PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs 2026 Report Card: Who Stepped Up, Who Fell Short & Who Matters Most in 2027?

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Who ACTUALLY helped the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2026? We break down the biggest breakouts, pleasant surprises and disappointments from the D-backs’ season, including Gabriel Moreno, Eduardo Rodriguez, Nolan Arenado, Ryan Waldschmidt, Ketel Marte, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. We also look at the players who matter most moving forward and whose role could change the most in 2027. Plus, the MLB postseason is heating up! The Dodgers and Brewers have both advanced to the NLCS, setting up a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. Can Milwaukee finally get past Los Angeles, or are the Dodgers on their way to another World Series? And we have a VERY important offseason proposal: the D-backs need their own sing-along song at Chase Field and we think “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World is the obvious choice.BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ACE HVAC: If you are having an AC, Plumbing or electrical issue, call our friends over at ACE: [phone] , tell them PHNX sent you, they’ll take great care of you!Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!New DraftKings customers sign up with code PHNX, spend just five bucks, and get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That’s code PHNX. In partnership with DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred NEXT STEP. Twenty-one plus. Arizona only. Eligibility restrictions apply. Fifty dollars in non-withdrawable Bonus Bets issued every seven days via click-to-claim for twenty-one days. Bonus Bets expire seven days after issuance. 1 football Boost per customer. Maximum bet limits and restrictions apply. Tokens expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered. Terms at d k n g dot c o slash offer.  Limited time offer.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who actually helped the Arizona Diamondbacks win baseball games in 2026? We're talking about the biggest surprises, biggest disappointments, and who we think is going to be a vital part of this team in 27. Plus, we also have breaking news that MLB apparently wants to shorten its regular season, and you know I'm in favor of that. Don't you go anywhere? We are starting right now. Presented by our friends at Circle K,

it is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. thrilled to be still sitting in the same seat I've been in since 10.30 a.m. I'm thrilled to have you find people joining us here for another edition of the PH next time in back show. We haven't let him leave.

I've been pointing a gun at him and it's crazy. It's like, oh, do you want us to bring water or a bottle for you to whizzen? I'm like, no, let me out of this chair. But anyway, it's probably too early to be talking about all that stuff. But thrilled to have you guys here.

Cool bro, Deborah, R.A. Great to see you guys here. Of course, I'm not alone. That voice you heard on the other side of the Mac is the one and only bad boy of P HNX. It is the one, the only Damon dog, aka Damon Farrell on the ones and twos. And Damon, we have some breaking news this morning

that we got to get to, but first, we got to let you guys know that this show is brought to you by the fine folks at GameTime. Go download that GameTime app right now, create an account and use our code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase, terms to apply, and you might have a few less opportunities

to use that GameTime code because MLB is for, proposing that they want less baseball games, Damon. MLB has proposed this morning, according to a report from Jeff Passon and others and baseball itself, MLB has proposed returning to a 154 game regular season, a best of seven division series, and allowing opponent selection in the wild card and division series.

That last part is the part that we don't really. love or quite understand. But starting in 2029, shortening the season to 154 game schedule would create a standard weekly off day that benefits player health. And it would allow the addition of up to eight more postseason games by moving a best of seven divisions, moving to a best of division series format. This is what Jeff Passen had to say. He said, Major League

Baseball proposed cutting the regular season schedule from 162 to 154 games in a bargaining session with the MLBPA today. Also part of its proposal, higher seeds in playoffs get to choose their opponents and division series will be expanded to seven games. Higher seeds and playoffs get to choose their opponents? Why is there always some sort of like Faustian deal in with this stuff? And everything else seems good, right?

it's like oh we're we're gonna we're gonna help cure childhood cancer with the donations from this we're also going to increase the safety of travel for everyone across the United States when it comes to motor vehicle travel we're also going to kill a bunch of puppies but we are going to cut down your travel time right like I don't really get that middle portion there I don't get the why they would allow a higher seat to choose their opponent, as Damon suggested before we started, that allows a higher seed to maybe pick on a team that might have lost a star player due to injury or might be dealing with some sort of circumstance that they want to take advantage of, right?

I think it's more than just facing the opponent you feel like you have a better chance against due to you, you know, maybe beating them or having a better record against them during the season. And even things like that would make far more sense. Like, oh, okay, the higher seed gets to face whichever team they had a better record at against during the regular season, things like that. But letting them choose the opponent, odd. Also, the very concept that Major League Baseball wants to reduce the number of games of the regular season seems odd. And I like it.

Me too, but you don't see that often. You don't. I mean, 162 game season, as we have talked about time and time again on this exact podcast, is irrelevant. in the modern baseball playoff format. The modern postseason format with three wildcard teams essentially makes the 162 game season irrelevant. That alone did. But inner league play,

changing the amount of times you play your divisional opponents, reducing those games down and playing more games against teams in your own league, all of that has made the 162 game season irrelevant. of it. The Diamondbacks had a great record against the National League West. I'm not suggesting that if they played more games against the National League West, that record would have been even better or their record overall for the season would have been better. Factors of when they played these teams and where they were at in their season contributed obviously to wins and losses. But what I will say is that when you have more games against the teams in

your division, then you have a chance to catch them to win the division. This is one of the reasons why the 162 game season was implemented. It allowed teams in their divisions to have lots of games against their divisional opponent. So either they had a chance to distance themselves if they could just beat up on the bums in their division. Or you could catch a team because you still played them 20 more times, even though you were eight games back in the division. Right. So reducing the number of games makes a ton of sense. it's also hilarious that if you would have reduced the 2026 season by eight games

the diamond back still wouldn't have made it in the playoffs and in fact by reducing it eight games you would have cut out their longest winning streak of the season which was that six game stretch after they beat the yankees and then swept the rockies and won that first game against the san diego padres if you were to just cut out the end of the season by subtracting eight games that's pretty much all i could do at that point but you're right it would have change the schedule. It would change the number of times you play some of these other opponents. It would change interleague. Maybe we don't even play the race there at the end like you suggested. Yeah, it would be, it would change interleague play, I think, more than anything, because it more,

more than likely will not change the amount of division games you play against, you know, the Padres, Dodgers and the Diamondbacks were really good in those games. The Donovan, the Diamondbacks struggled more with the Rangers of the world, the rays, the, a lot of these AL teams that they had the, the Marlins. I know what I mean. Yeah, like it's some of those series. So, So maybe by cutting out a couple of AL series, it would have helped the debacks. Potentially. Claw back two games. Potentially.

So I also wonder if this is a move by baseball in an effort to try to appease the players. Right. It's like they're trying to start giving things to the players association that the players association has wanted. Yeah. It's a bargaining session. Right. As it says here, like that that is part of, you know, the giving the take that happens. And, you know, I think it's pretty clear that Major League Baseball is, you know, going to dig their heels in on some salary cap stuff, which I think that we are, for the most part, pretty much unanimously all in agreement here on this podcast, me, you, the people of the chat, because it would benefit the Diamondbacks, given that the Dbacks are like almost right at that projected salary amount or what the salary cap would end up being.

But, yeah, I mean, I definitely think that, you know, the short. of the games could be helpful. I like the 162 for tradition's sake, Derek, but like you said, it just doesn't really mean the same anymore. We've changed the penit. We've changed the game so much. You should just straight up win the pennant and go to the World Series. And that was, like, for me, like the, you know, soccer fan in me thinks that's really cool

because that's very Premier League-esque, except they play a championship for who's the top two teams, you know, via who gets the best record over the course of a season. But, you know, when it comes to the debacks and, you know, like their ability to make playoffs and whatnot, I do think that that's helpful and that that could maybe possibly be something that is, you know, beneficial to not just us, but baseball fans everywhere, not having to go through the slog of the 162 game full season. Like, no one's being like, man, you know what baseball needs? More regular season baseball games. Nobody.

Well, because, again, when you were talking about those. adjustments from those days where you won the pennant and went to the World Series versus now. That was why the playoffs occurred during the regular season, essentially. That was the thought process behind it. Now, like each series where you're going up against like the second best team in your league is the biggest series of the season, which is kind of cool when you put it that way. But again, it would really hurt the Diamondbacks. So I think that we're, you know, probably a little better with the playoff system.

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, again, it's also about the idea of the postseason being more, you know what I mean, being more exciting, right? We've tried to do the regular season thing. People just talk about how boring baseball is. Now we're to a point where we've completely changed the game in so many different ways that why wouldn't now be the perfect time to change the number of games we play? It makes sense. But what's weird is in going back to what you were saying there, in changing the way that the postseason was, played or the way the number of teams that made it in, the number of wild card spots,

they never adjusted the regular season schedule. And it was like, yeah, we're going to keep that, but we're also going to do this. It's like, well, why do you don't, you don't really need to do both of those things? And they're like, yes, we do because money. And we're like, wait, no, what? And baseball players themselves, they don't want to play 162 game season. Nobody does. People don't want to watch it.

People don't want to play it. I don't want to cover it. let's be honest i mean it's ridiculous it's not to say like you really want to shorten the the baseball season but come on like there are times where we're just expecting these teams to do far too much do a three city road trip with no off days in between what why why are we doing that why are we making them travel from washington dc to at lana and play baseball tomorrow at 6 p.m that's it's just dumb crap like that leads to not only unnecessary difficulty with the travel schedule and infrastructure in general, but it also leads to players not being

fully rested and possibly potentially putting themselves at injury. I like everything about this change except the thing there that we detailed, which is letting the higher seed pick who they play. No, sir. No, that is not how that works, especially considering baseball is the way it is. these teams sometimes are built just to beat one specific team. I will say the only thing that it is would be kind of cool out of it, Derek, is when a team picks the debacks, because inevitably the Diamondbacks would be one of the lesser talented teams in the postseason. Bring it on.

And then we win. And then you get to just clown that fan base after it's over. That's the one bright side of this where it's like, oh, Phillies, you guys want some of this? You want some of this? Let's go. Let's go. You had no idea what you were stepping into.

This is a buzz saw you're about to walk into right now. And then Alex Thomas hits a home run. I mean, I know that was the NLCS, so there was no other choice. But that would be the one one, like, bright spot here of why I think that system would be cool. Yeah. Other than that, it's like, what are we talking about? You're going to give that stark of an advantage to like the highest-seated team where they get to be like, oh, there was, in the National League this year, it was all 90 win teams.

Oh, yeah, and the NL Central winner won, you know, 83 games. We're taking them 100%. Like, that's, it just seems kind of insane. I guess they just feel like they need to give some sort of advantage to these teams after a 154 game season. And they're not wrong. Because once again, if you don't have an advantage by being the best team in the National League or American League, what is the point of sustaining that over 154?

game season or 162 game season. The buy is the answer to that question. And yeah. You get, you get the top two seeds get a buy to the next round, which I think is entirely enough incentive. I'm not saying it's not, but I'm just saying we all, we honestly saw a point in recent history. It, it's subsided, right? It wasn't the case for very long, but there was a stretch where the buy almost seemed to

be a disadvantage because those teams were losing when they, when they played that team in the ALDS, right? You could make that argument that like Rass versus Russ. But at the same time, you get advanced to the next round automatically, which I think is objectively, you know, gets you closer to your goal of winning a World Series. You don't have to go through the risk of getting eliminated earlier than that. I do hear you out, though, on that. You can, there are teams that, you know, they like the Diamondbacks, like we argued all, you know, the last final two weeks of the season, if they had won enough games to get into the playoffs, they would have been the hottest team in baseball. and you would have wanted to continue that momentum rather than having a

buy and sitting there for four games while you wait for the next, you know, series to be over. So there's, it is a given to take there. But I do think that the most interesting part about this, Derek, is other than that aspect is the shortening of a season. Because as you already kind of alluded to,

no leagues are doing this. The NFL is actively trying to add games consistently. They want to get it to 18. Those lazy bums play. 17 games in a season. I'm not hearing that about them. I mean, there's brutal. You talk to me when you get 20 and then we'll talk.

They, I mean, that's, yeah, I think guys a little bit more to do with the wear and tear on your body. But they're going to try to get up to 18. They already got up to 17. They're removing preseason games to make it happen. Yeah. The NBA, I think that we all see that like when there's games, like the sons have to play three times and four nights and you're like, what's going on here? Three times and four nights.

like, couldn't you guys have spaced this out a little bit better? I think the NBA could benefit a lot from going to like 72 games. Yeah. And just kind of removing all of those aspects. I don't think they ever will because the money aspect is too, is too great. Like they, those, those 10 regular season games from both an attendance standpoint and a TV revenue standpoint brings in too much money for them to shorten it. And that's why it's shocking that Major League Baseball is doing that because they're obviously,

like, they're trying to be like, we are willing to secede some of. the things that maybe make us a little bit more money as owners as the league to benefit the players because they know that they're going to be taking some stuff off the table here, hopefully in the coming months. Right. And again, it's a good start. It just shows that they are trying to give something.

We've said this. The owners are trying to do. Yeah, the NBA added a play in tournament. It's a great point by Cool bro as well. Absolutely. And the play in tournament made things exciting. And for sure,

but it's just another way for them to make more money. In the mid-season tournament too? Like, again, yeah, like there's other things like that that they've done. I mean, at least it's fun changes and it makes the game more fun. I think when it comes to baseball, I know all of us that love baseball, we're just like, oh, baseball should last the entire year. We should never get a day off. It should be 365 games. Maybe not me and you.

No, but no, we're not. Yeah, we like to have some. Maybe you freaks here in the chat. Yeah, you sickos. I will say, we do have the best off season, right? We have the best off season. Oh, yeah. There's no question.

I mean, our championship could be wrapped up before Christmas. Holidays. We're all at home with our families, trick-or-treating, and then Thanksgiving with the families. The MLB has the best off-season of any sport, and yes, I want to extend that off-season and make it longer. I also do like the idea of the division series being longer in certain aspects of that. But I just think in general, what you want to do is you want to try to improve this game overall so that, you know, it's just a more enjoyable experience. They've done it so far with the changes they've made so many changes to baseball that people thought that, you know, it was going to ruin the game. And instead, all it's done is made baseball better.

I'm still waiting on that moat of bouncy balls right over the outfield wall, shorten the walls a little bit. And then if guys rob home runs, but they fall into the ball pit, it's not, it doesn't count as it going over the fence. It counts as a catch. I want, I want them to be able to scale the wall and stand on the top of the wall and jump backwards into the crowd. to grab those balls. I think you can do that, can you? Maybe not into the crowd, but I think if you,

if for some reason you were fast enough to be able to run, scale, jump up on top of the fence, and then dive off of it to catch a ball, I think that's technically legal. I don't know. I think that someone would try it. I think that anytime any player successfully round second

for an extra base hit and tries to go to third, Canon should come up and start shooting other baseballs around the field, confusing the situation. This is like Mario baseball. Multi ball is what it is. It's multi ball. It comes from Blurne's ball on Futurama, and it is the best idea that they could do to make baseball better.

Cobra wants to see people die on the baseball field. He said the player should pitch for metal bats. No metal bats. God, no. No metal bats. God, no. No metal bats. Do you see what the scores are in college baseball games?

They use metal bats, and the scores are always like 15 to 9. Every single game, they last for four hours. And I'm not saying that that's not cool because I think at college baseball rules, but we don't need Major League Baseball to be 35 to 22 final scores where Derek is at Chase Field from the hours of 7 p.m. till, you know, 1 a.m. at night because they just can't stop scoring runs. Yeah, that would be a disaster. And someone would die. Speaking of someone dying, trap doors on the base path, but you don't know when they're going to

open up and you don't know which one's going to be. All right? We're making things exciting around. We're going to change baseball. Let's change baseball, okay? Let's make some changes. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break,

we are going to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks 2026 season, who disappointed us, who pleasantly surprised us, and who could be a wild card for 2027. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Well, of course, you guys, got to give a big shout out to all the wonderful people

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Tocons expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered. Terms at dkng.com slash offer. Limited time offer. So we have lots of time to take a look at the 202026 season and see what went well and what didn't go so well. But we did want to take a moment while it's still fresh in our minds to discuss who actually helped this team in 2026. And who was the biggest disappointment of the season. We have a few categories here as far as grading some of the players on this team. And we are going to do player report cards at a later time where each player is going to get our undevoted attention as far as how their 2026 season went.

But for now, we had, again, five categories that we wanted to take a look at for the Diamondbacks, 26 season. And then the first one is probably the most impactful as far as who actually helped this team last season. And that would be who had the biggest breakout in 2026. Feels like an easy one to award here with Gabriel Moreno being the obvious choice. Moreno didn't just have a good year for a catcher. He became one of the best offensive players in all of baseball, winning the National League batting title and putting up some of his best career numbers. And I think the more important thing about Gabby was it wasn't like just a hot month. Right.

We saw that throughout this entire season for the Diamondbacks. Ildemarovar Vargas had a crazy April that we will, you know, probably forget all too soon, but shouldn't forget considering how good it was. But he did it over a hundred. I feel like that April almost, Derek is going to like, you know, like when people say, name a random Arizona Diamondback, that month is going to keep Ildemarro Vargas's name alive for decades. Absolutely. Like 20 years from now, that's going to be my poll for name the most random.

diamond back you could think of. I'm going to throw out Eldamaro Vargas and my fake beef that we had early in this season. Oh yeah. And all the apologizing you had to do lots of apologies when it came to him. But Moreno did what he did over 130 games and 549 plate appearances. He had the best batting average in the league. He had a 388 on base percentage of 486 slug. He's finished with an 874 OPS. He had 147 baseball reference war. and a 143 OPS plus. It's nuts. And the conversation coming into 2026

was more about Moreno's defense receiving and his offensive potential. It's always about his defense, though. It's the reason why when we were asked about him being behind, or over at first, it felt like a waste of talent to put Gabriel Moreno over at first. But overall, he was the, he was one of the foundational pieces of the franchise. He is one of the foundational pieces of the franchise.

He might not be extended like the other core members of this team, but he was by far the biggest breakout candidate and the most pleasant surprise of the Diamondbacks 26th season. I guess more of just the biggest breakout. He could also say Eduardo Rodriguez was there as well. If you told me both of those guys, Derek, and obviously I'm cutting you off before your spiel about E-Rod. If you told me both Erod and Gabriel Moreno were going to have the seasons that they ended up having, I would have been like, man, we were, we're a shoeing for the playoffs.

100%. Like, like we might as well just, you know, might as well just pack it up and put us in the playoffs right now. Right. Right. Because if you're telling me those guys are doing it. Oh, EROD is a Cy Young candidate and Gabby's the best catcher in baseball. Well, I know that Cotel Marte, Corby and Harold O'Prodomo showed. up obviously. And I know

that out of you know, between when Corbyn Burns came back this season and the additions of the re-editions of both Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly that that should be good enough starting pitching that, you know, you could get to that level. Oh,

wait, Michael Soroka also had a an ERA in the threes. Well, then we probably won 90 plus baseball games. Did we not? We won 90 plus. We won like 95. We challenged the Dodgers. for the NL West. Right?

Right? I don't know. Coach Henry says here Gabriel Moreno wasn't a surprise. That's probably true. I mean, you could probably... I think him hitting to that level is. I think winning a batting title in National League,

he definitely is. Oh, yeah. We're talking about like Joe Mauer and Buster Posey are the only modern day catchers to have ever done that. Those are the two best catchers I've probably seen in my lifetime, them in Yadier and Molina, like, and Gabby,

now is in that crop of, of the offensive star power of those catchers, which I think is incredibly impressive. Sure. It's a matter. Can he sustain it in 2027? Can he still be that in 2027? I feel like he can because again, this wasn't like just one hot month that he hit 600. This was the entire season, right?

Yeah. Rod also had himself a good season from beginning to end. He might have, you know, himself been a little gassed out there at the end, but still he was incredible. I would say Erod is far more of a bounce back candidate than being the biggest breakout. And I think Gabby might also qualify as a bounce back, considering what he did in 2023. But this was unexpected and impressive. I say it's unexpected about Erod, except it wasn't, because one man in this state believed in Erod before the season started, and he might just be the host of this show. But Erod only would be considered a bounce back candidate because he's done this

before. He was this before. This is what. the diamondbacks thought they were getting when they added erod to their starting pitching rotation well and the other element of that is that he was bad so that you have to bounce back from something injury being poor i mean it was and playing poorly beforehand for him it was a lot of injury though i mean he has been injured the entire in the entirety of his time with the diamondbacks up until you know the end of last season when he started putting together some impressive you know starts back to back to back right the the starts i wouldn't shut up about when he had five starts against some of the best teams in baseball and was very good against all of them.

But again, the Diamondbacks just needed desperately someone to stabilize this rotation this season. And they had no idea how desperately they were going to need that, considering how bad Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly were as pitchers for the Diamondbacks. Right. But that ERAD became that. EROD became the stabilizing force in this rotation. And the Diamondbacks don't get anywhere close to 86 wins without him being as good as he was this year. right but then that moves us into uh most pleasant surprise of the year and again like gabby where

i feel that answer is very obvious for biggest breakout i feel like best surprise of the year has to be nolan aranato i think there's a lot of a lot of guys that you could be pleasantly surprised about i think there's guys in the bullpen i think you could say that about a few minor league guys i was going to say i thought you were going to go with the bullpen for biggest surprise i mean yeah i mean it's hard not to just do the bullpen as a whole exactly that's a conglomerate rather than one individual player. It's hard for me to say Juan Murillo over Branding Garcia over J. Marte over. And all those guys are players that I think that we believed were good pitchers that

were going to be making impact this year. But maybe guys like Brandon Garcia, Juan Maria were better than we even expected. But to me, the bullpen, like I expected it to be bad based off of the level of investment this off season. And it was the saving grace of this team outside of Erod and Gabby. Yeah. In my opinion. But I agree with you.

like if we're going individuals, it's probably a little bit easier to pick a guy who makes a day by day impact and is, you know, maybe was considered completely washed when we picked him up. We thought we were getting Evan Lungoria, right? We thought we were going to get a guy that played stellar defense over there at third was going to be a veteran presence and was going to maybe help contribute here and there. You and I had discussions about, man, if he could just get his offense to be what it was, not like in the prime of his career, but man, if we could have Nolan from two seasons ago,

just not Nolan from last year, but Nolan from 2024, then this deal where the, you know, Cardinals picked up the majority of his salary for the next two seasons looked great. Yeah. Well, now that deal looks amazing and was probably next to Michael Soroka, the best move that Mike Hazen made this past off season by far. Nolan Aronado, instead of being a, an unc, that was washed that came in here and gave you some good defense,

gave the Diamondbacks team leading 30 home runs, 86 RBI, 80 runs scored, 136 hits, an 806 OPS, 122 OPS plus, and a 3.4 baseball war. Oh, and this washed Unc also played 152 games, and even when he got injured, missed, what, two games, and then came right back? I mean, Nolan Aronado, I just cannot say enough about, you know, somebody at 36 years old coming in here and having the dedication that he had since day one of sending video of his batting stance to the coaches on the Diamondbacks of having that level of dedication to get better and to help the team that he just joined win instead of just continuing to collect a pretty fat paycheck for the next two seasons and perhaps walking off into the sunset after that point. I think that's what makes the great ones great, right? Nolan Arnado is a Hall of Fame level player because he probably has consistently been that type of worker his entire career where, you know, it's not even a discussion in his head whether or not he's going to kick his feet up and ride off into the sunset or whether or not he's going to hit the cages and send pictures of his, you know, videos of his swing to the Dback setting coaches on day one. On day one.

I mean, that's just that's how you get to the level that he got to. That's how you become the type of hitter that he is. And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it was great to see that career renaissance from Nolan Aronado. And I feel like we all feel very comfortably that he has more in the tank to give to this franchise next season at the minimum, you know? And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I say at the minimum because if he does that again, like, I want him re-signed. I want him back as the third baseman in 2028. Yeah. So hopefully he can, you know, kind of continue along that.

I always feel like the Diamondbacks in, I know that our star players had down seasons. So it's kind of weird in this way. But it feels like the Diamondbacks are a really, really well set up franchise for career resurgence, career comebacks. Yeah. Because you're around a lot of good hitters in the lineup. Yeah. You get to live in Arizona long term year round.

You don't have to get up and move your family. You can feel pretty comfortable here. It's good on your joints. It's good on your joints. It's good on your joints. I feel like there's just like a kind of a long checklist of reasons why the debacks are a good situation for someone to come into and maybe find themselves again. And so, yeah, I like going after these projects that need to maybe in the past been really good,

but have fallen off a little bit and seeing what, you know, we can turn them back into. I think that that's- Michael Soroka could also be classified as that as well. And usually it's a hitting thing for me. Yeah. But Michael Soroka on the pitching side of things, 1,000% qualifies as that as well. And so, yeah, I would love to see maybe another one of those guys, maybe brought in like every offseason, like at least like one player like that where you're sitting there and you're like, he used to be really, really good, kind of has fallen off a little bit, whether that's injury, age, you name it.

And now the Diamondbacks are getting their hands on him and they're trying to find what he maybe had two, three seasons ago again back here in Arizona. I think that we're the type of franchise that one is, A, good at that and B, needs to take those kind of risks. and swing and make hits on those type of acquisitions because that's how you raise your ceiling. That's how you compete with the teams that are spending more money than you. You have to have some guys that have a little bit of upside to them. I agree. And I do like the idea of Lars Nubar and Nolan kind of bringing in that St.

Louis Cardinals culture here a little bit. Lars from his first half was a little bit like that as well. I mean, I know that it's only half a season, but like he was bad. And the dime backs were like, if we can get them for kind of cheap, which they didn't. But if we could get them for what they deemed to maybe be an acceptable price, even though we're all looking at it being like, we gave up Brian Curley too? I thought we already gave up enough. I thought the player to be named later was going to be like Damon Farrell, who was a, you know,

26th round draft pick out of South Point Catholic high school, like literally the worst guy in the organization. Just to throw him in there. He's a bad guy. Yeah. But instead it was like, how about our third rounder from Georgia who likes to talk shit to people while he's mid-pitch? Isn't his fastball hit 97? Why are we doing that? Cool bro brings up.

It kind of adds on to your point. Damon, if you scroll up a little bit, he said on paper, too, if you told me Arnado would have his best season in a while, Moreno leading an NL batting average in Erod having his season. That's a 90 plus win team. And the bullpen is a top 10 bullpen in baseball. And like, I mean, you're literally checking. you're like, what did we need this off other than first base of the age? What do we need this off season?

Yeah. Well, we need Erod to be better and we need to get a starting pitcher. Okay, well, we got Michael Soroka who was fantastic and Erod was better. Well, our bullpen sucks. Our bullpen was good. Well, Gabby needs to stay healthy. Gabby was our best player. Oh, well, we need a third baseman.

Nolan Aronado is prime Nolan Aronado again. Well, what went wrong? Everything else is the answer to that question. Ernesto, thank you for the compliment. Ernesto said that there was an official picture of Arizona a sports ball, it would be a screenshot of this podcast. It would be this. Got Firebird, Sons, waste management open. You have a football. We're talking. Literally, we back baseball right now. You got some football hat on. You got Sons. I got U of A. And then we're on the Disbax branded podcast.

What can we say? Cardinals helmet behind you, Derek. We love, we love these teams. So why do they treat us the way that they treat us? Things are not good. Why have you forsaken us? Things are bad. All right. Well, speaking of things being. bad. We got to talk the biggest disappointments on this team in 2026. And when you talk about the 90 plus one season, this is why we didn't have a 90 plus win season. And I don't know how much I want to specifically name one because you could probably say all three guys were the biggest disappointment and almost at an equal level, but for different reasons. Could tell Marte's actions are disappointing. and it's hard not to say that what he did impacted this team at one of the most crucial times

in their season and could be a big reason why they didn't make the playoffs, right? He still finished with 22 home runs and 76 RBI. He still had a 107 OPS plus and hit a 748 OPS. He had a down year. It was not the best year for Cattel. Obviously injuries, considering the way that that discussion, argument, situation played it out, you know, that that played into his season. And his poor performance or kind of a drop-off in his production year overall could contribute

to some losses, but still it was more of his actions overall that I feel like were the most disappointing. Then when we find out it's compounded by this being a regularly, regularly occurring thing, I can say that word, I promise. I'll get there. You did good. I mean, they don't need Kattel to be MVP Kattel every season for this team. to have success.

They just need Cotel Marte to be himself, but what they need is for him to show up every day, for himself, for his coaches, for his teammates, for us, the fans, we need Cotel to show up and be the best player he can be.

Even if that does involve a drop-off in production because he's not at that same MVP-caliber level that he was. But still, his mid-season absence, The restricted list situation, injuries, inconsistent performance, all of this was disappointing. And now the question is, will Cotel Marte even be on this team in 2027? That's the question we're asking. That's crazy to me.

And I don't think it's one that even warrants it because his value is at a such, it's at such an all-time low that the Diamondbacks would simply be foolish to trade him, even if they felt him not being part of this team anymore, would somehow be an improvement. Yeah, you might be better served, like letting him get a little bit of run in the early portion of next season and trading him at the deadline if that is something that you really wanted. But does Catell even allow that to happen? Because he does have that no trade clause. Five rights, right. He only had a 2.5 war this season, Derek, which is his lowest since 2022 when he had a 1.4 war season.

And then, of course, before that, he had a 1.9 war season in the COVID season. Wasn't 2020 when they switched him to center field? then he hurt his hamstring? Let's see. I mean like what position. No, he was playing second base that year. Okay,

okay. He moved back from center field from in 2021. In 2021, he had a 1.9 war in the half season of baseball that was played. And he had a 2.5 war this season. But still. It's just like he had, he had such a poor season for his standard of what we've become used to recently,

which is around a five war player. Yeah. And yeah, it's just, I mean, he was about half as good when you look at that, the war accumulation. So, yeah, yeah. Real outlier, like I expect him to have a resurgence next year because I think that we can kind of see that that's not who Ketelmarte is. He had a poor season. He was still a good hitter, but not elite like he typically is.

I do expect him to be back next season and look a lot more like he did three out of the last four years rather than just how he looked last year. And I'll tell you, it's not his production really, though, that bothers me as much as the off-field antics. For sure. But meanwhile, you have the other disappointments being Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen. And I don't even know if I did, if Merrill deserves to be there, but obviously it's disappointing. I think Merrill deserves to be there because not only did he have such a bad season, but Merrill is still here in 2027. So again, you find yourself saying like, man, not only was Merrill inconsistent this year, but what if he has a drop-off and is even worse next year? Positive war from Merrill this year.

Positive war. Zero point three, baby. But meanwhile, Zach Gallen, not so popular. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. And Zach Gallen not only had the worst ERA among qualified starters before he went on the injury, injury list, right? But he also just, you know, again, he missed time due to injury. He missed time to being bad.

Like, it sucks. I guess the difference here is that at least Zach and Merrill show up every day and they try their hardest to help this team win, even if they're not very good at throwing the baseball in certain starts. Kattel's actions are more disappointing based on his own choices of doing what he did and acting the way he acted. Right. So, but I don't know, man, I think overall having not just one, but two of your workhorses, two of the guys that have been the most reliable starters in your franchise for the past few seasons, both of them, be bad the way that Gallin and Kelly were bad. I mean, I almost feel like putting the two of them together.

and just being like that duo was is probably to me more disappointing even than than Cotel and probably even more responsible for this team not making the playoffs than Cotel Marte's off-field, you know, incident. Yeah, at least Cotel was still a good hitter. You know what I mean? He wasn't he wasn't a great hitter like we're accustomed to, but he was a good hitter. Those guys went from great to elite pitchers to the worst pitchers in the entire sport over the course of the last three seasons, which is

crazy. Which is shocking. Merrill Kelly is old, so I, you know, it relatively old, not, you know, old in the course of life. Apologies to Derek and all those that are maybe older than Merrill Kelly out there. But is he going to fight me? Is he about to jump the table?

Yeah, I, you know, that duo was extremely disappointing. Merrill Kelly, I'm pretty sure. Merrill Kelly was only accumulated positive war. Only accumulated positive war when, you know, he had a good decent stretch to the final portion of the season. You know what I mean? Like before that, he was definitely in the negative if we checked his lap before his final five-ish starts where he was a lot better.

But yeah, Zach Allen was absolutely atrocious. We were talking about it before the show. I think it's just, it's beyond belief how poor he's gotten at pitching based off where he was. You can't think of anything else other than the lack of sticky stuff and what effect that might have had on him because he's just so unbelievably bad. That was a wild accusation, but it's hard not for it to hold some water. Alyssa, meanwhile, says, give me my tinfoil hat. Gallin's injury was made up to put him on the IL before the trade deadline. Yeah, I mean

He might not have been 100% But like I don't think it was He needs to sit down There was never a real injury It was like right elbow inflammation Or you know Something very generic at the most I don't even know if it was elbow inflammation

I don't even think it got that To be like that But again it was a very disappointing situation I felt like it just kind of got You know worse as the season went on Got two more categories here Both are very similar Just involving the 2020

27 season. Well, I was real quick before we move on from that one, and sorry to, you know, keep this trail off the tracks here,

but train off the tracks. I think that Ketel's poor performance, which was not awful, plus the off-field antics is probably the biggest disappointment for me. I think that,

you know, like your other stars also didn't show up. Perdomo wasn't good this season, nowhere near as good as he was last season, although he did have a really good war because he was a great defensively. and then Carol had such a hot start where we were like, man,

he really might be an MVP candidate. And then it was so, so bad in the final portion of the season. They were all disappointing. And, you know, I think I'll play a big factor as to why the debacks are where they are right now. And that's Cancun. But if I had to order, if you had to order those, how would you order them in terms of your disappointment, those three? I think Zach was kind of bad last year.

I'm talking just the hitters. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Perdomo Carol Marte. I mean, Perdomo really turned things around, and I think Perdomo just had a slow start, but also I don't really think that deep down in my heart, I expected Prudomo to replicate the MVP caliber performance he had last year.

Meanwhile, I do expect that out of Corbyn. I disappeared off screen. I don't know what just happened. Oh, my God. You could still, they can still hear you, though. Oh, okay. All right. I'm dead right now.

Yes. I just descended. No, I mean, I guess when it comes to Corbyn Carroll and we're on the Jeff Pass and tweet. When it comes to Corbyn Carol, it really comes down to me expecting him to be what he was versus Heraldo Perdomo. And I think, again, Perdomo's sample size there later was just fine. I think Perdomo was, you know, good down the stretch. but I think Catelle and Corbin, I just expect kind of more out of overall

when it comes to them. I expect them to be that version of themselves year after year, and maybe that's unfair. Maybe that's unfair to do. But our camera just basically doesn't want to show my face anymore, and I kind of get it. I kind of get it, Damon. But, hey, overall, I do think that in regards to our next category,

Corbyn Carroll, is the most important player going forward. for the 2027 season. And I do think that even though Cotel Marte returning to glory is something that's very important to this team, I would definitely make an argument that Corbyn Carroll getting back to where he was at

is far more important to the overall success of the Diamondbacks. And Carroll had a very, very weird season, 2026 statistically. He had a 239 batting average with a 328 on base percentage with a 467 slug. His 795 OPS, he had 22 home runs. He is the most important player going forward to this franchise.

By far, I mean, they're going to continue to build around Corbin. Things could happen with Catelle. Things could happen with Pardoma. I still think they know who their core is. It doesn't feel like Gabriel Moreno is going to be extended beyond the end of his current contract. But Carol feels like he has the. potential to be a diamond back for his entire career and and be one of the most important players historically in franchise history. I mean, he already is kind of that. But, you know,

again, it's more about Corbyn kind of developing and getting rid of these slumps that he gets into. Every baseball player gets into a slump, but it does feel like Corbyn just has these weird anomalies where suddenly he has the flattest swing in baseball or suddenly he can't hit the high fastball or suddenly he can't do one thing or another, and it's been frustrating to watch. You know, I do feel like Corbyn, again, has taken took a step back this year, but I feel like he did that based on just overthinking

and feeling like everything needed to be fixed or tinkered with, right? But it's crazy with Corbyn because it feels like he has one of these slumps every year where you're like, man, he just can't hit for a month. And this stretch was two and a half months. Yeah. And it's the wildest. thing out of nowhere because it'll be something like the flat swing or the not inability to hit the basketball. It's something that didn't exist before, but now it's suddenly a thing.

Yeah, and it comes off the back of like him having like a 950 OPS for, you know, the beginning portion of the season two. So it's, it's even more shocking when you put it up against what it looks like when he's hitting well and what it looks like when he's not hitting well. Yeah. You probably won't find a more stark contrast in baseball in terms of, you know, a player that you know, what looks like when they are in good form versus bad form. Well, if Corbyn is the most important player to this franchise going forward, I think the person whose role or could be the most interesting player in 27, most, I guess, biggest wild card would be Ryan Walschman.

Just because Ryan Walshman finally got that major league playing time and it felt like he has stuck, it feels like he is a major leaguer. and he could enter 2027 as either a fourth outfielder, a platoon option, a starting outfielder. Maybe he's a part of a big trade that the Diamondbacks want to make. I wouldn't love that, but still I think he's proven his value now, and he think he's very valuable. And if none of those things, he's simply a guy that could force his way into the lineup again next year if he doesn't get that playing time.

But again, after getting his real first, real taste of the MLB for the first time, you know, the diamondbacks have to decide whether he is going to be a guy that sticks around or if they feel like they need to improve their outfield and do something perhaps drastic to do so, right? And not only that, but you also have the fact that the diamondbacks are constantly looking for guys to play elsewhere and play other things. We don't even know what could tell Marte's future holds for him at second base or at DH or whatever. But we have seen Walt Schmidt, you know, they asked a lot of him. And I felt like he delivered, especially with the walk-off hit that he had, the home run, you know, first time in his career, just everything he's done for this organization this season. So, again, it's exciting.

It's exciting to see Walt Schmidt not only become a major leaguer, but to think about what his potential could be if he can develop and take a step forward next year. I think Tommy Troy as well showed some decent science. Yeah, I completely agree with that. I completely agree with that. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about the next. National League Championship Series now that those teams are set and why we all have to root for the Brewers. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback Show. Well, of course,

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It is game time. Well, it also might be time for you to get a new vehicle. And if you are looking for a dealership to shop with, you got to choose San Diego. Anderson Ford. You choose Sanderson Ford because for more than 70 years, Sanderson has been delivering. They've been delivering straightforward pricing and real value. They've been delivering on their commitment to customer service.

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Sanderson Ford will bring your new Ford right to your door. So whether you prefer to shop from home or if you want to stop in, take a test drive, maybe have lunch at the Starliner Diner. They will make sure the entire experience comes with no hassle, no pressure, and no nonsense, especially when it comes to those patty melts at the Starliner Diner. But when you are in the market for a new vehicle, choose a dealership that's been delivering for more than 70 years. Choose Sanderson Ford. I know I'm supposed to talk about all the wonderful benefits that Sanderson Ford has, Damon, but I can't help but talk about the diner. Like, I'm like supposed to be selling on the delivery portion, but I'm also like, I know, the diner is so good.

Every time I'm there, I'm like, you know what? I just want to encourage people to do, Derek. If you're going to go buy a vehicle from Sanderson Ford, as you should, because they are, you know, the best dealership here in the valley. Absolutely. You have to. And I'm like, this is just a little bit of business 101 for you. you absolutely have to get your dealer to buy a lunch over at the Starliner. 100%.

Like, this is the art of the deal here, Derek. I'm telling even if everything, you want me to sign this paperwork? Even if everything checks out. Let's go chat about this over a cheeseburger and some onion rings next door. 0% APR, you know, 1,000 down. Like, you love all of the pricing and everything.

You're ready to sign all the documents. I'm telling you guys, tell your dealer, I think we're going to have to break some bread over at the Starliner dining. to make this thing really have a handshake at the end of it. I like this. I like this. See, that's why he's a staunch negotiator. Yeah. Just saying. Just saying. Get yourself a nice, you know, get yourself a nice $10 patty melt. You just can't find that anywhere these days. Well, Damon, it is time once again for our Draft Kings matchup breakdown. And you know what that means. We have to take a look at

two teams that we hate that are in the postseason who are now facing off against each other. And I am okay with saying teams we hate because I don't know if in. In recent history, there are two baseball teams, organizations as a whole, that I hate more for the wrongdoing that they've done to my beloved Diamondbacks than these two teams. In fact, we already know what the Dodgers have done. Actually, we did it to the Dodgers. We created that monster. And now they make our lives miserable. But we also know what Ryan Braun and the Milwaukee Brewers did to us at one point.

I'm not ready to dwell on that too much because as far as I'm concerned, we. All of us, we are all the brew crew. We are all the brew crew. The National League Championship series rematch is on. The NLCS is set and we got a rematch from last year with the Dodgers facing the Brewers. This does feel different. This does feel like this is a better brewer's team. And the Dodgers, of course, are the Dodgers.

So they're back in the NLCS for their third straight year after eliminating the Braves and four games. And they're trying to still chase history and become the first team since the Yankees did it in the late 2000s to win three consecutive of championships. Meanwhile, the Dodgers still haven't looked exactly unbeatable yet. They've just been finding ways to win. The offense hasn't been consistent. Shoah Otani has been terrible, and they still found a way to put Atlanta away. Now they run in-

Shoah got monstard, Derek. He got monstered. Someone took his powers. We don't know who yet, but someone did. Man, I'll tell you. But we also have the fact that they run into a Milwaukee team that won 103 games this season eliminated the Padres, which we appreciate that in four games. And now, and they finally snapped a ridiculous 12-game postseason losing street that that franchise had. But the Brewers also

have something they didn't have last year, which is confidence against the Dodgers. Milwaukee did go four and three against LA during the regular season, including three of four at Dodgers Stadium. So there's that. And then you also have the fact that Jackson Churio is incredible at 23 years old. He's already become the face of that franchise. And if someone is going to knock the Dodgers out, it probably is going to be Truro to be the one to do it. But the biggest question in this matchup remains if Milwaukee's pitching can survive the Dodgers lineup. And I mean, it feels like that Brewer's starting rotation is pretty damn good with Jacob Mizorowski expected to start game one coming into this series as a legitimate Cy Young caliber pitcher. Right. But,

Again, you're still talking about that lineup that consists of Otani, Muky Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Max Muncie, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You got some of, you know, you got Kikei Hernandez, and Andy Paas being the ones that are doing it, even with all these guys. Freddie Freeman finally hit a home run for the first time in like 60 games, which felt like something crazy. But if Otani suddenly catches fire, this series obviously can change very quickly,

and the brewers find themselves in a position where they at least have homefield advantage. they have Mizorowski, they have a 103-1 regular season behind them, but we'll see if that matters. They do, though, like I said earlier, have the confidence of knowing they already beat the Dodgers and that they can beat them. That's something that feels like it matters here, you know. But again, last year, Dodgers swept the Brewers in the NLCS,

four wins, no wins for Milwaukee. And really it's about the Brewers being our last hope at this point. I mean, I know that that whoever wins in the American League could still also be our last hope, but it really feels like the birds are our last hope here, Damon. It does, Derek.

Because, yeah, if the Dodgers get all the way to the World Series, I feel like we're just kind of going to be like foregone conclusion they won it again, especially if they play the Raids or the White Sox or the Guardians. And then that's going to be, once again, another situation where all of this fun we're having, especially watching these American League teams advance, having two teams right now that have never won a World

series in the championship series round now that the rays have advanced past the Yankees things feel fun, things feel exciting and yet all of that can be ruined simply by the Dodgers winning the world series because then we don't remember any of this postseason and it's all

a distant, it's just all a distant memory. Three of the four teams that have advanced are the teams that got the buy Derek just by the way just yeah, kind of serving here. There's that too. You're right. You're right. So when we were talking about the advantage of the buy, it definitely this year it helps.

It definitely helped. I mean, the White Sox might be the only one that bucked that trend, but that's also a very hot White Sox team. I mean, playing against the Houston Astros and the Guardians, which it's not even like either of those teams were actually higher caliber teams.

It was just all a bunch of barely above 500 teams there in the American League when you're, when you really cut it to what it really is, right? But one thing we did have Damon, by the way, which, again, is the Padres. being eliminated, did not, like, talk about that nearly enough. Those ringless bums from San Diego stay ringless, and they even stay ringless despite having the power of Blink 182 behind them.

Yes, the Padres have made the Blink 182 song, all the small things into their sing-along. And in the one game they won in this series, they actually had Blink 182 frontman Tom DeLong at Petco, Park, singing along with the crowd, tearing up as he listened to more than 43,000 fans sing his song that he wrote. And the Fox cameras caught him on camera, genuinely being emotional as he took it all in. And then he got in with the crowd.

He hit the best line of the song, Work sucks. I know. We don't think that here. We kind of love our jobs around here. But it's a good line. And overall, it just was, it's kind of amazing. to think about like writing a song, having that song become a hit, and then having it be taken on by a franchise to like be like a rally call,

a sing-along song that everybody in the stadium gets in on. And that is something that the Arizona Diamondbacks absolutely need. Our guy Cam Cox from Channel 12 proposed the question on Twitter, and he asked basically what would the Diamondbacks sing-along song be, Damon? And honestly, we talked earlier about how. The choice to pick Gabriel Moreno for Biggest Breakout was a no-brainer. Best Most Pleasant Surprise, Nolan Aronano, that's a no-brainer. This is also a no-brainer because the answer to this is the middle by Jimmy Eat World.

Everybody knows Zach Lynn is a huge Diamondbacks fan, the drummer for Jimmy Eat World. We also know they're a local band, local boys that put this hit out and this hit has sustained the test of time. In fact, I've enjoyed when this song comes on how many young people like the middle. but more importantly, not only does it have local ties, and not only is their drummer a fan of this team. But let's take a look at the lyrics really briefly for the middle. Hey, don't write yourself off yet. It's only in your head.

You feel left out or look down on. Just try your best. Try everything you can. And don't you worry what they tell themselves when you're away. It just takes some time, little girl. You're in the middle of the ride. And everything, everything will be just fine. See, that's a lie you tell yourself when everything won't be fine.

But you tell yourself, everything will be just fine. Everything will be just fine. All right. And then again, you know you're all the same. You know you're doing better on your own. So don't buy in. Live right now. Just be yourself.

Doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else. Did the words I just say not describe? the Arizona Diamondbacks 2026 season to a T? Damon, I feel like it's hard not to have that song be the exact song that this franchise should sing along to every single time during the middle of the seventh inning.

I'm more of a D-back swing guy and I love our guy, Zach Lind. Stop it. That's the greatest song that's probably ever been created. You can't sing that in the middle of a game. It might be the best song ever. That's a winning song. True, but it's genuinely probably...

I feel like if the Cubs just start singing, and go Cubs go in the middle of the game. That would be insane behavior. You're right, you're right. But nothing will top that, Eric. Nothing ever ever will top that. No song in the history of humanity will be better than Dback swing. I don't know.

Roger Klein and the Beast Makers also did as the refreshments, the theme song for King of the Hill. And let's be honest, that one's a bop. That one's a bob. But, hey, let's take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're just going to do a quick trip down memory lane with another edition of Throwback Thursday.

Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PH and next time in back show. Well, the Inner Circle 2.0 is active here at Circle K. It's still free to get enrolled and it will still save you money. But now you will start earning rewards for every visit you make to Circle K. Every visit on qualifying purchases, which is a minimum of $3 in-store purchase or five gallons at the pump, will earn you rewards. Do you want up to a dollar off gasoline per gallon? That sounds pretty good.

You can also not only get lower gas discounts, but you can get free food, free drinks, and other in-store merchandise. All you got to do is enter your phone number at checkout or the pump to ensure each visit is counted. New enrollees can still save 25 cents off or down on their first five fillups. So if you have not joined the inner circle, do so right now. It's easy to get enrolled, download the app, sign up, and then use your phone number to get all sorts of wonderful Circle K deals. And don't forget to stop by Guy Fieri's Flavortown at certain locations where you can get things like the Sweet. We heat fried chicken and waffle sandwich, which I tried and actually loved. And they also have their chicken royale with Swiss and al-alpeño, another kind of savory and spicy item that is absolutely to die for.

So stop by, grab yourself something to eat, and do it for less by joining the Inner Circle 2.0 right now by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Sorry if you said this in there, Derek, but when is that Inner Circle Fuel Week? We found out that's October, is it October 22nd? Is that when it is, Damon? Because yes, the October fuel week is coming up here at the end of the month. So make sure to get down on that.

But another thing you should get down on is whatnot. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed all the different sale items you can get on, whatnot, all the wonderful prices and all the different items that are available for purchase over there. Whatnot is like a series of streaming channels that you can go on. And you can, of course, get down on the largest live shopping marketplace in the United States where shopping happens in real time, discounts happen in real time, real people, real conversations happening. It's exciting.

In fact, I can't wait to get home and get down on whatnot. I'm going to be doing that when I get home because, of course, over on whatnot, their sports cards are huge right now. In fact, four cards are sold every single second on whatnot. And it's not just trading cards or it's not just sport cards, trading cards of all kind. They have jerseys like this wonderful one I'm wearing. They have shoes. And they have all sorts of different categories,

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Download sign up and start finding things. you've been chasing terms to apply. And Damon, yes, I got on the old school suns jersey. So if you wouldn't mind, let's take a quick trip down memory lane. Not a lot of stuff happened in franchise history on this week or on this date, but a lot of it involved the Yoffs, which of course is always a fun thing to take a look back on. In fact, the Diamondbacks made the playoffs for the first time in 1999 after winning

a hundred games in their second season, pivoting from a slow approach to building this franchise to just bringing in a bunch of high paid assassins to take care of business and they did that but that's the way to do it man that's how you build a fan base that's why people wanted to be dbacks fans right away is because you showed we care about winning baseball games and it's like you think the vagus golden nights would be half as popular derrick if they didn't yeah show up and the story of success from minute one that they were a franchise like that kind of stuff is so important to building a fan base and building a community I agree. And again, it was the reason why the Diamondbacks did it. And it was nothing other than an idealistic approach to having a franchise and then seeing a huge attrition of season ticket holders after the first year. Because what people didn't want to do was come to the ballpark and watch their team lose 100 games every season. And they did not. In fact, they won 100 games that next season. But that magical second season did end when Todd Pratt homered in the bottom of the 10th,

in game four of the National League Division Series in 1999 to give the New York Mets a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Damon, I can't even wrap my mind around the level of depression I would reach right now at this level, doing this job we do if I watched our team lose in the National League Division series on a 10th inning walkoff. Derek, all I've been able to think about the entire postseason is if I was a Padres fan or the debacks were, you know, in the same situation as the Padres. Hitting the wire.

I like, I, I, I couldn't wrap my mind around how upset I would be about how we lost in the postseason. Yeah. We had a, like, and again, I'm saying we as if I was in their shoes. Yeah. You have a lead in all three games. You lose that lead in all three games. You get walked off once.

Before that, you would have won a ninth inning, like, unbelievable roller coaster type of game ball hits the roof i mean i just you can't make yesterday manny machado puts the ball wire matt manny machado yesterday ties the game in the eighth inning except what's that garrett mitchell just robbed manny machado of the game tying eighth inning home run and manny mchato who's pimping the ball walking up down the baseline with his chest pointed towards it then goes oh my My God. He caught that.

And that's the Padres season. Every single one of their losses in this series. Ball hits the roof. They would have won. Walk off, they had a lead. And then Mani Machado would have tied the game. I think I'd stop being a baseball fan. Yeah.

I think I'd walk in Nespo's office and say, I'm only doing U of A now. I can't do Vbacks anymore. It makes me too angry. I'll commit crimes. I've actually had that exact conversation with Espo. It didn't involve the U of A part, but it did involve everything you else else.

you said there. Everything else you said. October 6, 2007, the Diamondbacks completed the NLDS sweep with a 5-1 victory over the Cubs to advance to the National League Championship Series. The October 7, 2011,

they lost the NLDS Game 5 to the Brewers, once again in heartbreaking fashion, by a score of 3 to 2 in 10 innings, getting walked off in that game as well. Had a lot of heartbreak when it comes to the NLDS

and getting walked off in the bottom of an extra innings game. Last but not least, we have the 2021 season to talk about. First, on October 6th, we've had some very positive history and news occur. Corbyn Coeurb was announced

by MLB as a 2023 Hank Aaron Award finalist in honor that recognized the most outstanding regular season. Offensive performer in each league. That was amazing considering you know, that was his rookie season.

and then you also have on October 6th, 2012, DeBax General Manager, Mike Hazen being extended through the 2028 season with a club option for 2029, which is where we're at now. And now that is where Tori and his contract both align for the end of the 2028 season. Also, that would be the end of Gabby Moreno's time

with this team if they don't extend him or bring him back. But one very, very positive thing did happen just a few days later after this, which again, I know there was one guy in the chat coming in here as a Dodgers fan for some reason on a Diamondbacks podcast when we've been eliminated from the postseason had nothing better to do than come in here and chat with us, which we're always thankful you're here. But yes, we did create the monster that is your team. October 7th through the 11th, 2012, then DeBacks swept the Dodgers,

three to nothing in the NLDS to clinch their first NLCS birth since 2007. The Diamondbacks earned the 11 to 2 victory in game one to mark their first NLDS win since October 5th of 2011 versus the Brewers. And then they got their first NLDS road win since October 6, 2007 against the Cups, the games we mentioned earlier. The debacks six runs in the first inning marked a franchise high in the postseason and was the first time in Jaff's history in which the first five batters for one team reached base and then scored in the first inning.

We beat the TAR off the Dodgers out of the Dodgers in 2023, didn't we? Ah, it's good times. Good times. Probably never happened again after the way that they've just cheated their way to the top. But still, good memories. Thank you guys so much for taking this little trip with us down memory lane. Appreciate you so much. We will be back again tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show. So make sure to join us then. Until then, you can follow us on social. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with the DAWG. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P.HNX underscore D. Back. but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys all so much for your time. We'll see you back here at noon tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful rest of your Thursday. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when you shorten the number of regular season baseball games we all have to watch.