PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - What CHANGES Await The Diamondbacks After Finalizing All Option Decisions?

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

JOIN THE DIEHARDS FOR JUST $4 A MONTH! https://www.gophnx.com/intro-offer-yo... It’s so hard to say goodbye, but that’s exactly what the Diamondbacks might have to do to some of their top performing free agents from 2024. Now that all option decisions have been made, we discuss the future for Joc Pederson, Randal Grichuk, and Christian Walker. Speaking of C-Walk, we also discuss him winning his third consecutive Gold Glove award, Ketel Marte being a finalist for Silver Slugger, and answers to your Mailbag Monday questions! Join Derek, Jesse, and Shane for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/coll... ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-accou... Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast..  Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.  Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.  Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: 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!  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.  Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.  Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off!  Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freedbacks. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, Christian Walker wins gold. Cattell Marte goes for the silver. And I suppose the bronze prize can go to the Arizona Diamondbacks picking up the option on Merrill Kelly for sure. We are talking about all this and more on 30 seconds. Don't go anywhere. Welcome in to Studio K presented by our friends at Circle K. It is another edition of the PHNX VEX podcast. Welcome in Friends.

My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known. As your mayor of PHNX, this man next to me is, your thunderstake and my vice mayor, Mr. Jesse Friedman. And of course, we got our guy, Eric, EZ on the ones and twos, and we love Eric. We don't get to work with them here pretty enough. This man is killing it on the Sun Show. Make sure not to miss that

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for you diehards only as well as discounts on our events. Again, great to see so many people out there this weekend at both our PH&X Cardinals' tailgate out there at Chicken and Pickle as well as the Desert duel out at the Raven between us and the CHGO, or Bears guys, excuse me, the Cubs guys are fine.

The Bears guys are over there crying and blaming things on the roof, not closing fast enough. But we are here now. We are talking about Arizona Diamondbacks baseball, and I'm very excited because all of the Diamondbacks option decisions are finalized now, Jesse. We don't have to wonder anymore who is going to get picked up and who is not going to get picked up, who's going to decline, who isn't going to decline. So we do know, though, that there was one.

crazy suggestion thrown out there by Keith Law. And that was that the Diamondbacks were not going to pick up the option on Merrill, the mainstay Kelly. And that was false because per reports, the Diamondbacks have exercised club options on Merrill Kelly, which was just $7 million and seems like an absolute steel. It seems like a bonehead move to not pick up that option. They also exercised club option for Gino Suarez at $15 million.

And they have declined their side of Scott McGuff's mutual. option for $4 million. So Scott McGuff will not be returning. Jock Peterson also declined his $14 million mutual option, as well as Randall Gritchick, declining his $6 million mutual option. Both of those are to the surprise of nobody on this set, considering we knew with the season those two individuals had that they, at the very least, we're going to try to get more money from the Diamondbacks, if not the Diamondbacks, another team.

Yeah, yeah. I don't really know why Keith thought seemed to think that Merrill Kelly would not pick up or the Diamondbacks would not pick up their option on Merrill Kelly. But yeah, all of this went, all of this went exactly as expected. As you said, with Jock and Randall, they had such good seasons that, you know, you figure that they can at least get multi-year deals on the open market, if not even more money on an annual basis as well. So, yeah, no surprises here, Derek. I guess it was kind of boring in some ways. It was.

I mean, the rumors, Jesse. were more exciting than what actually happened. The idea that Keith Law would float that out there about Merrill Kelly. Sure. There were several reports suggesting why it might be a good idea for Jordan Montgomery to not pick up his option for 2025 with the Diamondbacks, which was absolutely. Yeah, that was never going to happen.

It's so easy to sit back as a pundit or a writer and say something as, as silly as like, well, I know he would probably get like 12 million. dollars less on the open market if he did that, but it might be good for his long. Did you just hear what you said? $12 million less? Are you kidding me? Nobody's going to decline receiving $12 million less now, no matter how much it impacts their future.

And honestly, it would have been done for Montgomery to do so. What he needs is a bounce back season and he can have that with the diamond backs. He doesn't need to necessarily go somewhere, make less money, and have that bounce back season there. Yeah. I mean, or the diamondbacks could trade Jordan Montgomery. memory this offseason, which is something we discussed at one point. And in that world, you know, maybe another team is only paying him nine or 10 million dollars or whatever that is,

but the Diamondbacks are also picking up the rest of it, that the total amount of money is guaranteed. And yeah, no surprise is there that he picked up that option. So at this point, the Diamondbacks have seven free agents as we've anticipated from the beginning. Their free agents are Christian Walker, Josh Bell, Paul Seawald, Kevin Newman, Randall Gritchick, Jock Peterson, and Scott McGuff. And as of 3 p.m. Arizona time today, Derek. Free agency is officially open for business. The quiet period ends.

And all of these guys are free to sign with any of the 30 teams. Do we expect to get any free agency news right when the clock hits 3 p.m. today? 301. No. Well, we will if I go see a movie, Jesse. If I go commit my time to something that's going to be two hours plus, then I'm sure news will break shortly after I sit down and start eating my popcorn. Soto to the Diamondbacks.

Yeah. You're watching a film. Inject it in my veins. By the way, I've already been fooled by several Soto rumors. How about you so far? I don't like you people in your Twitter accounts and your ability to change names and stuff. I feel like any. We need to crack down on that.

Any Soto report that goes out in November, I think I'm just going to be, like, I am going to vet the heck out of that tweet. It needs to come from the MLB account with the gold mark, checkmark. Yeah, basically. He has to have time to talk to all 30 teams. Right. Right. So how could you get that done so fast? Lyer.

We know it's down to four teams and we all know it. But anyway, speaking of our free agents, though, I mean, I think when you look at this list, there's a few guys that I'm sure a lot of Diamondbacks fans don't want to bring back. And there's no secret there. I know a lot of people are upset with Paul Seawald. And that doesn't seem like that's something that that, that, I don't, that's not somebody the diamondbacks is going to are going to pursue scott mcuff another one that a lot of people uh kind of are miffed with based on you know his time with the diamondbacks and

again another guy that that the diamondbacks probably wouldn't go after randall gritchick jock peterson both of those guys are most likely going to be overpriced in the free agency market it's not to say that they can't bring them back but i think to honestly expect the debacks to bring back christian walker Randall Gritchick and Jock Peterson is an absolute pipe dream and isn't going to happen. Yeah, yeah, I agree. The Diamond Baxter are going to try to find a way to build an offense that is as good as the one they had in 2024, I guess to rebuild an offense. And frankly, they're probably not going to succeed.

Like, it's really hard to lead the league and run scored, you know, and score 40 more runs than the next closest team. I'm not sure if that's really a realistic outcome for the Diamondbacks in 2024. But we didn't expect that in 2024, nor did they, right? No, it's not, yeah. The Diamondbacks can still succeed in 2025, even if they don't lead the league and runs scored. My problem is after witnessing 2024 and what the Diamondbacks have gone through,

what does it matter if you lead the league and runs, right? Like, it's not to say they didn't have success. They damn near 190 games. They fell just short of the, I guess the goal that would have satisfied many of us of making the playoffs, right? But still, at the end of the day, that wasn't necessarily. the key recipe for success as much as it would be to have a competent, healthy starting pitching staff that was able to give you more than being

in the bottom four, three teams of the league. You know? Yeah, you kind of have to pitch too. That other side of it is important, Jesse. It's an unfortunate part of the game. What frustrates me is it feels like they have the pieces here. We talked about looking at some of the free agents that are available on the market,

even if the Diamondbacks had the money to go out to, spend. I don't know if they could make those moves this season because they have a fairly full roster when it comes to a lot of quality starting pitchers. We just need them to be good again, all of them. You're at a point right now where I don't even know where Ryan Nelson is going to start his season potentially or what he's going to be for this team next season based on the fact that they already have five fairly solid, most of them, fairly high paid pitchers that, you know, again, that if they're on, if they're pitching the way we know that they can and have pitched throughout their career should make this a very good pitching staff,

a top 10 pitching staff in baseball, hypothetically. Yeah, I mean, I guess Jordan Montgomery is kind of the wild card there, right? Does he look like a different guy in spring training? If he does, and then, yeah, maybe, you know, everyone's healthy and it actually is hard for Ryan Nelson to find a spot in that opening day rotation. Looking at this list of free agents, I'm trying to. to think through, like, which of them is most likely to return? I think Kevin Newman?

That's not a, yeah. But again, we got Kevin Newman kind of on a deal. And after the season he had is, I feel like his value has probably gone up substantially. And there are going to be other teams interested in him as well. Yeah, I wrote about today over at go phnx.com. I wrote about the case to bring back each of the Diamondback seven free agents as well as the case to to let them to let them walk. And yeah, I'm not sure that any of them has a super clear case to bring them back, in a sense.

Like the case to bring back Christian Walker is obvious because he's been here for six years, right? He's your guy. I guess he's been in the system even longer than six years. But he's been the Diamondbacks everyday first baseman for basically six years at this point. And he's been really, really good at it. and there's merit in retaining someone like that. You know, Archie talked about it the other day with Goldie. Like if you weren't going to pay Goldschmidt, who are you going to pay?

And that's where we're at with Christian Walker. Yeah, I don't know if Walker is quite to the same level as Goldschmidt, but it still feels like this is a guy that you really turned into one of the best first basement in the league. And obviously, it's not just the team. It's also Walker himself doing a lot of that work. But yeah, he has blossomed into one of the best players in all of baseball. And in general, you just hate to see guys like that depart in free agency. The problem is that Mike Hazen is very savvy, and there's a good chance that he could find a replacement for Walker that would be comparable. We talked about, you know, for instance, Carlos Santana's numbers the other day.

Yeah, Christian Walker. Similar, basically the same war total in 2024. And Christian Walker just won his third consecutive gold glove. Carlos Santana also won the gold glove for first base in the AL. Again, both of these awards are most likely. going to make both of these guys a little bit more expensive, but Carlos Santana could be a tremendous value in comparison to what it's going to cost to bring Christian Walker back. The problem isn't the commitment to Walker or showing that same commitment to the rest of the

team, to the rest of the roster. The problem is, is committing that much money to any single player and then still having to figure out with it being a team that has a smaller budget than the big teams, how you can manage to bring in other guys and how you can manage to still make this team better while Christian Walker is a part of it, getting. paid somewhere in the neighborhood between 60 and 70 million over three years. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Jim Bowden, his prediction was three years, $72 million. And yeah, like on one hand, throw all the money at Christian Walker.

He's, he's your guy. You don't want to see someone like that walk. Right. But on the other hand, as you said, with Santana, with Goldschmidt, in my story, I mentioned a couple of potential options on the trade market as well. Like, if you go a different route, I think there's a decent chance you can save 10 to $15 million. And so maybe the question is, like, what are you doing with that $10 to $15 million? Are you, you know, are you going out and being able to make a trade for Devin Williams that you

wouldn't make otherwise or, you know, something flashy like that? So, yeah, the case to bring back Walker is clear, but I also don't think that, you know, if the Diamondbacks decide not to bring him back, I think I can maybe understand where they're coming from, depending on exactly what else they're they're able to accomplish. I would still probably put Walker at the top of the list, though. If I'm a betting man right now, and I'm trying to pick the guy who is most likely to return to the Diamondbacks in 2025, just given Walker's history with the organization and the fact that he's still a pretty darn good player,

he's getting older, but he didn't really show it this past season. I think he's probably at the top of the list for me. If I'm guessing, I don't know why. The person I feel like is likely to come back as Josh Bell. And I think it's a little bit more likely. That's a fascinating answer. The only reason why is I bring it up is because I think, again, they could be thinking platoon, they could be thinking multiple guys.

They could just be that Josh Bell is as a decent value and bringing him back here. Really, it won't cost. Yeah, I don't think it'll cost much. He was a below replacement level player in 2024, which is kind of crazy because he was really pretty good for the diamondbacks after they acquired him. Right. So yeah, if you're looking for an affordable first base option, I mean, he definitely would be near the top of the list. He is probably, I don't know, when looking at this list, he'd probably be the one that surprised me the least, I guess, about coming back.

Josh Bell returning to the team would be something like so far it worked out for the diamondbacks. He seemed to be a good guy in the clubhouse. Everybody did seem to enjoy him. And again, yeah, like you said, I mean, his numbers weren't great, even with the diamondbacks. But there was a stretch when before they got him and then after they got him that they really needed him and he came through for this team he was big and i just think he could be part of maybe some other plan to have have a platoon in some way over there at first base who would you uh who would you be most shocked by if the diamond bucks brought them back jock peterson really jock peterson you're making a lot of people very sad by saying that i'm saying that because of the cost of jock peterson yeah and i think that i could

see Mike Hazing going out and pursuing maybe a similar Frankenstein-type monster for D.H. Like he did with Jock Peterson and Randall Gritchick. But I'm getting ahead of myself because I'm pretty sure that's one of our questions in our mailbag. I do have a question for you on Mailbag Monday, though. Lordus Guriel Jr. was the only other Diamondback that we felt besides Christian Walker, who by the way, congrats again to Sea Walk on winning that third consecutive gold glove. It feels like a formality at this point. It really, yeah. It's just saying, yeah, water is wet.

Right. Water is wet. Christian Walker wins with gold gloves. But Lourdes had pretty decent numbers compared to the other finalists in left field. And Ian Hap ends up winning it with eight defensive runs saved and minus two outs above average. Meanwhile, Gorell three defensive runs saved, three outs above average, not minus three. Three plus. Yeah, yeah.

Positive three. Yeah. A more well-rounded left fielder, if you ask me. Yeah, I was texting some people about this last night. and I was like, you know, no offense to Ian Hap, but I feel like he's one of the more mid-defenders that we've seen rattle off three straight gold gloves. And I think that's just a testament to the fact that we've talked about this before.

There just aren't a lot of great defenders playing left field these days, at least in the National League, it just feels like we haven't really had a great left-fielder in quite some time now. So, yeah, Ian Hap wins his third straight. And I don't know if the case for Gurriel is obvious. I don't really think it's egregious. You mentioned like Gurriel is a three defensive run saved compared to eight for HAP,

but then Gurriel's a positive three outs above average compared to minus two for Hap. The reality is that both of these guys are solid but not elite defenders. And so you're kind of just splitting hairs. Yeah, exactly. That's how you end up in left field. And it feels like you're just sort of splitting hairs, you know, trying to figure out which one of them should win the award. I don't think it's egregious, but maybe Major League Baseball, maybe the, you know, the managers and coaches voting.

Maybe they should have voted for Gurriel just to switch things up a little bit. But, yeah, I don't really think it's egregious. Here's one thing I will say to those people I upset by what I said about Jock just a little while ago. I didn't think Lordus Guriel was back. I didn't think he was going to come back to this team in a million years. I did not think so. That was a huge shock and he tried out free agency and still came back and signed with the Diamond So I'm not saying it's out of question for any of these guys to come back.

I think they all probably want to go see what their value is and what the actual offers are going to be. You can hear about interest in you as a player all you want, but until an actual offer is presented, you really don't know what the market for you is. So I understand them doing it, especially after the year that Gritchick and Peterson both had. But maybe the Diamondbacks find a way to bring those guys back. In regards to awards, though, Diamondbacks did have a single finalist for the Silver Slugger Award, which seems odd considering the season that this team had. Yeah, you lead the league in runs.

You got one finalist for Silver Slugger. It's Cotel Marte, of course. And Cotel Marte was incredible this year. Offensively, no surprises there. Slash 2.92, 372, 560 with a 932 OPS, 36 dingers, and 95 ribbies. He is a finalist alongside Luis Garcia Jr. and Jonathan, India. It seems like kind of a slam dunk there that he's going to win this one. I mean, no offense to Luis Garcia Jr. or Jonathan,

but what is happening here? I think that those names illustrate how much of an asset Catelele-Marté is for the Diamondbacks, right? You look at second baseman across the league, especially in the National League. There is no one in the same stratosphere as Cotel-Marty offensively. This is a guy who is an MVP candidate. And yeah, like Luis Garcia, Jr., and Jonathan Nidia, they both had solid years. You know, they both were above

above league average hitters, but not by all that much, right? Like, I don't think anyone's viewing either of those guys as any kind of a middle of the lineup order or top of the lineup type of a guy. So, yeah, Cotel Marte, this award, this award is not going to be announced until November the 12th, I believe. But we here at P.HNXD. Baxar

announcing the winner right now. Cotel Marte, Silver Slugger Award winner. There you go. We'll make a graphic. and throw it out there. We won't even wait for the actual announcement. Yeah, we should, we should just announce.

We should make our own formal announcement at this point. That would be such a power move. We'll have a page. Well, it'll be patentry. I'll dress up. I'll wear a tie. It'll be great. Any snubs on the dial-backs, like we said.

I mean, with having the highest scoring offense in baseball, it seems like there is going to be snubs if he is the only guy. Like, Marte was good, and he was the consistent force driving this offense at times. But he wasn't the only guy doing it. Yeah. Now, I know Christian Walker immediately is the first person I think of, but Walk did miss time. So I can understand maybe how that impacted him over there at first base. Yeah, I don't.

I mean, I think before I say anything else, I just think it's sort of funny to be like debating Silver Slugger finalist snubs. Like we're really like deep in the off season at this point having these conversations. Let's talk about Gino that, Jesse, shall we? Let's talk about the guy that had the most home runs, right? of any third baseman not getting it, the guy that had a higher RBI output than almost every guy on here besides Manny Machado. Like, Machado is going to win this. There's no doubt in my mind that Machado is going to win the third, the silver slugger for

third base. But Gino put up pretty comparable numbers. Again, he beat them all in home runs. Machado 29 home runs. Matt Chapman 27, bomb 15. Gino 30. 101 RBI for Gino, 115 WRC plus. I mean, I guess that overall is where you kind of see that he's, you know, more equal to Alec Bohm.

But besides that, I mean, when you're talking about Silver Slugger and numbers, I don't know. Gino was incredible. And he also did it like on half a season. It was basically like he was injured until July. Yeah. Basically. I mean, they don't call it the silver gap power hitter, Derek. Yeah, they don't call it the Silver Blup Award, right?

Yeah, right, right. And I guess by saying that, I'm, I'm sort of half taking a shot at Alec Bohm, who's more of a doubles guy than a home runs guy, right? He had 15 home runs in 2024, compared to 30. I could get 907 RBI in that offense. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Bones like, he's like hitting cleanup, right, behind Turner and Harper and Schwerper. At any of us could have had 100 Rivies.

No. I think he underperforms my brain. I think that, Gino, there's a pretty good case to be made. Gino should have been among the three finalists for the Silver Slugger, probably over Alec Bome. You know, Matt Chapman hit 27 homers, had a 121 WRC plus. You have to factor in the, you know, the environment in San Francisco. And once you factor that in, I think Chapman had a better season than Gino did. But yeah, between Alec Bome and Gino, you mentioned it, they both had a 115 WRC plus.

And, you know, give me the guy who hits bombs, right? Give me the guy with 30 homers over the guy who hit 15. So I think there's a, I think there's a decent case to be made that Gino should have been a finalist. Probably not that he should have won. I think Manny Machado is going to win this award, as you said, and I think he'll deserve it too. And he probably would have won it even if Gino was a finalist. But damn it, representation, I guess. Is what I want.

Yeah, right. I just want to, I just want me to be there at the gala. You know what I mean? I mean, they had a lot of finalists for gold glove. That's for sure. sure did and only one of them won. We saw how that turned out. Well, on the other side of this break, you know what day it is and you know what we do.

So make sure you don't go anywhere. But we will have some more on not only this Diamond Beck's team, but your mailbag Monday questions. So please stay put. We'll be right back. Of course, chicks do dig the long ball and Jesse. Chicks also dig Blue Chew. Blue Chew is an online service that delivers the same act of ingredients as Viagra, Seattle, and Lovitra, but at a fraction of the cost and in a chewable form.

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Or head to Heel River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what the next level is all about. you do you at Heela river resorts and casinos, visit playatheela.com for more details, and we will be there hosting our Cardinals and Sun's watch parties all season long. So stay tuned for more information on how to come hang out with us. All right. Well, like I said, it's Monday, right? And we know what day it is. We know what we do on Monday.

We know that every year on Monday is our year. We know that every month on this podcast is Hispanic Heritage Month. We know every week on this podcast is Shark Week, every day. Of course, Earth Day. But on Mondays, we go to the mailbag. Can we go to the mailbag, Eric? Let's go. No.

All right, well, music's the best part anymore, right? That's all we really care about. All right. Well, thank you, Meggerand, of course, for our Mailbag Monday song, as always. And what do we have in the mailbag? Eric, what do we got today? Oh, am I reading these? Yes, sir.

All right, from Travis Moore. If Ryan Nelson is not in the rotation to start the year, what is his role at the beginning of the season? I have a soft spot for Nellie since I was at his MLB debut, and it sucks that it seems like he won't be in the rotation, even though he should be based on performance in 2024. That last part is really the key, I think. I mean, it sucks that there are basically people blocking Ryan Nelson in a starting rotation where at times he was far in a way the best pitcher in that starting rotation. he's been called upon whenever needed and then kind of discarded when everybody was healthy. And I don't know. Like I just said that to Jesse in our first segment.

I sincerely don't know what his place on this team is going to be. And it's the reason why I almost feel like a starting pitcher trade has to happen maybe for this team at some point. Like it just it could. It just feels like it. However, you know, not Ryan Nelson. I don't want Ryan Nelson to be the guy that gets traded. I was just going to say he's sort of your cell high guy right now. That's true.

That's true. What do we, if we get more of that this year, though, like if he comes out and shubs, are we even considering that based on the fact that we know we're going to lose Montgomery, Gallen and Kelly at the end of the season? Yeah, yeah. That is all very interesting questions. My gut feeling is that Ryan Nelson will be on the major league roster to start the 2020. five season. Of course, anything could happen, you know, if he comes out in spring training and

doesn't look right or whatever. It's not like he has years and years of experience as a really solid pitcher in the majors. But he was really good for the Diamondbacks in the second half. He was their best starting pitcher at times during the middle of the season. And I think that if he is not on your opening day roster as a starter, I think you maybe take a serious look at having him in the bullpen where I think he could be a real asset for this team. That's what the diamondbacks were planning to do at the end of the season. If they had made the playoffs, I think we would have seen Ryan Nelson pitching maybe some fairly high leverage innings for them in the postseason. I think they thought highly enough of him to put him in that role. And he absolutely earned that, right? I mean,

he outpitched Brandon fought in 2024. I don't think that's something any of us expected. And, you know, he outpitched Eduardo Rodriguez. He outpitched Merrill Cal. Kelly in a sense just because he was available and Merrill Kelly wasn't, right? So I think that Ryan Nelson will probably find his way on the opening day roster. I think he'll probably find his way in the opening day rotation, frankly. But yeah, we'll have to, we'll have to see how things play out. I agree with everything you said. And I think that the only concern is that, you know, I feel like Ryan Nelson is potentially, you know, a future starter.

and I don't want to see him move into that, you know, relief role, starter role when we need you back to relief. Like, I just, I don't know. So, like, I just, I do think Ryan Nelson is very important part of the future of this team. Yeah. All right. What else we got? All right.

We got from Brett Lee Johnson. Do you want the debacks to run it back with the platoon DH in 2025? Or would you prefer they focus on a single DH that can handle hitting both right-handed and left-handed pitchers. I just don't know if they have the budget to do it again. If you were to ask me my preference, I thought this worked out really, really well. And the way that Tori manages, I thought it complimented his managerial style. The real Tori Lubello, not the fake-ass video game one that absolutely keeps putting Slade

Sikoni in in these playoff games that we're watching. If you haven't seen any of our PHNX plays episodes. Go check them out. I mean, I was going to say I recommend it, but maybe I don't. Maybe I don't. I don't know. If you want to see a starting pitcher for the. the Phillies throw 140 plus starting pitches, go check that out.

Actually, see, we had to go through it. You should have to, too. But I don't know. Like I said, I think it complimented his style. I just don't know if they have the budget to do so. Like, that seems more of like when you had the ability to go out and get guys like Ritchick, like Peterson, that kind of be recognized as being maybe available for a value. And you brought both of them in. Like, hey, we were going to spend, you know, we were going to spend $15 million anyway on a D.H.

can get these two guys at close to that that seems like a pretty good idea it worked out well so like yes i do like that and i would want them to return to that i just don't think that with the you know again the tighter budget and the the you know obviously the money that they're already committed to for this season i just don't know if all the flexibility to do that yeah it'll be interesting interesting to see i mean i think generally speaking it's harder to make the dh slot work when you have one guy doing it there aren't that many singular players that, you know, are not like stars who play actual defensive positions that you could slot into a role like that, right? And we're just one season removed from Tori essentially just putting position players

that had the day off in that. Yeah, right. I mean, that's how the Diamondbacks have generally used it. This is really the first season where they've taken this approach of trying to fill that spot and being like, yeah, Jock Peterson is going to get like 400 played appearances for us. in the DH slot. That is something I asked about during exit interviews. You know,

Mike talked about how much he loved getting the production that he did from the DH slot, you know, from Jack Peterson and Randall Gritchick. But he didn't really have an answer, understandably, about whether the Diamondbacks will try to fill that spot for 2025 or whether they'll just use it as kind of a revolving door of other guys.

So, but yeah, in terms of like the platoon versus just one player, I think it's really hard to have one player. Like what one player is going to be able to fill that role in anywhere close to the capacity that Jock Peterson and Randall Grishick did this past season? I actually think it could be more expensive to find one player to do that than to kind of piece meal it together with a couple of guys in house. Maybe Pavin Smith take some of those opportunities against righties. I was going to say, yeah, you're just finding someone against lefties.

Yeah, you have guys in house that could essentially split it with someone that you bring on. I'm just saying like in general, yeah, that's nice, but that's something that rich teams have, Jesse. We might not be a rich team anymore, okay? We might be back to middle class team as far as our spending is concerned. I don't know if their spending made them a rich team in 2024. They were basically exactly average, like right in the middle and in terms of payroll, whereas they've usually been in like, like, you know, 20th, 21st, something like that. Some people get to eat steak every single night.

Sometimes people that eat McDonald's all the time just have steak on. Friday and it makes it feel rich. Okay, let's calm down with where. Remember where we are. Remember what airplane hanger we play in across the street. So let's calm it down. All right. What else we got over there, easy? This one comes from our girl, Chris. That's right. What are three most important coaching positions, not including manager? God, that's a great, great question. Incredible question. I don't even know where to start with that. I would say bench coach seems very, very important to me based on all the things that Tori says about Jeff Bannister, right? Like Tori second guesses himself.

Tori has a lot of, right, like he has a lot of times where he openly says he refers to Bannister and counsels with him right there in the dugout in a split second just to try to get, you know, a good grasp on the situation. We also know he's the one that kind of takes care of a lot of things for Tori overall that allows him to focus primarily on the game. But I don't know. It just seems very important, even though it's like kind of like a, like a like a sidekick to the manager yeah this is a this is a really tough one i mean like

first base coach and third base coach in terms of what they're doing on the field it's like all all right well the third base coach is you know telling people when they should try to score uh is the rounding third and the first base coach is like helping them run the bases and whatnot those those tasks don't feel all that important right but then yeah you realize like oh well dave mackay is like highly revered is one of the best outfield coaches in the league and Tony Paris Chica very well regarded with infielders right Dave McKay is this base running genius that's the you know the reason the Diamondbacks have been so efficient on the base paths in recent years um yeah I mean a bench coach is definitely valuable

too like Jeff Bannister uh was very heavily involved in in controlling the run game uh that was sort of his job uh at least at least this past season it's not like bench coaches are are just there as advisors They're also like, you know, they're actually doing things throughout the game as well, giving instructions and whatnot. Hitting coach, pitching coach, like those feel really important too. Pitching coach feels very important because especially when, again, LaVallo has described in the past, like all of the things that Brent Strom took care of. And all of the information that Brent was responsible for, right? Like it seems like a lot. and we know pitching is very important when it comes, you know, comes down to it.

I just, I don't like, I don't know, like, how much do you, because I don't know if we've ever really gotten your take on this. How much do you really blame a pitching coach when the staff has the season, the Diamondbacks at? Yeah, it's really, it's really hard to answer that, right? We don't really know, like, I don't think it's fair to say that it's Brentstrom's fault that the Diamondbacks were, you know, bottom five pitching staff or whatever it was in in 2024. He had some role for sure. I don't think he has no responsibility, but it often feels

like hitting and pitching coaches are just like they're revered when their teams play well in those respects, and then they're the fall guys when they don't. And it's hard to really be like, oh, yes, this team is good at hitting because of this hitting coach. Yeah, it's very, very hard to really decipher any of that. Joe Mather only gets brought up one time. Times are bad. Yeah, yeah. Like the inconsistencies, right? When you're like, man, this team goes cold one game and then hits 20, you know, scores 20 runs the next day. It's got to be the hitting coach's fault.

You know what I mean? Yeah, we definitely fielded questions about like, is it time for the Diamondbacks to move on from Joe Mather during the 20th season in which they led the league and runs scored by more than 40, right? Yeah. So, yeah, it's really hard to know from the outside how much impact these guys really have. I really don't know how to answer this, Derek. No, I'm going to make you pick your three first. I think honestly, I brought up the bench coach, right? I think pitching coach to me strikes me as very important,

considering that that's like a complete staff that he kind of oversees and how important pitching is to winning baseball games. And then as the third, I don't, like third base coach. And I guess third base, again, the only reason why I'm saying that is based on what I know Tony Pierce-Chika's role was with the infielders and, you know, and again, how critical their actions are during a game, right? Like, during the course of a game, they, what, what they decide to do in a moment can impact the game more than maybe any other coach on the field.

Yeah, I think I, I think I'm going to say first base coach and third base coach, uh, because yeah, we've seen, I mean, Dave McKay has as much impact as far as we can tell is just about any coach in baseball. He has really opened my eyes to how much impact someone in that role can have. I guess are we assuming that manager is not a part of this? Yeah, she said, Chris said not manager. Okay.

So I'm going to go. Obviously, he's fairly important overall. Yeah, the manager would have to be a gimmy. But okay, so I'm going to go first base coach, third base coach, because of, yeah, all the work that they're doing with the infielders and outfielders, what the first base coach is doing with base running. And then I think I'm also going to say pitching. coach. And I don't feel

super strongly that like the pitching coach is way more important than the hitting coach but it feels to me like with pitching there's just more variables like changing up guys, you know, pitch grips changing up which pitches they're throwing how often.

Which side of the rubber they pitch from? Mechanically like there's tons of stuff on the hitting side that I know you can get into also but it just seems like there's maybe more variables on the pitching side. And I I think if you ask any baseball GM, like what's more important in general, pitching or hitting, they're probably going to say pitching.

That's sort of what seems to run the game. So those would be my three. All right. Well, we will get back to some more Mailbag Monday questions here in a moment. I did want to thank all of you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Hit that notifications button. That way you don't miss whenever we go live.

And of course, hit that like button before you get out here. We appreciate it so much. We also appreciate your reviews on the audio podcasting side. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite audio podcasting app. Leave us a review. We appreciate you guys always giving us that feedback and helping make this show better. On the other side of this break, we'll get to some more mailbag Monday questions, including possibly my favorite one, which is which team would win if they all just gotten a big fist fight.

So we will get to that in a second. Don't go anywhere. Of course, if you need to elevate your brand, you can do so with branded bills. We love branded bills. They are a local company from right here in Mesa, Arizona, and they make a quality, they make quality headwear and apparel. And of course, whether you need snapbacks, truckers, fitted hats, it doesn't matter, they have you covered with custom gear for your brand that will help it stand apart from the crowd. They have partnerships with ASU and U of A as part of their campus collection. And again, they're making some gear for the PHNX crew, as well as they always have some great seasonal stuff.

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Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Again, thank you to DFCU for making sure our numbers on the count are always correct. And we will need them to come check maybe some Arizona Fall League numbers here soon. Yeah, their fact checkers are ruthless. They are. They are on top of everything over there. So, all right. Well, we got some more questions.

but it looks like Eric's getting a little tired. So we need a pitching change. Let's bring Shane in. Hey. Hey, there we go. Shane, he couldn't handle the questions. So,

I mean, he was actually texting me. He said, I'm getting way more fatigued than I thought. Yeah, he's laboring. He actually said, I'm not built for this.

Yeah. And so he. Well, it's not, it's not his fault. We honestly didn't build his arm up enough. Yeah, he wasn't stretched out. Yeah,

he wasn't stretched out. Well, you know, what happened was, we called in a relief pitcher in a starting role. Yeah. It was like a bullpenny start. He's a new thing to do, right?

Yeah, yeah, he's an opener. Now you're like our opener. He was an opener and we made him go like five in. And now he's just staring at us through the door. And he looks very sad. But what I'm saying is, let's get it right. He was, he did his job. He did his job.

Sure, he didn't give up any runs. We appreciate that. Like, they might have gotten messy at times, but he didn't give up any runs. All right, what do we got, Shane, for our next question? We are, we are, cogs. Yeah, four, number four. Ooh, King State Cog. So Cogs asked, what is ADC's role on the 2025 Diamondbacks?

Again, a great question. This kind of goes right there, Jesse, with, I don't know, Ryan Nelson's role. Like, ADC had some success last year. He also had some failures. So I don't know if the Diamondbacks are ready to go to him consistently, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get the call in 2025, considering not only his experience, but, I mean, he really did help this team win games when he was up here. Yeah, I think the Diamondbacks would be.

would love to see him really blossom defensively behind the plate. I think that's the, that was the biggest obstacle, right? There was no question toward the end of the season when the diamond back sent him down. You'd rather have Adrian Del Castillo at the plate than Jose Herrera, right? That was pretty clear. But the diamond backs really value defense. And when Adrian Del Castillo was behind the plate, it was pretty rough at times.

And frankly, it was kind of rough when Jose Herrera was behind the plate at times as well, at least in terms of controlling the run game. So, well, even even Gabby wasn't himself. Gabby wasn't as good in 2024 as he was in 2023 behind the plate. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was, he was above average in that regard, but not, not elite to the extent that we saw in in 2020. So yeah, I think it starts with catching. Like, he's going to come into spring training and try to show that he's made even, even more strides in that regard. But the bat has always been the carrying tool for him. For sure. And I do think that there's a world where going back to the DH conversation,

where maybe Adrian Del Castillo gets some DH opportunity. If he continues to show that he can hit at the big league level and the Diamondbacks don't have, you know, a Jock Peterson hitting in the, you know, sitting in the three hole every day, then I could absolutely see that being a viable option for them. I don't think that's like a guarantee. I know we've gotten asked about that in the past as well. Like you look at some of the underlying metrics with Del Castillo.

I do think he outperformed some of the underlying numbers quite a bit. His strikeout rate was pretty high. He definitely came back down to Earth, too, after having a really hot start. Like a lot of young guys do when they come up and are called up to the main roster. Like, they just, they'd give us these glimpses of greatness. And some of them maintain it. And some kind of come back to being more of an average player, which isn't a surprise. I think it's more surprising that they come up and have the hot start that they do as a first time.

Unbelievable. He had a walk-off home or against Jeff Hoffman and what, like, his second thing. I did a money ball video, Jesse. I put the money ball music. Right, right. You did. I remember that. That's crazy.

In the first season, you got a money ball video? That's insane. Well, we have another question from Groundhog Mama who goes, kind of coincides with this one. What do we got, Shane? Which current minor leaguers do you expect to have an impact on this year, on the next year's team? I think ADC is one of those guys. I think anybody that we saw last year get called up and get time, Jill Burr Diaz, ADC, I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of other guys.

I know we've had a chance to see some. of the minor leaguers and fall league look really good. We're going to get around to some updates later, but Tommy Troy has been hitting the ball really well. I don't expect to see him this year, but I'm just saying like, it's hard not to get excited about these guys in Arizona Fall League that we're seeing with our own eyes

and not expect to have like someone like, you know, again, just Yumen Lynn, bad Jimmy, make an impact next year or maybe get called up, have some time on the main roster. At this point, though, like I'd really lean towards those guys like ADC and Dias that again came up and showed that they can play at a major league level and the Diamondbacks would trust them to come up and do it again next year. Yeah, I'm definitely with you on. I'm thinking mainly of the guys we've already seen

debut in the majors but maybe weren't on the major league roster toward the end of the season. So yeah, I guess like Christian Mena would be another guy that I would add to that list is someone we caught a glimpse of. He made one start in the majors. It did not go well. You wound up getting getting hurt down the stretch unfortunately i think he'll be back for 2025 though uh in terms of guys we haven't seen i was gonna say jordan laller we don't talk about him much but jorne lawler probably number one at that list yeah yeah goodness gracious it's egregious we didn't mention jordan lawler's i was too busy going on the guys that played this year but again jordan luller i'm like thinking of relievers in double a we haven't even mentioned jordan luller yet so uh yeah

in terms of guys that we haven't seen in the majors yet um i think there's a world where Gino Groover maybe finds his way to the big leagues in 2025. I don't think it's a given, but his hit tool is really impressive. He's hitting 354 and the fall league right now. We're going to talk about him a little bit more later. He reached AA toward the end of the season and is probably going to start there next year. I think there's a path for him to be in the big leagues at the end of the year. And then, yeah, I guess as far as as relief pitchers go, we've talked about Kyle Ament, who's in the fall league, pitching pretty well, you know, reach AAA toward the end of the season. He's another name that would come to mind.

I also think we're forgetting the obvious thing. Mike has, Mike Hazen and DePoto are on the phone right now. That's right. Yeah. If I were a DeVax fan, I would just look at the Mariners minor league roster. Top five prospect. Just check it out. Maybe top ten?

They're going to get Ryan Bliss back. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ryan Bliss will come back. They'll just send you Harry Ford for a pack of peanuts and call out of day. Oh, I'm down. I'm down.

All right. Well, else we got you in. All right. Next up, question from Michael asking you can only choose one Jedi Mind Trick Christian Walker

into staying or fixing the AC at Chase. I don't like this one. Is this the only opportunity to fix the air conditioning of chase? If we don't do it now, it never, it just continues to get worse.

Are we talking about a low market value for Christian Walker? Are we saying like 15, million dollars three years or is this like a real offer no i mean he's he said trick so jettine mind tricking okay i mean you don't jenni mine trick somebody into a good deal yeah you're right so is he is he like taking the qualifying offer or or is he resigning on a multi-year deal for like three million a year or something he's just taking but no deferring money he's just taking less it's like it's cool i don't need 20 million i'll take three bucks uh that's hard because i feel selfish here the the a c situation is is more about me

working in that building. Just bring a pocket fan, Derek. Okay. I actually, I would make that sacrifice. You convinced me I'm going Jedi mind trick for Christian Walker. Yeah, I think that I think that. What about how the AC impacts the pitching staff though? I can think of two guys right now that might pitch better with the AC working properly.

Because right now, like those are kind of, those are still isolated incidents, right? But I'm trying to picture in like 277s when it's like actually 107 degrees inside Chase Fields. Jesse, by then it's going to be 140 degrees outside with the way

that this whole climate change I was going to say Jesse about that's going to be multiple solar flares a day the Wi-Fi is going to cut out

the air conditioning wouldn't work anyway. Well, no, you would need super AC. Yeah, you know what? Okay.

They're working on it right now. I just got off the phone with a couple of the do we get the global life field AC. I want the global life field AC. So bad, Jesse.

All right. They have a solid. I think you guys just change when your sport plays for for, for that's a good idea too.

No, I like having the holidays off. Everybody plays 160, well, sorry. Everybody plays 162 games normally, and then everybody has to play the D-backs in, you know, like December. Yes, now we're talking.

Roof open all the time. It'll be great. It'll be great. All right, what else we got? The playoff race has been decided except for the D-backs with zero and we'll see what happens. All right, coming up next,

we got a question from Kevin asking if you had to pick an international series to start the season for the Diamondbacks, where would you pick and which opponent? And you were going to cover it, is the caveat, of course. So I basically am just supposed to pick wherever I want to go on vacation most. And the implications of who is going to play them.

Like, there could be some fun tie-ins. Yeah, this one was tough for me when I was thinking about it. My first thought was Australia, but the Diamondbacks have done that before, and it did not go very well. I know. We did you survive in Australia, Jesse? There's a lot of things I could kill you.

That's true. That's true. The drop bears alone will get them. I think for a trip of that magnitude, I think Derek would come with me. And I think he would protect me. I think he would be drunk on a beach somewhere. I'm not going to do any of those things. That's probably true.

Australia is very appealing. I honestly, like my honest to God feeling is like Japan. Like I would love to go to Japan. I would love to go to Japan because they revere baseball in a way. No other culture in the entire world loves baseball. And I would just love it because it's an incredible it's an incredible place. That's the right answer. The right answer is the Dodgers in Japan.

Yeah. Like that would be awesome. Which is literally just happening in 2025. Yeah. The Dodgers and Cubs are opening in Tokyo if I'm not mistaken. That's pretty amazing. You take that spot. I want that spot.

Yeah. I mean, do you want to see Shoda or do you want to see, oh, I don't know, Zach Galen? Yeah. He's a Japanese icon. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Merrill Kelly from Korea?

They love milk tea. over there. The milk man. The male. Here you go. He gets it. Here you go. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, the diamondbacks wouldn't have, they wouldn't have any, any obvious tie-ins in terms of their own players there. They would if they get Rogi Sasaki. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Bring him in. There you go play a game in Taiwan for you, men. That's exactly what I was just going to say, Shane.

I'm sorry for. Oh, exactly. Yeah, you're just stealing my thumb. Give me Eric again. Yeah, so that would be cool, right? Like, I don't believe that Major League Baseball has ever played a game in Taiwan, at least not a, at least not like a regular season game accounted for anything. And according to Umin Lin himself, baseball is the most popular sport there.

And there are tons of people who love to play it. And, you know, there are obviously challenges in finding your way to the majors. There aren't a ton of players that we've seen emerge from Taiwan over the years. But yeah, it's a place that absolutely loves baseball and I think would totally value something like that. All right. Well, we got a few more questions before we wrap up. So, of course, please don't go anywhere. And of course, still some fall league chatter from this guy.

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And we have had a tremendous amount of fun with all of you. I was out at, I feel like my work never ends, but my job is also pretty fun. So I get to go golfing and I get to go hang out at tailgates. And I get to tell my mom that I'm working all that time. So, of course, you should join us for some of our really fun events, including our PHNX Trivia Night at Chicken and Pickle and Glendale on November 7th at 630 p.m. Go register right now. It is free. You can register your team up to four people.

If you don't have four people, just bring two of you. Make sure you have big brains with you. and no Arizona sports, and you can come win some fun prizes. We will have PHNX and Chicken and Pickle prizes for the top teams, and you can register now at go phtonx.com slash events. We will also be having our winter pickleball tournament in December at Chicken and Pickle on December 14th. So we have doubled the field since our first tournament.

We will have 48 teams this year. So if you think you can come and beat those teams, all skill levels are welcome. We'll have PHNX prizes, food and drink specials, and so much more. The proceeds on this will be going to Operation Santa Claus, so make sure to join us for a fun time and getting back to a great cause. All right, Jesse. Well, we have Fall League time.

It is time for some Fall League updates. I know we're closing in on the Fall Stars game, which is coming up soon. We will be at that. They're also having their home run derby the night before. Yeah. And then, of course, the championship, not too far away. I believe that's on November 16th.

If you haven't had a chance to get out and watch an AFL game, I'm telling you once you do, if you are a baseball lover, you will fall in love all over again, I think, with the game of baseball out at a fall league game. Yeah, well, real quick, Groundhog Mama makes a fantastic point, which is that Corbyn Carroll's mom was born in Taiwan. And I think we've just figured it out. That just furthers the Taiwan case. We call Jimmy up. We make this a whole thing. Yeah.

Go to Taiwan. All right. Absolutely. And we'll be there. Of course, covering from somewhere. I don't know. I hope they have good Wi-Fi. The food is probably spectacular.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah, Fall League, I guess starting with Yumen Lin, he is actually not pitching in the Fall League anymore. He went back to Taiwan, is my understanding. And Believe is about to have a child. Congratulations to him and his wife. And then also, I think he's filling some sort of military obligation that he has to fulfill at some point as well.

So he's taking care of some of that stuff. He is no longer at the fall league. So unfortunately, if you have not seen you, Minlin pitch yet, it's a little bit too late. Yeah, spring training will be here in just a few months. Yeah, in terms of guys who are still out there, Tommy Troy is the biggest story right now. He started the fall league one for 25 and has gone 20 for 40 since then. Is that right?

and is now slashing 323 408 538 in the fall league he hit a monstrous home run out at saw river fields the other day and I haven't seen any fall stars lineups or anything yet but I have to believe that Tommy Troy will be participating in that game so he so he had a slow start and then he became a god at baseball sounds like a few guys on the Diamondbacks team this year Gino and Corbyn yeah no Tommy Troy a lot of fun to watch Christian Robinson also again at great

great story who has been absolutely killing it out of fall league he's hitting 320 414 460 with seven stolen bases we said he slimed down we said he looked very athletic but man he's really showing it out there yeah christian robinson logged a 31 feet per second sprint speed at one point which i think is the highest of any fall league player uh in in the fall league this season so yeah he is very very fast Christian Robinson can still run. And yeah, as you said, the numbers are looking pretty good for him offensively, sitting 320 now with an OPS up over, approaching 900. And maybe the most encouraging thing for Robinson is that the strikeouts have tick down.

His strikeout rate in the fall league is 25.9%. It was up over 35% in AA this year. So that's a really significant drop. Well, for those of you watching on TV, make sure to come join us over at go phtnx.com. We have a little more to discuss here about the Arizona Fall League. But as always, we love you guys joining us and stopping by. Jesse, I'm a little concerned because I heard Gino Groover got injured. Do you know to the extent of the injury and what happened?

Yeah, yeah, Gino Groover, he was hit by a pitch in his first at bat on Friday. He also swung at the pitch, and I think it got both bat and him. So it was, yeah, it was officially ruled a foul ball. But yeah, it looked like it caught him on the right hand wrist area. Gino, of course, missed several months with a broken left wrist during the season. So fortunately, it is not that wrist. It is on the other side. But I was told this is just a contusion and that it should be manageable.

And Groover should be back in the lineup for the Salt River Rafters at some point this week. So nothing alarming there. We mentioned earlier, Gino is hitting 354. were in the fall league. There hasn't been a ton of slug. He has not hit a home run. Just one of his 17 extra, or one of his 17 hits were for extra bases,

that thing, a double. But nonetheless, at this stage in his career, you love to see the bat to ball still skills coming out. And he has absolutely done that so far. One name that a lot of people might not know is from the Hillsborough hops pitcher Alfred.

I think it's Morillo, because that's how I say my last name, with the 2L thing, but it might be Marilla. But Alfred Morillo has a 2.57 ERA with two walks and 11 strikeouts in seven innings. And again, just a guy that's actually been putting up fairly good numbers, put up some pretty good numbers in 2024 for Dillsborough Hopps with a 2.41 ERA and 37 in the third innings pitched. Yeah, yeah, someone that we haven't necessarily heard a ton about. But the numbers in the fall league are really impressive.

I haven't unfortunately been able to see him pitch myself. so I can't speak to exactly what's working for him. I think he's a fastball slider guy, but those numbers are really impressive. We also mentioned Kyle Ament earlier, whose numbers in the fall league are not quite as pristine as you hope for as ERA is up over four, but he's still racking up strikeouts,

and we've talked about him on a past show. He has like a Josh Colemanter sort of arm slot very much over the top. Kind of fun to watch a little different than what you're used to seeing. So yeah, he's another guy to keep an eye on is someone who really could contribute to the Diamondbacks in 2025.

Justin McDeermont brings up a great point. And I think you and I probably had our own little concerns. Like you don't want to be too drastic over an Arizona fall league appearance or season, right? But yeah, when he started his season going one for 25, I think a lot of people had some concerns about Tommy Troy. And luckily he has turned things around in a very significant. way and I mean again like we know

the fielding solid but for him to have gone 20 for 40 in his last or 20 hits in his last 40 at bat so it's pretty impressive yeah and yeah I think he's like reasonably good defensively but he is a second baseman now I don't think the diamond backs are really planning on running

him out there at shortstop so that puts more pressure on the bat right to really carry his value as a player and there were reasons to question that. He had a pretty rough season in high A. He got hurt early on.

He came back. He did not look the same. Sort of righted the ship at the end and looked very lost at the play early on in the fall league and somehow has turned things around and has, you know, his numbers are among the most impressive in the entire league at this point. So really encouraging signs on that front. Could see some rafters in that fall stars game. So again, make sure if you haven't gone out to an NFL game that that maybe has

is a great one to choose. They'll be out at Sloan Park. The home run derby will also be at Sloan Park. I believe that is this upcoming Friday and then the following Saturday, correct? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that's a great game to choose to go to. You get to see all the guys, especially the home run derby. We were out there. I don't think we were out there last year because we were kind of still in World Series mode a little bit.

Yeah, we were recovering at that point. But previous season, we had a lot of fun out there at the fall at the Fall Stars home run derby. So again, encourage you if you are a fan here in the, the valley to go check that out. And of course, root for these young players who we won't be too long until we see them impacting the Diamondbacks Major League roster. What we do thank you guys so much for joining us. We will be back tomorrow with another 1 p.m. show. Make sure to join us then. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse, this wild man next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, Shane Deef is on the ones and twos.

And that was also Eric Ruby on the ones and twos earlier, who we had to, unfortunately. You know again it was a it was an opener situation. Hey, it wasn't unfortunate. It was an There was nothing unfortunate about that he did his job. He was asked to pitch a little longer than he needed to and he might have trailed off me. That's okay. He did. He did. Okay. Shane came in here and cleaned it up. What do you think what happened of Paul Cuell at a go five? Not good things. Not good things. Luckily we didn't have to see that We never have to see. I think his arm might fall off at that point. I don't know how good Eric did that. Yeah. Put that in perspective with the two pitch selection that he had. He did an awesome job. Yeah, he's a two pitch guy who in five minutes.

Real quick. What, what, what, what, what, what, what,

what, what's, uh, a slider for sure. That's a fastball slider. No, I don't,

I don't, I don't know if he has a fast fall. Wow. I think he's just like, he's, he's someone like slider curve like,

all he can do is just stop speed stuff. Yeah, he's just park and all he can do is spin the ball and, uh, he's pretty damn good at it.

He's built a career on it. Yeah, he's got like a, like a kind of a funky, uh, arm slot going and yeah he hides the ball really well guy just can't pick it up so uh well of course our show is at phnx underscore debacks but all roads do lead to at p h and x underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we appreciate you guys of course so much for stopping by we will see you tomorrow

grand how mama's a sweeper there's no way he's throwing a sweeper he throws both a slider and a sweeper that's perfect that's perfect uh well again we thank you guys so much for stopping by we will see you Tomorrow. Oh. And a fork ball. Oh, wow. We need a knuckle ball. And somehow a riser.

Oh, what? Yeah, in baseball. He defies gravity. We need to take a look at his baseball sabat page. I got to see these numbers. I got to see these numbers. But, hey, we thank you guys again for your time. We hope you have a wonderful evening and behave yourselves.

Okay. And we'll see tomorrow. Until then, remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you use an opener.