PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Paul Sewald BLOWS Third Consecutive Save, Spoiling Yilber Diaz’s Diamondbacks Debut

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald blew his third consecutive save for the first time in his career, spoiling starting pitcher Yilber Diaz’s stellar debut in a loss to the Braves. We discuss if the D-backs need to look to another option at closer and who that would be, the offense generating just four singles, and more. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast live from Studio K, brought to you by our friends at Circle K. And there's a lot of places I would rather be, including a Circle K, than here right now talking about this game because this one sucked. This was Paul Seawald's third consecutive blown save, and the Diamondbacks dropped this one to the Atlanta Braves. by a score of five to four. But we have more on why maybe the Diamondbacks didn't deserve to even win this game and why they might have to go elsewhere for their closer besides Paul Seawald. Of course, my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor, PHNX. I am here with my dog, Damon Dog, on the ones and twos, and Jesse Friedman will be joining

us here shortly from Chasefield. Yes, folks, it's time to get angry. it's time to get your pitch forks. I'm not even going to hold you folks back anymore because tonight what we saw was the Arizona Diamondbacks find a way on a night where their offense was not productive to take a lead into the ninth inning

and almost win against a team the caliber of the Atlanta Braves. Instead, Paul Seawald, their closer remains unreliable in his third consecutive game where he's blown a save where he was down to his final strike, two outs with two strikes. And unfortunately, things didn't go Paul Seawald or the Arizona Diamondbacks way.

The Diamondbacks, let's just say it. They should be on a nine-game winning streak right now as we speak after having swept both the Dodgers and the Padres starting off this series against the Braves with a win. Of course, that's not the reality that we, live in. We live in this reality where Paul Seawald unfortunately spoils a wonderful debut for Yilbert Diaz. And of course, now we have to talk about it. Because you, as you may have heard on the broadcast, as you may have heard Bert bring up during the game. I don't know if I heard it. I did you? No, I missed it. Yeah. Like, because they were like, well, what it was was approaching the

situation and teeing it up so nicely where you're like, Paul Seawald. in his career has never blown three saves. By the way, Paul Seawald, not sure if you've heard this, never blown three consecutive saves. He said that? I actually didn't hear him. Oh, yeah, yes. You know you heard him say it because it made us sick. It made us sick.

And I mean, again, what else makes us sick? But it was Paul Seawald again, giving up a home run in the bottom of the ninth. It comes in in the ninth. Of course, there were people, many of you that are here in the chat, which we thank you guys for being wonderful and being here in the but many of you were probably very, very worried just as much as we were that, you know, the Diamondbacks were going to turn to Seawald and it was going to go this way. Of course, he comes in in the ninth. He gets Azuna and Duval to fly out, down to two outs.

Eddie Rosario, who is Eddie Rosario, singles on a one-two count. Paul Seawald down to his final strike. Rosario gets on base and then Sean Murphy hits a two-run, home run. side the game. Seawald works one inning, gives up two hits, two earn runs, one strikeout. I mean, there's talk of people in our Discord and that, again, as many of you that would like to see Paul Seawald potentially DFAed at this point. And that sounds crazy, except having watched the way that this team has played. And how, like I said earlier,

they should be on a nine game winning streak with the way the rest of the team that is not Paul Seawald has played. And, you know, it comes a point where the big question, the big, I guess the one thing everybody wants, right, is, you know, you see someone in your bullpen like J-Mart throwing 100 miles an hour. And it makes all the sense in the world for him,

to be that closer. You forget potentially. That's the problem. It's exactly the problem is that we have three guys right now who are pitching really well. Yeah. Ryan Thompson, Ginkle, and, you know, J-Mart. So when you see those horses go out there and work and then C-Walt blows three games in a row, naturally you start thinking, well, then these guys should be getting the prime closing opportunities.

Yeah. So that's where it's hard as Diamondbacks fans. But where it's hard as when you're the Diamondbacks organization is C.Wald hadn't blown any saves prior to this week. Yeah. And then like. Now we can't. Now he can't get a save. A week.

A week loses you your spot. A bad week loses you your spot. But like it's such a bad week. It's egregiously bad. Like it's it's so bad that questions do need to be raised for sure. And it's understandable. And we also saw Tori go to Humberto Castiano's, for instance, who was able to go out there and get the job done in a safe. opportunity that of course we predicted we knew castiano's was going to be getting save opportunities

no i kid but uh of course you know the one thing that may have been lost on some people is that justin martinez was also getting hit very hard tonight by the braves when he came into the game in extra innings uh i mean it was it the same as paul seewald i don't know and i don't know if just martinez necessarily would have come in and and save the game it feels like he would have it feels like Paul Seawald was very close. So I think that's the problem. Now you have Paul Seawald go out there, be effective against two batters, and because unfortunately he wasn't able to keep Rosario off base and keep Sean Murphy from

hitting that home run, you know, it looks like he's completely ineffective. And you do have people wondering why the Diamondbacks don't move on completely from Paul Seawald. Forget just finding another closer and giving Paul Seawall a different role. People just want the Diamondbacks to move on from Seawald. I feel like we've gotten on, you know, kind of a pace now with this team where we as fans, that's kind of been the fix, right? Is when you have a guy that you thought was the guy getting the job done or that you might pay a lot of money because they should be or once were what they were. And right now they're not.

The Diamondbacks haven't had a problem moving on. And it feels like now the amount of time that we as fans wait or want to allow. guy like Seawald with the way he's pitching lately to impact this team negatively. It's like, you know, you just instantly want to see them make that switch, make that change. Tori said on the post game tonight that Paul Seawalt is still their closer. And I very, very, very much understand anybody wanting to challenge that or question that, right? I think that what Damon said

said it best though the baseball world at times it's you know it's 162 game season but the game that we just watch seems like the most important one right and watching Paul Seawald blow an effort by this team that was able to I won't even say this team

fuck that the offense doesn't deserve to be included in this I will say they blew the effort that Yilbert Diaz made in his debut and that's what sucks because the offense deserves very little credit tonight and that's why at the top of the show i said maybe this team didn't even deserve to win this game four singles four singles was what the diamondbacks did on offense tonight after the way that they performed in los angeles and against the san diego padres the diamondbacks come in this game and they hit four singles against a guy who got called up from triple a a minor leagher i mean i know

the guy was an all-star last year, but he, like, it was kind of a fake kind of all-star, you know, first half of the season by Bryce Elder. Like, he's not a very good pitcher. Right. Right. And Benjamin Hunley makes a great point. He said, where was the bullpen before Seawald, you know, was a part of it or returned from injury? Exactly. And not only that, where was the bullpen last year before Seawald joined this team? That's, these are all things to keep in mind when it comes to what's going on right now and the fact that these you know this performance over this last week isn't really paul seawald right and i mean right now it might just kind of be getting into his head the the thing that is strange to me is where people want to question like tori lovolo

and his use of going to his closer that's the way that this has been set up just much like the way like well they're going to come after you for that Why? They're going to come after me. The chat's going to come after you for that, I think. What it about that? Yeah. About going your fucking closer? Why? No, I, I, like, you go to your closer. You don't, you definitely don't take the ball from your closer after two blown saves. That's for sure. Right. Three, I think it's fair to start having a conversation. Oh, no, I'm not, no, no, no, no, I'm not forgiving Tori for saying he's going to continue to go with Paul Seawald. That's, that's, that's over here. Let's let's, let's differentiate.

I'm talking about the law. being on Tori because he went to Paul Seawald. The loss is on Paul Seawald and his inability to get that final out. And again, much like Paul Seawald would probably be the first person to tell you that. That if it's on anybody tonight, it's on him. And I don't understand how people would see it otherwise. If you want a question going forward and you want to say Tori sticking with his guy, if it continues to cost this team games and,

and wins, then yes, I completely understand from this point. You do not go away from your closer simply because he had two bad games, especially when he was solid up until that point. You also, you know, did see Tori go away from his closer and give Paul a little bit of time after those, you know, devastating blown saves so that hopefully he would be right and able to come out and still be effective for this team. Baseball is a mental game. That's part of a manager's job is to, you know,

you know, show confidence in his players and kind of protect them in a way where, you know, he's not going to give up on them that fast, right? There is no reason at all that Tori Lavello should be blamed for sending Paul Seawald out there tonight. I blame the offense, once again, a little bit more. When you talk about a team that just got four hits, going back to that, you know, the only runs they were able to score was in the bottom of the sixth besides the extra innings where they were able to bring in the ghost runner. but Pardomo gets things going on a night where the offense was completely flat again because that's what Jerry P does.

He gets things going. He singles and then reaches second on kind of a blown misplay ball out in the outfield. That was absolutely a mess. The Braves looked like a clown show there for a repulment. It's Jerry Ball. I mean, it's a lot of pressure when Jerry P gets on base. You immediately assume he's going to, you know, get more bases. So you kind of panic a little bit.

But he singles. He reaches second. in Corbyn singles and scores for Delmo. Games tied at one. Then you just had a series of walks, Cattel walks, Jock walks, Walker, Walker walks, Walker, walker walks. And then Corbyn scores, based on the basis of being loaded and them walking in a run. Lordus brings one in on a sacrifice fly and there's your three to one lead.

That was it. He said, we were not up three to one at the ninth? Were we not? I just explained it. I just explained it. We were up three to one in the ninth, but the Diamondbacks offense hit four singles tonight to get those three runs was my point, right? Like this offense didn't even deserve to have those four runs or those three runs.

They really didn't. They didn't have to have the four runs, right? But if people want to say like Allen here that it feels like mismanagement by the manager, I would like to know how. Again, do you have an answer for that? No, it's just like I said right now. after two blown saves, you can't take the ball from Paul Seawalt. Right.

After three, we can talk about it. Now, if it happens four times in a row, I think that there's not even a question in the world, right? Sure, sure. But I think we're going to have to figure that one out the hard way if it happens because Tori is going to trust in his guys. That's what he does all the time. That's why the players love him. Yeah.

And that's like a factor that I think a lot of people, they don't want to hear it. But like, the players want to play for Tori all the time because he always has their back. Right. And that goes a long way over the course of a season. You don't see it from a game to game basis, but you see it over the course of 162 game season. The problem is that this team this year, every loss is like the most brutal loss in the history of all time. And it just like I'm pulling my hair out. Every loss is brutal.

Brutal, Derek. Like not just these three in a row. Like the start of this season was just like painful to watch. So I don't know. Like it's, it's, I'm, I'm just sick of it. I kind of like, I kind of hate this team. Yeah, well, I understand. I think Patrick Wynn collects has the right answer.

He says fire Baxter. That's the real answer here. I mean, if you want to make real change is need to be made. If you want to make real change in the organization, that's it. But yeah, no, CWald, absolutely. Again, I already said that. I just said that the offense didn't, didn't even deserve to score the three runs that they scored with their performance tonight, right?

Uh, four, four hits, all singles. And again, only, you know, the, the, the prodomo single, Corby Carroll, single, and scoring perdomo were the only ones that involved a run score and play. Outside of that, it was mistakes made by the pitching staff on, on the Braves, you know, side walking in a run. And Lord is getting that sack fly. Okay. Uh, but yes, if the diamondbacks are able to get to the bottom of the ninth with, with, with,

with a lead, then yes, they should be able to win that. that that whole situation with Paul Seawald, like I said, is to blame. I want to, real quick, David in the chat here says that it's a PHNX company policy to never blame the players. Are we, did we not blame Seawald and the offense? We just blame 10 players. That's 10 players. I feel I was defending Tori. The only person who defended was the manager.

I don't believe people actually pay attention to the show when they're watching it at times. To be honest, I think that they watch it on. mute because they already can't stand me, so they're just going to come over here and make comments in the chat. And if that's how you want to spend your time, that's fine. People are blaming it on Burt. Yeah, Bert really was begging. I felt like Burt was really begging for that third blown save in a row by Paul C.

Wall. But I think the thing that all of us- I mean, he genuinely fitted in four times in a minute. He did. It was pretty uncanny. Yeah. I'll tell you this much, though. I think the thing that gets me fired up, the thing that makes me most angry about Paul Seawall blowing this game is the way that Yilbert Diaz pitched in his debut.

You know, it's Yilbert Diaz pitching in his debut. He was lights out for the Diamondbacks tonight. He gives up a single home run to Austin Riley. And that was pretty much it. Outside of that, it wasn't, it was an incredible debut. This man absolutely deserves to pitch again. and with the Diamondbacks current problems with waiting for their starting pitchers to return from injury, Yilbert Diaz right now feels like a breath of fresh air. This man came in and did this against, you know, the Atlanta Braves.

And even though the Braves had had their own struggles at times this season, the fact that Diaz came up and delivered the way he did for this team tonight was something we haven't really seen out of any of the pitchers that the Diamondbacks have called up and asked to fill this. kind of role. I don't know what you do with Yilbert Diaz going forward, but I feel like he definitely at least deserves one more start and most likely deserves to be, you know, deserves to possibly be in the consideration for sticking around and not necessarily being sent down. Well, and deserves, you know, to be what should have let off the show tonight. That's what Yolbert Diaz deserved. He deserved us to lead into this show and for Derek to do that open and be like Yilbert Diaz shoves tonight in his debut, dying backs get the W,

like that's what he deserved. And so it's, you feel bad for a guy like that. You really do. Like he pitched his ass off. He was really good. And he looked good too. Like it wasn't just like a,

it wasn't just like a, you know, kind of a fluky performance. He was like striking guys out, I thought. Yeah. You know, getting a lot of swinging miss.

I liked what I saw from you over tonight. And I definitely think he should, you know, be on the track to stay. Yeah. Oh yeah. let's see, AZ card says send down Slade and keep Yulbert. Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be part of the discussion when it comes to what the

Diamondbacks do, especially over this period of time where, you know, we're waiting to see how long it's going to take for Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery, and if he's real, Eduardo Rodriguez, to return to the starting rotation. We did get some good news today from Tori Lobello in regards to that. He did say that all three of those guys. will be throwing bullpens at Salt River Fields tomorrow. So that's very encouraging. And again, actually, I will say this.

I was a little discouraged because I really didn't know Jordan Montgomery's injury was as bad as it seems to be. Because Tori said that sounded like Jordan Montgomery will not be back before the All-Star game won, which that's not a surprise. It's a week away. Or, you know, you have basically this series with the Braves and a series with the Toronto Blue Jays left. but it sounds like he's going to you know participate in like throwing bullpens and then you know going to an Arizona Complex League and I honestly didn't think that he was going to miss this time this much time so Jordan Montgomery being gone right now again is is another man down for the Diamondbacks that we

still don't know how long until we're going to get him back but that's what makes Yelbert Diaz's debut tonight so much more important so much more impressive it really can be a huge lift to this team. It sucks that they blew such a stellar performance from him in his major league debut like this. And we need pitching right now. So it's great to get a guy that maybe, you know, instills a little bit of extra confidence in us, right? Like moving forward.

Yeah. It doesn't feel as dire when you get a performance like Yilbert, you know, put on the field tonight. Yeah. Well, of course, we for that exact reason are giving Yilbert Diaz our King Snake tonight because the man deserves it. six innings pitch one earned run gave up four hits one walk five strikeouts absolutely outstanding absolutely outstanding in his debut and again put does put as some of you have said in the chat does put the pressure on some of those younger guys to perform and and maybe we'll take their spot should with the way he's pitched he deserves at least another start at a major league level

but let's take a look even though i don't really want to at the numbers from tonight night. Let's take a look at the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks outscored here by a score 5 to 4. They were out hit by the Braves 8 to 4. 2 for 8 for the Braves with runners in scoring position to the Diamondbacks 1 for 8. Diamondbacks, again, no extra base hits tonight, just those four singles. Braves had those two hum runs for their extra base hits and then 41.9% hard hit percentage for the Braves to the Diamondbacks, 33.3%. not a great night zero extra base hits

zero extra base hits one for eight with runners in scoring position and that runner was only in scoring position because Jerry P turns a single into a double somehow and you know finds a way to get in it's frustrating this is a frustrating game the Diamondbacks

and again I attacked the offense earlier I still think they deserve to be attacked but you know again what you guys said is very valid and very true regardless of how poorly the offense performed. They had a lead going into the ninth inning. They were up three to one,

and we should be talking about a three to one victory right now. And instead, we're talking about a five to four extra innings loss. And that part is what sucks. I mean, I don't know. Like, what sucks the most is that Yilbert Diaz should have got this win. That's what sucks the most. It also sucks that Paul Seawald now has, you know,

another blown save third in a row. And alarms are ringing, right? There's absolutely no reason for anybody to feel comfortable. We just have over the course of 162 game season, these moments, these highs and these lows. And that's what we've experienced so far in these series prior to this one, right? And that goes back even to the Oakland A series where they lost in the first game of that series. But the Diamondbacks, again, they have this weird reverse thing going on now here in the month of July. They have lost this first game, which based on the way that the last three series,

Series of Gone means they're going to win the next two and at least one of them by blowout fashion. We do have Zach Gallen going on the mound tomorrow against Chris Sale. So that's going to be a fun matchup and hopefully advantage Diamondbacks there. But Chris Sale has been pitching incredibly well despite his age. Don't want to attack his age? I feel like that's wrong for me to attack his age, right? Like I shouldn't be doing that. Glass houses.

Glass houses. Yeah. You know my housing policy or my rock throw. policy it's regardless of the housing situation shitty behavior to throw rocks no matter if you have windows or whatever your house is made out of but we thank you guys of course for being here right now in the phn exports youtube channel if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet do so right now sign up for notifications that way you don't miss whenever these shows go live of course drop us a like we would love it if you did that there are a lot of people that are leaving dislikes because of me

screaming about things and yeah that's fine but one was like mid rant for me and I'm not going to lie like it hurt a little bit it did it does it hurts every time it's it's every time um cards uh good question we're going to get back to cards question there of course but only if you like this video so make sure like this video and then i'll get to those questions uh of course if you are listening on the audio podcasting side make sure you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app leave us to review those reviews help us out quite a bit uh and those five-star reviews definitely help us out a ton uh damon Bet 365?

Derek? Yes. I've been loving the options that they got in bed 365. How can you not? The odds. It's the odds. It's the live in-game betting. And I also like the fact that it is taking me away from sports that I don't, I normally

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So you are an instant winner if your team goes up by five. And with the way that Paul Seawald's blowing these games, you might need to win your bet and not lose it if they, you know, come back. So right now, new customers can choose between two new offers when they open an account at Bet365 and use our code of PHNX365 to sign up. Deposit $10 and choose either between a bet and get offer where you place a $5 bet or more and receive $150 in bonus bets or a first bet safety net offer where you can place a bet up to $1,000. And if you're qualifying bet loses, you receive a matched refund in bonus bets. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX365. when you sign up, choose your offer, and find out why it's never ordinary. I bet 365 must be 21 and over and physically located in Arizona.

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$45 up front payment required equivalent to $15 a month. new customers on first three-month plan only. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes fees and restrictions apply. C-Mint Mobile for details. All right. Well, big shout out to Nicholas Gruters. Thank you so much for your super chat.

Nicholas says, Seawald last 11 hitters face, seven hits, including three home runs. We would have a nine-game winning streak if you hadn't blown three saves in a row. Facts, facts. There's a lot of times where you say baseball is a team sport, and you can say, like, oh, the whole team lost it.

And I guess maybe that was what I was searching for here and saying that the offense still didn't have that grade of a night. And maybe based on the way they played didn't even deserve to have a lead going into that ninth inning. But they did have a lead and it should have been secured by their closer and it wasn't. And it's not just a one run lead either. It's a two run lead. This Diamondbacks team even had a little bit of room, wiggle room for an error. And instead Eddie Rosario made sure that didn't happen. But of course, regardless of how Paul Seawald pitches.

every year on this podcast is our year. Am I right? Damon gets me. And every month on this podcast is Pride Month. Of course, every week, including this week, is Shark Week. It's Shark Week. This is double, maybe triple Shark Week, because it's always Shark Week, but on Shark Week and then it's Shark Week, it's a lot of Shark Week.

Of course, every day is Earth Day. But on Mondays, even when Paul Seawald blows a goddamn lead in the ninth inning. We still go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go. First question comes from Peace of Yoshi. And Peece of Yoshi asks, how many games back do you think will be the cutoff of choosing to buy or sell at, let's say, the Wednesday following the All-Star break.

This applies for all teams, by the way, not just us. I just like to get a gauge of who would and wouldn't be available trade partners. Yo, I will say that there is no particular number right now that I can put out there because of the pack. It's all based on the group. You know what I'll say? I will say that when you start dropping to five games back for the final wild cards, spot is where you are starting to traverse dangerous territory, right? And like, that's why I can't

give a particular number above or below 500 because this pack in the NL is so close that it really comes down to how close can you stay to the pack. When it comes specifically to the Diamondbacks, they know they have reinforcements coming, whereas other teams might not be so fortunate to be expecting the return of three-fifths of their starting rotation, right? So with that being said, I will say that specifically for the Diamondbacks, it's a matter of keeping it less than five games back in the wild guard. Once you start getting to that point, then, I mean, it does really get difficult, it becomes difficult to see the path on how you can get there. However, if there is a team that feels like it's going to get much better when those bodies return, it's. It's,

It's the Diamondback. So, I mean, it's hard. It's hard to see this team truly being a seller. Now, what I will say is that, like, there's parts of this team that, you know, are too valuable for them to consider even if they are players that might be leaving at the end of the year due to their contract being up, right? We know Paul Seewald is one of those. Enough said there.

Christian Walker, another guy there. So some of those guys that might be options. They might just be too valuable and it might not be worth it for them to sell off anything. But I think it's really going to come down to how close the Diamondbacks remain in the race and the fact that they're going to have so much hope. The front office is still going to have so much hope until they see the starting rotation of Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jordan McComery, Brandon Fod. Until that day comes, which Lord knows even if it will, I don't think that this, they're going to give up

on this team. So I could see them standing pat at the trade deadline if they're not really in it, if they are five games back or more in the wildcard race. But I don't know. I mean, it's just such a weird thing right now with the fact that the last two years, the last team in the wild card got to the World Series and the Phillies and the Diamondbacks. Right. So that just gives these teams so much more hope that once you're in it, anything can happen. And it makes it that much harder for teams to be definitive sellers come the trade deadline if they're anywhere close to one of those wildcard spots. Yeah.

I mean, could you foresee a world where Hazen like sells one guy or something? Like someone that doesn't really have a long term future. Yeah. And kind of stays Pat. I guess I could kind of envision that if we struggled, you know, to end out the break here. It's worth though, right? Like one thing, of course, that people want is they want Paul Seawald to be DFA'd, but then they also want him traded away.

Well, pick a lane, right? For Mason Miller. Yeah. Oh, that person's drunk. I like that trade. I like that trade, too, but that person's obvious. I'll work the phone. I'm going to see what I can do.

Let's get something started. Let's just get something cooking, of course. But, yeah, I mean, we're at a point now where I don't really foresee a lot of teams outside of the Rockies and the Meriters being sellers. And that's just the nature of this season. But we'll see what happens. All right. And we got another question here about trade deadline stuff.

I'm pretty sure. What else we got from Corbyn Carroll? Next question comes from Corbyn Carroll, the goat. And he says, do you think the debacks will be buyers or sellers at the deadline? If there are buyers, who would you see them targeting? A lot of people think that the Diamondbacks could still pursue some starting pitching. But if anything, as you've seen, it's going to probably be really. leaf pitching. Maybe a third baseman.

Maybe a third baseman. Yeah, that's not, that's not out of, out of the question right now, right? Ren Guifo, right? That's who we want. But like, obviously the Diamondbacks right now feel like, especially after seeing what the rest of this team has done lately, like they have confidence in this team. And, you know, again, no way to know if whoever else they had closing these games, would have gotten the job done in those situations where Paul Seawald didn't. But it is very easy to see a world where the Diamondbacks are currently riding a nine game winning streak and are the hottest team in baseball after beating the Dodgers and the Padres and now the Braves in their first game.

Right. Instead, that's like I said earlier, not the reality that we live in. So I definitely think the bullpen is going to be. And I feel like the bullpen has been kind of their, like they've been open about the bullpen being their target. And I think that'll continue to be their target. All right. Well, before we get on to any more Mailbag Monday questions, I'm not going to make the people wait. Plus, I've already pissed enough people off tonight.

So let's bring in the Thunderstick himself, my vice mayor, your thunderstick. The one and only Jesse Friedman coming in here from Chase Field. Jesse, people did not like the fact that after. I placed blame on Paul Seawald. I also said this was a night where maybe this team didn't even deserve to win based on the fact that their offense was generated by four singles and mostly some mistakes made by the Braves pitching there in the bottom of the sixth. It just wasn't a good night all around yet.

I also understand the fact that they had a 3-1 lead in the ninth and we should be talking about this team winning this game tonight. I think it's totally fair to pass some. aim onto the offense for sure. I mean, as you said, the one inning where the debacks did put up three runs during the first, I guess they did score in the 10th inning, of course. But the one inning where they scored within the first nine was not exactly pretty. I mean, it was a single plus air by Geraldo Pridomo, a ball that he didn't really get

it a whole lot of, but it found some outfield grass. Corbin Carroll, kind of a similar situation with an RBI single that dropped in. and then the Braves just started walking the Diamondbacks around the bases. It was two, you know, three walks in a row. There was a sack fly in there by Lordus Gurriel as well. But all the way around, this was not a very well-played game by the Diamondbacks offense. At the same time, the Diamondbacks just scored 50 runs in a one-week span. And that is a lot of runs.

I mean, that's, that's, you know, more. than eight runs per game that the debacks have averaged or averaged over the past week. So you're not going to get that kind of production every single day. And at some point, the debacks are going to have to find a way, you know, to actually win one of these close games. It really has been a struggle for them lately. And obviously, you know, two outs in the ninth inning. You know, you allow a single.

You allow it to run homer. It doesn't get any more brutal than it is right now for Paul Sewell. apparently Jesse there's a pretty bad echo but that's not on us we're blaming that completely on our software that's job is to cancel echo come on roadcaster get your shit together here uh but jesse they uh obviously the big problem tonight the big discussion point is paul seewald blowing his third consecutive save for first time in his career and people are not happy i don't know what to do And I don't know why Paul Seawald can get us so close to the finish line like he did tonight, but not just get that final, that final strike, Jesse. Yeah, I mean, what do you say, right? I mean, you wouldn't think it'd be quite that hard, right? I mean, once the debacks or you give a two-run lead with two outs and the base is empty in the ninth inning,

you feel pretty darn good. I mean, no matter who's on the mound, you feel pretty good about winning that game. You only need one more out before two-runs score. And unfortunately, it's just been just an awful, an awful week for Paul Sewell. I mean, there's nowhere, no other way to say it. Last Tuesday in Los Angeles, D-Backs had a one-run lead. He gets the first two outs there, then the next three batters in a row. Reach base, a couple of doubles and a single.

Dodgers walked that game off. There was the game, of course, in San Diego, where the Diamondbacks put up six runs in the top half of the ninth inning. to see Seawald failed to record an out in the bottom half of that inning with two homers and a walk. Mani Machado, of course, stealing the final blow there. And then today, two out space is empty. And, you know, he didn't lose. He did not take the loss. Of course, this one did go to extra innings, unlike the past two. But, you know, I understand people who are, who are frustrated. But at the same time, Paul Seawald was 11 for 11 entering last week. So you do still have to kind of balance in that, you know, if Seawald had three blown saves up to this point in the year that

were kind of sprinkled every two, three weeks or so, I don't know if we're really having the kinds of conversations we're having right now, but the fact that he went 11 for 11 and then blew three in a row, that's a, you know, that's a whole other situation that has a lot of people losing confidence. And I can understand why for sure. And I think that's the frustrating part is that, you know, Paul Seawald has meant so much to this bullpen and has not only meant so much when he's pitched, but he's meant so much to the clubhouse, you know, who's going to give out, if you guys DFA, Paul Seawald, who's going to give out the vests? Who's going to hit the lights and get out the disco ball?

There are more things that you have to think about when you want to get rid of Paul Seawald than just his performance out there on the mound, which I get is very important, but so is what he does for that clubhouse. So is the stability that up until this point, he's brought to the bullpen. And it makes it very difficult to just want to cut bait on a guy, like Damon said, for having a bad week.

But that kind of is as much as it frustrates us as fans, as irritated as we are over this loss. And as much as it is solely to blame on Paul Seawall. Like this isn't a situation where you really feel the need to search for the person to blame for. Like, he's the guy that would accept blame and the guy you should blame is the closer that you sent out there on the mound to get the job done. However, it's like, yeah, you can't just, you know, give up on a guy because, man, Seawald's the kind of guy that will just make you hate life when you go see him get picked up after being DFAed by some other team and see what he does for that team. And, like, again, there's probably 29 teams in baseball that would pick him up or want to pick him up after the Diamondbacks got rid of him.

So it's like we are emotional in the moment. We're very angry with his performance and maybe even him as a person after tonight. Right. And I get that. But it's like you can't be so emotional when you're literally talking about like getting rid of a guy like that. I mean, you really can't. I can't take any conversation about DFAing Paul Seawald seriously at this point. I mean, I understand people are frustrated.

But the reality is the Diamondbacks don't get anywhere near the world. series last year without him. They probably don't make the playoffs without him. And for a good portion of this season, I mean, he's been absolutely outstanding. Literally, Derek, you could go back a week ago today where we are still, you know, having completely glowing conversations about how fantastic Seawald has been to open the season. I think his ERA might have started with a zero a week ago today, maybe a one, if anything. I know now I think it starts with a four after a few rough ones in a row. years. So, you know, closers, relievers, we talk about this a lot. They're the most volatile

asset in baseball, one of the most volatile assets in all sports. I mean, what they do is inherently a small sample size job where you're, you know, you're going to have high highs, you're going to have low lows. And you can go from one to the other very, very quickly. And that's definitely what's happened here. Well, Jesse, of course, we were going through our mailbag Monday questions and now is a great time to have you here. I know we're going to get to some stuff from the clubhouse, but Damon, would you hit us with one really quickly while Jesse's here? Did you want to hit the next one or the one that you had? You had. No, let's just hit the next one. Okay. All right. What do we got? Next question comes from

Tyler Hall and he writes us a novel here. Oh, yes. Wow. And he says, well, that's a lot. Yeah, no, yeah. I'm to get into it. Put my specs on. Even though the rotation has been better of late and the three starters on IL are starting to ramp up, if they don't return until around August, do you see Hazen making a trade for a starter sooner than later? We don't know how effective Montgomery and Erod will be. And if the rotation falls back to the struggles, it had a couple weeks ago, it will be

hard to not fall behind in the wild card chase. It could leave us with too many, but maybe increased bullpen depth during plus playoffs and better to be safe than sorry and not repeat last year. You guys catch that? Yeah, but the problem is, is that it's just not that easy to go out there and find quality starting pitching. That's better than even honestly the options that the Diamondbacks have at a minor league level. You know, I mean, that's the thing is I just don't know.

I feel like you'd have to give up so much. And again, that the fact that those guys are coming. soon, I just can't imagine the Diamondbacks being that impatient about, you know, the return of Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery, and Erod. I just think the idea of pulling off a trade right now, I mean, I just think it's pretty unrealistic. We don't, we don't, I mean, I know that I think the Brewers just got Aaron Savali, but Aaron Savali is not exactly the, you know, most highly sought after starting

pitcher on the market, given the, uh, the start that he was off to. So there's also just not that many starters on the market to begin with that I think D-BACs fans would get all that excited about. It's looking like a pretty lean market from that standpoint. So I think the D-backs are probably, you know, would be interested, would be having some conversations about acquiring a starter. But given all the injury situations they have, they probably want to wait until pretty close to the deadline to have a better feel for how long E-Rod is going to be out. how long is Merrill Kelly going to be out? I mean, if both of those guys in three weeks are getting really close, then there's probably a little bit less pressure to make a move like that.

Maybe you focus your assets more on other needs that this team might have. So probably unrealistic to begin with, and I'm not sure, even if there were opportunities out there, I don't really know if I see the debacks pursuing something like that anytime soon. well and with the way yelbert dyes pitch tonight i think that there's a little less pressure to worry about making you know that kind of move obviously this is just one start jesse but it's against a good braves team and it's it was solid one one run allowed in that one home run outside of that yelbert dyes shoved tonight and again it's that this is the reason why the diamondbacks really

are not, you know, panicking, I think, about their starting pitching because they do like some of their young pitchers. The problem is, is that someone like Yilbert Diaz felt like just yesterday he was pitching in AA. And now here he is making his major league debut. Like, these guys are good and they believe in their future. But these guys, they're still a little ways off, or at least the Diamondbacks believed they were.

You call up Yilbert Diaz and he comes out and as the night he has against the Braves. It's incredible. I mean, a month ago, Yilbert Diaz was pitching in AA. Yeah, I think it was like, I didn't know the time frame, but I was like it felt like just yesterday he was with the sod poodles. Yeah, I think it was June 11th that he was officially called up to AAA. So, yeah, I'm amazed that no one, no one's been yelling at me yet for like being too negative or whatever. I guess people are feeling, feeling pretty down about what happened with Seawall tonight. But Yilbert Diaz pitched an outstanding game and we should definitely be, you know, dedicating some time.

talking about that as well six innings of one run ball one walk five strikeouts and just the poise that he showed on the mound and in some you know there were a couple of tough spots there was a think it was the third inning when he when he allowed back-to-back singles start the frame to the number eight and number nine hitters in the brave's order you're kind of wondering like all right here's some here's some adversity what is this going to look like and he just attacked his own And he attacked the zone in particular against Austin Riley and that in, who it homered against him in his first bat. I love that.

Yeah, it just, it never felt like, toward the end, maybe you could see some signs of fatigue where his command wasn't quite as sharp as it was early in the game. But it always felt like he was on the attack that he really trusted his stuff. And from what we saw today, Derek, there's no reason not to trust his stuff. Like, you know, it's 96. It's up to 98 miles an hour. Yeah.

It's got some good life on it. He was able to command it pretty well. His slider command was also really pretty sharp in this game. The curveball is a little bit more of a show me pitch, but that offering had had its moments as well. So, yeah, Diaz was everything the Diamondbacks could have hoped for today. And that bodes so well for the future. I mean, not just for the next few weeks as the debacks try to get healthy,

but a big picture, you know, the next few years. Obviously, it's just one start. but this was about as good of a way for his career to get going as you could imagine. Well, who in our chat asked so nicely? He said, please give me Yilbert Diaz interview. Do we got that, Damon, ready, rock and roll? Let's get more from Yilbert Diaz from the clubhouse after his outstanding debut. No, my mentality is that I had the pelota when I retom me,

my mentality was to get to the Grand League. and I worked for that. For that I'm I'm going to be here. He stopped playing baseball for a little bit, and then he came back up or he picked it up,

and then once he picked it up, he only had a goal, and he wasn't going to stop until he would achieve that goal. So if somebody told you five years ago that you would be at this point making a major league debut, what do you think you would have said?

If somebody had said, He said, he would have said to do a debut a day like today, what he would have said? No, that's a minute, because for this, I worked for that. He would believe it. He will believe it. He worked so hard for it, and he was always hopeful that he was going to happen. What an incredible story this young man has, Jesse, something you wrote an article about for go phtonx.com, really was close to never playing baseball again, and yet here he is to

not only making his major league debut, but absolutely just shoving against the Braves. He just exudes confidence. I mean, you could see that with his mound presence today, just the way that he, you know, he throws his pitches with just like a certain amount of intensity.

You can just tell that he really believes in his stuff. And I thought his answer there was also very telling. Just, you know, this is a question you hear guys asked a lot, like, you know, five years ago, if I had told you'd be in this spot, what would you have said? The kind of can, like, answer that you expect is, oh, I would have said you were crazy.

There's no way I would have thought I could be here. And yet Yover-Diaz is like, no, I would have totally believed you. I worked really hard for this. And what happened today is just the culmination of, you know, all of the hard work that I put in over the years. And yeah, as you said, his story is just unbelievable. He was born in Venezuela. He moved from there. I believe when he was around 16, he wasn't able to sign with a team.

as an international amateur. He got hurt. He stopped playing baseball altogether, as you heard him describe there. And then he moved to several other countries. I don't remember them off the top of my head, but he moved out of Venezuela to other places, sort of seeking a better life. In the Diamondbacks notes today, they talked about something that was in my story with him being a candy vendor, basically on the streets of various places in Latin America, just trying to make ends meet. He also, I believe did some window washing or something along those lines, maybe washing cars, just to try to make some money as he again decided to pursue his dream of pitching in the big leagues. And the Diamondbacks took a chance on him when he was 20 years old. They signed him in February of 2021 as a non-drafted free agent. His signing bonus of $10,000, that's about as low of a signing bonus as you'll see in Major League Baseball. but what I mean what an amazing story of what he's been able to turn into I mean that was just a little over three years ago that the diamond back signed him and he emerged from a guy who who threw in the low 90s Sean Larkin told me today he didn't really know where it was going it sounds like his his initial his first impression as a pro was not particularly good if you go back and look at his numbers from the Dominican summer league or whatnot from that year but he's really turned things around and I don't think he's it's crazy, Derek, to say that Yilbert Diaz could be the best pitching prospect in the Diamondbacks

organization. I mean, he's really been the strides that he's taken in the last year in particular, really, really impressive stuff. May's Devil just gave us his new nickname, Jesse. He will forever be the Candyman going forward. He is now. Derek and I are locked in on that. We're locked in. Like, we locked eyes and we were like, that's it. That's it. Yilbert Diaz, the candy man. Who, Yoshi? I mean, are we, are we going to Colton Couser this? saying? Yeah, we will, we will Colton Couser the shit out of this. We don't care. They don't care about us calling our guy the milk band so we can do that. Uh, base devil says, because damn his stuff's sweet. And I love that. Yeah. Jesse, I, real quick, what do I always talk about? I say, I want emotion. I want

emotion. And in his debut, Jesse, striking out guys screaming as he comes off the mound. Loved it. I'm moved. I am moved right now. Yeah. Yulbert Diaz, you have changed my life. Let's do this thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They, say a piece of yoshi says candelario is the candy man did he ever actually sell candy i'm going to need to see his credentials because uh that's important and part of this uh whole thing here of course uh yeah tom candyotti is also the candy man i'm sure he would happily uh dub him the due candy man uh i do want to say that uh we haven't we haven't we haven't thanked our desert financial credit union friends for the numbers right but that is something we need to do uh because

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Oh, man. Let me tell you. Damon, Damon didn't say hi to me, Derek. How do we feel about that? Well, because, you know, I just, I transitioned quickly and he's a busy guy. He's got a lot of things going on. And when he's out in California, he doesn't, you know.

Had a lot to drink that night, Jesse. I'm just trying to get him safe, man. He knows you're, yeah, he knows you're doing the professional thing. He'll go up there all drunk and, you know, make a, make a scene. Well, I'm not, I'm not saying I, I'm not saying I was inviting him up to the press box. That's true. That's for sure. That's true.

Well, what else we got, Jesse? Because I know, obviously, you know, as nice as Yulbert Diaz's story and debut is tonight, it was ruined by what happened there in the top of the ninth inning. I know that Tori, after the game, we saw him on the broadcast committing to Paul C. Walt still being his closer, seemed like no matter what. I know that a manager needs to show confidence like that in his players, but I, can also understand after watching that blown save how upset fans can be seeing Tori say that yeah here's uh we do have video of Tori talking about that here is tory on napal seawald still

being the closer of the diamond backs yeah i don't think we've had we're not going to start that conversation yet i'm not i'm not ready to make that um make that decision paul's been an unbelievable closer for us and he will continue to get the baseball You said in San Diego your concern was minimal. Yeah. How would you put it down? Still minimal. He's going to get on a nice run for us.

I don't know. Was he 10 for 10 prior to the Pat 11 for 11? That's pretty good. And there's going to be some bumps on the road for everybody when he play this game long enough. We're adapting Yilbert Diaz's nickname in real time right now, Jesse. We're up to El Dulce right now, which is like the sweet, right? That's pretty good, man. Anyway, yeah, I mean, obviously we, I mean, I think everybody knew Tori wasn't going to come out after this game and proclaim that he was going to replace Paul Seawald yet, like I said, it still feels a little frustrating considering that he's basically saying they're not even going to like entertain that conversation.

Yeah, I'm not surprised by this at all. Anyone expecting Tori to come out after this game and say that Seawald wasn't going to be the closer. I don't think there's a single manager in baseball that would pull the plug on Paul Seawald at this point. He's been, as we said earlier, he's just been too big a part of this team since he was acquired last summer to pull the plug after three in a row. And three in a row is not insignificant. Like, I'm not downplaying that the Diamondbacks very well could be on a nine game winning straight question mark. Like they they've been in the driver's seat in a lot of baseball games recently. and three of those have slipped away pretty much directly because of Seawald in the last week.

So I'm not downplaying that. But the other question, Derek, is who do people want to see in that spot? I mean, Justin Martinez seems to be the trendy name there. But Justin Martinez got shelled tonight, if we're being totally honest with ourselves. I mean, I know you only allowed one run in the 10th inning and the 11th inning. Technically neither of them were earned. It was just the ghost runner scoring in both cases. But if you go back and look at the exit velos of every batted ball, I mean, I think every single one of them might have been 95 plus with a whole lot of them coming in, you know, 105.

I think there were a couple of 11s. He was getting hit hard in this game. And there have been some, you know, some good moments lately for J-Mart as well. I think he had a seven-pitch inning the other day. Of course, there was the three-inning outing in Los Angeles. That was huge. But he also has been a little bit less sharp recently. Ryan Thompson has also been a little bit less sharp lately.

Kevin Ginkle is probably the hottest Diamondbacks reliever. But is Ginkle clearly a better option than C-Wald moving forward? Like, you can maybe understand people wanting to see it. But I don't think it's an obvious thing or in any way egregious that the Diamondbacks are just going to stick it out with C-Walt here. Gingles back, Jesse. But also, I wanted to ask you, do you think, I mean, I agree. Three, I wouldn't pull Seawald, but what if it was four? That's a fair question.

I think if it was, if, if Seawald were to blow his next one, I wouldn't be surprised if, like, it would still surprise me if Torrey came out right away and said that Seawald is not the closer. But it wouldn't surprise me if we got more of a nondescript, like we're having conversations about that right now. Maybe it turns into a matchups thing. Maybe it's a situation where the debacks want to get Seawald. We don't want to do that again. Yeah, it would be the history there isn't great either. Maybe it's a situation where the debacks still want C-Wald to be their closer, but they want to give him a lower leverage opportunity, maybe, you know, kind of ease him back in.

We saw them do that with Ginkle earlier. When Ginkle was struggling, he kind of started pitching in the earlier innings of games and has gradually been moved back into more of a high leverage role. So if it happened again, then I think it gets more interesting at that point for sure. but after after tonight it just kind of is what it is piece of yoshi put up his exit velos right 102.1 105.4 96.9 108.7 11111 111 111 111 111 111 111 111 82.7 not great not however he was you know the results were better the results are better than paul seawald blowing the game there the ninth and that's nobody's saying that they're not the problem is is that

J-Mart was put in, I guess, in a high-leverage situation. You could absolutely call it that. It's just not still the same as closing the game. And Martinez is still pretty young, and I can understand the team still not having that, I guess, belief in him. Not to mention that you put him out there, he starts blowing saves, his confidence gets shook. And now you have one of your best relievers now that also might not be able to be effective. I don't know.

But what I will say is that. the answer isn't as easy as moving on to another person there. It's kind of like where people wanted someone else to play third base other than Gino. Gino, of course, you know, has had a better stretch offensively here lately. But again, when we do see other guys play third base, you do quickly find yourself wanting Gino back out there for his defense. And yeah, I know he's not perfect. But Gino is an example right now of one of those situations where even though, he's not performing well, it's still probably better than the alternative that the Diamondbacks have within the organization.

I will say I do feel like it's, you know, sort of my duty as the journalist to point out that Paul Seawald declined to speak with the media again tonight, a second consecutive time where that's happened. A little surprising. Seawald is, you know, typically great with the media and, you know, is given me a lot of great stuff for a lot of stories. I really, you know, uh, appreciate him and, and, you know, have had a lot of respect over the last year since he, since he came over to the D-BACs organization for his willingness to, you know, help us out and whatnot. But yeah, not, not a great

look, frankly, uh, you know, you're one of the leaders of this team. I know you kind of, you know, we're kind of joking about how he gives the, he gives the vest at, at the end of wins. But as much as that's like a lighthearted thing, it's, it's, you know, it's, you know, we're kind of joking. It's a sign that Seawald is a voice in that clubhouse. Like he's an important voice in that clubhouse. And for him to not speak to the media back to back days after, you know, I totally understand, like on a personal level, I'm sure it really sucks for him right now and feel for him as a person. But it is kind of part of the game. It's kind of part of what you sign up for as a pro athlete and especially as a closer to, you know, be willing to talk and, you know, and not shy away from some of the.

these moments. So I can I can understand it's tough from his perspective, but not a not a great look for sure. At least says it comes off as really soft. A lot of people are booing him in the chat. And I think, yeah, like honestly, it comes down to we've seen guys that are much, much younger than him, guys that do not have the experience, maybe not even, maybe don't even have the maturity that Paul Seawall does to handle themselves better in a situation where they're emotional after a loss, they might have blown a lead or blown a game. We talked to Blaze Alexander this year after he's made mistakes and errors on the field and he still spoke.

A rookie. And he still came out and he still had moments where he explained his actions and, you know, was kind of had the greatest, in my opinion, had the greatest like reaction to making mistakes, you know, which was just kind of owning up to it and being like, yeah, I got to be better and I know I'm capable of it and things like that. Like there are things where we've seen people accept the responsibility. And this frankly surprises me. It kind of pisses me off, too, if I'm being honest, but it surprises me more than anything.

I have sat here every time he's blown a save and said that Paul Seawald is the kind of guy based on our experience that would sit there and be the first one to tell you that this loss is on nobody but himself and accept that responsibility. To see him not even talking to media, that's, I mean, that's, that's not great. It's like you said, it's not a great look. And unfortunately, it really just shows that these blown saves have really impacted him, affected him mentally. Like, this is really not easy for him.

And I, you know, obviously that doesn't help considering that right now, you know, the weight of this loss is once again, like, on his shoulders. Paul Seawald isn't blowing these games. he's not blowing these saves because of the defense not backing him up or other factors. It primarily has been him. Yeah, it's fair. I mean, the last couple have been one run leads, which, you know, I think it's different of a closer blows a three run lead than if they blow a one run lead.

It was just one run the last couple of times. Obviously, it was two runs today. Just a tie game, Veebacks had a chance to come back and win it. But yeah, it's tough, you know. I can't imagine just on a personal level. Like, it's a good thing, Derek, that I am not a closer for a major league baseball team because I would not have the mental fortitude that is necessary in that job. I have to sit here and face this chat without you after a loss like this, Jesse.

It's just like facing the media. It's pretty damn similar. It's very similar. It's daunting. It's intimidating. I get it. They just don't have cameras in front of my face. Oh, wait.

There is one and some lights. but Jesse, I know Tori had more to say about Paul Seawald. Do we want to start off with his opening statement about this loss? I think we can probably skip the opening statement at this point unless you guys. Nah, let's do that. What else you got? You got Tori on Seawald? Yeah, there's one more, one more of Tori just kind of reacting to what happened with Seawalt tonight.

I'm still shaking my head. A two-out home run doesn't happen very often, but it's been happening. a little bit to us lately. And it's almost unbelievable and it's frustrating, but it's part of the game. No, not necessarily. He'd been perfect up to that point and closers blow saves.

It happens. But, you know, maybe just finish the innings, just have the same intent. I'm sure he does, but he's not taking anything for granted. Just continue to make pitches and something good will happen. Baseball is such a fickle sport, Jesse. And you find yourself one week being, you know, on top of the world. And then you go through a stretch where, you know, people want you to lose your job over, you know, poor performances.

And it's only exasperated by the fact that the Diamondbacks are playing such good baseball right now outside of that. These aren't blowout losses. We're not losing these games to the Dodgers and the Padres and now here to the Braves. by a ton we were up and we were up late and even in some of those games the diamondbacks overcame adversity and came back in the padre series only to still lose due to paul seewald so this is just hard i feel like to actually make a decision and i will also say maybe the more surprising things about the thing about paul seawald is the fact that he was ever even this good because at times Paul Seawall will be the first one to tell you

that he's only going to throw two pitches and the opposing batter knows that and yet somehow he finds a way to be as good as he is so I really don't know what the answer is as far as what the Diamondbacks do right now I imagine it's just proceed as as they already have it is I mean I think we all are aware and have been from the beginning of Seawalt's tenure here

that he's not a prototypical close in that he's not throwing 100 miles an hour. He doesn't have, you know, his sweeper's a good pitch, but it's, you know, it's not like 93 miles an hour that's falling off the table or something, you know. I mean, it's a 91 mon hour four seamer that has, you know, he throws it a funky angle. He throws a rising fastball and an arm slot that people really only throw like sinkers from. So he's, he's a unique pitcher. He's unlike just about anyone else in the league.

And that's what has driven a lot of. his success over the last few years. But at the same time, there has been an element of, you know, we saw in the playoffs, like the more that guys see Seawald, it seems like he's maybe even more prone than in the average pitcher to guys figuring him out after a few at bats. I think that seems to be a real thing. And he's also a little bit home run prone. That's not just like something that's happened in the last week.

That's been Seawald's primary downside, granted. he's still been really good. But if you were kind of being nitpicky, he's given up a decent amount of home runs over the last few years, even when he was very good in Seattle, because he's a rising fastball guy. Like, he's trying to get you to swing and miss at the top of the zone and with his fastball.

And when he doesn't throw it high enough, then you see something like what happened with Sean Murphy, where he's able to, you know, take it the other way and hit it really far. So, yeah, it's a deception kind of a situation. It's different than, and basically any other pitcher and it hasn't, hasn't worked out so well here in the last week.

Well, of course, Jesse, we know that the baby Tori might be lying about how much he's going to stick with Paul. We don't know. But we know that the numbers, they don't lie. They never lie. So what do you have for tonight's number? Yeah, this, I thought about going with a positive one because I often get flack for being too negative.

Why? But tonight, I figured the vibes would be pretty negative. So this is a negative one. The number four, Derek represents the number of games since I guess this goes back to last Friday that the Diamondbacks have lost where they had a lead in the eighth inning or later. So since last Friday, the Diamondbacks have played 10 consecutive games at this point in which they had a lead in the eighth inning or later. and they are just six and four in those games. They have lost 40% of those games where they have had a lead in the eighth inning or later. The first one of those being last Friday's game where Ryan Thompson had a bit of a rough outing in the eighth inning,

debacks lost that one to the A's. And then obviously these last three with Seawald in this past week. So it's brutal. It's, you know, like we said the other day, you can squint here and the debacks are on a 10-game winning streak. and I mean if somehow they had managed to pull that off, they would be 49, if I can do this math in my head real quick, they would be 49 and 42, I think. That's what record the time and bags would have

if they had just managed to turn all those games into wins. Granted, that's not necessarily like what should have happened. Like, you know, guys are relievers are going to have their off days. And D-Backs bullpen, the back end has been really solid up until this stretch. But, yeah, just a brutal, brutal run of 10 games here in terms of just the late inning, not being able to lock these games down. Well, Jesse, I think we have a few more mailbag Monday questions. And despite the fact, well, we do want to address one thing,

and that is this is absolutely Frank the Tank from Barstool Sports's fault. And he absolutely cursed Paul Sewell because that man was fine before the two of them interacted and touched each other, and now this is where we're at. But of course, we do have a few more of our mailbag Monday questions. Damon, let's see what we got. A little bit confused on which ones we have done, which ones we haven't, but I think we're here. Yeah. We're with Serpiente's magic, and he says, how would it affect the whole infield defense if Walker leaves via free agency?

It's bad. Walker, Christian Walker, is one of the aforementioned guys that his contract is up at the end of the season. Of course, we were hoping at some point to hear that Diamondbacks would have reached some sort of agreement on an extension with Christian Walker. That does not appear that it's happening right now, right? Like now that we're this close to him being a free agent, I feel like for all intents and purposes, you know, he is going to be a free agent, you know. And of course, that hurts because Christian Walker tonight made an incredible play. one of those one plays that you just don't even appreciate enough that helped keep this lead prior to Paul C. Wald's meltdown there. So I don't know, Jesse, this infield, I think I think like what I kind of said about Gino.

I mean, we tend to really miss some of these guys when they're not playing there because they're very good. And we get very used to how good they are and how effortless they make playing their positions defensively. especially Christian Walker. I mean, he made, he made an unreal play late in this game to save a run. I'm forgetting, I'm forgetting who hit this ball, but it was a line shot up the third base, or up the first baseline. And Walker just made an unbelievable diving play to be able to just, you know, easily touch first. And that was that.

So he's so good at first base. I mean, he's the best defensive first base in the league and has been for years. It would be not only a big impact defensively, but a. pretty big impact offensively too. Like he's been a really, really important part of the middle of this lineup. I know there was a story over it at the Arizona Republic today from Nick Picoro about the topic of Christian Walker's impending free agency. And there's some quotes from Mike Hazen in there talking about how, of course, he wants

to bring back Christian Walker. And, you know, he didn't get into any of the specifics as far as that's concerned. But he did talk about how he feels like he has the necessary payroll. flexibility to, you know, make something like that happens. So we'll see where it goes. There's going to be a long line of teams that want Christian Walker this offseason. It's not just going to be the Diamondbacks, especially if he continues on the pace that he's at right now.

So we'll have to see how it turns out. I think that we haven't had any actual official mention of Christian Walker being offered in an extension and being turned down, but I don't know if that news would necessarily become public, right? Probably not. something that I recall it being said that's not beneficial for either side when a player is offered a contract extension and they turn it down. It doesn't make the organization look great, nor does it really make the player look great in the eyes of the fans. So not a lot there for

either side to win if they did have a contract extension that didn't go anywhere. But again, just one of those guys that like, you just think about how Christian Walker helped us lose Goldschmidt, right? and how much he helped ease the pain of losing essentially the majority of the fan base's favorite player and the best player on this team. Not your favorite player

though, huh, Derek? We're not doing that again. We already have enough thumbs down on this episode tonight. Derek thinks Paul Goldsmith was terrible. Nobody said that. No, I did not say that. I did not say that. Overrated, right, Derek? That is

what you said. You did say overrated. I said they worship him, Jesse. These fans put him on a pedestal. And now look at what you're doing. You're making me have this. Let's go on. Next question. What else we got, Damon?

Next question comes from the basketball and football guy. And he says, now with Humberto Castiano's saving how good Vera has been, does Kyle Nelson and Miguel Castro have a spot on this team? That's a great question. Miguel Castro, obviously, he is a guy that was making some rehab starts for the AAA Reno. We got word today from Tori Lavello that he is stepping aside due to a personal matter, but should be back to, you know, playing for the Reno Aces. It should be back for this team soon. But, I mean, I don't know.

I think the Diamondbacks were really searching for some bullpen options. And now they have some pretty good ones. And guys need to step up or they might not have a job on this team. Like that's a very real possibility for some of these, especially some of the younger players. Kyle Nelson is out for the season. I feel like we need to point that out here. Oh, someone was saying career and yeah, no, yeah, he's, he's, yes, he's not going to be back.

Yeah, not a, not a career ending injury. We certainly hope, but just a season ending injury at thoracic outlet surgery. So he's done for the year. Miguel Castro, as you said, should be back here, hopefully pretty soon. I, I don't think that Tiago Vieira or Humberto, Castiano's necessarily impeding Castro from getting, getting his job back. You know, Castro certainly has been excellent for the diamondbacks since he came over, but he has a track record of being at least a league average-ish reliever.

And I think that's something the debacks would still value. Fiera has been good, nothing to, you know, not to take anything away from him. Castiano came up really big for the debacks the other day as well. He's more here in a length role. So I think Castiano's is, you know, his role is very different from what Miguel Castro's role would be. So I don't view any kind of interference or anything there. Castro, once he's healthy, he's not going to have any problem getting a roster spot. All right.

We got one more question. Damon, what do we got for our last one before we get out of here? Last question comes from Tim. And he says, if we had to pick up one, who do you choose Longo, Mad Bum, or Granky? Oh, God. I don't want any of these guys. Longo. Longo.

I'll take Longo. Okay. I was going to say, I was pretty sure you'd want Longo. Yeah. Longo. I mean, he's already back. He's probably in the clubhouse right now as we speak.

Yeah. Longo is just just for the vibes, right? I think pretty valid questions to ask. No, not just for the vibes. For the goddamn leadership. Like this team needs somebody like Longo and at times. I feel like that is really what's lacking with this team. Yeah, vibes leadership.

Same thing. No, they are not the same thing. I think there are probably some pretty valid questions to be asked about the usefulness of any of those players on a baseball on a major league baseball time. But Zach Granky still needs number 3,000, Jesse. That's true. That's true. Out of the three, I think Granky might be my pick is like, this guy could maybe, you know,

string together some, you know, some good stuff for half a season or whatever. We need him right now. Not for Yover Diaz's spot, Derek. No, no, no, no, no. You can have Slade's spot. Tori did confirm, by the way, that Yolver Diaz will make his next start in the big leagues. Not that there was any doubt about that after he totally shoved in his debut today. But Tori confirmed he will start again in five days.

That would be on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. well we got our strikeout meter for tonight again as you guys may know i did steal the circle k strikeout meter from chase field uh there's our strikeouts for tonight not these are yelbert diaz is strikeouts for tonight by the way so uh shout out there wasn't a single one after yelbert ds no no no we just did it's it's sometimes we do the starting pitcher jesse sometimes we do all them sometimes we do whatever the hell we want on this show especially on a night like this where it really doesn't matter. No, this is just Yilbert Diaz's.

I was saying that was just Yilbert Diaz's strikeouts. Excuse me. I apologize. El Dulce, as we have learned to love him and call him, the candy man. Of course, thank you to Circle K. Thank you to all. Candy. Speaking of candy, get some great candy at Circle K.

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I have some snacks behind me. I'm sure they're probably going to be mad at me because I know they probably don't want me messing up the set and eating these, but I'm totally going to eat these right now. But that's because the Circle K branded snacks are not to be slept on. Do not miss out on all of that. And do not miss out on everything Circle K has to offer, including picking up your Four Peaks beers at Circle K. Circle K and their beer and their beercade got all sorts of wonderful beers, including

the Four Peaks. Four Peaks has a wide variety of beers to choose from, including our new favorite, the Bad Birdie juicy golden ale. There's some great beers, but that one sits at the top right now for me. You can get this wonderful collaboration between Four Peaks and Bad Birdie. In tap lines all across the valley, you can check out Four Peaks in person at their location, or you can get them in 15 packs of grocery stores all around the valley. Right now, visit Four Peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. check out at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please enjoy responsibly.

Well, my voice isn't going to close this game out. My voice is about to blow the save. But we have no show tomorrow. So I'm going to rest up. Jesse and I were taking a break before we go on the road this weekend. We are going to be bringing you basically a whole lot of postgame shows for a whole lot of days in the row from Texas, from Chicago. We're going to be having some fun. We're also going to have our guy, Jordan Schusterman, on the show on Wednesday.

So we will have a 1 p.m. show on Wednesday. Make sure to join us for that. For Jordan, he's a wonderful guest. And I guess I can have Jesse and Jordan here at the same time. I don't like to have that much baseball brain power, making me feel very insignificant about myself, making me feel self-conscious. But we'll do it anyway. So, of course, make sure to join us for that.

In the meantime, you guys can, Follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, is at Damon Dog.

That's D-A-W-G. And we are and will forever be Damon's dogs. Bark, our show is at P-H-N-X underscore E-Bet. We haven't barked in a while, Dan. We haven't barked in entirely too long. I don't know if we linked up properly on that one.

We'll figure it out. It's been a while. Jesse saw me today. And he was like, wow, you're really growing that beard. out. He hasn't seen me in like three weeks, I feel like, in person. It's wild. But of course, we thank you guys again. Make sure you follow the show at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads

the lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, we thank all of you guys so much for your passion about this team, your comments, for joining us here live. We appreciate you so much. We will see you on Wednesday. Until then, have a wonderful Tuesday. Have a wonderful night tonight. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't blow Yilbert Diaz's amazing debut.