PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jordan Montgomery CRUISES In Return, Ketel Marte MASHES In Diamondbacks Win Over Royals

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Jordan Montgomery made his return to the mound for the Diamondbacks on Tuesday and gave Torey Lovullo five solid innings in a win over the Royals. We have more on if Montgomery was as good as the box ...score indicates, Ketel Marte leading the charge for the offense, and Torey’s understandable tirade from the first game of this series. We also take a look at potential trade deadline targets for the D-backs as we get closer to the deadline. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/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/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.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!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:04 We are home. We are back and ski to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast right here at PHNX Diamondbacks or PHNX Studios, I should say. It's good to be home. We don't know where we are. We don't know what day it is. We have no idea of anything. But we do know that's the win music and that means the Diamondbacks get the W
Starting point is 00:00:27 tonight against Kansas City Royals. Winning by 6 to 2. Of course, the big story is that Jordan Montgomery made his return. to the mound and gave Tori Lavallo five solid innings in this win. We're going to pick it apart and this guy is probably going to get way too negative about it, but we are so glad to have you guys here. We're so glad to be discussing a win. My name, of course, is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And this guy next to me, of course, is your vice mayor and your thunder stick, the one and only Jesse Friedman. Of course, we did talk about Jordan Montgomery
Starting point is 00:00:58 here, but comes back, of course, we did know that he was going to have kind of a short outing and his return from his injury. But of course, big night for him as he went out there and did more of what we expected to see out of him this season tonight. Five innings, one run. Yeah, I mean, on 67 pitches, he was efficient, especially on a day where, as you said, the pitch count wasn't going to be real high for him.
Starting point is 00:01:22 I think, I don't know if 67 was, that's probably not the exact number they had in mind. But he only threw 56 pitches in his last game before making the start. So he figured it was, was going to be probably 70, 75 tops in a game like this. So he was able to give the debax five innings. He was able to come away with a win. You know, we'll get into more of the specifics of his outing and how I, you know,
Starting point is 00:01:45 I'm not sure that the, the trajectory of his season necessarily changed today. You know, I still have some questions on my end. I hate you so. I'm going to do the thing that I'm known for doing on this show, which is being somewhat, you know, realistic at times. But he was good, Derek. He says, he said realistic. You guys know what that means.
Starting point is 00:02:06 That's a code word for negative Nancy over here, but let's go with it. Let's just pick it apart. Let's start there because, you know, on the surface, you would look at Jordan Montgomery's night and beside the fact that he didn't go very long, it would be of pretty damn good night from any major league pitcher, right? And sometimes you understand like even on an outing like this from anybody that maybe their pitch count just got driven up. They couldn't stay out in the game very long.
Starting point is 00:02:31 But still, it much. better performance than we've seen out of them. We've seen how to have a good, you know, a few good performances like this. So I understand you wanting everybody to pause on the is Jordan Montgomery back question. But let's go with it. What did you notice that would suggest otherwise? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think that he was better today than he's been in most starts this season.
Starting point is 00:02:54 I mean, you know, I'm not here to discredit at all, you know, that Montgomery pitched a pretty decent game. But there are still like some of the concerns. that I had for him going into today, I wouldn't say I saw anything today that looked all that different. One of the biggest issues that Montgomery has had this season is just not generating enough swing and miss, not getting, not getting enough strikeouts. And he had two strikeouts today and he only generated eight whiffs. Like it wasn't like he was fooling Royals hitters left and right. I thought that Royals hitters looked pretty comfortable in the box, honestly, throughout a lot of
Starting point is 00:03:29 the at-bats, there were a lot of situations where he got a little bit behind. in the count and was able to, you know, generate some, some soft contact in some situations, but there was also some hard contact, some balls that found gloves as well. So, yeah, you know, it wasn't, I'm not saying this wasn't a step in the right direction for Montgomery. I think it certainly was, but some of those concerns that we had about him, I still kind of have those concerns coming out of this outing. It's going to be really hard for him to be successful in a sustainable way if he's still
Starting point is 00:04:01 hovering around the, you know, five, six Ks per nine that we've seen from him this season. That's not the pitcher that he's been in the past. And, you know, at some point you'd like to see him look a little bit more like that guy. Meanwhile, his line, five innings pitch, three hits, one earn run, one walk, two strikeouts. 67 pitches. Feels like he was pretty efficient. Feels like he could have given them more, but understandable to turn it over to the bullpen. Bryce Jarvis did a great job out of the bullpen.
Starting point is 00:04:28 Bullpen did a great job tonight overall. But of course, Jesse, of course, somebody had to struggle. And especially in the ninth inning. I mean, I know it didn't run off the rails because the Diamondbacks offense did a great job of giving them the run support. But you had two solid innings from Bryce Jarvis after that. Joe Mantiply had two thirds of an inning. Ryan Thompson came in with the wrong color glove. And he got a third of an inning pitch there.
Starting point is 00:04:51 Yeah. What was that all about, though? Like, we had some discussion. Like, first we thought maybe it was the color because it seemed to very much match the Diamondbacks jersey. but then there seems to be a rule about it matching the color of the ball so the gloves can't be white or a light gray color, which Ryan Thompson's glove appeared to be. And I don't know.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Like Ryan Thompson, he knows, like there's, that's a weird thing to not know, right? Like I would think that that would be something that pitchers would commonly know. Yeah, this is,
Starting point is 00:05:21 I am not 100% sure exactly what was going on there. I know on the broadcast they were speculating that his glove, was too close to the color of the Diamondbacks jerseys. I'm not sure that's what was happening there. I think it also could have been that the glove was too close to just the color of the baseball and they want to make sure that they're, you know, that from a hitter's perspective, it's hard enough to see the baseball. The last thing you need is kind of the glove and the ball sort of blending together.
Starting point is 00:05:47 Right. But see, piece of Yoshi makes the best point. And he is what, he is where I was when we came back from the commercial break. And we see an umpire and we see Tori and we see Ryan Thompson's glove. like all in the mix and Tori has Ryan Thompson's glove and he's walking off the mound with it. And of course, yes, like piece of yoshi said, Ryan Thompson, I've watched Edwin Diaz get suspended for 10 games. You cannot scare me like this, especially with an arm that we need so much out of the bullpen. An arm that tried to RKO me, by the way, in Chicago unsuccessfully, I would like to say.
Starting point is 00:06:19 But again, well, a third of innings pitch for Ryan Thompson. He did his job. But then Kevin Ginkle in the nine just struggled a little bit. It's not enough to make me like panic, but it's enough to just make me kind of shake my head at the fact that, you know, we can never have nice things. You know, even even the guy that's been good gets in there and, you know, kind of has been consistent lately, struggled when being thrown in there in the ninth inning of a game that was, you know, fairly in handed. I went back to up six to one at that point. I mean, Gingle has been so good lately that I don't think you're all that, all that worried about him giving up one run. Right.
Starting point is 00:06:55 He still has a 264 ERA. He's been probably the DeBack's most reliable reliever here over the last month or so. Yeah. You've seen some of the other guys kind of take a step back. Going back to the Thompson incident, there is a rule in the MLB rulebook about this. This is from an article over on MLB.com from 2017 where they're discussing a similar incident. This is involving Mike Clevenger in a glove situation that he had a few years back. You never want to be in the same discussion as Michael.
Starting point is 00:07:23 That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. But it says the pitcher's glove may not exclusive of piping be white, gray, nor in the judgment of an umpire distracting in any manner. So I guess this glove was gray. It was kind of a darker gray, but it was gray. So I think that's all that the issue was there. Benjamin Hunley in the chat says Bryce Jarvis should get more looks in high leverage situations. I agree right now.
Starting point is 00:07:48 I just don't understand Bryce Jarvis, Derek. I'm being totally honest. The man at this point, you mean, you have to acknowledge the run prevention ability that he has shown this year. He has a 3.34 ERA after throwing two scoreless things today. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. At the same time, as I'm sure all of you are expecting for me, the baseball nerd side of the equation. Who leads the league in walks or something?
Starting point is 00:08:14 He doesn't lead the league in walks, but he has 36 strikeouts to 32 walks. I mean, you want to have like at least twice as many strikeouts as you do walks. Bryce Jarvis has basically the same number of strikeouts and walks this season, and somehow he still had quite a bit of success anyways, a 1.41 whip. There have been a lot of, you know, a lot of traffic on the bases against him. But, yeah, he has shown kind of this uncanny ability to pitch out of tricky situations. So, you know, maybe people do want to see him more in higher leverage situations. I guess I could understand that. I think the idea is that everybody wants to see anybody that's pitching well in high leverage situation.
Starting point is 00:08:52 until they're in there and we're seeing them do what happened to Justin Martinez. And that's not very fair because he was placed in a situation where it was his third day in a row. Yeah, that was tricky. He already had a kind of a, you know, a fairly sketchy outing there on Friday against the Cubs. So like I still don't understand going to Justin Martinez there other than, you know, he probably said he wanted to go in, you know, like sometimes Tori talks to the guys and based on the way they react, they weigh they respond they talk about how they're feeling and if they're ready to go out there uh just martina strikes me as the kind of guy that's stays ready and is always ready and probably
Starting point is 00:09:29 tells tory he's never feels down and he's always ready to go so yeah you know that might have been what played into that but you also just have the the fact that you know the bullpen's getting used a lot and that's the downside here is that jordan montgomery you know gave him five innings but you still putting a lot on the bullpen today uh but they they reacted well and they had a good lead thanks to the offense. Diamondbacks had bases loaded with nobody out to start the game. And that was a great way to start the day. Christian Walker gets a sack fly.
Starting point is 00:10:00 And then Gabrielle Moreno with the two out, two run single to make it three to nothing. And then Catel's, I guess, what would you call that? The scraper home run? I mean, one that was looked very foul on TV, but then ended up being very fair. And Cattel knew it. Cotell absolutely knew it. That was my favorite part of that. Yeah, it was pretty fun.
Starting point is 00:10:20 funny to see Ketel just very confidently rounding the bases. Well, everyone else was having discussion. Well, as the umpire had called the ball foul, like he said that it was foul. And Ketel just kept on, you know, going around the bases and kind of doing his thing. And sure enough, it was a home run. DeBack's TV crew did a great job, kind of tracking the ball, giving us a more zoomed-in angle later in in the game. And sure enough, you could see it just, it just bounced right off of the right-field foul pole. And this is a left-handed Catele-Marty, Derek.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Not even super-powered right-handed Catell. This is not super-power right-handed Catell. This was left-handed Cattel hitting the ball 111 miles an hour off the bat. He continues to be very, very good for this Diamondbacks team and is very much in my book in the MVP conversation, at least as of right now. Right now, he said it's 21 home runs this season. 61 RBI. His batting average is 294.
Starting point is 00:11:17 on base percentage is 364 and his OPS is 885. So yeah, that tracks. Not to mention his defense and the cinch robe that he wore on the red tithe. Cynch robe jacket. I still can't get over how fly that was. But anyway, go watch our videos, by the way, from Texas and Chicago. We have a lot of stuff out there on the YouTube channel. If you haven't checked it out, make sure to go check out all the fun.
Starting point is 00:11:43 We had, especially Jesse's, I guess, views of stadiums and food that you ate out there. I don't know if you really want to call it that or not, but he had some great takes to make sure to check that out. But getting back to Cotel Marte, of course, he is our King Snake for tonight. Cotel Marte was two for three. The three runs scored, that big home run, two RBIs, one walk. Great night for Catell.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Catell is, like Sean says here in the chat, Catell is a vibe. Yeah, he's, it's hard to overstate the importance of, of Catelle Marte for this baseball team this year. I mean, he has not only been very, very good, but he's been very, very good at a time when other players haven't been, right? Specifically, Corbyn Carroll, obviously struggling
Starting point is 00:12:28 in the ways that he has. And Christian Walker having what has really become a pretty normal season for him, Walker hasn't been, you know, extraordinarily fantastic or bad by any means. Walker has been, you know, perfectly fine for the debacks this season. But Cattel is really kind of taken over as the superstar on this baseball team.
Starting point is 00:12:48 I mean, he is the reason that the diamond backs are still in a pretty decent spot here after 102 games despite the injuries and Corbyn struggles and whatnot. He's been just so huge for this team. Some great questions here. Geek Martinez said, should we potentially look to trade Randall up to open up a spot for De Lo Santos? It's hard not to want DeLos Santos up here, but no, you cannot have Randall Gritchick yet. But we are going to talk about some potential trade targets for this team. And it will be interesting who the Diamondbacks are willing to part ways with when that time comes.
Starting point is 00:13:24 But we should see them making some moves to improve this team, especially after Mike Hazen's comments, after you spoke to them in Chicago. Yeah, yeah, we'll get into some of the trade deadline stuff a little bit later. I'm excited to jump into it. We are officially a week away from the MLB trade deadline. It is not on August 1st this season. it is on July 30th. It's a little bit earlier. And yeah, I mean, last year, Derek, we were starting our trade deadline conversations.
Starting point is 00:13:52 I think we probably started them a lot earlier because the debacks were so obviously going to be buyers. They were so far above 500 as the calendar turned over to July that, you know, we spent a whole lot of time digging into various options for them. You know, we talked about the Diamondbacks trading for Shohei Otani. We talked about them trading for a lot of other big names as well. I don't know if they're going to make a splash quite on that level, but there are some interesting names we'll get into a little bit later. Benjamin Hunley said, why doesn't Catell get national MVP consideration?
Starting point is 00:14:24 No one ever mentions him in that consideration. Yeah, I mean, he really should. I think as of right now, he's still, I wouldn't say he's the frontrunner, right? I mean, Shohei Otani has a 1028 OPS. And the fact that Cotel has been a really good second baseman, and Otani hasn't played defense, that, you know, that gives Cotel an edge.
Starting point is 00:14:43 but it's not enough of an edge to make up for 150 points in OPS or whatever that is. But yeah, Kattela is legitimate. I mean, Mookie Betts has spent enough time on the IL at this point that I don't think he's really a legitimate candidate. Christian Yelich has really good numbers with the Brewers, but he also was out for some time this year. I mean, I think it's Otani. It's maybe Marcel Ozuna, who's in a similar spot as a DH. Bryce Harper's missed a little bit of time, but is probably still in the conversation.
Starting point is 00:15:12 Freddie Freeman is still certainly playing well and has stayed healthy. And Kattel is right in there with all those guys. I'll say this about Shohei Otani is the Dodgers would be fairly mediocre without Shohei Otani at this point. You know what I mean? So like it's not a matter of him just being one of the many weapons they have this year. He has been a big reason why they've been able to stay, you know, keep their lead in the NL West and not really drop back at times their pitching has not been very good.
Starting point is 00:15:40 and there's a lot of other, you know, they've had a lot of other problems, but show A has been as you would have expected them to be, if not better. Nine days without me. Nine days without me and we've become a Dodgers podcast. Un-fucking believable, guys. It's Damon.
Starting point is 00:15:57 I'm sorry. It's Damon dog on the ones in June. I am sorry. I apologize, chat. This is on me. This is on me because I wasn't there to check these guys. And now they've become, I don't have the energy.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Oh, we love show. Hey, what a great. How good is that guy? Disgusting. Did I say, I mean. I mean, Damon, are you, so are you saying that Ketel is number one on your MVP valid right now? Like, what are we?
Starting point is 00:16:21 What are we doing here? He's not just saying he's number one, two, three, four, and five. Okay. Let's stop big up in the Dodgers on the pH and XD back show. Yeah. Look at. That's fair. He's, he's getting them all agitated at us.
Starting point is 00:16:35 That's not going to go. We do thank you guys for being here. We don't really think. Damon but uh thematics they kind of became no we became a wriggly field podcast there was a big difference there we showed the cubs themselves no love at all
Starting point is 00:16:49 but we showed wriggly field plenty of love because that place was beautiful and then we left and downpour we missed all of that it was wonderful but we also I'm disgusted at how much support Damon is getting in the chat oh yeah I mean I guess I should a bunch of ball
Starting point is 00:17:05 no a bunch of people that know ball no no no It's just you placating to the audience It going on an anti-Dodger rant when there was no Dodger love given here We were simply saying that the Dodgers would be Fucking mediocre I to shit Can I say to shit if they didn't have showy otani and that's what I'm saying I don't know if I fully agree with that and I think the Dodgers would probably still be in a decent spot
Starting point is 00:17:32 But given the injuries that they've walked through recently You know, I mean, Otani's been what like a five war player? I mean, I don't know, I mean Otani's been what like a five war player? Yeah, maybe the Dodgers are like seven or eight games over 500 without him. We call this family. Yeah, I know. This is what we call family right here. You're a bad person. You're a bad guy.
Starting point is 00:17:48 You're a bad guy. You know you're a bad guy. But we do thank you guys for being here. Kareem Rodriguez, thank you, said MLB reports. L.A. is all in on Randy or Rosarina. Of course they are. They're in on everybody. They're in on crochet.
Starting point is 00:18:01 They're in on everybody. I was listening to a thing the other day. That's just the resources that they have, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, I think they're in. on Derek Scoobel as well. That's another name we've seen floating around with them.
Starting point is 00:18:14 But here we go, Derek. Just continuing to talk about the Dodgers. I know. I think we need to change topics. Yeah, we'll just change topics. Thank you, Karim, for your super chat. Thank you guys all for being here in the PHAX4's YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:18:25 If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss one. Ever, our shows go live. And of course, leave us a review or leave us a like. I forgot. I don't know what I'm doing anymore, and I'm very exhausted right now.
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Starting point is 00:18:57 If you are looking to possibly replace two podcast hosts, a great place to check out to do that. Is it Indeed.com? Because if your podcast hosts, talk about the Dodgers way too much on a Diamondbacks podcast. You can get better search results by going to Indeed.com and finding and hiring two new podcast hosts. The best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. It's to use Indeed.com.
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Starting point is 00:19:57 you heard about us on about Indeed on this podcast. Why are all your Indeed reads about replacing us specifically? It just doesn't seem like a great way to go about your job. you interrupt me while I'm in the riddle of reading the job the thing right like that's one of the reasons why I would look to replace the job a co-host maybe someone that just let me get through the one line we've been spending too much time together but just go to indita.com slash all city right now terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed but that's because you know jesse that's all we know here that's all we know i mean i could talk about finding a new manager for your baseball team on there, but that's just going to get these people all fired up as fired up as Tori was yesterday,
Starting point is 00:20:41 and we're going to talk about that soon. But of course, also, check out Mint Mobile, because if you want to save a significant amount of money on your mobile service, on your wireless plan, check out Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plan, starting at just 15 bucks a month. You can use your own phone. You can take your own phone number with you. Everything comes over to Mint Mobile. All you have to do is leave behind the overpriced wireless plan. Ditch it with MintMobil's limited time deal and get three months a premium wireless service for just 15 bucks a month. To get this new customer deal and your new three-month and limited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com slash diamondbacks.
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Starting point is 00:21:50 They out hit the Royals 8 to 7. Did a little bit of damage with runners in scoring position, three for eight to the Royals one for four. The Diamondbacks had three extra base hits, including Catelle Marte's Dinger. that almost wasn't a dinger to the Royals 2. And then the Diamondbacks had a 53.8% hard hit percentage to the Royals 35.7%. Yeah, this was a big bounceback win for the debacks for sure. Yesterday was an ugly game for them.
Starting point is 00:22:21 They showed some fight early. They were able to get out to a lead against a fight. They showed some fight for sure. Yeah, there was quite a bit of fight shown on both sides in yesterday's game. But, yeah, it would have been tough. I mean, if the debacks had come out today and, you know, if Montgomery had struggled in his first game back, you're looking at a 500 record and a three-game losing streak
Starting point is 00:22:41 and pretty much all the other teams that they're in direct contention with in the National League won today. But, yeah, the debacks were able to pull this out. Jordan Montgomery, as we said, was better. It was better in this game, for sure, to the step in the right direction. And the offense did plenty. The offense was able to get on the attack against Dallas.
Starting point is 00:23:02 Mark Marsh right from the jump of this game in in that first inning I thought Gabby Moreno's hit was especially important you know making making sure the debacks put up three runs in that first inning as opposed to just the one the one I think would have felt like a little bit of a letdown when when you had the bases loaded nobody out so so that was that was particularly big and everybody in the chat right now is talking about jakes at bat there his triple which was absolutely an outstanding at bat you're I think they're talking about his more than anything else. Well, that's also something to be talked about too because his hair is incredible.
Starting point is 00:23:37 Whatever he's doing with his facial hair is amazing. Jake's been, uh, jakes been awesome. He's great. He's batting 274 with a 749 OPS and deserves to play. It's just hard for Tori to find places and times for him to play. Honestly,
Starting point is 00:23:51 I will agree with some of the people that say he deserves more playing time at time over Corbyn. And I agree with that, but I don't know if they're committed to doing that at any point. It's a fair point. It's a really interesting question. Obviously, the debacks have shown a lot of, a lot of patience with Corbyn this season. He showed some positive signs, but he has a 632 OPS, right?
Starting point is 00:24:16 I mean, we're about 100 games into the season. Like, Corbyn has been not nearly the player that he was last year. The Diamondbacks continue to hit him lead off pretty much every single day against right-handed pitchers. So, yeah, you feel for Jake McCarthy in a sense. situation like this. I mean, he's done pretty much everything you could possibly ask for him to do. And yet he's still sitting and feels like two out of every three, three out of every four games, you know, maybe getting an opportunity late to come in and play some defense to run the bases or whatnot. But the numbers are kind of clear, Derek, that McCarthy has been better than both
Starting point is 00:24:53 Corbyn Carroll and Alec Thomas. And you can understand the debacks belief in those guys and wanting to continue to give them playing time. But I also understand like a certain point, a hundred games in, you figure that the numbers kind of mean something and McCarthy still isn't getting all that much playing time. Elise asks in the chat, how has Corbyn still leading off is my biggest question?
Starting point is 00:25:14 And that's a fairly decent question. Yeah. He's been really, he's been, I don't have this in front of me, but if you look at his numbers just in like the first bat of the game, he's actually been very, very good. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:28 But then it drifts off. And then it kind of drifts off. So one for five today with three strikeouts, but he did score that run in the first inning. Yeah. I think the debacks are just at a point where where they believe in him so much that regardless of what's happened up to this point, they think that he is going to be a valuable performer in that role the rest of the way. And that's really all that matters is what do you think this player is going to give you
Starting point is 00:25:53 moving forward? It doesn't necessarily matter what the player has done up to that. point. But yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, he had a hit in this game, but he also struck out three times. The at-bats continue to look a little bit shaky. He showed some good signs in, you know, in Chicago, hit that big, that big two-run homer. But it continues to look a little off for him, for sure. It does. But like you said, there's something about Lavallo that he wants to show his belief in guys, and he wants to give him opportunities. And there's different levels of belief, right? There's some guys that get called up from minor leagues and they might only get one opportunity and get sent right back down.
Starting point is 00:26:31 That might have been the plan the whole time with that individual. We don't know. It might have been regardless of results. However, we do know that with guys on this team like Gino, right, is a great example. And now we're kind of seeing Gino have some more patient at bats. We've seen him lately kind of hit his way out of that slump that he was in. And it's not like he is, you know, going out there and going three for four every night or anything crazy like that. But Gino Svarez at least is contributing to this team.
Starting point is 00:26:56 team much more than he was in April and May when he looked like an absolute disaster as far as someone you acquired. So it feels like they know what some of these guys are and they believe strongly that they can get through this and that that support is a big part of how they'll get through it. There's a lot of things that we as baseball fans don't really understand that sound, I don't know, they sound cliche, they sound hokey, they sound like something from a baseball movie. But it's real stuff. It's real life in that clubhouse. When Tori is in there and he's trying to show guys that are struggling love by giving them
Starting point is 00:27:35 those opportunities still and not just immediately benching them because they're struggling, that's part of his process. It might be flawed. It might be antiquated for modern day baseball where you kind of do go with the hot hand at times or you, you know. But Tori, I mean, Tori just has his ways. Like, we joked about the fact that he was going to sit Corbyn. and Alec the day after they both hit home runs in Chicago,
Starting point is 00:28:01 and he did exactly that. He literally did that thing. So like that's kind of Tory at times. It's almost predictable how hilariously, you know, how hilariously he's going to manage at times, but it's his method. And as much as at times it frustrates fans and even us, maybe alike at times,
Starting point is 00:28:22 it's his process that got them to the World Series last year. and that's, you know, that's kind of more of what he's working to is not trying to give up on someone like Corbyn, but trying to get him to get back to where he was last year by the time they reached those playoffs. By the time September comes along, maybe we'll see Corbyn, you know, all of a sudden pick up and catch fire. At this point, it's, I mean, his season is what it is. Like, the significant portion of the season is behind us, and we haven't seen that big improvement in Corbyn Carroll, but I don't think that the belief in him is going to change. One thing that I think is very valid, a change that the diamondbacks might consider making,
Starting point is 00:29:02 that if I were them, I would maybe make, is Jake McCarthy probably needs to start against every lefty. Yeah, right? Yes. The debacks don't have enough right-handed hitting outfielders to have a full outfield of righties with a lefty on the mount. It's not possible. They just have Grishik and they have Lord of Scuriel. So if you're going to have to have at least one of your left-handed hitting outfielder start against lefties, you probably should make it Jake McCarthy, right?
Starting point is 00:29:27 I mean, this is a guy who this season is sitting 362, 422, 448 against lefties. He has been way better against lefties than he has against righties this season. Do I expect that to continue? Probably not. Those kinds of things don't generally last. However, Jake does have a history of having pretty even splits of holding his own against lefties, whereas Alec Thomas has obviously very much struggled with that in the past. And Corbyn Carroll, although he held his own against lefties last year, this season he really never has looked right against lefties.
Starting point is 00:30:00 There have been some good moments against righties, but he's never really gotten on any kind of run against left-handed pitching. So that's a change that if I were the diamond backs, I would probably make. How many at bats is that for him versus lefties that he's pushing those numbers? Jake. Yeah. He is 21 for 58. So played appearances, it's, yeah, it's probably like 65 played appearances. Okay.
Starting point is 00:30:22 And how many does he have against righties? 161 at bats. I don't have the plate appearance. I mean, I'm not. I'm not trying to say like he is good against lefties, but it has been a limited sample because they don't play him enough against lefties. But there's also a long. Let him go out there and play against lefties.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Let them play against lefties and let's see if that continues. And then if it does, then it's not just a fluke because it's a small sample size. He does have a history of being good against lefties. And I'm cut you off, but I'm sure that's what you're going to say. Yeah. Now, I was just going to say like Alec Thomas has a,
Starting point is 00:30:52 has a fairly long track record of struggling against lefties, right? Right. And Corbin, the abats this season just have never really, have never really looked right, as I said earlier. So, yeah, that's a change that I would maybe make. And I understand where people are coming from with maybe you do start Corbyn against righties pretty much every day. But does it have to be in the lead off spot?
Starting point is 00:31:14 You maybe want to rework things a little bit and move him down, you know, try to get him going, try to get him on more of an extended run and then bring him back up to the top. Going back to what I said, the flip side, too, that is, is that you play and you're supposed to be good and then you're supposed to be given more playing time. And, you know, Jake isn't getting increased playing time. Then that's kind of the opposite to supporting him, right? Like, that's not allowing him to get in the lineup more.
Starting point is 00:31:41 And I think that with the, nobody's really playing significantly better than anyone else, except at a couple of positions for them to not try to make the best outfield that they can. against different pitching matchups and try to win those margins, right? Like this team right now isn't losing games by a ton when they do lose. They did yesterday. That's a whole other story. But at times, they've been losing like they did against the Cubs,
Starting point is 00:32:05 very close games where both teams didn't score very much. So, you know, it's one of those things that every advantage against, especially an incredible pitcher like Shoday and Managa. There I go. I did it again. I heard it. I did. Yeah, this might have been a Cubs podcast.
Starting point is 00:32:19 Anyway, anyway, like, again, you go out there and try to give your best because everyone counts. And in some cases, these games are being very close. So, you know, you want to see them doing, you want to see Tori at this point as we get into the stretch. As we get to the trade deadline here, not very far away and beyond that, we want to see this team starting to put all of this kind of support bullshit in the past and try to win every ball game.
Starting point is 00:32:41 Like, try to put the best lineup out there. And I completely understand that because that's how I feel. Like, I feel like these guys are big boys and they understand when they're playing well and they're not playing well. So as much as you do want to. support them and show them love the way Tori does. There's also a time where you need to manage this team based on the performances of the guys that are playing well.
Starting point is 00:32:59 And those are the guys that deserve to get increased playing time. That's, it's simple as that. But, you know, I also am a flip-flopper, as you guys have seen in this entire segment. So I can go either way. I'm a known liar. Jesse's a known liar. And I know because I spent entirely too many days with him, Damon's a goddamn liar. He's a huge liar.
Starting point is 00:33:17 And I don't want you people to chat to believe anything that man says. I say nothing but facts. is a liar. But of course, we know the numbers never lied. Jesse, hit him with your number today. What do you got? Going back to Jordan Montgomery, our number is 38.9%. That represents Jordan Montgomery's first pitch strike percentage in this game.
Starting point is 00:33:38 Why are you doing this? He faced, I believe it was 18 hitters. He's just reinforcing his point from earlier. I am because, you know, I don't want to harp on this too much. But I, but I, Montgomery's command was not. particularly great in this game. I think he threw 39% of his pitches in the strike zone, which is a pretty low number. And 38.9% first pitch strikes.
Starting point is 00:34:01 I mean, you're always trying to throw a strike on the first pitch, essentially, right? Like, this is an indication that Montgomery's command was not really up to par in this game. And it wasn't just that these counts were starting 1-0. It's that a lot of these counts were starting 2-0 as well. He was getting behind guys and he was finding ways to get outs anyway. But again, there's just a little bit of hesitance for me when it comes to, you know, if anyone wants to declare Jordan Montgomery back after a start like this, I would tap the brakes on that.
Starting point is 00:34:33 It's not to say that he couldn't turn things around moving forward. This was a step in the right direction, but I just didn't quite see it all come together today. Well, and again, give me more outings and I'll start to believe a bit more in that. And I'm fine with I'm fine with these kind of outings. I'm fine if he can go out there and give up two runs or less and give them six innings plus be effective, be efficient, but also not like somebody that's not going to lead the league in any numbers. It's not going to be anything, but at least give me that kind of night. This might have been a little bit more luck than, you know, necessarily him being good, but we'll see in his next outing. Of course, that might be because the Royals are just very tired from hitting the ball as often as they did last night,
Starting point is 00:35:19 Bobby Witt, Jr., who was just one single away from a cycle last night. He's been outrageous. We were on an extremely delayed pair of flights to come home from Chicago. DeBax Royals were hitting each other with baseballs. That was happening. We were getting, like, little in-between updates from myself and Jacob whenever we had an internet connection. But, yeah, you had basically Bobby Witt, Jr., who, when he was up after going three-for-three with a double a home run and a triple, came up in the six. Castiano, who as we saw in the Cubs game,
Starting point is 00:35:53 could not, didn't have very good command, control, or anything, hit him with the first pitch he threw. As you could see from Castiano's body language, it was not intentional. And I'm sure Royals fans were mad based on, you know, the situation. Like that's rightfully so. But somehow I don't think a guy that struggled and walked in the winning run just in his last appearance in a game is really to blame that he was intentionally trying to hit someone like Bobby Wood Jr.
Starting point is 00:36:21 And as we know, Tori Lavallo does not do things like that. At least he is very against that. He has said it time and time again. He does not play baseball like that. He doesn't really even retaliate when things like that go that way. But the Royals retaliated in this game. And it was fairly obvious that they absolutely hit Gabby Moreno with a 2-1 pitch on purpose based on the body language of everybody on the Royals, basically,
Starting point is 00:36:47 is what I'm basing that on, right? Yeah, I think that's pretty fair. That was Royals reliever, John Schreiber, who was on the mound. This was the top of the seventh inning after Humberto Castiano's hit Bobby Wood Jr. in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Yeah, I'm inclined to believe that Humberto Castiano's did not have any intent there. If you're trying to work around Bobby Wood Jr. in a spot like that, there are other ways to work around him than to just hit him with the baseball.
Starting point is 00:37:17 Yeah. And that is just not something that Tori Lavello has ever, has ever really branded himself as. He has never been the type of manager who's going to go out there and really ever try to intentionally hit anyone. Or as Tori said, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, as we saw in the replay of that. Yeah. So, so, yeah. So, yeah. So obviously Royals fans were not happy in the moment when, when Witt got hurt and then, or when Witt got hit. And then fortunately, he didn't really get hurt. He was still able to obviously continue in the game and played today. Everything was okay on that front. Gabby Moreno gets hit in the top of the seventh, and that's when we have this full-on fun incident
Starting point is 00:37:58 where there was a bit of a skirmish on the field. And Tori Lavello, after the fact, was very adamant, as I was saying earlier, that this was not intentional by any means on the part of the Diamondbacks. These are words from Tori, and I quote, I got ejected by Jordan Baker, which is the home played umpire. I never said one thing to Salvador Perez. I love Salvador Perez. I think he's been an unbelievable Major League player.
Starting point is 00:38:22 I am a huge fan of his. I just wanted to hear what I was, I just wanted him to hear what I was going to say to Jordan. And what I said was if you think you're in your right mind that I was going to try to ask my team to hit the future of Major League Baseball, that being Bobby Witt Jr., one of the best players in Major League Baseball, you're crazy. You lost control of this situation and you got it wrong.
Starting point is 00:38:43 So Tori went out there. and was of course barking at the umpires and he was pissed and was and specifically talk to Salvador Perez himself yeah uh he wanted Salvador Perez who of course is the you know the the veteran on the Royals to know his perspective on this situation and uh yeah Tori winds up getting injected from the game well and honestly there's a big part of it there where i loved tories um I guess bar fight energy, right, where his friends are holding him back. And he's like, no, no, no, no, I just want to talk to him. No, I just want to talk to him.
Starting point is 00:39:20 Hey, come here, bro. Let me talk to you for a second. Come here, say that shit to my face. Like, there was big that energy, but it was also Tori just trying to make it as abundantly clear as possible that he doesn't play baseball that way. And that he doesn't find it acceptable at all that the royals do. And I appreciate Tori's effort on that because not only does it once again show that's port that love that he has for his players to them, not only to Gabby who got hit, but to every other guy that's watching that and taking that moment in. But it's also Tori kind of like trying to like,
Starting point is 00:39:52 I guess make people play the game his way, which is like, hey, he got hit, but that was an accident. So what is this retaliation bullshit? And it is ridiculous. It is one of those unwritten rules. Like you said, even Gabby went up there knowing he was going to get hit. Like Gabby looked like he expected it and was fine with it. There wasn't really any turmoil there on Gabby Moreno's part, despite the fact that Salvador Perez immediately jumped up and got in between him and the pitcher and just showed that body energy that they'd already relayed that information to each other that they were going, that he was going to run
Starting point is 00:40:27 out there, right? Or that there was going to be, he was going to be hit by a pitch and that Gabby might try to run out on the pitcher. See, little do you know Gabby. Gabby is not the one to do that. Gabby's a wonderful baby child. And he would never never go and fight anybody, but he should because that was some bullshit. And I would love that Tori did what he did. And I think that, you know, again, it's it's kind of about setting the tone that when you play the Diamondbacks, that's not how we play baseball, you know.
Starting point is 00:40:56 Yeah. And Matt Quattaro, the manager of the Kansas City Royals, he, he did take issue with Tori talking with Salvador Perez in particular. He said the unfortunate part for me is just that it is hard to see another team talking to your players. That is what is the most frustrating thing. I think that's why it got out of hand. And you can understand that.
Starting point is 00:41:16 I think you can see Tori's perspective of wanting a guy like Salvador Perez has been around to know his perspective on the situation, talking to directly to the players on the other team, maybe a little bit unconventional in a situation like this. But the Royals manager also went on to say that this was not intentional, that they did not hit Gabby Moreno intentionally. He said that Shreiber throws a ton of singles. Sinkers, sliders away, sinkers in. We're not trying to hit somebody.
Starting point is 00:41:43 We're trying to finish that game. Guys haven't pitched in a week. He's talking about Schreiber, who hadn't pitched in eight days, of course, because of the All-Star break and whatnot. So he is denying that this was intentional, but as you said, there were maybe some signs in the moment based on body language and whatnot. That this was intentional on the Royals part. It happened pretty much immediately after the D-Backs had hit Bobby Witt, Jr.,
Starting point is 00:42:10 So who knows for sure. I personally think all of this is dumb and that we should just move on with our lives. Shriver should have been ejected immediately and that's the way it should have gone. And Tori Lolo was right to say, why did you give us both warnings, right? Like again, something happens in the game. That team hits one of my batters. Give that dug out a warning. Life moves on.
Starting point is 00:42:35 None of this happens. But Tori has to fight for his team sometimes. And he also has to get them fired up. Like that was a game that they were losing already substantially. So I think Tori was just trying to get some fire into his team. And maybe it worked because they come out tonight and they get the win against the Royals by a score of 6 to 2. And everybody had a fairly good night.
Starting point is 00:42:54 You know, you get a good night from the bullpen offense and Jordan Montgomery. It was a fairly solid all-around win for this team. Again, if you want to experience wins, a great place to do so is with Desert Financial Credit Union. Big thank you to them for sponsoring the count. big thank you to them for helping Arizona for a long time, more than 84 years. They have been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. They got me started on my home ownership journey, and hopefully they could get you started as well. They are a team of financial experts who are committed to giving back to their members and the community
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Starting point is 00:43:59 He doesn't want to, trust me, especially at Global Life Field. He's not a fan of that building. I might as well have been watching from the moon, Derek. Absolutely. I could not do that. that. So I had to go be in the outfield with my gigantic blue glove, uh, catching baseballs. Again, see the blue glove thing. I don't think that fairs well for me and the whole Dodger thing. They might be on to something. But I was out there having a great time and it was all thanks to game
Starting point is 00:44:23 time because they were able to provide us with incredible seats, incredible options. Me and Jacob had a fun time playing the game. By the way, walking that tight wire and seeing how cheap tickets could go. And man, we scored some great seats for the home run derby. We scored, I think, $5 tickets for the futures game. And that was a huge price drop just in like the last hour right before the game started. And of course, if you're willing to wait last minute for those ticket deals, you can save up to 60% off by buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts, comedy shows, theater, and more.
Starting point is 00:44:58 They say, you can save even more with exclusive in-app deals on select seats. And they do. They have these little best value buttons and all sorts of other options that you can see. Of course, you can also see what your view. is going to look like from those seats. And that Globe Life field was very deceptive as far as what section number was what and where you were actually sitting. So it's a great option where you have no idea what the building is that you're going to go
Starting point is 00:45:23 into is actually like. They also have the lowest price guarantee. Our Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference of your ticket price. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code P.HNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P.HNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. As promised, we did say that we need to start looking at some trade deadline targets because the Arizona Diamondbacks are not too far away from the trade deadline. And we do know, at least we hope that this team is going to be buyers. And we hope that they can do some things to maybe alleviate some of the stress.
Starting point is 00:46:08 the bullpen has been under at least the high leverage guys the Tori's been relying on so much this season. Yeah, I wrote my trade deadline primer that came out yesterday. So if you haven't seen that already, be sure to check that out. It kind of gives a broad overview of what the Diamondbacks are thinking going into the deadline. I had an opportunity to talk with Mike Hazen while we were in Chicago. So check that out if you haven't already. But yeah, the general gist of it is that we do expect the diamond backs to be buyers as we record this right now they are one game out of the playoff picture in the national league there is not an insurmountable you know overwhelming number of teams in front of them and they're very much in the thick of this playoff race they're not in
Starting point is 00:46:52 nearly as good a position as maybe we expected them to be at this stage of the season but they are still very much in position to to make a run in the second half so uh that means derrick that we have reached the point of the year where we are going to roll up our sleeves and speculate about who the diamondbacks might trade for. And the first name is one that has certainly been out there in the ether. We are not the first one to suggest this, but it's maybe the most obvious one. So we figured we might as well start with left-handed pitcher Tanner Scott. There is. The Miami Marlins.
Starting point is 00:47:27 Jacob is probably very happy to see this. On the season, we've got Scott's numbers. He has gone 43 and two-thirds innings. He has a 1.24 ERA, a 0.98 whip, 10.3Ks per 9, 5.2 walks per 9. His FIP is a little bit higher than his ERA at 3.26, significantly higher than his ERA at 3.26, I should say. But he has still been very good for the Marlins this year. 17 for 19 and save opportunities. He's been there closer. He is a lefty.
Starting point is 00:48:00 We've talked a lot about how Joe. Manta Ply is the only left-handed pitcher on this roster right now. I guess he's one of two now that Jordan Montgomery's back. But he's the only left-handed reliever on this roster right now, and it could make sense for the debacks to add someone to kind of help him out in that role. So Tanner Scott, Derek, how do we feel about this? I think his numbers are very, very sexy. And I think, like he said, a lefty is a lefty.
Starting point is 00:48:29 And at this point, I feel like Tori Lavalda needs options. I'm not saying this to discredit Joe Mantiply, but Tori didn't believe in Joe Mantiply enough to leave him in that game in Chicago. Yeah, that's a pretty valid point. And I don't care about matchups, but I felt like Tori going into that inning should have known no matter what that whoever he went with should, it could be like a closer situation that you're going to need to send him out there
Starting point is 00:48:54 and you're going to need to have him finish that inning. So I don't know. I mean maybe Tori was going to Castiano's to maybe. you know, get out of it and then give him some length beyond that. I don't really know what the plan was. But obviously, it feels to me there like the belief isn't there in Mantiply. So bringing in another lefty just gives Tori that option and allows him to, you know, have more weapons in the bullpen at this point.
Starting point is 00:49:21 I think that that is really the key for this team, especially considering that starting pitching really isn't something that they need to address. I know Yil Bredias finally came. back down to reality yesterday against the royals but the diamond backs still have options at starting pitching uh once you know the full the full slate comes back so if if something goes wrong the diamond backs do have an ability to maybe pivot away from a guy that's struggling or whatever but the starting pitching situation seems solidified so i really think their biggest weakness right now has been you know like what we what we saw today again not to not ginkle but it just seems like late in games the
Starting point is 00:49:59 Diamondbacks just don't make things easy. They always make it exciting, even if it's just a little exciting, even if it's just a few guys getting on base, even if it's just, you know, a run being added here and making you sweat a little bit like I am sweating now being back in Phoenix, Arizona. But this team needs options. Tori needs options in the bullpen. Yeah, a few more notes on Tanner Scott. People are wondering what would this cost. We did not do what we did many times for trade candidates last year, which is they come up with a hypothetical trade. Maybe we'll do that with some more in the coming days, but it's always sort of a miserable
Starting point is 00:50:33 exercise trying to put that together. But the short answer is that it would cost a lot. Tanner Scott is maybe the most highly sought after reliever at the deadline. I mean, a lefty with an ERA of 1.24. He's been, he started the year a little slow. The walk numbers were crazy. His walk numbers are still a little high, but he's really gotten that under control here for the last couple of months.
Starting point is 00:50:57 He is going to be highly sought after around the league. Jeff Passon wrote in his trade deadline preview today that Tanner Scott is certainly gone. Those were Passon's words. He is a free agent at the end of the year. So you're just looking at getting him for a couple of months plus the, you know, plus a potential postseason run. So it's going to cost a lot because I'm not sure there's anyone out there on the market who has the swing and miss ability, you know, the ability to experience.
Starting point is 00:51:27 of closing games as well. So a lot of teams are going to want this guy and the Diamondbacks are going to have to pay a heavy price because of that. He's an all-star so that doesn't make it any easier, especially as a reliever. We've talked in the past about how difficult it is to make an all-star team as a reliever. You also have the fact that he is the free agent
Starting point is 00:51:46 after the end of this year. So you know that like Jeff Passon said, he's going to be, they're going to move on from him. He's certainly gone at the, the deadline. And yeah, I don't know if the Diamondbacks might be willing to give up as much as it's going to take to get him potentially. I think that's the biggest key.
Starting point is 00:52:08 They don't really want to mortgage their future here, nor do they really want to trade away any valuable pieces that's on this team right now that's helping this team win. Can we interest you in one Miguel Castro? Probably not. The Miami Marlins are not, they're not a team that's likely to be looking for, like ultra major league ready talent i wouldn't think at least relative to other teams the marlins are kind of in a rebuilding phase right now uh so you you could see a scenario where the debacks could trade some prospects rather than having to trade off the major league team uh in order to pull off a deal like this
Starting point is 00:52:42 uh scott is making 5.7 million dollars this year so on a pro rated basis for the rest of the year it's about two million so from a financial standpoint you're in you're in decent territory there Um, Kobe will mention Mason Miller's name. Yes, Mason Miller certainly, uh, I'm sure a more highly coveted reliever than Tanner Scott. We'll get to him. But we'll fantasize about him. Yeah, but Mason Miller is going to be way more difficult to acquire because he's not on an expiring contract.
Starting point is 00:53:09 Tanner Scott is, if I'm a team looking for back end relief help, I'm, you know, I'm a lot more comfortable trying to make a run at Tanner Scott than Mason Miller knowing the, the kind of cost that, that's going to, you know, it's going to be in place there. Rudy Barron in the chat says a rental should not cost as much. I mean, in theory, yes, but I think they know that they're going to get a lot of suitors. They have a lot of leverage. Yeah. There's a lot of teams interested right now in competing here at the trade deadline.
Starting point is 00:53:37 There's going to be a lot of teams that aren't really close that think they still have a shot. So there's going to be a lot of interest in a lefty with these kind of numbers. Another guy that we were looking at is Kyle Finnegan from the Washington Nationals. he's not a lefty he's a righty he probably isn't going to cost nearly as much as tanner scott but he has had himself a very very good season let's take a look at his numbers so far this year uh he has 42.2 innings pitched uh in relief he is a 2.32 er a 0.98 whip 9.3 strikeouts per 9.3 4.0 walks per 9 and then a 3.90 fit pretty good numbers yeah pretty good numbers for sure the biggest, I guess there's a few big distinctions,
Starting point is 00:54:24 one being that Finnegan is a righty as opposed to a lefty, the other being that... Well, yeah, both of them have closing experience. Both of them have closed games this year. But Kyle Finnegan has another year of control. So if you trade for Kyle Finnegan, you're not just getting the rest of 2024, you're also getting 2025 as well.
Starting point is 00:54:43 And for the Diamondbacks, that could be appealing, given that Paul Seawald is a free agent at the end of the year. Last season, the debacks were in a... situation where they needed a closer for the rest of the year and also the following year. And they're kind of in a similar situation now. You know, I guess they've got Kevin Ginkle. They've got other options that they could go to next year. But maybe they'd rather just trade for Kyle Finnegan and have him, you know, pitch in the back end this year and then maybe take over as the closer next season.
Starting point is 00:55:11 But yeah, he's been really good for the nationals this year. I'm not sure he's viewed quite on the same level as Tanner Scott in terms of, Just kind of the dominance of his swing and miss stuff. You know, last year, Finnegan had a 376 ERA with the Nationals the year before 351, the year before that 355. So he's been a steady reliever, but he's not necessarily been like a low 2-ERA guy, all that consistently. His FIP, as we showed, there is 3.90 this year,
Starting point is 00:55:43 so quite a bit higher than his ERA. But yeah, certainly could make some sense for the Diamondbacks if they wanted to find someone who would also be back with them for 2025. Well, and it's interesting because Jeff Passon said that the Washington Nationals are basically out. And they are not part of the group that is actually out, in my opinion. That's only been two teams in the National League up to this point. It's been the Rockies and the Marlins. And to be fair, the Rockies have been playing some better baseball lately.
Starting point is 00:56:15 So I'm not saying they're going to catch up. but the nationals are not part of that group. They are five and a half games out of the final wildcard spot. So that I just feel is kind of an example of how teams are thinking when they're that many teams between them and the wild card spot because yes, they're only five and a half games back, but there is the giants, the Reds, the Cubs, the Pirates, the Donivacs, the Padres,
Starting point is 00:56:39 and the Mets all between them and that final wildcard spot. So there comes a point where you have to start realistic, looking at the future of your team and not necessarily what's going on right now. With the trade deadline being so active with so many teams so close, there's a chance for teams to walk away with a huge bounty for trading away some of these players. So it's understandable. It was just a little surprising to hear because I wouldn't expect that from any of these teams just yet.
Starting point is 00:57:07 I mean, who knows if they go on some crazy run over the next week and then they find themselves, you know, a little closer, you know? And that's how close these teams are right now. Yeah, it's a fair point. The Nationals have been talking about selling for quite a while. I remember when the DeBacks played the Nationals. And yeah, we were talking with some people who cover the Nationals, and they were like, yeah, the Nationals are probably going to sell. And that was weeks ago.
Starting point is 00:57:31 So maybe a little surprising the approach that they've taken and kind of been in on for a while. But it certainly looks like they're going to sell. And Finnegan, maybe not a guarantee to be traded like Tanner Scott, given that he does have another year of control. It wouldn't totally shock me if the nationals decided to just hold on to him if they don't get the price that they're looking for. One other point I want to make here is that, as we were saying earlier, Finnegan is a righty, and you might be asking, like, why would the Diamondbacks want a righty? They already have Ginkle and Seawald and Thompson and Justin Martinez. I asked Mike Hazen in Chicago if he had a preference between a left-hand reliever or a right-hand reliever. and he very simply said he does not have a preference that he you know anyone the diamondbacks get he said they they want to be able to get outs in the seventh inning or later they're looking for someone who can pitch in the back end they're looking for someone who can get left-handed hitters out but at the same time i was surprised to discover that kevin ginkle paul seewald
Starting point is 00:58:33 justin martinez and ryan thompson all four righties the back end of this bullpen have been better against lefties this season than righties every single one of them has reverse splits. And so from that standpoint, you can kind of, I mean, again, I don't know if that's going to be sustainable necessarily, but at back end relievers, a back end reliever. It's someone that you should be able to trust to get both lefties and righties out. That appears to be the approach the debacks are taking. And that's why we're going to be talking not just about left-hand relievers. We're going to be talking about some right-handed guys too.
Starting point is 00:59:07 Well, we have lots of guys that we're going to talk about in the next few days. And of course, we have one week between now and the end of that trade deadline. So make sure to keep it locked right here. We're going to be bringing your shows all the way through Saturday. We were hoping to catch Paul Skeen's Day. But apparently the Diamondbacks are going to miss Paul Skeens. They will miss Paul Skeins. No three games set against the Pirates.
Starting point is 00:59:30 So I guess good news for the Diamondbacks and bad news for people that love baseball. But again, we will be here through Saturday. So make sure to join us on Thursday. We're going to have ourselves a special guest. We'll tease that now, but we'll let you guys know who that's going to be. But make sure to join us on Thursday for 1 p.m. show. We got postgame shows the rest of the week. You can follow us on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:59:53 I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. You can follow Jesse at Jesse and Friedman. You can hit the like button and hold the line at the same time by following Damon Dog. Of course, that's the important one. That's the one you guys all want to follow. He's at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. And we are once again, and we are permanently.
Starting point is 01:00:11 Damon's dogs. Mark, Bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate your time so much. We thank you guys for stopping by.
Starting point is 01:00:25 We'll see you tomorrow night for another post-game show, I guess the post-series show. But in the meantime, Kareem, thank you again. Kareem sent another super chat. We appreciate you, bro. He said, Super Chat, $199. Love the show. Boys, I watch you guys in Bowen Johnny.
Starting point is 01:00:40 We appreciate it. Obviously a Damon fan. Yeah, I'm a clear Damon fan. I was just about to apologize. Yeah, no. Sorry, man. You get a lot of me in your life. Kareem isn't here for us.
Starting point is 01:00:52 He's clearly here for Damon. We appreciate him putting up with us in the process. I appreciate. I want to give a shout out to Jacob, by the way, because Jacob put up with us quite a bit. And that is not an easy task to do, as Damon can attest to, that he does it on a nightly basis. But he also doesn't have to sleep in a bed with me after we do the show.
Starting point is 01:01:10 like Jacob Baddew. So shout out to Jacob Franklin. You guys should have just been here tonight. Like it was the full pH and XDbacks experience. It was it was classic Jesse pushing back on on boundaries. It was me and Derek are going on. It's always fighting and ranting. It's been a great night. Cursing all over the place. It was awesome. We're really back. Well, of course we thank you guys again so much. We'll see you tomorrow night. In the meantime, have yourselves a wonderful evening and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Jordan Montgomery doesn't become the next Madison Bumgardner.

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