PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Legend Luis Gonzalez SOUNDS OFF on Arizona’s 2026 Season

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

On a legendary episode of the show, we’re joined by Arizona Diamondbacks icon and local hero Luis Gonzalez for a wide-ranging conversation timed perfectly with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 World Series championship. Gonzo reflects on that unforgettable postseason run, his iconic hitting stretch, and how those kinds of consistent offensive runs compare to what we see in today’s game, including his thoughts on Ildemaro Vargas and his impressive 27-game hit streak. We also preview the upcoming series against the San Francisco Giants, breaking down matchups, key pitching concerns, and what the Snakes need to do to stabilize their momentum. Plus, it’s Mailbag Monday, answering your questions about Brandon Pfaadt’s struggles and more. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX 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/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX 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 visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: 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! 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.

It's a big day around here. We are joined by the legend himself, Luis Gonzalez, to talk about a lot of things, including the 25th anniversary of this team winning the World Series and the current roster and their offensive struggles. Plus, we're going to find out if this jersey should have made a comeback. All this right now. To a special edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as a fan.

on today's show. Also, Derek Monta. Thrilled to have you guys joining us. I'm thrilled to be joined by our special guests today. Of course, I got Damon Dog on the ones and twos. Also rocking his turn the clock ahead, Jersey. We are ready for this one. And this show, as always, is brought to you by our friends at Bet365.

Bet365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use our code of PHNX 365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Go download that GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20. off your first purchase terms do apply. Well, thrilled, of course, to be joined today by our very special guest, a man that's known as an icon of the Diamondbacks franchise,

a local hero, and the guy that let me cut in line in front of him at Dutch Bros. one time. It is the legend himself, Louise Gonzalez. Gonzo, thrilled to have you joining us, man. Thank you so much for being in today. Thanks, Derek. Great to be with you guys. It's a fun year, man. And this is the 25th anniversary of you guys doing the thing there in the World Series. And I know it means so much to us here in the Valley.

They say that when you become a certain level of hero that you don't pay for a meal in this town again. Is that true? Has that gravy train ran out at this point for you? I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, I think it's run out a little bit. So, I mean, it's still fun. Here we are 25 years later and still people come up to you. and acknowledge the moment or being there at the stadium

or seeing the game and things like that. So it's still very meaningful, not just to myself, my teammates and the organization, but the whole community in the state of Arizona to have that championship over in 2001. Absolutely. I do still pay for meals, trust me.

Well, what do you remember now at this point the most about that postseason run? Was it times during the stretch going up to the World Series? at that series itself, what's your fondest memory now at this point of what you guys did that year? I just think the run that we got on, I mean, the confidence level of all the guys on the team, the enjoyment of us being together all the time. We were a very tight-knit bunch of guys. We hung out not just in the locker. And when we went on the road, we go to dinners together.

I mean, there would be a huge group of us going. After games, we would hang out together, you know, have a couple of cold, ones and talk about the game and just hang out. And that's, that's a sign of a good team when you're always together around guys and you're not, you know, those guys that are all taking, you know, 20 different cars to the ballpark and, you know, wanting to be away from each other. We all genuinely wanted to be around each other and spend time and goof off and have a good time. Was that different from other clubhouses you were in? Oh, no doubt. I mean, this was a veteran club. I think the year in 01, we were the oldest team in baseball. Right.

We were, you know, playing the Yankees, of course, in the World Series, who was a team that had won three consecutive world championships. They were going for their fourth. So for us, it was very meaningful. And 9-11 had just happened. So there was a lot of things going on in the country that really heightened up the level of that World Series before it even started. For sure, for sure. And I know that you guys obviously were a team that kind of came together fast, it felt like. I've kind of talked about it on the show.

we've discussed it based on, you know, the history of this franchise, but, you know, it felt like the Diamondbacks being a young, you know, franchise pivoted quickly. And you were a big part of kind of that pivot, right, where they brought in a bunch of veteran guys. They brought in guys and kind of made this team kind of completely different from what it was in its first year, first, you know, first season, right? So. And I know that obviously winning had a lot to do with that, but they definitely wanted to bring together guys that they felt could bring a championship to Arizona. And it just felt like a kind of a perfectly calculated plan when it all came together. Yeah, I think a lot of the guys on the team were pretty much handpicked to say,

okay, this guy is going to be a great fit, different personalities and everything. But, you know, we won in 01. But I felt like when you look back at it, our 99 team was just as good. We lost that big game against the Mets over at Chase Stadium, that home. run that Finley catches nine times out of 10 off a Todd Pratt. But, you know, it's just, it just wasn't in the cards that year for us to do it. But the guys that they brought together was a group of guys, like I said earlier, we just generally got along well together.

We all love being around each other, around each other's families and things like that. And it makes it fun coming to the ballpark where every day there was somebody else was going to do something special. Of course, it doesn't hurt when you got, you know, the big double A-C of Randy Johnson and Kurt Schelling out there with those two guys, their preparation, the way they got ready for the games. It helps. You almost felt like you had a mental advantage before the game even started when they took

them out. Was that belief there before you guys got to the postseason? Like, did you guys start looking at each other in the clubhouse at some point and saying we could win this whole thing? Or did that occur once you guys actually got into the playoffs? No, I think there was a belief in spring training. I mean, when Brenley took over, he pretty much told us. You know, we had a couple rules for us, play hard beyond time.

And not only that, but he said, look around the clubhouse. Look at everybody in here. We've got guys that are all-stars. We've got guys that have won major awards in baseball. This is a good team. And for all of us, we started believing that early. I mean, we had our struggles, no doubt. I mean, I don't think we were leading the division early.

It took us to about middle part of the year to jump out there. But as the year gradually went on and spring training was fun, you could tell that we had some special moments and guys that were going to do some special things. And everything just seemed to click for us as the year kept going on. How hard is it to come back after winning a World Series and kind of having expectation levels change and everything kind of changed that next season after 2001? Because in a way, it kind of feels like the Diamondbacks, this squad experienced that a little bit with the 2023 World Series run, where expectations were very high after that point, considering how early in this,

teams kind of, I guess, you know, current roster, they reach that, that pinnacle. I mean, is it is the pressure truly there after you become a champion to try to figure out a way to be even better than next year? Yeah, I don't know about the pressure. I think it was more the expectation level. We all expected to be there again. And when you win that one and you keep the nucleus of players together, you go, okay, we're going to make a run now because we had just beat the Yankees who had just won three

in a row. So we're like, okay, this is our turn to go ahead and do it. But, you know, we had injuries. I got hurt late in the season. I think Randy was hurt for a little bit. And it just, you know, it just wasn't in the cards. And I think for you to win a world championship, everything kind of has to line up for you.

I was having a good year. Womack was having a good year. Finley. There was Matt Williams. There was a bunch of guys on that team that were having above average years that just went out there and played well. And everything was clicking for us. It was a different hero every night of the game,

of the season. You know, and it just, it just all worked out for us. But that following year, we just, we got off to a decent start, but, you know, we had our rocky roads here and there and some injuries just took over. And we just couldn't overcome that to win the division again and then try to get back to the world championship. It feels like baseball is different than any other sport when it comes to, like, everything kind of needing to click in the right way and a team needing to catch fire at the right time

of the year for the, you know, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for the sport. that World Series kind of run to happen. It feels like rarely can a team come together in the way like the Dodgers have, for instance, recently, where you're so certain that that team, no matter what, can overcome the odds and be a contender there at the end, right? So I don't know. I feel like other sports aren't nearly that kind of random, especially as you get to the playoffs in the postseason where anything truly can't happen.

Yeah, I mean, it's a team sport, but you have to have a lot of above average individual performances to get you to that next level to get there again. And yeah, it was just a tough run for us. We, you know, unfortunately, we, we only won one championship and we felt with the guys that we had on our team, that window of opportunity for us was going to be a good three or four year run. And it just didn't happen for us after that.

We fell into some hard times, some injuries and different things like that. And we just couldn't get past that hump. But that old one team was pretty special, pretty unique bunch of guys. And it's a brotherhood and a bond that will carry with us throughout the of our lives. And you guys made plenty of memories for the rest of us as well, so we appreciate that greatly. But today marks the anniversary of another big moment. The end of your franchise record 30-game hitting streak is on May 18th. And obviously we know what Ildemarovar Vargas did this season, but what's it like stepping, I guess, into the box every night with that? I mean, I talked about the

pressure or the expectations of coming off of a World Series, but did you just feel it building every day or did you just kind of go out there and try to like somewhat like what Vargas did, kind of put it out of your head every single day when you were out there trying to keep that thing going? No, I mean, you try to put it out of your head, but it's hard not to realize what's going on. I mean, everybody wants to talk to you about it. The expectation level of you're trying, you're doing something individually, but at the same time, you want to be a team player. You want to help your team win in any way that they can. But the focus, usually when you start getting a 24, 25 games and above, the focus starts to get to 30 games.

That's kind of the benchmark that everybody's set. It's like a 50 home run season, 300 average. There are just certain benchmarks in baseball that everybody tries to get to. And for me, that was one, like once I started getting, you know, 24, 25 games, I said, oh, man, I got a chance to get to 30 games. There's no doubt that it was, you know, took me more at-bats in a game than what it normally. normally would sometimes where, you know, you'd always want to get it out of the way early, so then you could just focus on, you know, runners in scoring position, do I need to move this

runner over? How do I need to drive this guy in? But there was times, I think one time during the streak, it ended up taking me into the 10th inning. I thought my streak was over. We ended up tying the game late, and then we rolled it over to where I got another AB in the 10th, and then I ended up hitting the home run to be a game winner for that game against the Montreal Expos. So, I mean, lot of special things have to happen. You've got to be lucky to at the same time to do that. I think it's a little bit tougher now in today's game to do that because, you know, back then when I was on my hitting street in 99, you were facing the same guy three or four times maybe in the night. Now you don't do that. There's so many starters that only go three,

four, five innings, and then they're out of the game. And then you're facing certain different specialty closers that are coming in to face you. Sure. That makes a lot of sense. And I guess that moves me into what you know has been so impressive about what ildemar vargas did with his 20 27 game hitting streak what what impressed you the most about that and i mean and i think it's relevant considering that you had your your best years here with the diamond backs and it feels like vargas is just having this incredible season um here at this point of his career after kind of being this journeyman you know throughout it up to this point yeah i was super excited i mean if there was anybody that I would want to break that record, it was going to be him. I mean, he's a

great clubhouse guy. Oh, yeah. Gets along with everybody on the team. Everybody loves him. I mean, if you look at a player when they go on the road or when other teams come in that you've played for, when everybody's looking for you and wants to talk to you and be around you, you know that you were someone that was well liked in the game. And I think, you know, you watch that from afar when you see him come to certain ballparks like he played for the Washington Nationals when they came in a few years ago. They were all, hey, where's Vargas? So you know that you have a special player and a guy like that, not just on the field what he does, but in the clubhouse and around the community and different things like that. This guy always has a smile on his face. You couldn't

tell if he was having a bad day or a good day. He's just genuinely a guy who cares for everybody on the team. I love having him around. I'm so excited and happy for him that he's having a great year. He's taken full advantage of the opportunity through injury. Nobody, you know, has been able to take over at first base. He's come in and done a fantastic job for us being out there and playing. And sometimes like when Marte yesterday got a day off against the Colorado Rockies, he fills in there at second. So he's a super utility guy that you have.

Those are good bench role players, but now he's getting the opportunity to play every day, and he's taken full advantage of it. Yeah, well, it doesn't sound like you had a contingency plan. should he got close to your streak, but I was going to ask you if you were like thinking about maybe going out there and tackling him in his last at bat if he got to 29 games or something like that. You know, I was pulling for him. I mean, when they were, you know, they went on the road, obviously when it ended. But when he was here, I would always come down to the locker and give him some knuckles,

tell him keep it going. Yeah. I was very encouraging. I'm not one of those bitter guys that didn't want him to do well and things like that. I wanted him to be successful because you want good people, good things to happen to good people. when he's one of those guys in the game of baseball. Plus, he had Cattell telling him every day that he wasn't, he wasn't anything special and that he was just going to go out there and play baseball.

And nothing big was going on for him. So he had plenty of guys to keep him ground. Oh, there's no doubt. There's no doubt those guys were giving him a hard time. But every time that he would get a hit, the camera would pan into the dugout. And you could see how excited and happy everybody was for. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, speaking of this team and everything they have going on right now,

I mean, they've played really well. they've looked brilliant at times, and then there's been some inconsistencies, obviously, where they've come out the next day and look really flat. But do you see any similarities between this current core, the way it's constructed, and, you know, your team that went all the way to the World Series and won the thing? I'm not so sure if there's a lot of consistencies there. I mean, we had more of a veteran club. I think we were more in tune to doing whatever we had to do to win games.

And I think the game structure has changed so much. much. A lot more strikeouts in the game. You don't see guys sacrificing themselves, whether it's trying to hit a ball to the right side of the infield to get a runner from second to third, late in the game. You see this in all of baseball, not just with our team, just not knowing the situations as well. There's been so many young guys that have been rushed up to the major leagues that don't really get the seasoning that they should when they're, you know, in the minor leagues or through college, whatever coming up. I'll give you an example.

You know, when you're down by a couple runs in the ninth inning and you're coming up to the plate, you're the lead off guy, you try to take pitches, you try to work count, you try to get on base because your run means nothing. Well, there's been instances not just on our team, but other teams where you see the ninth inning, a two-run lead, you're down two, and the first guy up swings at the first pitch.

Yeah. Well, that doesn't help your team out. I mean, unless you hit a home run or a double or something, right, right. there's no positivity in that to try to work a count and get the guy's pitch count up and things like that. So there's a lot of different things, you know, between our team and their team. And the youth sometimes you could really see that coming into effect. Yeah.

Well, like you said, you can't hit a three-run home run with nobody on base, especially when you're down too. But there's been some definite bright spots. Vargas, obviously being one of them. But another guy that has a lot of comparisons to your teammate, Randy Johnson, has been Michael Soroke. It feels like we can't say enough about how I guess big of a pickup Soroka was for this starting rotation. And when you have him doing in his first three starts, things that he can only be compared to RJ4, it felt like, you know, getting a guy like that at what the Diamondbacks ended up being able to sign him for was quite possibly one of the biggest values of this past off season. Yeah, there's no doubt.

He's been definitely a positive addition to our team. And, you know, he had some injuries early in his career with the Atlanta Braves. And now he's really hit his stride. And I think a lot of it, too, is comfort factor. I think for him here in this organization, he feels comfortable out there. Yeah. He's around guys that he likes being around. And he, you know, he's kind of found something in his pitching that he's really thrived on.

And it's helped our ball club win games every time he takes them out. Well, we have a couple of questions from some of our listeners here. And the first one comes from our guy, Adam Fox. He says the man and the legend, what opposing pitcher did you look most forward to batting against? And which pitcher did you least look forward to batting against? I always look forward to hitting against Greg Maddox. I loved hitting against him. Yeah, he was early in my career.

I think, you know, this game is very much mental. Sure. I mean, it takes good skill to have to play up here in the major leagues. But when you have success early in your career against certain guys, you feel invincible against those guys every time. you face him. And I think for Maddox, I hit my first two major league home runs, same day, my number one and number two in my career against him at Wrigley Field, didn't know who I was, which was even better.

He's cussing me out as I'm running around the bases. And then the guy who I had the least fun facing was a guy by the name of Woody Williams, right-handed pitcher. Okay. And Jamie Moyer, too. He was another guy. And it wasn't like I struck out against these guys. It's just a comfortable 0 for three or over four facing them.

Yeah, yeah. No, so I remember. Just a frustrating night. Yeah, and I remember one day we went into Seattle to play interleague. And Moyer, I think, was 43 or 44 at the time coming towards the end of his career. And Brenley, I never wanted a day off. He says, I'm thinking about giving you a day off against Moyer. And I said, baby, you can't do that.

This could be the day that I go four for four and drive in a bunch of runs. and he says, all right, I'm changing the lineup back. I'm putting you in. I talked them into it. And lo and behold, I went, I think, 0 for 3 or 0 for 4. And I showered up and got out of that locker before he could find me at the end of the day. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Well, we got one more for you before we let you get out of here. Our guy, Jason at J. Army Strong, wanted to know what your favorite back when I was playing line that you say to current players. Not to old fog of you, but is there your favorite? back in my day this is how things were to oh yes yes well the thing that really frustrates me a lot is guys getting days off okay I was a guy who accountability for me was always you know being there I would always come in the locker room and I learned this at an early age you never want to be in the training room yeah so they the phrase was you can't make the club in the tub

so you don't want to be that cold tub or anything like that so you know nowadays you see a lot of players taking days off. It frustrates me, not just in baseball, but I went with the approach that people pay, even if they didn't come to see me play, if somebody's traveling from outside of the country or the state to come see the debacks play, and you're one of the main players I approached it

as they're coming to see me play, even if it was Randy Johnson pitching on that night. That's the way I approached it. And if I was a parent or, you know, I'm a parent of three kids when they were younger, and I paid a lot of money to come see one of the stars play or come see my favorite team and they're not out on the field. I'm disappointed.

And that's the way I approached it as my career went on. Not to say that they wouldn't give me a day off here and there, but I always wanted to be in the lineup every single day. Even when I wasn't 100%, I just felt like the accountability factor, not just for our fans, but for my teammates to show them that I'm out there every day. And sometimes your presence in the lineup, even when you're not 100%, that manager on the other side of the field or those coaches and the players and the pitcher

knows that this guy can do damage at one time or another when he's at the plate. Well, you sound like my producer, Damon, who never gets any days off. Damon is setting a streak too. He's got that Cal Ripkin streak. He doesn't miss a day either, right? Absolutely, absolutely.

I'm sure he's sticking his head right behind you, right? That's right. That's right. Well, we appreciate you, Gonzo, man. Thank you so much for your time. Great stuff. We can't wait to see you guys celebrate that 25th anniversary out there on the field.

That's going to be a fun weekend. You got it, fellas. Thanks for having me. You guys got a great show. Appreciate it. Go D-Bex. Thank you. Have a great one. See it.

Well, it doesn't get any better than that. Appreciate Gonzo and his time. Very valuable time, so we thank him for sharing some of it with us. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about the D-Backs, getting that series win in Colorado and a preview of their upcoming series here with the San Francisco Giants. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the P.H.N.X.X.

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perfect over this stretch but if the diamondbacks find a way to win every series during these 13 games they would end up with nine wins and things would look pretty good after all was said and done here against the Giants and the Colorado Rockies. But in game two, some missed opportunities really cost Arizona. And my God, probably one of the more frustrating offensive games to watch, they did the thing that we said they were going to do, that we were like maybe they shouldn't do that. But they said, screw it, we're going to do it anyway. It was just a frustrating step backwards.

They score a bunch of runs on, you know, in what? was considered essentially a perfect game on Friday. I know it was a perfect game, but you get where I'm going. Merrill had the complete game. Diamondbacks put up nine runs and really couldn't have asked for more overall as far as the outcome is concerned. But their offense once again disappeared the very next night, only putting up two runs.

And the Diamondbacks put traffic on bases on the base path all afternoon long, but went two for 11 with runners in scoring position. And I wanted to smash my computer. Erod wasn't great either on Saturday. but he still, it was still a respectable outing overall, and the offense just couldn't capitalize on their opportunities to score late. Lordus Guerrille did steal a home run and continues to prove that he is not watched in the outfield, but Arizona, again, just still has this likelihood to struggle the very next day

and, you know, can't find a way to put together consistent offensive performances. But at least on the flip side of things, Sunday, they were able to win that game and the series. They win by a score of 8 to 6, and Sunday belonged to Corbyn Carroll. There was a lengthy rain delay. Rock knowledge and myself had to wait it out in a craft brewery, craft beer brewery. Tough times, tough times.

But we did hang in there and watch Corbyn Carroll crush two home runs and drive in three runs to power the Diamondbacks to an 8 to 6 win there and the series victory. Michael Soroka, again, he continues his strong season after another solid start, striking out eight over five and two-thirds innings pitched. Just couldn't get through that last out to get himself the quality start. And then Lordus Gariel Jr. finally launched his first home run of the year. So good stuff overall. Gabby Moreno had three hits and the Diamondbacks offense piled up.

But Colorado made things interesting late against Brandon Fott. And we have a lot of questions in the mailbag about Fott. So I'm going to wait to address those until then. But there are a lot of concerns here about Fott's usage and about his effectiveness right now. Paul Seawald was able to come in and shut the door to get his 10th save. He's now 10, 411 on save opportunities, unbelievably enough. Damon, I know it wasn't a sweep. And I know at the very least it's a series win and a good start.

But what are your thoughts here on the debacks taking this series in Colorado and getting at least off on the right foot here over this 13 game stretch. Let me get in the in the gonzo spot here. Yeah, yeah, take over to the spot. I mean, again, you're Cal Ripkin now of this PHAX. I think that's only fair. That's crazy. I don't even think you can live up to that, but you do have an extensive game, uh, game

streak for sure. You don't, you don't miss very long games. I'll take it, man. Yeah. That's some high praise for sure, but especially when we're talking about how availability is the best availability during that moment in time. That's right. Uh, but I mean, it was a, it was a good series.

It's I'm not I'm not to you know like I I'm not gonna lose my mind and do backflips because they beat the the Rockies two to three but I I think they scored 17 you got to do to get the wins. Yeah exactly and you win these games and you go you go two and one like that's that's what we were asking for is you know like eight nine wins out of this stretch at minimum and yeah and you know this is a I guess kind of like a trampoline of sorts to get into that stretch and and hopefully pick up some wins here. against the Giants upcoming, but I thought they played well. By the way, allows you to either lose a series or split the four game series with the Rockies. And I think, again, that's, we might be, we might be asking too much, but that's bare minimum, right? Eight is bare minimum. I think nine is really what we should be, nine, ten is what we should be striving for here. Absolutely. Absolutely.

But, I mean, yesterday's game, like, I think we're, I'll be honest, maybe I'm a little bit soured by just how the way it ended. Because there was a time where I was like, this team on blue. Unbelievable. And then Brandon Fott came into the game. And then everything unraveled. And can we talk about the hit by pitch for a second? Yes, we can.

Absolutely. That was a, he clearly got hit. He hit the bat. It hit the bat. Like you could hear the sound. Yeah. You could see, I'm pretty sure you could see him talking to the first base coach and being like, yeah, that hit the bat.

Yeah. Like he mouthed the words that hit the bat. And then it almost cost us an entire baseball game because we challenged it. And then somehow the umps. decided that wasn't clear and obvious. I thought that was insane. It hit the bat. It clearly hit the bat.

It's crazy. Bob and Steve were on the broadcast being like, what? I was beside myself. I was pretty mad too. And like you said, yeah, that was a critical moment where it felt like things were unraveling. Sunday's game felt like a loss. I know they won. I know Corbyn hit two home runs.

All of that is great. Corbyn was the best player on the field all weekend long. There's no doubt about that. But my God, it got too close. and again, it was another one of those occasions where you felt yourself saying, here we go where starting pitching was good, offense puts up a bunch of runs, and of course the bullpen's going to blow it.

Yeah, because we can't in all three phases have stuff that works. Right. We can't have the machine working all at the same time. Two of three always work somehow. That's why I think the most frustrating thing about being a Diamondbacks fan over the past two seasons it has been. And two and a half now for this year is that, you know, you're, it feels like you're so close to being a really, really, really good baseball team because it's always two of three of the facets are firing on all cylinders. And then the other third is

always like one of the worst in baseball at any given time. And you don't know if it's going to be, you're starting pitching, your bullpen, your lineup, but they're going to find a way to completely derail whatever you have going for you. And I feel like that's just, that's what we talk about all the time and what Tori talks about. Like you got to find a way to play complimentary baseball. And, you know, I, you almost did in that game three. Like it was, that's what I'm saying. Like, I was feeling great. And then Brandon Fought came into the game.

But to be fair, Paul Seawald then shut things down. And, you know, that was, I think what we didn't experience with Paul Seawald in 2024, especially when he was struggling, Derek is like he, when he had the bad, the bad appearances, they were spiraling out of control. Like, he'd come into the next one and it was a disaster. He gives up, he blows the save. and then he comes into this next save opportunity and he shuts it down when the momentum was on the rocky side. And so that was encouraging to see at least. Absolutely, 100%.

Plus, Waldschmidt keeps giving this team energy and some highlight defensive plays, almost every single game he's out there. Ildemar Vargas continues to be an all-star and the debacks finished the road trip at 500. Even though it seemed like they weren't going to, they get some badly needed momentum heading into this series with a Giants team that's coming in fairly hot here

to Chase Field, Damon. They beat the pirates and the athletics in two out of their last three series. And in between there, they split a four game series with the Dodgers where they took the first two games and it really looked like they had the Dodgers reeling. And now the Dodgers have rattled off five straight wins. But the Giants, they're sneaky, not a sneaky good team. They're sneaky bad team. Let's say that. The Dodgers or the Giants have been far worse this season than they should be. And now they're starting to get things going in the right direction. Of worse that happens when we play them. Again, it's not about these numbers we're going to look at because it's not about who we play or what their record is. It's about how hot they are when we play

them. And again, the Giants have won six of their last four. Let's take a look at their season so far at a glance. 20 and 27 this season with a minus 37 run differential. Again, six and four in their last 10 games. OPS is 668. That is on the rise, but they have been terrible offensively this year. And they don't seem to be that anymore. And yeah, Scotty Max getting a little head of me, but he's absolutely right when he says Robbie Ray usually rolls us. Boy, I remember him ruining our pool party last time, Damon. But their OPS 668, which is 27th in Major League Baseball, they have a starting pitching ERA of 4.31. Starters are not very good. Tied for 19th in baseball, but their bullpen is good. At 3.45, it's tied for 9th in baseball, and they have minus

one outs above average, which is tied for 17th, but they get a lot of outs above average when it comes to facing the Diamondbacks. And as you can see there, Rafael Devers is very surprised by the OPS of that team considering what they've been doing lately. 2027 though, again, just because that record is what it is, this doesn't necessarily make this Giants team a team we should beat. However, they have been playing, you know, some poor baseball here over the first stretch of, you know, this month or this season. So the Diamondbacks should have a good chance here at Chase Field. They've been pretty good at home of taking another series.

And again, a lot of things kind of riding on it, at least on this podcast. Maybe not in real life, but we on this podcast are putting a lot on this 13 game stretch. So we need the Diamondbacks to pull out some wins here. Full disclosure, guys, Espo called me and Derek into his office and he said this stretch will determine whether or not you guys stick with the company or not. So it's pretty pivotal. It was weird how he was like, if the Diamondbacks don't eat, you guys don't eat. That was a weird way to phrase it.

It made me feel very uncomfortable. It was. I mean, it is what it is. But that's just, hey, that's a little sneak peek into our work environment here at PHNX. It means everything. You think there's a lot of pressure on the team? That's nothing compared to the pressure of us keeping our jobs. At all.

And you, but yet your career is still on the line. I mean, that's the life Derek and I live. Well, I don't mean to make light of it. it, but there is another guy who is pitching in the series who honestly might be in a same boat as us, Damon. He might need to perform in order to keep his job, and that the opportunities might be running out. Let's take a look at the probable pitchers for this series, presented as always by our friends at 1AZ Credit Union, 1AZ Credit Union, always holding us down and making sure that our finances are secure. Make sure to check them out right now. We'll talk about it

here, but you'll get yourself a little bonus. You're signing up over there at 1AZ Credit Union. And let's take a look at the probable pitchers presented by 1AZ. Robbie Ray facing off against Zach Gallen and is 5.02 ERA in game one. As Scott said in the chat, Robbie Ray, very good historically against the Diamondbacks. No matter what team he's on, whether it's the Blue Jays, whether it's the Giants, doesn't matter. He shoves against us. Zach, meanwhile, like I said, Zach has a lot to prove here over this next month. because in about 40 days,

there's going to be a very good starting pitcher returning to the Diamondbacks rotation, a savior, if you would, someone who might, in fact, make us a legit postseason contender. Right now, Gallin has not been doing that as a starter in this rotation. He's really struggled lately.

We've talked about his fastball being very bad. Lowest swing and miss rate on his fastball of his career right now. So hopefully Zach can find a way to get that magic back into his fastball, but he starts off game one. Then with the way these other two guys have been pitching, despite what their ERAs say,

feel a little bit better about the Diamondbacks, maybe being able to pull out this series despite what happens tonight in game one. Ryan Nelson, 1 and 3 this season, 5.40 ERA. He has 43 strikeouts going up against Landon Rup. It's 5 and 4 with a 3.49 ERA. He's been very good this year, 58 strikeouts. He's been striking out a lot, a lot of batters.

And then last, we got Tyler Molley going up. against Merrill Kelly and Merrill outstanding in his last two starts, as you know. Hopefully Merrill can keep that rolling and keep reducing that ERA of his. If this is the Merrill we're going to get for the rest of the season, that's a game changer, right? It's kind of crazy, but it's like what we said about Eduardo Rodriguez turning things around this season. It almost feels like the Diamondbacks got a completely new pitcher with the way E.rod's been pitching. Same thing with Merrill, you know, versus those early season struggles where he was still trying to to get into a groove. This version of Merrill over the last two games has been incredible,

perhaps the best version of Merrill that we've ever seen. So hopefully he can keep that going in the finale here against the Giants. But hey, we got a lot of games play. Can't wait for that. And we have a lot of things to still discuss on this podcast, Damon. As you know, it's Monday. And we do that thing that we do around here every single Monday on this show. And we're going to do it on the other side of this break. So let's go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PHA next Diamondback show. Well, when the biggest sporting event in the world comes to our backyard, you got a toast with one of the icons of celebration. That is this beautiful bottle of Don Julio, 1942 during the 2026 World Cup.

Damon won't let me touch it. It tells me we have to put on the white gloves just to touch the box. Correct. It's insane behavior. It really is crazy person behavior. But I get it. That bottle is iconic. And they have three different options for the World Cup, including the original, which is the icon of celebrations.

This beautiful. trophy for legends on and off the field. I am definitely not one of those. And then the mini for small but iconic moments. Probably more suiting for me. But regardless, the trophy, this is the trophy that everyone can take home. Take home a special edition of the Don Julio 1942 that honors the artistry of tequila making. A symbol is timeless as the beautiful game itself and inspired by the FIFA World Cup trophy from stadiums to street parties. This release is close at the heart of football culture where football fashion and flavor all collide. It's made for those who move the moment forward, turning every celebration into a legacy. So be on the lookout for our U.S. men's national team watch

parties this summer and be on the lookout for the team that Damon and I choose so that we can win that bottle of Don Julio 1942 and bragging rights around here, P.H and N. So whether you're at means, it means everything. It does. It means more than everything. I can't even explain to you how much it means. But whether you're at your favorite spot or just stocking up for home, make it a Don Julio 1942. An Arizona Lottery wants to multiply more of the wonderful things in life. They want to multiply more of the bottles of Don Julio 1942 in your life. You can afford as many of those as you want if you hit big with the multiplier scratchers,

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We don't wait for one month. We celebrate Hispanic Heritage every single month. Every single week on this show is Shark Week. But you guys know that. Every single day on this show is Gonzo Interview Day because we're still excited he stopped by. But on Mondays, We go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag.

Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. Well, Mailbag Monday is powered by GameTime. Use that code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase on the GameTime app. And Damon, let's get into some questions. I know we got some good questions from our leadoff hitter, as always, our guy, College and Curry, Travis Moore. Yeah, Travis Moore leading this off as he typically does, Derek. and he says, what's the plan for when Lawler is back?

Whose spot on the roster is he taken? Great question. Great question. Obviously, I don't know the actual answer to that, but it feels like the likely answer is Tim Tawa, perhaps. Jordan Lawler will be the Diamondbacks permanent, you know, permanent center fielder going forward. My feeling is the plan is to have kind of a platoon in left field there of Walsh-Schmidt

and Lordis Grisiel kind of sharing time, maybe whoever's not playing, being a DH, and then having, you know, kind of some rotation there a little bit with Walsh, Walshmidt playing to center. You're going to have Jordan Lawler in center. Barrosa probably still factoring in as a backup, but, I mean, the decision needs to be made there. And it looks likely like it's going to be one of the backup players like Tim Tawa.

Tawa has not been getting the playing time he needs to, in order for his bat, to be serviceable and to be something of value. So him going down to Reno and just kind of starting every day is, is a benefit for him. And I think at this point, that could be the case for several guys, right? I also agree with what Scotty is saying, that Adrian Del Castillo, he has been struggling as well offensively. And I just don't know if ADC really is helping right now.

I mean, his spot in the lineup seems to be, again, another one of those kind of black hole spots in the lineup, and you hate to see that. But with Lala returning, there are going to be difficult decisions that need to be made. Same thing with the starting rotation. and the bullpen. A.J. Puck is going to come back and he's going to immediately cause at least a decision that needs to be made in regards to who is out and who is in.

That one's going to be far more difficult, I think. And I think that one could potentially involve Brandon Fott. But when it comes to the position player situation, I do think that, you know, it seems like Tim Tawa is the likely candidate there to be sent down when Jordan Lawler returns. What else do we have there, do? I think you're 100% right, by the way. And also, I know you're doing the professional thing, but like, what is the ceiling truly on a Tim Tawa and that bad? You're saying like he needs reps to like revive it.

But like I just feel like we've kind of seen what he is. And he's a utility guy who can play a lot of positions. But Jordan Lawler can play a lot of positions. You can play third, second, short, every outfield spot. And he hypothetically is a lot better at the plate. So I think it's a big upgrade. Tawa is a utility guy that can be used in a lot of different ways. Right.

So that's where his value lies in adding depth to this team. But taking up a roster spot right now at a major league level where he's not actually getting at bats, that doesn't seem like it's best for him. And I feel like when he does get at bats, it's going to continue to be kind of a struggle for him. You know what I mean? Like you kind of need to see pitching every single day. You need to be out there starting. So I don't mean it necessarily for like, oh, Tim Tao is going to get his bat right and come back. However, you can't really write off any player.

And I think that's the thing that I'll tomorrow Vargas is the best example of this season. season, right? It's easy to ride off a guy like Vargy and now look what he's doing for this team. Is Vargas going to be this for the rest of his career? Some of us always believe there. Probably. He's probably going to be the greatest hitter in all baseball for the rest of his career. There's also a chance that he's not, right? There's also a chance of us never stopped believing in Aldemar of Vargas. I get it. I get it. And I mean, some of us have to still apologize on this show every single time he does something good because of the things we said publicly on the show about him. But we're not going to address that right now. That's a tough spot that you're in. That's a tough spot that one of us is in.

However, when it comes to Tim Tawa, I do believe that he still has a tremendous amount. I like Tim a lot. I think he has a lot of value. And I just think that, again, he's not getting better by sitting on the bench. And, you know, I know there's a thought process there. Maybe something similar for Jose Fernandez possibly being sent down. Really, it's just about allowing these guys to play every day and see if their development can continue and they can get better. At this point, Towers had plenty of experience at a major league level.

So you're not, like you said, you're not really evaluating him necessarily to be a future starter of this team. But his value, I feel like is diminishing by him sitting on the bench and not really getting a chance to play very often. So that's my feelings on it. What else we got? Our next question is from Michael Rokickey, who says, Corbyn-Carrot-Cour's field in his career is slashing 329, 452, 671, which is good for a 1123 OPS, 7.000. bombs 12 rbi i should we start calling it coursbin field and then says hail paven at the end yeah yeah they get that in at the end and errneesto is saying paven smith is is on his way to save this franchise they're they're they're continuing this agenda and i mean i for one am impressed by their

um stamina when it comes to the hail i mean when would you talk about ABC being a black hole like maybe payvin smith can just work some counts i mean yeah that's that i mean garland's i mean even brought that up right you can hear gonzos say like what are we doing in the ninth inning why are we swinging for home runs why are we not working counts i think we've all felt that when it comes to this team in the ninth inning and uh especially you know when you you kind of see them go out there and make a closer throw eight pitches yeah then and you want to pull your hair out you're like i don't care what the result is or if we lose but by god i want you to make that man at least work foul off some pitches take some pitches do some stuff you know anyway um um

I'm going to get into the whole thing. But what was the first part of his question now? Because now I'm down to this whole anti-Cathieman field. Oh, 100% it's Coorsbinfield. It's Coorsben Field. There's just like they change the Dodgers Stadium to Christian Walker Stadium, this is Coorsbinfield. 100%. So I don't know any other answer to that.

But yeah, I mean, he rakes at Coors. And I mean, you could say that about a lot of guys, but those numbers are impressive. And Corbyn was the best, like I said, the best player out there at Coorsfield this weekend. It was great to see him really just everywhere defensively and having the big day, especially Sunday with the two home runs. Great stuff.

Great stuff from Corsbin. What else we got? Our next question here is from Herald Obrdomo's number one fan who one week after I had to reprimand my guy, Travis Moore, who by the way, sent me like a really sweet message, Derek, and was like, you know, I just like, I just love talking baseball with you guys.

and like, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to like make like an inconvenience. Oh, yeah. We're not. We're not actually mad at you. No, no, no. I was messing around with my guy. 100%. But like, also like, let's get this under.

Yeah, Harald's biggest fan or all the Pranoma's biggest fan. Like you're already antagonizing Damon enough with your name on social media, let alone the size of this question. Here we go. Let's get into it. So it's such a long question. I couldn't even fit his username in. Let's go.

Okay. Random question concerning Zach. I've noticed that he uses the pitchcom on his glove and calls his own pitches a lot more than other D-back's pitchers. At least the broadcast brings it up a lot. And I feel like some of our guys don't even use one at all. Do you think there's any chance that could be part of his problem, whether that's him deviating from the pitching plan, or maybe not reading swings as well as the other catchers can, or maybe even tipping pitches potentially like he tends to throw certain pitches when he calls his own and opposing teams have picked up on that? I could be completely off base, but I think it was just something I know.

and I wondered what you guys thought. I think that there, in my opinion, there's something Zach is doing to tip that he's throwing the fastball, that specifically. And then he's not, you know, you're essentially waiting for the knuckle curve

or, you know, like the change up if he's not throwing the fastball. I agree with what Jason says here. He says, yes, Gallin overthinks it. I think that is part of it. I do think that Gallen has shown like that the fresh. frustration when the defense isn't solid behind him can kind of get to him in other factors.

You see him kind of just be a little bit like let down. You see his shoulder struck. You just kind of see him bummed out about it. You don't see him have that same fire that like a Merrill Kelly has, for instance, or something of that sort who's coming out and like giving up a run and looks angrier than ever to come out and, you know, do the thing. But a piece of Yoshi says he doesn't think he's tipping. I mean, in general, I think that just the fastball, no matter what the problem actually is with the fastball, is whatever the problem is, it's the fastball.

There's no surprise. There's no swing and miss on the fastball now, and that's it. So whether Zach is just not locating it and doesn't have the command on the fastball that he used to, I mean, everything's down on it. His velocity is down, swing and miss on it, it's down. There's just a lot of problems right now with his fastball.

So I get it 100% that, you know, there's some solution there. I just don't know what it is. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know. I mean, I prefer in general for catchers to be the one calling the game overall versus pitchers. So that's also something that I don't necessarily agree with is pitchers catching, you know, it's kind of like the pitcher's calling ABS challenges. Yeah, you don't really want it.

There's a sense of pride there. And you kind of need to be told based on what the catcher is seeing, what's working, and what's not working. So if you want to continue to throw the force scene, but he's like, uh-uh, no, knuckle curve. Knuckle curve again, bring the knuckle curve three times in a row. Then that's what I feel like should be done versus the pitcher trying to force pitches he wants to throw in there, right? So I don't know. You could also say that a pitcher is the only one that knows how good the feel for certain pitches on a given night. The catcher might be seeing it, might think it's moving a certain way, but a pitcher

might not feel comfortable with his command of it and might not want to throw it. So there is something to be said when it comes to the pitcher having some involvement there. But our guy Eric Bonafacio wants me to apologize for my Tatsuya Amai take. Usaka, umai, he calls him. I mean, that's a lot. I apologize. I was wrong. Hashtag where Derek was right, where Derek was wrong.

It's weird. I don't. I responded to Eric and I just said, I don't think this is the show that we pretend that we get it right. No, we definitely don't do that. Speaking from experience. Yeah, no, we definitely don't do that. As a guy who apologizes once an episode to our Lord and Savior, I'll tomorrow Vargas.

I will say this, though. Yeah, there are several guys who we were interested in that have made us honestly, very thankful that the Diamondbacks didn't pay as much as they did. So, and I think there are some other teams that. I think Derek got a little emotional when he started talking about how he wanted to beat the hell out of the Dodgers and stuff. Like, like, I mean, I get it. Exactly.

I get it. Like, that's, that's, fired me up a little bit too. If you're like, I want to come to America and I want to beat that loser show Ae Otani, I'm like, dude. Yeah. I don't even need to see a year. I don't care.

I don't need to see any footage of you pitching at all. I know that I want you on my team. PCOchi says this whole free agent class has been pretty bad. You know who wasn't? Michael Soroka. Michael Soroka, $7.5 million. Best value of the off the off season. But we're going to take a quick break and answer some more mailbag Monday questions on the other side.

Don't you go anywhere. you're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, I might be wearing a hoodie today, but that's only because we crank the air conditioning in this office. Don't get it twisted. It is hot outside, and we know that that means one thing. Our energy bills are going to be going up. And, of course, every single month here in the desert,

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code. PhNX. $20 off your first purchase in the GameTime app. Damon, what do we got? We got some FOT questions, I believe, Derek. Oh, a whole bunch of font questions. Here's Jarmie talking. He threw in his gonzo question, which is a great answer that we got. So good job, Jason. Maybe you should be doing the interviewing up here, but. Wow. Says P.NX, is the Brandon Fott bullpen experiment over? Does he have a plane ticket to Reno coming? I mean, Damon, I think that the majority of our questions in this segment are all concerning Brandon Fott and Brandon Fott's. performances have been concerning.

Yeah. Karen with the C says, are they ruining Fott? He went nine days without pitching earlier this month. What pitcher goes that long without pitching? And how much does that affect them? And then I believe last here on Fott, we have Karen with the K, who says, what do you think the D-Back should do with Brandon Fott? Do you think he is too much in his head now? So a lot of people wondering what's going on with Brandon Fott and what the Diamondback should do with them.

Yeah, it's a big conundrum. I mean, Brandon Fott's only made three starts this season. In those three starts, he gave up five earned runs, three earned runs, and three earned runs. And they were, I believe, all, or excuse me, two out of the three were actually wins, believe it or not. But Brandon did not make it very far in those games. I don't know what the answer is. I really don't because Fott obviously is a starter. He is a guy that Diamondbacks are most likely going to keep a starter in the future.

They extended Brandon Fought, so he's expected to be a part of this team for you know for the foreseeable future and it's kind of rough watching him go out there and you know again Sunday's game give up four earn runs and only record one out I do agree with what Karen with a C said I think that the usage of Brandon fought is unfair quite frankly for a guy that has been a starter the majority of his career they have him in the bullpen there to come in and put out fires when a starter can't make it past the few innings when a starter can't a starter can't very deep and he's expected to go throw 60 pitches, 50 pitches, whatever he's expected to throw, but use sparingly and also never really used like this before in his career. The assumption was

when the Diamondbacks made the decision they were going to need to make when Kelly returned to the starting rotation was that whether it was Ryan Nelson or Brandon fought, the person was going to get sent down to Reno, not because it's necessarily seen as much of a demotion as much as it's about keeping them stretched out to give the starting rotation depth beyond their five starters. If a starter were to go down right now, Brandon Fott is not ready to come into the game or into the rotation and just take over and give this team five, six innings every time he goes out there. It's going to take him like another month to get stretched out.

At this point, you don't feel confident about what he gives you out of the bullpen considering what happened yesterday. So I see no reason for this Brandon Fott experiment to continue at this point. I like Brandon, and I think you very much still has a lot to give this organization, kind of like what we were saying with Tim Towell earlier. But the lack of playing time is a problem. No matter if you want to say it's not, whether you want to pitch him on back, you know, in bullpen sessions to keep him stretched out or to keep him, you know,

on his pace, that's fine. It's still not pitching in a real baseball game and pitching meaningful innings. It's back lot stuff. I think that, again, you, you, you, you, also had an outing where he went up against Texas and gave the diamondbacks three scoreless innings with only allowing two hits. He's been inconsistent all season long, no matter if he's in the bullpen or if he's not. And again, I think it's mostly because it's this situation where the diamondbacks kind of want their cake and they want to eat it too. They want Brandon fought still

on the major league roster, but they also want him not to be in the starting rotation and they want to keep them available for these lengthy relief appearances or, you know, for an emergency situation should one of their starters get injured. None of this is the way to manage a guy who's been a starter essentially his entire career. And I think, again, the franchise, the organization is doing a disservice to Brandon Fott by putting him into the position that he's in. Fott's also an extremely nice guy that is just probably entirely too willing to do whatever the organization wants him to do, not to say he probably had much of a say in this considering the way things have gone for him this season. But again, there wasn't a very long leash for Brandon.

Three starts this year. And then he was made a relief pitcher. So I still think that at the core of it, what Karen with the C said is right. And I think everybody is kind of right in regards to the, you know, fought as a reliever experiment, not only being a bad thing for the team, but being a bad thing for Brandon. Ernesto makes the point of like he thought that when fought you know was getting moved to the pen that he would see a velocity increase and that maybe you know he'd start throwing a little bit less stuff but he keeps the starter arsenal he's thrown about the same and they clearly want him

stretched out still it might just be beneficial to everybody to send him to Reno at that point and let him just continue to start but yeah it's a tough spot to be in especially when he's 27 years old like this is the time that he should be, you know, kind of establishing himself. And he's a guy that's been signed to a pretty decent sized extension. I mean, the Diamondbacks avoided arbitration with him for all of his years of arbitration. He was supposed to be in pre-arbitration this year. Yeah. So he's making 3.4 this year, 5.4 next year, 8.4 in 2028, 11.4 in 2029.

And then 15.4 in 2030 before he gets a club option for 21 million in 2031, which, you you would, I mean, I think we can go ahead and say that we're not going to go ahead and pick that up. I mean, that's a long time. In the year of our Lord, 2026, I'm going to go ahead and come out and say five years from now. We're going to be declining that club option. But I think the biggest problem here is that you can't lose the value on the player when you have five more years, four more years of control on him. Right. At, you know, not arbitration level prices.

Like, he's a valuable, he's supposed to be a valuable asset for this franchise. And instead, like, he might just be taking up money. I know it's a five million or I know it's a five million. or I know it's a five-year extension. I know it's that amount that you said, but when you really listen to that, that is not a lot of money for a starting pitcher, especially in the future from now when money is,

you know, when contracts are going to be even higher, I'm sure of, right? So it's like overall, even though they did sign him to this extension, that's still like good reliever money based on the current market. That's not even like starter money.

It doesn't feel like Brandon Fought's contract is that much of a detriment to the organization that you feel like you need 100% to find him a spot on the major league roster is all I'm saying that contract the way it's structured at least to me says that right now you can take the hit on using his minor league option and sending him down to Reno and then from that point going forward again hoping that he gets stretched back out can continue his development even though he is 27 years old and and you know find a way to be more effective as a starter and then you know the dimebacks are probably going to need him next year when guys like Gallin and most likely Soroka aren't part of the this roster any longer. And they could, you know, again, the opportunity is going to be there, at least for him to be back in the starting rotation. It's going to be up to Brandon to, you know, determine if he can or try to get back to that point where he wins himself a spot and is back here in the starting rotation. As far as this is concerned, I kind of agree with everybody's

sentiment. It does feel like this is time to, you know, start looking at other options. And maybe the Diamondbacks just wait until AJ Puck returns, which should be shortly. I'm, I'm, I'm, hoping that we get AJ Puck back in the next three weeks. So perhaps that's just the roster move that's made at that time when Puck returns. But we'll see. Let's get one more in, Damon. Then we've got to get out of here. Yeah, our last question is from piece of Yoshi, who posts a picture of Arnada with all of his accolades.

Look at those platinum gloves. His platinum gloves, his gold gloves, his, you know, eight all-star appearances and says, were we fools to not believe in him? Yes. We were fools. I mean, I feel like I'm not going to say that confidence never waned with how bad it looked at the start of the season, but like we both really like the trade. I know. We like the trade.

We liked how much money the Diamondbacks were on the hook forward. Exactly. Also, it felt like very low risk, you know. Yeah, the St. Louis Cardinals are doing very well this year. They are. This is supposed to be a rebuilding year for them or some crap. It's so isn't. They are killing it right now.

They got good players, man. They dumped like what? Or eight, not dumped. eight like $55 million in contracts with the guys that they sheesh you know got rid of sunny gray Nolan Aronado like they got rid of a lot of money off of but they hate it right and you could say during the off season that they look like idiots but now with the team performing at the level that it is and doing it with a bunch of young future superstars in there maybe they weren't so crazy to do to do that this is one of those

rare cases where it feels like Aronado coming to the Diamondbacks is a win for us and them getting him off their team was a win for the Cardinals. So that rare instance where even something like eating what 20 some odd million dollars of a player's contract still works out for you. It's kind of crazy. But we thank you guys so much for being here. Once again, a big thank to the thanks to the icon, the legend himself, Luis Gonzalez for stopping by. Also, big thank you to him. Once again, for letting me cut in line in front of him at Dutch Bros. I will never forget that as long as I live. So that's just something I take with me. But we got a super chat.

Oh, sorry, cool, bro. My bad. Damon, we got a super chat from Cool bro. Yep. We do. Superchat says, 199, Cool, bro.

Thanks, as always. Was this plan for you guys to twin today? Of course this was planned. Well, cool, bro. Here's the thing. This was planned a while back. Yeah, and then I blew it.

And then Derek, like, physically abused me when we got off of air. That's insane to tell people what we do in this office. I'm just trying to open up and tell people the truth of what of what you do to me when when I make mistakes on this podcast. I just look, I just all I did. So I learned my lesson.

I brought my I brought my turn ahead the clock. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. All I did that day was rip the sleeves off of the shirt you were wearing and said, you idiot. Is that not physical way you're going to remember you dumb dumb and that's what I said. It was non-consensual physical contact. It was aggressive. And for me, I called the cops.

So that warrants as a soul. Whatever. Thank you, Cool, bro, for your chat and pointing out our twinning today. Hopefully, Luis Gonzalez appreciated that. I know he appreciates Damon, who is somehow now his favorite person on this podcast, even though I did all of this work to get him here. He says also Derek was the final boss and Damon was Cody. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty much like that.

That's a pro wrestling reference dating back to a few manias ago. But I thank Cool, bro, for his love of wrestling. I mean, I get it. I pick things up with you. We're talking Cody Rhodes. Derek's Fred. We're talking Cody Rhodes in The Rock. Yeah, for sure.

Derek's buddy. Anytime you compare me to being the Rock, I'm going to take that for sure, except when it comes to him being in that remake of Moana. The hair was terrible. My hair is also terrible. Who might have talked? We'll be back tomorrow with another post game show. No post game show tonight, but I will be doing, I think we got the Luis Gonzalez interview,

of course, for you audio listeners. We'll be dropping. I hope you guys enjoy that. If you're listening to this, you've already heard it, but might as well listen again. Of course, you can follow us on social media. I am at cap underscore caveman with a k. Damon is at Damon dog with a D-A-W-G at the end. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs.

Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but as always, all roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your chat or your time. Thank you for your live chats. Thank you for your questions on Mailbag Monday. As always, Mailbag Monday would not be what it is without your involvement.

So we appreciate you guys. And we appreciate you giving us a little bit of your time, just like with Louise, Gonzalez. It's your most valuable commodity. Be careful who you share it with. But we'll be back tomorrow with another postgame show. Until then, have yourselves a wonderful evening. Behave yourself, piece of Yoshi, specifically you. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get to talk to an absolute legend.