PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Half & half

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are handing out midseason awards and are discussing your grades for the D-backs first half.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit and get a RISK-FREE BET UP TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis infused products that flavor life’s journey. If you’re interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGeez! Brands has to offer, go to https://ogeezbrands.com.FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. They have officially licensed gear for men, women and kids and everything from bobbleheads to swimsuits to crocs. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor of PHNX. This is the Thunderstick. He's Jesse Friedman. He's also the vice mayor. And we are bringing you, of course, the finest debacks coverage in all the valley. We are brought to you by the fine folks at the Drafking sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app.

Jesse, we got some mid-season awards to give away today, right? We do. We absolutely do. You got the trophies? Did you get the trophy? Did you pick up the trophies? Did you get the trophies? There should have been trophies.

There's supposed to be trophies. You paid for trophies. This is my idea. Can't you carry your weight it all around? I don't know. I don't do that. You know, I don't do that. I'm just here to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And how bad the second half might be for this team. Who are you giving these trophies to? Are you actually going to deliver our mid-season awards to the players? Do you think they would not like that? I, um... Do you think they wouldn't appreciate it? I had some sort of legitimacy maybe, but coming from one of us, I don't know if that would be legit enough for them to want to actually accept that award. What if it's bigger than the trophy that the WNBA gave to the MVP at their All-Star game?

I didn't see that. It was a very small trophy. It was pathetic, yes. We'll give bigger trophies than that. Those girls deserved a gigantic trophy. But, of course, someone that doesn't deserve a trophy is Dallas Keikle, who has been DFAed by the Arizona Diamondbacks. We had a feeling that this was going to happen, and it did kind of right. I don't know.

I feel like the Diamondbacks gave him enough opportunity, don't you think? Yeah, I think so. I mean, four starts, a 964 ERA. Opposing hitters, Derek, against Dallas Keikle when they were hitting, fared awfully well to the tune of a 329-407-564 batting line. I had someone reply on Twitter and say that Frank Thomas's career batting line was 301 419 555 so essentially it was sort of like every batter against Dallas Keikle was Frank Thomas which I think is kind of a heartless comparison to make it's only four starts but

no it's perfect unfortunately it was a pretty rough go for Dallas Keikle when he was here and it sounds like Corbyn Martin is going to be the guy that we're going to get in his place according to John Gamidoro he said look for that to happen yesterday so that's what we're expecting Who is that? John Gambadoro, the one and only. The one and only. He said a look for Corbyn Martin to step into the rotation, which I'm assuming is like the I'm 95% sure sort of thing coming from. I believe it from Gambo. He doesn't necessarily put stuff out there like that unless he's probably heard something.

I think Corbyn Martin, it makes sense. It's not, I don't think it's somebody kind of out of left field. I think it's somebody that has major league time already. They did reinstate Ian Kennedy from the 15-day injured list, and they have reinstated J.Bukakis from the 60-day injured list and have opted him to AAA Reno. Our first comment, what's the definition of insanity again? Welcome to the show, Ben.

We're glad to have you here. But yeah, it is what it is, right? They definitely gave him a chance, and honestly, the debacks have a pretty good track record with acquiring guys that have kind of been, let go by other teams and having them have value. Joe Manipli, being the great case for that.

Noe Ramirez and a few other pitchers in their bullpen have definitely been exactly that for them. Yeah, and Corbyn Martin's been really good in his last two starts. His last start on July 14th, so this is a week ago today. Eight innings, four hits, no runs, no walk, six strikeouts.

If you're going eight innings at a start pitching for the Reno Aces, you're definitely doing something right. And the start before that, six innings, one run, three walk, seven strikeouts, only two hits allowed. So a couple starts before that, not quite as good. But he's certainly finished his time off in Reno on a high note, at least what we think is the end of his time in Reno for the time being. Fingers crossed. We'll see.

Tommy Henry is another name that a lot of fans want to see as well, another guy that's had quite a good stretch. And we will. I mean, I think we're going to see Tommy Henry at some point. I think it's only a matter of time. But, yeah, it looks like we might not get that quite yet. The debacks do not have a game today, another off day for them. No, they don't. Which not all of the teams in Major League Baseball have the luxury of saying some of them had to play a double header today, which that kind of sucks, right?

Yeah. Coming out of the All-Star break and having to play a double header. And not only that, but not like not even on the weekend on Thursday, not even on Friday. Yeah, yeah. It's a pretty brutal schedule for some teams today. But the debacks are over here just lounging around with another off day. Although they are at the stadium today They are taking batting practice

I envision them like all around the pool right now Like just yeah They're not actually going to do any work while they're there Today's more of a more of a swimming party or something along those lines at chase field But I'm gonna guarantee they don't use that pool enough for that You think like just having a random like the team swim Yeah the team probably doesn't use this pool that much I'm gonna guess I yeah it kind of makes sense Speaking of schedule, though, the Diamondbacks have the third toughest schedule in the second half.

Oh, great. What do you think about that? Well, here is my thought is the Diamondbacks obviously have stepped up against the talented teams. We've seen them do that. So I don't know if I'm that worried about them having the third toughest stretch in baseball after the All-Star break. I mean, it starts with the Nationals, right? So you feel okay for maybe a few days. Juan Soto and the Nationals.

Yeah, Juan Soto. and who else. I mean, I don't know, but that guy is locked in. I don't want to see him right now. That guy. I want to see the home run derby champion right after the home run derby. He did just win that thing. But the nationals are 31 and 63.

So, um, yeah, I took the over on them winning 58 and a half games. Okay. What do you think about that for the nationals? Oh, the nationals. Yeah. Oh, for the devax. I was like, oh my gosh, I'd hope so. That's a take.

Um, okay, so 31 and 63. Wow, that's bad. 31 and 63 is really bad. Yeah. They're on pace to win 54, 53 games probably. Sure. Um, that's, that's got to be right around there because that's why they set the over under right there.

So tantalizing in the distance from, you know, uh, 55 wins or something. You know, you got 59 right there. 58 and a half. Yeah. So they would have to take, they'd have to win 59 or more games. Do you see that happening? I think that's, I mean, Any team finishing with like lower than 58 and a half wins is just kind of unlikely in general.

I know the nationals are really bad. But like, I mean, the Diamondbacks won 52 games last year. So of course, here I am saying this. It is possible. But it doesn't happen much. I mean, baseball is a sort of game where even the worst of teams tend to find their way to 60 wins when it's all set and done. So, I mean, if the nationals trade Juan Soto, it might be harder for them to get there. but this is the bet you made, Derek.

So we'll see what happens. Martinez says midseason. This team is mid. Foof, that's tough criticism, but fair. And I will say that Jesse actually has some pretty fair criticism of his own over at go phtonx.com. If you haven't had a chance to check out his pieces. Wait, criticism.

Is it all criticism? Is that all I write? I think, no, no, that's not necessarily the case. But you have a great opinion of this. this team, I think. And I feel like some of the work, especially you did with the draft picks, was phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, that one is up. There's a lot of work put into that piece. There are a lot of words, a lot of words in that article. Truth be told, I started with the intention of writing about all 20 draft picks after Drew Jones rather than just, rather than just

the first 10. But it is, it is pretty difficult. I mean, there is not that much information out there about some of those guys. And I think, you know, realistically with how the MLB draft works, you know, the first 10 rounds is probably where, you know, not to say it's impossible

for guys after that to make the big leagues, but, you know, after the 10th round, the probability of that happening drops off quite a bit. And there's also a fair number of those guys in the second half of the draft that probably won't sign anyway. So I focused on the first 10 rounds.

But, but yeah, it was fun to write. There's some good, some good solid talent in there. And the Diamondbacks, targeted a lot of college guys in those first 10 rounds. So some guys you might

see in the majors a little bit sooner than later. And of course you can get that over at go phtnx.com. If you haven't signed up to become a member yet, sign up, get an annual membership. You'll get a free t-shirt over at the phnx locker.com or if you sign up for a month-to-month membership, you will get your first month for just 50 cents.

Regardless of your membership status, you will get access to the members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker. The fine content from writers like Jesse. And of course, the members-only Discord, which is always a pop-in-place to be. We thank you guys in the Discord, by the way. You guys have been keeping us up to date on this team, for sure.

At things that I didn't even see how poorly the Diamondbacks were graded, but thanks to our Discord, I got to check that article out. And, of course, we will get to your grades as well as ESPN's grades on this team this year. But before we get to that, Jesse and I had some first half awards for the Arizona the Diamondbacks that we wanted to give out. Just a couple of, I guess, pieces of recognition for this team. We already did get some awards earlier, but this is now based on a solid first half.

And going into the All-Star game, of course, we saw them kind of fizzle out there a little bit beforehand. But, you know, it's to be predicted. And this team, of course, is on pace for what we expected them, I think, to do this season. But let's take a look at some of our awards. Are we going to go? Do we have the most valuable player first?

Yes, we do. Do we want to start with there? Yep. Let's start with the most valuable player. It looks like Jesse and I agreed on this one. It's Merrill Kelly. Oh, wow. You said Merrill Kelly.

I didn't expect to agree with on this one necessarily. How do you not? I mean, at this point, Merrill Kelly has been by far the most consistent player. The start of his season was great. I mean, he came back down to Earth a bit, but, you know, he has, I mean, he had like a one and a half ERA. They all did for like a month. Yeah, the whole pitching staff did, yes.

Yeah, Merrill Kelly is, I mean, a 3-26 ERA. He has nine wins. He's on pace to have like a 16 win season, which is something that Diamondbacks have not had many starters do recently. Something Zach Gallant can't even imagine. Oh, Zach Gallant, no, that would be like four seasons put together for Zach Callan, poor guy. No, so, yeah, Merrill is just how, I mean, he is just the model of. consistency. Merrill the mainstay, right? That's what Burke calls him on the TV side. And he's absolutely deserving of that title. He's been, you know, even though Zach Allen, I think, gets a lot of the

hype and, you know, he's the future ace of the staff and, and all this stuff. Merrill Kelly has been the Diamondback's most reliable starting pitcher, really for the last few years. Like, really, ever since he got here, even in, you know, he went through some bumps in the road early on. I mean, he even went through something incredible, which just, Jesse wrote about when it comes to. Yeah, thoracic outlet surgery. He worked his way back from that and has been really as good as ever since. He literally had a rib removed.

He did have a rib removed. He had a rib removed for this team. He didn't want to take the rib home. Like if you had a rib removed. I'd frame it. Yeah. How do you not frame it on a wall? Yeah.

I mean, come on. I'd put it in a shadow box with maybe a little like, you know, like document from the hospital where we did the surgery at or something. There you go. I'd make it adorable. Yeah, for some reason, Merrill said he didn't want it. He wanted to leave that part of his life behind him. So somewhere Merrill Kelly's rib still is floating in a little jar, presumably. I don't know what they do with those things afterwards.

How much would it go for on eBay? I'd rather not. I'd rather not. Okay, all right, that's fine. That's fine. Moving on, we have more awards to give out. We got our most improved player. And again, we agree again on Joe Mantiply.

I don't see how you couldn't, right? Jomantipli is, yeah, has been an incredible story for this team. But more than anything, he has an incredible season. O. Martinez wants to buy his rib. We'll figure out. Is that Meryl Kelly's rib or Jomantipli's rib? Oh, I don't know. We're talking about Mald.

Well, I mean, no, we're not having thoracic outlet surgery just to be giving ribs away. Okay, so it has to be. Look, see, now everybody wants a rib. But Joe Manspoi obviously has had an incredible season. Again, he came down to Earth there. He was doing some superhuman things at one point this season. But when you set a major league baseball record, like I said, for this Godforsaken sport that's been around for like a thousand years, it's pretty impressive. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, his ERA is like more than doubled in the last like couple of weeks leading up to the All-Star break. So his numbers looked a lot better than this, not that long ago. But yeah, I mean, 38 strikeouts compared to two walks. He's faced more than 100 batters here this season and has walked two of them, which is just insane. So the trade rumors are swirling, Derek. So we'll see if Joe Mantipa is still here in a couple weeks. I know he gave a pretty darn good audition in the All-Star game with a three-up, three-down, nine-pitch inning.

So we'll have to see. If it was a Mr. Universe contest, he went out and flexed on him hard, just he flexed those muscles. Ben says, too many ribs, not enough RBIs, am I right? Oh, my God. I love this chat. All right. Best single game performance. What do we got?

No, we did it again. Did we agree again? Oh, my gosh. Well, how do you not? Three home runs? Three home runs. At Wrigley Field, especially a place that Josh Rojas wanted to play so bad. He didn't get the opportunity to go there on the road trip last season.

And man, did he show up and show out in his debut? That was his debut there, right? Or maybe it was a second. game. It was a first series there for sure. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, the wind was hardcore blowing out that day. There were a lot of home runs hit in this game. But no, we're not here to take anything away from Joshua Hoss.

A three homer game is special no matter where it happens, no matter how much the wind is blowing out of the ballpark. So that was a fun game for him that I know he's going to remember for a long time. Absolutely, absolutely. And I'm proud of us. Look at us. It's like we do a show together and talk about this. Yeah, we're a lot more in sync here than I wish we disagree on one of these. I know. We'll see what's happening.

I think we do. We got what. Yeah, spoiler alert. That's where the agreement ends. All right, let's go. Best Defender. Do we want Derek or Jesse first? We'll take Jesse's first.

Jesse's Best Defender. Christian Walker. Yeah, we did. If you pick someone else, you're just wrong. I mean, here's the thing is I knew you were going to pick Christian Walker. Uh, because obviously his 13 defense, because that's the right answer. It's the 13 defensive runs saved, right? But, uh, again, defensive runs saved is a stat that none of us have any idea what that means.

We have no idea what goes into that, Jesse. Ah, that's fair. That's fair. Uh, I mean, it's fairly basic, right? 13 defensive runs saved theoretically. I mean, this is not like, like you couldn't track through his season and pick out all the 13 runs that he saved exactly. That's not really how it's meant to work. Right.

For sure. It's supposed to be like an estimate of the number of runs that a play. saved over like an average defender at their position. It's like war in a way, right? Sort of. Yeah, it's a comparison with like a replacement level sort of player. And some, you know, some guys wind up with negative defensive run saved, which means that they are, you know, below, below average when it comes to their defense.

So, but Christian Walker, Derek, I mean, he is not only among the leaders at first base in some of these defensive categories. He's among the leaders in all of baseball, which is wild because he's a first baseman. And first basemen are almost... They just don't have that opportunity to get that many defensive runs. Yeah, it's really hard to be an impactful defensive player at first base. You know, you can kind of do the most with the opportunities you have, but it's hard to like, you know, be up there with short stops and center fielders when it comes to the best defenders in the game. According to the numbers, Christian Walker is like in the top 10 in all of baseball among all positions in both of those stats and outs above average and defensive run saved.

So I think it's sort of a no-brainer that Christian Walker is the best defend, at least the most valuable defensive player on this team this year. Oh, I've been saying war like war for a long time, by the way. I don't, is it, is it, is it, is it war? Am I said, I think the way that you just said it, you had said war. I said war. Yeah, because it definitely got me off the guard a little bit too. War. But we also have my best defender, which I think.

is allowable. Oh, that's fair. When it comes to Alec Thomas. I went with the most electric defender is what I went with. We imagined what we would see out of Alec Thomas in center field and what he's doing exceeds that by far. I think that just how comfortable he is with making some of those plays like in that graphic right there. Some of those wall catches that he's made that he makes look effortless that honestly, most center fields we've seen play the position wouldn't even make an attempt at that or would,

would look foolish in doing so. He's just insanely athletic. It's incredible. Yeah. And I mean, to be fair, you know, if you were to put Christian Walker in centerfield and and have him try to make some of those same plays, they would certainly not be made. There it is. There it is.

Christian Walker is, you know, the best of like what he does. But if you put him in a harder spot, he probably would not be as successful. So apparently now I'm Wario. Wario. All right. Most chaotic moment this season. there we go I mean come on

I think I I mean I probably know what yours is going to be but let's not forget this one this one this one was one of two and John Lipka absolutely lost his mind he absolutely did so this is

this is the situation where Zach Allen and John Lipka you know they're kind of getting at it a little bit Zach Allen's not so happy about some of these borderline pitches not going his way and then John Libca

like I think it's in between at bats starts to literally walk up and approach the diamond back starting pitcher and Jose Herrera the diamond back sketcher has to like get in his way and try to protect his pitcher from the umpire which is a bizarre bizarre thing to happen

to this day I wonder what he said what John Libca said like out loud because you you don't just get up and do that based on the umpire walking around you and and you know getting ready to talk to Galen like I feel like there was a this motherfucker slipped in there or something right like just something that made him go sure There was something that made Joseaara go. Oh, oh, this is about to go crazy

And it almost did it kind of did what do you think happens if her doesn't get in the way like what like if the umph actually gets the gallon Well my thought is is that we have do we have John Lipka and Zach Gallen like throwing punches at each other No, but I think imagine imagine I think Gallen would take offense to John Lipka watching out and kind of stepping up to him like that. Yeah. So I think Gallen at that point, even though he's, for the most part, like a pretty calm guy. Like, he's one of the most laid bad pitchers.

Yeah, he's not mad bum out there. Right. I feel like there's a point where you feel like someone's crossed the line. Yeah. And it almost felt like Libco was trying to bait him into that. Yeah. Which is exactly what we saw with my most chaotic moment, which was the hand massage. Of course.

I don't know how you don't think of. this because as chaotic as that was, Gallons stayed on the mound. The Diamondbacks lost Mad Bum over this crazy shit. They tossed him after one inning pitched. That was one of the craziest things I ever seen. I was literally, this was chaotic for me because I was running around my house, like trying to understand what was going on. It didn't make any sense to me.

They like cut to a commercial break while the whole thing was going on. So, and that was getting stuff on Twitter that was saying Madbum had been tossed. It was wild. But again, it was another moment of an umpire just really stepping kind of over the line. And then kind of, again, baiting the starting pitcher into that situation, right? Yeah, we, I mean, we got a jamboy breakdown out of this situation. So, like, was it really bad in the end? Anything that leads to a jamboy breakdown is always, is always fun in my mind.

But, but yeah, Dan Bolino just went absolutely berserk. Tamolino lost his mind. Yeah. And that was weird. Both of these situations were, right? Like both of these situations were like what really started it. Like with Mad Bum, I think Dan Bolino actually admitted that it was the fact that there was a rookie umpire behind on plate and that Mad Bum's kind of gripes towards him. He felt like he was kind of, I guess, sticking up for him or whatever.

Right. Right, right. Obviously, to me, what he was admitting is that he was taking into personal feelings and the way people were talking to people instead. stuff when literally baiting Mad Bum into getting tossed out of the game. It's wild shit. Yeah, that was, I mean, I think that's probably the craziest, like maybe even most memorable moment to come out of the season. That in, I mean, the Seth Beer opening day situation.

My God. Most memorable, that's probably the most memorable. That was a pretty chaotic situation for me and Mac because we were, we were right in the middle of it out there on Jefferson. So that was a lot of fun. You had people like trying to make out with you as they were walking by. There was a woman that kissed me live on air, and I'm still trying to find her. So, you know, I'm on Twitter at cap underscore caveman with a cat.

That's all I'm putting out there. Of course, if you guys have your own moments, please send them to us on Twitter. We'd love to talk about it. We're going to talk about your grades for the debacks in the first half. But of course, we want to let you guys know. This show is brought to you by our friends at OG's gummies. If you haven't tried them already, already, make sure to find OGs near you at a dispensary near you. must be 21 years or older to purchase,

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That's OGEEZ brands. You can find their products at your local dispensary. Again, must be 21 years or older to purchase. And also, our friends at Four Peaks, where we will be next Wednesday. All of us, not me, not just me, not just this guy. Everybody, Jacob, Shonda Paz, Asu crew, Cardinals, everybody will be there. We will be hanging out, bringing you all of our shows live from Four Peaks, especially our show, which will be, I think we're slated last because we will be doing our post series show next Wednesday as well.

So make sure to come down to Four Peaks. Join us. If you can't join us on YouTube, grab yourself some Four Peaks from your local convenience store. They have a wide variety of beers to offer. And of course, it's amazing. But we are all going to be here at Four Peaks, Eighth Street Pub. That's 1304 East, 8th Street, and Tempe all day on July 27. So again, make sure to join us. Come on down. I'm going to be. going off to Disneyland the next day. So give me advice on surviving that as a parent. It's not easy. That is an undertaking. Just go to the cars ride.

You get to kill two hours in line, but it's worth it. Hey, I like that. Cars ride is amazing. And also, you get to stand still for a little while. I like it. I like it. By the way, you've got to be 21 years or older and enjoy responsibly the four peaks. Also, we have our toast to the month sweepstakes at go phtonx.com, where you can

win yourself a four-peaks $50 gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. So make sure to go to go PHNX.com and sign up to win that. We just gave away our Star Wars t-shirt or button-up shirt. That was the big prize this month, right? Oh, yeah. That was highly sought after. But of course, we have your guys' grades for this. We have your guys' grades for the first half. We saw an article on ESPN giving grades to the Dbacks where they gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a D plus for the first half of their season. Yikes. Pretty, again, pretty scathing, a little judgmental.

I think a big part of this obviously is that they don't really care about the fact that this is the same team from last year, essentially. Yeah. With some missing components that has done a much better job this year than last year. But I get where they're coming from. I don't think this is too far off base, considering that the team is 12 games below 500. Yeah, I mean, it just seems to me like it doesn't really take into account the expectations for the team. Correct. I think if you had told any of us that the Diamondbacks are going to be 40 and 52 at the halfway point,

like we wouldn't be stoked. I mean, we wouldn't be like, oh my gosh, that's incredible. But I think we would think of that as being probably an above average outcome, right? After last season, for sure. Yeah, after last season. So what would you put your grade at for this team? I'm between a C plus and a B minus. I think it's one of those two.

I would maybe, I'll lean in. I think I'll probably say a B minus just because the Diamondbacks have made some pretty big strides this season as a team. And that's not to say that they are a finished product or anywhere close to being a true contender in this league yet. But, you know, if you were looking at what you want to. out of the 2022 season realistically. You're not going to go from 52 wins to 95, right?

You're not going to go from 52 wins to 85. And the Diamondbacks are on pace to go from 52 wins to 70. And in my mind, that's not like, you know, that's not perfect. That's not the very best that I could have imagined. I pegged them to win 75 games this season. But 70 is pretty close to that. And 75 was even pretty bullish at the beginning to predict that the team would win 23 more games than they did last year. So there's still some, you know, there's still some things to be

worked out. I think the bullpen has, um, has faltered in a lot of ways. It's sort of Joe Man to apply Kyle Nelson and then everyone else who's just been pretty up and down over there. Um, but all in all, I mean, we've, I think we've seen some good things from this team this season. And I think it's a, been a pretty good stepping stone for them. Uh, Nicholas in the comments that a C plus seems more fair. They are who we thought they were, maybe a little bit better from last year. Uh, and I, I, I think that's where I'm at. I think I'm around at C plus. And again, if this team can win 20 or more games before or than they did last season, I can't see how you can't give them a B or better, right?

Because it really is about digging your way kind of out of a hole you're in. The Diamondbacks didn't go out and get any high-priced free agents. They added Mark Melanson and Ian Kennedy, both of which really arguably haven't worked, right? Like they haven't been great. They haven't been the back end bullpen guys that they wanted them to be where they could confidently rely on them to, you know, close games. And yeah, I have a couple squeak through. But I feel like with Melanson now, within the organization, they have to be feeling that same amount of anxiety that we as fans feel watching him come in and try to close out a game. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but I do like the direction of the team. I do think that they did good things this season. I like that they have basically secured their future with the extensions that they gave to Merrill Kelly and Cotel Marte. Alec Thomas coming up and being allowed to not only stay here and thrive, but to learn from his mistakes and not have, you know,

like obviously has options left. He could be sent back down. But he's one of the best hit players on this team. And even if he does have a bit of a regression, it's worthwhile to just leave him up here and have him, you know, not have that up and down experience. that a lot of minor leaguers go through when they get called up. Yeah.

It's totally a natural part of, you know, your progression as a minor leaguer to be sent back down. But Alec Thomas, to me, just doesn't seem like that. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't expect that to happen. We've seen it across, you know, Spencer Torkelson got sent down. There's a couple of great minor league players that have been sent down already by their teams. Ben said in the comments, what's most disappointing is a lot of the young hitters not hitting very well, which I do understand. I mean, I think Alec Thomas has sort of been pretty. respectable, right? Like in his first year at 22 years old, I wasn't necessarily expecting him to hit 300 or anything right out of the gate. But there are some guys. I mean, I think it looked like Dalton Varsho was on the verge of a breakout season. And we haven't really seen that from him. His numbers offensively this year are eerily similar to where they were last year, maybe even a touch below that point. So I think you'd like to see some better things there. Paven Smith is another name that comes to mind is a guy that, you know, you know, you. Yeah.

You wondered if he might be a part of the future here. And he still absolutely could be. But it just hasn't, you know, what he was before getting sent down to Reno. And unfortunately, now he has the injury. He just wasn't a guy that looked like he was part of your future. So, and then, yeah, Seth Beard as well. That's another name that there was all sorts of hype and, you know, things look great for him early in the season. But it didn't last very long.

And he sort of struggled in Reno through this season. Yeah, for sure. And not only that, but I think Chris Melton said it in the chat. We spent money on staff. I stand by my B plus. I like her saying that. And I mean, honestly, that's really what it comes down to is what Brent Strom's done with the pitchers. And honestly, Joe Mather is relatively inexperienced.

This is his first stint as a pitching coach. I still think that he's done. I mean hitting. Hitting. Hitting coach, excuse me. As the actual hitting coach. But I feel like, you know, I still feel like he has made a big impact on. this team and again I don't know I mean in some cases you talk about the number of

coaches that players on this team have had over the last you know four years yeah it's it's kind of been a bit of a merry go round at times so it takes a little while for stuff to resonate and I know I said that early on I'm not giving that as an excuse any longer but I still think that Joe Mather has done a great job at improving the offense from what we saw last season that at times was abysmal I think who who was it that had the most home runs last year and wasn't it like 15 or something? Well, I mean it depends on if Eduardo Escobar counts or not.

Oh yeah. I think he had the most but guys on the active roster, yeah, it was not a very high number. It was probably in the low, low teen, something like that. But we have your grades for the first half of the season and let's take a look at some of those. Our friend

Charles, Cactus on Ice, he sends a C, the offense struggles to produce consistently and I don't trust anyone in the bullpen not named Mantiply, and even he's starting to show cracks in recent games, but at least they are completely, they are completely crapping themselves like last year. I think he means they aren't. And he's right about that. That's very true.

And again, I think C is fair. I don't know what I mean. I think a C grade is fair. What else do we got? King of Pores. That's our buddy. Ron. Ron says C plus.

It's refreshing to have young guys playing every day instead of letting pass their prime. veterans stealing at bats. They have to clean up their play against L.A. San Diego because some of those games have been outright unwatchable. Well said, especially against the Dodgers. Yeah. Oh, man. Chris says, I'm actually going B-plus here, which she said in the chat.

While I have big feelings about bullpen and starting pitching depth, the team is largely what I expected. I see potential and growth in this placeholder season, which again, I think she definitely is right about that. Jacob Franklin from here at PHNX has a solid B. Exciting to watch letting the kids play. And I think that's going to be a theme is I think we're all excited about seeing Buddy Kennedy and Alec Thomas and, you know, Heraldo Pardomo and some of these young guys play. Even if they're not having the best season, it's about them growing and getting better every day as Major League Baseball players.

Yeah, I think we want to see more of that youth movement, right, going into the second half. I mean, that's going to be a huge part of this season down the stretch, too. So, yeah, that's a big one for sure. And that's a big part of Kyle Collins B plus that he gave, doing what a team not in contention should be doing, letting the young kids play, Varshi, Alec, Perdomo. Starting pitching is showing improvements in the bullpen isn't a complete disaster. It could go up to an A-minus if they handled the deadline well. And I wonder what let us know in the comments what you guys think of the trade deadline.

I mean, obviously, Christian Walker's name is now being thrown. throwing around. Joe Mantipa. It's the best players on the team, of course. Yeah. Again, there's not a worse, I don't think it's a bad scenario considering that the Diamondbacks do have young players that would get an opportunity to play. But Christian Walker, that kind of bums me out. He's had an outstanding season for this team. And I hate to see, you know, him go at this point. But those home runs are very, very enticing. It's very sexy to a team right now who might be looking to add some power to their lives.

lineup. And of course, you don't know if he's going to continue this hot streak that he's been on because he's on a bit of an unprecedented power streak for at least his career. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean, Christian Walker is, I think everyone's kind of understood that the raw power is in there. But he hasn't necessarily shown it in a season consistently. I think he had 29 home runs back in 2019. Had a decent year in 2020 as well. But yeah, I mean, this is the first year where he's genuinely on pace to hit, you know, upwards of 40 home runs. I think that's about what he's on pace for right now. So, yeah, other teams are going to be interested in him, Derek.

Gambo sent out a tweet earlier today saying that Zach Davy, or I think it was Joe Mansepline and Christian Walker were the ones drawing the most interest with Zach Davies also in the mix, along with David Peralta. So, yeah, it's really tricky to figure out what Christian Walker's value will be just because he is a right-handed hitting first baseman. He's about to make a lot more money in arbitration because of all the home runs. So, you know, he's not like a slam dunk. You can ask for a King's Ransom at the trade deadline sort of a situation.

But he's definitely a player that teams are going to be interested in and the fact that he's, you know, one of the best defenders in all of baseball, according to the numbers, is definitely going to help his case. And I think we got a couple of more grades or just the, Just this scaling one. Wow. It's an F until your 500. No exception says George Alper cannot be denied.

Wow. You're a tough teacher. I would hate to land in your class. I'm feeling there's no curve there. I don't know. I mean, to an extent, I get what he's saying. Like, you want to see a team be at least 500, and it's hard to think of them having a successful season if they're not.

But you can't just expect it. You can't just expect it to happen overnight from one season or the next. Yeah. The Orioles are making that happen somehow, some way right now. They are. They are. Who knows if they can even keep it up for the second half. But you can bet on the second half, all sorts of future options and other great enticing bets over at the Drafking Sportsbook app.

If you haven't signed up already, do so using our code of PHNX. You make a deposit, you'll get a risk-free bet up to $1,000. That's promo code PHNX only at the DHS. Draft King's Sportsbook, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply, see show notes for details. Jesse, they also have some options on there to bet on the World Series champion based on state. Interesting. So you can throw a bet on New York and if the Mets or the Yankees win it, then you win your bet. Same thing with California and a couple of other states that have some pretty good contenders in there.

So that's an interesting bet. But do you want to take a guess on who the betting odds favorite is for the national League MVP? I'd rather not. You know who it is. It's Paul Goldschmidt. It is Paul Goldsman. It's Paul Goldschman, you guys.

So we'll see. That's interesting to me because he is for the NL and Shohei Otani is for the A.O. And I'm not saying that they aren't the best players in those divisions because right now they are. Yeah. Does it mean the same thing if you don't lead your team to the playoffs? I mean, does that impact an MVP vote for you personally, not leading your team? to the playoffs. Because here's what I think.

I understand how a player can still be very valuable on a bad team. I get that. Yeah. But I also feel like how much value are you adding when your team lost 100 games? Yeah, I just don't really think baseball works that way, though. I know. I know. Like if Paul Goldschmidt has like a, you know, eight or nine wins above replacement season, like, like, objectively, you know, he had an incredible season.

And the fact that his teammates were not good enough to take him to the playoffs, potentially. I mean, the Cardinals certainly could. Sure. Oh, yeah, they're going to be in their mix. There, yeah, they'll probably be in the middle. But like Otani is a perfect example of that, right? Yeah, like the Angels probably not winning more than 75 games. And Otani, but he is.

He is the most valuable player in my heart. Yeah. I love him. I don't think it matters. He's on my team. I don't think it can really matter how many wins they come away with. In baseball, it's just not a bearing of who you. are as a player. In other sports, I think you could make a case that it is, but in baseball,

it is a team sport, but not in the same way that other sports are. One of the newest Arizona Diamondbacks Brett Johnson tweeted, 2013 D-backs were mid as A.F, but Goldie 100% deserved MVP over Cutch, and he's totally right about that. So I guess that pokes a hole in my entire point. I guess I was making. But I'm not surprised to see those guys as betting odds favorites, just at times for me when the MVP comes around for any sports. sport. I feel like that's a factor. Yeah. At least to me, but...

I mean, it's definitely going to play into the conversation for sure. Motion says it should be called the best player award. He's right. That's what it should be called. I like that much better. Wow. Ben says hot take Sandy Alcantra should win both N. L. Syong and MVP. Wow. Honestly, I mean, I mean, if we're really treating it as MVP, like, has anyone the National League been as valuable as Sandy Alcounter? I mean, he's throwing like eight innings every single time out. Not at all.

It's pretty, pretty crazy what that guy's done. Not at all. But of course, we thank you guys for checking out the show. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you again for having lunch with us on behalf of Jesse and myself. You guys have yourselves a great day. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you give the Diamond back's a higher grade than an F for not being at 500 at the all-star break.