PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Paul Sewald helps Diamondbacks snap losing skid with series win over Padres

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks finally snapped their 9-game losing streak with a series victory over the San Diego Padres. Paul Sewald locked things down with his first two saves as a Snake, and it finally feels like the D-backs have stabilized their bullpen. We discuss the starts by Zac Gallen and Brandon Pfaadt in this series, some surprising roster moves, your Mailbag Monday questions, and so much more!SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.

Hello and welcome in to the Arizona Diamondbacks podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am known around the city and on Apple TV as the mayor of the city of Phoenix. This man next to me is back. He is Mr. Electric Sean DePaz. And, of course, as always, our stabilizing force at the back end of our rotation, the one and only Jesse Friedman. I'm a number five starter.

Is that like you said? Jesse the back end of the bullpen. Maybe you're our closer because today we're giving all the credit in the world to our man Paul Seawald and everything he has done over the course of this past weekend because, yes, things did look bleak. Things did look bad, including Friday's game where the Ares on the Diamondbacks did lose with Ryan Nelson on the mound. But of course, after our takeover event, things turned around.

We did it, you guys. We did it because of us. I think not. There's no way that it's a coincidence. It's definitely not because the last time we were out of takeover, they also won. Yeah. I believe that was the last time they had won at Chase Field. There's a lot of electricity basically generated by our takeover events.

But this one was by far our best one. I felt like not only was it a great weekend, it was a great day. We got these amazing throwback jerseys. And the last one set the bar pretty hot. It really did. It was a pretty electric show. It really did. But I mean, a big thank you to all of you that.

came out because you guys made it an absolute blast. I want to say this, though. I have one pet peeve. I know this might be asking too much. I know this might be quite demanding. But if you come to our takeover event, you have to come say hi to us because there were far too many people who were there who we didn't even know were there because they were just politely and quietly

minding their business in the seat that they purchased for this takeover event and not shouting at Dick Mountain with all of the euphemisms and every other chant that we came up with. Not screaming at me that we're back. Not screaming back. Yeah, we were asking each other if we were back constantly during that game. And the dive-backs definitely are back with a series win over the San Diego Padres. I don't feel like, like, I want to temper things just based on the fact that the Padres had not been playing very well coming into the series against the dive-a-back.

So at the very least, it's not this Padres team that we have feared all season long and that was this team we thought they would be. However, they took care of business when they absolutely needed to because this was. a must win. You know, the Padres were even calling this series a must win series for them as well. So it kind of makes sense when you look at the wildcard standings, how closely the teams that are actually in it are grouped together and how the teams that aren't in it are kind of drifting back. And there's some distance growing between those two groups. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this was a huge series win for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They so sorely, sorely needed this. And we talked about it after Friday's game. You know, I mean, that was a tough pitching matchup for the Diamondbacks. Like Ryan Nelson just got sent down by the Diamondbacks. We're going to talk about that a little bit more later. And he was facing Blake Snell, who is, you know, one of the guys in the mix for the NL. Sigh Young Award. So that was going to be a tough game for the Diamondbacks even, you know, months ago when they were playing really well.

That was just a game that's going to be really hard to win. They were able to take care of business on Saturday and Sunday when I guess Sunday's game, the pitching matchup was not necessarily in their favor. Brandon Faud has obviously had his struggles, but Zach Gallen was able to come through in a huge way on Saturday with six scoreless innings. And, you know, when your offense is struggling,

it helps when your pitching staff just doesn't allow any runs. The Diamondbacks only scored three in that game. But that was enough with how good Zach Gallon was in that game. Zach Gallen was lights out. Six innings, four hits, zero runs, one walk, eight strikeouts. In 12 starts at Chase Field, Zach Gallen is now 10 and 1.82 ERA, a 0.89 whip and 92 strikeouts. Any good?

That's pretty good. It's pretty good. I guess I have to ask, was the series win a surprise to you? Was the series win a surprise to me? I think a series win was a surprise to me, yes. I think Saturday the win was not a surprise to me at all. I just thought there was far too much going in the DeBack's favor for them not to win that game. The matchups, the jersey, the takeover.

The night. By the way, before I get too far away from the takeover, I want to shout out Tim and his wife and their adorable ass baby It was Tim's birthday. I don't think they were there for the takeover they were just from Boise Right? They were from Boisey. Yeah, I think they said that they were there like because of the take over they heard about the takeover But it was it was it was tim's birthday. I know that and so they flew up and happy birthday too And they came up and they and they barked at Damon. They did bark at Damon. Tim was like you got to bark at Damon so beautiful child. We're all Damon's dogs. I don't the kid was adorable the kid was cute as shit yeah but shout out 10 well and it was I I really enjoyed

you know ending this losing streak with our diehards yeah no it was there was something's just so great about that I mean it was a Saturday realistically I probably would have been alone in my apartment watching this game otherwise it was awesome to actually to experience that moment with the fans but getting back to your original question like no I didn't necessarily expect a series a series win yeah I don't think there was any real reason to expect that based on the way that they had been playing over the last couple of weeks. That's fair. I thought it was possible.

Like I said, I thought, I felt pretty confident that they were going to win on Saturday. And if you get one win, then you can get two. Like, I just think one thing just kind of has to fall your way. So I definitely always thought it was possible, but I did not expect it by any means. That's what Paul Seawald said after the game. And I mean, there were a lot of jokes, including after that win, apparently in the, in the hug line, the thing that he told Tori was, see, I told you. we'd win another game, which is just hilarious because I think we all started feeling like that.

And for it to become kind of a joke with them too, it makes sense. And I think that's why I like Seawald so much. I know Jesse is a big fan of Paul Seawald. Like his attitude seems infectious. He seems like a calming force when it comes to this situation. And the man just got here. He's tried to say several times. He's not trying to like take over as any kind of, you know, locker room leader or anything like that.

But he's been his presence is just calming and the words that he says are very logical and They're there. It's like having jesse here very much is like when me and him are freaking out We need jesse here to be like calm down you guys. This is a we still have two months of baseball to play and that's as flattered as I am by the by the Paul seawalled comparisons. I don't throw a 94 mom That is correct. You know you definitely get your your slider sucks and honestly you don't get it high enough in the strike zone for me for my liking but he is just a delightful and when I say that I mean Paul C. Well, not Jesse. That's where they compares to that. The fastball and the

likability. But the the pitching was outstanding in this series for the Diamondbacks or at least in the two wins. After Friday. After Friday. Ryan Nelson really, I mean, your heart goes out to Ryan Nelson. He was sent down to AAA Reno

and he really looked frustrated in that post game press conference on Friday. So, you know, hopefully he could go down and work on the stuff that can get him back here because we've seen Ryan Nelson have a tremendous amount of success at a major league level, especially on the road. There's just some things obviously right now that that, including possibly tipping his pitches that he needs to work on.

But Brandon fought looked like he was going to struggle in the game on Sunday. The first inning was not very good. But then after that, you could say Brandon fought was very, very good. He ended up going five and two thirds innings, which he should have absolutely gone six. and the home plate umpire stole that opportunity away from him unjustly without reason giving up nine hits three runs three earn he walked to and he struck out a career high eight he hasn't allowed a home run in either of his last two starts and things just seem to be trending very in a very good direction for brandon fought even with that first inning that that he kind

of struggled to get out of the home run was the lack of home runs is huge yeah yeah especially for this uh for this uh for this starting rotation you know they guys that are letting a big fly fly. For him specifically, obviously, you go back to Gabriel Cincinnati and now you're at a point where he's not given up home runs. Like that is a yeah. That was a big thing for him. So it's,

if he can keep that up, that's definitely a welcome change, I guess. Yeah, he really bounced back in a huge way yesterday. It really had the feel in that first inning, you know, sort of a here we go again, you know,

are the Diamondbacks about to lose another game 12 to 3 or whatever? and have a position player on the mound in the ninth inning. It was a huge win all the way around, not just for Brandon fought to bounce back in that game, but for the Diamondbacks offense to kind of claw their way back in that game as well. That's just something that we haven't really seen from this team in recent weeks, the ability to like when you get down somewhat big early, when the other team puts a crooked number on the board early in a game,

to be able to, you know, kind of gather yourself a little bit and still put together quality at bats. It's something the Diamondbacks just haven't done. It's felt at times like when the opponent gets up big early in a game, the offense just, the abats just aren't really there. The quality of the abats just isn't there. The patience isn't there. And we saw that yesterday. Lordus Guriel came in, you know, hit a huge pinch hit to run home run in that game.

There was a sack fly, I believe, by Alec Thomas that ultimately put the debacks up in that game. It's something, I mean, I know we've, you know, been using the answerbacks moniker for most of the season. We haven't used that much in the last month because the diamondbacks seem to kind of lose that part of their identity. They showed a glimpse of that again yesterday. A lot of Paul Seawald talking about its time for Paul Seawald, the pitch, L.O.L. It's very funny, but Paul Seawald has been incredible for this team. He comes in and he gets his first two saves over the course of this weekend. And, I mean, I don't, I just, I got tears in my eyes watching a closer coming.

into the baseball game for the Arizona Diamondbacks and just do his job. Just do his job for two nights in a row. I mean, even when he gave up a hit, it still seemed kind of meaningless and didn't have that drama that we've had. I mean, we've had guys come in and shut down games as relievers. We've seen that. It's not like every game that a reliever came in and saved. They blew this season.

But you can't help but say like you could probably count on your two hands the times where it was drama free there in like the eighth and the ninth inning. what the Diamondbacks are getting now out of not just Paul Seawald, but now Miguel Castro, who has been pitching very well lately, and Kevin Ginkle, who wasn't so great, but still Kevin Ginkle, I think is still going to be a part of this. These guys aren't going to be perfect all the time, but it really feels like there's some stability there

at the back end of this bullpen for the first time this entire season. Yeah, again, it's the presence of Paul Sewell. Like, that was one thing, and I know it was maybe a little skewed because we were at the middle of our diehards who are, I would argue a little more. baseball savvy than the average fan and like but like when Paul Seawald came into the game you could feel the energy of like okay this is the guy who has a job to do and it's going to come in and do the job which is crazy because he hadn't done it in a diamond uniform at that point yeah right but it just was like it felt

different and I have to imagine that resonates throughout the team or at least throughout the pitching staff as well yeah it's just it kind of like we were talking about with him in the locker room just like Like his even in game, I think his presence changes the way everyone can approach the game. And it is, I mean, you saw it in those two games. He got the job done. And I think it was really important that he got it done considering I was for a save opportunity. Like to have those two games back to back in that moment, in this moment of the season, like all things considered, I think were very important. And so obviously very happy that he got done.

They were really locked in, especially like what you're saying in that, you know, like you could just see them. having that little extra, you know, bouncing their step and just doing everything the right way. But man, I mean, again, Jesse, when it comes down to his, I guess his performance and his ability, like I feel like he has this ability to go out there and understand how to work the pitch count. And even if he's like letting it get to a full count, like he's working towards a goal. Whereas our other relievers just seemed like things were falling apart for them and they were just being wild. Like it feels like Seawald has a game plan he's executing and he gets the job done. He knows who to pitch around.

He knows who to pitch two. And he knows when to be aggressive in the strike zone and when not to be aggressive. And that's like I feel like the difference that we've seen from some of the other guys that have been in this role. Yeah. I asked Christian Walker on Saturday after Seawald's first, first save as an Arizona diamond back. And yeah, obviously is, you know, his first save opportunity did not go particularly well in Minnesota. Did not. But Christian Walker talked to.

about how you can just tell, like you were saying before, he just has this presence about him and this comfort level with the ninth inning. Yes. And I think that's a huge difference from the other guys, the Diamondbacks have put in that role this season sort of because they had to. Like Andrew Chafin, you know, you can pitch in the ninth inning. You can use him like that. But that's not necessarily, you know,

he hasn't really done that much in his career. That's not necessarily where he's most comfortable. Scott McGuff has pitched a lot in the ninth inning. But that was in Japan. That's just different than doing it, you know, in the majors at this level. You can tell that CWaldi's been doing this for a couple years now. You know, this is sort of what he prides himself in doing. And, you know, we're starting to see things turn around for him.

You're the one that wrote the article about the DeBack's historic bullpen struggles, not just this year, not just in the last five years, but almost their entire time as a franchise. They've had a couple of names. Of course, those are the names people bring up, you know, that one special season for Mandel Rodney had and Papa Grande and stuff like that. But this feels different. And this feels like the Diamondbacks have a guy not only here for the rest of this season, but for next season that really can be that you don't have to even think about it.

Like if we get to see Walt, it's almost an automatic that the Diamondbacks can lock the game down. Sure. Obviously, nobody is perfect. No closer is perfect. No closer is perfect. And I think it's important to remember that. Like when he came over in the trade, he was 21 for 24 and save opportunities. That's about 87.

which is a really good number. Like that's, that's, that's an elite number. But that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't going to be games like there were in Minnesota where it's like, all right, well,

he just kind of didn't have it today. And, you know, those games are still going to be tough to lose. But yeah, Paul Seewald in my mind is just on a different level than anyone the Diamondbacks have had in this closer role for a long time. Even Fernando Rodney.

I know, you know, he was pretty much lights out from May on in that 2017 season. But the guy still had an ERA over four. by the end of the year. Sure did. Because in April, he was an absolute disaster. He had an ERA over 12 in April that year.

Paul Seawald is going to have his rough moments. But I think it's really an enormous change for the Diamondbacks in terms of, you know, the types of guys they've had to put in those roles in the past. Well, he was two for two to save opportunities in this series. And Paul Seawald is our Kingsnake for this series against the San Diego Padres. Gave up one hit, no runs, and got those two saves. And that's just fairly, fairly incredible. incredible outing against a pretty potent offensive team, right?

For Paul Seawald to come in there and shut both of those games down, that felt pretty exciting. When you talk about relievers, though, that have a higher ERA due to their early season performance, one name that comes up is Luis Frius. Luis Frius is just somebody I wanted to give a shout out to because he currently has a nine-game, nine-inning scoreless streak. He has not allowed a run since being called up from Reno on July 15th.

Uh, his last, by the way, yeah, there you go. Uh, his last run, well, loud was on May 26th in the major leagues. Uh,

and he's just been very good seven strikeouts, three walks, a 1.22 whip. Uh, and again, another name that there was some excitement about and then some disappointment in. And now,

honestly, because he's doing his job so well, I feel like he almost kind of flies under the radar with his numbers lately, because he just comes in and kind of quietly gets one of those middle innings kind of, uh, shuts down and, and gets out of it.

So hopefully he can keep that up because the Diamondbacks really at this point need to continue to find those guys. Paul Seawald, you know, isn't going to be the only guy. Kevin Ginkle can't be the only guy. So Toro Lovola needs to find those guys

that he can count on at this point. I feel like being a reliever is a very tough life because early on you develop some kind of reputation and then kind of like you say, you pitch well and people don't notice you. And then you don't really shake the reputation that you might have built early on in the year. But the CRA is still 460.

That's what I said. the nature of being a really good. Because of how bad, how many runs he gave up early and he hasn't had that many games, right? He hasn't had that many opportunities to lower that ERA. It's still very, very high. But, yeah, I mean, it's like Scott McGuff going back to McGuff. McGuff has had some bad performances. It's not to say he hasn't, but he's had more good performances than bad.

The bad ones just stick out to you because they typically were the reason why the Diamondbacks lost a game that they were up. It does get frustrating with this relief, you know, with this bullpen. with these relievers that you can't really expect them to come in and just hold a game scoreless, which a lot of the good Major League Baseball teams right now can count on their bullpen to do that. The Diamondbacks have experienced that and some of these losses in their nine-game losing streak. But we're not talking about losing streaks anymore. We're talking about winning streaks because the Diamondbacks have won two in a row, and we are on the path to, of course, the World Series.

That's the way that this works. We are bad. Can we talk about defensive specialist, Buddy Kennedy? We absolutely can talk about. player of all time yeah buddy kennedy third baseman yeah i mean i don't understand uh how we let that go by but buddy kennedy was called up we do have some roster moves that we'll get to in due time damon you just let me get through our rundown sheesh i'm just hyped about buddy i know we're all hyped about buddy well we're all hyped about the changes the diamond backs have made because they definitely

made some surprising moves that of course we'll talk about but uh we did want to spy on our exes real fast so if we can't let's spy on our exes right uh on i believe it was saturday dominic canzon hit a game tying home run for the Mariners in their extra innings affair with the Orioles, which was kind of fun. He hit that right after he clobbered it. He absolutely clobbered. Yeah, he kind of stood there and watched it for a while. He did.

Yeah, there was some emotion in that, which I mean, late game, game tying home run. That's what you're supposed to do. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's got the dog in him, right? We know, we know Canzone has the dog at him. His clutch factor on baseball's avarne is off the charts. but his hitting aside from that not very good and neither is uh josh rojas in fact both players since being traded traded to the mariners are aren't faring fairly well canzone is slashing 192 250

383 855 o p slohs lashing 158 200 211 with a 411 ops and those are that's in 20 plate appearances with the mariners but he had a cute moment with otani so it doesn't matter he did have a cute moment with o tani uh ryan bliss is slashing 222 308, 311, with a 619 OPS with Mariners' Triple A affiliate. So the point of this is that the Diamondbacks won the Paul C-Wall trade. Yeah, yeah. That's the only reason why we're talking about. Generally, I say it takes about two weeks to evaluate a trade in baseball.

So, yeah, you know, today's about the two-weeks market. We were doing that after the Goldschmidt trade, admitted. So here we are because that trade's officially dead almost, almost. Almost. Dominic Fletcher, we're watching you. Because, yeah, Dominic Fletcher's still there. Emmanuel Rivera is still in the organization, although he was just. sent down well will the trade ever be dead will it ever be dead we'll always talk about it but

it will probably be a loss for the years on a diamond backs even even if you know the debaks turned one asset into another into another for many more years yeah that i don't think anyone's i hope like 40 years from now we have the next show hey otani as a product of the trade and it's like finally i did it just took some time but we won the trades we did it it only took 72 years In other roster news, per his Instagram and according to Steve Gilbert from MLB.com, Jordan Lawler has been promoted to AAA Reno. Got off to a rough start this season, but actually has been hitting the hell out of the ball since, what, June and May? Yeah, yeah.

Since May 30th, Jordan Lawler, his slash sign at 310, 400, 554 walk rate, just over 10%. Strikeout rate of 17.6%. Those are good numbers. That strikeout rate is great. Obviously, it's still Amarillo. What is, what is it? Ivan Melendez's a strikeout, right? I think it's at about 35.

Yeah. It's about double Jordan Wallace. So, yeah, there's an enormous difference there. I just feel like everyone, every, you just, every time he gets brought up, the chat like freaks out. Like, he's going to be the first base in the future, like, for sure. And I just feel like they always leave out that detail. He didn't deserve that, though.

I'm sorry. Do you feel better about yourself? No. It does it make you feel like you big man from a little of someone else? I'm going to go look at Laly Dela Cruz's. Trackout numbers. Meanwhile, Jesse, how's Loller's defense been this year? Better than what we've seen in the past?

Yeah, yeah. It sounds, I mean, last year I think some people were a little concerned that he might not be a short stop long term. And, you know, this year I still think there are, you know, I still think it's an area he can improve in. But those concerns seem to have waned quite a bit. I think generally people viewed. Jordan Lawler as the Diamondback shortstop of the future, which is, which is big.

I mean, obviously shortstop is one of the most valuable positions on the diamond. So him, him taking a step forward in that regard is very good news. I know shortstop, I would have accrues is a 44.6% strikeout rate. In the majors, yeah. Okay. There you go. See, but that, I mean, that kind of helps things, put things in perspective, right? Melendez has a 35% in double A.

Yeah. So, you know, Ellie is struggling a little bit. Yeah, that translates to 90%. 8% in the minute. No, it wouldn't be that bad. But yeah, he clearly, he clearly still has, has some work to do. But I think as far as Melendez goes, there's still something to be said for the amount of damage that he's doing despite that. So I wouldn't say like, oh, he's a, you know, he's a non-prospect or anything. Like, give him some time. This is his first full season in the minors. But yeah, you also want to tap the brakes if you're expecting Ivan Melendez to be Paul Goldschman in two years.

I'm not sure we're, we're quite there with him just yet. In other moves, the debacks recalled Buddy Kennedy, which were a big fan of, reinstated Gabriel Moreno, which were even more of a fan of. And they selected right-handed pitcher Bryce Jarvis from Reno. Jarvis was a starting pitcher, one of the top ten prospects on the dimeback system, but he had been recently moved to the bullpen in Reno, which might have been a move to kind of align him a little bit more with what his role on the diamondbacks might be. But yeah, he's been fairly good in, you know, I say fairly good. he puts up good Reno numbers, which is still an ERA over five.

But 1.53 ERA, 23.4% K rate, 11.6% walk rate. So he hasn't been terrible. And I think that the Diamondbacks right now are kind of in that mode based on the moves they made of giving somebody else an opportunity when the guys that they have been giving opportunities to haven't really worked out. And it's not like they just gave guys a couple of games to try to impress or do something. And some of the guys that they set down, including Ryan Nelson, Emmanuel Rivera, and Carson Kelly, who they designated for assignment, all had a lot of opportunities at a major league level, but they're trying to do something to get this team out of their losing ways. And so far, it's worked. Yeah, I think it'll be, it'll be really interesting to see what Bryce Jarvis looks like in the majors. As you said, you know, the 548RA since being called up to Reno, it's not fantastic, but it's pretty much league average relative.

to other starting pitchers at that level. So it's below seven, which is good. Yeah, it is below seven. Yeah. Drake Jameson and Ryan Nelson both had like a seven plus year. Yeah. Yeah, last year. I think Drey Jamison's did start with a seven.

So yeah, the Diamondbacks are going to use him as a reliever. It does not sound like this had to do with like an innings limit. I don't think the Diamondbacks have any concerns there. It also doesn't necessarily have to do with his long-term future from everything that I've heard the Diamondbacks still view Bryce Jarvis as a. potential starter moving forward. But basically what was explained to him is you can make a difference at the big league level sooner if you move to the bullpen right now.

So the diamondbacks are going to just kind of see what this looks like. And yeah, kind of a similar situation to Slade Sikoni where if you were to rely on a on a Jarvis or a Cicone in a starting role, I think you might be a little concerned about what those results would look like. So this is a little bit more of a soft landing for him. And yeah, maybe, you know, going into next season, he still could be viewed as a starter. And the Diamondbacks could continue to develop him that way. We still don't have probable pitchers for this series coming up with.

I think we have Merrill. I think they put Merrill back on the ledger for today. Yeah. And then outside of this, we know we're probably going to get a Slade-Sacconi start, which might look a little bit like a bullpen game. And then the other game might in fact be a bullpen game. So it's going to be interesting to see how the Diamondbacks bullpen can, can do with this much usage over

this series against the Rockies. I think we're getting Meryl tonight and then it sounds like Tuesday is going to be the bullpen game and then Wednesday I think is when you'll see Slate's the Coney start but that hasn't been made official at this point. And again, we don't know about how long Slate's

going to be allowed to go or what his pitch count is going to be like so that could still be a game where he makes it maybe three or four innings and that's still a desirable result for the Diamondbacks. Back to back bullpen games at course field is kind of a scary proposition, That's terrifying. We'll see.

Just have to hope the Merrill goes eight innings tonight and everything will be okay, right? I mean, this is what happens when you play the San Francisco Giants too many times, Jesse. You start getting ideas from that Gabe Kapler and now just bullpen starts to seem like the greatest thing ever for Tori Lavello. But some difficult decisions the Diamondbacks did have to make. They sent down Ryan Nelson and Emmanuel Rivera again to Reno. They designated Carson Kelly for assignment. They also designated Christian Robinson for assignment. and these are unfortunate.

Carson Kelly, of course, has been a huge part of this team. I know a lot of people were frustrated with his play this year, and understandably so. I think Carson Kelly has had a pretty raw deal. This man, I think, has broken more bones for the Diamondbacks team than any player I've ever seen injured before. And, I mean, there comes a point where that does take a toll on you, your health, and the ability to bounce back from those injuries isn't as quick. And I think really what we saw was Carson Kelly kind of in a, you know, in a hole of getting back to playing a, you know, playing at a major league level and never quite got there. It also was sad that we saw Carson Kelly have arguably some of his best games at the plate right before he got DFAed.

But what are your thoughts on parting ways with both Christian Robinson and Carson Kelly? I know Christian Robinson, we talked about quite a bit. Yeah. We were hoping that this story would have a better outcome than this. Yeah, I talked with Diamondbacks farm director, Josh Barfield, yesterday. And, yeah, basically there were two primary things he brought up talking about Christian Robinson. One was just that the Diamondbacks needed the roster spot. It is a little weird.

It is a little difficult to give a 40-man roster spot to a guy who's down in high A. That's pretty far away from the majors, you know, for a guy to have a 40-man roster spot. So the Diamondbacks just found themselves needing. that, you know, as you saw with all the moves that they made this weekend. And Josh also did mention to me that Christian Robinson is going through some personal stuff. I don't know exactly the nature of that. He didn't really expand on it. But I don't get the sense that this was purely a baseball decision.

I think there were some other factors. We just don't have specifics on exactly what those were. I get it, though, because sometimes those personal issues off the field are something you need to be given time for. Yeah, obviously Robinson has been through a lot the last few years. Absolutely, that's well documented. But he also had a fairly high strikeout rate. And like you said, the big thing was being in Hillsborough and taking up that 40-man roster spot. The Diamondbacks have had to make some difficult moves, moves that we didn't think that they would make to improve this team.

Going back to them DFAing Madison Bumgarner and now DFA and Carson Kelly. Like these are moves that you don't want to do as an organization, but there comes a point where. You have to do what improves your franchise, what improves the team on the field. And right now with Gabriel Moreno coming back, it felt like Carson Kelly, at least being sent down would be the move. But I imagine Carson Kelly doesn't have options left or anything like that. So there is no sending down to AAA Reno right now at this point for Kelly. So we definitely wish all of those guys the best because it does suck. And just like I was saying about Ryan Nelson, like it's tough.

It's tough to see these decisions made and these lives affected. Ryan Nelson still breaks my heart, you know, looking back at that press conference from Friday and seeing the amount of frustration he was personally experiencing after that loss. Yeah. It's never easy. It's never easy. But hopefully the Diamondbacks have done what they needed to do, make those difficult decisions to improve this team. Because like we said on Twitter, every game remaining is pretty much a playoff game for this team.

That might be just a little drastic, but not really based on the schedule they have, who their opponents are ahead of them and how important winning as many of these games are. The Diamondbacks need to win the majority of their remaining games in order for them to have a shot at the playoffs. The other thing I'll say about Carson is I wasn't totally shocked by this move just because I think Carson was a pretty legitimate non-tender candidate at the end of the season. I think it's very possible that Diamondbacks were just going to let him go anyway. And so, you know, you have Jose Herrera already on the roster, right? So you've got a backup catcher that I think you feel okay about. And so, yeah, the Diamondbacks, you know, by letting him go a month and a half early,

they're kind of just getting ahead of this a little bit. I don't view this as being hugely shocking or anything. The timing is a little weird because Carson was kind of getting hot offensively. He's actually had. So I just said. Yeah, he's actually had a pretty decent week. So the timing is a little bit. strange but yeah i i didn't really expect the diamondbacks to bring carson back for next year so

just kind of making that decision a month a month and a half i mean it's kind of just a product of gabby being available again right yeah yeah that absolutely is but incoming you know cars and kelly remainder of the season where he bats 400 yeah for some other team probably right yeah he's going to get picked up by you know the dodgers i knew you're going to say the dodgers yeah i knew you're going to say the dodgers and i feel like you're just i feel like you feel like you feel like you're too safe for me, Jesse. I feel like you don't think I'll leap over, Sean, and fight you right now on this live show. I'm not going to get in the way. I know you won't. I know you won't. That's why I think he doesn't understand that part. But if you're here to witness a fight,

you're in the right place. Welcome into the PHN Exports YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe to the channel. If you haven't done so already, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live. Leave us a thumbs up. Just just to let us know you like purple and teal. That's what we want a thumbs up for. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, please subscribe to us there. Sign up or leave us review. We always appreciate the feedback and most importantly sign up for a die hard's membership today Excuse me excuse me diehards by the way best membership you can get Die hard membership die hard membership you can get cough cough cough yeah, that's that's the alert

No die hard membership really does pay for itself right away get yourself a free piece of merchandise from phtonx locker dot com If you were gonna get yourself a shirt if you were gonna get yourself a hat just sign up for for a die hard membership today not only will you get that three piece of merchandise. You'll also get yourself a $50 gift certificate for Mountain Mike's Pizza. You will get a Dobson Ranch Ranch card. You will get so much stuff that it will pay for itself instantly. You also get Jesse's newsletter full count and the newsletter from all of our writers around here. You will also get access to our members only Discord lounge where we have exclusive Discord content just for our diehards only and so much other stuff. So sign up today. You'll get members only invites to events, members only merchandise, so much

incredible stuff. So don't miss out on all of this. Join us today. Most importantly, sign up right now for the BetMGM Sportsbook app because it makes watching sports better. And you don't even have to use your own money when you get on there because BetMGM will give you out free Friday bonus bets every Friday. All you have to do is log in at any point this weekend to claim your bonus bet on the house. And once you get that bonus bet, you can turn around. You can make a crazy 10-leg parlay and then miss it by one leg just like I did. And then if you miss it, guess what? You'll actually, there's consequence free because it's not even your money.

It was just bonus bets given to you by the fine folks at BET to MGM. And when I say that, I did make a nine-leg parlay that I missed by one by one by one leg. And what was that one leg? I took the under on the Diamondbacks Friday game where they scored like 15 runs, I believe. That's what I get for taking the under. It's like I hate fun. That's what Shane says. He tells me I hate fun.

But, uh, what, what wanted me? Why did I want to take the under? Yeah, yeah. I don't know because the diamond, that was the first game of the series and neither teams were playing very well offensively coming into it. Okay. So, and then of course, I was a fool. And then I think the under hit on all the remaining games of the weekend potentially.

I don't know. Sunday's game had a lot of runs scored in it. Um, but anyway, don't miss out on all this fun stuff over at the BentMGM app. If you sign up now, you use bonus code pH and X. There's a few different offers depending on where you live. but for our Arizona audience, place your first bet, and you'll receive up to $1,000 back in bonus bets if it loses. Check out the show notes for full details.

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in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., Kansas, Nevada, New York, or Ontario. Well, it is Monday, and of course, every day on this show is Earth Day. Every week on this show is Shark Week. But on Mondays, Mondays are special. We go to the mailbag. Damon, let's go.

My mailbox. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I try to get to everything in my mailbox. And then what's hot? I'm so sick of that guy. guy's voice right now. Let me tell you. By the way, shout out to my man Megaran. Released his new children's album today, actually. So make sure to check out Buddy's Toy Box because that is an incredible piece of music that is unique. Children's music,

usually is not the greatest thing for parents to listen to. So if you have a young one and you want to be able to tolerate that album that they ask you to play over and over again, check that out. But let's get to our first piece of mail. Damon, what do we got? Gabriel at bold as bronze on Twitter asks are we back? Boys, are we? We're so back. We are so back. We are absolutely back.

Yeah, in our show prep today, we had an actual conversation that maybe we needed to address who the diamond backs are going to play in the 2020 World Series. Like, I think it was actually a topic that maybe like maybe we should have that conversation. It seems inevitable that it's going to be the Mariners because they trade wins. So only one team can win at like they went on a seven game win streak. or whatever while the debacks were on their losing streak and I think they've lost two straight as the dominant backs of one two straight since the trade of course too so it seems like they are

on a collision course yeah like some sort of mirror opposites bizarre then they get to the world series where obviously only one of them can win in any given night yeah but how would they get to the how would they both progress to the world series like in order to win that many playoff rounds you have to play well you can't

have one team playing well and the other team playing opposite that and they both get to the same point a lot of holes in I mean, you just can't. I just can't play on the same. It just. It works. All right.

Don't ask questions, Jesse. Shut up with your stupid logic. You know, we'd be at Disneyland and start asking questions about how this shit works. Even the magic. Yeah, just magic. Oh, I would 100% put it. That's right. He really will.

You would ruin the day. You would ruin the day. What else we got, Damon? We are back. That's answering that question. We are back. Brian Bobbitt asks at BB underscore Nitro on Twitter. Is there any concern with watching death or with catching death?

With Kelly being DFAed, not like he was any good, but looking at what's behind Gabby and Jose didn't look any better if any of them go down. That is an absolutely outstanding point. Yeah, I mean, the depth is the big concern here. But of course, the problem there being that they didn't really want to keep Carson Kelly around just so that they could keep all three. I feel like Jose Herrera has been playing much better than Carson Kelly. And I felt like that they wanted to go with Gabby and Jose Herrera. But it's a valid question because, yes, if one of those guys go down, what do they do for a backup? Yeah, and Reno right now, the Diamondbacks have two catchers on the roster.

One is Ollie Sanchez. He's hitting 317, 377, 484. Obviously, it's Reno. So that's maybe around league average production. He has played a few games in the majors. I believe he was on the Cardinals for a few days. Also on the Mets. He has 14 Major League played appearances under his belt.

So he's seen a little bit of time in the majors. He's ready to go. Yeah, he's ready to go. The other catcher of the Diamondbacks have in Reno is Adrian Del Castillo, who is promoted there just a few weeks ago. And I've heard pretty good reports about him. Not a super highly touted Diamondbacks prospect, but you've probably seen him show up on some top 30 lists.

He had a bit of a rough start upon his arrival to Reno, but now he's up to 244, 382,400. Kind of a bat first guy, but I think his catching is really taken a big step forward this year from what I've heard. The other factor you have to consider is, frankly, the Diamondbacks have not set a very high bar for their backup catcher role. Neither Carson Kelly nor Jose Herrera have really been all that great this season

in any facet of the game. They're basically replacement level catchers, and the definition of a replacement level catcher is you can replace them with like, you know, like a guy, you'd have a guy come up from AAA, and there's probably not a huge drop-off in production there. So it is a valid point for sure,

but not something I'd be overly concerned about. All right. What else we got, Damon? Next question comes from Michael. Michael Ricky asks, who gets their first major league? Who gets their first major league win first? Brandon fought, Slade Sacconi, or Bryce Jarvis. I don't know.

Sean, what do you think? I mean, I'll give it to Slade. He's got the next opportunity. Is that how we're doing things? I mean, I really feel like it's going to be Brandon fought. But, I mean, yeah, Slade's up next. So I'll say Slade. I agree with that because I think they're going to win that game with Slate.

I think they're going to sweep the Rockies. That's what I think because we're back. And of course, that's the logical result. He's a really bad team. I feel like it's a pretty good, pretty good odds there. I mean, yeah. And I think, again, the one thing is can the Diamondbacks generate enough offense early on in order for them, you know, to give him the win? You know, Brandon Fogg pitched a pretty damn good game.

I mean, you could argue he deserved it, but they just weren't able to get out ahead when he was still there. That's why it's crazy on the BEDM-GAM sportsbook app today. The Diamondbacks are two and a half run favorites. They're expecting the Diamondbacks to win by three runs or more. Wow. Against the Rockies. And that's not typically very common because kind of like the puck line. It's almost one and a half always.

Why on pH and expense daily earlier, I did take the Rockies plus two and a half because that's crazy line. Scum bag. No, I think the Diamondbacks are going to win. But I get where he's coming from. on this. Do you think I'm going to win by three runs? What in the last three weeks is suggested that they're going to win a game by three runs? I mean, yeah, they won Saturday's game by three runs.

Outside of that, the Diamondbacks hadn't won a game by three runs. Exactly. It's not a whole lot. Unless I checked, we are not going to Colorado, right? So we're not doing a takeover event in Colorado. So, I mean, if we're not going to be there. In Colorado. It's going to, it's going to be a little bit of them.

I will. I will say that I think Bryce Jarvis will. probably pitch sooner than either Cicone or fought because he's a reliever and yeah he'll probably be part of the bullpen game on Tuesday so I guess it's kind of a crap shoot as to who gets the win in that one. Yeah

yeah exactly just because he's going to pitch in that game the chances of you know there's whether the diamondbacks will win the game or not and then there's like which out of all of the relievers is going to get the win the odds aren't necessarily in his favor all right what else we got Damon uh Aaron Hughes

Aaron R Hughes on Twitter asked Order the bullpen by how much you trust them right now. Also, what bullpen pieces would you want to see acquired in the offseason? I mean, I don't really, I mean, I feel like, yes, I want to see the Diamondbacks add to the bullpen during the off season. I don't feel like that necessity is as strong now with Paul Seawald being acquired. I do think that the Diamondbacks have some very talented pitchers in place. And I think that if guys can start to know what their role in the bullpen is, and expect that role.

Know what their job is, know what they're going to pitch, what they're going to be expected to do. I think things are going to be different than the way that Luello was running this bullpen in this entire closer by committee situation. But I could be wrong. But when it comes to ordering them and who I trust right now,

Paul Seawall first, yeah. Way up here. And then like maybe down here, kind of everybody else, I will say I. Ginkle is probably a little bit higher than the rest of the rest of. I was going to say Ginkle.

Are we talking like right the second because it feel like it changes every two weeks? It does. We're talking right this second. Scott McGuff sometimes up here right now. Scott McGuff way down. I'm putting Castro and Friest near the top right now. But obviously if you put Frius anywhere to the top a couple months ago, you're like a crazy person. So right.

Right. Like I would say Seawald, ginkle right now probably Miguel Castro and then Frius. I put those two kind of close together. It's like a two groups kind of thing. Like if I see they're coming into the ball into the game, do I feel good? do I not and at this point I would say yeah it's like it's Seawald Castro Ginkle Friest right now I guess Kyle Nelson doesn't get in there no I guess yeah I have not felt very good about Kyle Nelson lately he hasn't I mean he kind of blew up the other day against

the Dodgers yeah and I just feel like he is still kind of that where you really don't know what you're going to get on he's been really good it's been really good like in the sixth or seventh inning but in the eighth and ninth inning Kyle Nelson is not use these guys in their strength and those and I mean it's of course it's never going to go perfect for for any of these guys are going to have their times where they're bad in that inning of work that they're expected to work but at the same time I feel like there needs to be some consistency if you expect consistency in return right if you expect them to be able to go out there and do their job all effectively and and confidently the way we talk about seewall doing it then these guys have to know what their role

is and I think that the entire bullpen bike or the closer by committee thing was kind of a disaster it allowed guys not only to know what their role was in regards to being that closer but it also didn't allow them to know what their role is going to be the next time that this situation comes around or whatever I just think

there was a lot of inconsistency there that but yeah I mean right now I think Scott McGuff and Kyle Nelson probably are at the bottom of it for me as far as just trust trusting that they can come in and do exactly that I feel like really has struggled lately he really has but I see I feel like we're seeing that out of out of Castro and and and Luis Frius more regularly and I I really am digging them out there on the mound any any other you didn't really get oh man to yeah Joe Mantipa I think probably fits in there somewhere um in the middle you say yeah somewhere in the he's kind of like Kyle Lelson where I just know I feel like I don't really know what I'm going to get yeah I mean That's why I was like lights out for this team last season, at least in the first or all-star.

We talked about how after the All-Star break, he really struggled to be that again. I mean, even before the All-Star break, like it's like once he was nominated or named an All-Star, it felt like things kind of fell apart for him a bit. I think just this whole season, the moment that you've gotten to a place where you really trust a certain reliever. That's when they're out of a lot of because we were talking about McGill. That's a closer and then all of a sudden he disappears and it's like, okay, maybe Ginkle can do that. And then he struggles a little bit. And then that's just kind of the reality of a team that just hasn't really figured out how to build a bullpen, frankly. And obviously their resources that they've been working with are pretty limited, which certainly doesn't help the situation.

But yeah, to me, it's sort of like it's Paul Seawald. I do think Kevin Ginkle is a genuinely very good relief pitcher. Outside of those guys, it just don't know if, I don't know if you really believe in like the staying power of anyone else. Like, they're going to go through their good times and their bad times. But when push comes to shove is Miguel Castro, like a real seventh eighth inning setup man type. I don't know. I don't know if Luis Frius is that either. My energy about that would feel very different if we were talking about the postseason.

Yeah. Like if this is game six or something like that and then Luis Frius is coming to the game, I'm going to be sick to my stomach. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good way to think about it because you really realize what you have in your bullpen when it comes to the postseason. And when push comes to shove and you have to be like, all right, like, we're holding down a one-run lead, you know, in a do-or-die game. And Luis Frius is going out there. Yeah, you might feel a little bit differently about that.

Especially because, like, I mean, the World Series or the postseason is crazy. I think a few years ago back to the Red Sox playing, I think it was in the World Series when they had like, they played a game that was like 16 innings or something like that. And I've all been pitched like seven innings of relief. And it's like, if that happens and then you get to a. situation we're like oh you have to pitch louise free us he is the only guy that you can kind of pitch are you going to feel good about that um see what's yeah i don't know what's wild is i feel like at times when we see torrey do these little experiments during the regular season and we're all screaming like at him about do you do you really want to win a baseball game why are you leaving

this guy out there after he's you know loaded the bases with with walks it feels like you know obviously you need to go take him out and get him out of there and in a way like Tori is trying to prepare these guys for these big pressure, high pressure situations because regular season games are, have such a smaller impact than like the postseason, right? So when you talk about like a Luis Frias, how can you get them that those, those high leverage situations if you don't or at least like work his way through those unless you let them kind of go out there and fail and have those moments. But the other side of that is we're getting guys ready for the postseason. there is no like, ah, you can get the next guy. Oh, I don't think that that time is come and gone. Like the time period for doing that is coming gone.

But early on in the season, especially like, especially as we get closer to the playoffs, there's going to be a lot of questions about those games that they lost and why Tori was doing that. And it is a tough balance to try to give guys that time of gaining experience and getting better and being somebody that's kind of like forged by the fire, you know. And losing those games because you just wanted to give some reliever a learning experience or whatever. Like that's the feeling. That's what makes a lot of people like question Tori Lobello and kind of get mad at him for his decisions. Because he has other things that he's trying to do besides necessarily just win that ball game.

And all we want him to focus on is winning that ball game. Like just win that game. My biggest concern is I and I'm going to take the opportunity to shit talk Aaron Boone if it comes up. Please do. Like it's my problem is always just like, there's so many moments of the postseason with Aaron Boone where it feels like everybody in the world is screaming at their TVs to take this guy

out and he doesn't and then it goes poorly and I feel like that's a similar criticism that a lot of fans have had of Tori is that there's times where he just lets guys stay in too long because he believes in his guys. And that cannot happen in the postseason so that's always been my concern with him

and I guess the bullpen. I think for me watching other managers manage the game the same one the Dinembacks are playing makes me like be like, hey, why isn't Tori doing that? Tori, wait, that guy let his reliever just face three guys and then he went and pulled him because he wasn't doing well. Like, what is that? I didn't know that they could do that.

When they, I forget who it was, but they left somebody in the game. Erno, it was when he left Peralta in the game, despite it not being a matchup. And earlier in that game, Tori had pulled Ginkle, I think, after Ginkle was dealing because of the matchup and everyone was like, see, blah, blah, blah.

And it's like, yeah, that kind of is. I mean, we saw it in the World Series with the raise. Like there's a you gotta, you can't always just follow the numbers. You gotta, sometimes you gotta have some faith in your guys. Maybe Blake's now still at Tampa Bay Ray if that happens. I don't know, I don't know if the race should have faith

in their guys after what came out this weekend. But that's a whole other thing. That is a whole other thing for a different show. We're going to move on quickly. Damon, what else we got? This is the big question of the weekend. Daniel Kasten asks, do we ditch the Sedona Red and go back to Purple and he votes yes. We all vote

yes, Daniel. That is a whole heartedly the only answer. Yeah, we got Riyuji Sakamoto asked in the super chat. Did you guys see Zach Gallin's poll? Thoughts. We absolutely saw Zach Gallen's poll. Here was that Gallen's poll. Zach Gallen wants to know. He just said, just curious. No, you're not Zach. You know exactly what you're doing. You know exactly what you're doing. Following up, what was it yesterday or two days ago where he was like bring them back full time. No, it was. First it was that one because it was like throwback Zach from the team account. And he quote tweeted that with bring back the purple and deal full time. And then he went to Well, a poll. You didn't need the poll. You knew the, you knew the answer to this. We all knew the answer to this.

Who accidentally clicked the wrong thing. Yeah. 14,000 plus. Yeah, 9% commies. 91% in favor. 9% that pushed the wrong button by accident because that's what we're playing with. This is, this is a 10% margin of error basically is what we're saying. And that margin of errors anybody that voted the other way. But yes, purple and teal, it was beautiful. The nostalgia this weekend, the way people reacted to that, that video being back with the snake and the ball and everything, Jesse. It was just, it was great. But more than anything, it just looked beautiful. The batting helmets were beautiful. The jerseys hanging in the locker were beautiful. It was. It just frustrates me to know end that this team took, you know, such an identity, such an iconic identity that was, you know, connected to the only world championship the city has ever had and just

rebranded it the same way Elon Musk tossed the little blue Twitter bird in the trash and just went with X. Like it feels like the same thing to me. We do have a comment in the chat from someone who says, man, I will always sport the red and black over the purple. I mean, you're incorrect. They do exist. Can we ban that person from the chat? I'd argue you're a bad guy. I would argue.

Okay, while we're on this topic, we haven't discussed this. I don't mean. We haven't discussed this publicly before. Speaking of bad people, Jacob was, is anti-Rodd-Graise. Just like wholeheartedly doesn't like road grace. What? I don't love road grays. The concept of it.

Oh, that's one of the worst takes I've ever heard. I love road grays. Yeah. That's not slander. It's something you said. You said that. You claimed that.

Slander implies falsity. This is accountability, Jacob. That's what this is. This is letting everybody know what you said. Yeah. Road grays are the best. Road grays,

that's just a bad taste. For the record, I don't have a very strong opinion, but I would not say that road grays are the best. That's a bad thing. They're fine. It's baseball. They're kind of at the bottom of the,

the totem pole for me in terms of like uniforms the teams generally wear but it doesn't matter because it's not about them being good uniforms it's about being the fact that when you're at home you wear white when you're on the road you wear gray yeah your drab you're boring we don't want you looking showing out in our ballpark take your city connect jerseys and you wear them at your your house not ours is that fair enough i want you looking gross when you're visiting just like christian walker wanted to acknowledge all the fans support and how much you loved everything on saturday night and people somehow turn that around into like, oh, you blame the losses on us? At no point did Christian Walker say he was blaming the losses on you guys.

It's just hard. This franchise is one of the few franchises in baseball that have to deal with this thing of the opposing fans taking over their stadium all the time. Like other teams that are just bad, just nobody shows up. That's the way it works there. They don't have all of the opposing fans show up and fill up the stadium. It's this transplant city and the fact that the Diamondbacks have only been around for, you know, the 24. 25 years like that's the reason why they have to deal with this that that other franchises frankly don't i mean and don't get me wrong like opposing fans showing up is something that every team in

this state has to deal with it's not uniquely the diamondbacks only issue but i mean christian walker toy lovolo he commented on how great it was to win the you know the seventh inning stretch stretch where you know the the root root for the deep backs where that never gets heard like That's a wild take because that just shows that Tori is paying attention and he hears you every night. Yeah. He hears every night the debat kind of get overshadowed by the opposing. If you were there Saturday, you can't deny that that was just a different energy. Oh, it absolutely was.

Diamondbacks home game. Like it was a different experience for everybody that was there. And if you're going to get hurt over the fact that someone acknowledges that, then you're a loser. Yeah. And the pod, I feel like the issue is less pronounced with the Padres. That also true. Like the Dodgers, it's a different story. when the Padres come to town.

There are Padres fans. Yeah. Yeah, that was great. Earlier in the season, though, when I went to a Padres series, there was like a 50-50 split of Padres. Yeah, but Padres fans have only been Padres fans for like five years. So as soon as they start team at their team is not that good, they're like, ah, okay.

I was going to say two, but five. Yeah, I don't know about five. Five is true. You're giving them some history there. Ever since they turned back to what you were talking about this, ever since they turned back to the brown and yellow, hint, hint, the franchise turned around. Huh, huh, I wonder, that's crazy.

Went back to your old colors and your franchise figured it out. He's not wrong. What happened there? He's not wrong. They did also play in a World Series and those other colors, but that's a whole other thing. They got slaughtered by the Yankees. I know you don't want to talk about that. So what we'll talk about, Diamondbacks are on the road.

Diamondbacks are in Colorado, and then this weekend they will be back in San Diego or in San Diego playing Padres again. Jesse will be out there. And of course, on his way out to San Diego, Jesse is going to be stopping at Circle K, where you all should be stopping for the best coffee, beer and snack selection, and most importantly, most importantly, premium gas and premium gas entertainment, right? Well, you might get Saul, and then that's just kind of a disappointing kind of one. Like, you don't, you expect to get Sean, you expect to get Sean, but then you get Sean, or you get Saul, yeah, or Lindsay.

Oh, disappointed when they get Lindsay. That's the worst. But no matter who you get, make sure to get down on the polar pops, they stay cold longer, and of course don't sleep on the Circle K branded snacks. Right now you can get Power Aids $4 for $5, and you also get entered to be one of 10 finalists to win a 2003 Ford Big Ben Bronco SUV. Of course, as we've discussed on this show,

it's a tiered event where then you have to like go into a semi-final round against Damon to fight him for the truck. Then the finals involve you fighting Sean. But good luck to you all on that. Make sure to also not miss out on the buy-to-get-one-free monster energy drinks and the buy-two-get-one-free beatbox. hard teas. Make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff. Text PHNXA 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club and get a buy one, get one free offer on 32 ounce polar pops.

Head to CircleK.com slash store dash locator to find Circle K's near you. And of course, also shout out to our friends at Four Peaks, which you can grab at Circle K or anywhere you grab your beer for us meeting up at their Four Peaks draft room for our takeover event. It was fun. I didn't even know that they had a pool table in the back of that room, which we were all hanging out around. and both Damon and Sean showed off how bad they were at pool. I was showed off slightly that I was slightly better than. Yes, you did. You did, but you both were very bad.

Yeah, that's that is true. You missed the ball completely. I'd argue that I was closer to making the shot that's not true. I would argue that. That's not true. You missed the ball completely. It was a tough angle. I would argue that you both embarrassed us.

Mine almost bounced around the table and when the- luck. Mine was a millimeter away. It says, a millimeter away. You didn't touch the ball. Yours is a foul. Mine's not. So they could have moved the white ball wherever they wanted to.

Mine's not. The other ball they were shooting at was just, it was right on the edge of the hole. You just had to, you just had to breathe on it to make it go in the hole. And neither of these two could make it. At least I made contact. Can we clarify, did Damon miss the cue ball? No, he hit the cue ball, but the cue ball didn't hit another ball. It didn't hit anything.

It just bounced around the table. Like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Mine hit the intended target. Yeah. You're both terrible. I will tell you, if you're good at pool, go to the Four Peak draft room and play their pool table. Because he would shuffle. Fun.

There's other games he's very good at. I will stand up for him with that. But pool is not definitely not one of them. The Four Peaks draft room located on the sweet level. Make sure to check that out at Chase Field. Not only can you eat and drink there, but you can hang out and watch the game from there, especially if your seats are bad. So maybe you do that.

Maybe you have yourself a good time over there. Follow all of their events at 4Peaks.com slash events. And you can stay up to date everything, Four Peaks. on social media at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Damon, we got some more Mailbag Monday questions. Let's get to those. Brett Lee Johnson asks, what are the chances percentage-wise we see Lawler on the MLB roster by the end of the year, either taking Old Man Nick's spot or being part, I'm guessing, of the expanded roster call-ups?

I don't know. I feel like if he had a little bit more time in Reno, that that might be a big. bit more of a possibility. I just don't see there being enough time for him to kind of make an impression at a AAA level and still get called up. But they did it with Corby and Carol. And maybe what they're trying to do is get that draft pick back two years in a row by having the rookie of the year. Maybe Jordan Lawler's next year's rookie of the year. So maybe it's a masterminded plan, but I don't think that it's very likely. Yeah. The Diamondbacks call, they promoted Corbin Carroll from double A to AAA on July 9th of last year. And then they brought him to the majors on August

29th. So they still had him in Reno for close to two months, a little over a month and a half. If they wanted to give Jordan Lala the same amount of time in Reno, they would run out of time this season. Basically, that would run into the end of the season. So I don't expect it. I would maybe say there's a 10% chance. Something like that happens. Some teams do just call up guys straight up from AA. So it's not like in baseball, like, you know, a quick run through AAA or no run through AAA at all is completely unheard of. But from, from, And what we know about this front office, it's something I would be, I'd be pretty surprised to see. Yep.

All right. What else we got to, man? Mike Hill asks, would you bring Dom Fletcher up and send Jake or Alec down? I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility, especially considering at times both of their struggles at the plate. I think, you know, the one thing about Dominic Fletcher is those numbers always look pretty sexy in AAA. Like, it's hard to take a look at what some of those guys are doing. It's like you mentioning a backup catcher and just being like casually he hits over 310. You know, it's like, yeah, but that's Reno.

So you kind of just like a pitcher's ERA being at five is okay to good. It's hard to adjust sometimes that offensive difference between playing in the minor leagues and playing in Reno versus playing at a major league level. Yeah, I do think you'll see Dominic Fletcher again before the end of the year. But I don't know if you're ready to send down Jake McCarthy or Alec Thomas at the, this point. You've already sent those guys down. They've come back up. Have they been fantastic? No. They've been better though than they were when they get to set down. Yeah, I just, I think the optics. So that would be a little weird. I do think you'll see Dominic Fletcher in the majors again at some point, though. He clearly is deserving of that opportunity. And you're only a couple weeks out from getting two more

roster spots when, when rosters expand in September. So that would sort of be my guess is you'll, you'll see Dominic Fletcher again, but it might be with one of those extra roster spots rather than sending down jaker jake or aleck even when he's struggling alec thomas has still had some big hits he had a big pinch hit triple he had a sacrifice fly rbi yesterday's game like there were there's been clutch moments that even though he's not you know his numbers don't look great and he's still doing some of the bad like he's still softly grounding out to the right side a considerable amount uh he it feels like he just he's he's his defense and some of his big hits have been really key for this team especially

last couple of days. Yeah, the defense is a really big thing too. He just makes it look effortless on there. He's the best center fielder in the organization, I think. Outside of maybe Drew Jones, I guess, but he's obviously a long ways away. So, yeah, I think you want Alec Thomas in the majors. I'd be pretty surprised if the debacks made that move.

All right, what else we got, Damon? Jacob Giacoma asks, he's obviously been crushing the ball, but how has Melendez been defensively at third base after they moved him from first? well we know we're not letting Sean answer this one of course yeah Sean just want to talk about a strikeout yeah it was just an offensive no but how has his defense been is he wouldn't be getting any better I know kind of you know of course like Melendez is one of those guys that seems destined to be a DH it feels like

exactly yeah he just matches the ball before the show yeah he just seems destined for that but I mean you know again how like is is he going to be one of those players that you think is ever viable in the field at a major league level? I think he could be a decent first baseman. But yeah, the debacks have tried him at third base early in his professional career. And I've heard kind of mixed things. I don't think his arm accuracy is fantastic. I don't think his range is fantastic.

He would be a below average third baseman in the majors, probably well below average. It's such a hard position to play. Yeah. And like it gets considered to just be like first base on the other side of the diamond. but it's so not that you know based on your reaction time and like you said the range you need to have and also the expectations of what you need to do yes yeah but like okay like when we were watching you know uh you're you're playing the Padres and you're and you're watching them like laser pinpoint accuracy like left side of that infield left side of that infield is just crazy right

so it's like I mean you see that and you kind of understand when we talk about arm strength and things where, you know, there was a point where the Diamondbacks seemed to have a problem turning double plays there for a stretch during July where they were really struggling. And like a lot of it was there was no, there was no speed on the ball getting around. Even though it seemed like a standard ground ball that you should be able to turn to fairly easily, it felt like there was no power in those throws or anything. You know, you watch those Padres players and they were pretty incredible. Yeah, I'd be, it's maybe worth trying.

I mean, like Melendez would have a lot more value as a player if he could play third base. So that's why the Diamondbacks are doing this. But, yeah, at the end of the day, is it actually going to pan out form in the majors? I mean, you could play him there. But I think it would take a pretty big shot at his overall value as a player. So first base, though, I think is realistic. And it doesn't feel like they have somebody at third base that's coming up. And it feels like that's what they're trying to find, right?

Is somebody that can be the future over there. That is a great point. Yeah. All right. What else we got, Damon? Last question comes from Ryan Simmons and of course Ryan wants to know where will you be watching the Diamondbacks 2023 World Series victory parade from we will be on a pH and X float in the parade that's where we will be I thought we were on Lordus's float oh okay oh you're saying we yeah no that would make more sense we're not a

partner so we're not that's true we probably are like the first because we've got the mayor so yeah right also saying like yeah like I mean some sort of classic car where I'm sitting in the back of my sash waving but Lordis could be next to me or you're at the M like Santa and Thanksgiving. Oh, I would love to be at the end like Santa. That would be so good. I also I want like to wear because Lourdes and I both have the two can jacket from his 2022 family Christmas photo. So I think we should both be wearing those even though it's going to be quite hot because it's going to be like middle October. It's still going to be pushing a hundred around these parts. I'm sure. I mean, well, I don't care. It was apparently extremely warm in 2001 when they had the World Series break. I've heard stories. that it was like 100 degrees it was a nightmare that day but theoretically it should it would happen around november 1st which theoretically in arizona november 1st it's pretty nice speaking of which paul seawald once again uh he aged discriminated against me because he said he was 11 years old when the diamondbacks won the world series i don't like that i mean like i don't

trust me i want our players to be as old as me but again hearing a man who like as i'm standing there next to him seems older than me you know and he says he was 11 so i'm not going to forget that anytime soon but uh most shoe bears says debacks world series parade what kind of weed are you all smoking uh oh j dodgers even have a world series parade or was that canceled because of coven i think i don't know because i was i think mickey mouse has the trophy right isn't that is that why they call it a mickey mouse championship yeah the rings were big because they had to fit over those big ass gloves the big white gloves yeah no that makes a lot of sense also it almost makes as much sense as your franchise winning one championship in like 12 years of

spending the amount of money you have. I spend in a season as much money as the Diamondbacks have made since their inception as many World Series. David Baptiste asked, are we resigning Lordus Correel Jr. in the chat? That's probably a topic for another day, but I'm leaning towards no, most likely. And here's why. I'm just going to give you the quick gist of it. I think the Diamondbacks have enough outfielders to make Lordus obviously expendable. And I think Lordus honestly needs to use his All-Star game status to get the biggest contract that he possibly can.

And I don't think the Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks are the ones that are going to give that to him. Go back to Toronto. That's what I think. That's why I think. But also, I am a man that died my hair like his. And then also, I'm still mad that I shaved it all off in order to try to help this team win. So you dyed your hair.

You dyed your hair purple and you really are just dismissing Lourdes returning to the Diamondbacks that easily. Dude. And this man was your identity. Am I supposed to be logical here, Jesse? Or am I supposed to be emotional? You pick because you're the one always trying to calm me down. Trying to be logical here. Anyway, we thank you guys, of course, for being here right now in the chat.

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much as we possibly can. I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. This maniac next to me is at Sean underscore to pause. Jesse Friedman is at Jesse and Friedman. The maniac behind the Mac is Damon's and he is at Damon Dogg. Of course, we are all Damon's dogs. Also, yeah, is that, am I understanding this right? Mo didn't know your name? Yeah, you recognize Mo. Yeah. Put some respect in Damon's name. You're not, you're here too often, Mo, to not know everybody's name. So let's We have fans from Boise, Idaho coming up knowing you have to bark at Danyan. That's right. That's right. You're not put some respect in Damon's name.

That's right. Once again, we are Damon's dogs. That's what we're going to change is the name of the show to. The barking get a lot more intense. Yeah. And angry. And there is a bite that goes with it. Maybe.

Fuck around and find out, Mo. That's right. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you again for showing up. We appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have a proper closer.