PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - SOUTHWEST BIAS: Arizona Diamondbacks Christian Walker SNUBBED For MLB All-Star Game, Mets’ Pete Alonso Sneaks Spot

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker was snubbed from the National League All-Star roster. In place of the D-backs slugger, Mets’ Pete Alonso snuck onto the NL squad. What was the reason for Walker’s omission and how it’s a tale as old as time in the southwest.#mlb #mlballstar #diamondbacksSUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKaPEqS_Mc6eGNNBQN1QgQwWebsite:http://gophnx.com/PHNX Locker:PHNXLocker.comSocialTwitter: @PHNX_SportsInstagram: @PHNX_Sports 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.

Welcome in the Southwest Baez. Bobrock, Derek Montea, the PH&X mayor, and of course, our guy, Damon Dog. Woof, who's going out, everybody. We're going to have a rational, nuanced conversation about, of course, Major League Baseball's All-Star rosters have been released, and I think you can make the case that, one, maybe a couple, Arizona Diamondbacks were snubbed. Of course, this is brought to you by our friends over Desert Financial Credit Union. Arizona's number one credit union named by Forbes.

You're looking for a place to put your money, place safe? We'll check out Desert Financial. Derek, as we looked at the MLB All-Star rosters that were officially released on Sunday, kind of a head scratcher for your reigning NL champion, Arizona dimebacks. It is because, of course, Christian Walker is one of, if not the best first basement in all of baseball. I will give Bryce Harper as do. Bryce Harper deserves to be there. He continues to have an incredible career.

Well, he got the fan vote. Plus, Bryce has the numbers to warrant him in there, right, this season. Even though he's injured, he has had an incredible season, as have the Phillies. But Christian Walker being snubbed in favor of Pete Alonzo is egregious. He said nuanced. I'm going to have a hard time being nuanced here because this is just straight up bullshit to me. Christian Walker leads P. Lonzo in every statistical category except for stolen bases in which they tie. with two. What a speedster. I know. I mean, this guy's a big. It's a huge part of Ollanzo's game. They both got the wheels, right? But I mean, it comes down to, again, like the purpose of the all-star game typically is to highlight a guy that on a national level doesn't get that recognition, but deserves it based on their performance over the course of the year. Christian Walker, these are just his offensive numbers, and we put out a tweet about that. But he has a 2.8 war to Alonzo's one. He has 22 home runs to Pete's 18, 64 RBI to Alonzo's 48.

268 batting average, a 516 slug. All of these numbers are better. In fact, Christian Walker has the best OPS for any baseball player in Major League Baseball that isn't on the All-Star team at 857. It's insane that he's been snubbed like this. And again, that's just the offensive numbers, not to mention defensively, he's not only the best defensive first baseman in all of baseball, but he's one of the best defensive infielders, period.

You know, when you look at him compared to shortstop, second baseman around the league. it's insane that Christian Walker doesn't get the love in the All-Star game. And I think the thing that's worse about this is I don't expect fans necessarily to recognize someone like Christian Walker, unfortunately, right? If you're a baseball fan, you should smarten yourself up and you should know about the best players in the league. We do, even when they're not on the Diamondbacks, but you should as well. I think what's the worst part about this is this vote, to my understanding, is like a player. Yeah. managers, players, and they snubbed Christian Walker in favor of Pete Alonzo.

I expect that from the fans. I don't expect that from you sons of bitches that are supposed to know the game better. That's crazy to me. Did you guys, I mean, you guys don't think that two-time home run derby champ that doesn't hold any weight when it comes to future seasons. That's Alonzo Super Bowl. It's clearly why he made the team because they want him involved in the home run derby. They need that shot of him in the cage.

And they want the extra Mets viewers that they're going to get by him going deep into the home run derby. I mean, that's essentially that's where I'm at with this because there's no other way you can really wrap your head around the statistics, the eye test, anything. Like Christian Walker has just clearly been the better baseball player this year. And unfortunately, you know, it's very possible probably that he never makes an all-star game in his entire career. I would say after this. Unless it's in this form of, you know, the token one representative. and it couldn't, you know, God forbid, be a reliever or starting pitcher. Like, I'm looking at Reed Garrett.

Just throw him on the roster. He's their wins leader. He's their E.R.e leader. Like, it doesn't even have to pitch. The Mets are a dumpster fire. Like, I know that you want to get one of the biggest market. You want to get one of their stars or just their de facto stars and Pito Anso on the team. But now you're creating Christian Walker, you know, into this victim, a guy that's very well-deserving of this honor.

And it's really unfortunate. And that's why, you know, Southwest bias exists is so we could go to war for, of course, the athletes in this area because the East Coast bias, it's very alive. The West Coast bias, like how many Dodgers made it in? And you've got, of course. Look how many Phillies made it in. Look how many Phillies. Yeah. But, I mean, at least you can make the case of the Phillies.

Best record of Major League Baseball. They got basically their entire infield because of the fan voting. You know, that's unfortunate. But, like, the fact that you got Peter Lonzo as the Mets one representative, it's just like, If it was the Arizona Diamondbacks and they were bottom feeders like the Mets and they were just a complete dumpster fighter, they just like throw them a reliever on there and just give that nod to them. Don't give them a top power hitting position like Pete Alonzo when there's far more deserving people. Christian Walker, home runs RBIs leads the NL first baseman in those categories. The representative for the Mets should have been grimace, right?

That's who really should have been the representative for the Mets. And we all know it. We all know it should have been good. That's the only reason why they're competitive. No, even Mets fans would probably tell you they would rather Francisco Lendor in there because they feel like he's been snubbed now two years in a row. And you're going to always have this because they all start. Jerry deserved that last year and everyone knows it. Well, we know you that this guy knows it for sure.

But no, I mean, you're always going to have guys get snub because again, it's the all star game. They can only have so many players in there. I think most people don't feel like the one representative rule is something that should exist where I disagree with that. I think every team should have an all star. But it does get to a point where like when the Diamondbacks sent Joe Mantiply, for instance. Yeah. That was really like, who do we say? I don't know.

Mantiply's got a sub three R a. Like that, it felt like it was like nobody really deserved it. It was like, who was like, who goes? Mantleblatt was like, I volunteer tribute. That was bad. I also remember the Wade Miley year. That was another one that comes to mind. But I love what you said earlier, Bo, that this show is like the visual encapsulation of John Snow pulling out.

his sword. Right. Like that's what this, that's what this represents. And, but I do have to say before the season, if you told me the debacks were going to have one all star, I would have told you complete and utter disaster. I would have, I would have, I would have hacked the MLB website and tried to shut it down. Like, that's insane to even think about. But the way that this season has gone, it, it kind of feels like that's not the worst thing. What I think, honestly, if I'm being honest, I think the Diamondbacks messed up on promoting Christian Walker as an All-Star. They pushed Catelle. It was Catele, Catell, Cotel, Cotel, Cotel. Well, Cotel was getting that recognition. He was in kind of, you know, a close race with Luis Arise. So it wasn't like Cotel needed

that big publicity push as much as Christian Walker did. And I didn't really remember seeing that. I would argue that, I mean, that's that's more about the fan vote, right? Like Catell, you need to fan vote him in as a starter. Whereas Christian Walker. that's voted on by more of the players and the coaches. With somebody who know. Yeah. Somebody like Bryce Harper in your way, though. In that, you know.

In the fan vote. The fan vote. That's tough. Well, and he wasn't even, honestly, he wasn't even close. And that's the other thing here is,

is that if they are kind of honoring the fan vote by voting the way that they saw the fans voting, right? Christian Walker was like fifth in the fan vote, right? He had Matt Olson in front of him. He had Pete Alonzo ahead of him. Like,

he had several guys that didn't have the numbers to warrant them being there. But guys that played on big. franchises that are just more well-known than Christian Walker and honestly teams that have been having more success than the Diamondbacks if the Diamondbacks would be 10 15 games over 500 right now Maybe that would have been the case if Christian Walker would have had that week he had here against the Dodgers and against the Padres Prior to the votes being submitted which that was the case the votes were submitted I believe on The Saturday after the first game of the of the Dodgers a little bit too late it was just a little bit too late or too early you should say or his production was too late. I mean, Will Smith

didn't seem to have any issue with that, but he plays the catcher position if you have any offense from that spot, but he had a late surge where you had, what, four home runs over the weekend, so he must have been already pretty firmly in that in his role. And that's what it comes down to. How do you fix it? I mean, how do you

fix it? You just, you have to, it's like when you're looking at the coach's poll in college football, and you, romantically you think, hey, these are the most well-informed people. This his boots on the ground making the decisions how they have their see their top 25 when it's realistically behind the scenes like their sID probably filling it out for them right you're not getting

you know a non-biased approach to it how do you fix it how do you fix it even when you put that that on the you know the shoulders of the players well because especially you put it on the players because you figure those are the people they're going to get it right you have the popular vote and then the ones that are supposed to know ball and get it right i i i don't know because i could say hey maybe if the Diamondbacks, you know, won some more, maybe they got, maybe they won on a big, on a big level, on a big stage. Yeah, they would get some attention. Maybe they would get that recognition. But since they don't, then no, I can understand this. I don't know because Christian Walker was phenomenal. Maybe, maybe that was it. He didn't have the greatest postseason last year. And again, things like that. It's, I feel like it's moments that people hold on to and remember. And then they vote later based on that rather than being like, well, let me take. a look at the statistics and see who right now is kind of the leader across the board. Well, then where's my Alec Thomas All-Star spot?

Yeah, that's true. We're voting on electricity. Yeah, for sure. Playing the flag in Philly, you can't beat that. That's All-Starworthy. Yeah. It's crazy how quick people forget. And it's unfortunate.

I mean, you've got Catele-Marté joins Pete Alonzo, unfortunately. The dimebacks have the same amount of All-Star representatives as the lowly Mets. And do that, Christian Walker's. Hopefully he'll just take the time to relax and charge up for a big second half. He's certainly reliable. And so for the last 84 years, his Desert Financial Credit Union has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union, dedicated to creating exceptional experiences by giving back to the community and providing financial solutions to make lives better. Desert Financial Team is financial experts who are committed to their members and community offering financial solutions.

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$200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Not too bad. So Del Marte goes to the Midsummer Classic. Yeah. But Peter Alonzo is third on the depth chart, first base for the NL. You got Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, Peter Alonzo. Yeah.

And again, like you said, mostly it's to get them in the home run derby, right? I think the- Feels that way. I think the thing that sucks is that the Diamondbacks sent so many representatives last year to Seattle. And then here on a year where Tori Lavello is, the manager of the National League team, he gets one guy. Just one guy. He gets one guy. But he already told him he's starting at second base and he's hitting lead off.

So we know that at least. Nobody's more deserving at the second base position than Cattell Marte. But there are far more deserving All-Stars than Piedelons. That is correct. It's unfortunately that that's become the Southwest bias. But that's how we go to bat for, of course, our favorite region that gets beat down on. But of course, the East Coast, the West Coast bias is out there. It's like if you're wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform or a New York Mets or Yankees uniform, it just elevates you a little bit.

It's like the difference between flirting and harassment. If you're wearing a Dodgers uniform, it's flirting. If you're wearing a dimeback's like, you, somebody gets me HR. This person's harassing me. Yeah, I mean, it's empowering. And that's what's weird is that we talk about a sports culture here in the United States like this guy next to me who will tell you right now who the best striker is in the premier. League, right? They'll know every name of their favorite, you know, English Premier League team, but for some reason, they can't recognize, you know, who the best players in Major League

Baseball are, even if they play in the middle of the country for some reason. Did you just accuse me of not, do you just compare me to, I thought that was kind of a comparison I just meant like your knowledge of English Premier League is disgusting. But my knowledge of Major League Baseball is disgusting. No, my point is, if you can know about sports. from overseas, you can familiarize yourself with a sport you played to be a fan of in baseball. This man knows ball, but I don't know if some of those managers and people that voted for this do.

Are you calling him the problem? I can't tell. It felt that way a little bit, but that's okay. I tend to blame a lot on him because he can handle it. That's right. He's got alligator skin. Sometimes we don't. Except when you talk about my teams and you snub my all-stars.

Then I'm pretty thin-skinned. He'll go to war for it. Damon Dogg, of course, follow him on Twitter at Damon Dog, and of course, our guy, Cap Caveman, Derek Montea, PHNX, D-Backs. You can watch it tonight. Tonight, that's right. Post game and when it's not a, what, season opener series for now? Well, lately we've been doing a lot of post games just because it's been fun, but we will be in Texas for the All-Star game. Covering Cattel Marte, following Tori Loello around.

I need to eat barbecue with Tori, so we'll see if we can make that happen. but keep it locked for all of that fun. Can you boo Pete Alonzo? Can you just walk behind him? Apparently. Yeah. Like, I might just have a ticket. So if that's the case, I'm just going to be the one person just savagely booing Pete Alonzo.

Look for me on the broadcast. Rumor has it. Jesse's going to put his boots on. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. I can't wait for this. All right.

And then any like home run derby ball from Pete Alonzo, are you throwing it back? Oh, 100%. 100%. I'm that guy. Well, check out all the great coverage from the All-Star game from our friends over at PHNX Diamondbacks. Derek and Jesse going to be out there. Cannot wait for that. Damon and myself also going to be on pH and X. Cardinals on a daily basis, check it out 430, leading you up to training camp just a few short weeks away.

Who deserve to be a Diamondbacks All-Star, maybe even outside of Christian Walker. Leave it in the comments for us. Of course, subscribe. The PHNX Sports here on YouTube. Do not miss any, of course, of the debate going on. And that's going to war for. for beloved Southwest Sports here on Southwest Bias. In the meantime, have a great rest of your day. We'll talk to you soon right here on Southwest Bias. Get that stuff out of here. It's Southwest Bias.