PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs Post Series: Red flag

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the D-backs avoiding the sweep in their finale against the Reds, Jesse's last day as a part timer, and the upcoming schedule as the D-backs face the Twins and the Padres.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX. New customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS on either NHL team to win their game, and get ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN FREE BETS no matter what.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis infused products that flavor life’s journey. If you’re interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGeez! Brands has to offer, go to https://ogeezbrands.com.Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust MANSCAPED with this exclusive offer for you…. 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code DBACKS at https://manscaped.com.Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. Just visit https://athleticgreens.com/Diamondbacks 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 Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. Of course, we are brought to you by the Drafking Sportsbook app, America's number one sportsbook app. My name is Derek Montia. You guys know me as your mayor of PHNX and also a breaker of chairs, as our friend Josh in the comments puts it. And I'm joined by more of a chair a fictionado rather than a chairbreaker. It's the one and only Thunderstick, Vice Mayor Jesse Friedman. did you just say I'm a chair aficionado you're not really sure what you're the opposite of breaking it you're more of like

a fan of chairs is what I'm going with rather than breaking them the way that I've used my office chair what is up in the chat giselle welcome Josh all my favorite people talking about the W the diamondbacks had today against the Cincinnati Reds we're going to accentuate the positive but then of course I am going to remind everybody that they still lost two of three of course we are brought to you by the fine folks of the drafting sports book app and Jesse

Arizona Diamondbacks managed to salvage another series too many in a row that the Diamondbacks are having to save from being swept but here again they win again on Sunday this one was this one was a lot there were a lot of things going on with this one it was a Sunday game

and or excuse me I'm sorry I'm very confused what you're saying it's because days don't mean anything to me anymore. It's the close roof. The roof was closed at the stuff and a lot of factors going against them in this one, including Zach Gallen not being able to stop hitting people in the first two innings, which was really bizarre. But again, here we are, I guess, celebrating the fact that they didn't get swept in a series. I think it's funny just how different the vibe is when we do this post series live show thing.

Like if the Diamondbacks win two out of three, but they lose the last one, then people in our chats are kind of sad. And then, you know, if they lose two out of three, but they win the last one, then we get this where everyone's popping off in the chat after, after losing a series to the Reds. But yeah, I mean, this was a great game for the debacks. I think especially the way that Zach Galen got out of the gate in probably the,

those are a rough couple of innings. I know he only allowed two runs, but, I mean, to hit four batters is really indicative of what Zach Gallen was going through. His command was just all over the place. those first couple of innings. And he bounced back in a big way. Seven innings, two runs.

It was a great game for him. They were weird too, right? Because I was in the press box and, you know, none of them were like a hit by pit. Like so many of them were like a glancing blow of an arm or part of the jersey or something. Right. So like that it was just, it was odd because he had so many of those in this game. In fact, he has nine hit batter. this season and four of them came in the first two innings against the first eight batters in

this game. So it was bizarre. But like you said, he bounced back nicely. And I think once he received that run support to combat what happened there in the second inning, you know, we, we saw Zach Gowl and be able to kind of dial it in. Also, it all went well after another Brentstrom mound visit, which is just magical to me. I don't understand how Brent Strom goes out there and can completely change the course of a pitcher's afternoon by whatever he says to him, but I still think about Jomantipli telling us that it's always different.

So there's not like something, you know, just one thing that Strom drops on him when he goes out there. He kind of knows the perfect thing to say to get them back on track based on their personality. Yeah, I mean, Brent Strom has been working magic all season, right? I mean, that's kind of been the narrative of this 2022 diamond back season is just the work that he's done with these pitchers has been incredible.

Yeah, someone mentioned in the chat that Zach Gallen, that's stupid that Zach Gallen gets a no decision for this game. Unfortunately, that is the case. Yeah, Gallen sits at four and two, even though he's been one of the best pitchers in the National League. Still can't get one number five in the season. Yeah, win number five is, has he never won five games in a season? No, no, that is.

He's matched his career high with four wins. So that is remarkable. Four wins is the most right now that he's ever had in a season. And it, it's just weird because he is one of those guys like this weird game, like where there's just these factors that keep him from being able to have 10 plus wins when he seems like a 10 plus win pitcher, right? Even if the team is bad around him, he always gives him a chance to win. He always keeps it.

at two or three runs, which he did again today, but today it wasn't good enough to get the win. And like Chris says, because baseball, right? There you go. I mean, we had a weird extra innings game yesterday where neither team scored in the nine innings, but then all of a sudden both teams could score all the runs in extra innings.

And that game fascinated me because we were in the 11th, Jesse, and it was still less than three hours into the game. obviously the lack of offense was the reason why we were able to speed through that great game so fast. But I think I did the math a couple of times. I was like, is that right? Did this game start at 640? I don't. How is this possible?

Right? So, but that was an exciting game. And the Diamondbacks at least hung in there. I know a lot of people were pretty upset with Mark Melanson, but I mean, the ghost runner thing just like, like, I don't know. Somebody said it in the chat or not on Twitter, but like, it might have been. even been you. I don't remember. But somebody said, like, having Mark Melanson in there in a situation where you have a guy on second base, and he's a pitcher that typically pitches to contact doesn't really seem like the best idea when it comes to extra. I think it was,

was it, was it Kellan Olson? I think it might have been on Twitter. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, Mark Malanson is not pitch great this season, Derek. I don't think there's, there's any getting around that fact. I just tweeted out from my account about like, like 20 or 30 minutes ago. The batting line against Ian Kennedy and Mark Malanson. Ian Kennedy, opposing hitters are batting about 270. They're slugging around 450, which is, even though Ian Kennedy has a mid-3 ERA, which is pretty respectable, those still aren't really the numbers you're looking for.

And if you look at Ian Kennedy, or if you look at Mark Malanson, I think the opposing batting average is around 342 right now, which obviously is a far cry from what you're looking for from your closer. The back end hasn't been great, Derek, and I think that was an issue in the game yesterday. The Diamondbacks let that one get away from them. The bullpen was just not as steady as the Reds bullpen was. And we have the numbers to take a look at when it comes to this series. Again, two wins to one.

Not great because we've talked about this series with the Reds once again was one that the Diamondbacks should have won and didn't. Starting pitching really in this one wasn't great. But once we were able to get into the bullpen against the Reds, the Diamondbacks were able to do some damage. So batting average with runners in scoring position, much better in this series for both of these teams, I believe, than the last time they played each other. And the Diamondbacks just honestly were able in this game to do it consistently, which is something that we saw out of them the last time that they had to salvage a series and keep from getting swept, where they, you know, in the final game, they're able to put up those big numbers. and do something significant despite the offense kind of missing the rest of the series. And I mean, not to say that we saw that in this series, but yeah, like Josh Hunt just said, that batting average with runners and scoring position is still killing us.

And honestly, the Diamondbacks go way too many times when they go 04, when they have runners in scoring position. And that's just tough to see. It is. Yeah. And a big number in this series that didn't show up on our graphic there is that the red starting pitchers in this series, Derek, went 22 and a third innings. They averaged between seven and eight innings per star, which is, which is crazy.

Even though the Diamondbacks did do some damage against the Reds bullpen, they hardly even saw the Reds bullpen in this series because the starting pitchers went so deep. I mean, Tyler Malley yesterday literally pitched nine innings, which wasn't enough to actually end the game, of course. But then today, Luis Castillo didn't necessarily have his best stuff, but he was still able to finish seven innings out there. D-backs have to do a better job of chasing the opposing starter earlier in the game. That's something we definitely saw against Molly, that he just the, inability to have long at bats, even if they're unsuccessful, right? The idea there is to just drive

that pitch count up and make them work, the more pitches you see, you know, and it's not that the Diamondbacks are incapable of this. There's just games where collectively as a team, they seem impatient, you know, and that might still be what we saw last season, which is, you know, once, once they start getting that sense of, wow, nobody's hitting right now. It feels like, you know, the entire world is on each guy's shoulders, each guy's trying to hit three home runs in one bat. Right. And you just see the at-bats kind of get worse even in some games as they progress instead of getting better, not to, not to, you know, personally attack any players, but Pave and Smith,

as my friend Evan Thompson put in the press box. So I'll put it on him. So it's on his shoulders that he said this. It looks like he's swinging a concrete bat at times, right? Like some guys right now just aren't putting together great at bats up at the plate. Paven's really been struggling at times. And, you know, again, there's other guys who right now might deserve an opportunity. So hopefully the dive-backbacks are still in that mode.

Tori Lovolo is still in that mode. I would love to see Jake McCarthy getting some more at bats with what he's been doing. how productive he's been and honestly how good he was in the outfield. Yeah, Jake McCarthy's, I mean, he's at a pretty decent season. I think bizarrely, his strikeout numbers have been pretty high. He's sitting at like a 33, 34% strikeout rate, which is very high. But he's also hit for quite a bit of power this season, which is not necessarily something that you'd expect from Jake McCarthy.

But, I mean, that's totally what he's done. And we all know the base running and the defense is going to be there for him. I think the real guy in this series for the debacks, though, Derek, and I'm going to go ahead and spoil our draft king of the series is Alec Thomas. He was just, he was incredible in the series, Derek, and I tweeted out earlier during the game that Alec Thomas now leads all Diamondbacks hitters in OPS. Yes, he does.

The guy has barely played, you know, 30 games in the major leagues. and he already has arguably been the best offensive player on his team. And like Mike Hazen put it the other day, he's really just scratching the surface at this point of what he can do in the big leagues. 778, just ahead of Catelle Marte with the 776 OPS. And they both have the exact same batting average of 269 right now. It's crazy, yeah. You want to talk about good to God to emulate.

It's Cotel Marte, for sure. We need to give Alec Thomas a Nick. name. Like I was thinking like A town, but that's like an Atlanta thing. And I know he's from Chicago and I'm sure he would hate that. Right. Yeah. A train? I don't know. I need your guys's thoughts on this because every time Alec Thomas comes up there, obviously we know some guys. You know, like Varsho has all the tools. Payman is obviously from Palm Beach Garden. We know some of these things. Right. Oh, I like at that. I like at a lot. I'm a Star Wars guy. Don't make me start pulling my pops off the wall here because we'll do a whole episode on that.

But let's go with, oh, AT&T. Oh, I mean, that's like kind of fitting, but I don't think Alex Thomas would probably like that very much. I don't know. Yeah, well, because I mean, what I think of that is a bad connection, right? That's what I think of with AT&T. But we got to, we got to get down on like AT&P's catchphrases here. Rethink possible.

I don't know. AT&T's good, though. I like that. Yeah. All right. We'll workshop this as a group. But of course, we want to remind you guys if you haven't already signed up to become a member over at go phtnx.com. We got some great content coming out. Jesse breaks down Dallas Keikl and how much he might end up meeting to this team, what he might still have to offer.

I have a little story coming up about the moist balls in baseball, you know, the humidor. Why do you have to use, why do you have to use that word? Because the balls are moist, Jesse. The baseballs are there, a humidor's purpose is to moisten the balls, Jesse. That's all that's, so anyway, we'll be addressing that in an article. Make sure you sign up to become a member over at go phtnx.com. If you haven't done so already, of course, as Gsell will say, I think that's right. Am I saying that?

Am I hitting the G2R, Jacelle? She would say, our, our discord is lit. All right. So join us in here. Come to the Discord and chat about games with us. I don't, is that no at my moist ball? I don't know. I think it's just no in general. Of course, members get access to that discord. You also get members only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. If you sign up for an annual membership, you will get a free t-shirt at the PHNX Locker.com. If you sign up for a month to month membership, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So regardless, a, which membership status you choose. Join us on the couch right here next to us, watching these games. The Discord was absolutely popping today,

as Josh Hunt says, and it's always a fun place to be. We thank you guys, not only for being part of the member, but for making our Discord a fun place to be. Like, we love being there, but it's almost like it's not even our party anymore.

It's like Jesse and I are just guests at your guys' house. So, I mean, I'm down with that, but we'll make sure that when we come to the party, we bring plenty of Four Peaks Brewing Company beer because of course another wonderful sponsor

of this show and all the shows on PHNX is our friend at Four Peaks. I got myself a little Joy Bus Wow right here. So good. Thank you, Giseu. All right.

So anyway, go get yourself some Four Peaks. Jesse today. Me and Baxter, we went to the Four Peaks Brewing Company draft room today. His animal trainer wouldn't let him go

have beers with me, which I mean, right? I mean, I don't know how animal years work for Bobcats, but I'm pretty sure it's the seven years thing, right? For dogs, so he's just got to be three in human years. I'm pretty sure he clears that. It was a funny moment, though, because he did get off the elevator

with me and start walking with me to the bar and had to be brought back by his trainer, but that's because Baxter knows hanging with me is a good time. And if you go to Chasefield, make sure to check out the four Peaks draft room up there. It's absolutely a beautiful place to watch the game from. Everybody is welcome up there. And they have, of course, a, yes, Baxter does have the,

he does have to drive the bullpen cart. You're right. I mean, whatever. But anyway, Four Peaks draft room is a fun place to watch the game from. They have a ton of beers. They have all the beers. All, all of Four Peaks brewing companies, wonderful selection of beers. They have on tap. And it's just, I, I couldn't stay because I, work to do in driving myself. I was I was just there to take pictures, you guys. They could let Baxter come with me. I would have gotten them a bowl of water or something. But anyway, make sure to check out our friends at Draft King, or Four Peaks. There's so many, so many things I remember today is a bizarre day for me. So, but check out our friends at Four Peaks. They have

beers located anywhere you are. Your local grocery store, supermarket, convenience store, wherever you buy your beer, you should find four peaks. They've been in the mix since 96 right here in the valley. And they are a valley company, which of course, we are all valley here. So make sure to do that. Check out our friends. Of course, four peaks, you must be 21 or older to enjoy and make sure you enjoy four peaks responsibly. And I'm going to take Jesse and we're going to enjoy some four peaks responsibly when he arrives in town sometime soon, very soon, sooner than, you know, most of you think he's going to be here before we know it. This is our last live show apart pretty much. Jesse has some stuff to get care of when he gets here. But when he does get here, he will be in, it's not to say we won't

still be doing this remotely from time to time, but very excited to be in studio with you and doing this thing much differently than we have for the last nine months, 10 months. It's been crazy that we have done this for so long across the country and you have been so dialed in to the Arizona Diamondbacks considering the fact that you are not here. You are in Seattle and you're doing this through the magic of television and the internet and all these other things. But I can't wait for you to be here. It's been a fun time already. I know we haven't even gotten to our full first year anniversary yet, but this feels a little exciting. It feels like we're moving on to a new chapter now that Jesse is coming down.

And I want to have a big party of some kind, Derek? Is there some sort of like a, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know. Oh, yeah. I have big expectations. I told you. We'll talk about the OG's pool party.

I'm taking you to. Oh, right, right. Yeah. Definitely. There's some plans, my friend. There's some plans. But I want to give a shout out to everybody. Obviously, we talked about you guys being members, whether you're members,

whether you're not members, if you've spent five minutes watching this show, if you watch the entire thing all the time, we, appreciate you and we love you for it. We thank you for being part of this family because we can't do this without you. And of course, if you guys didn't want to watch us and bring this thing to you, then, you know, we wouldn't be here. But we get a lot of wonderful stuff from you guys as well. And I wanted to take a moment to recognize one of my favorite packages I've ever received because it comes from our friend Nick Sutton, who is our fan in Nebraska. And Nick has asked me a couple of times, about if we would be interested in doing some, you know, custom baseball cards for us.

And of course, I'm down. I love baseball cards. And we have these cards from our friend Nick. Here is his drawing. That's Madbom. We got Cotel Marte. Wow. I love that one a lot.

Young King Alec Thomas. But here's my favorite one, Jesse. It's the cursive baxter. It's the curse of back. I was asked, is that Eduardo Escobar? Is that Luke Weaver? We'll never know. We'll never know, right?

We've identified Escobar in one of the videos. We still haven't identified if it was Luke Weaver or not. I'm still on the fence. I know dance moves, Jesse. I recognize Luke Weaver's dance moves. He has a very specific style like he was born in a Latin American country as the child of a of a professional dancer it's it's in his DNA and I can't explain it but when you see Luke Weaver dance in those those TikTok videos that David Peralta posted last year you'll know

exactly what I'm talking about it's it's undeniable but of course I wanted to thank Nick and I wanted to thank all of you guys thank you guys so much for being a part of this we've got a lot of fun including our talk about our short kings and of course the curse of Baxter, but Jesse, I wanted to thank you. Like I said, I know you have been very busy for a very long time and I'm excited to announce now that Jesse is full time with PHNX after balancing a career of being both a teacher and I don't know what I want to call you. The person that takes care of me, I want to say that's Emma. Something like that. More of Emma, like you have been my partner in crime since we started this. And of course, I'm the person that bothers you all day long while you're

doing your other job while I text you about Arizona Diamondbacks stuff and, you know, in general, my crazy thoughts throughout the day. So I'm so excited to have you here full time. I am, I am stoked, Derek. Yeah, for everyone who's been watching over these last few months and reading our stories and hanging out with us in the Discord and everything, things are, things are going to get only better around here, Derek. I like to think that when I like that one, I like that one. I hope you have more time to sleep now, too, my friend. Yeah, that also would be nice. But, you know, that's sort of who I am, Derek. I've never been the type of person to really sleep a whole lot.

You know, I'm a bit of a workaholic, and that means that once I'm in Arizona, I'm going to spend a lot of time at the ballpark. I'm going to be in the clubhouse. I'm doing a lot of interviews, writing a lot more articles. There will be a lot more written content from us as well. So, yeah, we're about a week or so away here, Derek. So we're getting close. I'm excited. And one of the questions yesterday, I think from Elizabeth, was about getting you to break down some of these stats for us. So we'll get some Professor Friedman videos up very soon, as soon as he arrived. But again, I wanted to thank you, pal, because I know you've been working hard. I know you've done a great job of balancing this with your other job. And more importantly, I've always been very, I've always respected the way that you held what you were doing as such a high priority, considering that. that most people would drop any job that they had, you know, to come do this. I think people that would want to be a career, at least as we saw with your video, when you wanted to do this for as long as you wanted to do this for,

since you're doing young Greg Schulte impersonations, you know, I respect the fact that you had an obligation to fill and you did that now. And just excited to have you back. But of course, still no OGs for Jesse. going to take Jesse to that pool party, though, at the Maya pool club, whether he wants to or not, because we're going to have a fun time. And of course, you can too. So make sure to go check out OG's. OGs brands, gummies are incredible. And the one thing I had somebody tell me today was how much, when you really think about it, you can limit your consumption of calories, right? If you want to go

with OG's cannabis route, right? Whether you're a cannabis connoisseur or you're cannabis curious, no matter which way you go. These are things to think about, right? One single gummy can get you where you're going, whereas, you know, that's not always the case sometimes with other things. So also you don't have to smoke. You don't have to smell.

There's a lot of benefits to edibles and something that I think is making them more appealing to a mainstream kind of audience. and make sure, of course, you use responsibly, but go to OGs brands.com and see the wonderful variety of flavors they have. You can find OGs near you. They have the different, like Pinacolades, their big flavor during the summer, watermelon, they have a wonderful variety of flavors to offer. They also have that variety of doses.

So if you're new to this, check out their three milligram microdose. You might not need anything more than that. They also have a 10 milligram regular dose, for those of you that have dipped your toes into the edibles waters before, but regardless of the dose that you are looking for, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEZBrands.com to find OGs near you. And I, I'm currently out of OGs. So I need to go find OGs near me, Jesse. But that's, that's a personal problem. And it really is a problem. It's a problem. I'm upset about it. So you need to get some more OGs in my life.

Well, they'll have some at the pool party, I take it. Oh, yeah. It looks like they're going to make drinks out of them, or it's just going to be a glass filled with OGs. Either way, I'm in. I'm full in. So, well, you'll be there just to make sure that I make it out alive, basically. That's why I'm taking you with me. But we're going to have a good time regardless.

And I'm, again, I'm very excited for you to be here. I'm not so excited, Jesse, looking forward at this schedule as the Diamondbacks wrap up the first half of the season and we head into July getting closer and closer to that all-star break. But the Diamondbacks, again, winnable series here against the Reds that they end up losing and avoiding the sweet, but still drop the series two games to three. Coming up here at home, we have the Minnesota twins on Friday. The Diamondbacks have an off day tomorrow. So I don't know what the hell we're going to do with ourselves tomorrow. But again, we've got a three game series with the twins. Great to see Carlos Correa here at

Chase Field. Interesting to see if anybody bangs trash cans or yells cheater, anything like that. I can't. Right. Then they have a really quick away series with the Pazes and then is that Detroit series at home? I think it is. So it's like they have that three game series of the Padres and they're back here against the Tigers, which again, looking ahead at the Tiger series, that's pretty good. But this twin series coming up in the Padres,

both are going to be pretty tough series for the Diamondbacks. So of course, they'll probably win both of them, because that's how this freaking... Yeah, I mean, we'd been looking forward to this 13-game stretch for a while, right? Derek, this stretch of the Diamondbacks have now just finished with the ending of this series, that 13-game stretch against them. I guess at the time we were saying lesser opponents, at least. I don't know if we necessarily feel the same way now.

But the diamond backs, I wouldn't say, not really. That's for sure. Yeah, right, right. The diamondbacks went five and eight over those 13 games. It was, I mean, that's, that's pretty bad, given, you know, how the diamondbacks looked going into the series and how we felt they stacked up against those teams. It's really a pretty rough outcome for them. But, yeah, now things kind of flip to the way that they were earlier in the season. The diamondbacks aren't really going to get much of a break from playing some of the better teams in the league.

So they're going to get the Minnesota Twins, like you said next, starting on Friday. The twins are 37 and 28 right now. They're leading the American League Central by a few games over Cleveland. So they're a division leading team as of right now. And then the Diamondbacks get the Padres right after that in San Diego. And we never really talked about this here. But the Padres are nearly a division leading team in their own right. The Padres and the Dodgers are a.

exactly tied right now. I guess the Dodgers technically have a slightly higher win percentage, but they're effectively in a tie right now for first place in the NLS. So the Padres have been a very, very good team as of late. I guess you got the Tigers coming up next weekend. So that'll be a little bit of a little bit of a break, I guess, but then things get tough again right after that. So the debacks are going to have to, you know, play up to the competition at this point as the teams that they're facing get a lot better than what we've seen over the last couple weeks. That's really what it comes down to. And it's like Charles Woodle Pike said, is this going to be one of those years, one of those play to the level of your opponent years?

And honestly, it feels like that, right? Because the diamondbacks were on quite a role and they looked like they were going to be able to at least come out of this 13-game stretch with a winning record. And I mean, it is what it is. It's, especially the Reds ended up being tougher. The pirates were on a roll when they ran into them. They had just got done beating the Dodgers. You know, these are, these were teams that that were playing very good baseball when the diamondbacks ran up against them. The one thing that's just baffling has been, you know, the starting pitching, right? Even like today's start with Zach Gallen, it was incredibly weird to watch all of those batters get hit and the circumstance in which they did. I'm not saying that they didn't get hit, but Zach Gallen's lack of control and is, you know, basically,

coming inside on guys was just uncharacteristic of what we've seen out of him. Now, I don't know. I mean, we're going based on the beginning of the season and how good they were, yet we weren't expecting them to nearly be as good as they were at that time. So I don't know which, you know, which way is setting my expectations now at this point, right? We have this, you know, the fact that they were so good and they're coming back down to what we expected them more to be. But Zach Gallen especially has been a guy that I expected this to, to, you know, come out and consistently give the Diamondbacks a chance to win this season. In his last few starts, he just hasn't really seemed right. It's not that he doesn't get right, but it kind of takes the course of the

game for him to get right. Yeah, he definitely didn't look sharp from the beginning. And yeah, I mean, one thing I noticed was Zach Allen, just looking at the numbers, is that his strikeout numbers are actually quite a bit lower this season than what we've seen in the past, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I think in the past maybe he's fallen a little bit too much into using the strikeout as his way of getting guys out and not pitching to contact enough. But yeah, this season, things have kind of flipped around. The strikeouts are a little bit lower, but the walks are lower as well. So I guess that's a trade that you're probably willing to make if you're Zach Allen. one thing I wanted to touch on that you talked about earlier is just this

this narrative that the Diamondbacks are the kind of team that plays up, you know, to the competition against the better teams and then kind of plays down to the competition against the not so good teams. I was just looking at some numbers here and the Diamondbacks are 11 and 22 this season against teams that are greater that are better than 500 compared to 19 and 13 against teams that are under 500 or at 500. So it actually- It's kind of been lately, right?

That's been there. I mean, even that that idea of them playing down to their competition, I think, is based on this 13-game stretch, right? Not necessarily, you know, a reflection of the entire year. But we tend to overreact quickly, Jesse, you know that. It's baseball. It's just like you said, even with losing the series, we're still pretty happy that they came away today with a victory. I thought it was Sunday. Like, that's how excited I was.

I thought the day was Sunday because it was such a fun win. And I thought we were getting some of those monkeys off the back, right? Some of those things that the Diamondbacks inexplicably have done poorly this season, like playing at home with the roof closed at first pitch and playing on Sundays. So, but, you know, I don't think there's any correlation to anything. It's just weird. It's just funny stats and weird stats. And it's because it's baseball.

Baseball is always ridiculous. this, but the Diamondbacks still haven't really proven to find any consistency anywhere right now. I mean, starting pitching, bullpen, I mean, it doesn't matter. Yeah. You've seen this team in the extra innings game, they definitely provided themselves with an opportunity to win, and they just couldn't, you know, keep the Reds from scoring in extra innings as well. So that really fell on the bullpen, especially last night. going forward the diamondbacks have some let's see some i don't know do we have a probable

pitchers matchup yeah we do i think right no i don't think so no but we do have the all city i apologize for that we do have our all city division uh which of course is the only division that matters right now uh let's let's let the padres and the dodgers fight it out for the national league west uh we have this division we're uh just a bit behind the chicago White two pummeled the Detroit Tigers today, 13 to nothing, still ahead of our fellow NL West, I should say basement dwellers, the Rockies, and the Cubs are really, really far back there. But again, right now, the Diamondbacks are still hanging in there. And I think, you know, things are looking good for us to bring the title home before the end of

the season, Jesse. I think the White Sox have a much, much tougher road ahead than we do. So Diamondbacks will probably get back to a point, especially with the record being what it is right now. You know, I mean, we're not, we're not even close to the top of Mountain 500 anymore, Jesse. As a matter of fact, we got to take the graphic and we got to reverse it. That's the saddest shit I've ever seen in my entire life. But yeah, the Diamondbacks, five games below 500 right now and aren't anywhere close to adding on to any kind of, you know, positive record right now.

Really, they just need to get the job done now against some tough teams. And especially when a team like the Tigers come into town, they have to take care of business there as well. Yeah, these are, these are some big games for the debacks. I mean, the All-Star break, it's crazy to say, is only about a month away at this point. So this season is, this season is flying by. And Diamondbacks are in a decent spot. I mean, they're still way better than really anyone thought they were going to be going into this season.

So I think on the whole, you still feel pretty good about things. But there's certainly some steps to be taken. I thought it was interesting. Mike Hazen yesterday said that the diamondbacks are at the point in the season where there are no moral victories, which of course is a very Mike Hazen sort of thing to say. He's a competitive guy. And I think we've heard things like that from him in the past. But yeah, I mean, that's where the diamondbacks.

are at. They're at the point now where I think people are starting to respect them a little bit. People are starting to recognize that, you know, maybe this isn't their year, but maybe their year isn't that far away. And so they're at the point where they need to start winning these games. And on the whole, this 13 game stretch going five and eight, I think is really unacceptable for them and these new standards that they're setting for themselves. And, you know, they're going to, you know, they're going to come out angry against the twins and against the Padres and try to write the shit. Buyers or sellers at the trade deadline.

Oh, we love those two words, don't we? You got to be all, you got to be all one or all the other. Well, okay, let's give a third option. Do you think they'll remain generally inactive? Make a move or two at the most, right? Because that's really the direction I see them going, right? If they can get somebody to grab somebody like David Peralta and maybe give up a prospect or cash consideration or something for him,

I wouldn't be surprised Which by the way, I had to explain Trading someone for cash considerations To my wife the other day And it was a ridiculous conversation I mean it is really kind of a ridiculous idea Yeah, well, because in this country We're not allowed to say it's it's there's

Basically there's a lot of you know Negative connotations to saying people were bought and sold In the United States of America right? So yes England has no problem with that shit with like the Premier League and stuff saying that players were bought and sold sold by teams, but we tend to refrain from using those kind of words when talking about human beings in this country, right? So, but yeah, being, at least for David Peralta's sake, I wouldn't,

I would like to see him go to a team that could use him, you know, that might be a contender or contending for some sort of, you know, something, right? David Peralta has been a big part of this team and there's a good chance that he might not be here any longer when the season ends. So not only for the Diamondbacks as a franchise to be able to get something. for him, but for him to possibly go somewhere where he can experience something he hasn't really experienced much in his time here, which is, you know, chasing a pennant and winning a title and, you know, doing something, you know, significant and fun because who knows how long that's going to be at this point for this team, right? So as glad as I am that they've, you know,

anchored this team with guys like Merrill Kelly and Cotel Marte and their contract extensions as the new guys come up, there's not going to be space for everybody. And it's not to say David Paltar hasn't been a valuable member of this team. It's just to say, I wouldn't be surprised to see him move on at the end of the year. And again, if they can make a deal that works and makes kind of works out for everybody, then I could still see that being a strong possibility before the trade deadline. But we thank you guys so much for joining us. Make sure if you're a new customer, make sure to go check out Draft King's Sportsbook.

Draft King's Sportsbook right now where the finals could be over, right? So I don't know what the next promotion is going to be for draft Kings. But if you're a new customer, get down right now because this promotion can't be beat. They don't, you don't even need to win. You just make any $5 bet during the NBA finals on either team. And you will get $150 in free bets, not to mention. You can go get down on the same game parlays where you can add as many legs as you want to a same game parlay. And the more legs you add, the more money you win.

You make one bet on all those legs. The catches, you have to hit on all. those legs. But if you do, the payout can be significant. And make sure to check out all the different options that you have to bet on over the Draft King Sportsbook because they have a wide array, a variety and options. Like, we've been talking about all the options. All these sponsors, they all have a bunch of options for you. And Draft Kings is no different. So make sure to check out the Draft King's Sportsbook. See what offers they have opt in on those offers prior to making your bet. And you can get down on all sorts of things like what they had with the last finals game, where if either

team scores 10 points. You win up by 10 points. You win regardless of the outcome of the game. But download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now new customers use promo code PHNX, make any $5 bet during the NBA finals and get $150 in free bets instantly. That's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And we thank you guys again for joining us in the chat. Thank you, Jesse. I can't wait for you to get here. Again, our live last show, or last live show with Jesse in Seattle.

However you want to arrange those words. But Jesse's coming back to Phoenix. We thank you guys for being here. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX, but of course all roads lead to

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