PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Was Slade Cecconi TIPPING PITCHES In Diamondbacks Loss To Dodgers?

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Torey Lovullo and the Diamondbacks took an unorthodox approach to game one of their three-game series with the Dodgers in Los Angeles, sending reliever Joe Mantiply in to start the game while bringing... in Slade Cecconi out of the bullpen. The result was a disastrous third inning where Cecconi may have been tipping his pitches to Dodgers hitters, who took him long three times and scored six runs. We have more on Slade’s outing and if he was tipping pitches.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:09 Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX and we just saw the Arizona Diamondbacks lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 6 to 4. Somehow that game looked much more winnable than I guess the third ending would indicate. I might be alone in that. but we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about if Slade Sacconi was, in fact, tipping his pitches, as was discussed on the broadcast by Bob and Steve.
Starting point is 00:00:49 Of course, welcome in again. I am joined, of course, by my Thunderstick and your vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman here shortly, who will be, in fact, joining us from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles with more on tonight's loss. Of course, the big story tonight, aside from Slade Cicone, And if he was, in fact, tipping his pitches, was that Cotel Marte did extend his hitting streak in the very first inning
Starting point is 00:01:16 to 19 games overall with a single in the first inning. Piece of Yoshi and I, who we rarely agree, but we agree right there when it comes to his comment, right? I felt like we played a better game overall. I agree with that. I felt like overall the Diamondbacks played a pretty good game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Unfortunately, they had one inning turn on them and Slade Cicconi that resulted in this loss.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Of course, the Diamondbacks did have a weird approach to this game. Tori Lovolo came into this game with Joe Mantiply as his starting pitcher, and he would quickly turn to Slade Ciccone. Joe Manciply went out there. He got the start. He got through the top of the order in the first inning, and then they turned to Slade. Slade Cicconi had himself. a decent second inning and then that third inning came around and according to bob and steve
Starting point is 00:02:13 in the broadcast slade might have been tipping his pitches which may have resulted in freddie freeman hitting a grand slam home run as well as will smith also hitting a home run so i want to bring in our producer of course the people's producer it's not my producer it's the people's producer Damon dog. Damon, what were your thoughts on? Of course, the big story here being that Slade was tipping pitches. I mean, it's not like that's illegal. It's not like it's cheating by any stretch of the imagination for the opposing
Starting point is 00:02:50 hitters to pick up on any signals the pitcher is giving. This would just be a mistake by Slade. But do you think that's what was going on or do you think Slade was just kind of getting himself into some hot water again? some very good hitters there in Los Angeles. Well, I wasn't convinced when I was listening to it on the radio, but when I watched the replay after the game and postgame here, and they showed Kike Hernandez go up to Mookie Betts and get in his ear
Starting point is 00:03:20 and kind of like whisper something to him and give him that information. And then they go on later to hit two more home runs in the inning, and they look like they're squaring up every baseball. Yeah, it does seem like they had some sort of tick that Slade was doing that made it where they kind of knew what was coming. And I guess, you know, it's fair game, but it does suck when you're on the losing end of that, especially when you feel like you played a better game overall, other than the small portion of time where they knew what was coming to them.
Starting point is 00:03:50 I went back and rewatch the third inning. I started trying to play detective there a little bit and pick apart his outing. I mean, to be fair, there might have been something with his strong. ride in regards to throwing a fastball versus an off speed pitch. There might have been something more that I wasn't seeing that the hitters are seeing on their end. I, by no means, am an expert. So I would not trust me to pick up on it.
Starting point is 00:04:17 However, you were right. There's a couple of things there that essentially tell me that he was, in fact, tipping his pitches. There was a lot of whispering going on, not just Kike Hernandez to Mugi Betts, but there was a lot of discussion going on in the Dodgers dugout. And then you got to give credit where credit is due. Brent Strom addressed the issue himself in the dugout. You saw Brent Strom bring over, you know, the iPad and start showing Slade some footage of his outing.
Starting point is 00:04:52 And Slade made adjustments that allowed him to go out there and continue to give the Diamondbacks, you know, an effective outing, right? I disagreed with the broadcast when they said Slade was keeping this team in this game. He was very much not so. He gave up six earned room in one inning. We're not, let's not fucking, let's not, you know, sugarcoat. Yeah. However, it was impressive the way he was able to adjust and go back out there and continue
Starting point is 00:05:23 to work and be effective against, once again, one of the best lineups of baseball. Yeah, I mean, they, they, the broad. was very complimentary of Slade. You're very much right about that. They kept being like, but Slade Soconi like was like, you know, he obviously had a good strong outing after giving up all the runs, but that's like an easy thing that you could say about anybody that ever has a bad outing. But Slade continues to be the weirdest pitcher like of all time.
Starting point is 00:05:50 Right. He just, he just gets rock and then he's on and then he's untouchable. And it's every time he pitches. It's the other way around or he's untoucher. or he's untouchable and then he gets rocked. And he can find his way back. He's either off or he's on, but it's in the same outing. And that's what's kind of weird about it.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Yeah. Silver lining here, right? I do want to say that it was impressive what he was able to do. And when we talk at times about whether Slate Soconi is a starting pitcher of the future, that's starting pitcher stuff right there. When you're able to adjust, figure out you were doing something incorrectly and still go out there and get out for not just one inning. I mean, he went five innings.
Starting point is 00:06:34 He gave up six it, six earned runs. All six were in that three innings or in that third inning. He walked one, he struck out two, three home runs aloud. Again, all three in that six, in that third inning. So not, I'm not going to, you know, applaud him for what happened in the way he imploded, right? Now I am going to agree with the broadcast. I'm going to agree with the assessment. also if you have the television broadcast, the radio broadcasts,
Starting point is 00:07:02 both picking up on the fact that he might be tipping pitches, that might be a little bit too much just to be a conspiracy theory, right? So where there's smoke, there's fire when it comes to him tipping pitches there tonight. This isn't the kind of team that you can give those signals to. They'll pick up on it. They share that information. They're a great baseball team. So, you know, I think overall what you could say is that if the Diamondbacks
Starting point is 00:07:28 would have been able to limit the damage in that inning a bit more. They were in this game. And, you know, they did the thing offensively there late. It looked like it was going to be another anemic offensive performance after just getting the one run through, you know, six innings. But the Diamondbacks were able to put up three late. Lordus Gurriel Jr. It's a first home run in over 30 days.
Starting point is 00:07:52 He was shocked. Did you see him? Yes. When he were all shocked. He was like, look, you could tell he was. get the ball and he was like, did I just do that in a baseball game? How did that happen? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:04 Magic is this. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while. Hopefully, again, this is the start of something, right? I think, you know, again, we've seen Corbyn put together some better bats. He was one for five tonight. Still not a great night for him, but still got a hit tonight. But, I mean, he still struck out three times.
Starting point is 00:08:25 We're still seeing him struggle. So Gurriel, that was his only hit. He was one for four. But still, you know, offensively, four runs was almost enough. I know that sounds crazy. I know that sounds like loser talk. I felt like it loser talk coming out. But it's like that six run inning, that that went off the rails.
Starting point is 00:08:46 But I mean, honestly, the Diamondbacks kept the Dodgers off the board the rest of the game and were able to put four runs up here. And it was a decent performance overall. had things not gone so poorly for Slade in that one inning. Yeah, and Benjamin says it here in the chat, but like, how about Jake on that home run too? I wanted to talk about back to back back to back.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Bob with a great call, by the way, he was on the broadcast. He's literally talking about how Jake's like was smashing it in BP. And then he goes out there. He hits, he yanks that one foul pretty hard. And then just hits a no doubter.
Starting point is 00:09:24 it feels good when you watch Jake hit a ball like that because I feel like sometimes he doesn't connect like that but he has we've seen it he can do that and so he's playing pretty decent right now it's weird the weird thing about this team is like I was thinking about this like a lot of the people that you came into the season with maybe with a little bit more question marks about have actually been pretty good like jock and randall gritchick have done their jobs uh like you know Kevin Newman has stepped in and been about as good as you could possibly expect out of him. But then it's like the staples of the team that are letting us down, you know? Like Jake's been pretty good stepping in for Alec.
Starting point is 00:10:07 But it's the Corbyn Carols and the Gabby's and stuff that you're like, man, like, can we just figure it out? Well, and to be fair, A. E. E. E. Onio Suarez has been a gigantic disappointment. And no matter how high the vibes are that he brings to this team, He's bringing a 212 batting average with a 603 OPS. And all, you know, with everything that we had to say about what Diamondbacks put together last year at third base and, and the platoon that they had over there, they still had better production than what they're getting out of a guy that they thought was going to be the answer to that solution. And I'm not saying, you know, again, once again, I'm not saying he's not capable of that. But from what we're seeing right now, Gino is even underperforming based on the very, very poor projections that fan graphs and other websites had for him, you know, during this off season. So, you know, that feels like a big missing piece, but like what you're alluding to, Gabriel Moreno tonight, 044, just didn't have a great night.
Starting point is 00:11:16 I mean, things weren't going the Diamondbacks way. and they continue not to go the Diamondbacks way. I'm not going to lean on that too much, but Catele-Marty. You're right, yeah. Cotel-Marte hit a ball 117 miles per hour off the bat. Smoked it. It was the hardest hit ball of the season by any Arizona Diamondbacks player. Wow.
Starting point is 00:11:38 And he hit it right at Mookie Betts. I don't even know what to say anymore when these things happen. I really don't. That's the story of the season for sure. I mean, he did extend his career hitting streak to 19 games. which is incredibly impressive. We're starting to venture into historic territory when it comes to Coutel Marte,
Starting point is 00:12:00 but he can't do it alone, Damon. He just can't. No, he can't. It's sad. I feel bad for him. Because he's, he's the one that, like, he hasn't lost his strides since the World Series run. He's just been going the whole time. He started the season hot.
Starting point is 00:12:18 He's been hot the whole way. He's been carrying us. everybody else has been in and out being good and bad. Then there's Corbyn who's just been bad. But Catelle's been good the entire time. And so it sucks for him because it's like if everybody else was playing on his level, then who knows how good we could be right now. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:38 Well, let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union because I think this once again. Let's take a look at the Kingsnake first. You want to take a look at the Kingsnake? I would like to take a look at the Kingsnake. Well, let's, it's not Cattel. Well, because Catelle's too easy. Like, Catell deserves the King's statement.
Starting point is 00:12:54 But let's give it to Kevin Newman. Because Kevin Newman, once again, my guy, three for four, one RBI, one run scored. He continues to do it. He's trying to help Cattel. He's trying to be the other guy. And going back to what you said, man, talk about a big question mark. Talk about a guy that we completely overlooked. Kevin Newman as of late has been the second highest producer of offense and and maybe even more so because Kattel's had a lot of one hit games, whereas Kevin Newman has had multiple multi-hit games now for the Diamondbacks here over the last two weeks.
Starting point is 00:13:36 And again, his back must be aching from trying to pick this team up and do it himself, like and carry this team. God, if you told me where we would be like at the start of the season after game one, after game one, we put it on the Rockies. If you would have said, in like two months, Kevin Newman is going to be your best player. I think I would have, I might have quit. Doesn't that hurt to hear just to say out loud? It's the worst. It's absolutely the worst.
Starting point is 00:14:17 Yeah, I just, I hate it so much. I hate it here. What has happened to my beautiful franchise? What happened to my beautiful baby Corbyn. And yes, Garnhawk Mama, I am in a cave. I'm in the dog cave. Yeah, he's in the dog cave. And it's rightfully so.
Starting point is 00:14:35 He's groveling in sadness based on what we saw tonight. Can we take a look at the count now presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union? I guess. Because this, again, six runs to four. Of course, the Dodgers win this one. Diamondbacks actually out hit the Dodgers,
Starting point is 00:14:56 10 hits to nine. Dodgers were two for three with runners in scoring position. Diamondbacks, two for seven. Once again, plenty of opportunities. Even with the lack of offense, even with the lack of, you know, production, they had the opportunities there. they just weren't able to convert those opportunities.
Starting point is 00:15:15 Dodgers get those three home runs in that third inning. Diamondbacks get those two back-to-back jacks there in the eighth. A hard-hit percentage here, though. Impressive by the Dodgers, 51.9%. Diamondbacks, 37.9%. That's, you know, Dodgers didn't have a lot of hits. They had nine, but they scored six runs on nine hits, and that was enough. And a lot of those hits were very, very hard hit ball.
Starting point is 00:15:43 right yeah i just i don't know what else the diamondbacks could do i applaud tori lovolo for at least trying the joe mantipli thing it seemed to work for a little bit but i also think that you know i don't know there's there's times where you have to wonder why this team hasn't pivoted and at least given a shot to some of the guys once again in the minor leagues especially Blake Walsden who's kind of been shoving for the aces versus going, you know, this route where you kind of have to get tricky and stack, you know, the reliever they're going out there as the opener and then and then turning the Slate Cicone for five innings, you know, starting in the second inning.
Starting point is 00:16:28 It's a weird way to go. I see what Tori was trying to do as far as like, you know, give Slade that break from being seen so often early and then having it turn on him. but yeah, I don't really know what to say about this trickery that they attempted today. Me either. I don't, I don't. Slate is just, we already said it. He's just the weirdest ever.
Starting point is 00:16:56 I don't know if we'll ever really understand how he can just mow down people and look like a Cy Young candidate and then give up four home runs in an inning. Like it's just, it seems like that's just who he is. I feel like the plan was just to get a couple of innings out of him, but once the score was six to one, they just left him out there at that point. Probably. You know,
Starting point is 00:17:20 to not spend the bullpen considering they still have two more games here in the series. Probably, but I think that they just, I also think that like, I don't know. I don't even know. I don't have to say about Slade. He's dumbfounded me.
Starting point is 00:17:34 I've lost words. I'm ready to play the blame game at times. I know Jesse's, said I was crazy for the Joe Mather's stuff, but I just feel like the way that this team is so bad collectively at times that like, don't you blame the hitting coach? Don't you start blaming the coaching staff and the managers beyond just the players? And I don't know. I really don't know the answer to that. I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus or accuse anybody that they should lose their jobs over anything. But when you have a team, you know, where so
Starting point is 00:18:11 many of your key pieces are hitting, you know, below, you know, to 250 with an OPS, Corby and Carroll's OPS, 549, Gurriel 669, Gino 603, Gabby Moreno, 663. Like, I don't know, there just seems to come a time where, you know, that it possibly should be looked at that it's not, you know, that there's, there's a common link there. But I don't know. I don't know. Like Jesse said, you do look at the overall numbers in this team.
Starting point is 00:18:44 Um, does rank, you know, in the top 10 and a lot of offensive categories. However, I just think that that's kind of fraudulent based on a lot of those runs and a lot of that production being in like five or six games, right? Yeah. It's why this team had a good run differential for as long as they did until the Tigers game. Until the Tigers game. Right. Because they were, they just, whenever they would get up big, they just put it on. on. And that's the worst type of team to be a fan of it feels like, because you're sitting there
Starting point is 00:19:17 and you're like, we could be so good, but we just don't win close games at all. Yeah. How does it connect? How can you make it carry over? Right. And I mean, I'm sure even a struggling team like the Tigers who had no offensive production tonight wanted to try to carry over what they did to the Diamondbacks, you know, beyond because they came into that series struggling and somehow managed to put up the runs that they did against Arizona. So I really don't know. I mean, it does seem like at times diamondbacks or other teams can get right against diamondbacks.
Starting point is 00:19:51 And then, you know, you see what the diamond backs here could get close to doing against the Dodgers team, but just fall a little short. Matt says, hang around 500 by the All-Star break and see what happens. And thank you for your positivity, Matt, because I think that was the key, you know, here overall, right? If this team can somehow not let things get too bad and not fall too far behind 500 when they do get these injured players returning, they'll get a boost. And I think the biggest boost here can come from Pardomo when we see Pardomo come back. So hopefully that happened sooner than later, I know. I know I'm Pordomo guy, but I'll even say that like Kevin, Kevin Newman's one of the better
Starting point is 00:20:37 players in the team right now. Good point. What happens with Kevin Newman when Prudomo returns, right? If Perdomo comes in and replaces Kevin Newman's production and is one of the better players in the team, we still have to sit Kevin Newman now. So, like, I don't, I don't know how much that that is going to make a heat. Maybe just from a pure vibe standpoint, because that's what Jerry does. But, you know, I, I do think that I, someone said it earlier, like, right at the beginning
Starting point is 00:21:03 of the show, and I'm struggling to find it. but like the nationally wildcard race is really bad right now. I was looking at it yesterday and like the Padres are like the team to beat and like it's Padres, Giants, Us. Like there's just kind of a mess of like slightly below 500 teams. If we can hang around 500, we can turn this thing around. We can't like it just. I agree.
Starting point is 00:21:29 They they have to stop playing such a losing brand of baseball, which they've done all season long. And there becomes a point where that snowballs and you can't stop it. Like they're going to get into clutch situations and consistently not be able to do anything because they're in their heads about it. And it's it's feeling it's it's certainly going in that direction at the time as we speak right now. It really comes down to the fact that this team is good against left handed pitching, bad against right handed pitching. And they're seeing a lot of right-handed pitching, you know, 28th in WRC Plus against right-handed pitching.
Starting point is 00:22:10 So I don't know. I think that there is, there are some factors here. It's not just a mystery. But at the same time, it's because the guys that they kind of count on to be good against right-handed pitching aren't right now. So we'll see what happens with this team as it progresses.
Starting point is 00:22:30 I do think the one thing about it, when you talk about Jerry P. being a vibe guy, right? It's not just that. It's the fact that the guys that they need to turn it around are already healthy and on this team. We've talked about it a whole bunch, right? So it's like it's not like all of the components are missing. The components are there and they're playing every day. They're just not playing good baseball right now, you know?
Starting point is 00:22:56 And I don't know what the answer is for those guys. And right now there's too many of them. this team to be considered a competitive team, right? Like there's too many pieces right now, too many, too many guys offensively, not, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:13 not swinging the bat well to, to, you know, for this team to be, you know, a good baseball team. Like you can say what you want about pitching. You can say what you said,
Starting point is 00:23:24 you know, want about Slade. They put up four runs today against the Dodgers team. That's, that's enough runs that could have been, enough to win the game. Like, that's not outside of reason to believe that the Diamondbacks could have won a four, two ball game against the Dodgers.
Starting point is 00:23:39 But, you know, just overall throughout this season, the fact when you look at this lineup and you see what these guys are putting up, it's, you know, it's kind of depressing. And again, it's also fixable because the guys are here and they could turn it around. I just don't know. I don't know how. I don't know how to do that. And they don't know how to do that. it's frustrating all of us. We're all frustrated. I don't know what to do, David. I don't know what to do with my hands. I'm just angry.
Starting point is 00:24:08 There's some talk about benching Gino in the in the chat, and I just don't think that Tori is going to do that. I just think Tori's going to die with Gino. What's the answer? And are you willing to sacrifice his defense? Is there someone that's going to give you more offense and more defense there? I don't know. I mean, the Diamondbacks do have options in the minor leagues, right? They don't. They don't. They They might have an option in the minor leagues. I don't know, but we'll see. Nicholas, thank you for your super chat. He says to give some positivity. We only like one team with a record above 500 from now until the end of June. There you go.
Starting point is 00:24:46 Yeah, that's a good point. So after they get done with this Dodgers team, they have a lot of winnable games ahead of them on the schedule. And I like that. Let's stay positive. Thank you. Thank you for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you guys haven't subscribed to the channel yet,
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Starting point is 00:27:57 he will be joining us at some point in the show, but I don't know when because there's a lot of stuff going on over there at Dodger Stadium. So we'll bring him in as soon as he gets here. But Damon, come talk to me some more because I hate this. I don't like this. I don't like what happened here tonight. Am I off? Am I off by saying that the Diamondbacks actually had a chance to win in this game? like it really does feel like maybe just because they were able to keep the Dodgers, you know, scoring all to one inning that it feels like they were just a few out.
Starting point is 00:28:37 I mean, there's things you could nitpick. There was that ball four call that was obviously a strike to Otani that really felt like it made things start to unravel. But this game felt winnable. You're telling me that Major League Baseball is given Otani calls. Oh, God, there comes. That would be insane. They would never be a crazy, that would be a crazy thing to claim, right? They would never protect their sweet baby Prince, Angel, Shohei.
Starting point is 00:29:10 He could never do possibly anything wrong. If he takes that pitch, it must be a ball. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, you're not crazy for saying that they had a chance of winning. They lost by two. Yeah. Of course they had a chance of winning. I mean, the back-to-back jacks gave me a little bit of hope.
Starting point is 00:29:26 of course you had Ketel coming up there late. It felt like they had a couple of opportunities to get runners on, but of course things didn't go their way. But you know what? It's still Monday, right? And you know what we do around here every Monday as our producer. And of course you also know that even though it doesn't feel like it right now, that every year, Damon, is our year as you go dark
Starting point is 00:29:52 and you distance yourself away from me. but of course it certainly does not feel like our year it does not feel like our year it does not it very much does not feel like our year but every year is our year every month is black history month every month on this show
Starting point is 00:30:09 women's history month and every month month on this show of course is black women's history month every week on this show is shark week every single day on this show is Earth Day because we recycle but on Mondays we go to the mailbag so let's do
Starting point is 00:30:25 that still. Let's do my mail box. Always something interesting in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my mailbox. And then once in a while there's a letter that makes me go wow. Oh, man. All right. First question, Damon hit me with it. Let's go. We got Aaron Hughes, our sweet baby Aaron Hughes, asking what roster moves would you predict for Pardomo and Thomas's returns respectively? First, I want to congratulate Aaron because he is going to be joining us with the Diamondbacks media. He's going to be writing for our pal Jack Summers over at Sports Illustrated. So congratulations to him. And that is an absolutely outstanding question. I think first off, I feel like Pavin Smith becomes a little expendable.
Starting point is 00:31:14 You think? Right. And then Blaze Alexander. That to me is the two moves. Right now it feels like Blaze has very much fallen out of grace with Tori Lavolo in regards to being in the lineup. And I think that Pavan just is that move. I don't even know right now off the top. I could be wrong. Pavan might not even have any more options. I know it's going to upset a lot of our people in the Discord for me saying that, especially our guy, Mark.
Starting point is 00:31:40 But it is what it is. I think that, you know, it's based on utilization. I can't right now see McCarthy being sent down over Paveen. And I can't see Kevin Newman being sent down over Blaze. Yeah, no, you got that on the money, I think. I don't really see that going any other way. What the other iterative, yeah, it's Jake instead of Pavin, which I don't think that that could possibly happen based off of the merit of how the two of them have played so far this season. Right.
Starting point is 00:32:10 And then same thing with Kevin Newman and Blaze Alexander. Yeah. And Blaze has been, he started off really hot. And I do think Blaze has potential and is a pretty good hitter in particular. But yeah, obviously he has things to work on defensively. So that gives you kind of that excuse to let him go get that. And then Kevin Newman is helping this team win right now. So in every way.
Starting point is 00:32:33 I think those decisions are easy, to be honest. That's what that's, that's how I feel. It's unfortunate because we come to be fans of some of these guys so quickly. You know what I mean? Like we come to be, we come to really embrace them as, you know, uh, members of this team, especially guys like Blaze who came out of the box. hot and then had the mistakes that he made. There were a lot of ups and downs with Blaze, you know, a lot of big hits and then a lot of
Starting point is 00:33:03 defensive mistakes and it just kind of went back and forth, you know, but you do. You really start to have a hard time imagining parting ways with some of these guys. You just have to go right now with the ones that are contributing the most and helping you win the most. Yeah, no doubt about that. It's going to the next question here. We got Brett Johnson saying with Ryan Nelson once again struggling and Erod not being back anytime soon, what are the chances that we see Walson or Mena come up in place of Ryan assuming he gets lit up by the Dodgers? I don't know if we can take another youngster getting lit up by the Dodgers right now after the way things went tonight.
Starting point is 00:33:44 But that's a very valid question. And I think that Ryan Nelson is probably on a short leash at least at this point. but what are the options right Blake Walston potentially an option christian manna i think is a guy that i would love to see and i just sometimes i have a hard time remembering that triple a hitting is just not very good sometimes damon like as much as you want to see the numbers in reno and see guys pitching well putting up good numbers and and equate the fact that it's very hard to do that in Reno. Sometimes it's still not anywhere close to the level of major league hitting. Yeah. Yeah. Ryan Nelson and Glass Now, that's a that's a that's a great comparison there.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Mays devil. It's a good verbal meme. Yeah. Well, I think we can bring in somebody that can add a little bit to this in regards to this conversation. Of course, it's the one and only thunder stick Jesse Friedman. my vice mayor. Jesse, we were just running through a couple of mailbag Monday questions. And we were just talking about if Ryan Nelson possibly has a difficult outing against the Dodgers the same way that we saw Slade Sacconi have here in the third inning, is there a possibility that we see them turn to a Blake Walston or Christiane Mana from AAA?
Starting point is 00:35:14 You're sorry, I miss, I don't know exactly what just went by behind me. What was that? It was extremely loud, whatever it was. I missed some of the questions. So you're talking about whether, are you talking about Sikoni potentially being replaced in the rotation? No, we're talking about Ryan Nelson potentially being replaced if things don't go well against the Dodgers and his is outing upcoming. I mean, honestly, or Slate after tonight, this question was submitted before tonight's game. I mean, is there a possibility that we see them turn one of these other starting pitchers to AAA either of these guys?
Starting point is 00:35:46 Yeah, I mean, it's never great when you've got two starting pitchers in your in your rotation that you could very easily make the case should, you know, and maybe shouldn't spend too much longer in the starting rotation. That's just the reality for both Nelson and Sikoni at this point. The Diamondback seemed more, at least from what we heard immediately after these games, I mean, Tori Lavello pretty immediately shut down the idea of Ryan Nelson not making his next start. That wasn't the case today with Slade Sacconi. Tori was asked, are you guys committed to having Slade make your next, make his next scheduled start? Or I guess maybe they would try it, you know, try doing it something like they did this time with the opener. But Tori was, he was noncommittal. He said that that's a discussion that they haven't had.
Starting point is 00:36:35 So, yeah, it still remains to be seen whether the Diamondbacks actually keep Slade in their rotation. I'm hoping you guys can't hear all of the chaos that's happening behind me. We can hear it, but it's enjoyable. It's fine. I commend you for your ability to just stay focused and try to plow through it. But the big question we had, obviously, was whether or not Slade was, in fact, tipping his pitches. So we wanted to get an update from you in regards to that question being answered after the game. Yeah, there's sort of a lot there.
Starting point is 00:37:11 I don't know if we have, there's a few videos that will, that we'll, will get to that you can hear directly from these guys. But the 30,000 foot view is that there was suspicion of pitch tipping for sure. Tori Lavello definitely acknowledged that it was something that was discussed. And Slade Cicconi also said that it was something that was brought to him at some point. But we do have Tori on Slade ready to go. Here is what Tori had to say in regards to Slade tipping his pitches. I don't know exactly. We don't have to go into it. There's a chance he could have been pitch tipping. I don't want to go too far into it, but the Dodgers would be his fair and square, whether he's tipping or not. They hit some balls very hard and got on base and did their job.
Starting point is 00:37:57 Well, it seemed like he wasn't landing anything under his throwing strikes with anything other than his fastball. Yeah, the velocity was inconsistent. The spin was inconsistent. There was a lot of inconsistencies to his to his outing. That's, that's, that's a lot of. That's, that's a lot of. why the Dodgers did what they did. If there was the tipping advantage as well, I'm not sure, but that's our job to figure it out. We will. There were a lot of clues that would say
Starting point is 00:38:29 that he was tipping his pitches, but like Tori said, does it really matter if he was? I mean, isn't that just it's not like that's cheating? It's not like it's sign stealing or something like, that, which is also kind of part of the game.
Starting point is 00:38:46 But I mean, that's more of a mistake on the pitchers part more than anything, right, that they're tipping their pitches. I think my biggest takeaway is that whether Slade Cicconi was tipping pitches or not, he didn't pitch very well. And so it's hard for me to really get too wrapped up in that question, because if you're out there and you can only really land your four-seem fastball for strikes, just sort of what it felt like for Slate, especially in that third inning. He just couldn't land any of the secondary stuff.
Starting point is 00:39:17 A lot of it was missing up above the zone. Or, you know, there were some misses that were over the middle, which obviously weren't great either. And no pitcher is really going to be all that great when you can only locate your four-seem fastball. And that's kind of what Slate Saccone was, at least in the early stages of this game. He did kind of find his way toward the end of this game and actually retired the last 12 hitters he It was a, I mean, it was a weird day for Slade Cicconi, right? Right. The narrative has been very clear so far of the first time through.
Starting point is 00:39:48 He's absolutely electric, one for 43 coming into today. And then after that is when the floodgates open and when he gets into some trouble. Today was, it was very much the opposite. The first time through, Slade had given up five of his runs at that point. He did give up, I believe, a Homer after that that would have been technically the second time through. but yeah slade was slade was was not good at the beginning of his outing and then he actually settled down
Starting point is 00:40:16 and finished really well by there wasn't a ton of swing and miss I think there was only one strikeout out of those five out of those final 12 hitters that he retired but there was a lot of soft contact in there were a lot of ground balls there were some lazy fly balls he pitched pretty well after that point in this game
Starting point is 00:40:33 unfortunately for the debacks I mean the offense is another part of this game I actually thought they had some pretty decent bats and, you know, strung together a better offensive game than it looked, at least in the early stages against Yoshinova, Yamamoto. But all it took was those six runs.
Starting point is 00:40:51 And, you know, they weren't, they were unable to overcome that. What do you make of this game overall? Like, I have a hard time really, I guess, assessing it because it does feel like the Diamondbacks played the Dodgers well, right? But, you know, I think that's just because the Dodgers put up so many runs, you know, early on in this game, they were up six to one that they were kind of in
Starting point is 00:41:14 cruise control and didn't really need to continue to pummel the Diamondbacks. They did make, you know, they did put up some runs late, which is something they haven't been able to do. But it just, you know, it also feels kind of like, I don't know why, but it, I said it earlier, it feels like loser talk to say like the Diamondbacks played the Dodgers well tonight, even though they lost six to four. Like they, they did. They were able to put up zeros.
Starting point is 00:41:39 you know, or keep the Dodgers, you know, off the scoreboard for most of the night. You just really had Slade have that one bad, bad inning. Plus, you had the fact that Slade was able to rebound and you didn't, you know, have Lavello having to turn to his bullpen and exhaust his bullpen for the rest of the series. So it was an impressive, you know, way for Slade to come back out and give the Diamondbacks, you know, three more innings after what, what transpires there in the third. But, you know, I don't know. What were your thoughts overall here on how they played against the Dodgers? I mean, Yoshinobu Yamamoto against Slate Sikoni was,
Starting point is 00:42:16 I mean, it was, it was, it didn't look great on paper, right? And in reality, it didn't, it didn't go great either.
Starting point is 00:42:23 It lived up to the hype, if you would. Yeah, I mean, it, it kind of reminds me of the Friday game against the Tigers, right, where it's Terik Scoobel against Ryan Nelson.
Starting point is 00:42:32 And Diamondbacks did sort of embarrass themselves in that game, like in that, you know, Ryan Nelson against Terib Skoobel, that's a tough one to win, but that doesn't mean you should be losing by 13 runs. They didn't do that today. They were able to stay out of that. You know, they, as you said, they held down the Dodgers pretty well the rest of the way.
Starting point is 00:42:51 There were some sketchy moments here and there. Bryce Jarvis walked the high wire once again, as he often as he often does. But, yeah, this is, I mean, the reality is that the Diamond Vax are just not getting what they were hoping for from a lot of their young pitching talent, right? Tommy Henry is in Reno. Ryan Nelson has an ERA just over seven. Slate Cicone has an ERA over six in the majors right now. Bryce Jarvis in the bullpen has, as I said,
Starting point is 00:43:21 was able to walk the high wire and didn't give up any runs today. But he's got basically the same number of walks of strikeouts this year. So you haven't necessarily been super blown away by what you've gotten from him. And in a perfect world, the debacks weren't going to need to rely on these guys. a whole lot. But with Eduardo Rodriguez and Merrill Kelly out, they've had to rely on them quite a bit. Well,
Starting point is 00:43:44 we have more from Slade on his outing. And I think is this if he was tipping his pitches or what he thought on what was going on against the Dodgers here? Yeah, he talks a little bit about tipping here. And then we have another clip as well where he kind of hones in on the tipping even further. But yeah, here's the first ones. I gave him pitches to hit and they hit him. Do you think they knew what was coming?
Starting point is 00:44:09 I don't think that was it. That wasn't the problem. I don't think that was it. How much the adjustment that you made to settle in and end the way you did? What did you do? Everything just synced up mechanically. I started moving consistently down the rubber. And, yeah, after that, it was, you know, what I'd like to do.
Starting point is 00:44:31 You know, everything I go out there was very unfortunate. you know, the third happened and all the runs came in the way they did. Was the situation all different for you coming out of the bullpen? Is that a different place at all? I've done it before. Definitely different. First time I've done it this year. It was a little bit.
Starting point is 00:44:57 I don't know. I don't want to make excuses. So I'm going to refrain from any more. First of all, were you sitting on Todd Walsh's shoulder while recording that. I was, I was not. I was not. You know, I know Todd pretty well.
Starting point is 00:45:14 He's a good, he's a good dude. That would be a little weird. Very cool. Very cool. But no, yeah, me holding up my phone is, my phone is, is nearly sitting on Todd Walsh's, Todd Walsh's shoulder, although I am not. I'm proud of you. I feel like I've taught you well when it comes to that.
Starting point is 00:45:31 Like, you're just all up in the mix. Like, I don't care of Todd's faces in front of my camera. I am here. It's a lot easier on the road. There's only like four or five reporters in these scrums. So it makes it makes it a lot easier on me. But it's interesting there. Like you hear,
Starting point is 00:45:46 you hear Slade taking a little bit of a different approach here, whereas Tori was pretty open to the idea of pitch tipping, maybe contributing to what happened for Slade tonight, where Slade was pretty dismissive there, where Todd is asking him, do you think they knew what was coming? And Slate says pretty adamantly, I don't think that was it.
Starting point is 00:46:04 However, we did ask, some follow-up questions with regard to the tipping situation. And Slade got into a little bit more specifics. Here's what he had to say there. Tori was making it somewhere like he hadn't, or you guys hadn't to let me do it off the idea of it sounds like you don't, it seems like you have been about it. I haven't looked at it.
Starting point is 00:46:30 It was brought to me, but I haven't looked at it in detail. all of it. So, I don't know, we'll have to look more, but we'll see. So it wasn't like it was an adjustment that you made, any thing that stopped in whatever, it was brought to you? Not particularly. No, I, I'll have to go look. I'll have to go talk with the people that are thinking that that might be the case,
Starting point is 00:46:55 see what they have, and, you know, figure it out from there. I guess I'm confused because it's very much, now, Brent Strom coming to his pitchers in between innings and showing them stuff on the iPad is nothing new. And that does not necessarily mean that he's tipping pitches. But it felt like, and Damon and I were discussing it earlier. I was watching the television broadcast. He was listening to the radio broadcast. Both teams were in agreement that they both felt like he was tipping pitches.
Starting point is 00:47:29 And then when you go back and look at the footage, there's a lot of whispering between the Dodgers and sharing information. and then you have in between the inning where he does, you know, have this interaction with Brent Stracham and the iPad, you follow that up with the fact that he was able to come out and be effective once again. Like there's just a lot of, I guess there's a lot of signs pointing to him tipping pitches without there being any clear indicator that he was. But it very much felt like everybody, everybody kind of thought that that was the case. yeah it's a it's a tricky thing i mean sometimes coaches and players are a little bit hesitant to to be super open about that because they don't want other teams picking up on it um although granted
Starting point is 00:48:14 other teams are already so all over this stuff that it it probably like i don't think one of us writing an article or us on this show talking about slayed tipping pitches or whatever if you had said more if that really means that you know the the next team that slayed faces oh they're you know they're really listening up on the pH and XDVACs podcast and reading all the articles. I'll change the headline. Yeah, yeah. We might need to make this a little bit less SEO friendly. But yeah, I'm going to be, you know, naturally a little bit skeptical in situations like this.
Starting point is 00:48:49 Again, I go back to the fact that Slade just wasn't really pitching all that well. It's one thing if you have a pitcher who is, who is hitting edges, who is executing pitches, who is doing all the things. And the opposing team just inexplicably is hitting him anyway. That's one situation where it's like, okay, maybe tipping pitches really is the difference maker there. Slade, again, he did say that it was brought to him, the idea of tipping. So it's not like I'm dismissing the idea entirely. I think there could be something there. But it just isn't like the main concern that I would have coming away from this start.
Starting point is 00:49:25 Slade also talked a lot about just mechanically how he felt out of whack coming out of the gate. and how he was inconsistent with his landing spot on the mound. That was sort of what he was saying was causing him to be missing location with a lot of his secondary pitches. I also asked him about some of the velocity variants that we saw in this game, which of course was something that we've noted in past starts with him as well. The pitches that he threw to Kike Hernandez that started off that third inning, his fastball was 91, 92, and not at bat.
Starting point is 00:49:59 That was only the second inning that he had thrown. You wouldn't expect his V-Lo to drop so significantly that soon. And he also attributed that to some of the mechanical stuff that was just out of whack in this game. So, you know, from what we've heard, he was able to kind of figure that out. And hopefully the mechanical stuff is set to go and won't be an issue in the future. Are people just throwing chairs around and shit in the bat? What is going on? Yoshi and I are both all what we want to know what's happening there.
Starting point is 00:50:33 It sounds like you're at closing time in an industrial kitchen, but you're in the press box. It's weird. That's why I'm here, Derek. You wanted the sounds of the ballpark. So you're getting that's the crack of the bat and, you know, all of the glorious sounds of baseball. No, I think they're, I think we're far enough after the game ended at this point that the cleaning crews are behind me. you know, cleaning up after all these filthy Dodgers fans who are, you know, they've got all the stuff all over the place everywhere.
Starting point is 00:51:05 So, yeah, apologies for the, for the noise on my end. I can still hear okay, but I don't know what it sounds like to you guys. It's loud is what it is. It's a war zone, probably. Getting over this loss with a desert daydream, hazy IPA from our friends at Four Peaks. They have all sorts of wonderful beers. I've talked about how much I enjoy the 50s. pack variety pack but you can also just go get some fresh out of the tap at your four peaks location
Starting point is 00:51:34 near you uh you can visit four peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events you can also check out at four peaks brewer at four peaks pub to keep up with the latest arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink four peaks and please drink responsibly but do not miss out on the bad birdie juicy golden ale which is out now available get it in cans and supermarkets you can get it on on the tap all over the place place. So make sure not to miss out on that or any of the wonderful beers that offer. Of course, another three things I want to miss out on is and you can do so with our friends at any time.
Starting point is 00:52:09 You can be listening to sounds in person at Dodgers Stadium like Jesse is right now. And you can save up to 60% off by buying last minute tickets for concerts, sports, events, comedy shows, all sorts of stuff. can even save more than that with last minute exclusive in-app deals on select seats ahead of the game or event. You can check out the zone deals that they have. They have even more that you can save when you look for certain sections. You can also get a panoramic view from your seat in the app before you buy. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with our friends at game time.
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Starting point is 00:53:05 lowest price guaranteed. Well, Jesse, we were digging into the mailbag, but before we get back into the last few questions we had, we did want to get, of course, your number. We know that this number up here, this six to four score, it might be a lie. It might be the truth. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:53:20 I don't trust many things in life. But what I do trust is the numbers, because they never lot. So what do you got for tonight's game? Tonight's pretty simple. 311 is the number. This is the 9-Backs. No, there you go.
Starting point is 00:53:35 Of course I knew that. 3-11 is the Diamondbacks expected batting average in this game, which I believe was actually a few points higher than the Dodgers. And it just goes back to the point that we made earlier that the D-BAC's offense was able to scratch across some runs in this game. Kevin Newman had another big day going three for four. I imagine you guys might have already talked about him a little bit. He was our king snake, in fact.
Starting point is 00:54:01 He's very deserving. I mean, he really, as much as we talk about Geraldo Perdomo and the very legitimate ways that the Diamondbacks have missed him, like Kevin Newman is out here playing a pretty solid defensive shortstop with like a 760 OPS now, something like that. He's been about as good of a stop gap as you could possibly imagine there. So he had some good swings in this game again. Ketel Marte hit hit a baseball 117 miles per hour off the bat, which it did get caught.
Starting point is 00:54:35 And there were a few. Like, I think I think you could move some of the D-BACs batted balls over just like a few feet. If you did that at like a few different points in this game, you could find your way to six runs, Derek. There were some good Dodgers defense in this game in that third inning in the top of the third, and the debacks actually had a 1-0 lead. Gabby Moreno hit a line drive to the right side of the infield, a really nice play by Miguel Rojas that kept him off base to start that inning. And then Christian Walker, right?
Starting point is 00:55:06 Yeah, exactly. And then Christian Walker, to end that inning, hit a line drive to right field. Jason Hayward made a nice sliding grab there. That's two of the three outs in that inning. If those guys somehow find their way on base, you know, that could be a crooked number in that frame. And if Kattel is able to come through with that hit, I mean, you've got runners at second and third in that situation. So if you take the 117 mona or dart, you just slide it a little one way or the other away from Buckey Betts and shortstop, you could find your way to a different outcome.
Starting point is 00:55:38 So all that to say, I'm supposed to be the guy that does that. You're supposed to be the realist. I'm supposed to be the optimist. What is happening here? Because I like it. And I'm starting to feel better about this. You're making me feel better. expected batting average has a way of has a way of doing that because it doesn't it doesn't have it doesn't it doesn't know like what direction balls were hit it's like oh 117 miles an hour at a launch angle of 10 degrees or whatever like yeah that's probably going to fall for a hit that's a 7-11 batting average right there for sure for sure well we do have some more questions jesse and i did want to get you involved especially this one about a boy band we have coming up but of course what do we got here
Starting point is 00:56:19 Damon, you got some more questions for us? I got Gabriel here saying, will anyone on the team reach 30 home runs? No, no. The answer is no. I am convinced nobody on this team is going to hit 30 home runs.
Starting point is 00:56:40 Convinced? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what Christian Walker is at right now. He would probably be the best bet in my mind. Jock Peterson just be tough because he's a platoon guy. I think he's on pace for closer to 20 than 30. Corbyn Carroll, obviously, are a long ways away from that with the start that he's gotten off to.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Okay, so eight is he's basically on pace for 30. He's on pace for just like maybe 28, 29 at this point. And he's not hitting very well right now. So he could really turn it around. Like he could improve his production and increase. that home run total. But I mean, we at one time during this off season, like, we're like maybe they have three 30 home run hitters on this team.
Starting point is 00:57:30 Ha! And I'm sure that was just me and not Jesse, but still. I think we were, I think we were thinking more that they would have a lot of 20 home run hitters. That too. You could see a world where Corbyn Carroll, Gino, Lourdes, Christian Walker, Jock Peterson, like you could see all those guys getting to 20. 30 was going to be was going to be a little bit a little bit more difficult what is
Starting point is 00:57:53 kettle at right now I mean he's seven I want to say okay so yeah he's he's on pace for more like more like 25ish then probably but you could you could see like I could I could envision could tell going to 30 he's got nine oh okay there you go so there's your there's your one player who I think is a home run hitter I think it tells on pace to do it and that wouldn't surprise me. He hit 32 back in 2019. So, Granzi in 2019, the baseball was a little a little bit crazy, but yes.
Starting point is 00:58:24 Beasioces says Jack will hit 30 foul home runs. He's already hit 30 foul home runs. Easily. Easily. Well, we got one of your question, speaking of which. I just have to say real quick, I saw a tweet today that was
Starting point is 00:58:40 it was a video of Barry Bond, just sitting like a totally epic home run. And the caption was jock peterson if every batted ball was 15 feet to the left like it doesn't it feel like jock peterson like it's not only the foul home runs it's it's his propensity for hitting line drives right at people this is an issue for him last year in san francisco i thought that was i thought that's pretty perfect that's pretty perfect all right what else we got damon next question i'm throwing a qby sneak in here on you derrick we got jacob
Starting point is 00:59:16 Schult with its full party time at Heel River. Who are the three PHNX people and three DBAX players you are inviting? Obviously, Derek is not invited because this is a boys trip. So this question goes to Jesse and Damon. Yes, Jacob. Yes. Okay. So moving on, next question.
Starting point is 00:59:36 We can just move on from that question. We don't have time for that shit. What else we got, Damon? No, come on, Derek. That's a good question. So obviously I'm inviting for DOMO. Yeah, that was a given. That was a given.
Starting point is 00:59:48 Yeah, let me scoot on here. Obviously, Perdomo's going. Vibes, guys. I think Lordus probably has to be there. And I think I might go Alec. I think that might be my trio of D-BACs players there. P.H. and X employees, definitely Anthony Totry. Crazy.
Starting point is 01:00:07 For sure. He's just, you know, he's a good time. He's going to bring the sunglasses. Nobody has to ask. probably going to ask if you want some ladies to come along. That's just the kind of guy that Tocry is. And then, um... Do you want ESPO there?
Starting point is 01:00:27 Yeah, ESPO would be a good... It's a good vibes, guys. This is terrible. Yeah. Esper is bringing his footflops, that's for sure. And then, uh, last one... I don't know. I'll take Craig Morgan because I think he's bringing...
Starting point is 01:00:42 Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is one. I need to be on every question. Are you shitting me? Espo and Craig Morgan. Jacob, I want a fucking apology from you. These men didn't bring up flex.
Starting point is 01:00:57 You're not taking flex to a pool party. What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you shitting me? You're not taking Shane. Shane to a pool party? Last week, Shane got invited to a pool party and he was like, I'm not a pool party guy. I don't really like it.
Starting point is 01:01:13 So you invite Shane. You take the guy who doesn't like. pool parties and I'll take, I'll take Craig Morgan. Yeah, you take Craig Morgan to your pool party. You take Espo. Both of those guys are going to fucking leave an hour in. They're not even going to
Starting point is 01:01:28 stay. They're not even going to say goodbye to you. They're going to Irish goodbye you. They're going to fucking walk out the door when you're not looking. And these are the men you chose to bring with you. I want you to remember that. I want you to remember that I had a chance to be omitted from a question. And Damon, you fucking
Starting point is 01:01:44 blew it. You blew it. What else we got? Moving on next question. Next question comes from Yoshi. He says, with the way Tori has handled the last two games, do you think Ginkle is now out of his 7-8-9? Martinez was up in the bullpen, so he has taken over Ginkle's spot. Also, do you think if I get the Mets to trade for Javi Baez, he'll stop torturing us? No.
Starting point is 01:02:09 That answer to the last question is, no, I don't think that. But more importantly, the earlier question, I don't know. What do you think, Jesse? I mean, I feel like Tori is not the kind of guy to be that reactionary. And honestly, to a fault, he's stuck with guys for too long. So do you think that we would see? Like, I don't know if Justin Martinez would be that guy yet, but do you think Ginkle is still in there as the eighth inning guy,
Starting point is 01:02:38 essentially there behind Ryan Thompson? If everything were to go as planned in a game for a team, for his team, about 18, this team, the team we're talking about. Tori is, Tori has said that Ginkle is still going to be used in levered spot. So he's been pretty insistent that Ginkle's role isn't going to change. That doesn't necessarily line up with what we've seen. Like we did just see yesterday, Tori go to Ryan Thompson for two innings instead of bringing in Ginkle. Correct.
Starting point is 01:03:07 So. That seemed a little desperate. Yeah, I, and I think we, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it evolves. right i mean ginkle i think his era is at five at this point in the year i think we all understand he's a he's a better pitcher than that but he hasn't he hasn't been quite as sharp this year like his strikeout rate is is down about 10 percentage points from where it was last season which is a really big drop off um you know it's it's not just it's not just like a batted ball luck thing or whatever he genuinely hasn't been as effective as slider isn't getting as much swing and miss
Starting point is 01:03:40 fastball isn't getting as much swing and miss um but yeah tory i i think tory is still going to with Ginkle in in levered spots generally. Yeah. No, I would agree with you there. All right. One more question. Then we're going to get out of here. Last question.
Starting point is 01:03:56 Damon, hit us with it. Comes from Michael Rokickey. He says, the boy band conversation in the discord the other night got me thinking. What D-Bax players would you put in a boy band and what would they be called? This is the easiest question I've ever been asked. Well, apparently me and Damon aren't qualified to answer these fun questions anymore. So I guess, oh, oh, oh, it's like that, Jesse. Oh, it's like that.
Starting point is 01:04:20 Do you want to, please, can you give your input on who you want to be in a Diamondbacks boy band? Go ahead. No, no, no, no, you, it's all you do it. It's all you. Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. Damon, put the picture up. We already know the answer to this.
Starting point is 01:04:35 There's your boy band right there. There's your boy band. It's Jake McCarthy. It's Corbyn Carroll. It's Ray Jameson. It's Alec Thomas. And I don't know if they'd be called happy jewelers, but I don't know. maybe two things.
Starting point is 01:04:47 I don't know. Bubble tail. I don't know. I don't know. No, no perdomo, huh? Oh, that's probably a big omission.
Starting point is 01:04:59 Boy bands can be bigger. They don't just have to be four, four band boy bands. They can be five or six. I'm making a Latin boy band. Okay. Is it Perdomo? Is it,
Starting point is 01:05:09 is it Gabby and it's Lordus and Catell? yeah maybe gino maybe gino i don't know how i could forget gino gino uh he's not he's not he's not hitting well but i mean he he did a double today he did have a double today he did have a double today we just we need these guys that are here like jesse again we talk we talk about the injuries quite a bit but the one thing i'm super concerned with is like uh again kevin newman you're not really replacing a whole lot there if raldo perdomo come back like comes back like we said like you're you're actually losing one of your better offensive players and we know alec thomas wasn't exactly lighting things up at the
Starting point is 01:05:53 dish himself offensively you also factor in the fact that these guys will have to probably take some time to get going right they're probably not going to return to the lineup and just immediately be hitting 500 or whatever right so you know i i don't know there's there's a lot of concerns here and it also feels like the diamondbacks are still also hanging around in these games with several guys with abysmal OPSs that you know that that shouldn't be hitting the way they are yeah yeah that's fair I mean the diamondbacks need they need some of these guys to to get going and you did see some signs of that like Gino as we as we mentioned the double Lordus Curiel hit his first home run since April 16th it's been more than a month since we've seen a home run from, from Lourdes, which is kind of funny because I would think he homered in the first three games of the season in a row. And then he, and then he goes, what is that, 34 days without, without hitting a
Starting point is 01:06:53 homer. That's a very Lordus thing, right? We've established that he's a very streety hitter. No huge concerns for him at this point, at least on my end. So, yeah, I guess that's a silver lining from tonight as you're seeing some, some signs of life from Lourdes and from Gino. You need those guys, not only to get on the base. but to hit for some power.
Starting point is 01:07:13 And I guess we'll see here in the next few days whether they're able to continue that. All right. Well, Jesse will remain in Los Angeles until we let him come home. So make sure to drop us a like. If we don't get enough likes on these shows, Jesse never comes home. He just lives in Los Angeles now.
Starting point is 01:07:29 But, of course, you can follow him while he's there in Los Angeles at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, you can follow me here in this arcade that I live in at Kappa underscore K. man with a K. Uh, the people's producer, though, most importantly, uh, is at Damon dog. That's Damon, D-A-W-G. Of course, we are Damon's dogs.
Starting point is 01:07:50 Bark, bark, bark. Our show is at pH and X, we fucking nailed that. Our show is at pH and X underscore debacks. Of course, but all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We will be back tomorrow night with another post-game show after tomorrow's, uh, matchup with the.
Starting point is 01:08:11 Dodgers. So make sure to come back again here for that. And hopefully a little bit better times. Hopefully we can be here with the good music and some, you know, some good vibes. So make sure to come back here for that. In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful night. We appreciate you stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't invite Craig Morgan and Espo to the pool party. What are you doing?

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