PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks FIGHT TO KEEP SEASON ALIVE in Crucial Series vs. White Sox

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

📬 Phoenix sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterThe Diamondbacks took care of business in Colorado, taking two out of three against the Rockies. But was two wins enough against the worst team in baseball? We have more on Eugenio Suarez leading MLB in RBI, Corbin Carroll missing time with an injury, a preview of the upcoming series with the White Sox, and answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Vme: Download the Vme app and play today using code PHNX! Available on the App Store and Google Play. Vme – Anyone. Anything. Anytime. https://getvme.com/?vmereferral=PHNXGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks managed to take two out of three against Colorado Rockies, but was it enough? We're going to talk about that and more. We're going to preview the upcoming series with the White Sox. We're going to have answers to your mailbag Monday questions. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. Another edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. That winning music means the Diamondbacks at least got something right this weekend.

I got my guy Damon Dog. He is the dog and all of us on the ones and twos. Today and, of course, this show is brought to you by our friends of Bet365. And Game Time, go out there and download the Bet365 app right now. Use our code of PHNX365. When you sign up, you'll get yourself some bonus bets. You just got to make sure you follow the rules on how to do that. And then over at game time, use that code of PHNX.

You'll get $20 off your first ticket purchase over there. And, of course, save money on some last minute ticket deals. Welcome in, you guys. Great to see you here. Diamondbacks took care of business this weekend against the Colorado Rockies, taking two out of three. And of course, we have a little preview of their upcoming series here with the White Sox.

So great to see you guys here. Grudy starts things off in the chat. He says should have swept the Rockies. I think that is the sentiment here. But again, when we looked ahead at this three series set that they have in front of them, And we like to say, you know, a 10 game stretch, right? We included that final game of the Toronto Blue J series saying that if the Diamondbacks got swept in that one or in that series,

that things would start taking a downward turn, right? So the 10 games set so far, the Diamondbacks are 3 and 1. And realistically, over those 10 games, the Diamondbacks need to go 7 and 3. That's the way that at least I'm viewing this. I know Damon and I have kind of talked about it, but still just, expectations are high over this stretch again are they are three and one uh but like again it's uh it's only because of how limited their time is here until the trade deadline comes around i do think the diamond backs have proven that they have some life left in them and again they did take two out of

three here against rockies so they did take care of business more importantly the diamondbacks now damon are above 500 so i i need to send little heraldo perdomo up mountain He's now with the purple mountain majesty so well that I'm more in love with that than I ever was. But we still need to figure out how to play some other prices, right, games around here. Diamondbacks, though, of course, took care of business here against the Rockies. Like I said, they did score a lot of runs there in game one and they needed to with the performance by Zach Gallen. We're going to talk about that. But let's take a look here really quickly at the numbers, by the numbers presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit.

Union. Of course, they always keep our numbers straight. Thank them for that. Diamondbacks here outscored the Rockies in this three game series, 21 runs to 15. The Diamondbacks out hit them in home runs six to four. They did not have any home runs yesterday in the loss, which there's a little bit of an explanation for this. I can't even wait to get down to the final stat. I see it down there. I know you guys see it down there. I'm just going to geek out here in a moment. But Runners in scoring position, Diamondbacks again, not anything to be super excited about and equal performance here to the Rockies. They were 9 for 30.

Rockies were 8 for 26. Once again, at a place like Coors Field with 30 opportunities with runners in scoring position, you would hope to see the Diamondbacks be able to, you know, capitalize on more of those opportunities. Starting pitching ERA was atrocious for both teams as is expected in Colorado. Really, the Diamondbacks got their ERA driven. given up by Zach Gallin's performance on Friday, allowing seven earned runs in that start in five innings pitched.

And again, the Rockies obviously got, got nicked up, as Tori would say, by the Diamondbacks offense. Really here, the fascinating part of this is what the Diamondbacks bullpen was able to do here. A 0.90 relief pitching ERA. One more time? A zero point nine zero. They allowed one earned run. I didn't even know that that was possible, Derek.

They allowed one earned run in this series in game one. They did not allow an earn run in the rest of the series, and they gave the Diamondbacks 10 innings in this one, one run. And Pete Sibyoshi says Kyle Backus, flowers to the bullpen. The bullpen gets attacked constantly this season, and rightfully so. They are terrible. They are terrible, right?

They've been terrible. But what's weird about it is, there has been so many arms that have been a part of this bullpen that it's hard to even classify this particular grouping of players as as the same bullpen that's been here, right? I mean, a lot of guys have been given opportunities and those opportunities have been taken away. Other guys that have been called upon, like, let's give credit where credit is due. I fell in love with Juan Murillo during spring training. and when I was seeing him hit 99 miles per hour casually.

And that man has absolutely been a vital part of this bullpen. It's been shaky for him at times. It hasn't been perfect. But he has really ended up being a very good portion of this bullpen. Piece of Yoshi brings up Taylor Scott joining the scoreless party. I mean, this has just been the, what I guess the Diamondbacks have been trying to do. They've been trying to give a lot of different guys opportunities. They try not to give up on players.

But as you can tell, the short has been. the leash has been short for this team and they don't have the time necessarily to allow guys to figure it out. And I mean, that comes to guys that have been a part of this organization for a long time like Joe Mantiply and even Kevin Ginkle, who has been pretty bad for this team. You know, just has not, you know, hasn't been what the Diamondbacks have expected them to be. And again, those opportunities are going to other guys. You're seeing guys being used in high leverage situations. some guys have turned things around. Ryan Thompson is one of those guys that actually has been doing much better as of late for

this team out of the bullpen. But yeah, no, I mean, there is a few names here. Again, Ginkle had a scoreless outing. Taylor Scott, like you said, two innings scoreless. That's two straight scoreless for my boy Ginkle, by the way. Right. Ever since the Stinkle call. Ever since they call them Stinkle.

Absolutely, Derek. Like you think that these players don't take this to heart. But when that woke him up, when you lose Johnny venerable, known Diamondbacks, fan when you lose him yeah it's like bcc talking ball it's the same kind of thing when you have when you have known diamond backs fan bo brock calling him kevin stinkle um that hurts words hurt uh damon and obviously it was the wake up call that this team very much needed this bullpen i will say regarding marillo though or murillo i should say he is a uh that's the type of guy you want to you want to you want to bank on right like you don't want to you don't want to give up on someone that throws a

hundred like that. Yeah. That's, that's the type of risky moves this bullpen should be making. No more Scott McGuff's throw in 92 miles per hour. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like get me the guys you throw heat and make it difficult on the hitters,

even if they're a little wild. See if you can fix them. Right. And I mean, that's well said about about a guy like that. I mean, those are the guys that you want to give those opportunities to grow. And that's the balance,

right? Like, Tori does have to sometimes let guys go out there and struggle. and figure it out because that outing and them figuring it out in that moment might be the key to them, you know, being better from that point on. Unfortunately, we as fans don't see that. We as fans just see a team that came one game short last year of making the playoffs and the team that needs to do everything they can to win every game possible, including sweeping the Rockies here, which they failed to do with the loss on Sunday.

again that one might be chocked up a little bit more to the offense than the pitching you know brandon fought again wasn't great in that game he allowed another four earn runs nine back right now i have two guys with some of the highest eras among qualified pitchers in all of baseball and that's not good because they're guys that the team not only needs to count on but they are guys that we know deep down inside are much better than this and it's brandon fought and zack gallon i mean i i don't even know what is wrong with the milkman milkman milkman whatever however way I say it but something is wrong was that gallon seven earned runs allowed to the Rockies his current ERA of 5.60 is the worst ERA of all qualified starters you have Cody he is his is his pitching ERA of 5.60 is the worst among all qualified starters Cody so essentially he's been the worst pitcher in baseball this season I mean you could say that but it's about like obviously other guys aren't going to get this many starts so there are worse pitchers in baseball. There are worst starting pitchers in baseball.

They're just not, they're not among all of the, you know, they don't have enough innings pitched in order to be qualified. Whereas Zach Allen does, Brandon Fott does. Brandon Fott is also, I believe, in the bottom 10 as far as qualified pitchers for starting ERA.

He allowed, again, seven earned runs. He only got 11 whiffs on Friday. And that was mostly because he just resorted to throwing only his four seam and only his knuckle curve. He basically resorted to being a two to pitch pitcher and that is again not what Zach Gallen necessarily is even though those are his best pitches. It's a mix of pitches is fastball usually usually being more of a set up pitch. I believe it averaged around 91 miles per hour. So I could be wrong about that. I think it might have been a little faster but still it's not

it no it did it average maxed out at 95.7 miles an hour averaged at 93.4 minimum of 91 miles per hour excuse me on that but um i don't know i really don't know what's wrong with zach gallon i don't know how to fix it i deep down inside am frustrated watching him as a fan because it seems like gallon can keep it all together outside of one bad inning that that things just completely fall apart uh the defense is usually involved when things fall apart so it feels like it's kind of a mental hurdle for him uh however i i've talked to zach enough to feel like zach really i don't know he seems to be the kind of guy like a lot of these starting pitchers that isn't really emotional. I feel like he is able to kind of stay very even keeled, which you need to as a pitcher.

You need to have a short memory and you need to be able to move on. I just don't see that from Zach when he starts giving up hits and the defense behind him starts playing poorly or makes a mistake. I also just don't, I feel bad for him on a very personal level because of how important this season was for him and how his one bad, season could completely change what the outcome of, you know, his free agency is this, this offseason. And I don't know about Zach even. I mean, I wouldn't feel comfortable offering Zach a huge deal myself to keep him here in the, in Arizona. I'm sure a lot of teams might not feel comfortable offering him that based on how he pitched this year to, to leave elsewhere for a long-term deal. So I guess on the good side, there is a growing possibility with Gallons poor performance.

that he stays here in the valley. And to be honest, I think that a lot of us that have watched Zach over this, you know, over these years know he's a better pitcher than this. So, I mean, it might not be the worst result overall, but it feels like it sucks. It sucks that Zach is struggling like this. And the Diamondbacks need him with the loss of Corbyn Burns and with the losses to this pitching staff this season. They need him now more than they've never, ever needed him.

meanwhile you know merrill kelly remains on point remains the best starting pitcher for now on the diamondbacks and continues to be consistent for this team meryl gave up two earned runs in six innings pitched on saturday and started off rough right but then he did then he really locked in that's what happens with meryl yeah it's you almost like merrill almost has the opposite attitude a little bit of zack like meryl gets kind of pissed off by something or a bad call or he gives up a hit or he gives up a run and that's what like like, I guess, awakens the competitive nature in him, the competitive beast, because you'll see him get mad at himself. You'll see him get mad at the ground or the ball. And then, like, next thing you know,

he's unhittable. So I think that, again, Merrill Kelly has been outstanding for this team. In fact, we have a little trending video coming here soon on Merrill Kelly being in firm place of third position, all time for wins for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And I'm going to debate some of these people that for some reason don't believe that Merrill Kelly belonged on the Diamondbacks. What was it? The quarter century team that we put together because there were a lot of people suggesting that Zach Granky deserved that spot over Merrill Kelly.

And I have a what I feel like is a fairly big bone to pick in regards to that. But speaking of bones, Corby and Carol, are you okay? We need you to be okay. After getting hit in the hand, Carol still has not played.

X-rays were negative, negative, but Carol was reportedly going to have an MRI done. We haven't seen the results of the MRI or heard about the results. We're waiting to see a lineup card today. But he is currently listed as questionable versus the white socks. So that does not make me feel good. It makes me feel sick in my tummy. Damon, that makes me very sick.

But I'm Jordan VM says, if Corbyn is hurt, I may just throw myself into an active volcano. That's a great way to describe it. That's a great way to describe it. That's probably how I feel right now. But on the good side, Gino is a baseball god right now. Gino hit home runs number 23, 24, and 25. Oh, get that little idiot out of here. Look at that little stupid teal beards.

You're going to look so stupid. They're going to look so dumb. I hate you and the mistakes you've made in the past. Oh, man. So correct me if I'm wrong. Kevin and I were talking about this. the bet was 50. Yeah.

And then you, you agreed to 40. Yeah. I mean, he's hitting 40. I know. Well, your only chances if he gets traded.

Wow. Let's, let's just hold on. Okay. A lot of factors could happen, Damon. Uh, he could go cold.

Not that I'm asking for that. He could, um, maybe hit 39 home runs. You know what it's like to have someone hit one home run short of what you needed them to hit. Wow. what that was like. You're doing that to me right now?

I was just saying. You're bringing up that right now? I'm just saying. Anyway, yeah. Gino's been incredible. Sitting 251 now with an 890 OPS, despite that rough stretch he had. He currently leads all of Major League Baseball with 67 RBI this season. I think he's won ahead of Cal Rally, a couple now ahead of Pete Alonzo, like three ahead of Pete Alonzo.

So, Gino is, when you wonder. how the Diamondback stayed afloat, despite some of their starting pitchers having the worst ERAs in baseball. It's because of Eugenio Suarez. And again, the vultures are circling, including once again, Cody Delmendo. Cody's asking for Zach,

this is Cody from the CHGO podcast, in case you want to add him and attack him. He is asking for Zach Gallen for cash considerations. And now him and his buddies are trying to zero in on Gino Suarez as a platoon hitter, as a platoon player, Derek, we already spoke about this. We have a set barometer of what we expect back in a trade package for those guys.

And his name is Pete Crow Armstrong. That's right. That's right. You got to give a gift to get. Easy. And we want a good young prospect. Minimum. Just a good budding.

An up and coming. Yeah. A blue chipper. Kind of an under ground player. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, Corby and Carroll should be higher up in the All-Star standings. The All-Star vote, unfortunately, he is not.

Ketel Marte still leads all second basements. so there's that. But let's take a look. Do we have the updated N-HEL-West standings here? Even more updated. Even more updated. Look at this. Love it.

Oh, my God. Damon's doing work. We got ourselves the drunken orgy of violence known as the NL West here with the Dodgers, not running away with things, but still a decent lead there in the division. The Dodgers sit at 48 and 31, four games above the Giants. Meanwhile, the Giants right now sit as the only team, the other team in the other team, the NL West that is currently in the playoffs. The only other team with a Yoff position right now is the Giants in the Wild Card.

They sit at one game up in the Wild Card at 44 and 34. Meanwhile, the Padres have dropped back out. They are in the outside looking in, just like the Diamondbacks. My division was wrong. 42 and 35 right now. And of course, the Diamondbacks right now are three and a half games back from the wild card spot. That's the thing to remember.

you definitely need to stay close. The Diamondbacks, I think, are probably the last team right now in the wild card race. I think the Braves are seven games back, and that is a significant enough of a deficit to consider them to be kind of out of the race right now. But that's it. The Diamondbacks right now kind of have a couple of teams in front of them, including the Reds. The Brewers have a new young pitcher whose name I'll never be able to pronounce, but he's. He is looking outstanding. I think he allowed one earned run in his first two outings so far.

And they suddenly, here, we're back. We're back. We've never been more back. Giants sit three and a half games back in a division. Padres five games out, a half a game out of the wild card. Diamondbacks currently eight games out of the division at 39 and 38 with a three and a half game deficit in the wild card. And then there's the Rockies, which why even do the math on them? No offense to that team.

That's literally why I have it like that, just so I don't even. have to plug in 29 and a half or whatever. It's a waste of your time. Yeah, it is a waste of my time. There's better things for you to do with your time. And the Rockies played some terrible baseball.

Friday's game might have been the most Diamondbacks Rockies game of all time. It might have been, or at least of this season. Just the ridiculous back and forth effort, the ridiculous number of runs scored. Both teams starting pitching being inexplicably bad. I mean, this was a game. This was an all-timer.

You had seven earn runs allowed by Zach Gallin in five innings pitch. You had nine earn runs in four and two thirds innings pitched allowed by the Rockies there and their starter, who I'm not even going to go but look back, look up. I don't. Gomber, that's it. Thank you. It's Austin Gomber. Gomber, that was his first start of the season, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. And he got rocked.

But the Diamondbacks here, again, got the job done. But I think one of our Mailbag Monday questions addresses it. And it's going to be that with these three series that they have now. With the Rockies in the rearview mirror, they have the White Sox ahead of them. And then after that, the Marlins. And I don't really want fans to feel panic if the Diamondbacks don't come in here and sweep every single series. But they do have to take care of business. They have to get the job done against these teams.

So should they not be able to win these series, then I do kind of understand a little bit of panic. After that, they have their series with the San Francisco. Go Giants, which right now looms as, you know, the most important series probably of their season. In the history. Oh, sorry. In the history of baseball. No, no, not at all, not at all. But we don't want to classify any series like Jesse said in June as a must win.

However, it's hard not to say that these are must win series. So especially when we are all going to be there present for the PHNX pool party takeover for that giant series. if you don't have tickets for that, make sure to get tickets for it right now over at go phnx.com slash merch or no, events. I'm sorry. Right now Shane's staring at me because he's waiting for me to tell all of you that it's Shane's birthday on July 3rd. And as I've told you before, do not bring him presents.

Do not bring him cards. Don't acknowledge his presence at all. Don't tell him happy birthday. Don't bring a streamer. Don't bring a single mylar balloon. Just make sure that you bring yourself. You'll get yourself a ticket to the game. You'll get yourself some free food, free drink.

and the wonderful towel, which is an underrated part of this whole deal. But you also get to spend some wonderful time with us. So make sure to grab your ticket for that. If you have not done so already, tickets are very limited for that. They are selling out quickly. And of course, we want to see you all there. So make sure. And where you defend the pool shirt?

Yeah, that's a good point. If you have that, defend the pool shirt, get that one on. If you don't, now's a great time to go check out our shop and purchase one right now. Just saying. On the other side of this break, we are going to preview this series with the White Sox and once again talk about how important a series in June against the Chicago White Sox Actually is don't you go anywhere you're watching the PHNX Diamondback show Now is a great time to check out Pure Edibles if you have not done so already

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Download the VME app now and play today using code PHNX available on the app store and Google Play. VME, anyone, anything, anytime. All right. Well, I think I would VME one of those guys from the CHO White Sox podcast about this series because I'm feeling fairly confident here about the Diamondbacks going into the Windy City and taking on the socks. Let's take a look at their season so far.

At least they are not. at least they are not the Rockies. The Colorado Rockies on pace to beat the White Sox record from last year, right? The White Sox set a loss record last year and the Rockies are currently on base to do that. So at least from the positive side of things for the White Sox, they are no longer on pace to be a historically bad team. They are just on pace to just be a regular bad team, just a normal regular bad team. By the way, Damon, Chris confirms what we thought in the chat. She says Totri is lying.

And we knew that. We already knew that already. But again, the White Sox, this isn't a team that the Diamondbacks can take lightly, obviously, because once again, that's what they've done so far with some of the weaker opponents. However, I will, he's not here. Our Nats fan isn't here. But if he was here, I would give him credit for what the Nats did, at least in one of those games to, what was it the Dodgers that they beat?

That was a pretty, pretty fun one. But again, the Diamondbacks have not been taking care of business against some of their weaker opponents. They did just win the series against the Rockies. And again, it's dramatic to say that their season hangs on if they can win this series against the White Sox. However, I think it's more about where the Diamondbacks sit in the wild card position when the All-Star break comes around. And that's the reason why this is so important here against this White Sox team. And again, they're not, they're not, they're not, they're not terrible. They're just kind of bad.

I said it all up and it took me forever and I realized I didn't plug in any stats at all. Just like a big, dumb idiot. Well, their record this year is 25 and 53. They have a minus 73 run differential. They are 2 and 8 in their last 10. And we've talked about how the Diamondbacks have been a bit unlucky this year. when it comes to how they catch teams kind of that are playing good baseball. In fact, they did take two out of three from the Rockies,

but the Rockies were kind of playing the best baseball of the season when the Diamondbacks ran into them. That's been the case with a few other teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals, who are now currently in front of them in the wildcard race. But a really interesting stat here from the Chicago White Sox that I just kind of had to double and triple check. they're starting pitching ERA is 4.17, which is tied for 19th in baseball with the Los Angeles Angels. Then their relief pitching ERA is 4.26, which is tied for 19th with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I thought a mistake was made there, but it wasn't. That was actually correct information.

So again, starting pitching ERA 4.17, much better than the Diamondbacks. Relief pitching ERA 4.26, also better than the Diamondbacks. but their OPS, not good. The OPS this season for the Chicago White Sox, 636, which for those of you that are keeping score at home and care about such things, is dead last in baseball. Their OPS is 30th in all the baseball. And their outs above average currently sits at minus 14, which is tied once again with the Los Angeles Angels for another spot. This time it's 26th in baseball. Damon, not a good baseball team, but again, kind of the team that you got to be careful against

because they're not good and any team can beat you in Major League Baseball at any point. Yeah, I mean, you just have to take care of business like we talked about there. Like, it's really pretty simple. You got to beat teams that you should beat when you're in these situations, especially when you're struggling from a pitching standpoint like the Diamondbacks have. Just got to take care of business. Well, what's weird is, um, the dime backs have Eduardo Rodriguez and, uh, Ryan Nelson going in games one and games two of this series. And as far as that is concerned, I feel pretty good about that.

Like it's, it's, it's come back around where I feel good about Ryan Nelson. I mean, Ryan Nelson, he deserves it. Maybe Yerod doesn't deserve my support. Maybe ERA doesn't deserve me to believe in him. But he doesn't. because since returning from, you know, since returning from that stint on the IL, Erod hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in his start in his last three starts. Like that's,

he's been pretty impressive. And that ERA doesn't reflect currently how he's pitching, but that's, that's kind of how baseball works sometimes. Unfortunately, your ERA can blow up and you could be one of the best pitchers in baseball right now, but your numbers aren't going to reflect that and they might not reflect it for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, like piece of Yoshi says, we do go up against the White Sox best starter there in Shane Smith. He is 3 and 4 with a 2.85 ERA and has been nails this year.

Ryan Nelson in game two. He has been really, really good for the Diamondbacks. He has a 3.8.8 ERA. He has 45 strikeouts and he is 4 and 2 going up against Sean Burke, who is 3 and 7 with a 4.50. ERA, 61 strikeouts. And then in the finale, Zach Gallen. in an East Coast game, maybe. This is, I mean, it's, it's, it's an East Coast city.

It's Chicago. And it's on the road. I think he's going to shove. I think Zach Gowan's going to shove against TBD. And we also have TBD there going, which, of course, is always a, is a beast, just a known beast. And Pete Fioshi says Wednesday pitcher might be Basile, maybe. So, again, you know better than we do. but still a very winnable series here and something the diamondbacks need to continue on this stretch.

I don't know the way Mike Hazen is thinking. I don't know the way that the diamond backs are leaning. I feel like what he said is true. I think the diamondbacks have continued to have more adversity kind of thrown in front of them with now the Corbyn Carroll injury. And, you know, Zach Allen still not getting things on track. Brandon fought also really not getting things on track. However, you still feel like this team hasn't even played their best baseball yet this season. And you still have to feel like this team is capable of playing much better baseball than we've even seen out of them.

So hopefully they can still continue to move, you know, move this, move this season along here and keep things positive. Stay hot. and like you said take care of business against teams they need to take care of business against. All right. Well, on the other side of this break, we are going to do that thing that we do every single Monday. So don't you go anywhere you are watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. All pro-shade concepts is here to save you from summer. And summer is here.

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Don't put yourself through the stress of travel. Just stay right here in town at Heela River Resorts and Casinos. You do you at Heal of Riversorts and Casinos. Visit play atheela.com for more details. Zoe underscore AZ says, we don't deserve Nelson, honestly. You are so right. We really don't.

The Diamondbacks don't deserve Nelson because of the way that Nelly has done everything this team and has asked of him and has been successful at it. And honestly, this team doesn't really deserve to have somebody step up into this starter role. and be as good as Ryan Nelson has been. But God bless Nellie, thankful that he's on this team. And I really honestly don't know what the Diamondbacks would have done without him. I don't think we've addressed this on this show, but the Diamondbacks lost another pitcher to season ending Tommy John surgery.

Tommy Henry is gone for the season now. And that's another name that the Diamondbacks will definitely miss. And another guy, much like Ryan Nelson, that was kind of a Swiss army knife and did everything that this team asked of him, whether it was long relief out of the bullpen to start in Major League, to start in a minor league level and, you know, stay stretched out, stay available for depth. And that's another depth piece that the Diamondbacks have lost.

So unfortunate, but again, very thankful that Ryan Nelson is a part of this team and is able to deliver in the fashion that he has so far. Well, it is Monday. And of course, you know what we do around here on Monday. We definitely call out Tootry for his lies and his weak response to saying he would root for the wildcats when we know he wouldn't if they were in a national title game. He's just trying to guilt me into rooting for ASU if they play in a big bowl game again this year. And that's just so unfair to me. It's crazy.

We will be there when they don't. Yeah. But we also know that every year is our year, even when it's not our year. Every year is the year of the snake. Every month on this show is Hispanic. Heritage Month. Every single week on this show is absolutely Shark Week and every day on this show is Passover. So, but on Mondays, you know what we do around here. We go the mailbag. Daman, let's go the mailbag.

Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go out. I had to put up with that guy sending me videos from Epic Universe in Orlando yesterday. You have no idea how jealous I am when my friends are at a theme park, and I'm not, right? But especially when I was stuck at home being bored while my wife was sick, I am getting video after video from this guy. Oh, he's in the Monsters area. Oh, he's in Mario Land now.

Sorry, I just needed to complain about it's like your favorite thing. It's my favorite thing. It's like my favorite thing in a theme park, which is also my favorite thing. I love video games and it almost feels personal when they, when your friends are like sending you what a great time they're having. It was 8.30 in the morning on a Sunday and he was just sent it one video after the next. He knew exactly what he was doing. He didn't care if he woke me up.

But even if he didn't wake me up, he knew he was going to ruin my day by starting my day off by opening my eyes and looking at him drinking some sort of donkey con con concoction that had ice cream and pineapple juice and also had toffee and caramel corn pieces. I'm just mad that he didn't bring me the mug back. That's what I'm mad about. But let's get to the mailbag because the mailbag always makes me happier, Damon. Going into mailbag question number one from Travis Moore, he says, I feel like not sweeping the Rockies was a big letdown. Am I in a big minority here? I'm at the point where if the debacks don't win five of the next six,

it's also going to be a big letdown for the whole stretch between Colorado, Chicago, and Miami if they want to actually compete to get into the playoffs. I think it's asking a lot for a team to go into a what I could be wrong about this, but what seems like their longest road trip of the year and sweep every series against every team and only lose one game. Like I think that that is asking too much. I do think to ask for them to win every one of these series is not asking too much. So I don't think you're in minority though.

I do think that there's a lot of people out there that feel a very similar way that not winning on Sunday was a bit of a letdown and that not getting the sweep, you know, somehow sets them back. And I mean, again, all you can expect is for these teams to win is for this team to win as many of these series going forward as they possibly can. And again, I think it's really more about where they sit in the wild card race rather than it being how did they do against this nine game stretch versus weaker opponents. Yeah, I mean, for me, I think five of six is where I've been sitting, right? We had this conversation. Like, you got to sweep one of these teams, I think, at minimum, and then you got to win the other two series. I stay completely on that train of thought.

So you didn't sweep the Rockies in this one. All right. Well, now you have two more series to complete a sweep because it's time to start going on a run here against these teams. And like, as much as we talk about, like, yeah, it isn't do or die time necessarily. These are the games that you have to perform well in if you want to make the playoffs. Like good teams beat back. teams. That's true. That's always been the case. So it's just for me, yeah, you got to win five of six here in the next six games. There's been a lot of a lot of parity in the league this year, though, outside of the Colorado Rockies. And I think that part of it might be the fact that the Rockies are such a bad team that the not sweeping them feels like a let down. Piece of Yoshi says

Rockies are kind of hot. Yeah, they're playing good baseball. They are. So I mean, again, that's, that's the problem is that you never know when you're catching a team when they actually are, at least playing better baseball than they've been playing, right? So right now that's not the case with the White Sox. And I think I would be pretty disappointed if the Diamondbacks didn't at least win this series against the White Sox and the same thing against the Marlins. However, they come back home against the Marlins. And that's different, right? You have those three games here at Chase Field.

I think they have a day off in between. So, you know, get the job done and at home at least. and sweep, you know, the Miami Marlins. But I will say I don't, again, I don't really think that there's cause to panic, should they not do what you're saying, though? I know, I know that as far as this stretch is concerned, that would probably feel like the Diamondbacks are back. They win five out of the next six games.

And it truly does feel like this team is back in the hunt, is back in the division, even, even though it's kind of, you know, getting ran away with. You're probably like two games out or a game in a half. half out or something if you pull off five or six here. Yeah. Yeah. At least you're talking about the wild card, right? Yeah, for sure, for sure.

And then again, the Diamondbacks still have games left against the teams that are in front of them in the wild card race. And they still have plenty of teams left against, plenty of games left against teams in their own division. So I just, I don't know. I don't know what I would love to know what Mike Heisen is thinking in regards to where do things go south for him? Where do things go from being a buyer to being a seller? And what it would take for this team to truly change his mind in regards to that?

I don't know what that is, but it goes beyond just this, you know, this nine game series against these weaker opponents. I think that giant series is going to be, you know, very, very telling as well. But we'll see. We'll see how the team does. Forgive me if someone had a question on this and I'm jumping again. but Elise makes a good point in my opinion too. The lineup yesterday was like that was Reno Aces.

Yeah, could tell Marte what he in a three game span. Sorry, man, we need you to play. Like I don't really get it to be completely honest. Can I tell Marte not playing is absolutely egregious there. And that's the kind of stuff that Tori does that doesn't that that infuriates people. Yeah. But then Tori also in his mind, Tori thinks that he's running these guys into the ground. he thinks he's the reason that every Tommy John surgery is having to happen.

He thinks that every one of his actions is causing it. So while Elise is absolutely right about that, it's this, I think that's where Tori gets into questioning himself and second guessing himself potentially, right? Like the idea that Cotell Marte is playing his hottest baseball and isn't in the lineup is egregious, egregious as a dh as anything i mean he yeah we need him to dh there he had six extra base hits in a three game span which is the most in his career and then he had 10 hits over that three game span which ties a career high and you sit this guy yeah like these are the things that when people that that when when the fire tory crowd come in here and and want to want to expect me to

like defend that there's no defense of that right it's just you know vargas hitting second paving third, like it's, that, that just was not a good team yesterday. For sure, for sure, 100%. What did you expect from the offense when that's two of your top three hitters? And that's not to like, you know, be mean to those guys, but they should be in the back half of the lineup. Yeah, I mean, but with Corbyn out due to injury and other guys missing dude out of the lineup, like it just, it didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense. And I completely agree with that.

And I kind of did this with my hands, I think, when I saw that starting lineup on some. Sunday is what I did. But yeah, we'll hope to not see any more of those lineups going forward, or at least if we do, can we at least space out when guys have time off so that we don't have to have such a depleted starting lineup? Can we balance things a little bit more? That's what I would like to see. So what else we got? Next question comes from Kevin Lundberg. He says, what are your revised goals for this team the rest of the season? Is it simply just making the playoffs? How do you balance that now with a handful of expiring contracts at the deadline and goals for the future.

I think the most tempting thing here is what Damon brought up a few shows ago, which is this being a seller's market. You are going to get more for some of these guys than you possibly could have gotten in other seasons or at other times because there are so many teams still in it. I joke about the wild card race stuff, but I do believe that the Braves right now sitting at seven games back are out of it. they're the only team of quality that's there in the national league. The rest of the teams are the teams you'd expect to be back there. The pirates are back there.

The Marlins are back there and the Rockies are back there. Those are teams that we know are already out of it. So there's no surprise there that just there's just a gap that's widening in between the teams that are still somewhat in the race and the teams that are absolutely out of it before we've hit July 1st. And even then, I still recall what the Mets did last year to make it back into the race. So I wouldn't put the Braves necessarily out of it, considering that they're the Atlanta Braves,

and they can still put together a really nice stretch. So the fact that there are so many teams that are still within shouting distance of a playoff spot make it that much more complicated, considering that the Diamondbacks have so many, not just players on expiring contracts, Damans, but they're best players, some of their best players, Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Josh Naylor, Gino Suarez.

These guys are all on expiring contracts. It's like four of your top 10 players. And I mean, yeah. Like these are guys that you could absolutely get a huge haul for with this kind of market. So that's what makes this that much more of a failure. Should the Diamondbacks stand on business here with the we're going to be buyers kind of stance. And they are buyers. They do add to this team.

And then this team comes up short at the end of the year. And then like you said, the Diamondbacks do lose these guys. I really think right now it's about short-term goals. The Diamondbacks are just looking at today's game. We are looking at this 10-game stretch. But beyond that, it's really just about how good can the Diamondbacks be between now and July 30th. And I mean, even before that, decisions are going to be made. So I've been putting it more on the All-Star break.

But again, there's time after the All-Star break to go on a nice little run. and even if phone calls are being taken and deals are being listened to, perhaps they could still do enough after the All-Star break to convince Mike Hazen and the front office otherwise.

It's just, it's a weird time. You're going to be losing a lot of guys at the end of this year. So in regards to your question, I still think that making the playoffs is what it's all about. But if you go into the playoffs and you get bounced in that first round,

even then you're going to be left with an unsatisfying feeling about the season, and you're going to have questions about whether or not this team should have traded some of these guys at the deadline instead of seeing them walk or offering them qualifying offers that they turn down and the Diamondbacks get, you know, some draft picks back for it's just. But that's almost similar to prospects in my mind at least. No, it is. It is. It's just the hall that they could get if they decided to be sellers at the trade deadline is vastly bigger than than what they're going to get just in those picks.

Zach Gallen continues to stink though. No, Zach Gallen's that. Yeah. No, I don't think Zach Gallant. is one of those guys. Really, the guys that I'm thinking about that would get just an enormous haul are Merrill Kelly and Gino Svarez. Your RBI leader in Major League Baseball, you mean to tell me that trading him isn't going to get you all you mean to tell me there aren't 12 teams right now. Plus, that would throw a lot at the Diamondbacks for Gino. I mean, yeah. Plus, I'd be able to, I'd kick in $500 just so I wouldn't have to dot my beard.

I'm just saying. You want them gone so bad. No, I don't. The whole rest of, I want everyone to know at home. The whole rest of the until the trade deadline, Derek is going to do his best to talk the Diamondbacks into trading Geno Swars. Guys, the picks available for the, for the,

the draft, the prospects you could get. Oh my goodness. Don't you trust Mike Hazen to make a trade? But I will say to Kevin's first question, yeah, I think the goal is making playoffs. I think that's the goal every year as, as Diamondbacks fans.

And I'll say that because, like, is with how good the Dodgers are every year and how much money that they spend year after year, they're probably going to be a playoff team and you're probably shooting for a wild card like for, you know, 80, 90% of seasons. And then I think that that makes the expectation, if you have a good team, you just need to get in the playoffs. And from that standpoint, anything else can happen, right? I completely agree. We've seen it happen before. And even when we did it before, we were just, we were just happy. We were just happy they

they didn't botch it there and that they found a way in and we were like hey just go have a nice showing just build get the young guys experience boy did they ever get the young guys experience but all right let's do one more and then we got to take a quick break next one comes from pcio she says why would haynes sign james mccan why must i be forced to watch him again why would the universe do this to me derrick yes specifically derrick damon can also chip in but i felt the need to direct my exasperation of a specific person and derrick is the mayor you know what he it's it's it's much similar to like a game of throne style where like the the peasants come to the king to the throne and they bring their grievances i think that is how derrick's relationship as mayor

he's supposed to be the guy that you can just kind of lean on and complain and vent to look if there was one person that should be in charge of complaints it's me uh i love to complain i love to hear your complaints uh and i love to decide if you are right or wrong in regards to your complaints in this case I'm going to say, considering in his last season as a New York met, James McCann hit 195 with a 538 OPS, I will validate your clause. And I will say, yes, I understand how upset you are. And again, I don't know. It feels like the Diamondbacks are trying to just hit on one of these reclamation projects, right? They are, it's like gambling when you basically are just trying to bet a very small amount.

on a 15-leg parlay. You know what I mean? Like if just one hits, it's going to be $2,500 in return for this $2 bet, right? And that's kind of what the Diamondbacks feel like they're doing with some of these relievers and now James McCann. But again, it's probably with this young core of catchers that the Diamondbacks have right now, outside of Hosey, who's still pretty young himself, the Diamondbacks need perhaps. some a little bit of veteran you know know how back there a little bit of experience for these guys uh gabby has the very very minor fracture in his hand or the hairline fracture so uh he is going to miss

some time and again uh the dimebacks don't really have much else to turn to ADC i think is on the injured list as well right now so he wouldn't even be an option for this team um so again it's just about getting some depth uh someone else brought up tray man Mancini in the chat and Tray Mancena is a great example of that man. He is a guy right now that continues to rake in Reno and has been doing an excellent job there. The problem is is that Josh Naylor is doing great at a major league level. The Diamondbacks don't really have a need for replacement first baseman, nor do they feel like replacing Pavin Smith with Tray Mancini and seeing him get limited playing time there.

So I don't know. Again, I feel like this overall is about depth. but I do think that there's like 5% that was specifically about a knowing piece of Yoshi. And it's that part that I really appreciate. It's the trolling that the Diamondbacks do of members of our community for sure. James McCann, by the way, last year hit 239, 279, 388 for a 667 slug. And that was in 65 games. So again, not great numbers, but still serviceable.

And I'm sure that's the reason why the Diamondbacks are kicking the tires. on them. All right, well, if we got, Damon. Actually, you know what? We're going to do it. We're going to go to a break. And we're going to come back from a break and we'll do more mailbag Monday on the other side. So don't you go anywhere. You are watching the pH next time in back show. Well, you know the name. Empire Today is the place for flooring. If you wonder why it is because of the attention to detail. Empire today is floor experts. They live, breathe and sleep. Flooring, it is their favorite thing. And they will guide you through the entire process. Unlike other places you can go for flooring where you are kind of left to make these decisions on your own,

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Must be an APS customer in pay shipping and handling and taxes. Other restrictions apply. Go to Marketplace.APS.com for more information. All right, Damon. Well, I know we're getting close to the end of the hour. So we're going to throw out to overtime here in a little bit. But let's get one more question in before we do. Next question comes from Michael Rokickey asks for Derek how does it feel to be in the presence of someone with the greatness and aura of Damon?

You know, Derek, this is such an insightful and great question. I'd be interested to hear how you answer it. Insufferable. Insufferable is really the best, the first word that comes to mind. I was going to say that up here, Jordan PM to my comparisons said peasants in all caps. And I was going to respond and say, I feel like I'm kind of. of the jester, if you will. Yeah.

And gestures absolutely can be insufferable. But you're like a jester that doesn't take crap from anyone. You're like a surly jester who roasts everybody, including the king. But the king loves your antics and goes, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I don't know if I'm the king in this instance or it. One day, it'll be a step too far. Yeah, I'm sure. Definitely.

It always is. It always goes in that direction. But in regards to the question, it's warm. It is, is, is warm. It's inviting. And I feel, I don't want to say loved, but I feel safe, I think, is the main feeling about his aura. More importantly, his aura needs to be around the Diamondbacks because whatever this man, whatever his special power is, whatever his mutant ability is, whatever, whatever thing happened to him because a truck full of toxic waste dumped on him, it's bringing the Diamondbacks a lot of luck right now. And I mean, not just the Diamondbacks on the field, right?

We have a deal here with Chase Field that's about to be approved. We got over our biggest hurdle and we are so close to ending this entire talk of the Diamondbacks ever moving out of the state. Yet while Kevin was a producer, we talked about it. We were going to lose the team. We were going to lose the team with Kevin in charge. That is so insane. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Team sock. They were going to leave. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. We really turned things around with Damon here. So that's how it feels. That's definitely how it feels.

But like I said, we are going to go to overtime or as I like to call it around here. I call it extra innings. They call it overtime. But if you are watching right now on your favorite app, on television, make sure to head over to go p.hnx.com. We are going to keep this conversation going with a few more mailbag Monday questions. Maybe none as good as Michael's in regards to Damon and his aura. But still, we are going to get some more questions in here.

Damon, what else we got? Next question comes from Adam Fox says, can Mike Hazen become the GM of the Sons as well? Oh, no. No, he can't, Adam. I know that we would want that. I know the Sons are my favorite team deep down inside. The Sons are my childhood team that I grew up living and dying with. And I would like nothing more than Mike Hazen to be in charge of the Sons.

But we can't do that to the Diamondbacks. Mike Hazen needs to focus right now on the Diamondbacks. He has a lot on his plate. I think he's been given plenty of adversity as a GM. And quite frankly, the Sons, I don't. want him inheriting the son's problems and trying to fix that he inherited a very very bad franchise with the diamond backs when he got here i've i've compared it in the past to being handed at a house party a broken vase that one of your friends broke and and them dipping and being like later uh you got

to fix that before your parents get here and mike did a incredible job he super glued the crap out of it he found all the pieces he somehow made it even hold water again could you see the cracks yeah i mean in the light if his mom really paid attention, but the vase held water, and that's really what the Diamondbacks have been ever since Hazen has been the GM. Whatever is happening here with this Diamondbacks and this trade, we have one Jesse

Friedman comparing the trade the son's just made to the trade that the Red Sox made, sending Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. I don't think you ever want to have your trade compared to a trade like that. Right? No,

you certainly don't. Because that trade was considered a joke to the rest of the league. I, you know, I think the sons are clearly in their Dave Stewart, Tony Larusa era right now, Derek. Oh, God. No. Someone will find a way to pull them out of it. But. Please, no, make it that era.

I don't want to live. I lived through that era once. I reported on this team during that era. I had very intense press conferences with Kurt Gibson. It's not fun. All right. What else we got? Last question comes from Corbyn Carol Enthusious.

Says, should the MLB abolish fan voting for the All-Star game, Derek? First of all, it's Crobin Carol Enthus, thanks to a mistake that was made on Twitter, which I'm very aware of or with a lineup card. Oops. MLB and the fan voting is ridiculous. I got it for us right here. Oh, yeah. Let's look at this.

because I mean, on the good side, Catell Marte still leads all second baseman, right? Catchers, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, Gabby's sixth in catchers. You got Josh Naylor at sixth of first baseman. You have Cotell Marte, about 500K votes ahead of Tommy Edmund for first place for second base. This is egregious.

Tommy Edmund is, I mean, get the hell out of here. Max Muncie above the RBI leader in baseball? Yes, Max Muncie has about. about 300,000 more votes than Gino Suarez does right now. Second place for Max Muncie. Third place for Gino Suarez. Oh, the Dodgers lead every category. Look at that.

Moving on to the next group of positions here. Shortstop, you got Geraldo Perdomo in sixth place behind the likes of Dansby Swanson, Trey Turner, Ellie De LaCruz. What? Smoky Betts. Unfortunate. Designated hitter, we are not on there. or no, Pave and Smith's 10th.

Ugh. Paving Smith, a top 10 D.H. in the National League. What a celebration. And then we move on to outfielders. And Corbyn Carroll is in sixth place, Derek, among outfielders. Behind Juan Soto, behind Ronald Acuna. Come on.

Behind Kyle Tucker. Come on. And then this one is the most disgusting one. Behind T. Oscar Hernandez. Oh, get out of here. And then Lourdes is in 18th place among Outfielder. fielders in the NL. I mean, this is, do you, this answers your question.

Should MLB abolish fan voting 100%, 100%. Because fan voting right now, as far as MLB is concerned, is definitely preventing the future stars from franchises from getting acknowledged in the All-Star game. Yes, I know after the fan vote, they can go back and assign them to the team, but they're not a starter at that point. And nor is it a reflection of people who actually should be starters. I know that this is something that's happened in the past time and time again since they've done the MLB fan voting. There's been certain fan bases that have completely hijacked the All-Star Game voting.

They've gone out there and deliberately put together, you know, and I've seen it with the Diamondbacks community. They had to get together in order to try to get Paul Goldschmidt voted in. We had to actually have an actual campaign to get Paul Goldschmidt voted in to the All-Star game. It was ridiculous. Oh, that was insane. I remember that. And I mean, that's kind of where I'm coming from. is is that MLB is a company and like other leagues, a huge part of their job is to create new

stars for themselves so that when guys are playing their best in whatever sport we're talking about, that those guys get highlighted, that they get featured, that they make it into all-star games, that they, you know, become that player that MLB.com is putting on, you know, on all of their social media accounts and everything like that. Pete Kerr Armstrong is a great example of that. He is a guy that's been playing tremendous baseball, one of the best players in MLB this year. And he's been getting all of that love. He's been getting the love from MLB. He's been getting the love from, you know, publications and journalists and everything like that. It would be ridiculous for him to not be voted in just because other fan bases like the Dodgers

are bigger and their fans can vote in whoever they want as, you know, the starter because they're the biggest fan base, right? Like, well, they have a country behind them right now. Not only do they have a country, but we've talked about it. The Dodgers have done a super villain level job of growing their brand and, and, and, and their followers, if you will, and expanding their reach, right? And that's a big part of this. Not only do they currently have, you know, an all-star lineup themselves as far as their

team is concerned. But, you know, again, they have some of the best players that are hard to hate. A lot of people are fans of these guys and continue to be fans of them when they left their team. I'm just saying like, you can speak for yourself on that one. I'm not speaking for anybody. I'm speaking for Bravespan. Well, you're certainly not speaking for me because I despise each and every one of those guys. Well, you've described each member of the Dodgers as a criminal, I believe.

Well, I think in association with Shoah, with Shoah, yes, you could, you could make the argument that there was some sort of sting operation that should be made on the Dodgers franchise that would incriminate all. all of them, but I... Piece of Yoshi brings up the exact instance that I'm talking about, said the Royals voter fraud. I remember, that's what I was thinking of is the year that all the Royals players all got voted in. That was cool, though. I mean, it was an organized

effort by their fan base, which is a smaller fan base to do it. Yeah, that's why I like it. Right. I hate it when Catea is competing with Tommy Edmund and freaking Teosker Hernandez has almost, you know, 500 Kama more votes than Corbyn Carroll.

It's egregious. But isn't it an advantage for baseball if they have a mix of stars from all over all the fan bases? You would think. I mean, that is what the NBA is trying to do right now, right? We just saw an Oklahoma City versus Indiana finals. And people were all in on it because it was a great basketball.

Yeah. The NFL has had this forever where the chiefs and the bills, Kansas City and Buffalo, play each other in the AFC championship every year and everyone's pumped about it. Right. But baseball goes the opposite direction. We want Dodgers, Yankees, every single World Series for the rest of time. That would be ideal for us. And that's disgusting.

I think it's because in general we don't really, because of how random baseball is, we don't really get those big matchups in like a World Series, right? So it's not to say that all of us want it, but the reason why people that are involved in the product of baseball want it is because they feel that that's going to get the biggest amount of eyes. on the game, right? And then you have the biggest amount of eyes on the game and it helps grow the game. Well, what helps grow the game more than that crap is getting the guys that deserve to be in the All Star game in the All Star game as starters and not leaving it up to the biggest fan votes and who can get the most votes, right? It's just it's a losing battle for some franchises for some fan bases. It's just it's disenfranchising, right? That's the where I'm looking for. It's just one of those things that makes you not want to even participate in it. Disheartening, right? Yeah, like it just allows you to like lose faith in the fact that there's anything you can do

to get your team, you know, to, to, or the players at least on your team that deserve recognition to receive said recognition. And that's the reason why I completely agree with this question that MLB should abolish fan voting. And I think it goes beyond the fact that we're a small market team and our players tend not to get the love that we think they should. But that is a big part of it. I think overall it's bad for business. It's bad for MLB as a business to have a starting lineup comprised half of Dodgers players that based on their stats from this season don't really deserve it and are just getting it because they won a world series last year and the Dodgers have a ton of fans.

Like that doesn't seem right to me. And I mean, that's what makes the All-Star game less interesting, I suppose, is at the end of the day, if you have people in the home run derby that aren't home run hitters and you people in the All-Star game itself that don't deserve to be starting or being featured because they're not the best players in their position. They simply play for the most popular team. These are the ways to kill it. And that's what happened with the NBA All-Star game is like the slam dunk competition,

which did get old, did get repetitive, but once it stopped featuring the stars of the league, people stop caring about it. The home run derby could very well be the same thing, where if the MLB doesn't actually feature the best home run. hitters in major league baseball in the derby then the derby is going to lose you know its popularity and people are going to stop caring right but you also have major league players players that can attest to the fact that they felt like participating in the home run derby absolutely screwed up their swing for the rest of the season and i want no part of it so i can understand that as well uh this got

long-winded i'm still back on the train of we should abolish all-star voting absolutely uh let it let it be decided, I mean, I guess what's the fair way to do it, though, just to let it be picked by a captain on the team or coaches and players? They vote? Yeah. I mean, that's part of what the voting is right now. It's just that they incorporate part of the fan vote as well. Well, isn't that like later, doesn't that part come in?

Isn't this just for the starters essentially? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, but you could do the whole roster as, as player and coach voting. I feel like players are just going to vote more honestly for guys that deserve it. and they know the game better than we do. Totally. When you go into the clubhouse after a Diamondbacks game, you see them.

These guys are fans, man. They are dialed in. Well, not better than this chat, but better than Dodgers fans. That's for sure. That's true.

Well, and what I mean by that is, like, they don't know their own stats, but they know other guys' stats, which is amazing to me. They'll know exactly how many home runs, you know,

Manning Machado has, but God damn you, if you tell him what he's hitting over the last three games, you know what I mean? Like, don't, don't curse me.

Don't don't the players believe in curses more than you guys do just want to hear it makes a good point very very clear It'll never be abolished because the MLB gets fans to engage with their social posts by doing this every day That's a great point. That's a great point and I mean I guess it is a fan activity that some people like to participate in right I still miss the day of the chads remember when you had to actually go the ballpark and punch punch it out not do it digitally online no you don't because you guys are all young people and you make no I I did that early in my life. Yeah. Electric. A lot,

a lot of Chad. A lot of Chads. A lot of Chads hanging around. But, hey, we appreciate you guys so much. Thank you guys for being here. We will be back tomorrow with another post game show. So make sure to join us for that. Also, we're going to have a trending pod here on Merrill Kelly and how good he's been for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So don't miss out on that. Also, speaking of which, I did a couple of other things if you have missed out on it on our timeline, including a new meetings with the mayor where the diamondbacks, they did everything. can to buy their way out of getting in trouble with the mayor. And also, uh, we talked about it and we did our five favorite giveaway items in teams in team history. Uh, so make sure to check both of those videos out if you haven't already. Derek, I don't know if in, and yeah, also check out the giveaway one. Um, I tried to have fun with it. I thought it was good, but you killed, but the, the meetings with the mayor, if you have made it to this point of the show and you do not religiously

watch meetings with the mayor, I have no idea what you're doing because they are, Absolutely fantastic. Derek puts a ton of work into the writing of them, and they hit every single time. So if you're a Derek fan, where you're the point where you can take an hour and 12 minutes at Derek without turning it off, and you're not watching meetings at the mayor, it's, that's mind blowing to me. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how they do it in general, honestly, but bless you for doing it. Bless you so much. But make sure follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore K, K, man with the K.

Damon, of course, is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end. We are all Damon's dogs, bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you stopping by. Like I said, Diamondbacks, go out there, get the job done, and we will see you back here tomorrow for a postgame show after tomorrow's game. Until then, behave yourselves. Have a wonderful evening.

Go snakes. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when, Dyeye's. Diamondbacks players get recognized for being the best in the league.