PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll Hits WALK-OFF HOMER As Diamondbacks Swing EPIC Comeback Win Over Nationals

Starting point is 00:00:11 Welcome in to a special emergency postgame edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast. We were not supposed to go live tonight, but here we are anyway, because the Diamondbacks just did something absolutely incredible. Of course, this emergency pod is brought to you by our friends over at Indeed. Listeners of the show, we'll get a $75-sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash all-city. That's indeed.com slash all city. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. You need indeed.

Starting point is 00:00:47 Damon, this was wild. I'm not going to lie. I even being someone who was up in the press box and covering this game, I was kind of starting to work on other things. I was not really all that dialed in on this one. The debacks, of course, Jordan Montgomery had a rough day. They were down six to nothing after three innings.

Starting point is 00:01:06 They were down eight to two after six innings. They were even down eight to four. going into the bottom half of the ninth inning and the D-back score five runs, including a two-run walk-off, pinch it home run by none other than Corby and Carol. Damon, how are we feeling about this one? We're living life, but first off, I just want to say, Jesse, we'd be remiss if we didn't say that we are in, I am in Studio K. I have a tent set up in here.

Starting point is 00:01:33 I live here. I have a mattress, a pillow, one blanket. We don't need it. I don't need the blanket, though, because there's no AC. So yeah, Studio K. Thanks for always helping us out over here. We love our friends over at Circle K. Make sure you guys sign up for the inner circle. But what a win, Jesse, like on just unbelievable, very very just like lots of storylines

Starting point is 00:01:55 around this win. I feel like, you know, Montgomery struggling like he has for much of the season. Corbyn Carroll, who obviously has had a really down sophomore year, you know, getting that massive hit at the end of the game. when a lot of times it feels like the debacks can't get that massive hit to in any of these games. And then on top of that, you know, just the, we just talked about Kyle Finnegan. We've been talking about him as a trade candidate for the diamondbacks and potentially replacing Paul Seawald, who's been struggling recently for the last week or so.

Starting point is 00:02:32 And he blows a four run lead, gives up five in the bottom of the ninth inning, like just so much to talk about here. Yeah, suffice it to say that Mike Rizzo is probably not a happy camper after this game because one of his top trade chips, just probably the trade value there. I would imagine took a pretty serious hit after this one.

Starting point is 00:02:54 But yeah, we've got some reaction from the Diamondbacks Clubhouse from manager Tori Lavello. I do want to say real quick, very much appreciate all of you sticking around and waiting as we got all this ready. As I said earlier, we were not planning to do a post game show tonight. I had to do all the post game availability stuff

Starting point is 00:03:09 downstairs and then we got this fired up. So thank you all for stick it around with us. Here is manager Tori Lavello, just giving his initial comments about tonight's win. That was a character win. I was a team that played with heart and determination and a lot of will. The first couple of ladies were very difficult. We got flattened, but they just kept chipping away.

Starting point is 00:03:37 And you know, you walk out, and you're facing an all-star closure and you still don't believe that's the end. This team, this team is hungry and it was awesome to watch. It was an awesome moment in the dugout. You know, there was a lot of maneuvering that was happening. Everybody was in line

Starting point is 00:03:56 and in place with what was going on. One guy handed it off to the next and it was just a great team went and a great team moment. And they're celebrating right now and they deserve it. I'm really proud of this team. You know, it was the home run by Marte. It was clearly the walk-off home run by Corby.

Starting point is 00:04:15 But there were so many things inside of the game that set that up. It was a really good approach by AT to lead off the beginning with a double and a base hit from Perdomal and a really, another quality at bat from Gurriel. The same exact thing last night. And it just kept happening. It was a team approach, you know, all-field approach, and we sold out to doing everything we couldn't win the game. You know, like I said, Marte had three hits,

Starting point is 00:04:40 Corrielle, two hits. Everybody just kept chipping in. Coteel-Marté continues to really emerge as one of the best players in the league. I hope he gets some very strong MVP considerations. He's on an unbelievable path, and he is just barreling up the baseball and hitting it. It doesn't matter left or right-hand in any direction. Damon, Cotell Marte, I know we'll certainly talk about Corbyn Carroll more here in a second.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Obviously, he had the knock that ultimately put the debacks over the top in this game. but could tell Marte hit a two run homer that that really made what felt like, okay, you know, you're maybe going to string together a couple hits and, you know, get a runner two back, but you're probably not going to do anything more than that. You can tell Marte, down 8, 5 with a runner on first base, hits a two run homer. And suddenly it's like, okay, like it's eight to seven and there's still nobody out. The diamondbacks very much have a chance to win this game. And as Tori was talking about there, Marte, after going three for five in this game,

Starting point is 00:05:38 I think he had three batted balls of 110 miles an hour or higher exit velocity. He now has a 9-11 OPS. And we've talked a little about Cattel's MVP candidacy and how we believe he belongs in that conversation. You know, I still don't know if he's necessarily at the top of that conversation. He still has some ground to make up. But he's also made up quite a bit of ground. I mean, it feels like just a few weeks ago we were talking about Cotel having an OPS in the made 800s and talking about how valuable that was given what he's done for you defensively.

Starting point is 00:06:08 everything that he brings to the game. Now you're talking about a guy with an OPS of 9-11. It's moving into the range where his candidacy comes from like, or goes from like he belongs in the conversation to he really might be at the center of that conversation before long. Yeah, I mean, he's just been unbelievable this year. And to do it at second base is what's like the craziest about it. You know, like that's, you just never see this kind of stuff from second baseman.

Starting point is 00:06:35 And, you know, maybe there's that. stupid Otani guy in L.A. that's having a really good year. But at the same time, he doesn't play, hey, what did Ken Kendrick say, Jesse? He's a designated hitter. And Ketalmarte has had a really good defensive season. And yeah, he's, I'd say right now,

Starting point is 00:06:55 if the season ended today, if he didn't finish top two, I'd be ready to riot. I'd be ready to burn some offices to the ground, you know, just get the people behind me and really rally. But another thing that Tori, Tori spoke to there in that opening statement that I just wanted to touch on real quick was like just the culture of this team. You know, and I think a lot of people criticize Tori and I'm not going to,

Starting point is 00:07:18 I'm going to pick on somebody a little bit in the chat here. We got our guy Dick Thomas in the chat here, who is big coming after Tori earlier today on our, our regular show that we did at 1 p.m. And it's like, yeah, I mean, he's not, Tori has, he bears blame from time to time. He's not a perfect manager. He'd be the first guy to tell you that. But what you can, can't quantify is this team and its fight and how much that they love playing for this guy. And like, there's just such a good culture within this organization right now. And the players, they all, you can tell they love each other. There's good team chemistry.

Starting point is 00:07:53 And it shows when you're down four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and you don't even like, I mean, I guess like maybe a lot of debacks fans felt like it was over, but I don't think anyone in the dugout did. Clearly not. Yeah. And they really did start chipping away earlier in this game. You know, it was six to nothing. They got one run back.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Then they got another run back. It was six to two. Then the national score a couple more runs. They make it eight to two. And it's like, all right. Yeah, you know, this game is probably over. And then one in the seventh, one in the eighth, and somehow five runs in the ninth against Kyle Finnegan, which is just unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:08:30 We do have some crazy little factoid here, courtesy of Diamondbacks PR, the Diamondback six run comeback win tonight marked their largest of the season. Additionally, according to DeBak's PR, their four run comeback to win in the ninth inning or later marks the third time doing so in franchise history. This is something the team has only done three times in franchise history. The other times July 3rd, 2008 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and one that I think a lot of people will remember. I certainly remember it as someone who grew up in Arizona. It was a fan of this team growing up, September 27, 2011 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. That was the Ryan Roberts game.

Starting point is 00:09:08 That was a six-run comeback where there were two outs in the inning against the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks wind up coming back and winning on a Ryan Roberts Grand Slam. This wasn't quite on that level, but it was pretty close, right? I mean, to come back and score five runs in the ninth inning is just unbelievable stuff. And the other elements of this is yesterday's game and how difficult. that one was undoubtedly for this team, right? I mean, you have a 2-1 lead going into the 9th. We obviously had the Paul Seawald conversation on our show earlier today.

Starting point is 00:09:43 He blows the save. It goes to the 10th and it gets arguably even uglier. Justin Martinez kind of spraying the ball all over the place, some bad defense. Debacks get really, really close. Nonetheless, in the bottom of the 10th, they get the tying run within 90 feet, but they're not able to win the game. It was a gut punch loss. You know, they missed out on a sweep yet again.

Starting point is 00:10:02 And today they very much flipped the script and won a game that it felt like they had no business winning pretty much the entire way. Tori Lavello had some pretty interesting things to say along those lines. Here's what Tori said. Here's what Tori said about the Diamondbacks bouncing back after a tough one yesterday and winning this game here tonight. Emotional games over the last month. What does it mean to have a game like this after kind of a tough one yesterday? Yeah. Tonight's win makes all the bad go away from last night.

Starting point is 00:10:30 yesterday's game 100%. I was so bitter after the game last night. I had a really tough day, and I had a tough afternoon today as well. Tough night, tough afternoon. But when you see something like this, I haven't thought about it since that afternoon, you know? So I'm a much better spot. So I thank the team for that for making me feel better, because that's what they need to do is make me feel good.

Starting point is 00:10:55 But, yeah, this game has unbelievable swings in it. And you just got to roll with them. sometimes and like I was trying to say today, what was the word I was trying to look for? I forgot. Temptation. I think it was a temptation is to just go off the deep end. Got to be steady because things like this happen all the time. I mean, do they really, though?

Starting point is 00:11:16 Like, do things like this really happen all the time? Six run comeback, a game of the devax were down by four runs in the ninth inning. Yeah, this was, this was unbelievable stuff. And, yeah, it was funny to hear Tori there talking about just the kind of the sense of relief that he felt after this game. So it's hard to, yeah, it's hard to say. It's hard to put into words, frankly, what the Diamondbacks were able to do tonight.

Starting point is 00:11:42 It is. Damon, especially after that game last night, right? Or I guess yesterday afternoon where the debacks lost in tragic fashion to be able to come back and do this today. Just a crazy lift for this team. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we haven't gotten those answer back type wins a lot this season like that was obviously this kind of the story of last season really um with all the comebacks that they they were a part of so we know that this team can do that you know like

Starting point is 00:12:11 this is it's not something that this team doesn't have in in their bag necessarily but we like it's nice to finally see it come to fruition it's nice to when you're you're really needing to win games in a playoff race when it comes down to it like yes they can start getting this belief in them again that they're not out of games even when it looks like they're really out of games. That's going to be helpful. If you could just steal a couple, I mean, because really that's what it's going to come down to. It's not, it's going to be a close race. There's, there's a lot of teams in that in that mix. So it really could come down to can you steal two or three games here and there and. Yeah, this was a massive one. Yeah, it absolutely was. I know someone

Starting point is 00:12:54 mentioned it in the chat. You guys don't want to hear from us. You want to hear from Corby and Carol, the man himself who came up with an enormous, obviously, pinch hit to run Homer that gave the Diamondbacks to win. Here's what Corvin had to say about his first career walkoff home run. I just, I knew I got it really pure, but it was a little low. So I didn't know right off the bat. And then, you know, I was like, okay, I think I got it. Just just really excited. Yeah, just really excited.

Starting point is 00:13:26 I mean, you know, after a tough one yesterday, just I think it's huge to be able to come out of today with a win. Your, you know, kind of up and down season has been well documented. What's it like to have one of these moments, you know, that can maybe get you started? Good, yeah, good. Yeah, it's one of the ups for sure. So when you throw your helmet in the air, I mean, it's kind of delirium at home plate. Can you describe what that is like? Yeah, I mean, just everyone's excited, right?

Starting point is 00:14:01 We, you know, came back from being down pretty good. So, yeah, just everyone's excited. I thought you guys have accomplished in this clubhouse together already in this game going down 6-0, through this Walker. Do you earn anything that you didn't already know about these guys to know? No, I mean, we've been saying it all year. You know, Joe, I think, said it. Joe Mather said it at the beginning of the last series.

Starting point is 00:14:25 is like we're just we're never out of a game and that's true how it's it's felt um it just it's not over till it's over and you've been putting together some really great like game at bats and it just seems like uh it's been able to pay off a little bit it's hard to describe like how good this much this must feel for corbin in particular i mean after obviously the season that he's had uh it's it's been a rough one all the way around and uh to come through in a spot like this like, I mean, this is one of the coolest moments that you can have as a major league baseball player. I mean, you come up as a pinch hitter. It was the second pitch that he had seen all night long against one of the better closers in the game,

Starting point is 00:15:07 who granted maybe didn't have his best stuff tonight. But to come through in that spot, just a huge moment for Corbyn. And, you know, we've talked a number of times. Like, people keep using the phrase like Corbin is back or whatnot. And I'm hesitant to use that, you know, at this point, we're 100 games into the season. And I don't know if Corbin is going to be truly back at any point this season, but maybe he also will be. I mean, I'm also very, very aware that this is an ultra-talented athlete. And the reason the debacks are still hitting him lead off a lot, at least against Ritees, is because they believe that he has the ability to turn it around and we'll be able to do that at some point.

Starting point is 00:15:48 And we've seen glimpses. We've seen more glimpses here in the last few weeks than, you know, the entire season before that. hit two home runs in his first 87 games this year. This was his, this was his fifth homer, if I'm not mistaken. I think actually a sixth homer. Sixth homer in his last 16,

Starting point is 00:16:05 17 games, something like that. So we're, we're starting to see a whole lot more pop in his bat. And again, this was a pitch up in the zone. It wasn't a fastball. It was a splitter that was,

Starting point is 00:16:15 that was poorly located, obviously by Finnegan. But it still feels like a pitch that earlier in the season, yeah, he wasn't taking the image of those pitches at all, at all. Like he would get like a meatball type pitch and he just was like there'd be times where he would take it. And you're like, what are we like this is just a different baseball player than what we've seen for majority of this season.

Starting point is 00:16:35 But like you're saying, Jesse, like I'm looking at his month by month splits here. And so he started off with a 704 OPS in March, only 13 ABs. So not much of a sample size there. 5.09 in April, 614 in May. And then 725 and 776 in June and July. So 776 OPS in July. I mean, it's not necessarily what we got from Corbyn Carroll last season, but it is a good baseball player.

Starting point is 00:17:02 And if he can sustain that, all of a sudden, you know, that's an extra weapon in that lineup that we haven't had for the entire season as he's just basically been eating at bats, which granted I know that they, if they, they know that their ceiling includes Corbyn Carroll. So I understand that completely. They know they can't win the World Series without him clicking. And that's the facts of the situation.

Starting point is 00:17:26 But you need him to figure it out. And he's been basically a waste of a space for a long time in the lineup. And he's finally picking it up a little bit. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, and he had a 725 OPS in June, which isn't great, right? It's not the Corbyn Carol that we saw a year ago. But you put together a 725 in June. And then what he's done so far this month, which I think if you include the Homer

Starting point is 00:17:53 from tonight. His OPS this month goes up to 829. So you're talking over the last two months about a player that is not all the way back, but a player who has been actually pretty close. And something Tori also said about Corbin that I don't think was in either of these videos is that he hopes Corbin goes out and has the best two months of his life over the last, over this final stretch of the season. Same. And that's possible, right? Yeah, I think everyone in the chat probably hopes the same thing. That's not totally out of the the question, right? I mean, is his end of year OPS going to be 900? There's really no way that happens at this point. But, you know, could he have a 900 OPS the rest of the season? It's not

Starting point is 00:18:34 impossible, right? We're starting to see him come out of this a little bit. You know, that would obviously be so, so, so big for this team. We do have one other graphic, Damon, that I want to put up real quick. This is the sort of the roller coaster ride of win probabilities throughout this game. And it is pretty, pretty epic. I don't know if. this qualifies is as like the we it's not exactly a very exciting roller coaster necessarily it basically just jets up toward the nationals and then it uh drops like a cliff at the end of yeah man back's coming back in the night kind of a really bad shitty roller coaster that doesn't have much of uh you know there's what do you talk about like when you when you're talking

Starting point is 00:19:15 about like a story and you know like there's the ups and downs of it and whatever like this is just straight up and then straight down nothing in between It was a snoozer until the very end when there was quite a bit of shock value. Yeah, it felt, Chase Field felt quiet too. Like, which is on Monday night against the nationals. Like, you're not necessarily going to get the crowd juiced. But that home run at the end, sure, I feel like juiced him up a little bit. And Jesse, I made the executive decision of giving Corbyn Carroll Kingsnake.

Starting point is 00:19:45 I'm sorry. Other people contributed to tell we don't win without him, you know. But he needed this. He needed this bad and look at that flow. And he looks so hot in this picture and we are back. We've never been more back. I'm shocked you didn't give it to Geraldo Pardomo, Damon. And that's the other thing.

Starting point is 00:20:07 I was waiting to get to that, Jesse. How did we go 20 minutes and 30 seconds and we haven't mentioned? The table setter. It's all he does. He's the bus boy, Jesse. He just sets the table over and over and over again, getting on base, starting the rally. That's what we do.

Starting point is 00:20:25 That's why Heroldo Perdomo is a valuable player beyond what statistics would maybe tell you that he is. Because when you need him to get on base in big moments, he's always doing it. When you need a situational hit, he's always doing it. So, hey man, the Jerry haters are sick. I don't think there's really that many of them. No, no, probably not in our chat.

Starting point is 00:20:46 I wouldn't think. We've whittled off all those people at this point. Yeah, and he did have a big role. in that ninth inning, right? It wasn't just Alec Thomas with the triple. He followed that with a single, drove Thomas home, turned an eight four game, into an eight five game.

Starting point is 00:21:01 Cotell obviously hits that absolute missile for a two-run homer. Gabby flew out. And we should also talk about Lordus Gariel Jr.'s contributions in that in this game. I believe it was a nine-pitched bat that he put together against Kyle Finnegan. It ended in a single. He didn't hit a home run or anything, but obviously it set the table for Corbyn to come in as a pinching. hitter and do what he did tonight.

Starting point is 00:21:23 And it wasn't just Lordus coming through with that hit. It was also Lordus a few innings prior, making it a really nice throw to home plate to gun down a runner. Gabby put a really good tag on the runner as well. So, you know, if that doesn't happen, then maybe the debacks only tied this game and then we're in extra innings. And the debacks have lost seven out of ten games, the extra inning. So who knows what happens at that point?

Starting point is 00:21:47 Just a just a well-played game all the way around for the Diamondbacks to put them. themselves in this position. I guess not a well-played game by necessarily everyone. Jordan Montgomery certainly was off, was off in this game. Maybe we'll get into him a little bit more later. But we should mention Christian Walker. Yeah, this is the serious downer news of the night. And I definitely didn't want to lead off with it, but it's something we should touch on. Christian Walker left tonight's game with, I believe it was a left oblique, left oblique tightness. And Tori Lavello told us after this one that his concern level was quote not minimal. Walker is going to have an MRI in the morning and, you know,

Starting point is 00:22:29 we've seen obliques. This is a pretty common baseball injury. They tend to take a while. That's the injury that Paul Seawald had. He missed a little over a month at the beginning of the season with that. Sometimes they can take longer depending on the severity. His was pretty minor. Damon, I imagine the thought of Christian Walker being off this team for, you know, a decent amount of time. that that's a that's a pretty scary thought right now yeah that's a big blow i i jacob didn't know about it he said it didn't look that bad and he didn't hear that tori said that it was like not a insignificant injury and that they're kind of concerned about it and then yeah i i immediately my mind goes to well welcome back paven smith that's that's like i mean i know that that's not like a

Starting point is 00:23:13 that's not like a crazy thought but it's also just like we can't escape this guy but he also could potentially maybe you know give us a little bit of run here and and have a good stretch we've seen it before and uh we might need him here uh because lordis i believe is the backup emergency first baseman is he not yeah so i mean we saw kevin newman step in and play first base today uh and torrey was asked about that after the game like you know if christian walker wound up being okay but only having to miss a few days and you're not making a roster move who's who plays first base and Tori did say it would probably be Kevin Newman. Lordus Guerrille kind of slots in behind him as the emergency, the emergency first

Starting point is 00:23:57 basement. Kevin Newman is the more standard backup there. Yeah, I think if Christian Walker does go on the IL tomorrow, Pavin Smith, I'm almost certain it would be the call up. You know, the other part of this equation is that the trade deadline is still less than 24 hours away. Could the diamondbacks find a way to, you know, you're probably not trading for Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Starting point is 00:24:20 But maybe you could find a way to at least add some depth at the position. You know, during the game, I did some scouring of potential trade candidates, like trying to find guys on expiring deals. There just aren't really a lot of great options at first base. The Mets are not trading Pete Alonzo. I don't think the Blue Jays are trading Vladi Guerrero Jr. The raise, I think, might move Yandi Diaz, but then you're talking about, you know, multiple years of control and probably a pretty high price tag with other teams involved.

Starting point is 00:24:48 people in the chat are talking about Josh Bell. I know he was on a place on waivers. You know, maybe there's a world where the, where the Marlins decide to pay him off and the diamondbacks can pick him up and, you know, not have to pay much money. But, you know, you look at Josh Bell's numbers this season. It's a sub-700 OPS, you know, I mean, you're not going to replace Christian Walker's defense,

Starting point is 00:25:11 but with really anyone, but, you know, defensively, it would be kind of a far cry. Oh, yeah. Walker is. So it's a it's a tough spot, Damon. I mean, would you like to see the diamondbacks make a move tomorrow? Like, do you want to go all in for Vladie Guerrero Jr? What's what's your perspective on this if the news on Walker is bad? My gut says no, right? Because I think that that spells horrible news, right? Like if they're if they're going for a big first base target, that means seewalks done here in Arizona basically forever, I'd say. Like that's I think that would

Starting point is 00:25:46 pretty much spell his career. So I would hope that we, I guess we don't trade for a first baseman because I love Christian Walker. And that would maybe mean that they expect him to be back somewhat soon. Maybe that's a hopeful way of looking at it. And there is the possibility that you don't make a trade for somebody. And also he's done for the season. And you're stuck with Pavin Smith for the entire rest of the way. So that's, that's the worst case scenario. But I'm hoping for best case scenario and that to me is Christian Walker is is back and healthy healthy maybe even after yeah a 10 day stretch on the aisle or something yeah I mean obliques are tough it yeah it feels to me like either you're missing four to six weeks or you dodged a bullet and you're fine and in you know

Starting point is 00:26:35 maybe you just miss a handful of days with some soreness I don't know if there's like a oh you could be back in a week or two or something like that we'll see what the news is tomorrow like I said earlier, Walker is going to have an MRI in the morning, and we should get an update on that here at the ballpark tomorrow afternoon. But yeah, just a really tough, really tough situation all the way around. Certainly wish the best for Walker and a really, really tough thing for the Diamondbacks. There's no getting around that. Another guy we should maybe touch on, Damon. We'll circle around to some super chats and some more positive stuff, but Jordan Montgomery was not very good in this game. No. Four innings, six earned runs, kind of more.

Starting point is 00:27:13 or the same, frankly, of what we've seen for a lot of this season. How are you feeling about about Monty at this point? I think when we've talked about adding another starting pitcher, we've had the dilemma of who leaves the rotation if we get Erod and Merrill Kelly back, which is seemingly becoming pretty soon here, you know? Like E. Rod could potentially be back next week, right? Or maybe 10 days or so, something like that.

Starting point is 00:27:40 Yeah, he could be back next Tuesday, From what we heard today, it sounds like ERAD is a legitimate possibility for next Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians. So if say we get him back, we get Merrill back shortly thereafter, maybe, you know, a week, two weeks after that, I would be the hope. I would think. I think your decision has been made very easy. Jordan Montgomery has been awful this season. Even his good games, he looks bad. Like, like, when he has games where it was the Royals game the other, the other day, Jeff.

Starting point is 00:28:13 Jesse. He's getting smacked around the park. And he's given up like one run, two runs or whatever it was. And everybody's like, is Monty back? And you're like, Monty got lucky as hell in this game. And he's just been terrible all season. And to be honest with you, like he was maybe I, I envisioned a world where Erod was, maybe this was going to happen to him more so or even a Brandon fought where it's like, he had his great playoff run.

Starting point is 00:28:40 But then he just started giving up a bunch of home runs again. I thought Montgomery was going to be pretty much as steady as can be. Like even if he was bad, I thought he was going to give you a three five in a down year, you know, three five mid three five ZRA or something like that. I mean, he's downright terrible. And he looks out of shape and like it sucks that we're probably tied to this guy for next season two. Yeah. And I think that's a big variable here, right?

Starting point is 00:29:09 Like if the diamond backs, you know, they get E. Rod and Merrill Kelly back here in the next couple weeks if that happens and you're like all right who are we who we were moving from the rotation you've got one open spot now with yelbert diaz being optioned that's you know that's a clear a clear choice there but the other spot you know are you really taking ryan nelson out of the rotation after he's rattled off a sub three era in the month of july and jordan montgomery meanwhile is is really struggling the way that he has i don't know how the debacks approach that uh montgomery has a player option that has already vested for, I believe, $20 million next season. That figure could go up to $25 million, depending on how many starts he makes this year.

Starting point is 00:29:49 So, yeah, I mean, the debacks are frankly, they're invested in him for next season. Like, I don't. They are. Even if they wanted to not have him in the rotation this year, I don't really think they would DFA him. I think you have to keep him on the roster somehow because you're probably invested in him this off season going out and and having a more normal off season and normal buildup going into next year. And maybe you do still have hope that Montgomery, who isn't very old, right? I mean, Montgomery is 31 years old. He makes no sense. Yeah, it really is just kind of a sudden thing.

Starting point is 00:30:26 And to your point earlier, kind of the selling point of Montgomery was that, you know, he had been really consistent up to this point in his career. He wasn't necessarily an ace, but he was a solid mid-rotation starter at least for several seasons in a row. You felt like you knew what you were getting. And that obviously hasn't been the case. So, you know, people are saying trade him. I don't really view that as possible, frankly. I mean, you're talking about a guy who still has, you know,

Starting point is 00:30:52 $7,8 million dollars roughly for the rest of this season, as well as a $20 million option that he's probably picking up for next season. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about having to eat a whole lot and then, you know, maybe having to attach some sort of prospects to him in order for any team to be interested. I don't really see the debacks doing that. The suitors whittled down to only big market teams that have money at that point. Like you're automatically filtering out 20 teams in the league that can't afford to pay

Starting point is 00:31:21 their fifth best starter like $28 million over the next two seasons, you know? So we're talking about the, you know, the Yankees and Red Soxers like those, these are the teams that could they could take them and why would they want them? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even a team that does run a high payroll, like they don't want to spend all that money on Jordan Montgomery, right? They want to spend that money on someone who has probably a better ERA than six

Starting point is 00:31:48 and a half or whatever it is at this point. So DBAX are in a really tough spot there. There's no getting around it. We are the worst free agency team. Are we not? Like, we are bad in free agency, really, really, really bad. We can create organic. farm system, you know, trade for prospects.

Starting point is 00:32:07 Like Mike Hazen's good at that, you know, flipping a prospect for another prospect. But when it comes to signing big name guys, man, we stink. Like in this team could be on a different level. This specific team could be on a different level if we could somehow just hit on a couple of guys like that. Yeah, I mean, it's mostly starters, right? Yeah, it is. The bum garner thing obviously was a disaster.

Starting point is 00:32:31 this Montgomery deal. Eduardo Rodriguez, that contract, it's obviously way too early to really have a read on it, but him not throwing a single inning for, you know, the first four months, basically of his Diamondbacks career is, is not an ideal outcome to start things off.

Starting point is 00:32:46 We'll see what it looks like once he's, once he's actually pitching in games. Yeah, they have had some, you know, they have, like, Jock has been a great signing this year.

Starting point is 00:32:54 Randall Grishik has been solid. They've had some guys on, on shorter term deals that have worked out, but you're absolutely right. The bigger contracts, you know, even going back to before Mike Hazen, like the Yasmani Tomas deal and whatnot, there have been there have been some pretty rough ones. They're putrid.

Starting point is 00:33:09 And this is the other thing. And people are saying it in the chat. Like, how do you justify Yulbert Diaz getting sent down and not being in this rotation with Jordan Montgomery getting consistent starts? Like if you're trying to actually win baseball games, how do you, how can you get in front of your fans and say, yeah, we want to win. we want to make the playoffs. We want to win the World Series.

Starting point is 00:33:32 But we're also going to throw this guy out here who's just frankly uncompetitive while we have this this rookie who has looked pretty much really good except for one start of his entire career thus far. Yeah, it's it's pretty tough. I mean, on some level I get it like Jordan Montgomery doesn't have options. I mean, you know, it's. Yeah. From a maneuverability standpoint, it's a pretty different situation.

Starting point is 00:33:58 And he did go five innings one run against the Royal. So he at least gave you some, you know, a positive sign coming off the injured list. But yeah, we were a little skeptical then. And obviously it didn't go. It didn't go particularly well in this game today. We do have some super chats, Damon. You want to run, run through those here real quick. Yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:34:18 So our first one comes from Jacob Lucas, 499. And he says, love candy, but I take exception to his Corbyn Carroll of all people comment. Corbyn Burles has always been him as of three weeks ago anyway. Bear. I wasn't, I didn't hear the broadcast. Did you catch that? Candy said, Corbyn Carol of all people.

Starting point is 00:34:37 No, I didn't. But I think he means that in like a positive light. I think he means like that my guess would be that it's like he's really struggled and it's great to see him in this moment. But but yes, Jacob, as of three weeks ago, he is, Corbyn is him. He is returned. We got my guy, Mervin here, 199. Ra, my amazing king, Corbyn, Carol did that.

Starting point is 00:35:00 Yep, that'll do it. Andrew Dang, thank you for your support always. $2 super sticker. If you have a comment, feel free to leave that in the chat and we'll highlight that here on screen. And then big support here from our guy, Daniel, 1999. He says, team of destiny, replace Seawald and we are on our way. He's preventing us from going on a serious run. Thanks for the pod.

Starting point is 00:35:21 Who do you think we should go after, Jesse? Like a Kyle Finnegan type? Oh, gosh. Yeah, Mike Rizzo would maybe appreciate if the D. D-Backs. I mean, maybe it's a genius move by the D-backs. Like, they have, they have the secret to hitting Kyle Finnegan. They've figured it out, but no one else has. And they're like, hey, we're going to score five runs off him and tank his trade value so that we can turn around the next morning and make a deal. Who knows, Damon? Maybe, maybe that's what they've got in store.

Starting point is 00:35:51 A galaxy brain, Jesse. I love it. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what the D-backs do leading up to tomorrow's trade deadline, of course. We will, we have two shows tomorrow, which feels outrageous. We're giving you like, we're giving you like four podcasts in a two-day span, which feels, you guys are going to be utterly sick of us by the time tomorrow and I promise. But we will have a show tomorrow, probably shortly after the trade deadline. Mike Hazen will be addressing the media at 3.30 tomorrow, which is, of course, 30 minutes after the deadline.

Starting point is 00:36:23 So I'll probably be here doing that. We'll go live sometime after that, maybe 4.4.30. We'll keep you all posted on that. And then we're also bringing you a postgame show tomorrow night. So, yeah, I don't know, Daman, you think, is everyone going to be sick of us by the time we're back here tomorrow night? It feels like it. I'd already be sick of us if I was a listener of this great program, to be honest with you. But at least you don't get Derek tonight, right?

Starting point is 00:36:50 That's a nice little change of pace. Derek will do about 80% of the talking on tomorrow's shows. And, you know, tonight was me and Jess. these opportunity to shine. There you go. Yeah, any final thoughts on this one, Damon? It's hard to fully capture what the Diamondbacks were able to do tonight. Yeah, I mean, I think it was just a culmination.

Starting point is 00:37:12 It was a real team win, you know, like a culmination of a lot of things. And, you know, obviously like the guys in that locker room, they're not going to say it, but they know that Montgomery's been struggling a lot. And they know when they're going into these games, they're probably going to have to hit pretty well. But I also think that of any team, they're going to be the team that like kind of hopes that you figure it out or will let you work through that kind of those struggles. So, you know, I think they're going to keep encouraging Monty and we're going to keep seeing them. And mostly I just hope Christian Walker is okay. That's how I'll end it.

Starting point is 00:37:49 Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a good way to end it. For all the positive vibes tonight and as unbelievable as this was, it's going to really has a sour taste, frankly, with Christian. and Walker going down. He is not only a really big part of this lineup, but, you know, as someone who's who's in the clubhouse on a daily basis, and I'm sure you guys at home can sense this as well. Walker is really important to the clubhouse. And he's been on the field a lot. Like he is really not been, he's been a very durable player for this team over the past few years. I believe he'd played,

Starting point is 00:38:17 I believe he's played every single game this season for the Diamondbacks. Tori Lavello actually expressed a little bit of remorse for that when we were in the interview room just now, talking about how he kind of wishes he had backed off him and maybe feels a little responsible for what happened today. Actually, one last thought, and this coincides with the trade deadline tomorrow, and I can't believe I didn't think of this yet. But can we finally, can we end the Miguel Castro experiment? It's over.

Starting point is 00:38:46 It's over. We need, let's get, let's get another arm tomorrow. Doesn't have to be a guy who's insane. Just someone who's solid. someone who has an ERA in the threes, who doesn't cost very much, like, I think it's, it's time that we, that we put a close on that. Yeah, I, I can't really disagree with that, frankly. Miguel Castro has looked pretty rough here.

Starting point is 00:39:11 It's only been a few outings since he came off the IL. But yeah, I mean, I tweeted it out earlier, Damon. He averaged 92.8 on his sinker tonight. Last year, he averaged 96.8 on his sinker. And I believe the year prior, he averaged, 98 miles an hour. So, you know, maybe this was an off night. I know he threw a lot of pitches. He's maybe a little gassed out. But he frankly, he struggled at times when the sinker was in the 97 range. You kind of wonder how difficult it might be for him long term if he really is more

Starting point is 00:39:41 low mid at 90s at this point. And with a shoulder injury, you know, you don't know exactly the impact of that. Maybe that's still lingering on some level. Maybe there's an injury at play here. I guess the other side of this is Slade Sacconi pitched really well tonight. two scoreless innings with three strikeouts, his first outing of the year out of the bullpen. The debacks are one heavy in the bullpen right now because they optioned you over Diaz. Maybe if and when someone comes up to make that next start,

Starting point is 00:40:09 maybe it's Eduardo Rodriguez a week from tomorrow. Debaks will have to make a decision about who to send down or who to move on from in the bullpen. And maybe that's when they make the decision on Miguel Castro. Yeah. I think that that makes sense. And I this Slade being good out of the bullpen is, I mean, it's granted, it's one game. So, you know, let's not get too out of ourselves.

Starting point is 00:40:32 But it's about the least shocking thing ever. Like we, everyone has been saying it all season. It felt very obvious. I know they needed his arm with all the injuries that they had to be a starter. But I do think he has the makeup of a really good reliever in this league. And I'm excited to watch him out of the pen. Yeah, his his fastball ticked up. We saw it in the minor.

Starting point is 00:40:53 He averaged 96.2 on his four seamer down in AAA working as a reliever that compared to 94.1 when he was starting for the debacks. So you're getting a couple ticks there. I think he topped out at 99 miles an hour in the miners as a reliever. So, yeah, we saw how effective Slate could be in short stints while he was a starter. He was really effective the first time he would see guys. Oh, yeah. And then he kind of dropped off after that. Perfect game.

Starting point is 00:41:19 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. He made a little bit of history with how good he was. Yeah. Early in games, which is, which is wild to see.

Starting point is 00:41:28 But yeah, this was, this was just an outrageous game and something that I think a lot of people will probably look back on for the rest of the season. You know, maybe beyond that, a four-run comeback in the ninth inning is truly something special. Once again, we thank all of you for sticking with us and waiting a very long time for this show to start. We very much appreciate that. As Damon said earlier, Derek will be back.

Starting point is 00:41:51 tomorrow and we'll get to do two shows with all of you. So be sure to join us for our show around the trade deadline. We'll keep you posted on when we'll go live as well as a postgame show tomorrow night as well. In the meantime, be sure to give us all a follow on Twitter. You can find me at Jesse and Friedman. You can find Damon at Damon Dog. I am Damon's dog. Bark, bark.

Starting point is 00:42:14 Never feels right, but we do it anyway. You can follow our beat account at PH&X underscore DBACs on Twitter. but of course all roads lead to at p hnx underscore sports that's on twitter instagram and facebook thank you all once again for joining us on this late night emergency edition of the p h nx debacks podcast you really appreciate it and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you complete a six run comeback in the ninth inning

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