PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly’s Pending Return Forces D-backs Into Brutal Roster Moves

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are heating up after taking 2 of 3 from the Philadelphia Phillies, improving to 9–7 on the season, but a major roster decision looms. With Merrill Kelly set to return to the rotation Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles, tough calls are coming. We break down why both Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson could be at risk of losing their spots, and how this “problem” might actually be a huge strength for Arizona moving forward. Plus, is the bullpen finally legit? We dive into the numbers and answer your Mailbag Monday questions. 0:00 SkeeYee to owning the Phillies!  15:05 The Bullpn  24:25 Merrill Kelly back Tuesday 👀  27:00 Which starter gets dropped from rotation?  38:30 Mailbag Monday  50:15 Concern level with Geraldo Perdomo's start  57:00 More Mailbag  1:08:15 Brandon Marsh's hair & beard 🤮 Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks get another big series win, and we're light in the cactus light, even though it's Monday. We don't care. We do what we want around here. Also, Merrill Kelly will be back tomorrow on the mound in Baltimore for the D-Backs, and that causes a brutal roster decision that needs to be made. We're talking about all of it right now. Don't you go anywhere.

Happy Monday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDBax podcast, live from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is I, your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. thrilled to have you guys here. thrilled to be talking about another Diamondback series win. And of course, we are brought to you by our friends at Bet365.

Bet365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use that code of PHNX 365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. Welcome in, guys. Thrilled to have you guys here. Thrilled to be here with my guy, Damon Dogg, on the ones and twos,

aka Damon Farrell Bark Bark to you. Yeah. Damon. And we did the thing. We vanquished one of your biggest foes, one of your most hated rivals. We vanquished the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend. We own the Phillies. Can we just make that very clear?

And my favorite part about it is the crash out online that Phillies Twitter has every single time that we own them. Yeah. And we remind them that we remind them that. we own them. And they're, like, tweeting Alec Thomas and how that, like, how they loved it. And it's like, cool, man, we'll take the Ws. Yeah. We'll take the Ws in Arizona.

We own the bank. That's right. And that's what we are here to do. We're here to win baseball games and not get into petty fights with those clods from Philadelphia. But, of course, they did a great job. And peace of Yoshi is right. The biggest, most important thing, Damon, is we ruined Garrett Stubbs's birthday over the course

of the weekend. Well, it was the Philly Fanatics birthday. So I'm not sure if it's actually Garrett Stubbs or if it's just Garrett Stubbs in the costume. Yeah, is his character? I mean, because he does get pretty good into character. He is like that's underrated quality of Garrett Stubbs's abilities or his mascot abilities.

He's really good at cheering on the team. Yeah, well, Diamondbacks lost Saturday's game, but win the finale on Sunday after taking game one on Friday and win the series two out of three. and Damon, we also have the fact that they are now two games over 500. And as you know, no matter what, whenever we're over 500, little Pardomo's got to go up the mountain. Damon, if you wouldn't mind sending them up there.

Great stuff, great stuff. Diamondbacks now, two games over 500, sit at 9 and 7. And I think that right there is something worth talking about. We are here on April 13th. The debacks are on the final three games of their nine games. game East Coast road trip and we are looking at the potential for this team to be well well over 500 by the time they return from this trip now the Orioles are a difficult team so I don't want to put cart before the horse there a little bit but overall it does feel like this team is

overperforming is that old timey I mean that's like the most old time you did you were you around when they were using horses and buggy I'll just I will just pack it up now and I will go Why under a rock, Damon, all right? If that's what you want from me. Was that a lived experience? I don't know. I don't know. Look, I'm from the 1900s.

Apparently. That's when I was born. I was born in the 1900s. I used to watch Ty Cobb back in the day. Yeah. Honest Wagner sure was great. I'm going to move on from this overall, but I will say that there, see, Michael Dixon has my back on this one,

But I think that the Diamondbacks have really done a great job here. Offensively, they haven't been great. Somebody, Mark, in the chat is disagreeing with what I said about Zach Gallen, about him getting hit hard yesterday, and he was just lucky. Look, regardless of what you want to say sometimes in regards to luck or getting hit hard or whatever, that might be, you know, of course, why things break there, especially the third time through the rotation for Gallen in that win. But I will say that Gallen gave this team still.

you know, five scoreless innings heading into that sixth inning. He would pitch count was in the mid-60s. And, you know, regardless of what the results and numbers say, they've been able to get outs. And that's probably been the most effective way in regards to this starting rotation being as good as they are. Eduardo Rodriguez not overpowering anybody. Michael Soroka is with his strikeout numbers.

But overall, they've been getting outs. In fact, we were taking a look at a tweet today, right? that they were listing the war leaders for each division in baseball, right? Each, what each pitcher, each team's leading war as a pitcher. Right. For, you know, what is it, like 16-ish games through the season? And the Diamondbacks was Johnny Lazzania. Of course.

Johnny freaking lasagna. And that's mostly because of his strikeout numbers, right? That's what was weird was when you see that, you would think that Erod would naturally probably be the leader in that category, but he hasn't been putting up those power numbers as far as a pitcher is concerned. Loisaga has, even though the results haven't been necessarily great when he's been out there. He has those two blown saves for this team. I will say, though.

Both of those blown saves, though, like they weren't disastrous. No, they weren't. It was pretty much games that were close and, you know, situations where once again you can't. There was no room for air and he was being tasked with very high leverage and he gave up like, what, two runs in both of? them. Like it was like, you know, obviously the lead was lost, but it wasn't like the game was over. And also it felt like there was a lot of like ground balls that just got through the infield in those innings as well. Like I didn't necessarily think he was being rocked in those games.

Well, I will say that overall it was a good performance this weekend from the bullpen, which we will get, we will get into. But starting pitching wasn't solid in any of these games. And I mean, again, the Diamondbacks are starting to see their starting pitching, you know, give up some runs and also not be that reliable, no matter how the game is going, because both Brandon Fott and Zach Gallen were essentially cruising along. But those games flipped quickly on both of those pitchers. And again, the Diamondbacks jumped out to an early lead in the loss on Saturday that they lost four to three. That included a lead-off home run from Cattel Marte, which is something the Diamondbacks, have not been getting very much of. In fact, they only got one home run in this series, and it was that one.

But then the game turned in the third inning versus Brandon fought. Kyle Schwarber hit a go-ahead three-run bomb. You got Bryce Harper followed that up with another homer. And just like that, Arizona went from being up two to nothing to trailing four to two. Jose Fernandez, he continues to be a very, very bright spot for this team. And so far, the Diamondbacks are eight and one this season when Jose Fernandez is in the starting lineup. Fernandez again had a good had a big RBI there late to make that game four to three. You felt like maybe the Diamondbacks might have some late magic left in them. But that one,

as far as that game is concerned, could be considered a one bad inning loss. And that is something that the Diamondbacks have experienced entirely too much this year is the one inning loss where overall it's a good effort, good outing from the starting pitcher, good outing from the bullpen, but one inning was enough damage for this team to not be able to overcome it. Offensively, they have been terrible. I mean, again, they were able to put up enough runs in this series and overall this year to win nine games. But this is not the Diamondbacks offense. In fact, I think it was one home run in their last nine games or something like that they've hit.

They are just not able really right now to, they don't have much power to their lineup. and they definitely aren't, you know, overpowering anyone as far as runs are concerned. You could be very satisfied, though, with the fact that they are able to manufacture runs like they have been doing. You could also be very satisfied with the production from guys that you wouldn't think you would be getting this production from. Jose Fernandez being one of them. Ildemar Vargis being another.

Damon has to apologize every single week to Elamaro Vargas. That's just the way things go for this team. But, again, starting pitching. Sorry, Il-Damara. Yeah, starting pitching margin for error is thin because of the lack of offense. The bullpen's margin for error, even thinner than starting pitching. And yet the Diamondbacks were able to take two out of three in this series, and a lot of it had to do with how good their bullpen was locking games down. But again, Diamondbacks win the finale.

And, you know, honestly, things look pretty good there for the debacks overall. They find a way here to, you know, battle back. in a game where Zach Gallin, again, was solid early. I won't disagree with Mark, though. Mark was right because, again, they were getting solid, hard contact, hard hit off of Gowan. But so he was able to hold them scoreless for the majority of the game. But Arizona did not panic, and that's been something that has been great to see. That could be a theme overall is they're involved in a lot of close games.

Outside of that 17-2 fiasco, everything has been pretty, close. I mean, you take that out, maybe opening day, and every game feels like it's decided by one or two runs at the most, even the wins. And that's, that's good that they're able to hold those kind of games down. And I don't know.

I don't know if it builds character. I don't know if it causes this team to become closer. You just get the feeling that being involved in this many close games does allow this team to believe in themselves. It allows them to believe that they can win a game even if they're down.

late and it allows them specifically to believe here in the in the bullpen and that's something that this diamond backs team uh it's what that's not something we thought we would say about this bullpen and we're going to get into that here shortly but i i think that yeah it helps you build momentum that's i i think you're right about that like if if you if you start to win these games you start feeling like well we're we're actually just a really good good baseball team we don't have you know half of our all stars right now because they're you know corbin burns is injured or you know corbin has been kind of out of the lineup jerry hasn't been playing his his best baseball and yet you're still beating good baseball teams and winning series against really good baseball teams and you're pitching your starting

pitching has been solid your bullpen has been better than expected like this team the the ceiling is i think you know decently high if they can start playing some better offense that and that's it because again the pitching that you're getting right now is keeping you in ball games and is allowing you to you know at least have a chance to win even if you're down what I like though again like I said the thing offensively is that they're struggling the way they are and they're still finding a way to put something together it hasn't been with the power but it's been with that big inning where they're able to string together hits and understand the importance of getting base runners on specifically per domes

understanding the importance of, you know, getting a steel there in this series, in the finale and getting into scoring position. A lot of things like that. A lot of small ball stuff that makes you feel like this team is figuring out things, how to win, how to put up runs when things aren't going their way. Hopefully the floodgates open up and things start going their way and then things are different, you know, for this team. But the pitching so far has been incredible.

and I think I made a mistake here on the By the Numbers, Damon. But do we have the numbers here from the series? What was the mistake? I messed up on the runs. I believe the Phillies only had 11 runs over the course of the weekend, not 12. Okay. Give me two seconds. All right.

A little behind the scenes. I screw a lot of stuff up. Surprisingly, I'm bad at math. Who knew? But overall, Diamondbacks get the series. The sports media guy? Yeah, what? That's not typical.

That's not good either. but they win the series on the road and get to 9 and 7. Here they take two out of three from the Phillies. They take two out of three from the Mets. Again, this beginning of this month has been not what we expected in a good way. We thought that this team was definitely going to struggle with the schedule that they had against them, especially once they hit this road trip. And then you have the Toronto Blue Jays here coming up at home after they play the Orioles.

They haven't exactly been playing the best base. ball for that team, things are different here. You know, like you got, you got some teams that have outperformed a little bit. Like I said earlier, the Rockies, they came down to Earth after getting beat and swept by the Padres. White Sox have kind of come down back down to Earth a little bit, even though they're still kind of a fun team to watch. And all of those teams are on the schedule between now and the next 30 days or by the end of May. They have some tough teams, but they also have some stretches here coming up that might end up being very, very advantageous for them to add to their win totals and get some, you know, at least as Damon said it,

probably season-defining stretches there where they have some weaker opponents and that is that who is who we need to see them beat at this point and take a lot of games from while also still playing these other better teams tough. But they start against a strong Orioles team today and the Diamondbacks will have Merrill Kelly back tomorrow on the mound. We were going to talk about that being both a good thing and a bad thing for this team. But before we do that, let's take a look at the numbers from this series with the Phillies. The Diamondbacks win this one.

Two games to one. They outscore the Phillies 12 to 11. Diamondbacks had 23 hits to the Phillies 22. Again, just the one home run for the D-backs. Four overall for the Phillies in this series. Starting pitching ERA, kind of a push there, 5.40 for the D-backs. 6.17 for the Phillies. But the big thing here is that the D-BACs bullpen was able to put up a 0.0 ERA in this

in this series. Insane. It's insane, right? Yeah. And that is the reason why they won. 100%. Anytime you have a zero bullpen ERA, you should win. They win five to four and they won four to three.

And like you got to be honest with yourself, these weren't the type of games that this team was winning last year. they really weren't. Especially early on. They lost all of them, like exactly like that, but the bullpen was blowing it. Where they had leads, they'd go into the game,

and then the bullpen would blow it. It begs the question, Damon, that we have to ask, once again, that sounds so silly. Babes, is the bullpen actually good? Because it might be. The Diamondbacks have allowed 28 earn runs

and 56 innings pitched. That's their bullpen. That is their relievers. but, and that's not even, it's, I'm not going to, it's not great. It's not good. I think they have a 4.30 ERA, but they're not dead last. They're not in the bottom five anymore, right? So that's a good thing.

But the better thing is that you can actually subtract out of this, if you would like to, for my purposes I'm going to, Joe Ross's eight earn runs in his three and two thirds innings pitched. And, you know, I know he's very important to this relief core, but you could also subtract James McCann's one inning of work where he allowed five earn runs. Again, he went slider heavy. I think if he landed on his force team and was able to command it like he normally does, he wouldn't have given up those five earned runs.

But that right there, right, is 13 earn runs that you subtract out of their 28 earn run run total. That puts the Diamondbacks bullpen at 15 earn runs allowed over 51 and a third inning. pitched and based on my bad math that's good enough for a 2.63 ERA. Now this is all subtracting stuff out that you don't subtract out

nothing's actually going to change here but I'm just saying if you take out those two players that ERA would be the fourth best bullpen ERA in Major League Baseball right now. Mark says he's going to keep Joe Ross's but remove James McCann so that's fair I think that's fair as well. That's fair.

Joe Ross is so bad. And Joe Ross is not only, was not only somebody that the Diamondbacks actively chose to go with over other options, but he's somebody that after he cleared waivers, they signed to a minor league deal and brought back. So they obviously see, you know, what, what, see something in him to have him come back. But again, this is, this is what it is. It's not the real ERA, but as you can see, there are components of this bullpen that are working. And it's early. It's April 13th. So if they find a way to have these guys kind of perform the way that they're performing,

then you would feel like as things progress, the Diamondbacks might, in fact, have that league average bullpen that we have been praying for them to get. It actually could be better than league average. So I don't want to get crazy. Things might change. They might get better. In fact, I would argue they are going to get better. Some tough roster decisions could land at one of their starting pitchers in the bullpen.

And there's going to be another tough roster decision made when Corbynberg Burns returns in July that also could land one of their other starting pitchers in the bullpen. Yeah. Plus we have AJ Puck on the horizon returning. We have some other pieces that are kind of working out in the minor league system. Maybe since we're going to see Blaze Alexander today, maybe we could get Cade Stroud up here soon, who's been pitching pretty well for the AAA Reno Aces. But we are going to take a quick break.

On the other side of this break, we have so much more pitching to talk about. Merrill Kelly will be back tomorrow on the mound for the debacks. And again, that does make this roster decision. They have upcoming very tough, especially considering the debacks said that they do not intend on going to a six-man starting rotation. We're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere.

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The window depot more than just the window store. Well, I've talked about getting Danhausen to uncurse all Arizona sports, but mostly this team. It doesn't seem to be working. We have yet another injury. Steve Gilbert has reported that Gabriel Moreno is likely headed to the 10-day I-L. even though that move has not been made official yet. With lower back tightness, it's the reason why we've been seeing Adrian Del Castillo get reps,

and ADC was huge in that win yesterday over the Phillies. So it's great to see him swinging the bat the way he's swinging it right now. I mean, it's everything with how this team is struggling. ADC currently has a 353 batting average, but only a 765 OPS. So you'd love to see him getting that. Other numbers up, however, the batting average looks great. What's not great is the pile of injuries, the Diamondbacks continue to deal with.

Corbyn Carroll had a hip flexor issue that kept him out of the lineup. He returned, but he was only able to DH. Hopefully that will be something that he's over so he can be out in the outfield. We still have Pavin Smith dealing with his injury. Jordan Lawler right now is on the 60-day-I-L. We talked about that move being a little painful. June 6th is now the earliest possible. return date for Jordan Lawler.

The Diamondback should be getting Lordus Gurriel Jr. back within the next 30 days. So that will help give them a boost. And then Jordan Lawler returning after that can also help this team out. But yeah, Gabriel Moreno not being able to stay healthy kind of sucks, especially considering the way that he started to swing the bat there. And this amount, I mean, you almost feel like this team is becoming very fluid with the injury situation with how much they've had to deal with it.

So far, things have been working out in their favor. I mean, the Carlos Santana, a ductor strain, kind of allowed us to see Jose Fernandez flourish and have more playing time. Plus, everybody is getting allowed to use Carlos Santana's magical purple glove, and that makes everybody into a gold glove defender somehow. I don't know. We need a children's movie about Carlos Santana's glove. But the most important injuries are the pitchers, right? The return of Corbyn Burns, A.J. Puck, Justin Martinez,

and the return tomorrow of Merrill Kelly, who's been on the injured list since the open of the season, scheduled make his first start tomorrow against the Baltimore Orioles. And he was tabbed, as you know, to start on opening day, but suffered a back injury in spring training that has kept him out since February 21st. And that was a left intercoastal nerve irritation. nerve irritation is also what my wife calls me sometimes, coincidentally enough. But after making a start for the Reno Aces on April 30 through 72 pitches, felt good, pitched in a backfield game, got up to 85 pitches, and now feels like he's ready.

Kelly said, I just feel like I was ready, but obviously it's not my decision. It's up to the organization. Obviously, I wanted to get back with the team, help the team. I felt like I was healthy, but at the end of the day, one more is not going to make or break anything. So they did decide to keep him out for one more game. But this will now be Merrill Kelly's first ever time pitching at Oriel Park at Camden Yards. And it'll be his first ever visit, period. Now he has been to all 30 ballparks. But the big part of this is what is going to happen once Merrill Kelly returns? Who will have to leave the rotation for Kelly to join? And the Diamondbacks

have apparently ruled out going with a six-man rotation. So it feels like that is done. It doesn't sound like they're even going to attempt to do that one time through the rotation. And Lobolo went on to say, quote, no decisions have been made. We haven't talked about who's going where. We'll worry about what happens with Merrill in the coming days. I imagine that a decision has been made. I imagine that this is kind of a little bit of a little bit of a,

competition, right? Like, I'm not going to act like it's not, but it feels like it's a foregone conclusion. Brandon Fott and Ryan Nelson both underperformed and helped make the Diamondbacks decision easier. And I don't even know if that's going to be the Diamondbacks decision. I am merely speculating here when it comes to it. I mean, right now, the obvious decision is that Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly aren't going anywhere and considering what they're paying E-Rod and how he's performing, Eduardo Rodriguez. Is it going anywhere? So your options are Brandon Fott, Michael Soroka, and Ryan Nelson.

I can't help but argue on Michael Soroka's behalf because outside of one inning that things turned sideways on him a little bit, Michael Soroka has been outstanding. I called him one of the best pickups in Major League Baseball as far as value is concerned. And I still think that. I think that he has put up some historic numbers already. And the one thing that he does that no other pitcher right now is really doing,

including Ryan Nelson, is racking up the strikeouts like he has. I mean, matching, being the only other pitcher in DeBacks history other than Randy Johnson, to have two 10 plus strikeout games in your first three games. It's impressive. And I think that really what it comes down to it is if you are looking for someone to have put in the effort and was competitive, in wanting his spot in the starting rotation, Michael Soroka probably deserves that nod more than anybody else.

I mean, I'll give Erod credit because he's definitely stepped his game up, but E. Rod's just doing it in a different way, and it's working. He found a way for things to work for him. It's like he's adapting as he becomes an older pitcher, right? Michael Soroka is still, what, he's 28 years old? Still can't even say Michael Soroke,

even though all of these years are behind him in Major League Baseball. I mean, he still has a lot to offer this game, so it doesn't feel like he's someone that this team should even consider with how he's pitched this year. He is really young for how long he's been in baseball. Right, right. Didn't he make his major league debut at like 20 or 21? Yeah, something like that. It might have even been younger than that.

But you look at Brandon Fott's numbers, you look at Ryan Nelson's numbers. And again, considering these are the guys that have minor league options, they made it easy on the Diamondbacks to at least choose one of them. And I still have my doubts about it being Ryan Nassons. Nelson. This sucks too because we just watch Brandon Fott, go out there, have a gender reveal for his brother wearing the pink laces. It was a great moment. You love to see stuff like that in baseball and in sports. We are big fans of Fought and the Fought family. They are some tremendous people, and we've had the chance to meet them a few times. I definitely didn't want this decision to come

down to being Brandon Fought. But at the end of the day, this is business. This is sports and the Diamondbacks have to choose who's going to give them the best opportunity to win. Right now, Brandon Fott still has this anomaly that he needs to figure out where no matter how good he is during a game, he seems to hit a wall at some point, give up some runs, especially once he gets base runners on and kind of blow up. And then still can come back out and give the team more solid innings after that, you know, after things go sideways on him. Yeah, I mean, that's why we never give up on Brandon Fott.

Right. Right. And we say that all the time. Like it's so difficult to give up on this guy because he does show you like, you know, 80% of the time how good he can be. Right. And then it all comes crashing and burning to the ground. And Ryan Nelson has, I feel like, you know, and you're right about what you're saying about Michael Soroka earning it. But like Ryan Nelson, it feels a little unfair to him for three starts when two of them have been pretty decent starts. 100%.

One of them was not against the Dodgers. and we're sitting up here and being like the guy who's been the best pitcher on the team for a year and a half, he loses his rotation spot like that. That would be crazy too. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a really difficult decision. I think, you know, we have stock in all these guys and investment in all these guys. So like Brandon Fott has the extension. The debacks don't want to just send him to Reno.

Well, I'll say this. I, again, don't really think sending him to Reno is as big of a demotion as we think it is. I'm not acting like it's not an emotion. It keeps him as a starter, which is, which is, you know, means that they have long-term hopes that he'll be a starter.

Right. No, 100%. And I do think that that is important. I think that, again, at the end of the day, most starters would want to stay as a starter, even if it involves them going to the AAA club, the minor leagues,

rather than the danger of being converted to a bullpen arm that then finds success as a bullpen arm and stays a bullpen arm, right? It's not the end of the world. It's just one of, and I think a lot of pitchers know that there's the chance that they could eventually go that route, that their stuff might just play better out of the pen. I don't think that's the case for Brandon Fogg. I think that might be the case for Ryan Nelson, considering how good his fastball is,

and what a difference it would be to maybe see that fastball after seeing one of the other Dback starting pitchers for five or six innings. but I just think that again, Fought was extended, you're right, and I think Fought still is very important to the future of this team. It's the reason why going down to Reno, even though it's Reno, it's the PCL,

and you're going to give up a ton of runs and it's not going to make your stats look good, it's not going to make you feel good about yourself, will still give him a chance to work on his development and still getting better even at this stage of his career. But again, whether or not it's Ryan Nelson or Brandon Fought right now, it feels like it's most likely going to be the other one, in a few months when you have the return of Corbyn Burns.

So again, Brandon fought right now, 5.94 ERA. His ERA plus is 69. Not nice. It's not nice. Hundreds league average. Ryan Nelson's ERA plus is far closer to that. It's a 98. Ryan Nelson has a 4.20 ERA.

Shockingly enough, both players are worth a baseball reference war of minus 0.3. I don't understand the way these things are calculated because, again, I think that with Ryan Nelson's numbers, I kind of find it amazing that his war is the same as Brandon Fotz. But both guys have not had a lot of success with their strikeout to walk ratios. Brandon Fotz is a career low at 1.83. And Ryan Nelson's is very low as well as 2.00. They're walking entirely too many guys and aren't striking anyone out or aren't striking out nearly as many as they have in the past. Nelson, 1.0. 0.067 whip that's still pretty good uh brandy fought 1.380 whip not not nearly as good so again there's a lot of things that these guys right now i mean aren't are struggling with and and what sucks about that is again if this was one of the other starters might be a far more difficult decision but when you're talking about the guys who are struggling having minor league options left then it just feels like it It's far too logical and it's far too easy for the debacks to just, you know, for now, put Brandon Fott in Reno to stay stretched out for, you know, depth.

And we don't know when that depth is going to be needed, but with the injuries that we've experienced so far to our position players and other guys, there's a really good chance we're going to need Brandon Fought again. And Lord knows when it can be. So the hope here is that Fott, if he does get sent down, can work on some things and can can figure out perhaps a way to prevent that huge inning from happening. Maybe he can figure out a way to get things back on track or perhaps that has something to do with him tipping his pitches when he has bas-runners on bat.

But I think that, again, the hope here is that if that's the case, that he can get better and when he does return to this team eventually, whether it's over the course of this season or inevitably next year, then, you know, he can be the guy that this team wants him to be and extended thinking that they, you know, we're getting. And Fought still has a lot of positive things there, but it definitely, Mark's not wrong. He says, I feel like Fought Sweeper used to be a lot better. It absolutely used to be. It absolutely used to be.

So anyway, we'll see what happens here with the decision being made. It's going to happen in the next 24 hours. So we will find out about who the Diamondbacks are going to have and who they're going to have in their starting rotation and who's going to be moved. But we're going to take a quick break on the end. other side of this break, we are going to do what we do on this show every single Monday, and we're going to do it aggressively this time. I don't know. I don't know why it's different, but it's going to be aggressive. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back. You're watching the PHNXD Back Show. Well, you know I love myself some pure edibles, and that's because pure

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Some people in the chat, by the way, are talking about the possibility of Merrill Kelly being washed. And while I don't think that's going to be the case, I will say that once again, one thing about this pitching depth is that this team is going to hopefully make tough decisions should any of those things happen. Like one of their other starting pitchers has things completely fall apart for them. That is something that we have seen on this team as a part of the starting rotation. And the depth not only gives them that extra arm, should they need to turn to someone else, that depth also creates that constant competition for guys that are in the rotation,

knowing that whoever they option or whoever they send to the bullpen is just chomping at the bit to get back to the starting rotation. So again, competition brings out the best in all of us. But this is Monday. There's no competition with what we do here on this show. Mondays, right, Damon? There's literally no rival to us because this is the best day of the week on this program. Well, and all the other PHNX podcast, they can try to steal mailback Monday.

Oh, and they have. But they can never replicate what this truly special. I would call it a holiday even. It is a weekly holiday. Every Monday is a holiday on the show. Correct. 100%. Because every year on this show is our year.

Every year on this show is the year of the snake. I don't care about your damn horses. Every month on this show is Black History Month. Every month on this show is Women's History Month. And every month on the P-HNX-D-Backs podcast is Black Women's History Month. Every single week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day because Damon and I recycle. We're good boys.

But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go to the mailbag. We got P-H-L-Y. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbag. We got PHLY doesn't do Mailbag Mondays. We own Mailbag Mondays from our guy, Mike, on there. You're right. And Mailbag Monday is powered by our friends at GameTime.

Use that code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase on the GameTime app. Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? Our first question here in the mailbag comes from Travis Moore. And Travis Moore says, can you give us a brief overview, Derek, of control versus command when it comes to pitching? Oh, boy. I don't know if people want to try. trust anything I have to say when it comes to breaking down baseball like this. But this one's pretty easy, right? Control and command sound like the same thing. And they kind of mean the same thing.

But overall, control means that you can throw a pitch in that stupid little box that we call the strike zone. That's all it really means. Control is your ability to throw in the strike zone. And when you see guys that get up there and issue a four-pitch walk and are all over the place and then another batter comes up and they walk them on four pitches and then another batter comes up and then they hit that guy, that's a lack of control, right? So control is typically a little easier for a pitcher to have, meaning that they can get the pitch in the strike zone, basically. But command is fine-tuning that. Command is where a pitcher can throw the pitch exactly where they want to throw. throw it. Now, command doesn't necessarily mean that they're throwing it in the strike zone because command means that they were purposefully perhaps throwing it outside of the strike zone. And that involves, again, like where guys are missing, you know, with like a pitch, a breaking

pitch specifically that should drop out of the zone and be unhittable, but instead it lands, you know, two inches above the bottom of the strike zone and it's smashed to center field for a double or something like that. So that pretty much sums it up, I think, overall. But again, I'm sure there's probably some more to it than that for sure. But what else we got, Damon? Our next question is from Michael Rooki. He says, who's slow start do you find yourself more concerned with Alec, Arnato, or Perdomo? Perdomo, by far.

Are you serious? Who's slow start do I find myself most concerned with? Perdomo, because I'm not as surprised about- That might be the craziest thing I've ever heard. I am, yeah, I'm more concerned with Perdomo's slow start. Surprising concern are two completely different things. All right. Surprises, yeah, of course, I'm most surprised.

He's the best player of all of these. Concerned? Alec Thomas can't hit at a major league level. Right. I think that's pretty concerning. I mean, Nolan Aronado has been that on both sides of the ball, so that's also concerning. Yeah, that's what I think Perdomo figures it out more than those two guys do. No, so that's where I'll see.

Okay, so here's the reason why, and I'll give you my thought process behind it. I'm more concerned about Perdomo because Perdomo has only had that one MVP caliber season last year, right? And again, with baseball, you want to see it be a consistent output. I do believe that Pardomo can get things back on track. And I do think Domo still, when he's struggling, is far more productive than either one of those other guys. So there's that. Because even when Pardomo is not having good at bats, he's still finding a way at times to get on base. He's still finding a way to be a factor.

Alec Thomas probably, I mean, I'm disappointed. and I think that he's probably disappointed, considering that he made those changes during the offseason to his swing, and those changes yielded some pretty great results in spring training that have not transferred over to the regular season. And that sucks for him. But I also think that Alec Thomas is a guy that we kind of don't expect a ton of production from. So his lack of production isn't that detrimental and isn't as concerning to me

as a lack of production from Pardomo. Aronano though, I mean, you could argue probably, you said Alec, I would say maybe even Aronado might be, you know, the most concerning. I said both of them. I think both could be like, I think that it's, we're looking at we need to replace them because they're hurting this team. Let's see, here's the thing. And so is Perdomo, but I can't, you can't replace Perdomo. Exactly. But you can't replace those other two guys, right?

And I think you believe that Perdomo is going to figure it out to an extent that those guys are not. Like, Alec Thomas has never shown the ability to hit consistently. Nolan Aronado is, I mean, it's regression is, it's been fast, the last couple of years. Yeah. And the defense doesn't look good. Whereas like, Perdomo, it's like, I get it.

It's concerning. He's the most important. I understand what everybody's saying. I'm not debating that. Sure. I just believe that he's going to figure it out way more than I believe in those other guys. Yeah. So you are not as concerned about it.

So my concern level goes down because my belief is higher in him, I guess. I mean, Aronado, you looked at his numbers from last year, the Cardinals and I think that we all thought well it can't be worse than this and so far it is but I will say Aronado his at-bats have gotten a little bit better and he was involved in two of their runs yesterday in the win he scored one of them he also you know again he had a sack fly like you start to feel like again you're not going to get a ton of contributions from him but he also isn't a big part of your future and he didn't cost you a ton of money either so At the end of the day, you feel like the Diamondbacks could replace him,

and it's not going to be, you know, as big of a problem as needing to replace Perdomo if they got to that point, which they just simply can't really do. They can't do that. So I don't know. I mean, it is a great question, and I don't think that any answer is wrong, but I understand what you're saying as far as you don't actually fear that Perdomo is going to keep struggling like he is right now for the season. I think his floor is a lot higher than the other guy's floor.

So I think that over time, we'll see positive regression there. I understand what people are saying that it's the most impactful. His disastrous start has been the most impactful because you've thought that he was going to be such a constant. You thought he was going to be so good. And he hasn't. So that makes sense. The other two guys you had lower expectations for. But I think that that's where I guess my conversation is a little bit different than where other people is going,

is that expectations has nothing to do with it right now because, or I guess maybe a little bit it does, but it's projected expectation of like, I think Perdomo is going to figure it out. I don't think that these other guys will. So I'm more concerned if they're going to be playing every single day like they have been, that those guys that can't hit and never have really been able to hit, or I guess Arnato has,

but, you know, it's been a while. You know, I just, I don't know if we will ever find them playing good baseball for the Diamondbacks. Katie says, if only we had this, plucky young guy with a fiery name to put it third instead of an old tired guy. That plucky young guy is giving people interviews in the clubhouse like an hour ago, and I miss him so much. But Damon brought up a great point in regards to Blaze Alexander. If he was on this roster, there's a really good chance Jose Fernandez wouldn't be, and we wouldn't be experiencing one of the greatest legends in DeBack's history to ever play the game, making his debut and

starting that legendary career. So, and Pisa, Bioshi is right. Blaze is sort of struggling, though, but I don't care because of the vibes. Blaze vibes, undeniable, don't care. You can't argue with that. Can't argue with the vibes. That's not, that's in arguable. It's impossible. Our next question here is from Austin.

And Austin says, how much longer should the leash on Aronado be? I want to give him time, but he looks dreadful. May 31st. Oh, man. Look, I will say that if he doesn't start turning things around in that period of time, nearly 60 days, then yeah, I mean, I think the Diamondback should start looking at other options. Again.

For sure. I mean, people are going to, there's going to be some people that have aneurisms if it's May 31st and he's still playing like this for the next month and a half. Oh my God. That would send some some, some devacians into the hospital. Disgusting. But I think that, again, Aronado at the very least has been working very hard to try to get things back together.

And perhaps that's the problem. I mean, perhaps, as I've suggested in the past, he's almost desperate to try to fix the problem in baseball, specifically of all sports, that desperation does not yield to results most of the time. It just yields to you being unnecessarily tight at the plate and not letting things come to you, not letting the game come to you. But I mean, Jeremy Strong says it too. Sitting a Hall of Famer is a weird feeling.

At the very end of the day, it's not necessarily our, history that he's a part of, other than beating us sometimes when he was with the Rockies, right? This is more about, you know, the Diamondbacks giving a guy a shot on a pretty good deal that they got from the Cardinals that is looking more and more understandable as to why the Cardinals dumped him and ate as much of his contract as they did. Similar to what the debacks have done in the past, they did not want to let just because they gave a guy a big contract, that player get in the way of their success. And that's what the move they made eventually with Madison Bumgarner, right? I will say that Mike Hazen and this front office are not shy at, you know,

trying something like this Aronado situation. And if it doesn't work out, like changing course and going with someone else at third base. But I will also say that Aronado's glove is the main reason why he's here. It's the main reason why the Diamondbacks have him over there at third base. They don't feel like his production at the plate is as necessary, nor have they ever felt like that. It could be the same you could say about Carlos Santana. It's the reason why they were comfortable. going out and getting those guys.

But that's third base and it's first base. And this is a team that is dreadful right now as far as home runs are concerned. So you essentially took your two power positions at first and third and gave them the aging veterans that you knew weren't going to bring that level of power that you typically need out of a third basement and a first basement.

So I don't know, but at least for the time being, the Carlos Santana injury has yielded very good results in Jose Fernandez getting, playing time. But this team is getting to be a little thin. They need some guys to return from injury. They need some backups. They need some more warm bodies because, again,

one or two more injuries might put them in a very, very bad spot, one that they cannot necessarily bounce back from like they have so far up to this point. Right. What else we got? Damon, let's do one more. And then we've got to do a break. Fourth question here is concern level on for DOMO. Let's just cut to a live shot of Damon's face right now,

listening to that particular question being asked once again. Damon, he's done with all of us. This is my life now. Yeah, this is all of. You know what? I'm writing down notes and I'm writing down names of who's, who doesn't believe in the boy? Yeah.

You know, because a lot of people haven't believed in the past. But guess what? We're going to, we're going to keep, we're going to keep track and we're going to write down and remember who was on the right side of history and who was on the wrong side of history, starting with the arch nemesis of this show, first and foremost, underline, not even going to say his name. Yeah, oh yeah.

Right at the top of that list. He shall not be named. The guy who, the guy who accuses me and you of hating the best players on the team and then gets in the chat and goes, Merrill Kelly's a scrub and Perdomo needs to be traded. No. Which is, it's like, kick him out of your talk. Are you even a D-BACs fan at that point? I don't know, man.

I'm, I'm remembering names, though. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest level of concern, where are you at when it comes to Perdom? With Perdomo? Yeah. Three. Like, I think that there is concern. I don't want to make it seem like there's nothing there. I don't want to make it seem like I'm like, I'm fully like, yeah, you know, he's going to return.

His second half of the year, you guys will see three and a half war. but I think that he will figure it out to an extent. I think his floor is just that he's a good baseball player that helps your team, even if he's not the guy who should be hitting three-hole, which I think that we all kind of want him out of the three-hole, even me. I've been saying that for a week, a week and a half on this podcast, Derek. So maybe that's the situation that needs to happen. Like let's get him worried about getting on base and, you know,

about like changing up his job is more, make it more individually, rather than having to have him drive in Corbyn and Catelle all the time. I would say my concern level is a little bit higher than yours. I think that's fair. Four? Yeah, probably. I think that's four or five. I think that's totally fair.

Is it fair for me to also say, though, that my concern level with Cotel Marte is at more of like a six? No. Considering he's getting 1.97 with a 597 OPS? I think Catell is one of the best pure hitters in baseball. It's just a slow start. I feel great about Cotel. I know.

I feel great about Cotel. I have concerns. My concern 1 to 10 about Catelle is one, maybe two. One and a half. Like, I'm no concerned about Catelle. The people want to see your shirt, by the way, David. Can you show off this amazing Cactus League shirt that you got that does not include the Dodgers logo? Yeah.

So I was pre-Dodger logo. I was looking at it earlier when someone said, Damon, that's a cool shirt. And I was like, you know what I just realized is that it's Cactus League pre-Dodgers moving from Florida to California to Arizona. 2009 is when that happened. Yeah, so it's before that, which means that this is ethical Cactus League ball. That's right. You said back when Cactus League was tough on crime. And I think that's a great way of putting.

That's absolutely right. Back when they cared about crime. But we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We have more mailbag Monday questions to answer, and we are going to do that here shortly. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time and back show. Well, shout out as always to Bet365 for not only bringing you this wonderful podcast, but for helping make sports more fun.

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and hopefully we can get a good player that changes things for the state of that franchise, because things are bad over there. Meanwhile, over here, things are pretty good. Things are really bad. We thought things might be bad over here, but things are much better than we thought. Whoa, we is a little bit of a stretch. Don't, don't make me bring up that you eliminated them from the playoffs after game two, Damon. Yeah, jokes.

Jokes are made on the joke app. Jokes are made on the joke app. I get it. Jokes do get made on the joke app, Derek. But I predicted 88 wins, I believe, before this season. You also drafted Shoeh Tanya into your fantasy baseball team, you fraud. So I think we need to get back to the mailbag questions. before we talk in that felt like a shot that was just unnecessary.

It did. Yeah, you're right. That's why I wanted to just move past. That was nasty. Mailback questions. What do you got in the mailback? Our next question is from Flea Ball. And Flea Ball says, I can easily predict Alec Thomas's at-bats every time.

Foul, foul ball, weak ground ball to second base. Is it time to have a serious conversation about him? One decent year, the last five, never stole more than nine bases. We like defense, but not at that price. Oh, man. This is becoming a far too common theme, right? The Diamondbacks, again, they went out and they wanted to ensure that their defense was solid behind their pitchers. They felt like the defense was a big reason why this team had the terrible starting pitching ERA and relief pitching ERA that they've had over the last two seasons.

But it feels like the focus on defense was at the detriment to the offense. However, look at how many close baseball games this team is winning. Look at how good the bullpen is doing late in these games. even as Mark said, Zach didn't have his best stuff yesterday. He did get very lucky for those five innings and that outing, but he also had some great defense behind him in that game as well. So I don't know the answer to this because at the end of the day, the changes they made both to the pitching staff and to the defense have been working.

It's frustrating to look at the Diamondbacks lineup right now and see a bunch of guys with a 157 batting average, a 180 batting average, a 197 batting average, a 107 batting average, a 107 batting average, a 133 batting average, and Alec Thomas, McCann and Barrosa both hitting 200. And that's your top five guys. Brose and McCann slide into the top five with a 200 batting average.

Like there is just a lot. But again, right now I feel like Alec Thomas being out there every single day is not just due to his defense. It's due to necessity. It's due to a shortage of guys with Major League experience that they feel that can help this team win baseball games. even though it's not with his bat, they still feel like his defense out there

and center field is helping them win games. Offensively, this team has a lot to figure out, and it's not just Alec Thomas, but I understand where you're coming from. I'll say that, like, you feel that about a couple of young players. Similar could be, similar thing could be said about Brandon Fott, where Brandon Fott honestly has had a lot of high expectations and has shown promise,

but you could argue looking at, you know, his tenure as a major league player, that he really has never been great. He's barely been good at times. And that's just based on the results. That's not based on what he goes and does in the game, because in the game, sometimes he's looked outstanding and lights out, but only for a short period of time until that big any once again comes around to bite him.

I don't know what the answer is. I do know that the Diamondbacks are going to be getting back. Lordus Coriel Jr. and Alec Thomas soon. I know that Corvin Carroll is going to be back in the, outfield and they do kind of have once that all that happens a little bit of a of a you know of a plethora of of outfielders there so perhaps if alec Thomas isn't playing his best perhaps that could be where he loses his spot due to someone else performing better and still being able to play defense like he can but that remains to be seen as far as right now is concerned i don't

feel like the diamondbacks really do have a better option unless they do the thing that we all want them to do and finally call up Ryan Walschman. There I said the thing. Where's Waldo? Where is Waldo? What's he hitting right now, Damon? Do you know? He's hitting like 3.30-ish?

Yeah. 320-ish, somewhere in that range. I mean, his batting average wasn't great there for the first week or 10 days of the season, but he really started to get things back on track. Let's look at these stats here. His OPS was still good because he was walking a ton. But batting average didn't look. Are you ready for this?

this? 316 with a 426 on base percentage, an OPS of 1,0005, two home runs, 12 RBI, 12 runs scored. That's in 57 ABs. I mean, he's him. He's him. Bring home the prodigal son. A 579 slugging percentage, Derek.

Is that good? I mean, we're going to get to that point, right? We're later in the season. Walt Schmidt's just our everyday outfielder, and we are talking about the dark days before his arrival. Similar to Jose Fernandez. I mean, the base for Jose Fernandez's statue has already been built outside of Chase Field. I'm not going to disclose to anybody which corner we decided to start it on,

but that's already happening. So you do feel like these young players could be the difference for this team. And you got one right now just hanging out in Reno waiting for his chance. So maybe that happens. Maybe that happens. But we'll see. We'll see right now they need the depth is really what they need. What else we got, Damon?

The dude seems special. Let's just say that, right? And, you know, I feel like as of right now, like you said, Derek, we're going to be looking back on these dark days when Corbyn has been out and in and out of the lineup. And the starting outfield has been what? Tim Tawa, Alec Thomas and Jorge Barrosa. That's been the three guys out there. We're going to be looking back on that in, you know,

hopefully in August, with Ryan Walschman, Jordan Lawler, and Corbyn Carroll, and laughing. And not to be mean, but being like, man, remember Tim Tawa and Jorge Brosa in the corners? Now we got like young, fresh faces, good hitters. I mean, it could be special. Could be special. Could be special for sure. And we're right there. Like you feel like we're right there.

We feel like one or two more guys getting, you know, getting that call and being what we think they could be. could make this team truly outstanding, but they still have a lot of weaknesses. We just didn't think those weaknesses would be in the starting lineup. And offensively, we didn't think this team would be as bad as they've been, even though they're 9 and 7. What else we got? Next question here is from Jarmie. Jarmie says small ball has been winning games.

Reliance on home runs didn't win games in 2025 either. What could Joe Mather slash Tori adjust in the lineup to help the boys keep the rally innings going? my son and I were at Chase for the big league bullpen on Saturday, batting practice, on Saturday, Dback staff, our world class. Oh, I will attest to that. The Dback staff are world class. I do have the video.

Do you want me to grab the video? Yeah. Okay, I'll grab it. Yeah, if you can grab that. In the meantime, you can answer this question. No, and I think that I like that the Diamondbacks are finding ways to win with small ball. I like that the power hasn't been there for them and that this team is putting it to an opposing pitcher in the way that they are. I've heard pitchers say it so many times, it's almost cliche,

but, you know, a starting pitcher, any pitcher would much rather like just have a home run hit off of them if they're going to give up three runs rather than it be single, single, single, single, single, single, right? Like that not only drives their pitch count up when it's like that, but it also just kind of is a frustrating experience to be on that carousel and not being able to get off. So I think that what the Diamondbacks are doing right now is good. The home run and power will come eventually. They're probably not going to be a top 10 team for home runs, but they could still be a team that's a top five offense,

even without that power. Overall, I will say that it's not concerning to me, and they're winning baseball games. However, I want to say in regards to the batting practice, It's there's no experience for a fan. At least there was no experience for me that was better than actually hitting on the field at Chase Field during a batting practice session. It's, it's legitimate one of the biggest joys I think a fan can get or can have. And I'm so glad you guys had a fun time.

Here's Jay Army's son hitting, I believe, in the cage. That's what we got. Oh, look at this. Wack. Ripped it. Wack. Ripped it. One more time.

Whang. I mean, did that go out, Jarmie? I don't know. That's, that's, that's, that's at least a double. That's him. Oh, that's you. Oh, that's you. That go out of the parks?

Let's go. We need to know. We need to know that. Again, I think, I was, I was reading that off the bat, off the launch angle. 110.7 mile per hour exit wheel. Home run at 30 and 30 ballparks. Yeah. 313, he says.

313. Goodness gracious. That's unbelievable. Well, again, offensively. 313 is crazy. That is crazy. I mean, how often are you hitting in the cages, Jason? Because I, like, we need to know.

Like, I don't know if that's like you just walking in cold hitting at 313 is like genuinely one of the most impressive things I've ever heard my life. If you're consistently swinging, you know, maybe I'll give you a little bit more leeway there for like, okay, he's primed and ready to go. But if he hasn't been swinging at all and he just, walked in and just went, yeah, let me just hit it 313 real quick. He said, I hadn't swung in anger in 30 years. My God.

Hell yeah. That a boy. Mark makes a good point here in regards to Jason's question. If you scroll down, he said something about home runs are like the three-pointer. You need to be able to hit them, but they can't be all you have. And again, right now the Diamondbacks are finding ways to win games without it. The home runs will come. I don't think that they're going to come and be crazy for anybody.

We should have a few guys that probably have. the 20 home run season. As it stands, though, right now, they don't need it. They're finding ways to get the ball in play, get runners home, and do it without the home run ball. So, and they face some tough lineups, some tough pitching here so far early this season. So there's something to be said about the teams they've played and how good of a job the starters for the opposition have done.

And even the bullpins, right? So hopefully this is just a slow start for the offense and they can find a way to to get more homers, but for now, baseball, just like strikeouts for Erod. Like, that's nice. It's great to see your pitcher have 10 strikeouts like Michael Soroka is doing. I'd much rather see someone that's a starting pitcher put up zero earned runs rather than Soroka putting up 10 strikeouts with four earned runs. That's just the fact that I'm old now.

And that's the brand of baseball I like. What else we got, Damon? Our next question here is from piece of Yoshi, who has a new avatar here. but says, do you guys think Brandon Marsh's base running blunder was caused by a judgment lapse that can only be attributed to the potential lice living in his greasy wet hair starting to eat away at his brain? Okay, well, I think we have actually a diagram of this that we were able to research and find, but just to just to frame this up for you guys,

what happened was a crucial moment in that game in the finale on Sunday, where Brandon Marsh was essentially trying to steal second base. with Adoles Garcia at the bat. And now Adola Garcia at one point, I had a two-0 count, and Marsh had successfully taken second. Like so successfully. He was there before the pitch was even in the,

in, who was it? It was ADC's glove or James McCann's glove? I think it was James McCann's glove. But regardless, it never got to James McCann's glove. That's the bigger point, because Adoles Garcia decided to foul that ball off instead of letting Marsh take second. And then later in the at bat,

He popped it up. Marsh already started going to second. For some reason, didn't backtrack and go back. And then he gets called out. The Diamondbacks get the double play by tagging him up at first base. It was a stupid play. It was a great thing to see if you were a Diamondbacks fan. And it kind of changed the game. But to answer Yoshi's question, we actually have a chart,

an image that we found. Ryoma says, thanks for the visual. Here's an actual visual. Yeah, this is the actual visual here. I know that the question was great, but so here what you see, this is a diagram of the bugs living inside of Brandon Marsh's head. As you can see, the queen tends to stay in the beard along with the eggs, but there are paths that lead up to his frontal lobe,

as well as farths of his brain. And yeah, this is basically what goes on inside of Brandon Marsh's greasy, greasy, beard and hair over the course of a Major League baseball game. And what's interesting about it is that there's actually a type of bird that lives here in the state of Arizona that feeds off of these bugs. Right, right, right. So it's crazy too because it like the bird stays outside of his head and then goes in through his nose. It nests in there. Oh, it's crazy. It nests in the beard.

Yeah, it's got a little baby birds. It brings sticks and puts it inside of his beard as well. It's pretty unbelievable. I think that was from a Philadelphia school district textbook, right? Like that was specifically a diagram that was laid out for children to understand. Oh, I thought it was a higher learning. Like, I thought it was like more like Villanova. Yeah.

That's what they're teaching people at Temple or Drexel or whatever university there. There's definitely a class that needs to be taught on the greasiness of Brandon Marsh's beard and hair. But the disgustingness of the Phillies 101. Let's get one more in before we get out of here, Damon. What else we got? Last question is from Geraldo Prudomo's biggest fan. What do you think Heraldo Prudomo's biggest fan's concern level of Haroldo Perdomo is right now?

Two, maybe. Well, then maybe he is the biggest fan or they are the biggest fan. You guys talked about it last week a little bit, but I want to know what you think it would take for the debacks to start a fight. Like what would have to happen? And then who do you think would be the one? to start that fight. That's a great question.

That is a fantastic question. Okay. So I think the D-backs might be the least we're going to, about to fight team in baseball. That's what we said. That's where this conversation came from. Like, we would have a hard time seeing this iteration of this Diamondbacks team fight. Not only would we have a hard time seeing them involve themselves in a fight and not try to squash it immediately and have it just whatever.

But we also think that there's no way this particular team is starting a fight. But in the, for, for this. example for this scenario. I would say that the thing that would cause the Diamondbacks to fight would be intentionally going after Corbin, Marte, Perdomo, right? I'm not even saying the other guys don't matter either, but if you... Maybe Gabby, too. Yeah, if you head hunt on one of those guys, you know, if you let it be known, like, Tori and

Bannister are going to be the ones that lead the charge on that. It's not even going to be the players. The first two guys on the field to fight you are going to be Tori, Salvatore LaVolo, and Jeff Bannister. You don't want to see Jeff Bannister in a ball. He will take off his shirt to fight you, like hockey style, just so that way you don't have something to grip onto and pull over his head. But I really do feel like it would need to be like just an egregious attack on one of their stars that, you know, could have been far more, you know, damaging, could have injured them. Something like that. I really feel like that's it.

Like that, that to me is the only way that we see this team fight. However, I don't know. I think that there's some chippiness. We can start weeding out players, I feel like, and cutting it down because like,

let's talk about it. Corbin's not starting a fight. Not even all. He's not participating in. Cattel's squashing it and hugging everybody that he can to try to. So with Pardoma. Same with Pardomo.

Right. Like now. Arnato has probably a lot of pent up frustration that he can. I can't wait to go out there and get in the fight right now, it might be that guy. It's Carl's, it's Arnado for a return. I think, you know, like, Pavin Smith might be the least fighting guy in the entire Major League Baseball, like in the history of the sport.

No one would rather get in a fight less than Pave and Smith. Right. Lawler won't get in a fight. Gabby, or no, Alec Thomas. Alec Thomas would run in all the way from center field to fight you. Ryan Thompson wants to get. Ryan Thompson 100%. And he's, how tall?

You don't want to see that guy. seven feet tall and you can't teach that. No, you can't. Andre the Giant. Our version. Look, Ryan Thompson is going to have a very promising pro wrestling career when all of this baseball nonsense is done for him and I cannot

wait to manage him, but until that day you can't have him coming out there. Imagine A.J. Puck being injured, but then just running out at you out of nowhere. Just like the biggest like... It's the neighbors from the birds. Aish looking dude you've ever seen in your life.

Oh, just terrifying. He looks like Moes from the office, but he's six and a half feet tall version of most. Oh, that's crazy. Pseoshi said that Aeronoto did start a brawl against the Mets in 22. So I think that Arnato is the guy who would start a brawl. 100% I think it's him. I agree. Out of our position players at least. And then pitchers, I think a little bit more up in the air.

Like I could see, I don't think he'd fight, but I think I think Meryl would talk some mess to somebody. Like I could see him get chippy with somebody. Merrill would definitely get chippy. Zach probably not so much. Brandon Fott, not so much. Ryan Nelson not so much. Hell no. Eduardo Rodriguez would probably step up on you.

But he has this calm energy to him that I don't know. I don't think he's very calm. He's very calm. I think Corbyn Burns has a little bit of fire to him. Like, I think Corbyn Burns, if he's fired up. If Erod shouted at you with that deep voice he had, he's like, Mira, what do you pass with gonzigua? You know, like that.

We don't have Tommy Fam anymore. had Tommy fam, we'd be like, oh, Tommy fan. It's Tommy fan. We all know it's Tommy fan. I know. But that's just not really, it's not the way of the world, I guess. This team really just- Everybody needs a Tommy fam. By the way, the, was it the Mets? I think the Mets are calling up Tommy Fam. That's the position there in after I think losing four games straight.

So that's what happens when you get beat by the D-backs like you did. But anyway, I think we're done. We got all of our questions in. We appreciate you guys so much. Mailback Monday would not be what it is without each and every one of you. So we appreciate your questions and we appreciate your time as always. And appreciate game time. And appreciate game time for getting us those low tickets. But let's also be back here for another game.

We got a game this afternoon against Baltimore Orioles and we will be back tomorrow with another post game show. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on social media. I'm at Cap underscore Kman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G at the end. And we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Back.

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful evening and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you know who's staying and who's going

in the starting rotation.