PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - One more for T-Love

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

On this Mailbag Monday episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing the upcoming three-game set against the Miami Marlins, Torey Lovullo passing Kirk Gibson for the most wins by a manager in franchise history, and the D-backs being the best bet in baseball. 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 D-Backs podcast right here at PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, officially known as your mayor of PHNX. And I'm joined by my vice mayor, the one and only Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. That way. He's that way. I don't know my left from my right now. There I am. There you are you over there.

How are you, sir? I am all right. I am all right. This Diamondbacks team has given us quite a bit to talk about over the last couple weeks. And I know for a lot of people, that's a bit of a. surprise given how the season started. So things are good. It's wild. They are the only team in baseball with a winning record that's also in last

place in their division. Tis the life of the NL West. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King's Sportsbook app. Now new customers can use our promo code of PHNX and bet just $5 on any NBA team to win their game. And you will get $150 in free bets if they do. That's promo code PHNX over at the the Draft King's sports book, and I don't know if I can make any guarantees on the Sons,

especially if Scott Foster is refereeing game five. But that's a whole other show. We don't do that here. We are where you come to get away from that chat, that stress, that pressure. There's a lot of things going on. A lot of high expectations with the Phoenix Suns. Not so much with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In fact, the only people that predicted the Diamondbacks to have a decent record besides me were the robots.

and of course you don't ever go against the robots don't ever what robots what robots i think it was baseball prospectus there was there was oh oh you're talking about uh you're talking about out of the park baseball which i think did a simulation where the diamondbacks won like like 94 games or something ridiculous like that that no no i'm not going that crazy but we will be talking uh playoffs very soon if they keep this upward trajectory going, Jesse, because the Diamondbacks find themselves one game over 500. Where is it going to go? I don't know.

But just in case it gets out of control, we made a fun graphic about how far over Mount 500 we can get. Jesse, let's go. How far can we go? Hey, if that wasn't one of your favorite games on Price's Right, then we can't be friends. But this is an exciting time for me. It's an exciting time for the Diamondbacks. now the diamond backs do have a one one game over 500 record 15 and 14 and again they have a pretty

not not not winnable series we won't take anything away from the marlins in case the diamondbacks end up you know having a tough time here because they are a very good team but yeah a couple of winnable series coming up and now you know looking at the marlins especially considering that they swept them we could find the diamondbacks maybe maybe two three games over 500 by the time this series is over, followed up by the Cubs, which could maybe add on a couple of more wins. I don't, what is this? What am I even talking about, Jesse? This seems crazy. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago, we would have said that you were just being completely irrational, which, I mean, to be fair, you normally are pretty irrational. So I guess, I guess nothing's

changed. But, but yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks so far, at least recently, have looked like a better team than the Marlins. They certainly proved that by sweeping them in Miami. And they certainly look like a better team than the Chicago Cubs, who are off to a 9 and 17 start or something like that. So yeah, the Diamondbacks have a chance this week to really make some headway. And, you know, I mean, the NOS, like you said before, the Diamondbacks are still sitting in last place. And it's going to be pretty hard for them to dig their way out of that. but at the very least this team is playing entertaining baseball and like you said earlier it's been really amusing seeing suns fans you know angrily turning off the sun's game and coming over and

watching zach gallon or merrill kelly throw another gem that that's the way it's been over the last few days and i think a lot of people have enjoyed it let's let's get more of that not more of that we don't want more of the sun's losing and people coming over we don't want to sacrifice no yeah we You would hope that the diamondbacks don't have to sacrifice their success for the suns and vice versa that the suns don't have to sacrifice theirs for the diamond backs. But it's been kind of a one or the other situation up until this point. So hopefully the scales have to balance. For those of you that have watched Moon Night, you know that the scales must balance. You got your heart on one side.

You got your feather on the other side. The scales got a balance. But Jesse, I will say that looking again, we talked about the pitching matchups yesterday. Let's take a look at the pitching matchups again between these two teams just because I'm excited about these matchups. I think the Diamondbacks have a great lineup going up against Hernandez tonight, who is arguably the worst pitcher in their rotation. And then they have some very good pitchers going up in Madison, Bumgarner, and Merrill Kelly for the rest of the series. And one of your big takeaways from your article that you just put up today on go phtonx.com about their success recently has been the starting pitching. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The starting pitching has been,

I mean, it's a 2.21 ERA as a staff so far, which is off the charts, ridiculous. And for those of you who read the article, I know I made some people angry by talking a little bit about how some of the numbers the Diamondbacks rotation has put up so far don't appear to be particularly sustainable. And I think I mentioned it. I was one of the angry people with you. You're dead to me. I told you. We're done with that.

We passed that point. We're not a small sample size. It's a larger sample size now. There are some tweets that I put out full well knowing that what I'm saying is sound and accurate to the best of my ability. And I'm still going to get slammed for it no matter what I do. And then I recognize that that's just the way that Twitter operates in general. The ball. Stop telling both sides of the story. The problem, Derek, is that the Diamondbacks Babip as a starting rotation is 233.

Babbib stands for batting average on balls in play. So, you know, as a pitcher, if you strike a guy out, you prevent them from putting the ball in play. And you're, you know, you don't subject yourself to the whims of all the things that can happen when a hitter puts the ball in play. You know, sometimes that, you know, hitters don't hit the ball well and it still drops in for a hit. Sometimes they smoke the ball and it gets caught. Those kinds of things happen all the time. The Diamondbacks starting rotation is 24th in strikeout rate up to this point in the season.

They're not they're not striking out that many guys. Even Zach Gallen's strikeout rate, I believe, is the lowest of his career. And for some of them, that could be a good thing. You know, Zach Allen is striking out fewer guys, but he's also walking way fewer guys. So it's a recipe that can work. But the flip side is that if you don't, if you don't mind if I cut in there a second. Sure. My hypothetical take here is, or at least my observation is, yes, they aren't striking out as many guys, but how much longer are they going in games now than we've seen them go previously? Yeah. And I'm talking about the last two seasons, if you want to call the last two seasons, two seasons, uh, but basically over the last few years, going back to

2019, the Diamondbacks have struggled with starting pitching going past six innings in a game. Just, I mean, we've even seen the likes of Robbie Ray leave here and all of a sudden find the ability to go long while still striking out a lot of guys. He didn't necessarily sacrifice his strikeout rate. But I feel like what we're seeing right now out of the Diamondbacks is pitching to contact more. And so far, it's been working, especially for someone like Tonight Starter, Umberto Castiano's who really doesn't have great stuff,

but has been effective at going out there at times and putting zeros up on the scoreboard and having a quality outing. That's a very fair point. Yeah. And the diamond backs genuinely have been good this season at preventing hard contact. And that's what a lot of people were saying in response to the tweet was like, hey, yes, the diamondbacks might maybe it appears they're getting lucky, but they're really just preventing hard contact.

should start with the mayor's friendly I will viciously attack anybody here at PHNX I'll attack Totry again Totry's writing an article and he started it with the exact same word I started my article with and I want to fight him over it so this is me calling Tertry out live on the network What word?

What word was it? Examining, examining. Oh, okay. That's not a common way to start off an article title I know he stole it from me. I know you stole it from me, Totri. And Shane just came in here and told me I had permission to murder him. So that's that's now allowed.

But anyway, what? No murder? Okay, what did you say? Just go after? Just fight him. Okay. He said, I can fight him. Okay.

That's fine. Whatever. Well, the results of the fight are the results of the fight. We'll let that stand where it is. But anyway, I will say that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, biggest takeaway here is, uh, is that the diamond backs right now are on a role and are about to make a little bit of history for their manager, Tori LeVolo. Of course, Tori Lovolo has been around for a while. I've been around for a long time. This is the third manager I've covered. And that, and Tori Lovol has been here for a long time. So that means I'm just, I'm just old. Now, Jesse is what my thought is. But, uh, Toro Lovolo needs just one more win tonight could be that night to tie Kirk Gibson for the most wins by a man. and franchise history.

So I guess my first thought here is what are your thoughts on Lavello and his time as a manager? Because I'm not going to be partial. I'm just going to talk about how much I love him for probably five straight minutes. So you can start this off by being a little bit more rational and unbiased. I think that Tori Lavello's managerial career started about as well as it possibly could. I mean, the Diamondbacks were coming off a very disappointing 2016 season. And yeah, I mean, they went out and spent a lot of money and traded away a lot of very good players in order to bring in Zach Grangey and Shelby Miller only to see the whole thing blow up in their face in a pretty dramatic way that season.

And Tori Lavello came in here and, you know, the moment, the moment he got in town, the Diamondback suddenly were a contending team. I think they won 93 games that year. Of course, they made the playoffs. They were a wildcard team. Didn't make it past the Dodgers in the first round. but it was a memorable season. And it's been a while. I mean, the Diamondbacks have,

that's the only playoff run they've had since 2011. So they, you know, their playoff appearances have been few and far between. And Tori was a big part of getting them there. Since then, I think that people have always respected Tori Lavello. Everyone knows that he has a reputation as a players manager, as a guy that players want to play for,

that they're motivated to play for, that they just genuinely love as a human being. And I think as reporters, we can understand that, right? I mean, when you're in a room with Tori Lavello, it's hard not to like that guy, just as a human being. He's, he's very friendly. It's not just that he's friendly. It's not just that he's a good guy because he's all of those things, right?

But he is one of the most respectful human beings I've ever covered in sports, right? There's a lot of egos in sports. they vary from you know he has none he has no ego and at times his patience with just us as media right sometimes the questions we ask the things that we say he rarely gets his feathers ruffled by the questions he he has no problem telling us straight up like hey i know you got a job to do you know because i there's people that like tories so much that when they do have to ask those tough questions they preface them with some sort of apology, like almost saying like, yeah, he doesn't like that. Yeah, he does not.

He doesn't because he knows we have a job to do and just like they have a job to do, right? And he never has a problem answering those tough questions because he knows there's no emotions behind it. He definitely, I don't know, like sometimes I wonder how Tori LaValle would be in front of a big market like L.A. or like New York, especially New York. I mean, he wasn't, he wasn't Boston. He wasn't their manager, but he was their bench coach, and he managed a number of games for them. And again, it's a similar, it's a similar kind of market, definitely tough sports fans and tough media that ask those kind of questions. So that's, that's where it comes from.

But I think for me, one of my favorite moments, Jesse, was the first time I ever heard Tori Lovolo, curse. And it was during that season, that magical season where they became a wildcard team. It was during my first chance to be in the clubhouse while the Diamondbacks celebrated something when they clinched that wildcard birth. This wasn't the winning of the wild card birth, but it was when they clinched it. And Tori Lobolo used some colorful language to motivate his team while basically, you know, we were all there, which is something we as media never get to see. Right? These are things that occur behind closed doors,

and we're not there for that. And Lovalo was a very, he's a very respectful person. He would never speak like this publicly or anything like that. And I had never heard a bad word come out of his mouth up to this point after covering him for, you know, an entire season.

And man, when he gave his, little speech during their celebration in the clubhouse. I have never in my life been ready to run through an actual brick wall for somebody. But Tori could have asked me to do it.

And I would have made a new doorway in that clubhouse, man. Derek, you realize he wasn't talking to you. You were a reporter. You were not one of the players. Yeah, you'd say he wasn't talking to me. But the fun part about being around this entire sport and doing this

is to get, equally motivated in life by the things that that these guys say and that they do. Tori Lavallo talks about winning the day, right? And that's something that I personally, I even kind of joke about it with my friends at times, but it's the truth, right? You want to try to not overwhelm yourself with tomorrow and beyond at times because it can be very overwhelming. It can be a lot to take on.

I know doing this job can be a lot to take on. can be a lot to take on, even though I absolutely love this job more than any job I've ever had, right? To bring you guys this show and to do the stuff we do, it can be overwhelming at times, right? So sometimes all you can do is make it, make it a little bit easier on yourself and just focus on the task at hand, when today, try to be one and oh today, right? So that's just an example of some of the stuff, but it's like being around Monty. I can't ever imagine being around Monty Williams and not eventually having his teaching, his philosophy, all those little Montyisms actually start to be something that registers with you, even though,

like you said, he's not talking to the media. He's talking to his guys, but to hear that stuff, you know, get you fired up. And like, for me personally, it was, it was one of the greatest moments I ever remember of Tori because, like, I don't know. It's like anything. And not a lot of people got to see it. I mean, there is video of it from me that you can see it. But like, there is like few people that got to be in that room and to got to,

you know, that ended up getting to see that speech. So like it's, for me, it was like the great moment from a movie or something like that. It was really special, you know. And it's, I mean, I guess you guys, you guys probably couldn't film it, I assume. Was this like within the clubhouse like a place where you couldn't have? No, actually. I could. I could and did.

and I will find that video somewhere because it's on YouTube. It still lives somewhere out there. But yeah, it's just, I don't know. It was, it's also really well-placed curse word, right? I went to see Mick Foley, the famous WWE wrestler. And he does a good comedy storytelling show. And he tells you that he's going to only use the F word one time. And it's going to be worth it when he does.

And that's the exact kind of feeling this was. it was like the first time I heard it from Tori LaVolo definitely wasn't the last, but it was very impactful when I did hear it. But I did want to ask you, before we move on from this, Tori Lavallo, what are your thoughts on the Diamondbacks extending him beyond with the way that this season is going right now? So far, so good. I mean, 15 and 14, so far so good.

I don't think you could really ask for more from what this Diamondbacks team has to work with from a roster standpoint. I mean, they're getting pretty much everything out of this roster that you could imagine. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's very possible. If this season continues to go well, Toro Lavello could be, you know, not just the winningest manager in franchise history, but really the first manager who sticks around for a long time, the Diamondbacks haven't really stuck with managers generally for very long.

Toro Lavello has already managed more games than any other manager in franchise history. So, and yes, Chris Melton mentions the, the Yadi incident, which of course is a legendary, a legendary moment in his career. Yeah, I, I just wonder, do we, if they keep on this same trajectory without really, let's say they don't break out too much more than this. And again,

they finish somewhere near what my prediction was of 82 and 80. Would you see him getting extended prior to the end of the season? Or do you think that's just going to be business they take care of at the end of the year? I would I would yeah I mean I guess the the timing of it is more semantics I don't necessarily feel strongly about exactly when it would happen but um but I mean yeah if they if they win 82 games I think it's a I think it's a no brainer at that point I mean Tori is Tori I think the the diamond backs leadership has probably suspected that Tori was never really the problem I never really a problem in this organization you know maybe there were there were some dysfunction around him um there were some things that didn't go as they should in the organization, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he was the problem. And this year appears to be confirming that. I completely agree.

And by the way, we talked about Jesse's article that you can get over at go phtonx.com. If you're a member already, you can get that article right now. And that is our, Jesse's five takeaways, observations from the D-BAC series went over the Rockies. If you're not a member, sign up now. you get an annual membership and you'll get yourself a free t-shirt for any t-shirt you want from

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So sign up today, become part of the family, and join us here. Jesse, of course today, it wouldn't be complete. If we didn't do what we normally do every Monday, and of course, every week here at the P. P. HNX, DBAX podcast is Shark Week. And every day is Earth Day. And every Monday, we go to the mailbag.

So we're going to see if anybody has any mailbag Monday questions for us. Do we do we have the song by chance or is the song not available? We don't, we don't have this. It's, it's all right. There's going to be a lot of people angry about that, but that's fine. There's going to be a lot of people. They can all be angry at me. I'm going to, okay, well, I know who to.

Can you hum it? Can you hum it there? I should have Megaran pop in right now and just do it live before I should have happen. We need to have Megarand pop. And it would be incredible. Yeah, he's just going to talk. Well, we want to keep Megaran as far away from, you know, basically the Sons as possible. So we might need to keep the, you know, him away from the Diamondbacks as well.

But we have- He wrote an incredible. The outro song that he wrote for, I think it's an outro song that he wrote for P.HNX Sons is, I mean. It's really good. It's really good. I'm kind of mad because, like, he's my friend. and yeah yeah yeah it doesn't feel right falls in the comments yeah saw how did you get a song before me he's my friend

uh but we do have some questions by the way on twitter already for mailbag monday if you are here drop them in the comments please ask us whatever may be on your mind but our first question on twitter comes from our friend sean mcnally our sean sean mcnally um and he asked actually a couple of questions but he says i know it's early still. But if the success keeps up, do the debacks become buyers at the trade deadline? And then if so, big arms for the bullpen and agree that the three-headed monster rotation gives them a playoff advantage. Let's take that one question at a time. Buyers at the trade deadline, I don't even know what we're, I don't even know we're talking about

anymore. This is all crazy. Yeah, I think there's a chance, right? I mean, they've been conservative in their moves so far. But several of those moves have worked out pretty well. Zach Davies has worked out well. Kyle Nelson has worked out well. So the Diamondbacks have had moves for guys that weren't big names, people that you didn't really immediately say this guy was going to make a huge impact on the roster, but they've been good.

So I don't think it's out of the question to see them be buyers and try to make some trades to bring in maybe some pieces. If their record is good enough. which really easily could be the way they're playing right now. It's definitely tricky in the NL West. I mean, you pretty much have to know in advance. There's no way you're winning the NLS division. And so at that point, you're looking at winning one of the wildcard spots.

And, you know, with the Padres and the Giants and the Dodgers, you know, one of those teams is probably going to win the division. The other two are probably going to be wild card teams. And that doesn't account for any wildcard teams from the rest. of the national league. You've only got one more spot after that. So it's going to be tough for them to find their way into a spot where they're legitimately in a position to make the playoffs. You know, even if they're around 82 and 80 by the end of the year, even if they're around a 500 team at the deadline, I'm not sure that's enough for the debacks to really push in the chips, at least not on anyone big. Like they're not, they're not going to go get, you know,

some big name closer or something. It's just, we're too early in the process. The diamondbacks have too many good prospects that are close. And you're just not going to, you're not going to trade those guys, you know, just for this season to try to go get something. Would I be surprised to see them make moves to try to make themselves better if they are somehow find themselves?

Yeah. Games over 500. Not at all. But I agree with you. I think you're playing with house money with this season if this team ends up being good. It depends on how good they are, but we don't feel like their ceiling is much higher than where it's at now, right? Like right now, they're overachieving as it stands. If they continue down this

path of, you know, stay in a couple of games over 500 or maybe even being better, I think that's a bit of a trap where you start getting tempted to try to make those big moves to make the team significantly better for this season. But that could result in, you know, maybe maybe, maybe getting rid of some pieces that they should hold on to for the future. I think that's, that's the big key right now. this point. If they can make a move that that does kind of help them make, make them better without parting away with any, any big pieces, I don't think that's out of the question, but I don't see them being like, like you said, like going for a big name that's going to, you know, be a big story. Now, with Brent Strom and the way that they have been frugal, kind of shopping a bit out

of the bargain bin. I wouldn't be surprised if they did make a move for a guy that maybe didn't seem to move the needle at much, but maybe he can come over here and can contribute and help this team win games. But his last question I like a lot, which is agree that the three-headed monster rotation gives them a playoff advantage. I can't believe we're here saying this about their strike in rotation. Oh, wow.

But I mean, right now, they're pitching pretty well. I think of the three pieces, I still am a bit skeptical about Madison Bum Gardner's numbers so far. I'd like to see a bit bigger of a sample size before I am ready to say they're that formidable. But yeah, Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen seem to be a pretty tough one-two matchup. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a bit of a stretch. Let's see more than a month of top nine. performance before we, you know, we talk about Dback starters matching up with other teams aces in a in a playoff series. But it's not a, I mean, it's not a crazy proposition. I think

Zach Allen has pretty much proven at this point in his career that he's worthy of, you know, getting starts in a postseason series. I think he's definitely at that point. Merrill Kelly is, is a guy who appears to be working his way in that direction. I'm not sure anyone is, is, you know, taking him over Clayton Kirshah or something in a playoff matchup at this point. But although granted, the, yeah, the 1990s braids. Yes, we are. We are that. So, yeah, well, we'll see.

I mean, we just need to see more of this rotation before I think we can make any claims like that. Is the three-headed monster? Is that, is Zach Davies the third guy or is Madison Bumgarner the third guy? Zach Davies is not the third guy. the third guy would be the three guys that were in the top five for pitching ERA for the entire league. I just I would make the argument. I would make the argument.

I gingerly stroked and tossed out of the game early. By the way, Dan Bellino not only issued that apology, but apparently was disciplined by MLB and was fine. I think with a fine. Yeah. Was not going to miss any time like you probably should. But at least to hit some in the pocketbook, which I believe is probably.

probably also going to happen to Madison Bumgarner automatically for getting tossed from the game, but whatever. Small price to pay to be able to yell what he yelled right in that guy's face. Next question comes in the comments from the clutch Canuck, and he asks, will Carson Kelly be moved at the deadline if Thomas and Varsho thrive at center field and catcher? I don't know about that. I don't know. I think right now, the one, I think, I think what everybody would like to see his Varsho playing catcher so that we can have Alec Thomas in Center Field and have this kind of lineup of the young guys growing.

Carson Kelly right now, you know, I don't know what to say. Hopefully the injury has something to do with, you know, his inability at the plate and his lack of success this season. He has looked lost in more than one way at times. And I just think right now, the Diamondbacks have a different philosophy about that. I think last year, Carson Kelly probably would have had way more time considering,

you know, I know the injury is why he's on the IL right now, right? But, you know, he would have been given way more opportunity last season. This year, Varsho is hitting really well, and the pitching staff really seems alike, Jose Herrera. So I don't know what to say about him other than his value isn't very high. So that's the one thing I think protecting him from being. traded, but who knows? At this point, he's expendable, I would say,

with the way that things are going for this team otherwise. Chris makes a good point in the comments, saying I'm concerned about the total effect of more reps at the dish for Varsho. Just that, yeah, you want, I mean, you want Varshow in there every single day of the lineup that you can get him. I mean, he's been arguably the team's best offensive player so far this season. And yeah, Carson Kelly. is he's struggled quite a bit this season offensively and even defensively at times.

Things haven't looked quite as sharp as we've seen in past years. And I think you're right, the leash is probably a little bit shorter. I don't think the Diamondbacks want to play Dalton Varsho at catcher, to be frank. He's been a tremendously valuable center fielder. And when you discover that your average, slightly below average catcher can play like a dynamite center field. You generally pick the dynamite center field as where you want to play him every day. So I think that's the ideal situation. But I mean, now that Alec Thomas is here, there's a bit of a traffic jam there. From what we've heard from Mike Hazen and Tori Lavello, it almost sounds like

once Carson Kelly comes back that Alec Thomas at that point might be out of an opportunity. I think that's probably just more kind of forcing Thomas to prove that he belongs rather than giving him that spot in the long term up front. But yeah, the issue with trading Carson Kelly is there's just not a lot of value there right now. I mean, you're going to want to see some signs of life. You're going to want to see his value take up before you consider moving a guy like that in a trade.

Exactly. Exactly. And then we'll never hear the end of it about the Paul Goldschmidt trade. Yeah, that's the other thing. You got to be pretty careful about who you trade Carson Kelly for because, I mean, you don't like actually, but you know that fans are going to think of this trade in that. way for a long time. Brute Squad says somebody is going to be the odd man out as long as Walker,

Paralta Ahmed are on the team guys like Smith and Varsha are going to be stuck playing out a position. He's not wrong. And part of that is the reason why we didn't see this team go after some more free agents, right? Today we had Alcantra, Sergio Alcantra was picked up off waivers by the Padres. And yeah, of course, because at some time when we play the Padres, Sergio Alcantra is going to have the game of his life against us.

And that's the way moves like that go for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But there's, unfortunately, there's been a lot of tough decisions that have had to be made this season by the Diamondbacks. And, you know, it's mostly because this team is sifting through the pieces that they have to try to find the guys that can perform, right? You're going to have bad outings like Noe Ramirez has had, but then Noe Ramirez was excellent in the series against the Rock. So, you know, you're, you're going to have those times when, you know, the pieces aren't going to always be 100%, but they know who they can count on and they're figuring that out, right? It's kind of weird because certain guys haven't had that many opportunities and they got sent down right away. You could just tell that there's way more to the bad performances than just having a bad day, right? There's a lot of taking the coaching.

There's a lot of things going on that the team has. is looking at even when you go 0 for 4 at the plate or make an error or anything like that or have a bad outing as a pitcher. That's why it's very interesting to me that they haven't really given Caleb Smith many opportunities this year. And they seem to be all in on him coming into the season. So that's to me the big reason why it feels odd that they did such a 180 when it comes to him.

But it's like what we were just saying about this team right now. this team really isn't you know they're not holding guys for a long time they're not giving guys many opportunities because they seem to have a lot of a lot of a lot of a lot of guys that are ready for this opportunity uh you know that the the wonderful game that we had with alec thomas and his debut it's i mean it was a special moment but he had a big game right uh but it's just one day right he doesn't necessarily stay here just based on that one performance, he has to maintain it. And if he can, I don't think it's a guarantee, like you said,

that he's going to necessarily be sent down when Carson Kelly comes back. They'll have another difficult decision to make at that point. But it's really after Alec Thomas at this point to decide on how long he stays here more than, more than Tori Lavolo and Mike Hazen. He has kind of a unique batting stance, just like a unique approach at the plate. He kind of has this like loading up motion sort of a deal when when the pitch is on the way. And yeah, I think from what I've heard, there seems to, and this I guess happens every time you call up a young player like Alec Thomas. But I've heard from a lot of people that Alec Thomas more so than other prospects might be prone to struggling a little bit out of the gate, just based on his approach at the plate.

He's a pretty aggressive hitter. It's possible it could take just a little bit longer for him to adapt. to big league pitching than some other prospects. And I mean, almost every prospect that Diamondbacks have called up over the last few years has had that adjustment period. Dalton Varsho really struggled for, you know, 50 or 100 games before he really found his stride offensively. So I think even though people are super excited for Alec Thomas and rightfully so, you also

want to recognize that it's possible that, you know, that one for three game that he had with a double to open up his career, there might be some bumps and bruises. over the next few weeks we'll have to see. And we're fickle as hell. We're fickle as fans, Jesse. We are not, we do not give people a long time. I remember when Dalton Varsho came up, Dalton Varsho was the highly touted prospect.

I know I've talked about this before, but like you said, his struggles made people kind of just chalk it up to him being, yeah, he's a little guy, he doesn't really seem like he fits in. Right, right. You can really, you can really be fooled by a, by a young prospect, finding their way, not playing well for even like a full season,

and then realize like, oh, this guy's actually pretty good. He just needed some time to adjust. And Alec Thomas might need that time. Varsho has been incredibly versatile for this team. Again, something Toro Lovallo loves. But, and I'm interested actually to see how things go for him as catcher, you know, because again, that's, that versatility is going to be the thing I think that allows him to get, you know, to play a lot of games, to get a lot of reps, right? And, and to provide

that versatility for Lovolo late in games when he needs to bring somebody in. It's just between him and Josh Rojas, I swear they have like six out of the nine positions covered. They're fine. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. And Dalton Bar Show are available. But I saw a question from the Clutch Canuck who said, who would lead the debacks in Jersey sales by the end of the year. I don't know what kind of question that is because it's obviously going to be Seth Beer. I mean, as long as beer. It would have been Seth Beer 30. Seth Beer jerseys would have been by far the biggest seller.

But that's another thing that you got to go talk to one of Jake McCarthy about. So that's a different thing. But what do you think, Jesse? Anybody going to beat beer out for sales? Do you think it's going to be like an actual like maybe all-star player like Zach Gowan or Catele-Martee? Well, so I'm curious. You might have a better idea of this than I would.

Are Seth Beer uniforms actually for sale in the team shop already? You can already buy a Seth Beer. I saw a Seth Beer Serpientis jersey for sale. Wow. Wow. They're really going for it. They are going for it. I mean, you'd be a full not to.

You would absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, you would. You would. Yeah. I mean, Seth Beer has really struggled over the last few weeks. And so I do think that that jersey was probably selling like crazy, you know, over the first week or so when Seth Beer was batting 400. Maybe things have cooled off a little bit since then.

But yeah, I mean, if Seth Beer is just like a viable major league player, you naturally feel like he's going to outpace all other jersey sales just by virtue of his name being ridiculous and amazing. So there you go. All right. Chris Melton asks, has there been a follow-up on the communication device from dugout to picture in college? How's it going? Yeah, actually, they, I think from my understanding, everything's been approved. Aren't they already using a device similar to that right now at a major league level that isn't as sophisticated yet? But they want to start allowing that because, again, I mean, I don't see a reason why not.

Yeah, it just makes it easier for the catcher and the pitcher to communicate during the game. As long as the opposing team can't like intercept the signal or something like that, which of course, it's only a matter of time. But yeah, we've seen some some Diamondbacks pitchers have used the system. I think it's optional from what I can tell. If you want to use it, you can. I don't think a majority of pitchers and catchers are using it just yet. but within a few years, it really could be a significant part of the game.

I wouldn't be surprised. And then I wouldn't be surprised for a week after it becomes like an actual part of the game that they figure out some way to completely intercept those signals. How does it impact catchers calling the game? I think for the most part, it just requires less signaling to the catcher for the most part, right? It's just mostly about conveying from the dugout to the catcher, how they want to proceed with attacking a batter instead of having to sign in some cases from a manager

to a third base coach who then has to then change the signs up and do different signs to the catcher so that these signs aren't being intercepted by the other team. So yeah, it's kind of ridiculous. And in 2022, we should be using technology in a way a little bit more to expedite this process. Brute Squad says the crowd noises seem to be an issue as well. Yeah.

So like I mean, that would make sense because I know in some cases they're speaking to the catcher, right? Through like in the college game right now, they have like a headset and stuff, right? So there's a lot of stuff going on. I mean, it's mostly just trying to make sure that they get the information across. And baseball is what it is. you know it the the signing and everything is part of it and uh it's ridiculous uh and i could only imagine uh trying to figure out the signs on o g's gummies jesse i couldn't imagine it uh i couldn't imagine what are today's signs i don't know what were yesterday's signs i don't remember i don't know

any of this anymore but of course if you want to forget what all the signs are go to o g's brands stop by your local dispensary grab some amazing scratch made t hc gummies for our friends at OGs. You can even get a new microdose option that won't make you forget as much. But of course, you can get those exclusively at Zen dispensaries until the end of this week. So after that, you'll be able to find those everywhere. But go try the delicious variety of flavors that our friends at OG's brands has to offer. They really do have some amazing flavors. Michaela loves the orange cream school. We talked about that the other day. I ate melted orange creamstacle. They were still delicious.

But melted, interesting. Do you leave it in the car? You know that. You can't leave stuff like that in your car in Arizona. There's another tip for you. You know, again, first dip your toes in the water. Don't, you know, don't eat a half of a piece. Don't eat a whole piece.

Then the other tip, don't leave the OG's brand's gummies in the car because they will absolutely melt. But again, the 3 milligram microdose option is available now exclusively at Zenleaf locations through May 11th. If you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEZBrands.com to find OGs near you. And Jesse, I want to tell you something about the Arizona Diamondbacks. They've been a lot of things this season.

They've been good. They've been bad. It's been ugly at times. But the Arizona Diamondbacks have actually been your best bet in baseball. It's wild. It's wild. According to Covers.com, which tracks how much betters would be up or down if they bet $100 on each team in each game. The Diamondbacks have been the most profitable team in baseball by a good amount.

They have made a solid $688 profit for that hypothetical $100 better. The New York Mets are second on that list with a $530 profit, which just goes to show you can bet on the Diamondbacks win or lose, you're going to win some money. This is a good team to bet on. This is a good team to go to the Drafking Sportsbook and bet on. What are your thoughts? I mean, they're overcoming the odds, literally. I mean, like no other team in baseball, really. And that's what happens. I mean, when people don't expect you to win and you keep winning games like the Diamondbacks have done, you know, when people expect your starting rotation to be one of the worst and it has a 2.21 ERA through 29 games. these kinds of things happen and it's it's pretty crazy i miss brute squad's question uh point there though

about picturing me handing out gummies like uh like the girl out of the bus at the end of ferris bueller i love this comment for so many reasons but once again reminds me that lindsay on the phnx sun show said that ferris bueller was an overrated movie on her list and i will never forgive her for that as long as I do. I have actually seen that movie and I do I did really enjoy it. It's such a good movie. See, you know one thing that's valuable about that movie for me as a baseball fan, Jesse? Is that when I was a young lad, it made looking like ditching school and going to a baseball game. Ah. The ultimate end goal. You go to a museum, you go to a baseball game. You have yourself a great day.

You go to a nice place and, you know, make the matri-D pretend you're Abe Frommon. King of the Sausages. But that's, oh, that's such a great movie. And I, like infuriating right now, just to think of someone calling it overrated.

I hate it so much. I mean, it is very like, everyone knows that, that movie. So, I mean, it has,

it has tons and tons of hype built up over many, many years. I think what's the difference is, is for me now, these movies are becoming kind of like the way that I've, felt when I was younger about like, older movies. movies, or at least at least movies I perceived were older movies, right?

Like Casablanca and Gone with the Win and stuff like that, I was like, whatever, you know, but according to every source when I was a child, these were classics. Now a classic is a John Hughes movie, period, the end. That's the way it works. But Ferris Bueller, by far, one of the greatest films ever made. That's all I got. By the way, according to Covers.com, you need to go to the Draft King's Sportsbook

can bet on the Arizona Diamondbacks. Go do it right now. We have about 20 minutes until first pitch. So go get on there. What they didn't show was Ferris was planning his day six months of advance just to be able to get tickets. Yeah, Riggly Field. Oh, don't ever change. But go bet on the Arizona Diamondbacks right now in the Draft King Sportsbook. If you're a new customer, you can bet on basketball, get yourself $150 in free bets. And that's easy enough. All you got to do is bet $5 or more on any team to win. And as long as they do, you will get $100. $150 in free bets. Then you take those free bets. You bet them on a same game parlay.

You bet them on the Arizona Diamondbacks. You spread them all around. Existing customers can get down on the same game parlayes. Create your own parlay by combining multiple bets like which team will win. Total three is made. Local total rebounds, all sorts of stuff. Diamondbacks games get down on what inning they're going to score. And sometimes even with the live betting, you can bet like if there's going to be a run,

score this inning. That's extra fun when the Arizona Diamondbacks have people in scoring position. but you know they're not going to score. That's, I don't know lately. I don't even know. I can't even do that anymore because the Arizona and downbacks actually are scoring with runners in scoring position. So right now, all customers, new and existing,

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gambling problem. 1,800 next step. New customers only minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. I'm missing all these great comments. What are we talking about? We hit our...

Well, yeah, why are we, no, let's not, where are we doing this? We hit our Yasmani Tomas. We got to get our, yeah. For the month. I mean, we haven't, right? We haven't reminded ourselves about that terrible, terrible incident and how we got out of it right when the DH became part of the National League. But that's a whole other story.

I've said it before. I've said it before many times. Yasmani Tomas was not a good baseball player. You have the DH and he becomes slightly less bad. he doesn't become a good baseball player if you if you put him at dh so i wouldn't feel too sad about about that in retrospect all right well that's i'm just i'm tired some guy had a yosmani tomash jersey at uh at the sun watch party and it was glorious by the way it was it was the it was the vest jersey the purple shirt white vest pinstrives jersey was a sharp look

but for the wrong player and all the wrong reasons uh We thank you guys again for checking out the show, of course. 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-BACs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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We don't want to, look, we're not going to pressure you into doing anything you don't want to do. But all I'm going to say is I will keep running this Baxter climbing mountain 500 video over a thousand times until we get you to give us five-stop. Fantastic. We thank you guys again for checking out the show. Of course, on behalf of Jesse and myself, we appreciate you taking the time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you climb Mount 500.