PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Teoscar Hernandez Outduels Bobby Witt Jr. In DUD MLB Home Run Derby

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Live once again from The Tipsy Oak in Arlington, we have more from the Home Run Derby at Globe Life Field. From the anthem to the format to even the finish, the entire Derby felt like a swing & miss. We discuss if MLB needs to go back to their head to head format and if a lack of star power is impacting the event. We also have more from Torey Lovullo and Ketel Marte as they prepare for the All-Star Game on Tuesday!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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.

Ski. And I guess we're using the victory music. Maybe we shouldn't be because the Los Angeles Dodger won something tonight. So it feels like a loss. But welcome in to the PHNXD back show right here live again from the tipsy oak in Arlington. Big shout out to this place for putting up with us and allowing us to do our show from here. Of course, my name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of Arlington, Texas, this manager, vice mayor of Arlington, occasionally known as Thunderstick Jesse Friedman.

We got our guy Kyle back here joining us tonight. And we are so excited to have all of you guys here with us as well. I love this night, Jesse. I love the home run derby. I love it more, I think, than any other event in any All-Star format or any other sport. And I was very, very excited to attend my first home run derby tonight. I was also a bit disappointed by it. I'm not going to lie.

It was a blast to see all of the home runs flying out. but I think we're going to go over why tonight's home run derby felt a little bit like a dud. Yeah, I mean, and yes, I say this as someone who loves the home run derby as much as just about anyone out there. You know, I was on a radio show in Tucson this morning with our pal, Justin Spears over there, does a great job. And I was talking about how the home run derby is like the coolest thing in all of all-star events. I mean, there's something about a home run that I just think is kind of an on. inspiring thing for people to witness in person. And when they're happening, you know, one right after another, it's really, really cool.

But yeah, tonight was, I don't know, it just didn't hold my interest in the way that I think home run derbies have in the past, at least for the most time for me. And I think there's a number of reasons that we can get into for why that might be. Absolutely. The biggest one in my mind is that the list of participants for this year's home run derby was, I mean, I mean, it wasn't terrible. Like Gunner Henderson's a really cool player, right? I mean, Teoscar Hernandez certainly has some power.

Like Pete Alonzo has a long history of participating in the home run derby. I'm sure we'll talk about more later. He has been in a lot of them. He was not very successful tonight. He was not very successful tonight. But yeah, it just missed the star level punch that I think you get when you have some bigger names in an event like this. And that was maybe one of the reasons why it didn't quite hit home for me the same way today. See, I think the thing is, is I like young guys participating in this.

I like young exciting players. I thought the finale between Teoska Hernandez and our guy, Bobby Witt Jr., who we were rooting for heavily at that point, I thought very much that that was an exciting finale. I enjoyed the fact that these guys were once high school rivals who were now facing off in the home run derby. This was very, very cool. And I thought that the finale, to be honest, was pretty great.

The reason why is because it was the head-to-head format. You had Bobby Witt Jr. that kind of seemed like he was kind of outclassed there a little bit at the end, you know, and then he kind of puts on an impressive comeback. He was very close. It was very close. And like you said, yeah, we get to that point where home runs start flying one after the other, and things were very exciting at that point. But yes, like you were saying, it's kind of weird because the home run derby format has changed and it didn't really feel like it needed to be tinkered with. It felt like when they were. they had switched over to the head-to-head format starting in round one, that that felt pretty good. It felt like it worked. It felt fairly exciting. And there's just something that's more, it's better when two guys are facing off and one guy has to hit more home runs in the other, right? Especially when you have one guy go up and put up a significant amount. And then the second guy essentially sees that hill that he has to climb, essentially, and sometimes surpasses,

sometimes can't get the job done. But it always felt more exciting to know that they had a goal, you know, going out. out there and facing off against another guy. I understand the downside to that. I really do, because you do have face-offs where a guy gets to the next round for hitting 15 home runs, and then you have other ones where guys... It's not really fair. Yeah, both players hit 29.

One guy had to hit 30, or they had to go to a face-off to figure it out, and then one guy gets sent home in the first round. I understand why the head-to-head format is flawed. However, it just seemed better than what they did in the first round this year. And they did get to head-to-head in the second and third round. And so that was fine. They were trying something with the first round being open and just trying to move on based on whoever hits the most.

Yeah, I agree with that for sure. When you're just taking the top four guys, you don't really have a sense for what it will take to advance until you're on like the fifth or sixth guy. And so it's like, yeah, this guy got 19 or 20. Like that might be good. It might not. We don't really know yet.

And that's kind of how it was for the first few guys. I did kind of like the bonus time, not actually being timed, but just being a number of outs. Sure. I thought that was cool because it gave guys an opportunity to just sort of get on a nice run. Right. Where if they were just hitting Homer after Homer, I mean, they could really add to their total in that bonus time. And we saw a few guys do that. I think Jose Ramirez did that.

Teasca Hernandez did that in the last round. Yes, yes, he did. I am not on the same boat as you guys. I mean, like the new format had its flaws. and I really did like the old format. Like I loved giving a guy five minutes to just let it rip, right? No swing limits, no whatever. Just give him five minutes and let him rip.

Take as many swings as he wants. Well, and this wasn't even swings. This was pitches. Right, there was pitches. You were really limited. Yeah, you couldn't even let. Well, it was pitches or time depending on which team. Correct.

Correct. They limited the time to three minutes. But my point being is you couldn't just take pitches like you could in the past, right? Because sometimes you're not. Then you'd run out of time. Yeah, it's not just running out of time. You literally have those pitches if you take them. count as a pitch. But at the end of the day, there's still something about dudes launching

baseballs, 470 feet that is inherently exciting. 100%. That's what I said, especially the finale. The finale was great. There were a lot of great performances tonight. My God, who was it? Who hit the ball 400? Was it? 473, I think it was Azuna. Yeah, Zuna. I mean, it was almost concourse. And Derek and I were talking about there's no way anybody's going to hit this concourse out here. and we thought maybe going into it they would. But then we were like, we vastly overestimated these guys. We very much did. We went out there, we saw how hard it was just to get it to that 500 feet.

It feels pretty close. Right. Feels pretty close, but it's like 500 feet. And those tickets, by the way, in the standing room only section back there, there were a lot of people with gloves, a lot of people that thought balls. This guy included, I very much thought after coming out here for the futures game that that would be a good area to stand to maybe catch some home run balls. There were not many making it that far.

That's for sure. That's a very, very long ways away. But there were some guys absolutely hitting the crap out of the ball. And you were right. Like, we wanted to be excited, though. And here was the thing, is that that finale really did bring out the best of this competition. It did. Yeah.

Suddenly the place felt very alive again toward the end. But you're right, because this was my first time attending. And based on watching it on television, I felt like other years that the crowd has been more excited. This crowd wasn't very excited. And I think the answer is that we were all pretty bummed out after that national anthem. It was hard to get your head back into the game after watching that little girl absolutely butcher the national anthem. And look, I'm not going to talk about, you know, basically not being clutch. You guys all watch this show.

You know I'm not clutch at times. But I will say that my God, like, why do I have to do this about a little girl? I don't know. It was the worst national anthem. I think I've ever heard in my entire life. There were people in my section that were booing this small child, and I felt very bad after a while because it very much felt like she was just trying to put her own spin on it. Once you're in the moment, that's hard.

That makes it so hard. Like, I do feel bad when people start to boo or laugh or do things. It's hard not to. But like, because it was, I mean, look, for lack of terms, I hate calling people out for this kind of stuff, but it was hard to listen to. It was. It was. And it's not just that, but it's also the fact that, like,

I don't know. The National Anthem is one of those things that even if you're a very good singer, a lot of times people don't want to see you putting your own spin on it. Even if you can't hit certain notes, people don't want to see it doing the ooh-oo-o-oo thing and stuff like that, right?

Better or worse than Fergie? Yeah, exactly. Was it better or worse than Fergie? See, I don't, I've heard a few people reference that today. I think I missed that somehow. It was pretty bad though. Jesse, I will play that for you all the way home.

I'm fairly certain, though, she was drunk or something when she was performing. This was not. She tried to go full jazz is what she tried to do. Is that what that was? Maybe. But see, here's the thing is it's not the fact that it's not the fact that young people can't perform because the most exciting part of this home run derby

took place between two high school kids, Jesse. That was what got the place pumped up. That's what got the place going. The high school players, California's Josiah Harthorn and Mississippi's Jacob Parker. They went at it in the high school home run derby, and they lit the place on fire

because these guys only had one minute to hit as many dingers as they could. They were using the aluminum baths, which sound amazing. That's fair. They did have a slight advantage. Oh, yeah, but it sounded amazing in that building.

But, of course, both players kind of struggled at first to try to get home runs going. I mean, these are young kids, and they're trying to hit in a very, very big ballpark, got it going. And both of them did at the right time. Enough to tie at five home runs apiece. And the crowd lost their mind.

I think it was Jacob Parker who was the last swing. It was Jacob Parker's last swing. He hits a home run. The crowd loses their mind because it was tied five five. The biggest, honestly, up to that point, it was the biggest reaction of the night. And this was meant to be the intermission essentially between round one and round two. And then nothing. Nothing.

Well, no, then they bring both guys out and they just give them both the trophy? And they're just, you, both guys win. They only had one trophy. So it looked to me like the person presenting the trophy. I think he was holding it himself. Yeah. And they were just like in the photo with him. Yeah.

He's like, I'm taking this trophy off because neither of these loser kids could have gotten the job done. No, my problem with that is, is that you mean to tell me that you have two high school kids that are, equal and skill level going out there and hitting baseballs for one minute, and you didn't even think that there was the possibility that they could tie? Yeah, in one minute, the chance of a tie is pretty high. Pretty high. But I mean, I think that, you know, the TV networks, the powers that be probably, they probably didn't have time or they didn't think they had time to, you know,

extend that intermission out. You know what it is? Here's what it is. this is an example that it doesn't matter. Like, yes, you're right what you said earlier. If we could, the participants would be the biggest names in baseball and even some of these guys, right? But it's the fact that there isn't the big names in there going up against someone like Gunner Henderson, right? That doesn't make it feel that exciting when it's all kind of guys that are like, you know, relatively,

I'm not going to say these are new names. You know, Marcel Ozuna is a guy that's been in baseball for quite a while. Yeah, Ozuna is one guy that I will get into. Right. what our ideal home render to be here in a second. Ozuna, spoiler alert, is in mind. He's not in mine. Okay.

And I think because I still have feelings, right? There's still feelings there about Ozuna. I don't think he should be taking part in stuff like this, but I guess some people feel like he's paid his time, he's paid his dues, and whatever. But I will say, I definitely feel like his, you know, performance this year merits him being there. Yeah, 100%. as in the case of a lot of these guys. A lot of these guys have hit Dingers.

Gunner Henderson, he hit the least amount in the home run. He struggled. He struggled today. And he has, I think, the most home runs of all of these guys during the regular season. He only hit 11 in the first round. I cursed everybody I cheered for. First round, it was Gunner. The second round of his Jose Ramirez, both guys ended up with the least amount of home runs in their respective rounds.

Yeah, yeah. And then I cheered for Bobby Way, who then eventually lost. Yeah, also lost. But my point being is that it really doesn't matter. at times when you get caught up in the excitement of something like the derby, because you can enjoy even two high school kids going at it, two high school kids that you've never heard their name before, but just the fact that they both tied and that it made it exciting. And honestly, it was what's coming next. Like, hey, they're tied 5-5. The entire crowd there, you know, at the ballpark,

all expected to have some sort of like, are we going to get 30 seconds for each kid now? What are we going to get? And then we got nothing. We got a shared trophy. Nobody likes a tie, especially when you should have thought that out. And I think that that kind of goes, to the format of this home run derby, which is, you know, some of the rule changes, some of the things they've done is the reason why I felt like it kind of lacked. Yes, the participants were part of it, but I also felt like they didn't deliver those exciting moments often enough. And it honestly, like any great tournament, the great moments could have been delivered by

those head-to-head matchups there in the first round. You got to go head-to-head from Route 1. That's it. I think that's it. Yeah. I mean, I understand the fairness component of, yeah, it, it, is a little silly for guys to, like, like Derek said earlier, one guy can hit 27 homers and lose to someone else. Sure. But if I make the playoffs as a team and I score more runs than another

team that somehow happens to win their round, but I wasn't playing them. Does that matter to anybody else? Like, yeah, yeah, we get it, Jacob. That's the luck of the draw. Yeah, I also will say that Alec Boeum had the most homers in the first round, I believe, or was tied for the most. He and Jose Ramirez both had 21. And Alec Bome, man. I don't want to hate too much on Alec Bome being in this event, but Alec Bome is hit 20 homers in his career once. And that was last year and it was exactly 20 homers.

This year he's on pace for about 19 or 20 again. He hit more today than he's going to hit the whole year. Yeah, correct. He absolutely did by a wide margin. It just seems like, yeah, this field of players just isn't what major league baseball needs it to be for this event to be everything that it ought to be in my mind uh if you were to get you know show hey otani to participate in something like this the watchability factor the audience probably goes up very significantly and unfortunately

that did not happen uh today and and you know i i'm not sure that major league baseball is going to be able to pull that off anytime soon but yeah i mean it's it's alec bohm it's a It's Odoli Garcia who, granted, he's the Texas Rangers guy. Like, I understand wanting to have a member of that team, but he's obviously struggled this year. Pete Alonzo, who we've, you know, I don't know. I have to say much there. People. Boo.

Certainly not on board with him being in this. No. Ozuna, legitimate, at least from a on-field, what he's accomplished perspective. Gunner Henderson, legitimate. Jose Ramirez? Yeah, I think so. Like, you know, I don't necessarily view Jose Ramirez. as being like a, you know, a big slugger, like home run derby type player, but he hits a lot of homers.

You got to hand it to the guy. And then Bobby Witt, I think, you know, I think having him in there is fine. He's obviously an up-and-coming star in this game. And then Tay Oscar is kind of, you know, fine again. Like, not like terrible players or anything, but it just isn't the star-studded list that you would hope baseball to have. Right. No show Hey, Otani.

No Aaron Judge. These are guys that I would have in there. So what's your list? Give me your list of eight. Who do you want to see? Here's the problem is that I don't think my list is very star-studded either. It just has that combination of those things. You picked eight diamond backs, didn't you?

No, I picked one because I'm not a maniac. Okay, okay. I did pick Christian Walker, who I don't know how people would react, especially after seeing today's home run derby. I mean, I think that Christian deserves it. We all know Christian deserves it, especially with the way he's been playing lately. But, you know, I kind of get that he doesn't have that

star power that we're talking about this missing. I would say like I like the idea of someone like Christian Walker, Gunner Henderson being in there. I also like the idea of even though it kind of, it happens fast, you know, during the season. But I would like the idea of a guy that kind of springs up and becomes, you know, kind of a star overnight to be a part of the home run derby. And that's why I would like Reese Hines to be in the home run derby

from the Cincinnati Reds. Wow. Okay. I'm insane. In those statements that basically means he wished Arceidi Zanio was also in the home run derby a couple years ago. Correct. That's it. But yeah, I would have Bryce Harper, but he's, you know, obviously injured, I know. But, like, see, that's the thing is that I feel like if you have a Jose Ramirez, you have a Gunner Henderson in there with the likes of an Aaron Judge, with the likes of a Bryce Harper. Like, that establishes them as a star, especially if they end up beating one of those guys. in a head-to-head matchup. All right, so I've got, you want my list, Derek?

Sure. So I've got, this would be electric. It will never happen, but it would be electric. So Otani, Bryce Harper, Ellie Dela Cruz. Talk about some raw power there. Ozuna, which granted I understand what you were saying earlier. Maybe you don't want him. Juan Soto.

Yeah. Aaron Judge. You're going to have two Yankees? Yeah. Imagine if they faced off. against each other. See? That's the other.

Imagine has they faced off against each other. That would be amazing. I would, yeah, I would do everything I could to try to get them to face each other, honestly. First round, you guys are going at it. And then, oh, and there's another one, another more potential for that. Kyle Schwerber. Oh, versus Bryce Harper? Maybe you get a little Schwerber versus Harper action.

And then he's hurt, but I want Fernando Tatis. Yeah. He would be my eighth guy. That would be so much fun. That would be so much fun. To have like a couple of All-Stars that were from the same team. match up against each other because you know the shit talking would be amazing you know just the entertainment value would be through the roof there it absolutely would um but the reality again

is that i don't think major league baseball is ever going to get anything close to the list that i just mentioned yeah um because i saw ken rosenthal talking about this the other day on foul territory he was talking about how the relationship between the league and the union is kind of strange right now and so players are not going to be as receptive to these invitations as maybe they would be if the relationship there was better. The thing that sucks about that is it's an acknowledgement. It's an achievement. It is a award, if you will, for your performance.

And for them to take it any other way because of that strained relationship is unfortunate. And it just shows how bad that relationship really is. Because as much as it's MLB and the owners technically honoring that person or whatever, it's really the fans, especially with the fan vote. And really it's about, you know, the way you performed as a player in the first half. Like, nobody's making it to the All-Star team without merit. I mean, even as much as we want to clown P.Lonzo, P.Lonzo is still up there as far as the top home run hitters. And honestly, when you look at this list of players, is the guy that kind of adds a little bit of pedigree to this home run derby based on the fact that he's won it in the past.

He is a big star. when you go to a Mets game, everybody's wearing a polar bear jersey, you know, and he's just, he's a guy that can, like, yes, maybe the allegations that he, like, kind of demanded to be on the All-Star team in order to be in the Home Run Derby are true, but I fixed it. He kind of deserves that. What did you? I did it.

I did some math over here. What do you got? What did you do? Not only are we doing a home-run Derby with implications on individual success. You are splitting into two teams. a national league team and an American league team. Okay. Interesting. Your national league representatives are

Shohei Otani, Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatis, and because I have to, he's picking a left-hander to throw out to him and Cattel's hitting from the right side of the plate. Okay. Now, for the American League, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto,

Jordan Alvarez. I had Yorda on Alvarez. Yvon Alvarez is a good one. And Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is quite possibly one of the United quite possibly one of the best contestants that we've ever watched. That's true. In the home run derby.

Vladdy does, like, bizarrely doesn't hit that many homers, but he is very well built for the home run. He just, he cranks him out. Yeah. And that's just...

I think there's something to be said also about the fact that if you are the current champion, you should have to defend your crown. Sure. Obviously. Yeah, they had him walk out to present the trophy. And it's like, I don't care.

I don't care. No, you should be out here trying to hit some bombs right now is what you should be doing. Wouldn't teaming them up, though, wouldn't that kind of create the issue that, or just continue the issue that we were talking about earlier, where you don't really have a sense for, like, who's winning or losing until you get pretty far into it? I mean, so, like, if you've ever watched, if you've ever watched golf, I think you could do this very similar to the Ryder Cup. Like, each person has an individual match, USA and Europe. Every match counts for a half a point. You win your team a point, and so then you have some sort of competition.

Head-to-head thing? Correct, correct. Okay. And each participation is worth, like a win is one point. Like, if you tied, it would be a half a point to each team, and then a loss is zero points. All right, all right. Yeah, maybe we do some kind of, like, we create, like, the stat that's based on not only the number of homers you hit, but how far you hit them. Maybe it's combined distance.

You guys are so boring the shit out of me. I think combined distance has some potential. Maybe you weighted a little bit, depending on whether it was pole side or opposite field, even though we don't really see any opposite field homers. You want to give them like a home run? I mean, each home run could be a point, two points, three points, whatever it is. Sure. That's, oh, yeah, because then you're creating like a, it's like the three point line in the NBA. Derek doesn't like that.

This is the goddamn failure that was the future skills competition. It's this exact same thing. They're overthinking it. No, I think you're simple. I think it's just a home. Home run is two points. No, no, no, no, no. He's going to get too many analytics.

A 400-foot homer is three points. You open this Pandora's box. 425 is four. Oh, my God. And then a 450 is five, and it just continues to go out. See, but you can't watch. Like, you have to think about being able to, like, the watchability of it on television.

So, like, you have to keep it somewhat simple. we broke Derek we can move on yeah yeah you broke me you broke me I just want to see a dude smash the ball can we just go back to just which dude to hit the ball more times over the fence than the other dude can we just go back to that I mean was that not what tonight was well it wasn't for the first round I mean if they took the top four but that's where I lost interest right it's what we talked about it doesn't matter well if I watched the second person because there's still six more people that he's going up against the only Here are the high points of the homeroom derby.

The Texas Rangers crowd all leaving in shambles after the first round because Adola Garcia was eliminated. Yeah, yeah, he wasn't great. And then the high school kids in the final round. That was it. Yeah, I will say that you were talking about losing a little bit of interest. You weren't the only one. You might have noticed that the audience that's sort of on both sides,

cheering for everyone is participating. And that audience kind of dwindled pretty significant. Talking about like teammates and their families and whatnot. By the end of the home run. Hard to keep a four-year-old entertained for three hours. But I think that's a sign that maybe this event's a little too long. And that's at least kind of something that I felt is it just, it just feels like it takes a little bit too long to really get interesting.

I would be, yeah, interested in really any way that would just kind of make this event a little bit shorter. and try to make the moments that you have more intense. Pitch clocks. We did get a super chat, by the way. Oh, yes, yes. Yes, we got a super chat from legendary-ish dad. Let's go. Says a fellow legendaryish dad.

Thank you for the shout-out. It was the guy sitting behind you. Oh, thank you for the shout-out. Seawks should have been at the Derby and the All-Star game. You all enjoy. Hey, man, our guy came out. Big shout-out for that. Of course, it's always wonderful to run into Diamondbacks fans.

We saw a lot of Diamondbacks fans at the game. including Catell's family we saw out there walking around the concourse. And we also saw a couple of big Diamondbacks fans, Tony Pereschika and Dave McKay taking in the Homer Derby. They go to a lot of games. They do. They are big fans. They are big fans.

Those guys are big fans. But, of course, we're big fans of you guys. Thank you guys so much for being here right now on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Tell your friends about us because we love finding new Diamondbacks fans to come watch this show. We were just doing that here in Texas. It's great to spread the word. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications.

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Indeed.com slash all city terms and conditions applied need to hire. You need Indeed. Well, we are closing in on the opening date of Deadpool and Wolverine, which is a very significant date for me because I love Ryan Reynolds and I support everything he does. And of course, I also support Mint Mobile and I force this entire company to because not only am I a Wrexham fan, but I'm also a fan of cheap mobile service. And when I say that, I mean premium wireless service that doesn't cost you much more, much at all, including right now if you sign up, you can start with a wireless plant just $15 a month. That is just $15 a month. Of course, for three months at $45, that is probably still a third of the price that I currently pay on wireless service, right? So MintMobil is here to rescue me and you with premium wireless plan starting at just $15 a month.

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And I figure if we can get enough tweet sent to Ryan Reynolds. else, I can achieve my goal of joining his staff to help manage the Wrexham Football Club, which is really what this whole gig is all about. $45 up from payment required, equivalent to $15 a month, new customers on a first three-month plan, speeds lower above, slower, above 40 gigabytes on the unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply cement mobile for details. Well, we had much more today than just the Derby, even though that is the focal point of the entire All-Star weekend for me personally.

I think we fixed the Derby. We did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, again, MLB slide into those DMs, figure, you know, I don't know what kind of position you'd want to create. Maybe Derby Zars. We could be the Zard, the Derby Zars, right? I like that.

But again, the Diamondbacks did arrive here today. You got a chance to see not only Tori and Kutel, but you also got a chance to see a lot of their, I guess, teammates for a day talk about partnering up with one of their NL rivals. Yeah, yeah. I went around and just asked some of the other National League players about, first of all, what it will be like playing for Tori Lavello after, you know, playing probably a lot of games against him and maybe getting to know him to some degree.

But obviously, it's different when you're actually playing for the guy. So talk to Trey Turner, talk to Logan Webb, talk to Jeff Hoffman, a few different guys. It was fun kind of getting all their perspectives. Logan Webb had a pretty funny response when I asked about Tori Lavello and what it'll be like playing for. So here is what Logan Webb had to say about that. Every guy I've talked to that's played for him. Absolutely loves him. I do talk to Jock still all the time.

He loves him. Obviously, you've seen how he can lead a team, right? You see the team last year. And it's, yeah, I'm excited to, you know, play for him for a day, and then I'm going to try to keep kicking his ass every time I play him after that. But, no, it'll be fun. things have you heard about? Just the leader, just that he's a great leader.

He was a great guy in the clubhouse. I think I watched a little bit of that documentary he gave a speech. And I think everyone listens and when he speaks, it's all eyes on him. I think that's a great quality. Well, this is very good for recruiting for Tori Lavallo. Did Logan Webb just admit to watching snakes alive?

He did. admit to why snakes a while. That has that got to be the documentary he's talking about. Did Logan Webb like binge snakes alive in spring training? I mean, I mean, it's tough now being on the NL Pennant team. Yeah, it's true. True. I guess so.

Well, and I also like what he had to say there about, you know, playing for him for a day and then going out there to kick his ass. I mean, that's the reality of the situation, right? They all have to awkwardly pretend like they like each other and then they can go back to normal, I guess, on Wednesday. Well, in the case of Tori and Mookie Betts, they actually do like each other. We know that very much. But, I mean, that is a weird thing because these guys do.

They played for each other. They played with each other. Then they're rivals on opposing teams. And it's like, I know they get all caught up in it, but that's kind of what the All-Star game is about. It's about this love and appreciation for baseball and amongst the best in baseball. That's why it's so cool to see things like Tori calling in to the Dan Patrick show to tell Paul Schee's live that he will be the starting pitcher for the National League team. And of course, it's what's cool when you talk about documentaries, when the Diamondbacks aired that little clip of Catell being told that he was going to make the All-Star team, Tori telling him right away that he was going to start, that he knows the manager, he's going to put in a good word for him and all of that stuff.

But, yeah, Cattel very much, you know, we've kind of gone around and picked on the fact that Major League Baseball did not do a good job of featuring Cattel at this All-Star game. We would love to see more gigantic pictures of Cattel with his swag and his style all over the place. But we know that he, you know, again, he spoke about missing last year. And Tory said that a lot of his motivation this year was to make the All-Star team based on missing out, missing on sharing with all of his teammates last year, that, you know, that joy. Now here he is as the lone representative for the Diamondbacks in this year's All-Star game. Yeah, you know, Cattel is a man in a few words. At least when he's speaking through a translator,

which is understandable. He seemed to be talking quite a bit more to some of, you know, my Spanish-speaking colleagues who were there who could actually communicate effectively with Catell-Wi-W-the-Gri-Go, all right? Yeah, I see some duolingo in Jesse's future. Hey, man, I took Spanish 101 and 102 in college, and I do not remember a darn thing, so that was great. But I did ask Catell a couple of questions.

And there was a translator there to help out. So here's what Katel had to say about making the All-Star game this year after missing out on the opportunity a year ago. He said, I feel happy and God is just. It sounds like you kind of gave you some extra motivation maybe for coming into this season after coffee. It's going to be more motivation to come in as a time in the time. Simply, I just work hard and trying to put my numbers in always.

You mentioned God is just, you know, like it was kind of an injustice life. You mentioned that I was just, you think it was injustice, what happened in Newsposal. The numbers were there, I don't know. Yeah, there's something like you can kind of appreciate about these short, these short-chip-y answers here. Especially the first one, I am happy and God is just, right? Like, God is, I think that's a good, a good encapsulation of Patel's feelings on this

whole situation. Like, you know, it didn't happen for him last year and he very much believes that it should have. And, you know, I think at the time, we certainly saw a case for that, but it did happen for him this year. And this year, it would have been especially egregious if Cotel Marte had not made the all-star team. I can't even imagine the uproar among Diamondbacks fans if that had been the

I mean, it's not even a question about whether or not he's an All-Star. It's a question about whether or not he's an actual MVP candidate this year. And that's the honest truth. It's not just a matter of speaking from being a homer, which you know I am. It's very much speaking from a perspective of looking at his numbers both offensively and defensively and seeing how he has impacted specifically this Diamondbacks team. And obviously, you know, Tori would be the first person to credit Cattell for being the most stable member of the offense as far. as, you know, consistency and, you know, providing this team with big moments.

But, you know, Tori also is having his moment here. This is big for Tori to get an opportunity to manage the National League team. And I joke about it, but it's not the worst thing that Tori is such a likable manager and that these guys do get an opportunity to play for him in this scenario. You never know how that can impact their judgment, considering that a lot of these guys don't really get to know opposing managers sometimes other than moments like this. Yeah, I ask some of the past. Hitchers as well, like what it's like facing Gatel and some of the challenges that that presents.

So be sure to check out our YouTube channel. We'll find some of those. We've got lots of that. Some of those videos. We're cooking it all up tonight. Yeah, yeah. There will be a nice influx of content here over the next 24 hours or so. But speaking, what, do we have Tori speaking with the media?

Yeah, yes. This is, of course, Tori, the way that he told Paul Skeens that he was going to be starting the All-Star game was unique and that he called into the Dan Patrick show as Dan Patrick was actively interested. interviewing Paul Skeens. I'm sure people saw the clip. It was pretty cool. And here's Tori talking about how that came to be, sort of where the idea came from to do it that way. It's a combination of both. It was a last-minute plan that was certainly improvised. I've been in contact with Michael Hill. I let him know what my decision was the day before the announcement. And as I watched him deal and throw seven no-head innings, it just became something I couldn't wait to tell the world. But Michael,

said, hey, let's do this. He's going to be on the Dan Patrick show. Why don't you just butt in on their time and we'll just make it as fun and playful as possible. So Dan Patrick was a huge, I was a big fan of his. I was actually shocked to even do my name, and I kind of had my two minutes with him. And ball, he worked out perfect.

Oh, yeah. That's amazing for Tori to be like, Tori, LeVullo, who managed the team in the World Series last year, like, Dan Patrick knew my name? Big time. Tori, that's happened a few times with Tori. I remember Coach Kay, like, wanted to have him on his podcast or something like that. And that was also a big deal for Tori.

That's a big deal for anybody. That's Coach K. Coach K is another level, but. That's an all-American coach. That is an all-American coach right there. You're not wrong. But you got anything else from media today with those guys? Yeah, I mean, that's most of it.

Trey Turner did talk about how he was, he had a very short interaction with Tori Lavello today, where he basically said, why on earth am I batting third? That is currently up on our YouTube right now. Yeah, that one, that one you can go watch right now. So yeah, there's some good stuff there. And Tori's obviously a, has a reputation as a player's manager for a reason. Guys really like being around him and playing for him. So it'll be fun to hear more of those stories tomorrow.

Yes, and of course, I know I have to apologize to everybody because I know it's Monday, and I know normally we do that thing around here on Mondays, but... But it's not Monday. But it's not Monday? It's not, it's Sunday? What day is it? It is Monday. Oh, yeah, well, yeah.

Technically speaking, we have been working since last week and you don't know what day it is, so it's not Monday is. No, it's just, it's day nine. You guys want another beer? No, we're good. Thank you, though, man. I'm all right. I'm right. But of course, we'll get back to your mailbag Monday questions, resuming when we return to Phoenix in a week. In a week? You got one more week with me on the road. Are you going to survive? I don't think you are. Maybe we should do a, we should film a mailbag Monday for just diehards, but maybe we do it while we're on the airplane. That seems like, I think the acoustics there would be ideal, right, Jacob? That sounds like great recording divisions. Jesse loves giving Jacob brand new challenges that he's never experienced before. Hey, Jacob, do you think we could come to you live from a parking lot in the middle of Dallas? Forget power. Why would we need power or an Ethernet connection?

But, of course, we love you guys. We thank you guys so much for being here. We also love Desert Financial Credit Union. They always check the count for us. They always make sure our numbers are correct. And for more than 84 years, Desert Financial 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 that make your life better, my life better, our lives better.

So you can join a credit union that is committed to giving back to the community and sharing that success with its members. Right now when you open a free checking account online, get $200 in bonuses, get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. And let's talk about game time. I need to talk about game time, Jesse, because game time was a lifesaver on this tree. trip. Jacob and I had no idea at times how we were going to get into the home run derby, how we were going to get into the All-Star game. And of course, we just had to keep our eye

on game time. And game time, of course, is the place for last minute ticket deals, which is exactly what we got. Standing room only, I don't want to disclose how much standing room only tickets were directly from the box office. But all I can say is from that area, you could not see where a single home run ball fell. Maybe one or two might have come somewhere close to you. but I'll say for a much, much cheaper price than standing-room-only. Jacob and I had a beautiful view of watching this home run derby. And I can't thank game time enough for not only making it simple to use their app, but for saving us so much money on getting us some quality tickets

because tickets for this event were outrageous through some resellers. And, of course, you know how scalpers can be. So this was delivered to us before we even got to the event. Everything was easy, simple, saved a ton of money. not only that, but I love the fact that Game Time had, like, with the tickets we bought, they specifically were like, these are the best, there's a little notification that tells you, these are the best deals right now on this event that you could get. So that was exciting to know that we didn't have to worry about whether or not those were actually

good prices on those tickets. And of course, we did keep an eye on it. We got the best deal. We got it, like that of you was amazing, Jacob, that W that we got. And of course, like when they say take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time, it is guesswork because you never know when you're getting an actual good. value on buying a ticket for an event like this, especially with how limited, you know, tickets can be for something this big and how many people want to go. So download the GameTime

app right now, create an account and use our code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Well, before we get out of here, day two of the MLB draft did happen. It did. And I guess it's kind of like if a tree falls in a forest, but no one hears it, did it make a sound? If no one cares that day two of a draft happened, did it? That doesn't matter? I know, it really is.

Paul Goldschmidt was taken in the eighth round, all right? You know how I feel about Paul Goldschmidt. Yeah, that's right. I forgot. That doesn't mean anything to you because you think Paul Goldschmidt's terrible. Yeah, no. The only person we care about now is Ryan Waldschmidt. Waltzschmidt.

I don't know, Goldschmidt, that's old news. Walshmidt, that's my guy. Yeah, and we'll get into what happened on day two, probably in tomorrow's show when we have a little bit more time to dig into it. But yeah, Ryan Waldschmidt did speak to the media today, so we'll be unveiling some video from that. We do have a clip to share with you now, which is Walt Schmidt talking about how he was the Corbyn Carroll pick. The only reason the Diamondbacks have him is because Corbyn Carroll was on the Major League roster early enough. and the Diamondbacks obviously started the season on the opening day roster and then he went on to win the rookie of the year.

So that was the prospect promotion incentive that the Diamondbacks were awarded an extra pick for that. So this is Waldschmidt talking about what it meant to him to be that pick. Yeah, you know, I knew that the pick came from somewhere, you know, the compensation pick area. And then the more I looked into it, the more I realized that it came from Corbyn Carroll. was a rookie of the year. And, you know, it's just super awesome to be a part of that. You know, being an outfielder, that's someone that I've always kind of looked at, just tried to model my game around, tried to pick up some things from him just growing up.

And to be the pick that he created is pretty cool. It's got to feel a little bit like fate for Walschman. Not only is his name Walschmidt, which obviously makes so many Diamondbacks fans excited. But for you to be a player who was impacted by injury, who was actually ranked much higher. You know, a lot of scouts had him going 12, 13th, somewhere in that area. And, of course, one of the big question marks for him was the two injuries that he suffered that have been pretty significant.

He broke his knee in a collision that he had playing catcher one time where he got a concussion and he got broken knee. And then he also tore his ACL making a throw by stepping in a hole, Jesse. It's like some freak accidents there happening to him while playing baseball. And like he said, he just plays baseball very hard. And of course, between those injuries, kind of putting him in a position

where some teams passed on him and that Corbyn Carroll pick, it does seem a little like fate that he was able to end up landing on this Arizona Diamondbacks team. My favorite thing about that Waldschmidt clip is that he talks about Corbyn Carroll being a guy that he's like always looked up to you growing up. Looked up to, he says. Corbin Carroll is two years older than Ryan Waldschmidt.

Walter is 21, Corbyn Carroll's 23. He's like, yeah, you know, when I was five years old, I was wearing Corbyn Carroll jersey. It's like, man, Corby Carroll was seven. But yeah, good stuff there. And yeah, we'll be talking more about the draft in the coming days for sure. We haven't had a ton of time to dig into what happened today. But, yeah, we'll be sure to dig into that more. And he might not be a 5-9 outfielder like Slate Caldwell, but he is still another speedy outfielder.

Yeah, right, right. It definitely makes sense, more sense for Slade to say that for sure. But that's all we got here. Very excited to bring you more tomorrow night from the All-Star game right here in Texas. And hopefully we'll have, I don't know, a little bit more time to spend with you. It has been one of those situations where we are limited based on the hospitality of wonderful people like the folks here at Tipsy Oak. We thank them again so much for allowing us to do the show here, not just tonight. but for what was that Saturday night as well.

So we've been having a great time here in Texas. All of the wonderful people here have been incredibly hospitable. And we have really enjoyed the ballpark, honestly. I've changed my tune on Globe Life Field. Derek and I are in love. Yeah, we're just, look, man, we watch a lot of games at Chase Field. This guy gets to go on the road. Okay, I don't know what this is like.

So I'm just having to. That's fair. I was at, you know, like Petco Park. Yeah, just a week ago. But nothing beats the Riders Stadium. Oh, yeah, this man was definitely mad at us for saying Riders Field is one of the best baseball parks in all baseball. If you had said one of the best, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have had a gripe there. It's that you said top three.

You didn't say top three in minor league baseball. Top three of all of baseball. Let's go. In baseball across the board. That's right. And that is just obviously an outrageous thing to say. I watched baseball while drinking a twisted tea in a lazy river and you're expecting me to not think that was the greatest experience I ever had.

Bullshit. But anyway, we thank you guys again so much for joining us, of course. Join us back here tomorrow night after the All-Star game for another wonderful night. Wonderful recap of that, especially Cattell and Tori's night. Hopefully, Jesse will be bringing you a little bit more from Tori and Cotele. Yeah, we'll get to talk with probably both of those guys afterwards. So join us back here for that. In meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I am at Capp underscore Cidman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman, of course, our wonderful producer. or Jacob that's been putting up with us and really, really carrying a lot of equipment around and trying his best to make sure this show gets happening. We appreciate you, Jacob a ton. Make sure to follow Jacob at Jacob underscore Franklin for because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin, but he's still number one in our hearts. Of course, our shows at PH&X underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports

on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for joining us tonight. We will see you guys tomorrow night right back here. And in the meantime, we hope you have a lovely evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when a Los Angeles Dodger does not win anything.