PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Talkin' Snakes with Talkin' Jake

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are joined by Jake Storiale aka Papi Gordo from Jomboy Media to discuss his love for the Arizona Diamondbacks, his connection to DNVR, who he thinks is an All-Star on the D-backs, and much more! 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 PHNXTBACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of fun, your mayor of PHNX, your mayor of Snake Land. And I'm joined by my vice mayor of all those things, soon to be ex vice vice. No, I'm just joking. Wow. No, me and Jake didn't get along today so well that I was thinking about replacing you. I would never do that.

You're my friend, my co-host, the one and only vice mayor, Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. we are having talking jake on today and and if ever if there ever comes a day Derek where i do get replaced as vice mayor talk and jake wouldn't be a bad choice of all the of all the guys to go down to i'd be okay with that it's not a bad choice here's the other thing is i'm not sure if he would miss a beat between me and jimmy for uh if i'm being perfectly honest but that's a conversation for i guess the two of us to have later uh thank you guys so much for joining us. It's an exciting night here on the podcast. Of course, we are joined by talking Jake a little bit. But first, we've got to let you know this show's brought to you

by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now, new customers can get down on the action. Bet just $5 on any team to win, and you will get $150 in free bets if they do in the third round of the NBA playoffs. And it's always fun to bet against the Mavericks. You know, here's the thing. Saul's not against that idea, but that's a whole other. Of course he's not, because Saul's a businessman. But anyway, Jesse, before we get to that, we do have some updated roster moves that have been made. Josh Rojas returns to the lineup tonight for the Arizona Diamondbacks,

batting second, playing third base, and that's, you love to see it. It's great to see him back. Diamondback really have what fans would probably refer to as the A lineup. in there against the Dodgers tonight. You've got Alec Thomas playing center field. You've got Dalton Varsho catching. And as you mentioned, Josh Rojas is back in the lineup,

batting second, playing third base. The Diamondbacks also sent Drew Ellis down, brought back Cooper Hummel today as well. So a little bit of maneuvering around with the roster, and DeBack's lineup looks about as good as it possibly could today against the Dodgers. They also reinstated Jose Herrera from the injured list and sent Grayson Greenyear down. Greenyard, right?

that's how I'm. Griner. I believe it's Griner. Yeah. Yeah, that makes more sense. Down to Reno. But that's a big dude, Grayson, by the way. That is a big catcher. I don't recall seeing any catchers as large as that gentleman. But Jose Herrera, again, another valuable piece to the Diamondbacks. Even if he wasn't doing big things at the plate, he was doing great things behind it. The pitching staffs really seem to like to work with him and gives the Diamondback some depth there at catcher. Derek, I mean, we're at the point where there's probably,

there might be under 10 catchers in baseball at this point that you're really expecting a significant offensive contribution from. That's just kind of the direction that baseball has gone. It's not a position that you're really expecting to get much offense from the diamond backs when Dalton Varshot is catching. I mean, he's about as good offensively as you're going to find a catcher in this game. But there aren't many of them out there. And so a guy like Jose Herrera coming back, he's probably going to get a fair amount of reps behind the plate as well.

And as you mentioned, the pitching staff has continued to speak highly of working with him behind the plate. And I think the Diamond Baxter are going to continue to use him, even if the offense isn't exactly what you'd be hoping for. Speaking of the pitching staff, let's take a look at the probable starters for this series. Again, we talked about it. not, you know, obviously not great to see Umberto Castiano's out there again against the Dodgers because the Dodgers had quite a bit of success against him. But going up against reliever turned part-time starter Mitch White is kind of a favorable matchup, at least as far as not favorable, but an equivalent matchup there in the first game.

Again, though, like you said yesterday, the bigger problem there is Castiano's is going up against the Dodgers. and that's quite a bit different lineup than going up against the Diamondbacks. But he will see, like you said, the Diamondbacks A lineup. Game two, we got Tony Gonsolin versus Madbom, which probably two of the best on both pitching staffs right now, right there going up against each other. And still some TBDs later there with Tyler Anderson and Merrill Kelly, both making an appearance.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to say that the Diamondbacks have a great chance of beating the Dodgers, but I'm going to say those pitching matchups, they're not terribly scary. And I think that the Diamondbacks, hopefully they see it the same way and have some confidence going out against this LA team. I find it amusing that you said at the beginning,

you know, it's unfortunate to have Humberto Castiano pitching against the Dodgers. When Derek, Comberto Castianos is 3 and 1 with a 4.29 ERA. You compare where we were at last season. the diamond i mean a 4.29er that would have been you know their best picture by a large margin for for parts of last year that's actually a very good point for the majority of last year so yeah that's actually a great point again how quickly things change uh this team is is much better this

year and one thing i i kind of laugh about jesse with uh the way the n l west is shaping up right now is that the NL West very much looks this season, like everybody predicted it was going to look last season at the beginning of the year, right? Before the Diamondbacks had their disastrous year, everybody said that they were going to probably finish fourth ahead of the Rockies, Giants are going to finish third,

probably see the Padres in second, the Dodgers up at the top. And that's kind of how things are shaping up this season, despite this season's pre-season analytics, looking at it a little bit differently and kind of looking a lot at last season, especially with the Giants and the season they had last year. I mean, a lot of projection systems had the Giants finishing like 500,

couple games under 500, a couple games over 500, depending on where you looked. But yeah, I mean, that's roughly the team that they've been so far. There are a few games over 500, but they've really struggled over the last couple of weeks.

Diamondbacks have closed the gap. They're only a game and a half behind the San Francisco Giants at this point in the division. And like you said, the Padres and Dodgers, which I think was expected last year. And at least from my standpoint was expected this year, we're going to talk about some of my crazy preseason predictions and how some of them look sort of okay right now.

Some of them not so much. But I had the Padres and the Dodgers finishing far and away above the rest of the division this year. And so far, that's sort of what we've seen. Sort of what we've seen for sure. Well, we'll get to that. But before we do that, Jesse, you know what we got to do it's time for talking snakes with talking jake and i got to replace you

momentarily uh while we bring in our boy jake from john boy uh to discuss his favorite team the arizona diamond backs congrats to you guys uh everyone at john boy on everything that you guys have accomplished man it's really great to see and i mean that uh from a personal level because you guys have been an inspiration to me at times in my career and uh it's just awesome to see. I guess my question would be, has it surpassed your wildest dreams for this whole thing you guys were doing? A thousand percent. A thousand percent. Yeah, man. Well, A hey, thanks, thanks for having me. And yeah, I mean, the DNVR guys, they were friendly to me early on because actually when we were starting this, I was living in Denver. So seeing what's going on

in Phoenix now and all that stuff, really cool. And yeah, it's kind of, Kind of kind of like cousins of what everyone's doing. So no, man, our, our, our biggest dream when we originally got this going was to have like a kooky Yankees spring training show one year. Like, you know, the Yankees are the Yankees. They, they sit up tall. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And we, I don't know, that was kind of like our thing.

Like, I don't know. They put stuff on TV, right? So maybe if we do well at this, we can be the silly, you know, have a spring training house and play video games with the guy or play ping pong and make it a 20 minute show. And that's that's what we do. And yeah, man, where we are at is a very different place. And it's incredible where the company's up to like 50 people. It's insanity. So.

And we're having, we're still having a lot of fun. We have a lot of busy days. We're trying to figure out how to get a little bit away from those busy days. But it's all good, man. Well, you got to have plenty of time for Blitzball, by the way, which is the greatest game ever invented. Sorry, baseball. My apologies to baseball. I don't want to take away from baseball at all.

But Blitzball is always fun to watch. And I need to get down on some Blitzball myself because it looks like you guys are always having an incredible time with that. Dude, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. We, you know, everything we do has a certain level of intensity and silliness and a high level of quality that that we try to produce. And the Blitzball stuff is insane. You know, the time that gets put into that on the back end and the front end and during, you know, you're right. Like getting to compete and play Blitzball against Trevor Plouffe and Jerry Blevins and guy like that, it's at the end of the day, it's pretty.

nuts. It's kind of funny when it's happening. You get wrapped up in it and you're like, all right. Like, I got to get a hit here. Yeah. I want this guy show me up all day. I think at the end of the day, you know, you end up on the couch being sore because we're standing on cement and it's like, what? I threw 60 pitches today and you're like, what? What am I doing? But again, if that's, if those are some of my problems on a given day, it's a good day. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think I think I can not not to say I'm a blitzball player by any means but I think even with doing this job which is so much fun you still have your days where it's it's work or or you realize how much how sore you are from from standing all day or from doing it all day but I needed to know how your love for the Arizona Diamondback started how did snakes how did this relationship blossom into what it is there it is there it is There it is. The City Connect hat, I think.

Oh, that's beautiful. Man, it's, uh, honestly, you know, I might, I might lose, lose some respect from some snakes fans, but I'm an honest guy. Um, no, we, uh, we, as we were getting popular, we, we had some, some fans in the Diamondbacks family, uh, in their social media department in different places. And, uh, yeah, we, we kind of reached out and, and started engaging in, uh, credit to them man a josh rowich who used to be uh with the debacks he's he's now like running the hall of fame yeah right um not bad dude not a bad gig to go to go to after leaving the diamondbacks

he he deserves uh a lot of a ton of credit because he was kind of the veteran dude who'd been around baseball for a while and he kind of gave the the caesar's thumbs up that like hey if you want to interact with these guys tastefully like go do it have some fun And so their social team, Kyle, who's still there. And Taylor, who's actually now with us, whoops, they, you know, we kind of everything we do, we chew off, let's chew off a bite, make sure it's a good bite, make sure it's a win, and then go from there. And that's kind of what we did with them to now, you know, we mix it up with them.

Tori Lavello and his wife and pipe. They came through the office, office one day. And, you know, I did a silly lineup video for them this year. And I think it's like their second, second biggest video they've posted on social media. And so it's ridiculous. So they kind of reached out. And, you know, I guess I was arms open looking for a hug. And I appreciate it.

So I, you know, I'm drinking up snakes culture. I'm in, which is kind of funny. like if there's one team in Yankee land that the Yankee fans would kind of not appreciate. There's there's one really bad memory. Right. But you know what? That's in the past. That's what?

That's 21 years ago now, something like that. So, uh, so yeah, man, they, they reached out and we reached out back. Like that's a, you know, I'm a big killing with kindness guy. And if, if you're going to be nice to us, like we're, we're going to be nice back if we like you. So that's kind of how it all started. And they'll have a special place as we keep, you know, continuing to climb and growing stuff like that. Like the the snakes reaching out early on,

I'll always appreciate it. Well, I have to admit this, and this kind of goes back to that as well in 2001. Coming into the Diamondbacks existence, I was a Yankees fan. I was brought up a Yankees fan. I went to Yankees Stadium. That was my first baseball game ever.

So I was a Yankees fan. And I thought, in 2001 that my new favorite team and my old favorite team were playing each other, it was a win-win for me no matter what. That series, it was, I was going to come out on top. And what quickly developed during that series was my direction towards the Diamondbacks because I was not pleased with the Yankees wins during that series, and I really wanted to see Arizona do it. So that's, I guess that's for me the moment when I realized that I had my affiliation with one of those two teams solely. But I,

I have to ask this, because you're a newer fan, without the same feelings towards that, what do you think about the color scheme? Sedona Red and Sand what they're doing now, or the old purple and teal? So I'll preface it with this. I don't know, how do I phrase this? I'm not a swag guy.

I'm a pretend swag guy. That's the best way to put it. I'll wear anything. And if I can lean silly and it makes one person laugh, that's usually enough to make me go. I love Sedona. But I think color-wise, throwing a little teal. Like, let's mix it up.

Let's have a little fun. So I guess that's where I stand. But if there's one point I can't drive home enough, my general taste is normally pretty bad. All right. All right. Dually noted. Dually noted.

All right. I got to ask, who are you a fan of on this team? Is there anybody you've kind of leaned towards? Whose jersey are you buying? Ooh, if I had to buy the jersey today, it's probably Varshot. Yes.

My short king. I know, I want to say he's, so this caused the whole thing, because we saw them, we saw them last year in Pittsburgh. And we saw Varsho at Pittsburgh season had already gone to the wayside. And it was like a middle of the week game.

I think there's like 4,000 people in the building. So we got some decent seats. And my guy Varshow comes up. And I haven't been on the field with him. You've probably been in the locker room now. He's listed 5'10. And I don't want to send any shots. fired. I'm a short guy. I'm, you know, I'm a five, five seven, five seven.

I know where you're going with this. Varsho doesn't have me by a lot. That's all I'm saying. You know, you wear spikes and you can measure, guys get measured at different times, whatever. Uh, yes, but dude, the fact that he center field and catcher, I know it gets said, especially, you guys probably talk about it. those two positions are probably two of the three hardest IMO on the baseball field. I obviously, I think shortstop jumps in the mix. I think center field and third base, maybe you could have some good arguments there. But the fact that he can do that is incredible.

And by the way, he's swinging the twig, man, at 25 years old. So Varsho would have to be the easy answer for me. And then there's, you know, as I. have acclimated myself to Dimeback's culture. The freight train, David Peralta, are you kidding? Yes. Yes. I love it. I love it. So he's an incredible person. And yeah, you're right about Varshot.

I think the thing that's been really impressive is that he's done so well defensively. Like to play those positions and be able to say you play them competently at a major league level is one thing. But to play them as well as he has, at times he's been one of their best options at center field. Chasefield is so weird with that porch and shit. Like it's it's not easy to to know how balls are going to land. I've I've stood underneath it and honestly wondered how these guys do it when a ball goes to the warning track in straight center. But he does an amazing job. Yeah. I mean, you know, a ball ball's going out there at 108 and you got to play it properly out the off the bat, off the wall and yeah, you know, the night before you were catching. No, it's, uh, it deserves some

more love and hey i i guess if i was you know a little investment uh how about alec thomas in that number five years that uh that that that might last us a little while yes yeah he's been he's been great and i think you know when you when you see a young guy like that that has a lot of potential come up right the first thing you want to see is them not not do terribly right you know it's going to be a hard transition and there's going to be that you know kind of acclimating yourself to major league hitting but man he he he's been outstanding and It's great to see him give them all the reasons not to send them back down. Right.

It's, dude, look around baseball. Bobby Witt Jr. is, you know, a super prospect, a super prospect, you know. He's he's one of these guys that, you know, by the way, when we talk about him in a few years, I'm sure he's going to be a perennial all-star stud guy. You know, I always think it's funny. We hear about prospects, but you don't really hear about them. and Bobby Wood Jr. comes up this year and he's like first percentile in speed.

Like I thought he was this kind of power hitting third base shortstop type. And he might be, but he's also a freak. He runs at elite level. So, and by the way, he struggled mightily out of the gate. And he's starting to figure it out. But yeah, when a guy like Alec Thomas comes off and you can, you can have that little exhale, like, all right, I've seen a ball get out of the park. I've got my first sit

And then you put a couple good games together A slump's gonna come It happens to literally every baseball player That's ever playing the game So to have to be able when that does happen To not be the young guy saying like Oh shoot am I actually completely overmatched to say no Like it is a slump

This happens, it's baseball Let's get back to it So yeah, it looks like a stud man He does He really does All right so and speaking of stud you brought up perennial all-stars. The Diamondbacks only had one, the mandatory all-star last year. So I got to ask, do you see anybody being potential all-stars or is it too early to tell?

Man, it's, it's tough. There's a couple moving parts with that, that, you know, it's, it's almost end of May now with the late start of the season. You know, we'd traditionally be closer to a month and half in, although it feels like summer's about to start. I mean, I feel like Varshot has to have an argument, right? Like an 827 OPS this year and you factor in

the catching and the versatility of it all. Like that has to be part of discussion. And then in the rotation, I mean, Zach Galland can mad bum put a couple more together. How fun of a story would that be? Yeah.

How about Joe Mantiply, former Yankees great, just being lights out this year? He's fantastic. We just had him on the show earlier this week, and he has been incredible. And very quietly, you know, he is one of the best relievers in the league. And, you know, the Diamondbacks bullpen does get a lot of flack, especially from us for some of the performances this season. He has not been a reason for any of the poor performances, though. He's been outstanding. I think he still leads the league in scoreless appearances, which.

Again, not something that you really notice when you watch Joe Mantiply pitch. Right. Hey, it's a beautiful thing for him. Yeah, man, I guess I would look at like if I had to place bets, if I got two of them, I'd like Gallin and Varshow. Zach Gallin gets overlooked, man. My God, what a, what a career he's had up until age, age 26, 58 starts to the tune of the 3-28 with a casual 2-2-2-2-E-R-A this year.

So, um, God, man. Yeah, they've been, they've been good. They've struggled at times, put it all together, like all, you know, early on and, and for a little stretch there, but, uh, they've definitely shown glimpses of, of being a good baseball team. So I guess, you know, without too much, uh, fandom here, I guess, what is, uh, what, what do you think the ceiling is for this team as far as, you know, a record and where they might go this year.

So you got to put everything in the pot here, right? The Dodgers are too big to fail. Like they just, they couldn't if they wanted to. Right. They're talking about getting Juan Soto. Like we'll literally have a mental breakdown if that happens, I think. Perfect.

Yeah, they'll bat Soto seventh and they'll figure it out. So, you know, the Dodgers end of the day are going to be there. Padres have looked really good. We do know they have the ability to, if they do start to slip. We've seen them fall off the cliff before, but that Tatee guy probably comes back at some point. This was supposed to be their year, like when they traded for Clevenger and like everything. They were building originally for this year. Yeah, you're right.

So, and they've got good juice out of the gate, which I thought was huge for them. The Giants, they, you know, they're. a little riskier for me. Like, you know, last year was kind of the miracle beautiful baseball year. Miracle's a little dramatic, but they had a lot of things go right. Um, and so far they haven't had as much go right. But they're still a good team. I don't know. Like I, I would say 500 is, is in the realm. And again, thinking about how good those other teams are and their payrolls and their expectations. Um, you know, that. That shouldn't be shrugged at or scoffed at as we bring up, you know,

the Alec Thomas's and Perdomos and guys like that. You know, you could start making a plan to attack future free agencies. The pitching staff gets, and that's kind of what's been doing it, you know. Yeah, the pitching staff has been outstanding. It came back down to earth a little bit, but I don't think that they could have maintained a sub-E-R-A, you know, a sub two ERA for very long. It was pretty crazy, right? I just, I really, like, personally watching this team,

having the questions about why they didn't do more in the off season, but then having the coaching staff that they brought in impact this team, Brent Strom, Joe Mather, the way that they have done wonders, you know, with this team in a lot of different ways in their short time here, has really shown sometimes that you really, you can really invest in coaching over players, and it can have just as big of an impact, if not more so, on the field. You're seeing it all around baseball.

We talk about it on talking baseball that it was kind of a miss thing for a while. It was almost like if a guy made it to the majors, it was like, all right, wash your hands and now we'll see if they're good or not. Welcome to the show, kid. The Giants are a great example. Their coaching staff and what they've been able to put together. The Dodgers, I know we see the star talent, but before that, it was all Justin Turner and Chris Taylor and kind of these Max Muncie, these like resurgent career guys that, you know, we're on the scrap heap. They were pretty much available to everyone.

You know, the Yankees right now, their pitching coach Matt Blake, who, you know, is not a sexy name around baseball, but he was one of those analytics, numbers, you know, all the pitching machines and things like that. that any pitcher they call up now is a is of a certain ilk and and their pitching now gives them a chance every night. So yeah, the coaching staffs at the major league level has become a lot more important. It's one of those things that's funny when you actually say the sentence because you're like, how how will we possibly miss this? But yeah, I mean, man, it's crazy, but it might work, you know, having good coaches. Brent Strom, you know, casual.

taking the basically his retirement job for being the snake's pitching coach i mean that's that's a beautiful thing yeah he wanted to come back to arizona and we are very lucky to have them that's all i can say but hey man and speaking of arizona we can't wait to get you out here uh got to hang out when you come out and i got to ask if we get you out to chase field which one are you doing first are you participating in the legends race or are you uh driving the bullpen cart Ooh. I mean, I have experience racing. Did the, did the sausage race last year. Oh, okay. So you're a season vet at that. Did the sausage race? I, there's, I don't, I was going to say there's a good argument. I don't think there's an argument. I won. So I'd love to, if I could maybe put that on the line in Arizona and maybe that becomes a thing for me. All right. And I mean, I'll be honest with you. I mean, talk about the amalgamation. That's a, our new that's our new word that uh jimmy used it right the other day and we're trying to use it uh wherever we can uh dude if i can do a pool game uh that that might be it that might be the peak um

if i can do a pool game which i you know i've i've talked to talk to some of the snakes i just got to get out there we uh between blitzball and our normal content and and everything else never mind just summer and trying to see some family and stuff. Sure. It gets tough. But yeah, man, I, when I, I'm going to do a snake's weekend at some point. I don't know if it's end of this year or next year. But yeah, I want to do it all.

I'm trying to, I'll throw out first pitch. I'll try to throw out the last pitch. We'll see. Like, let me, let me get loose. I don't know. Just get in the bullpen. That's all we need to. We just need to see what you can do is my point because who knows.

There's opportunities abound. on this team right now. And yeah, you don't want to come out here during the summer. So we'll try to get you out in like September or sometime where it's a little, little nicer because it's just hell out there right now. Yeah, go to a game. If I could sneak in a couple Sedona days. I said it. People maybe thought I was talking about the color before and I was. But man, I also love Sedona. I did a Sedona trip. That place is unreal. Yeah, it's incredible. I'm trying to be there. I don't know how, but I'm trying to be there. We'll get you out there. We'll get you out there. We'll get you out. there well jake man i appreciate your time thank you so much for joining us and uh look forward to continuing watching you guys do your thing with john boy thank you thank you we play for rings in the desert let's go let's go uh big thanks to jake for coming on the show and and chatting about uh his diamondbacks with us and again if you want all of this wonderful diamond back content not just this show but jesse's writing talking more about jo man to ply that that that uh Jake brought up.

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And by the way, we talked about Seth last night. Seth is doing big things in Reno. So hopefully we get to see him soon. But that's not all we're here to talk about. We want to talk about Jesse and some of his little omnipotent Jesse predictions

that he had for the season. Jesse did a little preseason prognosticating. and we wanted to take a what, what, like a quarterly look in at this point, quarter of the way into the season, third of the way into the season, look at some of his predictions. I haven't made like a total fool of myself yet, which honestly, no, actually. I think that's why you want to check in right now. Like before things go bad, I think you want to take a look at the standings. Yeah, we weren't really planning on doing a segment like this, but then I checked on my predictions.

I was like, ah, I'm actually doing all right for myself. We better talk about this quick. Oh, man. All right. So, yeah, let's jump into this. So we'll start with, well, we'll start wherever Emma wants to start. Emma, you just throw up a graphic and I'll just talk about whatever it is that we got. Let's go.

No, Jesse, I'll go in order. I'll go in order for you. So go to national league playoff. Here's where Jesse is dead. I mean because he didn't pick the Diamondbacks to make the playoffs. I did not pick the Diamondbacks to make the playoffs. No, no. He wasn't wrong.

that. Thank you, Emma. Thank you. Yeah, so I had the Mets coming out of the NL East, the Brewers coming out of the Central, the Dodgers coming out of the NL West, and so far so good. Those are the three division leaders, some of them by a pretty wide margin so far, especially the Brewers and the Mets there, have a pretty comfortable lead. The wild card, Derek, I haven't done quite so great. I have the Braves in the first spot, the Padres in the second spot, the Phillies and the third, currently only one of those three teams is actually in line for a playoff spot, that being the San Diego Padres. It appears that I underestimated the St. Louis Cardinals.

Of course you did. Old pal, Paul Goldschmidt. He's hitting 500. I don't know if you've heard. He is not hitting 500, but he's hitting 34. He has 60 home runs already this season, Jesse. It's incredible. That is also false.

It's also fabrication. I know. I think I overestimated the Phillies a little bit. they're 20 and 24 to start the season, although they have outscored their opponents by 10 runs. So I still think things could potentially turn around there. The Giants also are certainly in the mix. They're 24 and 19.

I didn't have them finishing in that picture, which I still feel pretty much okay about. I'm still not necessarily a believer in what the Giants have going. I know they won 107 games last year, but they've really started to fade over the last couple of weeks. the fact that Carlos Rodan has been as good as he has, I think is a big reason why they're still 24 and 19. He's really been incredible.

Yeah, absolutely. But they lost Buster Posey, Derek. I mean, their offense has not really produced in the way that it did last year. Really, nothing even close to the way that it produced last year. And that's been a big hit for them. All right. Let's take a look at the American League. All right, American League.

here we go. So I have the American League East. I have the Toronto Blue Jays, which looks pretty silly right now because the Yankees are 31 and 13 and have just been insane. I had the Yankees as a wildcard team, but they right now are widely in the lead for first place in the AL East. I had the Chicago White Sox coming out of the AL Central. They're trailing the Minnesota Twins by four and a half games. I don't know if that's necessarily that the twins had been that great or that the White Sox have just been kind of mysteriously terrible to start the season, but the White Sox are still sort of in the mix. They're 22 and 21.

I had the Houston Astros in the AOS, and that is so far looked pretty good. The Astros are 29 and 16. Seems like it just doesn't matter, Derek, what kind of players they lose year to year. Somehow the Astros are just always an incredible baseball team. And certainly getting Justin Verlinder back this year didn't hurt them. The wild card, I've done pretty well. I had the Yankees in the wild card spot. Like I said, I should have had them in the division from at least what we've seen so far.

But they've certainly been good. I had the rays in the second wild card spot. And the rays are in the second wild card spot in real baseball right now. They're sitting at 26 and 17. And then I had the Los Angeles Angels in the third wild card spot. And Derek, in reality, they actually have the first wild card spot. They're 27 and 18 to start the year. Shohayotani, Mike Trout.

It's looking pretty good for them so far. Mysteriously Terrible is a good band name, by the way, Chris Melton. Who is in the final AL wildcard spot right now? The final wildcard spot right now would be the Toronto Blue Jays. Oh, okay. Just by a slight margin. Good work. Good work.

I've done pretty well overall. The one thing is just I didn't have the twins in the playoff picture at all, and the twins are 27. seven and seventeen. They've really started off pretty well. And then the twins are that kind of team, right? Like it's kind of like the Yankees. The Yankees are hard to predict when they're going to be good and when they're not because

on paper they really seem to look better at times than they actually perform, but now they're actually performing the way they should. Carlos Correa, not a bad pickup. He's a twin. He's a twin. Not a bad pickup. Doing pretty good over there in Minnesota, that guy.

I'm still startled every time I turn on a Twins game, and Carlos Correa is playing for them. And it's like, what? Yeah, it doesn't play for the Twins. No, no, it really doesn't. And, you know, even though I'm well aware he's not on the Astros, I don't think anyone expected the Minnesota Twins to be the team that he wound up playing for. But here we are.

Nor, like you said, and did I'm sure a lot of people expect them to be doing as well as they're doing right now. So those two things are definitely tied together, I'm sure. But you also had some awards picked out. We got a National League and AL Awards. MVP in the National League, Juan Soto. Yeah. I like the rookie of the year pick of Sia Suzuki. Manager of the year pick Buck Schollalter. I think that's a pretty solid one. And we don't know about Max Scherzer, unfortunately, due to the injury and when we'll see him back at 100%. But those are some solid choices. So, far. I don't know about the Juan Soto MVP pick, though. He might not be on the nationals for too much longer. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, the MVP right now is probably in the National League,

has probably been Mani Machado. He's leading all of Major League baseball and wins above replacement right now, and he's hitting 361. So Mani Machado is probably having the best season of his career right now. I still feel pretty okay about picking Juan Soto. He's an incredible play. but yeah probably not the guy you'd pick at this point in the season another fantastic thing when you talk about wins

above replacement Joe Mantiply friend of the podcast now is fourth on the Arizona Diamondbacks in war when was the last time you saw middle reliever fourth in war

on the on the thing oh and for my friends it ain't no fang podcast. I wasn't pronouncing that right. War. I had to always say it differently. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, I don't know, but I have to say it differently than I would say the word war. So anyway, uh, shout out to Joe Mantyply. And let's take a look at your AL awards. All right. So A.L. Awards, we've got Mike Trout. Oh, like that. Mike Trout. Get out of here for the MVP. And Mike Trout, Mike Trout is, it's close. He and Aaron Judge are, it'd be pretty tough to decide between the two at this point,

but both of them have been phenomenal. I feel pretty good about that. Shane Bieber, not so much. He's had a 355 ERA so far. He hasn't had a bad season, but he also hasn't been spectacular. Julio Rodriguez for Rookie of the year is not looking bad. I don't know if he's necessarily the favorite at this point. That was my pick. Jeremy Pena, who's a guy that a lot of people I haven't really heard of maybe. Plays for the Houston Astros, and he's sitting 293 with a 504 slugging percentage in his rookie season with Houston. So he leads all Major League Baseball rookies in Wins Above Replacement right now.

So things are certainly looking good there for him. Julio Rodriguez certainly still has a shot, but we'll see how things turn out there. Charlie Montoya, though, Derek, not feeling so great there. the Toronto Blue Jays have played pretty well this season. They're 23 and 20. They've certainly held their own. But coming into the year, I honestly had the Toronto Blue Jays being sort of an elite baseball team.

We don't have graphics for this, but if you go back and read the article where I made these predictions originally, we also talked about how we thought the playoffs were going to turn out, like who was going to beat who and how many games and all that stuff. And I had the Toronto Blue Jays going all the way to the World Series. So that so far maybe not looking so great, but there's certainly still a lot of time left in the season. We'll have to see what happens.

Do they miss Robert Raymond, perhaps? Is that, is the, is Robbie Ray, is there not enough Robbie Ray in their life for their pitching staff to be as strong as it was? That guy had an incredible season with them. And the one thing about it is it seems definitely like it might have been the pinnacle of his career. Not to say he's, again, like you said, not to say he's bad, doing bad with the Mariners, but definitely not putting up the numbers that he did last season with the Blue Jays. Yeah.

Well, Jesse, regardless, I know you, I know you won't take OG's gummies to get over the good and the bad picks that you made. But people, people, other people out there can. They, they can. Are they that bad? No. No. I said no, whether they're good or bad. Well, like, again, if you're going to be insufferable, if you're going to be insufferable

about it, then people can stop by their local dispensary and grab some amazing scratch-made THTGs from our friends at OGs just so that they can put up with you. But if you're going to be nice about it, then they can be, you know, it can just be like maybe a chill indica to go along with what you're saying. And, you know, if you annoy them, then it's an uplifting sativa, you know, that you use what they got because they got a wonderful variety of. strains, dosages, and flavors over at OGsG Gummies.com. Wonderful flavors.

Pena colada, big fan of that, as well as they got microdoses now. Microdoses, three milligrams, can try it out. That way, remember what I say, you can't untake it. So make sure if you're going to OGsbrands.com and you're trying it out, make sure you're dipping your toes in the water before you try it out and OGs has you covered, whether it's three milligrams or 10 milligrams. If you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEEZBrands.com to find OGs near you.

And I defend myself real quick, Derek. I need to defend myself on one thing. Is it because I said that I need to take marijuana gummies to deal with your picks? No, that had nothing to do with it. That was fully expected. So O. Martinez made a good point in the chat earlier. He said, he mentioned the fact that I didn't have Zach Gallen for the National League Sigh Young Award, which I want to talk about quickly because I did seriously consider

Zach Gallen as the Sall Young Award winner. Yeah, there's the comment from, for L Martinez. Yeah, he said LLIS, but I see, yeah, I mean, among Diamondbacks fans, that's certainly going to take some heat and rightfully so. My main concern with Zach Gallen was that coming off last season where I believe he threw around 130 innings and a year before that, which was of course abbreviated, I'm not so sure that Zach Gallen is going to be able to push up to the number of innings that it will take in order to win a Cy Young Award. I think he could be top five. I think it could be really close. I really do

expect him to have an extraordinary breakout season working with Brent Strom. I mean, what we've seen so far has been spectacular. But I just don't know if he's going to get to the 180, 190, 200 innings that it's going to take in order to really be a viable candidate for the award. Do you say that because the Diamondbacks keep like spacing out their rotation and mainly giving him more days in between starts? Because that's the one thing I've noticed them doing, especially if they have any kind of back-to-back schedule or a doublehead or anything like that, Zach Gallen seems to be the one that gets pushed back. I just think they're going to be careful, especially given the fact that Zach Allen last year, I had to bring back bad memories, but

there was a time when there were questions about Zach Gallin's UCL. No, shut up. No. Yeah, I know, I know. I talk about micro fractures or UCL. Shut your damn mouth and just keep moving. But we're past that now, Jesse. He doesn't have to hit anymore.

We took that out of the game. He doesn't have to hit, right. Remember you and me, we talked to the commissioner. We were like, Zach Gallant, we need to change this pitching thing. Jack Gallagher can never hit again. No pitchers can hit. We don't want it to know it's just about Zach Gallen. But really, it was about Zach Gallen the whole time.

That's what it was about. was making sure to be fair to be fair uh you don't injure your ucel by swinging a baseball bat shut up but you know you micro fracture it you know you micro fractured it right isn't that what he did to this arm didn't the mic that wasn't that wasn't the ucel that was that was a pretty separate there's multiple injuries we need to protect that gallon at all costs that's the point that's the point but yeah i i definitely agree with what you're saying and i think that they will be careful I think Tori Lavello is careful in general, right? Even if it's,

even if it's not somebody that had injuries that is this important to the franchise, I feel like, you know, he's definitely going to do what he can to give everybody a break, give everybody as much rest as they can. I just think you have to be careful with Zach Allen in particular because, I mean, he's the future ace. He's the ace right now. He's the ace for the next few years at least, right?

he's armed that you want to protect. And Zach Allen, I don't believe at any point, his major league career is minor league career. I don't think he's ever surpassed the 130, maybe 140 in the minors, uh, innings limit. And so you don't want to jump a guy from 130 to 200 all in one year, right? Or 130 to 190. So I just think there has to be kind of an in between season for him where he starts to build up. And then, you know, maybe next year is a year where he really does have the capacity to

throw however many innings he possibly can. You're not wrong, but it's why I hate baseball. It's the same reason why I hate the fact that somebody like Corbyn Carroll, who is doing what he's doing at a minor league level, can't be expedited up to a major league team at this point. No sport would do this. I'm just saying, right? No sport would have a guy hitting the way that Corbyn Carroll is

or doing as well in, I don't know, like a G-League or a minor league system of any time in their sport and not call them up. The coyotes wouldn't have some guy scoring three fucking goals a game for the roadrunners and not call them up. So it's like baseball is the only sport

that all of this weird shit happens in. It drives me nuts. But you're right. There's a reason for it, especially when it comes to pitchers, especially when it comes to the guy that could easily be considered the ace of our staff now,

let alone the ace of our staff of the future. So make sure to take care of him. Like I said, at all costs. Before we go, I want to give you guys my Draft King's pick of the week. It's Thursday. If you're listening to this on the audio podcast, it's Friday, we hope you guys enjoyed this. This has been a fun week with the interviews and everything else we've done. So happy to bring it to you.

Are you betting against the Mavericks again? Is that what's happening? No, no, no. I'm going baseball this time, Jesse. Right now. Jack King's Sportsbook has a pretty nice promo. Opt-in on, I think it's a 50% profit boost. on baseball picks of the week.

And I'm going to give you a couple of those to go along with it because I think there's some slam dunks. Cleveland Guardians over the Detroit Tigers, Shane Bieber, the aforementioned Shane Bieber pitching for the Cleveland Guardian. So that's at plus 110. And I think that at, again, one and a half runs is a pretty solid bet.

I'm also taking the New York Mets at plus 150 at one and a half runs over the Philadelphia Phillies. I don't know why these are on here, but I would jump all over. I think these are solid slam ducks. And those are the, I'll also give you the Padres over the Pirates. I know the Pirates have been pesky. And I feel like I said a lot of peas in that sentence.

But go get the Padres over the Pirates plus, I did it again, 110. And again, a run and a half over the Pirates. So those are three games. You can get down on the Drafking sports book that to me seem a little suspicious, a little suspiciously high. Like I'm missing something here when it comes to the odds there. But jump on that. because sometimes just like hockey,

the baseball odds are kind of automated and they're put out there and there's not a lot of sense to them. So go download the Draft King Sportsbook now. If you haven't done so already, get that app. It's an official sports betting partner of MLB and the NBA. And right now, new customers for NBA action can bet just $5 on any team to win their game. You'll get $150 in free bets if they do. Again, like Jesse said, Jesse suggested it.

It wasn't my idea. He said bet against the Mavericks. I think that's a good idea. If you're looking to turn a small bet into a big payday, get down on same game parley's. New and existing customers can bet right now on a same game parlay, which, by the way, you can just add as many legs as you want to to that by especially the same game parlay is adding point combinations,

total rebounds, three's made, all sorts of stuff like that. But as long as you add three or more legs and bet on that as a new customer, you will get up to $25 back. one of the legs doesn't hit on your same game parlay. So make sure to get down on that NBA third round action of the playoffs. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use promo code PHNX, bet $5 on any NBA team to win their game,

and you will get $150 in free bets if they do. Again, that's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King's Sportsbook. 21 and over only Arizona-only gambling problem, Dow 100 next step. New customers only, minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. see draft kings.com slash sportsbook for details. Jesse, I have to go.

I want to go watch baseball. They're playing the Dodgers. It's right down the street. I'm going to go watch some baseball. Can't wait for Jesse to get here less than 30 days. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. Follow me tonight for the game action. Of course, I'll be tweeting not only for my account, but from the DBX account.

Not the DBACs account. I don't control their account, but I'm at K-Bacap underscore K-man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. I don't think they would trust you, Derek. I don't think they would ever trust you with these. official debax account. Yeah, that's, and that's a good call. That's, that's a good call. I wouldn't argue with that call. But of course, you can follow our account at PHNX underscore Dbacks. All roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. That's on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. A big shout out to Jake from John Boy. Again, for joining us. We appreciate it. Awesome job and a great interview. Great things happening for those guys. And they truly deserve it for once again, reporting on sports their own way. much like we do right here at PHNX. So of course, right now, you haven't already done.

So please sign up over at our YouTube channel, subscribe, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss any of the wonderful content coming out from the PHNX team, not just from our show, but from all the wonderful shows that go live on this network as well. If you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, subscribe to us there. Leave us a five-star review and make sure to join the PHNX family over at go-PhNX.com. if you haven't signed up for a membership already. On behalf of Jesse, I thank you so much for joining us.

And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you play for rings in the desert.