PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks ELIMINATED From Playoff Contention After Mets & Braves Split Doubleheader

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

It would be hard to draw up a more brutal end to the 2024 season than what transpired on Monday — and in the week leading up to it. The Diamondbacks could only watch helplessly in the clubhouse as they watched an unmotivated New York Mets team lose the season finale to the Atlanta Braves. 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/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! 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/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! 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 https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At the very least, it's the last time we have to hear that goddamn song. Welcome in to the PHNX Debax podcast right here at PHNX. We are currently coming to you live from Studio K presented by our friends at Circle K. Of course, shout out to them. It's America's Thursdays. So go get yourself something to drink after the bad taste left in your mouth. After watching today's double header between the Mets and the Braves. Of course, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

I'm flanked by two of my best buddies. Got Damon Farrell over here, aka Damon Dog, on my right. And I got the thunderstick, Jesse Friedman, over here to my left. He's still not getting the vice mayor title back ever, ever again. But today, there was a tough day. The Diamondbacks were officially eliminated

from playoff contention after the Mets and the Braves split their double header. And this one definitely, this was a tough day. This was rough to go to the clubhouse and see the guys packing up their, stuff. This was rough to see the effort that the Mets put forth in game two, which is something we absolutely knew was going to happen, but we didn't even know the lows that they were going to sink

to as far as how a little of an effort they were going to give. But what are you guys' thoughts, of course, today, Jesse, I'll start with you. I know that you had a lot of plans to be on an airplane probably very soon, if not this evening, tomorrow morning to go cover this team on the road. So what is your initial reaction to what happened here? I'm not surprised, frankly. I mean, I think in a larger sense, I'm surprised. You know, if you'd ask me a couple weeks ago, if I thought the debacks were going to make the playoffs,

I definitely would have said yes. So in that sense, I'm surprised. But going into today, it was hard not to expect exactly this outcome, whether it was the Mets winning the first game and the Braves winning the second or the Braves winning the first game and the Mets winning the second. We talked about this several days ago, the possibility that this could happen, that the Diamondbacks could be, that their season could be on the line and depend on an unmotivated baseball team,

beating another team with its season on the line, that that's what it could come down to for the Diamondbacks. And that's what it came down to today. And it went about as we expected. But that doesn't make this any less brutal for fans, for the players themselves, which we'll get to in a second. We have a whole lot of video from the clubhouse reaction to what happened today. This was the biggest collapse in Diamondbacks history. There's no getting around it. We talked about it recently, 2018 versus this year.

There's really no comparison. It's a tough day to be a DeBax fan. It really, really is, Jesse. How are you doing over there, Dave? How are you feeling? We were worried about you. I am wearing this one. Like, you would just, it totally expect me to.

the highs are really high and the lows are really low. Yeah. And I don't know. I think before the season, I mean, you did the Google document voting thing. And I believe I said that the Diamondbacks making the postseason was a successful season to me. Yeah. And although they had a better record than last year, the fact that they didn't make the playoffs, didn't find a way to get in. And they had such a good opportunity to.

It makes it feel like the season is a complete failure. And I know it boils down to one game, which is crazy. It's the difference between what I would consider a success and a failure, but it really does. And this one hurts, you know, a lot more than I feel like a typical end to a season. Even if you make the playoffs and lose, like this is just, this team just totally collapsed. They absolutely did. And I mean, again, there's other teams that are experiencing something like the down and backs are experiencing that they got close. They were in the playoff hunt.

but they were like the Cubs six games back, maybe seven games back. And you still go back and pick apart your season when you lose and you were that close to a playoff spot. The Diamondbacks literally couldn't have been closer to a playoff spot. One game, one single game, you know, changes this season for them, changes what we are talking about right now, changes that sad, sad-ass atmosphere that we experienced over there

of seeing a bunch of best friends giving each other hugs like they're not going to see each other until next summer camp, right? Like, this was devastating. And I think that what makes it worse is how close they were, right? That's what really stings here. The Diamondbacks end up tied. And I think we can go ahead and take a look at it now. But let's take a look at the final wildcard graphic

before we throw this whole thing in the trash for the season. The Diamondbacks end up in a three-way tie there with the Mets, the Braves at 89 and 73. And we've talked about it a bunch, right? Like, you'd be hard-pressed to ask me at the beginning of the season if the Diamondbacks won 89 games if they'd make the playoffs and have me say no, right? And I'm sure we can all agree with that. But what makes this more brutal is the fact that, you know,

they lost key games to these particular teams that ended up coming back to bite them, specifically the Braves when, and again, you can talk about that early series a lot. And we're going to, because we're going to CSI the hell out of this and figure out exactly where things really went wrong for this team and where were the big games that they dropped. But that probably sticks out as much as the eight to nothing or the eight run comeback that they allowed the Brewers to pull off. I mean, I keep going back to August 25th, right?

That's the day the Diamondbacks reached their high watermark. They were 19 games over 500. They were 75 and 56. And they had a seven game lead. Not over there. The top wild card spot, they had a seven game lead, not over the second wildcard team, but over the Mets who were in fourth place at the time and were the closest threat to overtaking them and removing them from the postseason race.

Seven games is a lot with about a month left. in the season, right? And it turned out that that seven-game lead almost entirely evaporated in the span of about eight or nine days. The Mets went on a crazy run. The D-BACs really struggled there in late August and early September. And, you know, the debacks were able to stay afloat for a while. You know, it obviously came down to not just the last day of the season, but the day after the last day of the season, which will always blow my mind about this year. But since August 25th, from that day on, the Diamondbacks went 14 and 17, the Braves went 19 and 13, the Padres went 19 and 11, and the Mets went 21 and 10.

And it was just going to be really hard for the Diamondbacks to keep up with those teams playing that well. And that's a part of the narrative of this season. It's not just that the debacks struggled at the end, which they did. It's also that 89 wins is a lot of wins to not make the postseason, right? The bar was set pretty dang high this year with how things turned out. And, yeah, credit to the Mets and the Padres and the Braves who ended the season all very, very well. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to give credit to the Mets with the way that they were swinging at every damn pitch thing.

And I'm sure we're going to talk about that more. But Ina's right. The wheels fell off the wagon. Sadly, your wagon was killed by your starting pitching and your bullpenny RA, I suppose, and dysentery. but that's a whole other video game. What really sucks here was talking to some of the guys and of course, you know, the big topic today was looking back on those winnable games

and I don't think that too many shied away from saying that they were, you know, going to think about some of those losses, especially recently a lot. And I believe we have Corby and Carroll who started, we'll start things off with Corbyn because I know that's, he's our guy. He's the one that, especially this season,

I know a lot of people look to, and honestly since July has been just probably one of the most solid players for this team, one of the best players on the Arizona Diamondbacks once again. But here's what he had to say about looking back on winnable games. Yeah, I mean, for sure, for any baseball team, for any baseball season, you can come back and there are so many games that can go. in your favor and push that win total to one more and you're right in the dance so I think that that's not maybe the most helpful or healthy way to look at it but you know it's real and it's there

and just the bigger picture and bigger job is taking this year and learning from it and being able to come out next year and get the job done you know have her fate in our own hands about this is that, you know, obviously you want to make the playoffs. There's no, there's no doubt about that. But this, like, I guess the severity of the situation seemed so much more extreme due to the fact that they were eliminated right here so close to the playoffs. And like, I just, I felt like the mood, obviously with the way things went was, you know, like terrible for these guys.

And there's a lot of unanswered questions about who's going to come back. I know we have Christian Walker, question surrounding him. There's some other guys, too. There's some other guys, too. I mean, I got a couple of hugs from people and was told, like, thank you for everything. It was nice, like, knowing you. Like, some of these guys are like, yeah, this is my last time in this club. That's dark.

Yeah, it was dark. You guys, I'm like, wait a minute. I know your contract situation. I don't know where you had. But again, I think it was the mood, right? It was like why everything was so heavy is it did feel like this wasn't. just like the end of of this season this felt like this was somehow the end of the road for this particular team i i don't feel like that's going to be the case well i mean we'll see a lot of

same guys we were having these conversations it's natural like when when your business revolves around it they were definitely thinking about being in the playoffs there's no doubt in the world about it like i they were so close to it they saw the light at the end of the tunnel i mean they had they had their bags packed they had an airplane ready to go that they had to do that i think i think just for Yeah, logistically. Logistical reasons. But I'm saying that like your seven games up with a month left, you're thinking about, well, you know, we're going to make the playoffs.

Like there's no doubt in your mind essentially. Yeah. And I think they saw that light at the end of the tunnel. And it just it made them, I don't know, lose sight of you still got to win a couple more games to get in because the Mets and the Braves are playing probably the best baseball in the league at that point. And the Padres really. And the Mets even lost them down the street. top combo. The Mets like,

yeah, great, right? And the Mets have got more help over the final weekend than I thought they would, honestly. From the Brewers taking two out of three from the Mets and the Braves losing the finale against the Royals. You just can't lose that Saturday game. You absolutely unequivocally cannot lose that game. It's the same thing

as that World Series game, right, where they left a million runners on base. This time they didn't get anybody on base, but that's the problem. The offense didn't show up at all. They did have two hits in that game. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The offense didn't show up. Your best reliever is the reason that the other team scores. That was the end of the season, essentially.

Yeah. I mean, Elise might have been right. They might have need to win every game. She says the deback shot themselves in the foot and expected everyone else to do the same. And to be fair, they kind of did the same thing last year and it worked. And they, right? Last year, they also lost four out of their last six games. It was kind of a similar situation.

it's just that again the bar was set so much higher this season you weren't you couldn't count on on the reds and the cubs and some of those teams last season just did not have anywhere near the talent level i think as the teams the debacks were competing with this year well we do know that we were a little frustrated with the way the met's played in that second game and we also know that maybe they're going to put it in a much nicer way but maybe some of the players were a little bit too first we have christian walker on if he was frustrated on how that second game was played today of that double header. You're in preview, man. All, you know, it's, that's how any team would have navigated it. I think, if anything, the frustration is just that, you know, there were games after the season was over. You know, I think everybody plays their last game on the same day for that reason. So, you know, you're not sure how it shakes out until it happens.

But, yeah, I mean, anybody would have handled those games exactly, exactly the way they have and that's just how it goes, you know, if we're unhappy about it, you know, that's a time to, you know, look inward and say, you know, we could have done something more and, you know, we should have played better.

And that's a man whose future is still unknown with this team. And like, I think we got a lot of that today. We got a lot of players and people saying, like, they understand they would have played the game the same way if the Diamondbacks were in a similar position as the Mets. But it's still like, it still just felt kind of gross to watch the Mets give such a half effort in a baseball game

despite the fact that they'd already pulled out several of their starters and, you know, we're kind of going with a little bit of a B lineup. They still put up a good lineup though. They put out a better lineup than I expected. Pete Alonzo, Brandon Nimmo, those guys started. Starling Marte was in there, Tyrone Taylor, Jose Iglesias. We do have to separate Joey Lou Casey from the rest of the conversation because Joey Luke Casey.

Shub. That man pitched the game of his life, I'm pretty sure. He threw 110 pitches. His job was basically to just go out there and kind of eat as many innings as he possibly could, maybe more innings than he ideally would in a normal situation. And he went out there and totally shoved, right? Six innings of one run ball. And yeah, there's kind of a variety of perspectives from D-BACs players on like kind of

their feelings on the second game and what it, what it, looked like to them. Merrill Kelly is one guy who maybe has a slightly different perspective than what Christian Walker had. Let's go to that clip. Here's here's Merrill Kelly talking about what he saw in the second game and his realistic what he really felt about the Mets efforts in that one. For us not having the control and knowing that no fault to the Mets, I think anybody, any team in that position is going to do the same thing. Right. They're looking forward to tomorrow they know they're in, they know they're not going to play their main guys and they know they're not going to try to get hurt. So, you know, they'll probably tell you that their effort was

there. But I think if they can't look in the mirror and say that, you know, they weren't trying as hard as they possibly could today, you know, I think they'd be lying. And I think that's natural, right? I think any team in that position would do the same thing. It's just unfortunate that, you know, that's the game that our fate has decided. And I'll assure you that there was no. happiness going on in that clubhouse but i also like i mean there was like like guys saying goodbyes and whatnot i wouldn't say it was a happier clubhouse than what you would find just at the end of a normal loss because this wasn't just well it's because it was a lot of guys saying goodbye to

exactly exactly there's a lot of uncertainty if these guys are going to see each other you could also tell guys we're making clans literally for this weekend and such to see each other and like yeah i think even maybe for tonight because they were talking about how they were going to get places and stuff. But I mean, it's also understandable, right? This is a long, grueling season. And these guys really do like each other. But in a way, honestly, this is the last time that they might see some of their teammates from this particular team, at least in this clubhouse, you know? So, but also there was a lot of sadness in the, in the locker room as well. There were a lot of guys that you could tell were having a lot of regrets about what was going on. I mean, almost more

and sadness, it looked like guys were a little shell-shocked, you know, just kind of standing around still kind of in a bit of disbelief as to what has happened to this team over the course of this last month, right? But the Dianbacks found themselves, unfortunately, rooting for whoever. We had Perdomo tell us that he was rooting for guys originally for the Braves, because he had a few friends over there, and then he had to turn his interests awards rooting for the Mets. Zach Gallen also talked about rooting for the Mets and for Joey Luckees, who once again had himself an incredible day out there on the mound for the Mets. Yeah, it's a little strange, that's for sure.

But, you know, it's for selfish purposes. So you're like, yeah, I'll root for whoever I got to root for. I mean, I know there was jokes going around on like, you know, someone gets big a little where a guy turns into big performance, like we send out the best bottle of tequila. You know, unfortunately for them, They're not getting those prizes from us. But yeah, it's unfortunate.

It's disappointment, really. With Casey, like, make a case if we're still getting bothers. Yeah, I mean, he kept him in it. I mean, that's a thing. You know, I know that, and for him to throw, I think he threw 110 pitch to like that. Yeah, so, and I would imagine, you know, thrown 110 pitches in a game that was meaningless for your team.

I mean, I shows a lot of character. And, you know, I tip my cap to that. And it's kind of, especially for us, you know, always was in a live for us, you're in and go out there and give a one-run effort to 110 pitches in the game where there's those wait nine innings to celebrate. It's pretty cool with that. I wanted to pay the clubby $100 to stop taping boxes.

We apologize for all the tape sounds in the background. I mean, that's also part of it. Like, I think maybe, you know, part of the look of the show. shock was how fast they were like going from watching the game, which apparently the guys were all watching it in the clubhouse together to Well, Zach Gallin. Yeah, Zach Gallin, he he apparently was throwing on the field. He was playing catch on the field. There's like the saddest video of all time of Zach Gallen walking off the field is right when the game ends.

Yeah. Yes. Well, he was asked about that and, you know, it was like, hey, were you just doing it? I think Jesse asked him. Yeah, I asked. I was curious, yeah, were you just antsy? Like, you needed to move around? and he was like, no, like, if we get in, I'm starting game one tomorrow, right?

Like, I've got to be dialed in and ready to go. I love that. Hey, that man. But, yeah, I mean, what a scene, right? Like, Zach Allen playing catch, you know, theoretically getting ready for a game one star as just above him on the Jumbotron. The New York Mets are, they weren't getting destroyed by the Braves, but it was kind of clear what the outcome was going to be.

So, yeah. pitching performance from the Mets that like Zach was talking about. Yeah, Joey Lou Casey was real close to getting some nice to Keela from the D-backs this offseason. He just, he just, I guess it's not really he who blew it. It was the Mets offense. Well, for sure. I think Joey still deserves it, to be honest. That's my opinion.

Well, I don't know. I don't feel, I don't feel inclined to give him a gift for of any reason. You get nothing now. Jesse, you mentioned that like the Mets still played some of their better hitters. Like, he did Alonzo played. And I think really like, to me, it was. over the second Pete Alonzo rolled over into that like terrible ground ball with runners in front position. Yeah. If he you need Pete Alonzo to get a hit hit there to have a chance like I think

there was still a chance at that point. It felt bad. But you're like, hey, maybe Pete Alonzo wants to stat pat his RBI total a little bit. Yeah. And you know, he just the weakest ground ball you've ever seen. The Mets offense completely blew it tonight. They didn't try. I mean, yeah. And I like, I don't want to say that they didn't try completely like there were moments here and there they had two on nobody out at one point like i don't think they were up there trying to get out as soon as they could but they clearly were not locked in they clearly were not in the mode of we are we are really trying to win this game stop it they had like 11 strikeouts in their first 22 batters of that game they are just swinging at everything.

Their chase rate was, was off the charts insane. They swung, when Grant Holmes was on the mound, they swung at 48% of pitches outside the zone. League average is like 26%. So, yes, they were way overly aggressive. I don't think they weren't trying,

but they were way overly aggressive. Their plate approaches were ridiculous. Yes, exactly. So it's like, I guess maybe it's semantics, whether you count that as not trying or not. But yeah, they were not,

not putting their best foot forward. They were uncompetitive played approaches. Yes. The best way of putting it. Like they weren't going out there acting like it was a game that they cared about winning at all. It was like a spring training type type vibe to it. You know?

Yeah. Get some hacks. I think you probably even care more about spring training, to be honest. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this much in regards to some of their hacks today, they just wanted to get out of there is what it really felt like. And honestly, I hope both teams get swept in the wild card round in two games. That's what I'm.

You know what I want? That's what they deserve. I actually was thinking about this earlier, and this is where I really cook. This is why you have me with a microphone in front of my face. Because this is like a hater energy. The Mets let the Braves who dogwalk that division every single year for three decades. However long the Braves have owned the NL East, they let them just get into the playoffs. The funniest timeline is the Mets losing in the NLCS to the Braves.

We're in the Braves, like beating the crap out of them. That way. While the Mets let them get into the playoffs over our spot. That's the absolute funniest timeline to me. That's what I will be rooting for. I know. Yeah. I mean, it didn't make sense, to be fair, it didn't make any sense for the Mets to like actually go full throttle in the sense of playing all their best players.

If they lose the NLCS to the Braves, all of a sudden, we're thinking a little bit differently about that. Yeah, but the, I mean, but the counter argument is do they even get to the NLCS if they throw Luis Severino or something instead of, you know, if they, if they make Francisco and door play two games when apparently his back is broken. We're doing reckless speculation over here, Jesse. This isn't, this isn't like, you know, let's put semantics into it. This is Mets, losers. You should have tried and won the baseball game to help the Diamondbacks out.

That's a fair, reasonable take. Well, we have more from the clubhouse. And this time it is a per domo talking about Tori's message. No, we don't have that. All right. We got Merrill on the frustration from losing this game, and I'm sure he echoes his teammates' feelings about this as well. Here's what he had to say.

I think it's frustrated, I think, is a good word, disappointed. It's just kind of all over the map. Obviously, it sucks in by all the guys. It's never fun at the end of the year. I think frustrated just because I think we, you know, I think we controlled our own destiny for a little while there, and I think we kind of let it slip out of our fingers. We have a pretty sizable lead going into the last little while this season,

and I think there were a couple key games that, you know, if we look back on it, obviously you can't predict baseball. You can't say you should have won those games, but there's a lot of games that I think that we've let go. Obviously, that last game in Milwaukee, comfy mind, you know, a couple games against the Rockies, couple games against the Giants. It just sucks sitting here today,

knowing that if we would have just squeaked out one more game, that we wouldn't be in the position. Yeah, that's it. I'm glad he brought up those games, but there's a lot of games during the season. And Elise says it here, can we talk about all the games throughout the season that we didn't try and keep the deficit close? Tori's approach with having a bullpen that essentially is a different bullpen when they're up versus where they're behind, saving, you know, like you said, saving all of our bullpen arms. Now, the bullpen got worn out. So, I mean, I don't know.

That's sort of the counter argument there. I think there are specific games that you could maybe look at. Like I think that is a valid point. But I don't really view that as like a, I mean, the Diamondbacks pitching this season, frankly, was pretty ineffective across the board. And that's something that we're going to talk a lot about in these next few days and over the off season is how does this team get back to a competent pitching staff? Because frankly, this group just really was not that for much of the season. And I know some people in the chat are talking about like, oh, you guys are just. talking about the double header and that's why that's the only reason that they were eliminated today

and that's not at all what we're saying right the diamond backs are not making the playoffs because they didn't win enough games it two things can be true right did they get a little screwed with the setup of today's double header 100% they did so did the met's and the brays yeah the meds and the brays also got a little bit screwed because going into the postseason tomorrow they're not they just played a double header that's not an ideal scenario i'm going to win this struggle off though The Diamondbacks, the diving backs definitely win this, the, the, who got it the worst. Yeah, because their, their path to just get in in the first place was compromised, whereas the Braves and Mets are more so compromised once they, once they get in.

Yeah. But yeah, two things can be true, right? Did they get a little bit screwed in the situation today? Yes, but should the Diamondbacks have been in a position where they needed a very odd outcome in a double header today, they shouldn't have been in this spot, right? They were in very, very good position to make the postseason about a week ago. And they went two and five to end the season and they squandered that opportunity. And, yeah, they have to take responsibility as a result of that.

Diamondbacks pitching staff was 27th, had the 27th best ERA in baseball this season at 4.62. So bad. Which teams are worse than that? Which teams are worse than that, Jesse? That's a great question. It's the Chicago White Sox at 4.68. So the White Sox were worse. Okay.

They were worse, but just slightly worse at 4.68. The Miami Marlins had a 4.73 ERA. And of course, the Colorado Rockies that play at Coors Field had a 5.47 ERA. The Diamondbacks were down with the worst teams of baseball, Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics, the Washington Nationals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Giants, the Reds, all had better ERAs for as a team this season and the Arizona Diamondbacks. If you really want to get down to this,

which, of course, we now will have plenty of time to disqual. sex this season and and play all the what-ifs. But if you really want to get down to it, it was pitching. The Diamondbacks had the best offense in all the baseball, even though it wasn't consistent. The Diamondbacks had the most like huge runs and huge hits in like all across baseball. That's what made their offensive numbers go up and be the top offense or score the most runs in Major League Baseball. It's not consistent.

I mean, it was a pretty good offense. It was a pretty good offense. But it had to be in order for them to. win because of how bad their pitching was there were some moments where the offense was probably a little phony for sure uh just in terms of like yeah like like huge 20 run victories that's there was two of them weren't there like that's pretty ridiculous i i understand what you're saying there i think that yeah they weren't always the best in huge moments this season in my opinion i think in clutch moments i'd love to look into that a little bit more but it didn't feel like they were very they were a very

clutch offense this year. Yeah. But regardless, when you score the most runs in baseball, you're pitching needs to be at a level to get you into the playoffs. Like, yeah. Even if it is a little bit phony, it's still the number one most runs scored in baseball. Right. Well, this is the moment Thunderbolt's been waiting for the most.

Here we have Tori Lovolo on his statement. Juice box time. Yeah. This, this hurts. This is a really difficult situation that we're all. kind of navigating through. You can't really predict the way the season is going to end, and then you've got to wait around an entire day to find out what your fate is.

I've never experienced anything like that, and I don't think any of the guys did either. But we got in one place in one space. There was a lot of cheering. There was a lot of excitement for the entire second game, and then it became very somber once we learned of the news. I got in front of the team, and I thanked him for the effort they gave me, the trust that they placed in my hands and the coaches. We had a good year.

We had a really good year. And I want to make sure that they understood that. And despite not making the playoffs, as frustrating as this last week was, we've got some growing and learning to do, but to remember that the sun will come up tomorrow and we're going to fight through this. And we have a lot of ground to cover this offseason.

We have a lot of baseball games to win in the future. hopefully more playoff playoff games are in the cards for us. Just wanted to remind them of all that stuff. You know, I woke up this morning. I put on my lucky shirt, put on my lucky socks,

my lucky shorts. I think everybody in the Valley did that. I think we had a room full of people that went and did the same thing today. Just didn't happen. And it stinks. It really stinks and it really hurts. It cuts deep.

Like I told you guys last year at this very podium after we lost Game 5 of the World series. We've got to continue learning and growing. We can't sit still. We're going to have to figure this out. We're going to figure out a way to continue playing until we win the last game and we're pouring champagne on one another. That's our goal every single year. All right. I'll see you you guys tomorrow. Thank you for the time. I appreciate you guys. Each and everyone, appreciate you guys. That's that. What were your thoughts on what he had to say about the season?

Yeah. I mean, it's very typical Tory stuff, right? Definitely takes kind of a positive. positive outlook on the season that the Diamondbacks did have and the fact that they had 89 wins, which to their credit is, is again, like, that's a good number. If you had told any of us entering the season that the D-Ux were going to win 89 games, it'd be hard to call that a failure from the outset. But at the same time, you can also hear Tori there a little bit frustrated and wanting to have more, right? Wanting to be pouring champagne on each other after the last day of the baseball season.

And that's ultimately the goal for this team. And he was far less emotional today than he was last year, which on the surface maybe seems odd because the debaques last year had way more success than they did this year. But also, the debacks were really, really close last year, right? When you get that close to winning a World Series, I can understand it just sort of, you know, kind of overtaking you in that moment that you got that close and you weren't quite able to finish the job. This year, the debacks didn't even get. a chance to start that journey, right?

So, yeah, I know that Toro Lavello is not the most popular guy around here these days, at least from what I read on Twitter and what I see in the comments here in the chat. But at the same time, I think he's, I think he's a good leader for this team. And he's not going anywhere, no matter what people want. Tori Lavello is here, is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. future. I agree with that. And I know there are some people saying, like, Mike Aason needs to, you know, part ways with Tori. I don't really think so. But every manager is going to have moves that they make throughout the course of a season that you question and that lead to success. That's just the way that it happens. I know that there's a lot of people mad with Craig Counsel right now in Chicago, kind of feeling a similar feeling, which is, you know, blaming again, the team's lack of making the postseason on the manager. I get. it. I understand the feelings about that. And sometimes, you know, I guess as a fan of a team, what you would like to see is change so that it inspires some sort of hope in you that new leadership

or a new coach is going, you know, to change things drastically. I just, I don't know. I don't know if that's the case. I don't know how Tori's coaching staff around him is going to change. I know there was some talk of Jeff Bannister potentially getting a managing job around baseball. Could happen. There also is the possibility of Brent Strom retiring or no longer. you know, being the pitching coach for this team. And I don't know if those things are going to happen. But it does feel like, you know, this team has been lucky to have the coaching staff. I just think that there are some things that make you question, obviously, what's going on, right?

Like when the pitching staff is all having the issues that they're kind of having collectively as a group, you do wonder what's going on. And if this is something that maybe needs to be addressed as far as, you know, the coach is concerned. And same thing with Tori. As far as managing games, there are a lot of time. where things he did didn't work out. And I know we've discussed a lot of those, right? But there's also, you know, the entire 20, 23 postseason where he seemed to pull all the right levers. And I also know that throughout this season, there were stretches where he absolutely is, you know,

has been a big factor as to how this team won games. But we talked about it, I think on Friday show I mentioned it. I said, I don't think Tori had a very good season, to be honest. Yeah. And I think that's fair. I think you can say that maybe Tori. could have done a better job managing games and yet also not think that he you know surely needs to be fired absolutely that's where that's where i'm at like obviously tory is one season removed from

like you said derrick he was king midas every move that he made was the best possible move every pinch hitter was getting was coming through like it was a great playoff run you can't just ignore that completely he had a bad season in my opinion you know he he there were a lot of times where it felt like he sacrificed the short term for the potential long term down the road. And it didn't, I don't feel like those, those necessarily worked out for us, especially not when you consider the fact that we're not in the postseason. And we need one more game here and there. So I think that's, that's where the mistakes were made if I had to point at anything.

And I hope that, I think Tori is, he's humble enough to learn from that kind of stuff. I honestly think that. And I don't want him gone by any stretch, but he definitely didn't have a strong season. I'm guessing Nando there in the chat is a Dodgers fan because he told us that take Dave Roberts. Is that what you want? Is that what you want? I'm okay. What you wish for.

All right. Well, we'll get around to a couple of more videos and some more on what happened to this tragic Diamondback season here shortly. We did want to thank you guys for being here in the PHA and X Sports YouTube channel. Every single one of you. Thank you guys so much for being here. I know this hurts, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to lament with us. There was somebody in here earlier screaming that he had to leave because he didn't like what we were talking about.

Well, I apologize to even him. I would have liked him to stay. But so long, I guess, is all I have to say to that. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. Hit that notifications button that way you don't miss whenever we go live. Of course, we're going to have a little bit more stable of a schedule around here. out without playoff baseball so you'll be able to catch us here regularly around 1 p.m.

every single day but make sure to hit that notifications button because we never know when we're going to be doing some emergency podcasts of course if you're listening on the audio podcasting side make sure you subscribe over there make sure you leave us review we appreciate that and subscribe on whatever your favorite audio podcasting app is most importantly hit that like if you're here on the youtube show right now you're it's for me that this guy doesn't care this guy's so sad that your likes are meaningless to him right now, but I can still use a little. I'd actually argue that the likes are the only thing that are keeping me going. That could be.

He's, the sports has hurt him. I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to get up tomorrow morning unless I get a hundred likes on this video. There you go. All right. Well, it's a very arbitrary number. Yeah. But it's a nice round number.

Yeah. Digits. We like that around here. We will get to some more, like I said, from the clubhouse here. But first, I get to talk to you guys. right now about Blue Chew. And I don't know, I'm not really, like normally I'd be thrilled right now. I don't know if I can muster up the true excitement that I normally feel inside to talk about

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that's bluechoo.com promo code all city to receive your first month for free. Visit bluechew.com for more details and important safety information. And of course, we thank Bluechoo for sponsoring this podcast. We also thank Heela River Resorts and Casinos because no one does it better. We will be hosting our Cardinals and our sons watch parties and obviously not our Major League Baseball playoff watch parties out at Heila River Resorts and Keynesinos. So make sure to join us for those. Stay tuned for so much information. How you can come hang out with this guy in the car.

Cardinals crew. Of course, you don't have... It's the only thing keeping me going, actually. That and the likes, right? The likes and trips to Healer River. The fact that I get to go back to Healer River, Wild Horse Pass, on Sunday for our away watch party. For sure. Against the 49ers, which will certainly be a victory against the Cardinals versus the San Francisco 49ers.

He's a broken man. He's a broken man. A good way to fix him, though, would be to take him on a trip to Heel River Resorts and casinos. Lounge at the resort? just hang out by the pool to get away for maybe sports for a little bit or go check out the sports book, which is most likely where we'll be having ourselves a good time. They also have over 4,500 slots and live table games at all their locations,

so don't miss out on anything they have to offer at Wild Horse Pass, Lone Butte, Vkeva, and San Tan Mountain. So you do you at Heela Resorts and Casinos, visit playatheela.com for more details. All right, well, I guess one thing, before we go, I do have to give this man a little pick-me-up. So let's get a Jerry P video in here. We have Geraldo Perdomo who almost made me cry with. He gave me a bigger handshake than everybody else. Jesse can attest to it. I don't know what that was about,

but Jerry, I love you. Here's what Jerry had to say about Tori's parting words to the team and his outlook on next season. He opposed to us. And he showed him how he feel, how he feels. Because, you know, for everybody know, like how hard he played, how much he loved this game. And I think it's not for him, it's just for everyone.

It was kind of sad, you know. But like I said, like, would you need to move on and be ready for the next season? That's our number one priority right now. Get everybody healthy, bring some new player or old player back here and just do some damage from the day one. I like to bring back old players too. He's like looking over at Christian Walker like that guy.

Bring that guy back. Yeah, I mean, again, I know a lot of people want, I guess, fire and anger out of Tori. But honestly, based on what we know about him, that's not what you're going to get. And maybe that's why some of you feel he's not the right man for the job. And I can't change your opinion about that. But what I can't say is that the sentiment was that Tori felt very apologetic to his players today, that he didn't do enough for them. to get them into the playoffs.

Tori very much resents and regrets these losses, especially the ones lately that changed that made the difference in their season and their trajectory, right? But I mean, you definitely get the sense from these players that, like, again, it's not really about, you know, it's not, it's not about anger today. It's just more about disappointment that they couldn't get the job done. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the hardest things about this is that if the Diamondbacks had gotten into the postseason,

they're a very interesting team once they get there, right? We obviously saw this play out a season ago. Last year, they had really no expectations whatsoever and went on that run. This year, there would be some expectations. And I think the team also has the talent level to meet those expectations.

One of the things in the last week of the season that actually was pretty good for the debacks that sort of went onto the radar is their starting pitching. Merrill Kelly deserved a much better final. a line than he got in his last game. Eduardo Rodriguez pitched pretty dang well in that game against the Padres, despite the results. Brandon Fott looked really good on Sunday.

Zach Gallen finished on a very, very high note against the Giants as well. This is still a team where if you squint, you can, I mean, you don't even really have to squint, really. This is a team where if they're in the postseason, obviously anything can happen in the MLB playoffs. But if they're in the postseason, it's not that hard to imagine them going on a run like they did last year. And because of one game, they don't get that opportunity. Is the biggest regret, Damon, not having Roger Bessions come in and teach the entire pitching staff the football team? Well, I mean, it certainly seems as though Brent Strom didn't pull his weight this season. And I actually mean that I'm not even saying that tongue in cheek.

Like, I'm more mad personally at Brent Strom and the pitching staff like in that whole side of things than I am at Tori specifically. But I think if you need to make changes, why not have Roger Bessions come in and teach you guys how to throw the football slayer? Like a sling like a football. That, I mean, that could have changed everything. Here's my thing with this whole situation is that I don't think that there's enough like talked about the stop and starts for this team as far as like the injuries go. Right. And I think that's what really kind of and every team has had injuries. Every team has had catastrophic injuries.

I'm not acting like the Diamondbacks had extra injuries. It just felt like every time they got a guy back, another guy got injured. It was a joke that we made about it being like the baseball god sacrificing somebody's hamstring for somebody else's shoulder or whatever, right? They were never whole. They were never whole. And even when they were whole, there was a very small amount of time for them to get right and get back into a baseball program where they were comfortable and back at 100% until there wasn't enough. time left in the season. And it felt like that a little bit, right? We had that last game, obviously against a Padre's team that wasn't, was giving the same effort maybe as the Mets were in

game two today, but a Padres team out there playing baseball nonetheless, that the Diamondbacks absolutely walloped. And on that day, it felt like that team was finally complete and back to themselves that we've seen, despite their struggles over the week. It was just too little too late. It was the last game of the season. And by that point, they don't have any more games for them to have that offense come out and catch fire and stay hot against and to win them more baseball games. They really just ran out of time. And I feel like the injuries were the biggest story of this season. Obviously, also, you got the fact that the Diamondbacks went out and spent a whole lot of money during the off season, especially on pitching.

And that never really seemed to work out for them. Not only did they lose Eduardo Rodriguez for most of the season, but then he was inconsistent. He did have some good starts in there. Like there's some encouraging things about both Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez going into next season. More so about Erod, I would say. I don't know if Jordan Montgomery, if I'm being totally honest, ever really showed a whole lot of, you know, signs of turning a quarter toward the end of the season. He definitely wasn't the guy that the Diamondbacks went out and spent $25 million on. That's for sure.

You know what I mean? At no point during the season. If I had to point at any player, he'd be the biggest culprit because you expected to get a front line starting pitcher that this team was. begging for all season. I don't even want to go back and watch that episode. I don't want to watch the breaking podcasts we did about them acquiring Jordan Montgomery. I can't even look at myself in the amount of excitement I probably had. The things that were said on that podcast are.

Oh, they can't be unsaid. I can't take them back. You know what I mean? Like that's what feels worse is the regrets. Top five starting rotation in baseball, Derek. We both called it. We were all over. Yeah, that was some good things.

We just mixed up top five and bottom five. It was just one, just a one word difference. I think at one point I said the Diamondbacks were going to win 90 to 95 games this season, and that makes me sick considering that if they had won that, we wouldn't be sitting here so sad right now. But I mean, I guess the bigger thing is like what is your assessment? I guess that's how I feel about what's the biggest collapse of the season. Would you agree that the pitching and the injuries to the pitching was the biggest problem?

Like overall? Yeah, the pitching is 100% the biggest problem. I mean, it is very, very hard to make the postseason and go on. a run when you have a team-wide pitching staff in the high fours. It just doesn't really happen. If the Diamondbacks had made the postseason this year, I think on like an era-adjusted, league-adjusted basis, I'd have to go and see what their OPS or what their ERA plus was as a team. There are not that many teams that have made the postseason with that bad of an ERA plus. D-Box pitching was very, very poor this year. And I'm looking right now at a list of all their

pitchers and sorting by innings pitched. And at the top, is Brandon Fott, who was inconsistent, finished with a 471ERA, right? There's Ryan Nelson, there's Zach Allen. But then number four and number five, the guys who got the fourth and fifth most innings on this team this year were Jordan Montgomery and Slade Cicconi. And Jordan Montgomery threw 117 innings with a 623 and Slade Cicconi through 77 innings with a 6.66. That is almost 200 innings that you are giving to a couple of

of pitchers that basically combined for a six and a half ERA, which in this era of baseball is about the worst pitcher in the entire sport. And so, yeah, like the top end talent, I think, is still there. Like, Zach Gallen didn't have a terrible season, and he was available most of the year. But the guys that stepped in to fill in struggled and Jordan Montgomery also really struggled. And you put it all together and it was just a group that was really never consistent the entire year. Elise put it in the chat and also Jacob Franklin texted me earlier about it. But apparently Ken Kendrick said today on the radio that he was kind of the one that pushed for the Jordan Montgomery signing rather than Mike Hazen, which is interesting. And I guess it makes it eating the money on that feel a little bit better, right?

Yeah, because it wasn't it wasn't Hazen asking Ken Kendrick for the money. It was the other way around. However, there are potential ramifications about Ken Kendrick being a bit gun-shy to spend going forward. I mean, the way would that bid him, he might just say, hey, maybe it's not worth it to go out and spend on these high-price. But don't you think it'd be worse? It was the other way around. If my casein had asked for the money and he was like, if you're sure about it and then it didn't work out in this fashion, then it'd be like he'll never spend money on a player ever again, it would feel like in that circumstance. So well let's let's if we haven't made you sad enough yet

May I present to you the Diamondbacks playoff odds this season Oh yeah this is this is pretty bad yeah let's take a look oh my god Let's take a look boys shall we yeah I like how I like how I can't sing that song because we'll get DMCA right I can't sing any songs like that but you get the idea where I was going there I like how Kevin like tried to cushion the blow by putting our lobe go on top of the very end of the chart. Nice attempt. This was not a slow gradual collapse, right?

This was the Diamondbacks having a 93% chance, I believe it is, to make the postseason nine days ago. And the day after that, they were up eight to nothing in the third inning. If you had calculated their postseason odds at that moment, which unfortunately, there's no way for us to actually get this information. But I think it's probably about 96, 97%. Because they were basically, you know, almost assured of another win on top of what they'd already built.

They were about to sweep the Brewers, right? It would have been a four-game sweep. And there would have been, it would have been hard to really question their ability to make the playoffs in the last week of the season. So, yeah, that chart just kind of tells the whole story right there. Devastating. It's pretty disgusting. It's pretty disgusting.

And I mean, odds are what they are, right? Computers are stupid, but computers also take a lot of factors into consideration. And it's just tough to see how quickly things went bad for this team. I think that's what's really the hardest part about seeing that sudden drop on that disgusting graphic that some idiot decided to put up on the screen. It definitely wasn't me. Yeah, it makes all feel sad. I will also say if we can pull up the chart one more time that I had almost, like I know that. that in the first half of the Diamondback season, they didn't play particularly well.

But that feels like such a distant memory at this point. Yeah, where they were down below 50%. Yeah, I mean, the postseason odds curve is generally trending downward from the start of the season all the way into July. And then to the DeBak's credit, they really dug themselves out and went on an incredible run. They were the best team in baseball in July, I believe. They were one of the best teams in baseball, if not the best in August. And they created a really nice cushion for themselves.

and then they basically undid all of that in the final month and especially the final week of the season. So it was a really disappointing start to the season. Yes. It's not that like it wasn't like as if they were the worst team in baseball. It was as if they left a ton of games on the table. Yes, they really did. They did. Because it felt like at least for, you know, the first month, two months of the season,

like they could have had one of, been competitive with some of the best records in baseball. if they closed out games the way that they could have. And it ended up being where, you know, they were hovering right around. They were not bad enough where their odds were still in like the 40% range, wherever that was. And then, of course, that purple patch of form just like skyrocketed their odds to 90 and then all the way back down. But yeah, I mean, it was, it wasn't as if they were awful at the start.

They just really left a lot of games on the table. That August 25th date that I referenced there, that's the highest that their playoff odds ever got. And it was 96.8%. Wow. So they peaked at about 97% just a little over a month ago. And yeah, it goes to show that these, you know, we look at these playoff odds numbers and they only mean so much. 97 is not 100. So there you go.

I'm going to blame the Arizona Diamondbacks for everything. going wrong for them. But I am not going to blame the players or the coaches or even the trainer, Max Esposito, even though he's like very, very closely related to ESPO in this office. I don't trust that man. Is Max Esposito related to Greg Esposito? They're just both Espositos. There's something shady going on.

And we know, espos are dangerous. Yeah, they're radical. But they're not just radical. They're dangerous, Jesse. I don't know if you've heard the campaign. And yeah, it is in relation to Paul Seawall because you guys are right, but it's not. I want to blame the Arizona Diamondbacks

for inviting Frank the Tank to throw out a goddamn pitch at one of our baseball games. Your love for social media darlings finally sunk the entire franchise. In what world do you bring a super fan from another team? I don't care if you wanted to throw out the first pitch

and ever. You tell him no. You tell him you know who else wants to throw out a first pitch at a Diamondbacks game? All three of us and Kevin and my dog Cosmo. We all want to throw out the first pitch. But you know who hasn't? Any of us, right? And that's because you guys don't let us. And you could have said the same thing to Frank. You could have said, no, absolutely not. Frank. Get your, can I, can I say ass? Yeah. Get your ass out of here, Frank. But no. You let him throw out the first pitch, it broke Paul Seawalt, it broke this team, and who ended our goddamn season? The New York Mets ended our season. That's who ended our season. So I blame you, whoever decided

to let Frank the tank, you're the one that cost the Diamondbacks the season. So fitting that it was the Mets and their lackadaisical effort that is the reason that the team doesn't win when Frank the tank derailed Paul Seawald's season and cost us multiple. ball games as well. I mean, it almost feels designed by Frank when you kind of put it that way. Like it was a like a criminal mastermind type of plan. But it was more like Mr.

B back down from the inside. Like he kind of like fumbled his way into ruining the Diamondback season. It wasn't like he was a smooth double agent. No, we knew what he was the whole time. And we were like, oh, that guy can't hurt us. Well, guess what happened? He did.

Should I put up the playoff odds again? And should we calculate back to the day when he came out to the car again? I actually, you know, I was just thinking about that. It was August 25th, Jesse. No, it wasn't. Was it earlier than that? No, no, because that was that the narrative with Frank the tank, which we covered at the time. That he broke Paul Seawald.

He didn't break the diamond backs. He broke Paul Seawall in particular. And Seawall is the guy who caught him. Yeah. So I think it was the beginning of July because obviously the whole month of July for Seawald was pretty rough. I think it was like June 30th. June 30th. I think is correct.

Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was like June 30th. And the Diamondbacks actually played around him. They played really well for the two months after that. But Paul Seawall did not play particularly well. So do with that what you will. It is a big, a big miss that Frank the Tang got the invite before Cosmo. I think that's the real, the real tragedy here.

That is a tragedy. I'm still trying to figure out which my dog's bit me. It might have been Cosmo. We haven't gotten. We need to CSI that too, but one thing that we do know is that Christian Walker is a free agent after this season, and we don't know what the future holds for him. He did make some comments about, you know, of course, his ties here, and it sounded a bit like he wanted to come back, but he also said, like, it was not, obviously, it's still an unknown for him. And here's what Christian Walker had to say about his future. Yeah, for sure.

And that's something that you think about constantly. Like, you know, even the last few weeks, just trying to channel every moment, the good stuff, the bad stuff. No matter how frustrated you are, you look around and you think, like, you know, a lot of my best friends are in this clubhouse. A lot of unknown still. Uncertainty, you know, there's obviously a good chance I land here, but, you know, it's still some unknown. So, you know, this is all I know as far as my big league experience. see that you know it's uh it's it's it's it's it's it's it's a's it's a's emotional is that uh uh fred stillman in the chat says walker is gone wants to get paid like he's 27 love the guy

but he's likely gone i don't i'm i'm i'm a little bit more i guess i guess i feel like there's a chance because if he does test free agency like we saw with lorice gurel junior last year the diamondbacks were able to bring him back he was a guy that i didn't think was going to come back simply because of the world series run in the season that lord has had last year. I thought that it was his chance to kind of bank on that last probably big contract of his career and possibly get paid above what his, you know, market value might be based on factors, right? And instead he came back to the Diamondbacks. I think Christian Walker, you know, the one thing, I guess, going for the Diamondbacks here is that he didn't have that strong of a season. Obviously,

the injuries there at the end of the season kind of, you know, kind of throttled him a little bit. And he wasn't his normal self. But I think that they do have a good chance. of bringing him back. I personally, my gut tells me they will bring him back because I think that they're kind of in this mode of we're trying to be a competitive team right now. And I do think, you know, you lose that Madison Bummerner contract. Maybe it just fits in a little bit kind of nicely in that in that spot there where you're keeping around the same payroll that you went into this year with.

That being said, I was having the conversation earlier today. Like, I don't know what the smart move is because he is an older player. And he does have like his deficiencies. I think he's such an important part of the culture here on this team. Sure. He's, I think the guys look at it, especially the younger players look at him as like sort of like one of the leaders especially. And that's an important part of how the Diamondbacks want their image to be as a baseball team and and think that I think that stuff is important. They value that.

But he's also like his deficiencies are like he he, he, with runners in scoring position, he's not great. he I mean he he he struggles a lot of times in the bigger moments it feels like like when the when the backs are absolutely up against the wall is Christian Walker getting that big hit for you we've talked about that yeah yeah sure Walker this season 826 OPS with runners in scoring position pretty good which is better than his overall OPS I mean by that by that number he was better with runners in scoring position hypothetically I don't think so I mean I think legal wide, the numbers are about the same. So if a guy has outperformed, but I guess runners in scoring position is different than like

high leverage versus low leverage. But even then, high leverage, at least on baseball reference, they haven't been in 835 OPS. But I understand what you're saying. There are, it does kind of feel like that. It has at least felt like that at times where Christian Walker in those biggest moments, you know, maybe struggles to come through a little bit more. This season, I can just think off the top of my head seeing Cotel-Martier. hit home runs that won this team game.

Yes. Corbyn Carroll hit home runs or big hits. You had Gino Suarez that had some huge hits during games. And Jake McCarthy during that stretch when he was really hot, right? So Christian Walker does it. And again, I've said this about Christian Walker. He does it in games where the team wins and you didn't necessarily need that like late inning heroics.

But it does feel like, I mean, at times you don't see as many of those hits. But the numbers say otherwise. And again, that's just because I- He feels like a solo bomb machine. Yeah, to me. I mean, he also kind of gets like a big, like hit in those big moments, maybe not that home run or whatever. And that's kind of what we're expecting.

He did have a 1765 OPS against the Dodgers this season. I was going to say he is our Dodgers killer. That's that. You really want that to go away. I mean, all that fun. But of course, we don't know what the future holds for Christian Walker or a few players. We obviously know this is probably the last. We've seen a Paul Seawald in a Diamondbacks uniform.

That's speculation. but most likely that's the end of his time with this team. I like Seawald was very kind on his way out and he told me that he thanked he thanked us very much for the last two years and you know all the all the things we've said. I'm sure it's like again Paul Seawald's one of those guys that went through some struggles and there was a point where you know of course even we on this show didn't agree with you know what the Diamondbacks should do with him and obviously I'm sure the Diamondbacks felt the same internally. This was a guy that brought so much stability to this team last season and

really was a big reason why they were able to not only win late, get into the postseason, but despite blowing games in the postseason, very big games there, and you know, that we remember, it's still one of those situations where you have to wonder if the Diamondbacks would have even been able to go on that magical postseason run without Paul Seawald last season. Yeah, the Paul Seawald trade was a win because he helped you get to the World Series and he don't get there without him. End of story, right? But that doesn't mean that this season wasn't rough for him.

It obviously was, and the Diamondbacks had to take him out of that role for a reason. Yeah, in the coming days, we'll talk about free agents and our thoughts on some of the guys that could be off this team next year. Randall Gritchick and Jock Peterson are two really big names there. Both of those guys have mutual options for next year, which they both played way too well for those mutual options to possibly get picked up on their end. So the debacks are going to have a lot of work to do over the off season. And we're about to dive into that for the next, the next several months.

So stay, stay tuned for all of that. I don't want to do it. You kind of enlighten me to the, you know, mutual option thing, Jesse, of like, when is that ever really going to work out? Typically, the team is either like, well, that's a good deal for us or the players like, oh, that's a good deal for me. Never both. So. Yeah. Yeah.

It's almost like you shouldn't even put them in contracts. Yeah. but sometimes it's the only way to get that player in. And really it's security is what the player is looking for. There's like a buyout that comes with it. Yeah. It's a buyout. Yeah, it gives a little bit of money for the,

for the player. And if you stink, you know what I mean? Like if you stink, you want whatever extra money you're going to get. And, you know, at the end of the year,

like you said with that buyout. So that's a big part of it. You just, you're kind of investing in the unknown there. And again, sometimes it's that, that's that little thing that will help you, you know,

sign that deal that they're putting in front of you and maybe that made the difference for jock he was an excellent signing so was randall gritchick the downbacks did a great job with a lot of the signings on the you know obviously in the uh position player's side i mean kevin newman ended up being great for this team they yeah a couple pickups there and louis georme and josh bell but also you know we're we're big factors at times for this team so uh there were there were things that went right for them as well but i really do feel like uh pitching things things didn't go great and even there a j puck That that's a guy that's going to be on the team hopefully for what the next two seasons, right?

Yeah, two more years of team control. And that's that's a guy that ended up being one of the best pickups of the year. So there's some things to be positive about, but it's hard to be positive on a day like this. He needs to be the closer. And that means we need to get another high leverage lefty arm so that we're not feeling like we have to save puck to use in those types of situations. No. That feels like a big piece this offseason. Yeah, I think adding to the bullpen makes sense.

They, I mean, they have all the same guys coming back, right? Like, you could do worse than J. Mart, A.J. Puck, Kevin Ginkle and Ryan Thompson. But, yeah, adding another, another genuine back end arm there could do some good for sure. Well, of course, we have a little bit more to get to as well as talking about a big piece coming to go phnx.com that this guy is helping out on. Of course, that's on the other side of our break. But first, wanted to let you guys know about branded bills. Of course, branded bills is a local company here from Mesa, Arizona. And not only do they make some great collegiate hats, you can see on the wall behind me,

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Halloween hats as well. It's spooky season, so you might as well get the appropriate wear for that time of year. Head to brandedvills.com and use code PHNX for 20% off your order. Unfortunately, we have no more baseball games to discuss going to, or at least for us here in town. Well, well, we might- Arizona Fall League, Derek. Arizona Fall League, he's not right. We're going to be fall guys once again, so keep it locked here, obviously, for AFL coverage.

But if you want to go to games, like AFL games, if you want to go to sporting events like football, basketball, hockey, oh, it's too seen for that too. I'm sorry. I'm just hurting my feelings a lot tonight. Forget hockey, but the other sporting events. ASU hockey. ASU hockey. Yeah, he's right. Oh, wow, good cover. Game time has you covered with save up to 60% off by buying tickets last minute for all of those things. They also have their new feature called game time picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier. You can filter out the fluff with game. Time picks to show you only the best deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through all of those tickets. So make sure to check out GameTime. Of course, they have the all-in pricing, which you can toggle this feature, to show you the total up front, so there's no surprises when you get to check out. They also have the lowest price guarantee or GameTime will credit you 110% of the difference.

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It's game time. It's game time. And, of course, there are lots of events to go to that aren't baseball or those other things that I said that makes you perhaps feel bad about your sport life. This man always feels bad about sports. That's the way it goes for him. But I know. They ruin me.

And I mean, we're Arizona sports fans, right? We should be used to this. This shouldn't be anything new. I've been shot before. It doesn't hurt that bad, right? But it's still, it's still, and I hate to say this. I hate to leave the night with this note, but it is still one of the biggest meltdowns in Diamondbacks history, that's for sure.

It is the biggest meltdown in Diamondbacks history as far as I'm concerned. I didn't need that. You didn't need to add that on. We need to pile on. But it is, like he said, the worst biggest meltdown. And of course it feels like the biggest collapse in Arizona sports history, really, in terms of like, where they were at to make the playoffs to not making the playoffs i mean it is pretty insurmountable odds really that's pretty gross it's pretty uh terrible but of course uh we do

have what i was referencing earlier which is a wonderful piece which will probably make you even sadder than you are right now uh but it will cover the biggest meltdowns in arizona sports history and that's a collaboration between a very own craigman jessie friedman and that espo guy i've talked about earlier that maybe shouldn't be trusted what do you got anything uh yeah read it read it click click the link we get it you might have moved on from from baseball and stuff that'll be a pretty interesting article and i'm excited to read it and then also just like wallow and sadness after i'm done with it and just like oh remember that collapse oh no but also remember this one it's yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be a little sad if you're if

yeah i'm not there's no way around that with a story like this but It was me and Craig talked about doing this a few days ago when the Diamondbacks were trending in this direction. And it's just kind of the natural question that I think is probably on a lot of people's minds right now, right? This is a really bad collapse. We've had, we've, Arizona sports fans have been through some rough times and in a variety of sports over the years. But where does it rank? How bad is it?

Let's rank the misery, right? That it's, it's, yeah. Let's rank the worst you've ever felt in your whole life. Yeah, absolutely. You feel bad about this one? Well, we're going to compare it to other times for sports teams in this town made you feel bad. We cannot wait for it.

Titty party. It should be fascinating. And I think it will be honestly very eye-opening. I think we should send it to any of your friends that like sports and maybe root for teams in another town who pick on you. And maybe they'll stop picking on you once they see this list of the biggest meltdowns in Arizona sports history. We do want to give some love to our super chats. Thank you guys so much. now then and forever for your super chats we thank you guys so much for just everything this year

and all of the love all of uh all of this audience that we have built here that's grown we appreciate you guys sean says uh just wanted to say i love you all in this chat sean we love you we appreciate you we're sorry we saw you slip into madness from being a very positive uh excited diamond bag spans to be drug down that was sad i didn't know if you noticed that when he was a him in thunderbolt or agreeing on a topic of Sean and Thunderbolt were, I was like, oh, we lost Sean. No, like, Sean, like a month ago was like, was like talking crap to Thunderbolt in the comment being like, you better come in here when they win too.

Now they're on the same thing. And now it's like they're on the same team. Like that, that we lost Sean, it hurts. Like sometimes when you have a mutual enemy like the Diamondbacks like these two have, you know, you become friends. Thomas Drury, thank you so much for your super chat. It's amazing. Thank you.

He says, thanks to you guys for the coverage and the chats through the hard days and the great days. love the PHNX crew all hail the mayor Thank you sir Wow Hope to see those snakes Answer back next season Keep the DBAX south of Utah You're damn right

You're damn right You send another super chat Thank you so much We appreciate you so much Calvin says too bad The debacks are out But that's what happens When you don't secure Ws

You are not wrong Thank you for your super chat He said you may have answered this already But how do you see the offseason shaping up in terms Of getting ready for next year It's going to be interesting right because I think that this team built on kind of the wave and the success of that World Series appearance.

They really wanted to capitalize on how good the team was, strike while the iron's hot, add to it, and make them a World Series contender again this year. That didn't happen. So I don't know how this is going to impact the way that they obviously, you know, shape this team going forward, who's out, who comes back. But we are going to be your all offseason covering all of that for you guys. We aren't going anywhere. So, of course, make sure to keep it locked right here.

And we will keep you up. updated on all of that. I'll also say just real quick, tomorrow will be a big day for that as well. We obviously got to talk with a lot of players today as well as Toro Lavello briefly, but tomorrow is officially the exit interview day. So we will hear from both Tori and Mike Hazen for more of an extended time tomorrow and get kind of a start on the offseason and what the Diamondbacks needs are, maybe what their payroll situation is like. So tomorrow's show will be at 2 p.m. because we want to leave ourselves some time after that media availability. So be sure to join us then and we'll kind of get started on all that stuff.

Absolutely. Peace of Yoshi, our guy. Thank you so much. Peace of Yoshi, also a double agent like Frank the Tank and like potentially maybe Paul Seawald. Peace of Yoshi says conspiracy theory, the Mets through the game to get back at us for DFA, Lewis Giorme and Perdomo's all-star selection last year. Probably made Yoshi so happy too when that happened. No, in Mets fan.

Yeah, he's a dirty mess. Mets fan. D. Dets fan. D. Why are the Mets like trying to get back at the Dbacks for DFAing Luis Giorme? Oh, because we were supposed to pick him up and keep him. He's a Mets legend, Jesse.

You don't know that. Come on. Okay. Okay. Cruz. Thank you, Cruz so much for your chap. He said, where does the team go from here? Gabby extension first move.

I just don't know what moves they can make after this. Yeah, we don't really either at this point. But like I said, we will hopefully get some answers for you. And as that shapes up, I'm sure the Diamondbacks right now don't really. know what their game plan is and how they're going to attack this offseason. Our hope obviously is that they're aggressive and they continue to try to spend money and hang with these teams in the National League West. Right now, I think the most devastating thing would be them not doing anything.

And I doubt we'll see that. So yeah, this would feel worse, right? If looking ahead to 2025, you weren't expecting the Diamondbacks to be contenders. Like if this was sort of a, you know, like a stopping point where you had a whole lot of guys that were really important to the team leaving. That's not the case. There are some key players to replace as we've touched on. There's some decisions to be made.

But going into 2025, the debacks, I think are going to be a good baseball team, right? Like, I think they're going to have another shot at this next season, especially next. I mean, next season's going to be a big one with Zach Gown and Merrill Kelly, theoretically, in their last year. So, yeah, it's not like this was the only bite of the apple for them. I have to say real quick, and people might not like this, but you have to have to be a bit. of Gabby under control still for a little while, I have to see that he can do more to finish a season before I'm willing to give him an extension at this point because it derails this team. We've seen it two seasons in a row now.

When Gabby's not there, they're not playing that great of baseball. He's so important to the pitching staff, it seems. It definitely felt like there was an impact on the pitching staff. Last year was, I mean, the darkest of days without Gabby. I mean, it was just brutal when he was not playing. Like, I need, I need to see that he can, that he can sustain that season before I'm willing to, to talk extension with him. Well, H.H. Rocker 5515. Thank you for your Super Chase.

I said, just an FYI. I got a paragraph of a comment waiting for the post-stream comments because I can't afford 1500 characters. Well, sorry about that. I'm excited to read it. Yeah. I read all the comments. Yeah, we'll, we'll check every single out of them out. Of course, we thank you guys again for being here.

We thank you guys for being Diamondbacks fans. Most importantly, we thank you for, of course, subscribing to PHNXX. sports and for being hanging with us all season long especially here in the live chat if you have done so like jesse said we'll be back tomorrow at 2 p.m. for another show so make sure to join us for that we'll be here all week i mean again we're going to cover the postseason a little bit we're not going to get super crazy into it those teams don't you don't want to do you don't want to do a post game show tomorrow night absolutely not i refuse her ponderies braids i'm scheduling some vacation time now you want to You don't want to talk Mets brewers tomorrow night, Derek?

The Diamondbacks aren't the only one going to Cancun. I have my own plans as well. But, of course, in the meantime, make sure to follow us all on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore K-man with a K. This man next to me is Damon dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

This man next to me. When he's actually here, when he's on the camera. Just get, like, move farther away from this way. I don't like it. Bark-bar. That feels right. All right. And, of course, this man is that.

Jesse and Friedman. The Kev on the ones and twos is at Kev Tom writes. That's T-H-O-M-W-R-I-T-E-S, but our show, most importantly, is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bax and all roads do, of course, lead to at P-H-N-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys so much. We thank you for your time. We love you so much.

And again, we'll be back tomorrow. So make sure to join us for more from Chase Field on the final day of media availability. And, of course, just a little more sadness. We'll bring a little more sadness back for you. you. But until then, hearts, we love you. We thank you guys. Hope you have a decent night. I know it's not going to be a great one if you're a Diamondbacks fan, but hopefully have a good night and a better tomorrow. And until we meet again, we thank you for your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but man, it's so much more fun when you don't get eliminated from playoff contention.