PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs Offense LAYS AN EGG vs Angels, Merrill Kelly CRUSHED in Blowout Loss

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks were flat-out dominated by the Los Angeles Angels, getting blanked 7-0 in one of their ugliest losses of the season. Merrill Kelly was terrible in his start, surrendering 11 hits and six earned runs, while the D-backs offense offered little resistance with just four hits in the shutout defeat. We break down what went wrong on both sides of the ball, who deserves the blame, and whether Arizona can quickly turn the page. Plus, there was at least one bright spot at Chase Field, as Korean two-way sensation Jun-Sang Eom officially signed with the organization and immediately won us over as fans during his first appearance in the Valley. We also discuss prospect Manuel Pena's promotion to Triple-A Reno, what it says about his rapid development, and why he could factor into the D-backs' future plans at first base. 0:00 One of the worst losses of the season  3:00 Another awful offensive performance  23:55 Merrill Kelly gets LIT UP  30:55 Kelly & Gallen letting the D-backs down  41:20 The Blame Game  50:05 Korean phenom Jun-Sang Eom officially signs  1:06:20 Manuel Pena promoted to Triple-A Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-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.

The Arizona Diamondbacks got beat in every facet of the game tonight by the Los Angeles Angels, getting shut out by a score of 7 to nothing, and ruining Junsung Um night at the ballpark. We have more on all of this, including more on Um officially signing with the Diamondbacks. Don't you go anywhere? We're starting right now. No skis tonight. None at all to be found. The Arizona Diamondbacks got shut out and this one sucked. But we are the PHNX Diamondbacks and we are live. from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K.

It's not their fault. The Diamondbacks lost. They have nothing to do with this. The Diamondbacks, everybody else, though, is probably culpable. Offensively, defensively, on the pitching mound, everybody's to blame. But welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I'm not alone tonight.

I got someone else who might be angrier than I am at what we saw. And also more importantly, angrier than I am that the Diamondbacks ruined Junsung um night at the ballpark. Our sweet, sweet prince. The only hope. The only hope. The only hope. The last hope. Yeah, the last hope.

It's your dog, my dog, and not the DBAX dogs. It's Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell on the ones and twos tonight. And this is the PHNX DBAX show presented proudly by Bet365, Bet365, where winning is everything. And that is something we don't know very much about after tonight's loss. download the app right now and use that code of PHNX 365 to have more fun on baseball games than the Diamondbacks are providing us. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply.

We got Emily in the chat saying, Derek, do you do you sad tacos to cheer you up? Yes. Yes. That does sound pretty good. I don't need sad tacos. I have plenty of sadness in my life right now. I need happy tacos. Can we get some happy tacos?

sent over. Those come with extra guacamole. And those scores, that's what we need right now, because we just watched the snakes get obliterated by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim by a score of seven to nothing. And I say that purposefully, not in a derogatory manner, but because the Diamondbacks delightfully tonight put up a scenes of Disneyland in the background of each player, Damon. And this is just one night removed from you and I talking about essentially that this Angels team should not actually be called that they should not be from Los Angeles. They should be from Anaheim. They should be the Disneyland Angels.

They should be anything else. They're just Mickey Mouse Baseball Club and Mickey Mouse Baseball Club beat the absolute dog shit out of us tonight. Derek. And I'm cussing in the third minute of the show because I'm P-Oed, man. 7-0 to the Angels, bro. Yeah. At work, bro? At work, bro?

No, that's unacceptable. What a horrific performance tonight. Like skunks, bro? And the Diamondbacks got skunk tonight. They dropped to 37 and 36. And again, the story of this game is that the Diamondbacks simply got beat by the angels. In every facet of the game, it was a truly terrible performance by the snakes. And again, ruining June Sungam night at the ballpark.

Hate that. But as far as the offense is concerned, ha! What offense? What is this offense you speak of? I'm offended by this talk of offense. Diamondbacks were held to just four hits tonight and one walk. And none of them were particularly dangerous. In fact, the Diamondbacks only had one single inning where they had multiple hits in the same inning.

Damon, only one single inning in the pathetic sixth inning. I could sit here and go over every single hit with you in this game. Yeah, well. And we'd probably still have, what, 10 minutes to spare in segment one, David? Feel free to just dissect every single hit. Let's dive into it. Ildemarovar Vargis reached in the third inning on a throwing error. That's not a hit.

Adrian Del Castillo, he got a lead-off single in the fourth inning, but of course was immediately put out by a Lou James Groover double play ball that ended that small threat, if you want to call it that. And then the sixth inning, like I said, the only inning where the Diamondbacks got multiple hits. And those hits occurred with two outs in the inning. Cotell Marte singled and then Geraldo Pardomo singled to put runners on the corners. And then Corby and Carroll struck out to end the inning. Pavin Smith got a pinch hit at bat.

The Diamondbacks still undefeated in any game in which Pave and Smith hits a home run, by the way. He walked there in the eighth inning but did not receive any kind of. a month. Got to pay that rent, Damon. Got to pay that rent. Rent is due. And, of course, in the ninth inning, the Diamondbacks got a single from Corbyn Carroll with one out,

but then Lordus struck out and Nolan Aronado grounded out to end the game. I have seen some pretty abysmal performances out of this, you know, Diamondbacks team this year. This one against Detmer's, who, you know, arguably is a very good, pitcher, he has a 3.680

this year. He has a lot of strikeouts, a hundred of them this season so far. So this man is a strikeout artist, and he didn't even need to do that tonight against the Diamondbacks. Because he had a great game plan, and that game plan worked. He gave up three hits, no earn

runs, no walks, and only three strikeouts. This was, again, I can't even cover how little the Diamondbacks had cooking in this game. This comes one day after we saw their offense at least give them four runs

and at least look a little better, right? But again, another situation where this team cannot get their offense on track and get on any kind of role, get their footing at all. The home run situation is already as bad as it could be possibly right now for this team. But again, you know, this is a nice,

where Merrill Kelly was not very good as a starter. So obviously this was going to take a pretty decent offensive output for the Diamondbacks to overcome the bad start from Kelly. They didn't even come close to mustering up enough to overcome a one-run lead or two-run lead, right? I really don't know what to say about this performance tonight, Damon. I mean, I usually have plenty of things to say all the time. We've been hammering home complimentary baseball, Derek. This was the opposite of that tonight.

Every single facet of your team would have lost you the game. You know what I mean? I mean, it's pretty tough to feel good about where this team is at right now, especially like these stats that Mighty Schumann is putting up here in the chat, where the debacks rank 27th in X Wobah and 26th in expected ERA. Yeah. I mean, this is flat out at the moment, as currently constituted. The record that they have being a,

one game over 500 team, right? I mean, that is remarkable because really they're on paper. They're a bad team. Right. And offensively, they're extremely bad, right? That's kind of been the one shocking thing about this team. I guess the other shocking thing is that the bullpen has actually been good, right? Yeah.

With the pieces that they have, not with this, you know, not with being saved by A.J. Puck and Justin Martinez, just simply with the players. have tonight i'm not going to put it on the on the bullpen i don't think the bullpen deserves any blame but you could also say again the bullpen wasn't perfect either so no no no area of this team was perfect tonight uh they did not have an error so i guess there's the one hell yeah hell yeah brother uh are we back to be something no we are so not back damon oh we couldn't be less back my bad right now um let's talk team OPS, shall we? Or do you want to?

I don't know if I do. The Diamondbacks right now are tied for the 26th best OPS in baseball at 686 with the Philadelphia Phillies. And the teams down here with bad OPSs collectively are shocking. Not shocking as far as record, I guess, but shocking as far as who is down here. Yeah, I mean, like that team has Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Right. You have the Diamondbacks tied with the Phillies. You got the Guardians down here below us with a 685 and they have a very successful record.

New York Mets, terrible team this year, 665 team OPS and dead last in Major League Baseball right now with the worst team OPS. Do you want to take a guess who it is? The Mets. No, I just said the Mets. There's a team worse than the Mets. The Blue Jays? You're going to be shocked, huh? The Blue Jays?

No. The Sets. San Diego Padres. Wow. Currently have the worst OPS in all of baseball at 647. And you know what's so shocking about that when it comes to the Diamondbacks? I believe these two teams were tied at one point like two seasons ago at the end of the year for the best team batting average, I want to say.

Well, I actually. Team offensive category. I pulled this up, Derek, for this conversation. Can you guess where the Diamondbacks team OPS ranked last season? Like, are you talking about it disappointed the season or at the end of the year? At the end of the year. Top 10? Fifth.

Fifth. I was going to say sixth. And I thought that was too high. Yankees, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Phillies, D-backs. And that's wild because that was maintained by what is essentially this exact same team. Don't get me wrong. They lost Josh Naler. They lost Gino-S-Warez.

I'm sure their OPS took a huge hit. Can you guess 20-24, Derek? You can lay it on me Second Second The Dodgers were number one The D-backs were number two The Yankees are number three

And that was the World Series that year The Yankees Dodgers was the World Series No no I know Oh yeah yeah You're talking about us The other two offenses that we're asking Sandwich right but we didn't even make playoffs Just curious

We finally get the bullpen right And everything else goes to shit You said where are the Padres at? Yeah where were the Padres that particular season The Padres in 2024 four were very good. They were sixth after the Phillies, Orioles, Yankees, D-backs, and Dodgers.

In 2025, the Padres ranked, that did, da, da, da, da, da, below league average, below the raise, Astros. But they were essentially league average. This, this right here is just amazing. We went second to fifth to 26th, Derek. So, and then we got Emily once again.

Lovely Emily. in our chat says go get Luis Arise. I don't love that. No, I mean, come on, dude. Beggers can't be choosers. Beggers can't be choosers. And I will also say when it comes to Luis Arise, right? I believe the declaration was made today that the giants have like put all of their

players on the trademark. Dude, I take Devers if they're going to take some of that money. Yeah. Like, are you, I'm at that point. I was calling him a loser two weeks ago saying keep that guy away from my team. And now I'm sitting here and I'm going, and he probably gets added to this roster and becomes the best hitter on the team.

Right? Yeah, he's smoking the ball right now too. I mean, I'm just saying. And it's wild because the Giants have the 12th best team OPS. Offense is not a problem for that team. But their entire situation is so bad right now, we're not even close. We're not even sniffing the trade deadline.

And they're already suggesting that they are making players available for trade. So we could be in that spot. I mean, record-wise, the Diamondbacks are in a surprise. place, as Damon said. We, with how much, with how bad this team has been, with the stats that Mighty Schumann brings in that are expected stats, of course, not actual stats, but still underlying stats that tell you what this, you know, pitching staff actually is and what this

offense actually is versus those fleeting moments of wonderful performances that we get. And Erod being shockingly good despite every expected stat wanting to tell you how awful he actually is, this team sitting one game above 500 has truly still been a surprise, right? Like, this is just one game. This is one you flush, as Tori would say. This is one you forget. This is one you go to sleep. That's the spirit, Darry.

That's what everyone wants to hear right now. I know. I know. Toriisms. Look, we didn't get the post-game Tori video because I refused to stick around to hear anything about this particular game, but I'll hit you with all the Toriisms. But honestly, yeah. Like, baseball is one of those sports that after a game like this,

it just feels like we truly are the worst team to ever take the field, right? And then they can come out tomorrow and do the exact same thing to the Angels and we'll be so back. We'll be more back than ever because we'll have won the series and we'll take it two out of three and we'll look and you'll go, well, they won four out of their last six and it doesn't look so bad suddenly anymore. Baseball is so weird when it comes to that. I think it's a relentless sport, not just on the players, but on us as fans and our psyches, right?

No doubt. It's just one day after the next, after the next. Right when you think your team is good, they're proving you're wrong. And right when you think they're awful, they're proving you wrong again. Overall, there's a lot of bad things about this team, but you still feel like, you know, again, with certain pieces coming back, maybe, and guys. playing a bit better. Jordan Lawler still seems like he's a big upgrade out there in center field. And again, the Diamondbacks are still

trying to figure out how they're going to fill this DH role and what they're going to do for first base. There's still a lot of confusion, really, when it comes to this team right now. But I do think that, you know, hopefully, hopefully they can find a way to put together, more importantly, a competent lineup here that is able to produce

at a consistent, you know, clip, you know, just an offense that goes out there and gives you more than what this team has been giving you. They've been shut out and blown out so many times this year. It's insane how many times they've been blown out this season. It really is. And I mean, again, the shutouts too, right? The shutouts are just as bad. But the blown out, they are now seven and 11 in blowout losses.

And again, they've been, let's see, do they have the shutout numbers here? I'm sure they do somewhere. Yeah, just a lot of time shut out by opponents now, seven to shutting out opponents three times. Not great. Not great. And I think that's it. When the Diamondbacks lose lately this season, it's just been bad. The losses have been bad.

They lose by a ton of runs. It's embarrassing. And it truly makes you feel like it's over for this team. You know, I think they're run differential right now. minus 26 and yeah that's not great you know

and it feels like that number is always kind of growing we'll we'll cut into that deficit a little bit we'll get things back to a more reasonable you know figure and then they'll suffer another blowout loss but Sean in the chat

said don't worry Pavin just saved his job well I mean that remains to be seen but overall here talking about yesterday's win. Pavin did deliver for this team kind of made us, as I said on the D-Bax recap I did earlier today.

Made us eat a little bit of crow. No way, dude. I mean, yeah, just... I just think it's funny at this point, Derek. And then again, two pods in a row, I'm going to make my first appearance when we're talking Pavin Smith. And yeah, I'm going to continue to make that my thing.

Oh, yeah. Derek, I... People are so right in the chat. he's just a broken clock yeah he gets enough opportunity yeah he's going to put one over the fence eventually i mean yesterday that was a big home run there's no question about it and i was cheering it on and i was loving and i was at trevers eatin zah throwing back a couple brusies free ads when it's trevers yeah all the free ads i'm throwing back some bruskeys oh that pizza is amazing watching this he's on vacation yeah max the max doesn't watch us

at all. It's fine. Never once. Yeah. So, I mean, it's just, yeah, I, listen, I, I, I was happy when Pavin does that, but it just, it's, it's, it's not consistent. He's, he's never been consistent. He never will be consistent. It's time to stop. I know he wasn't hitting, like, high in the order the last couple nights, but, like, he can't be in the middle of your lineup. He can't be plugging up a first base or D.H spot when you need offensive production out of those particular areas. And, you know, this is harsh on him, too, but, like, Groover's not the level that he needs to be at right now very clearly,

from a major league hitting standpoint. He doesn't have the power chops necessarily right now, maybe ever. I mean, things are dark right now when it comes to power hitters in this organization. And it begs the question of like, how do you approach the trade deadline? Do you sell off your whole team like you did last year and risk Mike Hazen not really doing all that well on returns? Or do you actually go out and get a perceivable upgrade

from a power hitter middle order of the bat, middle of the lineup standpoint, because that guy is going to unlock so much for this team, because we just don't have anyone even remotely close in the minors to coming up. Like, when are you going to fill that hole and fill that void? And I think, you know, maybe in the middle of the season is not the time to do that. Maybe that's an off-season move, Derek. But we got to do something between this trade deadline and the winter meetings to bring in an actual power.

threat to this lineup because no one fears us outside of Corbyn Carroll and Cotell Marte right now. Jerry is a situational hitter. He gets on base, but he's not a guy that anyone fears. And the rest of the team kind of absolutely stinks. So I think Lawler will be impressive. I still believe in Walt Schmidt long term, but right now it's dark days with, you know, half of this team. And that's way, that's way too many players to count.

Well, we could talk about the offense all night long, but let's, Let's be honest, the whole brought on by the pitching staff by Merrill Kelly's start tonight was significant enough that you'd have to have a great offensive night. Just not a normal night. They could have scored four runs like they did last night. They still would have lost this game with the way that Merrill pitched. And we're going to talk about Kelly's night on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere.

You are watching the P.HNX Diamondback Show. Well, Don Julio is here to help us celebrate the World Cup, which is going on right now, and I found out the hard way that I cannot post videos about that. Derek, our teams are doing. Our teams are doing terribly. Yeah. And you know what? Senegal put in a respectable performance.

They did against France, but it's France. And I mean, they made a game out of it, but they definitely got beat up late. And Turkey does suck. Our teams in general suck. And Damon and I are not having a good time, mostly because we are, we have pretty much written off the idea of ever being able to have this wonderful trophy from Don Julio 1942 on our set for every show, which is what the winner of this World Cup pool draw receives. And that is a travesty. Because if there's ever a show that deserved it, it's this podcast. It's this podcast right here because we are as iconic as Don Julio 1942.

And when the biggest sporting event in the world comes to your backyard, you celebrate, you raise an icon of celebration, Don Julio 1942 here during the 2026 World Cup. They got those three bottles, but this one is by far the most important. This is the trophy for legends on and off the field. And they have trophies big and small that everyone can take home, take home a special edition of Don Julio 1942 that honors the artistry of tequila making a symbol as timeless as a beautiful game itself and inspired by the World Cup trophy. So make sure to join us for our U.S. men's national team in Mexico watch parties. We will be having those all throughout the World Cup. And we'll have samples and prizes for those.

in attendance. But more importantly, whether you're at your favorite spot or stocking up for home, make it a Don Julio, 1942, and bring home one of these beautiful bottles in celebration of the FIFA World Cup. I wish, man. We might just have to go buy one day, man. Genuinely. That's fine.

Germany could win for me and Kevin. So if Germany wins, Derek, I will share some of them with you because we're in this together. We are. Me and Kevin, we're a team. And guess what? We got absolutely job by. by Emma spots, by Leah Merrill, and by all the powers that be.

We just had the leftover teams. Literally. Enjoy them. At least we have the swagiest team in D.R. Congo. Yeah, their suits are amazing, right? But I'm sure they're plenty hot in those suits. And I know they would be very hot if they were here. I was talking to the rising guys on the field tonight.

They were talking about the heat. The heat is always a subject of conversation here in the valley. And that is because, as you know, it gets very, very hot here. APS, though, they want to help you save some money on your energy bill. And customers can do just that as we move towards these hot, hot temperatures in June, July and August. APS has several ways to help us save on our energy bill. APS customers can check the monthly plan comparison section on their energy bill every month to see which rate plan could have saved them the most for that month

or to verify if the plan that you're on is the best plan for your situation. Rate plans can help you save money. Great plan options can help you save money. And they're all right there in blue type on your latest. energy bill from APS, plus they also have budget billing. And budget billing can average out your bill throughout the year so that you don't experience those high spikes during the summer months, and you know exactly what you're going to pay month to month allowing you to budget the rest of your money accordingly and plan

for other financial goals you're trying to meet. So find all your options to manage your bill at APS.com slash let's talk. And Damon, boy, did Merrill Kelly look good in the first inning of tonight's game, and that would be the last time he would look good in this game. And again, we can sit here. This is another one of those nights. Don't worry. We'll play the blame game before we get out of here. We're going to blame everybody. But this is a night where as much- Don't spoil it. I know. I should. You know me. I can't wait to get to it. I get so excited. But you, no one knew that we were going to blame everybody tonight there. Well, we might not still. We have to debate that. We have to

get into that, right? Like, that's something. But the pitching is not going to, spoiler alert. Pitching is going to be part of the blame because Merrill Kelly was awful tonight. And I don't know how else to phrase it, considering that, like I said, he looks so good in the first inning. He comes out to get Zach Nito, who I can't stand any longer and don't want to hear his name ever again, to line out to Nolan Arnato, and then he gets strikeouts of Mike Trout and Nolan Schnaw to Shaum. I don't know how to say his name, but to get out of the inning.

And overall, like I said, he looked very strong after one. But things unraveled really quickly in the second inning. He gave up a lead-off double to Joe Adele. And then Wade Meckler, who looks exactly like his name sounds. Got an RBI single with one out on a line drive to center field. That gave the Angels their first run. And again, at that point, Merrill was able to limit the damage. He got Guzman to fly out.

He got O'Hop to strikeout swinging. But then the second inning, or excuse me, the third inning. He gives up a solo home run with one out to Zach Nato on a fly ball to left field. And then, again, gets out of the inning. He did give up a single in the inning. But things just progressively got worse. And then the fourth inning is where things kind of truly seem like they started to fall apart. Guzman singled with one out. Ohop doubled. And then Donovan Walton single to give the Angels their third run. and again he also ended up getting throw what's his name

hop got out thrown out at home by an amazing throw by Corby and Carroll who probably that was probably the best thing that the Diamondbacks did in this game Oh Hoppy? Oh Hoppy is it Oh Hoppy That seems like a really stupid way to say that But I don't care if I'm messing up it I'll never care that I'm messing up an opposing player's name

I just want you to know that Corby and Carol though no longer a noodle arm. He definitely got himself a good, got a good throw on that ball and gotten out at home base. Literally the only thing I think tonight that we can hang our hat on and be like, that was cool when Corbyn threw a dude out at home. That was a great throw. Yeah. By a guy who has struggled at times with his arm.

And it's good to see him using it and it being live, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's all we got. Yeah. Because it was just more bad for Merrill Kelly in the next inning. You got Netto, Zach Netto, the tripling. You got Mike Trout hitting a home run, two-run home run. That made it Angels 5 to nothing. And then just more, more of the same for Merrill. It was just every inning. He just had trouble locating his pitches. is there just wasn't much that he could do, as you can see here, specifically the change-up.

And the change-up has been just such a necessary pitch for Merrill as of late. And in, I don't know, Damon, what would you say? Did you say he maybe hit the zone with it five times? That feels like it's being even... Which pitch? The change-up. Yeah, one, two, three, four times, it looks like. Man.

The rest are not even really particularly close. I'd say that these other two right here in the bottom, right are pitches that are good pitches still, like competitive pitches that dropped out of the zones. That's probably six of those changeups that you would say were solid pitches. And all of the rest of the like 15 or so look like absolute crap. Yeah, he threw 22 of them. Yeah.

You know, it was tied for the most. He threw 22 fast balls and he threw 22 changeups. Yeah. Through the sinker 15 times, the cutter 12 times, the curve ball 10, the slider seven. He got six whiffs on the changeups. change up and that's probably that's probably the six pitches you just said that's probably the only pitches that he got whiffs on there and then he ended up getting one whiff on his sinker but that's it uh you got nine whips on the night oh he got two more on his curb ball which

actually did not look bad but you can tell like when merrill's throwing the entire kitchen sink like he was tonight i mean six pitches he threw and you know even even the slider that he threw the least he still threw it seven times and a couple of those curve balls in sliders right there are just in the dead middle of the zone, man. I mean, look at those two blue dots in the middle and then those three yellow dots that are kind of all around them. Like, those are horrible pitches. Yeah, I mean, and again, his fastball maxed out at 94.4 miles per hour tonight.

That's pretty fast for him. It averaged 92.7, which is up from his yearly average. It wasn't the problem of velocity. It was a problem of locating. Yeah. He just couldn't locate his stuff tonight, specifically the change of, which it felt like he had a good feel for it or I mean he he trusted it

but it still just wasn't he just wasn't able to land it in the zone. Jason our guy Jason says since the season is toast do we all pledge to follow Derek and Damon to whatever food podcast they host. Do I tell him about Derek and Tim

eat snacks because there's like 120 episodes of that. It's unaffiliated That is a thing that exists out there on the I am a certified snackologist the bowels of the internet. Yeah, this is the truth. I will also say that, you know, we do this rain or sunshine, brother. Oh, yeah, we're not going anywhere.

Jesse and Derek were holding it down in a 100 lost season when they first started this podcast. And a lockout. And a lockout. You can't stop us. You can't stop me. We're inevitable. Yeah, we are inevitable. We will never stop.

And guess what? When the lockout happens this next off season, we'll be right here. We'll be right here talking about God knows what. That's when we're starting to review baseball movies and do the food podcast. That's when that starts. Sanlott 2. Oh my God.

Did you hear there's a new TV series about them being fathers? Dude, we might have to watch that. Dugout Dads? We might have to watch that in the lockout. Yeah. It sounds awful. It sounds awful. It does sound awful.

I got to respect Ham because that guy won't let San Lot go. That guy persistent, persistent actor. Merrill Kelly, though, maybe as big of a disaster tonight as dugout dads is going to be when that launches. Let's talk about. what AZ Cardsner puts in here, and it's the truth. Like, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, the story of the debacks right now, Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallo.

Yeah. The offense sucks. We all know the offense sucks. But I think that we're, we're sitting here going, this offense needs an injection of, of life from the front office. Like, they, this, they need a guy who's going to come in and step in and be a top three hitter on this team probably the second that he, he, he shows up to fix what we got going on. Yeah.

The pitching staff, we're paying Merrill and Zach, like, 40 million something odd dollars this year to go out there and be absolutely horrible. Yeah. Like, and it's, it's to the point where, and I know we were talking about it a little bit when we did the probable pitcher's graphic, there are times where Merrill, like, goes out and has a good game still. He is so inconsistent. Lots of them.

He's so inconsistent where he's either, he's, the reason, the reason he's five and six on the season despite missing a good month and a half was because, or month or whatever it was, is because he's going out there and winning you games sometimes, but he's also losing you a lot of games as well. Tonight, he lost the Diamondbacks this game. And again, the offense, we could talk about that all night long. I mean, they beat nobody. 11 hits allowed by Merrill tonight.

I mean, and you're not wrong. We have done this. We just did this when we did the pitching, probably pitchers graphic. But you look at Merrill, you look at Merrill's record, very first outing of the year against Baltimore, two earn runs, Diamondbacks win. Next two games,

loss to White Sox, eight earned runs, lost to Milwaukee, five earn runs. Next game, lost to Cubs, six earn runs. Win over the Mets,

one earn run. Win over the Rockies, one earned run. Win over the Giants, three earned run. Went over the Giants, two earned runs. Went over,

or lost to Seattle in extra innings, two earn runs. That's probably the only one that that was more on the offense than Merrill, right? He gave him two earn runs.

They let that game go to extras and they lost. But seven earned runs in the loss to the nationals and then two earn runs in the loss, again, to Miami. So again, a few games here recently that haven't gone his way when he's pitched that well. But outside of that, you're absolutely right. Merrill's either giving up five or more and they're winning or he's giving up three or less and, or excuse me,

five or more and they're losing and three or less. You get it. And Zach Allen conversely is, just bad, straight up bad. He's bad. And he somehow gets a no decision against the Reds in his last start. And I think that that's like... Yeah, when he's actually not bad.

Brother, that's the... Like, I was thinking about it when I was watching that game, Derek. That's the best we can expect out of Zach Gowan at this point. How sad is that? Yeah, I mean... Like, he's going... He wasn't even good. He just was okay. And you're like, oh, nice. Gallin wasn't horrible today.

Like, and it sucks that it's the two guys that got us to the World Series. probably the two biggest reasons we made the World Series were the top two pitchers in our rotation and Brandon fought stepping up and here we are. They're the two guys that are probably most debilitating the team right now. It's kind of wild because Gallin in the month of April was actually pretty good. He gave up a combined six earned runs and five starts in April. The problem has been though is that he has so many of these starts where it's not a quality start

even when he's giving up three earned runs or less because his pitch count is ballooning too early and he's not able to give the Diamondback six or more. I also think he gives, there's a lot of times where Tori pulls him right when he's about to like collapse. Yeah. And the bullpen. Two thirds,

five in a third, five in a third. Yeah, and the bullpen comes in and they do their job a lot of the time and save him from his ERA, even ballooning even further because this bullpen, frankly, has been the best part of this entire team this year.

Yeah. And it's really not even that close. Well, again, even tonight, right? Like, they weren't perfect. Jameson did give up an earned run, but he also still puts fire in my blood, so we forgive him for that. And we've also said that you can't expect this bullpen to constantly be perfect. Giving up one earn run over three and two-thirds innings is not the end of the world for a bullpen. You should be able to win.

It would have been, you know, it would have been managed differently if the Diamondbacks had any kind of were close at all in this game. I mean, they put Jameson in for two innings. He gave up two hits. one earn, run, still struck out three, still fired us all up, still injected that into our blood. Garcia, one inning pitch, two strikeouts, and then Thompson, two thirds of an inning pitched, one hit, one strikeout. But again, Merrill Kelly was the true problem for this team tonight and made it truly difficult, even if the offense had put together some hits and played some complimentary baseball to catch up. Kelly tonight gave him five and a third innings, which that's probably the best part of his line and the one walk.

but he gave up 11 hits, six earned runs, and he did strikeout four, which means that we still fire up the Circle K strikeout meter, who I once again want to remind everybody is not to blame for the shortcomings of this pitching staff. In fact, before the strikeout meter returned, we were already struggling with filling this thing up. But four big strikeouts tonight. We'll throw them up there on the board, plug that bad boy in. And again, the Diamondbacks just continue to be inconsistent.

to have inconsistent starting pitching, to have inconsistent offense. And tonight, both of these things fell in the same game, and it leads to a blowout loss to the Angels. I guess just show up tomorrow and win the damn game, Derek, and win the rubber match. That's all it comes down to, right? That's what it comes down to. Erase all of it. No one cares if you lose 7-0 if you win tomorrow, right?

We'll cover it at a later time when we talk about the bad losses throughout the year, maybe games they shouldn't have lost. But like I said, even when you look back at that, you know, losing two out of three to the White Sox, right that doesn't look nearly as bad as you know when you see them also take two out of three against the dodgers right but that's probably just me once again doing the loser talk thing i don't know but what we are going to do is we're going to talk about the numbers from this game briefly and then we're going to decide on who truly is to blame and then once we flush all of this game stuff

we are going to talk about Jun Sang-um making his first appearance at Chase Field and already winning us over as fans, as well as Mani Pena being promoted to AAA Arena. We're going to do all of that before we get out of here. Don't you guys go anywhere. You are watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, if you are ever involved in an accident or serious injury, the lawyer you hire does matter, and that is why you should contact the husband and wife law team first.

Mark and Alexis Breyer are the husband and wife law team, and their team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience to your door if you ever need their services. And they also have multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death. And we've covered that because in the state of Arizona, less than 1% of all lawyers are certified as specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation, making their firm experts in the field. And they also go to trial for their clients. They know what needs to be done to prevail in a courtroom in front of a jury and will do so for you. They can't guarantee the outcome of any case, but they can make promises to you as their client, including that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason.

You will receive as much in your pocket as they receive for their fee, even if they have to reduce their attorney fees to do so. And you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss, including the performance of Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly. So if you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602-783-8-841, or visit their website at the link in our show. show notes and tell them PH&X sent you.

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apply in app only. Well, Damon, I protest this segment. I don't want to look at the numbers from tonight's game, but I feel like we should because we are a postgame show, allegedly. I don't know. That's still up for debate, but this is gross, right? I mean, 7-0 pieced and extra base hits feels pretty bad. Another 0 for night in runners in scoring position. The hard hit percentage was better than I thought it was going to be.

Well, and you only get four hits. 171 XBA is pretty laughable. Oh, God. And it's, that's pathetic when you consider like, X, like, you could hit the ball to shortstop and you'll get an XBA of like 150. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Like, that doesn't, that 171 means that you essentially did nothing.

And then the ABS challenges, I mean, at least we, we won that. Right. I mean, same percentage, but. Yay. We got one more. Yeah. Woo. Well, Damon, you know what time it is.

These numbers are gross. Get them out of my face. Get them off my screen. It is time for me to become a traffic overlord on a billboard. And it is time for us to play the blame game. That is right. It is our new, fun way of letting you guys vent and letting Damon and I argue about who truly is to blame for tonight's game.

And I don't think that there's going to be much arguing about this. We could probably just go ahead and click all of those buttons right now, Damon. But let's do this one at a time. Pitching? Absolutely. I mean, we could sit here and truly have a debate over who's more to blame. The starting pitching tonight or the offense. But that seems like a silly debate to have.

I mean, they're both. The pitching could have given up one run and we still would have lost. And the hitting could have given us six earned. six runs and eight hits, nine hits, and we still wouldn't have done enough to win the game. Am I right? I mean, we couldn't have had any pitching performance tonight and won the game with zero runs on the board. Right.

Right, right. It's a pretty difficult discussion. It's literally like, I mean, I was going to say a popular meme, but that would be inappropriate. I just, I will just say that it's the two worst ends of things that you could possibly imagine, neither is a good answer. Both were horrific tonight. Light it up. That's very true. Light all of those up. Defense, no errors. Corvin Carroll made a big throw from the outfield.

I mean, I just saw. Ornado made a nice stop. Right, right. I don't remember seeing a lot of poor plays from this team, right? You could say the Angels defensively were a mess in game one, and those defensive mistakes that the Angels made definitely led to the Diamondbacks winning that game. There's no doubt about that for me at least. But tonight, the defense played no part in this loss as far as I'm concerned. And just as much as the defense played no part, I think we can all agree on one thing and one thing only.

This one wasn't on Tori Lovolo. Right? Am I right, everybody? Am I right? I don't know if you are. I don't know if you are anymore. I don't know if I am. I just don't want to ruin Sunday night dinner over at the Lovolo household that we've been.

been accused of having for so many years. Of course, it's Tori's fault. I mean, how do you not blame the manager for a seven to nothing loss? Where the entire team is the reason you lose and people just didn't look ready to play. Yeah. And I mean, you took Pavin Smith

out of the lineup after he has his first good game, after he hits a home run, after he goes two for four. No offense to Payvon Smith one way or another and no offense to the Pave and Smith detractors out there. But he did walk in his first. There's only...

We like to call ourselves the Pavey Smith truthers, I believe. Yeah, that's what I've heard you guys call yourselves. You guys have weird little meetings at a Starbucks in East Valley. But I will say... Don't docks us. I will say that when it comes to, you know, again, just... I know that's matchups. You know, I know so many of you are probably as tired of this as we are about the righty, lefty matchups and this and that.

I mean, sometimes you just got to kind of go with the hot hand. a little bit. And I am not calling Paven Smith the hot hand, but I am saying, like, you finally had a guy who has truly been struggling, wake up and your answer is to sit him the very next night? I don't know. I mean, I don't

live in the universe in which Paven Smith played tonight, so I have no way of knowing if Payven Smith went 4 for 4 or 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts. But I do have you know, that same feeling that many fans do, which is it's frustrating to see this man at times

as a manager of this team, have a guy, have a great night, and then sit them the very next night. Pave and Smith being in the lineup was not going to be enough for this team to win. So that decision is not the reason why they lost. However, as Damon said, Tori could definitely be blamed for not having this team ready to go and ready to give a better performance tonight than what we saw because this was pathetic.

Pathetic against an Angels team that, as I tried to caution us, you know, during the preview yesterday, is better than they deserve to be, right? A lot of their numbers statistically suggests that that team is better than having a 30 and 44 record. But the thing that they were worst at was defense, and we saw that fully on display in yesterday's loss. Diamondbacks beat them because of some big defensive mistakes, including, you know, having two players collide into each other in the first inning, allowing Perdomo on a walk to reach third base and eventually score the Diamondbacks first run, right? So, but again, as far as the Diamondbacks are concerned tonight, definitely did not feel like Tori had this team ready to go and, you know, motivated here to play against this Angels team.

But hats off to Detmer's. He came in as a strikeout pitcher, like I said, and he seemed to have a great game plan tonight against the Diamondbacks, which was to kind of do the opposite of what he normally does instead of giving this team, even though he did hit some of his highest, like, I think he hit his highest velo of the year tonight. he also wasn't exactly doing it with his strikeouts as much as just being a good pitcher and getting outs. But that's all we got for the blame game. I would love to hear from you guys as always if you agree, if you disagree. We love debating that. But this game is done and we are done with it. So we're going to take a quick break.

On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about much more exciting things, including our sweet baby prince. Our sweet baby prince, um, no, it's um. and also Manuel Pena, who was another sweet baby prince of ours. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the P.HNX Diamondback Show. Well, game time is here to ensure that we get to go watch fun baseball games like this one. Maybe not this one, but maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be the one where we take it and take the series.

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Feels bad on a loss like tonight, but we love our friends at game time. But hey, let's go watch them win tomorrow is the point. And our guy, TopG, I know he said he filled up at Circle K today, as many people do. And that's because, and I'm guessing TopG is an inner circle member as well, because he probably saved himself on gas, probably saved more by buying some Coca-Cola products, saved on all sorts of stuff at CircleK, by being an Inner Circle Rewards member. And it's very easy to get enrolled. Just got to download the app and then you use your phone number to score Circle K deals like 79 cent polar pops and 99-cent frosters.

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Visit CircleK.com for details. And Damon, let's, I mean, this whole episode of this podcast was just to get around to actually talking about Jun Sung-um, who made his signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks official today. That is for the current 2026 international signing period. And this man is a highly coveted prospect coming out of Korea. I know we've talked a little bit about him, but just to kind of dig in to why he's so special. He was recognized as a top three, big three high school process.

for the 2026 KBO League Rookie Draft coming up in Korea. He was named the most valuable player of the 26 Emart flag high school baseball tournament, and he won the 26 weekend league batting title, which is Korea's biggest high school baseball league featuring 102 teams nationwide. It's almost as big as that fake soccer league that the guys from the Phoenix Rising podcast are trying to put together. but he was a two-way phenom, and again, he was named the best pitcher of the 2025 Blue Dragon High School Baseball Tournament, as well as the starting shortstop for the 2025 WBSC Korea National Team as a 17-year-old.

The man has a stud. He's a two-way player, and he was out there at Chase Field today, taking batting practice, and taking fielding drills, taking... taking grounders with Perdomo. He bowed down to Perdomo when they were, did you see that? I was present. I took the video. Perdomo wanted to dapp him up and he tried to bow down to him.

And then didn't Perdomo kind of bow down back a little bit? But he also kind of pulled them in a little bit and gave him was like, no, brother. We're dabbing up here. This is different. You don't need to bow down to me, man. Yeah. I'm your buddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I will say this, man. I mean, this is exciting because this particular talent is a guy that, it's truly a game changer. I mean, he's just 18 years old, and you should have seen, we have video on our Twitter account, but his fielding is so smooth. I mean, it's incredible how clean defensively.

How clean defensively he looks, right? Plus, it looked really good to see him out there with Pardomo, paling around, having that good chemistry. I mean, my two favorite players in the organization, and he hasn't even suited up for a single game. I'll tell you, though, I mean, it's, uh... Derek, he's already the best number six in franchise history.

That's what I've heard. Can you think about that for a second? I really can't wrap my mind around. His legacy already trumps anything David Peralta did in a diamond back scene before. I don't remember a number, another number six. He's the only number six. When he lit his legacy on fire live in front of our fan base in a 9-0 baseball game in the NLDS. Well, and wrote to a sweep.

We got some video here from, uh, the, pregame press conferences that we got to hear about. First, here's Tori talking about why he's such a special talent and also confirming... Not Tori. Let's not do Tori first. You want to do Tori first? No. Okay. I do not want to do Tori first.

Because that's just going to make us start arguing about stuff, right? Well, let's hear from the man himself on why he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. We'll start out with that. First, Arizona team in many and much attention and so and so

we're and we're and we're and we're more more early and I think

if I think the Damabes were really aggressive of pursuing him and also the

dream of playing in the major leagues. That's why he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He also went on to say that he was close to not signing with the Diamondbacks and that basically he like went back to playing baseball and like just kind of thought about it, thought about their offer, thought about some of the things that they said to him and kind of just changed his mind and made the decision to come over to this franchise. And I mean, he truly could be a game changing international talent.

That gentleman you see right there is D-Bak's Korean scout Kyle Lee, and Kyle actually had quite a bit to do with signing um. So we should be very thankful for that wonderful man, bringing us this very highly touted prospect. Wonderful is right there. What a sweetheart. I mean, again, doing the translation as well as, you know, being a big part of why, why Oom is here. Got to thank him for that, right? But again, this is one of those situations where he is a two-way player, but it sounds very much like he will not be here for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And it's not maybe as much of a bad thing as people might take it to me, as sad as you and I are that we are not getting our Korean Shohayotani necessarily. But what I will say is that it sounds like it's his choice very much. First, let's hear from Tori on why Ome is such an exciting prospect for this organization and also confirming that he will be developed as a shortstop. Here's what Tori had to say. Now I would like to hear from Tori, Derek. Thank you.

You know, it's a great moment for him, his family, this organization. He's a very talented player and very young. And the tools are there. And you can see everything, all the noticeable things. showed up and I understand why he was such a talented guy that was sought after. I'm just glad he landed on us and we signed him. So he's going to get into the system, get into this program, and find his way to the big leagues. But it looked like he's got a ton of tools and I'm basing it on everything from the

defensive aspect of it, defensive side of it. And I asked a lot of questions about his offense and what he was doing out there and everybody said it was great. Everything was lined up with what our overall core belief is hard in the middle, drive baseballs when possible. He's a two-way guy, right? Well, I know he's got a really good arm and he's been pitching. I think we're going to look at him as a shortstop, for the most part.

I haven't heard anything about pitching, so it looks like he'll come into the system and be looked at, viewed, and evaluated as a shortstop. And that's not Damon a Diamondback's organizational view as much as it is his Um's view. He feels like he is much better as a defender, much better as a shortstop than he is a pitcher. He did allude to velocity being a little bit of a reason why he might not, you know, want to pitch at a major league level. However, he didn't rule it out in the future. But here is Um, talking about why he would prefer to stay a shortstop. to focus on the other side of the other things

And so, too, two-grey-stop So, first, now, the short-stop to get more, more to get more and more to make more than he understands the difficulties

of being a two-way player, so for now he's going to focus on being a short-stop. That's more interesting to you. That's more interesting to you. Yes, uh, uh, sub-eer-doin-sovety Yes, he likes a

he likes to play defense. First, I love that shortstop is shortstop in every language. It truly is the international term of love around baseball. Everyone knows shortstop. Everyone knows shortstop. But also, Damon, I mean, yeah, I kind of love that he just wants to play defense. And again, better defender he feels like than a pitcher. I've heard he's really, really good defensively.

Like that was the first thing that kind of was everyone was talking about when he immediately was put on our radars as a potential signing. And, you know, I think it was debacked prospects on Twitter, which is a great account. Very informational. Tweeted a clip of him making like a diving double play in that, that, you know, whatever world tournament that he was playing in starting at shortstop for South Korea. I mean, yeah, he looks really, really good defensively. he looks smooth out there on the field taking the grounders, although it's not really a competitive setting. So you don't put as much stock into it.

But I do think that this, you know, he figures to be at least a guy who has a plus defensive tool at the major league level, which a lot of times can be a thing that gets you there, right? Like I think, you know, if you're, you know, they just want to, people want to see that maybe you can be a league average type hitter, but if you're a damn good defender, a team is, especially like the Diamondbacks that values defense as much as they do will really like this player. So I'm excited.

Obviously, it's a little bit more exciting if he's a two-way guy because I think that that's so unique and there's so few of those guys that you're like, that's awesome. But it also sounds like he's 17 years old, much like every kid who's 17, who's a major league caliber player, they pitch in high school. They can do it all. And they're really damn good at it too. Like I think about even a dude like Bobby Dalbeck who I don't know if Derek if you remember that name, but he was playing for the Red Sox like a couple years ago. I do remember that. You of a player was drafted in I think like the third round. He was our three hole hitter put up like 20 plus bombs that year and was our best pitcher on the team that lost and was the runners up in the national championship in the college world series.

And he was the best player on the team in I think it was what, 2016. And then he gets drafted. He doesn't sniff pitching at the professional level. They were like, yeah, we're drafting you as a third baseman. And then he couldn't really hit. And then he wasn't a very good player. But he was an insane pitcher and hitter at a really high level in college. And I just think that it just goes to show that there's a steep curve here when you're talking about what pitchers are and what, you know, if you're that caliber of pitcher, if you're that caliber of hitter, it feels like he's that caliber of position player.

but maybe the pitching is, we maybe got to jump the gun a little bit on the two-way stuff. Even at a collegiate level, right? The high A level is light-years above that, double-A light-years above that. And then you're talking about major leagues, like they're just not even in the same realm, right? That's the reason why you see the number of baseball prospects as a whole essentially whittled down to that few percentage that actually make it to the major league level at any point in their career, right? It tends to be one of those things where you do spread yourself too thin. You do find yourself working on too many different things instead of focusing on the one thing you're truly good at,

which that's, I think, what we want here for for Jung-Sang. But we got a couple of things, Damon. First of all, this is the, this is the, yeah, he became the injun-sang sign. Yeah, you got to give the one thumbs up. You got it more importantly realize that to-double two on the field, Derek. On the field? There's a photo shoot op of him on the field wearing the uniform and he, he's going like this. He loves the thumbs up. He was up in a suite with his parents. Uh,

the whole thing was very wholesome by the way with his parents being there and, and just everything, especially, you know, also with, you know, Kyle Lee's role in bringing him to the Diamondbacks. Like this was a very celebratory night for the whole family, right? But, uh, they'd show him on the Jumbotron. They show him on the big screen, uh, midgame. They make the announcement. They show him signing and they cut to him and his family in the suite. And first he gives a thumbs up and it gets the. crowd a little juiced, right? Then he starts pump into the logo on the chest, the crest right here.

And that gets the people, Damon, even more fired up. Yeah. But then, then before he lets the camera go, he turns around and gives him one of these to show his name on the back of the jersey and people lost their minds. Derek, he also did the back of the jersey on the, on the, on the, on the photo shoot on the field. He's, I mean, he's got, he's got like three poses and I love every single one. of them. I need the double thumbs up home run celebration at the dugout at some point in his career. But he really just seems like a wholesome lad. I mean, it's...

He's been watching Diamondbacks highlights, Damon. That got me pumped. That got me juice. That got me to ask him this last question that we have from him, which is who is his favorite Diamondbacks player? Who has he become a fan of? Here was his answer. I've always I like and and also, I've seen and watch and see what at the team's in the team's in the and I'm

in the Marte and then and then Aranado and also very very much

and you're and and he's and also most of always always I'm really I'm really

So he likes and respects every Major League player, but if he has to choose, it'll be the infielder's. Aronado, Pernodomu, and Marte, and also Corby Carroll, because he plays really hard, and the passion that he has for the game is really giving him the opportunity to have the you know, he wants to succeed, you know, when he watches count. I mean, that's why he bowed down to Pardomo because he's like, this is my hero. Yeah. And you know what? I would probably do the same thing, Jun Singh.

I probably would. Yeah. You know? So I get it. Well, you know what that means, Damon. I bowed down to, I bowed down to um. I really would. I think we both bowed down to um.

And for that exact reason and for the way that this game went tonight, Jun Sang, um, is our king snake. He is all that, he is everything to us, David. He is our king snake. He is our hero. He is the best number six

in Diamondbacks history. There you go. There you go. I saw there was some talk. We don't know where he's going to be ranked. I think Mighty Schumann asked about that. Not sure where his ranking is going to be. I would imagine he goes inside the Diamondbacks top 30 prospects.

I would imagine so. Listen, I think the Diamondbacks have some decent prospects, but I wouldn't say that we're like, a top farm system in baseball. And I think that, you know, a guy like who's hyped as much as, um, has been hyped, like he certainly feels like a top 30 guy, be like the second that he joins the organization.

So that's, that's my personal take on it. I think he'll be, I'm going to guess somewhere between 10 and 20, Derek. I think he won't even be in the 20 to 30 range. I think he'll be in the 10 to 20 range. There you go. But also, I think Coolbro asked a question of, is he going to AAA? No, he's staying in Korea for now, right? He hasn't even graduated from high school.

Yeah. So he still has to graduate from high school. But once he does so, then he will, I imagine. Likely join the lowest level of Diamondback's farm system baseball. Or Hillsborough at the highest. Rookie ball. Probably first, you would imagine. Yeah, no, for sure.

Yeah. Maybe even shows up in the Arizona Complex League. Yeah. But they did say he will be at spring training next year. So if there's something to look forward to in March of next year, there it is. But he's not the only prospect we're excited about, although we are very excited about him. Mani Pena, the beloved home run hitter,

takes his bat and all of his home runs, and he has been promoted now to AAA Reno. And there's kind of a funny thing there that's going to probably cause me and Damon to have more arguments in the future, but that is that Carlos Santana has been transferred from AAA Reno to the Arizona Complex League. And typically those things go in the opposite direction.

Yeah, Derek. Usually you go to the Arizona Complex League. I don't want to, listen, you keep bringing it up and I respect you for that because I think that that's a good, that's a fair move out of you. I think we're both right. But. But. Oh, I don't. I don't know.

I want to frame. We're both right, Damon. I mean, you couldn't have been more wrong. They haven't designated him for assignment. Derek, because they're like, because they probably asked him, do you want to be? And he's like, no one's going to pick me up. I might as well collect my paycheck and hang out and have a good time, hitting the cage. Hey, I don't help the youngings a little bit.

I mean, do. This is less than that, though. The reason why that's relevant is because Manuel Pena has been playing first base, and for the most part, his kind of expedited, you know, his expedited run here through the minor league system feels like the Diamondbacks are trying to get him to the major league level very fast. And in fact, we have Tori discussing Payna and comparing him a little bit to ADC's kind of quick run through the minor league system. This is what he had to say.

I am very well aware of his success and we've been monitoring his progress and he's on everything. He's killing the baseball. He's driving it to all fields and there hasn't been one bad at bat is what everybody's been telling me. On top of that, he's a good kid. He's been learning and growing and taking care of business the way you're supposed to. And there's a lot of successor. I do remember him in spring training. He seemed like he was a very comfortable, confident athlete.

He wasn't in big league camp. he come up for some of those minor league, coming from the minor leagues for some of the games we need to coverage. And I like the app bat. I like the quality of the at bat and how he surveyed the strike zone. You know, finding the right position for him and putting them out there on defense is also very important. So we want that to progress. But he's marching forward.

March forward. It reminds me a lot of Del Castile a couple years ago. Del Castile got on this heater and found himself in the big league. So anything's possible. Payna and Double A this year has a 311 batting average with a 1025 OPS, 26 home runs, 64 RBI. The only weakness to his game as far as offense is concerned is his on-based percentage isn't very high. He doesn't walk a lot. He strikes out probably at a fair, higher than average rate.

And again, it's a lot of like feast or famine with him. I think that the walks are concerning. Strikeouts for a home, if he's going to hit home runs, like, that I don't care. But if he's, but if he's going to hit home runs like that and strike out like that, I think he needs to walk a lot more, right? So that's probably going to be the big thing to work on. It's actually been better this year than it has in the past. So it feels like it's trending in an upward direction. Like last year, he only had 24 walks for the entire season. And that was in 106 games. In 62 games this year, he already has 19 walks. But again,

his slug is what's just incredible. 669 slug, 10, 25, OPS and again 172 172 total bases in 62 baseball games Daman 172 total bases It's insane he's been on real

I mean he had 201 last year 201 and 106 games and he has at 172 at 62 games What's his slug right now? Slug right now 669 It's crazy it's gross It's amazing I mean he's definitely ready for triple

AAA. We'll see how he does in Reno. I would assume he does pretty well. Everybody seems to hit the hell out of the baseball in Reno. But I'd like to see him keep this power pace up because I think it's a good sign for him being a major league baseball player for sure. I agree. And again, at this point, this is the exact kind of guy that Imanbacks need. He's not going to be here this year, right? But he could be a problem solver for them in the near future. And I say he might not be here this year but who the hell knows right with the way this team has gone they have not had any reservations about turning to prospects that you know as far as the pipeline is concerned weren't ready to be you know make their major league debut in 2026 at least they weren't viewed as as that being a

possibility i mean Jose fernandez Tommy troy Ryan waltzmitt gino gruever that's four guys already this season wallchman i think was the only guy that actually had an estimated arrival date of this season. That's it. The other guys, I don't believe any of the other guys. Certainly not Jose Fernandez. Certainly not Jose Fernandez. I think Troy might have been 26 as well, potentially.

But because he was in AAA and he's a first round pick. But he was just recently promoted. I think they assume he was going to be a September call-up guy because he's a college player. I'm just doing this based on the number. They put it in the- No, I know. I'm pretty sure Tommy Troy was also 2026, but I could be wrong. Yeah.

Well, we do have some super chats here. of course, our guy, AZ Catch G, love you. He says, Pavin is today's King Snake for yesterday's homebund. He loses the love when he says things like that. He did. Also, Cool, bro, had, what was the state number four? He said six. Six.

Or maybe they're planning six? I mean, we're already in marriage territory. D-Backs couldn't win when she got her Hello Kitty. Shake my head. A lot of Hello Kitty's were purchased tonight. Well, and Derek, they took picks in front of the Hello Kitty and the Outfield that you were telling me about. That's big. that feels like a big step in your relationship overall because I know there was a line of people

to take pictures in front of that mural on the wall because I came home and I was like Damon there people I thought there was a real hello kitty out there I was disappointed that there wasn't an actual a mascot yeah a mascot in the outfield right big giant hello kitty you should have seen there were so many people at the ballpark tonight I have no idea what the attendance figures were but it was insane how people how many people there were to watch this absolutely watch this and to get their Hello Kitty paid for Bottlehead. I'm still working on the Peanuts one for your mom. So don't worry.

I haven't forgot about that. But anyway, top G, appreciate you. He says, prayers to you and your fam, Derek. You're awesome. Thank you, man. I've been going through some stuff with the family. And it's never easy, never easy. But I appreciate the love.

You got a community here, Derek. That's for sure. You guys are awesome, man. And that's something that definitely made me feel better for sure. But again, love your family, man. Call your mom. Hug your loved ones. This life is not promised and none of us know how long we have.

And again, my big brother, probably scarier part of it, despite the fact that it's not great news for my mom because me and my brother, Dax, go through everything together. So, you know, to have one thing happening was hard enough, but to then find myself kind of doing it alone without the guy that's been my ride or dive through all of these ups and downs. that we've gone through was hard. But he's doing much better. And love you, Dax. Hope you're home because he was sick of being in the goddamn hospital. He wanted me to come break him out.

The hospital sucks, man. He was like, dude, I don't care if you get arrested. Just get me out of here. And I was like, brother. He goes,

what are they going to do, fire you at PHNX? It's not a real job, Derek. You can get a criminal record and keep your podcaster job, pal. Break me out. Do something for once. Well, again, appreciate all of you guys.

You guys are like family to Damon and I, and we can't thank you guys enough for all of your support. We'll be back here tomorrow with another postgame show. Until then, you can follow us on social. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs,

but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. time. Appreciate you stopping by. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, hope you guys all have a wonderful evening. Try to have a wonderful evening, I should say. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you don't get

blown out by a score of 7 to nothing on Jun Sang-Um night.