PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Who are the greatest Arizona Diamondbacks killers of all time?

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

We look back on which opposing position players have hurt the Arizona Diamondbacks the most over the last 25 years. We also talk about Joe Davis’ first year broadcasting the World Series, whether or not we will miss Joe Buck and the latest on the Arizona Diamondbacks’ prospects in the Arizona Fall League.BUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX and make your first deposit of FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in FREE BETS INSTANTLY! For every leg you add you can boost your winnings up to ONE HUNDRED percent!If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visitOPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez!: Enter the “Flavoring Life” sweepstakes. One winner will receive 3 bags of OGeez, an OGeez! Hat, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Sign up at gophnx.com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIplqDYsxYeiotn5Zc6hRahaX0a5qG99eHVzkhOlGZDRdgUA/viewform. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: The Yotes’ play their inaugural home game at Mullet Arena this Friday. Join our PHNX Coyotes crew at Four Peaks for our tailgate/watch party. It’s free to enter and you can enjoy $3 beer specials and watch on a 20’ jumbo screen!https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-coyotes-watch-party-and-tailgate-tickets-445688655767Enter to win the “Toast of the Month” sweepstakes to win a $50 Four Peaks gift card, a PHNX shirt of your choice, and a PHNX annual membership. Go to goPHNX.Com or visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOabxo8KQxOWwn9wTilMBuTMAJdrL0CaH9lzfuJqgKN9vfSg/viewform Must be 21 or older. Enjoy responsibly. Bad Birdie: use code “PHNXSPORTS” to take 15% off your next Bad Birdie order! https://glnk.io/7qnq/phnx-sportsMor Furniture: Sit in the same seats we do! Check out https://morfurniture.comUnderdog Fantasy: Sign up for Underdog Fantasy today! Go to the link https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-phnx and use promo code “PHNX” to receive a deposit match up to $100Liquid Death: Get free shipping on all water and merch at https://LiquidDeath.com/PHNXFOCO: FOCO has you covered with the best Arizona Merchandise. Head on over to foco.com. For all non pre-sale items use the promo code “PHNX” for 10% offWhen you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome into the P H&X Diamondbacks podcast. My name is Jesse Friedman alongside Jacob Franklin. We are once again your two favorite tall Caucasians, and we are here once again with the PHNXDbacks podcast. Welcome into the PHNXDVax show brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's number one rated sports book app. Jacob, how are you today? Doing well, Jesse, a little bit different location than we're used to.

A little bit different. Four Peaks, but we're going to make it work. We're going to make it work. We're going to make it work. We are the first show of the day here at Four Peaks on this beautiful Wednesday morning. We would love for you to come out here and join us. We'll have shows going through 4 p.m., I want to say. Five.

Rising goes live at 5 o'clock. They actually have special guest Luis Sejas on their show today, which is really exciting. So be sure to come out if you have a chance at some point during the afternoon or during the evening. We'd love to see you out here and get to hang out with you. Jacob, we are still a couple days away. from the World Series actually happening. It feels like it's been sort of an eternity waiting for this to finally start, but we're now two days away.

And one of the big storylines out of the World Series this year is that Joe Buck will not be calling the World Series this season. Joe Buck is called the World Series for 25 consecutive years for Fox. But of course, his role is now, he has now been replaced by Joe Davis, who is the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers and is now filling in in this national role and already called a number of playoff games up until this point. But Jacob, I'm curious. What are your thoughts on Joe Davis and what you've seen so far from him calling some of these playoff games? Well, I think Joe Davis goes in line with just about anything people think about the Dodgers,

right? Like, they're just able to get whoever they want. And Joe Davis is the type of guy that's super capable of being the best national broadcaster that any company could get their hands on. But of course, he's the Dodgers every single day play caller, which is just, just fascinating to me. But I actually really like Joe Davis. I think he's really good. I actually also believe that Joe Buck gets way too much hate. As far as I can remember, Joe Buck is called everything from my life.

Pretty much. I mean, you said 25 years, right? Yeah. Yeah, he called the Diamondbacks World Series back in 2001. So, like, I have nothing against Joe Buck. I know people like to hate on him. But I actually think he was really, really good at what he did. And obviously other people did, too, because he spent 25.

five years doing it. So sad to see him go, but Joe Davis is definitely the right guy for this call. Joe Davis is 34 years old, everyone. So, what are you doing with your life? Yeah, what are you doing with your life? Exactly. Joe Davis, it was calling games for a minor league team not that long ago, but it's amazing in the broadcast industry, how quickly you can move up the ranks if you have as much talent as a guy like that does. I'm with you. I also think that Joe Davis does a tremendous his job for games with the Los Angeles Dodgers. And I'm sure that with time, I think fans will sort of adapt to him. So far, I feel like I've seen mostly positive reviews of Joe Davis.

I haven't seen too much negativity. I did think it was interesting over at the LA Times. Bill Schenken wrote a column about Joe Davis and his journey to the role that he's in now. And it's titled this. It's your first world series, Joe Davis. Be ready for the haters on social media. It's so true. It's so true.

It's so true. Like, no matter what you do in this industry, whether it's you play as an athlete, you call nationally broadcasts of games, you're going to find somebody that doesn't like what you're doing. You're just going to get hate no matter what you do. That's just part of what you're like being a part of this group. Like, it just, I don't know. And it's, I understand the need for the article, but just block it out at this point. Like, it's just people mad that they don't get to do that themselves. Yeah, yeah.

I think, I mean, and a big part of it, too, is that when you're a national analyst, like, you're supposed to be unbiased, right? You're supposed to not favor one team or the other. And that can be really difficult, like practically speaking to actually pull that off. I know there are several fan bases that are convinced that Joe Buck just utterly hated their team, right? And just had it out for them and wanted to say as many negative things as they possibly could about their team. But in reality, that probably just wasn't the case. And it's just part of being a national broadcaster.

Maybe you're not quite as well informed about teams individually as, you know, the home broadcasters that have that role throughout the year. And so you're going to know some storylines. You're not going to know others. And at times it can rub fan bases the wrong way. Yeah, the hand selection is where it gets a little weird, right? Like they pick and choose things that they want to nitpick. Right.

They don't look at the picture as a whole. So they're looking at the, you know, the one comment he made in game three of whatever series it was. And he said one thing. And they're like, oh, he hates my team. And then they will only ever hear things. things that are negative against their team. Right. They just pick, right?

They just pick little things here and there to get angry about. Yeah. And for the record, this is not just a baseball thing, right? This happens in other sports too. I think maybe less so in the NFL just because every broadcast in the NFL is a national broadcast. So you're kind of used to it at a certain point. And I think those broadcasters are pretty well informed about the teams that they're

talking about most of the time, at least. The NBA, however, we do see a lot of anger thrown around about different broadcasters. I don't know if any of you watched the Suns game last night on TNT, but a lot of Suns fans were sounding off about how Reggie Miller. All he knows about the Suns is that they lost in Game 7 of the Mavericks last year. They didn't know anything else. I think there's some validity to that, right? At times, you know, the national media caters to the teams that are more popular.

And Arizona teams are typically not that. I don't know. in this situation, like the Astros or the Phillies, I don't know if there's necessarily a big swing one way or the other in terms of like, oh, the national audience knows everything about this team, but not the other. Now, I think a majority of viewers are probably going to look at it from the scope of a Dodgers perspective. Like, oh, Joe Davis was a Dodgers broadcaster. Joe Davis called Dodgers games during the World Series when the Dodgers face the Astros and trash can. Could you imagine if Joe Davis were, like if the Dodgers were in the World Series this year and Joe Davis were calling those games? Like, why would you feel about that?

I mean, I would hope he would be professional about it. Yeah. Right. Like, he knows, he knows that he's getting paid by the national group of television broadcasters that, like, he's getting paid by them to do the World Series in an unbiased manner, right? So even if the Dodgers were in it, I think he would have no problem flipping that switch. Yeah. Obviously, if you tune into a. Dodgers broadcast on, you know, Turner Sports or whatever.

I think it's Turner Sports. That sounds right, yeah. If you turn on a Dodgers broadcast there, you're going to get a more Dodgers-centric broadcast. But as soon as these guys, like they're professionals, just like an athlete, right, they might root for their own team, but they're going to get traded and they're going to play just as hard for the next team. Yeah. They're not trying to lose. So, like, it's the same way with broadcasters, right? He gets to a national broadcast.

He's going to flip that switch. He's going to become a national unbiased broadcaster. Like, yeah. Joe Davis said this about that very topic. He said, I've done enough Dodger games nationally and Dodger playoff games where it's not a difficult thing for me to flip that switch from being the Dodger guy to the neutral national guy. But there is something to be said for a clean matchup where I don't have to think about that

added layer. So, of course, that's what he's getting in this case with the Astros, the Astros and the Phillies in the World Series. So I'm excited to see Joe Davis in this spot. I was honestly a big fan of his, even when he was just doing Dodger games and he wasn't really doing any national broadcast. I just think he's a very talented broadcaster. He has a voice for the big moments too.

For sure. You know, there's something about that that you, you just can't teach, right? Like, you just can't teach a guy to have, you know,

the depth of voice to really live up to those big moments in the game. And I think you need to look no further than what he, his call for the Bryce Harper home run, right? I mean, that was outstanding a call that I'm sure will be played for years and years and years after this. Does it ever make you think about how lucky

Dodgers fans really are. Yeah. Going from Vince Gully to Joe, like Joe Davis. Vince Goli was there forever. Yeah. Forever. And widely regarded as quite possibly, if not the best broadcaster of baseball. And then you flip over and it's like, oh, yeah, we're going to hire this.

I mean, how long has Joe Davis been calling games there? Six years, five years? Something like that. Yeah. He was doing the road games for a while with Vin Scully doing the home games. Right. So they flipped that switch and like now it seems like they've got another one that they're going have for 30, 40 years without meaning to look for another broadcaster. So a lot of those Dodgers fans

probably don't realize how lucky they are with that whole situation. Ten years ago, Joe Davis was the voice of the Montgomery Biscuits, which is a great name for a baseball team. Yeah, he's a, he's a seasoned professional at this point. One point of conversation relating to all of this is like, is there another way potentially for Major League Baseball to go about this when it comes to the national broadcast in the playoffs. It seems there's a part of this that seems sad, right, that you have your home broadcaster throughout the entire regular season. And then if your team gets the playoffs, you don't get them anymore.

They're just gone. And you have all of these national analysts instead. Is there a way to maybe, you know, find a solution where those guys are still included once a team gets into the postseason? Well, no, I don't think there is really because if you look at the whole scope, like money's going to talk to them. matter what. Yeah. And to involve the local broadcasting teams, like it's going to cost either extra money or the national media is going to have to relinquish the fact that the game is also

going to be broadcast at a regional level, which they're not going to do because they want the entire ratings for themselves. Like, they're not going to split that piece of the pie. True. And the national broadcast teams are already so big and everybody's already got such a high payroll anyways. I just don't see a way that you can feasibly squeeze in the local teams because then you've got to figure out how to do both, right? Could you pull one broadcaster from one team and one from another and smush it together into one national broadcast? Do you want chemistry to be awful? I guess that's what you'd be asking for?

Yeah, like you're just like, hey, you guys have never done a show together. Do it. I mean, yeah, you're probably right. Okay, I worked at Ballet Sports Arizona before coming here, and I was a really big part of production. And there is this one person that produces the show. every single game. There are two broadcasters every single game with the occasional fill-in here or there. There's one pre-game producer that produces the pre-game every single day. So like these broadcasters get into a routine over their everyday lives, right? Like there's one person

that caters the show exclusively to them. So if you grab these broadcasters and you throw them into the national broadcast, you're like, you've never done a show with him. You don't know how this producer reacts or what they're going to do. You don't know how this producer reacts or what they're going to do. They'd be lost. That broadcast would be tragic, I would imagine. Let a man dream, Jacob. Come on now. I have to crush your dreams every once in a while, too, Jesse. That's fair. Yeah, I saw John Boy was talking about that on their show a few weeks back of like, is there some way in the postseason to be able to maintain some of those voices that fans are used to hearing throughout the season? I think it's kind of sad that that just goes by the wayside. But like you're saying,

and it's just not a really easy way to do it. Ben made a good point in the comments, or an interesting point in the comments. He said, I think he's a lot better of a baseball broadcaster than Buck. Buck is a good football broadcaster. I don't think he had a knack for baseball. Joe Buck would, I mean, Fox asked a lot of Joe Buck, because he literally would broadcast football and baseball,

possibly other sports too. Like, I don't know how one person... Joe Buck had a busy, busy, busy schedule. He had a very busy schedule. Like, how could you possibly expect one person to be able to maintain maintain a knowledge base, like the knowledge base that you would need to do all of those different sports well, it feels completely impossible. Yeah, it's tough.

Like, I think we need to give some of these broadcasters a little bit more grades for what they take on because at times it's like, yeah, okay, they're just trying to do their job. They're not like egregiously trying to ruin your night. Except for Reggie Miller. He was trying, he was actively trying to ruin Suns fans nights last night. Well, so is Clay Thompson, but that didn't work either. The suns came out on top anyway. They did. They did by 30. So, Sucket Warriors. There you go. We are out here at Four Peaks.

Always a great time out here the last Wednesday of every month. We love to broadcast out here. So once again, come out and join us if you have some time this afternoon. We'll be here until 5 o'clock. You'll find some Ph. and X people around who would love to hang out with you for sure. We have some cool events coming up here with Four Peaks as well. The Yotes play at their inaugural home game. at Mullet Arena this Friday big event there. Join our PH&X Coyotes crew at four peaks for our tailgate slash watch party. It's free to enter and you can enjoy $3 beer specials and watch on a 20-foot jumbos screen. Leah, Leah, tell people how exciting this is going to be.

This is going to be amazing. Whether or not you have tickets to the game, we're going to be here at 430. The game's not until 7.30. So you can come pregame tailgate. It's literally a six-minute drive or a 20-minute walk to Mullet Arena. And then if you have tickets, head on over. If you don't, there's going to be a 20-foot projector screen. You're not going to get closer to the action than being here with drink specials,

giveaways, and watch the coyotes with fellow coyotes fans. It's a fun opportunity. Can you even watch a game on a 20-foot? Like, you have to stand back, like, a fair distance in order to make sure you can actually see everything, right? Jesse, when you go to a game, like, if you're physically at a game, how big is the scope of view? Probably bigger than 20 feet. Yeah.

Thanks. All right. Fair enough. Just answered your own question. Anyway, you could register through the link in our show notes. Be sure to check that out. Hook yourself up with some discounted beer. We have $15 for a 24 pack of the fall variety pack.

That's a new thing here today. This Saturday only at Four Peaks Wilson Street Brewery from 9 a.m. To 1 p.m. The first 50 peeps there get a free October Fest shirt as well. Guys, do not miss that opportunity. That's huge. Like, $15 for a year. 24 pack of their fall beer.

That's insane. The pumpkin porter. Oh, you cannot miss this event. That's crazy. So Saturday, once again, only at four peaks Wilson Street brewery. That's from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Also, the first 50 people there will get a free October Fest shirt. So tons of incredible things happening this Saturday.

Of course, must be 21 or older, enjoy responsibly. Jacob, we'll get into some Arizona fall league action a little bit later in the show. But I will say right now, the Salt River Raptors utterly destroyed. the Scottsdale Scorpions yesterday 12 to nothing. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. No Jordan Lawler. No Jordan Lawler. Yeah, unfortunately, his Arizona fall league season is over at this point.

But while I was out there, I was tempted to recommend OGs to the Scottsdale Scorpions players because they really, I really hope that they were able to get some sleep. Yeah, they needed to relax and try to get some rest after what was a very, very rough loss at the hands of the Salt River Raptors yesterday. So telling you about our friends at OGs, they just did something that totally is going to change the game. They just launched their brand new sleep edition gummy. You don't want to sleep on these. This time I actually understood the pun.

It took you a second yesterday. It took me a second yesterday. I was just utterly confused. Yes, you heard us right. OGs is now flavoring dreams with a 2 to 1 THC CBN ratio gummy. CBN is a compound that helps specifically with falling and staying asleep. And this sleep addition gummy is in their new aqua berry flavor, which Derek swears by every single day of the week.

We highly recommend you check out OGs online at OGsbrands.com and on Instagram at OGs brands. You can also find their products at your local dispensary must be 21 years or older to purchase. Does he even swear it on Earth Day? On Earth Day. Because every day is Earth Day, right? Every day is Earth Day. And every day is not Mailbag Monday. No.

I'm not sure where you're going with that. Every week is Shark Week. Every week is Shark Week. Does he swear it on Shark Weeks? I believe he does. I wonder if sharks would like Aquabary because they're in water. So like that's fair. That's a great question.

Seems like a natural fit. We'll have to do some experimenting at some point. Anyway, our main topic for today, which you probably saw in our show headline, is which players have just utterly destroyed the Diamondbacks over the years. This is maybe a painful topic, but also sort of a therapy. putic one to just look back at what's happened over the years and just come to terms with some of the players that Diamondbacks fans may not like a particularly a whole lot. Jacob, before we get into any of the numbers, who out there just feels like a player that has

destroyed the Diamondbacks? Like before looking at any numbers or anything else, who do you just feel like is one of those guys that is always at their best against the Arizona Diamondbacks? Yassiel Pueg. Yassiel Pueck, interesting. Any particular memories of him doing anything in particular? Like for him, it's not even just hitting, right? You just have vivid images of him with his cannon out in right field,

throwing guys out trying to stretch a double into a triple or trying to stretch a single into a double. Like, he just had a cannon. So it wasn't just hitting for him. Like watching him play, I was always like, oh, man, please, please that ball is slightly. And he got, please don't go for it. Like, just stay on base. Don't make any mistakes. You can't, which is funny because, like, the hell of the mighty have fallen, right?

Like, he wasn't really. No. He was good for a few years. It wasn't really like, so he's one of them. Trevor Story is another one that comes to mind. I was actually there for Shelby Miller's first start as an Arizona's dive back. I was also there that day. And that was really hard to watch.

Were you there for Zach Granky's first start? I think I went for both. I think Trevor Story at two home runs. Yeah, it just was hard. That first series was so hard to watch. Yeah. And this was, that series too, that was Trevor Story's first time ever playing major league baseball. Yeah.

He's this rookie and I think he hit four. home runs in that series. In that series, something ridiculous like that. Yeah, Trevor's story, career 985 OPS against the diamond back. So the numbers do you sort of check out on that front. Two names came to mind for me just kind of thinking about who I just kind of have a sense has been good against the debacks over the years. One of them is Rymel Tapia, another Colorado Rocky.

Sure. I don't know what it is, but he's never been. He's never been. Yeah, he's never been that good of a hitter in general. but against the Diamondbacks, it's not like he's hitting Dinger's left and right, but he just seems to always have multiple clutch hits every time the Diamondbacks to play the Rockies. Of course, Tapia is not there anymore, which is good news for the D-backs, frankly.

Rimal was one of those guys you never wanted to see come up to the plate in a big situation. And like I mentioned, especially if Archie Bradley was pitching, you did not want Rymel Tappia to come up to the plate. Or Matt Kemp as well. There's some bad memories there with Archie Bradley and that. There was some definite beef there. Archie got himself into that one. Yeah.

Another name that came to mind for me was Howie Kendrick. Hasn't been in the league for a little while now. But it just always felt like Howie Kendrick when he would play the D-VACs. He played for a whole bunch of different teams and he always felt like he was at his best. He had an 898 OPS in his career against the Diamondbacks in 202 played appearances. So the numbers sort of checked out there as well. Let us know in the comments what you think, what names come to mind for you. Annabal Sanchez.

Hannibal Sanchez. Interesting. I just vivid memories of like there's also been times when they've gotten to him for like eight runs but I just have really like wild memories from when I was younger of him just carving them up. I mean he's been around for a long time. I think he had a pretty good outing against the debacks recently in his upper 30s. So there's probably some truth to that. Yeah. So let's jump into a more official list. So Jacob asked on the show yesterday, who has hit the most home runs in their career against the Arizona Diamondback. So we have a list here, courtesy of the one and only stathead,

which is an absolute lovely thing for people like me who are baseball nerds and love to look things like this up. So this is the top 10 list of home run hitters against the Arizona Diamondbacks all time. Probably could have guessed one, three, and four based off of the sheer fact that they played for so long in the division. and they're very, very good. Yeah, like Barrypons, Adrian Gonzalez and Todd Hilton, I probably could have guessed. But Matt Kemp being up there, that one's a bit shocking to me.

Yeah, Matt Kemp has a career 854 OPS against the Diamondback, so it's not like it's off the charts, but he does have 750 plate appearances against the D-backs in his career. Yeah. So, yeah, playing for both the Padres and the Dodgers for a sizable portion of your career will do that. Other names that stick out on here, I think it's cool that Albert Pujols, maybe cool is the wrong word.

Didn't Poohose his first career home run against the Diamond Knights? He did. He did hit his first career home run against the D-Vax. It all comes full circle. It all comes full circle. And then he hit two of them off Mad Bum this year. That he did. That he did. Mad Bum sucks.

Oh gosh. Albert Pujolz, 25 home runs in his career against the Diamondbacks, despite playing in the American League for around a decade and never being in the same division is the debacks other than a brief stint, I guess, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nolan Aeronado is on the list as well. He's number five with 30 home runs. Carlos Gonzalez, number 6, 29. Brian Giles, number seven, he had 27 home runs in his career from 1999 to 2009.

And Chris mentioned Charlie Blackman earlier, and he is also on this list, 25 home runs in his career. 10 years will do that. 10 years will do that. Charlie Blackman has been in the N.O. West for a hot minute at this point. I also looked it up. This is just kind of a backtrack. Anabal Sanchez did throw a no hitter against the D-backs. Really?

With the Marlins. Interesting. What year? What year was that? Give me another second. I just exited out. You keep going. That's interesting.

I remember some good starts from Anabal Sanchez against the D-backs, but that did not occur to me initially that was... 2014. 2014, okay. Well, 2014 was sort of a year to forget all the way around for the diamond back. So maybe people have just sort of blodels. lock that out of their minds at this point. 2006.

They posted the video in 2014. It was 2006. Okay. Yeah. That was a long, long time ago. It was a Dolphin Stadium. Okay. Before they had the new four walks, two nothing win.

Four walks, not a, not the best no-hitter that you'll see, but a no-hitter is a no-hitter, nonetheless. Edwin Jackson will tell you that more than, more than anyone else. I think I would petition to get his disbarred from history. seven locks and a hit batterer is really really not good take out edwin jackson and throw in madison bumgarner and his seven inning no hitter maybe i think that one should count it feels like it should count more than a nine inning no hitter with eight walks a hit batter and he almost lost that game one to nothing yeah they won that game one to nothing and he walks the bases loaded in an inning and it was like three two on another guy almost walked in the tying run he almost didn't win that

game. Yeah, it was not the most scenic no-hitter you'll ever see, but I guess it's going to go in the record books, whether we like it or not. I also looked up the highest OPS against the Diamondbacks all time. This is minimum 100 played appearances, just to make sure that these guys have had a good number of reps against the debacks. Here's the list, Jacob. This is what we got. Mani Ramirez is number one with a 1305 OPS against the Diamondbacks, 157 plate appearances. He hit 411, 522, 782. That was Manny Ramirez's slash line against the D-backs in his career. You have any Manny Ramirez memories? I guess that was a little while ago at this point? No, not particularly because a majority of my Manny Ramirez memories came from when he was a Red Sock. It's fair. So not many when he was.

was with the Dodgers. Like, I just, at that point, I felt like other than against us, he was pretty just okay. Yeah. At times, like, he was, he was good. But, okay. Like, he had one year with the Dodgers at the end of his career where he was just insane. It was, yeah, it was 2008. Okay.

He spent half the year with Boston and then, I think, was traded around the trade deadline to the Dodgers. And after that trade, he hit 396 for L.A. I wonder how much of that OPE. I wonder how many games they played against the debacks in that stint. Yeah, a lot of, a lot of what we're seeing with these numbers probably has to do with 2008. And then he also was with the Dodgers in 2009. It had a good season there and was decent in 2010 for that too. The biggest thing for me sitting on this list right now is, well, I guess there's two that really stand out to me.

And that's Fernando Tatis, because you're going to have to deal with that man for a long time. We talked about that yesterday. Like Ben says in the chat, it's a really small sample size. because he can't seem to stay on the field no matter what he does. I mean, it's 131 plate appearances still. So it's not, you know, I mean, you're not talking about like three games or anything. There's some weight to a 13.04 OPS for Tatis. AJ Pollock just hurts my soul to see that name on the list because like I was, okay, like, obviously

I was an AJ Pollock fan when he was here, but I was also kind of on the train where I was like, I don't know if I like this guy. Like he's hurt all the time. Sure. And then goes to the Dodgers and, like, throws a fit on his way out of Arizona. and it's like, all right, cool. Yeah. That's fun.

AJ Pollack didn't. I mean, he was good for the Dodgers there for a couple of years. Not good this season after being traded at the White Sox. seems like he might be kind of on the downturn of his career. But yeah, AJ Pollock has an 1108 OPS against the Diamondbacks in his career. Not a huge sample, but still 149 played appearances. He's hitting 361 against his former team. So AJ Pollock has certainly made those at bats count.

um, Vladimir Guerrero is on this list at number seven with a 1,111 OPS. Uh, this is not Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Yes, this is his dad. This is his dad, Vladimir Guerrero, who, uh, it was also a pretty darn good player back in the day. So, uh, nothing to be too ashamed about there. Uh, George Springer is on here, which is kind of interesting. Um, I don't really play a pair of this.

Yeah, it's, it's a hundred. It's a hundred. Am I that boring right now, Jacob? No, I just. just got hit with it all of a sudden. George Springer in 1119 played appearances has an 1173 OPS against the D-back. So not a ton of games. You know, he's been in the American League, but still something there.

Number four is Barry Bonds with an 1192 OPS. Number three, Dante Bichette from 1998 to 2000. So going way back to the beginning of the D-backs. Yeah, Dante Bichet hit 372 with an OPS of 1192 against the Diamond So Boba Chet's father, correct? Is that Bobauchet's dad? That's a great question.

I want to say that you are correct. Yes, yes, you are correct. Yeah, Dante Bichette was Bo Bichet's dad. And Bo Bichet is a pretty decent player in his own mind. Sad that he didn't go to ASU, but it's okay. Was Bobbyshire going to go? He was committed to Arizona State. Every time you talk about him, I think you're talking about Boba Fett, like the Star Wars character.

We can talk about Boba Fett. And I get so confused. Yeah. Like, what do you want to talk about? Boba Fett? No? Leas is no. Lees is no. All right.

Any other names stick out to you on this list here, Jacob? I guess we have Edwin Encarnassione, who was just like casually one of the best hitters in baseball there for a few years. For a while. Yeah, no, not really. I mean, like, the big names that stuck out to me were just the ones that we still have to deal with. And it's just, it's sad. Yeah.

I'm like, man. So there's also a few names. This was interesting. There's also a few guys. guys who haven't performed that well against the diamondbacks in their career that I noticed. Mani Machado. Yeah, Clayton Kirshah, you're saying hasn't performed well against the diamond backs in his career? If you look at his numbers against any other team, they are significantly better than against the years.

I pretty sure he's like that's three nine against the debats. Okay. Yeah, it's not like it's horrible or anything. No, but it's definitely not Clayton Kirshaw standards. Fair enough. Mani Machado has a career 726 OPS against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which is not that good. Like actually not that good. It's pretty average. I mean, it's just kind of across the board.

Kind of like, yeah, he's okay. Like, okay against the debacks. Obviously, he's much better than okay. Yeah. Yeah, well, he showed that this one. So that one's a bit surprising for sure. Sticking with the Padres, Juan Soto, his career OPS against the Diamondbacks

and 121 flight appearances, 642. I'd love to know how many walks. That's a great question. It's probably a lot of walks knowing in. The Soto shuffle is like, I would imagine he's been walked quite a few times just against every team that he's played. Right. But the fact that he's with the Padres right now and he could be with the Padres for quite a while,

I would imagine that OPS is going to start creeping up starting next year. It very well could. He's hitting 190 with a 322 on base. So a decent number of walks there, slugging only 320. So yeah, he's basically just walked a decent amount. And that's pretty much all the damage that Juan Soto has done against the Diamondbacks. You can't beat him, walk him. There you go. And yeah, for some reason, that strategy, like, kind of worked against Juan Soto this year. He drew so many walks that at a certain point, it felt

like it might be hard for him. He wasn't impacting the game in the way that Juan Soto wants to impact the game. Yeah. So, of course, I had to look up who has the lowest OPS against the Diamondbacks, minimum 100 plate appearances. And that goes to none other than Joaquin Arias. who had a 309 OPS in 117 plate appearances. He was not a particularly good hitter in general. I think his career OPS was like $650 or something, but 309 is like... That's abysmal.

Yeah, like your pitcher should probably have a better OPS than that, or at least pretty close. So that was pretty wild. I'd love to know what Madison Pumgarner's OPS against the Arizona Diamondbacks is. Madison Bumgarner? I'll get on that. I'll see what I can do for tomorrow show, maybe.

You think it, I guess he did have, I know he had a game where he hit two homerimes against the He did, it was opening day. Yeah, it was opening day. It was opening day against Zach Rankie. Did he get both against Zach cranky? I don't know if both were against Zach. I think it might have been one against Zach and then one against the bullpen of the diamond bags. Oh, that's another good one.

Under the tweet that you had out earlier today, it was like you asked the question, what are names that come to mind? Right, right. People that kill the Diamondbacks. Somebody just responded bullpen. Oh, here we go. All roads lead back to the bullpen on the PH Next Diamondbacks podcast. That just feels, that just feels fitting. We have Hertz donuts out here with us today at Four Peaks.

Jacob, I understand you partook of a Hertz donut earlier today. I did. I had the blueberry one. It was delicious. I'm eating this circus animal one. It is so good. I can't even explain. Wait, what is that?

What does that consist of? It's like Animal Cracker. It's like, you know, the circus animal cracker, but then it's all, it's just a cake donut with vanilla icing and sprinkles and then an animal cracker, not a regular one, like the circus one. Yeah, if you're looking for top tier donuts, like Hertz Donut is the spot. Like, they have some incredible donuts. Yeah, so be sure to check out Hertz Donuts.

They hooked us up with donuts today, and we are enjoying them immensely. Well, not you, Jesse. The first thing I do once I get off the show is I'm going to go find myself the best food store I can possibly find. We'll see about this. that, Jacob. We'll see you can get there first. Anyway, we would love for you to join our family here at pH&X. Be sure to head over to go phnx.com today and become a member of our family, and you'll either get a free t-shirt from the pH&X locker or your first month for just 50 cents

just for signing up. If you do so, you can find all of the writings of myself as well as Craig Morgan and Gerald Borges and the rest of our writing crew here at PH&X. So be sure to join us and become a of the family. We also saw our son's crew drop a pretty sick t-shirt last night, if I'm not mistaken. We did drop a pretty dope shirt. While you keep talking, I'm going to send it to Leah so that she can put it on the screen for all the folks to see. There we go. There we go. Yeah. So a pretty dope t-shirt from our son's crew released just last night. And if you sign up for an annual membership, you could get that t-shirt for free as part of signing up. So be sure to jump on that.

Once again, you can get not only my writings about the Diamondbacks and some MLB postseason stuff, I'm working on some stories right now about why you might care to root for the Phillies, as well as why you might care to root for the Astros, knowing full well that you probably have already decided that you're rooting for the Phillies. But I'm still going to give you some reasons anyway to root for either team. I think that the Astros have some likable players. Is Dusty-Baker the only reason for the Astros? I found a few other ones, believe it or not.

There are some other interesting reasons and some compelling storylines on the Astro side that maybe if you're not rooting for the Astros, which is understandable, maybe you'd appreciate them just a little bit more. And then on the Philly side, I probably don't need to give you reasons to root for the Phillies, but I'm going to anyway. And some of them will probably stand out to you and be things that you haven't heard before. So be sure to keep it locked to go p.hnex.com where I'll be releasing those here. shortly.

We're still working on getting this t-shirt graphic. My file decided to just fail on me for some reason. All right. We'll get it up there eventually because it is a, it is a t-shirt. I'll put the link to the new shirt in the chat right now. Yeah. There we go. There we go.

It is a t-shirt. Absolutely worth checking out, especially after what the Phoenix Suns did to the Golden State Warriors last night. That was glorious all the way around. Our last topic here in this edition of the PHNX DBAX podcast is an update on the Arizona Fall League. I was out there last night. And as I said earlier, Jacob, yeah, there we go. We love our fall guys graphic. We should have swapped out. We need to add me on this graphic. We should have, yeah, we absolutely should have added you on this graphic. But anyway, I was out there

last night and the Salt River Rafters just dominated the Scottsdale Scorpions 12 to nothing in that game. Cooper Hummel started the game at catcher representing the Diamondbacks. He was one for four with a walk and a single in that one. Going to be honest, Jacob, the defense for Cooper Hummel didn't look great. There were a few miscues that he made. It seems like there's a few more pitches that, you know, get under his legs or whatnot that he is trouble blocking behind the plate than maybe what you'd hope for in a catcher. So obviously it's a position that he doesn't have as much experience with as some other guys do

and the Diamondback seemed to be committed to trying to see if he can work there as a potential backup up catcher for next season. So it looks good at the plate, though. His at-bats were good. He had a couple of hard line drives that were caught in that game, so it probably could have been better than the one for four. Davidson Delos Santos did not look good yesterday. I'll just be frank with that. He was 0 for five with four strikeouts. Took the golden sombrero for the Salt River Rafters in that game. So another rough one for DeLos Santos. And frankly, a lot of his at-bats have just not looked great in the fall league. He's 19 years old. He's the youngest guy who was invited to the fall league. And we're just kind of seeing him show some of that inexperience. It seems like

he might be just mentally struggling right now with the level of competition he's facing. Yeah, it definitely could be the young aspect that he's got going on for him, right? Like he's 19 years old. He's still got a long ways to go while he showed signs of what he could turn out to be this year. Like these young players, when they get to a point where they're strong. struggling, it seems like they might get in their head a little bit too much. We saw it with Alec Thomas a little bit at times this year where it was like, oh, shoot, maybe I can't just dominate these guys off of pure talent. So it seems like Deveson Delos Santos has hit a point where he's kind of struggling with maybe his confidence a little bit at the plate. You know, we always talked about the fact that he was extremely impatient as a hitter.

Yeah. Right? He took very few walks. He struck out a lot. After last night is his strikeout rate in the first. fall league is up to 35% I believe, which is similar to what he had in the minors this year. It's pretty high. It'll take a bit of coaching to get him back to where he needs to be, but he's so young that he's such an impressionable hitter. I would imagine that just give him some time. If they can

get that strikeout right down, they can get him taking a few pitches. He's going to find more pitches in his zone, and that'll flip right back over, I would imagine. Honestly, next year, I'm, I'm like less concerned about what Dealo Sandos's OPS is and how many home runs he hits as much as I am, just how much is he walking and how much is he striking out? Because this last year, he put up some big home run numbers and had a nice OPS, but the walk and strikeout numbers were a little bit concerning. And as you move up through the minor league system, that tends to be more and more of an issue as you get to the higher levels.

So something to monitor there. Jackson Goddard, D.Back's pitching prospect through a scoreless eighth inning in that game. So that was nice to see. But yeah, big game for the Salt River Rafters, even if some of the Diamondbacks players didn't necessarily play a huge role in the outcome. There were no home runs or, you know, extra base hits or anything on that front. But still great to see the Salt River Rafters coming out and just stomping the Scotts, the Scorpions in the way that they did. You said no D-BACs players performing. I mean, Cooper Hummel was, Cooper Hummel was one for four with a walk.

Scorless, squirless outing from the pen. Yeah, Jackson and Goddard. Yeah. That's something we never get to see. A scoreless outing from the pen? That's fair. Yeah, those are a few and far between at times around here. So yeah, you got to appreciate that. You got to take your wins where you can get them, Jesse. I have to be honest, I was reminded yesterday of just how vastly superior Salt River Fields is to all other spring training facilities. Scottsdale Stadium, I hadn't been there since I was like a little kid. And when I was a little kid. I love Scottsdale Stadium.

Really? I swear it was just so much bigger when I was a kid than when I was there last night. It just felt like this tiny little, like single A, minor. league feel that it's so much fun like going to a spring training game there is so much fun what what do you like about scottstill stadium give me some specifics here other than that it's small i probably i probably am fortunate in the fact that i go and there's like a little reserved area like one of my family members companies like has a table every year in the right field like the outfield area like there's a seating area out in right field where there's like a bar they give you free food it's great i have a

great time like okay it's it's it's it's pretty i like that stadium i will say the press Spock's view is a lot better than it is at Salt River Fields because it is a smaller stadium. So it kind of just feels like you're sitting in the stands in a pretty good seat. So pretty much every seat in that ballpark is a really good seat because of how intimate of an environment it is. But the Rafters have actually played their last game at Salt River Fields during the entire fall league. They were stacked at the beginning of the fall league season.

What I heard yesterday, Jacob, is that apparently they're training new people to come in and use the ball strike challenge system to operate the ball strike challenge system. So they had a whole bunch of people flying in from other states learning how to use that system. And in order to keep things simpler, they just wanted all of those games to happen like right in a row. It's exciting. Can't wait for no ums. Yeah. I know it doesn't mean no um. It does not mean no ums.

Uh, yeah. The challenge system is made so that the umpire still has a lot of influence in what happens. it's just, you know, it gives, it gives players an opportunity to maybe correct some of those calls. Yeah, some of the rules with that are going to be a little interesting. Like, at times I feel like it's going to get really selfish player-wise. Like, it's on the pitcher whether he wants to challenge the call or not. And the team as a whole only gets like one or two challenges a game or something like that, if I remember correctly. Team as a whole gets three.

Three, right. Yeah, you get three challenges and you, but you keep the challenge if you're right. It's not right, but it's not up to the manager, correct? it's up to the players. It's up to the players. Which could get really, really bad for relationships in the dugout. I mean, in my experience, so players didn't use them very often is one thing. It's not like, oh, we're just going to use these, like, drunken sailors because we have so many of them and might as well, right?

Like, players, I think were pretty deliberate, making sure that they use them in appropriate times. And, yeah, it seemed like most calls still stood. About 80% of calls, I would say, still still. stood. And we did see some calls reversed as well. So an interesting, interesting system. I'll probably be writing about it over at go phnx.com sometime soon. I think it's could be great for baseball. Honestly, it's awesome to see how engaged the fans are in it and how engaged each dugout is in it. Just like seeing the result on the screen and everyone is just so engaged in that moment, like, eager to figure out what, what happens. So I'm excited to see that hopefully implemented into the big

leagues at some point soon. Jacob, are you on board? You on board with this, with his ball strike challenge system overall? Sure. Yeah? Okay. Sure. Pitch clock.

Give me it all. Okay. Give me everything. Well, we're getting the pitch clock next year, whether people like it or not. That one is... Seven-inning baseball games. Wow. Jacob chose violence today, everyone.

Seven-inning baseball games. Oh, my goodness. Why? Why? Did you, like... Okay. I know they're not doing them this year, like, or any more with the double-header stuff with the seven innings, but like...

There have been a lot of Folly games that have been seven innings. I just think it's like, it's so much fun. I actually really enjoyed the doubleheaders last year when they were seven innings apiece. Like I had a really, really good time watching seven innings of super exciting baseball. Interesting. I think a seven inning game is like not a real baseball game, but I'm the baseball purist here clearly. So anyway, we would love to see you out at an Arizona Fall League event on November 5th. We will be out at Sloan Park.

the sign that you see that looks like Wrigley Field, it's not Riggly Field, this is Sloan Park. I slip right across from Sloan Park. Yeah, I had one of my siblings also had an apartment right by there. It's a nice area. But yeah, we'd love to see you out on November 5th at Sloan Park at 6.35 p.m. for the Arizona Fall Lake Home Run Derby. We're not sure yet who the representatives for that will be. I'm not sure we'll see any DeBax players in there.

But let's face it, Jacob. It's a home run derby. You can't not have fun. at a home run derby regardless of who is on the field. So we're excited to enjoy that with all of you then. Yeah, no. I mean, who doesn't love a good home run derby? It's just the type of event that you just can't not enjoy.

Even like, I'm a big advocate. I go to a freaking college home run derby and I would still have a good time. Oh, yeah. I think you don't even really have to be like a dedicated baseball fan to enjoy a home run derby. Everyone loves Dingers at the end of the day. So hope to see you all out there. there. We'll have ticket info coming soon. For the moment, you don't need to purchase any tickets.

They should be available at the door, frankly. So no need to make any plans on that front. But we would love to see you there out on November 5th. To finish things up for today, I have a little surprise here for Jacob, which we've been waiting on for the right time for a little while now. But you may remember, I believe it was last week on the show, Jacob questioned my vocabulary at one point. We were talking about the World Series. We were talking about some teams being underdogs, some teams being overdogs. Overdogs. That was the word that I used.

And Jacob here insisted that Overdog was not an actual word. I never said it wasn't. I just said nobody uses it. Leah, cue the evidence. It is an actual word. All right. So this is from Miriam Webster. Definition of Overdog, one that is dominant or victorious.

We have another one, which is from dictionary.com. You can see the definition there as well. Well, so Jacob, are you, are you, I don't remember that happening. In this moment, I am convinced that your argument was that Overdog is not even a word to begin with. No, that wasn't the argument in the slightest. Interesting. It just was that I've never once heard anybody say Overdog. Well, all I'm saying is that I wasn't wrong and that it is an actual word.

Sure. Okay. I guess we're, put it there. All right. I guess we're in a good spot there. Darnan, that wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping it would be. I really, I really wanted to like have this, this. epic prove-jave-jave-jave-wrong moment.

But anyway, Overdog isn't let me clip it. Otherwise, we would have, you know, had our answer. Yeah, I guess that's true. I said, I want to clip a chat. Like, you can, this is a true story. I said, let's clip it, post it. Jesse said, I don't think people like that. Well, it's because I just thought that I was using a totally okay word.

And you were just, you were just, you're throwing a fit about it for no reason whatsoever. So she's going to start using Overdog fantasy. I am. I just think that as someone whose nickname is literally father, overlord. word of Jacob, which is also, you could make a case, is not a word people use in everyday life. Overlord? Yeah, Overlord? What was the last time you use Overlord, like just casually? Well, actually, this is, this is, let's take it back to high school. Oh gosh, here we go. I had a turtle. Okay. Which his name just started out. Why is that not surprising to me?

No, it's not surprising. I had the turtle for like four months. It was not a long time. I, so I had seen a turtle. You saw a turtle? I saw a turtle in the middle of my neighborhood, which is in the middle of mason, which is just a very weird, like, the turtle was in the middle of the road. Okay. And I was like, can me please keep it? My dad said no.

Whatever the fact, my birthday comes up senior year of high school. And all of my friends went to the pet store and bought me a turtle because I would not shut. Like all of your friends bought you a separate turtle? No, no, no, no, just one turtle. Oh, darn it. Oh, that was a missed opportunity. Right, right. So just one turtle, right?

And just because I had not shut up about this turtle for like four months. And so I had this turtle and his name started out as Speedy Ron. However, his name then evolved to Ronald Reagan's Supreme Leader the Third. And at times it was like Ronald Reagan overlord's Supreme Leader the third. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know how it evolved, but it just did. Is the turtle still with us?

Sure. Okay. I don't know. I gave it to somebody when I moved to college because my parents were like, We're not keeping that thing. That's fair. You don't want to take the turtle to college. That wasn't an option.

To answer Ben's question, the one I had seen on the road was a tortoise. Okay. The one that I had was a turtle. Ah. What is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise? Okay. I think tortoises are larger. Larger.

Tortoises are like desert related. Who knows? Well, we can tell you the difference between a goose and a duck around here. But turtles and tortoises, we can't. Sometimes we just fall short on certain. So we'll have to figure that out for tomorrow. Anyway, thank you all for being with us here today. I want to tell you real quick about our friends over at Moore Furniture,

who, of course, did a wonderful job helping us furnish our new PHNX studios. We are very, very grateful for everything that they provided us in that. And you too can spruce up your home during More Furniture's fall sale at morefurniture.com. Plus, you'll receive a $100 gift card for every $1,000 that you spend. Uh, more furniture is great all the way around. And Jacob, I feel like I've, I've lived like half of my life in the recliners in our office since we got those. You have. You have. It's been really impressive. You're there every day. Like, you do your show at 11 and you don't leave that recliner until about 6 o'clock. Well, because it's an incredibly, like if I go home, I don't have that recliner. So why would I want to go home?

Jesse, do we need to be concerned? Is there a reason that you stick around so long? I guess I, I guess I enjoy hanging out with you guys. I don't know. I didn't know that was so offensive to you. I'm fine. It's not really you that I stick around for, but you just, you know, you asked for it, Jacob. Anyway, we thank you all for being here with us today. Once again, I hope we didn't bring back too many bad memories of former Diamondbacks players who, you know, who sort of played pretty well against the Diamondbacks in their careers.

But anyway, it was fun reminiscing with you all here today. be sure to give us a follow on Twitter. You can find me at Jesse N. Friedman. You can find Faj at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. Our producer, Leah Merrill, you can find at Leah Merrill. Be sure to give her a follow as well for all of the wonderful coyotes coverage that they have going on over there at P.HNX Coyotes. But of course, we also have our PHNX underscore DBAX account where you can follow along with all of our Diamondbacks coverage, both during the season and out of the season. We'll still have some fun stuff coming for you all.

of course. Says get PHNX office a turtle. Oh, I'm so on board with having a turtle. They smell. I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I know you said you've had a turtle

for 30 years, but I had a turtle for four months in my room and I couldn't stand. Yeah, I don't know if, I don't know if Saul would sign off on having turtle roaming around the office. We could just hide it from him.

Just hide it, okay. Yeah. In his office. In his office. That's the only, it's the only good place to hide it. Be sure to give us a follow anyway

at PhNX. underscore D-Backs. And of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. For Leah, for Jacob. My name once again is Jesse Friedman. Thank you so much for being with us here today. And remember, kids, baseball is fun,

but it's so much more fun when Joe Davis is on the mic.