PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Geraldo Perdomo STANDS UP For Ketel Marte Amid Trade Rumors, Diamondbacks Fall to Rockies

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterThe Arizona Diamondbacks dropped three of four to the Rockies in Colorado — and somehow, that’s not even the biggest storyline of the week. We’ve got the latest on trade rumors surrounding Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo stepping up to defend his All-Star teammate, and why this drama might be more about Marte approaching 10-and-5 rights in 2026 than his recent absences. Plus, we preview the upcoming series with the Cleveland Guardians and dive into your Mailbag Monday questions.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, we are live from our brand new headquarters right here in downtown Phoenix. We are talking about the Arizona Diamondbacks, and we are defending Cattell Marte. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. Live from Studio K, it's the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast right here in beautiful downtown Phoenix, Arizona. That's the best Johnny Venerable you're going to get out of me, but we are in our new digs, and we are pleased to have you join us. Of course, we wish it was under better circumstances, but welcome into the P. HNX Diamondback show. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of the

HNX. We got our guy, Damon Dog, on the ones and twos today behind the Mac, and we are here to discuss the Arizona Diamondbacks, unfortunately losing a four-game series to the Colorado Rockies. And of course, this is not how we wanted Monday to go. We were delusional last week. We should be talking about the Diamondbacks being entirely too close in the wildcard race right now. Instead, we're talking about the Diamondbacks losing three out of four to the Colorado Rockies. And also trading Cattel Marte, this is becoming a thing that's gaining steam. We're going to talk about that and how much I hate it on the other side of this break. But of course, we got to talk first about this series because the Arizona Diamondbacks did lose three out of four to the Rockies.

Now, if you were a foolish person like me, you might have still had hope about the Diamondback season. but even though I did declare the season dead earlier a few weeks ago, I held hope just like many of you, but it's hard to still have hope after seeing the Diamondbacks basically give away this series, right? The Diamondbacks had a lead, I believe, in almost every game of this series. Maybe they didn't there in game two, but they also blew every lead that they had.

the bullpen couldn't hold much. It felt like Tori Lavallo wasn't able to pull the right strings, especially with what was going on in the bullpen. And honestly, yeah, this whole thing just kind of derailed on them. Let's take a look at the numbers from this series, even though I very much don't want to here on our count presented by our Friends of Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks actually outscored the Rockies 23 to 22, despite the fact that they lost three out of four games.

Both teams had five home runs in the series. The Diamondbacks were 10 for 41 with runners in scoring position for a 244 batting average. The Rockies, they had 8 for 26 for a 308 batting average. But here's really where everything falls apart. The Diamondbacks had a 3.70 starting pitching ERA in the series. They got one earned run in game one, which they won. Four earned runs in game two in game three from Ryan Nelson and from Brandon Fought. And then in the finale by Nabil Chris Matt, a brilliant performance going

out there giving the Diamondbacks five innings of one earned run baseball. That led to a 3.70 starting pitching ERA in the series. Meanwhile, the Rockies 6.87 as advertised as they have been all year long. But really, it's the 12.46 ERA there by the Diamondbacks bullpen that tells the tale of how this series went. The Diamondbacks allowed so many earned runs late, especially in the finale. And or games two and or games three and four, excuse me, this four game series has. has me confused here. Games three, they allowed six earned runs and one and two-thirds innings pitched, five earned runs yesterday and three innings pitched.

And this bullpen was just taxed and awful. There were so many misplayed moments, especially yesterday. There was a moment where Jake McCarthy was held up by Sean Larkin at third base. And it would appear that Jake McCarthy even has had enough about this team being held up there at third base because he was visibly upset and argumentative with Larkin over there. and again, a lot of this just... He was all of us. He was all of us.

That's literally been the reaction all season that I've had to Sean Larkin. What are you doing? I mean, Damon, let's talk about it. I need your beautiful face on screen here with us, but this is one of those situations where, I mean, I do think that the Diamondbacks, again, their entire identity has been this ability to cause chaos at times, which obviously they're not doing.

They did have three stolen bases in one inning in a game, which maybe felt like they diamond. back to doing that. But, you know, now we sit at this point where, you know, again, they're not taking chances despite the fact that what, what is there not to take chances for, right? What is the, what is the point? Like, why are you holding up runners? Why are you not just absolutely sending guys in this moment and taking an opportunity to try to put up a very important run to get one run closer to tying this game up? I mean, it just felt like they were honestly playing scared when they have nothing to lose.

at this point? What are you playing scared for by not sending runners over there at third base? It really doesn't make any sense, especially when, you know, you're about to potentially tie a series with the Rockies. That's the best case scenario. And it's like, why exactly are we? It's two times now this season where you could have gotten the lead by down to one run. You could have had the, the tying run on third base with less than two outs. And the being conservative and stopping guys because you think, well, this isn't going to be the game winning hit anyways. We still need one more hit is, but that's not, that's not just, you can't think like that. You have to, like, they weren't going to make that throw home. They might have made the throw to third base. Who knows. But

Alex Thomas, you know, less than two outs on third base, like a sack, a sack fly gets him in, a ground ball that's hit in the right spot gets him in. It just feels like you're not thinking about how much easier it is to get that tying run across. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't, I, I don't, I, I, just don't get it. I don't get it at all. It's twice that that's happened. The other time was with Nailer, I believe, right? Where they could, he was, that's where he did the, the stop with the, with the go through. I believe that was someone else, but you're absolutely, I mean, it's just, it's been all season long, right? And again, I think that there was a part of a portion of the season where we talked about, uh, players getting thrown out as Suarez, I believe led the league

and put outs at home home plate. That's on Larkin, right? And then when that starts to happen and you start to throw these players out, you start to not be able to have success in sending them, then you start to be too conservative. And I think that's what we saw this season. We saw them being entirely too conservative. And we saw, you know, just in general, this being a situation where now it feels like Sean Larkin not having success over there, not making the right calls. And again, this really does come down to the bullpen, like I said, but the management of the bullpen by Tori Lavallo is, is questionable at best. The fact that the Diamondbacks right now have to rely on minor league prospects with

almost no major league service time in high leverage situations tells you everything about the personnel that they have right now, right? The fact that we have, you know, such a, I guess, such a problem here that, you know, you're asking someone like Andrew Hoffman to come out there two nights in a row and, and, and pitch and I know, I get it. Like Andrew Hoppin, a lot of relief pitchers should be able to pitch multiple nights in a row, but you're just putting them into these high leverage situations

as guys that have been in the major leagues, like I said, for a cup of coffee. And you're not really, you really don't have the personnel to win these games and close things out late in the game. I'm seeing entirely too often people asking why is so-and-so-in, why is so-and-so-in. I get it.

But the reason most of the time is because it's all the options the Diamondbacks have. When you look at their bench and the available arms, there's not like other guys that you might want to see in there, you know, more than these guys, unfortunately, and that's the position that they've been left in. It also doesn't feel like Tori Lavallo is managing this bullpen well because of the way that he needs to at times stack these guys. The finale should have been a bullpen start. The Diamondback should have had to use way more arms in that game than they did. And just because Jake Woodford came out and had a good

outing his last time giving you a long relief appearance. I believe it was in relief of Anthony Diskal Fani and he gave him three and a third innings pitched and was great. It doesn't mean that you can ask that of Jake Woodford all the time and every single outing. It's going to turn sideways on you like it did on Sunday. But also for me it comes down to

the personnel. The Diamondbacks just don't have it. I thought roster moves might have been made to maybe bring up some fresh arms and help this bullpen out. instead, I even thought that it was going to be, you know, Bryce Jarvis that got the call. Instead, Nebiel Chris Matt comes up, and to be fair, he was not a problem. In fact, he was the Diamondbacks, one of the Diamondbacks top performers in this series, going five innings pitched, allowing only three hits and one earn run, walking one and striking out five for the Diamondbacks on Sunday.

He was brilliant. He was absolutely brilliant. Meanwhile, some other guys had five hits in this series. That was Corbyn, Lordeus, and Geraldo Perdomo. Heraldo Perdomo was five for 19 with two stolen bases. He had three walks and five runs scored. Corbyn Corman Carroll, five for 15. He had a double a home run, two RBI, two stolen bases, and four walks.

It's great to see Corbyntero getting on base more. And then honestly, the Kingsnake for the series, most likely is Lourdes-Guriel Jr. Going five for 17. He had seven RBI, two home runs, a stolen base, and a walk. But despite putting up all those runs, the Diamondbacks bullpen just couldn't hold things. And now, you know, here we sit. I guess we sit in a position where if you, you if you had that 1% hope that fan graphs gave you of making the playoffs,

that should have dissipated after watching this team lose against Colorado Rockies, quite frankly. I mean, I saw the Miami Marlins, Miami Marlins outfielder make one of the dumbest plays at Fenway, helping a player, help aiding a home run going over the wall by trying to make a catch. And then that same player came back and hit a home run to essentially lead the comeback for

the Marlins. when I saw all of that go down, my first thought, Damon, was, I don't, I mean, I know we've had comeback victories. I know Catell Marte just led the Diamondbacks to two critical wins where he came up big in the ninth inning and hit unlikely home runs that led this team to victory. But like it just doesn't feel like this season really has had enough of that kind of magic, you know, in a game where the player that makes the huge mistake comes back and wins the game for you. like I don't really feel like we've had that at all this season. And quite frankly, the injuries. I mean, they lose every close game that they play, basically. Unless someone hits a massive home run that is completely game changing.

They've become so reliant. And I think that this is the nature of how bad their bullpen is in a way. Like they're so reliant on their offense to score like eight runs in every game or else it doesn't seem like it's enough. Right? Because you don't trust these bullpen pitchers to come in and keep. you know, sustain a lead. Right. So, I mean, how many one score games have they lost this season?

Entirely too many. I could look that up for sure, but they've lost entirely too many one run games. And that's been one of the biggest problems about the Diamondback season, quite frankly. In 2023, they won those games. That was the big difference. They knew how to win games when the going got tough. This team, I don't know what it is. It's different about them.

They obviously have the same leadership, you know, for the most part from a, you know, Mike Hazen, Detorial Ovalo perspective. it just doesn't make sense to me that this team is seemingly so mentally weak. I'm going to tell you what it is. And I think we have a question about this. So I'm kind of spoiling my answer for it. But it really does come down to talent. And I'm not trying to discredit the bullpen and the arms that are in there.

These are all professional athletes. And a lot of them at times have been good. A lot of them at times have been bad, quite frankly. But they just don't have the talent. right now in their bullpen to be a contending team in any way, shape, or form. And again, like, you could blame the decisions on Tori, and at times I will 100% agree with you. And as you've seen, I've even started leaning more in that direction just for so many of you in the chat, but also because Tori has made some bonehead moves. And I think that sometimes

the bonehead moves involve the bullpen management in the way that they, you know, hold certain guys or ask so much of certain guys or just in general, the scheduling of the bullpen and how they're going to go out there and, you know, use guys on any given night to effectively make it through this marathon of the season. However, with that being said, they don't have the talent in the bullpen. This is a town. This is a bullpen that has been patchworked together from a bunch of guys that have, again, R.A says it right here, bargain basement shopping for bullpen doesn't work. Also, though, every year, man. There's not a lot of options. So it's not like, necessarily. The Dodgers were signing every relief pitcher on the market last season,

closers that they were going to make their seventh inning guy. Like the Diamondbacks did Shelby Miller? Well, here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. That's what they, that was the fix to the worst bullpen in baseball the year before was, was Shelby Miller? That's fine. You can say that. And that is fair. That is fair. And roster construction is part of Mike Hayes' job. And for him to consider that they were solidified in their bullpen with Justin Martinez and AJ Puck there in the late innings and Kevin Ginkle maybe in the eighth and such like these guys have either not performed got injured and are gone for the season like the problem really is is that these injuries that they were lying so heavily on these particular arms those guys are gone for the whole year

every one of them yeah every one of them and then you have to go out and try to find arms at this point I remember a point of the season where Mike Hazen said on like day two day two of the season Mike Hazen said the reason why they added Jalen Beeks the day before opening day day was because of how much more difficult it was to add players after opening day had occurred. Forget that. We're past the trade deadline. It's nearly impossible to add arms now. We were talking about going after Marcus Stroman and Nathaniel Lowe simply because

they're available. Both of them had have had terrible seasons. And I don't really have statistical data to back up my reasoning for going after them other than at one time these both these guys were very good. and why not with the fact that you're going out there and adding guys like Anthony Disclofani and Jake Woodford to the roster just to simply have arms available for you in the bullpen.

And again, that is no discredit to those guys. Woodford, Descalfani, some of these guys that the Diamondbacks have picked up out of the bargain bin have been really good at times. They're just not consistent. And that's part of the reason why they were not on a team

when the Diamondbacks were able to acquire them. Is a lack of consistency, a lack of being able to go out there and do it for a team night in, night out, out of a bullpen and being asked for that. And honestly, a lot of the guys have put up some of the worst numbers of their career. Numbers are numbers.

Like, you can always rebound from that. And the Diamondbacks have found guys that have done that exact thing. Shelby Miller was one of those arms that rebounded and found a way to have a resurgence as a reliever. So it's not to say that guys of the Diamondbacks, you know, here are looking at,

like Disco, might be able to go ahead and, you know, provide to this team. But in all honesty, a lot of this has to do with just the roster, construction and like you said maybe not adding enough to it maybe believing too much in the arms that were here and and honestly even when they were here a j puck and justin martinez struggled they had their problems as well so so again even if those guys were healthy i don't know if that fixes all of the diamond backs issues right there are a lot of coaching issues brian caplin sean larkin tori lovolo

these are all guys that have mismanaged this team this season right so it's not to say that these you know, problems are isolated again to the injuries, despite the fact that I do want people to remember that that's the reason why the roster is in the position that it's in currently. I don't know a manager in baseball, and I know this is going to be considered Tori Schilling, but Tori has his own problems and we're going to talk about it later in the show with the Cattel situation and how Tori and his management style probably contributed to the whole situation. But as far as a bullpen goes, I don't know a manager in baseball that makes this bullpen work. I don't think any of them did. That's fair.

This bullpen is the least talented bullpen in the league and it's not even close. That's why I say it. Talent is a big factor here. And you can't just expect a bargain bin basement bullpen that you put together based on. The bullpen is on Mike Hazen. That's my point. I guess more my point. Sure. I just want to hold the right people accountable for their problems.

Tori should be held accountable for a lot of his issues. Hiring Sean Larkin and Brian Kaplan being at the very top of that list, like that being Tori's guys, terrible decision-making. But the bullpen thing to me is way more of a Hazen problem. Because Hazen's built the roster for how long now? And how many good bullpens is this team ever had? This bullpen, this team has never had a good bullpen. Ever. Ever. Never in the history of this team. I mean, it's the reason why. Again, I make it out like acquiring Randy Johnson was the thing that cursed this team. No, no, no. I think cursing this team was bringing Randy Johnson out of the bullpen in the World Series. That's what cursed them. They were like, yeah, you can

do this and it's going to work for you, but understand your bullpen. It's never going to be good ever again, right? And that is the reason why the Diamondbacks sit at their record. Let's take a look at the drunken orgy of violence that we love to call the N hell West here and where the diamond back stand for some reason. Diamondback sit 60 and 65. They should be at 500. They should be won a game above 500 today. We should be talking about a team that is one game above 500. And I know that's a fantasy world I'm currently living in, but that's how I feel. The Rockies, who just took three out of probably don't even deserve those infinity signs anymore. Maybe the Diamondbacks do deserve those.

I don't know. Rocky said at the bomb at 35 and 89, Diamondbacks are 60 and 65. They are 11 and a half games back in the division, six and a half games back in the wild card. The Giants, they are not much better. They are 60 and 64. They've had their struggles as well.

They are 11 games back in the division, six games back in the wild card. Meanwhile, the Padres did not fare well against Los Angeles Dodgers. They came into this series with one game lead and they leave it with a two-game deficit in the division. They are 69 and 55. Nice.

They have two games back in, they are two games back in the division and three games up in the wild card. Meanwhile, the Dodgers sit atop the division at 71 and 53. And they really put the Padres in their place after the Padres came in looking pretty hot.

And there were also Padres fans fighting Padres fans in the stands and you know your team has really failed when that's what's happening. They weren't even fighting Dodgers fans. There's so many fights at Padres games. I don't understand it. I feel like I see it on my phone all the time

when it's like, you guys know you live in San Diego, right? Yeah, yeah. Go to the beach. It's beautiful outside. It's beautiful. Your weatherman has the easiest job of any weatherman in the country. You're drinking a Misholata at the Petco Park, one of the nicest stadiums in baseball. Going out to the gas lamp district and securing your tickets for Comic Con next year. What are you angry about?

And you're trying to fight your own fans in like a row ahead of you or whatever. It's crazy. R.A. hits nail on the head again. He says such little bro energy from Padres fans. For real. A Diamondbacks right now definitely have a lot of little bro energy for sure. But they do take on a Cleveland Guardians team starting tonight here at Chase Field.

I hope to see you guys out there. Let's take a look at the Guardians at a glance. They've had themselves a weird up and down season. They currently sit three games above 500 at 63 and 60. They have a minus 34 run differential. Their offense has not been good this year. Meanwhile, though, their bullpen is still one of the best in Major League Baseball. They have a 5-and-5 record in their last 10 games.

their OPS this season is 675, which is 28th in baseball, Krepes. Starting pitching ERA, 4.09, which is 18th, relief pitching ERA 3.58. Again, another team where if the Diamondbacks had their pitching numbers, the Diamondbacks would be first in the division, no doubt in my mind. They have the 18th best starting pitching ERA, fourth best relief pitching ERA at 3.58. They have minus eight outs above average, which is tied for 19th. And again, they're just one of those weird teams that are in limbo. they're winning.

They are in the wild card race, but they kind of sold at the trade deadline. And I don't know. There's a few, there's a few teams like that right now that are in a better position than the Diamondbacks, but like I said, at the trade deadline,

they also sold. So what we're going to do, though, we're going to take a quick break. Probable pitchers, by the way, diamondbacks still have not announced any probable pitchers for this series. Most likely is going to be gallon,

um, right? Gallin Eduardo, Brandon Fott. I don't even know where we're at anymore. Who's even part of the starting rotation, Damann? Do we even have the pitcher still? I don't know. Let me get you an answer on that, Derek.

Well, does it matter? I mean, does it matter? I don't really know, right? It's a Galen-Erod Fought is considered to be the, yeah, the... But nothing's official still yet. The projected probabilities, yes. It's getting close to game time, and we still don't know who's starting for this team tonight. So hopefully they update that before the end of the show.

but we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk more about this Catell-Marte situation. Rvaldo Pudomo defending him and me screaming about the very idea of trading our superstars. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the P.HNX Diamondback Show. Well, no one does it better than Heel of River Resorts and Casinos, as you know. That's why we spend so much time there. We're out in our PHNX Cardinals residency there.

We're having our PHNX draft out there. And of course, you can visit anyone of their four valley locations, but we will be at Wild Horse Pass. You can check out Lone Butte, Bekeva, and Sandtown Mountain. You can lounge at any of those AAA4 Diamond resorts and let relaxation take charge. I'm telling you it's the best place in the valley to go for his staycation. And if you're not staying the night, it's a great place to go out for a great night on the town. You can go out there. Check out their over 4,500 slots in live table games or catch any of their action at the BetMGM Sportsbook.

With an unprecedented level of entertainment and excitement, you just won't find anywhere else in the desert. He'll River Resorts and Casinos sets a high bar. you do you at Heela Riversorts and Casinos Visit play atheela.com for more details And of course we had another race this weekend Damon, my guy Ryan Blaney Almost won it. He came in third I believe he was he was up there

That's a podium. Yeah, it's a podium It's a podium. He's getting those points though He's stacking those points for the playoffs And that's all that really matters Win or lose, it doesn't matter I think he won the stage one He almost had more points than the winner And that's the way that NASCAR works

And it's so much fun because it's all coming to a head and it's coming to a head right here in Phoenix, Arizona for Phoenix Raceway Championship Weekend. Of course, just like baseball, the entire season runs from February to October, with it all culminating in a big race that has been legendary here in Phoenix, but we'll be taken on the road starting in 2026.

So make sure do not miss your chance to see it before it goes on the road. Don't miss your chance to witness how wonderful NASCAR championship weekend can be in person with all of the access there in the desert diamond casino infield experience and more. So of course, check out the Phoenix Raceway,

October 31st through November 2nd. It is the place for championship weekend. Tickets for Sunday's Cup series. Championship race sell out every year, so move fast to get yours now before they're gone. And here's the kicker. NASCAR's taking championship weekend on the road starting in 2026,

so this is your last chance to catch it in Phoenix for a while. Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available. Get yours now in the link in our show notes. Damon, I'm pumped. I'm pumped for that. I can't wait. That's going to be electric, Derek. It's going to be electric.

I also found out that Arizona has a bull riding team, and we compete against other states. Our bull riding team is called the Arizona Ridge Riders, and they are, I believe, nine and one. So if you're looking for a team here in the Valley to really get behind, that's a winner, check out the Arizona Ridge Riders, is what I'm saying. Bull riding is so stupid to me. Hell yeah. It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Would you do it? Would I do it?

Absolutely not. Maybe a younger Derek. Maybe a younger, foolish Derek would have done that. But an older Derek sees how much those guys get injured just before they get out of the cage. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Bull slamming their legs up against the fence and stuff.

It's an awful sport. Maybe it's a really bad idea, but part of me thinks like if I went to Buffalo Chip on like a Friday night, I'd get in the cage. I'd get in the arena. All right. Well, okay, if we're talking to mechanical bull, that's another thing. That's not a mechanical ball. No, no, I know. It's not.

I'm just saying if we're talking mechanical bull, then that's a different story. Oh, yeah. I'll hop on that right now. I love this comment here from Scotty Mac. I just had to throw it out there. I'll go to the game if they have Bogo beers. I need to be soft to watch this bullpen implosion. We all do.

We all do. We absolutely all do. Well, something we all also need in our lives besides beers to watch the bullpen implode is somebody like Geraldo Pardomo in our life standing up for us. And again, when things are going on like the way that things are going on for Telmarté, it is nice to have someone like Geraldo Prado

Prado have his back. This situation that we discussed last week has only spiraled and seemingly got more kind of out of control, if you will. Bob Nightingale added to the fuel a little bit with his report. According to Bob's report,

the Diamondbacks will listen to offers on All-Star Second Basement Cotel Marte this winner, allegedly, according to Bob Nightingale. He said that the Diamondbacks know Marte is extremely talented, can be a diva in the clubhouse, agitating his,

his teammates and coaching staff. So I really don't know what to believe. What I do believe here is that maybe a lot of this information based on the way that Geraldo Perdomo came to his teammates' defense after yesterday's loss, maybe this might be coming from guys that are no longer part of the team. That information may, I don't know. Maybe it's guys that haven't been here for a while. I'm not really sure.

It's an interesting situation, Derek, because it's clearly coming from somewhere. So I guess that's that's kind of where I'm most interested in. A thousand percent. Do you like I think that, okay, so the article, it said anonymous players, right? So Nick Bacoro's article. So that's that I agree with you. That my assumption there is that it is somebody that is no longer on the team. And I know people are making their guesses.

And it seems like maybe we might know who it is, but I don't want to speculate and say that on air because that's not. That's not fair. That's not fair to anybody. So, you know, that's, we could speculate on that. the Bob Nightingale thing feels weird. That's where I'm like, I don't think that that's obviously not coming from a player. That's clearly coming from the organization itself. And that's where I'm like, well, who's leaking that information and why?

And I see a lot of people with conspiracies and we're going to talk about it in mailback too, but like some people are saying Ken Kendrick got his stadium deal and now he wants to get cheap again. And because he got the community to believe that he was going to spend and then now he's done. Which is just crazy because here, what I will say, maybe, maybe that crazy conspiracy theory has some sort of, you know, holds some water, but I don't really think it does. I quite frankly think that, you know, Cotel Marte is on a team friendly contract. It doesn't make any sense to do this. And not only that, but do you mean to tell me that this behavior from Cotel just started? I understand some of it occurred at some of the worst time, right?

Like people, the feeling is that Catelle Marte took these days off when they really mattered to the team when things were really on the line, including last year and this year, right? But I don't really feel like this is just suddenly new behavior from Cotel, right? And that's no, but I think maybe he feels like he can get away with a little bit more after he won his 2023 NLCS MVP where it's like, I'm kind of the man. And he is. that man's done for this team i will allow him to have a little bit of diva in him i don't really care i mean i'm fine with him having diva in him and i know you talk about like him hitting in the lineup and stuff that's very like devorses-esque like i'm not going to hit number one or number two i don't want to hit lead you know i think that's i think that's bs personally but i can let him get

away with stuff like that if that truly matters to get tell what what i am frustrated where did tell marty hit in the all-star game lineup third so okay is this a cotele marty problem or is this a Tori Lavolo problem as far as telling a player what they want to do and what they're going to do and where they're going to hit and how they're going to play the game that's the other side of the coin 100% right so if you're asking me i feel like this is definitely more of of a Tory problem as far as kattel's attitude and allowing it yep he's allowed this situation to unfold into the way it has 100% frankly i would too could tell marty does get certain graces that other players aren't going to get sorry you're not paying pat he's that he's that

not paying past new rent all the time. He is out there contributing to this team every single night doing historic things in the playoffs. And quite frankly, when the Diamondbacks got to the World Series and then didn't win it, I saw Cateau-Marté training harder than any other single person on this team. Now, mind you, a lot of it was being posted to his Instagram and such. So maybe other guys are. But it's also one of those things where honestly, like Cotel-Marté never looked like it was a lack

of effort on his part, right? So the thing I hate about this report from Bob Nightingale is that at the end of the report, he says, D-Backs won't trade their three-time All-Star and NLCS MVP, who has $92.5 million left on his contract without getting fair value in return. But they're also aware he'll become a 10-and-5 player early next season, next season that gives him a full no trade clause. What is a 10-and-5 player? Why is that so important? That is because that is what Cotel-Marte will become next year.

Cotel Marte will be a guy that has accrued 10 years of Major League service time and spent the five consecutive years, last five consecutive years with the same team. They are awarded 10 and 5 rights under these circumstances. A player can veto any trade scenario that is proposed. So as far as Cotel Marte is concerned and the Arizona Diamondbacks, the only time that they would be able to trade him without Cotel being able to veto it is between now and the early portion of next season until Cotel Marte reaches that 10-year mark five. year mark. And after that point, Denkutel Marte can veto any trade. Is this the real reason why? Is this the real reason why this is coming up?

Is this the real reason why this information is coming out at this time? Like, is this just speculation based on his situation? Or is this the organization themselves trying to have this information out there so that the Diamondbacks could, you know, get ahead of potentially trading him this winner. I would like to believe that it's it's the first thing I said there where I don't really think this holds water. I think this is speculation. I think they might have talked to some people that brought this up. But I don't really think that the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to trade Cotel Marte because it would be the dumbest move they've ever made as a franchise.

We have things can be true, Derek. Like Catell can be a better leader for this locker room and and you know, lead by example a little bit more. I'm not even saying from a like he doesn't need to Jerry where he's like everybody's you know psychiatrist you know and he doesn't have to be he doesn't have to be the leader of this team this takes me back to justin upton where the media wanted to thrust the leader role onto justin upton despite the fact that he very much rejected it he did not want to be a leader yeah he just wanted to go out there and play good baseball and i need to tell the lead by example a little bit more though and that's where the the the trip to the dominican republic i think is is not really acceptable behavior and i think it's okay to say that and

and also say if we traded Cotel Marte, that is the opposite of where we're trying to go as a franchise. How are you going to get rid of the guy who's literally the best offensive player that this organization has probably ever seen? It's him or Paul Goldschmidt, and it's not really even a discussion for anybody else. So, like, I just want Cetel to not do things like that. But anyone that wants Cotel traded, I think, is a crazy person.

Killer X brings up to two things. yes, two things can be true. And that's not playing both sides. Killer X is an idiot. You can't, we've already established that. You can be mad at a control. We don't care what he says about this situation. But two things.

He's lumping me and you in with the supposedly the people who set this thing on fire when, like, what? Like, what are we talking about? People write articles based on interviews that they had with players and they put those articles out and we're discussing those articles because they have serious ramifications when it comes to the organization. and the organization's best player, quite frankly. This is a problem, and honestly, I'm glad that someone like Geraldo Perdomo stepped up yesterday and defended Cotel Marte. We have that video.

Here's what Perdomo had to say after the game about leaving Cotel Marte alone. And whatever happened to me, it happened, you know, it's so we lost. But I want to get something clear about one of my teaming. You know, I'm tired of this. It's going to be for all reporter and all the writer. Like, it's been the...

This is the second time something came out from Marte. Please. He just want to play baseball. I don't want to speak as a team. I want to pay as a brother. He just want to play baseball. Just let the guy alone, you know. It's been too much for him.

You know what I mean? I feel he doesn't deserve that. Whatever happened in the past, it was in the past. We're playing good baseball right now, and I feel I just, we just want to have fun and what you want to play. Just please, please, please. You guys have to stop. You know what I mean?

Whoever writing, whoever sends shit in the media or outside, please, what you want to play baseball? And keep that guy along, please. That's it. That's what it must. And that was Geraldo coming out during Tori's media availability on our away game and not being asked any of this. This isn't a post-game press conference. This isn't in the locker room. This is him coming out and saying that.

And feeling like this is just snowballed into a situation where someone who's a captain of this team the way that Perdomo is, has to say something about this. And again, he's right. And again, Catell obviously is hearing the noise and is bothered by it. He still performed well in Colorado. He was not the reason why the Diamondbacks lost this series by any stretch of the imagination. And hopefully what Francis Romero tweeted out is true. Francis Romero sent out this tweet last night.

And this is what he had to say about the Cotel Marte situation. He says Cotel Marte hasn't had any issues with teammates. Arizona or anything like that. The debacks Ars also aren't planning to listen to trade offers at this time per a source. Cattell's agent, Cherise Dash, told me regarding these rumors, none of that has happened. It's all false. So there it is. I mean, that's what we're hearing.

Wherever this other information is coming out of, we don't know. I wish that it was more specific as to what that. None of this has happened. Yes. False. Yeah. All of it. All of it. That seems a little bit like a stretch. Well, which parts are you saying is false? I mean, I'm assuming that it's a little bit that it's talking about the Nick Piccoro article. Sure. And like what Gambo tweeted the next day. I think, I think the part that's false is the, is the that they're thinking about trading him or listening to trades or whatever, right? Like I wish that was specified a little bit. Honestly, Mike Hazen has said it. Mike Hazen went out there and listen to trade offers on.

lot of position players. Didn't he bring up at the trade deadline that he listened to offers on Perdomo and he's, yeah, Corbin and all this other stuff, right? So the, the idea of a team listening to trade offers for one of their players is literally nothing new. It's just the thing that makes this story scintillating, Damon. That's pretty much what it comes down to. So I don't really know, but this is one of those cases where I felt like I personally felt like the 10 and 5 rights might be a bigger reason why. Ketel is an easy target to say he might be traded. And I guess, you know, the the vitriol is is not really what the team is feeling in the clubhouse. It almost feels like these articles are more of a problem than Kutel are, right?

So rough, rough hashtag from our guy, Scotty Mac in the in the chat there. I'm not going to throw that one up on the screen. Well, we won't, but what we're going to do? That was it unintentional. Do you see that? He put bullpen is a cancer and the way it goes together. Oh my God. All right.

Well, that's, that's not what I read there. So we might have to, we might have to change our name. It's no longer the bullpen. Yeah. Yeah. It's the bull something. Yeah, it's the bull other thing. But we're going to talk.

Well, we can say that. All right. Bull penis. I can say penis on the show. That's not one of the seven words I can't say. But anyway, we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to stop talking about Ketel. Actually, I lie.

We're going to talk more about Ketel. We have questions from you guys in our mailbag on Ketel and more about this. team. So don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Well, it's no secret that everyone in Arizona is looking for ways to stay cool and comfortable during the summer. And APS wants to help you do that with a smart thermostat. Smart thermostats help you manage your air conditioning situation, especially when things are really hot. They allow you to change your temperature when you're not home, set a schedule and more. My favorite feature is being able to see how much of my AC I'm using every single day. It tells you if there's a problem. They need to change out of filter,

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And of course, Circle K is America's third stop. I'm very thankful that on our way into the office, there's another Circle K in a different position that's just as convenient. It's walking distance. I'd say it's walking distance. I'd say it's even more convenient. I'd say it's more convenient because it's walking distance for sure. And I'm glad I'm part of the inner circle.

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I think we do. That's why 28, 21st, 21st, 21st. That's what I was saying, 21st, yep. So make sure get out there, August 21st. save yourself some gas. Well, it is a brand new headquarters. It is a brand new studio, but that doesn't change anything around here on this show. Damon, it's still Monday. And every year, no matter how bad our bull penis is, is still our year. It's still the year of the snake. Every single month on this show is still Black History Month. Every single month on this show,

it's Women's History Month. And every single month on this program is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day because me and Damon recycle. But on Mondays, We go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go the mailbag. My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes we go out.

Oh, Ryoma Jr.'s asking, where's Jesse Jr.? That's a great question. I actually don't know the answer to that one. This is a disaster. This is an absolute disaster. I'm pretty upset for sure. But it's still Mailbag Monday. So you know what we do around here.

And you know I still love this day. So, Damon, what do we have in the mailbag? First question coming out of the mailbag here is from our guy Travis Moore says with the farm system having a wider litany of depth now, what is the propensity that the organization deals from the minor league level for major league talent versus trying to lean on the farm talent they have now stepping up into the majors in 2026? Well, I would say that obviously a part of getting these guys major league playing time at the end of this season improves the chances of being able to trade them should that be part of what you want to do, right? a guy that is a minor leaguer that hasn't proven themselves at a major league level has far less value than a guy that even has a limited amount of major league time, right? So again, it's not to say that Diamondbacks are planning on trading guys like Juan Burgos and Andrew Hoffman. It just does increase their value that they're getting some opportunities to play at this time of the year. What I will say is that I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to be able to trade their minor leaguers for major league depth, nor do I think that they have the assets at this time to do so.

Mike Hazen did a great job at revamping the farm system and getting plenty of new additional arms, arms that are already, like I said, playing at a major league level. We didn't expect to see that, right? But at the same time, you also have to factor in that the Diamondbacks are not going to have that much money here during, you know, the offseason to spend. And they have a lot of holes to fill. So they're going to have no choice but to turn to minor league players in order to fill some of those roles. And quite frankly, they're already committed to a whole heck of a lot of money for next year as it stands. If exactly. gallon should for some reason accept a qualifying offer the diamondbacks make to them, they're actually going to be in a little bit of a predicament as far as what they're going to do to fill the rest of the roster spots that they need to fill. So that that's going to have to come from minor league depth. Unfortunately right now they don't really have the pieces that they need in order to fill like their starting rotation and such. So they don't have much of a choice then to go out there during this free agency period and try to acquire arms. They're just not going to be able to do what they did this past two offseason.

and go out there and add the best, I'll put in air quotes, the best available free agent pitcher on the market like they did with Corbyn Burns and one Jordan Montgomery, one slightly used Jordan Montgomery. But all right, Dana, what else do we got? People are saying that custody of Jesse Jr. might be on the line right now because of us not knowing his whereabouts. People come in, they pack stuff, they move stuff. All right, if you want to blame something, maybe blame Leah.

I don't know. I need a scapegoat here, Damon. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Can we say it's Katel's fart? I thought Jesse Jr. is missing because it seems like everybody else wants to blame Katel. Next question comes from Zabe. And Zabe says, since nothing newsworthy happened this week to discuss, what are you looking forward to the most the rest of the season? And I realize I screwed up the order. Sorry, Derek. Oh, no, that's fine. I usually like to do Zab's funny questions at the end. Yeah, since nothing newsworthy happened this weekend to discuss. Well, I'm looking on I'm looking forward to no more articles like this Catele

one coming out. That's for sure. That's what I'm looking forward to you. Overall, yeah. I'm looking forward to not being blamed for losing the Rocky series, Derek. There's that. Yeah, for sure. I don't know if you knew that. It was all my fault. Well, it's your fault. It's Katel's fault. It's everybody's fault except Tori's fault, right? And the bullpen's fault. But I will say that I don't know. I mean, again, there's lots of reasons to watch this team. It's just unfortunate.

at this point that this has gone in this direction so suddenly, right? We were, that's one thing the Diamondbacks have done consistently to us this year is, is they've given us hope and then they've taken it away really fast, right? When you start believing in this team, they lose some series or do something to make you lose all faith that they could be any kind of playoff team or a contender in any way, shape, or form. So that's really where I feel like we stand right now. And that's, that sucks, right?

I mean, it sucks that the Diamondbacks don't have, I don't know, they don't have more of a stretch here to make it fun for us, right? Especially losing to the worst team in baseball that really just kind of put you in a position to not have any faith at all in what this team can do. So I don't know. I mean, I'd say at this point, again, like I said before we started to regain hope, we watched the young guys play and hopefully we see the, future of this team, you know, find, find their, find their way this year, right? The Diamondbacks have quite a few guys that are auditioning for a permanent role. You know, Tyler Locklear, some of the names in the bullpen like Hoffman and Burgos, there's, there's a lot of development that can come along. Of course, Jordan Lawler will be added to the main major league

roster. So there will be somewhat of a position battle there at third base between him and Blaise Alexander. So I do think that there's a lot of fun, new things to look at for this team for, you know, as far as the young players are concerned. Derek, I don't know if you know, Damon, myself, I'm running Geraldo Perdomo out of town, apparently. Oh, well, that's definitely... Is that the single most insane thing you've ever heard in your entire life?

Probably, yeah. I mean, it's almost as insane as the amount of credit Jesse was giving you on our text message this conversation for Domos' success. That was also wild to me, but you know that I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. But yeah, that's what we're going to do. And Cog says, when are you going to... Elizabeth asked, when are you going to have...

COGS intern for you? I don't know. Sweet, sweet cogs. I didn't know COGS wanted to come on this show, quite frankly. I've never heard one time anybody talking about COGS being a part of this program. So I wouldn't, I have no idea that COGS would be interested in being an intern on this show. And I made Damon cry with that one. Damon's losing it in the club. You love you, Coggs. Oh, so much.

Our sweet, sweet baby boy. All right. Damon, what else we got in the mailbag? Next one comes from Nick Benjamin. Nick says, thoughts. To me, it smells of Ken Kendrick trying to change fan perception of Katel so he can trade him and cut payroll. And of course, he's referencing the Francis Romero tweet that we showed earlier in the show where Francis Romero said, Cattel Marte hasn't had any issues with teammates in Arizona or anything like that. The debacks also aren't planning to listen to trade offers at this time per a source.

And Cattel's agent, of course, Cherie Stash, saying that none of that is true. and Ketel is not really on the trade block at all. So I don't know. I mean, what do you think? I brought this up a little bit earlier in the show, Derek, in terms of Ken Kendrick and, you know, that potential angle of things. It does seem weird that there's so, there's so many reports that, you know, are so gung-ho about potentially trading Ketel Marte when it's like, I don't think that that's necessarily what the Pecora article was doing in the first place. It seems like that's an extra leap that has been made. And I wonder where that's coming from necessarily.

I think if you go, you might not remember this. The title of Nick's article is trade Catelle, question mark. So it's not to say that any of this was pushing for Catell to get traded, but people are putting together, you know, the fact that it's. But a title of a headline of an article we know as well as anybody is you're trying to get people to click on it. That doesn't necessarily mean that that was like. context of the entire article.

100%, 100%, nor did he really stress that too much in the article when you were reading it. It was more about teammates, not being on record, but going on to say that Cotel, you know, missing time was more of a frustration than, you know, then, then it was perceived to be, right? But I also say that trading Cotel Marte doesn't make any sense. and the only thing that that makes me makes this suspicious to me is the people that are reporting that the Diamondbacks are interested in Trading Cattel. These are people that are well connected, very knowledgeable, very, you know, very, very much insiders with the team.

So I don't believe the idea of trading Cattel is completely out of nowhere. You know what I mean? I do think that there's factors, like I said, the 10 and 5 player thing, I think is a huge factor because this is the last opportunity the team essentially would have to trade him before Kutel could absolutely, you know, again, decline any trade. So if you wanted to make this into conspiracy theory, then, yeah, I don't know. I would say that it almost feels a little bit like this is getting floated out there to prepare for a trade potentially.

but yeah no no i i i also think that the we assume once again that the players being quoted and the players that being talked to are players that are still on this team and there's a good chance that they might not be there's a good chance that they might not be all right what else we got damon next question here comes from piece of yoshi and yoshi asks kind of a long question uh yoshi uh yoshi She says, I still don't understand why this couldn't have come out during the off season publicly putting the team on blast as little to me. If it's to let the fans know could tell in the front officer at odds, this is something that could wait two months. Why now in one of their best stretches? And then goes on to say, not blaming the reports for everything that happened this week.

But the reaction from guys like Lordus and Perdomo makes me wonder if this whole thing really needed to come out now. I know the article itself isn't a witch hunt, but that's always going to be how it's perceived. And I think that everything Yoshi said there is 100% fair. Absolutely. Absolutely. Accurate. I think that it is going to be perceived that way in perception. Perception's a bitch, right?

Because when perception, people can perceive it whatever way they want to, right? And I will say that this, when it comes down to how the timing of this worked out, it's really the infuriating thing to a lot of people. We tried to say. and I know this is true. Articles, articles 100% get started far and advanced, right?

But at the same time, too, the timing. This clearly started during an All-Star break time, the article, right? It's been about a couple weeks. Which is when the burglary incident occurred where Catelle wasn't here. He was in the Dominican Republic and apparently did not, or just stayed in the Dominican Republic, didn't come back here to take care of whatever business or whatever, right?

Then you had Tory being asked about it. I believe Tori said that he didn't know Cotel was staying in the Dominican for a few extra days or whatever the case may be. And Bob Nightingale's article went on to say that no disciplinary action took place, like as if they were going to what bench could tell or suspend him or sit him because he took extra, like now we're just having him take extra time off or taking time off. Like none of that made any sense to me. But I will say that, you know, people, it's unfortunate timing that it happened when it did.

I don't think it's the reason why we saw the Diamondbacks play poorly in Colorado, but absolutely maybe it was. maybe it was but I think what killer X said or excuse me nothing killer X says is right what Pisa Vyoshi said there was very accurate so I get why people perceive it to be that way and again there's no way to really know for sure like I said the one thing that I understand people being skeptical about is the fact that the people that release this information are very close to the organization and I don't feel like any of them would have said any of the stuff they did and that includes going back to Dan Bigley like all of this coming out now makes me feel

feel a little or make me understand damn bickley going off on katel a little bit more when he did right so i i do have a feeling that this information still is coming within the organization but just maybe not maybe maybe not the pieces or the places we think that it's that it's coming from it's just sad that we have people like killer wrecks who you know will just shill for anything this organization does and we'll turn their back on our best players like kattel and it's like guys let's be better fans this. It's guys like this dude who, you know, just turn their back no matter what and it just makes you sad. Yeah, we can say whatever too. We can make up stuff. Oh, I thought that's what we were, I thought that's what we're doing. We can only do that. Yeah, we'll totally do that. But what we're

going to do is take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk some more about this team and the direction they're going. We're going to answer more of your mailback Monday questions. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the pH next Diamond Back Show. Damon, I should throw some shade with all this situation is going on, especially with two wonderful shady companies here. The first one definitely is one you should look up during the summer. It's all pro-shade concepts. You want to help make your outdoor living space more livable. Look to all pro-shade concepts. They have wonderful custom fit awnings with hundreds of designs and colors to choose from. The matching home, they can work with your HOA to ensure

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All right. Damon, what else we got in the mail bag today? Next question here. comes from our friend flea ball, I believe. Yeah, flea ball. Why did Perdomo and Guriel wait until late Sunday? And after the three losses to defend Cotel Marte, feels like this team next year needs someone older and more accomplished than Marte to stand up to him.

Trading Marte would be a mistake. I 100% agree with that last statement. Trading Marte would be a huge mistake. Derek, I don't know if you remember properly. I threatened to quit this show without even consulting you at the third. thought of trading Cotel Marte. Yeah. It was, I stand by that. Yeah. Well, I, I've

I've already offered to go start covering the Savannah bananas, so that's my thing. But when flea ball says that, I don't think that like waiting till you lost 0 and 3 is like what happened here. I think that the Diamondbacks are a baseball team. They are not reading and looking at everything

all day long like we are when it comes to social media sports, all of this They are definitely not watching the show, although I know Geraldo Perdomo is a huge fan. I will say that they are doing their own thing and they are in their own world. And yet when something like this kind of bubbles over and permeates, it does leak into their world and they do start hearing it. They do start seeing it. I've talked to multiple players that have said that they never pay attention to this kind of noise from the outside. So the fact that Perdomo had to address it just shows that it is getting into the clubhouse and it is something.

I'm sure they've had a meeting about it. I'm sure they've talked about it. It's not something I'm sure that they are shying away from, but you try to ignore it as an athlete because criticism and rumors and stuff like this come up all the time. And you really can't pay too much attention to it. Tori Lavolo would absolutely lose his mind if you read the comments in this chat. He would, you know, he would never manage a baseball game again, thanks to many of you. So, again, there's a matter of ignoring all of that when you do this at the level that the baseball, that MLB players and, you know, managers and such are doing at it at, right? But at the same time, there is definitely

something to be said about how much this becomes a story and how much this probably does impact the clubhouse. And I mean, there's a good chance, like I said earlier, that maybe even the fact that teammates that had nothing to do with this are now wondering who was the one that gave this information and all that. All of that probably is a bigger problem in the clubhouse, honestly, than even the rumors about Ctele. Marte. Perdomo there, though, I think his defense showed that this is very much something that they're hearing inside of their walls and that they want to ignore, right? So 100%. And I also think that that doesn't necessarily, just because Perdomo said that doesn't mean that like they're not internally trying to work on the situation. Sure.

I think that's leadership. That's leadership. That's leadership. And not letting it leak externally and having it become a hundred percent. And that's what should have happened in the first place with it. I 100 percent agree with everybody. But it's also. I guess, you know, not to keep pounding that drum, but it's, it's hard to blame Nick Picoro for reporting on what people are telling him. Maybe did he make it a little clickbaity and stuff for people's liking? I think that I could, you know, I could see that opinion, but I don't, I don't like the idea that like the Perdomo statement means that none of this happened. I think that that's, he's showing leadership and that's what Perdomo is. He's a leader of this team.

Yeah, I agree. I also think honestly that, again, I don't think the trade rumors are just manufactured by writers. I'm going to be honest with you guys. They come from somewhere. Whether or not that is a place of actual authenticity, whether that's something the Diamondbacks are actually going to do. That's a whole other story. But I legitimately do not believe in my heart of hearts that this is something that completely was manufactured. I don't.

But anyway, what we're going to do is we're going to let you guys know that if you're watching on your favorite app, Zumo, uh roku wherever we're at hop on over to go p hnx.com right now we're going to go in a little overtime and get to these last few mailbag monday questions and we appreciate you guys no matter where you're watching for being here and giving us your time so let's get to some overtime or extra innings as i still demand on calling it around here damon what else we got in mailbag yeah give me one second here oh no you're good you're good uh but i will say it's from eddie waters i believe our next question here uh just kind of got to move a couple things over.

But this next question. I have it. I'll read it. He said with a largely similar roster from 2023 when the debacks were a connected team, what has happened in the clubhouse in the last two years? I feel like this is a weird thing because now this is like now this is how it's becoming is in, you know, what's happened in the clubhouse. Well, the Diamondbacks won more games in 2024 than they didn't win in 2023.

So there's that. There was an improvement from year to year, even though they didn't make the playoffs. they did improve on their win total from 2023 to 2024. This year, there's been a pile of injury so high that you can't even see the top of it. So I know that this Diamondbacks team was more talented at the beginning of the year than they have in the past, but that's not the case any longer. It's like when I tweeted out about Corbyn Burns missing from the lineup and said basically in a tweet, can you imagine what the record would be with Corbyn Burns?

And the response from quite a few people was like, no, no, no, what about? Justin Martinez and and you know, AJ Puck. Are we are we really going to act like the loss of Corbyn Burns isn't huge to this season? And and again, the like I guess the ripple effect from that moving Ryan Nelson instead of being what would have been probably your best reliever coming out of the bullpen in long relief and shorter performances. You have, you know, Brian Nelson have to be moved to the starting lineup. You take arms out of your pen. You're shorthanded because of all of that. Ryan Nelson was a guy that you were going to have in the pen and now can't be. You lose minor league players that would have filled those roles due to injury to the rest of the

year like this it's just crazy uh ari says how many tomy johns is surgery i mean we lost 11 players or 11 pitchers right for like the year not all of them were lost to to tommy john but i believe like nine of them were right like it's crazy how many pitchers the diamondbacks lost specifically pitchers the reason why their ops is still still one of the best uh in major league baseball it's often continues to not be a problem. I know it disappears at times, but offense is not the problem. The problem here has been that bullpen and that lack of talent.

But I don't know, man. I don't really think that much has changed. I will say that as brought up earlier in one of the questions, the Diamondbacks really don't have a veteran presence in the clubhouse like they used to. That was somebody that the guys kind of looked up to in a way that Evan Longoria

and Tommy Fam and other players have been in the past. I mean, you had Jack Peterson in there, and Jake McCarthy moved his locker next to Jock Peterson, right? So, like, the impact an experienced player can have not only just as a mentor in the locker room, but also a stabilizing force is big. And I just don't really feel like the Diamondbacks have that right now. They're veterans or we're either being traded away at the deadline and we're worrying about

their own stuff going on or they're like Corbyn Burns and they're, you know, on the injured list. You just are missing that presence as well. 2BMC says injuries are absolutely the number one reason. And yeah, I mean, we can bang that drum all season long. But unfortunately, it feels like people are just going to continue to manufacture other reasons for why this season went the direction it did. All right. What else we got, Damon? I think we got one more.

Yeah. Last question here comes from Karen with a C. And Karen says, with Blaze Alexander rocking at third base, what's the future of Jordan Lawler? I know this question gets asked almost daily. And is ADC the odd man out when Moreno gets back? Oh, my God. I'm so worried about when Moreno gets back. I know that Del Castillo probably makes sense

as far as he having more options available and the fact that he's still a young player that needs to develop, right? So sending him down makes sense from the perspective that if you do want ADC to be a catcher in the future, then he needs to go down and work on that. On the flip side, if you want him to be something else, he probably needs to go down and start working on that.

Like if he's going to be a first baseman or some other position, if you're going to switch where he plays, he needs to go down to AAA and he needs to start playing there because he needs to offer more to this team than just being a DH. But his bat plays at a major league level and we know that now. So I think that we really just need to see him have, I guess, expand his skill set and be able to offer something else defensively if they don't plan on keeping him behind the plate as a catcher.

If he's comfortable catching that tandem with him as the lefty with in Moreno as the righty is so solid. Yeah. It's so solid, man. And in, in, like, that's, that's definitely like, it's a, it's a battery that I'm like super excited about. But I, I don't know, man. I don't want to say something that I can't say on the on on on on on here. But all I'll say is, probably about Jose Herrera. All I'll say is I'm so tired of every time that Jose Herrera does something good. We blow it up out of into the highest proportion possible. And then we hear in the post game, Tori be like, he's just such an easy guy to root for. And all of it just feels so emotionally based. And it's like, guys, he's been one of the worst hitters in baseball for years now.

At what point do we say, hey, we try to upgrade on that position. And in the fact that he's a good vibes guy doesn't matter. Like, he could be the bullpen catcher. He doesn't have the experience necessarily be the veteran presence that someone like James McCann has, right? So if you keep James McCann over Jose Herrera, you have an opportunity there for him to be that. And he doesn't. And veteran leadership that I'm talking about, the Diamondbacks currently lack. Plus, if you want Gabby Moreno to learn from somebody, that's probably a better person for him to learn from rather than him, you know, competing for that position behind the plate with, for playing time with Gabby, more of a guy that knows that he's on the other side of his career

and has something to give to a younger catcher who's the future of this team more, right? And I mean, again, I just, I think that when you take a look at his numbers offensively, James McCann makes sense. He does the things that that Jose Herrera does well behind the plate. And then he also does, he's a better hitter and he has more experience. I don't know. I think Jose Herrera is like, he obviously calls a good game and the pitchers like working with them.

I think that's so many times. I think that's that's about James McCann quite a bit too. That's clearly why I say. Yeah, that's clearly why he's on this team though, right? Like, because it's not because he hits good and it's not because he throws everybody that steals against him out. And it's not because he's blocking balls in the dirt. it's because he's calling a good game apparently.

But I feel like you can just aim so much higher than that. And I'm tired of like when he hits his third home run of his entire career, the broadcast team being like, oh! And you're like, my God, is this the playoffs or is this game two against the Rockies? And we're up six runs right now. Like it's just, I'm just so, I'm so sick of the entire thing. And I'm not like trying to be disrespectful. But at some point, you just have to be like, these are professional baseball players, man. and we need him to be better.

I mean, I don't disagree with you one bit, one bit at all. I mean, I've brought this comparison up, but it's, it's Billy Haywood on Little Bigley getting excited about his favorite player, finally getting a hit on the team, and then having his bench coach look at him and be like, say how excited you're getting about a seeing eye single, right? Like sometimes when you're getting that excited about a guy contributing just a little bit offensively, you're in a bad place.

I would say the same about Tyler Locklear, but Tyler Locklear's young. He just got here, right? I want to give Tyler Locklear a panic button is on the table there I mean I he's he's had some very bad abouts he's been he's fed some very very lost man he absolutely does look lost at the plate um and again especially on the the strikeouts looking right but that's what when when we were asked earlier what do we watch this season for what do we do now between now and game 162 that's what we do we watch guys like this and we can make determinations if this guy is actually going to be somebody that can come around to be a baseball player. or not, right? And again, the Diamondbacks right now need to find that future at first base. And at least for the moment being, doesn't appear like you can put all of, you know, invest, invest everything into Tyler Locklear being that.

But you can feel like at least he's not going to be given 16 at bats and then sent back down to the minors. He's going to get an opportunity to play this year. It's going to get an opportunity to succeed or fail. And that's going to determine if he is a bigger part of this team starting in 2020. But I completely went by Karen's first part of her question, which was more about the positional battle over there between Blaze Alexander and Jordan Lawler. And I think, again, that that positional battle is going to similar thing with Tyler Lockley. You're like, these guys are going to get a chance to play. They're probably going to get a chance to play on field at the same time.

We're going to see Jordan Lawler playing shortstop in relief of Perdomo. And we're going to see Blaze over there. We're going to see Jordan over there at third base. We're going to see Blaze at second and elsewhere, right? Like those guys are going to get an opportunity to play infield for the rest of the season, and they're going to have the chance to win themselves more playing time. They are in a position, like I said earlier, with the Diamondbacks and their payroll in 2026.

And they're not going to be replaced. The Diamondbacks have too many holes in their overall roster that they can't really focus on positional players that they have two good young players kind of fighting for, right? So again, this is going to be one of their jobs in 2020. and this is their chance to both compete for it, right? Jordan Lawler has, there's no doubt in my mind that Lawler can play third base defensively. He's an amazing athlete and has killed it over there. It's really about his ability to adapt to Major League pitching and most likely hit a spinning

baseball. Jordan Lawler needs to learn to hit a spinning baseball before I'll have any faith in him replacing Blaze Alexander because for the time being, Blaze has done a great job over there at third. And I agree with, I agree with Josh. He says, I prefer Blaze's arm at Third with Lawler, but we really got to figure out what the heck we want to do with them. And yeah, Blaze's arm over there at third is too hot at times.

You know what I mean? Like he's like a superhuman when he throws the baseball. But again, he has that power. He has that ability to make strong throws. He just needs to rein it in a little bit and work a little bit more on his accuracy. And I think Blaze can be a tremendous defender over there at third base. Blazes look good, man. That play he made yesterday was sweet.

He made some great plays in the series. Absolutely. And again, it's crazy. You really come around. Yeah. And you got to give them a lot of credit for that. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And I think also you got the fact of Blaze, Alexander overall is a tremendous human being to be around. 100%. It wasn't him. I'll tell you what, who didn't speak to the media as an anonymous source, Blaze Alexander. We've eliminated Geraldo Perdomo and Blaze Alexander. Those are not suspects in this whole situation. And God forbid Jose Herrera talks because he's supposed to be the one thing is that he's a good locker room guy. Yeah, that's maybe true.

But, well, we thank you guys so much for your questions. Mailbag Monday would not be what it is without you, nor would this show be without you. We always thank you for your time. We know it's your most valuable commodities. So thank you for sharing some of it with us. Diamondbacks start three game set tonight with the Cleveland Guardians. I'm going to go over to Chase Field and hear what the team has to say before the game. So keep it locked, of course, right here for more pregame.

And then I'm going to come over here and eat sushi and drink drinks with my friends at our new building. So very excited about. being here in our new spot at PHNXQ. Shout out to Espo for finding us an absolutely stellar location for us to continue to bring this show from. I love it. There's so much space. If you guys go,

we'll look on Twitter. I was doing laps. I was doing the weapons run around the room. So that was fun. I love the placement of that little guy right over top of your shoulder right there, Derek, just so we can all see. Remember the one major sports national championship that's happened in this state? Oh, yeah.

It's right there. Well, thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you guys stopping by. We will see you tomorrow with another postgame show. So make sure to join us for that after game two against the guardians. Damon and OI will be in this building, hopefully with air conditioning. We got to make sure we get that figured out. But until then, follow us on Twitter.

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We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful evening. Hopefully go snakes. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you keep all of this stuff in-house.