PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks Reliever AJ Puk SIDELINED with Left Elbow Inflammation

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Our best Diehard deal! Just $3 A Month https://www.gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube Our best Diehard deal! Just $3 A Month https://www.gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube Injuries continue to pile up for the Arizona Diamondbacks. We have more on reliever AJ Puk heading to the IL and what an MRI could mean for his future this season. We also discuss Drey Jameson, Juan Morillo, and J.P. Feyereisen being reinforcements for the bullpen, the Diamondbacks avoiding the sweep on Sunday against the Cubs, and answers to your Mailbag Monday questions. Our guy Dalton Feely stops by to give his thoughts on the bullpen disaster from game 1 of the series and if it’s time to smash the panic button. Join Derek, Dalton, Kevin, and the Cactus Light for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/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 PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! The D-backs are hosting Golf Night on Monday, May 5th vs. the Mets. Purchase a Special Event ticket package through the special link and receive a game ticket and a limited-edition D-backs rope hat courtesy of Branded Bills! https://www.gofevo.com/event/Dbacks6165 Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnx Waymo: Download the Waymo One App and Ride Today! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waymo-one/id1343524838; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waymo.carapp Carol Royse Team: To buy/sell your home, call Carol Royse at 480-776-5231 or visit carolroyseteam.com All 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. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, have the Arizona Diamondbacks lost another key player for a significant amount of time? And how did I end up surviving this weekend? I have no idea. But we do have Dalton Feely here to stop by. Help me out. Maybe give a little relief appearance for your old boy here after a long weekend and talk about not only the Diamondbacks losing AJ Puck, but also them avoiding getting swept by the Cubs. All this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere?

Welcome to another edition of the PHMXDVACs podcast. right here on pH and X. My name is Derek Monta, occasionally known as a man about town in Las Vegas, who causes an entire room of people to all drink espresso martinis. I am joined, of course, by my guy on the ones and twos, the one and only Kevin Thomas, a.k.a. large intimate, large intimate,

that this was the most appropriate weekend for you to have a nickname, having it be WrestleMania weekend. How you doing, buddy? Doing better now that Dominic Mysterio is our Endergon and Elth champion. God bless. God bless. great. Eoskeye retains. Yeah.

Extremely happy. It was a good show. And then you also have John Cena and his hair transplants, winning the championship, his 17th. But we are not here to talk about that today. We are here to talk about snakeball. I know you guys, at least some of you are here to talk about baseball. Others are here to talk about a little wrestling action. But this podcast is presented to you by Bet365 and our friends over at game time.

Go over to Bet365. Use that code of PHNX365. When you sign up, you get yourself some bonus bets. and then go to game time, get yourself some tickets. You'll get $20 off your first order using our code of P HNX. Like I said, I can't do it alone. Elizabeth says JJ looks hungover. There's a good chance that I might just be,

I might be rubbing off on him a little bit. I did not bring him to Las Vegas with me. He is too innocent for that. But I did have myself a great time there. And I will talk a little bit later about all the reasons why WrestleMania is one of the only things you can go to be in the town of the event and not actually go to the event and still have a great, great time. Welcome in to all of you guys. Great to see you guys here. We have ourselves,

of course, a relief pitcher due to the lack of stamina on my part. I might have some cramping going on myself. So we are going to bring in the one and only Dalton Feeley. Dalton, how are you, buddy? Good to see you. Ready to go. He's ready. He's ready. He's warmed up. He was throwing in the bullpen. He was hit 96 he's ready to go. And they might need you, sir, with the unfortunate situation that Diamondbacks are going through right now. They made a absolute flurry of roster moves after that weird comeback loss that they had on

Friday against the Chicago Cubs. And it was something that was kind of a welcomed site for a lot of Arizona Diamondbacks fans. However, snuck in there was a very problematic situation. I think we have a graphic of the roster moves. moves, but we got notification that Drey Jameson had been recalled from AAA Reno and that the Diamondbacks had selected the contracts of JP Fire Eisen and Juan Morillo, and then they optioned to Reno following that game, Joe Mantipli and Bryce Jarvis. But then, then was this problematic

note down here that AJ Puck had been placed on the 15-day IL with left elbow inflammation retroactive to April 18th. also designated great Kessinger for assignment. First part, if you were reading down that list slowly, the first part of that was all things that I think Diamondbacks fans were excited to see a little bit, just a change there in the bullpen, especially considering the performances by Mantipi and Bryce Jarvis, right, just to get some fresh arms in the pen. But now we find out that AJ Puck is on the IL with the dreaded left elbow inflammation,

simply based on the fact that that is a diagnosis that usually leads us down a path to Tommy John surgery yeah and he talked a j puck that is talked to to Jody Jackson once getting the diagnosis of the inflammation in his elbow he's had Tommy John in the past and he knows that there are very similar issues with the elbow you know when you have an inflammation it's the first sign of something serious could arise from it doesn't mean it will doesn't mean it's going to be Tommy John, but it is something to take care of in the meantime. Do not rush back. Make sure you get the proper treatment. Diamondbacks will make sure he gets his rest and make sure the inflammation does not continue after that a lot of time to rest. We need AJ Puck because if

if Puck is out, Mantiply got option, there is one lefty in the pen right now. And that's Jalen Beeks, who we got out of the parking lot, basically, which is if you said this three weeks ago, you'd be like what the hell happened to dime back's bullpen so hopefully fingers crossed a j puck's elbow is fine i will donate it if he needs it but we need puck back if he can okay well we got it we got a we got a donation here from dalton so we at least know that we could we could give him a new arm but yeah no i mean uh this isn't great like you said i mean we know that jo mantipa obviously got set down one of their lefties now they're losing um puck uh the diamondbacks don't really have a ton of options here when it comes to that. All the guys that they called up are all righties. Drey Jameson is

righty. Fire Eisen is righty. I think I'm saying his name right. I've tried. I've tried with that one. And I want what he is of a righty as well. So, but yeah, I mean, those guys were killing it in Reno. We had actually just talked on Friday's episode about how good Jameson and JP were doing down there. We always love a good Dre Day around these parts. And of course, he was my like dark horse selection to not only make the bullpen this year, but to eventually end up being the closer. And it would not be out of the realm of possibility to see him get some opportunities there in the ninth inning as the season progresses here. Yeah, for sure. And especially if Martinez is also banged up too with some soreness right now, Puck being the also a closer in that role with Martinez, both them being

banged up. Ginkle was the third person. It's in during spring training in that closer race. And he's been hurt the entire season has not made his 2025 debut. So the high leverage guys have been banged up to start. Drey Jamison was getting a feel and a touch of it in 2023 prior to him getting hurt. I think the biggest question for Dre Jameson really will be his role in the future of this Diamondbacks bullpen. We remember when he first came up, he was a starter and they're also using him as a long reliever. They're mixing him back and forth. I'm curious if Tori and the gang using him in high leverage situations with Martinez right now still banged up with some soreness, Puck being on the IL, Ginkle being on the IL, Ryan Thompson not being the 2023 Ryan Thompson that we know.

I think it would be a great learning experience for Dre Jamison. And I think he kind of likes these moments, right? I think we know that Dre loves the lights shining on him. He does. He loves that. So let him pitch in the big moments as long as he can stay here. Don't go too crazy under the bright lights. think he could really thrive in a high leverage role.

Dre loves that role. Also, Justin Martinez kind of seemed to embrace that role. He seemed very, very much like a guy that love the spotlight, love being in those big moments. Like you said, shut down with some arm fatigue. There's been some discussion. Our guy, Jack Summers from over at Sports Illustrated and Snake's territory, give them a shout out, was very much, you know, thinking that this might be dead arm. and we got like a little explanation there for what dead arm actually is.

It's nothing serious. It's no actual physical injury. But it's more about the fact that Justin Martinez's usage has led to him now kind of having this fatigue in his arm, having kind of like a lethargy in his arm, right? And what's interesting about this is this bullpen situation that a lot of people wanted Tori to continue to go. of these guys and now you have AJ Puck with elbow inflammation and you have Justin Martinez already experiencing dead

arm or arm fatigue this season and it's again part of the reason why you know the the bullpen was more of a problem due to the roster construction rather than usage because if a guy is in the Diamondbacks bullpen he has to be used

Tori cannot avoid using guys because if he does then that involves him putting all of that extra you know extra all those extra innings on someone else's arm and then you know you end up getting this situation where two of your best arms now are experiencing some sort of injury yeah i i don't know if this was an avoidable situation with the diamondbacks bullpen looking through the dime back's current bullpen when the guys were optioned or started the east of the season of guys who have pitched at least five games justin martine's has the fewest innings of

this bullpen so far so it's not like tori's used just and Martinez a lot to begin the season. It's been in those high leverage situations late in games. I believe it was Trevor May who's explained in the past dead arm. You're right. Really likely. Great explanation from Trevor May on that. Absolutely.

And it was usually you get dead arm during spring training or the dog days of summer, I believe, is exactly what he's like in the middle of the season. Right, in the middle of the season. And in terms of Justin Martinez and you obviously are very close to the regular season. I'm curious, you know, he's just still trying to work out all the kinks mechanically, they get in his body in 162 shape. Mind you, Justin Martinez is a young man. He is going to be his second full big season in the pros.

He's probably still growing into his body, too, being completely honest. So I think that also plays a little bit of a role. It's not natural for a guy to throw 102 mile power fastball and then a 92 milepower splitter. So I think. 99 mile an hour splitter there, pal. Try that. In 2026, maybe.

I don't know. I do think all of this plays into one big role of why he's got the dead arm. The biggest thing now is for the dimebacks, again, like I alluded to for AJ Puck, is to manage him to where he's not going to have a severe injury off of this dead arm or off of this soreness, because he's going to play a big role. And I can't believe I'm going to say this. If it wasn't really for Shelby Miller and Jalen Beaks, this Diamondbacks bullpen would be in a much worse spot. So they've played a fantastic job.

They've combined for 23 innings, and they've allowed just one earn. and run. That's amazing for these two. It's amazing. In the role, you'll ginkle too. So no, no. And like you said, the fact that they were added so late into the season, right? Like obviously it was due to injuries. It was due to need. Shelby Miller had impressed during spring training. So that was kind of more of it made sense. Shelby Miller was going to find his way into the bullpen. And he has, he has exceeded expectations beyond what you would have ever dreamed he could have done for this team. And again, it's, it's now managing that so that you don't put too much.

work on him, but he is a guy that has proven so far that he could be lights out in those high leverage situations. You also have, you know, like you said, Jalen Beeks, a guy who Mike Hazen said he simply added due to the fact that that opportunity was there. They knew that they were going to have some shortcomings in their bullpen and they added him right before opening day, mostly because as Hayes said, that was going to be much more difficult to add a guy like that after opening day. Guys signed their minor league contracts. They have to get their season figured out. They're not going to sit around once opening day comes and goes and still kind of be available on the market. They need to get going, right? So the Diamondbacks did a great job at assessing talent and picking

those guys up and would absolutely be lost this season without those two additions. We would have expedited maybe a lot of these call-ups. We probably would have seen Dre Jameson get called up earlier or maybe never even sent to Reno if they didn't have both Shelby Miller and Jalabeeks just do to need. And now, I mean, it's not like I'm not trying to look too much into this, but I can't help but wonder if AJ Puck's lack of success this year has been maybe attributed to this injury, kind of being something that's progressed a little bit as the season's gone on.

It's not like Puck has been bad for this team, but he definitely hasn't been the A.J. Puck that he was last season. I think you're 100% right. And I hadn't mentioned it. I think it was the Miami game. And I don't remember which game it was where he gives up the run to make it a 6-2 ball game. And then more, I think it's like in the eighth inning, but anywho, I'd mentioned onto X, Twitter, whatever, the folks call it nowadays, that app.

That app. That's what we're going to call. We're going to call it that app. What app, you know, a little expert or whatever. Yeah, I was like, H.J. Puck's been kind of on a slow start a little bit. Is there any, I'm not hitting the panic button yet, but just through the eye test, I was like, something doesn't look 100%. And Steve Simaster from the Dynbach's preimposed, who is a fantastic dude, does a great I've covered in the dimebacks said he sent me a picture of the savant on on as a reply and said, you know, he's not at the 100 percentile on everything like he was last year for the dimebacks, but he's still pitching at a high level in comparison to the rest of the league. And that I said, I completely agree.

I know he's still pitching very well. It just, it doesn't feel like AJ puck did last year. And I know that was elite. And I understand it was elite, but something didn't look right. And I'm, I think we now have the answer sadly with it being some elbow inflammation. that was causing maybe Puck being a 90% rather than a 100% that we saw from last year. Right. And we get spoiled really quickly, right?

Like it makes me think of like Andrew Salfranck and Ryan Thompson when they joined this team in 2023. We couldn't stop asking the question about Thompson, our guy, T-time. Where did this guy come from? How did we pick him up off of the trash heap? Considering that if you even looked at his performances with Tampa Bay, his ERA was so high simply because he had to, two bad outings, but he came over to this team and was lights out for a stretch there. And then honestly comes back down to earth, you know, in, in 2024 and this season hasn't been the outstanding version that we saw back in 2023.

But it's like that's more of the anomaly, right? Sometimes the fact that they have those great seasons or those great stretches, those are the actual like freak occurrences when in reality, a lot of pitchers are more of a, especially relievers, more of a three, four ERA guy. Excuse me. Yeah. I think that's fair, but the only argument I would make against that is in terms of puck style, he is swing and miss. And I think those guys are less volatile than the Ryan Thompson's of the world that induce contact. Because when you punch tickets, when you're punching tickets, there's not going to be any mistakes behind you.

There's no bad luck that can occur. It's you're getting swings and misses where Ryan Thompson, you can minimize the hard contact, but balls can still be put in place and bad pip luck can come into it. it. So I think for Ryan Thompson for sure, that could have been at 2023. I don't want to call it a fluke, but it could have been like a quote unquote Cinderella run. But for AJ Puck, I truly believe the end of 2024 was as close to a version of we're going to get. Maybe the maxed out version, but I think he is that type of pitcher when he's coming out of the pen. Yeah. Elise, aka Mike Hazen in the chat, says everyone is forgetting about how bad Saul Frank was last season before he was suspended. He isn't the answer, especially after he's been out for an extended period of time. Yeah, you're

absolutely right. I was just bringing Saul Frank up myself as an example of a guy who, again, had a freakishly good stretch for this team when they were here or when they joined the team and then, you know, eventually comes back down to Earth for sure. But we have way more to discuss, including that series against the Chicago Cubs, what went wrong, what eventually kind of went right there and how they were able to win the finale and avoid being swept. We're doing all that on the other side of this break. Dalton, don't you go anywhere. rest of you don't go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next time and back show. We'll be right back. Well, of course, it is already hot here. Let me tell you, I rode in the backseat of a car on my way here from

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how things didn't go their way, how Tori was kind of left in that position to go to Joe Mantipli and Bryce Jarvis Slate that ended up giving the lead back to the Cubs. What was your takeaway from that whole situation and obviously, you know, what ended up happening? My big takeaway was the picture I posted on Friday that I wanted to jump out a window and just...

That's accurate. Yeah, I was not feeling... me a reason to live i don't have one basically at that point it's really worth it yeah it was not i wasn't feeling great after it uh i will say i posted that onto social media and then right away uh at john what media is the social media one of the people who ever was on shift message to be saying hey can we post i'm like yes you can enjoy my pain that's hilarious i thought it was funny that's why i posted it go have fun but that game was that's going to be the game of the year and i don't know why It's always the Cubs.

We did this last year versus the Cubs, and I think in April, it was like a 12-11 game in Arizona. This year happens to be in Wrigley. It's just crazy to become the third team ever to score 10 runs in an inning and lose the game. Right. And we've been called the answer back over the last couple of years,

and they really proved it because through seven innings, that offense had done absolutely nothing whatsoever versus Colin Ray and Caleb Fieldbar. So I give the Cubs credit to hold on, through seven making a seven one game. I thought when they scored five and a seven, that was it. But then they scored 10 runs.

They scored 10 runs and I'm back. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm gone. The biggest thing I would say I took, Tori's plan went, combusted when Ryan Nelson struggled in the seventh inning. Right.

Because I believe, I believe what he was going to do. He was going to Ryan Nelson straight to Shelby Miller. That was what he was supposed to do. Ryan Nelson was supposed to eat up two and a half, three innings, and it didn't happen, right?

I mean, and I agree with you. Like I understand I definitely understand Joe Mantiply getting the reaction from fans that he got. And I understand the frustration with both him and Bryce Jarvis. But like you said, man, I mean, Ryan Nelson gave up a whole lot of runs that put this game out of reach for this team. And at that point, it was pretty much over based on how poorly he pitched. He didn't have control over the fastball, which is, you know, if he doesn't, I don't know if there's much Ryan Nelson can do on the. mound, right? But it was just, yeah, it was like a combined team, you know, effort as far as the, as a bullpen is concerned. It was everybody involved. And it just didn't work out. It is reminiscent,

though, of that Brewer's game at the end of the season last year. It's reminiscent of a lot of other situations where you don't, you just, you have a hard time getting past that loss. there's other losses that occur throughout the season that you're like me i forgot that game happened maybe if i bring it up it might make you a little bit oh remember when you know so-and-so botched the you know botched the ground ball at the end and they end up losing you know those whatever but it's it's games like this that really stick with you especially because of the emotional roller coaster we all went on over the course of that game uh but you know the diamondbacks did the one thing that we said that they had to do on friday they made those roster moves they bring in some

fresh arms. And honestly, from that point, we see the relief pitching area give up zero runs over the next two games. 11 runs on Friday, zero runs over the next two, two games by the bullpen. So, I mean, this series with the Cubs did not go the way they went, wanted it to, but they do avoid the sweep by winning on Sunday. And the Diamondbacks are five and two this season in series finale games. They've won their last four in a row. And, yeah, Again, there's there's the fact that this, I felt like it was a little different last year. I felt like the Diamondbacks lost a lot of series finale, especially when they would go up ahead in the series two games. So it's good to see that.

Merrill Kelly did leave Sunday's game with cramps after a pretty dumb weather delay that they started the game and then immediately stopped it after the first, you know, what one, one third of an inning in the first. but I mean, the Diamondbacks still get the job done. And hopefully Merrill Kelly doesn't have any lingering effects because he has really gotten things back on track this season and is once again becoming the Diamondbacks most consistent pitcher. The mainstay, yeah. Merrill, I think he retired the last 16 batters he faced prior to that Suzuki at bat where he threw the first pitch and then the clipping really started that.

And I give credit to Jose Herrera. Like, that's, I know we give him some flack in the Diamondbacks community, about his hitting ability, but he's a catcher. You know, he's a pitcher's catcher, man. He recognized that something wasn't right with Merrill right away. And he's like, hey, let's, Tori, let's get our guy Merrill checked out here. Something's not right. Yes, right.

The thing I do want to say about Merrill that scares me a hair, he's had cramping issues over the last few years. And it's usually in the summer during Arizona when it's 100, 110, where you guys were way better than I will in terms of that Arizona heat, where he's had issues at home, the jerseys, something with the starts where he just doesn't, his muscles act up and he starts cramping. I'm wondering do they do something to change his routine where he's getting more electrolytes, a banana.

Remember, Kawasaki like a decade ago? Cramp, eat your bananas, like during the start. I don't know, but this has become a consistent issue now, both at home and on the road with Merrill cramping. And when it happened luckily late enough in the game where the dime back's bullpen wasn't taxed. But think of this happens earlier in the game. They're going to need, like, let's say it happens in the third inning.

They would have needed like six to seven innings. out of a taxed bullpen that was down arms due to injury already. So luckily, Merrill was able to make it through and dominate, but hopefully the cramping issues can subside throughout the season and they figure out how to treat it properly. By the way, I remember last year when Merrill had a cramping issue in a game and it was asked about that basically the same thing you brought up. All I'll say is, is in those moments,

that's what a baseball manager can make you feel really dumb, just because they were like, yeah, we've tried a million things. And then like kind of started running through the list and you're like, well, yeah, of course you have. I'm silly to even have thought that. But right, when you see a guy consistently have cramping issues, you're like, I would love to help in some way. I mean, I don't know. I can't stop myself from cramping.

I'm cramping right now as we speak just talking about cramping. But you're right. Merrill Kelly did retire 16 consecutive batters in that game. That was a career high for Merrill. And yeah, man, I mean, he's he's been excellent for this team and they can't really afford to lose him. Zach Gallen, meanwhile, has become the wild card for this team, the most inconsistent pitcher. Just really, when you look up and down the roster, we've talked about Brandon Fought. We've talked about even Erod.

You know what you're going to get out of those guys. You know that they're going to give you a chance to win. They're not going to necessarily go out and dazzle, even though ERAD did have 12 strikeouts in a game. And Brandon Fought has been incredible at times. you know you're going to get a quality start, but they're going to get some runs allowed, and you expect that. With Zach, it can be one of the greatest pitching performances you've ever seen, and then the next night or next outing, Zach gives up six. He gives up, you know, whatever. And like, I don't really know. I still have two sides of me, one that, like, looks at this

analytically and wonders what's wrong with him. And then another side that's like the more human side to me that feels very bad because I mean I want Zach Galen to have success and I want this to be a big year for him. It's an important season one of the most important seasons of his entire life. And I just, I don't know, man. I just really feel bad that he really can't find it, considering that when you talk about consistency, he was Mr. Consistency at one point for this team setting a major league baseball record in that category essentially. Yeah, 2022 and 2023, Zach Gallen was unbelievable. 2022, he has a sub-25 VRA in over 180 innings.

And I think he finished his top five in back-to-back seasons in Sa Young voting in 22 and 23. I do think there's a part of me where that thinks that 2023, the postseason run, throwing over 240 innings combined, did impact them for 2024. And I don't know if there's been an impact for 2025, if it's wear and tear, mechanically, something's not. not right, but he just doesn't look like the same guy he has been. But I do think the biggest stat for Zach Gallen and his issues, it's just been throwing strikes. I just looked it up as you're talking about Gallen. Currently, Zach Gallen ranks dead last 89th at a qualified pitchers in strike percentage and dead last in that same group, went ahead and count. So not only is he not throwing strikes, but when he does throw strikes and gets ahead against batters, he doesn't throw

strikes again. So he's been nibbling and not not been able to consistently throw strikes, which then raises your pitch count and then hurts the bullpen and it becomes an entire dominoff. So is that a control issue? I mean, does that go beyond command? Because it's not like he's just missing, right? It seems to be like he can't really be deceptive. But then when he does come in the strike zone, he's not really fooling anyone. Like it doesn't, you know, it's kind of weird. Yeah, I would go for. So that was obviously the numerical standpoint. standpoint. Going through like my eye test and just my opinion and no fact alone, I think he's been really struggling with the fastball command. And when he's out of the zone with his fastball,

it sets up hitters to think, all right, the knuckle curve's coming. And when they're thinking knuckle curve, as much of a deceptive pitch as it can be, they're going to sit on it and they can hit that low pitch in the zone and drive. Yeah. So the fastball has come. You can, you can sit on it. It's not going to fool you. But if he has that fastball working, it makes you look like a fool, of the movement on the pitch and the way that it, it, especially coming out of his, uh, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, he's, it looks exactly like the fastball.

He does a great job with the knuckle curve, but yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know. It's, it's, it, it, it feels frustrating. It's, once again, another situation where you thought this starting rotation, which is still very good. I am not going to knock this rotation. The ERA be damned of the C R of this, of this, of this starting rotation because everybody. else feels pretty locked in here as as we stand. Corbyn Burns, even though he's not getting much run support,

hasn't had things go necessarily his way, is still putting up some good outings and has given this team a chance to win when he's been out there on the mound lately. It's really just been Zach Galen and the, you know, the lack of knowing what you're going to get on any given night from him. We do have this. Oh, sorry, go ahead.

No, I just want to make one quick point on Burns from that Friday game that he pitched that offensive onslaught. I give credit to him. He didn't look great again with the cutter was still a little inconsistent, but the wind was blowing out. And for him to give up only two runs in that game, and be truly quality quality. That's a pitcher going through it and being able to still pitch a game, like pitch a decent game. Some would even say a quality game. So when he doesn't have his best stuff, he still looks okay and serviceable. So just imagine when his stuff is working, hopefully later in sooner rather than later, we see that. seen this cutter at times working and when it does it's sexy it's it gets people out it gets out and so like you're right about that he right now he's he's struggling a bit but if i if i told you someone went six innings he gave up two earn runs like that's never going to be that's never going to be a bad day at the office even in a loss due to a lack of run support that is not a bad day on the mound for the

starting pitcher for sure but we do have the numbers from this series and dalton i'm just going to warn you now to overt your eyes at these ERAs that you're going to come seeing because this is not. This is pretty gross. Cubs outscored the Diamondbacks in the series 21 to 16. The Cubs hit seven home runs to the Diamondbacks four. Almost all of those all occurred in the first game. The Cubs had five, Diamondbacks had two. Diamondbacks and Cubs each had two more in game two and then no home runs on Sunday.

Runners in scoring position, Diamondbacks were 10 for 33 to the Cubs. for 37. Not great there for either team. Lots of opportunities. You know, mostly there, game one, they were able to, you know, convert,

but the rest of the series were not. Diamondbacks went 0 for seven with runners in scoring position in game two. They were four for 14 with runners in scoring position in game three. Starting ERA, 4.58 there for the Diamondbacks. 1.98 for the Cubs.

Outstanding job by the Cubs starters, even though they didn't go very long. They all gave up one earned run in their outings. Meanwhile, Diamondbacks really just had Zach Gallin's outing that ballooned that ERA. He gave up six run runs and six innings pitched. Relief pitching ERA. Yeah, that's gross. And all of that, again, that comes from that Friday night game.

For the majority, the Diamondbacks did not allow or did not give up a run the rest of the series. Neither did the Cubs, in fact. The bullpens both were great in games two and games three. So I know they had that extra innings thing with them giving up some runs. Yeah, I mean, this wasn't a great series for the Diamondbacks, but overall some changes have been made. They've adapted and hopefully we see this team, you know, kind of get stronger.

This bullpen has been a surprise. It's been a very pleasant surprise. However, you know, we did know that there were components of the bullpen that hadn't been performing as well as the other guys that have been brought on or someone like Justin Martinez and even Ryan Nelson. Like I put Ryan Nelson in that group of the guys that were performing well up until that game on Friday. It's just some sort of change was needed and the Diamondbacks made it maybe one day too late, but still end up making it. The only thing I would counter is that I think I give some Tori some slack and I give him some semi credit, but no blame.

So I don't give him slack for Friday because his bullpen plan went to crap when Ryan Nelson struggled and Maniply and Jarvis had to come in. I do, however, give him slack for the usage of the bullpen in the Miami series where there are a couple of situations. Yes, you are perfectly within reason to do that. I think I did that on Friday as well. I was like, if you're going to criticize Tori, you should criticize him for the fact that there were games that they had no business having their high leverage guys in when they had a decent size lead. And, you know, they end up doing that. And that costs them when they are in a close game against a very good Cubs team. And looking ahead at the schedule, you probably should have thought about that.

And game planned a little better for that. And I understand wins are wins. You got to beat the person who's in front of you, sure. But there's a world where we're five months down the road, if my math could be wrong there. But like the Cubs are going to be a pretty darn good team. And no offense to that team in Miami, they are going to be struggling. They are going to be in the bottom of the NL East. They're not going to be competing for October this season.

And quite frankly, this was a situation with the dimebacks. It could come be a tiebreaker for the Nile Wildcard. If, say, like, the Brewers somehow winning in the NL Central and the Cubs fall out of it, if Dynmax and Cubs are fighting for a wild-frette spot, the Cubs now have the tiebreaker. And going into it, it was a 2-2 series. Started that four-game set. The Arizona Dian-Mex started opening series was versus the Cubs four-game set. These three games were valuable three or two to win.

Sadly, they lose two of them. They don't have the tie-breaker anymore. And I think that all stems from the usage of the bullpen to Miami. And then, Domino, Facts Friday, complete shit-shin disaster. Yeah. I have a super chat here from bees. Our guy, Bees in the chat says, can we talk about the Reds, Orioles 24 to 2 insanity? Talk about wanting to flush a game.

How do you mentally recover from losing 24 to 2? I just can't imagine the energy there in the Orioles clubhouse. Yeah, I mean, in the office, we're talking about it a little bit because it was a big Yankee day, because I think of Gary Sanchez and Jorge Mateo both pitched for the Orioles in that game in that 24-2 game. So that is saying something where you're having former Yankees players pitch for a team. That's never a good sign. Baltimore, they are horrendous in the rotation so far.

I believe their ERA minus is in like the 158 range. And doing research, I believe that was currently the worst ranking in the 21st century through 22 games in a season so far. So Baltimore has been atrocious. And my quick grant on that is, hey, you address the rotation by not getting our guy Corbyn Burns back. You went with a 42-year-old Charlie Morton and a one-year deal for Tomoyuki Sagano,

who is an older pitcher. I think he's 35 coming from Japan. He's not really a strikeout pitcher. And then the rest of your crew who's banged up, Grayson Rodriguez is hurt. F. Lynn is supposed to be the ACE's hurt. That rotation is right now on life support, and we are not even through April yet.

Well, and I ask you this because I know it's a different situation, but do you think the Diamondbacks position players have a hard time bouncing back from what happened on Friday? Or, I mean, do you think that it gives them some confidence that at least they were able to mount a comeback and make it into what it. And like, it wasn't really on them that they lost the game, right? So it's like, I don't, I know it's disheartening. I think we had a great comment about that on Friday about how disheartening it must be to those position players. that fought so hard to come back and make that a game and take the lead. But I don't know if that really makes you lose confidence in yourself. I feel like it still has to at least make this team feel like no deficit is insurmountable.

I think it's two things can be true from this. One, I think it's deflating for a team as a whole, not just for the position player, as a team, where you're coming back down six runs in a game. You put up a 10 spot in the eighth inning, and yet you still managed to lose by multiple runs in that same game. That is heartbreaking the flag. And I think everyone had a little bit of a hangover the following day. I think, like you said, they went over and batting with runners in scoring position on Saturday.

So I think there was a hangover effect in Saturday. But that said, I think it also shows the answerbacks are the answerbacks. And regardless of the deficit, regardless of their home or away, regardless of who's on the mound, they can do it. They have been the best offense in late game situations, and they continue to prove it. So I think both can be true. It might have been deflating in the moment, but for the long run, hey, we can come back regardless of the situation. Well, Dalton, I appreciate your time, buddy. Thank you so much for stopping by.

I will see you again next week. And until then, go snakes. And I appreciate you. Make sure to check out him, Defeely 14. Check out everything they do over there at John Boy, because they are always putting out some incredible content. and let Jimmy know that I watch the, uh, the, the lip reading of the Tori Lavello ejection, at least once a day just to fill my soul up with happiness and joy. So thank him for that. And thank you again for your time, buddy. Of course, Derek Kev, always a pleasure.

Go SNAX. Let's go six and no this week. Why not? Let's go. Why not? I like that. That's the attitude to have. Great week. All right. I'll see you soon, buddy. All right. Well, we appreciate you guys so much, of course, for stopping by. We appreciate you always. in the chat. And on the other side of this break, you know what day it is. I couldn't miss Mailbag Monday for the world, no matter how drunk and hungover I am. So the other side of this break, we are going to talk about all of your Mailbag Monday questions and more. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the pH next time in Back Show. Of course, our friends at cornbread hemp make some of the finest USDA organic THC gummies you can find. And in fact, it's America's first ever

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are unfamiliar with the rules on this show every year on this show is our year every year on this show is the year of the snake. Every single month is WrestleMania month. Every single week is WrestleMania week and every single day is day two of WrestleMania. At least that's the only way I can see this.

But of course, you know what we do on Mondays. Every single Monday, we go to the mailbag. Kevin, let's go to the mailbag. All the mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. All right. What do we got here? Why, okay, this cactus light behind me will never be turned on. I just want you guys to know that.

Lawrence is asking, turn on the cactus light. We got Elizabeth chanting cactus light, cactus light, cactus light. Never, never, never. I will never turn that cactus light on. I don't know why I'm being so aggressive about this. What do we got in the mailbag, Kevin? What do you got for me? First up, Travis Moore, it feels like we're still seeing more defensive miscues

than we used to this season. Am I imagining that or is it true? If so, what can be done? You are absolutely not imagining that, Travis. That is definitely the case with this team this year. The Diamondbacks have not been defensively solid. They have not been the team that we are used to seeing. And again, I do think that in my personal opinion,

not to put blame on new coaches like Sean Larkin, it's just Tony Peres Chica was part of this team for a long time. and I think he set, as far as Tori discusses or brings up, he set a standard for the defense here. It's not to say Dave McKay or Sean Larkin don't have a similar standard. I just, I still think that we are in the first month of baseball. I know it started in March, but we're still within that 30-day span of the first month of baseball.

I think there's a lot of growing pains. These moves, these transactions to add coaches and change the team happen quickly. And the changes aren't just the fact that we have, of new coaches there, right, or a new coach over there at third base. The change is also the fact that we have Pavin Smith or Josh Naler over at first base. It's no discredit to them, but they are no Christian Walker defensively. Right now we're missing Cattel Marte there in the middle. And Tim Towers did a good job.

Garrett Hampson has been there and existed. And, you know, they're not the good defensive team that they've been in the past, right? So I think that the changes are part of it. I think this team still has, you know, some. some connecting to do, but I also think, you know, there's some other factors too, right? Like, Gino, no matter how bad his bat was last year, was incredible defensively for this team over a third base. And he hasn't really been that so far this year. So we've seen him makes, had some defensive miscues himself. I, I, I think that, again, this is something that this

team prides themselves on. This is something that they work very hard towards and make sure, you know, their fundamentals defensively are big part of what makes, you know, this team's makeup, their, their characteristic. It doesn't, just because you say that, though, doesn't make it true, right? Like, you know, there's, there's things that have to happen. And I think, again, they're still, they're still coming together overall. But what else we got? A little bit of an impromptu mailback question, but Elizabeth wants to know why does Derek

hate the cactus light? And some people want to know, like, you know, why you hate the chat, what happened to our mayor. He won't eat spicy wings or turn on the cactus light. So what's wrong with you, Derek? Well, I'll tell you the truth is that that bookcase behind me is a bookcase and it's not a media shelf. So in order for that cactus light to work, someone would have to drill a hole through the back of it and pull the light through. Now, looking at the roster that PHNX has, I want you to take a guess on who would be volunteered for that project. would it be Kevin with his six shows?

Would it be Damon? Would it be Shane who doesn't know how to put an anchor in a wall? Absolutely not. You know it would be me and I don't want to undertake more projects around here. So there. I hope that answer suffices. What else do you know? That does suffice.

Next question. The basketball football guy wants to know. He says, I'm calling BS on Martinez needing to rest after not working two days straight and having an off day the next day. what are the reasons why Martinez, what other reasons why Martinez not be available as Tori said he wasn't injured? Arm fatigue. Arm fatigue, because dead arm that we talked about earlier is not an injury, even though it sounds like a very, very scary one. Dead arm sounds worse than needing Tommy John surgery, but it just is more of a fatigue factor.

And he's right. Trevor May did an excellent job at breaking that down. But as far as his video was concerned, he just talked about basically not getting enough time off. off. Right. And so what this entails isn't necessarily Justin Martinez's workload on a in in games, right? It might just be the fact that players today don't stop, right? There's a reason why baseball players back in the 70s used to kind of look the way they did. And I'm talking about around the midsection. It's because baseball is a game that historically has involved a lot of rest in order for you to be at your best in order for you to recover from a long 162 game season, right? So sometimes

it's not about being in the best physical condition because being in the best physical condition requires you to work out all the time every single day, have a strict workout regimen. Sometimes that might just involve something as simple as playing catch and maybe that simple action of that extra effort, that extra workload is too much. You know, know, especially for a young arm that's being kind of asked to do a lot, right? So I don't have a good explanation because like Dalton said, typically these things happen in spring training when they're ramping up and maybe they ramped up too fast and that fatigue sets in or it usually happens usually later in the season around July, August, and it's when you've pitched already 80, 90 games and

your arm is just kind of screaming at you to give it a break. Right. So that's, That's where we're at right now, but we definitely, I think it's, it's not a super negative thing. I don't think it's as bad as what's going on, obviously, with AJ Puck, where again, we found out from John Gambadoro. We found out from, I think from the Diamondbacks too or from Nick Picorro that the, he is having an MRI done today. The results of that MRI are going to determine what the next steps are for AJ Puck. And hopefully those next steps don't require that long term. surgery that loses him for a period of time. But we are in that danger zone right now.

That's the unfortunate part of what's going on with him right now. What else we got, Kev? Next up. Austin wants to know Jordan Lawler time. Please bring us news on this. Well, I wish I could. I wish I had more information for you. Again, I hate baseball because of things like this.

I hate baseball as a whole because things are kind of baked into this process. And part of it is the service time situation, which I don't necessarily think, is impacting this situation with Jordan Lawler. But it could be. It could be. It could be the fact that Diamondbacks at this point don't want to turn to Lawler with essentially Cotell Marte returning here in the next two weeks. At least that's the plan.

Fingers crossed. But it's hard. How do you continue to ignore what Jordan Lawler is doing for the Reno Aces? How do you continue to ignore the fact that? that Jordan Lawler has moved over to second base and has been playing there. He had another three for five night last night with a double, a home run, and two RBI. And I mean, honestly, he's been incredible. And he hit a home run that I wish we could show on this program right now because it was 435 feet.

And it went to the moon. So I feel like Lawler is really starting to catch fire right now. the Diamondbacks could use that. And of course, people are excited to get Jordan Lawler up here. Why won't they do it? Because what do you do with Jordan Lawler when Ketelmerté returns in two weeks? Send them back down. So what?

We have two weeks with them? You're not going to leave them on the bench and make them a utility infielder like you would with Garrett Hampson or even Tim Tawa. You're not going to go over and have them share playing time with Gino, even though that honestly would. It wouldn't be the worst idea considering how Gino is struggling right now. But that's the problem is not what you do with Jordan Lawler in the meantime while Marte is out with injury. It is the, it is the fact of what do you do with him when you return. Yeah, Lawler can play utility. That doesn't matter.

Despite the fact that Tori would still find plenty of time for him to get playing time in here. It's more about him playing every single day and him continuing his development. They don't want him to sit on the bench. They don't want him to be a utility infielder. They want Jordan Lawler when he comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks team to play every single day. They might still pull the trigger on this. I'm not saying it's out of the realm of possibility. I'm just saying just as a playing devil's advocate,

what do you do with him when when Catell returns? And that's really what it comes down to. Piece of Yoshi says, I honestly don't think Lutler would be hitting that much better than Tawa and it Cattel's absent because of the adjustment. Right. Yeah. Like it's also you look at what he's doing.

You look at what his numbers are this season. And yeah, it's really easy to get excited about Loller having a 325 average so far. But it's Reno, right? And if you look at some of his other teammates, he does have other teammates who are hitting 313, 313, 295, 310. So there's a lot of guys. Trey Mancini is hitting 310 for the Reno Aces. And that guy deserves to be on a major league roster, quite frankly, at this point. But again, there, there is.

is that adjustment to major league hitting. And there is the fact that you have a very, you know, tight window as far as when he would come up and, you know, how he would perform and what they would do with him after Citele returns. I'm not saying that that's not something that I would like to see. I would love to see that. But I just think that Jordan Lawler is the future of this team, probably a third base. And that that's where, you know, that I guess the confusion.

for me is I know that he's good at shortstop. I know he's good at third base. So getting him time at second makes sense to help round him out. But it did kind of coincide with this injury. It could tell Marte. Like Jordan Lawler was playing second base right at the same time that the Marte injury happened or that's when he started playing second base. So that that, that's a little suspicious. That makes me feel like maybe they're trying to see maybe they maybe they wanted to kick the tires on that. But I don't know. I don't know how that situation is going to play out. I just don't think we're going to see them make that move. And we have so much more to talk about on the other side of this break. It's Mailbag Monday. We got a million questions. We're not going anywhere. You don't go

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And again, like I said, we have so many more mailbag Monday. questions to get to and we got to get going on that kevin what do you got for me next up candace with a two-parter no no get this off my screen candace doesn't get a two part question that is a lot is the new pitching coach and thus the new pitching strategy to blame for the fact that our starting pitchers are constantly working behind in the counts from them trying to pick at the bottom of the zone thus leading them to throw pitches in the zone latent counts and having hard hit percentages gallon 41 Maro 45, 542, burns 50 above league average? Well, let's start with that one.

No, I do not think a pitching coach or pitching strategy is to blame for this. Now, yes, again, just like the Sean Larkin situation, this is a new pitching coach, one who loves biomechanics. Was it biomechanics, right? And, you know, again, there might be maybe some tinkering perhaps being done with their delivery or things like that. But that's not really different. We know that last year,

Brentstrom also did something similar with guys. I think it's part of working with a new pitching coach. There's also some growing pains there. I just don't know if this is any kind of deliberate strategy, right? This isn't something that necessarily is to blame on the coach, which I was going to talk about this with Dalton, but I still feel like this is something that is far too common with, this team right now is blaming coaches for the lack of performance by the players.

I think we should very much focus on the fact that, yeah, I mean, pitch selection and other things are determined by the pitching coach a bit. Maybe, you know, maybe, maybe some of the tinkering does lead to this, but I just have a feeling that some of this might be, you know, just the way that baseball tends to go. I've watched a lot of baseball and I know that there are often anomalies where guys that used to be very good, aren't any longer. Some of the things that change over the course of time involve, you know, again, losing that ability to do the things you used to do. If you're able to locate really well, that's not something necessarily that every pitcher can do for an extended period

of time throughout their career, right? It's just baseball, right? I think with Zach Gallin, for instance, the frustrating part about it is the fact that consistency was a big part of what he brought to this team when they first acquired him in that trade for jazz chisholm. And it just very, very, very much feels like, you know, that's, that's not the case. Like Dalton said, he's been getting behind in counts early. And, and I don't know. I feel like that's more of a confidence issue myself with, you know, attacking the zone. And that's something I doubt that the pitching coach is not wanting them to do.

Right. All right. All right. All right. Yes, indeed. Part two of Candice's question is, why can't we see Gritchick get a start in the outfield to save a left-handed bat for later in the game? He is hitting better than Gurriel and you will still have an extra outfielder with him on the bench.

And maybe it will give Tori a chance to break up the lefties at the top of the order and have some more opportunities with guys on for Naylor and even Suarez. Well, as much as I would like to say yes to that, I still think that at the end of the day, they're going to play the pitching matchups. And maybe you're right. Gritchick probably deserves some better, some more playing time. but so far this year his splits kind of prove. Now, it's in the smallest sample size you can imagine, Kevin and Candace. So I'm not going to act like this says anything about him. But, you know, Randall Gritchick this year is hitting.

He's slashing 304, 385, 522 with a 906 OPS against left-handed pitching. And he is slashing 200, 200, 200, 400 with a 600 OPS against right-handed pitching. However, he's only had five at bats against right-handed pitching. So I don't know if that sample size is enough to say that he is not good against right-handed pitching. If you take a look last year of his splits, again, he didn't get much playing time against right-handed pitching. But the splits are also there against right-handed pitching last year. You have a 319 average, 386, 528 with a 914 OPS against left-handed, and then a 242-274-528 slug with an 801 OPS against right-hander. So he did a great job against Wright.

He's like, the NATO 1 OPS is fine. But he is significantly better against left-handed pitching. And it feels like the Diamondbacks plan to continue to use them for that. So it's always going to be matchup base. But in regards to him starting in the outfield, I don't know. We haven't seen much of him. And from what we've seen, he's able to get the job done. So I don't really have much of an answer for you on that.

But I'm sure as the season progresses, we'll see more. out there in the outfield for sure what else we got kevin next up karen with a sea wants to know do we have any more left-handed pitchers ready to bring up Tommy henry is on the 40-man roster and then in relation to our last time we spoke with karen uh she says and yes i have air conditioning i don't want to be mistaken for all those quote karen's out there oh all right that's uh that's definitely uh a good good good thing we don't you got to differentiate yourself from the the Karen's with a K, right? You don't want to be a part of that group.

Have to. Have to. By the way, let's just address that for a moment. Imagine how awful it must be for your name to suddenly become some sort of terrible nickname for awful women. I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, no, I mean, this is a situation with the Diamondbacks top prospects where they do

have some guys in their system. It's just a matter of how ready they'll be. Umin Lynn, left-handed pitcher, he's going to be stretched out and stay a starter. Let's see. Daniel Egan's been shoving lately. He's a righty. Spencer Geisting, there's a name that you might, might want to know. I know he's been having some success in minor league level. However, he's just with the Amarillo Assad poodles right now. So not really close, not somebody that you could look to.

And then, of course, we also know Blake Walston is lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery himself. So when you're talking about the Diamondbacks top prospects, no, there's not a lot there. There's not a lot of left-handed pitchers that are ready to get called up. Again, going back to what the Diamondbacks did during the offseason, it's a big reason why they added Jalambique's when that opportunity provided itself. And that is very much a welcome site at this point. I don't know where the Diamondbacks would be without Jailen Beaks. Let's see. We also have Michael Perry asking, how is that Murillo, a strikeout reliever just saying

a triple-8? Marillo, or Marillo, is on the, currently on the roster and currently on the major league club and hopefully continues to perform well. What else we got there, Kev? I got to give you an opportunity to defend yourself against possible beef with the Groundhog Mama because we were talking about Karen's in general, and Groundhog Mama is named Karen. With a K.

With a K. For good reason. Elizabeth says she's going to say groundhog mama after you. For good reason. And you've started beef. Right. For good reason. Sometimes you're appropriately named is all I'm saying.

Go ahead. What do we got? I'm just attacking. He's a heel today, folks. Gabriel says, what do I even do in my life during off days? I don't know. I don't have an answer for this question. I hate off days too.

I can't recommend road trips just because road trips are fun on the way out, not so fun on the way back. defeating, demoralizing, coming back to normal life. I did not want to spend one more day in Las Vegas, Kevin. That's how it is. I couldn't get out of that city fast enough. However, I am more upset about the good times being over, the good times with the lads. I'm going to miss the boys. I'm going to miss fitting three of us in a hotel room with only two king-sized beds.

And I'm very much going to miss staying up until 4 o'clock in the morning and eating food around 2.30 that I have no business eating and I'm going to regret the entirety of the next day. But I don't know. I think that really off days are rare occurrences. So go find yourself something to do. There's lots of good shows out there, lots of good streaming services. You could follow Kendrick Lamar's advice and turn the TV off and go outside, enjoy the weather while it was nice because that's over now. It's going to be hot and terrible for the rest of what six months for the next six months. It's going to be bad, bad. But anyway, that's,

that's all I got on that. That's all I got what to do with an off day. Be productive. Go fix something around your house. I have lots of things I need to fix. What else we got? Tucson D. Bax wants to know, if we go four and four to end April, that will be the magical 15 and 11. Did we pick

a final hair color just in case? I did not commit to any of this. Did not commit to any kind of record in April. What I committed to was Gino Svarez, hit. hitting 50 bombs and I'm feeling very confident about that. I think I was feeling so confident at one point that I changed it to 40 home runs.

You did. So the current total is Gino hitting 40 home runs will get my beard dyed teal. Is that right? Correct. The Mundo. Okay. Yes. So that's where we're at.

I will not be dying anything, any color just because it's diamond backs out of winning season, winning record in April. Quite frankly, they should have a winning record in April. When you look at the teams they faced, the Chicago Cubs team was one of the toughest teams they had to face. They still have a couple of tough battles here. They had no business losing to the Washington Nationals, you know, two out of three.

And, you know, they have a chance to finish strong and, and again, make it out of the month with the positive record that doesn't look so bad. But May is a tough month. And this division isn't getting any easier. However, you know, unfortunately things are happening and, you know, Diamondbacks are able to kind of stay in the hunt here. The NL.S. finally stopped being unstoppable.

But here we go. We got a lot of games still to win and hopefully the diamondbacks can get the job done. What else we got? We got to set up the cactus light. That's what they want me to do on my off day. No, I'm not going to do that. The Cardinal, it's not coming on. This cactus light isn't coming on.

I don't know why you would put a cactus light on a set and not plug it in. But there's a good reason. I think that's kind of their point, to be honest with you. I mean, I'm with them on that. I'm not anti-cactus light. But what I'm going to do is make that cactus light disappear, and you're never going to see that cactus light again as long as you live. I am continuing my heel streak because I am tired.

And John Cena just made me feel like I don't need to be nice in order to be liked. Everybody was cheering him last night despite the awful things he said about children. So you're going to boo Cody. You can boo Kevin and cheer me for my terribleness. What else we got, Kevin? I don't know. I'm tired. Yes, she wants to know. What do we think of the broadcast little highlight rules for certain players

when they're due up. I always thought they were a little bit much, especially for the guys like Nailer where it features highlights of them on a different team. Maybe I'm out of touch though. Maybe you are out of touch. I will never be an anti-highlight package. I will never be anti-highlight real.

I will say though, no, like he is right, though, about it being every time they come up to bat, right? Like that might be excessive. Like maybe in the first at bat for each guy, you show something like that, but maybe. I feel like you also can't have them on the other team. Like if you don't have any renders of them in the current jersey, that's just lazy.

You just can't do it. That's lazy. How do we not have Josh Naylor highlights? This man's stealing bases and hitting bombs in Miami. He hit three back-to-back home runs. Like, just show those. Just crack, crack, crack. That's all I need is to see that.

And that will fire me up. I'll be ready for Josh Naylor time. Psycho time. I don't know. I'm not anti-video package. I will say maybe some people feel like it's setting them up for failure. Maybe they feel like the broadcast is is cursing them by showing that that video package.

And to you, I say, do you still believe in magic is all I really wanted to know? I definitely don't believe in magic anymore. Those days are over. All right. What else you got? Chris and Phoenix says, will Derek be lucid and sober for today's show? No. After last night and his weekends escapades.

Also, what is the latest status of his hall pass? Okay. Oh, wow. Chris. Oh, wow. That's personal information. Hall pass is on a case-by-case basis. That's all I'm going to address that for.

And I'll also say, as Kevin pointed out to me in my DMs, he's over here antagonizing me that Stephanie Vakere was in the same city as I was at the same time. La Prithing the same air. Just breathing the same air as me. So I behaved myself. I did not use my hall pass, but I could have. And I will also say that my wife is awesome. I did have a great time. No, I'm not sober.

No, I'm not lucid. I don't know if I'll ever be again. This weekend might have broken me, but I did have a very good time. And I will say, again, that it's, for me, it's about seeing my friends. I got to see my buddy Josh that I don't get to see much from Idaho. I also got to go just be a man child in Las Vegas.

And, yeah, we had a very fun time. and we behaved ourselves kind of what else we got last but not least handley says what stood out from russomania 41 ooh um there was i mean i will say that this spectacle of wrestlemania is something to behold the the stage set up everything they did the fireworks the pageantry it was all great um from my fan perspective there were a lot of things that were kind of a letdown and there were other things that were a lot of fun to watch. I will say I have been from the days where WrestleMania was one night. So make it one night again. The financial burden on a lot of people was was kind of the problem I felt. I don't feel like either night was strong enough for them to

not trim some of the fat from both of those nights, some of those matches that they didn't need to have and just combine it into one night. They'll never do that again. As long as they can charge people for two separate nights, WrestleMania will always be two nights like it is from now until the end of time. I think that's my problem. Overall, this felt very much like a large cash grab. And I know a lot of these events are.

That's the purpose of it. You had nearly a quarter of a billion dollars spent by fans in the city of Las Vegas, yet a business magazine still felt like that was like nothing. That's a drop in the bucket as far as tourism for the city of Vegas is concerned, right? But you had a lot of people come into town, spend a lot of money, go to these events.

And I think that like we've lost our way a little bit on, you know, ticket prices and people going to events and how much money companies are making off of this. That was my big takeaway. I was very glad I didn't get to go because the price of tickets, no matter which ticket was available to me, did not seem reasonable for the amount of money I was spending for the experience, right? If you are somebody that's never gone to WrestleMania and this was your first time, then lo and behold, like, please enjoy yourself.

Go do the thing. I have been those six WrestleMania's. I have, I just, there are certain things about it like spending $400 on a nosebleed seat where I'm not even kidding you. The screen itself was like this big. Instead, I sat for free poolside and watched it on a gigantic screen and had a great time with my friends and the drinks were cheaper and the scenery was better. and I didn't find myself stuck inside of a building,

overpaying for food and drinks, and not really enjoying myself as much because I was in seats that were very, very, very far away from the action, right? So, and I'll also say this. I love WrestleMania Week because of all of the events that go on around it. It's just, that's what's weird about it is like no other event.

You wouldn't go for, you know, to Tennessee, for Bristol, to see the race and not go to the race and just go to auxiliary, you know, race events around it. You wouldn't do that for the Super Bowl. You wouldn't go into town for the Super Bowl, but not go to the Super Bowl. It sounds crazy. WrestleMania is one of those weird things where, like,

this entire weird wrestling world moves into the town that wrestling, you know, WrestleMania is taking place. They kind of take things over. They have all these events. And it's a lot of fun. It's great to go to some of the other events, do some of the stuff.

We went to wrestling shows that started at midnight. I saw Brody Lee's son. Brody Lee Jr. When a cluster F match, I'm not allowed to say what the actual match is called, but it was a big long Royal Rumble that he essentially won at the end. I saw some craziness over the course of the weekend,

had some great times with my friends. And again, it's like a weird world that kind of exists around WrestleMania that you can have a lot of fun in. I just met this mom at the show who was there. It was a show that started at midnight. It was called the Cluster F show. and there's a small child who was like 11 years old there with his mom.

And I had to have a conversation with them because one, I thought that mom was awesome for being there. I was like, you are mother of the year. And I asked the kid, I was like, what business do you have being at this show? And he told me that he asked for that for his birthday because his mom couldn't afford tickets to go to WrestleMania. And his mom pointed out to me,

the same thing I said. She didn't want to spend $800 on, on tickets for her and her son to go sit in some nosebleed seats that were so far away that you couldn't even see the screen that the big screen that you could see the matches on let alone the matches themselves in the ring she would much prefer to spend 50 60 bucks for this GCW show and take her kid to that and they had a great time and that kid got to see another kid almost his same age win the Royal Rumble at the end of the night I bet he had a blast, you know, watching that, right? But that's where I say I feel like we've lost our way

with events like this. I know it's all about money and stockholders and share prices and all that stuff. TKO spent a godly amount of money on purchasing and acquiring WWE. They're going to make that money back and they're, they know how they can, right? That building was still packed with people paying $300 plus to go watch, you know, that WrestleMania show over the course of two nights was 125,000 plus people that went over those two nights, right? So that's that's that's where for me, you know, it's, I feel like wrestling that's something that's supposed to be for kids and for younger people and for families to enjoy has priced themselves in a direction where, uh, they're not for that anymore. So I don't know. I'm sounding like an old fuddy dutty here. I guess at the end

of the day, if you could charge those ticket prices and get people to pay for them, then do your thing, I guess. But I just feel like, you know, there's, there's, there's an entertainment factor here. And I don't know if people are going to continue to pay that much to go to two nights for much longer, especially when you deliver a main event like you did between Johnstein and Cody Rhodes. And that is a discussion for a whole other show that most of you don't care about. But like, yeah, I will say like, again, it's, like we went to All Star Weekend, you know, and there was a lot of events during All Star Weekend.

That's probably the most comparable thing I could say to this is there, there's, there's lots of fun things to do you can go to the home run derby you can go to the futures game you can do other stuff over the course of all-star weekend and not necessarily go to the all-star game you can have fun with other baseball fans and just enjoy yourself not to mention it's a vacation in a town that you might not have been to before so you get a chance to enjoy the local you know food and drinks and do other stuff right so yeah i mean that's that's probably it that's probably maybe that's why i like both baseball and wrestling both of those events kind of uh are as close as you can get to something that you would fly into town for and not go to the actual event.

But let's see, what Lawrence says, speaking of cash grab, how much do I got a super chat, you to get that sweet cactus light action? Damn it, Kevin, I'm going to go turn it on right now. I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, I can't because it's not. Can't do that. Sorry, maybe next time, Lawrence, save up some money and we'll chat and you can super chat me and we'll do that. Speaking of super chats, did I miss any before we get out of here, Kevin?

Benjamin Hunley says, why do the 2020 D-back suck at base running? I do not know. I don't have an answer for you on that. Again, maybe that's a little bit of Tony Parishika not being there. Maybe it's a little bit of the, you know, the game plan being out there, people knowing the diving back is going to try to create chaos and maybe really studying on, you know, what they can do to stop it. I don't have a great answer for you on that.

But I have a feeling like Corbyn Carroll's base running his back. And I think as long as I feel like if Corbyn can kind of set, you know, kind of set the standard there, you can set the pace. I think other guys will follow suit. Alec Thomas doesn't seem to have any lack of confidence in his ability, steal bases. And we also know Josh Naylor is a base stealing monster. So yeah, I'm with you, though. I would love to see more base stealing. And I don't know why right now.

They have been so bad on the base path, not just in stealing bases, but running the base path for sure. So but hey, I've talked way too long. I've no business doing this. I'm only contractually obligated to an hour. And this is more of my heel side coming out. My voice is done. My body is done. And I have nothing left to give.

But I'm so glad you guys join me today. And I promise you, Lawrence, I will get that goddamn cactus light turned on. But only if you follow me on Twitter, at least that's what I'm still calling it. I'll never call it X. Follow me there. I'm at cap underscore K, man with a K. Kevin is at Kev-O post. Make sure you follow him as well.

Our show is at PH&X underscore D-Backs. But as always, all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much. for your time. We appreciate you for your questions and you stopping by. Set it before. I'll say it again and I'll continue to say it. Your time is your most valuable commodity. So thank you for sharing it with me. Thanks to Dalton for sharing his time with us as well. We will see you tomorrow for a postgame show to make sure to join us for that after Diamondbacks here. Go to take on. Who are they playing? Kevin.

The Tampa Bay Race. Oh, God. That's right. At least it's at least it's at home and not in Tampa. So there's that. But love you guys. Appreciate you for your time again. We'll see tomorrow. And until then, behave yourselves. Have a wonderful evening. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you don't lose one of your best left-handed relievers to injury.