PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Did The Diamondbacks SQUANDER Their Most Potent Offense In Franchise History?

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Now that the season is officially over for the Arizona Diamondbacks, how will looming free agency impact this team in 2025? Christian Walker, Joc Pederson, and Randal Grichuk were all key parts to this team becoming one of the best offenses in all of MLB. 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/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! 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/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks got bounced from the playoffs before even making appearance with the best offense in the league. Can they maintain being the best offense with the pieces they could lose this off season? We're going to talk about it right now. Don't go anywhere. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXD backs podcast brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app right now. Use that code at PHNX365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365.

Welcome in, friends. As you know, I am your mayor, PHAs. H&X, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This man next to me is the people's champ. It's one and only Damon Farrell. And of course, it's our closer to Archie Bradley. And of course, I wanted to start the show off because this is your first time being here since the Diamondbacks got bounced to get your thoughts on what happened there in the final week to the Diamondbacks not making it into the playoffs. I said it pre-show, so I'm going to say it again.

It's not whatever one wants to hear. But if you don't like it, play better. I think every year, every team controls their destiny, but the way this team played, the position they put themselves in in July and August going into September. Yeah, I mean, again, it stinks, but there's no one else to blame, but the guys in that locker room.

They put themselves in a position, had a great chance to secure that wildcard spot. And although we talked about the scenarios and some of the BS of scheduling and the Monday doubleheader, but the debacks controlled their destiny and let this playoff chance slip out of their hands. Does it hurt worse to come this close, like to be one game away? Or, I mean, does it just sting? I would always rather be close and miss it than go into the later half of the season knowing you're out of it.

You know what I mean? So it does it does hurt because we'll talk about it. You know, this team is going to look different. There's going to be some guys that we need to make decisions on. some guys that just quite frankly won't be back. And so, and like I said, man, like this team was fun. That's what I love about dimebacks. You always, we're either going to stink, I think, or be this team that like, everyone is like,

oh, I love this team. I love the characters. I love the pieces we brought in, but like, then boom, they're gone, right? And so how does this team sustain and maintained? But yeah, I mean, I think it's on the Diamondbacks. It's really frustrating, really disappointing. And I say this because I've been on a team that did this exact same thing. thing. Right. And how much, how much, how much, how much, how much, how much, how much, how much, how much?

I still think about it. I still think about, I mean, we're talking about the, I still think about some of the games in Colorado that year going into September. I think about blowing back to back to that games against the Dodgers. We held first place the whole season going into September and then just, just collapsed. We blew some games even, even when we're out of the playoffs. I think I blew the last game of the year in, in San Diego. And yeah, I mean, I mean, again, money aside, all this stuff, like, dude, do you want to win? Yeah. Like, that's the whole point of playing.

Losing baseball is not fun. And I've been a part of teams here in Arizona that have lost 98 games, 99 games, been the second, third, worst team in baseball. And I've been on teams that I've made the playoffs and, like, giving it a good run. And so always better to win. It stinks coming up short. But yeah, I mean, we just had the opportunity and didn't play well. And especially, I mean, you talk about it.

We missed it by one, two games, right? Yeah. There's a lot of games throughout the season, but especially in September, there's a lot of games that you look at that you're like, man, that one slipped away from us. Yeah. Well, that one flipped away. Yeah. After last season, obviously, you win 84 games last year and make the World Series. This year you win five more games. How do you, how do you balance that as a player knowing that you had a better season than you did the year before? But it just wasn't enough to make playoffs this year. Like, does that make it? Is it still as much of a failure in a vacuum or do you know? Is there some nuance? since that. There is. Again, it's a, it's a failure because you have to look at it from a professional and business standpoint. Black and white, we didn't make the playoffs. That was our goal. Right. Give us a chance to win the World Series. We don't have that chance anymore. And that's what, that's what Hazen said yesterday. He said it was very binary. It's, it's, it's, yes or no. And that's, that's the hard time people. But as a player, as a staff, that's the answer you give. That's what you say. But then you have to take a step back and

analyze it from a different perspective. This team did a lot of good. And there's a lot of positives and a lot of stuff to build on. And I think that's how you balance instead of just like, oh, we missed it. This sucks. Season's over. Blah, blah, blah. Like, no, dude, we saw some guys do some things. We have some ideas of where to go in the future. And you have to, I say it all the time. This is one thing I felt like I did a great job of. But I don't think you celebrate or we celebrate our success enough in baseball. Right. It is such a failure-driven sport where, again, like, every team, you look at it. I bet every team has 60 losses this year. right yeah oh yeah every team is going to win 60 every except for the white sox maybe yeah every team is

going to win 60 every team is going to lose 60 and the other 60 are up for the good baseball teams right right and that's a great point losing becomes such a consistent thing failure becomes such a consistent thing i don't think we step back and appreciate or look at our accomplishment as much as we should and i think this team has a lot of accomplices and good things again look at the market we're in that's what I think as I've gotten a little bit further away from the game and even when I was in it, look at what the Dodgers are spending. Look at the talent they're able to bring in.

The same thing with the Giants. They're not far away from being really good again. We'll see what's now obviously like the free agency. But again, we're never, I say we're never going to compete. Talent-wise, we can't compete. But it takes special pieces, development that we've talked about, to have a chance to consistently win the division.

I mean, when the Giants won the division last in 19, 20. Outside that, it's been the Dodgers for. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, like 10 years straight. Again, I can say this now. It's not like I'm crying like, oh, this is unfair. But is there a point where we look at divisions and like the Dodgers have won 11 out of 12. Yeah. In OS titles. Like something's got to change, right? Like that's not fair and consistent baseball. Right. And the debacks, again, outside of a wild card spot, I mean, for the most part, we're always looking at only making the playoffs through the wild card. Yeah. I think honestly, that's, That's so fair.

Like I was having this conversation with someone the other day. The debacks job might be a top five hardest job from a GM manager standpoint and all of baseball because of the division that they're in like you didn't even mention the Padres. The Padres have so much top end talent. And they have a lot of guys locked up for a while. Yeah. And so they the Padres have about as much top in talent as you can possibly have in Major League Baseball.

The Dodgers are going to outspend everybody every year. The Giants are one of the most consistent organizations in the sport. Like they casually added the three times. batting, you know, crown champion essentially who's been, who has done it for three different teams now, right? Just very sneakily. Yeah, they just, they just, they just keep getting. And he's like their sixth best player.

I know. Like, yeah. So, I mean, it's just, I think the dining backs are in a tough spot. There's a collection of young talent that like you, you, it's sustainable. This is a, this is a team that's going to in a build that's going to threaten for playoffs year in and year out for this is for foreseeable future. But at the same time. it's just you're right like it's tough going into the year being like well hopefully we make a wild card yes

yeah and again like this year in my perspective and again i hate talking trash on players i'm here to give a players perspective and talk some honest evaluations but yeah like edwardo didn't really pan out this year we've got them for a couple more years and the the montgomery deal didn't work out right um that's where i mean my perspective if i was hazen if i was a gm i'm very hesitant at least on pitchers to sign a guy that doesn't go through spring training. Yeah. Snell was an exception this year. I think Snell pitched really well.

But historically, I look at you guys that didn't go through spring, they don't perform well. Well, and they don't say healthy. And on top of that, he also had like some mental hurdles there to get over because he was obviously upset about the way. Of course. Didn't get the big deal. I didn't get, you know, I mean, 25 million is a lot of money. It is a lot of money. Compared to what he did the year before in the position he put himself in to take care of himself for the long term, didn't really come through.

And again, we talked about it. ended up in the bullpen like who knows what his future i mean he's going to pitch somewhere next yeah yeah well and and that's the thing is he still owed money by the diamondbacks and he has that player option so he can you know he can come back here and and that's that's at least a positive for him is that he has plenty of incentive to come back and be his best version of himself next year for the diamondbacks because he's essentially auditioning for another team you know beyond that right so like that there is a positive there and we're going to talk about the pitching and some other things in regards to free agency this season. But I did just wanted to take a step back because,

again, I just like to pick your brain about this. And again, I know that the playoffs are an achievement in themselves. And you're absolutely right. I think maybe it has to do the whole flush it thing, you know, which some of our fans don't even want to hear that term anymore. But like Tori has talked about it time and time again where you can't get too high on the highs, get too low on the lows, which is why you don't celebrate those achievements that you have throughout the season as much because you can. I know you guys privately do it. it, you know, and you guys have your moments that you share together as a team. But it is, it does feel like, you know, again, they had so many achievements this year.

But, you know, the end result is, is not making it in the playoffs. Does it really matter if you get bounced right away, though? Like, if you make it into the playoffs, let's say, and with the current format, you get swept in that three game series for the wild card round, does it, does that still make a big difference that you made it to the playoffs, even if it's a really early exit like that? It does because again, like last year, they made it and made a World Series run. Right. So you just never know what's going to happen.

But I still think there is, as weird as it sounds like in when I was with Cincinnati, we made the playoffs and we got balanced. Braves swept us in two. We were done. You know what I mean? Our season was over in literally 48 hours. So I was like, did we even accomplish anything? But we did. You know, there's, they expanded playoffs now.

So a few more teams get in. But I will never forget, ever forget, ever forget, forget clinching. wild card. Right. And as a kid, obviously the ultimate goal is to do it in a world series and hold up that trophy of being the best team. But you dream of that moment of popping champagne and putting goggles on and the scene of the locker room being taped up. And even if you only get that for one instance and then you get bounced and you're done, it's still, it's, it's one of the few things in the game that you can never explain or experience unless you get to experience it. And it's something again, I've never made it past the DS. We've got swel.

by a Dodgers and been in one wildcard, but still those champagne showers. And again, it's more than that. It's get bounce, whatever, but it's accumulation of the last year. From the day the season into the season before, all the work you've put in, spring training, you guys know, you've seen some of it, but the behind the scenes of a baseball season from staff, analytics, players, trainers, travel, everyone, man, it's, it's a celebration of, I think, people being selfish. and, you know, being a team and celebrating, man, like, regardless of what happens after this,

we are one of the 12 teams that gets to continue on. Yeah. And it would have wiped all of the questions about those games that they lost and all of those little ups and downs away, right? Because it's black and white. You made the playoffs, who cares? Yeah. Those questions don't need to be answered. You found a way to win and make it. Yeah. I mean, I didn't obviously, and none of the fans did put in as much as what you guys put in in that season, but I can say from my experience, I was at the game, the 20, 2017 wildcard game like that was one of the my favorite sports experiences I've ever had and and that ended that season ended with my least favorite team in all of sports ending our season and I still remember that wild card experience of like how awesome that was how how cool it was to be there in person so I don't think that it like you're right it doesn't take away from what you accomplish when you when you still get there and really that's the most important thing is getting there bigger implications like that you're providing memories of

again, I talk about it. It's important. You're providing a fan base. You're building fans more. And it's call it niche. We don't need to hang a banner. I don't think you need to hang a banner for everything. But hey, we made the playoffs last year. When you're going after another free agent, when you're going after someone else or a sponsorship, whatever. Hey, this is a playoff baseball team. And I think for Arizona, the reason why it's disappointing for me is you make the World Series run.

Right. And like to hang your cap on back-to-back playoff seasons. Again, for the diamondbacks, like I don't know, when's the last time we made? playoffs and back-to-back seasons i think i think maybe oh one oh two and again like this is a young organization historically we've talked about that but again you talk about building blocks you start to set a president man you make a world series on and even though it's just the wild card back-to-back seasons the debacks are a playoff team yeah and that's how that's how fans become addicted yes right that's how fans then really do feel like they live and die with this team and i think that's one thing that they absolutely could have accomplished this year was just getting that like oh we're back and i mean again

even if we didn't get a home playoff game correct chase field it just would have been great to feel like you know like your team is moving in that direction of being a perennial contender yes and being there and i feel like that's like call it you know it's not a setback by any means but i felt like this could have been a defining moment for the debacks where i just said it but thinking about a more where it's almost like a little speed bump man you get over it back-to-back years in the playoffs Yeah. Like there's a little bit more in a good way pressure on everyone. You know what I mean?

Like that's what I think is lacking is like, oh, like I said, we're probably only looking at the wild card. So whatever, you know, we'll check in in August. And then it'd be great to really roll into a season with some real expectations. Yeah. Yeah. For this team.

And honestly, like, I know this, again, they still finished quite a distance back from the Dodgers, but there was a point. Oh, you know, right? Or they were close enough that we started talking about them,

potentially, at least momentarily, you know, leading the NL West and then things just drastically changed for this team. So, you know, that's the way it goes. That's the way that that downfall of this last month has been. It's been just unfortunate to see. What would you be doing today? Would you, would you have gotten away from it all? Would you like not be paying attention at all? Yeah, it's weird. Guys are, you have two types of guys. Guys are you to pay attention or guys that completely shut it down. Yeah. I think both, like, especially when you're young, you're still interested.

You love to watch baseball. I still love to watch baseball. But, and then as you're older, you have guys that you've played with, that you have rooting interests for. You want to see those guys win a World Series. I want to see how they perform. Yeah, it's just different. I mean, today, if I was a dime back, I would definitely be playing golf.

Yeah. It's still hot, but it's not too hot. And then, yeah, I mean, we kind of talked about this pre-show. the tough part. I say the tough part, but planning starts now. I mean, we heard Hayeson and Tori talk yesterday. They're planning right now, but as a player, you have to, like we just talk about, take a step back, let's split this season down the middle. Let's put the good over here, the bad over here. What can I address? Or can I not? What do I want to fix? What do I want to prove upon? I mean, there's so many different factors in my free agent in two years. Do I have

arbitration coming up? All types of stuff. And if you don't come up with the plan now, and start preparing for next year, you're going to be behind. You know, that's just the way it goes. So I would be doing that. And yeah, I mean,

you start to build the team. He taught, like I always like to talk to, um, the, the debacks who ever are pitching coach and bullpen coach and Tori, you have exit meetings, you know,

where they talk about stuff, but like, hey guys, what do you really think? Like, what do I need to do? Hey, man, you know,

you were 92% basketball next year. You have to throw a better secondary pitch, like more consistently. So, okay. So who am I going to find to help that? Let's find a guy here. And boom, you start talking to your trainer, your dot, you know, you start to set all these things up because you have a limited window to enjoy some downtime.

But real quickly, November, most guys are back in the wait room getting after it again. So it's, what, October 2nd today, third? Yeah. Like, you're looking at three weeks to four weeks before guys start approaching their offseason and start getting ready for next season already. No trip to Cancun? There is. You just got to be smart about it. I mean, again, different priorities for different guys.

You just, you have to plan it out. I mean, the way I did it is this was a year-round business for me. Yeah. There's, you know, again, you never stop. Never stop. But again, you want to make changes, like especially you listen to people like to, to lose to change muscle memory, to change mechanics, to learn a new pitch. Yeah.

This takes time. Yeah. And especially now in today's age, it's not get into spring training and roll into it. You better be ready to roll come spring and get after it. We talk about maybe having that little bit of a break for the players. there. You know, maybe you said three weeks. Uh, but somebody that doesn't really have that break is Mike Hazen. He's got to get straight into it. And, uh, he obviously has a pretty big important piece, uh, hitting free agency this off season and Christian Walker.

Absolutely. Um, how do you see that situation playing out? Do you think that they bring Christian Walker back? Uh, they talked about him briefly yesterday. Mike Hazen kind of was trying to avoid the question and then ended up talking about CWalk for about two minutes. Yeah, he said, he said, He said, I don't want to talk about free agency. And then, like, I think it was a minute and 40 seconds of free agency. But it's because, like, yeah, obviously they still don't know what they're going to do. You did have some very complimentary things to say about, obviously the guys that had career years here. But, I mean, Christian Walker, you talked about him being a priority.

I think, I mean, like we talk about it and every, who else are you going to go get? Who else fills a spot? Gold glove caliber defense. Again, I should have been a little bit more prepared. I need a season stats. No, he got hurt, but he's produced close to every year, 25 plus home runs, close to above 90 to 100 RBIs. He's got an 803 OPS this year with a 26 home runs, 84 RBI. And like you said, that was with oblique injury.

With that oblique injury. 121 OPS plus. I mean, he's been, again, fact check me, he's been in my head as consistent as a first base one as anyone else. Oh, yeah. At least national league wise in the last four seasons. Yeah, only for the goldie trade. Yeah. Freddy Freeman, Matt Olson, and then it's Christian Walker right after that. And those guys are 40 home run, 35 home run guys.

I don't know what that means financially. Sure. But also, I think there's a testament to Walker finding a home here, what he's been through in his career, backing up other guys. But again, being a pillar here. I understand the Goldie trade. We weren't going to be able to afford that at the time. I know it's tough to swallow. He was our guy.

But we didn't really miss a beat with Christian stepping in. He's won gold gloves. he's he's been the guy there and again you look at certain things i'm not saying it's going to be cheap but i feel like there is some sort of hometown hometown deal to be made with seawalk sure and securing him hey dude you can live here spring the season take care of you i know you want to go back to south carolina we'll make sure you're taking care of back there but let's let's work this out where you can be our first basement into your late 30s what's more important the money or years. Is it, is it like the security of the years? I think that's, it's the individual. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Some guys want less years and more money. Some guys like the security. I think it's, it's really dependent on how guys want to play and how they see their career finishing out. I, that's one thing I've always, again, I understand it from a financial standpoint, but I always assumed Phoenix and the D-backs would be more of a lore for free agents. Sure. Like personally speaking, being able to purchase a home here and live here. for spring and the season yeah and i mean i would put it at 50% let's call it 40% 40% in florida 40% in scottesail and then 20% work out at home wherever they work out but 40% of major league baseball players work out here in the off season yeah there's facilities everywhere the weather that's what i found myself doing even when i didn't play for the debacks i still stayed out here

and worked out here in the off season so there's a lot of priorities from being able to be a baseball player but also still have a family aspect of being able to stay at home have a consistent home have family here so i i don't know i just i always hope that again i keep bringing it up because it's important for people to understand phoenix the debacks being a young team historically that it can it grows and becomes a free agent destination because of getting to stay at your house and spring and then roll into the season is one of the biggest luxuries i've ever been afforded in my like going to Cincinnati and then Philly and in Miami and Anaheim is awesome. I love that I got to experience playing other places, but having to pack up three different times.

And then again, like, well, am I going to keep my lease in Arizona all the way through the off season? Yeah. What if I have spring training in Florida? Like, um, I imagine you stop unpacking boxes. Yeah, you do. So what I'm saying is I think there's some, some very, uh, big things working for us as the debacks to make something happen with Seawalk. And again, it, Marte is locked up. It, it, it, it, it, it, puts you you lock up that right side um yeah i think the biggest thing is that obviously this was one of the best years offensively right we we know that the diamondbacks i mean might have squandered their most potent offense in franchise history with their pitching staff being

kind of at the bottom bottom tier you know at least as far as the numbers go but uh part of that free agency is you know who do they focus on i hope jock peterson feels the way you do. I would love for Jock to come back. He was a huge kickup for this year. I feel like Jock. I mean, again, I'm not here to try. I feel like Jock could probably still play every day. Yeah. But Jock's in that later part of his career. He's a great veteran piece, a great clubhouse ad. Again, I think he just, I know he built a home out here. So would make a lot of sense. And I think, again, we talked about it. There is a lot of positives returning to this team. Yeah. It's again, how do we,

as a mid-market spending team fill the gaps and voids competitively. Right. I see here that Jock says he actually enjoys the flexibility of short-term deals, like one to two-year deals, maybe with an option. Get traded when a World Series. He's done it, you know. Yeah, absolutely. So I think that helps the Diamondbacks because they're not a franchise.

It's just divvying out huge long-term contracts. It's been, I mean, again, until we get to the up restaurant of spending money outside of your core guys that have proven it, I think guys like Jock and even one-off guys, it's going to be one to three-year deals max. Yeah, right. I think we have to be because, again, until something changes,

which again, I don't know where baseball's at with the, the, gosh, dang it. Give me a second. What they did with Otani, like pushing his money back. Deferral. Deferral. Yeah, deferred payments. Some of the biggest atrocity in the history of baseball.

There's, there's, where they're literally making money off of, because based on the deal they have to put so much aside, right? So they put it into an investment where they're making money off of it. And again, it's not, I'm not sitting here trying to cry. I'm like, oh, this is unfair. I am. The Dodgers should have to pay $70 million on their payroll to Otani.

That is a massive advantage from a team who already outspends the diamondbacks by $67 million to be able to afford a player like that. And then to even do it with, I think they did with Tayasur and Andes. They deferred like $2 million. Yeah. And Otani makes so much money. off of his, you know, endorsement. Yes.

Right now that it's a great investment for him. And the only reason why it's not is because, as Jesse would say, today's money is not tomorrow's money. That's exactly what I was going to say. It's actually with inflation. The Dodgers are actually paying significantly less than 70 million today in the future. It's the biggest crime in baseball. It really is.

Like I said it. It's an atrocity. It really is an atrocity to this sport. I think more so it's the rich getting richer, right? It is. It's like the very wealthy team that has been able to. to stay at the top based on their spending over the years is getting you know finds a way to get the best player even though they're kind of maxed out financially poor me like you said we can cry

about it but look at the last 15 years how many division titles have the dodgers won right and the problem here is is that like the diamondbacks somehow made this two-headed monster of peterson and randall gritchick that somehow became one of the best dh situations outside of otani in all the baseball and they probably can't afford to bring either guy back because they had career years Like it would be great for Jack Peterson to come back, but he had a 151 OPS plus, a 908 OPS, 23 home runs, 65 RBI. He's going to get paid somewhere. And that's in a part-time role.

That's not even as the full-time D.H. And then you had Randall Gritchick, 140 OPS plus 875 OPS, 12 home runs, 46 RBI. And Randall Gritchick felt like he barely played baseball. You didn't. Both those guys, I mean, personally set themselves up great for, you know, their future and continuing for not two guys. guys that were out at all, but two kind of role players who now are, I mean, going to be individual role players, you know what I mean? Like, they're going to be looked at in that role

from bigger teams that are going to be able to spend more money. And Gritchick, especially, right? Like, he just got a chance to kind of show out without putting too much stress on himself without going out there and playing every day, but still showing that he can, D.H. He can be very valuable as an offensive player, but he also played the outfield pretty well. He did. And then he also wasn't really, his splits weren't that bad. Like, he, him against right. handed pitchers was still a pretty solid average to above average hitter this year. So I think that he probably is looking at this payday or this offseason as an opportunity to, you know, be an everyday starter somewhere. At least that would be my inclination. Jock, maybe more so is,

is kind of destined as a platoon guy. But I think Gritchick really helped himself out this offseason. Well, I have a question for you. And that is, what the hell is wrong with the pitching and how can they fix it. I mean, when you look at this team's starting pitching ERA, 4.7927th in baseball, relief pitching ERA tied for 25th at 4.41. Like, do you think that it's a matter of, again, consistency at starting pitching and then that causing everything else? I mean, it starts for me, health is always priority. When Merrill and Gowan are both out for stretches of time, those are your two anchors. They never got a chance to get a flow and a rhythm going. which carries into the rest of the rotation.

Again, Eduardo was hurt in this time. I mean, guys that were supposed to be consistently, one, two, three punch, even Montgomery. Again, guys just didn't perform and stay healthy. Again, every team deals with injuries, right? Especially in the starting rotation. But the time that our starters were out, they just never were able to build that flow

and consistently, you know, go into a game. We're like, man, we've got Gowen, Merrill Eduardo going. Like we can we can beat this thing. Like we're you know what I mean? And it just there wasn't enough consistency of those guys pitching and it especially coming into September. It just wasn't built up and and able to roll through. I mean, a couple of those games you you have that rolls into the bullpen. I mean, we can we get up, but it rolls into the pen man. Early on like we talked about struggles. The starting pitching wasn't there led to a lot of early bullpen issues, a lot of inconsistencies. A lot of early exits for the starting pitching this year like a lot. Even with

good outings that's the game man like that's that's that's that's freaking baseball right now yeah pisses me off like I understand again this is where I'm all four guys getting paid earlier and having security and like we go back to letting a guy throw 115 pitches yeah like again I'm gonna date myself we talked about it because it is old 2015 my major league debut how many pitches you think I threw uh 22 years old okay I'll say 95 because of right now uh I'm feeling it's different. I'm going to shoot a little higher, but I would have guessed lower initially, but I'll go 103. Six innings, I think I threw 114 or 116 pitches.

First major league start. I go to San Francisco the next week. I throw 98 and 7 or 6 and two thirds, 98. Like, I don't, again, look it up. Tell me a rookie pitcher that's done over 100 pitches this year. Yeah. It doesn't happen. I'm not saying that I'm not for like, oh, let's just wear these guys out, but we got to get back to a point where guys are pitching deeper. are, that's where these inconsistencies come from, man. Guys aren't pitching past the fifth and the sixth. And you go back to really good teams and the good teams I've been on, when you can hand that ball over to your 7, 8, 9,

and you create this real system where those guys get rest when you're losing. Like, it's not a bad thing, but like, let's say eight guys in the pen. You have your four guys that pitch when you're winning, and you have your four guys that pitch when you're losing or tied. And that's how you say healthy and consistent, but you need that starter to get into at least the sixth. but we got to get back to letting guys go, man. Like the pitch counts and the stuff,

I'm all for health and keeping you guys healthy. But in my opinion, like, look at Tommy Johns are at a skyrocket rate. Like, we're training to throw harder than ever. Like, let's just accept it. But we got to pitch guys deeper in games, man. It's just it creates too many inconsistencies throughout the season and throws off what is supposed to be,

I'm not saying an easy system to manage, but at least a more preferable system than, you know, out of five games, three starters didn't make it to the fifth. Like that's tough to manage. And it's even happening in the minor leagues. Like the minor leagues are even more of a joke of things that bullpins are covering versus starters. And the game needs to figure out a way to get starters deeper into games.

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things that I feel like has changed with time watching baseball. And that's what makes me feel old is things like closers being dominant closers. It feels like there's a handful of those guys in the league versus. versus it more felt like they win the sye young by the way uh no i don't think i don't think it's been announced yet i saw no i'm saying he didn't i'm saying should he be like considered more seriously for the guardians call them the favorite on their twitter and people were up in arms about that they really were that i was well sorry just popped in my head like no i mean it's incredible

right yeah like and that's that's the thing is is that those guys are they seem to be more and more rare so they should be recognized for their efforts. But of course, we have more to talk about. We have more with Archie. I asked him plenty of questions. It's going to be your guys' turn to ask those questions here shortly. But we do thank you for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe.

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Text next step to 533442 or visit Problem. www.az.gov. All right, well, it is time for us to debut a brand new segment, which actually won't be a segment. We're going to have a wonderful piece for you. Die-Hards out there. And today's questions come from our die-hard. So if you are not a die-hard yet, go to go-PHNX.com, find out how to become a die-hard.

You get exclusive content. You get a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com. And you will get this segment, which is Ask Archie. So we got Archie here. We can make this a segment. Oh, we're going to talk about this. I mean, we have some questions to ask. And I know mailbag Monday kind of turns into Ask Archie when you're around anyway.

So we just figured we'd give you the floor here. I like that. And we got it from our friends from the diehard. So let's check out what questions we got for Archie. Our first question comes from Austin. And Austin asks, what is a typical relationship with the player and the coaches and the manager? What sorts of things are conversations for your position coach about what things get brought up straight to the manager like just as far as I think he means the chain of command and like what your

relationship with is the pitching coach versus versus torre everything starts with uh how the manager is like there's different types of managers right and how they handle player relationships um we've obviously talked about tory and he's more on the loving side sure um still always the one thing i've learned from every manager that i appreciate is all of them as they should they they shoot it to you straight you know it's when we talked about black and white earlier like there are some weird times where you really don't know your role but for the most part they do a great job of like hey you're not playing well we're going to move you out of this role but like for me let's just talk about me like 16 into 17 you know going from a starter to reliever um kind of wanting to be a leader on the team early on like tory called me in he was like hey don't let your role as a reliever define your role as a leader you know and so like my relationship with tory early on was like man this guy's giving me some freedom to be myself yeah we talk about really kind of weird stuff but play music in the clubhouse yeah uh set up theme trips just stuff like that were early on

i had a great you guys killed it with the three themes great relationship with tory um and then tory kind of did a thing i'm sure some other managers did it were tory kind of had like a player's counsel he had like a starter reliever uh infielder and outfielder and like maybe one or two other guys so maybe like six seven guys i do we call them once a month and kind of like hey what you what's going on what do you not like what do you not want what do you want different things like that to kind of keep a temperature gauge on the team and what was happening in the clubhouse uh i think one thing good managers do most of them do but the clubhouse is the players um like don't remember wrong coaches come in there and managers come in there but there's kind of a sacredness

to like the clubhouse is yours that is the locker room is the player sanctuary and so giving players the freedom to be themselves. And then coaches, man, that's what's weird. Like we talk about players in and out, one year's deal. Relationships can range from as deep to a guy being your best man in your wedding to, I mean, outside of seeing him at the field, that's all you talk to him for. Yeah. You know. And then same thing with pitching coaches. Like my time in Arizona, I think I had four pitching coaches. So you get, you know, you take the good and the bad, what you want to hear, what you don't, in and out. And they all have things you like and don't like. And, Every year it's kind of just, what I call it, seasonal friendships in a way.

Yeah. You know, the next season is, what am I going to get? And who am I going to get? And so it's kind of a carousel, I guess, of managing relationships that are both personal and business in navigating those as you get older. That's interesting. I've always thought of it as like summer camp in a way. It is. You know what I mean?

Like I still wish we just had name tags for spring training is the most interesting time of the year. Because spring training, you have 60 guys in camp, you know, 30 of them aren't making of it. 10 of them are your prospects that are coming up to take older guys' jobs. 20 guys are there just to feel it's, you don't know anyone's name. All the, it's crazy. Is that Tory situation with the player council? Is that a normal thing or is that a Tory thing? I think it's a Tory thing.

I mean, didn't happen in Anaheim, didn't have it in Sincere or Philly. But I've heard of it other places. And this is different one, like, you've talked about like the player representative. and stuff like that. Yeah, that's different. This is like, like, again, say right before the season starts, like spring, Tori would call that group in and it was the same group. It wasn't random.

It was the same group of guys. And like, for example, like, hey, what do you guys think of food on the road? Is you guys, is food on the road good? How about travel? You know, you guys, we have two off days coming up for the start of the season. Do you guys want to leave before the off day or do you want to leave that, you know, just stuff like that that kind of gave us, yeah, the option to put some input into things that matter to us.

That like it's little stuff, but yeah, like being Arizona playing in L.A., we do have the luxury to stay the off day at home and fly out the night of the off day, like late and have a full day at home instead of spending the day in L.A. when it's only a two-hour flight, you know? Right. That makes sense. And same thing. From food to travel to all tight. It didn't matter as little or, again, it happens. Say a younger kid was having a problem with the bullpen coach and he didn't know how to approach it. Like, again, just saying this for example, not saying this is a deal.

But say Ginkle's struggling and he doesn't know how to approach fat. He's at, I think Ginkle's struggling, Tori, like, you know, maybe talk to Fed about Ginkle and how we can approach. Sure. Helping those guys, you know. Because he might tell you guys that, yes, as his teammates, but might not go to the coaches. What I think a lot of people understand, this may sound crazy because there's, there's, there's, there's so much teaching and stuff. But at the big league level in the middle of the season, you either get the job done or you don't. There's not a lot of time to, like, coach or help guys out.

Yeah. Like some guys have some leeway here and there. but so again being able to filter that like tory said to help mend a gap or bridge something or help a guy out quicker stuff like that so i thought that was really really cool the way tory did that yeah i mean i think personally at least like uh in my job like i would i would be feel very appreciated with something like that happening i mean you get a lot of input and i mean honestly it's that's that's that's an important piece of having a good you know chemistry filled And not only that is we saw things, it wasn't just talk.

Like you saw things we talked about go into play. Yeah. Like I said, from travel to food to whatever, you name it. Like, we address things. And some are like he just, that's what I love about Tori, but like, yeah, that's not changing guys. Sorry. That's what we're going to do it.

Sure. Like, okay, next subject. Like, you know what I mean? Like, cool. So like, but like, I mean, it could be something as simple like, hey man, we haven't, like some of the guys have been complaining that there's not enough healthy like snacks. Or like, like, hey, Tori, dude, we've taken BP 6. 16 days in a row. Like, like next series, can we at least have two days? We do like early optional BP,

but like we stay off our feet and he's like, yeah, dude, like for sure. Or like, again, midseason, this is when I got a little comfortable. I'd always get scared. But I always got to the field early. And guys knew that I could go in and talk to Tori's. I was on the, you know, and guys would come back, Archie, dude. It's 103. Get us out of beat. Get us out of beep. Or get us, get us to wear shorts for BP. So I'd be like crap. So I'd like, roll out like, hey, Tori, what are you thinking about shorts today? Maybe no BP. We scored 16 last night. You know what I mean?

Just saying, like, maybe no BP today. And sometimes it works. Sometimes it wouldn't. But I loved the freedom. I think that's, you know, you're talking about even coaches, 50 people in a clubhouse, whatever, with different backgrounds, different egos, different ethnicities and trying to manage and coach.

And I think, you know, an insight that you guys may think is weird that we haven't talked about. We can move on the next question of this. but I think there should be more, I don't know, like hard coaching during games. I don't think like, like you watch a football game, like when guys get their ass chewed. Oh yeah, yeah. You don't really see guys get their assued in baseball. Yeah.

No, that's a good point. You mean like they come back from making a mistake. Yeah. You just see the coach like laying a little bit. You know what I mean? Oh, you, you're going to get people on. Yeah. Actually, this is a great, I think, segue into a question that a lot of people in the chat would love to have answered.

Like, does Tori do that? that kind of stuff behind closed doors because everyone in the chat, you know, like they watch our post game shows after a loss and it's always, you know, Tori handing out juice boxes. Tori's handing out orange slices and juice boxes to the boys. And it's like, I think we always try to try to push back on that and be like, we are not privy to the back end conversations. Like you have to view this. That's the thing. That's the tough part about it is it is whether you want to use the word political or business. There's so many layers to this, right? Right. Right. Like you do have to watch out for a player's feeling.

and you do have to watch out for his agent. But at the same time, like, that's where money and technology has gotten, I'm not going to say in the way, but altered the way we view sports and athletes and stuff. Like there's a great, great clip. I'll get into my point, but of Jim Leland absolutely cussing out Barry Bonds after one of the MVP seasons, like in spring. He's like, Barry, whose F& team is this? Is it my effing team? All right, then you're going to listen to me.

I'm the FN manager. And like in front of everyone. And again, like you do that to a Bryce Harper or Mike Trout. Who knows, that may affect it. them in a negative way. Yeah, yeah. But there is. But again, I think we get paid a lot of money to win games.

We get paid a lot of money prepared to win games. Mistakes happen. And I think there's some mistakes that you're okay with that are hustle mistakes that you see. But when there's just simple mistakes that are made that like costs losing a game, I think we should address those more. I don't like, we're grown men. We're getting paid a lot of them money.

I think it's a lot easier to handle like, hey, you lost the game today. Yeah. Well, no, we had runners on the game. No, you blew the game in the night. you lost the game. Give me an answer to why you lost it. Yeah. Or like a coach, like again, dude, like I talk about J.T. Remuto a lot.

I love J.T. Remuto. I can't remember why I did, but I forgot. I gave up a homer to someone. And right after he came in, he's like, Archer, what the fuck were you doing? Excuse me, I think that's what I can't say that. Yeah, that's all right. But that was in my head. He's like, we talked about that over and over.

You cannot throw LaMayhew up and in. You wanted to throw fast while I let you throw it. Like, that can't happen. And I was like, yeah. He's like, no, no, no. You hear me. like you can't make that mistake again. And it was like honestly one of the first times a teammate had kind of put me in check

or like held me accountable, called me out to where a lot of times I told you you cannot do that. We talk about it. Like there is a lot of all clear the page next game. Right. Yeah. But dude like we talk about we missed the playoffs by one game. Maybe a little more accountability.

Not saying the debacks don't have that. I'm just saying it's I would love to see more of that man. Like recently the Brady Baker Mayfield stuff have fun. Like dude, there is some of it where we need to be. a little more accountable and I think two guys' ass a little more. Right. And I think that's the problem is, is that when in my opinion, Tori

is very good about flipping the switch when he gets out on a podium and giving those answers and not making it awkward because for us as media, sometimes it can be awkward. And we understand. Like, it's crazy to me at some times that I've been in some guy's locker after he blew a game.

Putting a microphone in put him for sure. Just thinking internally how I would feel. Hey, what did you think of that pitch you through? Yeah. the one he hit a homer to lose the game on? The one that I blew the game with. I didn't think very highly of it. You know, that kind of thing. But also there's some, as I've always handled that well, that's part of the sport.

You have to answer that. Even though it is monotonous and you're going to answer it again in two weeks, that's the duty of playing baseball. And your job as a media member in our job. And so, yeah, I would say Tori definitely gets into guys' butts behind close scenes. I mean, and if there's anything ever that needs to be addressed, it gets addressed. So and again, it's always like anything in any business, sports, like there's things that coaches can address, but if you're players, you have a few solid leaders on that team that

have respect and can hold accountability. A lot of things you're taking care of through those guys. All right. What other questions that we got here for Ask Archie? Brandon Buck says, how would you handle Dre Jameson, starter, middle, reliever, back in reliever. We know Dre's going to be back for this team. I would say this from my time moving to the pin having success early on in 17 and 18. I always wish I would have got a chance to start again. I had a chance. I wish I'd have been more vocal after 17.

The debacks, like, hey, what do you want to do next year? You know, you're one of the best relievers in the big leagues, but, you know, whatever,

there's a chance for you to come back in the rotation. What do you want to do? And I was kind of like, man, I just want to roll. I'm pitching well. Whatever role, do you want to close?

I was like, dude, just pitch me. Like, I just want to pitch well. I'd finally kind of, amicable for us. Yeah, I kind of finally established myself as a guy in the league that can pitch.

And I was like, I just want to pitch well. I wish I'd have been a little bit more vocal and asked to go back into the rotation. So I would say you just monitor them. You like early, early me like people say I was a failed starter. But if you actually break down my numbers, they weren't that bad.

Yeah. You know, technically. Like we could get into that. It was just you were better as a reliever. Yeah. I was better at reliever. But also you look at my 16. I won my last six starts of the year.

Yeah. I was 10 and 9, which doesn't sound great. or 9 and 10 out of 5, but I struck out 148 over 140 innings, whatever. Outside of Kent and my 8, I was one of the best rookie starters in 16. He's not flexing on you guys. No, not at all. I'm just saying, I was really looking forward to going into the rotation in 17.

We had Corvin, we had Shelby Miller. So getting back to Drake, I would just, let's find. The thing is he needs big league innings. Like, that's what you're going to, that's how you determine that is he needs the pitch in the big league consistently. And let's find a role where he starts to have success. And then again, we talked about there's going to be things that pop up. Let's find spot starts.

Let's keep them available. I think the biggest thing is don't pinhole him into singular innings. Like that's what I always prided myself on when I stayed in the pen was I want to throw multiple innings. I want to get up to three innings at least because that gives me the option, especially when you get into playoffs and what teams are looking for. Man, you show a team you can go two plus in the playoffs in September. That's a big freaking deal.

So I would monitor Dre and let's find him a good. spot and then see what can happen. Well, and that would be a great spot for him just based on the fact that it feels like the Donembach's long relievers right now tend to be guys that are more of those negative. Yeah. You know, where they're losing kind of games versus having someone like that that can eat up a couple of innings. And keep you in that game. Bridge that gap of a one, two run game. Right. And then get you into the bullpen when you've tied it up or again, you have a chance to tie it up. Um, that's what I thought made us so good. And so yeah, I mean, I think Dre's a great talent and the worst thing I think is guys just get labeled way too early yeah I mean again it's way but

look at Michael king in San Diego I mean guys just sure there's just a lot of guys and I think in today's game we talked about it until starting pitching becomes a priority of having to throw 200 innings again I mean like there's a lot of guys that have great seasons that are throwing 160 innings yeah I'm not saying that's easy to do I'm just saying that's more attainable than the past work courses that you had to be to be in a rotation well and dray has some similarities yes you know he really does he's got that that's why i say like he's got it in i'm like i think there's a great role for him to have some freedom to again that's what i loved about the long innings is especially when you're trying to figure out who you are you have some

inings you get your your your shit kicked in you give up runs and you got to go back out there and know like responsibly i need to cover two more innings you know and so you you learn a lot about yours like that's why i wanted to go back in the rotation the bullpen taught me how to pitch it made me understand how not to nimble, how to throw strikes, especially when you're dealing later in games with one, two-run games, how you pitch around guys, how you protect the guy on deck, who you take your matchups against, where you can get beat, where you can't, where now I can transfer that into starting and have a whole better idea of how to navigate

a lineup. Yeah. And when I have two outs, I can pitch around Freddie Freeman and attack Tay Oshker. And, you know, if I do get beat by Teosker, whatever, tip my cap. But I'm not going to let Freddie crank me when, really I don't think I have a lot of stuff to beat them. Right. And I can just go around them.

Right. Where I didn't understand that my first few years. I didn't understand pitch counts and I'm getting really deep and how to get quicker outs and how to produce a ground ball or how to produce a double play when there's a ground ball hitter up. I learned so much in that pin where I just would love to see him be patient and allow him to kind of develop and see what it can become. I think it's interesting. I mean, the Diamondbacks have had, I would say, net negatives in their long reliever type of roles in the last couple of years. and having that net positive of Drey Jameson could be pretty impactful on this team and get you a couple more games here and there on the season

that would have been the difference between not making playoffs or making playoffs this year. And we know the bullpen was taxed, right? Yeah, absolutely. Overused. And that's because they didn't really feel like they had that guy that could secure those couple of innings. Correct. Jordan Montgomery did all right in that role,

but you still felt like he wasn't going to keep it a clean game. You know what I mean? But he did enjoy really being. out there in the bullpen, which is still hilarious to me that that was like where we, I get it though. I get it. You guys out in the bullpen. You guys have a lot of fun. It's a different.

We need a whole other couple episodes to go over that. Just go over that. Oh, we'll do that. But all right. What else we got here? You want to read this one, Damon? Yeah. Gary the cat says, how much of the fan chatter can you hear when you're on the mound?

Has there ever been something you've heard that had really got under your skin or at the end of the day? Or are you thinking I'm playing the game that I love making a lot of money doing it and you're words mean nothing. Both. I think early on in your career, you take words a lot more personal than later on in your career. But yeah, there's a lot. There's times where I remember a great story I have. When I'm in the zone and I'm pitching well and a loud stadium, you hear it, but it doesn't really factor in. I say it doesn't factor in. I'll counter that with something else. But I'm pitching at Chase, middle of 2018, I think, and I was having a terrible second half, is in our lapse but I've got a couple jerseys in the team store a couple archie bradley shirts fear the beard

yeah yeah I'm archie blah blah blah and dude I am giving it up every time I'm like four straight outings of two plus runs giving up I mean I'm struck but I'm still doing whatever the little of the game against the Dodgers there's like 10,000 people there I give up three runs in a row and this guy is I heard him yelling the whole time and he hit me with you go Bradley I just ran up to the team store your shirts are half off now. Oh my God. I remember hearing that all the mound. I was like,

damn, that's a good one. That's a good one. That would make me laugh too. Yeah, where I will say where I noticed crowds and really started notice a difference was pitchcom, no pitchcom.

Oh really? Once pitchcom was introduced, like at first, I think we taught when they first talked about putting a microphone in our cap and I was like, this is stupid. Like, what are we doing?

And then I remember pitching in Yankee Stadium back to back days of the Phillies and pitchcom and no pitchcom pitchcom. Pitchcom malfunctioned the second day for the Yankees. So they cut ours off to make it fair. And I remember trying to look at signs and like literally looking at JT and being like, like the stadium was shaking was so loud versus like basketball outside. Yeah. And so yeah.

I mean, we taught. That's why I'm such a big component of putting butts in the seats like DBEX fans. Because like you do notice. You do hear. There is a a vibe and an excitement that you start to feel. And it's funny, man, like the best is you, you can pick out individual voices better than you think, honestly, especially when a guy is talking crap consistently. So the best is you're up there like arguing with this fan in your head while you're pitching. Like, you're like, dude, screw this guy.

Like, dude, okay, well, crap, I need to figure out if it was fastball right now. Like, let's get back on track. So you strike him out and you're more worried about, you know. What that one guy thinks. Yeah, take that. Except other than the batter walking off into the dugout. And even, you know, like I said earlier on, like you get a ton of DMs and Instagram. death threats hey you blew my bet and you just learn like that's life you know what I mean like

if you don't take it seriously you laugh with it like obviously I think there are some players that maybe do have some more serious things to worry about in some places like playing with bryce and mike trout dude and otani I saw some crazy stuff where you actually do worry about some of those guys safety in some places but you know while you're like yeah like good to be me you know i had tons of guys especially with the betting stuff becoming more popular ton of guys send me their parlays and that's and like you effing idiot you couldn't get you couldn't give up less than two runs to the Yankees like you and like some guys I'd laugh couple guys I'd send 30 bucks to cover a beer or something like that but you know you take you take you with the grain of salt and ultimately

a lot of it you just learn like outside of it man it's just it's another day it is you are getting paid a lot of money I do think there's a line that's kind of been crossed since COVID of kind of taking things a little too far like I'm all for good shit talk you want to talk trash and like you want to bring up statistical number and all that, I'm cool. But like anything, when you start getting personal, you bring up family, like, all right, that's when now we're equal. Now, now I do want to hop in the stands and let's exchange some words.

But you want to talk about the Homer I gave up the Matt Kemp, Matt Kemp's my dad. Like, I love that. Bring it off. You know what I mean? Like, come on. I'm all for that. Yeah. That's fun.

There was one guy at a game. And it's, for me, it's those games where there isn't a big crowd. So you can hear that one guy. And like, there was one guy who was like, he was like, you went 0-4-16. in the last 12 games. You bum. And like everything he ended, he ended with this notorious you bum.

Yeah. And it became like part of. And I'm all for that. You as a fan, but again, let's keep it statistical and on the field. When you get, when you get personal,

all right, let's meet outside the clubhouse. You know what I mean? I personally, if I sent my parlay to a player, which I don't do this, but if I send it to a player and I was like,

you blew my parlay and he sent me back of Venmo for $30 and said, here's a beer on me. be like this is my favorite player of all time i think i think for life i'm locked in rocker brent rocker for the a's sent a jersey to a guy but i've always i've always wanted to do a funny skit um this pertains to the bullpen or any athlete any across any major league sport i think can understand this but i would love to have fans like us like athletes like have all of us athletes in the valley k uh kiler book k d me grinder all these people back here just yelling at you guys while you're

trying to do your podcast right now asking for your pen can I get your computer can I have your microphone let me get your shoe let me get your wedding ring let me get your Apple watch people just think that we get everything for free and like oh we're gonna give you your red yeah oh yeah that but then right after Derek let me get your honor like dude you're just mother effing me and now you're asking for my cleats but I would love let me get your pen let me get your pen it's like dude I need this pen let me get your computer like you think that P&X just gives us Apple computers like what are we doing here but I think it would be hilarious to go to all these different office settings and act the way fans act while people are

trying to do their job. Oh my God. That's so. I'll buy a ticket if I have to. Let's do it. I need to pay. That's a good little skit. Yeah.

Yeah. All in all, I think it's all, especially it's all in good faith. And initially it's what keeps the sport going, right? You're right. Well, we'll have more questions for Archie here momentarily, but we do have some more from our partners before we move on. Got to check. Got to check out our friends.

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a very specific to the pitching mound you know i like that no and they are they are as weird as it sounds which is another segment we'll get into which i think is well in fact how baseball football may be close has so many different playing services right that aren't consistent yeah Like when you think about dimensions and everything, even like material used from clay to dirt mounds, like Cincinnati's terrible mountain. Low. Same thing with San Fran, San Diego to the question. San Diego and San Diego and Kansas City. Wow.

Yeah. San Diego like full clay. Like every time even late in the game pitching like when my feet would step in the dirt, like everything is flat. you could see your cleat marks in the clay. Yeah. And like that with the turf is the light dirt mixed over in east was the best. Consistent you found your spot. There wasn't big holes in the mound.

If there was, they could put clay in there and fill it. But I think San Diego is the best mound in the league. That's awesome. That is interesting. I mean, I've always loved that about baseball, the different dimensions thing.

Like I think that makes it so unique. I mean, it's not just like, oh, regulation field, regulation hoop. It's like there's a, there's a,

you know, in Yankee Stadium, you hit pop flies into right field and you're hitting a home run. In San Francisco, they forgot to build a bull pad. But it's crazy to think about all these statistics that are kept on different level fields. Like the outs in Oakland, RIP,

in foul territory compared to everywhere else. You know what I mean? Like there's just the inconsistencies, I say inconsistencies, but differences I like it, but also as I get older, I'm like, this is really strange that there isn't,

hey, every mountain needs to be this clay. Yeah. And this, you know what I mean? this parameter or whatever you're especially when it feels like there is a desired like

result there right like you're saying like you off the top of your head still know that San Diego is one of your favorite. It's like can we just do that everywhere? Cincinnati Mountain sucks Boston sucks. Yeah. Yeah, I could rank them all but yeah there's definitely ones you favor over others. My favorite thing in baseball

is when the teams like kind of build their roster around their specific intricacies of their ballpark. And he'll do well there. So like a Red So when the Red Sox, you know, they have like a Dustin Padroia back in the day. But that's also gets straight under the baseball and hits it over. But analytics wouldn't allow that now.

That's the problem with that. At least in my opinion, like that's where like I would love to see that more of analytical analytics for this ballpark. You know what I mean? Instead of overall analytics. Like we're going to play 81 games here. And it would analytically put together the best team for this. Yeah. At Yankee Stadium.

Maybe they do try to do that. I don't know. I think. And the Yankees try to do, try to get left-handed power hitters. Or if they get right-handed guys, they try to get guys that have a lot of op-o power, like a Stanton or a judge. Yeah, exactly. So I think, I think there are teams that do that, but the Yankees seem to be like maybe the team that does it the most. Because they have the most versatility to, like, go out and target particular guys and then get those guys.

But I always found that very interesting. I think that, like, I would love to know what the debacks do, particularly like, is Alec Thomas more valuable to them in a lot? long-term sense because of how much ground he covers in that massive center field at chase field or or just other things like that. All right. Well, we got one more question for you. What do we got there, Kev? Nicholas says, I'll ask the only question that matters.

What is his beard care routine? How much time do we have? Let's let's say, I mean, we can briefly just, this is a daily routine. Right? So let's say right now, we're about, let's clear the mic. So we can just, I'll get back on it. Yeah. So we got some grays coming in the corners.

We'll consider a fresh dye. Yeah. Just because I'm way too young to have this. It's not even gray. These corners become white. Right. So fresh dye will start there. You dye it up.

And then it's kind of a process. You cut the hair first and then the hair leads into the beard. I've got a guy, Love, my barber for forever. Shout out Lev. But it's unfortunately, I hate to admit it. It's about a 30-minute beard trim edge up process. Wow. Because the thing about it that a lot of people is, how do your beard?

Like, I do have an exceptional beard. I'm not afraid to admit it. But it's not bragging when it's true. It comes in because I'm able to grow the underneath. That's what gives it this, like, status and, like, you know, outward appearance versus coming off the cheek. I'm able to grow the underneath that comes out. So with that, there's a lot of layers in there that if you don't cut the right way,

you can mess up a beard real quick. Yeah. So it's about 30 minutes there. And then, yeah, naturally, you got to wash it. it. And then every couple days, you got to do some sort of, in my opinion, some sort of either like cream or oil to keep the skin underneath soft and not all dry out here in this Arizona. Yeah, yeah, because it doesn't see the light of day. When I'm playing, I'm a lot more meticulous with it. Like I put a lot of product in it right before I go out to the game and

stuff. Now that I'm not playing and stuff, I'm a little less concerned with it. Was Brandon Marsh there when you were on the Phillies? God, love that guy. Did he try to, you know, wet your He's like his hair. What I love about Marsh, Mars is like old school. Like with the hair and the beard, he was no problem. I don't even know if he's taking a shower

since he got traded from Anaheim to Philly. And I love that. I feel confident saying he has. Yeah. That's what we thought. You're just confirming facts for us. For the three months I see himates of Brainer Marsh, he is so high up in my book.

Yeah, I literally were talking about like, you know, I was like, dude, this guy doesn't care about the tips. I want to, he's,

he's like, hasn't showered since ever. Just now. I mean, one of the best, especially now with Charlie Blackman leaving, like stepping up to be the best beard in the outfield. He's got a duty to maintain it for sure.

I may have to text and let him know that all I know Charlie is past the baton. Yeah, I mean, that's honestly a big thing. That's sad to lose Charlie Blackman. You guys, the beard gang lost. I love Charlie Blackmun.

Yeah. For sure. Without question. For sure. Well, of course, we know the playoffs are still happening, even though we're not a part of it.

And of course, thank all of our diehards there for your questions. We appreciate you guys so much. We will be, bringing you much more Ask Archie in the future. But we do got to talk a little bit about the updates from the playoffs. Yeah. Let's take a look at our updated playoff bracket with the current wins in there.

We got the Mets winning yesterday over the Brewers. We have the Padres winning over what looked like a very exhausted Atlanta Braves team in that game. Yeah. How did that happen? We're all looking for the guy who did this. The Royals and Tigers, both with big wins there, I felt like over, you know, some pretty big opponents, tigers taking the first game behind Terrick Scoobel over the Astros and then the Royals taking their first game against the Orioles in a very, very low scoring game. So yeah,

there's all of that. I mean, what did you think on the results of that first round? Obviously, we're not just these are the first games, but any surprises there? Yeah, I mean, I think the Mets win. Yeah. Um, surprising. Well, they took a game off there. They did take a game off. That's fine. Yeah, B.S. Again, I have a lot of complaints with Major League Baseball. I probably need to keep to myself. Scheduling. Scheduling. What are we doing? Scheduling these mid-early day games. Like we're talking about trying to engage fans, grow the sport. We've worked six months to produce the best teams and the best quality of baseball. And we're going to start games at 11. On a Tuesday. Detroit is a working city. Yeah. Like just have Monday night football. Jared got off the line. Like, let's give these guys the love and appreciation that they deserve and allow this. fan base. I mean, I know people still took off work and showed up, but from a general national viewing, let's give us all of us a chance to watch this game. I had to work. I'm jokingly,

I had to work yesterday. But it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to clear my day so I can watch this midday game. Right. It's not college football. It's not the NFL. Like, we need to work for our viewers. We need to promote the sport and putting people's eyes on these playoff games. They're important for the future of baseball. It reminds me of last year in the NLCS when Diamondbacks get scheduled to 12 p.m. Like, what? Thursday game in the, in the National League Championship series.

My days of the Reds. We played a playoff game against the Braves at 11 a.m. in Atlanta. That's just crazy. And like, even for players, like, dude, not, okay, you want to play a 1 o'clock game. I get that. We're used to that.

But 11 o'clock, that's not even in our schedule. I know it sounds crazy, but we've had these games all year. And now you're going to throw an 11 o'clock or a noon game, which sounds crazy. But that's an hour to two hours, three hours difference in a normal afternoon game. So now it's bus times are different.

Everything is completely different. different. And it's just, it's mind-boggling for, I think, like, a sport that's wondering why they're having a hard time connecting more. Right. Like, show it in a better place. They didn't even stagger it either, right? Like, games were going on at the same time as each other. So it's like if you had a whole day of baseball, then maybe you can explain it even though, again, other sports with their big games, sometimes their big games run up against each other. But it's a lot easier to get the intention of the National Football League in the country to watch two Monday night football games.

For sure. Vers to midday playoff games. Right. Again, they are important, but they're wild card. It's not the most important time. But still, like, let's give everyone a chance to appreciate. I mean, Detroit again hasn't hosted playoffs or, I mean, been in the playoffs in 10 years. Let's celebrate that.

A midday game is just. And one of the questions we got was, like, one of the questions I received was like, what is with open seats at a postseason game? It's like, well, not everybody can take the day off. thing off. That was the thing all last postseason. The Phillies fans were getting on the Diamondbacks fans and trying to roast us. And the Diamondbacks fans have their own problems.

I'm not going to sit here and get on my high horse and be like, we're the best fan base in baseball. We have a lot of our own issues. But that being said, when you're scheduling a championship series game at 12 p.m. on a Thursday, and then you have other people coming at Diamondbacks fans for your game's not sold out. It's no wonder it's not sold out. It was like you could go on to game time and find like, you know, 50 or like sub $50 tickets.

People have jobs. People have to work. Like this is. Correct. And I understand that these things are mapped out way in advance, right? These scheduling and playoff and promotions and scheduling, all this stuff. But again, like let's, I just, I think it's inexcusable. And I think that point even more like nothing is better.

And again, bigger markets don't have to worry about it as much, right? Because they're the bigger markets. But again, too, like these first rounds of the. playoffs are huge and again you talk about empty seats man this is not playoff baseball is supposed to be packed standing room only yeah you know what you dream about of october baseball yeah well and also i just think in general they don't promote it as well as you could either because again if you are going to have those day games and again i make people excited and like i know almost do like march madness where it's like the rain and teams getting in last day of the season but there there needs to be a

a couple more days to separate the season and travel and promotion. I just don't think we're doing the sport enough justice for again, how big of a deal it is to make the playoffs. I don't think people understand that. Well, we did give our picks right now tentatively

for who we have for the World Series winners. And interestingly enough, we all kind of had very similar picks here. We actually all kind of felt a Yankees, Phillies World Series might be a little inevitable. Archie and I went with the Phillies And Damon, much to Sean DePaz's chagrin,

went with the New York Yankees, mostly to hurt Sean. I assume I'm going to have to answer for this. He's going to text message. I'm probably text him, get out ahead of it. But it's funny, a little inside baseball before the show, we're talking our World Series predictions. And Derek had said, I'm taking the Phillies. And then I was like sitting there and I was looking at the bracket.

And I decided to go with the Yankees. Then Archie strolls in and he goes, we ask him. And he goes, I don't know. I'm going to go. Yankees out of the AL, Phillies out of the NL, and I'm going to have the Phillies winning it all. And it was just like all three of us,

just kind of collectively on the same page. If it happens, this clip will lip it. It is. But there's teams in every, everyone wants to go, but there's two teams. Maybe you say forward to being here,

but for sure, the Phillies and the NL, it was like this team is either World Series or bust. They went there a couple years ago with harp, Schwerber, uh, Taiwan, Wheeler,

Ramuto. I mean, it's a stack of accolades. and pros and they played together for a good consistent number of years. Same thing with New York. They win. They had a talent. Stroming, Cole, Weaver, these guys.

I mean, they're just looking at it from a true going to win. These teams should go play for a World Series, in my opinion. I think the other teams are good. I think the Brewers are good, but they're all younger, a little less. Like, dude, these two teams, in my opinion, are star-studded. And it's what I want to see. Like, I think that would be the two best teams. and yeah, that's my picks.

I'm kind of, I'm interested to see if this year the layoff has this big impact. I'm glad you said that. I think that's, that would be very important. Yeah, if these teams can be ready. I mean,

I saw some of their schedules and I was like, I don't know. It looks like a lot of time off. It is. And that's right. I mean, we'll touch on that real quick. I mean,

from both sides, like, let's take the Phillies, like you're, I'm pitching, right? The way this kind of works sometimes, like we're going to play an inner squad game,

right? Or the Phillies, They keep a couple minor league guys pitching to come up and throw to the players, right? So they see live pitching. But same thing. You're going to playoff game coming up. You're going to tell these guys, hey, don't throw up and end to these guys. Don't take a chance of hitting T.

Don't take a chance of hitting JT. So I'm a pitcher. Let's say I am pitching that. Well, I leave a few more pitches over the plate during this simulated game because I don't want to hit this guy. Well, now I go to pitch against the mats or the brewers who are going to play next. Well, I might leave a few pitches over the plate because I'm not as sharp. Same thing as a hitter. you're not seeing 95-99 like you're going to see like again I talked about I know they're taking BP

I know they're working out but where else in the baseball season which I think it's the most important sport to play every single day do you take five six days off without playing a game yeah just doesn't happen I think you mentioned it in a show we did a while ago of like I think this is the year that we'll see whether getting that buy is really a disadvantage to these teams we're talking about producing a product and is this is this a advantage for teams that win is you know we think of the rest and getting to but is it actually providing like last year

I think only the Astros moved on right yeah that like in night there's the Braves and Dodgers especially the Braves I thought the Braves are going to win at all which they got beat whatever you don't like it play better win but I think we evaluate this year if this time off is the best format for this playoff well

they have time now to at least have analyzed it in the past and figure out a way to keep these guys active and what makes the most sense right so we'll see what kind of impact that has. We will be back tomorrow with another 1 p.m. show, so make sure to join us for that. We appreciate you guys so much for joining us today. Follow me on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with K. We are all Damon's dogs. He is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-W-G. Bark. Yeah. I was waiting for it. Yeah, that's what we got to do. Of course, you can follow Archie at

Archie Bradley 7 on Twitter, Instagram. That's the place to follow him for sure and see all those wonderful pictures from his life. But make sure to check our show out at P.H. H-N-X underscore D-Backs. I forgot the guy on the ones and twos today, of course, Kev, we got Kev Tom writes, that's K-E-B-T-O-M-R-A-T-E-S. I have to spell it out and I don't know why, but we got. Because there's two different types of rights and Tom could be without an age. He makes it very difficult.

It's his fault. And then yet I'm the one that suffers. And you're apologizing, which is big of you. I'd say that takes a lot of accountability. I'm trying. I'm trying here. But we do appreciate you guys so much. Of course, like I said, our show is at pH-N-H-N-H-H-N-E-H-H-N-E. underscore debacks but all roads do lead to at phnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook thank you

again for your time we'll see you tomorrow hope you have a wonderful evening and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you get to talk about your team being in the playoffs and not other teams yes