PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How much longer can the Arizona Diamondbacks refrain from calling up Jordan Lawlar?

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

Starting pitching inconsistency continues to plague the Arizona Diamondbacks. We recap Brandon Pfaadt being flat out terrible in the loss to the Colorado Rockies. Also, Jordan Lawlar continues to rake in Reno while the D-backs search for offense. Can they really afford to not add him to the roster in September? An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Not a great day for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Welcome and welcome to disappointment. My name is Derek Montiya. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX once again. This guy next to me, he's still Mr. Electric. It's just electricity isn't really flowing tonight. Actually, it is flowing and it's right at Nick Ahmed. No, I'm president of the Nick Ahmed fan club.

There he is. It's Sean DePas. I will not tolerate a single, I will not tolerate any slander of Nick Ahmed today. He's broken once again. And of course. I'm a feeling that's not. that's not that's not the case. If someone says a bad thing about Nick Ahmed, I'll fight.

Nick Allen's my guy. Oh, we're going to say a lot of bad things about Nick comment. And that's my vice mayor. It's Jesse. He's the thunder stick. It's Jesse Friedman. Jesse, Brandon Fott, not very good tonight for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not very good.

No. And Tori had a pretty quick hook in this game as well. Yeah. Thought had 70 pitches, I believe, when he was removed from the game. He did. Two outs in the fourth inning. Ryan McMahon, a left-handed hitter was coming up. And Joe Mantiply. was the first man out of the bullpen for Tori and Tori, I guess, like that matchup left on left and

decided to go get fought with 70 pitches. And I have to believe that's a decision that Tori would have been less inclined to make a few weeks ago now that we're at this point in the year when it's really crunch time. It's really, you know, I mean, these aren't playoff games exactly, but they are nearing that level of importance where you really have to make sure matchups are in your favor as much as they possibly can be. And, you know, Tori did that and the bullpen was fantastic tonight, but the offense was not. And you are absolutely right about that, really when it came down to it. Brandon Fott was looking frankly uncompetitive at times.

He just, his pitches weren't in the zone. They weren't close to the zone. And then when he would come back to the zone, he threw a decent number of strikes. He was just throwing a lot of, you know, middle, middle pitches that were getting way too much of the zone. Well, and it was such like an overcorrection because it didn't seem like he could go from being outside of the zone to coming back and touching the edges to hitting those corners and things like that.

Yeah. His, his, his, his, overcorrection came right down to throwing a ball right down the middle.

And Jesse said it, but, uh, and he probably is going to get mad at me for saying this, but he's just lucky that the Rockies hitters were so bad tonight, essentially, right? Because if,

if they were more dialed in, they would have been, uh, Dodgers, this is a very ugly game. This is a bad. Very, very,

very, very, very bad. Um, yeah, I mean, it's interesting because, Torrey pulling fought that early is like,

at this point, I don't know what to make of it. because I feel like, kind of like Jesse alluded to, you probably wouldn't have seen that earlier in the year, but there's been so many instances with him where it's like you want him to leave a reliever that's been dealing in a little bit longer.

Or he leaves someone in too long and you're like, Tori, what are we doing here? So it kind of makes any decision. I'm like, ah, I don't know. Is this too early?

It's just too early. And I mean, ultimately it ended up being the right decision. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. The bullpen gave up one hit, I believe, after that point.

Correct. And so, yeah, it was really incredible. I mean, credit to, credit to Tori because I think one of my biggest concerns about Tori as a manager was what would happen once we got to the postseason. Is he going to pull the trigger? Or is he going to pull the hook on a pitcher quick enough? Or is he going to trust his guys?

And I think you're seeing now that he might trust some of his guys, but the guys that have earned his trust, right? Like, he's not pulling gallon or Merrill in this situation probably. But fought has not earned that trust. And it's nice to know that he's not treating all of these guys like equals because they're not all equals. And it's the postseason, whoever that third pitcher is probably is going to need to have a much shorter release than the other two guys. So I like to see that Tori seems to kind of be he's starting to manage with his mind on the postseason, whether that's getting a team ready to get there or starting to manage the way he would in the postseason. Well, it's interesting you say that because he talked about, and he said this quite a bit, that he is asking more of guys. He's going to ask more of guys, right?

But like you said, this is a decision that he just doesn't make a few weeks ago because now we don't have. have the time for error. And honestly, the bullpen, you know, we give them a lot of grief and honestly, they deserve it. But they also deserve praise because tonight the bullpen was outstanding. So Torrey does this at times when they don't need to. Like, well, the bullpen only has these outings when he don't get any offensive support. If the offense is good, then they're going to give up five runs. Yeah. And then every time. And you're right, because the offense absolutely struggled tonight. And the Diamondbacks just couldn't get that big hit at times. I mean, I don't even know if it's that big hit. It felt like at times they just, they, they,

they were they were absolutely befuddled by Kyle Freeland and the Rockies. And it just felt like they couldn't really do much. This is another one of those nights where it felt like this starting lineup made the starting pitcher on the opposition look like an absolute ace when he's not really that. You know, he just. Yeah. Kyle Freeland, I mean, especially, you know, the last couple of months. I think I heard on the radio, Kyle Freeland's one in 10 in his last 17 starts with an ERA over six,

something like that. He's, you know, at one point, I do think. Kyle Freeland was a pretty good pitcher and pretty underrated pitching in that ballpark. But Kyle Freeland is not one of the better starters in the National League at this stage in his career. And yes, he only had, I think it was two strikeouts. But the debacks didn't make that much hard contact in this game. There were definitely some balls that, you know, or maybe hard hit right at guys. I know someone mentioned that in the chat.

But the Debex, XBA in this game as a whole was 223. Their expected batting average was 223. They had six hits, which is pretty much what they were expected to get. I don't think they were super unlucky in this game. I just think, you know, Matt Cook is going out there. He's not really striking guys out, but he's getting these lazy pop flies. And that was that was kind of the story for a good portion of this game for this offense. Dbacks were one for six with runners in scoring position.

That too. And, you know, some of the older veteran guys just haven't been effective for this team. Evan Lengoria is four for 25 with 10 strikeouts. Everyone is OPS. It's like 3,000. Yeah. Remember when you wanted to DFAM on opening. day but then you didn't because but then you retreat no we're not okay I've always been a big long go

fail Nick comment uh oh for three tonight with a strike out and uh I know that there's a lot of I didn't really I mean if people if people wanted to complain about this starting lineup I will be right there with you because I really didn't understand what was happening at times and considering we were hanging out with our wonderful diehards out there in section 144 couldn't see a lot of what was going on on the scoreboard behind us or the lineup card. So at times I was like finding myself sitting there pulling up game day being like, yeah, wait, Tommy Pham is hitting third? What is happening?

There's a lot of things. I was talking to some of the diehardt. Like I don't necessarily mind the idea of having like Corbett and Gabby near the end of the lineup. Like they, not necessarily those two, but like having a little bit of firepower near the end of the lineup. They were what, eight and nine tonight, right? Or were they seven and nine and then what?

Nick Ahmed was a problem. Number eight. It doesn't matter when you throw. Nick Ahmed in between there, which, like, as everyone in the chat is saying, he's just not a very good baseball player at this point. He doesn't contribute anything offensively and really defensively. He just doesn't, he doesn't contribute, man. So like, it almost doesn't matter where like you could, as far as the order is concerned, you could tell anybody out there. But in any momentum you get is going to get killed by by Gabby, excuse me, by Nick Ahmed.

Or by Nick Ahmed or by James Peterson or by whichever or by at this point, Evan Longoria, or Phaven Smith, or. or any, ins for anybody. Like, at this point, the lineup is just not good. They just don't, they're not a very good offensive team. And we talked about it a couple, like, a month ago at this point. Like, you look at the lineup and it's just like, that's not striking fear into the hearts of any pitching staff in all of baseball. At least from top to bottom, for sure. Yeah, no, no, there's definitely points of it.

Like, when you get to the lineup, like, that's part of why I like the end of the lineup there, because when you get to the end of the lineup and it's like, you have Corby Carroll and Gavin Rano. And then you flip the lineup to Cattel Marte and Tommy Phams, whatever, I guess. And like, I think Pham was. I mean no or vera started in the in the two hole yeah that's what that's yeah that was part of it too like that was yeah Tori Tori did the same thing with buddy Kennedy right hit him second Kyle Lewis has hit second a lot I've asked story about this and he basically explains it as that two hole is going to be a a spot in the lineup where they have the platoon advantage so um although

I don't know if it did Emmanuel or very a face the righty in this game I think he might have um but generally the way that they operate with that spot is you know once the once the lefty comes out of the game then you know you'll you'll pinch it you'll make sure you always have they did they brought in perdomo for him okay okay yeah i i missed that so yeah they that's that's you know torrey's justification for for doing that but going back to the offense as a whole if you go back to july first so you know july first until now this is a little bit over two months of baseball now the diamondbacks are 25th in the league in w rc plus, 89, 100 being league average. That's pretty bad.

I mean, the only teams below them, interestingly enough, there's a couple of teams that are in the wildcard race with. The Cincinnati Reds are just below them. The pirates, the white socks, these Rockies, and the San Francisco Giants who have really struggled to hit over the last couple months. You know, that's not great company. The debacks have been a bottom six offense in the sport for about two months now. Yeah.

And that's also the same two months where their season is turned. around in an enormous way, right? It dates back to pretty much the beginning of July when the massive skid started. So a lot of it has to do with the offense. And, you know, they were scoring over five runs a game consistently early in the season. We haven't really seen that for a pretty good while at this point. Nicholas Gruders in the chat said, and why are we batting FAM third every night? He's a career bottom four of the lineup hitter.

Fam has been fine. But, I mean, there's something to be. He hasn't been great, though. He hasn't been great. And there's something to be said about that. because there's a lot of players that the Diamondbacks either acquired at the trade deadline or were recent additions due to being picked up after being DFAed by other teams that all of a sudden like, you know, the Diamondbacks are counting on these guys more than guys that have been on their team. Like Ryan Thompson was a guy that Tori said the other day was one of his high leverage bullpen arms and he just got here. He just got here, right?

So I mean, called up from Reno. Like there is something to be said about how like these guys are impacting the lineup now and and the fact that Tory is looking for answers at times when it comes to who he can rely on in those high leverage situations and we can rely on for some offense to generate some offense Tommy fam had a real nice hitting street going on there. So him hitting third made sense. But like you said, he just hasn't been great. It's just more of a fucking interned dom in here. just Cincinnati boy saying L.A.D. Cruz. Go back to taking pictures, Ohio boy.

What are you even doing here, Dom? What are you even doing here? Okay. Tommy. Tommy, I'm not going to put up with Dom being in here talking trash. Don't you dare. Photo boy?

Yeah. Go take pictures. Photo boy. Go ahead, Jesse. What do you guys think Tommy Fams OPS is since he was brought over in the trade? 7. 6. 32.

You guys said that at exactly. 742, 638. Uh, 656. Yeah, yeah, I did. Good job. That's pretty rough, right? Like for a guy that's hitting third every day. And, uh, you know,

Lordus hasn't really hit much in the second half of the season. Uh, Corbin went through his extended struggle. Now he's come out of that and has been really good lately. But yeah, I mean, frankly, it's hard to build a lineup when you've only got about three guys who are really hitting right now, right? It's Gabby. It's Christian Walker. Ketel Marte has really struggled the last month or so as well.

Corbin's been hitting. And yeah, Corbin, Corbin has, as I said, he's sort of come around at this point. So, yeah, I mean, the depth that this lineup had early in the season, it's just, it just hasn't, it just hasn't been there. Those guys just aren't performing the same way they were earlier in the year. Emmanuel Rivera had a 900 OPS at one point. So it's like when you ask where those contributions have gone, it's just guys that aren't able to. They were overperforming. They were overperforming.

Yeah, it was never realistic. But, I mean, as we said during the Dark Times, that wasn't the, the, reality of what they were other but yeah i mean all as i know is there's going to be two really pissed off fan bases no matter who makes the playoffs out of these three teams because at this point it kind of feels like three teams in the race for that third spot like the other two families are going to be pissed because they're going to look at the team that makes it and be like they do not deserve to be there well it's got to be four teams right giants marlins red oh yeah marlins my bad you just nixon the giants or two games out you're right not the giants at this no no i forgot the marlins are

But still, there's going to be three fan bases that look around and be like, that team, how the fuck do they get there? Yeah. They don't deserve that. Because like if the debate with the playoffs, I'm not going to say they're, they're a playoff team. Like they deserve to make the playoffs. It'll just be a war of attrition at that point. It's like it's the reason why we shouldn't be mad if they don't make the playoffs. Yeah.

Because we've seen them perform against these teams. Now, Brent Strom today had a completely different attitude about that, which I actually, Brent Strom, I will run through a goddamn brick wall for Brent Strom. I'm just saying that right now. That man could get me to get like because he's he's so he's so like he's got this dry humor and he's so intelligent. He has so much experience. And he's very he's very he's like Jesse. He's very rational, right?

Like he's just one of those guys that like he has no problem sometimes saying that one of their pitchers isn't good right now or whatever. Like he's very honest and he's very he assesses the situation very well. And when he talked today about the fact that those teams that aren't wildcard teams, those teams that aren't going to be fighting for a playoff spot in the wild card round, we're going to sit around for like five days and then they're going to have to play. And he was like, we can get them. We can, you know, we, we can beat them in a five game series, you know, I mean, you just said, can you imagine the pressure that a team like that could be under, you know,

facing us. Well, yeah. Yeah. And for honestly, all of these don't do. Maybe the exception of the giants, the giants are just as, none of them will have anything to lose. Like, whether it's the Reds, the Marlins, or the Debacks,

they're all out of schedule. Like, anybody that gets there, they're dangerous just because it's like, fucking, there is no, there is no, oh, is this guy going to choke in the postseason again? Like, there's no, there's no reputation or anything there. There's nothing to lose.

And outside of the Giants, and I mean, you could even say this about the Giants, because they're a fairly young roster. They're just a weird. They've been successful in general over the past decade. But I'm just talking about their roster right now. But, I mean, you look at the Reds, you look at the Diamondbacks, you look at the Marlins. These are all teams that essentially are young, exciting teams that are maybe a little bit ahead of schedule.

And so, like you said, yeah, making it into the playoffs is just going to be a win for them. And the problem is if they win a series, because if they win the Wild Card Series, then I'm going to start thinking they can win the World Series. And then anything shorter World Series is going to be disappointment. So either. Sean will find a way to be disappointed, inevitably. I mean, well, you not win a World Series. I'm going to be disappointed ultimately. But they still have to get there first.

They have to get through all of this. And a big part, not only is there, is their offense struggling right now. But with the way Brandon fought performed today, there's a lot of question marks about their starting rotation. And today, again, speaking of Brent Strom, we did ask him or he was asked about who would be potentially starting for the Diamondbacks in their open rotation spot right now. And while Brent Strom did not answer, he did say. It appears that Ryan Nelson will start for the Diamondbacks. It was a funny thing because he basically said like, who do you think? Who like what are our options?

And then I believe it was Steve or somebody else that said, Ryan Nelson. And then he said, next question is what he said after that point, right? But he did talk about Ryan Nelson, apparently making his way back and that it does appear that Nelson will be part of the starting rotation again when he returns. And they just talked about the progress that he's made. They seem to be fairly, I guess, fairly approving of what he's done and that they are excited to have him return to this rotation. But I just, I don't know. I mean, again, with the Diamondbacks starting pitching woes, I mean, Ryan Nelson right now does look better than some of the options that they've kind of been going with.

But, you know, who knows? I mean, Slade still doesn't look like he is going to be a starting pitcher, at least for this, you know, in the foreseeable future. So I just, I don't know, but I know right now that they have a lot to figure out. The thing that's frustrating to me

is it feels like whoever they go with as that, whether it's the third guy in the playoffs, we're just feeling that. Like, it just kind of feels like

it's, they're playing in the lottery. Like there's two good pitchers and then which one of the other guys is going to be good today? Who knows? Find out at 7 p.m. on Fox. Well,

like, who would you guys use? Well, fuck. I mean, based from the last two starts, I feel like it's Zach Davies. But it is Zach Davies.

Well, right now it's that. No, I would be, I would be sick to my stomach if Zach Davies was the start. So like if based on our recent performance, it's got to be Zach, but I feel like he's the one I'm least, I'm the least comfortable with starting that third game. The only reason why I take Zach over anybody else is also his experience. Yeah. I think that I think there's something to be said in a high pressure situation that Davies could give up three runs, but still get things back on track and give him another. And, you know, like, I think Torrey. for better or worse, that's up for you to decide,

is more likely, like we were kind of saying, to let Zach Gallen figure things out than he is a Brandon fought. And obviously, if we're talking to playoffs, it's obviously a very different situation. Like, no one's getting that long of a leash regardless. But like, you know, if you, if you're probably more likely to take the load off the bolt pen and keep rocking with Zach Davies than you are Brandon fought

because you probably have a better chance of Zach Davies, like keeping you in the game, even if he's given up a few runs already. Davies is made. three career appearances in the postseason. I don't know. I feel like this isn't going to go well. He threw one inning in 2018 in the NLCS with the Brewers

scoreless. Didn't allow a run. 20. 20, 20 with the Padres. He pitched in in two games, two innings, five hits, four runs in his first outing, five innings, nine hits, four runs in a second outing. He has a career nine ERA in the post season. That sounds like Zach.

Yeah. It's only eight innings, but yeah. It is what it is. I mean, but like, literally, it's just a complete like crap shoot for that. other guy at this point. I'd rather have Brandon fought. And he maybe he gains experience because I think either get rocked. I mean, maybe,

but I would rather like, I would rather Davies get rocked than fought get rocked and then start this. Because then if fought's good, it's going to start this, you can't pitch in the playoffs narrative where it's like, I don't give a shit if there's a narrative about Zach Davies. He's not really a part of the future, I don't think.

So like, I mean, I guess if he comes out in the postseason, it just turns into Madison, bumgarner. And I mean, good Madison, postseason.

as Mozart. That's a bad metaphor. I don't know what you're going with. I went to the best world series picture of all time who somehow also manages to be the worst picture of DeBax history. Don't know how those two things do be true about the same person, but it is. But yeah, I genuinely don't know. I think I would rather Davies fought.

And I think it might just be his face. How Reddit gets and how sweaty he gets. He just looks like a nervous dude. And I just don't. It wouldn't make me feel comfortable. He does get those. He has really red rosy cheeks. Minnesota cold weather cheeks.

Yeah. I'm like, oh, God. And then you're like, oh, no, things are going bad here. The man looks flustered. I don't, I don't want that. His highs were higher than Zach Davies. No. Yeah, that's fine.

And it's the playoffs. But also, what I don't think, can we point out the fact that at a certain point, the offense just does not show up for Brandon Fott starts. It hasn't happened like a single time this year. I don't know if they fucking hate him or what, but they just don't show up. So if that's going to keep happening, well, they don't show up in the starts where he doesn't give up a lot of them. Fair enough. Just like the bullfax.

They didn't. They didn't show up today. It's not like he gave up five runs or anything. No, today, definitely the lack of offense makes his outing look worse, right? But then based on the way he was pitching, even though he only gave up three runs, what we saw was what the pitching, what the coaching staff was seeing. They were seeing him outside, outside, and then dead middle. And then, like, again, it's not even like the outside pitches were competitive or he was just missing the edge.

They were far out. I think there's also a certain awareness that it's like, okay, we're down and run. This is the Rockies. The game might as well be tied. we should still be able to beat this team. Yeah, I mean, you're right. And the offense still couldn't get anything mustered up. I mean, even yesterday, right?

The Diamondbacks, I think they went down 15 in a row to finish yesterday's game. They scored those four runs early. And the offense was really quiet the rest of the way. And even that game, they won on Friday against the Orioles. They scored four runs in that game. The games that they're winning, they're scoring like four or five runs, which sometimes that'll get you a win if you're pitching staff is good enough. But a lot of times it's not going to get you a win.

And this offense is struggling for not just Brandon fought. This offense is struggling in general. I am terrified of the seven games we have against the Chicago Cubs with the offensive numbers. The Cubs have been putting up lately. That's what terrifies me. I'm terrified. Because the Cubs like starting pitching, their pitching doesn't even have to be good for them to outscore the diamondbacks with the way things are going for them lately. I'm terrified that we're going to end up having to play the brewers in the playoffs somehow because that will be the least entertaining.

set of three games of playoff baseball on the history of man. But you know what matters there is that in that scenario? The Diamondbacks is the playoffs. And honestly, that's all the best. I mean, that was more from a generic baseball perspective because that'll be boring baseball. But as a Diamondbacks fan, that is the team I want to see in the postseason if we're seeing somebody.

The Brewers. Yeah. Yeah, the Diamondbacks just absolutely need help when it comes to starting pitching. So hopefully Ryan Nelson, if he is being called up and is the answer, then hopefully he can return to, you know, that form that we've seen from him at times. Because again, when you talk about guys, on the road for a while there, guys having guys having good outings and,

and showing what their ceiling could be. Ryan Nelson has definitely showed that. But somebody who also showed what their ceiling could be tonight was Andrew South Frank, who made his major league debut and was all very damn good for this team. Got a standing O got a standing O got some booze from Tori when he went to go take him out because people didn't want him to get taken out. but he went one and two thirds innings scoreless, hitless, no runs, no walk struck out too. What do you think, Jesse?

He's good. He's good. Hashtag analysis. Hashtag quality analysis. Andrew Salfrank in AAA had a whiff rate of 55.2% on his curveball, which is really freaking impressive. For reference, Zach Gallen's curveball, I think has a whiff rate of like 42%, something like that this year, which is among the leaders in the league. I don't expect Saul Frank to be able to maintain a 55% whiff rate in the majors.

But that's some serious swing and miss there. I know, you know, you see the fastball at 92, 93 miles an hour. Yeah, it doesn't look, it doesn't look super impressive. Yeah, but that that breaking pitch that he has, which registers as a slider, but is he he insists it's a curveball. He says curveballs are cooler. So he calls it a curveball, which I respect. I respect the hell out of that.

That's awesome. I respect the hell out of that. I mean, it's, I, yeah, because like, curveballs kind of are cooler for a leaers, right? Like, how many, like, fastball slider guys are there in the league at this point? If you're fastball curveball, you're part of a kind of exclusive company. But, yeah, I mean, he had a strikeout rate of 37.5% in AAA as well. So he was, he was turning those whiffs on his breaking pitches into some serious strikeout numbers. So, yeah, I think it's entirely possible that Andrew Salfranc comes over here and is the Diamondback's best left-hand

reliever the rest of the way. I mean from what he showed in in double a and triple a to extremely hitter friendly environments. I think he'd given up two home runs all season long in more than 60 innings down there. It's it's really impressive stuff and I believe he had reverse splits. So that's not necessarily ideal. The debacks still need a late inning weapon to get lefties out. Maybe he doesn't quite fit that profile. But the debacks just need productive relievers in general at this point. And I think he has a chance to be that. It was it was huge to get both him man Thompson to get like an inning and two thirds out of each of them like to have to have fought get pulled as early as he did and only have to use four bulletin arms like and also

to not have it be like really uh I mean obviously they lost right so it's like but I mean there wasn't this sense of of dread there wasn't this sense that oh man here they're going to let it get completely out of control so the diamond backs aren't gonna are gonna have a chance no these these guys did the thing that we have actually see very rarely from this team and that just kind of have a quiet out and go out there do their job and and sit batters down and and they did they gave the diamondbacks every opportunity they could to get back into this one and the diamond backs couldn't muster up more than two runs uh but i will say going back to and your saw frank um the todd walsh interview with his family was absolutely

outstanding the broadcast kind of keeping an eye on them while he was out there pitching like uh we had There's every pitch. We had the TV turned down pretty low in here, so we didn't exactly hear the broadcast crew and what they were talking about. But we knew this was the family. We knew this had to be the mom. And when Todd went over to interview them, it was just, I don't know, man. It's like my, it's my favorite.

It's my favorite thing. Todd's really good at it too. He's so good at it. But it literally is my favorite things at times in sports because we tend to sit back and think of these guys. It's larger than life. We tend to think of them as superheroes, comic book. heroes, all that kind of stuff. We scream things at them from the crowd like this man does.

Crazy wild things. Like they're not human beings with feelings and ears. And still, there's just something that never that never gets old to me when it comes to these guys living their dream and making their major league debut. His mom talked about the fact that when he was three years old, he said he wanted to be a pro ball player. And like here he is tonight living that dream, making that three years. year old into you know a literal psychic and and knowing that he was going to follow this path and make

this make his debut tonight but when todd asked the last question it was such a moment he was asking for trouble yeah he was he knew what he was doing he knows what he was doing all the time he's a pro but he asked uh you know like what was what was she going to say to him right when she saw andrew and she his mom just lost it she just started crying and talking about how proud she was of him and everything like that and Todd was like I I knew that was coming like Todd knew he was he was he was yeah right but I mean it was just such a beautiful television moment and it was a moment that once again reiterates that these guys are just people they're just dudes and they're going out there and they're trying to like live their best lives and live their dreams and all of that

and like he was making a sandwich when he got the call he was making Jesse Jesse hates was he going to eat the sandwich then or was that something he was going to pack in his lunch and he was Probably packing I know it. Yeah, I was going to say Jesse he hates that but for this reason all the reasons his performance I have a oh yeah maybe we haven't gone I don't know John at this point. So Jesse does not like making a sandwich for himself that he doesn't get to eat right after he makes it It's he doesn't like I I get that later. I get that part like it definitely takes a certain amount of willpower I thought you had like some no willpower philosophical like position like sandwiches and little plastic bags. No, he's just impatient and he just wants to eat it now.

I mean, I would just make myself two sandwiches, but see, Jesse, that is the answer. Just make yourself two sandwiches. No, no, that doesn't work because in my head I would know that one of them is for later. But the labor that I'm putting into that sandwich is something I'm not going to experience the benefits. future Jesse. You don't like ever grocery shop or anything? Like isn't that? Grocery shopping is just a necessity of life.

You know, that I've learned to put up with it. It's like kind of the same thing. You're buying all the ingredients. He doesn't, he doesn't buy himself fun stuff. You're not like eating in the corner of the grocery store because you don't want to delay cereal in his cabinet. He doesn't have one box of Oreos of any variety in his house. I will say I have not.

I haven't had either of those things for the longest time. And then I've recently, over the last month, I've had them back in my apartment. Oriel's. And fruit snacks? All that stuff. You need all that stuff in your life. Che sticks? I do to be so that people don't think I'm a total maniac.

I do still put up with it and I do still make myself sandwiches and I do pack them in little plastic bags. All I'm saying is like the four minutes that it takes me to make those sandwiches are the longest. Yeah. No, that I agree with 100%. I thought you were just saying like I'm never going to pack my No, you'll fucking text me complaining about it. No, I'm on board then.

I'm with you now, Jesse. It's no, it is a grueling experience. I was like, I don't want to wait. You guys can never have kids. You guys will never be able to have kids. It is, it is longer. I think it's got some guy acknowledge. It's long.

It's definitely a longer four minutes. As long as you still do it, it's fine, but it's definitely more work. Anyway, I'm glad we went on. I don't know. I hate that we did because I just feel like more frustrated now, but. Anyway, Andrews off rank, you're our king snake because you deserve it. Not only was it a wonderful story tonight, but of course the man was absolutely lights out for this team. One in two thirds innings pitch, no hits, no runs, two strikeouts.

So welcome to the team. We are glad to have you and we thank you for the lack of drama tonight. I also appreciate the intelligence of Arizona to the other back fans, giving him the standing oh that he got, like recognizing that this kid showing up in his debut, a, being his first time up here and then be like just a diamond backs reliever if throwing one and two thirds scoreless with two strikeouts in and of itself is not that common so like the d-match been giving a standing oh was well deserved something i appreciate it i agree there weren't a whole lot of people in the stands no but not at all and i also liked them booing tory for taking about

too it was a weird like half of us are going to cheer and then the other half we're going to boo and i i appreciate it both sides for yeah better call us all well we thank you guys for being here right now on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. Leave us a little thumbs up. It's Jesse's favorite thing in the whole wide world.

It is. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, leave us a review. We always appreciate your feedback when it comes to the show. And subscribe to us there. Even if you've subscribed on YouTube, we always appreciate that support. Most importantly, can you believe that we've had seven months without an NFL game? Without an NFL game. And Jesse...

Yeah, I can. I can believe it. And I don't, I don't miss it. Although I am going to destroy. I am going to destroy Damon and fantasy football. But other than that, I'm a completely emotionally detached from football. Joe Burrow. America's quarterback.

Bullshit. Josh Allen is America's quarterback. Josh Allen is America's quarterback and I have him. It's our quarterback. We're a quarterback right here. Daniel Dimes is America's quarterback and I have him. Oh, you traitor. All right, guys.

Anyway, let's cut the bullshit. who is America's quarterback in. It's fine. Homer over here. Well, good thing that all of that time without football is over. NFL is here in Drafking's sports book, an official sports betting partner of the NFL is giving you a can't miss offer for week

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And again, Section 144 is absolutely the place to be when we are in the house with our diehards. The toss-ups from the outfielders were all over our section today. Yeah, it was kind of wild. And also, Brent Doyle was just showing off all day, just rocked. Rocketing balls into the, you know, like the main concourse and stuff. Like he has an arm. Yeah, like he has an arm or something. I wish we had Stackcast data on this.

I really do. Corbett on the other hand. The first one he threw up to the outfield barely made it over the wall. It literally hit off the top of the wall. It was rocket. It really did that. It really did that. But you can enjoy games just like we did tonight.

Up close and personal in section 144 or wherever you get your tickets. But make sure you get your tickets at game time. Game time is the place for last minute ticket deals. It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. And that reason is because they are all about FOMO. They're all about us procrastinators having our day. So you can snag the tickets without the stress with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. One thing about Chase Field and being there for. baseball games is uh it's pretty hot we can say it's hot it's not it's not great it's not unpleasant it's not terrible i wasn't cramping today it wasn't too bad i will say though not the last takeover the table before that was a very tough experience it was was packed hot it was packed yeah yeah that was

one thing today there wasn't a whole lot of people yeah that was that uh the the the throwback jersey giveaway night and it was also the night that they had the alumni in house yeah that day was a little warm in there. But in game one of this series, Merrill Kelly absolutely shoved. He was, it was his best pitching performance arguably of the year. But he once again had to leave the game early due to cramping in his hamstrings, or right hamstring cramping, right? It was, yeah, his right hamstring. And yeah, he had a lot in the tank left and he didn't look too happy when he left the game. And I know that this has kind of been a point of contention for the Diamondbacks. But here's what Merrill Kelly had to say first about his outing.

probably the most frustrated in a seven inning 12 punchout win that you're probably ever going to see me I mean I think it's pretty self-explanatory obviously I had to leave with the cramp again it's just at this point I feel like just you know beat my head against the wall but you know we got the win today that's what matters but you know go back to the drawing board with with the training staff and the doctors and you know see if we can't get this thing figured go. I mean, right now that's the only thing that seems to be holding Merrill back because he has been absolutely outstanding for this team. He even has a better ERA currently than than Zach Gallen. And that's not something that we necessarily expected to see this year. But it's also just

odd to see Merrill Kelly having these issues with cramping. I mean, there's been a lot of talk. Sean was just saying it while that video was playing. Like, how is there not solution to this? How are you not stretching someone else? I'm not on the ground. I'm out on the ground. give him a mustard pack, stretch his leg out, going back up there. But I mean, it's a fickle juice. Yeah, I'm joking, but at the same time, like, it's part of why this is so, like,

frustrating as like a fan, because it's like, you hear cramps, and you just like, it's just like, drink more water. Like, just figure it out. It'll go away in a few seconds. And it's like, for this to be like a recurring problem, it almost doesn't feel fair to call it, like, ah, it's just got cramps. Like, it's,

it's clearly a bigger issue. No, it's that he has. hates playing a chase field. Yeah. That's what it is. You can clearly see him like trying to keep the frustration from boiling over. Oh, his resentment is growing. When he walked off the mound.

And you can get a scream through the broadcast. Yeah, he yelled into his glove. He was not having. But, but I mean, to be fair, I mean, Merrill gave the Diamondback seven innings of one run ball with 12 strikeouts. It's crazy. In a game like that, it's like, all right, you know, it'd be fun to have him pitch the eighth inning,

but the debacks won't have any. issues, you know, to ceiling a lot. At least you hope they don't have any issues sealing the game up from that point yesterday. They ultimately didn't. But this would be a lot different, right? If Merrill was at 90 pitches in, you know, the fifth inning or something, he's trying to work his way through the inning and he's not able to for this problem. All three times that this has happened, and it is three consecutive home starts for

Merrill Kelly where this has happened. All three times he's pitched pretty dang well. Yeah. Because if that does happen in the fifth inning or something like that, then, pulling fought in the fourth or whatever when he got pulled today looks a lot different. Obviously, you couldn't have predicted the bullpen to perform as well as they did today. So if you've used a bunch of arms yesterday or earlier this weekend and then you have to use a bunch again today, like it comes across very differently. So it is very fortunate that this is happening late in game.

But I mean, I guess it also makes sense, right? Like it's not happening in the first inning because I mean, that's when he's the fresh. But he's also been so efficient. Like his pitch counts have been. in the same rough range, like around 90 pitches or something. He's not always going to be in the eighth inning when he hits 90 pitches. He'll probably sometimes be in the fifth inning when he hits 90 pitches. And if that happens, it's kind of a problem if Merrill Kelly has to come out of the game.

Because it's at a point out where every game matters. So like you can't really, you can't really be affording. And I mean, especially when it's if it's the postseason or if it's, you know, game 162 or something like that and they need to win. Like, well, on the Diamondbacks offense wasn't really doing a time. No, exactly. So the margin for areas even smaller. Exactly. They won that game four to one.

But here's what Merrill had to say about the cramping. Today or summer? I'm still super hot. I had to change my jersey after the fourth inning. I don't know if it's just, I don't know if, you know, I don't know if it's just the stadium being old. And because the temperature is definitely dropped in the last couple weeks. It's not as hot as it was. I mean, I know it's still hot out there.

And I know it's still a big metal box that we're in. but, you know, it's definitely, I'm definitely sweating more here than I am other places, you know, through, through five innings in L.A. There are a bunch of pitches through five innings and feel anything, you know, and obviously, if you look at the games that I've cramped, it's only been here. So, yeah, I can relate. I'm sweating through my shirt right now as we speak. Fucking foot the bill and turn the AC up when he's on the mount. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't think it's that simple, though. Do we just need to figure out the code? on the AC like the world there's a little lock on the Thorvostack got the got it on lock Derek is going to find the thermostat I have to do it here I will do it in Chase Field I will do it wherever because I don't no I mean he's right but it's kind of weird because when

you're there it's really not that unpleasant but we're not on the field playing a sport the field it the field is different and to be fair some people might have the criticism like well not all ballparks are air conditioned in the first place right like if you're pitching in Atlanta in the middle of the summer, it's, you know, if it's 82 degrees and a little humid or something at the ballpark right now. 90% humidity, yeah, good luck.

It could be a lot worse in other ballparks at certain times of the year. So what I suspect is that like indoors, that feels a little bit different. Like if you had your thermostat in your house into like 84 degrees or something and it was humid in there, that's miserable, right? Whereas if you're outdoors and it's 83 or 84, maybe that's a little bit more bearable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and also I know some people have criticized like, well, no one else is having problems with this, right?

Like that gowns not cramping up out there. Obviously, this is a, you know, Merrill has said a lot that he sweats significantly more than the average person, which I guess every human being is different in that regard. It sort of makes sense. So he's just in a position where he's especially sensitive to this sort of thing. Merrill issue exacerbated by Chase Field. Well, I mean, he talks about like, you know, of course, not experience. experiencing this elsewhere, which that makes sense. But, you know, I don't know.

There's the, he does take some shots at Chase Field saying it's an old building and that I don't know. I don't really know what the answer here. I mean, I feel like there's other resources that the Diamondbacks could be using to ensure that he doesn't. That's the thing that I like it just, I struggle to understand how it's not like, like, like this is not the first time or even the second time this has happened. Do we not have bananas?

Well, I'm just saying like how is Neil? It seems like. every time it's like, oh, we're going to try this much harder to fix it. Like, I feel like when you're, when one of your best pitchers is having struggled with cramps and it's become clear that it's not like a here and there. Like, this is a pretty, like, you should probably ramp the solution phase up to 100 there. I mean, that's, but that's what they're saying is that they have been, you know, that's very, he's on the hydration program.

I have a problem. I have a potential problem with this. He's not getting an IV between innings. No. So they're not doing everything. That's not the problem. The problem is, I mean, the problem is. I mean, the problem is that he's pitching really well.

Yeah, that's the craziest part. Where he's cramping. So what if the dehydration is what's causing him to pitch well? I don't know that that's not the answer. Or it could be he's getting that dehydrated because he's pitching well. Could be the other reverse. I think he's getting dehydrated because it's warm. I mean, that's so much more reasonable than the thing I said.

I don't know why you would suggest something far more reasonable than my crazy ass idea here. Doesn't he also hate like the uniforms? Do you think he just hates us? You think he wants to be a diamond max? No, he does. He's the one guy who is like maybe a little skeptical of the purple. But he also hates the red. He said he said he hates it more than the purple.

Fuck you. Just tell us you like Dodger poop, Merrill. Go fuck yourself. He literally was like, I don't like the purple. The red is worse than the purple. And the stadium sucks. Yeah. And I hate you and your mom.

That's, I mean, that seems to be the only solution at this point. If you hate the purple jersey, you're just objectively wrong. Yeah. But that sees. No, I mean, it does suck. I mean,

it's only going to get cooler and they're not playing at least the first series of a playoff game or any of the first playoff games here. We're fine. It's fine. It's fine. That part's good. But in October, theoretically,

it's cooler. And I mean, I don't know, maybe in October, you could open the roof. Yeah. I mean, even in September at times,

they're able to, they're able to open the roof. I don't know if this year that will. By the way, tonight when that one ball went to the warning track and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. caught it. I think the Rockings had.

basis loaded. I think we started a humidor chant at one boy, or at least we were thanking the humidor for keeping that ball. Best slash worst part of where we are sitting is that I could not see that ball. Yeah. You just had to rely on the reaction of the crowd. And honestly, the crowd wasn't huge. And I'm somewhat used to the crowd being about 50, 50, 50, D best fans and non-D best fans. So I heard cheers and I still wasn't completely sure.

I was like, I don't know. And then I finally saw Lordus run away from the wall with the ball. I was like, oh, yeah. Good. Pedro said he also hates staying hydrated, so there's that. Yeah, like he hates everything. Oh, is he talking about, oh. Yeah, he was talking about.

I thought he was saying he also doesn't like staying hydrated. Yeah, I also, me three, do not like staying hydrated. Yeah, that's true. I've seen him. Always reminds Jesse, Derek never reminds me to drink water. And I'm the one that needs it. Well, I don't know. Maybe he needs it too.

Honestly, I'm pretty good about staying hydrated. You fucking got adopted by the entire coyote's crew, okay? I have to fucking look out for Jesse. All right? Someone has to keep an eye out for Jesse. I'll never forget the first time I came out here and I got to the hotel and the first thing the guy did is put a couple bottles of water on the desk. He asked where I was from and I said New York and you put a couple bottles of water. He's like here.

Here's one more. That's one thing. Like I just grew up like just not really drinking water. You didn't have to. We didn't really need it. You didn't have to. Now you live in a desert. There's enough water in that apple juice.

We're fine. Now I'll fuck it. I'll pass out. That happens. Speaking of Chase Field being old and things not working. there they're out of town score boards don't work but ours still do so let's take a look at the out of town scores because this isn't great this isn't great right when we needed the dodgers to continue beating people they lose to the miami marlins uh the cincinnati reds uh win a close one over the seattle mariners

they were down six three late they were down six three uh san francisco did lose to the cubs but i don't even know like cubs san francisco i guess no at that point we got to be rooting for the cubs there Yeah, you're right. I mean, we got to be rooting for anybody that's around us. Cubs can have that second wild card spot. We just need one of the wild card spots. San Diego beats Philly 8 to nothing. And Milwaukee beats Pittsburgh 7 to 3.

So pretty much everybody we needed to lose one. Maybe Philly. That one's fine. I don't care about San Diego. The Philly and Milwaukee games. I don't know how much that legitimately matters at this point. The VACs are a ways. Milwaukee game matters just because what is the central?

to look like at this point i honestly haven't looked at i think there are two and a half games are two and a half back yeah yeah so they are it matters for that it matters for who the devx might end up playing i guess that's a that's a fair that's a fair point so let's take a look at the wild card standings to see how everything stacks up because with the diamondbacks losing tonight they are now one full game guess i could have waited 30 seconds out of the wild card look at this graphic yeah yeah yeah probably but yeah no this isn't this isn't great not great uh and again i am still fairly uneasy about the seven games that the diamondbacks have against cubs without they're playing lately but uh shan brought it up this is you know tomorrow's game is one

of those games that if the diamondbacks can't find a way to win this series against the rockies the e a day i don't what are we even doing anymore i mean and what we're doing is being it's trying to be the least sucky of four sucky teams like that's the thing and we keep saying is like they all there's there's there's there's four and a half good teams in the next National League and that half is the Brewers, maybe the Cubs, depending on which one wins the division. Like, I get that that really doesn't math at all. Four and a half so you've got

Braves, Dodgers, Phillies. It's just, it's, it's the three teams that are good and then the central champion and then yeah, no, maybe just four good teams. Three and a half. Maybe just two good teams. Yeah, that's just the great.

All I'm saying is that whether it's the G-BACs, Giants, or Reds that make the playoffs, they all suck. And so that's kind of what we're doing here is trying to be the least sucky of four sucky teams. Like there's it they are not playing good baseball, but no one's playing good baseball. So it's still like we've been saying for the last two months it feels like like it's it's still they're still fine. Yeah. All of those teams are below 500 since since the all star break.

And so like if there was if there was a CNC Y and a, uh, uh, M, M, M, fuck Miami would be hard we can't ever have a Miami location no what would you do there mm-mm there's like almost nothing you can do yeah my point is is they're all having the same conversation about their teams right like they're all struggling like trying to stay afloat hoping they can back their way into a post season spot so like yeah that's what we're doing here is we're all just trying to be like ah and we all suck I hope I'm I hope you suck a little bit more. And even then it feels like a lottery.

Yeah, it literally does. It just feels like, I mean, it just feels like, we got to hope we get a good outing from Fott or, or Merrill doesn't cramp up and he can go nine or. And I even mean the playoffs. If you're,

if you're playing this poorly and you end up playing against actual, you know, good teams like you're playing against these, you know, Braves teams, playing against these Dodger teams. Like, it just feels like like you're,

you're keeping your fingers crossed. Maybe they could do something special. but I don't know how many people actually believe in the Diamondbacks's ability to do something impactful once they get to the playoffs, right? Or any of those teams that we just talked about. Like, I don't know. I don't know if any of those teams really like can. No one's betting on those teams in the season. But I think it's something that we've said or at least I've said, and I know people in the chat have said a few times throughout the year like you're going to make it to the playoffs than anything's possible.

Yeah. Like the Phillies barely made the playoffs last year. Yeah. It's, you know, we do have good pitchers and we do have guys. that can plus in the postseason like if we get to the post season and all of a sudden we have a week stretch where Emmanuel Rivera is playing like a manual Rivera from the first half we Daniel Rivera right now he goes from a we manual to yeah then all of a sudden it's like oh okay this team because that's the difference in my mind for playoff teams you get those guys like the the

the NL or the CS MVP and the World Series MVP are almost never your your reactional like yeah yeah it's your yeah it's yeah it's yeah it's it's It's random guys like that who are just like they show up in those moments. You only need a couple of good weeks of baseball when you get to the postseason. And this team has shown that they're more than capable of being like the best team in baseball over any given two week stretch. They've also shown that they could be the worst. So it's like you just got to, if you can just be the least sucky of four sucky teams, get to the postseason. Honestly, as long as you play, you don't play the Dodgers, it feels like anything's possible.

We talk a lot about how like, oh, they had an easy schedule and things like that. But there was a period of time in April when they were facing these good teams and they were putting up a good fight. And they were even winning a lot of the series that they that they were in. They're 16 and 33, I believe, against above 500 teams since June 1st. I feel like there was a point early on where I was bragging about them being one of the only teams that had a winning record against teams. Yeah, those days are long. Those are before the dark days. Hey, but Cox is NLCS Tommy fam.

I'm pretty sure I have said, and I've said this about like three or four different guys. but I know Coggs didn't drink. No, no. Cogs didn't drink in Chasefield, but Cogs must be drunk now. That is not good, but also not so bad that I hate them. So like, I'm not going to name names, but there's a short stop who's been on this team for a very long time. I'm like, he's not going to win this team. He's not going to be an NLSCS MVP.

But like Tommy Pham could be an NLCS MVP. He's not that good, but he seems like he has demonstrated to me at points throughout this season and throughout his career that he can be really good for a stretch. I have not seen that from a guy, from certain people like on this team during this year. So like, yeah, there are certain guys that I think could, you know, be an NLCS. Yeah, just Drey Jameson and Jake McHardt. No, Dray Domingson could win us a playoff game. I don't know if I said the NLCS thing because I don't know if I'd ever say that about a reliever. I don't know if Drey Jameson is going to pitch.

Well, I said that before his arm blew up. That's fair. We have a pretty interesting quote that came out after this game that I feel like we should address. Obviously, we're not there to get this. So this is from Teo Mackey from the Arizona Republic. These are words from Evan Longoria after tonight's game. I think in the dugout, obviously, guys, we're trying to create some energy and some feel.

Some of that can be, and I'm not saying this to knock the fans, but when there's not that many people in the building, it tends to feel a little bit dead too. And I don't think that there's anything to do with the way that the team in the dugout felt. It's just that sometimes when it's quiet in here, it feels a little bit more dead than it actually is, and some of that is on us to be able to bring that energy.

But it feels like he's also saying, that it's on the fans. It feels very fancy. Yeah. He's not trying to blame anybody. It's not our fault, but it's also not your guys' fault, but it's got to be someone's fault. There were, there were 12,994 people in the stance tonight. The Diamondbacks are in a playoff race and it's September.

This is the most relevant. This team has been in September and five years. You've got less than 13th. And that's the reported number, right? I think we were all there in the building. I don't know if there were actually that many people in the stands. I could have gone and counted them all myself. What I will say to that comment is he made it, he said like part of it is on us to create

that energy. Part of it was on you to create that energy over the last two months, which you failed to do. That's fair. It's very different if, and this is something that I feel like you said earlier during the year, Jesse, is that like it's different if you've gotten to this point by like playing 500 ball all year. But as opposed to being like getting everyone really excited for the first half of the season and then everyone, fair or not, but understand.

understandably being like, oh, this is Arizona sports being in Arizona sports again. They weren't actually that good. Fuck this. Like, I can't, I'm not going to see here and really villainize the fans for that. I do think, you know, fans do need to recognize that this is a team in a playoff race and they should support the team. But as I said when I showed up, it's a Tuesday night game against the Rockies. Who's going to that game? But it's also September baseball.

Yeah. I mean, it's a team in a playoff rate. Hold on. Hold on. It's been a minute since this team, anyone here has heard September baseball. and been like, oh, I need to care. This is crazy. You guys act like you have never been to a goddamn sporting event in Arizona before.

There's the facts are the facts. It's a Colorado Rockies team that nobody has an interest in going and watch, right? So when you see Chase Field, but when you see Chase Field filled, yes, part of it is the fact that there are fans that came to watch the opposing team. But more importantly, there are Diamondbacks fans that came to watch the opposing team. They are excited that they're playing someone like the Yankees or the Red Sox or even the Dodgers. I know the Dodgers games are filled up with the Dodgers. Especially in the year where you're seeing a bunch of teams,

like you're seeing everyone in the league. Right, right. There's more exciting. Yeah, there's more exciting. You can go to a game with more interesting people that actually the Rockies here. A Giants game probably would be like this too. I mean, I don't imagine a giant.

Like there's going to be more Giants fans that show up. Don't get me wrong. And maybe a few more Diamondbacks fans because it's the Giants. But those same fans are like, eh, it's the Rockies, right? So like. I get it. I mean, I'm not like, you know, I, I, I grew up here and I sort of know the way that this tends to work.

But in years past, I will say it has felt like things ticked up toward the end of the seasons. And this this attendance number 12,994 is the lowest the Diamondbacks have had against any team since May. Yeah. This is a new low for the Diamondbacks. And that's why you need to create that energy over the last month and a half, two months. It's a game against the Rockies. Yeah, but I think it would be different. I think there would be more people there if they had played good baseball all year.

Like if it didn't feel like, like it doesn't feel like this team is going to make the playoffs. That is a very fair point. You're right. So we're right. Absolutely. Hold on, though. The onus also is there. Like, I'm saying this is on the fans.

That's what I'm saying. I'm saying the fans definitely need to support them more. I'm saying, like, this is indicative of Arizona fans, right? but also it's like it is that stuff right it is the fact that they're still kind of hovering and teetering on the bubble they're not really in the playoffs they don't have they don't they're they're not they're not even a exciting team to watch because a lot of times they're more frustrating to watch lately than they are actually watch but like it it's not like it's not on the team to always perform in order to bring the fans out fans need to support their team when your team is in a playoff hunt

through the good times and the bad. And like, yeah, it is frustrating to watch this team, but it's also exciting and fun at times. And like, that's what I'm saying is like, I see where, like this isn't the first time we've heard from the players, right? The night we were talking about the last time we did a takeover, Christian Walker made comments about how exciting the atmosphere was in the building that night, right?

And he even made comments there that seemed a bit about the same thing. Like, tonight was awesome. But we don't really have people come out like this. And it would be great to see people come out. I mean, I think obviously the reality is that there's truth on both sides of this. Like the fans are not going to sit here and accept abuse for 30 years, right? They're not going to sit here or 25. They're not going to sit here and watch this team, which obviously they've one of once here.

I'm saying it's been all 25 years. But like, they're not going to sit here and watch this team suck year and year in and you're on. Be like, I've got to get to the ballpark. And then Nicholas is making what I think is a somewhat valid point. It's not like going to chase on a Tuesday night is like you're going somewhere nice. It's an experience. It's not an experience.

And we were even talking about this before the game. You don't even get the experience of watching the roof close open and close anymore. Like there's really what reason is there outside of the fact that when you look at the standings, they're close to a playoff spot, what real reason is there to go to this Arizona Diamondbacks game? It's a team that's not playing well against one of the worst teams in baseball in a shitty baseball stadium with their middle of the rotation to end of the rotation pitcher pitching and a lineup that's not really getting me all that excited. Like because I didn't know being a sports fan was just doing it when the times were good that It is when you're raised in fucking Arizona. That's how that shit works here and I and I don't think you can at a certain point you need to accept the reality

But that's not what other teams have happened to them. So when players come here. Yeah, no, I understand It's fucking weird when players come here 100% have to deal with that. It is weird. I'm not from here. I think it's weird. But when you're raised in Arizona to sit here and criticize someone who grew up as an Arizona sports fan, for not showing out. It's like that's sports culture here. That's just, and I think like not to pat ourselves, like we're trying to change that. You look at our takeover tonight. We were sitting there in the corner of the outfield screaming

and people were staring at us being like, what the fuck are these, it's the second inning and this kid's walking around with a stuffed monkey. What's going on? And like, go fuck yourself. We're having fun. That's how it should be.

But like that's the reality of it. It's, this is the bed that has been made by Arizona Sports over the last however many years. And like, you have to acknowledge that. So I'm not going to sit here and really, which again, they were trying to beat around the bush, around the bush. But I'm not really going to sit here and accept criticism of fans when the product is not good. Like, there is not really a reason for them to want to come here when that culture is the way it is and the team has not been playing good. I think by and large, yes, that culture needs to change.

But when you're sitting in the culture and it's not like anyone is really doing anything. like again not to pat ourselves on the back no one no one in the city gets a fuck about baseball none of the other outlets talk about baseball so you're sitting here as a fan they don't really fucking half the fans don't know which is why i was i like i gave fans credit earlier for applauding uh south frank like it was i was a little bit surprised that they were fully aware and not because diamond back fans are just fucking dumb but like they're outside of like there's the diehards but there's no one else out there really doing anything to create that excitement including the team they've sucked for the last two months why should anyone give

a shit. It just looks like the D-backs being the D-backs again. The real problem, I mean, tonight is what it is, and I definitely understand where you're coming from. The real issue is going to be if next weekend, when the Chicago comes, Cubs come to town in one of the more important series, the Diamondbacks have played in a long time. Knowing that Cubs fans hold carry their fucking weight in this. And this building is, you know, half and half or 60-40 in favor of the Cubs or something like that. That's a problem. And that's something where as a player, 60-40 is so generous. 40 might be generous.

If it's 50, that's because the stadium is full and a bunch of DeBax fans have bought tickets to the last month because I know damn well that the Cubs fans are pulling their way in this series. They just have to, I mean, as a player, I just can't imagine how demoralizing that really has to be. And, and you see Evan Longoria make a comment about it here. They're not going to, they're not going to talk about that to the media all that much, right? They don't want to, they don't want to make it look like they're blaming their fan base or anything like that. But if you lose, if you lose every game over the next week, why would fans, if I'm a fan, I'm sitting here and looking like now they're further out of the playoffs and I, the lines are going to be longer.

No. I like, I think, I think you're literally crazy. Like, you're talking about team that's three games over 500. And you're not putting out of the wild product on the field. That's insane to say. Are you, they're not. Objectively not. That's insane to say.

What quality are they putting on the field? The runs they're scoring? Dude, this is a. team that is fucking ahead of schedule and they are literally playing meaningful games in the month of September. That's crazy to me. Over the last month and a half, what quality of they put on, they have not been a good baseball team.

I'm not saying that that's my point. You're not bringing up a month where they had a loss, losing month, a terrible stretch. Because that's how it works in Arizona. They were really good over the first half of the season. But if you're an Arizona sports fan and they start sucking and there's no one out there. So then you just stop watching them and you don't come out to the games anymore. That's how that's fucking. That is how it works here.

I'm not saying, yes, it is. It's not how it works in sports. Yeah, I mean, it works here that way. That's not how it works in sports. I'm not saying it's how it should work here. But the reality, if you are anybody on the Arizona Diamondbacks and you ask them two months ago, if you play like dog shit over the next two months, do you think fans are still going to show up?

They're going to say no. Anybody with their fucking head on straight would say no, because that's how it works here. It is. If the team is not playing well, people are not going to show out. I don't think that's how it should be. I'm not from a place that behaves like that, but that's just a reality of it. So if you're a team that wants people to show here, show up, but then you play two months straight basically a bad baseball, you can't sit here and also be surprised when they don't

because that's the way it's worked for the last 25 fucking years of this team existing. That's my point. But Evan Longoria wasn't on the team for 25 years. No, he played for the San Francisco Giants. Your point that he played for a shitty team in Tampa Bay that people didn't come out of point that that's weird to to players who show up. It's weird to me. Again, I don't think it's how it should be.

But to sit here and be like, you have a point, Evan Longoria. It's like, you don't really because he has a point. But to sit here and act surprised by it, like he's saying something profound is like I don't think that's genuine because it's not. It's how this thing

has operated for the last 20 years. It's inexcusable. It is inexcusable. I think it's complete bullshit. It's both sides. For sure. You have a, you have a fair point, but it's still like it can't happen. No, I agree. I 100% agree that it can't happen. I think it's absurd. Again, I am from a place. I am from Buffalo, New York. We had 20 years is one of the most,

one of the biggest jokes in the NFL, but the people always showed up. That's how it should be in sports, but it's not how it operates here. That needs to change. But I think, right, I think as Arizona's saying, though, that's what Evan Longoria is saying is it's hard for them to muster up that energy when you feel like you're literally like it's a pandemic yeah no again agreed but you in arizona if you're not going to play good for two months you can't also be surprised when they and i i i'll say this i think i don't think it's i don't think it's right it's not how i behave as a fan but it is Arizona sports culture and i think there's i think there is something to like if you're not going to give us a good product go fuck yourself i i think there's got to be a certain

amount of loyalty no matter what, but like, I don't think it should be blind. Like the attendance is obviously going to wane with performance, and they just haven't been good that recently. So I'm not surprised by it by any means. But I think it's bullshit, but I'm not surprised by it. We weren't talking about being surprised by it. I'm literally fucking God of sports. My entire goddamn life.

I'm not surprised by it at all. And even the people in the fucking chat talking about the sons, you're full of shit. Where were you guys in 2016? I don't want to, those, like, that arena was empty at times. And the only people that were there at times were opposing fans. Yeah. Just like now with the Diamondbacks at times. So I guess the point I want to make is that like, is that like, Evan Longoria,

maybe he didn't, he hasn't played here his career, but he did sign here as a free agent. He chose to come here. There needs to be a certain awareness of what being playing in Arizona means. And it, I mean, I don't think his comment necessarily. No. made it seem like he wasn't aware. He's not saying that he was surprised necessarily. He's saying that it hasn't been back.

And that's a real thing. I guess ultimately my problem with the comment is that it doesn't acknowledge the fact that the team has not put out a good product over the last two months. And you have to acknowledge that when you're talking about Arizona fans. Like that's how it works. You can't sit here because whether or not he wants it to be, that's a criticism towards the fans and a valid one. But you can't criticize them without acknowledging the fact that you also

have not been good over the last two months, especially a guy like Evan Longoria, who he specifically has not been good. Like, it's how it works here. And you can't criticize the fans when you showed up to this situation, and that's how it's been working. Like, it's house rules.

Especially if I'm an Arizona fan, Evan LaGuardia shows up, and he's like, ah, the fans aren't here. And if I'm one of those fans, which I'm not, because I support no matter what. But if I'm one of those fans, I'm like, dog, you haven't been good for two months. What I don't care that you're almost in a playoff spot we've been here before you guys are gonna shit the bed over the last month like

Diamondbacks fans have been hurt a lot Arizona sports fans have been hurt a lot and again. I don't think it's it's fair But it's just the reality of the beast I don't think any of that is the case I think the diamond backs are a really young team I think everybody is still like has their allegiances to other teams. I think that's the reason why in this city You get so many opposing fans I don't really think it's a lot of the stuff I think the diamond Diamondbacks just don't like do a great job at building up their fan base. I think that they've really dropped the ball in a lot of cases in the past. That's the other side of this too is right. A lot of the people here.

Yeah, that's something that's more to acknowledge too. But I think also as part of my argument is that a lot of the people here are not Diamondbacks fans. Yeah. First, right? Right. So they're only going to tune in when the team is good. They're only going to give a shit when the team is good because their team's not here. And to be fair, that's the only way sometimes you can win over people.

from their team to liking the team that they live in, right? That's what happens when you put a baseball team in a state that has had baseball for years, but you didn't get the pro baseball team here until the late 90s. Like that is going to be a problem for at least the rest of this generation. And so, and that's something I don't think is like a cultural thing. Like that is just, I mean, it's a cultural thing, but also like that's again, what happens when you put a team in Arizona in 1998. The problem is, is that attendance is up around baseball.

And baseball is seeing it and the Diamondbacks have games. attendance is up for the diamond backs it is up for the diamondbacks i think they're up 4,000 on average yeah that's also part of this i think a large part of this is much more a referendum on the rockies than it is the diamond backs too like part of this is the diamond backs obviously but like if this is not the rockies fans or there's going to be more fans there not because like you were saying earlier not because they were they want to see the other team or not because their fans the other team but they more interesting players all right well um that's all we got on that but i don't know That's all.

I mean, are you sure you're done, Sean? Really. Really. I think the one thing we can agree on is that you can't blame the fans at all for your team not performing. And you can't say, you know,

like, I certain points. Hey, we didn't get energy tonight from you, right? But it is also something that at times is. And also, it's only a trait of this team that home field advantage is not a home field advantage.

No, it is a very specific Arizona problem, 100%. But again, it's, it's just, Arizona is a very, need place, both just in general and as a sports market.

It's when you play a team like the Guardians and they have as many fans as you do at your own stadium. Cleveland's not even that big of a city. No, yeah, those ones. The Orioles, the Orioles. I mean, there were a pretty decent number of Orioles fans in this. But those ones, those ones are a little different, especially those two specifically, because this is the first year that the schedule has changed.

It's been a while since those fan bases have gotten to see those, like those ones I understand. You see the Dodgers when they were at Fenway Park, there was a decent amount of blue there. I mean, it's, it's Fenway Park. Yeah, it's like your one rare time. Those are a little different, but I'm not going to see you're pretending that like, that's not a problem. You go to any Dodgers game. Again, Dodgers are a little bit. You go to any Cubs game, whatever.

You go to any national league game that you normally would get here. You're going to have a decent amount of the away fan. Listen, I think it's going to change eventually. Like, because think, I mean, think about us, like as an entity. there's never been anyone that's cared about baseball in this city from a media perspective like we have is that I do you think that that's fair or it's given as much energy towards baseball I think I think I'm gonna say it's no different than the fan support itself right and that's that's what that's what I'm talking about when you talk about building a fan base and actually having people care about a team you have to do it all the time not just when things are going good just like you have to come out to the ballpark all the time goals it's not just the fans it's not just the team like media definitely plays a role in it right and so the less the less you talk about it because they're not very good at this time the less people are going to be interested in it and all of this

you know this cascading thing now well yeah honestly do post games at the losses right right like where you're no matter what the diamondbacks they're not a team necessarily that like the this is one thing i say about them all the they need to continue to build their fan base they they are not a team that is turning season ticket holders away or anything like that, right? They don't have a wait list for season ticket holders. I think it is very important to consistently remind people that, like, obviously there's people like me and Coggs at Jesse. Like, a lot of Diamondbacks fans were here before the Diamondbacks.

A lot of Diamondbacks fans were watching baseball before the Diamondbacks existed. So you give it time when generations that were born in Arizona grew up as Arizona fans. Like those people will eventually start outnumbering the people who grew up. as Dodgers fans, grew up these Yankee fans, and adopted the devax as a second team. But you have to, you, and honestly, you have to win you. That's this team's DNA, right? Jerry Colangelo had a very different vision for what this franchise needed to be instead of what the rest of the ownership group had. Jerry Colangelo was the voice of reason in the room that said this town is not the same.

They're not just coming out for some fairy tale. Yeah. Wonderful day at the park at the ballpark with their family, enjoying some hot dogs. enjoying some time out in the sun. This isn't that kind of city. It needs to be a winner and it needs to win fast. And like that's kind of what is going on now. I feel like the Diamondbacks haven't won in a long enough time that people are,

you know, completely disinterested in it. Like this year's team and the young players on this team are getting people excited again. But if they don't continue to build on it and this team doesn't continue to take steps forward, like they took this year like they took even last year, then yeah, people aren't going to stay interested in it. But baseball is just not one of those instantaneous processes. And honestly, that's the thing about it with the fans is that like the fan support does improve the team.

Like coming out and spending your money on the team, then gives them money to invest back in the team and things like that. You can't invest in a team when you're getting attendance of 12,000 people. No, it is. I mean, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy for sure. Like it is it's it's certainly tough I mean at a certain point it's like

You know you need your owner to make an investment Like again I want to bring up the stadium again Like I feel like that is important in all of this There's a lot to be said about that scene for sure it is I mean out you got You got the A's and you got the raise Who I think are objectively the two worst stadiums in baseball Yeah and after that I don't think you're gonna have to go very far

before you find Chase Field. Like it's one of the oldest ballparks. And it's not, this isn't, this isn't Milwaukee. This isn't, you know, like there's a lot of shit to do in Phoenix. There's a lot of stuff to do here on any night. And Mo brought that up earlier about Buffalo, right? You have the bills or you have chilies. No, and that's all you have.

Yeah, I mean, like, fuck you, Mo, but also. Yeah. That hurt, but it's true. Well, like, it's negative zero. It's zero degrees on a Sunday in October. You're staying your ass inside. you're going to watch football. Yeah.

Like it's, it's different. So there is, you don't have, there's just, there's so many facets to this, which is why like, we're both right.

Like everyone's right. There's so much like, like, Yoshi's saying ownership directly. Oh no, that was he's talking about, Sinti, but like,

but like there's people that blame ownership, right? People are like people in here talking about. Like you're not like you said, not putting a quality product on the field. Like, and there's that, the players,

the team's not playing well enough. Fans don't show out. I have so many little arguments. You know what I mean? I mean, like, I don't think that this ownership isn't actively trying to put a bad product down the field. I just think things aren't working out for them. I mean, I think there's there's a lot of things. I'm not going to do it.

Everyone wants an owner that's a baseball fan. Most owners are businessmen. Right. Yeah, at the end of the day. They're not going to they're not going to lose money for the fun of it. Well, Jordan Lawler hit two home runs tonight. Yeah, we got to talk about that. But first, I want to let everybody know that if you get in a discussion like this that gets heated,

you can always get out of it with OG's brands, gummies. there you go you know there's no there's no way to mend fences like deciding if you want to i hate you right now uh their decision uh it's 400 times easier 420 times easier now that o g's is is getting involved with their fruits and cream mixed bags uh of course they have all of these hall of fame flavors i was going to say hall of flavor flavor uh but that's probably kind of cool too Hall of Flavors, but they have all of these Hall of Fame flavors in one place, including the fruits, which you can get a red apple, watermelon peach combination, creams. You get blackberries and cream, orange cream, sycule, and peaches and cream.

They also come in a setiva or an indica blend, allowing you to customize your OG's experience, whether it's the end of the night like this, you need to wrap things up, or you got a rant that you got to get to and you get in on the sativa, so it helps you fuel through that. and you know maybe helps fuel you better than the crowd tonight at chase field i don't know i'm trying blame somebody here but i will say that of course we thank uh oh gs for their wonderful gummies we are huge fans of here's uh of them and you can check out our friends at ogs brands for yourself and try one or a few of their many delicious flavors check them out all across uh social media at ogies brands and online at ogs brands dot com find them at a local dispensary near you must be

21 years or older to enjoy. Please enjoy responsibly. Also, big shout out to the Four Peaks Draft Room tonight and of course our friends at Four Peaks for always holding us down with their wide variety of beers. But again, Four Peaks draft room, an absolutely tremendous place to watch a baseball game from.

We had some great tables out there. And of course, you can make sure that if you have a terrible seat when you go to Chase Field and you don't like where you're at, go on down to the Four Peaks draft room. You can get yourself a table, watch the whole game from there. It's located on the sweet level. And of course, it has as all of the Four Peaks beers.

Four Peaks is the official craft beer, the Arizona Diamondbacks. And of course, we wanted to once again, thank you guys for coming out for our takeover event. It was an absolute blast tonight. Make sure to follow Four Peaks at their calendar

at Four Peaks.com slash events. Stay up to date on everything, Four Peaks and follow them on social media at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks, and please drink responsibly. Um, Jesse.

Why isn't Jordan Lawler on the Arizona Diamondbacks roster yet? Oh, man. We're going to have another hour long conversation. I'm letting him rant now. This is a Jesse. Yeah, go off. Go off, young king. Jordan Lawler hit two home runs today for the Reno Aces.

He is now slashing 358, 438, 612 since being promoted to Reno. That's in 16 games. That's a 1050 OPS. You know me. Oh man I just I just don't I don't I don't know

Obviously we know Nick Ahmed has two home runs all year I just want to throw that out there Nick Ahmed has two home runs all year All year Jordan Lawler has two and one game I don't want to put that out there And it is you know it's a PCL

So great of us all I guess but Speaking of the PCL Jake McCarthy is the PCL player of the week There's another guy that was But David Smith you are in Arizona Diamondback What are we doing? What are we doing what these minor league moves jesse so so nick omit has had a kind of a weird season uh we've talked about this before and that he's so nice he does he has uh reverse splits very significantly so

sitting 29 this year entering today sitting 29 this year against the righties of the 439 slugging percentage pretty darn good numbers uh i looked up the expected stats against uh right-handed pitching is expected batting average is 249 his expected slug is 366 so not nearly as good as the actual numbers have Ben that suggests there's been some sort of batted ball luck there on the flip side nick omit entered today hitting 159 with a 212 slugging percentage against lefties which is obviously terrible despite the fact that nick omit his primary role on this team is to start against lefties like he did today he's really struggled in that regard this year the expected numbers there suggests that he is underperformed a little bit a 212 expected batting average and a 302

expected slugging percentage, both of which are still very poor, right? So at this point, you have good numbers against righties, but poor expected numbers against righties. You've got atrocious numbers, frankly, against lefties and still very poor expected numbers against lefties. Nick Ahmed has good range at shortstop. He does have range. Not a good arm anymore.

He does not have a good arm. He has a, you know, he has a pretty poor arm for that position. I mean, tonight, he had a play. He made a spectacular play to field a ball. And they couldn't get it to first base in order to get the runner out? You had to struggle so hard to find something nice to say about Nick God. He has good range. I mean,

he does. I mean, he better have good range. The reason that Nick on average. He, yeah, I mean, he is a good defensive short stop in some ways.

But yeah, the arm is not really the way the arm is not what it used to be. And he's making $10 million dollars this season, right? I believe a little bit over $10 million dollars this season. He is the second highest paid I think he's the third highest paid player Do you think if he had been If he count Bumgarner

Right right Kattel makes more And then Bumgarner of course makes more Those are the only two guys Who make more this season So yeah why Why are the diamond If he was not Nick Ahmed

Do you think how much of like The fact that he's Nick Amid And has been as part of this organization You mean just yeah Like the fact Like just your family heritage Like Yeah I think that's big

I mean I think the contract Probably plays some Yeah, but I mean, and I guess it's different because you're talking about we're not talking about the diamond back. Yeah, well, I'm saying how much of like kind of the showing Nick Ahmed and Mr. Diamondback. That's not. That's Gabby Morano.

I mean, he is in a sense that like the fuck. He's been there forever. You know what I mean. Come down, Damon. He didn't mean it. No,

like I can't walk past that. That is disgusting. I mean, he, a disgusting act. He's been there forever. Like how much of the loyalty to him. But.

Uh, yeah, I don't know. The reality is the Diamondbacks could still probably call up Jordan Lawler and not even do anything with Nick Ahmed if they, if they wanted to, right? They just got an extra position player spot, which I know they, they used on, on Paven Smith. They also brought in Emmanuel Rivera at the same time. There, there is some room to maneuver here on the roster. If they wanted to, um, yeah, I don't, I would be pretty surprised. I mean, he's under contract through next season.

I don't think you're going to send down Jace Peterson. But yeah, I mean, the reality is the Diamondbacks could call up Jordan Lawler and not really lose anything in theory. They could maintain his rookie status for next year. You know, that's just based off of days on the active roster, which wouldn't be an issue as well as at Bats, which the D-Backs could control. I think even if you started basically every game the rest of the way at the Major League level, I still think he would be fine from an at-bats perspective to keep his rookie eligibility for next year. with a guy, you know, a top 10 prospect in the sport with an OPS over a thousand in AAA right now at 21 years old doing what he's doing, an offense that as we talked about earlier needs a spark desperately. This is something that frankly I don't understand. In my mind, it is a pretty clear.

And this is still acknowledging that Jordan Lawler might come up and he might struggle, right? Yeah. I don't want to make it sound like Jordan Lawler. He had a 1050 OPS in AAAs. it's going to be a 950 OPS in the majors. That's not how this works. That's absolutely how it works. But, oh my gosh.

But for where this Diamondbacks offense is and the guys that they're relying on on the left side of the infield right now, you got to take a shot in my mind. You just got to take a shot. And to this point, they haven't been willing to do that. And I question if they will be the rest of the way. And how often have we seen guys get called up and just because, like, pitchers have never seen them before. just like have a couple of good games, a couple of good weeks, like off rip. Yeah. And like there's a lot of prospects to like those first like L.A.

Daly Cruz and he's first called up like, yeah, only has a couple of weeks. Like even if he's dog shit, if he's giving you two good weeks, that's the difference between you making the playoffs and not making the playoffs potentially. So you have your back against the wall. You got to try it. You have to try it. Especially when you're struggling offensively. Yeah.

One of the biggest areas where you're lacking production is Nick Ahmed is the shortstop. I mean, if you put if you put this kid in Nick Ahmed spot today and your end of the lineup is is him sandwich between Gabby Moreno and and Corby Carroll, that fuels, that just feels a lot different. And again, he brought up the Reds like the youth movement, the energy that brought through the whole team. Yeah. This team could really use that right now. piece of Yoshi says Mets just called up Maricio, that's Ronnie Maricio, and he has, he's injected life into them the same way we saw.

Look at the Yankees. Ellie de la Cruz get that. Yeah, they were literally just talking about this on Sunday night baseball. Like the Yankees and the Mets have both like over the course of like a week has gone from complete despair to there being like this whole new reason to show up to the ballpark. And obviously we just had a whole conversation about that. And like, again, this is very different. people might not necessarily know as much about this kid as they would

a Jason Dominguez but like for so many reasons just from an on the field and off the field like this could be it could be a complete just shot in the arm for the organization at a time when they very desperately need it because it's worked for other organizations who were in much worse spots than the Diamondbacks were by the way just for you in the chat that talking it's talking about Dominic Fletcher he's on the 60 day IL now with a fractured left index fingers. Yeah, he's done for the year at this point. I think the big thing there is that in order to get Jordan Lawler on the

playoff roster, the Diamondbacks would just have to have an injury, which that definitely could occur between. Apparently, that's not an issue. Which it, yeah, it amazes me how many loopholes there are with some of these rosters. Oh, there's loopholes. These roster shenanigans in baseball. But, yeah, it appears that if they brought up Waller at any point this month,

they could still get him on their playoff roster if they were to make it there. Well, hopefully we will see that happen with the Arizona Diamondbacks because at this point we need something. Have you all seen Jason Dominguez, by the way, like just what he's been doing? He's pretty good. Yeah, very good. It makes me very upset. Very good. I'm upset about a lot of things, especially on the night like tonight.

But one thing that I will say is that illegal Pete always gets me through it, no matter how angry Sean and I are at each other. We go there. We share a margarita. This is once, I'm not angry at you, Derek. I am furious with you, but I was just using this as... He holds grudges, Sean. You'll learn this time. I want to talk about this for weeks, buddy.

Again, illegal peats. Tomorrow show is round two, right? We're live again in what, like 12, like 14 hours? I don't know. I don't fucking care. I'll muster up something else to be mad at him about. But illegal beats, it's the place to get over your grudges, basically. Irresistible drinks, mount watering food, and, of course, a full bar with custom cocktails.

and beers, piping hot queso, everything else you need. Most importantly, Illegal Pete's Margarita is the strongest in Arizona. So make sure to check out Illegal Pete's at your go-to-spot-spot this summer. Stop by for Happy Hour, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day at all 12 locations. Illegal Pete's, the place for burritos, buddies, and beers for 28 years. Also, shout out to Saturday Neon. I'm looking at this U of A sign that absolutely disgust me, but it's not because of the fine craftsmanship from Saturday Neon.

That has to do, once again, with another grudge I have with that school down south, But if you are from that school or any school that Saturday Neon makes an officially licensed neon sign for, can check them out, make sure you grab it. Damon's trying to plug it in right now. That's just going to upset me even more. I swear to God. Everybody on this goddamn show is out. He's got a U of A education. That's taking them a minute.

Yeah, it's going to take them a while. So I'm not where you're right. You're right. But Saturday Neon was a company started by two smart people, unlike Damon, who are former college robots that make officially licensed collegiate logo LED neon signs. They also know how to plug them in. Oh, he figured it out. He figured it out. It's not, hey, this is, and that's not outside of the neon.

Very straightforward. It's very, it's very, it's very, it's very beautiful. It is. Even with that logo up there. Hey, you can put anything in bright neon lights. I'm going to be about it. He's right. He's right.

What a logo. Great colors. Mid-a logo. It's a pretty good colors. It's a mid-a logo. I'm pro red, white, and blue. Yeah. But you're not.

Uh-huh. What do you mean by that? It's a great company. They know what universe is a sponsor. And, and they know which ones not to. They do officially license 19 select schools and unfortunately the best Arizona school is not one of them yet

but soon will be coming hopefully. But Saturday neon signs are made with high quality materials and are backed by a two year warranty. So of course make sure check them out over at Saturday neon.com can use code PHNX for 10% off your order. Free shipping for all orders over $200. Well that's all we got guys. This has gone on for way too long.

Are we? I mean at this one, What are we going? 90 minutes. We got 90 minutes. We completely obliterated our previous longest show. I genuinely had no clue it was going on that long. It's all your fault.

No, it is. It's absolutely all your fault. I will live with this because when this happened on ASU shows, it was usually because I was ranting about art or something. This was relevant and not brought up by me. So I can live with this. I don't know what part about that was it on you, but I don't bring up the conversation. What Jesse did?

It's Jesse's fault. Yeah, I didn't get at the topic. Screw you, Jesse. God damn it. All right. You can follow us all on Twitter and you can tell Sean he was right all you want. It's not going to impact me at all. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K.

This man is at Sean underscore to pause. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. The maniac behind the Mac, he is Damon. He is the saneest person right now. He really is. We are all Damon's dogs. He's the only sane person in this room. Damon is at Damon, D-A-W-G at the end.

But of course, our shows at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bex and all roads lead to at P-HN-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by and sticking with us tonight. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when you don't start fights with your co-hosts.