PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Make BIG Gamble with Zero Lefties in Their Opening Day Bullpen

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are heading into the 2026 season with a bold and potentially disastrous decision: not a single left-handed pitcher in their bullpen. We break down the full relief corps, what went into this all right-handed approach, and why it could seriously backfire against key matchups throughout the season.We also roll out our full D-backs season predictions, including team MVP, offensive leaders, potential All-Stars, and where we see Arizona landing in the standings by year’s end. Plus, we dive into the questionable 9-9-9 challenges making the rounds across MLB and explain why Presidente delivered the best beer can design we’ve ever seen.  Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-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.

Well, damn it, it's my party, and I'll cry if I want to about the D-backs not having any left-hand pitchers in their bullpen. The P-H-N-X D-Backs podcast, presented by our friends at Circle K, it is I, the birthday boy, occasionally known as your mayor of P-H-NX. Also, occasionally known to Bill Collectors is Derek Montsvia. Thrilled that you guys here. Thrilled to be celebrating my birthday in the one place, I would rather be than anywhere else. Well, that's a lie. I'd rather be on a beach somewhere. Definitely trunk.

This is like at least the top five place for me. Maybe the homeland, Puerto Rico. Yeah, maybe with a Pia Colada in one hand and a nice book in the other. But I'm thrilled to be here. I'm thrilled to be celebrating with my guy on the ones and twos. The one, the only Damon dog, aka Damon Farrell. Damon, it's a party. Get yourself on screen because I need people to see how adorable you are in your party hat.

See? Hello. We're having a celebration here, folks. It's my birthday. When you get to be this old, you just celebrate the fact that you're still alive for another year. So I get that. I'm 45, so I'm halfway there. I think I got another 45 in me, Damon.

I won't lie. That might be pushing it a little bit. I like it. I like it. I think that's a good expectation set. I'm trying here to not be as much of a downer as you get to see me when we're off air. Yeah, off air Derek's about to tell me like, I'm like three. years from needing to retire.

Everything's done. Yeah, for sure. I have nothing and I'm an old man. But on the show, it's like, I'm 45. I feel like I'm 25. I do feel like I'm 25. Sometimes you act like you're 25, Derek. And that's a compliment.

That's a compliment, by the way. I don't mean that it is as an insult. You live it up. One of the biggest compliments ever was when Damon and Kevin both like categorized this office into two groups. And I was part of your guys. Yeah, it's like, I'm not going to say who was in the other group. That feels mean. Eriton, Noah, Kevin, Totry, Damon. Yeah. You can figure it out. And that's, that's the crew. That's the young guys crew. It's the young and spirit. Max is an old guy. Yeah, Max is the oldest guy in this office for sure. He's probably going to yell at me about this shirt not being a PHNX shirt. It's from an old podcast I used to do. Free ads on my birthday for old podcasts that I used to do. But welcome in guys. Thrill to have you guys here. And,

I got to give a shout out, Damon. It's not just my birthday. It's also the goat. Kevin Ginkle's birthday. I share birthday with the Gink. So big happy birthday to him, not quite as old as me. I believe Kevin Gingled turned 32 years old today.

So shout out. Kind of young. No? Yeah. Like I would have guessed older than that. Maybe that's disrespectful of me. I think I would have guessed like 33, 34. He does have a little bit of an old man spirit.

Right? Right? Yeah. Like, get off my lawn, that kind of thing. You know, that kind of fiery energy. And then when he, and then when you, when he forces you get off his lawn, you know, he starts laughing like a maniacal freak coming off the mound. I was talking to one of my roommates yesterday because one of one of my roommates, huge D-backs fan tunes into the show sometimes. His boss actually, if he's listening to this, huge fan of this show. So I get I get stuff coming back like, hey, tell Damon, uh, Trevor. versus pizza is ball know or stuff. Tell him to try the white sausage with pepperoni added on to it and stuff. But me and my one roommate, like, we love the snakes. And Kevin Ginkle came up in conversation. My other roommate was like, what's, what's his deal? Like, who's this guy? And he went to UVA, not familiar

with Kevin Ginkle's game. And I, I, like, I'm just sitting there and it's just flashbacks to 2023. And I'm like, I have never seen a Diamondbacks bullpen arm do what Kevin Ginkle did in the 20, 23 postseason run. The guy was flat out untouchable. I get like I have dreams about it. Vince McMahon made meme. I'm like no.

No, please. No. Literally. He was special, Derek. He was striking people out with sliders that were starting in the batters box that the guy was the right handed batter was in and ending up all the way on the other side of the batter's box. And it's like there's so much movement wrapping around the whole zone on that slider.

I mean, the dude was untouchable. if we can get Kevin Ginkle back to being a little bit healthy, that would just be so massive. But happy birthday to Mr. Ginkle. Yeah, we do need it. We need it. It's going to be an uphill battle with the way that this bullpen is currently constructed, which we're going to talk about here shortly.

Of course, I would be not doing my due diligence as a fellow March 24th birthday ever if I didn't also wish a happy birthday to The Undertaker. So shout out to The Undertaker. Also, it is the 25th anniversary of a very special moment in Arizona Diamondbacks history. Probably a franchise defining moment. Because on this day, 25 years ago, Randy Johnson gave me the greatest gift anyone ever gave me. And that was when he destroyed a bird with a baseball. I mean, I don't know any other way to put it.

I know that ESPO covered it. I believe Espo had an interview, Damon, with the great-grandson of a bird? It was just the grandson. He's a 30-year-old bird. Unfortunately, he was in attendance that day there. Yikes. Yikes. And watched it unfold.

I probably shouldn't celebrate this as much as I currently am. I mean, listen, like, I'll tell you this much. He was, he was surprisingly very well-spoken, able to talk about it, despite the horrors that he witnessed on that. On that, I feel like it would be traumatizing for most of those. Oh, for sure. Just a delight to see Randy Johnson make a bird explode out of the air. That was, even that was kind of an impressive magic trick. It was like the bird's final trick was to make itself look like it exploded.

And then you kind of see it like skip out of the frame. This is dark. But anyway, rest in peace to that bird, Damon. In memoriam, we got to give a shout out to a bird that was lost forever, forever. but still an amazing moment. The Diamondbacks kind of got smacked around a little bit in their loss to the Cleveland Guardians. If anybody cares about exhibition games, spring training is officially over. These are just exhibition games.

And nobody really, these are games really we don't care about, right? Right? Maybe not because I don't know. I don't mind what happened with Merrill Kelly. I don't mind that the Diamondbacks lost the game. Nobody is going to remember, you know, these two games before the season starts against the Guardians. However, I am concerned about the offense. I do think that getting blank 7 to nothing by the Guardians isn't, you know,

that doesn't make you feel great heading into Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Merrill Kelly made his third start. He threw 52 pitches, two innings. And again, he will start the season on the injured list. But not a great outing at all, really, for Merrill, not really trying to have it be a great outing. They brought it up on the broadcast, which I thought was fair. Merrill would normally be having these games like on a back lot against, you know, minor league guys or whatever.

And instead, he's out there pitching against the Guardians as they prepared to start their season. So I don't care that Merrill kind of got knocked around. It's definitely more about, you know, the Diamondbacks getting kind of blank there by Slade Soconi, only giving up one hit in four innings pitched. Merrill, two innings pitch. He gave up four hits, five earned runs. He walked two, struck out one. He allowed two home runs.

But again, it's the offense. I think the fact that the Diamondbacks were held scoreless in this game, and they were really just held to the two hits by Payman Smith, two singles. By Payman Smith? I mean, not great. Not great. Damon, I don't know if Damon could muster up the words for an offense that's led by Payvon Smith and two hits. Sounds like the worst offense in baseball, Derek.

Oh, God. See, and this is the thing. Like, I know that I know that people want. I know I'm the Pavin Smith guy, like from a hater perspective. Yeah, they need the takes, Damon. They need the takes from that. But I'm going to say it again. I'm going to say it all season long.

I want Paving Smith to do good. He's going to be given A-Bs. And I want my team to win. So I don't, I'm not rooting against anybody. Yeah. I'm not rooting against Jorge Barrosa, even though I declared him an enemy of Damon dog FC yesterday, despite his. despite his 1,100 OPS in spring.

Like this is, I'm just, I'm, I'm letting takes fly. I don't believe in Payvon Smith. I don't believe in Jorge Barrosa. I hope they prove me wrong. But yeah, I mean, Paveen Smith, you know, he's, he's, he might be the DH the entire season. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's some things about the Diamondbacks offense that definitely are concerning. But, you know, what they're going to do about D.H is probably up there. Hopefully, Payman Smith can keep this role going.

He's been hot this spring. He's been hot recently, four for 13 in his last four games since coming back from that brief injury of arm tightness that he experienced, left forearm tightness. But again, you know, the Diamondbacks didn't get much else from anybody else here. And that's like, again, even though it's just an exhibition game, it would still have been nice to see some of the starters, you know, get going. Kevin Ginkle, Paul Seawald from the bullpen perspective, they each tossed a scoreless. So that's good. Paul Seawald, believe it or not, has been very, very good this spring and continues to be a surprise for this team. But outside of that, not a lot, you know, not a lot to write home about with this game, right? Gabriel Moreno did start his second game at catcher last night. That was the previous night. And that was something that, or excuse me, last night since March night. So that was his first start behind the plate. And, you know, You got Alec Thomas having a nice spring. Nolan Aronado still batting incredibly well,

Perdomo batting well. But like Aronado is hitting 333, even though it doesn't really seem like it. He has a 1.324 OPS. Struggled in the WBC, but in spring, Arnado has been fairly consistent. Perdomo hitting 333 with a 782 OPS. Jordan Lawler continues to be very good, very consistent.

Again, 324. But last night, not the offense that you want to see out of a team heading into the season against, you know, a Dodgers team that you get the feeling. They're going to need to put up a lot of runs against, especially with this bullpen situation, with the official news coming down now that the Diamondbacks, Damon, will have no left-handed relievers in their bullpen to start the season. It's a bold strategy, cotton. Let's see how it plays out for him.

I'm going to start sitting like Bateman does in Dodgeball and this one, just like legs up on the chair. I mean, it's amazing, right? Now, we had some doubts on yesterday's show where we did our best to try to figure out what the, who was going to be the final three pieces in the bullpen. Juan Murillo had too good of a spring to be denied. Andrew Hoffman was put until games late all spring long and, He had a very nice spring as well.

He was put in in, I don't know if you want to call it high leverage situations, but at the very least high leverage spring situations, right? Both of those guys succeeded. Meanwhile, Brandon Garcia couldn't have been more all over the place. And even though his stuff is incredible, and even though he was very, very good for this team last year, kind of being thrown into the fire, you know, as a rookie still, he just has been so inconsistent.

And it sucks to see because, again, he's had really nice stretches this spring after being removed from that game due to illness. He put together some very nice outings. And then just some awful outings where it seemed like he couldn't even, you know, throw a ball for a strike. So I really can understand the decision, right?

You, you, it's like drafting where, yes, in baseball, you kind of want to draft for positional needs, but considering how far off these guys are that you're drafting, you really just kind of want to draft the best player. And that's where you kind of get, you know, caught up in that potentially.

Other sports, maybe not so much because you know that those young players are going to make an immediate impact, right? But, you know, with the Diamondbacks here, it just, it definitely feels like this is a terrible situation for them to be in and that they don't really have a lot of, I don't know, I feel like they really screwed themselves over

by putting themselves here in this spot where they have no left-handed options. I approve of them going with the best pitchers, though, and I do feel like this is going to allow perhaps less situational matchups and more about, you know, just putting a guy out there with reverse splits that pitches well, you know, against lefties and can go out there and do his thing, right? But I have my doubts, Damon. I mean, this is a terrible situation, as you said, Derek.

And I think part of it is, I'm sure their psyche was like, we got Andrew Salfranc. No, you don't. You don't have Andrew Salfranc anymore. Done for the year, right? So, like, there have been some extenuating circumstances that have led to not having left-handers, Brandon Garcia not really proving that he belonged in the Major League opening day bullpen and Philip Abner, same thing. But it also was just like a lack of like it feels like intention and focus on the

bullpen all offseason long. It's what we've been talking about all off season. It felt like maybe the Catelle trade took up a huge portion and the lack thereof of the Catell trade and in, you know, when it's all said and done took up a lot of the energy of this front office. And, you know, I don't know if that's what precluded them from signing a left-handed armor, even just any bullpen pitcher that would raise the floor of this bullpen significantly because it pretty much was just ignored flat out. And so, like, I've said before, like, I like, I like where the rotations at. I think it's going to be a lot better than people

think it is. I think, you know, we've expected the rotation to be very good the last two years. It hasn't been. I think we see some positive regression. It's a, about an average starting rotation this year. The lineup, we're going to get into predictions later. Derek, I know you got a bold one for the lineup. Like this lineup, I think is, you know, as long as Geraldo Perdomo, Corbyn Carroll, and Cetel Marte are healthy,

the lineup should stay afloat. It should be good. But the bullpen is a disaster. And it feels like it's like Mike Hazen, who I know he wouldn't try to do this because he's the reason Tori Lovolo probably still has a job because they're tied at the hip together in a way. But it feels like in Espos,

this to me when we finished off Southwest Bias, it feels like Mike Hazen is like sabotaging Tori Lavello being like, watch this, I'm about to give him the worst bullpen of all time and the fan base is going to hate Tori all season long for pitching scrubs when that's all that is available to Tori yet again is nothing but bad bullpen arms. And it sucks, man, because I do feel like this team is pretty talented. Bullpen arms are way more expensive than what they used to be in major league baseball, but it's still way cheaper than getting in an everyday starter from a hitting standpoint or way cheaper than bringing in a starting pitcher.

So that's why I'm like, man, we couldn't have just used a little bit more of that Walmart money and gotten us like a Sir Anthony Dominguez, even though he's not a lefty, just make me feel a little bit better about this bullpen. You know what I mean? Get me somebody who could have, you know, just raised the floor, like I said,

and Hazen ultimately kind of did nothing. And now we're relying upon all these young guys he traded for and even some of them already are getting weeded out and seeming like they're not really all that. It's just, it's, it's definitely frustrating. And it feels like it's one of those situations where, yeah, yes, it's easy to blame Mike Hazen. But then, you know, like no matter what, I feel like you can go to somebody to blame and then look above them, right? Mike Hazen did the best that he could to fill as many roster spots as he had open with the money. that he had to do it with, right?

Including trades, including other stuff. Now, what I will say is, like, if we don't see Cade Stroud on the Major League roster here within the first three months that that Blaze Alexander trade is going to look like an absolute, you know, L for this team, and especially considering that you traded Blaze Away for somebody that you weren't really going to have, be as your bullpen, not to say that that was known at that time.

But, you know, this doesn't look like, you made the right moves in order to provide yourself with the pieces that you needed to provide yourself with, right? It's kind of crazy to me that just a few years ago, our only All-Star was a left-handed reliever. And he's not a good pitcher. He's not even a good pitcher. I'm not saying.

I'm not like saying like they let one slip away. No, but like he's he would be the by far the best left-hander. Well, I mean, there is no left-handers. So I guess that's kind of a default, you know, accolade. But right. Yeah. We got Ryoma jumping ahead of my notes. But Ryoma's absolutely right.

Our Fancraft bullpen ranking is 28th. That's projected for the 2026 season. Are the Rockies and White Sox good teams to? Yeah, that's right. Rockies and the White Sox are the only team? Be in competition with there? Or are those the two biggest jokes in all of baseball? I mean, it's all the moment game and I just wanted a reliable bullpen.

I don't know what it's like to have that. And I don't understand exactly why. the Diamondbacks took a look at the majority of the pieces from last year and felt comfortable running it back with them other than they didn't have the options. They didn't have the ability to go out and just massively spend on the bullpen and revamp it. They didn't have, you know, they have the commitments to the guys that are already here financially that are on this team. So I understand the predicament that they were in and I understand that this bullpen is going to evolve throughout the season. So I am cautiously optimistic by the time that makes,

comes around. This isn't even the same bullpen that we see. I hope that many of these arms work out. I hope that AJ Puck brings a much needed relief. And perhaps knowing he is as close as he is could be a reason why the Diamondbacks feel comfortable going in this direction. That's them. Not me, not you. I don't feel comfortable going into Los Angeles with this situation for three games, let alone playing two months of baseball with a bullpen comprised entirely of right-handed pitching. And I just think it leaves the Diamondbacks in a terrible position. But I will say that if you don't feel like those lefties that you had are even close to being better than your options that are righties in the pen, then go with your best pitchers, just like I said earlier about my stupid draft.

you know, analogy. It's like just go with your best players if that's going to give you the best, you know, best weapons and the most options to use in those high leverage situations. I just don't know if that's the case. This could be impacted by the change in philosophy, right? We got Dan Heron going away. We talked about the analytics gearing more towards their pitcher's strengths than hitters weaknesses. So maybe that's a part of this. I can't help but, you know, also be a little bit discouraged by when that lefty that you want to bank, you know, a lot of your, I guess you put all your chips on is AJ Puck, right? Like, and that's a guy that you expect to be back at least at some point this season.

But A.J. Puck is the best reliever in this bullpen. Full stop. He should be the damn closer. But because he's going to be the only lefty, I don't think that they can possibly use him like that because they need him to. to be a lefty specialist. So that means that we're stuck with Paul Seawald as our closer, even when AJ Puck comes back,

which is a disaster. And that's the other portion of this that I didn't mention. Like the Paul Seawalt signing, that feels like a joke. Now you're effing with us. Yeah. Now you're messing with us, Mike. You're trolling.

I'm a troll. Derek, I'm speaking as as chief troll officer here at PHNX Sports. Yeah, absolutely. I know trolling when I see it. Mike Hazen, you're trolling our asses when you signed Paul Seawalt. Because we did nothing in the bullpen except for bring back the guy that everyone in the entire fan base is like, yeah, I think we're good on him. And they're like, no, he's, that arm's still got a live 89 fast rise fastball in it.

And you're like, and he's the closer? That's the part that I think it feels like a slap in the face. I mean, you're not wrong. And that is what's going to happen when he returns. I mean, you're, you would think that he would return and be put into that closer spot. But it's just going to be a case where he's too valuable to be used in the eighth inning or even in the seventh inning. Right.

So it's a disaster. And then I, like I've said since the beginning of the off season, I think Justin Martinez is he's such a young arm. They have him extended long term. I just think they're going to be very, very, very cautious with him. I don't expect him to be a part of the bullpen this year. really at all. I disagree, but I think that he's not going to come back and be the savior of the bullpen. I don't think he's going to come back and be the closer by any stretch of the imagination. But I do think that he could return at a very valuable time. And if he is dialed in and ready,

ready to pitch at that point, then I think that, you know, again, it's going to be a welcome site for a bullpen that at that point could be severely taxed with overusage, especially with Tori's, you know, I guess his managerial style where he goes to the same guys that he trusts a lot, especially in high leverage situations. Do you? But it's it's not shaping up to be great. And it definitely would be, you know, I feel like they're definitely going to have their worst roster during the toughest time of the year.

Yeah. Which is this first, you know, first 30 day stretch. Well, and we've said this a lot as well, like the debacks every time that they make the playoffs, essentially have a hot start. It's not, there's not, this is not the franchise that, that is 10 games under 500 at the all-star break and is just storming back,

taking baseball world by storm and just, you know, being the story of the entire sport. Like this, I feel like we need to have a good April in particular to have a good season. And so, yeah, starting off with not full strength,

starting off with potentially the worst bullpen, not named, Colorado or Chicago, it's tough. I'll say this about what you said earlier in regards to Mike Hazen kind of sabotaging Tori Lavello. I feel like in a way, they're kind of connected here, right? We know this is Tori's last year. For sure.

Tori, unless they do good. Yeah. Tori, the Diamondbacks would really need to succeed. And even then, right? Even then one thing that one part of this equation that neither you nor I can really factor in is does Tori even want to come back? after his contract is up. Would he even want to sign an extension?

Is he done? I mean, at this point, is he just kind of okay with the work that he's put in and either willing to move on to another franchise or willing to just move on in his career, in a different path, right? But what I will say is that, you know, Tori, this seems like it's it.

Seems like it's it. And it would take like another one of those kind of miracle playoff runs. And I'll even say just making, just making the playoffs in general for him to be the manager of this team beyond the 2026 season. However, the reason why I feel like they're tied together here is because it would be hard to put this all on Tory if this season is a failure. Like you said, from the outside looking in, it now appears that this is more about the way that the roster was constructed.

And again, even to defend Mike Hazen, the budget he was given to make this team whole when they had so many fractured pieces and so many things that need repairing this off season that, I mean, it would be hard to not place the blame here a bit on Mike, you know, at the end of the year. So I feel like this is kind of an all-in year for this team. I wouldn't be surprised to see them manage the roster and games with a sense of urgency that we only saw, like perhaps at the final,

like half of the year last year, or maybe even during that stretch when things, Things were getting bad and they weren't even giving guys more than a couple of games before they were replacing them with another call up or another person in the bullpen or another position player. So I don't know. But I do think that this season is incredibly important and starting it with no left-handed pitchers does not really make me feel like they're taking it as seriously as they need to. Yeah, I'm not like it doesn't make you exude confidence. It does. Right.

And that's where, you know, I definitely don't think might. is sabotaging Tori because I know that they're like best friends. They love each other. Mike and Tori want to be the the two-headed snake at the top of this debacks organization for for years and years, right? And so I know that that's not the intention. But that being said, it's just hard not feeling that way when you have bad bullpen after bad bullpen after bad bullpen.

And then all of a sudden you get the 18th best bullpen in baseball. And what happens? Oh, that's right. You go to the World Series. You win the pennant. And you're like, wait, all it took was. a slightly below average bullpen and this team went to the damn world series. And so that's where, you know, I struggle with the lack of resources that get put towards

this bullpen of being like, man, are we just really running it back, the run it backs with it with the bullpen? Because that's the part, that's a tough pill to swallow. We're okay with running it back with the lineup, but the bullpen maybe not so much. I think I figured it out though. And considering that we kind of are coming back around to how we started the show. the diamondbacks need to sacrifice a bird damon i don't know in what does it do we need to do it i don't know i don't know if this is like major league style where we can just go to like a chicken

restaurant get ourselves like a bucket of fried chicken i'm not exactly sure how this works but i feel like the bird either caused the curse like dan hausen but it was like at the beginning of the year and then they won the world series right so i i think some harsh decisions need to be made. That's just my thing. Don't come for me, PETA. I apologize now. No birds were harmed in the making of this podcast.

At least in the making of this podcast. So let's make that clear. But we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk about our season predictions for 2026. And I'm going to make some crazy bold predictions. Probably not as crazy as Gabrielle Moreno leading the team in home runs. But we're going to get a little crazy. So we're going to do that on the other side of this break.

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Must be present in Arizona. $10 minimum deposit required. Bonus bet wager exclusive from returns. New customers only, 21 and over only. Time limits, minimum codes in terms of conditions apply in-app-only, Boyd, where prohibited. Let's see, there's discussion in the comments about the birds needing the husband and wife's law team to defend them.

I promise you, they do not. They don't, they're not bird law experts. Bird law is a different category, and they are not. They're specialists and certified injury and other things, but not bird law. Also, our guy Michael Dixon says that he is willing to forego haircuts and shaving for a whole year for a World Series title. Wow. I mean, you would look unreal. Me?

Or Michael? Michael. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what his facial hair situation. I would definitely look like a caveman, which is where my... Like Tom Hanks castaway vibe? Exactly. Exactly.

When my beard gets big, it doesn't grow down. It grows out. Uh-huh. Like this way. And it gets grayer, the longer it gets. It's like if I keep it short, it's still somewhat black, but the minute that it gets out to here, it's very, very gray. That doesn't really make any sense, but... I can't make...

Look, my facial hair makes zero sense to me, so I will be the... the first person to agree with you when it comes to my hair, my facial air, not making any sense. But I'm going to try to make some sense of the 2026 season here because, of course, we sit here. What? We are, we are just 48 hours away from the start of the season, a little more than that. But we will be, of course, out at Crybaby doing our thing, having a watch party. If you did not know about that, you are invited. You have plans now if you did not have plans on the evening day.

You're in your, you are required to. You are, yeah, your attendance is mandatory, by the way. So make sure to be a crybaby for opening day. 5 p.m. doors open. We're going to be doing a pregame show. We're going to be having drinks. We're going to be having a great time. And you should be there with us.

But, of course, that day, the opening day of the season, I am going to be very nervous in regards to how the Diamondback season starts. I think that, again, it's the Dodgers. So expectations are probably fairly low. However, I know in that clubhouse, there is no. series, no game that they want to win more than opening day there in Los Angeles and spoil this for the Dodgers. I know that they want to start the season off with an act of, you know, defiance here in the NL West and prove that no matter what we think of their bullpen or their roster,

that this collection of players can come together and make 2026 special. I do feel like I said earlier that they have something more than just their normal season to play for. I do think a lot of these guys love Tori and want to play for him. And I do think they understand the assignment about how this season needs to go in order for Lovalo to possibly still be the manager beyond the end of the 2026 season. But if it is last season as manager, even in that case, let's make it the best goddamn season of him being manager. And of course, we have some predictions here for what we think.

think this team will do this year. In fact, we have some predictions here on who we think will be the different kind of categorical leaders of this team. The first one and most important being team MVP for 26. Damon and I definitely are going to disagree on this one because without even putting him on screen, I could speak for him on his behalf and say that Damon's choices are Aldo Perdomo. Interesting. Interesting. Right? Crazy. for me to just speak for you, but, David, do you want to give your team MVP for 26? Yeah. I know this is going to be a shock, but I was going to say Corbyn Carroll.

No way. What? What? No way. I think if here's what I'm willing to say. If Geraldo Perdomo is somehow the team's MVP two years in a row with Catelle and Corvin Carroll on the team, he truly is a superstar. Or something's gone wrong.

True. Right? True. I'm assuming that they're all playing in Corbyn Carroll and Catele are the every bit the players that we know them to be. Right. Because Jerry was more valuable than those guys last year according to basically everybody that watched. And if he can do that twice in a row, that would be absolutely insane because Corbyn and Catell are both top five type of MVP candidate players. And Jerry did that last year. But if he can sustain that, that'd be wild. So I'm going to go with Corbyn because I think Corbyn is poised to have maybe his best offensive year of his career, which based off of what he's done throughout his career thus far, that means we're getting a very, very special season out of Corbyn Carroll this year. So I'm going to say Corbyn's my MVP. It seems like Carol is still on the Ascension. And it seems like he's still getting better year after year. So if you take what he did in 25 and feel like he can be better, which it's, I mean,

there's one player that I feel like is capable of being better year after year on this team. It's Corbyn. So, yeah, I can agree with you on that. I think it's going to be Catelle Marte. I think Marte has a lot to prove this season. And I think Cotel also kind of is going to be playing with a chip on his shoulder to a certain degree. I think that there is an amount of bonding that's happened with this clubhouse versus the opposite, right? We don't necessarily have the, you know, I don't think.

We have the problems in the clubhouse that people, you know, expected there to be or acted like there would be. Yeah. I also think Ketel is going to have a renewed sense of dedication to this team over what happened last year. I agree with you. Right. I think between what happened and I think between the offseason where his name was the constant source of trade rumors and gave us just two months of feeding on this show, which we'll never be. Well, we can never be thankful. Yeah, kept our jobs.

in place. Just kept us working, right? Food on the table. I do think that, you know, a hungry could tell Marte with something to further prove is going to be dangerous. And I think that not only could he be

an MVP candidate for this team, I think he could be a National League MVP candidate. But we're going to get into the Baltics later. That's just a pre- I love it, Derek. Breakout hitter on this team in 26, Damon. Obviously, it's hard to bring any of those guys into this category because

none of those guys are going to have a breakout year. I know that Jordan Lawler, we've talked about needing to have a breakout season, but who do you think is going to be the breakout hitter in this lineup? Can I do the thing? Please do. Jordan Lawler.

I knew you were going to. I don't know why, but I'm buying in fully. And I was so out. And I know that that's flip-floppy, but maybe it's just because part of me just wants it, Jordan Lawler to be really good because I know it's so impactful on how the season is going to play out. But when I'm looking at guys that could break out, and we'll get to your candidate here in a second, which I think is a good one, I don't necessarily believe in Pavin Smith, like I said.

I don't believe in Alec Thomas, even though I think that, you know, he does look better than he has in the past. I kind of am starting to believe on Jordan Lawler a little bit just with his profile. his age, finally getting that opportunity. I believe more in him than I do those other guys. And because of that, I'm going to go with Jordan Lawler. But I also am not like totally sold. But I do think that he has the highest upside of the potential players that could take a massive leap in terms of what they've showed in the past. I agree.

I don't know if it would be a breakout hitter as much, considering what we saw him do in the, you know, his first season with the team. But I think Gabriel Moreno is going to have a big breakout season offensively. I love it. I'm not going to put him as the number one home run hitter again. I'm not going to make that mistake twice. But I will say that. Unfamiliar. That Moreno.

That never happened, Derek. I feel like he's going to end up being the cleanup hitter in this lineup. I think he's going to end up hitting for consistency. The power will be there. I think his home run numbers will be up. I don't think it's going to be anything crazy. I imagine him reaching like the teens. But I could definitely see him hitting close to the.

300, especially considering, you know, what we've seen out of him at stretches when he was healthy. I think that's the most important thing. I think the Diamondbacks will have more confidence in playing James McCann as a backup and not necessarily just as, you know, every fourth day catcher needing to give Gabby a day off. I think McCann will have situations where some pitchers are going to like to work with McCann more and they're going to have him behind the plate and I think that it's going to be maybe a little less time for Gabby than he would see you know with with Jose Herrera as his backup but I think it's going to help keep him healthy throughout the entire 2026 season yeah I think it's going to poison to like play dh some and

just have other roles where he's not necessarily behind the plate every single day also I do think that Alec Thomas could also be a big candidate for breakout hitter of the year the mechanics that we've seen the changes in his approach at the plate, the success he's had already this spring. It's hard to deny it, right? I mean, he was one of the most productive hitters on Team Mexico. He wasn't just the body there, and that was an all-star team in itself. But he also had safely nine of his 11 games at a 345 clip, right? He has a 1.148 OPS with three doubles, a triple, and two home runs this spring. He also had eight RBI. So I think Alec Thomas could definitely also be that guy, considering that, you know, the perception of him as a hitter is, is inconsistency.

That's like the number one thing I think people think of when they think of Alex Thomas. Absolutely. They think of his great defense. They think of some huge moments and huge home runs. He's had, but it's that inconsistency that really, you know, makes people feel like he is not as productive as he should be. biggest regression candidate on this team damon people might not like it but it might make a whole heck of a lot of sense and i might just this might be recency bias but i think it might be merrill kelly oh man i think merrill kelly has been extremely good for this team shot to the heart derrick

but i just think that you know based on you know the injuries him having this back issue that could end up being a lingering issue throughout the year as well as just in general like merrill's numbers incredibly good, higher than we would expect normally to see, like last season, I think that he's a prime candidate for regression. Yeah. I mean, I think that if you're talking about people that could regress, you look at age number one first and foremost, right? So I hear your reasoning there.

I understand that. I'm trying to think of regression. I mean, I feel like. It's an interesting, it's an interesting conversation because like I think a lot of people, like, the fan graph's answer might be Geraldo Prudomo. exactly enough. Because they'd be like he had a seven war season last year. It's hard to believe that he's going to put up those kind of numbers.

Even if he has like a four war season, that's a great season, but it's a huge piece of regression. Right. I agree. I agree. If we had like Gino Suarez, I think that would be the easiest answer in the entire world of like the older guy who's pretty swinging miss who had 50 bombs last year. I mean, it's also easy to say like Carlos Santana or Nolan Aranato. But Carlos Santana didn't do good last year. Neither did Nolan Aronado.

Yeah, exactly. Right. And the same thing with Guriel. I might think of a Guriel maybe due to his injury and such. But I mean, Guriel looks like a superhuman. He somehow unearthed his mutant gene. And he is now performing at 150%. So I don't know.

I hope none of these guys regress. And I hope that this is such a tough question. It is. And it's something negative. I don't want to start the season with negative. But also. But the debacks just don't really have those type of players on their team. Like the guys that you would think would be regressers are like the older players didn't really have good seasons last year.

So what are they regressing towards? Right. The guys that are the best players on the team, you have a ton of confidence that they're going to continue to be the best players on the team. Thousand percent. So I mean, man. And then like, a Zach Gallen, he was terrible last year for Zach Gallen standards. How could he regress? It can't get worse, right?

I think maybe Merrill Kelly might be the right answer when you can't. consider that he struggled once he got traded to the Rangers the second half of the season. We started seeing some cracks. Yeah, Perdomo and Kelly would probably make the most sense there. But how effing dare you? I know. I'm sorry. You come on my podcast.

Okay, well, let's turn around. And you say those horrible things. That's batting average leader, I think is going to be here although for domo. So there you go. Yeah, there you go. I think so too. Yeah. You know what?

I'll go Cattel. Cotel. Okay. What about home run leader? because how? Corbin. Corbin! Let's go. That kind of gets me pumped up.

30 plus. Screw the handmade bone. You don't need it. It's a dumb bone. Get it out of your hand and you'll hit more home runs. This team's so unique. This team's so unique in the fact that like their best hitters are like not quote unquote power hitters, but they have so much power because they're so good at hitting

that I think that, you know, like there could be a ton of guys that lead this team at home runs. Yeah, it could be one of four or five different players on this team for real. I still think it's going to be. one of the three, right? But based on Ketel and Corbyn's power last year, you think that, you know, again, them staying healthy and, you know, improving somehow. I don't know if you want to say that about Ketel. Corbyn still feels like he's on the rise. But yeah, I don't know. I think that when it comes to this next category, the actually next two categories are the same person, Damon, and you're going to love this. I had surprise everyday player by midseason and prospect who makes the biggest impact.

And both of those are the same guy, Ryan Walschman. I love it. I knew you'd love it. I knew you'd love it. Fire me up, Derek. It was, you so it was. Prospect to make the biggest impact, Waldy. And surprise everyday player by midseason.

Now, obviously something has to have gone tragically wrong in order for Ryan Walshman to be an everyday player by midseason. So perhaps I don't want that. Or he's just undeniable. Like we've talked about a lot this offseason of like, He's just so good that you can't keep him out of the lineup anymore. It makes no sense to keep a guy who can help your major league lineup every single day in Reno, just rotting away and hitting 375 against terrible pitchers. They just don't have a ton of flexibility there.

Barrosa's out of options. You're not doing anything with Corbyn Carroll. Lordus Gurriel Jr., no options there. You got, you know, Alec Thomas. I think Alec might have options left, but even he might be. of options as well. You're probably not going to option him. Jordan Waller.

You know what I mean? Like so it's all depending on who performs. But again, I think this kind of goes back to what we were saying where there is a sense that your job is not secure this year, no matter who you are outside of a couple of guys. And that there might be guys out playing you and earning a spot in Reno or elsewhere. And that could definitely factor in here. But is there a pitcher maybe like in the bullpen who. is a rookie or really close to being a rookie who we think is going to have like a big role given to them out of the bullpener?

Or do we think it's just going to be Thompson, Ginkle, Seawall, 7, 8, 9? It's interesting because it's like there are guys who are right there. I mean, Cade Stroud, definitely one of them. You also have like what they're going to do with Christian Manow, whether they're going to keep him stretched out as a starter or if they look to him to be a bullpen arm. you also have other you know starters there in reno that i'm sure they wouldn't want to convert and want to keep stretched out Mitch bratt you know cold Drake those kind of guys um but i don't know i mean there's there's some guys getting lost in the shuffle our baby boy human lynn corn we got to keep an eye out for him and where he's going to factor in like uh it's it's it's not

that this bullpen is not set in stone and i definitely think that there is opportunity here for a young relief pitcher to factor their way in and get their way here if guys aren't performing like they should. Because I guess my inclination on like the prospect thing like is is to think like, well, what, you know, because obviously our guy, Ryan Walschman is not on the major league roster right now. So that makes more sense for the, you know, the, the, or like the everyday lineup guy in the middle of the season.

But like, I'm thinking maybe like who's a guy who's going to be given a huge. huge role for this bullpen that might be a little bit younger like could Andrew Hoffman step the hell up yeah and just become that dude yeah I think so you know what I mean because then then I'm counting him as a prospect honestly because he only played half a year and I feel like that's a fair prospect designation in a way so I agree I definitely think it could be a bullpen arm as far as bullpen MVP is concerned I think it's going to be Taylor Clark I think Taylor Clark is just going to quietly get the job done and do what he did with the Royals do what he did this spring and and I think he's going to be a big X factor we don't we don't

look at those guys the unknowns as much I think we focus too much on the guys who were here last year ginkled Thompson we focus on CWald but I think some of these other additions are going to be the key to the diamondbacks winning baseball games and finding success and I think Taylor Clark is going to be kind of at the core of that I love it I love it Derek you've been high on Taylor Clark the entire time and I love the pickup and I mean I've been correct I so far him as a starter for the debacks when he was here way back in the day and I just I've always liked him always liked his poise I've always liked his you know just just the way he uh kind of held himself I mean you know he's he's a guy that like definitely look wiser beyond his years when he was a younger

player but we're going to take a quick break and on the other side of this break we're going to do some more predictions including our season predictions for their record so don't you guys go anywhere you're watching the ph next diamond back show well we We all have times in life where we need to stick to a budget and that can be very difficult with the very hot temperatures we have here in the valley during the summer. And with those summer temperatures being what they are here, it can be hard to stick to a budget when your bills are difficult to predict. To help out with that APS has their budget billing program where APS customers can sign up for

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Solid stuff. Not a great start. But as far as who we think the Diamondbacks will have as their leaders this year, we'll get back to our season predictions here. Damon, I think that we have to discuss closer because I know we're going to get an announcement soon and the closer at the start of the season is very much looking like it's going to be Paul Seawald. Closer at the end of the season, AJ Puck, that's who I have. I got it the exact same way. And I'll either say it's AJ Puck or it's somebody that they trade for at the trade deadline

and to allow A.J. Puck to be the leftist specialist guy. So I could see them bringing in like a guy that they've been interested in for it seems like three off seasons in a row or three seasons in a row and like Kyle Finnegan. Like just a dude who's like not a great closer, but is better than Paul Seawald and is familiar with that late inning role. I could see something like that happening personally. All the relief pitchers that that we did not get. We could just sit here and do that for a long time. Team Sy Young, Corbyn Burns. I saw that in there and I was, I thought that was interesting.

Interesting. I think there would be enough time by the end of the year for him to as the best pitcher in the lineup. I don't know if there's enough value to accumulate with half a season to become that. But I hear what you're saying. I mean, he's easily the best pitcher on this roster. I'm not saying like actual Sye Young candidate because you're right. He probably would not be qualified as far as though team's Sye Young. Yeah. You're more of the best starter on this team, especially going in if they are able to somehow make the playoffs heading into the playoffs. It would be really nice. If some. and Burns going there. If somehow he's the team Sy Young, I do think that maybe it was a really bad season because that means that the other pitchers didn't do enough in the first half of the year. Totally fair. They are the Cy Youngs of the team.

So personally, I'm just going to keep doing my Hope Brigade thing. And Ryan MF and Nelson. Nelly! That's my Cy Young. That's my boy. And if he continues to pitch like he has the last year and a half, he literally is him, Derek. I saw our friend Jack tweeting, Jack Somers, of course,

tweeting about Ryan Nelson. He had some statistics that he was going in on Derek, and I'm going to try to find it here for the chat. I don't know if you saw any of this. There's like, it's like only a certain amount of pitchers in like a recent, it's like

really recent times have put up the numbers that Ryan Nelson has. Oh yeah. I mean, especially when you're considering what he's been able to do with his fastball, what he's been able to do with his like command, And he is truly a unique pitcher and one of the best in the game. Yeah. So since June or since July 1st, 2024, 69 pitchers have thrown at least 200 innings as a starting pitcher.

Ryan Nelson ranks 18th with a 3-2-0 ERA. So he has been a top 30 starter in baseball since July of 2024, dating back a year and a half. And I think- Did you say 18th? 18th in ERA. 20 is impressive. He was 23rd and fit, as Jack put in there. And that's why he used top 30 as a designation in particular. But like, I think, you know, it's just, it's really impressive.

It's been a big sample size at this point. Like that's a long period of time. That's not a short period of time to be like, oh, Ryan Nelson, no, that's just, that means nothing. I think that that's the siong of this team. And I think that to take it a step further, if Zach Gowan is the siong of this team or a playoff team. Yep. Because Corbyn Burns is back. That I agree with.

Zach Allen is back and I believe in Ryan Nelson. And so if Zach Allen, if Zach Allen can be the team Sigh-Yung, this is a playoff team. What about unsung hero on this team? I got James McCann. I like James McCann because I, you know, I think with Gabby's injuries, with catchers getting playing time, he's going to have to play a lot. And so that means that if he has a good season, that's going to be extremely helpful to this offense. I also think James McCann's name is going to come up a lot in other ways. On this podcast.

Well, of course. His arms are going to come up all the time, especially that one picture you have of him in the sandals is going to be displayed quite often on this show. But the bigger point that I'm talking about is when you hear this, look at this, this specimen of a man. When you hear about him, it's going to be stuff about like conversations he's having in the dugout, advice he's giving to pitchers, advice he's giving to hitters, like it's going to be stuff like that. It's going to be like James McCann kept a mood light late in this high. leverage game by throwing peanuts at Corbyn Carroll. And that's the reason why Corbyn went out there and hit a grand slam. It's going to be stuff like that. But all-star predictions. Oh, real quick. My own song hero. My own song hero.

I'm going to say Carlos Santana. Let's go. I think it's a good pull for that one. I think it is too. He had a bad year, bad year offensively last year. I think getting around a lot of guys that he feels comfortable with, getting a lot of around a lot of really high-level Dominican players could be a little bit of a razor as well. She had the WBC kind of lead in.

he's a great defender. I think Tori's going to play him a lot because of that switch hitter. I think he's going to have a good season. I think that going with a veteran is going to be an easy pick there because I think those are the guys that are going to do the things that actually helped his team that literally we never even know about. And when we do find out about it, it's going to be because their coach or their teammate

or somebody gives them credit for the things that they did for them. You know what I mean? Like we're already hearing that a little bit about Nolan Arnato and just the way that he is like leading by example and what guys are doing to kind of, you know, follow his, his lead, right? But he's also in there talking to his teammates. He's also in there, you know, very much sharing his knowledge and doing the things that, you know, you would hope to see from a veteran that can help make his young team better. Yeah. And I would say, no one Aeronado too falls in that category.

It's just that he's so high profile that I almost like can't put him as like the unsung guy. That's fair. But I think that those guys represent the same thing to me, and I think both of them have good seasons. Let's do one more, and that's All-Stars for this team. Who do you think is going to get the All-Star designation? I think it's going to be the three big? The big three?

The big three? Corby and Carole. Carole, Cardo, Pertomo, and Marte. Carldo Pardomo, Cite, in my opinion, are all all-stars. Okay. Anyone else? Ryan Nelson. Let's go.

Let's go. It would be great for Nellie to get that, you know, that designation. again to his name, Ryan Nelson, holding him back. Nelly, not an extremely creative nickname when it comes to his last name being Nelson. So we got to go with oil can Ryan Nelson or something else. We got to give him a nickname. Rino. Rino.

The raging rhino, Ryan Nelson, or something like that. Like, we need something crazy just so he stands out. It's like pro wrestling, Damon. He's got to have a gimmick. The move set is there. He understands the premise of storytelling in the ring. But we need him to have an over-the-top person now. for us to get this guy to an all-star game.

I have Gabby Moreno making it to an all-star game, which I feel like might be difficult, you know, but again, when you look at catchers around the National League, I do feel like there's a good chance for him to find his way as one of the best in baseball in 2026. I'm trying to think, like, off top of my head, obviously Will Smith comes to mind from a catching standpoint. I mean, who else is even really an all-star?

The caliber catcher. Wilson Contreras? Isn't he gone? Or was it William Contreras? Oh, wait. Yeah, William, William Contreras. I'm sorry, William Contreras. That's who they currently have, I think, ranked as the number one in the National League.

Yeah, Wilson. Wilson is on the Red Sox. William is, yeah, on the Brewers. Yeah. Drake Baldwin. So, yeah, William Contreras for sure is. But I feel like it's wide open. Like, I don't feel like there's an all-star here that's like...

One injury, too. And then all of a sudden, it's... it's even more wide open and catchers get her all the time. So I think that's a good, a good shout. I mean, Gabby's like the eighth ranked fantasy catcher in baseball behind, you know, William Contreras,

Hunter Goodman for Colorado, Drake Baldwin for. Yeah, a Rockies catcher can always get on there because that's just a free 50 bombs for him. Yeah, for sure, for sure, but the biggest thing that we need to predict, how are they going to do this year,

Damon? Let's commit ourselves to a win total. And I will take it a step further. I broke it down by month to month. I got the Diamondbacks being 14 and 16 at the end of April. I have them going 16 and 12 in the month of May, 17 and 11 when our guy, AJ Puck, comes back in the month of June, 13, 11 during the All-Star break. And then like they do, being a little bit worse in the season,

I have them 13 and 16 in August and 11 and 12 in September. That is for a win total of 84 wins and 78. losses, is that enough to get them in? No, it's not. It's not. It's going to be not enough by like two, three games, unfortunately. And I hope that you are dead wrong, Derek. I do not have a month-by-month breakdown, but I'm rolling with 89 and...

89? What is that? 73. 79 and 73. Yeah. That's good. And I think that's going to get us in the point. I think that's a playoff team.

Yeah. I don't know about 84 and 78. I had a hard time getting more wins in there than 84. Come on. Let's make the postseason. I won't lie. I got three bold season predictions for you. And then we're going to take a commercial break.

And there's not going to be any arguments on these bold predictions at all, just giving them to you. In fact, I'm going to have an article dropping tomorrow. Believe it or not, I wrote words with pictures. There's pictures because, you know, I'm not going to just write words without pictures. But this will be dropping for diehards tomorrow on Wednesday. It's my five bold predictions for the Diamondbacks for 2026, but I'm going to give three of them to you right now free of charge.

Damon, the first one is... Wait, don't we have another ad break to hit on... No, no, no, we're going to do that. We are going to get to another ad break, but I'm going to give these bold predictions before we do. And then we're going to cut out of here so no one can argue with me, and I'm going to come back and act like I didn't say any of these things. My number one bold prediction right now that I'm giving you for free

is that the Diamondbacks are going to have a top. five offense in 2026. Believe it or not. There you go. D-Backs will have a top-five offense. Number two, Jordan Lawler will be an all-star. You're goddamn right. You heard it here first.

Damon believes, now I believe more than ever. Damon's belief makes me believe harder. And then last but not least is that screw Shoahe Otani. Cotel Marte is going to win the National League MVP in 2026 when this team makes the mother effing yoffs. So I'm just a little, like, how does your record prediction and the bold predictions, how do those

co-align there? Come on, 84 wins. You're getting Catele-Marty to win MVP with an 84-win team? Yes, yes I am, because that's how important he's going to be to this team. He's going to have nine. 100 wins, Damon. You expect this team to win 100 games? Get over

yourself. 89. Catell MVP. Lock it in. Lock it in. All right. Well, if you want to see my reasons for that you got to be a diehard and you got to check out that article tomorrow but we are going to take a quick break and on the other side of this break we are going to talk about the fraudulent 999 challenge going on in baseball right now and why it must be stopped we're going to do that here in a second don't you go anywhere you're watching the ph and x diamond back show well it is my birthday in case you missed that earlier and i will be celebrating with our friends of pure edibles

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Play earn at win at any one of their four Valley casino locations. Well, it is my birthday, and that does mean that some adult beverages will be had. Did I mention that? I had no idea. Okay, so I was born on this day a long time ago, and so we celebrated a really long time ago. Oh, you stop at you, but I want to say. that. Of course, I'm going to be having some fun in downtown. I'm going to be drinking with the fellas. I got a little flight reservation over at Carry On to go to Japan tonight. Can't wait for

that. But of course, you know, I like drinking. And you know, I especially like drinking at baseball games. In fact, one of my favorite things that's ever happened around these parts is when our guys, Damon, Beau, and Johnny all participated in the 9-99 challenge. For those of you that might not be aware, living under a rock. The 9-9 challenge features where you drink a beer and eat a hot dog every once per inning for nine innings, right? And this can happen very quickly if Zach Allen is putting in work like he did this particular day. Literally his best start of the entire season. Correct. You couldn't make it up if you tried. It was hilarious, in fact, how fast the endings were going for the Diamondbacks whenever they were up to. I mean, some people have different

definitions of hilarious and whatnot. I'm hilarious by not participating in, but there is a fraudulent 999 challenge. And if there is anything that is going to come from my birthday, it is going to be me putting a stop to this ridiculous version of the 999 challenge that is clearly stolen valor. I have never seen anything in my life changed and manipulated simply to let people who could never complete the actual challenge. Get in on the fun. And what I'm talking about is,

Major League Baseball has done this. Across the league, you can actually go get a very cute, I will admit it, very cute 999 box setup. They have it at the New York, New York Met City Field, Philadelphia, Philly Citizens Bank Park, the Rockies Coors Field at Dyken Park and Houston, the Kansas City Royals, Kauffman Stadium, and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park

will all be having this fraudulent, fraudulent 9-99 challenge. And when I say fraudulent, I mean, people have already been getting in on this. And these little tiny hot dogs are barely bigger than cocktail weanies. You get at a party and poke a little, you know, a little toothpick in to get out. These are little tiny hot dogs, little baby hot dogs.

And those nine beers you see there, they give you one single tallboy to fill up those nine beers. Damon, it is outrageous. It is an insult to the game. And I... It's an insult to those who came before, Derek. It's an insult to the people that put in the work and actually made the challenge happen. And in fact, we have video of that, conclusive video from one of our very own.

here is the legend Johnny venerable we're two in and we're still at the bottom of the first inning we're feeling okay fine Johnny the beer is going to crush Johnny it's going to crush

his soul I think he's got about two more and what do you think about I think yeah two more it's probably about ready not telling me what I'm going to do and what I'm not going to do worry about yourself

did that man finished the 999 challenge he did and he did better than I did. Yeah. He was in better shape than I was, Derek. And this is evidenced by this picture that was taken as the final out was, was, uh, was done, uh, where I am shoving the last portion of my ninth hot dog down my throat because I was in so

much pain from eating those hot dogs. The beer was fine. I was drunk, obviously, you know, like nine beers, you're going to get pretty drunk. But I wasn't hammered drunk. Like I was, I wasn't like. blacked out. I had a great time. Sure. The food was what was killing me, man. I could not get those eight and nine hot dogs down. Seven was fine. Eight and nine were tough. Here's my problem. The value hot dogs at Chasefield are too good of a value to pass up and try to this fraudulent

two inch hot dog nine nine nine challenge. Plus, I don't want all of my hot dogs at once. A baseball game can take two hours and 45 minutes to three and a half hours. I'm just supposed to let hot dogs sit there that whole time getting cold. They're going to be. be awful. I will get up. I will go stand in line like an adult and I will get myself a new hot dog and a new beer to start each inning. I don't need a cute little box and I don't need you to make it smaller so that people can actually do it. It's a challenge for a reason. Damn it. Let's keep it that way. Last but not least, in more beer news, we may have had the greatest beer can as far as baseball is concerned ever created by Presente beer.

And I want them to talk their talk, Damon. You talk your talk. Talk your SHIT because they put out a can here. This is a Dominican beer company that was behind the Dominican team quite a bit. There was a lot of social media interaction from this beer about the Dominican Republic team in the WBC. And they have made this beer can. I don't know if it's real or not because, you know, AI is destroying the world.

And I don't know, I don't know what's real and what's fake anymore. But if it is real, they made this beer can that has the strike zone image of where the pitch missed in Geraldo Perdomo's final at bat with the Dominican Republic facing Team USA. And I couldn't think of a better way to, I couldn't think of a better thing to do with your beer can for a Dominican Republic beer than this. that that thing in Spanish right there reads our pride never strikes out Damon our pride never strikes out and that pride is Geraldo Perdomo oh fire me up the same we have we share the same pride

and this is why Derek I am an honorary member of the Dominican Republic family and that's because the pride is Geraldo Perdoma we all know what that means we were out we were out bid for that Dominican Republic home run jacket by the way which I'm still very much disappointed about that was going to you were going to look electric in that all year long let me tell you but uh can i can i make a uh uh like a thing against this a little bit i mean yeah sure the baseball is not in the right spot that's not where the ball was on the on in accordance

to the plate maybe from actually now that i'm thinking about it it is from the pitcher side which is like if you're looking at the pitcher throwing towards home plate i think that's what it was yeah i think this is supposed to be like that image they probably took the image from like TV of where it landed in the strikes No, I was thinking of more of the baseball savant location and I'm like It was on the left side of the It was I was doing my best Jesse

Friedman impression actually It was on the left half of the plate Not the right half of the plate Presidente Beer company but I don't care give me a 12 pack of this right now Right now I'll drink the whole thing but I'm gonna go deal with some of that it's my birthday I'm off tomorrow Damon's off tomorrow

We're off tomorrow but we will be back For a whole lot of baseball action In fact, something like 162 games in a row. I think there's some breaks in between. We'll be back on Thursday with our pregame show. Again, we will be out at Crybaby. So make sure to join us for that. If you have not heard the news, we'll be having a little watch party out there for game one.

Make sure to join us for that. There will be food for purchase, drinks for purchase. More importantly, I will be there. Damon will be there for a little bit before he has to go cover a completely other sport and team. But of course, until then, you can follow us. on social media. I am at cap underscore Cape Man with a K. That unmistakable gentleman behind the Mac

is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end and we're all Damon's dogs. Bark Bark, Bark. Appreciate you guys so much in the chat. Thank you for the birthday wishes. You guys are a big reason why this is where I wanted to be on my birthday. So thank you guys all for being here today. Appreciate you sharing your time with us and of course we'll be back here on Thursday with a pregame show at 5 p.m. and then a post-game show for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

So that is our schedule for the rest of the week. Until then, thank you guys again so much for joining us. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but as always all Rhodes Leadsley to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We'll see you guys on Thursday. Until then, have a wonderful evening and day off tomorrow. Do something productive with your time.

Remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun on your birthday.