PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Dodging the question

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are answering Mailbag Monday questions, including who we expect to see called up from the minors and when, Perdomo playing third base, when the starting pitching will come back to Earth, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX DBAX right here. We're all here. We are all here. The mayor, the vice mayor. I am Derek Montia. This is Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. I have a thunderstick left over from Michaela Perkins bashing me with one.

But of course, we thank you guys so much for joining us. Excited to be here again together. Two days in a row, I don't know what to think. What do you think about that? I could only get away from you for so long, Derek. So now I'm stuck with you for two days in a row. It's going to be like forever. I don't know.

You guys are going to have to help me. This is going to get rough really fast. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers can bet $5 on any team to win in the first round of NBA tournament action and get $150 in free bets.

Instantly, you win no matter what, even when the suns don't, which we're not the first. discussing that on this show. They have plenty of content to discuss over there. And we have losing of our own to talk about here because the Arizona Diamondbacks look to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers starting tonight. If you're watching us live right now, about an hour and 10 minutes until first pitch, Jesse. We will be there over there checking out that game. But of course, we're here now talking about beating L.A. as motion breaks up in our chat comments, as well as hopefully just surviving LA, I think, at this point. Surviving is a pretty good term.

Yeah, I mean, when you're facing a team like the Dodgers, they obviously have, they're a pretty good team, Derek. They made up the poor Padres. They did. And I mean, this lineup, I mean, we're used to seeing this Dodgers lineup be pretty formidable. But Freddie Freeman bat's second now, Derek. That's absurd. Mugie Betts hits first.

Trey Turner hits third. Max Muncie hits cleanup. just in turn. I mean, you can do whatever they want. You can go down the list and it feels like, you know, almost every single guy on this list would probably be hitting like third or fourth for some other team in Major League Baseball.

This lineup is at that level. But and the Diamondbacks get Walker Bueller tonight, who has actually struggled a little bit this season. He has a 4.02 ERA coming in. So he hasn't been quite as sharp as we're used to seeing from him. And the Diamondbacks have Merrill Kelly, who of course has been really, really good to start the season. So should be an interesting matchup tonight from Chase Field.

Merrill Kelly has been outstanding to start this season, to say the least. It's kind of ridiculous how low his ERA is. 0.59 ERA, the lowest ERA in DBAX history to start after three starts, I believe. Randy Johnson had a 1.01 ERA, but there you go. There's your lowest. And speaking of some good things that Diamondbacks have been doing, Pavin Smith has reached base safely in seven of his last eight games, batting 409 in those eight games,

and Seth Beer is hitting 371 in his last 12 with three doubles, five RBIs, and six walks. So I don't know. I think that once again, the younger guys are stepping up, which kind of proves that this theory the Diamondbacks have starting to kind of kind of a kind of kind of a kind of a fire here. And now would they get Jordan Looplo back from the 10,

injured list, as well as Tyler Gilbert coming back from AAA Reno recalled. Jordan Looplo, I think, is going to be a really big piece for the Diamondbacks. He's not like a household name, right? I mean, there's probably a lot of Diamondbacks fans who had no idea who Jordan Looplo was before they acquired him over the offseason

from Tampa Bay. But he played in the playoffs, a decent amount for Tampa Bay, and his specialty is hitting left-handed pitching. He is a pretty much a pure platoon player through and through. And when we were talking with Tori pregame today, he talked about how Jordan Loop would pretty much

automatically be in the lineup every time the Diamondbacks are facing a lefty, which makes sense. We've talked about how the Diamondbacks have had struggles hitting left-handed pitching this season because their lineup is very heavily left-handed. And Jordan Looplo is going to help with that. Nick Ahmed, of course, who's now back with the team as well. He's going to help with that a great deal as well. So things are certainly looking up for this team in terms of hitting left-handed pitching, which has been a big struggle for them so far. Well, and some relief for Dalton Varsho

who honestly has been doing great, but has played a lot and I think played more than maybe anticipated playing out in center field. Again, when we talk about reaching base safely and the young guy is doing it, Dalton Varsho has reached safely in 10 of his last

12 games. That's impressive. I mean, he's been your, it's honestly crazy. I mean, Dalton Varsho came up as a catcher. How many catchers do you know who wind up every day in a major league roster playing center field and leading off? Like that is not. Catchers don't do that. And he transitioned well into that role because he has made some outstanding plays in the outfield.

And to be honest, the one thing that he's impressed me with is his ability to navigate the porch in center field. Yeah. Just to kind of it's not an easy center field to play. It is not. It's really not. It's pretty gnarly in center field. They're on field and center field, and I just realized what a nightmare playing underneath that overhang can be. And I think he's done an excellent job because we've seen a lot of guys.

We saw Cotel Marte, who's incredibly gifted and athletic, really struggle out there with some fly balls because of just some of those circumstances in Chase Field. Yeah, it's definitely one of the harder outfields to maneuver, and Dalton Varsho has done a really great job. Over at Stadcast, they have Dalton Varsho in the 97th percentile in outfielder jump. So just his ability to track down the baseball and get off to a good start when he's tracking down the baseball in the outfield. He's in the 97th percentile in that regard. For a guy who came up as a catcher, I mean, what he's been able to do in that role, we've seen the Diamondbacks. Like you said, we've seen the Diamondbacks force guys who are not centerfielers to try to play center field in the past, right? Chris Owings, a number of years ago was put in that spot and did a decent job for them.

Cotel Marte, of course, the guy that you mentioned. And Don Varsho, really out of everyone that we've seen out there, has really proven to not only be able to survive out there as an everyday guy, but actually be pretty good at it. I just don't, I'm excited to see these guys come back. I'm not surprised to see the corresponding moves. Yeah. Oliver Perez was designated for assignment. Jake McCarthy was option to Reno, obviously. Jake has the options left. Oliver does not at this point in his career. Yeah, he ran out of options just a while ago. He's all out of options. But it has been frustrating a bit to watch him. He was not effective. I think he had one outing that he was effective. I think it was his first one. Yeah, it was the first out of the year. First day of the season he pitched and looked really good. Since then, it's been on the season. He's faced 24 hitters and he has one strikeout, which there's just the swing and miss to his game has just been completely absent.

And, yeah, I mean, four innings, eight hits, nine runs, seven earned runs. It's been a rough go for him. And the Diamondbacks have a couple of lefties out of the bullpen who have actually looked pretty decent. You know, you talk about a guy like Joe Mantiply who has come in here and been pretty consistent for them. So, yeah, I mean, unfortunately, Oliver, Oliver, Perez's career. This is probably the end of Oliver Perez's career at this point. And what an

incredible career it was, right? I mean, not that many guys come in and play Major League Baseball for 20 years. He's literally been a Major League player for like half of his life at this point, which is, which is incredible. So, you know, congrats to him on what's been an incredible career, even though I know, you know, this is a sad day for him for sure. The wildest thing, and Jack Summers from Azee Snake Pit pointed this out, but he is part of a bullpen that they're still figuring out. And I think there are some very good pieces in there. And they are really sifting through everybody to try to see who can be a value and help them win baseball games. Which they can rely on. I think Noe Ramirez has had some shaky outings, but he continues to prove at times that he is one of those,

even though, you know, I think even with his performances last year, he's one of those guys that could be on the bubble as far as if he doesn't perform well or can't, you know, keep those clean innings going. You know, he might not have a spot in the bullpen. But the diving back starting pitching, ERA of 2.3. Here we go. Rank second in all of baseball.

the diving back's relief pitching ERA is 4.39 and it ranks 28th. Actually in baseball what they're seeing this year is a situation where the relief ERA is lower than most teams like on average the starting ERA is higher than the relief ERA. The nineve and backs are one of the few teams with not only that discrepancy but that big of a discrepancy between starting pitching. Yeah. Yeah.

It's pretty crazy. I mean, normally you'd expect your bullpen to be more effective, right? I mean, they're pitching fewer innings, right? So it kind of makes sense that's what the outcome would be. But yeah, as you outlined, the Diamondbacks bullpen has really struggled. And I wonder if, you know, part of that disparity can probably be explained by the fact that Tori is not really stuck with starters deep into games. We were talking about this yesterday with, you know, Madison Bumgarner being pulled after 78 pitches in a game that he probably could have gone further into. And yeah, I mean, when you do that, you're probably protecting the starters from giving up some of those runs, you know, in the fifth, sixth, seventh innings.

And instead, you wind up with giving those innings to bullpen guys who unfortunately have, you know, not been quite up to stuff so far for this team this season. The average right now for starting pitching ERA is 4.07. The average for relief pen ERA is 3.36. The discrepancy of zero. That is a very large. The gap is the biggest gap in 20 years. Yeah. So, I mean, again, it shows that relief pitching is very good right now.

Starting pitching is really good. Like starting pitching ERA is the lowest it's been with the exception of, you know, maybe half a dozen seasons, right? So pitching overall is better across the board this year. Well, that's because nobody's hitting home runs, right? I mean, the home run total so far are way down. Dalton Varsho's hitting home runs. Dalton Varsho is hitting a fair amount of home runs.

He is. Christian Walker had a couple this week as well. So that was that was fun. But again, shout out to Jack Summers from AZ Snake Pit for that information. And of course, you guys, we got the Dodgers coming up and we'll talk about that. But more importantly, it's Monday. We're going to hit the mailbag in a second. We do want you to make sure that you check out.

Jesse had a wonderful conversation with Merrill Kelly yesterday while I was watching J.B. Wendell can prove that he can dunk on a regulation basketball hoop. So we both had a great time at the clubhouse is what I'm saying. But Jesse's piece about. We have slightly different priorities. Jesse's slightly slightly different, but we both got the same amount of joy out of it. You'll find Jesse's piece on Merrill Kelly coming up soon on go phnx.com. If you haven't signed up to become a member, sign up at go phnx.com.

You can get that annual membership. You'll get your free t-shirt, just like this beautiful job up on the wall behind us right here. You'll get whatever shirt you want. If you don't pick one of the devx ones, though, I will be very upset with you. But you can pick whatever one you want. That's over at phnx locker.com for being an annual member. Go over there and check it out anyway. You can buy a shirt.

You don't have to be a member to buy a shirt. But if you are a member, you get members-only discounts over at PHNXLocker.com. Not to mention the fact that you will also get members-only access to our Discord. You can sign up to do a month-to-month membership, and you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So again, we got the Brute Squad in the chat. We got Brett Johnson in chat. What's good, Brett Johnson? Good to see you here, buddy.

But, of course, we do want to go to the mailbag. and we're here in person. We are here in person. So even though we're here in person, it's still Monday, and we still hit the mailbag. So let's hit that music. My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox.

And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go around. So what we got is we got a couple of questions in the chat. If you're joining us right now in the chat, please just ask you away in the chat. We have a couple of questions from Twitter as well that we grabbed. And of course, we love to ask. ask or answer your guys' questions. So if we take a look at the questions we got from Twitter first, our first one, let's see here,

sorry about that. First one comes, do we have the graphic for that? There it is. All right. First one comes from Michael, pound the pelicans. Yeah,

I guess. That's what we're going to have to. I don't think that was his screen name. No, a couple days ago. He asks, How much of Catele-Marté's early struggles do you think are him pressing after his extension, which I think is an outstanding question.

What do you think? It's an outstanding question and kind of an impossible question to answer, right? Yeah, no surefire way for us to know, but I think it's a good, it's a good reason to think that. However, I will say that the team across the board is kind of, you know, down offensively. So I don't know if you can really pin that one on Cattel pressing. I will say that I think the entire team is pressing at times. I also think that the entire team is getting new information from a brand new coach. And it's just all still very new, right?

Yeah, I think so. Ketel is from what we can tell. I mean, there doesn't seem to be anything, you know, from an injury standpoint that's in his way. And yeah, the mental side of things is obviously pretty hard, you know, to gauge as an outsider. But, but yeah, I mean, he's obviously struggled at the plate and he hasn't looked. looked nearly like himself. And unfortunately, it's not really a fluke. I mean, if you look at some of the batted ball numbers,

it's not like Citell Marte is hitting rockets that are just finding gloves in the outfield right now. He's kind of, you know, he's rolling over the top a lot. There's been a lot of ground versus second base, a lot of soft contact, really. And yeah, I mean, over time, I think you expect that Cattel is proven in this league to the extent that you're not super concerned about, you know, a couple weeks that don't look right for him. I think the defensive side of things, which we've touched on a few times,

has maybe been a little bit more concerning. Tori has talked about how he's a little surprised even and just how much trouble Katel has had defensively to start the season, but he expects it to turn around. And with a guy like him, you know, you're probably not pressing the panic button this early in the season, but obviously the Diamondbacks need him, right? I mean, Ketel Marte, Mike Hazen spoke very highly of him as being an elite player. right as being the best player on this team i think mike asan just straight up said that and that's been true clearly over the last few years and if the diamond backs are you know going to going to have

themselves a nice season where they really take a step in the right direction kutel's going to have to be a big part of that and so far he really hasn't been i will say this too i think it's easy for us to say how easy it is for someone to switch positions like katell has had to do over the last few seasons, right? Yeah. You learn different footwork, you learn different skill sets. There's different things you have to do to anticipate the ball. It's almost like some of the things he's doing at second base is still some of the stuff

he'd do in center field, right? But that's not what you do playing second base. Yeah. Just some of his footwork and things like that. So I think that it might, like you said, just take some time for it to come around for him and just have that, you know, time playing the position. consistently. Brett Johnson in the chat asked a question.

He says, I know we think the pitching ERA is unsustainable, but when do you think it finally starts even out? I wouldn't be surprised if this series versus the Dodgers is the one that is the start of it. And yeah, I mean, you're probably right about that. I'm sure we're going to see this ERA take a big jump. But Jesse, I wanted you to explain FIP for pitching. And specifically,

specifically X-FIP, why the Diamondbacks are so bad in that category, but so good in ERA. Sure. Yeah, FIP and X-FIP are, I don't know if I would say they're the best metrics to look at for pitching, but they're certainly telling. They, you know, combine with ERA, they can be helpful. Sure. FIP is really, I think, ideally used to compare pitchers numbers from like past seasons. So looking at like one pitcher's FIPP year over year, you know, if there's not a big change in

their FIP, but there's a change in their ERA, then you kind of throw that out and you say that it's kind of a fluke. And if their FIP stays constant, they're probably pretty much the same guy. But yeah, FIP basically looks at kind of a lot of the key indicators that determine how pitchers perform. So you're talking about strikeouts, walks, home runs, and hits being basically the main inputs into FIP. And it takes those numbers and it spits out basically an ERA equivalent based on those numbers. This early in the season, FIPP is not necessarily useful for individual pitchers because, you know, if you've pitched 15 innings and you've given up three home runs, then your FIP is going to be

very high because that's a really high home run rate. And FIP is going to go crazy with that. But yeah, it is helpful in this context if you're looking at like the Diamondbacks entire team. If you're looking at their combined FIP, that's a pretty telling number at this point. Do you have those numbers? Yeah, their FIP for their FIP for starting pitching is 15th. the league. It's 3.73. So, and they have not given up a lot of home runs. So a lot of that is

the lack of strikeouts. A lot of that is that the strikeouts are low and the walks are high as we've talked about. So yeah, that's, and that's why, you know, I've been a little bit cautious over the last few days over the last couple weeks about, you know, the starting pitching ERA numbers because there's numbers like that that show you that, you know, things are probably due to balance out. Um, ex-fip is, is more complicated in terms of how it's calculated. Um, it, um, it includes other factors. I think some batted ball data is thrown in there as well. It's a little bit more nuanced than FIPP itself.

But I think that number is much higher than the ERA as well, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, yeah. They're 21st in the league in X-Fib. So it just goes to show that some of the other metrics, despite the fact that the ERA is very good, tends to, you know, show that this starting pitching isn't as good as the numbers indicate right now. Right. And again, I mean, in some situations, you know,

the a runner was maybe going to score or something was going to happen but because an error took place it doesn't end up getting charged to the starting pitching and their ERA looks very clean this year across the board and again that's kind of weird because they have had a couple of outings where the starting pitching you know had quite a few earned runs for for it to be that low just shows how good these guys have maintained i mean you got to give credit where credit's do we can we can put them on blast for them not be like being smoke and mirrors right but sure i still think that they are very good and I think they're going to continue to be good. I think the starting

pitching will probably continue to be a strength. Right now, I still believe that part of that, those short outings is to keep maintaining that confidence level. So they're not giving up those, they're not hitting that sixth inning in that third rotation at third time through the lineup. And having those runs put up against them and having those big numbers, you know. There's an advantage to it. I mean, there's a reason that, you know, managers, especially nowadays, it's become even more common to pull starting pitchers earlier in games because the data is clear. When a pitcher sees the lineup for the third time, there's a significant drop off in performance. And I know starting pitchers are going to hate that, you know?

I mean, there are moments where guys really feel like they have a shot at going deep into a game. And there's moments where I'm sure Tori will give them extra leash to pitch a little bit deeper into the game. But yeah, so far, I mean, what we've seen, it's been, you know, we haven't seen many guys go. past about 70, 80 pitches in these games because Tori has been really careful regardless of where the pitch count is at. Once they get to the third time through the lineup, it seems like that's around the time that he's using the hook. Gabriel on Twitter, he was our other question from Twitter on that graphic, asked, will we see Thomas Carroll, Robinson, and or Lawler this year? That's a very ambitious tweet. That's a lot of it. That is. Yeah. Yes, tomorrow.

Yes. Yeah. Alec Thomas, 100%. I believe we're going to see him this year. The other three, I am doubtful of if any of the other three, I think it could be Christian Robinson, believe it or not. And the reason why I say that is because overall, I feel like he's older and farther along in their progression, whereas I think they have a lot invested in Corbyn Carroll and Jordan Lawler. I don't think they're going to call them up this early. No matter, things would have to be really bad for them to see time, like at the end of the year. but yeah you'd almost be concerned at that point in some ways um yeah i i don't think that uh i think corbin carroll is probably the most likely out of the three names after alec thomas in my mind at

least um corbin carroll is knocking the cover off the ball in double a and we've seen we've seen the teams including the diamond backs bypass the triple a level and just take guys straight to the major league so i'm not yeah i mean if he's hitting 350 in september you know i could see him as a September call up, probably not sooner than a September call up. That would be my guess there. Christian Robinson, I honestly, would be pretty shocked. I think you're right. He, I mean, he's a little bit older. He does have, you know, some years under his belt. I would be absolutely shocked, too. I'm just, I feel like if they're out of those four besides Alex Thomas, I don't know why. I feel like he would be the most likely one just because at this point, there's kind of nothing to lose, right?

Physically speaking, I mean, Christian Robinson is a very large man who looks major league ready from that standpoint, right? The physique is there. Just about getting back on baseball, in a baseball. It's hard to not see, you know, professional pitching for, you know, a year and a half or however long it was for him and then suddenly get back into it. I think they're going to take it pretty slow with him. As of right now, he has yet to actually show in minor league games. So, I mean, there's certainly some steps to be taken there as far as his progression.

Jordan Lawler, I think there's really, I'd be pretty sure. shocked if that happened this season. But based on what he's doing in Vysalia, I think a promotion to Hillsborough is likely at some point this year. So I do think that we'll, that we'll see that pretty soon. And by the way, I would probably have to stop taking OGs if I saw Corbyn Carroll here, because I would think that I've taken too many OGs, Jesse. You would think you've taken too many? Why is that? Well, because I think I think there's a point where you might, you know, you might take too much. That's the reason why OGs has the mini OGs 3 milligram microdose option coming out. Ah, okay.

Instead of their normal 10 milligram, sometimes I, you know, a bag melts in the car, and I'm forced to eat the whole bag. And that might make me think that I'm crazy when I see Corby and Carol out there. But you, well, you, not you, you, you can go try OG's gummies and definitely try out their 10 milligram option. It's amazing. Everybody here loves them, especially Mac. That's, she raves about them all the time. The orange creams are by far her favorite. It really is the best sleep she's ever had in her life.

And you can stop by your local dispenser and grab some amazing scratch made. THC gummies from our friends at OGs. Remember, OGs gummies make everything better. Movies, television shows, whatever, cartoons, anything, anything better is made. It makes everything better. Do they make diamond back schemes better, day? Well, if you're not driving, yes. If they're not driving, yes.

But if you're watching at home, they definitely make Diamondbacks games better. So, of course, try the OGs, the amazing flavors. They have orange cream school, tropical watermelon, all sorts of flavors. If you're interested in trying their amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEE brands.com to find OGs near you. And we might have to maybe have an OG's performance to forget segment after this series with the Dodgers. things might get very bad, but I don't know. I'm scared. I'm scared, Jesse.

But of course, that's only because the Dodgers are a formidable foe that look very good this season. Now, going back to our questions, one of our questions came from Brandon Buckingham, and he asked, is it bad? I'm relieved. Oliver Perez got DFAed. No, it's okay, right? You know, it was fun to have him back. It was kind of a bit of a novelty. And like I said, the first outing was good.

but the Diamondbacks are in a different mode and Tori Lavello said it he had no problem saying it in the press conference that the mood is different now the way that the coaching staff is acting the decisions that are being made there's there's no room for feelings it feels like anymore it's room for

performance and showing that you want to be there or you're going to lose your job to the next guy that they're going to bring in and try to beat you out for the job Oliver Perez is I mean yeah It's hard not to have respect for a guy like that. But I think you're right, you know, as much as it would be kind of a Cinderella story, right, for Oliver Perez to come in and, you know, have a great season at age 40 for the Diamondbacks. I think there's also, yeah, there is a performance side to this where the diamond backs are a little bit more concerned about, you know,

the output that they're getting from the bullpen. And it hasn't been great so far early in the season. We talked about the numbers earlier. And, yeah, the bullpen numbers have really been pretty. pretty rough so far. And unfortunately, Perez has been a, you know, he's struggled quite a bit so far to start the season. And yeah, I mean, he'll probably go pitch in Mexico now as, you know, as far as we know, that seems to be the next step for him. His major league career is probably finished at this point. But again, I mean, not many guys, you know, are relievers and pitch for 20

years in the majors and appear in over 700 games. I mean, there's, it's a pretty incredible career that he's had. So, you know, best of, best of luck to him. forward. Do we say best of luck in your future endeavors or is that just a pro wrestling thing that I get to say? I think you can say that. I think you can say that. Up in the question up in the chat there was a question from motion and he asked which player do you think would most likely get called up from Reno next. What do you think? Like someone that hasn't been up already because they've been sending like Corbin Martin down and Taylor Whitener and like those guys have been back and forth. But. But do you think it's going to be Alec Thomas is going to be the next new face we see? Or do you think that's going to take longer than that? Do you think we'll see more guys make their way first? That's tough to say.

I mean, I think Alec Thomas is probably, and you're probably looking at May for Alec Thomas, which is not far away. There's some other guys down there that you could see. I mean, there's certainly some guys that we've seen used in kind of an up and down sort of a role. Jake McCarthy, they just sent down. I think he's probably going to be back at some point. So it could be a guy that we've already seen this season. But in terms of guys that we haven't seen yet, Ryan Nelson is certainly a name to keep in mind.

One of the pitching prospects has looked pretty good so far. And they do want to bring those guys up into a bullpen roll first to get their initial time before they get them into a starter roll. I think that's entirely possible. Yeah, Luis Frias is a guy that I think we'll probably see somewhat early in the season as well. And Dan Strali is another name that comes to mind as a guy who we haven't seen yet at the major league level. But, you know, if he continues to pitch pretty well, which he has so far in Reno, he's another guy that we could see. So pretty hard to say, but there's going to be a lot of movement in terms of guys coming up from the minors this season.

So we'll have to see. Brett Johnson makes a comment. Can we get a Jesse article to explain a lot of these new metrics, Pip, Ex-Woba, et cetera? I'm not the most well-versed. And I would love to try to get my dad to understand some of these new terms and such. Well, I got something better for you. We're going to have this guy over here explain to you via video. So we're going to get Jesse kind of breaking down some of these terms.

Yeah, something or other with Professor Friedman. Yes, yeah. Something or other. That's actually what we're calling it now. It's going to be something or other with Professor. There we go. I like that. So that's where you'll get all of your information in regards to all of those new metrics.

I do want to touch on that real quick because, yeah, Brett, you're not alone. anyway and I think there's a lot of people out there who were baseball analytics for dummies books basically and I don't know if Derek is actually open said books since I gave it to him but you read it wow it cover to cover cover to cover along with that other stupid Diamondbacks book I hate I told you I can't stop talking about no but yeah like baseball metrics

are not particularly user friendly in a sense and I think do you almost think they're meant not to be yeah like we're like it's a like a gatekeeping tactic or something trying to keep people away. Yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't think it should be. And I think Major League Baseball has done a better job at getting these numbers more accessible for people. Sure. So, yeah, I mean, I'm excited to talk more about what these numbers actually mean.

And with that video series, it should be fun. I won't lie, guys. I mean, there's stuff that you explain to me that I'm like, it's kind of like your explanation of FIP, right? Like, I know that stuff, but sometimes off the top of your head, you know, the exact like metrics that go into it. Yeah. I mean the formulas for these, the formulas for these things are like absurdly complicated.

Yeah. They're so. Yeah. They're so. Yeah. They're incredible. They are, they're not meant to be calculated by us the same way like I have, I, I have the ERA formula in my head now, so I can calculate ERA pretty easily on my own.

Right. And that's that I'm proud of because it took me five years of looking enough before I finally remembered it. I should mention, I didn't mention this before. So FIPP stands for. for fielding independent pitching, which I didn't actually mention before. So the idea is that those inputs that I talked about before. It's the straight pitching and not necessarily.

Strikeouts, walks, homers, none of those things involve home runs. So that's the ultimate goal with FIPP. But yeah, we'll talk. We'll make some videos. We'll have more conversations about all these fun numbers than I get to nerd out over. You said that you know, you're going to make these stats and these, you know, these categories easier to digest. and our friends at Athletic Greens do the same thing.

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And I honestly felt better than ever. And I was just making a comment speaking of this in front of Oliver Perez's family. I didn't know was sitting next to us at a baseball game. You talked to Oliver Perez's family about athletic greens? No, no, what I talked to, what I talked to them about or farther about was feeling better than ever at 40. Right. Like, we have this, you know, we have this perception that obviously like athletics is a young person's sport or young person's game, if you will.

But I personally know I was not a very fit young person. So what I'm saying is I'm in better shape now at 41 than I ever was at 21. And I'm proud of that. And I think that everybody can be. And athletic greens will help you do that. Athletic Greens is a no-brainer. It supports better sleep quality and recovery. It has over 75,000 five-star reviews.

And it costs you less than $3 a day. Plus, you're investing in your health, which is something that I always forget to invest in. I invest in sports all the time on the Draft King's sports book, but never in my health. So that's why I have Athletic Greens. They're here to take care of me because I don't take care of myself. So to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you one free year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit Athletic Greens.com forward slash Diamondbacks.

Again, that's athletic greens.com forward slash diamondbacks to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. And that's exactly what it is. I'm trying to live, Jesse. Trying to be strong. Well, it's got to be nice to like, you know, I mean, to take something that makes it so it doesn't matter what you eat. It doesn't matter.

If you exercise, it doesn't matter. Athletic Greens just fixes all the problems as far as I can tell from what Derek tells us. That is all of Jesse's opinion. I run two miles every single day and I hate every minute of it. So that is not why my skin glows so beautifully under these lights. Okay. That's the athletic greens and the running. There you go.

It's the combination. It is. It really is. Let's see. Anything else? Brett Johnson in our comments asked, will we ever see Zach Gallen get to seven, eight innings for a single game? Has he even reached that amount in a game since joining the D-backs?

He has reached that amount. He has reached that amount. But not that often. If there is a knock on Zach Gallen since he came to the Diamondbacks, it's that, yeah, he's been more of a five, six inning type of a guy. But, I mean, you look across Major League Baseball, there's not that many guys who go past five or six innings with regularity anymore. So that's not necessarily a huge knock on him.

But, yeah, I mean, if Zach Gallen is going to take the next step and become, you know, not just a great pitcher on the Diamondbacks, but like a Cy Young caliber pitcher in this league, that probably is the next step that he has to take. you know, how can we go from five innings of, you know, one run baseball to seven innings of one run baseball? You know, that's where, that's a significant jump, not that many guys are able to do that. And a big part of that is going to be, does he get the opportunity? You know, is Tori Lavello willing to leave him in there for those extra couple innings each

game? And that certainly factors into this as well. But yeah, I think he, I think he needs to find a way to stick in the strike zone more. Occasionally, Zach Gallen will get a little bit strikeout happy. And in those moments, it's a little bit harder for him to pitch deep into games because he's not inducing as much soft contact early in counts. There's a lot of deep counts in those games. And I think that's something, you know, if you have any knock on Zach Gaon at this point, that's probably what it is. Yeah, you're probably right about that. And Kyle Collins on Twitter, he asks us, how are we feeling about the Geraldo Perdomo splitting positional time news? Meaning, if you haven't heard about that, that Tori Lavalo the other day said that Perdomo would be

seeing time both at shortstop and at third base and they're not really ready to have nick Ahmed out there with regularity they want to ease them back kind of into it but he says i personally feel he'd be better off getting every every day at bats in triple a especially now with how well al-cantra has done in comparison so far that's a tough one yeah i mean heraldo was in there at second base yesterday so they're really moving him all over the infield he's in the lineup at third base tonight. So yeah, we'll have to see, you know, how he fares defensively, kind of moving around like that. He certainly is a sound player fundamentally on the defensive side of the ball. So I think you figure you can kind of stick him wherever and he'll be pretty competent there. But yeah,

Tori talked about today before the game, just that he wants Geraldo Perdomo in the lineup. Just what he's seen from an offensive standpoint. We've started to see the swing look a little bit better for him. You know, not only is he staying patient and, you know, seeing his share of pitches up there, but he started to look a little bit less passive and he's starting to impact the baseball in a more meaningful way. So I think Tori's going to do whatever he needs to get Geraldo Perdomo's bat in the lineup. And, you know, whether that's third base, whether it's shortstop, whether it's second base, I think the Diamondbacks are going to find a way to do that. Yep. And I completely agree. And I mean, I kind of see what he's saying, though, about getting the at-bats in AAA, right?

Yeah, there's an advantage to that for sure. And there's an advantage to not necessarily having to switch positions. But I think what we'll see is Perdomo playing quite a bit. I think we'll be seeing him coming to games late in games to take over for Nick Ahmed. It'll be interesting once Josh Rojas is back. You know, where do you, how do you find a way to get everyone time with Cattel with Nick Ahmed, with Perdomo with Rojas? There's a bit of a traffic jam there.

Yeah. But, I mean, these problems have a way of working themselves out in baseball. You know, there's injuries. There's all sorts of things that pop up. So I think there's potential for a platoon situation as well with Perdomo. You know, in the minors, he was substantially better facing a right-handed pitching as a left-handed hitter. Mick Ahmed has been substantially better facing left-handed pitching as, of course, a right-handed hitter. So there's some platoon potential there.

I don't know if the Diamondbacks want to go that direction, just given the Perdomo's a young player. And you want to give him exposure. you know, facing both lefties and righties, but we'll have to see what they do with that. I have one last question for Mailbag Monday, and we thank you guys for your questions, but I wanted to ask you, do you think they are basically sacrificing in a way,

and not to say, not to say they would have it any other way, but do you feel like they're sacrificing the month of April a bit when it comes to starting pitching? Because they kind of, you know, there's low expectations, and the last thing they need to do is about, is having these guys rush getting, you know.

What do you mean by sacrificing starting pitching? I feel like they're being more conservative with starting pitching this year than they've ever been. Yeah, that's a fair point. And I know part of it is the slow start thing still. Right. Whether, I know they don't want to use it as an excuse. I know no team wants to use it as an excuse at this point. We're almost a month into the season.

Maybe they're being more cautious. But maybe they're being more because there is nothing to. play for really for them right they you know they don't have these expectations internally so they're even though they're still trying to stay competitive and they're still trying to find the best pieces that they can to win baseball games it also feels like they're kind of okay with these you know with protecting their starting pitching as much as possible at least here early on they have a lot of pitchers who haven't um you know who haven't pitched as many innings the last few seasons as maybe they would have ideally.

But, I mean, they also have guys who are pretty much fine from an inning standpoint. You know, Madison Bumgarner pitched a pretty full season last year. Zach Davies pitched a pretty full season last year. Merrill Kelly, for sure. Merrill Kelly, yeah. So at the end of the day, I think you're right. I think they are, I mean, they're taking a very conservative approach early in the season. But, yeah, I mean, that's a bit of a trend around baseball.

Tori Lavello is certainly not alone in being more conservative. I think especially Madison Bumgarner. Garner over the last few years. There are numbers that suggest that, you know, once he gets past pitch number 80, you know, the stuff tends to drop off a little bit for him. So there was the infamous Clayton Kershaw outing, right, where he got removed before. Right, right. Right. Exactly. You're right. It's happening all around baseball. It's not just specific to the debacks, but it does still feel like the debacks are being conservative. And again, it feels like they, they really want to make sure that certain guys have their confidence, even though, even though they're saying it, you know,

everything's performance-based, it feels like they want to get guys confidence back, right? Yeah. Like Carson Kelly keeps getting inserted in the lineup, whereas Jose Herrera has even received praise from the pitching staff, like for how much they like working with him, right? Yeah. He's getting a lot of talk like Madison Bumgarner does not praise anybody. And he praised him for the way that he calls a game and his ability to kind of say, see what batters are doing and make calls based on, you know, their tendencies and what they're swinging at.

I mean, I think both Carson and Jose Herrera have, you know, have earned the respect of the pitching staff. But, yeah, I mean, we'll have to see what this team does in terms of the catching situation. I think, you know, Dalton Varsho is certainly capable of being in that mix as well. So we'll have to see what they do there. Clutch Canuck, you're absolutely right. I'm just hoping the pitching continues when the bats wake up. And yeah, right.

Yeah, you kind of wonder if, you know, maybe the pitching takes a backseat and the offense, you know, improves. And I'm not going to say. You've got the reverse problem. I'm not allowed to say that that's totally a Diamondbacks thing to do. Apparently, I'm supposed to remove that phrase from my vocabulary. But you know what that means. But of course, you know, right now we're not getting our same joy that we're getting from the Phoenix Suns as we normally would. But I don't think it's time to panic yet.

It's two, two. So let's calm down. And both teams are doing what they're supposed to be doing right now. But I still think you should bet on the Suns. The NBA playoffs mean next level basketball. And honestly, give credit where credit is due. That's what we're getting out of the Pelicans right now. They're stepping up.

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. Jesse, there's something that I've known for a very long time. And that is, here we go again. That is that Randy Johnson is a very, very good actor. I've known that because Little Big League is one of my favorite baseball movies on this planet. And Randy Johnson makes an appearance in that movie as the villain. And that's wonderful in itself.

But of course, now what we have is Randy Johnson in his older years, in his golden years, still lighting up the silver screen with his portrayal as one of the newest Ghostbusters, Jesse. There you go. Are you haunted by your cable service? Have you noticed strange, frightening fees on your monthly bill? Do you experience feelings of dread when you pass by your cable box? If the answer is yes, who are you going to call? Direct TV stream.

Now get $30 off over three months. What do you think? Eight feet taller than all of the others. I love Randy Johnson as a Ghostbuster. I wore this shirt today that's filled with Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters just for that. He does a good job. It's amazing.

He fits the role. I want that movie. I need that movie. Because see, like Ghostbusters is all over the place, right? So they've talked about like maybe linking up the right to call gang, which is the female Ghostbusters crew with the afterlife by making some sort of weird interdimensional portal or whatever, right? I want in that scene like what we saw in like the Marvel cinematic universe I want for a moment. Like in Spider-Man, when the sky opened up and you see Craven the Hunters. and all the other stuff, right?

I want just for a moment, I want a portal to open up, and I want those Ghostbusters to almost walk out, but then somebody in the movie goes, not you, Arod, and then that's why they don't come, you know, right? Something, some sort of wicked burn on Arod in that scene, and then Randy Johnson can laugh at him and point, because he's tall.

I hope it happens for you there, just for you. I know it's not going to happen, but, you know, one can wish, but again, who are you going to call? I don't know who the Diamondbacks are going to call tonight, but good luck with the Dodgers because this team is a beast. They might need the Ghostbusters to come help them out when it comes to taking on the Dodgers,

because they are a very, very good baseball team. We're going to be there tonight. Walker Bueller's on the mound. DeBacks put their best option, I think, that they could to counter Walker Bueller by having Merrill Kelly up there. It almost feels like this is what that shift of pitchers during last week when the, rain out or when the double header happened, right?

Yeah, I mean, Merrill Kelly is not a bad guy for them to have opening this series against the Dodgers. And they get Zach Gallen also in the series. So best of luck to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Again, we'll be there. Follow along over on social media. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Mad with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs. Follow all of us. Follow us along. The action. We'll be tweeting about stuff and taking pictures and we'll be having some fun over there. We'll also be there for post games. Make sure to do that. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports,

and that's on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you want to go over and subscribe to us now. If you're not already on YouTube, subscribe to the PHNX sports channel and sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss any of the content from our wonderful PHNX team. If you're listening right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a five-star review. If you haven't done so already, we thank you for it.

On behalf of Jesse and myself being here in person, This is good. Is this the last one? Yeah, I think you've got to go home again. I have to go home tomorrow. This is the last time for a while. But when he comes back, next time we're together,

it's permanent. On behalf of Jesse and myself, we thank you guys for being here in the chat, asking your questions. Mailbag Monday is always fun. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you bet on it.