PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Could Ketel Marte’s HOT START lead to MVP consideration in 2024?

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

Ketel Marte has been outstanding so far this season for the Diamondbacks. Could his red hot start lead to him becoming a dark horse candidate for NL MVP? We discuss his chances, which other members of the roster are off to a fast start, and which pieces of the bullpen concern us. We also release our MLB Power Rankings for this week, take a look ahead at the upcoming series with the Giants, and debate if it’s finally time to toss Angel Hernandez from the game.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.

That's the wrong music for today's vibe. That's for sure. Welcome in to the PHNX Diamondbacks. Yeah, dude just sad. There it is. That's the correct music, especially after what happened in this series. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks post series show.

My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of sadness. I will be joined here shortly by our vice mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as your thunderstick Jesse Friedman from the clubhouse after today's loss. But today's sucked. Today's game sucked.

The Diamondbacks absolutely. This series suck, let's be honest. Yesterday's game was exciting, but we talked about it already, that maybe the Diamondbacks shouldn't have won yesterday's game. They do lose today five to three. Of course, the Diamondbacks did once again have an early lead that they let slip away.

And of course, the bullpen was once again just not able to hold. a lead. And I'm not going to put this entirely on the bullpen because the Diamondbacks with runners in scoring position were absolutely atrocious in this series. When I say atrocious, I mean they were five for 35 with runners in scoring position in this game. So this absolutely is not the way that an offense like this can operate. You can't miss that many opportunities to convert those runners in to score. But of course, before we get to that, we did have a little bit of news before today's game. There were some roster moves that were made and an announcement in regards to Jordan

Montgomery and when he's going to make his first start. But the Diamondbacks did start off today by announcing that they recalled Justin Martinez from AAA Reno and have selected the contract of Logan Allen. Here's what Tori had to say about Justin Martinez in regards to what he has done to come back up to the big league in the miners. Everything's training in a very positive way. He's filling up the zone. And he's been very dedicated and working hard on the things we asked him to, which were

count leverage, not getting behind, not throwing middle, middle balls. And he's been doing really a job with that. Real good job. He's been pretty dominant, AAA. Yeah, Justin Martinez, again, he definitely improved his command. And from what we saw today, it looks like Justin Martinez might absolutely be an asset for this team. Today he went one and two thirds innings pitch. He walked one, struck out one, and just looked really good in regards to his command. His, you know, his velocities down a little bit,

obviously in order for him to be able to command some of those pitches, but I don't care from what we saw out of him, much better than what we saw out of Joe Manciply, who again just was ineffective today. His line, and some of it is the defense behind him. He got one out today, one third of an innings pitch he gave up three hits two earn runs walked one let the run score from brandon fought but just again the bullpen the diamondbacks today tried to do everything they could to limit how much the bullpen was going to participate in today's game and brandon fought did an excellent job at doing that he gave the diamond back seven strong innings giving up six hits three runs allowed two of them earned he didn't walk any he struck out six

He did just a great job of keeping batters off balance. And a lot of the Cubs under his pitches, he had a lot of pop-outs or pop-ups. His sweeper was once again working. He wasn't really using his whole arsenal, but Brandon Fott looked very good today. And again, when you talk about what this starting rotation is possibly going to look at, look like when Jordan Montgomery arrives, things look pretty good. You add in the way Ryan Nelson has been pitching as of late and the fact that the Diamondbacks do have Eduardo Rodriguez coming, but Tori did make some or kind of relate some information to us today

about EROD being transferred to the 60 day IL. This is what Tori had to say in regards to that transfer. Shoot. I want to believe he's going to get strong and get healthy and magically come back sooner than later, but I don't think that's going to happen. We're going to slow play this. And, yeah, I don't know what his exact day is. But I'm pretty sure he's been placed on the 60-day deal, so that's maybe what you're referring to, right?

Right. For the 25th. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is that a status change for you guys, or was he probably likely to be out that long anyway? He was likely to be out that long. Yeah. I think we were just holding on to that, knowing if we had to make a roster move, that we would do that. But he was going to be out until at least that time. Is some point in June probably most likely, perhaps?

I would say so. Yeah. Fairly devastating news there about Erod, but I don't think that it's going to impact when we were going to see them. I think this is just roster manipulation because he can go on the 60 day IL and they can retroactively push it back so that he's not gone 60 days from today's announcement. But if he wasn't going to come back before that period of time, that allows them at least some roster room to move around with Jordan. Montgomery coming and being added to this roster. But I can't help but think, you know, if the Diamondbacks were concerned about this, if when Eduardo Rodriguez first got injured, when that injury first happened,

if there was just some fear, some internal concern that he could have a longer absence, like what we've seen. When the injury occurred, Rodriguez himself and even the team seemed fairly positive. This was going to be, you know, a short injury stint and that he was going to be, back in the starting rotation fairly quickly. Now, who knows how long this will actually be for, but do we have Jesse's tweet? Okay. All right.

Well, Jesse tweeted out some information that was pretty interesting. They retroactively set it back to March 25th. 60 days after that will be May 24th. So he will remain out at least until then, according to Jesse. And that's when he was going to be out for in regards to reaggravation. this latch strain that he's had. So the Diamondbacks just unfortunately have had a bunch of injuries. Gabrielle Moreno again gets added to that.

Today there was another weird situation where Gabby was in the lineup and then once again scratched from the lineup. So he did hit late in the game. He did have a pinch hit at bat, but the Diamondbacks definitely are plagued by injuries. When it comes to the game, though, Cattel stayed red hot for this team. He had a lead off first pitch home run that went 400. 17 feet. It was his third lead-off home run of the year. He then stretched a single into a double in the third inning. The man has just been hitting the hell out of the ball. And honestly, Catelle has been

the MVP for this team by far. He has been the most valuable player. Lordus Gurriel had that title there for a little bit, but I feel like Cotel has been doing it just consistently throughout. And he gave the Diamondbacks a great chance today to win. But like I said, they just failed the capitalize on runners in scoring position going one for 11 today. Jock did at a late Dinger and that was nice. I moved the Diamondbacks five to three so they were only down by two. But yeah, just wasn't enough late. The Diamondbacks just weren't able once again to convert those runners. Jock, by the way, has been an incredible addition for this team. Jock has been working in the count and seeing a lot of pitches. He's currently hitting 333 with a 1043 OPS. So you just can't

say enough about jock and what he does for this team at the plate. It's not just about power. He's just an excellent hitter, period, all the way around. And I think that he's going to end up being a big asset for this team, probably putting up much better numbers than we saw in San Francisco last season. But again, they couldn't do it on their own. And Dimebacks didn't get much help offensively around the team, you know, in regards to that. So today's loss, Definitely a frustrating one. Corbyn Carroll went 0 for 2. Lordis Guriel went 04,

Christian Walker, O for 4. Gino, O for 4. A lot of Ofer days here on this list and just not a lot of guys contributing offensively at the dish. Credit to the Cubs for what they were able to do. They made their mistakes, but they were able to overcome them.

And of course, the Diamondbacks still just can't get that consistency out of the bullpen. Like I said, I'm not putting this loss entirely on the bullpen. The offense definitely didn't really step up, like I said, but again, the Diamondbacks just can't seem to find somebody consistently that they can count on. Hopefully, Justin Martinez can be that for Tori. Again, he had his great outing today, but the Diamondbacks did option Tommy Henry and Luis Friest to AAA Reno.

That was the corresponding move for Justin Martinez and Logan Allen being selected. And this is what Tori had to say in regards to Tommy Henry and why he was essentially the odd man out for the starting rotation. We got to slice it as thin as possible, right? Sometimes it's a slam dunk, a slam dunk decision that's made. And we all know those times, but these are hard decisions, right? We got three young pitchers that are still fighting their way. I put Brandon fought in that category. He's still finding his way.

We just felt like Tommy's lack of consistency not really pitching beyond the fifth inning and doing the things we know he's capable of doing. was the main reason why. And we told him that. And I know that he's going to go down and find that consistency with his delivery and go and finish off hitters and not get into so many three ball counts or hitter counts. We need him to get count leverage when he's standing on the mountain. Oh, man, I'll tell you, the Diamondbacks definitely need some consistency there from their starting rotation. And I mean, again, you get it today from Brandon Fought and hopefully you will get it from Jordan Montgomery when he makes his debut in San Francisco this Friday. I really hope that

what we see is Jordan Montgomery from last year and not necessarily some of the results we've seen from Reno. I do know that Tori and a bunch of people have talked about the fact that, you know, for instance, you know, Monty was working on a sinker and was throwing it a lot and that does make it easy to smash the ball when you're doing that in the PCL. But I do, I am encouraged by what he can bring to this team. Tori confirmed Monty will start on Friday and he gave an explanation as to why he slots in there, moving Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly both back one day. This is what he had to say. We got a slice it as thin as possible, right? Sometimes it's a slam dunk, a slam dunk decision that's made. And we all know those times, but these are hard decisions, right?

Okay, sorry, that's the wrong video. We got Tori confirming Monty starting on. Oh, all right. All right. Well, of course, we will see how that impacts the starting rotation there at the back end. Ryan Nelson is slated to start the series against the Giants on Thursday. But of course, still some question marks in regards to Montgomery. Still some question marks as to what they're going to do with this bullpen right now. I think that the Diamondbacks are finding some guys here that can, you know, obviously be something.

you know, be beneficial to the team. Some guys are realizing they can't count on. I think yesterday's game is a perfect example of why it's so frustrating, though. You might write off a Miguel Castro. You might write off Scott McGuff. I know some of the fans that watch this team have absolutely done that already. Yet they have the outings that they had yesterday. And when you as a baseball organization see those guys capable of those outings,

that's the potential you think you can get out of them if they can just do things, do the little things right more consistently and come out there. and give that night in, night out when you're a reliever. Or like I said yesterday, at least when you're not on, you're not completely off the way that we've seen these guys be. But the diamondbacks still need bodies. They still need guys that have experience and are able to get this, you know, keep this thing together here.

So the diamondbacks have had several leads. They've been able to put those runs up early. But they just have not had that support late in these games in order for the Diamondbacks to maintain these leads. They have, in fact, 78 hits the Diamondbacks have innings one through three, which leads Major League Baseball. They also have scored 50 runs in innings one through three, again, which leads Major League Baseball.

This team is not incapable of doing it. They're not incapable of scoring runs. They're just at times not able to win these close games, and there's going to be a lot of close games throughout this season. There's also that, I mean, we could talk about Jace Peterson and now the fact I think he's hitting below. Let's see where Jace Peterson is currently at. 053 is what Jase Peterson is hitting.

So I can't really get it done when you have to rely on Jase Peterson being your last at-bat in a crucial at-bat like that. But no, so not Jace. Basically, no, not Jays. There's probably a lot of people that were surprised today to see that Jase Peterson was actually not one of those people that were sent down. but it does come down to the Diamondbacks, kind of moving things around to get,

you know, Justin Martinez in to give this bullpen a little bit of a relief over the span before they immediately start their four-game series with the Giants tomorrow. But speaking of that series, here is Tori confirming when Monty will start and why he made that decision. No, it's had it.

So it'll be Nelson, Montgomery, Gallin, and Kelly in San Francisco. Why did you guys do that way? just fell on that day we wanted to give um give gallon and kelly an extra day just let him get a little breather this time of the year they don't need it but the 19th was a target day for Jordan I think he was set up for the 19th

he's excited about the 19th that's what he was told when he signed here that was the agreement that was made so I think he's he's ready for this opportunity he's been he circled that day on his calendar and we're making room for that day oh piece of Yoshi said in regards to Jace Peterson, his one hit resulted in a run,

and then he followed it up by saying, which is pretty funny, I don't find it funny. I guess our sense of humor is different, Yoshi. I don't find that funny. But what I do find is this team does need to, you know, continue what I think they've done, which is move on from guys that aren't producing.

But right now it's a matter of the amount of injuries they've had stacking up. I think that if this team was, if this roster was held, healthy, you probably wouldn't see Jace Peterson getting a crucial at bat like that late in this game. Unfortunately, it's just the matchup that Tori decided to go with. Is it a great one? Is it a great idea to go with that matchup? Probably not. Probably wasn't. But sometimes you just are left with what you have in your arsenal or in your toolbox. But we do have to give our King Snake even for a loss. And of course, it'd be hard to give it to anybody else other than Cotel Marte. Cotel Marte went three

for four today with two RBIs and that lead off first pitch, dingers. the man has just been incredible. I think the only thing I find surprising is what were you saying, Damon? He only has 10 RBI. Is that right? Oh, okay. I apologize. I'm not putting it.

Must have been some other very smart mind. This is actually, you know what? I'm going to address it. I don't think Damon's at the top of his game either. I think Damon is definitely faulting in the bullpen way recently. And I don't need to step it up before I send you down to Reno. I think that this is egregious. And I'm John Snow right.

now one man army holding down the phnx headquarters and being accused by people in the comments is pretty discussed yeah well i'm going to continue to do it anyway but i love you for it and we are still damon's dogs but uh he said brandon fought snubbed yeah maybe but i mean catelle martay just continues to be on fire for this team he literally hit home runs in back to back at bats if you go back to last night's ninth inning uh yeah but the only thing again like i said uh 10 rbi for katel's So he's not really doing it with runners in scoring position. And honestly, a lot of the Diamondbacks players aren't doing it with runners in scoring position, which has been the big problem with them this season.

Definitely, definitely the big problem in this series. We'll get into the count here shortly. But I still can't get over this. Game one, the Diamondbacks are two for 11. Game two for 13. This game one for 11. It's egregious. The Diamondbacks, it's not a case of them not getting base runners on.

it is truly a case of them just not being able to convert with those runners in scoring position. And I mean, again, that's something that's at least fixable. The potential is there for them to bust some of these games wide open. They just weren't able to do it here against the Cubs. So I don't know. They clamp up. I feel like the Diamondbacks clamp up. We need that clutch factor back.

We need the Diamondbacks to be able to do the thing. And they were pressing the action today, too. That's something else that I wanted to address. The Diamondbacks were definitely Corbyn Carroll. got stolen base. It was, I think, his eighth stolen base of the year. He's on pace for 68 stolen bases, so close to being 69. But, you know, again, they just, they kind of led up late.

And you didn't see necessarily the same aggression out of them, I think, late in the game. And that could be part of what we're seeing out of them this season. I don't know. They do have a lot of leads, though. There were a lot of lead changes again in this game. And the Diamondbacks just couldn't end up coming out back on top. So we'll see what happens with the bullpen specifically going forward. There are going to be some more roster moves that are needed once Jordan Montgomery does get officially added to the roster.

So Justin Martinez could potentially be here for a short limited amount of time. Or maybe the Diamondbacks look to send somebody else down at this point because there are a couple of candidates that you could say would probably, you know, could probably be sent down. you know this this team again needs to continue to adapt and try to get better they just have a lot of injuries to get through once paul seawald comes back i think we're all hoping everything returns back to normal when it comes to the bullpen so uh that is on the rise and not too far away edwarda rodriguez unfortunately a little bit farther away uh than we were hoping but uh we do appreciate you guys for being here in the p hn exports youtube channel right now we thank you so much for subscribing if you have done that if you haven't subscribe now sign up for notifications that

way you don't miss when any of our shows go live leave us a review on the audio podcasting side make sure you subscribe on your favorite app over there as well gabby we'll stop by briefly just briefly he'll pinch he'll kind of pinch it just to come in and tell you to drop a like here on the youtube he's fine to come tell you to drop a like but he's not fine to start yeah i don't know I don't know. I kind of got a question that, but I am glad he's here, just like I'm glad all of you guys are here. Of course, I'm also very thankful for the Grand Slam Jackpot Promotion right now by BetMGM Sportsbook every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday throughout the entire Major League Baseball season. You can get in on a weekly bet and get a promotion, place a $10 or

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There are a lot of questions in the by the way in regards to injuries and we have had some updates but we don't really get any specifics on some of the injuries for instance with paul seawald i don't know if there's a been decision made in regards to what the next step was but he was going to throw or he did throw a bullpen they were discussing if he was going to take some live BP or if he was going to perhaps be sent to reno to start his rehab start so that's how close paul seawald is i feel like in about maybe about a week from today. We'll hear about Paul Seawald potentially making some of those rehab starts are being set up for some rehab starts in Reno. In regards to Perdomo and Alec Thomas, both of

those guys are still a little ways off. It sounds like Perdomo is still in like the recovery phase, whereas Alec Thomas has been running, he's been doing, he hasn't been running the bases, but he's been taking batting practice and he's been running. So it sounds like Alec Thomas is going to be back relatively soon. I would say. say that we should expect Alec Thomas back by the middle of May. That might be a little bit of a, of maybe, maybe too soon. But I would say before the end of May, we'll be getting Alec Thomas back. Hopefully, Pardomo won't be too long after that. And Eduardo Rodriguez, from what we're understanding here, like I said, Jesse's tweet earlier, he said that that would place him.

The 60-day I.L. would place E. Rod's return to be around May 24th because they retroactively set it back to, I believe, May 25th is what Jesse said. So, of course, we have, we have a lot, a lot of guys to return. And of course, we'll see how those guys factor in. And especially Geraldo Pardomo, I mean, you know, someone said it in the chat, but Pardomo is the heart and soul of this team. Damon says that to me every single day, multiple times per day. I text you it before you go to bed at night.

He does. It's kind of, it's a little much. But I get it. I get it, right? And you feel that. Like at times with the mistakes they've been making, the way they look, especially today, man. I mean, you could really play the Benny Hill music there in that eighth inning

when the Diamondbacks were allowing those runs to score and making those mistakes, throwing them all around the field. Instead of having runners on the corners at first and third, you got one that scores, one that makes it around the third. Just a lot of mistakes being made that you don't typically see this team make. And I guess you could say typical because, They haven't been around very much, but, you know, going back to last year, their calling card was their defense. Their calling card was, you know, of course, playing fairly flawless baseball.

And we are definitely not seeing that out of them this year. I think on the silver lining side, on the positive side, what you could say is because we're not seeing that yet, the Diamondbacks are still one game below 500 with a lot of missing pieces and a lot of sloppy baseball being played. If they can tighten things up along with getting those guys that they're missing back, this team could be as good of a team as we thought, you know, that they could be. And, you know, the potential is there still, despite the fact that the results aren't. This series was frustrating, though. And let's take a look at the count here presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union

because these numbers, they are very, very wacky. The Cubs barely outscore the Diamondbacks in this series when 19 runs to seven. runs. The Cubs out hit the Diamondbacks, 31 hits to 22 hits, but it's the runners in scoring position. Cubs went 12 for 39, Diamondbacks go 5 for 35. The Cubs just, they converted those opportunities with runners in scoring position. Starting pitching ERA, much better for the Diamondbacks. Of course, the relief pitching ERA, much better for the Cubs. Cubs had a 6.13 ERA for the starting pitching to the Diamondbacks 4.41 relief pitching 3.14 to the Diamondbacks 6.08 ERA for the bullpen.

It was the story of the season. This, this graphic it feels like. The not being able to get it done. No timely hits. And then relief pitching just eating us alive. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's the same thing. Every single game.

Yeah, I don't know, man. I think the one thing that's really frustrating about this, I think Craig Counsel did his homework a bit. because the minute that his starter struggled, Craig counsel went to his bullpen. He got six innings out of his bull or five innings out of his bullpen in game one, four and two thirds in game two, four and two thirds in game three. So he really called on that bullpen, which as we've seen so far in this young season, has kind of been the Diamondbacks kryptonite a bit.

The Diamondbacks have not been able to perform well late in games. And, you know, again, game two was kind of an anomaly for the way that they've been performing this year. not only were they able to not just score in bunches they were able to put up some single digit runs in consecutive innings but they were able to put those up late and tie that game late but it still feels like this team is just going to roll back again just the three hits kind of scattered throughout the game or i mean the three runs excuse me you got cadets lead off single then diamond back score one in the fifth and then jocks solo home run in the ninth really had a lot more opportunities than that obviously based on the one for 11 with runners in scoring position, but you just, you can't, you can't expect to win going one for 11 with runners in scoring position. I still don't understand how they scored 12 runs

in yesterday's game. Two for 13, Damon. Two for 13 with runners in scoring position. How did they score 12 runs? I don't know either. That is pretty shocking. I'd love to see the like numbers on like, is that the worst that a team has ever hit

with a minimum number of runners in scoring position that has scored a certain? amount of runs. Right. Right. There's no way that there's been, you know, more than a handful of games that have been worse than that. Yeah, I don't, I have no idea what the hell's going on. But we do have, Jesse joining us here shortly, uh, from the clubhouse. Do we have any of the videos from the clubhouse yet? Okay. I know that he has, uh, fought coming in, uh, and, and talking a bit about Mike, uh, the summer Mike Talcman. Poor Brandon fought. Poor Brandon fought. Went out there and shoved today. Seven innings pitched. He's pitched like decent, even in like the game against.

the Braves where he gave up a decent amount of runs. He still pitched like pretty decent, according to most people. The poor guy just can't get a W. Yeah, I don't know. Ryan in the chat says, I missed a small ball and chaos ball that we play. Why can't we do that? I don't know.

That's a great question. I felt like they did a better job of it today. Cotel pressing the action on that single that he hit. I think, what was that in the third inning where he turned a single into a double? That felt like one of those situations where I'm not sure if many guys on this team could do that. I thought Cattel really came out of the box fast and tried his best to stretch that into a double.

But it also caused the Cubs to make mistakes. That's something we brought up yesterday. That's something that was brought up to Tori by none other than our guy Barry Bloom in regards to the loss in game one of this series was why not send Cattel there late in that game? Why not keep pressing the action with these guys with their legs? It's because when it happens and, and it goes your way, then you look like a genius.

And if it doesn't go your way, you look like an idiot. And you wasted an opportunity potentially to get the tying run in, right? It really has been more about trying to trust the hitters this season. And so far, when we look at these numbers with runners in scoring position, the Diamondbacks obviously aren't getting it done with those runners on base and those opportunities to score runs. So as much as you want to try to let the bats do the work, the bats aren't doing the work. And I think that there's something to be said about that comment, right?

There's something to be said about the Diamondbacks, creating that chaos, pushing that action and just, I guess, keeping the pressure on the opposing team at this point. But there also are, you know, there's also a couple of guys. Again, I'm not going to, I know everybody wants to bash Jace Peterson. But man, let me tell you, the man is hitting 053 and it's just basically, and it's been an instant out for this team. And as much as I want, you know, I want it to work. I think everybody wants it to work.

It does feel like once again, the Diamondbacks are just not getting it done to, you know, to, or Chase Peterson isn't getting it done to validate him still being in the lineup. Diamondbacks still have a lot of young options that they could go with in the farm system. I think with the success that fans have seen from guys coming up and filling those roles, they want more of that. And I just think right now the Diamondbacks don't have that person ready, right? Jordan Lawler, injured. Jerry P. injured, right? So the injuries go beyond that. I mean, Gino Grover sustained a pretty substantial injury that's going to keep him on the 60 day IL himself.

So even guys that aren't close that are farther off that you maybe could start thinking about their name or asking how they're doing, they're not close to being ready. So this is going to be obviously a period of time the Diamondbacks just have to kind of tread water. They have to get through this. They have to get to these reinforcements coming back and joining the team and helping them. And yeah, Colton Wong. Damon, by the way, been screaming for Colton Wong to come up here. So I don't really understand the point of signing him to a minor league deal. I guess maybe the idea there is that he still needs to kind of get some reps before they're ready to call.

them up to the major league club right so uh again time injuries all of these things right now impacting the diamond backs but i do feel like uh if they can get through this without you know having this substantially poor record after all is said and done we're going to see them turn things around right uh but of course we do have that sound you heard that doorbell chime uh is our one and only thunder stick himself jesse friedman joining us here from chase field uh we're going to got some videos from the clubhouse coming, including Brandon Fott and Tori Lovolo post game. But Jesse, oh, man, I've been going on and on about runners and scoring position, but this team is just not getting it done when they got ducks on the pond. They are not. One for 11 today, five for 35 in the series, as you've probably already discussed.

It was pretty rough out there today, Derek. There were a lot of different opportunities, you know, throughout, throughout, this game. It felt like almost every inning, the Diamondbacks had a couple of guys on base with nobody out or won out, and they just weren't able to come through. And yeah, I mean, that's just been a trend for this team for a little while here, just really struggling to get big hits. The trend of not being able to get hits at all, really, in the last several innings continued today. The Diamondbacks just got the Jock Peterson home run in inning seven through nine. Everyone else went down quietly. Hayden Wisniewski was very, very good out of the Cubs bullpen today. That continues you know, the other trend, of course, which is sort of the same thing of the debacks struggling

against opposing teams relievers. This was in many ways, Derek, the culmination of a lot of what's gone wrong for the Diamondbacks over these first 19 games. It wasn't just the runners in scoring position. It was also, of course, the bullpen struggling, Joe Mantiply. This was not a great outing for him. And it was made a lot worse by several more defensive mistakes the Diamondback made in this one as well. That's probably the biggest story from today, honestly. I mean, the Diamondbacks made really three critical defensive mistakes. I mean, you could argue maybe even more than that throughout this game. And pretty much all of them were, you know, directly tied to the Cubs scoring runs.

It's yet another game, Derek, where you can ask the question, what if and talk yourself into this game looking a whole lot different if the debacks just avoid a few of those big moments. Yeah. I think Adam in the chat talked about the Diamondbacks could be 13 and 6 without some of those. games that they kind of let slip by. And I think you could do that. You could nitpick throughout an entire Major League baseball season on games that a team

should have won. But this is feeling a bit more like an epidemic with this team. This is feeling more like an ongoing problem where I don't know what the reason is. I don't know where the dog in them is late. I mean, maybe the bark in the park caused

that dog to be in there yesterday. But the dog has not been there late, Jesse for this team. And that goes for both sides of it. It goes for the offensive side of it. And it goes for the bullpen. I think, again, the more frustrating part isn't that when a bullpen is bad, they're just bad.

And they're bad every out of out of Castro and a guff last night. But then their next outing, having them give up three earned runs hypothetically. Right. Like it feels like this bullpen is all over the place as far as where Tori's trust level is in any individual guy. Right. I mean, if you have a struggling reliever, that doesn't mean they're going to be bad every time out.

You know, you are going to have certain guys who throw well. But with the way things have gone, like you're going to have a couple guys to throw well and you're going to have a couple guys who maybe don't throw so well. Today, I guess that was just Joe Man to ply with those three runs there that he ultimately allowed. But again, I mean, a lot of that was very closely tied to defensive mistakes. We have, I don't know if this clip is ready, we'll maybe get into it a little bit later.

But Eugenio Suarez, I mean, the first batter of that eighth inning is Danesby Swanson, who reaches on an infield hit that I think Eugenio Suarez could have probably played better, maybe turn that into an out. And then you have the disastrous play shortly thereafter where Cody Bellinger hits a blooper into left field. Blaze Alexander and Lordus Curiel are both chasing after it. Blaze is, you know, trying to make what would have been a pretty epic sliding grab. wasn't able to do that. It might have affected Lourdes trying to make a play on that ball himself. He winds up letting it go past him. And then, you know, the whole, the whole issue is compounded when a Eugenio Suarez throws the ball into the outfield after it comes in. So yeah, it was an ugly. I mean, it was just yet another ugly moment. And it's hard to say exactly what happens in that

inning if those mistakes are not made. But it's, again, not all that hard to talk yourself into a very different outcome in that frame if the diamondbacks make the plays that they're supposed to make. I hate to pull rank on you here, Jesse, but I'm pretty sure that play you're talking about was Jace Peterson, not Blaise Alexander. Wasn't he removed from the game by that point? Or are you talking about? I think Jace was in there for that play, not Blaze. I have to protect my baby. I am the founder and proprietor of the Blaze Alexander fan club. I have to protect my baby boy whenever I can. And I think this is an instance where I need to step in and Mama Bear this situation. Did I say Blaze?

You did say Blaze. Okay. I think I think I meant, I think you're right. I believe I, I believe I meant Jay's. Blaze didn't play shortstop at all in this game. Correct. He was a DH. Yeah.

All right. Good. I just want to make sure I will, I will, I have to. It's like him with Perdomo. You know, he has to do that thing. I have to do this thing. But of course, Brandon fought very good today. gave the Diamondback seven innings strong.

It's exactly what you would have, you know, would have asked to get out of him. But it still feels like a frustrating outing overall because he doesn't get much run support. And, you know, you have Joe Manciply come in and allow that run. Thoughts on Brandon Fott today and what he was able to do.

He was really good, man. He was, he was dot in the strike zone. I believe he threw first pitch strikes to, I believe it was either 14 out of his last 15 batters or 15 out of his last 16. He was just really pounding the zone, getting ahead of basically everyone. He didn't walk a batter in this game. He had six strikeouts.

This was a really good outing from Brandon Fought. And I know he still gave up three runs altogether, two of those being earned. He made the mistake to Cody Bellinger, a sweeper that just got a little bit, a little bit too much of the plate. Yeah. But all in all, I mean, this is exactly what you're hoping for. And it's a reminder that there's a world in which if Ryan Nelson is able to really turn things around after this new cutter that really seems to be working for him, there's a world where this Diamondbacks rotation is pretty darn good, right? If fought can kind of settle down and be more of the pitcher that we believed he could be. If Ryan Nelson takes that next step, you've got Jordan Montgomery joining the rotation, of course, on Friday.

it's a pretty darn good group one through five, or at least it has the makings of being a darn good group one through five, and Fott is certainly a big part of that. Well, we have fought here from the clubhouse talking about not pitching to Taukman differently with man on base here. To be honest, I wish we did. I think usually he's a patient guy. And I wanted to get ahead and looking back in hindsight.

He was aggressive and he got up. I know Fott was part of three of those runs, right? Two earned, one of them he was also partially responsible for. But like this thought doesn't feel like it's on him. I think like you would be happy getting these numbers out of Brandon Fott in any outing. 100%. Yeah. And the context of that quote there from Fott, of course, it was the fifth inning where Aeohenio,

Aswarez made a fielding air on a routine ground ball, allowed Nico Horner to reach. And then the next two pitches were just destroyed. And suddenly the Cubs had turned that around into two runs and fought, as you heard there, is talking about how he wishes that he had pitched Tocchman a little bit more carefully with a man on base. I think he felt like he was maybe a little bit too aggressive. He wound up throwing a pitch right down the middle. And Tocm did not miss it.

Talkman hit it into the gap for a double, scored Nico Horner. And yeah, it was not a great outcome from there, right? the very next batter it's another pitch pretty much right down the middle yon goams hits it for an rbi single and uh yeah suddenly you know suddenly that turns into a couple of runs tori levello did also kind of wonder after the game if if aohenio swars doesn't make that air you know if it's if it's out number one as it should have been does that put fodd at ease a little bit more you know did did the air kind of affect affect him mentally or whatever out there on the mound of course there's there's no way to know but yeah that was that was an unearned run and

I mean, it was that run. It was the three runs in the eighth inning that were in. I mean, they weren't technically unearned, but you could, again, you could really talk yourself into those runs not happening if the D-Backs tightened things up defensively. And Joe Manner's. Yeah, three-airs. This was, this was, I mean, the Diamondbacks last year, Derek, it felt like the D-Backs would go 10 games without making a single error. Right.

It was just a rarity for this baseball team. Three errors in a month is what it felt like you would get out of the Diamondbacks. And I addressed that earlier, but that really does feel. at times, like one of the things that really is the difference here. Like, I feel like they are better in several ways, but they're also worse when it comes to areas that they, that was a strength for them last season. A strength for them last season was playing pretty fairly flawless baseball. You didn't really like, yes, we had the bullpen issues around this time in the year and

a little bit going forward, obviously. But it wasn't the bullpen exclusively, or it was the bullpen exclusively, it felt like. It wasn't because of the Diamondbacks making additional mistakes that then were compounded and gave made made it harder on the bullpen like what we're seeing this season because I feel like that is the case. You could even say that today obviously about Joe Mantiply out. Maniply's outing. I put the bullpen woes persist in the title today. Yet it's not really, it almost feels like it's not on the pitching as much as it was on the fact that Diamondbacks won for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Yeah, I'm not going to say that Joe Manciply pitched well, but I mean, if we just run through that seventh inning real quick, I mean, it starts off with, I guess he gets Ian Hap to ground out, right? Or sorry, it's the eighth inning I'm talking about. Yeah. The eighth inning, he gets Ian Hap to ground out. So that's out number one. Danes v. Swanson hits a slow roller to third base, which A. Oh, Hennio Suarez probably should have been able to make a play there, at least made it more compelling than it was. I do think it was a playable ball.

If he's able to do that, then it's two up, two down. The next hitter is Cody Bellinger. That should have just been a bloop single, which is unfortunate. But, I mean, that's, you know, Lordus Coriolis to just be able to pick up that baseball and get it back in. So theoretically, you just have a runner at first with two outs, and you're not intentionally walking Christopher Morel after that to get to Michael Bush. It changes the whole complexion of the inning. It really, if the debacks do what they're supposed to defensively, you really might be looking at a zero run. a thinning. And of course, we also talked about in the fifth inning, the air that started that

run for the Cubs. That was an unearned run. You could pretty easily talk yourself, Derek, and to the Cubs only really scoring two runs in this game that the Diamondbacks didn't like assist them in scoring. And this is yet another game, right, where you can, the D-backs on paper, I mean, if they do what they're supposed to do defensively, they really have a good chance to come away with a win. And considering how the game on Monday ended with the wild pitch that allowed Miko corner to score from second base where if that doesn't happen, Kevin Ginkle completes the save and that's a win for the D-backs. I mean, there's a fine line here between the D-backs losing two out of three as they did and possibly sweeping this series. They were in all three of these games.

Absolutely. And you could say that about all the games this season. The Diamondbacks have just been in all of these games, especially, I mean, like they're not getting blown out in the losses. They're just blowing the losses. They're just most of the time their games where they have a lead at one point in the game and they blew it, you know? And that's, you know, obviously that's a big part of why they're in the position that they're in right now. But another big part of it is that games get harder late, right? And they're just not very good late in games. They're not good when the pressure is on. They seem to be very good when the pressure isn't there. But they don't seem very good when when things are getting tight. When, you know, the opposing team is

mounting a comeback. They just, it feels like they get very passive. right uh i will say i'm going to ask you this question as tactfully and professionally as possible jesse why does jace peterson keep getting at bats yeah i had a feeling we'd we'd have that conversation and uh tory lavella was asked about that after the game um i don't know if we if we have that we do we have that clip here's we have that clip available here's what to say about jace i know you all want to hear it um I'm looking at controlling the zone I like certain matchups against certain guys

I think that right he's a little tough on could be tough on writing and we have a lot of information that tells me that isn't a great matchup for certain right-ended hitters in our line up and a favorite strongly favors a leftie but we got to get Jason going so now right I got to give him something

I got to give him a try I can't run from I don't think he believes that. I know he's saying those words. I don't think he believes it. I'm just going to say that. But I mean, I mean, I think as a manager, it's sort of, I think Diamondbacks fans are maybe misplacing their disdain at Tori Lavello. I mean, the fact that Jace Peterson is on the roster, Tori Lavello is the manager of his team. Like, he does have license to do what he wants and play guys when he wants.

wants, but he also doesn't in a sense. Like, I don't really think Tori Lavello can go out there and just literally never play Jace Peterson, which is what this fan base may want right now from what I'm seeing on Twitter and whatnot. That's just not, I mean, that's just not the reality of being a big league manager. Like, if someone is on your roster, you know, they're presumably there for a reason, whether they're productive in that role or not. And yeah, I, I, you know, people who are wondering why, why that, you know, why Tori Pinch hit for Kevin Newman there, I, I, you know, certainly understand why people would be questioning that decision. You do get theoretically a better matchup with Jace against a right-handed pitcher. But then, you know, a couple of innings later, Drew Smiley's on the mound. And then you have Jace Peterson left on left, which you could argue is an even worse matchup than having Kevin Newman face a righty earlier in the game. So, and defensively, I also think Kevin Newman is not a great defensive shortstop. but he's logged a lot more innings there in his major league career than Peterson has. So you could argue that the Newman is really the better shortstop option defensively too.

So yeah, I mean, it kind of is what it is. I mean, if Jace is on this roster, Tori is going to play him sometimes. I mean, you know, the fact that he's one for 19, if Jace is still on this team, the way to get a one for 19 guy out of a slump is not to just sit him indefinitely, right? That's fair. So I can understand where Tori's coming from in that regard. That's fair. And I'm going to build on this and say that at times during these stretches,

especially at this point of the year, it's not to say these games aren't important, but they do want to see if these guys can turn it around. And at times, you know, they know guys slump, but can you find a way to have good at bats? Can you find a way to have productive at bats, even if you're slumping? Can you find a way to contribute to this team?

That's the thing right now about Jace is it doesn't really feel like he's having good at bats. You know, Jock, I talked about earlier, Jock just every single at bat Jock Peterson has feels like a lengthy at bat. Every single time he goes up there, I feel like he's working the count. He's seeing a lot of pitches. He's giving himself a better opportunity to hit a mistake and just to see more pitches, right? But most importantly, he's having productive at bat. So even in an out, he still made that pitcher, you know, throw seven to 10 pitches and it feels like, you know, that he's going up there and battling every single time.

there are things like that that you can see out of guys that are struggling that at least are encouraging or it makes you feel like like perdomo right perdomo's a guy who his numbers at times don't aren't aren't great his stats aren't great but you see perdomo go out there and two of his at bats he saw 12 pitches and worked the count really well and just drove up the opposing pitchers pitch count so like there's things about that that i think guys can still do there's things that they can do to be to have a positive impact on the game. I'm just not seeing that out of Jace. And I know he's frustrated. I'm sure he's frustrated. He knows he's won for 19. He knows what he's hitting. It's just, it's one of those situations where, and I hate to be all conspiracy theory about it, but what Red Mage 08 said makes a lot of sense. And that is you play him, uh, either till he turns things around or until it exposes him enough that Mike Hazen has no choice, but to do something about the roster when it comes to Jason Peterson being being on it, right? It's just, it's not that easy.

They just don't have that many options right now. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is if, you know, the Diamondbacks can't just send down Jace Peterson. You would have to designate him for assignment. He likely goes to another team and you're still paying his contract for the year, which I'm not saying that's a completely implausible scenario. I mean, maybe the D-Backs would consider doing that eventually. But you have to look at, all right, if Jace is going out, then who is replacing him?

And right now, I mean, in AAA, I think Colton Wong is probably the only obvious guy that I could think of. Right. And he, you know, he just started playing AAA games in Reno. He, you know, he did spend most of spring training with the Baltimore Orioles. So he has been at least like engaging in baseball activities for a good portion of the last month or two. But if you look at Colton Wong's numbers last season, he was not a whole lot better than Jace Peterson was. and Jace Peterson has more defensive versatility. Peterson give the debaq some coverage at first base.

He's played shortstop, which is something that Colton Wong, I believe he's logged, Wong has logged one career inning at shortstop. Wong, I don't think, has ever played third base. That's another position that Jace Peterson can play. So you have to think about who's stepping in into that role if you were to move on from Peterson. And frankly, the Diamondbacks don't have any other options right now, at least any other options that are clearly better than Peterson is at the moment.

I'll make Diamondbacks fans feel better about at least one thing when it comes to that. Jackson Holiday is one for 22 with an 046 batting average, so it could be worse. All right. I don't think that's going to help. I don't think that's going to help. I don't know. I just want to throw it out there. I just want to throw it out there.

Bo said that earlier. But anyway, we do appreciate you guys being here, of course. Make sure to stop by Circle K on your way home from the ballpark or from work wherever you're at. fill up your gas tank right now. You can save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips if you join the Inner Circle Circle Program for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations.

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Super drinkable, extremely drinkable. Thirst quenching and the perfect companion at the tea box or in your refrigerator. Also, maybe when you're out at the bar. Visit FourPeaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out at Four Peaks Brew at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. please enjoy responsibly. Before we get out of here, Jesse, as we know, the numbers, in fact, never lie.

The numbers, I might lie, Tori might lie, you know, we're all human, we're all fallible, but the numbers, they don't lie. What do you got for us for today? Today's number is nine, Derek, and nine represents the number of called strike sinkers for Brandon Fott. Yes, I know that may seem a little obscure, but I did some recent. Research and Brandon Fott had not had more than five called strikes on his sinker in any previous outing in the regular season in the majors. And it can become like low key kind of a strikeout

weapon for him. If he's able to dot the inside corner or the outside corner with a sinker, it's got some pretty good lateral movement. He also got a couple of calls on that pitch today, which makes it doubly, doubly effective when he's able to put it, you know, maybe a couple inches off the inside corner to a lefty. We saw that a couple times today. That's been a really big pitch for him. When Brandon Fott came up last season, he did not have a sinker. It was just four seamer, four seamer, sweeper, change up, and then the occasional curveball as well.

He wound up adding that sinker sort of midway through last year. And it has worked wonders for him. I think Brandon Fought sinker is a big reason why he's been able to take the steps forward that he has, you know, toward the end of last year. And so far what we've seen this season, it's a really, it's a really, it's a really, It's a really big weapon for him. And today was about as good as I've seen that pitch with the combination of movement and location that he had. Well, and he got six whiffs on his sweeper.

And he threw those all, he threw all three of those pitches, the fastball, the sweeper and the slinker. Pretty, I mean, pretty evenly. 31% of the time he threw the fastball, 29% sweeper, 22% sinkers. So I think, yeah, we're still seeing Brandon Fott develop. This is by far not his final form. And I think you're right. I mean, that sweeper has already proved to be an extremely effective pitch when it comes to swing and misses. So if you can add in a pitch that that leaves a lot of batters standing there with the bat on their shoulder as a strikeout pitch as well as that sweeper for the swing and miss, that's some pretty effective, you know, weapons to add to that forcing fastball.

He also stole a few strikes with first pitch curveballs, which is something I like to see, just kind of, you know, changing the pace for the hitter a little bit, throwing something at them that they're probably. not expecting that that was effective for him today and I continue to be intrigued what it could look like if he really gets the change up dialed in. He hasn't seemed quite so confident in that pitch here in the early going of the season. It sort of came and went for him last year. So if he's able to get if he's able to get the change up to a point where it's a consistent offering, especially to lefties, that would that would really take his game to an even, you know, another level. But as it is with with the sinker doing what what it's done, he's a, I think he's a pretty good starting pitcher with, with the mix that he has.

The, by the way, the upcoming series, very daunting. Diamondbacks had two extra innings game in this series against the Cubs. No off day, because of course, I mean, I think the only way this would have gotten worse is if they would have gone into extra innings in today's game too. But they start a four game series tomorrow in San Francisco against the Giants with Ryan Nelson on the mound against Logan Webb. have Jordan Montgomery there who we spoke about earlier, making his debut in an extremely exciting matchup against Blake Snell in game two on Friday. And then the big boys come out

for the Diamondbacks. Zach Gallen against Harrison, Merrill Kelly there against Hicks. And of course, Diamondbacks have a very good chance with those three guys going in the series to walk out of San Francisco with a win. Ryan Nelson also has been pitching really well lately. So he actually has a decent chance to maybe catch the Giants here on Thursday. But some concerns with this series starting so soon and it being a four game series. Like, I feel like there's absolutely no rest when it comes to this Diamondbacks team right now. It is really helpful that Brandon fought one seven innings today. Tori Lavello, of course, very complimentary of that after the game.

DeBacks only got nine and a third total from their starting pitchers the past two games. So for fought to cover seven innings today, just to know. for the bullpen. I think the D-BACs bullpen is actually in a pretty good spot going into that series in San Francisco. Just about everyone should be available on Thursday. Maybe you wouldn't want to use Justin Martinez after he, you know, threw a decent number of pitches to finish up this one. But D-Bach's bullpen should be should be in a pretty good spot. And yeah, these are some, these are some pretty fun pitching matchups. I'm looking forward to, I mean, Logan Webb, of course, is one of the better pitchers in all of baseball.

Ryan Nelson, as you said, was pretty good in his last outing, and it'll be interesting to see if he's able to continue on a role with that cutter. He also, I was there in San Francisco when Ryan Nelson pitched there toward the end of last year, and I want to say through seven innings of one run ball or something like that, it was one of his best outings of the year. So he has some positive history in that ballpark, of course, Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly along with Jordan Montgomery starting in that series as well. So should be a lot of fun to watch, even though, frankly, Derek, the Diamondbacks,

I'm not sure you could call this team fun to watch up to this point in this season. They're in every game. I mean, in some ways, I think it's a, I think it's a testament to the talent that they have that they've managed to go 9 and 10, even though there have been so many close games that haven't gone their way where they've really made some crucial mistakes. bro too soon hey saw he just came in here and took a coyote's goalie that was crazy oh my god like bro has have some have some class have some let the funeral happen like i don't love the coyotes too you're just going to come you want to take the bobble heads while you're

at it you want the gloves too oh man anyway uh jesse uh the one thing about this is it does like i said they don't have the off day but jordan mcgomery does allow zack Gallin and Merrill Kelly do kind of stay on schedule. If they did have that off day on Thursday, they would have started essentially on Saturday and Sunday with Ryan Nelson being in game one. So Montgomery definitely helps those guys to at least stay, I guess, on the schedule that they're on without it really being impacted too much. And we know both of those guys, they've been very good.

And we don't want to do anything to disrupt them. But we also know that they didn't get a lot of off time this off season. And so we, you know, of course, it definitely helps to have Montgomery kind of slotting in there in that spot that he's going to pitch against Blake Snow. Yeah, I mean, it's basically like the Diamondbacks just have one turn through the rotation where there's six pitchers. Jordan Montgomery is essentially just sliding in as a sixth pitcher prior to the next turn through the rotation. So it does give Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly an extra day. You know, it pushes everyone back. So I guess that could be viewed as a good thing just given, as you said, the workload that those guys.

are coming off. Certainly, imagine the D-backs aren't too disappointed with that. But yeah, I mean, I'm excited. It's just so,

it's, you don't normally have teams add players that are as good as Jordan Montgomery like several weeks into the season. I mean, that's like your, you know,

your mark-E trade deadline edition. And for the D-BACs, this is obviously a move they made right before the season. And it'll be, it'll be really, really interesting to see what this rotation looks like once he's in it.

And then hopefully about 30 days later, maybe a little bit beyond that, we have Eduardo Rodriguez joining in the starting rotation. And I mean, I know that the time frame on that is all over the place. But I still can't help but speculate if the Diamondbacks were concerned when they did pick up Jordan Montgomery, that this Erod injury could go the way it did. I know they've said several times that that did not impact their decision. But you can't help but get a diagnosis from a doctor that says it might be short term, might be long term, and not have that, you know, maybe drive you.

to get that deal done with Jordan Montgomery. Of course, all 29 baseball team should have got that deal done with Jordan Montgomery. I'm just glad the Diamondbacks did. And I'm glad that they have with the, basically with the problems that they're going through right now. I'm just glad that they have those reinforcements on the horizon. I think Diamondbacks fans should be encouraged by that. And I think that that's something, you know, we have to look forward to, at least no matter how much they're struggling right now, we know they're going to get their guys back.

I mean, you saw the ERA for Blake Snell early in the season on that graphic. Can we pull that up one more time? What was it? It's our point, 12 point something, 12.86. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Blake Snell has really struggled to start the year. And obviously, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jordan Montgomery is going to as well. But it is reasonable to wonder, like, what, what is it due to a player's progression to open the season when they don't.

don't sign until so late and their, you know, their spring training is essentially a couple of rehab starts in AAA. It's not really the same buildup that those guys are used to doing on a year and year out basis. So, you know, for the betterment of just baseball in general, I hope that that Blake Snell can can get back on track and, you know, for the feedback, hopefully Gordon Montgomery looks like. You shouldn't hope that. You should not hope that at all. For the embederment, no, for the betterment of nothing, Jesse. That is a National League West opponent. Get your priority straight. But I do say building on that, I hope Jordan Montgomery isn't impacted by not only this off season, but what happened with him with Scott Boris, his, you know, him having a new

agent, I know that's all business. And I know a lot of these guys are able to separate those two and still perform at a high level. You just can't help but wonder how much his mental state is impacted by being dissatisfied with this deal. You don't know how much it's going to impact his ability to perform and be an asset for the Diamondbacks. He feels like. like the kind of guy that you know you can rely on. Plus, he does have the fact that this is a one-year deal. And he is performing. He is on a contract year, essentially, to try to get the money that he does want, the years

that he does want. So he has all the right reasons to, all the right motivations to perform well this season. It just, you just don't know if it's actually going to translate or maybe how long it's going to take for him to get on track. He might go through what Blake Snell is going through. Hopefully he doesn't because the Diamondbacks really, really need him to be locked in and and to be an asset for them with the way things are going right now. Yeah, it, it, uh, Montgomery's Velo was, was down a little bit, you know, we've talked about

that, but I don't, I don't really find that to be too concerning. I could very well see a scenario where the adrenaline kicks in of, you know, making his debut with, with a new team. And as you said, this is a really important season for him from a, you know, contractually, Jordan Montgomery certainly has, uh, plenty of motivation, I guess, for, for whatever that's worth. And the debacks have a couple of other players on this team as well that are playing for their next contract this season. I guess a couple of them were big in this game, right? Jock Peterson, as you mentioned, his batts continue to look outstanding.

He's got a mutual option for 42025, which oftentimes we don't see mutual options picked up. Usually one of the sides wants out when all is said and done. And A.ohenio Suarez, the backs have a club option on him for 2025. that's going to be one of the, one of the bigger decisions for them to make this offseason. And obviously it's still early, Derek, but it's a pretty rough game for Ehio Haneo Suarez between the two fielding errors.

You know, also the play that we talked about with Danesby Swanson that he, you know, maybe could have had an out there and waited a little bit too long going 0 for four at the plate. He's been, he's been, you know, his bats haven't looked great here in the last few days. So not a great start for Gino Suarez. He was, he's as advertised. so far, right? And I know that the defensive consistency hasn't been there as to what we've heard

about in the past. But offensively, it does feel like it's a feast or famine with him and the strikeouts and everything like that. So, I mean, it's probably what we're going to get out of Gino, but hopefully we get more good times than bad times out of the bad guy. A lot of people are asking, Jesse, if Montgomery is going to be on any kind of short leash in his first outing. Do you see that being maybe 80 pitches, 85 pitches, somewhere around that neighborhood, or do you think that he's ready to go depending on the situation? Yeah, I don't know. I don't have it in front of me how many pitches he threw in Reno.

I think he was scheduled to go five and 75, something around there. Obviously, he didn't. He was not able to make it through five innings in that game, but I think he was still pretty close from a pitch count standpoint. So I don't think it's a super tight leash, maybe 90 pitches, something like that. But the debacks, you know, given that this is his first, his first, actual start and the fact that his ramp up has been pretty weird at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on the conservative side with how he's used on Friday. Do you have anything else from the clubhouse before we let you go?

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's about it. Brandon Fought was, you know, certainly glad to have been able to pitch the number of innings that he did. But other than that, you know, which he'd been able to execute in a few key moments. that has been a trend. Like, we've talked about how Brandon fought has pitched better than his numbers up to this point in the season. But there is something to be said for making pitches in big moments. And, you know, Guy reaches on an air and to start the fifth inning. Like, that is sort of a big moment as a pitcher where you have to keep your composure and stay locked in. And Brandon fought through

a couple of pitches right down the middle. So that is something for him to continue to work on is just making those pitches in the biggest spots of the game. But by and large, this was a really good day for him and just, you know, an unfortunate loss for the debax. They just continue to lose a lot of games that it feels like they could have won if they, you know, if they did some of the little things right. That's it. That's it right there. So I got to make sure you do the little things right. And of course, part of that is in regards to your life, by the way, not judging you at all. But get your finances straight is what I'm trying to say. And you can get your finances straight with Desert Financial Credit Union for more than 84 years.

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must be 21 or over to enjoy and please enjoy responsibly. Well, that's all we have, but we will be back tomorrow with our 1 p.m. show, so make sure to join us for that. I guess we'll be prepping and talking about this upcoming series

with the Giants and have so much more, including our power rankings for you. So make sure to stop by tomorrow at 1 p.m. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman.

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We thank you so much for your time. And we'll see you tomorrow at 1 p.m. In the meantime, have a great night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you do better than going 5 for 35 with runners in scoring position.