PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte Delivers GAME WINNER in Diamondbacks' Victory Over Twins

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Ketel Marte continues his stellar All-Star campaign by going 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and the game winning hit for the Diamondbacks in their victory over the Minnesota Twins. We discuss why Brandon Pfaadt can’t seem to leave an outing unscathed, the offense downshifting once again, and Chase Field updates from Derrick Hall.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: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/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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Skiy! And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Pontia. Of course, I am occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And this man next to me might be a comptroller. He might be moving up to vice mayor with how often he actually co-hosts the show with

me. It's the one and only Damon Dog, the people's producer. Damon, big wind of night for the Diamondbacks. And obviously I feel like that's cliche. I say that after almost every win. Big win.

This one was big. This one was big because this one and a few other wins that they've had lately have trended in the direction of the losses that we had earlier this season. This game was very much looking like it was trending in that direction. After the Diamondbacks were able to secure an early lead, they let it slip away. And we found ourselves once again wondering if we saw the offense just completely. completely go ice cold after having such a hot start. Yeah, I believe my exact words to you and text message were,

well, at least we knew we lost because we're not scoring another run the rest of this game. But you know what I forgot when I said that, Derek? I forgot that this entire season, we haven't had Geraldo Perdomo on this baseball team. You're not wrong. And then all of a sudden, we have them in this moment when we need, you know, we need someone on base, oh, who's getting on two outs for Aldo Perdomo. That's just what he does. Maybe that is the difference.

Everybody says it's the difference. All the devas players say it's the difference. I mean, Zach Gowan on this very program just yesterday called him the heartbeat of the team. And he might not be wrong about that because Raldo Perdomo went 0 for two tonight with a walk. Yet somehow that walk was one of the most important base runners of the entire game. Even though he was hitless, this man is still the catalyst somehow for the win. he is still involved in it and kind of involved in classic Geraldo Perdomo fashion where, yeah, he didn't put up great numbers tonight, but yet somehow you just have a feeling that if he

wasn't in the lineup, the Diamondbacks don't win this game. He gets on base. Seth says it right there in the comments. And this is with the game tied and the offense really doing nothing up to that point. We should preface this by saying, of course, if you miss this game, the Diamondbacks once again came out hot, came out super hot. And when I say who's super hot, I mean, Corbyn Carroll singled in the first inning, and it was his hardest hit ball of the entire season and the third hardest hit ball of his entire career at 11.1.5 mile per hour exit velo. And then you have Catell step up and hit a two run dinger to give the Diamondbacks a two nothing lead early in the first inning. Things look great. They add on, they tack on,

Gino does not strike out. Gino gets a triple in the second inning, which we also found out that Chase Field leads the league in triples. No surprises there at all with the way that those corners work when you hit a ball over into those corners. But the Diamondbacks just everything was running on all cylinders early, including Brandon Fought. And then, of course, as the game progressed, we saw,

especially after that second inning, no more offense. And when I say no more offense, I mean no more offense. The Diamondbacks hitters recorded 13 outs in a row before getting their next hit, which was, I believe, a single by Christian Walker in the sixth inning to break up the terrible, terrible stretch of just completely being ineffective. And again, you know, it's not, this is baseball sometimes, right? But it feels like it happens to the Diamondbacks more often than we see it happened to

teams. I don't, I don't want to just like keep rehashing all the takes from our text messages, but like that was like that was like that was another thing like I said to you like, I feel like we should just play a recording of like another post game show that we did on a different day until they answered back at the end. And then it was like, is this the 20, 23 diamondbacks all over again? Like they're back. But I mean like it for for the beginning part of this game, it's like start off hot. Then no one can get a hit on the entire. entire team. Then Brandon Fott, who's out there just shoving, gives up a bomb to give up the lead. And then like you're just like, you know, defeated. You're demoralized because as a team like,

that's so deflating. And then it's, I mean, and then they find a way to get the job done. And get the job done by their star player lagging out in an infield single. Like that's, that's pretty, I feel like that's like indicative of this team. And like, that's a good point what they care about and like that's the mentality that they have we see corbin do that a lot but we forget that could tell when he applies that same speed that he does when walking uh to a single or when he hits a home run or when he hits home run right uh but yeah no you're right about brandon can this man get out of an outing unscathed like i i really do sincerely feel bad for him and i don't want to say feel i don't want to pity him but like like

like, man, it sucks because Brandon fought absolutely shoved tonight. And he was having a stellar outing up until the seventh inning, which you could argue that maybe the seventh inning is the time to take the pitcher out of the game, right? I had somebody text message me furious about Tori leaving Brandon in too long. Brandon fought was at 70 pitches, I believe, when the seventh inning started. It's hard when a guy has allowed one run. and a handful of hits to pull him out of the game when he's when his pitch counts only at 70, 75, right?

Like I understand Tori's perspective on that. However, this team does kind of have a solidified 7, 8, 9, right? We know we can go to Ryan Thompson. We know we can go to Kevin Ginkle. And we know we can go to Big Daddy Paul Seawalt in the ninth inning, right? So like it does feel unnecessary for them at times to try to stretch. you know, a starting pitcher that long unnecessarily. However, that face I made was with purpose.

Kevin Ginkle has not been lights out this season like he was last season. And honestly, I don't know if you can count on him in that same way, especially in a game that was tied or is at 5 to 4. You know, well, I guess at that time it wasn't tied. It was still a 4 to 1 ballgame. But again, I mean, you just probably felt a little bit better about Brandon Fott. he did have some whiffs tonight. His sweeper was working.

And again, up until giving up that home run in that seventh inning, Brandon Fott's line looked great. I mean, we were talking about six innings pitched, three hits, one run, you know, one walk, two strikeouts. Like he wasn't getting a lot of swinging misses tonight, but he still got some whiffs. And surprisingly, he's second in the majors, according to the broadcast,

in called strike three calls behind Tyler. glass now. So he gets a lot of people, I guess, I guess that's pretty damn good. He just, he just can't, he can't get out without having that inning. I don't even know if it's finishing because sometimes the inning happens in the middle of it. Right. Like it's not like it's always the last inning. It's not like he always kind of runs out of gas there at the end. But yeah, I mean, we yeah, sometimes he gives it up four in the second inning and then he pitches through the seventh of like the best baseball you've ever seen in your life. But he, but the, the, the problem is that he can't ever escape that inning ever and and the hard part for us is that like when

you watch brandon fought for these all these games as a diamond backs fan he it's so intriguing right like you watch brain and fought and you're like this guy has the chance to be special like he's he's he's really young he he he's carving up teams for 95% of games and then it just goes out the window and it's it's frustrating as a fan because you're you're like you you I mean we're never going to give up on this guy, as long as he pitches, you know, six innings of great baseball every single game, like never going to give up on him. It's because he's this close to putting it all together, right? I mean, when you have the ability to at least limit the damage to a concentrated period of time,

in this case, yeah, you know, maybe the argument could be that, you know, Brandon fought success in the postseason happened because Tori protected him during the postseason and didn't typically let him see the starting lineup a third time through, right? So, you know, now you're talking about Brandon Fott seeing, you know, multiple guys a third time through the lineup tonight with how he pitched and going into the seventh inning. I think that's, you know, part of the reason why we saw their biggest hitters take advantage of him there and why things went the way they did. You could definitely argue that Tori made a mistake here despite the pitch count,

despite where Brandon fought was at going into the seventh inning, simply based on the fact that he had been through the rotation so many times. I think once the runners got on, then that's when the panic button probably should have been out on the table. Sure. Like as soon as I saw it going downhill a little bit, it was like this has potential to get pretty bad, pretty fast. And it did.

But it's just weird. Like I wonder what the national perspective of like or what the general consensus perspective of Brandon Fott is. because if you look at his stats, like you wouldn't be overly impressed. You'd be like, oh, he's okay pitcher. But like when you're a Diamondbacks man, you watch every game, you're like, this guy is like he's like an all-star potential picture. Yeah. And then he and then he just blows it for, you know, half of an inning.

And it's just, it's crazy to watch. And it's crazy how predictable it is, but also unpredictable at the same time. Like you don't know when it's going to happen, but. it always does happen eventually and then you can kind of feel it happening in the process. Just kind of a really like just a big enigma. The enigma of Brandon fought is just, I don't know, it's it's it's blown my mind. I don't understand. It's fascinating at times because we do.

We know how good he can be and the numbers don't necessarily back that up. But I think that we forget that Brandon is still a very young guy who is still putting it together. and he is still, you know, developing as a pitcher. Luckily, he's under someone like Brent Strom, who I really do feel is the best. Yeah, we trust him. Yeah, we trust him. And Brent Strom, we trust.

And Brentstrom, we believe he can shape, especially the young pitchers of this team. However, you know, mentioned in the post game, they were talking to him. Todd was talking to him and Brandon, and he said that he wore the blame for that home run. He said that he shouldn't have called a slider.

And so like I don't know how much you want to put into that and be like or you want to just say that that's a veteran, you know, taking the blame for a young picture and trying to, you know, just show some leadership. But but that's he did say that he thinks that he shouldn't have called that. He wishes in hindsight that he called a fastball there. So just something, something interesting, I thought. I like that he's willing to take that. You know what I mean? And like whether it's whether it's what happened or not, I like that he's willing to take that. I also like, yeah, we are.

We are. And honestly, it's, you know, Tucker had a big hit today. So it's not like he, he again, he's another guy that his numbers aren't great. His numbers don't, he doesn't put up the best numbers. But lately, uh, his hits have been very timely. And they've been critical to some of the Diamondbacks win. So shout out, shout out to Tucker for being a vet there. helping his pitcher out. The Diamondbacks, Damon, have now won all seven series opening games this

month in the month of June. And we're not two weeks in anymore. We're at June 25th now. After they were allergic to winning series openers for the majority of the season, yeah. I think one thing that we didn't, I don't think we talked about enough. And I think it's partially because we had Zach Allen on yesterday and Mailback Monday. We had a lot of things we had to get to. But this series feels pretty big, doesn't it? Like, the twins are really good. I didn't realize how good the twins were because the guardians are just so good because somehow the guardians are 51 and 26 with a 662 win percentage,

which is just unbelievable to me. But the twins are 43 and 36. Like, they're a really good baseball team. And, you know, winning this series would be pretty massive for keeping this, you know, a little positive streak that we have going going. Well, they need to kind of pump their breaks a little bit after the series one victories because I'm sure it looks just as bad in game two. It feels like they've lost almost every game two of the series this month. And see, at least, we're just allergic to winning game two now.

So, I mean, that's the thing. I would like to see them come out tomorrow, get the series victory. And again, these are all very important. You know, we have Alex Thomas, by the way, making a. his first start for the triple A Reno Aces tonight. He went one for three with a double. So that's very exciting that he is going to be back soon. We also have word that Zach Gallen should be pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks this Saturday in honor of 999 day for the PHNX Cardinals podcast.

Right? That's happening this Saturday. It is, but not exactly ideal when you think about it from a strategy perspective. I, it couldn't be more ideal. for me. For you. As a spectator, as someone who is not involving themselves in the 9-9 challenge, but simply might be there just to watch it.

This is the best possible outcome. This is- Yeah, I mean, I was talking, we were talking about it today on the pH and X Cardinals show, and I was just saying, like, that's, that just doesn't bode well. Like, you, you want, we want the worst pitchers we could possibly imagine. Yeah. In this game. You want a bullpen game.

You want lots of time. You want lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, Yeah. Yeah. Let them take some tosses. Take that pitch count down to one second every time. The A's pitcher has a really good ERA, but I looked at his underlying stuff. And I think he's gotten a little bit lucky.

So maybe the D-backs offense can save us a little bit there and really get to that guy. But another thing you have to worry about in the 9-99 challenges, if the Dianbacks are winning that game, the ninth inning is a half-inning. And that would be pretty, that would be pretty brutal at the, on the, on the, final stretch there. You're struggling. You made it this far. You made it all the way to the ninth, but now you have to do it. It happened in it. Yeah. So we'll see. Come and die hard. Get in the Discord. That's where we're going to be sharing all of this. And it's going to be fun. Also, you can meet us out there in section 11 on Saturday

against the A's. And we can hang out while we're out there too. Well, I'll tell you one guy that might be able to help you guys out is Cotel Marte. He scored three of the Diamondbacks five runs tonight or at three RBI of the Diamondbacks five runs. Of course, we talked about it, but he got things going with that two-run dinger that scored Corbyn Carroll. And then he also gets what turned out to be the game-winning hit in the seventh inning. You can't say enough about what could tell Marte means to this team. Yeah. The All-Star thing is a no-brainer. I legitimately think, especially since Jesse has gotten on board with it, that the MVP talk needs to be the talk that we discuss.

But of course, the Diamondbacks have to do something. Right now they're at 39 and 40. They are in the thick of things as far as the wild card hunt is concerned. But to be an MVP, you have to be an MVP of a team that makes the postseason and has a successful season. And the Diamondbacks, despite all of their injuries, despite all of their losses, are very close to having what you could consider a fairly successful season. Right. I mean, it's still not there yet. But again, I felt what Gallin said yesterday when he says with all the things,

if you would have told anybody that they would be missing the pieces that they were missing and still be sitting here at 39 and 40, that doesn't seem like the worst outcome as far as, you know, the injuries piling up and impacting this team's ability to win baseball games. And I think that's a reasonable way to look at it. but Tori also in the post game mentioned that, you know, like that was like they're, they're a better team than than to just be thinking that they can be 500. He was like, I know we're missing a lot of guys, but we should be shooting for a lot higher than that.

And we have enough, we have enough talent on this team where we should be, we should be trying to win baseball games. And they have been. So, you know, how many, how many of these baseball, how many of these baseball games that they've lost can you blame on the pitching and only the pitching? I mean, there are some. I'm not saying there's not, right? Game two of the Phillies series.

It seemed like it didn't matter if they scored at all. They scored what felt like a billion runs against the Diamondbacks, right? There are outings like that where based on their shortcomings, as far as their starting pitchers are concerned, have cost them games. But I don't feel like it's that many. I feel like the lack of offense at times has been the key factor in so many of these losses, is especially when the starting pitching and relief pitching can hold the opposing team to four runs or less.

If you're holding the opposing team to less than four runs, you're giving your team a chance to win. And honestly, there's been too many times where the Diamondbacks have scored far less runs in the game than that. They've showed their potential, but they just can't seem to do it consistently. Yeah. And I don't even think it's like, when it adds up, if you were to look at this team's offensive of statistics, they're probably pretty high in the league.

Like I know, you know, we've talked about it off and on at separate times. Like, they've been top 10 and runs scored and stuff. But the problem is the inconsistency in the offense where they, where they're just like, they're playing like, you know, the like the Dodgers or the, or the guardians or the Orioles for a little bit. And then they just, and then they somehow shrink into being the Rockies for, you know, like a extent for half of a game. It changes within the game all the time.

And that's the problem. It's not, it's a lot of times it's not even a game to game thing. It's a first three innings, we're amazing. And next, you know, four innings,

we can't even get a guy on base. Like that's, so when you look at the offensive statistics, they're really probably pretty good. But it's like, it's like they're, they're just not sustaining it for entire baseball games. They're not putting together whole games of play.

And I think that that's, that's the issue there. Well, Cattle Marte currently leads, all NL second baseman for the 2024 MLB All-Star game with the voting. He's currently hitting 280 with an 847 OPS, 46 RBI this season, 340 on base percentage, and 16 home runs, not to mention very, very good defensively. So, of course, on this night, and probably this entire season,

could tell Marte, is our Kingsnake, two for four tonight with that home run and three RBI, just electric. He continues to be electric. And it was funny because I did like the fact that tonight during the broadcast, they discovered that a Cotel Marte bat wasn't, in fact, a Cotel Marte bat. And I'm like, oh, this Jack Peterson bat situation goes deeper than we ever imagine. These guys are trading bats, swapping bats, stealing bats? I don't know.

I don't know how to get this bat collection. But it's pretty fun, pretty exciting. Yeah. And Tucker also mentioned in the post game that he told Cotel, in spring training that he was thrilled that he doesn't have to call pitches against him anymore because he's impossible to figure out. So that's nice. But I think that's that really, I mean, that's Catelle.

Like the guy's a switch hitter. He hits well from both sides of the plate. Like he's, he's a special baseball player. And honest, like, I know we've talked about it plenty, but like it's disrespectful that he's even in a conversation with Luis Horrias. He is such a better baseball player than that he's that close. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, he's he's in the conversation with with Muki Betz and Shohei Otani for MVP in this in the National League. He's not in the conversation with a 307

hitter who has a slugging percentage under 400 and is a horrific defender. Like that's doesn't actually play second base. Yeah. No, that's not that's not the caliber of player that he's in. He's he's in the MVP conversation. So like it's it's it's even it's just kind of sad that it's even a conversation, but, you know, we got to do our part. But it's not a conversation. I don't think people that know ball or talk about the numbers or the statistics feel that way. I think it really just comes down to name recognition and people voting for players that they recognize. Louisa Rice has played for a number of teams where he was a very valuable,

well-liked player. And he's won several major accolades that just allow people to know who you are as a baseball player. This is something that we see year after year with the all-star voting. We just see people that don't really deserve it, that the merit isn't there, get the votes based on the fact that they're a superstar player and that they maybe at one time were good, but that season in particular that we were talking about,

they probably didn't deserve it, right? So again, you put the voting in the hands of the people and they're going to send Pitbull to Alaska. Do you know what I mean? You put the voting in the hands. of the people, they're going to name the boat, Voting McBoatface, Damon. You can't put the voting in the hands of the people sometimes. And especially, I think when it comes to this kind of stuff, no offense to voters, no offense to fans, but like especially a guy that's an incredible

talent that might be having a phenomenal season, but is an unknown player that just kind of popped up out of nowhere, their chances of getting voted to the All-Star game are very, very slim. I mean, it's it's hard to really get, you know, that kind of recognition sometimes when you're a new baseball player. Part of that falls on Major League Baseball to turn them into stars when they deserve to be a star. And I mean that not only from a marketing perspective, but I mean that from a perspective of putting them on a stage like the All-Star game, like the Home Run Derby, and allowing fans to, you know, find out who this person is and learn more about them and become a fan. of them. I know there's a lot of guys that I have become more of a fan of based on them being

on the big stage of the All-Star game or the Home Run Derby. And that's, you know, why to this day I like Alec Manoa. The problem is, though, like who says in the in the chat here is the guy was the NLCS MVP last year. Like it's not like he's some, like I tweeted about Zach Gallen yesterday when we had him on our show. Like, oh, let us put you on this kind of under the radar under underrated, player that you probably haven't heard of before. But like, that's a joke. Like, Catelle is, Catell should not be like an unheralded player.

He should be one of the stars of the league because he's that fun to watch. He made Major League Baseball history with his hitting streak in the playoffs in the postseason last year. Like, I'm not, I'm not, trust me, it's just a matter of me understanding the way that it goes sometimes, not really me being a fan of it. That's what I'm saying is like,

It's not that Catelle isn't deserving. Everything that you say, everything that he did last year, everything he did this year is deserving. It's just a matter of people sometimes not paying attention to this Arizona team. And again, I mean, I don't want to go over the Paul Goldschmidt conversation again, but that felt even more frustrating at times,

considering the number of offensive categories that Paul Goldschmidt led the league in. And it felt primarily like it was, was regional based. It was all based on the fact that he plays for this little baseball team in the desert that people forgot won a World Series 20 years ago. And, you know, that's what it is. I'm not saying it's right. It might not, it might even be a little bit too far,

but it does feel at times why Diamondbacks players have a harder time getting that recognition that they truly deserve, you know? Yeah, I get it completely. It just, it just sucks when it's your favorite player on your favorite team and you're like. He's such an electric player. You can tell Martel is a guy that just Diamondbacks fans should love. He is a guy that every baseball player, every baseball fan should love. He's just a player you should be a fan of, right?

Absolutely. I like Julio Rodriguez, right? Like he's not on my team, but I like him. He's not having a great season, but I like him. I like him as a player. I like him as a person. And I root for him, right, unless he's playing the Diamondbacks, right? So I feel Kutel is one of the, I've said before,

he's one of the most entertaining baseball players to watch. Not only is he incredibly good at the sport, but he's a scamp out there. He is delightful to watch. He is always having fun with the opposing players. He's always doing little things that'll make you giggle if you watch him. And I just can't imagine people not being a huge fan of this guy if they get a chance to pay attention and know who he is.

You know what I mean? He has the sauce. He has the sauce. He's dripping sauce. here Ethan says Catell is no Gunner Henderson to my comment about how he should be in that realm of player and I wasn't saying necessarily

that he's on Gunner Henderson's level I'm saying that he's in that caliber this season I'm saying that he belongs in that in that discussion way more than he belongs in the Luis Arias discussion that was my only point and Luis Ariya I think you look at the statistics that'll show yeah well I appreciate Ethan sticking up for Gunner Henderson

and I appreciate you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Do you think Ethan is Boe Brock's Burner account? Maybe, maybe. I can see it. Yeah, definitely. It's Bob Rack. You lost in the Chiro Dog Eating Competition.

Suck it, Bob Rack. All right, well, we thank you guys for being here, even if you're one of the PHNX employees on your burner account. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. Of course, as Jerry Pee would say,

like this video of course if you're listening on the audio podcasting side make sure you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app and leave us a review we always appreciate those reviews immensely those five-star reviews help us out a ton also i am drinking a delicious four peaks i have it in my this is my stanley this is the kind of stanley that i drink out of and this is what i keep on me at all times i keep that thing that don't like it's funny you're like hey derrick why is that 15 pack still unopened. That's a new 15 pack. I'm just saying. I'm just saying that's the way it works with four peaks. Derek keeps that thing on him. I keep that thing on me. All right. But of course, bad birdie juicy gold nail. We don't have to tell you anymore why it's such a delicious beer.

It's amazing. It's incredible. You can get it in 15 packs on its own. You can get it in the four peaks variety pack, which I strongly recommend if you are a beer lover and want to try out everything four peaks has to offer. But most importantly, try out the bad birdie juice. juicy golden nail. It's delicious. It's in tap lines around the valley. And it's a great excuse to go out to Four Peaks, get some chicken tendies, and have your, your vast selection of beers you can choose from out there. Visit FourPeaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out at Four Peaks Brew at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. And please enjoy responsibly.

Speaking of that game that Damon will be attending this Saturday for the 999. challenge. You can see it in person if you get your tickets through game time. And of course, if you wait till the last minute, which isn't the worst thing in the world, because sometimes like you got stuff going on in life, you don't want to overcommit to tickets and then you have to go back and figure out how to sell them or get rid of them. You're going to sell them for a portion of what you purchased for them. Forget that. Just procrastinate like I do with everything in life and then save money at the last minute and then have people say, why are you so lucky, Derek? and then just do this little cute shrug thing.

But you can save up to 60% off by buying tickets last minute. Of course, you can save even more with exclusive in-app ticket deals as well as, again, if you're not picky like me, you can just choose a section, let GameTime pick a seat for you and you'll save even more. They do have the lowest price guarantee. So even if you find a lower price, GameTime will credit you 110% of the difference. So that way you know, going with GameTime takes the guesswork out of the situation. So do that. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app right now.

Create an account and use code P.HNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Well, I'm very excited to be joined by the one and only Thunderstick Jesse Friedman from Chasefield. Jesse, this one, another exciting, close game that the Diamondbacks were able to score late, hold the lead, and win by one run. This one was very fun, but it also felt for a moment there, as Dame and I were describing, like this was going down a very familiar

path when the Diamondbacks were able to put up a lot of runs early, have the offense go ice cold, and then watch the opposing team just kind of cruise past them. Yeah, and frankly, I mean, I don't know how, what your guy's initial reaction was when Ryan Jeffers hit that line drive to the left field at the end. of this game. I thought the twins had tied this game and we would not, we would not. That one was gross. I didn't like that hit the ball. That was a, that was a hard line drive.

Ordis was able to make a nice play. Seabre did a get a pretty good read on it. Tori Lavello, by the way, also said that he thought that ball was going to drop in off the bat. But it did not. It did not. The Diamondbacks were able to come away with a win in this game. Paul Seawald continues to be outstanding. I know he gave up the double, but, you know, both his ERA and his whip are like, 0.5, 0.6, just an incredible start that he's been on to open the season, a perfect 10 for 10 and save opportunities. Brandon fought was very good, kind of until he wasn't, sort of a bizarre outing for him, kind of bizarrely similar to his last start, which we'll get into. But a win is a win, Derek, and the Diamondbacks were able to do that today. Well, let's take a look at the count presented

by Desert Financial Credit Union and take a look at these numbers. Because, again, this game as close as it could be. Diamondbacks win by a score of five to four out hit. The twins eight to six. Runners in scoring position, the twins were one for four with that last double that they got and almost bringing him in. Diamondbacks were two for three and extra base hits. Twins had three.

Diamondbacks had just the two. Hard hit balls, hard hit percentage. 46.7% for the twins, 33.3% for the Diamondbacks. This one was, again, trending in a lot of, a direction that we like I said we've seen this go before and you know of course damon we we knew damon was going to give all the credit to jerry p jesse but it really did feel with with the way that the uh the offense was so listless there right we had 13 runner or 13 batters sat down in a row we have a single by christian walker that kind of breaks it up but then another small stretch of

of batters being sat down by yeah it was 18 it was 18 out of 19 18 out 19. 18.019. Yeah. Right. And you have just Jerry P come up at 0 for two today and get a walk that ends up being absolutely crucial for this game. And again, he doesn't put up the big numbers. He's not the king snake.

He's not hitting the home run. But man, Perdomo just continues to just be such, like that edge for this team at times. He started it. Yeah. I mean, he's the one who got that rally going for the Diamondbacks. as simple as drawing a walk. But Tori Lavello kind of went on and on about Jerry after this game talking about how he is so often just working really good at bats.

The bottom of this lineup, he referenced Zach Wheeler's start the other day and how Pardomo, I believe, worked a 10, 11 pitch at bat, something like that at one point that Levello was saying like that could be the difference in, you know, Wheeler being able to throw an additional inning in that game. So, yeah, Perdomo. just continues to draw rave reviews from everyone, Derek. It's not, I think we've established the Pardomo love is not just a Damon thing at this point. We heard it from Zach Allen.

We heard it from, you know, Jordan Montgomery. We've heard it from Tori a whole bunch over the years. So, yeah, Pardomo. It was just a walk. You know, I don't even think that about was particularly long, but he was able to get it started for the Diamondbacks. We call that vindication, Jesse. Yeah, yeah.

Well, Red Bay. I don't think anyone was arguing with you. Like, it's not like you were on here. You were here saying that Peromo is like underrated and everyone. I'm just saying he's terrible. But I vehemently disagree. Derek, you can attest to this. We had we had yelling conversations, me being the one yelling, Jesse being very measured,

as always. Right. Yeah, he doesn't have said at all. offseason in in in my office bo brock got in on it demeaning perdomo oh he's not that good as i'm just defending this guy with my life well it's because the intangibles that heraldo perdo prodovo brings to this team are not yet measured by stat cast one day they will be right but they're not yet there right so again the things that perdomo brings to this team you just can't really say enough about i mean we had Gallin talk about it yesterday. We had Jordan Montgomery who really hasn't said much about many of his

teammates. I mean, the things he has said has been polite and nice, but it's not like he has rave reviews about many players on his team, but you guys heard what he had to say about Perdomo being back and what that added to at least his feeling of support while he's out there pitching, right? But I mean, again, it's this this game was a game obviously as much as we want to give credit to Raldo Pardomo that Cotel Marte just continues to make his case not only for the NL All-Star game, but for MVP, Jesse, as you brought up the other day. Like, he just continues to make a case for being the guy right now, especially on a team where it's not to say there's not contributions, but there's definitely not a single guy

stepping up the way that Cattel is to get this team across the finish line for victories. going into this season, I don't, I don't think I viewed Catel Marte as as the best player on the Diamondbacks, right? I mean, I think we probably all would have said Corbin Carroll, you know, maybe you could make a case for Zach Allen or Merrill Kelly. It's not to say that Marte wasn't really good for the Diamondbacks last year. But this season, it's been a different story. You combine some of the injuries to the pitchers and then, you know, with Corbin's struggles here in the first half of the year. And there is no doubt at this point in the season that Catelon's, Marte has been far in away the most valuable player on this Diamondbacks team.

And as you said, yes, also one of the most valuable players in the National League. I thought this game was particularly interesting in that Catell gave the Diamondbacks a lead two different times in this game. And the first time he hit a ball, you know, 103 miles an hour off the bat, just a line shot home run down the right field line, giving the D-backs an early two-nothing lead. And then the other time he gave the debacks the lead was in the seventh when he hit an infield chopper that went about five feet. But he was able to leg it out and reach first base. And that allowed Prudomo to score from third.

So yeah, just kind of funny how it works out in some of these games where you can play hero for your team by hitting the ball over the fence. And you can also play hero by hitting the ball about seven or eight feet right in front of you. And as long as you're able to beat it out, then it's still a big moment for you. your team. Well, we do have more from the clubhouse, I believe. I'm not sure if we're ready to roll on those, but we did have Tori talking about Cattel doing it all. Do we? Yeah. Oh, man, he's very dynamic. And those are the things that he's capable of doing. He can take over a game. I love watching Teletel Marte play baseball. I love the path that he's on, the energy that he's playing with. He's playing, he's playing the game extremely fast on defense. And he's,

He's barreled up the ball on offense, and he's working his butt off. And he can do it a lot of different ways. And today he saw the little bit of power, a little bit of legs, and a little bit of glove. That's pretty special. I discuss with Damon before you joined us, how I don't know how anybody that watches could tell play baseball can't be a fan of him. You know, I get it when your team is playing him that you might not be a fan of him. But when you watch this guy in the context of any baseball game, he's just a joint.

to watch play this game. Yeah, I thought it was funny. He made a really nice sliding play moving to his left, Robin Carlos Santana of a hit early in this game. I remember that. And he and Santana, like, appeared to be, like, giggling at each other. And I wasn't sure exactly what happened there. But, yeah, I can tell is we've talked about it.

I mean, his mannerisms are just sort of hilarious sometimes. The fact that on a walk, you know, he'll run faster to first base than you ever see him run otherwise at times. Yeah, it's fun. He's a fun player to watch. And you're also seeing you're seeing him start to do it a little bit more from the left side, I think, is another another takeaway from today. That home run that he did hit was as a left-handed hit or not as a right-handed hitter.

For a while, it felt like Catelle was just doing outrageous things against lefties and actually kind of struggling against righties. And we've seen that come into balance here over the last couple of weeks. Well, one guy who absolutely was delightful to watch there, for a while until things fell off was Brandon Fott. Brandon Fott continues to have outings like this, Jesse, where it feels like everything goes right for him except for one spot in the game. And we've talked about it.

But, you know, today was one of those situations where I understand where Tori Lavello was coming from leaving him in for the seventh inning. I believe he was at 70 pitches. And with the way he was tossing the ball tonight, I mean, you don't really feel a need to remove a guy like that. hindsight's always 20-20 so considering the way things went it's easy to sit here and say did you why didn't you take them out it was the seventh inning you had your relievers ready to go you're like they're seeing him you know third time through the starting lineup it didn't seem to make you know

a lot of sense again in hindsight but when right think back about where brandon fought was at and how his night was going up to that point it's hard to imagine any manager really pulling him out of the game at that point. Tori was asked about that after the game like you know do you did you think about going out and getting fought after the after the walk and the single that he had allowed and torre was like yeah afterward after gave up the three run homer i thought about that a lot sure but yeah and i can understand why like i think you know i certainly saw a lot of people on twitter talking about how the the writing was on the wall you know his was out of whack clearly i don't yeah i don't think it's quite that simple but i don't think it was outrageous like maybe there are some managers out there with with

the tying run coming to the plate would would want to play it safe and and go to go to what has been a really effective back end of the diamond backs bullpen um but yeah i mean Tori Tori did what he did and and fought unfortunately had an outing very similar to to the last one which i mean maybe i shouldn't use the word unfortunate it wasn't it wasn't a terrible outing by any means if you're pitching him to the seventh you're doing a lot of things right um but it yeah it was was kind of bizarrely similar to the last one where he was on cruise control. His pitch count was really way down. He was, you know, a lot of weak contact, not a lot of swing and miss.

And then, and then suddenly there's, you know, a big blast that kind of changes the game. Well, and this is what Tori had to say on Fod having a similar outing to his last one. I think you can point to these two starts were so similar. I think for me, I mean, it's like six innings book it. He's going to go out there and do K pitches and attack the zone and keep us in the game. And, you know, maybe there's a mistake or two at the most critical time that is getting exploited. I don't know. I think he's going to work through those situations.

And today, I know today's something, you know, somebody. I was walking out of the mountain. You know, I felt bad. I felt bad from the entire team, and especially Brandon. But, you know, he'll find his way. And I think with each situation he gets himself into and it stalls out or accelerates, he's going to continue learning and growing. That's what he needs.

It's part of his development. Do you think about going to get him after the one? I think it's hard for us as fans to understand, you know, a team developing a guy during the season like this. It's all about the wins and losses. It's all about making every sacrifice you can to make sure your team wins on every given night. it's the reason why people get very frustrated with Tori right i mean fans get frustrated with tory for his decisions because tory often has a completely different perspective on what he's doing

for any any guy than we have we're like this guy's a bum get him out of there this guy can't hit get him out of the lineup this guy stinks he has a 150 batting average and a 400 oPS what the hell is he doing and tory meanwhile is trying to get a guy that was very good at baseball at one time back on track, no matter who you're talking about, because they all view every one of these guys that are able to make it up to a major league level as a very good baseball player that was able to get to this point in their life. And they're trying to get that out of them. They're not, they're not as, they're not willing to throw people away as quickly as we as fans are. But I will say at times with Brandon fought, I feel like Jesse, what the difference is,

is that we all remember that, you know, the stretch, the wonderful stretch he had during the playoffs. but Tori was very protective of Brandon during the playoffs and he never let the opposing starting lineup see him a third time through, right? That was great then and it worked and it was a game plan that helped get the Diamondbacks in 2023 to the World Series. But that is not something that they can do throughout the regular season, especially considering the predicament they are in with their starting pitching. They need Brandon fought to go out there and give them seven innings.

And man, if they could get him through this little issue of not being able to finish there at the end or not have that terrible inning, then, I mean, they really have like an elite pitcher in their starting rotation in Brandon Fott. It feels like he's right there and he's knocking on the door of being that. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think the difference oftentimes between a good pitcher and a great one is one mistake, right? One or just like a handful of mistake pitches that you make, especially at the end of the game. If Brandon fought, we've talked about it before, if he could find a way to just sort of finish these outings that he's starting in such spectacular fashion. And again, it's just a matter of a few pitches here and there, you know,

a command lapse that they kind of suddenly overtakes him from time to time or, you know, just sort of lofting a sweeper right down the middle to Ryan Jeffers, which is what resulted in that three-run home run. I agree with you. It really does feel like he's right there. But yeah, I mean, it's a reminder that like that, you know, the best of the best, like their ability to execute pitches is just on a different level, right? Oftentimes, that's what it is. It's just being able to hit your spot with a greater frequency than than everyone else in the league. And also, Brandon Fott is not, he's not the kind of guy who has the level of stuff that he can, you know, throw pitches right down the middle and get away with it a whole lot. Sweeper's a really good pitch.

But even, you know, even that pitch thrown right down the middle is going to get hit from time. time. So yeah, I'm right there with you. It feels like he's really close and just hasn't, hasn't quite made that final push just yet. Of course, we did want to thank Desert Financial Credit Union for sponsoring the count. Of course, for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. They have been dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions that help make your life better, help you reach your financial goals and dreams. My financial goal. or dream was to own a house and they got me started on that.

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And Jesse, I am upset that we are not in Studio K at the office. Not not just. It was pretty, wasn't it? Oh, it was so nice that one day we got to be in there together. You know, it was great. But we will be back in Studio K very soon. And we thank Circle K so much for sponsoring that. Also, thank you to Circle K for featuring my car in a commercial that we made.

I love that. Again, these aren't these aren't ad reads. These are just chances for me to talk about myself. Again, also part of my contractual obligations to the show, I do this show, and they, in turn, have to feed me polar pops and frosters. It's 79 cents right now between now and September 3rd, so it doesn't cost the company very much money. But I am getting very low on a beverage. So if Saul Bookman is watching this, I would love it for you to stop by and bring me a frostor. It's only 79 cents.

Of course, join the inner circle over at Circle K for free right now. If you do, you'll get all sorts of cheap coupons, discounts, even free stuff in the app. All you have to do is download the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But when you do, when you do, you'll save 25 cents per gallon on your first five fillups at Circle K. You also save three cents off per gallon every day after that. Unless you are a premium member, then you'll save five cents off per gallon every day after that.

So get down on the Inner Circle app right now and save some money, get some free stuff. Also, speaking of free stuff, we thank you guys that have joined the diehard program that we have here. It's not a program. It's more of a family. We really drill that in, but we are a family over here. And I mean that. That's not just something we say. It was so great to see so many of our pH and X diehards out at the pickleball,

at Chicken and Pickle, to play a little trivia, play a little pickleball. That was fun. Of course, we were always doing events like this, and we appreciate those of you so much that have joined our family. We would love it if more of you did so. Of course, when you join our diehard membership program, you get a free t-shirt from phnx Locker.com. You get access to all of our premium content, including Jesse's written premium content.

You get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. You also get a membership card, by the way, which is very elite, very sexy membership card. It's black and gold. I heard that if you flash it at some places, you'll get special access. I have no way.

I try to get one, Derek. I tried to get one of these cards, and they were like, no, you're not, you're not one of the exclusive members. You're not a member, right. Yeah. No, that's sad, but. Yeah, it's, I mean, that, I think that thing gets you into special parties at the Super Bowl. I'm not even sure about that. No promises.

I might just be making this up, but of course, you do get discounts on all of our events, like our upcoming takeovers of Chase Field. So make sure to join us over here, become a part of the diehard family. Jesse, speaking of Chase Field, I know that we, have a few updates in regards to Chase Field. I also know that the Arizona Diamondbacks are possibly, is this right, they're giving away a 2023 NL championship ring to me? Am I getting one?

I mean, it's possible, Derek, but you'll have to buy a raffle ticket. No. You can buy many raffle tickets. You can buy one for $10. You can also buy 250 of them for five. hundred. I don't have that kind of money. You know that. We work together. Jesse, what are we doing here? I wanted, I thought that maybe they saw the thing that I did where I drank the bottle of champagne and took the shirt and were like, hey, that guy is part of the team. That guy deserves one.

No. If anything, I think that got you disqualified, if anything. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Gonzo will let me cut them again at a Dutch bros. I know they don't have a Dutch bro's at Chase Field, but like just a random one around the valley. And I'll take that as a consolation prize. But yeah, man, that's amazing. Can you imagine winning a real 2023 NL championship ring? That is wild. How much is that?

How much do you suppose something like that goes for at a pawn shop? Jesse, just curious. Well, we asked Derek Hall, like how much it was worth. And he estimated about $20,000, which is pretty, pretty insane. That's a pretty lucrative, pretty lucrative raffle item. If I were the winner, I would probably just sell it, right? I mean, that's like the most obvious way to go about that. Maybe that makes me a terrible person.

It does make you a terrible person. It absolutely does. Because I'm just wearing that to every function from now on. Anytime I have a night out, I'm going out with that ring. Is that crazy? Yeah, am I making myself a target? Probably. but Jesse I am going to flex on bitches if I have that ring I'm taking that everywhere no more handshakes

everybody's getting a dab like this it's gonna be super in your face and it's going to be like yeah oh my god that's incredible that is incredible isn't it kind of a weird concept though to like like you have someone else's trophy like they accomplish something yeah you have the item that shows it and your name is on it that's the other part of this. Derek Hall told us that just as just as the player's name is printed on their own ring, the winner's name will also be printed on this raffled offering, which is spelled the right way, D-E-R-E-K, not with all those extra-R-E-K, not with all those extra no, I think, yeah, I think as Derek Hall is behind it. I think it, I think D-E-R-R-I-C-K is

the only way. That's fine, I'll take it. As long as they spell Montia right, that's all that That's all it matters. As long as the pawn shop puts my name on the check correctly, that's all I need. No, that's an incredible, that's an incredible prize for real. Like, I mean, that is such a unique thing for, you know, a fan to have. And I mean, yeah, I guess, but don't we as fans feel like we're part of the team? Don't we as fans feel like, you know, especially if you attended any games during the playoffs and you rooted this team on, you went out, you screamed, you yelled,

you hung a flag outside of your house, anything like that, like you're part of the team. And I mean, I know you're not the guys on the field, but I mean, I think it would be different if we were talking about like someone else's,

you know, like some other team that you weren't a fan of. Like that'd be really weird. Like if the Diamondbacks were raffling off just like some other random team. Seattle Manor's thing or something. Yeah, that'd be a little weird. It was weird.

But that was weird. That wasn't the only thing Derek Hall had to talk about because we might have some stadium updates about Chase Field. But please tell me that this has something to do with Dutch Bros that I brought up earlier. No, it doesn't, I imagine. But no. Yeah, I asked for Dutch Bros. updates today, Derek.

I was turning away, unfortunately. Max is going to be furious with the free ads we gave away on this episode. But this is actually about them staying at Chase Field, potentially, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, we were talking with Derek and Luis Gonzalez. us as well about the ring raffle and some of the details there. And while we had Derek with us, we were like, hey, can we ask you some stadium questions? And he was happy enough to oblige, or kind enough to oblige, I should say. So yeah, we were able to get a little bit of an update.

The Diamondbacks still do not have any kind of a deal locked in with any local municipalities. The debacks have been looking for a public-private partnership that would help fund renovations at Chase Field. that's sort of been their goal for a while. That still has not happened. However, we do have a couple of interesting updates. The first one is that the Diamondbacks have had talks about extending their lease here at Chase Field. So as things stand right now, their lease goes to the end of 2027, and then they would no longer have a place to play baseball, which is becoming increasingly an issue now that we are well into 2024. That's not all that far away.

So they're in talks about extending the lease. It sounds like that's something that probably will happen. He was asked about a timeline there, and he mentioned potentially before the election as being at least a possible target just because some of the people that they're having those conversations with are not actually running again. And they kind of feel like they have a good thing going with the people who are there now. So it would be a little challenging. Just create another challenge. Yeah, to start negotiations over with a brand new set of, of administrators.

Right, exactly. So, yeah, nothing is imminent. I wouldn't say it doesn't sound like a guarantee, but conversations are being had, and it seems like there's some momentum there. The other big update that we got today was a new arrangement, basically, by which the Diamondbacks could get the money that they are looking for for these renovations. If they are going to stay at Chase Field in the long term, someone is going to have to pay to renovate this facility, right?

I think we all know, D-Baks have talked about it for a long time. There are things that need to be done here. And what Derrick Hall said today was basically a system in which some of the sales tax that is generated here at the ballpark would be basically directed back directly into the stadium. So it wouldn't go to the Diamondbacks. It's money that would go strictly to the stadium, which is a county-owned stadium. So this isn't money going to the team. It's money that is going specifically to just keeping the ballroom. ballpark nice and renovated and whatnot.

So it sounds like Derek Call likes it because it is not a new tax on fans as some of the other proposals have been. It is simply fans just paying the same money that they would otherwise, just some of that money being redirected to the stadium. And he said there is also precedent for this. He said the Arizona Cardinals out in Glendale have, that's how they fund some of their stadium expenses is they've done this for what sounds like about 20 years at this point. So there's precedent.

And again, nothing is guaranteed there, but conversations are being had along those lines. And it sounds like something could get done that looks like that. I don't want to do this again, Jesse. But what I do want to say is that we as Arizona sports fans are currently going through a terrible situation that reminds us at any point, these leases with buildings, and things as unlikely as it seems that a team will find themselves without a home, that's exactly what happened to the Arizona Coyotes. And thankfully, based on information that our very own Craig Morgan continues to reveal,

continues to discover, continues to be an amazing journalist and put out there. We can see more and more that the situation with the coyotes was a very poorly managed situation. And it doesn't feel the same way as what's going on with the Diamondbacks. I don't feel like the Diamondbacks are poorly managing this situation. I think ultimately, at the end of the day, they've been very patient with Maricopa County and these deals that they set up with Maricopa County, the amount of money that they put into this building to renovate things like the sound system and the lights that they did this offseason, the money that they're going to put into that catch-all system so that if there's any kind of safety hazard with opening and closing the roof, we don't have a catastrophe on our hands.

There's all sorts of things. I feel like, in my opinion, from observing this situation from the outside, and I am a very stupid person at times, Jesse, but I feel like observing this, it very much feels like a bad landlord, right? It feels like a bad landlord that you have an apartment, that things keep breaking, like the pipes keep getting clogged up and shit. Stuff a landlord should take care of. And they're like, well, did you try replacing your toilet? And that's on you because, you know, you guys are responsible for placing the toilets, you know, shit like that is what it feels like. And I do feel like the Diamondbacks have done their best to make that stadium a pleasant experience for fans and to put their own money into it to renovate it and do all of that. But at the end of the day, the Diamondbacks do not own that building.

And it really, like, there are things that are up to them contractually based on their agreement with Maricopa County. but there are a lot of things that aren't. And I feel like the Diamondbacks, I mean, really are in the right to fight for, you know, Maricopa County to take certain responsibilities for things in that building. Yeah, it's a pretty nuanced situation. Yeah, I have a hard time saying exactly what's right and wrong in this situation. There's sort of a lot of, a lot of complications. I think it's generally just a heavily.

contested issue in the public sphere of like how much public funding ought to go to situations like this. Right. You're right that this stadium is county owned. But the Diamondbacks are, you know, a baseball team, a baseball franchise that is worth a heck of a lot of money and needs this stadium in order to operate and makes a lot of money because this stadium exists. That, you know, there are some, there are some conversations to be had about what kind

of public money should go into something like this. I did a little bit. I didn't have a ton of time to look into it. But the system that I described earlier, it's called tax recapture, which is where you're, you know, you're taking some of that tax that's already being created here. It's not a new tax. It's tax. It's already being created.

And then you're investing it directly into the stadium. I didn't have to look very hard to find people not liking that situation with the Arizona Cardinals because the logic is, even if you're not creating a new tax, this is still money that otherwise would be going to public programs and whatnot, but is instead being given to the stadium in order to, in order to fund this facility. Jesse, one way you got to look at this is would these, would this money be generated without that stadium being there, right? Without that team playing that sport there, right?

So like, I, like, this is, that's a similar situation with what they wanted to do with Tempe for the coyotes. And to be honest, it made all the sense in the world to me. I get where people are coming from with that. And yes, funds that are often taxed funds do not get used properly in this country all the time. Right. And I will definitely agree. That's something we can probably all agree on that, right?

Whether you support one thing or another, whether you feel like, you know, schools and teachers don't get enough, whether you feel roadways in general, you know, maintenance of a city doesn't. receive enough, you know, whatever the case may be, right? But it does feel like to have a facility that people go to to watch a sport and they pay taxes on tickets and food and buying merchandise in that stadium. And then that money doesn't go to the team. That tax break doesn't go to the team.

It just takes those taxes and puts it back towards renovating and paying for that building to make that building nicer. That is just, that feels like common sense to me. Like that makes all the sense in the world. That's like any business, right? You own a restaurant. You're charging money for food. Not all that money is going in your pocket and going to pay employees.

A lot of it is going to upkeep your restaurant to replace silverware and classes you've lost to buy new products so you can make new food or have supplies to make food. Right. So like there is a time where you have to realize as a community that something like a sports facility, yes, we shouldn't be paying out of our pocket. people that don't like baseball shouldn't have to pay for a baseball stadium. But people that go to a fucking baseball game are going to probably be okay with a portion of the money they pay towards that event going towards paying for that building that they're in. And that seems to make all the sense in the world to me. Yeah, yeah. I think that's, I think that's totally fair.

I mean, it's not like we don't have other public buildings, right? Like things like museums and libraries and, you know, people are pretty much, I think universally pretty much okay. with, you know, using public funds for those kinds of things. And even though the Diamondbacks are kind of a private entity, there is still a lot of, you know, a lot of sort of common good and just pride of place that comes from having a sports team that everyone can rally around and root for. It does a lot for the economy. So, yeah, there's so many, there's so many different factors here to kind of dig into.

This is a whole political debate we could have for hours, right? But really, at the end of the day, what it comes down to. it comes down to is all of those other things you bring up libraries, stuff like that, that those are things that don't make money to really sustain themselves, right? I think the problem with this tax situation and a sports team is that we just know deep down inside that they're making so much money and they don't even have to tell us. They don't even have to tell us how much money they're making and they can still be like, can I have some of your money?

And you're like, no, I know, I know fine. Here, have a little bit of my money. but I know you make so much money. And that's what it comes down to is sports teams aren't like a public service. They are still a private entity that make money, hand over fist. And to believe that they need any kind of tax break is ridiculous. Like really at the end of the day, all of these sports teams should all be paying for their own shit. Or they should all be doing what Derek Hall talked about where they're trying to find, you know, a partner,

someone to basically partner together with like, you know, put some company, you know, as a sponsor as like owning the sweet level or some shit at Chase Field and partner together with them to do that. Or like I'm sure it expands beyond the Chase Field renovations. And I'm sure a lot of this is more about creating some sort of entertainment district so that their Diamondbacks can, you know, really be competitive like the Atlanta Braves and other teams that have a similar type. district set up that they own and are a part of. Yeah, and that's something Derek also talked about, too, is that the Diamond Ducks would like to add things around the ballpark. And so, yeah, it sounds like once they get to a point, if and when they get to a point where they feel at least confident that some sort of funding structure is going to happen,

then at that point, it sounds like they'd be comfortable extending the lease. And we're not talking about just a one or two year extension to kind of, you know, tied them over. I think you could be talking about a long-term extension at that point. As long as the debaques feel like, you know, the financials are going to work themselves out eventually. We do have, people are making jokes about how we're a tax podcast now. We've gone off the rails and all the work days there.

We did it. I feel like Craig Morgan out here. We're just like talking about public policy on a sports podcast. Hey, hey, they had like 1,500 people watching, all right? We'll do whatever we need to do sometimes, Jesse, all right? We're giving the people what they want, Derek. Yeah, based on the coyotes viewership numbers, you know, for the last few months, you're like, yeah, we're talking public policy now.

That's all we're talking about. I do want to play, though, before we maybe transition to some other baseball things and get out of here. This is what Derek had to say about the system itself, which is called, if I can find it here, it is called tax recapture, this kind of new idea that the Diamondbacks came up with recently. here's Derek describing exactly what that is. We're thinking it's newer. Yeah, we've talked about increasing, you know, the hotel tax. The downside is that's more like a new tax.

We'd rather not create a new tax. This doesn't. So, I mean, early on, it was, okay, should we do that theme part? But that is increasing taxes against our fans. The second one was that hotel tax, but we got a little pushback, and I understand why. And the third now is, well, why don't we do what others are doing like they're doing it and Glendale at the State Farm, and it's recapture the sales tax that you generate, so you're not trading into the sales tax, it goes right into the stadium only,

and look at income taxes as a form, too. Were you guys kind of hesitant to do that? No, not at all. I mean, the light kind of came on, you know, as we were all brainstorming, not just us. I mean, it came from some of the elected officials, too, as an idea. So it's as long as we can fund this place and do what we need to to, you know, to make it more like some of the newer ball cards so we can compete and generate revenue, I'm okay. I like that, though.

And I mean, again, it's, it, I guess the one part that is concerning to me is this, this just came up. I feel like this isn't really a new idea, especially considering throwing back to the coyote stuff, that we heard so much about that kind of, maybe that's not the same concept, but we heard. Yeah, it's not the same. I mean, their stadium situation in Tempe. I mean, it seemed pretty dang favorable for the public. Obviously that, obviously that didn't pass. But yeah, this isn't, again, it's not, there's no extra money being taken out of people's

pockets here. It's not increasing anything. It's just putting the sales tax towards the funding of the building. Right. And given that the stadium is county owned, it makes, you know, I mean, if it's county owned, then they're, you know, you're going to be using at least some public money theoretically. you would think in order to maintain that facility. So yeah, I think Elizabeth said it well.

Now we have to create the newest PHNX Twitter accounts, Derek, PHNX underscore land and PHNX underscore taxes. I hope I get to be the admin. That sounds like a lot of fun. You're definitely in charge of PHNX underscore land, that's for sure. I think Craig has to be in charge of PHNX underscore land. I'll take PHNX underscore taxes. I'm happy to step in there.

All right. Well, what else you got from us from this game tonight, Jesse? I know that we, you know, I know we've kind of covered everything. I know we still have your number to talk about. But do you have any updates on injuries? Alec Thomas got in the game in Reno and was one for three tonight. We talked about that a little bit. That's very exciting.

It feels like we're very close to getting this team back to, say, 85%. Yeah, something like that. I don't know if they would be at 85% if Alec Thomas came back. It still feels like, you know, the 3-50s your starting rotation on the IL. But yeah, yeah, Alec Thomas, Tori didn't, he didn't say exactly when Thomas could return to the debacks. I asked him if a return during this week would be possible.

And he didn't rule it out entirely. He was sort of non-committal on that front. He said that Thomas needs to get at least a couple of games in in Reno. and he did say that he is also scheduled to play tomorrow. So technically he would reach the couple of games threshold as of this time tomorrow night. But it still doesn't seem inevitable that he will rejoin the D-Vax for the Oakland series or anything like that. Tori didn't. I wouldn't have expected him to confirm that gallon will start on Saturday.

But it does sound like things are trending in that direction. Gallen will throw a bullpen on Thursday. And if all goes well, very much sounds like Gallen will start Saturday. here at Chase Field. Other guys, nothing earth-shattering. Eduardo Rodriguez, that situation just continues to be extremely murky.

You know, we heard, I think it was maybe around a week ago, that Erod had another MRI, and that it came back almost completely clean, and that he could get off a mound, you know, likely within a week from that point,

I think is what we were told at the time. And that says, E-Rod is not throwing off, amount and it doesn't sound like it's inevitably going to happen anytime soon. Tori said that he's, erot is going to get another MRI at some point. They don't know when. And then at that point, they'll start, they'll start ramping things up there. So it doesn't necessarily sound like a setback.

I mean, Tori didn't describe it that way. But another, it kind of also has to be a setback because this isn't consistent with what we were, what we were told a week ago. Jesse, nobody's going to believe us that Erod is. nobody ever is going to believe us about that. But my God, I mean, it's a shame because we know not only has he missed so much time, but he's basically back to zero. Like, so no matter what, once they get him out there throwing off the mound,

it's basically like day one of spring training, pitchers and catchers reporting for him, basically, right? Like he's going to have to build completely back up from scratch. Yeah, Tori mentioned in passing today, we usually start starting pitchers at two in 35. So maybe that would be the case because before you get off of, you know, you're going to throw some bullpens before you pitch in any kind of a game. So theoretically at that point, you're built up to like probably 20, 25 pitches.

And then once you're in games, you can start at 2 and 35 and continue from there. I asked Tori today, is there like a certain benchmark where you feel like you feel like you really kind of know when a guy is going to come back? you can really start to put down an exact day on when a guy's going to come back. And he said once a starter gets to three innings and 45 pitches, that's when he really starts to kind of narrow in on when that starter could return. So, yeah, it just continues to be, you know, DVAC are really conservative with how they're approaching the Erod situation.

They've been really conservative with the Merrill Kelly situation. We can certainly understand why they would want to be careful. but these timelines have dragged out quite a bit. As much as I want to say, oh, it's like getting some quality starters at the trade deadline. Like we don't know where Merrill Kelly and Erod are going to be even when they are ready, when they come back and they are pitching in Major League Baseball games,

we have no idea how effective they're going to be or how much they can help this team, how long it's going to take for them to kind of find their footing again. Maybe they come out and they're great. Maybe they come out and they really strong. struggle, right? But I mean, for the most part, it's, as exciting as it is that they're coming back, the further this gets delayed, the more and more panic, I guess, starts to set in for me, right? Yeah, I mean, going back to one of our mailbag questions, I think it was yesterday.

Like, it creates a really interesting trade deadline situation for the debacks. Like, if July 30th comes and you're still dealing, you know, you still only have three-fifths, of your rotation healthy. And Merrill and Erod, like, I mean, Merrill said he was pretty much targeting mid-August, and E-Rod theoretically is ahead of that, but not by all that much. You know, if those guys are still a couple weeks away at that point,

do you want to just kind of go in and be aggressive and not take any chances if either of those guys experience any other setbacks toward the end of that process? It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Gino was one for three tonight, Jesse, with an RBI triple. And I know he also had some very, very good defensive plays. But are we still looking to replace him at third base? Or what do you think is going on there with Gino?

Yeah, just some interesting stuff pregame. Tori was asked about Kevin Newman and the possibility of him playing some third base at some point. And Tori was like, yes, we absolutely have considered starting playing Newman at third. base. He basically said, you know, if X and if options X and Y don't work out and you've got option Z waiting in the wings, then at a certain point, you're going to do that. But he said he's still interested in options X and Y for right now. He still is planning to stick with Gino and Blaze Alexander, at least as of before the game today. So we'll continue to see how that situation works. He said that if Newman does enter the starting lineup at some point for the devax on

the left side of the infield. He would have Pridomo at short and Newman at third. I thought the debats could possibly look to switch that around given that Prudomo does have a decent amount of third base experience in the majors as well. But yeah, I mean, this was a pretty good game from Gino.

I mean, that triple was big. That put a run on the board for the debacks. He wound up scoring shortly thereafter on a Tugger Barnhart RBI single. And as you said, he made some really nice plays at third base as well. Well, Well, Tori might lie about who's going to play a third. We know that I don't lie.

We know Damon definitely lied earlier about that whole like everybody was out to get Perdomo except him thing. Oh, that was a lie for sure. Yeah, that's a sure. But we know the numbers don't lie. So I guess, Damon, throw up the number. What do we got? Numbers don't lie.

Jesse, what are you got for tonight? Tonight's number is seven. This is the number of consecutive first games of series that the Diamondbacks have won. at this point this season, which is, yeah, pretty uncanny. It's amazing how quickly these kinds of narratives can shift. They've won all seven series opening games in the month of June, and we are sitting here at June 25th. And as good as that is, like I said earlier, before you joined us,

that might be just as bad when you talk about game two, because it feels like they've lost every single game two this month. And that would be a nice trend to see. see them buck in tomorrow's game but is that is that the new thing like do i have to ask troy pregame tomorrow like you guys are really struggling in the second games of series yeah what do you think you guys considering like mixing the pregame meetings or something i don't know i think these areas are kind of silly but that they are because essentially they're just patterns they're just coincidental sometimes but are they when you look at a baseball team when you look at the way they're

constructed when you look at maybe I don't want to say they're mental focus but I guess they're killer instinct if you will and I'm not just saying that because that video game is behind me right now but their killer instinct Jesse doesn't always seem to be there at times and

again it's it's on display when you talk about Cotell Marte making a fantastic play and then hugging the man that he got out right like the diamond bugged did he hug oh I don't know you didn't really play There's some playfulness there.

I was like, I missed the hug. There was no hugging. There was no hugging. But you get what I'm saying, right? Like, I mean, at times, this team does play baseball in a joyous where they don't seem to have any malice in their heart. And sometimes having that malice, having a Tommy fan in your clubhouse to tell you that those motherfuckers over there ain't shit is exactly what you might need in order to be able

to start winning a series, you know, consecutively, maybe get. getting some of these game twos, maybe sweeping some of these teams that they play. So it'll be great to see because, again, like Damon said earlier, this Twins team is a very good team. So it's a good win here tonight for them to get the game one victory. And hopefully they can build on it. They need to get every win they can between now and when these reinforcements start coming back. To be honest, even after these reinforcements come back, they need to get every win. Things are not, their future is not secure by any stretch of the imagination this this season is going to be a wild ride for teams in the national league

competing for those wild card spots one one last note from the clubhouse and then we should i guess we should maybe get out of here i see we're reaching the hour 20 mark are we going to set a record there who we set a record no that's we already told you during the playoffs last year we went like two hours on i think we need more stadium funding talk that's that's what i was hoping that we'd get back to circle i do i do some more notes on tax policy. You see what you fucking did, Damon? Apologize and tell them you were joking right now.

All right. What do you have? Yeah, yeah. So we did talk to Ketel after this game as well. We don't have any video of that to show for the moment. But yeah, Ketel was asked about overtaking Luis Arise at second base in the All-Star voting. And, you know, he said that he was happy to see that, but not how he wanted. He wanted to be there in Dallas, but he wasn't too.

focused on that. And then Lordus, like, came, Lordus walked kind of behind all of us as we were talking to him and said, we'll be there no matter what, something along those lines. It sounds like Lordis is maybe planning to a company, Catell to the All-Star game, even though I'm not, I'm not so sure Lourdes is going to get in himself, but he might, yeah, he might, he might not be invited, but, yeah, and then Catell was also asked about specifically kind of the support from Diamondbacks fans. And it was interesting. I mean, Ketel is a guy who's a lot of confidence. He was like, yeah, I deserve that. I've, you know, I've been, I've been playing here for, for a while and, and, you know, playing well and whatnot. And, yeah, he, you know, he feels like

he deserves that report and you, that support. And you can't really argue with that. I mean, especially this season, Ketel deserves all the support he's gotten and, frankly, a lot more than that, even. So, yeah, it was interesting hearing, hearing what he had to say after this one. I'm done with being humble, right? Like that's like that humility is the is the answer you wanted there. Like, oh, shucks, I'm just glad that they, you know, voted for me or whatever. Like, no, Ketel deserves it. He's right.

And we discussed earlier, you know, the fact that he doesn't necessarily get the attention nationally he deserves. Considering he was the NLCS MVP, he set a record in the playoffs for hitting streak. Right. Catelle does things that should just based on his performance, get him the love, the attention nationally from baseball pundits, from everybody that loves the game of baseball. But that's where I take that extra step and say, but if you watch him, if you see how delightful he is,

what a precocious little scamp he is when he's out there playing baseball, I don't see how you wouldn't be like, oh yeah, Catelle Marte is one of the most exciting players in baseball. He's one of the most fun players to watch. You know, so again, just give this man his flowers because he absolutely deserves them. And I'm going to give Damon his flowers for putting up with us going an hour and 23 minutes. I appreciate him. Of course, before we even get on to our Twitter handles, I'm going to make sure you follow Damon Dogg, the people's producer at Damon Dog.

That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Park Park. I am at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. our show is at P HNX underscore D-Backs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Smash that like button before you get out of here. We appreciate you guys so much for being here tonight. We will see you tomorrow. We have another post game show tomorrow on Wednesday. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful night. We appreciate you for stopping by. We'll see you tomorrow.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you give Cattel his flowers.