PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jake McCarthy Stays HOT, Merrill Kelly Looks ‘Vintage’ In Diamondbacks’ Series Win Over Phillies

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

It was quite the week for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the best teams in MLB. After sweeping the Cleveland Guardians, the D-backs took three out of four from the Philadelphia Phillies at Chase Field and continue their run as the hottest team in baseball. We have more on the return of Merrill Kelly and Jake McCarthy & Corbin Carroll showing off their power against the Phils. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions and a look ahead at the upcoming series with the Colorado Rockies. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Gila River Resorts & Casinos: YOU DO YOU at Gila River Resorts & Casinos. Visit https://playatgila.com for details.Mint 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!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.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to https://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/allcity and use code PHNX for 10% off!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 Monday. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX podcast. Right here on PHMX. My name, of course, is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This man next to me is your vice mayor. My brother, you're sitting one. Jesse Friedman. Jesse, I'm very happy right now with the Arizona Diamondbacks. That was a very thorough victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. And we have so much more to discuss in regards to that. Of course, this show's presented by our friend of Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX 365 when you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And of course, like I always say, it's never ordinary when you watch in Arizona Diamondbacks game. Not lately.

Not lately, especially in this series, because these games were all over the place. We did have the return of Merrill Kelly yesterday. And of course, the Arizona Diamondbacks got the win, securing a three to one series victory over the Phillies. One day after beating the Phillies by a score of 11 to 1, again, they whoop the Phillies again. finale on 12 by score of 12 and 5. What is this team doing right now? Yeah, I don't know, Derek. If you had the best record in Major League Baseball, don't play the Diamondbacks because

they will ruin that for you. Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. We talked about it going into the Guardian series where the Guardians at that time had the best record in baseball. The Diamondbacks then swept the Guardians. And at the end of that series, the Guardians no longer had the best record in baseball. That honor was passed on to the Philadelphia Phillies. And then the Diamondbacks played the Philadelphia Phillies and they take three

to four and now the Phillies no longer have the best record of baseball. Baltimore, New York, who wants some of this? Yeah, I guess the Rockies are next. And, uh, yeah, we're going in the other direction. Yeah, they do not. They do not have, uh, the best record of baseball. It'd be a bit of a different feel here the next few days. But, uh, yeah, just a, uh, a very impressive series across the board for the diamond

backs, especially, I mean, yesterday going against Christopher Sanchez, like, I know he doesn't have the name cred that maybe Zach Wheeler or Aaronola do, but Sanchez was an all star. I mean, this is a guy who's really had a strong season for the Phillies this year. And I mean, he got 14 outs and gave up 14 base runners. He allowed 12 hits to the Diamondbacks in four and two thirds innings. And this was another game where the debacks actually fell behind early. They were down two nothing after the top of the first. They got one run back in the bottom of the first.

And it kind of just felt like a matter of time before, you know, this offense would do what it seems to do every single day at this point, which is put up, you know, double digit runs. or I think it was 18 hits in total on Sunday. Just another incredible performance from them. And another series win for the Diamondbacks. That's eight in a row. I believe it has been 46 days since the Diamondbacks have lost a series that happened back on June 27th against the Minnesota Twins. That was the finale of the last series they lost. This team is playing some really special baseball right now.

Well, and of course, the series right before that was a series lost to the Phillies. So things have really changed in that time frame. Obviously, the Diamondbacks have been playing incredibly good baseball. There's talk in the chat about MLB Network and how they're ranking the Diamondbacks. You got to understand, like MLB Network, the dot-com baseball websites, they're all going to consider the entire body of work here in regards to the power rankings for this season. And yes, there are teams still with better records. But, I mean, if you want to do a power ranking of where teams are now,

where they've been playing over the last 60 days almost, the Diamondbacks have to be up there as one of your top five teams in all of baseball. And of course, I say that based on the fact that over that stretch, they haven't just beaten teams like the teams that they have coming up. It's not like, oh, yeah, they beat the Marlins and the Rockies, you know,

and they, you know, they beat some other, you know, teams that aren't really playing good baseball right now. No, in that time frame, they beat the two teams with the best record in baseball and the

guardians and the Phillies. They beat the Dodgers. They beat the Padres. They have beaten good teams in this time frame. They beat the Royals that were playing really good baseball when they came in playing them, right? So it's like this is a team that, you know, we talked about the tests ahead. We keep talking about the schedule ahead. They have taken on the challenge and they have proven to be one of the best teams in baseball right now.

Now they're getting back guys like Merrill Kelly who came back yesterday and was absolutely, you know, himself for this team. Of course, he didn't look great out of the gate, but that's kind of what we've come to know about Merrill Kelly. Sometimes he's going to be a little shaky. Sometimes he might be a little shaky early, but he did an excellent job of getting things on track. He had a stretch there of a whole lot of batter sat down in a row. And it was just Merrill the mainstay once again. Of course, he didn't have the longevity that he, you know, that we've come to know out of him. But this is his first outing.

So it's going to build on it and he's going to get there. It's just great to see him back on the mound. Yeah, yeah. He, you know, Tori described as vintage. Merrill. I'm not sure I like 100% agree with that. There were a few more 1.0, 20, 30, 3 o counts than I think we're used to seeing from Merrill Kelly. But what was very much normal for him was that, you know, he's throwing six pitches and he's just keeping Phillies hitters off balance. He was able to bounce back. As you said, after that two run

first inning, he retired 14 of the final 16 batters that he faced in the game. He only gave up three hits. And while he only had two strikeouts and I think it was three whiffs, he didn't generate much swing and miss at all. He really was keeping Phillies hitters off the barrel. That was legitimate. It wasn't, you know, lasers hitting all over the place that were that were finding gloves. This was Merrill Kelly just really keeping hitter, a Phillies hitters off balance. And, yeah, limiting them to three hits in his entire outing.

So, yeah, it was 85 pitches. He went a little bit north of, I think the pitch count, the Diamondbacks were shooting for. Probably 80, 75 to 80. Yeah, Tori had mentioned 75 to 80 earlier in the weekend. they stretched it a little bit to allow him to get through the fifth inning, which we know Merrill. We know how much innings mean to him. And he really wanted to get through that fifth inning. The debacks, I guess, felt okay about allowing him to stretch a little bit beyond the pitch count that they'd set for him.

But yeah, I mean, the biggest thing for me watching a starter coming back from injury is does the stuff look similar? Is the Velo way down? You know, you're maybe expecting a little bit of rust. And I think there was some of that. but, you know, the arsenal looks pretty much just as effective as ever. And this Diamondbacks rotation, Derek, is finally whole. For the first time all season, the Diamondbacks actually have a fully healthy starting rotation, you know, the group that we outlined from the beginning of the year.

It'll be fun to watch with this, what this group is able to do here over the final two months. And you know what's wild to me is that we had a brief moment where Zach Gallen went down in his outing in this series. and we didn't know what the, you know, prognosis was going to be there on Gallen. Like you said, much like yourself, I saw him have kind of a pain in his groin and knowing that Gabby was pulled out for something similar. I immediately thought the worst. But then I also thought, well, the Diamondbacks still have five pretty good starting

pitchers. And I mean, even if the gallon has to go down for a short period, it's four, that that almost solves the problem, if you will, that they have of too many pitchers right now. Like I just have never I've never I don't remember a time when they were so deep at starting pitching that you could literally Be okay with potentially losing Zach Galen because the starting rotation is still sufficient for you to get through the rest of the season right and like yeah, it's not like that's something that you would want nobody I held my breath the whole time. I couldn't believe it, you know, but there is a lot of a lot of that over right with get so with gallon lordis guerrille also left yesterday's that's right game early. That's right. game early with left hamstring tightness. He's just day to day.

They didn't do any imaging. It sounds like he's going to be fine. And that was sort of another narrative of the weekend was that the Diamondbacks had players leave games and they actually had like pretty good injury news after the fact. That's not exactly a trend that we've seen this season. It feels like any time someone exits a game, you know, they're down for at least a few week. So, yeah, some good injury news, some scary moments that wound up not being so scary.

You could tell Marte, we've already seen the lineup for game one against the Rockies. Marte is back in there. So good news. Yeah, good news across the board on all those guys as far as we know right now. Now, the corresponding move to bring Merrill Kelly up was for them to option Scott McGuff down to Reno. And they also DFA to Humberto Castiano's. Yes. So at least for the time being, Ryan Nelson, who, I mean, we knew there was a good chance

Ryan Nelson was not going to be set down. However, there is the idea that you keep. them stretched out should something happen should they need him instead of converting him to a bullpen arm doesn't appear the diamondbacks are going to go that route it looks like ryan nelson will be a weapon in in in the bag for tori lovela but uh the biggest weapon is is merrill kelly coming back just because of the stability once again that kelly provides to the lineup and we have more from merrill kelly from yesterday on getting to start in a baseball game again here's what he had to say yeah like i said it's way more fun than watching it from the couch um

You know, seeing, like I said, seeing these guys doing what they're doing right now, it's a lot of fun to watch. I just hope I can, you know, come in and keep the momentum going. Obviously, coming in whoever you are and whatever team, when you come into a team that's been rolling, you just don't want to be the squeaky wheel. So I'm just going to try my best to, you know, kind of keep my head down and go to work and then just try to continue the momentum that these guys have built.

I mean, his return couldn't come at a better time. You know, I think Steve brought it up on the broadcast, but the fact that this team basically got two starting pitchers as if they traded for them at the trade deadline when they were already playing very good baseball is just so beneficial. I mean, plus they have that time now to acclimate themselves back into the starting rotation,

get used to playing baseball before the playoffs come along. Two months is a decent amount of time for them to get enough starts to just be back in the groove. Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny to hear Merrill Kelly, you know, talking about like trying to not sort of mess things up for everyone else, right? Like the Diamondbacks are playing. so well. And Merrill Kelly has obviously been an enormous part of all the success this team has had

over the last couple years. Correct. And for him to come back and be talking about like, I just don't want to be the squeaky wheel. I just don't want to be the guy who's getting in the way of all this positive momentum. It really is remarkable that the Diamondbacks have managed to have all this success, you know, over these past few weeks with without Merrill up until yesterday, without Eduardo Rodriguez. And, you know, Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno have been. been down for a while. Catelle Marte did not play in yesterday's game. And the Diamondbacks had 18 hits.

Like just this team's ability to have guys step up and, you know, in those spots where where guys have gotten hurt. It's been really, really incredible to watch. If you go back and watch an episode of the show from late March, early April, we were probably like, how the hell are they going to do this without Merrill Kelly? How are they going to do this without the newly acquired Eduardo Rodriguez? Yeah. And the play right around that time, definitely.

you know, echoed that question of how are they going to do this. But like Jesse said, guys stepped up. And I think that's the thing about this is Tori gave a lot of different players opportunities. And there are some great stories from this year. And there's other guys that didn't make it. This team just kept chugging along, though. This team would not allow one player necessarily to hold them back.

There was obviously Paul Seawald struggles that and that happened while the team was experiencing success, right? But again, that was Tori's effort. to try to, you know, believe in, believe in his guy and give it time and eventually got to a point where even he could not allow Paul Seawald to potentially cost this team games. The fact that they continue to just adapt and try to give someone else an opportunity or in the case of like some of the injuries recently, like call upon guys almost as a as a long shot hope. Let's go out and get Josh Bell. Let's go trade for Josh Bell because Christian Walker went down. Let's call up Adrian del Castillo.

You know, let's do all these things that sounds so crazy. And you're like, ah, this is it going to work? And the next thing you know, Josh Bell's hitting the cover off the ball. And ADC has become a legend in three baseball games, right? The man, you know, had his first home run as a walkoff in the series against one of the best teams in baseball. Like this team has just been, it's been so impressive, you know. And again, Merrill is just another weapon in that. Merrill coming back only makes this team better.

but I can understand his sentiment there. Like you don't want to mess up a thing that's going well. And like honestly, we've kind of even said that when those guys are returning. Like hopefully they can be what we think they can be. As long as they can be the versions of themselves we know from past seasons, there's no way that they're going to be, they're going to hurt this team in any way by returning. Yeah, a few more, a few more notes from the weekend.

Adrian Delccio, I mean, what do you say? He's played three games. He has seven hits. He's the first player in Diamond. Backs history was seven hits in his first three career games. As you mentioned, of course, the walk off on Friday was insane. Magic. What a way to hit your first big league homer.

He continues to be outstanding. Granted, only three games, but this has been pretty wild so far. Josh Bell, as you were just talking about, the guy has a 991 OPS as the Diamondbacks replacement first baseman. He's been in the cleanup spot every single day since the Diamondbacks first acquired him. He had five hits over the weekend. And honestly, it didn't even feel that noticeable like Josh Bell just going out there and having one or two hits every game. Just just sort of what you expect at this point, I guess.

We talked about the debacks trying to catch lightning in a bottle when they acquired him. He was really, really good over his past, you know, week or so of games with the Marlins. And he's just come over to the debacks. And that success is translated. And you're looking at, you know, a guy hitting in your cleanup spot who's putting up cleanup hitter, type numbers so far. And the Diamondbacks got some thick boys too. That's fun.

Jock Peterson, Josh Bell. There's a lot of thickness going on in there. And those guys are hitting the cover off the ball. And I love it. Not to mention the fact that we talked about Jock Peterson's impact on Jake McCarthy. You know, again, it's been brought up.

But, you know, Jake moving his locker over next to Jocx is a very like, like, you know, master in Padawan situation going on. But it seems to be working. They're very different hitters. They are. But they've both been very, very good in their own way. very different people, but like Jake also seems to be the kind of person that like, he's not as, as unique of a person as Jock Peterson is. Like, but Jake very much does his own thing out there. You know, like I, I love to. I still remember when Jake started with the mustache. Now the mustache is just kind of iconic on Jake, right? He was like, we had a conversation. Like, I don't know if I'm going to keep it. And now look, right? Never get rid of the mustache. Never get rid of the hair. But Jake's been awesome. Corby and Carol's been awesome. Corby and Carol in this series, he homered on both Saturday and Sunday.

The power is back with Corbyn. And that's still, I feel like he's still in the middle of, you know, figuring his swing out, still making little changes to it. Yeah, yeah. He's been really good. Like Corbett Carroll has been really, really good here over the last month. Plus, if you go back to July 7th, Carol has a 961 OPS slashing 247, 342, 619 in that span. You know, the 247 batting average.

That feels a little uncharacteristically low based on what we see. saw from him last year, but if you're going to slug 619, you can, you can deal with it with a 247 batting average. We tweeted this out yesterday. Corvin hit two home runs in his first 87 games this year. He has nine in his past 28 games, which is a really big number. I mean, if you had nine homers in a span of under 30 games, I mean, that's like a pace of more than 50 in a season, you know, not to say that's what to expect from Corbyn moving forward, but the power has really returned in a big way. I thought his swing yesterday against Jose Alvarado. It was a bad spot for a pitch. It was a 99 mile an hour fastball, but it was right down the middle. But even then, like, Carol has struggled to

drive those kinds of pitches, right? We've seen him roll over the top or, you know, get underneath it or just swing through it entirely quite a bit this season. He was able to drive that pitch to the opposite field, left on left, going against one of the better left-handed relievers in baseball. just continue to see more and more good signs from him. And you get Corbyn Carroll going. I mean, your offense has already been really, really going strong here for, for a little bit. If you get him going, it just brings it up to another level.

Don't let Corbyn get hot. Don't let, because you've got Corbin hot, Jake hot. They didn't even really need Catelle Marte in this series. And in fact, the team, like put it in the fifth year after Cotel Marte got injured. Like up to that point, the Diamondbacks had been scoring, but they hadn't been scoring much four runs in the first game. three runs for the Diamondbacks in the second game. But from the minute that Kattel left the game there in game three, right?

That was when he got rolled over by Garrett Stubbs. Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. The Diamondbacks literally scored like 20 runs in like a game and a half from that point going forward. I think it was, yeah, they only had two runs. I believe when Ketel was removed from the game. Right. And they ended with 11.

So they scored 21 runs. They scored 21 runs in 12. of offense after Cattel got hurt. They were like, how dare you injure our MVP? Ironic, considering the Phillies team cheerleader is like he's supposed to be the energy guy, you know, pick the, pick the boys up and stuff. And then he just injected lifeblood into the diamond backs. We had to remove this man from the podcast when that thing happened because Damon, they knew I couldn't control myself. No filters.

Damon wanted, Damon wanted the link to the stream yard. I might lost my job. It was like just it was going to be a one shot on him the whole time screaming obscenities. And here's another thing. Just here's another thing, you fucking Philly fanatic. Anyway, the Diamondbacks offense, of course, they just, they were incredible in this series. And especially after game two, of course, we'll take a look here at the count here shortly. But we did have more from Merrill Kelly on his injury.

And if it took longer for him to return than he expected because I know it took longer, I think, than a lot of fans expected. Here's what he had to say. I think the initial, when I first went down in San Fran, I think the initial feeling and the energy that was around how my shoulder felt, I think it was a little bit of a shock at that point that it was going to take as long as it did. But after we got the MRIs and we kind of talked to the doctors, this was kind of where I set my mind. I knew it was going to be a long road. I know we had a lot of healing to do. So standing where we are now, it felt, it feels fast.

It feels like it went by fast, probably in the middle of that. It was moving a little slow. but I just really tried to take that time to be productive. You know, I didn't want to go backwards and just kind of, you know, coast through it. I wanted to make sure that my time in there was well spent and we got some stuff done to get back to here. All right. Well, of course, TJ in the chat, it says anyone who thinks stubbed slide was dirty, never played baseball. Do you want to have an opinion about that there, Damon? I mean, it's fine.

I was just saying when he sent that comment in that there's two options here. It was either a dirty slide or, or I guess just not a clean slide, or Garrett Stubbs is so bad and has reached second base such a little amount of times in his MLB career that he doesn't know how to slide into the back. If you want to pick option two, that's fine. Doesn't necessarily make it a good thing either. Sorry, I knew he was going to do that and I still did it anyway. Unleash the dogs, Derek. You know, I'll say, I'll tell you this. Let me off my leash.

This was. At least as best. It was reckless. That's the right word. And I mean, it was almost like he was trying to like break up a double play when there's no one else on base. But it is what it is. The Diamondbacks scored seven runs on 12 hits against Sanchez there on Sunday. And of course, they scored, what was it, four runs on nine hits against Nola.

Yeah. They did the thing against starting pitching in the series. Yeah, it just feels like no matter who's starting for the opposing team, the debacks have a chance to really do some damage. Right. I know Zach Wheeler still pitched pretty well in his start over the weekend, six innings, two runs. Debex did have seven hits off him, but, you know, they struggle to push across runs in a few spots there. But yeah, I mean, this offense, it feels like it just doesn't matter who's on the mound on a given day. Ironically, you could make a pretty strong case that Colby Allard actually had the best start for any Phillies pitcher in the series.

I don't know if there's an argument about that. I mean, Wheeler was only five in. but it was only one run. So, yeah, I think Allard probably did have the best start in the series. A few other tidbits here from a story that I put out last night with some takeaways from the series just on the offense, Derek. The Diamondbacks have an 879 OPS as a team over their last 35 games. There are only 14 qualified hitters in baseball who have an OPS higher than that.

And that's what the Danbacks have done as a team since the start of July. my god did did a few a few searches over on stathead that is the highest ops the diamondbacks have ever had in a 35 game span in franchise history it just barely beat out an 874 ops stretch that they had back in 1999 99 it's been 25 years but you also have to consider in 1999 the the league wide ops was 778 whereas this year it's 713 offense is dropped considerably across baseball in the last 25 years we've heard quite a bit right um so all that to say i mean an 879 ops in 2024 is far more impressive than an 874 would have been back in 99 sure so yeah you're you're talking about an offense right now that is that is on another level than any diamond backs offense we've seen in the history of the franchise um and that's not really something i expected going into this year going into this season derrick like i i i definitely thought the debacks could have an above average offense that it could be a strength for this group.

Yep. But I mean, they have 624 runs as a team. That is the highest number in all of baseball. The New York Yankees are second and they're 10 runs behind. Like the Diamond Back just continue to score insane amounts of runs. And it's just with how well-rounded this team is, right? Like there just aren't any weak spots in this lineup. And you're seeing that paid dividends on a day-to-day basis.

Over the course of the season, this team came together. and the additions that they made during the off season, we knew they shored up some of their weaknesses. We knew during, you know, when they were playing as well as they did and they were getting down to the trade deadline, there wasn't really a need to make any big moves because this team was fairly set.

They were fairly deep. The bullpen was the one area that they needed to address. They did address that. It's arguable if it got better or not with the way some of the performances have gone. But again, it's still early for those guys. Not everybody goes through a trade. and then immediately is the same pitcher they were on their previous team on the new team.

That's what's beautiful about this. The guys that have been injured, they have time to come back. Not only that, but the guys that they traded for have time to kind of find their role and find getting comfortable with Brent Strom as a pitching coach and the way Tori coaches and the way things are done here in Arizona, right? But I will also say that this is a team that, you know, again, when you talk about being surprised by it, you're right. but we did think at times during the off season, when they added a Jock Peterson, when they added a Gino Svarez, that we were like,

this team could be dangerous. The problem is, is Gino, for instance, struggled out of the gate. Corbyn struggled out of the gate. There were a lot of guys that were playing below expectations for a considerable amount of this year. Now, I mean, Jock has been Jock all season long.

Jock deserves all the flowers because that guy's been amazing. And like I said, he's also somehow made Jake McCarthy into a superhuman. So you have to also, a tribute for the intangibles like that where he's actually been a good mentor to some other guys on the team and we didn't know how jock peterson would be in that role but i mean this team just absolutely is crushing it right now and again don't know if it's sustainable this stretch obviously we doubt that it is you probably can't have an 879 team oPS for like for all that long yeah

maybe you can have a 900 ops yeah i don't know i don't know at this point derrick i mean for them to for them to play a four-game series with the Phillies and have Catele-Marté play 15 innings. He played less than half of the innings over the weekend, and the debacks still went out and averaged like eight runs a game. Granted, a lot of that happened in the final two games of the series. When he wasn't in the game. Right, right. Yeah, it's really, it's pretty bonkers.

Let's do it. Let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union because this really does illustrate. Let's do it, Derek. Let's do it. 30 runs to 14. runs. They out hit the Phillies, 53 hits to 32 hits. Diamondbacks were 13 for 38 with runners in scoring position for a 342 batting average. The Phillies were seven for 34 with a 206

batting average with average with runners in scoring position. And let's look at these ERAs. Let's let's let's talk about these ERAs. Of course, the Phillies. Some bullpen you got there, Philly. Yeah, some bullpen. You went out, you went out, got, you going out, got, you going out, got a bunch of pieces. Three all stars in that bullpen, huh? Yeah, they talked about that a lot. 5.66 starting pitching ERA to a 3.63 for the Diamondbacks, Philly's bullpen, ERA 10.22 to the Diamondbacks 3.29.

That's, yeah, Elise is right. This is a count we like to see. And Connor is also right. That is what I call an ass whooping. And Ryan backs me up. Again, whoop that trick. We whoop that trick.

That's a, it's a similar narrative of, as the Guardian series. right, where we talked a lot about the Guardians bullpen and how much of an asset that had been for them. And then the debacks went in there and scored eight runs in 13 and two thirds innings innings, and in this series of, I mean, a 10.22 ERA for the Phillies bullpen. I know that they weren't rolling their high leverage guys out there, the whole series for sure.

But the debacks still did some damage against the best out of that group, right? I mean, Jeff Hoffman's the guy who gave up the walkoff homered Adrian Del Castillo, So Orion Kirkering has been really, really good this season. He struggled in both of his outings over the weekend. Again, it just goes back to it doesn't really matter the credentials of the pitcher that you put on the mound right now that the debacks are hitting anyone and everyone. Yes, the chat is making me laugh quite a bit with their comments in regards to how bad that ass weapon was for the Phillies. But of course, a big part of it was Scranton PA's own Jake McCarthy, who is our king snake. for this series. Jake went eight for 18 in the series. He had three home runs, 11 RBI, one triple,

one glorious head of hair. And of course, just one amazing baseball player that has just really come on lately. And I mean, defensively, he's been great in the outfield. Like he really, he really makes it hard, I think, for Alec Thomas to get playing time right now with how well he's playing on both sides of the ball. You just can't leave Jay. McArthur out of the lineup at this point, right? I mean, outside of like the occasional day off that I guess you owe him. I mean, he's hitting lefties like basically no one else in baseball. I think he has a 361 batting average against lefties this year, if I'm not mistaken.

At least that's what it was at some point during yesterday's game. And against righties, you feel pretty good about him too, obviously. So you're getting to the point where, I mean, Jake McCarthy has an 822 OPS on the season. these are really good numbers. This isn't just Jake McCarthy bouncing back from a rough 2023. This is Jake McCarthy breaking out as one of the most valuable outfielders in all a baseball. 985 OPS in July 1st. Yeah. 985. Like the man has been a huge, you know, a huge reason why the Diamondbacks is on, they are on the run that they are on now. I've said it a few times. Cotell Marte has been the rudder for this team. He's been consistent. He's been the guy

that, you know, the one guy of everybody in the starting lineup that has done it. But the minute that he started receiving help from guys like Gino who struggled early on and Jake, that's when this team really went on to another level. And, you know, we had contributions on any given night from different players. But when we talk about the consistent contributions of McCarthy, like he just gives them another guy now that is that danger in the lineup all the time. Gino is mashing the ball. He's still hitting the exact way we're-

Still hitting well. The way we thought he would, right? Not the way he did early and not with all the strikeouts. He's been hitting the ball the way we thought he would. In fact, he's been just taking much better at bats all around. Like, Jock Peterson's thing of, is great at bat seems to be a bit contagious. And we're finally seeing this team as a whole be patient. You also have Pardomo, who was excellent in this series.

And of course, you know, he is adding more than just being that on-field manager. And, you know, those late contributions, we're seeing a lot more from Pardomo. you know, in these games and, you know, this team is just really, really hot right now. And it couldn't come at a better time because things are still very competitive right now in the wild card, the National League West. And they do have a good chance, a realistic chance at making some noise here for the division title. That's something I don't think any of us thought was a realistic possibility this season.

Well, if we will take a look at the standings, it's, yeah, it's getting interesting. The Dodgers right now are 69 and 49. So they are three and a half games up on the D-Backs as we record this right now. The Phillies also 69 and 49 after losing the series to the D-Backs Brewer is also up there as a division leading team. In the wild card, the Diamondbacks and Padres are now tied at 66 and 53. They have a four-game advantage on the Atlanta Braves who are in the third wildcard spot at 61 and 56. And then you've got a few teams knocking on the door there for the Atlanta Braves, Derek. have not played real good baseball lately.

We're going to talk later about what the Colorado Rockies just did to them over the weekend. But the Braves continue to struggle. The Mets just half a game out. Cardinals, a game and a half out. The San Francisco Giants have played really good baseball lately. They're just a game and a half out. But the debacks and Padres have built a nice cushion there at the top of the wildcard race. And once again, the Dodgers, just three and a half games away for both of those teams.

It's exciting. It's an exciting time to be a snake. fan for sure of course we thank you guys so much for being here in the ph and exports youtube channel if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet do so now sign up for notifications that way you don't miss whenever our shows go live do that for you and then for my self-esteem hit that like button drop us a like of course jesse his self-esteem is so incredibly solid that he he's it's fine he's like very highly of myself yeah he really does like the likes are meaningless to him to mean they mean so much so hit that like button of course if you're listening on the

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where you can go get yourself an amazing bacon cheeseburger while you're waiting either for your new car to be ready or maybe service on your vehicle if you need to have that done. They are pushing for the playoffs right now and you get the payoffs like deals on the 24 Ford Broncos Sport Big Bend just ranked highest in quality in its segment by JD Power. plus 0% financing for 36 months with no payments for 90 days on the Ford F-150, Escape, Edge, Explorer, and Expedition. Let me tell you, those no payments for 90 days, that's a nice little cushion that you get, especially if you're currently paying car payments.

So make sure to check out Sanderson Ford and their summer sales event, which is here, and they are teaming up with the Boys of Summer for a final playoff payoff sale. Purchase or release any new Ford and get four tickets for your family to see the debacks push for the playoffs, get 0% for 36 months, OAC from Ford Credit, see dealer for details. And if you get those tickets, make sure to go on a giveaway weekend because this was a giveaway weekend. And they had an incredible ring that we've talked about a bunch.

But they have some great stuff coming up, including that Serpientish jersey with the teal. I do not understand how the like giveaway Serpientish jerseys continue to be better than the actual jersey the players wear on the field. That's just my opinion. But it's a correct opinion. I'll tell you that much right now. Also, of course, we have more.

And you know why. You know what more we have. You know what day it is. You know that every year on this show is our year. You know that every weekend on this show is Hispanic Heritage Weekend. You know that every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day, Passover, of course, according to Jesse. And every Monday, we go to the mailbag.

Damon, let's go to the mailbag. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. Verlensia, if I'm saying that right, says that blue step. Serpientis jersey should replace our other black jerseys. No, they should not. I love the black jersey. The black one. We can have both.

Maybe it can replace the Serpientish jersey. Maybe we can talk about that. But Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? We got our first question from Travis Moore, of course, and he says, seriously, what do you do with Alec Thomas now and in? In the future, Carol McCarthy and Gurrey, I'll have spots. Gritchick here this year. You now have Caldwell and Waldschmidt developing along with Jones, Burosa and Smith, or fine depth.

How is he fitting in with this team going forward? Well, I feel like there was a time where we might have been asking the same exact question about Jake McCarthy, right? And I mean, Jake had his struggles. Alex has had, Alec has had his struggles. We know he's still an incredible defender there in center field or in center field. And the diamond backs have depth. They have the ability to have Alec Thomas in there as an additional defender. I mean, Tori's never going to play guys every single game anyway. So to have that ability to at least have them in there some days to give some relief to the other guys while he's, you know,

know, figuring things out. I think Alec, I mean, he's struggling, but I still think that he's a great baseball player. And I'm not, I don't know if we're at the point where we're like, how does he fit in yet? I get that he's losing playing time to Jake McCarthy. And to be fair, that's kind of how things should be going with how well, how well Jake McCarthy is playing. Yeah, he's in a tough spot, right? Because, yeah, there just isn't, there aren't, there's not a ton of playing time here for, for Alec Thomas. At least not as much as you'd ideally like to give someone who,

still has fewer than a thousand career played appearances. Like, you know, it's not like Alec Thomas has played four complete seasons in the majors and he hasn't figured things out. Right. He's 24 years old. And, you know, he had about 400 PA in 2022, about 400 last year. Uh, you know, did he improve drastically year over year? No, he didn't.

And this year, it's been sort of more of the same. He has a 629 OPS as of right now. I know some people mentioned in the chat that his savant page looks a lot better than that. We've, we've touched on that a little bit recently as well. part of the issue there might just be that you know he's kind of hitting the ball to the same spot over and over again so it's it can be a little easier to set up defensively for someone like that but he's definitely not someone that you want to uh give up on i would not think like if you were to trade alec thomas at some point you know if it happens this off season or whatever

you're taking a risk that alec thomas goes somewhere else and really figures things out and with his defense becomes one of the better center fielders in the sport, right? Like that's totally a possibility. Right now it's tough, though, because, yeah, Corbyn Carroll is starting to really hit, and Jake McCarthy is obviously hitting, and Lordus Corrielle has come around a little bit recently. Randall Gritchick, obviously, love the matchup there against lefties. So it's going to be tough to find him playing time down the stretch, and it'll be interesting to see this offseason.

Do the Diamondbacks try to leverage some of that outfield? to get help in another area, I could see them exploring that possibility. But if you do trade Alex Thomas, you want to get a significant enough return so that if Thomas does blossom somewhere else, that you feel like you did okay for yourself. There's only one answer.

And if that is trading him, it's to trade him to the Chicago White Sox because we know every team fleeces them and they always have great players to get back. And I'm sure that would make the family happy to have them back with the White Sox in the White Sox family. And that also feels like it would, wouldn't hurt us no matter how.

But that's the only answer I will accept. You're only trading him to the white socks. You're not trading him to anybody else. No one else gets him at all. And also, I mean, like, I think that Alec Thomas is a phenomenal baseball player. I think he's going through it right now, just like several guys have gone through it. But he was also injured. He missed a lot of playing time this year.

You know, again, it's played in he has 99 played appearances this year. It's basically nothing. It's basically nothing. And so, like, I do think that he needs some more time in order for him to get back on track. And luckily, this team, right? now doesn't critically need him and there's guys that are playing better but that doesn't really help the fact that he's not getting that playing time for him to get back right alec thomas is the exact type of player that if you part ways with you will regret it in the future and i think the

diamond backs have already yeah i don't even think potentially you can say that i don't i don't give opinions i spit facts but this team has already traded a few guys away that like kind of made us regret it right you know like we saw how josh ross was hitting the ball with seattle and it instantly made us want to want to do anything we could to get that trade back. I feel pretty confident in saying that if Alec gets traded to like a good organization, he would be a pretty damn good baseball player. Like kind of like what happened with like Kellanick to the Braves, something similar to that.

Like a guy with potential going to a spot where there's a lot of good players around him, I think he'd be pretty pretty solid in that circumstance. Yeah. But I think overall the depth is important. And we're seeing that this year. This team has lost a lot of guys. and you just don't know when that's going to happen again. Right now they are set.

And that's what you want when you are trying to make a run at the championship. You want depth. You want to be able to lose pieces, have another guy step up and keep this team from being derailed by any single injury. There was times in the past, including last year, that a Merrill Kelly, Zach Allen injury completely wrecks this team.

And I've been, if that happened late in the season last year, you had to scare like that, this team does not make the playoffs. You know, if they miss either one of those guys. like Jesse spoke about the other day. They were at a point last year where they were just finding a way to get Marilyn and Zach in there as often as possible.

It felt like they were starting everything a day. We'll have him start the next day, right? So like this team is different now. I don't even know if an injury to either of those guys or anybody in the starting rotation necessarily derails how well they're playing. And that's because of the depth. I mean, that's because you don't have to essentially turn to below average baseball players to come in and fill in for those guys that you lost. And right now, even in the cases of losing guys like Gabby Moreno and Christian Walker, they found a way to make up for it. So I don't think that this team needs to make any changes in the foreseeable future.

And I do think that Alec Thomas will come back and turn things around. I mean, it might not be with the Diamondbacks. You never know. But I do think Alec Thomas will definitely be a player that, you know, is a success in Major League Baseball going forward. It's an offseason topic for sure. Yeah, for once we get to that point, we see how Thomas finishes out. the year, kind of reassess where the debacks are at from an outfield depth standpoint and figure out if, yeah, maybe exploring a trade there makes sense or maybe you want to keep him

around and see if you can figure some things out next year when hopefully he's a little bit more healthy. Uh, Jigirth is here. And that makes me happy. This is an officially, this is a successful podcast. Jigurtha says no Alec Thomas trades. Yeah, no Alic Thomas planner. Okay, well, then we're done with that.

Moving on to the next question. What else we got? Next question comes from, uh, D-Backs, do cows? The cows, yes. what do you guys think that Lavello will do about the rotation now that everyone is getting healthy, six-man rotation seems improbable. Not only does it seem improbable, but, you know, there was a weird incident where Jesse kind of asked about it, and Tori was like, we don't really know.

And then our friend Jack Summers directly asked you guys considering a six-man rotation. And he basically immediately shut it down and said, no, we're not considering that. So I think that there is still some indecision on what the Diamondbacks want to do. And I think we know why. I don't think it's a secret. You have one guy that isn't performing well that you're paying a ton of money to. You have another guy that is performing well that would be the obvious answer as far as being the odd man out. And he is kind of pitching too well to be the odd man out right now.

So what do you do when you're paying one guy $25 million? And then another younger player in basically his second season is basically shoving. And you want him in there as much as possible as well. Yeah, I will hopefully get like official clarification on this today. Tori's pregame presser, but it sure looks to me like the Diamondbacks are moving Ryan Nelson to the bullpen. Jordan Montgomery is listed as the probable starter for Wednesday, so we pretty much already know that Montgomery is staying in the rotation.

Tori has also said that sending Nelson down was never a consideration. He's going to stay in the majors. And as you alluded to, he also basically ruled out the possibility of a six-man rotation. At least that's what his stance was as of a few days ago. So putting all that together, the only logical conclusion here, is Montgomery is staying in the rotation and Nelson is moving to the bullpen. And yeah, like the numbers don't exactly back up that decision, but we talked about the complications with this the other day where Montgomery has the contract

that he does and it's not just for this year. It's probably for next year as well. And if you're the debacks, you probably want to see Montgomery pitch for you next season and not, not have a full spring training and a more normal buildup with somebody else. You want to reap the rewards of that. yourself return to form with them. Yeah, I think it's possible that could happen.

So at the same time, I guess it's a risk the debacks doing this because if you have Ryan Nelson in the bullpen for a few weeks, then if God forbid someone in the rotation goes down, it might be a little tricky to move him back into that spot. You might have to dip into your minor league depth at that point. But yeah, also could be very interesting to see what Ryan Nelson can give you in the bullpen because his stuff playing up in that role is intriguing for sure. Especially with his fastball command right now and how good it is. Yeah.

I just don't know if that move is, you know, it's never a sure thing. As much as it seems like it's a sure thing to move a starter to the bullpen and have them be just as good as a reliever, it's not a sure thing. And that's the reason why I would not, I would not hate them sending him down to Reno just to keep him stretched out. Like that's the only reason why I don't hate that move. I do hate it based on the fact that based on merit, Ryan Nelson deserves his spot in the starting rotation, right? That's how I feel. But of course, I also don't have to pay anybody, any money, besides my daughter occasionally. So, and she doesn't, she doesn't command a $25 million salary.

She's probably getting close, but not quite there. All right. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Brian Brighton Bobbitt. And he says, if ADC can keep playing at the level he is, how do we handle him in Moreno? They both seem too good to do a platoon. Well, I mean, they were doing a platoon with Moreno. to an extent before with Herrera it's just Moreno got the majority of the playing time right like that's kind of how it works they're never gonna

It wasn't really a platoon I wouldn't say because I don't think it was really based on like left or right It was just like when Moreno needed a day off then Jose Herrera would would start but he's needed a lot of time off like it's not to say like merino is this you know like like iron man behind the plate I mean Tori plays her regularly really are right and you shouldn't right consistent time off but it does it is enough other problem that they have because I mean I think the idea there is is that you can't just expect a young player like del Castillo to come off the bench once every five days and still give you what you know what he's giving you right now like right now his production is incredible and it's hard I mean that to keep ADC up though I think that's the answer to have him back up be behind Moreno learn from Moreno get better as a catcher like you're you're always in competition for a position in baseball. There's never a time to matter how old you are, no matter how good you are,

that you're not competing with someone on your team that is essentially looking to replace you one day, right? And so, like, that's the thing here with Gabby and ADC is, is that Gabby's position, no matter how good Gabby Moreno has been playing, isn't 100% secure if the fact that Del Castillo can come out there and give the Diamondbacks, like, if he continued on the stretch, right? Like, if this wasn't just a three game stretch. If this wasn't just a very small sample size, it would be hard to deny not playing him more often. Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I mean, again, like, I feel we have to preface this with the fact that it's been three games for Adrian Del Castillo. Like, we don't want to go too far. Oh, my gosh. I absolutely go too far. That's what they pay me for, Jesse, is to go too

far. Okay, maybe I don't want to go too too far. Just sort of assuming that Del Castillo is going to be like, a way above an average hitter in the majors in the long term. But it is an interesting question. Like if when Gabby comes back, hopefully that happens during the regular season. Sounds like that it will be the case. Although we still really have very little information with regard to his injury. You know, does, is there a little bit more pressure to try to get Del Castillo in there a little bit more often than how often Jose Herrera has generally been playing?

but I'm still inclined to think like Gabby Moreno was on a tear of his own when he went down with injury. He really was. He won the gold glove last year. Like I think Gabby Moreno the moment that he's healthy and ready to go, he steps right back into the role that he was in before. And maybe that allows you to, if Del Castillo is still here at that point, maybe you can use him as a pinch hitter in other situations. Yeah, granted there'd be a little bit of, every one down again. Yeah, there could be a little risk there, I guess, with, you know, him being your. your other catcher you don't you don't necessarily want to be using uh you know both catchers

and leave yourself in a tricky spot if if someone were to get hurt but uh yeah if if del castillo continues to hit they'll they'll probably find ways to to get him in games more consistently i mean this was a conversation i felt like we were having about jake mccarthy not too long ago and now jake mccarthy is is in the starting lineup more often he's sitting second he he earned that playing time and he proved that it wasn't just in a small sample size it wasn't just him having a good week. Jake McCarthy has been good. Del Castillo still has a lot to prove in order to be in that conversation like Jesse said.

However, it's hard to deny if he continues to be as good as he is. And we know he was very, very good in the PCL. So it's not a matter of if that ability is there. It's just if he can maintain it at a major league level once information starts getting out on him and that other posing pitchers and posing teams know more about him. So we'll see how that develops. but for now he's a god sent with losing Gabby. He really is.

And of course, he's getting a chance at a major league level to get better. And that's what's important for him right now in his career. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from not Brighton Bobbitt because we just did that one. Tyler Hall and he says, this may be too early, but who would you rather fave in the postseason,

face in the postseason? Would you rather win the division and have the buy or play the wildcard series? I mean, that's a great question. Last year we talked a lot about that buy and how bad it was for teams that had the buy. So I don't know if I want the buy. Jesse, what are your thoughts? I think you want the buy. I mean, I'd be curious what, you know, Diamondbacks like players and coaches,

what they're feeling is on this. But just mathematically, like if you can eliminate the randomness of a three-game series at the start of your playoff run, you want to do that, right? Like anything can happen in a seven-game series. truly anything can happen in a three-game series, right, regardless of where that series is played. So, yeah, if I'm, if I'm the debacks, I probably want to just shoot for the best record I can possibly have and try to win the NL West. To the question of like, who would I want to face?

That, I mean, I'm sure we'll dive more into that as the, as the postseason race gets further along. Atlanta. Yeah, the Braves are, the Braves are struggling right now. It feels like you want nothing to do with the Padres in a short series, given how well they play lately. And we end the season against them as well. So it would be really interesting if you end the season on a three game series against the Padres and then have to essentially play another three game series against them in order to determine who moves on in the playoffs. But the Padres play, yeah, they play the D-Backs to finish the season. They play the Dodgers before that.

Those are the last two series that the Padres play in 2024. So these are going to be pretty probably pretty fun, pretty good. crazy that that last week of the season can't wait what else we got there damon next question comes from erin hughes our sweet baby boy and he says if you were to go out to dinner with some of the diamond back starting nine where would they take you feel free to interpret this is a you question it's definitely a me question um all right we got christian walkers taking you to a nice steakhouse right i think that's kind of bourbon and bones bourbon and bones well that's just because that's Berman in the title. But yeah, that's probably likely.

I'm thinking, I don't know. I don't know. Like, maybe I'm making him a little too pretentious. Like I would say like a barbecue joint, like Little Miss barbecue or something like that, but I feel like they don't have enough liquor there for you to sufficiently have a good evening. So probably, yeah, like, again, like a nice steakhouse. The boys, where are the fellas taking you? Like, are we going somewhere?

Are we going to bad jimmies with like the happy jewelers crew? You know, Dre, Corbyn, Alec, and Jake McCarthy, right? That would be, well, that's a bad Jimmy's trip for cheeseburgers, overpriced cheeseburgers, as Jesse would call it. Yeah, yes, yes, I would. No slam on that, Jimmy's. Most burgers in downtown are too expensive for Jesse, to be fair. Corbyn had his little rookie of the year party at Bacca Nora. Baccahora.

I'm thinking, yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking that might be decent. That's a good spot. I've seen Zach Gowan wear Bacanora shirts. Yes. around the ballpark. That's amazing.

I believe. I'm pretty sure. So yeah, I feel like we have that pretty well nailed down. Is Alec taking us to Lumal Notties? Is that too on brand? Is that, am I just Chicagoing him enough again?

I think that's pretty fair. Yeah, I think so. That's pretty fair. I mean, what's, I don't know, there's so many,

the players themselves probably have some very, very high class that restaurants we don't even really know about and would never actually. actually go to it for being honest yeah it's fair yeah a lot of Scottsdale spots that's probably the obvious answer uh well else we got damon next question comes from ryan hanley and he says if you could have any themed baseball game at chase field what would it be where is batman day this is a good

one because i complained about this the other day and as crazy as that is uh that i complained it's i'm a star wars guy right i love star wars so tired they've overdone it with the star war Yeah, it's because we've seen it all before. We've seen the funny Photoshop's up there. Like, I want you to be more creative. I want you to go to a AAA level, maybe even a double A level. When we were at Friscoe Ruff Riders, it was Bluey day. That was awesome.

They had the players, they looked like bluey characters, and there was a race with bluey and all that. You can take pictures with them, all that. I definitely, like in general, the big franchises, like, it seems like Marvel Star Wars, all of that, all of that I'm out on, you know. Sure. I want you to go like, I don't know, unpopular maybe. Go like Avatar Day, right?

Avatar Day. Have some giant blue Navi walking around on the field. That would just make no sense at all, you know, like Avatar. I don't know. Any thing you like that you would like to see as a themed day. I'm a big Lord of the Rings guy. So maybe there's some potential there. I mean, we should have tied that into the replica ring night, right?

That's a great. Precious? My precious? Right? Like, get at him the whole time, just bragging about the replica ring. There is one ring to rule them all. And it's this one after we beat the Phillies. Like a thousand golems roaming the, roaming the concourse trying to steal people's rings.

Yeah, everybody's rings. Jesse, anything about STEM night? Oh, a STEM night. Yeah, I'm a big, yeah, big advocate of STEM night for sure. Yeah. Jesse had somebody arguing with his math on on Twitter and you know how that probably made him feel deep down inside, but that's all other thing. Dog day. Yes, dog day is always like that's fine.

Is that a theme though? Like if it's a dog day, I want like I want them all. I want people wearing like little dog ears and stuff like that. Like I want it to go all out. It's not just about bringing your dogs. You want furry day. That's what you just turned it into. And you want Andrew McCutcheon to come to the ballpark.

and put on MVP performances. Okay, that's fair. Coyote's Memorial Night. Yeah, that's too soon, Diana. It's very sad. Wow. That is too soon. Kind of would be crazy.

Yeah. Coyote's Memorial Night is an insane. That would be an insane thing for the Dinobax to do. All right. What else we got? We got any more questions. Yeah, we got one more. It's from Sean McNally, and he says,

his question is, since I was first to the table with the hashtag play Jake take, I'd like you to answer this. true or false, Alec Thomas will be traded before the beginning of next season. I'm an immediate false on that. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I guess we kind of just talked about this.

I'm going to sort of my default answer on any trade question is generally false because trades are complicated and difficult to pull off, no matter how much they might make sense in any case. But yeah, I mean, it wouldn't totally shock me necessarily. I mean, I think it's going to depend to some extent on how much the dollar

Diamondbacks value Jake McCarthy and how much they believe that McCarthy will go out and be this same player next season in the year after that and the year after that, right? There's still been some unevenness to these first few years of his career where he was really solid in 22 and then not so much last year. And then this year, obviously, he's taken a huge step forward. So, yeah, it remains to be seen. I don't think the debacks have so much outfield depth that they absolutely have to make a trade. Yeah.

So that's another reason why I'm going to say false. I think false for sure because of what happened with Jake last season. And Elise puts it here in the comment. His value couldn't be lower right now. Baseball GM. Yeah. And Jake was terrible last year, right? Had multiple stints in the minors and then look at him this season.

The debacks easily could have traded him in the off season because of an abundance of outfielders. And they held on to him because they don't want to trade him at his value's lowest point. Yeah. But that's typically when fans want a guy to be traded, right? It's not when he's breaking like Jake is now. You're not clamoring for Jake to be traded now, even though that would literally get back a King's ransom in return based on his performance. Right.

So again, and we've said this at times about Jake. Like there were times we're like, oh, no, Jake's kind of playing really good right now. Like, is he going to get better? Guess what? He did get better. And he played the way he was playing for an extended period of time. It wasn't just a short window, right?

So you typically want to trade guys when their values low because you feel like they're not contributing as much to the team and you want to see if you can get something for them. So it makes it hard. You're never going to want to trade someone that's red hot and that's playing good baseball. And so that makes it difficult. And I think Elise is right. The value is value couldn't be lower right now. So now wouldn't be a great time.

Yeah. I guess to play devil's advocate on that, though, I think you do get to the point with a young player where they've struggled, but they haven't struggled for long enough that their value has dropped significantly. Correct. Like, I think if we were, I think if a year from now, Alec Thomas had had another full season of it bats and still had not really taken strides forward offensively, I think his value is probably quite a bit lower at that point.

Like, you reach kind of a point of at batts where a guy has had enough experience in the majors and just not been able to make the adjustment. Yeah. That suddenly, you know, that prospect status that they might have once had is just completely worn off. Right now, I still think Alec Thomas is new enough to the big. leagues that teams around the league could still be like, oh, we think we can, we think we can turn this guy's career around. We're still very interested in a player who was one of the top

prospects in baseball just a few years ago. So that's another thing to keep in mind. But again, I'm going to kind of default to false on this. Well, we thank you guys for your questions. And of course, it's never great to try to trade a player when their value's lower. That price is lower. But if you want to lower your price on your mobile coverage, you should check out MintMobil. That one was for you, Ryan. Of course, say bye-bye to your overpriced wireless plan and your jaw-dropping monthly bills and unexpected overage

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Also, shout out to GameTime. Love game time. We're a big game time users around here, and that's because, of course, you can save up to 60% on last-minute tickets with game time. You can save even more with exclusive in-app deals on select seats ahead of the game. And game time, it's almost like playing a game when you're playing it.

Like if you're like if you're if you love deals if deals is what gets you going like me you can just sit on there wait for things to change see how low it can go see how long you want to wait till the start of the game before you drop the drop that ticket and that's the best part part about it is game time will show you all of those fees all of those costs for every ticket they'll show you what the best deal is what the lowest price is and everything. They'll also have their all in pricing feature which will show you the total up front with no surprise fees at checkout. So make sure to check out. Time take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time download the app create an account and use code P HNX for $20 off your first purchase Terms do apply again create an account and redeem code PhnX for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed All right well before we get out of here. We are gonna take a look at this series upcoming with the Rockies that starts tonight that I'm backs have a three game series of the Rockies and then I believe they go off to Miami for a series with the Marlins after that

I think it's Tampa oh it's Tampa first Somewhere in Florida. They go to Florida after this. But while they're here in town, let's take a look at the matchup with these Colorado Rockies. Their record this season, not very good. 44 and 75. They have a minus 188 run differential.

Their team OPS is tied for 15th at 709. Of course. Yeah, of course. That being 15th is like really like them being last. Right. It feels like. Yeah. I have to check their, I think their team OPS plus, which is park adjusted, I think is

91. So well below average. One of the not so great offenses in baseball. And when you talk about things not being so great, take a look at the starting pitching and relief pitching ERA. Team starting pitching ERA is 5.55, which is 30th in Major League baseball. Relief pitching ERA

5.64, again, 30th in baseball. But we can't have a double standard here, Derek. Those are core's field numbers, all right? No, I get it. No, I get it. A 5-5 starting rotation ERA at Cores. I mean, that's like a 2-5-5 at Dodger Stadium, all right? He's not wrong.

But the outs above average, minus one there for 16th right around the middle of the pack. But this Colorado Rockies team has not been playing very good baseball. But I will caution you and say they have beat some very good teams lately. There's just been these instances where they play well against their opponent, including the Atlanta Braves, right? Yeah, the Rockies did an insane thing yesterday. In the rubber match of a three games set with the Braves, they were down eight to two going to the bottom of the eighth. and they scored seven runs and beating the Braves 9 to 8. So I guess,

I guess beware of the Rockies. You know, a lot of people have been calling this a trap series. And I still don't really understand what that means. But I guess because I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. It's because Tori Lavallo tends to actually, you know,

like change the lineup a bit. We've talked about like in game three when they've won the first two games of the series, how he tends to put out there, you know, some changes. puts in some guys that haven't been getting playing time, things like that. And with the way the Rockies have stepped up against good teams, they're just not to be taken lightly.

I think that's really what it is. You look at their record, you know, their bottom of the division. You know, they kind of get kicked around. But this Rockies team is young and they're good. They're good in the aspect that when they're playing outside of, you know, course field, obviously they, you know, things are a little bit more normal, right? I mean, that was a normal ending to that game. And then I'm guessing was that a truest or was that at course field?

That was a course. Yeah, of course it's a course. I mean, the Rockies scored seven runs. That's what I was going to say. I mean, I don't have to ask that question. It's not. Other baseball ballpark.

So, I mean, there's that. And of course, the Rockies are pitching is bad. I mean, it's not very good pitching. So, I mean, when we take a look at the probable pitchers here, again, you know, guys aren't going to have a good ERA because they play for the Rockies and they play a course. But the advantage definitely swings the Diamondbacks away here. And, you know, of course, except in the case of Jordan Montgomery, but that will get to. Brandon fought in game one versus Cal Quantrell. Then we have Eduardo Rodriguez in game two versus

Austin Gomber and then Jordan Montgomery in the finale against Tanner Gordon. Yeah, I don't think Kyle Quantrell is pitching tonight actually, which is bizarre to me because I believe he is still listed on all platforms as the probable starter, including like the Diamondbacks email. Yeah, the Diamondbacks email to his name out to us as well. But I talked with our buddy Patrick Lyons earlier today. we got an on the record episode previewing the series dropping shortly and he did not think that quontrol was pitching today based on comments that bud black made over the weekend it sounded like quantra was being pushed back a little bit farther so we'll see what happens there i'm not sure if he if he were not going to pitch who would step in to take that spot quantr's had a pretty

decent year i mean a four five six er a you know going back to the course thing i think he has a 100 DRA plus. He's basically been a league average pitcher, which is pretty, pretty good for a starter. Austin Gomber has also held his own this season. So first couple games of the series, if I guess if Quantral pitches tonight, you're, you're getting at least a competent arm on the other side. Tanner Gordon, don't know a ton about him. I believe he's only made five starts this season.

And yeah, we'll, we'll kind of see, we'll kind of see what this looks like. Bees echoes my sentiment. B says it's a trap, nope, don't like it. I think that we are going to like cautiously look at this Diamondbacks team for a while now because we did this after they came off of, you know, like the series went against the Cubs and then they beat the Royals and such. And we're like, okay, well, let's see. Hold on.

You know, let's pump our brakes. Now they got the Cleveland Guardians coming in here. They have the Phillies after that. Let's see how they play against them before we start calling this team good or say that they're the best team in baseball. and then they swept the guardians and took three out of four from the Phillies. And now I'm sitting here along with bees going, well, let's just wait and see how they do against this Rockies team.

To, I mean, to be fair, any team can lose to any baseball team on any given day. That's the way baseball works. And that's how weird baseball can be, right? But at the same time, the Diamondbacks are on a roll right now. Of course, like you said, Marte is back in the lineup. There's a lot of reasons to believe that they're going to go out there and continue to do their thing this evening. and for the next two days against the Rockies.

And I mean, honestly, the Diamondbacks right now, like, no matter how good they are, they have other teams keeping pace with them that are just as good. So they really can't let their, you know, let off the gas here against, you know, this stretch because this stretch is probably filled with teams that you could consider to be trap games. You have a bunch of teams that kind of waive the white flag or I would say at the trade deadline, but in the case of the Rockies, wave the white flag in March. but you know you have you know they didn't really wave it at all the trade no line because they basically kept all of their players we're like we don't have any assets what are we going to

give away well they had some things they could that's that's mean for me to say that they don't they don't they don't want to part ways with the young players they have because that's the building of the future and nobody wants chris bryant's contract so of course you also have you know again those florida teams coming up the tampa bay race followed by the marlins and on paper the diamondbacks are better than all those teams and they should have a really nice stretch here before returning back to chase field but you can't guarantee that you cannot overlook any team the the Rockies do have you know they've got some some good players like Brenton Doyle just one player of the month and L player of the month in July over Heuania as far as he was he was absolutely insane in the month of july

He's at a three war season according to baseball reference he's been a genuinely like very very good center fielder the offense has come around he has a one 13 OPS plus this year. Ezekiel Tovar continues to take strides moving forward. He's had a pretty strong season as well. He was a disaster defensively the last time the Diamondback saw the Rockies at home, which was the very first series of the season. I don't expect that to happen again.

He's been a very good defensive shortstop through his young career so far. Ryan McMahon has had a pretty strong season for the Rockies as well. Charlie Blackman continues to do the Charlie Blackman thing of, you know, Not aging. Yeah, being around a league average hitter and, you know, just sort of being a, being a thorn in your side from time to time. So like you said earlier, like any, any major league team can lose to any other major league team on any given day.

And there could be a bit of a letdown here. Like after playing the guardians on the road and playing the Phillies at home for four games, now you're playing the Rockies. There's not going to be as much energy, nearly as much energy in the ballpark over these next few days as there was over the weekend. So we'll see what it looks like. Not as much energy. Jesse,

there's going to be 27 people there. That's what's going to be there. I'm not knocking. It might not be bad bad. I know. Well, I'm just saying. Well,

okay. Chill out, Philly's fan over there. It's the Rockies on Monday. I'm blaming the Rockies board that I've even blaming the Diamondbacks. But yeah, no, I mean,

the point actually is that this team right now deserves to support all the time. Not just when there's a giveaway item. Not just when there's a, a marquee matchup in town. They deserve the support while they're playing teams like the Rockies because they are so damn good right now. And, you know, they love it. The boys love it.

The boys love when the fans come out. That's something that we constantly hear from the team. And I mean, as crazy as it is for any major league baseball team to have to say that, you just get the feeling that like, you know, we see it. We know Chase Field can be empty. Oh, God, this guy. Look at. You guys are twinning today?

I don't know how I feel about this. This is weird, but it's because we're fucking, we're fucking dangerous. A connected Pitch and else is dangerous. As opposed knocking stuff down back here. But go out and see the Diamondbacks play the Rockies. They need your support. And of course, this team, Red Hot, best team in baseball right now. And I'm not even saying that with hyperbole.

They really are the best team in baseball right now. Yeah, we're going to do our power rankings on Thursday. So. Diamondbacks number one. I'm not letting him get away with any. I had a feeling something like that was going to happen. We'll make that up. We'll figure it out.

But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man of the K. Of course, this maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. The people's producer, Damon is a Damon dog. Of course, we are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Show is at pH and X underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We will see you guys back here tomorrow for another post-game show after game two.

of the series with the Rockies. Until then, behave yourselves, have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't take these teams

with sub 500 records lightly.