PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Here’s Why D-backs Pitching Was SO BAD In 2024

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Entering the season, the Diamondbacks had the makings of one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. That’s not how things worked out. In this episode, we try to make sense of what went wrong, and revisit the question of whether firing Brent Strom was the right move. We also look back on Sunday night’s raucous Padres-Dodgers game, including the chippy interactions between Jack Flaherty and Manny Machado. We finish by answering some mailbag questions and previewing the Arizona Fall League. Join Jesse, Damon and Archie Bradley on the PHNX D-backs show! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, remember at the beginning of the season when we were all talking about the Diamondbacks having a top five pitching staff? Yeah, about that. Welcome in to the PH&X D-BACs podcast presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer, and find out why, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. My name is not Derek Montia. I am Jesse Friedman. I am your vice mayor. I am back.

And me and Derek basically switch places. He is no longer here. Apparently, we can't have both of us. We have to just pick the one. But I am here as well as Damon Dogg, the one and only, Damon Farrell, is here as well, as well as Archie Bradley, who is back for this Monday episode. And this special Archie Bradley edition of the pod is also brought to you by branded bills. Elevate your brand with branded bills, the perfect headwear and apparel.

Use code. for 20% off your first order. Well, we're going to talk about D-BACs pitching and how it hasn't gone so great for this team in the year 2024, or I guess how it didn't go so great for this team in the year 2024. But before we get to that, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers played a kind of outrageous baseball game yesterday. And I feel like we sort of have to start there.

There was all kinds of chippiness. The final score was very lopsied. did the Dodgers wind up losing this game to the Padres 10 to 2. But Dodgers fans really really showed out in this one, huh Damon? I mean, it's classic Dodgers fans in peak form, really. I mean, it was it's pretty impressive what they're able to do. And just the just classy individuals. As always, nothing but class over at Dodgers Stadium.

And just super likable super likable team. I mean, I agree with you. I just think, you know, they the fans just like the team, they took this regular season. and they've built up to playoff format and they're in playoff form. Yeah. Not giving them an excuse. I will say that,

you know, Tatis can rub you the wrong way doing some stuff. What he was doing was kind of crazy. You know, it was. But we were talking pregame. I have had my fair share

of experiences in LA dealing with Dodger fans up close and personal in the bullpen via social media. And, there's some special places for him. We'll say that. But yeah, I mean, it's, I said before,

is anyone surprised, you know, I just, it's, it's kind of something that I expect every time I go to L.A. and especially recently with what the Dodgers and Padres have turned into, I think it's just another one for the books. Did you see what happened in that bullpen? The throwing like, oh yeah, that was.

Did anything like that ever happened? Do you have any stories from, from being out in the bullpen? there. And of course, you know, let's put a explicit filter. I think it's what's great about sports, right? Like one thing like that I've noticed since not playing or even being around more is like what the nets have kind of done, like the access it limits. And then also like, I don't know, I feel like any other sport, maybe basketball or court side, but like we're the bullpen is away from everyone surrounded by opposing fans.

kind of unique in that way. And so yeah, we talked about it last week. Um, you know, how do you deal with people chirping at you? How do you deal with Instagram messages, Twitter DMs? Dodger Stadium will prepare you for that. You will hear anything and everything that you could ever imagine from death threats, family stuff. And again, there are sometimes, like, how could you say that about my mom? You know, I mean, my mom's a gray lady. Or anything, you know, I've heard when our left fielder, you know, I've just heard some stuff that you're just like, dude, what in the world where it just becomes, you become numb to it. You become like, or again, some of my problem is I'm going to talk back. You say something that's, again, we talk about the past baseball related.

I'm not saying that we have the right to go into the stands, but be prepared to hear something back. Just like you. I know we're getting paid a lot of money. It's part of the experience. Talk about baseball. He'll tell me, again, blowing a game, Matt Kemp's my dad. You want to even take you a little bit further some stuff. I'm cool with that. But you get to the point where you start throwing stuff. And again, I don't think people truly understand the magnitude of safety. And there's 60,000 people in Dodger Stadium. Yeah. Compared to, I mean, we saw it last night, like 15 security guards. I mean, really? You know what I mean? They were seriously outnumbered. Again, it's just, uh, and just sitting there too. Yeah. Like a lot of, I don't know if you saw the one in, you're the pro far

situation. He just like watched the guy like throw the baseball at him and was just like hey man, don't do that. I know. It's crazy. Again, little inside info, 2017, when we went to LA for the NLDS, we were told to tell our family members and friends that were coming

the game to be very careful about wearing Diamondback stuff. Even though they were in the family section and they were going to have people around them, but be very careful about wearing and promoting stuff. So it's a great story. I talked to my mom. And my mom's like, oh, can you give me two extra tickets?

I met two Dodgers fans at this taco place ate down the road. And they're your fans, they're your fans. I love you. But I can't leave two Dodger friends family tickets. You know what I mean? Like, that's just not going to work. But yeah, we were advised to not even like in a way have our family wear Diamondback stuff at the games because of what could possibly happen.

I went to Dodgers game earlier this year in July. We're going to talk about that game a little bit later, actually. And me and my buddies, we all wore D.E. D-Backs stuff, but we were pretty tame. But there was a guy like three sections ahead of us that was a D-Bex fan that was just so loud and obnoxious all night long. Christian Walker had a great game and the D-Bax won. And I was really genuinely concerned for that guy's sake.

Yeah, I mean, things got to a level yesterday where this game had to be stopped. Yeah. This game basically was at a standstill for about 10 minutes. there was all kinds of craziness happening in left fields around jerks and pro far there was a fan that yeah threw a baseball basically right at him

missed him fortunately but didn't miss him by much there was debris of various types being thrown on the field and right field around where Tatis was there was stuff being thrown in the bullpen area as well and it got to a point where yeah I mean obviously DBAX fans like there's sort of a sense around here

that Dodgers fans are based the worst people on earth as far as many of us are concerned right. But I think in a larger scale, like for all the world to see, it was kind of the worst side of that fan base, kind of being on display in a very real way, right? Like, you Darvish was just sort of sitting there on the mound for about 10 minutes waiting for this game to continue. And Archie, for a pitcher, like, that's a hard thing, right? To just sort of sit there after you've gotten warmed up for an inning and just wait for that inning just to actually start. A hundred percent. And on a bigger scale, we were just talking about it. Like,

what if that ball hits pro far in the head yeah i mean you know like outside of his safety that has so many bigger implications to again what we know as baseball and again i was just talking about the access and what makes baseball great like this was an incident that baseball is going to review and talk about like in the in the union meetings this offseason the player meetings they're going to discuss what happened here and how do we address that well we put nets up we don't allow fans to be able to touch us we put nets right you know what i mean and Real quickly, something like this turns into a separation where, you know, again, we're talking about it from not only safety, but yeah, from a safety of Darvish. Like having to wait 10 minutes, not only what that means for his health, but then like you said, mentally being able to lock back in and make pitches that are important.

I mean, the Padres very rightfully so blew them out last night, but they have a chance to win the series and move on. Totally. And an inning like that, I mean, who knows what could have happened? You know what I mean? Yeah. There was also some chipping among the players as well. Jack Flaherty was kind of getting into it with Mani Machado after he struck him out. It seemed to be getting into it with some other guys as well from the dugout.

Apparently Mani Machado, I guess at the end of an inning through a baseball into the Dodgers dugout, which was sort of frowned upon. Dodgers players were not too happy about that. Mani says he does that kind of thing all the time. So I don't know exactly what the deal is there. The other storyline here is the jerks and pro far robbed a Mookie Betz home run in the first inning of this game. And he pulled off a pretty outrageous. He pulled off a pretty outrageous troll job and made it look like he had not caught the ball, I guess,

until he eventually revealed that he had when Mookie Betts was like already almost done with his home run trot. Mookie got around second. You could see he was turning like, oh, man. And the broadcast put the graphic up. Yeah, my broadcast absolutely put the graphic up because it was like, well, we, if jerks and pro far hasn't revealed the baseball yet, then of course the ball is is in the stand somewhere. But yeah, pro far, it was, it was pretty, it was pretty funny to watch. I don't know. How do you guys sort of make sense of all this? Who's who's in the right? Who's in the wrong? Is this just sort of, Archie, is this just sort of baseball players doing baseball player things? Yeah, into the season. I think all the times. Like in these.

situations like you're competing we talked about the last line what it means to make the playoffs what it means to compete for a championship and both these teams have a legitimate chance to win a world series yeah and so i just think that's part of competitiveness man you say and do things sometimes or i'm sure jack may look back at this tomorrow maybe not and be like man what the hell was i saying or just you know back it up like i stand by it but either way some of it i just love because that's what I love about grown men playing a game and it brings out this edge and this fire and this side of people or things. And sometimes it's nasty.

But that's also what makes it great. You know, Manny has his own pass and he's not the most likable guy. I love Manny Mitchado. I love his swag, but he comes with his own bag of controversy as well. Yeah, yes, he does. So, you know, I know many, you may say he does that. But I say Manny knows what he's doing. He played over there.

And, you know, I think some of it at the same time, I think Manny has. evolved into one of the leaders and ambassadors for this game. I don't really think he gets enough credit for the consistency he's had over his career and the caliber player he's been. And from what I've heard and seen, the leader he's become over there in San Diego. Yeah, I mean, he called a team meeting after some of this stuff went down. You could see it in the dugout. He was he was trying to tell his guys to stay focused and I guess not not let the moment get too big. Yeah, I just I also, you know, have heard from other guys. the way he's handled Tatis.

I say handled Tatis, help Tatis, and just helped and kind of been a pillar of leadership for a team that kind of was lacking that over the years with what they were trying to do. And yeah, I think because of Manny Machado alone, I really like the Padres. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I hate, you know, rooting for the Padres because of them being in our division

and I find their fans and kind of what's gone on with their fan base recently, kind of annoying. Because, you know, they made that switch to brown. I think it became kind of a fashion statement. And then, you know, the Padres got a lot of really good players. And all of a sudden, the influx of Padres fans, especially here in Arizona, just skyrocketed, which is pretty upsetting to me. But that being said, like, if you're against the Dodgers, you're my, you're my friend.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And so I'm, I'm going to be rooting pretty hard for the, for the Padres in this series. I have been. And the Dodgers, just everything they do is just the most. unlikable thing I've ever like the jack flarity situation I understand it's baseball emotions are high it's the playoffs people are revved up and jack flaredes a little bit of a fiery personality type of guy yeah but he gave up four runs and in and has a six seven five era in the playoffs right now and he was like acting like he was throwing like a complete game shut out again when he was screaming at manny

machado there I didn't really understand that I just I find the dodgers so unlikable and uh another thing I need to bring up is that the Otani bat at bat thing like the Otani's up in four batters oh it makes me so sick I I can't deal with that anymore every time I see that I just it just in I'm incensed so I'm watching the cardinals niners game yeah tony pops up in the middle of the field and I'm just like I get it dude but come on now I know that like so everyone always talks about baseball doesn't promote their stars well enough I and I completely agree and I think that what we're seeing is them trying to completely flip that narrative, which is fine. But the way that they're doing it with one specific guy is just so infuriating as a fan

of that of a rival fan base. Not only that. Can we talk about game one in the interview in the ninth inning of the, there's an interview of Padres. Gosh, dang it. I'm going blank. But recently, MLB baseball did an interview in the middle of the ninth inning and didn't show in a bat in the top of the ninth.

And it was like, yeah, the endgame interviews for me during baseball, especially playoffs in September, no, man. I'm off that. Yeah. I'm off that. I'm with you. I feel like I'd see exclusively bad feedback from fans on social media about that. I don't think I've seen a single person who actually likes them doing that sort of thing. Yeah, I will say this, though.

I kind of, I get what you're saying, the influx of Padres fans, but I like Padres fans because they're, they're just happy to be good. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think they're as evil or mean when they lose as Dodgers fans. No, no, no, no. They're nowhere near the level of Dodgers fans. I think it's what's bothersome for me is in particular is I hate when fans of this in people that are from this state that have like lived in this state their whole lives.

And they're the biggest Dodgers, Padres fans in the world. And you're sitting there and you're like, how did that happen? I also like San Diego. I also enjoy going to San Diego. It's my favorite city to go visit. But that doesn't, I love Petco Park. I think their colors are really cool. I'm also not a Padres fan because of it, because I'm from Arizona and have lived here

my whole life. So that's what really infuriates me about it. And there's been a huge influx of Padres fans recently in that regard. Dodgers fans, that's been a thing. Of course. The Dodgers have moved to L.A. But Padres fans, it's like, it's been kind of a recent phenomenon, I think. The Diamondbacks do have some kind of interesting history.

with Jack Flaherty. Some people might remember the grounds crew game from earlier this year where Jack Flaherty did a certain thing to the mound that Zach Gallen didn't like. And so literally every single half inning, the grounds crew would go out and fix it for Zach Gallen. That was sort of funny to see those guys talking about that after the fact. But yeah, I guess that's a transition to our next topic, which is this Diamondbacks pitching staff, which maybe people don't really want to talk about right now. But the debacks, I guess while I was away, this happened late last week. They dismissed not only pitching coach Brent Strom, but also bullpen coach Mike Fedders,

as well as pitching coordinator Dan Carlson. So the debacks are kind of going in a new direction in that regard. And you can understand why. This is a team that had a 4.62 ERA last year that ranked 27th in the league. If you go by a league adjusted metric like ERA plus, they were at 91, so nine points below average. And this fact kind of blew my mind. The last major league baseball team to make the postseason with an ERA plus that low, there's two teams that did it at the same time.

In 1981, the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers both made the playoffs with an ERA plus right around where the D-BACs was this year. Granted, it's been a lot harder to make the postseason for most of the last 40, 50 years. But still, even just the last team to finish above 500, with an ERA plus that low was the 2003 St. Louis Cardinals who went 85 and 77. So, yeah, we've said it for a while now. This is a Diamondbacks team that was very much held back by its pitching staff. And Archie, I guess I'm curious, your thoughts on the Diamondbacks making some changes

as far as coaches are concerned. Do you feel like these things usually come down to just like them being the fall guy? Yeah, I mean, it is. I mean, again, I, I mean, again, I. I think over my time, I think every pitching coach I've had has been pretty good. Sure. Like I think some have been better than others,

some from a mental or pitch selection or mechanical. But ultimately, yeah, I mean, we talked about it. I think health was a huge factor for this season. If some of these guys are healthy, it's a different story. But yeah,

ultimately, man, it's not saying it's a fall. Like, but I, I, again, like,

what can Mike Federer? do better to make the bullpen better. You know what I mean? I know a lot of people, but like I've been around Fett. I contribute a lot of my early success and my bullpen knowledge and the way I learned to pitch in the pen

and do some stuff too fat. Like he taught me how to pitch out of the bullpen, how to close games, some things that if I didn't have fat, I wouldn't have understood. So like some of those things I was talking about earlier, like with J. Mart, like I know Fet was in J.Marchier and Ginkles ear.

And those guys got to see, I mean, Fet did it for so long. And he's been there a while and, you know, took him the World Series, whatever. But yeah, like, ultimately in today's day and age, someone has to answer for it. And there's got to be changes made. And unfortunately, it was those guys. And, like, especially D.C. I mean, D.C. was a pitching coordinator for me all the way up through the minors.

He pitched for the D.V. Yeah. Like, 99, I think. And it's been in the organization. So that, you know, that hurts. But it was still great to see D.C. work up the system and get a big league job and be a part of what I felt like he built for so long here. So that stings and it hurts Because I love both those guys and know them personally

But again, that's just that's business and the state we're in And again, if that's the biggest issue again, offense was great We got to do something. You know what I mean? That's just the way it works here Yeah, I think I mean Some you mentioned it someone has to take a fall for it And unfortunately with the way that the contract situation is is currently playing out Like most of these pitchers are going to be back next season It's going to be largely the same

starting rotation in particular. I'm sure the back end of the bullpen will look a little bit different, but the top end of the bullpen will be largely the same as well. So I mean, yeah, it's, you're going to have to figure out something. And you're not going to be able to switch around your whole starting rotation. So it just makes most sense that a coach is going to have to come in it.

I think that's like a saying in sports, right? Like it's easier to replace a coach than it is to replace the players. So, yeah. Yeah, this is a group that you're absolutely right, Damon. There's going to be a lot of the same guys here next year. and the debacks need to find a way to get more out of what they have in a lot of ways. Part of the struggles this season, of course, were the injuries, the fact that you missed Eduardo Rodriguez for most of the season,

Merrill Kelly for most of the season, other guys missed time as well. And that prompted the Diamondbacks to have to look to the farm system a bit, you know, tap into their organizational depth, which coming into this season, I think we thought was pretty good. But the results sort of said otherwise. We have some graphics here of all the different guys who came up for the debacks and started some games for them when other guys were heard. And these numbers are not pretty. If we go to, yeah, the openers here, the debacks had six games this year where they used an opener to start a game.

So you're not reading a ton into these numbers at six and a third innings combined between all those guys. I think it was Scott McGuff, Joe Mantiply, and Brandon Hughes. And Brandon Hughes. Thank you. Yeah, it was those three guys. guys the debacks used his openers. So yeah, a 426 ERA. So nothing alarming there. It's just six and a third innings. But if you look at some of the guys who pitched a little bit more bulk, Slade Sacconi is someone who got a whole lot of reps for the debacks. 13 starts that he made for

this team, a 5.75 ERA, a 131 whip. It was a tough go for him. Tommy Henry also got some opportunities here. If we go to his number is a 647 ERA, a 169 whip. He wound, up spending pretty much the entire season from, I think it was late June to the end of the year, all down in AAA, never found his way back. And then there's other guys. There's Gilbert Diaz. If we go to his numbers, he made four starts for the team of 4.05 ERA. Blake Walston made two starts for the debacks.

He had a two ERA, so good numbers there. He also made some long relief appearances that didn't go so well. and then Christian Mena, pitching prospect that they acquired over the off season for Dominic Fletcher. He also came up and made a start. I don't think these are the numbers for Mena. He had a 12 ERA, unfortunately.

And a whip up over two. So, yeah, it was not great. All together, these guys with the openers, this is 33 starts and a ERA of just under six for the D-BAC. So, yeah, a lot of this really comes. comes down to your depth and those guys coming up and stepping up. I mean, well, you said that's 33 starts. That's your fifth guy.

Yeah, you know what I mean? Which, again, for the debacks, I don't know if they'll ever have just because we talked about the market, the way we say, if they'll ever have a true fifth starter. Like, I think that will always kind of be a floater and kind of who was supposed to be this year, I know, but it sort of wound up that way. Correct. But, yeah, I think I'm, this is where I'm biased because like, if, if, you're, If we could, like, I mean, we can do it later.

Pull up my first two years as a starter, my graphics. Sure. You know what I mean? Like, I just feel like I'm always on the player side of like some of this stuff takes time. Yeah. And again, I'm not making excuses for these guys. But some of these guys, again, I'd have to look at and I did watch some of these games, but made these starts against some really good offense.

Like we're talking about some really good offenses right now in division and against some of these other teams. and I just think that what we're always going to struggle with here in Arizona or my feeling is like we talked about. There's not enough veteran depth or guys locked up, right, where we can have a young kid be our fifth starter and groom him or allow him to take his lumps while still being competitive.

And then the next year he's seasoned, ready to go and can take on a bigger role. Again, this many things, I've seen some comments and, like, keep me up with it. Like, it's tough also from, managing your minor league system having to filter guys around and i don't think people understand the movements of what that does when you're calling this many guys up and spot starts and changing guys routines and days and it's just a lot and that's where the injuries this year were the biggest

thing for me for all the scuffle and randomness and inconsistency yeah i was i remember christian mena in particular uh that one start that he made i think it was three innings four runs and it's like, all right, Dodger Stadium, your major league debut. I think he was 21 years old. And, and yeah, like, Shohei Otani is the first batter that he faced in his big league career. It did not go well. I think the Dodgers hit. You were there, Damon, as well, right?

It was, it was like three first inning homers. Is that what I remember? Yeah. And it felt like it was going to be like the grossest game I've ever gone to. And then somehow the Diamondbacks ended up winning the game. So, I mean, it was crazy. Yeah. But that's incredibly.

tough start. Yeah. Christian Mena, like you, you show up, you get on the mound, you, you know, gear up for your first pitch. And it's show hey, was Mookie out at that point? Or was he still playing? Yeah, Mookie was probably out. But you still get Shohay, Freddie Freeman in your first, in the order of your first,

you know, major league start. Like that is, that's so tough to Hall of Fame players. Like, that's, you don't see that very often. And you got to feel for a 21 year old kid. Yeah, I believe he was 21 at least. It's so crazy. Yeah. I mean, that's, again, I just, I know for my time and what I felt like I learned from 15 to 16.

You know what it's like to face the Dodgers in your debut, right? Maybe did a little better than some of the guys. You did do pretty well. It was Kershaw, right? Especially, I mean, 25 and under, man, like, we got to let these guys take their lumps. I know it's tough when you're trying to go compete and win. Yeah. But, I mean, you can name a ton of guys.

Like, look at scoo ball right now. Like, I know there's promise and stuff, but look at his first year or two, two years and like what he's turned into. Yeah. Not everybody's Paul Skeen's. Yeah, you know what I mean? And pitchers take a little bit longer to develop than like a position player. So, you know, you see like a Jackson Chorio or like a guy like that come in and just just a star from the moment that they step on the field. Churio was not good for about two or three months.

Yeah, but I'm just talking about in his first season in particular, like as a whole or like, you know, a, uh, uh, Juan Soto is a great example of that. But like you don't really see that often with pitchers. That development does take time. And it's it's that's the hard balance of baseball, right? Like the best organizations with pitchers, they, they know exactly when to start, you know, throwing them into the fire and when to hold them back. And the Diamondbacks have struggled with that as a franchise for a really long time.

Like just awful timing. I mean, I'm sure from your experience, like, the Diamondbacks, there was a time period there and you were one of the guys where we had like the number one pitching prospect in baseball for like me scags power yeah like three parker just gotten called up yeah i mean it was it was it was incredible i mean again so far removed now but i mean like 2013 that was the best pitcher in minor league baseball yeah like the fact that i didn't get called up at least for september and again say what you want i get controlling a time and clock and who knows what i would have done but i mean i was 95 to 100 at 20 years old um in today's game i'm called up i'm i'm in the big league league

at 19 or 20. 100%. Because back then it was still, you have to make so many starts. We have to control your innings. Where, I mean, at that point, like I said, I had the best ERA in baseball. I couldn't believe I didn't get called up.

Out of double a that year. That sucked. But yeah, I think it's tough. But at the same time, I'm always, you know, I look at some of these other guys like, I don't know, we can go on and on. But give these guys time. That's where I do think, you know,

the pitching coaches, If you bring in the right guys, there's a plan and a system for these guys that starts now with your plan for them and what you want them to be. And then how you communicate that to them and starting in spring, prepare them for what's to come. Because that's what I think is really, really important is we talked about a little bit last, but how do I get better? What do we expect from these guys? Who is our future? Obviously, again, if all these guys are back and healthy, these goes down. And like, I just think there's a real plan to really solidify two or three guys as our call-up guys, whether it be long guys or filling guys.

And that's how you keep more consistent instead of all these other guys. Yeah. Yeah, it's a challenge. It's not a super easy problem to fix. I mean, you can't go out and sign, you know, a bunch of great pitchers to be your depth starter. Yeah. That's not really how free agency works. And there's just not that many pitchers, good pitchers in baseball.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times your depth starters are guys you sign on a minor league deal. Logan Allen also got some running kind of a long relief role for the debacks this year. Yeah, it's going to be a bit of an uphill battle potentially to fix that issue. Looking at, I did a deep dive on on some of the kind of trends, some of the underlying trends for for debaX pitchers this year. And I came up with a few interesting takeaways. I didn't really solve the Diamondbacks pitching woes by myself, shockingly.

I know everyone was expecting that. But the Diamondbacks this year were actually very good at getting ahead in the count. They were tied for the sixth highest first pitch strike rate in all of baseball at 64, about 64%. So that was actually a strength for them. The Seattle Mariners were number one in that stat. Getting ahead of one is obviously really important in this game. Where the Diamondback struggled was once they got ahead in the count, actually being able to put guys away.

They had one of the lowest whiff rates in all of baseball. They were pretty good at leaving the strike zone once they got ahead in the count and trying to get guys to chase. And they did get opposing hitters to chase, but a lot of times they were not actually swinging and missing. They were fouling off the ball, extending the at bat, and eventually maybe the opposing hitter would actually get to them.

So I guess, Archie, I'm curious from your perspective, like what do you make of a pitching staff that is really, good at getting ahead, but it just doesn't really seem to have the swing and missability to finish off some of these guys. I think swing and missability, it comes like you get comfortable with that and you get that when obviously the first part we talk about is great being aggressive. Yeah. Like, again, I'm not saying it worked for me all the time. I have my own ups and downs, but an old school mentality or like strike out whatever, like four pitches or less and a bat. Like that was always the goal.

And getting ahead was a start. But I think one of the biggest things I see in today's gamer, I think is like everyone is strikeout, right? The whiff, the whiff, the whiff. Like we've got a good defense. We've got good athletic players behind. Like that's where I talk about maturing and understanding. Like Joe Panic owned me. Great baseball player.

Doesn't strike out. I didn't. When I say I didn't understand that, I would get ahead. I dominate Joe Panic. Strike one. strike two he's patient and then boom bowing me off bowing me off slap something to right field and once I got ahead of him and learn like oh I'm

gonna make you hit a ground ball but I think understanding that concept of working to an abat and then yeah like truly understanding who the hitter is do they chase do they strike out or are they you know can I make a good pitch in the zone that's going to produce because I know he's in protect I know he's defensive that's going to get me out of this a bat you know what I mean yeah where I just think

we get so caught up in the strikeout and afraid of contact that I mean again I got bit by it sometimes but I for the most part I was going to challenge a guy and if you're going to beat me you're going to be I hated walking guys you look at walks like for me base hits yes I know that does hurt but like long long abats and walks like you look at walks and you look at earned runs they're usually pretty close to the same number and I just think everything you set a tone when when you're getting guys out quickly or even if not they're putting you and play quickly and things are happening good things happen momentum builds and again i just think trust your defense more like attack guys versus this this this new wave of slider slider slider out of

zone out which it gets nasty maybe i'm jealous i couldn't throw it but you know so i'm like god did you throw a hundred let's go yeah elevate more fastballs too like above the zone above the zone yeah which i don't know really where the zone is now it's gotten a lot lower than it used to be um but yeah just too many fast balls hitable like guys can hit 100 hundred and two now but elevated and more elevated up and in yeah I just I need to see you guys be more aggressive in the zone too much out of the zone

I think it's pretty simple the Roger Bussion's football slider I think you got there you go you teach everyone that and all of a sudden we're putting way batters left and right Jesse I mean that that is sort of the underlying is there a video on that like can we oh he'll he'll provide you with the information

if you want to make it available. DM the Instagram. Let me see this. I'm trying to come back. It is interesting. Like, you know, the point about you don't have to strike everyone out, right? The Diamondbacks had one of the lowest strikeout rates in baseball. I think they were fifth lowest.

It wasn't really a strength for this team. But, yeah, like there are other ways to get outs, right? You can also try to be more of a pitch-to-contact pitcher, you know, from the research that I did, the numbers that I look, at it sort of appears that that approach didn't work either for the diamond backs this year they were not only a team that struggled to miss bats they were also a team that struggled to miss barrels uh so when opposing hitters did make contact against the diamondbacks they did more damage on those balls and play uh than than an average than an average team so it was sort of a double whammy you know

there are some pitchers who can have success by missing a bunch of bats but kind of getting hit hard when they're not missing the bat. And then there are other guys who maybe don't miss as many bats, but they're good at pitching to soft contact. The diamond backs were, both sides were a weakness for them. They weren't really able to miss bats and they also weren't really able to generate any kind of soft contact.

So, yeah, I guess we can kind of present the issues here, presenting the solutions is something for the new pitching coach to figure out. I did think it was interesting that Jordan Montgomery, I was showing this list to Damon earlier. it was kind of outrageous. Jordan Montgomery, if you just look at 0-0-0-0-0-0 counts this year, he had one of the highest whiff rates

in all of baseball. He was generating a ton of swing and miss early in counts, but his strikeout rate was extremely low. So he was able to do that early in counts, but he wasn't able to do that latent counts when it would actually be enough to put somebody away. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of curious, Archie, like,

what do you make of that? A guy you can get a bunch of swole. and miss like early in account but when it's time to bear down and actually put someone away the swing and miss isn't isn't there anymore i don't know i mean for me like a terrible answer is like they saw it the first time and it was like okay i won't miss that again yeah you know what i mean i may not hit it but it's not gonna i'm not going to swing and miss and like you're not going to get me out with it um again that's where i talk with again Montgomery man i think what i hope player option takes it and has a full offseason in spring.

We're like, dude, spring training is so big. Even though it's boring and monotonous and I honestly hate spring. I think, yeah, it seems like everyone does, but they kind of recognize the value at the same time.

Especially now, the way they cater to starters to be ready for a season, all the B games and backfield games, like you get built up, you get your five, six hundred pitches and you feel at least physically ready to go. So yeah, I mean,

I'm hoping that that's what happens. I'm thinking I'm to me at least it seems like it's a mental thing yes because I don't know how you could generate those kind of whiffs early at that level I mean look at the the pictures that he's around when we were when we're looking at that list jesse it's like Zach Wheeler and and uh yeah that list of that leaderboard of like early count with rate it's yeah jordan montgomery is higher on the list than paul skeins it's really it's all the best pictures in baseball and then jordan montgomery and then he's not able to put guys away to me that just screams like Like he was in his own head about it.

And I guess I can't really think of any physical reason why that would be the case. But Jesse, I wanted to ask you real quick, out of all of these pictures that we looked at, Slate Zuconi, Tommy Henry, Yilver Diaz, Blake Walson, Christian Mina. Who do you, who fills you with the most confidence moving forward? Like what did you see from those guys and, you know, this season that, that, you know, makes you think, oh, I like this guy as a piece for this rotation in the future. future. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's kind of the million dollar question. I'm sure the debacks would love to know going into next year, like how they should arrange all these guys on their depth chart. Put your stamp on it. Yeah, it's a little hard to say. I mean, I would probably, I think you just kind of start from how these guys performed this year, right? Slade Cicconi got a

whole bunch of opportunity and frankly, it didn't go well for him. He really struggled. Even when they brought him back as a reliever, the results were really even worse at that point. So, I don't think he's at the top of the list. It was kind of a rough year for Tommy Henry as well. He was really bad this year. Yeah. I still kind of wonder if they brought him back from AAA at some point toward the end of the year. If maybe he could have showed some progress, they never actually gave him that opportunity.

Gilbert Diaz is probably at the top of the list for me, I think. Just looking at the numbers, you know, he had a 405 ERA and in those four starts. It wasn't always great. You know, there were some big misses. I think his fastball command still has a bit of a ways to go. His slider did not get nearly as much swing and miss in the big leagues as it did in the minor. So that's something I'm curious about. Suffice it to say, I don't think any of these guys are necessarily like, oh, this is the slam dunk, you know, just give this guy some time.

The potential is there for any of them. I still think Christian Mena, I mean, that was literally one big league start that we saw. He was sent back down, wound up getting hurt toward the end of the season. I could see it with really any of these guys, but they've all still got a ways to go. And this organization has struggled at times with getting guys from this point at AAA where you're right on the brink of being a big league pitcher.

Yeah. But actually getting it to translate to the big leagues. And that's obviously a little bit easier said than done. I got a big hot take. It's not going to happen. Get out of Reno. Oh. Oh.

And that's nothing against the Aces, the city, people I loved Reno my time Reno was great but it sucks a pitching yeah it is not a place that builds confidence or and I I mean dude do you look at my first half in Reno 2016 they put me back triple A I was like eight and one with like a one six in Reno like that's like a mile zero like yeah you always say like a PCL whatever you have subtract two or three and that's your real ERA yeah yeah um again I know everyone deals with it but Reno just sucks man like I mean you go back historically and look at the ERA of starters that get called called up out of Reno, I would say the average has got to be above a five. Yeah. Like, it's just a crappy place to play, to pitch to build

pitching, in my opinion. But dude, like, get out of Reno. Let's pitch somewhere better for AAA. And I, you know, obviously, that's not realistic. I love Reno and the relationship there, but pitching there is even coming up. It sucks, man. Like, there's just things that happen, especially when you're young. I know you learn, you get over it, but some things that happen that honestly are just like, I don't think this happens in the big leagues. You know what I mean?

Like I have seen some of the craziest games in pitch counts and stuff of just, yeah, I don't know. It's just, I think in a weird way, like going through it looking at it, Reno's a tough place to build confidence for guys. Yeah. I would be interested to see from a experimental standpoint point if they left guys in double a longer and maybe called them up from double a instead of

sending in the reno the problem for the devax is that uh now they're in amarillo for double that's right and amarillo grades out worse amarillo grades out is literally the most hitter friendly environment in all of minor league baseball so just everyone just comes from hillsborough just everyone goes straight from i a to majors that's basically what the giants did forever right just in everyone to San Jose and then to the big leagues, right? Yeah, it's a short commute, right? I think, yeah, I mean, that's a situation is so important, especially with like a young pitcher, right?

And like we're talking about this confidence thing. That can't be, uh, uh, a, necessarily a good development piece for these pitchers. Like, I'm,

you would have to get in your own head about it. But at the same time, you could also argue maybe that it weeds out, maybe some of the, it does, the players that wouldn't make it anyways. Again, we're sitting there in AAA and Reno me,

ship leads. Blair, all these guys and literally like I was the only guy under a five. I mean, maybe that's why some of those guys didn't pan out. But I mean, historically, it's even the good guys, man. It's it's a tough place to pitch, a tough place to build. Yeah. And I don't know. I like, I don't know.

I think like you said, there's not a guy to put a stamp on. I think it's just tough, man. I think I like out of what I saw this season, I think Yilbertias was obviously the best of these of this group. So I see him as maybe the the best chance to at least contribute next year. Kishan Mana is so young that I don't want to like put the stamp on his career or say what he is and what he isn't. Like I think he could be a really good pitcher. But yeah, I'm not super filled with confidence from these guys.

I do think that it would be like Ernesto puts it in the chat here. And I think I think he's from Tucson. But like the sidewinders, I mean, that that seemed like a pretty decent situation in terms of like you need a rehab. start, have a driver drive them down an hour and a half. They could be back at home in Phoenix at night. Like I think that that would in obviously the weather is so similar and the altitude and stuff. Like I think that really would be a beneficial thing for this organization. Again, I know it's little, but it's my building a fan base. Your AAA team is now an hour away. Yeah. It promotes just again building and community and it's a lot easier to commute to a game and nothing against Amarillo, Texas,

although I will bring it up. Porns down. It's OU Texas week. But Texas fans, they have their, you know, I know my ownings are spread out, but I think there's ways to do that. I mean, Tucson would be fantastic. I like that. Get on board with that. Let's make that happen.

Well, we have some mailbag questions to get to here in a moment. But before we do that, I want to give you all a couple of quick notes from some folks around here at PH&X. And we're going to start with Healer River Resorts and Casinos. this is probably where Derek is right now. I don't have official confirmation, but generally when Derek is off work and I don't know where he is,

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Blue Chil. So the Diamondbacks pitchers, their rotation, obviously weren't last in the longest this season in terms of staying on the mound innings pitched. But you know what? They maybe could have used a little bit of blue chow help you last longer. First impressions are important. What about lasting impressions? That's where Blue Chew comes in. Blue Chew helps boost your confidence in the bedroom so you can stay hard and

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We thank Blue Choo for sponsoring this podcast. This was a totally a Derek ad read, by the way, Jesse. Yeah, yeah. We discussed it beforehand. You pulled it off, though. That was great. I'm impressed, Damon. Way to go.

So NSF certified? That's the drugs. That's all the supplements we have to take for Major League Baseball. If it's NSF certified, let's keep it in the clubhouse. I'm pretty sure it is. I would think that it has to be. Just a nice little like, it's like the snacks, you know? Again, like, man, let's get their testosterone.

run that'd be great maybe take the miles up you know mpH might take up mile an hour and again it like the lasting longer you know what I mean maybe it's another inning or two might be on to something I don't know it's something something to think about we're talking about how you fix the debacks pitching situation it's it's definitely just something that maybe maybe we just toss in the ring there I mean confidence at home in the bedroom goes a long way in life damn right let's get back to baseball yeah let's do that so it is Monday of course here on the ph-inx dbacks podcast and Everyone knows what we do here on Mondays. If Derek were here, he would give the spiel.

He would say that every day is Earth Day. Every week is Shark Week. Every year is Damon's year, something along those lines. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. So, Kevin, let's go. And let's do the thing. Let's get to some mailbag questions. Our first question comes from Daniel Kasten.

over on Twitter. And Daniel says how many days until opening day? And I've really failed on this front because I meant to look up the actual number of days until opening day. And I definitely failed to actually do that before we went live. Damon, are you getting on this from here? The real answer is zero days because the Arizona Fall League starts tonight, ladies and gentlemen. So that is baseball.

champion. Baseball. Oh, oh, you guys, you guys won the thing, huh? 2014? We, again, I don't actually know this. I say this. I felt like we had statistically one of the best Fall League teams. We dominated. Okay. Keep rowing, baby.

Salt River Rafters. Keep rowing. We might have a little bit more on that later, but I'm looking at 172 days until opening day, Jesse. 172. So there's 365 in a year. So we're like, it is barely closer like in the future than it is in the past. We're like almost right at the halfway point between the two, which is kind of depressing to think about.

But yes, it will be here eventually. Maybe not as soon as we'd like. But of course, we have spring training baseball coming in February. And as I said, we have the Arizona Fall League starting here tonight right in our own backyard, which is something that you all should take advantage of. we're going to talk about that a little bit more later in the show. But for now, let's go to our next question. Kevin, what do we got?

Avi S-O-E-P. I'm not going to try to pronounce that because I know I will butcher it. Ask this on Twitter, who should the closer be J-Mart and Kee Puck is your high-leverage lefty slash eighth inning guy or vice versa. Damon, what do you got on this? I think J-Mart definitely projects as the closer moving forward. I would sit him down and tell him that and say, you know, I think we want you to be our closer of the future. But as of right now, AJ Puck is one of the best relievers in all baseball.

I think it would be a little silly to kind of take him out of that role just because of how important it is. But I also kind of envision a world where maybe Tori uses him as more of a wild card than maybe our fan base. And we personally might see. So I really could see it being like kind of just a closer by committee type of situation and AJ Puck coming in in the eighth inning to get five, six outs at times even as well. Yeah, I think that's where it's tough. If you're not going to go sign a solidified guy, obviously J. Mark getting some reps in the name, we talked about the way Puck pitched on the stretch has had time as the closer in Miami.

Again, I think, yeah, you either, again, the problem with committing to a guy, right, especially early and a young guy is what's the where's the limit right if j mark gets out to a tough start right um i don't know that's where i think the flexibility of like you said having a guy especially in puck as much as i do want to be the back end but being able to have a guy that can be a fire you know the the the guy that can go multiple things you can put them in in the six one day and then put him in the eighth and then he gets a close on the closers down kind of like what i did you know my time um i don't know like you said, but at the same time, Puck has it,

he has the reputation, he's an intimidating guy on the mound, the way he pitched down the stretch, very, very large man. The momentum, everything leads to him being the guy that you can look to in the back end,

which I think is huge, man, when you have a guy, especially the way you finish, all right, that's our guy. You know, you can build from there

and then, you know, build around him and said, always talked about it as much as I wanted to close and my time was closed. The last three outs are the toughest outs of baseball. Yeah.

And having a guy that you believe in, Um, again, I always like Kenley Jansen, you know, I mean, obviously he's going to be a Hall of Famer, but even he had some rough stretches in LA. But for the most, they stuck to him and like finding a guy that can hopefully be that and you can stick to you is I think the most consistent thing to the back end. And your experience like, I mean, you had times where you were the best reliever in the nine backs bullpen, but you weren't necessarily the closer. Do you did you, did you enjoy that? Like, yeah, AJ Puck would be in a spot where like he would maybe even prefer that or? Again, what I would hope from that is that what I always said is I just, I want to get paid for it. You know, like, saves are this crown jewel of getting paid.

But like you go look at that stretch I was in. Like, I led the big leagues and holds numerous years. I set a record for most holds in the first half. I know holds aren't as sexy. You can get one for just getting one out. But the same can be said for a save. And don't me wrong, closing is extremely hard. But there would be times, like, I would roll through four, five, six.

go out and then, you know, give the, the closure 7-89, you know. Or again, like, I would pitch down one run or, you know, stuff like tie, where closers, they only pitch ahead, you know, certain situations where I had to be ready and pitch in a lot more games. And yeah, I found that more fun than closing because I felt like I could impact the game. Yeah. And especially losing one or two and like getting that game to the ninth where we have a chance to score and tie or win the game.

I found that even more valuable sometimes than closing out a win. You know, so I don't know. I think J. Mart with the experience he had, he could definitely be a guy like that. I think we talked about Dre Jameson last week, too, that I feel like I would love to see take on a role like that. He just feels like a closer kind of from a mentality standpoint, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he gives off closer vibes for sure. That's definitely a thing.

Either way, I think, again, with the experience that both those guys have, it's a good spot to be in where you have two guys. that you're considering for the back end because you can work with that a lot easier than not having one. Yeah. Yeah. This organization has had many years in his history where there wasn't even one back end arm.

But who do you go sign? Like I think signing a closer to is also such a huge gamble. It is. Like I don't. There's like five guys that are like shut down closers. The rest are all pretty, you know, replace. Well, and even then like I probably would have said that Josh Hater was a

shutdown closer and then you know you you see. that the tigers bring up Andy Ibanez the pinch hit and he clears the basis of a double against him in a playoff game, right? Like that's that's the sport that we know and love. Let's go to the next question, Kevin. What do we got? Next one is from Grant Lion at Grant Lion 31 on Twitter. What steps are being taken to address offseason training plans for players? You curtail the amount of injuries this team had to battle through. This is a question that I can't really answer as of yet. It doesn't sound like the debacks have had their conversations with guys, at least as of the exit interviews last week, Tori said that that's something that pushes a little bit later in the offseason. But I did

want to ask you, Archie, about just like, in general, are there things the debacks can do this offseason to try to prevent injuries? Or is that not really how it works? No, I mean, there is, right? Like, every team takes each player and breaks down certain things, and they track everything, not only from on-field performance, but your weight throughout the season. muscle mass, lean, all these things where, hey, man, during the season,

you lost 15 pounds over the season. Like, that's maybe why your power is down. But, I mean, you look, let's talk about the Dodgers. Like, look at their injuries.

Injuries, I just think they're going to happen. Like, I would say, again, from my time, what the debacks offer from a training and nutrition is, honestly, I would consider one of the best in the big leagues.

Like, no one does what I've seen, that the debacks do, what they offer with Salt River, the food, like, they start prepping meals for us, December I think like when I was training here like we had access to full food

salt rivers open all the trainers are there the full everything is open to us that's why again I talk about like I feel like Arizona should be such a landing spot for guys like the only thing I would say that I felt like we had here or I say we had here but trying to recruit guys or create more of an off-season home here for your younger guys where like when when i would go work out at salt river Goldie Pollock Chris Owings Jake Lamb me I could go there was probably 15 16 dudes

and especially come January like when the new year came it was probably at least half the 40 man guys were in Arizona at the facility and I know each guy has their individual program but when you start to get guys together earlier and again you start to create something where, oh, Archie's here every day at seven, I'm going to get here at seven because I want, you know, I want to be here with those guys. And like, oh, Archie's Jake Lamb's cold tubbing,

I'm in a cold tub. And then again, like we were strategic and we would younger, like when I was a young guy, like I watched what Goldie did. I watched what Pollock did. And it helped me what we talk about like the learning curve of how to be a pro. It, like I went into year three. Like, oh, I'm ready to be a pro now. Like I'm ready to step into this year and handle whatever. it is, but it was this sense of this, like we talk about it, we're not going to go spend on massive free agents and like bring in whoever. So creating this system where guys work out here in the off season, that's one thing I'd like to see more. Where we would call it DeBacks camp, whatever, but let's get something where guys are present here in Arizona and in front

of our staff more consistently. Yeah, I mean, it definitely seemed like a lot of guys coming off the World Series run, uh, we did return to Salt River early and we're, we're getting they're working. I don't know exactly how many. Maybe there is opportunity for more of that to be done. But yeah, you know, I think there's the Diamondbacks medical staff. I think he's been sort of under fire here for the last few months, just given the volume of injuries that this team took on this year. But from the outside, it's really hard to connect any of that directly to an injury to a medical staff. Yeah. And I mean, again, my, I know all those guys from other teams, the D-backs are one of the top medical staffs the treatment the care their program um they do an unbelievable job for my experience so again

i just think just baseball man yeah like and they were relatively healthy two seasons ago yeah yeah this team does not really had a history of you know getting injured year after year this season is really was really kind of an anomaly if it becomes a habit then all of a sudden you can start asking questions but but in a one-off situation where the team played until october the year before yeah like that's That's a, it makes it sense, given how short the offseason was that maybe there was a little bit more injuries here and there. So we'll, we'll, we'll reconvene that next. Yeah, take table that discussion for the time being. Let's go to the next question.

We have from Corbyn Carroll on Twitter. Thanks, Corbyn. Yeah. Big friend of the program. Corby Carol is a big avid viewer of the show. What do you suspect will be the order of priorities for the team this off season, pitching, first base, third base? there is deceptively a lot to be done this offseason. Yeah, I feel like we could spend probably an entire show on this question,

kind of outlining the priorities. Because I'm sure we all have different answers. Yeah, probably everyone would have different answers. Damon, I guess I'll start with you. What does your priority list look like for the off season? Well, I mean, I think just immediately off the bat, like the pitching staff was like the 27th best pitching staff in baseball. So that's like jumping off the page at me, that's what needs to be fixed the most.

But that being said, losing Christian Walker would be a massive, massive issue for this team potentially. Unless Pavin Smith, of course, is just a 900 OPS guy for the rest of his career. Maybe it is. Who knows? But yeah, I think to me, I guess from a third base perspective, I think it's pretty simple. I think Gino played himself into getting that option picked up. Yeah, I think that option gets picked up. And then I don't know.

I guess with the floor of this team where it's at, I think maybe Christian Walker might be the most important piece in my opinion. Just because I think this offense was so good, you keep all those guys together, you get a little bit of development from your pitching staff, you get healthier gallon and Merrill Kelly hopefully next season, and that should on paper improve the pitching staff a lot. So I agree.

I'm going to go with Christian Walker. And I'm biased. He's my boy, but I think it's deeper than just a contract. It's a statement piece. Like it's again, the Diamondbacks committing to it. a guy and allowing him to call home and be a solidified piece for this community, along with

Marte. And again, you solidify that for me. Like I said, Walker was great and he's become a great player. But leaving there, playing for other guys, like the value of what a first baseman does, like, it is, I mean, obviously, offensively, but again, he's been here. He's been a staple. Part of a World Series run, wildcard team, been through the worst of the worst here. again he's he's a guy that I look that I want the dimebacks to commit to and make a franchise player here he seems like he is the leader of the clubhouse as well like at least yeah

it's like yeah from a great like level-headed perspective like walk I don't think ever like you could tell he's happy or excited but like he's a smart intelligent player that has learned and like I said been through it all that I think now again is one of those guys that is an invaluable piece to this team going forward. So that's my thing. We don't sign Walker. I don't, I really don't like that. Throw the rest of the priority list out the window if you don't. I mean, again, we talk about it. Like, of course pitching, but like, how do we address that here? Yeah. Right. The starting rotation for next season is basically set. Yeah. You kind of have what you have. And it's just a matter of trying to get guys to be healthy, which again is not necessarily something the team has a ton of

control over, but hoping to get more lucky next year. And then also just trying to, yeah, to help Eduardo Rodriguez, you know, kind of find his way back to maybe what he was in Detroit and trying to help Jordan Montgomery, of course, find his way back. There's not a whole lot of tangible things the team can do. I mean, I guess they could try to make a trade or something along those lines. I know Mike Hazen always talks about how you can never have too much starting pitching. So I wouldn't rule out an addition there, but you're not, you're not overhauling this rotation. It really is what it is. And I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing. I could I could still imagine a 2025 where the Diamondbacks rotation is above average.

For sure. I think the arms to the arms. I 100% think so. I mean, I'm hoping for me huge bounce back years from these guys. Yeah. I mean, from everyone,

from health-wise and performance-wise, I think honestly, that's what gives me the most optimism about going into next year is I really do think the core offense is there. Yeah. So, of course, as always the adding of the pieces and the fourth outfielder and platoon guys, but like from a rotation standpoint,

I feel, I say as confident, but as good going into a season just because they were here. They did struggle, but like there's a lot of optimism, I think, and excitement for a debaaks rotation going into next year.

I think it'd be interesting to look at, like if you just look at team ERAs, I wonder if like the Diamondbacks staff would probably, I would imagine, fill you with the most confidence in terms of the bottom of the barrel type of teams going into next season.

They're not in great company, frankly. No, no, but I'm saying like, I don't even think it's really close. Yeah, no, I don't think it's close either. I think if you're looking for, you know, you're trying to make a bet on what rotation has the best chance to bounce back next year or something along those lines.

I think the diamond backs would probably be near the top of that list. So, yeah, all that to say, starting pitching, you're not necessarily looking at a ton of movement there. Resigning Christian Walker seems like a top priority for probably all of us here. The DH slot, you're going to have to figure out what you want to do there. Yeah, Tanner, put that in there. That's another, I think that might be number two.

That's pretty important. I mean, Jock Peterson, Randall Gritchick were an enormous part of this offense. I mean, it was basically an elite DH situation that the debacks had. And right now, they don't really have any of that, assuming that both of those guys don't return on those mutual options. So there's some work to be done there as well. JD Martinez is a free again? I believe, I believe so. Yeah, I believe J.D. Martinez signed a one-year deal.

New York and and there you go. Love hitting here. He enjoyed it here. Just it's such a important piece now. I mean, it stretches your lineup. And especially with the production we got out of it, I mean, it's just, it'd be really tough to take a step back in that role. And now it is, you can sign guys just for that. I mean, it's a, it's exciting.

And I think that's a huge piece for us. I got my eyes on Santander. I don't know. Anthony Santander. That's just like he's a switch hitter, you know. Yeah. I don't, I think he hits from both sides of the place. late so you don't have to worry about a platoon and uh i mean i don't think he wouldn't be cheap at all but

that that's just that's just kind of what what comes to mind for me is someone that interests me he had 44 bombs so yeah that's crazy i didn't realize he at 44 runs this year quite a season for the or else that's crazy there might be might be high uh yes we could talk about this for another 45 minutes let's uh let's go to the next uh the next question uh chris and phoenix uh legend we love chris and phoenix uh do you think kendrick and company have told montgomery that he will be a mop-up long reliever next season if he accepts the $22.5 million player option. So another season of quote-unquote no stats hurting his value for his 26 contracted beyond, thus praying he turns down the option.

That's an interesting idea. I don't think the Diamondbacks are doing that. Obviously, Ken made some very critical comments about Jordan Montgomery publicly the other day, which did at least float the idea into the universe that maybe part of the intention was trying to get Jordan Montgomery to be like, oh, maybe I don't want to come back to the team that's talking about me like this publicly. But I don't know. That seems maybe a little bit too far. I mean, I think the Diamondbacks have also spoken publicly about how they think that Jordan Montgomery could bounce back next year. And maybe it really is just as simple as him having a

full spring training. And if he comes back next season and looks good, the Diamondbacks are going to give him a job there. They're not going to just leave him out in the bullpen. if he looks anything like what he did last year. And I mean, from his, I mean, it's $22 million. Like, he's not going to not, what is he going to sign for after the season he had? Yeah. And again, I believe in him. I think like we saw, he, he, again, I don't have to go.

Not having the spring training for me is the whole reason for the season he had. So I'm excited. I, again, Ken saying that, that's just, dude, that's the owner. Like, whatever, right? Like, that's part of it. I know he does make decisions, but he really doesn't. Like, not downplaying his role or who he is. But in a way, he signs the checks.

And he provides input and opinion. And he has the right to have an opinion as an owner who signs the checks and pays for this stuff. And regardless, like, whatever, I'm still going to make $22 million next year. I'm taking my option. And yeah, like, I'm going to go pitch. And if you want to leave me in the pen, I say leave me in the pen. But in my head, he's going to bounce back and be a huge piece of this rotation. I would be very shocked if the Diamondbacks did not at least give Montgomery a shot next season.

Like, they are going to go into spring training with the intention of having him be a start. harder and be every bit the pitcher that they that they envisioned he would be. I don't think like Ken Kendrick saying that doesn't really have any bearing really. I think it's funny because he often says funny things. But at the same time, like, I don't know if you saw before the season when he called Shohei a DH. And he was like, he's one a nine. That was hilarious.

But his comments about show hey, it didn't age as well. No, no. I mean, I even, I kind of agreed with him at the time. Like, yeah, Ken, yeah, show hey is just a. At least for this season, right? But he wound up being about as good of a DH as he could possibly. My point being that I don't think Mike Hazen and Tori Lavello are having those, saying those things. Correct.

Jordan Montgomery. They're trying to fill him with confidence and get the best out of him in 2025. Yeah. We have one more mailbag question. Let's go ahead and hit that one. This comes from Ben over on Twitter. Who are your quote-unquote must-keeps in terms of contracts for success in the 2020? 25 seasons. So I guess options here, obviously Christian Walker, whom we already touched on.

Randall Gritchick and Jock Peterson likely to leave on those mutual options. Josh Bell, Kevin Newman. Those guys are our free agents as well. Paul Seawald also a free agent. Any of any of those guys stand out outside of Walker, which I think we've already kind of touched on. I'm biased, but I like Kevin Newman, bear down. Newman. Arizona guy. And I think he's, he had a really good season this year. He cooled off a little bit towards the end, but he helped this team win a lot of baseball games when they really needed him. Tons of injuries, obviously, this year. And he really stepped up in my opinion. I think he was, I think he was a solid player.

And I think obviously you get him back on a really cheap deal. Yeah, really cheap. And I think he fits the mold and knows his value in that role. And for me, just is, yeah, he's going to be a guy that provides consistent depth and value where we talk about from that side, someone goes down, all right, we can put, he can play. multiple positions. Understands how to take professional abats. So him, and I know we talk about, I don't think he does, but I

Jock, his personality. Yeah. Again, I just, his career, what he's done, the presence he brings, he's now, I mean, especially compared to a couple years ago, as good of the hitters, he's been in his career in terms of some of the stuff he's doing.

And the pop is still there. So I like what Jock brings. I like who he is as a leader. for the young guys. And again, I think when you have two-time World Series champ, you know, in your locker room that is, again, vocal, loud, goofy,

a little weird. Like, that's a Diamondbacks type player for me. Yeah, Jock is all of those things for sure. Yeah, and he spoke when we talked to him the other day when everyone was cleaning out their lockers. He did speak positively about his experience here. It sounds like he'd be interested in returning. But yeah, the numbers are going to be.

tough. It's not going to work in the debacks favor that Jock just had a career year and will be highly sought after by a lot of teams. He'll be with the contender, unfortunately, I think. I think you'll find a home with a team not saying the Diamondbacks don't, but more realistically that have a chance on paper to go win a World Series somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how all of that turns out. We are going to look at some Arizona Fall League players preview what the D-backs have going on there. Again, that league starts tonight. We'll get to that here in just a moment. But first, a couple of more quick notes from our friends around here at PH&X. I want to tell you about branded bills.

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That was interesting. Yeah, yeah. You got, of course, Arizona Cardinals football heating up a little bit. Huge win yesterday in Santa Clara. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's season for sports around here other than baseball, essentially, and no better place other than game time to pick up tickets for that kind of stuff. Head on over to game time. Use our promo code of PHNX and you'll get $20 off your first purchase.

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Yeah, so the Arizona Fall League, it is here. It has, it has arrived. There is a game happening tonight, although unfortunately, no Diamondbacks prospects will be represented in that game. That is Mesa playing against surprise out at Sloan Park tonight. So if you're around the valley and you miss baseball and you're willing to sit out in 107 degrees or whatever it is today to experience it again. That option is out there waiting for you.

For people who don't know what the Arizona Fall League is, I think Word has mostly gotten around at this point. But I guess instead of me trying to explain it, we should have someone who participated, explain it. Archie, what is the Arizona Fall League? Arizona Fall League is a collection of top prospects slash identified players that teams think have a chance to make an impact in the big leagues next year

or a couple of the younger guys that they think it would be very valuable for them to experience playing with these caliber of players and playing longer into the season, especially for maybe some of these college guys that got drafted. Right.

And we played two months of the season. The fall league is a great chance for them to continue to showcase their skills, play more baseball, learn, and for these teams to really kind of evaluate what we were talking about who these guys are and the role they might play in their team's future.

So the Diamond, These Diamondbacks this year have eight representatives. The way that it works is there are six teams scattered around the valley. Each of the Fall League teams is connected to five major league organizations. So the Diamondbacks, all of their prospects are part of the Salt River Rafter. So their home stadium is Salt River Fields. Of course, the same home ballpark is the Arizona Diamondbacks. And, yeah, the Diamondbacks have some very noteworthy participants this year.

So if we look at a list here, they have. infield prospect Tommy Troy, who of course was a recent first round draft pick for them just just a year ago. They also have infielder Gino Groover, who's someone we've talked about on this show a lot. The last few months, he is participating from, from AA. He had a really good season, was called up to AA on September 1st and absolutely raked in Amarillo once he got there. So that's an exciting name to keep an eye on for the debacks.

Christian Robinson also will head to the Fall League for the D-BACs. He is coming from AA. Robinson had a bit of a tough year this season, obviously still trying to make up for all of the time he missed for what was more than a year period where he was sort of away from the game due to some off-field stuff. So he was participating at the age of 23. Umin Lin, that's the beautiful face that you see there on the right. Lynn really finished the season strong.

He belongs in a category of player along with almost everyone, else on this list who spent considerable time on the injured list. That's something we see a lot where teams will send guys to the fall league just to kind of make up for that lost time. Um, Umin Lin took a ball to the face while standing in the dugout, uh, which still blows my mind and missed a couple months with that. So he finished the year really well. Uh, actually made one start in AAA just a few days ago. Uh, most spent most of his time in double A. So he'll be out there, uh, one of the debacks top pitching prospects. Um, and then running through the bottom of this list real quick. Dylan Ray comes from AA. He missed a couple months with an elbow injury.

One of the more highly regarded names in the system. He was with Amarillo this year. He will be there. And then we have a trio of relievers as well. Philip Abner from Haye Hillsborough, who's a 22-year-old who had a 185 ERA in 34 innings. Really, really strong numbers there across the board. Kyle Ament, I believe is how you pronounced that. He reached AAA. this season started the year in Hillsborough, ended it in AAA, had a 286 ERA across those three minor league levels. So he's someone who could impact the big league roster as soon as next year, pretty reasonably. A ninth round pick out of Dallas Baptist last year.

So definitely, yeah, definitely a name to keep an eye on there. And then we also have Alfred Murillo, who is coming from high A, 22 years old. so he will also be there representing the Diamondbacks. So we've got eight players. And again, some of the Diamondbacks very best prospects here, Tommy Troy, Gino Groover, Umin, Lin all probably in the top five or so in the system. So Damon, you're going to get out to some of these games? You know, I've never been to a Fall League game,

but I think maybe we should maybe hit up our diehard, see if I know that they like going out and seeing if we can get up a meetup kind of unprompted going. And then also maybe just Jesse and Damon just go watch ball. maybe we don't invite Derek. Yeah. Maybe Archie comes too. I don't know.

You may look it up real quick. There's a percentage on players that play in the fall league. It's something like 65 or 70% at least make the major leagues. It's a huge percentage of so the guys you're seeing are pretty much guaranteed to be the next wave of guys you're going to be watching in the big leagues. And for me and for all of us, the futures game like during the middle of the season, that's really cool to go to. But the fall league was like for me almost more of like I'm a guy. because you looked at the other guys that were there, like across the fall league,

like either guys, like even sometimes like there's probably a few big leaguers that are going to be in the fall league. There typically is they've made their debut already. Same thing. They want to get some more work. So in a sense, you do is cool.

There's a couple guys that have been in the big leagues here on our team. And yeah, you got to in a way restack yourself up against the top prospects in baseball for, you know, month and a half season. Well, before we get out of here,

Archie, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you to try to name as many players as you can from your Folly team in 2014. I recognize this was a decade ago. Yeah. But there's some fun names on this list. So what do you got? Okay.

We'll go D-Backs. Caleb Fleck, Brandon Drury, Enrique Burgos, oh gosh, catcher. I was just talking about the other day. Huge Peter O'Brien. Yeah, yeah. He hit some bombs.

Mark Apell, Trevor Story. Yeah. Chris O'Dowd Right not rhyming man I'm missing a few big guys here There's a there's a star Center fielder For the Minnesota Twins

Oh, Byron Bucks in we had the whole Because it's the twins bucks It was the Astros So who else? Oh, I just There's a lot of names on the list We were the five worst teams in baseball that year It was Diamondbacks, the twins, the Astros, the Rocks,

the Rockies and I'm missing one of the squad. But it was literally like the five worst teams. But I think we had the five, like we had the most like top rated prospects, at least for me on that team. Yeah, it was a fun time, man. It was a fun time. Again, play a whole season and then you have to go back

and play again. But again, understanding the magnitude of it. And yeah, I think anytime you commit to winning and being a part of something and we won, it was fun, man. We didn't spray real champagne because none of us, I think half the team won't even 21, so there's a great juice and stuff.

But I actually just put it in my rearrange it today, my fall league ring. Like it's an important piece of my career and something that I was so fortunate and happy to be a part of. And we talked about just a little tidbit, like, I went to the fall league in 14, made the team in 15. Dan Carlson would follow me around everywhere during that fall league year. And like, I had a really bad 14 minor league season. I went to the fall league and DC in the fall league. and they make the team in 15. So it is a huge, valuable piece for these prospects

and these kids are getting to play in it. Rafter for life? Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, and I think for fans as well, it's a really, really cool experience. I've been going to Fall League games for a long time, far before I even worked in baseball or anything. It's just a lot of fun.

You can basically sit wherever you want. I think it's $10 to get in. It's really affordable. So if you haven't been to a Folly game before, or even if you have, absolutely recommend checking it out. Maybe just give it a few days until it's not like 108 degrees outside, which is still utterly outrageous.

But we thank all of you for being with us here for this show. It is always a pleasure to have all of you here with us in the chat. In the meantime, until tomorrow, we'll be back here at 1 p.m. But be sure to give all of us a follow on Twitter. You can find me at Jesse and Friedman. You can find Damon at Damon Dogg. You can find Archie at Archie Bradley 7. He's also on Instagram.

He's a whole lot more serious about Instagram than I am. I think I've posted like three times in my life. You can also find our producer, Kevin at Kev Tom Wright. That's T-H-O-M-W-R-I-T-E-S. Of course, our beat account is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bax. We have all sorts of debax content there throughout the off-season. So we really appreciate your support there. and all roads here at PHNX lead to at PHNX underscore sports.

That is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Well, thank you all again so much for being with us here today. We really appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun on the first day of the Arizona Fall League.