PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Dodgers SHUT OUT Mets Again, Yu-Min Lin SHOVES in Arizona Fall League

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing some of their best baseball during the most important time of the year, setting both an MLB and a franchise record in their 8-0 shutout over the New York Mets. We have more on L.A. going up 2-1 in the series as well as updates on Yu-Min Lin’s outing for the Salt River Rafters in Arizona Fall League play. Plus, why are players dropping Scott Boras as their agent? We might have some ideas. Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE!! 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/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! 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/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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 https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You might have to face facts that if the New York Mets, Grimmis, Hamburger, Frank the Tank, Bernard Beanie Campbell, Jose Glacius and Pitbull, Charlie Brown, Linus, and the Great Pumpkin combined can't stop the Dodgers. Maybe nobody can. We're talking about that in 30 seconds. Don't go anywhere. Well, ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PhNX.

This man next to me is occasionally known as Jesse Friedman, but he is always known in every circle as the thunderstick. And of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app. Use that code of PH&X365 when you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And Jesse, this has not been an ordinary postseason for the Los Angeles Dodgers. We have grown accustomed to laughing at them, pointing at them,

pointing at them watching them choke, watching them flame out and burn, crash and burn. And instead, what we are seeing in this postseason is the Dodgers playing their best baseball of the season at the right time. They take game three tonight over the New York Mets by a score of eight to nothing. And it appears that the Dodgers are very good when they actually use the starting pitcher. Yeah, I will start by saying that I am at Scottsdale Stadium right now. we're going to talk some Arizona following.

Oh, there's that too. Yeah. I should have practiced that. You and Lynn, you've and Lynn looked really good. So for all the D-BACs fans joining us, we're going to talk about all those things here in a little bit. But yeah, starting with the NLCS. Yeah, this felt like the season out of all the years where we've maybe had some doubts

about the Dodgers, this year felt like the one where there were just too many obstacles to overcome, right? the pitching. We talk so much about the pitching and, you know, how do you make a deep run in the postseason when your best pitcher and Tyler Glass now is on the IL when Gavin Stone, who is probably the one of the Dodgers most consistent pitchers during the season, if not the most. He also is injured and out for the year. And Kershaw is out and Tony Gonsolin and obviously show Aotani is not pitching this year. There's a lot of talent that this Dodgers team is missing. And yet I think what I, maybe underestimated a little bit going into the postseason is just that the Dodgers can just kind of flat out out hit teams because their offense is just, it's just so deep and so good. And that means a lot in the postseason. You know, we spend a lot of time talking about, all right, who's your game one starter? Who's your game two starter?

And again, as we've discussed recently, the Dodgers pitching staff is a big part of the success they've had. I mean, their bullpen has been really good. And Walker Bueller has not been great overall, but he was pretty good in the game tonight. But yeah, it just goes back to this Dodgers offense. It's not just Otani and Betts and Freeman. It's Max Muncie who reached in all five of his played appearances today.

You know, the list goes on. Kike Hernandez just continues to absolutely rake in October for some inexplicable reason. So, yeah, it's been impressive. And at the same time, I will say that I don't think we should count the Mets out in the series. The Diamondbacks were also down to one in the NLCS a year ago at this time. So it is still very possible that the Mets can find a way to come back. Well, who has the right attitude, Jesse?

Who says, who cares about the postseason when AFL exists? And that's absolutely the truth. We just have to cover this so that we could get to the Nuget inside of this candy bar. that is Arizona Fall League talk because yeah me and Jesse had a blast out there at Scottsdale Stadium watching the Salver Rafters take on the Scottsdale Scorpions but I mean again just kind of glancing over at this NLCS we were watching it there in the press box Jesse when you have guys you bring up Kiki Hernandez when you have guys like Kike Hernandez doing it to you and of course he has a track record in the postseason where he just is a different player but he has 13 RBI on the road this postseason. He homered again to 90. He went two for five with a homer two runs, two RBI. He has a 983 OPS in the playoffs this year.

And it's like you already have bets, Freeman, O'Tonnie to deal with. You already do your best to keep those guys at bay. And then you have Max Muncie hitting home runs off you and Kike Hernandez hitting home runs off you. I mean, Muncie reached in all five of his plate appearances tonight. with a home run a single in three walks. And I mean, again, these guys, it feels like, I mean, don't get me wrong, Otani, Freeman, Betts, those guys have constantly been a threat as well.

But when I guess the role players, as you want to call them, the non-markey names are the ones that are killing you, this is an almost impossible task to beat this team. Yeah. And I think on the flip side, too, like the Mets have been on a great run. It's unbelievable that they've gotten to this point and will deserve a lot of credit for the way they played in the second half. But at the same time, the Mets, there just isn't any comparing these two lineups, right? I mean, the Mavlindor, who's a great player, I mean, you know, an MVP candidate for a reason. But the Dodgers lineup just has more horsepower than the Mets lineup.

And that's even acknowledging that the Mets had one of the better lineups in baseball this season. There's not really any holes. The depth of their lineup has been a big asset for them. But in terms of that top end talent, you know, Pete Alonzo and Francisco and Dorr and Mark Bientos, like again, these guys deserve a lot of credit. But it's not Otani Betts and Freeman. You know, even Max Muncie, like Max Muncie is what, the fourth or fifth best hitter on the Dodgers. and he would be one of one of the Mets best hitters probably if he was on that team. So I think we're also, we're also seeing that come into play.

The fact that this Mets lineup is good. It is above average, but it's going to have a clunker every now and then. And somehow they managed to really avoid that, at least for most of this postseason. But obviously we saw that today with them getting shut out. And I mean, Jesse, it's just not just their offense. Their bullpen has been incredible. They went five innings tonight. One hit allowed, scoreless.

And then Walker Bueller bounced back and had a nice start. He didn't go very deep. Pitch count got up there. He got up to 90 pitches and four innings. But still, he gave him four innings, three hits allowed, no runs, two walks, 6K. Again, he gave up, what, was it, six in that last outing against San Diego Padres. So this was a real nice rebound from that. And again, this was, it was guys like Walker Bueller.

that were the question marks when you looked at the Dodgers pitching. And if Bueller is giving you this, then, again, much like what I was saying about the, you know, the non-markey guys beating you, you're in trouble when, you know, Walker Bueller is having outings like this. I mean, you got to give him some credit, right? I mean, I think his last outing, the numbers were probably worse than what he actually deserved. He did a nice job, you know, giving the, giving the Dodgers some length in that game against

the Padres. And also that inning where the Padres scored a bazillion runs, the Dodgers defense was not so great in that inning. You could argue that, you know, Walker Bueller should have come away from that game with a much better final line than he did. So yeah, maybe we're not giving Bueller quite enough credit for the way that he's pitched. And especially in this one, doing it on the road, I guess both of his starts have been on the road in the postseason. So he deserves some some credit for getting the job done there. But yeah, it just feels like comparing this year's Dodgers team to last year's Dodgers team.

It just feels like the Dodgers lineup is in a totally different place. I mean, obviously, Otani's Otani. But then it's also to Oscar Hernandez, you know, it's also Kiki Hernandez doing what he's doing. Tommy Edmund providing some depth. Gavin Lux has been a different player in the second half this year. So, yeah, it's a good. It's a good baseball team.

I'm still furious with the Tigers over the Jack Flaherty move, Jesse. Nicklin in the chat says Soto to D-Backs. Nicklin, I'm also drinking. So, hey, cheers to you. No, I don't think Soto to D-Bax is going to be an off-season topic for us or anybody else. But that's mostly because the Diamondbacks have already spent all of their money, pretty much. There's Maria saying what is stopping the D-Backs from signing. So money, Maria, money, money.

Jordan Montgomery, Maria, yes. Thank you, who that's what's stopping them. But again, hats off to the Dodgers. It'll be interesting to see because the Mets, the Mets, baseball is baseball, Jesse. So it's like after game one, we were like the Mets are cooked. And then the Mets come back in game two. And, you know, you're like they've never been more back, right? So baseball just continues to be hilarious like that.

But again, the Mets, I feel like this is kind of a must-win game for them. And I know it's not a must-win game because it's not an elimination game. But it's hard to imagine I'm losing this next game in New York and then being able to come back to Los Angeles and even the series at any point. Yeah, I mean the fact that the Mets lost today means they're going to have to win at least one more game in L.A. Right. It's now impossible for them to close out the series at home, which, yeah, it's not impossible. possible for them to do that, right? They already won one game in LA. But you're right that the Mets, they're not, they're not out of this thing. After that absolute blowout game one, it was,

it was totally easy to look at the Mets and say they were dead in the water. And then suddenly they come back and they win game two. And the Mets are in a pretty good spot. And it's the same situation now. If the Mets turn around and find a way to win game four of the series, then again, they're, They're in a pretty decent spot at that point. I mean, not an ideal spot. You have, you know, three games left with two of those theoretically happening at Dodger Stadium. But this Mets team is feisty, Derek, and they've shown us time and time again that the moment

you want to count them out, you know, they generally have something else in store. So we'll see if OMG and, you know, all the other, all the other narratives grimace, the whole thing. if all of those characters are able to help power the men's even further. They have a whole squad over there. And Spears and Ali, our favorite guys from Tucson, asks, what can be the Diamondbacks version of the Grimmest Blessing? First, Jesse, it delights me to think of Spears and Ali being together at 930 at night

in front of a computer, like hanging out. They're in separate. Yeah, they're in separate. Yeah, the way that you and I were at in Arizona Falle League game tonight, and people probably saw us. We're like, oh, how cute. They're never apart. But, Jesse, this is a very good question.

I feel like I'm showing my age here because my instinct is to fall back on something Wallace and Ladmo related, which I know I'm dating myself. And I know that's probably losing a lot of young people like yourself going who. But there's some older folks that are with me on the Wallace and Ladmo thing. I don't know. I brought up Vince Vaughn's character from old school in the opening. of this show. So maybe Vince Vaughn. He comes to Arizona a lot. His parents live here, I think, and I saw him at the train park one time. So maybe Vince Vaughn. He seems like he would be

a delightful. He's Fred Claus. He's Santa Claus's brother. So, I mean, there's something there. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. You, you run with that. Jesse's not going to, Jesse's not going to have much input here on pop culture characters that we can use to replace Grimmis. I still like the idea of getting Ronald McDonald or maybe the Burger King. Go get the creepy Burger King from a few years back, the sneaky one that, you know, hit around corners and stuff. I don't know. He's very menacing, and I feel like that's kind of what we need something evil on our side. But of course, yes, Jesse, the Dodgers, I don't know. I don't know if anybody's going to be able to stop the Dodgers. The other thing I'll say about the Mets real quick, I talked about how their lineup doesn't have

the horsepower that the Dodgers lineup does. I think it's the same with their bullpen, right? I mean, Reed Garrett's been really, really good throughout the postseason. You saw him give up a couple runs in this game. McGill also, Tyler McGill also gave up several runs in this one for the Mets. So it's not a bad bullpen. I think it is above average and you love Edwin Diaz at the end there. But it did feel like at some point, you know, you're going to say,

some of these guys struggle maybe a little bit and today felt like a bit of a turning point there. Ryan says Derek dressed as a cow throwing out the first pitch will be our grimace. Is that a milkman related thing? Because if so, I'm all on, I'm on board with it. I'm fine with it. I love the idea. I mean, it sounds like you're dressing up as the chick-fil-a mascot, right?

That's how it's happening. Yeah, no, I don't want to have anything to do with chick-fil-a. Like I love their chicken sandwiches still, but publicly I don't want to associate myself with them. But I do appreciate you guys for being here. Make sure to hit that like button. If you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, do it now. If you haven't hit that notifications button yet, do it now. Don't know what you're waiting for.

That way you don't miss out whenever our wonderful shows go live. We drop things like our PHNX plays, which dropped earlier today for game two of the Wild Card series in the video game world of the Arizona Diamondbacks actually. thinking the 2024 postseason. So make sure not to miss that because that's a lot of fun, as well as everything else that's going on. ASU, incredible right now. Don't miss the ASU boys. Even though I was shunned over there, Jesse,

I was told I was a bandwagon fan and I wasn't allowed to show up now in route for ASU, which maybe that's the problem. Maybe that attitude is the problem. But we'll discuss the important thing around here right now, which is Arizona Fall League Baseball and how you men, Lynn did in his outing tonight on the other side of this break. So make sure you don't go anywhere. But we're talking about Valley Staples. We're talking about Wallace and Ladmo. There's nobody that's a Valley staple like Empire Today. If you want to update your flooring in your home, you want to do

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Text next step to 533442 or visit Problem gambling.az.gov. Well, it was a beautiful Arizona night tonight. The weather is cooling down, and it reached that perfect, that perfect point, Jesse, for an Arizona Fall League game out at Scottsdale Stadium between the Salt River Rafters and the Scottsdale Scorpions. Of course, we were out there not only to catch amazing fall league baseball that is arguably better than postseason baseball, right?

Like there's, yeah, no. Oh, it's not even a question, it's not even a question. It's not even a question. Yeah, it's like the two things are completely different things. But it's also very exciting to see one of the Diamondback's top prospects on the mound. You mean, Lynn was really impressive. Yeah, you know, he got in trouble a couple of times. He gave up several, I think three out of the first five hitters that he faced, reached base, all three of them singled.

But he was able to pitch out of trouble. And he was able to get swing and miss. up throwing three scoreless innings, four strikeouts, had one walk, gave up three hits, didn't allow a run. So, yeah, it was impressive. And it was the second consecutive time that Umin Lin has done this. He has now made two starts in the fall league, and he has thrown six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts to just the one walk.

So it's been fun to watch, you know, he's got the whole kitchen sink arsenal as Stefan Carey was talking about on this show the other day. and you saw that you saw that coming into play today where he's able to just keep opposing hitters off balance he had i think it was six whiffs in this game that he that he generated there was one particularly dominant a bat where he struck out a guy on three pitches uh so it was uh it was it was really fun to watch um who says no live stream of this game i hate it well we have some clips for you including uh sean bringing up that uh we don't like to talk about you and Lynn getting hit by baseballs.

We know that there was a freak accident where he was just standing in the dugout and he got struck by a baseball. He did get hit by a comebacker tonight. It wasn't anything serious, but we do have video of that to show you again. And then he stayed in the game after this, but this is,

this is Yumen Lynn getting hit by that pitch or by that comebacker here. It was impressive to see him, Jesse. He was definitely working the count. He was throwing a lot of pitches. that one see nothing nothing too bad just kind of caught him on the ankle there the trainer did come out to check on him i mean i saw him kind of waving him off ahead of time that he really didn't need him to come out but obviously they wanted to make sure especially of someone you know of someone's

value like lynn is to the organization that he was doing okay yeah no real concerns i mean you can you can see here it's kind of a kind of a delayed thing like the trainer does go out there but it doesn't look like he's hobbling around or anything like that. I think it caught him maybe on the heel somewhere, ankle area, but it didn't hit him all that hard, and he wound up staying in the game. And yeah,

as we said, wound up pitching pretty well on this one. It would have been very sad there if we'd come out to watch a Uminlin pitch. I would have been devastated. I would have been devastated. I would have lost it. It also would have been very par for the course, given what many Diamondback's top prospects,

went through from an injury standpoint, including this year, including Umin himself, of course, who is the guy who somehow took a foul line drive to the face while standing in the dugout on a day where he was not pitching back in late April and missed like six weeks because of that. So, yeah, he was fine. And that was some rare, some rare good news on the injury front for the diamond backs. Just as a side note, I think it was Cordoba. over there from the Colorado Rockies got hit in the head by a pitch. And that was a very scary moment.

Very scary. That sound was awful, Jesse. And I was entirely too close to it. And I did not want to hear that sound of that ball hitting that helmet like that. But luckily, he was okay. It was just, it's wild because in those fall league games, I hate to make this comparison because I know you're not going to understand it at all. But it's like some of the wrestling shows I go to.

or I'm a part of where backstage I know that we don't really have very much medical personnel back there. So should something happen. And as you've seen with wrestling, these guys are doing stupid crap and putting their bodies on the line every single night. I was a little bit worried there for a moment when they came out that they were almost being a little bit too laxadaisical with, you know, what had happened and how serious that looked there for a moment.

You're talking about Cordova? Yeah, Cordova, not Umin Lane. Yeah, Cordova. Umin Lynn, well, that looked like to me like that was something that, unless he called them out, I wouldn't have even really stressed, you know, having the trainer go out on something like that because of how mild it seemed. And then we do have video of him, the very, I believe this was the very next pitch. Here he is fielding a ground ball. So, I mean, this just goes to show this was just a few moments later after they left the field, the trainer left.

he was able to make a pretty, pretty, pretty, I mean, I don't want to say difficult play, but, you know, not an easy play. It looked pretty easy there. And, and then he went out and he mowed down batters after that, Jesse. So he was fine, no concerns on the injury. But when you do see stuff like this in Arizona Fall League game and you don't have video or something to see how bad it is, you're kind of left wondering, what's the extent of an injury like that? Is that you patting yourself on the back?

Yes, I have. Taking video there. Hey, you know, whatever. Video credit, Derek Montia. Just, yeah, where's that? Yeah, that should be up in the corner. I'm furious about that. I'm going to DMCA the show.

But we do, speaking of video, we also have video of him striking out a batter in three pitches, Jesse. And, I mean, I know you saw a lot of impressive things tonight from Yumen Lynn. I was curious what impressed you the most. Yeah, I mean, just just the sequence. I think shows shows his skill set pretty well. You see a fastball that has some good arm side movement to it on that first pitch. I asked you, Ben, about this after today's game, whether he's throwing a four seamer or a sinker. And he said it's both. It registered only as a four seamer in his last start when we had stat cast data. We didn't have any stat cast data today.

But yeah, he said he likes to use, I believe it was four seamers to Ritees. And then, and then he likes to use his sinker to lefties for the most part. So yeah, he has a variety of weapons. And that pitch right there might have been the best pitchy through all game. I mean, that was a very, very sharp breaking ball. I believe that was a curve ball. He has, again, a whole lot of pitches. So you feel like you're kind of guessing when you try to just go off the eye test.

I think that was a curve ball. And it was a really good one. It had a lot of, a lot of sharp bite, you know, late movement. So you can see human and as best there. just really, really carving up an opposing hitter. Well, and Taz asks the question, I think, that a lot of people have on their minds, Jesse, and that's how long till we see Lynn get called up. And obviously, I know the Diamondbacks are kind of set as far as starting pitching is concerned,

and they even have some pretty decent depth from guys that got their experience this year, Lynn, just getting up to AAA this past season. But, I mean, I don't, do you see them? doing anything to expedite him coming up or would you see him not actually making his major league debut until next season, the following season. So not 2025, but 2026. No, I think he has legitimate shot to pitch in the big leagues in 2025. I mean, when we talked to him in spring training, he said his goal was to pitch in the big leagues this season. And obviously, that didn't come to fruition, missing six weeks with the freak injury was a bit of an obstacle there.

But yeah, he pitched one game in AAA at the end of the season. I imagine he'll start next year in AAA as well. And look, I mean, Yilbert, Yolbert Diaz started the season in double A and wound up pitching in the majors for the diamond back. So absolutely, if you men is starting in AAA, I think he totally has a shot. It's just a matter of the diamond back starting pitching depth and where they feel they stand on Tommy Henry and Slade Sikoni and, you know, Blake Walsston, Gilbert, as some of these other options that they have.

We generally see teams use, you know, 10, 11, 12 starting pitchers to get through a full season. I think there's a pretty decent chance that Umin Lin's name is called at some point in 2025. Probably not toward the beginning of the year, but at some point, I think it's pretty realistic. Well, there's no reason to wait anymore and no reason to make that mistake that we made before where we gave King Snake out to a Dodger. We promise we'll never do that again. Lynn is our King Snake for tonight. Three innings pitch, three hits allowed, zero earn runs, four strikeouts, three of them in one

inning. And yeah, he just looked really good tonight. My only criticism, like I said earlier, he threw a lot of pitches. It felt like he was throwing a lot of stuff out of the strike zone and wasn't attacking batters at times enough because when he did, when he did, it seemed to be effective. But, yeah, I mean, that's falling baseball. Sometimes they're working on something specific, just like they are. are during spring training. Sometimes it's about, you know, just following some coaching that they've

been provided or been given. So it just, and another impressive outing from him so far this fall. And again, another marquee name for you to go see if you get a chance to go out and see a Rafters game. Yeah, and Yumen Lin being 21 years old. I mean, that's, that's maybe the best selling point here, right? I don't think anyone objectively views him as a prospect with a super high ceiling, frankly. At least I don't think that's how the industry views him right now. The reality is that he is a low 90s guy. You know, he is a left-handed pitcher who's 5-9, 5-10. We don't see a ton of those guys in the big leagues who find success.

There are examples, but really not a lot of them. So, yeah, but I mean, the reality, the fact that he is. at this point that he is in AAA, that he made, made it up to AAA at the end of the season and is really on the doorstep of making a big league debut at this age is, is really impressive. And it means that he has a lot of runway to kind of figure some things out. He's got all these pitches to sort through, you know, which can be both a blessing and a curse in some ways, because sometimes it takes a while for you to figure out which ones are actually going to be the most effective, especially at the big league level.

But yeah, looking at the numbers, I know somebody asked about how many how many whiffs he had. He had six whiffs in this game. At least that's what I counted. Eight called strikes. He threw 49 pitches. 28 of those were strikes. So yeah, to your point earlier, I think he could have been more efficient.

His strike rate was not particularly high in this game. There were some misses early on. He wasn't generating a ton of swing outside the zone. But it felt like he just got better as. as the outing went on. Well, we heard from Stefan Carey that his nickname is Jimmy, Jesse. So I'm making the call to call him bad Jimmy based on our local restaurant near our office. I'm sure Max is going to be furious with me.

But bad Jimmy feels like not like not bad as in bad. Bad isn't good. You know, like that I come from a time when bad meant good. but I think it's back to meaning bad again. So I'm not sure if this nickname's going to work, but I like bad, Jimmy. Anyway, speaking of another guy with a cool name, Tommy Troy was 0 for three tonight,

two strikeouts with a walk, not having a very good Arizona Fall League so far, season in Arizona Fall League so far. Looks frustrated. Had a, I'm not going to say, it wasn't a hard hit ball at him, but yet you kind of missed making a good defensive of play there on a on a ball there, uh, defense in the outfield or, uh, he just played second base

tonight. But yeah, um, yeah, man. I mean, he, he didn't look like get a great night at the plate. He didn't, no. And you can tell there's quite a bit of frustration that, that is set in for Tommy Troy at this point. I mean, he's one for 25 in the fall league. He has an 040 batting average. Uh, and, you know, he's a first round pick. He's a guy who has a lot of expectations. He's still viewed, think is as one of the top prospects in this organization. And, you know, I think there's reasons to be patient here. He did miss a couple of months with a hamstring injury that wound up being pretty significant this year.

It sounds like he tried to do way too much upon returning from that injury that he was trying to get all his hits back with one swing as the way that Sean Larkin, Diamondback's Farm Director, explained it to me. And he saw him finish the regular season really well down in Hillsborough. he really showed some positive strides toward the end of the year. But here in the fall league, it's been rough. There's no getting around it. You mentioned the two strikeouts in the game today.

His last at bat was a strikeout. It was a three-two pitch that was on the outside. I don't know exactly where the pitch was, but Troy was rung up on a called third strike. And you could very clearly hear throughout the ballpark him say, that's outside, which is not, even in an intimate environment like Scottsdale Stadium. which it is very, very small. We can hear a lot of things here that we can't hear, you know, at Chase's field, certainly. But, yeah, he was, he's clearly very frustrated at this point. And you can understand why this is not the season that he hoped to have.

And I think the fall league is, is an opportunity to kind of have a clean slate and, and try to finish a rough year well. And that is not what's happened so far. Yeah, he also looked like he, he's put on a little bit of muscle. he looked a little bit thicker. Meanwhile, Christian Robinson, Jesse, a player in the Diamondbacks organization that has had quite the tumultuous path. He looked great. He looks like he lost a lot of weight. He really leaned up. He was one for four tonight with a double, really hard hit ball out to the outfield. He did strike out twice, or maybe three times. He struck out three times. But it is good to see Christian Robinson just in general still playing baseball. And it was great to see him. in the shape that he's currently in. He looks athletic, absolutely. Yeah, definitely a leaner build than we've seen from him

and at least the last time that I remember him. But yeah, you know, this spring, right? We just saw him this past spring. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but this is kind of the Christian Robinson experience, right? One for four with a double, which is, you know, into the right center field gap, a really, really nice swing. But then, yeah, you've got the three strike gap.

and a little bit too much chase, a little bit too much swing and miss. And I think that's what held him back this year. He didn't really put up great numbers in Amarillo, which is obviously a really hitter-friendly environment. And so far he's been okay in the fall league. I think he's at 235 with a 749 OPS. So respectable numbers there. But I think the number of strikeouts is as big of a stat for him

as really anything else at this point. and him striking out in three out of four plate appearances is not really a particularly encouraging sign. So, you know, I don't think that all hope is lost there. I still think that his raw tools are intriguing enough that he's still going to show up on some top prospect list. But he's getting pretty close to sort of being a non-prospect, frankly, where, you know, his age is just, it gets to a point and the numbers just don't line up where, yeah, I think

it's reasonable to, uh, to have some pretty significant questions about a, a future for Christian Robinson and the big leagues. Well, and I hate the fact that this is how it is, but the gentleman that was sitting next to me in the press box turned to me when Christian Robinson came up and said, oh, is that the guy that had all those problems, you know? And it's like, yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's the guy, you know, but like that that's that's tough that that kind of becomes you know your reputation in a way and it's unfortunate because we know that that was kind of a mental health situation that was you know something that luckily didn't escalate out of control and didn't get worse for christian robinson and and he worked his way through it he had to go through a lot to get back to this point where

you could be even still with the diamondbacks organization and playing in the arizona fall league but it would be a wonderful story to see him come back to baseball and thrive and be the player that everybody thought he was going to be, you know, one day. I agree with you, though. There comes a point where time does start to run out on you. And it's not just on players like Christian Robinson. There's so many great young players that were highly touted prospects that people thought the world of. And then they just things, injuries, circumstances, whatever the case may be,

held them back and they just never really got to reach that full potential that so many people thought they could reach. But again, that's what Arizona Fall League is partially about getting a chance to see these guys, getting a chance to see the best young players play against the best young players. And again, it was just, it was, it's for me, it's still one of those things that every time I see him in a D-backed uniform playing baseball, it's a good feeling. It feels like, you know, it's good to see him out there. Kyle, we talked about him a bit this week. We said he was a player to kind of look out for.

He came out, pitched an inning in relief, gave up one hit, one run that wasn't earned, one walk, two strikeouts through 23 pitches. How did he look, Jesse? Yeah, I think he has good stuff. He's interesting, man. He's got a very extreme over the top, almost Josh Colemanter-esque, delivery, which was intriguing, not something that you really see very often. He hides the ball really well, I think, as well.

So, yeah, just sort of the eye test, and granted, I am certainly no scout, but a bit of a There were a lot of them out there. Yeah, there were. There were a lot of them out there. Keith Law was out there, too, with his fancy fedora. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, you know, from what we know, Amen, they, unfortunately, there wasn't a radar gun, at least not we didn't get any any velo readings in the in the ballpark here but from what i know he's he's he's a low

90s guy it's it's not as much about the velo as it is about the the riding life on his fastball i think he uses a cutter a pretty pretty decent amount at least that's what some some past stat cast numbers say uh his breaking ball uh got some some swing and miss there so yeah it's it's it's intriguing it's different and uh you know we talked about how he racked up strikeouts it at just absurd rates this year to start his minor league season. I think it was a strikeout rate around 50% in high A and then above 40% in A. Both of those numbers are insane.

He ran into a bit of a roadblock once he got to AAA. The walk numbers climbed there. But as we said the other day, this is a guy that I think has a chance to impact the Diamondbacks bullpen in 2025. And he's fun to watch. He's different. He's not 94 with a slider. It's a different look for sure.

Well, we didn't just have these prospects playing today. We also had Jordan Lawler playing in his first Dominican Winter League game today, Jesse. Yeah. And Jordan Lawler looked good today. Three for four? Yeah, I am having a terrible time finding Dominican Winter League box scores. I think I found, I think I found like a. You don't have stat cast date on that?

Yeah, I don't know. I'm sure it exists out there. And there were some video highlights floating around on social media that I'm sure people saw. But yes, we know that he fell a triple short of the cycle. People might have seen the home run that he hit in that game. I think it was in his second at bat. So yeah, this is a really big opportunity for Lawler, who is also among the Diamondbacks prospects, who spent a whole bunch of time on the injured list this year, him really more than anyone else.

he's got a big opportunity here to make up for some lost time. And the Dominican Winter League, you know, the level of competition is, it's certainly not Major League caliber. Although there are some players, some major leaguers who do play in that league. It's always kind of fun going through the, going through the rosters every year. But yeah, this is a big opportunity for Loller, and he's certainly capitalized on day one. it's just great to see great to hear that great to know that lawler could be on the horizon for this team at this point we need we need some positives for next season jesse we need to know how this team's going to improve and as as much as you and i want to provide that hope give that good news tell people yes next year this team's going to keep getting better we're unsure of that because of the pieces of that they're losing and the amount of money that they have committed right now.

Just as much as you want to get excited about this team building and making this squad even better next year, financially, they might not be able to make that happen with free agents and more additions. But the one way they could have it happen is with these young players potentially, you know, coming up and becoming a part of this team. Absolutely. I mean, going into 2025, I think all of us are going to go. go in with a with a baseline expectation that this offense is going to regress, almost regardless

of what the Diamondbacks do this offseason. I mean, the, the offense was so incredibly good this year that it just doesn't feel like the Diamondbacks can possibly repeat that, especially given that, you know, you're probably not bringing back everyone who is an impending free agent. But Jordan Lawler is, is one of those guys who can really help balance out some of what you lose offensively. At least he has the potential to do that. He's not someone that you necessarily want to count on from day one of the season. He still only has, what, 140 plate appearances in AAA, because I think it was like 58 this year and 60 or 70 last year toward the end of the season. But there's a lot of ceiling here.

I mean, this guy has been the Diamondbacks number one prospect for a long time. It feels like when we talk about prospects, there's just Jordan Lawler and then there's everyone else. and he really has a chance to be a star-level player. You know, is he going to be able to emerge as that in 2025? That's a big question. But the talent is there for him to be a pretty special player. So he is going to be one of the team's biggest X-factors in 2020. I almost got him.

Did you see that? I was about to capture him and then he disappeared, Jesse. Bad Jimmy says hit that like button. Make sure you hit that like button. Of course, we got another. major MLB superstar who is dropping Scott Boris as their agent. Is there trouble in Boris land? We're going to talk about it on the other side of this break.

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Well, Jesse talked about it. Scott Boris, Super Agent. all the resources in the world has like an Avengers-like facility for you to train at and be fed. And you have lasers and helicopters and access to all sorts of things. Other Major League Baseball players don't have. Nick Castellanos dropped Scott Boris as his agent today, declaring that he will represent himself, which I'm not so sure about that. Good luck on how that goes.

It's also very odd that Castiano's makes this announcement, but he's not set to hit free agency this offseason, Jesse. It's just weird timing. Yeah, I'm curious if this is a temporary arrangement or if Nick Castiano is actually planning to represent himself when he does hit free agency next, which I believe is slated for after the 2026 season. So he's still under team control with the Phillies for two more years. The timing here is a little bit odd. It's not like, I don't think his agent would even have much to do right now. There's no arbitration cases. His numbers are already locked in.

I guess there's maybe some sponsorship deals and whatnot. Maybe he's tired of having Boris medal with his sponsorships. I don't know. But this feels, to me, this feels like, like it's more about Nick Castiano's than it is about Scott Boris. I know Boris has has taken some flak recently and obviously there's the Jordan Montgomery situation. But Nick Castiano's like just what we what we know about him as a character in this sport. It really does not surprise me that Nick Castiano is interested in it has decided to represent himself.

I don't really know how to explain that, but that's just sort of the general sense that I have. Well, there's a couple of, I have a couple of thoughts on this. my first one being like it's wild to think of anybody leaving scott boris right like i feel like when you are represented by scott boris you have achieved the pinnacle of sports representation in the game of baseball and you are almost guaranteed to get the most money that you could possibly have made in your career with this man representing you right not to mention i joke but he does have ridiculous resources, right? How often do we see Zach Gallen in a really cool Scott Boris, like, hat or zip up jacket or something, right? Like the amount of resource, like when during the

pandemic, right, Boris had some secret trading facility where these guys were all at. And like, there's just all sorts of things that you have access to as a Scott Boris client that I'm not sure if you have access to, uh, as, you know, with anybody else, representing you, right? But does he have too many clients, Jesse? Does he get to a point where the Boris brand is so big that you're not dealing with Scott Boris anymore unless you go sign and he shows up at your, you know, press conference like he does with the players here where he just comes and sits at the table next to them? Like, how much FaceTime are you actually getting with Scott Boris as a client, right? And I mean, there comes a point where potentially, yeah, like maybe you don't feel

like you're getting as many opportunities as you could get because you're being represented by a guy that has so many players that he's representing. You don't feel like he necessarily has the time for you or is maybe thinking of your best interest where somebody that you're their primary client would be just bending over backwards and doing everything they can for you. I mean, I know Scott has like an extensive staff. So, you know, maybe, yeah, maybe your your face time with him directly is maybe is not what you, but I don't know. I mean, even though. I want to talk to the doctor, Jesse.

I don't want to talk. I don't, I don't want to talk to the nurse all the time. Sometimes I want to talk to the doctor. You know what I mean? Like I'm just saying he could have an extensive staff and he could have people working for you and everything could be fine. Yeah. But at the end of the day, you don't really feel like he cares about you. Jesse, this is why.

Jerry McGuire left sports management international. This is the entire premise for that movie. He wanted to go, he grew a conscience and he wanted to go offer personal small representation to players and not be some big nameless, faceless corporation. And that's a movie from a long time ago. Again, I'm dating myself with a Jerry McGuire reference and saying bad used to mean good. I might as well just, it's a wrap for me. It's a rap for me.

I might as well just let this gray hair grow out and call. all of the day. But I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying like there's some sort of, oh, we're going to see this rash of players dropping Scott Boris. But as as much as it seems crazy that they would drop Boris and also, if you think about it from other perspectives, it might not be so crazy that a player, especially someone that's as unique of a personality as Nick Castiano's might not want that big corporate machine representing them as much anymore. Well, I think it bears mentioning that it wasn't it wasn't Jeff Passon breaking this news. It wasn't, you know, Bob Nightingale. It was Jess Castianos, who is Nick Castianos's wife. And it wasn't like she just openly tweeted this out. It was that she responded to a tweet from Philly's tailgate, Philly's tailgate, which is just sort of this, this random Twitter account that I guess has a pretty decent following. Just, just. tweeted out a list of Phillies players covering baseball teams that people might not know exists,

Jesse. You might be throwing rocks inside of our glass house here. I'm just saying. Fair enough. So they tweet out this list of Phillies players that are represented by Scott Boris and Nick Castiano's is on the list. And then Jess Castiano's replies to the tweet with an asterisk and says not Nick, which was news.

Like this was not something that had that had been reported. And again, like Nick Castiano's hasn't negotiated a contract in several years at this point. I think it was 2021 going into 2022. That offseason is when Castellanos landed his five-year, $100 million deal with the Phillies. So yeah, it's a pretty bizarre situation. I don't really know exactly why Castiano is doing this. But it'll be interesting to see if this becomes a trend or if it's just Jordan Montgomery. memory having a really, you know, obviously his free agency did not go the way that he wanted.

He was not happy with it. And Nick Castiano is kind of a unique character. He wants to represent himself. You know, to me, it's not really a trend yet. It'll be interesting to see how these next few years play out. Well, I'd like to take a moment just to tell Scott Boris in case he's listening because we know he's a huge fan of the show, I'm ready to sell out. I'm ready to be represented by Scott Boris.

I want the corporate machine making as much money for me as possible. I'll wear any jacket. Look at the hat I'm wearing right now. I'm, look it. I'm just, I'm dying to sell out. Like, I can't wait for it. It's my favorite thing to do.

So hit me up and let me know when we can start making that money, baby. That commission, though, Derek. That commission's going to kill you. It's something. It's something. But he earns it, Jesse. He earns it. He definitely earns it.

Or at least six members of his staff. You might have to just take. a pillow contract, Eric. I don't know. I'd be, I'd be a little bit more hesitant if I were you. You know, instead of getting the extended, you know, the long-term extension from pH and X, you might be looking at a one-year deal. And I don't, I don't know if that's what's best for your future and your family. So you were just talking earlier about Christian Robinson, maybe not having a lot of time left. I definitely with all these references I've made have proven I don't have a lot of time left. So I got to get on making this money as soon as possible, all right? Reverse mortgages, whatever I got to do.

We'll figure it out. I'm not leaving any money to my daughter. Forget it. But anyway, Jesse, we thank you so much. Well, I think me too. We were both out there. So, like, you're not getting all the credit for being out at the Arizona Fall League game.

I did get those spiffy videos. But we do thank all of you for joining us tonight so much. We appreciate you stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our guy on the ones and twos tonight is our guy Kev. He is at Kev Tom Wright.

Oh, wow. There's a big Jesse. What is that? Get that off my screen. Wow. Yeah, that's the good one. Yeah. Do we have Kev Tom Wrights?

Do we got that one? No, but we got to, yeah, see, you still have to figure out Kev Tom Wrights. That's on you. We're not showing you that one. But our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs. All roads do, of course, lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for stopping by tonight. We will see you tomorrow with another 1 PM show, so make sure to join us for that. And in the meantime, We hope you guys have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun out at an Arizona Folly game.