PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Has Torey Lovullo become a candidate for National League Manager of the Year?

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Senior writer for The Athletic Andy McCullough joins the show to discuss his assessment of MLB’s playoff picture, the national perspective on the Diamondbacks, and who he would want to face in the Wild Card round if he were the Snakes. We also unleash our Power Rankings for this week and discuss if Torey Lovullo has emerged as a candidate for the National League Manager of the Year.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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. 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 into another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor, the PHNX, this man, in charge of all the electricity in town. Sean DePaz. And of course, it's my vice mayor, your thunderstake, Jesse Friedman. And we are very excited to be joined today by Andy McCullough from The Athletic to talk about the MLB playoffs and Diamondbacks baseball. Andy, thank you so much

for being here, man. Hey, thanks for having me. Yes, so the Arizona Diamondbacks, I know that we have our feelings about them, but what is your thoughts on what this team has accomplished this year and kind of the way they've emerged from where they were two seasons ago to kind of

now being here part of the playoff race and being a competitive young team that's fairly fun to watch. Yeah, I feel like the Diamondbacks sort of in this era like under Mike Hazen and Tori Lavello, like their brand has always been like competence, right? Like they catch the baseball. They play clean baseball. Like they tend to play hard. They take extra bases, all that sort of stuff. And that benefits from the fact that there's a significant amount of incompetent, you know, teams across the sport. And this is kind of. And then, you know, the group that they've assembled now, though, with like, you know, Corbyn Carroll and Gabrielle Marrile. Moreno and Zach Gallen, like they have like star power to match that in a way that,

and young star power in a way that they kind of didn't, you know, in that earlier incarnation. I'm thinking closer to like, you know, like 2017, 2018, those clubs. So yeah, I mean, you know, they've, they've had a successful year, you know, that they will most likely make the postseason, which is, you know, a good achievement. Obviously, like it's been, I imagine some frustrated for you guys, like watching them, especially in July when the club just kind of like fell up. part. But it's credit to them that they've kind of rectified things. They righted the ship after, you know, because August wasn't much better, but they're in a decent spot. You know, like, I think

they, they are a, like a team that is not brutal to watch, I think, which is nice, right? Like, because they have, like, exciting players. They, they don't play, like, sloppy games. Like, so it's a, it's a good aesthetic experience in addition to being, like, a decent club. So it's, you know, It's a plus for me. I don't mind it. Yeah, there was a lot of frustration with fans when you talk about that aspect of being fun to watch with, you know, like they were very fun to watch. But they blew a lot of games with the bullpen not being able to hold leads late and things like that. It really does feel, though, like lately due to some roster changes and some other kind of key pickups to change their bullpen that they made, that things are much better.

Like it doesn't have that feeling of dread over the last couple of weeks when they get late in a game. and have maybe a small lead that the bullpen isn't necessarily going to blow it. Like it felt at like a time where you could almost guarantee that if a game was close, things were on the line. You didn't feel very good about this bullpen holding the game. But things have changed. And that particular one thing, it feels like it's made it more fun for Diamondbacks fans to watch this team late. But this is a tough national league.

And I know for the most part, we've talked a lot about how good the, Braves and the Dodgers are versus kind of the rest of the field. So I guess do you think that it's a fair assessment that the Dodgers and the Braves are kind of a distant gap between them and the rest of the National League teams? Yeah, I mean, and I think this year there's a pretty significant gap between the Braves and the Dodgers. I mean, the Braves to me are just such a relentless offensive machine. I think it's going to be really challenging. If their lineup is clicking, It's going to be really challenging for anyone to beat them this postseason. But whatever, you can say that about teams every year, right?

The Dodgers last year were like a 120 true talent win team and went out in their first round. But yeah, I mean, I think that Atlanta and, you know, Los Angeles have sort of, they've got kind of a perpetual motion machine in some ways. I mean, with Atlanta, it's pretty simple and that they've like locked up their core for the next like six years. Like all of their players are, you know, fairly young. and, you know, on kind of team-friendly extensions. So they're just kind of like a juggernaut. You can all those guys play every day too.

So you can just like pencil in that lineup for the next like two or three years. And with the Dodgers, they just, they are addicted to winning. Like they are just like incapable of not winning kind of like it. They fall out of bed. Yeah, they fall out of bed and win. Like, you know, and a lot of that, right, is a credit to. you know, the institutional culture that's been, you know, led, you know, led by Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts. And, and the fact that, like, every day Dave Roberts gets to start his lineup with

Freddie Freeman and Muky Betts, like, and just those two guys are, you know, such, like, you know, that gives you just such a head start on the rest of the sport when you're able to have two, those two players at the top of your lineup. And so, yeah, I mean, I feel like the rest of the league, you know, there was a thought, especially in Los Angeles, they felt that the Padres were going to be a real significant contender this year. Obviously, San Diego is, you know, flamed out as they tend to do. And, you know, and I think there's like, at least with the Dodgers, right, there's like a healthy respect for the D-Backs. Because again, as I said, like, they play good baseball. Like, they play hard. Like, they're, you know, not an easy out. But I think it just

in talent, there's a, there's a decent gap there for sure. Yeah. Andy, would you say, you know, from the Diamondbacks perspective, there's been this perception for years that even if the Diamond Backs do come around and they develop some good young players as they have this year. And, you know, we've started to see some of that success pan out this year. There's still the sense that, you know, as you said, the Dodgers just roll out of bed and they just win. And, you know, they just clinched another NLS title. They win the NLS basically every single season. It's just sort of a given. It's just kind of an assumption going into every year at this point. Are the Diamondbacks kind of in a position where, you know, sure, they can make the playoffs. They can make some know.

but they're basically going to have to do it via the wild card every year for seemingly forever because the Dodgers are just doing what the Dodgers do. Sorry, I have to move my cat. He's being very challenging. That's all right. The cat can join us for sure. No, it's more that he's like actively trying to close my laptop. Yeah, he's like, is this a Diamondbacks podcast?

Let's get rid of this. Yeah. Yeah, this is his shift at the Being Bad factory. So, he's here. Anyway, yeah, so I guess, like, the, you know, the point you're making, like, are they are the Diamondbacks, like, perpetually assigned to the wild card? Not exactly. However, like, it's a significant, you know, mountain facing them every single year.

Just have a team as well financed, as well run as the Dodgers, a team that, you know, tends to like one they've they've like hit on some of their major long-term free agent guys two they've been able to you know overcome the mistakes they've made in free age zing no guys like signing treber bow has you know affected their reputation like with around the league but didn't affect their like day-to-day performance per se right like it was embarrassing but they still won a ton of games um with Arizona the idea has always been they need to kind of assemble a wave of prospects, right, like who can come in. And so it's all of a sudden you can actually like see, okay, this is what, you know, a real starting nine who looks like, right? And there's

some guys who are, you know, like already there, right? Like Carol's part of that. Marino's part of that. Imagine Jordan Lawler supposed to be part of it. You know, Drew Jones would theoretically be part of it, right? And so if you can get like, like theoretical all-star players, you know, all together at once, then you have a chance to actually compete. But it just makes it harder to do it for longer than like a two, three, maybe four year window, probably closer to two or three. You know, it just, it just means you kind of have to really protect your bullets and not, you know,

try it. Like you have to understand the years where you don't have a real chance to compete and versus the years where, you know, like you're when, if all those guys are up and they're sort of 24 to 27, like that's the time. You know, that's the time to try and overtake them. But it's just hard to sync it up. I mean, it's just a real challenge. It seems like for the Diamondbacks this year, I mean, as we were talking about before we hopped on here, you know, if you let 36 hours pass, the wild card standings change dramatically.

And, you know, like who you're playing in the first round, who you're playing the second round changes, you know, very rapidly in this competitive environment that we have right now. If you're the debacks right now, Andy, this is sort of the million dollar question that we've been trying to answer. Do you want the Brewers in the first round or the Phillies, if those are your two options? Oh, that's a good question. Well, the Phillies sometimes might just stop hitting for two days. The problem is, but also the Brewers never really hit. But the Brewers always pitch. I don't know.

I mean, I guess you'd just rather play the Brewers. I think the Phillies are probably a slightly better team. And they just have, they have star power. Hold on. I'm sorry. I'm going to, I need to actually physically move this cat. Oh, no, that's what. that's fine sometimes pets get in the way of our podcast and we are fine with that we are absolutely fine with that but um we are definitely uh thrilled to have andy here and make sure to check out uh his book that he's releasing next spring uh it's the last of his kind clayton kershaw and the burden of greatness there's a big market for that book here in Arizona I know you guys are a big baseball book guy in general yeah I've been reading a lot of baseball books I have been to yeah baseball books uh I find them fascinating

especially because at times we really do know very little about things like famous incidents that happen things that happen you know championship seasons that happen and like it's always great to get that insight but and he's back and of course sorry guys no that's fine again his cats being bad but that's fine we're fine with that we are big fans of cats around here Baxter we know him but yeah so we were also talking about like of course the playoff format. And we've kind of had some disagreements here in house about the 12 team playoff format,

how the, you know, the 162 game season at times can come down to, you know, allowing these extra teams in and, and it even seems like a disadvantage maybe a little bit for the teams that have won the most games in baseball. So what are your thoughts on the way it is? Because I will say, we do also find it very exciting considering this allowed the Diamondbacks to be a part of this wildcard race for so long. Yeah, I mean, I was not a fan of expanding the playoffs. I think they were already sort of over expanded. I think just because it incentivizes teams to race towards the middle rather than race towards the top. Yeah. Because you have teams who will just sort of shoot for winning 88 games every year, knowing that that'll probably get you in the postseason

mix. And that, you know, tends to suppress the market for players. But more importantly, for the fans, it makes it so that teams are less willing to be aggressive at the trade deadline because what you're actually acquiring has less value, especially in terms of rentals. You know, there's the constant like, well, you know, do we really want to, you know, get a rental to go for a wildcar spot or whatever, right? And so, but like, it's fine. It's also, it's fine. Like I've had a chance to watch, you know, just for work.

I've had to watch a lot of teams that are kind of in the like 86 to 90 win range, which like is okay you know it's like sort of you know above average baseball is all right you know most of those teams have like two or three good players that's good um yeah i mean i think it's fine um i don't i have like i have absolutely zero sympathy for the top seeds if they lose after a break i just i do like if teams use that as an excuse absolute loser shit like win the games in front of like the Houston Astros had a had time off last year ran the table like no problem the best team wins like I just that part of it like doesn't matter what the format is the best team the team the team that plays the best will win basically but yeah I wasn't I wasn't crazy about expanding

the postseason I'm I'm conflicted myself just because I do like the more exciting you know fact of of you know more teams making it in and what that can mean for just fans watching baseball and being able to root on their team I also like the idea of, you know, obviously the balanced schedule playing more teams, getting to see more teams that we don't normally see. But even that now kind of seems like it's drifted away because, like, we played so many teams within our division for the purpose of deciding a true winner of that division. And now that that's even less, like it feels like the, I don't know, it's like the 162 game season at times feels like it conflicts with all of these changes that they're

trying to make as far as the expanded, you know, schedule and expanding the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I think for fans, the obvious fix would be to go to like 154 game season. But like fans don't really have a say in it, right? It's between the players and the owners and the players will do not want to give up the salary. They would be, you know, like they would be sacrificing with that. And the owners aren't going to pay you 162 game wage for 154 game season. And so it would like, it would redo the salary structure in a way that's just kind of intractable, I think. So yeah, you know, it is what it is.

Still a good product, you know, pitch clock's great. But I made thoughts on the, obviously with the new playoff format, like the lack of a game 163 and the tiebreaker. Something that Jesse brought up on the show the other day, like a series against the Marlins way back in April or whatever it was could ultimately decide whether or not the Diamond Max make the playoffs. Thoughts on that. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely, I think from a terms of like the cleanliness of the narrative, right, game 163 is better. Yeah. You know, like I remember covering the 2018 Dodgers when I was at the LA Times. And that year with the Dodgers, the Rockies and the debacks were all very, very close at the end. And there was kind of a three-way race down to the last day. And then the Dodgers ended up playing the Rockies in game 163 and winning the division. And that was like a super exciting, you know, week or so.

You know, so losing that, I think is a bummer. But the counter is that you get another round of. the postseason that sort of functions in that way. It just doesn't have like, like game 163 sounds cool. Like, oh, we're playing game 163, right? Whereas like, we're in the, we're in the American League wildcard round. Like, no, that sucks. Like, game 163, that's the, you know, it's, but it's, it's really, you know, it's six, like,

they're just different versions of the same thing, which is elimination baseball in October, which is fun. Yeah. Andy, uh, later on in the show, we're going to talk about Tori Lavello and, and his opportunity to potentially, you know, win the manager of the year award. That's sort of a trend here in Arizona every time the Diamondbacks make the playoffs, their manager inevitably wins manager of the year. It's happened. And the last three times this team has made the postseason dating back almost 20 years. It's a prerequisite, actually. It somehow seems to be just ingrained into the

universe. But what I want to ask you is just about the manager of the year award in general and how fortunately I'm not voting for manager of the year this year but I I feel like I never would really want to because it's just it's an impossible thing to really judge for us as outsiders I mean I think we as as writers and reporters we maybe see you know five percent of what a manager actually does on a day-to-day basis and so we wind up just basing it off of these narratives of like expectations coming into the season versus what teams actually accomplished to me it just seems like an impossible award. And I don't know if we're allowed to get rid of it. I don't know if I see that happening. But it just seems kind of silly the way that it's set up. Yeah. I mean,

I mean, yeah, explained it pretty well, I think. You know, I don't vote for the BBWAA awards. I don't vote for the Hall of Fame. I just, they don't pay me for it. And so it's not worth the time to invest in it. If they offer me money, I'd consider it. respect. Dude, like you, man, like, you know how hard it is to try and decide, like, who's going to win a Sy Young every year? That's crazy to be here. The Cy Young's impossible now, you know?

Anyway, yeah, I think, Jesse, the points you made with manager of the year, I totally agree. Like, I think it's a, it's a nice idea as an award, because I think it is nice to recognize, you know, that you should, you know, I think it's a nice idea to recognize a manager for, like, doing a job that's above and beyond. But it's really impossible to know. There's so much limited information. And even with, even if you really know a team intimately well,

you're probably only getting, you're not getting a hundred percent, certainly of everything that goes on within the clubhouse within day-to-day decision making. And then extrapolate that for a 14 other team voting pool. Like it's just, it's kind of impossible to, to decide.

So but like I don't know I the BBWAA will never will never push towards giving up one of our awards and so I don't I don't foresee that in the future and so you just kind of look at it as like like you reward some manager who everyone's team picked to finish fourth who ended up finishing second and it's like all right well nice for that guy. I hope you had a bonus or something attached to it. So we talked a little bit about the gap in the National League there between the Braves and the Dodgers, right? But are there any wildcard teams that you find to be dangerous? Is there any teams that you think that could make you a splash? I mean, I know we're very realistic about it here and about the difference in the competition level, right? But at the same time, it is the playoffs. And, of course, anybody can get hot at the right time and do what we saw kind of the Phillies do last postseason.

Yeah, I mean, I think with Arizona, like in a five-game series, they're dangerous. I think in a seven game, the bullpen, this rotation just kind of gets exposed. It's just kind of tough. But, yeah, we agree with that. You know, they have some really good players, too. Like, you know, it's just like in order to do it, it would be like you'd have to be using Zach Gallen on short rest, you know, like the Dodgers used to with like Clayton Kershaw. And it's like, that doesn't happen anymore. Teams don't, teams don't do that.

Yeah. But, you know, in terms of wildcard teams, like the Phillies, man. I mean, you know, they're, they are certifiably nuts. They have star power. They don't give a shit about pressure. Like, you know, they did it last year. Like, yeah, they're the one National League wild card. I feel like who could stand in trade with Atlanta with the Dodgers.

I just feel like, you know, the giants, I mean, the Giants might be out of it, actually, because they just got, you know, the debacks kind of put them to sleep this weekend. or this week. You know, the Cubs, no. The Marlins, no. Yeah. So, you know, yeah, I think it's really just the Phillies. But, you know, the thing with the D-Backs is in a five-game series.

I feel like they would be prepared. They would be, you know, the game plan really well. Shout out to Dan Heron. You know, they do a good job within their means. It's just, I think, in a seven-game series, it becomes hard to just see that pitching staff making it through an elite lineup, you know, six or, you know, in five or six or seven games. We don't even know what they would do for the three games series in the wild car round. And then if they made it pass that into the first round, right? So like, I mean, we, we know

obviously they want Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly out there as much as possible. Yeah. But they really don't even have a full starting five-man rotation. And I just don't know, like we don't know what they would do just to try to maximize that and to get those guys as many games in the playoffs should they win and you know go go past that first wildcar round yeah i mean i i oh man this this poor young man i've been purposely mispronouncing his last name all year uh but brandon fought you got it that's it no i know we on our podcast we've we've we've jokingly called this poor fellow brandon fat for no reason just because i've heard it i've heard it we're aware yeah we would love him to come on the show just so you know he can he could

yell at us. Anyway, yeah. Like, I mean, you could use him theoretically, but then, but that feels, you know, like you're, you need someone backed up behind him. Yeah. Yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, they have, like I said, they have two, they have two good starting pitchers. And if you were willing to use those guys on short rest and just, you know, burn them into a crisp, like you'd have a chance, but that just doesn't feel like a good decision long term. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Andy, we really appreciate your time. Thanks, uh, thanks for being with us today. This is, this was fantastic and we appreciated the cat making an appearance as well we especially enjoyed that if there's anyone i know that in general in the phoenix area there are a lot of feral cats if you

if anyone would like an extra cat in phoenix please send me a message uh on twitter and i will mail you my cat now perfect harry's wonderful we'll help you out with that for sure hey man thank you so much for stopping by thanks andy thanks for having to see you go man that's uh that's fantastic stuff and I'll say this much. I will, I agree with him very much there about the diamond back. Like it's hard to even think about the Diamondbacks and what they would do beyond that wild card round because at this point, that's our focus. That's where we want to get to. That's what we need to figure out first. You can't put, can't put winning the next round before that. But you kind of do, right? You kind of do have to game plan considering that you are very short on starting arms that you trust to be out there.

Yeah, but you, I mean, it's what you said earlier, though. You can't do that. You can't, right? And they also literally, there is nothing when, there's no game planning when, like, you have to start that Gowan in game one. You have to start Maryland game two. It's like that there's not, there's nothing that you can do. Let's just win those games. And then that makes it easy.

As we talked about, though, a week or two ago, yeah, I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to be able to start Zach on. Oh, true. Yeah, that's right. In a wild card round, it still appears that it, I think it's set up as, you know, bullpen game. Brandon, well, not Brandon fought, he would definitely not be available if he started the last game of the season, which is what he appears to be on track for right now. So, yeah, it kind of looks like bullpen game, sort of a deal in a game one of the wild card around followed by Gowan and Merrill Kelly. They should be available for the two games after that. Super encouraging.

Is it going to be really, really fun way to start this year. I mean, I remember you saying when we first brought it up, though, Sean, that, you know, It's not maybe the worst thing in the world because if you win the first game Yeah, then you feel like you're in a pretty good spot. Yeah, and even if you lose the first game, it's not you have Zach Davies or see Jesus. Yeah, then you have Zach Davies ready to start games too. You feel fantastic. You know Zach Gallon and then.

Rotation eight, Zach Davies. Obviously at that point you need Zach Gallon to show up. But if you get the game like just the idea of having Merrill there to potentially end a series is comforting as well. No, it is. It very much is. And I mean, honestly, this is again, a crazy. thought, but I wonder how this could potentially be impacted by the Diamondbacks, kind of having a bigger lead going into that final series against the Houston Astros.

I mean, I'm not, I'm not trying to say that it's going to be that clear cut by that point. It probably is still going to require some wins in that series in order to secure the wild card. But if it doesn't, if they have a playoff spot secured, maybe, maybe Gallen and Kelly don't go in that. Or would you at the very least consider, you know, you get to the last, a little bit of literally the last game and you don't need to win. Like you have a game lead or two game lead over the Cubs or whatever or a game lead because you have the tiebreaker. And you just don't pitch fought there.

You do the bullpen game there instead. Then you do fought game one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of things I think to consider when it comes to how that final series. Would you rather do though? Would you rather have a bullpen game one? I mean, there's a chance that a fought game.

It turns into a bullpen game anyways. Sure, sure. I mean, he's going to be on a short leash just like we saw. all of the starters be on a short leash over the last week. But I mean, honestly, the bullpen still gives me encouragement. It's kind of like what he's saying about the starters.

I don't want to get to use. I don't want to get the bullpen too taxed here. Yeah. If they are going to make it into the playoffs just for, I mean, shit, I might let Seby's Vall to go out there and pitch in the final game and just pitch the whole game.

Yeah. If it got to the point where the debacks had, had clinched their spot heading into the final. final game, then yeah, you would not want to pitch. There would be zero reason to pitch any of your high-level guys. Chase Peterson and Sevy, guess what? You guys are going out there doing work. Maybe you're not going to do that.

They'll find a bunch of pitchers that just got put on waivers for no reason. Yeah, hey. The team didn't want to pay their one day of salary. That's a situation where you might go to, you know, Bryce Jarvis and have him give you several innings and have some of your other lower leverage reliever guys. That's a great point. Give you several innings. But, yeah, if the debacks are serious about having Brandon fought,

you know, pitch potentially in a game one, which is, which is an interesting thought and something I'm sure we'll talk more about here in the next week or so if they stay on this path, then, yeah, I mean, you don't, you don't want to waste any of your, any of your big arms at that final game of the year. Well, we thank you guys for being here right now on the pH and export YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a little thumbs up just to know you're here and you're enjoying the content. It's our add-a-boy. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, please subscribe to us there as well.

Leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback. Big shout out to Andy McCullough again for joining us. He is awesome as always. He's so funny. He is one of my favorite baseball writers in the world. We should shout out their show. On the athletic baseball show, they have like different episodes that play every week.

But I think it's on Tuesdays is the round table. And I think I mentioned it yesterday. Andy's on it. And it's funny and just, you know, fantastic analysis and something that I listen to every single week. Incredibly knowledgeable baseball minds as well discussing everything around baseball at a national level. But definitely check them out. Also, check out our friends at Wink for whenever you need just a wink of THC. How high will it get you?

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1-8-1-0-3, Puerto Rico, in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit at MGM.com for terms and conditions, U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., New York, or Ontario. Well, we discussed it on our Twitter account yesterday, or X account. I don't know what to call it anymore. But we discussed yesterday how it was a very good day for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It wasn't just a good day because the Diamondbacks had the day off and could just enjoy themselves. But, or no, I'm sorry, yesterday they won. But today is the day off.

Not only did they win. That didn't happen. Corvin Carroll, 2550. Yeah, did not happen yesterday. The DeVs were actually off. We will just pretend that his historic accomplishment didn't happen. But the Diamondbacks win. Everybody else we needed to lose loses.

So let's take a look at that out of town scoreboard. Cincinnati is getting handled by the Minnesota Twins, by the way, which is exactly what we needed to happen. Miami one. Yeah, I think this is the out of town scoreboard from two days ago. Yeah, I was going to say this is not the updated one. The Marlins lost yesterday. Yeah, I was going to say everybody lost yesterday.

I thought that's what was the case. Then, Derek, I'm a fat liar. I don't know. You are a fat liar. I knew it. I knew it. But yeah, no, I mean, again, like just. He said, everybody lost.

Everybody we needed to lose lost. I guess the Phillies are the one team. The Phillies did win. And if the Phillies had lost, which, as we talked about briefly on yesterday's show, which they nearly did lose, if the Phillies had lost, then the Diamondbacks would be a game and a half out, you know, for the first wild card spot at this point. Which is wild because, right?

Like, we absolutely thought that, you know, not only were the Cubs kind of like far, far away from the Diamondback. but but that catching the Phillies was it was a nice idea but it didn't seem like something that was actually going to happen right yeah for the record Mets beat the Marlins 8 to 3 you got the real scoreboards pirates beat the Cubs 13 to 7 and where's the other one I was it before Phillies that one yeah that one we talked about reds reds and oh reds twins beat the reds five to three yeah there you go good day good day at the office the Pittsburgh the Pittsburgh pirates remain the main character of this entire story Pirates podcast.

We are a pirates podcast. Buckos. Let's go. Buckos. Well, let's see how those scores affected the wild card standings for the Arizona Diamondbacks because, again, like, is it. Yeah. Look, all right.

There it is. There it is. Let's address this. Emma's our producer today. So let's not ever blame Damon. This is all on Emma. This is all my fault. This is literally an E.

It's an E on E. No. So again, Diamondbacks one and a half games up on the Cubs. And again, two games up on the Marlins, two and a half games up on the Reds. That's the only thing I care about right now is how much, how much padding do the Diamondbacks have to their playoff hopes. Oh, I think you were saying specifically you only cared about how much they were up on the rents. No, no, no, no.

I mean, I specifically only care. I want them to have two games or more up on the teams that are not in the hunt. And that, I think, is a good place to be, right? It doesn't feel like, like Andy said, like you literally miss 36 hours, you miss two days, you miss three days in baseball, and all of a sudden you turn around and, you know, things are completely different. That's been the case with this wildcard race. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's still pretty crazy at this point, right? I mean, the Marlins and the Reds are right on the doorstep behind the Cubs at this point. But the Diamondbacks do have a game and a half on the Chicago Cubs, which is wild that the Cubs are now trailing the Diamondbacks by that.

because when that Diamondbacks Cub series started six days ago, the D-backs were trailing the Cubs by two and a half games. And even catching them through the entirety of the rest of the year seemed like a long shot. Now the Diamondbacks have built a little bit of an advantage over Chicago. It's, as you said, I mean, it's crazy how quickly these things can change. And I'm sure we're going to see some more crazy changes in the next 10 days because that's just kind of how this goes. You can't expect anything to go the way that you wanted to go. Right now, especially, like I said, this series with the New York Yankees, the series with the Chicago White Sox, it's on the road. It's teams that have nothing to play for.

And of course, that makes it extremely dangerous, right? But what is good is- I thought the Yankees were still alive. Are they? I mean, I think mathematically they still are alive. They could get eliminated by the Diamondbacks. And I know that that's your ultimate goal here to watch this weekend is to see the Diamondbacks eliminate the Yankees. I was talking Sunday morning, 10-30 game.

I get to wake up at 9.55, throw on the Bills game on one screen, Yankee, D-Baks on the other screen, and have myself a fucking day. What a day. What a day. I cannot wait. I love those, some of my favorite moments in life where I just truly felt like I had ascended to the highest point that I could possibly ascend to was when I was watching multiple sports on multiple TVs in my own home. Yes. In a bar? Sure. That's what a bar is for in my own home I'm a god I'm an absolute god anyway for the record we really need the Blue Jays to beat the Yankees tonight or let's get that he'll have to or else the debats will have to sweep to eliminate the Yankees which I mean that's only your goal that's

your goal that's on our goal we don't do about that goal it would be a nice little how do you do what fuck you in the world series and we just eliminated from the playoffs 25 years later yeah you're not wrong you're not wrong about that 22 but whatever But the Diamondbacks did move a little bit closer to those playoffs, by the way. Let's take a look at, of course, this graph here that shows that the Arizona Diamondbacks playoffs odds have reached a season high, 84.7%. As Jesse can attest to in fantasy football, that's meaningless until we actually get to the end, because Jesse at one point was up 99% as far as his chances of winning a fantasy football game.

and he did in fact lose that game. So we've learned our lesson about that, haven't we, Jesse? Oh, my gosh. This is mean. This is cruel. I was on call for. I was never going to bring it there. But, yeah, I mean, to your point, 84.7% is not 100.

And the Diamondbacks had about an 80% chance to make the playoffs several months ago when they were 16 games over 500 and doing all the things and looking like they were going to win 100 games or some. some crazy nonsense like that, right? Yes. So, yeah, I mean, even, you know, things obviously can change in several months and things absolutely can still change here with with about a week and a half left in this season. So, yeah, I, you know, it's still remarkable, though. I mean, if we look at the graph one more time, I mean, just look at the, look at the highs and lows that there have been the last few months.

August, the end of August or middle of August there? Oh, my God. Yeah. Yikers. Yeah, I think it was August 9th, I want to say. Is that below 20%? That, yeah. So they had 13.

It's crazy that they were at one point, like in a decent chunk into the season leading the division, or at least competing for the division. The devs had the best record in the national league in, I think it was like June 8th. Yeah. And then you get to August and they had a worst chance to make the playoffs and they did at the beginning of the season when people thought that the Padres were going to win the World Series. That's a very good boy. Look at how low that is.

I don't even know how I happen. But I mean, I do know. how it happened because they basically lost a month straight worth of games. But it really is just crazy how much of a roller coaster the season has been. But you know what I see here guys. You see it too, right? There at the end. You see that W? It's for wagon.

Because that's what the new backs are. It's almost like this is a graph with a lot of ups and downs. That's how. There's some M's in there too. There's a W at the end. For Mario, you could find a little letter you wanted to in that graph. There's a couple Vs for victory. You guys

are monsters. But anyway. The Diamondbacks do have done some good things, but have they done enough to make it onto our MLB power rankings of the top 10 teams in baseball? Well, the answer to that is no. No, they haven't. But here is our top 10. Those are top 10 teams right now in baseball.

The Braves up at the top at number one still, even though they've kind of had their struggles since getting drunk and celebrating their division. What if we just drop the best? Braves to like 8th. Marlins own them. How can we put him behind the Marlins? Yeah, yeah. Marlins just beat him and that's how this works right. At one team beats another, that means

they're better. That's absolutely how it works. All right. So we have the Braves at number one, raise it to Orioles at three Dodgers drop down to four or actually, I guess you should say, could say up one from number four because they are five. They were at the fifth position last week. The Astros round out the top five at number five. Then you got Blue Jays at sixth,

Mariners at seventh, Brewers at eighth, eight, Rangers at nine, and Phillies at 10. And the Phillies, big drop there. Biggest drop of the week there for the Phillies? I didn't even realize I did that, honestly. I really dropped the Phillies four spots. You sure did. Yikes.

I meant to do that. That's totally what we meant to do. No, I mean, like if we pull it up one more time, I think that the, so part of this for me was that I have the brewers ahead of the Phillies now. Yeah. Last week, we had the Brewers at number 10. Apparently, I had the Phillies at number six.

But yeah, I mean, it's still a very interesting question of whether you'd rather play the Brewers or the Phillies in that wildcard round. And, you know, Andy just voiced his opinion of saying you'd probably rather have the Brewers out of those two teams, which I don't think is necessarily crazy. But if you're just, if you're just looking at how those two teams are playing right now, the Brewers are playing really good baseball right now. They sure. And Corbid Burns seems to have kind of figured some things out after his struggles earlier in the year. Brandon Woodruff is back. Freddie Peralta has been one of the best pitchers in baseball in the second half. And this team is, as Andy said, they can't really hit, except for Mark Kana, who's come over and is like actually been a pretty darn good hitter.

You put him with William Contreras and Christian Yelich. It's an offense that is still poor, but is a little bit better than it looked a while back. So yeah, I think the brewers deserve some respect, even though it very well may still be the case that, you know, Diamondbacks fans would rather get the brewers than the Phillies in that wildcard. Elise has some questions about the Orioles still being in first place in the ALEs, but being ranked below the raise on your power rankings. I will say this about the raise. I am extremely impressed with what they've been able to do, considering what they went through with one of their star players. and how embarrassing that was and losing him, losing his production,

and still just not missing a beat, just rolling along and still. And I mean, it's the Tampa Bay raise, right? That's almost what their franchise is known for, losing star players and still finding a way to be successful. Most of the time,

that's through free agency and losing them because they're not going to pay them the money. But this team managed to, you know, to, again, not miss a beat with that entire distraction going on. and I give them a lot of credit. And I honestly, I would rather play the Orioles in a world series than a, than the race. Really?

Like I, A, they've just got like, Randy or Rosarena as a playoff player terrifies me. That's just a guy who rises to the occasion. If anything, I'm just going to bet on taking advantage, not that this is a strength of the Diamondbacks, but taking advantage of the Orioles youth. Not that the, the rays are not, are like an old team, but obviously they have a few guys that have been doing it for a few years there. Wait, so Elise's question was why are the, why are the raise ahead of the Orioles? Is that what it was?

Yes. Okay. Yeah, I mean, they're really close. It really could go either way. I mean, the race have, the raise are just, they're just a more experienced team, frankly. I mean, the Orioles are very, very young. And, you know, I think some of the pitching that has been good for them, which they have had some pitchers who have been good, those guys are not really proven in the same.

way that I think some guys on the raise are. So yeah, I think that's ultimately what it comes down to. I mean, we're talking about two games here when we're talking about what splits them, right? Yeah, yeah. They're really close in the standings. I don't think, you know, the Orioles being two games better. I don't, in the standings, I don't think that matters

much. The Razor are, have a run differential that 70 runs better than the Orioles. They have the best run differential in the American League, in fact, at plus 195, just under Atlanta's plus 218. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. The race, have a series against the blue jay well they put yeah they beat the angels today they have a series

against the blue jays two against the red sox and then another series against the blue jays who you had make a well i think like a two spot jump in your your power ranking so the raise it'll be interesting to see what happens in the a lease there the one thing that matters here of course isn't power rankings and it isn't the wild card standings it's the all city division that's all we really care about around here we are and we are coming for you philadelphia just to let you know I still am on board with the asterisk situation, but Damon got me all fired up about saying, no, fuck it. Let's just win the whole goddamn thing.

Agreed. And I am with that. So Diamondbacks now, at least guarantee, guarantee for the moment, or actually, I shouldn't say for the moment for the entire season. They guarantee that they will at least finish 500 or better with those 81 wins. This is true. And, of course, we got to get Jake from talking baseball back on here to, to. I don't know if Jake will come back on the show.

Yeah, I mean, he might need to. We're going to play the game. Face the music. I feel like he is a man of honor and he would come on to face the music. He's probably. Absolutely. But it doesn't mean that we're going to be classy about, you know, our gloating or anything like that.

At least not this guy. This guy doesn't know how to be classy. Just real quick because I brought up the Ray's schedule. The Orioles play the Guardians, Nationals, and Red Sox. So I think the Orioles are the ones. That's stupid. Anyway, I just heard someone open a beer from a distance and it made me thirsty. That's like a Pavlovian response or something.

I don't know what's happening. Max just opened one. Is that what it is? Ah, I need a beer. Speaking of beers, got to get ourselves some Four Peaks. Four Peaks is the official craft beer of your Arizona Diamondbacks.

It is also the perfect beer for tailgates for over 25 years. Tailgates down, kilt's up. Let's go, Emma. Oh, man, it's going to be really shucking up. I have no chance. I'm opening that on my lap. That sounds like a bad idea.

It is pumpkin border season. Of course, get in the fall state of mind with notes of nutmeg, all spice, and toasted pie crust, of course, even on an off day, the perfect beer. You want to open this one since it's not taken? Can I open that one? I'm going to have a slightly run around the room with it.

Yeah, well, I mean, no, that one's fine. That one's fine. Emma can throw me beers anytime. She can be like the guy that tosses stone cold beers. But again, this is my favorite beer, Joybus Wow Week. Because like I said, it's good for wins, good for losses, good for days off.

It's good for all times. But make sure to visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all of your favorite brewery tours and events at their 8th Street Pub. Steinholding October Fest and of course the haunted brewery tours are right around the corner. It's almost spooky season. Makes her check out Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 years or older to drink four peaks, which I am.

Please drink responsibly. Also, check out our friends at OG's brands. That is also a fantastic way to celebrate wins and losses. If you are stuck on what kind of gummies to get, just ask me and Sean. We'll send you in the right direction. We will be your weed shirpas. Also, if it's a flavor that you're looking to go after, make sure to check out how OG's brands has made that decision 420 times easier for you. You can get a wonderful collection of flavors in their fruits bags and their cream bag.

Fruits have things like the red apple, watermelon peach flavors. The creams have blackberries and cream, strawberries and cream, orange cream skull, all of those Hall of Fame flavors in one place. That line I have more problems with than any other line. Every time you struggle with. Hall of Flame. It's always the Hall of Flame for me. Hall of Fame flavors. one place. Plus, of course, the fruits and the creams are available in a sunny setiva or

mellow indica. So make sure no matter the mood you are in, you can get an OG's experience that is right for you. Check out our friends at OG's brands for yourself and try one or a few of their many delicious flavors. Check them out across socials at OGs brands and online at OGsbrands.com to find them at local dispensary near you. Must be 21 or older to enjoy it. Please enjoy it responsibly. Big shout out to all of our diehards, by the way. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you for being diehards. If you haven't signed up for a diehard membership yet, go to go phnx.com. You can get all of our wonderful content over there, and you'll get all of it as a diehard member. You also get access to our members-only Discord lounge. You get access or you get a

free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com, 20% off all future purchases, discounts with our partners, invites to members-only events, discounts on those events, and so much more. So sign up today. Of course, Jesse has a brand new article that is free and unlocked for everybody. So make sure to check that out because he went around to all the Diamondbacks pitchers and discussed with them their favorite pitching stats, which is an absolutely delightful read. You will probably really love Paul Seawald after. You're going to. If you like baseball stats, Paul Seawald is going to blow your mind. I have to ask, is it actually pronounced bacon?

Is it actually pronounced X Woe Bacon? Yeah, you know. Or do you have to say the letters out? Because I want to say, whoa bacon. Just W-O-B-A-O. The whole disclosure, that's how I've said it like in my head. That's what I've been. For years.

Yeah. Yeah. It has been X, because I can't help but see bacon in a word. You can't see bacon and not say bacon. Yeah. But Paul went and during our conversation, he called it ex-Wobicon or expected. Oh, Obicon. Which I think I have.

Which I think is actually if there is a correct way of saying a like sort of fabricated word. Or that's a moon from Star Wars or something. Yeah, one of the two. Yeah, one of those. Yeah. I think ex-Wobicon. is the correct way of saying. But yeah, Paul Seawall talked about being a fan of ex-Wobicon,

being a fan of O-O-O-Strike percentage and 1-1-strike percentage is being a really good way of evaluating pitchers. And he said a lot of really interesting things about that. So go ph-h-and-x.com. That's where you'll find it. Check that out. And when it comes to other people we are fan of, we're huge fans of Tori Lovolo around here.

Oh, piece of Yoshi says we spoiled it. We spoiled the article. though I promise you we did not spoil the article go read it yourself but uh we also are like I said are big fans of Tori Lovo. We know what he has done for this team. We know how just good of a guy he is and we know how much the players enjoy playing for him as a manager. But uh now with the success of the team and kind of the expectations from the beginning of the season, we asked to we have to ask the question if Tori Levollo has become a top candidate for manager of the year in the national league, especially if the Diamondbacks do go on to make the playoffs, because that's been a key

actually to Diamondbacks managers winning the Manager of the Year award. Yeah, it's almost like it's not like whether, I'm not sure exactly how to say this, but it's sort of like if the Diamondbacks are going to make the postseason, then Tori Lavello inevitably has to win manager of the year. Right. And it almost feels like whether he wins manager of the year in a sense, this is what I was trying to get at will like determine if the diamond backs make the postseason so like if we were able to round up like all of the baseball writers right now who are voting on this and ask them if the diamondbacks

were to make the postseason would you vote for tory lavello to win manager of the year and if enough of them say yes that therefore is evidence that the diamond backs are certainly going to make the postseason these are like very closely connected uh yeah we mentioned that with uh with andy It was in 2017. Tori Lavello won it. In 2011, Kirk Gibson won it when the Diamondbacks made the postseason that year. And then the last time they made the postseason before that in 2007,

they also won it that year. That was Bob Melvin. So it is sort of uncanny how this works. As far as how Tori Lavello stacks up with the competition, it's not super obvious. There are a lot of good candidates here. I think the primary... It's like you said, because it's arbitrary, right?

It's hard to look at, you know, what a team has done, what they were expected to do, what the results were last year, and figure out who is the most deserving manager in all the baseball, right? You can't just look record. You can't just, okay, who's the team? That's the biggest increase, you know, like in some cases, that's not necessarily a direct reflection of the manager. Sometimes they just went out and got players that made the team better, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it is, I mean, Jesse said a lot of it earlier. Like, it is kind of just a silly little award because, yeah, you don't really have any clue as to, as to what, like, they do. And, like, obviously, I think there's a lot of Diamondbacks fans, especially at certain points in the season, who would have scoffed quite loudly at the idea of Tori winning manager of the year because of what some people deemed to be mistakes that he's made throughout the year, which is, I mean, valid. But at the same time, those people I highly doubt are watching every other or every game of the other managers that are in contention for this award. Yeah, and like, every fan base has. Yeah, and every fan base has problems with that manager. Exactly.

That is just a rule of being a baseball fan in general. How can you be a baseball fan without being mad at your manager at times? I mean, that's kind of what the point of a manager is. Yeah, if you haven't tweeted to your team, fire, insert manager's name at least once this year, are you even a baseball fan? I don't know if you are or not, but Tori Lovolo's record over the last five years has gone up and down. I mean, we know Lavo lovallo had kind of some success early on when he was here. The Diamondbacks in 2019 had an 85 and 77 record. Since then, they've had a losing record every season until then, 2020, which who cares about was 25 and 35, 25, 2021, the second worst season in franchise history at 52 and 110, 2020.

They were 74 and 88, and here we are this year currently sitting at 81 and 72. And it's like, it's weird because I don't know if that impacts people's decisions because it's not like Tori wasn't the man. Yeah, if you would have taken over last year and took a team from 110 and in two seasons made it a playoff team. You're like, this guy's a badass, right? But I mean, he was the manager during this entire kind of high and then low. And I mean, maybe maybe that's it. Maybe bringing him in and him having success early made it kind of like a high starting point and then a drop off. and now they're kind of on the rise back up.

And I mean, like, I know it's a year-to-year award, but like if you're being real, but like, you look, you want to talk about like Tori as a manager. Like, this is now two straight years where they have significantly, or not maybe not significantly, but have overachieved expectations. And like, I mean, this is clearly. By 20 plus games per season. I mean, this is potentially do that.

Clearly a continuation of the growth from last year. And like, I certainly think, like, since this is, since this award is what it is, And like, you can't really, you don't know what happens in the clubhouse and you do kind of just have to base it off of, you know, like the narratives and the overperforming expectations. Like it's hard to argue that Tori doesn't deserve that kind of credit or some kind of credit for that. Well, obviously, I'm going to be a little biased there. Yeah, it really is just, I mean, going back to what we talked about with Andy, like the most important things that a manager, it's not just that we don't see everything. It's that the most important things the managers do are things that we do not see. Yeah, right? And that's what I was going to get it.

Because, like, you have a stat here about his success and challenges, but it's like, how much of that is Tori? Like, obviously, he's the one that ultimately not. The man has a 25 and 13 record in challenges this. For a 65.8% success rate. You know, like, he obviously, at the end of the day, could be like, I'm going to ignore our video guy and not challenge this or challenge it what he said not to. It's more credit to Allen Campbell. Exactly. And, like, Jeff Bannister.

Jeff Bannister's a very important middle man in that whole scenario. We have a video guy of our own networks here, PD, who went through this a lot as a manager or as a video coach. And like, if you don't like the coach isn't have much of a choice. Like you've got to listen to the guy. He's watching the play. Well, yeah, like. And that's what a coach or a manager's job at times is to do is to take in the information provided to him and make a decision. Yeah.

But yeah, you're right. You would be kind of silly to be employing this guy and having him do this job and not be listening to him and using the information he's providing. My point to bring that up is to what Jesse was saying. Like, yeah, like the stuff that you're giving the manager credit for might not even be the credit or the manager's responsibility. And the stuff that the manager should be getting credit for, you have no idea that's going on. That's very true.

I will say this, though, just about that. Like, honestly, at times it feels like some managers in baseball just challenge everything. Like, Tori looks discerting, right, but about what he wants to challenge or what he doesn't want a challenge. And obviously, part of the important reason for that is you lose your challenge and you might need it. at a more important time in the game. The other important part about that is it's like when you're a complainer in baseball or in basketball, right?

Everything's a foul. Like the refs are just going to be like, yeah, the guy just winds all the time. Right. So if you specifically like have gripes at times, but not all the time, I feel like you're taken differently as a manager than some of the guys who might literally argue with the umpires for instance every single night. And I know how this is going to sound based on my history with this manager, but like, Tori is not Aaron Boone. I knew that was coming. Aaron Boone is a kind of guy.

It was only a matter of time before we got Aaron Boone. When I think of managers who are like, seem like they're getting ejected once a week and are always having some kind of interaction with like omps and stuff like that. Like I think of, I think of Aaron Boone. And I don't think of that. Jesse and I were just watching a John Boy breakdown of Aaron Boone

being tossed from a game. And it was quite hilarious. It was probably the best concept I've ever seen in my life. You can probably find 10 John Boy Break. And I know they're Yankees guys, but you can probably like 10 John Boy Breakdown. of of of Aaron Boone interacting with managers but like that doesn't happen with Tori and like there's plenty of times where we've some of us at least have basically begged Tori to get ejected to do something

we have we have in the dark times so like we've been making during July for him to go out there clearly a different kind of guy in Arrigard so just go attack the umpire please is all we have that's that's all we want at times but again it's just to get us fired up it's to get the boys fired up we get it But there are some very good candidates for this manager of the year award. There are some teams that really have turned things around, much like the Arizona Diamondbacks. And the managers deserve their credit. They deserve their flowers for being a part of that. I mean, you have the other wildcar teams, essentially.

I feel like all of their managers deserve to be in consideration. David Bell from the Cincinnati Reds, David Ross from the Chicago Cubs, Gipp Shoemaker from the Miami Marlins. And then, of course, you have the best teams in the league in Dave Roberts and Brian Snicker. If Brian Snicker wins manager the year, I'm going to rage. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think it will either. But you shouldn't get to show up to work every day with Ronald Acuna and the rest of that roster and win a bunch of games and then get the credit.

Obviously, he deserves credit for them being good. But I'm just saying, like. Well, and even Dodgers fans, when we talk about the fans not being against the manager, even Dodgers fans would probably say like Dave Roberts doesn't deserve it because he should do more with that franchise, all of a lot. But like we said, Tori's probably winning the AL East with the with the Dodgers roster or the Braves roster like I don't know how much Nicker how much the manager I mean I really I really don't know I think I could win the NL East with the exactly I don't know if I actually believe that there's a lot of things about baseball that I don't understand it would be utterly disastrous you guys got to put me in that position that you guys got to get Safarogi but yeah if I had a good staff who knows but what I was saying about like Tori right Skip Shoemaker comes into Miami he turns that team around from a you know 69 win team last year this year now they're vying for the wildcard spot i mean jesse and i also both put them up as the

most dangerous wild card team right now i think him to kind of our point about tory earlier him being a first year manager is going to play in his favor that definitely does right because it feels like you are more responsible for that turnaround then it would be if you were there during the tenure when the team was bad especially the marlins man the marlins just felt so hopeless like yeah last year 93 games last year you felt that hopeless last year you felt that hopeless last year and like that's not the case for the diamondbacks it's i mean and that was with one of the best pitchers or the best pitcher technically in the national league yeah that is true contra but the cubs you know what david ross has done with the cubs just this season i love cubs were 10 games under

500 at one point now here they're david ross though i mean if they're i know that we just said you know every fan base has its problem with their has its problems with their manager david ross i i've heard a lot of gripes from cubs fans and you know just in general that community about the way that David Ross makes up that lineup every day. And we've even seen that. Like, I don't understand why Cody Bellinger bats clean up. I don't understand why say it's Suzuki, you know, bats, it seems like fifth or six most days for them.

That doesn't really make sense to me. Obviously, there's a whole lot more that goes into being a manager than just the way you fill out the lineup card. But, yeah, I mean, I think what a lot of this comes down to for the Marlins, the Cubs, and the Reds is which of those teams actually makes the postseason. Yep. Debecks, too. Yeah, and the Diamondbacks, absolutely.

Yeah, if any of these teams don't make the postseason, then I think that kind of dampens the narrative a little bit. I think it's probably going to go to someone who actually took their team, not only turned around their franchise in a big way, but ultimately took their team to the postseason. And I mean, yeah, at this point, between the Marlins, the Cubs and the Reds, I mean, they're basically on top of each other and the standing. So we don't really know who that's going to be,

but that's going to be a really big factor. A name we haven't brought up is Brewer's manager, Craig Counsel. and he's done an excellent job with the brewers up there. They've pretty much clinched that division. I know it's not official yet, but the lead is fairly substantial. And I think the bigger thing about Craig Counsel is he just like the brewers are like a more successful version of the diamondbacks in a way where they just find ways to consistently be good, even though it doesn't feel like a team that should be winning the division as much as they are and be as good as they are at times. Yeah, yeah.

The Brewers are just a, I mean, they're just a good team. They're just a, you know, a competent team, I think, sort of along the lines of what Andy said about the Diamondbacks. It's just a franchise that has a good reputation. And I think it really has ever since Craig Counsel got there. He's just been an instrumental part of that team just kind of being in the race year after year after year. And yeah, it's probably one of the weaker cases here. The Brewers were good last year and they were, you know, expected to be fairly good this year. They have outperformed their expectations by a decent margin, but not by as much as, you know, the Reds and the turnaround they've had or the Marlins in the turnaround they've had or even the Diamondbacks and the way that things have turned around here in Arizona.

I mean, the Reds were 62 and 100 last year. The Reds lost 100 games last year. And to be honest, the Reds have only been hampered this year by injury, right? Like if these guys could have stayed healthy and if they're young. And if they're young, I mean, Reds are going to be an incredibly dangerous team, I feel like, going forward in the same way the Diamondbacks, at least we hope the Diamondbacks to be. And I think the Reds have even more going for them when it comes to young talent than the Diamondbacks do. But this is just one season, right? Like Jake McCarthy was an absolute monster last year when he came, when he had his final stint.

And this year, he struggled. So you never know how younger players are going to kind of adapt once the pitching kind of figures them out and such. But that Reds team looks like it's going to be fun to watch for a long time, just like this debacks team is. So, I mean, to try to figure this out, I guess what we're saying is it's kind of impossible at this point. I mean, we have to know how things end in the standings. We have to know whether the Diamondbacks make the postseason. I think that's sort of a must for Torrey Lavello. You already convinced me earlier this is a stupid award.

Yeah, it is a stupid award. I was here on the show. I was excited to talk about it. And before we even got to it, you proved to me. Yeah. I almost asked Andy after the convict. about it being a stupid award. I almost followed up and was like, all right, so, so who you got? Who's your stupid winner? Who's your stupid winner? Who's, yeah, who you got in this race?

But yeah, I mean, if the diamondbacks make the postseason, Tori Lavella has a compelling case. Is that case more compelling than the third wildcar team, whoever that winds up being really hard to say. Yeah, I just don't know. It's going to be hard if it's the Reds, right? Like it's almost like the Reds and they go from 100 losses to being in the postseason kind of nowhere. that's pretty compelling with the way that this stupid award is evaluated. Well, it would be like we skipped last season in a way, right? It would be like we went kind of just from. If the debats went from 110 loss straight to this.

Straight to the playoffs. Like, of course, yeah, they deserve it, right? So, like, yeah, you're right. I even think Dave Roberts is probably going to get some love in this. I don't think he's going to win it. But just what the Dodgers have gone through this year. Yeah, what they've endured all the ups and downs. Yeah.

The way they're able to kind of. migrate these players into their system and have them be successful and and and be contributors like it's crazy i know lance lynn came back down to earth but we we jokingly said lance lynn was going to be a si young candidate when going to the dodgers and for like the we weren't joking derrick i yeah i wasn't joking at all i still have the camera i thought i was i was not um but thank god who didn't stay at that level but uh all right well of course you know that whatever whatever manager wins this award it's gonna need a good pair of sunglasses right that's that's the biggest takeaway from this conversation right future ahead bright future for his team and he can get those sunglasses from

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is that they are backed by a lost and broken replacement plan that actually does not make any sense. It makes less sense than the manager of the year award. Because if you lose or break your pair. I don't know about that. It doesn't make any sense to me. If you lose a break your pair, even on day one,

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There's so many more buy one, get one free offers that you can get down on in there. So do not miss out on that. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app. today terms and conditions apply participate in locations visit circle k.com for details um and yes i don't you mentioned as cogg says you mentioned the dodgers i have expected mo to appear behind you uh yeah mo won't stop harassing me through dabs and he he keeps he keeps sending me messages that just tells me like you bet you're glad you didn't take that bet now don't you yeah well i'd probably be i am sitting here in brooklyn dodgers gear right now as we speak so maybe that's not the best thing but um we're

glad we're glad mo's not here we need some time off from mo but we are glad you're here and we thank you guys for being here of course make sure to follow us on twitter for more of all of this nonsense i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k sean is at sean underscore to pause jesse is at jesse and freeman emma is the maniac behind the mac today you can follow her at emma clark emma and clark of course but we're still damon's dogs our show is at b hmx underscore debacks but of course all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I will never stop calling it Twitter, by the way, as long as I live. But that's all we got, guys.

We thank you for your time. We thank Andy very much for his time for stopping by and, of course, chatting about baseball. We love to have Andy here. And, of course, make sure to check out his book, The Last of His Kind, Clayton Kirshaw, and the Burden of Greatness. I know you Diamondbacks fans can't wait to get your hand on that, but that will be coming out soon. again though thank you guys so much for your time and remember kids baseball is fun but it is so much

more fun if troy lovela wins the manager of the year