PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks salvage series win over Oakland A's, Alek Thomas gets sent down

Starting point is 00:00:07 We're going to write one of the days. Welcome on the end to the PHNX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montaia. Of course, I'm Mayor of PHNX. This guy next to me, he's a Thunderstick. He's also my vice mayor. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Are we live today? We are live today. Is it actually working? We are live. And I'm wearing a special shirt today, by the way. Just in honor of bird murderers. Just in honor of bird murderers, which we will get to plenty of bird murder talk.

Starting point is 00:00:33 But the Arizona Diamondbacks did do the thing that they should have. done and that is beat the Oakland Athletics in a three game series today finalizing the win with a five to three victory that was once again way closer than it needed to be. I didn't feel good about this game Jesse because I was listening to it

Starting point is 00:00:51 on the radios I was driving over to the studio and pregame they were just saying how this game was already in the bag and that the Diamondback should just walk over them in this game without a problem and it felt it felt a little cocky Chris Gares Yola?

Starting point is 00:01:06 Or guy Chris Gersiola said that? I'm not trying to throw Chris Gersiola under the bus. I don't know if it was him, but I know I do believe Josh Colemanter was involved in some of that discussion. It was just interesting because, of course, this is much like the other series. I feel like we discussed where, yes, they are baseball teams. Yes, they are capable of not getting steamrolled by the Diamondbacks. And maybe the Diamondbacks aren't really that good enough of a team yet to be going in and steamrolling the bad teams without, you know, without breaking a sweat. but it feels a lot like the Rockies and the Royal Series

Starting point is 00:01:38 where they played well enough that it felt like they should have swept the A's in the series, but of course we talked about the game two disaster and things falling apart for them. We had a little bit more of that today after a fairly good outing from Ryan Nelson, which something that Diamondbacks absolutely needed out of him today. They could have used a little more length,

Starting point is 00:02:00 but they did get a really good outing from Ryan today. They did, yeah, five in a third inning, no earned runs. It's funny, Luis Frius was, you know, he's like a public enemy number one right now in in the bullpen for the game that he had today. But he actually came in in a really big spot. Basis loaded one out as Ryan Nelson exited the game, was able to get those last two outs in that inning. So yeah, Ryan Nelson's final line looked great. He was very fastball heavy today. 62% four seamers, 21% cutters. He only threw a few changeups, curve balls, and sliders. So he continues to rely quite a bit on his fastball.

Starting point is 00:02:37 But that kind of worked for him today. Ryan Nelson's four-seem fastball is his best pitch. There's no question about that. And, you know, even if he's a little bit heavy with it at times, it's hard to square up. It's a really good foreseem fastball. That's kind of what Ryan Nelson's calling card has been ever since he got to the big leagues. And he showed that, you know, it's not going to work out every time, but, you know, especially against an Oakland A's offense that isn't great.

Starting point is 00:03:02 You can, you know, you can have a fastball heavy approach. and have some success. I think this is the most complete outing that we've seen from Ryan Nelson this season. And we've said that a couple of times now. We were very pleased with Brandon Fotz's last outing. We know Tommy Henry. Maybe not his last outing,

Starting point is 00:03:18 but his previous out of pretty good. Pretty good. So the Diamondbacks rotation is starting to come together. And it feels like for at least the time being, this start for Ryan Nelson really kind of cements that he has to remain in the starting rotation for now, at least, right? I mean...

Starting point is 00:03:35 Yeah, you can. It wouldn't feel right in like four or five days to bring Zach Davies back and kick out Ryan Nelson when he just threw five and a third scoreless, right? And Brett Johnson makes a good point.

Starting point is 00:03:47 There were some walks. There were a lot of walks today. It sort of felt like the wheels were coming off for Ryan Nelson in that sixth inning. Like I said earlier, ironically, Luis Frius was the guy to come in and save the day there.

Starting point is 00:03:59 But yeah, this situation with the three starters in question continues to just get more and more murky. You know, one day it feels like Ryan Nelson is sort of the odd man out, and then you have Tommy Henry struggle, and then you've got Ryan Nelson having this start, and now it's like, all right, maybe Tommy Henry's the odd man out. And then we're about to see Brandon Fott start again

Starting point is 00:04:20 in this series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And, you know, I mean, he's had one really good start against the Giants, but the two starts before that were obviously not so great for him. So this continues to be a very difficult situation to predict. All we know for right now is that the Diamondbacks need Ryan Nelson to come back and be more like the starting pitcher he was last season. And I think you're starting to see some glimpses of that.

Starting point is 00:04:46 We talked about the anxiety that's kind of going through probably some of these younger pitchers. They all know each other well. They're all kind of competing against each other, which probably doesn't feel great when you're also competing against a friend and also the fact that you are competing against yourself. and there's probably a lot of pressure being put on these guys. I will say this, though, at this point, that pressure, and forgive the cliche, but like, it creates diamonds, right?

Starting point is 00:05:12 And so we kind of need to figure out at this point which of these guys is really going to be the standout here. And it's not to say even Zach Davies is guaranteed a spot back in the rotation should he struggle. And these young guys can continue to at least put up outings like we've seen out of them recently. But yeah, I mean, Rob makes a good point. You know, what are we going to do when Zach Davies comes back and we remember that, oh, wait, he

Starting point is 00:05:37 sucks. I don't know. I don't know if I would quite say that. DeVax have gotten some very subpar pitching from those from those back three starters so far. But yeah, we're guilty of that. I mean, Zach Davies wasn't great this year. He just had like one or two good starts. But I mean, he had two starts and you could make a case that neither of them were particular.

Starting point is 00:05:57 Well, he was, he was their ace for a brief period of time. Don't forget that. right so um but the thing about it is you're absolutely right like even we've talked about zach davies returning to the lineup uh or or to the starting rotation like as if it was some sort of perhaps savior yeah yeah somebody that's really going to bring stability to the rotation you know we're we're we're probably overstepping our our boundaries there when we're saying that sometimes but it does feel like davies by comparison to the youth that they have in the rotation at least brings a little bit of experience that that that's

Starting point is 00:06:31 they don't have a little bit of veteran presence, you know, just just, just the ability to come back to this rotation and perhaps, perhaps at some stability, but we don't know that for sure. We don't know how Davies is going to pitch when he returns. I mean, he had two starts and they were both against the Dodgers. One of them, you're right. One of them, five innings, one run was a very good start. Right. And that was the point in the season when he was on Gallin and Merrill Kelly were terrible.

Starting point is 00:06:55 Everyone was terrible except for Zach Davies. and then his second start against the Dodgers did not go nearly as well. So, yeah, I mean, Zach Davies is a number four starter at best, right? I think last year he probably overperformed a little bit with his 4.09 ERA. I'm not sure if that's really where his true talent level lies. But even if he's a four and a half ERA pitcher who can consistently give you, you know, five innings, maybe get into the sixth every now and then you'll take that right now if you're the Diamondbacks. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:25 Louis Friest was recalled from AAA Reno and they sent down our option, Alec Thomas, which we'll get to more here in a bit. Not the greatest news, obviously there. We did know a move was imminent considering that they needed to do something for a bullpen arm. And it's odd that Louise Frius was both the hero of today and also kind of the villain as well, right? Probably more the villain than the hero. I mean, yeah, but he really did come into quite the situation and was able to get himself out of it. one out bases loaded jam and he was able to get out without letting giving up a run. But then the next inning, everything was kind of created himself.

Starting point is 00:08:03 He walked, I think he walked. He walked the first two batters of the inning. And everyone, of course, on the Twitter was saying how Tori Lavello should not have allowed Luis Frias to face Ramon Luriano. Including this guy right here. Which is fair. Yeah, I think there's a case to be made that Luis Frias should have been removed immediately. You know, once you have a pitcher who has.

Starting point is 00:08:24 the track record that Luis Frius has, which frankly is not that of a very successful major league pitcher. He was not good at all in his big league stint early in the season. I think you have a responsibility for Tori Lavello to make sure that, you know, Luis Frius is here to give you some length. He's here to give you some much needed innings, but you also don't want to let Luis Frius be the reason that you, you know, that you lose a series to the Oakland A's. And I think there's a strong case to be made. He probably allowed Frius to face one too many hitters there. On the flip side, I mean, he's playing the matchups, right? Ramone Luriano is a right-handed hitter. So it does sort of make sense. Let Frius try to get Luriano and then bring in Kyle

Starting point is 00:09:04 Nelson for the lefty. But I think that you could make a strong case that in this situation, the Diamondback should have just removed Luis Frius right away. It was two very uncompetitive at bats, two walks to start the inning. You've got the tying runner coming to the plate. And Luis Freas threw about as center cut of a four-team fastball as you'll ever see. He threw one legit strike in Ted pitches and it was right down the middle. And that's exactly. It was. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:30 It was an awful thing. There's a level of like uncompetitiveness where you have to be like, okay, yes, I want the best matchup, but also like this is potentially a pivotal moment in the game. And we don't want to, we don't want to let Luis Frius be the fall guy in a game like this. And fortunately, the D-Box offense was able to answer later on. Miguel Castro, you know, was good there in the ninth inning. Jose Ruiz was good in the eighth inning. Everyone can go home happy. Yeah, it was so nice to have a nice calm,

Starting point is 00:09:58 9th inning. It was pretty calm. It was pretty calm. The job just got done. He did the job that he came to do. So shout out to Miguel Castro for being that. And shout out to this offense for generating enough runs, of course, to put the Diamondbacks back on top after they lost that lead. The answer backs always answer back. Don't forget that.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Corby and Carol homered in this game, 405 feet to straightaway center. Beautiful Dinger. Great to see Corbyn Carroll back with power. Christian Walker also homered yet again. It's a daily, it's a daily occurrence there. Put your money on the bed MGM app on Christian Walker hitting dingers and you're going to win most of the time. 11 homers this season and he is now on pace for over 40 home runs this season.

Starting point is 00:10:41 It's not bad. And it's not, I mean, it's not just that Christian Walker is hitting home runs. He's also, his batting average has been hovering around 270, which is, which is excellent for him. I mean, if you get Christian Walker hitting, you know, over 250, you feel. like you're you're in a really good spot. He does continue to struggle with runners in squad position. He's not a risk king, that's for sure. He's not, he's not the risk king of this Diamondbacks team.

Starting point is 00:11:04 He's not a part of the risk royal court at all. Right, right. But, but yeah, I mean, he's, he's been just so big for the debacks early in games. You kind of feel like, you know, he's, he's maybe not doing it at the end of games in the most pivotal situations with the game on the line. You'd like to see him come through in some of those spots as well. but there's something to be said for, you know, yesterday, getting out to a two-nothing lead almost instantly. And today, having a one-nothing lead early in this game as well.

Starting point is 00:11:32 So Christian Walker continues to be outstanding for this debacks team early in the season. But not good enough to be Kingsnake two days in a row. No, not that. Because we have a guy, of course, that you might have heard of before. Lourdes Gouriel Jr., the hottest hitter in baseball, baby. 11-game hitting streak continues through this series. he has two dingers and he also scored the go-ahead run in this game to give the diamondbacks the lead so lordish just continues to be magical and you know i like i joke a lot about the purple hair thing but as much as i don't want to believe the words i say impact this team or the way i dye my hair impacts its players not the words you say there it's the color of your hair it's the color of my hair the outcome of the diamond backs even the diamond backs the instagram account was talking about about how we all need to go dye our hair purple so they're all bored with this um but of course lordis

Starting point is 00:12:26 has just been outstanding i mean you can't say enough about what it's been and yeah me and jesse have quite a few laughs about the fact that all of this really has turned on since may second which happens to be the morning that this shit happened yeah it's pretty uh i mean i i i think that when you look back we talk about uh the trade we'll talk about you know adult varsho and maybe you maybe maybe we could have kept Donald Varshow, maybe we could have gotten package one of these other guys that were rumored to be part of that package when it comes to like Alec Thomas or Jake McCarthy potentially being the guy that the Diamondbacks traded away. I just don't know if they would have gotten these two guys back in return for that for that hall. And it's like, man, Lourdes and Gabby both have just absolutely paid off. And I mean, been more than I think you could have absolutely asked.

Starting point is 00:13:16 I mean, just in this stretch, Lourdes has more home runs than he hit all last season. Yeah, he already has seven home runs. And that's dating back to May 2nd, right? So it's like, man, it's incredible how good he's been. Yeah, he wasn't good in April at all. Like Lordus Guerriel got off to a slow start this season, which is something we talked about early in the year, that if you look at his career numbers in April,

Starting point is 00:13:37 Lordus has kind of always been a streaky hitter. And April... You brought that to Tori's attention at one of our press conference. I did. I did. Yes. Lordis has a history of being a very streaky hitter, and generally April has not been a good month for him. And it wasn't this year either. Lordus Guriel, if I'm remembering correctly,

Starting point is 00:13:55 had a sub-700 OPS as of May 1st. And here we're talking about Lourdes being one of the best hitters in the National League. That is the power of Derek dyeing his hair purple. I have no other natural explanation for this other than... Neither I do I. Other than that. So we just have to embrace it, Derek. We really do.

Starting point is 00:14:15 We really do. I can't make sense of it, but it just... apparently that's the way it worked. I told you that telepathically our hair is linked through the television, but I also feel like if Lordas wanted to fly me out and pay for me to stay like in the hotel. Yeah, if you were in attendance for these road games, it would go four for four every single night. At least three dingers and a half a dozen RBI every single night.

Starting point is 00:14:39 But whatever. I can do it. I can do it remotely too. It's fine. But the biggest story isn't the Diamondbacks beating the Oakland A's today, but it is something Diamondbacks related in Oakland. And that is that Zach Gallen officially joined a very prestigious club when it comes to being a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Starting point is 00:15:00 He joins Randy Johnson as the only other person to accomplish this feat. Am I talking about an actual achievement? No. Am I talking about some sort of scoreless inning streak or perhaps an ERA that he matched? Not at all. What I'm talking about is Zach Gallen, killing a motherfucking bird. Zach Gallen killed a bird with a baseball today.

Starting point is 00:15:23 He used his hand and a ball as a weapon and his arm was involved too. And there's video of it. We have video courtesy of Bally's. Apparently Zach Gowan brought this to their attention because he wanted to see the video himself. There's the bird. There's the bird not existing anymore, Jesse. But it gets worse because then like Zach comes over and like stands over it. And then like, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:47 who he was throwing a bullpen went. I don't know who that was that was catching him, but they like high five. It kind of looks like Dan Carlson, Diamondbacks pitching coordinator. I'm not totally sure if that's who it is. They kind of celebrate over the birds dead carcass. And I for one am with it. I mean, when like normally killing, killing birds is not something that we would, we would stand for here on the pH and XD backs podcast. But fair enough. Doing it with the baseball is fucking awesome. But yeah, there, there is something to this that. If you are a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, you can be a great pitcher without having murdered a bird. Can you be? But you can only be the best of the best, Derek. There is a tier that you simply cannot reach unless you have thrown a baseball that collide with a bird and ended the bird's life.

Starting point is 00:16:37 It's just part of it's just part of the lifeblood of this baseball organization. You've reached a tier of being an elite pitcher that few ever reach in this case, only two within the art. organization. And of course, uh, that brings us to something that we like to call a throw in shade. Can we get a little throw in shade music, Damon? Let's go. Oh, now we're you might ask you think we're throwing shade at Zach Allen for killing a bird. Absolutely not. I am throwing shade and birds, Jesse, birds, because birds have no business trespassing inside of baseball stadiums. And I have no sympathy for this bird getting in the middle of this, you know, ball that Zach Gallant's

Starting point is 00:17:28 not Zach Gallant's fault. He was out there just doing his job. If I ran out on the field and got in between Zach and his catcher and got hit in the head, whose fault is that? Mine or Zach Gallant? Jesse doesn't want to throw a shade of bird. He has nothing to say. The other day I was running and I scared a quail

Starting point is 00:17:46 out of a bush that I was nowhere near. It ran into the street, got hit by a car. Was I going to kill that quail? No. No, but the stupid bird ran out and got hit. Now I have to think about. that and people guilty for that. I hate you birds and it's not our fault that you can't follow the rules about staying out of the road or staying out of the way of a pitch coming in hot. Yeah, anything? I mean, they poop on your car, Jesse. They poop on your sick rap porn. I know you don't like that. They do. Did you really shots and birds you want to get in here? I mean,

Starting point is 00:18:16 I'm not a big bird guy in general. People in the studio don't even believe they're real. Yeah. Damon's never even seen a baby bird in his whole life. He doesn't believe they're a real thing. Right. They're not real real. See? Emma has her conspiracy theories with baby pigeons in particular. Yeah, they're listening devices or something. These people are fucking crazy around here, but their hatred for birds and has bonded us between all of us. And Zach Gallen. Zagallin hates birds too.

Starting point is 00:18:41 And I'm with it. So just to clarify, so you're saying that it is a no-fly zone, like baseball stadiums in general, are just a no-fly zone for birds and birds are not welcome and should stay away. We're using that as the short title. That's going to cut this segment. That's what we're using right there. That's it. But these sunglasses that we're wearing, by the way, for throwing shade, are presented by our friends at Shady Ray's. So, of course, check them out because not only can you get wonderful sunglasses like this delivered to you, but of course they have a brand new shop, brand new in-store location at Kierland Commons, a full-stop shop for all things, Shady Ray's.

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Starting point is 00:21:32 We always appreciate the feedback. Now taking a look at the numbers from this series. Again, baseball is going to baseball so things look very close, especially with that comeback win that the A's had there in game two. But again, a big part of this that does tell the tale why the Diamondbacks didn't sweep this series, Jesse, is those three errors to the zero errors that the A's had defensively. Yeah, yeah. Those were some pretty critical errors. They absolutely were. The debacks kind of shot themselves in the foot in this series with their defense.

Starting point is 00:22:03 But at the end of the day, I mean, when coming into this series, looking at the ERAs for the Oakland A's starting pitchers in the series, you figured the debacks had the upper hand, right? The all three starting pitchers that the Oakland A is employed in this three game series had ERAs north of seven coming into these three games. And there were some guys who actually pitch pretty decently. But all in all, you see here, the D-BAC's starting pitchers in this series very much outperformed the Oakland A's. And ultimately, I think that was the biggest difference between these two teams. D-backs continue to struggle a little bit with runners in scoring position. Derek, that narrative just refuses to die. But, you know, they had a few more than their fair share of hits with runners and scoring position early in the season.

Starting point is 00:22:51 So I guess he kind of figured these things were going to kind of balance out when it was all said and done. We could have done our entire thrown shade segment at the umpires in this series because this crew has just flat out been atrocious. And it's wild because we talk a lot about umpires. It's like any sport. The officiating is always going to be a focus. And you're always going to feel if you're rooting for one team like you got the short end of the stick. I don't know if that was the case in today's game as much as it was just flat out bad. The zone was bad.

Starting point is 00:23:23 A lot of high strikes. And we're surprised because we saw the Empire scorecard for yesterday's game, and it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought. It was going to be essentially in favor of the Oakland A's. So we'll hold reserve judgment until we see tomorrow what today's scorecard looks like. But just overall, it felt like the umpiring was a bit out of control in this series. I think, yeah, I mean, it's Brock Ballou, right? I mean, he's the public enemy. He's the true public enemy number one.

Starting point is 00:23:50 He's the star. He's the star of the show, of course. Yeah. Yeah, he certainly made a name for himself, an umpire that no Diamondbacks fan had probably ever heard of coming to this series now. Every Diamondbacks fan knows the name Brock Blue. And has already made the pun, you know, that Brock Blue, the call. You know, we've heard that about a billion times on Twitter at this point.

Starting point is 00:24:14 That was a good one. I like that. I did not come up with that, Derek. It's fine. Take credit where you can. You know what I mean? But yeah, the umpiring was was not great. And I know, I think it was, it was maybe less so that the zone was terrible.

Starting point is 00:24:29 As you said, the umpire scorecard actually said that Blue was above average yesterday in terms of his strike calling accuracy, which was a little surprising. But I think it was just the calls that he missed were in some pivotal situations. You know, the call against Josh Rojas in a key situation. And the eighth inning is the debacks were trying to bounce back yesterday from the Grand Slam. and then starting extra innings. There was a really a very, very low called third strike against Catelle Marte that just kind of had that same effect. So, you know, maybe it wasn't quite as bad as is what we were thinking in the moment. But I also think it's fair to say the umpiring crew in Oakland.

Starting point is 00:25:07 This was not a great showing for that crew. What I don't like is when the calls are erratic and then the umpires kind of like escalating the situation. And to give Brock Ballou some credit for that, he had a very quick trigger. throwing out Tori Lavello and throwing hilariously throwing out Merrill Kelly after he'd already been pulled from the game in game one of the series right but yesterday he got like diamondbacks players in his face barking at him quite a bit and i almost felt like at times like the the nick omid situation where he gave him the pitch clock strike and the josh rojas situation strikes yeah i felt like he let them kind of go at him a little bit more than i i thought he would have right he

Starting point is 00:25:48 didn't really, you know, it looked like you could have tossed, especially Rojas, because Rojas was really just really aggressive about what had happened. And I think that he was, but he, he went back to the dugout pretty quick. I think that I think, yeah, I think Josh Rojas kind of knew in that situation that it would have been very costly if he had been tossed from the game. Yeah. The debacks, I think would have been forced to, uh, to use Emmanuel Rivera as their third basement, which I believe would have caused them to lose their DH spot altogether. So there would have been some pretty big ramifications if Josh Roas had gotten tossed from the game because he was coming in for Evan Longoria.

Starting point is 00:26:27 Evan Longoria was already out of the game. And you remember how he performed in that game. Yeah, yeah, that wasn't a great day for Evan Longoria either. So yeah, I think Josh Rojas maybe in some situations would have really let Brock Blue know what was on his mind. But he kind of had to be careful there because the ramifications. of him being tossed were pretty significant in that moment. When this afternoon's game followed the same script as last night's game,

Starting point is 00:26:52 I think you and I were both saying, oh shit, here we go again. There's another seventh inning, game tying, soul-crushing home run, right? Yeah, it was soul-crushing, and it felt like it was going to go out the same way. And you got to give this team a lot of credit for bouncing back, even though it's against the worst team in baseball. The narrative would be much different. We'd be sitting here talking about the Diamondback losing two out of three to the worst team in baseball.

Starting point is 00:27:18 And the sky, as much as Jesse would say wouldn't be falling, would absolutely be pummeling in my head, me in my head right now, because I would be freaking out, right? And it's just one game, really at the end of the day. Of course, there is something to take away from this that the Diamondback still can't rely on their bullpen. But they also can't expect their bullpen to fill in the way that it has, especially being a man down and be able to hold these leads and do it every single

Starting point is 00:27:45 night. They did a great job tonight, though, even though, you know, they, they did blow the game, right? You got, did have, uh, Luis Frius. I imagine Louise Frius is going to probably be sent back down. I think somebody said that in the chat. I wouldn't, wouldn't be surprised to see that just to have some other arm here for this next series coming up. But we'll talk about the probabilities for that series. And of course, uh, we still have a little bit to talk about, about Alec Thomas being sent down to Reno. But before we do that, of course, if you are heading out on, the road if you're heading out to Reno or Las Vegas or anywhere on a road trip. Make sure to stop by our friends at Circle K.

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Starting point is 00:29:44 Please drink responsibly. We've talked about it a little bit here, but Alec Thomas was sent down. We knew that that was a potential move, especially with the fact that should they have decided to make a move with Evan Longoria, most likely would have been a DFA situation where Thomas has options to be sent down.

Starting point is 00:30:02 But what were your thoughts? I mean, obviously it's not like this is kind of out of nowhere. We know Thomas has really been struggling at the plate. We just talked about it on yesterday's episode that he was a potential candidate. to be so young. Yeah, I wasn't surprised. I mean, in some way, like if you had told me at the beginning of the season before the season started that on May 17th, both Jake McCarthy and Alec Thomas were going to be playing for AAA Reno, I probably would have thought things weren't going so well for

Starting point is 00:30:29 the Diamondbacks. So honestly, it's incredible that they've had the success that they've had without those two guys really giving them much of anything in terms of offense this season. But yeah, I wasn't surprise. The reality is Alec Thomas has some flaws in a swing. And I think we've, we've kind of known this for a while. We suspected that over the off season, Alec Thomas might make some pretty significant swing changes. And he did make changes. There were adjustments that were made over the off season, but they were much more approach-based than they were mechanical. And that's what, that's what kind of surprised me coming into the year. I expected to see something significantly different for Alec Thomas, and that just isn't what we saw.

Starting point is 00:31:12 It sounds like the Diamondbacks are sending Alec Thomas down now with the intention of digging a little bit deeper into a swing and maybe making some pretty significant mechanical adjustments. The debacks have been basically operating with Thomas in a platoon role for a while. They haven't been playing him against lefties. That was something that Tori said recently. But Tori, when talking about this earlier today,

Starting point is 00:31:36 said, we feel like he's just too talented for that. mostly because of what he does defensively. He's just too good of a player. And he should, with his hand-eye coordination, be an everyday player without giving any consideration as to who's pitching. So similar situation to Jake McCarthy, where the debacks are like, you know, you're all right. Like, we think you'd figure it out.

Starting point is 00:31:56 But we think you're better than this. We think you're capable of doing more. And, you know, if we have to send you down for a while in order to get you to that level, we're willing to do that. there was some information that came through that I had to look up, and that was from Connor Mormon, who said, how about those fourth place Padres?

Starting point is 00:32:15 Believe it or not, Jesse, the Padres losing today. Yeah. And the Giants win puts the Padres in fourth place. That's crazy. In the National League West. The Padres just lost two or three to the Royals at home.

Starting point is 00:32:26 So I know they've played the Dodd, I think they've had a couple series against the Dodgers this month. But the Royals are, you know, the Royals aren't the Dodgers. And the Padres just can't really get much of anything going right. offensively right now. The Padres have the third highest payroll in baseball at $245 million in

Starting point is 00:32:45 $2,025 million doesn't get you what it used to. It really just doesn't. It really just doesn't. But not to tap dance on the grave of their season. That's exactly what you're doing right now. I feel like I do that a lot around here. Let's take a look at the All-City Division numbers while we're at it if we have them because things are looking good for the diamond bags, maybe.

Starting point is 00:33:09 The only team in All-City with a winning record right now at 25 and 19. And pretty proud about that. Just need to get some distance on these other teams behind us, Jesse. Just leave them in the rearview mirror and just run away with this division, even though it actually doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. I continue. Also, I think we need to like explain this for some people. I'm pretty sure 90% of our viewers and our listeners know what the All-City Division.

Starting point is 00:33:36 is sure and the other there are some people listening that don't know that we're putting this graphic up and just talking about it i forget about them i love you listeners i know i put the viewers over you as a priority but i love the listeners too uh the arizona diamondbacks our podcast ph and x dbacks we're we're taking credit for their for their achievements we're in first uh place overall in the all city network division all city network includes dnvr and chgio uh which our sister companies our sister companies the way I refer to the Tampa Bay race as our sister team for the Diamondbacks. These are our sister companies. CHGO, of course, has the Cubs and the White Sox, and then DNBR has the Rockies.

Starting point is 00:34:14 That's what you're seeing in front of you right now. And of course, I think the Diamondbacks are just going to continue to run away with this division, Jesse. I don't know what's going to happen with the Dodgers, but the Diamondbacks might sneak up on them, too. Word is that they have lost Dustin May now for a considerable amount of time with an injury. Yeah, yeah, a huge loss for the Dodgers. It's a flexor pronator strain was the diagnosis for Dustin May, which just came out a little bit ago. I'm sure it'll be back by August and be fine by then. Yeah, well, yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:42 I mean, August is far away, Derek. So I think Dave Robert said the floor was one month. So it's going to be a while for them without Dustin May. He's been one of their most consistent pitchers this season. Maybe Clayton Kershaw would be right up there too. But yeah, a big loss for the Dodgers. They do have a lot of pitching depth. So I think they'll be okay.

Starting point is 00:35:03 But yeah, as far as the All-City Division goes, Derek, the Cubs remain, the Cubs remain a little bit interesting to me. You know, I think they could dig themselves out of being 19 and 23. They've really fallen in the standings here over the last few weeks. They were playing some pretty good baseball there. They were. Cody Bellinger just got hurt. We'll kind of see where that goes for them. But I continue to think that the Cubs could probably hang around 500 and, you know, be playing relevant games late into the season.

Starting point is 00:35:33 I never fully bought into them, though, as a, as a playoff contender. So, you know, you've seen a lot of correction in the standings here over the last couple weeks. And we'll see if things tip back in the positive direction for the Cubs. Michael Rokickey says a lot of the high payroll team struggling, San Diego, the Mets, the Yankees, those are the three top payrolls in baseball, right? And when you look at those, the Yankees are in fourth place in their division up there in the NL East. the Mets are in third place, I'm sorry, ALE's, NLE's, the Mets are in third place, and the Padres are in fourth place.

Starting point is 00:36:07 So, yes, money can't buy you happiness, nor can't buy you championships. But I'm thinking we have to win something as a podcast if we win this all-city division. Yeah, you're right. Like, it's not even- There should be an all-city cup. They're absolutely happy. Brandon needs to come down with something for us. I'm with it. I'm with it.

Starting point is 00:36:25 Let's take a look at the Probables for the Arizona Diamondbacks here in their upcoming series with the Pirates, who once again, another team that the Diamondbacks run into at a pretty good time. Pirates have not been playing very good baseball. So hopefully this is another winnable series for the Diamondbacks. Yeah, I think so. The Pirates have the Pirates are, I mean, you know, the Oakland A's have the worst record in baseball, but the pirates over the last couple weeks have been possibly the worst team in the game.

Starting point is 00:36:54 Equally bad if not. After a strong start, they've really struggled. Mitch Keller is kind of the headliner name in this series, Mitch Keller has had an outstanding season for the Pirates this year. He's been a big part of the success that they've had. But outside of that one, Derek, you feel pretty good about the pitching matchups. It's another series where you have both Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly starting. Brandon Fott was a lot better in his last start.

Starting point is 00:37:19 Look at how innocent and wholesome he looks in that photo right there, Jesse. Brandon Fott? Is that who your time? Yeah, Brandon Fott. It's like first day at school vibes. Yeah, big time, first day at school vibes. Brandon Fought's just a pretty wholesome person in general. I feel like that's the same expression the bird had on its face before Gallen tagged it with the ball. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:37:37 That's a bad. That can't be good. That's not a good sign. But yeah, no, I mean, when you talk about Gallin and Kelly going in any series, I think you like your chances of winning it. But I do like Brandon fought there being in the middle in this rotation where he's at, right? In between those two guys. Not only, I think, for stability for the entire rotation, but I think you know you're going to get length out of Gallin and Kelly. and you don't really know right now what you're going to get out of fought.

Starting point is 00:38:02 So the last thing you want is your three rookies going back to back to back and just really exhausting your bullpen potentially over the course of three games. That's a very good point. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see if there are any other roster moves around the corner if the debacks stick with Luis Friest or if there's a move in store there. They do have the off day tomorrow, which will help them kind of catch up on some much needed bullpen rest that a lot of guys back there need. We saw Jose Ruiz pitch again in this game, even though he threw, I think it was 36 pitches in the game yesterday through a couple of innings. So, yeah, there are some guys who have been pretty heavily taxed in these last few days. And yeah, I mean, the debacks have an eight-man bullpen now. I sort of expect them to continue with that.

Starting point is 00:38:47 I would be pretty surprised if the debacks sent down Luis Frius and didn't bring up another pitcher to replace him if they went back to having the extra position player. But we'll have to see what they do. as it stands, they finally got their bullpen back to what we would consider full strength, if you will. But I also feel like that extra arm, I mean, maybe keep Luis Frius up and maybe option someone else. I don't know. I don't know if that's the greatest move. I don't feel like Frius really gave you enough today to really feel comfortable about having him.

Starting point is 00:39:19 But I still- The devac's depth in the minors as far as the bullpen goes. It's just not great. Carlos Fargus is really struggled since being sent down. Justin Martinez is really struggled. Those are the guys that we really needed to be. And yeah, the fireballers we thought they could be. Those were the guys who kind of have the ceiling being true back-end relievers.

Starting point is 00:39:38 So for everyone wondering, you know, why are we calling up Luis Freas again, he kind of outperformed everyone else by a pretty significant margin in the minor league. So unfortunately, the debacks depth just remains pretty thin in the bullpen, even though they do have the eight arms now. Yeah. Well, we want to tell you guys, of course, we know some. is here we know you got to figure out something to do with these kids my daughter today was getting her her year and awards we got the the clap out at the end of of this week which is where

Starting point is 00:40:09 oh what's the clap out for for the sixth graders because it's elementary school the parents get to come to school and we all applaud them as they leave school for the last time because they've been going to this school their whole lives and this is the end of the road so they get kind of like a standing ovation on the way out basically the kids just ball they just cry the whole way out the parents we just ball just not dripping out of our nose just my baby's growing it's great our kids really that devastated to leave

Starting point is 00:40:36 six grade I think that emotional of a moment from from my daughter's perspective it's like the only school she's ever known that's and it's also a big leap like for instance I know most of these kids are in the same boat the junior high school that they're going to go do is so far away like it's so far away

Starting point is 00:40:53 they're going to be on a bus for like 25 minutes before they get to school and stuff so it's like it's not just that that that that leaving the nest of the school you grew up in but it's uh it's close to home you know and now they're going to be like actually traveling it's like it's like going to work they get to figure out uh yeah they get to figure out uh what it's like to live this life zone in Arizona said the clap is when you clap and then the umpire throws you out yes christian walker is invited to my daughter's school on friday so that an umpire can toss him for clapping but of course like i said summer's

Starting point is 00:41:23 around the corner and you need to figure out something to do with the kids so make sure to check out Octane Raceway and Mavericks. It's an absolute blast. And I don't think parents just dropped kids off at places like this anymore like they used to do to us in the 90s. But the good part about that means it's fun for you, too, to go. So they have summer passes right now available that include all of their fun premium games and things you can do. You got a memorial day, of course, coming up here soon. They're going to have at Mavericks free bowling for veterans and active duty personnel who show their military ID from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, the venue will open early at 10 a.m. and feature door buster deals,

Starting point is 00:42:02 including buy one, get one free $20 game cards and buy one, get one free laser tag from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. So show up on Memorial Day. There's free axe throwing at Octane for all active and retired military personnel. You just need your military ID once again. So book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. cart racing virtual reality laser tag axe throwing bowling that wonderful arcade and great food and drinks tons of different events throughout the summer check out octane raceway.com and mavericks.com to learn more and of course if you want to go see some baseball with us want to go see some baseball down at chase field check out game time not only for baseball games for all your concerts all of your events game time is the place for last minute ticket deals it's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason

Starting point is 00:42:49 You can snag the tickets without the stress with game time. Download their app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute ticket deals, lowest price guaranteed. Before we go, you guys all know Megaran, buddy, friend of the show. He's the guy that sings that Mailbag Monday song that we all love.

Starting point is 00:43:13 And you should probably check out the rest of his catalog because he's quite a good rapper. But I just wanted to give out a shout out to him. Him and his wife, Rachel, have been family for a long time. And they've been raising a foster son that they completed the adoption process on today. So he's family. He's not going anywhere. And I just wanted to congratulate them once again. We were down here at the Washington Street Courthouse.

Starting point is 00:43:38 The judge told us that she had never seen the room filled that quite that much. So it was great to see all those people out. And it was great to just be. present for such a wonderful thing as a family coming together and uh there was some really wonderful things said so again i just wanted to give a personal shout out to a friend of ours uh around here at phnx a member of our family and our family continues to grow so great thing i love you by the way to the jarbos i mean that's bigger news for you than anyone right because now you get you get to hang out with the you get to hang out with the little guy oh yeah buddy buddy hangs out with us we actually

Starting point is 00:44:12 watch him quite often the other day i was getting teary-eyed like i am now watching a video because even on my phone, I have a video of him growing up over the few times we watched him and I just had to wipe a little tear from my eye from. But it's a beautiful thing. And if anybody's ever gone through any kind of fostering process or adoption process, it's not easy. And today was, today was the finish line. And it was just great to be there and hear not only the judge, but everybody involves, say just such wonderful things about making this family complete. So it was really cool. Yeah, we just have to warn Megarin that if his son comes home one day with purple hair, we have a theory about who might have put him up to that. If Lordus slumps, I might have to watch him for a weekend and then he might have to come home with purple hair. That's all I'm saying. But of course, we love you guys. And it's always great.

Starting point is 00:45:04 Wonderful, wonderful thing in life to see something like that. But we thank you guys for being here. We thank you guys always for stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a k. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon is at Damon, D-A-W-G with a little at the end. You got to do that part in order to follow them on Twitter, of course.

Starting point is 00:45:21 But our show is at PHNX underscore D-Bex and all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate your time. Unless you're a bird, then we don't care about your feelings at all. I'm still torn about your harshness towards birds today, Derek. Yeah, sorry. No, we're, we're, we're, we're an anti-bird podcast today. I just like baseball, like baseball is such an outdoor sport. And you're, and you're telling all of the birds to stay away.

Starting point is 00:45:48 Stay out. Stay out. I guess it's for their own protection. You're just, you're just trying to protect them. No trespassing, right? No trespassing for me. No trespassing for you. But we appreciate your guys time.

Starting point is 00:45:58 We thank you guys so much for stopping by. And of course, on behalf of all these guys, uh, we love you. And remember kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you can actually kill a bird with a baseball.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks salvage series win over Oakland A's, Alek Thomas gets sent down

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