PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - L.A. Confidential

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing where the D-backs are on everyone's power rankings, how big the four-game series with the Dodgers really is, and your Mailbag Monday questions. 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.

and welcome to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX. I'm also a very, very sad sons fan. Also joining me as another very sad son's fan. He's the vice mayor of PHNX. He's also nicknamed Thunderstick. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman.

It's been kind of a downer day, Derek. I think Arizona sports fans are just not feeling it today. And I know we'd love to capture some of that energy for our purposes here with the Diamondbacks. But I think a day of morning is in order after what happened last night. Maybe a couple days. It might take people a few days to get over this. And that's understandable given the very, very high highs and the very, very low, low that ended

the sun season this year. I'm not okay, Jesse Friedman. Today I got myself a wonderful package in the mail. What was in the package? It was some awesome pH. shirts from the PHNX Locker.com. Yeah, it was just

one wonderful reminder after the next. One reminder after the next of what happened last night. So a bad time to get a wonderful package. But like you said, we need some morning. I might

wear this one just for the morning purposes. But yes, we do have the Arizona Diamondbacks to pick us all up. And that's definitely a statement that I would have said, Derek, you're drunk in saying that. Like three months, Derek, three months ago would have said that to present day, Derek. But what's not, what is not great, I'm sorry that you got yours too. We all got ours today.

What's not great? I think that's, honestly, let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that these are being sent out by Denver Nugget fans, and they are very bitter. and they are very happy about what happened with the sun. So don't think that these didn't arrive on to, I don't know, I'm blaming some Nuggets fans. But I was taking a glance at the power rankings, Jesse, and the Arizona Diamondbacks still don't have a lot of respect.

I guess that's expected. I guess the power rankings folks do not kind of jump the gun with excitement in the same way we do. But kind of taking a look across the landscape, the athletic has the D-backs ranked 17th in baseball. CBS Sports has them at 16th. Sports Illustrated has them at 19th, and MLB.com has them ranked at 20th.

And I guess my question here is, is it fair to still rank them lower than teams that they've beaten handily like the Marlins? Or, I mean, or teams that they have a better record then? Or is this a case where people need to put some respect on the DeBack's names? Well, color means.

crazy, Derek, but I honestly, you saying those numbers, my initial reaction is that the diamondbacks are getting a fair amount of respect. I mean, let's not forget this team. I mean, maybe people want to forget, but this team won 52 games last year, Derek. And after a month of playing pretty good baseball, above 500 baseball, suddenly they're 17th, 16th, 19th, 20th, depending on who you're talking to, I think that's a pretty decent amount of respect. I mean, we all know the way baseball works. Your record after 35 games is not necessarily representative of your record at the end of the season. And this shows me that people are buying into what the Diamondbacks have done so far. If you really thought that this was all a fluke, you'd probably still have them in the,

you know, low mid-20 somewhere still. But that's not what people are, what people are doing. So, yeah, I mean, I'm honestly a little surprised in the other direction that the Diamondbacks are ranked so high. Yeah, no, I definitely, in some cases, yeah, I think looking back again, Derek, three months ago, would have never imagined that Diamondbacks would be ranked 16th by, you know, any one of the publications. But at the same time, too, when you look at the list, there are a lot of teams, like I said, with worst records. And they're not jumping the gun. They're not necessarily being so reactionary. They are being reactionary, I think, to the Diamondbacks

starting pitching that even, you know, even us Diamondbacks fans, anti-Diamenbacks people, everybody kind of expected the starting pitching to kind of come back down to earth a bit. And it really

hasn't. They've maintained a certain level of I say, I guess excellence is what I would say, right? but again, is it time to really start thinking of them as this predominantly dominant team when it comes to starting pitching? Or do you think we'll still see that regression that we predicted earlier? We're probably still due for some regression. If you look at some of the underlying stats here, the Diamondbacks are not top two or top three in pretty much every pitching category except for,

ERA. The end results, the amount of runs they've given up has been excellent right up there with the Dodgers like we talked about yesterday. But if you look at their strikeout rate and their ability to prevent hard contact and their walk rate and some of these other things, it's clear that their rotation has been good this year, but it still doesn't, it's not indicative of a top two, top three rotation in baseball. So I think there is still quite a bit of room for the starting rotation to regress. And that's not to say at all that it's still not going to be good. I mean, the Diamondbacks team, their starting rotation ERA. I think you said it yesterday.

It was like 2.48 or something like that. Currently 2.51 and it's the second best in major league behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. So the Dodgers, the Dodgers overtook them. Yeah. So 2.51. I mean, there's a there's a fair amount of leeway there. You can regress from 2.51 a fair amount and still be one of the better starting rotations in baseball. And that's likely what will happen here.

2.51 is a number that really no team ever maintains over the course of a full season. And there's still a few guys, namely Madison Bumgarner, I think, is the biggest one that comes to my mind where the results that he's gotten, the run prevention that he's been able to put out there this season is just not consistent with the way that he's pitching. If you watch him pitch, if you look at the number of strikeouts, the number of swings and misses, the number of walks, some of the other things, he's been pretty fortunate so far. Hopefully the wheels don't come off in Los Angeles today, but we'll have to see how his season continues.

You want me to blow your mind here with a stat, Jesse, on the starting pitching? Please, please do. Tomorrow's starter, Merrill Kelly, has a 1.71 ERA through his first seven starts of the season. Any guesses as to what his ERA was through his first seven starts of last season, a season that we considered him to be the best pitcher on the staff? he didn't start off well last year if i remember right it was pretty bad i'm going to say it was like like six and a half maybe you're you're actually overshooting a little bit it's 5.40 but yes it's in the area of being so much higher than it currently is and again when you take that you average is

2019 that was 4.85 after seven starts it does seem like there's going to be some balance that comes for him for all these guys, right? In fact, you know who the first person that would agree with us on that is? Brent Strom. I had a chance to talk to him the other day. He's a matter of fact, kind of a guy. He's not going to be realistic. You aren't lying because he definitely had the, here's the thing about Brent Strom.

He will not be the kind of person to tell you straightforward that he has any kind of you know, real, like high expectations at times. He doesn't feel like it's him that's creating this environment for these pictures to thrive, even though it's hard to not suggest in some way that he is. Where else is it coming from, right? Right? Like, I mean, I understand being humble, right? But this was, I guess, another case of his humility was when I talked to him about what he's been able to do with the staff so far.

his first the first thing he said even using the hand motion was pump the brakes on all that because you know again pump the brakes on on what did you say starting pitching i was basically like so you know how have things been it seems like uh you really helped out with turning the starting pitching around and i think he's just saying it's not you know time will tell but there's there's too small. The sample size right now for anyone to decide that this pitching staff has really turned things around. In the past, we've seen

that they have a good month, and then they can't maintain it. So far, you know, they started out really slow. You couldn't really say April was a great month, but since April 26th, like we said on yesterday's show, they're actually tied for the best record in the National League at 12 and 6

and tied for the fourth best record in baseball. So, you know, they're up there right now playing some excellent baseball, but, you know, not so much in the near future against the Cubs. So it's going to be interesting to see them and what they can do in this matchup against the Dodgers. I will say before we go on that, of course, you, yeah, and we'll talk about that in a second, Chris, Nick on the I.L and Jake Hager has been called up. But before we do that, we got to let you guys know that Jesse's going to have an article up on Go, P.H.H.M. X.com this week.

And I'll have some stuff up as well. We'll both have some articles up. There's going to be a lot of articles about the Sons, of course. Yeah, our site will be overrun. Yeah, if you need a place to be enlightened and maybe feel a little not alone as a son's fan with a lot of anger pent up about the way that this series went for them, make sure to come over and join us at go phtnx.com. you can get your annual membership and you'll get yourself some free t-shirts over at the

PHNX Locker and guess what guys we have an excellent Derek it might it may well just be me but I'm not sure the people can hear you right now or at the very least I currently cannot hear Hugh our producer also says that she cannot hear Derek at the moment so hey there we go he's back I hit my mic with the stupid shirts that I'm very sad about getting but I still love these shirts very much they're going to go into a special place in the back of my drawer for at least the next six to eight weeks while I get over the sun's loss. But then I'll be wearing them.

And of course, you can get some D-back shirts because, hey, we're the guys now. We're the chosen ones. And we'll see what these Arizona diamondbacks can do now that they actually have the floor, if you will. So, of course, get your membership, get your free t-shirt at PHNX Locker.com. If you're not interested in that free t-shirt for the annual membership, get your month-to-month option. You can get your first month for just 50 cents.

Try us out, see if you like us, and maybe you'll stick around. Hopefully you'll stick around and enjoy all the wonderful writing from everybody at PHNX, including Jesse and myself on the Arizona Diamondbacks. But you'll get discounts regardless of your membership status to our PHNX locker, as well as access to our members-only Discord. So please join us over here, be part of the PHNX family. moving on jesse we have a big series here against the dodgers obviously coming up taking a look here at the probable starters there's still some spots to be determined but a favorable matchup here at least uh potentially in game three and with merrill kelly as well so madison bumgarner that he's leading the way here against tony gonslyn who's been very good this year i guess my question here is

is are the Diamondbacks starting rotation right now at least, you know, able to hang with the Dodgers starting rotation? I mean, the numbers are like we said earlier. I mean, their starting rotation ERAs are almost exactly the same for the season. But, I mean, Tony Gonsolin has been genuinely very, very good. I mean, if you, I don't think his one, his 1.33 ERA is a fluke in some sense. I mean, he's not going to maintain that for an entire season. but he's genuinely been excellent this year, whereas Madison Bumgarner's pitched well,

but I think there's been a lot of batted ball luck that has really helped him out there as well. So, I mean, the D-BACs have their work cut out for them, and I mean, that goes for any team lining up against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Dodgers have shown over the last couple weeks that, you know, they can be beaten. The pirates beat them in a series. I think the Phillies, I want to say the Phillies won the series

or at the very least, they at least won a game or two in that series. So the Dodgers can be beaten, but I wouldn't go as far as to say the Diamondbacks necessarily have the pitching advantage in any game in this series. Zach Gallen is not set to pitch in this series as far as we know. We still don't know who the game three starter is. I think it's possible Corbyn Martin gets called up for that one. The debacks might bring up someone from the miners just because it's a double header. And so, you know, they might, they might want to find a way to save some arms with that situation.

But we'll have to, we'll have to see what they do there. The Clutch Kinnock there said that they'd be very happy to be over 500 at the end of this week. And yeah, I think I'd take that. And of course, I'm not, don't think that's not an opportunity for me to once again, use this math. Just stay over the peak of Mount 500. one game, two games, five games. As long as they can do that, I think this season will continue to be looked at as a success.

But really, this series with the Dodgers is their biggest test, I think, so far. At the time when they faced the Dodgers and beat them two to one in the previous meeting, I don't feel like there was any of this now gaining pressure, gaining expectations that are kind of behind them, right? we've seen them in the last couple of games. We've seen the fan reaction. We've seen our own reaction. We've not been very happy about this. So it comes at a time where you have to have you have to wonder, is this Dodgers matchup that big of a deal?

I feel I feel like we've put a lot of hype into it. But realistically, is it that big of a deal at this point? That's a good question. probably not i mean it's i think it's hard to make a convincing argument that like any kind of may baseball is like that that big of a deal at the end of the day but i mean chances are the diamondbacks probably if we're being realistic they're probably not going to find themselves in the thick of of the division race you know by the end of the season and so games like this do have importance because you know it's not necessarily like you're competing for the division at the end of the day

it's probably not going to come down to the wire or anything. But there's still, you know, there's still something to be said for these games where the Diamondbacks are going toe to toe with a team that a lot of people think, myself included, is probably the best team in baseball. And they already beat them two out of three games this season. And you know the Dodgers certainly remember that and are prepared

coming into this season to try to make sure that that doesn't happen again. So I think the Dodgers are going to come out probably a little, little feisty remembering what happened the last time around. The Dodgers made a lot of mistakes the last time these two teams played. They're going to be big. They're going to play like flawless baseball in this series. They're going to be ready to go out there and, you know, try to put the diamond backs in their place. I mean, at least the place that they think the Dodgers, or at least they think the diamond

backs belong in. So, yeah, I mean, there's going to be a lot of energy. I don't know if it's a do or die game necessarily or do or die series necessarily. but these games are important. Here's a discouraging stat. Merrill Kelly is 0 and 5 against the Dodgers and eight career start, so that's not very good. And also, we talked about this yesterday,

but the double header on Tuesday is going to be the first ever double header between these two teams, which again, with their history, seems odd. It seems odd that it's their first ever doubleheader. I mean, I guess you're not going to have a whole lot of rainouts and, you know, Los Angeles and the... Stop using logic. I hate when you use...

It is still weird. It is so weird. It's funny here. Taking a look again at the All-City Division, which we like to do. I shared this with our friends at Chicago and everywhere else, Denver. We still... I don't... This isn't up-to-date, I don't think, but this was from yesterday, and this is where we're at.

I still think... I don't know if the Rockies won, but we're still... We're still in a good position. This is the division right now that we're worried about. No other division. The Dodgers are great and all. It's great to have them as competition. But really, we here at PHNX, we just want to beat the other parts of all city.

So that's all we're concerned with right now. Baby steps. We got to beat them. And then we worry about the NL. West because the NL. West is going to continue to be very, very tough, Jesse. It's true. It's true.

And yeah, the Rockies are 17 and 17. So I think I want to say that what we had up there was current. So, yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks have the Diamondbacks have genuinely been a better team than everyone there. I don't think there's any question. The Diamondbacks are minus 15 this season. And ironically, the best run differential out of any of the teams in our all city division is actually the Chicago Cubs. I know. They're minus 11.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. But the Rockies are minus 28 and the White Sox are minus 30. So, yeah, I mean, I think in my playoff bracket, I have the White Sox going pretty far in the American League. So the early returns there are not great, but there's still time to turn things around. We'll have to see what happens. There absolutely is. And of course, the best way to do that, Jesse, is doing it while on OG's going. I have no way to transition into it, but everything's better on OG's gummies.

So that's the only reason that's, that's a simple transition for me because OGs gummies are amazing. They come in a variety of, of dosages. Obviously, we've talked about 10 milligram and their new 3 milligram microdose. And you can stop by your local dispensary and grab some amazing scratch made THC gummies from our friends at OGs, all of their varieties of flavors, all there. Definitely try their, anything that's like cream sickle type. thing. Blackberries and cream, orange and cream, fantastic. Summary flavors like watermelon and fruit

punch. Perfect if you're in the mood for an uplifting setiva or a chill indica. And if you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEZ brands.com to find OGs near you. But Jesse, I know everybody's bummed out. I know everybody needs a pick me up. I saw some people posting pictures of animals on my Twitter timeline. I saw all sorts of things where we Phoenicians, we Arizonans, are sad, right? The Phoenix Suns are king of the valley. And I think there'll always be a lot of people's number one in their heart. But again, we here at the PHNXDBACs podcast, implore you to allow us into a small piece of your heart. And we're going to do that,

for those of you that might not have joined us before on a Monday, by introducing you to a little thing we call middle. See, doesn't that interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while,

there's a letter that makes me go out. See, doesn't that feel good? I mean, I think that some people are probably, they already feel better after that. But Jesse, of course, today is Mailbag Monday. And we are looking to you guys

here in the chat. If you have any questions to ask about the Arizona Diamondbacks, drop them in the chat. We will get you. in here. I know we have some good questions from Twitter that we got before we got on air. Our first question comes from Jose Grahada, uh, Graheda, excuse me, Greeda at Jose Graheda 12. And he asked Jesse, are there any good relievers in the minors that we could call up? And I know why you're asking this, but I guess the answer is, yes, there are.

There actually are quite a few guys because I'm sure the Arizona Diamondbacks would love to bring up some of their young rookie arms and put them into a position of being a reliever and kind of getting their feet wet first before they might be considered as a starting pitcher, right? That's kind of the blueprint for a lot of their young guys. Yeah, I think so. From what we've heard from Mike Hazen in particular, it sounds like the debackser are more inclined to make some of their young players earn those roles and maybe have them start in the bullpen and you know if they earn it then maybe an opportunity in the starting rotation would open up

at some point um but yeah i mean that seems to be a pretty good way to go i think some of those guys are maybe better served in the bullpen long term anyway uh we certainly hope that that some of them will will pan out in the starting rotation as well but yeah i mean you're going to see louise free us back at some point uh probably not too too long from now he already got a stint in the big leagues uh the control has continued to be an issue for him but i think we'll see him back relatively soon. Another name to keep in mind is Kevin Ginkle, who's still in the organization. He's pitched pretty well in Reno, especially of late.

So I think it's entirely possible they bring him up, and he serves a role in the bullpen. This bullpen, as we've talked at length, has not been great this season for the Diamondbacks. It's been one of the worst in the league. What? And, yeah. See, what do you mean the bullpen hasn't been good? What are you talking about? What are you talking about?

It's crazy, I know. But, yeah, so I think it's pretty likely the Diamondbacks will shake things up a little bit down there. And naturally, opportunities are going to come up with injuries and whatnot. So, yeah, there should be a fair amount of depth in AAA that we're going to see reach the majors at some point this year. And even right now, not in AAA, but with the Emerilos Sod Poodles, Bryce Jarvis has been incredible. last night he in six innings he gave up no runs two hits one walk and 10 strikeouts and just again just an incredible amount of talent that the diamond bags have that are right there we've already talked about corbin carroll a whole bunch but as far as their pitching arms go they do have some great young players that are ready to i guess you know ready to make that next step and i think that's the reason why uh the diamondbacks again again, chose not to make any significant moves because there's a lot of guys right now that are right there. And I think as crazy, I don't want to say that they're willing to sacrifice this season,

but we're going to see them continue to do things that involve committing to Ian Kennedy and Mark Melanson. And I think even at times committing to the young arms going out there and making mistakes and getting that experience, I feel like this season, we could label it as them playing, you know, with house money. And, you know, they have the opportunity here to still try to grow that next generation of players by giving them, you know, time on the big league squad. But also not really, I don't know, not really being too concerned with the outcome of this season one way or another. It kind of sucks to say that because right now at 18 and 17, this team, this team. team is in a position to compete. And I just don't know if we're, I don't know if we're just getting excited about the, you know, early success that they've had. But I don't, I, I know a lot of fans

don't want to see them sacrificing any part of this season for, you know, any reason, because it seems like right now they're, they're able to play and, you know, beat teams. They can beat baseball teams. They can be competitive. We've seen them beat some very good teams. The clutch Kinnuk asks, with Ahmed being on the injured list, do you see Perdomo being the number one option at shortstop by the end of the year? That's a great question. At the end of the year, easily, I mean, easily we could see that. I'm not saying that that's definitively going to be the outcome, but I think the one thing here is, is that this team still doesn't have a lot of veteran leadership on the on the infield and i think nick omit really does that i feel like when

he is out there at shortstop he kind of anchors that defense and yeah seen them play substantially better with him out there regard you know with versus per domo out there Ahmed has had a pretty good season uh the issue is that this shoulder just seems to be lingering i know Chris mentioned it in the chat earlier. Jake Hager has been brought up from, from AAA Reno and Nick Ahmed is now on the injured list. Nick, I think the job is Nick's, if he's at the big league level, at least at this point.

But it appears that this shoulder thing has kind of been nagging. And it also sounds like they don't really have a clear solution. It'll be interesting once we hear more from the team about what the plan is for Nick moving forward and how they're going. to treat this because what they've tried so far really hasn't worked. And so I think there's some concerns about this injured list and how long this could really drag on for. If it drags on for a while, Geraldo Perdomo, you know, is going to get a lot of opportunity

playing shortstop. I have no doubt that at least while Nick is on the injured list, Perdomo is going to be your guy on a day-to-day basis. And he's played pretty well. I mean, Perdomo is certainly not, you know, knock the car. cover off the ball this season, but he's played respectively. He still has a 350, 360 on base percentage. There's not a whole lot of power there. It's mostly walks and singles. But you'll take that from your shortstop. He's a solid defender. And like I said, he gets on base. So yeah,

Giselle asked, could they consider surgery? That's a great question. I really, I don't know enough about the situation to be able to answer that question. But it, you know, usually, when guys have injuries, it feels like there's a pretty standard protocol. They kind of know what they're doing. But when Nick had this shoulder issue in spring training, it kind of seemed then that they didn't really have a great solution for what was going on. Eventually, he just kind of came back. And it just continued to nag him while he was playing.

So I don't know. We'll have to see, you know, what Tori Lavello says when he speaks to the media next. because I don't know if they have a super clear route to getting Nick Ahmed healthy again. And I think to answer the question a bit further, I think Perdomo makes it easier for them, right? Like in one way or another, it's not like they don't have somebody. They have a lot of short time.

Right. Right. Right. The idea that Lovolo constantly has about a baseball season is that it's a marathon, which it is, 162 games. to get someone like Nick Ahmed healthy and back later in the season might be right. It might be, might be worth it to go with a surgery option if that,

if that is an option, rather than have him continue to have issues with it as a season, you know, progresses because they could eventually lose them to surgery and then maybe lose them for the rest of the season. But yeah, and clutch connects as Perdomo is playing more comfortable by the week. Yeah.

I agree with that in every, way what you said for uh clutch connect perdomo like not only is he playing better but his body language and his attitude and interactions with his teammates when i'm out there watching batting practice he just you know these guys all seem part of the team very much already you know like i will say that unfortunately seth beer before he was left let down he looked very you know distraught and I saw that in Carson Kelly at times, even during batting practice. Like these guys, once they kind of get in a slump, they, they do, I think they do feel like, like they have no idea of what's wrong exactly and how they can get themselves right.

It's unfortunate to see. But other guys, you know, like Alec Thomas, playing very loose for being a young guy that was just recently called up. And man, he was smashing the ball in batting practice. So it's a mentality. it's, you know, the idea of belonging. That's something that Thomas told me when I spoke to him before the Cubs game was he just, he feels like he belongs already.

And, you know, again, with Pardomo and him, it's that. It's the idea that you do belong and, you know, getting over the idea of you being a rookie and all of this other stuff. They're going to make you do dumb shit, like carry your lunch in a, you know, little funny backpack and stuff. That's part of the gig, but it's all in love, right? And so we could, I think what we've seen so far is a lot of the Diamondbacks players that were already on this team are part of their system playing extremely well. And really so far, the parts that haven't been working out is, you know, the newer additions with Mark Malanson and Ian Kennedy.

You could even say Zach Davies and Kyle Nelson have all worked out. So it's not even all of their new additions. it's just kind of the higher profile ones, right? Yeah. And again, another question that we got that I kind of laugh at was from our friend Michael Rokickey. I'm calling him the rock, the icky rock. He wanted to know he's a troublemaker.

He wants to know is Patrick Corbyn, the only person to leave the Diamondbacks and get worse. And we know he's not. We know he's not. Yeah, no, he's not. One thing I laugh about is when he said that, I did look and, you know, with all things considered, his best year, ERA-wise, if you care about that kind of thing, was with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He hasn't had a season where his ERA was as low as it was in 2018 when he was an all-star for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But he did also win a World Series elsewhere and was a big reason why the Nationals did that thing. So I don't know. I mean, the Diamondbacks, we get stuck on the guys. that do go elsewhere and do achieve a great amount of success, the Max Scherzer's of the world, even more recently, Robbie Ray. But, Jesse, you're the first one to point out that there's a much lower percentage

of guys that go on to do better things outside of this team than guys that don't. The majority of the guys that leave this team actually don't end up having a better season or better career with someone else. but there are a handful of guys that that we miss and of course because they were great and they would have been great with us they would have been great elsewhere it doesn't matter oh no i don't know robbie ray is the one guy that i'm like i don't know if he would have still been that good with us maybe he needed to leave he hasn't uh he hasn't really been that great

for the mariners so far uh he's been okay i think he i think he's been better than he has like a four point six something er a which i think he has been better than that But it still hasn't hasn't looked great for Robbie so far this year. Right. But yeah, he definitely wasn't his 2.84 ERA that he had last season, right? He came right back down to a four point. He right now he's a 4.62 ERA. He's four and three in eight starts. And yeah, I mean, he with the Diamondbacks, he had a 2.89 ERA.

He had a 3.93 ERA. He had a 4.34 ERA. So he had some great years here as an Arizona Diamondback. And I don't know necessarily if after all of a sudden done, his career is going to show that he went on to be like a Max Scher type. I feel like that year in Toronto was pretty special. Once again, you got to give credit where credit to do and wonder how much coaching has to do with that, right? There's a certain game plan for guys that coaches figure out pitching, you know, pitching coaches are like Brent Strom aren't always the guys that are going to make guys, you know, better. I know in the past, one of the criticisms about this, I guess about the Diamondbacks with players has been kind of, at least with like Madison Bumgarner, he's the one that kind of filled us in on this at one point.

But like sometimes it's too much information being given to you, right? And what's interesting is we know how much information that Brent Strom piled upon poor Zach Gallen in their very first meeting. So like that doesn't necessarily mean he like, pie. piled it on in like an unsolicited sort of way. Right. It's all in the way. He was well prepared. He was well prepared.

Right. And exactly it's it is about the way that the information is delivered. How it's shared with the person. I think that there's probably with Brent Strom or even, you know, just in general with this with with this coaching staff, there's probably a different approach. Knowing these guys aren't all the same, right? You're not going to go to a Zach Gallen who loves. loves numbers and stuff like that the same way that you're going to go to a Madison Bumgartner. There needs to be kind of a different approach.

The information that's shared could be very similar, but the approach that you take with the two of them needs to be very different because Madison Bumgardner doesn't really care that much. I don't believe, based on interactions we've had with him, that Zagallin would care about numbers and stuff. Zalachlan geeks out about this shit. That's what makes him such a great young player, Zach Gallen loves pitching stats and talking about his numbers and all of this stuff.

It's incredible what this, what this kid, you know, loves about baseball, right? And again, that's a part that not, not everybody like a Madison Bumgarner, an older soul is going to take that information the same way. So, you know, again, it's, it's, you got to give credit to this to coaches, whether it, whether it's on our team or elsewhere, they really do make a big impact on these guys. And at times you can see it based on those numbers that they put up and their success. And again, it's not always the coaches, right? Sometimes it's the, there's other factors involved, the success of the team. You know, I think right now the Diamondbacks really are pushing each other.

And the starting rotation really is kind of getting the most out of each other because there's a high bar being set. You know, I think there's a high bar being set by Strom and Lovolo and everybody. And so far, they've done an exceptional job at meeting it. It's by far the Diamondback's biggest strength that that has led them to this record that's pretty unexpected at this point. Going back to the original question, I'm trying to think of examples of guys who left this team and actually did get worse in addition to potentially Patrick Corby being on that list. I recall Stephen Drew not being great after his time in Arizona. I don't think he really did much. I don't even remember a whole lot, frankly, about his career after the Diamondbacks.

I don't think it really lasted that long. Yet a few years is kind of a utility infielder. He wasn't really an everyday guy after his time with the debacks. I also think about a guy like Brandon Drury, who seemed to be a promising young player, maybe not a superstar, but at least a guy who, you know, was a very very very, valuable everyday big leaguer and he really seemed to fall off after he was traded as well. So I think at the end of the day, people just remember more when a guy leaves the team and you know, does better.

Like that's what you remember. If a guy leaves and they don't improve, then you just kind of forget about them. And so you're not as aware of those situations. But there's still some truth to people saying, you know, there have been a number of players who have left this team and gotten better elsewhere. I mean, Max Scherzer is is an, you know, slam dunk hall of famer. So those kinds of stories,

there's still, there's still reason to be a little bit heartbroken over situations like that if you're a D-Mex fan. But then come on, Aaron Hill hit for the cycle twice in one year. He hit over 300 in two different seasons. Yeah. And after he left the Diamondbacks,

he played for like two and a half more, two more seasons after he left the Diamondbacks. So, like, you know, again, you can't always, you don't always remember those, right? Aaron Hill is a guy a lot of people forget, by the way, considering how good he was for this team. He was a very good number of years. From 2011 through 2015,

he was at times the best player on this team. And honestly, his name hardly ever comes up when you talk about, like, great players in Diamondbacks history. I think mostly because, you know, certain guys get a reputation for playing somewhere for so long.

And a lot of people remember, remember Aaron Hill as a Toronto Blue Jay because that's where he started a season and that's where he played the majority of it. But he almost played as long here in Arizona and honestly had some of his best seasons here, including come on, hit for the cycle in two fucking years. Come on. Give them, give the guy some credit. Bam in our comment asks with the upcoming road trip, do you think the debacks will remain 500? Great question. Jesse, I'm going to let you kick this one off. Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty tough one to answer. But yeah, I mean, you've got the Dodgers in L.A., which is always going to be tough.

I think you'd be, yeah, there we go. So you got the Dodgers in L.A. That's a four-game set. I think splitting that series would be a great outcome. I think that's kind of a hard thing to count on, though. If anything, there's a decent chance you're looking at a three out of four on the Dodgers side. with that series and then you've got three with the Cubs after that. Maybe you're able to work, you know, maybe you're able to get two out of three at Wrigley

Field. If that happened, then the debacks would come out of at least this week with an exactly 500 record. So maybe if I'm making a prediction, I guess that's probably what I would predict. But yeah, I mean, we haven't, it's been a while since the, since the debacks have been on the road. So we'll have to see if they're able to carry their momentum there. I'm going to say they go four and three. I'm going to say they take two out of two from the Dodgers and win the series against the Cubs at Wrigley, get a little revenge there, even though they still haven't beat the Cuts.

So a split at Dodgers Stadium. Yeah. I mean, Dodger fans would not be happy with that. No, no. And why? Which games?

Which games are they going to win? I am going, let's take a look at the probabilities. I am going to give them. them 100% to start against Tyler Anderson. And I'm going to give them Merrill Kelly. I'm going to give them those two. I think Merrill Kelly gets right and gets his first win in his career against the Dodgers.

And they're going to sweep. They're going to sweep the double header then. That's what I'm suggesting is the double header is going to be swept. I am not going to bet against Walker Bueller. That guy's too damn good. I will say I'm most intrigued by tonight's matchup, which is Tony Gonson versus Madbom just because Madbom loves playing against the Dodgers. He loves it's, you know, he has like a million starts against the Dodgers.

So he really does. He has a lot of them. But we thank you guys again for all of your comments, all of your questions, all of your interactions in the chat. Of course, we implore you guys to go check out our friends at the Draft King's Sportsbook. The Draft King's sports book has, I mean, let's be honest, now it's a very sad offer. And I'm not going to tell you what team to bet on, but new customers can get down on the NBA action by betting just $5 on any team to win, and you'll get $150 in free bets if they do.

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21 and over only, Arizona only gambling problem dot 1-800. Next step, new customers only minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And we didn't even acknowledge this, Jesse, and I can't believe we didn't acknowledge this, but the Cincinnati Reds, Jesse, didn't allow a hit in a baseball game

but they lost the baseball game one to nothing to the Pittsburgh Pirates. What's very funny to me about this is on top of the loss, Cincinnati doesn't even get the no-hitter because its pitchers didn't go at least nine innings. Yeah, it's not super common to, you know, not allow any hits and still lose the game. But that's the kind of team that the Reds have been this season. and Derek. I mean, they're on a completely other level when it comes to how they've played this year. I've seen a lot of people do like these tiered power rankings. You know, these are the,

these are the elite teams. These are the, you know, playoff, like, good chance to make the playoffs teams. These are the mediocre teams. And every single tiered breakdown I see has like the Reds in their own category. They're just in like the Reds category. And yeah, I mean, that that baseball team is, is very, very bad. And I feel for a guy like Hunter Green who pitched a heck of a baseball game and you know, you still had to turn it over to the bullpen,

but yeah, there was no hope for a shared no hitter there. You said something that was so true, right, about like this just being the type of thing to happen to the Reds this season, right? And to be honest, this felt

like the exact kind of thing to happen to the Arizona Diamondbacks last season. I relate to this so hard because this is the exact kind of thing. They had two no hitters there. They had two no hitters last season. We're not stop. We're not, you know, we're not taking. Did, did they give up any hits in the game?

Did Madison Bumgardner give up any hits in a game that ended? Right. Like he said, it doesn't count just like this. It doesn't count because they didn't go the full nine innings. And it's just a terribly red thing to happen. year. But of course, the diamond backs won the game when Madison Bumgarner had his notable achievement, they at least won the game. It wasn't, it wasn't because, you know, there was another inning that they just wound up not, not actually pitching in. So, uh, yeah, a different, very different situation.

I feel like Joe Mather has something to do with this. I don't, I can't explain it. I don't have any answer for it. I just feel like in the grand scheme of things, the transfer of Joe Mather to the Arizona Diamondbacks is what changed this, broke this curse, potentially. I don't know. It's just a way for me once again to credit the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff for being so incredible because they really, they're really, really good.

You ask in the stat, in the chat, what is Madison Bumgarner's stats against the Dodgers? That's great versus the Dodgers. Madison Bumgarner is 15 and 15 with a, 2.77 ERA in 37 career starts. He is 9 and 10 with a 2.72 ERA in 22 starts at Dodgers Stadium. In his last start at Dodger Stadium on May 17th last year, he allowed two runs on two hits through four innings with five strikeouts.

Through four innings, Jesse. That was the kind of shit that was going on last season. Two runs through two fucking hits through four innings. and with five strikeouts, and that's all he lasted was four innings. I have no explanation for it at all. He, yeah, I think the issue with Mad Bum, especially against the Dodgers and games that he's pitched with the Diamondbacks, is he just doesn't pitch deep into games. He really has struggled to get deep into games consistently.

And he's going to give up his runs. I think that's pretty well documented at this point. But, you know, if he can pitch into the sixth, seventh inning consistently, there's a lot of value there to be had, especially for a Debacks bullpen that's been not so great so far this year. So I think if Madison Bumgarner can just pitch into the six or seven, that in itself would feel like a win tonight.

You know what I would do if I was in L.A. right now? I would slip Madison Bumgardner one delicious scoop of athletic greens, Jesse. I don't know what it would do for him, but I'm pretty sure that it would make him feel great. Maybe he'd be in a better mood so he doesn't argue with the umpires as much? I don't know. We're definitely going to see a lot of bark in the night. But if I did, Madison Bumgarner would then be absorbing 75 high quality, vitamins, minerals, whole food source, superfoods, probiotics, adaptions, and it would help him start his day right.

I know I do it, and I do it because it makes me feel great. And I don't have to take antacids and things to make my esophagus and my, I have a lot of heartburn issues. and they've all gone away using athletic greens. I have no answer for it as well. I don't even take, I don't even have to take athletic greens all the time for me to feel better, but I 100% credit the fact that I was on it religiously for feeling better. It supports better sleep quality and recovery.

It has over 7,000 five-star reviews, and it costs you less than $3 a day to invest in your health, which is something, of course, that I don't invest in nearly as much. I don't invest in good cars because mine is, currently out broken at a at a mechanic right now and I definitely don't invest in my health enough, but I'm 41 and I need to do that. So to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com forward slash diamondbacks. Again, that is athletic greens forward slash diamondbacks and take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Jesse, we thank you guys again so much. I thank you for being here with me. I know we got a big game tonight, and I think the Arizona Diamondbacks can make a lot of people here happy by maybe having Madison, Bum, Gardner, come out, be strong in this game,

and win one for the state. You know, this would be a very uplifting night, I think, for sports fans here in the Valley. That would be, that would be huge. That would really be huge. I mean, Mad Bum, the 1780 RA, I mean, the result. have been really good for him so far. Like I said, there's some signs here that he's been pretty fortunate with the ball kind of bouncing his way so far.

But I mean, we can forget that pretty quickly. If Madison Bumgarner goes out and throws a gem against a lineup as good as what the Dodgers have, I mean, that would make a believer out of a lot of people. So this is a big one for him. Follow us tonight on Twitter. If you want to join along, we'll be tweeting about the game over at PHNX underscore Dback. You can follow me on Twitter at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman.

But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore DBAX on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I want to add a disclaimer real quick that if you see anything from the PHNX DBAX Twitter account that's ridiculous, that makes no sense, it is it is always from Derek. It's always just to just keep that. If you see anything reasonable, if you see anything, any good stats. I like to mix it up and throw in stat tweets to make people go, oh, is this Jesse? Oh, is it Derek? No, it's all me.

It was all me. And I was tricking you this whole time because I can do stat tweets too. But most of my tweets are in all caps and overreactions. So again, yeah, it's following along. It'll be a fun game to guess who's tweeting from the account at what time. But of course, you guys, if you're watching us right now on YouTube, make sure to follow the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss when any of our show. shows go live. You can always join us here in the chat. Hang out with us. We love to have you here. We love to chat with you, even when it's not Mailbag Monday. You can ask questions on this show whenever you want. Them's the rules. But of course, also, if you're listening to

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again so much for joining us, for giving us you time, spending your time with us on behalf of Jesse and myself. We always appreciate you doing that. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you beat LA.