PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is Ketel Marte The FRONTRUNNER For NL MVP With Mookie Betts On IL?

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Coming off a series victory over the Chicago White Sox, the Diamondbacks look to stay hot against an equally hot Nationals team in Washington, DC. But there may not be a hotter player in the NL right now than Ketel Marte. Is he becoming a front runner for the NL MVP? We discuss his chances, answers to your Mailbag Monday questions, and more!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. 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.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ski to you all and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX T-Backs podcast writing on PHNX. My name is the mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This man next to me is always known as the vice mayor of PHNX, casually known as Jesse Friedman. And of course, I know him as the Thunderstick. But Jesse, speaking of the Thunderstick, the Diamondbacks absolutely blew up offensively in this series against the Chicago White Sox. I guess you could say in two out of the three games, winning two out of the three games.

doing essentially what they should be doing, taking care of business against a team that they should be taking care of business. I guess my first question before we talk about the series is any disappointment here with the way that the White Sox were playing that the Diamondbacks did not sweep them. I mean, should we be expecting the Diamondbacks

to sweep a team like the Sox? I mean, sweeps are always just difficult in general, I feel like. But yeah, I mean like from the White Sox standpoint, winning one out of three games is like an above average outcome for them. I think their win percentage coming in is like 25%, maybe even a touch lower than that. So yeah, like the debacks did take care of business. I think you can call winning two out of three taking care of business.

But they still did fall short of something that did feel pretty attainable, which is sweeping the series. That Saturday game was ugly for a lot of reasons, which we'll get into. Eric Fetty had a lot of base runners early. in the game, but allowed a lot of base runners really in the game, but was able to work out of trouble and wound up throwing six innings of two run ball. DeBox lose that one nine to two. That was, that was ugly pretty much across the board. Well, and not to start off on the negative, but let's just get into that game a little bit because that was the one they lost. And a lot of weird things happened

in that game, including an intentional bach, which you actually had to write an article about because of how absurd the concept is. So explain to the people who may have missed it why Tori Lavallo chose a coaching strategy that involved an intentional block. Yeah, you don't see that every day, Derek. I don't know if I've ever seen that, at least not like at a game that I had ever attended in person.

But yeah, basically the story goes, Martin Maldonado doubled somehow. It was like his third extra base hit of the season. That was really where the mistakes really started for the Diamondbacks in that inning. So he's on second base with one out. And this is, Tiago Vieira is on the mound for the diamond back reliever.

He's only been with the team for about a week and a half. And Maldonado, according to Lavello, has a very strong reputation as a sign stealer. And people might be wondering in the era of pitchcom, which Vieira was using pitchcom, I know maybe some people floating out that he was not using pitchcom. He was using pitchcom. You can clearly tell if you watch,

if you watch the replay, Gabby's, you know, punching in the buttons and all that. So he is using pitchcom. However, Maldonado could still tell what Vierre was throwing based on the way the Vierre was gripping the ball. You're on second base. You have like a pretty good vantage point for that.

You can kind of see a pitcher, you know, rub up the baseball and, and, you know, get the grip the way they want it and all that. And so Maldonado, apparently, according to Lavello, was relaying what pitch was coming every single time to the White Sox hitter. And he went nine for nine, according to the Diamondbacks dugout. That is what they had deciphered.

And so they were like, all right, we don't want Martin Maldonado. Enough of this. Feeding pitches to the hitter for the rest of this inning. And so they decided that they would rather have Martin Maldonado at third base instead of second. So Tori Lavello comes out and sort of bizarrely, I mean, anytime you see Tori come out to not make a, to do anything but make a pitching change, it's a bit of an odd situation. You could tell Vieira was a little kind of shook by it, a little bit shocked

to see Levello. What are you doing here? And yeah, it was pretty easy to read his lips, frankly. If you go back and watch that clip of the game, Lavello, I think three separate times during that mound visit, uses the phrase drop the ball. He told Vieira to drop the ball,

which caused a Bach, which moved Maldonado from second base to third base. And then, of course... It's got to be weird for, you know, Vieira, obviously, for not really knowing what was going, on, but just having Tori look at you and telling you, drop the ball. Like you're like, wait, no, because if I do that, that's a bach.

He's like, yeah, yeah. Exactly. That's exactly what we're going for you. Yeah, it was, it was bizarre for sure. Some people thought that maybe he was hearing the pitchcom, which I, like, I know that hear pitchcom from that far away. It's a bone conductor technology. So it's not necessarily a speaker.

It is a speaker, but it's, it doesn't go into the ear, goes into the hat. And when it touches up against like your temple, it allows you to hear what is being said. There's actually bone conductor like headphones you can get that is similar technology out there. Right. And it's for usually like sleeping or running or something of that sort, right? But yeah, there's no way. Like it may be, maybe because there was a case in spring training when a catcher had his pitchcom turned up a little too high and the batter could actually hear it.

Maybe with the catcher that would be different. But these were signs being stolen from Vieira on the mound. And yeah, like Jesse said, it was a grip situation where he was picking up on it. Yeah, he's good at that. And, I mean, again, that's a valuable. It's not illegal. It's allowed. Yeah.

And Torreys moved him over to third. So he couldn't do that any longer. And then it still didn't work out for them because the next batter singled and drove him. Yeah, I think it was the next pitch, if I'm remembering correctly. The next pitch from the air to Andrew Vaughn, which theoretically, Vaughn now did not know what was coming. And yet it was still a fastball sort of left out over the middle of the plate. And Vaughn hit it right back up. middle and maldonado of course being a very slow base runner likely would not have scored if

lebello had left him at second base so it was that kind of night for the debacks right like everything that could have gone wrong basically did and that sort of changed the change the course of the game a little bit like that tied the game at one and the diamond backs did not have a lead the rest of the way but they did have a lead in the other games and they absolutely whooped the white socks in game one in game three I got to be present for the whooping in game three, which lasted entirely too long there at the end. We needed to just get out of that a little sooner. But Diamondbacks win 7 to 1 on Friday. They won 12 to 5 yesterday.

And of course, let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union to take a look at the numbers from this series of the whole. Diamondbacks outscored the White Sox 21 to 15. Again, very much felt like they outscored them more than that in this series. They out hit the White Sox, or the White Sox outhit the Diamondbacks 31 to 29. That doesn't, that probably doesn't feel great, right? The White Sox out hit the Diamondbacks in the series. It doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. But at the same time, it's because the Diamondbacks were fairly efficient, they got guys on base in, you know, in several different ways.

They were patient. They had some walks in there. Both teams were almost a push there for runners in scoring position. White Sox were 8 for 28 and the series Diamondbacks were 8 for 26. Starting ERA, absolutely incredible here for the Diamondbacks. 1.35. Now obviously one of those starts is kind of a Scott McGuff. Scott McGuff start, two and a thirds, one earn run loud to the White Sox 9.24 starting pitching ERA.

And then a little bit of a flip flop there. Relief pitching was pretty good for the White Sox 3.65 where the Diamondbacks was fairly atrocious at 7.90. But hey, yeah, I'll take that 1.3. three five starting pitching excellent jordan montgomery very good yesterday for this team didn't allow a run in five innings pitched yeah definitely another another step in the right direction for montgomery good to see uh five innings where he did not allow an earned run uh and he had 18 whiffs in this game as well which is a really big number for him i think it was 10 out of 12 swings on changeups were were uh were wiffs and then six out of 11 on his curveball i believe as well so yeah his his stuff looked

looked good. I would say the Sinker Velo was back to like 91.5 or something like that. So the Sinker Velo, I don't really expect that to get back up to where it was at this point. You know, there's certainly still time in the season. Maybe it ticks up the rest of the way. But we're not really seeing that on a consistent basis. Nonetheless, he was still effective in that game. And his command was better for sure.

You saw more curve balls, more changeups, kind of dotting that lower outside corner to righties. or just off the plate or just under the bottom of the zone. So yeah, a big step in the right direction for him for sure. Well, we got to award our King Snake for the series. And that goes to our guy, Jock Peterson, that provided quite a lot of offense in this series. Three for nine, one home run, five RBI, five runs scored. And Jock is just continuing on his streak of this being fairly what he does.

I mean, hitting around 300, you know, driving in runs like we're seeing We're seeing him get those runs in even if it's not with a big home run like he had. But I mean, this is just turned out to be a very good signing. And I mean, Jock has just been a really pleasant surprise for this team at D.H. Yeah, he's been really fantastic. Jock, I don't have it in front of me. I think he has a 156 OPS plus 159, something like that. And that's the highest mark of his career.

Jock Peterson is having the best season that he has ever had with the Diamondbacks right now. And obviously there's still a long way to go in this 2024 season, but he's been everything you could have hoped for in that DH slot. I guess you could say Belgian draft horses, when they come to start knowing each other, could pull more weight, Jesse, is what you're saying. They're stronger together. A connected Belgian draft horse team is a dangerous Belgian draft horse team.

Did you guys notice how much Jock ran yesterday at the game? So in the first inning, right, he hits he gets thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple oh yeah yeah and then like he tried to score he scored from first on another play he like went from first to third on a different play like he's got wheels he ran like he's got a mile on the base pass yesterday it was pretty wild he's a good base runner that's one thing people don't realize about jock is that he he's not fast but he's a smart bass runner his reads are often are often very good uh except for in that first yeah got thrown out third base. But yeah, that's more the

exception than the rule for him, for sure. We got anything else from the series? Yeah, I mean, I think the Sunday game was, you know, if the Diamondbacks had lost yesterday, I, you know, I fear for what our chat would look like

right now. It's wild. Yeah, one game does make all the difference, right? But I mean, let's let's be honest right now. There are only four teams in the National League, Jesse, with a winning record. Four teams. That's it. The three division current leaders and the Braves. And who knows how long the Braves will have a winning record for. But right now, every single team in the

National League outside of the Rockies and the Marlins. And that's not a diss at them. They're both double digits. So they're distant away from the pack. But everybody else is within two games. Within two games of the two wild card spots, not the one wild card spot. Within two wildcard spots, two games. I mean, I've never seen anything like this and it makes it fun, but it also makes, you know, taking a look at the wild card standings every single day, kind of, you know, something that that seems ridiculous right now. Like so much is going to change every single day that you can't really get too hung up on where the Diamondbacks currently are as long as they are one of these teams, you know, in the pack. I mean, the Mets are pretty much unstoppable since Grimmis

throughout the first pitch at a baseball game. Obviously, The answer there is we got to call Ronald McDonald and get him out here to chase field somehow, just to give the Diamondbacks that same kind of that rub. But I mean, this is a really close race right now. And we've spoke at length about how important it was for the Diamondbacks while they were waiting for Perdomo and Thomas and Gallen and Kelly and Erod all to come back, that they just needed to stay relevant. They just needed to stay close. And they are absolutely right there in this race. I think a half a game back right now.

Yeah, another just wild fact about this Diamondbacks team right now is that they have not played a game decided by fewer than five runs since not this past Thursday, but the Thursday before that. Oh, yeah, because they got blown out by the White Sox and the loss. The last three games in the Padre series were all blowouts or at least five runs or more. And then all three games in the Angels series were that way and all three games in this. White Sox series were that way as well. So I haven't, I don't really know how I would look up if this is the longest span of games like that in Diamondbacks history. But I have to suspect that it is because this is a very, very long time without the Diamondbacks

playing a game that was like even remotely close by the end, which I kind of missed, Derek, honestly. I mean, you know, I guess, you know, if you're a fan of this team, maybe you enjoy the kind of stress-free nature of some of these games recently. But, yeah, it's, you know, it's fun to. have games be like close at the end too. I mean, especially if let's just say hypothetically you were to do a show about the Diamondbacks as a postgame show, right?

You would maybe want it to come down to the end so that people stay engaged as much as possible and then we're excited to watch your show instead of checking out in the third inning because the Diamondbacks have a seven run lead. But whatever, it is what it is. You know, you can't have everything you want in life sometimes. I saw Elise in the chat said that she wanted Hamburgler as our McDonald's mess. I'm offended because obviously I think that our mascot should obviously be Mayor McChese. Like there's no reason why we can't have two mayors on this set.

But speaking of, I mean, I guess All-Stars, speaking of important parts of the team, we do have to talk about Cotel Marte and the fact that he continues to have the incredible season that he is having. And he continues to put up some impressive numbers that believe it or not might back up the case of him being a front runner for the MVP currently at least currently if we're going to talk about the wildcard standing let's currently talk about what kattels at in the MVP race yeah we'll get into of course they just released the all-star voting update which yes Derek will be yelling about that a little bit later on the show but yeah MVP for kattel martay is is very much a reasonable conversation to be

having in terms of him being a frontrunner a very big development. that came down over the weekend is that Mookie Betz has a fracture in his left hand and is going to miss significant time. I don't think we know exactly how long. It's not a season-ending injury from what we've heard, but probably more than a month. I mean, if you fracture your hand, I don't think he's going to need surgery, but it's still going to take a while to come back from that. Probably safe to say that Mookie Betz is not going to win the MVP award just on the grounds of,

you know, if you miss six weeks or whatever. Time missed it. Yeah, it's pretty tough to, you know, really have a case as an MVP candidate. it in that situation. Not to mention that's going to keep his bat out of his hand. So it's not like he's going to have a chance to stay actively kind of, I guess, not stretched out, but, you know, like it's going to take him a while to get back to form. Yeah, absolutely.

So, yeah, I mean, looking at the other, if we sort of put Mookie aside and look at the other MVP candidates in the National League right now, Ketel, you could argue is number one, Derek. Ketel Marte this season leads all National League position players with four. wins above replacement, which is a very, very big number. You're looking at on pace for around 10 by the end of the season, something like that, nine or 10. F war, he's at 3.1, which is also a big number, although not the highest. I believe there's one guy in the National League who hasn't beat in F war, and that is one show,

Hey, O-Tani, who is at 3.4 and has a 174 OPS plus, which is just wild as a DH. That's wild to have that much value, right? because war takes into consideration both defensive and offense war. We know Catell's had a great year on both sides of the ball, but for Otani to have that much value simply as a hitter is incredible. Yeah, yeah, it really is. But we've never. He's not too far behind Otani as far as the numbers go.

Yeah, yeah. And we've never had a designated hitter win the MVP award in Major League Baseball. So that would be a first. But yeah, I mean, outside of Marte and Otani, Marcelo Zuna has had an outstanding season. He has a 181 OBS plus, even higher than Otani. He's at 2.7B war and 2.8F war. William Contreras had a really big season with the Milwaukee Brewers. He's at 2.7B war, 2.6F4.

And then also in that kind of same war range, Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper as well. All of those guys, with the exception of Contreras, have clearly better offensive numbers than Catelle-Marté does. But Catele-Marty leads baseball, I believe, in defensive run. and has put up so much defensive value this season that his war numbers are actually higher than all of those guys. Again, with the exception of Otani. Otani hasn't beat just slightly on the fan graph side. So he has a very legitimate case right now, Derek,

which is pretty crazy to say. And that's him saying that. That's not me saying that. You know, I'm letting him speak because you're not going to believe me, but you'll believe Jesse when he says it. And I think the numbers absolutely prove that, not to mention the fact that we know, Kattel has, you know, had his career hitting streak.

You could say what you will about it being singles and whatever, but let's get Luis Araze out of the voting if we're going to talk about guys hitting singles. I was going to ask where Luis Arias falls in the NL MVP conversation. Nowhere. Luis Arise is not at all involved in the NL. But how could that be, Jesse? He's a 3.30 hitter. Yeah, and he's so good.

And he's leading, you know, he's on track to start at second base in the also game. I'm mad. We'll get into that a little bit. Yeah, of course we will. But we thank you guys, of course, for being here in the PHN Export YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. Excuse me.

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You see, this is what happens. He completely checks out. and doesn't listen to me during the ad reads. I would never do that, Derek. That would be ridiculous. But he has terrible service, so that's probably why I don't call him to get him to pay attention to me. But Jesse's going to, I'm going to convince him to ditch his overpriced service and get in on Mint Mobile's limited time deal, getting three months of premium wireless service for just $15 a month. That is outrageous.

It's outrageous, right? Now that I'm coming to terms with what you've been saying for the last minute, $15 a month is an incredible deal. Look, I'm used to people ignoring me. My wife ignores me. My child ignores me. Jesse ignores me. Damon always listens. He always listens.

I was going to say, I'm locked in on your ad reads. He never doesn't listen to me. I have thoughts too every time. Sometimes I just keep to myself, though. The wild part about people not listening is the fact that I'm calling them on Mintmobile and I have crystal clear service so they can hear me. They just refuse to listen to me. But to get this new customer offer and your new three-month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month,

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In partnership with Kansas-Crossing Casino and Hotel. See betmGM.com for terms. U.S. promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Well, it is Monday, and you know what we do every Monday around here. You know that every year, of course, on this show is our year. Every month on this show is Pride Month. Every week on this show, Shark Week, every day on this show, Earth Day.

But of course, on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go! Shout out to our guy, Megaram, by the way, performing on an international. enormous stage in the UK this weekend at the Download Fest. And that was amazing. I've never seen that guy. Were you there? No, I was just, I was getting sent videos of him, like hiding backstage and taking videos

of how big the crowd was because. Glad he made it. Yeah. It was a little bit of an adventure of him getting to the UK. But, Damon, let's get to the questions. What do we got? All right. We got our boy, Travis Moore, starting us off per usual.

And he says, if we got Gabby and Lordus to perform the fusion technique, assuming together that they stayed as the team catcher. How would the outfield look upon the return of Alec Thomas, Thomas in center field, Corbyn and left field, McCarthy slash Gritchick in right field? So just to explain the Jesse, because I know he doesn't understand the fusion technique, that's a

Dragon Ball Z thing where like two guys become one. I mean that... It's self-explanatory. Yeah, that I kind of got. Yeah. So like in this case, Gabby would get taller, but Lordus would have an incredible arm. But yeah, the purple hair would stay for sure. But maybe it'd be like yellow

and purple. I don't know. That's a whole other thing. I could do a whole bit on that alone. But let's talk about the outfield because, yeah, I think he's fairly dead on. I mean, I think we've seen Torrey going to Gritchick a little bit more and not just using him situationally and trying to just have his bat in the lineup, considering what he's done for this team this season. But I mean, yeah, I mean, I think that what Travis said would be kind of the outfield if we had our perfect world. So just so I'm clear, Lourdes is now... He doesn't exist. He catches? He catches, yeah. He catches. Okay, okay. Yeah, but he's still like six, you know, seven.

Yeah, yeah, he's quite a build for a catcher. Poor guy. His knees are, that's going to be rough. Yeah, I mean, I guess in this very interesting universe that is being proposed here, Alec Thomas certainly would be in center fields. Corbyn, yeah, left field is kind of as always felt like the most. ideal position for him defensively. His arm certainly will play better there.

And then in right field, yeah, Jake McCarthy has gotten quite a bit of run there this season. And Randall Grishick has honestly been quite good against both lefties and righties. We've started to see Torrey use Grishick more against right-handed pitchers. And we might continue to see that if he, you know, continues to have good game after good game against righties. His splits this year are quite even.

So, yeah, I mean, I think Travis is pretty much on point here. It'd be McCarthy and right against righties for the most part. And then, you know, Grishick just kind of filling in the gaps. And you can also use Grishik in the DH slot as well. I know we've seen Blaze Alexander get some run in that spot against lefties. But certainly possible we could see Grishik use there more moving forward. Well, and Alec Thomas could be back before we know it.

And obviously this is going to be a problem, I guess a good problem, but a problem Tori is going to have as far as balancing playing time and who's out there and, you know, who's doing what at what time. So might be even more complicated than this because I don't see Lordis. Actually fusing with Gabby. Yeah. I don't know. I saw him in the dugout, you know, nuzzling that one day.

I still think that's very much a possible. You don't find that realistic. I very much find it realistic. I don't. Yeah, I have a hard time talking myself in that one. He's a man of science. Yeah. So anyway, what else we got there?

Damon. Next question comes from Peace of Yoshi and he asks, Are we ever going to have a fully healthy outfield? Is Alec Thomas's return immediately going to be followed by news that every bone and lardis's body has broken? Well, we already talked about that. He's going to be consumed essentially into a single person with Gabby. But I know it feels like that, right? I mean, we have this injury to Corby and Carol now.

And it feels like, you know, of course, everybody is very worried about this. We did get an update. I think we should just discuss it now. I mean, we did get an update from Nick Piccoro today on Corbyn Carroll's MRI. Yeah, Nick said that Corbin's left side issue does not appear to be serious. He underwent an MRI on Monday morning that did not reveal significant damage to his left side. And Nick also said it is possible that Corbin will be back in the starting lineup on Tuesday. So good news.

Yeah, might not miss any time at all. Good news all the way around there. Well, and so to answer that question, we absolutely could see a healthy outfield by the Phillies series or maybe just after that, depending on Alex. Thomas's timeline and how he feels after he plays in those I mean imagine he's going to get it looks like it's start yeah it looks like he is so he I believe he's playing in the AzeL today and then we'll travel to Salt Lake City I think that's where Reno is right now and then he will start playing for them on Wednesday and then Tori said he will likely be there through the weekend so you're probably looking at next home stand for the return of Alec Thomas well

Still good to see him back. So hopefully by then nobody else becomes broken in that time frame. All right, Damon, what else do we got? Next question here comes from the Craig Jr. 22 on Twitter and he says, does Corbyn Carol take baths? Oh, I mean, yeah, never mind. I got nothing other than how freaking deserving Christian Walker deserves to be in the All-Star game. Yeah, I mean, it's it's crazy that he is where he is at in All-Star voting. It doesn't make any sense. but I think that again Christian Walker at times is one of those guys that doesn't really get the national love he deserves

I don't know I mean it's like they have him on MLB network all the time it's not like he doesn't get the actual opportunities he he's a very fun interview so I think they like having him on and he's a very good player he's one of he is the best defensive first basement in baseball he is one of the best offensive first basement in baseball So it doesn't make a lot of sense to me other than people nationally just really don't know who he is.

And when they look at the, you know, voting, they vote for the names they recognize. I mean, that's what it really feels like. Yeah, I mean, I think Christian Walker is pretty clearly the third most deserving first baseman right now in the National League. You've got Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman. Those guys are going to be there. I can pretty much bank on that right now. But Walker is in third place right now. I think pretty clearly.

You look at his offensive numbers. He has a better OPS plus than Pete Alonzo, a better Ops plus than Matt Olson as of right now. And as you said, defensively, you know, he's better than all these guys. So it really will come down in my mind to how many first basemen the National League wind up carrying. Last season, the National League had three first baseman, but the American League only at two. So I think you can kind of go either way on that. And there's also, you know, all the other variables of every team. needing a representative.

Some guys are going to make it just for that reason. No matter what happens with Cattel, whether he starts or not, he's going to make the All-Star game. I think we can say that pretty confidently. So Walker's not going to make it just on the basis of like the Diamondbacks needing a representative. So the past seems a little a little bit murky to me for those reasons right now. Get out there and vote. But yeah. Create fake accounts.

Go vote. What are you doing right now? I mean, you could have this screen open and get another screen open and go vote, right? Yeah. I don't know. We'll try. A piece of Yoshi says people don't know defensive metrics, and the ballot doesn't show defensive metrics. Yeah, people don't really vote on that.

But even on the basis of his offensive numbers, he still is pretty clearly in third place right now. And if the NL does carry through first baseman, then he would be the most logical addition. I love Elise so much because this is my thought process, not just with All-Star votes, but with awards in general. She says he totally deserves it. But to be honest, it might also help the debacks have a better chance to re-sign. him contract wise if he doesn't make it laughing emoji not laughing emoji because i know you mean it deep down inside because sometimes that's that's how it went with zagallon with the sa yung like if you had a sly young on his belt we're never reciting zagallan right so it's not that i'm rooting

actively against it especially when they deserve it but it does make you you know maybe be like all right well there's there's a silver lining to him not getting that acknowledgement uh ernesto says in the chat i'm being 100% serious, but the debacks need a hydration. Rehydration program. Too many strains, pulled muscles from a team based in the desert. I think Ernesto works for prime. I'm not sure. You might work for prime energy drink, but I don't know. That's just my guess.

What else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Austin Chattonberg. And he says, do we have an update on Castro? I know he's been throwing bullpens, but has not been activated as of this writing. He has been an afterthought with the bullpen performing good as of late. Yeah, you're right. Because right now they don't. don't really need him.

And I'm not saying they don't need him. They can use all the arms they can get. They could probably use McGa Castro. They probably could, right? I mean, especially when he was on point. And again, who knows how much that injury, how long that injury was potentially impacting him for? And how much better he might be now that he's recovered from it and had a little time, you know, just a little time off. Yeah.

So the update there, he threw a bullpen, I believe, on Friday. I think he had thrown another one on Tuesday. So he's a couple bullpins in at this point. And I don't know exactly what the next steps are. I imagine the Diamondbacks would want him to face hitters. Amazing complex league game. Yeah, maybe a Sim game situation. And then eventually they'd probably want to get him up to Reno.

And then he could rejoin the team after that. But yeah, I mean, being a couple bullpins in and being a reliever who doesn't need to build up workload, he really shouldn't be that far away. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw Castro. back with the debacks within a week or so, if all these boxes can continue to be checked. And yeah, I do think they could use him. I mean, you've got some, you've got some guys like, I think we, you know, feel pretty good probably about the positive role guys in this bullpen right now,

Justin Martinez and Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkle and Paul Seawald's. But, you know, in some of these games where the debacks have gotten behind, the relievers they've put in have not necessarily helped them out in those situations. Sure. Miguel Castro, although, you know, maybe he's not a guy you want closing games. Maybe he's not a guy you want pitching in the eighth inning when you're up by a run. But he could still be really helpful, I think, to this team in some of those other situations. So hopefully, hopefully he's able to be back here soon.

Yeah. All right. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Justin McDermott. And he says, I thought Drew Jones was training in a very positive direction. But then this morning a report hit that scouts or still seeing him as a troubled asset. What am I to make of this? First, Jesse corrected me on this.

It's McDermont, even though McDermott is what you want to say when you see his last name. Have you been saying, have you been saying McDermont this whole time? No, I didn't. I said it one time and then you corrected me. I mean, do you know him personally, Jesse? Yeah. I don't. I've never met.

I've never met Justin, but he's been a very, a very faithful follower of ours. So he'll defend it to his death. That's how Jesse is. I mean, that's how you need to pronounce. You need to, you owe this man some respect. I apologize. I apologize to Justin, but I just want to, like, you know for a fact. That's how you pronounce it.

No, he doesn't know that. Yeah, I guess the other part of this is I could have been saying it wrong for like the last six or seven years. Justin did say that Jesse did get it right the last time he was here present. But let's address his question. Yeah, what was this question again? I knew it. Okay, Drew Jones. Yes, Drew Jones.

Is he a troubled asset? What are we missing here? Yeah, yeah. So I think the report that is being referenced here is from Bob Nightingale, if I'm not mistaken, which I think just came out. He has a note. This is from Nightingale, and I quote, scouts are openly concerned about Diamondback's prize prospect, Drew Jones, who was selected with the number two pick in the 2020 draft. One spot behind Jackson Holiday. They questioned whether his swing will work at the major league level.

So, yeah, I'm not hugely surprised by this. I think it is important to note that putting up better numbers in single A does not necessarily mean like, oh, this is going to work in the big leagues, right? The fact that he has figured things out in single A to a degree does not necessarily mean that all of the mechanical issues that we've talked about are fixed. I think he's gotten better, but I still am seeing some of the elements that people have been concerned about for the last year or so. So yeah, I'm not, I'm not hugely surprised by this. I don't, I wouldn't go too far and interpret this as like, oh, Drew Jones, you know, has no chance of making it or whatever. It's still still too early to be saying things like that. But he has a long way to go.

He's still only at single A. He's trending in the right direction there. But when I talked with Sean Larkin about this, he was clear that like, we want to focus on what's going to work in the big leagues. We're not focused on having good numbers in single A. We're focused on the long game of what's, going to work in the majors. And I think there are still some very valid questions to be to be asked about that with him. Conner makes a great point. He said, has that has that not been a question with him all along? And it absolutely is. I don't think that's really new information as as much as

there's no positive, I guess, progression in that in in that realm, right? Like the scouts are saying that that's still a concern. That was a concern when he was drafted. So I mean, it's just it's not really getting much better. However, we are seeing much better. results. So whatever's working for him right now is working. But like you said, the results aren't what's important. What's important is making those changes to his mechanics now so that he can find a way to make them work before, you know, and then come up to a major league level and and be a successful major league getter. All right. What else we got? Going to the next question here. And it comes from Sean McNally. And he says, I've mentioned this before, but curious if you guys

think that Alex's defense is worth the offensive differential you get by benching Jake. Look at the career batting average OBP OPS between Jake and Alec. Thoughts on selling Alec at the deadline. Ooh. I don't like that last part. Yeah, I didn't think you would.

My first overall thought is watching Corbyn at times play in the outfield. Corbyn's very capable of playing in the outfield. But that position is the position I say more than any that Alec would have gotten that. Right. And I think that is value in center field and how easy he makes plays that are actually quite difficult, how easy he makes

them look, just goes to show what a talented center fielder he is. I mean, Corbin, you know, Corbin has the speed. You know, he's a very, you know, savvy baseball mind. And yet at times, he still gets himself all twisted around out there in center field going after a ball or, you know, whatever. So like, there's just something very, very natural about Alec playing that position. And I mean, I don't know. I mean, if you're talking about a guy, you know, with a 900 OPS or something versus Alec, then yes. But I don't know if the drop off offensively there is significant. But we haven't seen Alec play baseball right now. So I mean, he has to start playing before I could really answer that question, I feel like. His Savant page was looking pretty good after the, you know, four games that he played before he got hurt or whatever was. It felt like the leap year. It did. Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm sort of joking about the Svon page thing. But yeah, this did. There were some really valid questions to be asked going into the

season of like, could this be the year where Alec Thomas really turns things around and it figures it out? I think the ceiling with Alec Thomas is probably quite a bit higher than the ceiling with Jake McCarthy. He's a better defensive player, as we've already said. And his offensive ceiling, I think, is still higher than even what we've seen from McCarthy this year. Although McCarthy has been genuinely good. Like McCarthy has a 774 OPS. He has a 124 OPS plus this season. And and those are really good numbers. But with Alec, if you trade Alec Thomas, you are taking the risk that in, you know,

one year, two years, whatever it is, you dealt away one of the better center fielder's in baseball, right? Because he's so good defensively. If you can just get to the point where he's a league average hitter, a little above a league average hitter, you're talking about probably a four or five win player at that point. And Jake McCarthy, for as valuable as he is and as much as you very much want him on your team,

I don't think his ceiling is quite that high. I also just think the chase field factor is an important thing to distinguish as well. Like we have a huge center field and Alec covers the entirety of it. So that's massive. And Elise also brought up a very good point as she always does where she said that, you know, his value right now isn't very high, right? So it's not like there's a lot of time for him to return and impact the game enough to drive his value and his stock up between now and the trade deadlines. Sure. Who knows if they would have.

I mean, if you had like a crazy month, I mean, it's kind of interesting what kind of offers the diamondbacks might get. But if he has a crazy month, then you're like, oh, we want this guy to be our center fielder. I don't think you want to trade him at that point. That's exactly it. It's a reasonable question for sure. I mean, I don't think it has to be like, oh, clearly Jake McCarthy is the one and only outfielder that you would consider trading on this team. But there's some risk with trading a guy like Alec, too. All right.

Last question. What about the day? Last question comes from Don's bread. And he says, which D-BACs player would give an Erica Day-esque handshake who has the best handshake on the team? So I don't understand the context here of the Erica Dayish handshake. But I imagine some sort of bad handshake. Because, like, of course, Mark and Erica are known enemies. They're known sworn enemies.

Mark loves a good enemy. But that's what I love about Mark. I mean, he has so many beefs in the street. Yeah. He has too many beefs in the street, right? I mean, I do too. I know you do. You create beefs daze.

I found a new one this morning. But here's the thing is I imagine that Erica gives some sort of, I guess, uninspiring, disappointing handshake, right? And I don't know. Who on the team would you imagine giving an uninspiring, disappointing handshake? I don't really have a good answer for that. I mean, I can answer that question. I don't either.

I mean, I feel like these guys are all very sincere. So, of course, just to upset Mark, I'm going to say Pavin Smith. Mm. Right? You'd get it just a quick something, you know? Like maybe like a handshake, maybe a Dap. Maybe you guys do the confused thing where you going for the handshake. He goes to Dap and then you switch it up to the handshake and he goes in for the

Dap. Michael Dixon says, Gino. That's probably a really good answer. Yeah. But yeah, he is the good vibes guy. Who gives the best handshake on the team? Of course, it's Geraldo Perdomo. Heraldo Perdomo is, in fact, the DAP master.

He has a different handshake seemingly with every single player on the team. And as is known, he also hangs out with his son, Merrill Kelly, in the dugout. So shout out to Geraldo Perdomo for giving out the best handshakes. And shame on you, Erica. Shame on you is all I have to say. Big shout out to Desert Financial Credit Union, of course. They sponsor our numbers, and we love that they do because they're all about the numbers. And for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest,

most trusted local credit union. And they help you with the numbers when it comes to your financial goals and what you need to do to achieve those financial goals. You can look to Desert Financial for checking in savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. When you open a checking account online right now, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Had a great time out at the Diamondbacks game yesterday, not working, but kind of working a little bit. But mostly hanging out with my buddy, Josh, and enjoying a wonderful game. The Diamondbacks whooping up on the White Sox.

Of course, this was the last minute plan. I do want to give a shout out to Chris for helping me with those tickets. She gave me your tickets. She wasn't going, so she provided me to them. But I know not everybody has a Chris in their life. So if you don't, make sure to check out game time because game time will help you out with those last minute tickets. You can save up to 60% off by buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts, comedy shows, and so much more. You can save even more by choosing a section on the app and letting GameTime pick the seat for you.

And then there's also exclusive in-app deals on select seats ahead of the game. So make sure not to miss out on all of the savings that Game Time has to offer. They have the lowest price guarantee. And if they don't get you the lowest price guarantee game time guarantees, they will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off.

Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Of course, before we get out of here, we did want to talk. Real quick, I just want to say I bought my tickets at Game Time yesterday. Oh, did you? They were incredible. My mom used the promo code. It was awesome.

There we go. And I saw my boy Ryan out at the game. Yeah. You mean Ryan Thompson? Your dog? Oh, that's your dog. That's my dog. My dog's Ryan Handley.

that next to Ryan's dad. I got to meet Ryan's dad, by the way. So it was a wonderful Father's Day because I love Ryan and it was great meeting his father. I love Ryan too, but I love our diehard Ryan, who's my boy. Well, I love DiHard. Our loyal listener. Shout out to all of our diehards. Of course, get that Diard membership.

If you haven't already, go PHNX.com. Get Jesse's articles. You get a free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker so much more. So if you haven't joined the family, join the family now. Of course, speaking of that All-Star voting, Ctele-Marté, currently in second place, Let's take a look at that All-Star voting that's going to upset me. I guess he's not that far back. We can do this, you guys.

Like, he's within shouting distance of Louisa Rise. Let's go. I think he's within whispering distance. He can hear his pitchcom. That's how close he is. I mean, less than 5,000 is a, I mean, that's a really small margin in the grand scheme of things. So, yeah, maybe this is weird, but I almost found myself more encouraged than anything after seeing this that Ketel really, had a shot. There was a universe in my mind where Catelle was like 300,000 votes behind

Luis Arise or something after this first reveal. So yeah, he's in a decent spot. He's certainly, though, not in his goodest spot as he should be. Because frankly, Derek, if we look at the numbers between Luis Rize and Cotel Marte, he's got a rise right now with a 749 OPS compared to an 852 for Cotel Marte. Catea has been worth for B-War, as we talked about earlier. with our MVP conversation. ARIZ has been worth one before. So you're talking about a literally a times four difference between Arise and Marte. And the other thing I'll just say real quick is that Luis Arise is actually not a second baseman at this point.

He has not played an inning at second base for the Padres since May 22nd. Come on. What are we doing here? And on the flip side, Jake Croninworth, who is currently ahead of Christian Walker in the first base ballad. Stop it. has been playing second. Jay Croninworth has been playing second base for the last month. So yeah,

it's kind of hilarious to me how those things have flip-flopped. And by the All-Star break, Cronin-Worth will almost certainly have played way more time at second base than first, and a rise will have played way more time at first base than second. We've got things all twisted up here. But, yeah, I could tell over a rise that the case there is pretty obvious.

And let's take a look really fast at where Christian Walker is because we talked about it earlier. Currently in sixth place, here's the list. Hate that. Hate that. Uh, hey, Pete Alonzo being above him. I don't know why. That makes me mad.

It just does. But yes, the Jake Croninworth thing, very upsetting, very upsetting. Get your shit together, voters. I don't know what to tell you. I'm going to, the bon of throw shade at you tomorrow, probably. I don't know. One of the things is coming. There's going to be a short of me screaming in Studio C or something happening.

But Diamondbacks again, they are coming up against the team that we've talked about being one of the teams they should win against. However, the Washington Nationals have actually been playing some very good baseballs of late. They're eight and two in their last 10. Let's take a quick look at the nationals and where they currently are at a glance because these guys very, very good lately. And of course, that's what happens. Like I said, though, sometimes it works out for you, like when the Diamondbacks caught the Reds and played all of their games against the Reds during probably the worst period of time during the Reds season so far, because they've been playing much better baseball as well but these nationals they're right there they are currently one

game ahead of the dime or not one game they're half a game ahead of the diamondbacks in the wild card hunt they're currently eight and two they're starting pitching eras 3.77 which is 12th in NBA NBA MLB I don't know where that even came from I don't know I do not cover basketball I promise you guys that's the far farthest thing for my mind but 3.94 relief pitching ERA 17th in major League Baseball. They have a 668 OPS, which is good for 24th, so not great offensively, and minus 14 outs above average, which is 25th in baseball. So again, National's team, they haven't been great this year, but they have been playing better baseball lately, and the Diamondbacks really need to take them seriously because this is a team right now that they can't really,

you know, take for granted. Yeah, the Nats just swept the Marlins, and they outscored them 15 to 2 in that series. Obviously, the Marlins, not a very good baseball team. But yeah, I mean, the Nats have been playing really good, really good baseball lately. And yeah, they're half a game up on the Diamondbacks in the standing. So this is not an easy series by any means. Well, before we get out of here, let's just take a quick look at the probabilities. Diamondbacks have Slade going in game one of the series. Brandon fought in game two, Ryan Nelson in game three, going up against Jake Irvin there for the Nationals.

Patrick Corbyn, old friend there, playing for the Nationals. one in seven with a 5.84 ERA. And then McKenzie Gore there in the finale. Feels like the Diamondbacks kind of have obviously a little bit of an advantage here, two out of the three at least. But who knows what we're going to get on any given night out of Slade and Ryan Nelson, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, Jake Irvin and McKenzie Gore both been really good. Irvin with the three ERA and McKenzie Gore, 3,24, both of those are very much,

like their peripherals are also really good too. So this is going to be a challenge for the, Diamondbacks for sure. Well, we will be back here tomorrow with a postgame show. So make sure to join us for that after game one. Drop a like before you go. In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful evening. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G on Twitter. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, Bark. I just wanted to say real quick that Louisa, you've made an enemy out of me and I will destroy you and I never lose. You never want to be on his list. I'm just

warning you that now. That's trouble for you arise. Arise didn't vote for himself in the all in the all-star Mallor. Right? No, it doesn't matter. That's how it works. He was mad at James Outman just for existing. So I mean, sometimes you don't understand how his list works. But of course, you can keep track of that by

following us on Twitter at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads leads at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. We'll see you after tomorrow's game. We hope you have a wonderful day off. Enjoy your time this evening. And remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you vote for Cattel Marte!