PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Who does number 2 work for?

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing the D-backs winning their third game of the season over the Giants, Christian Walker being snubbed for the Home Run Derby, and drafting second in the ML...B Amateur Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:02 Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name of course is Derek Montia, your mayor, PHNX. I'm joined by this guy over here, Vice Mayor slash Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. How are you, Derek? I'm doing good, sir. How are you doing? I'm doing well. That was an enjoyable baseball game that we all got to watch last night.
Starting point is 00:00:29 We got to make fun of Jacob and the Discord. He nearly found himself excommunicated from the discord, which was a first. Jacob brought a lot of negative Mark Malanson. You don't get to slander me. You don't get to slander me, okay? Oh, by the way, Father Jacob is here. Is that what we're calling you this day? Father Jacob?
Starting point is 00:00:49 I thought it was fragile overlord, Jacob. Oh, yeah. Fragile overlord, Jacob is very descriptive, but also accurate. Of course, this show is not fragile. We are brought to you by the fine folks at the draft. Sportsbook app. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use our code of PHNX and get down on the betting action. Of course, the Draft King Sportsbook app is America's top rated sportsbook app. The Diamondbacks did win yesterday. That was a whole lot of fun to watch. They won the first game against the Giants.
Starting point is 00:01:18 They've had some good luck so far this season against the Giants. We were a bit worried about the Giants performance offensively after they had a good showing against the Padres. But nice to see the Diamondbacks take game one and have everything kind of work the way it should, I guess, there a bit, even though it was a bit more exciting there at the end than it needed to be. Yeah, I mean, the debacks have won three out of four against the Giants this season. It's so wild that they've only played four games against that team. It's wild. To this point in the season, it's really bizarre.
Starting point is 00:01:47 But yeah, I mean, they've won three out of four. The one game that they lost was a Wednesday of last week when we were here at the studio watching the game and went live at like 10.30. I don't know why you have to bring that up, but it was still a fun night. And again, that was a fun game too. The Diamondbacks are fun even when they lose, for sure. I mean, yeah, I think we're at that point, right? I mean, if the Diamondback, at least over the last week or two, most of these games that the Diamondbacks have lost in the end are games that they were very, very close.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Right. You know, there was a lot of back-and-forth action. They might have been more frustrating games to lose in some ways because of that. But they've played some pretty good baseball over the last 10 days. Absolutely. And again, it's just bizarre. that we get the the Jekyll and Hyde Mark Malanson
Starting point is 00:02:32 where Mark Malanson comes in in a safe situation and is able to somehow lock it down. I keep trying to debunk this and say that that's completely unsubstantiated. But there's just more, there's more and more evidence as the season goes along. So you might be right with that, Derek. There's no scientific evidence to back it up.
Starting point is 00:02:52 And even last night was a shaky outing for him. It wasn't like he came in in the ninth inning and just, you know, dominated, had a one, two, three inning. God, Jesse, what I would give, what I would give for Mark Melanson to have a one, two, three, ninth, just one time. I mean, it wasn't that bad, right? It wasn't that bad. The inning prior was much worse, where the bases were loaded, and Noe Ramirez had a two and O'N O'O count on Brandon Crawford and miraculously got an inning-ending double play, which was very close.
Starting point is 00:03:22 And the Giants, you know what, like I know a lot of Diamondbacks fans probably didn't like that. I would have challenged that if I was the Giants too. You had nothing to lose. The ninth inning was coming up. I mean, this is pretty much the end of the game as far as they were concerned. So like this is... Did you think? Did you think Brandon Crawford was safe?
Starting point is 00:03:39 I did think he was safe. Yeah, I think I did do. But it was one of the... But there just wasn't enough. Like, it wasn't enough. But yeah, like, they said that Noe's foot was, if you look, his foot was in the middle of the bag instead of being, you know, like the tip of his foot. You can tell that Noe is not a first basement.
Starting point is 00:03:56 No. He didn't stretch. you know, like Christian Walker probably would have it. Again, yeah. This is why we need to love and appreciate Christian Walker, who, by the way, is not in the home run derby. At least we don't think so. We don't think so.
Starting point is 00:04:09 Because they haven't released all the participants yet, but five out of the eight were released prior to us getting on air. And they were all National League, which is odd. It's very odd that there was more, I mean, there's only eight participants, and five so far have been National League players. I'm not sure what exactly is going on. Albert Pooleholz is one of the guys. And again, we talked about Albert Pooleholz being, you know, I'm not.
Starting point is 00:04:33 He's a legend. It's hard to, you can't say bad things about him. I don't want to say bad things about him. But here's my thing, Jesse, is I'm fine with him being in the All-Star game. I just don't think that somebody that doesn't deserve it deserves to be in the home-run derby. Do you think he'll, I mean, is he just going to make a fool of himself in the home-rond? Oh, no, not at all. Is he going to hit like two or three home-run?
Starting point is 00:04:54 No, I think he's going to kill it. Okay. I think he'll do fine because he's... You just don't think that based on his numbers this season that he deserves to be in that game. He's tied for 106th in the National League and home runs. I mean, that's not bad, Derek. Where are you on that list? Come on now.
Starting point is 00:05:09 Why does it always have to be about my stats? My stats are terrible. It's not a comparison thing to me. It's a comparison to the other All-Stars, right? I was glad to see Kyle Schwabber because I thought he was going to get snubbed on that. I mean, he definitely did. The man has hit like nine home runs in the last two weeks. I need big beefy boys.
Starting point is 00:05:26 I want big beefy guys in the home run derby. I would love a home run derby of nothing but big beefy guys, and that would be great. I don't even know if I could put Schwabber in that category anywhere. He looks slim next to some of the other big boys in the National League. But I am upset about, and I didn't really think Christian Walker was going to be in it, yet I'm somehow still upset about it, right? It's kind of like what I was saying about the All-Star game. I'm glad Joe Mantiply got the nomination of anybody on the team.
Starting point is 00:05:53 He deserved it. Last night he had a shaky outing once again, of course, but things ended up going the Diamondbacks way. Unfortunately, it wasn't him that was able to lock it down and be the reason why the Diamondbacks were able to get through the days. He had some extreme bad luck in that game, though. I know he did walk a guy, which was literally his second walk of the season, but outside of that, it was a chopper on the infield that was an infield single by Darren Ruff,
Starting point is 00:06:18 which might be Darren Ruff's first infield single of his career. probably not true but he definitely he's not he's not super quick it's not something that he that will normally happen for him and then wilmer flores hits a ground ball that bounces on the third base bag and goes for a double the exit velo on that was like 74 miles an hour so joe mantapply was was the victim of bad luck i thought he still pitched pretty well overall uh yes and again the diamond backs did enough to win the game speaking of that uh merrill kelly had himself quietly another strong Outing continues to be outstanding for this team, as well as Alec Thomas had himself quite the day out there. Our young king went, what was it, three for five, I believe,
Starting point is 00:07:04 and honestly had what I believe is it was not an out at first base. I'm still going to argue that that was such a weird play where the ball got past the first basement and Alec Thomas took a tight little spin. But did not advance. Like I liked that there was a disagreement between, you know, Gonzo and, and Bert because I felt like there were two voices on that. And I didn't really feel like Bert,
Starting point is 00:07:36 even though Gonzo is a major league player and knows a lot more about the game and the rules and stuff. Bert did not relent. And I was on Bert's side because I was like, because he was like, oh, no, that one foot stayed on the other side. Like, I understand he made some sort of move. And that's all the umpires are really looking for, right? It is some sort of move.
Starting point is 00:07:51 Yeah, it's at the umpire's discretion is my understanding. So if the umpire feels like the player made an effort to get to second base, then they have to get back to the bag in order to avoid being tagged out like Alec Thomas was. Do you think that that was tickey tack, though? Do you think that that was? Yeah, I mean. That's as close, I think, as it could possibly get. It was pretty close.
Starting point is 00:08:12 With it still being reasonable that the umpire called him out. I think that the fact that, you know, the throw went over the first baseman's head. I mean, Alec Thomas would have been crazy not to consider going to second base on that, at least for a split second. He doesn't have a chance to do much but react in the situation. He can't see how far the ball win or how quickly they're going to get to it.
Starting point is 00:08:33 So I don't know though. It just seemed odd considering how close he was to not, you know, not, it didn't even have that one foot crossover the base path. Yeah. So, but anyway, Diamondbacks still win four to three. They're 39 and 48, nine games below 500. creeping a little bit closer to the giants who are almost at 500. And of course, you know, they have this whole Mark Malanson experience that is quite the experience, right?
Starting point is 00:09:01 Like, I mean, I don't want to harp on this again too much, but it's definitely, you just don't know what you're going to get out of Mark Malanson. You also don't know what you're going to get out of our frail overlord, Jacob over here. Fragile? Fragile, fragile overlord? Fragile, I am not frail. He is large and strong. But he is definitely our fragile overlord because he came into the discord and made everybody sad with his negative energy about Mark Malanson. Do you want to apologize? No, what negative energy did I come in with?
Starting point is 00:09:36 What did you say? Is everybody ready for Mark Malanson? That's all I said. Exactly. Is that not negative? Was that not negative? That's not negative. That was so negative.
Starting point is 00:09:46 That's not negative. Listen to yourself. I think people are just traumatized. the thighs of... You just have to live with it. I don't know. Like, you try saying it. You say the same thing he said. I want to see if it sounds as menacing from you. You want me to say just exactly what Jacob said?
Starting point is 00:10:02 What did he say? What did you say, Jacob? Say it again. I said, is everybody ready for Mark Millance? See, it's the pause. Do you say it? Is everybody ready for Mark Malanson? See, it doesn't sound threatening coming from you. It is your aura. I can't explain it.
Starting point is 00:10:17 It's just, it's your temperament. It's the way. it's your inflection. I definitely don't like the pause in there for sure. Josh in the comments, he is calling him Meltdown, Malanza. We don't like that at all. And see, Charles Woodall-Pike said, yes, Jacob brought the sense of impending doom. And that's exactly how I would describe it as well. But of course, we thank you guys for being in the Discord if you are there. That's a members-only discord. If you want access to that, you've got to join us over at go-P-HNX.com. If you haven't done so already, you can get yourself an annual membership, which will get you a
Starting point is 00:10:49 a free t-shirt from the PhNX Locker.com, a free t-shirt of your choosing. Or you can get a month-to-month membership and we'll hook you up with your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get access to that member's-only Discord, as well as additional discounts over at the PHNXLocker.com. And you'll get all of this,
Starting point is 00:11:08 plus Jesse's wonderful content over at the PHNX, go-PHNX.com. It's not on the locker. It's not closed, but we should put some of Jesse's articles on shirts because that's how they're art. Their art is what I'm calling. My articles on shirts?
Starting point is 00:11:22 Oh, yeah. So he's not paying attention to me most of the time. Yeah, there's some things you say, Derek. He just go in one year and out of the other. But get Jesse's articles over at go phtnx.com. The draft primer, not draft primer, but the trade primer is very good. And I think it's very realistic as to what you might expect to see from this team come the trade deadline, which is coming up pretty soon.
Starting point is 00:11:45 But we will have, by the way, speaking. of the draft, our draft show this Sunday, which we're very excited for. We will be starting at like 345, the draft is at 4. So join us. We'll be on probably during the D-BACs game on Sunday. So join us for that. We'll be covering the first round of the draft. We'll also be covering the D-BAC series with the Padres, the last series before going into the All-Star Break. And then we will also have our week of All-Star Break celebration before we get the nationals coming to town. Don't forget, I am giving away that absolutely hideous Star Wars shirt on that draft show. So if you haven't done so already, check out our PIN tweet. If you're interested in that,
Starting point is 00:12:24 sign up for it. I called it hideous, but you know. Most of our giveaways are items that any Diamondbacks fan would want. If you're a Diamondbacks fan and you want nothing to do with this horrific shirt. You need this shirt for Star Wars Day, which is what, July 23rd. It's the Saturday after they come back from the All-Star game. So we'll hook you up and make sure, uh, you're You are ready for that. You have to wear the shirt to the game, though. It's a condition of the membership or the giveaway. By the way, if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure to sign up.
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Starting point is 00:13:14 This is great. Oh, Derek. I thought I'd be sick of you by now. Not sick of you at all. Just give it another month or two. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's fine. But, you know, if we were drafting, you'd be my number one pick because I feel like we're a good team. I feel like you have a lot of potential still, untow potential.
Starting point is 00:13:30 But the Diamondbacks are drafting for second in the 2022 draft. It's the first time in franchise history that they have the number two pick. So I guess my first question is, do you foresee anything crazy happening? with that number two pick, or do you think that the Diamondbacks just selected? Do you think they trade, make a trade? Do anything like that? I don't believe you can trade that pick.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Oh, okay. You can trade competitive balance picks. I don't believe you can trade that pick. Which, yeah, they also have a competitive balance pick, which I don't foresee them trading. But yeah, I think they're going to make a selection at number two, Derek. And it very well could be a franchise altering sort of a move. I mean, this is a significant, significant time in this franchise.
Starting point is 00:14:14 Jacob brought up a great question as far as that competitive balance pick. Do you think the Diamondbacks would draft Kumar Rocker if he was somehow available there in that spot? Considering everything he's been through and, you know, again, how high he was at one point in, you know, as far as MLB draft prospect of concern. That's, that's tough. I mean, Kumar's been through a lot with the injury and everything. I could see the Diamondbacks maybe being interested in him. I don't think they're going to have an opportunity. to take him, frankly, you're certainly not going to take him second overall.
Starting point is 00:14:48 And the Diamondbacks don't pick next until I think it's number 33 with their competitive balance pick. He kind of bounces around. We looked at where he is on some of the mock drafts. The mock drafts have him as early as like 15 or as late as like 55. Yeah. 15 is probably a little bit bullish, but I would be kind of surprised if he fell to number 33. And he also might be looking for more money than what that pick would normally command.
Starting point is 00:15:12 And based on who the Diamondbacks selected, number two. they may or may not have the money that it takes to get him. And that's the thing right now is that there's discussion about how much the Baltimore Orioles might be willing to spend. And that might be a reason why they might not have interest in Drew Jones as well. But luckily, some mock drafts do have Drew Jones going to the debacks. Unfortunately, not many have Elijah Green going to the debacks, which makes me tremendously sad. Derek has been on the Elijah Green train
Starting point is 00:15:44 for a long time last year around this time but this Spencer O'Gara asked do you all view this draft as a good one to have number two or is it more of a 2015-2017 where the talent was lesser than other drafts
Starting point is 00:16:01 it's a great draft to have the number two overall pick I think I agree there are some some drafts you know we're having number two is great but it kind of sucks in a way because there's one transcendent player who's, you know, head and shoulders above everyone else in the draft, despite what Derek may feel about Elijah Green and how he is far, far superior to anyone else in the draft class. I don't think there are many, there are many scouts or draft analysts who would
Starting point is 00:16:25 who would say that. So it's a great draft to have the number two overall pick, even if it's not Drew Jones, even if it's not Elijah Green, or even if it's not whoever that guy is that you have in mind, the Diamondbacks are going to get a very, very good player with the number two overall pick. So this is a really good spot for them to be in. A lot of drafts actually have Jackson Holiday going to the Arizona Diamondbacks, which I don't know if that fits with what they have going on and the timeline and everything, but I think it's too early in any player's career to worry about where they play, you know, necessarily. You're talking position-wise. Position-wise. Yeah. He's a short stop, which I mean, you never know, at least with some guys,
Starting point is 00:17:10 whether they're going to stay at shortstop. I think Jackson Holiday has a decent chance to stay at shortstop. Yeah, I mean, there's a guy named Jordan Lawler in the organization who's pretty good. Heard of him. Yeah. So it's hard to say. I don't expect the Diamondbacks to really care too much about the position. Honestly, they have a history of taking whoever's best available in the draft,
Starting point is 00:17:32 and I think they're going to do that. At the end of the day, you know, if Jackson Holiday is going to be a superstar and the other guy they would pick isn't, you know, you can sort out an issue of having two short stops if they're, you know, if they're both superstar caliber players. That's a, that's a problem you can deal with down the road. That's a happy problem. It is a very happy problem. A number, a number of number two draft picks over the last 20 years have been pretty good players. By the way, we are facing the giants right now and their catcher Joey Bart, who we've seen brought up on the broadcast a little bit about the struggles he's having.
Starting point is 00:18:08 Joey Bard is, yeah, he struck out in more than half of his plate appearances. But surely, whoever the Diamondbacks select will not have those kind of bumps in their progression. Let's look again at some of those notable number two's. Chris Bryant, who we've come to know very well, 2013 number two pick, Justin Verlander, 2004, Alex Bregman, one of my personal favorites, Byron Buxton, Reggie Jackson, back in 1966, was a number two pick. and Alex Gordon in 2005, that Alex Gordon and Alex Bregman are both interesting because those are both players that the Diamondbacks, those are years the Diamondbacks had the number one pick. So those are two players that the Diamondbacks passed up on for their number one pick.
Starting point is 00:18:52 Justin Upton, you feel like they got right. Yeah, I mean, Alex Gordon has had a good career, but Justin Upton is a better player overall. Justin Upton is still in the league and playing quite well to this day. Alex, Alex Bregman, there might be a case for him to have been drafted over Danesby Swanson. Yes, Alex Bregman has had a better career than Danesby Swanson, although Danesby Swanson has had the best season of his career this year. He has looked really, really good for the Braves. Yes, of course. Of course he has. And we'll never forget. Some other notable recent number two draft picks that we've seen in the league, Hunter Green, 2017,
Starting point is 00:19:31 Nick Senzel in 2018 or 2016 and Alex Brighman in 2015. Hunter Green has started so we've seen a little bit of Hunter Green in the big leagues. He threw I think he threw about 40 pitches the other day in his start for Cincinnati that were 100 miles an hour or higher
Starting point is 00:19:47 in one start. Crazy. And so see that's a case, that's a perfect example of Hunter Green's name starting to now come up as a top young player in baseball, right? Yeah. But five years since he was drafted. So again, it just demonstrates how Major League Baseball doesn't have that same impact with their draft.
Starting point is 00:20:09 You know, I do think that the Diamondbacks are going to see their pick from the 2019 draft, Corbyn Carroll. Very soon we talked about being excited about that yesterday. I was way more excited about it than Jesse. I was ready to put him in the All-Star game. Jesse's like, pump your brakes. He said in Jesse words, shut up, Derek, apparently. I didn't catch that translation.
Starting point is 00:20:31 but I pick up on it now, you know, very much so. But the Diamondbacks do have some very exciting young players that they drafted that are about to, I think, make some noise in Major League Baseball themselves. Drew Jones, though, that is a kid that really could be something special. And again, I think that going back to the question, there's just, there's a lot of talent. So I think this might be one of those years where we look back on it five years from now and say, wow, look at all of these guys that were all drafted, you know, in the first round or in the top 10 of that draft.
Starting point is 00:21:01 Yeah, and it'll take a while. I mean, whoever the Diamondback select, you know, we're probably going to get really excited about whoever that is. And then we're not going to see him in the majors for probably four or five years. And that's just sort of how this process works. Good old baseball.
Starting point is 00:21:17 Welcome to the MLV draft, which is not nearly as satisfying as other drafts where you get to see these guys, you know, at the highest level right away. But that doesn't mean this decision isn't enormously important for the franchise and could be a huge difference maker for them in the long run. That's a great point.
Starting point is 00:21:34 But what we do have to look forward to is a draft pick from a prior year being on the cusp that we can look forward to. Right. Like, yes, Corbyn Carroll is from 2019. That was when he was drafted. But, you know, we have that to look forward to. And then it kind of stacks from there because once Corbyn Carroll gets lost – because Alec Thomas was our guy, right? This past off season was the – Alec Thomas was the prospect we couldn't stop talking about.
Starting point is 00:21:57 And Alec Thomas has been everything we could have imagined. he would be and more. So for Corbyn Carroll to be the next guy, Jordan Lawler after that, and then Drew Jones after that. We will have the Diamondbacks. We'll have a nice, you know,
Starting point is 00:22:09 I guess line of potentially great players that we can look forward to seeing make their major league debut. And to that, I toast with a Four Peaks Brewing Company beer. We got ourselves some Joybus Wow. Wheat. Jesse was not in with me today,
Starting point is 00:22:24 but of course, I didn't get the memo. You like pulled that out right before we started the show. I did. I have it in my pocket. I have four peaks on me at all times. But of course you can too by picking up some Four Peaks Brewing Company beers wherever beers are sold near you, convenience store, liquor store, supermarket anywhere. You can find them all over the valley. They've been in the mix since 96 here in Phoenix. And of course, they're a local company just like us. We love to support our local brands. If you have a chance, check out
Starting point is 00:22:51 the Four Peaks close to you. The 8th Street Pub is our favorite place to go. So make sure to check out when we will be broadcasting from there because we're always going to be there hanging out. You can too. They have delicious food and they have a wonderful variety of not only beers but merch. They got some great merch down there. So go check out everything they're doing. They are still contributing to their annual teacher drives.
Starting point is 00:23:14 So again, a proceed of your sales will go to supporting local teachers and buying supplies for them, which is much needed and something great that they're doing for the community. So you can go down, have some beers, have some food, and know that a portion, of your money is going to a very good cause locally here. So make sure to do that. Also, make sure to stop by your local dispenser. Grab yourself some OG's gummies.
Starting point is 00:23:36 I've been talking about how much I love the Pinia colada flavor. There is another pool party, which I'm making Jesse go to in my absence at the Maya Day Club. So make sure to check that out as well at OG. I'm just going to show up at Disneyland instead. Yeah, that's probably the safer bet. But definitely check out the OG's Day Club, a Maya Day Club pool party that they have going on on July 30th as well as their wonderful variety
Starting point is 00:24:00 of products. Remember, OGs is all about flavors. So they have a wonderful variety of flavors that I love all of them, Pena Colada, orange creamsicle, fruit punch, they're all great. No matter what, they have a variety of doses and a variety of strains. You can get yourself three milligram, 10 milligram, you know, and up if you are a medical patient as well as you can get yourself a variety of strains, Sativa for the party time, Indica for sleepy time, whatever you need. OGs has you covered.
Starting point is 00:24:29 Remember, they are Arizona's top selling edible gummy here in the Valley, so make sure to support a local company and keep them at number one. Shout out to OGs again for the invite, but I will be doing something much more wholesome. I will be at Disneyland then.
Starting point is 00:24:45 Not to say that I'm going to miss being at the pool party because I absolutely will. People tell me I had a great time at the last one. Jesse, The Arizona Diamondbacks are now six and seven over the stretch against the NL West, which surprises me a little bit. I think I had them at a much lower amount than that. I had them at nine wins.
Starting point is 00:25:05 Yeah. So the Diamondbacks are six and seven over the stretch leading into the All-Star break. Potentially, if they could win this series against the Giants and somehow win the series against the Padres, they would be one game over 500, which I think is a pretty impressive stretch. or record against the stretch that I thought was going to be much worse. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it hasn't been the Dodgers, right? I think if the Dodgers were a big part of this stretch,
Starting point is 00:25:34 then you know, you'd be lucky to get away with five wins out of 13 probably. But why do you have to start off? See, the two of you with your negativity. Yeah, I guess I just sort of jumped into frame. Derek, you had them with less wins than I did. I know I did. I know I did. That was back then.
Starting point is 00:25:53 Oh, man. Anyway, so, yeah, the Giants are scuffling right now. And frankly, the Padres have sort of been scuffling lately as well. So the Diamondbacks have caught these teams at a pretty good time, all things considered. And, yeah, I mean, the Giants offense, Derek, is nothing like it was last year. No. I mean, it feels like a completely different team that they're playing against. Brandon Crawford is not anywhere to the point that he was last year when he was a borderline.
Starting point is 00:26:23 MVP candidate. I actually said to myself when late night Lamont was up. I'm like, oh wait, no, this isn't the same guy. Yeah, yeah. Right. Like, but it's kind, and it's no, it's nothing to take away from them, but it's kind of like what we've said, not to transition this back into
Starting point is 00:26:39 positive talk about Christian Walker, but like Christian Walker has had what we've called a lot of bad luck. And the reason why we say that is because he's had just a lot of hard, hard hit balls that go right at, you know, a defender.
Starting point is 00:26:54 Like you might call that, we might call that bad luck, someone else might say it's not, whatever, right? But the point is, is that Christian Walker has been hitting the hell out of the ball all season long.
Starting point is 00:27:03 And if more of those kind of fell in like they should based on the exit velocity and things about the trajectory and things of the batted ball, then Christian Walker's numbers would be looking much more like an All-Star. If he had a 2-90 batting average, there's a good chance that he might be the guy
Starting point is 00:27:22 going into the All-Star game instead of Joe Manciply. I feel like a lot of his, you know, at least people not considering him to be one of the first best first baseman in baseball is about that batting average looking. Yeah, right. But that's one of those things where next year he could hit the exact same way and hit 300 with the way things have gone for him this season. Yeah, people make the mistake that like, oh, after you play 162 games, like whatever your numbers are, like that's who you are as a player. You know, like if you hit 215 over 162 games, that's who you are as a player. That's not necessarily the case. 162 games, believe it or not, is still not enough in order to really judge, you know, how good a player is.
Starting point is 00:28:04 So I think you're right. The Clutch Canuck brought up a great point in the comments that the Diamondbacks have won more games against the Giants this season, having played them four times than they won all of last year in the entire season series when they went two and 17. It's pretty wild. It's insane, in fact, but it just shows how bad this team was. I mean, I think that if you look at their win total compared to last season, it took them until almost September to win the amount of games that they've already won.
Starting point is 00:28:37 I know for a fact, when they get around like 44, 45 wins in the season, that that was a really bad stretch for them towards the end of the season, right? So like to get to like win 46 took them until I think the middle of September or close to it. I mean, the diamond backs already have 39 wins, and they only had, they only had 52 all of last season. They're 13 wins away from a total. They're already 13 wins away.
Starting point is 00:29:00 It's wild. They could easily reach that. I mean, not easily, but they could reach that before the end of the month, hypothetically. It's not out of the question, right? So for the diamondbacks at this point to be where they're at, has been a big improvement. That's what we need to continue to focus on. And then once we get through this season, And we're close to 500 at the end, or they're much more like average baseball team.
Starting point is 00:29:25 And we can talk about building on next year. And we could talk about this team competing for, you know, a playoff spot in 2023, which is what I, you know, I think we're going to see. But for this series, we have Dallas Keikol and Zach Gallen still going for the final two games of the series, which could result in them being over 500 before they go to the Padres with a sweep. So we'll see what happens. Dallas Keikol, I think, is still finding himself. but I feel like he's shown that he still has a lot to give, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:29:54 I think the runs that he's given up so far haven't entirely been his fault. We've seen him have some bad defense behind him, and he did a good job of giving a lengthy outing in that last game. He did, yeah, I mean, seven innings, three runs. You'll take that, you know, you'll take that every day of the week. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Dallas Keikle going in this one, and the Diamondbacks will have their hands full a little bit
Starting point is 00:30:18 with Logan Webb on the mound for the San Francisco Giants, who's been one of the best starters in the National League. But then you got Zach Gallen in the finale. And if anyone was due on this Diamondbacks pitching staff, if anyone was due to really put it together
Starting point is 00:30:33 over a full start, I really figured it was going to be his last time out when we all kind of expected him to come out and, you know, pitch with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder after his comments from the game prior. And it was sort of the same story for him
Starting point is 00:30:47 where, you know, was good sailed through about four innings and then the fifth inning the wheels came off and and he was gone pretty quickly after that so um hopefully zack can can get things back on track on on wednesday remember uh under on the half of runs in the first inning for yeah well that that back fired very quickly almost immediately when the game started last week derrick so i felt like 15 seconds into the game that one was already you can get down on the draft king sports book and do whatever you want to do uh using r code of phnx if your new customer make your first deposit and and get a risk-free bet up to $1,000.
Starting point is 00:31:21 That's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King Sportsbook, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply, C-show notes for details. I've been on there trying to do some parlay. Again, I'll give you this. You can bet as much or as little as you want. So don't do this with your first bet. Don't bet 50 cents with your first bet,
Starting point is 00:31:39 but you can bet like 50 cents and string together like a 15-game parlay for an entire day. You know, maybe it doesn't hit today. Maybe it doesn't hit tomorrow, but you keep doing that this season. One of them is going to hit, and that's some fun to be had for a very low cost. So remember, you can do what you want over at the Draft King Sportsbook app, especially those same game parlayes. The more legs you add, the more money you win. And there's all sorts of options for you at the Drafking Sportsbook when betting on baseball.
Starting point is 00:32:05 So make sure to do so because it's a fun time. It's baseball can tend to be long, right? A game can be long. These games are still going over three hours. So, you know, if you want something just to get you a little bit more invested, a little bit more excited about the game, download the Draft King Sportsbook app. All right, well, that's all we got today.
Starting point is 00:32:23 Jesse, looking forward to the Arizona Diamondbacks, maybe winning this series this afternoon. It's going to be not easy, like you said, against Logan Webb, but the Diamondbacks definitely have a shot to do it. They have been very good against the San Francisco Giants team this season. We thank you guys so much for joining us. You can
Starting point is 00:32:39 follow us on Twitter if you haven't done so already. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Mand-W-A. This guy is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at P-HNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for being here and enjoy your lunch. On behalf of justing myself, we appreciate your time. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Zach Gallen can win five games.

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