PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll comes up clutch in the Arizona Diamondbacks win over the Phillies

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

The Diamondbacks won their fourth consecutive game and locked down their third straight series win, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 on Tuesday. Ryne Nelson was excellent with six innings of one-run ball and Corbin Carroll had three hits, including a key RBI single in the eighth. Dominic Fletcher made an impressive grab in the outfield to help protect the lead.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to the Keepin’ it 100 Golf Scramble, D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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 fans of the best team in baseball. This is the P.HNX TVX podcast, and I am drunk on power right now. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. This guy next to me, he's the Thunderstick. He's also my vice mayor, Jesse Fried. That was the thing with our son's show last year, right? SFO with this whole, the Phoenix Suns are the best. Phoenix Lens are the best team in the NBA.

We all saw how that ended last year, Derek. So maybe we shouldn't go quite that far just yet. One great comparison between those two teams is they were both very fun to watch. And this team is becoming very fun to watch. The Arizona Diamondbacks win their fourth game in a row. They win their third series in a row. Going back on this road trip so far, they have won every series on the road trip, including Oakland A's, Pittsburgh Pirates.

And now tonight with the win, they have secured the series win against the Philadelphia Phillies, and they look to go for the sweep, their first sweep, believe it or not still, they still haven't swept the series against the Phillies tomorrow. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that they're not sweeping teams, even though it would be nice to see them just gather a couple of extra wins here during this period of time that they have this light schedule, right?

But what's important is the Diamondbacks are taking care of business. There's been a couple of series they've lost. Two, they shouldn't have one, that they got their ass kicked in by the Padra. raised, but the Diamondbacks definitely are doing what they need to do so far in the month of May, and that is winning these games against these teams they should be beating. Yeah, I mean, the Phillies were in the World Series last year, Derek. I'm not sure if you remember that. That's old news, Jesse.

That's old news. I know the Phillies. They're a Trey Turner, and that's a different team now. They, yeah, they haven't been quite as good this season, right? They're 22 and 26 after this game. But yeah, yeah, the Phillies are still, you know, I think they're still a pretty good baseball team overall, even though some of their, some of their offensive players, you mentioned, Trey Turner haven't really gotten going yet.

But this is an impressive win for the D-BACs. Not a pretty win. Once again, the D-BACs left way too many ducks on the pond in this game, frankly. I believe it was the third inning. They had Cotel Marte at third with nobody out. He didn't score in the fourth inning. The D-Bex had a runner at second. Nobody out.

He did not score. In the sixth inning, the D-Bex had a runner at second, and nobody out. Couldn't score that guy either. And it was one of those games where those things were mounting up. And you kind of felt like, all right, this is going to be, you know, this is going to be the day where all of those things come back to haunt you at the end of the game. And the debacks were able to find a way to win this game in no small part because of Corbyn carol coming through in a big spot there in that eighth inning, giving the diamond backs the lead.

Things were a little shaky for the bullpen. But all is well that ends well for the devax. And they come away with the win. This guy didn't believe starting in the seven days. inning. He was getting a sick feeling in his tummy. I had a bad feeling. Two for 14 with runners in scoring position. So they earn getting a sick feeling in the tummy when you see this. I had a bad feeling going into the seventh inning. And in my defense, that is the inning if the Phillies tied this game at three. But yeah, you know, Scott McGuff and Andrew Chafin and, you know,

the guys in the bullpen bent, but didn't break in this game. And that's kind of been a theme for the, for the debacks this year. They've had some some big blowups. back there at the back end of the bullpen, but for the most part, more often than not, it's looked something like what we saw tonight. Kyle Nelson flat out wasn't very good in relief. And that's unfortunate because we know how good Kyle and Nelson has been for this team in the past. Yeah. And it feels like the bullpen really needs Nelson.

But Ryan Nelson, meanwhile, had an outstanding start. In fact, you could say it was his best start of the entire year. And it is during a time where, frankly, Ryan Nelson needed to put forth his best foot. He is right now in a competition for a starting rotation spot. And to be honest, he's playing like it, right? Six innings tonight. It was his third quality start of the year. He gives up three hits, one earn run, zero walks, four strikeouts.

And I think the biggest thing here is when you look at his overall numbers from this season, there's been some bad outings by Ryan Nelson. But for the most part, the majority of his outings have given this team an opportunity to win. They haven't been so bad that the Diamondbacks were basically put out of it by his particular outings. Yeah, that's a fair point. There have only been a couple Ryan Nelson outings where it was like, oh, man, it's going to be a really, a really tough game to win just because of how bad he was on the mound. Generally, he's kept the debacks in games, and he did a lot more than that in this one. Like you said, only one run over six innings. This was a really big outing for

Ryan Nelson. We're going to talk about this more later in the show. It was a big outing for Tommy Henry yesterday. It was a big outing for Ryan Nelson today. And the debacks are making it really hard on the front office. Those two guys are making it hard on the front office when it comes to figuring out who Zach Davies is going to replace when he comes back. But as of right now, it's hard to see the Diamondbacks removing either of these two guys from the rotation

given how well they pitched yesterday and today. Tommy Henry had his best Major League outing in game one and Ryan Elson had his best major league outing. Maybe not best because I know he had some pretty good outings last year. So I can't say the best of his career, but best of this season. I would say Ryan Nelson has best start of the season. So both of these guys are playing like guys that want this job and that they know that this job is on the line.

Starting rotation position is on the line. Henry's line from game one, five and two thirds innings, four hits, two runs, two earn, two walk, 5K, just one out shy of a quality start in his own outing. So both of these guys really stepped up. And honestly, these are the kind of outings. Like Ryan Nelson's outing today was incredible. It was very good. And if he can give them more of this, there's no doubt in my mind that he is not only

maybe the fourth man in the rotation, but maybe even the third man, right? We don't know where Zach Davies is going to be at when he returns to this rotation. And we still don't know how Brandon Fott is going to look in his next outing. Brandon Fought has had two really bad outings, one pretty damn good one. And then one good, you know, not that you want to get crazy about it, but he's still finding his way as a major league pitcher. And we're going to talk about this more. but this game particularly had a lot of things going well.

And even though the Diamondbacks weren't able to hit with runners in scoring position, they did enough to win this game. And Jesse said it was ugly, but this team just wins ugly sometimes. That is what the answer backs do. They find a way to win. And in a lot of cases, this team never has everything going right at the same time.

Maybe in game one of this series might have been a little bit of one of the most complete games we've seen from this team. But to be honest, it's rare so far that we've seen the Diamondbacks have like their offense rolling, their bullpen handling business, and they're starting pitching coming out and being incredibly effective. So the beautiful part about that is they're still finding ways to win baseball games, right? And even with going two for 14 with runners in scoring position, you still had a lot of offense from this team.

You still had guys stepping up. Lordus Gouriel extends his hitting streak. and I can still not cut my hair. I'm never going to get to cut my hair. Are you waiting until if and when the Lordus Guriel hitting streak ends? Is that what you're waiting for? You know what will happen. You know what will happen.

I'll go get a trim, and the same day he's going to go over five, and I'm just going to have to delete my Twitter account. Yeah, you can't do that. I can't come back from that. I won't be able to do this show anymore. I'll have to go do like Cardinals or Coyotes or something. I don't know. But I definitely know that people will come for me if something happens to my hair at this point.

And Lordus does not get a hit in a baseball game. He's just been so damn good, though, right? And not only that, but you also have Cattel Marte setting career highs. Both of these guys are on career streaks. Lourdes is now, what, like four games above his highest career hitting streak? And then you have Cotel Marte, who today surpassed his longest on base streak, what, with 24 games, I believe? Yeah, 24. I mean, come on.

Like, these guys are just doing it consistently, something that the Diamondbacks really haven't had from their offense in a very long time. I don't know when you looked up at the scoreboard and saw multiple 300 hitters in the Diamondbacks lineup. Right now you have Moreno hitting 304, Dominic Fletcher hitting 320, Pardomo hitting 315, Emmanuel Rivera hitting 328, Lordus Gurriel Jr. hitting 317. And I mean, like, that's, that's just today's starting lineup. It's kind of incredible how can, how, how they're getting production from so many, so many guys on this lineup. Yeah, I want to touch on Gabby Moreno for a second. He hit, he hit the two run home run early in this game that gave the Diamondbacks a two nothing lead. There's some power in there, Derek.

That was 108 miles an hour off the bat, 417 feet, a two run homer for Moreno is second of the season. The man has for a guy who has not slugged hardly at all in his majorly career, there is some slug in there for Gabby Moreno. And I think it's just a matter of his approach at the plate trying to get in more hitter-friendly counts where he can really get to that power. He's been in a lot of two-strike counts this season. And when he gets to two-strikes, you see Moreno become very hitterish, which is something he's good at doing.

He is good in two-strike situations at making contact and, you know, poking line drives or ground balls in the right places. But what really can make Gabby Moreno a star in this game is if he's able to tap into that power. And with that swing, you know, I mean, that wasn't a cheap home run, right? That ball went almost 420 feet. So that continues to be something to watch as far as Moreno's progression. He also walked twice in this game, which is something he hasn't done a whole lot of.

So a good game from him all the way around. Some of his other defensive metrics are a bit below average, but for the most part, we're seeing Gabby out there helping this team win games. He gunned down Bryce Harper in this team. Cole said Gabi carried this team defensively today. Nicholas Batty said, don't run on Gabby. Gabby's just, he's incredible. He did have an incredible block today as well. I know his blocking, as you were just alluding to, has not been, is not graded out well over the course of a season.

But Scott McGuff yanked like a 95-mile-hour fastball in very, very, very. poor fashion and somehow Gabby Moreno went from like one batters box to the other and was able to make a play on that which was which was pretty impressive. We're going to talk about this obviously as the season progresses and now is just one of those times where it's it's obviously early into the season but when you look at what Gabby Moreno is doing for this team again and the fact that Diamondbacks would have needed a catcher so bad considering the injury to Carson Kelly and what Lordis is doing and that we got both of these guys for Dalton Varsho, who is currently hitting below 210.

You got to, you got to just, you got to take a shot at Dalton Varshow. You can't, you can't just talk about Gurriel and Horanokey. I mean, well, like, let's see. If Dalton Varsho was tearing it up in Toronto, I don't, I mean, yes, the two man thing, like, yeah, we got two great players for the one great player, but does it not accentuate the deal and make it seem that much better when you talk about Dalton Varsho struggling right now? and honestly not even. I mean, we've seen Dalton Varsho's struggle at the plate at times.

You know, his batting average isn't one of his strengths by any, you know, is a career 230 hitter. Right. So it's not like 210 is that far out of range for what, you know, he would be hitting. But you have to be very pleased as a Diamondbacks fan that not only did this trade go the Diamondbacks way, but it went their way in such a substantial fashion, right? Again, the need for a catcher, Dalton Varshow's value came from him being an outfielder, which he probably, in this scenario with the Diamondbacks,

would have had to be converted back to a catcher. Who knows? It's possible. I don't know. It doesn't matter, though, because we don't have to go down that timeline. We live in this timeline now. And this timeline involves an Arizona Diamondbacks team

that is very fun to watch. We talked about Marte, we talked about Guerrillo, we talked about Moreno. But, of course, our King Snake is our baby boy and the guy who got the basically game-winning hit today. Yeah. Corbyn Carroll, three-for-four, with that game-winning RBI. He had two doubles.

you couldn't keep him off base. And even when he singles, he doubles, Jesse. Even when he singles, he doubles. Yeah, there was, I want to say it was Lordus Guriel at one point in this game hit a double. But Kyle Schwerber was just, he was just really slow to get to that ball down the line. And we were just, we were just joking back and forth. Like, I think Corbyn Carroll would have had an inside-the-park home run.

He would have. He would have taken that long. No doubt about that. But, yeah, Carol has struggled a little bit with runners in scoring position this season. I know people have talked a lot about Christian Walker struggling in those spots, which is sort of continued to be a thing. But Corbyn Carroll has sort of struggled in those spots a little bit this season. But as you said, winds up coming up with the game winning hit in this one. And three for four, big day all the way around for Corbyn Carroll after an 0 for 5 in the game yesterday.

The Arizona Diamondbacks go for the sweep tomorrow with Zach Gallen on the mound, which I would normally feel very good about. But we are doing a watch-along tomorrow. It's bad. And we know how that went last time. So we're a little worried around these parts. But the last time we did a watch along with Zach Gallum on the mountain, it went so well that we figured we should try it again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. So tomorrow morning, I believe, what, 10, 10, 10, 10.

10.5, something like that. We will be here back here at this office. Make sure to join us on the YouTube channel. Then we will be doing our post series wrap up after the game. But yeah, looking forward to seeing Zach Gallen rebound. I think the Diamondbacks have been very encouraging. And I think, you know, I think obviously that was a bad outing for Zach. That's more of an outlier than the norm.

That is a little bit more of the exception than the rule when it comes to Zach Gowan. I do want to shout out Dominic Fletcher really quick as well. We didn't give him the King Snake, but Dominic Fletcher made arguably a game saving catch. If he doesn't make that play there in the eighth inning, this game is tied. and we very well might still be playing this game. So Corbyn Carroll, you know, that big kid gave the debacks the lead, and Dominic Fletcher's catch is what allowed the Diamondbacks to keep the lead. So, you know, what you'd expect from the greatest Italian baseball player of all time.

And it allowed us to keep this game from going over three hours, which is something we don't like around these parts very much. You don't like it. Speak for yourself. Just as a huge fan of three-hour games. I'll say Dominic Fletcher did the thing that we've talked about when it comes to the contributions, you can provide your team, right? It goes 0 for 4 at the plate,

but has arguably the biggest defensive play of the way, right? He's totally held his own in center field. The Diamondbacks have made this interesting decision to have Dominic Fletcher play center field rather than Corbyn Carroll. Not really something we would have expected coming in. Tori said something about only wanting Corbyn Carroll to have to play two different outfield positions rather than all three, which is interesting.

Still don't fully understand that. But Dominic Fletcher has come in in center field. and he just looks sort of cool, calm and collected out there all the time. And you saw him come through in one of the biggest spots in this game and make a really nice catch. Ryan says, did I just hear a watch-along on another gallon start? Leave him alone. Guess what we're not going to. And we remember, what we do on this show or what we say when we're watching games,

that doesn't impact baseball games. It's only what we write on Twitter that impacts baseball games. So let's just get that straight. But again, we thank you guys. And what Steve Berthium says on the broadcast. No, that's very true. That can also jinx the outcome of the game, right? I feel like the shots that people seem to think.

The fact that he has the role is hard, is ours so hard on the name Contreras and like, really, like, you know, go hard on it. That might not be good for guys named Contreras, but whatever. I don't care about what Steve does. Steve's a great guy, and he likes to actively laugh in the face of danger, and I, for one, respect that. If you guys haven't subscribed to our PHAGNXports YouTube channel, do something. so right now while you're here, sign up for notification so you don't miss any of our shows go live. Leave us a thumbs up just for our own personal self-esteem. Also, if you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, subscribe to us there as well. Leave us a review. We always

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There we go. I will say that we kind of referenced this a little bit about the performances of Tommy Henry and of Brian Nelson, but Zach Davy's return is right around the corner. And when we say right around the corner, we mean the man might have maybe one more rehab start perhaps. Potentially one more. He is going to throw a bullpen tomorrow, talking about Wednesday. And then after that, the Diamondbacks are going to decide whether to give him another rehab start,

which would probably just be one more or to just bring him back in the rotation. He lines up for Friday, I believe. But we'll see how the Diamondbacks play this. Friday would be Brandon Fott start, and we've talked about the fact that Brandon Fott might be the odd man out, considering the way that Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson have pitched lately, but that's really the question we're here to ponder right now. Who is the man that Zach Davies replaces? Or does Tori Lavello do something crazy and go to a six-man rotation?

Probably not. But the Diamondbacks do have quality starting pitchers that I don't think they want to mess with the development of. We've talked about that. And I think obviously here, none of these guys are guys that they want to put in the bullpen. That's kind of the honest truth of the matter. So it feels like whoever isn't going to make the starting rotation will be sent down to Reno to join Dre Jameson, who he himself is pitching pretty well since he's returned to Reno. So the Diamondbacks have some very tough decisions to make when it comes to their starting rotation.

Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily count out. I mean, they could, I guess, move someone to the bullpen. The debacks always can use more bullpen arms. But yeah, you know, Joe Mantiply is not too far away. So the debacks have some reinforcements coming on that front as it is. As far as who takes Zach Davies spot, it does seem like Brandon Fott is definitely the guy that if you're making a bet right now, given how well Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson have pitched the last two days, I think Brandon Fott is sort of the clear number one option on that front right now for the debacks,

but I wouldn't say the door is necessarily closed. If the Diamondbacks do come out tomorrow and say that they want Zach Davies to make one more rehab start, that very well may be because they think it will serve Zach Davies best to make one more rehab start. And it also may be because the Diamondbacks really don't want to make this decision right now and they want to push it out a little bit further. And, you know, if they were to do that, it would, give them a chance to see Tommy Henry pitch one more time, to see Ryan Nelson pitch one more time,

and then to see Brandon Fott start, which currently lines up for Friday against the Red Sox. So I think it's possible that the Diamondbacks sort of kick the can down the road and don't make this decision right away. But if they do make the decision right away and they want Zach Davies back in the rotation, things line up well, Zach Davies lines up perfectly for Brandon Fought's spot. I think it would make some sense. And there are things that I think Brandon Fott could work on. We saw his fastball command has not been quite as pinpoint as it was in the miners last year. He's gotten a little bit too much of the plate at times, although that's improved in his last two starts. And I think the other thing is just the general shape of his fastball.

It doesn't seem to be, yeah, it doesn't seem to be quite what we expected. I know Nick Picoro from the Arizona Republic wrote in a story a couple weeks ago that there were some rival evaluators who were saying that Brandon fought when he was at his best in the minors last year. had a lot more life on his fastball than what we've seen this year. The life on his fastball, according to stat cast, has been not good at all. It's been pretty below average, even though the pitch has a ton of spin that doesn't necessarily translate to more movement. So there are some things for Brandon Fought to work on. We were discussing that, and Jesse was pointing out how his fastball basically drops more than your average fastball should.

Yeah. Now, why is that important? well, if he's throwing it up in the strike zone, it's going to drop down right into the heart of the plate, essentially, which is what we've seen out of Brandon fought, throwing a lot of fastballs right down the middle of the plate. Yeah, he loves. And when I talked to him late last year in the minors and he was having so much success, he talked about how his fastball lives up in the zone. That's where his fastball has been most successful. And Brentstrom loves that. Yeah. Brentstrom loves himself a top shell fastball. The problem is when your fastball doesn't have good vertical ride. And so far what we've seen from Brandon Fott's fastball is slightly below average vertical ride, which is surprising given how much the pitch spins.

There's some interesting dynamics there. And I think there are probably some improvements that Brandon Fott could make. Regardless of the decision that is made, none of this means it's the end of the road for any of these guys that get set down to minors or anything, right? Honestly, what we've seen out of Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson is kind of more of what you would hope to see, right, them pushing each other, them, the competition, making them come out and be better, right? Be better every outing. And we've seen that out of these guys that are competing for this position.

That includes Brandon Fott. None of these guys, I think, feel like safe about the starting rotation. And honestly, they shouldn't. They're not going to be secure in their position if they can't perform. There is enough talent on this team for them to not have to give someone, you know, five bad outings in a row before they have to make decision. Sure. However, I also think this means that Zach Davies doesn't necessarily have a lock on the

starting rotation either. I think that's a fair point. With how well these guys have been pitching and how much they want these young guys to have some major league experience, I feel like Zach Davies needs to come in and perform. And perhaps that even means him being better than we saw out of him last season, what we saw of him last season. It was pretty good. I mean, last year he had like a 409 ERA for the season, more of a five and dive guy.

he's not really working deep into games. But I think it's safe to say, even with the improvements we've seen from Tommy Henry and Brandon Fodd and Ryan Nelson, you'd still take a slightly over four ERA and, you know, five innings to start at this point. The debacks just need some depth and having some experience in there also wouldn't hurt. I know people love watching rookie pitchers do their thing, but there's something to be said for having at least not the majority of your starting rotation taken up by those guys. That's fine, fine.

Going back in the chat there, someone asked you a question that I'm going to answer. Two Minikin, 268 says, Jesse, what's the D-BACs ranking on scoring on Sacrifice Flies? Seemed they don't score much on sack flies. They are sixth in baseball as far as Sacrifice Flies, believe it or not. They do get a lot of sack flies. But we're with you on that. Today was very frustrating, especially considering the concentrated amount of times that they had zero outs with a runner in scoring, position and weren't able to bring that runner in.

It was, that was probably the most frustrating thing about the offense today. Kevin wants me to throw some shade. I will throw shade right now, Kevin. I'm ready to throw shade at all times. I will give me a topic. I'll throw shade. Ryan says, what day do we get the Thunder Sick MLB Payout rankings? Well, again, I'm going to answer that one.

It's my power rankings this week. I'm taking it over. We're both going to do it. You're not allowed to how it. It's all me. It's all me. It's going to be Diamondbacks one through eight and then a couple of other teams peppered in there in the final two spots. I fully believe that that's what you will do.

There will be three teams represented in Derek's top 10 power rankings. Mark my words. That's right. That's all it is. But of course, I mean, we talked about Zach Davies' return being eminent. I think Elise said what do you think about the Diamondbacks are going to do with Kyle Lewis when he is ready to come back. I saw he is finally back in Reno today. We have no idea. But Kyle Lewis had a great day today. In fact, he hit a three run homer in his first game. back on a rehab assignment for the Reno Aces. He has had had other, what, like backlock games or things like that? Yeah, I think he probably did some stuff at Salt River and maybe some complex league games,

but nothing that would show up in an actual box score. It's all been sort of unofficial. These are the first game or this is the first game that he's playing in an actual minor league game that counts. So, yeah, hitting third VHing for the Reno Aces and game isn't over, but as we speak, he's one for four with that three run homer that you mentioned. That's right. So it's going to be exciting and it's a good problem to have.

The thing that we're talking about here is what do the Diamondbacks do with all of this talent that they have and which ones do they go with? At least nothing right now is set in stone. Connor brings up Buddy Kennedy stats. Buddy Kennedy is the next coming of Barry Bonds. I don't know if you guys knew that or not, but Buddy Kennedy is absolutely. Buddy Kennedy is sitting 364 with a 1078 OPS, an on-based percentage of like 500. The problem is we can't, we can't really get all that serious about Buddy Kennedy being called up to the majors because there's just, there's no room for him. Unless the debacks got to a place where they were willing to move on from one of the veterans, if they were moving to, willing to move on from an Evan Longoria or a Nick Ahmed, which I don't really see at this point, even though there is maybe a case to make those moves.

I don't really see the debacks being all that close to that. And even if they were to move on from Nick Ahmed, you would want someone who could play shortstop. I don't know if the debacks feel great about Buddy Kennedy's ability to do that. But he is doing impressive things in Reno. And hopefully at some point in the season, he gets an opportunity. Does that make him a viable trade candidate? It does.

I don't know how much other teams will buy into the success that he's had in the Pacific Coast League because it's the Pacific Coast League and nobody buys into anything in the Pacific Coast League. Fair. If you're a hitter, it's all fake. None of it. None of it's real. It's just like my mayorship here at PHNX. You know, it's all fake.

Buddy Kennedy's offensive breakout is much more real than your mareship ever was, Derek. But, no, he has been genuinely impressive. I don't want to make it sound like it's all just the PCL being the PCL. He really has had an impressive year down there, but it's tough to find a spot for him on this team. Jacob Schultz says PHNX DeBex fans. equal Gabby gang. I like that, but I think we're going with the Serpent Society. We're doing

Serpent Society. Serpent Society. All right. All right. Whatever. These are the kind of things you think of when you enjoy yourself some OGs brands gummies. You know, you come up with all sorts of ideas. I'm pretty sure at least one of the kings were named based on OG. So we shout out to our friends at OGs and you should check them out. Of course, wins, losses. It doesn't matter. They make everything better. They have a wide variety of doses and strange. can pick from as well as a wonderful selection of flavors. They're all about flavoring life. They're all about flavoring their edibles and making them taste.

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But you can find them at your local dispensary at OGsbrands.com. Must be 21 or over to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Also enjoy our friends at four peaks, who are sending you to an Arizona Diamondbacks game, with their Four Peaks, Four Seats promotion. One lucky winner will get four seats to an upcoming Diamondbacks game. Tickets come with debuts. You can grab some food.

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and please enjoy responsibly. There is one topic that we need to address because of course it's not at all too early to address it and that is Corbyn Carroll for Rookie of the Year. Hear me out. I don't know if you've heard this before but I may have put some money on this show live while I was doing it on Corbyn Carroll being the rookie of the year.

I might have a vested interest in him being rookie of the year. However, how can you argue with the numbers? And all I have to say is suck it, James Altman. Look at these numbers. James Outman. It's grown. I don't want to say it's lopsided. I mean, James Outman is still had a good year.

And Corbyn Carroll has had a really good year in terms of wins above replacement entering today. They were both identical at 1.5, I think, at least according to fan graphs. So both have had great seasons, but for those who were calling James Outman the frontrunner, you know, the early frontrunner for this award, I think we have enough evidence to the contrary at this point. Corbyn Carroll is hitting 287 after the game today compared to 247 for James Outman. The only category here that James Outman has a better number in is home runs. And Outman is hit 9 compared to Corbyn Carroll 7, but Corbyn Carroll has other extra base hits. that he's hit more of than James Outman. The other thing that really stands out here, Derek, is 34.1%.

That is a really, really high strikeout rate for James Outman compared to Corbyn Carroll, who had a reasonably high strikeout rate himself in the early going of this season. That number is crept down to 20.2%, which is below the league average, which generally sits around 22%. So impressive stuff all the way around from Corbyn Carroll in this game on the season as a whole. and yes, it is very early, but he is 100% in the driver's seat for rookie of the year right now. Not to mention the fact that it's May 23rd and the Diamondbacks are on pace to win 96 games. Corbyn Carroll, huge part of that, huge reason why the Diamondbacks are on pace to win that many games.

There are going to be names that come and go. And when I say that, I think James Outman might soon be one of those names that go. We might see a new contender come for Corbyn Carroll's crown, but I don't think anybody's taking it. I think what you're going to see out of Corbyn Carroll is this. I think you're going to see this consistently throughout the year. Maybe his numbers there dip a little bit because they do still seem quite high. Even his home runs seem unexpectedly high for what we thought we might get out of him. Yeah, he's on, I mean, he's on pasted like 25 home runs this year, which would be incredible.

Incredible. Someone mentioned Gabby Moreno as a sleeper. Gabby Moreno unfortunately exhausted his rookie eligibility last year. The Blue Jays exhausted his eligibility. He didn't exhaustive. He only had like, he only had like 70 of bats, which is way below the threshold that you would pass in order to exhaust your rookie eligibility. But there's another threshold of days spent on the active roster. And the Blue Jays had him in the big leagues for a while and just weren't really playing him because they have way too many catchers on the roster who were hitting entirely too well.

Way too many good catchers. Way, yeah, way too many, way too many very good catchers, especially last year. So, yeah, Gabby Moreno is not an option there. I'm actually... But we still love him nonetheless. Don't get me wrong. He's still a Roy in our hearts. He has had an outstanding season in his own right.

And yeah, I'm working on a story on this right now that you'll probably see tonight or tomorrow morning. I don't know if James Outman actually is necessarily the only other competition that Corbyn Carroll has in this battle. Brett Beatty from the New York Mets has come on pretty strong since getting called up. There are some other interesting names in the... the mix as well. The other thing I will say, Derek, is that last season, the man who won the NL Rookie of the Year award was won Michael Harris of the Atlanta Braves. He did not play his first

game of the season until May 28th. So as of this time last season, the rookie of the year had not even played a game yet. So it is still very early to be having these conversations. But if you're looking for the frontrunner right now, Corbyn Carroll has absolutely delivered on the very high expectations that people set for him at the beginning of the season. He has an OPS of almost 900. We couldn't even fit stolen bases on the graphic. Someone mentioned that. He has 13 of those,

which is pretty impressive at this point in the season. It's all really incredible what we've seen from Corbyn Carroll. And can I take a swipe at another rookie that that's not even in competition with Gordon Walker? Is that who you're talking about? Nope. Gunner Henderson. The guy that everybody was talking about before this season started is currently

hitting 192 with a 685 OPS and four home runs. The guy was... I still really like Gunner Henderson in the long run. Oh, I'm not saying it's not going to be a good player. And honestly, this is something that has... This is why I think rookie of the year is such an interesting award, right? Because it really doesn't mean much a lot of times. Like, sometimes that player doesn't go out to break out and have a tremendous career.

It just means that they had kind of a good season when they got called up and were able to handle the workload at a major league level, right? or they were able to be productive at a major league level. But, I mean, sometimes, you know, again, the majority of the time guys get called up. They struggle. They need to work on stuff. They get sent back down. Lord and Carroll is an absolute anomaly.

And I mean that for so many reasons. But I mean... He's an anomaly in basically every way imaginable. It's incredible. But, like, he really is as nice of a guy as you can imagine that he is. Like, the perception about him is dead on. He's just a very wholesome, nice guy. We used to that word wholesome with him and Brandon Faw.

We have some wholesome guys on our team and I love it, right? I feel like that's almost an insult to an athlete. It is not. It is not. Like an athlete wholesome? No, no, you know what it is? I am so far removed from being wholesome that I can't even imagine what it's like to be wholesome. I don't even know what it takes, but I appreciate it and I can accurately describe it when I see it.

But more than anything, Corby and Carroll sounds like an absolute. absolute maniac when it comes to his love of baseball and the way that he works at getting better at it. And that, I think, is the reason why we will see him continue the success, even if he has his slumps, even if he has his struggles. We saw that after the injury. It took him a while to get going again, which is something that happens to a lot of baseball players. He had a two for 22 skid there at one point a couple weeks ago. But you kind of figured that Corbin Carroll was going to find his way out of it.

And sure enough, Corbin Carroll found his way out of it. He sure does. That's what he does. before we go, we had to address one thing, which, of course, is Phoenix Sun's related tweet, because that's what we do around here. But we love our guy campaign. And campaign was not going to let McAill Bridges go without a noticing a D-Backs win over McAle Bridge's Philadelphia Phillies. And I love it. And campaign, again, you're welcome on this show anytime. I hate to bring up the fact that you probably have some free time right now.

that seems like an unnecessary swipe. But I'm just saying if you're bored, you're looking for something to do. We're always looking for a third guy on this show. We're always looking to add somebody. I think you would be a great fit. I'm just saying. But anyway. Did you see, did you see Mikhail Bridges' response to this tweet?

He quote tweeted and said, Finn and Block you. Yeah. Yeah. Which is. I've blocked my friends on Twitter once or twice. It wouldn't be the first time. And sometimes your friends deserve it. That's all I'll say.

but man this team is just so much fun to watch and I think that's the thing the excitement level is all over the place last year when we kind of got into our rut especially right around this time of the year like it took the diamondbacks a very long time to reach 29 wins

they went through I think they got around like 25 and they went through some pretty bad losing skids there May was not as it tends to be for this franchise May was not a good time last year and the devax have had a pretty darn good May this year. That's right. It seems like that trend might have,

that demon might have been cast off or whatever, whatever you want to say. There's a lot of weird things when it comes to this team that have been consistent throughout, like throughout franchise history, right? Yeah. Having bad maze, that's one of them.

Having a bad bullpen, that's another thing that's been a constant. Like, there are things that trend with this team. But right now, they're trending in the right direction. And everybody is contributing, honestly,

the bullpen, even when you look at what, what happened tonight, you got a, you got to tip your cap that they were able to like jesse said bend but not break and uh that made tonight's game very very fun to watch i don't want to say yeah we might have overstated how ugly it was on the whole the only really ugly thing for this game which was pretty ugly was just the debacks really struggled with runners in scoring position yeah it should have been a game that they blew it open

they probably should have had like seven or eight runs in this game and that wouldn't have required like a bunch more hits that would just be like all right move the guy to third base and uh you know hit a sack fly or whatever. You don't even necessarily need base hits to get those runs in. However, how can they be the answer backs if they don't answer back? Yeah, it's true. It's sort of like the debacks were waiting for the Phillies to score another run. And then they were like, all right, now that the game is tied, now we're allowed to score again.

Right. And that's when Corby has the RBI knock that they gave the debacks league. It really makes sense. It does make sense. They just want to be true to their identity when it's all said in that. The empire has to strike back in the empire strikes back. You know what I mean? It's got to go along with the titles of the movie for sure.

But with the Diamondbacks, nine games, season high, nine games over 500. And you know what that means. Cattel, climb up that little tiny mountain for me, please. All right, probable for tomorrow, Zach Gallen. Probable for tomorrow. It's Zach Gallen against Ranger Suarez. What does Ranger Suarez do for a job? Wrong answers only?

Park Ranger Such a cool name Power Ranger It's an incredible name I feel like with that name you could do just about anything I think Ranger Swaras rides a motorcycle Oh he fucking you bet your ass he does He absolutely rides a motorcycle

He has a leather vest Not jacket vest With his gang on the back of it You know what I mean? Rangers swore Like that's an incredible name But of course that gallon on the bump on a day when we're doing a watch-along. So we'll see how this goes, basically.

But if you want to lounge around in some amazing recliners like we're going to do to watch the watch-along tomorrow, you should head over to Moore Furniture where they have a fantastic selection of furniture. And, of course, they will get you ready for a very long baseball season. It's very long, right? Football season, it's over like that. 17 games. Ha, ha, ha, you guys are soft.

Paper soft. We do 162 around here, so you need something to sit your ass and. while you watch it. And of course, you can have it delivered by their white glove delivery service, which we did here, because there's five stories up, and we aren't moving that shit. Do you imagine if they played a hundred and 60s you football games? There'd be five guys left by the end of the season. There's bodies everywhere.

Bodies strewn around baseball or football fields, but anyway, you guys can stay big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com. Check out a Chase Lounge while you're there. Make sure to send any Chase Lounge suggestions to Jesse directly. to him on Twitter. Also, you can thank him for always using the GameTime app because Jesse always uses the GameTime app. He never pays full price for tickets and you shouldn't either.

You should also wait until the last minute because that's always good too. Not only is it good to wait until the last minute because you have no idea what's going on, but then if you wait, FOMO sets in, right? And then someone's like, oh, I'm going and you hear another friend, oh, they're going. And now you can satisfy that FOMO by going to one of the top ticket purchasing apps in the country and get your. yourself the best deal on last minute tickets. Snag the tickets without the stress with game time.

Download the game time app. Create an account and use code P.HNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, Diamondbacks go for the sweep tomorrow. Could be their first sweep of the year.

We don't know. We're keeping our fingers crossed on that. Zach Gallen against Ranger Suarez, you feel pretty good about it. that. Do you? But you felt pretty good about the pitching matchup the last time that Zach Allen was on the mound. Remember when he said something stupid about Brandon Fott having the hardest matchup in that in that one? It wasn't stupid. It was true. It was true, but Brandon Faw came through for us, you know, and that's what he does sometimes. So a lot of interesting things to keep an eye on with this team. And of course, you can keep it locked right here to your friends at PHNXDbacks.

And we'll get you covered on all of that stuff. Follow me on Twitter at Kapp underscore Caveman with a K. follow him on Twitter, Jesse N. Friedman. You can follow our producer, Damon Dog at Damon, D-A-W-G, and you got to bark when you follow them. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at P-HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys, of course, for joining us.

We always appreciate your time. On behalf of these guys, we love you. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when Corbyn Carroll is the rookie of the year.