PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs SURGE Into Braves Showdown After Bounce Back Sweep of Tigers

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are riding high after making franchise history with their first-ever home sweep of the Detroit Tigers at Chase Field, but things won’t get any easier from here. A red-hot Atlanta Braves squad rolls into town for a crucial four-game series, and we’ve got you covered with a full preview of the matchup, including how each probable pitching duel could shape the outcome. We also dive into the D-backs’ early success with the ABS challenge system, why it’s been effective, and why Arizona should be leaning on it even more moving forward. Plus, Alex D’Agostino joins the show to break down how the D-backs responded after their rough series in L.A., and how Mike Hazen’s offseason moves are already paying dividends. 0:00 SkeeYee  3:00 Climbing up Mt. 500  3:30 Alex D'Agostino join the show!  9:30 Is Paul Sewald back?  13:15 Vintage Zac Gallen  24:00 Detroit Tigers series recap  30:45 Jose Fernandez mania  40:45 Corbin Carroll HR against Tarik Skubal  47:40 Atlanta Braves preview  54:50 The Brandon Pfaadt experience  1:02:00 ABS challenge system so far 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.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are fresh off of their sweep of the Detroit Tigers the first time they've ever accomplished that at Chase Field. But now they welcome a very hot Atlanta Braves team. We have a preview for you and we're joined by Alex Dagestino to talk more about how the offseason additions have shined so far this season. Don't you go anywhere? We're starting right now. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friend Circle K. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Welcome on in to all of you guys.

Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Go download that GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. And also the PHNX D-Back shows presented by Debt 365. That 365, we're winning is everything. Download the app today and use code PHNX 365. Well, of course, welcome on in.

we are fresh off of our series sweep of the Detroit Tigers, like I said, first time in Diamondbacks history that they have swept the tigers at home. I am not alone. I am joined, of course, on the ones and twos by our guy Damon Dogg, aka Damon Farrell. Bark, bark to you, Damon. How are you feeling after a big series sweep here against the tigers? I got the text from Big Jank Franklin this morning, Derek, of the snakes are legit, right?

And that's, every time you get that text, you know things. are going well. So I'm pretty pumped up. I'm pretty excited. And I'm excited for this Braves series. It's a massive opportunity. Yeah. And I mean, obviously the Diamondbacks are hot, but they come in, you know, here with a, they come in here against the Braves team. That's equally hot. And I will say that that's, that's not an easy feat to necessarily come in and go against the pitching staff that is currently as hot right now as the Braves are. But the Diamondbacks definitely, definitely have themselves, you know, at least something rolling here, right? We thought that after getting swept by the Dodgers to start the season, that this was

going to be an abject failure. And instead, we are sitting here looking at the Diamondbacks now being back to 500, which, Damon, I know we might not be prepared for it, but do we, do we have perdomo on the mountain? I think we actually do. But this is going to be a big moment of truth here, Derek. let's find out let's see we've never been more back we have never been more back and of course we are thrilled to be talking about the diamondbacks being back to 500 and we're bringing in an expert here to talk about the diamond backs being back to 500 we got our guy Alex dagastino we're

calling in the big guns the chat about this diamond back season uh we don't I guess yeah let's that's the wrong scorebug up there but I'll I'll stare at that all day Alex how you doing sir how's it been watching this team turn things around here so far after that Dodgers sweep? Doing good. It feels like we're watching the Diamondbacks again. I don't know about you, but this team is back to doing what it does best, which is making us all feel very uncomfortable and in the best way possible. That's a great way to put it, right? I mean, it was a wild series and it's kind of been a wild six games so far. Like the Diamondbacks have kind of been all over the place and I want to say, even though I felt like it was loser talked, I kind of defended the

way they played in Los Angeles because it didn't really feel like as bummed out as we were that they got swept. It didn't feel like they played bad baseball. There was a lot of blame going around. We were already screaming about the bullpen and Zach Gowan having a rough outing and the opening. But overall, I still feel like this team played the Dodgers well. And at the end of the day, some self-inflicted mistakes. I felt like kept them from winning a game in that series and also not really taking care of business against the bottom of the lineup guys there

against the Dodgers also kind of came back to bite them quite a bit. Yeah, it was like the one bad inning, right? I mean, that's been a theme with this team for a while, but that's basically what Tori was talking about was he thought they played well enough to win some games and it just was like one bad pitch, one bad inning. I mean, that's basically what.

happened in two of those three games you could argue maybe if if Zach Gallen doesn't give up the home run and he goes maybe six innings the first game goes differently too right like five six innings um yeah i mean i you're never going to be too freaking out about them losing to the dodgers on the road to open the season and all that but at the same time it was like they kind of just looked they didn't they didn't have that same identity and so that was the concern but but that came back in a really, really big way against the Tigers. It did. And I mean, again, I don't really feel like the Diamondbacks,

when we're talking about the middle of the season, are going to have the same, like, stars in their eyes a bit. But it is hard to be a part of all that pageantry and watching one of your rivals sit there and get their World Series trophy out on the field and celebrate all of that. And, you know, necessarily have the confidence to think, like, we're going to go out there and beat their ass. You know, and so maybe, you know, losing by the small margins that they did was a pretty good wake-up call and also still like a confidence boost that they played them so well.

But they come in to this Tiger series and just found a way to win in every game, right? Like they found just a way to kind of win differently. And the biggest thing has been the contributions from pitching as well as the contributions from the new guys that were added to this team. I know you have a great piece over on Diamondbacks on Sports Illustrated or I don't know, how am I saying? Dbacks on SI. Is that the most concise way to say it? Yeah. And you guys, you do a great job over there as well, of course.

But the kind of bargain bin, you know, deals that Mike Hazen got this offseason have already seemed to pay dividends in a big way. And the majority of those have been pitching. Those are the guys that seem to have added some stability, some consistency to the pitching, which is still inconsistent. I don't want to rave about the bullpen or anything just yet. But, I mean, you know, the fact is that even though the pitching has been inconsistent, there have been plenty of bright spots already with this pitching staff. Yeah, and you're looking at the guys that you wouldn't, I mean, would we have all liked to see Mike Hazen go out and get, you know, Edwin Diaz? Yeah, absolutely.

also Taylor Clark outside of that one, outside of that one bad inning against the Dodgers, which I am, I'm going to call that a fluke. Like, I'm officially going to plant my flag and say that that, Taylor Clark's outing against the Dodgers was a fluke. I felt like that too. I felt like that too. Like, yeah, he's looked so much better since that. I mean, Jonathan Loisigua, he got the save yesterday.

He looks pretty good. Obviously, yeah, Johnny Lazzagna. Johnny Lazzania. And Michael Sorroca. I mean, Michael Soroka is, you know, maybe one more decent to good to great start away from really creating a serious dilemma in this rotation. And that's a good problem to have as well. For sure. And I mean, even the Dodgers right now are apparently reporting that they are going to a six-man rotation here for a stretch.

And I know that's not ideal. I tried to explain on this show why it's not ideal sometimes to go and why the Diamondbacks and so many baseball teams are reluctant to ever do that. I still don't think they will, but you're right. I mean, there's some difficult decisions that are going to be made, not just when Merrill Kelly comes back, but of course in a few months as well, when Corbyn Burns comes back as well. And at least for the moment, Michael Soroka seems to have very much understood the assignment when it comes to his performance, making literally a historic debut,

striking out 10 with Randy Johnson sitting right there, the audacity to strike out 10. Sitting and break his own record, yeah. Plus, you know, you also have Jose Fernandez, obviously making, you know, some history there in game two, right? So, like, the Diamondbacks have these new additions to this team, whether it's call-ups and young players, whether it's even Jordan Lawler performing well in the outfield and, you know, that move coming up strong or, you know, specifically these pitching additions, Michael Soroka, Johnny Lazzania, Paul Seawald. like let's get Paul Seawald his flowers because man in his first two opportunities to to collect the save for this team not only has he done so but he's looked really good going out there and doing it and I mean I think that he is not unaware of the perception of him and what's going on with his career so I think he wants to prove a lot of people wrong and I kind of love that I love the fact that he's here to show that he is still a guy that can get outs and can be used in high leverage situations. by a team. Well, and what's encouraging about that is it doesn't look like he's going out there trying to prove anything. He's going out there and he's doing what he has always done best, which is get that sweeper in the corners of the zone, land it for strikes, throw the fastball, 92, 93, at the

most at the top of the zone and get whiffs on it. That's exactly what's happening. And he's not, he doesn't look rattled. He doesn't look like he's trying to force it. He's not spraying. He's not having any of those issues that he was struggling with. Now, it's been two opportunities against the lineup that was really struggling with the Tigers, so I don't want to get out too ahead of myself. But everything that he's been doing looks way more like 2023 Paul Sewell than 24 or 25. And honestly, I think the more successful outings he has at the beginning of the year, the more likely that is to be sustainable because especially the closure job is such a mental game.

and that's having a little bit of confidence in your own abilities when clearly the stuff is not that much worse, if at all, than it was in the past. So I think that could be really big for him going forward. Well, I mean, Paul Seawald's always been one of those guys that, like, he will be the first one to profess to you that he does not throw the ball super hard and he's not really like overpowering anybody. Yet he's just been successful in his entire career with those two pitches.

And, you know, he knows, like you said, he knows where to put them. He knows how to get out. And I think that, you know, for this team, it's, it once again seems like there's some stability there. Not to mention that after, you know, his two saves, they were able to turn to Johnny Lazzania, have the Weizaga come in and get not a perfect outing, but a solid lockdown inning where it wasn't too exciting, you know, and you didn't feel like the Diamondbacks were, you know, in position to lose the game,

despite the fact that it was just a one-nothing lead. I think that outing, I think that game is the most impressive one to me so far this year. I know that's easy to say, right? But pitching is everything. And for the Diamondbacks to come out, know they had Terrick Scuba on the mound and know that runs were going to be a premium in that game. They did an incredible job of keeping the Tigers scoreless. And that goes not just for Zach Gallen,

who seemed to be doing it without, once again, trying to overpower guys, but just trying to do it by getting outs, by pitching, and, you know, locating his fastball, getting contact, you know, I think he got six whiffs, two strikeouts, but he still ended up giving the Diamondback six innings of scoreless baseball. So like you just, you love to see that from Zach. And, you know, again, that's the kind of outing. You feel like Zach can give you, like just like kind of Merrill,

not flashy, not going to go out there. Like, yeah, they're going to still have their 10 strikeout games themselves. and every once in a while they're going to like be super on. But, you know, his ability to locate with the fastball and then drop that knuckle curve where it lands down and out of the zone and was just kind of something that was unhittable, but still tantalizing the batters. It just felt like, you know, Zach was truly back yesterday on a day where, again, he knew the guy on the other side of the mount wasn't going to be given up much.

Yeah. And a couple of notes about that outing, too. Number one, there is something about Zach Gellel. balance fastball, when it is on, you can just tell. When it is working, it looks straight, it looks accurate, it looks pinpoint, and you can just tell that there is a different quality about that fastball. And when the fastball is working, that creates a lot of opportunities for his secondaries to not necessarily have to be swing and miss pitches, but to get unideal swings, non-ideal contact, right? The other thing is six whiffs, 18 or 12 called two.

strikes, I believe, on all of his stuff. So he was landing the fastball in the zone. He was landing the curve in the zone, the slider, the cutter. He wasn't leaving stuff over the heart of the plate, but he wasn't nibbling. And that's the biggest thing with Gallant is when he starts to try to get two pinpoint around the edges and he starts nibbling and he's walking guys, he gets flustered. And he didn't get flustered when he had base traffic. Obviously, he got a nice play from Jose Fernandez to help him out, but he was still executing his pitches at that point. So all of that together kind of was like all right this this looks more this looks more like what zack can do um even when maybe they were squaring up some balls a little bit and sending them pretty deep but

they were they were definitely they're making some yeah in the beginning right yeah Jordan lawler was pretty busy in center field hey and i mean again that's a guy that's been great so far a lot of the moves mike has made the front office you know those those calls about the roster and everything that they're trying to do has come from him And somehow, a lot of them have worked out. I know we're going to get hyper-focused on the ones that don't. You know what I mean? We're going to get hyper-focused on that Joe Ross outing

and the Diamondbacks almost giving up an 8-to-nothing lead in this series, right? But at the same time, there have been far more good moves made so far by Mike Hazen, as far as those budget moves than bad ones. And quite frankly, the budget moves also make it easy for them to kind of cut ties with a Joe Ross or one of these other guys if they're simply not performing well. It's not like it's their young prospects that they're putting into these situations

like they were doing last year where they were calling up Andrew Hoffman and then being like, guess what, you're going in the eighth, maybe even the ninth, I don't know, we're going to see how things go, right? Like they were immediately being thrown into the fire last year. And again, those are guys that if things don't work out,

you're not cutting them, but the Diamondbacks have added some of those guys, but so many of them so far have seemed to work out. And you also highlighted the adding of Aronado's bat, or excuse me, his glove. His bat, we have some. Yeah. His glove. And his glove obviously has been incredible. The defense for this team has been incredible.

But again, even Aronado, he has done a good job defensively and feels like he added a lot to that, you know, one to nothing victory yesterday. However, his bat hasn't been great. Marte's bat hasn't been great. There's still some offensive production there that is slow to come around. And, you know, I guess do you have any concerns there, especially about Nolan's bat? Yeah, you know, to be honest, I really do like the defense. He's still elite defensively. And there's more than one reason why the bat is is a serious, I don't want to say it's a serious concern

because I think we knew coming into this year that it wasn't very good. Correct. But there is a danger of it becoming a serious black hole in that lineup. because I don't personally feel like he's going to have some sort of crazy resurgence. At the same time, you never know, with a guy that's as formerly elite as he was at one point, they tend to figure it out. But, you know, you have to be honest about it. And I think you and I were talking about it in the press box.

Like it just kind of looks like he's making some poor swing decisions. The bat speed is very slow. And at the same time, there's maybe a little bit of like a desperation feeling of like I have to get this bat going. But I don't want to get too bogged down with that because I am going to say that they do not win yesterday's game without his glove. Yeah, correct. Period.

Because there was a play in the ninth inning where Loisica gives up a leadoff single. It was a stupid little ground ball single. But he gets a double play on the next play. And it was the sort of double play that you. you take for granted when you have a platinum glover at third base. But it took this little hand movement to fire it off in time to get it to first base to get both of them. And then the very next batter doubles. And that is a tie game if Nolan Aronado doesn't make that way. That's such a great point. That is such a great point. And it was huge, huge for him to be in there. And I agree. I mean,

I think that right now the Diamondbacks are getting enough production. And honestly, credit to the guys that are lower in the lineup because those guys have been getting the job done. I know it's a smaller sample size, but Bargis has been doing great job. Tawa, Loller, those guys, like in the six through nine spots have been delivering. And again, Arnado is one of those guys that he's so good defensively. I'm totally willing to accept that sacrifice. It would just be nice to see him relax and know that everything's not falling on his shoulders. He is just somebody that, again, he just needs to find a way to get on base consistently,

and he has some good guys even behind him lower in the lineup. They can drive him in and get him in. I would just like to see better at bats, more patient at bats, that desperation. Yeah, see more pitches, right? See more pitches. Like, even Carlos Santana doesn't have that success, right? I mean, one of my favorite stories is the fact that Santana has been helping Alec Thomas out with his bat, yet right now neither one of them are doing extremely well.

So it might, you know, it's not like it seems like a great story right now because it might be like the blind leading the blind a little bit. But when they're both hitting 100, you can say that. However, I still love it. I still love what Carlos Santana does out there at the plate, and I feel like he is doing more of that, taking better at bats. However, his time might be numbered here now, or his days might be numbered with Jose Fernandez, kind of emerging here,

especially with the Diamondbacks having him at first, and him playing the position as well as he did yesterday. Like, he didn't look like a shortstop to me. He looks like a first baseman. And, I mean, that is one problem. That is one roster spot. the Diamondbacks need to find like their future first baseman. Not only could he be that, but I also think like he is so good right now that if I'm

any one of the other first base options, I'm very nervous right now about losing playing time. And, you know, it might create that sense of urgency or a competition there for maybe some of these other guys to step up as well. It's good to have that. It's good to have a little bit of that pressure. Jose Fernandez doesn't look like any of the positions he plays. He just looks like a baseball player. Exactly.

I mean, he had kind of a high throw in his first opportunity because it was like the second batted ball of the game came right at him in his debut. I'm not going to put that too much on him. But he moves to the ball. Well, he's athletic. He like knocked down a ball at first base and didn't panic and got it to Zach Gallen. And then obviously he made that crazy play where he catches the liner and throws it to third base. He's decisive. He's not overthinking it.

He's playing instinctually. I, you know, I would trust him at pretty much any infield position at this point. Right. Until he gives reason for you to not believe that he can handle it. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, make sure check out that article from Alex. He does some incredible work over there at DeBacks on this side as well as for PHNX.

Thank you so much, Alex, for joining us. And let's hope that the diamondbacks can stay hot here against the Atlanta Braves. Yeah, for sure. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Thank you again. All right, well, we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we are going to talk more about that series against Tigers.

I have some thoughts, and we have some video about Erod wanting one Jose Fernandez to join team Venezuela in the next WBC. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Bet365 is where winning is everything. And you know, of course, this is the best time of the year to be a sports fan. Obviously, baseball has started. There is no doubt that that makes this immediately the best time. of the year. But you also have March Madness

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So make MyStyle for your lifestyle at Mountain America Credit Union. Visit macu.com slash my style to apply today. Membership is required insured by NCUA based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost registration activation. Terms, conditions, and exclusions do apply. Welcome back to the PHNXD Back Show presented by Bet365. Of course, we're still excited about the Diamondback sweeping the Tigers there at Chase Field. I think we have our buy the numbers here from the series overall.

But again, let's take a look at that. Diamondbacks, of course, beat the Tigers here by a score of 17 to 11 across the series. Big bounce back series sweep, obviously, after starting at 0 and 3 and getting back to 500. And this was a tone-setting series. The Diamondbacks once again look like the Diamondbacks. They outhit the Tigers 25 to 23. They kept the Tigers to know home runs hit at Chase Field with the panels in the roof open. What?

Excellent job pitching staff. Meanwhile, the D-backs had five home runs in the series. Starting pitching ERAs were pretty good for both teams, but give it up for the D-back starters because this includes a five earned run outing from Brandon Fought and two amazing scoreless outings from Michael Soroka and Zach Gallen to keep the starting pitching at ERA at 2.6. five for the series to the Detroit Tigers 3.78. Meanwhile, relief pitching ERA, an absolute nightmare for both teams, in fact, but Diamondbacks got the better of this one for sure. 5.40 ERA for the bullpen for the debacks to a 12.28 atrocious ERA there for the Tigers. And last but not least, of course, is the amount of Noah Wolbrecht tears shed in this

series. He was so excited. Oh, I'm going to go watch the GERR. I hope he cried a lot in person. 174,000 tears shed by Noah. I mean, it's a lot. That's a lot of tears. You could fill the ocean with those tears.

I mean, he was certain. Him and the entire city of Kingman were certain that they were going to see a Tigers win in game three. And they did not. And then I had to put not available because, Derek, I'm not going to lie. I did shed a couple of tears watching Jose Fernandez play baseball. So I didn't want to tell everybody that there were a few tears, but maybe not. They were happy tears, tears of joy. Not the same type of tears.

It's when you're witnessing something special. It was your Vince McMahon tweet 100%. That's how I felt. That's how we all felt. It was special. He was special. This series was special overall. The Diamondbacks, of course, got out to an, you know, an early tone setting like win in game one, one where they were up eight to nothing.

Also tone setting because it shows that this bullpen can still know, still knows how to give up a game no matter how big the lead is. and that was a stark reminder of that. They end up coming back, and the Diamondbacks do win that one by a score of, what was it, 9 to 7. But again, the lineup showed life after the Dodgers series, a lot of offense in that one. And again, they were just aggressive. They looked across the diamond. They looked at the fans and said, we're not dead yet. We're not dead offensively, even though we only put up two runs and two games versus the Dodgers.

But they also proved that they could win close games in this series, something that I doubted. them of. I said that you can't expect to win very many baseball games when you're only scoring two runs. Boy, I wouldn't have expected them to win very many games when only scoring one run, but they did that in the series. Most importantly, though, is game two there, or sorry, I'm sorry, 9 to 6 was that first game. We got 7 to 5 here in game two with Jose Fernandez having his big breakout. That one was a reverse of game one where the Diamondbacks found themselves down five to nothing early on and instead found a way to come back with Jose Fernandez making the best debut we've ever seen out of a diamond back in history,

hitting two home runs, including that clutch late bomb, and just driving in the comeback, driving this team to a comeback win. It was amazing. I just couldn't believe the story just as the day progressed. I started out the day with coming into the clubhouse, seeing the lineup, posting that and being excited that Jose Fernandez was in the lineup and that he was hitting sixth. then we saw him hitting BP and it was like man guy is killing it guys hitting some bombs and uh yeah no he definitely came out of the game and did that but just as things progressed what a what a story you

couldn't have written it better getting his first single in a way in which it was truly an a diamond back single beating out a a grounder that probably would have been an out for most players but wasn't for fernandez uh and then obviously his first solo home run that was the first run of the game for the Diamondbacks, the first sign of life from the offense, and then coming alive later with his huge three-run bomb that wins the game for the Diamondbacks. But let's see, Killer X is in here talking about the Conga-the-Haro shirt that I'm wearing. Sorry that you're not cultured killer X and know anything about ball. So you might want to call it a Timu Dodgers shirt, but honestly, there's probably an entire

island that would attack you for doing so. But what's the most popular team in Puerto Rico, the Yankees by far? Like not even close? Probably. Yeah. But I almost feel like it's almost too like cliche of a thing. Right. So, I mean, I was, I was pleased to say when I was there last July that there were,

there were people wearing jerseys all over the place. Saw a lot of Mets jerseys. Mm. Uh, Lindor. Yeah. Exactly. Well, I mean, Lindor, of course, even Juan Soto and everything. It doesn't matter.

They don't have to be from Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans to embrace them and celebrate them. New York is like the second home. But, you know, again, it's easy to do that. There's a lot of, but I saw a lot of this. Like, and this is legitimately like, you know, mostly some throwback stuff with Roberto Clemente. Those people never forget history and they never forget a time where Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente played in the same outfield for this team.

But I think that, you know, Puerto Rico, like, that's cool. That's cool to hear that it's a little bit more of like, you know, they just love baseball, right? Like, it's not, it's not necessarily they're tied to the teams. they've tied more to the players, I think, that represent their country. So they're probably fans of Carlos Correa and there was probably a lot of Astros jerseys when they were winning in the World Series and whatnot or Yadi. I'm sure Yadi jerseys flooded the Puerto Rican streets for decades. I'm going to tell you this much.

We never, we never, we never stopped supporting one of our own. I have to with Edwin Diaz being on the Dodgers, but even deep on the side. I mean, Derek, that's the, that, when Edwin Diaz went to the, The Dodgers, you like celebrate. You fist pumped because then you could start rooting for them. I still can't believe that I had to break the news to the musician whose song The Dodgers used on opening day just one year ago as their like theme song thing. And I got to break the Edwin-Dia's news to him.

So shout out to MERS for giving me that moment in life. I don't know if I like it or not, but whatever. Meanwhile, Damon, pitching masterclass there in game three, right? Well, I mean, let's get back to Jose Fernandez. I can't stop talking about Jose Fernandez enough. I can't stop thinking about him. I can't stop thinking about him either. Tori couldn't stop thinking about him.

Tori was up at 3.30 in the morning thinking about him. He was talking about throwing him into the old Google machine and seeing what came up. This is what Tori had to say about his next morning, how he felt the next morning after Jose Fernandez's big night. A little bit, yeah. I said it 30 times last night to anybody that would listen. I cannot believe what happened. I cannot believe this moment. This is so special, and we all have to enjoy it.

I woke up at 3.30 thinking about it. I was up from 3.30 until 4.30 with a smile on my face. I have the same human emotions that everybody else does. I have the same feeling of excitement that everybody else does sitting and they're living room watching the game. So I can separate from it and enjoy it. And I definitely spent some time thinking about it this morning. I don't necessarily read a lot of stuff,

but I put Jose Fernandez in this thing called Google last night, and it was going crazy, and I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed his ride, and I got on that bus and enjoyed his best that I possibly could. I hope he saw my tweet about the core of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I'm sure he did. Corby and Carole, Coutel Marte, Heraldo Pardomo, Jose Fernandez. If he doesn't, you could show it to him at Sunday dinner.

For sure. You know what I mean? Yeah. After the Sunday. That's the portion of Sunday dinner where I break out my social media account and I read all my Tets to Tori. Oh, he loves that. Hey, Tori.

Did you see this video that debacks posted? I said inject it into my veins. Yeah. And he's like, cool, Damon. That's really cool. He's like, what did you get 600 likes on that? Excellent work. Excellent work.

I mean, Jose Fernando changes everything. Does he not? I mean, he, again, he came back down to Earth in game three, but still had some amazing defensive plays that were key that helped this team. win that baseball game by, you know, by score of one and nothing. I could sit there and dwell on that, but I could also say that was scubal, right? That was Terrick scubal on the mound. You cannot expect anybody to come out and have success.

And as you can see through their lineup with the majority of their guys that weren't named Corby, Corby, going one for three with no RBI and no runs scored, that that was important or that that's not something necessarily to be held against him. We still need to see him perform some more. But if he can be this guy that we think he might be able to be, I mean, the nine The timebacks just have a new middle of the bat, middle of the lineup bat. They have, you know, an exciting young player that adds power, adds energy, and just a buzz to this team right now that could really kind of power them through this month of April with this tough schedule

and get them to that point where you start getting Lordus back and then you start getting AJ puck back. And the reinforcements start coming on just to make this team deeper and stronger. All offseason long, we talked about how the margins for this team are so slim of like, you just need a couple extra guys to step up to supplement what the star players on your roster are giving you in the big three that we all know and love so much. And if Jose Fernandez can give you anything, it's such an added plus for this team. He's also versatile. We've talked Derek about like, well, like, you know, blaze out the door.

You lost a guy that could play a bunch of different positions. Jose Fernandez can play a bunch of different positions. You can play the entire infield. It's true. And so I think that this is a guy that, you know, it fits exactly what they needed on this roster. It fits a power bat that, you know, you felt that or at least you hope that he can provide some power for you. And then like we talked about the other day, like his rise has been so fast that it almost makes you feel like this guy is legit. Yeah.

Because a lot of the guys who are under the radar, I think he was the 27th prospect in the DeBax farm system in the top 30. But like he's burst onto the scene recently. Yeah. And then he follows that up with an insanely good spring training where the eye test and the underlying metrics both pop out at you. He looks like Carlos Correa when he's swinging the bat. Like everything is checking the box when it comes to Jose Fernandez. And if he can just be, you know, I know where I'm exaggerating, you know, he's part of the the four man core of the of this organization now. I mean, we were deciding which corner we were going to build the Jose Fernandez statue on.

And that still feels like an accurate thing that we should be planning. And we're already talking about, you know, 42, 20, 51, and 11 up there in the rafters of the greatest players in Debeck's history. People were getting mad at me, Derek. They were like, no four for Cattel and no seven for Corbin. And I'm like, fellas, it's a little bit of satire here for a second. These are the jokes. Welcome to social media. Also, it's what we used to use it for.

Those guys have to wait until they get their numbers retired. Jose Fernandez is getting his number retired this season in the middle of the year. We're going to make sure no one ever wears 11 ever again. I'm here for it. I, I'm here for it. If he could just be like the six, seventh, eighth best hitter on this team, you know how massive that would be for the Arizona Diamondbacks this year?

Like, so let's hope he continues it. Let's hope he keeps rolling. And, you know, I love this guy. I love his attitude. I love him talking about Kenley Jansen being like, yeah,

he's, I know who Kenley Jansen is. I'm at this level because I am meant to hit these type of pitchers. I, I've been watching him since I was a small child. since I was six years old. Yeah. And then Derek, now we have Jose Fernandez talking about the world baseball classic already,

a Venezuelan guy. They just won the entire thing. And people are like, are you going to be on the next WBC roster? That's what we have. We have his answer to that question. And we also have a brief drive-by of Erod in the background. We'll talk about that afterwards. Here's what he had to say about when he was asked if he was contacted by Venezuela to play for that team.

playing the WBC at all for Venezuela or no? They invited to go to Venezuela in the classic? No, not to be. Not yet, but hopefully. Not yet, but hopefully. But hopefully the next one. What all of us were laughing about was Eduardo Rodriguez walking by in the background

and basically saying, yep, he's going to be on the next one. Like, there's no chance that he's not on this. I love that. It feels like, Derek, it feels like, and I could be wrong, but you listen to the way Brandon fought talked about him. You know, and the other day, what was it during his debut? Or was that yesterday? No, that was the other.

Yeah, it was after it was game two. Yeah. And so you listen to the way Brandon Fott talked about him. You listen to the way that Eduardo Rodriguez says you're going to be on next WBC roster in three years. Like it feels like the guys in this locker room are like, oh, no, this guy's a real ball player. You know? Yeah. It feels like they went through spring with him and they're like, oh, we're, we know we got somebody.

Yeah. Jose Fernandez. That's something that's very true. It's not like that debut was the first time they've seen them. These guys have been talking about Jose Fernandez quite a bit. And honestly, he was the talk of spring. He just kept coming up. And he was getting time and like garbage time in spring training games.

And then when the WBC guys, you know, obviously went, he had a more significant role. But he just killed it during spring. He killed it in Cactus League play and really made an impression. And again, it's one of the reasons why spring training, is so important. You keep your name in the mind of executives and the GM and the coach. And those are the guys that end up making the decision when Haven Smith goes down with an

injury to look to you rather than someone else in the organization that, quite frankly, has more experience than Jose Fernandez does. And I will say this. I will preface this because we are putting him on pedestal at top of pedestal. But I will say that when it comes to Jose Fernandez and the Diamond their history is that young players tend to have success when they come up. It's one of the things that I have credited Tori Lovolo for doing such a good job with is when these guys get their major league debut, they somehow succeed.

Jake McCarthy is a name that comes to mind. I mean, Alec Thomas, Corbyn Care, like everybody that came up kind of had a hot start. Except Lawler. Except Lawler. Except Lawler. Jordan Lawler was one of the more disappointing, yeah, starts. But he kind of has come around. early and it was partly because

Ahmed got cut. Right. And like you know, he was obviously the injuries and everything. Like, yeah, it was a weird situation with Jordan Lawley. It weren't very much so. And in the position players, it's not always a soft landing. They don't always have success. But you could say the same thing about pitching. Like young pitchers

tend to come up as we saw with Ryan Nelson and Dre Jameson and a number of other guys who, when they came up and made their debut, not only were they good in their debut, but for a decent stretch. However, you know, things tend to regress to the means and these guys come back down to earth. So it definitely remains to be seen if Jose Fernandez is this.

But it doesn't feel like this was just a fluke night. You know, this doesn't feel like, no offense to him, but doesn't feel like Payman Smith's three home run game against one Justin Verlander, by the way. It feels like this is a legitimate stud that the debacks have as far as a young star. And again, I mean, feels like he's gotten the sign of approval from the rest of the, That's what it is.

Yeah, like that Erod comment about being on team Venezuela, that that's exactly. I mean, they got a loaded team, man. They're nasty. For him to say that is, I mean, that shows his level, I feel like. Absolutely. And this isn't like, you know, no offense. Like this isn't just like some guy we called up. This isn't like Jorge Barrosa or like, you know, maybe Ildemarovarga is getting his

spot starts here and there. Like this is, I think a dude that you, you know, have some, some hope could be a pillar of this organization for a really long time. Absolutely. But to be fair to those guys, the Diamondbacks have already had to turn to those guys early in this season. No doubt, yeah. You need those guys to survive a 162 game season. There's no question about that.

They've done a good job. They have done a good job. So credit to those guys as well. But of course, Corbyn Carroll is that dude again. He is that dude again. All right. Home run. And again, Jose Fernandez's two home runs were amazing and gave them the lead.

But they wouldn't have been in a position for the Diamondbacks to take the lead if Carol wouldn't have delivered with that huge double there in that eighth inning. that only the backs get close. Only the sixth lefty on lefty home run that Terrick Scoobel has given up in his MLB career. Yeah, that's freaking wild. And he threw a fastball up in the zone

kind of jammed Corbyn and Corbyn hit it oppo out. It's at five foot like eight, five foot nine. Yeah. It's, Corbyn Carroll is the most like single most like impressive player to watch. I feel like in baseball.

Even Terrick Scouble like you saw him. I tweeted it Derek. Go look on my Twitter account. He's walking away. And he's like, he's like, okay. What the hell was that? Like he couldn't believe that that just happened. It was a line drive home run that it just kept carrying forever.

And it went the deepest part of the ballpark. It was lefty on lefty, best pitcher in baseball. What was it like 416 feet or something like that? And it just kept carrying until it barely got over the fence. That is just such a superstar home run. It's hard to put words to how much that home run means to me, Derek. 567 career plate appearances against left-handed batters for Terek Scouble in just the sixth home run allowed. He is also Corbyn Carroll homered off of six Cy Young award winners now with 10 total home runs against those six Scy Young Award winners.

Shane Beaver, Sandy Alcantra, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw three times, Justin Burlander three times, and Terrick Scouble now once. So don't, don't think you're going to get one past Corbyn. So great to see Corbyn back. Great to hear yesterday about his hand and that he's feeling better. He felt much better after the Dodgers series. And that could be seen based on the way that he performed in this particular series, but also still has to break up that scar tissue in his hand. And it sounded like a terrible, painful process.

So it made me feel even more in awe of him. And he's like, yeah, every once in a while, the trainer comes over. and just really inflicts some pain on me. And then he goes out there and hits the ball the next day. So what a stud. But you could see how much better he felt too. When they asked him like, do you feel better? He's like, oh, he was, his eyes lit up like in a way that you don't really see Corbyn get like show

a ton of emotion. Yeah. In that circumstance, he literally was like. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Oh, yeah. He was like, yeah.

He clearly feels a lot better now than he did a week or two ago. And that's good to hear. I mean, just continual progression. So we get him back to 100%. Just overall here, the defense took a big step forward in this series. The key double play there by Fernandez, just clean baseball compared to the Dodgers series. And even then, they didn't play extremely sloppy baseball against the Dodgers. They just made a couple of mistakes.

And a couple of mistakes is far too many against a Dodgers team. But they look sharper. They look more discipline. And most importantly, their pitching staff looked, you know, really good. Look legit in this series. Not only do you have the two scoreless starts, but the bullpen just looked clean. composed, effective, everything that you're looking for out of a bullpen. And it wasn't perfect.

And it wasn't every pitcher, but you're starting to feel like some names are emerging that the Diamondbacks can count on. And I completely agree with Alex about Taylor Clark that, you know, that was such just an uncharacteristic outing from him, especially what he did last year with the Royals. And also when you saw what he did during Cactus League play, he was one of their best relievers. So I think Clark's going to bounce back and he did that in this series.

But overall, I just think, like, this is, This is a very good baseball team. And I think that they can win a surprising amount of games, even surprising to you and I here in this first month and hopefully get to that next, you know, milestone of Lordus Guriel coming back. And like I said, those other guys returning from injury overall. But just a great reset after some sloppy play in that Dodger series and some quiet at bats.

Definitely looking like a better team. But they have to be better because they are facing a very, very tough Braves team here coming up in a four-game series that starts tonight at 640. And we're going to talk about that. Let's preview that on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? Are you watching the P.H. Next Diamondback Show?

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Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Well, welcome on back to the PHNXD Beck Show presented by our friends of Bet365. And we are looking at a four-game set here with the Atlanta Braves that really could be a statement series for the Diamondbacks. We know we've been talking about the difficulty of the schedule, as has everybody else that covers this team. And it's no secret that, you know, they kind of put the Diamondbacks in quite a hole here as far as who they play to start the month with, you know, limited resources as far as all of the injuries they have. But they played really good baseball here against Tigers,

and I think they can keep it rolling against the hot Braves team that comes in at four and two right now. They are currently second in the National League East behind the Marlins, who are five and one, and have some of the best offensive stats in all of baseball. That's crazy to me. But Braves are doing a pretty good job themselves. They have the eighth best team OPS at 731,

and they're starting pitching, and relief pitching has been very good. fourth best starting pitching ERA at 2.48 and third best relief pitching ERA at 1.27. Obviously, again, we're not going to put too much stock in this after just six games, but they've come out hot and that's because they had a big disappointing season last year going 76 and 86 in 2025. They have that new manager there and Walt Weiss who's looking to stabilize things early and this isn't necessarily a rebuild for a Braves roster that, you know, just a few years ago, when they won the world series, we were kind of like in awe of and jealous of the way that they had such young, you know, quality starters, position players, everything. And they were just locking guys up to long term deals left and right.

It was something we desired out of the Diamondbacks that eventually they did actually kind of start this, you know, a little bit. So again, we we did start locking our guys up and following a little bit of that blueprint that the Braves were looking, you know, looking to get, done, but they have struggled since then, and a lot of it has been due to injuries. Their rotation isn't at full strength right now. They're Spencer's, they're down to Spencer. They got Spencer Strider out and Spencer Schwellenbach are both currently out, but they have had some good pitching from Chris Sayle and also solid outings from Bryce Elder, Reinaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes all over the place. I mean, their bullpen has been good, and just overall, they've been playing a cleaner, more professional version of baseball than in the past for sure.

So Walt Weiss really seems like he's come in and got this business-like approach with the Braves going here. They added some key pieces. And Mike Yostremski, Robert Suarez makes that bullpen very good. And again, the Diamondbacks just kind of have a lot to deal with here in a four-game series. Come out disappointed after getting swept, sweep the tigers get back to 500 and everything kind of feels better. But again, with the four games set here against the very good baseball team, things could go sideways really quick if they don't perform well against this bravest team. They do have some injuries to obviously some of their top starters. And their offense really hasn't fully exploded yet.

You know, like they still have some guys that are looking to get going in Acuna and Ozzy Albies and Austin Riley. And, you know, they've been getting some contributions from other places where they didn't expect like Drake Baldwin. already has three home runs and seven RBI this season. So again, a tough, tough team here, and the Diamondbacks could really either keep things rolling or perhaps suddenly find themselves looking bad again, depending on how this whole thing goes. But again, the Diamondbacks can really kind of exploit here what the Dodgers have. Hopefully they can get to their starters early on and, you know, make sure that, you know, this team that's good, but not unstoppable can be beat here at Chase Field.

Diamondbacks really need to get their confidence rolling though And right now that's gonna I think rely heavily on pitching I think if we can get good starts here out of our probabilities We will see the diamond backs Kind of maybe maybe get some things going and it all starts with Ryan Nelson And Nellie is who we believe in I think we have a look at the probable pictures for the series Ryan Nelson here goes up against Rinalda Lopez

ERA ugly for Nellie after his start But obviously we still believe in Ryan Nelson Also, his dog, I believe is Ella, is a golden doodle, according to my wife. So glad to get that out there and corrected from yesterday's episode. Meanwhile, again, he goes up against Rinalda Lopez, who is 1.50 ERA so far this season. Game two, we have Grant Holmes for the Braves with his 5.4 ERA and his four strikeouts going up against Erod, who has not allowed to run and look tremendously good in his first start of the year. but talking about tremendous starts,

I would be remiss to not bring up Michael Soroka, who here goes up against his former team in the Braves, and Bryce Elder, neither one of these pitchers has allowed a run. So quite the matchup there in game three. And then that notorious TBD going in game four up against Brandon Fott, who let's hope that Brandon Fott has a good outing.

He has a 7.50 ERA currently, and we would really love to see Brandon get going. I think that, Again, still impressive that he's able to do what he does after he gives up a big inning like he did. But there are some difficult decisions to be made. And like I said yesterday or the other day, was it yesterday, I believe it was yesterday, you know, or after game two. We might have to have an unpleasant conversation about the guys who simply have options, you know, left to be optioned to minor leagues. And as much as many of us as fans view that as demotion, it really just is about not converting them to a bullpillar.

pen arm and instead keeping them stretched out for the inevitable moment that they need another starting pitcher. But it's not just one. And I think someone pointed this out because we were focused on kind of the six-man situation. There is going to be a return of Corbyn Burns here on the horizon that is going to also change things. And that requires kind of both fought and Nelson to play their best because those are the two guys in the starting rotation that have minor league options left. Outside of that, the other guys have, I guess, far more to play. because those guys would potentially be traded or DFA or something else if they don't perform well here. And all of this is going to happen very quickly here.

Merrill Kelly isn't far off from returning and neither is Corbyn Burns. So interesting to see how this plays out. And again, I don't think that anybody, I still don't think this changes the future for Nelson or fought. I think it's just a temporary thing where unfortunately the best option at times is to keep them stretched out as a starter instead of, you know, instead of demoting them in a way to the bullpen, which even that isn't a demotion, but it doesn't allow them to be stretched out. So should something happen where they need to turn to them, it's going to take a number of games before they could get back into the starting rotation and start pitching, you know, more than three or four

innings. So all of that makes things complicated, but as we have said, probably too many times for right now, it's a good problem to have because it feels like even with the ERAs for Nellie and Both of those guys pitched much better than those ERAs would speak to. Yeah, and that's the name of the game for Brandon Fought is that his ERA always looks significantly worse than how he pitches. And that's why you can never give up on the guy. Right. But at the same time, it feels like the Diamondbacks consistently, and this goes back to last year as well, the offense plays well when Brandon Fought pitches. It really does.

There's nothing that would make that be the case. but Brandon fought in his record last year based off his ERA should have been a lot worse. But his record was not that bad because the team seems to show up in his starts. And in this start, he gave a ton of runs. He locked in. He stayed steady. And then the team rewarded him by saving his L,

saving him from having a loss on that record. And I just can't help but wonder how this series goes from that point on, Damon, if Brandon Fought has to leave the game at that point. Right? Because it changes everything. Yeah, there's a there's a ripple effect obviously due to the fact that they would have had to turn to their bullpen, probably use seven, eight guys. You know, use everybody. And then also have that impact the way that things go in game three, considering how solid the bullpen there was to keep that game scoreless at the end.

So you just can't say enough about Brandon Fott's ability to bounce back. However, the one thing that we've just constantly been looking for from him in his career is for him to not have that big. You know, not have that. And I mean, it can vary in size, right? It can, it can be three runs or four runs or six runs or ten runs. Right. Could be the, the, I mean, we've seen him throw a yes hitter, right? Yeah.

You know, so it's like, that's not. That's not. That's, I don't want that to be fought ball. Well, fop ball is inconsistency. Yeah, football is inconsistency because he's, oh my God, he's awesome. Oh my God, he sucks again. It's, you, you never feel like you're like comfortable with being like, this is Brandon fought. This is who he is as a pitcher.

100%. And that's what's most frustrating because, man, does he look good? And again, he even looks good when you're sitting, you're like, even in that outing, right? Six batters in a row, he sits down. It looks effortless for him. And then suddenly the third inning comes up and it

looks like he can't get out of it. And it was similar, very similar to that yes hitter. However, once he got on the other side of things, he still was very effective for this team. And again, that was big. It was big, even though that was overall not a good outing for him. And Killer Rex,

I hope you're still here and listening. He's not. Also was screwed over by Tori Lovolo in that game. There was that pickoff attempt that Brandon fought, you know, tried to throw out the guy on the Tigers. He did it twice in a row. He was out on the second one.

And Tori didn't challenge it. And Carlos Santana told him to challenge it. And Tori didn't because for some reason we're the softest team in the league when it comes to challenges. And I have to hear Steve say on it. Steve Berthium on every broadcast. The Diamondbacks have told their players,

let's be very cautious on the challenges because only decided in a big moment where you know you're going to be right. And it's like, what? I'm watching every other team spam challenges left and right and getting them all right. And it's like we're playing at a disadvantage in that regard. If Tori got challenged that call,

Brandon Fogg gets out of that inning unscathed, Derek. On top of that, there was an infield single. maybe two, if I'm misremembering. There was a ball that was hit into center field where Alec Thomas probably could have made a diving attempt at it and decided to play it a little bit more passive. And ultimately, maybe that was the right decision because the debacks won the game. But there just was that whole third inning was like you could pinpoint the disastrous fall of Brandon Fott in that inning. And there was a lot of things that had to happen for him to start giving up those runs. So again, I know we do this with Brandon Faw all the time where it's like,

well, he didn't actually pitch as bad as the stats would suggest that he pitched. But I do think there's a lot of context to apply into that third inning that could have changed some things. Well, we are going to talk about ABS challenges and the success rate for the Arizona Diamondbacks on the other side of this break. I know people love that. People love stats and percentages. So let's do that, Damon. We're going to take a quick break. And we'll be right back. You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show.

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doesn't matter. Brandon Bills has you covered with performance and with style. So head on over to brandedbills.com and use code BVHNX for 15% off your first order right now. Got a couple super chats there. Let's get to him. Let's rip them real quick. We got Colbro with his typical. talking about U of A super chat to me.

Damon is spiraling on Twitter because of the end of U of A basketball. Wow. Cool bro. I thought they still a game to play. My Twitter account has never been hotter. I'm gaining like 10 plus followers a day. My D-Backs and my U of A tweets are popping off. And Tommy Lloyd is staying in Tucson.

So appreciate you, cool, bro, as always for the super chats. And then says, The Tiger series was Pepto to an upset stomach. I had an upset stomach throughout the entire series. Damon can attest to that. So I can very much agree with that. But Damon, believe it or not, I know you have some bad things to say about the Diamondbacks

and where they rank as far as ABS challenges are concerned. Oh, my God. Now, believe it or not. I don't know what the stats are. I just know that the I test has been horrible. So I would assume that the stats are going to check out in that regard, Derek. Well, believe it or not, the Diamondbacks have the fifth highest success rate. Yeah, because they're soft about it.

Because they don't use very many challenges. Yeah. Now, I'll give you a, for instance, Diamondbacks batters currently have a 66.7% success rate, which is tied for sixth in Major League Baseball. They have six challenges as batters. Meanwhile, six total challenges. We've played six games. Six total challenges. Meanwhile, you have unlimited if you keep getting them right, by the way, Derek. So that's in six games. You have six times that you've freaking challenged. It's brutal. I love this. It's like your age-baited already about the U of A stuff, but now I'm just going to add to it by telling you that the Cleveland

Guardians have 28 challenges this season already as batters, not total, just as batters. They also have 28 challenges as catcher. So a lot of challenges by the Cleveland Guardians. You also have the Los Angeles Angels with 24 batter challenges. You have the New York Mets with 29 batter challenges, and they have no. not one, excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm getting these wrong. I'm getting these wrong. I apologize here. I'm screwing this whole thing up. But anyway, a lot of challenges. I'm getting the numbers wrong, but the percentages are correct. The Mets have not won a battered challenge yet. They are

dead last in baseball at 0%. The Diamondbacks, though, again, their catchers rank 5th, or 6, excuse me, and overall they rank 5th. They have a 71.4% active success rate with that. their ABS challenges. 75% for their catcher challenges, 66.7% for their batter challenges. The Diamondbacks will not let their pitchers challenge, and I think that's the right call, don't you? There are some pitcher challenges across baseball, but they haven't been very successful. But overall here, I mean, I'm not surprised.

I think that we shouldn't be surprised by the Diamondbacks. Like you said, having a high success rate when they don't challenge very. very often here overall. Yeah, I mean, it's, they, they've been told the, the, the method from Tori Lavolo is to lock in and do not waste challenges. And so because of that, the whole team's methodology is, okay, well, if I'm not entirely sure, then I'm not going to use it. And it's, you know, there's been times where it's cost Jordan Luller a walk or it's cost

Cotel Marte, you know, a spot where he ended up getting out in or whatnot because he gets down in an O2 count. Like, it's just, I, I, I wish. that we were a little bit more confident and prepared to use the ABS system because it feels like the Diamondbacks are underprepared in that regard and it's kind of upsetting to me because this is this is clearly one of the things that like bothers people about Tori and I get why because I think the in-game aspect of things leaves some something to be desired. Absolutely.

And so fans watch the games and they're like, what else does the manager do? and they don't think about the team building and the culture building aspect of a manager's job, which is so important keeping a group of guys, a group of 262 games and making them feel like they have something to play for, which is something I think Tori is one of the best in baseball at. But when it comes to the in-game management of like, well, and then we're going to challenge this guy who just got picked off first base and it's going to save us four runs, that's where he really, like I said, leaves a lot to be desired. So I want to see you step up in this coaching staff in their ability to discern what needs to be challenged in the, you know, like the trying to like encourage the players and make the players feel confident that they can use their challenges. He's explained it.

And I mean, his big thing is that he just wants one challenge left for the seventh inning and beyond. So if they get down to losing their challenge early on in the game, he would prefer. But it's like this calculation of certainty versus the impact on the. the game. How big of an impact is you calling an 0-1 count in the first inning going to have versus you saving that for later, right? It could have a huge impact, but you also could say it's different if you're talking even about the first inning with runners in scoring position on at bat, using it there versus it. Because now what you're increasing is the impact that it's going to have in the game and score runs early. And if you are very certain about it, there's no reason why you shouldn't

challenge it. But I know that you want to know the biggest thing is which umpires are getting the most calls overturned on them. And of course, it's your usual suspects. Laz Diaz, believe it or not, 50% success rate. It's all the guys we know.

He's had 12 pitches challenged and five calls overturned. But meanwhile, Bill Miller, who we saw in this series, 10 challenges, six calls overturned. Lance Barrett, 12 challenges,

eight calls overturned. Chris Siegel, 10 challenges, is seven overturned. And I got to give a shout out here to Chad Whitson, who has not called many games, but all seven of the calls challenged against him have been overturned. So there's actually a fairly high success rate here

against certain umpires. There are four who have had pitches challenged, who have not had a single call overturned. Small sample size still, though. Eric Backus has had the most three pitches challenged, zero overturned. Good job. Keep doing your job.

What's funny is that the guys at the top don't really have many challenges, which just shows how good of a job they're doing as umpires. Meanwhile, I know you guys all want to know what C.V. Buckner is at. And that's the big question right now. Let me find him because his isn't great. But Damon, nine challenges, seven overturned. Wow. Yeah.

That's awesome. He's been stealing the headlines of baseball with this start with the EBS. He's the main character. Didn't, was Gino? Was the Gino back-to-back challenges against him? Yeah, that was against CB Buckner. You also had him. One of the most electric moments in baseball history.

The way the Great American Ballpark, the pop that you heard on that second back-to-back challenge, did you see that video, Derek? No. Oh, my God, I have to show it to you after the show. When Gino challenged, so Gino gets called on a for a called a backwards K with the bases loaded two outs. He challenges the call wins it. Goes back up to the plate. Yeah. Second time happens again.

Yeah. Yeah. And the crowd goes below. like the Reds just won the World Series. I mean, it's, it's one of, it's one of my favorite moments in baseball history. Well, and I mean, Tori,

they were talking about the other day, the benches have been chirping at like C.B. Buckner for missing so many calls. And Tori kind of set his foot down a little bit about that and was like, yeah, I'm not going to allow that. And I mean, I, I kind of agree because I already think that the idea of having your call publicly

challenged in front of the arena of, you know, 50,000 people and everybody gets to see how wrong you are. enough of a hit to your ego, especially for umpires. But, you know, again, this is the reason why I think this whole thing is stupid and think they should just have a thing in their ear, buzzing when it's a strike and not buzzing when it's not a strike. But never, you hate to see CB Buckner, even with how bad he is at his job sometimes get hit,

like he got hit and removed from the game. So that part sucks. But I also, it's sad, man. It's sad because it's like, he's also, he also became like the main character here. And then it's hard to have sympathy for an umpire in general. But I think we all do. People hate umpires. Yeah, but when we see them get hit, like, we don't want that.

Like, it's like a lot of things. You don't want the ops to get injured. You just want the ops to lose. That's all you want. You want the ops in the case of the umpire to just call the game and not even be a name. We don't want to know your name. We don't even want to bring you up. Like, that should be the thing is that we don't even notice that the umpires are there.

You shouldn't be part of the story. You shouldn't be part of the narrative. And unfortunately, C.B. Buckner entirely too, too big of a part of MLB's narrative here. And this whole thing is going to create controversy with certain umpires because we're going to prove that certain umpires are getting stuff wrong. Right. So it's it's inherently like going to maybe hopefully weed out the bad ones or make them better at their jobs. But at the same time, it's going to create enemies of certain teams and of the sport in general.

Danielle puts in here in the chat that the whole league is figuring out how to use APS. Same thing happened early on with the replay process. And I think that's fair. I also think that I watch the opening series with the Dodgers, a team that is obviously on a different level in terms of their preparation and what they're trying to accomplish. But should that not be the goal is to go toe to toe with the Dodgers? And they're immediately prepared as can be for the ABS challenge system.

Will Smith is challenging every call of every pitch, whether he's catching, whether he's at the plate. And he's getting every single one of them right. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, why are the Dodgers so damn prepared for everything? Every rule change. Every single little nuance that baseball adds, the Dodgers are like, we're going to absolutely crush it in that aspect.

And the Dinembacks conversely are like, it's like, we're playing soft boy baseball where we're like, oh, you know, let's figure it out and let's dip our toe into the water and see how this whole thing works. No, some teams are using it as an advantage right now. And the Diamondbacks need to establish a lead in an above 500. record where it's not going to fall off a cliff when we have the ultimate, you know, July month where the diamondbacks just suck like they do every year. It's not about success rate.

It's about how impactful the calls are. And it's about using your challenges to make sure that you're doing everything you can to get those big moments right. You know, and again, there's probably been too many times where the diamondbacks have left with challenges still on the board that they could have used. But we also saw some weird stuff with like Gabby going to his helmet and not getting the challenge. and I still don't have an explanation for that.

Gabby, Gabby has been pretty bad on the challenges. I mean, like Michael Dixon said brought up, like he challenged one the other day that was just, I mean, brutal. Yeah. Yeah, because he challenged two in that at bat. Yeah. Yeah.

And he got the first one, right? The first one, right? And then he lost the second one. Then he was throwing himself. Yeah. And he did the second one. I know everything about the strike zone. But anyway.

Oh, I know the strike zone. Oh, I know. I know. But let's go watch the Diamondbacks. Hopefully take care of business tonight against the Atlanta Braves. That game starts at 640. And again, our guy, Ryan Nelson, on the mountain for the D-R-N-A-N-N-A.

So make sure to join us tomorrow. We will be back here with another post-game show after game two. And we'll be talking baseball again. So make sure to do that. In the meantime, you can follow us on social media. I am at K-U-N-D-M-A-M-W-G. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, Mark, our shows at P-N-X underscore D-Backs,

but all roads lead to at P-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you sharing a little bit of it with us this afternoon. We'll see you back here tomorrow after the game. And until then, behave yourselves, Killarex. By the way, I keep meeting random strangers at the games who tell me they watch our show and like us. And I look at every single one of them like, are you killer X? You look him up and down like this. Son bitch. Is that you in there? Is that you? There's been this tall hippie guy that I can't get a read on him. But I think for sure he might be Killer Rex. I I don't know. I know nothing about this man. He is an enigma to be in a red. If I ever look at you weird when you introduce yourself to me, know that that's why. No, that's why. I'm assessing if you are, in fact, Hillorex in real life.

But anyway, you see, he lives rent free in my head. He absolutely lives right. I mean, yeah, there's nothing else you can say about it. Oh, God, I hate him. You know, I miss Scotty Mac. Where's he, where's my guy? Oh, I miss that gorgeous, gorgeous man. Where's handsome?

I know he was here for one of the Dodgers games. He was here, right? So anyway, Killer Rex says I can't be bothered to do a postgame show. Leave me be. I only do five shows a week and have we been doing more than that. Leave me alone. Anyway, we'll see you guys back here for another postgame show tomorrow. Until then, we love you, not you, Rex.

And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Jose Fernandez is on your baseball team. Bear down.