PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs After Dark: WTF is Wrong with Our Starting Pitching?

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitching rotation has taken a nose dive. Derek and Rok discuss the atrocious starts from D-backs pitchers, where they would be without their bottom of the lineup hitters, and why the NL West collectively being terrible couldn’t happen at a better time. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You are now listening to PHNXDbacks after dark. Bro, there's no way to say it. Our fucking starting pitching sucks. Our starting pitching is so incredibly atrocious. I can't even wrap my mind around it. I don't even know what happened. I don't understand how they fell off a cliff. And I don't understand how collectively the entire group of starting pitchers,

including Brandon Fott, who also seems to still suck, even though he's in the bullpen, all were on the same bus that drove off, said Cliff, to be terrible. Yeah. Even when they're not, our fucking offense is terrible. Like Saturday's game with Ryan actually pitching pretty good and not getting any run support. Yeah, it's so bad. I used to dread when Tori would make the call to the bullpen. I actually dread the first pitch now.

That's how bad they've been. The first inning, for sure. Yeah. I don't even want to watch the first inning anymore. Yeah, it's been. And if it's not the first inning, they'll coves through the first two. And you're like, oh, fucking Zach looks great. Merrill looks great.

Ryan looks great. Third inning. Whack. Whack. Whack? Like, what the fuck just happened? Six earned runs by Gallin in the opener against the Cubs in three. It was not bad, man.

Three and two thirds innings. And that was three in the first, three again in the fourth. And then today in the finale. after, you know, getting through that first inning, Merrill did not do very well himself. He only lasted four and a thirds, and he gave up six certain runs. I feel for him, though, on the,

what was it? It was the second inning, first inning, the ball that Barrosa probably should have caught but dropped. I feel horrible for Merrill Kelly because that inning would just kind of went down after that. Everything was going the Cubs away. Yeah, it really was. It really was.

I don't know what it was. was, I don't know what it was, man. It was just, D-backs couldn't do shit right. And the Cubs, like I said, what I was about to say was they won 11 in a row at Wrigley. So, I mean, again, they're playing good baseball, but yeah, of course, shit just seems to be going their way and not the Diamondbacks way. In fact, during game one on Friday, I looked at Damon when they misplayed that ball that was hit to Matt Shaw and it was supposed to be a double play.

He ended up dropping it, making an error. and both runners reached, I remember saying to him, finally something good has happened for us. Yeah. Because the Diamondbacks, they had weird things happen to them, and they had some bad defense also happened to them. But, I mean, that, even though some of it explains the mistakes and the runs and everything, it still just does not explain why the starting rotation has just suddenly been as bad as they've been. it's miserable to watch his team right now. And it's honestly, and it's not that I mean,

it's not even Edwardo Rodriguez has been the culprit of the badness. It's been, the top two guys, Maryland, Arwanda, Soroka's been decent. Well, Saroka just had a bad outing in his last out. Yeah, before that. Gallin's been bad. Merrill's been bad. Eduardo was just getting zero help.

Was he, he started off hot. He looked great. And you're right, the offense is doing no favors. For anybody, for anybody. Yeah. So worked up on just talking over you the whole time. Listen to this. We're out of sync because of how damn out of sync this team is.

So bad. And the other part, too, is I think because I think the team is pressing a bit because this last, you know, road trip has been so bad for them. I think they're pressing. And they're making defensive blunders. Like, they're just uncharacteristically bad defensive plays. This team needs to just fucking. reset man and take tomorrow off get back at it next week and fucking put some ws together man

i don't know why at times it's collectively the entire pitching rotation either right right you that's where like last season certain things that happened to the staff to this team made people take that logical step, right? Because it goes from just being, oh, hey, you have a few guys injured to why is half of our pitching staff suddenly in need of Tommy John, right? Tommy John's injury. Yeah. And that's when people, even if it's unwarranted, even if it's illogical, people still started blaming the training staff. People started blaming Brian Kaplan. And it's kind of weird because this is so stupid. Oh, I know. Don't even get me started on the injury stuff. like injuries or injuries, right?

They happen and nothing anybody can do. It's sadly a part of the game. But what you could blame, you know, at least the weird lack of success lately could be that the Diamondbacks did have some sort of change of philosophy with their pitching staff that resonated early and had some good results halfway through April, but no far in the second half of April and here into May, those results have not been there. And I don't know.

Like I said, I at one point theorized that they were throwing more change-ups. And you could back that up with some of the data that shows that a lot of the starting pitchers have been using change-ups more than they were last year. However, they just all kind of revert back to their old habits. And I don't know if it's because they're not able to have command or control with their change-up. I don't know if it's the fact they feel like, you know, that batters are picking up on it. I don't know the exact, you know, reason.

In Merrill's case, right, Merrill's changeup is like his best pitch. And he still threw it a lot in his last outing. I didn't check today's pitches, but he still just wasn't landing it in the zone. He didn't stop throwing it, but he wasn't landing it in the zone. So it wasn't really fooling anybody and it really wasn't doing much as, you know, being a pitch that was help. helping him get strikeouts and land, you know, those pitches, right? Like, it's frustrating to watch. No, and when you're relying on your, on your fan,

your changeup to be your, like, you're at one of your put-out pitches, you need to have something that you can throw alongside that that's going to fool these batters, and that's exactly what he did not have. And not even just today, I mean, the last few stars for a few of these guys, they have not had their good stuff for one reason or the other. And I don't understand where, why, how I get it. You know, some days you're just not going to come out there and and have your, you know, everything lined up. But, I mean, this has been pretty consistent over two, three starts for a few of these guys.

And it's kind of like, yeah, what is going on with y'all right now? I mean, there's some things there. Like Gabby was missing due to the injury, right? So they were not only missing Gabby's bat, but, you know, Gabby, no discredit to James McCann. who I felt like did give this team, you know, a lot when he joined it last year. Like I felt like he gave them a decent spark behind the plate. Are we talking about relief pitcher James McCann? Yeah.

Noted. Okay. Just making sure how much the same guy. He's had, what, three appearances so far this season so far? I think four. Four? I mean. And that's never a good thing when your catcher has appeared in four baseball games

trying to throw outs. Rock, Rocky has a higher pitching war than two of our relievers that were in the bullpen at one point. Joe Ross and I believe Taylor Rashi. Who the hell is Joe Ross? Yeah. I watched this team. He existed for a moment and it was not very good.

Hey, you know who doesn't throw a change up? You know who does not throw a change up? It doesn't even think about a change up. Wanderer. That's Wondel. Mother fucking all gas, no brakes. Yeah. King Kong and God.

Godzilla. Yeah, what I mean? Jesus Christ. He gets in there. I'm just like, it's about to be a fucking fire show. That's what he throws.

But his problem is also command. If he's dotting that 100 mile hour fastball, you're not going to hit it. But when he's fucking missing the way he's being misses out of the occasion, it's all bad. Yeah. He gave up a run in this series, but he has been really,

really good outside of that. And again, I'm not surprised of anybody giving up a run in this series. the Cubs are a very good team. Yeah, no, that lineup. I mean, those guys, yeah, those guys are nice. That's definitely the NL Central is, I think they're going to be at the top. Meanwhile, the NOS sucks.

Thank God. We actually set a record, Rock, that's the first time in MLB history, first time in MLB history, that the entire division has been on a losing streak of three games or more. You had the Rockies and the Diamondbacks who were on three. Diamondbacks are now on a four game losing streak. You had the Padres on a four game losing streak. And believe it or not, you even had the Dodgers on a four game losing streak. Yeah.

It was the NLLLL West, basically, is what it was. I kind of feel like the Dodgers are taking the philosophy of we're just going to coast through the regular season. And then when we need to like turn it on in the postseason, that's what we're going to turn it on. Perhaps. But I also think that some bad things have happened to them. The Edwin Diaz situation is bad. And I also think that, you know, just like the Diamondbacks, they have some stars that are underperforming. And they still lead the MLB in OPS, right?

So it's not like their offense is heavily impacted by, you know, Shohei having a little bit of a slow start and some of the other guys, right? But still, it just is one of those things where, you know, you have to be thankful that the rest of the division is struggling, but you can't expect it to last too much longer. The Diamondbacks come home after having a day off, and they face, honestly, a pretty tough Pirates team. Yeah, it's not a walk in the park series. They can't come in here and fuck around and start losing five plus in a row. They got to turn things around here at home at Chase Field. I don't really know how they get it done against a pitching staff that set a record for, or I believe tied a record for the most strikeouts through the end of April of any team. team in baseball, right?

So I have my concerns, just like I had my concerns coming into this series with the Cubs. I was fucking worried and I was right to be worried because they got fucking swept and it sucks. This team sucks right now. But truly, there's so many things you could split hairs about. You could say their offense isn't doing enough. Fine. They still scored four runs today and five runs yesterday. If their starting pitching was worth a goddamn right now, they might have won both of those games.

with that many runs. But unfortunately, it's not. Unfortunately, they're starting pitching is putting them in a hole before this team even has a chance most games. At least today, they had a lead. It didn't last very long, but they had a lead. At least today they got out of the first inning without giving up multiple runs. Still, though, like I said, the most frustrating game of this series probably is Saturday's loss where Ryan Nelson pitched incredibly well,

as did the bullpen, but it still was. wasn't enough because the Diamondbacks offense couldn't muster up more than one run. So, or even today, I mean, you know, you talk about them scoring four runs. I mean, if Dell doesn't hit that two run bomb and with two outs in the ninth, they would have only scored two runs today. Yeah. And that was that was fairly, yeah, that was fairly a garbage time home run for sure.

I'm not going to. I mean, you know what, though, it's, but it could have been game changing. If they kept it closer, that's the point is if it was a closer baseball game, but then they lose, you know, I'm just more focused on the fact that the one game that they held the Cubs to two runs. They didn't produce a single run. And you got,

you tell Marte going 0 for four. That was the game that Ilymaro Vargas's streak ended. Just all sorts of fucking bad. Like, I just, I'm so frustrated with watching this team right now. Our guy, Ildomar Vargas. Our guy.

And I don't even, I'm not even surprised that his hit streak ended. No, no, no, no, no. Shock that it lasted as long as it did, but.

Well, you know, the crazy part is the second longest hit streak in the MLB in the last, I think it was 10 years, and I think Whitmerfield was the guy that had the longest previous was like 30 games. I always love how, like, the guys with these long hit strings, it's not the guys that you would expect to have the hit streaks.

If you would have said, El-Damaro Vargas is going to rattle off 27 straight games, I would have said, shut the fuck up. Yeah, there's no way. No one talks to El-Demarro Vargas like that, but Mann's was out there and was putting on. And you know, the cool thing about it, it was, I want to say it was a game earlier this week or maybe the end of the week prior.

When he came up to bat, hit streak on the line, it was late. And he wasn't necessarily going to be guaranteed a second at bat. And the homeboy goes up there in bunts to try to bunt to advance the runner and gets thrown out. Yeah. Like you could tell he was all team. Yeah. Like he doesn't care. He didn't care about it.

Yeah. He wanted to win. He just wanted to win. So I, yeah. Kudos to him, man. He was a talk of baseball for, you know, up until the streak ended. And deservedly so he was putting on a fucking clinic at the plate. So he was mashing out.

A lot of multi-hit games, a lot of hits in that, not just like one single every game. I mean, he was just playing and then defensively playing his ass off in the field. Playing first, second shortstop, playing anywhere that the team has to. He's been our MVP by far, you know? Yeah, because it ain't been Corby and Carolyn. It surely hasn't been my man Cattel Marta. Catell's pressing his ass off right now, too. He's swinging at everything.

I don't know if you had a chance to see it, but Luke Weaver was interviewed. about the Mets current struggles. I didn't see it. Go ahead. I've always liked Luke Weaver. I've always thought he was an interesting guy and an interesting interview, obviously. But I don't know if I've ever seen a player put the struggles of what they go through so eloquently. You know, because when you start talking about pressing, you know, he says that, like, you have entirely too many guys on the roster coming to the yard. every day trying to be perfect.

And there is no way that success lives in that space of you trying to be perfect. That chase of perfection is going to be that thing that kind of makes you make mistakes. And right now, the one thing is that everybody in that clubhouse just wants to win so bad. And that desperation is not something that is going to allow you to necessarily get things back on track, right? But I think what the thing, and I'm not trying to quote him here because I'm definitely misquoting him,

but I think the thing that he stressed the most is that I'm summarizing, I'm summarizing. We don't fact check here on D-Back. Yeah, yeah, go back and check this and make sure I'm quoting him correctly. I just think it's the fact that he talked about, you know, how much of the players care. I think it's so easy for us as fans

to get disgusted with things happening with our sports teams and then write off that those fucking guys are millionaires and they don't fucking care and they fucking suck and they don't fucking they're ruining our lives. And it's like, yeah, no, they want to win more than you want them to win. Yeah. They want to get things right more than you ever could ever want this team. It's easy for us to shut off the TV and turn on something else. Put on Daredevil Born again. Throw on some survivor, you know, whatever thing you like.

Maybe just turn over to another sport if you want, right? Like there's just there's just a space for the rest of us. Meanwhile, those players, they just live in that the entire time. And, you know, again, it's one thing to remember as much as we want to get on social media and fucking scream about how much the starting pitching staff sucks. They don't want to suck. And I don't know what's wrong with them, but they don't know what's wrong with them. And they want to fix it.

Like I said, worse than we want them to fix it. So hopefully they can figure it out. I just don't even know where to begin and I don't know collectively what's wrong with the group. You know, and this this has me acting like I said earlier about fans when they're trying to search for answers. You know, I'm like, is this Brian Kaplan's fault again? Is this newly acquired assistant general manager Jeremy Blyche's fault? He didn't seem to have problems like this over with the pirates when he was their director of pitching over there. So I was hoping that maybe this guy would help get things back on track.

And with the way the season started, I was very cautiously optimistic that he had gotten things back on track. Now, I'm questioning that. I will say I was not expecting some philosophical paraphrasing of one Luke Weaver on today's show, but I do appreciate that. And it also kind of makes sense because you figure I'm looking at it like this, when I'm doing my job, or I'm having a good day or a bad day, there's a handful of people that are going to see me do my job. Yeah. If you can tell Marte and you're out there trying to do your job, good day or bad day, there's millions of people watching you.

Yeah. So I guess if you're not perfect every time, then you're going to be subject to a whole lot of shit. And I'm not shitting on Cattel. I love Cotel, Marte. I already said it. If they were to trade a disaster in the off season,

I wouldn't be a D-Backs fan anymore. So I love that, man. It just seems like he's going up there trying to hit a home run with every swing, and he's better than that. It's frustrating to watch the top three struggle. You know what I mean? Yeah, even Jerry. Like Jerry, Jerry's been,

Jerry was struggling. Like Corbyn's struggling. It's weird. I know they're one game, they're one game below 500, but you can't help but wonder where they would be if the bottom guys weren't performing this season like they were, you know. Yeah, or Rosa. So who's been like an extra base hit machine, Elmaro Vargas, who obviously did what he did, Jose Fernandez, who's just been a star. Great old spark club, man. You know, like those guys have been a big reason why this team won 16 games, but they just can't be relied on primarily.

I thought of something. What happens when Jordan Lawler comes off the I.O.? Oh, there's a lot of difficult decisions. I'm like, I'm like, you're not, did you send Timmy Tower back down? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you can't start looking at who has minor league options. Oh, I don't know that part of it.

Barrosa does not have minor league options, so you can't send those. I like Barrosa, too. He's a little scrappy guy. I love old scrappy players. Yeah. And then Alec Thomas has been really not, not performing well. made some big mistakes defensively, too, that you could say cost us team, you know, that first game in Chicago. I think the short Kings, I think he's okay right now, I think, I hope, I don't know.

You're right, though, because, I mean, yeah, what, it is good. They're going to have some decisions to make. Yeah. And even further along the lines, when other guys are coming off of the injured list and, you know, some of their rotation guys are going to come back in, roster spots. They're going to have some choices. Same thing with the starting rotation. I mean, Ryan Nelson, like I said, was the one guy this weekend that pitched well for them.

And I feel like it's an easy choice to say that when Corbyn Burns returns to the starting rotation, that Ryan Nelson is immediately the guy that ends up in the bullpen. But who knows, right? I don't think it's that easy to say that right now. And there's a lot of starts between now and then for these guys to compete and prove themselves, right? Two months, essentially, of starts between now and then. but they got to figure their shit out. They got to take their shit somewhere and get their shit figured out.

Take it to a shit museum. I don't know. They can start getting their shit together on Tuesday, get a W in game one against the pirates. It would be phenomenal. I will be there Thursday for game. I will be there for the day game Thursday. So I am, I'll be in my usual area. I feel like this whole losing streak started with you coming into a game.

I'm not trying to make accusations. I mean, they were losing a couple before that, but maybe my attendants didn't help. Yeah. Maybe Monica's attendance, I don't know. We'll blame it on her. Yeah. But, yes, we will be there.

So if, I mean, I assume this drops before Thursday. So come find me. I mean, I'm in section 140. You can't miss me. Literally, you can't miss me. No, you really can't. He'll be screaming. He'll be screaming these same obscenities in person at the starting

pitching staff for sure. But then you never know. Derek might be there too. You might be next. Oh, I will be there. I just don't know where I'll be. I might be weeping in a bathroom on the concourse after I mean that's fair another bad starting pitching performance but all right well we thank you guys for checking us out we'll be back with another episode of debacks after dark of course you can follow us on social I am at cap underscore cave man with a K he is rock knowledge you can follow him at r o knowledge of course our show is at pH at pH and x underscore debacks but as always all roads leads at ph and x underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook you guys for being with us and sticking with us through a frustrating time and of course

we will be back with another episode on Monday so make sure to join us for that in the meantime help you have a good rest of your weekend what's left of it and remember kids baseball's fun but it's so much more fun after dark