PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks live and die with Ketel Marte in meltdown loss to the Brewers

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Ketel Marte giveth and Ketel Marte taketh away. We discuss the Diamondbacks second baseman being responsible for the majority of the team’s offense as well as the late defensive mistakes that allowed the Brewers to come from behind in the game two loss. We also take a look at which D-backs the fans have voted for the 2023 All Star Game and which players have been snubbed.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Go to omahasteaks.com and enter PHNXDbacks for $30 off! Minimum order may be required. See site for details.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Swing for the Fences: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/sports/swing-for-the-fences 3-Ball Challenge: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/3ballchallengeGambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You need a place to scream and yell about what you just saw? Well, welcome into the right place. Let us be your rage cage. My name is Derek Montia, formerly known as the mayor of PHMX. I'm joined, of course, by Mr. Electric, Sean DePaz. Not so electric tonight. He's a little discharge over there. The vice mayor, I guess.

I don't know. I'm kind of furious about his involvement with Shane. But he's also a thunderstick still. to Jesse Friedman. Uh, boys, this loss sucked. This one sucked.

This one felt like the diamond bags had this one in the bag early. Maybe because of what we saw yesterday with the nine to one victory. But this one sucked. Yeah, I was just saying right before while the count of that was going. I was like, this isn't even like, I'm mad loss.

This is just like, I'm disgusted. I'm disappointed. I don't want like, like, I'm mad at you. I'm not mad. I'm disappointed.

Like, uh, like I, I want this series over with. I want to be out of, out of Milwaukee. Well, Coggs was there, so we were already, we had a lot going against us, so we know that that was problematic, but also, right, real quick, I know, I know people like the shit on Chase Field

for being in a warehouse. Yeah. On TV, it looks like they're playing in the dark. They have the stadiums have some similarities. I do think the roof was open there, though. Really? Yeah, I don't think it was really dark inside the stadium. I was just in Wisconsin.

The weather was not beautiful, but it was not hot, not that you need to have. the roof closed ever in Wisconsin unless there's like a tornado or something. But again, big time snow in Wisconsin. What do you mean? Do you get it during the baseball season? In July? Why? I'm from up north.

Oh, you would look at the circus. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. You might get snow in May.

You might get snow in May. That's true. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can get snow in, and especially April, like at the beginning of the baseball season. Or October, not that they spent a whole lot of time playing in October.

I don't want to talk about the weather in Wisconsin. I want to talk about whether or not Ryan Nelson is good. His line tonight was not terrible, but this is a bad Brewer's offense that he still gave up six hits and three earned runs and only went five innings. As Jesse said, based on what we saw out of him, you didn't want to leave him in to go a third time through the rotation

because it really looked like they were figuring him out. Not that it seemed to do much once we got into the bullpen, but he did have six Ks tonight. It was encouraging. And based on some comments from Mike Hazen here that we're going to discuss in a moment, it almost feels like we need Ryan Nelson to be good. We need Tommy heavier, Ryan Nelson. Like the Diamondbacks right now with Zach Davies being, you know, performing the way he is,

they need somebody to step up. And, you know, they're not going to replace all three of these guys. We know that for sure. But like at this point, it sounds like the Diamondbacks are not liking what the trade market is looking like. So Nelson really does need to kind of step it up. Yeah, he absolutely does. And yeah, I mean, this start was not a disaster for him by any means. You know, he was, I think he was worse his last time out against the Phillies.

But, but yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would call this start encouraging necessarily. Like you said, the Brewers are not a high-powered offense. They really have struggled to score runs this year. Five innings, three runs, you know, you'll take that. It does sort of keep you in the game. but at the end of the day, it's kind of the same stuff, right? Ryan Nelson continues to give up a lot of hard contact. The Brewer's average exit Velo against him tonight was 94, which is pretty dang high.

You know, 10 whiffs in this game, eight of those on the fastball. He continues to have an issue where his fastball's good, but he just doesn't have any consistent secondary pitches on top of that. And as long as that's the case, it's going to be really hard for Ryan Nelson to survive very long in a major league starting rotation. So I didn't really see anything different in that regard today, which is why I don't necessarily think a whole lot changed in this one. But what does that mean for the Diamondbacks as far as their starting rotation is concerned?

Does that mean that Nelson is like now they're probably looking at still replacing Davies and Nelson at this point? I mean, because obviously maybe there for a minute it didn't look like Zach Davies was going to fall apart like he has over his last few starts. So it feels like it's kind of compiling where, you know, now they need to replace three out of the five men in the rotation or, you know, I mean, what about Tommy Henry? Do you think Tommy Henry's still going to be viable? I mean, I think it's we're at a point now where you, like, Mike Hayes and this team, they just need to be honest about like what their goal this season is. Like, are they seriously trying to win a World Series this year? Do they think that's really in the picture? Because if it is, then you need to replace Ryan Nelson and Zach Davies. Like, you, they're. There is that's not, or at least one of them. Like, it's not, as the rotations hits now, it is not a World Series winning rotation. But the reality is also is that coming into the season, no one was expecting this team to win a world series. So, and I'm not necessarily expecting them to now, but obviously the perspective on this team has changed a lot throughout the season.

That's such a hard thing because you don't want to all of a sudden start making dramatic, drastic moves in order to improve a team so that you can win now. but when the Dodgers fall back to third in the division and you've led the National League West surprisingly for as long as you have. Right. Windows open. Yeah. And I mean,

sometimes that's how it works, right? In baseball and sports, sometimes you didn't really expect the team to be as good as it is, but you get there faster than you expected. And then that next step would be whatever, you know, pieces they can add.

But this is all happening during the course of one season, where they went from being like a team that they didn't know if they were going to win 80 games. to a team now that honestly is on pace or was on on pace at one point to win a hundred games as crazy as that sounds so like i don't know but we do know that you said ryan ryan nelson's start wasn't terrible but that seventh inning tonight that shit was terrible uh we're going to talk about some positives from game one still but game two uh that seventh inning was just gross kyle nelson definitely not good the bullpen really struggled uh but could tell marty was a big

part of that reason. In this game, Catele-Marte giveth and Cotel-Marte taketh away because his offense was a big reason why the D-backs had to lead, but his defense there in the seventh inning could single-handedly be blamed for the reason why this game fell apart. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you look at that seventh inning starts with Luis Arias. He walks to start the inning, although I know it was a 3-2 pitch. You could argue that pitch was in the zone, but I don't think it was particularly, it wasn't really thrown where Carson Kelly was set up back there. So kind of understand maybe you're not going to get that call.

So Ureus walks, then you've got Blake Perkins to the plate for Milwaukee. He hits a ground ball and can tell Marte, just inexplicably, looks at second and just kind of waits and then throws to first base very nonchalantly and his throw was not even really close to on time. And so, you know, Perkin, it doesn't go in the box score as an air, but it was clearly a misplay and an out the Diamondback should have had. The next hitter is Joey Weimer, similar situation where instead of going, the first guy with Perkins, he should have gone to second, he went to first, and the second guy should have gone to first, and he went to second. So you had back-to-back guys reaching on just misreads by Catele.

If those two outs are made, then, you know, you still would have a base runner in Ureus, but you'd have, you know, a guy on with two outs, and then the debacks went and got Kyle Nelson, Christian Yellich grounded out, that would be the end of the inning. So theoretically, if Catelle doesn't make those two mistakes, then you're out of the seventh inning without any damage done. Instead, it snowballs, like you said earlier, Kyle Nelson did not pitch particularly well, you know, left a slider right over the heart of the plate that turned into a two-run double for William Contreras. And contraris, Jesse. William Contreras, yes.

But yeah, I mean, it's tough because, you know, maybe Austin Adams wasn't going to have a sub one ERR. the whole year, right? I mean, you kind of figured maybe there's some regression coming there. But at the same time, I mean, I think Austin Adams pitched pretty well. These are soft ground balls. Three earned runs, that's for sure. These are soft ground balls that have to be turned into outs. This is a game that Diamondback should have won pretty clearly if Catell is able to make those plays.

And he just didn't. He also hit into the game ending double play. But, of course, the reason why I'm setting all of this up is to let you know that much to this man's chagrin. Catele Marta is our king snake. And I know he's not a fan of it, but three for five with a home run and three RBI. He also scored two runs. He was damn near involved in all of the offense tonight.

And it sucks that he also was a big reason, if not this whole reason, why they blew the game. Catell is charging in on that ball in this picture. Just terrified. No clue what he's going to do with it. There's nobody on base and he's not true. Are we going to first? Are we going to third?

I don't know where I'm going with this ball. Yeah. I mean, like you said, it's a little bit to my dismay. It's kind of hard for me to sit here and give King's Nate to the guy that you can, like, if he does not do two very particular things, the Diamondbacks probably win this game. But also, if he doesn't get that dinger, the Diamondbacks. Yeah, exactly. Offensively, like, jokes aside, he obviously, he was the best player in this game.

Like two mental lapses defensively that, like Jesse said, don't even count his errors. They basically were, but they weren't. Thunderbolt 47 says that's crap. He wants Cattel sent down to the minor leagues, but he doesn't know how things are going. You could send damn near anyone down there. Send Otani down there and he'll get a little bit better in Reno. That's true. Everybody gets better in Reno.

Alec Thomas, though, however. I know. In game one, I did want to cover that Alec Thomas did come back to Diamondbacks beat the brakes off the brewers in game one. So, of course, we didn't go live after that game. But nine to one in game one. Alec Thomas hits a dinger in his first. first at back at a major league level. How much do you love to see that?

It was an incredible moment. I mean, you could just see, I think there was some relief there for Alec Thomas in that moment. I think some relief for all of us, right? Yeah, for everyone. I mean, like I said in our show on Monday, Alec Thomas, you know, if you're looking for a lift for this offense internally, in my mind, Alec Thomas is where that's going to come from. Like, he's your one guy that really has a pretty high ceiling.

offensively and just hasn't really given you much this season. So, you know, he's, you know, I think the way that he plays down the stretch is going to be really important for this team. And, yeah, I mean, it was, it was not just the fact that he hit a home run. It was the fact that it was against Corbyn Burns, the fact that it went into the second deck. And he pulled it, you know, his swing has been a little bit janky this season. And we haven't really seen him pull the ball with that kind of authority a whole lot this season. So there were a lot of good things for him in that game yesterday. And then, you know, today was one for four.

So I think you're pretty happy with what you've seen so far from Alec Thomas. Mostly it's just the fact that he's back, right? Like, I mean, doing things at a major league level, I think that's the biggest key there. And I don't know, man. Defensively, we even saw Corby and Carroll kind of make a mistake out there in the outfield that we talked about. Alec Thomas just doesn't make those kind of mistakes.

He just plays the outfield defense so smoothly. And he makes it look so easy that when we see these guys kind of struggle with a ball at the wall like we saw with Carol there, it doesn't seem to make much sense when we've seen such great defense out of those guys. They also got some love on the MLB Network today where they were talking about them being the fastest trio of outfielders in baseball. McCarthy and Corbyn-C Carroll both in the 99th percentile for speed, Alec Thomas, 84th percentile for speed. He's slacking. I know. It doesn't even make sense because I feel like he,

I didn't know Alec Thomas was the slow one in that group. Yeah, I didn't know he was that much slower. I thought he would have been a little high. Speaking of slow, Yelich is just sad attempt at trying to get that ball. That was pretty weird. Yeah, the second hitter of the game. And Ketel-Marte comes up and just hits a fly ball. It kind of skyed down the left field line and Christian Yelich just kind of very nonchalantly

jogged over there and watched it land and bounced into the stands. It was very bizarre. It didn't it it didn't look like it was going to stay in right? Like you brought up the stats on that ball. It absolutely had like the worst. It had a very low XBA, but XBA doesn't take into account what direction you hit the ball in. So that's true. If you hit it, you know, down the line like that, it has a better chance of landing.

And, yeah, Christian Yelich probably should have at least sprinted for a little while on his way to that ball. At least for one one stride. I think one long stride and you might get there. And I mean, even that ball that we were talking about could tell earlier, man, he made something. It was kind of a similar play where it seemed like he was just moving in slow motion and the rubber beats him out. Like I know he should have gone the second like you said, Jesse. but it's the indecisiveness. Like I still think he could have gotten the guy at first

if he already had it set in his mind that that's where he was going to go. Yeah. The only thing you can't do there is just not make a decision. And that's exactly what Catell did. And I kind of wonder if he was a little, if maybe that got in his head a little bit in the next play, it kind of snowballed on him again.

I feel like, yeah. I mean, I don't think that has anything to do with like how good of a fieler Catee is. I think those were just like, his brain just stopped working, which I guess good fielders don't do, but it didn't feel like it was like because he doesn't have the skill to be a good fielder.

It just seemed like he had a really bad mental lapse where he just kind of froze for a little bit, which again, doesn't really happen to good fielders, but it's a different kind of being bad at fielding, I guess. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good point. The other thing I will say is that Kyle Nelson has just not been good for the Diamondbacks.

Oh, yeah. It's not just this game. Yeah, and Tori continues to use. Kyle Nelson in spots like this that are just really hard. I mean, came in with the base is loaded and nobody out. Like, even if you do have good stuff and your location is good, that's a really hard situation for anyone to come into. Personally, I don't really love the decision to put, I mean, this DeBax bullpen's been

okay recently. There are some other guys who have performed pretty well lately. Kyle Nelson is not really one of them in that situation. Playing manager. I know you don't like to put on your manager at too much. Yeah, I mean, I think maybe Andrew Chafin theoretically would have been available in this game. I did hear a report about Andrew Chafin potentially injuring himself while power shagging in the outfield. Oh, no. That was a story that I heard today. But I think he threw a

open. I think he was fine. I don't know for sure if he was available. I think he probably was. I would have probably liked him more in that situation. But, uh, Dre maybe. Dre theoretically could have been available. I mean, it was, you know, it was a lefty at the plate. so maybe the debacks wanted a lefty. I know Joe Mantiply pitched yesterday. But yeah, I mean, Kyle Nelson at this point, you know, he still has a 3.04 ERA, but he's come in so many times in situations

where he's just trying to get one or two outs and he's got a bunch of inherited runners on the base pads. And, you know, you look at some of the other numbers for him this season. Opposing batters are hitting 279 against him this year with a 342 on base and a 452 slugging percentage. Those are not really good numbers for. for a back-end reliever, you know, using in a really key spot like this in the game. So, you know, he was so good for the debacks last year.

And, you know, it's been a really positive addition to the franchise as a whole since he came over from Cleveland. And I think that's it because we do that, right? We do that with players. And I think managers aren't immune from doing that where you don't really want to give up on a guy. But after a certain point, you're not looking at his recent performances as much as you're remembering what he's done for you in the past and hoping that he gets back to that point,

right like that that's the diamond backs held their breath on madison bumgarner quite a bit uh in that in that case right because every once in a while mad bum would be good it gives you that look uh you you feel like maybe he's getting back right and then things fall apart again um Kyle Nelson it was very good for this team last year he was at one point one of the only bullpen arms that tory could really rely on but not this year and I don't think that that's been the case as of late cogs in the comment asked can we swap Pallant Nelson for Kevin Ginkle. And I don't think that that is very much out of the question.

That is a reasonable question. Yeah, I mean, the D-Backs did just send down Kevin Ginkle with a sub-3 R.A. Yeah. And a guy who's been pitching really well recently. It felt like it was just due to the fact that he had options left to not do to anything he was doing wrong. And honestly, the Diamondbacks, we talked about it. They're in this kind of win now mode where they're going to need to make, you know, moves like this. They're going to need to change direction when a guy isn't working out.

and Kevin Ginkle, he was, he was giving them some, some quality innings out of the bullpen. So, uh, who knows, but based on your guys' request, we went ahead and swapped out the king snake.

So Catele, uh, no longer our king snake. We're going to give our king snake to Cogs. Oh, yeah, Cogs is there. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Cogs gets our king snake. So caught two games attended. So yeah, he's in Milwaukee. He was, he was there yesterday.

Yeah, he was there. That's, uh, that you got Alec Thomas's autograph on his T-Mexco hat. And then Alex Thomas hit a home run. Yep, and then Alex Thomas hit a home run. So he had a pretty electric afternoon on Monday.

But today he had to witness that game in person. So he gets our king snake. And see, that's what happens when you're hearing the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. You can literally change the direction of this show with your comments. So that's what happened. And of course, we thank you. And AZ Sports Girl 224. Don't think I don't see your profile picture.

And find it to be delightful. But we thank you guys for being here. and the PHNXports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed already, I don't know what you're waiting for. Don't miss out on all this goodness. Subscribe right now. Sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. And also, leave us a little thumbs up. We always like that. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, please subscribe there if you haven't done so yet. And leave us a review. We love that feedback.

But more than anything, we love when you guys join us as a PHNX diehard member. Become part of the PHNX family today. Not only do you get your membership paid for instantly by all the wonderful benefits you get out of the gate, including a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com, 20% off all future purchases. That ranch card from Dobson Ranch Golf Course,

you also got that $50 gift certificate from Mount Mike's Pizza, and so much more. But on top of that, you get benefits like access to our members-only Discord lounge, Jesse's newsletter, full count, and all the newsletters from all of our wonderful writers around here, including the one and only girth, who will give you 40 trade predictions for the Phoenix Suns. Jesse, he's going to write one, 41.

He's going 41 trade predictions. I do, yeah. I mean, to pull back the curtain, I have a very long list of Diamondbacks trade targets. And it's not all that far away from 40. We're closing in on 40. And he's just, yeah, he's adding more to the list every single day. So don't think that we're not going to outdo girth over there on the suns. But what is, can you give the people what the trade for Shoaheotani is?

Yeah, what are we getting? Joe. Tony is not. Did he not make the list? You got to include him in the article. You got to make the list. You got to have a list, Jesse. If you have all of these trades, you might just throw one in where they trade Corbyn Carroll for Shohei Otani.

Yeah. If the angels were not, like, actually sort of playing well right now and, like, actually maybe in the mix for a playoff spot, maybe I would have just for just for kicks and giggles thrown Shoaheotani in there. But I don't think you're going to see him. He's too much for a realist. He's too much a realist. But so you get all that, you get all that wonderful realism by being a diehard. So go ahead and join us today. get your diehard membership over at go p hnx.com.

Speaking of articles, Nick Piccoro from AZCentral.com had a very interesting article involving his conversation with Mike Hazen and Mike Hazen's comments about the trade deadline based on this article. It sounds a bit like the trade market is not going to be very fruitful. And we feared this because of two reasons. One, there are a lot of teams in baseball that are still in it. And the trade deadline is right around the course. corner. And the second reason being that honestly, teams don't want to give up much. They don't

want to give up much of their major league talent. They wanted everybody wants to trade prospects and nobody wants to trade major league talent. And the diamondbacks are not in the market at this time for prospects. I also blame the goddamn Philadelphia Phillies. I blame them as well because what they did in the playoffs last year makes anybody in baseball hope that all they get is a wildcard spot at the very least and that anything can happen because that has to be in the minds of a lot of executives in baseball. I know that sounds like I'm saying something funny, but man, when you do see a team like the Phillies that kind of played mediocre baseball during the regular season, find a way to get hot in August and September make their way into the playoffs. You can't,

you can't help but think we could be that team too. A lot of teams have played well at times this season, you know, not the Cardinals, not you guys. You guys don't get to be included. Well, the Cardinals have won four in a row. I know. Of all the times to say that. That's what I was going to say. As far as the trademark is concerned, it's very weird because either the divisions are so bad that anyone in the division seems like they can make it or you get the AL East where the last place team is four games above 500. Yeah.

Like, how are they supposed to? And Jesse and I were talking about this earlier. Like the Red Sox, if they're being realistic, probably should be of the mindset of a seller. But still, they're four games above 500. They've won six in a row. They just beat the twins today, 10 to 3, I think. Like, they've been on a roll. They swept the Yankees last weekend.

And Jesse brought up the raise are playing mediocre baseball. And the rays were red hot when the season started. And there's still 51 and 25. Right. It's going to take a lot for them to not be at least in the playoff race or the playoff hunt. But I mean. Yeah, it would really take a lot. It would take a lot.

Right. Yeah. I'm just saying, like with the way that they are in that division, much like us, like there comes a point where we have to start playing the Padres. and the Dodgers again. We have the red hot giants coming into town this weekend. And they are scarier right now than even the Dodgers are, to be honest. They're playing tremendously good baseball.

And they're much like the Diamondbacks. They're a young, exciting team that is playing way better than they expected to and just have an unfounded confidence right now in their team. The same way the debacks have this just almost ignorant confidence in themselves where they don't really know that they shouldn't be good. And they don't care about like predictions and what people say. They're just out there trying to play the best baseball they can have. And, you know, like Corbyn Carroll said, he had to put down the fortnight because, you know, wins, ball games.

Got to get got to win ball games, right? So yeah, they're focused. But this, uh, these comments from Mike Hazen are interesting considering his position on the trade market and how earlier he was talking about how aggressive this team was intending to be. Yeah, he said, uh, so kind of along the lines of what we were talking about earlier with the difficulties in the market. He said, there are 10 plus teams that are telling us they don't know what it's going to look like. Not much you can do with that. You can express ideas. You can talk through things.

You can get, yeah, we might do something like this, something like that. But I'm skeptical of the amount of true sellers that may exist. And yeah, I mean, just to kind of go into more specifics on that, looking around the league, like, which teams can we firmly put into the seller category at this point? Yeah, I mean, the Rockies, but the Rockies are not a good baseball team. don't really, who do you want? And they also operate in this weird way where it seems like they, you know, rather than trading Daniel Bard, they extended him and they, you know, they just kind of play by different rules.

I don't think there's, play by different rules. There's no other, there's no other NL.S team, right? Padres, Dodgers, Giants, Giants. Even if that was trading in division is not. Yeah, that wouldn't be an option anyway. If you go to the Central, uh, the Reds have now won 10 games in a row, as some people have said in the comments, they're not, they're not going anywhere. I mean, even the Oakland A's, of cool.

pulled off, right, Sean? Yeah. The former best team in baseball. Probably a team of baseball. But yeah, I mean, in the Central, maybe the Cardinals are at that point, even though they've won four in a row. I mean, they're still 12 under 500. So maybe you have the Cardinals,

you have the Nationals. Maybe the Mets would put themselves in that category at this point, although with Steve Cohen there. I don't, he said he's not giving up on this. Yeah, I don't think so. And then you go to the American League. I guess the Royals you could put in that category,

but the Royals are a very bad baseball team outside of a couple of relievers. I don't think they're going to offer much. The White Sox are one of the more interesting teams because they do have Gialito. They do have some interesting relievers. They do have Dylan Cs if they were willing to move him. But yeah, you can see pretty clearly what Mike Hazen is talking about. You look around the league, there's really only a handful of teams, at least as of now, which granted, we're still six weeks away from the trade deadline.

But as of now, it's still very unclear where the Diamondbacks would be. you know, would be looking to trade. So basically what, what Hazen told Nick Piccoro overall, the overall story here is, as for the moment, as we don't really know what's going to happen with the trade deadline, we just have to focus on the internal things. We just have to focus on getting specifically our starting pitchers right. And it goes back to what we were talking about earlier with Ryan Nelson, you know, needing to take this step forward that the debacks seemed to believe he can take, getting Brandon fought back up to the pitcher that, A lot of us expected him to be when he was originally called up.

You know, Drey Jamison continuing to take steps forward. The debacks do have some pieces here internally that could be a big boost down the stretch. And they might need to rely on those guys a little more than they would like to, given the state of the trade market right now. And I mean, there's a couple of their names we haven't talked about much, but like Slade Chaconi and Blake Walston. And I know, you know, a couple of these guys are still a little bit farther off. but they might start looking to maybe a Carlos Vargas to come up into the bullpen, even though he hasn't been very good lately. I don't know about that.

I mean, I don't know with Justin Martinez. I mean. It's been a little. Martinez has been better of late, I think, but his full season numbers down there are still pretty rough. It feels like there's like when they're saying that they really mean that they're going to look like within, you know, the minor league system. And to be honest, they still have some very good options in there that they haven't even tapped into yet. So it's going to be interesting to see if they swing and miss on the trade market, how they adapt. And if those changes that he's talking about are just to, you know, like you said, getting the guys that are currently part of the starting rotation, right?

Yeah. Or if it involves going to a Brandon Fott or going to some of their other options that they might have in a minor league level. For the record, I do think that getting a starting pitcher at the trade deadline. I still think it's pretty possible. I do too. That's more just me personally, but I still think it will. probably happen if the debacks are still in the position that they're in now. I think it's smart to temper expectations though because I feel like Mike Hazen's being honest and Mike Hazen has always been fairly honest about these type of situations.

And he's always said when things have changed. And I mean, we know, we knew that. This isn't even new information to us because we discussed this exact topic, I believe, last week about what the trade market's going to look like and how so many of these teams being in it makes for a very fun season, but it makes for a very difficult. situation when the trade deadline comes around if a bunch of teams are still hovering around, you know, being

less than four games back in their division and a couple of games out of the wild card spot. It feels like they're going to, if they get a starting pitcher, it feels like he's coming from the AL the AL Central, right? Because like I feel like the ALS, you got ERAD, you've got Gioledo, you got CIS, you got

Bieber. Like, I feel like the AL Central is in a very different place than the NL Central where like the NL Central, they're all kind of bad, but none of them came into this season like necessarily expecting to be like like bad now i mean like Cincinnati doesn't expect to be this good but like they're all trying to work towards something where it's like the al central i feel like there a lot of those teams are much more closer to blow it up it's still the same situation though white socks four and a half out tigers

four out guardians one out twins you know two games over 500 like or under 500 and they're leading the division at two games under 500 like the uh a lot of this get rid of these divisions this is sense. A lot of this too is kind of a byproduct of Major League Baseball expanding playoffs, right? Correct. If you only had, you know, the two wild cards set up like we had before, it's a pretty different landscape right now than if you have three. I mean, obviously that wouldn't fix the problem in the divisions, the NL Central and the AL Central. I mean, I guess that would still be a madhouse. But a lot of those other teams, like we, you know, we mentioned the right, the Red Sox earlier, if there's only two wild card spots and you're the Boston Red Sox, you probably just got a

pack it in and acknowledge that the chance of you beating the Orioles, the Yankees, the Blue Jays, the Angels, the Astros, the Mariners, like, if you've only got two spots, it's probably pretty unrealistic. But with three spots, I think it's a lot easier for teams to talk themselves into that. But on the other hand, I almost wonder if like the presence of the AL East makes those AL Central teams like, all right, we are, it's either win the division or we're not making the playoffs. If we're being realistic. So you look at teams like that. And that probably, opens them up a little bit more. We're like,

if you're the White Sox or the Tigers, you're like, okay, we may be four, four and a half games back in the division. But it's not like you have a, can we really compete with the twins? You don't have a safety pair of.

There is no coming at second because we're not making it by that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you're the tigers, you're four games out of the division and you're eight and a half out of the wild card. It's not even, it's not even close. I just spilled my beer on myself,

which I wouldn't do if TSA wouldn't have confiscated my beer bat. I was going to do like Cody from the C.H.G.O. Cub show and maybe drink it after wins out of the bat. But apparently it was, no, it was a Wrigley Field bat. Is that not good? They don't have beer bats at Chase, do they? Never seen one. I don't know.

I don't think so. Why don't we have beer bats at Chase Field? This is something else we need to do a talking stick, though. I may be making that out, but I feel like I remember seeing limits. I feel like you're making it. But you might not be. I'm not allowed to drink when I'm working, but I'm allowed to drink when I'm working here in this building.

And more importantly, I'm allowed to. to drink when I'm working and I'm doing the Bet MGM Sportsbook app because you can't stop me from betting on the Oakland A's. I did it tonight and of course I lost. But you can do whatever you want on the Bet MGM Sportsbook app. It is a fantastic way to make sports even more fun and you don't miss out on the bet MGM's swing for the fences offer because it's only going to make your bets even better. You can get this offer in three easy steps. Log into your sportsbook app. Play the bet MGM MLB free to play game from now until September 7th. You're just a batter and you pick an area of the strike zone.

Depending on which area you pick, you will get a single double, triple, or a home run, or you might pop out and you will receive the prize associated with that type of hit. Pricing must be used on MLB and expires in 24 hours, so don't hesitate. Use it immediately and make yourself some money. If you haven't signed up for the BetMGM app yet, use bonus code PHNX. There's a few different offers depending on where you live. For our Arizona audience, you will get up to $100 and bonus bets on your first wager with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details.

And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Disclamer 21 plus to wager. Visit betmgmgm. For terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Nevada, New York, New York, gambling problem. Call 1-800-800-Gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-8-Hope-N-N-Y or text Hope & Y. 467369, New York. Call 1,800 Next Step, Arizona. 1,800, 522, 470-5-0-Gansas, Nevada, 1-800-327-50-50, Massachusetts.

1-800-2-7-1-1-7 for confidential health, Michigan. Also, speaking of our sponsors and our wonderful partners, check out Saturday Neon. It's a company started by two friends and former college roommates that make officially licensed collegiate logo LED neon signs, perfect for your bar, for your background on your Zoom calls, or if you do a podcast about maybe college sports, I don't know. Mike Luke has one of those, so, you know, he would tell me to back the A, I'm sure right now.

But it's officially licensed for 19th Select Schools. I'm not backing the A. I'll never back the A, by the way. Officially licensed for 19th Select Schools, including Arizona, Colorado, Alabama, Wisconsin, Auburn, and many more. Again, great for Man Caves. And, of course, you can get a great offer by going to Saturday, neon.com, and using our code of PHNX for 10% off your order today, free shipping for orders over $200. We're done talking about this terrible baseball game

and the Diamondbacks not making moves at the trade deadline. And we want to talk about more the Diamondbacks being in the All-Star game. The Diamondbacks have some guys that are leading the way. Well, not completely leading the way, but they are up there and they look like they might end up as starters. Potentially a Corbyn Carroll starting in the All-Star game, how would you guys feel about that wonderful, wonderful honor for the young man from Seattle.

I mean, it'd be cool for him, but at this point, it's like, duh. Yeah, it would be pretty outrageous if it didn't happen. It sounds like a neat story, but then also statistically, it's like, you better be. What the hell are you doing? Yeah. He's not a starter in that, right?

It's, yeah, at this point, it's like, he's got to be an all-star. If he's long as he's healthy until the All-Star game, he's going to be starting in the All-Star game for the National League. It feels right that he surpassed Lordess, right? Jesse, considering he was at one time. It would have been kind of hilarious if the Toronto fans continued to. I wanted it. I wanted him to do it.

Because like I was saying earlier to somebody, I forget, I was like, listen, if Lourdes gets voted in as a starter, that's his only chance of making the All-Star game. They'll find a way to get Corby and Carol on the All-Star game if he's not voted as a starter. So then you would have got both of them. I mean, Lordis might have a shot. Like if he kind of bounces back and has a few good weeks, he might have a shot. He was. He did have like the third highest batting average. and baseball there for a little bit or something crazy.

Yeah. But I mean, Lourdes is a fun story, but Corbin is the guy, obviously, that should be there. We know that there's a good chance. Zach Gallen will get selected as well,

but let's take a look at these all-star voting updates. There's one very egregious one, and of course, it's right there at the top. Christian Walker, the guy who is tied for fourth in National League, or he might even be sole possession of fourth in the National League in RBI,

not in the top 10 at all. Cotel Marte 6th for second baseman. Pardomo 8th. Josh Rojas, inexplicably ninth for third baseman. When Christian Walker, again, not in the top 10, don't know what's going on with there, but it's kind of hilarious. Josh Rojas also a candidate for relief pitcher. Corbyn Carroll, third for outfielders,

Gouriel, fourth, Gabriel Moreno coming in sixth for catchers, and Evan Longoria, even making it on the list, 10th for DH, which, again, another surprising. I mean, I know the Diamondbacks are in first place in the National League, but we don't usually get this kind of voting gloves. So it is a bit surprising to see some of those guys actually make the top 10 of their voting categories. Well, it's amazing what happens when you make a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, and you sign a player in his 15th season who has quite a bit of name cred, right?

I mean, just played the San Francisco Giants. That's a good point. Yeah, the Chris Schuacher thing is pretty wild to me. He is fourth in all of baseball for first baseman in Wins Above Replacement. According to fan graphs, it's Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldschmidt, Yanni Diaz from the Tampa Bay raise, and then Christian Walker. And the same was true last year. I think he was third. I think it was Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldschmidt, and then Christian Walker.

Christian Walker pretty clearly is the third best overall first baseman in the National League at this point. and for him to not be even in the top 10 on this list is, is unfortunate. So he has been on a tear lately. So hopefully people will kind of recognize that and give him the love that he deserves. I have what I feel like is. I know you're going to think that this is like not a real question, but I think it's a real question.

Is it because his name is Christian Walker? Is it because it's like a boring name that just is easy to kind of forget? Like I'm not knocking the man. I'm not. I'm not knocking his name. But it's like, Is it because it's an unexciting name? Let's be real about who Christian Walker is.

His name is Christian Walker. He's Christian Walker. It's Walker Walker. It was not the most like, the man built all of his furniture in his goddamn house. Why aren't you for him? He's the most every man dude there is and he plays probably the least sexy position in the infield. And he plays it so sexy.

And he plays it in Arizona. So sexy. I understand why this is happening. It doesn't make it better any better. but I understand how we got to this point. It infuriates me. The Antonelli's, I think, are behind this. It seems only right.

It would be in line with the other war crimes they've committed. It seems like they have agenda against Christian Walker, and I can't argue with that. It's aggravating, man. Like, at the end of the day, it's hard. Like, Christian Walker deserves recognition for how good he is. And he's clearly not getting it from fans. And, I mean, it is like, it is a popularity constant at the end of the day, but he deserves recognition for what he's doing.

And also, Kyle was asking, I think, what happens if Rojas makes the All-Star game when he's in the minors. Others, the precedent in the NHL is that he will play in the All-Star game. I don't think we're going to need to worry. I don't think so either. I'm just saying. We'll cross that bridge if we'll get there. I'm just saying. I don't foresee us.

Precedent has that he would play still. And that's how it works on other sports. Speaking of the All-Star game, the hats were dropped. The official All-Star game. game caps were dropped. Let's take a look at the Arizona Diamondbacks cap and decide if we actually like it. What are your thoughts on this mint green job? Because to be honest, I kind of like it, you guys. Yeah, I didn't really like the mint green when I first saw it honestly, but it's kind of grown on me. I like it. I like the stripe on the side and the patch a lot. I really like that part

of it. What are your thoughts? Sean clearly. Oh, Sean is groaning. So please give us your I mean, it's a lot of this is going to depend on what the jerseys look like and i really need to see the back slash other side of this hat because it looks like the pattern continues as it does not the pattern does not continue the pattern just goes from that likes that seam that panel that panel yeah seem to seem just like it is on the front there it does not go around the back oh i hate it then i very much hate it i just wow the line wanted the pattern to go vlogger i did because i thought it might go into some like mountain stuff and like that could be cool i mean there is some mountain stuff on the patch i Yeah, but the patch is just uninspiring to me.

It's just a diamond. And then I don't understand when the lines are following the diamond. Like, it's just so unsettling to me. I don't like how it looks. And then I don't, the white star kind of bothers me because it just doesn't pop enough, but that's, that's a minor thing. I just,

the lines just don't work for me. Karen says purple and mint green go well together. She wanted me to know that. So I think she's trying to aunt that I should buy this cap. I'm totally going to buy this hat. I got to see how the jerseys. I got to see what it looks like with the jerseys. that will you know

last year i i kind of said that i hated the fact that they i loved last year's combos so much that i didn't even want them to change it i remember what was last year it was just a real simple was that black and gold that was LA right yes yeah i love those everyone had their own team it was it was great and that was super simple but it was like really slick looking and more yeah those are really had the look of like all-star you know like an all-star team yeah I mean, prestigious. The only concern I have with this is that, like, especially when you look at all the caps, of course the Mariners looks, the logo looks the best on this hat.

Because it's, you know. Oh, yeah. And like, don't get me wrong. I mean, as it should, considering it's where they're playing the all-star game. But like last year, even being in L.A., it's not like they picked Dodger Blue for every team to be. These are by far the best all-stargers is all-top. Right. The last year, yeah, when they had like the white with just the gold logo or the black with the gold logo.

I hate that they feel the need to put this little star on the helmet. Like, that's unnecessary. It's an all-star game. You know what I would like is if they got like stars for how many. That's what I was saying. That's different. If they have multiple stars on their hat.

That I would like. Because that's what they do in the NBA. They're all-star duties have their number of all-star games on the back. And like that's how I think it should be. Like that would be a nice touch. But I just don't like having one star there. It just makes it look very like flagy. Like it looks like something that should be on a flag.

Sure. I get what you're saying. Like where they have like a weird logo and then like the star there. I don't like it. I get what you're saying. Well, we need to get out and vote for Christian Walker. So I don't know how to motivate people to do that.

But we will need to vote for everyone. For everybody. Because this is getting close. And we don't want Padres in there. We don't want Padres to be a part of it. Yeah, Kattel, I think, deserves to be higher than sixth. You know, his, his mental lapses tonight, notwithstanding. And the other thing I'll say is the outfield vote continues to be very important.

The way this is very likely going to work is Ronald Ocuna as the leading vote getter is going to be a starter automatically. This is a two-phase process, so it's a little bit more complicated now. So Ronald Acuna as the leading vote getter automatically becomes a starter. And then what they do is they take the next four highest vote getters in the outfield to the next round. So as of right now, both Corbyn Carroll and Lordus would be in there. There's one spot after them, which I believe is Juan Soto right now that would also be in there. But they need to stay in that block of four guys after Ronald Acuna in order to advance. And then when they do advance, if that happens, then there's a 72-hour period where people vote again.

And then that's what nails down who the starters are. So the job is very much not done here. The job is not done. We need to mobilize and get this taken care of it. What happened when we just voted, like just the three guys who got the most votes? Those days are. I know I'm talking like an old man. It is a little bit.

What about those days where we punched it out of a thing and they were Chad? Remember we got chads all over the place? What is the like what? Why? Yeah. I think they're just trying to. It's a good question. I don't really know what the impetus for this change was.

They've done it for a while. But yeah, it feels like maybe it adds a little bit of drama. You know what it was? It's goddamn Kansas City Royals. They ruined everything. And ever since then they've been trying to make sure that that thing never happened. I feel like we could get into a situation though.

Like I feel like I, I kind of was talking about how Arizona doesn't get enough love in the Crystal Walker thing. I feel like Arizona though is is so unlike, like people don't have an opinion about Arizona to the point where if there could be a situation where baseball fans are just like, let's just get two diamondbacks in the outfield for the hell of it. Let's do it. And they like, because Corbyn's going to get there and they're like, oh, let's just vote Lord us because it's fun. Well, because they're going to be like, you know what?

Screw on Soto. Yeah. I'm going for this guy. We definitely have the city of Toronto behind us. So that's good to know. And if Toronto residents come into town, make sure to hit me up i will hook you up with some o g's uh weeds legal here in this country specifically uh here in the state what's legal there too oh is it oh i don't know it's legal everywhere i guess

but i don't know it's getting toasty here in the valley and of course if you are here you got to check out our friends from o gs because uh they are the best they are the best that arizona has to offer as far as our edibles are concerned and they have their brand new limited edition uh pink lemonade gummies that drop tomorrow i've already had one though. Did you? Oh my God. It's delicious. They're so good. They're so good. And yes, I will tell you

they are fresh. They are tangy. They are lemony. They have a hint of redberry, plenty of sugar, and they are here to flavor your summer. So make sure to check out OGs wherever you get your wonderful edibles at. And of course, don't forget to check out their aqua berries sleep edition gummy. Their strawberries

and cream, happy balance gummy, and so much more. But pink lemonade, don't miss. Don't sleep on it. Last year, I think summer flavor was the pinia colada, if I'm not mistaken. That one was delicious. I want to get some non-medicated ones just for Jesse to eat so you can try them because they're just a good candy. Forget the fact that they make you feel wonderful. They're just a delicious candy.

OGs doesn't miss when it comes to flavor and effects. So get your pink lemonade gummies while you can. Again, limited edition. Check out OGs online at OGsbrands.com or Instagram at OGs brands. Also check out our friends at more furniture who want to hire Jesse away because of the way that he just has made Chase Lounge numbers go through the roof right now. Sales are incredible over there. But of course, we'll convince you to buy other things for your home other than that,

like actual useful pieces of furniture, including some wonderful recliners as well as like a nice TV setup. I saw they had like a wall display one that kind of like went around your TV on the wall. And it was really neat. I considered getting it. I have space issues in my house. So make sure you check out more furniture.com. if you have space issues. And of course, if you get anything from their website,

make sure to get that white glove delivery service, have it brought to your house and don't lift a finger and tell them where to put it, and they'll take care of it for you. Say big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture.com. Well, that's all we got, guys. I hope we made your night a little better

after watching that disgraceful meltdown that the Diamondbacks had there in the seventh inning. You got Zach Gallen on the mound tomorrow. We got Zach Gallen on the mount tomorrow, but we also have a watch-along. So a lot of forces working against each other here. Make sure you guys pull up for that. We will be here tomorrow at first pitch.

And then we will also be doing our show after that. We have four postgame shows this week. So trying to give you all that we got. They snuck that Washington Nationals makeup game in on it. So we can't get around that one. So we might as well do a post game that day two. So make sure to join us all week long right here on PHNX. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. This guy next to me is at Sean underscore DePaz. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. The maniac behind the Mac over there is Damon, and he is a Damon dog, DAWG. And then you got to do a little at the end. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks and all roads lead to PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you. We appreciate your time.

We thank you so much for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Kattel picks a fucking direction.