PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Arizona Diamondbacks win their fifth game in a row in a rout of the Philadelphia Phillies

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

Torey Lovullo and his Arizona Diamondbacks continue to steamroll opposing teams, prevailing in their fifth game in a row and setting up a potential second consecutive series sweep with a win over the Philadelphia Phillies.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Score the best seats in the house at Gametime: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit and get a RISK-FREE BET UP TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling 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), visit OPGR.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! 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.Enter 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 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% offTake advantage of Mor Furniture’s Labor Day sale at https://morfurniture.comWhen 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 a very special edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as a habitual line stepper. And this guy next to me, he is the vice mayor of PHNX. It's the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. Every episode is a special edition at this point there. With Corbyn Carroll in the Major League, every episode is a special edition. Every day is Corbyn Carol. day. Every week is Shark Week. And of course, every episode is brought to you by our friends at the

Draft King Sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app. Now use our code of PHNX and get yourself a fun little addition there as a new customer. We'll talk about that later. But of course, the Draft King Sportsbook is America's top rated sportsbook app. And right now, Jesse, the suns are shining bright on the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I use the suns shining bright. Yes, because last night was McAil Bridges night at the Arizona Diamondbacks game over at Chase Field. Mikhail Bridges came out to Chase Field just to watch his team get their asses beat by the Arizona Diamondbacks. And it was a fitting tribute to him and their little bet that they had. It was.

Yeah, I thought it was funny that the original terms of the bet were that McHale Bridges, so if the Diamondbacks had won that series against the Phillies in Philadelphia a couple months ago, then McHale Bridges would have come to the stadium in a full Diamondbacks uniform. Correct. Which he sort of still did. He did. He still wore a Diamondbacks jersey throughout the night. However, he did have a Phillies t-shirt underneath that he was wanted to make certain got some airtime as well while he was doing his thing throughout the day.

But the Phillies were somewhat embarrassed by the Diamondbacks last night, Derek. It was not a competitive baseball game. And I mean, this baseball team, Derek, I know we're going to get into it, but the Diamondbacks are one of the most exciting teams in the game right now. Hottest team in baseball, convince me otherwise. I don't know if I would go that far. Hottest team in baseball, Jesse, convince me otherwise. The problem is that they still got swept by the Cardinals, like, just over a week ago. So I don't know.

In a very bad show. It was very rough. So I don't know if we're quite to that point. You know they didn't have them? They didn't have Corby and Carol. They did not have Corby and his elite speed. But like you said, yes, they absolutely embarrassed the Phillies in front of McHale Bridges last night. You actually caught up with him and we found out that there's some things that we might have in common,

including our love of MLB the show. It's really cool. I mean, like, like other athletes, like we're just, we're fans all different type of sports. Like, I love baseball. Like, I love playing, like, MLB to show. So it's just like, it's just crazy. Like knowing these guys and just watching them is just so surreal. Yeah, we know everybody. Everybody plays Madden. Everybody plays the show, right? It's all, it's all across the line. Oh, you might not. I don't know if you even know what Madden is. Do you even know what Madden is? I know what Madden is. I just needed to make sure. I played Madden growing up. I played Madden growing up. I played Madden growing up.

up, I played the computer game. I played Madden. 2008 was the last one that I played. All right. And then I got one year for Christmas, I got Madden 2010 for the Wii. And it turns out that the Wii is a non-ideal console to play sports games on. And then I basically have not touched Madden ever since. That's very true. That's very true. Well, understandably so. But the Arizona Diamondbacks did have an incredible game last night, their fifth game. I mean, honestly, a very surprising game against this Phillies team that has been very good. Aaron Nola, that has been very good. They actually were historically good against him last night on the offensive side.

Yes. The Diamondbacks were the first team ever to score eight earned runs off of Aaron Nola, which he has been very, very good this season. He literally threw a complete game shutout in his last start against the Cincinnati Reds. And the Diamondbacks just, I don't know what they did yet. I don't know how they pulled that off, but somehow they were just knocking Aaron Nola all over the place. And at a certain point, it was pretty clear that the Phillies were. just kind of letting him wear it.

He wasn't getting removed from the game when he probably should have. And Aaron Nola is the type of guy who pitches deep into games, and he still didn't get very far in the game yesterday. Here's the thing. I don't like to take credit for the achievement of others. You know that. I am a tailcoat writer, but I will give full credit where credit is due. And I will say this.

There might have been something magical when you combine Shane in a hot dog costume and open shirt Derek. Those two forces collided at the same time, and for a period of time, the Arizona Diamondbacks scored, I believe it was 22 unanswered runs before they were finally give up a home run to Marsh there in that game. But speaking of great pitching, Zach Gallen extends his scoreless streak,

and right now is navigating into the territory of possibly having the longest scoreless streak in franchise history, kind of closing in on Brandon Webb Street there. He is closing it. And yeah, 34 and a third innings for Zach Gowland. So he is eight in two thirds behind where Brandon Webb is. Brandon Webb is it, or seven and two thirds, I want to say. Brandon Webb is at 42 innings.

That is the all-time franchise record for the longest scoreless inning streak ever. Brandon Webb did that back in 2007. And Zach Gowan is still cruising along. And what stood out to me yesterday, Derek, is that in the postgame presser with Zach Gallen, he didn't even really think he felt that good. Like he said that like first three innings, like I wasn't really feeling it. Honestly, I didn't feel good.

And then he said in the fourth inning, things kind of clicked for him. In some ways I see where he's coming from. I don't think his stuff was like as good as we've seen it in some games, but that's how you know you're on a roll. It's like even in games where you don't really have your best stuff, you're still going out there and throwing seven scoreless innings nonchalantly on 88 pitches.

I know some people were mad that he didn't get to continue in this game. because it looked like he probably could have. And we've heard that from other pitchers. Bum Gardner said that in one of his better outings this year, that he actually didn't feel like he had his better stuff in that outing when compared to the previous outing when he didn't do so well statistically, right? But Zach Allen's just been incredible for this team. I feel like he's really dialed in lately,

and he has become the outright ace of this staff, right? We have now two guys, potentially. It hasn't been confirmed yet, But we could have the... Not confirmed. But the Diamondbacks could have two guys in back-to-back months winning the National League pitcher of the month of the week. Yeah, Merrill Kelly did it in July.

Looking at the numbers, I would be pretty shocked if Zach Gallen didn't do it in August. I think it's... I mean, the man has a 0.68 ERA in the month. He gave up three runs in his first start against Cleveland back at the beginning of the month. And then the rest of the month of August for Zach Gallant has just been this 34 and a third inning scoreless streak.

So it's been a pretty incredible month for him. him to say the least. And I looked into it, Derek, the last, the last two pitchers, like two different pitchers who went back to back with the pitcher of the month award. You don't have to go back that far. It was 2019. It was Max Scherzer and Steven Strasbourg who did it for the Washington Nationals a few years back. Pretty good company. Pretty good company. Yeah, Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen. There you go. Being compared with Strasberg and Scher back when they were, back when Strassberg was still like actually playing baseball because it feels like he doesn't do much of that anymore.

Yeah, man, I mean, he's had some injury issues for sure. But the one thing that Diamondbacks have had lately is this offensive explosion over this five-game winning streak. They have outscored the Phillies 25 to 10 so far in these first two games and have outscored their opponents during this streak, 45 to 19. Not that. That's not. That's hashtag good, right? Is this team hashtag good now, Jesse? What's happening with this team?

I mean, we've seen them have good pitching all season long, at least starting. starting pitching, right? I mean, they've had their bumps in the road. Madison Bumgarner's been struggling lately, but consistently throughout the year, starting pitching has not been the issue for this team. It really has been the inconsistent offense and the bullpen, obviously. We know that this kind of explosion is what we were hoping to see out of them at times. We were hoping to see them kind of get on a roll and have that offense carry over, not in just one big game where they're able to put up 10 plus runs, but, you know, have it carry over to a couple of games. It seems to stall out, though. You know, inexplicably, they won't be able to score a run. for the next two and a half games after, you know, scoring 15. It's been just such a weird inconsistency with their offense. Now, though, the young guys are here. They're doing the thing. They're doing the thing. Are they, is this team good?

I mean, they're 61 and 67, so it's hard for me to sit here and say that this team is, like, objectively good. Do they have a winning record in the month of August? They do. Don't be a negative Nelly Jesse. That guy, on the ones and twos, we got Jacob. Faj, thank you Faj for chiming in there. I agree that the Diamondbacks right now are one of the most exciting teams to watch in the game.

There's no question about that. No question about it. You're starting to see the speed of this young team just like drive other teams nuts. Give them fits. Yeah, I think it's hilarious. That's why everybody, including the dugout, we're looking at the scorer on Corbyn Carroll's first hit that ended up being an E4 and saying how are you giving, like, that wasn't an easy play to make by any stretch of the imagination, right?

But Corbyn Carroll made it that much harder to make with his speed, right? Yeah. He has absolutely elite speed. Apparently, that's what we have uncovered in these first two games. Yeah. We knew he was fast, Jesse. But how fast is Corbyn Carey? So speaking of, so yesterday, oh, we also have this incredible graphic, as you can see on your screen.

Street 99, 98, 94. Those are percentiles. They're not running 99 miles an hour, but those are percentiles. Allegedly. Allegedly. But I do have a wild stat here on Corbyn Carroll. So on that play that you mentioned, I guess this was a play where Corbyn Carroll was retired within the last couple of games.

I'm not sure exactly. I think this was in his first game, so in his first game a couple of days ago. Corbyn Carroll got up the line and maxed out at 31.6 feet. per second. All right. That's the, that's the biggest sprint speed that we've seen Corby Carol record so far. If you translate that over to miles per hour, that's about 21 and a half miles per hour. Oh my God. And that is the equivalent. If you were to run 31.6 feet per second, like continuously, you would complete a mile in about two minutes and 46 seconds, give or take. A sub three minute mile is basically what Corbyn. Now, I don't know if he could actually do that.

I know I want to see it. I want to see him do it. That is how fast Corbyn Carroll is getting up the line right now. It is incredibly fun to watch. It's almost as fast as the Diamondbacks are moving up in the rankings, right? Diamondbacks are now third. There's an analogy there. Third in the National League standings now.

They take over third place over the Giants for the time being. The Giants are struggling. The Giants are struggling. The Giants have lost 8 out of 10. They've lost 6 straight. That team does not look like they're in a good place right now. And again, not that it's a huge achievement, as many of you have told us on Twitter.

when we kind of celebrated that this morning. But I guess that moves me into this question. Does that equal success for the 2022 season? I feel like it was just a little while ago that we were saying if we could slip in the third that that would be a huge win for this season. And now it feels like the expectations are slipping right in the fifth gear.

And now people are saying, playoffs, playoffs, playoffs, playoffs, which we're going to say later, of course. But, I mean, does third place in the division and missing the playoffs, Does finishing 25 to 30 games above what you did last season equal success to you? Yeah, I mean, the team is on pace now to go 77 and 85, which my prediction at the beginning of the year was 75 and 87, and I felt pretty bullish saying that they were going to win 75 games. So if they're able to pull that off and win 77 or heck even win more than that,

I mean, with how they're playing right now, it's hard to bet against this team. It is not a great day to be Patrick Lyons, who told us at the beginning of the year that the Colorado Rockies would almost assuredly finish in front of the Diamondbacks. Now those teams are separated by six games at this point. Diamondbacks are playing some really good baseball right now, and I think they are where they belong. I mean, I think the Diamondbacks are a better team than the Giants. I think they'll continue to probably create some space

between them and San Francisco through the rest of the year. Now you're trying to catch the Dodgers and the Padres. Maybe not this year, but sort of building in that direction for the future, which is not going to be a very easy thing to do. Did you say catch the... What? How many of these have you had, Jesse? Be honest.

We're at four peaks, Derek. We're at four peaks. You can drink at any time of the day. You can drink at any time of the day. Airport rules are in effect when you're here at Four Peaks and they're open, right? Beer is at 11 o'clock in the morning. But no, we are here having a great time. I'm enjoying a hazy IPA.

I don't know what this guy's drinking over here. I think it might be hard liquor, but if you're here, we're glad to have you here. If you're not here, you're watching this at home, come on down here. We hope you're having a good time. We're having a blast down here at Four Peaks Brewing Company. We thank them so much for inviting us down here. Of course, we announced today our winner of the Four Peaks Toast of the Month sweepstakes, I believe. Did we announce it or is that on the Cardinal show at 4 o'clock?

Oh, is that on the Cardinals show at 4 o'clock? That's usually when we do it because it's the last show of the day. So is it over as far as entering the 4-Peaks? I'm pretty sure you can still enter. Well, jump down on it. I mean, we're here having a great time. I could be wrong. Of course, if you're here, you might be able to get down on it.

But we're doing it every month because it's the toast of the month sweepstakes. So make sure to get down on it. Even if you don't win this month, we are offering a $50, $4Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choosing. Like this, that's a servaise, bad boy that I finally got in the mail, a PHNX annual membership as well. So go to phnx.com or click the link below in the show notes. Must be 21 or older and enjoy responsibly.

I am enjoying responsibly right now. And the food, I need the food. I haven't had the food yet, but I did have a Hertz donut from our friends at Hertz Donut. And let me tell you, it definitely got me in the mood. these bad boys in here. Oh, yeah. I don't want to lift them up.

I can't, Jacob. The donuts are so heavy. They're so heavy because they're so delicious and there's so many toppings on top of them. They're incredible. There are a lot of toppings. Hurts donuts goes crazy way of the toppings. Oh, they go nuts with the topping.

It's a beautiful. The box is beautiful too. I love the VHS box that they come in. I can't make it go down, Jesse. I feel like, do you get it? All right. So there we go. But yes, our friends at Hertz Donuts right now are off.

Buy one, get one free right now over at Hurts Donuts. So make sure to check out our friends. A big thank you to them for hooking us up with the donuts today because it was my way to get through to this show. I came over here starving. I'm thinking about the chicken tendees here at Four Peaks since I woke up this morning. So, of course, I got to get down on that,

but I had myself a, it looked like the cookie monster, Jesse, and my hands are dyed blue from it, but I don't care because it was so delicious. When you have a good donut, you don't care what it does to you, How the big mess that you make. No, never. Again, thank you to them. And here's the other thing.

Over at OG's Brands.com, we also have our flavoring life sweepstakes. One winner is going to receive three bags of orange cream. Excuse me, three bags of orange, three bags of gummies, one orange cream, so a couple of tropicals. Sorry, I'm all over the place because, of course, the internet is terrible, and I can't load my screen.

But right now in the flavoring live sweepstakes, open shirt, Derek, is going to bring you a whole lot of fun. And actually, we have an announcement to make, Jesse. Oh. Our flavoring live sweepstakes, where you get three bags, yes, three bags of OGs, including orange creams, cream, school, and tropical gummies, and OG's hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice,

and a PHNX annual membership. I get to announce the winner of that right now. Really? Okay. That is right. They never let us announce winners to these things. What a bober. I am the chosen one this time, of course, because I'm open shirt, Derek. I'm on the ad.

But Jacob, put the ad up. You have the ad? Do we need to see that one more time? No, we need to. I don't have the ad. Oh, come on. Oh, this is, anyway. Well, congratulations to our inaugural flavoring life winner.

Drumroll, please, Jesse. I don't think anyone can hear this. I don't know. Thanks for giving it, you're all. Congratulations to Miles Unale, U-N-A-L-E at Miles Revenge on Twitter for winning these prizes. Of course, you can still sign up for your chance to win not only the toast of the month sweepstakes, but the flavoring life sweepstakes over at go phnx.com. And of course, you can check out OG's brand. They're wonderful variety of gummies, even if you didn't win. If you have any questions,

hit me up. I can tell you about doses, strains, whatever you need. You want to know about taking edibles and watching sports. I'm your guy, but OGs is the hookup. So make sure to go to them at your local dispenser or find them online at OGsbrands.com. Also on Instagram at OGs brands. That's OGE EEZ brands. Jesse, we had another big day yesterday. Not just the win. I almost feel like Corby and Carol single-handedly made this happen, but you have other feelings on this. You feel like it's somehow a body of work, I guess.

But Tori Lovolo's option was picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks for the 2023 season. Of course, yesterday they had a press conference, and Mike Hazen had lots of nice things to say about Tori Lovolo. You were there for it. So what was his thought process on? Lavello and what he's done for this team. Yeah, I mean, I think that what the Diamondbacks have shown, not just over the last week or two, but on this season as a whole,

that I think on the whole has been pretty successful for this team. Toro Lavello is shown that what happened last year wasn't his fault. I think we're all sort of an agreement that, like, the Diamondbacks winning 52 games last year was not an accurate reflection of Tori Lavello as a manager. You cannot reduce that season down to having him as the manager and having him do a poor job. I just don't think that was ever a fair criticism.

And based on how the team has turned things around this year, and Tori Lavello is pretty much the same guy, I think it's clear that that was never really the problem, that he was never really the problem. At the same time, it is interesting that the Diamondbacks picked up his 2023 option but didn't extend him beyond that, right? Like Tori Lavello is about to go into his third consecutive year where he is in the last year of his contract theoretically,

which is maybe a little bit challenging. for him, right? Like, that's not necessarily the best spot for a manager to be in. But Mike Hazen was like, look, we know that it's not just Tori. It's, it's me as well. Mike Hazen said that both he and Tori are pretty much out of Mulligans at this point, that they need to get this franchise turned around. And so Hazen views himself as sort of being in the same category. It's like, we need to get this right. And so I think that's why the Diamondbacks aren't taking that bigger step of extending Lavella long term is like, yes, this is a big turn around and we're headed in the right direction, but we're not where we want to be yet as a franchise,

right? And so I think both Hazen and Lavello are, are, this fly is driving me nuts. I had to do. I couldn't, I couldn't let that happen. Thank you, dear. I couldn't let that happen. But yeah, I mean, this is, it's something for both of them where I think they both need to continue to prove themselves moving forward and continue to move this franchise in the right direction. But with what Lavello is accomplished this year, with how good this Diamondbacks team is playing right now, these flies, man. It's just the same one. He just wants to be a guest on our show. At least it's not a mosquito.

Having a mosquito terrorize you in your own room is like the worst feeling in the world. But anyway, I digress. Yeah. Here's the thing. Tori Lavello really hasn't had a terrible season with the exception of last year, right? We're talking about 93 and 69, 82 and 80, 85 and 77, 25 and 35 and 35 in the ridiculous 2020 season. Right. Then last year's nightmare.

and this year 61 and 67, right? This year, I feel like they got themselves in a hole at times. There's still some issues to address, right? They're still not even in the same league, let alone division, it seems like, as the Dodgers, right? So there's a lot of ground for them to make up. But at the same time, it feels like they are finally seeing their investments in the future start to pay off. Yeah. Right? There's some patience involved there.

It's some patience involved from the organization's side of waiting for these guys to come up and committing to that. There's Hazen's ability to wait and kind of have these bad seasons, right? But now with 2023 kind of being a crucial year for both of their careers and their times with this franchise. It really is. Do you see the team making some bold moves potentially in the off season maybe to add to it? You know, maybe not anything where they're going to mortgage their future. get rid of any of these young guys that are the future, but maybe bring in a free agent or two to add to, again,

the bullpen like they've tried to do, or maybe the starting rotation if potentially they lose Zach Davies. Yeah, I mean, I think they're gonna need a guy for the rotation, for sure, pretty much. And I don't know what they're gonna do with the bullpen, frankly. I mean, it seems like Mike Hazen has sort of tried the same thing over and over again, and it's never really worked for them. But I don't know what else they do.

I mean, I don't think the Diamondbacks are going to have tons and tons of money to spend this off season to go get in Edwin Diaz or, you know, someone like that. So how they're going to attack some of these problems, I'm not sure. But that is a good point that 2023 is a really big year for this baseball team. And they really need to show, you know, that they are taking that next step into not just being like an interesting team that's fun to watch. Right. Which they absolutely are right now, right? I mean, they have all of our attention. This is so aggravating.

But they need to turn into more than that, right? And I think, you know, making some moves this off season will probably be part of that. And I also wouldn't count them out from moving a young player or two, as hard as that is maybe to say. The Diamondbacks had a lot of outfielders, Derek. I'm not sure if you've picked up on that. I've heard that. I've seen it with my own eyes, actually. At a certain point, you might need to think about trading one of those guys to fill a hole in another spot.

No. No. No. No. I just, at some point, you got to think about it, right? No, no, this reminds me of when one of your dogs has puppies and then those puppies stick around too long. And now you're saying, maybe we have to give one of them away. And I'm like, no, the puppies stay. They all stay. We're not getting rid of any of them. But I don't know. I mean, there are some things that they definitely need to do.

And I see Michael McDermott in the comments has a great point. He said start converting some of the failed starters into relievers. Yeah. Corbyn Martin is being wasted in the Reno rotation. getting his brains beaten in, see if he can pitch one or two innings in the pen, right? And, like, they do have some strong arms, but guys that might not end up being a starter, and these are the guys that they need to start maybe thinking of these roles. Really, they do still have some strong arms.

So even if those guys are future starters, maybe getting Nelson or, you know, some of these other guys up into the bullpen just for them to be at a major league level and, you know, start contributing to this team, helping them win games, can be the answer for this bullpen. I don't know what is the answer, but right now when you look at the 14 losses alone by Malanson and Ian Kennedy, right now the Diamondbacks are nine and a half games back in the wild card, Jesse, in the National League wild card. I'm not saying that those guys could be perfect, right? No relievers are, no closers are. There's going to be losses in there.

But that's a lot of losses just in those two guys, not to mention, as you've pointed out, that the bullpen has the most losses, or at least at one point, was tied for the most losses. A few days ago, they had the most losses of any bullpen in baseball, which is not great. Not great. And it contributes strongly to the fact that this team is hashtag good, but there are still some areas of concern to address, right? Because the hashtag, like, could you just say the team is good? Does hashtag good have a different meaning than good? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I just wanted to clarify. Yeah. Get with the times, Jesse. Get with the times, Jesse. So what is the difference? You are the 23-year-old here. Why do I need to explain this to me?

trends and things young people are doing to you. Tell them. Hashtag good. Hashtag good gives you a chance to walk it back in case they aren't good. There we go. There you go. Hashtag. I like that.

I like that. The devs are hashtag good. There you go. He's in all that. Also, you actually have a piece up on Tori Loblo's extension. Or not up, but that's coming in regards to your feelings on this extension. And honestly, I mean, that's a big part of it is we're all going to have feelings about it. I know there are some people who aren't in on this.

I know there are some people that blame Lavello quite a bit for losses and things that have happened with this team. Even in the instance of Mark Malanson, I know people want to blame Lovolo. But, I mean, this is a guy that honestly is doing what you should, and he's putting the respect and he's putting the responsibility on the shoulders of these older pitchers that should be able to get the job done and honestly aren't, right? It's frustrating for him. It's frustrating for them. frustrating for us as fans to watch, right?

But it doesn't mean that LeBello's a bad manager for that. It just means that unfortunately some of the arms right now that are veteran arms that you should be able to count on are the ones that right now you can count on the least, it seems like. The young guys are getting it done across the board. I'm calling Merrill Kelly a young guy. I don't care if you want to call him that or not. My man is 35 years old.

I know. Well, he's young to me, damn it, Jacob. He's young to me. But of course, you can read JSC's wonderful articles over at go phnx.com. If you haven't done so already, sign up for a membership. We're giving them away. I don't know if you heard over a toast of the month, flavoring live sweepstakes. We just gave one away right here in this very show.

So go over to go phnx.com. Sign up for a membership or at least enter to win one. But if you get yourself an annual membership, you will get a free t-shirt like this guy over at the phnxlokker.com. You'll also get yourself access to our members-only Discord and members-only discounts over at the same phnxlokker.com. We also have a month-to-month option and we will hook you up with a 50 cents for your first month if you go with that route. No free t-shirt, but you still get access to the Discord and our wonderful membership options. If you're watching us right now on YouTube, please make sure to subscribe to the PHN Sports YouTube channel. Give us a little thumbs up, like the video.

We appreciate you guys being here in the comments, hanging out with us. We got donuts. We got lunch coming. We're here at Fort Peaks Brewing Company. We thank them so much for their hospitality letting us come here on our last Wednesday show. All the shows are going to be here. We're all broadcasting from here. So hopefully you guys get a chance to stop down here. And again, if you don't grab some four peaks and join us live.

Also, make sure if you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcast that you subscribe to us there, give us a five-star review. We love you and appreciate you for it. And just for that, I'm going to talk about playoffs right now. That's it, Jesse. Okay. I'm talking playoffs. Playoffs.

Are we actually talking about playoffs? Well, are we talking about playoffs or are we talking about hashtag playoffs? Are we talking about hashtag? Can we say hashtag playoffs? Hashtag good, hashtag playoffs, but nine and a half games back in the NL Wildcard with six games to play against the Brewers, six games to play against the aforementioned San Francisco Giants, which aren't in front of them any longer. They are now in the rearview mirror, and seven games left against the San Diego Padres. So with that being said, the question was proposed today that is it possible?

Is it possible? Yes, it's a possibility. Because, to be honest, on paper, yes. On paper, well, yes, on paper. Well, yes, on paper. But games aren't played on paper. They're played inside of television sets. You know that.

Fair. Fair. You're played in, yes. They are played inside of television sets. But here's the thing, is that the Diamondbacks technically, and I know this isn't probably the correct use of this word, but they control their own destiny with the amount of teams that they have to play that are in front of them that are in playoff wild card contention, right? That's true. Let's just say they do something crazy, like sweep all six from the brewers and sweep all seven from the Padres.

Are you fucking shitting me? Is that not going to get us in the playoffs? Let's go. Corby and Carol out there every night. That's what I need to see. But not tonight. But not tonight. You need to talk about this, Tori Lobalo.

I might walk back this extension comment that I was making earlier. I'm just joking. I love you and Tori, we trust. But, Jesse, what are your thoughts on playoffs? Is it, I mean, here's the thing. Is it ridiculous to even think about it? Is it one of those things where you're going to get your expectations up now, so now if they don't make the playoffs, it's going to maybe be a bit of a letdown?

Yeah, I mean, I would temper expectations a little bit. I mean, I think the Cardinal rule is that, like, on September 1st, you want to be usually, like, no more than three or four games out. Like, if you're nine and a half out, you know, on September 1st, I'm not sure in a normal season. I would really even consider that like you're even in a viable position for a playoff spot. But you are right. They do play a lot of games against the teams in front of them, which does sort of mean that they have more control in this situation than a team normally would. the Padres are playing a little bit better now. I know Josh Hader is no longer their closer, which continues to be wild after they made that move at the trade deadline.

No kidding. Trading the best closer in the game for essentially the best closer in the game. And now they have, yeah, Nick Martinez has been in that role for them, and he really struggled in the game yesterday against San Francisco. He almost blew that game. So the Padres are still working through some things, but I have to believe that the amount of talent on that roster right now is just like, it's just so much. me now that Juan Soto is there, obviously the Tatis situation has very much complicated things for them.

But it's still a pretty talented roster. Their starting pitching is still pretty darn good. So the brewers are beatable. The brewers are not that good of a baseball team. So I do think the Diamondbacks have a shot at gaining some ground in these races. But to actually, you know, make up nine and a half games in this short of a time is hashtag bullish. It is going to be very, very difficult. the Diamondbacks to pull that out. Fair to say. We've seen collapses though in baseball that have been

epic, right? So we've seen teams in the month of September actually burn down to the ground. And who knows, right? Maybe the Diamondbacks speed on the base path is like a metaphor for their speed on catching up for some of these teams. Maybe they come up so fast. If you guys haven't been to a Diamondbacks game like this week, I would highly recommend it or just like in general the rest because I've never seen a team as fast as the Diamondbacks right now. I've never seen a team as fast as the Diamondbacks right now. I've never seen it in a fast. And especially last night's game, I got the chance to rewatch it in the middle of the night. And let me tell you, I just giggled with delight in watching it, right?

Like, it was ridiculous to see what these guys are doing. But what's more ridiculous is these young guys, because they're having the success and this impact on the game that they're having, they are gaining confidence at a ridiculous level, right? I mean, Jake McCarthy has, like, the highest OPS on the team, right? stupid and it's almost like it's almost like they're realizing that like it's all that the i guess the mystique of being in the melb it's all that right like if you're a good athlete if you're a great athlete in corbin carroll's case if you're an elite athlete yeah it only takes so so much time before you're comfortable and then you're like oh shit this is the same game that i've played

and been good at my entire life you know and i feel like i can be just as good at this level that I've been at every level in my career, right? And I feel so bad for Tori Lavello right now having to fill out this lineup card. Oh. Like Jake McCarty. Are we complaining about this right now, Jesse? Oh, I am not complaining about all of these good cards.

I'm not complaining about this. I'm just bringing up a valid point. And even Tori Lavello's, oh, my gosh. Tori Lavello said this yesterday that, like, he was trying to be positive about it. He was like, yeah, it's like a fun puzzle to try to. to put together or something like that. It's impossible.

You can't play all of the Diamondbacks outfielers right now, even though every single one of them deserves playing time every single day. And this is one of those things that people don't understand quite about demotions, is in some cases they demote guys not because they're bad, but because they don't want them sitting around and not getting playing time. Like, Storing here, it's a guy that right now would be starting every day for the Reno Aces, and if he's going to sit on the bench for four or five straight games, which he did.

It doesn't do him any good, right? And that's the problem. That doesn't mean you're going to send, I mean, they're not going to send Stone Garrett down. They're not sending Stone Garrett down. Are you kidding me? You're not going to send him down. You can't. No, D.H.

all the time. Playoffs, what if they make it? How far do they go? How far do they go? Are we having this conversation? There's the question. All right, like, they're obviously limited by their bullpen, right? So I think that's the thing is, is that even if you want to talk about getting third place being kind of like a false achievement that we really shouldn't celebrate,

just making the playoffs and getting bounced in a while? card route, something to really celebrate? I mean, yes, I guess you got to the playoffs. If the Diamondbacks get to the playoffs, I don't care if they, I don't care if they lose every game they play. I don't, I don't care what happens when they get there. That would be remarkable. I mean, that would be insane.

And I also think Mike Hazen might have some regrets from the trade deadline of like, oh, maybe I should have like added a reliever or two at the deadline because I didn't expect to be in this position at this point. Maybe make a deal for David Prowse. that isn't so much about adding another, you know. Yeah, Paralta, I don't know. I don't think you're going to get it, like, an impact major league piece for David Paralta. Well, I'm just talking about...

Maybe you could have found, like, a nice middle reliever, something like that. Something like that is what I'm saying. But we stand Ray is Maronta. Is that how you say it? Maranta? Maranta. Ray is Maranta. I love you.

It's a big boy. Yeah, he's a big boy. Yeah. I love all of our new additions. Everybody's been great. I talked about Emmanuel Rivera. I spoke to him on the field. I got to share a little Puerto Rico connection there.

Yeah, for sure, but it was more about hearing him say how much he loved being a part of this team. To be honest, that was something that for me, I thought was really, really great to hear. I mean, what's not to love right now, Derek? What's not to love? Not only is he getting an opportunity, but Tori Lovalo is loving life right now because now, instead of the dilemma that he had of, who can I play? Who can I get to fill these positions? It's now more of who will I play? Yeah.

How on earth do I put a lineup card together with? And also, one thing we haven't talked about yet is tomorrow is September 1st. So the Diamondbacks are going to get two more active roster spots tomorrow, which may only give Tori Lavello even more of a headache because he's going to have one more pitcher and one more position player to work in. It seems like Kyle Nelson is very likely to be the pitcher that the Diamondbacks call up. Tomorrow he's been working his way back on a rehab assignment. Yeah, he was on the injured list, right?

Yep, he's getting close, so I expect tentatively that Kyle Nelson will be brought back up tomorrow. I don't really know who the position player is, to be honest. Pavin Smith is still hurt, and there aren't any, like, obvious candidates in the minor leagues. Dominic Fletcher. Jordan Loeblood. Dominic Fletcher. Dominic Canzone. I'm thinking of both of those guys as candidates.

But it's tough. I mean, are you really going to bring another outfielder into this situation right now? Seth Beer. You could bring up Seth B. Beer, beer, beer. Beer. You're just wearing the t-shirt. I'm going to do the thing.

I don't get to do the thing. But yeah, definitely it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the month of September. And honestly, like you said, temper your expectations. I don't want to get people too overtly excited because, again, we're also kind of in the business of like overhyping things a little bit. We're high men. We're glorified hype men as well. We're okay. We're okay wearing that hat around.

Absolutely. But that's because we have a team that we, I think we're starting to feel, proud of, right? Like, this is a team that honestly we wanted to see for a long time. I've described it as, like, these minor league players almost become myths, you know, in the system because it takes so long to finally see them. And you hear of these feats of strength. And did you hear the other day that Stone Garrett hit a 782-foot home run and stuff like

that? Like, these are the things that don't even sound real. And because that one's not, but it's mostly because it takes so long for these guys to get up here. And then when they do, they can tend to be a bit of a disappointment after having this hype train that guys like me and this windbag over here build behind them, right? But, of course, we love to see the Young Diamondback succeeding right now. And I mean, that's one thing that's so exciting about this team. So make sure to come out and watch this team if you haven't done so already.

And make sure to sign up at the Draft King Sportsbook app if you haven't done that already. Because, of course, the Draft King Sportsbook app is the one app you need to have during football season. It's football season, folks. We need to get down on betting because every Sunday is a blast on the Drafking Sportsbook app. The wait is almost over. A new football season is upon us. We're fans. We're baseball guys.

But guess what? Baseball wraps up in time for us to kick back and enjoy the other sports. We're the smart ones around here. Forget all these other guys. Everyone's talking about like, take your vacations now because it's about to get crazy. It's so crazy. And me and this guy are smoking cigars. Well, he's not.

We're drinking bourbon. I mean, he's not. But we're hanging out together with our feet up and get down on the Draft King Sportsbook app. Of course, get ready for week one. Download the Drafking Sportsbook app now. Use our promo code of PHNX, and you will get $200 in free bets instantly

when you place a $5 bet on any football game. That's code PHNX only at the Drafking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. And remember, you can still get down on the baseball betting. It's always fun to bet on baseball. Colin Carroll?

Bet on Corbyn Carroll. Are we there? Can we bet on his elite speed? I bet on stolen bases. Yeah, bet on Corbyn Carroll's first speed tonight. Is there a bet for how many extra bases he takes, like for turning a single into a double? I don't know. But if there was, I would bet on it on the drafting sportsbook app.

And of course, once you win your money, go over to our friends at game time and get down on the absolute best place to buy all of your sports, concert tickets, everything else. It's the hottest new ticketing site that makes it easier than ever to score your last minute deals on tickets to sports concerts. and shows. I went to the weekend last night, Jesse, and let me tell you, that place was sold out. It was at State Farm Stadium. I mean, it was a beautiful thing to see. They gave us these cool little wristbands when we came in that I didn't know what they were for. They had like a little device on them and they ended up lighting up at the concert and went to the music and stuff. I just got to interrupt you for a second. I'm really sorry. The Draft King's thing is stuck on the screen because our mouse died, so I'm trying to get it off, but keep talking. Oh, that's all right.

Just your voices. That's fine. Draft Kings understands and they wanted to be at the weekend last night, but they couldn't be. They couldn't be because they didn't get tickets, but they could if they went over to Game Time and saved up to 60% on tickets when you buy tickets last minute. It's great for you procrastinators out there. I tried to get Sean to pause to get down there. Apparently the weekend is one of his favorite artists and then I had to like just rub my tickets in his face. And today I'm telling him about the Piro and how great the concert was. He could have got his tickets over on Game Time. But if you love PHNX, then you'll love game time. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link.

in the description below. And of course, it's where you get your tickets to all your last friends. Get your tickets to get your tickets there. It is genuinely a great app. I used game time and number of time growing up. It was always one of the cheapest, easiest options to get Diamondbacks tickets when I was growing up.

So I highly recommend. It's weird to partner with sponsors that we legitimately have used several times before to pass this guy over here. I genuinely love the GameTime app. We didn't even work together. And he told me about the Game Time. So, I mean, it's been a long time. So definitely get down on that.

We can attest to its success. But, of course, we can also attest to the success of the Arizona Diamondbacks who continue to hopefully stay on a roll, stay hot. They have one more game against the Phillies, and then they have the Brewers coming up. These are all at home, so make sure to join us. We'll be at those games this weekend. We're doing another show in like eight hours. We are doing another show in eight hours. That's another thing.

Make sure to join us. We're doing two shows today, post-games show after this one. What, 10 o'clock? at night. Probably around 10 o'clock tonight. We're going to be in our jammies. We'll be at home. Milk cookies.

Milk in honor of Zach Gowan, right? We're going to start drinking milk on Zach Gowan Pitching days. That's something we need to start doing. But of course, make sure to join us tonight for that because we will be recapping the series. And hopefully what we'll be recapping is the second consecutive series sweep by the Arizona

Diamondbacks of this season. The Phillies are a pretty darn good baseball team. Yeah, for sure. If you're talking about sweeping, team like that, you're in a pretty darn good place. And these first two games of the Diamondbacks of one, Derek, were not particularly close. The Diamondbacks are doing it with force right now.

They really are. And even the White Sox. We're also, you know, I mean, they're in, in playoff contention. I talked to the other day about how the Diamondbacks are a better team than they are anyway. But they're also, I mean, the White Sox are not a horrible baseball team either. So coming out and doing what the Diamondbacks have done against those teams is very impressive.

And another thing that's impressive. besides the Arizona Diamondbacks and the street that they're on, is our new office, baby. We are going to be coming to you live next week from the new PHNX office. Do we have a, we got to get a name for the place. Do we have a name for the place yet, Poish? We're just hoping for a few things to come in first. We're trying really hard to get it ready,

but it's just been a comedy, a comedy of like whether or not things like to come in on time or not. Yeah. But we should be, this is, don't pin this on me if it doesn't happen. Oh, we're going to pin it on him. I'm hoping for September 9th. Hashtag September 9. Hashtag September 9. Hashtag September 9th. Yeah, that keeps us out of trouble using the hashtag.

I like that. Our one year anniversary going live from the new place. Also, Jesse, you missed the opportunity to call them the lowly White Sox. Oh, I did. The White Sox are lowly. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Shots fire. I'm telling our friends at CHGO whites.

I don't even feel like I need to say anymore about that, though, because I already made my point. And the CHGO White Sox people just sort of acknowledge that I was correct. I don't want to embarrass them at this point, so we're just going to leave it at that. They said we were taking offense. We did not take offense, guys. We just simply stood up with the numbers. He stood up with stats. That's what he does.

And then I do what I do. I was just a loud mouth in the back, just barking, oh, go Jesse, do your thing. That's what I do. We can't wait to have our friends from the CHGO White Sox and join us at the new studio. More furniture, by the way, helped us make our studio look so amazing. And that's why I can't wait to broadcast from there. I like going there and just hanging out. And so far, they keep telling me I can't take pictures

and post it on the internet. And that's what I do. You know me, you follow me on Twitter. That's what I do. I observe and I report back on Twitter. And it's just because the office is coming together. It looks so beautiful. We can't wait to show it to you guys.

And of course, thank you to our friends at Moore Furniture for hooking our entire office up with the new studio, new furniture, everything. So if you're interested in checking out Moore's Labor Day Sale, sale, which is the best time to buy your furniture. Go to more furniture.com. That's M-O-R-Furniture.com. That's all we got today. We've got to go watch a baseball game, and then we'll be back. We're just going to go take a little break and watch some baseball, but we'll be

back later tonight. Of course, join us for our post-series game tonight, right here live on the P-H-N-X sports YouTube channel. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-M-A-K. This guy is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at P-N-X underscore D-Backs. but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again for joining us for lunch on behalf of Jesse, the entire crew, Four Peaks Brewing Company, everybody here. We thank you guys again so much for being here.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you have elite speed.