything away from, I think, how important and special baseball was in that time. And that World Series is one of the greatest world series of all time when people were locked into baseball. I think that's a very memorable World Series for people. And also, like, you think about, like, all the World Series gear that's come out of it. So much of it has, like, American flags and stuff on it, way more than any World Series gear I typically ever see. It feels like it's almost just ingrained in that in that World Series. It really was.

And I'll say this, though, I mean, just speaking on behalf of our team, of the Debex, you got to give them, like, I feel like it makes it that much more special or that much more difficult to have. won that series. For sure. Yeah. Like, because you know they were feeling that. And you know that there, to a certain extent, the Diamondbacks could see that this was a storybook finish that was meant to be the, the Yankees storybook finish, not ours. And those guys were like, F that.

We're winning this thing. We're taking this thing. Such a collection of veterans, I think, has a lot to do with that, is that it was just a lot of guys who were like, they're not going to let that moment get to them as much. They're going to be easy to roll over. I almost think it would have been like, you might have even felt like that was almost your position, you know, in that time. It's like, yeah, we probably shouldn't really take this one here from the city of New York. A younger team there probably folds, but the debacks being as vet driven as they were in that in that time period,

I think that that really, really gets you over the top with something like that going on. Yeah, man, I'll tell you. But again. And what a job by Bob Brenley, too. Absolutely. Absolutely. To keep that team ready to go. And like you said, they were vet.

that knew understood the assignment, but still a difficult assignment. That's a tough time to like have to like, especially like, you know, thinking about like how, how much we value Tori's locker room presence. I think that's why me and you think that Tori is a all and all good manager despite maybe some flaws in other departments is because of he's a good locker room guy. A great guy. Great locker room. And I think that Bob Brenley is very similar in the regard of being a good locker room manager.

And, I mean, talk about a really difficult circumstance. Do you have to try to work through and continue to, you know, like I said, have tunnel vision towards that goal of winning a World Series? I just, I definitely could not imagine. I couldn't even imagine, you know, doing that. I think the only thing you can do is just kind of put the blinders on to everything external and just focus on the job at hand, which is winning a World Series title. Yeah.

Let's hope the Diamondbacks can do that exact thing again this year. Put on the blinders right now. Focus on these remaining 15 games. Get the job done. Get to the postseason and make some noise like they did in 2023. But super chat from I'm Tripped Out. Thank you so much for your buzzer beater here at the end of the show. He says off topic, but is the Sunday dinner an exclusive club?

Yes, very much so. It's Tori, Kristen, Damon, and myself. The dogs are invited. The dogs are invited. That's it. That's it. So again, though, we thank you guys so much for your mailbag. Friday questions. Thank you to Damon for being quick with transforming this into Mailbag

Friday. And thank all of you guys for being here in the live chat. Mailbag Monday just didn't feel right with the graphic. It didn't. It didn't. We needed to, we needed to do this. We needed to change things. But again, we love you guys so much. We thank you so much for your time today. We'll be back on Monday with another Mailbag Monday episode. Oh, I don't know. Maybe. We'll see. We'll definitely are excited to see how the rest of the season plays out. So stick around with us, whether it's another disappointment or maybe we finally land in the promised land once again. We'll be here with you dealing with it together. So you can follow us on social.

I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. And we're all Damon's dogs, even when we don't work. Bark, bark. Our shows at pHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads leads at at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Love you guys so much. Thank you again for your time. Hope you all have a wonderful Friday night and a wonderful weekend.

We will be back again next week. And until then, behave yourselves and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you got both of your Corbyn's back and healthy.