PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is Diamondbacks SWEEP of the Rockies a SIGN OF HOPE or Just Another MIRAGE?

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterThe Diamondbacks just delivered some of their best baseball all season, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in dominant fashion. But is this surge enough to reignite fan hope? We break down Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s monster series on both sides of the ball, preview a must-watch Rangers matchup featuring Zac Gallen vs. Merrill Kelly, and examine whether the newly revamped bullpen is truly turning the corner. We also answer your Mailbag Monday questions about how close the Snakes have to get in the Wild Card race for us to abandon logic and start having hope again.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate!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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks swept another team for once. This time it was the Colorado Rockies, and I'm going to try my best to not get too excited about it. We're talking about this as well as previewing the upcoming series with the Rangers, where we will see a matchup between Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen. All of this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. And welcome it to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback show right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

This guy next to me is known as Jesse Jr. That guy over there on the ones and twos is known as your, I don't know, ambassador of excitement, the one and only Damon Dog himself. And I love to see all of the ladies here in the chat. Ladies, no baseball better than guys anyway, don't they? Happy Monday to you all. Great to have you guys here. Great to be talking about Arizona Diamondbacks getting a series sweep over the Colorado Rockies.

Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 and Game Time. Make sure download that Bet365 app. Use our code of PHNX365. when you sign up, follow some easy steps. You'll get yourself some bonus bets over at game time. Use our code of PH&X, and you'll get $20 off your first purchase on buying some last-minute tickets. And this would have been a good series to go check out. We had Corbyn Carol Star Wars Bobblehead Night, and more importantly, we had the Arizona Diamondbacks completing the three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

And I'm going to say some crazy things on this episode. But let's remember, there's some very important rules in like. that I've established. One of those, no offense, Jacob Franklin, is to never eat paella in Chicago. And another one is to definitely never get excited about the Arizona Diamondbacks or any baseball team, quite frankly, beating the Colorado Rockies or sweeping them in the state that this team is currently in. I believe the Toronto Blue Jays did this to them. They outscored them 45 to 6 and then they went on to get waxed by the Dodgers, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. But again, this is still an important series sweep for the Diamondbacks.

There was a lot of progression here. And if you are into that sort of thing, as far as what the young guys are doing, there's some development going on. Tyler Locklear didn't really have a strong series in this one offensively or defensively. Meanwhile, some young arms have really emerged for the bullpen that I really like. But overall, we had some great performances in this series. Diamondbacks now are 57 and 61 after the series. sweep. It's just their fifth series sweep of 2025.

And more importantly, they recorded just their fourth walkoff of the season on Saturday. Damon, that's not enough. That's not enough. No good baseball team should be able to look back at a season and say they only recorded four walkoffs. It's mid-August. By this point of August. Yeah, it's crazy, right? They have homered in eight straight games, so the offense is definitely back. It was very, very cold during that. stretch around the trade deadline, but they appear to be back. And most importantly, again, the Diamondbacks have improved now to 57 and 61.

We're going to take a look at the standings. I'm going to be insane when I say some stuff. Again, this is just a series sweep against the Rockies. The Diamondbacks do have a three-game series against the Rangers that is going to be far more telling, I think, as to the actual state of where this team is currently at. Should they be able to win the series against the Rangers, then they have four more games against this exact Rockies team. This might be the exact thing the Diamondbacks need to not only pad some wins,

but to also just give themselves some confidence, give the confidence to the guys that have been here, give some confidence to the young guys that are just arriving and just starting their major league career. But overall, that's what I feel like the rest of the season is about, despite the fact that I'm going to start bringing up the wildcard standings and again, getting overly excited about where the Diamondbacks stand. But let's take a look at where they sit after this series.

Let's take a look at the numbers from the series presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union because this was a thorough series victory. Again, one close game overall, and the Diamondbacks did get their first walk-off of the series there, excuse me, the fourth walk-off of the year. But they beat the Colorado Rockies and their stupid logo that I don't like. By a score of 25 to 12 in this series, they out-holmered the Rockies, 4-2. surprising, considering that the Diamondbacks put up 13 runs in the finale. They only had one home run in that game.

Runners in scoring position, the Diamondbacks were outstanding in this series, quite frankly, two for five in game one, three for ten in game two. Ten for 15 in game three, 15 for 30 for a 500 batting average. The Diamondbacks had nine consecutive hits with two outs on Sunday, which is a new franchise record. and their offense just did the thing in this series. They did let the Rockies get a little bit too close there on Sunday, but it is what it is.

The Diamondbacks did have a four, oh, wait, nope, those aren't extra base hits. Those are ERAs, but Diamondbacks did have a starting pitching ERA of 4.96 to the Rockies 12.33, and the Diamondbacks' bullpen had a 2.53 ERA, zero earned runs allowed by the bullpen in games one and game two. and again, three earn runs on Saturday, on Sunday, excuse me, 4.96 starting ERA for the Rockies, or excuse me, 12.33 starting ERA. Gross. 10 runs allowed there on Sunday. 4.00 ERA for the Rockies there for the relief. You'll never get a mistake on a graphic past piece of Yoshi. That is a bona fide fact.

Yeah. Well, they are also coming at you for you doing Lordus Dirty in the graphic. I completely disagree with Elizabeth. Yeah. Hey, it is what it is. But Lord is that himself. He's got a beautiful smile. He should be happy. He was, he hit the walk-off winner on Saturday.

He was four for 12 in this series. He had three RBI, one double, very important one. Adrian Del Castillo had himself a day on Sunday. They're going three for five with a home run, a double, three RBI, two-runs scored. I believe he was just one triple short of the cycle in that game. And Corbyn Carroll continues to stay hot. Four for 13, five runs scored two home runs in this series. He had four RBI, one double, and one walk.

So there's how they performed offensively. No problems handling the Rockies. But welcome to the snakes, Juan Burgos, because I already like this kid a lot. And I think so far what we've seen is the Diamondbacks get some things in this return. We're going to talk about Tyler Locklear on Mailbag Monday. He's definitely had his struggles. like I said earlier, defensively, offensively.

But a couple of guys that have really stood out here that the Diamondbacks just received in these trades, guys that were minor leaguers that we didn't know when we would see them, already contributing to the Major League roster, already contributing to a win. Juan Burgos made his debut on Saturday, two thirds of an innings pitched. He allowed one hit, one walk, and two strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Superbad Andrew Hoffman. I love him so much. I want Andrew Hoffman protected at all cost. He has a 2.45 ERA this season. But on Saturday, again, came into the game, Damon, in the ninth inning, tied ball game goes out there and one inning pitch, one strike out, and keeps it tied ball game. And I just really like that out of him.

I mean, already being put into a very high leverage situation and delivering for this team. Yeah, I mean, you love to see it with all these bullpen guys. right because you really had nothing in the bullpen? You had nothing. So why not give these guys a chance? And honestly they have nothing to lose, right? Like these guys come up and they have a chance to like really make an impact and earn themselves more playing time. Earn a roster spot next year.

Exactly. Really, that's where I'm at right now is like I want to see a lot of what I want to see for the rest of the season is these relievers pitching in high leverage situations and getting their kind of their feet under them. Maybe they don't all work out, but that's how you figure it out, right? Yeah, no, that's exactly how you figure out. And I mean, again, this is an opportunity. This isn't just, I guess, you know, this isn't garbage time, right? This isn't just necessarily a team that's completely out of it. We know they're out of it.

We know we're, I'm trying. I'm trying my best to at least go back and realize I already called this season was dead a while ago. Almost a month ago, it feels like now. But this is a team actually. numerically, mathematically, that are not eliminated. And with some of the terrible play ahead of them, you have no idea. The Mets are playing some of their worst baseball of the season. They can't seem to win a baseball game.

And realistically, all it takes is, you know, a couple of these other teams to be mediocre, the Mets to be especially bad, and the Diamondbacks, excuse me, to find a way to beat some of these really good teams that they still have left on their schedule. This stretch, the Rangers are what they are. We're going to preview the series with the Rangers. The Rockies are the worst team in baseball. They do have four more games after the Rangers series with the Rockies. So you can look forward to that, you know. But again, after that, the schedule is very daunting.

So no matter what their record is, no matter where it stands 10 days from now, they have a tough stretch ahead of them, including Padres as the final game of the series. I think they have two more series against the Dodgers. They also have a series against the Giants. They've been playing some good baseball. A lot of division ball left and just a lot of good baseball teams still ahead of them that are in a fight of their own, quite frankly,

and that they need to stack wins and beat teams like the Diamondbacks when they face off. But let's take a delusional look at the drunken orgy of violence that we call the N hell west right now, because, of course, Diamondbacks made a little headway here on the wild card in the wild card race. Dodgers still sit at the top of the division at 68 and 50. they are looking in their in their rearview mirror and it's the meme of the guy running and it says objects are closer than they appear well the Padres are definitely closer than they appear 66 and 52 they are just two games back in the division they currently have a three game lead in the wild card the better they play the more it feels like you've solidified the top two spots I've said that before right where the Mets or the Phillies were one of those teams that I felt like had solidified a spot and now look how poorly the Mets have played. It's baseball. It's that easy.

You go on a losing stretch like the Mets have, and you find yourself now just a, I believe they're just a game and a half ahead of the next closest team. So the wildcard is getting very close once again. But the Padres seem to be solidifying themselves there with the wildcard spot as well as being right on the tail of the Dodgers for the division. The Giants sit at 59 and 59. They are six games back.

And then let's, wait, I wasn't done looking at back. I see nine games back, four games back in the wild card. And then the Diamondbacks here, six games back in the wild card, 11 back in the division. Infinity sign in the division. We don't care about that anymore. It's just the six games. And again, we have a mailbag Monday question in regards to this.

However, I don't know, Damon. I don't know how crazy I'm going to start talking once the Diamondbacks get back to within four games, three games of the wild card. and that feels possible but then in a very 2025 fashion I feel like the Diamondbacks will just get that close

just close enough to make us believe again but not really be able to get closer than that they'll probably get to game 162 and then they'll play some sort of patty cake rain delay hop scotch in the middle of the field where two teams just decide that they don't care and that'll end our season two years in a row

I hate it I hate it well you brought up an interesting point to me just in regards to I know a lot of people excuse me would much rather see James McCann behind the plate while we are waiting for Gabby Moreno to heal up. There was good news the other day. Gabby

is being sent to Reno along with Pavin Smith to make their rehab start so the Diamondbacks do have some reinforcements on the way, much to the chagrin of Damon and Elise who will probably not be happy hearing that Pavin is on his way back. But definitely I mean

Scott Max says DFA Elrod. Elrod has not been having himself a good stretch here. Again, another guy that hasn't been having a good stretch is Jose Herrera in Gabby's absence. The Diamondbacks, the results are fairly much a push, right? It's not like the results are much better for one player or another. The Diamondbacks do have a losing record with both Jose Herrera and James McCann behind the plate. However, James McCann does feel like he's been

contributing a little bit better here to the Diamondbacks. And overall, there's some information kind of to back that up. So far this season, the Diamondbacks are 11 and 13 with McCann back there. He's slashing for this team this year, 254, 365, 381 for 746 OPS, just below League League average. Meanwhile, Jose Herrera, the Diamondbacks are 8 and 13 in the stretch of Herrera's games that he has started in. And over that stretch, Herrera has hit 186, 2,000.

261, 220 with a 481 OPS. I don't know if pitchers prefer Jose Herrera. I know Tori has used that line. I like Josie's at bats entirely too many times for most of us to stomach, considering that he's hitting 186 over that stretch and 188 on the season. So I don't really know if the Diamondbacks really have much of a choice. But when Gabby comes back to go with James McCann, quite frankly. And I think that between James McCann and ADC,

Diamondbacks do have more than enough catching back there behind Gabby. ADC, again, had himself a wonderful series. So I would love to see him get more playing time. Hopefully he's coming into his own this season. Offensively, we know he's always been a really good, you know, hitter. It's mostly just his ability to throw runners out and some of, you know, some of his shortcomings behind the plate. But the ninembacks, you know, can keep ADC here as a particular.

potential short, kind of short, limited amount of time backup behind the plate and then have him, you know, de-aging and have him putting up performances like yet on Sunday. The future can look very bright for ADC. But we're going to talk more about the upcoming series here with the Texas Rangers, including a matchup I think most of us don't want to see between Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly. We're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the pH next time in Back Show. Well, our guy Blaney, Ryan Blaney and NASCAR, that's my driver.

Got pole position this weekend, Damon. But unfortunately, he could not come out with the win. I believe he finished fifth or six. I was disappointed. Once he didn't win, I just stopped paying attention. You're a Blaney man, huh? I'm a blaney guy, right? And of course, every point counts.

Stages count. He won the first stage, so at least he got points there. And these are all new things that I've just learned. I'm new to this. I'm an idiot when it comes to NASCAR. But I'm kind of learning to love it. And again, having a driver, very important part of it. But another very important part is coming out to Phoenix Raceway and seeing it in person,

smelling the burnt rubber in person, getting to walk the track, just getting to do all the incredible fan experiences that they have out there at Phoenix Raceway. But Championship weekend is it. It's just like baseball. Their season starts in February. They have a grueling season. And then it all culminates in October where you can come out here to Phoenix Raceway and see the championship race. NASCAR fans get the best access in sports with a small ticket upgrade.

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Other restrictions apply. Go to Marketplace.APS.com for more information. And Damon, we do have an upcoming matchup that's going to make most of us sick to our stomach to see on the field. I know it's going to make both pitchers involve sick to their stomach, but the Diamondbacks do have a three-game series here with the Texas Rangers. And let me tell you, there are times where I'm jealous. I'm openly jealous of a lot of things in life, and I have no problem admitting that. I'm jealous of Damon's youthful exuberance, which I no longer have.

I'm jealous of the fact that most of you don't have to live a life of scrutiny where you come to your job every day and have a certain guy call you a shill until you suck in the chat every day. And most importantly, I'm jealous of the Texas Rangers pitching staff. We've talked about this with other teams. If we only had a third of their ERA, if we only had a little bit of this action that the Texas Rangers have going pitching-wise, Diamondbacks, there might be an undefeated baseball team.

If you combine the Texas Rangers and the D-backs, they would probably be undefeated this season. Are the Rangers the new Mariners in that way? Because it used to be the Mariners catching staff with the D-Backs offense. Then they kind of took our offense? They did. Well, we kind of, like I said, they aided the arms race there. We gave the Texas Rangers a baseball bat and we gave the Mariners a knife. And we said, go, fight, bum fight.

Go, bum-fight. And we have no business calling anybody a bum, that's for sure. But Texas Rangers here stand at 60 and 59 this season with a plus-59 run different. They are three and seven in their last 10 games, and their major flaw here is their OPS. Offense has been bad. It was bad in yesterday's game for the Texas Rangers. It continues to be bad this season. They have a 675 OPS, which is 28th in Major League Baseball.

But the starting pitching ERA and relief pitching ERA are just ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. 3.28 starting pitching ERA, which is first in baseball. And, yes, Scott Mack says it. EOvaldi's ERA is Microsoft. It's insane. Relief pitching ERA 3.34 this season, fourth in Major League Baseball. They have the first best starting pitching ERA, fourth best. How do they not have a better, you know, record? Like, even with one of the worst offenses in baseball, I still feel like with that good of pitching ERA that you would still be able to, you know, have a better record than one game above 500.

This is why baseball is so frustrating. Their outs above average is 21 that's tied for fourth. baseball. So again, they've been playing some great defense this year. And they're in a weird spot, the Rangers, because they are in a kind of, kind of a divisional fight. You have an Astros team that is bruised and battered. They definitely added and upgraded at the trade deadline, as did the other team ahead of them in the standings, the Seattle Mariners. So they have a lot to fight for. Again, the Yankees might currently be the worst team in baseball besides the Mets. If you are a New York baseball team, you are very bad right now. And the Yankees are, they have, they have four closers, I think.

That's what's crazy. They have like four elite closers still not enough for that Yankees' poverty franchise to win baseball games. But who knows what can happen. And again, with how close they are in the wildcard race, adding Merrill Kelly was a big move for them. The Diamondbacks return for Merrill Kelly so far. I mean, a pretty good return. the results will wait and see. We're going to talk about Cold Drake a little bit later.

The truth. The franchise. The franchise, Col Drake. People are calling him. But let's take a look at the probable pitching matchup for this series, because as you'll see in the finale, that's where that heartbreaking matchup between Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly occurs. But smash the under for game one as far as tonight's game.

Right, Damon? I mean, Ryan Nelson. I put my bet in while we were live on air. That's a smart move. That is a smart move. smash the under for Ryan Nelson versus Nathan Evaldi in game one. Ryan Nelson 3.20 ERA this season.

He is 6 and 3 going up against Nathan Eovaldi and is 1.38 ERA. 111 strikeouts for him. He has a 10 and 3 record. Here's the play for tonight, Derek. Nathan Eovaldi, five strikeouts, Ryan Nelson, four strikeouts.

And then the alternate run line under six and a half at five innings. Wow. Parlay it. Oh, wow. We're not even supposed to give that out. That's like 365, baby. Yeah, use that code of PHNX365 when you do that.

Anthony Discofani, aka Discomania, one and two this season, 4.20ERA. No idea what we're going to get in game two. Game two, complete wild card matchup, right? Discofani could be awful. He could be great. Going up against Jack Leiter there, son of Outlighter, once again, another pitcher that makes me feel very old. baseball player makes me feel incredibly old.

He has a 4.05 ERA, 7 and 6 record, 93 strikeouts for lighter this season. And then game three, Zach Gallen versus Merrill Kelly. Gown this season, 5.31 ERA, Merrill Kelly 3.38, 9 and 12 record for Zach, 9 and 7 record for Merrill, and then 130 strikeouts for Zach, 131 strikeouts for Merrill, advantage Merrill. but he also is in a new place where he feels very uncomfortable and he was also not very good in his last outing for the Texas Rangers in fact even in his first outing where he was kind of moving along nicely Bruce Bochy still took him out at like 67 pitches

which once again caused a bunch of people that are diving backs fans to call Toria bum for some reason but that's what it is feelings about this Merrill and Zach matchup why do we have to have this civil war Why did we have to trade them away to a team we still had games against? It hurts. It hurts so much. I don't like it. It's going to feel really, really icky and gross during the game.

There's a hundred percent chance the day before that they go out golfing together. Yes. 150 percent chance. Is this in Arizona or Texas? This is in Texas. Yeah, they'll find some new course out there. I'm sure Merrill's already scouted it out. Oh, 100%.

100%. He's asking around. He's getting things prepped and ready. But, well, I mean, the Diamondbacks again, this is a bigger test than the Colorado Rockies. I don't want to. Oh, 2BM asks a very important question. I know we're going to get around to the mailbag questions later. But 2BMs asks who is Captain America and who is Iron Man?

Wow. Between those two? Between those two. In a, you know, Avengers Civil War situation, essentially is what he's saying. you're I I feel oh I feel like Merrill Kelly is Iron Man I'm not doing this based on looks I'm doing this more based on the story of the movie the attributes of the person themselves so in this hypothetical scenario Zach Gallin killed Merrill Kelly's parents or his best friend killed Merrill Merrill Kelly's parents and he just let him get away with it it's pretty deep deep and dark well I I mean, Merrill Kelly was the only one to get a win in the World Series. Oh, man. I don't know.

Let's see. Ryan H says, Iron Man is Galen. Yeah, see, like that seems like an easy, like, that's based on looks. Merrill Kelly very much to me seems like the, I don't, I don't know. Well, maybe Merrill Kelly's little anti-following orders a little bit more. I don't know. Zach Gallen is doing it for the love. Iron Man is Zach. He's never had T.J. Good point, Scott. Good point. Well, speaking of injuries, unfortunately, we have yet another injury to add to the pile. Our baby boy, aka Corn himself, Eumann, has been added to the Reno Aces IL with no reasoning behind it, Damon. I hate it. I hate it so much. I need to know more about it. I don't have any information yet on why he's been added to the IL.

But he was placed on the aisle as of August 10th. So hopefully that is not anything that is terrible or long-lasting. However, what are your thoughts on keeping him away from the Major League roster? I feel like that's for the best. You're also concerned about, you've always been concerned about durability with U.N. Lin. Yeah, just his size. I think that that's always going to have to be the concern with Uminlin. 160 pounds, right?

That's what he's listed at. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully he's added a bit to that frame since. But yeah, I think, you know, he's probably going to struggle with that. Yeah, I don't really have much on it. I hope that he can just use this time to develop a little bit further. I just don't think he's ready yet. He's so young. He doesn't throw like particularly hard. Just give him some more time to cook up. It's impressive that he's made it to this level this fast, I would argue. Yeah, I mean, and he was having some success, but like R.A. said, he said, Phantomile. He hasn't looked great. He hasn't looked great as of lately. Maybe the IL stint is why he hasn't looked great. Maybe it is a phantom IL stint. Don't really know at this point.

I couldn't confirm or argue with you on that. But what I will say is that the injuries continue to pile up, including players the Diamondbacks, have traded for, in fact. Some players, young players that Diamondbacks have received as part of the trade packages have already been added to the IL this season. So it's just been one of those years for the Diamondbacks. And it's not been easy to watch for any of us. But, again, there might be some positive.

Might be some positives there. But the other young parts, the ones that are on the team, they've been doing a good job. Hopefully that continues. And hopefully this is the beginning of a bullpen that maybe isn't, you know, maybe I'm not optimistic that this is going to be the best bullpen in baseball. But hopefully a competent, competitive bullpen that can go out there like they've done so far. and hold leads. And that's all we're looking for. That and more John Curtis.

I need all the John Curtis in my life. And quite frankly, I mean, he continues to do a great job. But, you know, more John Curtis is always good for me. The bullpen, though. Good stuff, Damon. Good stuff this year from the bullpen or recently. I won't say this year. Good stuff recently.

I was going to say, what the hell are you talking about? What the hell just flew out of my mouth? Yeah, no. but we will have more hopefully there he is I was waiting for him always there always waiting his face always getting bigger head always getting bigger uh killer x wants to refund tyler lockley already sorry uh it's a no refund policy unfortunately when it comes to young trades like this but uh oh sean macfarlan he he says merrill pitched for USA he's captain america there it is that's the decisive factor i can't argue with that but uh we are going to go

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And then all you got to do is use your phone number to score Circle K deals. You can score 25 cents off per gallon on fuel when you buy three Coca-Cola 20-ounce products. You can also get cookies for a dollar each. and don't forget to text strike to 31310. That way you get yourself some goodies after every Diamondbacks game. Here are their home games. Get yourself a little freebie in your text messages as well. So do not miss out on saving money.

We all love to do that. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Damon came through with the CircleK water, which, again, we're not hydrating ourselves enough. I know most of you guys didn't do that. We really aren't.

I know people were out there were dying just for Corbyn Carol Bobbleheads at 2 p.m. in 105 degree heat. God bless every single one of you that went out there and did that. Damon, do we have some super chats to get to before we get on to the mailback? BCSC's been keeping us busy here on the super chat side of things. Was laughing at you saying mathematically that the debacks were not eliminated and says all it takes is a torque video. Then goes on. And BCSC goes on to say, who are these players?

We're still trying to figure that out, BCSC. We'll get you introduced to all of them. And then so you're telling me it's a chance. Nice booty and Noah, my baby father, I missed you, everybody else. I didn't miss JP, I love you all. I think I meant to be JK. Is the nice booty to me? I'm going to take it.

I'm just going to take the nice booty. Yeah. I don't know if Noah caught wind of that. No, I don't know. It's like he walked by the background, but he didn't. It's odd. And he was here. So it's like BCSC knew, even though he wasn't on screen.

Well, great to have you guys here. Great to reach another Mailbag Monday. Of course, you know what we do on this show. Every single year on this show is the year of the snake. Every single month on this show is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every single week on this show is Shark Week. Every day, in honor of Jesse is Passover. But on Mondays, we go the Mailbag.

Damon, let's go the Mailbag. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mail. All right. What do we got in the mailbag today, Damon? First question here comes from Russell. And Russell asks, does this three-game sweep of the Rockies make you feel better about the D-BAC's chances of getting into the wild card picture? And how will you feel when we play against Merrill Kelly?

And are we back? All right. Let's take this in three steps here. First, it does make me feel better. I think more importantly, it's more of a sigh of relief, right? Diamondbacks beating the Rockies is was imperative. The Diamondbacks sweeping the Rockies, maybe not so imperative. But again, it makes you feel like the Diamondbacks are clearly not in the same category as the Rockies, which makes you feel much better.

And again, oh. It's nice of Albert to join us during the chat. Albert joins us in the live chat instead of showing up three minutes after the show's posted to say that the deep backs are trash. So good to have you here, Albert. I will say that again. It doesn't really give me hope. I'm not going to get hope from a Rocky series. I'm not saying the Diamondbacks can't give me hope,

nor am I saying that the Diamondbacks can't use seven games here over the stretch of two weeks against the Rockies to really add to their win total and possibly get themselves out of being below 500. But for me, it's far more important how they play against the Rangers, how they play against other teams. So that for me right now is, what I'm looking at. But I think that when you see them sweep the Rockies, you feel a little bit

better, right? You feel like this team, at least, especially with the offense that we saw in the series, was, you know, the team that we came to know and love. And again, being feeling positive a little bit about the bullpen and such there. Are we back? Well, I feel like we're playing better baseball than we've played over previous stretches this year. Let's let's do it consistently. You know, like I said earlier, the Diamondbacks have put together a nice little stretch here. They have won six of their last eight games. So again, now what they do against the Rangers, what they do against the Rockies on the other side of that, that will make me maybe get a little bit excited.

But for now, I'm cautiously optimistic that at least the Diamondbacks can get themselves out of the seller, maybe be a little bit closer to 500 or perhaps above 500 and, you know, make us all feel a little bit bit better about watching this team for the next month and a half. As far as Merrill Kelly goes, I love Merrill. I think that he's an outstanding player and more importantly, he is like a valley guy. Very rarely do we get these stories of a player that comes from this place and has been a part of our sports culture here, his entire career, right? So like, yeah, it's going to suck to see the Diamondbacks take the field against Merrill Kelly. But what? What won't suck is when he comes back to us as a free agent after the season.

That won't suck. That'll feel like the Diamondbacks got away with robbery of the Texas Rangers franchise. And maybe that'll make me feel a little bit better about losing the World Series to them. But what else we got, Damon? Let's go on to the next question. Next question here comes from Travis Moore, who's batting in the two hole today, says, how are we feeling about Locklear so far? Might only be what I've seen anecdotally, but the defense and lack of consistency at the plate has me tepid.

Wow. What a absolute sentence from our guy, Travis Moore, here, brought the thesaurus out to talk to us. Does Travis want to come right for us? Because we definitely could use that for sure. Tepid is a fantastic way to feel about Tyler Lockley right near. 14 strikeouts and 32 at bats. He has five walks. He's slashing 156, 289, 250, 529 OPS, a 51 OPS plus.

Far below average. not really having I guess the greatest time defensively in the field I was pretty furious with that ball that he let kind of go in between his legs on Friday's game simply because it did not need to become what it became and it definitely turned into a bigger of a calamity

than it needed to be simply because he didn't knock the ball down so there are certain things like that that I've seen out of him that caused me to be a little little intrepid about him and him being our future first baseman over there. However, that kind of, I mean, we could talk about the wildcard stuff all we want. In reality, this is what this season is about. Guys like Tyler Locklear, guys like, I mean, Jorge Barrosa, Andrew Hoffman, you know, some of these other places, Juan Burgos getting an opportunity to play and getting a chance to make

those mistakes and get better as a major leaguer. Sometimes what you have to do is realize that. Sometimes mistakes can be made and it's not the end of the world. And maybe that causes you not to clamp up so much, causes you a little bit more freely, be yourself and again, be able to kind of play good defense. We've seen good defense out of Locklear. We've seen some good approaches at the plate.

It's just inconsistent. So I definitely agree with you when it comes to being tepid on him. However, don't, I implore anybody to not overreact to a young prospect, a young player getting called up to a major league level and not finding success immediately. And that goes for Jordan Lawler. I mean, there are some more concerns with him in regards to his ability to hit breaking stuff

and other things to his game. But we're going to see him soon too. And there's a good chance he's going to struggle as well. It's going to suck, especially in big moments where you feel like somebody else might be better in that spot. You might feel like Blaze might have gotten a hit where Jordan does it. But unfortunately, as much as we do want to look at how far they're back in the wild card and keep our fingers crossed and have that little bit of hope remain there that this team can make the postseason,

this progression for the minor league players that are becoming big leaguers is, at least for now, very important, maybe even far more important than that fleeting dream of making the postseason. I think Blaze is a good example of that, right? like he was awful, at least defensively, and then his bat really cooled off after that hot start. And then you're watching him right now, and it's like he's getting a little bit more extended period of time. The defense looks a lot better,

even though it's not perfect. The offense is rounding out into form. So, you know, I don't want to be the guy that, like, is like sounding the panic alarms. But I also was, like, leading the charge of Tyler Locklear because we just needed a first basement so bad and also Pavin Smith. I got to do my thing. It fits your agenda.

I gotta do my thing. But he hasn't been good. No. And that defensive whiffy had this weekend against the Rockies was quite bad. The ball down that was hit down the first baseline that he kind of stabbed at. I mean, that's got to be a play that's made. And it turns into at least one run, if I'm remembering it correctly. And then the hitting, he's just been, he's putting it on the ground, I think, way too much.

I don't know. I need, like, Jesse to come in with some actual, like, launch angle stats and stuff. but like I just feel like he rolls it over to the shortstop consistently. And I just need to see a little more. Definitely what he wasn't doing in AAA because especially over the month of July, he put up some incredible numbers and was hitting the hell out of the ball, especially lifting it, getting that exit angle and definitely smashing the ball, not what we're seeing at a major league level,

but again, something that they bring up quite a bit is these guys slowing the game down. right they talked about they talked about that with Lordus Gurriel Jr. and that at bat that he had against Mason Miller where he hit 103.9 mile per hour you know fastball for a home run right like taking those foul balls and

swinging at the stuff and actually putting the bat on it can slow down even 104 mile per hour pitch so really right now it's about him figuring out how to slow the game down for himself and put together those good at bats I have liked what I've seen about out of him as far as it's a person and like the number of pitches he takes.

He walks a lot. But he's sounds kind of like another guy I know. Well, right now he's not walking a lot, but he's taking a lot of pitches. Unfortunately, right now he's striking out a lot. So he's not really controlling those at bats and fouling pitches off and extending them. But he is doing a good job at at least, you know, putting together some good at bats. The results really aren't there yet. Hopefully we see that improved.

I'm looking here at his baseball savant and his watch. walk percentage is actually really high. His K percentage is very low, to your point, about him striking out a lot. And then I think, you know, in something that I somewhat remember Jesse saying to us in the past is like the hard hit percentage being a little bit higher makes sense for a guy who puts the ball on the ground as much as he does. So like his launch angle sweet spot is very low percentile. And then his barrel percentage, his hard hit percentage is a little higher.

It's still pretty low. But it's probably a matter of ground balls are typically hit hard. harder than pop-ups, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And, and again, it's, it might be about him getting sent back down. And maybe some time in Reno, uh, please know. Him hitting 400, him hitting 450 down there in Reno, comes back, has some confidence, can lift the ball.

We'll see. Here's my take. He's 24. He's a pretty highly regarded prospect. And there's a clear avenue of taking over this job right now. Sure. If he doesn't grab it full scale by the back end of this season, I think that, there's no way you can go into next season feeling comfortable that Tyler Locklear is your starting first base.

Very true. Very true. And I'm still hesitant to think that he's going to do that before the end of the season. I think that with him still being such a young prospect that there's a good chance there's still a position battle in spring training next year for first base. I don't think anything's going to be set in stone as far as what they're doing at first base over there. But again, he definitely has an opportunity there. That's one thing you can say is that so many of these young guys like Blaze have an opportunity to solidify themselves at these positions. And the competition will bring out the best in them. They have to. It has to. Hopefully what we'll see is the competition for instance, third base, develop both of those guys and make both of them better. So a lot to see this still, though.

A lot of development still for a lot of young players on this team. What else we got? Speaking of young players developing. Yeah, next question here comes from piece of Yoshi and Yoshi asks, has Hoffman progressed enough in his three outings that you guys think Tori has him as the right-handed closer? Or would you say it's still Graveman or maybe even Curtis? Do you think his left-handed counterpart is Saul Frank or Bacchus? I think that there are not, there's nobody that's a closer, right?

I think that there are high leverage guys that Tori's going to go to. And based on usage, Tori will decide. from one guy to the next. I do think that Kyle Backus right now seems to be the choice, but that doesn't mean that Andrew Saul-Frank, who's been pitching great, is somebody that could step in and be

that. For Hoffman, I think that's a lot, but I mean, we've already seen him being used in the ninth inning. So, I don't think what you're saying is that is that off base. I just think that it's probably not any one particular or two particular guys. It's probably

a mix. And, again, It's going to be based on usage and it's probably not going to have the greatest results. However, it is going to help those guys develop in high leverage situations. And I think it's going to continue to be the young guys. And quite frankly, Salfranck, I think he has done it. I'm glad that that Tori decided to go to Bacchus. I know he has had his share of struggles as well. None of them have been perfect.

But I do feel like he has the stuff there late in the game. And again, he wants the ball in high leverage situations. I think he's the guy as far as left-handers are concerned right now. They don't really have a ton of options, but I don't know. I mean, again, it's going to be based on how they're pitching and how things are going. There won't be any one guy or even two guys named as that closer option at all by Tori. Elizabeth says, what's a closer? No, no, we don't know.

We don't do closers anymore on this team. and we'll never do them ever again. What else we got? Next question here comes from Michael Rokickey and Michael asks who was playing third base yesterday and what did they do to the real Blaze Alexander? His defense has improved leaps and bounce. Damon was just talking about this, man.

I mean, that's exactly what giving these guys opportunities at playing time can do for them. I will say that Blaze is a guy that comes off is very unsurious, right? When you talk to him, Blaze is Blaze. Blaze is quite possibly more of a good vibes only guy than Gino Suarez is a good vibes only guy, right? Blaze is definitely just this very positive, you know, very, very excited to be here kind of player. And a lot of guys that kind of can drop off, Blaze doesn't seem like it's just him being excited to be called up.

Blaze Alexander strikes me as the kind of guy that just loves life and loves playing baseball. I felt like we got the deepest with him recently, right, on Friday when we had a chance to talk to him about just how much he struggled and how this year has gone for him, where it started when he was injured, when he was missing time, you know, having other guys pass him up on the depth chart and things like that versus where he got to on Friday night where he was our Kingsnake for game one of this series against Colorado. Rocky. So I think that that's the reason why for me, for sure, you can't sit there and I know it's funny to do it. I know some of us are doing it just sarcastically and whatever, but we can't sit here and see a guy like Tyler Locklear play a dozen games at a major league level and label him a bum or a bust or say that he needs to be returned back to Seattle. It does take time. what we're seeing, even out of some of the major league pieces that have been traded, we're seeing them struggle.

I mean, I know Jano had a big RBI double or whatever in yesterday's game, but he's still hitting like below 110 as a member of the Seattle Mariners. So again, let's chill. Let's wait for these guys to develop. And when we do, then we can sit here and say, like, look at how far they've come. Remember when, right? With especially guys like Blaze Alexander. But the scouting report on Blaze has always been that he's had a really strong arm and very coachable, right?

Like very willing to accept coaching, makes improvement quickly, adapts to defensive strategies and implements them. And I think that, again, that's what we're seeing out of him is just a guy dedicated at third base to playing that position, not necessarily moving around as much as he has in his career, and also getting playing time at a major league level. So I'm with you, though. I've done the glasses thing once or twice myself looking at Blaze over there at third base. I'm proud of him, quite frankly. I think he's done an amazing job at making those changes and getting better defensively over there. If you told him that, I bet you'd be like legitimately happy to hear that.

You'd be like, you know what, man, that means the world to me that you're proud of me. I legitimately mean, well, because I mean, again, it's like, especially when you start going and watching these guys like we do at a AAA double A level, you start to root for them. And I mean, sometimes- He's really easy to root. And he's such an easy guy to root for. There's so many guys in this organization that are easy to root for. It's not in the same exact way, but it's kind of like Jerry vibes in a little bit where it's just like, how could you dislike this guy? Yeah, that's very true. That's very true.

Well said. Well, said. Well, we're going to take a quick break and do some more mailbag Monday questions on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next time and back show. Well, Mountain America Credit Union wants to make sure you are rewarded. And everyone needs a check-in account. But more importantly, everyone needs to receive reward.

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And Damon, let's get back to the mailbag. What else we got? We got our next question here from Austin. Austin asking, what starting pitcher in the minors besides Bryce Jarvis could make their debut as a late call-up? Oh, that's a great question. I think that the minor league system is fairly depleted. Yeah, they're ravaged. They are ravaged.

And so, again, Yumen Lin, no longer part of that group that could be potentially called up. We don't know how bad the extent of his injury is or how much time he will miss. But, again, that's very much someone who we thought would probably be the answer to this question. In looking at Reno, one name that comes up, and I know he was just recently promoted to AAA, so maybe there's a good chance we don't see him this year. But the aforementioned Cole Drake, who was acquired from Texas in the trade for Merrill Kelly. He's currently in Reno after pitching for the AA Frisco team. this season.

AA Frisco, of course, as you remember, we visited last All-Star Break and swam in their lazy river. And let me tell you, it was better than advertised. It was a great experience. He has a 55-grade fastball and a 55-grade curbed ball, 50-grade slider and change-up. He had a 2.44 ERA and 12 games for AA Frisco. He's had a rough start in Reno so far,

but it's Reno and at least he's on his way. So it's very encouraging to see that he's at the AAA. level and continues to develop. The results are what they are. I think his ERA is like nine right now after two games. But again, I'm not certain we'll see him, but I'm not certain we'll see many guys from the minor league system this year considering how depleted that depth currently is. Another name is Dylan Ray. He has had some really good performances for the AAA arena. I don't know if he'll be ready this season. I know his numbers don't look great as well. But he's another name that we could see as far as the starting pitcher is concerned this year.

The hope is that the Diamondbacks don't need another starting pitcher. The hope is that disco there can fill that role for the remainder of the year and at least make the Diamondbacks competitive. And if he's not, then as you said, Bryce Jarvis would probably be the next man up for sure for this team. It would appear that many of you in the chat are now taking us to a different place where we are no longer hosting the show. they're giving over hosting rights to Prodomo and

and Blaze is that right? Honestly, it'd be a better show. I'd watch the hell out of that show. Groundhog Mama says Domo and Blaze co-hosting a podcast. The Frog and Dog show, who wouldn't want to listen to that? I feel like the Frog and Dog includes you, but not me.

I think that they're saying Blaze is the dog. Oh, no, that Blaze is definitely the dog. I'm probably, they got me back here producing it. You're like, maybe we, we like, throw it to the mayor and he off, you know, two dogs and a frog. You give you a 15 minute segment on the show or something. Look, I get, yeah, I'll have the, I'll do the shade, uh, thrown shade segment. No, meetings with the mayor will be just your only appearances on VHNX at this point.

I definitely describe. I would subscribe to that, like many of you are saying for sure. Um, uh, what else? Wait, yeah, that's, we're done with that one. I don't know. The dimebacks don't have any starting pictures left. So none. I don't know if we'll see any more guys.

I feel like if the depth continues to get depleted at this point, they're just going to need to go out and try to find another. Ryan makes a good point. Who's going to shill for Tori if Derek's not here? Blaze. Well, Perdom. Both of them won't. Yeah, that's fair. They both would.

I weren't heard Eduardo Escobar say he would die for Tori Lobalo. So there's no bigger shill than Eduardo Escobar, but I'm pretty sure there's some players on this team that would share that same. I'm pretty sure Jerry would take a ball. bullet for Torrey and Blaze was shilling for Sean Larkin the other night. So I can't even imagine what the guy would say about Tori Lavolo. I also love Sean Larkin as well. I don't love some of the things that have happened while he's been third base coach of this team, but I still love Sean Larkin as a person. How does, how does Killarex who, you know, hates Tori Shills, but also loves Blaze Alexander supposedly? How does he feel about that? Yeah. How do you feel about

that? Hmm. We'll wait for your comment. While we're doing that, let's get to what is favorite question of the day is going to be right now, Damon. Go ahead and read that one. Wildcat Brian asks, does Torrey return for 2026? If not, who should replace him? There was a point earlier in the season where even with the losses, I would have said no, right? But I don't know if that's the case anymore. I don't know if the answer is just an obvious no that they're not going to replace Tori Lobello this offseason. I still feel strongly like they're not. But if they do, who would you want to see in there? Right. I mean, I feel like one of the very first people that comes to mind, obviously, is Jeff Bannister, right?

Jeff Bannister feels like a very obvious replacement, considering a lot of people like Bannister. He's respected on this team already, and he kind of already manages this team as it stands. So why wouldn't you maybe give Bannister a shot? However, as Damon would be the first point out, replacing Tory LaBullo with Jeff Bannister is basically like replacing Tori Lovolo with Tori Lovallo, right? I mean, I know that he might manage differently. I know at the end of the day that Tori allows his coaches to have a lot of input on what his ultimate final decision is. However, I just feel like a lot of what Tori is getting and managing right now is already from Jeff Bannister. So I don't know if it would be that different with banning running the things.

Another name I find to be really interesting is Skip Schumacher or Shoemaker. I don't know if it's Shoemaker or Shoemaker. but former manager of the Marlins who I think it's Schumacher. Schumacher, right? But I feel like he was kind of unjustly fired after being a big part of them, their rebuild there. He's currently like a special advisor for the Texas Rangers. So I don't hate the idea of giving someone like him that had some success with a young team a chance to manage this team if you go on that direction. I do know that a lot of people want Bob Brenley to come back.

and I refuse to allow you guys to do that to that man and his health. I don't want his health to be put on the line for this baseball team. Can you imagine the sleepless night? Bob Brentley needs all the sleep he can get. And I'm not going to allow you to make him lose sleep over this baseball team. Another candidate I think that should be at least discussed as Baxter. I don't think that it's out of the question to consider Baxter. He's got a great baseball mind.

Exactly. I mean, at least put him at third base. I've already seen him over there. You've got to give him an interview. How do you not? How do you not? Maybe interview Condoleezza Rice as well. Do you remember that when the Browns were reportedly interviewing Condoleezza Rice for a head coaching role?

It's a wildful. Well, if we're interviewing people, you better interview Jesse Friedman too while we're at it. We brought him up three times, I think, on this podcast already. And you might as well throw him in there for manager of this baseball team. though I probably wouldn't want him to suffer that fate either. What I do, though, is we've got to go into overtime here. We're getting close to the final hour or end of the show. So make sure if you're watching right now on wherever you're watching,

come on over to go phtnx.com. We're going to overtime. I like to call it extra innings, but they won't make me a graphic that says extra endings. So I'm just going to stick on with calling it overtime. But in overtime, we're going to answer the silliest questions of Mailbag Monday for sure. I think we have one more, though, not silly or maybe it is silly i don't know what else we got damon let's get one more in and then we got the important questions to get to yeah last question that's unsirious or that is

serious i guess uh is from crobin carol enthusiast who asks how many games back do we need to be to start getting hope three three it's three the answer is three right at three i'll start to say crazy things on the show three games back of the wild card i'm sitting here and i'm like but I'm looking at you, Derek, and I'm going, what about it? Yeah, what about it? Let's talk about it. Yeah, no, three games back is where I start to get mad about losses again and start to like question all the little wins and, you know, ins and outs and everything like that.

Look, it's baseball. Again, they don't have a good chance. Their chances like less, I believe they still have less than a 1% chance of making the postseason, right? But that's just stupid computer numbers and computers don't. don't think a team like the Mets are going to have a complete meltdown. And you never know what can happen. You never really know what can happen to the teams that are ahead of the Diamondbacks now in the race. I think they just passed the Marlins or at least tied with the Marlins in the wildcard race.

So again, there's a lot that could happen. I don't, someone replied to our tweet and said, I don't let my hopes get up from a series with the Rockies. So I can't be disappointed by this team. And I agree with that. I think there are some people that I've been doing that since the first month of the season, not letting your hopes get up about this team so that they can't hurt you, can't crush you with their disappointment. But again, it's baseball.

And there are crazier things that have happened. And if they do make a run at it, then we collectively as a group are going to have a lot of fun watching it, covering it, talking about it together. And again, that's what sports is about. sports is about your team suddenly having a chance when they have no business having a chance and making some sort of improbable run and maybe they do fall short. Maybe they come one game short just like they did last year. Who knows?

But that's something we should all be hoping for. We should all be hoping that this team of young players can somehow galvanize over this situation, come together, start winning some baseball games and maybe do something really, really cool that we all get to be a little part of. So that's where I'm at. Let's see. Does somebody else, piece of Yoshi said 1.3% to make the playoffs currently be at fan graphs. So you're telling me there's a chance.

That's all on that. I like those odds. I'll take those odds. I really don't. Me and my squad? I want to take those odds. Me and my boys? We're not scared.

We're not scared of anything. But again, oh, Killer X is now mad at us that we're not doing post-game shows on Monday. Are you new around here? I feel like you have been screaming for Tori's job for three years. How are you new here? We've never done postgame shows on Monday, nor are we ever going to Killer X.

I'm not going to bend to your will and get rid of Mailbag Monday so I could start doing postgame shows. You know what? In fact, we're doing less postgame shows now. Less two a week now. Thanks to Killer X. And if he keeps it up, we'll reduce it down to one. What else we got in the mailbag, Damon?

Next question here comes from Ryan Hanley. And Hanley asks, what is your go-to movie theater snack? This is such a good question. First, I got to give credit to Anthony Totry. We actually had this conversation in the office. It was a real meeting of the minds. It was a real meeting of the minds.

And Tochry said nachos. And then I kind of molded over. And though I am not a nacho person, I'm not a nach person at a baseball game. I'm not a nach person at the movie theaters. Though, I will say the little convenient tray of nachos that are untouched by the cheese with the hot cheese on the side, that seems like a really good way to go in a movie theater because I tend to be disappointed with the state of my popcorn

by the time the previews are done. Right? I've put entirely too much butter on it. They let me just put the butter on it myself, Damon. And I'm, you know, that's a bad idea. I'm just going to. I'm going to go way too hard. Oh, it's exactly.

Got to eat it with a spoon. The shorts I'm wearing, never going to get to wear the shorts. that I wore that movie ever again, just stained with oil all over them. But nachos are pretty good. My go-to snack, to be honest, is if we're talking about what I get at the movies, kids combo, every single time, kids combo, a little tiny bit of popcorn, a little tiny drink that I can fill up with whatever I've filled up with. They don't have to know that I put icy in it.

And then for a small charge, you can upgrade the fruit snacks to a candy, and I upgrade that to chocolate raisinette. and then I pour my chocolate raisin heads Kevin, I mean, in my popcorn. My God, that's Kevin Thomas's music. Yeah. This guy is ready. Popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream sandwich.

Wow. That's a lot. My God, man. That is a lot. My guy's bringing a briefcase. Is he making multiple trips back to the snack stand or is he getting all of that in one purchase? Is the ice cream melting before he gets to it?

Yeah, you got to have ice cream first then. you have to have ice cream first then it's reverse order but i think when you're just putting trash in your mouth that it doesn't really matter what order you put it in it's all sugar and snacks and it really doesn't matter if it's uh if it's ice cream or whatever uh ernesto says popcorn soda and illegal dots illegal dots i'm interested are we 10 milligram illegal dots or 50 milligram illegal dots just curious you peterrex interest now here here's a here's a wrench i want to throw under this conversation. And Sean throws in a dino nuggies.

Always a solid trip or opportunity there. I was going to say, what about like mozzarella sticks? No. No, that's a bit much like I've seen sliders. They have sliders. Are we venturing out? Like we're almost into one of those places where you're getting a full meal while you're sitting there.

Yeah. It's one of those full dine in movie theaters. Yeah. I mean, I will say that. I mean like AMCs have like mozzarella sticks. Sure. It's like a nice, easy just like how could you screw it up? You just dip it.

I'm a baseball guy. I'll take hot dogs anytime. I know that some of them serve hot dogs, right? So that seems very reasonable. Mark R, great to see you in the chat. He says, hey, Derek and Kebbo. Wow. It has been a long time since you've got the live show.

He beat me up and we kicked him off the show. I don't know if you saw that. There was a festival of friendship. It ended poorly. Damon's back now. No, Mark got me. He said in Damon, of course. Okay, all right.

I just want to make sure he's in there. All right. We got another food-related. question. Elizabeth says mine has tots and casos. Oh, tots and queso. That sounds like... That does sound fire. That sounds fire. See, I do, again... Killer X disagrees

with me, which means that it was a good take. Yes, yes. So I think you lost that one. I unfortunately, I don't ever want to be on the same side as Killer Rex, that's for sure. But I will say, the idea of something that does have like hot cheese that I can dip in while I'm watching the movie. Like, maybe we can get some Wetzels

pretz and a little tray. I've never seen that at a movie theater. Like, little pretzel bites. I need pretzel bites. So just to be clear, that's the hot cheese that you want. But my hot cheese suggestion was not good enough. Okay, yours is a fried vessel with cheese in the middle.

But see, now there's a time frame on eating that. You know I don't like mozzarella sticks when they get cold. And I have to eat that what? Really fast? Like, don't, I want to enjoy my snack throughout the movie. I don't want to just eat it all during the trailers. That's why I don't want. That would be

great. Specifically, can we get a chocolate fondue fountain I'll take that as well we got a more important food question to get to it's Elizabeth no offense to you Ryan I love you Ryan but we got to get to the real food question here which is what goes in the perfect burger

she's just going to bring this whole office to a whole. Oh my God the chat is like everyone's going to have their own opinion see I'm I'm a man who at one time of my life enjoyed a good fudracker burger and I have come so far from that.

So you change as life goes on. I think smash burgers have kind of won my heart over. I love the idea of having like three smaller patties that are like covered in cheese, you know, all together, but reasonably sized, not outrageous. I don't want a burger that's so big that I feel like a full eating it. I don't want it to be gigantic and all falling apart. And I feel like that's the problem with most burgers that people consider to be like a fancier burger.

they just add more toppings onto it. I don't need more toppings. It's not a matter of toppings. It's a matter of the bread being perfect, the meat being perfect, the cheese being perfect, and then adding grilled onions and maybe some grilled jalapenos to it, right? Maybe putting some Texas toast as the bun. Yeah, basically a patty melt is the perfect burger. Damon and I have come to agree with.

Derek and I off air were very much. I mean, I'm all in on the patty melt, guys, and I don't really care what anybody else thinks about it. The perfect burger for me is a patty meal. add grilled jalapenos. It's every time it's never missed. Sometimes it's better than other times, but again, it's never, the floor is extremely high. Right. I've got a really high floor. I can't always get the jalapinos, but I will always get the grilled onions. I got tummy issues too. I will always get the grilled onions. I got tummy issues too, Derek, but some things are just more important in life. You're right. You're right. And I mean, in this case, it's grilled jalapenos. See, I've, I've, I've tried

all of the fancy, I've tried all of the fancy little stuff. Like I've tried the grilled cheese burger. Someone brought that up. Grilled cheese sandwiches on top and bottom, right? Too much bread. I love the idea of it. Love the concept. Love grilled cheese. Love eating two sandwiches. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world, especially at the same time.

It's too much bread. Double decker. Yeah. It's like if it's done properly, especially in a patty melt form, you're basically getting a grilled cheese. You're getting all the great parts of a grilled cheese. You're getting some great sourdough bread or some other bread that's getting pressed on a grill with some butter on it. And that's always amazing. But more importantly, I want lots of cheese.

I want lots of meat. I want lots of onions on it. I love that. It's not even a big, like, I have to have sauces on it or anything like that. Like, I'm simple. I like mayo and ketchup and things, right? A little bit of mustard even. I'm not even a big mustard guy, a little bit of mustard.

But I did go to a hotel in San Diego. I think I've told this story before. It was during Comic Con. And the person behind the bar basically urged me not to get anything on the burger. Said the way the burger is served is simply meat, cheese, and bun. And he will bring me whatever toppings I want. However, it came with a side of garlic, So he suggested that I don't even touch my plate with ketchup.

And I thought this man was an insane person, but it was a rainy, dreary day in San Diego. COVID was in full swing. All the really big celebrities decided to opt out of Comic-Con. I wasn't in a good mood. But I had this little respite of this cheeseburger. And quite frankly, it was one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever had in my entire life. I don't know what kind of magic they put into it. I don't know why the simple grease and juice from the burger was enough to make

it have like be fulfilling without a sauce, ketchup on it, anything, but sometimes the best burger can be just so simple and still be amazing. I think it's about not having a frozen patty. It's about, you know, again, grilling it correctly, and it's about having a little salt, little pepper. It's all you need. Cheese, onions, grilled onions. Sean says grilled onions. Give me all the grilled onions. I would almost prefer more grilled onions than patty.

Carmelized onions. How on earth is this a free ad? We haven't named a single company. Bad jimmies has incredible burgers. Bad jimmy's. I've been describing bad jimis this entire time. I know it's expensive. I know Max is going to be furious with me, but it's bad jimmies.

I've been sitting here describing bad jimmy's this whole time. That's what he gets, though. He literally came out of the woodworks. We were trying our best to not give free ads. And then he has to just open his business. man's like, oh, and now here we go. I want you to talk about Shake Shack right now, which the Shake Jack burger with the fried mushroom on top.

Incredible. Another great. That is a good. That is a good burger. Yeah, where the one patty is a patty and then, oh, it's so much. A lot of people asking about egg. I also had a miserable experience with egg on a burger, but I do like egg on a burger. I think it's good.

Yeah, that's good stuff. But I had another experience where at Gordon Ramsey's, they have a farmhouse burger, and it was the only burger that had bacon on it, oddly enough. None of Gordon Ramsey's other burgers have bacon on it. Get your crap together, Gordon Ramsey. And apparently the yolk from the egg was intended to be the juice for the burger. No ketchup, no mayo, no nothing on it. This is the polar opposite of the San Diego Comic-Con trip because this burger sucked.

And the egg yolk all ran out the side. And I had a dry, terrible breakfast sandwich, basically for a burger. And that's how I ended that one. Devastating. Ryan put in a good shout too. I want to just say, you know, shout out my green chili people out there. Oh, yeah. That's a great call as well.

great calls well that doesn't miss no again there's there's some simple uh toppings that can definitely improve a burger and and take it to a five-star burger i don't want um a whole bunch of toppings on it anymore and i refuse to do that uh but that's where i stand i'd love to hear from you guys in the comments of course love that you guys are here in the live chat if you're watching this afterwards i'llbert wilson what's your favorite burger topping first tell us the deback suck and then tell us your favorite burger topping we'd love to hear from you kill erx go ahead and drop a line about Tori being fired and then tell us your burger topping. But I don't mean to make you guys one-dimensional.

You're human beings. Have better opinions is basically what I'm saying. But he says you guys used to be Wendy Schills. What happened? I'm a Wendy's Schill in my heart until the end of time, quite frankly. Pro-discovered business. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a frosty take, KillerX. That's a frosty take. But we appreciate you being here. We appreciate all you guys stopping by. We will see you tomorrow for a post-game show. So make sure to stop by for this. that in the meantime, make sure to follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Cedman with a K.

Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end. We are all Damon's dogs, bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBACs, excuse me, underscore D-Backs, but all roads. As always lead to pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again so much for your time. We will see you tomorrow. Until then, enjoy tonight's game. Hopefully the Diamondbacks can get the series started with a win against a very tough starting pitcher on the mound.

And behave yourselves. and more importantly, come back here tomorrow for another postgame show. Until then, have a wonderful evening and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your burger has grilled onions on it. Are you serious? Hey, we forgot Super Jads. So if you guys are still here, B.comC clearly gave us like six super chats. Damon's going to read them all and it's going to be very embarrassing.

I thought you thought you could get rid of us that easily? No, no chance. Damon go. Where is my Jalen Green video? That's the wrong show. Jail and Green can't hide forever. also the wrong show. I'm a grab it.

Yeah. Nice. Okay. There was a little, no booty on this team now. That's true. I'm still here, though. Tyler Locklear disagrees. Yeah, yeah.

If we meet Nathan tonight and the Rangers, y'all don't go live. That's a disservice to us. Okay, wait. No, I didn't know that BCSC wanted us to go live. I didn't know that. Well, maybe we'll consider it now. We don't care about what Killer Rex has to say. And then VCSC says that championship stays in Columbus, by the way.

I don't know that reference. All right. Well, we got them all in. Well, thank you guys again for your time. Remember kids. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you read all of those super chats the first time.