PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Arizona Diamondbacks drop their final home series of the season to the San Francisco Giants

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

The Arizona Diamondbacks wrap up their final home series at Chase Field by handing out their year-end awards, sending Madison Bumgarner off into the sunset for the season, and dropping their finale to the San Francisco Giants.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY!Plus, EVERYONE can experience the thrill of DraftKings EARLY WIN PROMOTION. Bet on any NFL team to win. If your team leads by ten at any point during the game, you get PAID INSTANTLY. Even if your team loses!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: OGeez! We have free stuff for you! Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3, YES THREE, bags of OGeez including Orange Creamsicle and Tropical flavors, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform Check out OGeez! online at ogeezbrands.com and on Instagram @ogeezbrands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Herm’s out. ASU has a new coach. Come out to our Peaks tailgate this Saturday to will the team on. $50 gets you access to the buffet, 2 Four Peaks beers, and a free ride to the stadium. Plus our PHNX Sun Devils guys will be there playing cornhole, Jenga, and Connect 4! The first 15 who purchase will also receive a free game ticket and a PHNX membership. BUY TICKETS (under Package Beer / Keg Beer section): https://www.toasttab.com/four-peaks-brewing-8th-st/v3Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly.  Mor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNX FOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. They have officially licensed gear for men, women and kids and everything from bobbleheads to swimsuits to crocs. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX Debax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And I'm joined by this guy over here in this other box next to me, the one and only vice mayor, Thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Another bullpen loss, Derek. Another day, another bullpen loss. I don't like starting off that way. That's not a good way to start off. We were supposed to bring people joy on a day where the Cardinals and the football thing weren't able to do that.

But unfortunately, that was not the case. Of course, we are thankful to be brought to you guys by the fine folks at the drafting sportsbook app. America's top-rated sportsbook app. You know, you're all using it today. It's football Sunday. But Drey Jameson was on the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They continue to get solid starting pitching, not just from guys named Merrill Kelly and Zach Gowan. but Dre Jameson once again had another scoreless outing his second of the season.

He's now given up two earned runs in 18 and a third innings to the National League West consisting of the Padres, the Dodgers, and the San Francisco Giants. I'd say that's a pretty good start to his career so far, Jesse. The Rockies must feel left out, right? They're like, wow, I haven't we gotten to face Ray Jameson yet. When we go scoreless against him? Yeah, no. Yeah, right, right, exactly.

because Drey Jameson has been very, very good this season. And not only that, but like in this game, I'll be honest. You guys know, I like to be honest. I like to evaluate what I'm seeing with pitchers, not just like the final pitching line. I don't think Drey Jameson actually threw the ball that well in this game. There was a lot more hard contact than we've seen in the past. His command was a little bit sporadic.

He wound up throwing 51 strikes and 36 balls, but there were times earlier in the game where his ball and strike totals were actually pretty close to being identical at least. But I still think, I mean, obviously a positive outcome for him, right? Five in a third innings, no runs, five strikeouts in this game. You'll certainly take that every time out. And I think it also speaks volumes that like on a day where a guy didn't have his best stuff at all, his velocity was was a little bit down in the command issues that I mentioned earlier.

And he still went out there and gave you five and a third scoreless inning. So all in all, a really encouraging day. for Dre Jameson on the mound and he now has a 0.98 ERA in his first three big league starts. So not bad there, not bad at all. Not bad. Not bad. Do you think this is a case

of him kind of coming back down to Earth a bit or do you just think this was a bad outing for him, which every pitcher has? Hard to say. Yeah, I mean, Ryan Nelson kind of hit like his first bump in the road in his third start as well. So I think this was a start where he just like didn't look as good as he did in the other two.

And I mean, at the same time, you can't really call it like, oh, this is just kind of, you know, I think I said a bad outing is what I just called it. Yeah, like it was not that. I mean, five and a third innings and no runs. Like, there's no world where you can call that a bad outing, at least in terms of results. But it's, I mean, it is, I think a big point of evaluation for pitchers is like, how do you fight through your worst days? Like, are your worst days two and a third innings?

seven earned runs or are your worst days, days like this, where somehow, you know, maybe you get a little lucky at times, like maybe some of those ground balls that were hard hit, you know, find some defenders. But five and a third, no runs. I mean, he really gave the Diamondbacks a good performance today. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that for sure. And the team that, or the part of the team that didn't give a good performance, once again, as you alluded to earlier, was the bullpen.

Tail is oldest time for this team. Jesse Malanson gives up a run in a non-save situation. that proves to be critical because the Diamondbacks do get one of the two runs that they were down back that the bullpen allowed, but not both of those runs, losing today's game three to two. So I guess I have to just once again scream about the Diamondbacks bullpen now having a league leading 38 losses this season. And we're talking about a team that still managed, has managed to win 71 games, Jesse. I can't help but wonder, not even saying half of them back, right? I can't help but wonder if they could have gotten 18 of the 20 losses back where they would be at this point in the season. Like, sure, that's easy to say, right?

A lot of losses do get chalked up to the bullpen. And when you look at other teams, they're not like tremendously far behind the diamondbacks as far as the losses go by the bullpen, right? However, with that being said, maybe just 10 of the losses back, right? so that they have 28 losses instead of 38 losses, and the Diamondbacks right now would be sitting at 81 wins on the season, guaranteeing them pretty much that they would be over 500 this year. When you look at the big difference and the one thing that's going to, in fact, keep the Diamondbacks below 500 this season,

it's hard not to place a lot of the blame on that bullpen. I mean, it's the, I mean, it's sort of obvious, right? That, like, that's where a lot of the blame goes to. I mean, the debacks starting rotation, pretty close to league average, offense, pretty close to league average, a little bit under. The defense and base running obviously are well above average. So, yeah, I mean, the bullpen is clearly the weakest link of this team. One thing I will say, though, Derek, is I do hear the argument of like, you know, take these 38, 39, whatever the number of losses is and like cut it in half and see where the debacks would be. I don't think that's really how this works.

I don't really think that, you know, in the exact same situations that the Debex bullpen has been in, like if you put a league average bullpen in there, they would have 20 losses or something. I don't think that's how that's how this works. If you look at some other numbers like win probability added, that points to the bullpen having lost probably like seven or eight games more than an average bullpen. So I think it's more of like a seven or eight game swing and not like a 20 game swing. Not that that really makes any of you feel that much better about the current situation. but if anyone else I was thinking like I was saying 10 games 10 games puts them at 81 wins on the year is what my point was right so it's like yeah I'm not trying to I'm not trying to be like that where I'm like 38 losses and they should have all of those back as wins you know like that's like you said that's not the way it works a lot of times bullpens do they are on the line for the loss because of the way things can go in a baseball game so most of the teams do have somewhere between 20 and 30 losses in their bullpen so having 38 isn't like it's not like leading the pack substantially. There isn't there isn't the same difference between us and other bullpens

and there is between the Dodgers and the rest of the NL West when it comes to a win-loss record. Yeah, that's fair. But my point being that if they didn't have quite as many, maybe if they were a league average bullpen and we did get 10 of those losses back, it's not to say that the Diamondbacks are even in playoff contention. It's just, I think it's really the one thing that makes them look like a mediocre to less than mediocre team right now when reality they,

they probably the way that this team has been trending and the excitement that has been injected into this team at times from the young pitchers that came up the young outfielders that came up everything else i feel like this is an above 500 team right and we can also say that this team right now is a much different team than the one that started in in march and april this year so it's still there's still a lot of excitement going forward and there's still i mean again it doesn't matter right i mean playoffs aren't in their future uh you can't get those losses back from the bullpen and it's hard to go back in time and see what the alternate future would be like if the if the bullpen didn't quite blow as much right but let's just say maybe milanson is what he was last year and can be a guy that like leads the league and saves or or close to that point instead of being the guy that he has been this year that is a game changer for this team closing games out has been the biggest sore point not even the bullpen itself but specifically closing games out at the end so i just can't can't help but wonder. You know, you just can't help but wonder when they have that many

losses. But the D-backs did give out some year-end awards. They gave out their MVP to Christian Walker, pitcher of the year to Zach Gowan, rookie of the year to Jake McCarthy, and Good Guy Award to Carson Kelly. So I guess I have to ask. I still want to know, like, what is that? What does that even mean? Like, the Good Guy Award? What? You're nicest to us as journalists. Yeah. We should, We should make that clear. These awards were voted on not by the Diamondbacks, but by the Baseball Writers Association of America, which in Arizona consists of Bob Nightingale,

Nick Piccolo, Steve Gilbert, and Zach Buchanan. So I guess it's just those, it's just those four guys who I guess Carson Kelly's been really nice to those four guys. And there you go. But I can attest. Carson Kelly is a pretty good dude. I can attest after talking to him a little bit this year.

So well. He's been incredible. And I think they got everything else right. think Christian Walker has by far been the MVP for this team. And I know we've we've talked a lot about Christian Walker and his luck early on. But I will say that we're seeing Christian Walker get a lot more hits, kind of having that batting average even out like it should look a little bit more. And he really has been just an exceptional player for this team.

Gabriel in our comment says Zach Gallen should be MVP. I don't argue with that at all. He's definitely pitcher of the year, but probably should be the MVP as well. Elizabeth says you guys don't get a vote. These awards are meaningless. She's not wrong about that. By the way, Steve Gilbert, who did a vote on these awards, would also vote on me never throwing a baseball again, Jesse,

because he watched from the press box as I made terrible attempts to throw batting practice baseballs over the netting to the kids in the front row. Now, something I determined is that, one, my eyesight is very bad now, as well as my elbow, right? So both of these things are old and they suck. My eyesight and my elbow. But the other thing I've noticed is it's much easier to just launch a baseball into a crowd of people and hope somebody doesn't get hit with it than trying to actually get it to a kid who wants it

who's just on the other side of the netting from you in like three rows up. It was very difficult to make that very steep throw straight up. I almost hit myself in the face one time with the baseball. I'm not proud of that. But we did have a great time. It's, it's, I, I can't say this enough that I love this game. I love being around this game and there is nothing cooler than throwing a batting practice ball, do a little kid who catches it in his glove and gives you a thumbs up back, man.

That's a, that's a moment I'm not going to forget anytime soon. It was very cool, even though I looked foolish at times trying to get the baseballs to the fans. I'm okay with it. I accept it. My days of playing are long over. So I, I'm okay with that. but a guy who we thought days might be over, who definitely isn't,

is actually our draft king's king of the series, Jesse, and it's our guy, Palm Beach Gardens own Pavan Smith. Let's give it up for the man being back. Let's give it up for, you know, come on, let's give it up for Palm Beach Gardens. Let's give it up for a 444 batting average, 2 RBI, and a run scored. He actually was the one provider of the run in this game

for the Arizona Diamondbacks. until late. So it's good to see Paving back. Still don't know where he's going to play. I'm sure he probably feels that way a little bit looking at this outfield. But there's definitely going to be competition. And I don't think that anybody has necessarily a guaranteed spot if other guys are playing well because this center, this outfield is very, very talented. Is this one of those situations where we're supposed to like find Pavin in that picture, like without zooming in? You know, like one of those things that people put out there on Twitter. He's hidden in a palm fronds.

Is he in there? He's hidden in a palm tree and like a piece of palm tree somewhere in there. I want to pause it. Pause it. Maybe get your friends to watch this video, pass it around to other people, see if they can find Favon in the palm fronds. I don't know. He may be there. He might not be. I don't know.

That Fajj producer of arts, he's a trickster. So you never know what you're going to get out of him. But shout out to Pavin Smith, because honestly, I didn't see us giving him a draft King's King of the series anymore this season at least. So for him to kind of work his way back from that injury. And honestly, he's been hitting the ball pretty well since he's, since he's been back with this team. He really has.

Yeah. I mean, it's just been this weekend on Friday, walking to the DeVax Clubhouse. And there's a locker with Paven Smith's name on it. And he's, you know, he's standing there. You figure he's probably getting activated.

Sure enough, he was. Unfortunately, Jake McCarthy was placed on the bereavement list. That's how they made the roster spot for Paven in the first place. So Tori did say that he expects Pavin to stay on the roster, most likely, at least, even after Jake McCarthy returns from the bereavement list. So I don't think Paveen is going anywhere. It sounds like he'll most likely finish out the year with the team.

But yeah, I mean, moving forward, Derek, we've talked about this. I think someone asked a Mailbag Monday question about this recently about like where does Paveen fit in moving forward. I don't know. Like, honestly, I'm not sure that he does. He's been basically, he's been basically. he's been basically a replacement level player. If you look at like wins above replacement for Pavin Smith since he broke into the majors, it is almost a flat zero.

It's not that he's a horrible player, but he doesn't really like bring you much, right? He doesn't have any standout tools necessarily, at least not that we've seen so far. So I do think that he's in a bit of a tough spot as far as actually, you know, finding a way to get playing time in this organization moving forward, just given how many outfielders they already have, how many left-handed hitting outfielders they already have, but he certainly made a good impression over these first few games, and it's hard to ask for much more than, you know,

four for nine in your first series back. There you go. Draft Kings King of the Series. Shout out to Pavin Smith. And shout out to Draft Kings. For those of you that have not signed up and download the Draft King Sportsbook app, do that now. New customers can bet just $5 on any NFL team to win their game.

And if you do, you will get $200. $200 in free bets instantly. Not only you win that money from that sweet, sweet bet, but you also get $200 in free bets you can use as you wish. That's not enough. Everyone can get some stepped up, same game parlays. Every leg you add can boost your winnings up to 100% of the original value of your bet. So make sure to do that over at the Drafking Sportsbook app.

Let's make things even sweeter. You can get down on those stepped up same game parles once per game day all season long. So that's not just like a new customer offer. That's something that you guys will be able to get down on all NFL football season long. It's this simple. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app or use our link in our show description. Use our promo code of PHNX. That's promo code PHNX and you will get those $200 in free bet should your team win after you bet that $5 bet.

So minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Not to mention keep an eye out for all those wonderful offers that Draft King's Sportsbook has. Sometimes they email you about them. Sometimes they don't. But make sure to check out when you. you go into the app up there at the top because there's always offers for you to opt into that you have to make sure you opt into first before making that bed or before taking them up

on their deal. So do that over at the Draft King Sportsbook app. And also, you got to check out our new, our friend at OG's new product. It's my favorite product. I got some right here. They're always handy. They're always next to me, Jesse, at all times, sometimes in my pocket, sometimes wherever I keep them. Actually, no, I lie. I don't carry these around with me because these are sleeping gummies. Therefore, getting the best nights. I was going to say, it doesn't seem like a great idea. No, it's not a good idea. These aren't the guys. Steve, Steve is the ones I keep with me at all times. But make sure to check out our friends at OGs and their brand new sleep edition gummy. You won't want to sleep on these because you actually will

sleep on these. OGs right now is flavoring your dreams with a two to one THC to CBN ratio. CBN is a compound that helps you not only fall asleep, but stay asleep. And we all know what THC does. So that just makes the dreams enjoyable. So check out the brand new sleep edition gummy. It's delicious. It's their aqua berry flavor, which I really need them to get aqua berry in all the other flavors because sorry, orange creamsicle, but aqua berry has taken over as my true love right now. But we highly recommend that you check out our friends at OGs online at their website at OGs.com or on Instagram at OGs brands. That's OG EZ brands. So make sure to check them out your local dispensary, find their products near you.

If you have any questions, again, I told you, I am your, I am your sports slash edible Sherpa. So if you have any questions on how to incorporate OG's gummies into your sports watching life, hit me up on Twitter. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. You can also find them at your local dispensary. Must be 21 years or older to purchase. Let's see. Mark Salara in the comment said, man, those guns make me feel lucky go happy. Okay, look, Mark, We need to have a talk about you bringing our private conversations into public stuff, you know, really. Thank you guys. Thank you guys so much for being here, Gabriel.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you to our friends for joining us, by the way. Our guys joined us out on Friday at the Arizona Diamondbacks game against San Francisco Giants. And that was a lot of fun to hang out with you guys at the Four Peaks draft room. So we got to do that again, for sure. I know we didn't have a lot of chances this season to do that. but we'll make sure to have some more meetups. Maybe we'll have some Arizona Fall League meetups.

So make sure to keep an eye out for that as well. We have a lot of baseball left, Jesse. Our season is not over when the baseball season's over. Our year is not over because we live in baseball Nirvana, so we're going to be continuing doing this. But Madison Bumpgardner season is over. Kind of surprising. We know that Merrill Kelly is going to get two more starts

in an effort to get him to 200 innings pitched this season. However, Tori Lavolo revealed today. during our pregame press conference that Madison Bum Gardner's year is over. He used the phrase shut down, but then he said it was a bad phrase. But this is what Lavello had to say in regards to Madison Bum Gardner's season being a wrap. To be honest with you, Bum is going to be done for the year. Bum shut down for the year. Yeah.

Nothing. Nothing. It's just played out that way. He's perfectly healthy. I made the decision that, you know, he had an unbelievable start in his last start. And I just felt like, you know, let's end the year on that and get after healthy off season. We have some other younger arms that we want to get a look at. And, you know, Bum has worked very hard this year, extremely hard to get things pushed in the right direction.

And I felt like that was a really good, really good way to say, look, move off into the offseason with that last start behind him. And keep moving forward. Is it a, it's not a shutdown. I was, that was, that was a bad term. We just have the space to maneuver and he's made his last start. And I made that decision. How did he react or feel? As we can see, yeah, he reiterated after that, that really,

there's nothing wrong with Bumgarner. There was no, like, medical reason or even an arm being tired or anything like that. They, they said that the main reason for this was that Bumgarner has pitched a full season, as far as his innings go and as far as his workload goes. And at this point, they would much rather try to see some of those younger arms that Lavello brought up that they can at least evaluate at a major league level and determine what their future might be. They know what Madison Bumgarner's future is.

He is still going to continue to be a part of this team, a part of this rotation. I know some people aren't very excited about that, but I think that this team still believes in Madison Bumgarner's value as a starting pitcher and a key member of the staff. He's not the ace. He's not the number one guy, right? He's not going to start on opening day, barring any kind of, you know,

emergency situation that would keep both Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen from starting on opening day. But Fum can still add a lot of value to this rotation if he can have more starts like this final start of the season that he had. Yeah, I mean, at this point, like going into next year, like you said, he's going to be there. Like there's no scenario regardless. regardless of how he would finish in his last couple starts,

where, you know, next season, Madison Bumgarner isn't an option in the rotation. That's just, that just wasn't a realistic option. I know some people probably wish it was, and there's an argument to be made that maybe that should have been in their line of thinking, but when you owe a guy $37 million in the last two years of his contract, and he has, you know, a nice, yeah, well, and it, you know, in a pretty nice start, right, this past week his last start of the season, was a pretty good one against the Dodgers.

And so, you know, when you see something like that, it at least makes you think like, all right, there still might be something here. There might be a way to get Madison Bumgarner, not back to who he was, but at least back to being a productive starter. Whereas there's other guys right now who are getting a look. I think Tommy Henry being the main one,

now that he's been brought back up. He wasn't particularly good in the game on Friday, a little bit more swing and miss. I think there were still some encouraging signs in there, but he gave up a few home runs, made some mistake pitches. I think some of his breaking stuff wound up being a little bit too high in the strike zone, which got him in trouble. But at this point, evaluating Tommy Henry is just more valuable than evaluating, you know,

Madison Bumgarner. There's a, you know, you're trying to figure out how he fits in for next year. And he hasn't had that many starts in the big leagues yet. So this is an opportunity for them to continue to give him a look down the stretch. in three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and 64 games started, Madison Bumgardner has 15 wins. Not great. Not great. This season, he ends again with seven wins like he did in 2021 after 30 starts with a 4.88 ERA.

And I think that the one thing about Madison Bumgardner that you could say about this season, this season without even hesitated, is inconsistency. Because we have seen Madison Bumgarner, especially at the beginning of the season, look like the guy who won a world series and was an all-star pitcher and a Cy Young candidate in 2015. The only problem is it's in very small spurts throughout this season. You know, the last start against Dodgers,

you could arguably say he wasn't up against their starting, their actual starting lineup, right? It wasn't the best effort that the Dodgers were putting forward, but it's still one of the best teams, if not the best team in baseball, still going out there and allowing only one run. So it was still a very good encouraging outing. I understand Lavella wanting to end the season on a high note and at that point.

And especially I understand them wanting to evaluate the future of this team more than a guy that they know they're going to get another 30 starts out of them next season, right? They're going to get another 150 plus innings out of them next season. So that's not, that to them right now isn't a concern as much as it's, and concern that maybe he goes back to North Carolina and gets his head rate right a little bit after the season. Maybe he gets a little bit more of the rest. The one thing you can say about him was he was durable this season. He stayed healthy and that's not something that you always can get out of a guy of his age with the number of years he's had as far as being a major league.

Yeah. So it's good to see him conditioning wise be able to finish the season strong and to keep himself off of, you know, the injured list. He missed a start here or there, but that was probably more of them still working on stuff and trying to give him a little bit of a of a breakup. after some few, a few bad starts. But, uh, yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely something that Arizona Diamondbacks fans as much as we want to be frustrated with it. You know, you got to get behind a guy like this. We, you know, this could be an epic comeback story.

And we've seen older pitchers like Bumgardner struggle and then also be able to get things back on track, right? So I still, I still like. I can just feel everyone. I can even feel the audio listeners who aren't even in the chat right now, Derek, just like. cringing as you say, like Madison Bumgarner is going to be a comeback story or could be like a great comeback story.

Not that it couldn't happen. You want to root for that. He's not going anywhere, Jesse. Like you said, the $37 million, they're not going to give him that for free and let him walk, right? So it's like if you want to root for something, if you want to be excited about something, that's something that's going to be critical to this team.

You know, having a Madison Bumgarner, then go out there and throw less than three or in runs, give up three, three-yard runs and give six innings is going to be huge for this team if that's something that he can get back to. Not saying he's going to be back to that sub three, you know, ERA or even what he was doing earlier on this season when he was just out of his mind.

But I think what, at least in my opinion, what that showed is that he's still capable of that. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make sure he can do that on a consistent basis. He's made, so since joining the D-back, since joining the D-backs, you mentioned the 15 wins. I want to get into some of the other numbers here. So he's made 65 starts. he's 15 and 29 so he has a 341 win percentage and he has a 4.98 ERA. That's Madison Bumgarner's ERA since joining the Diamondbacks.

Madison Bumgarner's career ERA even after that is still only 3.42. That's how good he was with the San Francisco Giants for, you know, more than a decade. So, yeah, I mean. It's out of his pretty long career, right? So it's like it is a bit of a drop in. not to mention this season's ERA is 4.88. So it's wild how consistent that number is over three seasons with his performance this season also. Yeah.

Well, I mean, 2020 was like, 2020 was an all-out disaster. I mean, it was 6.48 that year. But yeah, you're right. Like the last two seasons, it's been pretty much, pretty similar levels of performance from Madbum. Although I have to say his strikeout rate is actually lower this year. If you look at the peripherals, they're actually a touch worse from a year. go. So things aren't trending in a great direction here, Derek. But I mean, the one silver lining here, the last thing I'll say on this is that, and I think even the people among us who maybe dislike

Madison Bumgarner most, even the people who really dislike Madison Bumgarner, I do not hate fun. All right. Jacob is having way too much fun right now. Um, Bumgarner's stuff doesn't look that different. Like if you look at his stuff, even back in San Francisco when he was an effective pitcher, it's not like the guy was throwing like 94, 95. He had stretches where he could touch that sort of velocity, but that's not really how he's made his living. And by and large, his pitches actually look fairly similar from a movement standpoint. Brent Strom has talked about this a lot throughout the year that, you know, he's done a lot of comparing a video between Mad Bum now and Madbom when he was in San Francisco, trying to like figure out anything that maybe he could fix

in order to get back to the pitcher that he was. He cited some pacing things like Bumgarner used to work a little more quickly. So I know that's something that they've talked about. But at the end of the day, this isn't a guy who threw 97 and now throws 86 and is trying to find a way to make it work. So that's the reason that I think there is a little bit of hope here. And it's really the reason that the diamondbacks aren't going to give up hope anytime soon. They're going to go into next year, try to help Madbone figure some things out before they even get close to, you know, removing him from the rotation or even taking further steps beyond that. So we'll have to see how how things turn out. Derek, I still don't necessarily think that's a likely outcome that he finds his way out of this and becomes anything like the pitcher that he was.

But you can kind of see where the devax are coming from here. It's not just where they're coming from. They don't really have a choice in it, Jesse. It's not like, oh, they're trying to do this. I mean, they do. They have a choice. They could designate Madison Bumgarner for assignment tomorrow and they could eat more than $37 million. Nope.

Nope. And nope, right? Like it's no matter of paying someone else to be in that spot or whatever the case may be. Even if it's $500,000 that they have to pay somebody else to be a starting pitcher in that spot, there ain't no way they're eating that 37 million. That's damn near half of an entire season's payroll at this point. for them to, you know, move on from Madison Bumgarner, especially when they can still, there's still options with Madison Bumgarner that they haven't even tried. I think realistically, when you talk about pitchers that have the length of a career that Madison Bumgarner does, they have to adapt.

They have to change because there's no way you're going to overpower people for that long. Luckily, like you said, Madison Bumgarner has never really done that. So he's done it more with his pinpoint accuracy and his ability to be, you know, a very competitive pitcher. right um but you know that's something that like again i'm not expecting them to get back to his form i'm not expecting that i'm not that naive about it what i am expecting though is i'm expecting madison bum gardener to be able to find a way to be more consistent last year he was just consistently bad throughout the year it was never awful i don't know i don't know i'm going to push back on that mad bum had a stretch i'd have to go back and look at the numbers he had a stretch of

about eight starts where he had like a, right? Yeah, it was like mid end of the season, I think. He had a stretch of like eight starts where he had like a, it might have been a sub one ERA. Like he started the year poorly and ended the year poorly. And in the middle was actually very, very good. But it just didn't last. He just like couldn't maintain it. And even in the moment, it kind of felt like he was pitching a little bit above his actual skill level at the time. which sounds a lot like the beginning of this season for him when he was when he was locked in and was doing something similar right this entire pitching stuff was out of their minds in the month of april and even part of may so it's like uh i guess my thing is is there i don't believe entirely that that's just a fluke when he's able to be that good and i don't think that yeah like being that good is that attainable but i think that he shows how good he can still be at times if you can find a way to do that at least a bit more consistently and not have the absolute terrible dog shit outings that he has

every once in a while that just pop up out of nowhere that makes everybody want to move on from him, then I mean, I think it's more about finding that middle ground and being able to just be more consistent, even if he's not that pitcher that he was at one point. On the other side of the spectrum, however, the Arizona Diamondbacks welcomed out Brandon Fott from the Reno Aces to Chase Field today,

And no, not because he's being called up. Don't everyone go crazy. Jesse, Jesse didn't like my email or my tweet that maybe alluded. Your tweet from our PHNX account was entirely misleading and had all sorts of people that Brandon Pot was being from the actual statement. Brandon Fott is here at J's Field, I believe. See, Jesse Hates fun.

It's facts. It's facts. Jesse hates fun. But shout out to the entire Fott family who was out here with him while he accepted his award for the minor league pitcher of the, year along with his teammate corbin carroll who is the organization's minor league player of the year uh and got a chance to meet brandon's father uh brian fought who uh listens to our show and he's a fan of us brian we're a fan of yours we love you we this is the this is the number one podcast of arizona

diamondbacks players parents i'm just saying we are we are your favorite players parents favorite podcast is what we are. But, you know, it was good to see Brandon Fott out there. It was incredible to see the, you know, to hear of his accomplishments over the, you know, over the loudspeaker and everything like that. He, you really forget how good he's been for this team and how exciting it is. Dre Jammison and Ryan Nelson have given a lot of people, a lot of hope about the pitching rotation for the future. You know, to get, to get Brandon Fott also up here. I mean, it's going to be exciting. It's going to be electric and there's going to be a lot of competition for those spots. Who knows? Who knows? Batman's and bumgarner might not be safe once these young guys come up and

start performing if he doesn't, you know, turn things around. But again, shout out to the thoughts. Shout out to Corby Carroll's family as well who had a chance to meet. They all love me, Jesse. That's the way it goes. They were all looking for you too. They asked specifically for the vice mayor. And I was like, he's got other obligations. He can't. be here, you know, that kind of thing. But, you know, he's not the only one, though. They're not the only one. Because I don't know, Jesse, I'm pretty sure you saw, but Tori LaBello loves me. And we had a good, we had a good time chatting. I had some wonderful pictures taken by our friend Danielle Cortez, and she captured this moment in all of its glory. I'm going to frame this picture and put it up

in my office. But of course, Jesse, we were talking about you in this moment, which is really why he was smiling so big. That's really what it was all about is Jesse and his shenanigans, of course. I maintain that, okay, pull up the picture one more time. This Tori Lavello smile is entirely like how you smile at like an infant or a toddler when you're like trying to evoke a reaction from like a really small child. It's like he's about to do peek-a-boo or something with you. Let's talk about what we were really talking about, Jesse.

Tori and I were really talking about the fact that Tori thinks Jesse was sitting at a baseball game, two rows back, screaming obscenities at him the entire game, which for those of you that know Jesse, the way that I know Jesse, know how absolutely hilarious that thought even. It is. Just the fact that Jesse screaming at a baseball game, not even expletives, that alone is unimaginable, let alone heckling Tori while dropping F-bombs around small children, but this is what Tori thought of Jesse Friedman.

Apparently, I very closely resembled this person. And, yeah, but you know, we can all laugh about it now. Although apparently, apparently even after this conversation, Tori was like, hmm, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was him. I thought that was Jesse and I was convinced. He said, I was convinced. But then afterwards, some of the things he said definitely made me feel like he still was not convinced by what I told him that it wasn't you.

So I tried my best, Jesse. I had your back. Well, we're going to have Tori. We're going to have Tori on the show here, hopefully, fairly soon, maybe at some point in the off season. And, yeah, well, we're going to have a lot of fun with this moment at that point. That's what we're going to have to do. There's going to be a bunch of year that before.

We love the Diamondback. We were happy to be out there. We love you guys. Again, we thank you guys for joining up with us at our meetup. It was great to see everybody. It was great to see Chase Field one last time before it kind of. wraps up and becomes a concert venue for the winter. My understanding, there is going to be an Arizona Fall League game played out there,

which, by the way, we will be out there covering the Arizona Fall League. We'll be having updates and we'll be hanging out there. We might even be doing some shows from some Fall League games, depending on what kind of okay we get. But make sure to follow along with us. If you haven't gotten a membership yet, make sure to sign up for a membership over at go phnx.com. Get an annual membership.

You'll get yourself a free t-shirt over at the PHNX Locker.com. Month-to-month membership will get you your first month for just 50. cents regardless of your membership status you get access to our members only discord as well as members only discounts over at the PHNX Locker. Be a finkser like our friend Steve Gilbert calls us and you can look like this.

Also if you're watching us right now on our YouTube channel, we thank you guys for peeling away from the Arizona Cardinals game and joining us here. We appreciate you. Make sure to subscribe to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Sign up for notifications that way you don't miss whenever we go live. And also if you're listening right now in your favorite audio

podcasting app, subscribe there. leave us a five-star review if you feel like we deserve it because we always appreciate you guys doing that it's big for us also what's big for us is our friends at more furniture uh once again not only completely furnishing our brand new wonderful office but warning me that they are not going to give me any more desk chairs so that next season i better get my act together as far as like beating up my furniture uh because they're not going to they're not going to if i beat up the chairs they said if i don't they'll supply me with the comfiest office chair i've ever sat in so Make sure to furnish your entire office, your entire house, get ready for football season with a bunch of recliners and all that stuff over at more furniture's fall sale at more furniture.com.

Jesse, we got, we still got lots of stuff to talk about because we're spying on our exes, Jesse. And we're not spying on our exes, you guys, in the good way. We're not doing this because someone's doing well. We're spying on our exes in an absolutely hilarious way. Today, there was a standoff, Jesse. during the national anthem between former Arizona diamondback pitcher Robbie Ray,

who now pitches for the Seattle Mariners, and former Arizona diamond back pitcher Luke Weaver, who now pitches for the Kansas City Royals. These two gentlemen locked, they engaged in a battle of who can last the longest

post national anthem. And things got tense. The home plate umpire was not having any of their bullshit, Jesse. He did not find this to be amusing. he wanted these guys to go back to their dugouts and he wanted them to go back now so that they could play some baseball. So what do you think of this standoff and how much fun baseball can be at times?

I mean, so for starters, this was after the national anthem, right? Yeah. Like they stand for the anthem and then it's a battle of attrition about who can last longest after that point standing there. The rest of your teammates go back to their dugout. The rest of their teammates go back to their. dugout. You lock eyes across the diamond with another player that you know and you're familiar with and you know

is fond of these shenanigans as well. And the next thing you know, you guys are just, it's who's going to go in first. It's that, it's like that old competition about who can like leave their hand on the car longest gets the car. It's like that, but there's no prize. And really the only thing you're going to win

is pissing off the home plate umpire, which really is a victory in itself. Let's be honest. Yeah, so the home plate umpire for this game was Adrian Johnson. And in fact, he did. Both of these guys were ejected because of this, which I think it's the most, I think it's the most hilarious part of the story that they actually were. I mean, they're both starting. I guess, I guess Luke Weaver is not a starting pitcher. No, he's a really so that's so. I mean, that's going to hurt the royals a bit, right? Like, theoretically it could. Yeah, he knew that. Yeah,

yeah, Robbie Ray didn't really have anything to lose. But, uh, yeah, it was a pretty hilarious moment. well after the National Anthem ended, where Adrian Johnson, the home played up fire, is just like motioning at these guys. Like, you got like, you got to stop. Like, I'm serious. You got to stop. And he ejected both of them before they actually stopped.

Oh, it's good shit, man. It's good shit. More fun stuff around Major League Baseball that happened this weekend. Uncle Albert hit not only number 69 in a game, but then proceeded to go on and hit number 700 in the same. game. So congrats to Albert Poole's on number 700. Well deserved. Glad that

some of the jokers in our comments when we put out that tweet weren't the ones pitching to you because these monsters would have walked you. And I'm glad that you got number 700. I'm also very fond of the person who caught number 700, Jesse. The person that caught number 699

was given he gave the ball back in exchange for my understanding a gift package of undisclosed items. a bat, a ball, autographed picture, maybe he got to meet Albert Pooleholz. The person that caught number 700 got the ball authenticated, got their certificate of authentication, put the ball in a little plastic box cube, and walked the hell out with it. And I am sure there was a lot of people that would have loved to have a word with that

person before they walked out of the building. I say this because there's been some discussion not only with this balls, with these two balls, but also with the ball that Aaron Judge hit for number, I believe, 61 or 62, depending on which one, 61. So here's the thing. I do find it a little bit unfair for a fan to be in a stadium and to catch an historic fly ball like this, a historic home run ball, and then be in the awkward position of having the team come over to you and stand around you

and start offering you stuff to give them that ball, right? Like on one hand, it's like a lottery, right? It's the luck of the draw. Who knows? Who knows where the ball is going to get hit? Who knows who's going to catch it? You know, and it really is a matter of like you could walk away with a small fortune simply by visiting the baseball ballpark on the right night.

But there is something that I like truly envy. Not, no, not envy, respect. I respect the hell out of the first. fact that this person was actually able to leave the ballpark with number 700. I say that because not only is there a lot of pressure on you, but once you leave that situation and you have a chance to have like actual people inform you about what that ball's worth is, you will realize really quickly that like giving it up for us, like some season tickets or assigned autograph baseball bat was not exactly the amount of money that you might have

been able to get out of it. That ball could be worth a quarter of a million. million dollars, Jesse, or even more. Yeah. So unless Albert Poulos was looking to open up his checkbook that night and, you know, flash some cash, I might be walking out with, with the ball myself. But it's not, not an easy thing to do because I feel like it's a high pressure situation where they're really trying to give you anything you want in exchange

for a baseball, when in reality, that quarter of a million dollars or plus, that's something you don't even think about that you could be getting in that moment, I'm sure. I mean, this is Southern California we're talking about, right? Like, I don't know if a quarter of a million dollars even like pays off half of your house, but like you got to try, right? I mean, like, you can't just like, you can't just accept an autograph, whatever, which I mean, granted from Albert Pooholz, an autographed bad or an autograph ball or whatever it was,

you know, would have a fair amount of value. But yeah, I mean, like, if I were in the shoes of that individual, I would try to get as much as I possibly could for this. And you know that if this person posts that baseball on eBay tomorrow, the highest bidder is not going to be like, you know, a grand or something. It is genuinely, it is going to go for a very, very lot of money. And so, I mean, you got to respect it. Like, he's just trying to get, you know, the most value that he possibly can from what you accurately described as being like, like a lottery ticket. It's like you won the lottery, right like there are a lot of people in the stands at dodger stadium especially once you know you'd hit number 699 earlier in the game everyone is on the alert like nobody's going to get hot dogs at that point when albert pools is at the plate you're making sure you're in your seats ready to go if anything lands in stands and i'm also kind of surprised that there weren't like mass like mass fighting there wasn't mass fighting breaking out in the outfield over this ball at least not what i saw from the initial clip um

It seemed like people were sort of cool about it. Yeah. And I think for the most people, people are. I mean, I know that's kind of hard to imagine because of the worth of that ball, but I think most people are going to be not only reasonable, but I also think like the baseball community sometimes is very tight. These are people that somehow muster up the energy to go to 81 baseball games a year and sit next to these other people that also have seats in their area, right?

So it's like, I feel like there's some good people at baseball games, even though places like Dodger Stadium can get a bad rap at times that like look out for other people. Gabriel said the Dodger fans were too busy fighting each other and noticed there was a home run. Rock knowledge was asking for everything in our comments, by the way. He wanted a lifelong season tickets, a suite named after him. He's throwing out the first pitch at every home game, not just one. Sing and take me out to the ballpark all season long. unlimited bears, they're just rolling a keg up to his seat. Honestly, I think that's the best course of action here.

Like, don't post it on eBay and just get cash. Like, just try to, just try to negotiate with the team and try to get like the most, yeah, the most like ludicrous package you possibly could get. I mean, from their standpoint, like, they'd probably rather give you, you know, all of these ridiculous things than miss out on getting this baseball, right? Ken Kendrick says, what do you want for Corbyn Carroll's 700th home run ball? You know what I say?

Give me Onus Wagner. Give me, Mickey Mantle. Give me, Mickey Mantle. Just gas for the whole collection. Let's get back collection open up. Now, let's do that. I don't know. A permanent suite at Chase Field sounds like a pretty sweet deal,

but who knows how long Chase Field's going to be around for. So maybe there's that caveat. They're like, yeah, sure. No, it's only going to be around for two more years. But anyway. Well, here's the thing. We have some stuff to give away from Chase Field. And we are doing that because Jesse and I can't express enough,

as we described on Twitter, how appreciative we are for you guys being here all season long. And not only that, but we had an ambitious goal of reaching 5,000 followers before the end of the year. And then we switched it up and said, maybe we could get there before the end of the season. And then we both threw our heads back and laughed. And now here we are about 300 so followers away from 5,000 somehow.

And that somehow is because of you guys. And since you guys have been so cool, like I said, we're going to shower you with gifts. And when I mean shower you with gifts, I mean it. Jesse, tell the people what we got. We got hats. We got all sorts of hats. You want a hat? You want his or her hats?

We got Mother's Day hats. We got Catel hats. Jesse, we got Cerfiantish jerseys. That's what people really want. Jersey hoodie thing from the first game of the season. These beautiful American flag, Arizona Diamondback shirts. these amazingly desirable cross-body bags. And I know a lot of women are interested.

We have unique items because let me tell you, unless you've actually participated in the hot dog race, you ain't getting one of these bad boys. We're giving all this stuff away. So make sure to keep an eye out for when we give that stuff away. We're going to do it after our season wrap up next Thursday, October 6th. So not this week, but next week. We have our final media appearance with the Diamondbacks.

And right before that, we decided we're going to give away not only a grand package that's going to feature a whole bunch of this stuff. But we're going to give away some of these other items we have duplicates of, man. So make sure to be with us because we're only doing it live in the show. So this isn't a Twitter competition. This one is going to be one where we're going to give all this stuff away to you guys live on the show. So join us for that. In the meantime. You guys make sure to try to go out and have yourself a fun time.

Like I said, Chase Field is turns into a concert venue and the best place to buy your tickets for all the concerts coming there, including Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny is coming. You get chicken for bad money over at game time. It's the hottest new ticketing site. It makes it easier than ever for you to score your tickets to not only sporting events, but to concerts and shows. And it's last minute. And when I say last minute, I mean, sometimes you can go on game time and see prices. And then when you go the day of, they are even cheaper the day of.

there's even better tickets available to day. As Jesse said, that's the best time procrastinators to go out there and buy your tickets. You can get your tickets for up to 60% off. Trust me, I've already regretted pre-purchasing tickets far in advance. And I don't know if I'm ever going to do that again now, thanks to Game Time. But if you love us at PHNX, you'll love our friends at Game Time, make sure to check them out and support us by clicking the link in the show description or in our show notes. I think Jacob might have that for you guys in the notes as well.

but if you don't find that in our show notes, and we appreciate you guys doing that because game time really is an incredible way to save money on having fun. That's what it's about, man. This is all entertainment. It's all about having some fun going out there, having a great time.

Remember, we're not here for a long time. We're here for a good time. And another fantastic way to have a good time is to join us this Wednesday for our monthly Four Peaks, Wednesdays, final Wednesday of every month. We are out at Four Peaks at the 8th Street Pub. enjoy $3 kilt lifters and wow pints when you mention that you are there with the PHNX crew must be 21 years or older and enjoy responsibly.

We will be recording all of our shows from Four Peaks that day. Make sure to join us. If you can't join us that day, make sure to join us live on our YouTube channel and go grab yourself some Four Peaks from your local grocery store, have it on hand and ready to drink with us that day as we celebrate Arizona sports. And, you know, for us, it's the end of the Diamondback season. So not only are we celebrating things wrapping up and being better, right? Like this season has been much better, but we can also look to the future and get excited about where this team is going.

Because I think that right now might potentially, we might be coming into one of the most exciting times in history to be an Arizona Diamondbacks fan. That's if you like young guys being drafted, developing, and then achieving their goals and succeeding and giving back to their team by winning games. So just keep an eye out for that. But we thank you guys so much for joining us. We have a whole of us. We appreciate your time, all that stuff. You can follow us until then. We're going to be back with Mailbag Monday episode tomorrow.

So make sure to drop us your questions on Twitter. I am at cap underscore Kman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again so much for joining us for taking some time away from football Sunday and being here with us on behalf of Jesse Fodge. and myself, we always appreciate your time.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when the parents of your favorite baseball players listen to your podcast.