PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks’ Postseason Hopes Face BRUTAL SCHEDULE Starting in Milwaukee vs MLB’s Best

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterThe Diamondbacks took two of three from the Cincinnati Reds this weekend, highlighted by a dominant 10-1 win on Saturday. We break down the series win and look ahead to a brutal stretch that starts in Milwaukee against the first-place Brewers. Can the Snakes get hot and prove they can hang with the best teams in baseball? With Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Geraldo Perdomo surging, we explore whether Arizona has a real shot at running the gauntlet. Plus, it’s Mailbag Monday — we’ve got your questions answered and more!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!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!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!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 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.

Are the Arizona Diamondbacks back? Is it over? Well, we're about to find out because if they get into the playoffs at this point, they will have earned it without daunting the schedule is ahead of them. We are previewing the upcoming series with the Milwaukee Brewers, as well as talking about the Diamondbacks win over the Reds in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. Happy Monday to you all live from Studio K.

It's the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is your mayor of PHNX. Occasionally known as Derek Montoya. His name is Damon Dogg. Occasionally known is Damon Carroll on the ones in two. He's dancing. I'm loving life. And it's all because the Arizona Diamond Badd Manage

to take a series against the Cincinnati Reds, two games out of three. Of course, this show is brought to by our friends at Bet365. GameTime. Make sure to go download that Bet365 app right now. Use our code, VHNX365. When you do, you will get yourself $200 in bonus bets over at game time. Use our code of PH&X. You'll get $20 off your first purchase. Good morning,

I guess to some of you. I don't know. My days are all messed up now. I was here at the office with Damon until almost 2 o'clock in the morning on Friday night. So I still haven't recovered. I don't even know what day it is anymore. But I do know it's a good day to be a Diamondbacks fan. Diamondbacks take two out of three from the Reds. They improve over the weekend to a record of 64 and 67. And I know some people might be disappointed. They didn't sweep the Reds. with the way that things were going on Friday, let's at least be happy that they won the series. Also, the Reds, Damon, are an extremely hard team to sweep.

And when I say that, I mean, they have not been swept this season at all. In fact, they have not been swept in any of their 42, their last 42 series dating back to last year, including all 41 series this season. So it's the reason why they're in the wild card race on a good team this year. But again, they do not get swept. And the Diamondbacks definitely did not have a good showing.

Even though Zach Gowan had a great showing on Sunday, the offense didn't. And that's the reason why the Diamondbacks end up losing that game by a score of 6 to 1. But the debacks have won three consecutive home series now and five of their seven overall series in the month of August. Standing before them is their toughest challenge yet. The very hard, very difficult, very good Milwaukee Brewers team. but the Diamondbacks at least have had some great starting pitching over this stretch. Like I said, Zach Gallen, even though the team didn't get the win, was very good on Sunday. And you love to see that.

Diamondbacks starting pitchers in their last 10 games have a 3.63 ERA, an opponent batting average of 222 with 11 walks and 45 strikeout. So, hey, this team is at least playing some good baseball right now. And they need to because we are going to go ahead and, talk about the upcoming schedule and preview that series with the Milwaukee Brewers and things do not get any easier for the Diamondbacks between now and the end of the year. In fact, they only have three series against teams that are currently below 500. And two of those series are against the Giants, which are always a tough matchup for the Diamondbacks.

But this is, we always talk about it though, Derek, right? Where it's like, this team plays down to their competition. So in a way, I don't even think that it should be that scary that you play. these really good teams. The only thing it does is give you less room for air. You have to continue to play well against every team you play. But we know as the Ebacks fans all season long, all last season that it feels like whenever they play the Dodgers, the brewers, the Cubs, they show up. Right. But when it's the royals, that's when they get swept or the pirates or something like that. Same thing with Zach yesterday, right? Another showing against a team that's a tough opponent,

a team that quite frankly the Diamondbacks needed to beat that's ahead of time in the standings. And Gallin showed up. He had a good game. It's a weird juxtaposition from the day before where they score 10 runs to Sunday, where they only score one. They put those 10 runs up against the Reds best pitcher in Abbott, who has been insanely good this year and quite frankly had his worst outing of the season against the Diamondbacks on Saturday. But let's take a look at the overall numbers from the series here.

We love to call it the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. The Diamondbacks outscore the Reds in this season. Series 17 to 12. Diamondbacks had four home runs to just one by the Reds on Sunday. The Diamondbacks were 8 for 22 for a 364 batting average with runners in scoring position. Excellent job there. Sunday though, 0 for 5. And that's pretty much what makes their batting average even not like their batty average

without that. They were three for six in game one and five for 11 in game two. So their batting average would be around 500 if not for what they did on Sunday. So a great job with runners in scoring position. in two out of those three games, but one of them, they fell flat, and that's the one they lost. Here with the starting pitching ERA, they managed to balloon the Red starting pitching ERA. One of the teams with one of the best starting pitching staffs in baseball, 6.92, starting pitching ERA for the Reds in this series to the Diamondbacks, 2.77.

Great stuff there, including the opener appearance there, I guess you could say, from Jalen Beaks on Saturday, which was an interesting move that worked out for the Diamondbacks. Relief pitching ERA, both good, Diamondbacks, good, Reds, outstanding. They had a 1.93 ERA. They allowed three earn runs in the series, Diamondbacks 3.94. There's really ballooned yesterday where the bullpen let this game that was tied at one basically slip away from them. But overall, still not a perfect series, but a good series.

And quite frankly, I don't think it's realistic to expect the Diamondbacks to go out there and start sweeping all of these teams that are, you know, that are ahead of them. It would be great to see, unfortunately, though. They're going to need a couple, though. I think, I think it was Mark up here in the chat that was saying, yeah, he said, D-backs won't make it without sweeping some of these teams coming up. Time is running out. That's fair.

It's a fair point. I think that they do need to throw in a couple sweeps along with winning basically every series the rest of the way. Yeah. But yeah, they, uh, Killer X is right. Why are you surprised they only put up one run? They always put up one run after they score a jillion runs. And yeah, that does seem to be the case, doesn't it?

Like, that lack of consistency offensively is kind of wild, right? And one of the guys that's the most inconsistent, and I say that just because the lows can be so low and the highs can be so high is Lordus Gurriel Jr., who has been an RBI machine lately. He's been an RBI machine, Damon. He has 11 RBI in his last five games. He has 18 RBI in his last 10.

games and he freaking has 29 RBI in his last 21 games with a plate appearance dating back to August 2nd. This man's been clutch for this team and it's just it's not a matter of frustrating me right now because he's doing the thing. It's a matter of frustrating me more when he doesn't do it. But the Diamondbacks would not be in the position they're in right now, at least offensively, without Lordus Gurriel's contributions. And when I say that, I'm going to get really nerdy here. And maybe some of you might miss this from this show because we don't do this too often. But let's talk about his ex-Woba, his expected Wobah here over his last 50 plate appearances. As you can see, that kind of dotted line there around 300 is league average. That's actually a 325 X Woba. And

over these last 50 plate appearances, as you've seen here with Lourdes, he has been consistently above average there with his weighted on-base average. So, or expected weighted on-base average here. He's just been, again, an offensive. Can you explain the stat to me, Derek? Waded on, well, this first of all, it's an expected stat. So it doesn't mean it's his actual weighted on base average. But this includes, this is on base average including strikeouts and walks and such. So it goes beyond just your average on base percentage.

Okay. It also takes in part factors, I believe. I don't know. I'm not Jesse. So don't expect me to always break down all these things. Some of these stats are. Jesse's got like the formulas like locked in his head. 100% tattooed into his brain.

100%. And it's not just the easy like ERA calculation that I have to do all the time. But still, very good stuff here from Lourdes. Heraldo Pardomo, again, also contributing quite a bit here. He has two triples in his last six games, Damon. And he has reached base safely in 20 of 22 games so far in the month of August. So, and I mean, talking about Jesse, talking about Jack, they did an absolutely outstanding job over there breaking down. Geraldo Perdomo making a case for being an actual MVP candidate this year. And quite frankly, at least as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned,

baseball reference, if you go to their page, he is the number one player on the Diamondbacks according to baseball reference. Ernesto says it right here. This is Domo's team now. And I mean, it feels like that in more than one way, right? Damon, like not only is his performance living up to his kind of captain status, but this is a man out there leading on the field. This is a man going out there during media sessions

and kind of, you know, taking things over and defending his teammates and showing that leadership. Like I, and to be fair, leadership is one of those things that too often is thrust on the best player. Like, Cotelo Marte is the best player on the Diamondbacks, but that doesn't necessarily make him a leader. Same with Corbin.

Nor does he want to be. Yeah. Right? But this is a situation. where you feel like, you know, he, Prudomo not only is earning it with his performance, but he kind of wants to take on that role and has without anybody anointing him leader.

You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, Tori was calling him the on-field coach as of last season. And Killer Rex, I'm going to kiss Domo's ass all the time because that's kind of my role. Damon's kissed Domo's ass since, what, 20, 22? Pretty much. going 2023 for sure yeah for sure but it's I mean act like you've been here before but you know it's

the guy is unbelievable he he does everything that's asked of him and more absolutely and he's you know like we we talked about it on friday show what would the record be without haroldo perdomo this season I don't know it's it's unbelievable and he just shows up in every game so well and another thing about perdomo is the fact that like again he is so many roles that honestly are like different people, right? Like usually there's a leader and usually there's the guy that has like the highest war on the team. And then usually there's the guy that's kind of like the heart and soul, as Candace suggests. And he's kind of all of those things, right?

And so again, like I don't know where the Diamondbacks would be without him. Nor do I know where they would be right now without Gabby Moreno and his return because my God, this man has been delivering and it just feels so good to see Gabby back in the lineup, healthy and contributing in the way he is. Again, this team is going to be different down the stretch. I don't want to actually still get excited here. I promised I wouldn't after the Red series, but I do feel myself at least being, my interests being piqued by this team at this point. I'm definitely paying attention and I feel like why not? Well, the reason why not, as we're going to talk about, is the schedule ahead of them. So if they somehow find a way to actually win these

games and I guess snake their way into a playoff spot. You see what I did there. They'll have earned it. They'll have earned it. This won't be a fluke. This won't be like 2023. And it won't be like 2024 either. I don't think there's any expectations for them to make the playoffs. But if they get there, they're going to earn it. But for now, let's take a look at the drunken orgy of violence that we call the N-Hell West because things have gotten interesting here. We now have a two-way tie atop of the division. Padres and Dodgers are tied at 74 and 57. Both teams have a four and a half game lead in the wild card and both teams are currently ahead of the NL West. Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondback sit in third place at 64 and 67. They are 10 games back in the division. That has come and

gone. But they are five and a half back in the wild card. And while I don't feel like that is very close. It's not as close as five and a half games seems. It's still enough to keep us interested and to see what this team can do. Like Tori said, you're not going to make that all up at one time. It's unfortunate that with the Mets losing on

Sunday, they weren't able to make up a game there to be now four and a half back, but if they can manage to make up a game per week here before the end of the season, they'll be right there in the hunt at the end of the year. Giants, fourth place, bums, 63 and 68,

11 games back in the division. They won two in a row, though, right? Yeah, I know, but they're still bums. Rockies, the bigger bums, 37 to 94, infinity sign, infinity sign. And that's where they see. Have you checked the wild card standings at all, Derek, and seen the amount of teams ahead of the diamondbacks right now? I have checked it. Because there is just one.

There is just one. And that's the team that we beat. The diamond backs are tied with the Cardinals at five and a half games back out of the wild card. They just beat the Reds who are one and a half back. So still four game gap, but you closed it a tiny bit. it. And yeah, it feels like the Mets are playing not as good of baseball right now. Like you got a shot. It's not a good shot, but you got a shot. Well, Raioma in the chat asks a very interesting question.

I know we're not on to the mailbag Monday questions yet, but Raioma wants to know where is Jesse Jr. time to issue an Amber alert. Ryoma, if you were not with us on Friday's episode, you might not have had a chance to see this. But according to one, Blaze Alexander and his ransom message that he sent us, Blaze Alexander is in possession of Jesse Jr. How that came to happen, I don't know. I have my suspects. Damon hasn't cleared the suspicion, quite frankly.

I say we're all suspects. I'm 100% convinced this was an inside job. And I don't really know who to blame. So what I do is blame everybody. Espo, Leah, Emma. The entire office is to blame. the Max and Max and Connor very high on my list of suspects. Also Eric, Eric, the top suspect, very untrustworthy.

Especially with that outfit he's got on today. Skater Ruby, that's an untrustworthy guy. I cleared Shane because of the baby incident when we went to the pool because I know nobody would let Shane anywhere near the clubhouse or any of the players after that. So Shane is the only person that so far I do not have any suspicion about. But Candice makes a good point. It's pretty simple how we get Jesse Jr. back.

Okay. Well, I have a week before they come back, right? Like, I am not going to fly out to Milwaukee to get him from Blaze between now and then. Yeah. Nor am I going to break into Chase Field to free him, though that seems like a better option for me right now than dying my beard, quite frankly. I would risk. Don't forget the Sour Patch Kids. Oh, God, the Sour Patch Kids.

All right. Well, I have to go to Costco. I think maybe I'll blay. I'm going to bribe him with a big bag of Sourbatch Kids and see if he'll just give it back without me dying my beard. I don't know, but we'll figure it out on the other side of this break. We're also going to discuss the upcoming series with the Milwaukee Brewers. So don't you go anywhere. You're watching the P.HNX Diamondback Show. Well, to get over the loss of my child, I have been using pure edibles. And of course, they can elevate your mood. Or if you are worried sick like I've been, they can help you get some good sleep. But make sure to check out their entire line of candy. And when I say, that they make more than just gummies. They have their hard candies. They have their chews. They have their kicks, which are their version of Starbursts and so much more. So check out everything that Pure Edibles has to offer. They are a full-fledged candy company offering you more than just what your typical edibles company has to offer. They also offer you, of course, wide variety of effects. And those effects are clearly listed on each 10. Doses and strains are

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very many games between now and the end of their season at the end of september uh they have 31 games left at this point that's 10 series and of those 31 games 22 games are against teams with a record of 500 or better they have six games left against the giants and three games left against the twins those right now are their only sub 500 opponents left on the scale which means those are, if you want to pencil those in, those are your must-win series. There's your sweeps potentially right there because schedule outside of that gets very difficult. They have six games here against the Dodgers, three games against the Phillies, and then the season ends with three against the Padres in San Diego.

They also have three versus the Red Sox and three versus the Rangers in there. So I don't, you know, those are tough teams as well. Again, teams that are in playoff contention that also are kind of fighting for their lives here. So it never really gets easier for this team aside from those six games against the Giants and three against the twins. So those nine games out of their 31 left are pretty much the only reprieve. Those are kind of the must win where they can kind of stack some wins here. But it really starts with a huge four game series that starts today against the Milwaukee Brewers. Let's take a look at the Milwaukee Brewers at a glance.

They are MLB's best. They have a record of 81 and 50, the best record in baseball. They also have a plus 159 run differential, which is the best run differential in MLB again, by far. And a big part of that has been how good their pitching is and their defense. They are four and six in their last 10, and they do come into this series losing two in a row. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I don't know if that means they're coming down to earth. I don't know if they're just going to be really angry and ready to come fight against the airs on the Diamondbacks.

but I do feel like this is a good opportunity for them to catch them, at least at this time, considering how well they've been playing in that winning street that they were on. Their team OPS is 736, which is 11th in Major League Baseball. Starting pitching ERA, 3.4 is 2nd best in all baseball. 3.80 ERA for their bullpen, which is 10th best. And then they have 30 outs above average, which is, once again, second best in Major League Baseball. They are a very, very good baseball team. Yeah, they're good at everything.

Not only are they good at everything, but they have this kid that you might have heard of Jacob Mizoroski. Boo. Damon is not a fan of. I'm not a fan of charity case, All-Star Games. That's what I'm not a fan of. Five starts in and we're giving this kid an All-Star appearance. Merrill Kelly will never have an All-Star game appearance in his career. It makes me sad.

Well, his ERA definitely came back down to Earth, as did he, but he was pretty elected. there to start his career despite that. Let's take a look at the probable pitchers because we do get the Mizz in this series. Erod kicks things off for the Diamondbacks. He is 5 and 7 with a 5.40 ERA and 115 strikeouts this season. He matches up with one of the best,

if not the best, on the Brewers. Brandon Woodruff, he has a 4-1 record, a 2.47 ERA 55 strikeouts this year. Game two, we got Brandon Fott going up against the phenom there in the Mizz. Brandon fought this year, 12 and 8. Brandon Fought's the phenom. Brandon Fought.

Come on now. Yeah, for sure. 4.95 ERA this season for the Diamondbacks phenom. 113 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the Mizz. He is 4 and 2 with a 4.19 ERA now. He has 55 strikeouts. Game three, another phenom for the Diamondbacks and Ryan Nelson.

He is going up against Quinn, Priester. Nelson is 6 and 3 with a 3.63 ERA, 105 strikeouts for Nellie. Prester, meanwhile, 11 and 2 this season, 3.44 ERA, 104 strikeouts. And then last but not least, the Diamondback staff ace, Nabil, Chris Matt, going up in the finale against Jose Kintana. Chris Matt this year, 1 and 0 with a 1.00 ERA and 9 strikeouts. Kintana, meanwhile, 10 and 4, 3.32 ERA, 75 strikeouts. Big matchup, big series. Again, I don't know.

I don't know, Damon. I keep saying this. The Reds now thing made me regain a little bit of hope, right? So it's like the hope is snowballing, and I look forward to the inevitable series where the Diamondbacks take that hope away from me. But is this going to be it, or are they going to surprise me

and actually have a good showing here against Major League Baseball's best team? Every time you look at a Probables graphic for the Diamondbacks, you're not going to feel great about it. That's kind of how against a good team, against the non-white socks or Rockies or a team like that. So I think it's kind of a fool's errand to even be like comparing this and be like, can we get the job done? Because I would have never thought the Diamondbacks would have beat Andrew Abbott like that in game two against the Reds. No, absolutely not.

Just got to continue to play good baseball. I think, you know, you look at the first three on that list and those are, you know, I know you have Zach Allen too, but those guys are all pitching decent right now. it seems like. And then you have Chris Matt, who you don't feel great about, but he's done his job thus far. So, you know, I think, you know, it's going to be on the offense as it pretty much has been the entire season to carry this team. A lot of people are upset. We don't have an updated picture of Nabil, Chris Matt. I'll go take one.

Be upset with ESPN or MLB, man. Yeah, when he comes back into town, I'm just going to take it myself. I'm going to be like, come over here in front of this wall, throw on your cap and your, and your jersey real fast. I mean, he's been outstanding. Maybe we could hit up our contacts there, can see if we could get a D-BACs headshot for the people. We got we got some good, we got a good photo taker there. And Danielle, by the way, who has been delivering for us. So make sure to check out if you have not done so already.

Our Instagram account that now exists over at PHNX, I believe it's underscore D-Backs, but I don't. Yeah, underscore D-Backs. Make sure to check that out. And also, yes, we do need that. I do want to say, though, all jokes aside, Chris Matt has been another kind of, excellent addition well needed like i don't know where we would be without him all things considered so like uh i thought tory did a great job as much as killer x is going to hate to hear this uh with putting jalen beeks in there you know and having him as a starter there going up against a

lead off in friedel uh who was a lefty and then ellie de la cruz who's a switch hitter uh turning him around it where he's worse you know from that side of the plate so like again a great job of at least giving this team a chance to win. And boy, did they. Wasn't expecting that game to turn into the laffer that it was on Saturday. So just excellent job. And I mean, again, the only concern is that the offense fell flat on Sunday. And you would like to see it rolling considering what they're up against here against the Milwaukee Brewers.

But hey, vibes are high, as Michael Dixon says there. And I completely agree with it. Vibes are good. and we'll see what this team can do here against a very daunting schedule. Just got to take it game by game. And even though the Milwaukee Brewers have played great, maybe now is the time where they don't. And maybe the Diamondbacks are the team that starts causing them to question themselves

and cause their fan base to fall apart a little bit. I saw that with the Reds and I enjoyed kind of just being a fly on the wall over there and watching them all fall apart over losing a series of the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are now that team somehow. that other teams are in disarray about losing to, which is something we've experienced time and time again with some of the losses that we've had this season. Not only is it great for the Diamondbacks

to play a little bit of spoiler, if that's the case, but they could have an impact, like they could have a huge impact on the playoffs no matter what going down the stretch with the teams that they're up against, right? Six games left against the Dodgers. How good does it sound to maybe knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs? Just saying, just saying,

what if we did that? What if we helped that happen? I know that that is total little brother loser talk, but if we don't get in the playoffs, man, would it be great to keep them from getting into the playoffs, wouldn't it? So that's still on the table. We'll see how the month that plays out. Hopefully the Diamondbacks can keep on this role. But on the other side. I mean, that might be World Series number two if that happened. I'm just saying. Not to be that guy, but I'll treat it as such. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we are going to. to take a quick break and then on the other side of this break, we are going to get to the mailbag because you know what day it is and you know what we do around here. Don't you go anywhere.

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times of the day, so don't miss out on that either. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. And Damon, I mean, you know what day it is, right? And I know that, you know, it's one of those weird weeks. We don't know what to expect here. We're cautiously optimistic around here about what the Diamondbacks are going to do against the brewers. However, we're also realistic, realistic. And we know that there's a good chance that this could be at least the end of our optimism. So we'll see what happens. But today, as is every Monday, is you know what it is. You know what we do around here. You know that every year is our year, despite what the record says. You know that every month on this

podcast, not just the weekend. The entire month is Hispanic Heritage weekend or month. You know that every week on this podcast is Shark Week. You know that every day is Kevin's birthday. And, of course, on Mondays, we go the mailbag. Damon, let's go the mailbag. That died fast. What happened? What? Do we not get to enjoy nice things around here?

Also, it's not really Kevin's birthday. Did that have any impact on the song being so short? Maybe. Maybe Megarin. We usually a little peek behind the curtain. Megarin actually does that live every time that we do the Mailbag Monday song. It's not like a recorded thing. Is he not here?

I think you threw him off his game a little bit with the whole. Kevin birthday situation. He was excited to get out and start the celebration. I get it. But, well, we do have, we do have things we do around here. And we do have our leadoff hitter. And we don't stray away from that. Damon, what do we got out of the mailbag today? First question comes here from Travis Moore. And Travis asks, what side are you on? If Lawler shows out late in a late season callup, start him at third base next year, or trade him when his value is theoretically higher? This is such a difficult question right now because, of course, a big part of this is the fact that

Blaze Alexander is playing so well over there at third base, right? He's playing well defensively. He's playing well offensively. He's also a known thief. So I'm conflicted because I want to talk about what a great guy is and I want to talk about how much I love him. But he also is holding my sweet, sweet baby boy Jesse Jr. hostage. So if it's going to bring my snake back to me without me having to dye my beard teal,

then we can talk about Jordan Lawler having that third base position. No, I mean, obviously there's going to be a competition there. And I think that Blaze has earned himself plenty of playing time at a major league level. I am still skeptical of that when it comes to Jordan Lawler and it has nothing to do with his defense. I think that they will use both guys in a utility role when they do call Lawler up. And I don't think that Blaze will go anywhere unless he drastically has some sort of regression where his at-bats and his defense both get worse. But I do have my concerns about Blahler. Blaze losing playing time to Jordan Lawler overall because considering that they'll call him up, they will need to play him in order for him to be, you know, for it to be relevant for him to be a part of this major league roster. So I don't love that. I think that Blaze right now has pretty much locked the position down over there. If you look at his numbers since the trade, he's been outstanding. It's been been a big reason why I'm the only one that's still talking and obsessing about Gino. And apparently no one else is. So,

I will say, though, that I think that Loller overall has an opportunity still to win himself plenty of playtime. It's just going to be a competition and he's going to have to perform. He's going to have to be able to hit a breaking ball at a major league level. When he gets his next call up, the pressure is really on. It really is. Because that that would be what, like three, four callups at that point where he hasn't really shown anything. He needs to perform. And Blaze, frankly, Blaze has shown more when he's had chances and opportunities when he's gotten called up,

than Jordan Lawler has. And so I feel like it could be almost unfair to Blaze to just completely be like, you're done. When he's shown improvement, he's had weeks where he's been like one of the better hitters on the team where Lawler's never had that. Right, right.

And quite frankly, Lawler has, like I said, in this situation, uh, is it, it would be that Lawler's playing well because he says it if he balls out, right? So that's a big if in regards to that.

But if he does that, then the dialogue, Backs do have a good problem on their hands, but the more concern is if he doesn't, right? Because if he comes up at a major league level and cannot start putting together some good at bats, then I think that his value might sink lower than it possibly ever has been at this point, right? It's pretty low right now, but you're right. I understand what you're saying. If he does it again, it's almost, that's why I say the pressure's on.

It's almost like, is he ever going to do it? Whereas right now you still have a shroud of like, well, he has an out. the most opportunity and advice, you know, so on and so forth. I just think that if he, if he comes up and performs, I am willing to listen to trade offers for him. Yes. Still. See, Kellorax is trying to put situations in front of me that he knows I'm going to be angry about. So I'm just going to disregard his question for now, but. Ask on the mailbag. Maybe. Maybe is what I'll say. All right. What else that we got. Next question just says snakes alive from our guy Atlas Pront. Zero.

Yes. Yes. Snakes in fact alive. Snakes very alive. Snakes alive. And Jesse Jr. is alive. We found that out. He's somewhere. Whether or not he's still here in Phoenix or he's on a team playing to Milwaukee right now. That's a whole other question. But yes, our snake is alive and the snakes are alive. But I also think, let's be honest, right? Let's be honest. It's a difficult stretch ahead of

them. And I don't expect them to come out of this with a winning record. Again, that's the reason why I say if they do, they'll have earned it. If this team ends up above 500 at the end of the season, they will have earned it 100%. It might not be enough to get into the playoffs. But if they can find a way to win more games than they lose, they will have earned it with the caliber of opponents that they have in front of them. But as of right now, no, they're not dead. It's not over because like Damon said, this is a team that oddly performs well when the opponent in front of them is a difficult one. And I don't know. I don't know if it's maybe it's the other way around. Maybe it's the other teams kind of playing down to us. Maybe it's the fact that teams don't know

what to expect. Like this team is a freaking wild card whenever you play them. You have no idea if they're going to put up 10 runs against you. You don't know if Zach Gallen's going to suck or be Sy Young caliber. You don't know what you're going to get out of Ryan Nelson. You don't know.

Like, well, you do. You're any fastballs out of Ryan Nelson. But you know what I mean? Like there's just no consistency to this team. I was talking to someone who's not a Debex fan last week.

And I was explaining how the team is to them. And they said, and it was a very apt comparison. So you guys are like the Cincinnati Bengals of the MLB. And I was like, yeah, kind of.

We have a really exciting offense. The offense is, top five, top 10 caliber of competing. And the defense and the pitching, it leaves a lot to be desired. And it's so we get in a lot of entertaining games. We get in a lot of back and forth games with good teams. And then it just feels like we never really have what it takes to get the job done. Make you feel like they are going to be put that's going to be enough to put them over the top.

And then it doesn't. Right? Yeah. Similar. Also fire alternate jerseys. True. Both teams have fire alternate jerseys. You like those white out?

Those white out. Those white white tigers get out of here. That's crazy. No other team has anything that cool. I'm sorry. The Bengals missed the playoffs last year, Mark R. And they were, I mean, they were one of, I think they were legitimately the second team out of the playoffs, which is what the debacks are currently. Ask me in a week if snakes alive.

Let's do that, right? And I've done this way too many times. But again, I said if they have a good showing against the Reds, then snakes alive. And they did. So snakes alive. But ask me in one week after they've had four games on the road against Milwai. and then three more against the Dodgers, if snakes alive and we'll talk about it then.

I do feel like it's kind of like that. Like even if they have a good week this week, that doesn't mean anything for them because then the schedule is just as tough the following week and they still have to keep it up and they have to do it again. So maybe not as tough. Like this next week is very difficult. After that, it does get a little easier.

But all right, what else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Dback Stan account. And they ask, still on the fence, I think this series with Milwaukee will decide it for us. Guess it's not really much of a question at all. Well, it was, I think part of our mailbag Monday was, are we alive or are we dead? Are we back or is it over? Right. And that's kind of where it feels like we are hovering right in that, you know, are we back?

Is it over range? That's just kind of what it feels like. Like there's things they do like winning this series against the Reds doing what they did on Saturday. by the way, John Boy had a video where they discussed the worst logos in MLB. And when it was brought up by Jimmy that the Cincinnati Reds see looks like a toilet seat, I can't unsee it. I couldn't unsee it after that the rest of the weekend. It was just all I could see.

What's the right answer for that? The right answer is the Washington Nationals. The Walgreens W that they literally stole from the Walgreens. The Walgreens W that they literally stole from the Walgreens hurt is not going to like that. My nips hurt is going to be furious. But he would probably agree with me. I don't think so. I don't know.

Like, they have the other W that's not nearly as bad. They have the one with like the little capital in the background that I don't hate. But the Walgrain, if we're talking like logo, logo, the W, the W is bad. The Marlins is kind of trash. Yeah, it is. The new Guardian stuff. Eh, keep it. The new Guardian stuff really seems to only appeal to people that live in Cleveland.

They love it. Despite the fact you took away like a, you know, an iconic old name based on it being fairly racist. They went ahead and have a name that means a lot to them. And they like the Guardian stuff because of it being part of that bridge with the Four Guardians on it. Baseball has the best logos. I'm looking at some logos right now.

And I genuinely think that it's not even close. See, Mark R understands me and gets me. He says the Rockies logo is bad. Yes, Mark, it is. It's a stupid mountain with a baseball. sailing in front of it. It doesn't make any sense and I hate it. How does it not make sense?

That's my part that I push back on. It's just a baseball team and they're called the Rockies after the mountain range. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense. You just said it doesn't make sense. It's more of stupid. It's just stupid. I would rather it was a little cartoon mountain hitting a dinger. You know, like a minor league logo rather than being just a mountain range with a ball sailing

in front of it. I'm a big fan of the Cardinals logo. that's a cool one. Fun fact, that ball in the Colorado Rockies logo is being hit by the opposition out of course field. That's the reason why it's sailing

at that trajectory. All right. Well, I've dunked enough, I think, on other teams. The answer is never the Diamondbacks, by the way. The answer will never be the Diamondbacks. There's never anybody that thinks the Diamondbacks, either their A logo or their S logo or their D logo

is bad. They're all good. Every single logo. Yeah, the A in particular, I think, is sweet. I love the snake tongue coming out of a letter. I think that's unbelievable. See, me and Killarex don't agree often, but he says the Colorado triceratopses. And I like that. And I would wear one with a dinger on it. I'm not going to wear it with a stupid mountain range on it. I'll just say. Anyway, what else we got? Next question, Damon. Next question is from Flea Ball,

who's here in the chat today. Flea Ball asks, sometimes we forget, everything's a group decision with the debacks, but their lack of urgency early in the season has haunted them towards the end the last two years. Is that on the front office, players or coaching staff? Man, that's a great question. It's an outstanding question. Let's see. If we're playing this order, I would say coaching staff, then player, then front office. But here's where I'll disagree with you. I think that this year, it was obvious from a month into the season that Mike Hayeson needed to get this team bullpen help or else he was really putting this team on the brink of not being able to compete every game because they were just blowing games left and right.

And I know a lot of teams don't want to trade early in the season, but it was pretty obvious. I remember the post game shows where we were talking about it. No, I know. But we also had a stretch right in the beginning of the season where the bullpen was actually hilariously enough one of the best parts of this team early on. So, I mean, again, you're not wrong about that. I think once AJ puck went down, basically. Once AJ puck went down, yeah.

Which was early on. I think the problem is, is that it's easier said than done. However, I do think that I've seen other teams acquired players that I wish the Diamondbacks would have gone after and made a harder press for in order to add to this team to go all in on the remainder of the season, that they didn't do so. I don't really feel like a lot of those have worked out.

You can just look at what's happening with the New York Yankees. They have like three elite closers, and none of them are getting the job done this season consistently for them from the bullpen, right? So I don't know. I would say there's an equal blame. I think you put a good enough case out there as far as the front office. I think coaching staff, that is his entire job.

That is their entire job. I think that, you know, again, when we see that Sean Larkin was just recently removed his third base coach, I feel like that is a decision that didn't need to wait as long as it did. And that's on the front office. That's not on Tori. Is it on Tori? Tori said I made the decision to remove Sean Larkin as third base coach. That's a Tory thing.

But that's something that also has to come from the front office. That is a group decision. That's not something I don't think that Tory would necessarily be allowed to do without talking to the front office. So maybe in that case, one party was in favor, one party wasn't. And I'm sure maybe Tori was probably the one not in favorite because Tori tends to like give to people multiple chances to figure things out, especially when they're inexperienced at something. But you could argue Sean Larkin's inexperience at third base cost this team a lot of games this season. And quite frankly, there's your handful of games at least that get you probably over 500 at this point, right? So the lack of sense of urgency, though, I mean, I think it's on a lot of people.

I don't think it has to do with Tori giving guys off days off and such early on. I don't think that, which some people tend to think about early in the season, is not creating a sense of urgency. But I will say when things were going bad for this team, and I think when they were still healthy and not decimated by injuries, they didn't do enough to stack wins. I think there were a lot of situations that they let series against opponents. They should have beat derail them a bit. I think that, again, it does fall on the players, too. I don't think that there was a sense of urgency.

And I think some guys really struggled early on to get on track defensively, offensively, pitchers specifically. Zach Gowlin has been like that all year long. You could go back and say, honestly, I still think as crazy as it sounds, if you want to blame Tori LaBello for a decision, it's opening day. And this team has just not been on track since that decision was made. That was stupid at the time, too. It was stupid at the time.

It ended up costing Corbyn Burns quite a bit of time before he could make his first debuting before his debut. And you could argue to say that maybe it was enough to derail his season enough where he gets injured, right? But the decision to not start Corbyn Burns on opening day was the beginning of, of it. And from that point on, this, it's, it was like altering reality. You know, it was like going back and it's like we lit there is a timeline where Corbyn Burton starts on opening day. And I bet it's glorious. Oh, it's utopia. Yeah. But we don't live in that timeline. We live in this

one. I agree with that actually. I would say, you know, mistakes were definitely made in that circumstance of being like, Gallant, we watched Gallin last year. He wasn't very good. Right. And you're doing it solely to to base it off of loyalty when it's like everyone can see that Corbyn Burns is a better pitcher than Zach Gallen right now. That's lack of urgency for sure. Because you're sitting there as Tori thinking to yourself, it's not that big of a deal. It's one start. He's going to come back around in the rotation.

It's going to work itself out. It's like, no, this is one of 162 and they count all the same at the end of the season. My bigger problem is, is the way that it ended up impacting Corbyn's routine. And Corbyn has described himself multiple times as being a very routine person. So, yeah, it definitely was it. And like, it's a great example of Tori doing things for loyalty and not what's best for the team, right? Doing things because he feels like someone earned it in the past, despite the fact that right now, you know, you know in that moment that Corbyn Burns is your better starting pitcher over Zach Gowling. Right.

So, I mean, that, that, that, that, I think that is a big reason why. And yeah, I mean, again, probably Tori coaching staff. They all share blame. I mean, I feel like that thought exercise clearly just put, laid that out there where every single one of those spots deserves blame. But yeah, I think that Hayes is like 40, 35, 25. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it's probably that close where you could say decisions made.

And I mean, injuries, I think still had the biggest impact on the season more than anything else. Yeah. But you're not wrong, especially with the way they're playing right now, which deserves to be commended. Right. like they're not giving up. This team refuses to give up. I don't even know why they refuse to give up, but they refuse to give up.

And again, it's this FU energy that they tend to have where the chips are down and things are the hardest. That's when they want to prove people wrong. And maybe that's just what this team needs at times is, you know, that doubt against them. And that doubt, quite frankly, is going to be there for a number of years going forward.

I mean, they're not going to be in a position, I think, to be viewed as a contender the way they were at the beginning of this year, probably for a while. You know, and that's just the way that things are for this team and their roster going forward. I could be wrong about that. They could continue to do crazy things during the off season like they have the past two off seasons and add the best pitching arm to this team. Go out there and add Framber.

Go out a good first basement over there. Framber in a first basement. Oh, scenes. Yeah. It feeds families. That actually would be insane. I'm just saying. But you never know because this organization tends to surprise you,

just like this team surprises you when they should be losing that they are winning games, right? So what else we got, Damon? Next question here comes from flea ball. I guess that was the flea ball question. I will move on there to Nick Benjamin who says, are the debacks planning on calling Lawler up at any point this season or not till next season? Where do we place Blaze once Lawler is up? I've seen people suggest we move Blaze to first base,

but I feel like that'd be wasting his arm ability. Does he just become our new super utility? Absolutely not. I do not want Blaze Alexander to become a super utility player. But I do feel like that's what's going to end up happening to a degree with him and Jordan Lawler. I think Perdomo will get days off. I think Kutel will DH quite a bit.

I think we'll see guys move around on the infield. I think we'll see Blaze at second base, more than we'll see Jordan Lawler at second base because Blaze has proven he can play there, but I feel even second base is a waste of Blaze's arm, quite frankly. So I think Jordan Lawler will get his starts at third base. If he does get called up, I do think he will get called up. But I do think that, and I hope that it's based on merit. And I hope that whoever kind of outpaces the other player is the one that gets the bulk of the playing time. I also hope that if this team finds a way to run this gauntlet over this next week against the Brewers and the Dodgers and come out somehow

on the other side with a positive record and maybe some more hope, some more hopium for me to smoke than maybe, you know, at that point, I don't even want to see them do anything like that or alter the roster in order to start altering the chemistry of this team that's finding success. Quite frankly, Blaze has been a big reason why, not only a big reason why I have trust issues now with people I love, but a big reason why this team has found success over this stretch and beat the Reds, right? So I still just am in disbelieve. It's always the ones you love the most that hurt you like this, right? Yeah, it is, Derek. It really is. I would say that, you know, as far as Lawler goes, like, if he, if Lawler gets brought back up and is just given every start

right away, I think that's a huge problem. He has to, like, show that he belongs in the lineup, because Blaze has. Yeah. I also don't want Blaze moving to first base, because I don't think he's good enough hitter to be a first basement. That's fair. I don't hate Scotty Max idea of ADC at first and I know you love the second half of that statement that says DFA Pavan, but Dude, I can't take it anymore.

Paving still has about an 800 OPS on the year. So every single Paveen supporter can just point to his overall statistics and say to themselves, well, I mean, he's been a pretty good hitter on the season, but if you really look at his splits, Derek. He had a good

scoop the other day. He had a 16 800 OPS in the two games in March. He had an 11 or a 1050 OPS in the month of April. And since then, 633, 697, barely played in July and had an 873. And in August has a 220 OPS since he's come back from the injured list. The guy has been a black hole for the better part of three months now. And it's at a position where it can't happen. it can't happen.

1,000% Flea Ball in the chat says Lawler should not be a utility that didn't work out before. I don't know what you do with him otherwise. You're not going to get him enough playing time to warrant calling him up unless he plays at several

infield positions. And again, it's kind of the same thing with Blaise. I just don't love the idea of calling him up right now anyway. Like you call up somebody like you do with the first base position, right? Tyler Locklear's been struggling. He has not been good, but you're letting him kind of work things out and seeing if, like, him getting Major League at Bats is something that makes sense, and if he's continuing his development.

If his bats are getting better, even if we hate what is it bats are, it's the coaching staff evaluating him and seeing if his at-bats are better, right, even if the results aren't there. But, again, that's the kind of position right now, considering that there's so much uncertainty and that you don't really have a regular first baseman to play over there, that I feel comfortable with you having that, you know, prospect essentially up trying to make that development

as a major league first baseman. I don't feel the same about Blaze. I don't feel like he's just had some luck over there. We've seen Blaze take leaps and bounds forward defensively, and we've seen his bat really play well at a major league level, including against one of the Red's best starting pitchers this past weekend. So I don't think Blaze is a fluke. The only thing I think is a fluke is his demands to get Jesse Jr. back.

That's a fluke. I think they're negotiable. I shouldn't negotiate with kidnapper. but I'm more than willing to and I will be stopping by Costco on my way home to pick up those Sour Patch kids. Damon, what else do we got? Next question here comes from Russell.

Russell asks, we are not completely back. We have to win the series with the Brewers and Fraggers. And do you all think with Gabby back we will make a wildcard birth and they made very good improvements against the Reds, but have to keep winning games and series? Yes.

And again, some of these are in response to my question to them. I was Mailback Monday, so I posed a question and then got a question back. But yes, I do believe that Gabby is just key, man. And again, I just like the combo of James McCann and Gabriel Marino so much more than Jose Herrera being a part of this team. And that is no disrespect to Jose Herrera, even though many of you would love to see me disrespect Herrera. His time with this team, he's been, you know, he's been a part of this team for a while. And there's been stretches where Herrera was very good behind the plate.

and a lot of pitchers attributed their success to his game calling. I just think that James McCann offers something very similar when it comes to the game calling, has that at least a little bit more of a veteran presence there. And, you know, again, I mean, just the kind of guy that really, I think, can help Gabriel Moreno become an even better catcher than he already is. He has weaknesses to his game. I think there's things McCann can share with him that can hopefully make him better.

And overall, I think McCann has just been better behind the plate as well, as well as his bat has played better. So I just love that Gabby is back. He brought a different vibe, different energy. It felt like everybody kind of was picked up by his return. And his son is adorable. And again, he fist bump me and it's a unforgettable moment for me. What else we want? What else we got?

Next question here is from Silas, who says, in all major sports, players spend time in a locker room. why is that player's space in baseball called a clubhouse? Ah, I actually know the answer to this. There's a lot of things I don't know, including a good explanation for ex-Woba. But I do have a good explanation for this. It's because, Silas, baseball has been around for 900 years. Yeah, it's insane.

It's been around so long that the terminology used at one time were completely different. And in fact, what a clubhouse was was different. Do you see at one time in baseball, a baseball park, a yard was what it is, a yard. It had the bleachers. It had dugouts. And that's all it had. It didn't have this entire, you know, a subterranean ecosystem where people were moving around down below in tunnels and there were clubhouses and locker rooms and such down there. Right.

No, no locker room for the mascot the way that Baxter has his own locker room. He's very important. He definitely deserves his own locker room. I'm not taking shots at the mascot. But what I am saying is at one time, the place where you put your stuff as a player was the dugout. And then completely separate from the baseball park itself was a different building sometimes far away. If you've ever been to the Cubs spring training facility or some of those, the way that their stuff is so far away from like the actual ball.

It doesn't make any sense. It was built in the 2000s. What are we doing? But anyway, clubhouses used to just be a place where baseball players. players kind of hung out after a game. They would go back to the clubhouse. They would drink beers, a period of time where they'd pop greenies and other various drugs and have themselves a great afternoon.

Right. So there used to be clubhouses that actually were not part of the baseball park. So the reason why they're still called clubhouses is tradition. They are now locker rooms connected to the stadium. That you no longer have to walk out through the outfield door and pass the parking lot to get to the clubhouse like players at one time did. And that's the difference. Also, again, remember, baseball has been around for a very, very long time.

So a lot of things they call it, and a lot of traditions that they do don't make any sense. This once again takes me back to the 162 game baseball season. As you can see here for the remaining schedule, the Diamondbacks really don't have the opponents in the wildcard hunt that they need ahead of them in order to make up ground. They don't have games against the Mets. No more games against the Reds. They do have games against the Padres on the Dodgers, and there's a good chance one of those teams are going to end up with a wildcard spot.

However, both of those teams are kind of out of the range for the Diamondback, so they don't even have enough games against those teams to make up ground on those teams. So the 162 baseball game season used to exist because you never played the other league. You only played American League if you were American League team, National League if your nationally team, and you mostly only played your division,

which at least if you were down by, 20 games in August, you could somehow actually make that up. And I'm not even joking about that. That's the way baseball was structured for that purpose. Yet we threw all of that out of the window once we decided to do interleague play. And then we decided everybody should get a DH. And now it's just, we just call it American League and National League for Funsies. That's pretty much what it is. Baseball or Scotty Max says, baseball is too long. Anthony Rendon. There's not a lot of things Anthony Rendon and I agree on. But that's definitely one of them. but they'll never change it because there's too much financial revenue being generated by 162 game season.

So here we are. But anyway, we love you guys. We thank you so much for your questions. Obviously, Mailback Monday would not be what it is without them. Also, we thank you for your time. It's your most valuable commodity. Thank you for sharing it with us. The show would not be what it is without your time.

You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end. Our show. Oh, wait, hold on. We're still Damon's not. We're Damon's dogs, right? Bark, 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. I have to talk to LG3 now because I don't have my snake. I don't have Jesse Jr., aka JJ, and I'm still fairly upset about that. But we'll figure things out once Blaze Alexander gets back here. But again, we thank you guys so much for your time.

We appreciate you stopping by. We will see you tomorrow with another, post-game show. So until then, keep yourselves, uh, entertained, uh, behave yourselves. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you finally dye your hair beard and beard teal and get your damn snake back. I'm so upset. Blaze, call me.