PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How much longer can the D-backs afford to keep Zach Davies in the starting rotation?

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a giant problem, in more than one way. After another disastrous start in a loss to the San Francisco Giants, Zach Davies outings have become a serious problem for the D-backs. Does the Diamondbacks front office need to make a change immediately? We also take a look at our updated MLB Power Rankings and more.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Go to omahasteaks.com and enter PHNXDbacks for $30 off! Minimum order may be required. See site for details.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.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Swing for the Fences: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/sports/swing-for-the-fences 3-Ball Challenge: https://promo.betmgm.com/en/promo/3ballchallengeGambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Deepak podcast. We're not very thrilled right now with the outcome of what we saw tonight, and we have a lot to discuss about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the future of their starting rotation. Of course, I am formerly known as your mayor of PHNX, and the guy with the best eyesight on this set, Derek Montia, this guy next to me, Mr. Electric, Sean DePaz, over there. Thunderstate Jesse Friedman. I'm just a little bit near-sighted, Derek.

I can see pretty dang well, all right? I mean, I don't know. I'm the only person on the set that does not need the aid of glasses. But if we have glasses, does that not make our eyesight perfect? I don't know. I don't know how that works with you guys in your weird. The only thing we can guarantee is that our eyes are as close to as perfect as scientifically possible.

I mean, you could say that. However, we have no idea about. However, I know your key weakness right away. Right away. I just, I'm going for your glasses, is what I'm doing it, for fighting each other. Because I'm not in the mood to fight clean. I'm in the mood to fight dirty after what I saw tonight. The Arizona Diamondbacks blew tonight's game, a game that looked like they might actually have a chance to win. They're going for a little while, even with Zach Davies on the mound. But of course, Zach Davies was terrible.

But to be fair, so we're other relief pitchers. It's not all on Davies, but Zach Davies not good tonight. And this is his third outing in a row where we could say Zach Davis. Davies was fairly terrible. Yeah. I mean, it was just, it was just not even, there was just so many pitches that just weren't even competitive.

Like it was just, even the inning where he was going through and not and getting on, like not going through at the be untouched. Like they were, they weren't really instilling any kind of confidence in me. Like it was just a, a very underwhelming performance from Zach Davies to say the least. Yeah,

it was just, you came into the, game not feeling great and somehow managed to leave feeling even worse about Zach Davies. Well, yeah. And, and, uh, he, momentarily made us feel good. I feel like about, uh, his outing. I felt like momentarily he made us feel like maybe we were going to see Zach Davies go out,

give this team a good strong four or five innings and at what point in this game, Derek, did you think that? Oh, I don't know. I mean, maybe not when he was hitting those hard outs to Alec Thomas out there in the outfield. But no, I mean, Zach Davies was able to get through the first couple of innings relatively unscathed, and he didn't look like he was going to go down as quickly as he did. But things did take a turn for the worst. Davies ends up going four innings, giving up six hits, six runs, six earned.

He walked four and struck out two. So he got basically allowed 12 or 10 base runners and the Diamondbacks were down before they could really do much about it. Well, I mean, they did something about it. There was a little bit of back and forth there. Yeah, there was. I mean, we did have Evan Ligoria making a glorious return to San Francisco and getting a home run in his first at-bat returning. But the big focus here is on Zach Davies, considering if this Arizona Diamondbacks team intends to be competitive down the stretch post-all-Star game, they need to do something at this point about their starting rotation. And Davies is a focal point.

He, you know, we've, we've talked about Ryan Nelson. We've talked about Tommy Henry. Those guys have both given this team some pretty good outings. It's just been up and down. It's been erratic. We've said that about both that if we could get consistency, if we could get them to consistently give them the team what we've seen out of them, then those guys would be viable back end, starting rotation guys.

But I don't know if we can say that about Davies, and especially with how bad he's been consecutively now. Yeah, it's been three straight starts. where Zach Davies has just not really been competitive, I think we can say at this point. Yeah, I mean, in this game today, 33% of his pitches were in the strike zone, which is just way too low.

If you're, if you're, you know, a command artist like Davies is supposed to be, right? I mean, that's how Zach Davies has made a living in this league. Don't ever say Zach Davies is any kind of artist. I mean,

there were moments last year when... Disaster artist is a good, yeah, that's a good one. There were moments last year where Zach Davies, was kind of that at times. And that's how he was a pretty effective pitcher for the diamond backs the whole season. The problem that Davies has is that, you know, a significant portion of

his game is dependent on being a command artist, on hitting those corners consistently. Right. And as Sean talked about earlier, there were, there were a lot of uncompetitive misses in this game. There were just a lot of pitches that weren't even close and the Giants hitters were not even really having to think about swinging at. And yeah, on the whole, the diamond backs continue to have a pretty big problem here in the starting rotation with Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly doing their thing with the best of them and the rest of the of this starting rotation just being not just subpar but at least for Davies right now just frankly uncompetitive the diamondbacks really have not had much of a chance to win his last few starts and obviously that's something

that needs to change moving forward. Ryan in the comment says I need Jesse giving me the numbers to why everything will be fine guess what he got those. Zach Davies is everything going to be signed with Zach Davies or the team because those are two different things. Zach Davies did come into this game with a FIP of like four. So for all of the all of the FIPP fans in the chat. Yeah, we did.

Derek is a huge FIP guy. There were some signs coming in where I was like, okay, Davies is maybe running into some poor batted ball luck. Maybe things will resolve. But frankly, he's getting shelled. And that's something that FIP doesn't take into account. Phipp takes out fielding independent pitching. So it takes out all batted balls that don't go over the fence.

So it's not the kind of stat that's going to be able to capture that. And we saw that be a big issue for Zach Davies in this game. These were not a bunch of cheap shot hits from the San Francisco Giants. This was missile after missile with four walks, you know, in between, which is obviously just a disastrous setup for a pitcher like Davies. Benjamin Hunley up in the chat said, hey, it won't go down as an error, but both could tell. and Longo had opportunities to make plays

that would have kept the debacks in the game totally correct. And I mean, that's definitely areas of concern still as well. Defensively, we've said that this team kind of does need to be perfect or near perfect, you know, in order for them to stay in some of these ball games, especially games that aren't started by Merrill Kelly or Zach Gallen. And that doesn't even always, isn't always the case.

In some case, even those guys don't have their best stuff and they need their best defense behind them. When they don't have it, we see a game like we see today, and we see critical errors kind of lead to more run scoring, putting the game out of reach for the team, and frankly, them kind of rolling. I don't know if you want to say rolling over, but being down by a point where it feels like they're just trying too hard

at that point to come back and they're not really able to be effective. The Giants have a good bullpen, and they have one of the best closers in the game. They're also creeping up on the, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West. This is a very good team, not to mention a very good team that is missing a lot of key components as well. So this is a Giants team that is doing things without some of their best players.

And tonight, the Diamondbacks just absolutely got rocked by some of those replacement players that, you know, the Giants kind of have that have stepped up. But they have a big concern. That concern would be Zach Davies. And our big question tonight is, do you guys? think we will see Zach Davies make another start for the debacks. I'll start with you. I mean, I think so because it's kind of like the conversation we just had with Nelson

where it's like, is there an obvious answer to replace him like immediately? Yeah. Which in this case, we're talking pretty immediately if we're just talking about his next start. So yeah, I think they will. I don't think that fought is getting called up. And I don't, I don't think there's anyone, there's no one that they're calling up right now. And so you don't think there's going to be any kind of an emergency Situation not right now because I think

I think if we get to the deadline and they don't have another stunning picture and then they're going to have to do something They can't live like this forever But honestly at that point I think your season's over if you don't get another starting pitcher Jesse what are their options if they immediately remove Davies? Yeah, there aren't there aren't many right and that's ultimately what this decision has to come down to is what is the alternative right? You know, unless you want to go barking up Madison Bumgarner's agent and see if

he wants to come back, there's not exactly a lot of pitchers that are available internally. It is... No, if you're not going to take the show seriously, I'm not either. Derek's just going to pick up and leave. Can it be much worse, though? I honestly almost want MadBun back.

I think it would be fun. Like, if we're just going to chalk up any given... Every fifth start is a loss anyways, you might as well make it and put mad bum out there. Wow. Okay. I mean, I'm joking, but I mean, it's like, yeah, the difference between this and the, the

Nelson conversation is that there is no reason to believe at this point that Zach Davies is going to get any better. Like, there, there's not a whole lot of benefit in sitting here and waiting. I don't feel like outside of the fact that you don't really have another option. Derek took my mad bum reference. He really took that to heart. In a more serious note, yes, I think Brandon Fott is pretty much the only clear internal option, as you mentioned earlier, Sean. And I don't know if the Diamondbacks are ready to go that route.

You know, if you look at Brandon Fott's numbers in his five starts that he made earlier this season in the majors, he had an ERA over eight. His IRA was actually higher than what Zach Davis has done so far. I think if you bring him back up here, you certainly expect him to improve. but it's a little risky to, you know, remove Zach Davies from the organization, you know, expecting that Brandon fought will be better because if he's not, then you've really backed yourself into a corner

where you really have no other options at that point. Zadai, you can't send Zach Davies down. He would have to consent to that, which I don't think is really realistic at this point. So, yeah, the Diamondbacks probably until they're able to pull off a trade, potentially before the deadline, they're kind of stuck with what they have right now.

The trade deadline cannot come suit enough for this team because they just don't really have any other options right now. He would have roughly five to six, give or take more starts between now and the trade deadline if they did leave them in there. They could go with the option of potentially like doing a bullpen start involving Davies and having him be a part of. those. Yeah. There are limited options, but I don't know if they can afford to not remove him

right now. And I mean, I don't know what obviously I know where there's limited options. I know, you know, Blake Walston probably isn't ready yet. I know Brandon Fott is probably not something they want to do in an emergency situation, right? Like they want to feel comfortable calling Brandon Fought up. They want it to be the right time for Brandon Fought in his development for him to be up at a major league level, right? But, you know, I don't know. They just, uh, they, they have a lot of problems right now. I mean, Joe Manciply has not been very good either.

I know you guys brought up, uh, Tori going to Joe immediately. And that was something that was confusing to us as well, not just because Joe hasn't been great lately, but also because Joe just pitched in that game against the Washington Nationals and he was not very good there. Uh, his numbers in this one, again, not good. Uh, and he. He has total, in total, in eight innings pitch, give up 10 hits, eight earn runs. He's walked one and struck out six.

He has a nine ERA since returning from injury. And he did look, I mean, if you want to talk about something encouraging, he did look better in his final inning of work. Yeah. He looked much better. He got three strikeouts in this game. So, and Ray Jameson wasn't great either. So credit to the Giants, because they were smacking the ball around against the Arizona Diamondback. pitching staff, but at least Dre went in there and did what Dre does.

Dre just has this incredible way of going into a game and finding a way to keep things. When he comes in out of the bullpen, keep things scoreless. Again, two innings of work, gave up four hits, no runs. He struck out too. So, I mean, I don't know. We knew that this was going to be a pretty bad game. And I feel like in some of the decisions we saw from Tori, it was almost like what we've scene where he is openly sacrificing a game because he wants to try to focus on the other games

in the series. The team was jet lags coming in from DC. They had a shitty schedule with this entire makeup game with the Nationals. And honestly, I felt like they also knew that they might not get the best effort out of Zach Davies, like that this might happen. So when Tori turned to the bullpen and went to Jomantipa, even though I was a bit surprised, now kind of in retrospect, it makes sense.

Like Jesse said, though, it sucks to use Drey Jameson in that mop-up situation to kind of finish the game up. Yeah, I mean, the other, I think we probably should have a conversation about Tori just leaving Zach Davies in this game to begin with. You know, he was not great through three innings. He was sort of able to squeak by. You were all right sending him out for the fourth inning and just sort of hoping for the best. He has a one, two, three, fourth inning. So that's good. And then you've got, you know, the top of the order coming around for the Giants a third time.

and all of us sitting here watching this game, we're like, I don't know if you want to do this. Like, I don't know if you, I know Zach Davies just, you know, had a one, two, three inning with the bottom of the order. But I don't know if you want Zach Davies facing the top of this lineup a third time. And sure enough, before you know, the Giants have two on, nobody out. Walk single. Walk single.

And, you know, at that point, Tori gets the bullpen running. If it's me, I personally would have probably had someone warming in the bullpen to start that inning, frankly, or at the very least, right after Zach Davies, you know, walked the first batter, I think you have to be prepared to go a different direction or at least get Joe Mantiply or another reliever into the game sooner. Obviously, Mantiply wasn't great anyway, so who's to say, you know, how the outcome of this game would have gone, even if Tori had made that move sooner. But I think there's no question that when you have a pitcher struggling as much as Zach Davies is right now, you just

don't take those kinds of chances. And that's really when the momentum of this game shifted in my mind. Yeah, I feel like the thing you were saying about how it almost feels like he's sacrificing the game. I don't think that's great, but on the one hand, it's like he, that better be what he's doing or else he's just making really bad managerial decisions without really any explanation. Um, so I certainly hope he's kind of sacrificing things or else. There's, I think the larger conversation to be had about Tori shortcomings as a manager, especially when it comes to postseason. There's a lot of chess being played in the clubhouse for the Arizona and Diamondbacks.

And sometimes you just kind of have to chalk up the fact that you're going up against one of the better starters. The odds aren't in your favor. They were actually like on betting odds wise, they were one of the worst or biggest underdogs for the, I think for the money line on the bet MGM sportsbook app. So it's like, yeah, man,

I mean, there were a lot of things that felt like it was against them. And I think that Tori might have just been trying to manage and kind of do that thing where you sacrificed a knight or something like that. That didn't make any sense, though, because the diamondbacks have a pretty dang well-rested bullpen right now. No, that's what I'm saying. Like,

that's why I don't, I guess here I am giving Tori pop probably too much credit. Yeah, yes you are. The Joe Manciply thing just baffles me. It really does. And I mean, Joe,

I don't think putting in Joe Manciply, I don't necessarily have a problem with. It's only the fifth inning. You're not going to go get, you know, Scott McGuff or Andrew Chafin at that point. I don't think it would be. If Mantiply just pitched and was not good.

That's fair. I'm not saying if Mantiply was lights out in the, in his outing against the nationals yesterday and then fine. You're going with the hot end. This was a weird situation to pitch him in where not only did he just pitch, but he has not been good since returning either. I don't know. I mean,

maybe he just liked the lineup. I know it was a left hit lefty matchup and he doesn't have a lot of lefty options in there. Kyle Nelson also has not been good. Yeah. You're not going to go to Andrew Chafin that early. I get it. But it's just that that one leaves me wondering.

And of course, I don't know. That's, I'm probably giving him too much credit. The question that I wonder about is, you know, does Jomantypli come in and feel a little bit more comfortable if he's not, you know, coming in with, I think it was second and third nobody out. Yeah, exactly. That's a really hard place for any reliever to come in, especially a guy who just hasn't really had his best stuff lately. Yeah, that's true. So, yeah. Many of those runs were going to score.

We chalked that up immediately to be a 64 run. If you're coming in as a reliever and it's second and third nobody out, you giving up those two runs doesn't necessarily mean you didn't do your job. I mean, that's a pretty tough situation to be in. Obviously, Joe Mantiply gave up two more runs on top of those, which was not ideal. But yeah, I wonder if Mantiply would have just been more comfortable and confident in himself coming out if it was a clean inning or at least closer to a clean inning than it was at that point.

We also have Kevin Ginkle. Let's just remember, you know, now in the minor leagues, who easily was one of the better relievers for this team. That's true. And the debacks don't necessarily need three lefties in the bullpen. You really, you could make a case that Kevin Ginkle should still be back up here. And I guess Kyle Nelson at the time maybe would have made more sense since Joe Manipli was just coming back. But that is a move that I wouldn't be shocked if we saw that here in the near future.

We're flushing this game and moving on, but this is still a very important series again. The Giants can't overtake the Diamondbacks for first place in the NL West, but they can get very close should they sweep this three-game series. So Diamondbacks need to bounce back, and they do have Merrill Kelly on the mound, which is a great guy to do that with. So we'll talk about the upcoming probabilities here in a bit, but we do have to give credit where credit is due. And of course, in his return to the Bay,

we are giving our King Snake to Evan Longoria for his home run. He also walked in this game. And he looks very sad there in that picture. Damon, why did you do it? He looks how we feel. It was a bad loss. Yeah. Yeah.

You think Longo's happy with a good game and an L? That's not the type of leader he is. You're right. You're right. Especially in his own stomping grounds. That's right. Speaking of leaders, they did talk about on the broadcast, but it was great to see Christian Walker like kind of, you know,

aggressively talking to Perdomo about like, you know, some of the stuff that was going on in the game. And like Perdomo was had that bat. You could tell it was just like, Like they said, it was that veteran, you know, not, not, you know, kind of forward leadership, but just advice and talking things through and trying to help your teammate, you know, get the most out of there at bat. So the debacks were trying to work things out, but it did not work out for them.

Of course, if you are here now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, we appreciate you being here to vent with us and to get this out now. We have a lot more to talk about that doesn't involve this game. So we thank you for being here. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, make sure to do so. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. Leave us a thumbs up because all three of us love that. We can all see that no matter how bad our eyesight are or is.

Also, if you're listening on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there. Leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback. And most importantly, sign up for a PHNX diehard membership today over at go phnx.com. You'll get benefits that pay for it immediately. You get a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com, as well as a $50 gift certificate from Mountain Mike's Pizza, and you get yourself a ranch card from Dobson Ranch Golf Course.

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So make sure if you are die-hard to check that out. And if you want to check it out and you're not a diehard, get yourself a membership today over at go p hnx.com become part of our family. Speaking of Jesse, it is time for our MLB power rankings this week. We're dropping it a little late, but I figured what better time to drop it than on a night where we want to talk about anything other than the game that we just watch. So, Damon, let's take a look at those beautiful power rankings because boy, we've had some movement on this board. And, yeah, Jesse, let's talk about it.

I mean, not much movement to the top, right? I mean, I truly did not realize that I was staying with the status quo so much. But eight through ten are all new to this list. So they actually is, there actually is lost to the Reds. Doesn't that mean the Reds should automatically be above them? Isn't that how this works? That is not at all. Dodgers still on this list.

Get the Dodgers the fuck off of here. You just beat the Stroes. They did just beat the Astros a few minutes ago. But yeah, talking about some of these teams at the bottom of the list here, the Cincinnati Reds, I'll talk about them first. Obviously, what they're doing right now is incredible. They did beat the Atlanta Braves earlier today, 11 to 10. That was a crazy game.

L.A. Dela Cruz, as you see, pictured here in the, this sort of controversial Red City Connectors. Because it looks incredible to me. He rocks it. I just think it's a little weird for a team that's called the reds to have a city connect jersey that has a very small amount of red in it? Is that unfair

I think it is unfair because their home jerseys also have a very little amount of red in it. I see a lot of mostly white. Well then that's a problem too Sean. I mean they're just helping get my your anti white home jersey. Red from toe to toe in your opinion in order to be the right. Correct. That's exactly. That's a wild tape.

The white socks don't have white socks Jesse. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they should. David. I'm with you on that. They should and the red size wear red sox. Yeah, the Red Sox should have red socks. And the Red Sox beat the White Sox today.

So who's better? Anyway, the Cincinnati Reds are on an absolute tear right now. I don't know if the Reds are going to win the Central, but it's clearly not crazy to think that they could with the way that they're playing right now. And obviously how mediocre the rest of that division is. Where are the Los Angeles Angels? I struggled. I struggled with the Angels, honestly.

They almost made it. I was torn between the angels and the Marlins for number 10. That's what it came down to. Did I make the wrong? For those joining us on audio, I have the Marlins at number 10. Sean, should I have the, should I have the angels there? I don't know. They necessarily should.

I just was more kind of curious how you came to the decision over, to have the Marlins over the Angels. He wants answers, basically. I just, I just like that the angels are relevant. It makes me happy because they have players that should be good and play baseball. You could say relevant, but there's seven games back in their division. The main thing...

Yeah, but the team leading the division is the best team of baseball. Like, yeah? So, or a top three team of baseball. One of the best teams of baseball. Someone should read off the list to the podcast listeners. Yes, we absolutely should. So I have the Tampa Bay raise at number one. I have the Braves at number two, Rangers three, Orioles four,

Diamondbacks five, Astro six, Dodgers seven, Giants eight, Reds nine, and then the Marlins at number 10. The other thing I'll say about the Marlins is Yuri Perez is 20 years old and is incredibly good. At least that's what it looks like so far. He's four and one with a 1.54 ERA in his first eight big league starts at the age of 20. Him combined with Jesus Lazzardo, Sandy Alcantara, potentially figuring things out at some point. They've got some other good guys in that rotation as well. I for a while very much thought that the Marlins were sort of a fluke and they just kind of keep getting better.

Luis Arise is still hitting 400 almost, at least. I think it might have been like 397 at the start of play today. So I sort of believe in the Marlins, at least more than I really ever expected to this season. The Mets traded former friend of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Eduardo Escobar, to the Los Angeles Angels in the middle of their game. That was heartless. For some minor leaguers, yeah. Why can't they wait to announce that sort of thing until after the game is, over.

That's weird. When they're lucky, he gets hurt in that game and the trade gets pooped. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, like, give it to, give us, we want him now. Take him out the game. Get him on a plane to us now. We want him here

immediately. Yeah, I mean, baseball is wacky right now. There's a lot of teams that are surging. A lot of the teams at the top. Rays are five and five in their last 10. Orioles are five and five in their last 10.

There are a lot of teams, in fact, they're struggling with some really bad teams. Yep. I feel like. I mean, playing the rolls right now and they feel they were struggling against the a couple weeks ago yeah the giants unfortunately not struggling they are nine and one in their last 10 they've won 11 and 12 i think

at this point yeah they've they are an absolute problem right now for the i winning 12 backs uh shout out to c hgio cbs uh they're doing pretty well up there in chicago they are you're welcome for me visiting wrigley field and leaving clearly that's why clearly that's that's what caused my it's sorry turn things in the right direction my dreams of marcus stroman in a deep jersey are slowly. Yeah, they are slowly, they should be dying. And I mean, it's, all of this is not good for the Arizona downback trade market, you know, trying to get that picture. Sox being the white socks today was good for the trade market though. That's true. One step closer. There you go. Speaking of markets, you should check out everybody's favorite convenience market over at Circle K. We are excited to partner

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And it's really good. Propriotary. I think so. Wow. Is it a little like ice? Yeah, it's like a little ball. Yeah, it's a great chewing ice. The ice is really the best part.

Yes. There we go. There we go. You're missing out. I'm a big ice jewer. I know that's not good for you. Oh, I like a 200%.

But it's got to be the right kind of ice. Not all ice is meant for chilling. You're absolutely right. Most ice cubes at our homes are not really met for true. I'll chew all ice, but still. Unless you're smart enough to have one of those little ice machines on your counter at home, then I'm going to come over and hang out and drink liquor with you. But anyway, speaking of liquor, 12 packs of beer for just $9.99 in Circle K.

You can also get Red Bull $3 for $8, Monster, $3 for $6. Make sure you're not missing out on all of this great stuff. Right now, text PHNX to 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club. and get a buy one, get one free offer on 32 ounce polar pops, head to circlek.com slash store dash locator to find Circle K's near you. While you're there, check out Four Peaks beer. Of course, Four Peaks is the official craft beer of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Rattle on Red Ale, smooth as Carol's swing, toasties gallons fastball.

Join us at the Four Peaks draft room for our D-Backs takeovers. That's where we will be meeting up before the game. You can check out the events page in our show notes to find dates and tickets for the takeovers. And of course, go thank a teacher. You can go nominate a teacher to win some wonderful stuff over at 4Peaks for Teachers.org. Nominate them, donate, help out. Of course, those nominations are due June 30th, so do not wait. Go thank a teacher today.

Teacher Tuesdays are back over at the 8th Street Pub, by the way. Of course, every Tuesday through July, bring a valid teacher ID and receive $4 pints of kiltlifter. Wow, hazy, and hot not. Do not wait. Go treat yourself and make sure that you get yourself ready if you are a teacher for the upcoming school season because it'll be here before you know it. Check out at Four Peaks Brewer at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown

prairie. Must be 21 years or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Speaking of kids and teachers and schools, Jesse, Sean, there's gonna be robots to Chase Field tomorrow. I'm so excited. Oh, I wish I could go. The debacks. Are they umpires? Is that what they do?

That's what I wanted. That's what I wanted. This is why we're going to talk about this. The Future Shapers Robotics competition is happening tomorrow at Chasefield. It features 15 local high school teams. They are tasked with building a robot to do one of three tasks, hit a baseball off a T, pitch a ball accurately, and run the bases autonomously. No, umpire robots. Not a single part of this involves creating an umpire robot. So you know how much I want an actual robot that can call balls and strikes back there. And he has to have an awesome punchout call too. He's got to like load it back up like,

D-d-d-d-d-d-bang! Yes, I could picture it. Yeah, that seems like a major missed opportunity. Huge missed opportunity. In their high school kids, Derek. What do you think they don't know a strike zone? No, I mean, I think they probably do know the strike zone. I just think that programming a robot to know the strike zone is an entirely different matter.

They're programming. I'm going to hit a goddamn ball off of T, Jesse. I hope it's like battlebots where like they're allowed to get crazy with it and really do their own design. I want the robot to pitch to another robot. We just be like a robo baseball league. Yes. There you go. Yes.

With humans calling balls and strikes still, though. That's really, that pisses me off. That part makes me so angry. Speaking of humans calling balls and strikes, I can't wait to see that fucking umpire scorecard tomorrow, but let's take a look at the probabilities for the rest of the series because, uh,

as Jesse will say, this is still a regular season series in June. So I don't want to start saying that the NL West is the line. But God damn it. West is on the line here. People. Jesse, talk me down off the ledge. Merrill Kelly is really good. I feel like that's about all I have to say.

Especially on the road. Merrill Kelly has sort of the opposite situation going as Zach Allen or Zach gallon's been really good at home. Not so much on the road. Merrill Kelly has that situation flipped the other way. The Giants somewhat obnoxiously have been very good in their bullpen games this year, which doesn't particularly bode well for the Diamondbacks. but I think you have to feel good with Merrill Kelly on the mound.

And then the series finale on Sunday, Anthony D. Schlafani against Ryan Nelson. That one probably leans in favor of the Giants. We talked about before this series started, how, you know, any time that you get both Davies and Nelson in the same series, as of right now, it's tough. It's a tough setup for the Diamondbacks. I do want to ask you guys, though, a question. I'm curious how you would answer. out of all of the teams in the N.O. West right now, who scares you the most? Is it these giants?

Is the Padres maybe making a comeback? Is it the Dodgers who were only a half game behind the Giants at this point? It's not even close for me. It's the Dodgers, 100%. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's the obvious answer. Like, we know they have injuries and like they're the Dodgers. Yeah, I can't disagree with that. And the reason why is because even with as bruised and as bad,

mattered as they are right now. They're still 42 and 33, right? When you get guys like Julio Erius back, when you get Dustin May back, which were your two best starting pitchers this season early on. And Kershaw is pitching amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that is worrisome. And they have MVP candidate offensively too. So they're definitely dangerous. Even if the Padres were playing good baseball, they wouldn't really scare me as much as the Dodgers because the Padres just seem naturally unsustainable. And so even though, even if they are playing good baseball and even if they're beating the D-backs, I think what it's all sudden done, they don't scare me as like a real threat in the

playoffs, which is not necessarily what the question was. But let me ask the Dodgers. The Padres did beat the Dodgers in the postseason last year. No, but here's my problem with the Padres. Padres have not like, they barely hovered over 500 at any point. I don't even remember. Yeah. I don't know if they really have.

even been above 500, right? So it's like, and the difference here is both the Giants and the Dodgers are doing what they're doing now with semi-depleted rosters. So those teams are going to get starting players back that are theoretically going to make them better teams. And that's the real danger here, whereas the Padres, and you could even say this about the Diamondbacks, don't really have any reinforcements really waiting anymore. In fact, Joe Mansplom, apply.

and a couple of the guys we got back were the reinforcement we were waiting for. So far, Zach Davies, Jomatiply. Carson Kelly, you could have out to that list. All the guys who have gotten hurt have not been great when they've come back. Yeah. I do think I do think the Padres are really good. Yeah, I mean, they are sleeping giant for sure. It's all terrifying.

Like, it's all terrifying, especially with them all in our rearview mirror, but really not that far back. And especially with the Giants, like with this series. I know, like, again, I don't want to like make it too dramatic, but this series really could put things in perspective on how fast the Diamondbacks can come back down to earth as far as leading the NL West and all of the success they've had this season. Once that confidence is shook, who knows what happens

because again, going into July, they have a lot of difficult opponents that are on their schedule. And I mean, I was looking at things today and I was being fairly pessimistic about some of these series against big opponents. And I still have the Diamondbacks winning 92 games this season. So I don't know if I gave them too much credit or not enough, but I felt like I was still giving them a winning record between now and the end of the season,

which I feel like, I mean, isn't a foregone. I mean, with the way the starting pitching is going, that's not, it's easier said than done at this point. I do want to add that, you know, as tough of a game as this was, and I certainly understand people being frustrated over this game, we talked about it before it started. This was the game the debacks were clearly designed to lose, preordained to lose before the game even started. Logan Webb against Zach Davies is about the most lopsided pitching matchup the Diamondbacks have had all season.

And granted, you know, with the struggling starters they have in their rotation, they're going to come across some pretty lopsided matchups every now and then. But yeah, I'm not really alarmed at all by the fact that they lost this game. You know, they did at least make it close. They forced the Giants to use their closer, which I thought was a small victory in and of itself. And, you know, even if you take one out of these three games in San Francisco, I still think you're in an okay spot. You know, you're going on the road. The scheduling situation is tough. You don't have Zach Allen pitching in this series.

If the devaks just take one out of these three games, they're going to be okay. And I still think they have a good chance to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. That's one thing I think we kind of haven't really mentioned is that the, the, The Giants were a good team. Yeah.

Like this wasn't like they lost like this to the Royals. They lost to this to a team who's second and in the best division in baseball, arguably, or at least in the National League, at least is the L.East. But it just felt at times like, oh, I mean, again, you can't do much about what Davies was doing out there. Like, that's your starter. You got to try to let them go and give you a decent length in order for you to have a chance in the series. You can't use six relievers in a game like this. I still, I don't.

I don't buy it there. In a game like this, you've got a well-rested bullpen. You take Zach Davies out after four innings and you try to win this. Unless you're sacrificing the goddamn game openly. It's like we said, we already knew the dog is back against them. I don't think you're sacrificing. I mean, you've got an off day coming on Monday, too. I don't think there's, I don't understand.

I'm not suggesting it was a good plan. I'm just suggesting it seems. I'm theoretically throwing it out there. I am hypothesizing that I think that is the reason why we saw what we saw. I think that's a much more realistic reason if this team's not leading the game in the fifth inning. Like they had a lead in the fifth inning. So at that point, you trot Davies back out there in a game that you are leading. So it's not like they were, they were sacrificing a guaranteed loss at that point because they were winning the game.

Even despite Davies not pitching that well. Can we take a look at the probabilities again? Because again, in the finale here, we got Ryan Nelson, we don't know what we're going to get out of them, right? And I think that's a big question mark. And honestly, hopefully we get, you know, we get the good Ryan Nelson that we've seen at times because the Diamondbacks can really use them.

Tommy Henry and Nelson have both been able to give them some pretty good outings at times. And hopefully Nelson sees the sense of urgency, especially, you know, with the series potentially on the line when it comes to his turn to pitch. I might be given this win to Merrill Kelly too early, but I feel pretty good about game two there. So good. I'm going to go throw some money on it on the BetMGM app. Of course, starting Friday, June 23rd, BetMGM players can now receive a bonus bet upon login

to bet MGM sportsbook every Friday for the next three weeks. claim period ends through Saturday and Sunday, 72 hours to log in, and then 72 hours to use the bonus bet after you log in. So log in at any point during the weekend and claim your bonus bet on the house. And those are always fun. I like to always throw those on some long odd situations,

especially. You got lots of things you can bet for on the BetMGM app, including golf that I don't know much about. So I just did like, my friend had a baby, so I picked a golfer that had my friend's baby. name. Nice. There was a Xander in there.

So I threw some money on Zander. Did I lose? Sure. But was a fun way? Yes, yes. It was still a fun way to make a bet. So if you haven't signed up for the BetMGM app yet, you can have fun like I am. Use bonus code PH and X.

There's a few different offers depending on where you live. But for our Arizona audience, place your first bet offer and receive up to $1,000 back in bonus bets if it loses with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Disclamer.

21 plus to wager, visit betmGM.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Nevada, New York, and Ontario. Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N. New York. Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-800-5-2-4-70-F, Kansas, Nevada. 1-3-2-7-5-0-1-1-1-7 for confidential help, Michigan.

Well, what do you guys got going on? I know you're going to be busy tracking the Civil War. Yeah, the Russian Civil War. He's got this hole. He's been tracking it all night long. Hey, very quietly, there's some shit going down over there. You want to tap in. Yeah, keep your eyes open on.

Social media. We like to live in this very insulated sports world where we don't have to deal with anything happening in the real world, right? Were you asking what we're doing this week? Yeah, what are you got going on? I am getting a haircut. You're getting ready to go start your family in Memphis. Yeah, I'm a national.

I got to get sexy so I can go start. a family in Nashville. Good. Going to be there next week for the NHO draft. Also, I think I'm finally going to see the new Spider-Man this weekend. Oh, yes. I gave that. I don't want to give you my rating because I feel like that.

I mean, Tocry said it's his favorite Marvel movie of all time, and he's a Marvel guy. Wow. It was a 10 for me. I don't give perfect ratings to movies. I just don't do that. I have heard from some people that it is better than the original. And the original to me was the best animated movie ever made. So I already had incredibly high expectations.

They took concepts that they just touched on in the first movie and really extrapolated them in the next movie. Yeah, I have high expectations, but I do not doubt they will be that. The story is incredible. So doing that and then just some errands. Yeah. That's my weekend. What do you got going on this weekend? Well, I'm not going to watch the Spider-Man movie. No.

Because I don't watch movies. I know that. Unless Derek mandates that I watch movies. I was trying to watch City Slickers. I was making it believe it's a baseball movie. Oh, yeah. You were really. It kind of is a baseball movie.

If you've ever seen City Slickers, you'll agree with me on that. What do you got? Anything else you travel? I'm watching baseball this weekend, Derek. We've got an afternoon game tomorrow. We've got an afternoon game on Sunday. There was some talk of going on a little day trip with a friend at some point over the weekend. But when games are right in the middle of the afternoon as they are these next couple days, it's a little harder to pull off the day trip.

So we'll see if that happens. I will be playing video games and watching baseball myself. I have nothing going on and I'm excited about that because it's not often. Power watch simulator? Is that that? Yeah. Oh, yeah, a little, maybe get the Bikini Bottom D.L.C., a little SpongeBob action. Best part of weekend.

Just sit around, do absolutely no. Hey, speaking of Bikini Bottom, you ever see the, this way, I mean, like, talking to a very select group of people. You ever see the AI generated SpongeBob episodes that come up on TikTok? No. It is, they're like TikTok lives. They come up, and they're completely AI-generated SpongeBob episodes. That's terrifying. That is really scary.

unreal thing ever. Like, it is the most unbelievable thing ever. I don't know how to even find stuff like that on TikTok, but if you can find AI generated SpongeBob on TikTok, I suggest going on that word. I always wondered how AI was going to

destroy the world and I realize now how it is. This is how it happens, right? First, it infiltrates us in a funny way. Let's gogs is my G. We're making pictures of ourselves and we're doing stuff. No, no. And then the AI, then we're doing chat GPT and Jesse's making stories about us.

Next thing you know, they know everything about us. Now, they have enough of our voice. They can totally do our voices, all three of our voices. They don't even need us anymore. AI can just do the show now. See, do you want that? You want an AI generated show? They already do that with the beginning of secret invasion.

It's gross, by the way. I don't know. You don't want. I don't know if you've seen secret invasion yet, but they have like an AI generated opening, like opening sequence. and it is hard to look at. It is gross. It bothers me.

It bothers me the way those AI twisted, you know, AI pictures bother. It's the, I mean, it's the uncanny valley. It's so close to being real, but you could tell that it's not. Oh, it's uncomfortable. Like Polar Express, that's the common one. Yeah, that is. AI, we could have a whole other hour. Please, see you're not doing that.

My next diehard story. Actually, I'm going to say this way, there will be within the next six months a diehard story that is written by chat GPT. And the challenge is, can people figure out which one it is? So we'll come back at the end after it's been posted. Maybe we'll give somebody a prize if they can figure it out. So you can read every Jesse article. You better start.

Yeah, you better start just so you can play that little game. Oh my God, that sounds like a fantastic game to play. Speaking of games, one way for you to see some wonderful games, no matter what sporting event you want to see with our friends at game time. an aesthetically pleasing app that actually lets you get the best deal on tickets everywhere you go. I think one of our friends, I think Coggs and his mom

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PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX. for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right guys well we hope you guys have a wonderful weekend we hope the a Arizona and time and backs have a wonderful weekend in San Francisco uh eat lots of what like lobster and stuff that they have out there they have a good chowder they have all sorts of wonderful things are you talking San Diego San Francisco San Francisco I mean yeah they got what they got

they got they have some credible garlic fries yeah in the stadium yeah right I'm there the people listening to our show are not in San Francisco right now, most likely. The Diamondbacks listen to us. You know that, Jesse. We've seen that. That's obvious. It's obvious.

That's the case. And I think our friend Owen from the Phoenix Rising podcast is going to be at the game. So in case he needed words of encouragement and places to eat inside of the stadium. There you go, Owen. But we thank you guys for being here, of course, on a Friday night after a miserable loss. We appreciate you. As always, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

This guy next to me is at Sean. underscore depose d e p a z jessey's at jesse n friedman the maniac behind the mac is the one and only damon he is a damon dog d a wg with a low at the end of course our shows at p h and x underscore dbacks and all roads lead to at p h and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we appreciate you guys so much for stopping by we love you and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when the arizona diamondbacks scout their third pitcher and their starting rotation at the robots at Chase Field tomorrow. Bring a robot to the starting rotation now.