PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - How The Diamondbacks SAVED Their Season From DISASTER

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Your Arizona Diamondbacks have been on a TEAR as of late as the MLB playoffs inch closer. PHNX Diamondbacks hosts Derek Montilla and Jesse Friedman join Erik Ruby to dissect the reasons why Arizona has become even more connected and dangerous, despite countless injuries. #MLB #Diamondbacks #MLBPlayoffs #Arizona #Dodgers #Padres #LosAngeles #SanDiego #Baseball #MVP #KetelMarte #Sports SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKaPEqS_Mc6eGNNBQN1QgQw Website: http://gophnx.com/ PHNX Locker: PHNXLocker.com Social:Twitter: @PHNX_Sports Instagram: @PHNX_Sports Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There's an old saying, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. And if that's true, then the dimebacks are about as tough as 60-year-old beef jerky. It's another edition of Southwest Bayon. Get those stuff out of here. It's Southwest Buy it. As always, brought to you by Desert Financial Credit Union, Arizona's number one credit union, named by Forbes. I'm talking America's pastime, so I have America's favorite podcast with me.

That is the P.H. NX Diamondbacks crew. I've got Derek Montia. I've got Jesse Friedman. I'm going to get stats. I'm going to get passion. And I know I said America's favorite podcast, but I also know the UK's favorite baseball podcast as well. This is true.

It's fourth favorite baseball podcast, but still top five. They don't count. Yeah, I know. See, I obviously was confused because I thought we were talking about Wrexham today based on my outfit, but I'd be happy. That's next week. Okay, okay, that's fine. We'll talk about that when Owen's in the studio.

Jesse, if you had to catch somebody up on the Diamondback season in just a couple of sentences, what would you say? The offense has gone mad. That's probably where I would start. The Diamondbacks, I believe it was as of Sunday's game, they had an 879 team OPS over their past 35 games going back to the beginning of July.

That was the highest team OPS over a 35 game span in franchise history. And we're in the current era of baseball now where offense has seen a pretty significant downturn, you know, from when the Diamondbacks, first existed back in the late 90s. So, yeah, the offense has gone crazy. I mean, the debacks are one of really only a handful of teams in the league. Maybe the only team at this point that can field a lineup that genuinely has nine

hitters who are all average or better. And maybe their top end on offense is not necessarily on par with the top end of, you know, like the New York Yankees with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. They don't have quite that level of duo on this team, but they have a really well-rounded lineup and it's led to 17 out of their last 20 games going as wins. They've won 10 of their last 11. They're 20 and 5 since the All-Star break. It's obviously there's been a lot of other factors here as well, but for me, it all begins with the offense. And that top end that he's talking about is might be the reason why the Diamondbacks have a different guy step up every every single night and why this

team is so well-rounded offensively, right? You do have Catele, Marte, who is by far the MVP of this team and arguably the MVP of the national league right but he should be the he should be right you know but you also factor in here that they have just this entire lineup of guys doing it all the time and so they're not as dependent on those like big two for instance having a good night in order for this team to win really it really is the next man up kind of mantra that they that they've been discussing all year long and i feel like it's finally clicking you know for this team the next man up has done an excellent job in almost every single case. I mean, you both did a great job of laying it all out there, but I think the next man-up

thing is what sticks out to me the most. You guys are in the weeds. You're in it, right? I am more of a casual baseball fan, right? I'm a Diamondbacks diehard. I love the team, but I'm not as in every single day as you guys. And what has struck me is obviously when you hit the beginning of the season, you have the amount of injuries to the starting rotation.

And then as the season kind of goes on, it's what's happening to Corbyn. Carol, oh, everything just doesn't feel right. This is the team that went to the World Series last year. And then this offense that you're talking about, it comes on relatively recently in the last couple of months. And it's like, oh, my gosh. But at the same time, it's happening with the next man up mentality. You have your stars getting injured.

You have your pitchers getting injured. And it seems like every time the Diamondbacks take a blow, especially recently, Jesse, it's like you lose Christian Walker and you're still winning an insane rate. You lose Gabby Moreno. and you're still winning at an insane rate. And of course, Catel Marte has gotten injured as well. That's not too serious, but still injured, and that's your team MVP. But along the way, so many different players have stepped up, including as of late, the team MVP and Jake McCarthy.

Yeah, it really has been unreal to see this team respond with all those guys going down. I saw Luke Lipinski tweet. I think it was just yesterday, the Diamondbacks were 3 and 0 since Catel Marte got hurt, 9 and 1 since Gabriel Moreno got hurt and 14 and 2. since Christian Walker got hurt. Like that's not, that's not how it normally goes, right? That's not how it's supposed to work.

Yeah, that's not how it's supposed to work. You lose three of your best offensive players. And, you know, you're expecting to not necessarily struggle or not be able to win games at all, but certainly not go on, you know,

one of the best runs we've seen this team really ever go on in its history. And I think Josh Bell is a really good example of this. I mean, he comes over in a trade with the Miami Marlins, the Diamondbacks, you know, just are paying, I think it's $2.25 million the rest of the way. It didn't come at a significant cost to them. But he's just come in and has a 967 OPS in 13 games. Like, you know, is he playing Christian Walker's defense?

No. I mean, no one really does. That's sort of what makes Christian Walker, Christian Walker, and in addition to being a really solid bat. But a 967 OPS, I mean, that's going to play. And he's been in the lineup in the cleanup spot every single day for the Diamondbacker. since Walker went down. Derek, why, why the Diamondbacks?

Why are they a team where it feels like that, that chemistry and your next man-up mentality, it actually works because you hear it all the time and you kind of expect it. These are all professional baseball players. Oh, you're calling up your young guys. You know, they're stepping in, but that's not usually how it works.

Why this team? Why are they so, here's the word, buzzword from last off season. Why are they so connected? Toy Lavallo. That's it. Tori Lavallo is the main reason, I think. I mean, obviously a big part of it is how the roster is constructed, right?

They went out. They addressed needs that they had during this off season. They brought in guys that we even kind of questioned what they were doing. There was bigger names available on the market that they were connected to. Instead, they bring in a Jock Peterson. They bring in a Randall Gritchick. These guys have fit in and they have done their job when called upon. And none of these guys, you know, are like kind of stick out more than, you know,

more than Kattel, obviously. Like I said, he's been outstanding this season. the rest of the guys have just done what has been asked of them. I think early on in the season, they were a bit of a disappointment. And I think that's more of what it is, is like we're talking about them turning it around so suddenly. But the way that they came off of last season and the additions that they made to this team, how they're playing now is kind of how we envisioned it more during the offseason rather than them struggling the way they did early on.

A lot of it is coming off of that World Series, right? and Tori Lavallo did his best to try to address what was going to happen, which is those expectations being there that you got to the World Series last year. We spent a bunch of money this off season. The World Series this year should be a no-brainer. They're going to win it. And it's like that's a lot for a young team to take on, especially a young team that did not have those expectations last year.

Last year was a completely different season. And they just kind of played out of their minds in, you know, the playoffs. That's kind of what we're seeing now. right now. It's almost the same way they just turned it on in the playoffs last year. They're doing it now during the regular season. But back to my point, Tori Lavallo is a big reason for all of that. He is the one that tries to, you know, set the mindset. He saw things like that coming ahead. He also just does an excellent job with the young players. I feel like whenever you see a young guy get called up, whether they're a pitcher, whether they're a position player, they come up and find success. Like,

they don't maintain it for the full time. Like they don't put up these crazy numbers. But, you know, You look at Dre Jameson, you look at Ryan Nelson, you look at guys like Adrian Del Castillo, when Blaze Alexander, when he was called upon, right? It was like, it's like every rookie that gets called up from Reno suddenly becomes everybody's favorite player. And the reason why is because of the success that they typically have very early on, which is not usually common with rookies making that transition to major league. So you got to just credit this coaching staff and credit Blivello for making those guys

comfortable when they get up here. Absolutely. But how much does Mike Hazen come into play, Jesse? because you talked about all the moves that were made. Right. Like this was the first off season in a long time where you go, oh, they're acting like contenders, right?

Yeah. And obviously, you know, J.Mott hasn't, you know, been as great as maybe people expected, but obviously the start of the season for Montgomery was very strange and accelerated and whatnot. But they still spent the money on them, though, which is,

right, they still spent the money, which is still a statement. And he's, I assume, will continue to get better as the season goes on. But from your perspective, Jesse from an organizational standpoint, how have they set themselves up? Because it's like the chemistry and the players and everything that's Tori, that's the roster. But when it comes to putting all

of them together and building that puzzle, it feels like Mike Hazen is just Geppetto. He's just pulling the strings and he's doing it perfectly. Yeah, I think the Diamondbacks are still, they're still reaping the rewards from several trades that several big trades that Mike Hazen made in his tenure. And they've been paying dividends for years. I mean, the Zach Gallant, for Jazz Chisholm trade, you know, not to say that jazz Chisholm isn't a, isn't a good player. I know he's played really well since, uh, since being traded over to the Yankees. He's unfortunately hurt now, but, uh, you take Zach Gallin and that deal, you know, every every day of the week and twice on Sunday, right?

I mean, Gallon has as emerged as a frontline starter and he hasn't actually had his best season. The diamond backs, you know, at times have they've won even without him. He was on the IL for a while, uh, but he continues to be a huge part of this team. Gabriel Moreno, unfortunately, hurt now going back to the trend of injuries, but he's been huge for the diamond backs this season, was really starting to emerge right before he went down with injury. And the biggest one continues to be Catelle Marte. I mean, if I'm a Mariners fan, shout out Shane Diefenbach. I'm not so happy that Cotel Marte is an MVP candidate on the Diamondbacks and not the Seattle Mariners, right? And granted, you're going to have your, you know, you're going to hit on some trade.

and you're going to not hit on others. And not to say that Mike Hayeson has a perfect track record by any means. But, you know, I think those three deals have really formed kind of the foundation for this team. And, you know, you add on, Shane is not happy about that, which I fully anticipated. You add on a guy like Jock Peterson, who I think is probably the biggest move that Hayeson made over this past off season that's really paid dividends. I mean, the guy has a 938 OPS, a 160 OPS plus. he's having the best year of his career and you know a lot of people wanted jd martinez is the d h for this team over the offseason and understandably so but at this point it's hard to argue against what jock peterson has given the diamond backs yeah and and derrick it's like you know you put everything together but you see that in so many different sports where in the off season you check all these boxes in the off season you're winning yeah and then you hit the ground running and the team like you both have said the beginning of the season was absolutely a disappointment i mean i'm

remember being in the office, it was like besides the first series where they just absolutely whooped on the Colorado Rockies. It wasn't the Diamondbacks of old. It didn't feel like the connected team. It didn't feel like the team that was going to step up in those big moments. They felt like they were shrinking. So you could put all these players together and it could take a while for them to gel. And then when they do, there are injuries, there are different moving parts. I know that right now they're in the middle of just an insane battle in the NL West. But I don't think other teams and other fans truly understand the adversity this team is faced and why that might actually end up helping them when it's all set and done.

Yes, because they've learned to bounce back and they've learned not to let injuries get them down, right? Like I kind of said it when they were struggling. One of the benefits to having all of those injuries early on in the season was that it was early on in the season. Right. They found a way to overcome them. It kind of had a chance to forge some players by five.

due to need, right? Due to injuries, some guys came up and delivered for this team. We all love Yilbert Diaz due to the fact that the Diamondbacks had to call him up, but that wasn't a guy that we were expecting to see, considering that at one point this season, he was pitching in AA and he made his, you know, major league debut this season, right? So it's like there's been, I guess, the, the idea that they've had chance to recover and learn how to play when down, you know, a star player by, you know, by injury, right? And I mean, again, this team, has depth, but that depth was tested this season. And they got down to the bottom of the barrel. They really did as far as like ideas and players. They were trying everything at one point

due to how much they were struggling. I think that's impressive that this team was able to overcome that so early on and kind of adapt. They're still experiencing injuries. Yet now, like we discussed, the team record is much different with the loss of Gabriel Moreno and Christian Walker. You know, this team is able to find somebody to step up in the those, you know, the situations. Kevin Newman has been a guy that we didn't mention, but he's just filled in a number of roles.

He has been there late inning first baseman to make sure that the defense there doesn't take a big step down from Christian Walker. And you also have the fact that he's been playing second base with Cattell injured. And he does an excellent job defensively there at second base. Plus all of his contributions, you know, on the offensive side of things. But going back to Mike Hazen,

I did want to just say one thing. Yeah, please. When we talk about like why the dinosaurs. Diamondbacks are in the position here. I think Jesse can agree to this. A lot of this is a 2019 draft, right? Where the Diamondbacks got so many of the guys who are now contributing to this team all in one draft. They had so many draft picks.

Corbyn Carroll was part of that draft. You had Ryan Nelson part of that draft. Drey Jamison part of that draft. Guys that they've traded for assets that now come in and contribute to this team. Dominic Fletcher, Dominic Canzon, they were all part of that draft as well. So like the Diamondbacks have, you know, they did a good job. Mike Hazen did a great job. of drafting.

And now that they are in the phase that they are in, Mike Hazen has done a great job of adding those key pieces that made this team into, not a team that required or like lean so heavily on one superstar, but a team that's so well-rounded that they like live up to this next man up, you know, kind of, you know, way they're playing right now.

Absolutely. And I want to hold on to the possible positives when it comes to the, the injury bug that's been the diamond backs. I know it's a very weird thing to say, but bear with me for a second first. I want to remind you that this episode of Southwest Spias is brought to by Desert Financial Credit Union for more than 84 years. DFCU has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. And I can say that personally through literal generations of my family from my grandmother to my father and my mother to myself.

All have been with Desert Financial Credit Union back, Jesse, when it was desert schools. It was just for educators, which my grandmother was. She was one of the early, early, early adopters of Desert schools when they moved out here from the East Coast. and they can help you with everything. Your basics, your checking, your savings accounts, but also mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options,

and more, I believe you got... I did. That's how I got my home. That's where they got me started on my home ownership journey. Don't ask, don't ask Derek how low his interest rate is.

It's absurd. It's actually unfair. It's a little bit unfair. But Desert Financial credit union, they're going to take care of you. Plus, they have locations all across the valley. Very friendly staff,

always there to talk with you, figure out what you need and help you out with that. And Jesse, on top of all of that, you know, You can sell that, but what if I just said, hey, here's $200. If I just pulled $200 out of my pocket and I gave it to you right now, would you be a happy man?

I would be a happy man, Eric, $200. You can, you know, you can't do quite as much with $200. Maybe you could a few years ago, but $200 is still a low-key, pretty substantial amount of money. So, yeah, I'd have a good old time. I would take $200 for sure. I already have my checking account. But if you are fantastic listeners who have, of course, hit the like button on this video and subscribe to Ph.

exports and rated us five stars on whatever platform you're listening to you wonderful listeners can get $200 if you open up a free checking account online and get 200 and bonuses get started today by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200 one of the recent diamondbacks post games I was on when they just whipped up on the Phillies 11 to 1 there was a super chat that mentioned you know a lot of your stars are missing time and in the short term in a very concentrated view that is a bad thing right because usually That leads to what, Derek? It leads to losses. But not in this case, right?

So not only does it help in the way that you mentioned before, where you get players who maybe haven't been put in that position to get that experience and see them succeed. But Jesse, it also rests these stars' bodies for when you get to the end of the grueling, long MLB season and hopefully in the playoffs, you have well-rested stars to step in with confident backups. That sounds like, to me, a recipe for success. Yeah, I think from a pitching standpoint in particular, the Diamondbacks are set up about as well as any team that's, that's, you know, expecting to make the playoffs right now.

There's a lot, obviously a lot of teams who struggle with injuries in their rotation. But the Diamondbacks now that they have Merrill Kelly back, now that they have Eduardo Rodriguez back, it's not only that, you know, those guys are back with enough time to maybe get in a rhythm before the playoffs. It's also that the innings load on all these guys has been a lot lower than what you feared it might be. Zach Gallin threw more than 240 innings last season with the postseason included. And I don't think the debacks wanted to see that happen again. So, you know, you lose Gallen for, what was it about a month with hamstring, with a hamstring injury. Like, that's not a good thing. But you're right.

On the back end, you kind of reap the rewards of like, oh, Gallin is thrown like a hundred innings this season or whatever it is. Like he has, you know, plenty of runway. And certainly the same with Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez, who have thrown hardly any innings this season at all. You know, Brandon Fott has been stretched out for a while. He should be ready to go for

another deep playoff run if the Diamondbacks were able to pull that off. So I think the D-backs are in a pretty enviable position on the pitching side in particular. What's not enviable though, Eric? You got something to say about the pitching? No, I was just going to say what's wild about it is that

this team all season long has kind of had these little pick-me-ups when guys returned from injury. And you can kind of see things improving every single time. And like we talked about with Perdomo and Alic, Thomas returning, like it wasn't necessarily their production that made this team better. It was just almost like their presence, getting guys back kind of picked the team up.

And they'll still have that down the stretch where they'll be kind of a staggered, you know, grouping of guys returning. We'll get Cattell Marte back. Christian Walker shouldn't be back too long after that. And then hopefully the Diamondbacks get Gabby Marino back before the end of the season. But, you know, along the way, each time those guys return to the lineup again, it's a little pick-me-up that just kind of helps boost, you know, just this team, morale and everything. and plus those guys come back well rested. So they are in a great place right now.

And that was something that we also mentioned on that Philly's post game that I jumped on this past Saturday. It's like the Diamondbacks seem to step up in two ways for the teammates. They either step up when they go down or they step up because they want to join the party because they saw somebody else step up. And it's like, hey, well, if you have really either side of it, then you're covered. But what I was transitioning to before is what's not enviable is while the Diamondbacks have been on an incredible, run, one of the best records in baseball since the All-Star break. The rest of the NOS has been absolutely on fire to specifically the Dodgers and the Padres.

Derek, break down to me where the Diamond Back stand right now in a realistic outlook on where they could end up at the end of the season. I think the overall goal, especially considering that they achieved what they achieved last year, is to make it into the playoffs. And that needs to be the focus. They're getting close, right? They're two and a half games back as of right now behind the Dodgers. and I mean it's exciting.

The idea of winning the National League West is exciting. But it comes with a caveat. It comes with a little bit of a danger because you also get that break. The vaunted rest. The rest, right? And I mean, again, the Atlanta Braves biggest nightmare. No. Again, for some reason, it doesn't seem to be the best thing for some teams.

This team is built in a way where the depth and the rest of some of these guys have been injured kind of, it doesn't really require them to have that time off. and it might impede them. It might slow them down because of the role that they're currently on, right? So I mean, give me the, if I'm the debacks, I want the buy.

Oh, yeah, just absolutely. I know Christian Walker would want the buy. When I talked to him about, because everybody was like kind of like upset that Christian Walker didn't make the All Star game. Yeah.

When I talked to him in Chicago after the All Star break, he sounded like a man that was not upset about missing the All Star game at all. Game at all. He got himself some camping time in. He had himself. So like, yeah, I mean, players they want the rest they want that break i'm sure and you want you want you want to not have to play

a three game series with tons of randomness like in my mind that's really what you want and we know this team is petty as hell and how many times have the excuses been thrown out from these teams who get the buy and then get beaten the first time they play they're like oh but we just we got taken out of our rhythm yeah we didn't know what to do with our lives i love the air wine no it's a rhythm game and it's one of those games that like honestly compared to other sports time off can be more of a hindrance and other sports. But at the same time, too, like Jesse said, it's more of missing that random wildcard series.

That's probably the bigger thing there that allows you to not, you know, to not have to worry about possibly being bounced, you know, because a three game series is really random. And it's, again, it's baseball is a game of rhythm and it's a game of runs and a game of momentum. And you could be clearly the better team and another team gets hot for two games and

you're done. And it's not that the rest doesn't have certain obstacles that you have to overcome, Jesse. It's just more if you had to choose between the two, the people who get the rest being like, I wish I played the three game series. If they were in that three game series, they probably be like, damn, I wish I got the rest. I just always find it comical that those teams will always fall on that as an excuse where it's like, sure, that's something you have to overcome.

But the team you just played had to overcome something even greater. So let's not pretend like that's even playing fields. But what Derek said about the NL West Chase and everything like that, Jesse, where do you see this team ending up? It's very soon. We're in August. Like, we're getting close. Yeah, yeah, I think so as we record this, so start a play on Thursday, August 15th, the Diamondbacks have, I believe it's a 14% chance, roughly 14% to win the NOS, according to the computers over at Fangraphs.

So do with that what you will. She's overlords the computers. Yeah, right, right. We've talked about it. So, I mean, that puts it, what, like a one in seven chance, roughly, something like that. So the odds are certainly stacked against Diamondbacks here. I mean, good on them for closing the gap as much as they have and making this interesting. The Dodgers, frankly, have not had to deal with a whole lot of pressure in the NOS in basically a decade.

I mean, I know the Giants did what they did a few years ago, but outside of that, Dodgers are just, you know, it feels like this race has been over by September 1st, most of the time, at least like functionally over, even if it wasn't literally over. Yeah. So, yeah, it's, you know, it's going to be interesting. It's going to be fun to watch down the stretch. It'll give Diamondbacks fans something else to look forward to, right? I mean, I think about where this team was a year ago at this time, the Diamondbacks were right

around 500. They were coming out of one of the worst stretches in franchise history where they lost 25 out of 32 games at one point. And their chances at that point of making the playoffs, I think were roughly equivalent to the Diamondbacks chances now of winning the NOS. So obviously they did. They found a way to make the playoffs last year. So, you know, I certainly wouldn't count them out in the NL West race at this point.

Dodgers are getting healthier. And I think the Padres are also a very legitimate factor here as well. They've been, you know, pretty much matching the Diamondbacks for as hot as they've been. The Padres have basically matched them here for the last month. So it should be a lot of fun to watch down the stretch. I'll say one thing about this is that the Diamondbacks do have a stretch here against some teams that they should on paper beat, especially with the role they're on, right? then after that they face the Dodgers. There's a very good chance.

Four game series at home against the Dodgers late August, I believe. And that there's a very good chance by the time that rolls around that that could be for the National League West. I mean, it could determine at least who is in the lead at that point after that series is over. Furthermore, if you're really looking at the series ahead for the Diamondbacks, like there's a good chance that they could already be in first place prior to. that matchup with the Dodgers. And that's how close things are right now and how well the Diamondbacks are playing. Well, I know if you want to follow along for when they get to that series or everything in between, there's only one place to do it.

And that is with the P.H.NX Diamondbacks show gentlemen, plug everything. Plug your own socials. Plug the show socials. When are you guys live? What's going on? Derek, I know you're chomping at the bit.

I can't wait, you know, because I want to, I need all the new friends I can get. Derek loves to talk about himself and how you can, how you can follow his. He lives for this. I'm going to join us. I'll show some text message conversations that Jesse and I had where he just references himself randomly all the time to me. It's him bragging to an audience of one.

What's weirder than that? But of course, you can watch our show. We're live five days a week, of course, most of the time post game. Of course, you can find us on Mondays and usually Thursdays at 1 p.m. But of course, we are on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore Kameman with a kid. Jesse is at Jesse N Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore Dback.

So join us. The team is a wagon. And we are very excited for the Yoffs to pop around. Team is a wagon. The shirts are absolute wagons as well. Check those out of the PH&X locker. These two are just a ton of fun, a fantastic dynamic. And you got to throw Damon dog in there as well.

He's just also out in indie with Cardinal stuff too. Fantastic crew. Bark, bark, bark. We are all Damon's dogs. And we believe that you guys are as well. So make sure you hit that like button. Make sure you subscribe to PH&X Sports. the March of 35,000 continues.

And of course, we'll be back next week with another edition of Southwest Bias. Get those stuff out of here. It's Southwest Bias.