PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Double the danger

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing mistakes leading to the D-backs game one loss to the Nationals, starting pitching once again not being the problem, and how effective the pitch clock is at making minor league games shorter. 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 podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX and I am joined by my vice mayor, the one and only Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. This team is an adventure on the daily, Derek. It seems like they come up with new ways to remind us of the team that they were last year. And I know a lot of people are frustrated and we can certainly understand why. They are confounding Jesse Friedman.

They are a confounding team to watch. This show, of course, is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app and get what, do what I'm doing. I'm getting down on the NBA playoff action tonight by going to the Phoenix Suns game versus the Pelicans. And you can get down on the playoffs too. New customers can bet $5 on any team to win and get $150 in free bets instantly. You win no matter what over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. And yes, Jesse, I am going to the Phoenix Suns game.

I'm going to take an OGs edible, and I'm going to forget about this game today. I'm hopefully forgetting about this team because, oh, my God, they are so frustrating to watch. I think, here, let me put it together in my perspective. I think they're so frustrating to watch because they are so close to being a competent, good baseball team at times. and then they find ways to let it completely unravel. We've talked about Tori Lavolo's little phrase of winning the inches. We're not winning any inches in these games. As a matter of fact, the Diamondbacks are actually using their talent to stay in these games somewhat.

But the errors and the mistakes keep piling up. And those are truly the things that make me feel like this team is squandering. the little opportunity they have to win the door the window is only open for a short time for them in these baseball games right they have no killer instinct to put the the anything away once they have the team the opposing pitcher on the ropes today was an exercise in futility it felt like David Peralta being sent to steal third when there was I don't think he was sent I don't think he just went on his own I think I mean there's there's no way that the coaching staff would try to send him in that spot it doesn't make any sense the only way you steal a base there i would you probably just take that initiative himself i i think as a as a veteran i

think you have the i think you have the right to you know when you think you kind of found something on a picture i think you have the right to do that and and granted i mean if he stills that base then we're all you know we're all here singing the praises of dana peralda no absolutely not i would still be mad about it because it was still an unnecessary risk that wasn't it was low reward high risk low reward it wasn't the opposite way right right it wasn't a situation where it was going to really do anything for this team and then you see cooper hummel come up and get a hit and then you see another hit and you see that Bralta would have scored right easily from from you know had he just stayed on second base probably like you said maybe that maybe that was his call maybe the real problem

here was taking a train from New York to D.C. That's it. That's definitely it. It got David Peralta's head full of ideas about how fast trains go. The next thing you know, he thinks he can just take off and steal third on a whim. He did. I mean, he had a pretty decent game in the first game of the double header. And granted, I guess we should say we're recording in the middle of the two games.

So, you know, for all we know, maybe the Diamondbacks are about to, you know, blow out the nationals like 15 to 2 in the nightcap. But, but yeah, the morning element of. of this double header did not go particularly well. David Peralta did have a decent day at the plate overall. He was two for three with a walk. But yeah, I mean, the fact that he erased himself on the base paths when he doubled, was certainly, you know,

certainly cost the team. And there were other mistakes, too. Ketelmarte clanked a pop fly that was about as routine as you can get. I know the winds were swirling in, in D.C. But nonetheless, I mean, he settled under it just fine. It wasn't that he couldn't find the spot. It looked like he took his eyes off of it.

Yeah. It looked like it was kind of your right as it came into his glove and he was already ready to move on and, and, you know, have the next batter up before all was even in his glove. Right. It was kind of your classic careless, you know, sort of mistake or there's just really no other explanation for it. So, yeah, Kattel has been rough. It was so huge. Yeah. It was such a huge mistake.

It was compounded at that point by everything else that happened. the inning, including two runs scoring, Madison Bumgarner completely being taken out of what was a really good game for him up to that point. Right. And I know, I know, I don't care how good of a teammate you are. I know Mad Bum was just absolutely cursing Catell out in his head the entire time that the rest of that inning took place. Could you not? You know, could you not? It reminds me of playing MLB the show. And I know I fall back on my MLB the show experience. a lot on the show. It's the only baseball experience I can fall back on.

But one of your computer players just kind of, you know, drops the ball figuratively and literally for you in the video. Sure. Right. You're like, no, I, that's only supposed to happen when I'm controlling him. When you're controlling him, they're supposed to make all-star plays all the time with little effort, you know? Yeah.

That was one of those like just, it can be really hard. again going back to MLB. Do you ever play a video game where like you make a mistake and then that's it. You're like, you know what? I'm turning this video game off. I've done. Oh, absolutely. Right. Like that was it was like that was Madison Bumgardner's point.

When Catelle dropped that ball, Madison Bumgarner shut off the PlayStation 5 and went did something better with his time. That's like mentally it's so hard to come back from something like that, right? To just forget it and move on. But I mean, obviously, that didn't happen, right? Because we see everything that falls apart in that inning. As much as you can say, like, you should be able to move on. It's really hard to when you just watch the last out get squandered. We still have to throw. And now guys are getting hits and now runs are scoring and everything else that happened there. I don't know. My brain would be on fire after that if I was bumgarner.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think you tweeted it out from our our Ph. and X underscore DBAX account. out the diamond backs lead the league in unearned runs, which is just not doing yourselves any favors. And you already have had a, you know, of course, an enormous struggle at the plate trying to hit. This game was, was similar. The diamond backs were six for 31 as a team. Seth Beer had a good day. That was about it. We've seen this story before. Dalton Varsho hit a home run, which was good to see. But yeah, the diamondbacks have allowed 10 unearned runs this season in 10 games. They literally average one under run per game, which is horrible.

I mean, that is just you're giving the opponent way too much. And like you said earlier, this Diamondbacks team isn't good enough to, you know, win games consistently making those types of mistakes. The only way they're going to be able to win these games is if they are one of the best in the league, you know, avoiding those kinds of mistakes. And to this point in the season, it's reminded me a lot of last. year, Derek, where we had outfielders running into each other. We had, you know, defenders not communicating all over the place.

And at the very least in 2022, that's what we wanted to be rid of, right? Maybe the team isn't going to be that great. Maybe there's still, you know, a year or two away. But at the very least, can we get rid of these, you know, college level, minor league level sort of mistakes that are happening in, you know, defensively over and over again. And unfortunately, that hasn't happened so far. Madison Bumgarner's line is kind of incredible. Five innings pitched, two hits, two runs, zero earn runs, four walks, five strikeouts.

Very weird. Yeah, very weird. He was throwing a no hitter through up until, up until the Ketel dropped pop fly, the very next battered double. That was the first hit that Madison Bumgarner allowed in the outing. He was pretty effective. I mean, I don't think, I think it's another situation where. a diamond back's pitcher kind of got away with a better line than they were probably deserving of. He did walk four guys, but he was effective.

And I mean, the Nationals lineup is certainly not one of the best. And, you know, I think he really could have gotten away with a shutout of five or six innings today. But unfortunately, the drop pop fly and, you know, David Peralta's base running mistake. And that's a three run swing right there between those two plays. And, you know, things just continue to spiral out of control for the Diamondbacks. J.B. Wendelkin allowed a run. Oliver Perez allowed three runs. One of those was unearned again on a catcher's interference by Jose Herrera. And so it was a forgettable mess of a game for the Diamondbacks. It really was. And I mean, I know, I don't, I don't know what else to say because

I think the difference between the way that good teams play and how the Diamondbacks are playing right now is really what you just like it's really the ability to bounce back from these mistakes and not have it allow the entire game to unravel you know really and and like hitting hitting the baseball would be nice too well the other yeah sure sure and actually jessey is going to have a bit more information about hitting the baseball a little later this week on go p hnx.com when he takes a look at analyzing the debacks offence and exactly what is going wrong with them. We'll have a couple of pieces up for you this week.

I'm going to have something up on the spring training economic impact from basically what happened with the, where we were at pre, you know, pandemic or not pre, I guess, I guess it's pre pandemic, pre-pandemic, pre-lockout versus, you know, now and everything that's happening now and how this last spring training, you know, impacted the local economy here in Arizona. And another thing that we are going to have a look at some point this month is, is this Deback starting rotation really this good. And Jesse, I don't know, but Madison Bumgarner currently has a 1.38 ERA.

So yeah, a little skeptical, a little skeptical, but he's limited damage. He's limited damage early on. Well, he is. You got to say it's its best year so far as an Arizona diamond bag. But you'll be able to get all of that on go p.nx.com. If you're not already a member, sign up to become a member, you can get an annual membership, which will get you your free t-shirt from the p.nnx locker.com. We have an entire beautiful selection to choose from.

We have our new PHNX Rattler shirt that we dropped on opening day, as well as a brand new design coming very soon. So keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as all the other shirts that we got. It's sun season right now. Suns are king of this town right now. So make sure to check out the PHNX sun shirts as well as all the other options. You can get over at PHNX Locker.com.

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where you can join us and lament about this baseball team all season long, where we will be and probably playing Josh Hunt's bingo game, giving out prizes, doing what we can to make this fun, because I don't know how fun this season is going to be with the way things are going. But, Jesse, taking a look at the Diamondbacks starting lineup, again. This is not

it's not falling right now on pitching. It's really not. So far the starting lineup has been solid for this team. We even talked about Huberto Castiano's terrible game that really wasn't that terrible. Every starting pitcher has allowed this team

to stay in the game. Once again, it really is the bullpen that isn't allowing the team to stay in the game. We saw the bullpen again today give up for earn run. right all four of the bullpen three three of them were earned the three of a rare catchers interference caused oh yeah that stupid shit uh that was such a dumb call such a ridiculous call but

there was a lot of things there that honestly um i mean the diamondbacks weren't that far off when bumgarner left the game right two one game yeah still very winnable still still in it uh the the bullpen though the relief pitching has not been good for this team and that's something that we kind of knew they were working towards. But this is one of those games where they really chose not to go with the guys that you would think that they would have, or that they've at least gone to already even in games that they were down to kind of keep this game close at the end. Yeah, they've, Tori is usually pretty, pretty restrictive in terms of like what kinds of opportunities he gives to his best relievers. you tend to see them in games where the Diamondbacks have a lead.

And you're right. We have seen Mark Melanson and Ian Kennedy show up at times, you know, outside of those traditional set up safe situations that they're really there for, ultimately. But, but yeah, I mean, it was J.B. Wendelken. It was Oliver Perez. It was Matt Peacock, who was recently called back up. And, and, yeah, I mean, J.B. Wendelken was fine.

You know, two innings, one run. you'll certainly live with that. He still has a sub two ERA this season. Oliver Perez was good in his first outing of the year, but things have not looked so great for him since then. He only has one strikeout in three and a third innings. So I think there's some reason to be concerned there. Yeah, the bullpen is not great.

And I don't think it's been the biggest issue for this team this season. But frankly, it feels like nothing has really gone right. I mean, the defense has been a mess. The offense, Derek, the Diamondbacks had 11 hitters play in the first game of the double header. And all of those 11 hitters except for one of them are hitting 212 and below. And if you knock out David Peralta from that list, then there is not a single hitter. Out of those 11, it's Seth Bier, it's David Peralta. And then the remaining nine are all hitting 194 and below.

I mean, it's just like every single hitter is going through it right now for this team. And, you know, at some point, I still think that that has to turn around. But nothing is cheap about it. I mean, you look at the underlying metrics of how hard they're hitting baseballs and barrel rates and things like that. And there's nothing, they're not getting unlucky. They're just not actually hitting the baseball very hard. And this is, this is the result of that. DeBack's bullpen is 25th in Major League Baseball.

in ERA. Yeah. Yeah, sounds about right. But for strikeouts, they're 28th for strike. Yeah, yeah. It's been pretty, it's been pretty bad. I mean,

Mark Malanson is not, is not really a big strikeout guy. Ian Kennedy hasn't really been a big strikeout guy. So they really don't have anyone who's been super reliable to this point. Sean Poppin has had, a pretty good season kind of under the radar. I don't know if people have really noticed that,

but he's been pretty good to start the year. But yeah, there's really no one in that bullpen who's like, you know, the moment they come out, you feel really good about the outcome of the game because it just hasn't been that way so far. Jesse, the debacks now have a sub three ERA for their starting pitchers. Which is just, I really want to believe

that there's some legitimacy there. but like like take let's take madison bumgarner for example all right derrick madison bumgarner has a 1.3 a 1.38 er a over 13 innings he has a 174 opponent batting average and yet he has walked 10 and struck out nine he has more walks than strikeouts and so you know it's not that he hasn't done a good job so far limiting damage but no pitcher in melb history you know can walk more than they strike out or even come close to that and maintain any kind of success over the course of the season. So at this point, I think Mad Bum has had quite a bit of batted ball luck. There have been a lot of balls in play that have been hit right at guys. And unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be

sustainable for him for very long. So he's going to need to start developing a little bit more of a swing and miss element to his game that we haven't really seen so far. After nine games in 2021, their starting ERA was 6.25. Okay. So that's a nice turnaround, right? That's a nice turnaround. Just, Jesse, we have to hang our hats on the positives. That's the only thing we can do.

Seth Beer, who will continue to probably not start, is now 100 in his last six games. He is eight. Sorry, youth froze on me. Did you stop talking? That's all right. Seth Beer, Jesse, in his last five games, is hitting 500. He is eight for 14.

That is not bad. And he probably is right. And he probably right, exactly. Yeah, I tweeted out, I tweeted out today. I mean, he's three for six this year against lefties. It's funny, he's struck out twice against the right-handed Josiah Gray in the first game of the doubleheader. And then a lefty, Sean Doolittle comes in and he doubles. So I don't think the, yeah, we've talked about this a fair amount.

Just stop sitting them. It's that simple, right? Just stop sitting up. You have a fucking DH. You have a first base. I know what you were saying. Jesse texted me before this game started about the DH or the first base situation. And he was scared about Seth Beer starting at first base.

I believe you said that he has played one inning of first base in the majors. And it led to season ending shoulders. shoulder surgery. Right. Not, not great. Yeah. But he was pretty,

he was pretty good today. He did, he did the job. Yeah. I would still rather see him at DH. He does not look, um, very defensively gifted out there,

even though he didn't do anything. There's a lot of plays that Christian Walker have made this year that I doubt that he could make. Right. Christian Walker's had a lot of plays where he's had to stretch out pretty far to get some balls and and try. And I just, I don't know if any of those plays,

if, Seth Beer can be that athletic as far as making no stretchout plays. But again, there's a DH and you should play every year. You just got to get him in the lineup at this point. Yeah, I mean, he's at this point far and away the team's best hitter so far. And obviously, it's a small sample and you're not going to read too too much into that. But at a certain point, I mean, these 120 batting averages all over the lineup have to start meaning something, you know, and deciding who's going to be in the lineup and who's not.

And, you know, if Seth Beer can't make it in a lineup every day at this point, it's like, you know, I don't know how all the other guys are winding up in there every day. And specifically, Cattel Marte, he is just not. It feels like he needs a day off, right? Like, get him out of there for a day. I yeah. Just something to get his head right because he doesn't look comfortable out there at all at second base. This is a guy MLB network predicted would be the best second baseman. Yeah.

Baseball this year. Which even we were. a little bit back right now. Yeah, we were even a little bit hesitant about that. But yeah, I mean, right now, Catelle is not, there's no part of his game that is that is helping the team. His defense has been, has been rough. His hitting is not come. He's not walking a lot. He's not, he's not getting a lot of base hits. Like he's, he's, there's nothing that could tell Marte is doing right now that is really helping the team. And, and, and of course, we expect him to, to turn that around. But yeah, I mean, at this point, Derek, I, I, I, I almost have forgotten, like, which

guys on this team we expect to hit and which guys we, you know, think might be a little bit further away. It feels like everyone's in the same boat right now. You know, it feels like everyone except Seth Beer is, is just grasping at straws at the plate, trying to find a way to put something in play. Um, so yeah, I mean, yeah, it's, it's hard to, it's hard to not get caught in the moment here with just how bad things are looking for the diamond backs. But it is, I mean, three and seven feels like a merciful outcome for for what we've what we've watched the last couple of weeks you bring that up and that's interesting because the diamondbacks looking at their starting era from their first 10 games last year that kind of surprises me you and i talked about

what in april they had last year their april was not well their their pitching was horrible in april last year and their hitting was incredible yeah yeah right and that's that's how they that's how they did it but now you know the hitting is obviously not there. And the pitching side, I don't think is going to maintain what it's doing right now. So they're in, they're in danger of, you know, just really having nothing going right for them this season. So we'll let's say this out. Everybody likes to say how it already looks like this season is going to be worse than last. And I understand. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true either though. Yeah. What I'll say is let's just remember that last April was pretty good for them.

Okay. So then we know how everything went. Let's not immediately assume just because they're starting out slow this April that that means it's going to carry over for 162 games. Right. Let's leave it at that. I know. The sky is falling and we literally want to pick up every piece and show it to Toy Lavallo and be like, look, look. But there's things about this team right now that I honestly, like you said, it's surprising how bad they are because they really. are having some better approaches. They're being more patient at the plate. I just don't know if that patience that they've been taught by new hitting coach is necessarily because, man, is really are leaving their bats just sitting on their shoulders in a lot of these situations. And that's kind of grown to be a bit frustrating as well. I will say this, though. The Diamondbacks do have the most pitches per plate appearance in MLB. But the other team, that they share that kind of category with,

it's not good. It's not good. The other teams that are seeing the most pitches per plate appearance in MLB are the twins, the Reds, the Pirates, and the Orioles. Wow. So it just goes to show right now. Like, that's one thing now. When I'm looking at that number, I'm like,

maybe patients at the plate doesn't necessarily agree with it. It's good, but not to that extreme. It's not something you're trying to leave the league in. Right? because Joe Mather leaving wouldn't necessarily just fade out on them and what they learned, right? So if they're being patient based on their, you know, former hitting coach of Joe Mather and the Diamondbacks are being patient for that same reason, then that makes sense. But not necessarily a good, not good company to be with there. It's not like the Dodgers or one of the other teams in that top five categories.

So it remains to be seen if that patience at the plate can carry over to any kind of success for this team this season offensively. I'm not ready to fire anybody just yet, though, Jesse. So let's, let's pump the brakes. It's only been 10 games. But what we do want to tell you guys about is, of course, I know if you want to forget about how this first 10 games have gone, try our friends over at OG's Gummies. Or you know what? If you get yourself a Sativa, you won't forget anything.

You'll have superpowers. But grab yourself some OGs gummies. 420, of course, is right around the corner, you guys. Tomorrow is the big day. I tend to find Jesse marijuana culture to be a bit insufferable

because of things like 420 and all of that, right? I don't, I, but that's not the way things are going anymore. If you've ever been into the dispensary lately, it's like a high class boutique department store or some shit. So things are not the same,

but we still celebrate 420 around these parts and the good people over at OGs are helping you out by making amazing scratch-made THC gummies. I found out some crazy stuff about, you know, what some other companies are putting in their, in their gummies, what, you know, the clarity, the amount of actual THC and product that's going into it. I will say that OGs has some of the best gummies that you can get. And I have absolutely looked into their track record. And so far, everything looks really, really good with OG's brands.

I know that you never know what you're putting, you know, what you're getting when it comes to edibles. and that's something that OGs prides themselves on with their scratch-made T-H-C-Gmies. They have a wide variety of flavors that are delicious, like orange cream, skull, tropical, watermelon, so much more. If you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGs brands has to offer, go to OGs brands. That's OGEE-Z-Brands.com to find OGs near you. And happy 420 to all those that celebrate the holiest of days. But, Jesse, you sent me a very interesting topic.

And that is that apparently the pitch clock in minor league baseball is working really well to reduce the time of baseball games. 20 minutes is pretty. That's a lot of time, dude. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you can take a three hour baseball game and make it two hours and 40 minutes. And I know that at the end of the day, there are a lot of people who love baseball who don't care if you shave 20 minutes off the game time. And I think probably you and me and probably the majority of the people listening would be in that camp where they like the game enough to, you know, be willing to sit through a

three hour baseball game and shaving off 20 minutes doesn't make much of a difference. But in terms of the larger like growth of the sport and the future of the sport, I do think there's a pretty big difference between two hours and 40 minutes and three hours or whatever the numbers actually look like. And baseball is also like there's something about it. and I know we we touch on MLB the show experience apparently a lot in this show, but there's there's something about when you see baseball played in that format, like where you know,

you're able to skip like the little in-between replay or whatever and you're able to just instantly throw the next pitch. There's something about it that's like kind of addicting. Like baseball is a really, if you cut down even a little bit on that in-between time, you just don't lose your interest as quickly. You just find yourself way more engaged in what's happening. You know, maybe that's not an issue for us.

But there are certainly people out there who I can assure you are going to be more compelled by the product. If, you know, the moment that a pitcher throws the ball, you know, they're, they get it back from the catcher. They're back towing the rubber and they're ready to throw the next one. And I think just that rhythm, if the sport can really get into that rhythm where that's what people are used to seeing when they watch a baseball game, I do think it could make a big difference. There is a reason, Jesse, that movies aim to be less than three hours.

Yeah. Yeah. There is a reason why people have complained about the new Batman, which just came out on HBO Max today, or I don't even know if that's still what they go, HBO Max, right? But, right, like, there is something about when I sat and watched the Batman and I thought, there's things in this movie that don't need to be here. Right. You know, like, I, am now bored with this movie at a certain point, even though it's still a good movie. Like, nothing changed about it. My mind is just bored. My mind doesn't want to be sitting in a movie theater watching this very dark film. And I don't mean it like dark. I just mean dark. Like it's shot dark. You know, this late at night for this long. And I think there is something to be said for that.

There is, like you said, a big difference between a three hour and five minute game and a two hour and 40 minute game. And it's not just the 25 minutes of time you're saving. It's that there was a satisfying conclusion of that game at two hours and 40 minutes. But the minute you cross over to three hours, it's just too long. It's just taking forever. I know there's there's been Diamondbacks games that I've been absolutely baffled why they take so long. It's like a three one game. I'm looking at my watch. It's the bottom of the eighth and we're just crossing three hours. And I'm going, right, what the fuck? this isn't a game that had like 20 runs scored. Yeah, why are we still here?

Right. Like one team like singling the other team to death or anything like that. This was a normal average baseball game and it took this much time. What I find interesting is that it's not just a straightforward pitch clock. There's going to be different clocks. There's right now in the minor leagues, what was tested was a 14 second clock with the bases empty. Then an 18 second clock with runners on and penalties for pitchers.

and hitters that run a foul of the 18 second clock. And it was able to get the average game time down to two hours and 39 minutes. Oh my God, Jesse. That would get me out of the ballpark before like midnight. You know how big of a deal that would be? And it's not to say that there aren't some games, like you said, when you love baseball, there are some games that are worth the game being that long.

But not every game. It's just like every film isn't seven samurai, by Akira Kurosawa, right? Like, there are movies out there that are worth being three hours long. I'll even say, I like the Batman. I liked, you know, once upon a time in America. That's one of my favorite three hour movies. That's a great movie.

But there's just things like that kind of, yes, that movie, that thing, that baseball game was worthy of being that much time. I just don't think every single baseball game is. if there is something that they could do to improve it, it's just something that will bring the more casual fan, the person that just kind of wants to watch a sport, especially once we start getting into July and August, when there's no other sports currently on.

But they don't want to sit down no matter how much they want to watch a sport and watch a three-hour baseball game. I mean, sometimes I have a, like, sometimes I instantly, like in the second inning, start getting way too comfortable on my couch for a baseball game. And I just know that I can like doze off. and I'm probably not going to miss a whole lot. You know, like that's something that even I as someone that loves baseball feels.

I can only imagine how other people that don't really, you know, care that much about the outcome feel. Yeah. But I know that that's, that's, that's something that's, they've been working on for a long time. I just, I don't know. They've talked a lot recently about the lack of home runs in baseball, which is kind of, yeah, they're down this year.

Another epidemic this year in baseball. Right. And I just don't know if it's, It's the worst thing. I mean, I don't know if people are tuning out or tuning in because of home runs. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know. Could you imagine if they, they just like, like manipulated the baseball to the point where home runs were hit like 20% of the time? Like on average, like a home run happened to every inning or something. Yeah.

I mean, it probably makes it a lot less special, right? There's. Yeah. It would use it. It would lose its huge. uniqueness for sure. There are a lot of things in pro wrestling,

but it's absolutely stupid that they do, but there's a purpose behind it, right? They, they don't want things to lose, even though it's a fake, made up thing and it's all predetermined. They don't want to lose its allure, right? So it's like,

if there were a bunch of home runs, like that was kind of baseball's answer in the late 90s, right? Was let's break home run records and let's have these guys hitting home runs left and right and let's do everything we can. let's make the baseballs harder and let's let everybody be on PDs and everything was cool. But, you know, it all kind of came crashing down on them when, you know, people didn't really like what they were doing to get the outcome that they were getting.

Right. And I don't, I don't know. I mean, baseball was very popular at that time. So I have no quantifiable evidence that can say one way or another whether home runs improve, you know, the viewing of a baseball game. right all i can say is i love watching college baseball and i love watching college girls softball and the reason why has nothing to do with the home it's the energy it's the game it's everything about it but it moves very fast there isn't this long wind long process for pitchers to be out on the mound taking their glove off and yeah there is a lot of it

move faster at different levels. Yeah. Yeah. Their baseball does have more of the just kind of like random moseying around the mound. Yeah. You know. Let's get together. Let's go, man.

Come on. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, again, it's, it is kind of a learned habit, right? It's a learned habit from old-timey baseball players that used to do it. It's something that their coaches tell them to do. Like, hey, settle down. You feel yourself getting too, you know, out of the zone.

and your, you know, your hearts racing or your emotions all over the place. Just take a minute for yourself out in the mound. Take your glove off, you know, stretch, you know, do everything you can to get your mind back in it. But yeah, that's, I mean, it's taking it to such an extreme that that's why the average baseball game is up to literally three hours and three minutes is the average baseball game in 5,000 plus non-clock games during the 2021 season. Three minutes and over three hours. Over three hours. Yeah. It's been higher in the past, too.

I think that's actually not too bad. But yeah, if they can bring that down 20 minutes, I think the difference is substantial. And, you know, for the baseball purists who might be irritated by that, I think even, I think they'll get used to it. I think people who really enjoy this game won't really have much of a problem with it at the end of the day either. Well, the Arizona Diamondbacks do have Merrill. on the mound in game two of this double header this afternoon. Jesse and I are going to get off to

watch it. I, in full disclosure, I'm not going to watch the whole game because I'm going to go watch the Phoenix Suns start down their path to winning a championship. But we definitely appreciate you guys being here. And we hope you stick around to watch the Diamondbacks win game two, hopefully, and not make me look stupid on this show tomorrow. But we thank you guys so much for watching us. You can tell me how right or wrong I am. You can find me on Twitter at Kapp underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. Of course, all roads lead to HNX underscore support on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you're listening to us right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a five-star review.

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Put your money on the suns, baby. Sons to the moon. Don't do what I did, though. I had a plus 1,040 parlay, and it hit on every single leg except for McHale Bridges scoring 13 points. which broke my heart. So maybe throw some unders on there too. It doesn't have to always be their overs on point scored.

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21 and over only, Arizona only gambling problem. Dow 100 next step. New customers only minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. Jesse, we got one more game to go. I'm not going to be super, I guess, super critical about this, but it really does feel like If the Diamondbacks can't at least split this series with the Nationals,

they may be in big, big trouble. Well, they've got two pretty good teams coming up. They've got three against the Mets again and then three against the Dodgers after that back in Arizona. So, I mean, those are arguably, those might be the two best teams in the National League right there. So the Diamondbacks are, yeah, they're going to want to start getting some wins up on the board. The schedule isn't getting any easier from that. that pad that record as much you know but we thank you guys again so much for checking out the show of course check out our friends at the draft king sportsbook app go check out ogies gummies at ogsbrands.com

and most importantly sign up at go p hnx.com for a membership we appreciate you for doing so if you already have and if you haven't join us come over be part of the family on behalf of jessie and myself we thank you guys so much for checking out the show and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you bet on it.