PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How Brandon Pfaadt became one of the best pitchers in Diamondbacks postseason history

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

We know we missed a real opportunity not doing this on a Tuesday, but we are discussing Brandon Pfaadt’s rookie season with the Arizona Diamondbacks and how he became one of the franchise’s best pitchers in postseason history. We also talk about D-backs picking up relief pitcher Collin Snider off waivers from the Royals and what the Snakes are going to do to make room on their 40-man roster for Lourdes Gurriel Jr.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 Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head on over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find out where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. WYNK Seltzer + THC: Go to https://drinkwynk.com/ and use promo code “PHNX” for 50% off. 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.

Happy Brandon Fought Day right here on the PHNX D-BACs podcast. Of course, my name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as the mayor of PHNX. This is my vice mayor and your thunderstick, the one and only Jessica Friedman. We're actually not H&X today, Derek. We are PF. HNX. That's all my titles all year long. And he gave me started was like that.

A ski to you all, big ski to the Brandon Fought family and Brandon Fought himself. We are very excited to talk. about Brandon Fott's tremendous rookie season that he had that culminated in one of the best postseason runs we've ever seen from a pitcher on this franchise. But before we get to that, we did have, of course, some exciting things to talk about Jesse. We are officially 99 days away from the opening day of Major League Baseball's regular season in 2024. That's the Diamondbacks opening day, right? I think that's baseball's opening. Well, I believe there's the game in Korea happening.

Oh, is that an actual regular season opening day? I think that is an actual regular season. Yesterday, MLB had 100 days yesterday. So, but maybe they're not factoring that game in either. Maybe they just mean the regular opening day of the regular season. But yes, that's definitely the Diamondbacks opening day. Which means, of course, nothing's happening right now. It's two weeks before Christmas.

Everybody's, or not before Christmas. It's two weeks around Christmas. Everybody's on holiday. Everybody's taking some time off. What are you going to do with yourself for the next 99 days? Is that enough time for us to get ready for the 2024 season? Probably not. No.

Yeah, I still feel like after the postseason run, this offseason is not going to feel nearly long enough. I don't know if all have fully, I haven't fully recovered and I don't know if all have fully recovered then. No. No, definitely not. But also, Tori will still have his Christmas lights up on his house, I'm sure. Correct. He's not going to have time to take those down. 99 days?

No way. No way. Not enough time. But the Diamondbacks did make a move. exciting. I don't think we should use the ESPO breaking news sounder for this, but the Diamond Dax did claim Colin Snyder off waivers from the Kansas City Royals. He is a 28-year-old righty reliever, and honestly, could be one of those Mike Hazen Reclamation

projects that works out for this team. His numbers last year, not great, and his numbers in AAA also weren't very great, but he does have a pretty good sinker. Yeah, yeah. There's some intrigue here. Looking at Snyder's arsenal, you can understand why the diamondbacks wanted to make this move. But yeah, the numbers. The numbers aren't fantastic. No. 4-87ERA, a 182 whip in 20 and a third inning with the Kansas City Royals out of the bullpen this past season. He had more walks than strikeouts. And yeah, he had a 591 ERA went in AAA this past year as well. So for a guy who's 28 years old, you know, obviously not, not an ideal, not an ideal place to be for him in his major league career. But yeah, I mean, you know, we've, we've certainly seen moves like this pan out on occasion where, you know, one team is sort of willing to move on from a guy and he finds his way with, with the next team who claims him. So, yeah, the arsenal here is interesting.

He throws a 96-mile-hour sinker that has a considerable amount of drop to it. his sliders around 85 miles an hour. That's his primary secondary pitch. That pitch fared quite well this past season, actually. A 36% whiff rate. Opposing hitters hit just 067 against that pitch. Obviously a pretty small sample given that he only threw about 20 innings. But yeah, the opposing hitters also hit 487 off of his sinker.

So there's some work to be done there. But, you know, a 96 mile hour sinker and an 85 mile hour slider with good move. you can understand why the Diamondbacks would be intrigued enough to want to make this move. I feel like for a while until maybe he's not good until maybe he has that outing where he blows a game. I am forever going to reference Ryan Thompson whenever, you know, Mike Hazen makes move like this for a reliever because, again, there was something different about Ryan Thompson. We kind of dove into his numbers and we did see there that, you know, His limited innings pitch kind of made his numbers blow up. He only really had like a couple of bad outings.

And outside of that was actually not bad at all with the Tampa Bay raise. But when they DFAed him, the Diamondbacks were quick to pick him up. And he was just lights out for this team, not only for the time, rest of the regular season, but in the postseason. So it does feel like Hazen has the ability, perhaps at times to see some of these kind of guys that might have some promise. and, you know, think about bringing them over, pairing them with Brent Strom and seeing what Brent could potentially get out of them as a pitching coach. Yeah, he does. I also want to add he has a minor league option. So the D-backs, you know, putting a waiver claim in and claiming him doesn't mean that they like have to keep him on the major league roster or anything.

He's a depth piece for them. Someone who is on the 40-man, he does take up a spot on the 40-man roster, but not a guy who, you know, has to make the major league roster in order to stay in the organization. Which is interesting because he does bring their 40-man roster full. And Jacob in the chat asked, what's the delay on announcing Gurriel? Physical not done or trying to trade someone off 40-man instead of DFA. You are ahead of us, Jacob, but that's exactly where we were going with this because the Diamondbacks do need to clear space for Lordus Guriel Jr. And as you alluded to, Jesse was kind of hypothesizing that this could be due to the Diamondbacks trying to get a trade done. right now at this point it is very possible yeah i mean in years past when the diamondbacks have

needed a 40 man roster spot frankly it hasn't always been difficult for them in some ways uh just from like a transaction standpoint they've generally had guys on the 40 man roster that you know you could you could sort of let go and and it was just kind of you know not the debacks wanted to do that but at this point the you know the talent level on this 40 man roster has reached a level where there aren't any clear options that you could just, you know, designate first assignment or, you know, guys who could easily pass through waivers. That's just not, that's just not really the reality of the situation anymore. You know, you look at guys on the 40 man. I can't really think of anyone who I could easily see the diamondbacks, you know, being willing to do that. Diego Castillo,

you know, did. Maybe Peter Strzlucky. Peter Strzrezzlucky. Yeah, maybe, but he's kind of a, I view him as being at least a valuable depth piece, someone that can, can, can, can, you know, you know be in triple a and you know you can you can use them if if you need to the diamondbacks traded andrew chafin for him and seem to seem to like seem to like some things about him so yeah there aren't really any clear options here for the diamond backs to to create that spot and if you're in that situation then making a trade is kind of the way to try to get around that let's do something that's absolutely terrible like arbitration and try to decide which guys that the diamond backs might be willing to part ways with in a trade

off the 40 man roster that would potentially clear up some of that space. Now, I know he could be a future starting pitcher for this, you know, for this team, but Blake Walston is an interesting prospect as far as trading him. Is that somebody that you would feel comfortable with the Diamondbacks parting ways with? If that leads to them adding to their starting rotation now, like a move for a starting pitcher that brings, you know, someone. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't expect this trade to be. all that significant necessarily.

I mean, it could be, you know, we, we give you two guys that you'll put on your 40 man. We take back one guy that we'll put on our 40 man, you know. Maybe the debacks take back a prospect or two. It's not necessarily a trade that would have a big impact on the major league roster, although, I mean, I guess it could. I guess it could be part of a larger thing that they're trying to get done. They've said that they are trying to get that done. And when, again, there's not like a package here outside.

But outside the guys you don't want to trade, there's not a lot of guys here that you figure could really move the needle on a big trade for a big like starting pitcher or like a Corbin Burns or something like that, right? So I get what you're saying as far as it being a little bit more of a low-key move that just kind of makes a roster spot and allows the Diamondbacks to be able to add Lordus for now. They are still active, though. And it's going to be interesting to see how a trade could impact this because we don't know. We don't know the size of a trade that they could be attempting to pull off or what assets, what pieces, that they, that they, that they. could be, you know, adding in there. Right now on their 40-man roster as far as, like, outfielders go, they have Jorge Berosa.

Yeah, they're not D-Fing, not D-Fing, Jorge Berosa. Oh, no, I'm not suggesting that they do you. I'm not saying you are. I'm just, yeah, I'm just saying, like, kind of thinking through all these names. Barrosa is a definite no. I mean, Pavin Smith, I guess I could, but the D-Backs would, would want to try to trade Pave and Smith. He's not, he's a guy who at least has enough value where you wouldn't just want to get

rid of him for nothing. Same thing which, I'm sorry, I mean to cut you off. I'm going to say, Jace Peterson is the same thing, right? Like I know that he has his, is rough, you know, start with this team, but there's still value there. And of course, packaging them together for one player, you know, not only could potentially bring in a quality, perhaps reliever, maybe a back end starter even. And then it also, due to the, you know, assets, the diamondbacks give up, free up those

roster spots so that they can add Lordus and also maybe add. add, you know, the DH because that's also something that's pending. If they do add a DH from free agency, there's another roster spot that they have to Yeah, that's a great point. It's not just that they have to make a spot for Lordus. They probably have to make a spot for, you know, at least one more guy after that. Maybe, maybe multiple. Nicholas says, Pavin and J's for Beaver, who says no?

The Cleveland Guardians probably. Yeah, the Cleveland Guardian probably say no to that. Yeah, there's a lot of guys that I know, yeah, at least mentions Paveen's Smith and Emmanuel Rivera as being guys who don't have, you know, clear opportunities for playing time. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of guys on the 40 man where you don't necessarily project them to have big major league roles, but you still want to have depth at every, at every position and guys

who are in the minors who you could bring up, you know, if you absolutely needed them. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out. You know, I mean, maybe, maybe this isn't that the debacks are trying to make a trade. Maybe, you know, I think the deal was pending. physical on Sunday. So maybe that hasn't happened yet or yeah, you know, maybe that the physical was done and and there were some unexpected findings or whatnot. I guess that's at least an outside possibility. So maybe Lordus is just with his family on vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could be that Lordis wasn't in the country or whatnot. They just needed some time to figure some things out. So it's not

alarming, but I would have expected it to have been announced at this point. So it is, it is interesting for sure. We're waiting. We're waiting is basically what we're saying. We're definitely waiting for this news to break. By the way, make sure to check out Jesse's article on go phtnx.com, covering why Lordus Guriel could age better than most in how he fits on the D-Backs roster. And it's a wonderful piece. This guy never stops. So make sure to check out everything he has going on over at go phnx.com. Also, I'll tell you this much.

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Let Some Burroughs cater all your holiday fiestas, bigger, small. Order online or find one near you by visiting some burrows.com. Season's eatings with Sombrows. Yeah, and let me tell you, don't miss out on that breakfast. It's an incredible, it was incredible. But speaking of incredible things, let's talk about Brandon Fott's incredible rookie season. It's hard to think of what he did this year as being his rookie year. I don't know if it's the aura about him.

I don't know if it's, we're going to talk about how cool, calm and collected Brandon is at all times, almost to a fault. Our man Damon over here wants to see more emotion out of it, wants to see fire. You know what he's not going to get? Any of that ever,

because the guy's just too cool for that, right? But Brandon Fott did transform over the course of this season from a guy who looked like he still had a lot of work to do to pitching in the playoffs as one of the best postseason pitchers in Arizona Diamondbacks history. And that's not hyperbole. That's actually backed up by his achievements throughout the postseason.

It's pretty good. Everything he did. And honestly, it's just been so much fun to watch. Corby and Carroll gets a lot of the talk about being, you know, obviously the rookie of the year and being the best rookie on this team. But there are so many young guys that kind of get lost. And Brandon Fott is one of them considering that transformation he made

throughout the course of the season. So we go into spring training, right? And there's all the young starting pitchers, right? There's Brandon Fott, there's Ryan Nelson, there's Drey Jameson, and there's Tommy Henry. And of course, Diamondbacks fans are all convinced that out of those four, Brandon Fott is the guy who clearly deserves a starting rotation spot above everyone else. And granted, Ryan Nelson and Dre Jemison pitched really well at the end of 2022. So, you know, I think they were both viewed pretty positively at the time as well. Tommy Henry struggled a little bit more in in 2022 than some of the others.

He was also certainly in the mix. But I believe it was on March 19th, Derek, that the Diamondbacks made the decision to send Brandon Fott down to minor league camp. He did not make a team. And at the time, people were not so happy. At least some people were not so happy because Brandon Fott put up pretty darn good numbers in spring training. He did outpitch all of his competition based on those numbers.

and yet the Diamondbacks decided to go with, you know, with some of the other guys, right? Ryan Nelson wound up making the rotation. Drey Jameson made the roster as a bullpen arm, which was kind of a last minute decision. But it wouldn't be too long before we would see Brandon fought in the majors. He didn't make the opening day roster, but he winds up on the Major League roster on May 3rd. This was right after Madison Bumgarner had been designated for assignment just a few days prior. and he got the Texas Rangers in his first

his first game in the majors which is kind of funny to think with how the season ended at the time of him he would wind up pitching against that same team in the world series it was foreboding I guess

it was yeah very foreboding but yeah that that start didn't go so well there no it did not yeah there were a couple of innings were a little shaky but he was getting by and when all was said and done

he I mean the Texas Rangers certainly one of the best offensive teams in the game and there's a reason that they won the world series and that was a tough assignment for him and it didn't it didn't end particularly well it did not and of course from that point on we know that he kind of had an up and down season as far as being optioned he was optioned on may 27th recalled again on june 29th optioned one day later on june 30th and then recalled on July 22nd. And the most significant thing that happened there is that phone call that we talked about with the one and only Brett Strom that happened while he was on vacation

during the All-Star break or he's back home in Louisville, which we will make sure to say that correctly. But he did get a call from Brent Strom that kind of changed his season, right? And I mean, he got a call from Brent Strom at like 11 o'clock at night. Yeah, like a man scientist, literally. I I think he called him Marty. He's like, Marty, we got to go back. Like it was very much back to the future kind of thing.

You know, but he, you know, he received some pitching, coaching, I guess, some coaching, some changing the side of the mound

he was pitching from a bit about his delivery about armed deception and things like that, pitch deception. And next thing you know, Brandon Fott was a very, very good starting pitcher. It seemed like a lot of his control issues

kind of got fixed after Brent Strom called him with that change and after he worked a bit on it. I mean, he still had some, some performances, up and down performances the rest of the season. But he definitely became a much better, more consistent pitcher after that point. He really did. Yeah. The second half of the season, you know, after that call up, as you mentioned on July 22nd, Brandon fought was a different picture of the rest of the way. I think you can chalk up a decent amount of that to Brent Strom's idea to move him from the third base side of the rubber to the first base side.

I mean, it's hard not to correlation is not causation, but I mean, he became, you know, significantly more effective pretty much immediately upon that change being made. So it's, I don't know exactly how much of an impact it had. I think Fogg got better at other things too, but it clearly played at least some role in the success that he had in the second half of the season. And that's a good point because Strom went on this whole tangent with us in the dugout at one point where he was like drawing like he was illustrating the the arm angle and he was illustrating how like just trying to explain how throughout the game especially that you know the

opposing batters can pick up based on your arm movement what kind of pitch you're going to throw and it was you know he was he was basically saying that when you throw from a you know same point it just helps with making it that much more deceptive as far as what pitch you're throwing and you know all of this stuff just makes so much sense to brent strong like to us regular ass people we just are like why would why would throwing like a foot over make a difference he's like because it does i'm not going to waste my time explaining it to you but if you want to i have this chart right and so that's like like you said it you don't know how much exactly but again when it comes to control issues it's not a matter of talent or his ability to throw pitches

sometimes it's just a matter of needing a little bit of coaching to to make sure that you are being a pitcher that that batters can't really pick up on what you're throwing. We should we should look at some numbers. Let's look at numbers. So just like. So Brandon Fod's full regular season stats. Not great. 96 innings of 572 ERA a 22.3% strikeout rate, which is right around league average,

6.2% walk rate, which is lower than league average. So pretty solid there. But a 1.41 whip, a 0.3 foire as there. Eric likes to say. I love that you said that. And entirely too many home runs, right? I mean, that was entirely. That was kind of the narrative throughout the season, more so in that first half, you know, those first couple stints when he was really struggling than the second half.

But that and I think people kind of saw that coming. Like he gave up a lot of home runs in Reno as well. Granted, everyone gives up a lot of home runs in Reno. So it was a little bit hard to tell how much of that was just Reno and how much of that was the fact that Brandon fought likes to throw. He likes to pitch up in the zone a lot, right? His arsenal kind of tailors to that. And on occasion, that doesn't work out well for him.

Occasionally, that does end with, you know, those pitches landing in the seats. But if we look at a breakdown of his season in the first half versus the second half, so this is the first two stints in the majors on the left side and then that final stint on the right side, a lot of things got better, right? His ERA was 9.82 in those first six starts. It was 4.22 in the second half of the season, over 13 appearances. His whip went from 187 to 124. And perhaps most importantly, his home run per nine went from 3.2, which is extremely high to 1.7 in the second half, which is still high.

But it is not so high that you can't be a reasonably good and effective starting pitcher. And that's exactly what Brandon fought was for the debacks in the second half. of the season. The second half is also a much bigger sample size. And I feel like, obviously, with the smaller sample size on the left, there is the fact that bad outings can impact that ERA in such greatly. But, you know, I think this is the reason why the season stats do not show the value of Brandon Fought and what he has become. More importantly, I think it's about the potential here for what he can continue to become, right? I think that's the big thing that we saw not only towards the end of the season,

but in the playoffs. Those were high pressure situations, and that is truly where he earned, you know, the big game Brandon nickname, right? Because in the playoffs, he was just incredible. But again,

it's, you can look at those numbers and especially someone that's not familiar with Brandon Fott, a fan of another team, and maybe even say, like, why would we trade for a guy

with these god awful numbers? And it's because that doesn't tell the true story, of who he is or who he's become. And especially when you see the way that he pitched in the postseason, you can't help but think that even that second half ERA of 4.22 is going to lower down maybe a sub four next season. If that's the case and these other guys, Eduardo Rodriguez, Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly,

continue to do what they do. That's a formidable for some of starting pitchers that the Diamondbacks will have going every couple of days there. Yeah, it really is. And I think, you know, there's still some. some moves to be, you know, to be completed between now and when the season starts. But I think we can say right now, what was it, 99 days until opening day. Yeah.

I think we can say right now that Brandon fought is one of the X factors for the debacks in 2024. Absolutely. Like if he comes out and he gives you 180 innings of a 370 RA, that's, I mean, that could do wonders for this baseball team. I mean, that could push this baseball team, you know, really into that, that upper echelon that upper tier of teams around the league if you have you know not only gallon kelly and rodriguez doing what you expect them to do but brandon fought you know kind of joining the fray

and being almost as effective as is all those other guys it would it would be incredible and based on what we saw in the second half and in the post season i don't think it's all that outrageous to think that brandon fought could take that kind of a step forward in in 2024 he really was he really was effective down the stretch. He gained so much experience throughout the season. And of course, you know, it's not easy adjusting from the minor leagues to the major leagues. We've seen that. He didn't have that clean, you know, jump to the major leagues like Corbyn Carroll did,

but few rookies do. Few guys end up coming up and staying up their whole season the way that Carol did. But let's take a look at a couple of baseball savant pages, shall we? Because I know that's this guy's favorite thing. First, we have Brandon Foughtsavent page. for the season. Yeah, which is, I mean, like his season stats, it's not pretty. I mean, you wouldn't expect it to be.

Had an ERA of almost six if you combine all of the numbers together. But there are even here, there are still some numbers that would suggest he was better than that as expected ERA was 4.48, which is way lower than his actual ERA of 572. And yeah, I mean, a lot of these numbers are not, you know, alarmingly poor or anything. It's really just some of those at the bottom. You see the barrel rate in the third percentile. Barrels are basically just ideal batted balls. These are the batted balls that go for, you know, doubles,

triples, and homers pretty much. Those are those pitches right down the middle that he was throwing at the beginning of the season. Yeah, yeah. And that, I mean, that's a good point. Like when he was struggling at the beginning of the season, it was a little hard to read, like, is this just his stuff isn't quite good enough? Or is this just that he's throwing it right down the middle? a little bit too often.

And I think we all kind of figured it was the latter that, you know, it doesn't really matter how good your sweeper is. If you're throwing it middle, middle, you know, in a, in a hitter advantage count, it's, it's not going to end well for you. It felt like he had difficulty adjusting when he wasn't hitting his spots when his command wasn't there when he wasn't able like, and he would be close, right? He would be out on the outside edge, but his pitches would be landing just outside of the zone. He wouldn't be getting the calls on the close calls from the umpire.

And then it would almost seem like the adjustment for him would be, all right, now, I'm throwing it like dead center down the middle, right? And that that was the, that seemed to be the problem, but that's something that he definitely seemed to correct in the postseason. Because now, let's take a look at his postseason. Do we,

do we have it? Do we have the post season? Ooh. This is his post season. Baseball subon page. Holy shit. There's some, there's some bright red here,

Derek. Some bright red. There's some very, very bright red. I think even the listeners on the audio podcasting side can see this because of how bright red his chase rate is his whiff percentage his k percentage his walk rate is this is just incredible he's still throwing ball getting the barrel on the ball a lot but aside and he's still giving up some very hard hit balls but there was just a lot of a lot of deception a lot of swing and miss

from him in the postseason and it was exciting to see because it was in some big scenarios against some big big time baseball players uh and he was just out there Throwing gas, Jesse. He's just throwing gas in the postseason. Yeah, I mean, like, but at the same time, I mean, he's still throwing 93.5 miles an hour. Like, it wasn't like he was throwing any harder. Yeah, it was just, but it was the way that he was making his pitch because there was just, yeah, there were a lot of pitches that again, if they didn't swing at them, they, they were balls. Maybe, but it was just, it was the way that pitchers just seem, or batters, excuse me, seemed lost in what he was doing at the plate.

And he just was so confident about it. I mean, striking out, you know, some of these guys and then just calmly walking off the mound back to the dugout. It's, I am too Puerto Rican to even understand being that calm in a situation like that. I'm sorry, I can't. Okay, so I have to go a little deeper on some of these numbers. So, so Brandon Fott's chase percentage was in the 95th percentile. This is like if you take his chase rate from the postseason and you pretend that it was, that it happened in the regular season, it would have been in the 95th percentile of all major league pitchers based on. whatever process they use over at Stadcast.

His whiff rate would have been in the 97th percentile across baseball. The combination of those two things is outrageous. Yeah. Like that's something that I don't know. This is something I should try to do. I'm not sure we could find a single pitcher in baseball who has a chase rate and a whiff rate that are that incredibly good. A lot of times pitchers who get a lot of strikeouts, they're like really elite at one

or the other. They're either getting you to swing at a bunch of pitches out of the zone or you just like can't hit whatever they're throwing no matter, no matter whether it's in the zone or outside the zone. But doing both of those things at this elite a level is really unprecedented. If you look at Josh Hater, Derek, Josh Hater in 2023 considered the best strikeout pitcher in the sport, he was 92nd percentile in Chase rate and 91st percentile in whiff rate.

So postseason Brandon fought was better. at getting guys to swing out of the zone and better at getting guys to swing and miss in general than the greatest strikeout pitcher in baseball in Josh Hader who's probably about to make a hundred million dollars as a closer that is that is just to kind of put in perspective just like the volume of whiffs that brandon fought was getting in the postseason it was it was unreal and obviously you know the Phillies they're they're a little bit of a free swinging team at time that's that's maybe a bit of a weakness for them but for Brandon fought to go and do what he did, not only in that series, but really like throughout the postseason as a whole was, was really incredible.

Went out and joined Randy Johnson and Kurt Schilling for the most strikeouts in a postseason by Diamondbacks pitcher. He also had the highest K per nine rate amongst Arizona Diamondback starting pitchers in a single postseason with a minimum of three starts. what he did was incredible, legendary. And again, much to Damon's chagrin, he did it in such a calm manner. He did it like he had been there before a hundred times. And that was what was just so incredible about him as a person, right? And I mean, you could sit there and talk about all of these numbers. Some of the things that he did were just historic.

I mean, I mean, especially for a rookie to be doing it in his first post-season. season appearance. But the exciting part isn't just what he's done in the past because that's behind us now. It's the idea that he could build on that and he could be potentially this pitcher in the regular season for this team. And those are, that's a stuff. That's a stuff that he has. I mean, the future of this team is in good hands when we wonder what's going to happen if Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly do move on. Brandon Fott is a very, very good pitcher to have on your roster right now for the future, right? So in the postseason,

there were a total of, it was five appearances altogether, five starts, 22 innings, a 3,270 RA, a 109 whip, five walks compared to 26 strikeouts. Just, yeah, like Brandon fought in the postseason

was everything that the diamondbacks needed him to be and more. And it didn't actually start all that well. If you go back, I actually, just for fun the other day, this is what I do in my free, time. I watch, I rewatch Diamondbacks postseason games and try to like pick up on things that I might

not have noticed in in the first place. And I watched Brandon fought pitch, game one of the wildcard series against Milwaukee Brewers. It was not an especially good start to his postseason. Two in two thirds inning, seven hits, three runs, one walk, four strikeouts. I think he he got a little bit unlucky in that game. The Brewers had some dinky hits here and there. I don't think he pitched quite as poorly as that final line would show. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't a very good start to what turned out to be a really impressive postseason. But even in that game, like, he struck out four guys after getting in a heap of trouble.

And the first inning, he struck out the side, I think. I think he struck out three consecutive Brewers hitters in order to get out of that in the first inning. And they just, like, couldn't catch up to his fastball. Yeah. It was like Brewer, like, even when it was in the strike zone, they were just swinging through was his heater over and over again. And, you know, throughout the postseason, it was maybe not so much the foreseamer,

but his sweeper was just an incredible pitch. His sweeper had a whiff rate over 50% in the postseason, which means that when you swing at Brandon fought sweeper, you're missing more than half the time, which is, which is just bonkers. I mean, that's a, that's a ridiculous and a ridiculous with rate. And it's why the savant, the little savant page emulation thing that we made, it's why those numbers are so crazy. like you have a you have a whiff rate over 50% on your primary out pitch that's that's just otherworldly type numbers and I mean there were moments in the postseason where that's what

brand and fought looked like I mean yeah especially that start against the Phillies the five and two thirds innings with nine strikeouts where Tori Lavello said that he was booing himself as he walked out of the duckout to remove brand and fought from the game like there were moments when it was a level of dominance that we had just we had never seen from Brandon Fodder really just about anyone else. He was he was that good and that remains the question is again are we going

to see that version of him and it feels it feels more likely because again we know what he we know the numbers he was putting up in Reno and those seemed just crazy considering it was Reno like few pitchers end up having some of the numbers he had in AAA

just due to the environment in which they pitch same thing with right Amarillo right So we knew fought stuff was good and we knew it would play well at a major league level. It just seemed like it took him some time to adapt and adjust. And luckily he's under an incredible pitching coach in Stromi, who, you know, ended up being able to give him the correct advice. Oftentimes when you hear about legendary pitchers in baseball that ended up having a, you know, glorious career, they will talk about some piece of advice they got given at some point that was kind of career changing for them. And this might technically have been that for Brandon Fott.

I'm sure he's received lots of those. And he's, you know, been a very coachable player his entire life. We actually have his little league coach here in a moment talking about that. But it's just, it's very exciting because, again, this entire situation is a group of guys that were just making their debut in Major League Baseball. And they just came along so fast. His season doesn't even feel like it all happened in one year. It feels like it's been three seasons for him to get to this point. Yeah, that's so true.

Like there were, there were like distinct phases of this season. There was the initial call up, which is rough. There was the second call up when he pitched one game against the Tampa Bay Rays and it did not go well for him. And he got sent down again the very next day. And then there was a last call up where it was like,

all right, Brandon Fott is starting to look like at least like a league average, pretty productive major league starter. And then there was the post season when like the Phillies just, like swing and miss at every single secondary pitch that in fought throws. That's the way it's the way it felt in that in that game three. I think the big question for me for fought moving into 2024 is, you know, what does it look like for him to pitch into the sixth and seventh inning?

Because that's something we didn't see in the postseason as much, right? A lot of these starts were pretty short. He only averaged a little over four innings per start in the postseason. Obviously that was by design. The debacks, you know, they were playing it careful as teams often do with young starters in the postseason. Heck, the Dodgers weren't even willing to allow Ryan Pepio to start a game in the postseason. That's true. The Diamondbacks didn't have a choice, obviously.

The Diamondbacks didn't have a choice. But it's a counter on Brandon Foden and he very much delivered. Game one of the Wildcard series, 67 pitches, game three of the NLDS, 42 pitches. Game three of the NLCS, 70 pitches, game seven in the NLCS, 64 pitches. Yeah. And then the one that he threw the most was game three of the World Series where where he threw 87 and had five in a third innings pitch. But he was still he was just good. He was just good all postseason long.

And of course, yeah, you're right because taking that next step. And obviously during the regular season, it's going to be a different story with the way that Tori lets him go. He's not going to pull him. Tori doesn't allow Brandon Fought to go like the third time. Never, ever. Yeah, I don't think that's going to be sustainable for a full season. So we are going to see what that looks like. and it'll be interesting.

I mean, based on the picture that we saw in the postseason, I think it's reasonable to have some confidence that if you extend him out a little bit, he could still be a really effective, a really effective starting pitcher.

And yeah, like we said earlier, I mean, his progress next season is going to be one of the biggest X factors for this team. Well, we know what time of the year it is. And you know, you guys know, I've been huge fan of the holiday scratchers from Arizona lottery.

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Especially defensively But what are you betting the under on Because like you can't really bet the under on Like Kevin Durant and David Booker Because they're still doing their thing You actually can When they're supposed to always score like 30 points a game It's kind of easy sometimes

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Ontario. You ever been to Ontario? Not once. No, not once. I think we're going to have to do the show from there once. Yeah, PHNX, DBAX, family trips, Ontario. They might make me mayor, Jesse. I don't know.

It better not be Ontario, California, right? Oh, yeah, no, we don't want to go there. We're talking about Canadian. Canadian. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Well, we could actually look into how, how, excuse me, Brandon Fott transformed from the pitcher he was at the beginning of the season to the pitcher he became, but we would have no way to prove that. Like we said, we know he got some good advice. We know he got some good coaching. But there's something to be said about the person Brandon fought is. And both Jesse and myself had a chance to get to know some members of his family,

some of his former coaches, his mom who was absolutely delightful and refused, absolutely refused to be interviewed because she thought that it could strongly impact his ability to go out there and perform. She just, I think she just had past experience. There's a correlation. The more of it she talks to the media, the more home runs that Brandon Faw would allow. I think that was the situation. They were on their way. We totally respected that. They were on their way to interview her, I think, during the NLCS.

and she actually like both ran for her life and had her family members stop them from coming over and talking to her. It's totally fair. I respect it. I respect the hell out of it. But the one thing everybody said about Brandon is the fact that this is kind of the guy that he's always been. We saw him do some incredible postseason interviews in front of a media room just packed to the gills with people and cameras and microphones and all of this stuff. And again, much like the way that he performed on the. mound. He performed in these interviews, in these media sessions, which he very much does not like

from what we've understood, like a pro, like a guy that's done it a million times before. And I mean, it was just, it absolutely was no surprise to so many of his family members and his former coaches that he is this guy, right? I mean, they've kind of said that his entire life ever since he was a kid in Little League, he was kind of this guy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it It was pretty fun. I mean, the backstory here is that you and I were, we're walking around trying. Before game three of the world series?

Before game three of the world series in which Brandon, this was Brandon Fought's last, last outing of the season when all was said and done. And yeah, we were doing like the man on the street thing. I had the camera. Derek's doing the interviews and, you know,

we're going around talking to people wearing these cool like throwback, D-backs uniforms and whatnot, just trying to talk to as many people as we can. And then we see, enormous pack of people who are wearing like all of them were wearing brand and fought stuff yeah yeah shirts or jerseys bellerman jerseys we saw some bellarmine stuff yes uh it was not hard to pick out the fought uh clan outside outside of chasefield so it was we called it the family with a p in front right right right right the fought fought pf two aes yeah but yeah um they were delightful

people um we had we had a chance to talk to a couple of them his cousin skied at us which was probably a highlight for me besides his mom telling us that she absolutely would not talk to us on camera that was also a great moment oh yeah she was great about it which is yeah very fair yeah she was great about it but um here is his cousin talking about just brandon and and kind of who he's been his entire career oh i think just the growth that i've seen from brandon um he's worked his ass off for it he truly is the most genuine guy i know um no ego at all i'm his cousin live out in Kentucky with him. But just to see him, what he's done versus the Dodgers, the talent that they,

you know, have it at bat and then the Phillies to see him strike out. What was it, nine batters, I think, something like that. It was crazy.

Yeah, it was just incredible. So we're all cheering for him in Louisville. So excited. That's, he taught me how to say that properly. Louisville. Louisville, you got it.

I got it. Yeah. There we go. Can we get, we need Brandon correcting, he corrected. This was the best. This was the best.

Brandon fought moment. It really was. I know he did. I know the five and two third score list against the Phillies, but this was the best moment of Brandon Rod. I'm not going to argue about all. 2023 season. So yeah.

Where's home? It's in Kentucky. In Louisville or? Louisville. Yeah. Louisville, actually. But I'll, I'll say Louisville to. Sorry.

Yeah. All good. We won't get into that. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, talking about me being mayor of city of Phoenix he became mayor of louisville with that all statement yeah i'm pretty sure city uh retweeted us i think with that clip there was i don't remember exactly who it was but there was a politician from louisville who who pulled the clip we posted this clip on on twitter and it's like the most viewed clip we've ever posted on twitter which is hilarious

to me uh but yes there were there were some uh some louisville louisville louisville politicians who were i i did i did mess it up the first time time i will admit that but that was that was very very fun uh even his little league coach mike came out and uh he talked about how he went out to see his first outing against the texas rangers um but here he is talking about just remembering brandon of being so coachable and and such a young player when uh he was in a little league he's just such a coachable kid and and a cool customer you know and we've talked over the last three months you know because you worried about how you got started and where he's at now and the phenomenal job he's done during the postseason and uh he just

takes it a game at a time yeah you know yeah and we're hoping for the best tonight that he was incredible he was incredible most the accent is amazing um but yeah i mean uh again he comes from a family where his mom was uh a basketball a collegiate star in basketball herself and i mean his uh all of his teammates were there like there was just a lot of love there from people that were part of his career throughout and you could tell that there's still that closeness between him and them you know it's not just like a weird like hey we showed up because we knew this guy at one point no they still talked to brandon and they're still very you know very involved in his life and that's kind of it's kind of wild for his little league coach to saying i talked to him a little while ago and you know blah blah blah

like any you know the fact that you still have that connection with so many people especially people that had such a big impact on, you know, your life and your career just kind of shows this character and what a, what a like kind of humble down, down home guy kind of is. Like the whole calm thing is, uh, that's not like an act. Like it truly is just who he is. Like what we saw there out of that press conference where he just so calmly corrects him and then still is like, you're not from there. So I'll let you pronounce it however you want kind of deal. It's amazing. There was another funny moment, which we don't, we don't have this video, unfortunately, but you probably, you might have seen this on our social channels.

I think we posted this back when it first happened. He was asked about, like, things he does, you know, getting away from baseball, whether he likes other sports. And his answer was that he doesn't like other sports. He said he, he likes sports. He likes all sports. But he just doesn't really feel the need to pay attention to, like, he doesn't regularly follow sports outside.

of baseball. And someone followed up and was like, all right, most athletes don't are not like this. Like what is it about other sports that you don't like? And yeah, he clarified. He was like, I do love all sports. But and then he also mentioned that he was in a fantasy football league this year for the first time. So he started watching.

So he started. Yeah, I don't know. That's next year. But he, yeah, he said that he started watching football and he kind of likes it. So. Hey, good at. Yeah. Yeah, look at Brandon Fah, you broadening his horizons watching a little bit of NFL.

The residents of Louisville are going to be furious with him about that. When it comes to basketball, they're big basketball people there. I'm sure you should watch some basketball at least. But I get it. I get it because, yeah, I don't really watch any other sports myself anymore. It's so hard. It's so hard. I mean, during the off season, I'm good.

Basketball, I've always had passion for the Cardinals. It's just hard. It's hard. But I do enjoy sports. How dare you? I just, it's. It's, I don't, I don't watch. I haven't watched a full-length Cardinals game.

I just can't do it. Just not that, I'm not on that level of fan. Nicholas said it earlier, the coyotes and the debacks. We're holding it down for the city. We're doing it for the Valley right now. We're trying to do our best. Pretty remarkable comeback last night for the coyotes. It is.

It is. I mean, this coyotes team is something special. And I probably shouldn't, I know, again, this, we've talked sons. We've talked coyotes. We've even bashed the Cardinals on here. I'll take ZZ, He says, you know what's great, a delicious Four Peaks beverage. You know what's sad?

Four Peaks isn't stocked in St. Louis near me. Someone tell them, please. We will get on that immediately, sir. And thank you so much for watching. We appreciate you watching out there. Thank you for the super chat. And we'll try to get you some Four Peaks out there. I don't know.

We'll bring a bag to check in. Come out for a game. We'll smuggle you some back or something. In checking it, just don't take it on carry on because I'll make you pour it out. There you go. Um, but of course, uh, shout out to Brandon Fought for everything he's done for this team. And it's very exciting that we get to continue to watch these guys be on this roster for a number of years. I, I think the best for Brandon Fought is still to come to be honest.

And that's a very exciting prospect. Yeah. I mean, I, I am fascinated. I'm, I'm just, I think it's going to be fun to see what Brandon Fott's development looks like in, in 2024. And there are, there are good reasons to believe. that the debacks really might have something here. I mentioned how incredible that sweeper was in the postseason. It was pretty incredible in the regular season two. I think it has the chance to be one of the, you know,

one of the top 20 or 30 like secondary pitches and all of baseball. I think it's that good. And it's just kind of a matter of, you know, can the change up take a little bit of a step forward? Can his fastball command take a step forward? The sinker was a really big pitch for him down the stretch, kind of a mid-season adjustment that really paid off for him in the postseason. And it's a pretty compelling arsenal.

And, you know, he doesn't walk guys. And there's a lot to like about his profile moving forward. The one thing I really enjoyed watching him in the playoffs was it felt like he became a very cerebral pitcher that the confidence had impacted that, right? Where, like, he was throwing stuff to guys during that, you know, those games against the Phillies that you just couldn't believe he's throwing. with such confidence to these guys and having it work out. He knew he was facing aggressive hitters that were going to try to jump all over him

based on his past, based on the fact he has given up a lot of hard hit balls and a lot of barrels, you know, a lot of home runs. And he totally played them. He played on their aggressiveness and it worked in incredible fashion. So there's-

He just executed his pitches so well. Yeah. I mean, it was just like exactly where Gabby would set up. I mean, the postseason was just another, level of being able to execute those pitches. And we saw that like, you know, those, those early season questions of is his stuff good enough to, to really get majorly hitters out at,

at a, you know, at a high level in the postseason we saw, yes, it very much is. If he's able to, you know, put those pitches where he wants to,

which is able to do remarkably well in the postseason, he has this stuff to be a pretty good major league starting pitcher. Well, if you are looking for, again, a place to hang out with your love. loved ones, your family this holiday season and maybe not have that get together in your home. Illegal Pete's is your go-to spot this holiday season from catering to gift cards.

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So check out OG's Sleep Edition Gummy. They are incredible. They are a slam dunk for your taste buds. Plus, you can customize your experience based on desired effect and strength from their classics like the fruit and creams to my favorite, which is Peggs, Raspberry Orange, RSO. There's something for everyone in the OGs lineup. To learn more about OGs gummies and where you can find them, head on over to OGsbrands.com. If you show up to illegal peats, there's like a 20% chance that I'll be there.

Yeah. Wow. And if you show up to... I'm there all the time. If you show up to illegal peats with OGs, there's like a 40% chance he'll be there. Correct. That's just... Derek's got it on the money.

I know. That's where I was going with it next, but you beat me too. I haven't eaten anything really today, and that sounds so good right now. That's usually us. We sit here and do these ad reads and be like, we do our one o'clock show on completely empty stomach. No breakfast. No lunch. Just awesome.

I hate my job. Crunching stats and, uh, we do our... doing words saying words but of course we thank you guys for being here we are going to go feed ourselves eventually at some point tonight that's we have to do that in order to sustain life but in the meantime you can follow us on twitter to find out how we did on taking care of ourselves i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k jesse is at jesse n friedman of course the people's producer damon he is a damon dog that's da wg we are damon's dogs bark of course our show is at p hnx underscore debacks but all roads do lead to at p h and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we thank you

guys so much for stopping by we appreciate your time we also very much appreciate brandon fought uh and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you absolutely shove in your rookie season in the post season