PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Marte, partay of one

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing the D-backs game 1 loss to the Padres, Alek Thomas’ 12-game hitting streak, and a lack of love for Arizona’s All-Stars.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX. New customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS on either NHL team to win their game, and get ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN FREE BETS no matter what.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis infused products that flavor life’s journey. If you’re interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGeez! Brands has to offer, go to https://ogeezbrands.com.Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust MANSCAPED with this exclusive offer for you…. 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code DBACKS at https://manscaped.com.Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. Just visit https://athleticgreens.com/Diamondbacks 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.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX, and I'm joined by the traveling vice mayor of PHNX, the one and only, Jesse Friedman. I am almost there, Derek. I am in Southern California as we speak. So the days of you having to get replacements for me on the show are over. Hopefully you'll accept me on the show on a daily basis.

I don't know. Maybe you'll still want to get rid of me. one or two days a week, but we'll see how things turn out. It's like a professional sports team, Jesse. Nothing here is guaranteed. Everybody's playing for a spot. And if you leave the door open to opportunity, someone else might sneak in and, you know,

make the most of that opportunity. But I would never replace you. I've told you that. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. America's number one rated sportsbook app. Of course, get down on the sports. draft king sportsbook app with our code of p hnx and new customers can bet just five dollars on this uh stanley cup that kind of took a turn in game three i was pretty confident about betting on the

colorado avalanche and once again i look like a fool which is what i do so well but if you bet five dollars on either n hl team to win their game you will get one hundred dollars in free bets no matter what that's code phnx at draft king sports book an official sports betting partner of the stanley Cup final must be 21 or older Arizona only new customers only minimum $5 deposit required restrictions apply see show notes for detail and Jesse I'm telling you this much I knew better than the bet on the diamond backs on the draft king sports book app when going up against the San Diego Padres especially with you Darvish on the mound I thought about it I had the app up you know and then I once again went on the puck line for the Colorado avalanche and I can't stop

betting on the Colorado avalanche because much like betting against the coyotes to win. Betting on the avalanche has been pretty good money this season on the drafting sportsbook app. But again, like I said, not betting on the Diamondbacks. They lose game one to the Padres, four to one. One of the interesting things that came out before the game started was David Peralta was scratched prior to the game with lower back tightness.

But before we knew that it was lower back tightness, Jesse, the speculation were, there were murmurs on the internet about why. David Peralta could be scratched. One of the biggest reasons being that David Peralta is a prime trade candidate for this team at this point. And everybody, I feel like, is waiting for that to start going down. I don't think this team is a fire sale team. But do we, I mean, should we be on like David Peralta watch whenever he's scratched from the lineup like this? We got to love this part of the year, right, where the moment anyone's scratched from the lineup,

It's instant speculation and everyone. What? What? Exactly. Yeah, I don't think that the diamond backs are likely to make a move this early in the process. We're obviously still a ways out here from the trade deadline. But it's not surprising that people had that thought. David Peralta is someone that I think is widely expected by a lot of people to get moved at the deadline. He's a left-handed hitter.

He's a veteran presence. He's performed well this season. but is not necessarily a guy the Diamondbacks need in the lineup every single day, just given how much depth they have in the outfield at this point. So, yeah, the speculation on that front is understandable. But, yeah, it's lower back tightness. It looks like we're recording this right before the Tuesday night game. So it looks like he's not in the lineup for that one.

So don't have any further updates on that as of right now. But hopefully David's okay, and he's back on the field soon. Did Darvish dominating the D-backs take you back to week one all over again, Jesse, where we saw this team come out and just kind of get slaughtered by the starting pitching of the Padres? I mean, you, Darvish has had just a lot of success against the Diamondbacks in his major league career. Didn't he isn't his career high in strikeouts against us, I believe? Yeah, he has something like, I think I looked it up right before his start against the Diamondbacks earlier in the season. He had something like 15 strikeouts per nine or just like an ungodly number of strikeouts per nine against the diamond backs in his career.

You only had five strikeouts in the game yesterday. So I guess you take the small victories where you can. But yeah, the diamond backs in this one tonight there get Sean Mania, who was a handful the first time the diamond back saw him this season. He didn't allow a base hit through seven innings and was removed pretty much. Yeah, a lot of people probably remember that. he was pretty much just removed because of pitch count because that was his first start of the season. And, you know, it was early in the year. And because of the lockout and everything, the short and spring training guys pitch counts were a little bit lower.

Otherwise, it's very possible that John Minai could have had a shot at throwing a no hitter in that one. But he's up against that gallon. So it should be a fun matchup in this one tonight. Alec Thomas extends his hitting streak to 12 games in game one of this series. And once again, just looks like an absolute. stud for this team currently slashing 276, 338 440 with a 778 OPS. If you want to count Buddy Murphy's OPS, he's the, or Buddy Kennedy's, he's the second best OPS on the team, but I don't think, I don't think Kennedy has enough at-bats under

his belt to be considered that, considering how long Alec Thomas has been patrolling center field for Arizona and how good of a job he's done it, not just offensively, but defensively. He's honestly one of their best hitters right now. They finally moved him up to the two-hole, very briefly for one game, but then he was moved back down in the lineup today, I think, to, I want to say six. He's sitting, yeah, he's sitting seventh against Sean Minaya. My guess is, my guess is that's just a lefty-ready thing. So maybe we start to see him back second in games where the D-Baxter face. a righty and then against a lefty like Mania. He's a lot slower in the lineup.

Yeah. Loop is batting leadoff, right? Yeah, Jordan Looplo, the Diamond Packs love their, you know, their right-handed hitters who kind of slug lefties. We've seen them use Carson Kelly in that spot leading off against lefties in the past, which is not, I mean, that's not shocking. Carson Kelly has a history of destroying left-handed pitching, even if he's struggled recently.

But, yeah, Alec Thomas has been the real deal, Derek. I don't know what more of the Diamondbacks really could have asked. We've seen a lot of rookies lately who have come up and have struggled. That's sort of been the trend. If you look at Bobby Witt Jr., you look at Julio Rodriguez, you look at some of the other big name prospects around the game. Most of them have really struggled out of the gate. They've had their growing pains.

And I think Alec Thomas, there's a case to be made that he's had about as seamless of a transition into the big leagues as anyone. He's in the running for the rookie of the year, Derek. I mean, there is no, there's no disputing that at this point. He's not the clear favorite. There's a few names in there that I think are really close right now. But he's already done enough in 39 games to show that he belongs in that conversation, and he's probably going to stay there for the rest of the season.

It seems like a tough season for that. And I mean, again, these are meaningless awards, right? These aren't things that matter in the grand scheme of things because it's all about, you know, his development and the fact that he's good. The fact that he would be considered for the rookie of the year, you know, conversation, I think is, is incredible.

It's what we wanted to see. But this year has a lot of really good rookies. You know, across the league, there are a lot of rookies making a big splash. Like you said, there are some of the big names that aren't really performing at the same level that Alec Thomas is,

but there's a lot of guys that are coming up and immediately making an impact. we just saw O'Neill Cruz, the pirate 6'7 prospect that people in Pittsburgh have been dying to see get called up, come up, and immediately make an impact himself. I think he had a double. More importantly, he threw the ball like 100 miles an hour pretty much to first base. It was incredible. The guy has a cannon on him. And, you know, this is going to be a tough season for someone like Alec Thomas to be considered Roy. But I don't care.

We're starting the Roy campaign. We are on the Alec Thomas rookie of the year bandwagon right now. I mean, we were bandwagon. We are the conductors of the train, but everybody is welcome on the Alec Thomas rookie of the year bandwagon because he deserves it, I think. And it'll be interesting to see where the numbers fall later in the season, obviously.

I think, you know, you have this thing with rookies getting called up. Sometimes they are good initially, and then they go through that slump. you know, that everybody kind of experiences as a big league ball player, we're just not really seeing that out of Alec Thomas. It's not to say that he played perfect baseball, but I mean, currently on a 12-game hitting streak and with the highest OPS of any player

that has 50 plus at bat. So, you know, of course, we're not seeing him slow down at any point, you know. I think Lovallo said the thing that he loves the most about him is like his heart, you know, and his ability that he's just there ready to play baseball every single day, just, you know, like no intimidation, no, you know, no, no, I guess, glean in his eye about being at the major league level.

Part of that could be his experience of being around, you know, major league baseball. Of course, sometimes that does make it easier for you to be there. I remember Buddy Kennedy talking about the, you know, being up at the major. major league level not hitting him yet and we were talking to him in the clubhouse and he was like i don't know when it's really going to hit me because it's all happened so fast he was like yeah maybe maybe it'll be during batting practice or maybe it'll be like once i'm out there and i see like the stands kind of filling up and stuff you know but yeah i mean for some of these guys i don't know if it if it hits you if you've been prepared the way that so many minor leaguers are prepared

with alec thomas though you talk about a guy that's grown up in in a Major League clubhouse. He's been there his entire life. He has been coached and mentored by some of the biggest names in White Sucks history. And he's an incredibly like prepared talent, right? Like he is, he is ready to be here. There is no kind of, you know, being kind of scared by being at the bigs and making it to the show. He's just, he, he's been dying to be here and he, he's been ready, you know, probably mentally for longer than he has been ready physically, right? Yeah. But it's just, it's so much fun to see.

It's so great to see guys like him and Buddy Kennedy getting the, you know, not only experience that they're getting this season, but to have the success that they're having. You know, it just, it makes it that much easier to acclimate to the major league level. Yeah. I mean, I think my next piece on go phtonx.com is probably going to be laying out the case for Alec Thomas is rookie of the year and, you know, doing a deep dive and comparing him with some of the other names. I'll give kind of a little sneak peek into that right now. Most of the, the advantage

that Alec Thomas has is that most of the notable rookie rookie of the year candidates are actually in the American League. So Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Jeremy Pena, is probably the clear front runner in the American League right now. Those three are all American League guys. So they're off limits. for the National League Rookie of the Year award. And the National League, I think it's Brendan Donovan of the St. Louis Cardinals. He's set a really good year. He's hitting 313 with a 420 on base percentage. That's certainly enough right there to get you in the conversation.

That's in 48 games. Michael Harris, the second of the Atlanta Braves, has only played 22 games. But all he's done is at 346 with a 580 slugging percentage. So he's certainly put up some big numbers. not the same guy that we're familiar with, but Louise Gonzalez of the San Francisco is a guy. I know that guy. That guy knows me on a first name basis. It's crazy.

You're still can't believe it. You sitting 308 for the Giants this year is also had a really good season. And then there's Alec Thomas. And I think all of those guys have a really good shot, a really good shot. I should probably also mention Christopher Morel of the Chicago Cubs. We've gotten a little bit of a glimpse of him. Jack Swinsky of the Pirates has also had a pretty good season.

That's Jack Swinsky, that guy. The Pirates have a fun, talented team, too. I think the Diamondbacks and the Pirates are both there for these rookies coming up and having an immediate impact and just being exciting because they seem to be filled with those guys as well over there in Pittsburgh. Yeah. And I haven't even mentioned Sayas Suzuki yet, who of course was like the frontrunner, like the clear frontrunner for NL rookie of the year going into the season.

He's had a good season, but he's probably behind. Alec Thomas and some of the other names I've mentioned. So I would be somewhat bullish on this, to be honest, Derek, and I'll explain exactly why in the article, but I really think Alec Thomas has a shot here. He hasn't played as many games as a lot of those other guys have. And yet he's still put up, he's still been a similarly valuable player over the course of fewer games than those guys have. His batting numbers look sustainable.

There's nothing that looks fishy about it. Some of those big numbers I read off for the other guys. They don't look sustainable at all. If you look at some of the batted ball numbers, it looks like some of those guys have gotten pretty lucky with some balls flying, dropping in, and there's some questions about whether those guys can sustain it. So it's a wide pool.

There's a lot of different candidates, but I think Alec Thomas has as good a chance as anyone out of that group. Let me blow your wig back a little bit with Alec Thomas' numbers here, Jesse, because he currently, Alec Thomas, our young king, currently has the longest active hitting streak in Major League Baseball. Wow. 12 games, huh? 12 games, followed by Trey Turner with 11, Luis Roberts from the Chicago White Sox with 10,

and Reese McGuire also with 10. Actually, you know what? I take that back. I think Alec Thomas is tied with Trey Turner at 12. He is also tied for third with all annual rookies for home runs. he has tied or actually he has third place alone in hits and third place alone in run scored fourth and doubles seventh in uh extra base hits and ninth in rbii so some pretty good numbers for alec thomas again we will continue to teach you on this show that that that things like rbi are more of a product right jesse of circumstance they are rather than your actual skill level. So we're not going to care about RBI as much

as we're going to care about some of those other numbers. But, Jesse, I am excited to read your piece on go PhNX.com when it drops. Of course, if you're not a member, please sign up to become a member. If you haven't done so already, if you want to get an annual membership, you will get yourself a free t-shirt over at the p.nx locker.com. That's whatever t-shirt you want.

And shout out to our contest winner, by the way. I have not forgot about you, Mr. Hanley, and we will be getting you out your code for your free t-shirt over at the PHNX Locker.com. But of course, if you haven't signed up to become a member, grab that annual membership. If you're not interested in the annual membership, you can get a month-to-month membership,

and you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So either way, you're getting a hookup, and then you also get members-only discounts over at the PHNXLocker.com, regardless of your membership status. You'll also get access to our members-only discord. that has been one of the most fun. I want to say funnest, Jesse, but I know you're not going to let me say funnest,

and I'm not. I'm going to say that in front of a teacher, in front of a professor, but I will say it was the most fun place for you to spend your nights watching Arizona Diamondbacks games. It's a party in there, and you can be part of it by becoming a member

over at go phtnx.com, become part of our family. We want you to become part of the family. Also, we want you to join us, because we are going to be doing some live shows next week. Next Wednesday, Jesse Friedman and myself will be out at Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, and we will be coming to you live from Four Peaks, our friends at Four Peaks with their wonderful array of beers.

Jesse, I cannot wait to be there. Wow, this is news to me. See, Derek doesn't tell me these things in advance. I don't tell me, I just find out on the show. I'm taking them to the Maya Day Club pool party with O.G.'s. I'm taking them out to Four Peaks Brewery. We're going all over the place, folks. But of course, all the PA Gen X shows will be out at Four Peaks Brewery next week on Wednesday.

So make sure to join us all live that day. Come on down to Four Peaks Brewery. Enjoy the wonderful, delicious variety of beers they have. Hopnot, IPA, wow, Joy Bus, all my favorites, hazy IPA. And of course, I've talked about it a lot. I don't like peach flavored stuff, but I do love the peach golden ale. So stop by, join us. If you aren't able to join us at the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe,

Make sure to jump online and watch us. We'll all be there all week long. And regardless of anybody can come down to the Four Peaks Brewery because they serve food and you can bring the family, but you must be 21 or older to enjoy Four Peaks and enjoy responsibly. And make sure to try their delicious food because not only do they make some fantastic beer, but their pizzas are out of this world, not to mention their other variety of amazing food that you can get. If you come down and join us live, be there with us. We'll be there all day.

I said, Jesse's going to be there. Jesse lives here now. So he doesn't understand the culture of me dragging him to all of these places that we're going to go from now on. I sometimes opt out because I'm lonely. I'm the guy. I'm the, I'm the D-backs guy, standing there in the corner, getting picked on by Chirston-Susel, having her knock my beer out of my hand, you know? By the way, that happened, folks. I didn't just drop my beer. She knocked a beer out of the way. She checked me up against the wall. I think she had a hockey stick in her hand. I'm not sure, but she talked like shit to me. She was like, yeah, punk.

And then like she made me drop my beer. It was crazy. She's a bully. And you can come be bullied by Gerston live at the Four Peaks Brewery because she'll be there as well. She's disrespectful, Jesse. She's disrespectful is basically what I'm trying to get at. And what's also disrespectful is the love for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the All-Star voting. Because holy cow, if you aren't.

Cotel Marte, you aren't, you aren't even in the top 10 for voting. And I was kind of, I was a little flabbergasted by this, Jesse. I mean, I guess it makes sense, right? Yeah. Our fan base is small. We aren't a very historic team or an extremely popular team. But currently, Cotel Marte is the D-BAC's only player currently in the top 10 for their position, all-star votes.

He is currently 10th in the National League for second base. No love at all for Christian Walker or Dalton Varsho. And I guess I have to ask, do you think anyone besides Jake over at John Boy is paying attention to this team, Jesse? Yeah, I mean, this isn't exactly new for the Valley, right? I mean, the Diamondbacks have been undersold in All-Star voting pretty much. Oh my God. Remember how hard we had to try to get Paul Goldschmidt in? I had a T-shirt.

from the deback nation of trying to urge people to vote our guy Paul Goldschmidt. Imagine needing to vote in America's first baseman. Like, come on, it's ridiculous. It's a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer now. Now that he's with St. Louis, he's like one of the top vote getters in all of baseball.

Yeah. I think, I mean, if we're talking top 10, then yes, the Diamondbacks should have other guys in there. realistically does Dalton Varshow deserve to be an all-star or even does Christian Walker deserve to be an all-star or does even Cotel Marte really deserve to be an all-star? I think it's a pretty hard sell.

Looking at the numbers, I really don't see a great case for any of those guys. Christian Walker, you at least feel like, you know, he's hitting 199, which it's almost impossible to be a major league all-star with a batting average that low, even in an era where, you know, batting average is not everything, right? Everyone's looking at other numbers now more than they ever have. But a batting average of $199 is pretty tough to get past.

I think Christian Walker's still been the victim of some bad luck, but unfortunately I think it's going to be really tough for him. Yeah, things don't look great, Derek, to be frank, on the All-Star front. I don't think any of those guys really deserve to be an All-Star. and you know that, you know, we're going to be, we're going to be honest here. And, you know, we're going to stay away from playing the total fan card on this front. And, yeah, I don't think the docks have any position player all-stars this season. Maybe they could if Kattel were a little bit more himself, if he hadn't gotten off to such a poor start to the season,

maybe if Christian Walker doesn't have such bad luck at the plate, getting balls to drop in, is Babbip is still like 177, which is ridiculously low. Um, but yeah, I don't think any of them deserve to be in. So maybe you still feel a little bit, um, disappointed if you're a D-backs fan that there are at least guys in the top 10. I think all of those guys probably should be in the top 10 at their position at the very least. Um, but I don't think any of them are getting in any way.

So maybe, maybe that's not really worth getting to worked up over. That's valid. That's valid because really at the end of the day, uh, Christian Walker is probably the only guy I would feel like deserves to be in the top 10 for his position, considering where he's at, not only with his home runs, but his defensive runs saved, right? We've talked about how defensively. It's just not a metric that people typically care about. People look at batting average above most other metrics, even though it doesn't really do a

great job of, you know, showing you how good of a hitter someone can be, right? Yeah. The article on MLB.com did an article about who, should be all-stars. And Zach Gowan was one of their players in the NL West that they name in their article about players who should be all-stars. So I guess my question to you is every team has a representative. Does Zach Gallen end up being our sole representative this season?

I think it's pretty likely, if I'm being honest. I think there's a pretty good chance that that's the case. Yeah, anyone else getting in, if anyone there, it might be Joe Mantiply, which is something that I don't think we ever expected to say a few months ago, but he has had an incredible season. And he leads the National League with a 0.36 ERA and his second in the major trailing, only somebody who has a 0.0.0 ERA. So he's the only one with a real ERA. I don't trust whatever the hell J.P. Friar Sison is doing for the Tampa Bay. Fire season. Is this name Fire season?

is it J-P-F-FIRE? I know it's not spelled that way, but it seems like it's pronounced that. Fire, I don't, anyway, I don't think that's a,

I think what you're talking about. That's not a real person. No, there is, it's, it's F-E-Y-E-R-I-S-E-N. It sounds, I'm just going to say

that is unfortunate last name is Fire Season. You could tell me that I'm wrong, but I'm not sure that's wrong, but I couldn't really tell you. It's fine. It doesn't matter. We're moving.

on. Mantiply, meanwhile, owns a franchise record, 27 consecutive appearances without a walk for the longest streak in baseball since somebody else had one in 2020. Mantiply is also tied for the second longest active scoreless streak in the majors with 16 games without giving up a run. So come on, give it up for Joe Mantiply. Doing it without any kind of fanfare or any kind of, you know, I guess, no, right like he just goes out there and does his job and people are even fans of this team i think don't really uh give him his flowers as often as he should get them for what he's been doing for the bullpen this season yeah his numbers are crazy um i mean there's really no more no other

way to put it i mean he's had he has a zero point three six er a um ryan helsley the um st louis cardinals reliever also has a 0.36 ERA. He and Manciply had basically the exact same season. Helsley is given up one run over 25 innings and Joe Manciply is given up one run over 25 in a third innings. So maybe that extra out is what puts him over the top and gets him into the All-Star game. But yeah, if anyone is going to make it other than Gallen, it's probably Manciply. That still might be a bit of a stretch just given the history of middle relievers.

getting into the All-Star game. It's not something that we see all that often. Usually if someone in the middle innings does get in, it's because they're a multi-inning guy. So, you know, like Andrew Miller back in the day with Cleveland was one of those guys where he was giving you so much value, even though he wasn't closing games. Joe Manz-Ply has been mostly an end guy.

If Caleb Smith was putting up Joe Manthupplies numbers, for instance, like that might be somebody that might sneak in. But when you watch the All-Star game realistically, they just use one-star. after the next in the game. And that's the way that it goes down. By the way, just to clarify for some sports networks out there that might not really understand how this thing works, we don't get to vote in pitchers, you guys. Yeah, yeah, there have been people trying to start a movement.

Trying to vote Zach Gallen in and can't figure it out. It's not you. It's the people that told you to do it. So according to MLB on their website, pitchers are not selected by vote. They will be selected by MLB and by, is it the team? Who else selects it?

Yeah, I think it's the league, probably the managers, the players have some role in that as well. And it's the same with the backup players are not necessarily done in order of, All of the pitchers and position player reserves are chosen through a combination of player ballot selection and choices made by the commissioner's office. So we have no say in the pitchers. Yeah, which is good, honestly, from the Diamondback standpoint, not having the popular vote.

We all have seen how the popular vote tends to work when it comes to the Diamondbacks. And we're seeing it right now with none of those, none of those players that we mentioned even being in the top 10, they should be. Yeah, I mean, Zach Gallen, if it's a popular vote, might not get in just because there's not enough name credibility there for a smaller market team like the Diamondbacks. But I think you can feel very confident that Zach Gallen will get in by virtue of the process that the league uses. That's a great point.

But, yeah, there's probably something sad in this for fans, just that, you know, they don't get to, like, rally around and vote for someone that they feel really. really deserves to be in the All-Star game. And that's not to say that you shouldn't rally around Christian Walker and Dalton Varsho and Gatel Marte. Those guys certainly deserve, you know, their votes. It's just, it's just going to be a bit of a harder case to make than, you know, like Paul Goldschmidt back in the day where it was really just nonsense that he wasn't,

you know, far and away the leading vote getter at first base. Jesse, here's the thing. there are times where you just can't leave the vote in the hands of the people. Yes. I'm not, I'm not for taking the votes away from people, right? But what I'm saying is one time the New York Mets marketing department decided to allow the fans to choose

which eighth inning song they would play. And of course, of all songs they picked, they decided to go with Rick Astley's never going to give you up, thus Rick rolling the entire stadium. Pitbull was voted to go

perform at a Walmart, and the Walmart that the fan selected was won in Alaska. Taylor Swift put up an opportunity for a contest for her to perform at a U.S. school, and people decided to start putting in votes for her to perform at a school for the deaf.

uh, Justin Bieber almost got sent to North Korea. Jesse, there are times where the internet has proven that it can't be trusted. Um, let's not forget about the time that they wanted to name a boat, uh, Booty McBoat face or a whale,

Mr. Splashy pants. So that's some incredible research from you, Derek. I'm impressed. Here's the thing, Jesse. I remember so many of these moments because I live through them, and I may or may not have been involved in the vote to help these names get to where they got. But again, this is the reason why you can't trust people to vote for things, honestly,

because sometimes, especially when we get bored, we'll just decide to prank you. People like you can't be trusted is basically what you're acknowledging here. That's what I'm going to say. I'm going to say that one time Mountain Dew, decided to let us vote for the flavor of their new their new mountain dew

and I think the number one choice was Soylent Green but again there were some way worse picks than that I mean the NHL game the fans

voted for in 2007 of Vancouver Canucks Defender that really had no business being in there, but just they did it. They hijacked the vote and they got it in. So fans can do whatever they want when you let them do it. And then honestly, you got to, if you let fans decide on things like that, then you got to stick to it.

That's the part that sucks. So there you go. Yeah, it's dangerous. The best you can do is go out, get yourself some OGs gummies and try to have the most fun that you can when they allow you to do the voting. By the way, I am 100% completely taking Jesse to a pool party once he gets here. It's tradition, Jesse, for here in Phoenix, Arizona. Like I said today on Twitter, we are to the point here in Phoenix where somehow when you see

103 degrees on the forecast for consecutive days, you're like, oh, it's going to be nice out. I don't understand what's wrong with us. I don't, but of course, that is your future. That is your new life. and that is what's waiting for you here in the beautiful. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, people will point out quickly how nice the rest of the day is at times. And as much as I want to agree with that, that's horseshit.

I try to go for a run as early as possible. And if I go out past 10 o'clock, Jesse, I fucking die outside of how it is. It's so incredible. Well, it's not, it's not, yeah, it's not 10. It's not 9 a.m. either. It's like 6 a.m. If you go out at 6 a.m., it's probably a bearable. It's different.

I used to have a job where I went up and I went to stuff. And now, no, I just do this. This is what I do. I watch baseball and I talk with you and I live the best life ever. And I do that also with my friends at OGs. And I'm going to do that with you at the Maya Day Club in Scottsdale this weekend on June 25th. I don't know if you're going to be done packing yet. I'm sure you're going to have all sorts of like responsibilities to take care of.

But I'm going to show up in a matching button up shirt and like swim trunks. and I'm going to steal you from whatever responsibilities you're trying to take care of. And we're going to go to the My Day Club with the rest of the PHMX crew. We're going to have fun over there. And we're going to help OGs launch their first ever limited edition seasonal gummy, Pena Colada. And of course, I've been talking about it for a long time. My favorite flavor.

I don't even understand how they're so good. It's a perfect pineapple and creamy coconut blend. It's just in time here for summer and pool parties, like the one we are going to be having over at the month. my day club. So check out OGs online at OGsbrands.com and on Instagram at OGs brands. That's OGEEZ brands.com. You can find their products at your local dispensary, must be 21 years or older to purchase and enjoy responsibly. Jesse, robot umpires. They're closer than ever. It's funny because we've been talking about this for a while. We know how much MLB's been

testing this in the minor leagues. But of course, now it's moving up to the AAA level. So it's getting some notoriety again. People are noticing, again, that the robot umpires are back. One thing I have found to be incredibly disappointing, of course, you know that I'm disappointed. There's not an actual robot behind home plate. And I'm never going to be cool with that. Like, I really want it to be not only a robot,

but a cartoonishly over the top umpire robot. You want a C3PO behind home. played or something. Yeah, but like C3PO wearing a mask, right? I want him to wear, even though he doesn't need it because he's not a human and it doesn't have to worry about like parts of his face being broken. I still want him wearing the umpire mask on like the blue shirt and the black hat on backwards. The black hat can totally be part of his like already robot aesthetic. Does he still have, does he still have baseballs like in his pockets? Oh, absolutely. Like to give to the, he shoots him out of a cannon. He sticks it in the little thing and do to do back to the

pitching bound is what I'm picturing. There you go. But no, that's none of that. I'm not getting any of that. What I'm getting is still a home plate umpire who's a humanoid, bipedal humanoid, by the way, not even a fucking mutant, but he has an earpiece where the strikes and balls are being determined by a series of cameras and based on the player's height and their dimensions

and obviously the way that they stand in the strike zone, but it sounds like their height is the majority of their determination, right? Something similar to what we've already seen for who knows how many years on television with the little strike box. But again, that strike box folks that we see on TV tends to get us a bit riled up more than, you know, actuality, right? Because it tends to be correct as far as what the strike zone is that the umpire's calling and, you know, things like that. I've always been okay with like low and high calls, Jesse, but like the

plate is always the same fucking size left or right. So like yeah, the idea that the strike zone expands width wise has always been nonsense to me like to me that's the easiest part of the umpire's job is to call that, right? But then we don't see like the movement and the way that they could still catch a corner of the plate, but by the time they land in the pitchers met on TV, we're seeing it way over here outside of the strike zone. So it looks like a pretty terrible call. The only thing is, is we have those umpire scorecards now on Twitter that, we can go reference and pretty much we're determining that the umpires were at times as bad as we thought they were going to be but here's the thing with the strike zone is if they're saying that it's not an

actual robot which pisses me off we've we've determined that uh and that's going to disappoint a lot of people by the way i'm not the only person that's going to be disappointed that it's not an actual robot but we're taking the robot out there's a guy back there he's getting radioed into his headset that basically if it's a strike or a ball based on cameras and other sensors and things, determining what the strike zone is, is where the ball part, ball lie. Why wouldn't home plate umpires be all about this, Jesse? Why wouldn't they be 100% on board with this? And I say that because doesn't this completely take the blame and the whole human element

of arguing with the umpire about their calls being wrong or their strikes out of the game? out of the game, which really is one of the human error factors in the game of baseball. Well, okay, so let me ask you this first. Do you get the sense that umpires are against it? Is that the general consensus that we seem to be getting so far? The consensus is that umpires feel like you're taking away part of the game that is part of the game, which is the human element of an umpire being behind the plate and determining what these calls are. right like almost like if you had uh i know but i mean the point of everything we've done to improve

sports as far as adding replays and doing these things that that try to get the the calls right and the measurements right and everything right football you know like one of the things i've always heard people talk about is why the fuck don't we have a sensor in the football that's microscopic that shows us exactly where the football is i mean we we we we could have sensors on the yardage markers and we could have a sensor in the football. It wouldn't change the weight of the football and it would make it so that you take that human element of the, you know, line judge or the referee determining where the ball was out of the game completely

because you can look at a computer that tells you where it stopped at, right? Right, right. There's things like that that like if we're using technology to improve the game, I don't see why anybody would be in the way of it. we just still have these people that bring up arguments that I don't feel are valid, you know. Like again, the thing with the human element, I don't feel like that's valid. I don't really feel like a human element to an umpire calling a strike zone is a valid thing. Like, it's different if you're talking about an umpire calling like someone's safe at the plate

or if they made the tag or things like that. Like all of that stuff that umpires do otherwise make sense to me, you know, But we've still seen them make mistakes. Even this year, the Diamondbacks literally saw an umpire call a ball that was a foul fair or a fair ball foul and be like, oh, I pointed the wrong way. Right, right. A computer is never going to point the wrong way. It's going to point the right way 100% of the time, you know.

Sure. Yeah, I mean, that's the tricky part, right? This is different from what other sports have done and what even baseball has done with instant replay, right? there is an element of instant replay that sort of takes away the human element, but people are okay with it because it helps them get the call right at the end, right, which is ultimately the goal. And I think with balls and strikes,

it's even more so something you can do robotically because it is very objective. Like so much of baseball and other sports have some subjectivity to it, especially anyone who's a fan of the NBA is as aware of this as anyone, right? Nobody knows what a foul is. that people are flopping left and right in the NBA. But it's, but it's subjective. There's really no realistic way to program a robot to determine what's a foul and what's not.

I mean, maybe all regret saying that. Maybe in 10 years, that's going to be the next robot that they've invented. 1,000%. People would probably be on a robot and the robot's going to mock you for you saying that. But yeah, right, right. Yes, that's, that's certainly going to happen now.

But, but, but yeah, in, in baseball, Balls and strikes are a very clear and cut thing. And it's not easy. That's not to say it's easy. And that's why umpires who are very well trained and are better than anyone else in the world at this still make mistakes. It's just not possible being a human being to be accurate 100% of the time. That's what I'm saying. And that's why this is an improvement on an existing thing that we do because we didn't have sophisticated technology that could allow us to see a ball from 12 different angles.

at home plate to see exactly how it crossed home plate and if it wasn't a strike or a ball, right? An umpire can only look down as tall as he is, but then he also has to squat down and see the strike zone, right? So that again is why the umpire can't get a clear view down straight like overhead over home plate, looking down at it and seeing if a ball caught a corner of it. But you know what fucking can a camera hanging above home plate up in the afters that zoomed in on home plate and providing either somebody or some system with the ability. Like I talked about the, you know, adding a weightless, you know, sensor to a football.

You can't really do that with a baseball. Baseball, I feel like, is a little bit more difficult. But that's not to say that they can't do it with a baseball either, right? Like, it's just based on how it's made. If a sensor was buried in the core of the baseball, there's a good chance they could, you know, Rawlings could make a way. Yeah. be included in in the core without it changing the weight or anything of the ball i mean we literally

have you know my micchips in our phones that are a terabyte of of data of storage space i'm sure you have a terabyte do you have a terabyte yeah oh my gosh i don't like to erase pictures just so i just went with the big boy but i'm saying my stupid phone that takes these pictures and lets me tweet out dumb things I have to apologize to Madison Bumgardner in real life to his face, Jesse. Al, because of my stupid phone and it's access to the internet. So, again, I get myself in trouble with it, but I also utilize it for all sorts of wonderful things. And, you know, again, a baseball could easily have something like that in it in the future. I'm not even, I'm not even that worried about it.

I'm just suggesting that the idea that this call could come from a system that has 12 different angles looking at home plate seems like a better option than a single solitary human in his mid-50s to 60, you know, who didn't get a great night's sleep. So I totally understand what you're saying, but I do see it from the umpires perspective. This is going to be ironic to say, but umpires aren't robots, right? They're real, they're real people. And umpires have a, not my future baseball. They are currently They are currently

They are currently real people And so if you think about from an umpire's perspective Like, you know, they all have a story And they all have a reason behind why they want it to become a major league umpire, right? Which is probably crazy for most people to think of. Most people probably don't aspire to be to be an umpire like that. But I also know many people who have and have enjoyed it. If you bring in a robot that calls balls and strikes,

you've gotten dangerously close to making it so that an umpire is pretty much just a vessel through which the robots speak like they don't actually have anything like they're not doing anything they're basically they're basically just saying what the robot tells them and they don't really they don't actually have an impact on the game and it's not to say that umpires aspire to you know make the game all about themselves except i like i like Most of them don't. Maybe some of them do. But yeah.

And so I think the issue is unlike other sports, like other sports have enough subjectivity that you always need a human element. Whereas if you bring in a ball and strike caller, man, I mean, they're not doing much. I mean, between instant replay being there to check the calls that they make on the field and balls and strikes being called, they don't have much of a purpose there anymore. And so I think for them, even though I'm sure they recognize that it is more accurate and they're never going to be perfect, I can understand them being kind of sad about that being the direction that baseball goes. So what you're saying is, is if they kick rocks, then we're one step closer to see three PO wearing an umpire mask and being behind on plate. I'm not bad about that at all, Jesse.

I will say this. Some people, I think, feel like, you know, umpires maybe didn't aspire to be an umpire. they just fell to it. But I know two or three umpires and it's kind of wild because they have told me and one who isn't with us anymore, God rest his soul also told me like it was kind of their dream to always be an umpire. Yeah. I don't know.

I think I think jobs are changing now, right? Like we're having this weird shortage or unfortunate shortage of all sorts of jobs across the United States, right? But it's because people just don't see them in the same light that they're. They used to see them, right? Like, for instance, when I was a kid, being a pilot was cool as shit, right? Being a pilot, you were the fucking captain. You were wearing, like, aviator sunglasses and wearing that fucking suit with the short sleeves and that jacket.

You were cool as hell, right? Now, I mean, I don't know. We live in a world where aviation has changed. People are kind of at their worst at times now when they're on a plane. And it's not as desirable to be an airline pilot. So we're experiencing a shortage of like young pilots that are training to become pilots, which is going to be a huge problem for us very soon, right? So it's like kind of like umpires. Like maybe there was a time where some of these guys that became umpires looked at umpires in a different light.

And maybe kind of saw them as being a bit like cool and heroic and like, you know, the the, the, the leader of the baseball game because they were in charge. And just of years of us just shitting on umpires as a position and being like, like fuck that guy constantly has made nobody want to be an umpire right and i mean i don't know i don't know if there's an umpire shortage coming up or would anyone yeah would anyone want to be an umpire like if if all you're doing is like like if you're just calling outs on the field but there's instant replay and then other than that you're just kind of relaying balls and i mean i guess what is interesting is that it's doubtful that um ball strike robots would be available at every level.

Bullshit, Jesse. Bullshit. I mean, like, okay, but... Droids, you're saying droids aren't affordable and easily purchased and made. You can get one for $99 at Disneyland. You can make it and design it the exact way you want to. All you need is a little robot with remote control back there and then put sensors on. It is all I'm saying.

No, you're right. They're not going to pay for those for like a collegiate game or at least most collegiate games or even rookie league stuff. For this series of games that were added to AAA, like the Las Vegas Aviators is one of the ballparks that has the robot umpires, right? But the Las Vegas Aviator Stadium is beautiful. I have been there. As far as minor league stadiums go, it's one of the nicest ones I've ever been to. So, I mean, again, like you said, it's probably not going to be for every team and all the play. But see, that's the thing is how much do we pay these umpires, though?

can we buy robots and installment payments? I'm pretty sure we can. And if we can't buy them from the companies that make the robots on installment payments, then I'm pretty sure we can just get a loan and pay the bank back. It's, business runs, Jesse. I promise you, we'll get everybody a robot umpire before. I was going to say this, though, like, I've had people that have asked me, like, and I don't know about you. I know, well, actually, I do know about you. You have wanted to do this job since you were 12 years old. I have video proof of it that I can play right now. but I'm not going to. But much like yourself, I also have wanted to do like this job. Yeah. When I watched Sandlot for the first time, I thought it was cool as hell that Smalls was like the announcer. I never once,

never once imagined myself being Benny the Jet Rodriguez on the field looking up at the press box. But you bet your ass that I imagined myself being the guy wearing a baseball hat looking down or an ugly fishing hat, I should say, looking down from the press box at his friend who was scoring the game winning home run for Los Angeles Dodgers or game game winning run, I should say, not home run. But yeah, I mean, I was a huge sports center fan when I was a kid. And I don't even know if that's the same, right? Like, Sports Center when I was a kid was this weird combination of not only sports media, but comedy

where they was like, like every single episode was just a, 30 minute, you know, stand-up special for the two hosts that were doing it while they also called baseball and other sports highlights, right? So, yeah, I mean, again, things change. And who knows if people still view, you know, some of these jobs in the same way, right? Like, I know, over the last 10 years, the word media at times has become a, like almost a bad word thrown around. So I don't know if people have the same, you know, inclination to want to do jobs like this

as they used to, right? But what I do know is they want to do this more than they want to be a fucking umpire. So that's why we need robots, Jesse. And Manfred says, by the way, adopting robots in MLB for 2023 is very unlikely. But it's

there's a little crack in the door. So who knows? Yeah. But Jesse, you're going to be here soon. How long until we get you in Phoenix full time. Are you going to be here by this weekend so we can go to this pool party? I will be there just in time for the pool party, Derek. I wouldn't miss it.

Let's go. No, my first day at the ballpark where you'll see me actually tweeting again and everything will be Friday. So yeah, for those of you who are wondering why I've gone silent on Twitter, I'm sort of enjoying my travels right now to Arizona. but once I'm there, I'm there. And then full, full speed ahead starting Friday. I understand. There's a lot of stress with travel.

And I can only imagine the stress that you're under with the kind of scope of your travel. It's pretty big, right? So it's like taking that time away from social media and stuff kind of makes it a little bit easier to focus, at least on the task at hand and not feel like you're, you got so many, you know, pots on the burners and things like that. But we appreciate everything you've done. I've talked about this at length. I'm excited to be for you to be back here. Our first in-house

duo show will be on Monday. We will be remote on Sunday doing the post game show, but we will be around on Monday doing our thing live in studio. We will also be out at Four Peaks, like I mentioned, next Wednesday, for our post series after that series as well. So make sure to join us for all that.

Make sure to come out to the Draft Kings or excuse me, Four Peaks Brewery, if you are able to, sign up on Draft King's Sportsbook, if you're a new customer. Use our code of PHNX and get a membership over at go phnx.com. Do all that stuff and then report back to me. Let me know when it's done. I'm going to need to see screenshots and visual proof of everything. But once you have, I'm going to send you an autograph picture from Jesse Friedman.

And that's very exciting. But we thank you guys so much, of course, for joining us. you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Bex. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports

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I feel we deserve it. But that's just me. I'm a little biased towards the hosts on this show. We thank you guys so much for joining us on behalf of Jesse and myself. We appreciate your time and we appreciate your ear. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When you vote for the Arizona Diamondbacks as fucking All-Stars, get on it. Go do it right now.