PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Is Zac Gallen the most under-appreciated player in Major League Baseball?

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

While many D-backs fans acknowledge Zac Gallen as one of the best in the game, does he receive the recognition he should from national baseball analysts? We also discuss the newest contender for expansion in MLB, the AL East dominating baseball, and so much more!WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to the Keepin’ it 100 Golf Scramble, D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. DISCLAIMER: We are not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site of any kind. The content of this website is intended to be used for entertainment purposes only and does not involve real money betting. Sports betting and gambling laws vary by jurisdiction. Please be aware of and respect the laws of sports gambling for your jurisdiction. We do not promote or endorse any form of wagering or gambling to users under the age of 21. We support responsible gambling. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-777-7207 (for Arizona Council on Compulsive Gambling) or 1-800-NEXT-STEP (Arizona Office of Problem Gambling) or text NEXTSTEP to 53342.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.

Happy takeover day and welcome in to your PHNX newback podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And of course, I'm joined by my vice mayor and your thunder stick, Jesse Freed. I'm excited, Derek. We're going to watch some baseball tonight with all you fools who are crazy enough to watch this show every day and listen to us every day. I told you, he's not very nice when you guys aren't around. You should see him. He's very mean to be behind the scenes.

But anyway, of course, we. welcome you guys in and we are very excited for the Arizona Diamondbacks to play a series against the San Francisco Giants within their division and kind of see how they stack up. I mean, I think this is going to be a good test for them, especially considering how they have struggled against starting pitching that is good. And the Giants have some very good starting pitching. But the Arizona Diamondbacks also have some very good starting pitching. And that person goes by the name of Zach Gallen.

That's who I'm actually talking about, just Zach Gallen. And when you have to kind of pose the question, which you wanted to talk, about today because it was something that was discussed with his current numbers right now in Major League Baseball is Zach Gallen the most underrated player in baseball? And he might quite possibly be that with the numbers that he's currently putting up, Jesse. I don't know if I'm quite ready to go most underrated player at large. I mean, there's a lot of position players who I think don't get their flowers. But on the pitching side of things, I am pretty much ready to jump in from the outset and say

Zach Gallen is 100% the most underrated pitcher in all of baseball. Granted, this is a little bit cherry-picked, the stat search that I did. If you go back to August 8th of last year, which just so happens to be the day that a particular scoreless inning streak started. So granted, it's a little bit cherry-pick. If you go back to August 8th of last year, since that day, Zach Gallen has a 1.77 ERA. He is 11 and 3 over 19 starts. And according to Fangraps wins above replacement, Derek.

He has been worth five wins above replacement since August 8th of last year. The next highest pitcher in all of baseball is Spencer Strider at 3.5. So significantly lower than where Zach Allen. That is such a significant difference. And of course, this is this is foie, because it's on fan graphs. This is four. Farr. Do you say FWR or do you say FWR?

I say FFOR. Can I get you on? That's what normal people say. You know, no foire and Boar. Warp? No, none of those. Okay. I like warp a little bit. That I don't have. Because, I mean, what else are you going to say warp? Warpe?

Warpy? Like warp? You have to just say warp. You're putting me in a more awkward position by saying warpy. Come on. I just want to say warp. Yeah, warp, I think, is accepted. Fouar and Boar, not so much. But anyway, the point is, Zach Gallen has been the best pitcher in baseball since August. And even if you back this up a little bit further than that, he is still, you know, at or near the top in pretty much every pitching stat you're going to find going back to the beginning

of last year. There are some other guys who I think are also underrated in their own right. That second place guy at 3.5 war going back to last August is Spencer Strider, who should have been the NL rookie of the year last year. Yeah. Probably should have won the pitcher of the month in April as well if it wasn't Zach Gallen, right? You could make a case that yes, Strider was right up there with Clayton Kirschoff for that award. So yeah, I think Strider is is underrated. as well. He plays in a market that gets more attention with the Atlanta Braves and how good they've been. So I still think he does get a fair amount of attention. But his stuff is just outrageous. I mean, Spencer Strider, I don't know if there's a more fun pitcher in baseball to watch other than Zach

Gallen potentially than Spencer Strider. So yeah, I think there are other guys who are certainly underrated as well. But, you know, the other guys at the top of this list, you know, Framber Valdez, of course we've seen him throw some big time World Series innings. I think he's maybe even still a little bit underrated. But people know about Framber Valdez at this point. Some guy named Shohei Otani is also on this list. It feels like Shohei Otani is underrated in a sense because I still don't know if people have fully gotten their heads around

the greatness that we are witnessing with him and the fact that we very well may never see a player like that ever again. I don't think that part resonates with people, but I disagree that he's, not a superstar. I think people that don't even watch baseball are well aware of Shohei Otani and what he does, right? That he's a pitcher that also just Yeah. Dings the ball, right? But yeah, I mean, there is something to be said about Zach Gallen being an underappreciated player in baseball. This year he's 5 and 1 with a 2.36

ERA, 64 strikeouts in 49 and 2 thirds innings. He currently leads baseball, all of Major League Baseball with a 2.4 F-WR. He has the lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 230 innings pitch since the start of 2022. I just, I mean, I guess... 2.4 is so ridiculous. That's just absurd because we're in, we're in May. We're in May.

He's on pace, according to fan grabs for about a 10 more season, which is something that does not happen very often. And the reason for that, if you want to kind of look under the hood of what F-WRs, is looking at. F-4 is based on FIP and Zach Gallen's ERA is 2.36 which is very, very good. His FIP is even better at 1.68. That is an absurdly low FIP. And so that's why this number is so extremely high. And the fact that Zach Gallen's FIP is as low as it is, it shows you that his 2.36 ERA is no fluke. If anything, his ERA should arguably be lower than it is, not higher. So, I mean, you look at some of these numbers. I mean, he's like,

11.6Ks per nine. That's a career high. He's 1.09 walks per nine. That's a career low. He's not really giving up any home runs. He's allowed just a handful so far through eight starts. Everything for Zach Gallen has been outstanding. And according to him, he still doesn't have his best stuff.

So who knows what could happen, Derek, if he finally gets it all together. We actually do have that video from the other day of Zach Gallen. He was, Jesse was talking to Tori Lavolo first and talking about Zach. Zach Gallen not necessarily having his best stuff, right? So Tori kind of called Zach Gallen a fibber about not really having his best stuff. Jesse proceeded to kind of get a clarification from Zach Gallen. And he kind of explained why he called himself or why Tori would say he's a fibber and why Zach Gallen constantly says he doesn't have his best stuff even when the results of the game would say otherwise.

Thank you. Tori said he thinks you're a fibrer when you say that you don't have your best stuff out there. How do you feel about that? I mean, I don't know. I think just because I'm so particular, like, I don't know. I mean, yes, this game is result-oriented, but I know in the long, you know, the long game of this whole thing is that, you know, for me to be, like, ultra-successful, it's very fuel-oriented.

Obviously, that's a double-ed sword because you can, you know, feel-reliber. good one day and, you know, not have the results, but at the same time, you know, at the end day, you'll take the results, but yeah, I mean, I just, I don't know, I just tell you guys the truth in the sense. I don't, I just didn't feel great. Just had to make pitches, really, what it came down to, and just give us a chance to win, really. I love that about him, and like we said, we kind of clarified that yesterday, where he can still have great results, but still feel like he wasn't able to throw all of his pitches, or have great command over one of them that he wanted to throw more or something like that.

But really, he's had these instances where when he doesn't have a feel for a certain pitch, he's able to just kind of abandon it a bit and rely on his other pitches. And that's what great pitchers are able to do. They don't have their best stuff every single day. When they do, it's incredible. But when they don't, they're still pretty damn good. And that's something that Zach Allen has been. I don't really know because I don't know if I've heard the story where the milkman nickname or originated.

I mean, it's just that his last name is gallon. Galens of milk. And he always delivers, though, right? That's the other thing. The man always delivers. He's never, he's never late. He never misses a delivery, right? And that's the,

I don't understand how Gallen doesn't have some sort of endorsement deal, right? He's a brilliant guy. He's quite funny. He's got a great sense of humor. He seems to actively want recognition, not to say that he's like a recognition seeker, but he seems to be upset. When he doesn't get the recognition,

he feels he deserves, especially by video game designers. And he's just out, like, he's perfect, right? Like, he's got a great nickname in the milkman. I don't know why we don't have commercials of Zach Gallen, literally dressed up like a milkman, just delivering. Arizona milk producers? Yeah, maybe they be interested. Arizona milk producers, what are we even doing here?

How have you not followed up on that? At least contact the staff and see what you can work out. I know that the Diamondbacks have been good and bad at times of the season. all things considered that gallon been very good for this team. Another portion of this team that has been quite good has been the offense. Even after yesterday's loss that looked pretty bad where they really couldn't get the offense going. The Diamondback still rank amongst the top teams in Major League Baseball in a lot of categories. Coming into yesterday's game, they were second in Major League Baseball in batting average at 273.

Does that surprise you at all? That's really high. I didn't even realize it had crept that high. 273 is, I mean, last year the Diamondbacks team batting average was down in the 230s. So, I mean, part of that is the fact that you flipped Dalton Varsho, who even when he's performing at his best is probably going to be a 23, 240 hitter. Sure. You turn that into, you know, Lordus Guriel and Gabby Marina. You turned it into two players who are both hitting over 300 right now.

So that's a big part of it. Manuel Rivera also hitting. Manuel Overeira has been insane. Heraldo Perdomo's been insane. Josh Ross got off to a really crazy start from a batting average standpoint. He did. He's kind of taken a step back. But then you've got, you know, Christian Walker,

who's hitting for one of the higher batting averages we've seen for him at this point in the season. So it's probably going to creep down a little bit. I don't know if 273 is sustainable over a full season. But this is a very different brand of offense that we've seen from the debaks this year compared to past seasons. Another thing that just shows how. I guess miserable yesterday's losses is coming into the game, they were second in Major League Baseball and the fewest strikeouts as a team.

I guarantee you they're not there anymore after having 15 strikeouts as a team in one game. But even though the walks weren't there, it seemed like they weren't striking out a lot. And of course, maybe with the patience, like I said yesterday, maybe with the increase in walks, we might see an increase in strikeouts as well just due to trying to work the count, due to trying to get things, you know, trying to have productive at bats, even if they don't have a hit.

Yeah, now the debacks have the third lowest strikeout rate in baseball rather than the second lowest. Yeah, one game isn't probably going to move the needle too much. But, yeah, there are 20. 15, 15 was a lot. 15 strikeouts was a lot. Yeah, the Marlins bullpen really got the best of this offense yesterday. And it was tough. I mean, hearing we didn't get to talk about this yesterday because the comments weren't out yet,

but hearing what Merrill Kelly and Josh Rojas had to sit. about the game yesterday. They basically made it sound like the D-BACs clubhouse was more down yesterday than it's been possibly all-season. They've taken some tough losses this year. There's no doubt about it. But yesterday was just a game that they went in, too,

with a lot of confidence. I think the D-Backs, you know, fully believed going into that series with the Marlins. You've got Zach Gallen, you've got Merrill Kelly, both pitching in that series. You've got Brandon Fott, a young pitcher.

You still feel pretty good at it. about, like, it just felt like the kind of series of the debacks should almost easily come away with two out of three. And unfortunately for them, you know, it turns into a series lost, their second series loss against the Marlins this year, which I'm sure just adds to the frustration. And on the whole, Derek, like, you know, this stretch we keep talking about, you've got, you know, the Rockies, the Royals, the Nationals, and now the Marlins, the debacks in that span of 12 games went seven and five. That's okay. But it's not. You know, you're not making a whole bunch of ground in the standings by going two games over 500 and, you know, a 12 game span.

So I think they're disappointed with the results and you can definitely understand why. I have to ask a question that we don't really want to ask. And I mean, of course, our friends of Foco kind of predicted it with this little bobblehead here. But the home run snake showed up and the Diamondbacks have not won a game. But how long, how long do we allow that to go on for? How long until we burn the snake in the parking lot? So I guess the snake showed up on Tuesday. Yeah.

So the debacks are O and two with the snake. Yeah, the O and two with the home run snake. I'm lovingly called Plaka right now. His name's Placa. But yes, what are we, maybe Plakita? What are we going to do? Are we going to burn the snake? I mean, we already talked about.

It's only two games, Derek. Come on. It's only two games. We've only had one single sole owner of the home run snake, and that, of course, is Evan Longoria, who knows these San Francisco Giants very well, played there for five seasons. So hopefully he has some intel on some of their pitches.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, he's got some good information. Let's take a look at this series, again, with the San Francisco Giants, because the one thing that we are worried about, not really the Giants offense or other aspects of the team, but their starting pitching is quite good. Yeah, this stretch, just the way that the starting pitching lined up in the series didn't work out great for the debacks.

Alex Cobb against Tommy Henry. Cobb has been arguably the best starting pitcher that the Giants have had this season, and Tommy Henry has struggled. He did have a pretty decent outing his last time out against the National, six innings two runs. So I think, you know, it was good to see him bounce back there. But, yeah, game two, Ross Stripling. He is not had a good year at all for the Giants. Ryan Nelson, of course, has had his rough moments for the debacks as well. That one's sort of a wash.

Anthony D. Schlafani has had a really good start to the year. He goes against Zach Gallen on Saturday. And then Logan Webb, who is, you know, just got a contract extension and is widely been viewed as the Giants ace for the last few years. He goes up against Brandon Fott, who, of course, has really struggled in his two outings so far. So it's not great, Derek. On paper, the starting pitching matchups here don't work out great for the debavers. But we were saying the opposite for the series with the Marlins, and we saw how that ended. So maybe this script will flip here against San Francisco.

There are some crazy comments coming in here. Gabriel said they missed Mad Bum's great veteran presence in the clubhouse. Joey Hill said we need Dallas Kikell back. Are you guys all drunk? I don't, I just need to. Bartolo Colon? Where are we drinking at right now? I'll come join you as soon as we're done with this show.

Bartolo Colon would probably be the third best pitcher on this roster today. Don't start with me. Don't even start with me over there. I don't know what to say anymore, but I'm glad you guys are here with these insane comments. Of course. I'd bring Bartolo Colon in to hit cleanup before I would hit it. I would bring him in to pitch.

I'd like to see that. Did you see that home running hit a few years ago, Dan? Yeah, that was a good one. Anyway, thank you guys for being here with your comments in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, please do so already. Sign up for notifications. I don't know what you're waiting for. Do all that.

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Not only do you get a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com for every year you're a member. You also get 20% off all future purchases. You get invites to events that not everybody gets invited to. You also get discounts on our events like our upcoming takeover today at Chase Field that we can't wait to see you guys out there for. Also, access to our members-only Discord Lounge, Jesse's newsletter, full account and all the writing from all the writers around here and so much more. So subscribe today or sign up today for a diehard's newsletter. You also get a free Mountain Mike's voucher of $50 for signing up, almost pays for the whole. whole thing in itself right there.

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Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Discllaimer, 21 plus to wager, visit betmGM.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Nevada, New York, gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,

Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope & Y. 4-6-6-9, New York. Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-8-500-5-200-C-0-200-Massachusetts, 1-800-8-8-8-Bets-O-EW, 1-800-270-7-1-1-7 for confidential health, Michigan. A new contender has entered the race for MLB expansion, Jesse, as part of a plan to attract either the Tampa Bay race

or a possible MLB expansion franchise to the city of Orlando, a group led by Magic co-founder Pat Williams, unveiled artist renderings on Tuesday for a proposed baseball stadium that would cost an estimated $1.7 billion to construct and I will never go to this baseball stadium just as long as I live. You're pretty anti-I-R-Land-O. I hate the city of Orlando more than I hate most places I've been in my life.

Let's look at the renderings. I have a friend. I hate it. So I don't care. I'll never go. You went. That's, it looks beautiful. That's amazing.

Yeah. They need a roof because it rains every afternoon at 3 p.m. in Orlando. I don't know if you knew that. every afternoon. Look at that. It's right in the middle of a swamp. Great. There's probably alligators in that water right there, Jesse.

I fucking guarantee it that there's alligators in there. They propose this is the Orlando Dreamers. I believe that would be the team name, which is interesting. Orlando City Baseball Dreamers. I hope that they plan on changing that name. I think that just might be the name of the group itself, because there are other groups that sound like that for the other expansion cities.

That's fair. In case you forgot, there are several groups now going for expansion in Major League Baseball. Here is a map that we have that just shows where those are located. We have this group joining Salt Lake City's Big League, Utah in Salt Lake City, Nashville's Music City Baseball, and the Portland Diamond Project that are all lobbying to join the current 30 Major League Baseball organizations. You also have that little gray dot up there in Montreal. We tried to get that guy in.

We couldn't fit Canada on the map. Mexico City is pretty a little south there as well. That one's also still in the mix. But I mean, honestly, there is some traction here growing. I feel like these groups wouldn't be popping up and putting the money that they're putting into this estimated expansion project if if there wasn't something that was going to happen, right? Yeah.

We know the Oakland A's are moving to Las Vegas. And so I- Although they've had their drama in the last few days. Yeah, I know, right? Like that entire situation is getting working at other other sites now, apparently, in Las Vegas because the place they originally signed up for is like there's something, something arrived in that situation. They were going to knock down the Tropicana, I believe, where the Tropicana used to be,

which is kind of an icon in Las Vegas. but they just do that now. Las Vegas, all of those old hotels and stuff have all been knocked down and made in the new stuff. I mean, it makes so much sense that we're talking about bringing another baseball team to Florida because the two that are there are so incredibly successful. They are absolutely. They absolutely pack their stadiums every single day.

Of course, the state of Florida is deserving of another baseball. Well, okay, first of all, don't build it on a goddamn island with only one way to get to the stadium. Right there is a great way to get more people to come out and watch baseball. ball. Also, don't build it in the city where I absolutely don't want to go watch sporting events in. I want to spend all my time on the beach or in a club like I'm going to spend a minute in the Marlins stadium. And that's no offense to Marlins fans. It's like Las Vegas, right? I'd have friends now that live in Las Vegas. I understand that there's a city outside of the strip. And there's very nice people that live there. And honestly, I kind of searched for a similar city in Orlando. And I

Couldn't find it. It is nothing but TGI Fridays, miniature golf courses, and, and, and fucking theme parks and swamps. That's what it is. And long drives in between things. Why is Disney, just make the entire town Disney World. Just make the whole city Disney World and get it over with. I will never go watch baseball in Orlando.

I don't care for that city one bit. I, look, look, Damon's about to say something, but I'm just going to preface this by saying, As much shit as I talked about Tucson, I had a lovely time there, and I texted Damon that just because of the shit that I talked about Tucson. Tucson has more culture in its pinky than Orlando has in its entire downtown area. This is true. I was just going to say that I have a friend who also similarly despises Orlando, much like you do, and he says it's the worst city in America. They stop serving alcohol at like 10 p.m. Why?

You should let people drink longer there. because they deserve it. I hate Orlando so much. And I did go to theme parks there. And I do understand how you can go to Orlando and get a lift or an Uber from the airport right to your hotel and then hotel to theme park and never have to spend a minute really in the actual city.

And that's the plan. That's the dream. If you're going to Orlando, that's what you want to do. I don't mean to really just discredit this whole city. I know we have people that might be from Orlando in our chat, but I doubt it because I don't think any, actually comes from there. I think people just go there to vacation.

I'm sorry. I hate that place. Yeah, no, I mean, that's something that Pat William seems to be well aware of here is that it needs to be a tourist destination.

Like, they need to make this, this ballpark, this facility, this team, like so irresistible that all of the people who come to Orlando for Disney World,

you know, like this has to be something that they just have to check off their box. And there's a lot of things that have to happen in order for this to actually become a thing, right? Yeah. Number one, Major League Baseball has said repeatedly, the commissioner's office has said repeatedly

that they're not going to entertain the idea of expansion until they know what's going on with the A's, which we have some resolution on that front now, and what's going on with the Tampa Bay Rays. I could see. I think in my mind, the only way that this works, Derek, is if the Tampa Bay Rays were to just decide to pick up and move to Orlando.

That actually makes some sense, because as you said before, the Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, if you know the area, if you've been there, or if you just do a quick Google map search, you'll come to recognize very quickly that it's in a miserable location. It's very hard to get to. And even though the Tampa Bay Rays are an absolute juggernaut of a baseball franchise right now, it's really unfortunate. It's really sad for baseball to have a world-class organization, you know, just in this

ballpark that number one is an ugly ballpark that nobody really wants to go to. And number two, it's just in a location that's really hard for people to get to. So I could maybe see this working out where the Tampa Bay Rays ultimately decide to move to Orlando. And, you know, maybe this gets off the ground that way. Outside of that, are you going to pick Orlando over Nashville for expansion? I don't know. I think it says at some point, I think Pat Williams made a comment that he at least personally thinks the Major League Baseball will look at doing one. expansion team west of the Mississippi and one expansion team east of the

Mississippi. Portland and Nashville is kind of what people have been saying for a long time. Salt Lake City has some momentum in recent days. Charlotte is a city that we've seen thrown around, although it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of momentum there. Mexico City is a fun idea, but I've talked with some players about it, the logistics of, you know, pro athletes moving to Mexico City, having their families in Mexico City. I think there are just some obstacles there.

It's also very, very far away from, you know, places like Toronto or Boston, which, you know, there would be some very, very long flights that I think people would have hard time getting around. And then I guess Montreal is the other one that we mentioned earlier that could be in the mix. Not sure I see that happening for a variety of reasons. So it's interesting. I could maybe see it, but I think it would probably have to be the Tampa Bay Rays moving there. rather than Major League Baseball, adding a third team in Florida. I just don't see that happening. I agree.

I agree completely. Last year, Tampa Bay had the second worst attendance in baseball, averaging 13,927 fans per game. That's so sad. It's such a good day. I mean, last year they weren't quite what they've been this year. They were ahead of the Marlins, and they were ahead of the, obviously, the Oakland A's. This year, as one of the best teams in baseball, if not, I think they have the best record

in baseball, right? Their average is up to 17,000 fans, 17,819 fans per game. Which is still terrible. They are 23rd in the majors just ahead of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland, and virtually this is the exact same position as the Chicago White Sox. Do you have the numbers for last year? Where were the Marlins last year? 13,927.

I do not have the Marlins numbers in front of me. Okay. But the Marlins were the Marlins worse than the Raids last year? were worse. So you basically have like two of the five, you know, lowest attendance teams in Florida already. Are you really going to go add another one? I know Orlando probably makes arguably more sense. I mean, you know, it's a huge tourist destination.

Maybe Orlando and Miami are somewhat comparable in that. But it just doesn't, it doesn't make any sense to me at all. 11,203 fans is what Miami. averaged. Wow. 11,203. For years, even with how bad Miami has notoriously been, like, considered a bad attendance team, their average only dropped in 2018 down to, like, the sub-20,000 level.

They always hovered around. They were 18,000, 18,000, 19,000. This is 2009, 10, 11. They went up to 27,400 on average in 2012. And then just stayed around 20 to 21,000, 19 to 21,000 for the most part. And then 2018 came around a huge drop in attendance. 10,013, 2019, 10,016, 2021, obviously. We just don't even worry about that.

That's what happens when you trade Stan Ozuna and Yelich in about a six-month time period. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, now it's funny because now you talk about that Ozuna trade and the Cardinals are the ones. with egg on their face when it comes to training Sandy Al Contra and Zach Allen for Marcel Azuna, right? So like shit changes fast in baseball, but yeah

those attendance numbers like you said, why do we even have a team in Miami? Why? Why would we do this? Why are we even still doing this? But I imagine that Miami at least is the Florida Marlins right, and they have two world series in their short history of existing as a franchise.

So at least they have that and that I think is always going to make them exist but I don't know if, I don't know if that's enough to keep teams existing at all. Yeah. I don't know. The other obstacle for Orlando, as it is for any expansion team, is how you get it fun, the new stadium. Minisher golf courses. That's the real hurdle for Orlando is the city.

Yeah, I mean, they need an owner. I don't think that's Pat Williams. I think they would need to find an owner. And Williams made a comment when talking about this with reporters that this is not an industry for millionaires or billionaires. this is an industry for multi-billionaires, right? That's the kind of money that it really takes to get something like this off the ground. They're going to need to find someone like that. And there's also talk of the Dreamers proposal having $700 million coming from private funds

and having a billion dollars come from a tourist development tax that would be sort of like a resort tax that would be imposed in the area. So I'm sure those people are used to paying absurd taxes anyway. that kind of comes with the territory when you visit a place like Orlando. But that's a lot of money to be funded publicly. So there's always a bunch of hoops that you have to jump through there. And never forget, the battle between millions and billions, that a million seconds is 12 days and a billion seconds is 31 years. Carry that with you forever.

If there's nothing else you've learned from this podcast, keep that one. That's the one you should learn. Anyway, shout out to our friends from OG's brands, by the way. They power me on days like this and let them power you. They have a wide variety of flavors and doses, strains that you can choose from, specialty additions like their aqua berry sleep edition, their strawberries and cream, happy balance addition, so much more. Whatever mood you are in, whatever you need from OGs, they have you covered,

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must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks, and please drink responsibly. We have been so consumed lately with Arizona Diamondbacks News that we haven't had really a chance to look around the league and see all of the wacky, wild things that are going on. But first, we talked about that one-win victory by the Marlins, and of course how many they've had this season. That one run

One run win And the Marlins have set an MLB record To start a season, in fact, by going 12 and 0 In one run games. That is a major league record, which is quite impressive. So those Marlins, that bullpen comes through for them Like we talked about the win probability added And other factors there,

They have been very, very good When it comes to those one run games. I got that out that time, Jesse. There you go. But the AL East is an absolute beast. It is. When you take a look at the standings around baseball right now, five of the top eight teams in baseball are from the AL East.

They are just absolutely dominating, which, I mean, you kind of saw that from some of the teams. You knew the Orioles were going to be possibly better than they were last year and they were pretty good last year. The raise, though, I think,

have been obviously the big surprise that people weren't talking about or expecting to see be this good. Yeah. Or you're close to this good. It's wild what's going on in the ALE East. at this point, the Dodgers and the Braves are the only National League teams that would not be in last place if they were in that division. The Yankees are in last and they are 21 and 17. They have a better record than the Diamondbacks do.

Oh, that's crazy. I guess the balance schedule is a big part of this. It allows things like this to happen, whereas in the past you'd have those teams beating up on each other so much that their records couldn't be that good. Correct. Not all within a division like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, which I mean, I kind of like. I think it's kind of fun with the way that the wild card system works. You can still theoretically have four teams from one division make the playoffs. And that's sort of what we're trending towards here, Derek. I mean, I guess you kind of feel like there's going to be two teams from the AOS. The Astros have gotten off to a bit of a slow start. The Rangers have been phenomenal. The Angels are 20 and 18.

The Mariners are 18 and 19. They're still going to be in the mix. Feels like you're going to get at least two teams from the AOS. Pretty clear at this point. I don't think you're getting more than one team from the AL Central. I don't even understand. Although the Guardians have just been terrible to start the year, which is kind of weird. And how are the twins so good with Carlos Correa being so bad for them?

Like, that's crazy. But their pitching staff has been really good. I haven't looked. I'm not sure if they beat the Padres today. They did beat the Padres today. Let's go. Let's go. I'm all for that.

Boston Red Sox reliever Kenley Jansson. got saved number 400 last night and becomes just the seventh pitcher in Major League Baseball history with over 400 or 400 or more saves. Remember like five years ago when it looked like Kenley Jansen just didn't have it anymore? Yeah.

He was throwing like 91, 92. It was like, ah, this is he finally, it finally happened, he finally hit the wall. That man threw 99 miles an hour last night for the first time since 2016. And that is utterly terrifying. How on earth did Kenley Jansen find a way? I mean, he's been, he was low 90s.

And then when he got his VLO back, he was mid-90s. Now he's throwing almost 100 miles an hour again. It's really incredible what he's been able to do. Human growth hormones. Hey, yeah. You gain seven miles per hour back on your fastball late into your 30s. I'm glad it's the guy whose face isn't on this podcast making the wild act. He's a dodger.

He's a scum back. All right, fine. I'm all right. I don't like Boston Red Sox either. He was doing it in L.A. I'm fine with it. I will say about the Red Sox, Masataka Yoshida has been just incredible for them.

He went a span of like three weeks without swinging and missing at any pitch. I don't remember if it was exactly three weeks. It was like a long time. That's insane. He went like multiple weeks without a single swing and miss. And yeah, he's just like he's doing it, man. I mean,

he has like an OPS of almost a thousand. And the Red Sox, this team that a lot of people rode off entering the season. this team that, you know, passed on Zander Bogarts, let him walk, took a lot of flack for that. A lot of people didn't even think that Masataka Yoshita was a real everyday major league player. They gave him a big contract and he has been that and then some so far. There's a lot of people that were wrong about a lot of things when it comes to baseball this season because it's not us though. Not us.

We're never wrong about anything. We were right about everything, especially Brandon Fott. Justin Verlander beat the Reds yesterday, Jesse. Do you know why that's significant? I believe, were the Reds the only team that he had not eaten up to this point. He now has a win registered against all 30 major league baseball teams. Well, if I pitched for 40 years, I probably could do that too, you know? Monster.

See, this is what happens when you're young and you don't appreciate old men enough. Justin Verlander, though, just an ageless wonder. And, of course, not something that most pitchers can say they've done in baseball is beat all 30. teams but it's big for the Mets getting getting Justin Verlander back and healthy and pitching well. Max Scher has not been has not been good for them. Really not much is struggle. Yeah, the Mets have just the Mets have just not been that good of a baseball team.

They're 18 and 20 at this point. They're minus 15 run differential. They just haven't haven't done it. And their offense is not as foolproof as maybe people thought it was entering the year when they missed out on Carlos Correa. That was obviously Carlos Correa's been. terrible for the twins. So I guess that wouldn't have helped them at all, at least at this point in the season.

Imagine if they did get him and he was hit. Like imagine if either of those teams, the Giants or like at least, at least, you know, the twins got him on somewhat of a deal compared to the contracts that were being offered to him by the other two teams. Right. So like even if he's not good for the twins, it's not that gigantic hit that either of those other teams were going to make. So I bet they're both fairly, fairly glad that they dodged a bullet on that one.

Something I do feel pretty good about at this point is I had the Atlanta Braves winning the World Series and the Atlanta Braves look like a really freaking good baseball team right now. That's like the one prediction I made that I'm not already like, oh my gosh, I'm so bad at this. I still got my raised future from before this season and I feel great about that one. The odds have more than doubled since I, since the start of the season. I still have my Zach Gallen preseason Cy Young bet that's looking pretty good. Yeah, I don't hate that at all. You put money on that? I put money on that on this program.

That, I somehow, I remember you putting money on Corbyn Carroll for Ricky of the Year. Yeah, it was the same time. Yeah, me and Eric both have rookie of the year Corby Carroll. So that's why James Outman is my new enemy. Yeah. Right. Makes sense. I mean, both of those honestly are looking.

I mean, that would be crazy. If the Diamondbacks in the same year had the NL. Cy Young winner and the NL rookie of the year, I'm swinging for the fence. That would be, the backs have never had a rookie year. of the year award winner. I don't believe. They've had a few Sanyung winners,

some guy named Rainy Johnson or something. I'm familiar with him. You're familiar with him. Yeah, you planted a tree. That's right. I point that out to you every time the ad comes up on the board, Chase Field. I don't like to talk about the San Diego Padres in a positive light,

but we're going to for a brief minute because this was pretty adorable. The Padres made a calendar that it featured all of their players with their dogs. and it come to find out that Juan Soto has pet allergies, so he doesn't have a dog. So there was a simple solution. Leave Juan Soto out of the calendar? Absolutely not. What we're going to do,

we're going to send Juan Soto to a petco, and he's just going to take a picture with random fish that aren't even his. The man doesn't even have an aquarium in his house. He just went to a petco in his jersey and took a picture with random fish. I don't understand this at all. He's not, we're not saying he's allergic to the fish, right? Right.

So why can't he at least purchase a fish tank and get some fish and have his own fit and take a picture with his own fish? If I'm being a little business savvy here, Jesse, I think the fact that their park is called Petco Park and Petco Park has something to do with this calendar being created. I'm guessing that might be why this was arranged like this. I don't know. But yeah, it's still pretty hilarious. They just had to hijack it somehow to get Petco involved. Yeah, absolutely, right? Makes sense?

Yeah, business. It's business. Is he allergic to like all pets? I mean, typically if you have a dander allergy, it's like it is all pets. It's going to be dogs. It's going to be cats. But I mean, honestly, like I love my cats, but who wants a cat? Nobody.

Nobody wants a cat. They poop in a box in the corner. Like, nobody wants that. Mine doesn't even have hair And I bet he'd still be allergic to him Would he be allergic to like a hamster? You think? I don't know

Would that be included? I don't know I think you don't have to worry about a hamster Jumping up on your lap And getting it standard on you So I think for the most part As long as he just leaves him in there On that tiny wheel

And changes the water out I'm just saying there was clearly an opportunity here For Juan Soda to still have a pet I mean yeah I'm saying He could have at least brought the fish home Get one of the you know The fighting fish

You throw in a single little without, you don't even need to filter for those. You just put it in a little bowl. And then it comes with a warranty too, right? It does. I was telling Jesse, you have a 30-day warranty on fish over there. If they die, you just got to bring that carcass back in and get yourself a new fish. Speaking of carcasses, let's take a look at the All-City Division and everybody that trails the Arizona Diamondbacks. Things are not good around this network.

Let me tell you, but the Diamondbacks lead the way with a 20 and 17 record. You get the Cubs falling back to 18 and 19. They did have a big win finally in their finale over the St. Louis Cardinals who beat up on them quite a bit. In that three-game series, the Rockies are going to Rocky, and of course, nobody knows what's going on with the White Sox. No. I'm actually impressed, though, the Rockies have inched their way back to a fairly respectable record.

Rockies have some – They've some good wins. I think they won their series against the Pirates. I know that was – the Pirates have just – Pirates have lost all of their mojo. They have no energy left. They have lost nine out of ten. All their BDE is gone.

And now this is the position that they're in. Yeah, that NL Central, man, is real interesting. The pirates are clearly not the team that they played like in the first few weeks of the season. The Brewers started off really well. They've lost eight of their last 10 games. The Cubs have this crazy positive wind differential. They're plus 48, even though they're 18 and 19. And then the Cardinals continue to just lose almost.

almost every single baseball game they play because their pitching staff has just been abysmal to start the year. So, yeah, as far as the All-City Division is concerned, it still kind of feels like the Diamondbacks are the best out of these four teams. Zone in Arizona says, imagine having a losing record. Not us. Can't imagine it. But I'll tell you a great way to celebrate.

Not having a losing record is to head over to Focco, which is a leading manufacturer of sports and entertainment merchandise. Get yourself one of these gorgeous little bobbleheads that we have in front of us, including this guy. This little could tell with the home run snake already on his shoulders. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

He just hit a dinger. And Plaka is hanging around his shoulders. But remember, check out Foco for the best officially licensed gear for all sports and fandums. It's baseball season. So they got Aloha shirt, straw hat stuff. Let me get my big straw hat off, Jesse.

I know they didn't win, but maybe this will bring him some luck today. So let's get the big straw hat from Foco on. I know this is reserved for wins on Sundays. But we're not doing Sunday shows. anymore, so we'll have to figure out when we're going to bust this guy out. But shout out to Focco for these wonderful decorations and especially for this hat that Jesse will never, ever wear ever again. I promise you as long as you watch this show. This will never appear on Jesse's head.

But Foco always has our back for Arizona sports, which of course you know, you can't always find the best stuff for Arizona sports teams out there. And they have yours too. Get the best gear around by visiting www.foco.com and using code PHNX. For all non-presale items, use the promo. promo code PHNX for 10% off. And also check out our friends at Moore Furniture. If you're going to have all the decorations, you've got to have the furniture to go with it. You've got to get little things like these shelves to put all of this little knick-knack stuff on. So you can get all of that over at MoreFurniture.com.

You can also have it delivered to your home with their white glove delivery service that we received here in our office. Every single day I watch a baseball game. Not here. I wish I was here. Falling asleep like I should in a recliner right in front of our TV next to Damon while he's trying and do work, just snoring away. And of course, we thank them for bringing that dream of mine to life.

You can save big on the best furniture in the valley when you head to more furniture. I mean, we could get the white glove delivery people to come out to Chase Field and deliver some, deliver some recliners for the takeover, maybe? No, I don't like, I just want one in our seats in the press box. Do you think that would be okay with that? We just got ourselves, like, everybody else has those little chairs and we just got ourselves some big, nice, like, you know, kickback chairs. There's like some sign that's like Jesse and.

Derek on each chair so no one sits there. Like there are people are going to have to walk behind us, but that's not going to happen because that recliner is taking up that entire aisle. So let's go. Let's get that delivered out there. And let's get the Arizona Diamondbacks to deliver us a victory tonight against the San Francisco Giants. Of course, we are so excited to hang out with you guys and watch some baseball tonight.

So we'll see you guys there. Of course, make sure if you haven't grabbed the ticket yet, last minute tickets, takeover tickets are available. So grab those and join us for tonight. In the meantime, you can tweet to us if you are there. We'll come hang out with you or you can come hang out with us in the group. I'm at Kap underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Damon is at Damon Dog. That's DAWG with a little at the end. But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs and all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing so many of you guys tonight on behalf of this crew. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun.

It's so much more fun when Zach Gowan gets properly acknowledged.