PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Was this MadBum’s final start? Bumgarner struggles again in series finale loss to the Cardinals

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Madison Bumgarner has another terrible outing in the Diamondbacks series finale loss to the Cardinals. We once again ponder if this will be the last start for MadBum and what options the D-backs have. We also take a look ahead at the upcoming four-game set with the Padres.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1693757). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Plus join us at the BetMGM Sportsbook at State Farm Stadium for all Suns’ away playoff games. Our PHNX Suns watch parties, presented by NUTRL, will feature food and drink specials, PHNX giveaways, and BetMGM deposit matches. Join us by grabbing your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/616706063437Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.PHNX: Become a Diehard today! Check out https://phnxlocker.com/ to grab your membership to receive exclusive content, discounts on all events and merch, and access to our Discord chats. Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxFour Peaks: Join us for our NFL Draft Day Live Party at Four Peaks’ 8th St. Pub. Register for free to receive drink specials: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-cardinals-nfl-draft-party-tickets-610031329127Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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.

Oh, that sucks. That really sucks. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. It's Sad Boy hours around here. I am your mayor of Sadtown, occasionally known as Derek Montia. He'll try to be a bit more positive than me as the vice mayor. He is your thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Some technical difficulties today, Derek.

All about it. Yeah, not just for us, but for Valley Sports, Arizona, who lost their feet in the ninth inning. And also for one Madison Bumgarner, who had another rough day on the mound for the debats. We're convinced that these things aren't a coincidence. Mad Bum may or may not have played a role in the feed getting shut down for both Bally Sports, Arizona, and for us, because he probably knows we're not going to have very nice things to say about him. Let's just start off with Mad Bum's line today. on a day that they truly needed him to give them any kind of link that he could, even in a bad outing,

Madison Bum Gardner went three innings, gave up seven hits, seven runs, seven earned, jackpot. And four walks, two strikeouts. Not very good at all today. And begs the question once again, why is this man also starting when he's taking $27 million from the team? And like, I guess those two go hand in hand, but I just don't understand this, you know, this thing that they're doing with him. And I'm sure a lot of people don't either. No, I think I think our audience, they totally get it there. You're the only one who doesn't understand why Madison Bumgarner is still in this start interpretation.

You got to figure it out. Can you give me some reason? Oh, man. Can you make it make sense? It's really bad. We were, you know, me and Derek were sitting in our more furniture chairs watching this game. And just as comfortable as we could be. As comfortable as we could be.

And you just feel like I think I could maybe count on one hand the number of well executed like pinpoint command pitches that Madison Bumgoner threw in this game. Correct. His stuff is just not that good. And he also is just all over the place, right? He had a whole bunch of walks in this game. I believe he had four, four walks, seven hits allowed. It's not just that he's not getting swings and misses.

It's that he's walking a bunch of guys. And when his stuff is in the zone, it is getting hit like crazy. And we knew going into this game that the St. Louis Cardinals were a disastrous matchup for Madison, Bumgarner, with both Aeronado and Goldschmidt in the lineup. Those two guys wound up not doing actually that much damage in the grand scheme of things, but the Cardinals are still very right-handed heavy, and they did some serious damage against Bumgarner in those three innings. And like you said, this was a day where the debacks were very short-handed in the bullpen. Peter Solomon came in and was honestly just as bad as Madison Bumgarner.

I mean, at least he gave them what essentially they needed, which is just a body to come in there and take up some innings. I mean, I think they would have liked more than two and a third from Peter Solomon. I'm sure. I'm sure they would have, right, for sure. But I also, I just, I don't know. I mean, today's game, we already kind of joked about it. We said take the over, which hit in the fourth inning. the over on how many runs?

It was 10 and a half. 10 and a half. And we hit the over and the, yeah. We also said that Madison Bumgarner was not going to be very good against a St. Louis Cardinals team that hits left-handed pitching very well. And boy, were we not wrong about that. Madison Bumgarner absolutely got rocked today. And, you know, I think the thing is, is that Madison Bumgarner, you know, based on Jesse's tweet that you sent out earlier today, this is not. like just a bad outing here or there. This is this has been his season. Let's take a look at his tweet.

Yeah, it's not it's not great Derek. It's not great. Four starts. Four starts. 16 and two thirds innings, 25 hits, 20 runs, 19 of the mirror, 15 walks compared to 10 strikeouts. It's not just that he's walking almost a batter an inning, but he only has 10 punchouts, despite all of the many batters that he's faced a 10.2. 26 ERA, a 2.4 whip, which is utterly ridiculous. Opposing hitters, Derek, are batting 347 against Madison Bumgarner this year with an OPS now well over a thousand after this game. I know everyone wants us to have a conversation about Madison Bumgarner's future in the starting rotation. So let's have it. And let's have it. Let's go there. Let's do it.

Let's just rip the Band-Aid off. Like you said, opposing hitters against Bumgarner slashing 347, 456, 625. That's bad. That is, oh man. Averaging four innings per outing, essentially, right? Just over four innings per outing, but just a fraction over. And I mean, the big thing here is that the Diamondbacks aren't necessarily in need of Madison Bumgarner being in the starting rotation with the talent that they currently have. We don't need to go over the names again, but we will.

will anyway. Tommy Henry has been a very good pitcher in minor leagues and at times has been able to fill in for this team. Obviously the future of the starting rotation lines up a bit more with Brandon Fott, who because of an off day for Reno now doesn't necessarily line up. Yeah, Brandon Fott doesn't line up to make. I know everyone wants Fought in his next start against Kansas City. Fought is not starting until tomorrow. So it doesn't line up for that. But yeah, Tommy Henry threw well. He pitched yesterday on Tuesday for Reno, six innings, two runs, only allowed four hits, no walk, six strikeouts. He was really good.

If the debacks do want to move on from Bumgarner in the rotation, my guess is that Tommy Henry is the guy that they would go to. I had a thought when they removed Bumgarner from the game and I was thinking through this. It was like, well, you could go to Peter Solomon as your fifth starter if you wanted to. He needed that idea really fast. And then Peter Solomon goes out there and gives up seven runs and two and a third. I don't know if I see the debacks going that direction either. All signs are pointing to the debacks going into AAA and specifically probably going to get Tommy Henry.

But it's complicated, Derek. Like the debacks can't just, it's not that simple, right? You have to make a hard decision on Madison Bumgunner. Are you going to DFA him? Are you going, are you ready tomorrow to come out and pay nearly $37 million over the next? next two seasons is 23 this year. It's 14 next year. There's some deferrals as well from the last few years that they still owe him. Are you willing to write that check today essentially and just forego these last almost full two years of Madison Bumgarner's contract? That's a bold move.

It's a move that I know a lot of people think the diamond back should make. And I personally also think the diamond back should make that move. I don't know if they're going to do that though. I think it's possible you see some sort of an injury stint here potentially we've talked about mad bum having some arm fatigue after his first start of the season all of those tests came back okay he made some cryptic comments between his previous two starts about how you know he had an extra couple of days rest but it wasn't your normal extra couple of days rest and there was a lot going on between those two starts we never really got much clarity on what bum garner was talking about there but you wonder if maybe there's an underlying injury

here that the diamond backs could use to get Bumgarner on the injured list and, you know, try to work with him, send him out on a rehab assignment, try to get him back to being at least a serviceable major league starter, which frankly, he is not right now. Madison Bumgarner is under contract with this team for the rest of this season and for 2024. He is owed $23 million for this season, $14 million for next. His contract was inward structure. like to kind of allow them to get some of that early money off the books as far as

Yizmani Tomas's contract and some other deals that they needed essentially to expire. And now Tomas's contract has essentially been replaced by Bumgarner's contract. Correct. And serving that same role. And like Jesse said, there's deferred money too, right? So I think a couple of people said it. And I know Marcus, Albert, I agree with you. I'm just going to say that.

really at times you can't really compound a mistake by the fact that you're overpaying someone by also having them lose games for you you're going to pay the money regardless so why also do it for him to lose games for you i feel like they've given him every opportunity i feel like they've given him great coaching they haven't just given him every opportunity derrick they they handed him a rotation spot right right like the god regardless of his performance he was going to be not matter how madison Bumgarner pitched in spring training. Mike Hazen came out at the very beginning of spring training and said that Madison Bumgarner is going to be in our starting rotation.

And on some level, you understand that, right? He's a veteran. He is a legendary pitcher. We know he's been working hard. We don't want to take a shot at his personal character or anything like that in this situation. But the Diamondbacks handed him this rotation spot regardless of how he was pitching. I remember one moment during spring training where Tori Lavello was asked, how is

mad bum throwing the ball like what are you seeing from him he was doing a lot of work on the back fields at that time and i will never forget this derrick tory pause for a while for an uncomfortable amount of time it was a sigh and there was a there was a bit of a sigh and he came out and he said he's been throwing the ball okay you know and then he kind of went on and and said his normal tory thing about how he's working hard and you know the different things that he was working on you could tell debacks behind the scenes were not all that enthralled with what they we're seeing from Bumgarner. And at this point, it has just become so abundantly clear that Bumgarner is not a majorly

caliber starter right now. And it's not to say that he couldn't get there again, that, you know, if they're able to work on some things with him, that he couldn't figure it out, if there's some fatigue happening, if whatever's going on, those things could maybe get ironed out. But right now, the Diamondbacks every fifth day are throwing out a starting pitcher who is vastly inferior to the other four starters in this routine. and also vastly inferior to two starters waiting in AAA, right? At least we think, right?

Tommy Henry and Brandon fought. They're young guys. They're guys that you at least want to see what they can do in the big leagues, even if it takes them some time to adjust. So I don't personally see any, I don't think this is that complicated for the debacks. I just don't know how you can put Madison, Bumgarner out there again and expect him to help you win games. Rob says, you guys keep saying he's working hard, but has he made any change? to his approach, his repertoire.

He's attempted some, right? Yeah, we did see some differences today. Bumgarner threw a whole bunch of four seamers today. He didn't rely nearly as much on his cutter as he normally does. He also, yeah, he also threw a good number of curveballs in this game. We saw him experimenting with the change up quite a bit early in the season, which didn't go so well for him. I do think he's making some changes, but the changes just aren't working. The reality is his curveball is,

is just not that good of a pitch. And his change-up has never been that good of a pitch. And the stuff is just not high-quality enough, no matter how you tease out, you know, which pitches you're throwing and which counts and what goes to lefties, what goes to righties. There's only so many adjustments you can make when your stuff just isn't that good.

So back to his contract, by the way, $37 million, $15 million deferred over the next three years after his contract is up. So that brings the total to $52 million. So that's a lot of money, right? But like Jesse said, it's, it really feels like a no-brainer, especially considering the position that this team is in. If this team was in the position that the Colorado Rockies currently are in, then I would honestly say, what does it matter, right? Yeah, there would be an element of we need Bum Garner to be better and we don't have, you know, some great option waiting in AAA.

So just ride it out and see if you can get him to make some adjustments. But that's just not where the debacks are. The debacks have one of the best pitching prospects in baseball in AAA, who's 24 and a half years old. And Tommy Henry, who also has shown signs of promises. It's so cute when you call him 24 and a half. Like, that's adorable. Yeah, that is. That is, yeah.

I recognize that's. I think, Jesse. I think that's the limit for that. But we're not the only ones that think that this might be the end of the line for Madison Bumgardner. Our friend over at 98.7 FM, John Gambadoro also says, I will say this now that there's a zero chance he makes his next scheduled start, phantom injury or something.

The Diamondbacks have a chance this year, a real chance, and you can't give games away like this. They have four runs and four innings, but are down seven to four because he can't pitch anymore. That's the facts. And again, like, it makes me uncomfortable because I know how much Madison, bumgarner cares, and I know that there's a chance he might hear all of the negative criticism that we have for him.

And then I have to go look at him in the face in the clubhouse, right? But it's the truth of the matter is, I think even he understands how much he's struggling. And he does not want to be in this position. I don't think he wants to be causing this team to lose games like he is. And, I mean, of course, he wants to be doing better. But he'll probably be the first person to tell you that he's pitching like dog shit right now. And I wouldn't be surprised if you used that exact vernacular in order to say it. So we have a tweet from Teo Mackey, who is out in St. Louis.

Tori Lavello did not commit to Madison Bumgarner making his next start. Lavello said, we got to talk at O'R. Those were his exact words. That's the first time we've ever heard that as a response to. Yeah. After his last start, Tori basically said, this is business as usual. We're not talking about Mad Bum's rotation spot. They refused to relent.

Like, as far as they were concerned, it's a no-brainer, right? And when you're talking about $52 million still owed to the man, yeah, that probably is a no-brainer for you financially. That's a tough show to swallow. But let's talk about how good some of the other guys have been. The offense has still been on a role even in today's route. I mean, that's something good. At least it wasn't, I mean, I know it was a terrible, terrible loss, but it was 14 to 5. So the Diamondbacks were able to produce some runs. Pavin Smith, who we never doubted for a second, by the way, is batting 4-71 with. three doubles, two home runs, 10 RBI and three walks in five starts. That's not bad.

It's not bad. It's pretty good, Jesse. It's fairly good. I've never seen Pavin Smith consistently hit the ball with as much authority as he's right now. He's single the day, right? Just like went into all.

It almost like took the head off of the basement. Yeah, yeah. Pavin Smith is destroying the baseball right now. And it's great to see for the debacks, right? I mean, that they, as we talked about yesterday, he's a former first round draft pick, right? The debacks had high hopes for Pavin Smith not that long ago. And I remember when Pavin first came up, he made a pretty good impression.

There were a lot of Diamondbacks fans who were pretty well on board the Paveen Smith train in those early days. And these last couple years have just not been as good for him. Let's be honest. We get excited about these top prospects coming up. We see how well they do at Reno. The moment you have a prospect who has, you know, like a OPS, over 720.

Correct. You know, within their first 10 or 15 games, people tend to get excited. Slime me up. He might be hashtag good, and you know who else might be hashtag good, Jesse. Corbyn Carroll.

Not sure if you are familiar with that young man. Yeah. But he is currently batting 292, 324, 556, and his 7% stole. He forgot to update that. He walked in his last play appearance. So it's now 292-333-5-54. It's even better.

There you. Seven for seven and stolen bases, an absolute menace on the base path that you cannot control. And honestly, everything that you could want in a guy that just recently got extended. Yeah. Just performing at the level, maybe even above. Like, we joked about him hitting what, like above 270, I think. And we're like, we'll take that. We will take that all day long.

Yeah. 2.92 last time I checked is better than 270. Yeah. if Corbyn Carroll is actually this good this early, then he might be pretty good, Derek. Like, this kid might be pretty good. I mean, last year, Corbyn Carroll hit 260, 3, 3,500, which was pretty darn good in its own right. Some of the batted ball data last year was not quite as impressive. He didn't make nearly as much hard contact last year as he has made this year, where it feels

like he's just knocking the cover off the ball every single time he's up at the plate. He's also just been extremely hot in these last few games. According to MLB.com, his last seven games, he's hitting 409, slugging almost 900. So, yeah, he has been outstanding for the debacks, and we saw him hit third today. He moved up the lineup for the first time this season. So maybe he bats first someday. Maybe the debacks like him in the middle. We'll have to see how that develops over time.

It's very interesting. But Tori Lavello did say, what, after your... 60 plus plate appearances that he would give him moving up. It's been about exactly 60 played appearances, I think. He was 64 played appearances prior to today's games. There you go. That's where they said. He couldn't wait.

He couldn't wait to move him up there, you know. So once the opportunity came up, he did the thing. And we're thankful for it. I think that this team needs to embrace these young good players. Give them playing time. Yeah. Bring them up. I think Cole Cunningham in the chat asked,

Do you think the rotation could look like Gallen, Kelly, Nelson, Henry Davies once he's off the IL? Maybe Zach Davies was fairly good in his first couple of starts this year. That implied Jameson is back in the bullpen? Well, maybe. Maybe. I don't know. Henry, I don't know about Tommy Henry. I've seen some good things out of Tommy Henry, but I'm just ready for Brandon Fought to be called up. You know what I mean?

Let's just do the thing. Let's just do it. I don't know. Yeah, the only thing that I'm kind of thinking, thinking of is Tommy Henry is a lefty and Brandon Faud is not. So if the D-backs did have that rotation, but with Fod instead of Tommy Henry, you wouldn't have any lefties in your starting rotation. Maybe that's not a huge deal. You know, I don't know if teams necessarily care about that a whole lot in today's game. But, you know, if you have an opposing team that's stacked with a bunch

of left-handed hitters, it does kind of suck when all of your starters are righties. But at the end of the day, I mean, if Brandon fought is, is, uh, you know, that much better than Tommy Henry and those other guys are also going to be in the mix. Then, you know, maybe the devax would be willing to go there. Uh, another guy that has been very good, especially in the series, is our series King Snake, Catelle Marte. Marte hit 400 in the series with a home run to RBI. Uh, just the bat has been, has been very good for Catell. And, uh, again, there are certain players that are coming around that we discussed are kind of key to the Diamondback success. Cotel was one of them.

Zach Gallen was another one. Merrill Kelly was another one. Those guys have all been very good as of late. And that spells very good things for a Diamondbacks team that was already finding ways to win early this season. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, I think Cattel getting back to not, you know, not his 2021 or 2019 self just yet. But he started to look a little bit more like that guy at the plate over these last few games.

still obviously really, really early. But he got off to a very brutal start to this season. That first week or so for Catelle was really ugly. And you're starting to see him slug a little bit. And it hasn't all been when he's been batting right-handed. He's had some good games batting left-handed as well, which is another thing that we've talked about as being a key for him. So, yeah, I like what I've seen from Catell.

I don't know if he's ever going to be the guy that he was a couple years ago. But even if he's around, you know, an 800 OPS or so, that's a pretty good contributor for the top of your lineup. People have a lot of ideas for what we can do with Mad Bum. There's some talk about putting Mad Bum in the bullpen. Yeah, I don't. If you're Madison Bumgarner, are you willing to entertain that? I don't know if you would be. Do you want Madison Bumgarner really coming in as the closer?

I don't think people are saying that. I saw one of those. There was one. there was at least one in there, maybe even two. That is a hot take. Another hot take is Mad Bum at D.H. And I don't hate that. I think Mad Bum, you know, honestly, should stay on the roster and contribute in other ways.

He just shouldn't be part of the starting rotation. Pinch hit with him. Yeah, yeah. He should clearly pinch run and be a D.H. Yeah. That's the best way to be. Have him come in games like this. He could be the one that comes in and pitches when they're already down by 10 runs.

You know, like we would use a position player normally. we can use Madbum in this case. I mean, they could. What they could do is use Madbum in the role that Peter Solomon is currently filling, you know, where the innings aren't necessarily that important, but you need some length from someone. You know, you don't necessarily care quite as much about the quality of those innings as you do from some of your other relievers.

So I could maybe see the debacks doing something like that. But I don't know. I mean, if the IL stint thing is interesting because you can't just put a player on the injured list with something that's not real. Like you have to, it has to be a medically, uh, you know,

a medically, a medically substantial sort of thing for you to do that. Unless if Madison, bumgarner agrees to something along those lines, if you got his permission. Like the clutch conucks says where you can be the, between any entertainment with his rodeo skills. Oh my God.

Right. Comes out on a horse fucking lasso. I'm like, you're terrible. You're terrible, I'm just trying to find other things that we can do. All right. Uh, I,

look, I'm not blaming Madison Bumgardner completely, but I am kind of blaming him. I am also blaming him for the game being very long, which I don't like that anymore. I don't like three-hour baseball games, you guys. I know today's game didn't technically go over three hours because it was like two hours and 59 minutes and like 43 seconds or something like that, but it was still a three-hour baseball game. It felt very long.

It was two, yeah, it was two-fifty-nine. That was just under, it was just under, but I don't It's still a three-hour baseball game to me. And damn it, I don't even know if this is what this segment is for, but I'm ready to throw Shade at three-hour baseball games. Let's go. Are we really throwing Shade about three-hour baseball games? I don't like three-hour baseball games.

I cannot take it. How long do you think? Because I know you haven't looked at it. How long do you think yesterday's game was? I haven't looked at it. Yeah. What is your feeling on how long yesterday's game was? That is maybe three hours in 10 minutes.

Three hours and four minutes. It was just basically over three hours, and it still felt very long. Like, I've done with these three-hour baseball games. I love the pitch clock. I am against anybody that is anti-pitch clock or anti-shorter games. And I just don't have time for this anymore. My time is precious.

I'm ready to get in here and do the show now. We contemplated going in the seventh inning today just because why did it matter? We didn't need to stay till the end. But, Jesse, what are your thoughts on three-hour baseball games? Well, if I'm being totally honest, I don't know if I love the like the two hour, 10 minute, like nonsense that we keep getting, right? Some of these baseball games are ending a little bit too soon, Derek.

Damon, Damon. I don't know if I actually agree with you on this. I'm throwing shade of Jesse now. Start the thing over again. Do it again. Do it again. Oh, my gosh. Really, Jesse Friedman?

Really? You don't like two hours and ten baseball games? Not every day. Just not every day. What is? I don't. All the time. Every day. That's how long other sports are.

That we live this life of watching games that are three hours and 25 minutes every single day. Do you not see the Sun's crew come in here after our games started last season and then they would watch their game and do their show and then hack up and leave before we were even done watching baseball? Oh, I can't with him. Do you like this sport or not there? You just want the games to be over as soon as possible? I have other things to do with my life, like the Super Mario Brothers movie. And when I'm not watching that, I want to watch that. I want to watch Jack Black sing the peaches song in between watching the Super Mario's.

But I got other shit to do, Jesse. God, anyway, three-hour baseball games. This is the first one for the Arizona Diamondbacks of this season. And I very much felt like it. I think so. Yeah. I don't like it. I don't like it.

Go away. I realize that that was like the average game time last year was what like the longest game time this year has been. Like that was a normal day at the ballpark last year, Derek. I swear you liked this sport a year. go. Charles Woodall Pike agrees with you. I don't like when you agree with him. Hey. I will say this. Jesse looks very good in the Shady Ray's sunglasses. And I know I don't need anybody to affirm that for me. I know I look good in mine. And we thank our friends at Shady Ray's for helping us take on this Arizona Sun with gear built to last. Our friends at Shady Ray's have you covered for the warm weather ahead with premium polarized shades at an affordable price.

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That's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. My gosh. Right. Good job. Shady Ray's getting out there. Also, if you guys are watching us right now on your favorite YouTube channel, I don't know. I was thinking audio podcasting app, but you get the thing. Make sure to subscribe to us here.

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We make him come down and we have him hang out with us before he does all of this stuff for the game. You do have to pry me from the press box. Oh, he never wants to leave the press box. He never wants to leave. Unless he's going down to talk to the players and talk to Tori, then it'll happily come down. But you also get our PHNX. It's always sunny shirt, which is an incredible shirt. I got that shirt recently, Jesse.

I love it quite a bit. So make sure to get your takeover season pass. Here's a look at those games. Again, the Royals coming up on the 25th of April. then not too long after that we have a game with the San Francisco Giants that we welcome the Braves in June Cardinals in July

Paul Goldschmidt and the Cardinals I should say Padres in August and then we round things off with the Rockies just to make sure that we get a win there at the end of the year just trying to throw that out there You made me take my sunglasses off and you did too you're still throwing shade there you're

I never stop throwing shade all right well let's take a look at the numbers from this series. They weren't pretty, especially after today's loss. The Diamondbacks did, things looked much better prior to today's game, obviously. But the St. Louis Cardinals outscore the D-Backs 24 to 19. D-backs out hit the Cardinals 30 to 27 errors across the board. But I'm still kind of surprised here there at the stolen bases, Jesse, that the Diamondbacks just haven't had more attempts considering that that's kind of been a big part of their success early on. They're not allowed to have a team out steal them, right? I know. I know. That's not supposed to happen.

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like it was more, I mean, the debacks offense was genuinely pretty fantastic throughout this series. There just weren't that many opportunities to steal bases like there have been in the past. And the debacks scored a whole bunch of runs. So I don't think you're sweating that too much. But yeah, the debacks struggled with runners in scoring position today. They were one for 10.

Still had a 308 batting average in the series with runners in scoring position, which tells you how good they were in those situations in the first couple of games. a bullpen ERA of 9.45 for the D-backs, Derek. Not so, not so great there. Not great, but the Diamondbacks do come away with the series win, and that's the important thing here. Still just that one series loss, obviously, it had to be to the Miami Marlins, the worst team

that they've played up until this point. But, yes. He gave, oh, no, Saul said Madbum game. Really? Oh, man, we got to redo this pitching ERA now, but. I mean, he only threw like 60-something pitches, So maybe they had him throw a bullpen after the game. And he's giving, yeah, it would explain that he gave up more home runs in the bullpen.

I still also think he's responsible for cutting the power to the feed at the end of the game. Apparently, the radio broadcast also lost its feed as well. Yeah, the power went out at Bush Stadium, I think is what we heard. Intermittent power or something like that. But we really know what was going on. We know Mad Bum just wanted to shut this whole thing down and move on with life and have nobody talk about what happened today. This series, though, once again, we talked about it a bit, was very good. Merrill Kelly, very good.

And, you know, the Diamondbacks faced some adversity in yesterday's game. And they were able to kind of overcome not a great game from their relief pitching, not, you know, not a super start from Dre Jamison. But they were still able to overcome for the win. And then things kind of boiled over a bit today like we expected it to, but still just didn't think things would be this bad. I thought Madbone would be able to give him some more length today, even in a bad outing than he was able to, considering how depleted the bullpen has been. Yeah, I mean, they could have gone back to him.

I mean, his pitch count wasn't that high, but I think at a certain point, you're like, all right, seven runs and three innings. This guy's just not very effective. And the debacks did make it through the game on the pitching side without having to use any of their guys who have been used a whole bunch recently. So, yeah, not overall. The numbers for this series don't look great,

given the way that yesterday's game ended and the way that today's game went. The debacks did inch into the positive run differential territory there for a hot second. Now they are staunchly back on the negative side of that after losing by nine runs today. I think they're minus seven for the season. But nobody cares about run differential. No. Derek, you can win 100 games and have the other team score more runs than you do. Yeah, there's no aggregate scoring.

It doesn't carry over to the next game. What does matter, though, is they are still above Mount 500. And just for my own entertainment, can we send Catelle up the mountain really fast? Let's do that. Oh, no, Catelle's gone. Never mind. Cattel. Someone moves Cotel's file.

But what we do have is another edition of another classic of ours, because, you know, the Cotel thing was a classic, but this one's also a classic. We're going to do another edition of spying on our exes. That's right. Bringing back spying on our exes. This time, we're going to do a little Dalton Varsho edition. Gabriel Moreno didn't start in today's game. Oddly enough, you pointed out,

he's caught every mad bum start prior to today. Yeah. But he did come in, was one for one, and with an RBI in his one appearance today. But these guys, Louris Gouriel, Gabrieo Moreno, they've been very good for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, Dalton Varsho, not somebody that is making us miss him too much right now. He had a really strong start for the, I was going to say the Raptors. I'm thinking basketball after watching that game last.

I watched so many sun's highlights last night. For the Blue Jays, he got off to a really good start early in the season. But yeah, things have really cooled off of our show here in the last couple of weeks. His on base percentage is still good, up over 3.30, I believe. Yeah, 338. But he is hitting 233 right now and he only has the one home run and four RBI. You can arguably say that. the diamondbacks are getting much more, you know,

output from the two guys they picked up. I think the best way to evaluate this trade is to wait two weeks into the first season and decide who the winner is. Of course it is. Of course it is. We assess trades. It's an ever-moving thing. We have to assess them along the way, right?

So this is our first time assessing it. But again, I mean, I've seen, you know, I've already seen some highlights. like real plays from Varsho in the outfield in Toronto. So it's not like he's not doing his thing defensively. Yeah. But Moreno, for instance, today showed off his arm once again. He reminds you that you should never run on Gabby. And it's just especially with the injury to Carson, which, I mean, you can't go into an alternate

timeline and figure out if they wouldn't have traded for Gabby Ro Mereno if Carson would have even gotten injured the same way. But obviously, this is very important. now considering that they lost Carson for as long as they have. So it's like it's not just the fact that Dalton Varsho isn't having a great season. It's the value of Gabriel Moreno on this team early and how often they've been able to have him kind of be good at the plate, be good behind the plate. It just feels so far like it's like it's a win for the Diamondbacks as as much as I need to apologize for trying to say that.

Trying to declare a winner for a trade that will have implausenance. for at least six years in the future. I don't care. That's what I do. I react entirely too early. You know that, Jesse. You know that. Moreno has, he has looked good.

I think his receiving, there have been some balls that have gotten away in recent days that I think the debacks would probably like to shore up over time. But yeah, his arm is outstanding, right? We did see that again today with a pitch that got a little bit away and a runner took off from first and Moreno threw a strike down to second as he often does. So, yeah, that part of the game has been big league ready for a long time already.

And I think the offense is going to come around for Moreno. We've already seen with his big day yesterday, right, going two for three with the homer on, the double his hit in the game today as well. You're starting to see the offense come around. And that's really what makes Moreno. That's why Moreno was, you know, ranked the best prospect in baseball, I think by Baseball America at one point last year. because not only is he pretty darn good defensively

and a sure thing to stay behind the plate, but his offense has a chance to be right up there with the best catchers in baseball, which is something else not a lot of teams have, not a lot of teams get much offense from that position, and you're starting to see Gabby Moreno come around on that front. The ones that are the ones that stand out and our all-stars and our superstars around the league.

I don't know if he's going to go all Adley-Rutchman. I mean, Ruchman has been just on an insane tear to start the year, but he could be one of the top five offensive catchers in baseball at some point. That's really where you get excited about, you know, the next six years with Gabby Moreno. He has an ability to, he actually has a good ability to hit balls out of the strike zone, but do you think patience right now is, is the key to his development? It's a good point. It's like he's a little too hitterish sometimes. Like, you can hit anything, but sometimes you don't need to try anything. Sometimes you should not be trying to hit certain

pitches. Yeah, I think he's maybe gotten a little bit antsy at the plate, maybe swung at a few too many pitches down in the zone in particular. But yeah, over time, you're going to see Gabby Moreno turn into the hitter that a lot of people have thought he could be. Well, if you want to see this team,

including Gabriel Moreno and Lordus Gurriel that the Diamondbacks traded for, you can get your tickets over at GameTime.co. Grab your tickets last minute, procrastinate, and you win. That's the way that this works. The longer you wait, the cheaper tickets could be. Of course, upcoming games, concerts, shows anything you want are available on Game Time. Game Time is the place for last minute ticket deals and it is the fastest growing

ticket app in the country for a reason, as Jesse would say. It's very aesthetically pleasing. You can snag the tickets without the stress with Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code pHNX for $20 off. Download game time today, last minute tickets, price guaranteed. And of course, snag those tickets the day up. And I've seen baseball tickets on there extremely cheap for some of these games. So it all depends on availability. Make sure you check that app out. And you can also find their website at gaitmertime.com. And then after a baseball game, maybe before a baseball game, depending if you're going to a night game or day game,

fun place to check out is Octane Raceway and Mavericks. I, of course, once again, talked about the Super Mario Brothers movie earlier and I need to get back out to Octane Raceway to race people in go carts. It's a must. It's an absolute must. I feel like you you'd be the type of person to just go over there and not have anyone else with you

and just be driving around in the go carts and it's just you competing against yourself but I think you'd have a great time. I mean there are children also on the track Jesse though. Yeah no that just completes my narrative. It's you competing with all of the children. Yes absolutely. I love to just like find

you know, an open party that has one vehicle available that I can join. It's one of my favorite things to do. But this summer, there are summer passes available at Octane Raceway. Get that cart racing VR axe throwing, multiple games on axe throwing and so much more. You can buy now for the best rate. You can book your graduation parties there. And on April 30th, they're having a sole Raiders four on four VR tournament with a chance to win up to $1,000. I know some of you parents out there think your kids are wasting their time with these video games,

but just just peruse the internet for some of these video game tournaments and see how many thousands and thousands of people are in the crowd watching these things take place and see what the purse is, you know, a million dollars. Like maybe your kid doesn't need to go be a UFC fighter and get his head kicked in. Maybe he can just go play video games and have good health his entire life. I don't know. But go play video games at Mavericks. That's the point I'm trying to make here. You can book some fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. Again, all that stuff, cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing, bowling, arcade, great food and drinks and so much more.

Jesse still refuses to go ax throwing with me. But there's a ton of different events throughout the summer. Check out Octane Raceway.com and Mavericks.com to learn more. Before we go, we got to take a look at this upcoming four-game series here at Chasefield with the Padre. but first we are going to give you your first look at this year's all city division standings. Let's go, Jesse. Look at this. Half a game back from those Chicago Cubs that have been playing some pretty darn good baseball up there.

They have. They have. And I mean, they've actually scored like, I mean, their run differential is heavily positive as well. So I'm still not super bought in on the Cubs. I think they've, they've had a few more things go their way than. then I'm necessarily counting on moving forward. I think Nico Horner is sitting like 340 or something like that. That is correct.

But one Cody Bellinger looks substantially better. Yes, yes. I don't know. He went five for five the other day in a baseball game. He had a five-hit game. He's not striking out much anymore. I think his strikeout rate is under 20%, which is well below the league average.

So, yeah, if I'm the Cubs, I'm kind of excited about what I got going. I don't know if it holds up over the course of a whole. season. I still think the rotation has some issues and there's some other guys in the lineup that you're not so sure about moving forward, but they're off to a pretty darn good start. The White Sox and the Rockies are in our rearview mirror and they might be getting a little bit farther back there. The White Sox lost so they are now seven and 12. And the Rockies right now are losing 12 to one to the Pittsburgh Pirates who might also be a wagon. I don't know what's going Yeah, the pirates, man.

I don't know what. I don't know how O'Neill Cruz goes down with an injury. Somehow it's Brian Reynolds. It's all Brian Reynolds, honestly. The man has like a 1,200 OPS or something. Well, that's why teams wanted to steal him away. But speaking of stealing away, the Diamondbacks have four games with the Padres, which hopefully they can steal two, maybe take three.

I don't know. Again, this is the last big test. Getting a little greedy again. Am I? I'm just trying to get to my purple hair as fast as possible, but let's take a look at the probabilities for this series because the Padres pitching hasn't been great. They do get Joe Musgrove back, though,

and the Diamondbacks will get you Darvish as well in this series. Yeah, we talked about yesterday how the Padres have had some issues in their rotation. I also misspoke yesterday. I think I mentioned that Blake Snell has had injury issues. Not an injury issues. He just hasn't been that good. Debacks won't get Snell in the series, but they will get Michael Waka, who is their one remaining

starter who really has had some problems this year. He starts against Ryan Nelson tomorrow. And then, yeah, Seth Lugo against Sack Gallen, that should be a fun matchup. Lugo's off to a good start to the year, Musgrove and Merrill Kelly. And then you said, U. Darvish in that series finale against Ray Jameson. This is a tough series, Derek. It's a big series for the Padres, too, because they feel like they're kind of getting some reinforcements back. Joe Musgrove, Fernando Tatis, of course, will also be playing in this series. So, yeah, the Padres are off to a pretty miserable start to the season, but it's a very

talented roster that they have over there. I'm sure they're looking to get some things rolling this weekend with some of those guys coming back. This would line Mad, bum up if no changes are made to start against the Royals in the first game of that series, which we will keep that situation. We will closely monitor that situation. Might have an update tomorrow, maybe pregame. So yeah, we'll definitely keep an eye on that. Tomorrow we will be back here at 1 o'clock. So make sure to join us for that game.

And then on Sunday, we will have your post series wrap up after this Padre series. We will both be out there this weekend. I can't go to bobblehead night, Jesse, because I have to go be a pro wrestling commissioner, as you know. It's one of my side duties as being a mayor. I also have to commission pro wrestling events. But definitely make sure to make your way out to Chase Field. If you do, grab some snacks.

You can take in bottles of unopened water still, right? You can still do that at Chase Field. Yeah, I think so. Grab yourself some unopened bottles of water, fill up your tank of gas over at our friends at Circle K. Gas prices are creeping up there. But Circle K has you covered with some of the lowest prices in the valley. You can also get your 12 packs of beer there for just $9.99.

You can also get our friends at Four Peaks there. Shout out to Four Peaks as well. And of course, I am fully powered by energy drinks. Red Bulls three for $8, monsters, monsters, monsters three for $6. And the snacks. Let me tell you about the snacks. Circle K's Circle K branded snacks are vastly underrated.

We have been enjoying them around our office. And let me just tell you from the experience that I take by imbibing in these snacks quite often. I put their meat sticks up against any other meat stick that you can find at Circle K. I feel like it's more tender, it's more flavorful, it's less greasy. There's all sorts of things about it that is amazing and incredible. And the portions. The portions are insane. The portions are wild of chips, yeah.

Yeah, be warned, their chips are it's a two serving kind of a thing. It is a two serving thing for sure. If you eat an entire bag of Circle K chips, they're amazing, but. You're going to be filled up fast. For cheaper than the name brand. It's two servings for cheaper than the name brand. That's exactly it. That's exactly it.

So spread it out. You'll enjoy it on two separate occasions. It'll be that much better. They have popcorn that's cheddar and caramel mix popcorn. It's my favorite thing in the whole wide world. It's incredible. And this is all available at CircleK. So make sure to stop by.

Make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff. Head to CircleK.com slash store locator. That's CircleK.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And of course, we talked about our friends from Fort Peaks. It's Arizona's Premier Craft Brewery. You can follow them on social at Four Peaks Brew. get those beers at Circle K or wherever you get your beers and you can join us there for their NFL draft party. The PHNX Cardinals crew is going to be out there. We're going to be having a

blast. April 27th. The best place to take in the NFL draft on April 27th is with us at the Four Peaks A Street Pub. Register for free in the link in our show notes to take advantage of beer specials. They're going to have $3 redbird logger pints, which once again are okay to drink. We have cleared the Cardinal series so you can drink those again. $5 redbird logger pitchers. And of course, our usual pH and X specials of $3 Kilt Lifter Pints and Wild Pints. So it must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly.

You got anything else, Friedman? Yeah, I do think we have to at least acknowledge this comment that somebody said that wrestling reference just made me an instant fan of this pot, which I think is the first time that Derek's wrestling knowledge has ever had a positive impact on this show. Let me tell you.

You brought in a viewer, Derek. You come here for the baseball takes, but stick around for me peppering and wrestling references. Sometimes we get a little confused about which sport you come here. It's all right. That's fine. Usually it's baseball. I'm very happy for that.

And of course, we have all sorts of, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I don't feel so alone now. But we thank you guys for being here. You can follow me for more wrestling takes on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K,

Man with a K. He, him, not so much. He doesn't give you the wrestling takes, but he'll give you some great baseball takes. You can follow him at Jesse and Friedman. Damon, I don't know, what kind of takes he'll give you. But they're going to be fascinating.

Correct ones. Correct ones. Hot ones. You can get those at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. But of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-BACS, and all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports.

That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for being here today, even after a loss. Your wonderful people for joining us. And of course, we will all get through Madison, Bumgartner starts together.

Can I just ask real quick before we go? I want your prediction. What are the debacks going to do? Does he make his next start? I'm going to say he does not make his next start. He does not make his next start, especially based on on Tori Lavello's comment that we just heard recently. I was very interested to see what Tori was going to say after today's game. And I'm not surprised that he's not outright saying he's not going to. But again, Madison Bum Gardner has earned the respect to kind of, I think, go out on his own terms a bit and not like necessarily have what some of the

Or embarrassing options are going to be, so I wouldn't be surprised to see like some sort of injury or something pop up where he's going to have to be put on the aisle. But I hope that's the case because at the end of the day, I think we all want the same thing for this team, which is for them to win games, for my hair to turn purple, and for this team to contend for a world series.

Four wins in April away. There's purple there. There he is. He's adorable over there. Again, we thank you guys so much for your time on behalf of Damon, Jesse, myself. We always appreciate it. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you make the hard decisions.