PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs Post Series: Down & Out in NYC

Episode Date: April 17, 2022

On this episode, Derek discusses the D-backs game three and series loss to the New York Mets, why Seth Beer wasn't in the starting lineup again, and taking a look at a win-able series vs the Nationals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX-D-Backs post-series wrap-up. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX, and I'm here all by my lonesome because it's Easter Sunday, and everybody has other obligations besides me. My obligations are sports. Sports drinking, then like more sports layered in underneath there, a bit of live gambling on the Draft King's Sportsbook app, and then more sports. That's my Sunday sandwich right there.

But thank you guys for joining me. If you are here, I'm all by myself. Otherwise, if you're not, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Get down on the NBA action. The NBA playoffs means next level basketball and you can get down on that next level basketball.

New customers can bet $5 on any team to win and get $150 in free bets instantly. You win no matter what over at the Draft King Sportsbook. Of course, like you can see I'm here by myself today. Yeah, and thank you. Shout out to Charles Little Park. Appreciate your commitment, mayor. Thank you, sir. Josh Hunt said, you're never alone when you got family drives muscle car off ramp.

Thank you. Family is what this is all about. And thank you as my family for being here. We got to see the Arizona Diamondbacks unfortunately lose not only the series, but today's game to the New York Mets, 5-0 loss. Not a great loss. Divingbacks really got beat up in this series, but they do take away that one important win so that at least there's that.

I guess. I think the big question here is what's going on with Seth Beer, right? Carson Kelly starts today at DH. He gets his first hit of the year. If you want to call it that, it is a hit. But, you know, coming into this game, he's over 19. And I just have to question why, when we are this few of games into the season, why we've seen Seth Beer sit so much. And I'm pretty sure that's what a lot of people are thinking. I understand that there's a lot of, you know, nuances to baseball that us lay people don't understand, right? That's understandable. There's things that Tori LaVolo does, or every manager does, like, you know, changing of the lineups has become just a regular part of the game, right? We don't have the same guys hitting in the same position all the time.

And that used to be a part of baseball, right? You hit second. That's what you did until you got demoted and proved that you couldn't be valuable hitting second in the starting lineup. Lavello has switched it up almost every single game. But the one thing that we've consistently seen so far is a lack of beer, a lack of beer. Of course, yes, you know, we don't. I think Josh put it best here, struggling to understand the prohibition from Tori, right?

The anti-beer stance, I don't get it myself either. Coming into today's game, beer was hitting 545 batting average with one double, two RBI, in his last four games. It's the hot hand. And once again, Tori proves that as a manager, he really doesn't care about that, right? He doesn't he doesn't care about the hot hand. And that, I think that part about managing is a bit crazy to all of us, right?

Like he has his own reasonings for doing it. And he'll even explain it to us. But I don't think it still makes very much sense. Sports is about being, you know, about being on a streak. You could struggle. You can be in a, you know, slump like what we saw Carson Kelly in. And Tori Lavalo full. supports Carson Kelly.

Lavello lets Carson Kelly D.H. in this lineup today to try to get him to hit out of that slump. And it worked, right? But it qualifies as a hit. He's got that monkey off his back. And now he can proceed with trying to get offensively back to where he was this time a year ago

because, you know, he was very valuable to this team a year ago. I just think that sacrificing, what seems like sacrificing wins for someone to get back on track is a bit odd. It's no guarantee that Seth Beer is going to go in there and have himself an incredible day. It's a lefty on lefty matchup, and I get that day. But still, Seth Beer has proven that he can hit against lefties, and today's

pitcher for the New York Mets wasn't exactly the most formidable pitcher that they faced, even though, the Diamondbacks once again make starting pitching look very good. Their starting pitching, though, has been very good. I think the biggest story today, because a lot of people aren't really surprised about the loss to the New York Mets, considering how good of a team they are. I think the biggest story today was hearing that Caleb Smith has been set down to AAA Reno and that Mac Peacock was added to the roster from the taxi squad. That was a really, really fast turnaround for Caleb Smith.

And I've noticed that the Arizona Diamondbacks do not have very much patience when it comes to him and his development. even though they have no problem gassing them up when they named him to the, you know, starting rotation and made it sound like he was their guy. He had the right attitude. He had everything going right for him in spring training. And this was who they were just going to go with. And that changed so fucking fast.

It's incredible. I feel bad for Caleb Smith. And I can only imagine who had to tell him that to his face because that's a scary. That's a scary idea to me. That terrifies me. whoever had to go to Caleb Smith in person. I imagine that they, like I would give him a note on a stick. That's how I would have told Caleb Smith he was being sent down to AAA Reno.

But to each their own, you're taking your life in your hands when you approach that man with a simple request, let alone telling him that he's been sent down to AAA Reno. I guess my wish here is that he gets himself back on track, like Carson Kelly. Hopefully we see all these guys get back on track. But we know Caleb Smith has been very good for this ball. club at times, just not as a starter. That's the perplexing part is that no matter how good he is, he just continues to be good as a reliever so that, you know, this, this moving him around and everything probably isn't great for, you know, his mindset, his mentality going into pitching a game,

and, you know, obviously he had a bad outing as a reliever. So became, he's now something that the Diamondbacks potentially can't rely on in any way, right? But, but, you know, but, you know, But we were talking about, what, two appearances? That was a fast, that was a fast hook. It feels really like the debacks are not giving guys exactly the long leash that we might have seen in the past. Charles Little Pike says it's June, 26. The sons have won their fifth straight championship. The Yotes are lifting the Stanley Cup in Tempe with Austin Matthews and Shane Wright,

and the debacks still don't have a hit with runners in scoring position. Holy shit, that was good because that's what it feels like. I don't know what's wrong with this team and I don't have the answer. This was another game where it's very perplexing about their offense and how bad it was. More importantly, though, we got to get back to the Seth Beer thing. I mean, Seth Beer gets a pinch hit in the last at bat going 0 for one, but I just still can't wrap my mind around this guy not being in the game, right? If anything, it doesn't feel like he's needed, what, two days off, three days off already in this short season.

it doesn't feel like that you really should be at this point going with, you know, benching guys when they can actually contribute in a big series, right? We have the nationals coming up. It's not to say that the debacks are going to feast on the nationals, right? Even though they should and they kind of have to if they want to turn this thing around some way. But right now, you know, maybe the nationals game would have been a game to sit sit beer. I don't know.

I'm just basing this on my limited managerial experience from MLB. the show, but that's what I would have done. So, but of course, you can get all sorts of thoughts, ideas. We're going to be covering this entire situation over at go phtnx.com. If you haven't signed up to become a member already, please do so. Not only will you get our writings about the Arizona Diamondbacks, which you might not want as much at times, but you will get the writings about teams like the Sons who are going on to win their five championships over the next five years, according to Charles Woodall Pike,

or the coyotes, which are things are turning around there for them as far as the new stadium and everything that they got going on in Tempe. All of that is available over at go phtonx.com. If you're not a member already, sign them to become a member. You can get an annual membership, and you will get your first, free t-shirt from the PHNX Locker.com.

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We just want you to just dress in the nines from top to bottom and PHNX gear and join us as part of our family. Not only will you get members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com, but you'll also get access to our members only Discord where we got to start Josh we got to start the bingo game so that's on the on the on the schedule with this diamond back season going the way that it is we need to do something to enjoy ourselves so again not everything isn't terrible right the Arizona Diamondbacks are now three and six so that's really not surprising to a lot of people but it's going to be interesting to see if they can do anything against this national's team coming up

And we'll get to that lineup as well. But right now, diving backs, of course, bottom of the NL West. And, yeah, might end up staying there with the way some of these teams are playing right now. Because the NLS is very, very good. We are the only current sub-500 team in the NOS. But I did want to talk about Humberto Castiano's outing today because I thought he was once again a guy that stepped up for this team when they needed him, a guy that stepped up into a starting role that he hasn't been in this year. And he did a great job.

Like, he was all over the place. his control was awful, yet he didn't allow a run in four innings of work. And it was just a very encouraging outing considering his lack of control and the wind in New York and everything else that was going on. He obviously was very frustrated at times and couldn't hit the strike zone, but he did a very good job at what the Diamondbacks needed him to do, right? He went in and he didn't allow a run in four innings. He improves the deback starters ERA to 3.06 this season. And that's that's nuts.

Again, I'm sure if Jesse was here, he would say that's absolutely not sustainable. And a lot of that has to do with some of the things that the Diamondback had gone through with pass and other things not being charged necessarily to the starting picture. But it's getting to the point now where things are starting to feel a bit like last season. It might not all be injuries this season like it was last year. last year was the injuries this year it seems to be their lack of patience the diamondbacks having plenty of patience at the plate but it seems like the organization's patience with some of the guys on the roster is very thin and i am a bit surprised by not only caleb smith being sent out but just in general some of the decisions that they've made as of late with drew ellis and they they

don't seem to be giving guys much time i have to wonder if that has something to do with the new coaches. I have to wonder how much the impact of having that new perspective, seeing these guys, seeing what they can do, not necessarily having the commitment to bringing them on the team. Sometimes when you are a part of the decision to bring someone onto the team, you might, you might just defend that decision even though you shouldn't, right? It's like my friend Tim's insufferable defending of the DC universe. The movies are trash. Let's be honest, right? Tim, Tim, I don't know if Tim's watching this right now, but if he is, he'd probably be furious that I'm saying this. But you can't defend the DC movies.

It doesn't mean to say that the suicide squad, the second one or peacemaker aren't good. There's some things happening. There's some good things here and there. But like, don't defend the DC movies. Like you invested money in them. Like, it was your decision to make them. That's all I'm saying. The Diamondbacks front office, the Diamondbacks people within the organization, they have a vested interest in these guys because they,

their opinion was that they were good. Their opinion was that somebody should bring them on. So it's just harder to be honest with yourself and other people about those decisions that you made in the past, potentially being a mistake. Now what we're seeing is a much quicker decision on these guys. And honestly, it's frustrating. And yeah, Charles Woodall Pike says it's frustrating to see this team not seeming to have direction right now. And yes, and yes, I also agree.

second suicide squad was good so was the first wonder woman no complaints or arguments out of me about those movies right but those movies don't make the other ones better just like hitting on a guy or being right about one guy doesn't make the decision to continue to give another guy opportunities you know that that right right so where we're at right now with the diamondbacks is that they really are trying to find in any way shape or form through you know through small transactions through their own farm system nothing that's going to break the bank but they're trying to find guys guys that can come up and do the job. Yanni Hernandez is a perfect example of a guy that they found that all of a sudden has an impact on this team. I love the guy. I think I called him the Nat the other day, but his nickname was the mosquito. And I love that he's the mosquito. He is the exact kind of annoying player that you want on your team and you don't want to play.

And he's the kind of guy that once you have him in the organization, you want to see him flourish. I think he has a lot to offer. I think he has an ability to get on base. I think he has an ability to have some really strong at basketball. that really help this team win games or at least try to be successful, right? So the Diamondbacks have moved on, but some of the pieces that they found, like Sergio Alcantra with his home run yesterday, they've ended up becoming some pretty valuable pieces for this team, right?

Now, I will say that I understand them still giving Carson Kelly time. I understand them still giving guys that were, you know, a huge part of this team in the past, more opportunities than some of the younger guys or some of the guys that, you know, haven't maybe proved themselves as much like Carson Kelly, right? But I will say that right now, I feel like Dalton Varshot is one of those guys that being patient with him saw things turn around for him. Dalton Varsho was 0 for 12 to open up the season. And then it's, again, it's not that he has like been tearing the cover off the ball, but he has currently on a

five-game hitting streak and he has contributed pretty well since getting things back on track. And that's actually why he is our draft king of the series, Dalton Varsha going three for 11 in this series with a home run, an RBI, two run scored. Most importantly, he's on that five-game hitting streak, which is pretty damn good, considering that he struggled so much in the first series, first couple of games of the year to get things on track.

Now, seemingly back on track and contributing to this team. So that is why he is our draft king's king of the series. it's a bit disappointing. Let's put that up there again. This is three for 11, one home run, one RBI, two runs. That gets you king of the series right now with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And let's be honest, that's not great. I would love to have somebody with better stats up there.

Ketal Marte has had a pretty nice series in New York, but I have to applaud Varsho for his consistency and his ability to do it for five games straight. Now, Seth Beer might have been able to be that guy today for the Diamondbacks, but we won't know because he only got the one at bat, and I just don't know if, again, if putting in a pinch hit situation is the answer for this, when you have a designated hitter role in this guy as well as he is, I think you go with this with the hot hand.

And I'm sure a lot of Arizona Diamondbacks fans feel the exact same way. That part is probably the most frustrating part is to see a team struggling offensively like this team is and not giving an opportunity to one of the guys that's actually doing something. a good job offensively. But again, shout out to Dalton Varshow for being our Draft Kings king of the series. And just a reminder, we want you to get down on the Draft King's action over at the Draft King's Sportsbook app with the NBA playoffs. You get down on the NBA playoffs by if your new customer, betting $5 on any team to win and get $150 in free bets instantly. You win no matter what. All Drap King's sportsbook customers, new and old, to get on the NBA hoop's same game

parlay. Each day of the first round, you'll get a free risk, risk-free bet up to $10 if your same game parlay doesn't hit. Bet the suns, baby. Bet the suns to the moon. You know why? Because as Espo would say, the Phoenix Suns are the best team in the NBA. And now it's time to prove it. So get down on the Draft King's Sportsbook. Use our code of PHNX, bet $5 on any NBA team to win their game during the first round of the playoffs and get $150 in free bets instantly. That's promo code PHNX. Drafking Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. 21 and over only, Arizona only, gambling problem, down 180. Next step.

New customers only, minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And yes, I have been getting down on the Draft King Sportsbook today. I actually was doing some live in-game betting during the Arizona Diamondbacks game, and you bet your ass I want some money. I want some money because I was confident. See, sometimes this Draft King Sportsbook app, it's a computer out.

algorithm, right? There's, there's things that there's not a human being that's watch the Arizona Diamondbacks that's thinking about what the odds should be. No, no, no, no, no, my friends, there's a computer calculating it in its computer brain. And the computer says, two on with no outs, there's guarantee a run's going to score. Well, my friend, you stupid ass computer, you were wrong because they didn't score. And that allowed me to get down on a, on a, got one, $34, $4 betting less than a half a run in the fourth inning and that hit. And again, there's another beautiful option on what you can do with the Draf King's Sportsbook. Get down on that.

I also bet for the number of runs in this game. Yeah, exactly. Charles Woodall Pipe, you are a genius. Payness profit. Remember, just because the Arizona Diamondbacks lose doesn't mean you need to lose over at the drafting sports book app. Before we go, I wanted to preview the D-Backs four game series versus the nationals. not a lot of marquee names for the Diamondbacks to be matching up with.

Madison Bumgarner takes on Josiah Gray, Merrill Kelly versus Joe Jonah Donne. Zach Davies takes on Eric Feddy or Fed. I don't know these people, and I don't even know how to pronounce their names. Zach Gallen versus Josh Rogers, a four game set in Washington, D.C. By the way, if you're there for this game for some reason,

just a reminder in D.C., you have to be within two blocks of a sports venue you in order for you to use the Drafking sports book. So be like me when I was in D.C. Just do a little laps around the Nationals Ballpark and just do all of your betting and you're gambling while you're there. But nothing intimidating here.

So I think, what I think, here's what I think. And nobody really, I know you don't really care what I think. But what I think is, this is the Diamondbacks true series to see what they can do. They have faced some pretty tough pitching. Even in this Mets series, even if these guys aren't marking, names. They've been putting up some good numbers as far as their ERA goes and their first couple of starts. So, I mean, the guy they got today, Anderson, I think, was his first start of the year,

but the Diamondbacks really need to go against some pretty lesser known names on the mound and do some damage. If this offense doesn't wake up in Washington, I don't know if I have any answers or if I have any expectations after that, that it will wake up. I know that sounds crazy. It really does. there's no way that the guys on this lineup are going to hit 186 the entire season. But it's really hard to imagine going up against Josiah Gray, Joan Adon, Eric Fetty, and Josh Rogers for the Nationals. You're not even getting Patrick Corbyn, friend of the show, old friend, spy on our exes, Patrick Corbyn. You're not getting him. So as far as missing some old players that really would have made us miss them more by them beating us like Back Scherzer and Patrick Corpard.

and the Diamondbacks miss all that. So I think that this is a great opportunity for them to really show what they can do. But I don't, I mean, what does that even mean? Show what they can do. Right now they haven't been able to do anything at the plate. That's really what it feels like. So as far as, you know, showing and proving that they're not this inept as a team, that needs to happen in this national series.

I'm not acting like the Diamondbacks are so much better than the Washington Nationals, probably a bit more on par, but they do have better pitching. and the Diamondback should be able to go in at least split a re-winnable series against the bad baseball team in Washington. Whether that, I mean, again, whether that happens or not remains to be seen. And I don't really hang an entire 162 game season on one series against the nationals. I'll just say it's going to be very hard to have a positive outlook in any way, shape, or form for this team if they don't go to Washington and take some of these games.

I really can't imagine that being the case, right? I've been jealous. I've been, you know, staring out the window like Squidward in the SpongeBob meme of everyone else in the major team's having fun. Offensively with big teams, they probably shouldn't win. Sure, their records might not be, at the very least, other teams look like teams. In this series, the Diamondbacks, especially in game, two, they really seemed to finally wake up offensively.

They had a season high nine hits in game two, and they were able to look like a competitive baseball team, at least for one game. But it's like a lot of things in baseball. You got to, yeah, it's consistency. It's the ability to do it over multiple games, over a series, over a span of a month for you to be considered successful instead of having these, you know, little moments of brilliance. I wrote my piece on go phtnx.com that some of these moments, they, they might,

might be all we have, right? Like the Seth Beer walkoff on opening day, things like that might be the moments of joy that we get to experience as Diamondbacks fan this season, instead of really focusing on, man, maybe they can make the playoffs or maybe they can, you know, do so. No, I feel like that is just setting yourself up for disappointment in a way. But I think that enjoying the moments is going to be the key. Diamondbacks right now aren't really focused on winning. It doesn't feel like. I hate to say that, but a move like not starting Seth Beer in today's game doesn't help me not feel that way. So I am going to do my best to forget it. I'm going to go take some OGs gummies from our pals over at OGs, which by the way, had a fantastic time last Friday out with the guys from the PHNX ASU podcast.

And my pal, salty saw. So, of course, we were out there at the OG's main stage during Budzapalooza 420 festival. we had ourselves a damn good time. And if you haven't had a chance to check it out, OGs is one of Arizona's first scratch-made cannabis kitchens and is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis-infused products that flavor life's journey. And yes, if you're wondering,

I did get a big old bag of freebies from the Buds of Paloosa Fest. And yeah, there might be some OGs in here. So get yourself some OGs gums from our friends over there. Of course, the orange creamsicle gummies taste like a damn dream. not to mention they have R.S.O. And if you're not familiar with Rick Simpson Oil, then I'm not here to tell you about it, but look into it. We've heard from our girl Mack and our boys saw that they, of course,

enjoy the orange cream skull end of cut gummy after a long day of shows here. I know that I enjoy it after a long day of watching baseball. So go check out our friends over at OGs because they are an Arizona brand, and we are both Arizona brands. So let's show them some love. If you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEZBrands.com.

And to find the nearest OG's nearest you. So that's what we got. So I appreciate you guys all showing up, even though I wasn't able on this Easter Sunday to get anybody else to show up. Will the Diamondbacks resurrect? I don't know. That's a bad joke that I shouldn't be making.

But I'm doubtful of that. I don't see that happening in their future. I do say this, though. We have still months and months and months to get things turned around. And hopefully the airs, on the Diamondbacks have a season the opposite of last year, where they had a pretty decent quick start in April and then things fell apart. Maybe this slow start will kind of manifest into things picking up in May and beyond.

And we will be here all season long to talk about it. And that's what I got the OGs gummies for. That's really what they're there for. Therefore, they're here to help me all season long. But we thank you guys again so much, I have the show. And when I say, eating me, because I'm here all by myself, but I'm not because you guys are here with me. Of course, you can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. And our show is at PHNX underscore DVACs. Follow us along for all of our jokes about the debacks, having 4.20 pitches per plate appearance and things like that. That's really what that account is for. But all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. You guys can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook there. Also, hop over to YouTube.

Subscribe there. If you're watching this right now in the postgame show, and subscribe, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss any of the content coming out from the gang over at PHNX. Sons, baby. I am here. I am ready. I'm ready for DA to go beast mode in the playoffs.

I'm ready to watch our Phoenix Suns bring me the joy that our Arizona diving backs don't. And I can't wait. I hope you guys are getting ready for that game tonight. It's going to be a blast. Let's beat the hell out of those pelicans. And let's bring it home this year. Let's make this be the year. I'm going to be chugging with the fellas a lot.

So shout out to my pal Charles. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Let's go sons. And I appreciate you guys all for being here. I guess, you know what? What we'll say is this. Let's remain cautiously optimistic for the rest of this road trip.

The Diamondbacks are hopping on a train. They did not consult with David Peralta on which train to take. That's ridiculous, right? Like, why wouldn't you consult with the freight train? But anyway, they're hopping on a train to D.C. and maybe maybe let's maybe some bonding let's maybe some bonding helps this team get together you know you're stuck on a train for a considerable number of hours so and you can get up and walk around that's why trains are fun but anyway we look forward to that series in dc we look forward to you guys joining us on that

post series show on thursday which will be about 10 minutes after the final out on behalf of all of my co-hosts that aren't here today we thank you so much for joining us we hope you have a very happy easter And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your co-hosts show up.