PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Triple-A affiliate Reno Aces were three outs from the championship. Then the BULLPN happened.

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

Why can’t we have nice things? The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate team the Reno Aces were just one inning away from winning the 2022 International League Championship when the bullpen imploded in the ninth inning. Sound familiar?BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly.  Bad Birdie: use code “PHNXSPORTS” to take 15% off your next Bad Birdie order! https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ladies and gentlemen, the bullpen. Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor of PHNX. This guy is the vice mayor. I actually touched you. That was weird. Thunderstick Jesse Friedman.

How are you doing, buddy? I was doing okay until that happened. You were doing better until that happened. Yeah, I want to announce. Welcome back. I know. We haven't been in the studio in entirely too long. That's true.

Me last week. I did. But of course, this show is brought to you by the. the fine folks at the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. Jesse wasn't the only one that abandoned us. The bullpen abandoned us 40 times on the major league roster this season. And last night in a very critical game for our friends, the Reno Aces, the bullpen once again abandoned them when they needed them the most. Yeah, it was a tough one. The Reno Aces were up six to five going to the top of the ninth inning.

And unfortunately, the bullpen gave up five runs. It was both of the J.Bs, Derek. It's the J.B. Wendelkin gave up four runs. He's been pitching some high leverage innings for Reno since being sent down. And then J.B. Bukowskis also gave up a run. And he went in to finish up that inning. And unfortunately, the aces were unable to score it all in the bottom of the ninth inning. And hence, they lost the AAA championship game.

So the Durham Bulls, who always win. They just always seem to win. By the way, AAA affiliate for the Tampa Bay race. Yes. So once again, our sister team. Our sister team. He's on board with it now. I can't stop such a deal.

She's very uncomfortable. Why can't we have nice things? Why can't we have nice things? Why can't we have an international? It's the international league championship is what they lost. Right? They still won the Pacific Coast. Yeah, they are still the Pacific Coast.

Against the Chihuahuas, but they could not do it against the Bulls. Shout out to everyone on the Aces, by the way, for their incredible run. Yeah. including, of course, Alec Thomas. But I just can't help but feel like this reaffirms once again the organizational issue of the bullpen. Right. I mean, this doesn't do much to give you very much hope for the future of the Diamondbacks bullpen, at least for right now for pieces coming from the minor leagues.

Now, a lot could happen, obviously, that the Diamondbacks could do before next season to address this. And it doesn't mean that, you know, these guys that are starters right now are all going to be starters. Some of them may end up helping the bullpen out. But I guess my question is, can we just please fix this? Yeah. I mean, it's one thing if your major league bullpen is not great. But, you know, when your AAA bullpen is also not great. And the same guys that you had in the big leagues earlier in the season are, you know, struggling in AAA as well.

And granted, it's a really hard place to pitch. That game was in Las Vegas, which is. hitter friendly environment like pretty much everywhere else in the PCL. But yeah, I mean, it just sort of goes to show that this bullpen issue that this organization has is not just with the big league club. There might be an element of this to the minor league team as well. The Reno Aces have been a very good team throughout the season. So they've had some good things happen in the bullpen as well. But, you know, you can see things kind of, the wheels kind of come off in a pretty critical situation yesterday.

Three outs away from the championship. Yeah. Up six to five. And the Bulls somehow score five, five runs in the top of the ninth. It felt like a very Diamondbacks thing to have happen, right? Alec Thomas Homer early in the game, which was sort of a highlight. So if you're looking for silver linings in this one, Durham had a four-nothing lead early in this game. And so things really didn't look good for Reno.

But they came back. They scored three runs in the second inning, two of those on an Alec. Thomas home run. And then Dom Canzon had a big home run late. It was a 5-5 game. He made it 6-5 Reno in the bottom half of the eighth inning. So the aces had some momentum going into the ninth. And I think the bases were loaded with nobody out to start the inning.

And you just kind of figured that wasn't going to end particularly well. Isn't that how the game earlier on in the day between the Diamondbacks and the Giants worked out? There's some similarities there for sure. Yeah. Anyway, we have Michaela ready with the bullpen card. to drive some guys away at any point. We got a miniature version just so that, you know, we could

really threaten it around here. You know, let people know we don't just have Photoshop's. We also have physical media to reaffirm the fact that Michaela's ready to drive some away in the bullpen car at all times. But, you know, it is what it is. Jesse wrote a piece on it about it not only just being a problem

within the organization right now for the present and even maybe for the future, but for the past, too. It's past, present and future. It's just part of this organization. unfortunately and it's it's hopefully something that the diamondbacks can address because a lot of their other positional needs i feel like they've been filled uh we did have Emmanuel Rivera fracture his right wrist uh you know our account is a Stan account for Emmanuel Rivera so you know we're not thrilled about that he will he was put on the 60 day aisle after a a brief stint on the 10 day aisle

yeah there was a little little bit of a transaction mishap yeah i think Rivera is not a mutant he does not have super healing powers. He will not be back from a fractured wrist in 10 days. Well, and even if he was, this season would be over at that one anyway. I could see it. I could see it being the thing. The true mystery is Ketelmarte being on the injured list because a lot of people still, there has not been an answer really for that, has there been?

Yeah, not that I'm aware of. It's just sort of, you just was placed on the injured list with no actual explanation as far as we're aware. So I'm sure we'll get some more information on that at some point. But yeah, I mean, Catelle has sort of been limping to the finish line for a couple months, right? I mean, it's no secret when you watch the guy run the bases.

He's not really running his hardest. And I don't think that's a character issue or anything. I think that's just the Diamondback saying, like, hey, you know, don't go 100% at times, right? Like maybe take it a little bit easier and give your hammy an opportunity to heal up. And unfortunately, it seems like maybe that didn't happen. The Diamondbacks just decided to play it safe and shut them down. And at this point, you're not really playing for anything. So, you know, at this point, you're just hoping to get everyone ready for next season.

Yeah. In the comments, and we apologize, technical difficulties. I'm blaming it on Leah 100%, but this is not me. This is not me. Yesterday you can blame me, but today you cannot. But in the comments, Elizabeth says he's on the aisle for bruised ego from the season. I, maybe. I don't know.

I think that I think we do have a hobbled Ketel Marte who could use as much time off to get right, I think, as possible. And at this point, what does it matter? Right. I mean, all it really, all it really means is Jake Hager gets the opportunity to come up, get some reps. Buddy Kennedy is going to get some more reps. And it's similar to Bumgarner, maybe even being not shut down for the season, but having no more starts for the season, right? At this point, they know what they got in Cattell. They know what they got in Mad Bum.

Both of those guys could use some rest at this point with, uh, everything that's gone on this season. And now they have the opportunity for some young guys to get at least a little bit of playing time here before the season wraps up. Yeah. I have to wonder like what this would have been like for Jake Hager because he got called up in order to fill the vacancy, right? That was that was created.

And because of it, he missed out on playing in the AAA championship game. So it's like, would you rather stay in AAA and play in a championship game? championship or get called to the big leagues, but like not really have anything to play for. And you're like really just a backup. You may or may not really get a chance to start. I still feel like JK here is probably pretty happy to be back in the big leagues at the end of the day. That would be my assessment, right?

Yeah. You know, the miners are the minors and playing in a championship game. I'm sure it's exciting no matter what level you're at. But if you have the opportunity to be playing on the big league club, I don't think much else matters to you at that point. That's probably fair. But again, if you want to read more about this organization, the problems they had with bullpen, everything else. This guy over here writes about it all the time.

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If you're with us right now in the chat, we thank you guys for being here. I hope you brought lunch. I'm hungry. Jesse's hungry. No salad and go. But of course, we thank you guys for being here. We just had burrito express, Derek. I'm still hungry, but that's just me.

We did have burrito express. It was delicious. Go get another burrito. There's like still eight of them in there, I'm pretty sure. But thank you. Bringing some lunch. If you subscribe to the YouTube channel, we thank you. If not, do so sign up for notifications.

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It was my very first bet I made. But, you know, that's. What was the bet? It was Josh Allen's passing yards, which the Buffalo Bills just, they're sinking me lately. I had so much faith in them after the first two games. And I've been putting too much faith in them lately.

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PHNX over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Well, that's Sunday, Jesse. That's what happens on Sundays. And yesterday was our final Sunday show of the season. So we don't talk about football now. That's not what we do. But of course, what we do talk about is Shark Week, because every week is Shark Week. We talk about Earth Day because every day here is Earth Day. And every Monday, we talk about the mailbag because we go to the mailbag. I'm going to be an interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox.

And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go wow, wow. Jesse's over here giving me updates about Arizona Fall League. By the way, today is the first day of Arizona Fall League. If you guys aren't here watching us, we hope that at the very least, you're out in the beautiful sunshine, which is still a little too hot, enjoying a wonderful baseball game. It is a little hot. It's just a little too hot. I wish they did more night games, like, for the first couple weeks of the fall league. Yeah, especially this first week.

This first week is all like 12, 45. Yeah, a lot of the games, at least for the rafters this first week, are our 1235 start time. So I don't know if you really want to be baking in the Arizona sun. We will not be. It's like 97 degrees out still. We said we're going to be out there, but we're going to be out there. We're going to wait until it's nice out. We highly encourage you to go out there now.

Yeah, definitely. We're not stopping you. Bring lots of water. Put on some sun tan lotion and enjoy yourself. But Leah, do we do. have some mailbag questions? Let's go. Our first question comes from Kyle Collins and he asks, are we concerned about Merrill's second half struggles with all the young arms ready to go? Should he and Mad Bum be worried? Well, I don't know if either of them should be worried, but I will say that

there is enough competition for Mad Bum to definitely feel like he needs to step up his game. I felt like Merrill Kelly was very good this season, but you're right. He did have a little bit, especially lately in the month of September and October, trailed off a little bit and wasn't as solid as he was for the first half of the season. He just gave up a lot of dingers. He gave up a lot of dingers. September, he gave up, what, 11 home runs in the month of September? So Merrill Kelly is given up 21 home runs on the season,

11 of which came in the month of September. So he's just been destroyed by the long ball over the last month or so. And I know you can't actually pinpoint the reason for it. But if you were just guessing, what would you hypothesize was the reason for Merrill Kelly? Would you think that it's like just the length of the season kind of wearing down on him? Or is it maybe the fact that people are figuring him out a little bit more? I feel like for for Merrill, I think he was just in a situation where his home run rate was just so low. Like it was just very, very low.

So honestly, I don't know if I really have a good answer as far as like what is causing him to give up these home runs. other than just sort of a regression to the mean situation where like he was allowing so few home runs for a while. And that was a little concerning. Like it's one thing if a guy is having a breakout season and they're striking out way more guys or they're walking out, you know, they're walking way fewer guys than they have in the past or those kinds of things. That wasn't really the case for Merrill.

The walk and strikeout rates are pretty much the same. He was just allowing like way fewer home runs than he ever had. Generally speaking, pitchers definitely control how many home runs they allow. But they don't have as much control over it as a lot of us might want to think. At the end of the day, most pitchers wind up giving up roughly the same home run per fly ball rate. So that means that if you're giving up, you know, if you're a heavy ground ball pitcher, then that's one way to avoid home runs. But if you're not and Merrill Kelly isn't like an extreme ground ball pitcher, you're going to give up your share of home runs. It's just sort of going to happen no matter what you do.

There's just too many factors. Sometimes the winds blowing out and, you know, whatever. Right. You also pointed out the other day with Merrill struggles against the Giants, that he has played the Giants a lot this year. So some of those things could factor in as well. Like these guys, you know, National League West especially has seen a lot of Merrill Kelly and they have an opportunity now, especially to see him, you know,

I'm not saying struggling, but, you know, not as on point as he was, maybe the last time they saw him earlier in the season. Plus the season is 162 games. It's ridiculous. that the baseball season is still this long. We do not need to play this many baseball games, folks. This comes from two guys that cover it every single night, so we're on board with that. I will say to actually, I guess I didn't fully answer the question.

Like, am I concerned? I'm not that concerned. Not about Merrill Kelly, right? No, not about Merrill Kelly. Because I don't really see this as being like, oh, Merrill is just not pitching the same way he was before. Sure. And there are some elements of that for sure still.

I think his location hasn't been quite as on point as it. it's been in the past. But if you look at, like in September, he had 11 walks and 35 strikeouts over 36 and two-thirds innings, which is still really, really good. So there's a lot of things looking at the numbers. It's like the home run rate is really high. Everything else is pretty normal. So there's really nothing to be super alarmed about here.

I think it's just sort of a regression to the mean, like I said before. Pugs and hugs gave us a $5 super chat. So not only do you have an incredible name, but you have an incredible heart. So thank you for that. He says, shout out to my main man. Josh. Josh is not here, but he's in the chat. So Josh Hunt continues to deliver. And he brought paella today. For who? I don't know. Not for us. So I need to talk to Josh about bringing paella, but Kyle Danin says as much as I love the mainstay, but I don't think he was

ever going to keep up his dominant performance. He is a fantastic inning eater. That is his role. We love him for that, but he is not elite. Yeah. I agree. I think that's pretty safe to say, right? But you can also, it's hard to discount what he's done this season and the consistency that he's had. Maybe Jesse's right. Maybe it is a regression to the means a little bit. Maybe it is Kim getting back to, you know, not being in this just amazing groove that he was at one point. I also think that, you know, Merrill has things like this 200 innings goal that, you know, it's great. Five and two thirds.

He needs five and two thirds on Wednesday. We know. You and I both know how important it is to Merrill. As a manager, is it that important to you? as well because it's as important to him. I mean, knowing Tori Lavello, anything that's important to his players

is going to be pretty important to him. Well, that's Tori. I'm saying you. Oh, you're saying me. Yeah, I'm saying you.

Would you shut down, Merrill? I don't give a crap. I don't give a crap. No. You're done, we're shutting you down. We're calling up Brandon Fod. I think it makes a lot of sense,

honestly, to give him to give him the last start of the year, just because he does have this goal that he's chasing after. And frankly, like, a lot of the other guys in the Diamondbacks rotation, if anything,

you're kind of a little concerned at how many innings they're throwing this year. Not to say that anyone's way over an inning's limit or anything, but like... It's like what Tori said with Mad Bum, though. Mad Bum has pitched the amount of innings that they want him to pitch this year. Especially a guy who has as many, as much mileage on his arm as Mad Bum does. But yeah, like, you know, Dre Jameson or Tommy Henry or those guys, it's like, we don't need them to throw again, you know? Like, it's not the worst thing to pass on, you know, a start from one of those guys over to

Merrill Kelly at this point. So I think it makes a lot of sense. Leah, next question please. Gabriel asks, how did you feel about this team at the beginning of the season and how do you feel about them now? Is it a big change or is about what you feel and expected from them? And I think this is a great question. Yeah. I want to say if you even went back and watched an early season episode that we might have a very similar position that as we do now. I mean, Lord knows, Jesse picked them to win 75 games and I picked them to win like what, 82. Yeah. So it's not. that far off for either one of us as to where we expected them to be. Yours is kind of far off. Jesus Christ.

I hope they don't win another game just because of this guy. But that's the thing is that I think we expected them to be around here, around 500, sub 500. Yeah. I even admitted at the time that that goal was kind of unrealistic. So it was funny for them to actually be at 75, potentially 75 plus. I think that this team has done what we think. thought they would do simply because we knew they weren't as bad as last year was.

Like they weren't as bad as advertised from last season. I will say that I am pleasantly surprised with the amount of young faces we've seen called up. That's something that I wasn't expecting and I was still a little hesitant to buy in. I knew we were going to see Alec Thomas. I know we were going to see a couple of these guys. But like seeing Corbyn Carroll already this year, having Drey Jameson and Ryan Nelson both make their debuts and to find the success that they've had, at a major league level already has been probably beyond my expectations for this team and these young guys. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited that the future is getting an early start now and

that we're not waiting any longer on some of these names like Carol that we've been very excited to see. I think they're, yeah, they're pretty much right where I think I expected them to be at this point. I mean, yeah, I predicted 75 wins. And I think when you predicted 82, you kind of knew that you were maybe shooting high a little bit in the moment, right? Sure. But yeah, like, this is, this is sort of what I, what I expected. And I think when I made that prediction, I did feel a little bit bullish. Like, if you go back to when I, when we were making our predictions at the beginning of the season, it wasn't like, oh, this team is easily going to get to 75 wins. It was like, a lot of things have to go right, but like, I kind of think

they will. And that's pretty much what we've seen this year. Like Corbyn Carroll has come up and and made an impact. Alec Thomas came up and was good for a little bit. He certainly struggled down the stretch. I think the biggest difference from like what I expected and what we've seen is I thought Catell Marte would be an easy all star. Like he had a 900 something OPS last year. And given we talked a lot over the off season about like if you look at his numbers over

the last three years, they're really, really good over like a thousand played appearances. I was pretty comfortable saying that Cattel was. a franchise sort of a player. And I think this season has shown us that not only are there some pretty big durability concerns that maybe I overlooked a little bit in the off season, but even when Kattel is healthy, there's some risk that he's not going to quite be the player that he's been at times over the last few seasons. So really where these 75 or whatever the number winds up being, whatever that win total is, a lot of those wins are coming from Jake McCarthy and Donne of our show and guys that I thought would contribute, but maybe wouldn't contribute quite as much as they have.

Especially Jake McCarthy. Yeah. That guy has been incredible this year and deserves all the flowers, all the flowers. Next question. Kyle Collins asked, who do we think are the most likely players to win a major award for the debacks in the future? I'll put my thoughts below. He has Zach Gallen for Sa Young. MVP already talked for Corbyn-Carrul.

Wow. Rookie of the year for a Lala or Fott. We like where you're going with this. I would say a Sigh Young could very well be in Zach Gallen's future. Yeah. I mean, that's that like, I think Zach Gallen is way ahead of anyone else on this team in terms of chasing a Scy Young award in the future. He's probably going to finish in the top five this season. Correct.

In fact, I think we're going to be very angry if Zach Allen doesn't finish in the top five. Big facts. I will say Corby and Carroll might end up being the rookie of the year next year. Yeah. He could still be applicable for it next year. And what we've seen out of him, I mean, we've seen him make some mistakes. We've seen him grow. But I think the incredible potential that we've seen out of him is there.

Not to mention the fact that he already just looks kind of like a big leaguer here. Yeah, he's stealing bases. I mean, he's making some incredible plays in the outfield. There's still even some things to work on there. But again, he's a young guy who just got here. And it's very exciting to see, you know, his trajectory and where he could go. I think the one thing that is such a benefit about calling these young guys up this year is this all the they'll admit like Jesse and I are around them off record on record. It doesn't matter if you're talking to them. They have no problem telling you like, man, this is so incredible to be here. You can see the stars in their eyes when they're at Chase Field. But it also doesn't it also doesn't help that whenever these guys get called up or even like when Drew Jones just made his stop by Chase Field, it's like the biggest celebrity in the world is there like the amount of people there. increase the feeling of excitement in the air chase field is there so like the fact that they can

kind of get a lot of this out of the way now and then just be baseball players next season yeah that's that's very exciting and i think that's going to help a lot of these young guys settle in and and you know hopefully continue the success that we've seen this year and expand on it yeah and i i mean i have to wonder like if they hadn't made the changes that they did in the cba would we have seen Corbyn Carroll this season. Like if the Diamondbacks didn't know in the back of their, the back of their minds that, you know, they could have an extra year of team control over Corbyn Carroll if they waited until a little ways into the season next year, I don't know if they would have done that.

And yet I think not only has it been good for fans who are dying to see Corbyn Carroll play and know that he's ready to play, but I think it's been good for Corbyn Carroll to like get this experience like you've said, like he's going to go into next year as a top rookie of the year candidate and he's already going to have played, you know, 30 or 40 games in the big leagues, which is a really valuable experience for him to have. Jake McCarthy for MVP. There you go. I'm just putting it out there.

You heard it here first. You heard it here first. Leah, do we have another question? Oh, I love this one. Jesse, are you familiar with the back to the future? I have seen back to the future. How many are there? There are three.

There are three. I think I've seen the first two of them. Okay. Which by my standards is pretty good. Yeah, like you've almost seen the whole story. So as long as you've seen those, you have enough to get this question. But yeah, yes, you get the opportunity to pull it back to the future. Jesse Back to the Future is a movie.

You probably should watch by now. He did. So you should be proud of him for that. It was really good. It is a really good movie. It's one of my favorites for sure. And travel back to stop one signing in D-Bax history. What signing would it be?

I mean, like, I mean, I would say Madison Bumgarner because it's the only one that's like currently relevant. Sure. Right? Like if you go back and stop the Yasmani Tomas signing, maybe there's some residual effects that like still affect the team right now. I've often described the condition the Diamondbacks were in as I think I've said it, a broken base because of Yosmani Tomas and the prior regime. By the way, shout out to Tony LaRouca for retiring. It should have come a long time ago.

Anyway, I'm not having to- Did Tony Larissa actually retire? Today is supposed to be the day he's retiring his manager. I'm not sure if it's happened yet, but, you know, he should have kicked rocks a while ago. But Tony LaRusa, Dave Stewart, that whole regime, what they did to this franchise had ripple effects that go out almost through history, right? So it's just, it's so hard to not take into consideration what Mike Hazen was handed, the condition that the franchise was in, and everything that he had to do to get them back on track. it's hard to remember, but not only did the team suck at the time, but you also had just this bleak outlook on the farm system.

And Mike Hazen in no time made the Diamondbacks farm system one of the most robust and exciting in Major League Baseball in a very short amount of time. Yeah, I mean, he also had like 27 first round picks. Right, because of how bad the team was, because of the Yasmani Tomas signing. There's a whole thing. There is, yeah, you're right. But I don't think either one of these are wrong. I think either of these are correct because as far as the current team goes,

and like that's the wildest thing. Mass and bumgarner is really, he's a great guy. He really is. Like, he's a very, he's just an enigma. He's just this mystery and he always capriced. On the field, he's not always a great guy. He would fully admit that. Get me playing MLB the show and you will see the worst version of Derek that you've ever seen in your life.

Also put me in a car in traffic the rest of the time. time I'm fine, right? But I'll say that like as great as he is, he still doesn't strike me as like a mentor to young guys. So even though you're paying him all of this money, he doesn't come across to me as having that additional value of like, oh, it's almost like you have a coach down there because you have someone talking to the young guys and telling them life changing stuff. Madison Bumgarner feels like the kind of guy that would not even want to help a young player because he feels like that might give that guy an advantage in the future against Matt bum when they play each other.

I really feel like that. Like that's a thought process. I'm not helping you rook one year, you know, we might be facing each other and then you're going to remember everything I told you. Anyway, I don't think that that's that far fetch. But either one of those is fine. You can go with either one. Imagining, like, imagining this Diamondbacks team without the Mad Bumgarner, the Madison

Bumgarner contract is pretty interesting. Like, like the Diamondbacks have about 50, like upper 50 million. in payroll for next year that they can't get out of. It's like all guaranteed. And if Madison Bumgarner isn't here, that number goes down to like 35 million. Correct. And they're like,

this team is not going to spend that much, right? We know that. But if they only had 35 million and guaranteed contracts going into next year, that's enough flexibility to make like a meaningful move, right? But because Mad Bum is here, it feels like there's just not that much space to add, which I'm sure we'll talk about more

once the offseason comes. But that like, if they somehow could have a redo and not make this move, it would have a very significant impact on where the team is right now. Gabriel says in the chats, the Eric Burns signing. He spent more time making his TV show than on the field. That's fair. That's a fair assessment. I'll also say the worst contract that nobody ever talks about is Russ Ortiz's contract.

Yeah, that was so long ago, though. It was. It doesn't really matter now. Correct. But like, holy crap was Russell Ortiz. one of the worst baseball contracts in history. I don't even want to get into it because it'll make me upset. So you can go look it up and get upset yourself.

That's pretty bad. I'm going to think about OGs gummies and how much I enjoy them just to make me happier, put me in a better spot. They also did something our friends over at OGs that we've talked about for weeks now. And in those weeks, I've been getting the best night's sleep of my entire life. I'm getting such a good night's sleep, Jesse, that I don't even need to take the new sleep edition gummies from OGs every night just for me. I'm back on schedule, folks.

Oh, there you go. I'm back on schedule. But you can be to using the brand new sleep edition gummy from OGs. They're flavoring dreams with a 2 to 1 THC to CBN ratio. CBN is a compound that helps you not only fall asleep, but stay asleep. Again, my biggest problem. I get woken up by the dishwasher because my wife will like run it at night. That wakes me up.

The water cooler, my cat running in front of my face. our ice machine is very loud. I don't know if OGs is even going to fix the cat running across the face. No, they helps all of it. I just sleep through all of it now. And it's delicious with their new aqua berry flavor. So I highly recommend you checking out OGs online at OGsbrands.com or on Instagram and OGs brands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary.

Must be 21 years or older to purchase and enjoy and to sleep. Just great. People under 21, they sleep fine. They don't need the help. But over, yeah, you know, you older folks, like I'm calling people over 21. older. That was cute. We also got some pretty cool events in the works with our friends from Four Peaks Brewing Company. But until then, of course, you guys need to keep an eye out, not only on our social media, but on Four Peaks Brewing Company because it's haunted now. It's terrifying. It's

scary. It sent Saul running for his life. So, you know, and that guy, he was a drill sergeant, so it's terrifying. But make sure to enjoy the haunted brewery tours this spooky season over at Four Peaks Brewing Company. That's Monday through Wednesday, 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. They have two tours per night. You can check out, I think you can get tickets for that or at least book it through their website. But if not, make sure to check out Four Peaks Brewing Company over there on 8th Street because they have the wonderful beers, the wonderful chicken tenders. And of course, now they have spooky season. So you can have a fun night over there. Must be 21 years or older and enjoy responsibly. If you can't make it out, just go get some Four Peaks from your local

grocery store and then have someone jump out of like the bathroom and scream at you or something. It's a similar effect. Leah, can we, can we, get our next question for uh wait can we talk about russe or tees just for a little bit no i do not want to talk about russe i just i can't get over the numbers it's fucking absurd i don't even talk about it i hate it so much in 2005 russe or t's had 65 walks and 46 strikeouts in 15 innings i know he had more walks than strikeouts and it like wasn't even close i live through it and that was that was there that was the first year of a four-year 33 million dollar contract which today doesn't sound like that much. Back in 2005, that would have been a pretty substantial contract. And he came

back the next year. He made six starts, also had more walks than strikeouts with a 7.54 ERA. And then the team ate the $22 million remaining on his contract after that point. It's just, it's wild. 22 million back in 2005. So you know what that means. You can eat 37 million now. Madison, Bumgarner, is a substantially better pitcher. right now than Russ Ortiz was back then. It's not even close. All right. Let's go back to the mailbag.

I'm upset. All right. Brian Lefevre? Lefevre? Lefevre? Lefebvre? No. Lefebvre.

There we go. That's definitely it. Brian asked, what can the debacks do to actually improve the bullpen for 223? We don't know. Looking at the list of impending free agent relief pitchers, there isn't much that really stands out in your opinion, in our opinion as well, Brian. We agree with you 100%. We've talked about.

free agency in general being a kind of a vast wasteland. Like, it's just, there's not many available free agents that can improve this team substantially. And there's a pretty wide gap between like the top free agents available and then everybody else. Right. Like there's guys that the Diamondbacks aren't even going to try to sign because they are far way to. You're not going to get Edwin Diaz.

Yeah, we're not getting Edwin Diaz, basically. That's what we're here to tell you. We'll tell you this every time we address the bullpen. not getting Edwin Diaz. I hope that they get Edwin Diaz and then just make us look like they're not going to get Edwin Diaz. We'll have to go back and get all of these clips and put together. Yeah, that would be.

And then the press conference with them signing Edwin Diaz. But no, they're not going to get Edwin Diaz. That's the point we're trying to make here. Yeah, I mean, they could get like Raphael Montero is a name that I wrote about over with the Houston Astros. I think he's a really interesting candidate who probably wouldn't cost that much, but is still really effective. Carlos Estevez, a longtime Rocky.

he's also a free agent that I wrote about in a recent article as someone that they might chase after. But yeah, like there's just not there's not a lot of great options in free agency or right, at least that the Diamondbacks could afford. So you're looking at a trade, like maybe that's a possibility. I don't see the Diamondbacks making a trade for like a really top flight, back end relief pitcher. I don't think that's super realistic. But it's something that they'll probably look at just because they do. have a lot of outfielders that teams will be interested in and there could be a fit there. But

you know, it realistically might be like Corbin Martin comes next year into camp as a reliever rather than a starter. You know, it's J.B. B. Bukowskis. Like, can you kind of figure some things out there and try to get him a role in the bullpen at the big league level? And you do have some pieces that you'll bring into next year. Like Joe Mantapply will be here. He'll probably be sort of a centerpiece of the bullpen for next year. Caleb Smith, I think, has a pretty good chance of being brought back for next year. So there are some pieces in house already, but it's tough. Like the reality, Derek, is that the Diamondbacks bullpen in 2023 will probably be better,

but how much better I don't know. At some point, you have to develop these relievers from within, and the debacks just haven't really done a very good job of that recently. Brian Lefebvre is Dennis Reynolds' alter ego uses to get off, according to Gabriel. So I don't even trust that that man was asking us. real question anymore. But I will agree with Jesse. I'll say this, though.

Who do you think is going to possibly emerge as like a Joe Mantipa next season where they, maybe they weren't outstanding, but next year all of a sudden they bounce back and have themselves a great year in the Diamondbacks bullpen? That's a good question. I mean, Joe Mantiplies just sort of, they don't really come out of nowhere very often. But I think like Kyle Nelson could maybe be that guy. Yeah. So a couple of these guys, we've seen them pitch,

pretty brilliantly. Yeah, Kyle Nelson is a, is a good name to bring up. Yeah, I think he'll definitely be back in, in some capacity next year

competing for a role. But I mean, like, what could really turn things around for the bullpen is if you said to Dre Jameson, like, hey,

we want you to be a back-end reliever. And, but yeah, like, no, you can't believe you just said those words all out. No,

they're not going to do that. No, they're not going to do that. No. So, Tommy Henry, I think there's a decent chance that you'd look at him potentially in a bullpen role. Yeah, sure.

That's fine. I'm okay with that. You can have Tommy Henry. You're not going to do that either. And Ryan Nelson, you're probably not going to do that either because he's been so effective in the starting rotation. You're probably looking at him for a role in the rotation for next year. But those are the real answers of guys who would be effective in the bullpen. But at this point, I think you're still evaluating those guys as starters.

Yeah. Well, I think Kevin Ginkle is a name also. that we didn't bring up. But honestly, he's been really steady. He's been really steady lately. We tweeted this out, but since September 1st, he's only allowed two earn runs in 20, I'm sorry, in two run runs in 13 and two-thirds innings pitched.

He's had a really good, he had a really good September. And he was striking. He had some good stuff yesterday, two strikeouts, 14Ks in that time frame. Yeah. And he hasn't allowed a home run in 27 games. So like, there's just something building there. And again, it's weird because none of the bullpen pieces have worked out for this team,

even Joe Mantiply was an all-star and then pitched like more of a non-all-star for the second half, right? Yeah. It's not taking anything away from him because he was still very effective. And to be honest, he was still one of the best parts of this bullpen. Just the Diamondbacks didn't have anybody that you could consider to be a lockdown reliever in this pen. Reyes Maranta is another guy who honestly like he wasn't locked down or anything like that. But ended up being a nice pickup for this team when they needed somebody that could come into games. I mean, shit, the man of events.

eventually worked himself into being like a temporary closer for them because he was yeah he was on such a little street not not an ideal fit for him probably but not at all especially going up against Dodgers in that yeah but I mean like so so Manta Nelson uh ginkle and Maranta and you've got four relievers that like you feel like you probably will bring back next year so there's already the beginnings of of you know what the bullpen for next year will look like it's not going to be you know eight completely new guys that you've never seen in the Debex uniform, right? It's true. Good chance

that we might see one or two new names added at the most, right? But that is still, I think, in my opinion, could be what it takes. I mean, really, the Diamondbacks need to figure out their closer situation, and that's something, unfortunately, that isn't really going to work itself out.

Ian Kennedy probably won't be with this team next season, but Mark Malanson will and his name will still be in contention for that closer spot. Add Mark Malanson to the list. That's a good point. So you're probably looking at five relievers that you pretty much already have next year. And we didn't even mention Caleb Smith in that list. Yeah. And Caleb Smith has again, another guy that's been pretty good for them at times.

Pretty good. Better than other names have been. But moving on, Leah, let's get some more fun questions in here. What part of this team is more improved from the beginning of the season? Hitting, fielding, starting pitching, bullpen, something else. That's a great question. I would say the outfield, just as a whole, right? Like our outfield went from, from wondering at the beginning of the season who was going to play and when they were going to play to now just having this abundance somehow of talent in the outfield that the Diamondbacks need to figure out how to get all of these guys playing time. Tori Lavello has said it. Mike Hazen has said it. It's a cliche at this point. But it really isn't a bad problem to have compared to where they were at the beginning of the season.

Yeah. I mean, it's sort of turned into an embarrassment of riches at this point where there's just like too many good outfields. We've talked about that a lot. Yeah. So I would just say like the offense in general because it and it's weird to look back on now. But do you remember the first few weeks of the season when the Diamondbacks is a team? They were hitting like a buck 50 or something through nearly a month of baseball. And I think we all sensed at the time that it was a problem that would sort of correct itself.

And there were some regression to the mean that was probably going to happen there as well. but the numbers were startling. I mean, for a while there, it was like Seth Beer was knocking the cover off the ball and nobody else could hit to save their lives. Remember him? Remember Seth Beer?

That was good times on opening day. It was good times. But you're right. I mean, the offense, it's not just that, but like even last season, right? The Diamondbacks could not hit home runs last season. They just couldn't.

And now this season, we have, you know, multiple players with 20 plus home runs, right? At least we have Christian Walker, Dalton Varsho. Is anybody else hitting home runs besides those two guys? I think that would be the end of it for 20 plus. I mean, for the most part, I think those two guys together more home runs than the Diamondbacks as a team collectively hit in 2021.

I don't think that's true. I know, but the team was really bad. And then it probably should. Yeah, it's definitely closer. But yeah, we definitely saw this team figure things out at the plate. And that was not only good to see, but I mean, we saw the starting pitching continue. you to be as good as it was there early on, which we thought, obviously, it wasn't going to last, it didn't.

Yeah, that was the other extremes. The starting rotation was insane to start the year. Just insane at the beginning of the season, right? So you have guys coming back down to Earth, but you still have Zach Gallen setting records and still being incredible here as the season winds down. Merrill Kelly, we talked about it earlier, but his first half was just out of this world. And, I mean, honestly, his numbers at the end of the season are still going to look pretty damn good. Yeah, I mean, he's 13 and 8 with a 3.4.

4-3-E-R-A. So, like, you might have had a rough September, but that's still a really, really good season from Merrill Kelly. For sure. What else we got, Leah? If you had a food fight against another PHNX beat, who would you be waging war against?

What food would be your weapon of choice? Jesse, you have the floor. So this was probably two weeks ago, maybe. Our pal, Anthony Totry, we're just hanging out in the office, just doing our thing. And Tocry looks to me and he's like, you look like the kind of guy who would eat chicken tenders wherever you go.

Like no matter what restaurant you go to, you always order the chicken tenders. Like a small child. Like a small child. And of course, he's completely right. No, he's absolutely correct.

No, he's not correct. I order the chicken tenders at four peaks, but I don't order. The chicken tenders of four peaks are incredible. Because the chicken tenders at four peaks are incredible. But I do not order the chicken tenders really anywhere else, any other restaurant that I ever go to,

do I ever order the chicken tenders. So I was very insulted by this comment from Anthony Totry. And so I honestly, it's not even the Sun Devils beat. I have no problem with Sean or Shane. It is just Tochry himself. And I am going to throw chicken tenders at him. I am going to order all of the chicken tenders. I'm not going to get them from four peaks because that would be wasteful.

That would be horribly wasteful. I'm going to find some trashy chicken tenders and I'm going to chuck them at Totry's face. In sauce? Like, are you dipping them in sauce? Oh, I'm dipping them in all the sauce. Yeah, I'm getting like all of the condiments. And they're going to be, yeah, it's going to be an absolute mess when they hit Tocry's face. I mean, I think I have a similar beef.

And it's with the coyotes beat, Leah. Really? Oh, okay. Wow. You're attacking our own. With the coyotes beef. Wow. Yeah, I know.

And it's like, I know there's a rule in our chat about these. Charles will say, does he have to tap the sign again? Tap the sign. No, no Leah Slander. This isn't slander at Leah, much like Jesse, it's more of a personal grievance with Craig. Okay? I want... Because he beat you in southwestern.

It's not because he beat me. No, it's his ridiculous opinions on ketchup. It's his absurd opinions on ketchup. And that's exactly what I would throw at him. Hot dogs would just catch up on him. That's what I'm, that's my weapon of choice. But like, sauced in those, you know, just like, it's, he's not even going to be able to fight, like, fight back because he's going to be so disgusted by the amount of ketchup on those hot dogs.

But that's, you know, again, that's nothing against Leah. Lee is wonderful. Yeah, all the beats is a whole are great. Yeah, they really are. It's just these individual people that we find to be just utterly detestable. Yeah. So there you go. He's not wrong.

That's my feelings on Craig as well. Yeah, and my feelings on Tochrie. But everyone else is great. Craig tried to slide out of the office earlier. And then when we pointed out that he was doing the old Irish goodbye, he made a point to go around and shake every person's hand before he left. It was one of the weirdest. thing. He's a monster. The man is an absolute criminal. It was sort of uncomfortable. Do you have any more questions? Well, it's we got. Oh, this is great.

Daniel Cortez, our friend, co-host of the show, says, if you could go trick-or-treating with one D-backs player, who would it be this spooky season, Jesse? Who are you going with? I don't, like, what are you looking for in someone that you're going to go trick-or-cheating? I don't, camaraderie, like somebody that you're going to join? Maybe a two-person costume? Like, who's going to play along in, like, dressing up as a mighty morphine power ranger? with you, right? Like who? See, here's what I'm going with. Yeah, what are you going with? I'm going with Josh Rojas for a number of reasons. Josh Rojas is from the valley. Josh Rojas knows where you can get the full-size candy bars. Not only that, but what I'm looking for is someone who's going to

beat up the guy that tries to bag snatch me, right? I'm out on the streets. I'm having a good time and someone comes by and runs and grabs my bag. Josh Rojas will chase that man down and beat him in the streets and bring me back my bag. And that's what I'm looking for. In a trick-a-treat I got to interrupt you for a second. What's up? I mean, I've, from the day I met Jesse, I, I knew exactly what he should, what Halloween costume he should get up as. This can't be good.

Let's hear. Oh, absolutely. Derek, you should be the headless horseman. Okay. He should be Iqabon crane. Oh my. Tell me, he doesn't look like aikabod crane. I just watched that Disney cartoon of that this weekend.

In a ponytail. Oh, my God. Let's ride. We're done. This is it. Inflatable horses, you and me. Let's go. I am you're a Halloween trick.

I am, yeah. I guess you're the person I should go. Let's go. That's such a good idea. I love that idea so much. Of course, I have no idea what you're talking about. Like normal. Hey, the hell was horse in, Jesse.

It's a literary classic. It's not even. It's utterly, utterly lost on me. Oh my God. I've heard of it. I've heard of it. You've disappointed Saul. Yeah, he just walked out.

This can be. Good. I mean, you, you wouldn't want to go with, like, like, Corbyn Carroll because he would just, he would just go so quickly from house to house. There's no way you could possibly, no way you could possibly keep up. So, but I, but I'm saying I couldn't keep up with him. So, like, I don't know, who's someone who, who isn't absurdly fast on the Arizona Diamondbacks that I could go trick or treating with.

Reyes Maranta. Ray is Maranta. Problem solved. That's fair. That's fair. I will, I will absolutely go with Ray. I would go. I honestly think that Ray of Smeronta would be pretty fun to hang out with for a day.

Maybe a slight language barrier. We'll get over it. But we'd get over it, I'm sure. All right. Well, those were incredible. You guys were incredible. Thank you, as always, for your questions. Of course, we want to thank our sponsors over at Underdog,

because Underdog won't be $1,000, and I'll still not let anybody in this office forget that because it was on pitch counts. And you can do whatever you want over at the Underdog app. You can bet on pitch counts. You can bet on Josh Allen, I'll never bet on. I'll never pick Josh Allen to throw over 330 yards ever again. I don't care if he actually does it or not. But these are decisions you can make in life once you have downloaded and used the underdog app. And right now we're hooking you up. PHNX is given you up to $100 on your first deposit for doubling your first deposit. Just use our code of PHNX. And you will double your first deposit up to $100. That's Underdog Fantasy promo code PHNX. Get in on the action today. Download it from the app store wherever you get your apps. I also have the link in our description below. And of course, we've been talking about game time. Shane is trying to hypnotize everybody into Josh and Shane got together.

There's like a little like thing. I've watched it a million times and I'm programmed now to get down on game time. And you should too because there's no better way to save tickets. Here's the thing. We live in a world now where you have no idea when that concert is going to actually take place. Right. Trust issues are are here. There is no more trust between us and venues and concert, you know,

these promoters, right? They're just going to move the concert whenever they want to anyway. So why even try to buy your tickets early? Buy your tickets at the last minute, get 60% off over at game time, and just thrive in being a procrastinator. You know you have FOMO, you know you're going to miss out. Forget about it. Just the concert tickets go and sell.

You know how it is. They sell out in like five minutes. You're all frustrated. Go to game time the day of. Buy your tickets there. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description below. And of course, we thank you for doing so.

All season long. sure to get your tickets at game time next year. And not to mention now is the best time to be a sports fan, right? Because all the sports are starting. We're ending, of course, but that doesn't mean that baseball season ends here in Arizona. So we'll be covering Arizona Fall League, Winter Meetings, all that stuff. We've talked to you guys about that. But make sure you go to all of your favorite sporting events using our friends at game time.

And speaking of which, Jesse and I have talked about giving some stuff away. This Thursday, we're having a special 11 a.m. show where we are going to do exactly that. Keep an eye out on our social media. The way that we're going to do this is we're going to put some of the prizes we have up to win on there. Just retweet, like us in order to enter. And then we're going to pick a winner in the chat on Thursday. So you have to be present to win. And that's how we're doing it.

Can I enter? We're drawing in. So here's the thing. I may have had some extra items that I shared with people around the office and I had nothing for Leah at all. So Leah might have to get down on this and be eligible to enter. And if she wins the prize package, you're all just going to have to look at the other direction. It's my day off Thursday, but I'll show up in the chat. See?

See? There we go. So you guys should show up in the chat too. So everybody fight me for the stuff. That's right. Everybody fight Leah for our grand prize, which is going to be a bunch of stuff, including, including a Jacob, Faj Worn. Did he wear it? I don't know. I don't even know what you're talking about. It's a child's extra large hot dog shirt.

He did not wear it. Unworn. Unworn. Unworn. It would have been great if you tried to go on. And you can take a picture wearing it and tweet it at Craig S. Morgan. Yes. Yes.

Whoever wins that has to do that. We honestly should just give it to Craig. That's what we should do. But of course, we thank you guys. Make sure to check out our social media on P H&X underscore D-Backs to keep up with those prizes that we're going to be given away on Thursday. You can follow us on Twitter as well. I'm at Kapp underscore Keman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Our show is at P.N.X underscore D-Backs again. But of course, all roads. to at P HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Sorry that the comments were down today, but we thank you guys for being here. We know you were here. We saw your chat.

We saw your comments. I did see that Josh Hunt said we should trigger treat with Dalton Varshow because he has all those extra arms, you know, to carry more candy. Brilliant. He also has all the tools. So if anything goes wrong with your Halloween costume,

he can sew, he can carpenter, he can do all of that stuff, right? Anyway, we thank you guys again for being here on behalf of Jesse, Leah, and myself. We always appreciate you checking out the show. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you go trick-or-treating with D-Bax players.