PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte RAKES Heading Into All-Star Break, Diamondbacks Make Day 1 Selections In MLB Draft

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

LIVE from The Rack House in The Colony, TX, it’s day 2 of All-Star Weekend and we are focusing on both the present and the future for the Arizona Diamondbacks. We discuss Ketel Marte’s big day at the plate in his final appearance before starting for the National League All-Star Team. We also have our reactions to the Diamondbacks four picks on day 1 of the 2024 MLB Draft and updates from our field trip to check out the Frisco Roughrider’s lazy river. 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/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.

Ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia coming to you live right here from where are we? The colony, Texas. Yes. We found out that's a colony Texas. Not colony Texas. We are in the colony Texas. The colonies like the University of Miami.

But very, very excited to be out here tonight. Very excited to be discussing not only the end of the Arizona Diamondbacks first half of their season, but the MLB draft results tonight. Of course, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me, of course, your vice mayor, occasionally known as Thunderstake. Jesse Friedman, Jesse, the MLB draft has happened

at least the first day of the MLB draft. The Diamondbacks had four picks in the first day of the draft, including one at the end of the first round, a few in between, and then one in the second round. What is your initial thoughts on what they were able to do tonight? Yeah, I mean, I think they got four, clear superstars, Derek. I mean, it's obvious to everyone, right?

I think we all know it. No, the MLB draft is the MLB draft. We're not going to have any idea how the Diamondbacks did today for, you know, upward of four or five years for some of these guys probably. I mean, probably more than that, really, because you're going to have to see them probably play in the majors for several seasons before you really have a feel for how good they're ultimately going to be. But on paper, I think the debacks did pretty well today.

the draft pundits seemed to be pretty happy with what they did, specifically the first two picks getting Slade Caldwell, an outfielder, a high school outfielder at number 29. He was ranked higher than 29 in at least a lot of different places that I looked. And then at 31, they got another outfielder in Ryan Walshman, and everyone knows Derek the Diamondbacks don't have enough outfielders. They haven't. They've had a shortage of outfielders for a long time.

So they clearly needed more outfielers and they just had to fill those gaps. No, that's not true. Especially very diminutive outfielders that are very fast and have a poor arm rating. That's definitely fits, I think. Did we get mini Corbyn Carroll? We may have gotten me. I didn't think it was possible, but did we get mini Corbyn Carroll? I say mini Corbyn Carroll is.

How short is that, man? That's pretty little, I would say. Though I do. I do. What is Corbyn Carroll even listed as? Because there's some things saying that he's like shorter than me. He's officially listed at 510. Yeah, oh, okay, that's okay.

No matter which site you go to. That's what I'm officially listed as as well, even though. Where are you officially listed? Don't worry about it. Your doctor's office? Yeah, I mean, yeah. I keep stats on myself, you know? I got to keep stats on myself.

But Jesse has stats, of course, on Slade Caldwell. Of course, we do lead all of Major League Baseball in Slades. That's very important. But it's also important that despite his size issues, a lot of analysis, analysts, excuse me, have said that he still can hit really well. He generates a ton of line drive contact, and he can be a really great hitter in Major League Baseball. Yeah, do we have the scouting grades? Yeah, if we go to the scouting grades here real quick, this is from MLB Pipeline.

You'll see a variety of different numbers depending on the source that you look at, of course. But MLB Pipeline is a 55 hit tool, 45 power, 65 run, 45 arm, and 60 field. for those not familiar, 20. This is all the 20 to 80 scale, so 50 would be right at average, and then anything above that would be better and anything below that would be worse. So the three tools that really stick out here, Derek,

and I think this is pretty universal for any outlet that you look at with Caldwell, is his hit tool, his run tool, and his field tool. There doesn't seem to be much doubt as far as I can see about him being able to stick in center field. I think that's a pretty safe bet.

his running, certainly you expect that to continue to be a real asset for him. And then his ability to, as you said, just kind of hit line drives all over the field. It's a short compact swing that seems to play pretty well. And, you know, he's a high school kid. It's probably going to take a while for him to put it all together. But, you know, we saw a high school outfielder in Corbyn Carroll, who was able to, you know, come to the big leagues pretty dang quickly. So we'll have to see how things go for Caldwell.

But his profile is honestly pretty similar to Corby Carroll. I mean, you look back at MLB Pipelines grades for Corby Carroll back in the day in 2019. You see a lot of similar numbers there. Hit tool 60, power 40, arm or run 70, arm 45, field 55 overall, so yeah, you're right. And I mean, that's why Jacob might be correct, even though probably saying, mini Corby and Carroll. Let's say the next Corbyn Carroll for the Arizona. I mean, he's officially listed at 5.9, I think, on MLB Pipeline.

What does Keith Law have him in? Although Keith Law says he's 5, 5.5. So. First thing we need to do is get this man measured for height. I mean, I think we know that if someone has him at 5, 5.5 and a half and another site hasn't at 5.9, he's probably 5, 5.5. Right. People inflate heights. They don't underestimate them. That's not really how that works in this process. I like to undersell myself. You know that very much. And I've definitely undersold the location that we're at here tonight because I want to give a shout out to the rackhouse here in the colony, Texas, because the rack house here has been incredible.

This is a scratch kitchen and whiskey bar. And my God, that's what I have out here. I know it's being covered up here a little bit. That's why I got here in front of me, some whiskeys for me and Jesse to share. Jesse's declined, as he normally does. So I guess instead of sharing, I will be imbibing these wonderful whiskeys that they brought over to us. But again, a big shout out to the rackhouse because we are out here in Texas. We don't know what we're doing. We're just going around aimlessly knocking on door to door from business to business, asking if they'll let us come do our podcast there, basically.

But all jokes aside, this is one of the – we were in awe of this restaurant as we drove by it, and we couldn't have thought of a better location for us to be bringing you the MLB draft results tonight, especially because we are here, we're in the mood, it's All-Star weekend, we're very excited to discuss the other things we got to do. I, of course, use this trip, really, in all honesty, just to go enjoy the Lazy River out at the Frisco Rough Riders game, and I got to do that today. So we'll have more on that, but we also have more here on this draft.

I did want to give a shout out, though. So if you are here in the Texas area for the All-Star game, you've got to make the drive out here, both for a Rough Riders game and to check out the wonderful rackhouse here in the Colony, Texas. But cheers to them. Cheers to Jesse for sharing his whiskey with me that he's not going to drink. It was never going to drink in the first place. I mean, I don't think you're all that disappointed that I think of the whiskey. But also shout out to Andrew Dang in our chat. Thank you so much.

Of course, we still don't have a monitor, so we're still having problems seeing the chats. But I know some of you are confused about the open. music to the show. It's really about the whiskey and the wonderful pot roast that I ingested. We're on the road. We're not about to play lost music. Yeah, we're here partying.

I mean, we're not going to... The first half of the Diamondback season is over. We are not going to... We're going to celebrate the first half of the season, even though it didn't end with a win, but still ended with a series win. But Andrew Dang, thank you so much. He said, wishing both of you having a fun blast at All-Star,

but, oh, my Lord, those All-Star jerseys are so bad. They are pretty bad. You're not wrong. And like, you know what, really, I'm wearing this shirt that I very much like. It's a Catele Marte jersey, as some of you may have seen on my Twitter account today. I'm still calling it Twitter. I'll never call it X. You may see the video of the Walmart that I went to that I purchased the Shurzy at.

I've received so many compliments on this. No free ads. Including, no, I know. Well, I'm just saying this is not available at the All-Star Game. And it's not really available anywhere except at that place I mentioned before that I can't mention again because I used up all of my free ad credits. But I love this one. And of course, this is what it's about about being here.

There's people that ask me to go pick this up for you. You're going to have to make the trip out of Dallas. I'm sorry. I'm not going back to that place that I won't mention before. But yes, there's all sorts of wonderful stuff we saw today. We did go back out to the All-Star Village. But, of course, we're excited. We plan this whole show tonight around the MLD draft

because we were excited to see who the Diamondbacks would get. And honestly, we're going to talk about picks 35 and 64, but I feel very excited about picks 29 and 31. I feel like there's been a lot of positive feedback. And so far on people who we respect and, you know, kind of trust their opinion looking at their board, they had both of these guys kind of higher than where the downbacks were able to nab them at. Yeah, I don't have it in front of me.

I'm pretty sure Keith Law had these guys at 12 and 13. Yeah. So, and he's certainly not the only one. There's a variety of outlets that have both of these guys higher than where the Diamondbacks took them. You know, does that ultimately mean anything at the end of the day? Not necessarily, of course, as I said, you've got to wait, you know, four or five years before you really have a feel for what sorts of decisions were good and what sorts of decisions were not good on a day like this. But, yeah, I think something that certainly stands out for everyone for the Diamondbacks today is going back to Slade Caldwell and the fact that this is a short, speedy hit over power outfielder who bats left-handed like we've seen a few of those over the years right

we have multiple we have two we had three at some point we might have four yep yep uh yeah the devac certainly they seem to like this this specific type when you have a type you have a type yeah i guess so but yeah i we just spoke with ian rebin the diamond back scouting director a few moments ago and He was, of course, asked about that. And what he basically said was true for Caldwell and true for some of the other guys like that the Diamondbacks have taken is that they don't play to their height. They're not going to count someone out simply because their height is below a certain level. Sure.

You know, I mean, at the end of the day, height in baseball is not, I don't know, it's not the inherent disadvantage that it is in other sports. Like in basketball, if you're, you know, 5-8, 5-9, it's sort of like, all right, well, good luck. But in baseball, if you're 5-8-5-9, it doesn't inherently change anything about your game. It's just that players in that height range don't tend to have a ton of power, right?

Yeah, that's fair. I think that's sort of the main thing that people would look at. And that's fair. But, you know, at the same time, we've also seen in baseball, and Corbyn Carroll is a good example of this, more so last year's Corbyn Carroll

than this year's Corbyn Carroll. But you can still have a pretty good amount of power, even if you're a little bit undersized. And so that's pretty much what Ian said is, you know, if we think a guy plays like he's six-two, we don't really care what his height is. And that strategy seems to be kind of coming up over and over again with this organization.

Well, it's interesting just to say, like, what's the root cause sometime of that? The root cause would be that you would say that there's not a lot of major leaguers that are that size or smaller that make it or end up being a superstar or whatever. You would say there's a very small. percentage. However, however, you could also say that those same people sometimes are discouraged at a

smaller level because of their size and they're kind of told that they wouldn't make it at a major league level. So they're almost maybe told to pursue another sport or maybe even pursue another interest rather than that, you know, wasting your time trying to get to the major leagues when you're such a little guy, right? So like I think baseball is one of those situations where, you know, So, yes, depending on what position you play, size can be obviously an advantage. But I also think, like, as a hitter, sometimes being kind of smaller can be an advantage too, right?

That's a smaller strike zone, a little bit harder to pinpoint in those guys, not to mention speed and other factors there. There's just a lot of things there that, I mean, as much as you think size could be a disadvantage, there's advantages probably to being a smaller guy as well. Yeah. I mean, it affects your position for sure, right?

Like if you're 5, 7, you're probably not going to be playing first base. Yeah, those days are over for you. Yeah, that just doesn't really make any sense. We've moved you to shortstop is what we've done, maybe. Yeah, or yeah, and Slade Caldwell's case, I think he has a chance to be a really, really good center fielder. And that obviously has a ton more value than, you know, playing somewhere else like first base anyway. So, yeah, we'll, of course, have to have to see how it turns out. But there's a lot to like on paper with Slade Caldwell.

and the diamond backs, the fact that the diamond backs have had success developing this particular type of player is also something to make mention of. I mean, there's something to be said for kind of sticking with the types of players that you have success with. Even if, you know, you're, of course, not drafting for need. You're drafting for the best overall player.

But you're also drafting maybe for the best overall player that you think you are well positioned to maximize and the diamond backs have done a good job with these types of players. Well, when you have a type and that type has been good, to you, then you want to replicate that, right? Mark Salara paid $2 in our chat just to simply ask you, what's wrong with 5-8 people, Jesse? I feel like I'm standing up.

Yes, Jesse, please explain. I'm standing up for 5-8 people, aren't I? I'm saying that even if you're a little bit higher-down. I'm getting that feeling. You're standing up for 5-8 people. Clearly, you're sitting down. You're clearly sitting down. I think I have made a well-structured argument, Derek,

for shorter people having a place in this sport and potentially being undervalued at times. And the Diamondbacks have, you know, they've proven that a couple times over the years. Well, speaking of Corby and Carroll having success and diminutive people breaking through and doing good things for this team. The Diamondbacks drafted Ryan Waldschmidt, which right away, when he has a name like Waldschmidt, and I think of Goldschmidt, there's already some great connections there, despite what I've said in the past. left fielder from Kentucky, and that is because they were able to draft him at pick number 31 because of Corbett Carroll winning the rookie of the year for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was ranked, like you said, by Keith Law, very high, much higher than pick 31. And let's take, do we able to take a look at his grades as well?

Let's take a look at his grades. We got a hit grade of 55, a power grade of 55, run grade of 55, run grade of 55, arm 40, fielding 45. So again, because of that arm grade definitely, definitely makes him a candidate for the Arizona Diamondbacks outfield. Yeah, that is. That's concerning to me. A 6-2 guy who's got a 40-graded arm. That's tough. Yeah, and I mean, yeah, that's just MLB Pipeline's assessment. But, yeah, Ryan Walsmith was 11 on Keith Lawsboard in his final draft rankings. He had called well at 12. I think I mentioned that earlier. So yeah, Ryan Walshmidt put up really, really good numbers this past year for Kentucky. Those numbers I have here. He hit 333, 469, 610. Of course, this is in college, but it's also against

some of the, you know, some of the best pitching out there. 14 homers, 46 RBI. That's over 273 plate appearances. Just 45 strikeouts compared to 41 walks. So he checks a lot of boxes from from a hitting standpoint. Ian was just talking about how he really doesn't chase much. That's something that the Diamondbacks like about him. And at the same time, he also impacts the ball quite a bit, as evidenced by those lofty numbers that we were just talking about. So, yeah, he's got a chance to be a really good hitter.

The defense is maybe a little bit more suspect. From reports that I've read, some of the public reports, he looked tentative at times in left field. he played exclusively left field last year for Kentucky, although some outlets did suggest that maybe he could play some centerfield because he tore his ACL last summer in the Cape Cod League and has sort of been gradually working back from that and his sprint speed has really increased in that time.

So some people seem to think he has a chance to actually play some centerfield down the road. But yeah, there are more questions on the defensive side of the ball for sure. Well, the Diamondbacks might have gotten to gems a little bit late there as far as the pipeline ranking for both of those guys. Ryan Waldschmidt was number 23, like you said in the pipeline ranking. Slate Caldwell was number 27, where the Diamondbacks get him at number 29. Meanwhile, their next two picks seem like perhaps maybe a little bit of a reach. Maybe we don't know because it's baseball and baseball is how it is. But at pick 35, they take J.D. Dix, unfortunate name, but a good baseball player.

DI.X. Yeah, let's clarify that. Shortstop for Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin High School. He's their competitive balance around A pick. Pipeline rank had him at number 75. Diamondbacks take him at number 35. What do you think was so, I said, I guess, attractive about taking him early? Yeah, the Diamondbacks really seem to believe that he'll stick it at shortstop. seemed to be pretty bullish on his defense. He's another guy who had a fairly significant injury recently. He had a torn labrum in his right shoulder. So his arm strength seems to be kind of still coming back from that.

Hasn't necessarily shown up all the way just yet. That's something that Ian talked about. But he also said it looked fine. I don't think there's anything super, super alarming in that regard. It's just going to maybe take a little bit more time. He's a switch hitter, which is of course, of course interesting. I feel like we haven't seen the DBAX draft too many switch hitters in recent years. And MLB pipeline through the DJ LaMayhew comp, his direction, which is, I mean, DJ LaMahue's had a pretty successful major league career.

So I don't really know how I feel about doing major league comps for high school kids. But here we are. If it keeps us entertained now, Derek, then I'm all for it. That's what it's all about. And they did finally get their catcher as well at pick number. number 64 and Ivan Luciano from El Chide Christian Academy in Puerto Rico

his pipeline rank number 220 Diamondbacks take him at 64 I do know that they were based on I guess scouting and based on you know some of the early mock drafts that we saw it did appear that the diamondbacks

were kind of I guess or people were thinking the diamondbacks were going to take a catcher they do take him here at 64 but again quite quite the reach potentially based on at least the pipeline ranking right right and Ian actually was asked about that he was asked like hey these are just public public rankings these don't necessarily mean much but there is a very big difference between what these public rankings say and and you know the pick that the diamond backs ultimately made today Ian didn't really

he didn't really go into that too much he basically just said as you'd expect that the D-backs focus on their internal process and whatever their internal process says about where they should take a player, that's where they're going to take a player. Yeah, they're not assessing it based on the pipeline rank, right? Shockingly, they're not comparing to M-O-B pipeline, you know, wondering how much they'd be judged on day one if they... Oh, they got to do that. They got to do that.

But yeah, no, it may make sense. Again, it's about organizational needs. It's about how you feel about a player. Like sometimes, again, especially in Major League Baseball, it's the reason why, to be honest, to be fair, the MLB draft isn't that exciting, right? Not a lot of people were talking about it on social media. It's not something that kind of captivates the sports world

the same way the NBA draft or the NFL draft captivates the sports world. Obviously, we also know that the players being drafted don't impact the organizations immediately the same way those players do. Not to mention the fact that, like, yes, we know players don't work out in every sport. There's always players that are drafted high that end up becoming busts, right? But baseball, the percentage is so high as far as bus go because of the, I guess, the degree of difficulty from making it from where they're drafted either at a high school level

or at a collegiate level and then making it as far as, you know, through the minor league system, which as we have detailed, is a very difficult system to make your way through, both financially and just in advancing and trying to get, you know, up from single A to double A to AAA to AAA. But, I mean, that's the reason why I think that right now, of course, you know, organizations, they don't care about what the pipeline rank is because essentially they are trying to find guys. And sometimes those guys might be a diamond in the rough that they think are going to actually be able to make it at a major league level. And that's a huge part of this assessment process, perhaps just as big as the assessment.

of their, you know, athleticism. Yeah, yeah. And I think with Luciano, something that stands out is that he bats left-handed. It's something you don't see too, too often, catchers that bat left-handed. It's certainly, it's an appealing profile for sure. And according to MLB Pipeline,

if we look at his scouting grades here real quick, Luciano's at a 50-hit tool, which is, I mean, that's average. Sorry, I put it up earlier. Sorry, I threw me for a loop when you wanted to get it. Okay. Sorry, all right. Well, I don't know what you've had up, Yeah, yeah, we can't see anything.

You do have the YouTube pulled up. Yeah, but it's like five minutes behind it. You know that. Don't make you pull a curtain back this far. I'm pulling the curtain back way too far. I'm ready to pull the curtain back. Yeah, it pulled all the way back. The more I'm going to drink this whiskey, the more I'm pulling the curtain back.

Anyway, so yeah, Luciano, a 50 hit tool, which might not sound like much, but for a catcher taken, you know, where the Dback's took in. That's pretty compelling. I mean, if you could have a catcher who has a league average hit tool, I mean, that's, that actually, is a pretty significant asset if it pans out that way. He's got a good arm, 55 grade there, a 50 field tool. So needs to work on his framing and his receiving, of course. I mean, he's coming out of high school. But I think there is an opportunity here for Luciano to come in

and be an impact catching prospect for this organization, which, as we discussed with Jordan Schusterman the other day, is not something that Diamondbacks really have a whole lot of, right? Christian Serda, his name comes up a decent amount. Adrian Del Castillo, of course, has taken some big strides this year. But the Diamondbacks have not really developed catchers all that well over the years and even currently in their system. They don't have a ton of depth at that position.

So, you know, I don't think that's necessarily why they did this. I think they made this move because that's the way that the board fell. And, you know, this was the guy whose name came up. But it doesn't hurt for them to kind of restock some of those catching options in the minor. What can we do to make the MLB draft more exciting? I think we just got to call these guys up to the big leagues, like, immediately. Yes. And just see, you never know.

Just watch them suffer. So that they go over 40. Yeah, they'll literally might go over their first 75. What a jump. Here's another idiot, young prospect. Like, let's watch this dummy just scramble. Yeah, it probably wouldn't be best for their development. But I don't know.

Like, that's the problem that MLB faces, right? Yeah. There's just no way to, there's no way to bridge that gap outside of just letting these guys go to the miners and work their way up and take those several years and probably become somewhat forgotten about at times in that time. I mean, I know some people are certainly dialed into top prospect lists and whatnot. Tommy Troy? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Go check out what he's doing. Yeah, Tommy Troy is his.

has been better lately after he got healthy, but the reality is it's going to take some time with a lot of these guys, especially the guys coming out of high school. So, yeah, we'll just have to wait and see. After watching the future skills competition, I think that pyrotechnics and smoke would really help the M&B draft. More pyrotechnics and smoke. No, that's a good call.

Get the top 20 guys there? Yeah. They are not there. Like, I do think that that is a... around these guys. A big problem with that. And I understand because when we see the shots of them at home, they're young kids, they're with their family.

That's a big part of it. But like, again, I mean, what a big experience for these guys to be here in Dallas, here at the rodeo stadium that they were doing the MLB draft from. Yes, they were. You know, getting called up, looking fly in their, you know, suits. And just getting that honor of standing on stage and putting on a major league baseball cap. Screw those other drafts. Like what better cap to put on than a major league baseball cap?

I guess what do you put on a single A cap? Like would you put on the Diamondbacks or do you put on like a facility rod cap? You're like, yeah, it's starting now. Like, you know what I mean? You like try on your rookie ball jersey? Like, yeah, I'm going to the complex to play in 117 degrees. Let's go. And this is what I'm going to sweat in when I get there.

One more note on Luciana real quick. This is in the MLB Pipeline report that he, He works with one other relatively famous catcher out of Puerto Rico by the name of Yadier Malina. Oh. Apparently, there's a relationship that is just basically said he's the next Yadier Malina. That's what I heard. That's exactly what I said. That's what reports are saying.

Reports from insider Jesse Friedman. Yes, they are. Von Luciano, a lock to be the next Yadier Malina. That's for sure. Well, again, I just have to give a shout out to the rackhouse. These people here have been amazing. I want to thank them so much. letting us be out here.

Also, shout out to Game Time. This isn't really an ad read as much as it's just the fact that Jacob and I have been utilizing GameTime quite a bit and been just absolutely scalping some tickets. I guess not scalping isn't the wrong. That's definitely not the right word because we're not selling them nor scalping is the alternative. It's the alternative. We've just been nailing some deals on some of these tickets.

And again, you can save quite a bit of money by using Game Time and getting those last minute tickets, especially when you don't know if you're going to go to these events or not. So it's a great time to check out game time, especially if you're here in the Dallas area, looking to attend the All-Star game, looking to attend the Home Run Derby, make sure to check out that app. Of course, the first half of this season for Major League Baseball is officially over. The Arizona Diamondbacks do lose their series finale to the Blue Jays by a score of 8 to 7. But who cares about that?

They still won the series. They still finish the first half at 40. and 48, and I am not going to dwell on this because, again, this is one of those games where you could say this loss was kind of more painful based on the fact that Diamondbacks came back. But at one time, they were down by 7 to nothing, and then they end up coming back and tying this game, and that was impressive. It was a great sight to see, and of course, they couldn't get the deal done to tie it back

up at 8 or take the win. But the big question about today's game is, do you have any concerns about Zach Gallen? He absolutely got rocked today. He went out there and in three and two-thirds innings pitched. He gave up nine hits. Seven runs, six earned. He walked one, struck out one. By far, not his finest day on the mound.

No, not his finest day whatsoever. Looking at some of the savant numbers, he only had four whiffs on 30 swings. It looks like his curve ball, he was really struggling to throw for a strike. And granted, Zach Allen's curveball is, you know, he's the vast majority of the time he's using it. for an out pitch.

But even in that regard, it wasn't as effective as it normally is. He didn't get a single swing and miss on his curb ball today, which for Zach Gallen, if he's not getting any swing and miss on his curve ball, it probably is a rough day, and it certainly was today. So, yeah, I mean, rough one for the debacks. I mean, if Zach Gallen even gives you a halfway decent outing, you feel like you're in pretty darn good position to come away with a three-game sweep. But Diamondbacks have had a really hard time this year sweeping anyone.

I believe they still just have the one sweep against the Cincinnati Reds back in the back in the middle of May. So, yeah. Well, Cattel Marte kept off his All-Star caliber first half with a grand slam that did get the Diamondbacks right back into this despite Zach Gallen struggles today. Of course, the Diamondbacks did have a fantastic little run that got them back into this game. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get the job done. But again, is it better to get? like run up? Is it better to like lose eight to nothing or is it better that they came back and had fight? I like to see, he's got to show me some fight. I like to see this team fight and I know

sometimes as Jesse said to me, they made him believe that they were going to win again after being down seven to nothing. And I think that's the thing that makes you hurt sometimes. Like I believed in you and you let me down again. But it is one of those things where I don't know. I just want to see this team continue to fight. We've seen, we've seen them lay down. and die entirely too often this season. And I think that, again, at least having that fight in them, trying to come back and pull this one off, was impressive. And let's take a look at the count from today's game

presented by Desert Financial Credit Union, because, again, this game ended up being a little bit closer, obviously, than, I mean, it was close. It was close. It was just a close game. They had a chance to really win this one, when at one point it didn't seem like they were going to be even in this game.

Yeah, I mean, 7-0, nothing. Like, you're not exactly thinking about, you know, sweeping the Blue Jays at that point. It looked pretty dire in that. You're thinking about packing up your bags and getting out of town early or if you're not on the All-Star team, what you're going to do with your time off. Yeah, you mentally move on to exactly whatever your plans are.

But, yeah, the debacks put up a fight. I mean, we've seen a lot more of the answerbacks here in recent days. And I think that's a big deal for. for the Diamondbacks to come back and really show shades of the team that they were last year, where they're able to overcome some pretty big deficits. We've seen more of that here in the last couple of weeks. And if they had pulled this off, I believe this would have tied the largest comeback in franchise history. The Diamondbacks' largest comeback in franchise history, some people might remember,

was it happened in August of 2022 when Corbyn Carroll helped the Diamondbacks in his first big league game. They came back from down, I think it was 7 to nothing against the Philadelphia Phillies. Madison Bumgarner started that game for the D-backs. And they came back and won that game, I think, 13 to 7. And they almost pulled off a similar comeback in this game down 7-0 coming all the way back to tie the game. Unfortunately, they weren't quite able to pull that off. So it would have been so good, Derek.

I mean, the narrative surrounding this team going into the All-Star break would have been off-the-charts immaculate if the Diamondbacks had pulled this off. But even though they didn't, they're still in decent position, right? There's still a game above 500. They still finished off the first half with a series win. So still a pretty strong final couple weeks here for them. It's just baseball, right? Baseball is one of those sports where, you know, it's understandable in football where you want to get, you know, lose your mind over a win or a loss

because you have an entire week to kind of sit on it and chew on it and think about it, right? you have a limited season. Baseball is 162 games, but it does kind of suck to like end such a fantastic run that they've had on any kind of sour note at this point. Thank you so much, Fas. He is, you know. What a servant. He's not a servant. He's not a servant.

He is a sweet, sweet boy. I'm not going to let you talk about him that way. But, you know, it's still just a really impressive run that the Diamondbacks went to close out this first half. And I think that, again, Catele-Marty did everything that he could to secure the win today. So you cannot say our All-Star did not try to put this team on his back. And that is why Catele-Marte, of course, is our Kingsnake in today's game. He was three-for-five with a grand slam for RBI. And again, Cattel just continues to be one of the best players in baseball.

I think, you know, we kind of joked on our vlog today, and we've talked a little bit about it on yesterday's show, just kind of about the disrespect for Catele-Marte in regards to, like, his presence here. We did find a picture of him today, though. We finally did, but I had, like, I got, I wanted Jesse to see it in person because I did, I walked around and I looked around the All-Star Village a lot myself yesterday, but I needed him to see the gigantic pictures of Corbyn-Carrul-E-R-L-O-V-the-Place and the no-non-presence of Cattel-Marte. And, I mean, this is a common occurrence. We saw a lot of players pictured that are not actually. part of the All-Star game. And we saw quite a few players from teams like the Diamondbacks that weren't being recognized like they should be, right? But we don't care about them. We don't do a podcast about them. We do a podcast about the debacks and Cotel Marte. And Cotel Marte specifically

is one of those guys that, like, again, I understand when athletes are boring. I understand when athletes are kind of like, you know, they don't have a lot of flash to them. They don't have a lot of style to them. That is not Cotel Marte. And I think that's why I find this so egregious. The cool areas and stuff that we saw today, MLB Life, you know, just the inside of Choctaw Stadium with all of the wonderful, you know, all-star graphics everywhere and all of the festivities that they had going on. I just wanted to see more Catell because I think I think Catell is a superstar. I think Cotel is an amazing player and I just think he's a commodity, right? Everybody knows I'm a pro wrestling commissioner, right? Cotel Marte would be my top baby face

or maybe he'd be my top heel. I don't know. But that man is promotable. That's the man. That's the man you put on the posters. That's the man that sells tickets, right? If Catele-Marté plays in New York, this is an entirely different conversation. It's exactly that. And I mean, of course. Like, you could probably say that about a lot of markets, unfortunately. Cotel Marte is just an exciting player.

And sometimes all of a sudden, those guys do move to one of those bigger teams. And then the world suddenly realizes it. But it's like he was trying his best to get you to notice him before. You just really weren't, you know? I'm going to ask you a question here, right? How many Instagram followers do you think Catelle Marte has if you were to just take a shot in the dark here? I'm going to guess not many. I'm going to say like 550,000.

Wow, that, okay, you actually overestimated. I thought you would say less, 263,000. 263,000. Yep. Which I believe is the most on the Diamondbacks, Corbin Carroll has 157,000. Lordus Gurriel Jr. has 167. This is how we're deciding who should be.

Like, that, yeah. I'm just saying to the point of Cattell's brand. Popularity. Yeah, like I feel like how many Instagram followers someone has is at least somewhat representative of that, I guess. And that seemed like a high number to me. Well, yeah. And I mean, again, it's about promoting.

It's about, you know, I think this across a few sports. I think there's a few sports that do a bad job of promoting their superstars because obviously, you know, you have your people that are going to root for their teams and you're not going to change their mind. But still, one of my best friends in the entire world, our buddy rock knowledge that we've had on this podcast, he is a huge Arizona Diamondbacks fan, a diehard, if you will. Yet still, you know who his favorite player is? Fernando Tatis Jr.

And it makes me sick to my stomach every single time. He talks to me about his little man crush on Fernando Tatis Jr. But I allow it because that's what happens in baseball. We all have our guys that we root for. I've talked about being a big Julio Rodriguez fan. How many Instagram followers do you think Tatis has? Oh, double Ketel? Is he in the 500,000 club?

He's well above 5.000. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. 1.2 million or something? 1.7 million. See? Julio is at 493K, I think I just saw. Ellie Dele-Cruz is also right around there. See?

We could have a lot of, we could do a whole show there. Is this what you do? I'm, like, I'm amazed. You know, Joseph's a big stat guy, but I was never thought. The two of us to pull up Instagram and start using that as a validation tool, I am amazed that it was you. I'm a numbers guy, Derek. I get it. Any kind of number, I'm interested.

No, you're right. You're right. I will tell you the one thing, though, that MLB should implement that would make their game immensely more popular, Jesse, and that is a lazy river in every single major league baseball ballpark. Because that's what we did today. Incredible. That's what we did today. Secretly, this entire trip has just been for me to get these two guys to drive out to Frisco, Texas with me and to get Saul to pay for it. And so that we could go lay around in a lazy river at a baseball park. And we did that today. Frisco Rough Riders graciously had us out to Riders

Field. It was an amazing experience because let me tell you. I mean, Jesse Jesse's like, just mute Jesse's Mike because he's going to think of crazy. I already know his opinion on this. Jacob and I both question if this might have been a top five, top three ballpark experience for us.

And that's across all major league and minor league ballpark. I'm not saying you can't. This is Disneyland. This place is beautiful. Like we came here for the lazy river. Just wait until they see the footage tomorrow. Oh, man. No.

I'm not saying you can't like the place there. I'm not saying you can't love the place. The concourse goes... The concourse goes from like a brick path to being like the wilderness where you're under some beautiful trees to being a beach party out in center field to being the most wholesome family experience you ever saw of kids waiting in line. The longest line I've ever seen for Bluey in my life. But Bluey is elite.

Bluey is elite. He's a true superstar. And again, that's the kind of celebrity presence that you get out at a Frisco Rough Rider's game. Just, you got to remember, I spend 95% of my baseball games at Chase Field. Yeah. Which is quite like, I mean, I love the Arizona. I think that's, it is, it is not good. That's what it is.

We were actually talking about living in different places, right? Like if you grew up in the Midwest or someplace where you kind of got gray skies all the time, coming out to Phoenix or coming out to California is beautiful and life changing and you're like, I've never seen skies this blue for a week straight. I want to live here, right? Meanwhile, those of us that grew up in the desert with nothing but sunshine beating down on us all the time, go to places like Seattle and say, this rain is amazing. I could totally live with this every single day in my life, right? So I think that's a little bit of it, like living our lives in a ballpark that's closed up for the majority of the season.

You come out to something that's as open as this with all of these opportunities to like, I mean, it's just, it's amazing. It's just an amazing experience. It was amazing family ballpark, beautiful grass, just beautiful activities and food to eat. so much great stuff going on. But the lazy river, honestly, that is eight times the amount of water that Chase Field holds, by the way, just saying. It was huge. It was really, really cool. It was really, really cool.

And I think the one difference there is, like, the pool is a suite, whereas this is a community event where you buy a ticket for yourself. You don't need to gather 10 people together and all chip in in order to afford it. This is like something that anybody can do. And that's something I talked to a couple of locals that they love. They actually said today was the most pack that they've ever seen, the Lazy River. So you'll see that on the video as well. Well, because Bluey, Jesse. Bluey brings the people out.

Everybody comes out for Bluey, right. But yeah, it's the idea that you can kind of, it would almost be like buying an individual ticket to the pool instead of having to get the sweet package in order to attend it. But also, it wasn't a real lazy river because you know what happens. Everybody just posts up at the edge where the baseball game is, and you sit there in a body of water while watching the sports. Still acceptable.

It's just, it's amazing. It was a great experience. I almost got smoked by a home run. He did, yeah, out by the Lazy River. It was a very hard ball. It was very sunny and I couldn't see anything. And I just saw people looking up. They almost both got murky.

And then I almost took Jesse out running to the side. Yeah, I was a little scared for my life and for Jacob's life. But we survived. I'm proud of you. And he didn't wear enough sunscreen. He definitely didn't drink enough water. But, of course, we've been having a blast. And what did you think overall of the All-Star Village?

because today was your day to first kind of see it. Yeah, I think they did a really good job with it. It was really fun walking around. I mean, they basically just create a museum, you know, right by wherever the All-Star game is held, and it's fun to just be able to walk around. And, you know, people are playing MLB the show. They're, like, swinging a real bat with, like, a VR headset on,

which I thought was really cool. We really wanted to get Derek to do that, but the line was just a little bit, a little bit too long. A little too long for that. It would have been there probably for half the day. But yeah, it was great and even better. A lot of it was indoors, which meant that we didn't have to stand outside

for the entire day. And what is... The humid heat has not been great on our desert bodies. Let me just say that much. But it is, I will still argue, that this heat here is more variable than what is currently happening in the desert right now. We all said that we'd live here.

Jacob said it. I would begrudgingly live here. No, you absolutely said you would. He was looking up how. Houses on Zillow, just to let you know. I look up houses on Zillow wherever I go. I mean, he also doesn't do. That is definitely something I do almost every day.

Yeah. But, no, I will say that this, the one thing about this event is that, like, yeah, you said the lines are long, but being in just the, like, convention center, we thought that was a pretty thorough experience for fans. And that was just a portion of it. Then you had the outside with the Ferris wheel and the outside, like some of the festivities and activities that you could do outside. Yeah.

And then you still had Chalkita Stadium, which had vendors. Our guy Poo-Poot was out there. Shout out to him. And of course, they also had our, you know, more activities down on the field level. So I think by doing that, they are creating a good experience of at least trying to spread it out where people aren't all condensed. And you're not spending your entire day standing in a line. And I think that's important part of this whole thing. But MLB really did knock it out of the park, pun intended, when it came to this All-Star

Village thing. They created a wonderful experience for the fans. I did it. Look, I've thrown enough free ads around that I figure I should at least throw Max one bone with a pun, but we are looking forward, of course, to, I guess, the main events. Tomorrow

ends Tuesday. Tomorrow is the Home Run Derby. We will be out there for that as well as at the All-Star game on Tuesday. So you can come right back here, maybe not here at this wonderful location, but we'll be somewhere in Texas. Maybe you can find us. Maybe you won't. I don't know. We'll make a game

out of it. I'd drive out here to be out here. Yeah, it's a good place to be right now if you're a baseball fan. But shout out again to the rackhouse for having us out here tonight. We will be doing a post-game show, I guess post-gameish show after the home run derby tomorrow. This guy will be coming to us live, I think, live from the field. And I will be somewhere with Jacob hidden in the back corner. So until then, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Of course, our producer, Jacob Franklin, is at Jacob underscore Franklin for, because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin. You know that. I don't need to tell you guys that. But you can also follow our show at PHNX underscore DVACs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, we thank you guys so much for your time. We will see you guys back here tomorrow night.

And in the meantime, have yourselves a wonderful night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you use MLB pipeline to, assess your draft picks.