PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Shake of a Lamb's tale

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are answering your Mailbag Monday questions and spying on former D-back Jake Lamb while he bats cleanup for the Los Angeles Dodgers.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit and get a RISK-FREE BET UP TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis infused products that flavor life’s journey. If you’re interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGeez! Brands has to offer, go to https://ogeezbrands.com.FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. They have officially licensed gear for men, women and kids and everything from bobbleheads to swimsuits to crocs. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is the mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This guy over here is the Thunderstick, the vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Freepin. Jesse, what's happening? Derek, we've been in here for what, three, four minutes, something like that. And Jacob is already making fun of my facial hair. So it's understandably so. It's longer than the other day when it only took like 30 seconds for that.

happened. I know. Well, Saturday at the office. Look, the longer that we do this thing together, the more efficient we're going to get at making fun of each other. So he doesn't take a long time to beat around the bush about it. He just gets right to it.

Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now use our code of PHNX. Get down on the action. You'll get a risk free bet up to $1,000 for new customers. And of course, the Draftings Sportsbook app is the top rated sportsbook app. We thank you for being here, you guys.

Hello, family. Elizabeth, I thank you for the acknowledgement of my wonderful hat. Even though it doesn't really match, I'm all right. You know, it's really close. It's so close, but then it's just off and up to bother me. It does clash a little bit, but I actually think you kind of pull it off anyway. Here's the thing is Jesse sent me a list of television shows that he's actually watched that we might have in common. It's not a very long list.

It's not a very long list, but I'm very excited about it. And of course, the first show I gravitated to was Parks and Rec, which, of course, I'm wearing the Leslie Knope today in honor of my friend Jesse watching a television. television show. So, and we'll get around, of course, it's Mailbag Monday. We'll get around to your question soon enough, but we have a big question for the Arizona Diamondbacks right now, and that is, are you maybe starting to regret parting ways with Jake Lamb? Just a little? I don't know. What do you think, Jesse? Eh, yeah. I mean, we love Jake Lamb around here. But the guy is on his fourth team in the last two years. So this is not, you know, this is not like the Robbie Ray's situation where you feel like the moment he left, you know, he became a different player.

Yeah, Robbie Ray was different because I think we were just talking about this before we got on air. And I felt like Robbie Ray was going to be what he became. Maybe not as good as you reached. I did because I really enjoyed watching Robbie Ray here. So you didn't, you didn't lose faith after all those years watching Robbie Ray, walk guy after guy. He always had a ton of strikeouts, right? He always had a ton of strikeouts. It was merely about getting the walks under control, which led to him being inefficient,

which led to him not lasting in a game longer than five innings, right? But it's not like the stuff wasn't there. No, the stuff was absolutely there. That was never a problem for Robbie Ray. His stuff was outstanding. See, but when we look at someone like Corbin Martin's last start, for instance, I can understand being a bit discouraged because even though the results were generally not terrible, watching the game, it made me a little bit concerned about Corby Martin's stuff.

Like, we give them the thing about, like, it was his first time pitching in 10 days and stuff like that. So, like, I'm not. Keep it in perspective. Keep it in perspective. I'm not holding one game, you know, as a complete example of where he's at. But just as an example in that game, it's concerning that he didn't seem to have, you know, really stuff to get guys out or make guys look like they were having a hard time picking up on what he was throwing. I think a lot of it for Corbyn Martin has to do with, like, really trusting that his stuff is good enough. And that's a common thing, right?

Like if you're, you know, if you're a 22, 23 year old, or I guess Corbyn's a little bit older, he's 26 now with all the injury issues he's had it for the last few years. But like, if you haven't really pitched in the major leagues, you're naturally going to go through this process of just kind of wondering, like, does my stuff play here? Like, does my stuff that was effective in AAA? Does it work against big league hitters? And you don't really know until you try, right? And some guys are just naturally confident and they naturally believe in their stuff.

the moment they step on a big league field. I'm not sure that's the case for Corbyn Martin. I think he needs a little bit of time to realize that his stuff I do think will play at the big league level. But it's going to take a little bit more belief on his part, a little bit more conviction throwing his stuff in the strike zone. He seemed a little bit tentative in the game yesterday. And it led to a lot of,

and I just think his control was off. I mean, I don't know if it was all him being afraid to throw strikes. I think his control was off in that game. And it was for sure, for sure. was an unintentional, intentional walk to Juan Soto both times. So if you take those two out of there, right? I think they were both four pitches. I'm not mistaken.

You wanted no part of Juan Soto, which is, it's fair. I mean, hard to blame him, right? Right. But we are spying on our exes, as we talked about, to lead off the show. And of course, the subject of this week spying on our exes is our friend, Jake Lamb, who actually has been having quite a resurgence with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and you hate to see it. Not because Jake Lamb is having resurgence.

It's that it's with the Dodgers. That's the part that you hate to see. But what are your thoughts so far on what Lamb is doing? I think you're right. Like if this were happening with like the Cleveland Guardians or something, it'd be like, oh, yeah. It would be such a good story. Yeah, go Jake Lamb, get it. But yeah, Jake Lamb found a cleanup yesterday for the Dodgers and it was two for four with two doubles.

That didn't clean up. Did you hear that for the Los Angeles Dodgers? Yeah. It's craziness. And it's a small sample. I mean, he's only played 17 games for them. but he's slugging 525. He has an 887 OPS.

887 OPS. It's pretty, yeah, it's pretty good. But it's such a small sample. Like, you don't really know if this is for real or sustainable yet. So we need to see more of that. But it's been a pretty good start for him at the big league level. I think the small sample size is important when it comes to baseball because we've seen that out of the Arizona Diamondbacks. If you took small snapshots of this team at times, I think there would be a lot of people wondering how this team isn't in more of a playoff contention.

I mean, Carson Kelly's been like Barry Bonds for the last. Carson Kelly over the last basically month has been the best catcher in baseball, right? Offensively, Jacob was giving us that one. That's correct. He's got the highest OPS out of any backstop since June 26th. See? He's back, baby. That's impressive.

Well, and what's more impressive is once again, I know I'm sure there's more to it than he wanted to answer in a postgame, you know, question kind of situation, right? But for him to kind of sit there and say like all of his struggles early on were just him mentally, and being able to acknowledge that. He talked about pressing, which is something that we, you know, we kind of see from these guys at times, especially with runners in scoring position

or big, you know, kind of the game on the line. We don't really see that, that same cool collective at bat that we normally see. You know, Christian Walker in the loss to the Nationals was a perfect example of that

when he kind of grounded out. I think it was the first pitch, grounded out and ending, ending double play with the bases. That was a rough moment yesterday. Bases loaded nobody out. Three pitches later. Three innings was over.

Not great. Not great at all. Right. They needed Jake Lamb, who was batting 250 right now to be around to knock some runs in. But again, I think it's baseball. So we're always going to have these guys.

Like, there are more guys that leave this team that don't have success than do. Right. But when it comes to someone like Jake Lamb, who was an all star for this team, once again, I think you have to kind of, it's hard not to root for him.

Even in a Dodgers uniform. It's hard not to. He was just such a likable. player. He really was. Like everyone loved Jake Lamb. They brought an actual lamb into the clubhouse. They did. They brought an actual lamb into the clubhouse. They made a bobblehead of it. It's incredible.

But, you know, I think, I think Diamondbacks fans, unfortunately, and I saw some people talking about this, we are one of those franchises that at times isn't going to get to hold on to the superstars of this team, right? It's the reason why

you know, as much as we love Zach Gallen, we should enjoy him while he's here and not be too upset in the inevitable chance that he leaves to go somewhere else. I've already seen people talking about it with our young players that haven't even get called up yet. I need you to stop doing that. Let's just let's not let's not put the sadness before the happiness, right? I don't want to talk about Drew Jones already like opting out of his contract at the end of his contract. It's crazy talk. All right. Let's just pump the brakes on it. Wow, Alex is bringing up wins above replacement numbers over here.

Jake Lamb is 0.1F4, Rojas 1.9, Walker 2.0. Hope he does well, but I think we are saying. I like it. I like it, Alex Meeks. That's the way to think. I tweeted this out yesterday, Derek. I was the one who kind of initiated this like, oh, what's up with Jake Lamb sort of thing with the Dodgers.

And I posted a clip of him doubling in the game yesterday. And really the reason I posted the clip is his batting stance is noticeably different. It is. He's crouched down a little bit more. It's not as, it's not as upright of a stance as it used to be in his D-Backs days. And people were just angry. Like, people in the comments were, we're accusing me of trying to make it look like, you know, Jake Lamb was another Max Scherzer or Jake Lamb was another Robbie Ray or something like that.

Which it's very, it's just so different, right? I mean, Jake Lamb has bounced around from so many, so many teams the last few years. A lot of teams have tried and have struggled to help him figure things out. And really ever since he had that shoulder surgery when he was a diamond back, he just hasn't really been the same guy. So this is not a situation where, you know, the moment a guy leaves the diamond back, suddenly they figure everything out. It's pretty different from a lot of the other stories. And like you said, it's been, what, four teams since then. And he struggled the entire time.

Right. I think it's more of a, honestly, it's a credit to Jake Lamb for sticking with it and getting to this point, getting an opportunity with the Dodgers in their system and earning a right to come up and now back cleanup. I mean, it's not that same situation. And there's going to be a few of those Max Scherzer, Robbie Ray, you know, comparisons out there because there's just not that many guys to go on to have greatness after they leave this team. You know, you can't say that about Paul Goldschmidt because we knew how great he was. I feel like he's just getting the recognition now for how great he is. But, you know, of course, Alex Meeks brings up in the comments as well, Drury.

And Brandon Drury is another name that was brought up this season. He's been playing excellent baseball with the Reds. And of course, you know, there's that same connection as well to the Diamondbacks that they may have given up on him too early. But, you know, you can't really do that when these guys have bounced around so much and then finally found a place that gave them an opportunity that they capitalized on. Yeah. Yeah, I really don't think this is a bearing on the Diamondbacks whatsoever. Okay, trivia question, Derek. Do you think you could name the teams that Jake Lamb has played on between Diamondbacks and the?

the Dodgers. There are three of them. My bet is that most people probably have no idea. And that's kind of my point is that it's not like Jake Lamb was, you know, instant notoriety the moment he left Arizona, right? Nobody even really knows what he's been up to. Can you name the three teams? I can name the Oakland A's for sure. Okay. Right? That was the first team. I remember seeing him in an Oakland A's jersey and all that. Um, last year there were two teams. The Oakland A's, for was 2020. Okay. 2021.

There were two teams. Last year, the White Sox. White Sox is the first one. And then you didn't last too long in Chicago. I couldn't even tell you the other one. I couldn't even begin to tell you. We do not. Okay.

Nobody said it in the comments yet. Anybody in the comments? The Blue Jays. The Blue Jays. There you go. The Blue Jays. I'm impressed, Eric. That was well done.

It's Jake Lamb, right? So it's like it's, I remember every time I saw that a new, a noteworthy moment came up that he was on a new team or something. I'm not, I just, especially with those kind of guys, there's just certain guys, especially when they were starters. It's, it's hard not to keep an eye on someone that was formerly an all star for this team, right? Yeah. It's not like he was just another player. He was going to be one of our great players on this team, you know. Yeah, he was supposed to be like the third baseman of the future, right?

I mean, he came up when he was like 23 years old, and there was quite a bit of hype there. So, well done, Kevin. Well done, Kevin. Kevin said it. Kevin said it. Yeah, anyone who can name. Kevin Johnson? Just, no, I'm just throwing that out.

Anyone who can name those three teams, I am very impressed by because Jake Lamb has just, he hit 12 with the blue jays. He had 212 with the white socks. He actually was good for Oakland immediately. after he left the battleback. But it was 13 games. It was an incredibly small sample size, and he couldn't repeat it when he came back the next year.

So there didn't seem to be a whole lot there. Well, if you guys are interested in getting more information from this brain over here, make sure to sign up for a membership at go phnx.com. If you're not already a member, sign up for an annual membership. You'll get yourself a free t-shirt from the phnnx locker.com. You'll also get members-only discounts at that same phtnx locker.com, no matter what your membership status is, as well as members-only access to our Discord,

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And so we're holding up our end of the bargain. This little guy is being given away. That's right. This is the way because following us is the way. That's definitely the way. We're going to do a little contest to give that away to one lucky winner. And we appreciate you guys so much for getting us there. And of course, we appreciate you guys on Monday more than any day.

It's not like we appreciate you less other days, but Mondays is all about you. Because, of course, every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day, and every Monday, we go to the mailbag. I'll have a lot of questions. And then once in a while there's a letter to... We got a lot of questions. So, Jacob, let's get to it. First question, sir.

Okay, we're going off of the Twitter questions. First, in response to your tweet that you put out. Let's start with a fun one from Don's Brad. This is specifically for you, Derek. Oh. What movie or TV show do you think, Jesse should watch that he clearly hasn't.

Where do I start? Where do I start? Oh, that's like, that's an open canvas. This is a very open This is a very dangerous question. This is a dangerous question. I think I would have Jesse go with some classics,

some film classics that I consider to be film classics. Things that I'm surprised people haven't seen. So, like, you strike me, of course, as not having seen the most basic of movies, right? Oh, that's probably fair. Have you seen the Back to the Future trilogy? You know, I have seen, I definitely saw the first one. Okay. And I believe I saw the second one. Okay. But I have definitely not seen all three of them. All right. That's, I'd probably have him

start on that. Okay. All right. I feel like just because I had to do it, everyone should have to do it. I might have you watch just every episode of Lost. I don't know. Okay. That's a gigantic waste of time. but I feel like, again, other people should have to do it too because of how invested I was in it. I think John Hughes movies would probably be a good thing to tap into. Maybe things from the 80s, like Weird Science. You ever seen Weird Science? No, never seen Weird Science.

I think Weird Science, I find that would be very problematic for watching it the first time. What is Weird Science? I'm a little bit afraid of the title of that movie. Weird Science is about two college kids who are kind of nerdy and dorky, and they are kind of picked on a bit. So they create a woman in their dorm room. And then they ended up being like the coolest guys on campus because of how incredibly gorgeous this woman was.

Wait, like, you mean like a fake like a... No, I mean like a real woman. Like they create a woman. Wait. This is the 80s, Jesse. Like your rules of science and logic and thought don't apply here, okay? See, this is why this is the perfect movie to start you out on. All right.

You know what we're going to do. We are going to make some picks and I'm going to float them Jesse's way. But first, I think we're going to hold a poll on Twitter for you guys to vote on which movie Jesse should watch. These people are going to relish this opportunity. Oh, we're going to get. This is not. This is not good. Look, I know what you guys do with internet polls.

I remember Pitbull being sent to Alaska and everything else you guys did. I love it. So this is like, this is like Bodie McBoat face. We're going to see what you guys can do. to Jesse and make them watch. We're going to get some good movies, but there are some classics out there. See,

that's the thing is I would need to know what you haven't and haven't, haven't seen. Well, you really don't, Derek. I know. I know. Like, it's not a log list. I get it.

But I love this idea. And we are going, oh, Chris Melton brought up real genius. That is another absolute favorite movie of mine. That probably one of the greatest Val Kilmer movies of all times. So I'm making a list. We're going to put it out to you guys.

I'll get some themes going. We'll try to pick one movie out from like 80s and like an act of I will. I will be faithful. You guys have to educate me. We're going to get this guy. I need some help here. We're going to get him to experience some of this stuff that I have experienced in life, at least for sure.

And it's so important to me because it's movies and television show and it's entertainment. And it's the digital age of streaming. We can find all of this stuff so easily. So I'm excited for this. Jacob, let's go to the next question. Now that I got you worked up, we're going to go back to baseball. Who of Merrill Kelly, David Peralta, Christian Walker, and Joe Mantipy, are. still on the debacks after the deadline.

Oh, that's a great question. Merrill Kelly is still here for sure. Yeah, Merrill Kelly, I think is still here. David Peralta, Christian Walker, Jomantapai. David Peralta, almost no way he's still here, honestly. Yeah. Be pretty surprised there. In fact, it would potentially almost be a failure if they didn't move him, right?

I don't know if I would say a failure because there's some merit to having David Peralta just because of veteran presence. I'm not saying like, oh, no, I'm not saying like they need to get rid of David Peralta, but he's a free agent after the end of the season. Yeah, you would be letting him walk without getting anything. That's what I'm talking about. You're not going to get much for David Peralta, but you could get, you can maybe get something. Okay.

Yeah. So I think Merrill Kelly has the greatest chance of being here. I think Christian Walker has a really damn good chance of still being here. Probably. I think that. My guess is the D-Backs value Christian Walker a little bit more than others as well. They don't really have another first base is a little bit. unclear what they would do at that position with Pavin Smith injured.

Of course, there are other guys. You could definitely plug in at first base. I mean, it's a position that a lot of guys who play elsewhere probably could pick up if they needed to. Jordan Loeplo has played some first base in the past. But yeah, the first base options like Clutch Connect says are pretty limited. I don't know. Seth Beard is a name that's come up a lot.

I don't know if the Diamondbacks really want to see Seth Beer play much defense at first base. I think he's more of a DH. So, yeah, I just want to see Seth Beer here. Yeah, yes. By the way, he's been having a pretty good run the last week or so. So it's great to see him back on track as well. And I said in the in the discord, again, if you're a PHNX member, you get, you get this kind of access. I'm given, if Seth Beer gets called up, I'm giving a shirt away, a Seth's Cervation shirt, somebody in the discord.

Oh, absolutely. That's happening. That's happening for sure. Stone Garrett, he's, uh, Stone Garrett. I'm still waiting to see where he might end up factoring in at a major league level. Yeah, I do think we'll see him. I do think we'll see him. Yeah, I mean, Stone Garrett probably could play first base.

That is a reasonable fit. The Diamondbacks have a lot of traffic in the outfields. So maybe plugging in Stone Garrett at first base is a way to kind of get around that and get some of the other outfield pieces in. But my guess is Stone Garrett is probably going to stay in the corner outfield when he comes up. But that's certainly a reasonable reasonable. idea for sure. Yeah, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility at all. But back to the question, I'm still feeling like honestly, Mantipli due to his value and Peralta due to his contract might be the two names we see moved out of those four you mentioned. How would you feel if Joe Mantiply was

a longer a diamond back? I wouldn't feel great about that. Here's the thing though. Sometimes in life, unfortunately, the teams have to view these guys like you would view a stock, right? And it's very Inhumane. It's so heartless. It's so heartless to think of that way, right? But it's a business, baby. It's a business. And well, right? I'm just saying that's the idea at times is that when they're performing well, if you don't forecast that they're going to be able to maintain that performance. Like it's not Apple stock, right? It's not a, you know, it's not somebody you're signed into a 15 year contract like, you know, Juan Soto. But it's like it's one of those things that sometimes you might view someone like Joe Mantiply as having reached his peak. in the first half of this season. And it's not to say, oh, it's all downhill from here, but he might not return to that same form that we saw in the first half. So this might be the rare opportunity for you to get the biggest return for him as possible at this time. And that's the only reason why I would say that that was pretty good.

There's going to be a lot of interest. There's definitely no question about that. Joe Manciply maybe isn't helping the debacks out in that he's been a little shaky here over the last two or three weeks. but on the whole is his numbers, his numbers look really good. So Joe Manse Pye is definitely going to be sought after at the deadline. For sure.

All right, Jacob, next question. So I'm going to lump together like 15 questions that were in response to your mailbag Monday tweet. Sure, do it. A bunch of people asked about the future of the outfield. So assuming what you guys are saying, David Peralta has traded away, what is the outlook on the future of the outfield going forward?

And where does Jake McCarthy fit into that picture? Just go with it, Jesse. Just fucking say it. Just rip the bandaid off and say what you think is going to happen with the outfield this season, not next season, not in the future. What's going to happen in August or maybe September? Oh, you want me to say that thing? Yeah, say that thing. Say that thing.

Okay, well, Corbyn Carroll is probably going to get called up at some point. At first, I genuinely had no idea what you're talking about. That was like, oh, I get it now. Yeah, Corbyn Carroll, I think it is likely we see him this year, just based on the early returns in Reno. the guy Derek the guy has walked in more than a quarter of his plate appearances and is still slugging like almost 600 in Reno so he's just seeing the ball really well there if a guy is walking like way more than he's striking out like Corp and Carol is that's one of the main barometers for what I'd be looking for from him from Reno so I think that's pretty likely yeah people definitely mention Jake McCarthy in particular I think the debacks want to see what they have there um we We've seen them kind of try to get him in the lineup a little bit more, even against lefties. He struck out a lot the other night when we were there. And it was bad strikeouts.

Like we were making comments on that. But of course, it's all about getting him that time this season and seeing where he progresses. He just hasn't had much opportunity yet. Right. You know, like they haven't really given him a true opportunity. And so I think they want to really give Jake McCarthy that shot down the stretch. And that's why I have some concerns about the outfield and just like this massive vlog jam where there's just so many guys. I don't know how they're possibly

going to find playing time for everyone. I'm not worried about that though because no offense to Jake McCarthy he's going to have to earn that opportunity. You're not just giving Jake McCarthy the opportunity down the stretch. You don't think? I mean, it's at this point I think he's

capable to play the position so that if you want to depart ways with David Peralta and didn't want to make that drastic of a move of calling Corbyn Carroll up, that he would be able to fill in and provide you with probably some pretty damn good defense in the outfield considering it's left field it doesn't even have to be that great and he yeah his bat would probably come around substantially if he got regular playing time

yeah at this time i'm not i'm done with waiting on these guys that are tearing up double a and triple a and doing all this stuff i think the diamond back should be in a position of not worrying about this service time shit and all this i get it i mean that's a bridge you're going to have to cross down the road and i get that you want to be as as fiscally frugal as possible with these guys because you do want them in your organization as long as you can keep them for. But to a degree, you're holding them back. You know? Yeah.

At least with Corby and Carol, I think you pretty clearly are. Like, I mean, it's been like seven games so far. So we need to see a little bit more from him. I don't need to see any. Maybe we don't need to see him. No, the answer is clear to me. I like Jake McCarthy, though. I think he's a great player.

And I think, again, he's like a good, like, I don't think Jake McCarthy was ever supposed to be, at least like from scouting reports. I don't think Jake McCarthy was ever supposed to be like, this is your anchor, you know, corner outfielder. No, by any. He's more of a fourth outfielder type who offers a lot. Like, as far as fourth outfielder's go, not many guys run the bases like he does and play defense like he does.

He can play center field, which is a real asset. So I think there's some real potential here for him to stick in the majors. But, you know, whether he's doing that in the lineup every day, not so sure that's going happen and there are other guys too i mean dominic fletcher i think um is a name that that probably deserves to be called up at some point this season stone garrett like we mentioned earlier dominic fletcher has been incredible yeah they have a lot of outfielders that are playing extremely well no matter where they're at yeah there's too many stone garrett stone garrett hit a ball that um went far it hit my car jessie and he was like i think he was in amarillo and it hit my car here

in phoenix it's amazing that is a real blast five thousand And I think it's 50027 feet. But what does it matter? Once you're over 500 feet? 5,000. It doesn't matter. He hit the goddamn thing to the mood. It's ridiculous. And of course, I can't wait to see that that's what I can't wait to see is, you know, some of these guys that have that kind of explosiveness. You know, Alec Thomas and Dalton Barso for now are our outfield as far as I'm concerned. I don't need. I don't need to move Varsh anywhere else. He's doing fine and right field. And I think he's the guy, honestly. We've seen. We've seen. Sina makes some incredible plays out there. He's a good outfielder. There's still some questions in left field. You know what I mean? There was that day where David Peralta made a good catch up against the outfield wall. I mean he had this look towards Alex Thomas and Dalton Varsho?

You mean the day when like all of them made incredible the catches? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, he got in on it too. And he was like, oh my gosh, we're so cool. And that was, I think that was it. It was like the other guys, even though they're much younger than David Peralta, totally acted like they've been there before. And David Bralta had this look like,

see, I can do it too. And like, that's the wild part to me is that he's the most tenured of all of them. And I mean, it was a great play. They were all great plays. But his reaction was pretty telling there what, at least maybe even how he feels comparatively to that,

like they're younger guys that are faster and whatever. Right. So he's kind of like, hey, the old guy's keeping up with you and stuff, even though he's what, like in his late 20s, I'm sure.

No, he's 33. Oh, yeah. I forgot about his. Because he kind of, you know, he was a little bit of a, yeah, a little bit of a late bloomer with everything that he went through beforehand. Incredible story, of course. That's right.

Yeah. But of course, we thank you guys again for your questions on Mailbag Monday. We got some more to get to. We thank our sponsors, our friends over at OG's Gummy. If you haven't had a chance to check them out, try out OG's gummies at your local dispensary near you. They are Arizona's top selling gummies. They are flavoring life. And they are all about making their edibles taste delicious while also enjoying.

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So crawl before you walk, get yourself 3 milligram before. If you've never tried them out, see what you think over at OG's brands. You can find them at OGs.com or online on Instagram at OGs brands. That's OGE brands. And of course, they are our favorite. They're our favorite. And they are having a party over at the Maya Day Club. Jesse refuses to go to this one because he won't go without me.

I'm going to be at Disneyland doing the kind of opposite, like on the wholesome spectrum, the opposite of what, you know, goes down to the Maya Day Club. Surely that's what holds me back from going to these things. Oh, I know. If only Derek was there to go with me. Only if Derek could make sure I don't get sunburn at this event. But yeah, if you. You have a chance.

Make sure to check out that party at the Maya Day Club. It's an absolute blast on July 30th. That's this weekend. And speaking of things happening this week, we are going to be out at Four Peaks Brewing Company at their 8th Street Pub in Tempe doing our thing, not just our thing, all of us here at PHNX. We're all going to be out there at the 8th Street Pub. We are going to bring you these shows.

Every show is going to be from there. We are going to, and Jesse is a real party. You wouldn't believe. You have no idea. You got to come out to Four Peaks and see him in action because it's wild. He just, before we get on air, he just slams five beers in like 30 seconds. It's incredible. But make sure to come join us at Four Peaks Brewing Company.

We'll be there all day on July 27th. Coyotes, Bet, Sons, Sun Devils, Cardinals, and of course, we are cleaning things up at the end of the day with our final post-series show of this week. And then Jesse's going to be taken over for me while I go off to prance around Southern California. You're going to be a guest on my show when you come back. Oh, man, listen to this. I can't. He's insufferable. Like I said, this is our show, Jesse.

Oh, our show. Oh, our show. Oh, look at this. Look at this. I'm already used, sir. I'm not even going to be a mayor when I come back, but that's probably true. Oh, I hate you. I don't know much.

Make sure to enjoy four peaks, even if you don't come down at A Street Pub, go find them near you, your local grocery store, your local convenience store, wherever you get your beer. Must be 21 or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Also, enter our, our toast of the month sweepstakes at go p hnx.com. We are bringing you a whole load of fun times with this toast of the month sweepstakes. We're giving you a subscription to go phnx.com for an annual membership.

We're giving you a free t-shirt at the phtonx locker.com and a $50 gift card to four peaks. So check out the toast of the month sweepstakes. Good luck to you all. Also, we are giving away this shirt. So make sure to look out for that on our Twitter account. If you haven't followed us already, I don't know how that's possible. We've been badgering people to follow us all week long. Jesse came up with this little idea on Saturday night that we might be able to get to 4,000 followers by the end of this weekend.

I thought he was crazy. Here we sit at 4,010. So thank you for believing in us. You know, sometimes you just got to ask. Sometimes you just got to ask. Sometimes that's what it is. So maybe we should ask for 5,000 by tomorrow. My God.

You think that's a reasonable request. You're a monster. I don't know. Once you get me started, like if I ask for some. I get it, then I don't know. I'm just going to keep asking. Yeah, for sure. You guys be careful with catering to the things that we ask for because we might get a little crazy at some point.

All right. Well, here's the thing is we got some more questions. But before we get on to those, our friend Chris, Chris LaDula sent us a message on our Discord, which, of course, you guys can join. Getting to that. That was, I was getting to that. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize.

Jacob is the one asking the questions. See, I am. Right. It's bust, Derek. They do not like when I try to jump in and take over. I backseat drive all the time. I'm a monster. But let's go.

What do we got for more questions? Are you talking about the breakfast question? Is that the one you were going to bring up? The breakfast question, definitely. The breakfast question is definitely the right question. Should foods have a time of day designation, or are we needlessly limiting our dining pleasure? She asked, you see, you didn't even get the whole question right in. Breakfast food for lunch is mid, but is elite for dinner, right?

So breakfast food, not good for lunch. That doesn't sound like a question. Well, that's what she's starting it off with. Breakfast food, not good for lunch. Oh, that's it. Well. I don't know, brunch. I eat breakfast when I feel like eating breakfast.

Does that? I eat breakfast very late frequently. I don't, yeah. So people might call it lunch. I don't live by your rules. I'm going to eat pancakes when I want to eat pancakes. But she asked, should foods have a time of day designation or are we needlessly limiting our dining pleasure?

I will say that breakfast for dinner is elite. And I agree with her on that. Breakfast for dinner is universally elite. Right. That's true. But it's as far away from breakfast as you can get. So I think that's why you're like, wow, you're eating eggs. Yeah, there's something you feel like kind of rebellious when you're eating breakfast for dinner.

Like I'm breaking the rules actively. And I don't. That's what we're all about is breaking the rules. 100%. Oh, for sure. 100%. I will say that putting a fried egg on stuff, that that's not breakfast and should be allowed at all times. fried fried egg as a topping is an elite topping whether you're talking about on french fries like putine

fried egg you know that kind of shit cheese that's incredible fried egg on a hamburger incredible doesn't matter i will say this though uh gordon ramsie i'm still furious about your restaurant in las vegas serving the worst farmhouse burger i've ever had they didn't put a single they're not not a not a garg garlic aoli nothing on it you expected the egg to cover the entire carry the entire weight of sauces on a hamburger. We need to have a talk about that because I got to see where you're coming from in regards to yoke being a sauce

for a hamburger, but that's a whole other thing. I have beef with Guy Fieri and now I have beef with Gordon Ramsey. I'm taking on all the chefs and I don't care. By the way, while we're on the topic, Guy Fierreys across from Chasefield fucking mid.

Really? If mid means bad. Not really the mayor of Flavortown after all. We need to have a We need to have a talk. Me and the mayor of Flavor Town. He didn't even show up. Did you know what you appeared by satellite? What kind of mayor?

What kind of jurisdiction do you have appearing via satellite? Oh, all right. Well, back to the question. You eat breakfast whenever the hell you feel like. Don't let anybody tell you when you can and can't eat anything. If you want cookies for breakfast, I want to justify how donuts are okay. Eat your cookies. You want ice cream for breakfast?

Oh, yeah. As long as my daughter is not watching this right now. which she very easily could be because she's home by herself. But you are not allowed to eat ice cream for breakfast, but everybody else is. That's the way that works. I mean, at this point, like, the American cuisine scene has fully embraced eating dessert for breakfast. Yes. Like, that's completely normal.

Have you been to eye hop and seen what their specials are? Oh, absolutely. We took pancakes and put chocolate chips and whipped cream in between and layered 10 on top. There's no part of America that truly believes that. Breakfast is like the most important meal of the day. No, it's because it's not. It's a lot. If it was, we wouldn't be eating such garbage, which is exactly what we do.

But I will say, I do sort of agree that breakfast for lunch is a little weird. Like, I would eat a breakfast burrito at lunchtime. I would eat a breakfast burrito really whenever because I think they're incredible. But I don't know. Like breakfast for lunch does sound a little bit strange to me. Am I completely off base with that? There's literally a fucking word. for it being combined with lunch.

It's called brunch. No, but that's different. How? How is it different? Because brunch is brunch. I eat brunch at two in the afternoon. Brunch is not the same as lunch, though. Lunch is.

Is it because I can get both things at the same time? Yeah, like brunch is, brunch is just different. It's, you know, it's, but I can get a fucking sandwich for breakfast at most places. Like, not a breakfast sandwich,

literally a turkey, bacon, and fucking tomatoes. Sure. Well, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about eating breakfast food for lunch, not eating lunch food for breakfast.

I don't like this. So see Ben says is that not brunch thank you Ben no no it's not crazy and here we are all right I don't get it um like I said don't listen to these guys brunch is supposed to be bad opinions or bad opinions no matter what's like a merging of the two right sure so what what but okay but that's that's just more freedom all I hear when you say that is I can look at all the entire menu and not feel judged about what I'm eating on here that's what brunch is see we should all be brunch. We should all not

what on earth. Quit judging and let people enjoy their lives. This is what I'm saying. That's what brunch does. Brunch does not judge you. Brunch says if you want that mimosa that's all champagne with a little sprits of orange juice on top, you can have it and we're not going to judge you for it.

That's why brunch is great. Yeah, brunch is great. Brunch is not the same as lunch. Oh, I fucking hate you. I can have lunch of brunch though. Jacob, can you voice an opinion here? Can you decide with me? Can you not have a much?

I'm going to be really out of here and say that I'm just not a big breakfast person in general. Wow. Fuck out of here. That is the last time we asked for Jacob's opinion. I'll produce the rest of the show myself. All right. All right. I'll leave the room. Actually, please don't leave the room because we'd be utterly lost without you, Jacob.

Clutch Canucks says Waterbergers, Banana Shake Slays. Limited time. I don't know where that's coming from, but when did we get on Waterburger? I am with it, though. I love Waterburgers. All right, we got more questions. We do. We do have more questions.

And I actually really liked this question. It goes really in depth. So this is kind of maybe a baseball nerd question. So maybe more for Jesse. I'll turn it over to Jesse. So Larry Jones on Twitter says, the debacks have been criticized for the way they develop pitchers.

Fangraves had a whole paragraph discussing this at the end of their preseason prospect rankings. Since Strom has come aboard, do you know of any changes the team has made in the way that it develops pitching? Ooh, yeah, that's a good one. So I think it's important to understand like Brent Strom is like he's in contact with some of the minor league pitching coaches and whatnot. Like they communicate with each other.

But Brent Strom does not work in player development. Like his job is to be the pitching coach for the major league team. So he's not, you know, he's not really talking to, you know, Slate Cicone or, you know, different guys coming up through the farm system. At least not on a daily basis. Like he's getting updates. You know, he's certainly communicating. And to be fair, Brentstrom is so dedicated to this job that it would not surprise me at all if he's compiling data on these guys all the time, keeping it, reviewing it, like having it accessible to him. He loves making these binders on people.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. We know the story about Zach Gallen. I'm pretty sure he has one on me. Yeah, he probably does. He does. He has a binder on everyone. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. But no, it's a really good question because I think it's not. no secret that the diamond backs have really struggled to develop pitching, right? And that's a big part of their progression in the next few years is, you know, is Blake Walson going to be like a guy in the rotation? Is Slate Sikoni going to be a guy in the rotation? Is Drew Jameson? Is Ryan Nelson? There's all these guys who are getting close now. The one change that we do know that the diamond

backs have been very intentional about making is just the continuity factor between the minors and the majors. So even though Brent Strom, it does not work in player development. He's a major league pitching coach. We know that philosophically, they're trying to be a lot more on the same page, like, throughout the entire organization. Right. And part of that process is that now they have the assistant pitching coaches, Dan Carlson and Barry Enright, actually rotate back and forth between the majors and the minors so that they basically learn from Brent Strom all the time. Like they're implementing Brentstrom's system in the minor league.

So Brent is having that effect on the organization, not just at a major league level, but with those pitching prospects. But at the same time, it's still not, like you said, it's still not him working directly with these guys. It's more of like a- That's just not his job. Right. It's not his primary role. But by rotating the assistant pitching coaches up through the major league system, it allows them to be around Brent Strump. Right. Take those learnings away.

They're having conversations. They're talking, I'm sure, at times about the minor league guys and stuff and taking information back. Yeah. Freeland made a good point in the comments. Freeland 1-787. The biggest problem with pitching development is the fact their AAA affiliate is in Reno. And I would add to that, you could make a case that the fact that their AA affiliate is an Amarillo is... Also not great.

Yeah, Amarillo, people don't realize the home run park factors of that ballpark are off the charts. So any pitcher giving up a lot of home runs in Amarillo, and I guess the flip side, any hitter hitting a lot of home runs in Amarillo, you really have to take that with a grain of salt because the factors there are just insane. I think it's like 50% more home runs are hitting that ballpark than the average AA ballpark. It's really crazy. And then when you look at the outlook on all of these

pitchers, the pitchers are just like across the board where the Diamondback system are not progressing as hoped. And a big part of that is the fact that they struggle at AAA, struggle at double A. And it's just so hard to figure out like what's real and what's not. Like if a guy

has a 6ERA in Reno, But, you know, he's still at like nine or 10 Ks per nine and not walking that many guys. It's like maybe he's actually fine. It does, it does feel like an obstacle in identifying where guys are at in their progression when the upper levels of your minor league system just have such inflated offensive numbers. It really is an obstacle. We've talked to the team about this. I want to say it was Brent Strom, who we asked about this like maybe about a week or two ago.

And he talked about how it's a good litmus test for guys. Like, you know, if you can make it in Reno, you can sort of do anything in some regard. So they see it as an advantage, but it's hard to tell if that's, you know, if that's ultimately the case. Our friend Jack Summers over at AZ Snake Put has a piece on all of these pitchers. And one thing we talked about on his verdict was that the team right now is behind on promoting Tommy Henry. And that's a name that a lot of. of people have wanted to see at a major league level and it's like after seeing corbin martin i i don't see a reason why tommy henry wasn't at least given an opportunity i get it it's easier for corman

martin because he's already on the 40-man roster and there's just that fact that he's already played in the majors where uhmmy henry you're gonna like go to your like your known more known commodities before you go to the unknown but see that's where the problem is for me because it 18 starts he has a 3.55 era in fucking reno so So that might as well be zero in any other minor league ballpark as far as I'm concerned that when Tommy Henry comes up to the majors, he will never ever. He's got a no hit every team. Exactly. All right.

I think that's enough. Do we have any more good questions? I mean, we have plenty of good questions. Do you have any more? I've got to, I mean, there's a couple. Do you guys want one? Let's do one more. Before we get to that, just a fun fact about Amarillo.

So people really, it's the windiest city in America. Really? Amarillo, Texas is the. Windiest city in America. What? The average wind speed in Emerillo, Texas is 12.9 miles per hour. Wait. Wow.

What's the deal with Chicago then? How do they get that time? What's going on? Do we need to revaluate? What is the average wind speed in Chicago? Yeah. That's what I want to know. It's not even in the top 10.

To be fair. Not even in the top 10. I've been to Chicago multiple times and I was honestly disappointed because it was not windy. It was like perfectly calm. You see HGO frauds. We need to have a talk about your windy city. All right. What else we got, Jacob?

I'll go with a fun one. Derek, do you still have your VHS player? I do have my VHS player. That was a question. That literally was a question. That was a question. Not only do I have a VHS player, Jesse,

I have a VHS player that has a DVD combo on it, which lets you record back and forth. So I can burn DVDs on one side from a VHS, or if I'm feeling in the mood, I can record a DVD. onto a VHS tape. Why would you do that? You might ask,

I have no idea, but I have the ability to. That's all what it's about. It's about having the capability to it. Yes, I still have a VHS player. This came up because I used to record old episodes of SportsCenter,

but it wasn't because I missed them. Like SportsCenter would play throughout the night. And sometimes when the SportsCenter was particularly good to me, I wanted to record it. Oh, sure. Why, you may ask, I wanted to record it for my collection?

I don't know. I don't think I ever went back and watched a single one of them ever I think I just recorded them with the idea that I was going to but I never actually to be real I didn't know that you could record stuff on TV like that like how long have you been able to record stuff on TV? This is like kind of a newer thing. Are you what are you shitting me? You didn't know VHS fucking recorders could be oh my God, really? No. Yes, this is what we used to do. They had they had the ability to like set a timer on them.

So if you would miss a program, it would record on VHS for you so that you could come back and watch it at a later time. Did people do that with DVDs? Did you ever record shows on a DVD? No, I don't remember that. I think that technology kind of happened pretty quickly. I think we moved from like the whole like burning DVD things to like DVR's existing. Yeah, I've burned a few. I've burned a few discs in my in my life, which is always, why do they call it that?

What, burning a disc? Yeah. Because it's a little laser and it actually burns the information on the disc. It's not like recording it on doing it. Okay. You're supposed to be the fucking smart one here. Are you shitting me? Oh my God.

Anyway, do we have a young and I'm young and ignorant. What can I say? I don't know anything about your old technology. I feel smart and old right now is what I feel. I'll say wise. I will say I feel wise. There you go. Are we good?

Do you want a baseball one or do you want to end on that? I think we should end on that. I have nothing more to offer anybody after that. This guy's drained me of all of my energy. He's a vampire, an energy vampire, by the way, if you're familiar with what we do in the shadows. But thank you for being. Wow. Yeah, you just drained to be of all of my energy.

I just can't go on right now. But thank you guys for being here, being in the chat. Of course, make sure to go check out our friends at the Draft King's Sportsbook app. If you haven't done so already, sign up if you're a new customer. Use our promo code of PHNX. When you make your first deposit, you'll get a risk-free bet up to $1,000. Use it on a slam dunk. Sometimes there's crazy stuff.

This weekend they had a promotion, Jesse, where you could bet up to $25 on the Dodgers to get a hit. And you would get double your money. That was free $25. You mean to tell me the Dodgers weren't going to get a hit? Come on. As long as Jake Lambs in the lineup. As long as Jake Lambs in the lineup, we're good.

But of course, make sure to go get yourself a guaranteed bet like that if you're going to risk up to $1,000. That way, make sure to make your money. And if you don't, you'll get that money back in a risk-free bet. That's promo code P-HNX only at the Drafking Sportsbook. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And of course, there's a wonderful set of things to bet on over at the Drafking Sportsbook.

There was a basketball game to bet on on there, Jesse, that I don't even know what league it was. Yeah. It didn't even have like a real league name. I think it just said the tournament is what it said it was. And it was literally like. Interesting. guys pickles against something like it would sound like you know a rec league so if i can bet on rec league basketball that makes me happier than anything else in the world i don't know why but

i find that very entertaining uh also uh not only draft kings but make sure to check our our new friends over at foco i know you guys are missing the bobbleheads in your life and you can go over and get those bobbleheads uh because they make uh the best sports merchandise and collectibles Foco has you covered with all of the Arizona merchandise no matter what team you're looking for. They have officially licensed gear for men, women, kids, your dog, everything. From bobbleheads to swimsuits to crocs. The bobbleheads are incredible.

They have a limited edition of bobbleheads from the All-Star game. Jesse, there is just bonkers stuff. They have all the city connect bobbleheads. And again, I know you guys miss those bobbleheads in your life. So head on over to phoco.com. That's f-o-c-com. Click the link below in our description. if you're listening to us.

For all non-pre-sale items, you can use the promo code PHNX and get yourself 10% off of that bobblehead that you want. Get it in your life over at Focco. Of course, we need, we, we, it feels like everything is like being condensed down as far as fan gear and stuff, right? So it's like we need more people creating more amazing fan gear and especially, I'm telling you, the City Connect bobbleheads.

They have the San Diego City Connect. They're all up to date on all the City Connect jersey. We need a Serpentus. Yeah, we need a Serpientus bobblehead. For sure, yeah. A little idol to Varsho, the guy with all the tools. Do they have every single player? No, I think they still pick just a couple of limited players.

But I mean, we're getting to a point where we can make ourselves into a bobblehead. That's what we do. Wait, really? I think so. We can make ourselves into a bobblehead? Oh, yeah. Again. Like with a Serpientist jersey on?

This is what I remember I said I was going to get you this for Christmas. It's going to be a bobblehead of me. You're going to love it. It's going to be awful. Wait, it's a bobblehead of you? Yeah. So that I can be with you at all times. I know that's a big deal.

Yeah, right. I mean, I thought you were going to get one of me, which would have been kind of cool. I don't know if I want like a little Derek putting around. But, you know, I'll give it to me. You know, I'll keep it for a while. I know. Just don't break it is all I ask. But we thank you guys again for joining us.

Of course, make sure to check out all of our sponsors, all of our friends. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHMX underscore sports. Again, Mailbag Monday, huge success.

We thank you guys for being here. Happy to answer your questions. On behalf of Jesse and myself, we always appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Jesse has to watch movies

that I make them watch.