PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - REPORT: D-backs Emerge as FRONTRUNNERS to Land Zac Gallen

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Zac Gallen’s days in the desert might not be over just yet. According to recent reports, the Arizona Diamondbacks have emerged as the frontrunners to bring the Milkman back for the 2026 season. We break down what a reunion could look like and what it may take to get Gallen to return to the Valley. We also dive into the Snakes signing another Perdomo, Yu Darvish’s brief retirement, and Ryan Waldschmidt being Arizona’s lone representative on MLB’s Top 100 prospects list. Plus, we have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions and explain why the two D-backs games that landed on MLB’s most memorable games of 2025 were something we’d rather forget.0:00 SkeeYee & Happy Monday! 3:00 Yu Darvish retires... or does he? 5:30 MLB the Show cover athlete controversy 8:45 D-backs favorite to sign all-star pitcher 13:55 The case for Zac Gallen 20:30 Running it back 29:45 We got another Perdomo!!! 33:00 MLB's top 100 prospects released 38:35 Another Dodgers conspiracy 50:00 Mailbag Monday 59:50 Chase Field renovations update 1:09:10 Tommy John "issue" 1:15:00 More MailbagJOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An 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/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 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!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.

It would appear that there might be a reunion in the works between Zach Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks. We were going to talk about what that deal would take to get him back here in the valley and if this would be a perfect match for both sides. Plus, there's another perdomo. We're talking all about this right now. Don't you go anywhere. And happy Monday to you all. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Love from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K.

it is I, your mayor of PHMX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. Thrilled to have you guys here. Happy Monday to you. Damon, dog. Happy Monday to you. We got Damon Farrell on the ones and Tuesdays today. Happy Monday, Derek. How's it going, my guy?

I mean, life's good when you have two perdomos on your MLB franchise. Yeah, I saw your tweet. You step two of your eventual plan to have nine perdomos on this team. I can't wait. I don't even know if you're Aldo Perdomo is a real guy. I think it might just be your Aldo Perdomo. with a fake mustache on. That was kind of what I was envisioning, Derek, is a world where Prudomo hits, like,

you know, he hits like second in the lineup and he also hits like six in the lineup or seven. You know, like I said, if we got Cody Bellinger, he would have to play all three positions at the same time, right? Like, much like that. I don't mind having Geraldo and Uraldo both out there at the same time. But welcome into you guys, thrilled to have you guys here. Like I said, happy Monday to you all. We are making a big push around here.

get to 50,000 subscribers on YouTube. So, of course, we could use your help with that. If you have not subscribed yet, I don't even know how you found us, but if you're new around these parts, welcome. I love you. I hate the Dodgers. And we have all the good things about the Diamondbacks that you love here on this show. So make sure you subscribe.

If you can help spread the word, we would love to hit 50,000 subscribers here, especially before the Super Bowl. That's kind of our goal here. and then all the producers like Damon get a pizza party. So if you're if you're not subscribed, you're realistically depriving Damon of sustenance of nourishment. So not to put too much pressure on you. But again, hit that, hit that subscribe button.

Do you want me to be fed or not? Yeah, do you want Damon to eat or not basically is the question? Because I'm not eating if I don't get the pizza party. No, yeah, exactly. He's definitely not doing that. They don't pay us enough around here. You know who isn't getting paid very much or maybe nothing at all, or at least I don't know what's happening really.

but U. Darvish, this is a little NL. West news, briefly retired the other day, basically. He did retire or did he? We don't know. But according to this first tweet from Bob Nightingale, Bob Nightingale said U. Darvish 39 considered an icon among Japanese players who have followed him to MLB, has informed the San Padres that he is retiring. He is walking away from $43 million left in the next three years of his contract. as Kevin AC reports. The San Padres is funny. San Padres is insane. But let's go ahead and let's take a look at that update that came very quickly after, I believe, about 15 minutes later, Bob Nightgale tweeted Joel Wolf.

U. Darvish's agent responds, you has not made a final decision yet. This is a complicated matter, and we are still working through. According to the reports here, it sounded like he still doesn't know if he's going to return. but he asked to like opt out of its deal with the Padres or whatever the case may be. This is just, again, we haven't had a lot of good divisional news. And I just needed to share once again what a weird situation is happening in San Diego and how hopefully that franchise is going in the opposite direction of where they've been going the last few years. It feels like there was going to be a point where the internal strife, the ownership group situation, versus the former owner's widow, having this disagreement and not being able to come to, you know,

what seemed like any kind of amicable ownership situation might just mean that the Padres are one less team we have to worry about in, in 2026. You couldn't say that about them in 2025. So again, and you Darvish, what a legend, somebody that we have always had to worry about, you know, playing against with his time in San Diego. If he is done, it's unfortunate that he reads. tires due to the, you know, injury situation, but still a tremendous career, right? But speaking of tremendous careers, apparently, Damon, nobody is good enough to be on the cover of MLB the show. At least that's what we're initially hearing based on some news that came out just this morning,

where the MLB the show account on Twitter and social media posted this letter. I guess you could say, this update on what their situation says. Press release. Press release. Press release. For immediate release to our MLB, the show community, first off, we at San Studios. That's just a joke. San Diego Studios.

I want to thank you, the MLB, the show community for your continued support and feedback. We know that you are all just as excited as we are for the release of MLB, the show, 26. So we wanted to let everyone know that this year we have decided that we will not have a new cover. athlete. Please stay tuned to all our local channels for more information to come. I mean, this is cryptic. It has sent the MLB, the show community spiraling to figure out what exactly is going on here. Where it comes to who the cover athlete is going to be, why their wording was so particular. And again, I would not be surprised to see them go in multiple directions. Brett actually was thinking along the same lines.

I was thinking Brett said I could see them doing a WBC cover. Absolutely. I mean, they had the tremendous Negro Leagues mode of two years back that featured this great storytelling. And even then I felt like would have been a great time to feature some of those team logos on the cover. I think they had a special edition that they might have done that with overall. Nick is saying it's a fan vote that would not surprise me at all if that was the case.

However, I'm not sure if we have the photo in question. I don't think we do, but I'm wondering if they're just going to further press Shohei Otani on us by featuring Decoy on the cover of MLB of the show. Because why not? Why not have a covered dog and just really just shove our face in Shohei Otani's life overall? I'm grabbing it for us, Derek. Oh, yeah, because he was, he got an award.

Did he not, Damon? Apparently the dog received an award. I hate this stupid dog. Oh, my God. Well, like, okay, I'm going to objectively say something here. The dog in question, here's the, here's the photo that we're talking about. Decoy in this photo, he's all grown up. And he very much looks like he's asking to be rescued, saved.

Well, you mentioned to me. that he is... It's a cry for help in those dogs. It's called the cops. Yeah. Lock him up. Yeah. Like, Decoy knows all the secrets.

He knows every single secret. You could tell he knows the secret. Every single one of them. And look at him. He's like, he's suspicious of this. He's like, why are you guys giving a dog an award? What are we doing here? What is this cover up?

Yet another cover up. Yeah, that's what it is. It's just one cover up after that. Decoy the decoy. Decoy the decoy. Decoy the decoy. Oh, anyway. Well, we have big news.

in our world here, and that is that according to reports, Zach Gallen is possibly heading back here to the Diamondbacks. We discussed this in a previous episode. We talked about Zach, honestly not. I think perhaps meaning more to this franchise, much like we said about Paul Goldschmidt, than he would mean to other teams. We know at one point that he was allegedly signing with the Cubs,

and that did not happen. But according to a report from the after all, Athletic. Jim Bowden has labeled the Diamondbacks as the front runners to re-sign Zach Gallen. He wrote that Arizona would love to bring Gallen back and is considered one of the top fits on the free agent market because a return wouldn't cost them a draft pick should he sign. That seems to be the big story with Framber Valdez. It seems to be the big story with Zach Gallen that the compensatory draft pick tied to these players are not the only reason, but a reason why they haven't been signed. one of many reasons, perhaps, in Zach Gallen's case, that he hasn't been signed. But he suggested that perhaps a short-term opt-out deal, which is something that we would be

kind of a fan of here with the Diamondbacks current situation, wouldn't be the worst situation unless he signed elsewhere. If he did, then that bumps the Diamondbacks draft pick that they received down considerably. And, you know, again, it's still receiving a draft pick, but not receiving a draft. epic there after that first round which would be so so valuable for this franchise so again perhaps a short-term deal two-year with an opt-out player opt-out out of the first deal player opt-out after you know maybe two years with a three-year deal not not the worst-case scenario again we love gallon here i know there are some people some fans that are very fed up um with with him and feel like yeah they

had high expectations i think is is the best way of putting it he was our ace and he hasn't for over the last two seasons. Correct. That's safe to say. But it doesn't mean that Zach Gallen doesn't still have value on the mound. And it doesn't mean that he, again, wouldn't probably find more success with this team that he's comfortable with with Merrill Kelly returning than he would with elsewhere. You know what I mean?

I just, I feel like especially once Merrill Kelly signed here, as much as we always said, it would be one or the other, it really did feel like it was. one of the reasons that Gallin might return, right? He does have interest from other clubs. I know there's a lot of people that are thinking that Gallin is only, you know, the dimebacks are only a frontrunner here because the gap, the dimebacks are the only team that are interested in Gallin. But apparently he has drawn interest from the Orioles, the Braves, the Giants, and the Tigers.

They've all shown interest. And this means that it's not, you know, a slam dunk. The gallon's going to return here. But again, it would appear that Arizona has somehow, is ahead of the pack. as far as, you know, his return. I would tell, I would say that the tigers are worst case scenario out of that entire group right there, Derek, because that means that Skeens is gone or Scoobel is gone. If they sign Zach Gowan, they're not, they are not extending to Scuble.

Well, I don't think they are anyway, right? They probably aren't, but there's like a slim chance of hope of like, man, maybe they just figure it out. But if they get Gowan, they're going to use that as an opportunity to tell their fan base, see, guys, look, we are trying. We just signed Zach Allen. And then we traded Scoobel for a haul. And we gave them to the Dodgers.

And you're going to be like, oh, okay. So that's what we should not be. And then we got to do another D-Backs after dark about the Dodgers, third one in a row, right, is what you're suggesting. Scoobel is starting to remind me of the Corbyn-Burn situation, right? This is a similar situation where things seem to get nasty with the organization, especially during arbitration. and it feels like even if the tigers wanted to extend him,

I'm not sure if he would stay with that franchise now at this point potentially, right? But again, you're right. It does feel like there are other pieces that we are waiting to fall into place, including Framber Valdez and other starting pitchers, before Zach Gallen could essentially, you know, find a landing spot, right? But multiple outlets, not just Jim Bowden, are suggesting that a return to Arizona is one of the most realistic outcomes here for Gallin. And again, if they can agree on terms and a short-term deal that really, I mean, it's probably right in the neighborhood of what

he was going to receive as a qualifying offer for 2025, or 2026, I don't think that it's a bad deal for either side, right? Gallin's market has not been good, Damon, and that goes back to the trade deadline, right? I remember one of our post-game interviews with Gallen, after the trade deadline, Gallin expressed disappointment that he didn't hold enough value that the team could have traded him. Essentially, they were not receiving offers that were satisfactory, but I don't even know if satisfactory is the word. Satisfactory is like the offers they didn't receive for Cattel. What they weren't receiving for Gallin was anything, right? So, but what I will say is that might have been a wake-up call for Zat Gowan because we pulled

some numbers here. We've kind of talked about how Zat Gowlin was much better in the second half than he was in the first half. And I guess this is actually, I mean, when you look at his season, it's, it's all over the place. Inconsistent is the best way to describe Zach Gallant's 2025. But when you look at his final 11 starts, Zach Gallen was actually pretty good. Now, these are the final 11 starts post the trade deadline. This was after Gallin wasn't traded. This was after he felt disappointed that he didn't have value to bring. to his team. Gallin went six and three and 11 in games with a 3.32 ERA, a 3.95 FIP, a 234 batting average on balls in play, bat BAPIP, and 1.11 home runs per nine, which he was awful at for the

rest of the season. It was 1.63, I believe, Derek, from the first half, or before the trade deadline, is what Zach Allen's home runs per nine was. So almost a half home run per nine innings different. Right. And it felt like he was basically giving up a home run every single game, if not multiple home runs, right? Now, there are plenty of, plenty of stretches where you could see Gallen was very good, but it feels like it didn't surpass two or three games before you saw him giving up six earned runs, five earned runs in a game, seven earned runs in a game. Now, I said last year, watching Gallen that it felt like a lot of his frustrations stemmed from the defense behind him.

And it felt like the misuse defensively made him kind of fall apart. Right. And again, sometimes as a pitcher, that's the case. But I really did feel like you watched Gallen kind of unravel really quickly once an error was made defensively. I still think that he has a tremendous amount of value. And as we have said, I do not feel comfortable with the starting rotation. based on the way it's currently made up. And it's nothing against these guys.

It's simply the lack of depth. It's simply the lack of belief that, you know, again, you're asking for so much to go the Diamondbacks way this year for the starting rotation to be good. You got Merrill Kelly, you got Ryan Nelson right now. Those guys you feel great about. But then the other three guys, Brandon, Eduardo, and now Michael Soroka, there's a lot of question marks there.

And again, what we've had to say time and time again is if you could get the best out of them that you've seen out of them, then this starting rotation is incredible. I just feel like that's asking a lot. I feel like we're crossing our fingers and hoping for people to turn things around more than, you know, having statistical data to back it up that makes you believe that this starting rotation can compete in a very tough division.

And again, compete for one of those wildcons. card spots that got substantially more difficult to obtain after other teams in the National League got better this offseason. So it's not to say that Diamondbacks didn't do their best to improve. I still think Mike Hazen did a tremendous job with the limited resources he had to improve this team or at least fix some of the holes they had and make it a more well-rounded team. However, I still just don't think that they did enough to classify this team as a contender on paper before the season starts. As Damon and I have said it time and time again,

prove us wrong. Prove us wrong. And I would love to see Zach Gallo come back and prove a lot of people wrong. And again, a deal where he could potentially come in, shove for 2026, worry about the financial insecurity of 2027, get through that situation with the new CBA,

and then once we're on the other side of it, potentially have either another season with the Diamondbacks, the final season, after the 2020 7th season. I wouldn't be surprised also to see a clause, just like we talked about earlier, where there's some sort of 2027, if 2027 doesn't happen as a season,

you know, that could change things as well. So, but again, I would love to hear from you guys as we always ask you to do so. Are you excited to get Zach Gallen back? I still think that that's the biggest problem with all of these reunions, including Merrill Kelly. Yes, you made the team

complete. But did you make the team better? And again, what you're asking for in a way is for all these guys to be better than they were last year. So I don't really know. Umama in the chat said, I thought the debacks only had five million left to spend. You're not wrong about that. And based on our estimates and based on what Ken Kendrick said about, you know, basically reducing payroll in any way, they would have probably less than $5 million to spend in order to actually reduce payroll, right? It's all a decision. It's a decision. And if they can get Gowen back here on what they feel like is a reasonable deal and if they feel like he is enough to improve this starting lineup or starting rotation and make this team a contender, then, I mean, he might be worth it, right?

but I also feel like you're not wrong. And I'd still, there's other pieces I would have still rather that they spent money on rather than necessarily adding Michael Soroka. If this was the case with Zach Gallen, or, you know, again, maybe doing more when it comes to like a first baseman or the bullpen. There's there's that. There's a lot there. So I still think the Diamondbacks have a lot of problems to fix. and I still don't think that they have the money to do so. So if you're asking me from a financial perspective,

I still don't think that Zach Gowan coming back for $20 million is as important as adding a Paul Goldschmidt, adding to the bullpen doing those things. It feels like for the most part, they're done with the bullpen. It feels like the most part, they're done with almost this entire team. I do feel like the only areas that they could still address, and this is what Gambo brought up the other day, is perhaps adding one more arm to the bullpen

and still going after a first baseman in free agency or perhaps be a trade, not sure on what avenue they're going to pursue in order to fill that first base hole. I just know that this doesn't, as good as that Gallon was over that 11-game stretch to wrap up the season, this still isn't a move that's going to feel exciting

and feel like this team got better. so I don't know I mean it's hard to feel like your team gets better when your two biggest moves are bringing back your two pitchers that were a part of the horrible pitching staff And I mean Merrill Kelly wasn't even part of that I mean Merrill Kelly was part of the bright spot right A sub 4 ERA for Merrill Kelly when he was a part of the Diamondbacks

Yeah no he was good I mean it's it's just like it's hard to like sell that to your fans of like Hey our pitching was a problem so we decided to run it back Yeah but also at the same time and we've talked about this the last week or so Derek like This is a team that I think had so much bad luck the last two seasons. It's hard not to say that, you know, they're due for a little bit of better luck, right? Like, it feels like every single thing has gone wrong. Brandon Fott has not taken the next step. Eduardo Rodriguez has been an absolute disaster signing. Zach Gowan fell off of a cliff. Like the only thing that didn't go wrong,

I guess, was Ryan Nelson stepping up and, you know, becoming a solid starting pitcher in his own right but I think that you know you can you can convince yourself and at least I can that like if they did bring back Zach Allen that there's no way it would be as bad the rotation that being as last season's rotation even with having the same guys I just can't envision that yeah that's the problem it's the definition of insanity right doing the same thing and expecting different results I know that sometimes works in baseball but it's hard to get a fan base excited about a team that really hasn't changed that much. Brett Johnson in the chat says we're going to get Pave in at first and we're going to like it. No question about it. Yeah, you're going to love it, Damon. I mean, I tweeted it a while

ago, Derek, and I'm going to be keeping track of this all season. The Diamondbacks are going to have the like 28th, 29th, or 30th ranked OPS from all their first basemen in the entire sport. I guarantee it. And that's, it's going to be a gaping black hole at that position. You might look at Pave and Smith's stats at one point in the season and go, wow, those really aren't so bad. But I promise you, it's not going to be a position that is going to be positively impacting this team. We also had a great point from Ernesto up there in the chat. Damon, he said, better luck is named Jeremy Blike.

And I do think that Jeremy Blike is going to have a big impact. New assistant GM pitching guru coordinator from the pirates. He made Paul Skeens. We've been over this. He created Paul Skeens in a laboratory. Yes, that is correct. So I don't know. And I mean, again, maybe maybe all that would help Zach Gallen replicate what he did in those final 11 games.

If Gallen comes back at a sub-20 million dollar a year contract and puts up a 3.32 ERA in 26, then again, it's a crazy good deal. But this is once again asking for yet another player to have their best season, another pitcher specifically to have a comeback. and I feel like unfortunately outside of guys named Merrill Kelly and Ryan Nelson, we're expecting that out of everybody, everybody, Damon, everybody. At least that Gallen's done it before. Andrew Sol Frank, right? Like those are the guys that's like, no, do what you did last year. Everybody else be better.

Saul Frank, too small of a sample size to feel like super confident that that's just going to hold forever. But I do like what I saw from him last year. But I think with Gallen, at least you can convince yourself, I've seen him do it before. he's 30 years old that's like prime age you know what i mean it's not like he's you know 35 36 so i you know and you did see a decent as we talked about back end of the year once he was settled once he knew that he was going to be staying in arizona for a while and i think that you know like you you can you know i could be convinced of this right i can this is the zach gallon we know and love right here

yeah yeah it is i mean you the phip you know obviously like the it's a little different than the era and You know, I think that, but again, that's still, it's still a bubble league average. That's positive regression, is it not? Because his FIP was lower than his ERA in the first half of the season. So sometimes it just works out like that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be mad at bringing back Zach Gowan, especially not if it's not going to be like the most risky of contracts in the entire world. I could convince myself, Zach Gowan is going to be back and, and, you know, figure some things out. But it does feel just a little bit nasty being like, well, we're running it back without Naylor.

in Gino and this team's going to be good enough and you're like how? That's interesting but yeah. Oh no. Well I think I think I think Aaronado is going to have himself a good season with the Diamondbacks. I think he's going to be a pleasant surprise in 2020. I agree.

I'm excited for Aaronado. All right. Well we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. There's more pro domos to be added to this team. Damon, we're going to make an entire team of prodomos and we're going to win all the world series. titles multiple in a row. We're going to talk about that on the other side of this break.

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Sorry, Cool, Bro. We were going to get to those. And they're both from Cool, Bro. What have we got here, Damon? Well, first off, Cool, Bro, says, really, Damon? Sixth or seventh in the lineup? And I think that's a six, seven joke.

That is totally a six-seven joke, yeah. I didn't mean that Uraldo Perdomo can't be better than the sixth or seventh hitter, but I did mean that we put a mustache on Geraldo Perdomo, and we have him bat twice in the lineup. Yeah. And we just have to put him. about as far as he is from his first spot. Yeah, so that you can get on base score

and then subsequently come back around. Exactly. Yeah. And then we also have another one from Cool Bros. So more of a joke, show his contract, or Chador Pro Bowl. Man. Damon. Damon.

Is that specific? That one's directed at you. You're going to have to handle that one, but. I mean, two of the biggest chams in sports history, I'd argue. One is, one is, here's what I'll say. The Shador thing matters a lot. less. One is ruining the fabric of the sport that we love. Sure. And it will cause a lockout in the next season that keeps us from watching baseball. Meanwhile, the Pro Bowl thing is just the Pro Bowl being

the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is a disaster and NFL football will continue to be electric despite Chidor being in the Pro Bowl. But my God, what a what a make-a-wish charity award. Bigger McA.'s, Clayton Kirshan, Team USA or him on the Pro Bowl team. Oh my God. I'm making these harder. These are just, it's just anger Damon month, I guess. It's ridiculous, dude. Derek, like, if you're Shinar Sanders, you should turn it down. Yeah. I'm not even kidding.

You're going to catch so much more hate by accepting it and by going than, you know, if you were just like, honestly, guys, I'm focused on next year. I didn't deserve it this season. I'm going to work hard all off season to earn it next year, which I think would. respect that. That would be a respectable move in my opinion. Instead, we have a guy who threw for 10 freaking touchdowns and 7 picks in the Pro Bowl. Cool, bro.

Thank you for your super chats. And we also have a super chat from our guy, Brett Johnson. Thank you so much, Brett. He says, sir, a second perdomo has hit the franchise. And yes, that's where we are at. There is another perdomo. There is another one. You're Aldo.

Which is very hard to look up because Google wants to think that you're saying, her all do. You're like, I want to learn more about Geraldo Perdomo, and they're like, we got you. Here's all of Geraldo Perdomo's stats. Well, Geraldo Perdomo is a different person, and he is the younger brother of Arizona Diamondback shortstop. Heraldo Perdomo. He's an outfielder prospect who has been connected to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

We got this tweet from Francis Romero. Francis Romero had this to say. Dominican outfielder, Geraldo Prudomo is expected to sign. during the current international signing period, 2025 through 2026 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is Geraldo's brother. The official signing could take place in the coming weeks. Never in doubt, Derek.

Never in doubt. I guarantee you there was not a chance Uraldo was going to sign with a different organization. Yeah. No, there's no chance. Jerry is the Diamondbacks. Right. And so Jerry probably was the one that is doing the recruiting,

reaching out to his brother going, when are you signing the dotted line? because we need you on this team. We need you here now immediately. I want to call him Yerry. Can we call him Yerry? I want Jerry and Yeri. I like Yeri.

If you're Uraldo Perdomo and you're the younger brother and your brother's name is Geraldo Perdomo, at what age do you put it together and get angry at your parents? At what age are you like what in the actual hell did you do here, right? Like my brothers have incredible. Like my two older brothers, Dax and Scott, couldn't have more different origin stories about their name. One came from a book about a secret agent. The other came from my father flying out of Philadelphia while my mother was giving birth. And all he saw in the darkness of the night was the Scott tissue paper factory, the light blinking in the darkness.

those are two very different stories as to where names came from. So again, one of my brothers definitely has some questions for my parents, right? When it comes to this, I also know that both of those brothers hated being one year apart because of the whole, like, they're basically twins, but they're not twins and they want to be their own individuals. I can only imagine having my name only one letter different than my big brothers. That just feels like I'm definitely following in their footsteps 100%. But hopefully he does. Hopefully what we have is yet another MVP candidate coming from the Dominican Republic.

I can't wait for Dorado Perdomo. Yeah. For Peraldo Pardomo? Yeah. I'm telling you, man. We're going to make this all nine V-BACs lineup. L'ROLO? L'ROLO is nasty.

Yeah, LaRaldo is nasty. He's a pitcher. Yeah. Filthy stuff. He's got filthy stuff. No, we're going to have a nine-man lineup of Perdomos. Yeah, I know that's your goal. And we're going to save baseball.

I mean, we're going to at least save the dynamic. The Dodgers. Yeah. That might be the only team that could take them down. Is there a team that gets more connected than brothers, than actual brothers? Then nine Perdomo brothers, all playing the field? There is no. Absolutely not.

There is no connection there that's deeper than that. But MLB, Damon did release their top 100 prospects list. And the Diamondbacks had one on the list. Ryan Walschman. Ryan Walschman. You're damn right. Out of the top 100? Out of the top 100, which is so surprising.

I'm shocked Tommy Troy didn't make it. We just talked about, not just Tommy Troy, but we talked about the Diamondbacks having three top 10 second base prospects here overall. And meanwhile, I mean, it is a second baseman. I think that that does factor into it where it's like that's a position that is just typically, unless you have Cattel Marte, literally, unless you have Cotel Marte. And I think that's why we've been, you know, pounding the table so hard for like, We need an absolute haul if we're trading away the best second baseman by far in the league.

But usually a second basement is going to be one of your worst hitters on the team. So it makes sense a little bit that like, you know, there'd be like 30 outfielders as compared to like three second basement on the top 100 list. But that being said, Tommy Troy strikes me as a guy who would make it because his MLBETA is coming up here because he does seem ready to go. And because, you know, he's been a first round pick. He's been kind of on the people's radars for a while. So I'm actually pretty surprised that he didn't make it in particular. Cresontes and J.D. Dix less so just because they're both in single A. And I think that, you know, there's a little bit of a factor of how far off you are that goes into that.

And I mean, don't get me wrong. There's plenty of prospects on here that are definitely an A plus, a, double A, you know, all over the place, right? But again, Ryan Walshmidt, lone representative, 59th on the top 100 prospects list. meanwhile I didn't make the top 10 outfielders by the way Derek when Jonathan Mayo came out with the top 10 outfielders I was scouring it looking for my sweet baby boy Ryan Walschman and here I am and I'm like what is he like 11th 12th because he probably I'll look at it right now but to find out where he that he actually is ranked but I'm pretty sure he almost

made the top 10 outfielders you know who has three top 10 outfielders who's that Damon the Los Angeles Dodgers yeah I was going to bring up I went through the top 100 list I was trying to find doubt which teams had the most prospects on this list. Of course, the Pittsburgh Pirates have the number one overall prospect and shortstop outfielder Connor Griffin. And then they also have Bubba Chandler, who's the right-handed pitcher, who is 11th overall. He's already made his MLB debut.

But when I went through and checked, it would appear the Pittsburgh Pirates had five prospects on the top 100 overall prospects list. I believe that's the most, but I could be wrong. I could have missed another team. but I did notice that the Los Angeles Dodgers also had five, five prospects on the top 100 list for the Dodgers as well. It just goes to show why this team is so suffocating. You know, it's, and again, as much as people think that this is us hating on the Dodgers, I want you to understand without a doubt it absolutely is.

But I will say that the reason why we hate on the Dodgers is because of how good they are. how good they are at everything and how much money they have to spend. Like at least you could look at other teams that do things well the same way the Dodgers do. Like you look at the teams that spend money, right? That's something you could say those teams spend money well. They just don't spend it correctly, right, on the right? On the right pieces. Whereas the Dodgers hit on everything they spend on.

And then they also. And then if they don't, they figure out a way. They'll just go get Edwin Diaz and cover up their mess with Tanner Scott. I was going to say that they find out a way to make it work. They go, oh, Roki Sasaki, you saw. We'll go to the minors for half a month, come back and be a shut down relief pitcher that's going to help us win the World Series. And you're like, he was just crying on the mound earlier this season. If that happened to a Diamondbacks player, he would be cooked for the remainder of his contract.

Broken for the rest of his career. Well, yeah, contract, yes, until he went to another team. And instead, he'd be the best reliever in DeBak's history what he just showed in the postseason. It was unbelievable. If nothing makes me more sick in the world. I also think Walschmidt is either 12th or 13th on the outfield list, depending on if you consider, let me see here. Depending on if you consider Edward Florentino of the pirates as a first baseman or an outfielder,

because he plays both positions. But Walschman, I believe, is either 12th or 13th on the outfield list. That's, he deserves to be higher. He deserves to be higher. I mean, I'm fine with that. It's the deepest position group you're going to find because it covers three positions and it's the best hitters typically. And he's still only at a double A level, right? So there's probably time for him to move up on that list.

For sure. But it's still just a list, right? The one thing I've realized time and time again is as much as we spend time looking at these players, these prospects, so few of them actually work out. And in fact, the ones that tend to work out seem to come out of nowhere and be a bit of a surprise, right? I feel like baseball teams are getting better at this, though, so that these baseball prospects, they're not as much of a mystery or, you know, at least their potential isn't as much of a mystery as it was at one point. But again, that's the hard part about baseball, is trying to determine which of these young players are going to be able to adapt and become a major leaguer, right? What do you think about this conspiracy that Kyle's putting in the chat here?

I'm fully on board. I mean, in general, it would make sense for their prospects to be overhyped. So Kyle is saying, I swear the Dodgers pay MLB pipeline ranked their prospects higher than they actually are so that they can get insane trade value for them. I don't, other than knowing the people at MLB pipeline and sticking up for them and saying they're fine folks that would not take a bribe, I don't know. I'd take a bribe, Damon. I would take a bribe. Maybe I'm bribed to say nice things about the Dodgers on this podcast. You'll never know that because they have so much money they could easily bribe me.

And you know me. The one thing I don't have enough of in life is money. So that is something that I very much would take them up on. Here's what I will say is that they like M.OB absolutely wants the Dodgers to be the top doc. I mean, that's evident by what they allow on an annual basis in terms of their sport. it benefits them because they get 150 million people in Japan to watch the World Series if the Dodgers are good. And so that's cool and all. But like it's not, it wouldn't exactly be the most shocking thing in the world, Derek, for M.OB to be like partially contributing to,

oh, let's rank the Dodgers a little bit higher because it benefits us at the trade deadline and makes things a little bit more interesting, gets us some more publicity, you know, if you will. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be shocked. I really wouldn't. Here's what I will say. This is inside information, probably information I should even be sharing on the show. But I'm going to anyway. I was told from somebody that works at Fanatics that they lost a lot of money, a lot of money on essentially the Patriots making the Super Bowl, which is crazy because the Patriots are a big franchise. they, one of the most well-established franchises in NFL history, right, with all the Super Bowl wins and playoff game appearances and all that.

But the Bears were going to break last year's merchandise record that was set by the Philadelphia Eagles. But the Bears did not make the Super Bowl here. So the estimate that they lost by the Bears not making it and by essentially teams right now that see less revenue than other teams, teams, the estimate is $40 million that Fanatics lost in the Super Bowl by the two teams being in it that are in it. Right. So when you think that there is not a

and that's just a fanatics, that's just a merchandise company that merely sells jerseys and Yankees, Dodgers is the greatest thing that's ever happened to Fanatics. Right. That's what I'm saying. Right. If you don't think that there's not a financial vested interest in certain teams being part

of championships, like the Rangers and the Diamondbacks must have been a disaster. Oh, no doubt about it. It must have been an absolute disaster. That's why people say stupid things. Like, we don't want to see the, no one wants to see the Diamondbacks in the World Series when it's like, okay, well, then what's the point of the sport? If we just want to see all the Dodgers in the World Series every single year, that's not fun for anybody that actually cares about what baseball, like, should be. But that being said, you know, 100% the bigwigs all would love the Dodgers to constantly be at the top.

And here's the other thing. Like, like, I think, you know, Caesar puts here in the chat, and it's definitely true. the Dodgers have the best player development staff. They have the best, you know, scouting department. Like all these things are always said about the Dodgers because they're such a well-run organization. But it goes back to what you said, Derek. They have more money.

They can invest more into all of these things. Everything. And they do. Right. And they do. And that's fine. And that's good for them. They care about winning.

But at the same time, there's a reason that they can do that. And it's because of their television deal that no one else touches. If we had a television deal like that, yeah, I'm sure we would have a bit of bigger analytics department, scouting department, you know, the top of the line people that are in these fields running the show because they can do it. And so it's just it's all goes back to money constantly. What's laughable too, Damon, is we talked about a few weeks ago that MLB is going to be centralizing minor league data on players, right? Which means that even some teams that spend a bunch of money on analytics and new methods to determine if players are going to be,

you know, or who they should draft, which players have a future, all of that stuff. Like, they want to centralize that and make that everybody has access to the same information. I'll just say, if anything, that should be the department where a team is allowed to spend more money than other teams so that they have an advantage, not on their roster, not on their payroll, but on in-house analytics and such where they can afford, I guess, more sophisticated or newer methods of analyzing players and not needing to share that information

with the rest of the league because it's proprietary and it's only theirs, right? So, like, I don't know, there's weird things in baseball that I feel like should be fine with teams who have more money and having that advantage. And then there's other things

that absolutely need fixed, right? But I'll tell you another thing that needs fixed is this guy, God damn top 10 games of 2025 list that they released on MLB.com. After perusing the top 100 prospects list, I moved right into the top 10 games of 2025. And I was like, oh boy, let's see what they got, which games are going to be on here. And of course, a lot of the games from the World Series and the playoffs were in there because there were some elite electric games going on, Damon, especially in the World Series.

I have to admit that we were Toronto Blue Jays fans. We had a lot of fun there for a little while watching that World Series. but two Diamondbacks games ended up on the top 10 most memorable games of 25 list. Two of them. Two of them. I'm going to guess O and two. Oh, you are so right. You are so right.

Number nine, the unhinged slugfest at Wrigley Field. Yay. Where I was at the casino in Las Vegas and they came back and then lost. And then also another one, the May 9th game against the Don. the Dodgers, where the Diamondbacks also came back in that game only for the Dodgers to come back and take a lead. They said top 10 most memorable games, Damon. I define these as two of the games I would like to forget more than any other games I've witnessed throughout the entire season. I want the men in black to come in and flash me with their little pen. I want to have selective memory loss

and have that be one of the moments, both of those games, be moments that I never remember ever again as long as I live. I think you could probably put in there, Derek, for our case here, in all Diamondbacks fans, the top 10, you know, games that you wish that you could forget. Yeah, that would be one of them. Because I guarantee Dodgers winning the World Series is number one. And, like, it's just a disaster list. Dodgers scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning of that game on May 9th to come back and win it. 14 to 11. It's a disaster list.

Games that make me feel worse about myself, top 10. Top 10 games that take me into a cold, dark depression. Jeremy says, I hate blown leads more than I hate shutouts. I hate, yeah, I would rather get, I'd rather get blown out than a blown lead. I know that's safe to say. But these games, these games, where we were getting blown out and then we came back, the Diamondbacks were down after three innings in this game,

three one in the fourths four in the fifth one in the six two in the seventh to take a lead 11 to eight 11 to eight going in 11 to eight going into the top of the night david and the dodgers won 14 to 11 oh my god all right well derrick jarmi is putting here in the chat there's probably an alternate reality where he's dodgers or yankees fan and he hates his alternate reality self and then he says, he also does it return shopping carts. And he cheers for the Dodgers. He's the worst. He's a bad person.

Have you seen that guy? I know this is really off topic, but have you seen that guy who throws the magnets at people's cars? Oh, yeah. He sticks the shopping cart magnet on people's cars and they get fired up at him. And he's like, oh, no, go return your shopping cart and I'll take it off. And then he'll throw another one at him when they take the one off. Great.

That's great. I could just, I'm envisioning you either being that guy, Derek, or physically fighting that guy if you didn't return your shopping cart on a particular circumstance. I do return my shopping cards. Yeah, I would assume you would. But if you didn't, I would fight you for some reason

and you threw a magnet at your car, I think you'd try to take his head off. I would. I would. Well, we're going to take a quick break. You know what day it is. You know what we do on these days. We're going to do that on the other side of this break.

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so much. I'm going to have to figure something out. But I will tell you what we do around here on Mondays is what we do every year on this show every month, every day, every Monday. And of course, every year is the year of the snake. Every year is our year. Every month on this podcast is Hispanic Heritage Month and, of course, Perdomo Appreciation Month. Every week on this podcast is Shark Week. Every day on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast is Earth Day, because Damon and I recycle and of course on Mondays we go to the mailbag Damon let's go to the mailbag my mailbox I'm not going to get to everything in my mailbox and then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go wow Michael Dixon is asking what is the deal with the hoodies it I guess I don't know

I just have to look a certain level of professional I'm not allowed to wear Diamondbacks logos anymore once I go out to the yard so I have to start cleaning it up you know you got to maybe get a haircut here I don't know. I got to figure some things out. It's just a little chillier outside. You know, Derek, summer Derek will be flexing those biceps and wearing those Rosabelt shirts. Don't worry about it. Summer Derek can't wait for those those Roosevelt shirts and the arms out, guns out.

For sure. I also want to give a shout out once again to that guy, the voice you heard singing our Mailbag Monday song. My good friend Megaran, we are going to be rooting him on this Sunday at the Grammys. So, of course, if you have no vested interest, at all in anything going on at the Grammys, this is your team. This is your guy to root for. It's a long shot. He's up against Tori Amos in the children's music category, but I think he has a chance. If you ever get a chance to check out Buddy's Magic Treehouse, it is an incredible

album. So, of course, make sure to check that out. Damon, what do we got in the mail bag? We got our first question here from Travis Moore, shockingly. Shockingly, our leader. He says, the debacks are stockpiling second. basement in the farm system isn't cunningham the kid they just drafted in the first round supposed to be moving over to second base as well between him and the three mentioned last week it would be fun it will be fun to see who develops and makes an impact um i would say like case in cunningham is one of that diamond back's top prospects in their system i have a hard time expecting him to be moved over to second base i mean he was their third overall prospect last year at shortstop but it's also similar deal there at shortstop right

like when do when when is your opportunity come up as of right now he is still at single a so he still is playing of time to develop he might reach as high as amarillo in 2026 but there's a good chance that again he is still a little ways away as far as making his major league debut so again there is there there is potential for him to move over to second base but as you said with so many already in the system. I mean, I would try to find some other place for him to play. I mean, again, right now it's it's literally, I guess, about in his development, finding the best place for him. And that could wind up being second base. It just feels like if that's the case, then you have quite the log jam there. And again, Cunningham is most likely going to be the

Diamondbacks second, even though that list hasn't hit yet, will be the Diamondback's second overall prospect in 2026. So I don't know. I don't love the idea of moving him to second base because of the talent that they have there. I just also think that there's a good chance that some of these young players could potentially be trade chips for this Diamondbacks team that never seems to truly rebuild. It just depends on which chips those are. Again, it feels like teams don't want prospects in the same way they wanted prospects at one point, but they also don't want to give up prospects. So I have no idea what's going on with the trade market and prospects anymore. I do feel, though, like, with all of this infield talent the debacks have that is currently being blocked by some stellar players that are signed long term to this team, would not be surprised to see some prospects being traded as far as, you know, moves to be made by this team that does not have much money to spend.

What else we got, Damon? Will you be at the Grammys, Eric? I will be at the Grammys, yes. I'm going to be at the Grammys. I'm going to the Grammy breakfast. I'm also making stops at Universal Studios and probably Griffith Park to go visit the Hollywood sign if my family is willing to go on a fairly long hike with me to go see that. But I mean, again, this is weird because Grammys are not cheap and this feels like going to the Super Bowl to root on my team. Yeah.

It's going to cost me a lot of money. Yeah. And if my team wins, then it's worth every dime. Yeah. But if my team loses, I'm going to. going to see if the Grammy people will give me a refund. I don't know. I don't think that's going to happen. But that's, it's, I'm very pumped for this. Very, very pumped. What else we got? Our next question is from Jarmy and Jarmy asks, do you see a starting pitcher going down and being

replaced by a bullpen arm? Who or a Reno call up? Who first? Yeah, this sucks. This is the problem. This is honestly the problem I have with the Diamondbacks pitching situation. If they do not add Zach Gallen, as we discussed earlier, and they proceed into the system, the way they're, or in the season, the way they're currently constructed, right? You have pretty much all of your starting pitchers as starting pitchers. You don't have a ton of depth. I mean, Taylor Clark was a starter for this the Imanback's franchise at one point. So I could see Taylor Clark, but perhaps stepping up into that role. But the bigger problem is, is that none of the bullpen arms should an injury happen suddenly be stretched out. enough for them to be like converted to starters. It could happen as the season progressed, especially if they decided to go with like bullpen starts to make up that, you know, make up that fifth rotation spot instead of calling up,

you know, a young pitcher. But again, there's guys in the system that I would not be surprised to see. And when I say in the system, I mean, in the minor league system get called upon. I think Umin Lin could be a guy that the Diamondbacks could look to

for depth if they have any kind of, any kind of injuries happen, any kind of starting pitchers. I also think Cole Drake is a guy that absolutely could make his debut and be called upon to be a starter for this team. I mean, you're going to have to look at the AAA roster and see which guys in Reno are being stretched out. A lot of that will be decided in camp and in spring training. And again, the Diamondbacks will have to designate some sort of depth should,

what has already happened to them, just one year ago, happened to them again. I don't want to even speculate. late on that or talk about it because it feels like I'm putting bad you know bad bad bad uh mojo out there for the diamondbacks but again it would most likely have to be someone like cole drake uh or another arm in the minor league system that steps up and and fills that role speaking of cold drake we are going to have him on the show this thursday so i'm very excited for cole to uh to join us of course uh we were very excited about the addition of cole drake at the trade deadline for Merrill Kelly. We did a diamond mine on Drake and kind of looked at his career.

He's faced a lot of adversity and he's one of those guys that seems to overcome a lot and has found ways to get better as his career has gone on. So that's very exciting. Coolbro has blasphemy in a super chat. He said Salcitas greater than Filipperto's. Max is staring at me now because he's deciding if that was a free ad or not. But it's not a free ad because Coolbro paid a $1.99 for the super chat, Damon. So I'm conflicted. This is a free ad. Nicos is better than both. There you go. Tucson people get it.

There you go. I knew you were going to find a way to bring Tucson into this. Also, if we're talking Mexican food, let's talk about the pinnacle. I know. I get it. I get it. Also, I will just reiterate. I think all of you that have subscribed to our channel, you guys truly do mean the world to us. Again, whether you are a diehard, a supporters club member or you just subscribe to this channel, it truly means the world to us but I want to I want to just say that getting to 50,000 means so much more to us overall like when it comes to all of this you know all of this love from diehards all this love some some supporters because it felt like 50,000 subscribers on YouTube was so far away for us and it's very cool that it's less than a thousand I think we're less than 800 subscribers away so again that would be amazing for if you haven't subscribed for you guys to subscribe to the channel.

And it would also be so amazing for everybody that's here right now to tell a friend about us, tell someone to subscribe to the channel. I mean, if we get one person from each of you, we will knock this out in no time. We'll have 50,000 subscribers by the time our boys are out at the Super Bowl doing all their coverage. I'm going to be drunk at the waste management open. So there's that as well. So let's get these guys a pizza party and hit 50,000.

Appreciate you guys that have subscribed and done all that. that stuff so much by the way appreciate you guys all right damon what else we got in the in the in the in the mailbag next question is from michael rocicki who says it looks like as it looks as if they're replacing the scoreboard and other boards do we know of any other renovations that are coming to the ballpark for 2026 i mean that's that's that's it's all good news this is a picture courtesy of our guy uh halos mat 27 he sent this uh to us on twitter and this is what the scoreboard at chase field currently looks like. Also, we've seen a few of these pictures online. It's so interesting to see the scoreboard taken apart like this when you kind of like zoom in and see all these little like

rooms. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. Right. So I'm excited about this because I feel like this means that again, much like the light show that was recently installed, that we are getting a new technology there when it comes to the scoreboard. I imagine that we're going to see. some of things replaced. I'm not sure if they will be replaced by the 2026 season, but I have it on good authority that they are going to bring back the out-of-town scoreboards in like a digital capacity. And again, I think overall, I think we're going to see a lot of like technology upgrades

when it comes to the fan experience. There was quite the reception to the addition of a decent lighting system in there. So again, this is this is upgrades. to hopefully make it more on par with what you're seeing. I mean, some other stadiums, their scoreboard and such is incredible. So I don't think we're going to see it increase in size, but we should see it increase in probably its definition and just how sharp everything looks.

But I think we have another question, Damon, overall, in regards to this, someone wanted me to spend some money, I believe. And you know, I always love to spend money. What do we got? Yeah, we got our next question here from Stephen. And Stephen said, can Kendrick and Maricopa County and you are mayor a blank check for stadium renovations? Oh, sorry, I was muted. Can Kendrick and Maricopa County, hand, you are our mayor a blank check for stadium renovations and redesign?

What are your must-haves a space for wrestling so fans and managers can take down an umpire-dressed opponents? A bud and booze bar? No bad ideas. All right. First of all, I wouldn't even consider it a butt and booze bar, but now that's all I want. specifically the bud part, but that's a whole other story. Renovations with a blank check, Damon. I don't even know if you call them renovations.

Let me tell you how I would improve Chase Field. First of all, I would spend nearly the entire budget on a new air conditioning system. The whole budget. Just the entire budget. This is a blank check. I don't even have a budget. I'm still spending as much money as I possibly can on a new AC system. Look, I was at Globe Life Field in Texas, and it was delightful.

It was delightful inside. It was glorious. And I needed to be, and it was terrible outside. Me and Jesse were over at that other, the ballpark at Arlington, like an hour before, drenched in sweat because we were doing content out on like some, you know, MLB, like stuff for kids that they were having at that stadium during All-Star weekend. And yeah, it was, it was miserable. And we went inside. I couldn't have been more comfortable.

So air conditioning. Speaking of that same field, I would also replace. all of the panels that open and close with just big windows. Just that entire wall facing north would be nothing but a big glass wall of windows. And then, obviously,

the biggest thing would be bringing back the goddamn clock. The clock will come back, and I mean this in two capacities. Both a digital version of the clock would return to the scoreboard so that when cool stuff happened like a home run or whatever, it could change face and it could be a baseball

and we could have cool stuff going on up there. And I'm also bringing back the original clock that currently resides like it's a homeless person in the damn garage. They have it out in the parking garage. They just have it out there discarded. Like it's trash. Like the coyotes did with Shane Dones banner. That that clock means something to us. And that clock will not just sit out there. That clock will be brought back into the stadium and properly displayed in an area with other pieces of memorabilia from the stadium, from the days when we won a World Series, right? Like, we have all this stuff.

It's laying around doing nothing. And I will say that one of the things, again, this is, I'm taking way too much away from what the Rangers did, but celebrated their history. You know, we don't have much history. We have not been around very long, but the history we do have is fairly prestigious. And people really do love that stuff. I mean, I would have some sort of way to display the old out-of-town scoreboards up somewhere in the clock, even if it's just decor. Maybe it's in a nostalgic area with other things.

I don't know. I just think that all of that stuff means a lot to fans, and I think that they want to see it displayed. I also understand that those old out-of-town scoreboards were a nuisance. So again, I'm replacing those with new LED screens that have graphics up there that look exactly. like the old out-of-town scoreboards. They even look like they're lit up bulbs up there. I wanted to look exactly like it used to, and then those screens can change again

when fun things happen and home runs happen and whatever. Cool bro says make La Teresa more Hispanic. We can do that. We can absolutely do that. We can bring even more Hispanic food to the stadium because this is what our culture is. Now, I will say that the Sonoran dog is the finest hot dog that anyone could eat,

and they are available in abundance at Chasefield. So I'm proud of that. But again, when it comes to improvements, the last thing I need to add, once again, is the slide. And I need Baxter's suit to be made out of waterproof fur of some kind. And I need Baxter to take a ride down from like the main concourse into the pool when, once again, a home run is hit. These are all things that, like, my main focus is increasing the celebratory factors when a home run is it.

So this is where I'm at. Um, you got anything to add, Damon? Anything else you want to make? Oh, we're bringing back Dutch Bros. By the way, if it's not already back. Someone told me it was back. And I swear to God, if it's not back, I'm going to be so upset that it's not back. Uh, cool bro says no more bar as hot dogs.

Fine. Hebrew national. We're only doing Hebrew national. What do you got? I like Max's idea of the ball pit. I've been saying make all outfields like a moat of ball pits for a long time. So, and then make it where you can dive into the ball pit while you're robbing a home run. And it counts as being a robbed home run.

rather than you going over the fence and it being still a home run. Yeah. Like if you catch the ball and you fall into the ball pit, that's a, that's a home run robbery. Welcome to Sports Center. What if you jump over the fence, you clear the fence, you land in the ball pit. You're kind of on top. Ball falls and you catch it. Are you out of play at that point?

No, the ball pit is in play. So that's a robbery. The ball pit moat is in play. If you can somehow beat the baseball to the ball pit and get in there. You're the fastest man alive. You deserve that catch. Yeah, all right. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I love this idea. I love this idea. It's fantastic. Also, maybe an armed guard at the pool so that no bastard division rival can jump in our pool ever again. I will institute, like, you know, like the supervillains you have, like in James Bond movies, like one of those like closing doors, like a metal door that closes over the top of it.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. And you know what? We could have sharks with freaking laser beams on their head. Yeah. in the pool waiting for them. They jump over.

They're surprised, right? Where'd the pool go? What is this metal floor? Boom, we opened the trap door on them. Dude, that would be nuts. Sharks with laser beams. If we literally switched it to a salt to a salt water pool. Yeah.

Like within second, like people were in it. And then those people had to leave the ballpark. Yeah. And then we don't actually have. We drain. We don't have an armed guard. Yeah. We say, hey, you guys want to jump in the pool.

Go right ahead. Please try it. Yeah. And then we have just a freaking tiger. shark just waiting in the pool like, okay, Shohei, I've been waiting on this moment. We released four full-sized alligators into the pool right before you guys came out to celebrate. Oh, Shoah, is that a paper cut on your finger? Well, it shouldn't be a big deal.

It's not like sharks smell blood or anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. Well, we fix that. The AJ Pollock punching bag. Sure. Sure. I'm with that. I like it.

I like it. Put it right next to the David Peralta one. I forgot the biggest thing. We're putting a statue of Randy Johnson out front. Oh, I love that. Yeah. What about Gonzo doing this? after that would be good too yeah gonzo doing that would be good too but i just feel like randy deserves it

i think i think a rand well it makes it a little difficult but i think a randy shilling of them holding the the world series MVP trophy no would be pretty sweet like the bobblehead yeah but and then but like most bobbleheads can the shilling one be broken like the statue's broken like the head fell off and the right arms doesn't work no okay all right what else we got it's my friend kurt schilling by the way that you're talking about him had a met about last super god i would not claim his as a friend. That's not a good idea. All right.

What else we got in the mailbag? This is from, this from B's here. And B's asks, it won't matter which arms we acquire so long as we have incompetency at pitching coach position. Something in the pitching program

is causing all of these Tommy John surgeries. One or two is random. Three or four is a trend. Five or six is a pattern. Have to treat the underlying condition because acquisitions are only surface level solutions. Am I off base here, Derek and David? I think we are a little bit, B's.

And I don't blame. I think we need to know this. We need to see this year. Sorry to cut you out, but I think that this year will tell us a lot. I'm not willing to say one-year sample size is a completely on-brac. That I agree with too. But I think that that's how we want to feel bees and I can understand you feeling that way. I just think that at the end of the day, it's just bad luck.

Because even the guys that had Tommy John surgery in the minor league system, they weren't being coached by Brian Kaplan, right? So it's not like they were being coached by the same person, yet the Diamondbacks essentially lost their two depth pieces. in Blake Wollstone and Tommy Henry to Tommy John's surgery as well. So I feel unfortunately, as much as I hate to blame it on the game of baseball, I do feel like the things that we do enjoy about the changes to the game might have a pretty negative impact on pitchers.

I think that, you know, that makes the speed of the game now with the pitching clock mixed with the just increased attempt at velocity and everything pitchers do. you know, throwing 95 mile an hour plus sinkers now, you know, where 100 miles an hour for a fastball isn't even that fast anymore. I mean, oh, you're only hitting 98. You're not hitting triple digits? Like there's things like that that I think have impacted the game as well negatively. And it's the reason why it wasn't just on the Diamondback specifically. It was an epidemic across baseball.

We focus on this team because we love this team. And this team had more than your average number of pitchers go down due to this. injury, but across baseball, it's, it's been really bad. And I mean, again, like Damon said, if this does happen in 2026 again, then I might have to join you on this bandwagon. Absolutely. I think I just feel like it's, it's too small of a sample size. Yeah, it's up for interpretation. I don't think that like it's, it would be fair to say that it's like all on Kaplan or whatever. Um, obviously Brian Kaplan had a rough first year. And I think, you know, we all are, are probably like, man, maybe you should have kept Brent Strom,

but I think that Kaplan deserves a second year to kind of show us whether or not this was a fluke or whatnot. But to be fair, it could be absolutely devastating to this team if we have more injuries similar that we did this season, you know, that would be crippling to the franchise. That would ruin careers. So, yeah. Christopher Campbell is asking about Kurt Schilling.

What I'll just say is go look up why Kurt Schilling was fired by ESPN. And that I'll tell you the reason it has nothing to do with anything other than comments he made that were fairly hateful, right? So, but, you know, again, this is, this is why Twitter should be taken away from everybody, right? Everything should be, when you make controversial comments, then that's what happens sometimes, right? But anyway, what else we got, Damon? Our next question is from Karen with the C, who says, are we satisfied with Adrian Del Castillo as the age? It makes me really sad to think that this is the best we can do for a power hitter. I don't think we're satisfied with that.

No. I think it might end up being the reality. And again, it's another player that we're trying to look and take that step forward. But it's also, you know, I don't know how to say it, Damon. It's once again, hoping that someone takes a step forward. We've seen Adrian Del Castillo be incredibly clutch at times, but it's also a very small sample size of, of what he has done at a major league level. And again, he has a lot of potential,

but I'm with you, and I think a lot of Diamondbacks fans are. We would much rather see somebody else as an option at DH and not just have Del Castillo be what the Diamondbacks or whoever's not platooning at first or whoever's not platooning at third to be kind of their options at DH. A real DH feels like it would, you know, it would make this lineup better.

And we have plenty of people. power. We have plenty of power, but it would be nice to have like a power, a true power bat. Like, you're getting plenty of home runs out of the combination of Marte, Corbin Carroll, and Perdomo. But you'd still love to see with the frequency that those guys are able to get on base, a big bat that steps up as a designated hitter and, you know, and can provide potentially more consistent at bats than someone like Del Castillo. I still don't think it's the worst thing in the world because there is plenty of opportunity on this team. And even if Del Castillo doesn't work out, there's a good chance someone else could be given that that role. Again, it's just one of the

areas that it felt like they needed to address this offseason. But Damon, I would suggest that they don't have enough money for them to bring in anybody that's solely a DH. Whoever they would have a DH would have to be essentially a first baseman or an outfielder. Yeah, probably. I mean, they'd have to be capable of playing those positions. But yeah, I mean, I'm not satisfied with Adrian Del Castillo either. I think he could be decent, but I'm not, yeah, it's not anything that you necessarily would be, like, thrilled about going into the season as a starter. I've said similar about Blaze, to be honest, you know?

Yeah, similar about Jordan Lawler. Yeah, the third base situation. All those guys need to earn their playing time still because, you know, it's, you can't just say I'm comfortable with them as a full-time starter, I think. Yeah. All right. what else we got? This one comes from Krobe and Carol enthusiasts who ask if you two could challenge one current

Dback to a race and if you win the Dbacks win a three Pete. What Dback are you racing? Oh, my God. It has to be a pitcher, right? Like, let's start off with, let's figure this out, Damon, because we really need to whittle this down to, like, I don't want to dunk on anybody that I'm going to bring up here. How long is the race? Let's say it's the race from second base to the outfield like they do.

where you steal the base and you have to run out to like your finish line in right field. Yeah. Right? We're not talking about a marathon. We're talking about a sprint, maybe a 40-yard dash. And you and I have to beat them.

Now, the first name that comes to mind for me is Ryan Thompson. And I'm going to tell you why. I could trip Ryan Thompson. And Ryan Thompson probably wouldn't be mad at me for it because he's a pro wrestling fan. He would appreciate the heel move that I pulled off and would respect it, I think. And also, he's tall. And I don't know how fast tall. I mean, like, I'm thinking like a, like I get like drafts and stuff are tall, but I don't know about how

fast Ryan Thompson is. In fact, a lot of times when they're like jogging and doing laps and stuff, I see Ryan Thompson, you know, at the rear. Don't get me wrong. It's usually because he's laughing and having a good time with people. But still, I think that, I think that Damon and I could probably take Ryan Thompson in a race. Is that fair to say? Is that unfair? I think like the only reason I feel okay about Ryan Thompson as the answer is because he's such a large man.

Yeah. That's what I mean. I think that's a lot of a lot of body that he's running. Right. Whereas I'm, you know, I'm not saying I'm as fast as him, but I'm like Corbyn Carroll size. I'm like 5'9, you know, 170. Like I'm not carrying a big frame behind me like like 6-6 Ryan Thompson. is but also Ryan Thompson is not one of the bigger guys in terms of weight on this roster.

Derek, there's a lot larger, you know, individuals in particular. Perhaps. Yeah. I mean, shoot, how fast is James McCann? How fast is Kevin Ginkle at 6-4-235? Do you really want to challenge James McCann to anything? How fast is 245 Corbyn Burns? You know what I mean?

Like, these are some big boys that we're talking about. We got on in this pitching staff in particular. Pavens pretty damn slow. Yeah, we need somebody in like the 10th percentile or lower. Pitchers don't have that because pitchers don't run and they don't get evaluated on speed. So that's why I immediately think it has to be one of the bullpen guys. Katie, good luck with that. Katie says Corby's 510.

Sure. We'll say that. Okay. It's his listed height. That's for sure. That's his listed height. Yeah. All right.

I don't know. I think we figured it. I'm definitely not challenging James McCann. Yeah. See, James McCann, like I feel like he low-key is kind of fast. I mean,

Payvin Smith, listen, let's be honest here, Derek. Me and you are both, like, if we're being real, we're probably like second percentile

sprint speed. Sure. Like, like, we're looking at baseball savant. I need someone that's like the lowest of the low. Because there's a lot of blue

on my baseball salon page for sure. It's all blue. Yeah. I'm looking at Payven Smith. He's 23rd percentile. Like, I don't know. I don't think we're, I don't think we're able to beat that guy.

Mighty. I would say Lordis with. Oh, Lord is. But he's back. But he's back. Oh, yeah. So he's definitely faster than me. See, that's the problem.

We would say Lordis and then Lordis would beat the hell out of us. 100%. He would lap us. James McCann is trying to look at his sprint speed here. And of course, baseball savant is not loading for me now. He's 25th. So he's faster than Pavin. Okay.

We don't love that. We don't love that. All right. Yeah, I'm still, I'm still tickling with Brian Thompson. That's why I'm still. Okay. I might go ginkle. Okay. He's a little bit older. It's 235 pounds. I'm thinking of... I just feel like he's not a run. He's not sprinting like that. He would beat me in a stamina battle for sure. I'm thinking of firing. See, Cameron says Nolan Aeronado is very slow and that's a good point. Like Nolan Aeronado also probably wouldn't want to participate in this. He's 10th. There we go. We got it. That might be the guy. That might be the guy. That might be the guy. You have also have like effort like again effort mixed with slowness yeah we're not we're not we're beating him adre god castillo is 15th percentile speed so he's not he's not very quick uh we figured it out good job cameron nolan aranado that's our it's either no one aranado or a pitcher because we don't have their running stats tracked but yeah you know who it could be could be john curtis

could absolutely derrick say his name and he appears all right well else we got in the mailbag damon john rouch coached me cool bro at a camp back in the day really i got pictures of me standing next to john rouch teaching me out of pitch and it's like the funniest picture of all time let me just say like i'm five nine now which is obviously not tall but it's like close enough to average height that it doesn't it's not embarrassing that's sick i used to be the shortest kid in every single class i had growing up so i was the shortest second grader in the world standing next to six foot 10 John Rouch and it just didn't it didn't really match up from a size standpoint but getting into our our our last question last question let's get out of here

damon do you actually in Texas wants to know your backyard baseball lineup with positions god this is I mean my rule of decks doesn't go back that far if I'm being completely honest I know it's not an answer people want to hear but I was like in middle school or elementary school and I just can't I can't sit here and begin to Meanwhile, I was mashing dingers with Pablo Sanchez. Also, fun fact, the theme song for this song, for this show, based on Pablo Sanchez's walk-up music. Pablo Sanchez, my number one overall pick, shortstop stud legend, legend in the backyard baseball world. Also, I'm going with a progressive lineup here.

We got Josinda Smith at first base and Keisha Phillips at second. That's my two infielders. Pablo's going to play shortstop. and then the power bat, Ahmed Khan, he's at third base. Outfield, Dante Robinson, Pete Wheeler, Mark Dubois. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang. Especially there in center field with Pete Wheeler.

A lot of people want him to play first base. You get him out there in center field. He'll show off his speed. You got Dmitri Petrovich catcher behind home plate, and you got the man, the K-man, Kenny Kalaguchi as the starting pitcher. So there. No disrespect to Delft. or the Delvecchio siblings there.

But there's my starting lineup for you. And I hope that this, knowing these guys, proves that I know ball. So there we go. Damon, we got to get out of here. But again, we thank you guys so much for your mailbag Monday questions. This show wouldn't be what it is without each and every one of you. So we appreciate you guys.

We will see you back here tomorrow with another 12 p.m. show. Until then, you can follow us on social media. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG. and we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always, all roads

lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate your guys' time. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. We will see you tomorrow. Until then, have yourselves a wonderful evening. Let's hope that the Cardinals find themselves a coach and let's help that the Diamondbacks

can make this team even better by bringing back Paul Goldschmidt. We will see you tomorrow at 12 p.m. Until then, hope you guys all behave yourselves, B's and remember kids baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when the milkman comes home.