PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Starting Rotation is BROKEN, But May Is the PERFECT Time to Fix It

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks limp home after being swept by the Chicago Cubs in their three-game set at Wrigley Field. We have more on Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly continuing to struggle, the offense being inconsistent, and why May might be their last chance to turn things around. We also give more flowers to Ildermaro Vargas for being named NL Player of the Month and preview the upcoming series with Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have 19 wins and are somehow in last place in the NL Central. Plus, we have our best answers to your Mailbag Monday questions! 0:00 May the 4th be with you 🪐 ☄️👽🚀 4:00 Cubs sweep D-backs in Chicago  10:00 Merrill Kelly struggling big time  14:00 Ildemaro Vargas's hit streak ends  19:55 Pirates series preview  23:30 Probable starters in Pittsburgh  34:00 Mailbag Monday  40:55 Buyers or sellers?  48:30 Criticism of Torey Lovullo  1:01:10 Favorite part of the job  1:06:00 Star Wars questions 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.

Sedona Red standing by. Well, the Diamondbacks get swept this weekend, but it's still May the 4th. And you know, I'm going to get these Star Wars jokes in. And, you know, they have one last chance here in May to strike back before things look very bad. And the Phantom Menace, known as a starting pitching, doesn't seem like it's getting any better. We're starting right now. Don't you go anywhere? Well, it's the sad music.

But welcome into another edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast live from our studio. presented by our friends at Circle K. It is your mayor, P-HNX, occasionally known as, I don't know what my name would be. Like, pork chop in Star Wars? I don't know. Sedona Red, though,

that's a pretty solid nickname. And I do look exactly like one of those gentlemen flying the X-Wings. I am not alone. I got my co-pilot here, the Chewbacca to my Han Solo. It is the one, the only.

Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell, on the ones and twos. And I didn't even, did I even introduce myself? I'm the mayor. I'm the captain of the ship and I am occasionally known as a Star Wars fan. Me and Johnny Venerable hold it down around here when it comes to that.

This show is brought to you by our friends over at Bet365, which always make live betting on games more fun. Bet 365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use code pHNX 365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download that GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. Hello to you all. Welcome in.

Great to see you guys here, Books Journey. Our guy, Jason, good afternoon to you. Cornholio wants to know if we can send little Perdomo down the hill. We do not do that on this program. No, he doesn't go down. He only goes up. He was only going up. But may the fourth be with you all.

Happy Star Wars Day. And for those of you that are sick of Star Wars, I'm sorry, you have to suffer through this. Find a new podcast to watch. Yeah, this is the wrong show for you. This is definitely the wrong show for you. But if you were here to have some good news about the Arizona Diamondbacks, probably also the wrong show for you because I don't have much of that.

The Diamondbacks got swept over the weekend by the Chicago Cubs in three games. Their record is now 16 and 17 and they drop below 500 for the first time since April 9th. Yikes. Not great. Not great. Mighty Schumann says May the fourth consecutive loss be with you.

That's a good one. That's a good one. And it also hurts at the same time. That's a sick one. Yeah, the Diamondbacks starting pitching nightmares continue, and things have not been good for this team over the weekend. Both Gallin and Merrill Kelly gave up six earned runs each in their two starts. Gallen lasted three and two thirds, and Kelly went four and a third. So not only did they give up six earned runs, but they also were heavily utilized overall here by the, you know, by the bullpen or by Tori Lavello. Tori LaBelle had to go to the bullpen a lot, and it sucks.

The bullpen did their job. They absolutely did their job, but definitely not the starting pitching in this one. So I will say, taking a look at the numbers here, I think we have the numbers from the weekend series. The Diamondbacks, you know, they just got beat in every facet of the game. It's interesting here, though, to take a look at specifically the bullpen, because, like I said, the Diamondbacks relievers did their job. You could say a lot about the offense. They were only able to generate nine games or nine runs total in these three games.

They were outscored 16 to nine over that stretch. And both the Diamondbacks and the Cubs had two home runs each, right? So this was not like a game or a series where the Diamondbacks were heavily overpowered. They were out hit considerably. And the Cubs just had, you know, entirely too many. opportunities with runners in scoring position. But again, here, five for 18, the Diamondbacks were five for 18 with runners in scoring position.

The Cubs were eight for 29. Starting pitching ERA, there's your story of this series. You could blame it, like I said, on the offense for not really generating enough runs, but when you take a look at the starting pitching ERA, and the Cubs were able to post a 1.96 ERA to the Diamondbacks 8.56. that's not going to win you any ball games. And then again, the bullpen did a great job. 2.61 ERA for the relievers.

They gave up three runs in 10 and a third innings pitched. And the Cubs bullpen 5.19. So the D-backs did get the job done a little bit late in these games to try to come back. But that's exactly what it was. It was constantly a comeback. The starting pitching put the D-backs behind so often and have over this last you know, stretch over this 10-game stretch, it's been very difficult to foresee how the Diamondbacks can win very many baseball games. It also starts applying pressure elsewhere,

starts applying pressure to the relievers that have been good. So eventually the overuse there of the bullpen is going to cause those numbers to start probably imploding. Let's hope that's not the case. Juan Murillo did give up a run in this series and that makes me sad. But again, the rest of the bullpen solid. What hasn't been solid has been the Diamondback starting pitching. It's been a disaster. This comes courtesy of D-back stats and info, but from Sunday, April 26th through Sunday, May 3rd,

the Diamondbacks had seven starts and were 0 for 5. In those seven starts, they had a 9.47 ERA with a 2.17 whip collectively as a group. They had in 31 in a third innings pitch, 47 hits, 33 earned runs, 21 walks to 23 strikeouts, and six home runs allowed. More importantly, Gallon, 32 in a third innings pitch has a 4.45 ERA and a 1.5-ERA and a 1.5-1-5 whip with a 0.2 baseball reference war. Merrill Kelly, 19 innings pitch, 9.95 ERA, 2.316 whip, minus 0.8 baseball reference war. Damon, this is a, this is a disaster.

This is a living nightmare that we are currently in. And I don't really see much of an out because I don't know what's wrong necessarily with these starting pitchers. When you look at what specifically Zach and Merrill have been doing, they've just, they've been missing the strike zone and they've been throwing entirely too many pitches. They've been getting up to 90, 100 pitches here. and you're talking about three and two thirds and four in a third innings pitched. I mean, they've just both been ineffective. Right.

And like it's, we got Gabby back. Gabby feels a little bit like his return behind the plate could help. But I don't know. I mean, I felt like James McCann did a sufficient job last year of kickstarting this, you know, pitching staff and bringing his. I guess, point of view, bringing his experience, bringing all of that behind the plate. And I felt like, you know, we saw him positively impact the rotation. So I don't feel like necessarily this is something that is on James McCann or whoever's behind the plate.

I do know, you know, the Diamondbacks haven't loved Adrian Del Castillo at times as a catcher back there. So, but I mean, again, blaming catching or blaming the offense or blaming anything else other than the guys throwing on the mound, seems ridiculous because right now it's the starters and it's specifically the two guys that we as a fan base look to to be the consistent aces of this staff the guys we were happy the diamondbacks brought back in Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen and that's debatable maybe some of you weren't I'm not trying to speak for all of you because I know several people in the chat had their doubts about Merrill Kelly and have been outspoken about his performance but you know Merrill is especially troubling just considering what the Diamondbacks are on the hook for for him for the next two seasons

and what we thought we were going to get out of a guy that we call the mainstay. We thought we were going to get consistency. We thought, you know, Merrill was that guy that whenever the pitching staff was having this kind of performance, this kind of collective issue, he would be the one that kind of calm things down. He would be the one that would give them a solid start. And that wasn't the case. Over this weekend, the one that gave him a solid start was Ryan Nelson. And that was the game where the Diamondbacks gave them.

them zero run support. So anyway. But we got Merrill Kelly's baseball savant page, Damon. Yes, we do. We grabbed it because our guy Jarmy put up here. He was like, hey, he, I think it was Jarmy, right? Who said, don't show Merrill's baseball savant page? Let's do it anyway.

Who said it? Oh, there it is. It's Yoshi. Yoshi said. Who wants to look at Merrill's new savant page? Well, no one should. Because it looks like this. 78th percentile for a whiff percentage?

I mean, look at that expected ERA. 11.80. Expected batting average, 367. Fastball velocity in the 16th percentile at 92 miles per hour, average exit velocity at 91.2, 15th percentile. He's almost giving up a hard-to-hit ball on average. This is one of the worst baseball savant pages you could possibly have. I know.

It's been three starts. It's so bad, though. I know. I mean, you got to just hope that it's like early season struggles. He didn't get to go through spring training and he'll work himself out of it because the debacks don't really have any other option right now. But I guess they could give him like kind of a phantom stint on the IL, let him work through this a little bit, you know, behind closed doors and get a little bit more on track. But I mean, this is disastrous. He's the worst pitcher in baseball.

It's been four starts, actually, piece of Yoshi. I was like, there's no way he has 19 innings pitched in three starts. No. That would be over six innings per start. God, no. We haven't seen that. I don't think we've seen that really out of anybody besides Eduardo Rodriguez. And most of his starts have actually been like five innings pitch.

So the pitching woes continue. And again, what could fix them? Perhaps playing some bad teams? Or, as Jack Summers might say, is May what you would call a trap. It's a trap. It's a trap. I don't know.

They have some bad teams ahead of them, including the New York Mets, after they take on the Pittsburgh Pirates who were going to preview here momentarily. But again, you got the Mets. And then you have this 13-game stretch against the Giants and the Rockies where, you know,

we've talked about looking forward to that stretch. We've talked about having some success there. But that stretch with the way the Diamondbacks are playing right now truly could determine their season. And we've asked you guys what they needed to go during that stretch in order for you to view it as a success. And most of you said 10 wins. But, you know, again, there's an upcoming stretch where either this pitching staff can find their footing and start giving the diamond back some length and perhaps some decent outings. Or, you know, if they lose a bunch of games against what you would consider to be the worst teams or the, or the, the, or the, the, the, the,

teams that are under them in the National League West, then, you know, perhaps it's time to start writing that very early obituary on the 2026 season. One guy who won't let that happen, Damon, is Ildemarovar Vargas. He will put this team on his back and carry them, all of them, all eight guys. He'll put them all in the back and the ninth guy. He'll get a pitcher up there. He'll get a couple of relievers on its back, and he'll carry them all the way across the finish line to the postseason. Eldemarovar Vargis has earned his first National League player of the month award in his 10th Major League Baseball season. He is the first D-back to win the monthly honors since Corbyn Carroll did it in August of 2024, and he is the 11th Diamondback All-Time

to do it, 12th overall. He has hit safely in each of his 23 games in the month, hitting 378 with six doubles, two triples, six home runs, 20 RBI, and three walks. He was first in batting average, third in slugging, third in OPS, tied for third in triples. And he was first. He was first in batting, had the fewest strikeouts in the league. He had 11 strikeouts over the course of the month of April. He was one of seven major leaguers with four plus games of three or more RBI. And he became the third Diamondback all time with four more games of three or more RBI within the team's first 30 games of a season.

Obviously, we know all of his club records, his club record 24 game hitting streak to start the season from May 30th to May 1st was MLB's third logging streak since 1937. his single season 24 game hitting streak was the second longest in franchise history, along with Tony Womack behind Luis Gonzalez's 30-game streak, and then his career-best 27-game hitting streak from September through May, tied for the major's longest streak since Tray Turner's 27-game streak back in 2021 to 2022. It was the longest all-time by a Venezuelan-born player, second-longest multi-season franchise streak,

and tied for the fifth longest all-time among Switch hitters. with Jose Offerman back in 1998. A lot of history being created by our guy, Ilamar Vargas. It's a shame that he didn't have more support here over this course, you know, of this month. Because with how hot he was, if he could have had, you know,

a few guys hitting equally or somewhere in the same universe as him, this team would have more than 16 wins for sure. However, again, hard to have a positive attitude offensively when you find yourself down so often as the starting pitching rotation has done to this team. But again, especially recently where it's just every game feels like you're just down at the start, at the jump, and there's just, you're going to have to claw out of it. And they've done it like two times. Yeah.

And those wins felt awesome because they were like such comeback, momentous wins. For sure. But then you just start the next game and you get down three runs in the first inning again. And it's just, it's a hard hole to work yourself out of constant. and consistently, and you can't expect that at all. You're not wrong. You got to have stronger starts to these games. You can't have your team constantly down.

Like, it's just baseball is such a mental sport. It does suck that the offense is struggling the way that they are. It does suck that Kattel and Pardomo aren't, you know, giving us what they gave us last season or not producing at that level. But the Diamondbacks, you know, they still were in the top 10 for OPS throughout this entire. stretch up until after Sunday's game where they finally dropped below. They're currently 11th in Major League Baseball with a 716 OPS. But they have seen it or they have they have at least been putting up some runs and

getting some extra base hits and doing the thing. Barrosa is an extra base hit machine. Yeah, he is. It just it feels like at times, especially, you know, Sunday, Saturday's game was a perfect example. The offense disappears when the starting pitching and the bullpen finally give them a decent outing. You know, Ryan Nelson was great on Saturday and the bullpen gave up one run.

Diamondbacks were not able to generate a single run of offense. And that, of course, is, you know, that that's the most frustrating part here. You understand games, you know, one and three with the way that the diamond back starting pitchers put them in a hole. But got to, the offense has to show up on the one day, you know, where the starting pitching did. And, yeah, that sucked. Also, the wind in Chicago is terrible.

That stadium is a nightmare to play in. It's great to visit. Love visiting it. Would probably hate to play there. But we are going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk more about the upcoming series with Paul Skeins and the Pittsburgh Pirates. And, of course, we might be in danger, y'all. We'll be talking about this on the other side of this break.

I'm in danger. I'm in danger. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time in Back Show. Well, we could all use some help managing our energy bills every single month here. in the desert but also during the hot months for us here in the valley and the cold months up north those times of the year we could really use help and as we start to approach June, July, and August, it's time to start preparing for that time of the year. APS has several ways that they can help

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Download the GameTime app today. Damon, what time is it? Game time? Game time. Well, it will be game time here soon. The Diamondbacks are off today, but they will be playing a three-game set with the Pirates, starting tomorrow, followed by a three-game set with the Mets, where they are, in fact, going to be giving out the most adorable bobblehead doll.

They've ever had. I called it a bobblehead doll. I didn't call it just a bobblehead. I gave it the doll at the end because it's adorable. It's a little Gabby wearing a little Mando helmet. He's got a little baby Grogo with him. If I don't get one of those, I'm going to lose my mind. I'm just putting that out in the universe right now.

I might also lose my mind if the Diamondbacks can't find a way to get things back on track here against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who, to be fair, have been playing pretty good baseball. In fact, much better baseball than the Diamondbacks have been playing. Let's take a look at the pirates at a glance. And you can see here that this team does, in fact, have a winning record, a better record than the Diamondbacks. The pirates currently sit at 19 and 16, yet inexplicably, they are still dead last in the

National League Central, which... Yeah, I mean, it's the new N-Hel Central. It's just unbelievable. I mean, we're getting, not only that, we're getting Hulk smashed Loki style by all of these teams in this division right now. Like the Brewers beat the shit out of us, the Cubs beat the shit out of us, and now we get to play the pirates well i'll tell you this much uh they have they have some pretty good things going on for them specifically they're pitching staff and i see this is this is another one of those staffs damon

where give me give me these numbers for the diamond backs and they would be they would have 25 wins like the braves uh the pittsburgh pirates are 19 and 16 they have a plus 31 run differential they are five and five in their last 10 but they have one three in a row of course coming into the series with the debacks. They have a 732 team OPS, which is eighth best in major league baseball. They have a 3.74 starting ERA, also eighth best in baseball. They have a 3.70 relief pitching ERA, which is 10th best. And they have a minus five outs above average, which seems to be their only weakness. Their defense, they are 23rd. As Rex points out, they also have one Livy Dunn, which is definitely more Livy Dunn than we have. And that, they win when it

comes to that for sure. But I will say that going up and down, you know, so far the Diamondbacks have played well at times we didn't expect them to play well and they played poorly during times where we thought they would be able to stack some wins. Specifically that series against Milwaukee Brewers, I was worried about them taking on the Cubs. I did not foresee really them getting swept, but I also tend to try to be cautiously optimistic when it comes to a series. Right now, it's hard to be optimistic about what the starting pitching staff has been doing for this team. The Diamondbacks do have Eduardo Rodriguez going in game one. So it does feel like right now at the very least, the Diamondbacks are putting their best foot forward

as far as that is concerned. Our ace. I mean, he's the ace. He's the guy. This is where we're at, right? I mean, and I'm not trying to joke, but I mean it like when you have Eduardo Rodriguez starting a series of Michael Soroka also going in the series, you feel much better. than you do seeing Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly as part of the probable pitchers for,

you know, an upcoming series. So that, that right there tells you where we're at. And that kind of sucks, you know, that sucks that, you know, Merrill and Zach have become so unreliable that you would prefer not to see, you know, both of those guys going in a series. But we do have, like I said, Eduardo Rodriguez going in game one, he will be taking on Bubba Chandler. And this is our probable Pitchers presented by 1AZ Credit Union. Shout out to 1AZ Credit Union. Of course, they are always doing a great job of taking care of the people of Arizona. So make sure to check them out. They have a great deal right now for you to sign up as a new user for 1AZ Credit Union. But Damon, this probable pitchers, like I said, we have Eduardo Rodriguez. That is not Eduardo Rodriguez. That is Zach Gellon twice. We don't need that. We definitely don't want that. That would spell disaster with the way Zach is pitching right now. And Yoshi and Rex are just like beating the shit out of me too in the comments. They are.

This is being pretty brutal. Yeah. I mean, it's like it's like the performance of this team right now. It does feel that way. You're kicking him and then trying to go out. He's trying to be perfect. He's trying to hit the edges for you guys, specifically for you guys. And you're applying too much pressure with all of this.

You know, it's too much. but I will say Eduardo Rodriguez, again, 3.03 ERA 22 strikeouts, 2 and O, you know, what we need out of Eduardo Rodriguez's length. It would be great for the Diamondbacks to get a quality start out of any one of their pitchers in this series. And it's kind of been a disaster this entire season when it comes to quality starts for this team. So, and I don't, I don't like pitch selection, attacking, the zone. Everything that they're not doing right now are things that we heard that they were going to be focusing on throughout this season. So I don't know what, why the regression has happened.

I don't know particularly why it's impacted the entire starting rotation. I mean, even Erod with how he's been pitching has not been giving this team more than five innings, you know, per outing. And he's not doing it like he did last year where he was doing it with like 10 strikeouts, right that's what michael saroka has been doing michael sroka will be starting in game two against paul skeins who has not been as perfect as he has been in the past so at least we have that going on but he is still a dominant starting pitcher and someone that the diamondbacks need to figure out either how to drive his pitch count up early or how to get some hits off of him because i'm i'm not confident in the offense going into that one nor am i confident in the

offense going up against Mitch Keller in the final. Zach Gallen will be taking on Mitch Keller there. We got Erod with his 3.03 ERA. Michael Soroka, he is 4 and 1, and he has a 4.70 ERA. And then Zach Gallen 1 and 2 with a 4.45 ERA. We just, we don't have a lot of answers right now. And hopefully what we will see is, you know, this Diamondbacks team figuring out a game plan and a strategy here against this Pirates team.

I mean, this is just, it doesn't look good on paper. And this is what the pirates are good at is pitching, like starting pitching in particular. It's their thing. We don't even get him in this series. But Ashcraft has been unbelievable for the pirates as well. He's been like better than skiing so far. Right. So their whole rotation is really, really solid.

You know, we thought our rotation was going to be decent based off the start to the season. we have been in for a rude awakening in the last two weeks here it's it's been it's been tough to watch so I mean it's hard to it's hard to win when you have the second worst team ERA in baseball which I believe the dime backs do right now behind the Astros and yeah this is just it's typical typical Arizona diamondbacks baseball I I need to look that up just to verify it we know we are we're 25th I think it might be starting pitcher ERA then yeah yeah that we're Right. Yeah, I'm sure it is because, you know, the Diamondbacks relief pitching ERA as, oh, wait, no, I'm sorry.

That's reliever. You're right. 4.83 relief ERA for the Diamondbacks, which is 25th in Major League Baseball. Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're not the worst. 5.42 ERA for the starting pitcher's, worst starting ERA in baseball.

Nice. Worst. Worse than the Houston Astros. Worse than the Phillies, worse than the Nationals, worse than the Orioles. 5.42 starting pitching ERA. I mean, it's just, it's come crashing and burning, like I said recently as well. With Merrill hopping into the rotation again and with, you know, Ryan Nelson pitching like crap.

And I mean, all we have is ERAD. What do we do, Damon? What do we do? I don't know what to do. Like, do we go, like, they need to do something fun. They need to do something like to break this up. Like, I just feel like it's two tents and I feel like, I don't know. This is one of those times where you hear some silly crap happened or they all took a team trip together or something made them stop trying to be so perfect.

As I brought up in the Luke Weaver speech from the other day, you can't live in this area of trying to be perfect and find success. You're going to have failures. You're going to have small failures. You're not going to go out there every game and not give up a run or give up a hit. but for some reason, especially in baseball, when you try to be perfect, you're going 0 for four, you're giving up eight runs, you're doing all the things that you don't want to be doing. And that's something that feels like is happening right now to the starting pitching staff. And I'm going to put this back before Damon comes over and wants to start playing with it.

Yeah, I'm a little kid in that aspect. We don't have a lot of answers. Yeah, I mean, exactly. I need something to distract myself from how bad things have been. I tweeted out that my baseball team is ruining my life. life, but I kind of mean that in a way. Like, I wanted to have a nice relaxing weekend. A friend of mine was having a birthday party.

We got to spend some time in the pool. It was a good time. I was not having a good time. I don't have a good time. I'm not in a good mood because of the way this baseball team is playing. I just, like, it's like I walk around and I even have to ask myself, like, why am I so sad? And I'm like, oh, Diamondbacks.

Must be because the D-Bact around six to two again to the Cubs. Like, it's rotation. The problem is you just don't even feel confident that you even have a chance in any of these games. You know, like they it's just such ass kickings every time that you're it's so demoralizing, man. And that's where probably Tori needs to wear that where it's like you guys, you got to get the boys ready to play. Yeah. Because coming out slow like this as consistent as it as it has been is, I mean, it's eventually it starts falling on everybody and not just the pitcher's stinking it up, you know?

Yeah. I just, I start to question that. I start to question like how is it? What is it about it that it's all of the, it's everybody. how are they all struggling in a similar manner? How is every starter having a hard time getting out of the first inning? Even if they do without run scoring, they still throw 34 pitches. How is it that they're like, again, that that is what leads to my next part,

but like how is it that collectively they all haven't been giving more than five innings? You know, how is it that they're putting so much stress on this bullpen? And quite frankly, how the hell has this bullpen been so good? Even though it's still 25th in Major League Baseball, it's 25th with, with what, four appearances by James McCannan games? Yeah. Should be dead last for sure. But anyway, I want to do something else.

And you know what we do around here. It's Monday, and I want to answer your guys' questions. I'm sure there's a ton about why this baseball team is playing terribly right now. But let's go ahead and take another break, and we will get to the mailbag on the other side of these ads. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamond Back Show. Well, hopefully you are never involved in an accident or serious injury. you will need representation, but if you ever are, you need to realize that the lawyer you hire does matter.

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or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them PH and XNX sent you. And again, another great person here in the Valley, if you are looking specifically for real estate help is Kim, Kim Caballero from Kim Caballero Real Estate. There are plenty of amazing real estate agents in Arizona, but one is at the top. that is Kim. Kim has been working in the Valley business realm for over 25 years and she's now helping Arizona families with both buying and selling. She has a network of investors, builders, and developers, and she will give you insider insights on property potential, helping you see the opportunities that others may miss. When you work with Kim, your interests are always your top

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listeners. So since it's Monday, you know every year is our year. Every year is the year of the snake, though this year may not be our year, based on the way things are going right now. Every single month on this podcast is Ildemarovar Vargas, player of the month appreciation month.

Every single week on this podcast is Shark Week. Every single day is Cinco de Mayo, of course, especially with these Los Los Alamos beauties right here. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag, Damon, let's go to the mailbag. Always something interesting in my mailbox.

I try to get to everything in my mailbox. All right. Well, of course, we are here in the mailbag presented by our friends at game time. Make sure, of course, to grab that, grab your tickets and use that code of PHNX. When you buy your first ticket, you'll get $20 off that first purchase. Damon, what do we got in mailbag today? Our first question here is from Travis Moore. And Travis Moore says, who's the biggest concern in the lineup right now?

honestly say it's Perdomo at this point because of expectations. I'll always believe he can turn it around, but it was a really subpar month for him. That's a great question. I mean, I will start off with you. Is Perdomo your biggest concern? Absolutely not. I feel like Perdomo has already worked himself out of the funk that he was in. He's been hitting like 315 or something like that in his last like, you know, 10 games or so.

Plus he's been getting on base a lot. I mean, he has had some O4 days, but you'll also see him get like two or three walks. I mean, the other day he did not. He went one for four in the finale, but you're right. I mean, Pardomo is hitting 245 currently with a 754 OPS. So he has definitely hit his way out of the hole that he was in. Look at the game log that he, if you can see, you know, what his OPS, what is his average has been. I mean, he was hitting 148 on April 13th.

And now he's hitting 245. So he's raised his average by 100 points in the last half month or so. I mean, I'm not super concerned about Perdomo. I think that what he's shown recently should give you confidence that he's perfectly fine. And then it was just a little bit of a rough stretch. But it's crazy. The people that are like, do we need to get rid of the guy? And you're like, because he had a rough 20 games to start this season, he's our third best player, guys.

Yeah. Let's relax a little bit. It's Catell for me. I mean, Cotel went over five on Sunday. He has been, you know, not clutch in big moments late in games, particularly. He's had a few big hits, but it just feels like Kattel is struggling all the time. And specifically, again, it's in those big moments. He's hitting 2.14 right now with a 629 OPS.

And unfortunately, it just kind of feels like it's a problem with him hitting leadoff. like Catelle should probably be moved out of the leadoff spot at this point, considering how once again, just like with the starting pitching struggling in the first inning, you kind of have your lead off hitter, you know, going 04 entirely too often and not providing you with a base runner there off the top. I think Pardomo hitting leadoff again makes sense to me. I think Cotel moving down maybe might take some of the pressure off of him,

perhaps give him some more opportunities with runners in scoring position, or at least runners on base, I don't know, but I know that they are just so rigid as far as where Marte bats, as far as one or two. I mean, he's getting to a point where right now when you look at his, you know, look at the batting averages for this team,

only Jorge Brosa has a worse batting average right now than could tell Marte. So when do you start thinking about moving him, at least out of the leadoff spot? So I still have a problem right now. But again, Catelle has been hitting the hell out of the ball, right? He's been hitting the ball harder at times than I think I've ever seen him hit it consistently. It's just finding the gloves of defenders constantly.

Yeah. I think that's that exactly is why I'm not like super concerned about Catell. Obviously, it's not a great start to the season. But like I think- Three strikeouts on Sunday, it felt like he was starting to venture into that area being frustrated. Yeah, I mean, one game sample. One game sample, to be fair. I'm not going to invest a ton of stock into a guy had one bad game.

Obviously, he has had a bad start to the season. But I think he's been ripping the ball just right at people a lot recently. And I kind of agree with Ernesto in here. Like you can tell Corbyn not feeling the best right now. Yes, that I agree with. He's kind of falling off. He's taking a dip. And I think that's concerning.

I really, I'm not too concerned about either one of the three. I'm going to stay consistent with that. Do you know what Cotel is expected? A disaster, man. A disaster. What do you say? I said, our pitching is a disaster. Like these, the three, our big three and their like, quote unquote, struggles are not my main concern at all.

100%. 100%. It all falls on the pitching staff right now. And again, if you feel like if they were in more games, that there would be a different headspace for the hitters and things might be going more their way offensively, it's hard for it to be that. When you look up at the scoreboard, before you've even had a bat in your hand and you're down three to nothing, or five to nothing, right? But Cattel's expected batting average is 300, putting him in the 94th percentile in baseball.

There is a lot of red on his baseball savon page. Is expected Wobah is 359, 75th percentile, expected slug is 472. That's the 79th percentile. And his average exit be low is 92.6 miles per hour, putting him in the 88th percentile for exit be low. Damn. It's just batting.

run value is that right now 15 percentile it's very low it's minus five uh and things just have not been you know going his way um he has been chasing a lot he has not been walking a lot so you can see some frustration there as far as his k percentage goes and his whiff rate uh you just have to feel like like you said you feel like he's going to break through at any minute with the way that the rest of these metrics tell you that these balls should be landing for hits and that he's still hitting them hard and his bat speed is still good at 74.4 miles per hour on average putting him in the 79th percentile it's just right now things aren't going kattel's way and things aren't going the diamond backs way either so that's that's a struggle but i still have my concerns about kutel more than

more than other guys right now and and i feel like martay's production is truly what's missing from this lineup currently what else do we have our next question here is from Mighty Schumann who says, how likely is it that the debacks will end up as sellers come to trade deadline? Who would you trade in for what? I know it's early, but we got to keep up the whole our season is over. We've never been more back to going, right? Yeah, well, it's probably going to be starting pitching because I don't,

I'm not completely up to date mentally right now. And that's because this team has warned me out on contract situations. But I do know, Zach Gallen is on a one-year deal. And I know that Michael Soroka is on a one-year deal. Michael Soroka could be one of the most valuable pieces at the trade deadline should the Diamondbacks choose to trade him because he's on a one-year deal and his contract is so low. It's like picking up a guy that you're basically paying nothing to, like almost. I mean, it's $7.5 million. It's still $7.5 million.

I'm not going to act like I have that much money in the bank account or have ever seen it with my own eyes. I will just say for a baseball team picking him up for a third of a season, that's practically not. nothing, right? So there's a good chance that if the Diamondbacks are not in the race when that trade deadline comes around, it'll be those starting pitchers that are moved and, you know, giving space to either giving, you know, Brian Nelson and like Brandon fought an opportunity again or perhaps turning to someone like Mitch Bratt, who Mitch Bratt has been killing it right now in the minors and Mitch Bratt is absolutely making a case to be called up and be given an opportunity with the way starting pitching has been going right now. It just does

kind of further complicate things. And again, Nellie wasn't the problem over the course of this weekend. Diamondbacks are not going to put Gallin or Merrill Kelly anywhere else besides the starting rotation unless they get injured. So again, the opportunities are going to be limited. But if they do move Gallin and Soroka potentially at the trade deadline, I could see that giving way to perhaps Mitch Brat getting called up and getting that opportunity instead of them turning back to Brandon Fott or Ryan Nelson or whoever, whatever they do with those guys.

Let me ask you a question, Derek. What about Erod, even though he's been, you know, one of the better players on this team? Oh, yeah, Erod is on an expiring contract. Well, he's got, I think he's got one more year after this year that he has to, the dimebacks have to pay him. And so I don't know. I just, I think if he keeps playing as well as he's been playing, I just, I feel like maybe there would be some interest from other teams.

Absolutely. And considering he wouldn't be a rental necessarily, right? He would have that additional year of control. And the debacks are, you know, maybe potentially trying to free up cap space if they're, or not cap space, but salary space. Capspace. Yeah. Sorry. This is not football.

You idiot. What sport do you think this is? Any of the other ones besides baseball? Sorry. I did for a second. Yes. Yeah. No.

Okay. So you wrote us two years after this year with a mutual option in that 2028 year, which, you know, as we talk about. Oh, yeah. That's not a real option. Not really likely to be picked up. A mutual option is not an option. Yeah, but that 2027 years get he's set for 19 million next year. So, you know, if he keeps switching like this, I think you could maybe see him potentially on the block.

I'll throw another one at you. It's not a pitcher. Lardis. Lordus. Yeah. Lordus, the Diamondbacks will owe Lardis $5 million cash up front if they decide to not pick up his option next season. So regardless, you're either going to pay him $13 million or something like that or you're going to pay him $5 million. to walk away, $14 million next year, or you're going to pay him five to walk away.

So that makes the math a lot more complicated. Like, is he worth the $5 million to save the nine to let him walk? Or do you just bite the bullet? And I think, you know, you would hypothetically probably want to trade him and not have to make that decision at all. And maybe allow Ryan Waldschmidt and others that are in the organization to have those opportunities. I think that that makes more sense, especially when Lourdes is playing not so well. the problem with that is that someone has to take his money on when he's hitting 230 and has a negative 0.4 war and like 10 games played or whatever he's done all season long.

So he's got to start playing better. We need one of these Lordus Guerrille quintessential player of the N.O. Player of the week type weeks. And then we can be like, hey, what's up? Everybody? You guys want Lordis? How does that sound? So I think that that would be who I would be trying to trade, not necessarily for any sort of asset. but for mostly getting off the salary for next year.

Yeah. Especially when Walschman should be ready next year. You're not wrong. And I know you've got to continue to pull that Waldo agenda, right? You've got to push the Waldo agenda. Well, I mean, what else do we have at this moment in time? We have nothing. We have hope is all we have.

Hope and a lack of faith, which Darth Vader would find disturbing. But what else we got in the mailbag, Damon? Our next question here. We better have the Star Wars questions in here. We will eventually. We will eventually. Our next question here is from PC Yoshi, who said, seeing how last week has panned out, is Damon now going to have to apologize daily for ruining the vibes with his antics last Wednesday,

in addition to apologizing daily for doubting Il-Domaro Vargas. And I read this question this morning, Derek, and I was like, oh, it's classic Yoshi. He's just ribbing me a little bit. This is all fun in games. And then I showed up for the podcast. And I've received nothing but just attacks and, you know, Damon sucks at his job. And all from Yoshi, I won't even count the other guy. And it's starting to feel a little bit more personal all of a sudden.

You know, it's not, it's like, Yoshi woke up today and was like, I choose violence specifically against Damon. Right. And I don't really, I don't really know where it's coming from. But, you know, this has been a really tough last 10 games. on all of us and if I need to be that guy for Yoshi to, you know, get his emotions out, I'm perfectly fine being that guy. I'm willing to be the punching bag for this fan base if they need me to be.

No, I get it. I get it. Basically, this comes down to the day where you decided to override me, the rundown, God, everybody, and make Nolan Aronado. The guy who won us the game. The Kingsnake over Mildmar Bargis and is a story of truth. 70% of people agreed with me over 70% All 70% of you were wrong

Because since then the Diamondbacks are 0 for 4 And piece of Yoshi very much blames it On, you know, the decision to do so Did that, did that fracture us to the point Where it caused this team to lose four games in a row? Who knows? Who's to say? I don't believe in magic I don't believe in what we say impacting this baseball team or what we do on this show impacting this team, but who knows?

You like to say that it doesn't impact it, and then you like to treat it as if it doesn't. Yeah, I mean. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Damon's seen how careful I am with my headlines on postgame shows. I refuse to acknowledge a win or a loss because I feel like whatever I do is going to impact actual events in real life. I mean, I mean, Il-Avara Vargas had a four-for-four game after that post-game show.

So how am I going to be blamed for this? I don't know. It's just a way to blame you. I mean, sure, that's what I'm saying. I'm willing to be the punching bag if I have to be. 100%. Because someone has to be in it. It looks like it's me.

It looks like it's me and it's Arizona sports today because people are not happy with Arizona sports. Just as a whole? Yeah. Kind of yeah. Yeah. Piece of Yoshi says the math is mathing, I fear. So I don't know where the math is mouthing, but I agree with them. Let's get one more and then I got to do some math.

Yeah. Our next question is about that company that I just named. Why does the local media refuse to criticize Tori Lavolo and a little bit about us, probably, he burns and Gambo called out Corbyn and Perdomo out of all people. We have the second worst ERA in baseball. I know he's not wrong there. I mean, I, again, I have this belief at times that Tori is very much responsible for losses. Believe it or not, even though I, even though I don't love to jump on that bandwagon because I don't like to impact the free meals I get on Sunday over at his house.

Now, mind you, what I will say is that I also think that at times when you're watching sports, specifically baseball, that the person to blame is the person that blew the game. Like, I don't blame Tori for the starting pitching being bad. But there are times where I do blame Tori for not taking a starter out or leaving them in too long. For sure. Again, I mean, it seems like he always overcorrects too because then, you know, after a game or two of them making some decisions to perhaps leave a starter in too long, he'll kind of overcorrect and take them out too early. I mean, there was the whole Brandon Fott situation with leaving him in for what he felt like was going to be a, you know, a six-inning start. And then that fell completely apart the minute the fought faced the rotation the second time through.

Brandon Fott has not been very good even as a reliever. So that's kind of been disappointing. He stinks. But again, it's it's blaming the performances of the players, right? Like I feel like at times you want to blame the players that lost the game and not necessarily ever. every managerial decision, right? But I don't know. I will say that there are times where it feels like they had no game plan going out there to attack,

like in the situation where they sent Michael Soroka to the mound against eight left-handed pitchers for the Brewers. It didn't really feel like they had a good way to address that. And, you know, things have kind of not, things have not been good for this team as a whole. So Tori definitely deserves his share of the blame. I don't believe that Perdomo or Corbyn are really anywhere in the universe of being blamed right now, but I get it. They're your stars, so you want to blame them for not putting up star numbers, right? They're not the problem, though.

I mean, they're not. What the problem is is being put in, you know, a six run deficit before you get out of the first three innings. The problem is not being able to rely on your starter to go out there and give you five, six innings every single time and making your bullpen constantly step up and pitch four innings plus in these games it's just been crazy so uh like kevin con queso said we went from a six person rotation to having no ace well we do have an ace to be rod but yeah you're right not only do we have no ace as far as like eras are concerned but we definitely don't have an ace when it comes to you know innings pitched uh nobody right now is really giving this team very much length and like that continues to be my biggest worry

that is where like this whole thing is going to come crashing down on this team eventually because eventually you're just going to have your bullpen pitching entirely too many innings. I guess it is good that Brandon Fott is out there because he's going to need to eat up a lot of innings to try to save these arms from going out there and getting pummeled week after week. Something has to change though and it starts with the starters. It has to be the starting pitching and they have to give this team better options.

If not, tough decisions need to be made that Mike cost his team a lot of money, but might at least give them a chance to win games by calling up a Mitch Brat or another player to fill the gap and give them, you know, some, some quality innings. I don't know. I'm confused, but really, when it comes down to it, I really do think that Toro Lovolo is just such a nice guy, right? Don't you think that, David, like, don't you think that one of the reasons why he falls out of getting blamed entirely is that it's just hard at times to hate Tori when you speak to him and you and you know them and you know whatever yeah i mean he still deserves his fair share of blame but i think that that impacts it absolutely does uh and i think

that's human nature and i know it's not what people want to hear and people want you know the the powers that be to be held accountable when things go wrong and i completely understand that but i also think that you know like this is a a situation where um you know you're you're looking at you know the the diamondbacks are a team that, you know, are not consistently at the top. Tori has the most wins, like, of any manager in franchise history. He's been pretty successful for DBAC standards. I know a lot of people want to shoot higher than that. And you're right.

Like, you know, when you do this line of work and you have a guy like Tori, who's the leader of an organization, it's unique because he's different than most managers, how they interact with media. He's a really nice guy. Like you said, Derek, like he takes his time. to talk to each one of the media guys like I'm not there I'm not in the building so it doesn't affect me but I still see it and it rubs off on I guess like probably how we feel about Tori a little bit of like he's he he he is like a different individual and so he's just he's just a real guy

exactly he's like a nice he's a real human being he knows stuff about you he calls me circle he does like he and he finds things to like kind of be on the same level with you about instead of being from this place of like he's above you and you're here. Like I think that that's why people like Tori so much and that's why people want Tori to be successful. Yeah. He's very down to earth. He deserves criticism. He deserves criticism 100%.

Every manager does. Every manager does. And he probably deserves more criticism that he gets. Right. So a big part of that is because it's very hard to dislike Tori. So you don't dislike the manager, especially when he does accept responsibility. He does blame it on himself a lot, even when it's really. not his fault.

And he also, like you said, he admits when he's wrong. He tells us that we know more than him and stuff. Like, when you get told that, it's just hard to like hate a person like that. Well, some people are hating. Some people hear that. It's like, it's like more like, uh, it's, it's moving into the like he's just likable. So again, you just don't in your mind go to that realm when it comes to Tori. Some people hear that though and they, they think to themselves like like, like, yeah, he's,

he's such a nice guy. He's too nice of a guy. You know what I mean? He's got the juice boxes. Yeah. He's got the, you know, participation medals. He's, he's the nice debt, right?

And like, Book's Journey puts in here, are we being gaslit right now? I don't even understand what, like, what would be being gaslit about that like people that like, and not me. Like I said,

it's not me. It's Derek. But like, Derek interacts with Tori on a damn near daily basis during the season. What is he gaslighting you about by saying that Tori's a nice guy? Like, Tori is a nice guy. I'm just trying to,

I'm trying to come up with an. honest reason. He's trying to provide context as to why maybe he escapes criticism from time to time. He's not paying for our lunches in the press lounge unless it's just not me, unless I'm just not in on that. And then I'd be very upset about that. I know there's no other media people at Sunday dinner besides me and Damon. So there's that. And, uh, you know, it's just, it's not Tori's fault that the pitchers suck. Uh, and like, I put that way more on Mike and I always have like when it comes to the bullpen when it comes to what the starting rotation looks like. Like that's my case. Honestly, you said, you said, you said a great thing. You said,

like if they were going to spend $20 million on Merrill Kelly and $23 million on Zach, they could have spent $43 million on a sly young candidate. Right. And like that's that is true, right? But I also say, could you imagine if we traded for Terrick Scoobel and he was having elbow surgery right now and going to miss two months? It would literally cause us to question. Well, we would have traded waltzman and loller and every single piece of player. That's what I mean. That's like a that's a nightmare of a alternate reality that I don't want to live in. But anyway, all right, Damon. Well, let's take a quick break and then we'll get back to some more of these questions. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX

Diamondback show. Well, with the early payout offer over at Bet365, you are a winner when your team goes up by five wins, which means that again, right now the way things are going, it's probably pretty smart bet to bet on the opposing team that the Diamondbacks are playing when it comes to that. The debacks might be able to muster up a comeback, but with the way starting pitching is going, they're definitely giving up five. runs and there's a good chance this team is going to be down by five before they ever get a chance to pick up a bat. So might as well get in on it just because they lose doesn't mean you have to. And again, even if they come back and win, you're still a winner as long as whoever you chose win up by five runs.

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And Damon, I'll tell you this much. There's a lot of things in life that I would like to multiply. And that would be performances where the Diamondback starters get quality starts. I would also like to multiply wins for this team. Yeah. You know, right? I'd also like to multiply wins for me and Damon. And that's something that we could use.

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Again, the mailbag presented by our friends over at game time. Yeah, our next question, the mailbag is from flea ball, who says, where is the chaos? Do you think the nine-back should be running more? They are 17th and hits, but only 26th and stolen bases. Yes, I do think that they should be running more. I do know that it hasn't really been a success for them at times. I feel like, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's the jumps, the timing.

I don't know what has gone wrong for this team, but I've seen them get thrown out a lot more than we've seen the opposition get thrown out by D-Bak's catchers. I do just think, though, that when this team is at its best, it's constantly applying pressure. It's applying pressure on the base path. It's applying pressure in trying to stretch singles into doubles and trying to get, you know, across home and make, you know,

the defense make a perfect play in order to get them. So it does feel like the lack of chaos and the lack of running on the base path is a big part of it. I do think Corbyn's, you know, still feeling that hip flexor injury and I think he's kind of a step slow. I feel like Pardomo's kind of lost a little bit of confidence in himself sometimes at running. And then honestly, like other guys, I just want to see them attempt it more. like Jose Fernandez with his speed. I would like to see him making more attempts at stolen bases. I just feel like he hasn't been getting on base very often.

And that really kind of is the key. Like you say there's 17th and hits, which is fine, but it's still in the bottom half of baseball. And their team OPS would suggest that they should be having some more success offensively there overall. So, you know, yeah, I would agree that I think the lack of chaos has been impacting this team. And I don't know.

I mean, obviously, they're not hitting a lot of home runs, so it doesn't feel like their identity is going to be power. You know, manufacturing runs and creating chaos on the base path truly feels like the only route to success for this team. So hopefully they can get that back on track along with their starting pitching. My God. All right, what else we got, damn it? Our next question here is from Jarmie, who says,

since all the other questions will be about pitching struggles, offense either on fire or flaming out in future call-up ETAs, What is our mayor and dog's favorite thing about covering the diamondbacks? Sunday night dinner over to where the Bolo's house. Yeah. When Rex doesn't show up for the show. Those are definitely our favorite days. I don't know.

I still love baseball, man. I still love being at the ballpark. I still love the opportunity I get to do this job and to, you know, just be as close to the game as possible. I've done this for a long time now, man. I've done this for this is my 50. season. I know. I'm an old guy. 15th season covering this game. I got to take my,

my chances when I get. I get the shots in. I get it. But like it's, it's weird how there's little things that have never really lost, you know, it's appeal to me. The lost it's, you know, lost its allure, right?

I still find it fascinating that the coaches can just when they're, when they're doing drills before the game, that they could just hit the ball wherever they want. Like, it's like little thing. like that are just awesome and silly to me. I love watching batting practice, you know, but more than anything, it's the fact that I get to be, you know, there as a part of this game. And, you know, I just

love baseball so much that it's, it truly is an honor to cover it. Like, I bought a stupid, like, crate thing that I thought was just going to have, like, baseball fashion items. And it turns out it was more, like, instructional items for people who actually play baseball to use, something that those years are far, far behind for me. But I still loved the little crate I got. And one of the things that we're going to get entirely too much usage around this office is a little pop-up tea with wiffle balls that you can bang off the wall and not break our framed photo of Diana Tarazi up there. So, uh, yeah, like I just love the game, man. And again, it's a lot of fun, uh, to be a part of it. I will say, though, that baseball is exhausting. I think it's exhausting for fans. And it's

especially exhausting for me and Damon to cover it, considering how much, of, you know, what we do is impacted by their wins and losses, right? So, yeah, it's pretty demoralizing when you're in the midst of a stretch like this. Yeah, like, again, we appreciate every single one of you for showing up today. You guys are awesome. But, you know, this is one of those things where support Waynes for a team and support Wayne's for a show that covers that team, you know, with the ups and down. So, like, that part of it kind of sucks.

And it does get hard throughout 162 game season to deal with the ups and and downs and not be as frustrated as, you know, as every single fan is out there. So there's that. There's that. For me, honestly, like, I guess, you know, obviously my role is a little bit different. You're out there at the ballpark versus me. I'm usually hold up in the studio. And I think being at the ballpark is pretty damn cool.

So I guess that would probably be my answer. But, like, I mean, it's, it sounds lame. But, like, I think it's like the moments that, like, we share together, like, when the Tim Tawa thing happens. Yeah. where he hits the grand slam and Derek and I are losing our, our freaking minds and laughing and just I laughed harder than I've laughed in five years. Because we're talking crap about the guy, send him to Reno, get him off the team.

And then he hits a grand slam in the biggest A.B of his life. And it's like that kind of stuff when we went to the World Series. Like, like those moments, those highs are tough to, they're tough to be. Like when you're when you're not only like invested from a fan standpoint, but you're invested from a your standpoint and it helps you out for the team to be successful. Oh, yeah. They go to the World Series and Derek and I are like, we get to keep this crazy thing going. Like that is for me, the pinnacle of what we do here.

So canceling foolish October vacations I made because I thought we weren't even going to make the playoffs, let alone make it as far as we did. So, uh, but you are, you're, you're definitely right. Yeah, yeah. That's probably it like the, the, the, the, the hug when we won the NLCS. Of course. The, the warm embrace. I've never loved a group of individuals more than that moment ever.

That was better than your wedding day, Derek. Oh, my wedding day. Not even a top five moment. What do you remember when you got the, you may now kiss the brighter when you got to hug Damon when we won the pennant? I know exactly what I said to you. I couldn't remember a word for my wedding day. You know that.

We all know what's more important. Your work marriage with your boy Damon. 100%. I would be worried, but I know my wife is not a fan of the host of this show, so I don't have to worry about her watching it. What else do we got in the mailbag? Our next question is a follow-up from Jarmy who says, based off the mayor's demand,

can you go back in time and say one thing to George Lucas? You can go back in time and say one thing to George Lucas. Why is it obviously, what the hell were you thinking with Jar Jarvis? Oh, I know what he was thinking with Judge Arbanks. He wanted that sweet, sweet, you know, money. Jamaican accent. Well, yeah, that. And he wanted, you know, you got to have the comic relief character

that only appeals to children that are like, age three through like eight. That is why I, being the age I am, hold Ewox in such high regard because I was a small child when Return of the Jedi came out and damn it, Ewox, they were little bears that were tribal and poked people with sticks and caught them in traps. How am I not supposed to love that as like an eight-year-old? Get out of here. So I get what he was doing with Jar Jar Binks. But I will say that I think throughout everything that's happened with Star Wars, I would probably go to George Lucas and tell him, focus on the storytelling, not the merchandising. And that's because it feels like Star Wars just became a big

vehicle to sell us all these cool shirts and stuff, right? So, I mean, look, we have a whole day now focused around Star Wars where we are all forced to go buy Star Wars stuff or watch their movies or whatever. And I mean, I'm not saying it's not very smart from a business perspective. I'm just saying, from a storytelling perspective, let's keep Star Wars as pure as we can, right? Let's keep it on track for me, you know, high quality stuff and not some of the crap they put on. And I'm looking at you solo specifically. That movie was terrible. It should be recond.

It should be deleted from the archives. And no one that has not seen it should ever be forced to watch that film. But that's my feelings on that. I would ask him, though, definitely. Jar Jar Binks. Really? Really? Yeah, really? I don't know. I don't know.

There's a lot of questions I have, though. A lot of questions I would have for George Lucas for sure. What else we got, Damon? I can't even go into that. I will be on this for an hour. Our next question is from me. Oh, of course. And I said, what's the best MLB Star Wars name that is not Lars New Bar?

Because it's obviously Lars Neubar. Lodge New Bar. Lodge New Bar was directly taken from a Star Wars film and a child was named that. and that child now plays pretty good baseball. I will say the best Star Wars name currently in baseball, Xander Bogarts. Zander Bogarts? Yeah, that's a pretty good one.

That's a hero. And I hate to say that, considering he plays for the Padres. But that man pilots a starship. He has some sort of companion that's either a droid or a wookie or an alien of some kind. And he has saved the universe at least on three occasions. I think Boba Shet

Oh Boba Shett's good Yeah Boba Shett's good What about I mean going back to history? It almost sounds like Boba Fett That's probably one Boba Fett Yeah Boba Shet Yeah yeah no

Jason's right Ketel is kind of a space name Yeah I asked chat GPT right now Derek To see if they would give us Lars Newpar Without like prompting it to Yeah And it did And it threw it through Boba Shet at me

it threw Xander Bogarts at me. So you got yours in. Cattel is here. It says, Catele, Marte sounds like a rebel pilot from a desert planet. Let's go.

And then... What about D.D. Gregorius? Oh, he's not in the league anymore. I know, but that's so good. So, Star Wars name, right? Sal Stewart is pretty good. Sal Stewart's good.

Alliteration is big. Yeah, it has, yeah, it has to be alliteration or weird sounding. When we maybe maybe... Jazz chislem. Put them all together. Yeah, that sounds like it's one name.

Yeah. Maybe a species of aliens. So it says mooky bets here sounds like a smuggler pirate. Mooky bets. Jazz Chisholm. 100% of rogue Jedi or bounty hunter. Lars Neupar, alien species ambassador. 100%.

It says no question at the end of it. No question. No question. It's in arguable. Bo Bichette, young force sensitive prodigy. Zander Bogartz. Siff Lord, if I've ever heard one. For sure.

Ozzy Albi's fast talking droid mechanic. Cattel Marte sounds like a rebel pilot from the desert planet. Lars Neutbar is, uh, what are Mon Calamari? What the, you know what, what, what, uh, what, uh, what, uh, what, uh, I think of his name right now. Admiral Akbar is, right. Like, yeah, it's a trap. That's what Lars New Bar is. But all right.

Well, we love you guys. We thank you so much for your wonderful questions. And as always, ooh, Lost Highway has a good one before we get out of here. Dalton Varshow. Dolan Varshow. That's pretty good. Uh, memories. Miss that guy.

Well, thank you guys for joining us. Thank you for your questions. Mailback Monday would never be what it is. Spencer Strider. I mean, that is a hundred percent of starry's name. Oh, Spencer Strider. Yeah, that's a good one with the mustache. Yeah.

With the mustache. The mustache. Red six checking in. Yeah. Well, we thank you guys so much for your questions and your time. We appreciate it. Remember, your time is valuable. Be careful who you share it with as always.

But we also thank you guys, of course, for supporting this team, even when it doesn't deserve your support entirely. We'll be back tomorrow with another postgame show. So make sure to join us for that. I think we have postgame shows scheduled out for the rest of this week. So we will be here after each game about an hour after the final out. Hope you guys are here with us. In the meantime, you can follow us on social.

I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.

And until then, have yourselves, a wonderful evening. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's more fun when you remember that the starting pitching can only get better from here.