PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Dodgers SWEEP Reds in Wild Card, Could the D-backs Have Done Better?

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4The MLB Postseason continues to deliver the drama, with three winner-take-all matchups now set for Thursday. The Los Angeles Dodgers, however, wasted no time, steamrolling the Reds in a two-game sweep to punch their ticket to the NLDS. It begs the question: would the D-backs have matched up better against L.A.’s loaded, All-Star–studded lineup? We also take a trip down memory lane to revisit some of the best moments in Arizona’s own postseason history and explore what lessons this team can carry forward. Plus, with the Arizona Fall League kicking off next week, we’ll give you all the reasons D-backs fans should be excited to check it out — from top prospects on display to the unique baseball experience you can only get in the desert.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Zen Leaf: Visit our friends at Zen Leaf (http://zen-leaf.store/phnx) for 50% off using promo code ZENPHNXSpencer’s Appliances: Visit Spencerstv.com and use code PHNX5 for 5% off appliances OR use code PHNX10 for 10% off TVs, audio and mattressesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Access Auto Insurance Agency of Arizona, LLC (Access Auto) is a renowned agency offering personal and commercial auto insurance options to Arizona residents. If you’re on the hunt for a new policy, call Access Auto today at 1-480-400-0546 or get a free insurance quote by visiting our website.Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We have a wild day of wild card baseball ahead of us, including three elimination games and also the Dodgers who already advanced. We're going to talk about them ruining baseball as we always do. And we're also going to talk about which players that you should be watching next week, as far as DBAX are concerned, in the Arizona Fall League. Don't you go anywhere? We're starting in 30 seconds. Thursday to you all, welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDBACs podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

This is my pet snake, JJ. And that over there is the one, the only Damon Dog on the ones and twos. Welcome in to you all. Thank you guys for being here. It's another wonderful edition of the PHNX D-BX podcast, or as I'm going to start calling it,

the PHNX MLB podcast, because we have lots of fun postseason games to talk about, including three elimination games today, and none of this involves the Arizona Diamondbacks. But we are going to talk about the Dodgers advancing past the Reds. And if the Diamondbacks would have done a better job than the Reds did here taking on the Dodgers. Hello to you, Michael. Glad to have you here.

Appreciate you guys all being here, of course. This show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 in Game Time. Make sure to go download the Bet365 app right now. Use that code of PHNX 365 when you sign up. Use that code. You'll get yourself some bonus bets over there for following a few easy steps. Over at game time, use our code of PHNX. You'll get $20 off your first already low ticket order.

Damon, we sit here on a fairly historic day, according to Jeff Passon. Today marks the second time in baseball history where there will be three winner takes all games played in one game. Makes this first wild card round pretty exciting. I mean, we talked about the format yesterday, but having it come down to this for these teams is pretty fun. It is, but sadly, the only one I care about is not playing today. I know. I know. We don't really care about all these teams. I made the declaration that I would be rooting for the Cubs, but even that is hard to do. I don't find myself, I don't have my heart in it and watching the Cubs take on those ringless bums from San Diego. I mean, I do want them to win. I just don't really care that much. Speaking of which, the ringless bums, the aforementioned ringless bums from San Diego did beat the Cubs yesterday to tie the series up at one game apiece. Padres reliever, Mason Miller, through the fastest pitch in recorded history in the postseason.

He threw 104.5 mile per hour fastball that landed in the strike zone for a strike. And yeah, that's the fastest pitch ever thrown in the postseason. This is where we're at. Guys throwing basically 105 miles per hour. So again, this is, I don't know, another reason why I hate what happened here. And I hate the fact that Mason Miller is going to continue to be apart. of the Padres for a very long time. That stinks.

Hopefully he starts to stink because I can't deal with a guy throwing 104.5 miles per hour against the Diamondbacks. I just, quite frankly, I can't do it, Damon. I can't. But still don't know what's going to happen in that series. I do feel like overall the Cubs, you know, have the edge there being at home. But yesterday they were blank. They lose that game three to nothing. Their offense kind of stunk.

And it's a little reminiscent of when we as Diamondbacks fans were watching this Cubs team take on the Mets, take on the Reds, and give us some sort of chance to get into the postseason, and they didn't. So, yet more of the same yesterday by the Padres. And of course, Dylan Cease, very, very good. I'm noticing a trend, though. And something that I don't think the Diamondbacks could have really hung with in this postseason is the fact that a lot of these teams are not letting their starters go very long.

A lot of these teams like the Cubs yesterday, with an opener in Kitridge and then turned to Imanaga in the second inning for the bulk of the work. But Imanaga only pitched four innings yesterday for the Cubs. Dylan Cease only pitched three and two-thirds innings for the Cubs. And it was more of the same in the Tigers Guardians games. So again, with these games being so critical, you are seeing teams quickly turn to their bullpen. And quite frankly, it's another reason why I think the Diamondbacks would have been outgunned here in the playoffs because quite frankly, they don't have the bullpen for that, right?

Again, Padres take that one, three to nothing, no offense there from the Cubs and Manny Machado, went yard in that game for the other game. I was talking about Tigers versus Guardians. The Guardians wins that one six to one, despite it being very close late in the game. Brian Rochio, is that how you say his name? I'm not good with names. He had a solo home run in the eighth inning. He became the first player in Cleveland history, not Guardians history, the entire franchise's history,

to hit a go-ahead Homer in the eighth inning or later when the team was facing elimination in the playoffs. And that was a one-one game there in the eighth inning. Bo Naylor, brother of one Josh Naylor. Also went yard. He was one for four with a three-run home run as part of that huge fifth inning that allowed the guardians to take the lead there and win that game six to one. The Tigers, meanwhile, weren't in a great place. They stranded a franchise record, 15 base runners and went one for 15. with runners in scoring position yesterday.

Not good. And like I said, as far as the pitching was concerned, Casey Mize gave them three innings in that game. So again, a very quick hook in that game. And then more of the same from the Guardians, four innings pitched by their starters. So teams, again, very quickly moving on from their starting pitcher in these games

because of how critical they were. Casey Mize only pitched three innings. He only gave up one hit, one earn run. Walk, two, struck out one. Shane Bibi, he went, five and two thirds, or Tanner, maybe, sorry. He went five and two thirds or four and two thirds innings pitch yesterday. So again, guys not lasting very long and teams not waiting very long to turn to their bullpen.

Let me see. Killer X says they don't have a manager also, Stephen Boat, a real manager. And he, Killarex is broken. I don't know what happened to him, but he is losing his mind apparently. Candace, good morning to you, glad to have you guys here. Hope you guys are interested in a fun day of baseball that does not include the Diamondbacks. And I hate to say that. It's gross to say, but it's still a fun day of baseball with these three games, three teams facing elimination.

And I could very well get to see our very own Noah just break down in tears here soon if his tigers don't advance past the Guardians. And I could leave after I do this show. I have a very small amount of work I have to do once we wrap here. But I plan on sticking around to see that. I want to see a full grown man who, quite frankly, really just, I mean, he harasses the rest of us. That's the best way to say what Noah's behavior is. That's a good way of putting me. He harasses the rest of us.

Every morning, here's a good example. Every morning when I walk in, Derek, he says, well, look with the cat dragged every single morning. Every single morning? It's pretty diabolical. That is insane. It puts me in just an awful mood from the jump. The first interaction I have with any single PHNX employee is a bad one. And then you have to go share an office with him and, like,

there work silently with him while he does weird things throughout the day. Quite frankly, there's times where Noah feels unshakable. And being a Michigan fan in general, that's shocking. It's shocking that he's not more rattled. But he is. I think that probably, like, hardens you up. Yeah, like, in a lion's fan. You wouldn't last a minute in the asylum that raised me kind of situation, right?

I mean, being a lion's fan must be torquered. Oh, my God. Even when you think you're good, you're bad. Right? So there's that. But yeah, I can't wait to see him have a full-blown meltdown when the Guardians do, in fact, win that game and eliminate the Tigers. Last but not least, of course, we had the Yankees tying their series with the Red Sox, and it's good for baseball. It's fun.

I love seeing the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry. I just personally don't care about it that much. I wish to – I hope both of these teams lose, quite frankly. And that's how I'm going to feel when the Dodgers take on the Phillies in the next round. But the Yankees did defeat the Dodger or the boss of Red Sox there by a score of four to three tying their AL Wildcard series. Austin Wells delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning to keep the Yankees postseason hopes alive. And again, it was, it's an interesting. Bear down, Derek.

Yeah, well, I knew you would be excited about that. That mustache is undefeated. Is it not Austin Bowles' mustache is undefeated? Like, I'm pretty sure the mustache like triggers Sean to pause. Austin Wells looks like a 57-year-old man because of his mustache. It's the craziest thing. I've never seen facial hair age somebody so beyond their actual years than Austin Wells. Like, dude, he was only playing baseball at UVA, like not that long ago.

Like, I was in college, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah. That's why it's so funny, he looks so old. All right, well, like I said, we have three elimination games today. We got the Tigers, Guardians, Cubs, and we got Red Sox Yankees. historic very first time that we've ever that we've seen this in a while so that's fun not the first time we've ever seen it but just not happen doesn't happen very often and we got yet another connection to the Arizona Diamondbacks going so if you wanted yet another reason for

Noah to be sad and to root for the Guardians one Slade Sikoni is going to be starting today for the Guardians in their win it all playoff game Slade Sikon. Tony, 4.30 ER 77 record this season going up against Jack Flaherty for the Tigers, who was 8 and 15 this year, with a 4.64 ERA. And again, a big matchup here for these guys. Bullpen, a little bit of an edge potentially there for the Tigers, but they're putting out their best offense today. And Javier Baez has a chance to win yet another playoff game. So it's going to be interesting to see. And again, I think that a lot of usage from the Guardians bullpen here overall.

And I don't think the Guardians have as strong of a bullpen as the Tigers. So I have no idea what we're going to see there. But I do feel like I will be rooting, like I said, for the Tigers just to hurt Noah's feelings. And I will also be very much rooting, I think, for the Cubs in that game as well. The Tigers, Guardians just kicked off. So if you just wait until we're done, wait until we're done to watch Redmond or do a dual screen thing. But yeah, that game started, so don't miss out on that. We got U. Darbish going up against James Tyone for the Cubs,

and then Early versus Schlittler for the Yankees. So not a lot of home, what would you say, big names there in that Red Sox Yankees final matchup compared to Garrett Crochet versus Max Freed. But that's what we have today. So make sure you go enjoy baseball. I know this round kind of sucks when your team just got eliminated, right? Like you really talking about Derek your Dodgers they won last night. Oh my God. He won't stop because I want to bet and I bet on the Dodgers last night.

And we're going to talk about it. And I'm I'm not afraid. I'm not scared to talk about it, Damon. I want $277 on the Dodgers last night. We're going to talk about it on the other side of the break. Why should you be afraid? It's your favorite team. Oh, God.

There's no stopping what's about to happen on the other side of this break. Michael Dixon is right. By the way, Slade is looking filthy. I mean, Slate almost got that no hit not too long ago. And again, we're going to, I mean, we're going to talk about it this off season, but I still think a great conversation could be had for if the Diamondback's biggest mistake this past off season was trading Slade for Josh Naylor, which eventually they also traded at the trade deadline. Yet they had to also know that was going to be a possibility, right? With Josh Naylor's

contract ending at the end of the year, they had to know that there was a good chance that if things didn't work out for them, they were going to end up trading him at the trade deadline. I understand the desperation to win. I understand the desperation by this team, not knowing what this year was going to be to add Josh Naylor and to solidify their situation at first base after Christian Walker left as a free agent. But there is a lot of discussion we could have about that Slade trade.

And if we will come to regret it, I feel like we already did throughout the course of the season, considering how thin the depth of starting pitching ended up being for this team. Slade could be in the Diamondback's rotation and could be very much helping us out in 2026. all things considered, even though his numbers don't look that great. Like Michael said, he has been looking filthy as of late. So we're going to talk about a lot of other guys,

including some Arizona Fall League guys to keep an eye out for next week when that league starts, as well as we're going to talk about the Dodgers versus the Reds, the Dodgers advancing, and if the Diamondbacks would have fared better. We're also going to talk about this payroll situation. So don't you go anywhere? We'll be back in two minutes. You're watching the P.H.N. Next Diamondback show. Well, if you need to get yourself hooked up with a wonderful snake like this or any other snake paraphernalia for your Diamond, I guess maybe that might be next year.

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My favorite thing about that 365, Derek, it's so underrated, in my opinion, is the interface. I feel like people, you know, it's not maybe one of the more popular sports books out there. So people, like, think they hear the name and they're like, ah, must be one of these, like, rinky dink operations. Absolutely not. No. It is up there with the top of the line when it comes to interface, the workability of the

app, how when you press buttons, the buttons, what you want to flash on screen, happens immediately. It works. Unlike other apps where sometimes you press a button and you're waiting for five freaking seconds for the bet slip to actually, for it to populate in your bet slip. I love bet three six five. Everything about bet three six five is better. And this is just like you said, this is honest user feedback.

A hundred percent. The odds are great. The early payouts are unbelievable. Here's an example, Derek. I haven't said this on this show. I've talked about it on Wildcats though. When I went to the ASU TCU game, I went with a bunch of my TCU buddies.

Why do you have TCU buddies? That's weird. There was like six people from my high school that went to TCU. Wow. And one of my, two of my best friends in the world. That's crazy. Included in that six.

Did they go together? Yeah. That's insane. They were in the same for a lot of sides. And I would go out there and watch football games while they were there in school. It was a lot of fun. But so I went to the game. I bet on TCU money line.

Bet 365 has an up 17 football payout. Yeah. TCU goes up 17 zero. They lose the game. Yeah. I made all of my money and pay for. for my ticket with the with the TCU early payout. Yeah.

Bet365 is unbelievable. I thought something broke with it. I thought something was wrong because before Bet365 had even told me I was a winner on my slip, they had already given me my money. They were like, here, here's $292. Go ahead and put that in your bank, you know? And I was like, I was, literally I thought something had gone wrong. I felt like I was stealing the money.

I was like, quick before they have a chance to think about this and realize the mistake they made. No, it was my mistake because the Dodgers were up seven to two. And it was an early payout offer. They were like, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on. You're a winner. But you're right about other things. I feel like other apps do make it far more complicated for you to do something as simple as

depositing, let alone withdrawing your money, let alone where it needs to go to. Like, with that 365, it deposited right into my bank account. There was no middleman of sending it to Apple or sending it to a pound or whatever. Every single parlay has a bonus. I made an extra $92 off of that bet because of their 50%. I mean, we could do this all day, all the rest of the entire show. Well, we probably should because, I mean, Once we get into the Dodgers versus Red's outcome, you are going to start accusing me a very much big.

I really do like, Yamamoto fan. I've had to like convince my friends like, guys, get on Bet365. It's serious business. And they have and they all like, they all really like it. Yeah. And I think you're right. I think the biggest thing about it is the ease of use. I think sometimes even something as small as doing a same game parlay can be very cumbersome on other apps where it's like not letting you do it.

And you're trying to, you know, put the stuff together. Bet365's user interface is easy and the explanations are right there too so if it won't let you do something it usually does a good job of telling you why these two bets can't be parlayed together or whatever so again I think we've given you all the reasons to hop on bet 365 and all the reasons to maybe hop on betting for this Dodgers offense because they crush the Reds and like Damon said I think that overall at the beginning of this game there was a feeling especially with me having money on the Dodgers that things were going to go sideways for the Dodgers and And of course, the only time that the Dodgers would completely combust is when I have money on them. But they did not. They essentially did what the Dodgers do, man. I mean, even when things aren't going well, even when their offense isn't really operating well, they hang in there and then suddenly out of nowhere they have their big inning. And that's exactly what happened to the Dodgers yesterday late in the game.

They broke through. They eventually put up eight runs on the Reds and they win this one by a score of eight to four. It was a big four run. thinning that won me my bet and won the Dodgers the game. And of course, it was just kind of what the Dodgers do. I mean, the lineup that they have allows them to literally have a different hero in almost every game. So when you have a show Hey Otani going one for four with one RBI and a single, you have someone like Mookie Betts who goes four for five with three RBIs and essentially led the way offensively tonight or that last night doing his little dance the whole time and

getting the crowd to do it. And Damon has throw up all over his. his living room. And honestly, this was another one of those outings where, like, we got the best Yamamoto in that third game against the Dodgers. But somehow this Yamamoto looked at least early on a little susceptible. I mean, the runs were unearned. So the runs came from Teoscar Hernandez missing an easy fly ball that he should have caught. And instead, he ends up hanging in there and not allowing another run the rest of his outing.

Bullpen was shaky. Bullpen was not perfect. they still have a lot of problems with that bullpen and that's essentially what any opponent facing the Dodgers between now or in the postseason has to realize is that their bullpen is trash and their bullpen is not going to get any better. And I think that that's one thing the Diamondbacks

have done a good job against with the Dodgers is keeping the score close, waiting until those late innings come around where they have to turn to their bullpen and attacking when the time is right. It's the way that they came back in the first two games of that three games, series and it's the way they won the first game of that series.

But the question now is, is do the Dodgers who have ruined baseball with their payroll, would the Diamondbacks have fared better against them? We kind of talked about this a little bit yesterday, Damon. I know you weren't here, but overall it feels like after watching what the Dodgers did to the Reds, I don't know if the Diamondbacks would have had a better chance against them. And one of the reasons why is because of the way that the Dodgers were able to just pile on runs especially in this game against the Reds bullpen and even though the Reds bullpen isn't one of the best in the league it's still better than the Diamondbacks so I just have a hard time believing

the Diamondbacks with the state that they came into the postseason or ended their season in that they would have been able to do much better here in this two game series against the Reds now I hear you there but I also think that give us a shot at 100% that's that's and I think the Diamondbacks in a weird way are almost like specifically built to beat the Dodgers they are they are and I will say that they, I mean, Terry Francona is a great manager. He's an absolutely outstanding manager. And there's no way around saying that. They have a young, exciting team.

And that team, hopefully for them, is going to be good for years. This is just the beginning of them. But it was, it was easily the most overmatched any team was in this playoff. I think everybody was assuming that the Dodgers were going to sweep the reds like they did. And that's what happened. I mean, Terry Francona said something very, very relevant after the game, and loss. And that was, he said, we don't have the ability to outspend mistakes.

So you try not to make very many of them. I love that guy, man. That is amazing. That's my goat, dude. That is an amazing thing to say about an opposing team. Like, he's not really saying it about the Dodgers, but that's the saying it about the Dodgers. Like, we don't have the ability to outspend mistakes.

And that's actually what the Dodgers have done. 100%. That's facts. Like, we talk about it. it with the debacks. The debacks, it's hard for them to get over a Jordan Montgomery mistake. Oh, God. A Madison Bungarner mistake. It's, it's literally debilitating to the franchise. The Dodgers just eat it. They just eat it and move on and they say, who's the next guy we can sign? We'll get three more. A hundred percent. Yeah. And so it's, it's different. I mean, it's just a different

playing field. It's not like this is only the Dodgers, right? Six of the 12 postseason teams have payrolls north of $200 million, right? The red Sox are close. They're about half a million short, but they're right there as well. The Dodgers overtook the New York Mets as the most expensive roster with their in-season moves that they make. It's like the Dodgers and the Mets are battling for who can spend more. And then the Mets, who are the second biggest spender in baseball after the Dodgers, didn't even make the postseason. So no matter how bad our woes are, No matter how much we sit here and say, damn, this season sucked, at least it wasn't as bad as the Mets. Right?

At least it wasn't this catastrophe. Could you imagine the Diamondbacks losing a lead like they had a 10-game lead in the wild card on August 1st and losing that, not even making the playoffs? That's insane. And again, they didn't make the playoffs despite spending $428.8 million. The Mets payroll after in-season moves was $339.7 million, and they project to pay nearly $90 million in taxes. This is the reason why we keep warning, and I lose sleep at night about the 2027 season. Because this is coming to a head where something needs to be done. Owners are going to put their foot down in regards to this spending.

And meanwhile, the MLBPA will never allow. a salary cap in baseball as long as, you know, Tony Clark is alive, right? So I don't know what's going to happen, but I think that something does need to happen, right? I think something, I think the entire ecosystem, financial ecosystem of baseball needs to be corrected and changed. That goes down to the high A, single A level in the minor leagues. We need to, we need to be better. We need to do better for these players, but we also need to make things fair. You know, Again, the parody in baseball is there, despite this ridiculous spending. It just makes it when it comes down to these situations that there's no chance for teams like the Reds.

Because like Terry Francona, they don't have the ability to outspend their mistakes. And neither do the Diamondbacks, quite frankly. So, you know, when you have the Yankees who have the third highest payroll in baseball, $363.3 million saying, hey, guys, enough is enough. then again, I've said this before, something is wrong. Something is wrong. You know,

and I don't know how to fix it, but the debacks are proof that you don't need to have a billion dollar team in order to make the playoffs and in order to do something exciting and fun in the playoffs. All like Damon said, those mistakes of Jordan Montgomery, even the Corbin Burns,

which isn't a mistake. That's just a, that's a thing that happened. That's unfortunate. But still, no, it's still just as debilitating as Corbin Burns being bad, right um and again these things happened after the diamondbacks made the world series and and made a true attempt a true effort to make this team better going forward to make this team a contender they had a great base a great young base of guys that outperformed what anybody thought they were capable of and we go

out we add jordan montgomery the best available pitcher on the market go out again another op season at corbin burns another one of the best available pitchers on the market the best starting pitch available on the market and it goes the way it did. Right. So, I mean, the D-backs, again, you just can't reasonably have expected this particular D-backs team to put this roster out there in the postseason and find success. And that's something that I want to stress to all of you, especially the people that demand for Tori to lose his job after not making the postseason. At the end of the day, they just didn't have the roster. And that's very similar to why they didn't make the postseason. At the end of the day, they didn't have a roster. I still don't love Mike Hazen saying

that he gave Tori a bad roster because I still don't love the way that that makes players that are part of that roster feel. And a lot of guys really did emerge as dudes and studs for this team throughout this season and deserve their flowers, deserve their credit. Heraldo Pardomo being the one that comes to mind first and foremost in regards to development and what he became over the course of this 2025 season under his manager. I did have a comment on YouTube the other day that kind of threw it back to Like, how can you say Cotel Marte and Geraldo Pridomo blossomed under Tori, but then this bullpen stunk. This bullpen stinks.

That's it. Like, that's it. I mean. I could say it because have you seen the bullpen? Yeah. Like, I mean, it's no manager is going to be able to develop this bullpen. And, I mean, to be fair, there are a lot of young arms that we discussed it. John, get out of here.

You don't, it's the offseason. Shouldn't he be in San Diego at SeaWorld with Ryan Nelson? He was just making sure no one saying anything nasty. He's always watching. He's always listening. But Michael Dixon says going 17 and 17 against last place teams was unacceptable. Probably the worst thing that the Diamondbacks did. And probably the thing that Tori Lavallo is most culpable for.

But the same time, too, that 17 and 17 record is also because this team just didn't. A lot of those are games they gave up after having a lead due to this bullpins being so bad. And again, that's, it goes far. beyond the injuries. It really does. It goes to roster construction and that's the reason why Hazen took responsibility and accountability the way he did. The roster is constructed in a way that losing

Justin Martinez and losing AJ Puck was enough to make this bullpen a disaster, right? And losing two guys even if it's your two best guys shouldn't be enough to make your bullpen a complete disaster. That's where we were at. But what's more concerning

obviously was the comments made by Ken Kendrick, which then makes us wonder, where are we going to even be after this offseason? Where are we going to be in 2026? And if you have not seen the comments, this is what Ken Kendrick had to say. He said on, this was on Burns & Gambo, said, will we spend 220 next year, $220 million next year? I don't think that we will. Will we have a very significant payroll that will allow us to compete and be in the playoffs?

I think we will. And then he went on to say, I think it'll be a hand. handsome number that will allow us to have a very competitive team and I wouldn't want us to back away from the focus on being in the postseason a year from now. What do you take away from that, Damon? Like, I think that that as contradictory as that might sound, it's very reasonable, right? Like, they're going to have to do more shopping in the bargain bin. But instead of that shopping happening during the, instead of that shopping, shopping, shopping.

the word is shopping right so that shopping happening during the season like it did last year my kaysen can go out and add to this team this offseason which is far easier to do yes he's going to have to stretch a dollar further right but uh they do have the fact that when the all-star break comes around they kind of got some horses that are going to be returning to this team including Corbyn burns so at that point there's a transformation that could take place based on the players they where maybe guys get moved to the bullpen and help bolster the bullpen at the midseason point because they have that extra arm in the starting rotation or whatever the case may be. But it does feel like this team is not completely screwed, I guess.

No. So obviously they have pieces, right? We all know they have building blocks for the future. They have Perdomo, Corbyn, you know, Cattel. Like those guys are the bones of a really good baseball team, in my opinion. So I think, you know, obviously we've talked about the, the number of holes on this roster, and it's going to be hard to fill all those holes. As we've mentioned, the diving backs are not the Dodgers.

They can't just eat over, you know, bad contracts and get over it, right? But I think you see, like, for example, to prove what Ken said, Gambo tweeted yesterday after these interviews, right, that he would not expect first base to be much of a priority for the debacks this offseason. They have Pavin Smith, Tyler, Loughler, and Tim Tawa that can man the position. Could still add one because none of these guys are proven. but starting pitching in bullpen will be much higher of a priority. I think that's exactly what you're seeing. They're going to take some losses in some departments like,

hey, we're going to have to trust Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear to be better this year. I tweeted that the 30th ranked OPS in baseball from the first base position in 2026 is now incoming, and I believe that. But I think that in terms of what King Kendrick's saying, they don't have money to just fill every hole, but they are going to attack some positions. And then they're going to leave some up for development and hope that, you know,

they just improve in some facets as well. Candice wants to get a go-fund me started for the Diamondbacks to get some starting pitching. She asked. I think that they'll spend on the starting pitching, right? Like that seems to be what Ken Hendrick's kind of message is, is that they're probably going to spend on pitching and let the lineup kind of fall into place, I bet. It makes me think of what the Royals did a few years ago where they went out. They added like Seth Lugo and guys like that that had good numbers but weren't by any stretch

of the imagination, the highest war pitcher available on the market or the best pitcher available on the market, but a solid pitcher. A solid pitcher. And I think that's what the debacks need. And they, again, they can kind of get through this first half of the season. And I think that they can. And especially considering Tori expressed that change of mindset, right? The change of mindset that dictates that this team needs to have a sense of urgency right away, including pitchers and catchers reporting, including spring training. Like, get your stuff together in spring training. Can't say the word I want to say, but get your stuff.

I'm going to say get your act together. Get your act together. Get all of your act together. Put it in a bag and take it somewhere. Where I don't care? Just take it somewhere. Get your act together and get it together in spring training. Don't use the month of April as some sort of extended spring training.

And that, I mean, to be fair, that is hypocrisy at its finest from Tori Lovel. because I feel like he was the one that said that in April, right? When people were like, hey, why are you already giving guys off and why are you slow playing this? And why are you doing this and why are you doing that? Well, Tori at the time expressed it's a long season and, you know, that they're getting ramped up and all of this kind of jargon that he uses. But at the end of the day, it really meant that the team wasn't ready to play come opening day. And we know that from last year, from opening day, when they made the decision to go with Zach Gallen over Corbyn Burns, that that entire season was just set on a weird alternate timeline, right?

Like somewhere in some branch of the great timeline that we live in, there is a branch where Corbyn Burns started on opening day and the Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2025. We don't live in that branch. We live in this one where Zach Gowan started on day one because of feelings, I guess, or, you know, respect. It's about respect. I mean, we do know Tori's Italian.

Yeah, I know. Well, it's about respect. It's about respect. It's about respect. As is a Sunday night dinner over at his house for sure. I can't wait for this. I can't wait. This one's going to be electric.

I heard lasagna. I heard he was watching our show, so he might have a couple of things to say to us about what's been going on the last two weeks. Once they have a long talk about Killer Rex for sure. But at the end of the day, the reason why we discussed this is because the Dodgers have once again ruined baseball. they've ruined baseball and again just that minor comment from terry francona is a shot at the dodgers ruining baseball no team no team should have the ability to outspend their mistakes period mistakes could be made maybe you can pick up a guy or two but the dodgers and what they're able to do is disgusting it's disgusting and it feels like it's never going to end sure i mean maybe in five years

we have a we have an old older otani and older bets and older freeman and none of those guys can produce at the same level that they can. And we're all laughing at the, you know, the Dodgers being a bunch of geriatrics, right? But that probably won't happen. They'll probably find a way to continue to adapt and add the youngest arms. And they'll probably figure out a way to give O-Contin transfusions of young people's blood. Yeah, he'll do the Tom Brady method of drinking blood of children and just stay young, for sure. 100%.

100. There's no doubt about it. The man's a criminal. So, but anyway, we're going to talk more about the Diamondbacks on the other side of this break. We're going to take a look back at Memory Lane because it is time for another throwback Thursday. And of course, things that happened during this time of the year are either really good or really bad. And we're going to take a look at all of them. Don't you go anywhere?

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Insured by NCUA membership required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost registration activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Get a checking account that gives you money back instead of it always taking money from you, right? That's how things should work. Just like a bet three, six, five. The Dodgers, the Dodgers took away from me.

But last night, they at least gave me something back. And I appreciate that, even though it somehow doesn't help with all of the years of abuse the Dodgers have heaped upon me. Well, it is throwback Thursday, folks. So welcome in. And, of course, these facts are going to get a lot harder to find during the off season as we move closer and closer to December. But I promise I will still be talking about the amazing things that have happened to this franchise in their history on this day or this week. And on October 3rd, 1999, the Diamondbacks did an amazing thing.

It's still amazing to me to even think about this. one year into their existence as a franchise, the Diamondbacks won their 100th game on October 3rd, 1999. Bernard Gilke and Rod Brahas hit back-to-back-home runs in a 10-to-3 win over those ringless bums from San Diego at a ballpark that we once called Bob. That was amazing. Amazing, incredible things.

Oh, the good old days. I mean, I don't think we as Diamondbacks fans really understood in the moment how fast things were happening. Seriously, think of an expansion franchise winning 100 games their second year into existence. Yeah, we were the Las Vegas Golden Knights before the Las Vegas Golden Knights were a thing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And not only that, but like, can we immortalize Jerry Colangelo with the biggest statue of anybody in this town? Like, I would have loved to be, because I read a book about this, and I would have loved, I would have loved to be in that room when Jerry Colangelo looked around at the other owners and was like, you idiots? What are you doing? People want a winner. What are you talking about?

Picnics and families having good times in the ballpark. This town wants a winner. And if it wouldn't have been for Jerry Calangelo, who knows what this team would have been? They probably would have been the Tampa Bay raise and taking them close to 15 years in order for them to gain traction or 10 years to gain traction. start winning and make the playoffs. I mean, the razor are still threatening to leave Tampa Bay like every week. I know. I know.

You could make the case that that's the situation that Diamondbacks find themselves in. They played. If you look up the history of that ballpark in St. Petersburg, they built that to steal a team away from another franchise. And it was like almost like 10 years old when the Tampa Bay raise started playing there. So no matter how much we don't love our situation with our ballpark, just remember how much worse it could be. The storm we just experienced the other day could have ripped the roof off of our ballpark. And then next thing you know, we're playing our games at Salt River Fields,

which actually doesn't seem like the worst idea. I kind of like Salt River Fields. But anyway, on October 5th, 2001, the D-Backs beat the Brewers by a score of 5 to 0 to clinch at least a tie for the NL. West Crown. Later that day, the Giants did lose to the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks would win their second division title in three years. Oh, the good old days. good old days. Meanwhile, some, I guess some Brewer's news on this day or on this week a couple of times. First, October 5th, 4th and 5th, the Diamondbacks played the Brewers and the NLDS. Oh, no.

They won game, game three. I was there. I was there. Goldie Grand Slam. Goldie Grand Slam. Come out party on national TV. That was unbelievable. He joined Ricky Ladee as the only rookies since 1998 with a grand slam in the post. season. Goldschmidt's five RBIs tied a franchise record for the third time. I had insane seats for

that game. I remember we were just going nuts. I was like on third base side like in the lower bowl. Unbelievable game. That one was a ton of fun. And they were down, right? So they came back. They won two in a row. They won games three in games four to push a game five and then we all hate Ryan Braun. We got walked off by Niger Morgan. Ten to six win though on October 5th over the Brewers. That was Ryan Roberts Grand Slam game. Two grand slams and back-to-back games in the postseason. Inject it directly into my veins. Tatman?

Tatman? The only second time in history, a team has hit grand slams in consecutive postseason games, along with the Dodgers doing it back in 1977 and Dusty Baker. Those two guys did it back against the Phillies in 1977. That's crazy. When you're doing something that Dusty Baker did as a player, that's wild, right? Joe Tori back in the day. On October 3rd, 2016, we have the announcement, and this is something I definitely want people.

My snake's getting higher higher on my neck. This is something I want people to really understand. DeBacks announced that they did not renew the contract of senior vice president and GM Dave Stewart and relieved manager Chip Hale of his duties. Now, I have no chip hail slander to throw out there during this period of time. But I will say, this was the worst period of time in DHS. Diamondbacks history. This period of time, the Dave Stewart era for the Diamondbacks was so mismanaged,

was so bad that when I was covering this team during that stretch, I thought there was no way out. I thought the Diamondbacks were essentially going to fall into a hole of failure and despair that they never got their way from. I mean, there are things that were never even reported, including conflicts of interest with Dave Stewart's wife being the agent for players that were mysteriously called up throughout the season inexplicably during his time as a manager? Now, again, with what's happened this year, whatever, like anybody's going to get called

up. That's a little different. But what happened back then was really weird. And I think that nothing, nothing, the best thing that ever happened in this franchise was relieving Dave Stewart of his duties and hiring one Mike Hazen because that man, as I've said, probably a million times on a million different podcasts was handed a broken vase at a house party before the parents came home with a thing of super glue and said, here, fixed this fast. And he did. He fixed it so fast that the following year, the Diamondbacks defeated the Colorado Rockies in that historic wild card matchup by a score of 11 to 8 that was on October 4, 2017. Chase Field becoming the first wild card host to win since Pittsburgh did it in 2013, which was wild. Again, those

one-game playoff games were electric, but maybe too little, right? Like, especially the dichotomy of 162 games season coming down to a one-game playoff series. Might have been a bit much. Might be my only criticism with John Boy's fix for the postseason and fix for adding some teams to the league. But still, that triple by Archie Bradley will never be forgotten. I mean, Archie, Archie, he's probably talking about it right now as we speak. Archie's probably telling somebody in this moment on October 2nd at 1248 p.m. About that triple.

So there's that. Last few years, we had some history made as well. Meryl Kelly in 2022 on October 5th reached 200 innings pitched. That was for the first time in his career, becoming the first D-back pitcher to reach that feat since Zach Granky and Patrick Corby did it in 2018. And that was a big – I remember Merrill Kelly, that was a big goal for him. He absolutely wanted to reach 200 pitches and again, big, big reason why the Diamondbacks got their way out of that hole eventually that they were in in that 2012 season. Merrill Kelly, the mainstay. Hopefully he'll be back.

But again, another Brewer's moment, this time, a very happy one. October 3rd, October 4, 2023, the D-BAC swept the Brewers and two out of the three-game series. the 2023 NL Wildcard to clinch their first NLDS birth since that one wildguard game against the Rockies in 2017. It was the first time the D-backs had won consecutive post-season games since the other time they did it, which I just talked about, October 4th and 5th in 2011 against the Brewers. So, yeah, if you want to know why we're going to continue to root against the Brewers, this is why. This is why, especially that series back in 2011, because Brian Braun's a bad person and we should never forget that as long as we live. Damon, since you were there, did you have anything to add to that about Ryan Braun or just bad people in general? I'll never forgive him.

That's one thing I'll add. I was talking my... Remember when he blamed the FedEx delivery guy? Yes. He tried to get a guy fired. Cumbag. No, he did get a guy fired. He did get a fire, right?

Dude, that guy is disdemeanor. And, you know, I remember, I remember how mad Willie Blumquist was when they found out, like, I know the whole locker room was mad, but especially like the team leaders were very upset. Yeah. It was, it was disgusting, man. And it honestly, it kind of killed that era of Diamondbacks baseball. Like, if that team won that, that series, that game five, I feel like there's no telling how far they could have gone in that in that playoffs. They had a really good team that year. They had a good team. Yeah. Like, they had a good team. You know, like they had one star. Justin Upton. And then the next best player was like Geraldo Parra or like Miguel Montero or something. You wasn't Goldie part of that team too, right? Yeah. That was that changing, you know, that was that period of time. Like you said, there were there had been eras, right?

There's the, there's the grand old era of World Series baseball, the purple and teal, you know, the Randy Johnson, the Luis Gonzalez. And by the way, on October 1st, 2006, that's when that era changed. That's another day in this week that that that I kind of skipped over here. here. Luis Gonzalez, Craig Counsel, Miguel Batista, all played their final games for the debacks in a 7 to 6 loss to those ringless bums from San Diego in front of a franchise record crowd of 48,946 people back in 2006. What a great way to send those guys out, especially considering all that they did for this franchise. But yeah, like you said, that next, that 2011 team, that was the next era, the Ian Kennedy, the Chris Young, the Justin Upton era. And Paul Goldschman was a part. of that. And then honestly, a few years later, Paul Goldschmidt was the leader of the next era for the Diamondbacks that did involve Archie Bradley and did involve Patrick Corbin and involved a bunch of those other guys that came around during that period of time, including David Peralta,

A.J. Pollock and others, right? So the Diamondbacks have had some tremendous eras of baseball with, you know, guys being the anchors and the building blocks of the team. And right now, you could argue that this is one of the most exciting eras of baseball, building around Heraldo Perdomo, Corbyn Carroll, building around guys like, you know, obviously some of the young players that we have here as well. Hopefully Gabriel Moreno becomes a part of that core, Blaise Alexander. This is a fun group of guys to watch in comparison to some of the eras that we've had. Really, the thing missing from this era is pitching.

And that's something that the Diamondbacks need to figure out this offseason for sure. But we are going to take a quick break. Actually, we're not. I'm going to tell you guys about Rally House before we talk about the Arizona Fall League. but if you missed the PHNX residency or in general, you just can't get enough of Bowenjohnie, because quite frankly, who can. Join us out on October 3rd at 4.30 p.m.

That is tomorrow for a special live PHNX Cardinals show that's going to be hosted by our friends at Rally House. We will be out there in the West Valley at their Glendale location, just a stone's throw away from State Farm Stadium, two days before the Cardinals smashed the Tennessee Titans and the first overall pick that loser Cam Ward who somehow is blaming his poor performance on his team. I'm not going to lie, Derek.

I'm a little bit scared in this game. No way. Like, not from the perspective of... No way. It's a trap game. There's no way you can be scared in this game. I have Tony Pollard on my fantasy football team. I have been playing very close attention to what the Tennessee Titans are doing.

That is a garbage team that just got shut out by the Houston Texans. That's also a garbage team by the... the way. And they will not, they will not be a problem for the they. They can't score, but they have a decent D. And I think the card I think we're looking at like a Cardinals, Titans like 10, 3, just like crap fest. Yeah. Yeah. But watch it with Johnny and Bo. Yeah, watch it with John. I mean, honestly, get the insight from Johnny Boe. They're the experts. We could sit here and debate it all day, but go see Johnny and Bo on person. Plus, you'll have a chance to win. We'll be given away $5.50 rally house gift cards to our fans in attendance. The best.

duo in Arizona sports got to be PH&X and Rally House. This says PHNX Cardinals, but I'm not doing that. I'm not endorsing them in that way. It's us as a whole in Rally House. Don't not include me. That upsets me. You guys know that. I want to be included in everything. Besides, you know the best duo in sports is me and Damon. That's the truth if I'm being honest. But speaking of duos, there's a lot of fun duos to see from different teams because the Arizona Fall League is coming around next Monday. We are going to be fall guys once again. So I cannot wait to go out and check out some Arizona fall league games and more importantly report back to you guys on what we are seeing

because even though we don't get to watch Diamondbacks play baseball, we still are baseball nirvana here in Arizona. It's the best place to live if you're a baseball fan. And, I mean, fight me on that. That's one thing I will stand 10 toes down on. I won't say we have the best stadium in baseball. I won't even say we have the best run organization in baseball. It's one of the reasons why I think the Diamondbacks would be at a bit

of a disadvantage in their managerial search if they had fired Tori LaValle right now. What I don't mean to discredit our team. I love the Diamondbacks. They kind of give me a job here. But would you as a person, let's say that was a manager looking for a job, would you take a job with the Diamondbacks over a job with potentially like the San Francisco Giants or some of these other organizations? Like the Atlanta Braves are very well-ran organization.

And they, that's a great spot. to land in for a manager. So I think the point I'm making here is based on available hires, the Diamondbacks most likely wouldn't be able to attract the best available hire, the one that they most likely might want to replace Tori LaBullo. So again, just another reason why I was thinking that now isn't the greatest time for the Diamondbacks to be looking for a manager. But now is the best time for you to be living in Arizona because, again,

fall league starts. We got a bunch of top prospects on the Diamondback, from the Diamondbacks on the Salt River Rafters. as far as some other great prospects to keep an eye out for, if you're watching that particular team, we're going to highlight all the teams here in the Arizona Fall League. But as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned, we are Salt River Rafters fans around here.

And from the Diamondbacks, there's a few guys that you can see on the Salt River Raptors that we are keeping an eye on, including David Hagamann, who we just got at the trade deadline. He is the DeBack's 15th overall prospect. He has a promising three-pitch mix, according to MLB Pipeline.com. He's got a fastball that tops out around 94 miles per hour and can climb as high as 98. Kind of averages around 94, but can get as high as 98.

It's got plenty of carry, plenty of armside run. His best strikeout pitch with the Mountaineers was a tight mid-80 slider that he threw nearly as often as his heater. So it's great to see a young pitcher already having secondary pitches to work with there. and he also has a good change-up. Another guy to look out for there is Kyle Amet. He posted a 3.03 with the AAA Reno Aces. He had 29, two-thirds innings pitched. He had 42 strikeouts and posted a 1.52 whip.

He is a guy that I've heard a lot of exciting things about, and I know a lot of Reno Aces fans are very high on. And then Hansel Luis, the Diamondbacks number 12th overall prospect. I believe he is the highest prospect from the Diamondbacks that will be participating in the, Arizona Fall League. He's a switch hitter. So that's fun. He's even out his splits a little bit 24. Passes the name test, I will say. John Sell Louise sounds like a guy who's going to be, you know, starting in the All-Star game for this. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But I think

the one thing is, is that we're seeing a lot of improvement as his career has progressed through the DeBAC's minor league system. His chase rate has drastically improved between his two trips to single A, but it still remains relatively high and something that he's going to need to work on. Another name is Jack Hurley from the D-backs, who I think is fun to keep an eye on. But there's other players as well. As Borellon Valdez from the Pirates

and Tony Blanco Jr. from the Pirates, those are some pretty exciting position players to keep an eye out on, as well as some players from the Red Sox on that team, including pitchers Brandon Neely and Luis Perelis. Let's see, Neely was drafted in the third round out of Florida. didn't pitch during the regular season, but apparently has an explosive fastball.

And then Luis Porellis has been said to have one of the best fastballs in the entire Arizona Fall League. So those are two guys that are going to be on our team, essentially. That's what I'm calling it. The Salt River Rafters are our team. So those are guys that we get to watch on our team, and it should be exciting. He missed most, Perales missed most of last season

after undergoing Tommy John surgery. So he seriously might be one of the most electric pitchers to watch in this, entire in this entire draft. So a lot of fun things to earn league, I should say, a lot of fun things happening. Candice reminds me of one, Dre Jameson. I did in fact forget about Dre. And Dre Jameson, how could you forget about Dre? He is one of my favorite people to talk to. He is possibly the fastest land mammal in existence. According to his constant claims that he beat Corby Carroll in a foot race, which I can't confirm until I see it with my own two eyes,

but I take his word for it. He is definitely a guy that could be a huge part of the Diamondbacks in 2026, and he missed a lot of time this year. So great to see him in the Arizona Fall League. I don't know how often, how much we will see of him in the Arizona Fall League, just based on, you know, his situation and everything like that. But this is very exciting. Cannot wait.

Cannot wait to see Dre Jameson back. that's all I got Damon that's all I got so I'm glad you guys are here I'm excited to go watch some baseball let's see who gets eliminated and we'll be back tomorrow at noon to talk more baseball with you guys so make sure to join us then

until then you can follow us on Twitter I am at Cap underscore Caveman with a K last time I checked our guy Damon is at Damon dog with a DAWG at the end we are all Damon's dogs bark bark bark bark our show is at PH&X underscore debacks but is always all roads lead to

at P HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Did I miss anything, Damon? Did I make any mistakes today? I just, you know, I wanted to throw this in there. Damon's dogs like the video. They like the YouTube video. If you don't like the YouTube video, you're not allowed to be in Damon's dogs. That's true.

Yeah, I need y'all to hit that like button before you get out of here. And also like, legal requirement. I've had three people already say to me, you're still doing the show? I thought it was over. That was a wrap. No, I'm still here every day. And I get lonely really fast. So make sure you join us at 12 p.m. every day, except on Tuesdays where we'll be doing a post game recap, along with our guy, Jesse Friedman, at least through the end of the postseason.

So that way we can still have some fun at night. But again, we appreciate you guys so much for your time. You guys are the best. We will see you tomorrow at noon. Until then, have a wonderful evening. Behave yourselves, Candace. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when the Dodgers don't ruin it.