PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Four Corners: A PHNX/DNVR Crossover

Episode Date: October 2, 2021

Well, the end is here, and by that we mean the MLB season for both the D-backs and the Rockies. To celebrate, Jesse and Derek got together with Drew Creasman and Patrick Lyons from the DNVR Rockies Podcast to reminisce about this season and talk about the future for both of these clubs. 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.

Welcome in to a special edition of the DNVR Rockies podcast and the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. That's right. We're doing a crossover episode. For those of you that are giant comic nerds like some of us, it's going to be a lot of fun for you. Of course, the DMVR Rockies podcast still brought to you by our friends at Strava Craft Coffee. You know what's up to use the promo code, DMVR 25 and all that. I'll be your host today. I'm the managing editor of DMVR Rockies.

My name is Drew Kriesman. With me, as always, is beat writer Patrick Lyons. And as I said, joining us for this one from PHNX Diamondbacks. Very excited for our first of what I hope will be many conversations with Derek Montia and Jesse Friedman. What's happening, fellas? Hey, hey, what's happening, man? Good to be with you guys. Well, it is very exciting time, of course.

Everyone's very into this. The baseball world will have its eyes on the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks final set of the season. well, at least the four of us, well, that's, and everyone listening to it. It's going to be compelling television. I don't know why anybody would want to miss it. I do want to get into a lot of stuff, but I feel like the top story right now is with you guys.

It is tank season. That's what is at stake here, right? There's not a whole lot at stake for the record. This is what's on the line. How's it going? How you feeling about it? Well, I think Jesse and I, I have very different feelings on tank season, but I will say speaking for myself, I've enjoyed it.

I think that it's, you know, you guys with the Rockies definitely have a lot of positive things to look at. And we've discussed it quite a bit on the podcast about the Rockies with the second half they've had. And comparatively to some of the other teams in baseball, you guys have things moving in the right direction as far as winning games and belief in the team at least, even if the record doesn't, you know, show it. or at the end of the year, you know, there's, there's no playoffs in your future. I still feel like there's positive things for your team. The Diamondbacks, they had such a bad first half that my biggest fear was that they might get rolling some, for some reason, in the second time and play themselves right out of a good draft pick. Unfortunately, they've been out of it since, you know, April, May.

That's how that's how bad May was for them that they've been out of it that long. So to, I guess at this point, to at least have something to watch them for, to at least have something to root for, even if that something is losing, still feels a little exciting to me. Jesse, so I'm the anti-tank guy on principle on our show. Patrick, it's the smart thing to do it. It's the smart thing to do. If you can't be good at winning, you better be good at losing. Sorry to steal your thunder on that one. You've got a few others.

but Jesse it sounds like oh you're you're muted Patrick yeah I've got plenty of those catch phrases but Derek to your point what happens what's happening with the Rockies the second half is what you were worrying about with the debacks and so that's kind of the question is it better to have the second half that the debacks are having and of course they were they were heading in that direction even before the all-star break or is it better to have that kind of hope and that promise of hey you know what there are some decent pieces here if you ignore the fact there's a couple guys that are going to be free agents for the Rockies namely Trevor Story, John Gray, C.J. Cron. But that's where it comes where both of those

routes took two different directions for the D-backs and Rockies. One went well, but that might be a bad thing and one went really bad for the D-backs, but maybe that's a good thing. It's crazy that we think losing in this world that we live in today is a good thing and we can be happy about it, but you can in a way, right? Yeah, it's just such a long season and I think it takes so long to get to that point, that that's the part that it is just, it's like beating a dead horse, really. It's so unnecessarily long. And when you're a mediocre to bad team, you have nothing to play for for all of those games.

You know, and I think that's part of it is like, you know, when at least your historical, historically bad like the debacks had been, for some reason people are still interested in it. They're not interested in it enough to go to the ballpark and watch them lose, but they're interested in it like to see how bad this team is, to see how many dubious records they set. I don't, I don't fault people for kind of hate watching the Diamondbacks at times for all of this bad stuff that's happened. It just seems so unbelievable. This team was not predicted to be nearly this bad. that's something that Jesse can definitely attest to as far as the preseason belief. Like we knew we weren't going to compete with some of the teams in National League West,

but we did not see historically bad on the horizon for this team. Patrick, I really wanted to like you, man. I thought we were going to be on the same page from the beginning. What a heel turn. What a heel turn. I know right away. Get him, Jesse. I can be a bit of a tweeter.

If it makes you feel any better, I know, and we may have to get to it, at some point that each of you have about, you know, more nicknames than George Herman Ruth. But I thought today, you know, Jesse Friedman, let's let's throw another one in there. We got Jesse Boy Genius Friedman. Yes, yes. And we've got Derek Boy cuteness. Oh, yeah. I like that one even more.

There you go. All right, Jesse. Educate the people. What has this been like, especially for Rockies fans who are pining for the other. is greener. If only we'd been the Diamondbacks, we'd be having a better time. What do you have to say to that? I don't know if Diamondbacks fans are having a great time right now. I mean, they're 50 and 107 for starters. But on the tank season stuff, I want to make my position clear on this. I have never said that it would be horrible if the Diamondbacks get the first

overall pick, right? If it happens, I'm not mad at it, right? Elijah Green seems pretty exciting. we've studied him a lot and, you know, love his game. He looks like a major leaguer at, you know, 17 years old or whatever he is right now. But the problem that I have is that I think there's a misunderstanding that tanking and baseball really works or is really worth doing at the end of the day. We talked about this a couple weeks ago on our show, but the last time the Diamondbacks had the number one overall draft pick, they took a guy named Danes B. Swanson, who is not a bad player by any. means, right? He's a solid everyday shortstop for the Braves, but he's far from a transcendent sort of player, right? And if you look at the guy who was taken immediately after him, it was Alex Breggman of the Houston Astros, who has turned out to be one of the best players, if not the

best player at his position. And your guys as pal Brendan Rogers came right after that, who I would probably also take over Danes B. Swanson. So I think if you just look at the game of baseball and you study draft picks from the past, I just don't think there's a whole lot of evidence to say that having the first overall pick is that much of an advantage to begin with, at least compared to other sports where I think a lot of times there is sort of that number one guy who really stands out. And maybe this year is an exception, right? Elijah Green seems like he really may be all that. And he's already drawing the Mike Trout comparisons, at least from Derek, and maybe a few other people. And, uh, and yeah, I mean, we'll, we'll see how this turns out. But I think,

I just don't think it's a necessity, right? I don't want the diamond backs to intentionally try to lose games in order to put themselves in that position. I don't think it's worth it. I don't think it's a good message for the team. And frankly, neither do they, right? The diamond backs, even though we're talking about tank season for fun, they at no point this season have actually tried to lose games, right? They're still, you know, playing their best players. They're still starting Ketel Marte every day. They're showing no signs of tanking whatsoever. and I don't have a problem with that at all. As a matter of fact, a month ago, I was going to say a month ago,

Tori Lavolo was yelling at players in the dugout still. So I don't think by any stretch of the imagination, the tanking is on purpose. I just think that there are certain byproducts of the tanking that I like, and it's not just necessarily the number one draft pick. I do like the fact that they've whittled away and found some really solid pieces for their bullpen when they couldn't find anybody to hold a game for an inning

without letting a run score. I've really become a big fan of Joe Mantiply and Noe Ramirez. And both of these guys are kind of guys that, you know, Ramirez was thrown away from the Angels. He was a DFA, I believe. And, you know, Mantipa wasn't having a great season at the end of the year. And I think right now he's on a 14-game scoreless streak. So it's nice to see these guys in, I guess,

no pressure situations kind of step up and become assets for this team that, you know, they might not have become had they not been given the opportunity. That's the best scenario, too, right? Because to truly tank, you need to be doing it for three, four, maybe even close to five years. And you're putting substandard product out on the field all the while trying to, you know, develop some players. And so it sounds like the Diamondbacks, as you said. And I didn't never got the sense they were trying to tank this year, especially because I had them ahead of the Rockies. I thought the Dinavaks were going to be in fourth place.

I thought their lineup had a lot of upside to it. Again, not better than the Giants, which they turned out to be a lot better than we all thought. But to have the little one-year tank where you just say, all right, well, the team's just not really good, but they're letting the young guys have those opportunities. Dalton Barso has definitely impressed whenever we've seen them here in Colorado. So it's kind of like the best case scenario. and whether they continue to do it going forward is almost the next conversation because really tanking is done best when you don't just have one number one or one top three pick.

It's when you have it for three, four years in a row. And then you're throwing a lot of darts at that dartboard and you're going to hit a bullseye at some point. Yeah, we talked about last night how many prospects the Diamondbacks have that are ready to go. And I think that's what's very encouraging if you're, you know, patient and you want to look at the bright side of the future of this team, in the next two seasons, we're going to see a lot of names come up that are in their top 10, you know, top prospects list. And, you know, if those, if those guys can develop into major league players as they've been projected to, this team could be very good in, in three seasons, you know, but it's going to take that building, in my opinion,

to get there. It's not going to be an immediate thing. It's going to be one of those things that they need to be sure that they have a strong core that's worth spending that additional money on free agents and such to supplement it and get them to a championship level. But right now they're still at that phase of developing who their core even is for the next two seasons or for if you want to say it, a planned playoff run or a competitive run. I hate how Robert Manfred has just said that every team needs to go through this. you know and i mean i know the diamondbacks never commit to an actual rebuild they really don't which is really scared of it it's same thing we yes same same over on this side of the you know

four corners which there's a part of me that appreciates it because i get into and i mean i think most of the points that that jesse made earlier about tanking on our show about you know the difficulty of actually executing that strategy in baseball and you know we can all point to the cubs and the Astros who've pulled it off. We did not to talk about the Mariners who've been rebuilding for two decades or the pirates or the ones who just keep trading away. They're great players every time they get them and then never win anything, right? And so there is a part of me that says it's professional sport. Shouldn't everyone be trying to win? Can't we pull everything back just for a second and be like, isn't it good? But I would agree with you. And I would say the inverse has

been true, Derek, for what you said about the Diamondbacks earlier for the Rockies. There have been years where they've kind of stumbled their way to mediocrity that have been very frustrating because it's been behind a whole bunch of veterans who you knew weren't going to be around for whatever the next competitive team was going to be. And there was a very little bit like CJ Crone was really the one version of that. Patrick mentioned, you know, Trevor's story, but he didn't have a great year. I mean, you look at the numbers. He was kind of an above. He had a good year, but not for Trevor's story. But even by then, he had like a 100 OPS plus, you know, he's basically a league average hitter.

And so the reason why they, and I wrote about this about a week ago, the reason why the Rockies ended up going on this run was because some of these young guys emerged and some of these guys. And you talked about like people emerging in the bullpen you weren't expecting. We had a whole slew of that. They stopped blowing games because guys like Lucas Gilrath and Robert Stevenson and Jordan Sheffield, who was a Rule 5 get out of the Dodgers system, you know, stuff like. that. So it was like really interesting to see that they kind of they stumbled into competency, but out of at least to some degree in my mind figuring out who that core is and the big two pieces of that were Brennan Rogers, as you guys talked about earlier, having a big out. And Elias Dia, so I think he's a really nice catcher who needs to get more attention around the league when you've

got a guy that's got 20 home run power. The best by far thrown out base runners percentage in the league, He's got a ridiculous arm. He started backpicking guys for fun in the second half of the season successfully better than I've seen anyone do it in a while. It was like, what? At the major league level, so that those guys became these kind of big pieces. And you go, okay, that's something. Now, the Rockies have a million moving pieces if they want to try to pull off the magic trick. They're going to try to pull off this off season.

But when those guys do that, you go, okay, like you were talking about earlier, at least there's something to root for. We had a lot more fans coming to us and saying, there's something I can root for there. There's a guy I can latch on to and be a fan. I saw a lot more Brennan Rogers jerseys at the end of the season than we did at the beginning. Yeah, I agree. And I think that's one thing that we want to see more out of the Diamondbacks. I think we've, I think Lovolo has been very frustrated with that. And he's voiced it through the media, I think trying to get through to the players so that they would hear him.

But he was talking about, you know, people not stepping up to those opportunities. I think this team had so many injuries and was so, just it was so catastrophically bad as far as lineups were concerned and how many lineups he had to create he used 153 different lineups this season so if that just really 153 different lineups how many I mean they've played 159 games

he has almost used the exact same amount of lineups as there is games in the season right I mean and that counts obviously swapping someone from one spot to another, which we know he never sticks with that. One of our criticisms about Lovolo as a manager has been that baseball is a game of guys kind of getting in a rhythm. So if they never know where they're going to hit in the lineup or even in some cases where they're going to play on the field, that doesn't help them at the plate.

And it doesn't help for them to be good at anything really that they're doing. I just think baseball players are creatures of habit. But Lovolo was frustrated himself because he was looking for guys. to step up to this, you know, to this opportunity. And he felt more like the young guys coming up were kind of, you know, wide-eyed deer's caught in traffic more than, you know, guys hungry for an opportunity and looking to show what they could do at times. I think it took a while, but some of those guys really started to emerge.

You mentioned Dalton Bar Show, and he's just a guy that I love because of his his intensity and his ability to play the game. Like he wants to win. every time he's out there. Josh Rojas is the same thing. I've seen him straight up just start fights this season because he just wanted to get in the opposing pitchers, you know, head and stuff, right? But at the end of the day, you got to appreciate that when he plays for your team.

You got to appreciate guys that even in a, you know, disastrous season like this, they still want to go out there and stir up crap with the opposing pitcher so that they can try to generate some runners on base and win the game. I appreciate the hell out of that. Josh Roaz is great for that. Was he taking like in the 20-something round by Houston? Yeah. And he was...

He came out of a small school. He was a throw-in in the Grinky deal. Well, he wasn't a throwing. Actually, he was the piece that held up the deal. And when the Astros found out that he was the one holding up the deal, apparently the reaction was like, what, give him, give them to them. Wow. All that's holding up the Granky deal is this Josh Rojas guy.

Surprisingly enough of all the guys in that trade, he's the only one. playing consistent time right now at a major league level. Oh, man, we could do a whole, that's a, that's a podcast of the future. The recent history of Diamondbacks and Rockies trades of star players. How are they now? Where are everyone? Yeah. Jesse just wrote a tremendous article about the Goldschmidt trade.

I saw. He got a little blasted for it, but I don't think people like actually read it to see, especially his, you know, the details about, you know, that Goldschmidt only had one deal, year left on his deal and just everything that we got out of that that's still contributing to the team to this day. Plus, I mean, this is a team that's trying their best not to spend money. Understandably so if you're at the ballpark during a Wednesday, right? I mean, we're talking about 6,000 people at a stadium that fits 40,000 and 5,000 of those people are typically opposing fans. It's a rough go at home at Chase Field, and it's a rough go for this team financially if they don't

have, you know, people coming out to support them. I will say they haven't done as many promotions and stuff for like cheap tickets and things as they've done in the past. I just think right now this financial uncertainty doesn't help them as far as making the team better or even being concerned at this point about, you know, being competitive. Well, if you want to put a dent in your financial uncertainty, you should hop on the the Draft King's Sportsbook app. I'll tell you that much right now.

Get on there, make some bets, earn a little cash, watching sports, have some fun. I always find that just throwing a few small dollar bets on guy to hit a home run, over under on some strikeouts, maybe. Sometimes on runs in the game, I do not bet on who's going to win or lose. It's baseball. You've seen it before. Don't do that. But bet on the other things, you can usually tell.

In fact, even on Draft King's Sportsbook Act, they'll let you do things like at bat to at bat betting. So if you're one of those people and the odds are usually really, really great, they pay out huge. So if you're one of those people, and I've gotten on these heat, before. Like if you know when a certain player is going to hit a home run, you always feel like, oh, so-and-so's hot today. I feel it coming. You know, maybe he had a hard line drive out in his first at bat. Second at bat, you know, he's got this pitcher's number. You know, I'm only like five bucks down for this dude to hit a home run right now. It's going to pay out huge for you. Love those kinds of bets. Obviously football going on now. You can bet on that too, if you want.

Always enjoy a little NFL betting. Download the top rate of Drafking sportsbook app now. use promo code DNVR to save $150 in free bets instantly when you place $1 bet on any football code. That's football code. No, football game. They play games. We got a promo code. It's DNVR. You get $150 in free bets instantly this week at Drafking's Sportsbook. An official sports betting partner of the NFL must be 21 or older. Colorado only, new customers only. Restrictions apply. See drafkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And if you have a gambling problem, call 100-2-2-4-7-0. zero. All these bets are legit, too, on draft kings.

And they're so fair. They're great odds, too. The one thing that I'm glad that draft kings doesn't have is that guy that tries to rip you off. That's your friend and give you those really bad bets. Like, I have a couple of those. And they said, all right, the over, under on starting pitchers for the diamondbacks this weekend with the first name, Umberto.

He said half. And I was like, well, there's probably, I'm going to take the under. There's like none. Turns out there's going to be two Umberto's starting this weekend. Jeffings doesn't do that too. Always take the over. Take the over on Humberto's every time. I learned something.

This is why I subscribe to the P.HNX, DeBex podcast. I'll tell you, I started betting on Diamondbacks games late in the game because they have the in-game betting where I can add on a bet while it's still progressing. And I just know, I know they're not going to score any more runs. So they'll be down by five. and I'm just like, yeah, no, they're not going to, not even won. That's it. Yeah, I'll take the five, I'll take the five run line.

And I've won multiple times. It's kind of incredible. I will say that this team, the one thing about them, they do tend to phone it in, especially offensively when it gets late in the game, and bigger losses. And I don't even know if it's phoning it in as much as it might be just trying too hard. They're just bad.

They're just trying to hard. I don't think they're not trying to hard. Derek. I think they're just not good at hitting the ball. I think that's pretty much it right there. That's Jesse Friedman, Diamondbacks. His name is Jesse Friedman. I want to cut to the chase here real quick with you guys. We mentioned Trevor's story earlier. I am still very confused, to be honest, why he is still on the Rockies. And I think in some ways he might even be confused why he's still on the Rockies. He was, yeah. Can you guys like shine some light here for me?

I have been dumbfounded ever since that happened. You know, he's playing his final games at Coors Field, which I guess is a cool moment for him right now, rather than it being abruptly stopped by a trade at some point. But why did the Rockies decide to keep him at the deadline when he's about to be a free agent? Yeah, well, the, this is like, this is right in my wheelhouse, right? So the, at least what they came out and said, And I actually think this had some legitimacy to it was that the offers they get, you know, they were getting at the trade deadline really weren't come.

They weren't that great. They thought they were going to do better with the compensatory pick that they'll get when he turns down. Sure. You know, the qualifying offer. I do think there was a small thought in their mind. And I think this is actually grown, despite what we've seen in the last couple of days in probability that he might have to accept the qualifying offer. that with this crazy weird off season that's coming up with there being like six perennial all-star short stops on the creating market.

Crazy. Yeah. The new CBA coming up. And the fact that he didn't have a good year. And there are very legitimate questions about his elbow. And that's something that I don't think has gotten out a lot nationally. But really, and we saw especially in the last month and a half here, he just wasn't throwing the ball hard.

Even when there were times like, hey, man. there were a couple of infield hits on story not as a shortstop unleashing the baseball. And we've seen him in the past. He's got a great army just didn't this year. So the questions about his health, all of those things. Of course, we don't know for sure what kinds of offers were coming in. But, you know, the compensatory draft pick is a real thing. And it's something the Rockies have done very well with in the past.

It certainly, you know, helps or hurts the situation depending on your perspective, that the guy's the interim GM right now is run the scouting department for years and years and years. And I think he believes if he was going to continue to be the GM, you know, I can get value here. I always have. They've gotten a lot of value in years past out of that compensatory round and later. Even, you know, the guys were talking, Trevor Story himself, Nolan Aronado, Charlie Blackman. None of those guys were first round picks, right? So it's definitely a tough sell.

it's easier to sell people on, hey, you got this prospect back. You know, I think a lot about what the Mets did and the Pete Crowe Armstrong for Javier Baez. And I always thought that was maybe the best the Rockies could possibly have done. And Javier Baez was having a much better season. And I look at what is the difference between Pete Crow Armstrong and a compensatory pick? To me, not that much. But I get white people were irid about it. if he ends up signing that qualifying offer,

then it changed the whole thing. And I don't. I really don't. But it's like for all the reasons that laid out, you never know. So that they're, what they knew they were getting was that draft pick. That was,

that's their reasoning to answer your question. Why did they do this? That's why. Are Rockies fans like, I assume they're, yeah, absolutely livid. Yeah.

Yeah, the, Rockies fans are in a tough spot, you know, because, you know, with the not trading Trevor story, you know, I think the front office was also thinking, well, you know, he goes up to play, you know, the final 25, 30 home games that remain

the rest of the season. That's going to do well to, you know, kind of pad our wallet and whatnot because people are going to more, are going to be more inclined to go to the ballpark to see him and Charlie Blackman rather than just Charlie Blackman. You know, Derek, you talked about 6,000 people going to a weekday game. Yeah, it was the final game of the season, a final home game of the season on Wednesday. It was going to rain and there was a two-hour delay and not many people stuck around. But the paid attendance was 21,000

to see Rockies against the worst team in the National League the second half in the Washington Nationals. There was 20,000 on Monday night, 21,000 on Tuesday night to see Carl Freeland. Okay, great. It doesn't necessarily move the needle too much. And former DBAX starter Patrick Corbyn. I think it's kind of a couple of those things together in that.

And Rocky's fans are just kind of in a tough spot because they are a little frustrated with ownership. And, you know, the way that you, I guess, vote in a sense for, you know, your enjoyment factor or you show your displeasure with the front office is to not buy tickets, right, and to not buy merchandise. But yet, you know, they want to support their fans. Yeah, they want to support their team. And they're kind of stuck. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So it's a tough spot. It's really tough.

Are we all big Cardinals fans come to playoffs? Is that what's happening here? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Why not move for those guys to go and get the thing, right? Yeah. Beat the Dodgers. Plus, yeah, it starts with that.

Like, everyone wants the Dodgers, who, by the way, at the best roster on paper, I think that I've ever seen in my adult life. It's insane. It's insane. And they're going to their whole game is going to come down to, or our whole season is going to come down to one game against the hottest team in baseball. Yeah. And I can't wait for that game. I cannot wait for that game.

We can, oh, is there any way for us to. You know it's going to be the Giants now. Fly you guys down to the bar? Yeah, let's go. I'll come out. Jesse, let's go. Let's do it. I'm down.

Jesse, Jesse's the one with a day job. We got to clear that with the day job first. But no, I think that that's over under one and a half homers for Goldie and Nato. Can they get? Can the wild card game? Yeah. Who. I have a problem with that because I'll say, I'll say under.

I'll say under. I'd say Aaronado homers. I'll just say that because Goldschmidt and what I've seen historically covering this team, Goldschmidt always was doing well when there wasn't a lot of pressure on him. I think that's the reason why playing for St. Louis works. so well for him because he doesn't have to be the guy there the way he was here. You know, people were making campaign posters and stuff for him to be president and stuff here, you know?

Like, so it was a different level of fandom. He was definitely by far the face of the team. He was the fan favorite. He was everything. He was my daughter's favorite. Like one of her first, one of her first words was Goldschmidt. But like they had, they have a different team over there. They have a different way of appreciating baseball.

I think he's very much a traditional guy. I remember covering him for years and just for a while thinking he was a terrible interview and then realizing that he's not. He's just, he means what he says. So when you come at him with all of these analytics and such, you're like, you were three for four today. You know, you're slugging 546 over your last, you know, 15. You hit 12 homers.

You know, your OPS is crazy. Your war is at 5.0. What do you think about all this? What's going on? for you at the plate that's working so well. And he'll just be like, I'm just trying to hit the ball hard. Every time. You're like, yeah, no, no, I get that.

But like, okay, like, and you're first at bat tonight when you went out there and you doubled, like, what were you looking for from the pitcher? Like, what was the pitch you were looking for? He's all, I wasn't really looking for a pitch. I was just trying to swing the bat and, you know, just kind of hit the ball hard. You know, and you're like, after a while, you start realizing, he really means it. Like, this is it. That is his approach.

That is his approach at the plate. Stop complicating. things. Don't tell me what my numbers are at. Don't tell me what accolades I have this season. He like, he actively at times had said that to us. Like, I don't really want to know my numbers and stuff. Charlie Blackman's like that.

Charlie doesn't want to hear his numbers. Don't. He was it a couple of, it was in 2019, Charlie Blackman won the player the month. He hit like 415 or something for the month. He had a ridiculous month. And he didn't want to do the interview

with the press because it had been announced. your player of the month. Everyone wants to talk to you about winning player the month. And he was like, do I have to? Because I don't want to acknowledge this is happening. I just want to go back. I want to stay in the rhythm and I'm going to go back out and hit. I want to do any of this stuff. If I start answering questions about why I'm doing well, I'm not going to keep doing well. He like legitimately thought that. I understand it. It's why in baseball, they don't go talk to a guy that's in the middle of a no hitter, right? Yet when we had our guy hit, you know, in his no hit,

bid, the pitching coach, our normal pitching coach, Herges was gone, and he was out due to COVID protocol, and Mike Feders was the pitching coach for the night. And Fedders broke every single one of those rules about that. He sat next to him. He had his arm around him. He was joking with him and punching him and stuff. But he said like the thing that Gilbert said, exactly.

He said like he was scary calm going out there in the ninth, knowing in his head that he was, that this was it. this was a no hitter. He had to go out there this inning and get three outs and it was going to be a no hitter. And he said like, he thought about that, even walking out there. And his next thought was really weird that I'm so calm. Like it's, you know, but you got to say like when you are in a position to make history like that, I don't know if you want to necessarily change what you know from your activity in the bullpen on a normal night or in a in the dugout. Right. If you're used to talking to people and joking around, it might make you a thousand times more nervous if all of a sudden everybody's staying away from you

and letting you have your own like 10 foot barrier on the end of the bench and not you know speaking to you or anything. Yeah, right? You know, like especially if you're a personable guy. So I don't know how much that helped him, but I personally have speculated and attributed a lot of the success to Mike Federer just being himself. I've seen that guy in the clubhouse. He's hilarious. He's hilarious. He's like, by far he's like a lot of the beat writers, favorite guys to go.

talk to and joke with and stuff. He's just a great guy. And I can imagine, I can only imagine what they were talking about on the bench because he didn't tell us. He just did say it was not baseball. I was going to say no way it was baseball. It had to have been comic books, movies, yep, music. Hey, did you watch Breaking Bad? I think, I think, I, you know, that kind of stuff. I feel like you, I feel like you guys are preferring Mike Feders because he was a Diamondbacks reliever over Matt Herges, who was a Rocky's reliever. Yeah, what is this? You know you're biased.

You have the bias already, so let's just put it out there in the open. We're not big Matt Hurges fans around here. I got to be honest. I mean, I don't know much about his career with the Rocky, so I don't want to knock him as a player. But in terms of his tenure as a pitching coach, I mean, he took over after the 2019 season. And very little has gone right for the Diamondbacks pitching staff since the end of the 2019 season and where we are right now.

It's pretty much been a total disaster. If you do need extra reason to hate him, he was sneakily good for that 2007 Rockies team that ended up. No, he wasn't like the close. He was like the sixth, seventh inning guy. I don't know if he was on the Rockies in 2007. In 2007, yeah. He's also one of the very few players I can ever recall for the Rockies,

having ever gotten dinged on the PED stuff right after the, the natural report and stuff coming back on all that. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, he got... He got dinged on that. But, yeah, he was a part of that 07 team and kind of like one of those guys every team needs,

and you never remember them, except those of us that do the hardcore. When you go to the World Series, you remember them. Yeah. It's funny how you said Matt Hurges hasn't necessarily worked out for the Diamondbacks.

He's a Rockies guy. Same is true in some ways this year a little bit better at times. Dave Magidon, former Diamondback sitting coach, now with the Rockies. He's been aboard in 2019. Me, no, not so great guys, not making the development you would have liked for them to have made.

And now, believe it or not, and it is hard to believe, especially if you just look at raw ERA, but the strongest element and the strongest aspect of the Rockies right now is their starting rotation and not their offense, as crazy as it may seem. And so, you know, Dave Maginan from Matt Hurgis, we're listening. We might make that trade. All right. All right. I know we take that trade.

heartburn. I don't want to tell you guys that, but, you know, it is what it is. You throw in a Harardo Perdomo and we'll call it. No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. We are just now. Don't let Perdomo get in the way of doing this deal, right? I thought you learned something from the Rojas situation. I did. I did. And I learned not to cave is what I learned, because that last player might be the one that ends up being very good. That's what I learned from that situation. I also think that, you know, there's just, there's weird. Yeah, we'll get you bumgarner.

But you have to take his contract with it. Yeah, right. There's no cash consideration in this. He doesn't have very good many good memories here in Colorado. This is where he was riding his ATV. ATV. Yeah. Stubbed his toe.

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right. What are we looking forward to here, fellows in the series coming up? What do we need to know? How many Umbartos do we need to watch out for? Are there any bullpen? I think these games should all end in the seventh inning and then they should have foot races to just decide the winner from that point on. I don't know. Something interesting. I think that there's still a lot of youngsters to watch. I think the Diamondbacks are going to probably play as many of those guys. that they can get playing time for. And that's exciting for us. It's been something that we've tried to positively look at, you know, and focus on for the future.

I think there is a lot, just like with the Rockies. I think there's a lot to focus on with the young players coming up. We've seen with the Padres, you can't necessarily go out and spend the money and buy the team and have it work out. There's too many factors that go into it. But obviously the biggest factor is, you know, money money doesn't buy good players that's really what it comes down to yeah does it doesn't just automatically up it helps it helps but i think you know and the podres did have what we all are looking

for which was that solid core that they felt like they just needed to add a couple of big you know free agent pieces too and it was going to put them over the hump but like a lot of teams in this league injuries and other things you know crept up on them and and made that much more difficult is sam Hilliard, the guy? Is he the one? It's been fun, man. You were talking about, I mean, this is the guy. I mean, there's plenty of reason to believe no. Look, we're talking about a 15th round pick who strikes out way too much and, you know, never really had pedigree as a prospect. At the same time, he's got a couple of these sample sizes at the big league level where, like, the power's real. The tools are real. There's, there's no debating the athleticism. He's a legit six foot five.

guy with elite running and elite power and an elite throwing on. Yeah. But it's that same. Damn baseball, it always comes back to whether or not you can make enough contact with major league pitching, doesn't it? It always seems to that same friggin thing. And we just don't know. I hope so, because there's not a better dude to root for. I don't know if you know his whole story with, you know, his father just recently passed away with ALS. It was a long battle. We'd You know, lots of stuff going on here in the community. Been out to a bunch of games. They were doing, they do a ton of stuff with charity.

Check out Team Hilliard. If anyone out there in the PHNX audience has, you know, been affected by ALS, get involved with them. He, of course, hit a home big monster game-changing home run in his first game back after his father passed away. He's been really hot in the second half. You don't know, but boy, man, when he hits him, Jesse, they stay hit. and you know, he's not a, you like to believe he's a young guy because he just arrived and he's got all the youthful energy

and athletics, somebody's 28 now or something like that. They probably have a lot of these guys. But I hope so. I think of their dudes you invite back just to see, he's at the top of the list. Like they've got some outfielers where it's like they can move around, but if there's someone you keep around, just in case it is real, it's got to be him.

And another name to keep an eye. out for is Connor Joe. Similar situation with Hillier. He's 29. He's a little older, but season kind of came to an abrupt end. They're with a hamstring injury. But former first round pick where he does have the pedigree, can maybe play a little third base, probably not,

but first base and corner outfield. And he's a guy that is going to get more of a leash, I think, than someone like Hillier, but could also, you know, dazzle and be a real good contributing player to the Rockies next season. The thing I look for for teams having the seasons that both of these teams are having is really just those kind of stories, right? That's all you can really focus on. You can look at the good moments.

I've said it before, but only one team is going to win the World Series when all of this comes to an end. And every other team is going to have to hang their hat on the small victories, big victories, whatever they saw. Whoever wins that wild card game, you know, the loser is going to walk away devastated, no matter who it is, right? Same thing with a lot of the teams that go to the playoffs. But the Diamondbacks and the Rockies have both had those moments, you know, even if it is Trevor Story sticking around and getting to play out, you know, the rest of the season with the tip of the cap and the kind of curtain call that he did for the team is a, is special considering how much he's meant to the fans. The Diamondbacks have had these moments, you know, if as much as anybody

wants to disagree with Jesse and I, there was two no-hitters thrown this season. Madison Bumgarder did play a full game. and he threw a no-hitter for the entire game. Whatever you want to call it after that is on you. That's you. That's a new problem. But they hit. We can agree on that.

He did not. It's not his fault that they did not play a full nine innings. They're going to overchange that. In years to come, I truly believe they will return something like that. But even in this awful season, two of the Diamondbacks four no-hitters in 23 years happened this season. So it's like there's still very special moments. There's still things that you have to look back on and say, yeah, the record sucks, man.

This team was bad at times. But man, there was still some fun, you know, moments. I told Jesse just last week, Saturday night at the ballpark was just crazy for me. It was just a wild night at the ballpark and it was a lot of fun. It reminded me how much fun baseball can be when the crowd is big. The game kind of means something. You know, there was something on the line. The Dodgers need to win that game.

and the Diamondbacks needed to do everything they could to spoil it for them. So it felt like for a brief moment, there was once again, you know, something that mattered on the line in a baseball game at Chase Field. I'm really excited that kids all around the Phoenix area can wear a baseball jersey to school that says beer on it and not be suspended. I mean, that's really what's fun, you know? My only issue? Why is he 28?

Isn't he supposed to be 30? Beer 30. You're 30. Well, that's coming. That's going to be a whole year that we get to celebrate the entire time. So that's amazing. I feel like it's really fitting that Trevor's story is potentially about to finish his Rocky's career at Chase Field.

Because I think he might have made his debut at Chase Field. That is correct. And the man rakes at Chase's field. Two home runs off of Zach Rankie. That's right. The one also off of Granky? He had two home runs in his debut and the first one was definitely off of Granky. I was there that day.

Oh, man. I had some fear of Trevor's story in me from his very first day in the majors. And it's not kind of funny he's going to wind up there this weekend. That is. Yeah. Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that symmetry. That's amazing. With the Cardinals playing as well as they've been, you got Aronado and Goldschman on the corners, up the middle.

Who do the Diamondbacks trade could tell Marche to? Because that's who story is going to sign with. Now you're going to have those two guys. We don't start, Patrick. hanging on to him, the Escobar train? Feelings? It kind of is what it is. It was his last year.

They got a guy who's in AAA right now, Cooper Hummel, who's like a catcher outfielder guy. He's kind of played in a lot of different spots. He's posted some really good numbers in the minors. I wondered if we might see him down the stretch here. It looks like that won't happen. but frankly, I mean, they weren't going to get much for Eduardo Escobar.

I mean, you know, he's 33. So it just kind of is what it is. It's, you know, it's just kind of a, yeah. And something I was told by an unnamed source that I have to keep unnamed on Saturday was, and this is no secret, but that there's strong feelings on both sides that Escobar wants to come back and that the debacks want him back. So with him being a free agent after this season, who knows? I don't know if necessarily, you know, what kind of offers he's going to get.

And if he's going to warrant bigger money than the Diamondbacks are willing to, you know, pay him. I'm pretty sure at his age and at this time, it's probably going to be his final contract. So I wouldn't be surprised to see some team maybe make a bigger offer than the debacks are willing to make. It just all comes down to how much he really loved playing here. And he said multiple times this has been like his favorite place to play. So we'll see what happens with that. That's a win if you can trade a guy away, get a prospect. And then we sign them.

It doesn't always happen, but that's always good. That's an NBA thing for sure. By the way, Story's first two home runs were off Zank Granky, yes. Yeah. Also, and while we're just throwing stuff out there, my grandmother owns a Cooper Hummel, so she loved those little chachis. Oh, wow.

Good stuff. All right. Any final further questions for us, from us, to us, of us. We're all, there's too many podcast hosts in the room. I know, right? I will say this. I love how loyal Rockies fans have been. And this is no knock to Diamondbacks fans because I understand what's going on.

And I understand especially during the summer with the excitement that both cities had with the NBA. I understand how everybody kind of abandoned ship during the summer to go over to the Phoenix Suns. especially with the Diamondbacks as bad as they've been. But I have really been kind of in awe of the crowds you guys continue to pool at Rocky's games, despite the fact that this team, much like the Diamondbacks, has been out of any kind of hunt for so long. Yeah, I did a big emotional speech on it last night after the close out, you know, at home. And I get emotional about it, too, because a lot of times people try to turn it into a negative thing

about Rocky's fans showing out and you get that like, this is the reason why the team never changes and why they won't get better is because you guys weird position to take. That's so odd. Yeah. I know. Because when you're in a city like Phoenix, right, we have a lot of transplant fans. It's a city that everybody's moved here from and everybody had a team they loved before they moved here. So they turned into local fans a lot of times when the local team does well. But outside of that, they're still really rooting for whatever city they originally came from. The difference here is, that the tide is starting to turn with all the other teams, the same way it did with the Sons.

The Sons, even when they were bad, still had this real loyal fan base that still came out to games. They still talked about the team on Twitter, even if they were trashing them, and they were still actively engaged in the team. I think what's happening is we're finally starting to get Diamondbacks fans that are in their 20s that have been nothing but Diamondbacks fans their whole lives. And the younger fans really are the ones that are going to have to build this kind of fan base back up. I've talked about it on our show several times because I read this stupid book that I hate. It's so poorly worded, but it's got such good information about the Diamondbacks. And I've been talking about how Jerry Colangelo, who managed, you know, a lot of sports teams,

owned a lot of sports teams and was specifically a big part of the sports scene here in the Valley, knew that after the first season, when the Arizona Diamondbacks lost over 6,000 season ticket holders because of how bad they were that first season, that this city wasn't going to give them like a grace period for this team to become good. They needed to change gears drastically and win so that they could attract fans and hopefully cement those fans as like lifelong fans right away with the team being good, making a good playoff run,

or even winning a championship like they eventually did in 2001. It's just, it's crazy to me to think that the team moves so fast in that direction for success, not just because of success, not because they just wanted to win and they wanted to be the fastest expansion franchise to ever win in a championship, they wanted to do it because their fans were already leaving in droves after one season. So this entire time, this franchise has always been about trying to retain their fan base

and attract them and keep them and have them stick around and watch baseball. They had a very fairy tale image of it in the beginning that it was going to be like, families just coming to the ballpark to like hang out and eat and spend time together. It's like, no, no, we want to watch a champ. We want, what? No, win. We want win. We want, win, baby, win. That's what we want. You need more breweries and skiing. I think that's what Phoenix needs. Correct. And you might be the next Denver. Just throwing that out there. Hey, we'll see what happens. We got, we got good, we got good weather in two different places here. We just, you're never going to get skiing anywhere close to Chase Field. We need more breweries close

to Chase Field. It's the ball and those. You've got too many Haboos. Too many Haboos is in there. And it's funny because we, we, we, we're just going to We do, you know, you talk about ownership or whatever, and that's one of those things people say, ah, Dick Monfer, he's a better real estate guy than he has a baseball guy. It's 100% true. It's 100% true. But it's also a big part of this equation. You look at the area around the ballpark.

Lodo's awesome. There's a million great bars and restaurants and everything's hip happening. We've heard about it. Hang out. And I've covered a few games down at Chase. And I've got to be honest with you guys, it's one of my least favorite places to see a baseball game. It's located in a weird spot. There's nothing around.

The parking's great because there's nothing around there. Yeah. But even the ballpark itself is really strange. And so I get why people are like, that's not a place where you go and hang out. It feels like a baseball game taking place in the middle of a mall. Yeah. It's kind of,

I call it like an airport hanger. Yeah. And it's an airplane hanger that has a swimming pool in it. That's basically what it is. And a baseball. It's like a, it's like a billionaire just bought an airplane hanger. It's like,

yeah, this is where I keep my baseball field in one of my pools. right it's it's odd and like downtown Phoenix has grown so much like when people say oh I I downtown's a ghost town now I'm like downtown was a ghost town when I was a kid that was a real ghost town now the problem is that like chase field is just just too far away from the stuff that's happening yeah too much of a separation and people don't want to walk through a dark on like you know neighborhood that doesn't have a lot going on to get to the fun stuff on the other side if I'm going to get in my car and leave the ballpark area, I'm probably just going to leave. I'm not going to drive a

block to where the cool bars are and stuff and then go hang out down there on Roosevelt or one of those other areas. Downtown Phoenix has really changed and become a great place. I just know that, unfortunately, just like the Diamondbacks, there's not that support for it. I'll give you a, for instance, they changed the hours on the Taco Bell Cantina to no longer be open on the weekends and to close at 3 o'clock. This is the only Taco Bell in the entire city and one of very few in the entire United States that sells alcohol.

And they close at 3 p.m. on weekdays and are no longer opened on the weekends. I don't know where the hell to even start with that. But it just goes to show how they couldn't even pay for workers to be in that building when they weren't having people come there on a regular enough basis to pay their wages and warrant the business being open. Unfortunately, it happens to a lot of businesses around the downtown area that they cater only

to the daytime lunch crowd that's there working and not anybody else. You guys need an illegal piece. I got to throw that out there. What did you say? You need it in illegal peats. It's a local burrito place that, again, also is like a canteen. great nachos. Great game.

Yeah. It's fantastic. All around the Rocky Mountain region here. We need a PHNX bar is what we need down here. Straight up. Right across the street. Yep. I'm getting jealous seeing you guys record all your episodes and that nifty bar you guys got up there.

We love it. And I submit that for the remainder of this relationship that we have going, when we collaborate like this between the D-Backs and Rockies, it should be called the Four Corners podcast. Oh, my God. That's it or what? It's done. I'll contact the graphics guys and have them write something up immediately. So last thing that we can do before we wrap this up and move on,

and this is the most important question of the entire proceeding here. And I got to start with Jesse because I know it's going to put you absolutely on your heels. We got to know who your favorite professional wrestler of all time is. I can't believe we're 54 minutes with Patrick. Derek and I on this show. I've never watched. I've never watched wrestling a day in my life. What is your like,

like your Rorschach impression? Like what has made its way to your sphere from that world? Anything like names that you know or anything? I know I've heard of Manny Pachiao. Nope. Wow. You've heard of a non-wrestler. Okay.

All right. This is a great stuff. You asked for it, Drew. You asked for it. It's fantastic. I love you for Eric. Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Jesse. Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

Sure, sure. I've heard of Dwayne the Rock Johnson. You've heard of Hulk Hogan. You've heard of Hulk Hogan. I've heard of that, yes. He's heard of that. That's a good way to reference him. Former Cincinnati Reds minor league catcher Randy Pafo,

better known as Randy Macho Man Savage. Oh, yeah. Snap into a slim gym. nothing means Jesse, nope, no more. We're talking about all the way to the top. I'm justifiably in a position I'd rather not be in,

but the creme will rise to the top. Jesse, yeah. No, nothing. Nothing. Oh, my God. I'm done doing this podcast with you. Patrick, I'm joining you guys on the Colorado Rock. Yeah, it's only a matter of time.

I bid you a do, sir. I'll give, obviously, my favorite wrestler of all time. It's a toss-up. It's Montreman, Randy Savage. he's the one that made me love wrestling and stone cold steve austin he's the one that brought me back to it both of those guys are incredible talents i think both of them uh they're just ridiculous stories every story i've heard about them uh they're so authentically weird and themselves

as wrestlers and as regular people uh but like i i appreciate now austin as a as an interviewer like like like steve austin has had some of a different phase his podcast is great the show on USA where he just takes people around to shoot stuff and like drive in like you know monster trucks and then they talk about their feelings and their dad while they're in there it's like what is this show even i love it you know so i i appreciate a lot of that and by the way guys i need to get you down here to a pro wrestling show because i am the assistant commissioner uh for in a wrestling organization and i think everybody needs to come see that in real life at some point my Fiance is a photographer who does all of the indie shows around here.

So you're a photographer for the show. Also, I'll make her work. We'll go back to watch the show. Family. She'll be working. Patrick and I love a great time. Yes. I don't know.

I can dust off my old referee shirt. Yes. Oh my God. It can be the rebirth of Sparky G. I mean, I can bring it back. Let's go. There's so many things I don't know about you guys. A heel manager, because I can definitely do that thing where everyone wants to

get me in the face and then I hide behind a real, like, athlete. Correct. That's my specialty. That's your, that's your move. I am the consummate little brother, just antagonizing everybody and running and getting mom when they want to beat me up. So that's what I love it. I love it.

We got to kid it. That'll be on the top of the list of things we have to do together is get out to a show and do all that. So, and Jesse, you should come. You guys have to educate me. Apparently. I'm severely lacking in knowledge here. This is great.

We'll smart you up. We'll smart you up. We'll start you up. We'll teach you the biz. The David Derek smartens me up. Oh, man. That sounds like an article. That was a headline right there.

The day is it smarten me up. Get him out to the show. Man, this was a lot of fun. We got to make this a semi-regular habit. Got to get together throughout the off-season for sure. Do some classic. and backs and Rocky stuff. That's one of the things I love so much about baseball is, you know, people ask me,

I think probably the question I get the most, actually, since taking on this job, as people go, so you do Rockies all the time? Yeah, I cover the Rockies. And you know, I cover the Rockies. What do you do in the off season? I believe I've answered your question. C-S-R-A. Yeah.

And so that's what we're going to be doing. And baseball history gives us such a wealth to go. even these teams that have only existed for, you know, are we at 30 years now? Yeah. So, wow, what a right. It's been. It's going to be a whole lot of fun getting together with you guys,

watching baseball, talking baseball, doing the thing in the offseason. Make sure you're following everybody on social media. Throw out everyone's ads. I don't know, because I assume just names. I'm at Kapp underscore Kaveman with a kid. I'm at Jesse N. Friedman. At Patrick D. Lyons.

I'm at Drew Kriesman. And of course, you've got to follow both at the NVR underscore Rockies and at PHNX underscore Diamondbacks. Follow all the PHNX accounts. I know a lot of you probably listen to this over on the DNVR side. Follow them what they're doing down there. It's a great, great opportunity for this whole family, really, growing and having people around, having resource and conversations like this so we can have a much more in-depth understanding of the two teams that are playing each other over the next couple of days.

And so follow everyone. on social media, subscribe to both sites, all the sites, help out everyone's sponsors because when you do that, it makes us so that we can keep doing this. That's essentially how it works. You help out our sponsors. We get to keep coming and hanging out with all of you and talking support. So for Derek, Jesse, and Patrick, I've been Drew Kriesman.

You all have been absolutely fantastic. And until next time, we will see you at the ballpark.