PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - REPORT: Arizona Diamondbacks Looking to SELL at MLB Trade Deadline

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterWe’ve officially made it to the halfway point of the MLB season and the Arizona Diamondbacks finished the first half on a positive after beating the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday to avoid the sweep. It’s been a struggle as of late for the Snakes however, and that was highlighted by Bob Nightengale of USA Today when he reported Mike Hazen & co. will look to shop pitchers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, as well as sluggers Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez. Do you think the D-backs should buy or sell at the MLB Trade Deadline? PLUS, it’s Monday and you know what that means! We dive into the mailbag and answer your questions. And who is your pick for tonight’s MLB Home Run Derby?An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX 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/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!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/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX 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.Shady Rays: 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.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!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate!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.

I don't want to lose all our players. Welcome on in, guys, to the PHNXDbacks podcast. That one takes some getting used to, Kevin, and ski you to all of those that celebrate. Happy Monday. Welcome on in to the PHNXDBAC show, as I already said. I am Damon Farrell. He is Kevin Thomas, my main man, hitting the ones and twos. And we are ready to talk some Arizona Diamondbacks baseball for you guys on a Monday.

Hope everybody's doing great. Of course, this show is presented by our friends at Bet365. and Game Time. Download the Bet365 app today. Use code PHNX 365 and also sign up and get $20 off your first purchase on Game Time with code PHNX. Two great apps that we are huge fans over here. We're going to get into some Bet 365 odds when it comes to tonight's MLB Home Run Derby. Your thoughts on the Home Run Derby are anger regarding A. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. H.N. O'Swres and his MIA, his missing in action. no show, I guess. You could call it at the MLB All-Star. Yeah, snub is a great way of putting it, Kevin. But shout to everybody for being here in the chat already.

Please like this video, subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so far. Pumped up to be here on a Monday and fired up about the weekend. Kevin, I don't know. You see in the hat I'm wearing right now? Oh, brother. Actually, I was going to cut you off. I was going to cut you off and say, you know, the D-VACs might be hurt in your heart a lot recently, but I noticed you're wearing a hat that I think really boosted your spirits.

Can you tell us a little bit about that decision that went into your mind this morning? Well, Kevin, yesterday I woke up, you know, a guy coming off of a losing streak for his MLB franchise, a guy, you know, waking up to a Bob Nightingale report that Zach Allen, Merrill Kelly, Josh Neeler, and A. E. E. E. Hennio Swares will be made available. This morning, though, Kevin, I woke up a world champion. I woke up a world champion. Campionis del Mundo, Kevin. And I just, yeah, it's just special, special. Chelsea FC, man. We just, all we do is win. All we do is find ways to win. Most bipolar club in the world.

We either suck or we're the best. There's no in between. And it means everything. But yeah, that did boost my spirits, Kevin. I absolutely needed that because it's been a rough go of it, to be completely honest. You know, all my team stink. The debacks are wildly disappointing, as everyone in this chat is aware of. and yeah looking at selling according to USA Today's Bob Nightingale we're going to get into that

here in a second but first I did want to talk a little bit of home run derby preview Kevin how do we feel about the home run derby in general what's the what is your overall you know likingness when it comes to the home run derby do you watch it do you skip it like What's the typical annual Kevin vibe around the home run derby? The home run derby is fun, man. I enjoy watching it, especially if there's some, I mean, forgive the pun. Forgive the pun, but some real heavy hitters in there. Like if there's people I'm truly interested and I'm like dying to watch it.

It is better when there's fat guys in the home run derby. I agree with that. That is an astute comment. Big poppy. Yeah, big poppy, Prince Fielder. Those were the days, man. You're so right about that, Kevin. 100% bro.

I enjoy watching it. I think it's a fun pastime. I don't know if I'll be watching it this year on account of no Gino. I almost feel like it's boycott worthy. A Kevin protest, if you will. I think it's Kevotest. I'll figure that out later back to the workshop, but there's a Kevin protest in there somewhere for this Gino Suarez thing because there's no way he shouldn't be in it.

The man's going to force a local reporter to dye his hair teal and we don't have him. A mayor. Yeah, a mayor to die his beard teal. and we don't have him in the home run derby. No one else is moving mountains like that, except for Gino Suarez. The man is petitioning for it himself. He said, yo, I would love to be in the home run derby, to be special to be in the home run derby.

And then we're just giving spots away. Jazz Chisholm hasn't hit a home run since Reagan was in office, and we're just giving spots away because the guy looks cool and he's on the MLB, the show cover, and we have to make up the money on the back end on that. It's smooth jazz, baby. It's ridiculous. Smooth jazz, yes, but it's never been heavy hitting jazz, no.

Heavy, you know, 808s. They don't do that in jazz. They do so smooth. He is the worst odds for a reason. I hate it. But A. Johannesaurus is an all star. He should absolutely be in this competition.

He made a comment a couple weeks ago or a week ago or so where he said that, yeah, he would love to compete in the home run derby. And that would be something he'd really be interested in. So it's unfortunate that he didn't get that opportunity. And I do respect your boycott, Kevin. I, in fact, would be boycotting it if it weren't for gambling on it. And that's where I got these odds from Vett 365 to talk about here. We have our home run derby odds.

Shout out Seth, intern Seth, who made the graphic. Cal Raleigh plus 275 as the leader. O'Neill Cruz plus 300. James Wood plus 400. Did you see James Wood practicing? No, I did. Oh, man, just hit an absolute nuke shots. I do like the James Wood pick right there.

I will say, though, Kevin, when I'm looking at these odds, don't you think that like the the first three guys are like, why even bet on him? It's the home run derby. All these guys can hit home runs. They're major league baseball players. Yeah. Why would you bet on the guys who are that high up

when you have all that value on the guys that are lower than that? Because I just watched James Wood hit about 50 nukes on a Twitter video. And so I'm feeling a little froggy on James Wood. But I do think that you're right. Like I think there's something to be said for like a Matt Olson per se, right? Because someone who has the. the ability to hit a bunch of bombs, but maybe not the low value that you might have on an O'Neill Cruz or a James Wood as much as I love the video I saw or a Cowell-Rolly.

Brent Rooker, how are we feeling about a potential Brent Rooker? I don't know. A junior Caminero at plus 1,200 there, Jazz Chisholm. We're not betting on jazz chisholm out of pure protest. When we get back from these odds real quick, Damon, I want to ask you, if Gino Suarez is on this list, what would his odds be? to win it, you think? I think he'd be in the Matt Olson range, personally.

That's my opinion. I think that, you know, he wouldn't be one of the favorites, but he'd be way more condensed in the middle. And I think that'd be pretty good value on Gino. I do, I do agree with you. I think that out of the favorites people that James Wood is probably the person that I'm most like, okay, I could see how that would maybe be, you know, a decent value. I kind of like that pick.

But I'm going with Matt Olson. looking at those odds. Like, I don't know if you guys are aware, but the MLB All-Star game this year is at Truest Park in Atlanta. Matt Olson is, can you pull up that list one more time for me? I think if you're talking about conventional power hitter, is he the most conventional power hitter here on this list? I think so.

I mean, I know Cal Raleigh's leading baseball and home runs this year, so you got to give him that, that, that credence as well. There's a reason he's the favorite. But after that, I really, I mean, Matt Olson has done this in this league for a long time.

Like this isn't, he's not, you know, this isn't some purple patch run of form where he's going crazy and then now he's in the home run to be like, this is a guy who hits 40 home runs consistently, 30 home runs consistently.

So given that it's his home park, given that he's going to have the fans backing him, given that he's, you know, uh, consistent, sustained power hitter. I'm going with Matt Olson, man.

And you know something special, Kevin? What? Our friends at Bet365 have boosted Matt Olson to win from plus 900 to plus a thousand. So download the Bet365 app. Use our promo code PHNX365 when you sign up and get in on that boost because that's what I'm in on. And I love it. I absolutely love it.

But Kevin, I did want to ask you a quick question before we moved on from this topic. There's a little game that's pretty popular out there. Okay. It goes by the name of F. Mary Kill. I would like to F. Mary Kill, the home run derby, the dunk contest, and the three-point contest. Let's do it me and you right now. You know, before we do this, I love the way you frame this question because there's, as I like to say, I've stolen this from Jedmishu, but there's a million ways to eat Eterisuse. You know what I mean?

And there's a million ways you could have asked that. question, but we did go down this road. So, FMK, Home Run Derby, three-point contest. What was it? What was the other one? Dunk contest? Dunck contest, yeah.

Marrying the dunk contest. Wow. It's a classic. We go back so far. We have so many good memories, you know, all the way from Dominique Wilkins to back in our modern day. You know, we still got, we still igniting that spark with Blake Griffin

jumping over the Kia. That's fair. And then, you know, sometimes you find a Mac McLung in your relationship and things get a little rocky, but we're trying to get past that. You know what I mean? And we're going to get back to the glory days in our relationship. Well, Mac MacCle is the only good thing that the dunk contest has going right now, my brother. I know, but that's my point, though, is that Mac MacKung is the only good thing the dunk contest has going. And I'll say that.

But I'm going to marry the dunk contest. I'm going to kill the three-point contest. Wow. I just don't care about it as much. lights out. This isn't like the time of the NBA where there were like five elite shooters. We got a bunch of elite shooters now. And I think like it's fun when you bring in like a Steph Curry versus Sabrina I and SQ situation.

That's fun. That's innovative. That was fun. Yeah. But I think in general, until they reimagine it in a way that consistently captivates me, we're killing the three point contest. And that means that we're having a little bit of a fling with the home run derby. Because like I said earlier, once in a while, the home run derby just steps.

out in an outfit and you're like sheesh that's a nice lineup you got going on you know what i mean but then every once in a while it's like why didn't you put gino in there i'm not sure if you know talk to me next weekend you know what i mean talk to me yeah here's here's where i like your list i like your reasoning i'm going to switch the home run derby in the dunk contest on my list because i think that the home run derby is to me at least it's it's it's mr consistent it's reliable. I'm going to turn it on. I know what I'm getting out of it. Uh, you know, I know dinner's going to be on the table when I get home. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a relationship that I think that has benefited the both of us, really at the end of the day. The, the dunk contest, the reason I'm going

F the dunk contest is because like some years, you, I mean, sometimes you get a crazy dunk contest where you're like, Aaron Gordon did what? And sometimes you're like, you're like, man, that absolutely. sucked. That was horrible. And that's why I'm like I can't. I don't want to go home to that when I'm when I'm sitting when I'm sitting there and I'm like God, I just hate her tonight. You know what I mean? So that's that's kind of that's kind of why I'm I'm going to switch out on those ones. Was there a different like all star game skills competition that I missed that I should have done

instead? Because I was thinking NHL and I know they do like fastest shot stuff. They're still figuring it out. It's really not that. Yeah, it's really not that crazy. The Pro Bowl stuff obviously sucks. Everyone knows the Pro Bowl is the worst. I think you got the right three. NBA skills competition is rubbish. Like, it's just not good. Like, you got Wemby and Chris.

You got it's rubbish. You got Wemby and Chris Poe trying to game the system. Oh, that was brutal last year. Yeah, it's just like some of these all-star competitions pretty much across the major leagues are just not great. Just no one taking it seriously. But yeah. Yeah.

That's why the Homebren Derby is cool because they do take it. seriously. I feel like every year. Like there's never a year where like some guys going up there being like, oh, gee, oh shoot, I guess I'm out already. And you're like, no, everybody's legitimately putting in an effort to try to win the whole thing. So that's what I like about it. The dunk contest can be hit or missed. Yeah. But John Freeman says the sad thing about the home run contest is missing a lot of good players. Same can be sad about the dunk contest, right? Like LeBron never competed in the dunk contest. John Morant, where you at? That would have been egregious back in. the 80s and 90s, you know, MJ was in the dunk contest.

Like, that's what the big stars did. And now it's just not like that. So that's the way sports have gone a little bit. But we'll be tuning in. I'll be betting on Matt Olson with our friends at Bet 365. You're going to go James Wood. James Wood. I think I'm going to put some money on it.

I love it. We're going to talk more about just kind of the festivities of the weekend. The futures game happened. How did the Diamondbacks players perform in it? We're, of course, going to get to your mailbag questions. And we're going to talk about buying versus selling at the day. deadline, as you already know. We'll do that right after the break here on the PHNXD Back show.

But first, let's talk about game time. Game time is the absolute best place to buy last minute tickets. I did so when I was in San Diego, not this Sunday, but the Sunday before. I waited until day of. I waited until hours before. Kevin, I was sitting on the beach tracking the numbers on my phone. I kept seeing the tickets go down. And what did I do?

I just waited until the last minute, got my tickets, got a cheap price, and absolutely. loved my seats. One of my favorite things about the game time app is they show you the view from your seat before you buy the ticket so you know exactly what you're getting into. And it's it's, they show you the fees as well. They're not going to hide those fees and mask them until the very final moment when you have them in your car. No, they're going to tell you exactly how much these tickets are going to cost while you're in the process of buying them. Best place to buy major league baseball tickets. Of course, if you're a diamondbacks fan, you can get game time tickets at the absolute lowest price right before the game start, not the game.

I wasn't going to say the game time, but right before the game start, you can get those tickets and you will get the best price possible. So head on over to game time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app. Create an account and use code pH and X for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download the game time app today.

Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Kevin, what time is it? Game time. Game time. another one of our fine sponsors that we love to talk about is all pro shade concepts. Guys, we all know how hot it is in this damn forsaken hellhole. And I know that all pro shade concepts is going to be, you know, your go-to stop

in terms of trying to make your outdoor space livable. They have custom fit awnings over 100 styles and colors that can, you know, absolutely just change your outdoor living space. It makes it almost up to 20 degrees cooler. You get remote controlled LED lighting. You name it. All of the bells and whistles. And you know all pro-shade concepts have, has it.

Espo got his done. He's absolutely in love with his custom fit awning. And they're voted number one by ranking Arizona for patio shades in 2024 with A-plus ratings in over a thousand five-star reviews on Google. They've been in business for over 20 years now in the Valley. They started off as just a local small business trying to help their friends create some custom awnings and it has skyrocketed, it is catapulted into becoming one of the most successful and largest installers of patio roll-down shades and motorized awnings in the valley. So you know where

to go, license bonded and insured, call 623201476 or visit All-Proshate Concepts.com now to schedule your free estimates. Damon, I saw an All-Pro Shades Instagram ad the other day. Yeah. The motorized ones, I've literally, I'm not even just saying this because they're sponsoring the program. I've never seen nicer outdoor shades in my life. I wouldn't call myself an aficionado, but of the ones I have seen, it looked incredible. I need one so badly.

But please continue the show. Go check out our GM Espos Instagram as well. He has an ad on there that he did with the All Pra Shade Concepts team and when he got his shade installed. And it is beautiful. It is pristine. I agree with you, Kevin. They look,

I've said that that's the dream. It is. Having an outdoor, living space that's up to 20 degrees cooler custom fit awning uh maybe some misters a bar area hot tub like that's the dream that's my dream at least potentially an outdoor sauna oh brother now you're talking now you are absolutely preaching to the choir um another thing that might be preaching the choir for some people who have been banging the table for it uh bob nightingale reported that the arizona diamondbacks will be making available josh nailer and a y hunnau

Suarez as well as pitchers, Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly. Now, when we had Jesse Friedman on the show last Friday for postgame, he mentioned that Ken Rosenthal had a report where it was made clear that that the Diamondbacks don't want to trade both Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly. I think that that probably holds true because they just don't have the minor league pitching depth in this organization.

And Jesse made the point of like, how much are you trying to win if you're trading one of those guys, which is fair, like maybe you should try to lose, but I just, this team can't just put out there a double A caliber pitcher for a half of a season and ride with it. So I expect one of those guys to be gone. I expect one of them to stay.

And then you have Josh Naylor and Ae Hunio Swares who both you can offer qualifying offers to. If you do offer qualifying offers to them, and then they sign with another team, you get that competitive balance pick that you saw the Diamondbacks utilize yesterday when they selected Patrick Forbes out of Louisville for the Christian Walker pick. But yeah, I mean, I think that this is a situation where the Diamondbacks are clearly

in the thick of things in the wild card race. I should have gotten us a standings update here going into this show, and that's my mistake. But when you're looking at the Wild Card standings as currently constituted in the National League, The Diamondbacks sit in seventh place in the National League. They're just ahead of the Marlins. They're ahead of the Braves, but they're behind the Reds, the Cardinals, the Giants, the Padres, the Mets, and the Brewers. There's three wildcard spots, but they're not, if you erased all three of the teams that are currently in it and added three more, the Diamondbacks still would not be in the playoffs.

They're currently five and a half games out of the wild card. And at what point do you put your hands up and say that building towards 2026 and building towards 2027, is the best place for this team to have a chance of actually winning something because it just hasn't worked out in 2025. And it should have, and you have a lot of really talented players, but it just hasn't gone your way in terms of losing a lot of close games, having a horrific bullpen, and having just a million injuries from top to bottom on this roster.

The debacks sit at 47 and 50. They salvage a game against the Angels in the last game of that series by winning 5 to 1. It was a good win. You know, Merrill Kelly goes out there. He does his job. exactly what you expect out of Merrill Kelly. Kevin Ginkle is back. I will say that that's the one thing we can hang our hat on from a bullpen standpoint

is Kevin Ginkle is he actually looks decent and he's gotten his ERA Kevin down to 818, dude. That's huge. No longer Kevin Stinkle. He's back to being the Kinkle. Yeah, 818 is, uh, that's, if you have an ERA under eight and a half, you're, you don't stink anymore. Well, maybe, maybe not as stinky, you know, there's a little bit of a stench, but we're grading on a curve, uh, we're grading on a curve, uh,

in Arizona. But it was a good win yesterday. It was a good win yesterday. Gino has another big game. And I think that, you know, I was talking to my parents. We were watching the game yesterday. It's going to hurt to lose a guy like Gino Suarez if you trade him. Because he's such a good guy.

He said he wants to stay in Arizona. Like he's explicitly said that. He's having a great season. He's missed her consistent. And my dad made the good point to me, which is like, the third base position has been a black hole for this franchise for how long. We finally have a guy who's Mr. Consistent and you know what you're getting out of him game in and game out.

Yeah, you have like a season from Jake Lamb or you have a couple seasons from Chad Tracy, but ultimately the best third baseman we've probably had in organization history is like old Matt Williams on the tail end of his career. And I think that that's where you just have to sit there and be like, is this the smart move? Is this the right idea? trading Gino Svarez? I mean, how much are you really getting back for a rental like that? And I think with the qualifying offer situation,

that adds an entirely new aspect to this conversation, Kevin, that you have to bring in where it's like, if you're going to get a compensatory first round pick, the return if he signs elsewhere after you sign a qualifying offer, the return that you get for him in a trade package has to be better than whatever player you would pick with that pick. right like you you have the opportunity to get a late first round pick and that could be a very very high level baseball player if you're trading a rental are you even going to get that caliber of prospect back in a

trade likely not damon likely not and also to i mean i know this is a little bit off off the beaten path a little bit but still on the gino topic if gino is traded is derrick still indebted to his bet Derek has claimed no since I've joined the show. He has been very adamant that he will not be dyeing his beard if Gino Suarez plays for a different team when he hits number 40. Wow. I mean, honestly, I don't want to revel a conversation too much, but I don't get on this show a lot anymore.

And this is my opportunity to say, I think that is cowardly. I think that's cowardly. You've got to pay Gino back for all he has done for this franchise. And the least you could do is dye your beard. You know what I mean? But no, genuinely it would really hurt to lose a guy like Gino who is so consistent and is providing vibes. And provides pop to your lineup.

And I know that this lineup, you know, does have pop from time to time, but consistent pop in Gino. So honestly, Damon, yeah, I would hate to see Gino go. And like our guy John here said in the chat, trades are good if you win the trade. So if Gino is traded, you have better win that trade because you're trading a consistent everyday third basement. Yes, very true. and as 2 BMC says, like the asking price should be high, you can't settle for less. These are really good players. And the Diamondbacks are probably the team that teams across baseball look at the most and say,

like, hey, we could actually get some really, really helpful needle moving type of players from this organization. That's where Mike Hazan has to, I think, set the bar high. Like, we're not just selling these players to sell them. We're selling these players because we think that the players, the returns we're going to get are going to help this organization towards their ultimate goal of winning a world. series in the future. And yeah, it's a, you're in a difficult spot as Diamondbacks fans when it, when it comes to watching a lot of these players go out the door. Josh Naylor, I've long said,

I want to keep him. He's 27. I think that that's a guy that you build around and make as part of your nucleus rather than a guy that you sell off. But another situation, if you could get a return that's better than that qualifying offer that you could extend the guy, a compensatory pick you'd receive for that, then maybe you should sell him. If, if there's some, someone that you truly believe in it out on the market, I just think Josh Naylor is a good player and a good hitter, and I don't want to see good players go out the door, especially when they're reaching their prime age of baseball.

Someone made the comment the other night, which was valid as well, because I've been pumping up, like I want Josh Naylor to be kept, that Josh Naylor just doesn't hit enough home runs as a first baseman. I think that's a fair point. You got to supplement that power in a different spot because while he can get you 30 home runs,

he's probably more of a 25 guy. And that's really not needle moves. from a first baseman standpoint. Like Josh Naylor is pretty clearly a better hitter than Christian Walker, but he's not a better power hitter than Christian Walker. And you do need that element from your first baseman. That's where I think the Gino, Josh Naylor pairing works so well. Because at third base, you have a guy who hits home runs like almost any other third

basement in baseball. So that's why I really like that combo. And it sucks that you might see one, if not both of those guys, go out the door. but Killer Rex says that Derek is a coward. I think that's fair. Derek did quit on this baseball team. So totally understood. And yeah, I mean, when the going got tough, where did Derek Montia go?

Not here. That's all we know. No, he's in the homeland. He's in Puerto Rico, taken in the island. He'll be back on Thursday, taking off the All-Star break kind of time for Derek. But yeah, we're rocking it down in the meantime. John Freeman says Josh and Gina. you'd like to see them stay.

I think there's a lot of people that don't want to see these guys walk out the door. I know that I've been holding on until the last moment. Like, it hasn't been until recently on this, like, losing to the angels getting swept by the, or losing to the Royals, getting swept by the Marlins that I've been like, maybe we should sell. Because before that, I was pounding the table. Like, we need relief pitchers. We need, if we had a good bullpen, this team would be on a completely different level right now.

This team instead of 47 and 50 could be like 55 and, you know, whatever the hell amount of losses that would be. But that's that's a massive difference in terms of standings in future of this team. So that's where that's where things really just just hurt. Like I've been a big proponent of get me a middle rotation arm. Get me a couple good to decent bullpen arms. And let's see what this lineup has for us in the second half of the season. But things have just been, things have just been brutal in this final month stretch. And it makes you have to start asking serious questions about what the end goal of this season is. And if going 500 is really the way that we want to, you know,

end this year and let a lot of players that are on one-year deals walk out the door. But it's a similar situation with Zach Allen. You can extend a qualifying offers for him. You can get a player that, you know, is a borderline first round pick out of it. Or you could trade that piece and you could get that return back in the meantime. I really don't know what I would do with Zach Gallen. I think I would try to keep Merrill Kelly as Jesse and I talked about on Friday. I would first I would ask Merrill, hey, if we traded you, would you be interested in resigning in the offseason?

Because that would change some things for me. If he said no, then I'd probably say, you know what, then we're probably not going to trade you because we think that Merrill Kelly is, you know, one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball. I'd try to sign them to like a two-year, $45 million extension, keep them around for a good APY but not a big long contract and go from there. but Zach Gallen, I'm not sure I'm comfortable giving him the contract that he's probably going to want on the open market with Scott Boris. Does he even get that contract with how brutal he's been pitching? Because I'll tell you what, Saturday was just another game, Kevin. I don't know if you peep this on Saturday. I'm sure you've been kind of checked out with this god-awful baseball team.

Did you see Zach Allen's stat line on Saturday? Negative Ghost Rider. Zach Gowan pitched against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Saturday, Kevin. And he had five innings pitched eight hits allowed six. earned runs, two walks, three strikeouts. Wow. Against a bad Angels lineup. He wasn't in Gotham, so duh.

That's what he does. I mean, he's good in big games, and he's terrible against the bad teams, and it doesn't make any damn sense, but it's like, it sucks because it's like you want to ask for high return for Zach Gowen. He's been such an elite pitcher. You don't want to let him walk for nothing, but he's been so bad, what are teams going to actually trade for this guy? Jesse made the point of like he has a big enough name where he thinks that that can get you,

a net you a player or two that you like no matter what. I hope so, man. I hope so. I hope the Yankees are ready to give up their, their AAA team for Zach Allen. But I don't necessarily know if I see it coming or not. Let's get some of these comments up on screen here. We got Michael Dixon here saying if you trade Gino, just call Lawler up and let him play every single day and get ABs. I think that's what you have to do.

if you trade gino like we're we're not about winning if we're trading these players we're not about winning the rest of the way we might not be about losing and tanking because that doesn't necessarily do anything for you in baseball but we're totally not about making playoffs so it should be all jordan laller it should be all you know like i'm not saying that he needs to be starting every game but like show me some blaze alexander baby show me give me some some give me some give me some more Alec Thomas. I know he plays all the time, but like call up ADC. Like that's what I'm looking at if that's the move.

And I think also, by the way, Randall Gritchick, I think that's the most obvious sell, right? Because he's a platoon player. He could help a team in their left-handed lineup if they really need a left-handed hitting DH. And by that, I mean a guy who hits left-handed pitchers, not a, not Randall Gritchick hits from the right side. But, you know, I think that that's, he's on a one-year deal. get Rayno Gritchick to a contender. Probably not getting back much for him. But you got a lot of players that a lot of teams would want a piece of.

And yeah, it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate that we find ourselves here after a season that we were so predetermined would be a special one and be one that would take us places with the bare minimum being the postseason. But we're going to talk more about the MLB Futures game. and we got mailbag to get into. We'll do that right after the break here on the PHNX D-BACs show. You already heard me talk about it.

Bet 365. It's the best place to do your online gambling when it comes to sports betting. They have over 90 million users worldwide. They're huge overseas, Kevin. I don't know if you knew that. They've more recently become a big thing in America. But like Bet365 in England has been a thing forever. I don't know if you ever turned on like an English UFC stream back in the day.

The dots. all over, bet 365, over 780,000 events to bet on each year. Early payout offers across NBA, NHL, MLB, you name it, soccer, that are just the absolute best. and Bet365 pioneered the live in-game betting scene. So if you're watching the Home Run Derby tonight, I don't think there will be live in-game betting on that, but get your pre-game betting in on that. We already brought up the odds showed you, told you our picks for the contest.

Hit up that boost, that Matt Olson boost that I'm in on. It's just a it's a great bet that you're not going to find anywhere else. And they got the MLB early payout offer, as I already talked about. If your winner, if your team goes up five runs ahead, you get the instant payout, straight bets. You don't have to worry about if there's a miraculous comeback win. And with our diamond backs this season, you would absolutely love to have that early payout be an option for you because the debacks could easily go up five runs and then give it all back from their bullpen. So breaking news from bet three six five, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when you went when you bet. at $5.

Win or lose, sign up, use code PHNX 365. Deposit $10 in place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in bonus bets. If your bet wins or loses, bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals, player, props, futures, and more, whatever the moment. It's never ordinary. At bet 365 must be 21 plus and physically located in Arizona. If you are someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800 next step, the text next step, or 53342, or visit problemgambling.az.com.

Love bet 365. also love Circle K, a staple of the valley, a staple of the great state of Arizona. I was out of Circle K in the great city of Tucson yesterday, Kevin, as I was driving back up from spending some time back in the house that Damon built. But, you know, Circle K's, they're all over Tucson. They're all over Phoenix. They're all over Arizona. They're all over the world.

We were in Frisco, Texas, and they had Circle K's. And you know that it's America's first stop. Join the Inner Circle for free. It's the free membership program that's going to save you, 25 cents per gallon on your first five Phillips at the gas tank. It's so simple to sign up. You plug in a phone number and you pick a password and it really is that easy. Then you save three cents off per gallon every time you fill up after that.

They got all sorts of meal deals, all sorts of drink deals with the inner circle. And if you're not signed up for the inner circle, you absolutely hate free money. Join the inner circle for free by downloading the circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circlek.com for details. Kevin, two times in a row I've gone to Tucson. Gas Deb at Circle K because gas in Tucson is naturally cheaper than it is in Phoenix, as everything is. And what do I see when I'm, the second time in a row, right when I'm putting the, right when I'm putting

the pump back into its spot, back into its holster. Hey, it's Derek Montia from the PHNX D-Back show, but it goes away on me because I'm putting it back in the holster. So I'm trying to pull out my phone to get a video of it and then it goes away on me. Last second, both times. I was waiting for it this time and I didn't get it. But Derek is big in Tucson, man. He's on all the gas pumps in Tucson.

That's truly special. I mean, he's not on this podcast here, but he's in our hearts and more importantly in our circle case. You know what I love most about that, though, Kevin, is Derek is he's such a Tucson hater, right? But the last time he went to Tucson, I have on factual authority, he, him and his wife, you know, they spent the night there. They went to like some sort of like show thing that was out in Vale.

It might like at the fairgrounds. They ate at cup cafe at hotel Congress. And then he comes back and he's like, I had a lovely time in Tucson. And I'm like, I know you did Derek. You didn't need to tell me that. And then, and then, you know, what makes matters even worse, like the guy talks crap all the time. And then Tucson's the only city that even, you know, appeals to his, his, you know, sensibilities of wanting to

to be given, you know, air time like that, Kevin. Like, they're not, they don't have Derek on the gas pumps in Phoenix. No. He's nothing. He's nothing. He's nothing. He's nothing. In Tucson, he's, he's, everyone's like, oh yeah, that's the pHXD backs guy. We all know him. Go. No, and love him. Yeah. And it's like, it's like, dude. I don't know.

Like, maybe you got, you got it all wrong. Tucson loves you, brother. Jay Cuddy says, Derek, a secret you of a hero? He was on, he was on the, the AZ Wildcats podcast to talk about the opening college world series game against Coastal Carolina. And if you want more Arizona baseball talk, Kevin and I will be talking on the AZ Wildcats podcast later about Arizona's MLB draft picks.

But that's what we're going to talk about here in a second, Kevin. The Arizona Ironbacks have thus made their picks. And I mean, it's, you know, I'm not going to claim to be some sort of big MLB draft expert. I really am not. tomorrow I'm going to try to get on our friend Jordan Schusterman or one of the Cessbus family barbecue guys because they know a lot about MLV draft and we'll try to get their expert analysis on who the Diamondbacks have picked and what they've done thus far. But number one pick for the Diamondbacks, Kaysen Cunningham out of Texas, 18th overall pick.

You know, Kaysen Cunningham is a, he's a quintessential, left-handed hitting, power bat, you know, power profile, shortstop that you're getting out of the high school ranks. And it's a, it's kind of a hit or miss prospect when you pick a guy like that. Jordan Lawler was similar, although he was a more highly regarded prospect. But our guy, our guy, Kaysen Cunningham is, is, he was pretty highly regarded. You know, he was, I think he was rated by most prospect sites a little higher than 18th overall pick. Like MLB.com has him as the 14th best prospect.

So it seems as though the Diamondbacks got a guy in their range, but maybe a little bit of a steel even if you're, if you're considering that, he hit 509 his senior year at Johnson High School and racked up 23 extra base hits and stole 21 bags as well. Looking at his tool rankings here on MLB.com, they got him at a 55 overall ranking, of course, out of 70, or out of 80, I should say, 60 hit tool, 45 power tool, 60 run tool,

55 arm tool, 50 field tool, for a 55 overall ranking. Seems like a decent prospect. Seems like a decent prospect. High floor or maybe not high floor guy, maybe a high ceiling guy, but Mike Hazen likes to hit on these left-handed hitting, you know, position players.

That tends to be where he, where he goes in the early portions of this draft. And hopefully, you know, we get a guy that can help this organization in the future here. But as he is a high school prospect, probably going to take a little bit of time for him to get through the ranks, as we've seen with Jordan Lawler, and as we've seen with a guy like Drew Jones,

who is 20 years old and still nowhere close to making it to the major league level. So it seems like we got a good player here. You know, high contact, low strikeout hitter, great barrel control, according to MLB.com. Not a super physically imposing guy, but you know the Diamondbacks don't care about that. They care about how much pop you have in your swing, as we've seen with like a Corbyn Carroll who is you know mighty mouse if you will so uh yeah you're and you're right max uh or no i'm not max uh perfect remedy it does seem as though uh he he is a little bit

more of a of a contact first guy than a power guy i i speak incorrectly when i say that like i said i'm not the expert uh jordan schusteman is we're going to try to get him on tomorrow at a certain time and have him break down these prospects and what we could truly what diamondbacks fans truly should be seeing out of these prospects. But another guy that the dimebacks picked with their compensatory pick was Patrick Forbes number 29 overall out of the University of Louisville. So Patrick Forbes is a pitcher out of Louisville. We actually got to see Louisville play in the college world series.

Kevin, I don't believe that he played in the college world series or against Arizona. I'm trying to find that right here. but interesting that he is in Arizona Diamondback, right-handed pitcher right now is sitting about mid-90s, 95, 96 says he can top out at 100. They're grading his pitches, his fastball and his slider received really high grades, his change up in his curveball, they said need a lot more work. So, you know, I think that this is a guy that you could say is a pretty high floor prospect.

Like if he's touching 97, 98, and he throws a fastball and has a really good slider, I think he projects at minimum as a rotation or a back of your bullpen type of guy. Does he have the pitch arsenal and the ability to throw that hard for a myriad of innings? We'll see. He might not be a starting caliber pitcher,

but he definitely feels like a relief pitcher at the Major League level who absolutely could help this organization in the future. Brian Curley, another prospect, that the Diamondbacks have drafted out of the University of Georgia, sits 94-97, touches 100 as well, similar to Patrick Forbes, and is an absolute crazy person. Kevin, did you see this Brian Curley cat?

No. I want you to go to PHNX Sports Twitter right now, and I want you to look up the tweet that the Diamondbacks drafted this guy, 92nd overall in the third round. He's up there on the mound. He's like bouncing on the mound while he's about to pick. pitch and then while he strikes you out, he'll either like act surprised, like, be like, oh, wow, I didn't know I had that in me or he'll like, he'll like strut off the mound.

I mean, this dude is swag encapsulated. And I always talk about how I want pitchers that have personality and, you know, as much as as I love Merrill Kelly and I love Brandon Fott and I love how their energy is so much like we are the same guy all the time and that's why we are the way we are. I do love a pitcher who is going to get in your face and talk some crap to you. I mean, that video of him. It's crazy. Checking for the runner at second base,

sticking his tongue out at them, almost being like, nah, nana boo-boo, and then just turning it around, throwing a strike out, walking off the mound. Like, are you not entertained? Bring it on.

I love this. I mean, I need more Brian Curley highlights in my life. We need him to make the major league level, I think, for this exact reason, Kevin, because,

yeah, it's pretty, uh, it's pretty special stuff. Walk with me, Damon. I am walking. Brian Curley becomes an MLB, like, star level pitcher.

And the Diamondbacks are playing the Dodgers in the playoffs. And there's a high leverage moment. And he strikes out Shohei Otani, sticks his tongue out, does like the, uh, uh, uh, Adam. And then Shohei just is, is crushed. Roki Sasaki's crying. Yoshinob Yamamoto is just in shambles. I think, I think chills. Chills have just been sent down my spine.

Brian Curley effect is here. folks. I've never loved anything more. You know, Will Smith quits baseball. Max Muncie, you know, retires. Like, all of this would be great. But yeah, I need, you know what would be great? If Curley mocked the Shohei mocking Lord of Celebration, that would be great.

Yeah. Like, let's go, let's just, every time we play the Dodgers, let's just go arms out. You know what I mean? Like, that's just what we do from now on. If that's how they want to play it, that's how we'll play it. I agree. I agree, Jay Cuddy. We do need, we do need more characters on this team.

And I think that we have them right now. But there was a time period of D-Backs baseball. I would call it the Paul Goldschmidt era of D-Backs baseball, where we just were swagless, man. As much as Paul Goldschmidt's like a Hall of Famer and a great player, we were so swagless over that period of time where it was just like the most boring, mundane guy in every position on the field.

AJ Pollack, Jake Lamb, like give me some, give me guys with Flair that are fun. And that's why that's why losing a guy like Josh Naler or Gino would hurt because those guys are fun and they bring swag to the table. And that's exactly what I want out of my baseball team. But we have,

I believe folding folding Chable is R.A. Am I wrong? Yes. Yes, aka Cactus light. Yeah, he said he's not very fond of hitters. And Jay Cuddy agrees with me. Swaglis is such a good way of putting it. Yeah, we really did.

But now we do have swag, and that's where Brian Curley mixes in well. More guys that maybe could figure into being Arizona Diamondbacks in the near future played in the futures game this week, Kevin. And performed pretty well, actually. We had our guy Gino Groover or Lou James Groover, if I believe he changed his name too. Gino Groover, Lou James slash Lou James Groover,

was the only NL futures player to record multiple hits in the game, both of them being on ground balls that found a hole, so not like he was like just ripping the cover off the baseball. But two for two with a run scored. He's hitting 312, 386, 469 this year. And his 75 games in AA for an 855.5. OPS. So Gino Groover continues to be having a very, very good season, competes in the futures game

and performs admirably. Got one hit against a switch pitcher, Kevin. A Wawa? A switch pitcher. Wow. So I actually have more on this guy. Well, let's just get into it because it's, it's relevant as of right now. This guy's name, Kevin, gerangelo Siente. It sounds like a great, like, like Hispanic R&B. singer or something. You know what I mean? So I looked it up. That's not his real name.

I think his name is like Gene Michael or something like that. But Sinchay is, and I think I'm saying that right, he's unbelievable. Yeah, Jean-Michael, Gerangelo Sinchay. His nickname is Lou, apparently. He's a Dutch-born Kurosawaan professional player in the Mariners organization. So I was hoping to talk to Shane Diefenbach about this today. But this guy is a switch hitter and a switch pitcher. and a switch pitcher.

Wow. I mean, but he pitches from both sides at like a high level and he figures to be a pitcher in the major leagues. I think they say he's better from the right side.

So he might have to develop that left side of pitching a little bit more but it was, I was watching the highlights of this game, Kevin. He's throwing righty. He strikes a guy out in 98 and they go and here he has his ampidextrous glove.

He's going to switch sides on the mound and go from the left side here. And it was like, excuse me? He's going to, he's going to, he's going to what? That's incredible.

It's nuts, dude. Baseball, like sports just continue to get weirder and weirder with stuff like this, right? Like, people win on the margins. And, like, as sports get more popular and across time, and now you have, like, freaks like this who are just going to go out there and, you know, is, yeah, Frayno makes an unbelievable point.

He gets Tommy John surgery in an elbow. He'll just pitch with the other elbow. And then he recovers the other one. And then he'll do the same for next Tommy John. surgery. That's wild, dude. That is absolutely wild. I had to talk about that guy because I was just, my jaw was on the floor watching him. But we also have Slade Caldwell, who suited up for the Diamondbacks in the futures game, went 0 for one with a strikeout. He's been struggling since he got called up to the Hillsborough hops in high A hitting 191 and 26 games. So it hasn't exactly been

a great run of form for Slade Caldwell. But he had a 914 OPS in, in, in Visalia when he was playing for the raw hide. So a lot to work with there. Of course, he was the first round pick for the Diamondbacks last season in 2024 at 29th overall and a lot of high hopes for the Virginia product, left-handed hitting short outfielder. I know that you stopped me if you've heard this before. Mike Hazen picked another one.

But Slade Caldwell's big moment of the game came in, I think the middle endings, when A line drive got hit into center field, and he made a spectacular catch. There are times in baseball where you see a guy dive, especially when they're diving forward, I feel like, where it doesn't necessarily feel like they need to dive. It's more just like it was more comfortable for them to catch it while diving because you're leaning forward so much. It just makes more sense. This was legitimately like he jumped, leaped forward and made like a saving catch.

Uh, unbelievable catch from Slade called, well, And if you haven't seen that, go check out our PhNX underscore Dback's Twitter page where we have that highlight up and loaded absolute web gem. I mean, it's one of those catches where like you said, if he didn't fully extend, he was not making that catch. That was an unreal catch. This isn't a, oh, it's at the edge of my catch radius. Let me slide. Get some style points. Look really cool.

Like, I know I could do this. This is like he's actually taking a genuine chance. He can't get to that ball. Yeah, that's like an inside of the parker. Unless he completely lays out for that. And yeah, to your point, he dives out there and it hits him right in the palm and, ending over. What a play.

Yeah, absolutely. R.A. says, awesome diving catch in the futures game. 100%. That was a spectacular catch. Kevin, after the show, you have to listen to the audio, too. In the audio, they're, they're micing up the first baseman at the time that he catches it. And the dude, you get the dude's live reaction. And he goes like, oh, my God, what a grab.

He's like, he's like beside himself. You can't believe it. That is great. And it's just great stuff. But one last thing before we stopped talking about the futures game, Hosei DePaula. Isn't that a beast name? Lots of good names on this show today.

Hosei DePaula sounds like a future and will be star. And unfortunately, he will be because he plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bo. And he hit a three-run bomb in this game. Probably player of the game. and as he was about to hit it, they were like, he has the best approach in the minor leagues of any hitter. And I was like, oh, that's good.

I'm glad. Awesome. I can't wait for them to either trade him for a superstar or he becomes a superstar himself because there's only two options there. And of course, I like, you imagine my shock, Kevin, after I'm like, who does this guy play for after he hits the bomb? And it's like, he plays for the Dodgers. And I was like, great, that's awesome.

Just instantly six to your stomach. Yes, 100%. They just do it over and over again. So that's your prospect update. That's your own will be draft update. As I said, we're going to try to get on Jordan Schuesterman of Zesbitt's family barbecue tomorrow or some other form of draft expert. So we can get a pure analysis breakdown of what the Diamondbacks will be getting in their

players that they drafted, whether that be Patrick Forbes, whether that be our guy, Kaysen Cunningham. We will see on that one. but you know that we got to get to the mailbag still on a mailbag Monday. We're going to do that right after their last break here on the PHNX D-Backs show. Everyone knows, and they've heard us talk about it a million times. Empire Today is the best place to get your flooring done. They have a professional install.

It's a quick process. It's an easy process. And they are the flooring experts. This isn't a situation where you're going to some big box store. And these guys are like, this is a way to make an end's meat. They were working at Rubio's, you know, the week before and they just quit to go get a new job and, you know, like, oh, yeah, I mean, I like this job. Oh, yeah, I could search through our online catalog and try to find what you're

looking for. No, Empire Today as people that specialize in finding you flooring that is going to fit your home properly, whether it's hardwood, you know, carpet, tile, you name it. Empire Today is the experts in it. They have all sorts of options, hundreds, if not thousands of options to choose from all types of color combos. And of course, they have the virtual floor designer where they'll come into your house, take a picture of your bedroom, living room, kitchen, whatever room it is, and show you exactly what that floor will look like in that room before you make a purchase that you end up regretting.

So that's why Empire today is the place that you're going to want to go to. It's the flooring experts in this country. And like I said, it's in this country. It's not just in Arizona. You can get this done nationally. So schedule a free and no estimate today because some things are just better. at home. PHNX listeners can receive a $350 discount when using code PHNX.

Yes, you heard that right. $350 with code PHNX. Restrictions apply to visit Empire Today slash PHNX for full details. Another place that we love talking about over here is Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Our guys over at PHNX Cardinals, you can tell that I'm no longer part of the crew because they went to A. Shula Stakehouse and got a comp room at Healer River Resorts and Casinos, and they didn't tell your boy about it at all, Kevin. And that hurt a little bit because there's no better place to stay vacation in Arizona than Gila River resorts and casinos.

You could take the fam like the like the Brocks and the Venerables did. They did take the fam. They took their small children and had a great time hanging out by the pool. Or you could leave the kids at home. Maybe drop them off at grandparents' house. Get out of the house. Get a hotel room. Have a nice night.

Have a romantic evening at A Shula Steakhouse or go to any of their other dining options. well from, you know, the medium options to the lower fast food scale that they got the Fat Burger over there. You're going to want to check it out. Healer River Resorts and Casinos, they have it all. They got the cabanas. They got the pool. They got the bars.

They got the live table games and slots. They got the shows you can go to. We love Healer River Resorts and Casinos. It's just like having Vegas in your backyard, guys. So, Kevin, I know you just moved to a V-Kiva, and you're excited to hit that guy up. I'll have to head out there with you because I have not had a chance to see V-Kiva. because I'm just a wild horse man. It's all I do.

I show up at Wild Horse. I hang out. I go to the BetMGM sports book at the top there, the biggest sports book in the state of Arizona, and I have a great time. You do you at Healer River Resorts and Casinos. Visit play at Heala.com for more details. Are you excited to go to Vkeva, Kevin?

1,000%, Damon. I'm extremely excited to find a new Healer River location. And I know it's going to be just as good as any of their other locations because truly there is no better place to do whatever you want to do than at Healer River Resorts and Casinos. I have Eric Ruby in my comments here talking some garbage about me putting noon 12 p.m. in parentheses. Hey man, I'm just trying to catch people's eyes. This is the social media game.

Welcome to the war. Apparently, the Diamondbacks have drafted Craig Counsel's son. Yes. Lando in the chat here says, Gino said he would help the Yankees won the World Series. Just interviewed him. Who just interviewed him? explain.

Give me further. Give me further context. I need a little bit more there. But Brady Counsel, son of Diamondbacks legend, Craig Counsel, has just been drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman in the 10th round. How cool is that, man? It's incredibly cool.

Dude, there's a picture of Brady Council sitting on the truck or sitting on a podium with Luis Gonzalez right when they won the World Series. series. That's incredible. Cinema, if you will. Wow, man. That's crazy. Probably born in Arizona. He played at Kansas. So the Diamondbacks or the, I'm sorry, the Wildcats got a chance to play him in the Big 12 this season. Really cool story, man. Full circle. Talk about full circle. Yeah, call them up already, Michael. I'm with you. But you know what time it is. Kevin, we do a little thing on this show every Monday. And we don't have Derek here this week,

but that doesn't mean that we don't continue to do the things that the people want. And there's a little motto I think that we have on this fine program. Every year is our year. Every month is, you know, grilling, national grilling month. Every month is, you know, uh,

What were some of the other months that we were talking about beforehand? Minority Mental Health Month? Yes. Shout out. Shout out to all. Every month is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Every health is sarcoma awareness month. Every month is women's history month.

Every month is Black History Month. Every month is Black Women's History Month. Every week is Shark Week, but especially this week because it genuinely is Shark Week. And every day is Earth Day. But on Mondays, we go to the mailback. I get to everything in my... Love that song. Nothing like that song.

We do have six mailbag questions, I believe, for you folks here. So why don't we hit on that first one? I got my lead off hitter, Travis Moore, as always. How do we feel about the debacks? First three picks from Sunday. Looks like high upside. Prep, middle infielder, and organizational pitching depth.

Yeah. I mean, as we talked about a little bit, we talked about those first three picks for a while on this show. I think Kaysen Cunningham looks like kind of a high up. upside guy, left-handed hitting shortstop. You know, Mike Hazen loves the left-handed hitting position players in the first round. And anytime you pick a prep middle infielder, you know that it's, you're risking it a little bit, right? Especially in the middle portions of the first round.

Not everybody works out. Will he stay at shortstop? That's another thing that's going to have to be considered. I mean, I didn't get a good look at his fielding tool. And like I said, we're going to go more in depth on this. but there's been, intern Seth told me off air before I hopped on this show that there was more first round short stops picked in this year's draft than any other draft in MLB history because if you're the best player on your high school team, you're likely the shortstop of the team.

So it's just naturally going to be that way. Will he switch to a different position? We'll see. But I think you go high upside there. And then, yeah, as you say, organizational pitching depth, you bring in two college pitchers who have, you know, they have at least one. good secondary pitch, they throw mid to upper 90s. I think that at the very least, those guys project to be bullpen arms at the major

league level. Maybe they're not starters. But anytime that you can draft a guy out of the first round that's going to actually be on your major league roster, I think that that's a hit in that regard. So Scott Max says that Cunningham is Altuvae short and he's not actually 5 foot 10. That's interesting. We'll have to monitor that. I mean, that's a big jump.

I will say that that's a big jump. 510 to Altuve short is that's about five inches of work that we're doing there. So maybe he's more like 5.8. But are you really concerned about 5.8? Mike Hazen likes to pick a lot of the guys that are that stature. And it tends to do pretty well. Like I know Slade Caldwell is struggling in right now in Hillsboro where he's at, but he's been really good thus far in the minors.

Alec Thomas was great in the minors, you know, in weights of the majors. and Corbyn Carroll is, you know, an MVP caliber player. So it's worked out picking the short lefty guys. Hopefully it works out in this case as well. Let's go on to our next question here. We got Mike Wazzowski. Is this the goat, Mike Wazowski? What do we think?

This is different, Mike Wosowski? No, but I'm saying, I'm saying, like, you think this guy's the best? Mike Wazowski or you think he's number two? Jury's still out. But for right now, our Wildcats guy, I think, is holding it down pretty strong. If not for longevity and output alone. That dude's crazy. We got Mike Wuzowski in here saying who we calling up after Swares, Nailer, and Gallen get dealt.

Is Tommy John surgery just random or is there an underlying cause for all these bad elbows? So first, to your first question, who are we calling up? We're in Swares, Nailer, and Gallen get dealt. That's interesting. I think you have to factor in that it's probably just going to be the people that are like in AAA right now. So, for example, Gino gets dealt. We talked about it already on this show. You figure Jordan Lawler comes up and is the everyday third baseman gets a lot of A-Bs

and you get to actually see what you have in Jordan Lawler. So maybe that could be some sort of, you know, positive underlying thing that comes out of trading a guy like Gino. When it comes to Josh Naylor, I would imagine that maybe Tristan English gets the call up. He's been in AAA Reno and he's slugging. granted everybody's slugs in Reno, but I can see at first base either you bring up Tristan English or you pick up a guy like a Josh Bell like you did last year. You wait for someone to DFA a guy who has major league experience and probably could be average or maybe slightly

below average in the process. So I think that's probably what you do. Scott Mack says Tim Tawa probably probably probably an option as well. He's probably a, you know, an option as well. He's played a good amount of first base this year. And Paven Smith, of course. Everyone's favorite Paven Smith, mine and Elise's favorite, Paven Smith. When he returns from the IL, he'll figure to probably be the everyday first baseman. So I would imagine that they, that's probably what they do.

Paving Smith plays first base every day. Tim Tawa gets the call up as the rotational piece to be backup and whatnot. And our DA situation is just in the gutter because Randall Gritchick is going to get dealt as well. So real quick, Damon. I do have an update on the Gino Suarez quote. he was asked about the potential trade rumors and potentially getting sent to the Yankees. He said, quote,

it's a team that wants to win. They're hungry still. If I got over there, I would do my best to try to help them win the World Series. End quote. I hate it here. He's getting dealt then. He wouldn't talk like that.

I don't think unless it was probably made pretty clear to him that they're probably going to try to get them to a contender. So that hurts. That hurts. It was good. Like it sucks too because it was good. year of Gino. The first half of last year was so rough.

Everybody wanted him DFAed, except for me and Derek and a handful of other people. And then he comes back, he tear second half of last year, tear first half of this year, and then now he's just going to find himself traded because this team stinks. That hurts, man.

That's tough to take as a Diamondbacks fan. Honestly, I hope that it's not much more than that. I know a lot of people would disagree with me, and I know a lot of people want to see, like, the entire team traded, which I think is like some of the most loser behavior I've ever seen from this fan base. And I'll be honest, I think a lot of you in here probably would agree with this. This fan base has become so toxic and just like it doesn't feel like people want to win.

It feels like people just want to be right about their predetermined takes, which really sucks. But yeah, I want to see a lot of this nucleus stick together. I want to win with this team. And I think that you can win with Josh Naylor and you can win with Merrill Kelly. in the future. Maybe you trade gallon, but I just don't want to see this entire team go on a fire sale, as our thumbnail says.

Wouldn't be my favorite. Scott Mack wants Hazen and Lovolo gone. I'll tell you what, buddy. Mike Hazen just signed an extension last off season and leveraged the Boston Red Sox to do so. So I believe he's going to be here for a while. And newsflash, Mike Hazen's guy,

Tori Lovolo, took him over, brought him over from the Red Sox organization. Tori Lovola sets up his Christmas lights at his house. Like, these guys are in lockstep with each other. And unfortunately, if you don't like them, I think you're probably just going to have to get used to liking them. But it's been a tough, it's been a tough season. The toxicity has been rough.

And we'll finish out this mailbag session as we go into overtime here on the PHNXD back show. Cesar says Suarez could do the Merrill Kelly thing, if you will, of, you know, potentially maybe wanting to come back home to Arizona or because he likes it here. We'll see. I mean, I know we have a lot of Venezuelan influence in this organization as well. Miguel Montero is back in the organizations, you know, like kind of in the hallways there.

Got Gabby Moreno. So he probably feels pretty comfortable at home, you know, given, you know, being in this organization. If you could do that, same one with Merrill Kelly. Like, I would be open to that. Ask him, hey, man, is that something you'd be down for? Because then I would trade him because I know I'd be getting him back, right? Um, so hopefully that's something that they pursue, man. Uh, you don't say that too often in sports, but, uh, it, it, it absolutely could be the case

if, you know, truly loves it in Arizona as much as he claims he does. Um, 2BMC agrees with what I would say is the downfall for this year. Burns, J. Martin Puck, like, you lost a lot of winnable games. There's no question you've lost a lot of winnable games. That being said, you could have pulled yourself out of that, that rut. if you had your best starting pitcher and your two best bullpen arms, but you haven't. And it's like that's the worst part is that all those guys are going to be out for a portion of next year too, at least, if not the entire year.

And I don't really know what Mike Hazen and Toro Villa are supposed to do about those injuries. I do think that there is criticism to be had about Mike Hazen when it comes to why, why are we so reliant on two arms where this bullpen is a triple A bullpen if they, don't have them. And he has never put together a good bullpen in his entire tenure here as GM. And he should bear criticism for that. So while I agree that those were the biggest factors into this season going downhill, I also would have to say that the, you know, the bullpen management from this organization for basically its entire history has been putrid. And you got to find a way

to fix that next season. I think the big plan next season has to be let's actually have a bullpen that benefits this team rather than hurts this team. Um, but yeah, it's, oh, Lando just said he got his $225 gallon in Souraz jerseys, uh, super excited to see them play in chase in the second half. I do believe that they have some sort of exchange program now, uh, like on through fanatics maybe. I don't know where you bought them, but I do think they have some sort of exchange program. Um, so hopefully you can, you can get your money back there if those trades do go through

because that would hurt. Um, but. Yeah, I think, you know, we're stuck with Mike Hazen and Toro Lovolo, for lack of a better term, for as long as we're going to continue this process. Kevin, I forget which one we were on. I think Mailbag three is the question we're on. Russell asks, what would you trade Gino, Naylor, Gallon, or Merrill for, Damon? Very broad question. Very broad question.

Actually, I think I forgot to answer the worst part of the second part of the second question. Which was about the, what's causing the T. Yeah, to which I would say like genuinely no clue. And if I did know, I think the dimebacks would be paying me, right? Like that's, it's probably a mix. Brian Kaplan's thing was supposed to be that he keeps people healthy. It hasn't been the case. I don't know if it's his fault.

I'm guessing it's more of a freak accident thing. But I would imagine that it's a mix of the management of their arms, plus a mix of just being completely unlucky. But yeah, that's really a question for a much, much small. more individual than myself. The next question here, as we get to it, what would I trade these guys for, the four rumored players that were made available? As I said, man, Gino Naylor-Gallin, all qualifying offer guys.

I'm not sure if Merrill Kelly is or not, he might be, but those three, as I've said, I'm not trading them unless the haul I get for them is better than what I would get from a compensatory draft selection. whoever that may be. If you feel that the 2026 M.O.B draft has is deep and there's a good, you know, 40 players in it, then I need a really good prospect in return for one of those guys. Otherwise, I'm not making that trade. So I think that it's got to be, it's got to be almost a first round caliber talent that you're getting back.

And I know that's weird because that's not really how baseball works. Like, it's not like the NBA or like the NFL in that regard. But I definitely think that you need, you need to bring back high caliber prospects or extend those qualifying offers and let them walk elsewhere or have them back on their one-year deals because that's not the end of the world either, but all those guys are good players. Zach Allen, I think maybe you could get a little bit more than just that prospect for because pitchers are at a premium and he might be the biggest name on the market. Merrill Kelly, I would need a lot for because as I've said a million times, I'm trying to bring

back Merrill Kelly this this offseason. He's grown up in the valley. He went to ASU. There's no reason that guy shouldn't be an Arizona Diamond back next season. opinion, he's nothing, if not consistent. So I think you got to trade those guys for for high profile prospects or else it's just not even worth it. Scott Max says he wants a lockdown closer.

Finnegan is not a lockdown closer. I'm going to nix that right now. That guy's not great. He's okay. He's about as mid as it gets. But that might be good for the most mid team in baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks. The other guys on there for sure. King Felix Batista and David Bednar

Absolutely get either one of those guys In an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform And I'm doing cartwheels Maybe Duran I think the twins are better than the time backs I just want Duran back And that celebration or that walkout Is the most electric thing in sports

Have you seen that Kevin? They posted it went viral this week again I think so Yeah I think I did see that Unreal dude I can't you know he used to be a diamond back organization I did actually traded him I did actually know that isn't that just the perfect encapsulation of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

You have a guy who's going to be the best closer in baseball potentially, and you trade him out the door, and now your bullpen is just awful forever. If he was here, he wouldn't be good, though. That's the problem with that, you know? No, totally, yeah. We can't develop a bullpen arm like that. Absolutely cursed. Really is.

Really are cursed. 2BMC says, Ginko and Thompson both slumped hard for a while, and we're expected to be solid. Graveman was expected to be half decent. Only Shelby exceeded expectations. and now Shelby's on the aisle as well. I agree. I think Ginkle hopefully looks like he's pitching a little bit better,

but Thompson really let you down. Ginkle really let you down this offseason. Graveman did as well. Backus looks good. I know we have high hopes for Bacchus, and he looks pretty good. I still think he got something there in Murillo, even though he's not Murillo.

I should say even though he's not the best. He has control issues, but you can't give up on a guy like that. And I want to bank on people that throw 100 rather than people that throw 92. but yeah, it's a tough, it's a tough spot here as Arizona Diamondbacks fans. Let's get into the next question here. Kevin, I believe, Mailbag four piece of Yoshi asks, is there a tiny chance McCann gets moved as well with Zach Gallen?

Here's what I'll say about that. You better hope not because I think Derek Montia is probably in Puerto Rico, realizing how sweet life is not having to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks every day. If you take his sweet, sweet, sweet, massive. arm James McCann from him as well. I'm not sure he'll ever come back, Kevin. Massive muscles McCann? I don't think he'll ever come back.

I mean, if you're on a beach, thinking about McCann's massive muscles, and then you find out... That is in fact what Derek is thinking about at this exact moment. And then you find out that he's gone by the time you get off that beach, you might ship yourself back there

as quickly as humanly possible. I honestly, I would blame Derek, but human to human, I would get it. Yeah. And he can just follow and cover whatever team James McCann goes to next. But Scott, Scott Mack is right in the comments here. And I know this created a lot of controversy on Dback's Twitter in the last few days

because you got a player's dad in the comments regarding a DFA Herrera tweet. And I, you know, it's a, it's a sticky situation. I know that there are some players that watch this program, you know, because we talk about this team every day and they're naturally going to want to listen to what people are saying about them. And you have to be careful, right? Like there's, you know,

we've made some mistakes in the past maybe regarding a particular shortstop and how we acted when he was let go. But the, you know, the, like, it's, you want to be professional. You want to be respectful of these guys. It's their jobs. But at the end of the day,

we're here to win baseball games. And Jose Herrera is not helping you in baseball games. Like, he's not a good hitter. He's a sub 200 guy. he's not a good fielder apparently he calls a good game and the pitchers all like him and i think all the players in the locker room like him and and you know he's out of options so if you get rid of him you have to release him and hope that he clears waivers which he probably would get picked up by another team as a backup option i would think but i just can't see how you can keep him over

james mccan man james mcana is probably i don't want to say fixed because zach allen sucked again this weekend, but he's been the best duo with Zach Gowan this year. He seems to be very liked by the pitching staff and the pitchers that are caught by him. And he's been contributing at the plate. He's better defensively than Herrera, and he's much better offensively thus far than Herrera is. And, you know, as much as Jose Herrera has been a part of this team for a while and this culture and this locker room and the power of friendship and Tori Lavolo and how much he believes in this guys is part of the reason that this team is locked in and why they,

they don't give up and why they're, you know, they're good when they're, you know, labeled as underdogs and whatnot. You do have to make some tough decisions. And in this case, I think, yes, that includes keeping James McCann and Diffing Jose Herrera. That's my take on the matter. And if you trade him with Zach Allen, you might as well be trading the mayor, Derek Montia, along with them. And, you know, I think, you know, a lot of people are, you know, with us when it comes to that.

Yeah, I mean, you got a lot of comments up here in the, up here in the chat. I don't want to call anybody out in particular. That's, you know, a topic for another conversation. But there has been a lot of, all I will say is that there's been a lot of negativity and a ton of toxicity towards this team. And it's been, you know, it's, it's been rough as Diamondbacks fans that are, I think, you know, have a way more positive outlook. And I don't think that, Kevin, I think you can attest that.

this. I'm not the type of guy who's like Mr. positivity when it comes to sports. I try to see it like it is. I tend to think of myself as a realist. I'm going to celebrate the big moments and take the piss, if you will, and I'm going to be depressed in the bad moments.

But it just the season, the way that Diamondbacks fans have acted has just been so brutal. The season has been brutal to be fair, and I understand that. But we could be respectful of people, also saying that, yes, James McCain gives his team a better chance of winning than Jose Herrera does as currently constituted, and therefore he should be on the roster over

Jose Herrera moving forward. I agree with you. And I think, how do I say this properly? I think sometimes on the internet you get people who invest a lot of their emotional energy into the team on a day-to-day basis. And I think, you know, there is the argument that, yeah, man, we're fans, we're supposed to be fanatical. but there is a line, I think, there of,

at what point are you like not being positively, at what point are you not positively affecting the team itself? Yeah. Like at what point are you rooting for the team success versus at what point are you just trying to root for your takes? Project ways that you feel about other things. You know what I mean? It'd be like, Kevin, if, you know,

to bring it into our world, it'd be like if going into this year, we were like, Brent Brandon's not the guy, so I hope we go 0 and 12. Yeah. That's not how you, That's not how you act as fans. That's just you wanting to be correct.

Correct. When things go poorly. So that you could tweet about it and everybody will tell you how smart you are and all this stuff. It's like, I want my team to win, man. Yeah. And I'll worry about the, you know, who's not helping us win and what we can do to make that better as we go. Right? Like that's why I just said, I'm Diefing Jose Herrera if I'm Mike Hazen.

Right? Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sugar-coding it. It's just that there's a difference between doing that. being like Jose Herrera is a bum get him off this team sucker and you're like you're like he's been on the team for three seasons

like he's a good dude I don't know and like to the people in the chat that are saying like facts don't care about feelings that is correct like there is a way to do the facts don't care about feelings take on social media without like being actively mean about it you know what I mean I think you can just present the facts and let them speak for themselves

and if people want to get in their feelings about it then then you can have that conversation then but I think like a lot of like Dback's Twitter right now is like starting in the feelings place. Yeah. And then backing up their feelings with facts. And I'm not saying that anyone in our chat is doing this, but like we're kind of speaking about the broader,

more popular social media posts that are starting to go viral around. Well, I think a lot of people that share those sensibilities in this chat often. I mean, obviously you see all the fire Tory stuff. Scott Mack, not happy with Tori or Hazen, but he's,

you know, he's a respectful member of this chat. He's allowed to have his own opinion and totally, totally understandable. Like, I mean, I've always admitted. I'm a Tory

Hazen Stan. I love both those guys. I think they are the right guys for this organization. I know a lot of people disagree with that, but we can disagree with that and still respect each other and respect the players that are out there on the field, right?

But a couple last questions to get to. We got Mailback 5 here from All-Star, Crobent Carroll, and their enthusiast. He says, who wins in a race? Corbyn Carol are the free. it's Corby and Carroll and it's not even close

right I mean yeah unless we're talking about like the actual Cartoon character the freeze but like sliding on ice the human freeze oh no that's Frozone yeah the human freeze and not being Corbyn Carroll

Frozone all time superhero right Where's my super suit like legitimately like one of the most underrated characters Yes the history of cinema 1,000% But yeah I think I think Corbin Carroll smokes the freeze

Is that crazy Probably not lost a step, bro. I mean, the real question is how serious... How serious is Corby and Carroll taking this? You know, like, this is probably an all-star weekend event. He doesn't want to pull a hammy. Is he going to go, like, 75, 80% or is he going to go...

We're assuming he's going 100. Then he smokes him, yes. I think so. I mean, this is a guy that has the two fastest triples in the league or whatever it is. Maybe three... I don't know what it is, but he has all the fastest triples. He's missed for triples. And, you know...

The one thing that I will say is Corbin's a little bit more. I'm sure he's better moving agile. like going the reason he has those fastest third base times is because he's really good at moving around right like he can he can turn a corner at his top speed and accelerate really fast and get to his top speed whereas a lot of guys are more like they like to stride it out and run straight i don't know if i know the freeze is definitely a former track guy right like we don't know who he is but we know that he for sure was someone that ran track in college at the very least i think that's a safe assumption yeah Michael Dixon in the chat says they change it every so often, but it's usually just the D1 sprinter.

Yeah. You're going against the guy who goes stride for stride in length. So that's where I think it might be a little bit. If they're running around the bases, Corbyn smokes him. If you're running on the warning track, that's where maybe the freeze could stride out and just beat Corbyn, because most D1 sprinters are tall and have big strides. And Corbyn is short and has short strides. And there's a reason like a guy like L.A. D. La Cruz is faster than Corbyn at his top speed because he strides out like that and Corby is more choppy with his steps.

But Corbyn's acceleration is bar none in baseball. Scott Mack said there's no more creating chaos on the base paths. It does feel that way. I do really think that one thing that this team has really lost sight of is 2023 the way that they played baseball in terms of creating chaos on the base pass, situational hitting, moving guys over, bunting, sack flies, all that stuff. They don't do that anymore. They hit way more home run.

which is good and they needed that after 2023 because part of the reason that they lost the World Series is because they didn't have the power bats in their lineup that could change games like Corey Seeger and Adolas Garcia did in that series. But you fix that by bringing in a guy like Gino and then you lost all of your identity before that. And that's the part that stinks. You need to find that identity again because that's just the gritty kind of underdog mentality that is going to make this organization successful. But we got one more mailback question. Let's get to it. A. E. E. Hennios Torres is not in the home run derby.

Do we ride at dawn? Cesar says it. Cesar is here in the chat. I'm glad he made it for his question. And brother, you already know we're riding at dawn. And I'm bringing my snake with me. Kevin, where will you pick up your pitchfork and torch

to storm the Moby offices? Do they got those at Home Depot? Lowe's, maybe? Yeah. I'll probably pick one of those up at Lowe's. Sure, sure. might make one out of just the pure hatred that I have for the for the fact that it's happening in in itself. I might just manifest it out of out of thin air.

You never know fire. You know, be fire if we got a bunch of jazz instruments and like lit them on fire. Would that be dope? They probably make some pretty cool music. Like the heat expanding the metal and like you'd hear. Douse like a saxophone and kerosene and just like light the match and be like that's how we feel about jazz. Yeah, no. Maybe or maybe just like take some vinyals and burn the.

the vinals or something. It absolutely is anti-snakes bias from Manfred. And Rob Manfred doesn't give a single crap about the smaller market teams in this league. He would prefer that the Yankees and the Dodgers played the World Series against each other every season. And that is solidified by the way in which baseball goes about their legalities and their rules and their processes and just allows big market teams to have a leg up constantly. So you're right.

There's a hundred, that's 100% why Gino's not in it. If Gino got traded to the Yankees by now, he would be in the home run derby. Fact. Fact. So it seems pretty black and white. Seems pretty simple. And I'm, I'm actually tired of it. I'm tired of what I'm tired of, Kevin, is I'm tired of the NBA seeing what the NFL does

and being like, you know what we need in this sport? Parity. Give me the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Indiana Pacers in the finals. And everyone will love it. And we did. We did love it until Halliburton got hurt, obviously. But it was a great series. and it was so much fun

and you got to see legitimately the two most deserving basketball teams rather than just like, you know, Lakers Celtics or whatever, every year. And in the NFL, it's been like that for a while. That's why it's any given Sunday. Whereas baseball goes the opposite way because they want the international markets

and those teams perform better in the international markets. How about doing right by your fans that actually like the league right now? How about getting people in this country to like, the sport instead of baseball slowly in, you know, just kind of deteriorating and popularity. It's so annoying, man.

And it's the one thing that grinds my gears about baseball more than anything. But yeah, 20203 World Series had low ratings and Manfred is holding it against us. Yeah, it did have low ratings. And there's obviously it's Rangers D-backs. It's not going to be the most exciting series for the common fan. But anyone that watched the playoffs up to that point was like the debacks are electric. and isn't that what it's about marketing your sport as the best product rather than being like don't you want to see show hay on the Dodgers like not really i don't um and it's that that probably

grinds my gears more than anything in in all of sports to be completely honest can i say something potentially controversial and related to your topic about like the marketing of the sport people on social media and i feel like this is like a social media vacuum thing i haven't met people in real life that have this take but like the people on social media that hate the savannah and hate watching those videos on Twitter, the clips, right? Yeah. I think ultimately it's because they feel like baseball, like true MLB baseball should be just as popular as what the Savannah bananas are doing.

Well, it should be more. Yeah, exactly. And the fact that the equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters has out-marketed the actual league that they based their sport off of, I think has a lot of fans probably feel in a certain way. And so you take it out on the Savannah bananas because they represent the lack of marketing that your sport that you love so much. has, or I shouldn't say, does not have.

I don't care about the Savannah Bannas. I just hate Rob Manfred and Bud Seelig and every other high-ranking baseball, you know, person that has done this to this beautiful game. Baseball used to be the most popular sport, bar none, not even close in this country, for a long time. And it wasn't until Bud Seelig was just sweeping steroid accusations under the rug, and then eventually coming out and being like, they did what? put Mark McGuire in prison when you're like, you knew the whole time, idiot.

And then you have Rob Manfred who literally just, you know, has pinstripes tattooed on his body and an Otani jersey on over top of that. Like it's disgusting, man. And Jay Cuddy says right up here, the quest to grow the game, he's actually hurting it. 100%. I like, I understand what they're doing. It just sucks that Major League Baseball is literally. really like, we actually care more about getting Japanese people to watch the sport than we do about the sport being good for people that actually already like it to watch it.

And it's just, I don't know how you do both. The NFL seems to find it out how to do both, right? The NBA can figure it out, but baseball can't. Baseball is the only sport where I guess they can only market players if they play for New York, Boston, or L.A. It's kind of like what, I mean, not to shout out the Easy Wildcats podcast again, but the shot at the AZ Wildcats podcast. 2 p.m.

baby. We had Greg McElroy on the show. And he, you know, he was talking football, but this applies to other parts of life, especially baseball as well in the marketing of it. If you're just hitting biceps, your biceps are going to get absolutely massive massive and you're going to have the most James McCann-esque arms this west of the Mississippi, but your legs are going to be chicken legs. They're going to be, you know, not very strong, not able to hold up your weight even of your

massive biceps. And that kind of feels like how the MLB is marketing their sport. You know, yeah, we were America's past time, but now we want to be. be Japan's pastime and we'll get back to America when we get to it. But meanwhile, your American legs are becoming frail and your biceps in Japan are huge, but you don't have necessarily the support underneath you to maybe carry that into the future. So yeah, we'll see. I 100% agree with you. And it does feel as though like younger people just don't really like this sport as much as they did. And part of that is because 99% of people are not,

I mean, not 99. 90% of people are not fans of the massive teams. And they just, they don't want to watch a sport where, you know, the Miami Marlins just wait until their prospects come up. And then they trade all the good ones to the better teams. Like,

it's just sucks, man. It sucks. And you got to figure out a way to fix it. Smarter people than me need to be making these decisions. I don't know exactly what you do. But I know that what they're doing right now is not working. So appreciate everybody for being here. Like I said,

we're going to give you more draft analysis tomorrow. And we'll be talking about the home run derby. results so be here for that um depending on how jazz chisholm does that will uh that will be uh sliding scale of our anger level when we show up tomorrow uh but we'll be back tomorrow at 12 p m so please be here for that like this video subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already uh shout out everybody for being here uh you can follow me at damon dog that's tv g you can follow kev post that's k e v o p o s and of course you can follow our show at P HNX underscore D-Backs. But it was a great show today.

Appreciate everybody for being here. Great discussion. And we'll be back tomorrow at noon. So be here for that. Until then, peace out. And remember kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you don't trade all your players.