PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte GO YARD As Diamondbacks Secure Series Win Over Pirates

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

The Diamondbacks continue to roll in the month of July, securing another series victory with their game 2 win over the Pirates. We are discussing Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte going yard, Brandon Pfaadt having an off night, and the Snakes remaining the hottest team in MLB. We also have more on the D-backs newest acquisition, A.J. Puk, making his debut.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They can't stop winning. I don't know what is happening right now, but here is the Dibababacks. What? They have to. They have to. They have to win. They have to win, of course. And they are doing that right now.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debax podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the father. He's the overlord. It's father overlord, Jacob himself, the giant, of course, of PHNX. And we are here tonight talking about an area. Arizona Diamondbacks victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Diamondbacks win by a score of 9 to 5.

They take yet another series victory. This is their fourth straight series win. And the Diamondbacks have now won or split their last eight series going 7, 0, and 1 and 14 of their last 16 overall since May 30th, going 11, 2, and 3 in those series. The Diamondbacks are 30 and 8. 18 since June 1st. And let's just remember that this team is doing all of this without Merrill Kelly and without

Eduardo Rodriguez. And again, we have no idea what the future holds for those two gentlemen and how they're going to impact the starting rotation. But Jacob, this team is on a role and they aren't even doing it with all of their weapons yet. No, I mean, it's been super fun to watch. Like, I can't help but think back to maybe early. early May, middle of May, when everybody was just like, panic button, they're not good.

They stink. They're terrible. Right. Guys, these things happen. They still made the playoffs and considering how bad they were in August of last year. Like, it just, just give it a second. It was going to work. It was always going to work.

And now we're seeing that. It works. Well, it's, it's the thing I think that frustrated a lot of people and it's something that we talked about time and time again was. because yes, they were missing, you know, vital pieces, but the team was still being competitive. They were just making mistakes. And today they still made their fair share of mistakes.

But the offense was just out of control today for this team. Diamondbacks, again, the D in Dback stands for Dinger. Snakes get won early in the first after Cattell walks and eventually comes home on a Christian Walker RBI single. Meanwhile, O'Neill Cruz hit a, Brandon fought a pitch so far that I this is going to sound like hyperbole. Jacob, I just sat and waited to see where it came down. Like you and I watched the home run derby in Texas,

and there were a couple of times where balls were hit so far that they just kind of got out of your eye range, you know, out of your eyesight, like no matter how high you looked up. And then you kind of had to like just kind of look at a section knowing it was going to come down somewhere. there and you were going to see it fall that o'neill cruise 472 foot monster home run was i thought it was going to dent the truck again i thought it was going to hit that uh leave the the what was it the lineup board out there like that thing was a monster and of course yikes that wasn't uh wasn't great but of course uh luckily the diamondbacks offense came right back and hit a couple of homers of their own uh in the next inning uh cordman carroll had

hits a lead off home run, his seventh of the year, followed up by a Jerry P. Wack and a Cotel Marte to run home run, his 23rd of the season. And the boys are buzzing. The boys are buzzing, Jacob. The guys just said that again, that one, you know, not Cotel Marte, but like this game was one of those things where even though Corbyn and Cattel hit home runs, and we will absolutely get to Jake here in a moment, there were once against contributions from all over the lineup. and this is what this team was built to do, this exact thing. You know, I was actually crunching some of the numbers about Corbyn. I'm going to need you to get a little bit more amped than that.

I know you are whispering because there are people sleeping in your household. I know. I'm talking. I'm talking. No, I was crunching some numbers for Corbyn. And it's like, considering how bad everything has been, the fact that he could still end up with double-digit homers and 30 plus steals is absolute insanity.

Like considering where we've come from, the pop is back. He's still not consistently getting on base, but the pop is certainly back. I mean, we've seen it since the game before the All-Star break when he hit two homers. Like he's starting to drive the ball with some authority. I mean, his triple last night, his homer tonight. Like he's starting to, he's showing flashes of being Corbyn again. Like he is, he is hitting the ball angrily. Yes.

He is, you know, I think there's still a lot of. frustration there, but now he's dialed in, and he is punishing the baseball at times in batting practice and tonight with that lead off home run. But, you know, again, this is, the Diamondbacks have hit two home runs in an inning 15 times this season. So the power has been there for this team. It's just always different guys doing it. And tonight was one of those nights where different guys were doing it. When you talk about different guys, maybe Jake McCarthy shouldn't be called a different guy because he's been doing it all season long. But tonight, Jake McCarthy could not be. stopped. McCarthy could not be

contained. He was five for five, which is a career high and hits for Jake. He singled in every single at bat, not to take anything away from him, but he was, he was, you know, he did what he did. He raked. It was Rake McCarthy tonight. He is the first Arizona

Diamondback to collect five hits or more in a game since David Peralta did it gross on April 22nd. 2000, Can Sierra's on Diamondbacks have had a player hit five, get five hits in the game. Yeah, I mean, Jake McCarthy is, he's just a really tough person to get out. Like, he's got, he's got burner speed, right?

So, like, even those first two hits. And that's to O'Neal Cruz. Like any other shortstop probably doesn't even make that close to being a play. O'Neal Cruz, he made it close. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, he did. But, like, you know, that's such a weapon that this team flaunts all the time is that they can have, like, it doesn't matter where it is.

A guy's always got a chance to beat it out, right? Whether it's Jerry, whether it's Jake, whether it's Alec, whether it's Corbyn, whether it's, you know what I mean? Like it's it's just such a weapon to have. And so I don't know if I've seen a time that this team has had more depth than we currently have, especially in the outfield. I mean, like, just on any given night, you've got Jock, you've got Gritchick, you've got Jake, you've got Alec, you've got Lordus, you've got Corbin.

That's just the outfield. Yeah. Derek. That's just the outfield. I know. It's crazy. It's wild. Diamondbacks now, five games above 500.

We know they haven't been in that because they weren't four games above 500 at any point this season. So you know what that means. Let's play. I do you know, la, yeah. I mean, this. In the chat, this is not a toupee. This is like,

going at you this yeah this is this is this is fully fully real hair i have i have just a lot of it right now as a man as trust me i spent a lot of time with jacob over the last two weeks um yeah him and jesse both have pretty thick luxurious hair uh compared to what this guy has going on under here let's not even talk about this all right so uh anyway great night here uh at the ballpark obviously we know it was this night the hall of fame ceremony it was great to see you know uh louis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson. Like I, I, it's just, it's, it's, it's almost like, they are our legends and we know it. And it's just kind of like, yeah, right. Like, that's Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez. It's like people that don't even live in Arizona know that those are Arizona sports legends. When we were in Chicago, we got to talk to people and those names got brought up in our little video vlog that we did. And, and, and just asking, you know, Cubs fans who their, who their favorite players were. It was these two guys. And obviously, Mark Grace got brought up quite a bit too. But when I they're hard to dislike. They're hard to dislike, right.

But not only that, but it's also like not just an Arizona sports legend that these guys beat the Yankees in the World Series and brought, you know, the trophy to the desert. Other sports fans everywhere know the legend of what the Diamondbacks did in 2001. I think it's just like hard sometimes to really remember, you know, how good they were. And the Diamondbacks did an excellent job tonight of putting together a video package that illustrated just how good Randy Johnson is. Like when you sit there and you hear what he did in his time as a diamond back, when you hear what Luis Gonzalez did in his time as a diamond back,

like it's hard not to just kind of be in awe of it, comparing it to modern day numbers because neither pitchers nor hitters really do the things that either of these guys did. And they just kind of did it regularly when they were member. of this franchise. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think it was pretty disrespectful. I'm pretty sure there was a recent list that came out of like the top

100 athletes of all time. And to not put Randy Johnson somewhere on that list. Right. Name me, other than maybe Nolan Ryan, name me the most feared pitcher in baseball history. Like, like legitimately feared.

And I'm not talking like Bob Gibson who was good. I'm not talking like, you know, Like, a ton of guys are like terrifying to stand in the batterers box. Dude on the mound and literally made people like want to piss themselves. Right. Well, and again, being in Chicago, right, we had a chance to like walk down a lot of, see a lot of history for that franchise for that building, right?

And it's like, we don't have that history here. We have not been around that long. But these guys, these guys are the guys. if you're going to start a Diamondbacks Hall of Fame to start it with. And it was an amazing night in the ballpark. And the Diamondbacks very much felt like they had a little extra, you know, I guess, pep in their step, if you will, when they were out there. I mean, Brandon Fott didn't have his best stuff tonight.

But after he gave up that home run to O'Neill Cruz in the first inning, fought was fantastic for a considerable portion of this game. He did not allow another hit again until the fifth inning. and then things unraveled for him a bit. And we've talked about this. This was kind of a classic bad Brandon Fought start where he's still going to somehow dial in during a portion of the game and just cruise through most of it

and then have an inning where things kind of go bad for him. And he's still able to rebound. But he got knocked around a bit there in the fifth. Yeah, I thought it was a little bit. And he had some bad defense behind him too. I thought I was going to say, I thought it was a little bit different than his like, because usually like those innings just start with like walk, walk, walk.

Like he cruises and then it's like, oh, boom, he just can't find the zone. Right. Like, what are we doing? Right. So it's like. But Lordus Gereal missed the play. He missed a play. There was an infield single.

Like, he just kind of got knocked around. It was just, I think I said in the Discord, it's just bad baseball luck. And like sometimes that happens. And I said, you know, like everybody's due for a clunker from time to time. It's just, you know, you shrug it off. He had six innings, five runs. He gave him a chance to win. Exactly.

That's all it. And they did. And they did. He six innings, like you said, seven hits allowed, five earned runs. Four of those hits and three of those earned runs all happened in the, in the fifth inning. And yeah, that fifth inning, I mean, you know, again, Uriel missed a play that he probably should have made. There were a couple of missed defensive plays. And sometimes it's weird because these guys are so athletic and they do such a good job. Like Jake McCarthy missed a play in the outfield in center field that, you know, he got his glove on the ball.

and he was so close to making an excellent catch there. But again, it's like the athleticism that puts them in the position to even make that play in the first place. Lordus looked like he got a little bit of a bad read on that particular ball that he missed. Yeah, we talk about Lordus's defense. We talk about Lordis's defense a lot. And it's like, oh, he makes these catches. You never think you'd get to these balls. A lot of the times I think it's a lot like what David Peralta did when he won a gold glove,

which was like he might take a bad. route to a ball, but he can kind of make up with it with like some athleticism. Yeah. So it doesn't shock me if every once in a while he's going to, you know, take a bad route to a ball and maybe clank one. But he's been pretty solid all year. So, you know, I've been known to say that he plays it like a baby giraffe out there is what he looks like.

And maybe that's a bit of an insult. But, you know, I think the comparison there is like when you see like, you know, like a, like a cult, like a. like a baby horse that is like super athletic and you know is going to run and it's going to be amazing but they just still don't have it like all quite figured out yet like lordis is big and and he's fast and he can he can get to balls but at times he just seems to like not really know the route 100% or like which direction whether he needs to go to like his right or his left to kind of make the play in some cases it looks like it's more of a routine play than he made

it look and other times he makes some pretty incredible defensive plays out there and it's because of his ability to get to the ball. I think that like again, it's it's so much easier for me to sit with my chubby little belly in this chair and say these things about him versus being out there trying to catch fly balls in an actual major league game. But I think it's the fact, once again, it's the fact that he can get there and he's so close to making it. But then it just he looks like he's a little turned around and maybe if he would have went this way instead, that way he would have been able to make that play. But the offense, again, did enough tonight that they picked up.

Brandon fought and the five earned runs that he gave up. And the bullpen, the bullpen, let's talk about the bullpen. Who do you want, Derek? Just take your pick. These guys are Stone Cold. It's Stone Cold Killers is what it is. You don't want any of them. You don't want none of this smoke.

Even Bryce Jarvis is going out there in the ninth inning and giving you one inning one hit. Jesse likes to tell me that Bryce Charles. is bad. Don't listen to Jesse. Yeah, no. Don't listen to Jesse. I think Bryce, I think Bryce Jarvis is misused. I think if Bryce Jarvis was on a team, he would have a role. And I think if he had a role, he would be better at it. Because you and I spoke to him in Chicago. And despite the fact that he says he does kind of get used again like this, right? Like where all of a sudden, he's brought in in the ninth inning to close the game out. And it wasn't a save situation. It wasn't a

close game. But it's still a high leverage situation considering it's the, it's the ninth inning. Yeah, I mean, Bryce Jarvis is, let me look, I think he's like 27 or 27. He might be 26. He's 26 years old. He turns 27 this year. I mean, he's still young. Like, this organization has been known to keep kids in the minors for a long time, right? Like, back in the, I mean, Paul Goldschmidt didn't make his debut until he was 26. I mean, like, this, this is like what they've been doing under Mike Hayeson, where they have the, like, the proper talent to be able to inject this, like, Like, you know, like they make moves for AJ Puck, for example. Like, they'll make a move over there. But, like, the fact that they've been able to even add to this team at all from the minor league system is something that, like, I can't even fathom. And I've watched this team since I was little boy. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it just, it's been really cool to see.

And so, like, Bryce Jarvis is one of those guys. He was a first round draft pick. Like, he just give him some time and he's looked better too. Like, he started a little shit. And he's shaky from time to time. But, like, over the last month or so, I mean, I mean, I. I don't know how often I've been stressed watching a pitch. Yeah, yeah.

That's a good point. And I don't know how often we're going to be stressed seeing AJ Puck pitch because this guy seems incredible. He made his debut for the Diamondbacks tonight. Again, another very, very, very tall pitcher for the Diamondbacks making his debut on a night while another other very, very tall pitcher was getting honored pregame. But we did talk to AJ Puck before. the game. And this is what he had to say about joining this Arizona Diamondbacks team.

How does it feel to be here? Yeah, you know, it's great, especially, you know, coming to the vision that they're in right now. And, you know, it's done coming off the road series run last year. You know, I'm just hoping I can come in here and contribute to the ball games. What is your kind of reaction when you got to do? Yeah, you know, I kind of had a little feeling something was going on because I was expecting to pitch that game and, you know, they shat away from me. So I was kind of on the edge about something might go down and uh yeah no i was just real excited and uh just Della and it's a great organization and uh you know the winning games right now it's always fun to win and you know

I'm just real pumped for it did you get food did you know they just they stayed away from me I was kind of thinking I was like oh I'm gonna have this inning and they you know didn't so I was something might be going on yeah I thought so you know so I was like something might be going on and like after the flight got traded so you have any relationship ships with anybody on this team that you've a fresh fresh team they didn't know anybody so it's pretty I mean that's cool I mean meet a bunch of new guys you know everyone everyone's been real you know welcoming so far and it seems like a really good fit

with a trade deadline coming up did you have an inkling that would be moved this year uh yeah I know I had a little idea uh you know just the way I kind of been throwing the ball over the because I moved back to the bullpen and uh just kind of seeing where like where the marlins are kind of going up and shaking up things right now. So I kind of, I had an idea. So, yeah. What would be your first interaction with like with Troy and the trip? Oh yeah, no, it's been great. I'm saying everyone, everyone's their welcoming. And, you know, it's kind of, you know, it's kind of, you know, it's trying to remember everybody's name.

But, uh, but no, it's been great, you know, just kind of, you know, my first, my first impression to see, you know, like the training, the training room and weight room, all that. So it's pretty, you know, it's pretty cool. I think I saw you got to pitch your first postseason inning last year. What was that experience like and kind of hold of maybe being able to do better? Yeah, it was great. You know, up in Philly, you know, those fans are pretty wild up there. So, I mean, it's really fun atmosphere for sure.

And, yeah, you know, it just feels good to make the playoffs. And that's what I'm looking forward to doing here. I think I saw you, you changed using your sweeper to using your fighter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Has that been kind of a key part of your success here with these options? Yeah, for sure.

I just think, you know, my sweeper is kind of getting too big. And the hitters were picking up on it. And it wasn't as hard. So it was easy for them to sit back. And everything went back to that hardest slider. It kind of just stays on my forcing plane a little better and just getting a better look. How do you see it? Do you hear that, Jacob?

His sweeper wasn't working. So he went to a slider. There are two different pitches just to end that argument. But yes, AJ Puck was phenomenal tonight for the Diamondbacks. One inning pitched. He had a walk, one strikeout, looked dominant, looked scary, looked exactly like the kind of guy you won on your side. Justin Martinez also was very icy tonight.

He did the blowing his hand thing as he walked off the bound. That man is on, like he's not even evolved to his final form yet. He's not even there yet. And he already knows how good he is. like this bullpen, Jacob, is going to be a problem for opposing teams. I mean, like I said, pick your pick. Who do you want? I mean, like.

With the whispering. I'm not whispering. That's whisper. I'm talking. This is a talk. This is a talk. I'm getting roasted in the chat, by the way. This whole chat, the chat is derailed.

They can't stop talking about my hair. My wife said it's a wig. I'm in trouble, Derek. I'm in trouble. I know. The jig might be up. We might have to tell them the truth about your head. I don't know.

Like, they might have finally figured it out. But they are getting an ASMR stream for free. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, here, what else do we want to just like, I've got a couple things. I have a giant baseball mitt here that I can kind of, yeah.

We can rub the leather together. Anyway, no, this is bad for business, but what's good for business is the Diamondbacks, continuing to win, Jacob. This team is just so much fun to watch right now, and I mean, like, again, it's not even whole, and that makes it even more fun, right? Like, you can sit back.

We know Mike Hazen made his comments to Jesse about them not really being done yet here at the trade deadline. That's exciting. But even if they don't make any other moves, it's like the Diamondbacks came in here, This is a Pirates team that had the third best ERA in starting, you know, for starting pitching in all of baseball. And tonight, they didn't look like it. Obviously, in the first game of the series, they had to kind of wait and get to the bullpen there a little bit.

But this has been, you know, an impressive feat that the Diamondbacks have put together here. And they can go for a sweep tomorrow, which we know they'll probably not get done because they're so allergic. They don't sweep teams, and that's fine. But hey, you know what? That's fine because they don't have to sweep teams. They just have to win series, and that's what they've done. They have won a lot of series. You can pull your hair back all you want.

The people aren't going to believe you. It's like I said, the jig is up now. But, of course, we thank them for all of their accusations against you and everything else. We thank you guys very much for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now sign up for notifications that way you don't miss whenever our shows go live of course hit that like button there's a lot of you in here there should be a lot of likes we love it when you like it we also love it when you subscribe on the audio side of things subscribe on your

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Choose your offer and find out why it's never ordinary. At Bet365 must be 21 and over and physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 100 next step, text next step to 533442 or visit. at problemgambling.az.gov. All right, well, let's take a look at the count because baseball is weird. And thanks to Desert Financial Credit Union,

we know these numbers are accurate. But the Diamondbacks here outscore the Pirates 9 to 5 in this game. They out hit the Pirates 13 to 8. Diamondbacks have lots of opportunities with runners in scoring position. They go 5 for 15, while the Pirates just went two for four. Three for three on extra base hits for both teams, which is funny. Of course, O'Neill Cruz had two of those extra base hits with his triple and his home run for the Pirates. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks got two dingers, of course, from Corbyn, Carroll and Catel Marte,

and then Jack Peterson with his first pinched triple that scored two runs and helped the Diamondback secure this victory. Of course, hard hit percentage looks like this because baseball is baseball. 40.7% hard hit percentage for the Pirates to Diamondbacks, 35.5%. But yes, there is. is some talk about Suarez braiding his hair in the in the in the chat and now he's hot maybe Corbin can do the same Corbin Corbin hair Corby the way is deceptively long what's that you get should he get the pat the Patawan Anakin braid no no he absolutely should not do that Jacob that's a terrible idea I think it's a phenomenal idea I don't think I think that Corbyn is just jealous of Jake McCarthy's

flow and he's trying to get his flow to be somewhat in order and somewhat close to Jake McCarthy's flow. But nobody has flow like Jake McCarthy. And tonight, that man is our king snake because Jake McCarthy has a career high, five hits tonight going five for five, one run scored, one RBI, one stolen base. And just one amazing baseball player. This is a man that is vastly underrated. And I'm sure he's, I'm sure he's not.

I bet Jake McCarthy is actually quite. accurately rated by a lot of teams that would love it if the Diamondbacks went to make him available on the trade market. But that would be just a huge, huge mistake because of what this man is doing for this team. And again, like you said, it's the depth that Jake McCarthy provides to the Diamondbacks. Like there is an argument to be made that Jake McCarthy should be their everyday starting outfielder in right field or in some in some way, you know. But again, how do you find all of these outskillers time?

How do you find Randall Gritchick time? What do you do with Corbyn Carroll? Corbyn Carroll, again, I'm slandering Corbyn Carol's name. I feel like here on a night where he went yard. And I probably shouldn't be doing that. But I mean, again, Jake McCarthy, five for five. No. I mean, and Jesse mentioned this to you and I.

It's a pretty rare instance. Like, that doesn't happen all that often. Like, five for five is super impressive. And it's just, it speaks volumes about, where this team is at in comparison to two or three years ago like if you would have told me in 2021 that all of this would have been worth it all of the build up to this like keeping tory keeping hazen through the shit right like yeah through the through the dark to tell me that this is the second worst season in team history yeah it's it's it's impressive and and you know like it's just

a night like this that it just proves like that's a guy that plays once every two or three day like you know what I mean like he doesn't play every day and for him to come off the bench and net five hits it's it's awesome I still don't think you can bench Corbyn for him I really don't I don't know if I'll ever be in that boat unless this continues you know and it just Corby we just talked about this yesterday we were saying like they all have their they all have their strengths out there and sometimes you're going to get guys like Corby and carroll that like honestly they give you what they gave you last season and then the bar gets set very high And again, anything less than what Corbyn Carroll did last year is going to seem as, you know,

somewhat of a disappointment. The man won rookie of the year. Like it's hard to have a season like a rookie of the year caliber season every season of your career, right? I think that, you know, again, he struggled a lot early on. And it's hard for him statistically. Hard to make a recovery. Right. But if you look at Corbyn's numbers over the last two months, his numbers have been great.

It's just Jake McCarthy. It's Jake McCarthy's numbers have been outstanding all season long. It's his best year of his career. And he's doing it in a role where he is, you know, getting limited playing time and delivering when asked to come into the game. And, you know, you also said it earlier about like the threat to steal, right? You know, Jake has the stolen base tonight. And like there's just something that makes the opposition uneasy when Corbyn Carroll gets on base. And Jake McCarthy gets on base and, you know,

Geraldo Perdomo gets on base. Like there's something about these guys that impact, you know, obviously the game in a bigger way just by their presence on the base path. And that's what, you know, that's that chaos, right? The chaos wasn't always necessarily just stolen bases. It was the, you know, extending, turning a single into a double in any way, whether it's through a stolen base, whether it's running fast and, you know, basically using your legs to make a place.

to make a play that you shouldn't get a double on into a double. Like there were a lot of things about this team last year that that was a part of their DNA that we're seeing again. And again, great night from Jake getting on base as often as he did and just impacting the game. Five for five night, career night, it's great. It's, I don't care. I don't care that it's five singles, one bit.

I mean, yeah, some of them were softly hit. But still, Jake's ability to get on base can change a ballgame. This one wasn't very close, but if it was, he would have been a, you know, a big reason why the dimebacks if they could hold on in a close game like this. Yeah, I mean, like, it just, it goes to show that they'll beat you anyway. Like, just, you know, like they can out slug you, they can out pitch you, they can out bullpen you, they can out run you, they can out defend you. Whatever it is, give them a shot. They'll figure out a way to beat you.

Like, this team is built for the playoffs, Derek. And now, obviously, the hole that they dug themselves at the beginning of the season, it's an uphill. battle to get there, correct? Like, they're built for the playoffs. Like, it's just like they can beat you in so many different ways. And that's how you win playoff games. Right? Like, I mean, it's like you take bases. You do things the right way. Talk about Geraldo Prado. Like, he just always seems to make the right play, right? Like, you need a sack fly. He comes through. You need a bun, he comes through. You need somebody to get a big hit in a big spot. He comes through. And that's just Geraldo Perdomo. Catea right now, it doesn't matter who's pitching.

He might freaking send Randy Johnson to the moon if he's hitting right-handed. Like, I just don't know, like, where the weak spot is. Like, give me one spot on this team when Merrill Kelly and Erod come back, because right now I think you could pinpoint maybe still starting pitching. But when Merrill and Erod come back, where's the weakness in this team? I mean, the weakness is that this team still has the tendency to collectively go quiet offensively. And even though we haven't seen that in a while, that's still something that could rare its head. But that's something that happens to any team, right? That's nothing new.

Typically, there are actual reasons you could see like facing a left-handed starting pitcher or something of the sort, right? Like there's certain nights where the Diamondbacks match up poorly against a pitcher that you wouldn't think that they would. But for some reason, they're completely baffled against, you know, certain guys. I tried to set you up to just stay pumped. and you really just like here's the earth and you made me just go yeah yeah sorry I mean it's that was a bummer that was a bummer yeah I'm sorry on a night that they won nine to five you're like yeah their offense stinks no I'm just saying their offense can stink at times inexplicably it's that that's what's maddening about it is because you know again there's there's guys on this

team and maybe that's it right like we haven't really seen the office do that since Geraldo Perdomo and Alec Thomas returned to the lineup. And that's even with Alec Thomas's limited contributions offensively and Geraldo Perdomo again, doing it more just with some great at-bats where he doesn't even get on base sometimes, but just sometimes you feel like Perdomo, you know, work and account can get the offense going, right? Like there's just things about this team that has those, the starters, the guys that get the offense going.

And, you know, it's definitely, it's definitely changed since the Diamondback struggled early on in the season, you know, with their offense suddenly going quiet, you know, especially for a stretch. Yeah. It seems like it's more fleeting now, I would say, right? Like back at the beginning of the season, they'd score 17 runs in one game. And then, like, they'd go three or four games where they got like one run in each game, two runs, whatever it was, zero runs. Now it seems like they're consistently approaching the four, five, six mark, right? Like, that'll win your baseball games as long as you have the bullpen that they have. And that gets the job done.

And like, obviously, I think they really struggle. Elise mentioned this yesterday in the Discord. They really struggle coming off an off day. Like this offense is like almost kind of mind numbing after a day off. And I don't know if it's just like, I don't know if it's just like sitting on idle hands, right? you know how it goes like all the bats are hot you sit for a day and all of a sudden it's like we're just getting the cobwebs out and it's like don't do that to me don't yeah don't do that but they've been more consistent i would say like it's it's i mean you don't go 30 and 18 over a 48

game stretch and not have a strictly more consistent offensive approach this is a good question um from w x devil asks swaris consistency is still a big question was the start of the season an anomaly or is his current hot streak basically the anomaly right yeah let me i don't know do i raise lordis gordial junior like yeah there are guys there are guys like that swars is traditionally a second half player from what i've seen so honestly we could be we could be in the middle of that right now and that's that's the guy that's what we need right now i mean obviously look you know you you change environments like swarez did from someplace where he was probably very comfortable and that he loved to play comes here to Arizona.

It didn't seem to take him long to fit in. He felt like he was a, you know, a match in the locker room, just like Eduardo Rodriguez was, to those of you that still might not believe that man exists. He was also... He's real.

I swear. I mean, he's as real as my hair, which I don't know. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. But when I, well,

like, again, it's like little things, like when Eduardo Rodriguez brought in, like, a really cool domino table, you know, with like the,

you know, like the partitions, for you to put your dominoes in and stuff and kind of had it over there in the clubhouse at salt river fields right you're like that's that's a man that's quiet like trying to find like make friends with his teammates fast like he's trying to kind of bond and that seems like a good dude like you know some guys when they come into the clubhouse especially when they're new players you know it takes a while for them to kind of fit in but gino you know it's there was a lot of pressure there again on a lot of these guys because everybody was kind of struggling so i felt like everyone you know, was stacking the pressure on top of themselves to try to be the guy to get them out of, you know, the offensive inconsistencies that they had. I think that, you know, maybe his hot streak right now might be a little bit hotter than, you know, he's going to play over an extended period of time. Everything regresses to a mean.

It does. It does. But I will say that, you know, the way he's playing now feels a lot more, at least with the power, the home runs we've seen him hit, you know. Again, we talk about guys getting. the offense started, Gino has been that guy quite often with a solo home run here and there that kind of breaks that the dam open for the offense, gets the diamond backs on the board, and then you kind of see the team, you know, be able to make some headway.

But this team just has a lot of guys that are playing well right now. And even though they might not be putting in the most impressive numbers individually at times, we still have Cotell Marte having an MVP caliber season. We still have Christian Walker doing some big things. Someone in the chat talked about Jock Peterson there. Like Jack Peterson has been an absolute, you know, gem for this team with his contributions this year as a free agent pickup. So you're right. There are not a lot of areas.

I mean, that's why when we were talking about the trade for A.J. Puck, Jesse and I legitimately have a hard time looking at any of the top 50 candidates for trades. seeing position players that are true upgrade over what the diamondbacks have, right? And I mean, there's some names out there that become popular with D-BACs fans that we've talked about. And there's a few guys out there that, yeah, maybe they could be good for this team.

But, like, is the improvement from what the D-BACs currently have to one of those guys worth the cost that you're going to have to give up in order to trade for that? Yeah. Like, this isn't free agency. This is literally just going out there and getting, you know,

giving up a part of your future like they did with Davis and Dillo Santos and Andrew Pintar who did Homer by the way tonight Davis and Dale Santos did he did he did Homer and of course he did that's kind of all he does is he hits home runs the guy matches and he chases yeah a lot a lot yeah well I I I there it's going to be a hard it's you're going to have a hard time not regretting Davis and Dalo Santos going to another organization when you see what he does in a minor league level, I will remain cautiously optimistic about, you know,

his chances at a major league level and of him, you know, being a guy that I'm back to regret. But wouldn't be surprised. I would not be surprised to see him because he could easily be a DH, not have to actually be in the field, and then just become one of the greatest hitters of all time. And we'll all be sad together as a group. But hopefully, hopefully, if they win a World Series,

Derek, I won't be sad. I can't tell you. I can't tell you. I'd be sad at the slightest. Like I said, you and I were there at Globe Life Stadium. We talked to a lot of Rangers fans. There was not the attitude of like, oh, hey, we should be like, we, like, I can't believe we're not in it.

And we should be doing more to try to, you know, go back to back. No, those fans are like, no, we got ours. We're good. Like, start building towards us. future i guess i don't know uh whatever like we're champions our championship we're not a man that made a crown out of the world series at like legitimately these people are just happy with their championship and i think at this point considering how deprived the valley is of championships and how close we've gotten recently with the suns and last year with the diamondbacks just give us one just give us one let's get one more

uh let's let's let's let's just it'll fuel us maybe for the next 20 plus year I don't know, Jacob, but of course, if you need to fuel yourself now, right now, and you're thirsty, Circle K is the place to do that. Of course, Circle K is the America's third stop. Right now get any size polar pop or froster for just 79 cents. And also, join the Inner Circle program for free right now by downloading the Circle K app today. If you do, you're going to save even more money than any of this advertised stuff. They're going to give you buy one, get one free stuff. They're just going to give you free free stuff in the app because that's how,

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It's not just the hair. Somebody said I looked like, is his name Huey or Dewey? in the bench warmers. He's the one who's afraid of the sun. It got worse, Derek. It got worse. It might be pretty accurate. Get yourself off screen.

Like, this isn't just take the L tonight, Jacob. And I don't mean the train. I mean take the actual L between your hair and your bench warmer face. Get Jesse Friedman in here. He's the one that people want to see. There he is. Thunderstick. My vice mayor, your thunder stick.

Jesse Friedman. Jesse, the offense, cannot be stopped. tonight. Jake McCarthy could not be stopped tonight. Five for five first time in his career, career high five hits. And again, he's been having an incredible season, but this, this is, this is what he's been doing all year. I mean, maybe not going five for five in a night, but Jake Mark, Jake McCarthy has been Rick McCarthy. Yeah, this is impressive. I mean, any, anytime you get five hits in a game, right? Like, it's a combination of very good hitting and probably a little bit of luck at the same time, right?

Like, that's just kind of the way that baseball works. We saw, you know, a number of line drives that are 100 and whatever off the bat and they get caught. It's just the nature of this game. It's hard to get five balls to drop in for you at one game. But Jake was able to do that today. And he continues to show that he is a much, much improved player from a year ago. I know a lot of people have been a little bit frustrated with the playing time situation there

and how he's still been kind of thrust in a part-time. role given all the outfielder that the diamondbacks have. I mean, it's going to be, you know, pretty tough for Tori to not have him in the lineup if he keeps doing things like he did today. So, yeah, just an incredible day for Jake. And we got to talk with Jake a few minutes ago in the clubhouse. So here's what Jake McCarthy had to say about just kind of the diamondbacks as a whole and how well they're playing lately as well as his five hits in this game. I think, you know, when maybe our hitting isn't there, our pitching picks us up and vice versa. It just seems like we're all picking each other up.

It's timely hitting. It's, you know, really good, really good bullpen appearances. So, you know, I just think it's well-rounded. And I think when maybe one of us has an off night, someone picks us up. So I think that's a sign to a good team. It's got to feel pretty good to have five hits in the game, I imagine. Yeah, it's nice when they fall. And then the ground balls go through and the pop-ups drop in front of the side.

interfielder, so yeah, it's nice. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. Tori said that guys may be eating a hard time when you feel like a hard with a fifth. Yeah, man, hits a hit, you know. I never really, I don't light up the exevalo too much. So it hits a hit, I'll take it. I'll tell, tell everyone all five balls were crushed.

So, yeah. Oh, no. His hair. The chat, Jesse, has been writing Jacob all night about his hair being a topey slash hairpiece, which, Jacob had to several times. I demonstrate was not. But Jake McCarthy is not doing anything to help Jacob with his glorious, luxurious hair as he gently moves part of it out of his face.

And it just stays in a perfect quaff. Sorry, I was lost in his hair. I couldn't hear anything he said. But no, yes, a five-it-night is a five-it-night, even if your teammates want to rage you about those balls falling softly in front of an outfielder. Yeah, there was also, I know yesterday we had a pretty. funny moment post game where, you know, there was a mix up on where the reporters were going and we entered the interview room and Tori Lavello was already there in the second row with the notepad. It was pretty funny. But today, Derek, we were treated with another pretty funny

moment from post game. Gino Suarez, of course, you know, sort of the Energizer Bunny inside that clubhouse, at least one of them. He came over and paid Jake McCarthy a visit during our interview with Jake and it did not end particularly well. Let's go ahead and roll that one. Oh. It's nice when you know, you get back to the dugout and Marty. Did it break? No, we got two more.

We got two more. I'm sorry. What was the question? Oh, uh, what did he break? Yeah, so there were, there were some bottles of various beverages in the vicinity. And one of them fell and was, yeah, basically just pouring out all over the place. And you can hear Christian Walker in the background being like, no, that's a rare vintage. Like this is a tragedy.

No, it's the bourbons. It's the bourbons. No. I thought it was a Coke or something, Jesse. You're trying to let off with it being liquor. Oh, no. Jake did, Jake himself didn't seem too concerned about it. I don't, you know, he didn't seem all that interested in consuming.

He didn't buy it. He doesn't know the expert down there. that Christian Walker knew exactly how much because that man demands that you bring him his finest meats and cheeses and bourbons and he knows how much they're worth. He has a cocktail bar in his club in his locker. Man. Oh, that was that was pretty,

uh, that was pretty funny. It was just like it, you could hear, you know, you could maybe hear one thing, but it was, it was multiple things like Jake had this,

I think it was this little tabletop kind of right next to his, uh, right next to his locker and Gino when he, no plays too much. Gino be playing too much. coming over to tussle his hair. He's knocking over expensive balls of liquor. We all have a friend like that, Jesse.

We all have a friend like that. And I'm that friend. It's me. I'm the one that plays too much and knocks over stuff and breaks it. What else you got from the clubhouse? Yeah. Speaking on Jake, we have Tori talking about Jake's five-fig game and kind of what he's meant to this team this year.

Well, he's been really consistent all year long. It's been that type of a year form where he is toggling between, you know, approaches and he's hitting and counts. He understands what the outbats asking for. You know, there were two in field base hits today because the defense has positioned itself accordingly with the third baseman in. So he's having a terrific year. It's fun first to watch because he's working his butt off, but you don't see him a lot. And he deserved it. You know, I know the last one, everybody's given him a hard time because he blooped in him, but I don't care. It's a hit, it's a hit. Five hit games. A five hit game. You don't get him a lot.

Jackson, Doran, thank you so much for your super chat. Jackson said, oh boy, they let the snakes get hot, boys. And they did because Jesse, this team is red hot right now. Jake McCarthy is red hot. And they, I mean, right? Like they have a chance to sweep the pirates tomorrow. And then they have an opportunity here to potentially not lose a single series in the month of July, which just once again, we were talking about the juxtaposition of that from last July

and how different of a spot they are, not to mention the fact that the seasons couldn't have been more opposite where they kind of limped into this portion of their season, and they ended up coming out as one of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball, whereas the historic collapse last year in July caused them to go from being significantly above 500 to below it. You know, and now the Diamondbacks have a chance here to walk out of the month over five games plus over 500. And that's impressive considering that they still have Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez returning here soon. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I was just kind of throwing it back to, I believe it was June 29th, start of play June 29th when the Diamondbacks had just lost a heartbreaker to the Oakland days. It was the first game of that series. they had just lost that series to the twins as well. And we're not playing good baseball. They were 39 and 43 at the time. And as of that moment, Derek, they were three and a half games out of a playoff spot. And they were seven games behind the top wild card team, which was the Atlanta Braves. And since then, obviously, the diamondbacks have played pretty well.

Some of the other wild card contenders have played pretty well also. The Braves, however, have not. And the diamondbacks in that span have gone from being seven. games out of that top wildcard spot to as of today they are one game behind the top wildcard team the braves are there and are also tied with the san diego padres who continue to refuse to lose baseball games they have now won seven consecutive games uh but yeah this team is just uh just has played so so well lately um and it it really is impressive that they've managed to to go on this kind of a run I mean, you know, they did get some guys back from injury.

Like getting Gowan back certainly helps. And, you know, they got Gabby Moreno back at the beginning of this month, Geraldo Pardomo as well. But they've still been without Merrill Kelly and Erod, as you said. And they found a way to go on a really excellent stretch of baseball here, even without those guys. A piece of Yoshi says, Derek, this is like the fifth time you've been lost in a player's features. Last time it was Ryan Thompson's eyes.

It was never Ryan Thompson's eyes. eyes for the record. I want to say that. Maybe a R.K.O. from Ryan Thompson or perhaps his attempts to rock bottom me. But if you're talking about a player's features, especially their eyes that I got lost in, it's probably Randall Gritchick would be my assumption. Or if you probably go back a little further, maybe Tucker Barnhart. Because his eyes, Tucker Barnhart is probably, you could get lost in his eyes for days. Let's be honest. But you could get lost watching this team for days. Jesse, this team is so much fun to watch right now. The bullpen.

Of course, we got to see, you know, our guy, AJ Puck, make his debut today. We already love him. We've already embraced him as our own. The man seems to fit in nicely with the mix. And it seems like Tori has a whole lot of weapons there. And speaking of the weapons, I do want to go back to this Jake McCarthy situation because, let's be honest, Tori does manage like that, right? Tori probably will bench Jake tomorrow.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody to see him do that. But at the same time, Tori does that to all the guys on this team all the time. And the fact that Tori has the ability now to kind of just set lineups as he sees fit based on certain statistics, certain matchups that he wants to try to exploit. I feel like this team is built perfectly for him because Tori is going to fiddle with the lineup. He's going to rest guys. He's always going to manage this way, even when the options aren't great, right? Like we've seen them have players that probably shouldn't be starting in a. major league baseball game start simply because Tori is committed to giving Gabby Moreno the day off

or Cotel Marte the day off or whatever. And we've seen that in the past. But now there's not really a lineup that feels like it's a lesser than. It just feels like it's different. And yeah, you're going to be frustrated sometimes because he is going to set sick guys that are hot. And then the team is probably going to struggle to score and you're going to shout at the sky and be mad about it. You know, that's just kind of the way Tori manages. But he also manages this team. like it's a marathon and not a sprint. And that is what the baseball season is. We're seeing the positive impacts of him managing the team that way now

that he hasn't completely burnt out several guys that he like would go to too often early in the season in order to try to secure those wins. Yeah, I mean, as we talked about yesterday, like everyone on this team has a role, right? And, you know, maybe you have a gripe with kind of the distribution of playing time in certain situations. I can understand that. But there's no one on this team that, you know, when they're in there, it truly feels like there's no reason for it, right?

I mean, even despite Corby and Carroll struggles this year, like the guy finished fifth and MVP voting last year, right? Like, it's not all that hard to imagine a scenario where Corbyn Carroll suddenly gets hot. And you probably don't want to, you know, if he's in the majors, you probably don't want to, you know, just be playing him two, three days a week or whatever. You want to make sure that he's able to get those reps in and maybe find his way back. to the player that he was last year. And on that note, Derek, Corbyn Carroll did hit a home run in this game. His second homer of the season against a lefty, his first that was pulled. We continue to see Corbyn pull the ball in the air a little bit more,

which I think is a really good sign for him. And yeah, I mean, he had two homers in his first 87 games this season. He has five homers now in his last 14. So, you know, do I think Corbin is 100% fixed and all the way back to the player it was a year ago, not necessarily, but he has definitely shown some positive signs here in the last few weeks, and that swing was a really big one for sure. And I think that's part of it, right? Like there was a time where every single person, including myself while I was defending him,

wanted to give up on Gino, right? And now Gino's hitting the way he is, right? And he's just an example of how guys, you know, can struggle, but they can eventually get back on track. And it's not like Corbyn has been struggling consistently. He's, we've, we've said Corbyn Carol is back so many times that it's driven Jesse nuts. That phrase doesn't mean anything. It's literally it's it's it's just noise to Jesse.

That's not a logical sentence anymore because of how often Damon Dog and I have said it. But it's because Corbyn does go through these spurts where he has like two or three games where you see him hitting the ball hard again, see him getting home runs. And then he'll struggle and he'll go 0 for 5, 1 for 4, 0 for 3, with. two walks, you know, and they'll, but at the very least, when you start seeing him put together, like those walks and then getting a stolen base and doing the things that he does, that's his role, right, Jesse. His role is to get on base somehow, be a disruptor and try to get the offense going. And lately, he's been able to do that successfully.

Just like Gino has been able to get the offense going with his power at times, getting those solo home runs, getting things started, you know, again, you're not going to see Gino go out there and hit 300. But what you are going to see is him, you know, hit a, hit a, hit a, Dinger once every five games or so. And it really does feel like at least he's back to kind of contributing in that way. But this team is just looking very good. And again, I'll try not to get too excited, but you know that's impossible for me.

It's just, you know, Jacob was revving me up over here talking about this team having no weaknesses. I can't really argue with him with the way that they've played in the last two months. You know, going back to what we said at the top of the show, the Diamondbacks dating back to June 1st are now 30 and 18. And that's pretty impressive considering the way that they, you know, started out this season. Yeah, it really is pretty impressive. We do have one more, one more piece of video from post-game.

Tori was asked an interesting question about the impact of the World Series last year and how in the, you know, those first two months where the debacks were really kind of struggling and trying to just make do with the, with the guys that they did have healthy. it sounds like the World Series last year and walking through that had a pretty big impact on, you know, letting the debacks stay even keeled and kind of set themselves up for the run that they've been on lately. Here's what Tori had to say about that. You get to a certain point in this, you're shaped by experiences in this game. And when you do something that we did last year, you remember the taste of it.

You remember what it took. You remember the sacrifice and you remember the commitment. And you know that that's around the corner if you can link up and do it. things the way that you want to do them and you can do them. And a very strong brotherhood was formed last year inside of that clubhouse. Coaches included. Coaches, you know, and we remember that and we know what it's going to take to get back there. So I think it's motivating everybody every single day, even when we're not playing well

to say, hey look, today could be our day where we get this thing moving in the right direction. It's a very strong feeling. When you get there and you experience things that we experience and it's a very young team, so you're always hoping that they remember it. remember i i listen and pay attention i hear what they're saying they're they're hungry they're very hungry shout out to brian hanson he said my first live welcome in welcome to the asylum watch out for some of these maniacs uh piece of yoshi i don't he's still not to be trusted i'm just i'll warn you of that right now but uh it's a great group of people we thank you all for being here

uh and yeah i mean this diamondbacks team has you know experience now and they've learned some things and And again, like, that's one way that was always impressive that Tori has managed this team his entire time here, right? Going back to the jokes about him always changing his lineups. Even when this team was very bad, Tori was still managing it like they were somehow going to make the playoffs, right? Like he was managing it in a way like he needed these guys to be fresh throughout the season because when they got to the end, they were going to need to, you know, make this push. And like, again, there's, it's very easy. easy for Tori to lean too heavily on certain members, for instance, of his bullpen this season and completely wear those guys down. And we've seen that happen. We saw that happen last year

where certain members of the bullpen were just relied on too much. And you kind of saw them eventually just have too many innings put on them and become a little bit unreliable, right? But now with the addition of AJ puck, with the way that Justin Martinez is throwing the ball, with just the number of weapons that Tori has, not only for the starting lineup, but for that bullpen specifically. This team, I mean, it's hard to say this team is not a contending team, right?

Like, this is the team that's built for the playoffs. And of course, this is all being said without Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez. If they can come back and be as good as Mike Hazen, of all people, is making them sound while they're throwing out at Salt River Fields, then, I mean,

this team will be, uh, we'll hopefully be there. contending for a playoff spot and contending for a World Series again. I mean, you're getting to the point now where it feels like the diamond bags don't really have any clear weaknesses, right? I mean, the starting rotation, I guess you could still kind of view as a weakness right now until you do get Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez back. Obviously, Yover-Diaz, a little bit of a question mark after his last outing. You know, Ryan Nelson's been great lately, but, you know, ZRA is still a little bit on the higher end.

So there's still some questions there. but the bullpen, I mean, with AJ Puck, like this is we said the other day when they made that trade, this is one of the better bullpens than all of baseball and perhaps the best bullpen the Diamondbacks have ever had, which is not saying much considering their history in that regard. But it is still a really, really good unit. There's a variety of weapons. There's a variety of different attacks and arm slots and you know, pitch types and velos and all those things. They have a really, really good unit back there. the offense has been well above average, really for pretty much the entire season. I think it maybe goes a little under the radar.

But the Diamondbacks, I don't have it in front of me. But last I checked, they'd scored the third most runs in baseball. They're probably still somewhere in that range, especially after, you know, scoring nine runs in this game against the pirates. And then, of course, the defense has been a strength of this team and this franchise for quite a while. So you can imagine a scenario where E.rod and Merrill Kelly get back. And it's like, wow, this team. team, maybe their record doesn't show it right now, but this team could be among the most talented

rosters in all of baseball if and when that happens. Jacob, Jay, in the chat, Jesse says, thoughts on Tommy Troy and Hansel Luis sitting out today. Are we on Trade Watch? Yeah, I did see this. I absolutely, I mean, it's one of my favorite things about this time of year is people just go utterly berserk over like a top prospect sitting out or, you know, really, you know, really. people are never more dialed into minor league lineups than, you know, this time of year. But, yeah, I'm inclined to not really read anything into it until, you know,

until we get something a little bit more concrete. I mean, not to say it's impossible. It did as we, as we discussed the other day, it would be an odd time to trade someone like Tommy Troy. I believe he has a 560 OPS, something like that in High High Hillsborough. He's been hurt for a good portion of the season, just came back somewhat recently and has had mixed results. So it'd be a bit of a strange time to trade him. I guess it doesn't mean it's impossible. Hans-Louis is someone I could certainly see teams being interested in.

We've seen him show up on top 100 prospects lists, not most of them. But I think Keith Law had him on his top 100 list. He's a guy that some evaluators really like. So, yeah, not impossible that maybe this does mean something. something, but I'm not inclined to read too much and do it at this point. Mike Dreckman in our chat, by the way, the legend says, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, boys. We're definitely looking good, but also have some work to do,

and that's definitely the truth. This team is not a contending team if they don't get at least one of Merrill Kelly and what Eduardo Rodriguez back and have them. And you need them to be effective. Yeah, you need them to look something like what they did last year. There is also, we have to acknowledge. Yeah. We also has to continue.

We've seen it a lot with other pitchers around the league this year where guys miss significant time and they come back and, you know, maybe they do find their way eventually. Like Framber Valdez is someone who comes to mind there where his numbers now with the Astros look pretty good. But when he first came back, I want to say it was an elbow injury that he had, you know, he had an ERA over five in his first six starts or so, if I'm remembering correctly. So, and they're not going to have much runway, right? I mean, you know, if those guys come back in mid-August, which feels like the best case scenario, that only gives you about six weeks before the end of the season to really dial it in and find your rhythm. So there are still some pretty big questions with those guys if and when they get back. Thank you to piece of Yoshi for the super chat.

Yoshi says, Jesse, can we discuss you saying the Mets were ailed by injuries 12 hours before Sengas was announced in 12 hours after Daniel's Nunez's was, you might have cursed them. And if you did, great job. But if we find out the grimace Torres ACL, then I'll really feel like you're maybe a witch. I don't know. That's really, yeah, that's really when the sky would be falling into the net. He's the most important member. Jesse, they were pointing out my wonderful Hall of Fame shirt, which the Diamondbacks were kind

enough to share with us tonight. I just wanted to get your thoughts before we get. out of here on seeing Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez inducted as the first members of the Diamondbacks Hall of Fame. And also, what are your thoughts whenever you see the numbers from Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez during their time with this team? Because they did a great job tonight of putting that together on a video that they played on the scoreboard. I just couldn't really wrap my mind around hearing some of those stats and thinking about if, if those guys played in today's baseball, you know, in today's Major League Baseball, especially

Randy Johnson, because the number of Cy Young's, the excellence that he was, how good he was for as long as he was for this franchise, especially considering his age at the time, is just kind of mind-boggling to me. Yeah, I mean, he's in the discussion, right, for the best left-handed pitcher of all time. I mean, that's how good Randy Johnson was during his career, and he was as good as ever, during his time with the Diamondbacks, right? There's a reason he wore a DeVax cap into the Hall of Fame. So, yeah, it's hard.

It's hard to say enough about those guys. I mean, RJ in particular, as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, not just the Diamondbacks Hall of Fame. Certainly, Gonzo deserves that honor as well. Honestly, Derek, more than anything, days like this make me angry because I was not old enough to really remember Randy Johnson in his prime. I have some vague memories of Randy Johnson in like around 2007 where he came back to the Diamondbacks and was actually still pretty effective, but not nearly the pitcher that he was

earlier in his career when, you know, he rattled off four straight Cy Youngs with V-back. So I am just jealous and angry that, you know, many, many of you probably have memories of him pitching and I really don't. Let me impart upon you what watching Randy Johnson pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks. was a lot. We lost two to one tonight. That's what we got a lot of, Jesse. Two to one, Randy Johnson shoved.

He went out there and struck out 12, gave up one earn run and seven and two-thirds innings, bullpen gave up another one. Offense did nothing, and we lost. That's what watching Randy Johnson pitch was a lot of times. I mean, it was at times, right? Yeah, no, no. He was also the ace of a staff of a pretty darn good.

baseball team for a few years. This team was incredible. And it's again, even Luis Gonzalez's numbers are hard to, like, it's just hard to remember all the stuff that these guys did. And I think, you know, if your first venture into baseball as an Arizona sports fan was this team, you got spoiled entirely too early way before you deserved it. Because these guys came to the valley when this team was just in its infancy. And they just changed it. And they just changed it. and like your your expectations your the the i guess you know like tory talks about the the standard right the standard was set entirely too early for this franchise it was hard for any pitcher to come in the shadow of what randy johnson did and and seem like they were anything you know and i mean then it

wasn't just randy johnson you had kurt chilling here too right you had that that incredible starting lineup great counsel tony walmac louis gonzalez stefe finley matt williams like just a bunch of killers, right? Like just a bunch of guys that were excellent in their own teams and all over the Major League Baseball. And yet they all kind of came here and quickly changed, you know, this franchise forever. Right. So like again, though, it's just it's, it's like, I don't know, like thinking about that year, thinking about that time, it's just like thinking about like Christmas or something where it's like this, it's this thing that exists and you're like, yeah, everybody knows about the Diamondbacks 2001 World Series year, right? Like, yeah.

Yeah, like, it's a thing. And when we were, you know, other places and talk to people about this team, that's the thing everybody brought up to us. Those are the players that people remember from this team. So, like, it just goes to show how special, you know, Randy Johnson choosing to come to Arizona and be a part of this franchise was, you know, and Luis Gonzalez obviously was, you know, part of a trade. But, like, still, the impact these guys had on, you know, our sports culture here in the valley is permanent and it's forever. It's great to see them honored the way that they were honored tonight. And I really do love their little cartoon faces on this shirt. I did think it was funny yesterday.

We talked with Tori Lavello about this. And he said that he actually faced Randy Johnson College. So I mean, that's not heard to me that that could have been possible. And I asked him about it. And he said that there were glimpses of kind of what RJ eventually became. But he said that he was clearly working through his release point at the time, like couldn't really find it. It was pretty inconsistent.

Sounds like RJ was a little all over the place at that time. And even, you know, even once he was in the majors, like you look at his early career stats. I mean, there's some five, five walks per nine, six walks per nine, you know, like in that range. And early in his career, he really was a little all over the place for a while. But then, yeah, I mean, his last two months with, you know, he was traded from the Mariners to the Astros and was absolutely outstanding. and then the Diamondbacks, that off season, somehow miraculously pulled him to sign with a franchise that had completed one season and was terrible in that one season.

So, you know, part of the miracle of Randy Johnson is very much the fact that he was willing to sign in the first place. And, you know, that wound up paying off for Diamondbacks fans and we'll continue to for a long time. All hail, Jerry Colangelo. That's all I have to say. Thank God for that man. but thank God for all of you. We thank you guys so much for being here. We appreciate you stopping by tonight. Jesse and I are getting a much deserved day off tomorrow, but it's just one day off, and then we'll be back again on Monday. So get your mailbag Monday questions prepped because it's been far too long since we've done one of those. And of course, we have more fun stuff to bring you, including on Tuesday. We're going to bring you to two shows, a trade deadline episode, which now might not be as spicy as we thought it was going to be. considering the Diamondbacks got their shopping done early, and then we'll bring you another postgame show for Tuesday's game.

No show on Wednesday because that is pool party day. So make sure if you are out there, you'd go join us. But of course, we can't get out of here without reminding everybody, Jesse, that I lie, you lie, Jacob never lies. The man, he's a sweet baby angel. But we also know that the numbers, they never lie. Jesse, what do you have for us for tonight's number that doesn't lie? Yeah, real quick.

I know some people in the chat are talking about AJ Puck, and I did want to touch on him real quick. Today's number is 97.3, Derek, and 97.3 represents the hardest fastball that A.J. puck threw in his first outing as a member of the Diamondbacks. And I did a little research on this, Derek, and I found that AJ Puck's 97.3 mile-hour fastball was the hardest pitch thrown by a Diamondbacks left-handed pitch. hitcher since September 13th of 2018. And that was by Jake Deekman.

Jake Deekman brought up both kind of around the, around the same range. Yeah, Jake Deekman threw a 97.3 mile per hour fastball, exactly the same velocity back in September of 2018. So it has been about six years, almost six full years since the Diamondbacks have had a lefty who can throw this hard. And AJ Puck actually averages.

his average fastball is higher than Jake Deakman's was at the time. So it's just a different look, right? I mean, it's just something the debacks really haven't had basically ever. I mean, a lefty who throws like this. I guess we were just talking about Randy Johnson. So, you know, they have had another pretty darn good lefty a while back. You know, Robbie Ray certainly threw hard as well. But having a weapon like this out of the bullpen is really something that the debacks have basically never had.

and he did walk a batter in this game, but it was still a fairly, fairly quick and easy inning, you know, able to get out of there without allowing a run or a hit. So AJ Puck's first outing with the D-backs was a success. We love him already. We love them already.

And of course, it's going to be amazing what he does. You know, again, when you talk about just giving that different look, right? Like coming in in the seventh inning or maybe even in the eighth inning and seeing him throw, you know,

lefty and then having Paul Seawald coming. out and throw righty like this is something that is going to just cause batter some problems this bullpen is going to be a problem for opposing teams and it's going to be fun to watch but of course we thank you guys again for joining us tonight we thank you guys so much for being snake aficionados you can follow us on twitter i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k jessey is at jesse n friedman of course jacob is the fourth best jacob franklin in existence he is at jacob underscore franklin four but we're still Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

No offense, Jacob. Okay, our show is at PH&X underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PH&X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again so much for your time. We will see you back here on Monday. Have yourself a wonderful Saturday. We will see you then, but until then, behave yourselves. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when your baseball team has no weaknesses.