PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How do we break the curse that has been placed on the Diamondbacks bullpen?

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Do we make the entire Diamondbacks bullpen take a salt bath? Can we heal them with magical crystals? Make some voodoo dolls of the opposing players? We are willing to do whatever it takes to break the curse currently cast on the D-backs and their bullpen after losing three games to the Twins. We recap the Snakes getting swept in Minnesota, ponder how it is possible they are still only 1.5 games out of Wild Card spot, and answer your Mailbag Monday questions.SUBSCRIBE 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 Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to another edition of the K&X, you guys podcast right here on KJNX. My name is Derek Monta. I don't even know what I am anymore. I don't know what this team is anymore. I don't know what to feel. It's just sadness all the time. This guy next to me, he keeps it electric.

It's Mr. Electric, Sean DePaz. And we are so thankful to have Jesse here to talk me down from the ledge outside of this building. It's the very, my, my favorite person. No offense to you. Wow. Okay. As far as mayors go around this place, it's the vice mayor.

Only one of us was on the show Friday, but I'll remember that. We don't talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks anymore, though, right? We now, we now talk about the Phoenix Sun. This is a Phoenix Suns podcast now. I mean, we could, no, we don't want to like get in on TPSP territory, but we might just cover all the Arizona sports now. I mean, is that? I mean, I find out me.

I don't want to talk about this team. I want to talk about anything but this team because this, uh, This series this weekend was an absolute disaster. And I don't know what to do about this bullpen other than, I don't know, call a priest to perform some sort of exorcist on them. I don't know. Like throw holy water on them, make them all take a salt bath. I don't know what the answer is. But they lost to the twins in spectacular fashion boys.

I mean, and when I say that, I mean, they found new and heartbreaking ways to lose each game, right? You have game one loss. Diamondbacks look like they were going to do something. Merrill Kelly was decent. on the mic or on the mic on the mound he's pretty good he's pretty good with this we soon have him on the show speaking up but merrill kelly very good

giving up two run runs in six inning so he was back to what we expect out of merrill kelly but the debacks couldn't offer much run support more than the two runs and one run given up by the bullpen was enough and it felt like that game where they were just constantly close enough to getting ahead that they were just

constantly close enough to taking that lead allowing us to see Paul Seawald make his debut. That did not happen. Instead, we get to see Seawald make his debut in game two, which was an absolute blowout by the time he came into the game. Ryan Nelson was terrible on the road, which he normally hasn't been. D-Backs got blown out 12 to 1. Seawald makes his debut and tosses a scoreless inning in a meaningless game.

And then you have game three. Zach Gallen was good on the road, but he was somehow outduled by Dallas Keiko? in what in what world in what universe do we live is this the darkest possible timeline now that we're watching zach gallon give up more runs than dallas kikele i mean i mean dallas kikel won a si young award not oh i'm over sharked right now live on this show i'll be out of way i won't put up any resistance uh i i feel like i feel like we remember him from his time here and i feel like he was putting up one run in outings for the arizona diamond bags yeah dallas Keikle was was very nearly out of baseball appeared to be pretty much out of baseball as of as of the end of last season coming into this year.

The Minnesota Twins picked him up. He was pretty good for them in July in AAA. I believe he was like the internationally pitcher of the month or something down there. He had a sub two ERA in AAA for the twins. But his peripherals weren't weren't really all that great. It kind of seemed like he was maybe just benefiting from some good bad ball luck. I think he probably had made some good adjustment. But yeah, honestly, I think what might be most irritating if you're a Diamondbacks fan is I don't think Dallas Keikl looked all that good in that game. Like he didn't pitch very well. The Diamondbacks, I don't believe, struck out once against Dallas Keikl the entire game. They had eight hits against him. They had a couple of walks. They had base runners all over the base pads the entire time the Dallas Keikle was in the game while Zach Gallen was just kind of mowing him down for the debacks.

But at the end of the day, runners in scoring position. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's how many guys actually cross home plate, not how many guys. guys touch first or touch second. Yeah. And that's kind of been the story for the diamond backs over the last month is that, you know, for as many base runners as they get at times,

they're just not getting enough of those guys to cross home plate. And they've lost a lot of close games in in pretty heartbreaking fashion as a result of that. Speaking of heartbreaking fashion, Jesse, why has Paul Seawald forsaken us? And why is whoever closes out games for this team fucking cursed? Like, what is going?

Like this is pretty wild shit. I don't know about you boys, but I was ready to light up a cigar and say like, good times are here. Paul Seawald's locking down the game. Only to see the same goddamn shit. Two home runs, three earned runs by Saul,

Seawald to allow twins to walk it off in game three. Just absolutely infuriating. And I know, I know, I know the fire Tory people are wanting to come out of the woodworks. But can those people, at least for this one day, see the irony of the fact that this man

can't put anybody out there without having this result. Well, I mean, at least he didn't blow the save on the first pitch. Oh, oh, oh, wait. That did happen, didn't it? Get out. Are they? Are they all died? I was glad you were back, but now I'm not.

Oh, man. The wagon is off the Oregon Trail. Elizabeth says the Deepak's have died of dysentery. Elizabeth, it's not dysentery. Your wagon was killed by the bullpen. Can we throw, can we throw that graphic up there? Yeah. That's this is what your wagon was killed by.

I'm so mad. I don't get to call them a wagon anytime. Like, I'm so mad about this. We might need to put that on a t-shirt because I feel like all Diamondbacks fans need to wear that. Have you played the Oregon Trail before? Have I played the Oregon Trail before? I play.

I was forced to play the Oregon Trail in school. You were forced to? Well, you didn't have a choice. It wasn't for fun. You actually went and played it like as an educational tool. Really? Wow. That sounds incredible.

That is a number muncher. That's crazy. Oh, that was lit. Are you kidding me? It was great. We loved every minute of it. No, I mean, I believe it. I didn't know it was like an educational thing.

Yeah, see, there were these things called Apple 2E computers, and we thought they were awesome when we were small children. And you could play number bunchers and Oregon Trail on it. And that's those were educational times. But we were just, we were just competing for high scores, really. We were just trying to trial was a brutal game. It really was. I got like poisoned by so many snakes and whatnot. Correct.

The amount of times I tried to cross. The Russell River is extraordinary. I'm going to try and play it's fun. Yeah, it was originally, yeah, it was originally created as like an educational tool to video game, quick side note. I started a franchise last night and I'm going to be the show with the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Opening night.

Yeah. Eight and two thirds. No hit innings pitch from Zach Gallon. Okay. And then he gives it up with the out of me. Oh, no. No. I literally was about to fucking punch a whole.

Oh my God. So upset. Well, yeah. I mean, that doesn't help with everything that we've gone through here because I, I don't know the answer here. I felt like Paul Seawald was the answer. And obviously he's still the answer. I don't want the Diamondbacks to give up on him.

The man came into this team 21 for 24, I believe, and save opportunities. So he wasn't perfect, but man, that one hurt. That one really, really, really hurt. I don't know if I can remember. Maybe the one that Scott McGuff did come in and gave up like the back-to-back home runs to give up the game. maybe that one heard as bad as this, but those were better times where I didn't,

you know, it wasn't like this series of losses that kind of piled up and made that loss extra bad. This particular loss made me leave my house and go watch a movie because I needed to like do something

to not be at home. And I'm not even joking about that. I literally was like, I told my daughter to put on some shoes were leaving and she was like, I don't know, I was like, I don't know,

the ball will go see a movie. I told myself dinner. Oh my God. What is that? I opened up a crock pot and made my mom. myself a full meal like he's like meals for days yeah I was gonna say you have leftovers I bet for quite I because I I watched these debats like holy shit I need to get my shit together like I need to figure my stuff out what am I doing with my life I can't have this much disorganization chaos in my life I need to figure something out I can't stand it but let's take a look at the numbers for the three game series in Minnesota because

not great not great y'all not great relief pitch a relief pitching ERA just absolutely atrocious compared to the Minnesota twins that were once again able to another team where their bullpen just looks spectacular against the Arizona Diamondbacks like yeah that's just

like the dichotomy of that relief pitching bullpen ERA right there is just amazing to me 11.25 to 1.64 I just hate it I mean I hate it here so much to be fair like everyone's looking it's everyone's looking good against the dinybacks right

now too like the starting pitchers are looking good against the domenback every back suck in every facet of baseball essentially right now well there and like the point is though at least at one point during the season when they were making starting pitching look very good they were able to do damage against the bullpen yeah and now that feels like one of the absolute missing factors here is that the diamond backs and that that kind of goes along with the answer back thing because a lot of those answer back comebacks that have occurred this year happened late in games because the Diamondbacks needed to get to the bullpen in order for them to make some noise.

Now they're not making noise against anybody. Batting average with runners in scoring position is absolutely atrocious. I guess on the base path there, the 10 stolen bases to the one is the one plus, but I do believe seven of those or eight of those came in one single game, right? Or seven? Yeah, eight of them. The Diamondbacks set a franchise record for stolen bases in Sunday's game with eight stolen bases. And they still score.

What runs the entire game? Yeah, what happened in the results of that game? This is the worst team of baseball. Like, it's genuinely the worst team in Major League Baseball. I don't know what, like seriously, do we, do we go the Pedro Serrano route and sacrifice a chicken? Like, what do we do to help this team? I'm willing to sacrifice myself. Are you?

I mean, David's all, he's sick of life as it is already with this whole situation. I would do that for you guys. Well, I know you would. I would also sacrifice David. I'm fairly certain you've at least committed three felonies trying to win Corby and Carroll, the rookie of the year. So like, and those are like across state lines.

So I think that somehow makes it worse. But I don't, I don't know what's happening with this team. I don't know what to do anymore. I really don't. I mean, I now like now I feel like I'm in the same position as Tori was a few days ago when he was just like,

got nothing for you. Like, yeah, what do you do after a while? Like, it's almost funny. I mean, I will say that when I watch Paul Seawald give up that second home run, I did kind of do a maniacal laugh. Yeah.

Where I was just like insane. Of course. It is. And some people have said this in the comments. There's an initiation process to becoming the closer of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But you have to do this. If you're Paul Seawald, you have to come into your first save opportunity as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. You have to serve up a game tying, save blowing home run on the first pitch you throw.

and you have to lose the game two batters later by giving up another home run, right? It's just part of the deal when you become the closer of this baseball team. Now Paul Seawald can settle in and, you know, calm himself down. Fingers crossed. The pitcher that he is, all jokes aside, I think there is some truth to Paul Seawald being different than all of the other closers that have come through Arizona in recent years. I know some people are viewing this guy as as like Mark Malanson 2.0, right? Like, oh, we got another guy in his mid-30s throwing 91 miles an hour.

Same old story, right? D-Backs have had a number of guys over the years that are like this. I'm going to write about this later tonight. I don't think Paul, I don't think Paul Seawald is, you know, just the latest guy. I understand the Diamondbacks closers are cursed narratives, and it was on. Honestly, yeah, there was something about that yesterday. It was like, you just got to be kidding me. The Diamondbacks finally get a closer who is well regarded around the game as being one of the best,

who is a little bit older, but also is not at a Mark Balancen stage in his career where the wheels kind of fall off at any point. Like, he's genuinely elite. His baseball savant page looks nothing like Mark Malanson's baseball savant page the year before he joined the Arizona Diamondbacks. They're two completely different classes of pitcher in my mind. And yeah, even the best closers in baseball, they blow saves every now and then. Like Paul Seawald was 21 for 24 coming in. He's 21 for 25 now. That's still really good.

Like that's still over 80%. No closer is going to come in and convert 100% of save opportunities. So for Diamondbacks fans who are, you know, ready to write off Paul Seawald. For Derek, who's ready to write off Paul Seawald, It's just the latest diamondbacks closer to, you know, immediately struggle upon arriving on this team. I would say, let's tap the brakes. I think there's a lot of reasons to believe that Paul Seawald is actually a pretty darn good pitcher.

And it's probably going to be pretty good the rest of the year. Brian Hall from Minnesota. He's an AP writer. He interviewed Seawald after the game. Seawald said, we're going to be just fine. We're one and a half back of a playoff spot as much as it feels like we may never win again. We're one and a half back. And the last time I checked, you can make up.

one and a half in seven weeks, we're going to be just fine. Now, I do love that attitude. And I mean, it's right now as an Arizona Diamondback fan, that's the kind of attitude you need to embrace right now. Like, there is a crazy amount of parity going on. And Bob Nightingale sent out a tweet. I think we have that tweet as an image here. Nightingale said,

teams sure have a funny way of showing they actually want to win a wild card birth since the trade deadline. D-backs lose six in a row, Reds lose six in a row, Angels lose six in a row, Marlins lose four in a row, Red Sox lose four in a row, and the Giants lose two in a row to Oakland. Definitely shade being thrown at Oakland by being included there in that particular tweet about the Giants losing to them. But really just trying to illustrate here how all of these teams that are in a very tight wildcard race right now have not been playing well. And that honestly benefits the Divebacks quite a bit during this time. The Diamondbacks feel like they should be 39 games back right now in the wild card race.

It feels like they shouldn't even be in the wild card race. Somehow the Cubs have slid in. They have a spot now. I believe I don't even know today, but I know things might have changed. But, you know, I mean, it's just, we were trying to get Craig to believe in the Cubs. Well, we're trying to get, we want him to get his heartbroken too. So we want him to believe just so the Cubs can demolish all of his hopes and dreams and everything like that. But this team, man, I just don't know what to say about it other than right now.

it is not very fun to watch. Yeah, I mean, I think the most frustrating part of this is all that, like, I keep on wanting to say they're dead, but they can't be dead because everyone else also sucks. Although, I will say Paul Sewald saying that like, it's okay. We're only a game and a half back is guys, like the energy of a guy who was just dropped into a war zone and all the other. And he's like, it's okay, guys, it's not that bad. And all the other troops who have been fighting for years have been like, what are you

lost their brothers in battle it's easy for you to say my and he's like you'll be fine yeah they're like oh we're prop you up with a stick it'll be fine we're almost at the we're almost there we've almost the battle's almost over but i mean we know that in baseball there's 162 games season right and we've heard tory we've heard this organization talk about flushing those losses and moving on even not getting too high on the winds you know but i i think somebody asked it and I don't know if it's one of our mailbag Monday questions, but like, is there a point where someone needs to get like tossed from a game

or something to change this? Like, do we need to see Tori get fired up? Yeah. Because the, like, the umpiring in several of these losses has been atrocious. And it has absolutely fucking contributed to the losses.

So like at least it just nothing more than for the boys to pop the boys. Give the boys like some something funny to talk about or just, you know, like I don't care what it is, but something to get these guys fired up at this. point and get past this funk that they're in because this is is not good. We could use a Tim Anderson, J-Ran situation. I mean, that's the only answer.

That's the only answer. I need Haraldo Perdomo to go runetto door on somebody. By the way, things could be worse, guys. We could be the Chicago White Sox. There's a lot of information coming out today about the Chicago White Sox, including a former Arizona Diamondback, Kenyon and Middleton, kind of, revealing after he was traded to the Yankees that the White Sox organization are just a mess. In an ESPN article, he talked about how they just have no rules.

They have nobody like leading anything. There's like players are allowed to miss out on practices and meetings and basically everything is just fine. Whereas every other organization and baseball takes that shit seriously, there's fines that occurred. You'll be benched. There's consequences for your actions when you don't show up and show that you're committed to this team. Like, let's be honest, at a major league level, I don't care if you're the fucking worst team in baseball. You should be able to show up for a meeting. You should be able to show up for a fucking fielding practice as a pitcher.

It's absolutely crazy that that is happening. And the wild thing is, is this kind of came out recently. We already have confirmation from Lance Lynn on the Dodgers saying he has been there longer than Kenyon was. And everything Middleton is saying is absolutely true, that everything in the White Sox far before the new manager took over back when Tony LaRosa was there that things were just ran really loosely. Oh, that's shocking. That is one of the shocking things. Tony LaRosa didn't have his program under complete control. Shocker. Shocking. I'm so surprised about that. It is a little weird though that like the culture, it doesn't seem as really shifted all that much. Yeah, kind of transcends the manager. Yeah. Yeah. You wouldn't. Yeah.

That's really what it's about, right? Transcends the manager. It's how the front office wants things essentially kind of ran to a degree. And it's just hard to be a professional organization. organization when not everybody on the team is taking things seriously not showing up for practice not showing up for meetings and then you're you're you're you suck on top of that like that shit's cool if you're great if you're in first place by 15 games and fucking you haven't been showing up for meetings all year keep that shit up whatever but come on man when you're a bad team you're like that's where you really need to show that you're at least committed to trying to get things turned around and i feel like that stuff really can i mean it really can be organizational i talk about all the time but look

of the New York Yankees. Like they clearly have, and it goes beyond the manager. They clearly have like an idea of what it means to be a New York Yankee and how that kind of seeps into like every facet of that organization of like the way they run things. Kenyon Middleton said in this article that the minute he was traded to the Yankees, he shaved his beard off without even being asked because he knew their policy on

facial air and was happy to do it because he was going someplace that had some semblance of organization. I actually on Yankees all the time because I think it's, I think that stuff's annoying and it goes too far. It's fucking, dude, it's so it's so part of pop culture knowledge that The Simpsons did an episode about it where Burns made

DiMaggio shave his sideburns all the way up to his head because of the fact that he wouldn't allow sideburns or facial air I mean, it's, it's better that way and go to, I mean, like you think about the, not to say the AQs or the U.S. military. You think about the military's whole thing. It's like they might,

maybe they go too far in terms of everybody being trimmed up and all that kind of stuff. But they just, for a reason. Because if you don't, you can easily become the white socks and then you have no control and things are in absolute mess. That military thing is a great metaphor because it is. It's preparation every day. And honestly, you never know like in the military case when you're going to when the shit's going to pop off. But you have to be ready at all times. And essentially during a long baseball season, you have to be prepared. And that preparation is going to show on the field. I mean,

the Diamondbacks, they're losing these games. What we're seeing is the like two errors, errors on the other team zero errors for the diamond back so like defensively even though they're not making outstanding plays at times and they're not as good defensively as they were earlier in the season they still have stuff locked down when it comes to like the defensive side of things there's just a lot of other things that have become really loose you know we've seen a lot of error even though they had those eight stolen bases we've seen a lot of mistakes on the base path we've just seen a lot of sloppy play but like i said at least within the organization you're not you know it's not this it's not a mess inside internally and spilling over out onto the field.

The Diamondbacks have had a relatively happy clubhouse and I feel like, you know, I was in San Francisco. I don't know if I would call that happy clubhouse. Yeah, no, I mean, I could only imagine how things have been over the last, you know, especially not the last month, but probably the last two weeks, things have been pretty bleak inside of that clubhouse, you know, and it's hard not to. We have people that we're commenting on them laughing and smiling about Slate's Connie getting that, you know, strike out, that weird strike out where Joseaerer pinned

against his crotch. That's the best way I could phrase it, Jesse. But like, you know, it's pretty accurate. It's pretty accurate. I mean, but they, like, there were some laps and people didn't even like to see that. Like people as fans want to see this team, uh, in a bad place. Uh, they want to see them looking sad when this team is doing as bad as they are. And I don't know.

Like I said earlier, I don't know if that's necessarily the key to getting out of it. I think sometimes, uh, the diamondbacks needs. that point of view like Seawall just had where it's basically we need to flush this and move on and just look at where we're at right now and where we're at right now is one and a half games back in the wild card and to be honest with how bad the last fucking month and a half have been that's still not nearly as bad as it should be for this team at this point the diamond backs are so incredibly fortunate frankly to be in that position yeah thank god for the third wildcard spot there's a big gap right now between the second wild card team the Phillies and giant

are actually tied at the top of the wild card race right now. They're both 61 and 51. But yeah, the Chicago Cubs right now. They have the third wild card spot at 58 and 54. The Reds are basically tied with them. I guess the Reds would have a slightly worse win percentage, but they essentially have an identical record given how many games they've played. And yeah, I mean, the Reds, the Marlins and the Diamondbacks basically all just been terrible

for the last two to three weeks. at this point really help them just kind of slide in and not only that but again like that that's got to be a confidence boost when you see those teams losing a lot and you guys are hot and you're just like let's go like every day you've got to go try it out and try to increase that or you should say decrease the lead that they had on you and now increase it like the cubs just are catching fire at the right time it just goes to show you you can be hot in the beginning of the season all you want but you know the diamondbacks really got to a point where teams figured them out and right now i mean we we we showed the thing about the wagon being killed by the bullpen but you could

probably insert wagon was killed by the offense wagon has been killed by starting pitching there's been a lot of things that the diamondbacks have been bad at lately and uh hopefully they can get things turned around you never know the Phillies were a half game on a wild card spot in july 15th of last year and with the world series they went to the world series see but see but see see see fillies have ruined all of us because now that's all you need all you need is the third wild card spot and you could get into the world series too. They did it the other way where they sucked at first. Yeah, right, right, right.

Yeah. Right. Maybe they, maybe it's a, maybe it's a like a sandwich where it sucks in the middle, but on the outside, everything is good, right? Shit sandwich. Yeah, but good, good bread will make a shit sandwich still about bad. But, uh, we were telling you guys about Nerfie Fridays.

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Chris can attest to that. She's not here today, so I'm going to scream at her. I don't see her in the chat, but she's probably- She commented earlier. She's not here today, so I'm going to scream at her later, but she's probably up to. Dula stuff or whatever, but anyway, uh, we thank you guys, of course that have already, we, we love the chat. I mean, the chat, uh, the discord chat is a place for all of us to, uh, I guess,

vent, uh, come together as people get mad about this. Nate Cleveland wants to know where is the sun's news. We're going to hold off on the sun's news until the end of the show. I don't know. We have a whole third segment is all about Bradley Beale there. I don't know what you have coming up. We're going to talk to KD. I mean, there's all sorts of great stuff.

But of course, if you were a diehard, you'd probably already know that already because you'd know from the Discord, what we're planning. And it's not anything Sun's related. But of course, we thank you guys for already signing up for a diehard membership. If you've done so already, make sure to get that. So you get Jesse's newsletter full count, by the way, which is the best newsletter you can get as an Arizona Diamondbacks fan. And of course, you guys know what we do around here. Every single day on this show is Earth Day. Every single week on this podcast is Shark Week.

And every single Monday, we go. to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mail box. All right. What's our first question? First question comes from Elizabeth.

And Elizabeth wants to know, why do the debacks hate us? All we ever did was love them. I don't know, Elizabeth. This is a question I ask myself every single day, at least for the last four weeks. Why do the debacks hate us, you guys? Do they?

I'm going to let Sean take this one. Sean, why do the debacks hate us? I don't know, man. Like, I don't. Why do they want to cause us so much pain? I don't know, man. Why does this hurt so much? Life's unfair.

Yeah, that's why. I mean, that's basically it. We can't have all the nice things sometimes that. Unrequited love is a lover's hell. And we are in hell. They don't love us the way we love them. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to be in that kind of relationship.

But it's just a factor of life sometimes. Damon, do we got what? I just need to address that because her mental state is my mental state. mental state right now. I feel the same way. What else we got, Damon? Rick Hughes asked, truthfully, I expected a regression. What I didn't expect was a complete collapse. Did Tori make a mistake and not benching Walker after he was caught admiring his blast that ended up only a single and cost the team to tying run? Too much hero ball on offense right now. Rick wants all of us to get off of his lawn right now and I get that. But he especially wants the Diamondbacks players get off his long. I don't know.

I mean, I agree with what you're saying. I think we all thought that. they were playing out of their minds and we all expected them to come back down to earth but i think when we expected that we expected more of like 500 ball maybe you know uh maybe not winning as many series but still keeping up some of those same attributes that they showed i don't know like they've been swept so many times once that sweeping uh thing was broken on them they've been swept like three or four times since then feels like it's like every other series feels like they've been swept like so it's like things took such a drastic turn that i i can't I don't think any of us could have been prepared for the regression.

I don't think Tori is prepared for the regression. And I think that he shoulders a lot of the blame based on the fact he's the manager. But I don't really know what he's doing differently that's causing this now, you know, versus what he was doing earlier on that caused the team to be able to surprise us without good they were. Yeah. I mean, generally how it works.

Like just because you play really well in the first three months of the season, doesn't mean you're automatically doomed in the second half. regression to the mean doesn't necessarily mean you're giving back all of the wins that you already have. Like they are. And what our expectation was is like, okay, well, maybe the debacks aren't going to win 100 games like they were on pace to do at one point. Not even 90. But yeah. But like according to what projections would say, they should be about 500 of the rest of the year.

And, you know, that would put them at, you know, 89, 90 wins, something like that and easily in position to make the playoffs. That's kind of what our expectation was. in reality what's happened is the diamondbacks have basically given back all of the wins that they built up over the course of the first half of the season to the point where now they're they're only a game over 500 i do think a big factor in this was the quality of competition in those first few months of the season the debacks were playing a lot of subpar teams and you've seen what's happened now that they're playing series after series against some pretty darn good teams or at least competent teams like the minnesota twins and the sanford Francisco Giants, it doesn't look the same. DeVax, they're just really having trouble scoring runs against these pitchers and, you know, their bullpen has just been overwhelmed by opposing teams bullpens. We've seen the same story played out time and time again. I will say also to the part of Rick's question about the Christian Walker incident.

I personally didn't really think that Christian Walker admired that for much of any time. I didn't really have an issue with that play in particular. see if it went over the fences all around. I think there was probably, you know, there was probably a brief moment where he, where he stopped. But at least from my vantage point, I did not get the impression that Christian Walker, like, should have been standing on second base or anything like that. And I feel like the problems with this team are too large at this point. Yeah. And even that one thing, right?

You're not benching the guy over that either, either way. Christian Walker is just too important a part of this offense. And he's one of the leaders in the clubhouse. I don't think you're, I don't think you can make a genuine case that Christian Walker is dragging down this team by not trying or anything like that. That's just not the narrative that that really exists within the clubhouse. So I didn't really have a huge problem with what happened there. Christian Walker, by the way, I know there's a lot of people that have talked about like Christian Walker and how aggressive he or like after he strikes out or with a lot of his struggles lately. You're seeing him talk a lot and a lot of it looks like he's like maybe complaining to the umpire or something.

There's been some negative body language. There has. However, I will say I have been present in the camera well when he's walked past me. And I know for a fact that Christian Walker is yelling at himself most of those times. I don't know how helpful that is. But as much as it looks like he's complaining about like a strike call or something like that, he's actually like venting about. Yeah, he's like he's mad at himself for something he did or whatever at the plate.

So I don't know. But yeah, I think that this is this goes far. beyond a regression to the means. I think it's like Michael said, there's regression to the mean and then there's whatever the hell this is right here. I don't know what it is. Next question there, Damon, comes from our guy, AZ Sports Guy at these AZ Sports guy on Twitter.

And he asked, why did they waste he while it's good inning and a blowout loss? I don't know. I don't have a answer to you just swap those around. I was suggesting it's only good inning? Yeah. Is he not going to have anymore? Yeah. I mean, he could have just come out and just blown it in that one game where they were

already down by a whole lot. I don't know. I mean, I think that right there that that question is what we're all feeling right now. Like it's just incredible that, you know, this guy comes out. He has a scoreless inning in a game that doesn't matter. And then in the game that does, he can't seem to get anybody out. He's just giving up dinger after dinger. It was just amazing to watch.

I mean, honestly, the biggest reason why there is because Paul Sewell needed to get in a game. Tori had no clue about when he would get a chance to use him next. and that game, since it was just such a mess already at that point anyway, seemed like a good as time as ever to get him out there and just get him some inning. And they didn't run the risk of him being unavailable too because they had the off day today. So Tori knew if he pitched him Saturday. He could pitch him again Sunday and then he'd have an off day Monday. As we saw that work out just so goddamn.

Yeah, on paper it sounded so great. But yeah, it is unfortunate how these things work, right? You've got the nice, perfect, clean inning when you don't need any. Like, you could have had Carson Kelly throw that other inning. And the game, the game would have had the exact same outcome. Unfortunately, that's when Paul Seawald was very much on his A game. And then in the moment where you really need him to lock it down, he throws a few fastballs and some bad spots and the results are the results.

It's comical. It's so unbelievable that it's comical at this point. And just for fun, I tuned in to Reds Twitter. and they're losing their goddamn minds right now too. So it's like their starting pitching has been a disaster. Just absolutely awful. And I mean, the team is doing everything they can to back it up,

but they're going through their own thing where like they like you can tell it's hurting their offense. You know, like it's getting them in a bad mental state because they're being put down so much so early that it's hard to even contemplate a comeback happening. Right. And like the reds were red hot and I have to use that part because I'm sure you do. And I'm a dad.

But like they were. They were like the hottest team in baseball for a minute there. And now like their fan base is kind of in a similar position as ours where we're all just kind of saying what the fuck is happening to this team that, you know, was so competitive so recently. I mean, the Diamondbacks are now drifting away from that point so far that it's almost hard to remember that time. Like when when when were we talking about Corby and Carroll being rookie of the year? When was that? I mean, Corby and Carroll probably is still going to the idea of the year. I need that.

I need that win at this point. I need something. What else we got, David? Brian Brighton, excuse me, Brighton, Brighton Bobbitt on Twitter at BB underscore Nitro asks. Is there any concern about the lack of fire from anyone? We've seen a fair few amount of missed calls lately. It seems like no one wants to be the one to just lose it on the hump

and try to light a fire under the team. Talked about this suite earlier. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like, Josh Rojas was kind of our guy for that at times, right? Josh Rojas was the guy. he was he was he was our disruptor he loved getting out there and mixing it up he loved getting in the head of the opposition but most importantly he loved like barking at the at the umpires and sometimes being that guy i believe josh rojas got tossed from a game where he didn't wasn't even in the game is that right

this season so like dug out that's definitely seems like a missing factor and like honestly i know josh rojas wasn't very good when he got sent down but like this entire time rojas has been a missing factor on this team that the diamondbacks have been struggling. I'm not saying he was the X factor or anything, but like, I don't know. Maybe, maybe there is an amount of that fire lacking. Maybe there's that, you know, I just watched the T-HB Ninja Turtles. So like they need Raphael to get in there and fuck shit up, right? Like, they need somebody to scream and yell and be willing to get a toss from a game and be willing to get in a fight with the opposing team maybe and do all of this stuff. I just, I don't know what needs to change, but like this team needs a,

jolt from somewhere. And I agree with you about like the umpiring we've seen in some of these losses really has been just miserable. Especially that could tell Marte call. I still can't believe the Catel Marte call of a ball and then a strike farther out of the strike zone. I think

Oh yeah. Do we have that screenshot? We have screenshot of that. We didn't talk about that because I know everyone's dying to relive this from Friday's game. This is Friday's game. This was the final batter in the game and Cattel struck out looking at this. Pitch five. and then pitch six.

And then I want to have this umpire fired and never officiated game again. The bigger thing that's fucking annoying about this as Jesse and I will have both learned is that stupid little border counts as like the strike zone, but not a strike zone, right? So as a greas just like a buffer area. Yeah. So like as egregious as this is because five is in the box and because six is

touching that fucking edge, both of these won't be considered bad calls. essentially when they review this umpire's performance right i mean yeah i feel like there has to be there has to be something limit to that yeah i mean maybe maybe it's like if if most if like all or most of the ball is within that little buffer area then then it would be considered a call that sort of could go either way if number i mean if that pitch to kettel marty if major league baseball is doing that pitch as not a bad call and not at all a ding on on that umpire's score card I I don't know what I I don't know what to do with that even if it's a strike it's the lack of

inconsistency yeah the one before yeah a serious lack of inconsistency absolutely I mean obviously I mean obviously I mean obviously I would have been miserable I so yeah somebody needs to fucking lose his mind on this yeah I mean yeah exactly you're back on fucking home plate into a million pieces just do something yeah not 100% like somebody needs to get thrown at or somebody needs to slide into somebody or run over a catcher or something we there needs We need to play the White Sox. We need to fight Tim Anderson. That's what we need to do.

Watch what happens with the Guardians now. They're going to get all fired up. I do. I will say, I feel like it's a little bit shallow to say that like the way the diamondbacks get right is for Tori to get tossed from a game. Like I'm not sure it necessarily works that way. I think that's a weird thing though is there can be things like that that do like they can

only change the course of a game. But you just, I mean, you don't know. Like, I mean, fucking turn over a goddamn Gatorade bottle or something. Like, somebody needs to get mad. I know that turnover at Gatorade. Like, yeah, like something we see in like a singular bottle. No, no, I was thinking like the whole water bottle.

Oh, I mean, in the clubhouse. I know they don't use those. They have a whole kitchen. They probably. Something. I mean, something. Do what Dave Martinez did for the national against the time? Yes.

I mean, you saw that got him fired up. there and have him do what the, the Blue Jays pitching coach did and just get ejected. Yeah. Without really even doing. I would love to see Straum and get ejected. I don't know why, but that would. I don't think that will ever. I don't want to see someone go out there with the purpose of getting tossed.

Yeah. Like to make a make a point. I remember two times of Tori's history where you just knew he was like, it was just going to happen. He was going to do it. And he wanted purposefully to get tossed. And the point was to get a point across to the umpire because things were, you know, being officiated in such a poor manner that like,

you feel like you need to do something to make a difference, right? Jeff Bannister did get into it a little bit yesterday. Tyler makes a good point. He did. He did. Yeah, it looked like I don't remember. The umpire basically walked over to Jeff Bannister and said like, this is not going to fly or something.

He made it very clear and, and Banny kind of shut up from that point on. It appeared. But yeah, I don't know. Like, you know, should Tori go out there and get tossed? I mean, it's a thing you can try, which I guess it's, his point and try anything, right?

He said he's out of ideas. I guess this is one more idea that he has in his back pocket. Taking a step backwards to Jeff Bannister. I'm fairly certain he could beat every single one of those players in the dugout in a fist fight, right? So with that, Bannister shouldn't be afraid of anybody. He shouldn't be backing down from anybody. I want an aggressive Jeff Bannister to go out there and get tossed.

I want to, I want to worry to get tossed. Like, I know what you're saying. Like, does this do anything? No, it really doesn't do anything. in some cases it might even it just you just need it just need it just need to start hitting with runners and scoring position is what needs to happen I mean yeah sure that I'm just a little bit unclear on the stop giving up runs yeah the bullpen needs to stop giving up runs

and they need to start hitting with runners and scoring position sure I'm unclear on the connection but how do we get from point A to point C just how do we cross that bridge and I don't feel like they want it anymore and this maybe wake them up a little bit yeah yeah um Tori calling yaddy Molina, motherfucker. That's what we need. You're absolutely right. Actually, what I need right now is a Red Bull.

I need a Monster Energy drink. I need something. I probably should drink a beatbox RT with the way I'm feeling about this game and this team. And I can get all those things at Circle K, which you can too. You can get the best coffee. You can get the best beer and snack selection. And you can get the best premium gas, not to mention hunky in gas entertainment for me and this guy over here. No Jesse.

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make sure to pick up the official craft beer of the Arizona Diamondbacks from our friends at Four Peaks. That would be Rattle on Red Ale or any of their wonderful variety of beers. You can get them at CircleK, wherever you get your beers at. And of course, we will be. meeting up at the for our takeover event at four peaks draft room at chase field this Saturday and we will see you all there make sure to join us there wonderful food wonderful drinks it's located on the sweet level down the first base line in deep right field has an

elevator that'll take you right up to it so don't miss out on that check out the events page in our show notes to find tickets for that event if you're interested in joining us you can check out four peaks calendar at four peaks.com slash events to stay up to date on everything four peaks related Check them out on social at Four Peaks Brew at Four Peaks Pub. Keep up with everything on the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Speaking of our takeover event, make sure to join us for that. Make sure grab yourself a new t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com and wear it if you got one.

We're also going to have a fun Arizona Cardinals drop here soon. So make sure to keep locked in to the PHNX Locker.com or everything. here at GoPHNX on our Twitter account at PH&X underscore sports. We are going to have some fun stuff going on. And like I said, we're just abandoning the Arizona Divingbacks now at this point. So you want to get all your Arizona Cardinals news here, your Phoenix Suns news, anything hockey-related. We are here. I just want to be able to call a team a wagon again.

And I don't know if that's going to happen the rest of this season with this team. But we do have more mailbag Monday questions. What do we got, Damon? First question on the second. set of questions here comes from Casey Thorne. He asks to be more positive, what do you see as a realistic focus in the offseason for additions or the team? As much as this collapse hurts, this year is the start of the window opening. We say that the window is with Zach Allen, but I really feel like it's with Corbyn under contract it. And yeah, you're right. I feel like

at the end of the day, ultimately this team is building towards a core that is built around Corbyn Carroll and other players his age in that same time frame as far as players. As far as the players under control. And I mean, so far, they, they kind of have a decent like four or five guys I feel like to build around. And even, and that doesn't include Zach Gallen. I'm not including Zach Gallen in that re technically that core because we have a good idea that, you know, we only have a couple more years with gallon. But still, he will be here. He will be in Arizona Diamondback. And the Diamondbacks have a chance to win, you know, with this young core and with Zach Gallen still here at the same time. Yeah, I'm not I'm not so sure if I fully agree with, you know, the Diamondbacks window. being like the Corbyn Carroll contract, as much as it might be the Zach Gallen contract in the interim. I think having Gallin here is really important without him. Debacks don't really have any clear front line starters coming up through the pipeline at the moment. So I do think Gallin is really, really important to this starting rotation and just this team's success in general.

But it's to answer Casey's question about offseason targets and what the Diamondbacks might be looking to, where the team might be looking to improve over the off season. I think pitching is going to be kind of the main focus all the way around. The Diamondbacks clearly in addition to Gallin and Merrill Kelly and some of the young starters that they have, they need more reinforcements in the starting rotation. I think there's no question they could use like a bona fide number three type starter for this rotation. So I mean, they just really haven't had the last couple years behind Gallin and Kelly.

And then I think the bullpen. I mean, that's kind of the other obvious one, right? the Diamondbacks. I think Paul Seawald is going to get right. And I think he's going to be a good closer for this team through the end of 2023. But as you've seen, you know, even if Paul Seawald is doing his job, you need other guys, you know, to do their job in order to bridge the gap to get to him. Correct. In order to put the team in, in positions to win games in the first place, we haven't really seen that in the last few weeks. So, you know, building up that that back end of the bullpen, particularly from the left-handed side now that Andrew Chaffin isn't in the organization.

I think the debacks probably have to go get a lefty at some point. I guess Joe Maniplying Kyle Nelson, you might feel somewhat comfortable with those guys, but adding another arm there probably makes sense and adding another righty or two probably makes sense as well. I want a third basement. I mean, obviously adding arms are like that, like you need arms.

But like I think the move that would get me being like, oh, they're going for it. Like it would be a real third basement. I'm tired of all due respect to, Emmanuel Rivera and Evangoria. I want a real full-time everyday third basement there. That would

I think that's the one move that could single-handedly change my perspective on what this team is capable of accomplishing next year if they were to add some like real talent there. They just don't really have a third basement that hits Ritees. And that's kind of a problem. So yeah, I'm in agreement

on that. That's a pretty big one. Matt Chapman is available in the next free agent class. Justin Turner with an opt- Josh Donaldson, Eduardo Escobar. I hate Josh Donaldson with every fire of my being. Gio,

Urchella, Joey Wendell. I don't know how I'd be able to talk about Josh Donaldson if he was in his I genuinely

just like that man. Matt Chapman would be cool. That'd be real fun. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, I just... Matt Chapman's going to be really expensive.

Yeah, I love JT too, but just it, just improvement. Like, that's one place where you could make a clear improvement. And also, I would like there, I would just like not

to see Carson Kelly as a member of this Emily roster. So if that means Herrera being a full-time backup or them going to acquire another catcher, I would like to see that. I do think moving on at this point from some of those guys that were part of that team, like Nick Ahmed and Carson Kelly

really does seem like the answer. And it's no knock to those guys. They're just honestly, like this team has, like at times, Gabriel Moreno has shown what a better all-around player he is behind the plate already than Carson Kelly. And honestly, I like it kind of sucks because I feel like part of the reason why he's on the injured list right now is just due to that unnecessary overusage or not unnecessary, necessary overusage due to Carson Kelly's injury. But man, I mean, Gabriel Moreno really does look like the future behind the plate for this team.

So hopefully he gets right soon. I have no idea how much time he's going to miss at this point. But we could really use him at this point. Next question, Damon. comes from brettley johnson brett asks has this wagon fully died on the organ trail or is there some hope that they can somehow fix themselves and get back to the wagon we know they can be like it's still the same players right like it's not like it's different people it's not like we talked about gabriel moreno being injured but it's not like they suffer from this huge amount of

injury thing the wheels did fall off once they lost merrill kelly and that felt like one of the big like one of the big factors like having meryl kelly back having Brandon fought pitching the way he is like this all feels very good and like they can get things back on track. I just things have been so bad now for so long that I don't know if they can like it feels like that's absurd like yes absolutely they can with the pieces that they have game and a half hour right game and a half out but at the same time when we talk about how easy that schedule was when they were successful and you look ahead at the schedule ahead it's hard to be even cautiously optimistic about the teams that they still have left to play.

I mean, it's just a gauntlet from this point on of like Dodgers, Padres, Dodgers, Padres, Cubs, Braves, you know, like, it's so many still, like, so many good teams that they still have left on their schedule that I don't think the outlook looks very positive for them. No, it doesn't look positive. I mean, yeah, they're one and a half out, which, which doesn't sound so bad, but there are, there are still two teams between them and that third wildcard spot who also aren't in the playoffs right now the Miami Marlins and the Cincinnati Reds the San Diego Padres have also started to play a lot better of late for nothing on the Dodgers right now yeah they're there they're

a game and a half behind the Diamondbacks right now they could be a game behind the diamond backs at the end of the day if they win that game so yeah for for me I think at this point you have to look at what the competition is and we're kind of we're kind of closing in here on the end of the season we've only got about 50 games left in the season so I think the Phillies and the Giants feels like a bit of a long shot that the Diamondbacks would catch either of those teams with them sitting at 61 and 51. Maybe you move past that. Phillies, Phillies are in there.

Giants are in there. You've got one more spot. So it would be between the Cubs, the Reds, the Marlins, the Diamondbacks, and the Padres. I think we can probably draw a line right there. I don't think the Mets or the Pirates or any of those teams are really in the mix at this point. But even the Mets aren't that far back. And the Mets traded major pieces away.

and they're getting nothing but praise for the pieces they got returned because their minor league system that was kind of like the Diamondbacks minor league system at one point kind of shelled based on all the trades and acquisitions they made that they just so happened at this trade deadline do vastly improve their farm system they basically bought their prospects in those trades

essentially Steve Cohen just threw in so much money in order to sweeten their return but yeah I'm not really worried about the Mets but No, not at all, but I'm just saying like if you want to be like in a position, that's not a bad position to be in where they're still playing relatively well, like not great, but just. I mean, the Mets have lost six in a row. Oh, well, okay. I don't know what I'm talking about. But they are, but they are, they are receiving a lot of praise.

I mean, they've won, they've won three of their last 10 instead of two of their last 10. So I guess, I guess maybe they've been better than the Diamondbacks. Look, I've been watching Diamondbacks baseball. Everybody's been better than the Diamondbacks. This is true. What else we got, David? Michael asks a specific question just for me. He says for Derek, who got hit harder?

Paul Seawald yesterday or Jay Uso Saturday night. This is a WWE SummerSlam question, Jesse, in case you were wondering. Yeah, I was wondering. Jay Uso did get hit pretty hard, but nobody got hit as hard as Paul Seawald last night. So you know the answer to that. I mean, do him runs. Like everything that he did in that inning was terrible. I just still, I still, I still like it's seared into my brain.

I don't remember a lot from this series, but God damn it. I feel like I when I close my eyes at night, I see that ninth inning happen. Like it was so depressing. It's so many different ways. And I watched this team two years ago. I was there during COVID in the stadium and I watched them lose games left and right. I have been watching this team for a long time. That game on Sunday, that Paul Seawald loss hit me harder than I think most things.

have just because of the desperation that I felt to see this team take one of these games in the series and and to not do the thing that I was saying I was going to, which was declare them dead. If they lost two out of three, they lost three out of three. They're fucking dead. Their time of death, 407 on Sunday. That is the time of death on the deback season. But luckily, Paul Seewald still says things like they're only one and a half games back. So it makes me feel not as bad. There you go. You know, cool, Paul. Yeah. I mean, It's a way to possibly spin you absolutely blowing a game afterwards. But man, that loss, it was just such a, like, it was such a demoralizing loss during a time where

everything is very demoralizing for this team. So it's just stacking sadness on top of sadness. And they finally got that, they finally got that big hit to Christian Walker with the, with the go-ahead Homer in the top of the nine. And the twins, in explicably not going to Yohan Duran in the top of the night. getting in a tie game, which I found pretty confusing. It kind of backfired on him with Christian Walker hitting that home run.

And then, yeah, I mean, just poetic in the worst way possible, right? The very first pitch that Paul Seawald throws. It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy. It just feels so in line with what's happened for this franchise over the last month. Like, yes, of course. How did anyone expect it any different, right?

Like, this is exactly whatever. I treated my home like my AC broke. That's how quickly I evacuated it because I just needed to be away from my television so fast. Like I needed to be away. I needed to go away fast. Oh, man. We got one more question, Damon in the mailbag. What do we got?

Karen, aka Groundhog Mama 2, Cog's mom on Twitter, asked what is the over-under betting line for Dick Mountain Puns at Saturday's takeover? The limit does not exist. I mean, we're going to be together for three, four, three-and-half hours. I was going to say like 17 and a half.

That's where I was going to set it at. But that seems fucking low. Like smash that over button, right? Yeah. You kidding me? Yeah, 27 and a half more likely. I don't even know. He lines up to pitch on Saturday.

He lines up to pitch on Saturday for our takeover event. Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be every single pitch. Sorry about that, Jesse. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I'll be there. It's going to be sick that day, too. Let's see.

It's going to be every single pitch. Jesse doesn't want to be present when Dick Mountain is that changing? Field what come on fella let's go uh yeah it's gonna be great i'm gonna i might i might write some new ones down well my might might have to workshop around the opposite yeah we're and we got dick mountain versus dixon walker we need to i did we don't utilize christian walk middle name and i think i there's a yeah that's that's a good point also um he's he's pitching against that gallon potentially right dick mountain in the milk man so would it be dick milk um Milk Dick, Dick Meld.

All right, whatever. This is going on. I don't think it would be Zach Gallon because the Diamondbacks have two off days. Well, it depends on how they shuffle their rotation because it looks like they're. Yeah, it looks like they're skipping Slade Chaconi. So, yeah, actually, it definitely could happen. It could be Zach Allen against for sure. Melkman versus Dick Mountain.

That's all that you needed to know. Sign up right now. Get your take over tickets. Yeah, over 60 and nine and a half for sure. That's definitely smash that over. Also, we want to give a shout. out to our friends at spaghetti shack for dropping us off some amazing food right now. Connor, you're absolutely right there on the over under for that.

Spaghetti Shack, ASU alum owned and operated. They serve an incredible menu of spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, and a few other fan favorites. They keep it simple, but their mission to provide you with quality home cook food that's affordable. So you can spend less time cooking and spend more time with your loved ones. Or, of course, if you are an ASU student in the area in Tempe, make sure to check them out so that you can get some good home cooking in you instead of just getting all that, you know, fast food that we know you're.

Yeah, you know how it goes. Look, their food's delicious. They have a giant tray of meatballs sitting in there that we already, I think, polished off pretty much. There was some rice crispy trees. Yeah, we're also rice crispy trees today. So a shout out to Spaghetti Shack. It's community focused, two-go pasta concepts started right here in Tempe, Arizona by five lifelong friends. They are currently serving Tempe and Queen Creek.

They hope to come to your neighborhood soon. So make sure to check them out. Also, if you need anything for the golf season, as things cool down here, do I want it? Is 105 cooling down? I don't know. Yeah, I guess it is. Like, it's much more pleasant to go outside in 105 than it is to go out in 116. And that means golf time is here.

Pins and Aces is the official golf apparel partner, a Ph.NX in all city. Of course, we love our pins and aases gear, including our custom, Phoenix Polo and all the other wonderful stuff we got from them. They are family-owned and operated apparel business. They make amazing polos. And when I say amazing polos, again, I have to stress that these aren't just polos for golf. Everybody deserves to be comfortable, not just when you're playing pseudo-athletic competitions like golf, because we know golf's not a real athletic competition, right?

So, but when you play golf, you get to wear a nice polo that stretches and it's got, it's very, very light breeze. It's great polos, and they make amazing polos over at Pins and Aces. also hats, golf bags, and even beer sleeves. So check them out at Pins and Aces.com. Use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping. That's Pins and Aces.com. Well, that's all we got for you guys.

Today, the Arizona Diamondbacks do get an off day that they need. Hopefully they can reset and get things back because they play the Los Angeles Dodgers tomorrow. Sleep incoming for the D-Backs. Oh, that makes me sick. Wow. All right. Why not? Literally.

Oh, you said they're going to sweep the Dodgers? the Dodgers literally why not why not okay jessie why not can we get a more reasonable take from you got why not why not anything is possible i mean it is kind of interesting yeah it sucks it's fought against urea serious is kind of struggled a little bit fought was obviously really good his last time out in san francisco and then you've got bobby miller against meryl kelly i believe in in the second game of the series bring out the brooms baby which yeah i mean merrill's pitching pretty well We're right back on it if we get this sweet, the two games sweet. You need actual professional help, Sean.

No, no. John's right. If we sleep the Dodgers, we're back. We're so bad. We are a wagon again. And also, if we sweet the Dodgers, the Padres are like right back in this division. Yeah. Which is in the, that's fun.

Well, the Giants, too, but the Dodgers. I mean, yeah, the Giants would be more in it than the Padres are inevitable. The Padres are coming. Oh, also, yeah, the Padres and Marcus Duplessus. The Padres,

honestly, I think are probably the scariest team out of all those teams that the Diamondbacks are competing with for that third spot. I know the Padres are the one team behind the Diamondbacks right now.

Are we not going to talk about the fact the Dodgers made Lance Lid into a Sigh-Young candidate like he's given up two-er-runs. That was inevitable. That was inevitable. And Kike Hernandez is going to have a 900 OPS. the rest of the year, like, everybody already knew this.

For all of it, like, we, we offer a wide range of takes on this, folks. So if you want to follow us all, I'm at cap underscore Kman with a K. This mountain of electricity next to me is that Sean underscore to pause. Dick Mountainville. I wasn't going to go there. Jesse Friedman, of course, is that Jesse N. Friedman. The maniac behind the Mac is Damon. He is at Damon Dog, D-A-W-G.

And, of course, we are Damon's dogs. our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys for stopping by. We always appreciate your time. And remember kids, baseball may not seem like fun right now, but things could be worse.