PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The New York Yankees confirm they are in fact Josh Naylor’s daddy, and we move on to stan the Phillies

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

The New York Yankees advance past the Cleveland Guardians to the darkest possible timeline for the American League, and we choose to stan the Philadelphia Phillies, which is most likely the kiss of death for their playoff chances.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! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!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!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, 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. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: 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 Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly.  Bad Birdie: use code “PHNXSPORTS” to take 15% off your next Bad Birdie order! https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor 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. 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.

Welcome in, baby boy. Welcome in. Hello. Welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor, PHNX. This is my vice mayor. He's also known as your thunderstick, the one and only Jesse Friedman.

The baby was rocked, Derek. The baby was rocked. And this time it was not by Josh Naylor. It was not. He knows who his daddy is now, though. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the drafting sports book app, America's top-rated sports book app. Welcome in, folks. Of course, we have just the worst case scenario happening, just the darkest timeline in the American

League. The Yankees advance, and we are sad about it because we already missed the Cleveland Guardians and all of their shenanigans, all of the joy that they brought us on being this underdog team amongst the highest spenders in Major League Baseball. But alas, their journey is over. Shout out to Chirston Soussel for being a Cleveland fan and not having the ability to even watch that game. But the Yankees do advance. We still love the Guardians, of course.

And more than anything, I think we love Josh Naylor more than we did before. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Josh Naylor in game four, was it? Was it game four? He brought out Rock and the baby after he hit home run. The Guardians were still trailing after his home run, too.

It was a pretty bold move on his part. I'm, bullish, if you will. I'm convinced that there are many people who had no idea who Josh Naylor was before that happened. And now basically every baseball fan

knows who Josh Naylor is at this point. And to be frank, Josh Naylor is not that good of a baseball player. It was, as you said, a very bullish move for him to come out and do this, especially while his team is trailing. He maybe, I think some people have made the argument

that Josh Naylor doesn't have the track record. and have the resume in his baseball career to do things like that. I don't agree with that. I'm on board with whatever celebration a guy wants to do. I think baseball absolutely needs more of that in the game. The flip side is that I also believe that you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences of doing something like that. Very true.

And Josh Dealer was hit hard in the face with those consequences at Yankee Stadium last night with thousands of Yankees fans joining in. It was quite a spectacle at Yankee Stadium. when the Yankees got the last doubt and everyone in the ballpark it seemed like was doing that. Chanting who's your daddy at Naylor. And honestly, those were the consequences

that he ordered and he got them. And here is the, at least my favorite part about it, is after the game when he was asked about the people chanting who's your daddy at him, he actually appreciated it. Naylor said, that was awesome. That was so sick.

That was honestly like a dream come true as a kid. The fact that I got that going through the whole stadium, I think that was sick. Yeah, I love that response. I love that enthusiasm. It could have been a very PR response. You know what I mean? But he honestly sounds like he was fucking jazzed about that.

Like there are times, especially speaking as someone that has worked in an industry where you purposefully try to get people to boo you, right? And pro wrestling, not this podcast. Not this show. That explains so much, Derek. It really does. It really does about me. But there's there there is a lot of joy in getting like people who should be against you to like really be against you.

Right. It's it's fun. Yeah. And honestly, he he handled it, I think, in the best possible way that any player could handle a situation. I think, yeah, Josh Naylor completely knew what what he had coming. I mean, when you're facing the New York Yankees and you're about to play a game five in their stadium, like you. He lit the fuse. He let the fuse in this way.

Yeah. You absolutely know what what you have come. The Yankees fans are not forgiving for anyone who is not already aware of that somehow. Yeah, you probably should. A conspiracy hippie says the amount of people that complained about that was annoying. Talking about the Josh Naylor, Rockabai Baby thing. The Cleveland Guardians are super young and at half the salary. The Yankees had dragged them to a game five, not even half the salary.

I was going to say you're wrong about that. They have like a third of the salary. Yeah. The 28th highest payroll baseball right there. There's that figure for you. It's less than a third. Less than a third. So yeah, let's just keep things into perspective. Math major, Jesse.

There you go. God. It's so annoying. He knows everything. Anyway, so now we're faced with, again, the darkest possible timeline in the American League. Our fan favorite, the Guardians are gone. And now we are left to decide who we want to see in the World Series, the Houston Astros or

the New York Yankees. And I guess that's our question right now is, who is the lesser of two evils? I feel like the Astros are still followed by the cheating scandal, right? Oh, yes. It's in the rearview mirror, but it's still back there. I was listening to ESPN radio on my way home from the Fall League game last night. And I did not hear them use the word Astros once. They called them the trash cans.

And that is the exclusive manner in which they referred to the baseball team from Houston. So, yeah, I think it's safe to say there's still some animosity against. the Astros for what happened a few years ago. Meanwhile, why do the Yankees get the hate that they do? Is it simply for being a team that spends a lot of money? Because let's be honest, all the teams left right now have spent a lot of money. Even the quote unquote underdog Philadelphia Phillies. So how is that really a reason to hate the Yankees?

I don't think it's really the money. I think it's just that the Yankees are the Yankees, man. It's just like it's just that simple. It's like the Yankees have been around for more than a century. I mean, it's the amount of history that that franchise has. They've just been around long enough to the point where all the other teams hate them because they've sort of been around long enough to have a beef with basically every other franchise that exists. And they're, yeah, they're just like the prototypical like the prototypical like big brother, like just the team that nobody can beat, right?

There have been so many seasons throughout that team's history with the success that they've had where they're just always, the overdog, it seems like. And so, uh, they're just an easy team to root against because nobody wants to root for the overdog every time unless you're from New York itself, then, then maybe you would. But here's a good. Here's a funny thing. In most movies in the 80s that are baseball related movies, the Yankees are the bad guy in the movie at some point. Yeah. They are just the, they are the bad guy in the, in the narrative of Major League Baseball, the Yankees are the villain. They are the antagonist. There's no question in my mind about it. that. And the Astros more recently have also kind of become that for like every franchise in

baseball. So I actually do think the Yankees are maybe the underdog here. I think the Yankees are the underdog. I'll just go ahead and say that. But that's not going to change how they're perceived by people, right? Nobody's going to cheer for them for that reason. No, it's again, I know you're not going to know this Star Wars analogy, but it's like the evil empire, right? It's generational hate. I saw, I've seen four Star Wars episodes. Okay, yeah. Yeah. So it's like even if, you know,

Darth Vader took a year off, right, of just slaughtering innocent people and destroying planets with his death star, you're still going to hate him, right? Like, you might take five years off. You still remember what he did do you, right? The Yankees, I will say, their team is pretty likable right now.

Like, do you hate anyone on the Yankees? I think Aaron Judge is great. I don't have any issues with Aaron Judge. I think Garrett Cole is a fascinating man I mean, Aaron Boone. Aaron Boone. Aaron Boone to me seems like a very hateable person. That's true.

Especially if you're like an opposing fan that has had your team lose to the Yankees. I feel like he would probably be a good. But you can't hate on Nestor Cortez. No, with that mustache? No, not with that mustache. Absolutely not. Elizabeth says, I hate Yankees fans, not the players. That probably might be.

I respect that. Irrespectable. Yeah. Can I go back to something that Jesse said, Jesse, if a team is not an underdog, they are a... Wait, say this again? If a team is not an underdog, they are a... They're the overdog, I presume.

Is that an overdog? Have you ever heard that? Never in my entire life, and I'm glad you picked up on that. He like, he doubled down or tripled down on it, and I was like, wait. He said it more than once too, right? What? Yeah, you know, that's a fair point. They're a favorite.

I can say I personally have said that before, but... You've never heard. heard another other human beings say it. I don't think I've ever heard anyone else say it. Yeah. Yeah. Jacob, come on. You take your seat.

That's the way this works. It's like, am I not allowed to invent my own version? No. It makes sense. Does it? That's my job. Fucker.

Like, what are you doing? Have you heard of Updog? Have I heard of Updog? Yeah. Not, not really. I mean, like, the term sounds familiar, but I couldn't really tell you like what that means. What what means?

Updog. But ask him. Jesse, what's up, Doc? I don't know. Jesse. Nothing much.

What's up with you, dog? Oh, I get it. I get it. Man. Did you guys really think that wouldn't fly right over my head? Everything does. Did you really have that much faith in me

in that moment? It was a classic pool. By the way, Phillies take game one in talking about the whole thing that we're talking about here, the postseason, right? And barely win our, actually, no, they didn't. They didn't.

I was wrong about that. They almost won our poll. We put a poll out there. They took a commanding lead for a while. And look at this shit. DeBax fans, who are you rooting for in the NLCS? Whoa. The Padres, edge out the Phillies at the end, Jesse.

This happened like this morning in the last few votes. And I, I'm beside myself here. We were completely on board to be Philly. Stans going forward even though This is kind of conflicting. Can we still be the Philly stand account if we have 50.50.2% of our audience is rooting for the Padres. I don't know.

I have a problem with that because we haven't had much success with teams that we have rooted for. What makes you say that? What makes you say that? Well, Jacob, could you put that graphic up, please? Because I mean, I think this very much explains exactly what's going on here. We went from a Diamondback

account covering that team to a Seattle Mariners stand account to a guardian stand account. And here I was prepared to knock on the door of being a Phillies stand account. And I don't know. Maybe maybe we've cursed them. Maybe you guys voting for the Padres and deciding this has now made the Padres get the kiss of death from this show. I don't know. Like whatever graphics or whatever way me and Jesse Phil, those don't count. It's how you guys really feel in your heart of hearts.

So Phillies, good luck to you is all I have to say. But we'll figure this out. I mean, me and Jesse still want to be Phillies fans, and we'll give you the reasons why for that. But of course, make sure to check out this guy's wonderful writings over at go-PhNX.com. If you haven't signed up for a membership already, get yourself an annual membership. You will get a free t-shirt over at the phnx locker.com. Like, we are both wearing.

Look at this lovely guy. The hardest hitting beer. And that one, you know that logo. Of course, you can get whatever t-shirt you want over at the PHNX Locker.com with that annual membership. If you get a month-to-month membership, you will get your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get members-only access to our Discord, members-only invitations to certain events as well as members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. And of course, we thank you guys so much for being here on our PHNX Sports YouTube channel.

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Also, shout out to our friends at Chop Shop. It was delicious food that they provided us on Monday. I felt better than I ever have. after eating lunch. Is that weird to say? I had brown rice. I had sweet potato hash. I had delicious Korean beef. Jesse, I don't eat well. I don't take care of myself well. You know what I mean? And it's like it was weird having my body actually have nourishment that was healthy and good for me. It kept me pumped up all day long. I wanted to go home and do a third workout of the day. I didn't. I instead fell asleep on the couch. But regardless, you guys should check out Chop Shop.

Shout out to them for making delicious food. That makes me feel great. So I feel like eating out your I like when I eat out I generally get like a burger, you know, right? I mean, it's not particularly good for you. But it feels good to eat out everyone. So I'd be like, oh. Yeah, like I feel good about that. Yeah, I was like really good. And go, right?

Yeah, yeah. You guys know that about me. Big Salad and go advocate. So it just fits. Charles Woodall Pikes that I'm sure Saul would have some questions about a whole network takeover. Sure. Uh, afterwards, you know, but like watch him trying to stop me while we would ask for forgiveness.

Yeah, he'll ask for forgiveness on that one. Of course, we talked about the Philadelphia Phillies. And of course, tonight is Austin Nola versus Aaron Nola. It is. Brother-on-brother matchup. It's a civil war. And it's a damn shame that this game is not taking place in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love?

Get your shit together, MLB. You guys want to schedule a fucking game two a day apart from game one for the Yankees. How did you not figure this out? Like, I don't know. It seems like it's marketing that writes itself. But what do I know? What do I know, Jesse? What I do know is regardless of what that poll says, we still want to root for the Phillies. And we don't really have good reasons why.

But we're going to give you good reasons why, as a DeBax fan, you should feel a little bit better about rooting for the Phillies. Jesse? Yeah. Well, first of all, I'll say that apparently the Padres were having their hitters meeting just a few minutes ago. And Bob Melvin said that Austin Nola will have a significant say in their strategy as they go. against Aaron Nola, right? You kind of figure the guy's brother is going to know a thing or two.

So that was... He's got a book of this thing. Yeah. I've been keeping notes my whole life on this guy, you know? So, yeah, I think it's interesting that Austin Nola is probably going to play some role in San Diego's attack against Aaron Nola tonight. But yeah, as far as the Phillies are concerned,

Aaron Nola is very good and Bryce Harper's very good. Yes. They have an elite player on both sides of the baseball. Aaron Nola is in the mix for the Sy Young Award. If you look at his peripherals, they're insane. He had a 3.6% walk rate this year, which is basically nothing. I mean, that's very close to the lowest in the league, if not the lowest in the league. And he strikes out tons of the guys, too.

So Aaron Nola is like right up there with Zach Gallen as being one of the best pitchers in all of the National League. Bryce Harper missed some time with injury this year, but was still pretty much himself. I've seen him have a monstrous postseason so far. Kyle Schwerber hits dingers for days. Doesn't do much else. It's one of the biggest reasons why you should watch this team and be excited to root for them. Just 488 feet, Derek, 119.7 miles an hour off the bat. That was Kyle Schwerber's home run into the second deck at Petco Park last night.

These guys hit really, really hard. In fact, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper both have the two, hardest hit balls in the stat cast era for two different teams, both the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies. They just they just absolutely destroy the ball when they hit it. And I mean, I get it. Like the Phillies kind of get from my perspective, they get, as we said before, the underdog, not the overdog or the updog role, but they get the underdog role based on the fact that they were a team that barely made it in to the playoffs. In any other year, they wouldn't have made the playoffs, right?

Yeah. So, I mean, that's one thing to consider when it comes to this team and what they, what they've done. It's very encouraging if you kind of can put aside the fact that they do have the fourth highest payroll in baseball. Yeah, can we put up the payroll graphic one more time? What exactly is the Phillies number to 255 million? They won 87 games. So Diamondbacks fans, if you want to win 13 more games next year, all you have to do is spend

155 million more dollars. That's it. Yeah. The cost of winning 13 more games really isn't bad. Could you imagine what they would do with 155 million more dollars in payroll? We could do some podcasts about how they would spend 155 million. But of course, one thing about this is that the Phillies do have got, I mean, they do have that path that they made it there as being the last one in. And that is something that's fun for baseball. It's fun for teams like the Diamondbacks who are is still struggle to win the National League West year after year, even going forward, right? So it's never going to be easy with the teams that are in this division. But it just goes to show, especially with the Dodgers' earlier exit, that it really doesn't matter.

As long as you get in, you can make an impact in the playoffs. Now, of course, the caveat being $255 million spent. So I won't even get into that. But isn't that crazy, though, that like in some ways the Phillies genuinely bought them, they bought their way into the National League Championship Series. Like, they're on the doorstep of the World Series, and there is not a lot of homegrown talent in that organization. It's Reese Hoskins plus a whole bunch of free agents. Aaron Nola also. Aaron Nola is a $20 million men, basically. Yeah, Aaronola is a homegrown guy, so I should give credit where credits

do there. But yeah, Zach Wheeler came from outside the organization. Bryce Harper, big free agent signing, J.T. Romuto, free agent, right? Gene Seguer, old friend of the Diamondback. Friend of the podcast. Friend of the podcast. We've not had Gene Seger on yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. We like. Kyle Swarber, Nick Castiano's. The list goes on.

All of these guys came in as free agents and you can see what money can do for you, right? Like the Phillies are probably not as good as they should be given how much money they spend. But if you're on the doorstep of the World Series like they are, that's what that's what spending that kind of money can get you. And I don't think they have any regrets about that right now. If you're still on the fence about deciding. whether or not to root for the Philadelphia Phillies, I'll give you one more fact. Oh. Phoenix and Philly, the only two major cities in the United States that began with PH.

Just saying. The only major cities in the United States? I mean, there's a couple of others. Are there others? There's a Phoenixville in Pennsylvania that's very close to Philadelphia. Really? So if you want to even give you another reason. There is a Phoenix in New York as well.

So there's Phoenix's other places. We're talking about major cities. Major cities. No offense to those small cities or any of our viewers that might come from there. And you know what? Shout out to Brazil while we're talking about just random cities and places in the United States and the world. Because we're still- Is Brazil a city?

Brazil's a country. It's a country. It's definitely a continent, right? It's not a continent, no, it's not. It's on a different continent, though. We're great with geography here. Stick to math, Jesse. Who fucking gave these guys OGs?

And why are they in the middle of my, you know, discussion here interrupting me? Actually, it's me. It's my fault. And I am the one guilty of taking OGs because, of course, As I've told you guys, it's the only way I can sleep. I kid about that, but it's the best night's sleep that I can get. They have a sleep edition gummy. They have a indica, they have a sativa.

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variety of products over at ogisbrands.com or on Instagram at OGs brands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary must be 21 years or older to purchase. And again, we've talked about the haunted brewery tours and how much they scared Saul Bookman. And of course, if you want to be scared, not as much as him. Because of course, nobody runs through the haunted brewery tour screaming like Saul did. But you could go check out the wonderful Haunted Brewery Tour over at Four Peaks 8th Street Pub.

They're holding that Monday through Wednesday two tours per night. Must be 21 years or older to enjoy their beers, but not the Honda Brewery Tour. So check out their website for that. Make sure you check out their wonderful food that they have over at Fort Peaks Brewing Company.

And if you don't get a chance to go out there, make sure to try their beers wherever you get your beers. Enjoy responsibly. And again, must be 21 years or older to enjoy. We're still out at Arizona Fall League, even when there aren't any Arizona Diamondbacks in the Salt River Raptors lineup, right? We may or may not have checked the lineup in advance yesterday.

But we are your Arizona fall guys. And of course, we are here with your fall league update. Justin Martinez continues to show some electric stuff out of the bullpen, Jesse. Yeah, he was really good yesterday. Honestly, the best that I've seen him probably by far. His command has been sort of all over the place at times in the fall. I think he still has an ERA of six after the outing yesterday, but you're not really looking at ERA necessarily very much or some of those more basic stats as such a small sample size. But yeah, I mean, he topped out at 99.8 miles an hour yesterday was consistently 98, 99 with his forcing fastball.

And Derek, he faced three hitters and he struck them all out. So hard to ask for more from Justin Martinez yesterday. I know when we posted some highlights on Twitter, everyone was basically saying, you just call them up right now. I was part of that group. Yeah, I was part of that. You were among them, yes. And I mean, isn't it weird, right, that, like, you can see a guy like Justin Martinez

doing what he did, throwing 99 or 100 miles an hour. And it's just odd that guys can throw that hard and not necessarily be effective at the big league level. Like, to be the realist here for a second, like, if you put Justin Martinez in the, you know, the back end of a big league bullpen tomorrow, it probably wouldn't go so well, right? Sure. So it's not as simple as just like how hard does it does a guy throw. But it does say a lot about how high his ceiling is and like the role that he could have in the diamond back's bullpen at some point down the road. I feel like advanced concepts when it comes to pitching like pitch shape and things like that.

Yeah. Really don't start to get ironed out until they get to a higher level. I might be wrong about that. But I feel like that's part of the problem is sometimes at a lower level. Yeah. They're really just trying to get them to work on their grip and, like, hitting the strike zone. The biggest difference in my mind is command. Like, if you throw 100 miles an hour, it doesn't mean much.

Like, if you throw 100 miles an hour, that's unfortunately kind of normal now. As we're seeing in the postseason, it feels like every reliever that comes out of a bullpen in the postseason has thrown 100 miles an hour. It's wild. In the strike zone. Yeah. With stuff. But that's the thing, right? Like, that's what makes those guys effective is that they know where,

going like they can dot corners and there's an enormous difference between you know being able to do that and being in a spot like where Justin Martinez has been in the past where that command has been shaky at times yesterday it looked really good there were still a couple pitches here and there that were sort of uncompetitive I think I think he spiked a fastball at one point so those kinds of things still need to get ironed out but it was a big step in the right direction for I feel like another thing there is consistency right again you can throw fast you can throw hard you can throw in the strike zone, but can you do it for 20 pitches? Can you do it for an entire inning, an inning and a half further than that, right? How deep can you go? But he is popping up on certain people's

radars. Keith Law had some information on Martinez as well. Yeah, Keith Law wrote a story yesterday on the athletic. Definitely recommend reading Keith's stuff. I know he was a Paul Goldschmidt critic back in the day. And so some Diamondbacks fans have some animosity against Keith. law because of that. Give him another. Yeah. His prospect analysis is genuinely valuable. And he did say that Justin Martinez, despite the velocity and how electric his arm can be,

he said that his slider is not as sharp as maybe what you would expect. So Keith did not seem particularly impressed necessarily with what he saw. He was at least tempering expectations talking about how the slider is going to need to improve in order for Justin Martinez to make it at the big league level. You can blow guys away with 99 or 100 in the miners a lot more easily than you can in the big leagues. These guys have seen that before. You're going to have to have another plus pitch if you want to pitch in the back end of a bullpen. And I think he's still on the road to getting there.

There's also some concerns about Davison de Los Santos, kind of being a bit out of his depth in the Arizona Fall League, just looking a bit like this typo that I put in our rundown where I said, Davidson de lost Santos but yeah against this level of competition he hasn't looked very good so far he hasn't yeah 26 plate appearances so again it's it's so few it bats that you don't want to put too much stock into it but yeah he's hitting 143 he has a 308 on base percentage he's walked a little bit

but all of his hits but one have been singles he has one double in the fall week so far so it hasn't been a particularly impressive showing for for Delo Santos, but, you know, he's also 19 years old and the youngest guy in the fall league. So I don't think you were necessarily expecting him to come out and rake. It'd be great if he did, but I don't think that was the expectation going in. So, yeah, something to continue watching. I think the defense is also something that I personally have been looking for. The games that I've gone out to, it seems like he hasn't really been challenged.

So it's a little bit hard to gauge. But he's been used both at third base and first base. I think there's still some questions about his future and whether he has the ability to stick at third or whether a move to first base is in his future at some point. But yeah, reports defensively are okay. It doesn't seem like he's been too out of his depth on that side of the ball. So that's a good thing, but definitely something to continue to watch moving forward.

Cooper Hummel has not received hardly any time on the field. No, he hasn't. Arizona Fall League so far, he does just five at bats. And that's understandable. Like it was kind of not, I won't say it was, it was strange. It wasn't strange for him to be out there. But Hummel was on the major league roster for the majority of the season. He also played for Reno and other, you know, teams in the organization.

It was strange just because after a workload like that to see a guy take on the Arizona Fall League, it seemed like a lot. Right. So that kind of explains a bit as to why we haven't seen them that much yet. but I think we will see him as the fall league season continues to roll on. And more importantly, regardless of how these guys are doing, the Salt River Rafters inexplicably continue to win since Jesse and I teamed up and went out to see them. It's not inexplicable at all. I mean, it really is.

It's their five and one now. They won yesterday nine to one. So if you need a reason to go out, it's because these Salt River Rafters are now winners and you need to watch them as often as possible. They have probably the best trio of the. position players in the fall league. They have Zach Veen of the Rockies. He's hitting 457.

He's absolutely raking. Outfield prospect for the Rockies at Jordan Lawler, of course. And then Jordan Walker. Another Jordan. Another Jordan. Jordan Walker, the giant 65 to 65 guy from St. Louis, who I swear, every time I go to a fall league game and look at exit velocities, he always has the hardest hit. Like several, the several hardest hit balls in pretty much every game I go to.

each game. He's somehow larger than he was. Yeah, he definitely also gets more buff as, as the, as the season has gone along. He's going to look like one of those video game, like, characters designed by the, like, the, you know, the NBA Jams guys soon. Yeah, right. Jesse, in all transparency, did have some criticisms about last night's game. Jesse sat in what he like to call Retirement Row. I don't know what that means, but I think you guys could speculate on that. And he also tracked the journey of a dragon? It was not a dragon fly. No, it was like, it was a lizard like thing.

I don't know my, my desert creatures well enough to, to be able to pinpoint exactly what this was. I can figure out any math formula you need them to, but he doesn't know the difference. Yeah, at first I thought it was a dragonfly. And then to double check, I googled what a dragonfly looks like. It's like, it's definitely not that. So, yeah, I don't, it might have been a grasshopper. I think it's, I think it gets possible with some sort of a grasshopper. We've been honest with you.

You're not going to see the best baseball. and it's not always the most entertaining thing in the world. But I will tell you this much, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. The game of baseball is beautiful. And I still love going out to fall league games. Just because of the strange baseball atmosphere, you really do get, like we said, scouts, family members, and then like the most hardcore baseball fans you can imagine.

Right. That's pretty much what it's just the scouts and the family members outnumber the other guys. That's all. That's what's basically I'm saying. Yeah. Go out and see a game, though. As a matter of fact, we're going to do a meetup for the home run derby. The Arizona Fall League has a Fall Stars game and a home run derby.

Both of which you should go to. Both of which you should absolutely go to. Like we said, you're not only seeing the top talent in minor league baseball and some of these teams combined, but the fall star game, you're going to see the best of the best. So make sure to go check that out. The cream of the crop, as Macho Mandalorian would say. But make sure to check them out. And we will let you know more information on that meetup.

We're going to be out. Me and Jesse, we decided we're going to. be out in the lawn. If they let us, we're going to be out there on the hill. We're going to be catching fly balls. If you're going to a home run derby, that's kind of the only place to be. It's where you have to be. So make sure to be prepared to join us.

Bring a glove. I'm not going to bring a glove. Jesse's going to have to protect me the whole time. And I'll tell you, unfortunately, you can't get your tickets for the Arizona Fall League through game time, but you can get your tickets for pretty much everything else through game time. And you can save up to 60% by doing so. Make sure to buy your tickets at the last minute.

I actually did this. Adam Sandler is coming to town for those of you that might not know. And when I saw tickets went on sale, I almost did the thing. I almost bought the tickets. I was like, no, you're not going to get me anymore. I'm buying them last minute with game time. And that's what you should do. Concert, shows, sporting events this fall, basketball, football, baseball.

Not baseball, because we told you about the Arizona Fall League, but hockey, everything else that's going on. Make sure to get your tickets through game time. You get them last minute. You'll get up to 60% off your tickets. The best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the, the link in the description for this show. And also make sure it spruce up your home this fall with more furniture.

They have a fall sale going on at more furniture.com and you'll receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 you spend. So not only are you saving on the furniture, but you're going to get gift card back, that way you can go pick up that end table that you forget to buy after you get the couches you need. But that's speaking like a married man that's only made that mistake five times, at least, in my life. But we thank you guys so much, again, for being here.

Jesse will be out at Arizona Fall League. I don't know if I will be. Jesse needs to make sure that he tracks other wildlife out there while he's there. It was honestly a legendary journey. He sent me videos, folks. I did. He texted me videos. And I eventually posted one of them on Twitter, to which most people were like, what?

Why are you doing this? Why are you watching this creature? But it was honestly insane. Like this little guy started from the bottom, like the very bottom of the backstop behind home plate. And now he was here. And by like the seventh or eighth inning, he genuinely, I couldn't even see him anymore. But I could tell he was there because there was like a little like a little spec toward the top of the backstop. Yeah, just moving up.

Yeah, just moving up. So. It's an inspirational story. It was a very inspirational story. I don't know why. The Arizona died of the guys were where he started. And now they're at. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was like an analogy for the. the Diamondback's journey trying to get back to the playoffs or something. And based on the grasshopper, whatever it was, based on his story, I think there's hope. Well, I mean, just thinking about it more now is not going to necessarily help me. All right. Well, make sure to stay tuned to the wildlife with Jesse Friedman pod coming here to the PHNX Sports Network soon. Until then, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This guy is at Jesse and Friedman. our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. On behalf of Faj, Jesse, and myself, we appreciate your guys' time.

Thank you so much for joining us here in the chat and on YouTube. And remember, kids, baseball is so much look, I can't even do the ending now. Is it fun? Is it fun? Is it still fun with the Yankees and the Astros and the ALCS? It's fun, but it's more fun

when those two teams aren't in it anymore.